#elite ship tbh

[yeehawpurgatory]

I miss vandermorgan please come back

[smuganya]

JOEL Élite | 7.07

[rpfshippingpolls]

⚠️ DON’T START DISCOURSE ABOUT RPF IN THE NOTES!! YOU WILL BE BLOCKED IF YOU DO SO ⚠️

Do you ship it?

Reason:

“BROOOOO they have known each other for SO long and dustin has been singing the praises of jim for YEARS. I cant even explain them properly just trust me theyre a really good ship. Dust and jim kiss hard on the mouth god bless 💖”

[perelka-l]

i wanted to warmup to do things today I must work on, used up all my energy instead. i cry.

[millidew]

even the old and doomed bitter exes were young and optimistic once (lots of notes and hc under cut)

some notes/ideas:

1950-60s inspired in fashion and values. is pokemon wwii a thing? would that just be the pokewar ??? was oak a post war baby surrounded by veterans failed by their government because they were from a town with like 2 houses? what is the truth

samuel oak (but everyone calls him sammy) is a kid from some small town with a goofy haircut and big dreams of discovering/inventing something new. he has a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality and a growing cocky streak like blue. he’s both friendly and determined (some would call him pushy), which is how he met agatha (bothered her until they became friends), and is seen by the town as someone who could put pallet on the map. he sees the potential in people in pokemon and always tries to make them the best he thinks they can be. he’s always had his sights on research/science and used his natural talent for battling to reach it

as he gets older his stubbornness and habit of putting his projects above everything else becomes more apparent

agatha is from a traditional spiritual family with a liking for scarier pokemon since they keep neighborhood troublemakers away from her (and help her get away with her own troublemaking.) she’s petty and vindictive and sneaky. most people don’t like her much. in fact, she probably snuck away for her own journey and resolved not to come back until she’d made a name for herself or something. she’s restricted by social and gender expectations and can’t wait to be a crotchety old woman

she met sammy on their journeys, and they ended up becoming friends-rivals, in that their friendship was built on a rivalry, despite agatha pretty much always losing

most people in those days just went a few routes down before going back home, but both have something to prove and big ambitions. unlike him, who seems to have a natural affinity and talent for battles, she feels has to work harder for it. so we have beloved talented upstanding country science boy VS ostracized skilled sneaky slightly-less-country ghost girl.

agatha likes sammy best when he’s putting his all into battle (a crimson flame quietly burning…..), not that doing silly nerd stuff. she likes him best when he’s not on some high horse. when he left to focus on the pokédex after rising to such a high trainer rank with her, and seemingly cast battling/her aside without second thought, she felt betrayed and like he was wasting his natural talents. if she had that innate talent, she’d never throw it away.

who needs a “”pokedex”” anyways? back in her day they had to learn from trial and error. kids these days are so soft. are you planning to write a guidebook for the elite four too samuel??

samuel (sammy is too childish for him nowadays) thinks this is very immature of her. his passions have always lied in research (he spent so much of his journey drawing and notetaking! was she purposefully ignorant?). did she think they’d play with pokemon forever? he needs a real job! a job that will let him play with pokemon…for science

obviously they’ll just never speak to each other again (this lasted for like 2 weeks until he contacted her)

agatha thinks he’s just as bullheaded and petty as she is and just doesn’t like being called out on it now that he’s the respectable professor samuel oak. this guy once got ran over by a pack of oddish because agatha told him he should track the pokemon’s sleepwalking patterns!! she laughed in his face! he bought her gloom perfume years later and the empty bottle is probably still somewhere in her house!!!

they continued to be exes of fluctuating bitterness for like 4 decades. samuel went home, got married, had children who gave him grandchildren, revolutionized the field of pokémon study a few times, and agatha cultivated her creepy witch image, joined the elite four, sent every challenger away with a new ghost phobia for fun, became a trickster mentor for a young lance, and simply refuses to die of old age out of spite

samuel is a family man who wanted kids and agatha Did Not. but uh in the end he lost all his kids so. they had other issues but that was also one of them

oak is harsher on his grandson because he sees himself in him. he feels like strictness and commitment was what he needed as a child (he had to develop that later on), but instead ended up making blue rebellious. oak’s pride in his hometown (establishing a lab there instead of a bigger city) made blue embarrassed of it. oak doesn’t think battling should be a full time job (and certainly wasn’t viable in his time!) (he swears agatha stays on the elite four just to sprite him), and that he should have a second venture (like research!) just in case. samuel certainly wasn’t satisfied with just battling when he was blue’s age! his grandson is clearly intelligent, but he’s wasting his talents at his gym, and he’s always ignoring his gym leader duties anyways. he’ll grow out of it one day just like samuel did, and when he does, samuel will get him a job with one of his colleagues

just switch battling and research around and this sounds a little familiar

oak’s views on his granddaughter uhhhh good with housework and kids which is useful because he stays late at the lab too often to do any of that and most of his work can’t hold the attention of any 6 year old that isn’t red. i don’t think he had any plans for daisy like he did for blue… yikes!

