#character flaw tag game | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

acircusfullofdemons · 2 years ago

Text

CHARACTER FLAW TAG GAME

I found this and thought it might be fun. Unfortunately, I don't know who started/made it. But anyway, all you have to do is bold whatever "flaws" apply to your para(s)!

CALYPSO

ELLIOTT

JANE

JORDAN

ROWAN

TOBY

TAGGING: @paraesthetics @sugarcoatedsadism @ohnoesmytacos @fallingmaddlyinlove @fourhearts-paracosm @daydreaming-memories @daydream-ideas

#paraportal #maladaptive daydreaming #immersive daydreaming #madd paras #tag meme #tag games #actuallymadd #luka.txt #console: phantasmagoria #game: im not the one #society of the false moon #calypso raymond #elliott hart #jane bellerose #jordan stark #rowan dellacroy #toby reynolds #doing my part in trying to keep the madd community from being totally dead af lol #character flaw tag game

80 notes · View notes

krazieka2 · 8 months ago

Text

I've played the Fire Emblem Husbando Dating Simulator Games

#what is it about flawed media that makes fanart so compelling #awakening was a much stronger game than fates but i wanted to draw Corrin more than Robin #sometimes... things that are better written... are harder to draw funny doodles for rip #carrying over my posts from twitter choo chooooo #this one was posted to twitter so long ago im so sorry #anyway favorite protag: Shez #she's so stupid and explicitly so #If I were to rank the games... hm....#Houses for character writing but Engage for gameplay #Fates for map design #Awakening has the strongest core story I think #and Hopes has Shez #so there are no clear winners #i know there's going to be ppl asking where the other femc's are #answer: i cannot play as Kris in the west so i dont know her she's a stranger #secret confession i have no idea why anyone would use the friendship seals in fates i dont get them #also i still think Alear asking OG Army Breeder Sigurd how he feels about eugenics is funny thank u #fe3h #fe awakening #fe fates #few3h #byleth #corrin #shez #alear #there is no way robin has her own tag

1K notes · View notes

the-bitter-ocean · 8 months ago

Text

Two sides of the same coin!

#in stars and time #isat #isat game #in stars and time game #isat spoilers #in stars and time spoilers #lego monkie kid #lmk #isat loop #isat siffrin #in stars and time loop #in stars and time siffrin #lego monkie kid macaque #lmk six eared macaque #lmk sun wukong #lego monkie kid sun wukong #lmk fanart #lego monkie kid fanart #in stars and time fanart #isat fanart #the bitter ocean arts #digital doodle #digital drawing #digital art #isat act 6 secret encounter spoilers #implied?? man okay like for the people who get the parallels you can understand why it’s tagged that way #idk man there’s something interesting about analyzing a character whose a mirror reflection of you #two halves of the same flawed whole. and you hate them just as much as you wish you could be them #that when you look at them you see this is what I could’ve been and yet a part of me remains in you still #etc etc. idk I like narrative foils and I like analyzing shadows/mirror reflections/ clones of characters reaching their own identity

82 notes · View notes

garasu-no-haato · 3 months ago

Text

The character creator was the last marketing reveal I was looking forward to before the game's release. And it really is the best cc by Bioware so far! ✨️

But isn't it nice of them to apparently assume that the Inquisitor didn't get any gray hair while worrying about Solas blowing up the Veil any day for the past nine years? Or that Rook has not gone through some gray hair-inducing experiences? :D

Edit (This probably shouldn't hide in the tags bc it's important for the tone): Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing everything there is! There are many small options I didn't expect. But graying hair not being included simply puzzled me...

#they were very focused on making sure both have the most amazing hair in any Bioware game to date in general tho #don't get me wrong I love all the options we get in the cc!#but I was very surprised this option in particular wasn't included #and yes there are some more minor flaws as well #this one is simply important to little old me 😅 but no game breaker ofc #dragon age #da4 #dragon age: the veilguard #veilguard character creator #veilguard cc #veilguard spoilers #da4 spoilers #dragon age 4 spoilers #datv spoilers #why is there no consensus on a spoiler tag aaaahhhhh! 😩#dragon age spoilers

21 notes · View notes

megala-theia-praxidike · 3 months ago

Text

My Thoughts on Impulsiveness and Carelessness of Sejanus Plinth

There is no doubt Sejanus is smart but he has a big fatal flaw. He is an impulsive, self-destructive teenager who feels so much guilt that sometimes has no regard for those he could possibly hurt with his actions. Sejanus' guilt of being able to live a quality life in the Capitol made him want to compensate by being loud about how he hates being there.

He's compassionate and cares for his fellow districts, yes, but ultimately he feels guilty.

When he failed to connect with Marcus, he wanted, then, to give up or exchange tributes to lessen his guilt (cuz at least it wasn't someone from his district or one he knows).

