#great analysis oomf

[cobra-wives]

ok, everyone's gonna be talking about it now. so i figure why not spearhead the discussion on the nick marini interview on some of the new terry lore (?) we got today. (and shoutout to oomf you know who you are for sitting through the entire hour of the interview with me!)

nick saying "i watched a lot of videos of heroin addicts on youtube" for his role on chicago med made me giggle because i honestly thought he was speaking on terry.

initially auditioning for his role in the cks3 flashbacks, they had dubbed his character's military nickname as mayo. (as in mayo boy, because he's pasty white. DO YOU KNOW HOW FUNNY THAT IS.) upon seeing nick, the writers switched it up to twig. (to which nick laughs, says "great, not only are you calling me pasty, you're calling me a skinny twig.) WE COULD'VE HAD KREESE CALLING HIM MAYO.

nick dubs kk3 era terry "cocaine terry" which is, in itself, HILARIOUS.

"he is very much the beta to kreese's alpha..."

on the relationship between terry and his father - "terry's father is the first man he strikes down... i don't think cobra kai is his first experience with no mercy." interesting on that principle - much of terry's cutthroat business-like personality seem to be inherited from his father.

also very cool analysis from nick - he refers to the scene in s4 where he's staring in the mirror and regretting his ruthlessness in the past. i find that detail that he calls out, right next to the discussion of his relationship with his father, to be very intriguing - perhaps terry was ashamed of becoming like his father, just to prove himself to his father and kreese as well?

"we had a joke about terry... it was very karate kid meets succession" SUCCESSION MENTION!!!

nick talks about terry's relationship with his father as very estranged and strangled - he juxtaposes it to experiences he's had with rich kids from upenn, with farther relationships with their parents who are all ceos/rich kids. very heartbreaking. :-(

"the people that terry wants to prove himself to... they don't have time for him."

(LOTS of daddy issues in this interview.)

"he loves kreese. but the moment he realizes he's the one thing holding him back, he has to take care of it."

(i knew you! leaving like a father, running like water!!!! EVERYONE ADD CARDIGAN TS TO YOUR COBRA HUSBANDS PLAYLISTS NOW!!!!)

"can he even be redeemed???...i don't think he thinks he even needs to be." re: terry so deeply set in his ways that he doesn't believe he's wrong. (REAL.)

nick marini has so much love for his role as terry and i adore him. BEST believe i am sat for this man's career and anything he has to say about silver!

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Fandom For Dummies: A totally objective and 100% correct ranking of the different ASOIAF fan communities

Nobody asked for it, but here’s my unwanted ranking of the largest ASOIAF communities on the internet:

7. X (the website formally known as twitter)

This is a cesspool; easily has the worst takes imaginable and it doesn’t help that’s it’s mostly like two fandoms at the forefront of this. Show watchers blend into book readers and this causes so many bad takes on every character. People talk big mad about characters, until you realize that they have never read a single chapter for said character and are basically just spewing whatever nonsense oomf told them to. Fights are petty and uninteresting, not to mention just how unhinged HOTD twitter stans are. Back in my day things weren’t this bad. But the last few seasons of GOT made everything 1000x worse.

6. Tiktok

I went back and forth with this one but I think it should be near the bottom. Tiktok is basically just twitter lite. People are not as unhinged on tiktok as they are on twitter, but they still bring their nonsense stan wars which means that it’s super rare to find good asoiaf content because everything is basically wrapped up around “how do I make my fave look good by making everyone else look bad?” People who have never read the books also never hesitate to give their bad takes. Tiktok is also notorious for straight up stealing stuff from Reddit and tumblr, and then wrapping it all up with the stan twitter logic - which is a proven recipe for disaster. Don’t expect to find particularly gripping analysis on tiktok that you haven’t seen anywhere else. Shoutout to that one account that posts lore videos though - they’re single-handedly hard carrying that godforsaken app.

5. Quora

It might be an unpopular opinion to rank this anywhere other than last, but I put it above twitter and tiktok because you can actually find good analysis here and there. However, Quora is also a massive echo chamber that enables the worst circle jerks imaginable (we’re all familiar with that famous poster who acts like Dany literally murdered their entire family, aren’t we?). Quora was shockingly bad way back when I joined this fandom and nearly a decade later, it’s still terrible. But this ain’t special to the asoiaf community. Quora as a platform is intensely toxic. For being a cesspit of hate, it gets a near bottom ranking but still manages to rank above twitter for actually sticking to book content every now and then. Also, there’s usually not a whole lot of shipping wars which is a major plus!

