#as compared to i know for sure 2012

[spockvarietyhour]

Today's movie (Director's Cut)

[tammyu-2]

I LOVED UR LAST ONE how about 2012 donnie introducing his gf to everyone for the first time how would that go

OOOOO okay so I'm gonna do a different way Donnie and you meet if that's cool?

TMNT 2012 DONNIE INTRODUCING YOU TO HIS FAMILY

Mentions of Y/n, feminine labels, usage of she/her pronouns, some swearing, not proofread.

I adore his face in this gif

You had met Donnie at the dump. That's right, I said it. He was trying to find more parts for his machinery, and you had lost a precious family heirloom. So after misunderstandings and someone almost getting tazed (Donnie), you guys talked things out. After that, you met again when he was in battle. He insisted on you guys actually properly hung out.

So after one hang out became two and two became three. Soon, hangouts became dates, and soon, you guys were two peas in a metaphorical pod. The way he asked you is by trying to show you a project in disguised as him asking you out. Of course, the turtles didn't know, so he did it at an abandoned garage that he found was close by. (He later on used it for any projects he didn't want his brothers ruining.

"Watch closely my dear assistant!"

"Uh Don? Is it supposed to be letting Grey steam out?"

"I assure you I know what I'm doing."

"But the vial is shaking-"

"Trust in me!"

You know, in cartoons, when stuff blows up, leaving the black gunk on everything but the safety glasses? Yeah, that's what happened. He then explained what it was meant to do, and you were flattered at his attempt and accepted his proposal.

Now, his brothers had no idea that you existed other than the time you were a hostage for the kraang one time. But they really didn't bat an eye on how you already knew Donnie's name cause they were too busy saving you and the others. Plus, they were suspicious when Donnie's obsession with April suddenly stopped.

"Yo Dontron what's wrong with you? You didn't even bat an eye at April today!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I did blink several times like normal."

"He is saying that you didn't go all goo-goo eyes for her."

"Oh! Yeah, no, I have a girlfriend now."

"Ha! Nice joke. What nation is she from? Your imagination?"

"I'm serious."

"Sure you are."

So he brought you around to show that he indeed was serious. You would be lying if you weren't a little scared to meet his family. I mean, what if they like to banish you from ever meeting Donnie again because you coughed wrongly in their house or something???

Though Donnie assured you that their opinion doesn't matter to him. Not really easing your spirits, though, because he still didn't clarify that you shouldn't be afraid of MEETING them. More or less that he didn't care if they did disapprove.

"Everybody! This is my absolutely wonderful girlfriend Y/n. I thought you guys would want to meet her."

You politely waved at them with a gentle smile.

"How much is he paying you? Cause we don't have money at all, he's scaming you."

"Are you like a robot or something? I don't see your wires."

"So are you being held hostage if so blink twice."

"GUYS WHAT THE FRICK!?"

Fr tho- guys have faith in your brother that he has some game

Donnie quickly goes to apologize to you only to see you absolutely losing your shit and failing to hold in your laughter. After a few moments you gather yourself and clarify that you are Donnie's human girlfriend by choice.

"Are we talking about the same Donnie right now?"

"I'm right here!"

They are all too confused to say that they approve.

"How did Donnie pull you?"

You try not to laugh as you explained how you met him.

"What do you mean you met him at a waste disposal???"

Trust that they are secretly making notes to compare later because they have no faith in Donnie boy at all.

After all the commotion Master Splinter had entered. And Donnie was quick to introduce you to him. Donnie is basically bouncing on his feet.

"Hello sensei! This is my lovely girlfriend Y/n. Y/n this is my father I was talking about."

Splinter mumbles a simple greeting and bow his head while you copy his actions showing respect for him. Splinter is a man that sees to believe so he doesn't really say anything remarkable or worth noted on your first meeting. More or less that he hopes Donnie is treating you right. But after a while of getting to know you he likes you.

"She's a good one, son. Treat her well."

"There's no doubt in my mind that I won't sensei."

The turtles are okay with you and so is Splinter. They love when you bring pizza around though for them.

"You sure you're here against your will?"

"Mikey!!"

That's it lovelies. That's my new nickname for you guys hope you like it

I loved this it was so cutesy

BAI ;*

~Tammy<3

[bones4thecats]

┗ Aunt?!; 2012! Splinter × Sis! Reader ┛

Characters: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 2012) A/N: - ⇘ Summary: After a capturing of a mysterious human claiming to know Master Splinter, she is brought on the male's order. And, when she comes in, memories toss and turn as he introduces the familiar woman to his family. -> The Reader is a human with this being how she looks. I changed the traditional Japanese words (こんにちは) to this (Kon'nichiwa), it's easier for me to read, and I hope it is for you guys too! -> (H/C) = hair color / (E/C) = eye color / (O/H/C) = opposite h/c

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

🐀 It was a calming night, the streets of New York City being bearer than a freshly-shaved dog, and the moon lighting up the world like the night's sun. Yet, underneath everything on the surface of the city, there laid a group of fighters protecting the world without anyone knowing.

"Ah man! How do you always manage to beat me, Mikey?!" Raphael yelled.

"I'm just better. Sorry, Raph." He taunted, a smirk on his face as he spoke.

"Oh yeah? How about I batter your face like cookie dough?" He cracked his knuckles and began chasing the screaming mutant turtle.

🐀 Meanwhile, Leonardo watched the television, Space Heroes playing as he watched with sparkles in his eyes. Donatello, on the other hand, merely tinkered with some scraps he found. He smiled gleefully as he managed to find something useful inside of it.

🐀 It was a peaceful night for the small family of outcasts. A gentle expression on the relaxing rat-master as two humans ran down the sewers at full speed. It was evident they were scared.

"Guys! You need to get your stuff ready!" April yelled.

🐀 Donatello looked up, shock in his eyes. He asked what was wrong and why they were needed so suddenly. They had just finished their patrol and found no threats, no motion from the Foot Clan and nothing from any other minor threats.

"Apparently Leatherhead and the other Mighty Mutanimals had found some kind of ninja running around. They thought it was one of you guys, but they noticed it was a female and told us you should come see her." April said.

"A female? She a member of the Foot Clan?" Raphael asked.

"Or another villainous group?" Leonardo added.

"We're not sure."

"Yo, April, she did claim to know Splinter. Remember?" Casey spoke.

"She claimed to know Master Splinter?!" Leonardo yelled.

"Yeah. Crazy, right?"

🐀 The boys all stared at Casey with matching deadpan expressions before they heard the doors to the dojo opening. Everyone looked and saw Master Splinter standing there. He looked at the group and twitched one of his ears out of reflex and put his hands behind his back as he stepped down to the main floor.

"What did this woman look like?" He asked.

"He said she had (o/h/c) hair, (e/c) eyes, and looked like she was from Japan. That's all we got."

"A woman by that description sounds familiar. Are they nearby?"

"Yeah! Leatherhead said he were going to grab Slash and the others to bring the girl here." April replied.

"Good. Good. I shall wait here with you until they arrive."

═══════════════ ⋆★⋆

🐀 Growls and grunts came from the entrance the Mutanimals came in from. A woman moved around abruptly, though, comparing her size to the others and her position, she was at a disadvantage.

"Let her go. Allow me to see this supposed 'old ally'." Splinter ordered.

🐀 Slash and Leatherhead nodded and one another and laid the girl down, taking off the bag on her head. The first thing that came out was her hair, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the room. She obviously had a wig on, covering her true hair color.

🐀 Splinter looked down with a stoic expression, making everyone ready themselves just in case she was a threat. He then took a deep breath and reached out, gripping the fake hair and pulling it off. She groaned and laid her head down, the only thing on her head now being the wig cap.

🐀 The turtles all stood shocked at what they saw once the cap was removed. There wasn't a random woman kneeling there now, there was a familiar face. This wasn't a stranger, this was a woman in a photo that Master Splinter had displayed.

"Y/N... how did you...?"

"Hey, I was trained as a ninja alongside you, brother. What makes you think my senses are weaker than before? Ageist much?" You taunted, a smirk on your face as Splinter's breath was caught in his throat.

"Watashi no imōtoyo… Anata wa ikite ite genkidesu. Kami ni kansha…"

"Mata aete ureshī yo, nīsan. Anata ga watashi o koishiku omotte ita no to onaji kurai, watashi mo anata ga koishikatta yo."

🐀 A smile curled on both of your faces as he hugged you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as you just leaned in and buried your face in his now fur-covered neck. He let out a shaky breath as you embraced, having finally found the other person.

"Uhm, Master?" Leonardo began. "If you don't mind me asking. Who exactly is this woman to you?"

🐀 Splinter stood up, undid your restraints and helped you stand up. A smile crossed your face as you stared at the boys. You had heard about them briefly while listening in on a conversation by the other mutant group.

"I'm Hamato Y/N, daughter of Hamato Yuuta and younger sister to Hamato Yoshi. Or, as you boys refer to him as, Master Splinter."

"Wait... does that make her our...?"

"Boys, meet your Oba."

"It's nice to finally meet my four nephews I have been looking for."

"WE HAVE AN AUNT?!"

[twopoppies]

But a genuine question -- if he had early contact with very powerful people in the industry, why didn’t he do anything to help save the others, or at least Louis? And I don’t mean getting them signed as a band for another year, but just helping them get out of their contracts. He left the band as the most benefited.

I feel like some of you guys have no understanding of how the world works.

First of all (and I’ve said this a thousand times), we have no idea what Harry did or didn’t do. Liam and Niall had no problem going to other labels. IMO, Louis was kept under Simon’s thumb as punishment and as a way to control Harry.

Second, what do you actually think Harry should have done? I’m genuinely curious because people are always saying this. “He should have helped Louis.” But what do you mean? He should have told Jeff to reject all contract offers unless his boyfriend also got a better deal? How do we know Louis wanted his help? He’s awfully proud. I can’t see him wanting Harry to fight his battles. Be supportive and caring, yes. But try to pull strings? Is that what you mean? Introduce him to powerful people? And again, I ask: how do you know he didn’t try?

This is just such a circular argument because what you’re really saying is that Louis should have been given all the breaks Harry got. Which, sure. That would be amazing. But he didn’t. And that’s the way the world works.

And Louis knows this. So he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and made a really good career for himself in spite of all the fuckers who tried to stop him. But comparing his success to Harry’s success and then begrudging Harry and feeling sorry for Louis, is pointless. And I really think that’s the last thing Louis would want.

Last, Harry left the band “most benefited” because Sony set their sights on him somewhere between 2011 and 2012. They had initially picked Liam as their breakout star. And you can see it from the beginning. But Harry had something the public responded to the most, so he became their golden boy. They were always going to sign him when the band eventually ended. And he had the ambition and talent to take the advantages he was being offered early on, and make something out of it all. The Azoffs weaseled their way in because they also noticed it.

None of this means the others weren’t also super talented and ambitious. But the label is only betting on one horse. They’re going to put all their money on the one who has the best chance of winning. And they decided it was Harry.

[hard--headed--woman]

"I had to fight to be myself and to be respected. I'm proud to say I'm a lesbian. I don't talk about it too much, but I don't deny it. I've had to confront society and the Church, which says that homosexuals are condemned. It's absurd! How can they judge someone who was born that way? I didn't learn to be a lesbian, nobody taught me to be the way I am. I was born this way. I've never slept with a man. I've never slept with a man. Yes, I'm a virgin and I'm not ashamed. My Gods made me this way"

- Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas (María Isabel Anita Carmen de Jesús Vargas Lizano) was a Mexican singer of Costa Rican origin, born in 1919 in Costa Rica and died in 2012 in Mexico.

She is considered a leading figure in ranchera music, which she sang with strength and emotion. Her voice, rough and warm at the same time, served her theatrical, passionate and human interpretations of standards from the traditional Mexican repertoire.

"And since I have to say it almost everywhere, I'll say it: my parents didn't want me. I suffered for it".

She has an extremely difficult and conflicted relationship with her family, who do not accept her in any way. As a teenager, she left her country and her family for Mexico. The young woman rejected and criticised the ultra-conservative society in which she lives. Once in Mexico, she began singing in the streets.

In the 1940s, she became friends with the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, staying with them for a while and becoming Frida Kahlo's lover.

At the age of 30, she was noticed on Mexico City's Avenida Insurgentes by the composer and famous rancheras singer José Alfredo Jiménez, who became the author of her main hits. With his help, she performed in the cabarets of Mexico City in the mid-1950s before embarking on the road to success in Acapulco, an international tourist destination, where she sang at one of Elizabeth Taylor's weddings.

Chavela Vargas rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, touring the world. She became a well-known figure in ranchera song, to which she gave a new lease of life.

Dressed like a man, smoking and drinking like a man, carrying a pistol, "the lady with the red poncho, silver hair and brown flesh" as the Spanish singer Joaquín Sabina described her, is characterised by her red sarape.

In a television interview in 2000, she came out as a homosexual woman. This is where the text at the beginning of the post is from!

Chavela's career reached its peak from the recording of her first album (Noche de Bohemia) in 1961 until the end of the 1970s. This was followed by a long period of fifteen years, during which the singer, suffering from a heavy addiction to alcohol, interrupted her musical career, which she did not resume until 1991.

Encouraged by her friend, the director Pedro Almodóvar, who compared her to Édith Piaf, Chavela embarked on a world tour, performing at the Olympia in Paris and Carnegie Hall in New York. Among her most outstanding performances was Tú me acostumbraste by Frank Domínguez in Pedro Almodóvar's film Babel. Being a close friend of Pedro, she has appeared in several of his films, including The Flower of My Secret.

Following a final concert in Madrid on 10 July 2012 to present her album (La Luna Grande), she was hospitalised in the Spanish capital with serious respiratory problems. She died on 5 August 2012, aged 93.

I am sure you know at least one of her song, La Llorona !

In any case, Chavela was an immense artist who had a profound impact on music, and I'm delighted to have discovered her, or rather re-discovered her. I listened to some of her songs and they're amazing if you like that kind of music ! And please look her up yourself, she was such an interesting person, I couldn't talk about everything in this post or it would have been too long !

[dark-lord-of-awesomeness]

Hey, I don't know if this is already on that ever growing list of cat shorts, or if you feel up to adding to it, but mabye a version of the chapter 54 multi- ford, but with Bill wins Stan and Ford instead?

I was interested in this one for a while because i was interested in how the fords would react to each other, but thought it would probably be similar to the original so didn't ask. But for some reason it kept bugging me.

The reason hit me suddenly earlier today. Sure, how the other ford's reacting to bill wins Ford compared to cat Ford might be interesting, that's not the most interesting part.

It's how Bill wins Ford would react to the situation that's much more interesting and probably different.

I mean, for one, I'm not sure Bill would even try to contact this world in 2012. Ford stabbed him, so many times. If I were Bill I'd pass on that one unless it's revenge related. But he might.

Either way, this is a Ford that probably still walks with a Lazer gun, has unicorn hair sewn into both his and Stan's and probably the kid's clothes now too.

No matter that he has no translator, and that it's probably obvious with just a bit of observation he hasent been through the portal. Even though there are feral and battle scarred fords in the same room.

You can't tell me he wouldn't see something even remotely related to Bill, much less a Bill warlock, and that he wouldn't be the only Ford there to immediately lose all cool and go for the throat.

I can add it on! He'd definitely an interesting Ford.

