#even after 2022 lbr

[batsplat]

u r sooo right about the red team blue team rivalry which is also what I thought about the aesthetics of some pictures of fabio q vs pecco in the last title fight races of 2021. pecco was so unsure back then and fabio had more natural talent and gumption and pecco seemed nervous and fabio seemed like he was having a good time and they made for good a narrative in their blue and red leathers.

we have only had four title fights this century between a blue team and a red team! and even that is me being generous by including 2007 - which imo counts because casey had to outscore valentino not dani at motegi to clinch the title and dani only nicked second in the championship off valentino at valencia. so yeah, four title fights: 2007, 2008, 2021, 2022. just isn't good enough

I will say by the END of 2021 pecco had mostly finished finding his feet and was winning a bunch of races, whereas fabio was less self-assured and more going 'yeah this title is nice but... uh...? guys we might be a bit fucked?' but. yeah. aesthetically their title fights were nice vibes! I was totally pro that rivalry conceptually! in practise, these aesthetics were let down somewhat by the absence of this little thing I like to call 'actually fighting on-track', which as a traditionally-minded viewer I do on occasion like to see in my title fights. like, valentino and casey's whole rivalry aesthetic was enhanced by how you have cool shots of them actually being, y'know, in the same shot

a selection from some of my favourite on-track battles of theirs during the time they were at ducati and yamaha respectively (minus assen 2007 + phillip island 2009 for obvious reasons). very nice distinct colour scheme, colours really popped, we know casey was paying attention to luminous yellow covering things and it's symbolically neat that one of 'valentino's colours' is on casey's bike (no, I do not care about what the australian flag looks like and indeed refuse to acknowledge the existence of 'australia'). also generally liked their helmets during that era, strong stuff all round

I've been thinking a fair bit lately about how this era compares to the other era this century that is generally associated with poor quality of racing, aka the alien era. the word that is commonly associated with those few years is 'processional', not unfairly... I think a refrain I see quite commonly is that some fans still have too much nostalgia for the alien era because they're only thinking of the laguna 2008's and catalunya 2009's of this world, not all the many many races of that era that weren't laguna 2008 or catalunya 2009. which is true! my general take is that the average race quality these last few years has been higher and there's often something interesting happening somewhere - you don't get the abysmal lows of the alien era quite so often. on the flip side, while the alien era certainly is associated with technical regulations that produced some poor racing... well, it did seem to at least be possible when all the stars aligned to have a duel that lasted for more than three corners. that used to be a thing even in the alien era. like it did happen

as much as I find the alien era deeply frustrating and agree with the general point that race quality these days doesn't plummet quite the same depths, I also think you need those highlights!! just to give people stuff to remember seasons by, stuff that lives on in years to come because it was just such a foundational cool memory. the current dearth isn't primarily the fault of the riders, but we have been pretty short on outright classics since end of 2019 - and the ones we have had tend to be more in the dogfight category of the typical phillip island mould than the race long duel. my sense is the current formula makes these even more impossible than 800cc did, which also weren't conducive to duels but at least didn't have this infernal tyre pressure crap week in week out that makes it impossible for riders to follow each other closely. also does feel like one of the real issues with increased homogeneity between the bikes... like casey/vale was kinda the motorcycling rivalry for babies because you knew that casey would have the edge in the straights and valentino would have the edge in the twisty bits. now a bike like the current ducati just has a way more balanced performance profile, and that's what everyone else is chasing. which. y'know. harder to be doing dramatic duels if you're all good in the same places

anyway, the point is that fabio and pecco had all the ingredients for a perfectly enjoyable rivalry... fabio as the more precocious one but also by 2021 a somewhat steadier performer, pecco cerebral but also volatile, self-critical to a fault. pecco's actually someone who I'd kill to see in a better version of this sport just for a bit, seeing as one of his biggest strengths as a rider is how excellent he is at defending - which would be nice to see tested more in races where that like... actually matters. they're both a little bit too nice and non-confrontational for my tastes, like you kinda worry any rivalry between them is destined to just be quite friendly, but there was still enough contrast in personalities and approaches to theoretically generate intrigue. plus, obviously, most importantly - they did have a red and blue colour scheme

while I'm generally a fan of dark colour schemes, I do feel like the white of the fiat yamaha era did allow the blue to pop a little more. and maybe it would've helped if the red had been a bit brighter to provide more contrast - I like both of these designs on their own, but together they do look a tad bleak. also my god have these bikes become massive

unfortunately, however, it comes back to the lack of memorable on-track battles. 2021 and 2022 were both kinda weird years, with pecco not really establishing himself as The Title Rival until quite late into 2021, and then 2022 being... y'know, a truly bizarre experience. they were never really good at the same time! didn't ever really hash it out for the win! even when they came close, like jerez/mugello 2022, it wasn't all that much of a fight... it's a shame - we know they're both theoretically capable of perfectly compelling on-track battles, they just never really did it with each other. pecco's had more good fights with jorge than with fabio, and that's also not exactly happening at the rate I'd like

in conclusion. it is time to bring back red vs blue sports contests. let us return to this

and the only way to do that? well, that would be for the blue team to get its act together

[danthropologie]

Regardless come Monday— WAR IS OVER 🎉 (unless one thing happens that I can’t even utter). Like no matter what a decision will be made, tbh it’s probably already made lbr, and I can finally stop seeing 37363 conflicting headlines on Red Bull musical chairs and peoples TERRIBLE opinions and misinformation😭😭 Tbh it’ll probably get worse after Monday bc I’m sure there will be about 80 different rumors of varying reliability. But who knows stuff always leaks… 🙏

no but the problem here is i'm going to be on vacation all next week and tortured with the looming feeling that literally anything could happen at literally any time 😭 i'm still scarred from 2022 when i was on vacation when the whole fernando to aston, oscar to mclaren, daniel done and dusted bullshit happened 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[knownoshamc]

inbox dumping time, sorry: I'm really scared for some reason that the show writers' version of Marius will be like Anne's, i.e. basically a naughty charmer you can't help but be drawn to and who will make you feel stupid for being upset at him. I know there's a good chance they won't do this, mainly because the blowback against a sympathetic pedo character would be almost as bad as the blowback against Slave Owner Louis in a 2022 tv show would have been; but the marius defenders on here insisting he's not that bad and everyone should just get over the whole child assault/slavery thing makes me wonder how prevalent that attitude is in the wider world.

Ιf you know me, you know I don't really trust writers easily.

BUT I think the show is good with two things so far.

TAKING A STANCE

I feel like they have already established what Marius is, even if we go by Louis' high on drugs line saying that Marius groomed Armand. And that was still when Louis was a bitch about it and he was trying to hurt Armand (if he just said "made me into a little bitch". would be different. or if he didn't use Marius at all to hurt Armand).

and again, the show could have easily been like "Lestat didn't really hurt Louis that much, Louis was misremembering/lying" and Lestat is their favourite character and him hurting Louis that bad makes him look awful, lbr. So I think characters in the show might say "he isn't that bad", and the deranged fans here will agree, but I also think characters like Louis and Daniel (and Armand if he is in the right place) will still set things right.

Edit: even Jacob says "eugh yuck" about Marius.

POVs

there are ways to do this right, to make him look sympathetic, as the freak fans think he is, but set the record straight right after.

1. they could show it from POVs. If Lestat does meet him, for example, he could be more charming, romantic/whatever. It's Lestat's story. But then we see him in the present (ew) and even the lighting of the scene changes, the music, the setting, how he holds himself everything.

and 2. I don't know if you've seen Black Mirror the "shut up and dance episode". SPOILERS under the cut in case you do want to watch it, but basically it could go like that on IWTV too:

you feel sorry for a 20 something young man for the entire episode, cause someone online blackmails him to release footage of him masterbaiting, and you think he is just embarrassed. They make him do little things, like bringing cake to someone and they go on to make him do worse, like robbing a bank and then goes to the forest to fight someone. And that's when we get the clear picture, the guy there says something like "was it pictures? how old were they?". and the 20something man fights him to death (as instructed), but the blackmailers release the footage anyway and still, because we shouldn't have any doubt, his mother called him crying telling him "little kids, Kenny??? little kids???"