4. Reddit

I’ve also gone back and forth with this one because it could rank higher or lower depending on the time of day. But it’s been a hot minute since passable content came out of Reddit, which explains why it isn’t any higher than fourth. This is a site that is capable of great good, and also great evil. Some cool theories have come out of it (e.g., the Night Lamp theory), but the downside is that this happens once in every five blue moons. Most of the time, Reddit is one giant circle jerk of whatever is the opinion of the day. Think Tyrion is the devil incarnate? Well you’re in luck, because so does literally everyone else. The makings of Reddit’s core demographic also means that female characters are more likely than not to get lambasted for every little thing (e.g., Cersei getting victim blamed for the abuse she suffers). Sure you could find good analysis, but it will be right alongside the most shockingly bad take on any given character that you’ve ever seen (just ask any Arya stan). A majority of redditors also employ the most surface level analysis of any character which lends to the bad takes, but this isn’t anything new considering that tiktok and twitter do the same thing but worse. Major plus though, little to no shipping! Which means that we get to avoid fighting about which teenage girl gets to shag Jon Snow. For having elements of both the good and the bad, Reddit is firmly middle of the pack. But shoutout to r/darkwingsdankmemes for single-handedly hard carrying the asoiaf Reddit communities. Y’all are doing the lord’s work (though it’s not like the bar is that hard to clear to begin with).

🥉 YouTube

Ok, woah YouTube in the top three?! Yes, hear me out. YouTube is really good at presenting out new theories, especially pertaining to the magic side which often gets overlooked everywhere else. In fact, I’d argue that it’s the second best place to get any sort of discussion on the magic side of asoiaf without falling into some bizarre stan war echo chamber. YouTube also doesn’t have the shipping wars that you find everywhere else, which makes the fan experience a lot more fun. Now a major downside is that a lot of analysis on there is either borderline crack on wheels or the most surface level reading imaginable. Some creators also push a lot of hate towards certain characters (we all know who they are). But still, it’s not the cesspit that Reddit is and you’ll be able to find interesting stuff everyday. It’s like tiktok, if people actually tried to think for themselves and analyze the books outside of an echo chamber. When you learn to filter out the bad faith arguments, YouTube has great content, especially if you’re a new fan and are trying to learn about the lore or get some explanation on popular fan theories. Shoutout to AltShiftX (for when they stick to presenting out basic lore), CivilizationEx, Radio Westeros (though they started out on westeros.org), and many more for the work that they do. Tiktok wishes they were you!

🥈 Tumblr

Tumblr is a GREAT place for fandom engagement! Ok let’s start with the bad: shipping culture. This has almost completely ruined the fan experience. Especially for ships that are not yet even cannon (yeah don’t all gasp at once). Either you think Sansa (a 13 yr old girl!!) is the devil incarnate or you think Dany (a 16 yr old!!) needs to be strung up by her toes. Every now and then, poor Arya will catch some strays. This also means that you’ll find a lot of bad faith “analysis” for the anti-ship characters. And to make things worse, Jon is in the middle of this and so every group is guilty of either misconstruing or vastly misinterpreting his character to further whatever their agenda is. Now onto the good. For all the flak tumblr gets, it’s given us some of the best character analysis you could find in greater asoiaf fandom. There are so many incredible asoiaf blogs and even the shippers post great content. There also a variety of good stuff which allows you to curate your fan experience. You’re a Theon stan? Great! There are a bunch of wonderful Theon posters on here. A Stannis stan? Fear not, you’re in good company! There’s something for everyone and you can stay in your own cute little stan bubble, which can’t be said for the other communities. Tumblr also has great artists and gif makers too, which you won’t find anywhere else (well, maybe the editors on tiktok). Something that keeps tumblr in the higher ranks is that there’s something new everyday. This site, for all its faults, has managed to stay active and keep things fresh after all these years. But the shipping wars man…that’s what’s stopping us from being the best. Let’s #MAKETUMBLRGREATAGAIN2024!

