#i yelped when i first read the 'ciao sete' text and completely lost it at the photos

[batsplat]

https://www.tumblr.com/bikefuckersoftheworldunite/768294388486045696?source=share

PROF BATSPLAT THINGS WENT DOWNNNN IN THE SETE/VALE RIVALRY

(link) yes ahaha luckily I have been fortunate enough to be privy to that particular discovery for a while. trust I've been turning it over a lot in my mind, truly one of my favourite things I've learned all year. it's provided me with such joy

I think what always gets me about the t-shirts is like. the logistics of it all? I mean this was already very pertinent with the cleaning company shirts, but just gets progressively funnier the more shirts we add. the time frame, right -

this all happens in a month. sete started out october 2004 in a reasonably sane and reasonably normal world and ended it in fucking nightmare-ville. between qatar and sepang, valentino has to go off to get his finger fixed - you know, the one with a hole in it - and also maybe prepare himself for the critical stretch of races ahead?? fourteen points between the pair of them with three rounds to go, lest we forget

but never mind all that, valentino has time to brainstorm mean t-shirt ideas. and again, they need to come up with this idea, pass it on to get the design made, actually make the shirts, while also travelling from qatar to italy to malaysia. in eight days. the title-winning shirts, okay, valentino had already come up with that idea so that's not too strenuous. but then he clearly decided he couldn't get enough of this stuff and additionally ensures he has another shirt made to mock sete, either by phillip island or valencia

the whole thing is just so gloriously petty, so malicious, so downright cruel... while also obviously being incredibly funny. the worst thing valentino ever did to sete was turn him into a joke. it's not fair, obviously it wasn't - sete did deserve a lot better than the humiliation followed by the dismissal followed by the erasure. it does not do justice to his career or his accomplishments. it does not do justice to his rivalry with valentino. but valentino got what he wanted and was able to free himself entirely from sete. he has escaped the unique burden that rivalry placed on him

and it's crucial that he does it with the t-shirts. like the sweeping at sepang, t-shirts are part of the repertoire of pre-planned celebrations - the most important ones of all, since they generally only get made for winning a title. I've talked a fair bit about valentino's arc over that 2003-04 season, how he returns to his roots in the middle of 2003 and leaves honda as an expression of individuality... and how he marries those two sides of himself, joy and cruelty, in ruining sete. 2004 is all about integrating those parts of himself, because they're all part of the same deal. you don't get one without the other where valentino is concerned. these are planned celebrations, it is staged, it is theatre. valentino put a lot of thought, dedicated time and effort, to figuring out how he wanted to humiliate sete. how badly he wanted to twist in the knife and continue to twist it, to not just beat sete but hurt him. what was it about sete specifically that could draw out such a reaction from valentino? and why did valentino feel ever so threatened by sete? knowing the answers to those questions will give you a far better understanding of valentino and how his mind works, I can guarantee that much