#idk again this theory is vibes based only

[elainsgirl]

Lol your previous anon is completely unaware of how gwynriels like to romanticize every single thing gwyn does and what happened to her.

Their side literally make fanarts of Azriel craddling a traumatized gwyn (theres one fanart where she was still in her torn up clothes half naked and looked comfortable leaning into Azriel WHAT THE F*CK). Yeah completely scratched canon where its actually Mor who carried gwyn lmao Azriel only covered her w a cloak.

Not to mention how they made the cutting ribbon scene about Gwynriel Lmao. Elriels actually respect Gwyn's character more than gwynriels. We elriels acknowledge that the cutting ribbon scene is a pivotal scene to show the valkyries friendship and growth, how they surpassed the challenge and NOT about a freaking man.

Somehow gwynriels made it seemed as a foreshadowing where gwyn n az would cut the ribbon during their mating scene.

Alrighty then. Tell me why we never saw any official illustrations of ribbons and truth-teller? Oh right, because theres no such thing as gwynriel. Theres only ever roses and truth-teller. Theres only ever Elriel.

Then again some claimed that Gwyn is also associated w roses based on their theory that Gwyn is from the spring court just to make the rose and truth teller abt gwynriel.

Gwynriels are on another level of delusional its sad to see it.

”whilst Gwyn was in the library after Savangh, she would think about Azriel and it would bring her some comfort 🥺”

“OMFGGGGGG Gwyn just loved challenging Az in acosf!”

I mean, this same crowd proudly reduces Gwyn to a Li and compares her role in acotar 5 to Cassians role in acosf. They do not like that woman beyond the gwynriel ship and it literally shows. They’ve changed Gwyns personality, randomly fitted her into plotpoints and want her to become something she isn’t. Want her to be with someone, she hasn’t even shown attraction too or interest in aside from his powers. What is it with that side shipping women w men they don’t want? that is so disturbing to say the least…to potray Gwyns most traumatising moment into anything romantic. The amount of gwynriels that would tell me how Az had carried and cradled gwyn too and I saw fanarts of it too that I actually believed this was the case until someone pulled up with thr quote and he just leaves her with Mor, they also romantacise the cloak Az gave Gwyn. If thats not giving desperate, Idk what else does.

Instead of celebrating Gwyns moment making it onto the brackets, what did her “stans” do? Try to twist it as some foreshadowing/hint for gwynriel. BB could have included the scene where Az looks at Gwyn w admiration, but they didn’t. Why? Because that wasn’t important nor the point. Gwyn cutting the ribbon was significant and history-changing. Im not even a Gwyn “Stan” yet it seems like elriels understand the purpose and point of that scene more then gwynriels who again, can’t seperate Gwyn from a ship they’ve literally forced her in.

Yes. Because Azriel leaving his traumatised mate alone moments after is fully giving Mate vibes. When he didnt gaf about his mate being taken into a deadly rite, I think that was the strongest play of mate instincts in action we’ve ever read about in the massiverse. I mean, Mass rlly just made it so obvious didn’t she? His mate was right there and Az was pleasuring himself to thoughts of another woman - I mean. C’mon. You cannot get more of a romantic love story then that. “Why not make them (elriel) mates?” Was obviously just there for funsies, it’s obviously not guiding you to wonder why elriel weren’t made mates nonononono its just there as a word filler, pretty decoration. What you’re meant to actually think about is the impact Gwyn squealing loudly had on Azriel who half turned at the sound. Gwyn staring down the ribbon as though it wS an enemy…no yh. Thats strong foreshadowing for how she’ll be with the mating bond ribbon.

🗣️ there is no such thing of gwynriel

Gwyn and Az are never paired together in the books. There is nothing between them. Az leaves training which makes sense because its not his official job, and thats the end of gwynriel. No matter Gwyn and Az interactions. It doesn’t disrupt the flow of the story. In fact, it affects nothing. Thats how stupid gwynriel as a ship is - seperate these two and nothing in the story changes, it doesn’t push the story forward. It doesn’t add or even contribute to the story.

Omfg don’t get me started on Gwynriels trying to claim roses for Gwyn. All bcs of her vague heritage. And its the SAME PEOPLE that say Elain should go to spring bcs there’s roses and flowers there, acknowledging her connections to the plants. Gwynriels are never beating the copycat allegations or the stealing content from other ship allegations either.

It was sad at first to see their level of delusion but ngl its hilarious now. Its something I look forward too bcs Ik im going to get a laugh out of it, “what stupid bs can they come up with today?” “Can it beat their last ridiculous arguements?”

[flickerofembers]

Okay, my current Doctor Who theory is that Ruby is somehow related to Susan. Do I have any evidence? No, it's just completely vibes based. And that's my favourite kind of theory.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Music commission prices!

Update: Editing my prices again bc I still think I was undercharging a little bit from my work and also the payment processor I use to transfer money from P*ypal to my bank account recently increased their fees.

Hey everyone! My name's Carlos, I'm a composer and producer. I'm one half of the technical death metal band Beyond Flesh, and I've been doing commissioned music work since 2021. I did all the battle themes for the RPGmaker game Those Infernal Girls! and several battle themes for the "Chillen in Chult" arc of the the D&D twitch show Dice Dynamics. I also did one bonus track for the album We Will All Sing One Song by the James Connolly Upstate New York IWW.

I can make music for your:

OC

Climactic TTRPG moment

Videogame

Short Film

Whatever else idk

The main genres I do are metal, synthwave, and dungeon synth, but I've done a bunch of commissioned work in different genres, from 8bit to jazz to EDM to hiphop backing tracks. If in doubt, ask me and I'll tell you if I can do a particular genre or not.

Prices:

Base commission price (Includes 1 minute of music, 2 instrument tracks plus percussion track) - $12 USD

Extra instrument track - $6 USD

Extra minute of music - $6 USD

Examples:

Some examples of my previous work so you can get an idea of my range:

You don't need to know anything about music theory or related language to commission me, but do have in mind that the more ifnormation you're able to provide the better the end result will be. Vibe descriptions, reference tracks that you want it to sound similar to, writeups of the character and/or scene it's for, and anything else you can think of are massively helpful. I'll be continually sending you WIPs through the entire process so you can judge the direction I'm going in and provide notes if necessary.

You get to keep all rights to the song to use it for any purpose. I, however, keep the right to post it on my tumblr blog, my youtube channel, or any of my socials for promotional purposes.

You may contact me through DMs here, or through the following media:

e-mail: juan.hernandez9903@gmail.com

Discord: carlos7318

I only accept payment via p*ypal invoices, as c*shapp and v*nmo don't work in my country.

[mpregbuck]

I feel like atp even if there were plans to make bvddie canon theyre gone now. if tim minear is even half as petty as I am he would see that reaction and go u know what fuck you u actually don't get what you want now cause ur acting so goddamn entitled. like when tarlos fans got mad about the deleted scenes instead of appreciating them being released and his reaction was to say "okay fine then I just won't release deleted scenes anymore" (like I'm sure it was mostly a marketing decision but part of me thinks they intentionally released a scene about bucktommy just to prove a point.) idk man it's just really upsetting as a bi man to see the absolutely vile shit bvddie stans are saying and even tho I love the ship I now never want it to go canon cause they've fuckin ruined it

hey anon, at first let me agree with the fact that i do in fact also love bvddie a lot and i still love reading fics for them, the edits of them are fantastic and the fanart is S tier. it’s a great pairing with a lot of potential there IF the writers decided to ever go there but…

huge answer below

yeah, i agree. i honestly think before tommy was introduced again in 7x03 and the kiss in 7x04 that in my brain, bvddie was the most logical endgame for buck until it wasn’t.

i came into the show shipping bvddie much like a lot of new fans to the show but instead of hopping onto the tommy anti express hate train i found myself falling in love with buck and tommy together. at first i was still on board with bvddie still being endgame but as each episode aired after 7x04 i became faced with the reality of the situation (at least the way i see it) that bvddie might always be fanon and that’s ok because fandom keeps ships alive whether they’re canon or not. some of the biggest ships EVER are non-canon (i mean, cmon spirk? one of the OG MM ships?) so it didn’t really deter me from enjoying bvddie to this day. what HAS deterred me from interacting with bvddie content is toxic bvddies. i don’t like using the lil nicknames, idc if other ppl do, whatever, but i prefer just referring to certain kinds as just toxic plain and simple.