So I think it could be like that, an episode or a story might make you feel sorry for Marius (if you are a casual viewer and you might not remember what this fucker did) but then it is made clear to you once again, that no this bitch was a child sex trafficker/pedo/groomer. And as casual viewer you are left ???? wtf or in jacob's words: eugh YUCK.

[thebroccolination]

Hi I watched Enchanté because of this thread of yours https://x.com/hadakanomind/status/1571447042165149696?s=61&t=3Iphv9v3mu5kk7BVikT_Ow do you have plans on updating this thread seeing as Be My Favorite isn’t in it?

Hi there! Aww, I'm so happy you watched something based on my recommendations! Thank you for telling me. :')

So I have a new list that I'm keeping on my pinned post.

As of now, my top fifteen looks like this (beware my long, rambling commentary on all of them):

Be My Favorite (2023) 🔮 High quality across the board from the script (which bears almost no resemblance to Jittirain's novella, and the director Waa took his time with it and even asked GMMTV for an extension so he could make sure it was as good as it could be) to the directing to the acting, music (leitmotifs!!! MULTIPLE LEITMOTIFS!!!), cinematography (the LIGHTING in some of these scenes), just. It's all so, so good. KawiPi mean so much to me, I flew to Thailand for the first time to see the series finale. This one's gonna be really tough to beat. It skyrocketed to the top of my list by the eighth episode, and my top three had been pretty solid for the past three years. Director Waa called it the production he's proudest of, and he directed The Gift. Krist also said it's his second-favorite series he's done after SOTUS (which, lbr, is going to be his favorite series forever, no one loves SOTUS more than Krist, and speaking of which––)

The SOTUS Trifecta (2016-2018) ⚙️ It's funny. I thought UWMA was my top series from 2020 until 2023, but as I got further into BMF and it threatened SOTUS as my #2, I couldn't knock SOTUS down to #3. So UWMA went from #1 to #3 in a day just because BMF and SOTUS are that powerful. I fully expect Ex-Morning to give me another crisis, and it may even take BMF out. Exes-to-lovers is a platinum level trope, and it's sanctioned RPF based on their lives so. But yeah, SOTUS is my baby. I rewatched it three or four times last year. It just gets warmer and cozier in my heart as time goes on. <3

Until We Meet Again (2019) 🧶 I'm really and truly grateful this was my first Thai BL series. I started watching when the penultimate episode had just aired, so I got to experience that last little stretch live! It's where I found BounPrem and WinTeam and the pandemic was much, much easier than it would have been if I hadn't had that online fandom experience to soften all the solitude and fear. It's also just a really great series. <3

Triage (2022) 🚑 DBK was my #3 since I saw it in 2020, then Triage pulled a BMF and stormed up my whole list as I watched it live in summer of 2022. It couldn't quite take out UWMA or SOTUS, but juuust based on its plot being stronger than DBK, it took the #3 spot. Time stuff, man, I fuckin' love it. <3 And it gave me SingGap! One of my favorite couples to this day. Top five, easy.

Dark Blue Kiss (2019) 🐻‍❄️ PETEKAOOOO. SUNMOOOORK. I have such immense fondness for this series, I'll defend it with my life. Does it have flaws? NOPE. Not a single one. Not that one. Nope, not even that one. Everything is perfect, don't touch my baby, thank you. <3 (Non deserved a redemption arc, but that's not a flaw either.)

Between Us (2022) 🥦 The series that made New my eternal nemesis! I tried so very hard to be optimistic about this series as it was airing. We'd waited two years for it, we expected the best, and it just…under-delivered in almost every way. New shot himself in the foot claiming the novel didn't have enough material for a full series and then not using huge, massive chunks of the novel. And…changed Team's backstory? The big traumatic thing that's at the core of the whole story? It's at #6 because of BounPrem and WinTeam. Their storyline was fantastic, and BounPrem did their absolute best with it, but by god it should have been better. I don't know why. I've kind of made my peace with it by now, but I don't watch most of New's series anymore, and after Revamp, I'm not interested. Whatever passion he had when he directed UWMA was probably taken out of him by trying to be CEO and sole director at Studio Wabi Sabi, and Between Us suffered immensely for it. He should have given it to someone else, because BounPrem deserved better.

Something in My Room (2022) 🎭 I'm so happy Supanut has I'm the Most Beautiful Count. He's really deserved such a prominent spotlight. I genuinely think Supanut's one of the industry's strongest actors, and his performance in SIMR really cemented that for me. Spoilers in the following link, but this scene is still my favorite acting moment in any BL series. SIMR is suuuper underrated.

Cherry Magic (2023) 🍒 TAYNEW REUNITED. No flaws. Love me some TayNew being sappy and adorable. God I love them. They're not allowed to separate ever again. I'm sorry to them. I make the rules.

Not Me (2021) 🏍️ Not Me could've been at the top of my list easily if they'd had the script editors they needed. I fully, very seriously believe Not Me could have been, like, world famous. I was recommending it to Non-BL Fan Friends in the first six episodes. And then it fell apart narratively. It's still incredibly ambitious, and I think Nuchy did all she could have possibly done with what resources she had, and Thailand is a difficult country to make Anti-Government stories in, so that's why I'll always have profound respect for it. It fell short because it was failed, not because they failed.

Manner of Death (2020) 🔫 Also flawless. Idiot dead people doctor is horny and reckless, and his hot man is cock-stupid and hot. Perfect series, no notes. Cutest side couple in history.

Bake Me Please (2023) 🍰 LISTEN. It's simple and sweet and Guide is adorable and I want Ohm back in BL full time, thank you for attending my TED Talk.

I Feel You Linger in the Air (2023) ⏳ I love them. :') I enjoyed myself immensely. TIME STUFF.

The Eclipse (2022) 🌗 FirstKhao did great. Ayan and Akk are lovely. The story itself is kind of a mess, and I didn't feel much of anything for any of the other characters good or bad, but I had a great time and I'd rewatch it someday.

Cutie Pie (2022) 💍 ZeeNuNew are great. This used to be waaay higher on my list, so maybe I just need to rewatch it to remember how much I love it. Cutie Pie is one of the only series I watched weekly as it aired. And didn't touch my phone the entire episode. This was pure joy for me. Established relationship shenanigans? THAT IS MY WHOLE THING. ………Yeah, I don't know why I have this so low. I need to reevaluate this whole list. My confidence in my system is shaken.

He’s Coming to Me (2018) 👻 Singto the Cute Ghost is legendary. Long live the Cute Ghost Singto. This series is truly underrated. Like, not as much as SIMR, but it deserves more love. Singto's such a gem.

[meggannn]

2022

I didn't read a lot of books, or write a lot of fic, or even watch a lot of TV, but I did play a lot of video games!

my real life is a bit of a controlled mess right now, this year I had a medical procedure and a minor breakdown and moved suddenly because covid malfeasance in the city terrified me and I think I need to be with family right now after we've had several family deaths over the years. one day I'd like to move back there but only when I can afford to live alone, which is definitely not in the cards any time soon with how the rental market is looking.

I am proud that I started posting and finished Tides, Receding this year. because I started writing it... three years ago? oh god I just looked it up and it was Feb 2020 that I made the post that ended up spawning the fic. and I told myself 2022 was the year I'd get it done, it's been sitting in my lap too long, and I did it. (party horn noise)

anyway my 2022 game list is under the cut, check it out for recs or whatever. this does not include the games i replayed, which included HZD, DAI, and FE3H, but lbr I'm always replaying those games in my heart

Puzzle games:

The Last Campfire (4/5): Play as a little... thing...? lost from its companions trying to find its way home. Some of the puzzles were a little too simple but this was a short and sweet game.

