#could i have condensed these?

[toribookworm22]

We have to pause halfway through, but this season is just as magical as the rest. And just as real.

[cubbihue]

What does Timmy think of his little brother Peri growing up to have a neurotic personality?

Peri's always had severe anxiety. It sorta comes with being the first baby born in a 1000 years and constantly being kidnapped by everyone around you.

Timmy's just glad Peri grew up to be more confident in himself, and more assertive.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[citrusai]

taash said "they were doing it" and people ran with the interpretation of an npc that doesn't know solas or the history of the elvhenan even when bellara interjected and said, no, that's not right. that's not how it was for the elvhenan. they formed bonds before they had physical bodies. and people ran to doompost or create weird anti-solavellan shit even though mythal & solas refer to each other as old friends and when she releases him there is no tenderness or love in it. it is the act of unchaining a dog from his post, the stepping down of a general. but to each their own ig.

[mecachrome]

pre-mclaren oscar piastri primer (ft. maxf, landoscar)

0. introduction

for a few months now i've been wanting to make both an oscar primer and a timeline of pre-mclaren landoscar moments, but i couldn't figure out which one to prioritize… then after some deliberation i finally realized i could just combine the two things together! so. here is an oscar-centric timeline that is mainly about his racing background, moving to the uk, and how he became acquainted with other members of the rfm pack—aka lando, maxf, and logan. i don't know whether any of this information is useful or even vaguely interesting, but i mostly just wrote it for myself and thought i'd share what i had in case anyone else wanted to check it out. please feel free to comment or shoot me an ask if anything here is egregiously incorrect; i've checked and linked as many sources as i could but it's of course possible that some errors remain :)

1. background, rc racing, early karting days (2007-2015)

oscar piastri was born on april 6, 2001 in brighton east, a suburb of melbourne not far from albert park circuit, as the son of chris and nicole and to-be oldest brother to 3 younger sisters. a love for all things automotive ran deep in the piastri family: both of his grandfathers were mechanics and his father had also co-founded his own vehicle diagnostics software company, hp tuners, aka oscar's sponsor throughout his racing career. thanks to his father's business, oscar's family was objectively well-off and managed to contribute a fairly substantial amount of support toward his junior career, but they also weren't swimming in cash by multi-millionaire motorsport standards either.

(L-R) edie, mae, hattie, and oscar, from nicole's twitter — each sibling is ~2 years apart (source)

while most drivers on the current grid were introduced to motorsport through go-karting, usually at or before the age of 7, oscar's path to single-seaters differed slightly. he first developed an interest in racing via remote-controlled cars at the age of 6, when his father brought him a monster truck as a souvenir back from a business trip in america. oscar began racing them that same year, eventually moving to safer electric track vehicles and even winning the second class of the national titles in 2010, at the age of 9. he was so small then that he often needed to stand on a milk crate to see the cars on track, and the next-youngest competitor at the time was twice his age. (source)

oscar on the podium at age 8 (nov 16, 2009)

oscar with his father chris, who often competed alongside him in a separate class (dec 21, 2010)

by 2011, oscar and his father were seriously considering his potential of pursuing rc racing as a viable career path, but things changed when he was introduced to karting via a friend's daughter in the rc community and his aspirations slowly shifted toward racing from inside a car. oscar was an unsurprisingly sporty and competitive child growing up; he'd played some cricket and aussie rules football and knew that all he wanted to do was race professionally, full-stop, at the time thinking along the lines of australian racing categories like v8 supercars. he was still competing in remote car racing as late as 2013, but he began karting seriously within australia in 2014, placing respectably in the junior categories of several regional karting series against relatively senior and more-experienced racers, and even going to france for a one-off event where he finished on the podium of the iame international junior x30 final. this outing affirmed his potential to his father and motivated the two of them to split time between australia and europe in 2015 as they juggled his karting future; plans for two more european events that year fell through, including the cik-fia world championship at the kfj level (which logan sargeant would go on to win), but at this point they were officially looking to take his career to the next level and commit fully to european karting in 2016.

this is when ricky flynn (and the hypothetical idea of lando norris!!!) comes in. before we get into rfm and karting professionally in europe, it's important to note that the defining aspect of landoscar's junior careers is that their pathways never once intersected. in fact, they don't even seem to have met properly before oscar entered the f1 grid as alpine reserve, although they'd spoken over social media and oscar was familiar with several people around lando's life—for example, maxf, logan, guanyu, and even lando's older brother oliver, who had also raced for rfm.

in short, you could say that landoscar's biggest hindrance was their parallel excellence. oscar was good enough to catch up and even surpass everyone else at lando's level, but lando remained untouchable throughout the years. oscar is only 1.5 years younger than him, but their f1 careers are offset by 4 years (2019 vs. 2023 debut) because of exactly two things: oscar's 2022 gap year in alpine and his two attempts at formula renault eurocup. on the other hand, lando sped through all of his junior categories in blistering fashion, falling short of the championship only once: the year he placed 2nd in f2 behind george russell. this is significant because many talk about the clinical nature of oscar's rapid single-seater ascension and three b2b2b victories (still very impressive, especially given his limited karting career!), but all of that speaks equally to the illustrious nature of lando's junior success and the sheer magnitude of faith placed in him as mclaren's "golden boy" coming up the ranks. to put things into further perspective, lando was teammates with maxf and jehan daruvala at rfm until 2014, jehan competing in the same class and max one below, yet by the time oscar was racing max and jehan—in f3 in 2020 and f2 in 2021, respectively—lando was already into his 2nd and 3rd years of f1. here's a chart that hopefully makes a bit more sense:

majorly simplified timeline showing lando, guanyu, maxf, logan, and oscar's junior careers + the karting classes they primarily competed in each calendar year. maxf did not complete his 2nd f3 season and many of them contested multiple/different formula renault series, but this is just a rough overview of their feeder series experience. 

2. moving to europe, rfm, regional formulae (2016-2019)

back in australia, oscar was a member of the oakleigh go-kart racing club and being actively mentored by james sera, a multi-time australian karting champion and fa kart dealer who worked with young karting talents alongside his cousin david. in late-2015, he presumably helped oscar and his father reach out to ricky flynn, who ran ricky flynn motorsport (rfm) and whose team was at the time enjoying exorbitant success in the karting scene; lando had won the world championship at the kf level the year prior, and logan would soon clinch the kfj title in 2015, results which further drew oscar's interest toward the team. ricky flynn agreed to take oscar on and have him and his dad move out to europe, and by november 2015 oscar announced on social media that he would be joining rfm the next year. in january of 2016, he and his father moved to hertford, uk, so that oscar could begin a 100-day karting program and travel extensively around europe to attend races. this is where he met logan sargeant, who was in his final year on the team but competing a class above, now at the ok (previously kf) level. oscar himself was only competing in the okj class.

not oscar-related, but as you can see guanyu, logan, and maxf were already acquainted before oscar and logan met, since the three of them and lando had been in rfm together as of 2014 — (may 11, 2014) & (feb 6, 2015)

oscar and logan in 2016

in an interview published on june 7, 2023, oscar reflected on leaving australia and committing to his racing dream, saying:

"i think if there was a turning point, it was probably when i started finishing towards the front in australia, and i started winning a couple of races here and there and finishing in the top three of championships and stuff, and then went to europe and fully committed to going down that route. [...] there's obviously a very big commitment at that point when you move halfway across the world without family and stuff. so i knew at that point that i really wanted to become a professional because, firstly, that's what i want to do anyway, but, secondly, now i'm sacrificing seeing my family, and stuff like that to be able to do this — which was a sacrifice i was more than willing to make."

like the majority of oscar's karting career, his time with ricky flynn can primarily be summarized as decent. none of his performances were particularly stellar, and in november 2016 he placed 6th in the fia world championship final behind the likes of victor martins and théo pourchaire (he mainly competed against guys like them, dennis hauger, caio collet, etc… once again logan was a class above and lando/maxf had already graduated to single-seaters), but he showed promising racing foundations and a great capacity for improvement, especially given that he'd moved to europe the same year and was still adjusting to life and racing on the opposite hemisphere. about 6 months into his new karting venture, oscar had settled in reasonably well and his father decided he would return to australia to continue on with his life, so they made the joint decision that oscar was to begin boarding at haileybury's uk campus and continue racing in europe entirely on his own. uk and australian school years are misaligned, so my personal understanding is he moved to europe after finishing year 9 in australia, attempted online school/took a few months off (he says he did online coursework here, but mentioned here that he was out of school, so it sounds like it must have been a very half-hearted effort…), came back to australia over the uk summer to do some more karting, then began boarding in september 2016 as a year 10 student. he spent ~4 years there and eventually received his a-levels in 2020, except his final year was disrupted by covid and he never sat his exams. (blog post mentioning his a-levels + btg transcript excerpt about his exams; his website says he attended haileybury from 2016-19, but i think this mainly encapsulates his boarding period, as he was still doing remote work in april 2020.)

oscar in f4 with his gcse revision guide, 📸 sebastiaan rozendaal (may 20, 2018)

2016 is also when oscar began his well-documented super-liking of several of lando's social media profiles. i think understanding oscar's time in rfm and his extremely british single-seater origins helps better paint his history with lando and maxf; my personal understanding of pre-mclaren landoscar is that while oscar never formally met lando or maxf during his karting days, he knew of them quite well through rfm and thus followed them on instagram/twitter after moving to the uk. of course, oscar has a fairly active social media presence in general, so young oscar quietly liked instagram posts and tweets from many different people, but i do feel compelled to note that in the early days he liked lando, maxf, and logan's posts with seriously impressive frequency compared to anyone else on the grid (or anyone in general, really); after creating his twitter account in may 2016, some of the very first tweets oscar liked were from maxf, and he also liked a multitude of mundane lando tweets from 2016 until… today, while on the other hand he didn't start liking george's tweets—another similarly-aged young british talent—until late 2017. (he does have some fun george-admiring moments though, but that can wait for another time!) outside of rfm, other people oscar was familiar with during his early racing years were british f4 teammate ayrton simmons, to-be series champion jamie caroline, and old australian karting friend christian pancione, who appears to still be one of his best mates (if not his best) as of today. fun fact is that christian raced for the carrera cup as a support event to the australian gp in 2023; here's oscar allegedly checking the quali live timing at lunch during his own media day. 

so, to conclude, oscar's early lando focus basically traces back to the motorsport path he took at the behest and guidance of his early rfm connections in the uk. the thing is that despite growing up in australia and vaguely admiring several aussie drivers in f1 as a child (read: mark webber and eventually daniel ricciardo), oscar has never had a specific driver he consistently mentions when pressed for his racing "idol," likely since his personality inherently resists idolatry and he instead views successful people more as actionable benchmarks or reference points for self-improvement rather than as unattainable paragons of accomplishment. as a kid forced to grow up almost entirely on his own, the majority of his racing aspirations were molded independently in the uk—he completed his karting career in the uk, boarded at haileybury for 4 years (fun fact: other drivers to attend include jehan, callum ilott, and clément novalak; callum was a few years above oscar and finished school in 2017, but the two would later become quite talkative over social media anyway), raced in british f4, became a brdc member, contested eurocup under a british license and therefore had the british flag raised and british national anthem played during his wins, stayed in the uk even at alpine since the factory is based in enstone, etc. oscar basically moved to the uk from australia without having really met anyone significant in the racing scene (other than jack doohan, or more importantly jack's father mick, but jack is younger and did an extra year of karting) and pretty much didn't have anyone specific to "look up to" at the time. oscar's first acknowledgement of lando's online existence was in december 2015, when he liked one of lando's instagram posts prior to moving to england, so it can be assumed that lando basically functioned as his most accessible reference point in the junior ladder as a 14 year old dipping his toes into the european racing scene for the first time. that is my highly subjective analysis of the situation!

select quotes re: oscar's inconsistent responses to his motorsport "hero" (or his favorite driver / a driver he looks up to in general):

(f1fs; mar 9, 2022) "i started watching f1 in… 2009 was the first season i properly watched. so when brawn came in, obviously mark was the only aussie on the grid at that point, so i was kind of naturally going for him. then joined by daniel, so obviously going to support the aussies, but i think watching lewis has been nothing short of spectacular, and a very good role model. [...] i think when i was first watching, i supported mark, but, you know, and i hope he takes no offense to this—vettel was winning everything at that point. so i was supporting mark, but vettel was doing most of the winning. i think now that i understand more about racing though, i would say [the driver i look up to the most is] lewis, mainly. the way he goes about things on and off the track is quite exceptional."

