#formula one team? more like clown team

[ln4s]

me rocking up to mclaren hq tonight

[arkhammaid]

— ˚₊‧⁺˖ THE LIGHTNING ON TRACK | THE STRATEGY CALL

fandom. formula one & mcu

about. in which the stark racing f1 team talks about the 2025 strategy and beyond

content warnings. written in 3rd person

word count. 1.4k words

notes. with this chapter i wanted to involve a bit of politics and 'realistically' explain why stark racing won't immediately win a wdc (because with the whole set up, it would be possible). f1 are politics and no matter how many drivers say cash is king, connections have sometimes more worth

"welcome, everyone. thank you for tuning in", greets tony with a big smile on his face, spreading his arms as if going in for a hug.

"as you can see, i'm not currently with any departement, i'm doing the finishing touches in my own lab back in new york... since i don't want to drag anyone here to the US for meetings, we will proceed like this until january next year."

"now, i know it will be annoying with dragging your equipement with you and it's also unsafe, since you know... data secrets bla bla- so, in the next few days, each stark racing employee will receive the so called 'tactical intelligence glasses', which you can see me wearing. it's voice activated and can only be used by the one who sets it up, which will be you!" while speaking, tony fiddles with a pencil in his hand and starts walking around in his lab, showcasting it to every viewer.

"to cut things short, you'll receive a tutorial on how to use these glasses and set them up once you receive them. if you ever lose them, don't worry, we can track them. destroying them is pretty hard, but please don't try to make it a challange... our plan is to use them not only during meetings but also during the race, to keep our data from the cameras. with netflix, paparazzi and other cameras from the news, it's easy to steal data that shouldn't be accessible."

"alright then", he ends his ramblings with a clap, "we're going over the interesting part now. let's talk strategy..."

y/n let's her father's voice wash over her, her own glasses perched on her nose and feeding her constant information. in front of her are two holograms, projected by the hologram table in the meeting room she's currently in. the standing figure of her father and the presentation he's currently rattling off, all of it in a glowing blue.

next to her sits kevin, her future teammate, exhausted from the long 24 season but still paying attention. the rest of the room is filled with their team, the race engineers and trainers- each of them having their own glasses on.

to outsiders it looks like they're clowns, but it's a common sight in stark industries. decades ahead of the general public, stark stands for the future. of course they're trying to push it to the outer world, selling hologrammic equipement to both the industry but also private customers, but it's a slow progress.

the marketing team of SI hopes with their public use of the glasses and other devices they'll attract more customers, leaving the age of apple and samsung behind and instead welcoming the age of holograms. powered by starkanium, the production of phones, tablets, computers- anything really, is much cheaper and enviroment friendly than what's currently dominating the market.

shaking her head, y/n focuses on the presentation again. of course she knows it by heart already, she helped writing it, brooding over the strategy with the team ever since the team got announced.

"... the plan is to finish between 5th-3rd on the construction championship. not higher, not lower. we don't want to place higher, because this is our testing season. we will be practically sandbagging from the beginning, not revealing our true power for 2026."

yes... the construction championship. it will bring in money, not that they would need it, but it will justify the expenses they're going to make during the season to prepare for their second one. y/n is under no illusion, if they want, they could go all out and snag at least p2, if not p1. maybe she would even get her world championship- only then for everyone to say she won because she's driving a stark machine and not because of her own skill.

it sounds arrogant, she knows. but y/n believes, no, she doesn't only believe, she knows, she is one of the best in the whole world. if she can go against her father in an iron man suit, who can be only piloted by less than ten people in the world... winning in an f1 car is nothing.

but they've already made enemies for not waiting until 2026 like audi, 'enemies', who have much more pull within the motorsport world than them, simply because they're already established. christian horner is one, followed by toto wolff, the iconic red racing team not far behind.

with they're entry, they didn't make friends on the paddock, so for their first season... they can't be too good. or else their future seasons will be ruined.

it's stupid, to think like this, to think so far ahead, to think of others, in a sport where winning is everything. but it's not. cash and connections influence everything you do, how far you succeed. they have plenty of money, but are practically poor in connections. heck, even haas is better established than them.

they won't be, not after they're done after their first season. they will show the world, what stark racing is truly made of. and y/n will prove, that a woman can win.

"-bought data packs from previous seasons, dating back a whole decade, from mercedes and aston martin. cost a pretty penny, but data is everything. not to mention, after the big leak that happend in the middle of the season, we managed to grab enough data on all teams to calculate 3523 outcomes to this season. points, standings, anything." kevin wheezes at the number, which is followed by several data sheets. he gapes at the calculations, which predict another world championship for max 2064 times. all from the data they managed to collect.

"insane, right?", y/n whispers to kevin, who turns his head to her. his wide eyes make her snicker.

"welcome to stark racing, mate. just you wait until JARVIS and FRIDAY start feeding in new numbers and information." a muttered 'holy shit' is the only answer she gets and y/n has to snicker again. toto wolff once said something about formula one being war planning... well, he should know that stark industries and it's most brilliant minds know everything about war. be it on the market, by income or an actual alien invasion.

"we want to achieve at least one win, be it in a proper race or sprint, three podiums per driver and at least two fastest laps. and it will be possible", her father continues, pointing at a hologram of their car. it spins lazily in a circle, showing off it's aeorodynamic curves.

"this car is faster than the rb19, goes on par with the rb20. we don't know the upgrades from red bull, but another year and we can pretty much predict their stats for 2026. newey is predictable, all his upgrades point towards the perfection of the car, he focuses on what to make better and not invent something completely new. and if he does, he takes ages to prove it's better than what they had before. newey is brilliant, but he's no stark." there it is again, the facts of their rivals, taken apart and put back together to summerize their data in a few simple words.

"so, our motto for this season is testing, collecting data and improving for the next season. we're sandbagging, we're restricting ourselves. so if we ever do bad... we all know we could do much better. the engineering team will send first comparisons between the SR-1 and SR-2 out next week, y/n has already tested both cars in the sim, so we will have some data to read off."

"so, with that, we're pretty much done. thank you everyone for listening, i know for some it's very early right now, so if you have to read over the spark notes- JARVIS has put a summary of the most important information together, you'll receive the mail right after this converence. thank you again and welcome to stark racing, everyone!" claps fill the room and y/n takes off her glasses. it's exhausting to play mindgames like this, to calculate the desired outcome, but it will all come together.

hopefully, with her as a world champion, with the bold stark name on her back.

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ARKHAM MAID 2024

[l-epingle]

oh hungarian gp you are keeping my drama-loving ass FED

first off: oscar maiden win!! lewis 200th podium!! disregarding the whole race that's such a fun result

this is really backing up my belief that it's way more difficult to be a fan of a TEAM rather than individual drivers bc this is technically a mclaren win in the best possible way and yet they look like such fucking idiots like why would i want to root for them

what the hell was up with their strategy?? like they have no bullshit excuses for what they did with the pit stops and the team orders i genuinely don't understand what mclaren was trying to achieve here besides looking like total clowns

coming from an oscar fan i don't think lando deserved the win! oscar had an amazing start and led the race for a good portion and i think that if mclaren had done their pitstops RIGHT and hadnt tried to undercut??? for no reason?? then oscar would've continued to win the race anyway

coming from a FORMULA 1 fan who loves the competitevness of the sport i totally understand why lando would feel like this win was robbed from him. literally not his fault that mclaren are being bozos and i think if i was in his position i wouldn't have given up my place

HOWEVER as i said before i don't think lando DESERVED to win here. no driver is winning races because they DESERVE to there's ton of factors and oftentimes ppl win for no particular reason. take george's recent win bc of the verstappen-norris crash, all the wins thanks to safety car luck, you could even say charles win in monaco is simply thanks to good qualifying and the way the track is designed. so many things happen during a race that are outside of a driver's control and saying someone deserves to win a race is stupid and ruins the point of the race. like if thats what you want then who even needs to race might as well hand out trophies after qualifying or award points just on fastest lap

BRING BACK TEAM RIVALRIES!! so much love to naomi but i do not agree w pretty much anything she was saying formula 1 isnt really a team sport. the driver's championship is won by ONE driver. yes the wcc is based on team pts but i guarantee that every single driver would be totally fine if their team was in last fucking place if it meant that they won the wdc. saying that you can win a championship wo being selfish is CRAZY (especially in front of nico lmaoooo) bc you HAVE to be putting yourself first every single race if you want to win. yes your teammate is your partner but they are also your RIVAL and you are both coworkers and competitors. like so many selfish moments will be looked back on with fondness as long as you win. everyone can joke about multi-21 now bc sebastian vettel is literally a 4-time world champion and he ended up winning that year. no one cares that he was a 'selfish driver' bc he delivered results and getting hung up on being a team player in a sport like this is stupid to me

one thing lando did that DID annoy me tho was his response to lewis's compliment during cooldown like what was that??? he literally just said you were fast and you had to clapback? like lewis wasn't trying to insult lando in any way why'd he have to respond like that...

also nico he just couldn't get through the day without constantly being bombared w flashbacks huh him giving advice to andrea stella regarding TEAM ORDERS is sooooo funny to me

anyway to wrap up this post (rant) here's my fav pic of the day

brocedes reunion, messy ass team radios, return of mad max... this has been my favorite race so far and i hope the rest of the season continues in a similar manner

[themultifanshipper]

I would like to contribute my opinion on the lando/trump situation.

