#message me no balls
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I HATE HATE HATE GOING TO NEW FANDOMS!!! Because on one hand, OH MY GOSH the new characters to obsess over, the SHIPS!!!, the angst, the FLUFF!, the new tumblr posts!!! I don't have to always go to recent, ALL THE NEW TIK TOK CONTENT, ALL THE NEW YOUTUBE CONTENT
but also,
WDYM I HAVE TO MAKE NEW MOOTS BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE CURRENT MOOTS I HAVE AT THIS MOMENT DO NOT WATCH THE SAME SHOW?? You're kidding. Like, what do you mean if I have to go to people's dms, hope they don't think I'm weird, and beg to be friends???
"Just don't make new moots then" YOU DONT GET IT!!! I Need to talk about it! The notes app doesn't work anymore, I NEED someone to read what I'm saying and be like "HOLY SHIT AND AND AND AND"
This happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. LIKE, OF COURSE I DONT HAVE JUJUTSU KAISEN MOOTS!!! 1. I did not even WATCH anime before this show. 2. I was posting about GREEK MYTHOLOGY which is where a solid chunk of my moots are from, 3. Greek Mythology does NOT correlate with Jujutsu Kaisen at all! One is ancient myth and the other one is a ANIME
BUT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT OR I GO INSANE!!!
Here's a list of reasons why you should be my moot:
-I'm awesome
-I'm smart (no I'm not)
-I will talk to you at any time no matter what time (I once accidentally did a one-nighter talking to my friend Penny)
-I like psychoanalyzing characters
-I give hcs to characters that are irrelevant because I need everyone to have character
-I write things... when I have the motivation
-If we share tik toks, I'll send you audios based off which character it reminds me of
-Did I mention I'm AWESOME???
-I love angst
#fandom culture#ao3#AND i neeed fic recs#good thing about jjk#the ships got FICS FOR DAYS#haven't been bored in a long tiem#BUT LET ME PSYCHOANALYZE EACH CHARACTER#where tf are the jjk fans#be my friend#stop playing around#message me no balls
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Just a random question to my artist followers: does anyone enjoy posting their stuff on tiktok? I can't tell if its just a me thing or if that app and its userbase are the most obnoxious compared to other social media
#txt#like any time i post something the comments are 10% related to the art#and then 50% is 'omg did you know this guy draws porn!!' and then LINKING THE FUCKING ACCOUNT#35% is someone complaining about gay people or women#and then the last 5% is someone yelling at me because they confused me with some other guy with a similar name/art style#ive also been sent genuine death threats over my dragon ball ship art. something i drew a YEAR ago#because tiktok's privacy policy is so bad that people can't dm you but they can still send message requests#is it because tiktok has a much younger userbase?#like we know how batshit twitter is and instagram is pretty annoying as well but tiktok feels like nobody knows what a filter is
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It's only one rule, man. It's not that hard.
#good#morning#good morning#good morning message#good morning image#good morning images#good morning man#the good morning man#the entire morning#gif#good morning messages#gm#morning vibes#friday#friday vibes#happy friday#disco#disco ball#fire#leather jacket#brad pitt#tyler durden#fight club#no rules#first rule of fight club#satire is not a roadmap#except maybe tgmm#but if you start eating billionaires - don't blame me#I'm just minding my own business over here
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hard at work this morning
#agatha agate#she rang her bells at the back door several times#until i got the message that she didn’t just want to go outside#she wanted US to go outside#TOGETHER#and she didn’t want me to throw the ball she wanted me to sit nearby while she chewed it#queen of requesting parallel play
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tfhypeguy is out here doing god's work
#It reminds me of 'stan loona' and loona fans spamming fancams everywhere idk if anyone will get that but I hope it habours the same results#Trust me if I had twitter I would join this guys' crusade in a heart beat#every post I see would have some message to go see tfone under it “oh that's sad maybe if you went to see tfone ur balls wouldn't be stuck”#transformers#transformers one#tf one#Tfone#tfhypeguy#FUCK YOU PARAMOUNT <3#I sincerely hope it does habour the same results the loona version got because that fan cam was able to get 1 million views in like a day#because of people replying with it (there has to be atleast one tf fan who's an orbit and who'll get this.right?)
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Me when I go to the Monster Ball in a lesbian flag of a skirt (love me) and dye my hair the main color of this girl I used to fight with because of my mom’s pressuring influence (love me love me) and now I share soft looks with her, this girl who has led me to softness with open hands and gentle smiles (love me love me love me) and she’s just a friend but in that weird aching way that leaves my heart sore and teeth hurting (love me love me love me love me-) and good gods is this what it feels like to be accepted? To be known?
