#olivers best work [in its opinion]

[solongavalon]

anthony in violet: in the studio

[theinternetarchive]

have you any book recommendations

many! i like a lot of genres so here is a quick overview of my favorites. it really depends what you're looking for. i'll do a little summary of each book.

theory/philosophy

psychoanalytic film theory and the rules of the game by todd mcgowan – this is the ultimate beginner's guide to contemporary film theory. it will teach you the basics of lacanian psychoanalysis in easy terms and with real life explanations/examples. if you want to learn film theory, and you don't know where to start, absolutely start right here. you will not regret it

civilization and its discontents by freud – yes i am recommending this entirely seriously and in earnest. this book is great. freud, dying of cancer and disillusioned with the world, outlines the problems with contemporary society, namely his distaste for the way that technological progress has not been made in the name of human happiness, and in fact works against man's best interest, creating all the problems it claims to solve. relevant now more than ever.

nonfiction

bird by bird by anne lamott – this book is as much a writer's guide as it is a memoir as it is a how-to for life. lamott is witty and real, she's honest and somber and funny, she gives excellent advice, advice that has gotten me out of the depths several times. "perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. it will keep you cramped and insane your whole life."

novels

moby dick by herman melville – this may seem a strange rec as it's a classic that everyone knows, but not enough people put their time into moby dick. it's long winded, flourishing prose that i really never tire of. he makes some of the most poignant observations during the most insignificant of moments, this book is rich with philosophical meaning and absolutely must be read at some time in your life. it will make you reflect on life and death, mortality, love. also there's technically gay marriage in this book and it's from the 1860s.

the price of salt/carol by patricia highsmith – i'm sure many of you are familiar with the film and also know that it's a book, but i don't think many have read it and i must say, it is phenomenal. absolutely thrilling. a love story for the ages.

rebecca by daphne du maurier – everyone know the hitchcock film, but the book is better. hitchcock didn't even really respect rebecca, the novel or the film, but i think both are masterpieces. rebecca, the novel, is interior and dark. it is like the movie, but in my opinion it's more visceral, the writing is just so particular, i can't really put a word to it other than beautiful, even if that sounds like i'm simplifying a bit.

poetry

the complete works of arthur rimbaud tr. paul schmidt – the best rimbaud translation you can possibly get your hands on, all poems ordered chronologically along with letters and short biographical sections, giving you a real picture of rimbaud and his life. he is my favorite poet by miles, marrying the obscene, disgusting, perverse, and the beautiful to create revolutionary poetry. he is such a singular writer with such a particular voice, and schmidt perfectly captures his manic, confusing energy and tendency towards violence.

the selected poetry of ranier maria rilke – rilke is phenomenal, read his work, it is a must. this volume blows me away whenever i open it. i found myself enamored with rilke's work after reading the duino elegies (featured in this collection), and he never disappoints. there is something present and real about every poem i've read. he just had the way.

new and selected poems volume one by mary oliver – mary oliver needs no introduction, but this is my favorite volume of hers. if you're unfamiliar or just haven't read her yet and you want to start somewhere, it should be here.

[midasfm]

hi idols! admin olive here with some updates and an announcement about the changes we've been working on for the past little while. please like this post once read.

as we've been working on the necessary rewrites and edits to haute pink, phaze, girl code, and parts of midas music's history, we've run into some issues that have had the admin team considering if a restructuring of the roleplay would be beneficial to the group as a whole. additionally, as we've been working on these rewrites, some members of the admin team have had personal issues pop up that will, inevitably, impact their ability to admin full-time. however, each member of the admin team is dedicated to seeing the midasfm universe thrive, so we've been discussing a restructure of the roleplay over the past week. before anyone worries too much over what the restructure will look like and what it will mean for your muses, we'll outline the changes we're interested in making below. following the description of these changes, there will be a link to a google form. this google form is a survey on how you, as a mun, feel about the below changes and how you feel they'd impact your muse. no changes will be made without considering every member's opinion, and we'll do our absolute best to accommodate as many requests as possible. regardless, we are well-aware that a restructure isn't an ideal situation for anyone, but the other alternatives are that things continue as they are now (with backdated posts, slow admin response and update times, and potential mistakes being made) or we close entirely. these are options we do not wish to pursue, as mentioned above. i created the midasfm universe over a year ago, and the most important thing to me is seeing the roleplay and all your lovely muses thrive. before we move onto the changes we're considering making, i'll address what everyone's probably wondering right about now — what does this mean for threads activity? for now, activity may proceed as normal. however, there will be no admin updates (doltalk posts, schedule posts, claims updates, etc) and comebacks (solo and group) will be postponed for the time being. to accommodate for the lack of admin updates, we'll only be a bit more lenient with activity checks until the changes are confirmed. you may continue your current threads (event or regular threads), start new threads (as long as they are not based around future or postponed schedules), complete character development tasks, and continue responding to ask memes. the admin team may throw up an additional task or ask meme to help out with this temporary pause. when we have enough feedback to the below form and the changes are confirmed, we'll post an update regarding activity. some of the changes may require a pause in activity if they significantly impact a group and its members, so an update will go up as soon as we're able to confirm which direction we're going in. as far as reapplication goes, it won't be necessary for all muses, unless the changes directly impact your muse or their group. this will be something that will be addressed in our next update.. however, if someone did wish to revamp their muse or reapply due to the updated tiers, you are free to do so, but please message the admin team if that is something you'd like to do. if no one agrees to any of the following group changes, then we'll focus on the things that don't directly impact any of our current groups (with the exception of the changes being made to haute pink and girl code) and no pause in activity will be needed (aside from us taking the needed time to recruit a new admin, and implement the other changes mentioned). regardless, please be assured we will do our best to make these changes as non-obstructive as possible. the changes we are considering can be found below:

company soloists

moving forward, we will not be opening any further company soloist positions. truthfully, the current number of soloist positions is far beyond what we initially intended to have, but we expanded the amount as we had more interest than we anticipated and wanted to ensure we had enough room for everyone. so, going forward, we will not be opening any additional company soloist positions as we believe any further soloists would be too much for the admin team to properly manage.

to make the company soloist positions easier for the admin team to manage, as we do find it difficult to manage the current number of soloists. we want to offer soloist muns as much creative freedom as possible, but we must ensure that our guidelines are being followed and things are being done reasonably and realistically, which we currently find challenging. additionally, we do find it difficult to incorporate company soloists into schedule posts and events while keeping their image, branding, and our mun's future plans for them in mind. we've also found it difficult to keep up with the requests being made by our soloist muns. this is in no way the fault of our soloist muns, but it's become glaringly obvious to the admin team that we do need to make some changes to how the company soloists positions operate.

to combat these problems, we'll be preparing new forms and additional mechanics that will help ensure our company soloist muns are offered creative freedom, while also ensuring things are kept realistic and our guidelines are being followed. some of these mechanics are still a wip, but we'll being added a more "in-depth" soloist comeback form, a soloist schedule form (that can be submitted monthly and will give you a space to share any goals or wishlists for your muse), and an increased amount of open career opportunities aimed at soloist muses. we hope that, in addition to recruiting more members for our admin team, these mechanics will help make things smoother for both sides.

