#if youre /just/ in the geo hate circle then like ill wrinkle my nose a bit but eh

[ratatatastic]

I followed you not that long ago and I’m curious about who are your teams, who are the eh I don’t really like them but if my teams don’t win I want them to win, and who are the absolutely no I would rather burn every thing than see them have one good game?

And do you have players who you like to watch outside of your teams?

i basically hate every team except the cats and wish every other team a "go to hell!!!" hope this helps!

okay but the real answer is its all very complicated for me there are different levels of hate and theyre all very contrarian so like

heres a handy dandy venn diagram of hate for all of us who need visuals (me i need visuals) to understand what type of hate we are dealing with here

"geographical based" hate can range from "my sportscity has a rivarly with yours"/"my sportscity is ritually beaten by yours in a big public humiliation spectacle and im tired of it" to "i hate that city/state i think they should be blown off this earth and we would be better off for it"

"media coverage based" hate can range from "i think your social media presence is annoying"/"i roll my eyes when panels bring up these teams in discussions" to "the people you employ/give access to cover your team are awful it pisses me off and its a waste of journalism"

"i just hate you go die" hate is as the tin says i hate you (many reasons that can fill out a laundry list)! go die!

there are naturally also special categories in here too such as

"i dont hate YOU i hate going AGAINST you" is self explanatory or "i temporarily hate you for a small timeframe but once this game is over i will go back to being fond of you but holy shit IT SUCKS PLAYING AGAINST YOU WHY ARE YOU THE WAY THAT YOU ARE"

"hating you feels like kicking a toddler" hate isnt hate at all it's "theres not much reason to maybe if you were better i might find it"/"maybe there was a reason back then but its been so long that the cushion of time softened it and now you just suck so it doesnt particularly matter anymore" or "you are so pathetic i did find a way to be charmed about it and im a little confused on how i got here myself"

if you notice team-in-laws (teams that my bestie like/we BOTH like but AREN'T our teams/is her government assigned sportscity so we are legally required to watch games as she is with mine lest we get taken out by a sniper etc etc) slot into those 2 special categories: ducks, wild, sabres. and i like/enjoy most players on those teams. pens wouldn't be a team-in-law for me but it would be for her since theyre my second favourite team but the way i like them is very different from the way i like the cats. i am completely insane about my kitties (gestures towards the blog) as you can see. the pens is like... 50% of that actually maybe even a little less?

anyways thats for general team hate, for player hate, which you didnt particulary ask but i do have to establish hate philosophy to set up which players i like enough to go out of my way to watch a game theyre in because its hard to differentiate them from their team identity since theyre so intrinsically intertwined at the root of it and usually just scrolling on twt i will consume some sort of content from every player whether highlights or charming clips and go "hmm cool" but not feel much other than that about it.

like do i like jarvy? yeah i think hes fucking hysterical! the gee snsd edit lives in my head rent free its a masterpiece that single handely worked than any other propaganda. do i go "wow the canes are playing rn my parasocial best friend i should go drop everything and go watch that" absolutely tf not id rather shoot my foot than watch a canes game if one of my teams arent playing are you insane

like do i like a good finn? of course! better if they have a relationship with my finns!! but also jfc i am not gonna turn on an avs game and enjoy it just because i giggle at mikko when hes not on the ice you know?

so players i really like outside the conditional clauses in above mentioned blocks of texts there are few and far in between... but as of late zetterlund has charmed me and while i turned on sharks games to watch shaken macaroni martini and the kid named dogfood like everyone else is when i had nothing else to do because theyre fun! its fun hockey!! (when theyre not going through the horrors of sharks hockey) i think my twt algorithm kept putting zetterlund in front of me and eventually i imprinted like a little duck on him so now i just find myself turning on games and focusing on him. and thats the best example i can really think of as of now.

(↑ this is excluding ex-pantrs i was very fond of when they played with us because if i notice i dont have a cats game to watch i go "hey [ex-cat]'s team is playing rn sure why not lets put it on kinda miss him :(")

tldr; cats are my faves, i would consider pens my second fave but even that is a little wonky because i think wild might start becoming my second faves at this point, i enjoy the ducks and sabres. sharks and nucks are cool and i always root for them when theyre not facing my team. and preds have juice! i like juicy couture he gives me special feelings! and i hope that answers that clear enough someones gotta be a "mary mary quite contrary how does your hatred grow" around here