Although I think the best version of multi Ford with Bill wins ford would not have Stan there at all. If Stan's there he can keep Ford mostly level and stable, as he's his designated emotional support cat. Ford might get snappy and hovery, but mostly just very twitchy and suspicious with everyone. Any Ford who's first reaction to Bill is violence can be explained away as normal if more severe Ford Bill truama.

Bill wins ford who gets shoved into the multiverse with no Stan there to either keep him calm or at least explain the situation would immediate go off the deep end again. He's full on tackling people here, desperately screaming for Stan and looking for awnsers how he got into the multiverse and how to get back to his home dimension. The moment he's left to his own devices he's stripping the walls for parts and restarting his weapons manufacturing, as he keeps emergency unicorn hair on him at all times.

The bill cultists opens the door to give him a translator and Ford is already going for the jugular. Doesn't care about freeing the other Fords he's on a one man quest to kill everything Bill related and find his Stan. Because obviously his Stan must be around here somewhere! Otherwise he's back at home alone and away from ford where Ford can't protect him!

Which is exactly where Stan is.

Cue maniacal laughter as Ford loses it. Again. Only comes back for the other Fords because theyre him and they must know how to get back right? Right? And if they don't then what even is the point of them?

So look forward to Ford loses it part 2: the multiverse.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

"Putting your hand over your heart isn't a part of a Nazi salute!"

Not the original salute no, but it is part of the salute being used by Neo Nazis. So here's a link to a video comparing them, showing his gesture was identical to a Neo Nazi salute.

https://www.reddit.com/r/france/s/2bdn5cuvf6

"Even the ADL said it wasn't a Nazi salute!"

The ADL can be wrong just like any other group of people can. You people hate their stance on hate speech, so why are you magically in agreement with them just because they support your worldview?

"It was so bad that it couldn't have been a real salute, Hitler would have killed him for mocking him!"

Bad salutes are still salutes, just as bad insurrections are still insurrections.

"He was symbolically throwing his heart to the crowd!"

Here he is doing it a second time while facing away from the crowd.

"He said his heart went out to the crowd!"

Yeah so he could have some deniability for idiots like you to cling to and defend him with.

"Kalama did the same gesture!"

She waved and pointed. You're just blind. There's something wrong with you if you can't distinguish a wave from an actual Nazi salute. Here's them being conpared side by side.

https://x.com/tify330/status/1881512417387040998

The sad part Is, if you saw this back in 2012, your immediate thought would have been "Oh my god Elon Musk did a nazi salute!", but Trump has so successfully brainwashed you, conditioned you, and groomed you, that his richest and most vocal supporter can preform a blatant Nazi salute, and you'll deny the obvious evidence before you to defend him, ignoring everything before your eyes and ears, because you've been made incapable of acknowledging the evilness, or the nature, of your cult.

It should have been obvious when he showed up to the Madison Square Garden rally in a custom black MAGA hat that used a typeface that was associated with the Hitler and the Nazis, the font the Nazis regularly used as a sign of nationalism that Hitler chose as the as the font for the cover of his autobiography.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musks-maga-cap-text-has-eerie-resemblance-with-hitlers-nazi-font-6903216/amp/1](https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musks-maga-cap-text-has-eerie-resemblance-with-hitlers-nazi-font-6903216/amp/1

You guys are REALLY bad at taking hints due to your programing.

"Trump, who is nothing like a nazi and never talks about nazis or white supremacists except to disavow them, brainwashed you into thinking Elon Musk isn't a nazi" sure is an interesting take.

Anyway you're putting a lot of words into my mouth and the ones you're quoting that are actually mine explain pretty well why what Elon did isn't a nazi salute, so I'm not going point by point and addressing your nonsense (especially the "nazi font" shit. Jesus do you even hear yourself?)

What I am going to address?

"Here he is doing it a second time while facing away from the crowd"

There were people behind the stage behind him. I don't know if you can see them during Elon's full speech but here's the same setup from when Trump was at the arena

You can clearly see the white star bunting that's behind Elon in the clips of him doing the "salute". The stage is in the center of the arena with people all around.

I'll also explain why I trust the ADL here, again, because apparently you either didn't see it or, more likely, your leftist brain selectively edits everything that doesn't conform to your warped world view.

The ADL is a partisan left wing group that constantly calls conservatives, but especially Trump and his allies, nazis, racists, white supremacists, anti-Semites, and every other ist and phobe under the sun. They rarely let a chance to lie about the right go by. The fact that a group like that is saying "that wasn't a nazi salute" means a lot, because they're going against the talking points of their own ideology in favor of a person they hate. When a group, even a partisan hack group like the ADL, goes against their interests and the interests of their allies in favor of a person or a group they normally can't stand, that gives their words a lot of extra weight.

She waved and pointed. You're just blind. There's something wrong with you if you can't distinguish a wave from an actual Nazi salute.

Yes. That's the point. She waved and pointed. Elon symbolically "threw his heart" to the crowd. Neither were nazi salutes. Both could made to look like one out of context. The media only cared about doing it with Elon.

I don't expect any of this to get through to you, because you still think J6 was an iNsUrReCtIoN. But maybe one day, after you grow out of this weird leftist phase, you'll look back and remember this and feel as silly as you should.

[lavalamps-and-ladydoors]

Do you think about this much? I can't tell if it crosses your mind often.

oh wow. buckle up my friend.

As Dan says in the Amazing Dan reaction video, "I was desperate to create my own brand on YouTube", you can see that desperation in his earlier videos especially pre 2012. I mean a lot happened that year, they move to London, start hosting a joint radio show and their brand becomes 'Dan and Phil'. Even past the phandom, shipping, privacy invasions, conspiracies ect, they were still known as Dan and Phil. Like they won the Radio 1 Teen award for best vlogger, even though they don't vlog and are two people.

They embraced it with the books and TATINOF, but looking back you can tell it was weighing on both of them, Dan especially. We now know that II was supposed to be the end, that it was both of them giving it their all, giving the people what they wanted before they stopped posting jointly. Honestly after seeing what they went through throughout those first 9 years it makes total sense why Dan would want that.

All of this makes the WAD era that much more gut punching. It must have meant the world to Phil to see his partner do this show. A show that was born out of so many 'failed' projects, pain, and injustice. He got to see Dan saving his own life over and over again, see him be authentic, help so many people. And throughout all of this Phil is having his own chronic health issues, the greenening, stresses ect. But we see him support Dan through it all, the texts in WDAPTEO 3+4, the orange heart tweet, promoting Dan's book when he wouldn't do it enough himself, he'll always be Dan's biggest cheerleader. They just love each other so much and its beautiful to see.

I love to see how Dan credits Phil in his solo projects. Most of the time it's not how one would expect someone to be credited. This type of work obviously happens all the time but Dan puts it into words and makes sure that we know at least a fraction of what Phil is doing.

'Special thanks to amazing phil for production assistance" (Basically I'm Gay)

'Archive Historian - Phil Lester' (Why I Quit YouTube)

'Creative Producer- Phil Lester' (Dystopia Daily)

'Remote Crisis Manger- Phil Lester' (We're All Doomed Tour)

I feel that people has underestimated Phil for so long, I remember people would hate on him for being less 'edgy' than Dan, for making different kinds of videos, even when he came out half the posts I remember seeing were comparing their videos and not appreciating that this man just came out. to millions of people...

I'm just so grateful to be in an era where they don't have to hide their appreciation for each other, where Dan can call Phil a power bottom, post pictures in a joint Halloween costume, and be genuinely proud that they beat Jesus/Jedus in a RPF shipping poll??

While the hiatus sucked I'm honestly glad it happened. I'm just so excited to see what Phil does next and when there is an eventual Phil solo project, I'll know Dan will be cheering him on the whole time🧡

[khaoala]

"Only Davika can flustered both at least First except each other"

Can you tell me what they are talking about here? Its a tweet but I don't understand the context & what is it about First & Davika(don't even know who that is )

davika is an actress who has been in the industry since 2012. for reference, since we're a fk bubble, she acted in astrophile alongside bright and off, which is the same project first was part of back in 2022 (though i'm not sure if their characters ever interacted with each other).

the event people are talking about is the #IVISNxFK that happened in november of 2023 and it was the cause of one of the biggest jealousy sprees on somtw (until people found out she has/had a boyfriend) along with an equally significant bisexual panic, too.

they were fangirling so hard in that event. it was something else seeing that as it unfolded, ngl. they were being so embarrassing in front of that pretty woman, and they were also embarrassed by their own embarrassing behavior. it was a blast [ 1 2 3 ].

first, bless his heart, was so much worse at keeping his expressions neutral in this event, compared to khaotung, but to be fair, davika was paying more attention to him, too, and boy didn't know how to keep it together. but he did well when davika said something like she was old enough to be his mother (she's not) and he said she's still young and beautiful.

just to point out, too, this was the same event that we had khaotung grabbing first's arm so he wouldn't leave the stage as kt was taking his solo pictures and also the event that gave us khaotung supporting first by singing very close to his face when p'da (i believe that's how people call her) made first sing by himself.

[dizzyduck44]

What is championship building? 🏆🥇🍾🎉

During the Chinese Grand Prix Lando received a radio message from his engineer roughly saying - we talked about this, this may be one race you accept the 2nd place for the good of the championship.

My F1 veteran brain, went oh the plan is championship building, good move, like it. And I’ve been using the phrase “championship building” ever since. I’m now beginning to realise a lot of people misinterpret or don’t understand it. So let me try to explain.

In its simplest form championship building is ensuring your bad days are better than your rivals bad days. It’s the long game approach.

Now, I appreciate in the last decade of Mercedes and Red Bull dominance with their clear number 1 drivers we haven’t seen the championship building method, some of you maybe have never seen it. So I’m going to explain using the master of the art, Kimi Raikkonen.

In 2012, Kimi signed with Lotus (now Alpine). A lot of us felt it was a huge comedown for a former World Champion, but given Ferrari had gone through a phase of paying him not to race in F1 (yes really, Kimi was one of the highest paid sportsmen under 30 in the world at the time to NOT drive for Ferrari), this was a way to have him back on the grid. And Ferrari didn’t see Lotus as a threat so relented and allowed him to drive in F1 as technically it wasn’t for a “rival team”.

Now Kimi’s 2012 season has gone down in history, (I will explain more on that later), but I want to look at his results.

Lotus was a distinctly back of the grid team in 2012. The year prior they hadn’t scored a single point.

Enter Kimi. He strung together an insane run of point scoring finishes. No one was paying any attention to him, he was in a Lotus on a grid that had Seb Vettel at Red Bull and Lewis and Jenson at McLaren, Alonso was competitive in the Ferrari and Mercedes and Michael Schumacher were back in F1. Lotus, who cares.

By the halfway point of the season Kimi was in the top 5 of the Championship and people suddenly stopped and went, wait, how?

These are his results from 2012.

Now compare that to Lewis’s stats

In theory Lewis has the better season, more wins, poles, same amount of podiums. But his season had 5 DNF’s. And the game here is for your bad days to be better than your rivals. Kimi finished every race, and finished 19 out of 20 races in the points!

Yes the win in Abu Dhabi is effectively what meant he beat Lewis in the championship that year as Kimi won and Lewis DNF’d BUT by that point, we were all sold on the Kimi fairytale.

So back to Lando. His worst Grand Prix result this season so far has been 4th. Oscar’s has been 9th, Max 6th, George 5th and Charles 8th and a DSQ. With no points for pole or fastest lap any more, those results matter.

And we know he’s not fully comfortable with the car yet, so taking as many points as he can at this point, gives him ammunition to fight back with most the season still to come. Seb said it himself this weekend, this year’s Champion may not be winning every race.

It’s what you do on the days you don’t win. Championship building.

And finally back to why Kimi’s 2012 season was legendary. In 2012, Kimi’s contract entitled him to a €50,000 bonus for every point he scored. This must have seemed good business to a team who hadn’t scored a single point the season before. Kimi scored 207 of them in 2012. He scored another 183 in 2013.

His bonus entitlement, including race win bonus was €19.5 million! It effectively bankrupted the team and to this day Kimi has never received it all. It’s believed he agreed a settlement of 60% with around €6 million euros outstanding.

Oh and that “not a rival team” theory Ferrari had? Kimi beat Massa in the second Ferrari both years. Ferrari “logic” has always been there folks.

So this season, unless you plan on winning 15 out of 24 races, and let’s be fair, no one looks capable of that at this point, making sure your bad days aren’t that bad is the way forward.

That’s why despite a brake by wire failure, a track you can’t pass, a 10 second penalty for a grid position infringement and crashing out of Q3, Lando has only just lost the championship lead and is only 10 points behind. That should be classed as a disastrous start to the season, but the championship table doesn’t say that. It’s because his bad days have still meant big points and more points than his rivals.

[lwolfcat429]

(platonic/romantic) yandere Tmnt (2003-2012 either one) with catra like reader

So imagine this;;

Reader, and her family (I'm using her but you can change it) are happy and living a normal life, until their out for a walk, reader is like a little kid (6-9) and this weird goo fell on them, changing them a little. Cat ears, tail, eyes (color remains the same but her pupils --the black parts of the eyes-- change shape) her skin turns into fur...her parents and are shocked and without thought ran away from her. Leaving her alone, she starts crying but is found by the shredder, he takes reader in to raise his own and karai's sister. Later in years, Reader is literally raised as a child soldier, though she has a hot temper and easily upset, she does good work for shredder and goes to fight the turtles but each one starts having romanic feelings for her because her daminer changes depending on the situation if it's a robbery, reader is more "God, can I robe a place without being disturbed, it annoying ya know? 🙄" But if it's something more serious shes more like "I'm gonna fuckin' kill you!! If you don't start getting out of my way!!" Obviously raph falls her first but Leo next when he sees a small act of kindness, the reader saves a dog from the destruction she has laid out. Mikey next when he sees her stealing games and skateboards, lastly Donnie; he and his brothers were stalking the footclan/ shredders men to find their hideout, when you pulled out a few smart moves with maps, car engineering, swordsmanship ship, etc. showing your both brains and brawn perfectly (as shredder as raised you to be)

The boys can tell you have good in you by the way you speak to animals and Karai but it is also clear your relationship is shredder isn't as father-daughter but more boss-employee, you call him sir, hardly fight him on anything and your cat ears and tail act timidly when his around. He is softer on you and Karai but unlike Karai, he does make you do much harder work than Karai. You do act like him though, having his temper, copying some of his fight moves, even the way he speaks sometimes but other times, the real you cames out, the you you hide from him. Music, painting, fashion, skateboarding, video games, etc

It's good to note here; you haven't inherited Karai's or shredders cruelty, you're actually more merciful than them but still bad, and often hurting other people who work under shredder. You have a temper (previously mentioned) but it's not much to shredders or karai's, you throw stuff or break workers backs, Karai and shredder break more than backs, someone is most likely dead so compared to them, your tame. You use your claws as weapons, whenever your fighting the turtles to try to scratch them but your good at fighting, able to Dodge and use your fist really well.

Let's time skip a bit here

Shredder kidnaps April, and your the only semi nice person to her, often giving her better food (usually the foot gives her mush and gross stuff) you will often hand her a second tray of better looking and tasting food you personally made, explaining you figured she wouldn't eat the first tray and she was better bait when she wasn't starving. And when the mad-scientist, Baxter Stockman, experience on April, you're there to make sure April wasn't being treated poorly or killed. You draw lines in the sand when no one else does. April actually starts liking you better than everyone else because you aren't as bad as everyone else. So when the turtles save her, you let her explain secretly, making April swear to come back and save you

[stevetonyweekly]

Steve Tony Weekly - Week 1 - Avenger 2012

Welcome to the first list of 2025! I asked y’all to vote last month on what you’d like to see from the blog in 2025, and you were overwhelminingly in favor of weekly themes! So that’s what we’re doing. I’m debating doing a monthly list of what I’m reading as well, but we’ll see how that goes. For now--

Avenger 2012 Fics. 

