#but also very big and very danger
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Just in case there was anyone out there feeling guilty thinking poolverine is toxic cause they may actually hate each other, let me put you at ease....
These two do not hate eachother
These two DO
#doesn't stop me from still shipping both#listen theres a few universes with a soft Victor#he's just a big kitty#but also very big and very danger#logan howlett#poolverine#james howlett#wolverine#deadpool and wolverine#wade wilson#deadclaws#honda odyssey#sabertooth#victor creed#saberine#wolvertooth#no shame#postitive vibes only
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Prompt 203
Another Hydra prompt! Because I am enjoying the designs I’ve made lol. And perhaps it’s a bit inspired by @radiance1 ‘s different dragon prompts too.
So they’ve succeeded! They’ve managed to combine their powers- with a bit of shapeshifting helped along by so many ghost allies- and become a giant duck-you dragon! Well, originally they were going to do something else, but they couldn’t agree on an animal, so dragon it was!
And how mighty they are! They’re giant, absolutely massive- dwarfing the couple of skyscrapers still in Amity. Damages via ghost attacks and general sparring made it where people really didn’t want to rebuild those types of buildings.
But anyway, dragon! Them! They’re absolutely stunning! And did they mention powerful? Because boy oh boy, are they powerful. The GIW’s guns do practically nothing against their combined might, and barriers shatter before them!
The uh, issue is that they erm… can’t turn back. Which is fine, they’ve all sort of outlived most of their generation- thank you possessions and ecto-contamination, it’s just a tiny bit of an adjustment. But really it’s not too bad, and someone needs to stop the GIW from trying to poke their heads into Amity. Like it’s been a solid couple of generations, it’s time to stop, thanks.
Actually they’ve been a bit quiet. Meh, that surely isn’t a problem. Probably. Honestly they’re all going to use the opportunity to sprawl out where the school yard once was, their favorite place to sun their scales. Huh. Usually more people are around now that they think about it- or really, as Paulina points out, sharpening her fangs on one of the rocks.
…
How long had they been sleeping, because it couldn’t have been that long. One of them was always awake, they slept in shifts after all! Yet there are things missing now as they patrol the skies, both Wes and Tucker pointing out specific buildings that the others didn’t particularly notice usually that now lay empty.
Hm.
Oh. That is a… strong barrier there. A really strong barrier actually. Pfft, they can take it! They’ve shredded every barrier together before- Ow.
…
Okay this might be a bit of a problem. Shit.
You want a general size reference? :P
#Dcxdp#Dpxdc#Prompts#The Class Pulls a Tiamat#The GIW have been working on a way to cage the Very Dangerous Ghost Dragon that just seemed to Appear one day according to their predecesso#Yes it’s been a good hundred years or so since the DP series happenings#Also yes they’re poly & sharing a body#They can talk telepathically & share some abilities or dozen#”Danny this is definitely all from your luck I swear” “It could also be Wes’ y’know” “Don’t drag me into this”#Big angry dragon king/queen (as Amity started calling them) throwing a fit at the barrier they can’t get through#Which gets some people’s attention both inside said barrier and outside it#This includes a few heroes and people who Should NOT have learned about a Giant Hydra
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dad kakashi & accidental child acquisition au in which Mebuki Haruno specializes in weaving ninja wire into clothes. Sakumo first takes Kakashi there when he's still a toddler- he wants him to get used to the unusual feeling of the fabric. She does good work, she's chatty but polite, and Sakumo is the type of man who'd prefer to support a young woman starting out on her own as opposed to some large established clan.
After Sakumo dies, Kakashi keeps going. She's the only civilian seamstress who doesn't try to peak under his mask, and the only ninja-wire seamstress who doesn't try to find stuff out about his clan or his dad or his anbu career or- Mebuki's good. Familiar.
He doesn't really notice her pregnancy. Technically it registers, of course; there are obvious signs, she's not hiding it, and right before she's due she gives him a heads up so he won't be shocked if the store is closed for a little while and he needs something. But he's thirteen at the time and he's in ANBU and he really doesn't notice.
He notices Sakura. She's small, and she's pink. Her little head peaks out over Mebuki's shoulder as she takes Kakashi's measurements (he's grown again, because puberty is exhausting and expensive). Mebuki keeps her swaddled on her back just like Sakumo used to do to him, but that's where the similarities end.
She's not going to be a shinobi. She has little hands, and Mebuki doesn't let her hold scissors or needles, much less kunai. She stares up at the world with wide eyes, and sometimes she cries big wet tears. Mebuki has him hold her. He learned the right way to do it when team 7 was doing babysitting missions, but he hasn't done it since.