(love me love me love me love me please just please it’s all I’ll ask)
#listen. guys. okay just LISTEN.#toralei stripe is my girlfail gay disaster of a daughter who wants to be loved S O BAD its sickening my poor heart cant take it#her outfit fer monster ball was SOOO GAYYY like girl wanted Clawdeen to understand a Certain Message™️ soooo badddd#fistfighting catarina in a denny’s parking lot fer custody as we speak#like yeag i LOVE me some toxic yuri some divorced yuri some absolutely and tragically undeniably DOOMED by the narrative yuri#looks at rosebird rwby looks away#but you know what i also love me some soft baby’s first crush babygays healing yuri too#toralei is my sopping wet pathetic meowmeow and she WILL be loved by this bundle of optimistic stubborn joy that is clawdeen okay? okay.#monster high#monster high g3#toradeen#toralei stripe#clawdeen wolf#mh g3
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Hi y'all, I just wanted to talk a little about the behind the scenes of what I've been up to, to give y'all a little transparency and to open myself up for any tips or input! 🙏 Thank you for your continued support and for taking the time to look at my art 🫶
First and foremost I wanted to give some transparency about my art capacity.
As og followers may remember, I started this blog when I was doing art full time. Eventually my living expenses grew and I had to go back to work. I find myself in a cycle of "I'll make more art soon, once I get a job!" And "I'll make more art soon, once I am done with this job!" I lost my most recent job suddenly, having had an extension waved over my head until the last day(October 7th). Now I'm excited to have more time for art, but I am also feeling a rush to get a new job ASAP as I've been living paycheck to paycheck. I dream of doing this work full time, I'm just scared it's not quite there yet and I worry that I come off as scammy or dishonest when I anticipate more stability around the corner.
Second, I've been struggling with the Patreon. It's taken me a while to come to terms with this, but from what I've seen Patreon is not intuitive at all from the creator end. It doesn't do a good job of organizing addresses, emails, showing who or who isn't subscribed to me, or organizing and displaying the work I put on there. I've been really shocked by this experience, since lots of big names use Patreon. It's been a great way to streamline support, but it's been unhelpful in every other regard. I would like to continue using it, but I will most likely post more wips or process videos there in the future.
Which brings me to my third point, zines. I love making zines so much, it feels personal and fulfilling and fun! However the Patreon issues make it harder to keep information in order about where to send zines, or even where to message folks about them. In addition to this, the post office has been a big barrier to me, oftentimes only being open at the same time as my dayjob. Making zines can take days, then sending them out is a whole other monster.
This work is so important to me. Drawing peoples fantasies, representing body types, creating work around sexuality and the human experience feels like what I'm meant to do. I've made comics since I was a kid. This is the dream to me. The friends I've been able to make through this work are so important to me, and the conversations have been invaluable. Not to mention fun! I wanna doodle, I wanna draw hot stuff, I wanna thirst over these dudes! I want to play!
But I also just want to be transparent about the barriers I'm working around to share that experience. I'm completely self taught, both in art AND in running shops, building websites, running 8 accounts, etc. I take a lot of time to learn the logistics of these things, and try to make them make sense for my relationship with y'all (I do not want to paywall my art!! I don't want to!!!). This year my desktop broke down (the main one I use for all paintings and digital art). I've paused my Etsy shops and my Patreon to try to catch up with things. Trying to learn to paint in a completely different program. Then lost my job with no savings.
At the end of the day I don't want anything to come between me sharing my art with you. I wish I could doodle a thing, take a picture, and post it here. No third party site, no shop, no subscription. Just sharing my art with you. I promise I'm trying to figure out how to stay as close to that as possible, and I want to thank y'all for sticking with me as I untangle all of that.
So, what can you expect in the near future?
I'm working on a couple of painting commissions right now, which you should be able to see in the next couple of days! I want to catch up on kinktober and get those posted as well. There's a comic commission in progress which I'm very eager to work on, and which I think y'all will be excited for! To ease the weight of the Patreon I think I may do less zines/polls there and more wips and process videos! If possible, I want to do more full colored work too.