agatha would not be pleased which is why she’s not allowed to see them because she’d convince his nice granddaughter to quit her job and join a gothic band or something

on red, oak sees him struggling socially and also relates to him, because he’s a kid who clearly loves pokemon and likes to draw. so he gives him more attention, unintentionally making blue feel excluded, resulting in him acting out for attention. oak doesn’t see the correlation. this is an example of oak’s good intentions combined with his one track mind and his idea of how the world should work making HIM the one who struggles socially. if he’d shared that story about getting run over by the oddish maybe blue wouldn’t see him as such a serious looming figure in his life judging his every move

agatha thinks red is a good kid, shakes her head at daisy, and likes blue because he’s a little tyke. blue doesn’t like to think about his gramps’ love life so he tries to avoid her (it doesn’t work)

anyways everyone involved is very stubborn and a little self centered and bad with feelings so no one is admitting defeat without intervention

hmm naturally talented socially awkward stubborn pokemon lover beloved by their community and their colder, skilled (but nonetheless second place) rival with a chip on their shoulder who feels left behind. all roads lead back to reguri

oak and agatha are on much better terms nowadays though, her spininess is just part of her personality

he calls her an old friend and rival and holds her in high esteem and she calls him a has-been with the personality of lint

[chemicalarospec]

a ship not fitting into my "demolition lovers core" category of my favorite ship dynamics is so embarrassing for them. if one of them died, they would just give up. like, you wouldn't even sell your soul to bring back your lover? commit 1000 (100 if the devil/me is going easy) murders? soooo uncommitted.

[iamred-iamyellow]

⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ Last Christmas

♥ masterlist | request rules | 12 days of ficmas

♥ pairing: ex!lando norris x fem!reader x oscar piastri

♥ synopsis: last christmas was vulnerable. even more so after you opened up to your best friend lando and him comforting you turned into his confession of love... but the next morning a picture of his girlfriend—whom he never told you about, was the first thing you saw. out of what you'd call destiny, you befriend the two people he's closest too: his teammate and his new girlfriend.

♥ smau - fc: women on pinterest - as always none of the pictures are mine

♥ warnings: swearing !!!

♥ a/n: lando is a bit of a dick in this but it’s only bc its important for the plot lmao! <3

-Christmas Eve, 2023-

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

liked by carmenmundt, georgerussell63, charles_leclerc, and more

yourusername when you’re insecure could be me could be her, you just run to whoever is winning 

view comments

user1 alright who broke our girl’s heart

user2 i’ll break his face

alexandrasaintmleux 🫂

lilymhe love you 🫶 call me whenever you need 

iamrebeccad we’re here for you ❤️

user3 guys WHAT HAPPENED 😭

user4 @/user3 whatever it was is clearly huge because all of the wags are here

user5 oh so this person SUCKS sucks

user6 the sabrina lyrics

user8 SAID THAT IT WAS ME AND YOU FOR LIFE !!

user9 NOW YOURE KINDA ACTIN LIKE I DIED!!

user10 my wife is getting her heart broken by a man 😞

user11 not the mascara running girl he didn't deserve you anyway whoever he was

carmenmundt if you need anything I'll always be here <3

yourusername ty carmen 💋

user12 i know lando just hard launched his girlfriend but i hope he’s still able to be there for yn 😓

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

liked by landonorris, yourusername, oscarpiastri, and 1,019,943 more

mclaren who’s ready for bahrain?

view comments

iamimogen me !

♡ by landonorris

yourusername i’ll be there as always <3

oscarpiastri it’s been a while! can’t wait to see you again

user1 awww osc

mclaren what oscar said!!

blondie_wdj @/yourusername you’re always welcome in the garage

user2 being best friends with a driver means your also best friends with his engineer

blondie_wdj @/user2 so true

user3 i can’t wait to see lando’s gf in the paddock

user5 and her and y/n to be friends

user6 I hope there's no tension between them

user7 @/user6 lets not pit women against each other before they've even met !!

user9 where's yn's man

yourusername no idea 😔

liked by oscarpiastri, francisca.cgomes, lilymhe, and 130,583 more

yourusername after party

tagged; @/oscarpiastri

view comments

user1 STOP is that imogen?

user2 she’s so hot i fear 🫣

oscarpiastri finally made it onto your ig 🙏 I used to dream of days like this

yourusername you are now one of my elite employees

user8 the way lando isn't even in the pictures lmaooo

yourusername @/user8 he wasn't approved by the council

user3 so here for ynoscar tbh

user4 that's what I've been SAYING

user5 so glad lando has a gf so yall finally stop shipping her w him and let the oscarinas have something

iamimogen great to meet you 💕

♡ by yourusername

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

-Time Skip-

liked by iamimogen, user2, user8, and more

f1gossip y/n and imogen were spotted hanging out all night after the monaco grand prix. could this be the beginning of a new friendship?

view comments

user1 I BEG YOUR FINEST PAEDON?!