(mcl youtube; mar 29, 2023) sporting idols mentioned: ayrton senna, alain prost, michael jordan (see also ultimate athletes list)

(p1; aug 10, 2023) "i would say i never had like one specific idol. when i was growing up watching mark webber was at red bull, and obviously being australian, red bull being very quick at the time, i kind of naturally followed him. i mean—even like some of the guys in the junior ranks above me. like lando was always kind of two, three years above me, winning… most things on his way up. so i guess kind of him in some ways?"

(eff won; dec 4, 2023) "i don’t really have like one specific [idol]. i think what lewis has been able to do in terms of getting to seven world championships was incredibly impressive. i think what max is doing now is also very impressive…" 

the first lando post oscar liked on instagram (dec 21, 2015)

the first maxf posts oscar liked; instagram (feb 26, 2016) & twitter (may 9, 2016)

anyway, back to british f4! despite his initially unconventional foray into motorsport, oscar's journey progressed in a much more orderly fashion once he stepped up to single-seaters. his actual debut was in f4 uae, which he ran 3 rounds of between 2016 and 2017 (another fun fact: this is where he briefly acquainted himself with mclaren indycar driver david malukas, who would later recall him being very intelligent and whom zak brown allegedly spoke to oscar about before appointing to their indy team). after cutting his teeth on actual car-racing for the first time, oscar decided against moving up to the ok class as he felt confident in his ability to be competitive in single-seaters. his first full season was therefore the 2017 british f4 championship, during which oscar signed with arden while logan went to reigning champions carlin (lando had won with them in 2015, then maxf in 2016). oscar made his way to the top step 6 times in the season and placed just barely above logan for 2nd in the championship, finishing behind the considerably more experienced jamie caroline. arden was also founded and is currently owned by red bull team principal christian horner, so it was during oscar's time there that christian took note of and interest in his talent; oscar reportedly did a few runs in the red bull simulator but was passed over for joining the academy, which christian later voiced regret on. (source)

maxf, logan (center), and oscar (to max's right) on a day maxf was visiting the 2017 british f4 grid (april 11, 2017)

linus lundqvist, oscar, and logan on the podium at snetterton (jul 30, 2017)

jamie and oscar, who were… er, mathematically in the main championship fight. for some reason they made them take these photos (sep 30, 2017)

after a successful f4 outing with arden, oscar returned to the team for his first season of formula renault eurocup in 2018, a renault series that ran in its specific configuration until 2020 before merging with the parallel regional series frec to become what is today known as freca. this season proved to be less competitive for oscar, as arden was relatively inexperienced in this series and oscar's three teammates were afflicted with what can colloquially be referred to as a "skill issue," making it difficult to collectively develop the car throughout the season. (blog interview) the series was thus returning driver maxf's to lose, who at the time was racing for reigning champs r-ace with teammates that included oscar's fellow rookies logan and victor martins.

despite the unideal environment, oscar managed to prove his worth by placing a respectable 8th in the series, scoring 110 points as a rookie driver and capping the season off with 3 podiums and a top-finish of 2nd place—a jarring contrast to his teammates' joint total of 12 points. this result attracted the attention of r-ace and granted him a seat with them for the 2019 season, at which point maxf and logan both graduated to f3. thankfully that wasn't too much of a concern for oscar since he'd always intended to do two seasons of eurocup, and now he finally had a chance to win the first serious championship of his racing career with an established racing outfit.

oscar, max, and yifei ye on the hockenheim r2 podium (sep 23, 2018) [full gifset]

oscar's second season of eurocup is when he truly started proving himself as a driver, or at least to the people whose names, money, and opinions mattered around the paddock. his main competition in 2019 was again victor, who was now racing for mp and had been made a member of the renault sport academy back in 2018 after a strong performance in french f4. despite a close title fight, oscar managed to hold him off for the championship in the final race of the season, kicking off what would soon become an impressive string of consecutive single-seater series titles. even sweeter was the fact that all eurocup champions were awarded a renault sport academy spot that could be left or taken as they pleased, and of course—while the finances weren't nearly as impressive as alpine would later proclaim in their baseless smear campaign—oscar's connections in the racing world were limited as an australian driver almost exclusively managed by his father, so he gladly accepted the offer for the many venues of support renault presented to him.

see also: bby oscar briefly mentioning lando after winning eurocup in 2019 (@ 1:10)

oscar being lifted by his team (r-ace) after placing 4th in the abu dhabi finale and winning the title by 7.5 points

3. renault sport academy, lockdown, f3 (2020)

many things happened in 2020. one: oscar became an official member of the renault sport academy, joining the likes of max (who'd been picked up on merit after winning british f4 in 2017), guanyu, christian lundgaard, caio collett, and fellow new recruit hadrien david (victor had been strategically demoted after oscar's win because renault is a notoriously unserious organization, but again this is not the post). two: by the time oscar was ready for f3, moving up the ladder proved to be exorbitantly expensive, and he realized he needed better funds and managerial support to sort his career out. he'd been offered a spot in prema's f3 team by team-owner rené rosin at the end of his eurocup season, who'd named him for the post-season test before the championship was over and stressed that the spot was his no matter where he finished. (source) prema is unquestionably one of the top—if not frequently the top—teams one can drive for in most junior series (though there is also somewhat of a self-selection bias; if you ask oscar he is not a significant beneficiary of prematax!), having absolutely demolished the f3 competition that same year and achieved a clean sweep of the drivers' standings with rob shwartzman, marcus armstrong, and jehan at 1-2-3 consecutively. oscar completed post-season testing with them in spain alongside to-be teammates logan and fred vesti in october (source), before confirming on jan 26, 2020 that he would be joining them for the f3 season as a renault junior.

so, where does mark webber come in here? apparently mark's trainer from red bull and wec had also been oscar's trainer since 2016 (i'm pretty sure this is australian physiologist simon sostaric), and it was through their joint connection that oscar was introduced to mark. according to mclaren's 2023 season preview, "the pair hit it off, and webber took his countryman under his wing," signing oscar to jam sports management, aka the management agency he runs with his wife ann. mark's support would become a major factor in helping oscar progress through the feeder ranks and establish himself in f1, mainly because he had actual connections and could help oscar network with sponsors and negotiate his way during future signings. of course, more on this later.

as an aside, here are a few things mark has said about oscar:

"he’s got that white line fever when he puts his helmet on and turns into a different character, which is sensational." (mar 1, 2020)

"one of oscar’s biggest strengths by a mile, compared to everyone he is competing against — and this will be a huge string to his bow when he makes it to f1 — is his composure. he has immense levels of composure. [...] if you are weak mentally you won’t make it. he was on his own from an early age. he did brilliantly with his studies. but the racing disease would not go away, he wants it very much." (sydney morning herald; dec 11, 2021)

"he’s a prost, mate. he’s such a thinker and so calm. at first i thought i needed to inject a bit of urgency in him, but actually no, he’s got his own frequency. that’s just where he is." (the race; oct 7, 2023)

estimates provided by chris piastri on the cost of oscar's junior career, stressing the million-dollar commitments of running a single season of f3 or f2 (source)

anyway, back to the chaotic events of 2020. i think something that's good to keep in mind when discussing oscar's time in the renault sport academy is that he was actually a relatively new recruit, as in he only participated in a single training camp with the other juniors in 2020 and most of them (max, christian, guanyu, the temporary ghost of victor) already knew each other before. oscar essentially met with renault's factory team in early 2020, filmed promotional material with other juniors in january before attending the season opener together in february and then heading to winter training camp later that month, after which he and max left early for f3 pre-season testing in bahrain on march 1—a blessing in disguise, seeing as caio, hadrien, and christian remained behind and would soon be stuck quaranting in a hotel in tenerife—then briefly spent a week at school before returning home for what was meant to be a quick pit stop at the australian gp, which at the time had yet to be canceled.

then, of course, lockdown happened.

simplified breakdown of renault junior stints, notably showcasing the academy's struggles to meaningfully promote any of its juniors

oscar at the 2020 renault season opener alongside then-academy director mia sharizman, then-tp cyril abiteboul, alain prost, f1 drivers esteban ocon and daniel ricciardo, and the other academy juniors: fewtrell, lundgaard, zhou, david (feb 12, 2020)

oscar and maxf behind the scenes of the same event (feb 12, 2020)

stuck in australia for three months, oscar would end up participating in two fia virtual races, one for f2 and another for f1 (jun 7, 2020). a fun landoscar tidbit is that he finished 5th in the virtual gp right behind lando, so they technically had raced each other before 2023, depending on... well, whether you count a 2020 sim race wherein george russell and alex albon lead the pack as a real race. nevertheless, this was a time when drivers were becoming much more active online, seeing as streaming was the best way to keep their images relevant and connect with fans, and despite oscar expressing little interest in streaming on twitch he would still experience a considerable uptick in his online activity and twitter reach that year.

racing resumed on july 4 at the red bull ring in austria; oscar had been granted an exemption to travel to the uk and complete a 2-week quarantine back on may 27, a reassuring indicator to the motorsport world that the f3 season would run after all. now that he no longer had to attend school, having received 2 b's and 1 c for his maths, physics, and computer science a-levels, oscar relocated from hertford to oxford in june to be near the renault facilities, which he visited nearly every day to train at, and began living independently (as in in a flat) for the first time since 2016, rooming with fellow renault junior caio collet.

as i said before, this season is when oscar's online presence and "memeability" began to really conceptualize, enabled primarily by the fact that he was a) finally living outside of a school dormitory, and b) now, of course, signed at prema, a team notorious for its social media visibility, literal family atmosphere, and frequent youtube pandering. according to this f3 article, his twitter followers jumped from 795 at the start of the season to 11.6k by the time he won the championship, an audience built significantly off the self-deprecating string of jokes he used to tweet regarding drs and general reliability issues faced throughout the season.

what i guess i want to touch on here is how oscar's online presence has always been concentrated around the bare fundamentals of his personality: dry humor, candid words, sparing emojis, a few humorous photos detailing the mundane reality of his everyday routines, and at most the occasional inopportune meme or reaction gif (#thepiastri 🤷‍♂️, f2 in baku, jetpack guy, so on). he's bantered frequently with callum on twitter and near-obsessively liked memes, videos, and other updates lando shares with his audience, but he also has seemingly little interest in building up his own "brand" the way lando so smartly has with ln4 and quadrant, and quite frankly seems viscerally incapable of wanting to engage one-to-one with fans or otherwise leveraging the popularity of his material image. basically what i like to say is that oscar enjoys being adjacent to "lad humor" and will happily enable it, but he really has no interest in being the one to initiate it himself!