What I love about this time is how everyone is sorting themselves out, and how hard it leans into the found family aspect of that time period. It’s when Steve and Tony have so many of their best miscommunications, and when they figure out just how amazing they can be together, and honestly, what’s not to love about that? 

Even Though We Know Love's Landscape by lazywriter7 

But at the core, he’s the same brand of poor little rich guy that dot the shadowed corners of every charity gala, every award function. Sure, maybe it comes in a ‘genius billionaire playboy philanthropist’ package…but his mettle is common iron. A drop of sea water, a dash of air, and he’d rust right through.

She, on the other hand, is made of better stuff.

In which Tony compares people to weird things, Steph recites poetry and two dorks fall in love.

Tony Shouldn't Speak Before Coffee by Heartithateyou

Steve and Tony have been secretly dating for months now, until Tony accidentally lets a secret slip at breakfast.

He really shouldn't talk before coffee.

Five times Steve Rogers had to adjust to the modern world, and one time the modern world had to adjust to Steve Rogers by oui_oui_mon_ami

Cap @SteveRogers

HOMOPHOBIA IS BAD. THAT IS MY OPINION. NOW CAN HOMOPHOBES PLEASE STOP USING ME FOR THEIR HATE. THANK YOU.

(Written for Steve Rogers' birthday!)

Perfect Paradise (Staring back at me) by Finduilas 

Tony doesn’t actually notice it at first, and even if he had, he isn’t exactly known for caring what other people think about him. And the first time it does actually catch his attention, Tony is mildly amused.

Code Icarus by FestiveFerret 

Steve Rogers hates falling, but he hates being caught even more.

Never Be Alone by thepartyresponsible

Steve comes jogging up the path in a pair of offensively small bright blue jogging shorts. He’s shirtless and windswept and glistening – actually glistening – in the warm sunset glow.

“Sweet abs of liberty,” Tony says, hooking his sunglasses down his nose to get a better look.

“Of thee I sing,” Clint intones, reverently.

(2019 Tony Stark Bingo T2 - Present Tense)

[tgmsunmontue]

Saga of Solitude 18/21

Nepo!Baby Bradley and his life at USNA and afterwards. DADT fully in force. IceMav AU. (Begun prior to 'It's not who you know' - the non-angsty version). (Side Hangster, which is ALSO angsty).

PROLOGUE (He remembers)

HANGSTER FIRST MEETING (Lonely Nights - set 2009)

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

ONE (2000) TWO (2001) THREE (2002) FOUR (2003) FIVE (2004) SIX (2005) SEVEN (2006) EIGHT (2007) NINE (2008) TEN (2009) ELEVEN (2010) TWELVE (2011) THIRTEEN (2012) FOURTEEN (2013) FIFTEEN (2014) SIXTEEN (2015) SEVENTEEN (2016)

Made infinitely better by having @phisworld14 do a quick beta-check and caught the worst of my typos and spelling errors. 🌻🌻🌻

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – 2017

              “Bradley…”

              “Yeah.”

              “Tamsin says you’re smart…”

              “Uh…” Bradley isn’t sure what to say to that. Because it’s been a while since he was a teenager, but he’s pretty sure agreeing that he’s smart is likely an uncool thing to do. Then again he’s a fully functional adult and shouldn’t care what his teenage sister thinks of him. Still. “Well. If Tamsin thinks so…?”

              “Oh my god, you are so not…”

              “Did you want to talk about something?”

              “Uh. No.”

              Bradley nods, because he’s pretty sure she does, but he’s not going to push it, because that way lies madness and likely some form of bodily harm. She’s happily helping him to the fine sand on the body of the Bronco, and it’s almost ready for a final paint job. They’ve sanded and sanded more, masked up sweating, filled in so many holes with glass-fiber mat and resin. He found completely new second-hand parts for some of the panels, because they’d had less rust.

              For a while the Bronco has resembled more of a patchwork quilt than a vehicle, but he’s booked her in for a professional paint job for when he’s next deployed. Petra has her license now, and while she doesn’t like driving the Bronco because it’s too slow, she’s agreed to pick it up and take it back to Bradley’s house. On the proviso that she gets to choose the color. He’s really glad she likes him and will no doubt choose a color that he’ll love.

              “Do you like it?”

              “Uh… like what?” Bradley asks, wonders if he missed her saying something else, pretty sure he didn’t.

              “You know. Sex.”

              He moves so fast he hits his head on the hood, which at least is funny to her, her burst of laughter sounding a little nervous. He is not prepared for this conversation but suspects he’s going to be having it anyway. What did he ever do to deserve this? Twice?

              “Uh… Yeah. I do.” Fuck he really hopes that’s enough and that this is somehow the end of the conversation. He doubts very much he’s going to be that lucky and he’s reminded of other conversations he’s had over the years with either Tamsin or Petra. There’s nowhere to go but through.

              “Why?”

              “Why do I like sex?”

              “Yeah.”

              “Uh…”

              “Apart from the orgasm part. I get that. Well. Not really. But…”

              “Okay. It makes me feel good. I like making the other person, or people, fuck, uh. Just…” He scrubs at his forehead, wonders if the reason Mav still looks so young is because Bradley inherited his age-lines somehow. “It’s physical gratification. For all parties. I enjoy taking part in that,” he trails off, because it’s also about trust and having a connection and he’s been missing that he realizes suddenly. What a time to have a revelation.

              “Going fast feels better…”

              “Uh… going fast does feel pretty fucking good,” Bradley agrees, realizing she’s referring to the speed of vehicles rather than the speed of sex. And he doesn’t want to ask if she has anything to compare it to. That would be a dick move and he’s not as clueless now as he was as a teenager, not even aware of the gay and lesbian relationships the he was surrounded by.

              “I don’t like sex.”

              “Okay.”

              “I’ve had sex.”

              “Yeah, okay. Don’t tell Mav that. You’ll give him a heart attack.”

              “And I had it with both a guy and a girl. Just in case…”

              “Uh… what?”

              “To check.”

              Part of Bradley wants to commend the scientific approach, however.

              “You know you didn’t have to do that right?”

              “Yes I did. For me, I did. I talked to mom. I just… I don’t like it.”

              “Okay. That’s fine,” Bradley says, and he wonders if that’s the last of it. He’s going to enjoy filling in Nat about this. Over a bottle of wine. Maybe one each.

              “It’s just…I just feel like I’m the odd one out…”

              “How?”

              “Everyone else likes sex!”

              “Uh. Not everyone. There are –”

              “Everyone in our family I mean! That’s why I feel like I don’t fit in…”

              “Oh. Uh. Yeah. Okay. You fit in perfectly, just like everyone else does. Have you thought maybe Tamsin feels the same?”

              “What? She likes sex. I’ve heard it. It’s…” Petra pulls a face and he kind of has to agree, the idea of hearing Tamsin have sex is definitely entering the realm of TMI. It’s bad enough knowing she has a boyfriend and is sexually active. Maybe he should buy Ice and Mav a treat on the way home…

              “Okay, I don’t need to know that. I meant… uh… feeling like the odd one out. She’s straight. The only one in our family,” Bradley offers, scrambles to think of another example. “And, uh, I’m fine with it now, but for a while when I was younger I felt like I was the odd one out, like I wasn’t sure if I was a cousin or brother or just a family friend…”

              “You’re my brother! You’ve always been my brother!”

              “I know. I know I am. I just… it took me a few years to realize that. I’m just using it as an example of how I used to feel like I was the odd one out. Maybe Melissa feels like she’s the odd one out sometimes, because she’s not related to blood to you or Tamsin…”

              “She’s my mama…”

              “Yeah. Exactly. Our family might be a little… unique. But we’re all really important parts. Okay?”

              Petra lets out a sigh and shrugs, then shoves her shoulder into his side.

              “Yeah. Tamsin was right. You are pretty smart.”

…           …           …

              Tom wanders around the house and it feels far too quiet. Tamsin and Petra both now away at college, Pete doing some test pilot thing which is keeping him in the air and happy about it. Everyone he loves is safe and well and yet he feels like he’s at a loose end. Maybe he should get a dog. It would be nice to have someone in the house that actually listened and followed his instructions. Also right now it would make him feel a little less lonely. Maybe he’ll go to the shelter and just… have a look sometime.

…           …           …

              “Remind me again why I’m wearing a blindfold to see my own car?”

              “You said we could choose the color for the paint!”

              “Have to do a grand reveal…” Ice says and he sounds amused  which Bradley isn’t sure how to take.

              “You couldn’t have covered the car in a sheet?” Bradley mutters, wonders whether he’s going to see bright red, or lime green. Bright orange maybe? At least people will see him coming.

              “Your eyes are easier for us to cover up. Now quit your whining… Ta da!”

              The blind fold is removed with only a little discomfit and pulling of hair; he takes in the Bronco in front of him. It’s blue. A beautiful shade of blue that reminds him of a hot summer day and the clear sky stretching wide and free. The chrome is glistening, as are the tires. If he hadn’t worked on it himself for the last eight years he’d have assumed this was a collectors piece.

              “Wow… it looks so good.”

              “Better than you thought it would?” Petra asks, and she’s bouncing on the balls of her feet.

              “Yeah, so much better. Did you… did you get it detailed as well?”

              “Yep. Thought you’d appreciate it.”

              “Thanks Pet, I really do. It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

…           …           …

              Pete is glad for the flexibility that being a test pilot offers. Of course, sometimes he turns up on planned fly-days only to find out that the plane is, in fact, not going to be going up. He strikes up a friendship with Hondo, someone who can keep up with him when it comes to talking about the mechanics and maneuvers and how they might relate. He just gives Ice the finger when he makes a pithy comment about how nice it is to see him making friends.

              He follows the news, and Bradley’s deployments of course. Knows Ice keeps an even closer eye on the goings on. Ice might think his notebooks are secret, but Pete has seen them. He can’t decipher Ice’s little code, but he also hasn’t sat down and actually tried either. He’s fairly confident that if he asked Ice would simply tell him, and there’s no fun in that. He’d love to see if he could maybe crack it and then sneak in some notes of his own. Maybe a sneaky I love you. Yeah. He’ll try that.

…           …           …

              As August bleeds into September Tom watches the news helplessly as Hurricane Harvey wreaks havoc, think about his colleagues and friends in Corpus Christi and does everything he can think of to help. Tensions are mounting between China, Russia and North Korea and he’s been to so many briefings about North Korea’s on-going nuclear testing he’s surprised he isn’t dreaming about it. Then Hurricanes Irma and Maria strike in quick succession, separated by a 7.1 earthquake in Mexico and he sets about updating and improving all the emergency evacuation gear that his family might need.

…           …           …

              Bradley has been getting therapy and it’s been… unexpected. He doesn’t know what he’d expected the first time, but getting asked why he thought he needed therapy had thrown him. He’d sort of expected to be told all the ways he was fucking up his life, because he knows he’s been making mistakes and just didn’t know if he could stop making them. Still doesn’t know really, but he’s got a better understanding of himself, and of all the relationships he has with the people in his life.

              And that’s the key point, he can only work on the relationships he has with people who are in his life. He hasn’t seen Jake in over a year, knows that he’s likely made any chance of something more than sex impossible with his previous behavior. Not that he’d meant to hurt Jake, but he knows now he must have. Even the apologies he’d thought off wouldn’t have been enough. He remembers his last time with Jake. Thinks of wasted opportunities but also tries not to dwell on them. He can’t change his past, only work on his present and improve for his future.

…           …           …

              Pete stops putting his shopping in the tail bag and stands still and strains his ears.

              There.

              He steps towards the sound, and it gets louder before stopping. Then again. He hears a faint mewling and he looks around but he can’t see anything that might be making such a sound. There is a pile of trash, some bags and cardboard boxes piled up in the corner of the lot where he parked while he ran in to grab a bottle of wine and some chocolate to bring home to Ice after nearly two weeks away. His stomach sinks as he gets closer and the sound gets louder. He nudges the closest box with his foot carefully and sure enough it cries and there’s scrambling coming from inside and he feels a well of rage rise up as he pulls his pocketknife from his pocket.

              Slicing the tape along the edges carefully he prepares himself for the potential horror and smell and then he’s looking at two kittens who are both trying to scrabble out of the box. They’re filthy, covered in their own shit and no doubt fleas and god, he has no idea what else. He’s never had pets before, although he knows Ice had dogs growing up. He can’t leave them, he’s just going to have to take them home and figure out what the fuck he’s meant to do. But at home is Ice, and he’ll know.

              He unzips his jacket and willingly one of the kittens just immediately climbs inside. He has no idea if this is normal behavior. The other kitten follows suit, and apart from the very fucking sharp claws which are pricking at his skin through his t-shirt they seem quite content. He’s going to need a decontamination shower and have to send his jacket away to be cleaned properly. Ah well, it’s not like he has a choice.

              He drives carefully, mindful that his attention might be drawn away by sharp claws or wriggling bodies. However it’s an uneventful ride and he dismounts from his bike carefully, deciding to leave the wine and chocolate in the tail bag for now. He can come out and grab it after he’s had a shower.

              “Have you hurt yourself? You’re walking… stiffly.”

            �� “Uh yeah… I’m fine. Just…” Pete stops, blinks at the apparition sitting at Ice’s heel, a golden-brown patchy dog with floppy looking ears. “Uh, Ice? There’s a dog. Where did the dog come from?”

              “Uh. Yeah. His name is Harley…”

              “You got a dog?”

              “Yes. I… uh. Didn’t mean to. But he’s been at the shelter for over a year and… Mav, what do you have in your jacket?”

              “Kittens.”

              “What.”

              It’s the tone Ice uses when he’s not actually asking a question, is simply waiting for further clarification. After years together Pete knows he’s going to have to talk fast, but at least it’s a short story and he knows Ice will agree with hi justification.

              “Uh. Yeah. I found them in a box…”

              “You couldn’t just leave them there?”

              “It was taped shut Tom.”

              He knows he’s not going to have to say anything else. That Ice knows him too well to expect him to have done anything differently than exactly what he’s done.

              “Fuck.”

              “Yeah. I couldn’t…”

              “Yeah, no. Of course not. Fuck.”

              “I just… can you start looking stuff up? Find out where we could maybe take them? They really need a bath. And then I need a shower.”

              “Okay. Use the laundry sink. Do you think Melissa would know?”

              “She’s a doctor Ice, not a vet…”

              “Yeah, but she likes cats. Actually so does Sarah. Maybe they’ll take them?”

              “Ring them and ask. I’m going to…” he unzips his jacket and looks down to find two pairs of green eyes peering and blinking back at him.

              “Oh. They’re… very small.”

              “I think they’re normal sized?”

              “They definitely need a bath.”

              “Yeah. Sorry. Not quite the homecoming I had planned…” Ice’s lips twitch and an eyebrow goes up and Pete huffs in resignation. “I know, let me go get these guys cleaned up. You ring Sarah and Melissa.”

…           …           …

              Tom gets off the phone with Sarah in time to help Mav wrap a kitten each in a large towel and carefully dry them. They’re doing the best they can, and he at least has been able to create a litter box with some sand in the garage and an empty plastic tray Mav had bought for changing oil. It’ll do the job for now and he can still hear the echo of Sarah’s laugh. Fortunately Harley seems completely uninterested in the kittens, until they start crying and then he just sniffs at them curiously before lying down and letting out the resigned huffing sigh that had endeared Tom to him the first time he’d seen him.