user4 they're so fucking cute oh my god

user2 i love it when the girl bsf and gf are besties 🥹

user9 it's mr steal your girl

user8 Imogen break up with your boyfriend ‼️

user7 yn lando Imogen poly when

...comments have now been disabled

-Hungarian Grand Prix-

liked by alexandrasaintmleux, oscarpiastri, georgerussell63, and 495,603 more

yourusername BUDAPEST, HUNGARY 📍

view comments

user1 @/oscarpiastri again

user2 how did you recognize him by just his back? 😭

user3 crying because why is yn posting oscar more than lando posts his girlfriend

user4 RIGHT? I don't think I've seen her once on his main or jpg but Imogen posts him all the time :/

user5 its kind of weird since lando used to post dozens of pictures of yn

user6 anyone else notice that he hasn't liked or commented on any of yn's posts in months or am I insane?

user5 @/user6 YES I HAVE

user8 guys I think they went through a friendship break up or something

user4 @/user8 do you think its because of Imogen?

user8 @/user4 maybe

user6 @/user4 I don't think so since yn is with her all the time. I just haven't seen yn talk to lando publicly since last year

mclaren it's always nice to see you!

yourusername valid: all days paddock pass when?

mclaren 👀

user9 hungary is such a random race to go to lol

user10 she's mclaren's good luck charm trust

liked by oscarpiastri, iamimogen, mclaren, and 100,894 more

yourusername YESSSSiogvdrs;okfeLI

view comments

user1 SHES SO US

user7 SCREAMING

user3 ARE WE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE FACT THEY LET YN STAND DOWN THERE

user2 honorary wag !!

user4 oh the sheer amount of pictures she took of him

user5 that's a proud girlfriend if I've ever seen one

user6 she didn't even greet lando...

user10 she was probably caught up in the moment

user6 @/user10 me when I lie

user10 HELPPP 😭 I don't want to admit her and lando aren't hanging out anymore... they were literally best friends

user9 lets focus on the positives: oscar won and he's 100% into yn

-F1 Winter Break-

liked by landonorris, yourusername, and 403,859 more

iamimogen loving winter 🤍

view comments

user1 she’s SO gorgeous

yourusername the prettiest

iamimogen @/yourusername no you!!

user2 stop i still love that her and yn get along 🥹

user3 right they’re so sweet

landonorris ❤️

alexandrasaintmleux stunning

iamimogen 💋

francisca.cgomes hottie

iamimogen love you 😘

liked by yourusername, landnonorris, lilyzneimer, and 203,586 more

iamimogen I'm dreaming of a pink christmas

view comments

user1 lando you need to step up your game

user2 him STILL not posting pictures about her is crazy...

user3 EXACTLY

user4 the way they've been publicly a couple for a year 💀

user7 pink pilates princess core

iamimogen you know it

user12 I feel like I'm the only one who thinks her and lando are cute 😭

user6 no they're cute there's just something... off?

user10 @/user6 exactly. I love them but what the fuck is going on with them and yn

user9 the only place were gonna find lando and yn together these days is Imogen's likes

user5 LMAO

liked by oscarpiastri, iamimogen, francisca.cgomes, and 295,057 more

yourusername photo dump 🩰🎀

view comments

user20 @/iamimogen not yn copying you 💀

yourusername omg i had no idea she invented the color pink. @/iamimogen i’m so sorry queen i had no idea 🫶

iamimogen @/yourusername that’s ok just make sure to give creds next time ❤️

user1 PLSSS they’re so unserious

user2 im obsessed with their friendship wait 

user3 they’re so fucking funny

user4 OSCYN HARD LAUNCH I REPEAT OSCYN HARD LAUNCH

user5 oh I fucking knew it

user6 its a christmas miracle

liked by oscarpiastri, iamimogen, lilymhe, and 948,840 more

yourusername stole your boy and your girl

view comments

user1 THE GASP I GUSPT

user4 jaw is on the floor.

user3 LEAVING THE COMMENTS ON IS CRAZYYY

user5 what a bad bitch move

user7 SHUT UPPPP

user6 so this all WAS about lando?! I'm genuinely so curious now I need to know what he did!?!?!?

user8 oh my god yn is my favorite person

user9 y'all remember that post of her like sobbing last year? was that about lando...?

user10 FUCK OFF IMAGINE IT IS

user12 begging for a story time

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

end notes: i’m really fighting my demons (the urge to make a part two where yn ends up with imogen…) anyways I'm back with super late christmas fics haha !! they'll all be posted out of order from now on lmao

taglist; @sainzzreputaticn @theseerbetweenus @yawn-zi

[mytvjunk]

I love that 911 is finally allowing Buck to explore his sexuality. I was hoping that it would be with Eddie first, but I guess we're starting things off with Tommy.

I don't know how to feel about Tommy tbh. He seems like a nice enough guy & from the small interactions we've seen between them, they've got some decent banter. In the next episode, they're going on their 1st date, so that's going to be interesting to see how Buck navigates it. I'm trying my best to be open minded and give this ship a chance, but a big part of me does not care about it; so i'm hoping this is a quick fling.

The elite end scenario would be that Eddie eventually gets jealous because he's realized his true feelings for Buck and confesses his love to him. Buck ends things with Tommy. Buddie has their 1st kiss and go on to live happily ever after!

I also understand that we're supposed to play along with believing that Bucks feelings for Eddie are platonic & vice versa, but we've BEEN known what's up between them for 7 SEASONS. They need to lean into it already. They've dragged this ship for way too long. This is not even a slow burn anymore...which makes it that much more frustrating. Because in my mind they've been married for several years now. These writers have played with our feelings for far too long!