Mebuki's a single mom, and he knows how to watch a kid even if he doesn't have much practice. She makes him stick around and keep an eye on Sakura while she repairs his outfits, sews his new ones. After a while he starts to come in when he doesn't need anything done, just to help out. She smiles when she sees him, and Sakura waves her fat little arms in excitement, and Kakashi gets to have something nice in his life.
There's an accident. Mebuki dies. Kakashi kind of forgot that could happen- that people could die and it not be anyone's intent for it to go that way. That civilians can die at all. And Sakura-
there's no father in the picture, and no family. Mebuki came to Konoha from somewhere in Wave, and she never mentioned a family Sakura could get sent back to. Sakura will end up in an orphanage. She's got no chakra, no skillset, no obvious signs of a family lineage: She won't get adopted. Or she'll end up in whatever it is that keeps taking the kids that nobody pays attention to.
Somehow, Kakashi ends up seventeen years old with a three year old on his hip, standing in the upstairs of the Haruno Shop trying to figure out what he needs to take and what he has to leave and is he really, really doing this?
And then Sakura puts her pudgy little hand in his face and says "SMOOSH!" and squeezes his cheek and yes, of course, absolutely he's doing this. how hard can raising a civilian toddler while being an active anbu agent even be?
#sakura haruno#kakashi hatake#she shows up after the bell test to berate kakashi for something and immediately swoons over sasuke. and naruto swoons over her.#and kakashi immediately has an 'oh fuck no she CANNOT get attached to these kids these are SHINOBI KIDS'#hes very like. how girl dads are about their girls knowing boys? thats how he gets about sakura knowing shinobi#sakura you dont understand all shinobi are dangerous and gross and bad. with no ethics. also they dont bath enough#do NOT befriend them and DEFINITELY DONT TRY TO BE ONE!!!! PLEASE!!!! HE WILL HAVE A HEART ATTACK!!!!#meanwhile naruto is like wow ur pretty! do you wanna learn a forbidden jutsu? and sakuras like obviously. yes.#sasuke is gonna get so weird about her having a Big Brother raising her btw.
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Lee know becoming Guy Who Eats Boring Chicken Breast for The Protein ™️ is my villain origin story
#joking obvs#but like... i miss foodie lee know i miss when he cooked#and i miss when he spoke about food enthusiastically#like i feel like the only time he mentions food now is to say he 'cheated' and is *insert mean thing about himself*#or to be like Im on a diet and its so -_-#like i always rhought it was cute how seungmin would pester the cuties dorm to eat with him like a family#but now im like oh he really was living with the 3 dudes who do the most worrying dieting behaviours like ...... :(#but also in a broader sense its frustrating bc how many young ppl are reading those messages and internalising negative messages too#or thinking oh if hes a fat pig then what am i? so its that thing where like#yeah i do have sympathy to a degree but i also think people with such a big platform should be more careful with what they say#🚬😮💨#negativity#bums me out i miss guy who went on that cooking shiw with the chef lady and was so cute and interested#and guy who took over when skz looked dangerous bc He Was The Food Man#yk... it was very lovely
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The "movie about a movie that kills you" is a surprisingly robust genre of horror. There's a wide range of approaches, but one key factor is the question of how good the deadly film in a film is, on its own. Some approaches are keeping the faux film entirely unseen, use brief clips, or make it real short.
Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made goes in for a high risk approach and delivers a complete finished film, ostensibly made in the 70s and never released, framed by brief opening and closing info bites to set the stage of it.
Somehow this thing was completely off my radar, which means I was taken fully off guard as an ominous warning about the content in white text on black appeared on screen, giving a thirty second count down to leave if I wanted.
Wonderful showmanship and canny filmmaking that got me right in the mood to enjoy what followed. While I wouldn't call it a scary movie, I found it almost delightful in the atmospheric dread and devotion to its aesthetic of low budget 70s films. Nothing in it feels like a curse on its own, but it does feel like the sort of movie that could easily prompt psychological distress for anyone under psychotropic influences, pre-existing emotional vulnerability, or prone to delusional states. Not through anything supernatural, more because it works hard to keep the viewer in constant doubt over what is and is not real for the characters in the film. Combined with the framing device of it being a movie somehow able to influence the real world of the viewer, and the use of fractionally visible flashes of occult symbols on the screen, it generates an intense feeling of unreality which for me was an almost drug-like high and an immersive pleasure.
The premise of Antrum is simply a brother and sister decide to dig a hole to hell, and the movie plays out around this event by surrounding it with disturbing sounds and imagery, as well as real world dangers that weave the protagonists between the supernatural and mundane while keeping them in a state of terror and madness that grows until it becomes unrelenting.