toxic shippers have made it difficult for anyone who multiships to interact with bvddie content. while there are incredibly nice & welcoming bvddie endgamers out there, it doesn’t overshadow the hateful ones in my online experience at least. i’ve blocked so many ppl over this ship discourse, which ive never had to do with any other fandom before the extent i have with 911. everyday i still find new ppl to block, you go under almost any comment section on the 911 insta and its filled with nasty comments abt tommy and only caring abt whether bvddie will be canon in s8. people projecting their hatred of tommy/lou onto the cast/crew of the show when it’s be said and proven time and time again that it’s quite the opposite. now im certain there’s bad apples in the bucktommy side as well, but from what ive seen online so far it is not nearly to the caliber of the bvddie side. ive blocked maybe a handful of bucktommy’s for being hateful towards eddie or being toxic overall, but ive probably blocked over 100+ toxic bvddies. i can only imagine it’d be worse if i was active on 911 twt which i’m not (thank god) but i have ventured into the tags before on there and let me tell you, it’s fucking horrifying how gross ppl are over there. twt is a cesspool for fandom anyways tho, the fucking asshole of fandom, it’s a septic tank really.

now im my own opinion which could be completely untrue of course, but just basing my thoughts on what i’ve seen online and interviews and such, tim seems to be really happy about bucktommy and idk how ppl believe otherwise. tim has expressed he loves LFJ and wanted him back on the show. tim showed up on set for the kiss scene. tim posting an entire youtube vibe abt bucktommy being soulmates that touches on the invisible string theory and explains how they accidentally found buck’s perfect match. tim sharing the deleted tommy scene is also huge but im waiting to see if he releases more (because i remember seen somewhere that he said there’d be more?) and if he does then great but it’s also still pretty telling to me after the whole karaoke fiasco.

oliver has said nothing but praises towards buck’s queer storyline. he quite literally said if you dont like it then watch something else. despite ppl saying he’s never interacted with bucktommy content online, that’s a lie because he has liked fanart of them.

aisha, kenneth & tracie have all expressed how they like tommy/lou and love working with him.

jlh said she loved bvddie before but is excited to see where buck and tommy go and then on an insta live said she doesn’t think bvddie is happening and was bombarded by toxic fans to the point of ending the live early.

ppl think it’s all some ruse to make it seem like bvddie is never happening so when it does happen it’s a “surprise” ……..

the nasty hate comments are doing nothing but exposing these types of ppl for who they are and that honestly to them, 911 is just the bvddie show to them. the people who run these social media accs for 911 are looking at these comments and cringing, they aren’t running to tim and abc being like “we must give these crazies what they want!” they’re mostly likely being ignored or honestly, as you said, being looked at and just reinforcing their decision to most likely make tommy buck’s endgame so as long as his schedule is open for filming.

what gets me the most about the hate these types of shippers spew online is how they aren’t embarrassed because they are so sooo convinced they will be right one day and therefore their insane, nasty behavior online will be justified. oliver stark literally left twt because of fans like this, people act like he was joking around, that he was shooting the shit probably because “he’s british and british people just have that kind of humor” which yes to a certain extent but let me just add these posts to set an example to why if oliver were still on twt he absolutely would not be happy with the way toxic bvddies are acting right now.

oliver (and ryan&other cast too) being positive abt bvddie never meant it was going to be canon of become canon one day. they do not decide these things, whether they believe it should or not. a lot of bvddie shippers come from previous fandoms where queerbaiting was there, where they were made fun of by actors of their ships, by the creators of the show! so i understand the frustration but oliver is not queerbaiting and buck is not a queerbait character when he quite literally is now confirmed bisexual and in a relationship with a man.

he’s just not the “correct” queer to these people. despite headcanons (hell even i hc eddie as queer!!) eddie so far, in canon, is not queer. by the end s7 he is still shown to not be over shannon and ruins his relationship with his son over this. ryan has stated in interviews he sees eddie as heterosexual, possibly pushing this because of the influx of ship discourse, and he’s glad to see a vulnerable and deep friendship that buck and eddie can have as a straight man and a queer man and how important he thinks it is.

every single thing that points to bvddie never going canon is like they’re being shot point blank in the chest. i get it, your ship not becoming canon sucks, but again, that is what fandom is for! shipping has never been about how canon smth is, there is 20k fics out there for bvddie and they aren’t canon. they can turn that into 40k, 100k, 1M if they really wanted to! instead they use their time and energy posting death threats, wishing death upon a gay character, bullying ppl online for enjoying a ship.

meanwhile from what ive seen bucktommys are rolling with goofy ass spy tommy theories created by antis and making jokes for our own fun.

so yes, i agree overall. they truly don’t deserve what they think they do. we didn’t whine and scream for a deleted scene. they did. we got ours without even expecting it and are having fun.

maybe if they behaved better i wouldn’t be so petty abt it. it’s a shame because of how much potential it has, unfortunately it is just not going that way atm. and even if it does one day, it is not because they paraded online with hate, it is because that’s the story tim and the others wanted to write and abc approved it.

🫳🎤

[claudiablogger]

i love your takes on armand,he gives the ick but it’s fascinating at the same time lol what is your take on loumand from armand side? do you think he genuinely liked louis at some point?! it was all about his obsession with lestat? why he wanted to keep him so bad,again,only bc of lestat(i hope not tbh)? did he love him? idk after the last two episodes i bounce so much with this!!

thank youuu everyone loves an evil man until they get one and suddenly he's their canceled wife. or a doe eyed twink. or an overgrown teenager. anything but the actually interesting version of himself presented in the source material. but i digress imo armand absolutely loves louis he's so. his hunger is bottomless and he pours all of it into louis and by god will he ensure louis takes it. without complaint too we wouldn't want to get hysterical now would we dear not in this already fragile state. anyway i do think the choices armand makes in no pain are incredible (scarily straightforward) foreshadowing for the latter half of s2. like base conditions and consequences 1. he wants a relationship with louis on his own terms (on coven terms he set) or not at all; 2. he expects louis to make the necessary unquestioning sacrifices for acceptance and for their romance--first his freedom, then claudia; 3. and in the absence of this sacrifice he kills him/possesses him completely when that fails--e3 ends with armand deciding not to kill him but instead have sex with him. and the trial's ordeal ends with their eternal companionship built on armand's lie . othello had to kill desdemona bc if she could betray her father to marry him she could betray him to sleep w someone else etc it's all about making sure the wife knows her place

in dubai he's definitely a hundred percent in love w louis + having been shown their bedroom i don't subscribe to the bed death theories. but imo louis doesn't have the breadth of choice to ever meaningfully reciprocate. his love is a small box....it's all carefully curated to ensure he appears louis' only option and his best chance at enduring vampirism + the sickness of living without claudia. in his mind he keeps louis because he loves louis. he keeps louis because he wants complete control over his own illusion of servitude. he keeps louis bc he's earned the right to louis + his companionship

i do genuinely think his obsession w lestat is different entirely; armand respects lestat too much to ever love him the way he loves louis. man to man lmao.....he knows lestat can't be possessed the way louis can and his envy is only amplified by louis' love for him. i also do think in his eyes he just vibes w louis better (while in her eyes well. armand voice your wife is counting down your thrusts) while his relationship with lestat 1. was primarily antagonistic 2. was edited to fit the narrative of his powerlessness + being wronged by him in order to appeal to louis' sympathies 3. eventually became about louis' love and louis' choices . yay

[spiegelgestalt]

I was looking through your re zero reblogs and a tag stood out to me. What do you mean you think Otto is a manifestation of Satella? I’m really intrigued by the concept

Ohh! Thank you for the question. So this is a pet theory of mine which is probably wrong but I find incredibly entertaining. Beware this is going to be long and rambley. The TL;DR is probably: the only person who is as obsessed with Subaru as Otto is, is Satella It tries to explain several things that I find weird about Otto (some of these things might be explained in the LN but Tappeis writing style doesn't click with me and so i'm really slow with reading them) :

a) Ottos sudden entry in Subarus story (and the fact that Subaru always meets him no matter what he does) the first time he meets Otto at a pub because Otto made a financial mistake and drank his sadness away. This one's fairly unsuspicious. The second time is stranger. Subaru is going back to the mansion alone in the darkness and meets Otto on the road. Not only that. Otto is standing near the light and waves. Like he was expecting him. Why? Does he do that often - wave to travelers who are just passing by? But the most suspicious entry is his last/permanent entry to the story - his getting saved from the witch cult. Why did the witch cult kidnapp him an no one else? Why did they plan to sacrifice him? Why wasn't he with the rest of the merchants? Suuuuus!!! This at least hints that Otto might have connections/significance to the witch cult

2) why does the whale eat him and not Subaru? Subaru should have smelled tastier so why did it chose Otto? Maybe because Otto smelled of the witch? And if Otto knew that the Mabeast would go after him it would paint his pushing Subaru of the cart in a different light.

3) he's not in roswaals gospel which even has Subaru in it. How/why? Is it really just because he's so insignificant?

