#olivers best work [in its opinion]

[dutchwinter]

INFATUATION!

[cjlouwho]

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.

[romanarose]

Love and Friendship

Joel Miller x fem!reader

Summary: Joel drives you and you friends home.

Warnings: Mentions of drinking and getting drunk, brief mention of cheating and bad relationship not with reader or Joel, but her friend. Joel being respectful as hell.

Immersivity: Reader is fem and drinks

Written for the @swiftiscruff fic exchange! This is dedicated to every single one of the people in my RomanaVerse discourd server, in no particular order.

Lila, Angie, Kit, Kate, Katie, May, Tara, Winnie, Alicia, Del, Whitney, Dolli, Fen, Haru, Ivy, Mickyla, Pimo, Soup, Olive. Thank you to all you guys who have been supporting my work for years or few weeks. I love you all. If i somehow missed your name its just bc im silly i swear.

******************

“JOOOOOOOOOOOEL!!!!”

Joel had to pull the phone away from his head as you screamed over the thumping sounds of the club. He hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. While you were out with friends, he had spent the evening and into the warm summer night Sarah’s room putting in a built-in bookshelf. She was on a trip with his parents for a few weeks and wanted to surprise her when she got back. Sarah always wanted a built-in bookshelf. 

“Shit! I’m so sorry darl’n!” Joel ran down the stairs, shoving his feet into his shoes and grabbing his keys. “I lost track of time, I’ll be there in 10!”

Joel was supposed to pick you up at 1 AM from the bar. It was 1:53, and he wouldn’t get there until the bar closed. 

“It’s okay baby!” you didn’t sound peeved at all. “But could we maybe drop off my friends too? Since we’re out anyway?”

He hopped into his car. “Yeah, of course baby, of course. Just stand outside once they close up, don’t talk to no one and don’t go near any cars. Make sure Angie doesn’t wander off with no one.”

You promised to stay on the phone with him until he got there. Joel didn’t like you leaving the bars on your own, too many freaks and perverts out there.

Joel pulled up to find you with your friends standing by the building, and he got out to open the door for you and them. “Sorry the back’s a little messy, ladies, work truck and all- hold on.” As you got in the front, Joel got a blanket from the black and laid it over the seats “There, less dirty.”

Angie, Kat and Lana all thanked Joel, and climbed in the back. 

While Joel drove to Lana and Kat’s, you talked to you rfriends about the night. 

“I can’t believe you danced with him Ang, what the fuck. He cheated on you three times.”

“I knoooooowwww!” She giggled. “But he’s sooooooo cute!!!”

Kat rolled her eyes with a smile. “Girl he looks like a grown up Big Mouth guy.”

“Nick Kroll?”

“What? No. Like the cartoon guy grown up.”

“Yeah, the weird Big Mouth kid was modeled after Nick Kroll so that’s just Nick Kroll? And he’s hot??”

Kat groaned, sinking down into their seat. “No, not Nick Kroll, the one voiced by John Mul- wait, you think Nick Kroll is hot?”

The conversation continued with Angie trying to justify how she wants to give Jake ‘Just one more chance!’

Finally, you turn to Joel. “What do you think, baby?”

Joel sighed, and shifted in his seat a bit. “Well, it ain’t none of my business, and I shouldn’t really git involved…”

You smile at your boyfriend. “But you have an opinion anyway.”

With a good natured huff, he lets it out. “It’s just that Angie, I think you’re a nice gal, and if I may, respectfully, easy on the eyes and I think you could do better than a 30 year old still trying to get his rap career off the ground and looks like a naked mole rat.”

The truck erupted in laughter, including Angie,at Joel’s half-roast, half compliment, and he smiled softly. He liked your friends, and he wanted them to like him too.

*

First up was Kat and Lana. Lana was quite drunk so Joel put the truck in park and helped Kat take her girlfriend inside. Once through the door and up the stairs and safe, Joel said goodnight and locked the door as he left.

Angie was asleep by the time he was back.

“She alright?” He asked about your best friend. 

You mumbled, tired but with a smile. You had a great night, and loved your friends very, very much. “Yeah, she didn’t drink that much. She’s just not used to being up this late”

Joel hummed in recognition. “That’s right, she works the early shift. She’s probably up at like what, 4 AM?”