Thank you again for enjoying my work, and if you have any input or tips my inbox is always open 🙏🫶💕
#long post#info#marco lore#i wish i had time to edit this and make it nice#i just wanted to be open with yall about how much work this takes and that im trying to make it more doable#i don't want to overpromise stuff with patreon or shops and if im late sending stuff i never ever want it to come off as intentional or mali#malicious or as a scam#im just trying very hard to like ...survive. financially. and then trying to make all the logistics of thos big machine work. and then keep#up with commissions and shops and printing and mailing#god i wish i had employees but jts just me#i hand draw everything and then post it here to the word press to the ig and crop and caption and tag#then to the Patreon if it makes sense to or to the tiktok back in the day#and the formatting is all different#and i get messages across all of these platforms and I'm trying to learn a new way of painting on the fly#on top of that im supposed to be running my two Etsy shops too which im not right now because..broadly gestures#my nervous system can only take losing a job so often. the rug was really pulled feom under me in this one. i thought id have more time#i don't want to sound like I'm whining and i don't want to give up on all of this#i want to be very very very clear that art is what i love and who i am and what i want to do#i want to be posting on the daily again#i just need to evaluate what that looks like everytime life changes#I'm seriously so grateful for those of y'all that have joined the Patreon or bought stuff from the shop i really don't mean to drop the ball#so many times#y'all have literally been the difference between me making rent or not and I'm so worried that i don't make enough art to give back to that#relationship#im trying my best#okay anyways im posting this
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fun fact about me and kinnporsche: despite the fact that i have not shut up about it once since watching my actual feelings on it are literally this meme
#it’s because of the bread sex#i think i’m actually incapable of mentioning kpts without mentioning the bread sex#jk i have a lot of thoughts about kpts and not JUST the bread sex#i genuinely hate and love it in equal measures#i Simply have been captivated by its absolute balls to the wall buckwild insanity#kinnporsche#kpts#kinnporsche the series#screaming edens#me: i hate this show#also me: [sends three separate people who have not watched it 200+ messages each about it while watching]#i need to put this series under a microscope
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Hi Kazui,
Apparently there was a time rift, and now it seems there's another Amane out there. Could you keep a lookout for her?
Thanks.
Eh? Another Amane..? I knew there's multiples of some of us, but three is a lot, ahaha
I'll look out for her, though. You can put your trust in this old man, haha!
#[ stand in the spotlight ]#[ a message for me? ]#[ a new face ]#//ouhgh im so rusty at kazuis dialogue. its ok we ball#//actually kinda funny that most of my interactions r with the amane blogs. prisoner pair real 💥
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mommm white people on tumblr are misconstruing my posts again despite the post being entirely about how important wording is + how i don’t feel comfortable posting large statements when i haven’t fully processed them yet.
#if you want to put me on a blocklist for loving netanyahu you can! i don’t! and no matter how many times i get told i do#i still don’t!#i literally said i hope his balls get cut off IN THAT POST#i don’t know how that read as unclear.#perhaps there are no hidden genocidal messages behind the wording of my tumblr posts - who knows!#when i said i cared about every single civilian living in that land i meant it. if you decide that i actually don’t that’s not my problem#if you somehow took my words and decided that what i really meant is that i’m a government bootlicker who loves murder#you can do that all you want. it won’t make it true and it won’t help save any lives#i was in ramallah and jerusalem six months ago. have you gone?#if the answer is no maybe think about that for a second#moreover if you’re viewing this from a purely racial or religious framework you have no idea how to navigate this subject#i don’t view israel and palestine through which government i want to back. why the fuck would i do that#palestinians and jews and everyone else in that land is who i care about. i care about gazans#if that’s not enough of ‘a side’ for you i don’t really think there’s much of a conversation to be had.#do you think i wake up every day NOT thinking about gaza? do you think i wouldn’t feel nauseous every second of every day because of gaza?#do you think that within everything i’m saying that the most logical conclusion would be to post all of my thoughts on tumblr?#because if you think any of that we’re not going to have a productive conversation. i don’t take kindly to being told my own emotions
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So… in light of the announcement that a Dragon Ball theme park is being built, I will be doing a series of posts related to the topic on this and @uglydbzmerch- mainly discussing things like the Universal Studios Japan Dragon Ball collab (which I own some merch from, and will be sharing), for example.
Ya see, your mod, Maji, is a major park enthusiast (with a particular love of rollercoasters). I am extremely lucky in that I live in SoCal and get to go to Disneyland/California Adventure, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Universal Studios Hollywood somewhat frequently.
My enthusiasm would be through the roof for the upcoming park- two of my favorite hobbies coming together!- except for the choice to build it in Saudi Arabia. But I still figure this would be a good place to start a series of posts.
Here’s some of the concept art for the upcoming park to start us off-
And the announcement here.