"there's some things you want to share, some things you don’t. in today's age and sort of having the profile that us drivers do, we kind of just have everything shared,” piastri said. “but (social media) can be used for good, certainly within the profiles that we have. but in some ways, it can be negative, and there's always going to be people out there that don't like you for being you.” piastri tries to write as many of his posts as possible, and he checks those written by his team to be sure they sound authentically him. (the athletic; jun 29, 2023)

along these lines, oscar does enjoy the spotlight, only he seems to prefer it concentrated in a specific lens toward a specific productive end. he's endlessly capable of seeing the objective upside of a situation, joking after he was made a meme in baku following his f2 sr1 collision that he was all for it if it got him popularity. after his eurocup championship he also said: "i think everyone loves a bit of spotlight on them. i think that's just human nature, so a bit of attention's always nice." which is interesting to me!

but back to racing. this season would unexpectedly become two things: maxf's last competitive season in motorsport—especially disappointing considering that he'd gone into the championship expecting to put on a second-season title charge, instead failing to gel with the hitech team to the point that each increasingly poor weekend made him spiral mentally—as well as oscar and logan's last season racing against each other before f1, since logan would later encounter financial difficulties that left him stranded in f3 as oscar catapulted himself to f2 victory. 2020 was obviously a weird season in general because of covid and the gap from pre-season testing, so it also meant that oscar had gone into the season fairly rusty; he managed to win the first race of the season, but on top of his drs rollercoaster he did struggle with middling results in qualifying and was met step-by-step throughout the championship by logan.

maxf's last race in f3 was the barcelona sprint race on august 16, with three rounds left to the end of the season. he dnfed in an unfortunate first-lap incident mere moments after oscar charged his way up from 5th on the grid to the front of the pack, where he would eventually breeze his way to victory and pull himself near-level with logan for the championship lead. i recognize that this is an oscar post and not a maxf post, but i think their time in f3 during an extremely isolated and covid-affected period speaks to both an interesting dynamic between them (the little kid who always lagged a series behind you suddenly beating you on merit) and their respective temperaments toward racing. while at renault, max reportedly lived with jack aitken during the week but would return to his family home on weekends, so it makes sense that he struggled to adapt when covid hit and drivers were collectively forced into very regimented sporting bubbles. mark webber, who worked for channel 4 as a commentator and had access to the f1 paddock, basically couldn't see oscar in person and instead spoke to him over the phone every day on race weekends. maxf said of his decision to quit:

"normally [...] i’m able to stay calm under pressure and i don’t let many things get to me but when you have a bad qualifying result and you see guys up there that you know you’re capable of beating, it definitely takes a dig at you inside and it’s been a lot to process throughout the year." (source)

while then-academy director mia sharizman, who worked closely with the renault juniors, spoke of oscar's inherent propensity for independence and how he adapted well to the pressures of living on his own:

"if you look at oscar piastri, he has been living on his own, [away] from his family who are in melbourne for the past five to six years. because he has been living on his own in boarding school, he learns how to live on his own, and he thrives in that. we have to force him... 'have you spoken to your father?!' it's just things like that, but he thrives in that. that's why he thrived in those weekends racing. he loves being on his own without anybody. on the other hand, we had max fewtrell, for example, who can't – he couldn't survive the 11 weekends racing, because he always needed his family to be around him. so those are the things that suddenly you see and, i think that that we see now, after a few years a driver who is quick, a driver who has the talent, and then the driver who is stable." (source)

2020 is also when lando and oscar spoke to each other on twitter for the first time. yay! after lando went semi-viral for having a meltdown over a hornet on three separate social media platforms, oscar first joked with him about it on august 24 (this was incidentally also the day maxf announced his functional retirement, which oscar liked as well 😭), before referencing the incident again a few weeks later in september.

(aug 24, 2020) / (sep 10, 2020)

outside of drs tweets and trying desperately to banter with lando norris, oscar's popular tweets at the time included several food-related mishaps and home appliance tragedies. while this isn't actually a lando moment, he was also slandered by the LN4 twitter account a month later on october 17 for reasons that remain a mystery, resulting in this set of interactions:

(oct 17, 2020) / (oct 19, 2020)

bonus: maxf's tweets @ oscar (when you aren't close enough to just text him.......)

but back to f3. similarly to his second season of eurocup, oscar would go on to clinch the title in only the final race of the year, this time even more stressfully—he never got pole that season and won arguably off of consistency, benefiting from errors and unfortunate collisions involving his primary competitors. after a hectic qualifying and string of contentious grid penalties set for the before-last round in monza, he began the feature race 15th on the grid but put on an impressive performance to finish on the podium, buffing his points lead after logan was tapped by clément and put out of the points. he, logan, and fred all dnfed in race 2 (read: the novalak pendulum swung away from oscar's favor to maintain stringent cosmic equilibrium, while logan and fred threw away a points opportunity with a teammate4teammate love tap), and oscar went into mugello with only an 8-point lead over logan and a 24-point lead over pourchaire. this weekend proved equally hectic, as is frequently the case with f3 racing standards, but in short oscar and logan entered the final sprint race level on points, with théo approaching terrifyingly near in their rearview mirrors. logan was unceremoniously taken out of contention on the first lap after contact with zendeli, and oscar managed to squeak his way to 164 points in the championship by placing 7th in the race; théo finished 3rd, with 161 points, two positions away from claiming both the race and the championship title.

a succinct summary of an eventful season! (posted jun 30, 2021)

despite winning the f3 championship in far-from-dominant fashion, oscar's career was now steadily on an upward trend. on october 30 he was rewarded with a private test in the r.s.18 at bahrain alongside christian and guanyu, and a month later confirmed that he would be racing for prema again in f2 (december 1, 2020). as a rookie f3 champion there was a moderate amount of interest in him, but no one really expected him to carry home the f2 title on his first try and so one of the main favorites going into the next season was his second-year teammate and 2019 f3 champion rob shwartzman.

4. f2, alpine reserve duties, #piastrigate (2021-2022)

at the start of 2021, fernando officially took daniel's place at renault and the team rebranded itself as alpine, parting ways with team principal cyril abiteboul and functionally replacing him with new ceo laurent rossi—part of a no-tp management structure, frankly a self-evident infrastructural faux-pas from a million miles away. the renault sport academy was then also renamed to alpine academy; again i know that this is an oscar post so i won't get too into the details of Alpine Being Alpine, but understanding how the academy functioned does help better contextualize the inevitable unfurling of piastrigate.

the main issue, really, would always be laurent rossi, or at least the values laurent rossi had been hired to represent and which he willingly peddled during his controversial tenure at alpine. after rossi's appointment it was reported that "the renamed alpine academy was now being tugged in two directions between director mia sharizman's ideal as a creator of future f1 drivers and alpine's chief executive officer laurent rossi's commercially-led preferences." (source) mia directed the academy from january 2016 until may 2022, and had been the one to restructure its recruitment process by demanding better funding and robust testing programs to cyril:

"when we first restarted the team in 2016, it was, we didn't even have a two-year-old car program at that time. we had to use a 2012 program using the [lotus] e20. [...] then in 2018, i went through it, and i said to cyril abiteboul, "look, let's try and do this." we needed financial resources. i needed a head start with financial resources to kick start the program whereby you entice drivers, and you offer [a place] to the academy drivers. it was more to see how they are... it was more of an evaluation process... that was what the first idea was. then we developed the program to develop the drivers to suit their formual 2 program." (source)

(note: mia also believed that 2020 was a disappointing year for all of his juniors save for oscar's performance in f3, which is a whole other thing. but rossi's greatest shortcoming was that he had singular, insulated vision, and he resisted any external input to the detriment of reactionary business decisions, a fact that alienated alain prost and soon led to his exit from the outfit in 2022. not a good look!!! prost would later call rossi "the best example of the dunning-kruger effect, that of an incapable leader who thinks himself able to overcome his incompetence with his arrogance and lack of humanity toward his troops." 🤌)

so basically, the cracks of mind-boggling incompetence within the team's leadership structure were long evident. on a brighter note, oscar's 2021 f2 season would quickly become his strongest single-seater contest ever (f1 youtube has a good summarizing video of his season, if interested); because of covid, f2 was experimenting with a three-race format this year in which quali set the reverse grid for sr1 and sr1 results then set the reverse grid for sr2, which essentially meant high qualifiers were rewarded for simply maintaining composure in the first sprint and running cleanly in the top 10 in order to secure a favorable grid spot in sr2. oscar adapted well to this format, building off his reputation of smooth, consistent driving on top of slowly improving his qualifying results over the course of the season, finally breaking through with his first feature-race win in monza. 

oscar with mia sharizman

this is also around the time when lando mentioned oscar in official f1 media for the first time, reading off a question about him to daniel in an interview posted in october:

"this one's not even about formula one. it's about oscar piastri. oscar pias-tree! [...] he's been on it this year." — (full video) (oct 1, 2021)

of his own f2 campaign, oscar said:

"i thought that i could challenge for race wins, but i probably wasn't expecting to be so consistently at the front. consistency is something that i’ve had as a trait throughout my career, and i was expecting to be consistent in my results this year — but maybe a bit lower down!" (source)

not only did he end up being consistently at the front, he became virtually unstoppable in the second half of the season. on december 11, oscar clinched the title in abu dhabi with two races to spare, ending the season with 5 consecutive poles and 4 consecutive feature wins, 60.5 points above his previously-favored teammate in the standings. #notbadforashitqualifier!

by now oscar was a hot commodity in the paddock; the only problem was that alpine didn't really care, mainly because rossi had enthusiastically re-signed ocon to a three-year deal in 2021 and held zero intention of actually promoting any of its juniors to one of the race seats, plus the one open spot at alfa romeo had instead gone to guanyu and his considerable financial package (though oscar has always been vocally defensive of guanyu's appointment to his detractors). instead of moving to another series, such as indycar or super formula, oscar recognized that he'd proven everything he needed to prove within the feeder system and opted to remain on the grid as alpine's reserve driver, mainly so that he could embed himself in an f1 team environment and—most crucially—avoid being left "out of sight, out of mind," because once you go to america you usually don't come back.

i'll keep the rest of this post brief since i feel like everyone already knows What Went Down, but a quick highlight for fellow landoscar enjoyers was the 2022 australian gp on april 10, during which oscar accompanied rosanna tennant for the post-race show and awkwardly participated in a chaotic lando & alex interview. as far as i know, this was landoscar's first time interacting on-camera!

o: "i haven't raced either of them, no." l: "not yet!" o: "not yet. hopefully soon." — (full video) (apr 10, 2022)

then silly season started, and everything was thrown into disarray when sebastian vettel announced his imminent retirement and fernando subsequently took his place at aston martin; alpine scrambled to recover from this blindsided move and prematurely promoted oscar to an f1 seat, to which oscar eventually posted The Tweet—claiming he'd never signed a contract with alpine and would not be racing for them in 2023, thus kicking off #piastrigate. or the piasco, or whatever you prefer to call it.

here's a good article that properly summarizes the crb ruling, but tl;dr: mclaren and alpine had come to an agreement back in march to loan oscar to mclaren's stable of reserve drivers after daniel contracted covid; mark webber, who was close to andreas seidl from their time at porsche in wec, quietly negotiated a contract with mclaren for 2023 that oscar would then sign on july 4, which was reportedly initially a reserve deal with an upgrade clause to a full-time drive given a dr buyout; alpine's legal team turned out to be essentially one overworked legal director who mishandled the situation thanks to a lack of organizational support, while a concrete williams deal never actually existed no matter what people continuously allege, and any proprietary right to oscar's services that alpine purported to have for the 2023 season would soon be voided by crb rule on september 2. in other words, they dun goofed.

because tumblr dies when i try to include it in this post, here's a link to a condensed chronological timeline version of this post.

that's it for now. i'm sure you know how the rest goes!!!