Turning to him with a bright smile, you giggle a bit. “How do you remember that?”

He shrugged, not thinking much of it. “Angie’s usually the first to leave, so it makes sense.”

You can’t help beam at him, streetlights periodically illuminating his pretty face, strong nose, full cheeks. Your friends mattered to you, them and Joel and Sarah were your everything. So many times, you hear of women whose friends hate their man and vice versa, how there was contention. Hell, Angie’s stupid ass ex never wanted her to hang out with your girlfriends, saying you and them were bad influences, accusing Kat and Lana of trying to sleep with her, etc etc etc. Joel was never like that. 

From the beginning, Joel was respectful, kind, and welcoming to your friends and family. They were welcome over any time, and sometimes came over when you weren’t home to wait for you. You trusted them with Joel and Joel with them. He’d always offer to BBQ something on a warm day, or make you drinks. Slowly, as he’s gotten more comfortable, your precious, shy man has been joking around with them, which makes you smile. Joel was more nervous than he let on a lot of the time, hiding his anti-anxiety pills  from you for months after you moved in. Still, he always welcomed your friends and in return they were respectful of his space and self. 

Pulling up to Angie’s, she’s sleeping like a baby.

“You’re gonna have to carry her and put her to bed, ain’t noth’n wake’n her up once she’s out.” You are about asleep yourself, leaning against the window.

Joel bawled. “I can’t do that!”

“Sure you can, have you seen your arms? Jacked.”

“No- I mean-” He sighed. “I can’t take a drunk lady to her bedroom, it’s indecent!”

“Well she ain’t sleep’n in the truck, c’mon I’ll walk with you. 

Joel sighed again but agreed. Walking around the truck, he unbuckled her, scooped her up and carried her to where you opened your door with your spare key. You guided your boyfriend to the bedroom and excused himself to get her water. There was no way you were gonna be able to put her in pj’s by yourself, so you just unzipped her dress to give her room to breathe and took off her strappy heels. You put fuzzy socks on your feet, the aloe infused kind she loved and covered her in her blankets.

A knock on the door. “She decent?”

“Yeah, come on in.”

Joel placed the glass of water and an Advil on the counter and a trash can by the bedside and said he'd be in the living room.

You sit by your friend’s side, just for a moment, stroking her hair, admiring how pretty your friend was. Beautiful woman, beautiful heart. Your best friend. 

She murmured your name. You took the opportunity to sit her up, making sure she drank some water. “Yes babe?”

“I like Joel a lot.” Angie yawned. “You should keep him.”

You chuckled. “He can’t escape me if tried.”

*

Once she was asleep again, you walk out and take Joel’s hand, wrapping your arms to hang off his. Joel opens the door for you, and you slide into the middle of the seat, snug against him when he gets in the driver’s side.

“Seatbelt.” He reminded you, you mutter ‘blah blah blah’ but he reaches over you and straps you in.

“Love you.”

“Love you too, darl’n.”

You drive down the road, Joel taking the long way home just so you could watch the night sky together. His truck rumbled and vibrated and bounced, but his arm around your shoulder steadied you.

“They like you a lot. My friends.”

“I like them too. And baby, I ain’t try’n.”

You look up at him. “Hm?”

“To escape.” Joel kissed your forehead tenderly. “Heard what you said to Angie, and I ain’t trying to escape. Not in a million years.”

******************

due to everything happening, this will be my last fic for a little. If you know my other writing formates, I will be updating there a bit here and there but with everything going on I think it's best to keep things quiet for a min. the timing is fitting, as I have a lot of projects to do before school finals.

Then, I'll be backand raring to go again! I think a break will do me good.

I love you all dearly!

No tags bc given everything, I don't wanna draw attention from myself to anyone else. Don't feel like you gotta reblog this one, I would suggest you don't to avoid the heat.

Hugs, and thank you to everyone whose supported my writing for the last 3 years.

[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

[sexcromancy]

hii what is men love orphans in ali h world <3 and !! whats its application to louis in your opinion :)

^ first ever mention of men love orphans in the tags of this post. my own joke still makes me laugh tbh

men love orphans is a concept I developed to help me describe some of the dynamics I was witnessing in alibooks/hetromance, and then I started to see it everywhere. it also synthesized some other ideas I'd been working on for a long time. I'm going to give some context, pin down the explanation of the concept, and then apply it to LDPDL. okay let's go!