#dbz#dragon ball z#dragon ball super#mod message#theme park#if you want to know how not normal I am about rollercoasters#just trust me it’s a big thing for me
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[Start ID. A digital drawing of Minos Prime from Ultrakill, who's wearing a strapless slit dress and sandals of the same deep purple. He faces towards and slightly to the right of the camera, his head is tilted further right. With one hand he gestures in a vague pointing motion, his arm folded and held close to his body. There is nothing in the background, but bracing himself on one arm, Minos is implied to be leaning against something about the height of a countertop. The background is a blank purplish black, save for three diagonal stripes in the colors of the bisexual flag. End ID]
Shading study that quite literally came to me in a dream two weeks ago, after this post apparently beamed itself into my mind
(also a few edits below the cut! they're very slight but whatever :])
[Start ID. Three different versions of the previous drawing. The first changes the tone of the lighting from blue to pink, and similarly the shading from pink to blue. The second replaces the faint black border with pink, purple and blue, syncing with the stripes in the background. The third combines both these changes. End ID]
#the tags got NERFED so let's try this again.#peridots-art#minos prime ultrakill#ultrakill#ask to tag#organs#...? gore maybe? for the whole ''transparent chest/visible cardiovascular system'' thing. not very detailed/realistic though so#i don't think this has all of the same charm as i usually find in my posts. but i tried my best to make it work so i don't think it matters#also ''not too happy with how this turned out'' is something i've seen tacked onto posts worthy of being preserved in museums#i heard someone say his snakes should be ball pythons. i'm not autistic about snakes so i decided to listen to the masters#i still have seven levels to p-rank before i can meet this guy!! halfway there (lust/greed and 1-3 remaining) i've only had my own copy#of ultrakill for a week and i already have 33 hours in. anyway he's grown on me i think. absolute bi king and only monarch i respect <3#i think it's interesting how i now define my queerness by being gray-ace and trans when i first only identified with bisexual. it's still#an important part of me even if sometimes i forget. sorry that sounds completely unrelated but it's related to my feelings on this piece#anyway (i wonder how many ''anyway''s i've slapped on so far) i also find it interesting how often people draw him with this body type.#i think it's cool there's variety in how people draw the uk characters. it just kinda feels right here? i know i unfortunately don't draw#fat characters often at all (partially due to being a primarily fandom blog who likes to stick to canon designs. i wouldn't say i have#trouble with drawing a realistic amount of fat even on rather thin people though lol) but i try! also genuinely unsure what counts as like.#fat vs chubby? or whatever? i don't know exactly how the terminology works and a fair amount of minos' bulk is muscle anyway but. yeah 👍#men are pretty in dresses my final message. goodbye
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Here's hoping you do something cool today while you still have the chance. Good Morning.
#good#morning#good morning#good morning message#good morning image#good morning images#good morning man#the good morning man#the entire morning#gif#good morning messages#gm#morning vibes#morning motivation#friday#happy friday#friday vibes#fire#disco#disco ball#rainbow#flashing#britney#britney spears#don't blame me#just chilling
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hi anon <333 okay so uhhhh listen when i got this ask which i think was... a month ago? a couple months ago? i did not have a dick & tim reading guide
BUT i read this ask and i thought WOW WHAT A GOOD IDEA, a dick & tim reading guide, i wish i'd had one of those when i started reading!! and also i had a lot of work that i didn't want to do so i needed a project to procrastinate on dsfdsfs
so i have been working on a reading guide spreadsheet and it is ALMOST DONE so i will post it soon-ish. <3 if anyone wants to check out the unfinished version and tell me if it's readable dm me <3
also below i have rambled a lot about the makings of the spreadsheet if you also like spreadsheets a lot
this is only sort of tangentially related to the reading guide but it is the SECRET ORIGIN of the reading guide. i think many comic fans eventually end up with a spreadsheet story because comics are bonkers and difficult to keep track of, so either you sensibly engage with your hobby in a reasonable fashion or you slowly go bonkers yourself and end up with a spreadsheet story. this one is mine.
so a year or two ago, when i got first got deeply deeply obsessed with dick & tim, i was desperate for content and i wasn't able to find much on tumblr
so out of a combination of deep affection for the boys and also an extremely strong desire to procrastinate the things i was supposed to be doing, i went through dc.fandom's list of dick's appearances and of tim's appearances.
and i cross-referenced them all to find the comics they both appeared in, and then i started kinda randomly reading through those comics looking for good art/panels that they both appeared in and taking notes on whether they appeared in the same panel or not:
and then as i became even more obsessive i started adding in a bunch of their solo appearances so i'd know the context of their team-ups, and i started color-coding blue-for-nightwing, red-for-robin, purple-for-both-of-them:
and then i started trying to make lists of Significant Events so that i'd know e.g. when characters died or got married or broke up:
and then i got tired of having to search for dc.fandom pages every time i wanted to check something in a comic, so i started adding links to dc.fandom and to dc universe:
and then i thought, you know, it'd be nice to have comic titles and to know if it's part of an ongoing story:
and sometimes when i was reading, i started taking notes on quotes or whatever was going on:
and that's about when i got this ask, and i thought, you know, i really should make a reading guide.
and i started thinking, okay, is there any way to take my spreadsheet and make it slightly less convoluted and a bit more like a reading guide?
