#i'm so excited to see which quote wins

[mechsbrackets]

I ended up a little busier today then I expected, so I won't be able to make the list of quotes on the bracket and the runner-ups until I get back from camping on Monday. I was hoping to get that done that before I closed nominations, so everyone could see the options, but ig that's not happening. Sorry!

In other news, the form to submit nominations for the Best Mechanisms Quote/Line bracket will be closed in less than a day, so if you have any last minute additions, now's your chance! The bracket itself will start on Monday June 5th!!

[miabrown007]

"Fuck off, hot stuff."

ZR Ellor, May ​the Best Man Win

[sy-on-boy]

My 2 cents on the plot / thematic relevance of Ch 95

This is not about advancing Plot B or showing Anya's school life (which is still true but has been discussed), but rather the overall theme of education and war. There was an excellent post about how Eden is at the frontline of the cold war and it is subtly shown through the innocent lens of the first graders (I can't find it now, would link it if I could). And I think that perfectly applies to Ch 95.

Quick recap on some references about education/students/war throughout the series (that I remember at the moment):

Sylvia gravely condemning the Berlint University Student Terrorists during the Doggy Crisis arc (Ch 20) and saying "did you learn nothing about war at your university?"

Henderson talking about his experience as a history teacher (Ch 27.5, Short Mission 4) and quote: "Yes, well, I have always maintained that there is nothing to be learned from the memorization of time lines. From the grand efforts with which our forefathers crafted society to the foolish notions that sent them racing to war, to not study the human element at history's root is to not understand history at all"

Note that Damian's best subject has been established to be history, and his family (father) has been involved in war, at least Donovan was PM during most of the war (established by Melinda in Ch 91). Donovan is also a graduated Imperial Scholar (Ch 64).

The Red Circus group started out as a peaceful student demonstration "advocating for peace and quality" (Ch 72) and "speaking out to protect the weakest members of our society". And Billy Squire said, "We were a respectable movement that fought for our cause with respectable means. It was the state that turned violent against us. So I'm not taking criticism from a member of the establishment (referring to Henderson, an educator). I'm gonna see to it that they reap what they've sown." Billy's daughter Biddy was killed by the state at a protest.

Less of a point, but Becky is the daughter of the CEO of a major military manufacturer. Despite their very likely involvement in military conflicts because they sell arms, the Blackbell cohort has been depicted positively so far: Becky being a kind, wonderful friend to Anya, Becky's father doting on her, and Martha again being kind and dignified (and also being an ex-soldier and acquainted with Henderson).

Eden Academy is a major setting for SxF and the themes of politics, education, and war are embedded in it. The students involved in protests/groups are older (the university students, Billy's daughter), but the political implications remain even among the youngest of the students— the first graders.

Hence, Ch 95. When mere first graders are shown to fight to gain connections, which can be political as pointed out by Henderson: "In the world of politics, dances serve as major social events". But of course, they are kids, so they see it more playfully and innocently, especially Becky with her shipper lens on.

Of course, there is also the aspect of getting to know other people better out of interest (the boys asking Anya and Becky to dance because they were impressed after the bus hijacking). But as people have mentioned, nobody mentions this to Damian despite him being equally involved in saving the class (all three of them got a star). The girls aren't interested in Damian as a person, they're interested in him as an asset because of his family and their power.

And I can see the teachers trying to diffuse the tension and create camaraderie with their friendly competition. To me, this reads as the teachers fully realizing "the battlefield of political maneuvering", and they want to remind the kids to have fun, to show good sportsmanship, to unite the kids, to operate as a class and be friendly with one another, and overall make it more lighthearted. It's nice to see the classes work together and get excited / win as a unit, especially compared to the more "individual" bits of fighting for a dance partner later.

We get a bit of comparison between Bill and Damian, with Bill showing good sportsmanship while Damian scoffs at him. But Damian ends up becoming ultra competitive and telling his classmates to not screw it up.

Like the Dodgeball chapter, Damian is clumsily attempting to lead the class by doing good in his quiz, while getting stressed and yelling at his peers when they don't succeed like he did. So he's not really a good leader. Like how him being good at history does not necessarily mean he is good at being peaceful (Short Mission 4 ends with Henderson staring in exasperation at Damian + Anya bickering with each other). But obviously, he is merely a child, and he is naturally immature.

At first Loid is all for advancing Plan B and analysed Anya's suitors in a rational (reductionist?) way by ranking them in terms of gaining intelligence, but he remembers this is just a dance, Anya is a kid, and she should do whatever she wants. Loid (and the adults) are very aware of the political side of the gala, but ultimately they want the kids to have fun and not worry / worry less about politics.

Because they're kids! They'll grow up and learn more and be politically active later, but right now, they're just kids. Kids who don't know much about the world but are eager to make the world a better place.

In the end, we get a panel of Anya and Loid "teaming up" to win Damian's hand for Plan B / world peace. The Damian-Anya dynamic is cushioned with the silly crushy feelings, but underneath it, Operation Strix continues to be a core motivation.

I find it interesting that Endo chooses to focus on the first graders and their innocent view of the world / politics. It's embedded everywhere and especially in a prominent school like Eden, but the kids don't really realise it / realise the severity of it. Heirs and heiresses are educated at Eden and grow up to have incredible influence and the power to shape the world. Our protagonist's best friend comes from a family that manufactures arms. Henderson mentions the importance of learning history to avoid making the same mistakes (ie. war).

So Ch 95 is a cute prom chapter. But I think it also helps to show the themes underneath the fun, bubbly interactions.

[batsplat]

just so you know bc I don’t think enough people tell you this but every time I check your blog (a bit compulsively at this point? your compilations and opinions are very enlightening on the general psychology of those crazy motherfuckers and also the uhhhhhhhh other part) and see that you answered another ask I honestly break into the hugest grin and settle down at the next given opportunity to read the newest batssay (batsplat essay) like it’s an academic paper (it is to us sports scholars, I believe)… please never feel the need to cut short your thoughts on any subject. the longer the better! connect all the dots, bat! we are listening!!

thank youuuuu this is so sweet, I know this ask is a little older but trust whenever I get something kind in my inbox I very much read and appreciate it and it very much makes my day. and I love the term batssay. a lot

so I thought it'd be fun to do a follow up post to the casey/jorge/valentino one where I just dumped a bunch of photos with a wee bit of context... for the culture, y'know. and I'm doing this with just casey/valentino, mostly for 2007-09 but with one 2005 photo chucked in as. build-up. for flavour

we know from the #archives that the two of them did have like. a reasonably warm dynamic pre-casey's motogp debut. they'd talked... also at least one race where casey shows up to valentino's podium and chats to vale's crew chief and fellow aussie jb... I think about it often. what did it all mean

casey's first win!!! qatar 2007, very first race with ducati. he'd gotten very close to a win before - in his third ever premier class race at turkey, lost at the final chicane. casey's goals going into that first season with ducat had just been winning a few races... he notes that valentino congratulates him warmly, but reckons it's just because valentino didn't take him seriously as a threat, which. I don't think that quite stacks up with supplementary evidence from the time, but we'll allow it

one of my fave photos for a reason, idc it's sweet. I was trying to figure out when this photo was from through like, normal means of reverse image search, but then instead I had a horrifying moment of 'oh yeah I'm pretty sure I remember that specific presser backdrop is at mugello that year' and. I was right. which. god. anyway yeah mugello 2007 pre-event presser. by this point casey was 21 points clear in the championship standings

more mugello 2007!!! look at casey constantly sipping from his lil cup. this will have been after qualifying, where casey snagged pole. I'd forgotten valentino actually makes front row in qualifying because he makes a typically horrendous start. I'd also forgotten that this race is like. proper good. one of the best that year. slows down eventually but the first ten or so laps are some of the most exciting of the entire alien era

catalunya 2007, which unfortunately I also dated solely through the presser backdrop. idk I just like the vibes of this photo. anyway!! this race is ofc the one where casey won an all timer late race duel against valentino (+ dani). it is after this race that valentino said casey was, and I quote "riding like a god". a seminal moment

the championship is already extremely over by the time they get to estoril, but casey still needs to formally wrap it up: this is his first match point race. depicted here is valentino getting one of his few Ws that season. an account of this event: “valentino was playing table football in the yamaha hospitality and somebody spotted casey outside. so they invited him for a challenge. it was all good fun”

motegi 2007. valentino had managed to put off the inevitable the race before and temporarily stopped casey from sealing the title, taking his last win of the season (cool duel with dani in that one). but motegi... well honestly it's just a bit of a flop all round, nobody's bike is working the way they want it to, casey seals the title with his worst result all season of a sixth place (the horror) and in his autobiography he was kinda like 'well I was very happy but also. meh race' (I paraphrase). but really, who cares, he had his title