I first identified the idea of dadgender in the character of Joel thelastofus: someone who defines themselves completely by their relationship to a child, a dependent, someone to take care of. this idea was really compelling to me; it's obviously not new in tlou or my imagination but it connected well with my John theories and my general fascination with how men operate within and react to the patriarchy.¹

as I read more Ali novels and other hetromances, I began to notice a trend. many, many of the main women characters were orphans, or otherwise abandoned or unloved by parents/family. this is nothing new in literature - Harry Potter is the most obvious example, but there's plenty of writing about the allure of being an orphan, how it frees you from the family ties that might keep other heroes from their fate, etc. it's a very simple and straightforward tragic backstory. my whole goal with AHU is to interrogate the choices Ali makes in her books, and to respect those choices as legitimate, intentional, and deserving of analysis. so once I noticed this, I wanted to figure it out. off the top of my head: olive, bee, elsie, rue, and misery are all orphaned or have one dead parent and a difficult relationship with their surviving parent. family is rarely a significant plot point; it serves only as color and tragic backstory. now, of course, rey starwars is an orphan. rey is famously the original aliheroine, the first character she wrote fic about. one of the biggest reylo scenes in tlj is kylo negging her about being an orphan. ali does gradually distance her own orphans from rey,² but she is really only reinventing it. the loneliness, the isolation, the feeling of being unloved and unloveable, is a constant for all the girls. it is essential that these girls be "orphans" to the varying degrees that they are, in order to facilitate the fantasy.

and what is that fantasy? well, it depends who you ask. the fantasy is the attractive validation of looking after something small, weak, needy. taking care of someone. or, the fantasy is being taken care of, your hurt being acknowledged and treated seriously. the "who did this to you" trope is about protectiveness, yes, but it's also about someone seeing that you got hurt and that it matters! or, the fantasy is about daddy kink going both ways: a woman who needs a strong older man because she was abandoned by her father, but also a man who needs the affirmation of "fatherhood" to feel good about himself. dadgender!³

men love orphans is all of this, and in alibooks it manifests in some specific ways. as mentioned above, there's the literal orphanhood of some of the girls. there is also the control aspect, manifesting in the repeated fantasy of being locked up and treasured and used. another repeated fantasy is found family: that a woman would find not only an adopted father in her lover, but also a new cadre of loveable misfits to belong to as well. Eli has his coworkers and little sister, levi has a best friend and a goddaughter, Jack has useful colleagues and Adam and olive, and lowe, of course, has his literal wolfpack.

AS FOR LDPDL, I think that iwtv plays with men love orphans tropes in some fun and creative ways. when lestat is courting Louis, it's not because he's pathetic and vulnerable. it's actually sort of the opposite; he's attracted to his rage, initially, and his slippery sexy unforgettableness. lestat brings louis down on purpose, systematically taking away everything he loves, in order to draw him into vampirism. but i think the distinction is important; lestat doesn't want to actually take care of a needy man, he just wants to create circumstances where he will be needed. I say all that with the caveat that our version of their early relationship is canonically based on louis' recollection of the time. not that I think our gorgeous princess would ever lie to us, but, well, that is sort of the point of the show. all that being said, I think the turning Claudia scene (both versions) has strong men love orphans themes in multiple directions. Louis is experiencing a strong dadgender moment, needing Claudia to live in order to validate his own existence, but he is also using his own terror and despair to compell his daddy (lestat) into saving this sad and needy thing (Claudia). that goes all the way back around to this post and the idea that a husband-daddy can give you not just his own love and care, but also an entire family. rich text!!!

and loumand: I think that the show is always contrasting the two relationships and the way Louis falls headfirst into both, headed straight for the megalodon headless of consequences, etc. and I think he is partially repeating the patterns of above. in Paris he is more actively pathetic, and Armand does get off on that, but the thing that is so thrilling about loumand is they're sort of doing Tetris to each other. like, "yes, maitrê" scene. no one has painted me for centuries. the obvious constant back and forth seesaw of power and control in Dubai, and the occasional reminders that that seesaw is itself a fantasy to keep Louis mollified. anyway. what I'm saying is a) loumand crazy b) they're sort of doing nesting dolls men love orphans but it never ends c) with the slight variation that any external "family" is treated as an existential threat and terminator'd. 

ultimately, I think that any relationship with a power dynamic could have some amount of men love orphans going on in some direction. I definitely love to put the goggles on. I love that straight women (and anyone else) can make anything hot as a cope. great time to be alive if you love seeing what makes other people horny

footnotes

1. this has always been an interest of mine; I had a phase where I was obsessed with incels. brand new is one of my favorite bands. etc.