[cancerian-woman]

I think post s8 bonnie could work with Elijah tbh. but I feel like human au bonnie/Elijah is also really elite. their babies would look like Zendaya or something ridiculous beautiful lol.

might’ve gave myself an au cause of this 😂 idk if somebody did this already so if you did lmao…. My bad.

Bonlijah could’ve been such a fun and intriguing dynamic. It’s so funny that Elijah recruited Bonnie to help kick his brother’s ass and not only do we not see them plan this at all. Bonnie still has this fiery passion in the mist that while threatening his life? Elijah is tempting Bonnie to not do it because it’ll hurt her. *chefs kiss* as told by TO Elijah likes a woman who can kick ass, and maybe kick his too. Daniel joked once that he’d play Bonnie if he could lmao.

I can see it in a post s8 stance and as humans! Maybe Bonnie and Elijah cross paths while they’re traveling and Bonnie realizes Elijah has no clue who he is. She should ignore the original against her better judgment but Elijah walking around with no memories is super vulnerable. I’d love to see what conversations could be made because Elijah’s actions were the catalyst of Abby getting killed and turned.

It’ll be some issues and toxicity that needs to be ironed out as usual. Which is normal for a TVDU ship, but some people seems to claim that Bonnie deserves better than a toxic romance but never hold their favorite (white woman x evil man) pairing up to that standard. Not to say that Bonnie doesn’t deserve a “normal” relationship it’s just that in a franchise of predatory creatures like vampires a normal was never going to exist.

Also Bonnie spends most of her time single. Upholding standards such as morality clauses just follows narratives the writers put on her. We don’t have to see Bonnie as undesirable just because the writing does.

[authoratmidnight]

So, now that I've finished watching (rewatching technically) Transformers Animated I wanna babble about it a bit.

My short, spoiler free take is: It's actually really good and I like what they were doing in this universe.

Longer, not spoiler free rambles under the cut-

So like, I did watch this a long time ago, when it first aired. Problem is I really don't/didn't remember like, anything? Or like, major plot things.

A non comprehensive list of things I /did/ remember from Animated:

Prowl was my fav bc b/c a ninja motor bike is cool

I loved this version of Bumblebee. His design looked like a lil kitty cat, a lil tiger, one of my fav Bees. Just a lil guy. Lil baby.

Black Arachnia, her hitting on Optimus and once being Elita One

the Dinobots, Grimlock specifically. love me some dino robots

the 'Sari is the a robot' reveal

their space ship transforms into a massive robot

Blurr gets cubed and everyone debating on if he was alive or not (he is. as pointed out, bots turn grey here when they die and cube!Blurr was NOT grey, so that's some fridge horror for you)

Prowl died and I was VERY sad about this

Weird Al voiced a robot called Wreck Gar and there was a 'dare to be stupid' reference in the episode

So like, while I don't remember-remember it, I remember things from it and I seem to recall I did enjoy it (given I recall Prowl's death I clearly DID watch it to the end so I clearly didn't hate it). And upon rewatching it I can 100% this appealing to younger me (quick math says I would have been, about 16 when it aired. which is older than I thought tbh).

It wasn't my first foray into Transformers either, tho I think the first one I probably really enjoyed and watched all of. I seem to recall watching some of Beast Wars and Armada (legit the ONLY part of Armada I remember was that bit where Optimus died out in space lmao), so I knew OF Transformers to some degree. Plus I think I'd learned surface level information from my dad. But it was the first series I did fully consume and enjoyed. So I could have done worse. But given I don't actually remember my first watch of it too well I can't say if it was better or as good as I remember b/c I don't remember lol. But it is good.

That said, what ARE my thoughts on it?

The Story/Setting:

Knowing what I DO know about Transformers now I can see how different it is from most continuities and how the lore differs (Prime and Magnus just seem to be like, ranks/titles, and Prime doesn't seem to hold nearly the weight as in like every other continuity). But like, I don't hate it. It's actually kind of a fresh change. And it does some unique things, like how characters can just be, taken apart and still live so long as their spark remains undamaged/their body isn't to badly damaged (we literally have heads getting popped off like barbie dolls and everyone is fine lol).

It manages to flop between goofy as fuck and, actually a bit grim at times, and it works (once again, solidifying my belief that Transformers is and always has been, funny as shit and people who poo-poo on the humor are boring edgelords)

I kinda fuck with this universe actually, wish we HAD gotten that s4.

And the changes it makes to the CHARACTERS to fit with the universe is neat too and it, kinda works.

The Characters:

So like, this version of Optimus (and the main core cast of Autobots really) is like, just A Guy. Like, the most Just a Guy that Optimus could possibly be. He's not this war weary, battle hardened warrior and great renowned leader. He is literally just A Guy. The equivalent of a college drop out. And the meeting with Megatron at the start of the series is literally their first meeting. No history here.

And I think that's kind of an interesting take. (Also I found a really funny fic the other day that's basically 'Megatron realizes that the 'elite warriors' they've been fighting are in fact just Some Guys and the revelation is MORTIFYING' i'll link it later).