So these things make Otto suspicious but they don't link him to Satella necessarily. So here comes my reason for that

3) Otto's behavior in Season 2 don't make sense. Not only is he ride or die for Subaru very very fast while the other is basically nothing but rude to him. He explains this with Subaru saving him but technically that were the iron fang people and Otto isn't thankful to them at all. And even if that were the case - why is Otto so sure that Subaru needs help? As far as I remember he offers Subaru help in every single time loop, even in the ones where Subaru still believes himself to be on top of things (and shouldn't send sadboy pleas help me vibes)

4) And than there is the speech which will save Subaru. And I find it quite suspicious: a) this speech is suspiciously parallel to Satellas speech in the witches tea party it kinda feels like a continuation of it

b) Otto says that he understands that Subaru wants to be strong in front of the girl he likes and in front of the girl that likes him but he shouldn't have to be strong in front of his friend. So the girl Subaru likes is obv. Emilia but why talk about another girl who likes Subaru... who is that supposed to be? Otto doesn't know about Rem. Does he mean Emilia again? But why say it that strangely - or was he just covering his bases. IDK for me it kinda made sense as a Emilia/Satella distinction (or if Otto DOES know about Rem that makes him really suspicious again)

C) Otto takes it very personally that Subaru didn't ask HIM for help. But why should Subaru do that. He technically knows him for what, a few days?

D) Subaru notes that this kind of speech is usually reserved for the heroine (something he also mentioned about being summoned to another world and we know that was Satella - so is that the case here too?)

5) Otto has a lot of parallels to Subaru/Satella has a lot of parallels to Subaru

So all of this could hint to the fact that Otto is a time traveler and/or has some connection to one of the witches (either Pandora or Satella)

But I like my theory of Otto being a manifestation of Satella because it fits neatly into the theme of the parallels between Satella/ Subaru, it is something Satella would do, the thought that Satella sees Subaru dying over and over again and just says: okay have to do everything myself. If he won't accept help if I'm a woman I gotta go in as a guy is extremely funny to me, I believe that being kinda pathetic is an important property of being associated with envy AND Otto is next to Satella the person who most obsesses over Subaru and only Subaru

And Satella could rewrite history if she needed to (that would explain Otto's memories)

[estoniacobaltpayne]

Ranking the Bad Batch Based On How Fun They'd Be To Jam To Some Tunes With

Just something fun to do lol. I'm a musician and sound engineer, so not only am I basing this on what I think they each like to listen to, but also how much interest and knowledge each batcher has in the music making process, specifically music theory and music production, which are major aspects of why a person likes or dislikes certain songs or artists.

I'm totally basing this on my own musical preferences by the way, and since I'm writing this I'm gonna be totally biased towards how I feel about their jammability based on how much I enjoy their music taste, too. Y'all can like whatever music you want, and rank their music preferences according to your own taste.

HUNTER: 5/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, ATROCIOUS JAMMABILITY)

IDK I just feel like Hunter is very "meh?" about music??? Like it's a very passive thing for him.

If I had to guess, I'd say he probably chooses to listen to genres including Latin Pop, Americana, Classic Rock, maybe a little Funk? Within those genres I'd say he likes artists like Juanes, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Fiona Apple, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Maná, Trombone Shorty, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Collective Soul, and the Allman Brothers Band. I'd say his taste in music is the only reason he'd get even a 5/10, he's got an ELITE taste, but he also is just... is not that interested at the same time. He probably talks while it's playing too, like bruh if you have something to say PAUSE THE DAMN SONG AND STOP RUINING THE VIBE

He also has no interest in, or in learning, anything about music theory or production, which as a musician is such a fundamental part of enjoying a tune. Like you could drop a "yo that melodic tritone interval between the flat 3rd scale degree and the 6th scale degree over the dominant IV7 chord FUCKED bro" and he'd just sit there at stare at you and barely give you a shrug?? Bro no. No vibes. Don't bother trying to explain the mix to him either, he straight up doesn't care.

Hunter does not dance, and even if you managed to convince him to, he SUCKS at it. Sure he's got grace, but Hunter wouldn't know rhythm if it slapped him in the face. Plus, he gets upset when he sucks at it, which then just gets him in a pissy mood. 😐

WRECKER: 10/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, FANTASTIC JAMMABILITY)

WRECKER LOVES TO JAM BRO

He can jam to just about anything, but I know for sure he loves the 80's and 90's stuff, like Punk Rock, New Wave, Ska Punk, Anthem Rock, and Classic Rock. As for artists, think Quiet Riot, DEVO, Green Day, AC/DC, Oingo Boingo, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Journey, INXS, Dropkick Murpheys, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Sublime, and Styx. Wrecker will enthusiastically sing along to every song he knows (and he doesn't care if he's in tune or not, he's too busy having fun!), and will enthusiastically jam physically to songs he doesn't know. He's always down to listen to new music if it's presented to him, but I also don't think he really goes out of his way for new music either. He knows what he likes and he's good with that.

Music theory in particular escapes Wrecker. You can explain it to him 1,001 times, he just cannot grasp it. But that's ok! He'll eagerly listen to you explain it for the 1,002nd time and every time after that, because he loves listening to music and finds the making of it passively interesting. As for production, once again he finds it passively interesting, so he likes brief, "cliff note" explanations as to why things sound certain ways; he wants to know that the reason that the vocals sound like they're echoing in a concert hall is because they have reverb, but doesn't particularly care about which kind of reverb or how it works.

Wrecker is so down to dance. He will absolutely head bang, and he will absolutely throw DOWN in a mosh pit. Doesn't care at all what he looks like or what other people are thinking of him; when "What I Like About You" by The Romantics pops on, Wrecker pops off 😎

ECHO: 9/10 (FANTASTIC MUSIC TASTE, GREAT JAMMABILITY)

Echo jams for sure. In a different, more chill way than Wrecker, but he's still fun to jam out with!

He definitely had an "emo teen" phase, so he likes Punk, Pop Rock, Alternative, and I'd say he probably likes Neo Soul, Rap and Hip Hop as an adult, too. He's a My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy FIEND; he knows all the songs and will sing along to them when he's with people he's comfortable with. He now also goes for artists like Green Day, Kendrick Lamar, The Struts, John Legend, The Killers, Tai Verdes, Radiohead, Alicia Keys, Crazy Town, Teddy Swims, and Erykah Badu. He's also the kind to keep starting the song over each time you talk, there's a distraction, or just because he loves a song and wasn't "feeling it enough" the first time through.

I feel like Echo would be one hell of a producer, and can and will spend hours in Logic Pro or Ableton making the stankiest beats and mixes, but also falls into the "MuSic ThEoRy KiLLs My CrEaTiViTy" category. Doesn't matter how many times you tell him that, even though he doesn't know how to identify what he's making, he's still using music theory, he'll just blow you off and swear that he doesn't use theory, he "puts stuff together because it sounds good." It's okay Echo, the rest of know it sounds good because it's a I-7 chord to a IV7 chord, just because you don't know your song is in Dorian doesn't mean the rest of us don't 🙃

Echo doesn't get up to dance, but he does the thing where he's "dancing" in his seat and makes, sometimes quite silly, faces. Big head bobber attitude, and if he's really into it, you can catch him unconsciously drumming his hand and scomp along to the song on whatever surface is in front of him. Same, Echo, same.

CROSSHAIR: -10000/10 (ATROCIOUS MUSIC TASTE, ATROCIOUS JAMMABILITY)

First of all, this man claims he doesn't like music, and "prefers to be alone with his thoughts." Bro, that's bullshit and we all know it.

At first, Crosshair would be one of those assholes that claims he likes music that's "actually good" and artists that "you've probably never heard of" like Stevie Ray Vaughan, which is funny because like dude, I don't know a single person who hasn't heard of SRV, but he literally knows one singular song - Crosshair knows "Crossfire" and that's it, and if you listen to the entire In Step album with him, you know you can call BS on him because that's... literally the only song he knows off the entire album. And then you catch him with headphones in for the first time and oh boy, this man jumps through flaming hoops to deny it, but Crosshair is a Swifty, a Belieber, and an Ariana Grande stan, which for me personally, are the absolute LAST artists I'll ever listen to, but hey if that's your thing, Crosshair is your guy to listen to music with. Like there's good pop music out there, but Crosshair will hear none of it and refuses to even try anything else. "Yo Crosshair let's listen to some P!nk or Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga or fun.---" "gO aWaY!" If you really worked hard at it, you could maybe get him to listen to some darker pop like Hozier, Imagine Dragons, and Twenty One Pilots; the angstier the lyrics, the better. Who knows, maybe with time and patience you could even work him him up to some Screamo bands like Asking Alexandria or Falling In Reverse??? 👀

Don't bother trying to explain theory or production to him; he does not care. He just wants to listen to music in solitude.