2. as discussed in this post, she becomes a better writer in real time as her books get further from her fic.

3. I made a men love orphans lbxd list if you'd like to see more, linked in this post

[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!

[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.

[dutchwinter]

x

[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.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Browsing some old Chortle reviews today for no reason, and found a review of Andy Zaltzman's first ever Edinburgh hour. Things I knew about this show yesterday: It was called Andy Zaltzman versus The Mysterious Dog of Doom, it was billed as a solo show but featured occasions bits with John Oliver, it was before he got particularly into political comedy and was mainly just weird surreal stuff, it was nominated for the 2001 Perrier Newcomer Award. Things I know now: Steve Bennett liked it a whole lot better than he liked John Oliver's solo debut the following year.

Things I know about the show now: According to Steve Bennett,

Andy Zaltzman is producing some of the most interesting and intelligent stand-up around.

He aims terrifically high, with material that aims to capture vast and important ideas and distil them into surreal streams of observation, underlining the absurdity of the situations.

And, considering how ambitious his targets are, his strike rate is remarkably good, producing plenty of laughs from such complex social and political points.

Well that doesn't really fit with what Andy has told both Stuart Goldsmith and Stewart Lee in interviews, that his first comedy hour wasn't particularly political or focused or worth much of anything at all. I figured he must be downplaying something about it, given that it got nominated for quite a significant award.

The integrity of the material is clearly important to Zaltzman, who also takes some well-aimed pops at the conventions and laziness of more conventional stand-up.

Oh I'd pay money to hear that. I mean, obviously I would have already been willing to pay good money for Andy Zaltzman's 2001 stand-up show. But I would really like to hear what a 27-year-old Zaltzman had to say about the laziness of more conventional stand-up. John Oliver wrote that weird article in 2003 getting mad at comedians who slag off Americans for cheap points with British audiences (I mean, I agree with his point, but it was a bit of a weird focus). What did Andy get mad about? Comedians who occasional cite accurate facts?

Mind you, he's not beyond the odd groanworthy pun himself, albeit a finely crafted one.

Sorry, does that mean puns were the things Andy complained about in conventional stand-up? Also, this would later prove to be the largest understatement of Steve Bennett's career, including the time in 2012 when he said that politics and racial identity "inform some of [Nish Kumar's] act."

At its best, the content is superb, although the densely packed routines can sometimes labour an idea beyond its comic limit.

I apologize my above incorrect statement. This is the largest understatement of Steve Bennett's career. (I think that is an amusing thing to say, but also a genuine point. People joke about Andy's puns, but as long as his pun runs are, if someone thinks of the fundamental building blocks of Andy Zaltzman's comedy, that'll be the extensive and laboured analogies. And they're densely packed as fuck.)

But the show is ultimately let down by its execution.

Hey! Steve! Come on, man. You were being so nice. What are you turning it around for now?

Zaltzman is never going to be one of those charismatic comics who can effortlessly work a room, but the presentation could still do with more polish.

Okay that may be accurate, but, hey! Fuck off, Steve! That is our guy who will never be one of those charismatic comics you're talking about! Don't try to polish Andy Zaltzman! No one is allowed to polish Andy Zaltzman. Can you imagine Andy Zaltzman polished? No thank you. I don't like that thought.

The Macguffin of getting the audience to vote for Zaltzman's treatise or the contrary opinions of the Dog Of Doom is an imaginative way to break up the material, even though it sometimes seems incongruously nailed onto the end of a routine.

Fair enough he does do that. I had no idea he was doing it as early as 2001. I'm sorry that Steve man is being so mean to you, Andy. Come to Edinburgh this year and I will happily vote in all your weird audience polls and I promise not to call it incongruous on the internet afterwards.