If Coryo had taken his offer of exchanging tributes, would he have done what it takes to save her? Would he cheat? Ally with other mentors? Kill another tribute? Would he have stomach having appeal to the horrendous sponsors? Would he be willing to give her poison to kill other tributes? Would he create a thesis of new horrendous rules and spectacle that would give her advantage inside the arena like the betting and sponsor system? Or would he not participate at all and leave Lucy Gray to her whims aside from perhaps feeding her before the games?

When he entered the arena, he did not think what would happen to his parents, to his mother, to anyone associated with him. In the Arena, he laments about his father buying his way into power and how they left district 2 and how guilty he is about having to be safe. He didn't think that power, that money, that buying could make changes.

Sejanus wanted to become a medic, he wanted to help, he wanted to end the suffering but he didn't think that ambition takes time and takes more than gut, but also ruthlessness and efficiency. He has to stomach horror and morally grey actions.

Sejanus was careless in 12, he knows the reaping in 12 was rigged He knows Billy Taupe is with the Mayor's daughter who got Lucy Gray reaped. So associating with him is dangerous especially when he wants to break rules and help people in the district.

Sejanus and Coriolanus witnesses what happens to rebels in the district (Arlo Chance) and those associated with them (Lil). He is always with him. Coriolanus witnessed Sejanus drawing maps and out in the open, conspiring with Billy Taupe, the very day he and Lucy Gray reunited, even Barb Azure witnessed and knows what they were doing.

so it wasn't really hidden. Sejanus knows Coriolanus lurks and Coriolanus already knows he is doing some kind of trouble. It's just that Sejanus promised he'd stop for his sake but lying about it made Coriolanus even more paranoid.

Coriolanus is smart as well, thinking of the worst possible outcomes is his biggest hobby, he said so himself in chapter 1 but he is stressed and anxious for a month now. He is paranoid that hecould die by being associated with Sejanus so he snoops into Sejanus' stuff only for his fears to be affirmed.

Sejanus goes with Coriolanus everytime they go to the covey because he is the only one in the peacekeepers who knows Coriolanus and Lucy Gray's relationship. He is always with him and he is conspiring with rebels, Billy Taupe of all people, that could get Coriolanus hanged even if he won't do anything. And even if Coriolanus didn't tattled with the Jabberjay and followed Sejanus to Spruce, Mayfair would still be there and would have tattled or Spruce would have shot her and would have doomed them both.

Sejanus is a compassionate and kind boy who has the potential to be so clever and perhaps even become some one who could have helped aid the rebellion. He may be district and knows their plight but he is also a rich boy who never had to grow up, scraping to survive. He had his father protecting him so he never got to be as afraid for his life and be careful with it the way Lucy Gray and Coriolanus have to. He wants to be the hero, the doer, not dreamer. But it seems like he can't handle or don't know that he had to walk through burning coals to get results.

#tbosas #I'm just gonna put this tag here for those who don't want to see my take:#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #I don't hate Sejanus but i gotta admit he is one of the most interesting flawed person in tbosas #anti Sejanus #a tragic character #thg #the Hunger games #tbosas meta

20 notes · View notes

eveningrainstorm · 23 days ago

Text

Listen. Swansea is great; he's a well-written character and I like him a lot. But it's weird to me how much fan content I see about him that seems to make him out to be a lot nicer than he's actually shown to be in the game, and nowhere is this more obvious than in how people depict his relationship with Anya.

I've seen other people address the whole "If Anya had told Swansea what happened he'd have killed Jimmy" thing (she did. he didn't.) but there's a larger issue where people act like Swansea cared a lot more about Anya and was a lot closer with her than is actually the case in canon. And sure, the game leaves a lot of room for differing interpretations of things and imaginings of what could have happened offscreen, but I've seen so many people act like this idea of Swansea and Anya being close is something actually depicted in canon which. It very much is not.

Like okay. Let's talk about this. What does the game itself actually show us about Anya and Swansea's relationship?

Well, we don't see much of their dynamic before the crash aside from them just being coworkers with some level of familiarity with each other. They do stand together at the birthday party, and Anya playfully tells Curly that “Swansea really likes that cake. Don’t tell anyone,” to which Swansea only "hmph"s in response. From this we can gather that the two of them are friendly enough that Anya feels comfortable teasing him. Even so, she certainly isn't an exception to his characteristic harshness and brutal honesty — take an interaction later in the same scene, where a distressed Anya says she has no savings and asks if Pony Express can really fire them like this and Swansea, not cruelly but certainly bluntly, tells her that Pony Express going under has been a long time coming.