however, some of our soloist muns have reached out and shared their concerns about these positions. we've heard from them that they find planning their own monthly schedules difficult, and that they find plotting to be more difficult with company soloists. we hope that the above-mentioned solutions will help make these things easier, but we've decided to add additional groups and additional group-based soloist positions in the event that any of our current company soloists would like to switch from a company soloist position to a group-based soloist position. in no way will we forcing or asking anyone to make this switch, but if there is anyone who would prefer a little more guidance with monthly schedules, a more cohesive narrative to follow, or more existing connections, this may be a good solution for you. below, we'll outline the new groups we're thinking of adding, as well as additional soloist skeletons we may add to our existing groups.

if anyone does switch their company soloist to a group-based soloist, that company soloist position will be removed from our roster.

note: we will be lifting our "no more than one group-based soloist" rule, but we will not allow muns to apply for a second additional group-based soloist position until our company soloist muns make their decision. any additional group-based soloist positions being added will be tentatively reserved for our company soloist muns. any positions not taken by our company soloist muns can be applied for (by new applicants or existing members) following the restructure.

new groups

daybreak, a four-member boy group inspired by got7 and seventeen with an age range of '93 to '97, and yng, a six-member boy group inspired by riize with an age range of '99 to '02, are both finished and will be unveiled once the results of the form are in. if any of our company soloist muns wish to switch their muse to daybreak, daybreak will have four group-based soloist skeletons available and we'll work with you to map out your desired soloist skeleton. if none of our company soloist muns wish to switch their muse to daybreak, daybreak will have a mixture of soloist and actor skeletons to choose from.

marionette, our npc group from ninety9 creative, will be made a playable group of four members, aged '93 to '96. if any of our company soloist muns wish to switch their muse to marionette, we'll work with you to map out your desired soloist skeleton.

one additional girl group: a group inspired by nmixx and possibly aespa or a group inspired by rescene and illit. both options will be aged '00 to '02. as their debut will take place somewhere between 2023 to 2025, they will not have soloist skeletons available yet, but we did want to mention they will be coming to the collective.

sonix, as mentioned below.

HAUTE PINK

as mentioned on the main and to the haute pink muns, we do have to do a pretty major rewrite of haute pink since their current image is tailored to their previous sound. since haute pink's rewrite has turned out to be much more significant than anticipated, we'll be in contact with the muns to discuss potential changes to their skeletons, their solo releases, and the group's history as a whole. changes are almost complete, so we should be in touch over the next few days. however, we do suspect that haute pink muns will have to resubmit their applications / claims due to these rewrites.

PHAZE

with all the changes being made to midas music and their groups, things around phaze have gotten a little messy and we're not entirely happy with the inconsistencies that have popped up, so we're considering a rewrite of phaze. this rewrite would likely include a few changes to their discography, as well.

we're considering splitting phaze's discography between two groups: phaze will retain their group narrative and their level of success (with a few changes to their history and overall group image, but those changes will be minimal as we're only looking to correct the above-mentioned inconsistencies). however, we think splitting their discography between two groups would be beneficial for the roleplay as a whole. first, splitting their discography between two groups would make the most sense when considering midas music's sound and image and would be the best choice to protect the narrative we wish to pursue with the group. second, we think splitting the discography would aide us in offering more group-based soloists and a more diverse age range, as we've heard complaints from both those interested in portraying older and younger muses. splitting their discography into two would also allow us to explore their history on nu phase, as outlined in our idea below.

phaze's discography will look like this (subject to changes depending on your answers) and their age range will be adjusted to '93 - '96 or '97. the skeletons may be adjusted, but the majority will remain the same and any changes will be run by the affected muns.

the discography items that will be removed from phaze will go to a new boy group, sonix, with an age range of '98 to '00 and a debut in 2017 or 2018. sonix's lineup will consist of members of team b from nu phase. as mentioned above, these discography items are subject to changes depending on your answers. the narrative we'll explore with them is one of mistreatment and damage control: sonix is considered "second best" to phaze, as the "losing" team of nu phase, and the company treats them as such. they're often used to clean up phaze's messes, but are mistreated and mismanaged by the company. despite midas music's treatment of them, they're popular and have a passionate fandom behind them, but still struggle to be seen by some as anything but a second phaze. sonix will be five members, with 2/5 having made a solo debut.

however, if all phaze muns are okay with the changes to their discography, we may shelve sonix for now and debut them at a later date.

ANGELIX

as we are planning to turn marionette into a playable group, we will be removing cosmic by red velvet from angelix's discography and replaced with another song from oh my girl, wjsn, or ive. angelix will keep feel my rhythm, however.

if any of our company soloist muns wish to switch their muse to angelix, we will edit the open and existing skeletons to include an additional soloist spot and may consider adding an additional member to angelix entirely, if the demand calls for it.

REMEDY

remedy may experience some changes to their timeline and history as a result of marionette's addition. these changes should be minimal and we'll do our best to ensure these changes do not impact your muses in any major way. however, there will be no changes made to their discography.

remedy has room for one additional member, so if any of our company soloist muns wish to switch their muse to remedy, we may add an additional slot to remedy.

however, with the addition of a seventh member, we may look at making adjustments to remedy's skeletons. truthfully, we have been a little unsatisfied with remedy's skeletons for some time and how similar some of them are (as it does make the narrative we wish to pursue for them a little tricky), so we may use this chance to diversify their skeletons somewhat. no changes will be made without your explicit consent and without allowing you to have input. on the below form, there is a section where you can let us know if there's any skeletons changes you'd like to see us make or that you'd consider beneficial to your muse — or anything that you're simply unhappy about or consider limiting. if we do make changes to your skeleton, we'll make them based on your feedback in the form (and any additional suggestions or input given during discussions with the admin team). again, no changes will be made without your consent and any changes that are made will take your ideas and preferences into consideration, so please do not stress over this. these changes will only occur if you consent to it.

NYMTH

changes to nymth's history and timeline should be minimal, but may be impacted due to the addition of marionette. however, these should not interfere with your muse in any way and will be communicated with you. there will be no discography or image changes.

nymth's skeletons may be impacted due to the addition of marionette, but this should only impact one or two muns, who will be contacted directly regarding these changes.

and following this post, another post is scheduled to go up. we are looking to expand the admin team to make sure things go much more smoothly from here on out — so, if you are interested in being apart of the midasfm team, please do check out that post. there will be detailed descriptions of the roles we wish to fill, and a link to the application form. please follow this link to fill out the restructuring survey and please don't hesitate to ask any further questions. as mentioned, activity can proceed as normal until we've received a response from every mun.

[firewasabeast]

how do you feel about people saying buck and tommy won't last? do you think they're endgame?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I do like to say that I'm not here to try and change anyone's mind about whether or not tommy and buck will stay together. That's my disclaimer! Here's my answer:

I think we've gone through seven seasons of Buck struggling with himself and his love interests. There was always a disconnect between him and the person he was with; something always missing.

The disconnect is gone with Tommy. He's a firefighter, is close with the 118, understands the job, is settled in his own life, isn't working against Buck, and is kinda the yin to his yang. The things Tommy lacks, Buck has, and vice versa. They've got the cat/dog dynamic down.

I think, show-wise, there are certain characters who you don't need to see settled down when a series ends. Buck is not one of those characters, and the show is entering its 8th season. I'd love if the show ran for 20+ years but it's not really realistic anymore (ncis and l&o svu are outliers that should not be counted). It's time to have Buck in a forever relationship.