If you even think this man will bob his head in front of you let alone dance you are sorely mistaken.

TECH: 1000/10 (A LITERAL GOD-LIKE MUSIC TASTE, GREAT JAMMABILITY)

I mean, it's Tech. Golden Retriever boy. He's interested in just about everything, and is always down to try new things, and the same applies to music.

Tech has a very diverse taste in music, and his taste is also always growing. He likes different things for different reasons; he loves Classical, Jazz, and Progressive Rock for their interesting and stimulating use of music theory, and he finds Funk and Alternative and even Salsa inspiring for their arrangements and/or songwriting. This man will whiplash from Coldplay to Duke Ellington to Muse to Earth, Wind & Fire to a literal Gregorian Chant Compilation so fast you won't even have time to process whatever song you just finished, and best of all, he'll show just as much attention and appreciation to the new song as he did the last. He loves Bach and Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach, and he loves artists like Genesis, Nat King Cole, Elton John, Joe Arroyo, Thelonious Monk, Pink Floyd, Jon Batiste, Seal, Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., and unlike his twin, Tech will absolutely sit down and listen to SRV's In Step with you and will absolutely love analyizing every second of it. He's also an anti-fascist, politically conscious king, so play him songs like "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke, "Front Line" by Stevie Wonder, or "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, and that exceptional mind of his will get super amped up. You'll have a great listening session, and then a great political conversation. And maybe I'm just self-projecting here, but Tech will go absolutely feral for Queen. Everything about them. The music? Stimulating intellectually and emotionally. Brian May is a literal astrophysicist and John Deacon is an electrical engineer, and he finds that so fucking cool. His favorite album is a toss up between Queen II and A Night At the Opera; either way, he loves the thought and intention that go into a concept album, and if you ask him if he wants to listen to one with you, he will definitely say yes.

It's super fun to have listening sessions with Tech, because you can totally geek out with him over what's happening in the music you're listening to, be it theory or mix or whatever; and if you teach Tech even the basics about music theory, mixing engineering, songwriting and arrangement, etc., it will be highly likely that this dude will know more and be 100x better at it than you within days. I feel like he loves mastering, and will always be the one to master Echo's mixes. 🥰

Tech is less a physical jammer and more an intellectual jammer, if that makes sense. Discussing all the various aspects of music is totally a jam, and Tech is the one to do it with. That being said, if you asked him to, he'd dance, but this socially awkward guy would probably think you meant like...ballroom dancing??? instead of just hanging out in the same room and groovin' to some tunes together??? And he'd be super awkward, too, because he's the opposite of Hunter- all rhythm and no grace. But either way, the vibes from this man are immaculate and you will never run out of music to listen to with this man.

Well, hope you all enjoyed my TED Tech Talk :) and I hope you all enjoy listening to music as much as I do lol

[the--highlanders]

so I actually enjoyed the war games colourisation way more than I thought I would!!

the colourisation itself was SUPER nice. having looked through existing colour earlier images right before watching I was really happy to see they'd matched them, and there were some really nice shots. the trial sequence in particular worked for me, the purple lighting was great.

that being said there were a few points where the new inserted shots didn't quite fit the vibe of the colourisation itself, most notably with the exterior shots of gallifrey - I loved having them in there but new who has established such a warm palette, whereas the war games portrays the interiors on gallifrey as very cold and sterile. on the one hand I love that contrast and think it suits the time lords, but because the outside shots were so clearly inserted into the 60s colour scheme, maybe the intention wasn't there, so it was missing a bit of unity? idk I don't know colour theory

I haven't seen the war games in ages whoops so I wasn't 100% sure on a couple of bits I thought they'd added? but I'm sure there was a bit of extra footage in there. especially when they were getting away from the romans early on.

cutting the serial down was a bit 50:50 for me. the beginning was really solid, with the only issue basically being cutting straight from the germans capturing them to driving to the british base. but I definitely don't think they should have cut out all of the stuff with the resistance and kept so much of the back-and-forth at the base. they could have balanced that way better, given a better idea of jamie and zoe's characters (because both of them get some really good character work in those resistance sequences!!), and actually introduced the resistance leaders rather than have the doctor, jamie, and zoe be oddly familiar with them with no context. that was probably the biggest misstep of the production for me and I'm not sure how well it would translate for someone who isn't familiar with the war games or two's era at all

on the flip side I really liked some of the cutting between scenes they did. the part where they were introducing the soldiers' programming and interspersing it with the resistance soldier confronting the controller in his zone worked so well. there were definitely a few points where you could see they were trying to speed up the slower type of 60s television, and the acting didn't quite match the pace they were going for, but it paid off in a few moments

introducing more music also worked for me!! between the cuts they made to the resistance scenes and just classic who's relative lack of solid character moments they didn't quite have room to establish specific character themes for jamie and zoe, which I would have loved to see more than anything. but it also didn't jar with the existing music and the vibe of the original serial for me

the new who tidbits were fun as well, and that's coming from someone who's not a big fan of some of the easter eggs they've put in the animations (tho I am a bit of an animation hater in general, and ig I was viewing this as its own thing rather than an attempt to recreate a serial). I'm not a diehard believer that the war chief is the master, but playing the master's theme over his scenes delighted me and added to some of those moments. having the new who doctors as options for two's next face made me laugh so hard. and I really did like seeing bits of new who-style gallifrey

the regeneration sequence was.... cool to see how they did it and where they'd pulled footage from? blatantly-fake jon pertwee at the end made me laugh ngl. again I figured it would be more fun as a thought experiment than taking it as an attempt to alter canon and I stand by that. season 6b believers rise up etc etc

overall I had a great time!! idk maybe it was because I haven't actually seen any of two's episodes in like, a year probably, but I enjoyed it. loved seeing my blorbos in colour. jamie's highlanders costume getting a brief bit of colourisation was a highlight, as was the tiny bit of colourised evil of the daleks victoria. I don't think it's necessarily a great way to actually get someone into the war games or two's era generally, just because the cuts could leave you a bit confused. but at the same time being a fan of two's era can sometimes feel like we get thrown crumbs every so often and little that's more substantial. so having a bit more of a big deal made for us for once was super exciting, and I hope people who'd never seen the era before watched and maybe were a bit won over <3

[catnykit]

hiiiii :3c idk what you want to talk about but what about like. when you started creating ocs??? like what’s the earliest you remember making and what was the thought process behind the ones you have rn (specifically deidamia and katatasha???)

or if not is there anything cool youve learned lately ??? :3c

EEEE TYSM :D ENRICHMENTTTT :DDDD KNOW YOU'VE FIXED A REALLY BAD DAY

Anyywaayys mmmm the earliest EAAARLIEST i can remember is having a weird httyd race to the edge oc that was like?? flower hybrid withhh the dangerous singing dragon??? i dont remember like 95% of whatever that was.

Aaaaand the thought process behind my actual ocs!!!

HMM

ok so heres the thing: I Don't Have many ocs, and theres actually a reason for this!! there was a shortcut!! but ill explain it for last bc its a long story. aslo Keep Reading thing because THIS IS A LOT OF YAPPING!!! (,,>ヮ<,,)!

ok so for deidamia: the idea was at first a broke, overworked serial killer. after watching 4 horror movies in a row i was like. all of these guys have money. hmmmmm. and when i began pondering i had the epiphany.

you've heard of serial killer whumper? get ready for serial killer whumpee, the sort of role switcharoo i love!!!! theres just a mine of potencial there y'know!! not only a publically feared whumpee (which is one of my favorite FAVORITE tropes ever <33) but aslo a publically HATED whumpee. which gives literally so much freedom for whumpy stuff. and a CRIMINAL whumpee like. villian whumpee without the fantasy sci-fi or whatever you want stuff (which is good for me!! not bc i dont like the trope but bc i just dont work well with "hero" and "villan" archetypes :( it just limits the moral complexity ok)

heres the thing: even if its her main deal, theres aslo other stuff with deidamia!!! i briefly mentioned it here but another big deal with deidamia is melancholy and sadness and gloomness and Y'know. jordan river by nastyona sort of vibes. she's a broken, stoic whumpee with so much hopelessness by the time of most endings. I tend to say i dont like tragedies but i gotta say rotari is my local tragedy. "The anger that warms ur heart now will leave you cold in your grave" type of thing. or however the poem said.