bit of a time skip!! after both of them have put their sketch early 2008's behind them, the pair of them had a proper fun fight at catalunya for p2. a continuation of the battle the year before with valentino once again coming from lower down the field, this time he gets the better of casey. still, things are finally looking up at ducati... and the post-catalunya test might be enough to put casey right back in title contention. the above photo is from donington, where casey confirms the progress ducati made by winning his first race of the season after the opener in qatar

still donington, both of them watching each other etc etc. valentino is in a much better place than the year before, given both casey's rough start to the season and how they're both now on the same tyres. but it's not a good sign if casey's hitting his stride... at assen, valentino makes his one mistake of the year and crashes on the first lap, remounting to finish eleventh (he still beats casey's teammate melandri). this puts dani in the championship lead - and with casey's second win in a row, he is now very much closing in

look at them chatting here!! cute imo. this is casey's third win in a row, at the rainy sachsenring. dani crashes out from a few miles in the lead - while casey had stayed sensible and brings it home for a pretty straightforward victory. valentino needed to fight his way through from further down the field and in the end he loses too much time to put any serious pressure on casey, but it's still damage limitation and he retakes the championship lead from dani (who will miss the next race due to an injury sustained in the crash). and yet, momentum really is firmly on casey's side now... and the rest of the calendar does looks like pretty casey-friendly territory. next up, they're headed to a race track where casey had won very comfortably the year before. would he seal his fourth consecutive win at laguna?

now with my sincere apologies to casey stoner, every photo that came out of laguna 2008 is objectively pretty funny. I have limited myself to a mere two podium photos, but lbr there's a full collection. casey had already rejected valentino's handshake in parc fermé - which some might have taken as a social cue to give him some space. whereas valentino, local dickhead, just will not stop yapping at casey on the podium. this is quite possibly as genuinely delighted as he gets after a race, and it's simply a beautiful contrast with casey who is not quite rude enough to actually tell valentino to shut the fuck up - but may be fantasising about pushing valentino off the podium. this, to me. is art

gather around body language experts, we need to have a conversation. this is at the pre-event presser of the race immediately after laguna, aka brno. by this point, casey's less than flattering remarks about valentino's riding at laguna had already been distributed near and far... everyone's been talking about them, people have Opinions. the captions for these photos are all something along the lines of 'stoner extends olive branch to rossi to apologise for his post-race comments after losing laguna'. now, I don't know if he literally is apologising in these actual photos - though of course he did publicly walk back his comments, saying all riders can react badly to losses and that he'd overreacted when he'd said he'd lost respect for valentino. he has since walked back his walking back, doubling down on his criticisms of valentino's comportment at laguna

still, for all the talk that the feud properly started after laguna, it's kind of fun to have the presser immediately after it showing... well, it does look like casey is actively engaging valentino in conversation, right? whether he's apologising or not - this isn't just valentino yapping at him, if anything it's the reverse. laguna had been right before the summer break, so casey had been given a month to cool off... and also be viciously criticised by the press. brutal, isn't it? it's not just the loss that sucks, it's also being excoriated by the press and fans for having the audacity to get mad over it. is all of this just him being forced into pretending to play nice to get the press to leave him alone? were there any genuine regrets over his laguna comments? what ARE the vibes between them like at this time? what story do these photos tell us

casey went on to crash out of this race from the lead, the first time he had done so in the premier class and his first dnf with ducati after their one and a half seasons together. when he crashed, he'd had a fairly comfortable lead over valentino - though valentino was steadily closing in, and the commentators were already rubbing their hands in anticipation of another laguna

the next race is at misano - and casey is struggling with an old hand injury, see the bandages in the photo. the previous year had been the first time valentino had gotten the chance to race at this circuit, so close to his home... but he'd suffered a mechanical dnf, not his first or last in a frustrating season. this year, everything is different - and casey once again crashes out of the lead as valentino takes victory in front of his worshipful home fans

another trip to america, this time for indy: their first time racing at the track. after the double whammy of brno and misano, casey's title charge is essentially over... but you never know, right? indy kinda gives off the vibe of being a good casey track

in the end, the race is extremely wet and very, very windy and is eventually red-flagged. because of how many laps they still have to go, it is initially unclear whether they would restart... at which point first valentino (who was leading), then casey (in fourth) go to dorna ceo ezpeleta to tell him they have less than zero interest in going out in that weather again. a beautiful moment of solidarity - long live the power of unionising, capable of overcoming even the bitterest of feuds. blast the internationale over the footage, I've seen enough. the race is called off and valentino wins his fourth consecutive race

by the time they get to phillip island, valentino has already won the title, courtesy of his fifth consecutive win at motegi - the same circuit casey had won the title at the year before and the home race of valentino's old enemies at honda. a couple of nice photos of jorge congratulating his teammate and casey spraying vale with champagne here. casey, known phillip island goat, would of course finally end valentino's win streak at that circuit, which is where the photos are from. idk they're fun to me, like this is still not that long after laguna. I'm aware being able to chat normally with your coworkers and share a smile with them isn't normally that high a bar, but canonically valentino has been known to completely blank some of his rivals. it's not like casey is particularly cold towards valentino either, eh

case in point. this is from sepang 2008. #TheEstablishment does not want you to know casey and valentino canonically still regularly yapped in pressers post laguna. they won't silence me. sepang was valentino's last win of this season, after a good scrap with dani - and the season is rounded off with a casey victory at valencia

jerez 2009, where valentino gets past casey with a block pass at the final corner on his way to victory. unlike in 2005, he actually manages to not barrel into his rival. this is just a fantastic photo... I don't even have much to say about it. a+ vibes

a lot of the photos from this season were already included in the jorge/valentino/casey post, which reflects how casey wasn't consistently a factor in the same way the other two were. this one's from assen, the race right after catalunya when all three of them were tied on 106 points. very good side eye here, excellent job casey. unfortunately, casey is now in mystery illness territory - and he can't really compete with the two frontrunners in this stretch of the season

this is the first race after casey's return to competition - valentino goes up to casey after qualifying at estoril to congratulate him for his front row grid position. casey would win an early race scrap with valentino in the race itself, eventually finishing second behind jorge and swiftly silencing all the people who had declared him mentally weak and done for in his absence. a race that brought back suspense to that year's championship

phillip island 2009, another important moment in the canon where I've limited myself to just the one photo. casey wins just his second race back - and he also hugs vale pretty warmly in parc fermé. jorge was kind enough to crash in the opening lap, meaning valentino can very much be pleased with a second place here

and at sepang, valentino seals the title, while casey wins another race. casey ended up crashing in the warm-up lap of valencia, apparently due to an issue with the tyre warming? just kinda... the general vibe of his 2009, really. valentino closes off the season with another podium at his least favourite track, while dani takes the win

anyway after that they spent three years getting into increasingly. dumb arguments. like. so dumb. by the end of 2012 you feel you're killing your brain cells by even engaging with this stuff. it's beyond undignified. there's zero competitive justification, but they just couldn't shut up about each other. that being said, they're still capable of doing a small talk with each other even during the dark years, so that's something. maybe one day they'll finally be able to get that dinner and talk about all the good times

[lovelypink2005]

OKAY SO TODAY'S UPDATE WAS SOMETHING—–

So lemme break this whole page down because I could never sleep without saying anything about it so spoiler alert for The Glass Scientists Chapter 15 Page 17‼️‼️‼️

So first of all, we need to apreciate how far these two, especially Lanyon, has become. From Robert's point of view, it was as if Jekyll is once again shutting himself down from "the shame. The fear", quoted by Lanyon, because it was just YESTERDAY that the whole exhibition day happened, the day it felt like everything changed, the day he was able to finally TALK to Jekyll and got him BACK. " But not this time. This time, i'm staying right here-" is such a STRONG WORDS. He's trying his best to get Henry back, to made up for all of those years, making up for the day he left him, assuring Henry that he won't leave him again, not this time, not after 15 years of yearning, thinking that it has been one sided, not when he just got him back.

AND THEN WE FINALLY GOT THE "I LOVE YOU" BOMB!!!!

THis one is surely a HUDGE character development, knowing that throughout these years, and throughout the whole comic, he had always been the type of huy to show his affections through action instead of words, hoe it "pains" him to say nice things to people, how it's hard for him to be open about his feelings, especially in PUBLIC. This is Lanyon at his moment of desperation, finally showing his love towards Henry with his words to win him once again, hoping that it'll get through him, hoping Jekyll would let him in once again, Knowing that's what Henry wanted. Honestly. And the fact that he seems like he would BREAK at any second if Jekyll did not respond at all, the face of a man holding back his tears perhaps....