[necrotic-nephilim]

@sasheneskywalker i love when you enable me to ramble about things because oh my god do i have thoughts.

so recently, i made a post discussing the phenomena of DC x DP and DC x MLB crossovers and why they exist and part of that post was discussing how largely speaking, at least half, if not more of the Batfamily fandom doesn't read the comics. if they interact with canon DC material, it's adaptations that are their own sequestered universes and oftentimes not remotely comic accurate or seeking to be. the most obvious example is the Young Justice cartoon. i'm adding a cut to this post because it just got so long i'm so sorry.

a lot of times, when people are discussing the "why" of this oversaturation of fanon-only fandom, they blame Wayne Family Adventures. and i think, to a point, i agree WFA is responsible for a boom in this fandom. but as someone who's been in the fandom long before we had WFA, to me it's the other way around. WFA was DC's way of meeting the demand for this easy-to-get-into, easy-to-consume content about the Batfamily that predicates itself on the comics just enough to be vaguely the same characters, but has a more sitcom, slice-of-life sort of vibe so DC could profit off of this section of the fanbase that otherwise wasn't consuming its primary material. and well, it's definitely worked. not only that, but i have a weird theory that the decline in the MCU also led to the rise in the Batfamily fandom. when you consider the fan content that made the MCU popular within fandom, it's that 2012 "they all live in Avengers Tower and Thor is eating poptarts and Clint is in the vents and there are movie nights every Friday" sort of vibe. those were the fics that were a hallmark of the fandom. and as the MCU has strayed from well... quality content in general, but specifically well-thought-out crossover content where characters can have their own arcs but also exist in a wider story where they clearly care about each other, that fandom was sort of homeless. so where do you go, if you like a superhero found family where you can have villains for angst but also stick them all in one big family-like home for silly crack and have a plethora of options for gay ships? well. you go to the Batfamily. if you write a crack/fluff Batfamily genfic with silly vibes and low stakes instead of say, a fic about a very specific comic issue even if it's a popular comic, you're *going* to get more traction for the former. because the fanbase largely just isn't reading the comics.

and i feel... complicated about this. because on one hand, Don't Like Don't Read has been a tenet of my fandom experience. i'm very pro-fandom and that includes fandom content i don't like. and to an extent, i do think this sort of should apply to Batfamily fanon. i enjoy having my moments with other comic purists, giggling over exceptionally painful OOC headcanons or even facepalming in pain over some content but it is on me to not interact with that content. you don't make fandom a better place by being hostile to fans who engage with canon in ways you don't approve of. and frankly? we as comic readers are not going to get non-comic fans to read the comics by being asshats to them. no one is going to want to pick up any comic if we get a superiority complex about it. and also, i feel like we're all lying to ourselves a little bit insisting comics are so, so easy to get into. they're not. we can just all agree, they're really not. i've been single-handedly helping my sister get into comics, specifically Wonder Woman and no matter how simple i make it, i watch her get frustrated trying to understand what pre-Crisis and post-Crisis and New-52 and Flashpoint and all these things mean and what a retcon vs a reboot is and what a Crisis Event is and what the hell Diana's current backstory even *is*. sure, you can give someone a beginner list of comics to start with and slowly dip their toes in the water but sooner or later, *something* is going to confuse them. comics as a medium straight up aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea. and if someone *just* wants to read silly fluffy fanfiction about the Batfamily, i can't entirely begrudge them for not wanting to take the hours and hours out of their day to understand this medium. it's not an accessible medium to get into. "read this and this, but this run is out of print and this run wasn't collected in trades at all but also make sure you read that event in order and this is a good comic but the backstory in it is retconned and you *have* to read this it's so important but it's also really bad because the author kind of sucks" sounds. ridiculous for someone who like. just wants to read some stuff about Nightwing. sometimes, we all make reading comics sort of sound like a chore, not a hobby.

so my point is, i do extend some grace to Batfamily fanon for existing. i think my biggest gripe is, as i said in my other post, misuse of tags (if you're not creating content about comics, maybe you don't need the comics fandom tag on Ao3, just the all media types umbrella tag) and my far bigger gripe: when panels are taken out of context to support fanon only headcanons. if i could impart *anything* onto the Batfamily fandom as a comic fan it'd be this: if you haven't *read* the comic, don't spread the panel. if you don't even know what comic it's *from*, don't spread the panel. it's fine to use comic panels to discuss your headcanons, but so often i see someone spreading a comic panel from a comic they haven't read, and when asked where it's from, they can't source it. a silly example that comes to mind is a post going around, taking a panel where Dick, in his internal monologue goes "here comes the sun. do do do do." and the post is claiming it's from him getting buried alive. when that panel comes from Nightwing (1996) #140, and he gets buried alive in Nightwing (1996) #127, two completely different moments frankensteined together. if you're going to not read the comics, that's completely fine, but unless you're sure of the source and the context, panels shouldn't be spread around. i'm sick of this specifically happening to Red Robin (2009), with ppl claiming Tim has totally killed people because he blew up some of Ra's' bases, when those panels within context, make it clear he gave everyone time to escape. and in a later arc in that very comic, Tim grapples with the idea of murdering Captain Boomerang, and *specifically chooses not to*, because he doesn't agree with murder, even against the person who has hurt him the most. if you'd like to write fanfiction where Tim is pro-murder and has done some sketch things, i'm totally on board and would probably like to read it. but there's no need to pretend it's canon from a few panels you saw out of context.

beyond that, i think it's not *entirely* correct to say that fanon is harmless. whenever i see very WFA-positive posts, they often default to the argument that WFA is fun and silly, and comic fans are killjoys for not liking it. which. i think is complicated because the issue is, WFA and fanon don't exist in a vacuum. if you like WFA power to you, i don't think it's the worst thing ever, but i do think it's degrading to these characters because honestly? they feel incompetent in the webtoon. it's one thing if WFA was solely a slice-of-life sort of deal, just having silly episodes where Bruce is taking on a PTA mom or they're all fighting for the last cookie. but when WFA attempts to take on more serious plots with these characters, it *fundamentally* falls flat in understanding them. i get it, Bruce comforting Jason having a panic attack because a noise reminded him of the crowbar felt cute in a microcosm, but i'm so serious when i say that storyline destroyed how like. half of this fandom understands Jason Todd's relationship to his trauma. it doesn't understand how he reacts when he's triggered, what coping mechanisms he seeks out, and how he would handle Bruce comforting him. even if i can believe for a brief moment Jason *would* be triggered by something like that, him running and trying to hide and then getting a hug from Bruce to make it okay is just. painful. WFA needs everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. so even when it starts to tackle interesting concepts, it makes them fall flat with its need to be soft, low stakes, hurt/comfort. there was a two-parter episode that dealt with the complicated mutual hatred/jealousy between Tim and Damian that *almost* really interested me because for once, it felt like the webtoon wanted to explore canon messy dynamics. but of course, it had to be fixed with one conversation and a hug. you don't mend the *years* of issues these characters have like that. WFA isn't in character because these characters are hyperbole cartoonified versions of themselves to fit within the medium and be a cute happy family.

because that right there, is the crux of it. the Batfamily fanon seeks to simplify the Batfamily and force them into a nuclear family. there are so many fantastic posts on here discussing how the nuclear family-ification of the Batfam is eroding decades worth of complex histories so i won't go too far into that. but what i will say is that there's this need, in the Batfamily fandom, for the Batfamily to exist as a unit. they are a *family*. (honestly i think calling it the Batfamily is a misnomer and has been for years but we're in too deep now.) they exist to each other first, and any teams or friends they have come secondary to this family unit. you can *specifically* see this demonstrated in what headcanons are becoming popular these days. i have an entire lengthy meta in my drafts about how i *loathe* the "the Batfamily meets the Justice League" genre of fanfic because it makes no *sense*. in order to have this genre of fic exist, you must operate under the assumption that no one in the League, or adjacent to the League, knows the Batfamily exists and are thus utterly shocked to discover Batman has kids. and to make *that* work, you have to strip *every single Batfamily member* of such important dynamics and friendships so you can lock them all in Gotham for their whole lives. Dick can't have the Titans, Tim can't have Young Justice, Duke & Cass can't have the Outsiders, Jason can't have the Outlaws, Damian can't have the Supersons, Babs can't have the Birds of Prey, and so on. because if they had these relationships, they would be known to the League. the Batfamily fandom doesn't care about this, it's just "silly fanfiction", it's not trying to be serious. but how can you say you like Dick Grayson as a character if you don't understand the Titans *are* his family? at some points of his life, moreso than the Batfamily even is. it is constantly repeated to us in most comics with Dick how much the Titans mean to him. he *needs* them to be who he is. the same extends to every other Batfamily member, most of which have been full League members at this point. but in fanon, that doesn't matter. the Batfamily are a sequestered unit first, and all of those side relationships are secondary and easy to toss away, if it makes your fanfic work better.

and because they have to be a unit first, you have these forced relationships that dump years of actual canon material for the sake of making them get along. the Batfamily fandom has its favorites and well. it's no secret it's usually the boys. Jason and Tim by *far* stand out as fandom faves so, their dynamic is a heavily explored one. it does matter that in canon they don't tend to get along and especially don't see each other as family. what matters is that you can push dynamics onto them. and so fanon gets all twisted up about which Robin Tim actually idolized as a kid (Dick) and what member of the Batfamily is pro-murder but still an older sibling figure to him and looks out for him (Helena, or if you want the dynamic of once tried to harm Tim but they've reconciled, Jean-Paul) in favor of who's the most popular. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian are always going to be the standouts for popularity, but it's specifically Jason and Tim who are getting fanonized the most. and that's because really, we don't have much canon content of Tim that *isn't* the comics. for Dick you've got Young Justice (tv), for Damian you've got the DCAMU, for Jason you've sort of got the Under The Red Hood movie, but Tim sort of lingers in this limbo. (yes, he's in Young Justce (tv) and Titans (live action) but in neither is he the main character nor given much depth) so, he gets a *lot* projected onto him and has become fanonized. and even with Jason's animated movies, you don't see him interact with Tim, so people build it from the ground up how they want to see it, disregarding of canon comics. i think it's what makes him so popular in the first place- he's malleable into whatever you want or need him to be.