Of more importance, perhaps, is the game's first "2 months after the crash" segment, where we are first introduced to both of them — and where the game makes it quite apparent just how little Swansea respects Anya. The very first scene, in fact, features Swansea interrupting Anya and mocking her when she tries to explain why opening the cargo hold is a good idea. Later, when talking to Jimmy, Swansea calls Anya "our so-called nurse" and says that "it's in one ear and out the other" when talking about how she nearly got injured on the broken vent. And if you get the code scanner before talking to her Swansea will tell you to get her before opening the cargo hold but specifically with the justification that "even she couldn't make the situation worse with her presence." None of this is really uncharacteristic of Swansea, given he talks about Daisuke in much the same way, but it's not something that can just be swept under the rug — and yet, seemingly, everyone does. I hardly ever see anyone even mention Swansea insulting her here.

Of course, none of these scenes are where the idea that Swansea and Anya are particularly close comes from. No, that idea comes from a single scene: "3 months after", when Jimmy finds the two of them talking in the cockpit at night. We only see the end of this conversation, where Anya, apparently crying, is saying “No. I understand completely. If that’s how it has to be—”

The game never reveals exactly what the two of them were talking about; the two main theories I've seen are that Swansea was telling her that he was saving the cryopod for Daisuke or that she had told Swansea that Jimmy assaulted her and Swansea was saying she'd just have to put up with being around him for the time being. Personally, I think the latter is much more likely, but either way, the end result is the same: regardless of how much Swansea cares about Anya, her well-being is not his first priority.

We never see any follow-up on this conversation; if Anya and Swansea meet up behind Jimmy's back at any other point, we don't see it or hear it referenced. "4 months after" offers no interaction between the two of them at all, with Swansea busy dancing drunkenly while Anya, on the other side of the lounge, tells Jimmy about the extra medicine cabinet. "5 months after", Anya commits suicide in Medical while Swansea sits drunk and oblivious in front of Utility. The only reference to Anya and Swansea's conversation — and the closest we get to a confirmation of what it was about — comes after Daisuke's death, when Jimmy uses "telling Anya who knows what" as a sign of shady behavior from Swansea, and Swansea agrees that he did talk to Anya, "but it was her telling me all sorts of things instead, wasn't it?", the implication being that she told Swansea about Jimmy raping her.

This line is interesting. Swansea is referencing what Jimmy did to Anya here, and implicitly condemning him for it, and yet... well, Anya's already dead. Swansea isn't doing anything for her, really; he doesn't seem particularly emotional or angry about it, either. All it really is, when it comes down to it, is a spiteful jab at Jimmy — just Swansea, still angry over Daisuke's death, trying to get under Jimmy's skin.

We never see Swansea react to Anya's death. This isn't surprising; we aren't shown what happened when Daisuke got the door to Medical open, and afterwards Swansea is understandably preoccupied with Daisuke's fatal injuries. The first thing Swansea says about Anya after her death is the line about her telling him things. And, well... here's the problem.

That line? Is also the last thing Swansea says about Anya.

He never mentions her again. That one line, the one that doesn't even mention her death, the one that seems more about getting at Jimmy than mourning her — that's the last we hear of her from Swansea. And maybe he does care, maybe her death is just as much a catalyst for him trying to kill Jimmy as Daisuke's is. But he never says anything about her. He doesn't mention her in his death scene. Sure, that last portion of the game is largely filtered through Jimmy's mind, his disregard for Anya keeping her out of focus, but Swansea's death — a moment of sharp, simple clarity in which Swansea says all the things Jimmy doesn't want to hear — doesn't have that excuse. Swansea doesn't say a thing about her, because in the end, he's not focused on her either.

So that's what we have. They don't seem to be that close, before or after the crash, though they theoretically could be. Anya telling him specifically about what Jimmy did could be considered a notable show of trust, but then again she could have just wanted to tell someone and considered him her best option, and in any case if she was hoping for him to do anything about it, he didn't. And despite a large portion of the fandom believing it to be the case, there isn't actually anything indicating that he told Anya about the cryo pod — if anything, his assertion that it was Anya who told him things rather than the other way around is evidence against it. Technically, anything's possible — Swansea could have comforted Anya when she told him about Jimmy, he could have offered her the cryo pod, he could have grieved her just as much as Daisuke — but looking at what the game itself presents, the picture it paints is far different from the one typically seen in the fandom.

We don't know what's going on in Swansea's head. We don't know what happens in the time between the moments the game shows us. But what the game does show us is this: Swansea repeatedly is disrespectful and rude to or about Anya; Swansea doesn't do anything after she tells him what Jimmy did to her; Swansea doesn't have any real reaction to Anya's death. Does he care about her? Probably. I'd like to believe so. But she's not the one he decides to kill Jimmy over, she's not the one he has regrets for in his dying moments, she's not the one he's saving the cryo pod for.

Maybe Swansea cares about Anya, but she's not his first priority. And isn't that sort of the point? This is what the game has been showing us the whole time: Anya is no one's first priority, except her own.

