#favourite team this season

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

With the end of season two comes a second redraw!

[Nov 2022] [June 2023] [June 2024]

[sentientsky]

source

on wrath. on fighting until the light breaks across your skin

[lovelydialeonard]

Gentleman Jack, S01E07 (1/2)

MARIANA LAWTON "So it’s all off?" ANNE LISTER "Mm. All off." MARIANA LAWTON "Freddy, are you crying?" ANNE LISTER (yes she is) "No."

[batsplat]

pecco rant please please

*spins wheel on possible topics* absurdly underrated but in a dumb way. you'd think you can stumble your way into two premier class titles. I don't care he's on the best bike - let's be honest, how often this century have the title winners not been on the best bike? 2004 and to a lesser extent 2005 you can say clearly weaker bike, 2007 late 2010s 2021 there's a clear enough disparity with anyone else riding the bike that you can say clearly the rider is making the difference/it's an unrideable wreck one guy is making respectable, then there's a few seasons where it's at least very close whose machinery is best or they're fighting with people on equal equipment, which pecco has done! but generally speaking, good/promising riders end up on good bikes and then they win. that's how the game works!

the thing about 2022 is that it had such a massive mid-season swing that overhauling a ninety something point margin cannot come down to any single factor. is it fair to say fabio lost that title? on balance, it's a bit harsh - yes, there were a few too many errors post-sachsenring, yes, some were driven by desperation, but also you can't really expect anyone to ride a flawless season. but pecco did win that title as much as yamaha lost it. I don't care if you're riding a literal rocketship with two wheels, you can't win four races in a row if you're not extremely good at what you do! if we're saying that title was worth less because the yamaha turned to shit in the second half of the season, then let's keep going. let's put an asterisk next to 2013 because jorge and dani both got injured (let's not even get into the 'if marc hadn't been injured' asterisks because that's where you get into truly silly territory). is 2006 not a legit title because of all the bad luck valentino faced that year? let's say all titles between 2007 to 2015 were worth less because at any one time only 4-6 bikes had a realistic chance of winning races. throw out any title before 2009 because they were constantly fucking about with the tyres and there wasn't a level playing field. if you're motivated enough, you can play this game with basically anything, but it's dumb and pointless because that's not how sports works! you can only win against whoever you're facing. it has always been thus and it will always be thus

it's narratively fun and juicy that pecco has these insecurities himself - but within the context of everyone else doing discourse over it, the whole thing is massively overblown! linked to some of the worst sports discourse about how much people love to disparage late bloomers, because they need every single successful athlete to fit the same mould of the ultra-talented wunderkind, apparently. it's more interesting when it's not always the most 'talented' (whatever tf that means), naturally gifted, *fast the second he touches a bike* bloke who wins. sometimes they have to work hard for it, sometimes they have to improve themselves year on year and be smart about how they do it, sometimes they have to be in the right place and right time, sometimes they have to be very lucky. sports is all about competition, and competition is all about contrast. it's a contrast that can be generated in a whole lot of ways, and in fairness to motogp they have come up with a bunch of interesting narratively tense contests that don't rely on a massive fundamental 'talent' differential - but at the end of the day, that's one of the best ones you can have! the more ways you can have to win in any given sport, the better, both in the literal sense of how you go about the actual process of winning and how you even become a winner. none of this means that pecco isn't very very good, it means he got there in a different way than every other multiple champ this century has. it fundamentally flattens the sport if you want every top-level competitor to be an alien-level talent... one of the best things about this current era is that it has given us something new and exciting in that regard, where you well and truly believe some very different blokes might have what it takes to eventually be champion

anyway, pecco is absurdly adept at digging himself into holes and absurdly adept at digging himself out of them. he's one of the worst frontrunners imaginable in every sense, biologically incapable of dominating without at least a perpetual hint of jeopardy, both in the context of a race and a season. but when his back is against the wall, somehow he keeps finding performances you never imagined he was capable of. his mixed up and slightly odd skillset, his strengths and weaknesses, how he's better and worse than he has any right to be... all of it lends itself to perpetual momentum shifts and thrilling seasons - because you never quite know what you're going to get. love him or hate him, he's a gift to the overall competitive landscape! god knows the racing hasn't been much to write home about these last few years (though, yes, we did have a good little run this season), but somehow he's managed to get himself involved in two out of the six title deciders this century back-to-back. is that not the dream for the viewer, to have a bloke at the top of the sport with a little self-combust chip in his head every time he builds too much of an advantage? build a hundred of those guys! throw a marc marquez at him and see what he does! I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next

[beautifulstorms]

‘Their face to face holds have never been good’ is even less of an acceptable excuse for L/L’s empty free dance for me lol…top 5 teams aiming for the podium shouldn’t be able to get away with being poor at the fundamentals of the discipline. If they’d been competing in 2010 the code would’ve forced them to get better at it, so it’s not entirely their fault when the incentives aren’t there, but they can’t possibly be hailed as the best team in the world - which many fans already do! - when many pairs teams are doing more difficult partner work. The diagonal step sequence is absolutely egregious this season, they’re so far apart it should counteract the GOE they get for the speed. I want to be able to root for them! But at least T/V are attempting more than the barest of bare minimums.