TOEM (5/5): Play as a tourist taking photos around various places and cities. perfect little photography game with cute side objectives and diverse landscapes.

Inscryption: I ended up abandoning this one during Part 2 because it just didn't hook me and I was hanging on by a thread with the creepiness as it was, but Part 1 was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it for anyone who's a fan of card games, escape rooms, horror, or Yugioh.

Unpacking (4.5/5): Unpack the protagonist's life across various moves. I loved this, my only criticism is that it was too short; I'd love more levels.

Into the Breach (4.5/5): Play as groups of time travelers trying to stop aliens from taking over several war-torn archipelagos in a turn-based combat system. the actual game (till the end credits) is great, the combat system is clear and intuitive. the story is pretty short, but progress carries over at the end cause time-travel. I could've gotten more mileage out of this one, but ultimately burned out cause I wanted to do more than just play the same levels all over again with different units.

FRAMED collection (3.5/5): I guess? for a cool concept—adjust comic panels and strips to help the characters progress through levels—it was a bit forgettable. still, nice for a few hours and probably cool for big comic fans.

Please Touch the Artwork (3/5): An abstract game that combines puzzles with modern art. Oof. I had to give some stars for effort cause I felt like the concept was cool, but I just couldn't get into this one. someone who enjoys both might like it?

Elli (3.5/5): Play as a guardian in a 3D platformer, search for gems and coins, try not to get swallowed by the time rifts. I remember really enjoying this this fall, but now that I'm writing this wrap-up, I barely remember playing it. I liked the puzzles a lot but I think it went on a little long.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (4.5/5): You're a turnip. You rip up taxes in a sentient veggie world. need I say more.

Later Alligator (3.5/5): Play as an Alligator in Alligator New York City and do puzzles and solve crimes. it's adorable, it is, but I wish it was a little more forgiving; if you fuck up a puzzle, you lose so much time in an already limited day cycle.

Rain on Your Parade (4/5): Play as a cloud. Rain on people's parades, wedding days, office parties, whatever. Snow, thunder, acidic goo, you name it. go goblin mode. probably ideal for kids.

Moncage (3.5/5): solve environmental puzzles within a six-sided cube matching elements up across different sides of the cube to affect the scene. very similar to Goragoa, for the three other people who've played that game. short, beautiful, zen game, but man was it hard sometimes or I’m just an idiot. thank goodness for the hint system

Narrative games:

Heaven's Vault (3.5/5): You play as a young woman charged with tracking down a missing archaeologist across the galaxy with a robot companion. Really cool mechanic in this one where you decipher an ancient language as the main gameplay. RPG style choices set across make me want to rate it higher than I have, but some clunkiness (like not being able to revisit sites once you've left) knock it down. Someone once called this made by people who "want to bring archaeology to games but don't known how to make a game" which I agree with.

Tacoma (5/5): You explore an abandoned corporate space station trying to figure out what happened. Honestly, no notes. Interesting narrative, easy mechanics, great writing, doesn't overstep or overstay its bounds.

When the Past Was Around (3.5/5): got stuck on a couple dumb things that the game wouldn't let me interact with, and some other things were really not that intuitive, but other than that I thought this was short and serviceable, good for an afternoon with a sad story.

Wytchwood (4/5): Play as a witch who's charged with collecting twelve souls to deliver to a talking goat in a fairy-tale world. not really a narrative game but it's not puzzle or an RPG, so here it goes. anyway I had a lot of fun with this game. some of the backtracking was annoying and I wish the resource management was a little easier to, well, manage, but overall I enjoyed it.

Forgotten Fields (3/5): Play as a young author traveling home as his family decides whether to sell their home. Honestly a bit let down by this, there were some clunky mechanics I couldn't get over but it had interesting topics about moving on and finding artistic inspiration.

Adios (4/5): A pig farmer decides to quit his job disposing bodies for the mafia. Great voice work in this one, I enjoyed it; even though you know how it's going to end, they still managed to make it suspenseful.

RPGs/Open-world:

Horizon Forbidden West (3.5/5): I think I've already expressed my thoughts on this one this year but overall: great open-world game, mechanically and visually impressive; just OK story, unless you were a big fan of the first game, in which case the story was a big letdown.

Sable (4.5/5): Play as a young girl on her rite of passage as she travels a harsh world called Midden. hard for me to rate any open-world game as perfect because eventually some parts of it somewhere feel like padding, but despite some technical hiccups, Sable is the peak for me. non-combat, vibes-only, beautiful graphics, incredible soundtrack, easy recommend.

Control (3.5/5): Play as Jesse Faden, who arrives at the Federal Bureau of Control looking for her brother after his disappearance several years ago. this never wow'd me the way it was clearly trying to but I did enjoy it, whenever I could get over my fear of anything that moved. gameplay itself was great and i loved the oldest house as a setting. probably fans of the supernatural/horror genre could appreciate it better.

Citizen Sleeper (4/5): play as a cyborg who arrives on a space station and tries to make their way in the corporate underworld. a bit like Disco Elysium meets Murderbot Diaries. there's no combat, so I'd recommend this to fans of the RPG genre.

Paradise Killer (4.5/5): Play as Lady Love Dies in an island out of time, full of gods and demons and human sacrifices tired of being human sacrifices. Someone has been murdered in Paradise and you have to find out who did it. I had SO much fun with this one and the soundtrack is admittedly a huge reason why. (I'm serious listen to Ego 24-7 and tell me it doesn't get you pumped.)

Persona 5 Royal (4.5/5): the Phantom Thieves steal the hearts of corrupt people throughout Tokyo with their inner Pokemon-like demons and man this concept is cool, the soundtrack is killer, the only thing that fucking sucks is the unapologetic sexism that is unavoidable and irritating AF. (am I a little bitter I paid full price for this only a week before it went on sale for half off, yes. but I got a lot of mileage out of this that week during which when I was preparing for a medical procedure, so.)

God of War (4.5/5): Kratos and Boy travel to the highest peak in the realms to spread his wife's ashes. honestly? it's best enjoyed as a guy who enjoys puzzling going on a long walk with his son. as an action game it's meh.

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (5/5): I am PETER PARKER and I can throw MANHOLE COVERS at people while insulting their OUTFITS it is hard to top that

still playing:

Phoenotopia Awakening: A young woman named Gale sets on a journey to rescue the adults in her village after they are all mysteriously kidnapped. I haven't finished this one yet cause I hit a wall but ugh I just want to recommend it somewhere. there is so much love in the little details in this game, so many characters and puzzles and enemy types and history, you can tell so much heart went into this that I'm disappointed it won't get a sequel. my biggest criticism for it is that it is HARD, unnecessarily so at times, and there are no difficulty settings which sucks. but it might be good for Zelda fans or people who are good at 2D platforming, which I am not.

Eastward: Sam and John live in an underground town where travel to the surface is forbidden, until a mysterious event triggers Sam's magical powers and the mayor banishes them... eastward. I want to like this more than I am, the post-apocalyptic concept is very in-line with what I like, but jesus this writing feels like it never saw an editor. it just drags. I don't know how many times I can button-mash past Sam saying "Come on, John!" the game is beautiful, the designers and animators really earned their paychecks, but IDK the jury's still out.

[leqclerc]

if ferrari plans to keep sainz then at least i hope they will give charles a fast car so he can always build himself a safe gap between himself and his terrible midfield teammate lol

also idk I was hoping charles will wait with extension until the next season will start for good to put some pressure on ferrari to really start giving him what he wants and needs

and ugh 2028 is really so long! charles never getting a wdc is my worst nightmare! but also what gets me down even more is that I don't really see any alternative for him? (red bull has number one driver, mercedes has drivers and idk how long lewis will stay there and anyway aren't they preparing george to be their number one then? but first they have to get their shit together anyway lol, mclaren also seems to have a fixed line up? idk idk)

Felt!!