The only way I don't see Tommy and Buck lasting is if Tim decides that Buck and Eddie should be a thing, and I feel like the interviews that have been done over the last few months are their way of subtly telling us that's not going to happen. I could be totally wrong, but it feels like they're saying the words without actually saying the words.

I personally love Buck and Eddie as friends/platonic soulmates. I don't think them not having a sexual relationship actually impacts their relationship at all. I love seeing the dynamic of two guys, one bi and one (presumably) straight being best friends who love each other with their entire hearts. You'll see me reblog stuff with them all the time, and I often refer to them as a family, because they are.

The only other scenario would be Lou getting another, better paying gig that takes him from the show, or Oliver leaving, something like that.

tldr; I don't know if they'll last cause I don't write the show, but I hope they do. I desperately want to see them get married and have a family.

[eternalera]

Beef with the MC, do tell 😏👁️👁️

KLHDLGH okayokayokay so this is related to an ask that i got from my friend where i said i had beef with the mc of invincible for smth in s3.

im basically referring to the (SPOILERSSSS) invincible war where mark does literally NOTHING. and it still pisses me off to this day and i dont think that im ever gonna be unpissed about it. and i really really REALLY hope that he's gonna get shit for it like later down the line because his decision just doesnt really make sense moral wise and just with the bigger picture.

morals, his mom, brother, friends (william, amber), coworker friends (the guardians), and LITERAL GROUPS OF PEOPLE that he knew were also in danger while eve was at the hospital in the gda, which was arguably the SAFEST place for her (my point is proven when none on the invincible varients break into the place). it has the best equipment, best security, etc. etc. mark doesnt need to be there especially with his whole deal of "i'm gonna save lives!!" and stuff like that.

cause with someone who has had such a big problem with killing and people dying, he does absolutely jack shit to stop it. which is SO FRUSTRATING. cause like... yes she's your girlfriend, yes you love her, but also why does that trump the need of your mom, brother, friends, etc. trump the need of people who you've known for LONGER (william, debbie), like it doesnt make sense???

its like the minute eve's in danger mark just gets fucking monkey brain and goes "oh no! wifey in danger must protect!!!" and it would be fine (i love a simp) if it didn't happen at such stupid moments.

example, in the invincible way eve gets injured (there's not even blood unless you count her leg getting broken WHICH! is not lethal btw). then mark goes and stays with her for THREE DAYS while alternate hims destroy earth

THEN with conquest he only goes all out when eve dies (almost??? i think she dies but then her powerblock thing gets overrided and she comes back). like nahhh fuck oliver who almost got torn apart in front of him. that dont mean shit, but when the GIRLFRIEND gets injured and dies thats when we gotta lock in- remember folks, not before. but after gotta really build up that tension there.

like i'll admit, the moment they have after that is cute but it doesn't erase just how fucking stupid that shit was. like- are you kidding me? why did he only fight tooth and nail after eve? i guess you could argue that his morals are so black and white that he doesnt go all out until someone who he loves is injured but marks morals dont work like that.

it's "if you kill someone just for the sake of it (even then it depends), you're a bad person and i have to stop you". see that? or "if your harm those i love i'll go all out to stop you" and we see this with angstrome in the s2 finale. but we don't see this with oliver, we gotta see it with eve and to me it feels like they're trynna add spice to something that for as much as they've built up is just meh. it's like vanilla ice cream in a cup and yknow what? that's fine but it's just that yknow?

thats just my opinion though

[beeandthescreen]

I love Amara! I'm dying to know how she'd (as a character that struggles with being more than a killer/tool and experiences new emotions and roles on earth) views grey morality especially after the Mark vs Cecil argument?

Does she feel a connection to Cecil's views on defending earth by any means necessary even if it makes you cut throat? Does she even know it happens?

Also curious to know who she met on earth first? Did Mark get sent up to intercede before she landed? Or did Cecil transport himself to her landing site like he did with Nolan?

Also her hair cut??? Iconic

Okay, first off, I'm actually so grateful you love her?? Like?? My little Shayla is interesting to other people??? THANK YOU?? I'm so touched i'm like jumping in my seat ok ok, serious time.

Okay, a little context before I answer the actual question:

Amara, despite having the conscience to leave the empire, is essentially an empty cup.

She left at 19 when her chance to discover the universe—enslaving a planet of her own—was offered to her. As a result, she has less knowledge of the universe and its workings than her peers, who have spent long periods up close and intimate with other civilizations.

Yes, she has committed atrocities on several different worlds, but hasn't had the chance to know what an actual culture is or how people operate. Her training was purely kill, then leave. So you can say that up until she actually left, she's so fucking blind.

Also, she is the third youngest Viltrumite (twinning w Mark and Oliver.) so the knowledge gap is just... very large.

Imagine being raised in a horrible place, learning horrible things, with horrible people, having nobody your age around you, and nobody to have a real, meaningful conversation with.

The only reason she hasn't turned out like the rest is the only actual relationship that has ever mattered to her until her defection to the Coalition of Planets-- her mother.

Her mother haunts Amara's narrative. Her Debbie. The only reason Amara isn't an actual monster. (The Mark and Amara bond in my universe goes so fucking crazy and I will unpack that one day.) The only kind face, the only embrace, the only proof of joy and tenderness and love. That proof was enough for Amara to weather the storm.

Her desire for vengeance can only extend her knowledge so far.

That being said, authority figures are something so familiar to her.

She was raised as a thing-- they point and she shoots. There is a sad comfort she finds as a tool. She cannot shake that. She is aware her entire mindset and life experience is a problem, but pointing out each individual thing and analyzing what is wrong or right she cannot do. She is in limbo.

Now, that she is under Thaddeus' command, and Thaddeus is working against Viltrum, his wants and desires become her own. if he points at Earth and says go make nice with Earth and teach Mark how to fight, she will do both to the best of her ability.

When she arrives (Between Season 2 and 3) she is still within this mindset, and has not had enough life experience to form her own solid opinion. Therefore, she falls back on her orders.

You are an emissary. Appease the leaders of Earth. Strengthen its ties to the Coalition.

You need to ready Mark for war.

I think she would not even be focusing on the essence of the conflict at this time. She would be playing meditator as best as she can. She is not going to condemn Cecil, that would not appease him. She is not going to stop Mark, she needs him.

I think she would definitely try and stop the whole Mark and Cecil confrontation because it would but a hindrance on the mission, but deep down, her baby conscience is starting to try and ponder on why these men are acting the way they are.

Aren't they on the same side?

Oh Mar Mar, being introduced to individuality and differing mindsets. One day, you will understand.

Also! She Meets Mark first! Thaddeus makes the mistake of letting Allen take charge in directing her where to go, and how to go about introducing herself-- the man who can barely read. He also doesn't know that she is a Viltrumite, and the GDA has definitely set up bio scanners to see if any enter the atmosphere.

Cue, I'm entering the atmosphere, let me look at my watch to see where I'm going, oh, someone is literally gunning it toward me and isn't stopping, okay It looks like I'm going to be attacked.

They have a skirmish. Mark doesn't let up until Amara mentions Allen's name, cause she's a smart cookie. Mark has to call off the hammer being brought down. Then, she meets Cecil and is shoved in a huge ass van with the biggest fucking convoy following behind.

Hooray!