the thing is that no top teams are really skating in closed hold, even the ones that can do it well (i.e. g/f), even the team doing a tango. it's hard to penalize l/l for having poor closed holds when in 2024 it's barely even a feature of the sport. what they do have is better edgework / speed / projection than the teams above them, qualities that are still assessable in today's programs and valued by the scoring system. for me it's not according to what ice dance should be but rather what ice dance currently is.

that being said it does feel like that over six seasons the field collectively gave up on difficult skating and the ISU let it happen. and I do wish some team would shake up the status quo with challenging, intricate footwork in close hold. but I don't really expect it of anyone since there's no advantage in it

[jestroer]

Literally like. What the fuck is happening on this server at this point

[ratatatastic]

the dichotomy of sportsball that is your hockey team is doing good and your baseball teams are violently twitching and screaming in the corner during winter trades you just have to avert your eyes

[misiahasahardname]

i feel like if team amazon lost in ‘i see london’ instead of team chris (which they should’ve, btw), the plot would be more interesting.

alejandro is mad about the things noah said about him, and is now hellbent on trying to get him eliminated.

he knows that noah doesn’t trust him, so manipulating him would be pointless, but he also knows that noah and owen have an unbreakable friendship, and that owen is gullible as shit, so he could easily turn owen against noah, throw the next challenge while sabotaging noah, and boom! an interesting noah elimination that makes MUCH more sense than just making team chris lose for no reason.

also, having amazon eliminate a player and replace the player with duncan would still be interesting, and you could still do the gwuncan/duncney plot (and it might turn out more interesting since they’d all be on the same team)

i dunno though, those are just my thoughts

[klbzplb]

grian to cleoðo: just saying, if we turn red today, im sticking by you.

im gonna hold him to that. ive been praying.

[katkat030]

I open YouTube, and this is one of the first things I see XD (I’m still gonna watch you’re suggestions first)

Grian is always a good call! I haven't seen his POV yet but I'd absolutely recommend it too. Etho and Bdubs' povs are somewhat repeats of each other since they spent a lot of time together, so you could always sub him in instead

ALSO I've been told Ren's pov is really good! Halfway through it atm :)

[garciapimienta]

not a single person asked for my opinion but I have decided i'm going to trust iñaki again, I think he can be the goalkeeper he always seemed he was going to be and that last year's performance was more of a mental thing than an actual reflection of his abilities

[userm4x]

ive got thoughts abt the way this sport is going. b4 rbr, b4 the sister team, mid-season driver swaps only happened due to injury. now that its not just rbr, but williams too (dropping logan sargeant in the middle of the season with no farewell, just disrespect) i am fearful. there is a big dark cloud on the horizon. i wud not blame max for taking his leave.

[roscoehamiltons]

reverse unpopular opinion: valtteri? (maybe zhou if ur up for it) (( ＾∀＾)

my beloveds 🫶! i will talk about both bc i love them together, and separately

valtteri has been one of my guys from the beginning and he always will be. maybe it's a little bit of projection on my part lol because my irl temperament is very similar to his i think (for all the yapping and ranting i do on tumblr, i'm very quiet and calm irl lol). but also, i think he's just such a genuinely good, solid man and that's so rare to find. i love that he's become more comfortable and happy with himself and that he's unafraid to be goofy and silly now. i want nothing more than for him to be happy and thriving, no matter if it's in f1 or indycar or cycling or wherever his future lies (although selfishly perhaps, i hope he'll still be in f1)

about guanyu: i think seeing someone of your culture and ethnicity is so important and special for minorities, no matter what industry or medium we are talking about, whether it's in f1 or music or movies or science. but i didn't fully realize how much of an impact it would make on me until guanyu came into the sport, and i'm so glad that it's him representing china. china is not my country in the way it is his, but his culture is my culture. and while my relationship with it has been complicated, seeing it represented by him in such an openly proud (but not obnoxious) way has been so important to me in a way that i can't properly explain in words. guanyu is so important to me. as the end of the season approaches, i keep on thinking about that instagram story that damon hill made: "it's too early to recognize it, but zhou you have left your mark". the one thing i disagree with is that it's too early to recognize it because it has already happened, for me and so many other people. aside from lewis, guanyu's loss from f1 is the one i will feel the most strongly.

send me a topic and i will give my reverse unpopular opinion (aka praise) for it

[quee-r-code]

ik limited life wasn't the most popular season but i miss the divorce i thought the divorce was great

[becausebuckley]

5x18 closer i am to fine montage my beloved

[shadeswift99]

it’s That Time on the Shade blog again, folks!

Do you like the Life series? Do you like Impulse and Tango on the Life series? Do you also like Zedaph? Do you like the idea of a series similar to the Life series, but instead of a dozen or so people there’s only 3 and instead of killing and drama and high stakes plans there’s survival and idiocy and friendship and an amount of innuendo just south of the Youtube family friendliness guidelines? Well, then, you’re in luck! Go watch Hardcore Hermits!

Hardcore Hermits was a between-seasons Hermitcraft-adjacent side series based around a competition to collect the most Minecraft advancements. There are three seasons, with teams of three in identical but separate worlds trying to survive and win. I’ve rewatched all three seasons from Team ZIT an amount of times I’ve entirely lost count of, and I can confidently say that there’s something in there for everyone if you’re a fan of the idiots (affectionate) in question. Go check it out!