And second of all, I'm sure we all collectively agreed that this was NOT Jekyll. The Jekyll we knew would lock himself out, he can't just see a meltdown as "haha it was silly so nevermind that! Just come in!" In the middle of a crisis he's him, when his body condition is absolutely UNSTABLE with the little things that could trigger any types of transformations. This is most definitely Hyde, especially Hekyll (Green-Eyed Jekyll/Hyde in Jekyll's body), and judging by how quickly Lanyon buys it, I'm pretty sure it was probably still Jekyll's voice, which makes me believe in "Hekyll is behind that door" possibility way more. What concerns Me the most is, what would Hyde want from this? What's his goal out of it?

Well, to me there could be 2 possibilities on what is going to be Hyde's intention.

From Chapter 14 Page 12 and 13, we got these panels where Hyde told Jekyll that Lanyon wanted him instead, wanted the "Doe-eyed sweetheart". In moments of desperation, he could be planning to win Lanyon, to " steal" him from Jekyll. This could ruin absolutely everything that Jekyll and Lanyon had done the other day. As much as I don't want this to happen, I am excited to see where this is going.

On the other hand, a few pages back, we know that Hyde was having his panic attack, wanting to go out, to get out, desperately wanting to run and hide. Jekyll had requested Frankenstein that whatever she heard do NOT open the door, knowing Hyde could take them elsewhere and got into yet another trouble, or getting themselves caught by the police or the angry mobs surrounding their society at the moment. If this was Hyde's intention, he could probably ran out immediately the moment Lanyon opens the door.

On the very last panel of today's update, we can see that Frankenstein was trying to somehow warn Lanyon. Her body language seemingly stiff, probably ready to do something to prevent Lanyon from opening the door, remembering what Jekyll told him, probably knowing that it doesn't sound like Jekyll at all. Or she could just be worried that Lanyon is going to found Jekyll in a middle of a transformation, which would be a disaster.

Hopefully Frankenstein could at least do something, although knowing Lanyon, he would probably insist into going in knowing that "Jekyll" allowed him to go in, saying that he's the one who's close to dear Henry, that they both had worked things out that if Jekyll allowed him to go, he won't let anyone stop him from doing so.

Overall I am just SO EXCITED AND NERVOUS FOR NEXT WEAKKDKDBXKDBXKDJ-💥💥💥

[ihassheepquake]

So as I finish Defy the Storm by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland, I've noticed a theme throughout the High Republic that comes back to different variations of Rose Tico's line from The Last Jedi "That's how we gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." It's never exactly the same, but the essence is always there. Victory not through defeating an enemy or destroying something, but in saving something. I do think there's an ideological difference between the two approaches to achieving victory. Vernestra Rwoh says something kinda similar to the Jedi Council at the end of this book, and Belin told Avar Kriss something similar in The Eye of Darkness by George Mann.

I really love seeing this idea show up as a theme throughout this era because I think it's really central to the theme of Star Wars. That scene of Rose in the movie gets a lot of hate for being "stupid" and because "that's what Finn was trying to do." But in my experience, the people who react that way tend to be the same people who love Luke "redeeming" Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi (in quotes because I'm sorry Vader, but doing one good thing and then dying after being a tyrant for decades isn't redemption) and fail to realize that that's what Luke was doing. He was winning not by defeating what he hated, but by saving what he loved. The ability for even the worst people to choose to do something good is one of the core tenants of this franchise. Now, it obviously doesn't always work. Anakin was, in his own really fucked up and selfish way, ultimately trying to save what we loved when he fell to the dark side (but I think that's also very much a result of love with attachment vs love without attachment, which is a different conversation for a different time). But this idea working is still pretty consistent throughout the movies, even when they throw in a little destroying what you hate.

Anyway, as I get ready to start my next book of The High Republic (Temptation of the Force is technically next but I still need to read The Rising Storm, Path of Deceit, and Path of Vengeance before Tears of the Nameless releases on the 24th), I'm excited to see if and how this theme comes back up again.

[violetganache42]

Highlights from tonight's watch party filled with framing, whodunnits, and mystery galore (Sorry about your laptop problems and all our lag complaints, WriteBackAtYa):

"No":

Scrooge and the triplets making an appearance

Mortimer's voice

Mickey being a people pleaser

WriteBackAtYa commenting how we love saying our favorite characters' names whenever they appear onscreen

Me: "PLUS INTEREST?!"

"Duckman of Aquatraz":

Story Blossom: "Would've been awesome if Webby kissed a shark in the new series" spamtoon: "its okay because huey kissed a worm"

ACAB!!!

Even in the original series, Louie is always trying to talk his way out of shit

The idea of Glomgold walking into court blasting Queen's "We Are The Champions" in a similar vein as the "All I Do Is Win" scene

"WHY, BEAKLEY?!"

Duckburg's court and its judge fucking suck

"NOT THE PAINTING!"

Scrooge effortlessly defeating the prisoners in arm wrestling

MORE SCROOGE AND WEBBY MOMENTS 😭💖

Mad Dog being a mama's boy

This whole episode showcasing how prisoners are people too

melcat33: "Mad Dog was like 'this is my comfort millionaire'"

The Scrooge x Mad Dog ship setting sail

This episode also reminding us on why the legal system sucks

Glomgold taking the time to hang up a painting of Scrooge

"McMystery at McDuck McManor!":

Donald fleeing to his car like:

"Literally the oldest person he knows?"

The entire table read of this episode from Disney Channel Fan Fest 2018

Scrooge being a sulking Grumpy Gills. XD

DJ Daft Duck

Godfrey and I being on the same wavelength yet again (To quote Godfrey, "Insert 'Perception Check' by Tom Cardy")

Scrooge being SO against celebrating his birthday that he straight up lagged and froze the Discord stream (Dude, WTF?)

THE BUTLER DID IT

Mist Opportunity

"I hate this already."/"OH, YEAH. :)"/"You can't get that helmet off, can you?"/"OH, NO. :'("

Black Arts Beagle is best Beagle Boy

DT-87

The stream lagging on the part where Scrooge walks into a sliding glass door 😭 (I know it's because of WriteBackAtYa's laptop, but for the sake of levity, let's say it was Scrooge's doing again and he did it because that part fucking embarrasses him.)

Mark saying Glomgold sucks at the whole "trying to kill Scrooge" thing (Rare Mark Beaks W)

THE DUKE IS BACK

"Since when did I have to become the adult in the room? I'M NOT CUT OUT TO BE THE ADULT!"

Huey doing a Scrooge impression

"Don't kill me! I barely lived! #YOLO #FOMO #AHHH"

Duckworth's reaction to seeing the axe fall down to the floor

Duckworth and Beakley's beef with each other

"Clock Cleaners":

Snoozer male stork

Learning A New Hope was paired with "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century" for its screenings

Realizing we were watching the edited version of the short where Donald says "Aw, nuts."

The return of Max's real mother

The Great Mouse Detective:

Me sharing which DT/DWD character would be who in a GMD-themed AU way before the movie started

Us getting excited at hearing Alan Young's voice

Cheerful music playing right after a sad moment (Hiram getting kidnapped) = Last Crash ending vibes

A new server emoji of Mark Beaks getting shot point blank for dabbing

Tokuvivor: "The world's smallest violin" Caroline: "Let me play you a song on the world's smallest violin" Me: "Basil, this is serious."

Learning Vincent Price is in this movie

Sharing a GMD Lorcana card during "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind"

"Flaversham."/"Whatever."

teleportzz: "literally every man in this is so gay so far" puffywuffy8904: "or are they just european" Story Blossom: "Or are they gay AND european?"

Basil's face when Toby sat on Olivia's command

OLIVIA SAYING UNCLE BASIL 😭💖

Hiram and Olivia reminding Puffy and I of Scrooge and Webby (I AM GETTING FUCKING EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT AS WE SPEAK.)

Ratigan upon learning Fidget's list is missing:

Basil x Dawson being the movie's equivalent of DWD91!Drakepad

Story Blossom pointing out how Miss Kitty is basically Goldie

The bar fight scene in a nutshell:

"There is no Queen of England."

Ratigan's royalty drip

WriteBackAtYa: "He's supreme like a taco from Taco Bell"

Basil trying to imprison Ratigan: "Officer, arrest that man!"

The entire Big Ben scene and how well the 2D and CGI animations blended together

Learning that the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney and Pixar collaboration

According to melcat33, Basil not skipping leg day saved his life

puffywuffy8904: "and they were roomates" Me: "Oh, my God. They were roommates."