and the answer was, probably not!!! but that did not stop me from trying sdfdsfds
so right now i have a spreadsheet called "Dick & Tim Reading List" and it's got a section that looks like this which has about 200 recommended-read comics:
but ALSO there's a tab that's really really long that has all of dick's solo comics and also all of tim's solo comics (from 1987-2011, not of all time, but still):
and also you can just get a list of all (post-crisis) comics dick&tim have appeared in together:
and also as i was working on this i discovered FILTER VIEWS and simultaneously got curious about all the quotes in grayson 12, which taunted me with the possibility of getting post-crisis continuity back before not giving it to me >:(((((( but anyway they're still good quotes so i made a list of all of them
anyway then i looked at all of that and thought ehhhhh okay but that's very complicated!! maybe i need some shorter reading recommendations. so then i started making a list of those:
basically you should picture the spreadsheet journey like this puppy:
anyway i'm still kinda distracted but i do intend to clean it up a bit more and then post a link, so that will happen soon-ish hopefully <3
#ask tag#also when i was trying to save this post it gave me an error message saying there was a processing error#which is probably karmic punishment for not answering your ask sooner i am so sorry sdfsfsdfs#anyway if you are still interested in a reading list i am also interested in a reading list it will definitely probably happen#it's just that y'know the ball-leaf-ball-no-wait-a-LEAF excitement over here has been very intense
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thoughts on the latest casey interview? it’s so funny because I keep seeing people posting different excerpts of it on here depending on which guy they like lol
well, first off, this is how I found out there IS a new casey interview. I did have a quick dig around whether I could un-paywall the original but. no luck. so I'm basing this on the write up in mowmag - which passes the test in that, unlike certain websites, it actually addresses multiple things casey said on different topics. so hopefully isn't just the most clickbait-y material and is a relatively exhaustive summary of the stuff he said. no cherry picking on THIS blog
anyway, my main takeaway is that it's probably for the best that the casey/valentino relationship doesn't get TOO warm, because if you ever put these two on a podcast together the resulting material could level continents. I still stand by my belief that these two could have co-hosted an all time great conspiracy theorist youtube show in another life. what a pair of guys
my other takeaway is that, despite working for them as a test rider AND a rider coach, casey still very obviously has NOT forgiven ducati. the grudges he's airing by proxy in this interview!! spectacular. with all athletes but ESPECIALLY casey, it's always healthy practise to just keep in mind the actual context of their careers when reading their mouthing off about the current sport. because sometimes they will be fighting yesterday's battles... this is a man who still has enough bones to pick with motogp to disassemble the whole skeleton
I'll follow the order of the interview provided by the mowmag piece:
“I know the company,” says Stoner, referring to Ducati and answering a direct question about the possibility that in Borgo Panigale they might decide to ‘sabotage’ Martin’s eventual victory, “and I know what they are willing to do to win. I’m surprised I haven’t seen it before, or maybe it happened and Jorge was good at overcoming it ” In short, Stoner goes so far as to say that Ducati might have already put a spoke in Martin’s wheels, but that the young Spaniard was still able to be stronger than any obstacles created. With Ianieri pointing out to the Australian, however, how much Dall’Igna insisted that it will be real sport and there will be no games. “That’s what Gigi thinks. But then there’s Ducati and they don’t want to see the number one go. But everyone is watching them very carefully, if they make a mistake like that we’ll see it. If they create a problem it will backfire on them. I hope that everything goes smoothly and that we can see the real world champion.”
do you know what an absolute nightmare it would be if martin has a mechanical dnf in the catalunya ii sunday race. something which can of course HAPPEN, pecco's had more mechanical gremlins than jorge this year. but obviously that wouldn't stop anyone from losing their minds
this is just so extremely casey. I laughed when I read it. of course he's been thinking about how ducati will probably sabotage martin since jorge's exit to aprilia was announced. of course he thinks ducati would pull off something shady to keep the number one plate in house. I love the idea that ducati HAS been sabotaging jorge but they've just been like, extremely shit at it. look at him saying that he KNOWS ducati and thinks they SUCK... an opinion he is completely justified in holding - ducati did not do right by him in 2009, and those wounds also still show in some of his other responses in this interview. but, y'know. if ducati was going to sabotage jorge, quite frankly they would already have done so. it's just a little late for this, isn't it. what are they even going to DO, stick a pin in jorge's tyres?