AND HER HAIR! Oh everyone loves her hair. I am so glad for it because it is like, my favorite feature of hers-- that and her boba eyes.

I love u :<

[frenchonionsunchips]

i have never been so convinced that we are gonna get a buddie feelings reveal/realization (probably from buck), and yes it’s because of the vertigo poster.

so in vertigo, scottie (eddie) basically falls in love with this woman madeleine (shannon) who ends up dying right in front of him. while he’s ‘recovering’ from her death, he meets judy (kim), who looks exactly like madeleine and he basically tries to force judy to become her.

however this is not the important part of the whole vertigo thing, that’s just pointing out how similar this eddie storyline already is to the movie.

the important thing is the poster (which @911bts has posted). on the bottom, it has a bunch of names, which for the most part are all names of people who worked on the original vertigo movie. except one. barbara bel geddes is switched to oliver stark which is sooooo significant, specifically because it was so unnecessary (it could have easily been switched to edy or just not been switched at all). this is so significant because barbara bel geddes played midge, scottie’s ex-fiancee who still has feelings for him. midge is the character who is always there for scottie, always tries to do what’s best for him, and is trying to make him fall in love with her again. in my opinion, midge also represents a type of love that scottie isn’t necessarily ready for. in the movie that love is a more mature settled down type of love, however i do think its can easily be translated into eddie not being ready at this moment in the show to love another man.

also here are a couple little screenshots from some analyses about midge that i think are just a little too similar to the eddie storyline right now

so anyways buck pining era is cominggggg

[here-there-be-fics]

With all due respect, "He could have built his presence as the main character of a beloved TV ship and finish his time on 911 (because it'll finish sooner rather than later) on a real high with people loving his character actually progressing and finishing his characters quest of finding love, especially off the back of all that great media attention." You've put way too much weight in how many chronically online people have any impact on this show. 9-1-1 is most likely going to get renewed and Buck will still be the fan favorite. Oliver not being a Lou warrior is not a deterrent of how the general audience see Buck.

Also, more important, why should he have to? Maybe he just wants a paycheck. It's not a fandom for him, it's just a job.

Hey Anon - it's not about fandom, it's OS building his image and maintaining relevance even beyond the show...unfortunately a significant part of his job is about people online liking him because that's where people find out about him as a person/actor and I think he could be better at it and take opportunies and captialising on them more. So yes 911 interviews are generally for the 'chronically online' and mostly hardcore buddie fans but they do build an image of him and when he goes onto a new job be that a show or movie, people hiring will check his online prescence and how he interacts with audiences, and people (not all of course but enough to matter) watching whatever he moves on to will look him up, having good interesting and a variety of media is going to go a long way to him being accepted and liked, and people being invested.

I never said he had to be a warrior for LFJ, they don't have to like each other or be best friends, they are colleagues (and that's an entirely different conversation about the treatment of cast and crew in general not just guests like LFJ and is more so on the showrunner and companies) It's about what buck as a role means for OS future career, people love a good romance and a dynamic pairing, he could have capitalised on that more in my opinion because the media hype of there, we know it was because the shows marketing utilised that right up until they didnt by putting LFJ in bts and media opportunities about the pairing where that didnt exist for other LIs, especially after the Access Hollywood segment but OS didn't really do the same, he played it safe and seems to have placated, seemed to avoid the pairing afraid to face criticism from the loud minority.

Sure he wants the paycheck but if he wants more paycheck and a new project paying the paycheck in the future he needs to keep making himself stand out, being part of a liked and somewhat unique pairing that is referenced years to come will go further (BT get listed already in media pieces for their twist/kiss/relationship etc - buddie wont cut it because it's not going to be canon and won't help his career) beloved Buck yes, I love him too but there can always be more that OS can leverage off, the pairing could have been it. And yep I agree the show will be renewed for season 9, they need to promote their spinoff but how much longer after that? Hollywood is unpredictable there is no safe acting jobs, if OS doesnt leave others definitely will its presence and ability to trend is already fading, audiences are still good but decreasing, ABC will move their timeslot and market less, he should and probably always is on the look out for what next and he should!

This was long but clearly people will take one comment and assume a lot of things. I work in the arts and have in film previously and have a lot to say about how it functions....anyway hopefully that covers everything and if you don't agree that's fine.

Also, gotta say coming into an inbox saying 'with all due respect' hardly ever holds much respect, unfortunately.

[lousycapy]

Who has the best driver lineup for 2025?

I saw James Vowles’ statement from the Beyond the Grid podcast that Williams had the best pairing coming into 2025 and thought he was crazy, so I’d be interested to read everyone’s opinion about it 😅

However, as much as I think people’s opinion are interesting, I got curious on what argument he could use to justify his claim and went down a spiral of what would consist of the best pairing so if you wanna go down the rabbit hole with me here is what I came up with :

Just for reference, the 2025 lineups are as follow:

Ferrari - Lewis Hamilton & Charles Leclerc

McLaren - Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri

RedBull - Max Verstappen & Sergio Perez (Checo has a contract so we will consider it has sound even though there have been echoes of a replacement)

Mercedes - George Russell & Kimi Antonelli

Aston Martin - Fernando Alonso & Lance Stroll

Alpine - Pierre Gasly & Jack Doohan

Haas - Esteban Ocon & Oliver Bearman

Williams - Carlos Sainz & Alex Albon

VCARB - Yuki Tsunoda & ?

Sauber Kick wtv - Nico Hulkenberg & ?

Before starting analyzing I just want to exclude some pairings so I don’t have to go through everyone for every argument because it’d take wayyyy too long.

Thus, Sauber and VCARB are obvious contenders to be excluded since we don’t know what their lineup will be. I also want to exclude the pairings containing rookies, since we have no measure of how good they will be. We’ve seen promising rookies end up being terrible and not so promising rookies absolutely kill it, so due to their absolute unknown value they shouldn’t be considered for the best lineup on the grid. That means Mercedes, Alpine and Haas are out of contention for 2025.

I also want to exclude RedBull and Aston Martin, since they are pretty much one-man shows. Are they capable of great results? Yes, but the point is to find the best DUO, not the best RESULT, and as much as in a dominant car they can win it all, we’ve seen it this year you need two competitive drivers to bring home the WCC and I do not believe it to be the case for RedBull and Aston Martin. There are other aspects to a lineup than the performance, but at its core it is the most important argument when it comes to determining the best of the best. A number 1/2 lineup is great to win a WDC, not so much to win a WCC.

This leaves us with Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

Alright, now that this is out of the way here are the main arguments I think could be used to find the best lineup:

Performance; so how well the drivers by themselves can drive, their raw pace, tire management, wheel-to-wheel abilities, strategical thinking, febrility, basically what they can achieve on their own on track

Public image; what they bring to the team in terms of sponsors, money, their popularity when it comes to the fans… let’s not forget teams are in F1 to advertise and make money at the end of the day

Compatibility; how the drivers work together, do they get on? can they bring a positive atmosphere to the team or are they at each other’s throat? How well do they work with the team, are they screaming at the engineers that something’s wrong?

Development; how good the drivers are at developing the car, at guiding their people in the right direction. Do they give similar feedback or is the team obligated to choose in which driver’s direction they should develop?

Other factors could come into play, such as the longevity of the lineup, but when we are talking about 2025 specifically, how the drivers evolve in the future is irrelevant.