I mean I've seen info floating around claiming Ferrari will steer the development more in Charles's direction, but I always take those early rumours with a bucket of salt tbh. Sainz Sr's words (and Charles liking the Tweet lmao) did prove to be a legit red flag, but then we also had the Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna saying the 2023 car will be unprecedented in terms speed and it's like, where sir??? 😭

To Ferrari's credit I will say that in the second half of the season we basically saw a direct reversal of what happened last year. Ironically in both cases it came down to a floor upgrade, which turned out to be significant (France 2022 where things took a turn for the worse, and Japan 2023 after which Charles bounced back in the final races.) An upgrade that actually improves things for Charles? That's new!! That's positive!!

So that tentatively gives me hope that things will actually be different this time, mainly because we don't have a scorned egotist designing a revenge car 🙄 but also I'm trying not to get too carried away. For example one of the earlier theories/rumours was that they will aim to make a "neutral" car that's more malleable and has a larger window for different set-ups depending on driver preferences, because if they're really planning on retaining Carlos for now, then surely they will throw him some kind of a bone so he's not miles off Charles again.

2028 isn't a real year wdym 🙃 No but same! 🫱🏻‍🫲🏻 I would've preferred he waited until we saw how things are looking in 2024, if the car is a significant improvement over this year's model, if they're throwing their weight behind him when it's needed. I'm sure he's privy to more information than we do and probably has a more complete picture of Ferrari's plans for the future but 🧍🏻‍♀️And again, I wish/hope there's some kind of clause or an option for continuing beyond 2026 if Ferrari gets the new regulations right, not that it's just one big deal taking him all the way up to the end of 2028. But lbr he's only ever signed those kinds of deals (I don't think he's ever had an "option" type contract) so idk.

And yeah, that's the perpetual problem 😭 Ferrari is on one hand the best place for him on paper, but on the other, there's a very real risk that if this decade-long stint doesn't work out, then

It really does feel like the majority of other teams who could be a possibility for him down the line are busy future-proofing (for example, with Antonelli bypassing F3 to race in F2 straight away it feels like Merc are prepping him to be part of their long-term future, with George probably taking on the mantle of the lead driver.) Red Bull will never be able (or willing really) to fully embrace Charles and get behind him 100% as long as Max is there and still wanting to race, so that's not exactly ideal either. I can't really see him fitting in at McLaren anyway but yeah, they seem pretty content with their guys for the medium-term as well. It's F1 so I guess never say never, stranger things have happened (a mid team improving to become an enticing prospect, teams being sold/bought, potentially new teams joining) so really, who the hell knows what the grid will look like in 3 or 5 years.

[talkingbl]

Top 6 Most Anticipated [Confirmed] BLs of 2023 (so far)!

If I can speculate...I'd add something something Semantic Error 2, something something Bump Up Business, but I'm tired of looking stupid. DMD had me placing Bed Friend as a most anticipated BL for damn near two years now and stayed coming up short. This time, I'm sticking to what I know. So, here we are--my top 6 most anticipated BLs of 2023 (thus far)! -

6) HIStory5: Love in the Future | LinusSean & JasonAnson

lbr, this is a 2023 bl trapped in a 2022 bl's body. Either way, I love a good time travel theme (gives fish out of water--my favorite trope!!) and the HIStory series usually gives us a good main couple.

5) Love Upon a Time | NetJames

Either DMD really believes in NetJames or they feel bad for cucking them in favor of ZeeNunew this past year. Either way, I am somewhat seated for this. Wild, I never expected this from NetJames or DMD more generally, but the historical portion of the story is giving everything I've been begging for from Thailand since I started watching BL. While it's not giving MileApo's period piece trailer in terms of care and attention to detail, it seems very interesting to say the least.

4) Bed Friend | NetJames

After 2 years of blue balling viewers, DMD is FINALLY giving the girls Bed Friend. I am so excited to see an office romance with actual tension between the leads and that forbidden love vibe I love so much. The story is so classic and seems entertaining from beginning-to-end. Hopefully the writing is good and the acting takes a step forward from what DMD has given so far. That said, the trailer looks promising, so fingers crossed!

3) The Next Prince (....what? It gave budget....) | ZeeNunew

Listen, I am not a zonzon or bonbon or ztormborn or whatever they call ZeeNunew stans, but I am SEATED for this. In my last list, I included Cutie Pie in my most anticipated list. Unfortunately, it didn't hit like I thought it would. But I'm willing to give them another chance as this trailer is intriguing. They're hitting budget, royalty AU, enemies (??) to lovers, direction, cinematography, etc. with this one. And the fact that the trailer was mostly silent gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, they will take the show-don't-tell subtext-led approach to acting and writing. Just hope it's not wasted on a terrible plot that goes nowhere and grating acting. S/n: Zee doing stuff w/feet again??

2) Cherry Magic (Thailand) (stfu GMMTV antis and jbl elitists, I'm tryna see sth...) | TayNew

She has no trailer and I'm already here for her.

Per MDL -

Adapted from Japan's 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii. Adachi Kiyoshi [Achi in the Thai version] is a regular salaryman who, at the age of 29, was still a virgin. On his 30th birthday, he suddenly finds himself acquiring a new power - the ability to read other people's minds whenever he touches them. Shocked and unnerved by this new ability, he struggles to cope. That is, until one day he accidentally touches the handsome and popular fellow office-worker, Kurosawa Yuichi [Karan in the Thai version], only to find out that [Karan] actually has secret romantic feelings for him. How will [Achi] cope with this new revelation?

Look, I tried the original Cherry Magic and while the concept was appealing, the execution wasn't for me. Ngl chefs, I was bored a bit. But I still love the concept and am interested to see if and how GMMTV and Taynew can handle this. It better give budget at the very least (probably won't lol). Perhaps we'll also see Newwie grow into a more serious BL role. But honestly, even if they turn it into a rom-com, I think this can really work. Either way, they have a lot of eyes on them and a lot of folks predicting their downfall. They must deliver.

1) Only Friends | NeoMark, ForceBook, FirstKhao, ForceNeo, to say the least

Where do I even start with this? Who in the fresh hell could have predicted GMMTV to come through with this? ALL the pairings are intriguing, MANY of the actors can ACT (or at least try to), THE PLOT is something straight out of my romance dreams!!! We love hotties being messy!!!! I am incoherent at this. How did GMMTV manage to outplay the player (ME)?

But to be serious, this is the most interesting BL plot in awhile... And it gets at a real part of the 20/30-something hookup culture that we have (and that people are afraid to show in the context of LGBTQ+ relationships). It's also breaking the mold and allowing actors to explore characters outside of their established ships. It's not adapted from anything (that I know of), which is, like, a first for a GMMTV BL. It includes pairings that are either on the rise (FirstKhao) or that no one could have ever seen coming but somehow feel just right (NeoMark, ForceNeo) (btw, NeoMark are up next in this industry ;)). Plus, it's directed by Jojo Tichakorn who directed and wrote for 3WBF (one of my favorite Thai dramas with a strong BL theme), and has his hands in Never Let Me Go and The Warp Effect (both with strong showings thus far). I trust him but it's gonna really come down to the budget, post-production, and, most importantly, the acting.

Thing is, Neo and First are going to show up and I trust Khao to give a strong effort. Force, I'm not too sure about but the trailer doesn't give me high hopes to be honest. Still, I'm willing to forgive if he can fuck Neo like he means it if the rest of the cast can pull their own weight. And for Mark, I'm willing to bet he'll improve from My School President (which he already is showing promise in). I'm mainly weary because the story looks to be told from Mew's perspective, who is played by Book. IMO Book is not the best....so I'm hoping he shows up. I just need it to really come together and Book holds the key to it in his hands. GMMTV already is a sketchy company for other reasons, don't waste my fucking time with yet another good concept gone by the wayside b/c y'all wanted face over talent.