Ratigan's "Goodbye So Soon" diddy playing during the end credits

[little-diable]

Little-Diable's 15k celebration

15k how fucking insane is this?! It's a number I certainly can't grasp, yet I am so insanely grateful for it. I love y'all so much, thank you for loving my writing, for loving my weird self, and for being so kind.

But enough with the sappy words, let's focus on a proper way to celebrate this milestone, shall we?

As promised this is a celebration for writers and readers (a big thank you to @deathofpeaceofmind for brainstorming with me and for designing the lovely header): here is what we'll do:

Be aware, this challenge/celebration is tied to a prize you can win.

I've chosen five of my all time favourite books, which are: The Song of Achilles, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Hamlet, Lord of the Rings (all parts in one), The Last Kingdom (first part of the series).

For the writers:

Choose one of the following characters: Tommy Shelby, Dean and/or Sam Winchester, Aaron Hotchner, Spencer Reid, Negan, Sihtric, Finan, Tom Riddle, Kylo Ren, Jasper Hale, Loki

Send me an ask with the character, the genre (smut, angst, fluff), and a number between 5 and 159

I'll choose one of the books listed above and will select a sentence I can find on the page belonging to the number you've chosen for your ask. You can do with the sentence/quote as you please, but it has to show up in the fic.

You'll have time to write your fic till the 10th of December 2023.

Please only write reader-insert fics, use a keep reading tag, and use appropriate warnings. It can be as dark, as angsty, as smutty, as fluffy as you want, there is no limit for the word count. You can combine this with other challenges if you want. You can also write more than one fic for this celebration.

Post the fic with #little-diable15k, message me if I don't reblog it within two days.

Since this is a challenge where you and a reader can win something, please try to actually post your fic till the 10th of December.

For the readers:

You have to actively read the stories posted for this celebration (of course only the ones you are interested in/comfortable with)

On the 11th of December I’ll post a Google doc where you’ll have time to vote for your favourite fic. The doc will be open for one week.

I'm asking you to reblog and comment the fics you enjoy, since this is tied to the prize you can win. I will also reblog every fic, so you can find them on my Tumblr as well.

Now about the prize for one lucky reader and one lucky writer:

Writers: I will list the fics you wrote in a google doc (the fics will be added on the 11th of December), where readers can vote on their favourite fics. The fic which gets the most votes is the winner of this challenge. I will contact you on Tumblr should you win, if you're comfortable with sharing your address / or a PO box with me, I'll send you a small gift; if you don't want to do this @deathofpeaceofmind will design a header for one of your fics as your prize. If there are more winners (meaning if there's a tie) we will find another prize more of you can have!

Readers: If you add your username to the google doc I can see who voted the most and who actively took part in reading. The one of you who votes the most (I will check if you did comment/reblog the fics on Tumblr), will be contacted through Tumblr, if you're comfortable with sharing your address / or a PO box with me, I'll send you a small gift; if you don't want to do this you can request a fic from me instead. If y'all are super active (which I’m hoping for!) we'll find another prize more of you can have!

I hope this is all clear and somewhat understable! I am so so excited for this, and I hope lots of you will take part in it!

Tagging some mutuals and writers/readers who may enjoy this:

@negans-lucille-tblr @writethelifeyouwant @writingliv @zablife @runnning-outof-time @notyour-valentine @springsteens @cillmequick @band--psycho @smellingofpoetry @sihtricfedaraaahvicius @earlgreydreamreplies @footballffbarbiex @thinkinghardhardlythinking @luveline @firefly-in-darkness @holylulusworld @gemini-mama @honeypiehotchner @bluetreecloud20 @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @carolina-thiell

[imperatorrrrr]

My Highlights from the Q&A: (I paraphrased some of the questions/answers, but most of it is direct quotes)

Q: Out of all the different jerseys that you wear, which one is your favorite? A: The Jersey Jersey

Q: What's the most fun/exciting part of the game when you're playing hockey? A: OT Win, especially at Home

Q: What is your favorite meal to eat here in New Jersey? A: The Italian spots here. I love Italian food, I grew up next to Italy

Q: Why do you wear number thirteen? A: I wear it because of my brother, my big brother always wore 13 and kind of also a little bit because both of us had the same favorite hockey player back in the day, Pavel Datsyuk.

Q: Besides the Rock, what NHL arena do you like playing in the most? A: Vegas, T-Mobile Arena -- its a vibe there, definitely fun

Q: Favorite and memorable goal you've ever scored? A: First NHL Goal in Ottawa

Q: Top Three Moments as a New Jersey Devil? A: My first NHL game, at the Rock versus Colorado, we won 4-2. Second one is first ever playoff game at the Rock versus Tampa, and, so far, the most memorable thing would be the Game 7 win against the Rangers. Gotta go with that one.

Q: Where do you still wanna go in the NJ/NY area? A: I've been to Asbury Park and I kind of want to see some more stuff from the Shore.

Q: What do you like to do to unwind and relax in the off season? A: I love the water, so lakes, rivers, ocean, I just try to be outside when its sunny. Don't like to be at home when its sun out.

Q: What is your favorite genre of music/band/artist? A: I do like Tom Petty

Q: Besides, Nico, what other nicknames do your teammates have for you? A: Hisch, HischSHAO, HischSHAO Jr

Q: What are you personally looking forward in the leadership position on and off the ice, going into this season as the Captain? A: Just to help the team as much as I can on and off the ice. I think obviously on the ice its clear, but also off the ice, just being as good of a person I can be for guys that need me in anything and I think thats the reason why I got Captain too, so thats what's I'm trying to do.

Q: What's your favorite ice cream flavor? A: Strawberry Vanilla

Q: Do you eat bagels and what is your favorite type of bagel to eat? A: Here in Jersey there are great bagels, I like the salmon cream cheese bagel, everything bagel.

Q: What's your favorite family tradition? A: Probably sit together dinners where we eat fondue or raclette where the dinner takes a little bit longer but you have enough time to speak with your family and friends, so thats always a good time. I feel like I always try to do it with them once I come back during summer.

Q: What's your favorite place in Switzerland? A: Bern

Q: Besides anyone on the Devils, who is your favorite current player in the NHL? A: McDavid

Q: Whats been your favorite year? A: I would say last year was pretty fun

Q: Who's your best friend on the Devils? A: Those are ALL of my friends. We got a really good group of guys, so I'm doing well with everyone, but I would probably say I'll do the most together with Jonas 'cause I've known him the longest. I've been playing with him in the Swiss National Team when we were younger so I would say that's kind of the guy I'd go with dinner and stuff but obviously I like ALL of them.

Q: Hardest team to play against? A: Carolina.

Q: What's your favorite Girl Scout Cookie flavor? Do you know what those are? A: (He did not know what those were and so he said) No cookies for me.

Q: (I didn't hear the question that well, but I think it was something like this) Who on the team would you want your daughter to date? A: I would say everyone because they know if they're not nice to my daughter they'd be in trouble.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Thoughts on Taskmaster s18e06, written as I watch it:

- Weirdest banter section yet this season, well done to both Greg and Alex on that one. I’m with Greg, I would also love to have an actual fight with Alex Horne. Also, is there going to be an explanation for why Alex is wearing the pocket coat from the locket task?

- I have now played the video long enough to hear the prize task category. I’m glad they didn’t make us wait long for that explanation.

- Still in awe of the Zaltzman commitment to prize tasks. Not all the prizes have been great, but none have been low effort. This is the second week in a row in which he’s basically brought in a Bugle monologue as his prize; I could see a Bugle opening with a list of ingredients on the elixir of life that include batshittium and dolphins, and a list of warnings about not giving it to pets.

- Baba’s prize – pretty good, amusingly goes with the Little Alex Horne character, but he definitely just told the production staff to make a keychain with a few words on it and no one even bothered to make them look nice. While Andy, I bet at least dictated to the team exactly what the label on the bottle should say, down to the fine print warnings.

- Jack’s prize – better than his previous ones, mostly, though I think he sold it wrong. It’s “most fun thing”. Whoopie cushions are fun with their intended use, you don’t need to pretend they’re some other exercise-based thing. Just say surprising people with that noise is a fun prank.

- What the hell, Emma? Did she bring in two tickets to the cover band that played her wedding? The Bon Jovi cover band? What a weird thing. What fun. And a QR code makes it even more fun, a mystery code in your pocket. And then you get a cover band. Good prize.

- Rosie’s prize – I always like prizes that are really specific to the prize task category. In this case, she was the only one to go with not just a fun thing, but a thing that gets more fun if you put it in a pocket. Good job.