Let’s start with performance. In theory, Ferrari has the best duo in terms of performance. Lewis is statistically the best driver to ever grace this sport and Charles is very solid as well. McLaren would come second, because Lando is also very solid and Oscar can absolutely hold his own. That would leave Williams in third, since Carlos would probably be around Oscar’s level right now and Alex would end up further down, performing greatly against poor teammates but a bit disappointingly against the likes of Franco.

I’m saying in theory because two of those drivers are unknown values in the car they will be driving next year, we don’t know how well Lewis will adapt to the Ferrari nor how well Carlos will adapt to the Williams. Doesn’t matter how theoretically they should perform, we’ve seen with Daniel in the McLaren that if you don’t gel with the car, despite how well you were performing with another car, the performance you can extract can plummet dramatically. However, we know Carlos is pretty adaptable since he’s changed teams a few times already, so I’m not too nervous about how he’ll do in Williams. Lewis is more of an unknown, having changed teams only once a decade ago and never to a Ferrari engine.

All in all, I don’t think there is an argument to be made for Williams to be the best lineup performance wise. Even if we assume that Lewis in Ferrari will absolutely stink (which to me is an absurd assumption to make and has, like, close to no chance of actually happening) and that Carlos will be absolutely stellar in the Williams, the McLaren lineup blocks it from being the best, because Lando ranks above Carlos and Oscar above Alex.

Then if we take into account their public image, assuming no one does something crazy such as dropping a slur and getting themselves cancelled until 2025, Ferrari comes out on top pretty evidently. Lewis is the biggest brand on the grid, everyone knows his name, and we’re talking about one of the biggest transfer of driver in F1’s history. Charles also has a very large audience as shown by his social media following, and he brings with him many sponsors.

I’d say McLaren is second, with Lando pretty similarly to Charles having a vast audience and many sponsors. Oscar doesn’t bring a lot of sponsors himself, but I feel like fans have really fallen in love with him this year and he’s become pretty popular in the F1 sphere, but not really outside of it.

That would leave Williams third again, with Carlos doing the heavy lifting. He brings some good sponsors, and has a great following, kinda somewhere in between Lando and Oscar. However, Alex doesn’t have much sponsors and having spent a year out of F1 and then being stuck in a backmarker, his popularity with the fans isn’t as great as the other drivers being discussed. This is not an argument for Williams being the best pairing in 2025.

Compatibility is more difficult to assess, since two of the lineups haven’t been tested yet. For this reason, I’d put McLaren first here. We know Lando and Oscar have a perfectly fine working relationship, they might not be bestfriends but they keep it civil, have a laugh and chat together, and take the time to acknowledge each other’s and the team’s accomplishments. We often see them discuss with their mechanics in the garage and fist-bump everyone before the sessions begin, as well as reference to their hard work in their round-ups at the end of weekends. Moral seems high at McLaren and I don’t see anything that indicates incompatibility between the drivers and the team.

Ferrari and Williams are more difficult to evaluate. We’ve seen Lewis and Charles chat a lot recently, but we all know that two drivers’ relationship can change dramatically when they become teammates. Both Charles and Alex have a pretty strong relationship with their team, although Charles seems to gel more with Ferrari, to bleed rosso corsa himself where the partnership between Alex and Williams sprouts more from a marriage of convenience. Which is also the case of Carlos with Williams, since he didn’t want to leave Ferrari and had to choose the least terrible option offered to him. Lewis chose to go to Ferrari.

However, we can expect more tensions between Charles and Lewis than between Alex and Carlos, because they’ll have to fight for more significant points, for podiums, for wins, Lewis to end his career with a bang and Charles to proves he is absolutely ready to win a championship, maybe they’ll even fight FOR a championship. The stakes are way higher than at Williams, where fighting for an 11th or 12th place doesn’t matter as much. Alex will be fighting to prove himself, but Carlos doesn’t really have much to fight for. Williams is sort of his waiting room, until a better seat becomes available to him. I wonder how motivated Carlos will be to perform at Williams. If it is better to have low motivation and low fighting or high motivation and high fighting in terms of compatibility in between drivers and a team, for me it is a mystery. I guess Vowles could value the former more. Personally I believe the latter is better, because it pushes the drivers to bring the best out of each other, as long as the fighting is dealt with correctly.

All in all, it’s difficult to argue that a partnership that hasn’t been tested will be better than a partnership which HAS been tested already and has proven to work well. I don’t think this is a great argument to justify Williams being the best lineup for 2025.

Finally, development. It’s all nice to be an incredible driver, but without great feedback development of the car becomes difficult for the team. We’ve seen this kind of thing with Fernando; no matter how good he is on track, the teams he joins always seem to be led astray.

Similarly to the previous point, two of the teams are unknowns, so the assessment is once again difficult to be made. Which means I’d be tempted to put McLaren in first here as well. Ever since Lando and Oscar have been teammates, the car has gone from the worst on the grid to leading the constructor’s championship. Of course other factors such as team personnel and equipment come into play, but one thing’s for sure, they’ve been able to lead their engineers in the right direction. Stella has said before that they have very similar feedback, and I’d be inclined to believe him seeing how good they both are at driving the MCL38. We’ve seen with Lando and Daniel that two drivers giving different feedback make for a difficult job to build a good car, so they’ve definitely found something solid in their current lineup. Maybe they’re not the most experienced and knowledgeable of how different cars and teams work, but their feedback is without a doubt good enough for what McLaren needs it to be. They’re also both very clean on track, which means instead of spending money from the limited budget cap on repair damage the team can put it in development.

As long as we haven’t seen Alex and Carlos drive the same car or Charles and Lewis, determining how compatible each pairing’s feedback is won’t be doable. We know Carlos has great feedback, he’s done a good job in the past and knows how multiple teams work, he’s received compliments on that before. As for Alex, he didn’t really have much time in RedBull and his Williams stint hasn’t been convincing much. However, this could also simply be due to the Williams philosophy of throwing every year until 26 in the bin so, difficult to evaluate. Important to note that Carlos and Alex have been a little messy this year on track, each costing a pretty penny for their reparation work, which is not what Williams needs.

I’d say Charles and Lewis are okay-ish in terms of feedback? They haven’t been part of many teams so that makes it difficult to determine. Ever since Charles joined Ferrari the team has been pretty stable, good but not great. Although his teammates have been Seb and Carlos, which are both great when it comes to development. He’s difficult to judge, but I’d say he seems reasonably solid. Lewis was in a dominant car, which he helped develop so he seems solid as well. However, a big part of that dominance was due to the engine which his feedback has no impact on, and ever since 21 Mercedes has been in a similar position to Ferrari. Although he has been saying that the team isn’t listening to his demands, so that could make him seem not as good as he actually is. I don’t think his McLaren stint is relevant because it was greatly affected by the scandal. Charles seems a bit more crash happy than Lando and Oscar, but Lewis is in their league so they’re not too bad in terms of money spent on reparation instead of development.

Basically, this argument as well doesn’t seem to verify the claim that Williams has the best duo in 2025.

To conclude, none of these arguments are viable to place Williams as the best lineup in 2025. Even if we try to argue they could be the best in general, they finished 3rd in the first two arguments and 2/3 in the two others, which leaves them at the bottom when compared to Ferrari and McLaren. Putting out this kind of statement seems silly from Vowles, and I get that hyping up his team is a great way to motivate his people and fans, but in being so outlandish he only apppears to be delusional and disconnected. If you have any conclusive idea of how Vowles’ statement could be justified I’d love to read it, because I sincerely cannot see a way to make it right!