Prowl. I'm sorry but this my guy. This is my Prowl. I know he is totally different than like every other Prowl in existence but UNFORTUNATELY this was my introduction tot he character and the robo ninja that turns into a bike imprinted on teenage me's psyche b/c honestly that concept fucks. He's my favourite and I was super sad when he died.

Also just 'robot ninja' is fucking cool haha

I loved this Bumblebee's design, it slaps. He's like a lil kitty man. He's so much fun. Yapped so much that when they made the movies they're like 'ok we NEED to shut this guy up' haha.

I think I totally forgot Bulkhead was in Animated but like, I love this dude??? Don't get me wrong I like Prime Bulkhead as well but Animated Bulkhead just, is so fun, and they did MORE with him aside from 'smashes shit real good'. He gets to have a special interest and be good at ONE (1) thing and that's space bridges. And he picks up art as a hobby! He has character and personality, I love it.

Honestly, the Autobots just being a bunch of regular guys (well, 4 regular guys and one war vet who REALLY wishes he'd retired long ago) is such a fun dynamic to have instead. And it works.

The Voices:

So like, I know Peter Cullen is THE voice of Optimus (despite the fact that I think more people that aren't him have voiced the character than he has but I digress) but in this case, NOT casting him actually makes sense. As I said, Optimus here is just A Guy. And a young one as well. Like Orion in Transformers One. So the deep, older sounding voice of OP Optimus wouldn't fit the character. And this voice does.

I DO however find it really funny that the voice actor for Optimus (David Kaye) previously voiced Megatron in other Transformers series. Man could voice a whole Optimus-Megatron fight on his own now.

Honestly, all the voice choices fit the characters as established in this series.

Special mention to Shockwave, who apparently is voiced by his OG VOICE ACTOR. That's kinda dope. And he has a perfectly spooky voice (also I really enjoyed this version of Shockwave. Man is out here being Megatron's specialist little boy and loving it)

Also I love that the opening is just a remix/modernized version of the OP opening that we all know. That's cool and it slaps.

Yeah, TFA does aim a biiiit younger for it's audience than some series but that's not a bad thing and it's still a damn good show. It's not like "kiddy" in that patronizing way. It's good and it holds up well I think.

Also here's that fic I mentioned earlier, go read it it's funny.

Revelations

[trohpi]

rating regulus black ships!!

jegulus | 11/10 - i love them so much. when i rejoined the fandom in 2022 and saw how the ship had blown up in the years id been gone i was really confused, but then i read just lovers and was immediately convinced lmao. they are the epitome of sunshine x grumpy and i adore them both

bartylus | 5/10 - theyre not very compelling to me, but theyre not bad by any means. i think they work better as friends but i understand why people ship them. i just prefer other ships personally, but ive read many great fics with them too!

jegulily | 20/10 - im obsessed with them. i love regulus, james, and lily separately, but together they balance each other out. plus it helps that its a combination of my two most favorite monoamorous ships (jegulus and regulily), like whats not to like? theyre definitely a top tier ship

moonwater | 10/10 - they are so cute and so overhated! theres so much potential here, like they could be friends to lovers or enemies to lovers or rivals to lovers, basically any trope you can think of lol. and think of the angst! the drama! i love them dearly

regulily | 1000/10 - yall already know how i feel about these two! they are literal soulmates and i love them to bits. their personalities mesh so well and, this might be a controversial take, but they make more canonical sense than jegulus does imo (not that canon really matters in this fandom lmao). i could wax literal poetry about this ship i love them so much

rosewater | 6/10 - i have other ships i prefer for both of them but theyre still cute and i can see why people ship them. honestly its a similar situation to bartylus, except they intrigue me just the slightest bit more lol

regumary | 4/10 - im sorry i just cant see this ship. i can see their relationship being platonic but not romantic. i also think mary is a lesbian, which doesnt really mean much considering i also love the trans girl regulus headcanon, but most of the time when i see this ship its very cishet and just not my thing. sorry yall!

regdora | 2/10 - i just cant see this ship either. its not bad necessarily, i just see the relationship between regulus and pandora as that of a sibling relationship. no hate to people who ship them, its just not for me lol

rosestarkillerchaser | 6/10 - i understand why people ship them, its combining three popular ships (jegulus, bartylus, and rosekiller), but im sorry i just cannot see james dating barty and evan. im not hating on people who ship them and its not bad by any means (i like them more than most other ships involving evan & barty) i just dont actively ship them. ive read some good fics tho!

rosestarkiller | 5/10 - similar situation to bartylus yet again, its just not compelling to me. i think regulus works better with evan & barty as his friends rather than lovers which you can probably tell given my other ratings lol

blackeclipse | 10/10 - ooooo i love them. all the best aspects of jegulus, moonchaser, and moonwater in one, its elite. james brings the buoyancy that regulus & remus need while regulus & remus help keep him tethered. they work so well together and i love them all dearly

xenoreg | 8/10 - a crackship ive come to enjoy recently! definitely a weird x weirder kind of ship which is the best. oh to be a fly on the wall of the slytherin common room when regulus told barty, evan, and dorcas that he was dating xenophilius lestrange, ravenclaws resident conspiracy theorist (pandora, of course, would have been overjoyed to have someone to trade ideas with)

regulene | 7/10 - they intrigue me tbh, like marlenes brashness and regulus’ coldness contrast in just the right ways. theyre like fire and water and i love that. plus the potential for a quidditch rivalry is phenomenal, especially considering that they could both be the seekers for their respective teams. theyre kinda similar to dorlene imo

regulilylene | 9/10 - im gonna be honest here i think i made this ship up, but i really like their dynamic. marlene and regulus are on the opposite extremes of hot and cold and lilys right there in the middle to keep them grounded, she evens them out

[eri-pl]

So I was thinking about Feanor

(as you do) and about his mental state post-Darkening and I understood the ship-burning (it's not pure madness).