#i am begging people to understand that just because swansea is anti-jimmy does Not mean he is pro-anya #mouthwashing #at this point the bulk of the fandom does seem to have a pretty good grasp on 'curly is part of the problem'#so i think we need to get started on accepting that swansea is also part of the problem in his own way #and. just to be clear before anyone tries to misunderstand me #this is not a swansea hate post i do not think swansea is like. an irredeemably awful person #but this is a game about nuanced characters with very human flaws and swansea is very much one of them #wait editing this to add a tag bc there is one thing i was going to mention which i forgot #which is that swansea's vaguely threatening 'oh i'm keeping it together' line he says to jimmy in the scene where he and anya are talking #can definitely be read as being a response to what anya's just told him #so that's something #we don't really get any evidence in the scenes afterwards that he hates jimmy for anya reasons rather than his usual reasons but still

18 notes · View notes

hawnks · 1 year ago

Text

Anyway, play Night in the Woods. It’s really actually very fun and easy to play, it’s just that sometimes a line of dialogue will come up and it will change how you perceive yourself and your place in this world forever. And then you just have to press c and keep going.

#sorry for being chatty it’s just #my fave game of all time #JSNNSNDND #Mae borowski is who they talk about when they talk about strong female characters #big personality. flawed. deep inferiority. bisexual. has adhd probably.#interiority not inferiority JSJDNDND #also it’s the perfect fall game <3 #squawk tag

76 notes · View notes

ghirahimbo · 11 months ago

Note

also, in totk there’s very few mentions of the champions and calamity ganon, and a lot of the stuff from botw seems to have been retconned, like the sheikah technology etc. i feel like that would be such a bittersweet world for post-calamity link to be living in 😭

yes..... yes :')

It's one of my main issues with TotK, to be honest. I think Majora's Mask was able to get away with being a sequel because they took Link literally out of Hyrule, leaving the previous story intact. TotK, because it wanted to take place in that same Hyrule without leaning too heavily on BotW, ended up practically dismantling the old story instead. I think there are many ways they could have paid respectful homage to BotW without the new game completely revolving around it, and retconning/ignoring so much kinda defeats the purpose of it being a sequel at all in my mind? But yes, I do think it would be bittersweet for him 😭

#lol sorry didn't mean for this to become a totk rant 😅#i really did enjoy playing the game #i just remember finishing the rito arc of totk and feeling this deep sense of something missing #Tulin SHOULD have felt like a fulfillment of what Revali COULD have been... of things coming full circle #he had echoes of Revali's skill AND Revali's weaknesses #but through differing circumstances he managed to overcome one of Revali's character flaws #take up his bow #and continue his legacy #but if Revali is never acknowledged then where is the legacy??#it could have been so powerful!!#it could have #oh dang #tag rambling again I'm SORRY

47 notes · View notes

krotiation · 9 months ago

Text

I don't wanna make any long-winded posts arguing with people but I figured it would be worth saying something to the people who feel insecure about posting certain characters now

No, you're not in the wrong for talking about certain characters/ships. You're not secretly misogynistic or internalizing anything based on your favorites. Don't let people psychoanalyze you over fiction and don't take unjustified criticism to heart. You know yourself better than strangers on the internet

And oh my god, you are not annoying for making posts about popular characters. Any fan content in small fandoms is good content so keep it up! Talk about whatever you want and go ham babes

#theres a way to talk about certain issues without throwing shade on people you know nothing about #i do think that internalized misogyny is a real problem in fandom spaces in general #but theres a distinct difference between hating a female character for things male characters get praised for #like emotional depth and being flawed #vs liking 3 specific characters from one game franchise #like come on now #borderlands #delete later #maybe possibly #i dont want the tag to be clogged with discourse

31 notes · View notes

hold-him-down · 4 months ago

Note

🍉

For... anyone who you think has the funniest/best pet peeve lol

answered here and I think it's Link's! :) Excerpt below.

"I don't think either of them get under my skin all that often," he says. "For River, I guess it would be when he refuses help, even from Felix. Watching it from a distance can sometimes get really upsetting, even if it's understandable." He pauses, considering. "For Felix, hmm. Maybe when I come home and he's reprogrammed the remote to all these random documentaries and weird apps that he's found."

River, arms wrapped around his legs on the sofa opposite him, says, "That can't be a pet peeve. It's funny when he does that."

"I'm not saying it's not funny," Lincoln says, only a little defensive, "but when I get home at midnight and try to watch a game and he's got it programmed to bring me to some panda live-stream in Beijing, it takes a few years off my life."

The corner of River's lips twitch, just the smallest amount.

#oc asks #i don't give pet peeves a lot of thought #i think this is a flaw of mine #in that #i think the character groups in each respective story think the absolute world of one another #which of course would still mean they have pet peeves #but i usually dedicate all my special thinking time to their very sweet tender loving moments #and very few to when they annoy each other #ITS AN AREA FOR GROWTH ITS IN THE FIVE YEAR PLAN #anyway #pseudo-pet-peeve #i think lincoln actually thinks its cute #ask game #this finished up the ask game!#i got stuck on the pet peeve asks lol #sorry #ITS 90 PERCENT CHAOS TAGS OVER HERE #did you make it this far?#if so: i hope you're having a good wednesday #what should i be writing #also this is for the anon who wants the leo scene before the one where he's filmed introducing himself:#i haven't forgotten!