Also NeoMark please don't be problematic. I want to love Badminton shawty and the best actor at GMMTV not named Gun ATP 😢

[slow-button-off]

Checo: blocks Hamilton for so long that people Max included started calling him minister of defence; Max today: "I could have blocked (Charles) but is that fair racing?" agsbdjsnks just say you don't give a fuck and go my god. I'm sorry but your argument doesn't hold, he said himself that he could have helped Checo no problem but decided not to. You lose brain cells anytime Max is criticized.

There are a few things we need to talk about.

A) Where and how did Max decide not to help? Was he actually asked to and then just said no? No.

You can't just expect him to slow down to block Charles while not knowing what's going on behind him unprompted. You wouldn't expect that from any other driver either lbr.

B) Believe it or not but AD21 and AD22 are not at all comparable.

Yes, it's the same track and the same team but the situation is completely different.

2021 (zoomed in, only relevant laps) is on the left and 2022 is on the right. This cumulative delta plot visualises how the gaps between the drivers developed throughout the race. Important things are anotated.

Yes Checo did hold up Lewis in 2021 but the situation is not at all comparable to this season.

As you can see in 2021 Max pits, and then Lewis pits and Checo stays out. Lewis catches Checo and is being held up but they are effectively fighting for position. Checo was just simply on old tyres and he pitted like right after. And that worked because Checo was on a different strategy compared to Lewis.

In 2022 Max and Charles are on the same strategy and have very very similar pace.

Their lap times in seconds are on the left. The lower the faster they were. Pit outlaps are removed because they fuck up the plot and are irrelevant for this. On the right are the boxplots and smothed race pace. The numbers under the names is the drivers average pace. edit: I annotated alb&Gas wrong that was Hamilton holding him up I'm sorry

Charles was on average 1 tenth slower than Max. That is not a lot at all.

So unlike in 2021 where Checo was still out and Lewis just had to get past him, Max would have to slow down a lot to get rid of his 7s gap to Charles to then try to hold him up.

And I am 100% sure that if we were talking about any other drives. Or even this pairing but the other way around you would all be up in arms about how that isn't in the spirit of racing. Because it isn't.

Holding someone up when they have to get past you anyway is a very different thing to deliberately slowing down a lot to hold someone up. Like Joylon Palmer said that would be more like match fixing.

If you wanted to see a situation similar to AD 2021, then all you had to do was watch Lewis hold Checo up. Because that was a similar thing.

Also, it's not that clear that it would've worked. Max and Charles had very similar pace and overtaking has gotten much easier this season. So Max couldn't have just gone super slow without Charles overtaking him.

It might've cost Charles a little but so did the yellow flag.

There is a chance that he would've just given Charles DRS. And considering how everybody cries when someone in the lead has to let someone through even tough they are on separate strategies. You can't seriously want a driver to give up a clear win.

[bluesandboos]

HI THAT ANON WAS ME i have no idea why i sent it on anon actually 😭

I LOVE the long posts so this will probably be long as well <3 waking up to muchachos sounds like the best thing ever omg DONT APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR SCREAMING I WAS DOING THE SAME AT HOME OMG i kept seeing videos of people at those screens, i cant imagine what it was like to actually be there 😭 the baby in front of you sleeping through the whole thing 😭❤️

i have no memories period of di maria's goal i was literally floating my way through that match and i will NEVER sit through it fully again (except certain parts obv)

that song's this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTnRlJTusME it's prob my favorite tbh it's just so catchy!!

I literally don't remember that save either, everyone was talking about it afterwards but my hands were literally still shaking from the match in general, i saw it on instagram. i don't even remember most of the shootout but SOMOS TODOS MONTIEL I DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANT AND IT STILL GAVE ME CHILLS THE FIRST TIME I HEARD IT

going to gardens and getting only honking sounds about right and a very specific, but no less valid vibe of its own 👍 literally every time i see pictures or videos of the celebrations, even now, i am in actual awe over the amount of people that turned out and celebrated (obviously lol) before the parade even and even more during it!! someone told me the dibu burger is actually super good, im genuinely dying to try it it looks great 😭 that image is so funny though, argentina won the wc and people are lining up to buy the dibu's burger as they should!! the store owners were either worried about crowds or they shut down to go celebrate themselves lbr 💀

the newspaper!!! gloria eterna thats beautiful stuff!!!! and the goat chips omg, pls dont apologize i am loving the visual aspect of this i've been watching celebration videos non-stop bc i watched so many after they won that its all my instagram recommendations show me anymore. https://mobile.twitter.com/PLF_2008/status/1606926273833467905 this is my favorite <3

i'm so glad you had fun it seems like such a surreal experience and thank you so much for these answers and videos!!!!❤️

OMG HI HI HI thank you for enjoying my rambles <3333 it was so nice to go through it all again, ugh i miss it so much

the baby was built different. i KNOW he's gonna hear it when he gets older about how he fell asleep during the 2022 wc final when argentina became campion del mundo. literally the greatest match of all time and he knocked.

di maria's goal, once i re-watched the highlights and actually registered what was happening, is literally the sexiest thing i've ever seen. the loss of possession, the build up, the quick passes. A TEAM GOAL FR. but whenever i re-watch highlights i can only watch argentina's goals. i have to fast-forward through the penalties that france gets and mbappe's goal; it upsets me too much lmao

also after di maria's goal, people were chanting his name and the camera's were showing how he was crying after he scored and i was just so happy for him <333 also afterwards, I read this article (https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/angel-di-maria-argentina-english) and it just made me even more happy that he got a goal in a wc final + won the wc.

ole ole ola is a BANGER omg argentines only coming up with bangers confirmed ty for the link :))

i ended up getting a dibu burger at the airport!!! 10/10 would eat again, my man dibu only comes out with quality content, on and off the pitch.

ppl were wasted af lmao one drunk man came up to my dad (who does not speak a lick of spanish) and was literally in tears trying to hug him and my dad was just like "sir, it's okay, you won, it's okay" (in english, mind you)

for real though, i legit think about how lucky i was to be there and experience it all every single day. and i get a nice reminder every day because my social media is ALSO ALL FOOTBALL now. my tiktok for you page still shows me edits ("the little boy from rosario" lives rent free in my head) and i obviously have to watch every time. although i can't re-watch the 120' minute save because it literally gives me anxiety that it's going to go in this time (even though it's literally over).

that tweet omg :))) im just so happy not only for the players but for the PEOPLE, the way that they loved that team and suffered through all the finals and losses. no one else deserved it more. i love seeing the abuelas dancing in the street and the songs about them- makes me so happy :)

it was so surreal. top memory of life. thank you again for asking and sitting through my rambles and content dump <3

[batsplat]

jorge martin is just an off-brand motogp version of george russell. both incredible qualifiers, hard racers, have issues sometimes keeping their tyres together, have stayed in a satellite/backmarker team for three years begging the big manufacturer to accept them into the main fold and will randomly decide that they are actually done with race by beefing it into the gravel/walls on the last laps.

this is why ducati did not hire martin, he hasn’t done the power point presentation

strong last line but hm... do I agree with this...