and of course, the fanon ignores other characters in the Batfamily it doesn't know about. i feel like you could create a tier list of Batfamily characters by their popularity, going from the fandom main characters: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian. to the underrated: Steph, Duke, Babs, Cass. to the forgotten about unless they're convenient for a story: Kate, the Foxes, Helena Wayne, Carrie, Selina, Harper Row, Maps, Minhkhoa Khan. to the absolutely unknown: Helena Bertinelli, Jean-Paul Valley, Onyx Adams, the Clovers, Julia Pennyworth. it's not lost on me that the ignored characters tend to be women and people of color. which is both a canon and fanon problem, DC will continue adding interesting characters to the Batfamily, play with them for a few years, then drop them to default to the "Batboys" again. and it's a vicious cycle of the fandom only caring about the "Batboys", and thus people entering the fandom via fanon osmosis won't have content about the other characters, therefore, they won't be interested in those characters enough to create it, and it's just this ouroboros consuming itself, no matter how much canon content we have of these other characters. and it's ridiculous just how large the Batfamily is becoming because of this, which is why i'm a pre-Flashpoint fan, because then the Batfamily was contained enough to actually feel like a family with every character having nuances relationships with each other, but i digress because those thoughts could be their own post.

and the thing about fanon is it doesn't exist in a vacuum. DC has started turning the comics to accommodate for what fans are asking for, because fans will beg and beg for content they're not going to consume. Tim Drake: Robin had Tim as a coffee drinker because that's the fanon accepted headcanon. and the resolution of the recent Gotham War arc was for Bruce to buy this new manor for everyone to move in and call him. nevermind that most of these characters have their own homes and have zero reason to be moving in with Bruce. Tim had his marina in Tim Drake: Robin, Dick has Bludhaven, Cass and Steph have their little side of town in Batgirls (2022), and so on. these characters are being forced together as a unit, as one big happy family living together, to appease what non-comic fans want and it's damaging comic relationships. Robin: Knight Terrors saw Jason and Tim team up and working together, which i've seen varying opinions on but i personally despised. their interactions made zero sense for any of their canon history, but it appeases them being this close sibling relationship that fanon acts like they are. also the fears they faced in their respective knight terrors didn't make sense for either character and *only* worked as a moment of bringing them together so they could reassure each other and have this weird dreamscape bonding moment. the canon is bending itself to the will of fanon rather than building on the pre-existing complex relationships. Tim barely even gets along with his most important team in Dark Crisis: Young Justice because it seems the only important relationships the Batfamily can have is with each other. and when we do see them outside of the Batfamily, it only seems to be to relive the glory days like with World's Finest: Teen Titans, instead of developing them as they currently exist. this isn't recent in the comics, it feels like you can trace it back to the New-52, but it does feel a *lot* worse over the recent years. WFA is fine when it exists in its own bubble, but the simple truth is, DC content never exists on its own. the adaptations will reflect back onto the comics. (the damage the Young Justice cartoon has done to some characters should honestly be studied) and so it does frustrate me a bit when fanon-only or adaptation-only fans act like we're being nothing but killjoys for being frustrated with this. since they don't read the comics, they don't see how the comics are suffering as a result of this.

people argue about what's out of character for the comics they don't even read. i'm sorry, but "bad dad Bruce" is consistently canon. that man is just kind of shitty. when you take someone who has the drive he has, who has this need for the Mission first, who needs a teenager in spandex next to him to keep him off the ledge, that guy is sort of going to be a shitty father figure. he just is. not on purpose or with malice, but when you compare him to any other dad in a big DC family, he sure takes the cake. it's why characters like Oliver Queen tend to *really* fucking hate Bruce for how he treats his kids. Bruce loves fiercely, but he doesn't do well with putting that love first. and his love is a controlling one, he is very particular about controlling how others in the Batfamily are "allowed" to operate. it's what drives the wedge between him and Dick, it's why Steph is never a true daughter to him. (besides the reason of her needing to be a love interest to Tim first, anyway-) i've never understood the massive outcry of people reacting to Bruce kinda being shitty in comics they're not reading. there are some moments that get ridiculously OOC with how cartoonishly evil he is (the whole Gotham War arc and that... complicated mess with Jason) but largely if you want sitcom loving nuclear father Bruce, you have to accept that is a fanon thing, not a canon one. the Batfamily being a nuclear family in *general* is fanon. most of the "Batkids" don't actually see Bruce in a particularly fatherly light and begging for moments where he calls them his kids or they call him dad outside of incredibly specific circumstances is just OOC.

it's getting harder and harder to exist peacefully in this fandom it feels like, if you don't comply to the standard fanon has set. i'm happy people are having fun with their blorbos, even if in ways i dislike, but that "harmless fandom fun" does ripple it's way back to canon, eventually. so i end up pretty tangled with my feelings because are fans at fault for DC making these poor decisions? probably not, but it certainly feels like an unfortunate cause-and-effect situation whether at the end of the day, nobody is happy. and of course, i know some fanon-only fans are striving to be more canon accurate and care about canon dynamics more than others, but for them it's always going to be an uphill battle with the above-mentioned out-of-context panels thrown around and ever-pervasive fanon overtaking anything that's truly seeking to be canon compliant. so really, it sometimes feels like we're all losing.

[otsanda]

So @sayuri-of-the-valley and I were talking about the music in Good Omens 2 and particularly the similarities and differences in the music that happens 'Before the Beginning' (that's the song title) and at The Kiss (that's not the song title) and I have accidentally developed Theories and had Thoughts, so I’m gonna share them in case anyone else wants to weigh in.

First of all, the general musical structure is similar. They are both dramatic moments that start quietly, grow to a powerful crescendo at the Big Moment, and then resolve more quietly again, but with subtle changes that make them feel very different. Without actually going through and checking it, they sound to be at roughly the same tempo (around 140 BPM) and comparable time signatures.

Now, I'm treating these two dramatic moments and the surrounding music as two songs, although in the soundtrack the music surrounding The Kiss is actually divided into two songs itself: I Forgive You and Don't Bother, so that's. Fine. I'm normal about that. I'm sure dividing that in half doesn't Mean Anything at all. I'm NORMAL about it!!! Ah... anyways.

The instrumentation for both Before the Beginning and The Kiss is also very similar. Both songs start with orchestral winds and strings and add a powerful choral part (on the same pure round vowel sound, no less!) on the big crescendo. Both add orchestral chimes (bells) for that epic religious feel. Both the nebula creation and the kiss were a revelation. Something like a religious experience.

And then both songs resolve featuring wind and strings again, among other instruments. The "after" part of both songs also features more pitched percussion (harp, maybe a celesta, glockenspiel, possibly a dulcimer or some other fun, ethereal pitched percussion in Before the Beginning, but interestingly a piano in Don't Bother). Ouch. That hurts.

Now, to me: the piano is possibly representing the nightingale, Crowley and Aziraphale's love of Earth and humanity, whereas the glockenspiel and etc. may be more representative of heaven. Just a guess. I would have to do more careful listening for a more solid theory.

I don’t have perfect pitch so it’s hard to tell without getting out my instruments or transcribing the piece, but I’m willing to bet ‘I Forgive You’ is in the relative minor key to Before the Beginning’s mostly major key (I *think* ‘Before the Beginning’ might be mostly in the key of C major and ‘I Forgive You’ in A minor, but I could be wrong). Regardless, the former is major and the latter is more minor, but otherwise a lot of the chord structures, especially at the big moment, sound very similar.

More on instrumentation: ‘Before the Beginning’ uses more (ethereal?) flutes in the wind sections and The Kiss uses more reed-based, (earthy?) winds like clarinet, bassoon, oboe, etc. Different feel, but the same kind of structure. Both moments heavily feature a big string section for the nice full orchestral sound.

Before the Beginning has a lot going on musically before the crescendo and it intentionally feels kind of chaotic and unformed bc each instrument family is doing something a little different, building anticipation, etc. and then at the big crescendo, they all come together. Very powerful. Then after the crescendo, we get a subtle, playful reprise/variation of the Good Omens Main Theme. The strings and the winds are no longer entirely together at this point. They’re sort of playing off one another, leaving space. Having a conversation.

By comparison, in ‘I Forgive You’ the wind/strings start off playing together, in a sad version of unison before the crescendo (they both knew the conversation they were having wasn’t going to end well but they fundamentally *understand* one another now; they’ve been talking for millions of years). And AFTER the crescendo of The Kiss, the song ‘Don’t Bother’ DROPS the majority of the string section and gives the melody to a solo violin (alone!!!!). Even worse (better) the strings and the woodwinds and pitched percussion are no longer playing together. This time, they aren’t even having a conversation. They’re musically doing a separate lines. It feels extremely lonely (because it is). The violin is very exposed. The piano is very exposed. Even the chorus sounds exposed (smaller group of singers?). This ALSO includes a reprise/variation on the main GO theme, but instead of being playful it’s extremely sad (as though you didn't notice). The rest of the orchestra is still there, providing background, but it's not the same.

The Biggest Decision (the song after Don't Bother) has a lot more of those ethereally coded instruments again. Harp, pitched percussion. Full string section. Angelic chorus. Aziraphale is making the hardest/worst decision to return to heaven.

And to round it out, once we get to "The End?" we are back to piano. Our duo is separated. Now in place of the solo violin we have solo cello and piano. Gutting. We get notes of the ethereal celesta (I think). The piano keeps us grounded, but cello is a big focus. We also get more of that haunting chorus and violin runs. And then we end with solo piano playing the same 5-note run three times. Alone. After every other instrument has dropped out. Very lonely.

Just for fun, (and to end on a slightly more positive note), I went back and listened to the ox rib music as well, which was surprisingly consistent with some of my theories from up above and also not on the soundtrack so although I'm sure it has a name, I certainly don't know it.

In the ox rib section, there are more instruments before the first big moment (when Aziraphale tries the food) that are going back and forth. Again it sounds to me like they’re having a conversation… tempting and being tempted. Winds and strings (strings are tremoloing like at the kiss for that sweet, sweet tension), but also brass instruments. We have some more ethereal sounding pitched percussion, especially *before* he tries the food but afterwards it... switches to piano! Like I said: Earth!!!

The choir is on a different vowel altogether for this part (more aggressive and ominous, a taller Ah instead of a round Oh/Aw like the first two musical moments). The choir is also much more rhythmic. Again, increasing tension. And, of course, after he tries the food the music supports the tension of the scene by gradually building, getting louder and bigger after the key moment has already passed. It's super interesting that Aziraphale trying the food is actually quite quiet, but the music grows quickly afterwards. Sort of the inverse of how the other two scenes play out musically! Fascinating!!

Anyways, let me know what you think I got wrong and what I missed and if I thought something was a celesta when it was actually a glockenspiel or something. I am thrilled and devastated by this incredible music.