8 notes · View notes

lesbianwyllravengard · 3 months ago

Text

I think the fact that 100% of the "toxicity" from gale and mystra's relationship prior to what we see in the game is completely fabricated by fanon should say a lot about the misogyny gale stans so easily fall into. But y'all aren't ready for that convo obviously

#Makes me so mad #Gale stans deciding they have to hate mystra is like a rite of passage for them lmao #They completely just. Decided she groomed him. Based off of absolutely no canon evidence of that #And despite gale saying he didn't even meet her til he was an adult #They also assume her saying no was controlling. I'm sorry. What the fuck.#Like y'all will literally hate any woman who you perceive as a threat to your male fave it pisses me tf off #Gale even admits to ignoring her boundaries and doing what she said no to anyway #And THAT'S why he had the orb. Not bc of mystra. But bc HE did smthn wrong in his hubris #The only time mystra becomes toxic is in the game #when she 1. Refuses to cure his orb unless he gives her the crown and 2. Asks him to kill himself to destroy the Absolute #Like if you wanna critique mystra's character go for the actual canon reasons why she becomes flawed #Don't make shit up just to hate her so you feel better about liking a mid character who barely develops by the teeth of his skin.#Not tagging shit but. Fuck I hope someone sees this I'm so mad

7 notes · View notes

batsplat · 5 months ago

Note

so in assen 2004 comms talk about how valentino helped melandri with riding yamaha A Lot, and how they are two great friends. and indeed those two have known each other since childhood/or at least their teens right? (seen a lot of their photos w matching terrible dye jobs) but then fast forward to 2010 and melandri is going full conspiracy theorist about the freaking chair affghhhkgjk. like what happened here? is it any interesting or is it like mostly one sided bitterness from melandri or something. like that can’t really be about 2005 season for vale bc come on melandri wasn’t his main rival that year.

even if it’s not interesting feud or drama wise it is another friendship that vale had (and unlike w sete vale&melandri go way back) that eventually fell apart as a result of competing in motogp…….hm

yeah, we don't actually have a great sense of what happened there! it's funny the coldness seems to have crept in during the 2005 season specifically, because I'm very much with you here on the 'come on valentino why bother' stance - melandri was aggressively not a proper title contender that season and really not even the main on-track rival... but actually I do think this fits in rather nicely within my sete thesis, which we'll get to. the subsequent public bitterness has been entirely one-sided, with melandri occasionally saying something kinda mean-spirited about valentino in recent years and valentino... not doing any of that

anyhow, they definitely WERE close, which was hammered home not just through repeated mentions by the commentators but also when you read the columns he was dictating every race for mat oxley in his early years. here, from his 250cc days:

mugello 1998

I wasn’t so confident before Mugello because while I was at home I played football and lost, I played tennis and lost, I rode motocross and lost. The only thing I won was minicars – I am the champion! We got beaten in a five-a-side soccer match, six-one, then a friend beat me at tennis, six-one, then Marco [Melandri] beat me at motocross. I’m always fighting with Marco on motocross but he’s faster than me. I’m getting better though – at the start of the year he’d beat me by five or six seconds, now it’s only one or two. I have much fear when I ride motocross because I’m not good at flying. We don’t go crazy; it would be stupid to get hurt doing that. Motocross is great for my muscle power though. I don’t go the gym much in the summer because I want to be outside, so motocross is perfect.

paul ricard 1998

As usual, my break between Mugello and France was full of battles with my friends! First we played football and my team won on penalties. I scored the winner. I never make a mistake from the penalty spot. Next day I did motocross with Melandri and he beat me, as usual, but we had some very funny races. Then I raced with Melandri again, but with electric cars. He’s bought a Honda NSX – it’s fast. Before I left for France we raced minimoto at a track in Rimini. There were about 20 of us: me, Melandri and a load of fast, young Italian riders. We had a lot of really crazy battles. Lots of fun! I don’t think it’s dangerous because the bikes aren’t so fast, maybe 60kp/h. I had some big fights with Melandri, we hit each other all the time – BANG! BANG! BANG! – and we crashed together maybe two or three times.

madrid 1998

I’m doing motocross three times a week now to help build up strength, but Melandri is still faster than me, so I’ve started practising in secret. I get dressed into my motocross gear, then ring him to tell him we don’t need to ride today, then do a few hours riding in secret! Soon I will be faster than him! Anyway, I beat him in minimoto before we went to Jarama.