              “Sarah and Melissa are away visiting Melissa’s sister. They wish us good luck.”

              “Damn.”

              “She gave me some ideas. First thing tomorrow though we’re taking them to the vet.”

              “Yeah, of course.”

              “Your turn to go shower…”

              He takes the other kitten and carries them both into the kitchen, knows they have tinned fish and hopefully they can drink water. He nudges Harley out of the way, briefly tempted to try feeding the kittens on the bench, but worried about them falling off. They’re both tabbies with patches of white, although right now they resemble drowned rats, fur in clumped tufts where some of it is still damp. Tinned fish is apparently a hit, although the bowl of water is maybe too big and a bit of a mystery. Harley is sitting to the side and just watching; he’s very well trained and quiet, nothing like the dogs Tom remembers from his childhood.

              He pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of the three animals and throws it into the family group chat for Sarah and Melissa before he realizes his fatal error.

              “Fuck.”

              “What’s wrong now?” Mav asks and he startles a little, takes in the tiny little red scratches across Mav’s chest and stomach as he ties off the drawstring of his sleep pants.

              “I just sent a picture of them all to the group chat…”

              “Oh fuck…” Mav says with a laugh and Tom groans.

              “I know!”

              “There’s no getting rid of them now. You’ve let them know…”

              “I know!”

              His phone is vibrating and pinging with notifications and he looks at Mav and releases a resigned sigh.

              “Well, I’m glad you let the, ha, cat out of the bag rather than me.”

              “Haha. What do you even do with a kitten?”

              “I don’t have a fucking clue.”

              “We helped raise three kids to adulthood, we can manage a couple of kittens…Right?”

              “I mean. Sure. Yeah. Of course. You going to answer any of their calls or messages?”

              “No. They can wait until tomorrow.”

              Clearly happier with food and water the kittens have stopped crying, and now seem intent on exploring. Tom quickly goes and shuts the doors to all the side rooms before he makes himself comfortable on the sofa, Mav immediately leaning into his side and passing him a glass of wine. Harley has curled up on the bed under the coffee table, eyes barely open as he watches Tom and Maverick both. He simply blinks slowly when the kittens start climbing over him, just lets out the same resigned huff of breath and Tom has never felt such solidarity with an animal before.

…           …           …

              Bradley hasn’t been summoned to a family meeting before, but it takes about thirty-six hours to find a time when they’re all free and he cannot wait to watch Tamsin and Petra whine and moan about how they finally got pets now that they’ve all moved out of home. He’s a couple of minutes late in joining the video call, popping in his earbuds and smiling at his phone as their faces all pop up in smaller screens.

              “It isn’t fair!”

              “You always said we weren’t allowed pets!”

              “And I stand by that. You changed your mind every other week.”

              “We move away and you got three!”

              “Yes. We decided to replace all of you with animals.”

              “I dibs being the dog!”

              “Well, his name is Harley…”

              “Like the motorbike?”

              Bradley watches as Ice opens his mouth, closes it again. There have been a lot of questions asked and answered, and the kittens don’t have names, which he suspects is going to be an honor Ice and Mav will let the girls have. Because he’s pretty sure they didn’t plan on any pets. He knows the dog is a five year old beagle-labrador cross, and he’s seen photos of it before, when Ice started visiting the shelter about six months ago. So maybe they were planning on a pet. Not three of them though.

              “Okay, well if we have a Harley then we need to name one of the kittens Ducati… Du-CAT-i. Get it?”

              There are groans but Bradley grins.

              “Well, if we’re going with that theme than you can name the other Ceccato…”

              “Because you are keeping them, right?”

              “Well, we might find our children visit us more often.”

              As one all three of them protest the call out, because they visit as often as they can, and from the shit-eating grin he can see on Mav’s face he’s clearly winding them up. That said though he might have an idea to make them very happy, remembering times in his teens, staying with Ice and Tamsin and Petra when they were younger. When he was really young. Yeah. He might have to call in some favors.

              “Dad, you have to send me videos, like every time they do something cute… Promise me.”

              “I promise.”

…           …           …

              Tom settles into the middle of the sofa, feels Mav settle further into his side and it’s good to have him home, even if the last week has been a little more chaotic that he anticipated it would be. However they’re settling into a new routine and it feels good. They always wake early, feed the kittens and then go for a run and take Harley with them. He surprised that he quite likes the cats, although their spats of extreme high energy for a few moments are still a little startling.

              He’s spoken to Tamsin earlier that day, wishing her happy birthday. The fact she’s now twenty-one makes him feel old, but also that he’s definitely been suffering from a little empty-nest. Having Mav back this week has helped, but having three animals is definitely going to keep the worst of his loneliness at bay when he’s next alone. Harley lets out a quiet whuff, which Tom now knows means someone is at the door. An alert bark which is surprisingly quiet.

              “I’ll go…”

              “What?”

              “Someone’s about to knock at the door…” Tom says, pressing Mav back onto the sofa, but then he can hear the door opening and he frowns. No one with a key is even in town this weekend.

              “Mav? Ice?”

              “Dad! Papa! We’re here…”

              He doesn’t bemoan his quiet night at all, the fact that all three of his kids have decided to turn up and a quick look at Mav tells his he’s equally surprised that they’re all here.

              “What are you all doing here?”

              “You’re meant to be in Lemoore…”

              “I called in a couple of favors. Just here for the night. Thought you might like to actually see Tamsin for her twenty-first.” He gives Bradley the tightest hug he can manage, because this has his handiwork all over it. “Plus we wanted to mee t the new family members.”

              After they’ve paid an inordinate amount of attention to the kittens and pet Harley he ends up back on the sofa, this time with Tamsin between him and Mav, Bradley on his other side and then Petra stretched out over all four of their laps, demanding the comforter. It’s a tight squeeze but he doesn’t care, it’s so rare these days to have moments like these. Then they’re arguing about what movie to watch before settling on one. While his life may not be perfect, right in this moment, it feels like it is.

[murfeelee]

TS3 vs TS4 Features - Supernatural

I saw @moonbiscuitsims' comment here about how EA added "way more features" in their TS4 occult packs, and I wanted to talk about it in depth, cuz that's a misleading statement. Y'all know TS4's my trigger.

Cuz yes, on paper, EA offers a LOT of stuff in TS4 packs. But the saying goes: as broad as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. 😬 QUALITY, versus QUANTITY, which is crucial for replayability, customization, variability, and ultimate longevity. And another thing is the TIMEFRAME that that content was released. Sure, if it takes you 10 years to develop/dripfeed your frikkin game, ofc you can add more content over more packs; than if you'd just stuck to ONE dedicated pack, developed it in 1-2 years, and given people arguably BETTER, if not MORE content.

My gut reaction's to say EA had BETTER be offering more content! 😤 Not even to justify the ridiculous pricetag or anything, but for the simple fact that TS4's supposed to be NEXT GEN. It's SUPPOSED to be bigger & better than everything that came before it. Why are we sitting here for 10 years with TS4 if it ain't gonna increase ANYTHING but my rising blood pressure & trust issues?!

So Imma just examine TS3 SN in comparison with TS4's packs, and give my take on what's been going on, from 2012 (SN EP) to now.

Missing Features: TS4 Fairies

A fairy was the very first sim I ever made in TS3 back in 2009 (my avatar sim, Sakura). Watching the SN announcement trailer for the first time dang near made me cry. TS4 could never; moving on.

Missing Features: TS4 Zombies & Toadsims

TS4 Tragic Clowns are a W for the apple juggling & costume. I think EA was lazy by slacking on the clown just cuz he's already dead in Sunset Valley; and I guess they don't expect players to resurrect his ghost. SN EP did nothing to actually improve/expand him, just creating the alchemy Clown Potion; I guess to better integrate fishing the Clownfish into the lore.

TS4 Vampires GP (2017)

This is an easy one. I've said since TS3 Late Night EP (2010) that TS3's vampires are utter dogtrash, and the SN EP did eff all to patch/improve them, and I will die on that hill (until someone figures out how to give convert TS4's functional coffins & vampire fights & special FX). Compared to every other occult, I have more mods installed just to try to fix how effing busted & stupid vamps are; and these sparkling Twilight dumb AF bloodsuckers STILL get on my dang nerves.

IMO, TS4 Vampires is hands down the best pack EA ever made for TS4. 10/10, the attention they put in that pack outclasses darn near everything else they did until TS4 Seasons. Undisputed W, yes. 👏

TS4 Realm of Magic GP (2019)

Disputed W. I gave it an 8/10 at BEST, cuz magic/fantasy's a win, but I am disappointed. If this had been a home run for EA, I'd've shut my dang mouth, ISTG. But alas. I went on a long AF tirade against RoM when I realized that a lot of its so-called "new" features were things we could already do in TS4, with a flashy coat of paint--let alone things TS3 & the SN EP did, and better. Some things I didn't mention though:

Muggles who ask spellcasters how to do magic are sent on a fetch quest for Magic Motes, which is EXACTLY what the ITF EP Time Traveler occult Emit Revelart makes normies do to, finding Power Cells to learn how to use the Time Portal.

The Witch's perks/ranks system works just like the Vampires one, so kudos to EA for not fixing something that ain't broke I guess.

The Spells: At MTS I actually broke down what each of TS4's spellcasters do that's largely nothing sims couldn't do in TS3, even before SN came out (via SHT Genies or SSNS Aliens, or the Store).

TS3 Witches (let alone other lifestates) can do most of this either through alchemy or inherited features from older TS3 packs. This was a huge RoM dealbreaker for me, as I'd been hoping for WAY more innovative features in TS4's spells--the whole point of Spellcasters--than just an elaborate set of cheats. TS3's Witch's main features are fewer, but far more cohesive, IMO. (Granted, NONE of the packs holds a single candle to the GOAT that is TS1's Makin Magic, which had WAY more features than TS2, TS3 & TS4; and was CHEAPER. But I digress.)

There's no unique features with TS3/TS4 wands; they act the same way; the effects are just different, and TBH I'm not a fan of either--I wish wand/magic FXs could be modded in different colors at least (like BLACK 😈). But I DO like that in TS4 they can duel for rewards.

TS4 brooms do EFF ALL in a closed world; EA made them exactly they way they were in TS2, with zero innovation. (IIRC kids can't even use them--EA's hatred for kids & elders ALMOST matches MY hatred of EA.)

IMO beekeeping doesn't count, cuz TS3 included it as a small feature for alchemy ingredients in the SN EP, while TS4 integrated it far better in SSNS to work with gardening, which is genius.

Speaking of SSNS, there's the Weather Stone that only appears if you have both SN & SSNS, so occults can conjure magical weather effects over the whole world. (I'll talk about the best perk under Crystals SP.)

Familiars are the certified W for me with RoM. They're the best & most unique & most well-thought out & feature of the GP, IMO. ❤️

Extra TS4 features I think are supremely cool are spellcasters' books floating whenever they read anything. And their cauldrons have much cooler animations, and I'm so jealous that y'all can cook food in them; EA should've added that to the Store Cauldron, although I guess I understand why they didn't in the SN EP Alchemy Cauldron.

A lot of RoM's features are wrapped around Glimmerbrook. Access to Glimmerbrook comes with the Glimmer Stone key--and I WOULD use that as a segue into the Crystals SP, but I'll hold off. I already vented about Glimmerbrook in my Werewolves GP rant--but I'll get to that in a minute, too. The bigger issue is what even constitutes a TS4 "world"--those non-customizeable tiny AF clusters of tiny AF lots and huge swaths of decorative set dressing--let alone the Diagon Alley ripoff EA loves promoting like I was born yesterday and never saw Harry Potter. GORGEOUS realm, of course, like many EA worlds are. But they're largely just set-dressing, which irritates me to no end.

TS4 Paranormal SP (2021)

I've ranted & raved about Paranormal before: 7/10 at best.

TS4 Seances with the crystal ball work very differently from TS3's Soothsayer's Crystal Ball, which wasn't about banishing ghosts, but improving progression for SN's Witches & Fortune Telling (career). Fortune Telling's NOT a ghostly job, although the boho aesthetic carried over to TS4 Paranormal. (On top of the fact that they promised this whole NOLA Voodoo vibe, but delivered ZERO cultural accurate features reflecting ANYTHING from Haitian Voodoo, wtf? It's all hippie boho New Age BS--why TF does the tutorial ghost look more like Johnny Depp and less like Dr. Facilier, I ask you, EA.) Granted, some of the interactive objects are nice, like the calming dollbaby & magic candles to purify lots--kinda like TS3 incense. But again: 1-trick ponies. Yes, the animations look great, but crystal balls are typically for divination, asking spirits about the past/present/future, not removing haunting poltergeists, so I don't really get it. Stylish & gorgeous! But GENERIC AF substance-wise.

IMO, TS4's Ghosts are an L across the board; all the way from the base game--that bafflingly launched in 2014 WITHOUT ghosts until they were patched in a whole month later after everyone rose a stink (IIRC TS4 kids can't be ghosts!?)--to present. EA's been over/course-correcting from that gaffe ever since, with like double the amount of Death types than TS3. I DO NOT like how TS4 ghosts colors are tied to Eeemotionnsss~! (more like they're a sentient Plumbbob). TBF, kudos to TS4's smoky cloudy effect when ghosts appear. But the lack of unique deaths & ghost types in RoM (aside from Spellcaster Overload & the Night Wraith) made me roll my eyes, as SN EP's ghost types are some of my faves (ITF & SHT are also my top 3).

IIRC it was the SN patch that unlocked all types in (basegame?) CAS to make playable Ghosts. SN's Philosopher's Stone allows sims to summon new playable Ghosts (and ofc allows for transmutating cheap objects into gold ingots--more on that later), or it can just kill you and make YOU the new ghost, LOL.

But as for features, sure, TS4 ghosts have more interactions--though they're all pretty, rather than scary (vs TS2 ghosts, which were SCARY). TS4 ghosts lost the HORROR to just be silly/goofy or just CUTESY--especially the little spectres from Paranormal.

Speaking of horror, I can't talk about ghosts w/out bringing up TS3's AMB EP, cuz the Ghost Hunter (profession) is the real parallel with TS4's Paranormal Investigator (freelancer). In TS3, they actually stuck to their promised main premise (Ghostbusters). Overall, TS4 Seances are nowhere near as fluid as TS3 ghostbusting. In TS3 you can run all over the world using gidgets-gadgets to detect/fight ghosts & sprites, not just inside haunted houses, but anywhere they happen to spawn (ofc inc. graveyards). You're not just locked to a lot/house the player already knows is haunted (cuz you just toggle Haunted Lot to trigger the feature--SN's Ghost Gnome object isn't exactly the same, but it does spawn hauntings on the lots you put them in). ANY TS3 indoor/outdoor residential/community lot can randomly get haunted during a Ghost Hunter's shift; and you never know which one it'll be, or what kind of shenanigans will happen--EVIL ghost or just some sprites--which skyrockets replayability & keeps things fresh & interesting.

Functionally, Paranormal had no right to be that dang good for a Stuff Pack. That was a Game Pack; IDKY EA insists otherwise; esp. when it offered more & better things than some actual GPs. I'm confused. However, a serious problem TS4 has is that it gameifies everything to the point that TS4's numerous features lose their spontaneity, and just become rote--BORING. The ectoplasm everywhere just becomes another mess in your (haunted) house you have to clean--CHORES. On top of me not liking TS4 ghosts' look & vibe (and I HATE TS4's Bonehilda). Quality over quantity, EA!