[nessatwene-art]

TPP: EP 1

It’s the first day of school at Central High and the first day of third year for Lucas, already over it before he could amble into the building. It’s just another school year. Robyn stepped out of a car, waving her mom goodbye. She let out a soft sigh, gazing up at the high school. She just wanted to get through her first day at her new school without any trouble. 

The student body crammed their way into the gymnasium. Red, white and black confetti were scattered everywhere, and balloons arched a speaking podium in the middle of the gym. A huge red banner hung across the wall saying “Welcome Cardinals!” in big white letters. 

The pep rally was always the most annoying part of the first day, Lucas thought, sitting next to his friends on the crowded, rowdy bleachers. The marching band music, the obnoxious cheerleaders, too much pomp and circumstance. He plugged his ear buds, attempting to drown out the noise.

“Omg hi!! Hey!! How’s it going!” Clarissa waved at everyone she missed this past summer. 

Mark scrolled through his phone, passing post after post about different monster appearances around Union. Regular Monday news.

“Hi,” Robyn pointed at the open space next to Clarissa, “Is this seat taken?”

“No, go ahead!” Clarissa scooted over, “I’ve never seen you here before.”

“I’m new here.”

Clarissa gasped, starry eyed, “That’s so exciting!” Clarissa poked at Mark and Lucas, “Guys! A new student!”

Robyn gave them a nervous smile, they awkwardly waved back.

“I’m Clarissa by the way.” Clarissa held out her hand.

“Robyn, I’m a junior,” She happily shook it. How friendly, She thought.

“The one with the glasses is Mark, and the brooding one is Lucas. They’re like my best buds.” Clarissa introduced the others. “Also juniors.”

“Clar, I’m not brooding,” Lucas yawned, “Just tired.”

“It's 7:45, dude, wake up,” Mark shoved Lucas’s shoulder. 

Mic feedback rippled through the gym and all chatter and music shushed. The principal stood against the podium, welcoming the students into a new school year with obvious cringe and outdated slang here and there. 

“Hey,” Clarissa whispered to Robyn, “If you want, we can give you a tour around campus during lunch.”

Robyn agreed, it beats feeling lost for a week. Plus she liked Clarissa’s hospitality.

Students fizzled out of the gym, cramming through the hallway. 

Clarissa offered to help Robyn locate her locker as they strolled along in front of the other two. It was sort of a special skill of Clarissa to seem like close friends to someone she met fifteen minutes ago.

Mark nudged Lucas, “Doing anything this year?”

“I don’t know…” Lucas scratched his head.

“Baseball?”

“Our team sucked last year.”

“Well you could always—”

“I’m not joining robotics, Mark,” Lucas rolled his eyes, stopping in front of his locker.

“Whoa!” Clarissa hollered just a couple lockers down, “You guys are neighbors!” She pointed at Robyn opening hers at the lower level. Robyn gave yet another awkward smile.

“What about competition? You haven’t done those in a while,” Mark leaned against the wall.

“My dad’s been on my case about fighting,” Lucas threw random supplies from his backpack into his locker, “Saying I should ‘focus on school extracurriculars and whatever,'” Lucas gave his best dad impression. “I don’t know what the issue is.”

A Skateboarder swept through the hallway, “Whoops!” swiping Lucas backpack right out of his hands, scattering books and papers across the floor.

“What the hell!” Lucas, annoyed, bent over to pick his stuff up.

“Oh gosh,” Robyn helped gather up the remaining.

The skateboarder slowly scooted back, eyeing Robyn.

“Never seen you before,” He smirked

“Piss off, Blake,” Lucas spat.

“Take it easy,” Blake relaxed his hands in his jean pockets, “I’m just trying our new friend.”

“Well, I’m Robyn,” For better or for worse, she introduced herself one more time, “I’m new…you get the picture.”

“Right, right, and I guess you already made friends with Mucas, Crony, and braceface.”

“Hey!” Clarissa objected.

“Rude…” Mark added.

Lucas kicked Blake’s board, rolling it down the hallway.

“The hell?! That was a new board!”

“Then don’t knock over my stuff!” Lucas said, tightening his fist at Blake.

Not a second too soon the principal stood over the two with a skateboard around his arm, “Break it up!” He looked unpleasant. “If you lay a finger on each other it'll be straight to detention!”

“Sorry, Principal Finke,” Lucas and Blake said in unison as if they rehearsed it thousands of times.

“And there’s no skateboarding in the building! I’ll be confiscating this till further notice.”

“Aw come on!” Blake protested.

BRING!! The first bell rang. 

“Hurry off to homeroom, all of you. Luckily It’s meatball sub Monday so I’m in a good mood,” The principal walked off.

“Tch dork ass,” Blake insulted the principal. He turned back to Robyn, smirked and shrugged. “It was nice to meet you, Robbie,” then he sauntered away.

“Geeeezz,” Clarissa groaned.

“Yeah…uh sorry about that,” Lucas apologized. “He’s…”

“An asshole?” Robyn finished.

“Yup.”

BRING!!  the bell rang again.

“Do you mind helping me find my homeroom, Clarissa?” Robyn asked.

“Sure!” They began walking together. “Robyn tour during lunch! Don’t forget!” Clarissa called out to the boys heading their separate ways.

“307…307…” Robyn mumbled, looking for her last class before lunch. 

She walked into a science classroom, already filled with other students, Blake among them, hanging out before the bell rings. She noticed Lucas sitting at a desk in the last row, head perched on his hand, buds in his ear, and gazing out the window. Robyn took the empty desk right in front of him, they may not be close but at least he’s a familiar face.

“Um Luke, right?”

“Close,” He took his earbuds out, “Lucas.”

“Oh right, right,” She playfully knocked her forehead. 

Robyn wondered what to talk about, Lucas seemed much more reserved than his enthusiastic friend, Clarissa. “Are you into chemistry?” This is a chemistry class…

“Eh,” Lucas shrugged, “It's fine I guess.”

“Ah.” 

Lucas folded his arms and leaned back against his chair, “Picked up a thing or two from my dad. He really wanted me to take it though. it’s like his thing.”

“Uh huh,” Robyn nodded.

“So where’re you from?”

“I’m from Union, I've been in Central for most of my life.”

“Then where'd you go? Eastman? Rolling Green? Kilbourne?

The question stung her a bit. After all she wanted to leave that behind but she knew it was inevitable.

“Um…Ravenwood…”

“Ravenwood?” Lucas leaned forward.

Robyn could feel the slight twinge of embarrassment. “Y-yeah.”

“Huh,” Lucas lingered for a second, “I could see it.”

The bell finally rang and students took their seats as their teacher rushed in through the door.

“Good morning everyone,” The teacher began scribbling her name on the whiteboard in front of the class. “I’m Elizabeth Vader, but you can call me Ms. Ellie,” She said in a bright smile. “Welcome to AP Chem!”

Ms. Ellie passed out syllabuses then pulled out a bowl filled with small pieces of paper. “Please pick one piece of paper,” She explained while walking down the rows, “And whoever gets the same number as you is your lab partner for the semester.”

A few students groaned.

Ms. Ellie made it to the last row, Robyn and Lucas drew a lot.

“7,” Robyn’s paper read.

Lucas tapped her shoulder, holding out his paper, “7.”

“Guess we’re lab partners,” Lucas said.

“Lab partners and locker neighbors. What are the chances?” Robyn laughed.

Students talked amongst themselves for a bit, as Ms. Ellie prepared material at her front desk. Robyn overheard a couple of peers talking about the recent news, unnaturals, mysterious monsters that have appeared in Union for some time. One mentioned how he thought one of the unnaturals looked kind of cool, describing it the best he could. bright yellow eyes, huge talons, and two pairs of wings that allowed it to soar like a jet. 

“That sounds like a yellow core ave unnatural!” Robyn butted in, “not crazy rare or anything, but some aves can fly over 300 miles per hour, which is faster than the fastest bird on earth, and—” Robyn trailed off, “oh sorry…” She adjusted her glasses.

“No, no, it’s cool,” The student reassured her.

“Pffft ha!” Lucas cracked up, “Now I definitely see it.”

The bell rang and students filed out of the room heading towards the cafeteria. Robyn sat at her desk packing up while Lucas sat on the desktop texting Clarissa their ETA. 

“Oh Robyn!” Ms. Ellie walked up towards her, “Sorry for being a little nosy, but I overheard your little convo and saw you have credit from a summer program at the Union Institute.”

“Mm hm.”

“I think it’s very impressive! I don’t meet too many students who are very passionate about studying unnaturals.”

“Thanks Ms. Ellie,” Robyn blushed.

“Would you be interested in seeing the science department’s core collection?”

Robyn gasped, “I would love to!”

She followed Ms. Ellie to the department's storage room at the back of the class. Lucas jumped from the desktop, tailing behind them.

Ms. Ellie turned on the lights and opened a large cabinet next to a shelf of extra beakers and graduated cylinders. Inside were seven half gallon sized glass tubes with a metal base and a top locked with a hatch. Each held a colorful crystal orb. Half shined brilliantly while the others were dim. They all had labels taped around the thick glass with their designated nomenclature; Red cored beast, yellow cored aquatic, yellow cored flora, and so on.

“I’m sure it’s not as impressive as the Union Institute,” Ms. Ellie took one out, passing it to Robyn.

“There’s so much variety! Plus these stasis chambers look brand new!” Robyn gleefully examined. 

Ms. Ellie noticed Lucas leaning against the door frame. “Would you like to see?” She handed him an unnatural stasis chamber before he could utter a word.

“How was the program, Robyn?” She asked.

“It was great!” Robyn hopped in excitement, “I learned so much. The labs were so cool and modern! Plus the food was pretty darn good.”

“How lovely!”

“Even better, I got to meet the lab’s director and he offered me an after school internship!”

“That’s wonderful, Robyn!”

“Wait, for real?” Lucas added, juggling the glowing red core given by Ms. Ellie with his bare hands. 

“Yeah! But…” Robyn’s excitement grew quiet. “I don’t know if my project idea will be approved if—”

“Lucas! My goodness!” Ms. Ellie interrupted.

“...What?” Lucas said, startled.

“Don’t take active cores out of their stasis chambers!” She scolded him. “If it’s left out too long its form could regenerate!”

“It’s not like it’s gonna reform in a second,” he threw the core up, catching it like a ball.

Ms. Ellie winced. “Lucas, put it back please,” She threw her hands on her hips with a stern frown.

He groaned, putting the core back in its chamber and locking its hatch. He placed the chamber on the closest shelf stocked with extra chem equipment.

Ms. Ellie exhaled in relief. “Well,” she cleared her throat, “You two don't want to miss lunch right?” 

“Oh right, my tour!” Robyn remembered.

Ms. Ellie escorted them out of the classroom, shutting the door behind her.

The door creaked back open. A figure tiptoed through the classroom to the storage room, easily breaking in. They took the chamber sitting on the shelf placed by Lucas, unlocked  its hatch, and set the shining red core on the tiled floor. It began to simmer. The figure hurried out the room, leaving the door cracked open.

“There you guys are!” Clarissa stood outside the bustling cafeteria.  

“We had class on the third floor,” Lucas replied, walking beside Robyn, “Plus the new girl’s a teacher’s pet.”