In a certain sense it also feels cursed, like the kind of film where there are elements that feel very transgressive - in particular the opening scene which to my mind evoked Un Chien Andalou - not the infamous eyeball slicing scene, but the use of rotting animals. The few and very basic visual effects remind me as well of the early Survival Research Laboratory devices engineered by Mark Pauline.
However, the core question for me is also always what is the movie about besides the plot. If I had to identify some rough themes, I would say it's trying to explore the idea of understanding death and violence through the eyes of children who do not yet have the psychological tools for processing such matters, but who have been left on their own to do so regardless.
Many of the unusual elements in the movie can relate to death rituals poorly understood, starting from the very premise of digging a hole into the earth. And the same act is surrounded by strange rituals unclear in their origin, ideas which might be logical drawn from watching words recited over a grave without having a connection of purpose. Their encounters with other people are fully without possibility of communication as none of them speak the same language, and these mundane threats feel at times akin to a satanic Alice in Wonderland, rituals and violence whose meaning cannot be understood by the protagonists.
Likewise the supernatural is full of unprocessed images of death. Demons with black skin who look like mummified corpses. River crossings and empty chains dragging through leaves. It's as if death itself has manifested through the ambient world, surrounding the two children and refusing to let them leave its circle.
In combination with the intriguing use of sigils inscribed throughout, it creates a movie that is for me a joy to watch. An absolutely perfect Halloween spook for next year, but your mileage may vary between finding it full of pretentious nonsense or maybe the scariest film you'll ever watch. It can really come off either way, and I'm honestly not quite sure why my reaction was actual joy in the watching. Not to undercut the severity of the subject matter, but I just can't stop thinking about how happy I was to watch the movie at work mechanically, to enjoy the well oiled pieces fitting together, and then all topped off with the delicious extra treat of the framing device. Surely worth 90 minutes of your life.
#antrum#unreality#definitely big content warnings about animal death and injury#also children in danger and possible child deaths#not many jump scares though if any#also tbh i genuinely think it has the potential to bring on a delusion because it is very committed to the bit#there's no part where its like haha jk this isn't a real documentary about a movie its all fake#the framing device is used to wrap everything up in a way that never breaks the immersion#so if you're in a really suggestive state there's a nonzero chance you may believe the movie is going to kill you for real
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buddy is surrounded by horrible horrible adults like at all times and it is deeply stressing to me. not to baby him, i do think he is easily mislead but he is not stupid. but also like. can he be given a moment to breathe actually. can he not be manipulated for one second. please put him in a normal social situation with regular teenagers his age please im begging you
#fantasy high#dimension 20#fhjy#d20#buddy dawn#fantasy high junior year#SLASH LIGHT HEARTED THIS IS NOT A GENUINE COMPLAINT OR ANYTHING#I DIDNT EXPECT TO LIKE THIS CHARACTER AS MUCH AS I DO AND I AM SO WORRIED. IM SO SCARED#i get uncomfortable when people go like “he is just a baby!” because he is a full teenager#like i agree hes being manipulated big time by irresponsible adults around him that dont care about him#but i think its more complicated rhan just “he doesnt know any better!”#but im losing my mind. i think hes being set up as an antagonist for s4 and while#im very excited we get to see more of him im also deeply terrified because i think . he is in danger ?????#bc he is still being influenced by the rage crystal that hasnt been takem out of him + im so scared hes gonna get. killed#i do not think he is evil. i think hes a misguided kid whos having a lot of awful things happen to him#but im terrified i will be proven wrong. buddy please#IM EXCITED TO SEE WHERE THE CLIFFHANGER WILL LEAD TO BUT U MUST UNDERSTAND#IM SO ILL. IM GOING MENTAL. MAD. SICK IN THE HEAD#IM GOING TO MICROEAVE HIM UNTIL HE EXPLODES.
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Most Sherlock Holmes adaptations I've seen tend to place their Final Problem towards the mid point of the series (or even a bit earlier) - it's also in my opinion the best way of going about it, so you have time enough for the characters to adjust after the reunion but they know each other well enough for the events of Fina to be devastating.
Sherlock & Co is done with 20 of the adventures. How many are there? Fifty-something? Almost sixty? Let's say we'll be entering mid-point territory after the 25th story.
So let's pretend for a moment that we have 5 more stories until The Final Problem. Ok.
Estimating an adventure at 3 episodes each, that would mean little over 3 months - maybe 3 and a half? Starting, of course, from the end of Sign of Four, which will be somewhere in December.
So let's say 3, maybe 4 months into 2025. That would be, what? Late march, early april?
Early april?