TS4 Werewolves GP (2022)

Speaking of ghosts, waaaay back in 2020 I told the spirits precisely what I wanted from a potential Werewolf dedicated TS4 pack. Did they listen? HAYUL NAW. So in 2022 I said everything I had to say about the Werewolves GP, and accepted the fact that EA's INEPT.

Do TS4's wolves have MORE features than TS3? YES ofc (even in 2012 everyone complained that Witches & Faeries got the lion's share & Werewolves got shafted--they're basically glorified Familiars for Witches/Alchemist to find collectibles--more on that below). But was most of it GOOD features though? Debatable! I LOATHE the 2 wolf packs, which was what I'd most looked forward to; plus the whole world's aesthetic was ugly homeless-grunge, without a single bit of creativity or originality--only EA could make monsters as terrifying as werewolves effing cartoony hipster squatters. 🤦 7/10 at best.

TS4 Crystals SP (2024)

These crystals are ugly, EA. Which is weird, cuz the basegame TS4 gems & esp. space rocks are GORGEOUS. I have no idea which vision-impaired dev at EAxis thought these nasty looking opaque poorly-painted rocks were pretty.

Features-wise, granted, having TS4's bonafide Gemology skill from the Crystals SP's nice, instead of TS3's basegame hidden Collector skill. But the functioanlity's largely the same: cut more, unlock more (which I prefer to cheat my way through--TS3 thinks I have time for all this gameplay, LOL). (Not to mention all the extra features TS3's Aliens, Simbots & Plumbbots have when interacting with gems, space rocks, or metals.) TS4 only got 10 gem cuts for 27 crystals (=270), (+25 metals); compared to TS3's 16 gem cuts for 28 gems (=448), (+16 metals with their own separate ingots). Of TS4's 10 cuts, the Skull Cut is the ONLY one I think looks better (ignoring the atrociously flat textures ofc) than TS3's (which TS4 copy/pasted--no agates, no crystal ball, wtf).

The Garden Gnome cut isn't unique to TS4, as TS3 has several craftable (glass-only) Garden Gnome cut from the Glassblowing Machine (more on that soon).

The only TS3 gem that genuinely affects sims is radioactive Tiberium from the WA EP, so more features is definitely a plus. The best addition is TS4's Charging Grid feature--I LOVE that TS4 crystals can be imbued with magic energy--it's like TS3's Store Crystal Tree, ITF EP's magic crystal plants & the SN EP Mood Lamp all rolled into one. @greenplumbboblover's WIP Interests & Hobbies mod brainstormed integrating that functionality that back in 2020.

The functionality of the TS3 SN EP Gem Cutter & the TS4 Crystal Tree are similar, though ofc the tree's wallet & eco-friendly; and it's a plant, not a hunk of machinery, so it naturally has that going for it.

There's also the SN-SSNS Weather Stone, which gives werewolves the ability to summon a Hunter's Storm, raining a hail of gems, rocks & metals over the whole world for easy loot farming. (The best perk, though my fave is the Faeries' Reviving Sprinkle for gardening.)

Aside from SN, TS3's real equivalent is actually the Prism Art Studio Venue's Artisan skill. Cuz the REAL seller's the jewellery-making. There's ~100 CAS items in Crystals SP (plus 30+ regular Build/Buy mode objects). At $10, the Crystals SP is a steal, at least when compared to the BONKERS $20 tag on TS3's Prism Art Studio at the Store (2014). IIRC the Glassblowing Machine newly added 16 craftable CAS items & 13 craftable glass objects (as SN already gave us the Gem-Cutting Machine & AMB already gave us the Widgets work station); and 8 Build/Buy objects (inc. the goated L-shaped "spiral" stairs). It also added 5 craftable Perfumes for sims to use.

So while the Crystals SP added NICE features, I wouldn't say they added MORE features. Rather, they added more content: Quantity. But as for Quality, I think TS3 beats it out--the Prism Studio's a effing ripoff, but AFAIK it added features TS4 still doesn't have yet (craftable glassblowing & perfumes, spiral stairs); and the objects it did add are pretty nifty.

Timeframe-wise, we got the 2014 Prism Art Studio's Glassblower 2 years after the SN EP's Gem-Cutter; 5 years after the 2009 basegame. Compared to TS4's wait for the Crystals SP 2 years after Werewolves, 3 after Paranormal, 5 after RoM; and a whopping DECADE after the basegame launched in 2014. Wtf, EA?

Still, I'd say the Crystal SP's a 7/10 (there's not enough gem cuts, the gems textures are ugly, and most of the features were lifted from things TS3 had innovated 10+ years earlier).

TL;DR

Quantity =/= Quality.

EA's been taking way too long releasing packs to have the nerve to present debatable content--it should be goated releases EVERY time; esp. since everyone agrees TS4 is easier to create content for, so much smaller in scale/scope, and with an infinitely larger budget & fanbase than The Sims franchise ever had. There's zero excuse for EAxis' mediocrity, when TS3 was churning out EPs like it's life depended on it: SHT, SN, and SSNS all came out the SAME EFFING YEAR. 2012 was LIT.

EA, you suck.

[fire-fira]

I am not sure how much you are into analysis but I want to ask. Do you think raph isn’t as good of a fighter compared to his brothers? because I have a feeling either he’s holding back when sparring with them over fear of harming them or he’s not as good as them.

Anon, you just made my day because this gives me an excuse to nerd out at length. (Though apologies that it took me so long to get this fully written out and posted.)

Disclaimer before I launch into it in full: to fairly compare Raph to his brothers I'm going to do a brief run-down of the three of them before breaking into the full details on him. A lot of this is built on extrapolation from details in various canons and at times might edge toward headcanon territory, though I'll be trying to stick with what's actually present.

With that out of the way--

Comparing Raph to His Brothers

So to start with, I can only fairly do this deep-dive by briefly touching on each of his brothers before getting to Raph himself. I'll say upfront that I think it's less a question of which one is the "best fighter" and more that they're each different types of fighters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and which might land any of them in the position of "the best" depending on the circumstances.

Leo

Strengths: This is an extrapolation based on various iterations (2003, 2007, 2012, 2014/2016, ROTTMNT, 2023, Batman vs. TMNT, and a little bit of the IDW comics), but Leo strikes me as a tactician-- as the guy who can extrapolate to fifteen different possibilities for the outcome of a fight and fifteen steps ahead of everyone else on each of those possibilities. At his best he knows how to play to his brothers' strengths, put them where needed, and let them go to do their own thing. He's also persistent and willing to put himself through his paces over and over again until he 'perfects' what he wants to learn how to do. As a "traditional" (romanticized) example of a warrior, he is the golden boy of the family. Rise Leo might be a little less likely to get every step 'just so,' but most iterations of him aim to be as flawless as possible in terms of his combat skills. In his ideal world, he will never have a misplaced swing of a sword or inflict any damage he doesn't intend to. That depth of knowledge and highly-trained skill can be damned terrifying for his enemies if it's taken to its fullest extreme.

Weaknesses: His perfectionism and desire to get things 'just right' is a double-edged sword. In the 2003 series it got wrapped up in his PTSD and the need to never make a critical mistake again (which... didn't work out well for him-- hi, shades of Raph at his worst); in the 2007 movie it led him to think his efforts to learn how to be a better leader weren't "good enough" and kept him away from home for two years; in the 2012 series it led him to ignore critical injuries and try to bully himself into being 'better' (when realistically what he did during the farmhouse arc probably would have permanently destroyed one of his knees); in the 2014/2016 movies it led him to temporarily damage his relationship with his brothers by spilling over the worst of his internal perfectionistic vitriol onto them; and in Rise it at times has turned him into a showoff who'll act without letting the others in on his plan (which can backfire horrendously in a worst-case scenario) because if he does it without telling others what he's going to do, then he gets bragging rights if it works out like he planned. Underlying all this is what could turn into an unmanageable case of anxiety depending on the version of Leo and how personally stable he is, as well as how susceptible he is to ruminating over where he feels he went wrong. To say nothing of how many versions of Leo have a GIANT self-sacrificing streak when it comes to their families. Under the right circumstances-- and if someone really intended to make it hurt-- they could easily play all that against Leo and get him to freeze due to overthinking. (Though getting him to that level would take an extreme case and some severe emotional damage to weaponize his guilt.)

Speed: OKAY. Here's where things get a little more cut-and-dried in my opinion-- if a fight is down to just speed anyway. Leo might be pretty neck-in-neck with Raph in terms of speed, maybe just a touch faster due to (generally) being more lean-built than Raph. Leo's not a tank; yes he can fight in close quarters or mid-range and hold his own, but if he can then he tends to be 'slippery' about it. He's not going to batter away at an enemy if he can spin out of range before darting back in and dodging whatever hits he can. If it's just a matter of speed without any other factors involved, then there's a good chance Leo will win in a fight against Raph. If it's a question of strength and endurance though... Well, I'll expand further on that when I get to Raph.

Adaptability: This is something that is absolutely dependent on which version of Leo we're talking about and how hung up that version is on his plans without taking the general chaos of life into account. 2012 and 2014/2016 Leo both are guilty of getting so hung up on the idea that their approach to a combat situation is the right way that they fail to plan for the fact that their brothers' ways of doing things isn't their way of doing things. Which blows up in their faces spectacularly sometimes. IF it's a version of Leo who's more likely to fail to take into account his brothers' differing styles, then Raph might easily play that against him and deliberately do things Leo would find unpredictable (though probably not as much as Mikey, lbr). For versions of him that are better about knowing that his own approach isn't the only/'best' approach, then Leo would be better able to roll with whatever Raph throws his way, within reason.

Combat Style/Approach: Mid-to-close-range, tactician, and definitely NOT a grappler. Yes, his skills and training have him moving with muscle memory when he needs to, but even so, there's a split-second awareness of what his opponent(s) could do and instinctively reacting based on what he's met with. A lot of that means he has to be free to move and avoid getting held in place, or things might go bad quickly.

Donnie

Strengths: No matter which iteration of Donnie you're talking about, you're generally talking about an engineer who's able and willing to casually heft up and carry around a car engine with his bare hands. And considering (with a quick google search) it looks like the average car engine weighs anywhere between 300 to 700 pounds, that alone is proof enough that no one in their right mind would ever want to be punched by Donnie. And considering there are instances where he's able to temporarily support the weight of himself and his brothers (a couple of scenes in the 2003 series are what immediately come to my mind, but that's just my favorite iteration showing itself) it's proof that he has that strength not just in his arms. To give you an idea of just how much weight that implies he can lift, here's a size and weight comparison of some of the largest turtle species currently living.*

Notice anything? Like how... Oh... I dunno... a 4-foot-long Loggerhead sea turtle can weigh up to 400 pounds? Or a 3-foot-long Leatherback sea turtle can weigh 550 pounds on the light end? (Note: this is not meant to be snarky or condescending, just a simple statement of fact that all signs point to these boys are fucking HEAVY.) And that huge amount of weight relative to their body size seems to be pretty consistent among turtle species from what I've seen with my digging around. Which logically implies that the same holds true for these boys, and if we play fast-and-loose with the idea that we can roughly translate length to height... well... For general weight of the boys, I tend to assume at least 200 pounds, at least for those under and up to about 5-foot-tall. For the 2014/2016 set I might even suggest somewhere between 400-500 pounds-- but roughly comparing weight to size with that table of large turtle species, I'm probably severely underestimating their weight all across the board. Being generous, hypothetically saying all four of the 2003 turtles are about 240, that then means there are moments in the 2003 series where Donnie is temporarily lifting around 960 pounds, including himself. AND THAT MIGHT BE A SEVERE UNDERESTIMATION. Terrifying, right? So yes, Donnie is unquestionably strong as hell and maintains that strength by working on his various projects, and a full-force hit from him would land someone in a hospital-- if they're lucky. The other main thing working for him is that he's a tech genius. No, he's typically not as rigid or disciplined in his training as Leo is, but if he has access to tech and distance then he has a whole host of weapons and traps he can bring to the party (something which Rise Donnie excels at in spades). Raph's a much more physical direct-confrontation fighter, but Donnie has the capacity to turn entire environments against his enemies, depending on the means he has at his disposal.

Weaknesses: For better or worse, Donnie's primary personal strength-- the one he leans on above all else-- is his intellect and being able to puzzle things out. And again, he's an engineer: yes he can lift and move that terrifying amount of weight, but he's usually not doing it at speed. (Because let's be real, moving heavy and potentially very breakable machinery is not something you want to do quickly when you want to be able to use or repurpose said machinery.) He's not a slouch when it comes to his ninjutsu training, but there's a reason why the concept of Donnie pulling the 'I'm too busy to train right now' is a widespread fandom concept. It doesn't necessarily mean that he's not 'as good of a ninja', but more that he's not a 'traditional' ninja and has had to adapt things to his preferred methods. Yes he has a lot of physical strength, but he prefers to keep a distance from his opponent(s) if possible. Doing so, having that distance, gives him more time to plan and respond-- because unlike Leo, a lot of iterations of Donnie don't have that ingrained ability to read the possible actions their opponent(s) might take and respond on a dime (or at least not to the same level). Raph's tendency to brute force things-- something which Donnie technically could do but clearly does not like to-- might be somewhat unpredictable for him, especially because that puts Raph in close and doesn't give Donnie as much time to respond as he would like. All that said, Donnie could technically win a fight against Raph without his tech if he pretty much said to hell with fighting and decided to do an imitation of an octopus. At the very least he could probably hold him in one place if he was quick enough and managed to get Raph's arms pinned. And somehow kept him from walking. (It wouldn't be a dignified win, but it might still technically be a win.)

Speed: I'm gonna be honest, I do not think speed is on Donnie's side in comparison to his brothers. If he really makes an effort (rather than just going his own route and pursuing his interests) he'd probably be able to keep up with the others going at full tilt for a little while, but he'd probably tire out first. A lot of the work he does due to his areas of expertise is fairly sedentary, and frequently he needs to move with slow and deliberate precision. There's a lot of fine muscle control involved in that kind of work (especially if it involves maneuvering something heavy), but being able to consistently do that doesn't automatically translate to being able to do something similar at high speed. But that's okay, because if he has the distance and varied means of attack he needs, then he doesn't have to worry about keeping up with his brothers for an extended period of time-- it just has to be long enough.

Adaptability: If it involves tech or computer systems, Donnie's ability to adapt to a situation is unparalleled. Give him unrestrained access to an unfamiliar and shiny (and incredibly pervasive) system and he'll be able to make it seem like a tech apocalypse is targeting one specific person if he wants to. If it's a head-to-head physical fight though, it really depends on how desperate he is or how much breathing room he has (or both). If he's frazzled and panicky then there's the possibility he'll miss several opportunities or potential tools and, in a worst-case scenario, he might freeze. (An extreme example of this is how Rise Donnie gave up fighting the crab men when his tech failed, after all his brothers had already failed in that fight.) If he has time and space to think then he's practically unstoppable, but if he doesn't have that breathing room then chances are things won't end well for him.

Combat Style/Approach: Distance fighter, brain-over-brawn, could be a grappler if necessary but uncomfortable enough with it that it might work against him, might as well dub him a 'trap master' for the little surprises he might leave in his wake if he's feeling spiteful. He's a schemer, but not a chess master.