[solongavalon]

INFATUATION!

[savethevamps]

Topmew & Subtle Conversations

My favorite scene of Topmew during episode eleven would have to be their bed scene in which they finally talk. However, I wanted to highlight another scene that really stood out to me and subtly shows the cracks they had in their relationship.

So when the scene starts, Top is here alone washing the dishes before Mew enters. Once Mew comes, he tries to take over and even tells Top to leave before Top finally tells him “it’s not a lot, I can handle it.”

This may seem like nothing but in my opinion, they’re speaking about more than just the dishes here. This is showing Mew trying to take control and extend an olive branch. Looking at their relationship at this point, Top has been doing all the work to repair it and Mew has been standing aside. Top says to Mew, “look I can handle this, it’s fine!” Him pretending like he can handle everything is him once again punishing himself and taking all of Mew’s anger in an attempt to fix it or “clean” alone. Mew wants to take over and allow Top a moment, but Top cannot let Mew do that since he feels he has this punishment coming. In other words, Top is the one who got the dishes dirty so he thinks he should be the one to clean them.

We then see them start to struggle over the plate. When I saw this I immediately thought, “they’re fighting for control right now.” Not control as in control over each other, but control over the situation at hand. They both want to take over and take responsibility of fixing the relationship and sorting it out. Top wants to do it alone because he feels he made the mess, and Mew wants to take over to show Top that he’s trying his best.

This push and pull that they find themselves in isn’t good for either of them. Top has been consistently punishing himself for his mistakes, while simultaneously allowing Mew to punish him as well. Mew wants to shoulder the responsibility of saying when and how the relationship starts, but he cannot let go of what happened. Neither of them wants to allow the other to take on that responsibility for their own reasons, but what they need to know is that one person doesn’t need to take it all on their own. The more they struggle and pull against each other, the harder it is to hold a solid grip onto their relationship; leading to it all falling apart.

Now, I look at Top bringing up trust right here a little differently. Top is asking why he doesn’t trust him not just because of how their relationship ended, but also because he believes Mew isn’t trusting him to be responsible for fixing everything. He’s essentially saying, “I’m trying here, why don’t you trust me to make it right?” He knows Mew is still cautious around him, but he’s now asking Mew why he won’t even trust him to clean the mess he’s made.

We get more push and pull with Top saying he’ll buy new ones and Mew saying it’s okay he can do it. Again, they’re both trying to take it all on by themselves no matter the cost (see what I did). My favorite part of this entire interaction is the awkward silence that follows. Neither of them knows what to say, they can barely look at each other at this moment. This little argument has turned into something else and they both know it, but they’re also trying their best to be okay for the sake of their relationship.

I can get into the nitty gritty of the altercation where they discuss the actual problem at hand, but I really wanted to highlight these moments. They are both grasping at whatever they can right now, trying their best to assume responsibility over everything wrong with their relationship. The problem with doing that however, is that we get moments where frustration and hostility build up. We get times where Mew’s anger drives him and where Top’s frustration rears its head. They haven’t figured it out at this moment, but they need to be working together to fix this. One person cannot put in the work while the other watches. Essentially in the end, they both have to try as a team and not take it on by themselves. As another person said, they need to look at it as them versus the problem.

Going back to the dishes, if Top is going to insist on washing, then surely he can allow Mew to dry right? If not, then there really is no point of cleaning the mess at all and they can just throw all the dishes away and start over from scratch alone.

[f0point5]

Toto is in a pretty hard situation. Next year is way to early for Kimi to go to merc. He is fast and talented that is not a question but he is young and he makes mistakes. And thats fine. Thats what feeder series are for, to develop drivers. But he is not given enough time. Making mistakes in f2 is one thing, making them in merc very different. The social media reception after he finished p14 in his first race were quite brutal. That would be way worse in an f1 team. The drivers are also using social media, Im sure he saw the people making fun of him. That cant be helpful long term.

Toto finally noticed that overhypeing an 18yrs old before his f2 debut wasnt really a good idea.

Announcing him while he is p9 in the f2 championship would be a pretty wild move…

https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/5oAWBWT5LJNkTvQFdlQBw5/antonelli-on-his-fast-start-to-f2-working-with-oliver-bearman-and-his-title

All he is talking about in this interview is how much he is learning. Which is good. But putting him on f1 testing while he is still learning f2 is an interesting choise. Its great that he is getting testing opportunities but they are really rushing him. And sure it worked out with max but he was one in a million.

Yes Toto doesnt want to lose an other Max level driver, but he could easily be the one to destroy Kimis carrier by rushing him so much.

Sorry rereading this ask I realised that its quite a mess🫣

Tbh, I half agree on Kimi but i think Toto is the biggest problem facing kimi.

While yes, Kimi is p9 in the championship, he is beating his teammate. Yes Ollie missed Saudi so you could argue he could have won or whatever but realistically, there hasn’t been a chasm between their results that would suggest Ollie would be ahead. Kimi is learning very fast for someone who didn’t have the experience of being in f3 at all. I don’t think it’s that crazy to consider giving him a seat.

BUT. Is Toto the TP he needs as a young driver with next to no experience? In my opinion, no. Apart from the fact that Toto doesn’t develop drivers, and is used to dropping them off at the Williams day care and picking them up when they’re ready, or just picking an already finished driver off the market, Toto makes no allowances for the antics that young drivers come with. Even in 2016 he made no allowances for Max, who wasn’t even HIS driver, to be “getting in the way”. He doesn’t like his drivers complaining or inventing. He doesn’t seem like a team principal who would have the understanding that yeah, a kid is going to end up in a first lap incident sometimes, he is going to fuck up qualifying. He is going to impede someone, and you are going to have to go to the stewards with him and fight for him, and not hang him out to dry when he does something a bit unorthodox. And I don’t think Toto is that guy.

Max was one in a million but he didn’t get there in his own, he had a Christian, Helmut, GP, and Jos, but largely Christian in a professional sense, fighting for him, letting him make his mistakes, and swallowing those fuck ups as part of the cost of putting a kid in a car. I don’t think Max would be the driver he is if he’d gone through Williams and Merc, I think he would have been encouraged to be more conservative and ultimately not developed in the same way. You would rather go over the limit and then come back, than never reach the limit.

I don’t see Kimi reaching his potential if he is under Toto from the beginning. And for that reason I don’t see Merc in 2025 being the best idea for him.

That being said, if Merc weren’t who Merc are, taking 2025 as basically live testing for him before the new regs come in is not a bad idea. If watching F2 this year has taught me one thing, it’s that those races will not adequately prepare you for driving in F1 in terms of speed, strategy, awareness, or a long calendar. A burner year to experience that where no one is expecting much from you in a midfield car is the best gift that could be given to Kimi. But coming from Merc, I don’t know how it will go for him.

As for the social media aspect, all you can hope is that Kimi has a good team around him and that he is consuming as little of it as possible. The way he always focuses on the learning says he is taking the right approach to it so far, but only time will tell. I do think there is a twisted positive in the amount of eyes on him, because most of these guys have no clue the amount of scrutiny they will get once they get to f1 and it’s a baptism of fire. As harsh as it sounds, Kimi being eased into it might not be the worst thing. Especially considering he is already associated with such a high profile team.