Deidamia's aslo kind of a moral question, but i dont wanna yap abt that bc that can open a biig can of worms a little too quickly😊so we're not doing that😚

Oh yeah her design is basically "what if clasical pretty final girl BUT✋️ uncanny valley". or somethin

nowww, moving on tooo katatasha, this one's actually pretty simple!!!

ok so this start with minecraft lore theories, i wont say specifics bc its kind of a blender mix + my personal interpretation. The general idea is taking all the horror and implications and whumpy details of minecraft and Making It Make sense. thats it.

theyre aslo based on my own minecraft experience!! the game is beautiful but i am extremely frightened by skeletons. i aslo pick up on the small whumpy details, again, like the time i had to throw myself in a half-frozen river bc i was jumpscared by an endeman and almost died. You know how whumpy that is? ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING ENDERMEN ARE NIGHTMARE FUEL IN THE STORY!!!!! stuff like this and many things really dont make the game a horror game, but like, think about it...

a big deal of it is aslo the natural dehumanization of the chosen one+the last of their kind.... and like... i just slapped some of my favorite character tropes and called it a day🤷‍♀️ what can i say most of my ocs are made in a whim.... @vidawhump as taglist for katatasha <3

And thats without mentioning noodle!! and lilith of course. buuuut thats a lotta yapping for today i'll just....eepy seepy thats all for todays guys🤷‍♀️

OHH I FORGOR THE OC SHORTCOUT THING.

lets say i had this Main Lore with their buncha ocs that i had been developing like. Since Forever. and the thing is bc its Since Forever it started as pretty nonsensical y'know. And Well, Following Floating Steps actually comes from that. it is a development of that story, to say..? the thing is, I Cancelled That. why?? bc i relized i Kind Of had messed up multiple things. and what i didn't relize is that it kind of left me with a Shortcout of ocs. which isnt aaactually bad bc most of it were secondary, unimportant characters y'know..... still, i passed from like 16 or more ocs to like 5. or so. like theres still many concepts i would like to explore so just like my desc, theres still more ocs to spawn!!!! and worldbuild ideas!!! but yeah theres that. I DO PLAN ON REMAKING THAT STORY, But like, when i figure how to (╥﹏╥)

[bromcommie]

Do you know (or have a theory about) what Bucky's role in the Thunderbolts will be? I assume he'll be part of the team but he also blows up the car with the T-bolts in it. That paired with the fact that he's in some of his WS gear, I am worried that the plot involves him getting brainwashed again :/

Ah, nonnie—idk if I’m the best go-to for this question seeing as how if I’m being completely honest, I’ve been checked out of the more detailed side of the “theorizing about new Marvel projects” game for a long while now, even (and maybe especially) when it comes to Bucky. I’m afraid every new bit of info is making me think they’re going to keep doing whatever the hell they feel like with him by taking that brand of inconsistent I’ve unfortunately come to associate with his storyline to brand new heights. Not for nothing, but there’s very little even in the way TFATWS “concluded” his arc that’s indicative of him having any place being in the Thunderbolts in the first place.

All of that said, lemme give it my best go based off of gut feeling and previous experience. We do only get so much from that trailer however, and I’ve only seen it the once, and I also might just be completely off-base, so take all of this with a sizable grain of salt:

First of all, I’ve seen the brainwashing hypothesis thrown around a bunch, but here’s the thing: I really don’t think the WS getup has anything much to do with anything. Not to be too cynical, and as lovely as seeing everyone on here picking over some of the details in the costuming and props is—‘tis what I love about this fandom, after all—I truly think we’re past the point in the MCU (if we were ever really there to begin with) where those elements actually have a deeper narrative motivation other than simple vibes, especially in a major team-up like this one.

Now, would I personally love to see one last badass, hurts-so-good farewell omage to the Winter Soldier in all of his Henry Jackman-SKREECH-soundtrack-fueled glory, no matter how thin the justification behind it is? Hell yes. Do I think that’s what we’ll be getting? Nah, not really, and somehow that’s not necessarily better.

If I had to take a guess, I’d say the gear’s there to evoke a sense of him not being entirely his own (a la the Zemo/Madripoor ruse in TFATWS) but that the whole thing’s not really looking like brainwashing at all. Partly because even in those 20 seconds or so we get of him, sure: there’s the grenade launcher, there’s the bike, there’s the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am of it all, but I’m not really seeing any of that near-manic, laser-focus Winter Soldier energy. I’m just seeing a kind of grim, tired, possibly very pissed off guy-who-is-supposed-to-be-Bucky. With some mean shades on.

The second reason is more on the Doylist side of things: this is them making him a full-on, credit-carrying main character the second time around. At this point, no matter how much I wish it weren’t the case, I honestly doubt they can afford to backpedal on their decision to mostly ignore the previously established canon of Bucky being an unwilling victim of HYDRA’s violence, and am assuming they’ll continue to lean in to him instead being a somewhat conscious perpetrator of it and therefore a viable contender for the Main Character mantle, as well as a part of the Thunderbolts in the first place—seeing as how their whole schtick is that they’re essentially Discount Bin Bad Guys Redeeming Themselves. (I will hereby refrain from discussing all the OTHER characters in that team-up who have also been set up as having all their autonomy very explicitly stripped from them. But know that I am thinking it and shaking my head.) In the framework that they’ve created which has one too many weird victim blaming pillars, having Bucky once again be under direct and full mental and physical control of someone else would be simply incompatible with that protagonist qualifier. And even if they were to backtrack on that decision, it’d still make for an ever more contradictory and regressive storyline, not least of all because they’ve also already established that the brainwashing doesn’t really work anymore. Which leads me to my last point—

There’s really nothing left for them to brainwash him with, I feel like. The Winter Soldier stakes are gone and doubly buried with TFATWS. The code words are gone, or at least that’s what they’ve made a big point of making us believe. Unless they decide to pull another hitherto unknown device to replace them with out of their ass last minute, or to, for some godforsaken reason, reintroduce The ChairTM (which again, seeing him be subject to torture and literal brainwashing and very much not in control wouldn’t really work with the whole “he needs to make amends for the crimes he Definitely Committed Knowingly and Willingly, No Guys For Real” thing they’ve decided to roll with), I frankly don’t see a way for anyone to have that kind of absolute power over him.

Ultimately, I just don’t think they’d even waste that much time setting up those aspects of the character again, especially since from what I’ve seen Bucky’s not even going to be in the movie all that long. Which makes the reasoning of why they’re going for that particular facet of his aesthetic even more confusing, other than, once again, pure ~vibes~.

So, to summarize: no, I don’t think he’s going to be brainwashed, or at least there’s no way for them to do that without once again trampling all over their own canon. Which on one hand, yay! (Said oh so very tiredly.) On the other: I think what that leaves us with is something way closer to 616!Bucky’s comics arc than what we’ve ever had so far, meaning Bucky once again “atoning” for his misdeeds as the Winter Soldier, and likely being under the government’s boot for much of it. And look, while I love 616!Bucky, identical brothers he and MCU!Bucky are not. Any setup we get for this transition would have to be…speedy at best, and nonsensical at worst. How and why his arc would suddenly entail going after a bunch of random rogues as, I’m assuming, some kind of twisted arm of the CIA/Valentina/the US government at large (??), when the last time we saw him he was supposedly finally free and readjusting to society or whatever—fuck if I know. Regular old extortion/blackmail/emotional manipulation of some kind is my best bet, or some last-minute addition to his pardon made for political gain.

In any case—sure, better than the regular old 2015 Bucky brainwashing angst, but only in the way that it’s more of the same done in a different way. I personally don’t like any of the implications this has any better.

But that’s just me going off of the minimal visuals we got so far + wariness derived from unfortunately being a Bucky fan for a good decade now, lol. I still have no idea how any of it’ll play into him being the supposed “de facto leader” of the team, or whether he’ll get there willingly, or even whether the writers of this project will have taken into account any of the previous installments as some others have decided against in the past. (Looking at you, Spellman. Good lord.) My second best guess is that they’ll have him play some kind of mediatory role between the government and the Thunderbolts, seeing as how he’s been around the longest—some fucked up kind of big brother act, if you will, as an extension of that whole “redeeming himself” business—and then possibly kill him off/retire him for good. But other than that I really…don’t know, and haven’t really thought that far ahead since I cannot for the life of me get a feel for what the hell this movie’s tone is even supposed to be, and it’s making me uh…not care too much about it, I’m sorry to say.

But then again and in that same vein, I’m also trying not to assign any particular meaning to anything I’m seeing. For all I know they could decide to retcon him again or shoot him up into space to be Nick Fury’s Man on the Wall instead of killing him off. It’s the Wild Wild and Yet Still Sadly Often Predictable West out there.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see?

[elvenbeard]

Today's modding shenanigans!

Today I wanted to test out ACM a bit :D I think I'd most enjoy using it as an additional tool for making custom outfits and seeing how different item appearances work together, less as my primary tool to creating custom outfits as such (also, it is a bit buggy for me and I can't seem to export appearances reliably for some reason).