And the best ASOIAF fan community is 🥁 🥁…..

🥇 Westeros.org

Yes, Westeros.org is still the best asoiaf fan forum after nearly two decades. To this day, the best asoiaf analyses have come from this forum. The reread projects, in particular, are top of the class: The pawn to player threads which single handedly changed how we discuss Sansa Stark (+ the same people did the Arya reread projects); the learning to lead reread project which was a cool joint project by Jon and Dany fans; the Jon and Tyrion reread threads, the best of them all, which were spearheaded by the forum’s top posters; the moments of foreshadowing threads; the ‘can’t believe I missed that’ threads, the heresy threads for off the wall magic theorizing; the over 150 RLJ threads…the list goes on and on. Westeros.org has been the backbone of asoiaf fan discussion for years and years. Also, some of the funniest posts ever made (e.g., the ‘Sandor and Gregor Clegane are brothers’ theory) have come from that site. Does this forum have its faults? Absolutely. Just as all the others do. I’ve been around long enough to see the tides turn on which female character needs to be hurled right down to hell. Way back then it was Sansa and Catelyn, then came the huge anti-Dany circlejerk (which is still there tbh), and now it’s Arya who’s satan incarnate. Another ding against this forum is that is has not managed to keep it relevance after all these years; Tumblr has been much better on that front. Westeros.org lost its best contributors as the show overtook the books and is now a husk of what it once was. BUT, you’ll still find good discussion from the ten people who still log on everyday. This site actually focuses on book content, as there’s a dedicated book only forum. It’s also the best place to find extensive discussion on the different magical elements in ASOIAF. So instead of arguing about who is or isn’t Azor Ahai, which is frankly so 2014, posters on Westeros.org will actually spearhead some pretty out there analysis on the different magical elements. They’re not afraid to go against the grain, which is how we got the heresy threads - an entire subforum that encourages readers to think outside the box, which you won’t always see on tumblr or other sites. Westeros.org is not what it used to be but once Winds is out, I’m sure it will be returned to its former glory.

Didn’t include other sites like Tower of the Hand (which was pretty decent back in the day), Winteriscoming.net, and many others because they’re just not as big. Anyway, I’m 100% correct. GRRM himself told me so 😤

[thecoolerliauditore]

I wish there was a really smart and educated person who could do a character breakdown on Joel and why exactly you can so perfectly imagine him having a cluster b personality disorder. Most fond of him having bpd as a bpd haver myself.

This isn't a direct request from you if you don't feel equipped to make that analysis. You're a great essayist tho and maybe your stuff attracts fellow essayists as well

You're so real for that. I think it takes a certain level of vulnerability to break down the Why of reading a character in a certain way when seeing yourself in them so I understand why most people leave it at "i think x cubito has y" but the people who break it down I have respect for.

And thank you I hope I can outsource this to someone who gets it better than I do fellow yapper oomfs please feel free to hijack this post.

[midnightsslut]

I have this oomf that is not even a maylor that’s always tweeting stuff like “I get why Taylor lost it after loving him for 10 years and then having a 1 month situationship” I’m like girl, why are you talking shit? She never said that 😭😭 they listen to chloe et al and take it literally as if we don’t have songs were Taylor was declaring her love for Joe and as if she didn’t literally last year released a song where she basically said that she wanted to marry Joe 😭 (before shit hit the fan obviously). I’m not saying this because I’m a widow, I literally dgaf about Joe, but why do people take songs at face value, don’t analyze the lyrics properly and believe stupid threads? I don’t even think that chloe et al is about Matty (I think it has more than one muse), but even if I did, my analysis would never be “she loved someone in secret for 10 years” because even the more explicit songs about Joe on ttpd tell a very a different story 😭😭

Forgive me, I had to let it all out

nooo I get you because this would annoy me too. you know what else annoys me? edits of taylor at the 1975 concert using random ttpd songs that aren’t about matty (imho) with the caption ‘oh he was a great muse!!!’ I hate when that shit goes viral.

[viperwhispered]

hellow oomf!! throwing in: 5, 11, 17 for the fandom ask meme (and maybe 24 if you wanna get all sentimental and sappy 👀aheh)

-diodellet

Thank you for the asks @diodellet!