We have to remember that the characters do not know the plot, or even the whole context and situation. Which I often fail to internalize, and so do many other people.

Feanor's logic goes like this:

my father died, the Silmarils are stolen, allegedly by Morgoth, while I very conveniently was at this party

I'll kill him! But surely the Valar are just waiting for it to take my Silmarils (which they asked for), maybe they provoked the situation... I must protect the Silmarils from the Valar and their minions *Oath*

OK now I need to go after Morgoth *negotiations, fight, ships*

*arrives at Beleriand* Now we'll kill Morgoth (the easy part) and build our own independent kingdom (the long part). But what if while I fight Morgoth, Nolofinwë takes all the good lands? *burns ships* now he won't.

The plan is: Kill Morgoth quickly, establish kingdoms, when/if much later humilated Nolofinwë&co arrive (after they learned to build ships I guess?) the kingdoms are already established

Oops, Balrogs

Wee ok I'm dying but still, if I could gight Morgoth's most elite forces myself and lasted this long, my sons would defeat him without any problem. But what it they are weak and go back to the deceitful Valar instead of establishing their own kingdom and living as the Noldor should? They will get betrayed in Aman, as I have been betrayed. Come on, sons, swear the oath once again to be sure.

With this assumptions it makes more sense. And Feanor's knowledge of Beleriand was very limited, tbh nobody in aman knew how large force Morgoth had in Beleriand. It was supposed to be a quick victory.

The problem wasn't defeating Morgoth and reclaiming the Silmarils (that's why reclaiming them is not even mentioned in the oath), the problem was keeping the Silmarils and the land from the Valar, Fingolfin and others.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Flattening, Too Many Types, and Spiritomb

So WolfeyVGC released a video a few days ago about how in spite of having no type weaknesses, the few pokemon with this trait are pretty uniformly horrible. Like, bad enough to almost never see competitive play.

One of the points he brought up was that while weaknesses are a big deal, so too are resistances, and generally the way weaknesses get overcome on these weakness-free pokemon is by having resistances offsetting them. Now and then you get an immunity overriding the weakness, and that's great, but there aren't enough immunities to fully remove a type's list of weaknesses.

Spiritomb, on release, didn't have Fairy weakness because that wasn't a type yet, and it was still kind of bad, because it didn't resist any of the most popular types. The same is true of Sableye. With weaknesses and resistances largely ignored, you end up with a question of base stats, and these "weakness-free" pokemon were...kinda weak.

This comes up really heavily in the extremely silly Too Many Types mod for Pokemon Emerald. The true result of having, just, a BOATLOAD of types introduced...was that every pokemon jumped from like 30% odds to be hit with neutral damage up to like 80% (Edit: I recognize that "30% odds" doesn't match with the fact that 60+ percent of the type chart is neutral across all of Pokemon's history. These two "odds" were taking into account the player's actions taken to defend themselves by swapping in grass vs water etc). You couldn't avoid neutral damage because an enemy's "coverage moves" would almost certainly be some dumb-ass type like "Magic" or "UFO" or "Furry" and you wouldn't happen to be immune or resistant. The odds that you'd be vulnerable were also really low, and double-vuln was nigh-impossible, but that didn't matter. The inability to reduce or avoid damage via matchups is just as big a part of gameplay as the ability to one-shot your enemy's grass type with your fire, especially when you're trying to do a battle of attrition, such as any of the Team dungeons, gyms (yes, you can do either of these by going back to a Center after each fight, but nobody WANTS to), or The Elite Four.

Thus, what really mattered was raw stats and the raw power of moves you could get that matched your own type and thus got STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus, for those of you who don't do Pokemon stuff but are reading this anyway). With vanishingly rare exceptions, that was ALL that mattered. In reality it very nearly could have been called the Oops No Types mod instead. I don't want to devalue the work that went into the mod; There were a couple extremely weird types that made for clever gameplay moments, and certainly there were a lot of funny type names, like Gun, Furry, Bean, and Sans (which was reserved for Shedinja with its 1 hp and immunity to most damage), but for most of the game you might as well have had no types at all if you were looking at what your strategic options were and how you played the game.