[lucythornwalter]

Wait a minute, I hear you say. Why are we starting with Felicity? She’s neither the first girl to be released (that’s technically a three-way tie, but the honor is usually given to Kirsten) nor the earliest chronologically (that would be Kaya). What is it about her that means she deserves the first entries in this project?

Well, she might not be the first for Pleasant Company, but she was the first for me. In 1998, when I was five years old, I saw a single volume of one of Felicity’s books in a spinning book rack at a Hallmark store, and I asked my mother to buy it for me based on the cover art and the title (it was Felicity Saves the Day, and the cover features her riding a horse and looking determined but frightened). I read it in the car, and then read it again, and read it again. I was already fascinated by history and specifically by material history, by books about ordinary life in the past and books about artifacts and customs. An Usborne book about life in the medieval era was one of my favorites, alongside another Usborne book about world geography that talked about languages and religious beliefs. I also loved children’s-aimed history books and movies like An American Tail, even as much of the subtle commentary went over my head. I loved The Wizard of Oz and its period setting, and this was also the year I discovered Annie through the 1998 Wonderful World of Disney adaptation. In 1999 I became hooked on A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, and Cosette from Les Misérables and a kids’ graphic novel adaptation of Oliver Twist. I had a box set of the Little House books and had a favorite (On the Banks of Plum Creek, if you were curious. Yes, I’m aware of the irony of being indigenous and liking these books as a kid, but my parents were more concerned with making sure I never watched the turboracist Westerns when they came on TV, and by comparison the near-absence of Native people in the Little House books was pretty tame).

Essentially, I was exactly the kind of person who’d become fully fixated on the American Girl books, and on opinionated and spunky heroines like Felicity in particular.

So. Who is Felicity Merriman?

Felicity Merriman is the eldest child of Edward and Martha Merriman, who live and work in Williamsburg in 1774. Edward Merriman is a genteel tradesman who owns a prosperous general store, and Martha is the daughter and probable only surviving child of an unnamed Virginia planter who owns a substantial estate called King’s Creek. Felicity’s younger siblings are Nan, William, and Polly. Her best friend is Elizabeth Cole, a recently-arrived new colonist from England whose family is deeply loyal to the British crown. Her books are primarily about struggling to find her place as a straightforwardly masc-of-center tomboy who prefers crossdressing and working in the trades to mending and cooking, and about the social divides caused by growing anti-monarchist sentiment in the American colonies and how her friendships and morals are impacted by the political turmoil.

Felicity Merriman is also a slaveowner, from a slaveowning family, and at no point do the original six books manage to address this. In fact, they actively avoid it – the status of her father’s assistant Marcus as an enslaved person is only confirmed in the “Looking Back: A Peek Into the Past” section of Meet Felicity once, and while it’s acknowledged that King’s Creek Plantation is a slave-worked plantation with slave quarters, the text of Felicity Saves the Day never states outright that she interacts with slaves despite the illustrations depicting her in the fields alongside them. There’s a darker-skinned woman named Rose who assists her mother domestically, and unlike Marcus she is never confirmed to be either enslaved or free, forcing me to come to the conclusion that she’s probably also owned by the Merriman household and thus by Felicity.

This is the original and damning sin of Felicity’s books and character concept, and it cannot be escaped. Felicity’s social status protects her from a lot of misbehavior and allows her the luxury of a leisurely girlhood with easy education and no expectation that she work for a living beyond being a genteel housewife. She has to pitch in around the house along with her mother and Rose, but she has plenty of time to ride horses and play with her siblings, and she gets away with doing nothing all summer while her laundry and mending and food are all magically done with no effort from her.

This is also one of the twin original and damning sins of America-as-settler-colony – the irony of slaveowners calling for and fighting for a narrow definition of freedom with broad ideals that they only want to take for themselves is at this point a very old topic of conversation. The other sin, the theft of land and the genocide of Native people, isn’t mentioned at all in Felicity’s books. Felicity Saves the Day is at least conscious of the casual cruelty of the Merrimans and devotes much of its Looking Back chapter to discussion of plantation life for slaves, but the only mention indigenous people get is a comment in Meet Felicity that we lived in North America for fifteen thousand years prior to European settlement. Where did we go? What happened to us? Pleasant Company isn’t that concerned with the question.

As a result, Felicity’s books are best read with something of a critical eye. Once you see how completely and how purposefully slavery is erased from her daily life, it becomes impossible to ignore, and kind of drowns out all the other things that are still excellent. And that’s a real shame, I think. There’s a lot to be examined here, about girlhood in the 1770s and girlhood in the 1990s, about class and gender and how those things impact and frustrate Felicity, about how she grows in confidence and about her sense of justice. Those things had an impact on me – I was inspired by her at five years old and I can recognize that fondness and desire to be just like her now, twenty-six years later.

Ultimately, I can love and appreciate what I, personally, internalized about her story and her journey to womanhood, but I’m never going to be able to uncritically lose myself in her world again. That’s the best and most comprehensive introduction I can give, and even that isn’t enough to effectively answer for what Pleasant Company chose to do. I can’t defend it, and I won’t defend it, but this was neither the first nor last book series I loved that was written by racists. I love it enough to say it fucked up badly, and I will be talking about this as it comes up (or doesn’t) in the text. That’s the best I can offer.

So let’s Meet Felicity.

[a-sparrows-melody]

Five Survive - Holly Jackson

DISCLAIMER: These are my opinions. I do not mean harm - neither to the creator of this wonderful book, nor to the fandom and any of its followers. If you do not agree with my opinion, please do not engage merely to fight with me (I don't like it).

I could see myself enjoying it if I was younger - but I'm not, and I personally don't appreciate Jackson's YA style. In my opinion, it was pretty average and not Jackson's best work. Here’s what I thought of it:

The characters were well-written, but underwhelming. One thing I loved about them were how well-rounded they were. None of them were inherently good or bad, and that provided a necessary connect.

Red was a mediocre main character. Jackson wrote her in an incredible way, where the reader felt so close yet distant to her (awe-inspiring writing style. Loved it). The teenage angst and depression were spot-on, and I felt I could relate to her a lot. But she was dull, and somewhat irritating. In the books, Red's trauma surrounding her mother was a huge give-away of the one with the secret. Red's internal monologue turned out to be very repetitive, as if Jackson was copy-pasting everything. And I don't really think that Red would be thinking to that extent about her mother's death - it felt like a new wound than something done five years ago.

The rest of the characters (Reyna, Simon, Maddy) were kind of ignored. I kept feeling as if they had no emotions and were just plot conveniences (more like inconveniences). They were fine but there was nothing else about them. I realized who was going to die from the beginning.

The characters felt very organized. Every emotional meltdown, every outburst was seen coming from the beginning. Personally, this was a let-down because I'm used to teenage characters being unpredictable and stupid.

The plot, too, was a tad unhinged, and not in a good way. Jackson did an absolutely phenomenal thing by stretching events of eight hours into a novel of four hundred pages, all while keeping the readers involved the whole thing. Truly awe-inspiring. Most of the plot twists felt very unplanned, as if Jackson surprised herself by writing it - but I get it, I do that a lot in my writing. In some places, the stakes were so high that they tipped the scale and weren't exciting anymore.