Warning, it's long and a bit nuanced (although slightly more a defence than an accusation but still keep an open mind)

And is edited as i find more things to say

First off, Lando is a victim of the formula one machine just like all the drivers. They are the puppets, the clowns, whatever analogy you want. The people behind the teams (team bosses, ceo's, sponsors etc... are what make the machine run, the drivers are just there to drive. He was approached by the ex president of the country he was in, on a high of winning his first race, and shook his hand while a million cameras were pointing in his direction. That can only happen one way: trump being invited by the team (bosses ceo's, whatever). Now, I despise trump and everything he stands for, but if I was in Lando's situation I would have had to do the same thing. (It so happens I was in a similar situation and had to shut my mouth and shake the hand of a politician I didn't like because I could have caused a diplomatic incident and lost my job and cost a lot of money in sponsorships). Also the alleged comments "It was an honour for him to be there/ you have to have respect for him" etc... are probably bullshit, but in the case that they are not and Lando is actually a trump supporter, if you cancel him for it, you would have to cancel half the drivers/team bosses/Ceo's etc in HISTORY.

The founding of formula one (like any institution ever) is by and for White/Rich/Heterosexual/Males. The FIA is corrupt. The teams are corrupt. It's an industry entirely run by money. It's capitalism in a bottle and some of y'all seem to forget that. The fact is the drivers could all be supporters of the right wing parties in their respective countries, would you cancel all of them?

For example, frank williams, the FOUNDER of Williams f1 team was openly a Thatcher supporter. There is a portrait of the bitch in his house (now his daughter's) as seen below, with a picture of.... george russell??

I also added a picture of Thatcher with Colin Chapman to emphasize that political figures often get involved in sports, doesn't mean the athletes align with their views. Trump, Reagan, Thatcher, Francisco Franco (a literal dictator).... they've all done it.

But let's have a quick look at Georgie boy then. A rich white man, he was quite friendly with Frank Williams, does that mean he's a tory? No. (Tbh he probably is but is smart enough to not talk about it)

Lewis Hamilton of all people was invited to lunch TWICE with the British Royal family (not to mention the knighthood), does that mean he's a racist cunt with no regard for other human lives? No. So why would he associate himself with them? Because he's smart enough to not alienate half the bloody population!

If these people had integrity and perfect morals, they would not be racing in F1. And for the few that are genuinely good people, they're smart enough to just be a cog in the machine to ensure their paycheck. We saw it with the horner situation, they won't get involved unless they actually support the bad guy. Similar situation to palestine, if they speak out either way, they will alienate countless sponsors and probably loose their seat.

Yes it's shit, yes it should be different, yes it should be inclusive but it's just not. It's veeery slowly changing though.

But back to Lando: now he isn't perfect obviously. (He's a white cis probably het man) He might even be right wing who knows, but I think taking alleged comments like "you have to respect the guy" out of context is dangerous. Objectively, yes there is an infinitesimal bit of respect you have to have for trump (hear me out) he managed to become PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES by manipulating the masses into thinking he was basically the reincarnation of God. Man is a genius, even though he's a cock. He's also a brilliant example of nepotism, capitalism and all round discrimination that represents the system we all live in. Additionally, florida is a pretty right wing state if i'm not mistaken (gun laws/anti abortion/anti lgbt etc...) and if lando had told trump to fuck off, there might have been riots and i'm only barely joking. Lando is a dick for the comments that were perhaps a bit unnecessary but y'all are seeing them as him endorsing trump lmao. As a (hopefully) future public figure, if the president of my country came to see me in front of a bunch of cameras i would also say it was an honour to meet him. At this level it's self preservation.

I will finish this rant by saying that I hope the world of f1 will change for the better in future years, already the gender diversification is going in the right direction, some programs are in place for kids who come from poorer backgrounds etc... but expecting that change to come from the puppets of capitalism is quite unreasonable. Lewis has set some standards that hopefully more and more drivers can stick to, but in the meantime cancelling a dude for breathing the same air as trump is stupid.

Ps: Y'all don't know the half of the awful private corporations and sponsors of the teams and drivers, so if you can't cope with the occasional dick on your screen, you might want to pick a different hobby. Preferably not involving public figures or PR in any capacity.

Edit 1: I've been seing ppl get mad at lando for saying he's his lucky charm and I think it's perhaps a language comprehension barrier thing. He did not say that. Trump said he was lando's lucky charm, then lando mentionned that trump had said it.

Edit 2: I've seen some clips of Zak Brown where he seems to be really friendly with trump. I wouldn't be surprised if it was his idea to introduce him to lando. CEO's are rarely great people, and although i'm glad he's been such a huge part of Lando's journey and success, i'm not a big fan of his. I just wish it would have been with someone a bit less complacent, like max or lewis, they wouldn't have said that stuff and the interaction would have been quite entertaining I reckon.

Edit 3: great post about the misunderstood comments at the press conference here

Don't hesitate to insult me in my asks, i will be answering them with equal enthusiasm :)

[mamadarama]

The thing I noticed about the new unit is that they’ve revealed six people, given they’re probably not gonna change the whole ass formula for one team and arnebs job is to stick out im really hoping he’s joining the old man squad with J and A which would not only make me happy because more of him would mean more of them but because he looks way too young. Would bullied by 4piece for being an old man and made fun of by jun and akiomi for being a kid

my best guess on what part hes gonna play in the story is that hes gonna try and take over anzus territory and take her place as The Producer of es, and the plot of this arc is gonna be about anzu defending her place as the goddess of victory. and 4piece is a unit he formed to help with that, like how eichi and ibara formed alkaloid and crazyb. im callin it right now 4piece is a clown and his 5 jesters

[darkspellmaster]

I also think Aladdin would've been greatly improved if he had more competition for her hand. The only source of conflict in that whole movie, outside of Aladdin's self esteem issues, is Jafar, who wants to use him to get into the Cave of Wonders and then only wants him out of the way when he's disguised as a prince. By adding in another good option like a version of Jafar who's the same age as her, it would add more personal conflict for Aladdin and make him need to actually prove himself to win her over. As is, it does seem like Jasmine picked the best option out of the shitty hand that was dealt to her and Aladdin just needs to go to therapy instead of trying to get another partner. Again, that's just me.

Well the series did allow for a few. The most well known was, of course, Mozenrath, (favorite of mine, not gonna lie, Rip Johnathan Brandis), who sometimes flirted with her and clearly had a thing for her, but also lusted after power, so there was that. And then there was Daru Tavelevil, who was this conman like dude who came off as cultured and impressed Jasmine a bit with it, turned out to be selling iron to one of the other villains. Prince Wazoo was a snooty guy who tried to win her over, but, um...he was more of a joke character, and some people have shipped her with Arbutus, who was a kind of cross between Beast in personality, and Poison Ivy.