And this is also interesting when you consider the idea of adding a new type. At one point Wolfey pondered a 19th type and what that would look like, suggesting Sound type (It already has some members like Cricketune and Loudred, much like how Fairy had...Clefairy and most other pink pokemon). One thing I noticed was that the addition of Fairy, in addition to shaking up the meta, increased the amount of neutral moves by about half a percent, from upper 61 percent to low 62. It went down when Steel and Dark type were added, mostly because of how Steel resists bloody well everything. But that was a Steel-specific gimmick and you can expect that the addition of almost any other type will increase the average "odds of neutral move interaction." Probably not to the extent of Gen 1 Normal or Dragon, but still SOME. There's a mathematical upper bounds on the design space, not simply because of the difficulty to learn the arcane type matchup chart (that ship sailed way back in Gen 1, tbh, and then was mostly solved more recently by a tooltip that shows whether your attack will be good, bad, or neutral), but rather because every increase in the total number of possibilities you have to plan against makes it less and less possible that any plan will handle everything, or even handle enough. And I think that's really neat. Like the limit of how large a kaiju can be before its own body will, by the nature of gravity, crush it? The design space of Pokemon only allows for so many pokemon types before the blank space between the type interactions becomes too dominant in the play space.

[necrotic-nephilim]

Any ships you don’t like in the batfam fandom that is popular?

OOOH this is such a fun question because I have quite a few

StephCass - i'll be honest this is one of those ships where the fandom ruined it for me. because 2000s StephCass is an elite dynamic, they care for each other so deeply. but the fandom has been intent on defanging and purifying this ship. i don't know *why* but StephCass seems most popular with the anti-Batcest crowd who get very mad if you compare it to ships they deem Batcest. i have an entire meta commentary on this in my drafts I'll likely never post discussing why the only reason StephCass gets the pass for not being Batcest ties directly into misogyny (because the women of the Batfam need to exist as love interests first, not family members so Steph was never going to truly get to exist as a "full" Batfam member so long as she could remain a viable love interest for Tim, and the same can apply to Babs, Helena, and even Cass in some cases) and that just sours me to it. like if i want yuri in Batfam i think there are far more interesting/fucked up ships for Steph like Babs/Steph or Helena/Steph. and when it comes to what i'd actually like to see in canon, i don't want to see Steph relegated to love interest of a Batfamily member, even if it's queer. let her date and exist outside of Gotham the way every other Batfam member gets to, DC *please*.

Bruce/Selina - i can't fully articulate why this ship isn't my thing, it just isn't. i think i just can't conceivably agree with Selina letting go of so many of her fundamental morals and beliefs for the sake of a man, even one she loves such as Bruce. ironically, i think that's one of the few things Gotham War got right about these two. the only canon love interest i like for Bruce is Zatanna and i mourn we'll never get much of that.

JayRoy - i will admit when i was newer to DC the first comics i picked up for Jason were all New-52 and i shipped this. but now that i'm a pre-Flashpoint truther and i've actually read well-written Roy Harper comics, i only see the flaws in this ship. ngl if ppl were actually fun and interesting with it, playing with the idea of Roy knowing Jason as Robin and still seeing him as just Dick's little brother who's gone a little mental, it *could* be fun. but this Red Hood & the Outlaws (2011) and Red Hood/Arsenal (2015) dynamic *butchers* the fuck out of Roy and strips him of everything interesting. and even as a Batfamily stan, my number one pet peeve is when other DC characters get *butchered* in a Batfamily character's book just for the sake of propping up the Bat as some kind of savior. free Roy Harper from this mans.

Bruce/Oliver - we could be here all day if i listed all the Bruce ships i don't like, but i figure this one has to be included. because oh my god either the people shipping this *really* don't understand Oliver Queen or they just hate his ass because why would you subject Oliver to this man. he can't *stand* Bruce. i really hate the popular BruOliie shipping dynamic of like "oh they were boarding school besties" because if you want that, you *should* like Bruce/Zatanna, not these two. Oliver just always gets butchered in these fics and i won't stand for it.

Tim/Bernard - the ESSAYS i could write on this ship and why i dislike it. the fucking *fear* DC (and most popular media tbh) has with depicting queer relationships as anything other than totally perfect and cute for fear of accusations of homophobia has stripped this ship of *any* real grit. Bernard is a non-character in Tim Drake: Robin, he exists to cheer Tim on and prop him up and just be The Boyfriend. we occasionally get glimpses of an interesting character with really interesting trauma and nothing is *done* with it bc at the end of the day, Tim and Bernard must be perfect and cute. what's fun about Tim is he is the *worst* boyfriend alive. that boy is *ass* at dating. all of his relationships are rich with conflict and yet the moment he dates a guy suddenly all of his flaws vanish? i hate it. i mourn what this could've been if we kept messy Tim Drake and had a Bernard who was actually informed by his trauma. DC please let gays be messy again. also of all of Tim's 90s/00s friends to bring back as a love interest, Bernard Dowd was just a *bizarre* fucking choice. Sebastian Ives was *right* there come on now.