readers familiar with casey's oeuvre should be drawing a fairly obvious parallel at this stage - given that this is not the first time casey has dabbled in a light dash of conspiracism where title deciders are concerned. here are the two versions of his book concerning what happened at valencia 2006:
will never get over how casey was fighting the good fight for valentino's tenth in 2013 icl. early adopter
back then, casey was blaming the 'commercial interests' of Big America for sabotaging the most popular rider in the history of the sport - until Big Dorna sniped him and forced him to remove the 'commercial interests' line in the paperback version. (to be clear: this is a joke, there's no indication anyone from dorna had a chat with him, it's just funny that his stance ever so slightly softened between versions but then he did also add the wonderful 'welcome to my world' line.) it's perfectly reasonable to believe that valentino had a dud tyre in 2006 valencia and broadly tracks with what he himself says about the race, somewhat less reasonable to believe They were actually out to get him. valentino was very unlucky throughout 2006, yes, but... people are unlucky sometimes
anyway, I don't actually want to relitigate 2006 here, but I DO love his paranoid streak and how like... y'know, there's always the danger he's mellowed in his time away from the sport, he's certainly less tightly strung these days... but yup, he's still got that in him. still that guy
from a longer post about the similarities between valentino/casey, reckon this is one of the things I've written about the pair of them that holds up the best:
it is completely unsurprising that jorge martin's plight has struck a chord with casey, who himself always had a chip on his shoulder and was more than happy to use said chip to motivate himself. both jorge and pecco have a fair bit of casey in their competitive dna, which does show in how casey talks about both of them - martin perhaps with a bit more of lorenzo's brashness mixed in versus pecco having more of valentino's cunning... plus his contrarianism (which casey is no stranger to either). if we're already drawing alien parallels. just always that slight sense that they feel SOMEONE is out to get them, that they're never being given a fair hearing... again. chip on the shoulder
then there's this bit -
Calling it a very powerful attack is almost an understatement, with Stoner not being light on Ducati even when he comments on the decision to entrust the official bike to Marc Marquez for next season. “They could have made sure that he would settle for an official bike in a private team” – he thundered.
- which we're going to circle back to. I do love how casey's switched from going to an italian newspaper to launch an extended attack on valentino rossi to going to an italian newspaper to launch an extended attack on ducati. critical levels of support
So how will it end in Barcelona? Casey Stoner doesn't give his prediction, but limits himself to an icy comment: "I think Jorge deserves the title, and that he is in the position to win it. Pecco will do everything to be champion and Ducati would like to keep the number one. Everything could go smoothly, or there could be great chaos "
given how dud tyres have been a big theme in both 2023 and 2024's title battle, 'slightly odd jorge crash helped along by slightly odd michelin tyre' just feels like. such a plausible scenario. that could easily make everyone lose their minds. honestly, even if jorge crashes on his own and just says his bike felt weird afterwards, whether it's true or not. it'd be chaos, yeah. and casey will be THERE no matter what
If from the point of view of the show everything is more exciting, from the point of view of the rider who has raced, won and suffered in the difficult world of MotoGP, in this 2024 we are also witnessing a great injustice. "For me the World Championship should be as always: on Sunday - adds Stoner, stating himself openly against the Sprint and against the new MotoGP format - If you make a mistake you have lost an opportunity, now you have two. And then it doesn't allow you to really work on the set-up, because the only concern is getting into Q2. The system doesn't work for me, you can see it from the abysmal gaps. It might be there every now and then, like in Formula 1, but every weekend is not necessary. We have seen what Pecco has done in the last three seasons, the growth is constant. Ducati's results are always better, but in comparison with the others he is the one who wins the most. You can't belittle him, they are real victories, not Sprints. What he has done this year is impressive".