- What fucking part of the theme park is this? No wonder they set so many horror movies in theme parks.

- First thought on hearing the task instructions: it doesn’t say anything about them needing to stay on the bridge. Surely there’s a way to get down there, taking the frying pan with you, in well under fifteen minutes, so you’d have time to look through the fish before putting one in the pan. I mean, if this was filmed after the locket task, they should definitely also know to look around the bridge for dotty fish.

- Update: Yep, just saw Emma find the one on the back of the pan. I enjoyed the excitement on her face upon finding it, the hesitant pride on putting it in the pan, and then the regret of realizing there might be an even better one that she missed. What a journey. I feel like Emma takes us on a lot of journeys in this show.

- Baba is primarily on this show to big up himself, I think. He doesn’t appear to care about winning. He doesn’t appear to have a specific strategy for profile boosting. But he is big upping himself a lot.

- Ohhh, you can make a dotty fish. And I thought I was being clever with the “go pick them up, on the bridge or the track, instead of just fishing” plan. Good one. I was so sure that Andy’s pen would be a red herring, so quite pleased for him when it turned out to be useful.

- And my idea of looking on the bridge was the actual red herring. Fair enough, Alex.

- Love that, to follow up on his prize task that was a lie, Andy has now jumped into the first task with a further lie:

When I'm transcribing Andy Zaltzman quotes for Tumblr posts, I often find myself including the "um" and "uh" in the transcript, and then wondering if I should because normally you'd leave stuff like that out, but with Andy's style of speech, they seem like such an integral part of what he's saying. Glad the Taskmaster subtitler has agreed with my choice to leave them in.

I know, Greg. The Zaltzman lies are sneaky. Although some comedians who've worked with him long enough have the opposite problem, start responding to his statements as though they're all lies and Andy has to clarify "Oh that one was true, actually."

- 657 dots? Holy fuck, Andy. He is here to win.

- You've heard of Jamali Maddix not knowing who Greg Davies is. Now get ready for... Babatunde Aleshe not knowing who Alex Horne is, while filming the tasks with Alex Horne.

- You've heard of, "perform a scene from Taskmaster the Musical" (season 6). You've heard of the nursery rhymes (season 2). Now get ready for, puppets.

- Heh. Jack implied "cunt".

- You know, I was going to say I think Jack Dee should be marked down because I never like it when a task attempt is significantly improved by the editing, as this one was, with their farm background. But then they zoomed out and took out the added background, and we can see that Jack did actually make a set and the puppet, so well done. Also that was quite a good sketch for that short a time.

- I like Greg this season, I feel like he gets to be a bit more fun lately. Seems slightly less tied to the autocue. Like there have been a few seasons where it seems like they were marketing his "The Taskmaster" character so hard that they'd just stick really Taskmaster-y lines on the autocue but that had become the extent of him being funny. I assume jumping on Alex after getting him to lean in close wasn't on the autocue. That was funny. Greg should do more stuff.

- Look. I know this is funny.

Anyone with any kind of sense of humour would laugh out loud upon seeing the above screenshot. But what I cannot quite explain is why, upon the first reveal of that image, I absolutely lost my breath from laughing, probably harder than Taskmaster has made me laugh since Sam Campbell in season 16. Holy fuck. Andy.

It was the subversion of expectations. When they said "Pidgeor" I assumed it would be something fucking weird, because it's Andy and inventing weird shit is his thing, so I was trying to picture in my head what little creature he'd create. I was picturing a combination of the Pokemon Pidgey, and Pliny from Lee & Herring. And then they reveal this. Those gloves don't fit right. Where the fuck did he find that mask? Has there always been a cape there? Fucking hell. Andy. You've outdone yourself.

- I can't get over this guy.

On the subject of giving credit to editing vs. the comedian, I found myself briefly wondering how Andy made his voice all echo-y like that, before I remembered about the existence of post-production. My brain's initial reaction to the voice is to assume Andy can just do that.

- This is the funniest shit I've ever seen.

Why did Lee & Herring get the big TV show for their bird puppet? It should have gone to Andy Zaltzman.

- Jesus, Emma's puppet is creepy. I did not know someone could make their own hand look so creepy. I think the fact that it's very clearly a rubber cleaning glove somehow makes it worse, but I don't know why.

- Well, Emma's had several tasks where she's tried to get off with Greg, and one where she tried it with Andy and Baba. Nice that she's gone for one with Alex too.

- By comparison to the others, Baba sticking a sock on his hand and telling kids to deal drugs seems pretty tame. It's also funny to me that he's the first to put an actual sock on his hand.

- The first but not the only, I see. I want to know how fast Rosie had the idea to put actual sticky brown stuff on her hand, in addition to the fabric-based poo, because I don't think most people would come up with that, and that really sells it. Well done.

- Well, it's been a while since we've had straight-up gross-out humour on Taskmaster. Alex getting that stuff all over his face has to count. Always expanding the humour sources on here.

- Fucking hell, that was a great task. That has to go down as an all-time Taskmaster classic. A rare one where every single creative effort was strong. That was so much fun.

- Another Taskmaster escape room. I have never done an escape room and never had the desire to do one, but I do enjoy watching comedians do them.

- I think this is the first time I've noticed a disability accommodation for Rosie in the filmed tasks. Though I might just be unobservant, as it took me until halfway through the season to notice that they gave the contestants chairs with arms for the first time, presumably to help Rosie balance in the studio. Either way, any disability adaptation has been quite unobtrusive, so that's cool.

- Ah, I now see why they had to specifically show us this particular disability accommodation, that Alex was cutting wires for Rosie. Because he fucked it up at the end. That's an interesting situation. Not fair to penalize Rosie for that.

- Yeah, Greg's right. You can't mark her down. I've not stopped to write stuff much during that task because there isn't all that much to say about the escape room stuff, even though I enjoy watching it. But I will say: absolutely not fair to penalize Rosie because Alex was being annoying. She could probably have cut the wire herself in 8 seconds.

I do have to admit, Jack was quite funny in this task. Solving it fast but being bloody annoyed about it.

- Damn, Zaltzman is killing it in this episode. Won that one too.

- So it's that season 13 live task but with a job instead of a name. Cool, I don't mind at all when Alex finds a workaround to essentially repeat tasks that are good enough to deserve repetition (which that season 13 one definitely was). This will be fun. It's been a while since they've brought in NPCs for the contestants to play off, I feel like they used to do that more often. I miss Fred the Swede.

- Oh shit, it was Quentin! I didn't realize it was the same guy until they said his name at the end! Oh that is fun! I can't tell whether Andy was intentionally calling back to another previous task, with his anesthetist guess (probably not). That's great, they've established another running NPC. Quite funny that it's the second time on Taskmaster they've been desperately trying to guess what type of doctor someone is. Also funny that it took over 75 questions in season 13 to find his name, while in this one, they almost immediately, mostly accidentally, stumbled upon his field of work.

- That is the second episode in a row that'll go down as one of my all-time favourites. Fucking amazing. God this season is good.

[kkat-astrophic]

Danganronpa Manga Rant- Leon and Sayaka:

@yukiteruakari told me about a Danganronpa Manga edition, and OH MY GOD!!! Thankyou so much for this bro omg.

I'm only up to "Junkos" impaling, but it's so much better than the one I have.

I'll put some screenshots below, and the link too because so far it's translated to English.

Why the Manga is better, what it could do for the fandom:

It gives Sayaka and Leon so much more development as characters and seeing as Mondos case is next we might get to see what they talked about in the sauna. (<- there are so many fan theories for that one, and I'm excited to finally get more lore.)

It's hard to be a Danganronpa fan in 2024 because it all happened 14, 12, and 7 years ago. So like... Spike aren't going to just start explaining more lore on twitter randomly because they feel like it, Danganronpa is done, but this manga helps us understand the killers motive.

If ALL of the fandom read it I'd probably assume the "Mondo Brother Killer >:(" cliche that some of the fandom define him as would be gone, because it has his POV instead of a Monokuma flashback and a shitty animated clip of him doing it "for no reason" other than being "strong-strong-strong-strong-strong" (from the canon game and animation 2014.)

LeoXSaya Rant, Manga>>>Animation:

And yes, Sayaka was revealed to be a bit more of a "snake" (she isn't btw) but her motives were humane and we only thought she wasn't because Makoto is the protagonist and wouldn't think bad about any of his friends.

It also gives Leon haters a reason to stfu and enjoy his character design and small role while it lasts, and it's better than playing his FTEs because he's just gloating about picking up chicks and being better than everybody at Baseball despite hating in from what I've seen.

Also, the art is just BETTER.

The dialogue is just BETTER!