I don't entirely disagree with the profile of racer, though jorge's a bit more in the flame bright and early mould (partly also just because of the different rhythms of those two racing series). he cut his teeth not just on being an exceptional qualifier but also a starter. even though this year, you do kinda have to say pecco's just?? uh?? he's never been a BAD starter but I swear he didn't used to be this good? some of his starts from the second or third row this year have been genuine works of art. this isn't relevant, just needed to mention it. that's part of why jorge does so well at sprints... he's really good at that abbreviated format, where it's just all out from the very start. mr russell was considered quite a poor starter in his williams days (though lbr that may have partly been car characteristics) - the qualifying's very strong and very consistent, but for a while the question was of capitalising off the line. he's got a few more drives that are about working his way through the field... like qatar last year. I just don't really associate jorge with that?

the bottling thing is debatable and we could get into that debate, but like, never mind that. we're leaving sports analysis now and getting back into vibes territory. the thing about jorge is that he has had a competitive bike from the word go. mr russell, whatever you think about how clutch he is or isn't, did not set a foot wrong in terms of making the mercedes case for himself. what happened with him was basically just... a series of unfortunate events that got him stuck in a spectacularly uncompetitive car for three years. got one shot in a good car in said three years (sakhir 2020) and delivered the perfect performance. but jorge!! jorge had 2022!! he blew it!! he did get unlucky with the gp22 vs the gp21 comparison early that season and how bastianini was able to take advantage of the early stage factory spec malaise, and he's far from the only gp22 who was struggling early on (cf one 'pecco bagnaia'). but still, some of his rides that year were. truly horrendous. and the way the whole thing played out left him with a massive chip on the shoulder.... that's the thing, right, I think what's so key about jorge is that sense of grievance, the fact that he was rejected for that factory seat and we're now several years on from that. and it's a really thin line between that being a good thing and a bad thing. like, anything that's a potential source of motivation fundamentally can be helpful, right? in 2007, casey showed up at ducati as not their first choice, kinda a stopgap, and also after yamaha had pulled the plug on a potential contract not once but twice. he has spoken again and again how yamaha and honda's behaviour towards him made him want to show them exactly what they were missing out on. he used that! it was good for him as a competitor that he had something to get worked up over! he's done it throughout his career! but on the flip side, if you're so busy feeling victimised that you're kind of already... primed for failure, then you've got a problem. like, if the takeaway is you're probably screwed anyway because you're being sabotaged by the factory, then even if that were true you're fucked before you start competing. you've already lost in your own head, you've made excuses before you've even started. it's a thin line! thinking the world is out to get you can either be a good way to get yourself to going, or it can be a loser mindset

quickly circling back to georgie boy, my main feeling is that they kinda have a different type of malaise. one is an overthinker and the other is at times very much an under-thinker. grussy actually shares the overthinking trait with his fellow 63 more than anyone else... all three kinda have this fun meeting point of a lot of cockiness and a lot of insecurity - they just balance them in other ways. and russell reminds me more of pecco in that kind of... being constantly thrown up against a Big Legacy of someone you admire, being in the shadow of greats and having to make your own name... you're very much part of a succession plan that leaves you with massive shoes to fill... (though admittedly grussy has also gone through the unenviable experience of getting to work closely with his hero and eventually having most of said hero's fans absolutely despise him. can happen, I suppose.) jorge is a bit more baggage-free. he's very much the main character in his own story, not so much faffing about with the narrative implications of all this shit. more straightforward! if jorge wins, it's about him. if he loses, it's also about him. ducati has been his world for the past few years, to the point where he's gotten a bit parochial about the whole thing. early this season, he was talking like - sure, the championship lead is important, BUT this is also giving him power in contract negotiations!! which... yes, that's true, but also that should be way down the order of priorities my man. jorge martin might be the only person in this universe who... genuinely might be more obsessed with beating pecco than marc? like, beating the marc marquez would be great and all, 8x world champion bla bla, but pecco is his personal antagonist! he's known him for years! that's ducati's golden boy! he needs to beat pecco so badly! there's something really fun about a rivalry where it feels like at least one side's feelings towards the other... kinda go beyond a personal relationship, like at a certain point it becomes about what the other guy Represents. jorge isn't worried about legacy and the shoes he's got to fill and can he truly live up to all those expectations as much as he's worried about himself and also occasionally pecco bagnaia

anyway, I've been thinking about the bottling thing... what jorge said about it earlier's been rattling around in my head since I saw the quote

man, it must be really tough, right? like, you don't know why it's happening... it's not just cockiness - though there is an element of someone who's kinda used to bulldozing his way through problems with sheer obstinacy and stubborn self belief (another distinction with the 63's, who are more introspective and prone to self-flagellation following mistakes). but it's also just... you can't figure out why it's such a fundamental shortcoming of your game! today, from the way pecco and also luca (apparently) were talking about it, it seems like there was something noticeable about how jorge was gradually losing a bit in his control and precision as a result of how the tyres were going off, as a sort of precursor of the fatal error. which... well, it's at least a somewhat understandable mistake, because it comes from pressure? it's not just the tyres going off each time - the mugello sprint crash was lap four, jerez was lap ten. but an interesting thing about his big errors this year is that they have all come as a result of serious pressure - as a result of pecco directly behind him in the case of jerez and sachsenring and like... in anticipation of the massive points damage he knew he was probably going to take in mugello. it sounds obvious to say pressure is more likely to generate mistakes, but of course that's not always true of our title contenders! pecco only really wakes up when he's already dug a hole halfway to the centre of the earth - but when he faces actual pressure, his track record is mostly very strong. his biggest howlers this season, portimao + catalunya sprints, both came when he was leading comfortably. martin has also made these pressure-light mistakes in the past, most memorably indonesia last year but... well

one of the most fascinating bits of sports are like... limits and ceilings and how your build-up as an athlete kinda determines what's possible for you. like, sports is sort of where you experiment with notions of fate and inevitability and all that, where you question whether it's possible for anyone to ever really change. is it once a choker, always a choker? if you know that you have this problem, this flaw that is always just there in the background, waiting to be actualised - what can you do? does it give you more or less hope that there's not a clear root cause? how debilitating that must be for confidence too, always knowing that you could cause everything you've worked for to crash down in a moment.... this is where. y'know, the thing with pecco, right, is that he's now gotten to a weird place where psychologically he has to be wary of the mistakes he himself makes - but he knows that he can also bounce back from them. he has that muscle memory, because he's done it before. he chucked it down the road in india and he won the title! jorge did it in thailand and he didn't! and the problem is that it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle of sorts, because even though the margin between the two of them at the end of last year ended up being relatively slim... one of them still won and one of them still lost. which actually means that even though pecco and jorge both have made serious mistakes this year (though pecco's track record is cleaner - in portimao the points punishment didn't quite fit the crime and in the jerez/le mans sprints he was kinda just unlucky), only one of them knows they can do this shit and win the title anyway

and now jorge has an entire summer break to go away and think about that. can be a good thing, get some distance, and it's easy to slip into a run of bad form that you can't escape if there's no interruption. can be an awful thing because you're sitting with your mistakes for weeks on end with no chance to rectify them. I'm naturally a pessimist on the 'can any athlete ever really change' question because life has very much worn me down on this topic over the last few years (aka some sports results made me really sad). but I always want to be optimistic! I want to believe athletes can fix their fatal flaws! I want to believe they can get better at managing their tyres and not folding under pressure. and pressure works weirdly... sometimes it's not really a test of 'mental strength' as much as it is of what kind of in-built margin an athlete has (btw this is my best guess for what goes wrong with martin). sometimes it's beneficial in sharpening the mind and erasing the possibility of you just... not being sufficiently concentrated (which is my best guess for what happens with pecco when he's not being pressured). can you truly get better at dealing with that? or at a certain point, have you already accumulated so much mental scar tissue that you're always going to get in your own way? who knows! maybe we're all doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past forever and ever. who knows

anyway. in response to this ask. I do think it's more a case of 63's aligned in being too stuck in their own head, too concerned with legacy, and walking a very thin line between arrogance and insecurity. all three of them, though, have a bad case of 'coming through the ranks in an era of greats they'll always be disparagingly compared to'. what's new can never be as good as what came before, right? and they're constantly struggling to manage or maybe even overcome basic flaws that seem to be embedded in their make up as competitors... maybe they'll make it, just a little. maybe they never will. but it sure is fun to watch them try!

[babyprincesita]

the degree of mental illness on this app is astronomically high

[chronotopes]

silly personal loss post lol

i’ve been so busy being peeved at my alive boss that i have kept forgetting the ways in which i’m rather genuinely fucked up about my dead boss

[fandom-rants]

/breathes deep/

y'all people are still out here in the land of 2022 squawking that everyone who hates Vivienne hates her at least somewhat because she's black and I just. One person even said, "I remember when all we had was a trailer and all we knew about Vivienne was that she's pro-Chantry and black and fandom hasn't changed a bit since then" (as if being pro-Chantry isn't enough of a reason to hate a character lbr fuck the Chantry) and I'm LOSING IT.