this bit I do agree with casey on, not because of what it's doing to this specific title fight and more just my general distaste for sprints. at some point this last year it's become received wisdom that pecco's sunday success is partly reliant on being able to do some trial and error in saturday sprints, so I found it interesting that oxley took a different stance in his sepang column:
I'm not sure I ENTIRELY agree on this (obviously I'm just basing this on vibes not actual expertise). even though obviously all riders do get this sprint data boost, I feel like it's fairly plausible pecco + his team make better use of it - just because there's better data, doesn't mean everyone is taking equal good advantage of it. then again, is there really any evidence that pecco is getting more out of it, beyond doing better in a format he's better at? as casey points out, it does mean you have way less time to faff about with set-ups, which pecco does like to do. there's also intangibles that might make the sprint experience advantageous to pecco on a sunday - for instance, I feel like his banger starts this year (remember when those were a thing) have tended to come on a sunday when he's already kinda figured out where to place himself in the pack. so maybe he does get something substantial out of having an extra race
that being said, I'm increasingly of the opinion that thinking pecco is ACTUALLY helped by the sprints - that the championship picture would be no different without them - is... kind of overthinking things. he's not good at the format. any marginal gains on a sunday he's getting from the sprint data just instinctively feel like they're probably not equal or more to what he's losing out in raw number of points through the sprints. it does feel like pecco's gotten better at sprints specifically in the second half of this year, so it's interesting to see if that carries through to next season... and look, none of this is to say jorge won't be a deserving champion - at the end of the day, you have to win the format you're playing. but yeah, I do reckon pecco would likely be champion without them
I've been curious for a while about casey's thoughts on the sprint format - I thought he'd be against it because of his luddite vibes as much as anything else, though I do also reckon the format wouldn't have been bad for him specifically as a rider. (if nothing else, it would've helped him in 2008, given he was fighting for the title against a rider you feel like would be TERRIBLE terrible terrible at this format. less time for set-up experimentation, softer grippier tyres and shorter races weighted towards qualifying/starting well? yeah say goodbye to that eighth.) anyhow, his reasoning checks out - part tradition, part the feeling that it's too forgiving of mistakes, part fucking up the structure of the weekend, part giving too little weight to 'real' wins... all very casey. casey was the type of rider who was always more about focusing on wins than championships - that you shouldn't settle for results just because your 'rivals' were behind you, for instance, that fighting for race wins comes first and the title will follow. here's a paragraph from a sachsenring 2012 write-up (where casey crashed on the penultimate lap while fighting dani):
obviously in the context of that particular title fight, it didn't end up mattering anyway because of the injuries casey would go onto sustain. but... well, casey's errors in the first half of 2012 would have put him in a tough position anyway - as dani proved, even once honda got on top of his chattering issues, reeling off victory after victory would not be enough to take the championship when jorge could just keep riding home to safe p2's. (and when dani in a disadvantageous points position pushed too hard in the penultimate round and crashed, it was game over, stop if this reminds you of anything.) the point is that pecco this year has played the race-win-or-bust role in a way that is probably instinctively quite appealing to casey - doesn't sit easily to watch the guy on ten wins lose the title. there'll probably always be elements of the slander pecco receives that resonate with casey... pecco's words getting misinterpreted by press and fans, pecco being called boring, pecco being called too crash-prone, unstable, bad at handling pressure... the two of them are plenty similar as characters, which is reflected in the type of criticism that tends to head their way. and pecco's stubborn resilience, a determination to motivate himself as a spite response to the doubt from others - well, that again is probably going to remind casey of himself
moving on.
Impressive, but not enough to win, with Jorge Martin now 24 points ahead, just one weekend away from the big dream, before the painful farewell. Casey Stoner is not easy on the market and Ducati's choices either. "If Ducati loses the world champion it will be a hard blow," he explained. " But I think it will be even harder for Martin, who has spent these years being loyal to Ducati I don't think it's right how it went. Unfortunately, it's the way Ducati works and that's why they've lost so many riders now. Marquez? In many ways I understand the decision, but it doesn't mean it's correct. When you have riders who give their all and stand out among the 22 on the track and someone arrives to take their place, I don't think it's right. I think Marc could have had a factory bike in another team. It wasn't fair for Bastianini and even more so for Martin."
yup, casey all over. of all the aliens, casey had the least hype surrounding him in the lower classes. he's... well technically I suppose valentino started in a satellite team and won his first title with one, but it was very much a ''''''satellite team'''''' - casey was the only alien to start his motogp career in a satellite satellite. a proper one. he KNOWS what it's like to not be the first choice for ducati!! if melandri had gotten out of his gresini contract to ride for factory ducati in 2007 (lol), casey could've been in real trouble even finding a seat. and he's a big believer in loyalty! casey was beyond disillusioned by the shit ducati pulled in 2009 - when they planted stories in the press that casey's diet and exercise routine was responsible for his mystery illness, big names openly criticising him during his absence... as well as of course how they aggressively courted jorge and offered him a way bigger salary than they paid casey, after telling casey they didn't have more money to pay him
it's that last bit that feels uncomfortable, right - like casey, martin threw in his lot with ducati, off the back of quite a contentious split with ktm to even get the pramac seat. like casey, martin has now repeatedly been looked over - and like casey, his ultimate split with ducati is the result of ducati favouring the golden boy. (while lorenzo obviously didn't join ducati at that time, this was ultimately still one of the big reasons why casey walked away after 2010.) unrewarded loyalty... hey, I suppose him and valentino actually agree on this, yeah. ducati has spent so much time cultivating its young talent before showing themselves ready to ditch them all for the big name. and it IS how ducati works, they really AREN'T particularly loyal. all these years later and they're still just the same, as far as casey's concerned
Ducati, therefore, as the central theme of the entire interview, but also as the favorite target of a Stoner who on the one hand seems to make very clear analyses, but on the other also appears to be someone with a decidedly poisoned tooth, given that even when asked about his future in the Team Lenovo garage he lets many doubts shine through on the management that Borgo Panigale will be able to have of two champions like Bagnaia and Marquez. “It depends on how Ducati behaves - he concluded - I think that Pecco, mentally, is strong enough to face the situation, it will be a question of seeing who Ducati wants to protect the most. For sure, the two will try to create chaos in the team to make things go in one direction or the other. We will see how Ducati manages the situation and who they choose. They will have to be as balanced as possible or it will be a problem”.