Mikey

Strengths: If there's one thing that can be said for Mikey it's the fact that most versions of him are innately gifted at picking up kinesthetic knowledge, to say nothing of the fact that he tends to be the most spiritually gifted of the brothers. In fact in several series (2003 and 2012 off the top of my head, though I'm certain it may have popped up in others) it's briefly mentioned that if Mikey really buttoned down and was completely serious about his ninja skills he would outclass Leo-- which means that he can naturally slide into the level of skill Leo has worked for years to achieve without even really thinking about it. If he wants to. And most of the time he doesn't want to. (Too much responsibility being that serious, so who can blame him?) However, his not constantly going at the equivalent of Level 99 in a videogame in fights isn't necessarily a detriment to him, because he has other ways to stay true to himself while giving himself an edge. Like being annoying on purpose. And knowing how to aggravate the hell out of his opponents until he tricks them into getting sloppy. Until he tricks them into giving him easy openings they should REALLY know better than to give him-- and would if he hadn't deliberately torn their nerves to shreds. If it's not obvious, I'm saying versions of Mikey like to play mind-games, and if they really want to they can be vicious about it and make it HURT. (Though again, most versions of Mikey are more invested in goofing off and playing around than being outright vicious or serious.) The point is, if he finds a mental opening that sticks, then how invested he is in winning the fight will dictate how serious he is about exploiting that weakness. To say nothing about how creative he can get when he really wants to be.

Weaknesses: The downfall of a lot of Mikeys is how distractable a lot of them can be. (I won't say this is a universal fact because I'm a big fan of there being variation among different realities, but a lot of Mikeys definitely being ADHD doesn't help. How well said version is able to compensate probably also varies.) So depending on the circumstances and the environment, Raph might be able to play that distractibility against him. (Buuuut that would require Raph to play mind-games, and most Raphs aren't the 'mind-game' type.) Plus, for better or worse, it takes a LOT to get most versions of Mikey to the point where he's ready to say 'Fuck everything' and throw everything he can into ending a fight right that second.

Speed: Mikey is, in my honest opinion (and based off most of the series and movies I've seen), the fastest of the brothers-- bar none. Which means if he tore off at full speed with the intention of skipping a fight entirely and just making Raph chase him, Raph probably would never catch him. Until after he wears down anyway. But if he zipped off and found a good enough hiding spot, then he could probably avoid Raph for a while. In a fight, because of his speed, there's a good chance that Mikey might be able to get in more hits than Raph, but that comes with the risk of getting in close to Raph-- and that can easily work against him in very short order.

Adaptability: Mikey's adaptability is through the roof. Most versions of Mikey, you can throw damn near anything their way and they'll roll with it in such a way that they land on their feet while their brothers are still scrambling for stable footing. There's also the fact that he's a very lateral thinker and able to apply concepts from seemingly unrelated sources to scenarios many others wouldn't even think to combine-- and he does so to his advantage. So yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh, given enough room and space to work with (and not panicking), then there's a good chance Mikey's going to catch Raph off guard with something he'd never expect.

Combat Style/Approach: Close range, flighty, dart in-range to hit and then dart back out of range, mind-games and making his opponents angry to the point of getting sloppy seems to be his preferred tactic. He could be the most terrifying to go up against in a fight if he went absolutely stone serious, but 99.9999% of the time he does not want to and would much rather slip in some fun where he can. (If you don't believe me on that last point, consider that in the 2003 series I'm reasonably sure he has the highest body count of all the brothers, in the 2012 series he killed a kraang and wore the dude's skin on his head multiple times, and in Rise ALL of Dr. Delicate Touch and the frothing maniacal rage he has when angry. 'Nuff said.)

Raph

And here we come to the turtle in question himself, Raph. Hamato Raphael, Raphael Splinterson, Raphie-boy, take your pick.

Strengths: Raph is a TANK. Barring '87, this boy in most iterations pretty much makes it his mission in life to be the strongest of him and his brothers. He's also stubborn as hell and WILL NOT give in if he thinks it's important to stand his ground. Which means he can and will hold his ground and dig in long past when his brothers each have to retreat or fold; he can take the hits they can't and come out the other side still kicking. And what's more, if he feels the need to and is able to get up and be mobile, then he WILL hunt you down for as long as it takes and damned near nothing will stop him-- he is that. damned. STUBBORN. Let's be real, that combination is terrifying. Of course, naturally, this brings up questions of just how physically strong he is. I pointed out up in Donnie's section that Donnie is ridiculously strong, but just how strong is Raph? To answer that question, the infamous scene from 2007:

Just how much psi does it take to snap a katana? WELL, it turns out that finding out that information is really difficult (at least when I was nosing around and trying to find out). When I was doing my initial searching I found a video on facebook examining an anime scene (at the time-- back in September-- it was literally the only thing that remotely came close to answering my question that popped up) that claimed it would take at least 20,000 psi. Being that the person who posted that video didn't include any sources for reference, I'd take it with a grain of salt (especially since despite my best efforts I'm having a hard time finding that video again), but still. If-- for the sake of argument-- we assume that the 20,000 psi measurement is accurate for what it would take to snap a katana, that would mean that our boy Raph is capable of exerting that much force with each hand. And not just a brief spike of getting there either. No, for him to be capable of the force in that 2007 scene (again, assuming the number is accurate) then he has to maintain that force for longer than a second or two.

I don't know about you, but that makes this scene just that much more dangerous and intense in my eyes. It's not just that Raph could have killed Leo by stabbing him; it's also the implication that he could have easily torn Leo apart with his bare hands if he wanted to. So yeeeeeaaaahhhh, if Raph is able to get his hands on any of his brothers and is able to hold on, they're probably toast.

Weaknesses: Whoo boy. In most iterations, point blank, his biggest weakness is his temper. If he gets set off too thoroughly or if someone knows how to play it against him, his temper can make him get sloppy and lead to his defeat-- regardless of how ridiculously strong he is. It also means that, unless it's a version of him who has worked his ass off to keep himself in check, there's a good possibility that he might wind up doing things he'll regret when he's angry (and if someone really wants to twist the knife they can play that guilt and self-blame against him). If you go by 2003 and 2012 there's also his bug-phobia which can be played against him. (Even though 2003 Raph covers it with 'KILL IT WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE'.) If you go by Rise, then you DO NOT. EVER. WANT THAT BOY TO BE ALONE. And on a much more brutal note, going back to his stubbornness which is also one of his strengths

...there's a good chance that this boy might try to push himself past the breaking point if he feels it's necessary.

Speed: I've said before that I think Raph is pretty neck-in-neck with Leo when it comes to how fast he is, Mikey has them both beat in the speed department hands down, and Donnie is most likely to be the slowest moving of the four of them. If Leo has to deal with heavy weights while trying to move at speed however, Raph will have him outclassed due to having more practice in that department. For Raph to have a hope of keeping up with Mikey going full tilt in running away, Mikey would have to be carrying enough to weigh him down considerably. And while Donnie might stand a chance in trying to grapple with Raph, Raph having more experience in moving heavy weights at speed would probably mean Donnie would be better off trying to glom onto Raph like an octopus rather than outright grappling. So Raph's not the fastest, but he's not a slouch either.

Adaptability: As much as I love my boy, Raph is a tank, he's bruiser, he's a bulldozer who freely makes use of sharp and pointy things he can use to stab people with. Adaptability-- barring variation between sneaking in and out versus barreling in as loudly as possible to cause mayhem and destruction as a distraction-- is generally not in his wheelhouse. Given time and learning how to play mind games (and I don't doubt that an adult Raph could pick up and use the skill when he needs to) he'd probably become more flexible, but with where he's portrayed to be at in most iterations he hasn't gotten there yet.

Combat style/approach: Close-range, grappler, brawler, TANK. He WILL hold the line, he WILL dig in and hold his ground, he WILL be the wall and PROTECT with everything he has if he has to. He's also not above being outright brutally destructive when he feels it's warranted. And that "when he feels it's warranted" is key.

Details that affect the outcome:

Raph has a protective streak 500 miles wide. A lot of iterations try to be the wall for his family, the last line of defense when needed. He would sooner see himself hurt than anyone he cares about.

And it's not just his brothers, father, April, Casey, anyone-he-considers-family that he's protective of either.

Seriously, if someone pushes the protective button on this boy and his sense of right and wrong kicks in, he WILL get involved.

Raph cares and feels deeply; to him, family is everything.

You

have

NO IDEA

how much

this boy

LOVES

HIS FAMILY

or how much he'd tear himself up if he ever seriously hurt any of them. So the chances of him ever actually going all-out against any of his brothers is slim. (And the few instances in various iterations where he's come close it's seriously screwed him up emotionally every time. Like 2003 and the pipe incident, 2007 and the after effects of his fight with Leo, the implied guilt Rise had after he snapped back to his senses after reuniting with his brothers after he'd been alone, etc.) He might fight with his brothers, he might disagree with them from time to time, but overall he comes off as someone who firmly believes you don't ever deliberately hurt someone you should care about if you can help it. Which is backed up by instances of him panicking in various iterations where his decisions might result in his family's deaths, as well as the fact that he only really turns on any of them (think SAINW) if they cross the line of not being there for each other like he feels they should be. Some iterations might threaten to run off a lot, but he never will without a damned good reason because he loves his family too much to ever want to do that to them.

Final Assessments

Raph vs Leo: If it's in close and is just down to strength-- Raph wins. If Leo has the time he needs to scheme and play Raph the way he needs to-- Leo wins.

Raph vs Donnie: If it's in close-- Raph wins unless Donnie pulls off an imitation of an octopus and gets all of Raph's limbs pinned and holds on for dear life. If Donnie has the distance, time to scheme, and the means to set traps to his heart's content-- plus tranqs, no one wins against tranqs-- Donnie wins.

Raph vs Mikey: If Raph can get his hands on Mikey and keep him in one place-- Raph wins. If Mikey plays Raph like a fiddle with his mind games and stays out of reach-- Mikey wins.

Raph vs the three of them together: Well shit, that'd be a losing proposition under the best circumstances unless the goal was to try to out-stubborn them at something. 10/10 if he had to, Raph would keep dragging himself along even if all three of his brothers were hanging on to him to try to keep him from reaching his goal. (And if Raph hasn't exploited that fact during some wild-as-shit game of theirs, then Casey Jones is the queen of England.)

Raph vs his guilt if he actually seriously hurt them: Instantaneous loss that Raph would probably have a hard time ever forgiving himself for.

So do I think Raph is as good a fighter as his brothers? Yes.

Do I think he's holding back so he doesn't hurt them? Also yes.

Do I think anyone he went up against if he didn't hold back would be thoroughly screwed? Emphatically YES.

-----------------------------

*The site I got the turtle size table in Donnie's section is [here], if anyone wants further details on sea turtles.

[batsplat]

hiiii <3 i just saw your casey race recs post and i was wondering if you had one with dovi or marc races too! i'm relative new to motogp and i don't know where to start watching!

thankk youuuu, i love your blog, i'm learning so much thanks to you 😭😭 also you're really funny 🫶

right, this one admittedly was trickier than the casey list. marc in particular has accumulated one hell of a body of work... not easy to do justice to. marc's won a lot, but his most enjoyable races aren't the ones where he gaps the field by about two minutes at cota. it's the ones where he's scrapping and brawling his way through and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. and there's a lot of races to choose from in that regard, against a whole host of different rivals

which is very nice for him, but that makes it impossible to do anything comparably comprehensive for marc without getting to a slightly ridiculous length. luckily, that's never stopped me before, and long is what you're getting. you asked about dovi so I'm gonna go with him first, because that's a somewhat easier to tackle body of work - and limit myself to a mere ten twenty five seven eight recs. then I'll get to marc, where I've limited myself to an extremely reasonable thirty three five races, not including any I already covered in the dovi section. if you're looking for something a little more specific, like idk wet weather or feuding or whatnot, lemme know

same warning as before: plenty of race results will be spoiled in the description. in honour of how worryingly long this list is, I've escalated to a three asterisk system: * means 'go check it out', ** means 'personal favourite', *** means 'classic race'

dovi

spoiler free top ten list: welkom 2004, turkey 2007, sepang 2008, silverstone 2010, mugello 2012, mugello 2017, austria 2017, sepang 2017, brno 2018, qatar 2019

*welkom 2004: dovi's first grand prix win. most of this race consists of a three-way battle between locatelli, dovi and casey (who eventually drops away a bit) at the circuit that kicks off dovi's 125cc title-winning season. the second half of this race is more exciting than the first, and you'll never guess how dovi wins a grand prix for the very first time. let's just say he wasn't leading going into the last corner and leave it at that

**turkey 2007: andrea dovizioso once again getting himself involved in a last lap battle? SURELY not. this race is so so much fun, though after the start it settles down for a bit - stick with it, because when it gets going, it really gets going. these kids are vicious with each other! half the joy of watching these old 250cc/125cc (or equivalent) races is hearing the stuff the commentators chat about, basically getting all the good gossip of the time... like say jorge telling the spanish press they shouldn't believe half the things he says about his rivals... or how he'd already been visibly pissed off after qualifying because he was starting from p2 rather than pole... also the kind of podium both me and the commies always massively enjoy, aka one where two people on it basically refuse to acknowledge each other. the vibes between jorge and dovi are NOT good here and it's a lot of fun to watch these children being so pissy with each other

^one of his favourite career victories against his main rival in 250cc, the defending champion jorge lorenzo, who was sporting the number one plate on a superior bike to dovi's honda machinery. more often than not over the course of their time in the sport, these two have not gotten on well at all. it remains one of the sport's defining tragedies that chupa chups did not sponsor jorge throughout his career

qatar 2008: his debut in motogp and a strong race. pleasingly he gets involved in a last lap fight, and does pick off one of the aliens

*sepang 2008: dovi's first premier class podium and an extremely deserving one that really showcased his abilities as a defensive rider, the latest of late brakers etc etc. fought with valentino, then led a train of four/five riders at one point, then was involved in a great late scuffle for third place that lasted until the very end

donington park 2009: first motogp win! has to be said the aliens... uh. none of them delivered their most dignified performances. but ignore those clowns - dovi's of course cemented his reputation as a highly skilled wet weather racer over the years, but this was his first time in the spotlight in the premier class. it would take him seven more years to acquire his next victory

*qatar 2010: a somewhat stronger season than his disappointing 2009 campaign, and the first race was certainly promising. dovi scraps with vale, scraps with nicky hayden, scraps with lorenzo... the racing is pretty decent too. includes the strange sight of seeing the ducati out-powered in a straight line down the lusail straight and I'm sorry but at that point ducati might as well have called it a season, like that was their ONE thing. anyway, dovi still rode well to take advantage of it

*silverstone 2010: once jorge hits the front following some initial resistance from dani, the fight for the win is basically over - but what's going on behind him is good enough to make up for it. bunch of different duels going on in the top seven, whether it's dovi and de puniet, hayden and pedrosa, spies and sic, and eventually casey shows up to join in on the fun too. another one where a bunch of riders are pleasingly close together and there's some real suspense about the final order late on (though the most dramatic action in the last lap is happening right behind dovi - not that you see most of it given the classic tv direction sin of instead giving us a nice prolonged shot of jorge doing a wheelie over the line and his crew celebrating. cheers guys). nice comeback ride for casey-enjoyers too (he wasn't enjoying it)