NO, that's not all we knew about her, because every single Dragon Age Inquisition character was introduced with a blurb on Bioware's official site, and Vivienne's blurb said she 'cared more about fashion than efficient armor' (paraphrasing) and I immediately snorted and thought, 'oh, great, she's a shallow Orlesian noble (info that was given to us) who cares more about her image than getting anything useful done.' And lo and behold, I was right.

But hey, I was wrong about several characters I'd read about. I ended up loving Solas way more than I thought I would and caring way less about Blackwall and I actually found The Iron Bull extremely interesting. But Vivienne I went from thinking I wouldn't like her to actively hating her, and shocker!!! One of the few things I sympathize with her for is the hate she got from that one racist noble whom she ended up manipulating into his death in a war, which... yeah, no, that's a bit too far, holy shit, but hey, he was a prick and what he said was unacceptable.

But I still hate her.

I hate her because she lies straight to your Inquisitor's face, manipulating information to make her arguments seem more palatable. "Oh, the vote in the White Spire was too close! It should have been unanimous! Oh and also the reports about templar cruelty were deeply exaggerated; after all, I come from the White Spire and everyone was nice to me!" Like. Literally all manipulations and lies. I read Asunder, bitch; I know the truth.

I hate her because she is petty enough to steal shit from my character's room and throw it up on the veranda for everyone in the Main Hall to see, showing off the 'power' she has over me because the game literally doesn't let me order her to leave, order her to take it all back and let me watch her do so, order her to carry it all to her room herself, or even let me throw it out the window to spite her. The game literally forces my character to have to stand there and watch her act like a brat and smirk at me because she's a bitch and likes manipulating people, literally enjoys power plays. The worst kind of scum.

I hate her because Fiona is literally in the same building as her and she refuses to talk to her and still pretends nothing bad happened in the White Spire. I hate her because she treats Cole and Solas and Sera like shit. I hate her because she mocks everyone, insulting the intellect of every single character and insinuating she would somehow be a better choice than anybody else on your team. I hate her because she constantly belittles every single mage who disagrees with how she wants things run, to the point of mocking the mages in Redcliffe who were desperate enough to turn to slavery before they had to return to the Spire, instead of listening when they spoke of how bad things were.

I hate her because whenever she and Sera talk, it's so disgustingly clear that Vivienne is a noble, always punching down, mocking those beneath her despite the fact that she only got her position from luck and looks and a willingness to sleep with a rich man in order to get ahead. And that's from someone who also isn't fond of Sera.

I hate her because she uses the death of her lover to garner more favor. She doesn't care about saving him. She cares about losing her position. Proven, of course, by how she uses her actions of trying to save his life by currying favor among the surviving family instead of, you know. Mourning. You can even call her on it, say she's scheming and she'll say 'always,' say she used you and she'll laugh in your face. Because she is a user, will always be a user, is proud of being a user, to the point of saying to Cassandra that there is little else as enjoyable as manipulating and bullying people.

I hate her because she will literally destroy the College of Enchanters if it's built again, because the very idea of her power being limited in literally any way infuriates her to the point where she finds it acceptable to destroy buildings with people inside (but when Anders does it, it's unacceptable).

I could have liked her if she'd used her position to help literally anyone other than herself. Or if the game showed her feeling vulnerable sometimes and eventually opening up to the Inquisitor, maybe mentioning how she sometimes left a crowd to go to the restroom and have a panic attack or something. But no. We get information about how she struggled when she was younger (because mages struggle in Circles!!), then returned and made others struggle because it made her feel powerful and important.

She's a bully. She's self-important. She's manipulative. She's cruel. She's egotistical to the point of narcissism. She thinks everyone around her is a tool to use - in fact, I believe she even says as much once. Solas calls her out on it all perfectly - "You could use those skills to improve the lives of your fellow mages. Instead you have done nothing, save consolidate your own power." What an unlikable cow.

And shockingly, none of these things have shit-all to do with the color of her skin. You kids seriously need to grow past this fantasy of yours that hating Vivienne has literally anything to do with her race.

[thebluelemontree]

Do you think animation could hold the key to a 100% completely faithful adaption of the ASOIAF books?

Sort of? Great animation is a powerful medium for fantasy and epic storytelling. As much as I would truly love to see an animated series of ASOIAF, how can anyone say it would be a "100% faithful" adaptation without a finished book series? Sure, you could do an animated series and it could be fantastic and satisfying on every level. And dare I say, it could even turn out to be better than the source material in some ways; however, it would still be a version of the story. I don't think any adaptation is ever 100% faithful, nor does it need to be to be a masterpiece on its own. It is necessary for adaptations to make cuts and changes for it to be successful with a new and wider audience. It's a business venture after all.

Not that I know a lot about animation, but I'm sure it has it's own unique challenges of costs and production. You need someone at the helm that knows how to navigate the realities of translating a story to a different medium while still making the finished product at least true to the spirit of the original. As with many classics in the fantasy genre, sometimes the source material has a lot of outdated ideas that need to be reworked for a more modern audience. How race is handled in ASOIAF definitely needs more thought and improvement. And I'll give the show this much: it made no bones about Renly and Loras's relationship, which was the right call, even if the way it was handled thereafter was garbage. There is no reason to play coy with queer characters in 2022, let alone down the road when an animated series could theoretically be made. LBR, I don't know how you would get around the way more problematic shit without aging up the younger POVs more or toning some things way down. Even with an animated version, recapturing the nuance of what GRRM was going for is going to be a tough sell to even a hardened adult audience. Visual mediums just hit different, IMO, and you won't have the added context of those stories being told through a first-person POV. Again, you need someone at the helm who can anticipate how certain things will come across to the audience and who knows how to make appropriate changes when they are necessary. You cannot assume the audience has read the books or ever will. An adaption has to stand on its own feet.

Also, there are things in ASOIAF that are hotly debated topics to this day. The author intentionally left some things ambiguous, open-ended, and up to readers to ponder over. How do you decide what is the faithful interpretation? At a certain point, an adaptation is going to have to take a stand and assert its own point of view and not everyone may agree with it. (That's putting it mildly for the way the internet fandom gets a bee in its bonnet over anything.) That's fine. I don't want an adaptation that is enslaved to the illusory notion of 100% faithful to its own detriment. Besides being impossible to achieve, it's not the only way to earn the audience's trust and loyalty. Just showing you understand the genre and themes, and allowing your love for it to shine through can go a long way with winning your audience over. Committing to your vision as a creator and being thoughtful and consistent with the themes and internal logic of your storytelling is great, too. I don't think the solution to a adaptation with a lot of changes you disliked is to overcorrect into accepting nothing less than a strict adherence to the books as if they were sacred texts. I totally get that sentiment, though, if that's how you were feeling. I love the books with my whole heart, I do. Artists and creators still need to be free to take some risks, add their own touches, and make their own judgement calls to keep a story living and breathing with future generations. Especially if the book series is never officially completed, which is a real possibility. This fandom runs as strong as it does because we have different people bringing their insights and depth of knowledge to the table. We think a lot about how adaptations can go wrong when they aren't faithful, but rarely do we consider what could be gained from having something new and different. But if we only want the story as GRRM intended, we just need to reread the books.

[leqclerc]

This whole thing saddens me a lot because up until now charles proved his class while max was salvaged by his team. Spain is the most obvious example. Charles was leading and his engine went poof. Max went into the gravel and was a lot behind but rb had a good strategy and made team orders and he won. I’m not even talking about Carlos who every 2 races he goes in the gravel. Like he was so lucky in silverstone. He went off the track when he was fighting with max, but then max had damage on his car, so Carlos’ mistake went unnoticed and in the end he won because his main competitors were held up by his teammate who never got anything from Carlos. On the contrary, Charles’ strategy was distrusted in the Austria sprint race by this idiot. I’m so sick of these and I feel like we’re just at the beginning. And I don’t understand this sponsors stuff. Ferrari is so popular that I bet there’s a queue of companies who want to sponsor them. Why stick with these Santander idiots?