(incidentally, I love the italian 'poisoned tooth' term for having a grudge, it's so evocative. lots of poisoned teeth in motogp)
casey's confidence that there's going to be pecco/marc drama... he's so real for this. I've been wavering in my own confidence a little bit, wondering whether pecco/marc might not end up massively disappointing me, but casey's coming through for me here. unsurprisingly casey's going to implicitly relate more to pecco in that particular dynamic... in general, it's nice how complimentary casey is of pecco, even while summoning locusts upon ducati. just on a personal note, I never particularly enjoy when retired athletes play into narratives about how much worse the current competitors are... it's mean-spirited, generates dumb discourse and also feels rather undignified. so, y'know. always pro-glazing the current lot
in terms of what casey says specifically... obviously there's the ten wins thing, which casey unlike much of the fanbase does understand isn't something a mid rider can pull off, and then there's the line about pecco being mentally strong enough to go up against marc. I've talked before about the similarities between pecco and casey before, which obviously is also relevant here... casey faced accusations of being unstable and unreliable and too sensitive throughout his career, starting well before his path crossed with valentino's. too crash prone, a choker, too easy to rattle. and then they come up against a rival with a reputation for mind games, who many seem to expect will be able to 'break' them. whatever pecco's on-track success will be next year, there's no real indication that casey's wrong here - for all that the pair of them are high strung and ever so slightly neurotic, both casey and pecco have repeatedly exhibited real resilience and self-belief. idk, again, it's fun how both the current title contenders do have quite a few casey-coded characteristics. love casey-coded characteristics
The reference is clearly to Honda, with the Australian explaining the Japanese's major crisis in this way. "It's hard to get an idea from the outside," he said, "but I think it was convenient to have the three European manufacturers at the top, with the Japanese slipping to the bottom. I don't think that in Japan they suddenly don't know how to build a winning bike anymore. The Europeans are very creative and make everything happen faster, but they're not as refined as the Japanese. And with such fluid rules, everything is easier for the former. With Albesiano, Honda will try to add creativity and speed up operations. It will be interesting."
pretty sure I've said this before, but one of casey's funniest traits is gesturing vaguely in the direction of a substantive accusation without quite spelling it out. does he think dorna is sabotaging japanese manufacturers? is the system rigged against them?? for WHOMST is it convenient, wHO are you accusing of what? I'm not even saying he's WRONG about all of these things, sometimes conspiracies are real, I wouldn't know either! I just think it's great how this is his go-to reaction. always looking for that shadowy influence secretly protecting the anointed and sabotaging the unfavoured. the bit about more fluid rules favouring the europeans is interesting and I'd like to hear more about that theory, but obviously that wouldn't necessarily mean this was the intended consequence of said rules. does feel like casey's implying that though! come on casey, tell me more
anyway. this has been my take on casey's newest contribution to the discourse. I can be accused of many things, but not of lacking casey stoner opinions. that's my little guy
#my favourite paranoid nutjob. if dorna knew ball they'd force casey and valentino at gunpoint to do a buzzfeed unsolved-type gig#been huffing the nihilism vapours heavily recently and have been pretty cut off from any motogp news#so at this point my inbox/messages constitute my only source for actual new stuff. cheers lads#anyway i too ofc have a well documented level of irritability about fans using casey and his output only to prop up their various agendas#while showing pretty minimal interest in casey the rider himself. and indeed his rivalry with valentino as its own thing!!#gatekeeping one of the top three motorcycle racers this century until everyone learns to behave themselves. hands OFF#but also it's fine when i'm doing it#//#brr brr#heretic tag#current tag#is it just me or has casey given a disproportionate number of interviews to gazzetta dello sport over the years#actually chats quite a bit to the italian press all things considered
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don't be fooled. one good thing is going to come from this.
Democrats are going to realize that not supporting Palestine is a dealbreaker.
#dont get me wrong#i voted kamala#and im angry at the ppl who voted jill stein#or didnt vote at all#but hey its sending a message#going farther to the right is not winning you any races#being a zionist is not winning you any favors#there are ppl out there who would rather throw their vote away than vote for a pro-genocide candidate#and thats something#hopefully it makes them scared#hopefully they grow some balls for the first time ever#hopefully the democratic party pulls left so hard it twists off the head of the conservatives holding them down#but alas#theyll just blame it on kamala being a woman
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