assen 1998

“Hooray, finally I am first on a 250! It was the day of the teenager at Assen, the Italian teenager! I was so happy when my friend Melandri won the 125 race, so it was fantastic to go out and win the 250. A perfect day, except Marco and me couldn’t party on Saturday night, because I flew home to celebrate with my friends, while he stayed at Assen. I guess we’ll make sure we have a beer together before Donington.

donington 1998

We had our own paddock World Cup at Donington on Thursday, which was really shit, because we played three games and lost three games. I played in the Italian team with Melandri, Boscoscuro, Scalvini, Locatelli, Borsoi and Carpani. First we played the Suzuki 500 team and lost, then we played Team Rainey and lost, and finally we played Dorna, and lost. Dorna were all Spanish and very good. But the games weren’t so much fun because the pitch was tiny and really bumpy. Last year we had the paddock World Cup at Imola on a full-size pitch, and I scored twice. Nice!

sachsenring 1998

Now we have a four-week holiday before Brno, but I’m going to spend most of my time on the beach near my home – it’s sunny and the girls are nice, that’s all I need! But I am going away for one week – a racers’ holiday with Loris Reggiani, Roberto Locatelli and Melandri. We’re going to Tunisia to mess about with jet skis and fast boats. Should be a lot of fun!

sepang 1999

The winter was fun. Usually I don’t like the winter because it’s too cold, but where I live, near the Adriatic coast, there are so many people in the summer. That didn’t used to be a problem, but now everyone recognises me, so it’s Rossi! Rossi! Rossi! all the time. I don’t like it! I spent a lot of time with my friends, as that’s when I’m happiest. We went skiing a few times, a big gang of us. Mad! Snowboarding is more fashionable nowadays but I’m faster on skis, so it’s better! Melandri came with me once, he’s my best mate in the paddock, plus Alessandro Brannetti, a new Italian 125 guy.

mugello 1999

Before Mugello I spent some time at home, riding my 250 road bike and going motocrossing. I have a new motocross bike at home, but I can’t tell you what it is, because it’s not an Aprilia! But it’s a lot of fun on the new motocross track I’ve built behind a friend’s house. I dug the ground myself with a JCB digger we hired. I have designed the track to be safe for me, because modern motocross tracks have near-vertical take-off jumps, which are very dangerous if you don’t have good control in the air. And I don’t! So I’ve built low and fast jumps which I can take in fourth or fifth gear and be safe. Big fun! I’m looking forward to racing my friend Melandri, who hasn’t been doing motocross since he broke his wrist in Malaysia.

sachsenring 1999

Now we have a four-week holiday, hooray! All I really want to do is sleep. During the break last year I went to Tunisia with a bunch of friends like Melandri, but all I want to do now is stay home and rest. My home is near a holiday resort anyway, near the Adriatic Sea, but to be honest I don’t like the sea so much. I prefer snow...”

argentina 1999

I already have some plans for the winter. The World Championship may have finished, but I already have two more races over the next few weeks. No rest yet! First is the X Race at Misano. This is a special event for GP and world Superbike riders. I’m racing go-karts, motocross and cars with [Carl] Fogarty, Melandri, Capirossi, Harada and a lot of other guys. They ran this event for the first time last year and I won it. It’s only fun of course but I want to win again because winning is always important. Then at the end of November I’m doing a car rally at Monza.

so yeah, clearly close buddies! I'm sure there's more out there about their friendship, but I've never been that invested in digging into the details lol. about the collapse of the relationship... well, there's this from the barker biography, which kinda lumps melandri into a generic section about valentino's rivals:

Marco Melandri, who had been a close friend of Rossi's for years before he started winning races in 2005, noted the same shift in attitude: 'When I started to race well with him he changed a lot. When we were growing up we were very good friends. Valentino plays games with everybody... the way he talked to the media - he tries to never say something good about you.'

in 2007, after valentino had finally lost a title fight (and was in the process of losing another), there's another oxley column where a few key figures like his teammate edwards, his rival hayden, and his crew chief jb were asked about what made valentino so good. and valentino's crew chief jb was kind enough to give his own take on the melandri dynamic:

“He only uses mind games when people make a serious challenge, then he pulls out that extra tool in his armoury, which he did with Max, with Sete and to a lesser degree with Marco. Then there’s Loris, who is also serious challenge, but there’s a different understanding between them, there’s a respect. When I first worked with Valentino he was mates with Marco. Whenever there was a dinner or a party, Marco was always there. When Marco came to MotoGP it was still fine, then when there was any sort of a challenge their friendship cooled off a bit."

and then by 2010 you get melandri be like. full yellow chair conspiracy theorist. now, he also mentions how his own celebrations were received, and we do actually have jorge himself give his review of said celebrations a few years earlier (x, x):