But the voting, and the smattering of sketches with fellow comic John Oliver,

Hey! Hey, I know that guy! That guy! Sketches with that other guy John Oliver! I had heard them say before that even in the couple of years when they were both doing stand-up but hadn't started doing joint double-act shows, they were appearing in each other's solo stuff. And I quite enjoy this piece of Avalon promo material from 2002, in which John Oliver tries to sell himself by bragging that he appeared briefly in that show by the successful Andy Zaltzman that got nominated for a Perrier Newcomer award. From the brief window when the balance of fame and fortune between them was that way around.

still leaves the occasional lengthy chunk of monologue that can seem more like lecture than comedy, with too few gags to justify the concentration required.

That's the first bit of this review that doesn't sound like the Andy Zaltzman we now know at all. When I say his comedy is densely packed, it's densely packed with jokes, among other things. But I can believe that maybe wasn't so much the case in 2001.

However, as a debut Edinburgh show, this is a brave and welcome attempt to breathe new life into the genre. And although the raw talent still needs to be better harnessed, it's a show well worth seeing now, to glimpse what the future of stand-up could, hopefully, be.

You're God damn fucking right it was. I mean, I don't know what that show specifically was. It might actually have been shit. But well done on correctly recognizing Andy as a brave and welcome attempt to breathe new life into the genre, and the future of what stand-up could, hopefully, be. Are we lucky that he did turn out to be that?

@lastweeksshirttonight I think you'd enjoy reading this.

[maygrcnt]

been reflecting on the season a lot recently and on the topic of bucks bisexuality storyline, and i think ive come to the conclusion that theres maybe some catastrphization on the part of people who think the arc is horribly written, but also other people seem to be looking at it through rose tinted glasses and accepting anything given to them just because the storyline was such a long time coming. And i’ve had a hard time with figuring out why both sides of these takes just bother me so much so i sat down with my thoughts while work was slow and i rotated evan buckley in my mind until i had coherent thoughts

When it comes to the self discovery of it all i think that is probably the best thing the show did with the arc. episodes four and five were ultimately huge successes in my opinion on the topic of bisexuality. My main issue with this part of it is not specifically to do with the bi-ness of the storyline but the show in general. The show, showrunner, and Oliver want us to believe this storyline is different, that this is the one that finally changes everything, and I fully believe them in that being their intentions. However, they didnt show that to us well enough. The show has a glaringly cliche formula when it comes to buck and eddie love storylines that i used to think was intentional parallelism but now believe to be a writing rutt that they can't seem to break out of. They meet the partner, they have a romantic moment, something gets in the way of that romance, they meet up at a restaurant to “start over”. Ali, natalia, ana all follow this exactly and taylor sort of. its just tired? And the fact that this is exactly how buck and tommys relationship starts too just makes it so i cant convince myself that this is any different than before. Like i said i truly believe the writers thought they were pulling buck off the hamster wheel and the commentary outside the show tells me that he’s supposed to be doing something new, but they just can't escape their own romance formula enough to actually do it in the TEXT. and one thing about me is i think when it comes to TV, a viewer response lens is the most important way to analyze the story. the intention of the writer doesnt matter as much as the interpretation of the viewer because the average viewer of prime time television isnt reading tim minears interviews or listening to the podcasts oliver stark does, theyre tuning in at 8pm est and tuning out at 9. to conclude on the topic of bucks self discovery arc, i think it was done well. i think this is a general consensus, i feel like most people who think the storyline went sour still believe that episode four was done well at the very least

when it comes to the coming out of it all, this is one spot where i believe there’s some catastrophizing. the storyline had to choose carefully who got the long coming out scenes and i think it’s crazy to say that they chose wrong. do i wish there was a little bit of a longer beat with both hen and bobby about the storyline, yes absolutely. but i don’t think scenes with buck sitting down to formally come out to them would have been either necessary nor in character. bucks strongest canonical ties are to maddie, eddie, and bobby. two of which he never felt the need to come out formally to either by the way. i think a lot of people wanted to see more hesitation and fear from buck about his sexuality, but what they decided to show us instead was a man who realized something new about himself and immediately understood that the people around him were going to love and accept him no matter what. the only slip we see in this confidence is around eddie where… im trying to keep this analysis unbiased by non canon things so im not going to get into what i think of that but… in any sense bucks coming out moments were not about coming out at all but instead always about him being loved by his family. i rate this part of the storyline 10/10 because it all felt so natural and real for someone who has the support system and love that buck does (not saying it isn’t hard to come out even when people are supportive, just that i get why it wasn’t hard for buck). the storyline matched the character really well, but if they were to give the same easy breezy coming out arc to a character with the same backstory as say eddie then i would understand the want for more turbulence.