👏🏻 You made so many valid points!

No, yeah, I think about this sometimes as well, like. You have people who claim they're "fans" but lbr they never watch the races, just check the Wiki or whatever later and think the results tell the full story. And sometimes I get inexplicably sad about idk people picking apart Charles's results from 2022 a year or two or several down the line and using it as 'proof' that he was overhyped, that he can't "perform under pressure", that he wasted his opportunities or whatever. We're already getting a taste of that with those assholes who wave the pole:win conversion ratio up like it's some kind of gotcha when all that does is show they literally have no wheel knowledge. The truth is that most of those opportunities were taken away due to outside factors beyond Charles's control - mechanical issues (Bahrain 2019, Silverstone 2021, Barcelona 2022), strategic fuck-ups (Monaco, Silverstone), etc.

He's been doing incredible things this year. Like, I genuinely feel he's driving at his best and he himself has said he's learned from his past mistakes and is constantly looking for ways to improve. He's putting int he hours, turning up early in the paddock and leaving late; he's been studying and reading his notebook between sessions. Sidenote: a Brazilian journalist included a recent pic of Charles with his notebook in one of her IG stories and in her caption she said it reminds her of Seb/implies it's a habit he picked up from Seb.

Critics will say he "can't perform under pressure" but we've all seen that's not true. He managed a faulty throttle pedal for several laps with Max closing in behind him and nursed that car to bring home a win. He fought off Checo and Lewis on old, worn out hard tyres and Checo and some others have admitted his defense absolutely made a difference in the way the race panned out.

It's bizarre to me that the "mistake prone" label/narrative is still following him around. He's made, what, two notable mistakes this season (Imola - and it's not like he put himself out of the race entirely, he did manage to recover some positions - and that last Q3 lap in the wet in Silverstone.) But one of the things I really appreciate about Charles is that he always owns up to his mistakes and learns from them. He takes responsibility and then moves on and tries to do better. He doesn't like dwelling on what if scenarios and doesn't tend to blame anyone or anything else (gust of wind, blue flags, backmarker, etc.) He's "stupid" for listening to the pitwall and not "inventing" like chad Carlos, but do people realise he's making the same calls on the radio, just largely getting ignored?

Max has made just as many, if not more, mistakes, but like you said, the car has the pace and the RB pitwall has the intelligence to recover from those mistakes. Moreover, they capitalise on others' mistakes, Imola and Barcelona being the prime examples of that. In those two races Max made up the deficit after Bahrain and Australia set him back. After Barcelona - because of team orders - he was ahead of Charles in the standings. It didn't sit well with me at the time because I believed Checo could've won that race, but in hindsight it shows they were putting the WDC over a singular race victory, something Ferrari hasn't been able - or willing, which would actually be worse - to do in the same circumstances.

Re: the sponsors, I'm actually not entirely sure how this works, exactly, so someone else may be able to jump in with more knowledge here. I know some drivers bring "their" own sponsors to the teams, so basically the sponsors move whenever the drivers moves - i.e. Carlos brought Estrella Galicia over from McLaren to Ferrari and now Charles's helmet designs are marred by that massive logo, thanks bro; I believe Richard Mille was Charles's personal sponsor and is now Ferrari's sponsor and I think Armani got involved via Charles initially as well, etc. Some sponsors stay with the team as long as they believe it's profitable for them, regardless of the lineup (Shell, Ray-Ban, UPS have been with Ferrari for several years now, through the different lineups). Again, not 100% how it works, if it's companies that reach out to the team or the team reaching out to possible sponsors, and also, how much Ferrari really needs Santander to stay afloat, or benefit from the partnership.

Santander was already involved with Ferrari in the past. As this article notes: Santander’s sponsorship of Formula One’s oldest and most successful team coincided with the arrival there in 2010 of Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has been at McLaren for the past three years. And now, surprise surprise, they're back after Carlos joined...as a "premium partner", no less. So I imagine there's big money and likely big expectations involved. And it's a "multi-year" deal too, so we're unlikely to see them go anytime soon. As to why Ferrari, by all accounts, seem to be caving and re-arranging their team to meet the demands of a non-racing entity is anyone's guess. But it seems that the Spanish media in general are playing a bigger role here than anyone could've imagined, and are already trying to spread baseless rumours about alleged sabotage. Because, y'know, Carlos is just that good and Charles has no answer for him so he needs Ferrari to do his dirty work for him. 🥴

[dominicvail]

So. Funny story. I decided not to watch s13 when it premiered in the US because i watched the tail end of s12 on tv here when it aired and i enjoyed it So much more than i do after going through the ordeal of finding a dl and not being able to find time to watch it in one go and all. Like, it kills the experience for me. And i wanted to enjoy it.

So i thought, it’s fine! it’ll air here in a month or so! 

Except i forgot that the network that aired new orleans got shut down and the one that owned la scooped the rights, and instead of airing la they aired nola first! Because airing them both was too much for them, apparently. 

so basically i watched the premiere tonight when it aired and i enjoyed it a lot even if Callen’s sudden Hetty problems are actually even funnier than Nell’s sudden hetty problems because it makes him look uh... somewhat slow. I had also missed how funny all these idiots are. G confronting Killbride and getting yelled at was also comical but not in a ‘this is a funny scene’ way, but a ‘this is SO on brand for G when he gets all dog with a bone about something’ and oh dude. Kilbride has you on a shorter leash lol. Sam is ‘not Again’ and can u blame the guy?. 

Joelle and Callen once again bringing out the worst in each other. It can actually be annoying sometimes, because it Kind of grinds that sometimes it paints G to be a bit hypocritical in a way that makes me thing the writing is not self aware as opposed to them saying something about G’s cognitive dissonance, but it was On Point this ep between the two. Just Nasty as hell. They’d trample each other for their own benefit. Is it pleasant? No. Interesting to watch? Yep! 

but also side note i’d not ask Hetty for a reference in anything that isn’t shady as fuck. I am objectively aware they were trying to make a connect between Hetty’s history with the foster system and how she’d Not be a good person to ask in case of adoption because of what she’s done in the past, but it was suffering from show typical clunkiness of plot formation. But if this bothered me, lbr, id’ not still be watching it. 

Also... Watching this in may of 2022 aware of world events, i think, made this a bit of a different experience. 

It was very funny to see them react to somebody telling them that just... no mass slaughter guys! i forbid it! and them being pissy about it. Kilbride Was a dick in that scene to the point even Sam sassed the hell out of him and it was great. Not sure proving they actually Didn’t have to just kill all those people the past 12 years is necessarily the Best tactical decision here but it’s where we’re at apparently. 

the biggest shock of the ep was Sam’s car being a casualty. I normally judge if sam and g will be shot at on whether they inexplicably end up in some other car, because it’s actually a super accurate rule of thumb for this show, but they shot the wild cat!!! Fatima drove it through a wall!!! Sam being mad about that even After it had been shot out was hilarious like dude... i think the car was already done for. 

Anyway, it was fun. G has his biannual crusade to work on, Sam has that to work Around, Kensi and Deeks are working through it all and adapting to their situation, and the ritual ‘lets think of something that lets linda hunt be absent for long stretches’ plot is now in full force. Fatima and Roundtree being the excitable kids to the team’s casual experience is really funny. You were kind of like that in s1 guys! lollll 

but yeah i didn’t actually intend to let this blog die i just. was too wrung out to seek out the show online and expected to be able to watch it soon and it never aired. And also didn’t want spoilers. So i was kinda stuck there. 

yeah. Hi!