In the original Arabian Night's story there was a small conflict in the form of Aladdin, using his Jinn to beat the son of the Vizier who was an option for the Princess to marry, though, depending on the retelling if she was into the guy or not. Some versions have him a clown, some have him a threat, others just have him as like, parents wanted them to marry because. From what I've read and seen of the making of Aladdin, there was going to be more to it. Aladdin's mom was going to be in the movie, being the moral voice to her son with the Genie, helping him to see that he had to make it up to the princess, and be better for her. Basically, what you're saying is Mozenrath should have been in the original movie. XD I mean, given what Iago said about how strong he was in magic, and then later we see what he does when he brain washes here, I can see where people would want that to happen. I do really wish they would have kept his mom involved somehow, it could have helped with some plotting beats, but at the time, most animated movies were between 89 and 93 minutes long. You didn't have the 2 hour plus run time some of them get now to expand on dynamics, so the songs had to do the heavy lifting. Could it have made for more drama, yes. But I'm not totally sure it would be as needed in this case, as the romance, while important to the story, was more about the growth and bonding between Genie and Aladdin. Showing how their friendship allows him to become more honest and true to who he is. And while I'm all for the romance in the story, I'm okay with it being the B plot of the relationship dynamic. Opposed to Beauty and the Beast, where the Romance is A plot, and everything else is B plot. Aladdin was a shift from that formula at the time.

Same kinda with Hercules, Mulan, and Hunchback. Family and Friendships took the mainstage, and romance moved to the back. Aladdin kinda was a bit of a start of that.

It's fun discussing these sorts of things. Ps. if you ever get the chance, and you can find it (since Disney still doesn't have it up on Disney Plus) look up the Aladdin series episode The Secret of Dagger Rock. It's the one where Jasmine fights Mozenrath to free Aladdin. (Additionally for Evil Jasmine, look up Forget Me Not, where she gets tricked into thinking she's a famous villain and totally leads the hell out of a team of baddies, forcing Abis Mal to ask for help to stop her from Aladdin. It's where her black outfit first shows up)

Hope the answer is good for you.

[herohimbowhore]

The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius: An Allegory for Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari holds the title as the oldest and most successful Formula 1 team, having competed in every season since 1950. Where others fell away, Ferrari has remained.

If you were to ask someone to say something about Ferrari, then there’s a few way it can go.

First, is perhaps the most common. Enzo Ferrari’s famous quote that was probably true for most of us. “Ask a child to draw a car, and certainly he will draw it red.” And Enzo Ferrari was correct. The first thought when asked about a red car or more specifically, a red sports car, is Ferrari. (And Lightning McQueen)

Then, maybe another well-known quote will come to mind. “Everybody is a Ferrari fan. Even if they say they’re not, they are Ferrari fans. Even if you go to the Mercedes guys and they say ‘Mercedes is the best brand in the world,’ they are Ferrari fan.” Sebastian Vettel said this in 2016 during one of Mercedes’ most contentious internal championship battles.

During the Monaco Grand Prix in 2022, Lewis Hamilton (the face of Mercedes in F1 himself) proved Sebastian’s statement true. During an interview with an Italian newspaper, Lewis said, “I would say one thing: if I could sit down with the fans on the bleachers over there, I would support Charles. I am a Ferrari fan.”

And if you’ve been watching Formula 1 for the past few years, then you’ll think of how the once great Scuderia has become a clown show. Questionable strategies, awfully hilarious pit stops, and great drivers with their potential wasted. All of it is a common occurrence within the Scuderia that we have grown to expect as fans and are shocked when their plans actually work out.

Contextualizing Ferrari with the song Pompeii by Bastille and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius seemed like the most coherent way to understand this downward spiral from a once great and lauded team to its current form.

Pompeii is one of the most well-known sites of a major volcanic eruption and a disastrous end to a once great city. Perhaps it is the perfect allegory for Scuderia Ferrari as we know it today.

Eh, eheu, eheu

Eh, eheu, eheu

Eh, eheu, eheu

“Eh, eheu, eheu,” at first may just sound like a vocally beautiful start to a song about a tragedy forever remembered and memorialized in ash. But it is a Latin phrase, roughly translating to, “eh, alas, alas.” The phrase is an exclamation of pain, grief, and fear. It is an exclamation that many fans of the Scuderia can relate to. With every race weekend, there is fear of what may go wrong this time and grief at how badly it does go.

I was left to my own devices

Many days fell away with nothing to show

The city of Pompeii, before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was a wealthy city. The residents, or at least some of them, lived luxurious lives with little responsibilities.

Ferrari, on a similar note, has rested on its storied history and has enjoyed luxuries that the other teams in Formula 1 do not get.

Ferrari has competed in every season of Formula 1 since the 1950 World Championships. Due to this, they have over 1000 race entries and status as a long-standing team.

One privilege given to Ferrari is the "historic bonus" from prize money. Despite not winning the constructors' championship, Ferrari tends to get more prize money at the end of the season than the winners. Since the 2021 regulation changes, Ferrari has received $35 million. Before 2021, the LST payment was $70 million, half of which was deducted from the prize money pool.

Another privilege enjoyed by Ferrari is the power to veto rule changes that won't benefit Ferrari or the sport as a whole. Thus, giving Ferrari more power than any other team in Formula 1.

Ferrari obtained the power to veto regulation back in 1980 as a means to keep them in Formula 1. During the renegotiations of the Concorde Agreement in 2019, Ferrari was able to retain the veto power. However, a key thing to note is that the veto power is used sparingly by Ferrari. It was last used in 2015 when Ferrari vetoed the FIA's plans to introduce a €12 million engine price cap. The proposal at the time had gotten a majority vote by the teams before the veto was utilized by the Scuderia.

So, Ferrari has gotten these unique luxuries and privileges for being an integral part to Formula 1 and the history it has within the sport. But despite all of this, there is "nothing to show for it" these past few years. Since the days of Michael Schumacher at the team came to an end, the Scuderia has been on a downward spiral.

You could argue that 2007 was a good year, they won both championships, didn't they? But, were it not for McLaren's Spygate scandal and then McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, more focused on beating one another, it's highly unlikely that the championships would have gone to Ferrari.

And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love

Grey clouds roll over the hills bringing darkness from above

Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, there were signs signaling that the volcano's period of dormancy was coming to an end. Most notably, in 62 AD, 17 years before the eruption, there was a major earthquake that devasted Pompeii and the surrounding region. The earthquake caused damage to buildings, with some of them collapsing, and a disruption to the water supply in the city. Now, we know that it was the first indication of Vesuvius awakening. Seventeen years later, when Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii was still rebuilding from the earthquake in 62 AD and the ongoing tremors that it had endured since then.

Regardless of how much time residents of Pompeii spent rebuilding after 62 AD, they never really were able to because ongoing tremors and quakes kept the walls tumbling down.

These days, as fans and spectators of the sport, we expect to see some sort of Ferrari blunder when it comes to pit stops or strategies. Monaco 2022's double-stack pit stop that cost Charles Leclerc a win at his home race comes into mind, or maybe Austin 2023 when Charles Leclerc was put on a one-stop strategy that took him from pole position to sixth place before disqualification due to the plank, or any number of impeding penalties that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have gotten due to their team not relaying the information to them.

But just like the 62 AD earthquake in Pompeii and subsequent tremors, signs of Ferrari's downward spiral could be seen soon after the end of the Schumacher era.

We could think back to the Japanese Grand Prix in 2007 as Ferrari driver, Kimi Raikkonen, was in a championship fight with the McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. The wet weather conditions of the Grand Prix required that extreme wet weather tyres be used. However, both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were forced to pit so the tyres could be changed after the race had started under the safety car. While Kimi was able to finish 3rd, it did put him 17 points behind in the championship.

Another major blunder shortly after the Schumacher era that comes to mind, is the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. A highly contentious race for many different reasons. You may recall Singapore 2008 for Nelson Piquet Jr. crashing, Fernando Alonso taking the win, and the entirety of the Crashgate saga with Renault. But as Crashgate was occurring, Ferrari was doing as Ferrari does.

In 2008, it was once more a McLaren driver and a Ferrari driver battling for the championship with Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa, respectively. When Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed and a safety car was brought out, many drivers chose to pit as there is less time lost during the pit stop. Felipe Massa, three seconds ahead of his championship rival, Lewis Hamilton, chose to pit. But unlike Lewis Hamilton and other drivers who had decent pit stops, Ferrari released Felipe too early with the fuel hose still attached to his car. A Ferrari mechanic was dragged along with the fuel hose and Felipe had to stop at the pit lane exit to release the hose. Thankfully, the mechanic was okay, but Felipe's race was compromised and the race ended with Lewis in the championship lead.