**sepang 2010: lot going on in this race. three-way fight for the win. valentino is eleventh after a few corners. he does not end the race in eleventh place. this is a good race both for dovi enjoyers and for enjoyers of the... uh. complicated vale/jorge dynamic (this race immediately followed motegi, a notable low point of their relationship). lovely little spite ride, for people who like that kind of thing. love the way it gradually builds up as valentino closes and closes and dovi is just sitting on jorge's rear wheel, and then it just nicely lights up around half distance. me and the commentators are once again having a great time. it is here that jorge seals the title, so it's all post-race smiles with just a hint of posturing

silverstone 2011: casey won this by several light years, but dovi demonstrated his pedigree as a wet racer once again. his race involved intense skirmishes first with jorge and then with sic, and it's fair to say he got the better of both of them

^two excellent wet weather racers and teammates for a single year in a three person repsol honda squad. when dovi was informed he would be let go by the factory team, he decided against accepting a demotion within honda and instead made the jump to yamaha's tech 3 satellite outfit for one year. this was the first time he raced outside of honda in his grand prix racing career. then, in 2013, valentino's return to yamaha made space within ducati. he was always going to have to be vale's replacement rather than his teammate - in 2011 while searching for a ride he said "I would never accept to be teamed up with valentino rossi. it would be pure masochism. there is no room for anybody at his side, he takes it from you and he takes it all. when rossi is ready to share the limelight it will be the end of his racing days". fittingly, dovi was valentino's last ever teammate in motogp

mugello 2011: this feels like one of those classic alien era races where the winner of the race is determined after about a lap. but... it's not! makes for an unexpectedly exciting race and also *ding* last lap overtake

*valencia 2011: this one should have gone on the casey list too, knew I'd missed some. anyhow, on dovi - a lot of dovi's best races during those years came in the wet. but this time he was already engaged in a nice little scrap with dani and ben spies before the rain came. the clash also had real stakes for dovi and dani's final championship positions, a point of personal pride given that dovi had been let go by honda and pedrosa had been retained. a race that accidentally gets exciting again at the end, quite the dramatic finish. this was an emotional podium at the first race after sic's death. dovi and sic had grown up racing each other - and while he stressed that they had never been friends, dovi went to sic's house two days after the crash to see his family and share his grief with them

assen 2012: another one that probably could have gone on my casey list too, actually, with the fight for the win between dani and casey lasting pretty far into the race. behind them, it's dovi putting pressure on spies, lying in wait to make the attack... and, thrilled to say, we do in fact have some last lap overtaking. we don't really get to see how this contest is resolved because the audience needs to see the race winner coast for half a lap, but nevertheless! this one also has extra significance because spies was a factory yamaha rider and dovi was with the satellite team. always a good idea to get your market value up during contract negotiation season

*mugello 2012: would put this on my casey list if I'd included some disaster rides, which this is for him. that bit of the season where he made some high profile errors and controversial passing attempts of his own (and there was an overtake he did apologise for post-race) (this is the last casey mention I promise). anyway, never mind him. this is another one of those alien era races where the winner pretty quickly checks out by a margin of around ninety nine years, and indeed is already waving to the crowd on the last lap. the racing behind him is not too bad though, dovi is involved in a long duel with bradl that hayden eventually joins, and casey isn't the only guy executing controversial passes

assen 2014: ducati was in a pretty sorry state in 2013 and it's still in a pretty sorry state in 2014. another wet race podium, very strong race from dovi where he does manage to stick with marc for a while there. lower down the order, valentino is executing a rather nifty comeback ride after making an erroneous tyre choice

**qatar 2015: a great race and one that nicely sets the tone for what some consider a fairly interesting season. marc goes wide in the first turn and jorge has some kind of visor issues, so we end up with the two ducatis and valentino having it out for the win

^valentino after qatar 2015 about the current era of racing. at the start of the season, it looked like the ducatis would be right in the mix - surely one of the two factory riders would be able to snag a victory sooner or later. it was not to be that year and the results for the rest of the season were largely disappointing, but ducati had clearly made a step forward

sepang 2016: dovi's 2015-16 must have been maddening. three consecutive p2's to start 2015 but drops off from there. rumours at the start of 2016 that jorge's sick of yamaha and speculation is ripe about who in ducati might be sent packing for him. it looks like dovi might well be headed for the door, except iannone did something extremely damaging to his case early that season - dovi was the safe pair of hands, not the guy ducati put their hopes in. they're handing out wins to anyone who rocks up that year and indeed dovi's soon-to-be-former teammate gets ducati's first victory in about a million miserable post-casey years. plenty of talk about who'll win next and marc and vale both point to dovi, but it's just not happening. sepang is the penultimate round of the season and by this point, at least a little order has been restored again - which is when dovi finally gets his win in the wet. still bonkers to think he had two premier class wins pre-2017 both in the wet and then he's runner-up three consecutive years, very gibernau of him. he earned it too, a long scrap in the race with valentino until vale's tyres went kaput

*mugello 2017: dovi begins his transformation into a genuine title threat here. it looked like lorenzo would lead the ducati charge as he had been hired to do at ducati's home circuit in mugello, a circuit he had always been strong at. in the early stages of the race, jorge fought valentino (fresh from his first motocross accident of the season and expected to struggle late in the race) for the lead. dovi had missed warm-up as he was suffering from food poisoning, but, as would happen repeatedly that season, jorge quickly slipped back down the order - and in the end it was dovi who took the fight to the yamahas. a home victory, his first dry win, and all while not at his best physically... no wonder it was one of dovi's favourite career wins

^the moment dovi replaced maverick vinales as marc's biggest threat that season

catalunya 2017: it took dovi seven years to win two races and a week to win his next two. this was the moment when yamaha really started falling apart and confirmed the looming realignment of the competitive landscape. it all came back to the tyres - as it often did in those years, but it was particularly extreme in the sweltering heat. winning a race with your tyre preservation skills on a bike that allows you to preserve those tyres doesn't make for the most thrilling of races, but hey, job well done. his teammate finished fourth, almost ten seconds back after leading on the first lap

***austria 2017: one of the classic marc/dovi duels. the best races between the two of them (unsurprisingly) tended to be at tracks that quite heavily favoured ducati - and austria was already establishing itself as a prime ducati hunting ground. which meant that marc was pretty happy to even find himself that high up in the order and doing damage limitation in terms of the points swing in the championship fight. does that mean he plays it safe while trying to snatch the win from dovi? not even going to bother to answer that question

*motegi 2017: another in the marc/dovi collection and one that reaffirmed dovi's status as a worthy challenger to marc. a dramatic last lap in treacherous conditions that goes down right to the very last corner

**sepang 2017: such an impressive win. the title was on the line... or rather, dovi knew that he basically had to win to even still give himself a chance. he was not helped out one bit by his teammate in this regard, but rode a fantastic race in the wet to eventually force the title decider (left field choice but this dovi win is the one that most impressed me, fully thought the title would be wrapped up here especially after a poor race in phillip island)

valencia 2017: has to go on here as it's the one title decider dovi has gotten himself involved in. marc had a comfortable 21 point margin, which meant that for dovi to win the title marc would've had to finish... uh p12 or lower I believe, and dovi would've had to win the race. straightforward for marc, right? well, title deciders have a tendency to get a bit weird and nervy, just because of the stakes involved... and you can tell from how marc's riding. this race is also really dull until about ten laps to go... thing about valencia is that even when it's looking like an overtake is coming it's basically guaranteed that it won't be. the funniest part of the race is jorge ignoring team orders to a ridiculously blatant extent and ducati attempting to psychically murder him

^dovi always knew the odds were against him going into valencia. this is the moment his title bid ends, ironically just after he'd finally been freed of lorenzo

*qatar 2018: dovi would never come as close to the title again as he did in 2017, but at the start of 2018 at least it looked like he could be a serious challenger once again. this is a great race, another last lap battle... trying not to get repetitive so here, have some of my race notes to change things up:

**brno 2018: for a while, this looks like we're building up for a nice little four-way fray between dovi, vale, marc and jorge (feat. crutchlow). dovi does what he always does when he's leading and goes at the slowest possible pace, and everybody else does what they always did in those years and lies in wait, while occasionally reshuffling the order at the front in the name of whimsy. and then the yamaha does what it always does and somehow burns out its tyres anyway even though they're crawling around the circuit. anyhow, once valentino has done his scheduled backwards slide and jorge has rejoined the fray, it shapes up as a nice little three-way fray between dovi, marc and jorge. appreciating dovi races is all about getting really into the idea of tyre preservation and knowing the last laps will probably be fun. extra little spice because by this point the jorge/dovi dynamic is... not great :)) and we get an appropriately feisty duel between those two in particular

^after his win at the season opener in qatar, dovi had struggled to continue the momentum from the previous season. he went into the race fourth in the standings behind marc, vale and maverick, already 77 points down on marc - and his teammate had recently won back-to-back races. an important win and the rest of his season was a lot stronger. and of course, he had the joy of beating jorge, a relationship that managed to deteriorate even further over the course of that year

*thailand 2018: minus the yamahas providing an early and a late cameo, this one's all about another marc and dovi duel. a lot of stalking and lurking and then marc makes his move with four laps to go. excellent last few laps with overtakes galore, including of course at the very last corner

**qatar 2019: perhaps the archetypal dovi race. runs a very slow pace at the front to just carefully manage the pace, which leads to a nicely bunched up field that keeps sniping at each other. the top three for much of the race of marc, dovi and rinsy switch around plenty of times. there's one moment where dovi just like. ups the pace simply to test if he can drop everyone and then fully drops it by a second the next lap when he can't. pretty funny in how blatant it was. also, don't want to shock you here but we do indeed have another last lap battle. top five at the end covered by .6 seconds

*austria 2019: the first lap is WILD and actually manages to delay the inevitable marc/dovi duel. fabio leads for a bit, and then you are reminded of exactly why he hasn't been able to shut up about top speed for the past few years, like man after a while I'd be traumatised too. another fun duel between marc and dovi, which ends with... that's right. a last lap battle. that was kind of what their rivalry was about by 2019, given there wasn't really a title fight any more (certainly not after jorge played bowling in catalunya) - but the races themselves were thrillers, a welcome remedy when marc's dominance was at its most stifling

austria 2020: just as a heads-up - this race includes a terrifying crash when the bikes of zarco and franky morbidelli almost fly straight into valentino and maverick. nobody was seriously injured but they were inches away from a life-threatening accident; it's by the grace of god stuff. the race was stopped and then restarted, which... bit tough to say whether that helped or hurt dovi. probably helped (though I reckon he was always winning this) - in part two mr tyre whisperer is chasing jack miller on soft tyres. what happens next will shock you. deeply odd race... a lot of 2020 races had a surreal vibe - you just have to kinda experience it for yourself. at one point there's a graphic on screen telling you dovi, zarco and stefan bradl are competing for the win. this is not the case

^once more with feeling: dovi's third win at the redbull ring and only win in 2020, just after he'd announced his decision to leave ducati. between injuries, being unable to make the new rear tyre work for him and the growing alienation from ducati, 2020 was not an easy season for dovi. in the end, he was not the one to take advantage of marc's absence, and his time as a top-level rider ended when him and ducati parted ways

marc

spoiler free top ten list: cota 2013, assen 2015, phillip island 2015, mugello 2016, misano 2017, phillip island 2017, argentina 2018, assen 2018, silverstone 2019, sachsenring 2021

mugello 2010: first grand prix win! once marc has worked his way through the field this develops into a tight four-way scuffle that continues until the very end, with marc winning by .039s

estoril 2010: absolute chaos race and also the penultimate race of the season with a tight and tense championship situation. marc does well to move up the order until the rain comes and the race is paused... and then my man bins it on the sighting lap. anyway who needs more than half a bike to win a race. one hell of a comeback ride with a nicely dramatic ending

phillip island 2011: marc had to start this race from the back of the grid as a result of a one minute time penalty. early in one of the practise sessions that weekend, he had crashed and had been forced to wait in the pits while the bike was repaired, but was then sent out with only a minute to go. he tried to get in a hot lap after the chequered flag was out, and barrelled into the back of another rider who was slowing down after a practise start. the other rider went to the hospital, though was not seriously injured, and marc ended up with only a cut - but both parties were very lucky to escape relatively unscathed and he was heavily criticised for it. he himself did not agree with the penalty, and his team lodged an unsuccessful appeal. this was also a big race in that year's championship fight (that marc eventually could not see out after his crash in sepang), presenting a huge opportunity for title rival bradl to gain a decisive points advantage. a very impressive comeback ride, as well as a good contest for the win

**qatar 2012: love a race that's a mess. the season opener, and also marc's first race back after the horror crash in sepang the previous year that had given him career-threatening diplopia. marc spends a fair portion of the race battling with iannone, one of his main rivals that year, and if I personally had to fight both baby marc and baby iannone I would simply leave. another bloke is so furious at marc he slaps his arm on the cooldown lap, which was in response to a very controversial pass down the straight where marc kinda ran him off track. both were reprimanded by race direction. the finish is ridiculously close. go watch it

^the cooldown lap slap - marc was involved in several controversies that year. at the end of the year, the fim updated its rulebook, widely seen as a response to marquez-related incidents and the controversial handling of them, and introduced the penalty point system. ironically, it was that system that resulted in valentino's back-of-the-grid penalty in valencia 2015. in early 2017, the penalty points were once again scrapped

motegi 2012: another comeback ride - this time, marc stalls at the start. does his thing and eventually has a late scrap with his main title rival pol espargaro for the win. good fun

valencia 2012: 'oh you can't overtake at valencia' 'oh all the races are boring' 'oh could they please kick it off the calendar come on we deserve a better race to end the season' is what only an idiot would say. marc's last moto2 race starts from p33 after being penalised for a practise collision. spectacular comeback rides are a funny calling card to have for the statistically strongest qualifier in motorcycling grand prix history, but reflects how much of a trouble magnet he was - especially in those days. he might not have a great reputation in the premier class, but he did calm down in 2013, relatively speaking. or, well, he certainly did things it was harder to penalise him for

*qatar 2013: marc's first premier class race. jorge basically fucks off at the front from the word go, but it's an exciting battle behind him - that of course eventually involves valentino, who as ever had worked his way through the pack from further down the grid. first race first podium simple as

*cota 2013: this was always going to go on the list given that it's marc's first premier class win. the race itself is fine, not the most exciting entry on this list, but still! obviously worth a watch

**jerez 2013: icl I feel like this race really benefits from watching jerez 2005 first. not only because 2005 is the better race, but because I think you need to picture twelve year old marc marquez watching this race and thinking it was just like. the coolest shit ever. the patriotism left his body that day. I will not talk about the 2005 race here, but to be clear I am with twelve year old marc marquez on this one. anyway, back to 2013: the race is decent, the infamous copycat overtake is great but arguably the parc fermé and podium vibes are even better. not only was he shameless, but he was shameless in a way he knew echoed his hero beat for beat. baby's first premier class controversy

^the infamous finger wag. marc tries to approach him again during the podium celebrations, but seems unbothered when he is rebuffed. jorge made clear throughout that season he thought marc should be penalised, repeatedly bringing up when jorge himself was given a one race ban and how it had taught him a lesson about responsible riding (some of his rivals in 250cc and premier class rookie season might have some thoughts on that). his criticisms continued well into the season, with tensions rising again after marc's overtake on dani in aragon led to dani crashing