They gave Sayaka a reason to invite Leon over. Because in the anime and game yes it's "wow Sayaka is so hot" on Leons part, but wouldn't that mean Leon would've been the person to invite her to HIS room instead?

But in the Manga they explain her thought process, anybody who hasn't read it will probably just go "Sayaka's dumb for inviting a STAR ATHLETE to try and kill!" but she's smart because if she had killed him she already had an alibi. "We were friends! We bonded over music and drank tea together!" or something... saying that, Sayaka couldn't WIN because Makoto knew about the room swapping ofc. And she'd leave evidence and whatnot.

*Sighs* The Animation Butchered Our Boys...:

(BOYS BECAUSE THE ANIMATION BUTCHERED SO MANY CHARACTERS AND GAVE THEM PISSY MOTIVES AND SHIT-)

I hate the anime alot, but the thing that PISSED ME OFF THE MOST (about 1-1 of the animation) WAS LEON'S REACTION. He was having a mental breakdown, which was fine and accurate... probably good as well instead of him screaming "stupid" then losing it halfway through the word and realising his fate quietly.

They give him a moment of remorse.

"I didn't want to... I mean she... she was tring to... kill me... right? I just... didn't know what else to do... okay...?" (quote end)

but then he gets mad.

I don't know about you, but on first watch this ruined it for me. "He's just screaming now..." like... it makes me mad for almost no reason.

He was about to have a very humane moment of "I didn't have a choice..." he's looking down at the pedestal thingy in the court, he's defeated, he's sad, he's been caught. He's in despair.

Then he yells at the others "you would've done the same thing in my shoes!"

And you know what the writers did instead of making him cry after that? Anything... would've been better, but this is the dam animation we're talking about...

"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE OKAY! THE CRAZY SKANK WAS GOING TO KILL ME, WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!"

He did have a choice...

The manga gave him a choice, he tried to save Sayaka. Then he ended up killing her, ON ACCIDENT. That line alone contradicts the fact of any of that happening, he and Sayaka had just bonded hours earlier.

Like, this is my opinion and I've never heard anybody talk about this before, BUT THE WRITERS NEEDED TO WRITE LEON BETTER!!! The game wrote Leon fine, but the animation was a second chance at giving him development!

I liked him trying to escape the court room though. That was a nice touch that I don't think was in the game.

BUT BROOOOO HE CALLED SAYAKA A SKANK HOURS AFTER ADMITTING HE WAS CRUSHING ON HER, DANGANRONPA ANIMATION WHERE'S THE LOGIC!

Like, the scene made me so mad on re-watch and I can't pinpoint why!

Like instead of this: https://youtu.be/CbQ6McYz7U0?t=59

(Good animation though imo, the closeup expressed his emotions nicely-)

HAVE THIS THOUGH, THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER!

IT JUST HITS WAY BETTER-

Anyway, that's my rant of the day because why not.

The game itself had issues, but compared to the animation it was just so much better, and makes me want to give it a 7/10 instead of a 6...

[drama-glob]

Incorrect BH6 Quotes

(BH6 trying to infiltrate the Mascots layer with Noodle Burger Boy guarding the door)

Go Go (In passenger seat as Wasabi drive his car): I've got a ride on.

Noodle Burger Boy (Inquires): Who are you here to see?

Go Go (Answers in serious tone): I'm here to see your butt!

Noodle Burger Boy (Looks over list): Is that first name "Your," last name "Butt" or (Gets hit with Go Go's disc) Oh my gosh!

___________________________________________________________

(Globby tells BH6 that he saw an old supervillain in Good Luck Alley, which is met with some skepticism until they agree to go with him)

Globby (Points to bad guy and whispers to the team): See! I said I saw that guy here before!

Go Go (Tells Globby): Congratulations then. You won.

Globby (Looks excited but then quirks eyebrow): Cool! So, what do I win?

Go Go (Flatly remarks): You won bragging rights.

Globby (Pumps his arms into the air): Yes! I needed those!

[velvetvessel-powerscaler-edition]

Omni-man VS Bardock is now officially out, and with its release I'm gonna give my review of the episode

PLEASE WATCH HERE 8EFORE READING REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2HyfHPo7Nw

(dropping the vriska thing for the review cause I want this to 8e taken legit)

Man, I really liked this episode. IDK if its the dopamine of my favorite internet show making a comeback or the episode just being really good, so imma just say its both. Omni-man's analysis is pretty good all around, I only have a single season of Invincible to base it on but from what I know of later on in the show and comic it goes over his story well. Not to mention the editing is on point. Bardock's analysis is something I actually know quite well and my god did they deliver. They cover all the facets of Bardock well, keep it enjoyable throughout, use feats other than the shockwave part 87 because this is 97 percent PRE SAIYAN GOD BABYYYYYYYY, and give the Father of Goku a level of respect he hasn't had since the 90s, especially with the ending to his analysis. Its a great character rundown of both characters, the VS stuff they pull is interesting, and overall is just a great analysis segment.

And they don't slow down in quality cause man this fight is fucking awesome. The choreography is great, especially with the Oozaru form and Bardock wrecking Omni-man, only for Nolan to grab him by the tail, swing him around, and rip his fucking tail off to take him out of Oozaru. This is definitely an episode I'm gonna be quoting a lot, especially "My sons would kick his ass." They really nailed the characterization. Also the final part where Bardock goes super saiyan and everything is a dark blue except his shining golden hair looks fucking immaculate. The death is admittedly something I'm kinda iffy on. The concept is cool with Nolan punching Bardock so hard he hits him out of super saiyan and he slowly dies afterward, the exchange after the killing blow is cool showcasing the bits of humanity residing within the 2, I just wish the actual killing blow was a bit stronger. Still overall a pretty good death though, I just wish it felt harder. (EDIT: so the storyboards came out and revealed that the death was supposed to have Bardock's arm fucking explode with the punch and it likely wasn't displayed due to model limitations. Previous statement still applies but i understand better why it wasn't as crazy as it could have been)

Oh yeah also Omni-man wins which no one was betting on. Don't believe me? Here's a pic from the Death Battle Wiki's Discord server on who they were betting on winning

congrats to those 3 people, your streak is alive... just hope you can keep that streak for the next time. What was the next time again?

........huh

Ok if you know me you know this isn't exactly my favorite vs idea ever, 8ut i can't act like it wasn't inevita8le. excited to see what they do with it since i know they're gonna cook with this one, and i don't pay attention to the de8ate for most episodes so i don't have to worry a8out that.

Overall, great episode, glad to see Death Battle is back, and just as great as ever.

[mecachrome]

https://www.tumblr.com/mecachrome/755898222862548992/httpsxcomthisisformu1a1status181200033146074?source=share

This anon reminded me how last year Jenson said that Oscar lacked personality (around the Mexican GP) and then blamed Oscar for the Imolia incident in qualifying even though Tom said it was his mistake. He seriously has a problem with Oscar.

As for the second part, McLaren has a serious operational problem because Oscar was unable to complete a clean lap in qualifying due to a team error. I know that McLaren last fought for regular victories in 2012 and that returning to the top costs many mistakes that have to be made during this process, but these mistakes must end quickly. Especially now that Mercedes has joined the group of teams that fight for something bigger than only points. I'm really curious about the next two races.

hi anon! LOL yes i recall having thoughts on that incident but i don't remember the exact quote, would you happen to have it somewhere? i don't want to get too tinhatty on this but i do feel like jenson sometimes doesn't really know how to feel about oscar... to be clear he's definitely been complimentary before and obviously isn't constantly lambasting him or anything but it's true that a lot of his quotes about oscar tend to be somewhat... measured + occasionally veering into critical??? personally it amuses me a little because a lot of people (incl jenson's colleagues) compare him and oscar personality-wise and constantly talk about oscar's "maturity" & he and oscar have similar contractgate lore except between the two of them oscar is the one who came out on the better side, and it makes me think of how jenson kind of enjoys being the Unaffected Mature guy around younger drivers and is used to being an object of idolization so he's kind of just like .....? what am i supposed to do with this one. but that's just how i see it hlsdkfh i totally get if people are put off overall 🙇‍♀️

anyway re: more important point!!! i totally agree with you, so many of oscar's biggest "what-ifs" have come off the back of mclaren compromising his qualifying performance instead of his own lack of pace which is deeply frustrating as an oscar fan. speaking of their previous competitive era though it's kind of funny that that was literally with jenson AND that tom was on his side of the garage during his entire mclaren tenure (also andrea was race engineering nando at the time... that man is immortal) 😭 but yes, overall the personnel in the team has changed massively since then so it's not really the same "team" anymore and it makes sense that they're struggling with the transition, but as you said there's a lot of urgency behind getting to the other side as quickly as possible now that mercedes have found better form. the thing is that coming into the season the goal from leadership was always cautiously structured around "fighting for wins," so in that sense we've accomplished the goal and are in a good position, but obviously we now need to push toward "winning the championship" with much more insistency and there are clearly still pieces missing. i don't have many hopes for the wcc this year because the fact that there are always teams duking it out in the top 4 (ferrari were stronger than us at the start of the season, but now that they've fallen off we're still getting points taken away because of merc's competitiveness) means it's difficult to meaningfully make up those numbers on red bull so i'm not very optimistic about that 🤷‍♀️ but that being said i'm still excited and intrigued by how the next few races will go!!! especially since spa is 2nd and we all know how oscar feels about it 🥺

[ideas-on-paper]

Monster Hunter Tri Diary, Part 1: Intro, Arrival in Moga, First trip to Moga Woods

So, inspired by @dragonflight203's Mass Effect replay posts (hope you don't mind me adapting the idea!), I've decided to do a "gaming diary" for my first playthrough of Monster Hunter Tri.