We were caught up and lost in all of our vices

In your pose as the dust settled around us

When Mount Vesuvius erupted, material from the volcano covered the residents of Pompeii who had not been able to escape the city. A common image that comes to mind when thinking of this is the stone bodies covered in lava that cooled and retained the shape. However, as the lava cooled around the dead, the bodies decomposed until there was a void left in those shapes. Since the 1860s, archaeologists and scientists have used the negative space in the rocks to recreate replicas of bodies with plaster.

The dead of Pompeii were left in this void and stasis. As are so many of the drivers who came to Ferrari with hopes of winning with the Scuderia, wanting to bring back glory to Maranello, and do as Michael Schumacher once did.

Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel.

They all joined Ferrari with hopes of winning the championship with the red team and all of them left with their dreams unfulfilled. An empty void of their potential was decaying from the inside as Ferrari continued to make endless blunders and not deliver cars that could win the championship.

But regardless of it all, nothing ever changes in the Scuderia. They're still caught up in the historic past as the dust settles and drivers with great potential leave.

Oh, where do we begin?

The rubble or our sins?

Oh, oh, where do we begin?

The rubble or our sins

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was devasting for the city of Pompeii and the neighboring city of Herculaneum, but there were some survivors who were able to escape and relocate. Archaeologists have traced some survivors and figured out that they relocated to other cities with social and economic opportunities.

After disaster strikes, there is a question of what do we do first? Do we focus on the the physical things we can see like the rubble? Or the root causes of the disaster that we can't easily see?

Ferrari constantly treads this line of deciding what to focus on. Should they focus on the obvious with the pit stops, strategy, and car. Or the power struggles within the team and personnel.

The inner struggles within the team are endless.

Possible tensions between teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (which have been denied by both drivers, but instances during race weekends kind of make it seem like there is some tension - especially when it comes to qualifying orders)

The Sainz camp beefing with Charles Leclerc: Carlos' mother liking tweets about Charles not having honor, Carlos' father declaring "war" on Charles by saying that it's always Carlos that has to follow team orders and team orders are non-existent when Charles is behind.

The Lapo Elkann tweet about Santander, the Spanish bank that joined as a sponsor after Carlos Sainz joined the team

Departures of staff and Team Principal Fred Vassuer saying that Ferrari is "miles away" from a perfect structure

Ferrari has internal and external problems that they have to deal with before they can have a successful season. It's very obvious that the car isn't fast, the pit stops tend to be awful, and the strategy is rarely good, but there are also so many internal problems with fights for power in the Scuderia.

But if you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

And if you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like you've been here before?

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

If you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

In the four days leading to the eruption, the city of Pompeii experienced small earthquakes that continued to increase in frequency. However, as stated above, small earthquakes and tremors were commonplace in the Campania region where Pompeii was. So, for the thousands of residents, it wasn't a sign of death and destruction and life continued on as it normally did. Until Vesuvius erupted and there was nothing to be optimistic about, giving into the grief and pain.

At this point, after nearly twenty years of watching as Ferrari fumbles and destroys the hopes of its drivers and fans, it has come to be commonplace to expect the least from Ferrari. Pole positions are things of dread, double-stack pit stops are nightmare fuel, and openly fans think that drivers should leave the team if they want any chances of winning.

But yet, there is hope.

A look back to Monza 2023, when the Tifosi surrounded Charles Leclerc. The crowd sang "Leclerc bring us the Championship," having complete faith in the driver who went through the ranks from the Ferrari Driver Academy and made his way to Ferrari after just one year in Formula 1.

And it's not just the Tifosi that have faith and resilience in the face of what should be a demoralizing downward spiral from the heights of greatness with Michael Schumacher. Charles Leclerc continues to push and put the car where it shouldn't be with 4 pole positions this season. Making it the second most pole positions for a driver this season, only behind Max Verstappen's 11 pole positions. Always striving for more and not settling for being in the midfield.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Scuderia Ferrari are two Italian tragedies nearly 2,000 years apart. Echoes of one another despite only having an Italian background in common.

[themattress]

If you want yet another example of why I fucking hate the Pokeani fandom and the two series they hold up as sacred cows (DP and XY), just take a look at the crap that's up on TV Tropes:

Wow. Notice how literally nothing else about the shows in question (one of which ran for four years and the other for three, meaning there was a lot of content in them) is mentioned at all. Only Ash, and only how skilled/competent/successful as a trainer he is. This single factor dominates the general opinion discourse of the shows in the Pokeani fandom and is what justifies them being named "the best", while other shows like BW and SM (the ones that follow such "tough acts") get constantly put down by comparison. How well Ash works as a self-insert power fantasy is literally all that matters to these clowns. It's so embarrassing.

Oh, sure - SM fans are the myopic ones! And let's check these "flaws" that those fans are "ignorant" about. "Animation and art style being wasted on comedic expressions instead of battles", "shying away from battling in general" and "many questionable writing decisions in important episodes especially the Alola League", which translates to nitpicks about decisions pertaining to - you guessed it - battles. Those aren't flaws. As a wise girl stated yesterday:

Of course SM isn't perfect, no series is....but it is absolute lightyears ahead of XY, period.

More battle stupidity. God, the hard-on these manchildren have for legalized cock-fighting is ridiculous. Fucking Nemona, a battle maniac, is somehow more mature about it than them!

So Dawn is considered better than May simply for struggling and losing more (the exact same kind of thing they scream bloody murder if it happens to Ash) and not getting wins they'd deem "undeserved", in addition to hogging the spotlight at every opportunity even when it isn't called for - usually for fanservice reasons. Her personality is likable and distinct, though; I'll give her that. While Serena is considered better than Iris (who has no elaboration given as to why she's "one of the least popular female companions" as if the reason doesn't make the fans look good, funny that) because............um, she's more feminine, is in love with Ash, and is given the kind of "arc of Character Development" these fans deem acceptable for a female character (read: a copy of Dawn's). Also, she's not dark-skinned.

The only objectively true statement in this entire blurb is the Mega Evolution specials being different and enticing. Otherwise: "improved writing" (read: back to DP style formula and safeness and fan pandering rather than really trying to be its own thing that's comfortable in its own skin), "action and battle animation" (read: fan obsession with battling above all else being satisfied), "a much more competent take on Ash" (read: a boring, out-of-character, Mary Sue self-interest power fantasy extraordinaire), "a better balance on having Team Rocket threatening at times while keeping their comedic traits" (read: Team Rocket just behaving downright psychotic), "a likable group of companions and supporting characters" (read: characters who are deemed uniquely "likable" solely for how they prop up Ash), and "a good pacing that averted Arc Fatigue" (this one's half-right, the pacing was largely solid...but averting Arc Fatigue was kind of difficult when for the longest time barely anything substantial was happening in the arc outside of the routine Gym Quest. Ash had no real rivals, Serena took a year to find a goal to pursue, Clemont and Bonnie didn't start getting significant focus or development until the second year, Team Rocket had nothing going on, and plot points that might have been interesting long-running threads like the Evil Malamar went nowhere. How is that an improvement over BW, which objectively had more going on in its first two years?)

Finally, this one piece of honesty:

Again, I say: I am so fucking glad that Ash has been retired. I get holding an attachment to a character you've known since childhood, but when it gets to this level of toxic where nothing less than that character being worshipped in-universe will suffice, it's time for them to go.

[signor-signor]

The 10th anniversary of Wander Over Yonder is coming up, but because life has been happening a lot, I can only find the time to set up dialogue.

If you’re wondering how Lord Hater is coping with the show still not being brought back, here’s what I’m imagining…

(Watchdogs are handing various tools to Lord Hater)

LORD HATER: Spatula… Applicator… Mini-fan…

COMMANDER PEEPERS: Sir? What are you doing?

LORD HATER: Remember when that lawful team Star Foals All Walk On Fours suggested I look for a hobby that “doesn’t inflict harm on any of our vaultmates”?

COMMANDER PEEPERS: That’s Star Force Enforcement Force, but yes, why?

LORD HATER: Well, I followed their advice and took up… (slides back to reveal a face mask) MASK MOLDING!

COMMANDER PEEPERS: Hey, that looks like Craig McCracken!

LORD HATER: Indeed, it does.

COMMANDER PEEPERS: Where did you get the hair?

LORD HATER: Let’s just say we have… (holds up an electric razor with a skull shape on the end) donors who are willing to give.