I don't really have a point here, I just think it's funny

whereas from valentino's side.... well, there's really not much. his autobiography goes until the end of 2004 and is published in 2005 - so if melandri was already a 'proper' rival when the book was finalised, it will have been a very recent thing... but there's literally one reference to melandri in the whole thing, and it's something generic to do with the yamaha's development. valentino himself has said pretty much fuck all about this friendship falling apart. it's a bit frustrating because... when melandri says that valentino tries never to say anything good about you in the media - look, that's probably referring to something substantive, but we don't really know what exactly valentino supposedly said. we just have to take melandri at his word.... when you go that far back, it's a lot trickier to hunt down specifics if it's not a big news story, if there's not been a major controversy

you do have this from mid 2005:

"No. I think this is not true," replied Rossi, when asked if he deliberately avoided friendships with his closest rivals. "With Melandri, when this year he start to go fast, especially the Italian journalists, try to put some bad things between us - to make fight like what happened between Biaggi and Doohan. "But I go to speak to Melandri after Shanghai, on the podium, because I say one thing and the Italian journalists they modify and say to him another thing - and also the same journalists come to me and make the same. "I know Marco from minibikes when we were friends - we've been friends for more than ten-years - so I try to keep a good relationship because I don't like a bad relationship with anybody," he insisted. "For sure I have had a bad relationship with Biaggi and Gibernau but I don't think that is the right result."

now, according to the article, there were already rumours at the time that the relationship had grown colder that year. which is mainly funny insofar as valentino had quite literally double melandri's points - and the latter still hadn't won a race. again. what's the point

which, well. I do think jb's mention of capirossi is kinda interesting, as another rival valentino had known forever and one who wasn't like. dramatically less likely than melandri to end up a serious challenger to valentino, beyond being a bit older already. jb mentions they have an "understanding", a "respect" between the two of them... it's also maybe worth bringing in what hayden, the man who had actually managed to beat him in 2006, had to say about valentino for the same oxley piece:

“I can’t say it’s just his approach that makes him good. Some guys take their racing real serious, others are really laid back, it’s whatever works for that rider. But regardless of whatever he does he definitely gets around the track fast, that’s what’s most important. “One thing I noticed when we were team-mates is that he looks like it’s fun, fun, fun, he definitely cuts up a lot, but once you’re in the garage that dude is so serious, so focused. Everything seems perfect, right down to the windscreen sticker and the colour of his boots. He doesn’t overlook anything and I think that’s a big part of it. “More than anything it’s the racer in him that makes him so strong, it’s obvious the guy wants to win. He’s got a lot of natural talent but I know a lot of guys with natural talent and it gets some guys in trouble. It’s the whole package that makes him strong: the desire, the focus, the talent. “I think sometimes maybe he’s not as laidback as he comes across. He knows what to say and when to say it to make it look like things aren’t really getting to him. He knows how to play it, on the bike and off the bike. “It’s hard to say what he’s like with mind games because I can only comment on how he’s been with me and I’ve never seen him play any games with me, especially last year when he was taking chunks out of my points lead. The guy didn’t really change, maybe he just knew that I wasn’t going to roll over. Maybe some of the guys he can break down mentally, maybe he knew it wasn’t going to get to me. “Him and JB (Jeremy Burgess) haven’t won all those titles just through his riding, they know how to play people, they know how to play their cards, when to show their hand, when not to show their hand. I don’t think he plays as many games as other guys – you don’t need to play a lot of games when you can ride like that.“ "On track sure he’s aggressive but he’s totally clean and he definitely has a lot of tactics. He knows when he wants to race just one guy, how to separate groups, how to slow down. Like Phillip Island in 2005 I was on him the whole race and he eventually saw that he wasn’t going to get away, so he slowed down, brought the next group up to us to get me caught up with them, then tried to make another break. He’s got a lot of race craft. “I’d say his biggest strength is that he can adapt. If the tyres go off and he needs to slide he can slide, when the bike need to be ridden in line he can ride in line, he can definitely adapt to situations. I can’t say there’s one area of his riding where he just kills guys. It’s not just braking or corner speed or this or that, I’d just say that when he’s in a rhythm and putting those laps down he can break a guy. Like at Jerez this year he broke Pedrosa by about half a tenth a lap, he just kept putting those laps down, riding on that edge. He doesn’t ride 95 per cent, he rides on that razor edge for a long time. “I don’t know about weaknesses, it’s hard for me to point out a guy’s weakness when he’s won all those championships. In fact I’m not going to say he’s got any weak points because I don’t need to motivate the guy! That’s why I don’t want to say anything negative, I’m a big believer in not motivating these guys anymore, that’s why I don’t talk trash.”