Since you can alter custom appearances with it too, though, you could definitely mod one "base outfit" and then change the colors spontaneously for a different vibe (for example, I could make an apperance for Kerry wearing one t-shirt and then change the shirt decal or color on the fly in game without cluttering his .app file with a dozen different appearances that are virtually the same just different colors!). Wondering though if there exists a resource that lists every item's appearance names (cause some are super specific and hard to guess, like... instead of "black" or "smiley-face" you have appearances like "6th street" or "black_capsules") for this purpose... and if not, I'll probably make one just because I would find it useful to have xD

Also, ACM is really neat for taking off Kerry's jewelry on the fly for certain pics XD Or changing nail colors and things like that! In all these regards this is a super useful resource as is already, but I'm excited where the mod makers will take it :D (also... random sidenote, but can we talk about Dante for a moment? I'm a little bit in love, and I need his shirt not only for Kerry but also for Vince XD).

Then some silly behind the scenes stuff xDD @netcess said that Reed really needs a party outfit with a cool hat, so I put something quick and simple together for her and... I wanted to take a pic and as I went into Photomode, Vince spawned straight across from Reed and looked so disappointed at him partying without him when so many pressing issues are at hand XD Just really fun little moment I wanted to capture, intensified by facepalm XD

Honestly he rocks it XD Might make a recolor to fit his suit when the mood strikes xD

And finally: who wore it better? XD

(giggling and kicking my feet at how his hair and beard match now :3)

No but I actually tried my hand at editing this hair mesh for Kerry, cause it was clipping a bit here and there! This is done super quick and dirty like... In theory I know I could export his headmesh and then fit it exactly to that, but for now this aint so bad already actually! :D No more clipping into the side of his head and the hairline in the front looks better. I left out Johnny's hair cap and all that because I wanted to go for a really really short, very freshly shaved look for this like...

Something he would've done at the end of his tour right before coming back to Night City. Keeping the long hair consistent for all concerts. And as I said, I 100% get why he has that look, like... It has old, seasoned rocker vibes, it's so much less clean and more himself than his 2077-appearance like... natural hair color, not styled at all, embracing himself again with the whole "I'm gonna name my next album "Kerry Eurodyne" and go back to my roots thing, he looks like he just came off stage, sweaty and tousled, so... yes!! I do love it for all those reasons, but idk... I feel like, it's also at the same time something low maintenance that he doesn't have to pay a lot of mind to, escaping into his music and career after apparently losing V. And I think with the tour over and with getting V back so unexpectedly, he'd change things up a bit again. It's a concert/tour look for me. And this style is also low maintenance, while still Kerry, still rebellious, but a little more cleaned-up, in control of his life, if that makes sense?

@pinkyjulien sorry for stealing your tags from my other post, but you put it into words so well, on point!!

Especially your last point, cutting/shaving your hair to mark a new beginning is 100% such a thing he'd do!! So yeah, I think I'll stick with this for his two-years-plus-four-months-later look xD

[alpinelogy]

So I lowkey fucked up and instead of talking about the backstory of the cycling au like Seanagh asked for an ask game, I wrote close to 2k of worldbuilding. So I will answer Seanaghs actual ask tomorrow asdfg, but I dont wanna delete all my hard work so yapping about the cycling AU under the cut. My beloved AU <3. Please talk to me about it. Ask me about it. Please

First of all, I assume you saw the unroll at the very end of the fic where there was so much more lore written than what was in the fic proper so I will be mostly expanding on that, but second of all, because of the very theoretical not a sequel but a fic in the same universe, I have committed one (or two depending on how you view it) retcons, so I will yap about those first.

So the one (or two) retcons are that Carlos was sort of implied to be teammates with Charles and Pierre, just not appearing in the fic cause you know. Cycling teams contain 20 - 30 riders, especially the better ones, a good cyclist missing out on a Grand Tour is wild but there was the strong implication in the fic that it was because of Vuelta, which is a three week race in Spain. Add in that this is happening in 2024 where the Olympics are a thing and yeah, you got a solid reason for Carlos missing out.

Except this did not really work for what I am plotting for Cycling AU 2, so I am creating a new team just for him. And Oscar. And Lando. And probably other guys I cannot remember from the top of my head because yes, what is this is not McLaren, cycling edition. McLaren even sponsored a cycling team for a year in 2020, behold, the Pro Cycling Stats page of Bahrain - McLaren (idk why I'm linking it beyond the fact that I keep losing it over the idea of McLaren sponsoring a team and needing proof lol).

Actually, let me just add a picture of my list of who is in what team, without team names tho, too lazy to think of how the teams would be named

Of course, this is non exhaustive, this is just the guys who are canonically in a team together, either as established by no rules or retconned/established in the unnamed not a sequel fic. Fernando and Lance have question marks cause I dont particularly like separating teammates/guys who exist in my head together, but heres the thing.

Idk how I feel about Fernando and Lewis being teammates in present day, I don't like having George on that team as well cause he's been established as a points classification contender which makes everything awkward with Lewis and Fernando being GC contenders to even KoM competitors (and before anyone comes for me, I hope yall know that my choices for who falls into which classification are largely based on vibes. And no GC is not above any other classifications, look at Mark Cavendish's racing record, and then remember that he is considered one of the most successful cyclists ever- and he is a sprinter. Sorry for the rant)

Anyway, rant aside, yes, in theory points classification contenders (sprinters) and GC contenders can be on the same team, however the only example I can think of is VLaB and Wout van Aert at Vuelta this year, but I dont even think it was the primary goal of theirs. Then again, I cannot bring myself to care about VLaB so who knows. And yes, it is just fanfiction, but look. I am weird about realism. Will write about two straight athletes having gay sex any day of the week, but some hand wavy team building? Not on my watch.

So yes. There is that, but as previously stated, I dont wanna separate teammates and, second of all, I was funny at one point in Cycling AU 2 and now I sort of have to have Fernando be on the team. Or well, I don't, it can be Lewis, but Lewis does not fit the vibes of Vuelta to me, and also Fernando is just a much better... antagonist is not the correct term but close enough, when the fic is set in Spain and the two main guys are Oscar and Carlos because consider; Fernando was 100% Carlos' childhood hero in this AU.

So anyways yes, this end of the worldbuilding I have been frying my brain over for the past week ish. Otherwise the teams are pretty easy to construct; Alpine and most of Ferrari together, realistically at least Ollie is there as well, its the quintessential cycling team, there is not necessarily such thing as a historical team in cycling because these teams have very little identity beyond their sponsors, but this is the closest you can get to it. Probably one word title sponsor that bankrolls everything and has been there for years. A very fancy team, posh, Italian, dont you dare try and take Giro away from them they bite. Also Giro is like... the only race they have fancy alternative kits for, they have barely changed their kit design for years, someone take the fill bucket tool in red away from them.

(Giro is a three week race in Italy in April/May. Also I suppose they would have to have alt kits for Vuelta so maybe begrudgingly they do that as well but yk. Begrudgingly)

Team B aka not-McLaren but actually quite possibly yes, McLaren, has more the new kid on the block fresh vibes, good, Lando is a very much a rising star etc etc, but they are also still finding their footing. Oscar is a plucky young mountain domestique mentored by the decently successful former Australian cyclist Mark, Carlos is... well... okay I have no idea what senior is doing in this AU, I think just for funsies we should keep him as a rally driver, but Carlos junior has still as many catholic suffering and vague daddy issues as irl Carlos has. Dont tell me he does not. Maybe not the conventional type but he sure has issues cause of his parents success.

Actually re Carlos, yes senior is still a successful rally driver like he is irl and maybe junior did not initially go into cycling, he just sort of... fell into it. Like he was doing it just to keep in shape and next thing he knew he was getting picked up as if he was a pro and at thet point he imprinted on Fernando and now 10 - 15 years later he has so many issues because of it. Oh Carlos, you fool).

Also also, re Oscar, he is still desperately trying to find is footing in this sport. He is doing good, all things considered, but then there is Lando, George, so many other riders only slightly older than him and already considered generational talents, meanwhile he is lucky if he is a super domestique (domestiques are the riders helping the leader aka the specialiest guy do whatever he needs to do. Super domestique is like the leader and the one who holds out until the very end). He did just switch to a better team that might give him actual options in the future to be a GC contender/leader at some point, so maybe. And yes, Mark is his mentor cause I said so. Mark too in this AU has won a lot, but the white whale of a Tour win has escaped him. Something something Seb is a menace no matter the universe or something idk.

ANYWAY.