(cutaway to a beardless Mandrake the Malfeasant and Dr. Screwball Jones with an exceptionally thin mustache, the latter of whom is applying hair growth formula on his mustache/arms)

MANDRAKE: All right, disembodied clown, (gasp) it’s my turn to use the hair growth formula! I can’t let Starbella see me like this!

DR. SCREWBALL JONES: Oh, keep your robe on, ya fossil! I need it more than you do! How else am I gonna play my accordion again?

(cut back to Hater and Peepers)

COMMANDER PEEPERS: It’s very impressive, sir, but… why Craig?

LORD HATER: Our 10-year anniversary is coming up, which means we’ll be free to roam outside the vault for a short time. And since Craig is super busy rebooting his first two shows and he can’t be bothered to ask the higher ups to give our show more recognition, much less one more season, I’ll dress up like him, go up to their houses, and talk them into giving our show that third and final season we were denied years ago! If they refuse, I’ll tell them we’ll settle for a 90-minute TV movie. If they still refuse, I’ll just make them sell the rights to the show to Warner Bros. whether they like it or not.

COMMANDER PEEPERS: You’re still fixated on bringing back the show, aren’t you? Look, sir, given the circumstances, it’s going to take nothing short of a miracle to convince Disney to give us another chance or transfer us to another entertainment conglomerate!

LORD HATER: It’s totally foolproof! Just think, not only will we get to conquer the galaxy again, but I’ll get to brag about my victory over Dominator to the other villains, especially Emperor Awesome!

EMPEROR AWESOME: (offscreen) Bro, I wasn’t born yesterday! I watched that episode, like, 18 times!

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT MONTH

[lol-jackles]

One Piece review

Stories in One Piece stories are zany, but it works because it is classically told, with a focus on character, a journey together, the various characters' flaws getting them in trouble, triumph over hardship, and the camaraderie between crew members.  It's also just a really wholesome, fun show in an era of entertainment that's teaming with forced messaging and just dismal dystopia views and so on.   The One Piece offers a a nice change of pace from all of the grimdark medieval-fantasy shows and repetitive, formulaic superhero adaptations.   Simply put, the show was made on the on the foundation of joy.

The world building was great. It gives you the scope and scale. I just love how snails are inexplicably used for communication for everything without explanation.  It just is, so just go with it.

The fight scenes were cartoonish and you can see everybody doing fights and that's why it's great. None of that stupid multiple cutaways.

The casting was top notch. Both main character and side characters were distinctive and with believable emotional motivation. Every. Single. Actor. commits to their character, making them believable and far deeper than I expected.

Like the show, Luffy is a risk taker, smart, dumb, and brave. Luffy is relentlessly upbeat about everything most of the time, but he also gets to be angry and sad. When he shows those feelings it lets you know his character more. The acting choice really worked with this character, and hence made the whole show work.

Luffy is the personification of freedom, hence why he wants to be a pirate.  But every pirate the adult Luffy runs into are bad: destroying towns and killing or taking slaves (Alvida) or literal captive audiences for their ego (Buggy) or forced to pay back breaking tribute to them (Arlong).    These pirates may have started out like Luffy, embracing adventure and freedom, but after 20 years of not achieving their dreams and leaving them with crushed egos, they become cruel and subjugate others just to prove the illusion of strength and power.  They are just as obsessed with how they are perceived as today’s youths on Instagram.  The first pirate we meet through adult Luffy was Alvida, she learned from a captive that she’s not even on the pirate bounty hunter's list and killed the captive out of petty wounded ego.  Buggy the clown pirate rants about not having a spotlight and Arlong gives one to many pity parties over humans not respecting his species.

In contrast, Luffy doesn’t care how others see him as, letting others choose to see him as a villain or hero. He doesn't do what he does to be seen as good but because he wants.  He frees Kobe from Alivida and due to his enslavement from pirates, it’s understandable that Kobe has a rather dim views of them and he joins the Marines to protect people from pirates.  But similar to Luffy’s experience, Kobe learns that some Marines are corrupt and make deals with some pirates to either line their own pockets or to maintain the Old Guard.  But just like Luffy, Kobe does not allow the challenges to his world view to deter him from his dreams of becoming a good Marine and reform the institution, just like Luffy wants to restore piracy to their glory days of adventuring.

I liked how it was pointed out that the pirate’s personal freedom and the bounty of their heads turned it into a literal “price of  freedom”.   The more they exercise their freedom as pirate, the more they must shoulder results of their actions.   Some pirates embraced it, others found it suffocating as they can’t let down their guard and even kill their own crewmen out of paranoia. 

Despite Kobe’s low key persona, he probably has the strongest will out of all the characters.  The show does a good job showing the paradox of two friends who have completely opposite and colliding dreams (one a pirate and the other a marine) yet they still choose to act with integrity with one another.

The show gives a lot respect to parental figures. Every character has a background that can be traced to important people who imparted them with good morals, which lead them to what they are today. Even when they disagree or clash, both parties can see eye to eye and no one is portrayed as an asshole or antiquated just because they are not hip with the kids.  The relationship between Zeff and Sanji was especially emotional, that good bye was an honest manly tear jerker.

Nami has the quiet intensity that has one of the best backstory. She was strong without being a girl boss, and she was allowed to break down and be vulnerable. The boys were allowed to protect and help her, and it drew them closer as a crew.  Sure, Luffy has the strength and heart, and Zorro has the strength, skills and loyalty, and Sanji has fight skills that rivals his cooking skills, but Nami is possibly the smartest one of the lot of them.  It just occurred to me Strawhats literally can't function without her because no one else seems to know how to navigate the sea.

The music was freaking excellent and did a terrific job at capturing the spirit of adventure, which is key to One Piece's story. It felt like goofier and more playful Pirates of the Caribbean, and it reminded me how much fun the OG was.

Conclusion:  One Piece's first season is full of heart, optimism, excitement, and charm.  Villains are clearly defined and heroes strive to do what's right.   I enjoyed the earnest campiness equally with the earnest wholesome vibe.  Sure there where some dark as hell moments, but it never lets that fee like the point.  Luffy is a golden hearted character that believes I the best in the world around him, and the show unabashedly puts that on display without feeling the need to cynically tear it down.  I feel feel that a lot of modern media is most scared to be that sincere in its optimism, like people won’t take it seriously if the story isn’t cynical and cruel.  The genius of the One Piece is it gets people to take the story seriously in spite of the pure zaniness because it feels like old fashioned escapist storytelling Hollywood used to be capable of producing. Characters are layered and worth caring for. The core idea of following your dreams and encouraging the dreams of those around you merely uses pirate fantasy as its delivery system.

[motorized-clown-show]

I just had a very vivid dream about watching some... Interesting? Formula E's Instagram stories about the pre season test that was still happening in my dream

It started relatively normal with a poll about Mahindra/Edo and Nyck and what the fans believed they could achieve this season. But then it moved on to a series of stories which were honestly... mildly disturbing (at least in my dream I felt that way)

In the paddock they had put up one of these

With a piece of paper behind it asking "who do you think will the internal jaguar battle" and everyone from all FE teams were encouraged to vote on this by using those things

In two different colours. Also they played clown/circus music in the background.

And then it moved on to more videos of the "poll" in the paddock, updating how the people were voting but then you could see that people had added multiple cooking utensils holders (yk those metal cylinders) and were voting WITH (METAL) CUTLERY??? on more distinct outcomes other than simply "Cassidy is better than Evans" and "Evans is better than Cassidy".

Stuff like "jaguar team implodes and neither of them will drive the next season" which was accumulating more and more votes and with every passing story slide the clown/circus music became louder and louder and much more distorted

I don't even know how my brain came up with this😭

[otnesse]

Replying to The Mattress in a separate post because I cannot directly reblog him as I've been blocked by him.

"If you want yet another example of why I fucking hate the Pokeani fandom and the two series they hold up as sacred cows (DP and XY), just take a look at the crap that's up on TV Tropes:

Wow. Notice how literally nothing else about the shows in question (one of which ran for four years and the other for three, meaning there was a lot of content in them) is mentioned at all. Only Ash, and only how skilled/competent/successful as a trainer he is. This single factor dominates the general opinion discourse of the shows in the Pokeani fandom and is what justifies them being named "the best", while other shows like BW and SM (the ones that follow such "tough acts") get constantly put down by comparison. How well Ash works as a self-insert power fantasy is literally all that matters to these clowns. It's so embarrassing.