Thanks to the dedicated endeavor of fans from the MH community, the servers of Tri are finally accessible again, so I'm very excited to check this one out. The 3rd Gen is my favorite overall, and I've been yearning to see Loc Lac with my own eyes for years now.

But first, I'll have to spend some time in singleplayer to farm some equipment and re-familiarize myself with the game. Wouldn't want to do the hub quests ill-prepared! So, for now, we're starting slow.

Disclaimer: Text is paraphrased from my localization and might slightly deviate from the English version.

Intro

This is the first time I've seen the intro of MH Tri in person - and it’s such an amazing one, too! I love the correlation between the sea and land environments depicted here: The Jaggi pack is hunting the Aptonoths at the coast (great way to introduce the new small bird wyverns!), while the Ludroths are picking up the scraps that fell into the water.

That Great Jaggi was about to have the feast of his life on that Aptonoth, only to be bowled out by that Rathalos. xD Dude wanted his lunch back so badly that he was even willing to make a stand against the Rathalos. Probably wouldn't have held out for long, though, with Jaggis being weak to fire. (If Tri had turf wars, that Great Jaggi would've been totally obliterated.)

And when the Lagiacrus shows up, the Jaggis are just like: "Okay, this one’s way out of our league. Let’s get the hell out of here." xD

One thing I love about the Lagiacrus is that he's designed like an antithesis to Rathalos: Rathalos wields fire, which is the Lagi's primary weakness. Meanwhile, Rathalos himself is weak against lightning, which makes him vulnerable to Lagiacrus’s attacks. Both are the kings of their respective element, but when encroaching on Rathalos' territory, the Lagiacrus is like a literal fish out of the water.

I wonder what would happen if there was a turf war between them, though. Would there be a 50:50 chance of either one winning? Would the Lagi try to pull Rahtalos into the water? Would he even get out of there by himself? (I imagine it would look like a bird of prey that crashed in the water, but much bigger. Poor Rathalos might need a hand. xD)

I love how Lagiacrus turns away in an "Eh, I didn't mean to hunt this anyway" manner; like having his snack snatched away from under his nose hurt his pride, but he tries to act unbothered by it. xD

Ah, guys... I always get a little teary-eyed when the MH Tri main theme comes up. The Rathalos flying over the vast plains, the music picking up, and then the view with the hunters standing at the cliff... It really doesn't get better than this. :,)

Arrival in Moga

Ah, it's been ages since I saw that cutscene... It's technically the same as in MH3U, but still it feels so good to be back. I love how you see the villagers just going about their daily lives, the children being excited about the trinkets the Chief's Son brought back from his trip and all that... It evokes such a homey feeling right from the start, and it makes the village community feel that much more like family.

The chief actually mentions the sea people having crests on their skin and looking a little different from normal humans. I remember this from the MH artbook, where it's stated they gave them a different skin tone/markings as well as webbed hands to distinguish them from normal humans. I thought this was just a scrapped concept (since you don't see much of a visual difference in-game), but I had no idea there was in-game dialogue about it. Cool!

"Diversity means prosperity!" That's actually a really wise quote right there. Both the sea people and wyverians are knowledgeable in their own right, but each have different skills. If they unite them, everyone profits. (I think we could learn something from this for our own society.)

I love the Guild Sweetheart from MH Tri/3U. She's legitimately my favorite of all the Guild receptionists in Monster Hunter (at least those I’m familiar with). And she's trying so hard - she's really upset the Guild apparently forgot about them in this backwater village. Hang in there, sweetie!

"The Guild has permission to hunt and do research in the Moga Woods, and in exchange, we help the village with its problems." A fair trade, but I wonder if the Guild might have ulterior motives. Like, what are they doing with the research results? And do they really only permit just as much hunting as the monster population will allow, or is that just a farce? (I always trusted the Guild was true to their word, but after watching a few Monster Hunter lore videos, I'm not so sure. Ah, I was so gullible back then... xD)

The gossipy lady really loves her silly word games. (And so do I. xD)

"The Chief must have really good relationships with the Guild if he got a hunter like you to come to such a small village in the middle of nowhere." Not an unreasonable thought, actually... How did he convince the Guild to send a hunter to Moga if they otherwise completely ignore it? Is he friends with some of the higher-ups?

"For safety reasons, we’ve collected all information about monsters in a so-called "monster list"." Uh-huh... "Safety reasons"... I'm telling you, the Guild is definitely keeping secrets.

Okay, so the item seller really likes hunters. This reminds me, I think there's one single NPC in the entire series who couldn't stand hunters. (I believe it was some guy in Minegarde, though I can't say for sure since I've never been in that city myself.) Is this dude the only one or are there any others who actually dislike hunters?

I love the Outfitter with her "very important" virtual tests. Like yeah, I'm sure that fantasizing about slaying monsters with no first-hand experience will bring you that much closer to finding the "ideal weapon". (I gotta say, I love this kind of humor that Monster Hunter has - it's so dumb, but in a hilarious kind of way. The game knows it's dumb and doesn't take it too seriously, so it almost feels a bit like satire.)

I'm also quite fond of the Fishmongeress. She is warm-hearted and helpful, but also very assertive and knows what she wants. My kind of woman!

I love the dynamic between the two kids; like one is constantly bragging about how smart he is (while actually being really dumb), while the other, shy one is the actual smart one (can confirm this from personal experience xD).

Our local "whizz kid" tells us that the villagers are threshing rice at the windmills in Moga Village. (The ones you can see in the background near the armory and if you walk across the leftmost pier.) That’s probably what the farm is for, though I haven’t seen any paddy fields there.

You know what I find absolutely hilarious? The way the game incorporates gameplay tips. The villagers say stuff like "Okay, so try imagining a "screen", alright?" and "Try imagining a thing called "Wiimote". No kidding, just try it!". They talk about a yellow cursor ("I know: a what?!") like it's the weirdest thing ever, and "saving the game" is treated like some outlandish slang word. Like, the developers were probably aware that to the people in-universe, these explanations would sound entirely nonsensical, and they put in the extra effort to make it funny - I love it.

Also, the UI design in Tri is absolutely gorgeous. I love the "tribal" style the old games had going on. MH World can't hold a candle to this!

I remember there was an old post on the MH Lore Tumblr blog (sadly, it's been defunct for a while now) that in the MH universe, the Felynes are treated like cheap laborers who are always given the shit jobs nobody else wants to do. Considering how they're constantly seen in positions like chamberlain, farm worker etc., I believe there might actually be something to this. It's kind of sad, but these kitties really don't seem to have the best standing in MH society... :(

I love the Felyne-specific language, though. (Like hairstyling being "grooming", "child's play" is "kitten's play" and so on.) It's so endearing.

So, the shy kid tells me there's a cave at the farm, but I shouldn't go inside because the Chief is gonna get really mad if I do. The Head Farmer tells me it contains some kind of ancient weapon. From what I remember from 3U, that "weapon" is a mask for the Shakalaka. (It's funny how every Monster Hunter used to have this "special", sword-in-the-stone kind of weapon.)

Moga Woods (day)

I gotta say, from a gameplay perspective, I think the tutorial for Tri is really well done. It doesn't immediately throw you into a timed quest so you don't feel pressured from the get-go, and it introduces you to all core mechanics bit by bit.

Village Chief: "Can you hear me?" Yes, I can hear you. I'm not sure how you can speak to me since you technically should be back at the village, but I hear you. (Do these villagers have mastered the art of telepathy somehow?)