“Hey,” Robyn objected, “For your information we were having a great conversation till he decided to mess with an unnatural core.”

“It wasn't that big of a deal,” Lucas brushed it off.

“Um? You weren’t handling it properly and—”

“Hey guys!” Mark jogged in out of breath. 

“And where were you?” Clarissa asked.

“Gym class.” 

“Well since we’re all here…Tour!” Clarissa led the way down the hallway. 

The three guided Robyn through Central High, filling her in on anecdotes and embarrassing gossip; like last year's nearly disastrous production of Singing in the Rain, the pranks pulled by the varsity football team on student council, and the time when a rival school kidnapped their mascot, Cornelius the Cardinal, and held him for “ransom”. 

“That’s where we have anime club!” Clarissa pointed at a classroom, “you can join if you want!”

“Or Robotics. Thursdays and Fridays starting next week.” Mark added.

“Thanks, I’ll consider,” Robyn smiled, not wanting to turn them down yet.

“Did you do any clubs at your old school?” Mark asked.

“Academic olympiad and archery.” She pretended to draw and shoot a bow.

Mark, Clarissa, and Lucas awed.

“Of course your old school had an archery team,” Lucas remarked.

“Wait, where are you from anyway?” Mark raised another question as they headed up to the third floor.

Robyn hesitated at the top of the stairs. “Just another school in Union—”

“She went to Ravenwood,” Lucas killed the suspense.

Mark and Clarissa gasped.

Ravenwood Academy isn’t that different from Central High, right? The thought ran through her head. Her eyes pierced at Lucas when he passed her up the steps. He glanced back, shrugging a shoulder.

“Wait, I totally see it…” Clarissa wagged her finger when she connected the dots.

“Told ya, teacher’s pet—OW!” Clarissa nudged Lucas in his side.

“I mean, that’s a really good school,” Mark wondered, “Don’t mean to pry but how come you left?”

“Ah well.” 

The three raised their brows, eager for Robyn’s answer.

“I guess it just wasn’t for me. I mean, who wants to go to a school with a bunch of know-it-alls anyway,” Robyn laughed, “Plus I don’t have to wear a uniform anymore.”

The others giggled at her punches at Ravenwood.

“Then I’m glad I got to meet you, Robyn,” Clarissa said as they continued their tour down a third floor hallway. “I moved to Central when I was ten, so I understand what going to a new school is like.”

Robyn gave a sweet smile.

Lucas threw his gaze elsewhere—not sure what it was in him but he wasn’t satisfied with that answer. Though he’s only known Robyn for what? Four-ish hours? 

She didn’t feel ready to tell the truth yet. It weighed heavy on her heart but this is what she wanted.

They finally reach the science wing. Clarissa stepped in front of the rest, ready to end the tour. 

“And that’s our school!” She raised her arms in the air, “any questions?”

“Hmm…” Robyn pondered.

“Can we get some food, Clar? I’m staarrrvving,” Lucas’s stomach grumbled.

“Do we still have enough time for lunch?” Robyn asked.

“We can grab lunch during study hall, teachers don’t really take attendance for upperclassmen then,” Mark explained.

“First day usual?” Lucas posed.

“I’m up for it,” Mark agreed.

“What’s the first day usual?”

“Since middle school, we would go to Pelino’s Pizza and Deli after school and get a large box of the ultimate four cheeses with the works. Then go to the corner store on the same street and load up on a ton of snacks and drinks!” Clarissa eye’s eyes lit up talking about it.

“Not the fanciest, but it hits every time,” Lucas grinned.

His grin was whipped away as a shadow grew tall behind Clarissa. The others stood stunned by Its abrupt appearance, staring into its fiery red eyes as it slowly drew out its thick claws.

“And since we’re upperclassmen now, we can leave campus whe—”

“CLARISSA!” Robyn gasped, jumping to grab her out of the way. They slide across the hallway, bumping into a wall of lockers.

SWOOSH! Its claws striked the ground.

“Holy crap!” Clarissa yelled while pinned to the floor. “What was that?”

The Unnatural stood up on its hind legs, its body was as thick as a black bear, and its fur was colored like cinnabar jasper. Two large fangs raised out from its bottom jaw and claws were as long as a sloth’s. Robyn felt a beat of sweat drip from her face. This encounter felt all too familiar but this time she knew what to do. Robyn rose on to one knee, her hands began to spark, materializing a glowing purple bow.

“Whoa,” Clarissa was awestruck. 

She drew the string, conjuring an arrow just as brilliant as the bow. WOOSH! Robyn shot. It flew down the hallway towards the unnatural, hitting the wall just beside it.

“Gah?! I missed?!” Robyn cried.

However, she didn’t fail to get it’s attention. The unnatural turned towards the girls, stomping and lifting its claws. There was nowhere to run in time, they braced for impact. 

WAM! An azure beam shot the unnatural to the ground. 

The girls hurried up from the floor and Robyn looked around for where the shot came from. Lucas held a finger gun and blue steam wisped from the end of his index finger.

“Oh my god!” Mark said, hiding behind Lucas, “Are you guys okay?”

Before they could answer, the unnatural stood up, escaping on all fours down the hallway.

“Damn it!” Lucas raced after it, “Mark, watch over them!” He yelled.

“Lucas, wait!” Robyn chased after them before Mark could stop her.

Robyn followed Lucas, staring carefully at the unnatural they’re pursuing. Then it clicked.

“Lucas!” Robyn caught up with him.

“Hey!” He was shocked to see her, “I thought you were staying back?”

“Lucas, look!” She pointed at the unnatural, “That’s what happens when you mess with a core!” She scolded him.

“....What?!!” 

The stopped at the top of a stairway as the unnatural stood its ground at the bottom.

“That’s a red core unnatural! That’s the one you took out of its stasis chamber!”

“What the hell are you talking about?! You saw me put it back!”

“Maybe you didn’t put it back right. I told you it’s dangerous!” Robyn argued. She drew her bow again, shooting and missing again. “Come on!” She yelled in frustration.

Lucas ran down the steps, this time hitting the unnatural with an energy fist. They locked in combat as the commotion began to draw a crowd. Robyn followed down to the second floor and watched as Lucas effortlessly fought against the unnatural. Even when he was hit he could brush it off. A punch, a kick, a shot—his grin was wide and eyes focused, like he was having a blast. As for Robyn, she could barely hit it with her arrows.

“Excuse me! Sorry!” She ran through the crowd of students, drawing her bow one more time. It hit! “Yes!” Robyn cheered.

The unnatural takes its attention from Lucas to Robyn.

“Oh no!”

It chased after her. 

She ran into a deadend and the unnatural continued to charge after her.

Perfect, Lucas thought.

“Robyn!” Lucas sprint behind the unnatural, “When I say ‘now’ shoot an arrow at its chest!”

Robyn gulped and drew her bow, closing one eye to aim. Lucas formed a finger gun and the index started to glow.

The unnatural rushed closer and closer and closer, then jumped into the air.

“Now!”

Robyn shot her arrow and Lucas shot a beam, both striking the unnatural right in the middle. It fell to the ground and its form dissipated into a thick red smoke, leaving nothing but a glowing red core on the ground.

Robyn slid against the wall, dropping to in relief. Lucas walked over and helped her up. She brushed the dust out of her skirt as more people stepped into the hallway. Chatter among them grew louder and some even cheered.

“Nice,” Lucas smiled.

She smiled back.

Clarissa and Mark ran down the stairs, embracing both. 

“Holy cow!” Clarissa exclaimed, “are you guys okay?”

“Yeah,” despite nearly being attacked and missing almost all her shots, Robyn beamed. “We’re great!”

The principal came rushing down the hallway, hands over his head utterly flabbergasted. “WHAT IN GOD’S NAME?!”

Garbage, books, and papers were thrown everywhere, a broken fountain spat out water, and some lockers were dented and covered in claw marks. 

“Oops,” Lucas mumbled.

The hallway was a mess!

“Who is responsible for this!!??” The Principal's face was hot red.

A few in the crowd point at the culprits.

Lucas’s jaw dropped “ARE YA’LL SERIOUS??!”

The final bell rang, Lucas and Robyn sat in an empty classroom. Robyn’s face was planted on the desk while Lucas sat with his head perched on his shoulder bored.

“First time in detention?” Lucas asked.

“Noo,” Robyn sulked, lifting her head, “But it's my first time having two entire weeks of detention!” She planted her face back on the desk. “Thanks for asking.”

“Finke has a stick up his geriatric ass. He’s always looking for someone to punish,” Lucas tried to reassure her. 

She didn’t respond.

“Um, sorry about that”

“About what?”

“The unnatural…but I swore I put the core back.”

“It’s fine,” Robyn lifted her head back up, “I wonder how it could’ve gotten out…” She took a small journal from her backpack, scribbling thoughts onto a page.

“Hell of a first day, huh?” he sat back, resting the back of his head against his hands.

“Gee, you telling me,” she agreed, “I thought getting through my first day was going to be easy but now I’m sitting in after school detention with nine more waiting for me because an unnatural somehow attacked the school! Now I’m gonna be late to my internship which I don't even know is gonna happen because I haven’t gotten my project approved because nobody wants to join!” She vented out her frustrations.

“What's the project,” Lucas asked.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to get approved anyway.”

“Lemme hear it.”

Robyn sighed, “I wanted to do case studies of unnaturals living and appearing around Central on a personal level—and help out if they're causing trouble, sorta like today. If you think you put it back then how did it appear in the school? Was it from a fracture?” She came to a sad pause. “I’m the only high schooler and none of the other interns wanted to join. Plus I can barely use my powers well. How am I going to help anyone, let alone myself?” Robyn sunk in her desk.

“Could I join?”

“Wait…what?” Robyn perked up.

“You have a cool power. Your bow.” Lucas complimented. “Didn’t expect you to be a poten.”

“I didn’t expect you either—”

“But,” Lucas continued, “Monsters aren’t sitting targets. Your technique is too hesitant, that’s why you missed so much.”

“Oh! Uhhhh.”

“And if you’re standing there to load up your shots, you’re easy prey.”

 “Hm…” Robyn thinks for a moment, wondering how much he was paying at attention to her during the fight. He seemed too focused; like he was in his own world.

“So I figured, your project is gonna be like this, you’re gonna need someone who knows their way around a fight.” Lucas shrugged, “Maybe help you to learn your abilities.” He tried to come off as nonchalant, but his interest was genuine.

Robyn wondered, “I don’t know if the director would allow it since you're not an intern and all.”

“C’mon,” Lucas insisted, “If I teach you, you teach me. I think we can work something out.”

Robyn beamed, remembering how his face looked when he was fighting the unnatural. That was his element.

“Okay,” She agreed, “Then let's go after school tomorrow! I can’t wait for you to see the lab and meet the director! It’s going to be so cool!”

They chatted through the rest of detention. One person was one step closer. Despite all that happened today, more was awaiting them.

Ms. Ellie opened the door to the science department storage. Holding the core in her hand, she placed the core back in its chamber, locking it tightly. 

“Gosh, how troublesome.” She placed the chamber back in the cabinet with the others. “I’m just glad that nobody was hurt,” She sighed in relief. She closed the cabinet, locking it securely with a padlock. Ms. Ellie walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Unknown to her, another stasis chamber sat hidden behind the shelf of extra books and equipment, unlocked and empty.