John having to tell the listeners that Sherlock is dead, in early april?
Quick calendar search reveals what I was praying it would - the 1st of april will be on a Tuesday next year.
So what I'm saying
What I'm saying is Sherlock &Co has the opportunity to do the funniest fucking thing
#fyi I don't mean John pranks us about Sherlock dying#i mean it's just the first Tuesday after sherlock “dies” so that's just when he happens to tell the listeners#maybe he's not even aware of the date#and is surprised to see the reactions are less “oh my god oh no” and more “haha good one” or “funny but actually don't joke about that”#ahhh and then he'd have to double down either on the 2nd or next Tuesday and explain again that his best friend is actually dead#oh that would hurt but it would also be absolutely hilarious#for us who know Sherlock's not actually dead#anywayy#for the record i don't actually think they'll do fina as early as april#(but wouldn't it be funny)#They might do it at the actual midpoint#after the 29th story so let's say june/ july#Hoping they don't place it too late cuz then we won't have enough time to see how it affects all of them#Even if it's around the 3/4 point i think I'd be a bit bummed#Also midpoint is a good place to take a break#Of course fear nr 1 is leaving it for the very end and making empt the last episode#and the reason why the podcast ends is “look what happened if it wasn't for the podcast maybe Moriarty wouldn't have noticed Sherlock”#Like a “it's becoming too dangerous” thing#but that's the evil timeline (not us!!!)#Honestly if it were me I'd make fina the midpoint.... then hiatus...... return...... second half......#and then get another big dangerous villain for the last few eps#Maybe one of them (sherlock) almost gets killed (again) and that's why john decides that#it's been swell but we're ending the podcast cause apparently we're putting (too big of) a target on our backs#Almost lost sherlock again the risks outweigh the benefits etc etc#Of course they'll keep solving crimes together just stop broadcasting them to the world#And that's how I'd do it! :D#God i can't be trusted with tags#If you read this far I love you#sherlock & co#theories
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#p4g#persona 4 golden#p4#persona 4#hanamura yosuke#yosuke hanamura#ok ok this scene gets to me so bad actually#because yes on the one hand hes playing up that big brother role again#reminding kanji of HIS role as nanako's big brother as well#but its also reminiscent of yosuke's tendency to hide his own sadness and put up a front for others so they wouldnt catch on#i think in this moment its not necessarily a bad thing and yosuke was kind of right (imo anyway)#keeping their spirits high would be a more comforting sight for nanako#who wouldnt want to see them worried#i think its such a strong reflection of yosuke's consideration towards others#part of me is like yes kanji is the one that said it but hes just voicing what everyone else was also thinking in that moment#and yosukes response isnt just for kanji but also for the team and esp Yu#because of them all Yu is the one that undoubtedly looked most heartbroken considering how protectice he was of nanako#even though we cant really see it in game it's very clear how his reaction is like in p4u when he thought nanako might be in danger#anyway yu didnt have a speaking line in this scene so i could be delulu but im pretty sure it was about him as well#he's good with his queue
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spoiled brat vs unimpressed boyfriend
#(: they are so sunmoon coded here#near is cajoling mello by promising (REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED) later if they can go to buildabear right now#near: world's greatest detective uses his most dangerous weapon (little brother wiles)#mello: unimpressed big brother but weak willed boyfriend#anyway your honor they are not only so in love but also two halves of the same thing#and that thing is so fucking annoying#meronia#mello#mello dn#near dn#mihael keehl#nate river#death note#please clap very hard so that i nay actually finish this one fdkdkdkfkdnf#my art
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I hope this question isn't out of line, but I'm curious what you would say Al's biggest flaws are! Talon's flaws are very front and center in his characterization (in a good way!) and I feel like Al's are maybe more subtle or he's better at hiding/managing them 👀
i feel al's flaws seem very like, job interview "oh my biggest weakness? Ummm i work Too hard" if just listed in bullet points, but it fits for him. he's actually had a pretty secure upbringing with only a few outlier incidents
The working too hard is/was one, as he's worked through it but the capacity for such a thing is still there, he's the kind of person who will get tunnel vision over something, big or small, and "finding it easy to prioritize everyone but himself" is another constant and strange mix.