**laguna seca 2013: can't leave this out. important to stress moto2/125cc never went there, so it was his first time at just this notoriously tricky track that was known to be incredibly hard to conquer (here is a clip of vale and marc talking about this in the sachsenring presser). I wouldn't say the race itself is all that great once marc does his thing at the corkscrew, but laguna's quite high up there on tracks you can mostly just enjoy watching bikes go around. big moment in the championship fight because it's when marc is racking up the points at the expense of the injured lorenzo/pedrosa

^2008: valentino stops during his victory lap to kiss the corkscrew where he overtook casey // 2013: marc gets his photo taken at the corkscrew a few days before he will overtake valentino there

*silverstone 2013: a jorge/marc contest for the victory with a dramatic ending, one of the best races that year. marc had dislocated his left collarbone in that morning's warm up, so there was added tension in whether he could hold up physically across a race stint - at a time when jorge (and dani) desperately needed to make up points. interesting continuation of the lorenzo/marquez arc that season in that jorge was a little more willing to match marc's aggression, whatever the problems he had with it

valencia 2013: not bad as valencia races go, actually. which is literally only because it's a title decider and the points situation is exciting, but well credit where it's due. proper tussle between the top three - jorge was so aggressive as he attempted to back marc up into the pack that journalists in the presser afterwards were essentially inviting marc to call jorge a hypocrite. obviously has sentimental value as it's where marc's first premier class title was sealed (even if it should have been sealed earlier but hey ho)

*qatar 2014: I found it quite tricky to make a few picks for 2014, because I feel like a lot of the races this year are in the category of 'fun but not all time epics', and it's hard to really choose between a bunch of them in terms of either significance or entertainment value. the first race of a ten race win streak feels as good a place to start as any, and represents the moment when marc really began stamping his authority on the series. in many ways, this race echoed the race of the previous year: jorge leading from the start, valentino charging through the field, marc somewhere in between. except this time jorge crashes and the fight between marc and valentino is for the victory. it lasts until the penultimate lap, and this time it's marc who comes out on top

le mans 2014: marc did try occasionally to keep things interesting. yes he consistently qualified very well, but sometimes he threw in a bad start or an awful first lap for the vibes. in this one, he ran very wide during the first lap (partly helped along by jorge) and ended up back down in tenth. the pace differential is too extreme for good battles but still, some nice overtaking

**catalunya 2014: see above - there's not all that much to separate this from say mugello or silverstone, so the tiebreaker is personal preference. a good, fun scrap that involves all four of marc, vale, jorge and dani at different stages - even if the end result by this point feels almost inevitable. it is here that valentino rather understandably attempts to strangle marc in parc fermé

^still a close contest with seven laps to go. plenty of overtakes, plenty of confusion relating to a yellow flag, and last lap contact

indianapolis 2014: last of the win streak, at a track that was never particularly popular with riders and typically short on good racing. for a while there at the start it looks like this race would deserve to go on the dovi list until valentino just. um. bumps him aside. and lets marc and jorge past both of them. and then lorenzo also bumps dovi aside. sorry dovi, yamaha decided you were not to be involved in this. the next few laps are good fun too, like by this point you can TELL how much both yamaha riders want this. no manners in sight. icl it's mainly the fact that it's closing out the win streak that has made me include it and the first few laps, because once it settles down it... sure does settle down. ignore this list and just pick a win from the 2014 win streak at random - if you enjoy that one, you'd probably enjoy them all

***assen 2015: probably my favourite marquez/rossi battle. really all you can ask from with a race with two protagonists: lasts the whole race, tense, high stakes, two guys who are particularly motivated to beat each other, several overtakes plus a hell of a lot of stalking and studying each other, and last lap controversy. involves cunning, a little bit of ambiguity in the intentions of both parties, some unresolved questions. an appointment with race direction. an awfully tense post-race press conference that the relationship of the protagonists could never quite recover from. the ideal race

***phillip island 2015: one of the best races of all time etc etc, though it may make you feel like somebody is repeatedly stabbing you with the sword of damocles. still, that's entirely to do with what follows, and the race itself is a fantastic four-rider battle with a murdered seagull and a late twist

**sepang 2015: well, obviously! the actual confrontation between marc and valentino is deeply counterproductive in terms of 'guys you're letting lorenzo/pedrosa escape, stop divebombing each other' and well the whole thing is all kinds of tragic. but the racing itself nicely showcased the complete lack of respect between the pair of them and there is something kind of mesmerising about seeing two all time great wheel-to-wheel fighters go at it, no holds barred. plus it's a major part of marc's story. it is what it is

argentina 2016: this probably isn't making a lot of top thirty something lists, but hey, sometimes you just need to watch a kind of stupid race. this race was kind of stupid. it has the dubious honour of being the first in the marc/vale walk of shame 'hey remember when you guys fought here last year' tour, and they do actually get to scrap it out a bit on track again - though that confrontation is defanged from the moment they have to switch bikes. the last corner incident is dumb but also funny. the podium has truly rancid vibes. I had a good time

^nobody else on that podium as much as twitches when marc goes down. blank faces when he jokes about it in the presser. kind of impressive really. same weekend

***mugello 2016: there is a moment when you think this race will end up being an extremely tight contest until the end between the three protagonists of the 2015 fiasco. then something extremely infuriating happens, and it ends up not being that. on the one hand you leave that race feeling a little robbed, on the other hand it did still feature a veryyy dramatic finish between two of the protagonists. excellent race

**catalunya 2016: the first proper post-2015 marc/vale battle, and at valentino's favourite location for enjoyable race-long duels. it's not like... I don't think of that particular category, I'd call it my absolute favourite - but that's a very high bar. no surprise that they both really really wanted to beat each other, and hey interpersonal animosity always adds a fun nice note to the racing

sachsenring 2016: the problem with the sachsenring is that it used to produce banger after banger race until some diminutive bloke called 'marc marquez' fucking ruined it. 2003 2006 2009 2010 2011 are certified classics, as good as it gets really, tight dramatic fights for the victory and podium positions and integral to the narrative arc of their respective seasons. you used to be able to rely on this track to give you a SHOW. but then that twat showed up and... tbh I can't even remember many of his wins there having particularly memorable racing behind him (I did quite like 2018), so maybe it's not only his fault (to be clear it is in large part his fault). anyway the 2016 edition is in that stretch of 2016 where everything just kind of. goes to shit. like they start just letting anyone win. jack miller won in assen that year. anarchy in motogp. it's the michelin tyres, it's the rain, and it's this bit of the season where marc starts running away with the title. this is another very messy race, more rain, and it's one that has convinced me once and for all that marc has actual plot armour at this circuit. there is a moment where you will go 'how does he win this race' and it's the moment where he goes so far off the track he's halfway to austria. watch to find out how he somehow scams another win at the ring. damn him please do it again this year

^come on this is bullshit. if I'm the other guys I'm calling for a ban of the sachsenring until we figure out what the hell is going on. no wonder he was hopeful of winning on the murder honda

**assen 2017: brilliant race. initial four-way tussle between marquez, rossi, zarco and petrucci that includes some early aggression between the usual suspects and then some light rain to further spice things up. right on the very last lap, there are two great scraps going on - one for the win (with a controversial involvement of a backmarker), and the other for the last podium spot against cal crutchlow

**misano 2017: this is a race that very much had the shadow of valentino rossi looming over it, even though he was not in attendance. valentino had gotten himself involved in his second serious motocross crash of the season, both right before italian races, and had this time decided to take himself out of the title hunt rather definitively by breaking his leg. some time after this, marc posts a photo of himself doing motocross - which he has done a lot of over the years, but was interpreted as taunting valentino and got plenty of backlash online. whether this was a contributing factor or not, he received a frosty reception in misano. he crashed during the wet warm up session and was booed by fans as he rode past them on the scooter, prompting him to blow kisses at them. the race occurred at a tense moment during that title fight: marc had suffered a mechanical dnf in the previous race and in doing so had surrendered the championship lead to dovi. he could not afford another dnf at this late stage of the season. which perhaps made it a little surprising just how hard he fought for that win against petrucci in the treacherous wet conditions, the risk he took with his overtake on the very last lap. was it just to get an extra five points and the win, or was it (as the speculation went at the time) about getting revenge on the italian fans? who's to say - but in any case it was one of the defining performances of that year's championship and another example of marc's skill and confidence in the wet

***phillip island 2017: you know the drill - this circuit produces bangers, and this is another all-time great race. marc by this point had a weird and somewhat cursed record at phillip island in the premier class, where he'd a) been disqualified in 2013, b) crashed out of a comfortable lead in 2014, c) won in a dramatic last lap in 2015, and d) crashed out of a comfortable lead in 2016. so in his first four years, the only year he'd even finished the race, it set off a deeply unfortunate series of events involving marc and allegations of sabotage made by his childhood hero - which maybe goes to show the universe just wanted that particular relationship to be doomed. anyway, 2017!! apparently marc decided he could only finish at that circuit when it involved a dramatic battle between multiple riders. good on him! the racing is brutal, with plenty of contact between the riders, as perhaps you might expect looking at the list of protagonists: marquez, rossi, zarco, vinales, iannone, crutchlow. high stakes too - a decisive points swing in that year's title fight that could have easily gone disastrously wrong for marc. in 2018, marc once again did not finish the race

^a hard-fought race where all participants are more than happy to get physical. one of several races that season that prompts questions about aggressive riding, though this time all the riders are in agreement. after the handshake, marc gestures to the rubber that now stains valentino's leathers. in a year where team orders were a big topic of debate, valentino finished right in front of his teammate - who had still been in mathematical contention for the championship

**argentina 2018: for lovers of hubris and head loss. the full marc marquez experience. off his rocker the entire weekend. got whacked with a massive penalty at the end of the race that made the whole thing quite literally pointless and deserved every second of said penalty. jorge's long-standing mantra of 'just give him a race ban' became part of the discourse again. ended up p18 to valentino's p19, hand in unlovable hand. but apart from that, it was a really great performance!

^complaints at the time obviously centred around how marc was a repeat offender in the recklessness of his riding, and lacking in respect (see too the ever-lurking parallels drawn with the jerez 2011 apology - which was, it has to be said, issued for a considerably less egregious offence). publicly marc was mostly remorseless, accepting more blame in the aleix incident than the valentino one, and saying in an interview a few days later that he wasn't going to change his approach. it's the worst and the best of him - he had no need to barge aside other riders with the sheer raw pace he was able to access. on the phillip island 2003 comparison, see valentino's words about riding angry here. in 2012, marc was asked about whether there were races where he was determined to win at all cost, and he mentioned some examples from that year before adding, "there have been many times when I had to channel my inner rage to win a race"

***assen 2018: excellent race, as memorable as phillip island 2015 or 2017 if your favourite type of race is multi-rider dogfights. involves seven or eight riders in the lead group for large chunks of the race, with the order of those riders chopping and changing with incredible regularity. some pretty ridiculous saves (at least three riders right at the sharp end of the action where you feel that they really should have hit the deck) and a lot of contact, putting on full display just how aggressive riding had gotten during that time. most riders enjoyed the contest, though this time it was dovi's turn to be a dissenting voice. in any case, there were reportedly 99 passes within the lead group and it is rightly remembered as one of that era's finest gems

*austria 2018: marc vs the ducatis, as was tradition at the red bull ring. marc wanted to get payback for the last time they had been in austria, and determinedly got a good start to try and avoid history repeating itself - but he never quite managed to escape his pursuers. this is one of those races where there's a long stretch of it just... building, where it feels like either marc will make the break for it or there'll be a dramatic finale. which can make it ever so slightly annoying when there isn't a dramatic finale, but I am happy to assure you that this race delivers on that count. gets very good with ten laps to go

^plenty of close battles, but in those years nobody could match marc for week-to-week consistency. the closest by that metric in 2018 was valentino - but typically a few positions further down the order, hindered both by competitive decline and an increasingly horrendous yamaha. as for jorge, he found his form on the desmodici just as the ducati higher-ups lost their patience and kicked him out. he reached some impressive peaks and at last adapted well to the demands of the bike, but his season was eventually marred by injury

***silverstone 2019: quick warning - quite a scary crash on the first lap even by motogp standards. anyway, dramatic last lap battle with alex rins, who I think it's fair to say marc hasn't always had the best of relationships with. while things haven't exactly gone to plan for either rider since then, excluding fabio that was probably the rivalry that I was most excited to see develop post-2019. ah well. the race itself is fantastic though, one of those that just gradually ramps up the tension before the finale. the last two laps are crazyyyyy. top five closest finish in premier class history

^marc and rinsy (not at silverstone but earlier in the season at jerez). some long-standing bad blood here and I'm sure rinsy really would have liked to strangle marc from time to time

**misano 2019: another visit to valentino's home turf in the year time finally caught up with vale. before this race, marc and valentino tussled in qualifying. an odd and deeply unserious incident that had zero actual impact on their already doomed laps, it's notable in part due to how much marc visibly lost his cool over the whole thing. from p5 on the grid he ended up in an enjoyable duel with fabio quartararo for the victory that went down to the very last lap. as the commentators noted, he celebrated more than he has after sealing some of his championships. coming out best in a last lap battle, making sure to keep the edge over fabio, as well as 'winning in enemy territory'? the perfect weekend. as he says in the immediate post-race interview, "honestly speaking, yesterday was the extra motivation, the extra push for the race" and "really nice to win here in italy". you could tell

**thailand 2019: marc attempting to burnish his last lap battle record by breaking children's hearts? sad stuff. cruel and unusual. a lot of fun to watch. it's an understatement to say that fabio's rookie campaign exceeded expectations, and marc quickly identified him as his biggest threat going forwards. this was a match point race for marc and he needed to outscore dovi by two points to seal the title, but he had such an overwhelming lead that he could afford to take more risks than he might have other years - even if the race did follow a massive crash in friday practise that required a hospital check-up. another race that involves a lot of stalking and shadowing and plotting before the action really kicks off (with four laps to go). this race was part of marc's considerable efforts that year to put fabio in his place while he still could. poor fabio

jerez 2020: hurts to include but this list wouldn't really be complete without it. another race that very much encapsulates the full marc marquez experience. truly bonkers pace until it all went horribly wrong

^funniest moment of the race is when valentino does what is surely the closest you can get to a double take on a motorcycle when he sees marc go past. like he sees marc, then clocks who he's seeing and then visibly looks again in a sort of 'HOW is he here'

*sachsenring 2021: thing about marc at the sachsenring is that it undoubtedly got boring in terms of the victory fight for a few years there, but it's also just a fun, tricky track and he's a joy to watch on it. obviously this win is anything but boring, and the margin he pulls on the field never feels as comfortable as it should be. I don't really think I have much to say about this race that hasn't already been said. I cried

^make that eleven in a row at the ring. honorary mentions go to cota and emilia romagna '21, at time of writing his most recent wins. neither are classic races exactly - and indeed, if you're looking for races relevant to the current climate then aragon '21 is a good shout. at emilia romagna (the second race held at the misano circuit that year), pecco crashes out while being pursued by marc, which clinches the title for fabio. it is also the last race on home soil for valentino

**phillip island 2022: one more for good measure. somehow this is his first premier class ride at the circuit where he finished the race but did not win. late on in that year's tense title battle and gives you exactly what you want from a race at phillip island. it's not even a multi-rider dogfight as it is an every-rider dogfight that eventually becomes a multi-rider dogfight at the front of the pack... but if you looked at the run order after about three laps you would NOT be able to guess who the riders involved are, never mind who wins it. absolute chaos. one hell of a contest right until the very end involving one of that year's two primary title contenders - and some other foes old and new. marc's sole podium that year, and his 100th in motogp. second closest top ten in premier class history, not too bad