Oh, sure - SM fans are the myopic ones! And let's check these "flaws" that those fans are "ignorant" about. "Animation and art style being wasted on comedic expressions instead of battles", "shying away from battling in general" and "many questionable writing decisions in important episodes especially the Alola League", which translates to nitpicks about decisions pertaining to - you guessed it - battles. Those aren't flaws. As a wise girl stated yesterday:

Of course SM isn't perfect, no series is….but it is absolute lightyears ahead of XY, period.

More battle stupidity. God, the hard-on these manchildren have for legalized cock-fighting is ridiculous. Fucking Nemona, a battle maniac, is somehow more mature about it than them!

So Dawn is considered better than May simply for struggling and losing more (the exact same kind of thing they scream bloody murder if it happens to Ash) and not getting wins they'd deem "undeserved", in addition to hogging the spotlight at every opportunity even when it isn't called for - usually for fanservice reasons. Her personality is likable and distinct, though; I'll give her that. While Serena is considered better than Iris (who has no elaboration given as to why she's "one of the least popular female companions" as if the reason doesn't make the fans look good, funny that) because…………um, she's more feminine, is in love with Ash, and is given the kind of "arc of Character Development" these fans deem acceptable for a female character (read: a copy of Dawn's). Also, she's not dark-skinned.

The only objectively true statement in this entire blurb is the Mega Evolution specials being different and enticing. Otherwise: "improved writing" (read: back to DP style formula and safeness and fan pandering rather than really trying to be its own thing that's comfortable in its own skin), "action and battle animation" (read: fan obsession with battling above all else being satisfied), "a much more competent take on Ash" (read: a boring, out-of-character, Mary Sue self-interest power fantasy extraordinaire), "a better balance on having Team Rocket threatening at times while keeping their comedic traits" (read: Team Rocket just behaving downright psychotic), "a likable group of companions and supporting characters" (read: characters who are deemed uniquely "likable" solely for how they prop up Ash), and "a good pacing that averted Arc Fatigue" (this one's half-right, the pacing was largely solid…but averting Arc Fatigue was kind of difficult when for the longest time barely anything substantial was happening in the arc outside of the routine Gym Quest. Ash had no real rivals, Serena took a year to find a goal to pursue, Clemont and Bonnie didn't start getting significant focus or development until the second year, Team Rocket had nothing going on, and plot points that might have been interesting long-running threads like the Evil Malamar went nowhere. How is that an improvement over BW, which objectively had more going on in its first two years?)

Finally, this one piece of honesty:

Again, I say: I am so fucking glad that Ash has been retired. I get holding an attachment to a character you've known since childhood, but when it gets to this level of toxic where nothing less than that character being worshipped in-universe will suffice, it's time for them to go."

Regarding the first bit, I myself am mixed on how DP handled the Gym Leaders and how Ash fought them. On the one hand, I AM glad that the rookies in Ash's team didn't get such easy wins unlike in AG, and thus Ash had to actually learn how to adapt to their strategies rather than coming across as a huge Gary Stu, even more of one than his XY depiction. But on the other hand, Pikachu constantly losing to not just Gym Leaders, but even a blatant rookie in the form of Ursaring during Lake Acuity despite taking out a freaking Regice in the immediate prior saga was definitely inexcusable. As far as Unova, quite frankly, I felt they needed to do a far better job at actually retaining Ash's character as a quirky yet ultimately skilled and unorthodox battler without degrading him to basically being an idiot, and apparently treating the Gym Leaders even WORSE than in AG. Though I WILL acknowledge a good thing for Unova was him getting his Charizard back. And it was nice to see some nods to his Butterfree during the Decolore arc. And Sun and Moon, I didn't mind the quirky depiction of Ash as they did a better job actually going back to his roots than Best Wishes did. But I WILL state that they definitely narrowly dodged a bullet by coming close to having his Pokemon Master goal, aka the goal pretty much everyone needed to vest themselves in, the one that literally hooked us into the series as kids, taken away from him (the CoroCoro magazine teaser for Sun and Moon at the time made it sound as though he quit pursuing his goal of becoming a Pokemon Master in favor of "graduating like never before"). In fact, if it weren't for the Alola, Kanto arc (one of the definite positives of Sun and Moon besides Ash winning a league), it would have been very likely Ash WOULDN'T face a league at all.

As far as the bit about Kalos, making him hypercompetent was most likely a mistake, but one thing Kalos did that I ESPECIALLY liked was having him actually be given a challenge by the Gym Leaders, not to mention him actually observing them and coming up with ways to fight them. That did more than anything save for Sun and Moon to outright redeem the Gym Leader profession after AG crapped on them. And personally, if I had to list a series that actually fit that description regarding Gary Stu, I wouldn't even think of DP OR XY, I'd if anything think of AG and his wins against the Hoenn Gym Leaders (with the exception of Brawley and Roxanne, he pretty much handled them the same way Team Rocket was usually handled, and one of the wins, Tate & Liza was a blatant butt-pull).

And quite frankly, I'd argue that if anything, AG was even MORE guilty of the overfocus of battles than DP and XY put together, especially after how they had Ash basically cream the Gym Leaders with a purely rookie team with no real struggle for the rookies barring Brawley. Oh, and managing despite all of that to completely fail to get a rank up (and worse, his Hoenn team failed to beat Brandon TWICE, and instead his Kanto team had to finish the job), meaning even regarding that, it came across as downright pointless.

To be fair regarding Dawn (and this is hardly speaking as a Dawn fan. In fact, I don't even like either May or Dawn and if anything felt IRIS was a step up from the two of them. Her as well as Lillie.), Ash having to struggle in DP, or at least, his rookie team having to struggle, was one of DP's definite improvements over AG (now, having Pikachu struggle is more of a downgrade. Rookies struggling against Gym Leaders is one thing, but having Pikachu struggle, especially after OHKOing a Regice, is definitely not good writing no matter HOW you slice it). As far as Serena, I'm overall neutral to her, but definitely recognize she had extremely bad writing (if anything, I'd argue that she's a marginal improvement over May).

And to be fair to the second-to-last point, most of the points made against XY can actually be made against AG, right down to Ash lacking any real rivals, Team Rocket being grossly mishandled (a complaint, BTW, that Takeshi Shudo himself made about AG's handling of Team Rocket in his blogs before he died, and he voted to keep them in, likely from being pressured by the likes of Hidaka), and ESPECIALLY Ash being a huge gary stu (in fact, I'd argue AG-era Ash was far more of one than XY Ash EVER was. At least XY Ash had to contend with several Gym Leaders that TRULY challenged him, had wins that actually WERE plausible rather than blatantly pulled out of his butt, even had to actually rematch some of them, including the last Gym Leader. At least he didn't plow through the Gym Leaders and reduce them to comparable jokes to that of Team Rocket on their worst days via a purely rookie team). Oh, and also overfocus on battle and action that acted as a HUGE detriment to everyone involved, yes, including May, and even made certain Pokemon of theirs EXTREMELY OP. Heck, XY Ash actually managed to improve from his initial outing by double making back his Unova win to be runner up, while AG Ash by contrast stayed the EXACT same rank as in Johto, and his one true accomplishment in AG, the Battle Frontier, was reduced to a complete joke thanks to Paul, the Sinnoh Gym Leaders, heck, even GARY at the very end of AG.

And speaking as someone who DID briefly come back, what drew me in was Sun and Moon as well as To Be a Pokemon Master, both times to see Misty and to a lesser degree Brock return, and only the latter I actually WATCHED start to finish.

[owls-den]

Absolutely! BW is really one of those series that helped pave the way for a lot of changes. I personally hated the soft reboot as a kid (and weirdly enough hated the show without being part of the community. I also HATED Trip with a passion because of the Snivy fight?? Oh man, I went through such a gigantic redemption arc xD) and while I'm still not really happy with Ash's characterization in that show, if I was able to recognize the greatness of characters then others can too!