There have been points of his life where knowing him was like dating a surgeon, and you wouldn't hear from him for very long since he was constantly filling any amount of free time in his life with Something to do so he could have some alone time (which was the opposite of what he needed at the time due to the event that caused it) so that he wouldn't have to think about himself or taking care of himself. This would be any and everything, excessive activity and unhealthy amounts of exercise, odd jobs, meticulous hobbies in isolation. Stopping/relaxing for even a moment would mean it would take longer for him to be Useful to others again once he "got over" what was happening to him, though all of this also made him not want to be around others for long
Once that has been managed it's still easy for him to prioritize others because he's a caretaker at heart....he loves being a safe familial figure to everyone. The mom friend, the dad friend. This alone isn't bad but it is when paired with all the other stuff. I've talked before about how he was bullied by a teacher in his childhood for being the biggest (height and weight) in his class, and made an example out of for being "potentially dangerous" because of this, in order to keep his classmates in line.
This is partially why he struggles with putting himself first and also leads (more "led" bc it's gotten better but the potential for it to get bad again is still there ykwim) to him bending to the whims and needs of others because well if he stands up for himself people will be Scared of him, the big, tall, inherently dangerous (<- instilled in him as a child) man. He loved caring for others even before his bad schooling experience but it made it worse with "if im nice enough to others and do whatever they want nobody will ever see me as dangerous. And also without Taking Care of Others or putting myself to work I'm kind of a useless person, my worth is what I give to others."
He has also gotten better with this and it's easier to spot and intervene before he dips too far into that mental pit. I hope dis all made sense wrt the question, it felt important to mention it vs just being like "ummm workaholic sometimes, cares about others TOO much"
#long post#anonymous#skunk mail#oc text#it also connects like told he was inherently dangerous as a child and the effects of dis is what leads to him#staying in a very harmful relationship because he doesn't want to be seen as the big abusive monster compared to the much smaller#partner that's hurting him -> occupies himself with anything and everything#so he doesnt have to think abt what happened and so that he can still be of use to SOMEBODY#and be somebody's doting boyfriend after he Gets Over It#but he isolates himself (so he wont be a burden) and it takes longer for him to ''get over it''#and him taking long to get over it makes him feel bad bc he's no use to anyone like dis etc
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i think Wade would be a doberman. a bald doberman
#extremely capable of Fucking You Up#they excel at protection and bitesports#tho they’re SO clownish/goofy/squishy with the people close to them#they’re just a little baby dog but also they are biting you biting you biting you#they were originally bred to be a danger to literally anyone outside of Their People#they’re not really that extreme these days but. KEEPING THAT IN MIND i think its very appropriate for#our boy#he loves so big and he bites so hard#he loves u he’d kill for u#AGGGHHHHHH#wade wilson u are so dobe coded to me
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Thinkin of naga batfam, and as it's a prompt there's legitimately no canon for what they are, but here's my takes on which sneks each of them would be based off of, if they are in fact based off of snakes from earth. And not like, the realm of the dead or another planet or something lol.
Bruce- Rinkhals Spitting Cobra
Barbara- Purple-Glossed Snake
Dick- Bluestripe Garter
Cass- Banded Krait
Jason- Blood Python
Steph- Taipan
Tim- Coral Snake
Duke- Eyelash Viper
Damian- Boomslang
Helena- Black Mamba
Terry- Red Keelback
Matt- Bush Viper
What would Danny be? Good question. Some ideas include puff adder, hognose snake (the ones that play dead), anaconda or calabar python
#dcxdp#dpxdc#naga au#snek curse#fun fact coral snakes are venomous but don't deliver it effectively to be considered as dangerous as they should be#they have the second most dangerous venom in the world but they don't deliver enough of it#now tim is much bigger than a coral snek however#also fun fact eyelash vipers can be other colors besides yellow lol#guess what juvenile boomslangs have more yellow coloration on parts of their body#batfamily#danny fenton#he just a lil guy#okay but the fun thing about trans batman in this idea#female snakes are larger than males#so he's a Very Big dude#big enough to curl around All of the family#anyway i need sleep so#batfam#seriously what would danny be lol
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Imagine eclipse finds out about scary dog privilege lol
related to this
He's not interested in going back to security jobs, but there's a difference between being hired just to watch out for someone and a partner asking for company and feeling a little safer in said company
*self insert is not a girl (he/ she)
bloodstain fool by naffeclipse and og detective au by sunnys-aesthetic!