The title was a bit of a distraction. The book wasn't even based on Oliver's inconsequential death and the blurb and title together gave away the main tension of the movie. Halfway through and I already detected who was going to die.

One thing I truly loved was the poetic irony in the last leg of the book. Red survives a deadly sniper and ends up getting shot by a bumbling, assuming policeman. I absolutely loved Maddy and Red's friendship, as well as Arthur and Red's weird lying dynamic.

To conclude, it was wonderful book but not really my cup of tea. Holly Jackson does it well.

-X-

Maybe I will continue book reviews! Love you all <3 and thank you for interacting!

[rose-tinted-vision]

ReoNagi/NagiReo shower thoughts: a short essay

[manga spoilers ahead, the usual]

Disclaimer: These are just my own opinions on the ship.

The ReoNagi ship at its foundation is actually a "marriage of convenience/fwb-to-lovers" trope, if you think about it...

Or rather, it's the equivalent exchange meme: Reo gets to utilize Nagi's football skills and Nagi gets a convenient life with someone taking care of all his needs.

Although Nagi realises pretty early on how Reo essentially manipulates others around him to reach his goals (even back in school), and likely himself as well, but he lets himself get manipulated.

(It's shown in episode Nagi that Reo utilized methods like that "3rd meal trading" to maintain the harmony in Team V, to avoid turning out like Barou's team).

Or rather, allows himself to be manipulated because it benefits him in the end too, anyway: it's a somewhat mutually beneficial relationship playing to both of their individual strengths.

Though on Nagis end it may also have something to do with what Nagi says about Reo being the only person to be interested in "a slacker like me".

Whereas on Reo's end, given how he says everything back in the Mikage corporation is boring, and the way he latches onto Nagi, calling him his treasure, I'd say that Nagi probably symbolises his goal. Attaining something that can't be bought with money. Something beyond even the Mikage corporation.

Of course, their relationship evolves over the course of blue lock, in the sense that Reo is content with what they have, is alright with continuing as they are, but Nagi is partially influenced/caught up in the competitiveness of their environment and knows that he can play at a higher level, so he chooses to leave Reo.

Even though he's breaking their promise of staying together till the end, from his point of view, his growth also benefits Reo in the end, so he chooses that path. Nagi is more practical than emotional, and probably decided that the end result is worth it.

And this choice shakes up their relationship, of course. Like I've mentioned in this post: the miscommunication troupe is the very core of their relationship.

Because their relationship is also relatively new, no matter how well they work together. They've only been playing football together for about six months, of course Reo doesn't understand why Nagi would up and leave, because the other didn't tell him, and Nagi assumes that Reo understands his actions.

And suddenly their relationship is not so mutually beneficial anymore: Reo thinks that Nagi has abandoned him, so he avoids him, and Nagi doesn't have anyone fussing over him anymore.

Reo gets messed up by the emotional whiplash of his best friend leaving him and calling him a pain in the ass (derogatory), and Nagi has to look after himself.

Essentially, they're learning how to be less codependent on each other. Reo in the emotional sense, and Nagi in the practical sense of it all. Because Reo was kind of putting all his eggs in one basket (basket being Nagi here), who doesn't realise the weight he was holding.

Then Nagi throws a reverse-uno and asks Reo for his help in football. Kind of like a full-circle moment, also seems like Nagi's way of holding out an olive branch.

Though the above panels do show that

Nagi and Reo's goals are still unaligned

While Reo's goals shifted slightly from "winning the world cup" to "making Nagi the best in the world", Nagi's always been going along with Reos whims, and only just started thinking for himself.

In chapter 207 Nagi says he's been playing so far with the goal of "beating Isagi", he doesn't really have the ambition to be the "world's #1", keeping with his consistent theme of just wanting to slack.

And it's obvious that they both want to fall back to their old dynamics (a safety net), but they've both changed: Nagi has somewhat developed his "ego", and a hunger to defeat others, Reo has learnt how to fight by himself (though he doesn't want to). Thus their dynamics would inevitably change, too.

So this begs the question: are they still "mutually beneficial"? Do they have to be to maintain their relationship?

(Though it's my hope that Reo understands where Nagi is coming from now after that exchange they had on the field. I'm not as confident in Nagi understanding Reo's outburst, but. Maybe him thanking Reo for introducing him to football is a start).

[familyabolisher]

I'm very curious about any more in depth thoughts you have on It Came From The Closet! It's been on my radar and I'd been planning to check it out soon as my next read, and this is the first opinion I've seen on it that isn't part of what feels like marketing reviews almost. Is it the analysis of the horror movies and themes that feels off or the way the essays are written? I'm a huge horror fan and I've definitely seen a...few queer horror takes that felt either like reaches or just "off" to me, but it's always hard to put my finger on it

i’ve only read the first few essays so it’s entirely possible that the volume will improve from here on out (though i … haven’t gotten my hopes up), but my impression so far is that it’s a series of schlocky, surface-level analyses providing a veneer of pop talking points around “horror” and “queerness” over what are often frankly uninteresting personal essays. v little insight and v little desire to bring anything new to the table; frankly, v little interest in the films they purport to be writing on beyond shallow rhetorical vehicles for personal reflection. my patience for The Personal Essay is vvv low at the best of times, but like, i can appreciate a work from which i can glean some compelling insights and articulate a thoughtful response. and, god, none of these pieces have crossed that hurdle so far.

like, if it’s not a long string of appeals to buzzwords like “queerbaiting” and “bury your gays” or v poorly substantiated appeals to "subversion" then it's incorrectly defined “reparative reading” or one writer citing that stupid mary oliver soft animal of your body whatever line out of literally nowhere. it’s just not insightful or imaginative. at its worst it does just read like an annoying tumblr post circa 2017. carmen maria machado writes an essay on jennifer’s body as articulating something essential to her bisexuality such that efforts to talk about the way in which it marketed itself via appealing to the homophobic cultural currency of teen lesbian eroticism somehow constitutes “gatekeeping.” this is not compelling or original critical writing, people.

almost every essay seems to fall back on the same base claim: that what makes horror horrifying relies on a currency of alterity which discursively constructs the “other” and that queer people can & will identify with the “other”—the monster in the horror film—in order to make sense of themselves & overturn the hegemony that the film may well seek to affirm. cool, awesome—this is not new analysis. i would not expect this kind of thing to be churned out in a book published in 2022; we know this already. i worry that overleaning into this idea of a “reclamation” of sorts a) risks forfeiting the language we have available to us to actually talk about the sort of bigotry which can fuel these kinds of stories; how many people talk about le fanu’s carmilla as a stunning depiction of erotic lesbian vampires and lose sight of its having been a v homophobic, colonialist text in their doing so?; and b) neglects the tradition of horror within alterity; horror being made not out of a conservative ethos that we seek to critically remould into a kind of limp simulacrum of a “radical” one, but one born out of a desire to tell a story against heteronormative social imaginaries in the first place. it’s all well and good to identify with regan from the exorcist and cite your poor understanding of reparative readings (not a critical framework i subscribe to anyway, but like, at least get it right?) in doing so, but do we have to keep limiting our discourse to this back-and-forth about whether or not we can salvage obviously homophobic/misogynistic/ableist/racist stories forever? lol. i watched Hellraiser for the first time the other day and that was queer horror that could be met with on far more compelling terms than whatever all this is.