like, you do have to bring up the context that valentino had four title rivals in 2006 - melandri, hayden, capirossi and dani - and he really only seems to have cooled off towards one of them. I'm not saying it's melandri's fault! I think it's more... hm, it's a bit telling, isn't it? competitively, there's not really any reason for melandri to be singled out in any way. I mean, you'll note he didn't win the title - and the guy who did explicitly says he didn't think valentino was fucking with him. valentino says in 2005 that he's made an active effort to not let the melandri relationship get worse... which could be true insofar as he didn't want any drama, but clearly he did allow that friendship to grow cold. why do that? is melandri really such a threat? I feel like if valentino said something particularly egregious about melandri, we would have some kind of a record of it - but let's say he was just mildly bitchy about the guy. you'd want to take him to one side and tell him 'dude, you really needn't bother', right? like, no offence, but is THIS guy worth it?

except. well. it is a little interesting that in the immediate aftermath of 2004, valentino had another friend of his (who he had considerably more history with than his last title rival) head over to honda gresini, turn into a more serious challenger... and valentino went. 'hm, yeah, maybe let's not do that again.' whether consciously or subconsciously, he does seem to have drawn back from melandri a hell of a lot quicker than he did from sete - and let's not forget that sete was actually beating him in dramatic last lap duels, which melandri extremely did not do. now, look, of course there COULD have been some sort of private spat here that nobody involved ever talked about... or maybe valentino just decided for completely unrelated reasons he'd had enough of melandri. but isn't it just. a little noteworthy. that when it comes to the 2006 title rivals, valentino is on good terms with all of them, who he seemingly does not piss off too badly with any sort of off-track antics... except melandri. his coldest relationship is with his childhood friend. one might conclude that melandri was the one who had the most power to hurt valentino, if he had been allowed to remain close. one could argue that there the sete rivalry marked a bit of a turning point in terms of how valentino approached his rivalries, that after this point he really didn't want another rivalry that could affect him in the same way. one might point out that some of the details of the melandri rivalry sure feel like they could be used to back up this framing

all that being said. what valentino is doing here is... well, it's basically fine, isn't it. everyone and their dog agrees it's tough to remain friends with your actual close rivals. jb describes it as their friendship 'cooling off', which is also the kind of thing that can just... eventually happen with childhood friends, even when you don't have pressures of competition warping interpersonal dynamics. there's not all that much to suggest valentino was massively treating melandri differently from any of his other major rivals at the time - it's just that his prior relationship had been closer and melandri seems to have taken the shift poorly. given how little of a paper trail there is, it feels like any mind games on valentino's part were generally on the subtler side, perhaps just the occasional snide comment or insinuation or ambiguously shady line that never made it to an article we can still access nowadays. more in line with what nicky "I don't think he plays as many games as other guys" hayden is describing: how valentino knows how to play his cards without necessarily escalating it into full out war. when melandri's talking about the rivalry, at times he does seem less annoyed by anything valentino actually did than he is by the media pressure of being an italian rival of valentino's, of being subjected to a more hostile media environment tan valentino, etc etc. after a certain point, valentino was often a passive beneficiary of his own successes in that regard. it's not like he's telling the italian journalists to put extra pressure on melandri... but he's also hardly going to complain

in general, the timing of it does have a certain charm to it as useful evidence for my great big 'the sete experience changed how valentino approached his rivalries' thesis, but I'm always a tad wary of analyses that flatten valentino's rivalries and by extension valentino by treating the patterns of behaviour in each as identical. it's also worth pointing out that... well, melandri isn't exactly a neutral source here, and his 2010 great big yellow chair theory does maybe suggest his resentment was getting in the way of his judgement where valentino was concerned. in the end, people didn't enjoy melandri's celebrations as much as melandri would have liked. and at some point in 2005, valentino apparently decided he didn't like this guy's vibe any more. c'est la vie

#trying to find a diplomatic way of saying I never exactly got the impression melandri was the sharpest tool in the shed #and I failed which is why I'm putting it in the tags #idt jorge has ever managed to say anything as quietly devastating as the lines “but he never managed to make it as funny”#and “but the chair was green”. like it's so understated so un-jorge but he randomly struck that man stone cold dead. twice #jb's such a fun presence he's so matter of fact about it. yeah fair enough my boy will occasionally crank out the mind games if he has to #very target-oriented man. he's basically fine with anything if he thinks it'll help valentino win - from partying to mind games #this is why I still stand by my thesis he would've been a positive influence in 2015 and told valentino to just. cut it off occasionally #all this pit board faffing about he would've put a stop to y'know. plus you've got to keep the mind games productive #//#brr brr #batsplat responds #this says more about my own competitive impulses than anything else but I am. so aggressively fine with how vale handled this relationship #if it helps you to not be friends with a guy to beat him then... don't be friends with him...? dude none of my business that's the job #the biography is so LAZY on this like yes I get you maybe don't have the space for the psychological deep dive here #but if you're just throwing together a quote from sete and melandri and casey and call it a day it's a bit. well these are different things #character flaw this character flaw that well this is a Sport. we are here to Win. if it helps him win that's the main thing innit #clown tag

10 notes · View notes