#answer let luce#anonymous#dcamv#sleuth jesters#bloodstain fool#theres also the immediate aftermath of explaining who clifford is and SI better not be trapped in the blanket then#except running wouldnt help either lmao#“Not *Clifford* but Clifford with a mouth full of knives and maybe also a gun. Because you're big and red.”#man needs a menace for karma and I gladly fill that role <3#still think hed appreciate not being considered a danger by default but yeah it's very much canon for Eclipse that he hates bodyguard detai#doesnt shine through in the bounty hunter chapter but in the chapter of pre mob boss eclipse#getting sun n moon admitted into the police academy#mob boss and bounty hunter paths diverge after that one and yes i am normal about this man#my art#menace4menace
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listen. harry brewis isn't exempt to criticism. however I think it's very ironic and telling how much people have been missing the very point of his video on plagiarism and turned his name on a new topic to exploit as of late. when i was trying to look up clips of harry's older videos this came up, and the contents were about the creator clearly being disapointed her line of work (drama youtube) was disregarded as sloppy and something with no effort put into it.
while I do understand her hurt, the thumbnail and title is inherently clickbaiting potential viewers, and her point comes off as a nitpick of a segment harry made out of his own frustration with content mills and how much situations on or between content creators can be so throughly exploited for "commentary" when people don't end up saying anything at all. I think that this is a prime example of the things harry deemed important to criticise. someone who clearly had a point to make about harry's video felt the need to make sure they could milk the shit out of it.
#hbomberguy#as a long term fan it actually bothers me how people will think of harry as “the guy who murders people's reputations”#or only judge his character by this one video#because harry doesn't usually do stuff like this or at least not only stuff like this#this format is very familiar to a lot of his videos#even the ones that seem trivial#harry also talks about dangerous right wing ideologies and videogames and series he cares about#and it feels so desingenious to just label him as this big takedown video essayist who's egotistical and full of himself#yes the guy has flaws and mistakes and some of his older work isn't the most polished. don't get me wrong you are free to criticise him#but not while you are making money off something that seems like a nitpick in retrospect or using a strawman argument
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dc holiday special (2017)
*puts on my scholar glasses* is the cookie tiny or are his hands gigantic?
#tiny cookie is tragic but funny but big hands can go from hot to dangerous if you ask to get fingered.#god forbid a misunderstanding in being fisted.... (his strap is still in the mail but hes eager to service top while waiting)#one of my favorite miscellaneous details of clark is he has a strong sweet tooth#like he loves cookies and doughnuts. he has chocolates on his desk. in action comics 434 his downfall was literally eating a mystery box#of chocolates and in the next issue he buys girl scout chocolates while depressed and thinking he has to exile himself#its not a very jarring or overdone theme (thank god) but its so funny when you notice it#same with lois just fucking loving a hot dog in two separate comics#anyways. big man or tiny cookie?#also link is to a post where i transcribed the entire little comic btw.... it's a cute one ......#c: dc holiday special (2017)#crypt's panels#clark kent
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after 2015 until 2018 it seemed that things had calmed down a bit between valentino and marc, in the sense that they had started to be polite between them again and valentino no longer seemed to be on a war footing. then after argentina obviously the situation worsened again. in the podcast where valentino spoke in 2021 if I'm not mistaken, when he talks about marc,however, he only refers to the events of sepang and not to what happened in argentina which instead seemed to have been the final “divorce”. so my question is, during 2016 and 2017 did valentino just pretend to put up with marc? because in that podcast you can feel valentino's resentment is still a lot even after many years, so I imagine it must have been even greater in the two years immediately following sepang, even if it didn't seem if you see how he behaved
well. look. it was reflected in how valentino behaved... I think sometimes if you see isolated photos and gifsets, you can maybe be left with a bit of a mistaken impression of what that dynamic actually looked like for those two years. they got to a point post-catalunya where they were civil to each other, and maybe they'd exchange two lines in greeting, at podium celebrations, when somebody in a presser made a joke... and maybe marc at the very least was sincerely hoping they could get back to something like what they had before 2015. in reality, though, it was still very very far away. it wasn't open hostilities... at some point in 2016, valentino realised he simply couldn't go on like this. I talked about it a bit here:
you get this discrepancy in his 2016 output, actually. if you compare what he's saying that autumn for written press interviews vs what he's saying with marc right next to him... he'd clearly decided there was zero point in directly fanning the flames. at the sepang 2016 presser when marc and him are quizzed on what had happened the previous year, he just goes with marc's response and decides against reopening the controversy by adding anything from his side. but he still made it clear he hadn't changed his mind in interviews from the exact same time period! at times, he tolerates marc's tentative advances - at other times, he's almost accidentally sucked in, like he can't quite help himself from laughing at something marc has said. but there was never a period where he forgave marc for what he'd done... for various reasons he just decided he wasn't going to harp on about it too much. he did basically say as much post-argentina 2018:
but yeah, argentina 2018. it's an interesting one, isn't it? the stuff that valentino says there doesn't actually feel... quite in line with anything else he's said about marc. typically, when valentino criticises marc, it really is all about sepang 2015 - it's very focused, very specific, he's talking about being unable to forgive marc on a personal level for something marc had done to valentino... but it's not like he's really coming at marc for anything else... when other riders have gotten into spats with marc, he's stayed out of it - and generally he remains pretty neutral when he talks about everything else concerning marc. so, for example, there's a world where the moment alex rins is saying marc doesn't respect other riders in 2019, valentino immediately jumps at the opportunity to offer his hot take... but he doesn't do that. and yes, he had criticised marc's riding before, in particular in marc's moto2 days, but obviously those criticisms were considerably more restrained and sounded at times quite worried for marc's sake. (he also got close to that in silverstone 2016 when he remarked marc had 'something special' for their battles, but a) he's not wrong, except insofar as it's clearly mutual, and b) he explicitly said he didn't have a problem with that fight and considered it hard but fair). in 2017, when valentino was criticising other riders for being too aggressive... well, he wasn't doing so with marc, and he even conceded the point to marc in subsequent races after marc had obliquely criticised valentino at cota for his rhetoric not matching up to his own riding. when valentino's young riders have gotten into their own spats with marc, he's not waded in either, at most saying stuff about marc's fight with pecco that from his lips sounds almost like something akin to praise. radio silence after bez's run in with marc at the end of last year... argentina 2018 is the exception not the rule
and you know... at the end of the day, that was an emotional reaction. valentino might be wearing the habitual smile on his face during the media debrief and sound reasonably calm and composed, but he was furious. which, it's always worth remembering, isn't an entirely unreasonable reaction to that specific situation. yes, valentino doesn't have a clean track record either, but you're going to struggle to find such a... weaponised carelessness, a blatant disinterest in his fellow riders while shoving them aside, in the way marc was exhibiting that day - and indeed that whole weekend. looking back, of course argentina 2018 ended up being an isolated blot on marc's track record that he's not come close to repeating since (yes, he's made high profile errors that took out other riders, but it's different)... but we didn't know that at the time. also, I doubt valentino much appreciated being treated just like an obstacle in marc's path! the fact that valentino wasn't the only marc victim that weekend kind of has an interesting effect, because you have to doubt whether it would have helped if valentino felt like he was being targeted specifically by marc, but on the other hand... well, it's almost disrespectful, isn't it... being singled out is in a way still better than being brushed aside like any other rider
still, valentino's pushing it with his criticisms, he's out of line, and he clearly did lash out in the heat of the moment - which was of course largely a product of the resentment he'd been holding onto those past two years. calling marc's behaviour that day dangerous? sure, you'd find a lot of agreement for that. saying that marc was ruining the sport? that he was intentionally causing other riders to crash? ... well, hold on one moment. I reckon the simplest explanation is the best one here: valentino was angry and said stuff he wouldn't otherwise say, which we know because he's not done so before or since. of course, he was never going to retract what he said about marc that day - he wasn't ever going to apologise for it. not with their history, not when there was still just enough about those argentina comments that he meant... so he wasn't going to feel too much regret about the bits he wouldn't have said under any other circumstance. the problem post-2015 for valentino is that constantly signalling his fury to the world wasn't doing him much good... but pretending like everything was just fine clearly also took a bit of a toll. argentina 2018 wiped the slate clean - even though they gradually crept back towards basic civility after that. and valentino really didn't continue with that line of critique... since then he's basically completely reverted back to a sepang 2015-centric approach. maybe a few hints at it... in 2021, he said something along the lines of how he doesn't feel good when he's on-track with marc, but that's pretty generic while also crucially being personal - he's not saying marc is a problem for the series, he's saying it's them specifically that have an issue with each other
which doesn't mean he didn't believe what he said in argentina 2018 in the moment... when they reconvened in cota and had marc and valentino do separate media debriefs from the main presser, valentino said he stood by his comments - but also didn't actually repeat them or elaborate on them or anything. he's back to terse short responses to the press' questions, saying he wants to focus on the race ahead: kind of the go-to approach when it comes to marc post-sepang (with notable exceptions). he's walked his strongest comments back as much as he was probably ever going to - by simple virtue of the fact that he's left it at that. and you know, he's a complicated guy... 2016-17 was both pretending and it also wasn't. he didn't act like everything was forgotten, but he certainly was willing to let people believe that this relationship might end up being mended - which quite frankly was probably never going to happen. mostly, he was just sort of sick of the whole thing, struggling to enjoy himself in what had become such a charged, hostile environment for all the riders involved. at the same time, look - fundamentally, the interpersonal chemistry with marc was always fine. they click as people! they click as riders! marc makes valentino laugh! sometimes, that line between 'pretending' and 'letting yourself pretend' and 'actually not pretending at all' can be quite thin. when valentino talks in that time period about how much he enjoyed a battle with marc, of course he isn't lying - because he really does enjoy those fights! that's what racing is all about for him, and that's something him and marc still share! as long as marc isn't barging him aside and causing him to crash, that is. maybe it'd be easier if it were all a pretence, but it wasn't... sometimes, when you say you thought a race was hard and fair, you really do mean it and you really did have a lot of fun. sometimes, the struggle isn't actually acting nice for the cameras, it's trying to bite down the temptation to laugh alongside your sworn enemy