"My ancestors had a saying: "Wherever you go, there you are."" Wow - I never could've figured this out on my own. Truly, the wisdom of ages.

It's easy to forget, but MH Tri is actually the first Monster Hunter where gathering points are displayed. I remember how distressed I was when playing MH1 and realizing there were no pop-ups to mark gathering spots. (And now that I’m used MH1 and Freedom Unite, I have to get out of my habit of pressing the gathering button at suspicious looking places. xD)

"That's an Aptonoth: a herbivore. Eats... herbs." You don't say, Chief. You don't say.

I remember when I first played Monster Hunter, I felt so bad for killing an Aptonoth. Now, I’ve kinda gotten used to it - still wouldn’t say I feel good about it, though. ^^’

"You're just like me when I was your age! Of course, my stamina bar was way longer." Yeah, sure - just don't forget to toot your own horn.

When finding the Chief's Son: "Sorry we couldn't talk yesterday, though natural disasters are a great conversational topic!" I've said it once, I will say it again: I love Monster Hunter’s humor.

"I'm Juni-- Er, I'm the Chief’s Son." Ohh, do I hear someone having daddy issues?

"Our tent and bocce set were in that destroyed camp." Oh, no - due to the earthquake, the villagers can't play bocce anymore. What a tragedy.

”I’m so hungry, I could eat an Aptonoth.” Well, friend, you’re in luck - I’ve just slaughtered one of these beasties.

Aaand he snatches the meat right up. Okay, dude - have fun grilling. I’ll just go back to the village all on my lonesome, I guess…

And thus, after finding the lost son and completing our first job for McDelivery, we return to the village...

To be continued

[fractalkiss]

tierno (ferrari au) fic notes / commentary

i've tried a couple of times to start writing this post sooner and each time i've just stared at the blank grey space and just closed the text editor. and now it's mid-june. lol how has it been 2 months already since i posted this fic. but i will write this up since i do want to talk about it, belatedly, and it was born out of an au by a friend that i really had a lot of fun coming up with inspired by the lovely art.

concept

obviously this is all thanks to dave @penaltyboxboxbox. i distinctly remember looking at the piece and going 'WOW so cool! how would that work.' i moved along and went back to life. and then a week later i saw it reblogged again on the dash and got slapped in the face by the question. literally how would that work. how would it happen. i love canon divergence sooooo much btw even though i was worried about having to change the year in dave's work from 2017 to 2018 because lol, the fucking research threw me a curveball.

thought that this was going to be fernando pov because to upend and change his ferrari era from loser to championship winner with the red team, would be cool. and then i figured it couldn't work because i already knew what i wanted to happen anyway with him in the fic - that he'd retire after the championships, after ferrari just cannot keep up with the evolving changes in the sport over the years compared to their stronger contenders. retirement is all so anti-climactic and a given, so what the hell would even be interesting there lmao. it would feel like a weird fix-it and i have never done a fix-it fic in my life. let flaws be flaws etc.

so then i started writing this in lance pov, and told myself that this would just be me exploring how would lance be like in a team without his father's direct influence and hold. i say direct, because i'm always reminded of the rumours that lawrence funded some part of fernando's career as well while he was in ferrari, but don't quote me on that those are just (believable and unsurprising) rumours.

process

started writing this early january. and then i did not touch the wip at all or write anything for about 3 weeks in february?? i spent so long just casually trawling for research in between writing the first few scenes because i had not figured out what would be the conflict yet. i asked a couple of friends to read over some of what i had, just to help me point out any blind spots. sometimes i still can't tell how my tone comes off in early draft stages. i kind of knew what i wanted to do with it, i just didn't know yet how to execute it.

thing that never fails to surprise me about writing is that whatever i think would be so fun and exciting to do would STILL turn out to be excruciating and difficult on some days. i think i've made about 6 versions of the draft. i love research and i LOVED that this gave me an opportunity to dig into more things, but at some point, the research felt like too much, but i managed to spread it out in a digestible way in the story. it's challenging to glean what you can from actual canon to use in a fic without it sounding trite or boring, like some mechanical retelling.

ANYWAY. by the time i'd written the 2016 party scene where lance and his gf were eavesdropping on fernando having sex with not-linda, i still had no fucking idea what a good narrative here would be. i was distracting myself by making the playlist, and choosing to just move around parts of the wip here and there in the doc aimlessly just to see some things and hope that i'd figure it out. to put it simply: fernando wins a few championships (stared at some of the details in dave's art, and got tickled at the cards and their numbers) then retires. ok. and lance would eventually move on from ferrari, which he will at some point if they don't give his seat to someone else, but he'd have his father to fall back on so ok. how boring.

and then i realized, hold on, that SUCKS actually. that would kind of be a huge fucking bummer if you were already finally living out a childhood dream with the team almost every racing driver dreamt of. huge bummer when your big fat crush retires as well after a harrowing but magical year of finally getting the validation you wanted.

there's something devastating about how quickly athletes are forced to grow up, and with lance, the issue is both obvious but also it's complicated. it's not as if he doesn't possess any autonomy to make his own decisions, but there's a certain agency you're not entirely granted with when you do something with a parent, no matter how loving and giving that parent is to you. lance is like...the schrodinger's cat of an adult but i could say the same about all of these men and people born into wealthy privilege, or people who could never just bear to cut off their parents, to some extent. of course it's fernando who has to tell lance this in the story: "I will tell you something your father won't. You are upset because you know now what it feels like, to have people support you and your racing ability without him."

also something really devastating about how family is just a self-fulfilling prophecy. i love that word, self-fulfilling. i think it's tragic and i do think everything about ferrari is tragicomedy so it goes hand in hand.

this is why i also think andrea stella and fernando's driver-engineer relationship is compelling: fernando has everything he should have to win, except the one thing they can't grant him. but he thinks he should be grateful to be in the team, and he's teetered back and forth between demanding everything he should have and not wanting to fuck things up when he's fighting for championships, so he clings on to the belief that ferrari seems to carry, that ferrari makes you feel, and you can hear the trust in andrea stella's radio messages to fernando that i (and plenty of others) believed was kind and steady and almost nurturing to fernando in getting the most of the car and helping to fine-tune his strengths as a driver amidst the pressure. you can't truly say that luca baldisserri following lance to williams after the fda was even close to a similar parallel done entirely out of devotion, but i'd like to think it was duty, on luca's part. plus, if engineering young racers' wins in junior series gets you a nice salary from their dads, why not.

highlights of finishing this fic were:

getting to see beautiful and harrowing fanart of the fic by dave.

writing and getting to share the research and lore i gathered in this post. first time actually trying to put something like this together, and it was so fun... i love putting in my little captions under photos and adding in sources.

some of my fave lines from the fic:

"Thanks. You too," Lance replied, and Fernando's smile crooked up into a real one, sharp enough that it fish-hooked a fresh wave of fascination in Lance's stomach. Perfect teeth, Lance thought to himself as he ran his tongue along the back of his own.

There's a saying that Fernando's mother taught Edoardo. The saying is Spanish, Edo's words lilting in a thin curl that Lance had to lean forward a bit to hear it again: La cabra tira al monte. The goat always takes to the mountains, which then means that you can hold down the goat in a pen but that won't change where it came from. "Fernando has always been who he is, and his heart, always up in the real mountains of his home," Edoardo said, raised his glass of lemonade in mock salute, and Fernando silently flicked a card at Edo's direction across the birch table almost childishly. That race weekend in Montreal, the weather stays the same, as clear and beautiful outside as it had been all week.

Lance stops idly rolling the pen he's been holding, a habit he'd gained from writing the confidence mantra they'd made him do at the academy. "Well. Can't beat a dead horse." "Beat, what?" "Luca was done here," says Lance, shifting in his seat. "So I'm saying that it's pointless because uh, the horse is dead and you can't like, get it to move." He makes a whipping motion with his hand.

As a teenager, Fernando had Ayrton Senna's picture stuck on the inside of his closet above his racing gear. For all of Lance's responses to the obligatory interview question that asked who his favourite driver was, he never had Fernando's picture up in his bedroom. Didn't exactly need it when Fernando's been around for years now, coming and going at Dad's invitations in the warmest season like object permanence developed through red-toned photos of a memory.

i love the theory of object permanence so much btw!! just saying.

writing anything new lately has been um...well. i thought i could do it again last week, but it turns out i'm still not fully back into it yet. and that's fine. i signed up for a fest (non-motorsport fandom) so...pray that it will help me kill the fears. guess i'll also go back to my attempts for other fic ideas, we will get through this. i'm trying to write more intentionally, less reactionary, so i guess if that means putting out less things then this is positive at least. hope i have fun along the way is all!