XY is also pretty flawed (although the finale was absolutely incredible. I clowned on it a lot during my recent watch but I genuinely cried at the end) but as you said these two series help bring us to Sun and Moon which was objectively incredible. BW and XY brought a lot of small changes, deviating from usual formula to try to bring their own story! BW just had the misfortune of not being able to go forth with big arcs like Team Plasma VS Team Rocket and such which halted the narrative no doubt. (I really would love to live in a timeline where Team Plasma actually was present in the first part of the series)

I'm hoping sincerely we'll get even more people joining the BW fandom and seeing that it wasn't as bad as they remembered. I'll go and do my part and thrust my art in their face and hopefully, eventually, they'll end up giving it another shot haha!

Hi. Did you always like pokemon best wishes?

Hi! Thanks for the ask :))

This might come as a surprise but actually no.

Tl;dr: I didn't for 10 years (but was weirdly passionate about hating it). Then a year ago, I went through an intense character arc and realized I actually REALLY loved it. Which led to me posting on Tumblr.

I had been watching since the first Pokemon BW episode aired in France and... I immediately thought it was fishy?? I was like 9-10 at the time. I didn't outright dislike the series until season 15 where I just really hated the episodes and would rant to my friends about them.

Now, did that stop me from drawing small comics and writing fanfictions about self-insert OC going on adventures with the gang or Trip? Nope! I wrote multiple of those! (and burnt them in holy fire once I grew up and realized they were ultra cringe)

I don't think I really REALLY hated it. It was more of a love hate thing in retrospect. I loved the characters but didn't like how poorly they were used in the series. I actually kept up this passionate "hatred" thing until I was 19. I had written an entire essay at this point detailing the series and its short comings. It was about 20 pages long??? (most were about Trip cause... Obviously.) and funnily enough, I had written a conclusion in advance saying I was being too harsh on it and started liking some of the most improbable of characters.

I had re read it and I think I started realizing that... You can hardly being THIS passionate about something and TRULY hate it. I went through all of my sketchbooks from when I was 10 to now and noticed how Trip was in. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. So I did some soul searching (YEAH.) and started studying my fave character's—Trip's—personality and... Woah, he was way more interesting than I remembered? And that one episode where he meets Alder again? I hated that episode as a kid but nowadays, I really really love it?

I just kinda stayed in what I had perceived as a kid and never looked back to realize all the problems in production that led to a product with a ton of little issues but that had a lot of heart put behind it.

And THAT was when I started posting on Tumblr a year ago. Right after going through this insane character development lol! Now, I look back at the conclusion of my essay and wonder "WHAT DID I HAVE AGAINST STEPHAN?! HE'S SO COOL!" and... Well I guess my 19 yo self somehow managed to predict my fondness for the series, despite their assessment being coated in sarcasm. I gave a second chance to the series and while it DOES have its issues, man is it a charming little series <3

Funnily enough, the first art I posted on Tumblr of Trip was the first time I had drawn him digitally in nearly 9 years! Not ever going to be the last though, haha!

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

McLaren being McLaren again, I've seen this song before and I didn't like the ending...

[leqclerc]

Sigh. As much as I love and respect Laurent and personally believe he’d be a much more palatable TP than Binotto this unfortunately points towards a bigger issue within the team, this idea of constantly reiterating that nothing’s wrong, there’s no reason to change anything, most of their poor results are down to outside factors, no one really understands their plight, etc.

Granted, they’re hardly going to openly admit morale is poor or whatever, but not taking responsibility and doggedly defending bad decisions, when everyone else can clearly see many, many costly mistakes were made, is not a good look either. It’s difficult to feel sympathetic when the team’s policy so far has largely been denial (there’s no reason to change anything within the team), deception (claiming the race in Hungary was unwinnable regardless of strategy simply because the car had “no pace,” which was absolutely not true for Charles), and delusion (there’s no reason we can’t win the remaining 10 races), or some mix of the three. It’s frankly insulting. To Charles, to all the people back at the factory who worked so hard to make a championship contending car, and to all the fans tuning into this clown show. In all my years of following F1/Ferrari, I don’t recall a time when they so blatantly made so many bad calls with such frightening consistency. It’s not just a genuine mistake here and there. It’s week in, week out; the rule, more so than the exception at this point. You can comfortably go into a weekend and predict that the pitwall will do something to compromise Charles’s race and be correct more often than not, and that’s concerning.

And now, a little over halfway through the season, they’re closer to Mercedes in the standings (30 points difference) than Red Bull (97 points), who started off as their main rival for the championship(s). My prediction? They’re going to be pipped for second by Mercedes and ultimately finish the season in P3 in the Constructors’ standings. Mercedes. The Mercedes whose resurgence was supposedly a good thing for Ferrari, because it would “take points away from Red Bull.” Yep. P3. From P1. P3, where they finished last year, a result that was considered a massive success for their then-midfield car, coming off the back of a disastrous season. And the worst part is, should it happen, it will be absolutely deserved. P3 is just a more accurate reflection of their goals and ambitions than P1. After all, Binotto shamelessly moved the goal posts while the championship fight was already well underway and downplayed their ambitions from winning a title to just winning some races here and there.

In its current form, with its current attitude, this is not a team that has a genuine hunger and determination and desire to win championships. When Red Bull or Mercedes lose out, they are sick. They’re disappointed, they (generally) hold themselves accountable, and they analyse their weaknesses in order to come back stronger at the next opportunity. To them, anything less than a win is not good enough, especially when they know they have the car and drivers to achieve such results. They’re always pushing for more, bigger, better. There’s ambition there to win - and not just a race, but races, and, crucially, titles. Ferrari, meanwhile, seem to be content with mediocrity, treating the ultra-competitive sport that is Formula 1 like it’s a school sports day, where everyone’s a winner simply for showing up and participating.

In the past their title bids have also been flawed and ultimately fruitless (2017, 2018) but, I don’t know, at least I could feel they tried, they wanted it, which is more than I can say for the current pitwall/management. It’s this feeling that they just don’t care, that they’ve thrown in the towel much too prematurely and are now pretending this was the plan all along...that’s the inexcusable part. To have everything in your grasp, have the driver, have the car at your disposal...and then so carelessly dismantle everything for no discernible reason. If there is one given behind the scenes for this fiasco, then we’re not privy to it.

If the management, the people who hold actual executive power, who are responsible for making important decisions, really and truly see no issue with how the team is being mishandled at the moment, the way it’s failing to reach its full potential, then this malady is more serious than we initially thought. If there’s only talk of “learning lessons” and no actual, tangible action follows - worse, if the same mistakes keep being repeated over and over and keep being defended in the face of fair, constructive criticism, then the team has a massive problem, and I can’t, right now, see any clear solution. They are insane for this (derogatory). After all:

[formulinos]

Hyperfixation Corner | The 1982 Formula One World Championship, Part 1 | Background: The FISA-FOCA war

there are wacky seasons in formula one. some have 5, 6 drivers fighting for the championship right until the end. there are mid-season changes. but then there is one who separated weak boys from repressed men and created the collective generational trauma for those who went through the absolute fucking hell that was 1982 formula one world championship. fittingly enough, the person who won it wasn't the greatest winner, but almost literally the one left standing. this time on hyperfixation corner, we take a long, hard look at the events that shaped the season and what exactly happened. as the schedule goes:

background: the fisa-foca war

physics for psychopaths: the killer regulations of the 70s-80s

heating the tires: the drivers strike in kyalami

the 1982 formula one world championship, or, the triumph of keke rosberg and the grief of ferrari

this is the first part of a series i'm doing this week, fruit of a month of investigation and bingewatching. please consider giving me any sort of sign of life once you read it! liking and reblogging is great, but comments and asks are just fine too! even just a letter saying "dumb" will suffice. we also touch some heavy topics - even though i don't go into detail - so please be careful as you read it! thanks a lot and see you soon :D

So, we're usually used to Big Characters in F1 having their rivalries, like drivers in different teams, drivers in the same team, teams against teams, teams against themselves, Ferrari against everything, you know how it goes. So you'd expect we kick things off with drivers in each others throats or team beef right? Yes, this isn't Formula 1's Worlds Best Friend Championship, but the scenes were mostly provided before the season even started - and to be more precise, freaking 3 years prior - by the head honchos at FISA and FOCA (I bet you know what we're talking about but I just boiled the jug and got some Lipton I had in the pantry here).

It all starts with this guy called Bernald, Bernie for short. He had tried to become a driver but he retired after seeing a number of car accidents. Then, he managed two drivers, but they both passed away after racing incidents (one of these dudes was Jochen Rindt btw, the only posthumous F1 WDC). At this point he should have been like "fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me" to the god of races, but he put his clown make-up on and it actually worked. He bought a lil team in 1972 called Brabham and finally started making his way to the toppermost of the poppermost.