see also assen 2016... like, isn't this kinda wild? you've just had catalunya the race before, you've just had the mere semblance of a tentative start to a possible reconciliation - then they return to the place that was really the beginning of the end for them. they go on a few track familiarisation laps, including to check out the resurfaced final chicane (aka the scene of the crime). they race each other on said track familiarisation laps. then marc brings it up in the presser, giggling about the whole thing, and apparently valentino also finds it pretty funny - before he visibly swallows up his grin. later that weekend, marc pointedly decides to try out valentino's final chicane move himself during the warm up session. this is all obviously deranged, but it's a type of deranged where they are fundamentally on the same wavelength. it's the kind of ridiculous behaviour they're both incredibly fond of... you see it in how valentino shrugs off the towing at catalunya 2019, and thinks it speaks to marc's smarts and wiliness - unsurprising, really, because they're so similar in that regard, and valentino has never shaken his admiration for marc as a competitor
valentino can clamp down on his animosity towards a rival during his direct interactions with them... lord knows if you watch a few of the casey and valentino face-to-face interactions over the years, you really wouldn't match that up with the sheer vitriol of some of the stuff they were concurrently saying about each other in the press. that rivalry was never really personal (on valentino's end), it was never fraught in the same way (for valentino anyway) - still, it shows he's theoretically capable of separating this stuff out when he needs to... and he just about managed with marc for two years. if he had just been waiting for an excuse, surely you would have heard at least a hint of that when him and marc swapped paint in 2017. you never quite knew how he was going to answer the inevitable questions about marc's riding, but no direct criticism was forthcoming at any stage. the post-argentina 2018 rhetoric wasn't in any way premeditated from valentino's side, and personally I don't think he was just waiting for an excuse either. it was the result of a constant internal conflict between knowing that engaging in any more active beef with marc wouldn't do anyone any good, and the fact that he still hadn't forgiven marc... and then a race came along that simply pissed him off enough to push him over the edge
from 2016 onwards, valentino both very much wanted and very much did not want further conflict with marc, and neither of those impulses ever quite go away. usually, he's disciplined enough to avoid stoking the flames any further... potshots to the press outside of the paddock are essentially a free and harmless outlet in that regard, and even there you can tell he was trying to scale it back in the years where he was being forced to directly interact with marc. he was pretending and not pretending and sometimes pretending like he wasn't pretending and sometimes pretending like he was pretending. maybe it would have always just taken one major on-track confrontation for things to fall apart between them again... but you do kinda have to acknowledge the whole thing was really unfortunate. I've long thought that something like sepang 2015 was pretty inevitable as long as valentino managed to put himself in title contention once marc had joined the premier class, but I don't actually feel the same way about argentina 2018. an awful marriage of circumstance and coincidence and bad choices caused the relationship to fall apart again this badly. valentino might have had some more or less sincere misgivings about marc's riding, but at the end of the day he wasn't going to ever express them unless it got personal - because all of these people are incredibly self-centred and valentino wouldn't have felt like it was worth it. he lost his temper, he said some stuff he might partly but not fully believe, he's not inclined to bring it up again. that's that
#podcast was 2023 and also it's different now that he's retired. i think he tucked the resentment away when he actually interacted with marc#thing is direct exposure to each other inevitably seems to help the relationship BUT it's risky as long as they're both competitive#if you fuck about with their age gap i reckon they would've just gone through this cycle again and again lol. deeply deranged#low key jorge in 2009 made such a scrunchy interesting comment about how valentino deals with his rivals... i do need to write that essay#to main tag or not to main tag..... hm. nah let's not#//#brr brr#batsplat responds#u can kinda argue that both big valentino attacks on marc show the dangers of bottling things up...#like deadass if you'd just had normal amounts of drama before those incidents it wouldn't have been SO bad#just do a friendship break up with him after assen 2015 and everything after that is way more sane and normal#if you criticise him a bunch during 2017 for being a dick on track sure it sparks a lot of discourse but it makes arg '18 less horrendous#kinda just eats away gradually at him and then suddenly it boils over#goes both ways of course... marc's response to that misano 2019 quali incident did take me aback. very funny though#one of his most valentino-esque weekends in the sport start to finish. absolute cinema love that dickhead
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