Any Crossover Ship - look if crossovers are your cup of tea i'm happy for you but oh my god if i have to see that little green ghost boy or that ladybug girl in the Batfam one more time i think i may explode. i have a lot of thoughts on *why* i think specifically Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug get crossed over as often as they do with the Batfam, but i don't think anyone wants to year that. my only exception to this is Jason/Bucky Barnes, but it *has* to be comics!Bucky. like. Judd Winick's Jason and Ed Brubaker's Bucky would hatefuck and that i wish to see it. any other crossover ship (especially the Peter Parker ones that seem to be rising in popularity) just do *not* do it for me.

honestly besides that i don't think i dislike many ships. (aside from being super opinionated on Bruce ships, but that's mostly bc ppl will use him to butcher the character they ship him with) there are some ships i'm neutral to because i simply do not know enough to have an opinion (like Dick/Wally). i guess the only Batcest ship i'm not particular to is Bruce/Damian, but I wouldn't say that one is popular nor would i say i dislike it, just that it's not my cup of tea. most Batcest ships click for me in one way or another because i like their Weird dnyamics. i guess i could also say i dislike most ships that have come out of Young Justice (tv) because. oh my *god* why were those group of characters put together on a team. it's baffling. but even then it's not disliking those ships, it's moreso disliking that show's depiction of those characters so. everything is really dependant on the canon context for me!

[classicanalyzer]

Star Wars Skeleton Crew - You Have A Lot To Learn About Pirates Thoughts

"Here's what you do. Forget 'em. Your fears, your anxieties, your parents. They're what you call 'attachments,' and they're the last thing you need. Forget 'em. That's what I did." Jod Na Nawood

"I can't do that." Wim

"You have a powerful imagination. When you want to, you can see grand adventures even in a rotten galaxy like this." Jod Na Nawood

"Yeah." Wim

"Remember. Your focus determines your reality. You have vision. Embrace it. Make your life the one you wanna live." Jod Na Nawood

This is an amazing episode! The kids continue to be very endearing, even as Jod and the parents are getting more and more stressed.

I love how much of Wendle is in Wim. I also love how Fara deactivates the droids in the same way Fern did.

While Jod's view of attachments is messed up, he is right about Wim having a powerful imagination.

SM-33's reaction to Skull Ridge Mountain cracks me up. Tbh I would've been pissed off if a cool pirate location was transformed into some resort lmao. SM-33's frustration at these visiting elites and luxury tourists is so funny to see.

And of course, the Banking Clan still survives the war. It's very fitting they're here given what we learned is the actual treasure of At Attin.

Cthallops is an amazing name haha. I love Cthallops' design and character.

Those traps were pretty brutal. I wasn't also expecting some very gruesome deaths off-screen.

Jod made several high-IQ moves in this episode, although some of them aren't good for the kid at all. I do like how the challenging the Captain was played as a joke, and now it's brought back but in much more serious circumstances. Man, you really feel the kids shock at Jod’s betrayal. Also ooff Wim, he just had to hold that Lightsaber upside down.

At Attin is basically the Old Republic's Bureau of Engraving and Printing. I like how the "treasure" of At Attin is so mundane as just being one of the last Old Republic Mints. I also really love the HR design of the Lightsaber.

That ending is really chilling and a great shot.

"I have the ship, clad in armor and ready, but my crew still doubts At Attin is real. I need all hands to seize the treasure. No one knows it is the last Old Republic Mint." Tak Rennod

[atopvisenyashill]

Thoughts on Dany x Brienne? As a fellow Briennsa who just found out about this ship, I’m kinda in love with it, but you have elite shipping takes especially for Brienne so I was wondering what you think about these 2 (I feel like they’d have a similar dynamic to Brienne/Sansa or Brienne/Arya imo)

tbh i’ve never really thought about that one BUT right off the bat it’s giving show Brienne/Margaery vibes as in like, Dany finds herself very charmed by this awkward large woman and Brienne is very taken aback by someone clearly flirting with her aksks

first thought that comes to mind is this really goofy post i made breaking down female line claimants to the iron throne - brienne would be shireen’s heir like on a technicality lmao BUT i had mentioned that one thing i wish dany would do is look into female line claimants & reach out to them for alliances. i think brienne is a really good candidate on paper for A Targaryen Loyalist (if she wasn’t so busy trying to find the stark girls) - she’s an heiress who is pretty unpopular yet has a permissive father that lets her do whatever, she sided with renly so she clearly cares more about Following The Right Ruler over Following The Law, and neither she nor Selwyn were outwardly supportive of one group or the other during the rebellion (so no "usurper's dogs" beef there). Under slightly different circumstances I think she’d be the perfect sort of mormont/tarly/seaworth esque dyed in the paint type loyalist but for DANY specifically, not the targaryens at large (an important distinction when you’ve got not one but TWO male targaryens about to come into the westeros political scene in a big way to scoop up the targ loyalists from dany).

When it comes to the emotional aspect, I think Brienne loves a good anti hero/villain story 😭 I mean, look at how she eats up Jaime’s breakdown in the baths. Look at the way she is moved by Septon Maribald. Brienne desires, in my view, a confirmation that anyone can make the Right choice and start to turn their life around. She wants to believe in the goodness of people even though she’s very pragmatic about the evil existing (see making Podrick watch for rapers). And I feel like that really appeals to Dany too - like Brienne, she's the sort of person who desperately wants to just cut through the bullshit and Do The Right Thing even if she's not sure what it is.

Now I'm imagining like, what if the Andal Knight following Dany around was Brienne omg. Her very large loyal knight who believes in what she can do, and isn't just arbitrarily propping Dany up because it politically benefits her.