You see, Bernald Ecclestone the Third, as fucked up in the head as he is, actually had a galaxy brain idea: what if we fucked around and unionised? He proceeded to propose this to several teams and in 1974 they formed the Formula One Constructors Association (miss FOCA if you're nasty). Bernie's triumph was that he got people like Colin Chapman (from Lotus, then a Behemoth of racing) and Frank Williams (Claire Williams' dad)  by his side and managed to get all chassis builders effectively behind him. With time, the manufacturer teams (Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault, responsible for their own engine construction) were like "hm. perhaps… these guys want to have rights?? but we are already here? fucked up!" further opening a rift motivated by the technological tussle between these two factions of F1.

Miss FOCA in 1974 - amongst these lads there is Max Mosley The Lawyer (and future FIA president) kneeling down in the middle, dude with the Elf shirt is Ken Tyrrell, Willy Wonka by his side is Colin Chapman (Lotus) together with Frank WIlliams. the little head on Frank's right is Luca Di Montezemolo (then Ferrari's official "spokesperson" - Enzo was in Maranello as always) and right at the top inside the motorhome, smiling like a bitch is Bernie. Lazy to name everyone, I'm sorry for the historical disrespect. 

On the other side of the paddock we had the FIA, who were also kinda like "fucked up!" For them, Bernie and co. had become a nuisance since they were openly talking about how all the money in Formula 1 shouldn't go just to the FIA and the manufacturer teams, but the constructors should see a larger chunk of it as well. To counteract FOCA, the FIA turned the sub-sector responsible for F1 into an autonomous committee called FISA - Federation Internationale du Sport Automotive - which was presided by the same man that ran the FIA, that bitch Jean-Marie Balestre. By 1978, the split in Formula 1 was pretty clear between FISA and the manufacturers v. Bernie (and his lawyer, that bitch Max Mosley) and FOCA. Of course, Bernie always had his sights on something and this time, it was one thing and one thing only: the television rights.

cinematic parallels: 'persona' (1966) dir. ingmar bergman / jean-marie balestre and bernie ecclestone talking / 'chungking express' (1994) dir. wong kar-wai

For the public, this only became known back in 80s and it was the perfect moment for Bernie because the drivers started getting properly involved as well. They had already started to really wonder if the shit barriers, weak cars and overall lack of medical care helped them at all, but with the hiring of Prof. Sid Watkins (only done by insistence of Bernie) two years prior and the implementation of new safety measures, action was taken in the shape of a drivers' protest right at the start of the season, demanding improvements on tracks. Of course, FISA would take the stand of "there is a race to be had here" and FOCA would seemingly take the more humane stand (and i'm not gonna claim they weren't sincere about it since the bizarre amount of deaths up until then must have taken its toll to the people who were there to live it). Either way, for Bernie, things were all coming together.

Right at the start of the decade the situation was bad, real bad, Michael Jackson. It kinda still looks like a picnic in the spring compared to 82, but the mess… Before the Spanish Grand Prix we had: 2 drivers protests for safety measures (in Argentina and Brazil, race weeks 1 and 2), 1 FOCA dick boasting session where the manufacturer cars did way better (South Africa, race week 3), a LOT of accidents, one of them involving Clay Regazzoni. He had an accident so bad that everything below his waist was paralysed for the rest of his life and that was genuinely a good ending as he could have died) (United States, race 4), 1 cancelled GP (Mexico, almost race 5). When it was time to get back to it after all of this, the FOCA drivers show up, but they fail to appear to the drivers briefings. But maybe they got the wrong time table right? Nah, same thing happens at the sixth race. The FISA teams are full hoes mad at the lack of Respect they think they're being given and Jean-Marie, taking very seriously his role as the president of the governing body responsible for all things F1 and taking a very neutral stand, decides to 

Exclude the Spanish grand prix from official records, which means people could race if they wanted to, it just wouldn't mean anything and no points would be granted to the championship, irrelevant because:

All FOCA drivers that took part in the boycotts would also get their racing licenses stripped, so it's not like they would be ever allowed to compete in any FIA sanctioned championships, eh? Grande Jean-Marie, his mind ugh! 

Yep, that went well. The FISA teams just headed back home because they still had licenses and weren't going to risk their cars in a non-championship race when they actually could still fight for one, while FOCA and their gang went ahead anyway out of pure contempt and spite. It was a lovely sight to the people who stayed to watch, since most of the attendees didn't turn up once they found out the race was null and teams like Scuderia Ferrari Mission WinNextTime were headed back to their headquarters - this footage from Spanish media shows a bit of what was the mood there, you can see the "abandoned" Renaults and Alfas and the rest of the staff still working while the audience was around.

Shit hit the fan hard, another GP got cancelled and after tons of death threats, constructors on his neck and a little bit of jazz, Jean-Marie granted the drivers their licenses back. It was the end for 1980s bickering on track, but off it there was still a major discussion about the 1981 calendar as Certain People *glares at Bernie Ecclestone* were starting to attempt to throw a coup on the FIA and create their own championship as retaliation for FISA's ban on "ground effects" - more on that in section 2. Discussions were so heated that the Argentina GP had to be cancelled since it were supposed to kickstart the season in January and by December they were still trying to deal with the whole situation.

Bernie held on to the idea of a side championship just enough that it fucked up the calendar dates and then dipped back to F1, leaving Balestre with no other choice than delay the South African race to April. However, the organisers were like "listen, buddy, you don't grow grand prix on trees. you can't just ask us to postpone a grand prix like that, we have a huge infrastructure all set, tickets and promo and sponsors and we still have a contract with FOCA..." The result? Juan-Maria tried to bluff and said that if they wanted to they could go on with the February race, but if they wanted the FIA seal of approval, then it had to be April. Since there wasn't a single soul in the 80s that wasn't petty, Kyalami took the bluff and the opening round of the championship was actually a non-championship race that, once again, only featured FOCA cars, as the FISA backers decided to just stay home. Cindy, this is scenes, and the perfect time for a Bern Attack.

Bernie had created drama and it came the time for him to be as cold as my therapist. He first lured Balestre and FISA in like "oh, this is nonsense, we have been fighting and for what. the fans are suffering and we just got to television broadcasts! we had races cancelled and our tyre suppliers are about to quit! we're grown men, god dammit, we should do as gentile men do and settle this with an… Agreement? maybe we should meet in FISA's address, place de la…. Concorde?". John-Mary took the bait and when the FISA representatives opened the door, there were Bernie and that nazi bitch Max Mosley. I even bet they got glitter ink pens and scented paper for this because I know I would have. Anyway, apparently they spent over 13 hours talking it out and after much deliberation, they whipped out the first Concorde Agreement™, a big top secret contract that no one knows exactly what it says - and honestly idk why, it's been 40 years FIA, release the Ecclestone cut - but it mainly stated two things:

From that point onwards all teams that signed it (therefore signing up for the championship) had the obligation of turning up and racing - no more strikes, babeh! This also ensured that FISA wouldn't look that bad for the audience, because, check this out

Commercial rights are owned from now on by FOCA, who would lease them to tv broadcast stations and, in return, split the money between the teams and themselves, with a chunk left for FISA.

It's not a bad agreement per se, but when Jean-Marie left the room he was like "wait a minute…who are you?". Turns out the agreement didn't please FISA that much and they would remain engaging in petty conflicts for another two whole years, thus making the 1981 season the prelude to the absolute hell of 1982. Feature key points of 1981 besides the calendars?

Nelson Piquet won the WDC for Brabham (lol) and Williams the WCC

Lotus's OG chassis was banned and they had to go with a modified version of the previous season;

Goodyear dipped right before the season started so they had to improvise w Michelin until Pirelli came through;

tbh every single car at one point was accused of being illegal for one reason or the other and specially the Brabham, that used something called a hydropneumatic suspension to make it legal during scrutineering - more on this later;

Belgium GP was at Zolder and it was horrible start to finish. Due to the overcrowded grid, a mechanic was ran over and later succumbed to the injuries, leading to a drivers protest. The show still went on, only for the same thing to happen to a marshal while he attempted to help a stalling car. 

(next up: "physics for psychopaths: the killer regulations of the 70s and 80s")