[mcybree]

I prepared this ask in the Notes app only for Tumblr to not let me copy and paste the text so here’s a screenshot bc I’m not typing all that again lol

there’s this funny trend i see in trafficblr art, in that, when there’s a lineup of every past winner, most players will be surrounded by symbols that were relevant to their POV, and perhaps drawn with the last emotion they’d felt just before death (or maybe just whatever emotion the artist most associates with the character). The winners might be doing something, or in a pose that reflects how they won—there are a million ways to make a life series winners’ piece. What’s funny about it is that no one ever seems to know what to do with Scott. He’s most often just standing there looking mildly disgruntled. And for the symbols he’s most depicted with, it’s typically poppies, which are only relevant to the first season; last life scott does not place any importance on poppies, poppies dont ever come up beyond a brief interaction in episode 1, and jimmy as a whole is less relevant to scott’s pov in last life than he is in every other season.

not that this is an issue with the art; the pieces are beautifully done, it’s just representative of how little fandom discussion there is about scott’s win thematically. Most discussion I see are about the watchers and how they hate scott for defying him or whatever, but watcher lore is not discussion of the series itself as much as it is a fan creation that is retroactively applied to create meaning.

Scott’s Last Life win, to me, was achieved through accomplishing what Third Life Scott could not.

Scott spent 3L waiting for his day one ally to die. He kept Jimmy at a distance, often fully gearing himself up first before backtracking to help Jimmy along. There’s a funny disparity in episode 5, where Jimmy spends the entire episode trying to get good enchants on his iron armor, while Scott sets up a villager and gets good enchants for the full diamond set that he’d already had in storage, in about half the time Jimmy took trying to accomplish his own goal, iirc. This disparity is also something scott acknowledges with the “I’ll always be more powerful than you” line, but it’s been a while since ive written a post like this so i unfortunately do not have the episode number memorized on that one anymore. But Scott goes on to explain that he’ll always have better armor and weapons, which is why Jimmy could never kill him. This is all to say that Jimmy and Scott do not stand on equal grounds in their alliance, and, more importantly, Scott does not depend on Jimmy. The progress Scott makes in Third Life is entirely his own, with Jimmy as more of an afterthought than a teammate.

This is what landed Scott his all time lowest placement. After Jimmy dies first, Scott loses sight of his priorities and dedicates his remaining time alive to avenging Jimmy, rather than focusing on his own longevity (like he’d go on to do in future seasons). And, in that way, Scott’s attitude towards Jimmy (disposable, going to die, unreliable) was an indirect contributor to Scott’s low placement.

In contrast: Scott could not have won Last Life without Pearl. Scott has to rely on Pearl from day 1, having only two lives to start with himself. Pearl gives Scott two lives total. Pearl and Scott are almost always together. They made it to the final four by each other’s side. And that forced day 1 reliance on pearl breaks down the role scott typically assumes (*he’s* supposed to be the person people rely on, he’s supposed to be the one bringing everything to the table) which curbs his tendency to see himself as above others, which then allows for the most genuine happiness i have ever seen him have in an alliance.

The comparison between the way Scott talks to Pearl and the way Scott talks to Jimmy is like night and day. Scott doesn’t compliment or otherwise say anything supportive towards Jimmy (save for the “I believe in you! MCC has trained you for this moment!” during Jimmy’s dare to flare attempt) until after Jimmy has already died. With Pearl, however, Scott is much more open about his care towards her, saying that she’s his best friend and that he loves her as early as episode 2. There’s more examples but between last life and third life, Scott’s attitude towards his primary ally is completely different, and i think it’s symptomatic of Scott allowing himself to love and be vulnerable rather than keeping himself at a distance. And i think that it’s so special that scott won the season where he was so close with his day one alliance, directly because of his day one alliance.

because, to me, one of scott’s defining characteristics is his self reliance. He will have allies, yes, but he often assumes a supportive role and acts as a supplier. He doesnt like taking things from other people. Last Life is different because Scott relies on Pearl, too. It’s also not a coincidence that last life is the only season where scott is normal about jimmy but that’s a different post

tldr yes scott won last life with the power of love but not in the way people say he did (ignoring the boogeyman curse was strategy ☝️)

I SHOULD NOTE, though, that the boogeyman curse was still a fail. Although purposeful, Scott receives the penalty and apologizes to his team. He says he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. I do think that his words here aren’t fully honest— he’d admitted earlier that this choice was fully for strategy. But I also think his apologetic attitude here is genuine. Scott is a perfectionist, he needs to succeed; failing, though purposeful, still hurts. He feels the need to apologize. It means so much to me that his win in last life directly follows the choice to fail on purpose. I’m insane though idk

third life scott embodies scotts flaws while last life scott is him overcoming them 👍 is what im trying to say 👍 last life scott is everything that third life scott could not bring himself to be, in allowing himself to love and depend on other people and overall just be a person.

[ganondoodle]

hearing that arcane had more seasons planned but it too got axed by riot is just so .... ugh, not even a show like arcane is safe from season cancelling :/

i was wondering how the hell they are going to managed wrapping everything up in just 3 more episodes and how extremely dense and even rushed some parts felt in the previous ones already so im honestly rather worried about what im gonna see next saturday ..

(just to add this in an edit; i saw conflicting things, i read they wanted to do more seasons but got stopped by riot and then that they didnt plan more actually- in the end its still just extremely condensed and rushed and im sad about it bc theres so much stuff in there you could make entire episodes out of ,,, and it doesnt change how i am worried they will wrap it up nor about them wanting to make more similar stuff)

[queenlucythevaliant]

Sometimes I find myself wishing like crazy that I could find a song that makes me feel exactly the way a particular novel makes me feel. Or a novel that perfectly captures the feeling of a certain poem.

Medium is so particular. A much as I am glad that music is different from prose is different from poetry, sometimes I just yearn to have it all bleed together so that I can keep the same ache in my chest when I move from reading to singing.

[faunandfloraas]

Live dangerously. Put the Chinese 5 spice and the cinnamon sugar right next to each other on the spice rack.

[fictionadventurer]

Rewatching The Muppet Christmas Carol after rereading the book has me wishing we could have seen Michael Caine play Scrooge in a more detailed and book-accurate version of the story. He's got the perfect face and demeanor for Scrooge as Dickens wrote him. There's a fierceness on the surface, and an underlying good nature that's just waiting to be let out. You can believe he was the young clerk who delighted in a good Christmas party, and believe that he's become the cold, hard, grasping miser who won't even spend money to give himself a good fire, and whose humor comes out in cruel witticisms. He would totally be the Scrooge who gets caught up in the the childish delight of watching past Christmas parties and playing along with the games at the present one.

Unfortunately, the condensed story takes the angle of "Scrooge has never liked Christmas". It makes young Scrooge someone who's worrying over what his employer spends to throw a Christmas party (rather than delighting in a simple affair that only costs a few pounds). Caine's Scrooge shows moments of childish delight, but he doesn't really understand the spirit of Christmas until the very end of his time with the Ghost of Christmas Present. And it's fine. Turning a Victorian book into a ninety-minute Muppet musical for children is going to involve significant changes. Caine did excellently with the material he had. I just wish he'd had the chance to do more.

[kindahoping4forever]

Ash Instagram Q&A

[excali8ur]

How did you get so good at drawing? And do you have any tips??? (Pls I'm a beginner help)

Honestly dude you never get good at art. It's sweet that people like my stuff but I still feel like most of it sucks and I think that's sort of an inherent part of drawing lmao. You've just gotta decide to keep doing it anyway because it matters to you

I do have a few tips for improving your technical drawing though:

Do figure sketching. If you can go to in-person life drawing classes that's great, and there'll usually be at least a few running if you live in a city/big town, but you can do it online too. Here are some websites I use: Line of Action / SketchDaily / Quick Poses. Try drawing with different lengths of time (so start with poses appearing for 30 seconds, then move up to 1 minute, then 2, then 5, then 10). Also don't feel too bad if the first few times you try it and the sketches don't turn out quite right or the proportions get messed up or you run out of time. It's part of the process & you'll improve the longer you keep at it. Just try to use longer & messier lines and don't focus on the details until you have basic shapes blocked out. (This is literally what I tell anyone who asks me for art advice because it's about the only drawing exercise I ever deliberately do lmao)

Draw real life subjects and not just from photos- it's more challenging but helps you develop your observation & sketching skills. This includes still life and landscapes/architecture as well as living things btw

Use references as much as you can. I suck at this but it'll genuinely make you improve faster if you do lmao. You can find loads of references on Google or DeviantArt but I also have some specific places I get them from: JookpubStock / Fat Photo Ref (requires registering but I can verify they're legit) / AdorkaStock / Teamwarchicken (actually my blog that I use for collecting images)

When you're learning to shade remember that you're shading a 3 dimensional object, and try to avoid just doing shading around the very edges of things. Same goes for highlights.

Try drawing in different styles and subjects you don't usually draw. If you can afford it try out different physical art materials too. It helps keep the art block at bay if nothing else lmao

Don't be a perfectionist. Learn to just say "good enough" and not obsess over mistakes. It's better to draw lots of slightly wonky things than one thing that you freaked out about getting perfect.

If anyone else has any other advice/resources then please add them! I do not know as much about art as people think I do hjfgjkhdf

[river-of-wine]

A bonus Molly sketch from my gilded cage things! Given the circumstances for Molly in particular during chapter 4 and the fact that Dutch being the way he is would likely just use her as an accessory for the evening I can’t imagine her having a good time, but at least the dress is pretty

[heros-shade-fanclub]

What is your favorite thing about the Hero's Shade? What is your least favorite thing about him? (How long we actually get to see him is not a valid answer because I also wish we got to see him more or that he appeared in pretty much every other Zelda game too.)

ooooooooohhh. oh anon i love you. saw this and started pacing around my room in excitement

I made a post about it before I think, but there's a quote that's like "in the end you become the person you needed that time when no one helped you" and that sums up my feelings well. In ocarina of time (and ESPECIALLY majora's mask), plenty of people teach you things and help you out here and there, but not in the same way the hero's shade watches you on your journey + actually teaches you to protect yourself*. There's almost a feeling of loneliness/isolation in oot and mm (<personal opinion), whereas one of the major themes of tp is that you're never alone in your fight. and what better representation of that than heroshade. turns into a kitchen appliance

He's got so many good lines too tbh. something about "go, and do not falter" makes me stick my head into a cement mixer. and we as a fandom are sleeping on the memeability of "A (blank) wields no (blank) unless the hand that holds it has (blank)"

My least favorite thing is probably how he calls Link a disgrace during their first meeting LIKE GIRLLLLLL. absolutely no reason to talk to him like that. i don't know that guy

I also think. and this is so nitpicky. the sword training music is very meh. it serves its purpose but as the track associated with him i think it leaves something to be desired. I love MajorLink and Brock Hewitt's choice to make his leitmotif the Ballad of Twilight/Courage Theme instead

*you could make an argument for Sheik or Kaepora Gaebora or even Navi here but their roles are still different i feel. and in majora's mask you very much have No One