5. Something you see in fics a lot and love

Guess I’m just going for the first thing that came to mind: that 

“Oh.

Oh.” 

moment you see sometimes? It can be just so wonderfully juicy. I'm pretty sure there's a tumblr post circulating around for appreciating that and yeah I eat that up every time.

11. If you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

I mean, I would say I’m proud of most of my fics (and even the rest, not like I hate them or anything). I’ve mentioned Of Cows and Curses and Consequences before for a similar ask, since that’s still my biggest foray into longform fic. (I’ve still got so many planned yet unwritten chapters for that. Maybe one day.) Plus it was one of the first fics I really wrote, too, at least in English - kinda a go big or go home start, lol.

But also Fixation and Indulgence. They both were such labors of love.

I really should write some non-smut sometimes that would get me similarly delighted.

Tho How Not to be Swept Under was great fun, too.

17. The thing in canon that everyone loves and that you also love

My brain is so empty now when I’m sure there’s plenty of things I could put here.

I mean, I guess Malleus kinda counts, lol.

I mean, I’d like to think we all appreciate the multidimensionality of every twst cast member, how there’s more to all of them than first meets the eye. Also the fun dynamics you get putting them all together in all the various configurations.

24. How has fandom positively impacted your life?

I mean, I’ve certainly made some lovely friends here ❤️

Also uh pretty sure a fair portion of my sex ed came from fic, lol (we do get decent sex ed at school, but for like sex / body positivity and stuff I have a feeling fan works and fannish works definitely had an impact). Like yeah smut generally is obviously fantastical and sometimes formulaic but also the focus on mutual pleasure and enjoyment that tends to be prevalent is pretty great, even if it can get one's expectations / assumptions a bit high.

Also just all the feels I’ve gotten from fabulous pieces of fanworks, and all the analysis and alternative points of view that have helped me have more nuanced views of things I like. Lovely.

(you can find the ask game in question here)

[chrysalizzm]

!!SPOILERS FOR JANUARY 4TH FESTIVAL STREAM!!

disclaimer: i can’t talk about everything because i have final exams next week and really should be studying so i can’t exactly go back and watch all the vods; i watched the entire thing from ranboo’s perspective and his acting was immaculate good on him. everyone that i discuss in this ramble are, of course, their characters, and not the actual ccs.

holy shit holy SHIT i cannot THINK brain go brrrrrr

okay i need to split this up because i physically cannot disentangle the jumble my brain and emotions are in right now my mind is just a pile of scrambled eggs

predictions??? or well thoughts about tomorrow

one of the things i thought of right away was clingyduo losing their last canon lives together, though this is on shaky ground because i seriously doubt “season two” (for lack of a better word) of the dream smp would end so quickly after season one, and because tommy and tubbo are both such huge catalysts for events happening on the smp, this seems pretty unlikely (they’re both too important for them to end up as a casual death for the sake of moving the plot along, there are a lot of other characters who aren’t on their final canon lives or even some that are that might die if the writers really wanted that bit of oomf, though i don’t really think it’s necessary for any perma-deaths to occur tomorrow). that said, i think toward the end of the smp storyline, or at least once it’s hit a steady storyline or has been around for long enough, it might be really poetic for certain things to come to an end with clingyduo dying together - it ties up the first arc of the dream smp, how everything began, and now how everything ends (this is how the world ends, indeed). also, tommy kept bringing up the fact that he and tubbo are on their final canon lives, and while i think this is mostly just a “bait the audience to subvert expectations at the last moment” move (as happened today kind of with tommy joining tubbo’s side), it’s interesting to hear that particular half of clingyduo contemplating his own mortality.

i think there’s a pretty low chance of niki joining dream and techno, despite my wishful thinking because i think she’d be a great asset to those two in making the l’manberg side falter emotionally and because she’s excellent at organising her thoughts and presenting a really solid argument, something that both dream and techno are just kinda okay at. we saw from niki’s argument that she has torn loyalties - plenty of characters do, but she’s pretty unique in that neither of the reasons she’s fighting for line up that much with techno and dream (i also like that niki’s the one who comes out and says outright that her loyalties are torn because she doesn’t like tommy). she clearly makes the distinction between fighting with tommy and fighting for l’manberg - she’s fighting for l’manberg - and for her, l’manberg outweighs all else. that’s the reason why she’s fighting on tommy’s side - because she knows that dream and techno will destroy what she’s fought so hard to keep whole and safe all this time, throughout the time she’s been on the smp. enemy of my enemy is my friend, all that.