I'm not saying the Merc (and Aston) guys might as well be Sky/Ineos but I am saying I've been going so youre basically the same team to Sky/Ineos and Merc since I understood the concept of Merc F1 team so make of that what you will. But yes, close enough. Less floppy then Skyneos irl, but still a team that very quickly became good, dominated for a hot sec, and now is still a force to contend with even when they are no longer dominating. So I suppose two aging formerly successful riders and a non GC classification young guy is realistic.

(Also yes, if they were cyclists both Fernando and probably Lewis too would be retired or at least nowhere near competing at the top, cyclists retire way earlier than F1 drivers do. However, I don't care. I pick and choose where I stick to realism. Go fight my brain, its a very strange place)

Finally team D aka totally not Red Bull... well... you might as well be the Red Bull team in cycling as well. Just like. Switch the guys but keep the results and stuff, yes I am nerfing rbr because Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe are sorta shite but rbr lives and dies by its car. And they have no car here. Or anything siilar. Also I just don't like Max I'm sorry. I will occasionally throw in a Yuki mention cause hes the only guy in that camp I care about. Get him out of there.

As for the other teams that I have not mentioned here, Haas guys are probably hanging out somewhere near Ferrari team or on their own, so do the Sauber guys tho maybe Gabriel is in the McLaren team or something, since he used to be a McLaren junior and idk, him in Sauber still feels fake to me if you ask me.

Williams is the real question here. For redacted reason they need to be a separate team I think, or at least the outlines of them need to be separate. Possibly they are the only relevant team that is not World Tour (ie the highest level) but rather a Pro Tour (the second highest). Practically what that means is that they compete the less prestigious races and they have to be invited to the fancy ones through a wildcard. So they are probably a team that was once World Tour, got sorta fucked up, disappeared for a while and now is back as a Pro Tour team trying to get back to the WT heights.

Anyway Alex hangs out there after a very unceremonious exit from Red Bull at the end of 2020, accompanied by all the usual suspects. Latifi, Logan, more that I am forgetting. They are, especially in recent years, considered one of the better Pro Tour teams and one of the main candidates for a wildcard entry in the fancier races especially. Alex in general is probably seen as one of the better sprinters out there and definitely is one of the main draws of the team. Probably every season there are rumors that he is in talks with a World Tour team but nothing has ever happened so far.

Talking of the Sauber guys tho, I'm like... tempted to make Valtteri not a road cyclist but make him commit to the gravel bit fully. Or just made him a road cyclist who does cyclocross in the winter like Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel do irl. So many options tbh. Just like irl tho, he definitely has too much beef with the UCI (for those not in the know, sometime in late 2023 UCI aka the FIA of cycling made a post promoting womens gravel cycling and pointed out his gf Tiffany as someone to look out for and he rightfully pointed out that there is no place to watch womens gravel cycling. Go Valtteri go, womens cycling is quite frankly in hell)

Anyway hopefully this makes some sense lol. I did not realize this was close to 2k words until I randomly decided to check, please do talk to me about this AU it lives rent free in my head.

[coredrill]

bravern

i’m rly vibing w senor bighands design thus far………………i hope it looks good in action!!! the deathdrives’ designs have been pretty hit or miss for me tbh, like i rly love superbia and cupiridas but knuth/pessimism/vanitas are more meh…….like i generally enjoy the unique shapes in THEORY but i just feel like they also suffer a lot from being overdesigned the way a lot of modern 3d mecha are and it makes them kind of hard to parse out on screen which is :/ like so many of the shots are just so BUSY that it’s hard for me to get a handle on what is going on yknow? i can’t stop thinking abt what that shot of bravern saluting smith would look like if there were less details fjdbjfjdndbdn

if burn bravern + superbia gattai. that robot will literally be red + yellow + green + blue + purple. 🤨🏳️‍🌈⁉️

if on the off chance it turns out lulu IS biologically related to smith. i think it’ll make that one scene from ep3 where the hotel owner is like “��� she doesn’t LOOK like your sister” a fucking million times funnier LMFAO. also i am still suspicious of why her name is lulu if NOT being just the repeated first syllable of smith’s name like a noriko -> nono situation. this has fr been my tin foil hat theory since ep3 and i am not letting go until the end!!!!!! (although also side note that in general i am not EXPECTING any of this lmao. i honestly am mostly just finding such joy in the fact that this show is batshit insane enough that stuff like this is like. relatively plausible? at least to consider floating around? like it’s the same w the “lulu is biologically smith AND isami’s daughter cause isami’s blood dripped in bravern and her hair is blue and her eyes are red and she pilots the PURPLE deathdrive” thing - like the fact that i’m not immediately rolling my eyes at the idea tickles me greatly LMAO)

the way that the pieces for this episode have been positioned intrigues me to no end. like. it’s bravern + lulu + superbia(? i assume) Who Know and isami Who Doesn’t. and the side characters who ALSO don’t know are also not there (at least in the setup). although tbh i could see miyu having an inkling abt it or at the very least being super chill like she was in the Bad Future. like that rly opens the floor up from both a plot perspective (don’t have to worry about whatever power these new DDs have cause only the core cast will be affected) and from a character perspective (don’t have to cut to the faces of Literally anyone but isami going like 😲 once the truth is revealed. if isami doesn’t figure it out for himself first. or however that plays out) and its so smart on the whole and i’m genuinely so excited to watch it play out!!!!!! like even if miyu et al roll up in the last two minutes to help save the day with um. idk it’d have to be smth completely new i suppose cause they sure do have like one gun that is marginally effective against the DDs FNDJFJJDJS it pares things down for max efficiency which is really smart imo

japan and the US jointly developing a mech that reads your brainwaves is the most sus thing in the world LMAO like i could not sleep at night if that thing were real even moreso than the deathdrives themselves

i think there’s at least one more twist left. like ep9 was The Twist and then they pulled time travel AGAIN in ep10 which is genuinely WILD to me. so like. idk maybe ep11 is Old Man Isami coming back from ANOTHER future to sunbathe in the volcano FNNDNFN

i am also not counting out a g gundam style ending yet and Getting Smith Outta That Thing. obviously my own biases are very much at play here but like. if the moral of this show is that you gotta live no matter what you just HAVE to live and fuck time and space and convention because the people who love you will make sure you live. like. if any show is gonna have its cake and eat it too and keep both bravern AND smith around? i feel like this one could pull it off!!!! not placing bets ofc but like its possible yknow? but again that is also based on the assumption that the end point of the show is at all congruous with its current status quo, and something that my feeble human mind can even conceive of with the information that is given, so we shall see. LMAO. the idea that they’re all just gonna be fucking isekai’d into the florist AU that staff loves so much is ANOTHER idea that tickles me greatly for being something so in line with the insanity of this show that i cannot IMMEDIATELY rule it out even if i very much doubt that’s where we’re going LMFAO. bc smth like that sure would fucking vibe w the final battle taking place somewhere “unexpected” (again, if that’s true, idr if it was just a rumor or not) and also how uninterested the show has been w the state of the world at large barring a few scenes. HM.

anyways final predictions for this ep is that i will cry atleast once 👍

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

The last chapter is very intriguing because until now, i thought anthony was trying to save the children -and put the adults in chaos- but then he killed a child. What is he TRYING to achieve?

(Also agreeing he was creepy and gross. I had my suspicions when he did this to barbara bc hes likely already an adult so...yikes)

*note i don't know japanese so i only saw the raw's images, i may be missing context

Before last chapter, I had three different Anthony theories on rotation, based on his canon behavior and what each of those scenarios would mean for the story thematically, though I personally never assumed he shared Kate's goal of saving all the children and defeating the adults. Luckily for me, one of them turned out to be true! I was actually quite fond of my "Anthony's evil in a similar way to the adult shadows" theory, and since I spent way more time than I probably should have thinking about it, I think I have an idea of what he's trying to achieve.

My points being:

I posted about this before with examples, but Anthony's behavior is oddly similar to that of adult shadows. This indicates that despite their vastly different places in the hierarchy of the manor, they have similar moral values, or lack of them

As you said yourself, he just killed a child. Even if his plan somehow includes freeing the human children, it's clearly far from Kate's goal of saving everyone. He was quick to kill off Maggie as soon as she outlived her usefulness to him

Anthony has the habit of putting himself in a position superior to other people. Kate has allies and friends, Anthony has pupils. Even Anthony's initial behavior of telling Maryrose not to undo anyone else's brainwashing is telling: as one of the only unbrainwashed living dolls, he had a clear advantage over every human in the manor except Rosemary. He could easily undo somebody's brainwashing in secret and manipulate them like he did to Maggie, something that would be much harder to do if everyone regained their senses. Maggie clearly saw Anthony as the perfect savior, and even stated that he could be the manor's master in the future. Lewis goes as far as refer to "Christopher" the same way shadows are thaught to refer to the Lord Grandfather

Based on this, my bet is that even if part of Anthony's plan involves saving some of the children, that's far from his main goal. His main goal in my opinion seems to be gaining power, just like every adult character we've met so far, the difference being that as a human, he can't simply climb up the social ladder the conventional way and needs to hide in the walls (or the sewers, idk for sure where he lives. At this point i want it to be the sewers).

That makes for an interesting villain, doesn't it? As an unbrainwashed human in a system that treats humans like objects, you'd assume he'd be all for destroying the oppressive system, you'd assume he'd be an ally, you'd assume he'd want to save everyone. If it turns out he's completely okay with what the manor stands for as long as he personally raises to power, throwing all or most of the human kids under the bus, now that's scary and honestly quite realistic.

About the creep factor... yeah. After reading the scene with Barbara, I got a weird vibe too but I still gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought sure, he's doing that to get Kate to trust him, but who's to say he also didn't think that was the only way to save Barbara's life? Surely those aren't mutually exclusive, right? Maybe he cares about her since she was Christopher's friend. Also from the flashbacks we get that they can't be that far apart in age, Barbara's just short and stuck in the children's building, so most of the creepy vibe I got was from the fact that he was impersonating a dead person, which again I was giving him the benefit of the doubt for... only for Maggie to go as far as to call Anthony her prince out loud before he leaned down and caressed her face looking like a sicko in chapter 164. The more i think about it the worse it gets to be honest. Gross.

[scholarhect]

frustrated because i want to get educated on feminist theory but idk where to start, especially since there’s so much flawed feminism out there (god, you’re saying i have to read it all and form my own opinion? but that’s so much work! just tell me what One feminist work i should read to know everything) but it’s so important because i’m becoming increasingly convinced that our deemphasis on theory is killing feminism.

we’re losing her. we’re doing vibes-based feminism we’re doing “whatever personal opinions i bring to the table without thinking about them are my political views” feminism we’re doing “it’s easy! if you don’t hate women and want them to die you’re a feminist!” feminism we’re doing VANITY feminism we’re doing “common sense” feminism (just a rephrase of “whatever personal opinions…” feminism) and we’re shocked that we’re losing. a political movement & ideology* that has NO thought behind it, JUST vibes. no pillars, no standards. what even is a feminist? when do you ever hear that articulated? unless, again, you’re hearing “a feminist is somebody who believes women are people :)” that’s exactly the problem i’m talking about.

this is why we’re losing ground to “criticizing beauty standards is antifeminist because it feels good to be pretty” feminism we’re losing ground to “you know what group has had it too good for too long? the transgender woman” feminism we’re losing ground to “feminism is for women AND men and the more we include men the more feminist it is” feminism.

frankly the way the transphobic feminism gains followers is it’s the only fucking side that actually gives somebody ARGUMENTS to latch on to. people are alienated by toothless no thoughts feminism and they’re going to people who are offering them some thoughts, and a bad argument beats the shit out of no argument at all. it’s like if you showed up to court with no lawyer? and you were like “everybody knows i’m right, morally. it’s common sense. the strength of that will protect me :)” you are going to prison. we could be doing transfeminist theory we could be explaining the role of gender in society and how it’s constructed and how women both cis & trans are constructed as women but instead we’re saying “i don’t hate trans women because i’m normal :)” that’s nothing!!! am i making myself clear do you see what i’m talking about!

and then the other two things i complained about, the “feminism is anything that makes me feel good, as a woman” and “feminism is for men, actually” are just because when we have zero standards for feminism it can mean anything at all. we could be talking about these things but we aren’t.

i don’t know how to fix this (i could learn more, but what then? well i guess id post about it for my followers. good enough, i guess. so it’s just that i don’t know how to learn more) but i am getting so frustrated with the way things are now. i know there’s people out there doing real things in the feminist space but i don’t know where to look… lot of trans women on my twitter tl talking about feminism (and yes that’s something, but i am hungry for more than twitter threads <3) and they’re fighting an uphill battle over there. like. god

* i feel like it’d be the good feminist thing to do to come down hard with “feminism is a MOVEMENT” but we do kind of need internal ideology before we can have external movement, probably. seems like people who already have feminist ideas are more likely to engage in feminist actions when the time comes. but idk i’m no political movements expert. this post is just me giving you my two cents on a specific concept

[blue-mint-winter]

Reading Fire and Blood: Aftermath - The Hour of the Wolf

Cregan came, Cregan saw, Cregan laid down the law ;)

This chapter seems more believable in its tales, though there's a lot of obvious biases and the reader needs to puzzle out the real reasons for the characters acting in certain ways.

The riverlords turn up at King's Landing, with young Kermit and Oscar Tully wanting to fight and prove themselves - and they are greeted very warmly, Aegon II is already dead, the city cheers - you know what this reminds me of? Again, Maegor and Visenya going to burn Oldtown, only to be welcomed with open gates and High Septon already dead.

They burned Aegon II's body so no one could examine it and find out how exactly he was killed - remember how in High Septon's case there was a theory about maesters poisoning the scroll he touched and that he was trading messages with the Citadel all night? If it was found out that Aegon II wasn't killed by poison in the wine, but on parchment, with traces still on his fingers, it would confirm Orwyle as the killer. The small council was talking about the messages they received about the Black forces arriving soon. And who was handling any messages that ravens brought and could poison and pass those messages to Aegon's hands? Orwyle.

Kermit and Oscar Tully blushed and stammered whenever Cregan entered the room - alright, so he was their crush? Maester tries to present it like they were boys and Cregan was a man, but Cregan was 23, Kermit was 19 and Oscar was just knighted, so around 16? Grouping the Tullys together as "only boys" with Benjicot Blackwood, who was 13, seems weird. Cregan was only 4 years older than Kermit. Idk, maybe the Tullys developed a case of "notice me, senpai". Cregan gives me Jon Snow vibes, if he was older and more grown into the role of leadership. And Jon had a pull on the young recruits of Night's Watch.

The northmen are described in a very unflattering way, like an army of savages intent for war and plunder. There's a lot of fearmongering surrounding them, which is proven completely untrue when majority of them settles in the Riverlands later on. They really are just people that wanted to unburden their families during a long winter. This fear and distrust shows how culturally distant North is from the rest of Westeros. Cregan himself is portrayed as a rather scary and authoritarian man, which might be completely off the mark. I don't think he scared the Lads to agree with him and attack Storm's End. He was speaking with sense - the war was not done, the Greens didn't bend the knee and they could even proclaim Jaehaera as the queen. Taking King's Landing didn't solve anything by itself.

Despite Cregan showing up, there's no news about Sara Snow or her child with Jace. If that child existed and Jace really married Sara, then the child would have been the true heir to the throne, not Jace's younger brother Aegon III. That's why I think the mystery is definitely solved - Mushroom made up Jace's affair with Sara and it's uncertain if she even existed in the first place.

It really looks like Cregan honestly wanted to clean up the house for Aegon III, that's why he did the trial. In the end, the "tyrannical" Stark killed only 2 people, the rest of potential traitors got out by joining Night's Watch.

Orwyle started writing his testimony when he was imprisoned by Cregan. Of course he was spinning his lies then and somehow Munkun based his "True Telling" mainly on that. Orwyle is the main suspect in killing both Aegon II and Viserys! I might make a whole theory about Orwyle's role in the Dance. He confessed under torture that he gave poison to Larys. Larys' loyalty was seemingly very changeable, so he was a convenient scapegoat. As it keeps happening, confessions under torture aren't reliable and usually people say what the torturers want them to say. Orwyle could have been just covering his own behind as Larys was already the main suspect. Larys himself deserves his own analysis. He's often used as the maester's fall guy for some unexplained events, but as of now, every time I see Gyldayn or Munkun go "we don't know for sure, but it was totally that guy who did it", then it's definitely not that guy.

Attributing the peacemaking to women marrying the major remaining Greens and Blacks seems romantic, not realistic. It's literally said that Lyonel Hightower had two brothers with Redwynes and Tyrells. These brothers were clearly used as hostages. Not to mention how High Septon distanced himself from Hightowers after they lost their puppet king. How does having a romance with Lady Samantha Tarly change anything? Hightowers still fought against the Blacks when she was married to Ormund.

What exactly does Alysanne Blackwood get from offering herself to Cregan in exchange for Corlys??? That negotiation sounded completely off. Why would Blackwoods want to help Corlys? Additionally, both Cregan and Alysanne wanted each other anyway, so Alysanne asking for Corlys to be spared as her price makes no sense. She's marrying Lord Paramount of the North, she's benefiting more from this. I truly think sparing Corlys had nothing to do with the proposal and it's just Mushroom's romantic tall tale. There are 4 reasons why Corlys should live: Baela, Rhaena and her dragon, and Alyn.