pandora’s vault. MATE. it’s huge and we all know it. i think it’s possible that dream wants to throw everyone who opposes him into the prison - it’s large enough and secure enough to accommodate - but i don’t think he will, because current dream (and i want to make a distinction between current and early dream, because they’re so polar opposite that i’m inclined to believe something’s going on behind the scenes, probably associated with the book schlatt gave him, shoutout to dr3 @dr3amt3am3 on twitter for writing an excellent analysis of dream’s character) is motivated around causing chaos by using everyone. think eris from greek mythology when she tossed the golden apple between athena, hera, and aphrodite - he dips a toe in the water and all the fish fucking jump. he doesn’t need to make the mess because one little push and everyone makes the mess for him. so, no, i don’t think pandora’s vault will be used to imprison all those who oppose him. i know a lot of theories have been floating around about whether it’ll be tommy or phil or techno - those three seem to be the top contenders - and i think i’d like to plump for tommy, who’s probably the one dream wants to see suffer the most and is capable of causing the most damage - after all, look at him rallying the people of l’manberg with just a few sentences after he spent the last month condemned by them.

there was probably more but i have sbi brainrot now let’s move on

wherein i become an staunch techno apologist

i may be on tommy’s side, but i don’t agree with his reasoning or how he acted today. yeah, i said it. yes, he’s been deeply traumatised since election night, arguably even further back, what with being the sole witness as wilbur spiralled and watching his best friend get brutally murdered and being unable to stop techno from razing the nation he helped plant the seeds of to the ground and seeing wilbur get stabbed by their father and exile, gaslighting, panic attacks, this kid needs a goddamn break. but i vibe with techno’s ideals and actions a fair bit more than i do tommy’s. the fact of the matter is, technoblade has always been completely transparent about why he was doing things the way he did them and what they were for (with the exception of a few lies of omission to tommy about what he wanted to happen to l’manberg). from day one he’s made it clear that he’s an anarchist and that what he wants is to abolish the government, and he genuinely believes that anarchy is for the greater good. from techno’s perspective, he’s not wrong - every single problem on the server can be traced back to some form of government or political turmoil, from l’manberg’s fight for independence to this latest festival fiasco. furthermore, when you look at it from an unbiased perspective, techno’s only ever really been used and discarded. he hasn’t instigated any conflicts on his own; he usually gets roped in by whoever’s running the movement, used as a weapon/items cache, then immediately thrown aside as the winners of the conflict establish exactly the opposite of techno’s beliefs. i have a lot of things to say about techno’s role in the smp because i get all angy about it, but for something zingy to leave you with - have you thought about how tommy and wilbur said “we have the blade” - a weapon, not a person?

rip community house ;-;7

yeah no it was almost definitely dream. tommy gains nothing from griefing the community house to that extent, especially not in this political climate (i know the argument can be made that he didn’t have to grief george’s house either, but that doesn’t have the connotations that the griefing of the community house does. no matter how reckless tommy is, i don’t believe that he’s stupid). dream has more to gain at this point from destroying the community house than tommy does, and this shows the audience a lot about current!dream; we know it’s true, now, what he said when he threatened tommy: “i don’t care about anything, actually.” he doesn’t. he said himself that the community house is the most sacred thing on the server, the oldest build, the first and only thing to have remained since the genesis of the dream smp, and so for him to have been the one to destroy it where he’s been so careful to preserve things from the old days of the smp (his pet fish, the community house, spirit) - shocking, the difference between early!dream and current!dream. he’s actually willing to go to literally any lengths to take tommy down, even at the cost of things he once valued above all else. interesting stuff. ((shakes the smug green bastard /smp)) TELL ME WHATS IN THAT BOOK YOU FUNGAL PIECE OF SHIT

applauding the smp members

because WOW that acting was SO FUCKING GOOD special shoutout to niki and ranboo because they fucking NAILED IT

okay i’m gonna go lie down and think about african lit for finals now thanks for reading this incomprehensible babble