now the most polarizing part of the storyline for sure is the “established relationship” part of the season i guess you could call it lmao. my personal main complaint here is that we immediately lose any and all insight into the *new* of it all. if you want to make a big deal about this romance storyline being different than the other ones, you actually have to show us on screen what’s DIFFERENT about it. it doesn’t bother me so much on a relationship side of things because the relationship isn’t my personal cup of tea, but i think it would have been nice to see more scenes focused on the reasons this relationship is something new for buck. i’m not a tv writer, i honestly don’t have a suggestion for scenes that could have made this better for me. i think a tone thing is big part of it, if they lightened up tommy’s interactions with buck made him a little more flirty and lively it would have felt truly like a new relationship still in the phase of navigating a new dynamic rather than. well it doesn’t matter what i thought the relationship felt like by the end that’s not the point here. another place i feel like they could have put some more effort in is the bobby of it all, he was very preoccupied but their conversation felt stilted and not actually how i imagine it going. when it comes to the acknowledgment of bisexuality and newfound personal experiences i rate the end of the season: bad. i don’t think this was by virtue of the show not caring or wanting to portray the storyline anymore, but just by virtue of the entire end of the season being… kinda bad.

finally the finale, oh the finale… i swear im trying to come at this as unbiased as i can when i talk about the BT dinner scene but just know that i didn’t like it and that may bleed through. i think it was unfavorable of them to frame this scene the way they did. by having the scene start en media res and having us jump in to the dinner already in progress it feels disingenuous, because now im supposed to believe buck left the hospital, cooked an entire meal, set up a date, started eating and only THEN was the topic of bobby’s health brought up? it feels like this scene was written in a way that it would be for a well established long term couple, not a new relationship we’ve barely seen on screen. in this very scene is the first time tommy even learns what bucks relationship with bobby is like, this is very obviously not a deep connection yet so why are they being given the framework of it? the show is telling us that this relationship has gotten more serious without any proof and i find it very hard to believe them. i think there’s ONE simple change that makes this scene work 100x better and makes me feel like buck is actually settling into the relationship rather than having to take tim minear word for it: just start the scene with buck coming home to tommy! if buck is just getting home from the hospital it doesn’t feel as out of character because there’s less assumed time where buck is for some reason not worried about bobby, which he WOULD be don’t even try to tell me he’s not. and if tommy is already in bucks apartment when he comes home we learn so much about their relationship with such a small gesture. that buck feels comfortable with him there, that tommy feels comfortable alone there, that they spend time there often enough that tommy knows his way around. it just feels like this scene was written in good faith but the forgetfulness by the writers on the overall context of where this scene was in the episode created a strange tone in which i’m supposed to believe evan buckley would ever plan a romantic date night while bobby nash is literally comatose. thoughts on the bisexual storyline in the finale: no. i’m not gonna get into the daddy issues line of it all because that’s a lot more opinion based and it would make this like double length. ask me about it if you want i guess.

all in all, i think there’s … a lot that could have and should have been done differently in order to maximize the goals and effects that tim continuously told us he was trying to achieve. when it comes to carefully telling a story of late life sexuality discovery, i think they did well. when it comes to most other aspects, i think the ball was dropped. pls feel free to send messages or asks regarding this topic because i think im still developing thoughts on it and id love to have conversations regarding :)

[raviliuz]

Flintwood soulmate au

That's kinda long and kinda cute-funny i guess. Anyways, Flintwood is so perfect for soulmates au

Marcus Flint told himself he didn't care who his soulmate was. Everyone was incredibly excited about it, it was the only interesting topic around sixteen-year-olds, they analyzed their signs, trying to guess who their soulmate was. Marcus, however, was most weirded out by couples, stressed that they might not turn out to be meant for each other. They loved each other, they knew that their relationship worked well and made them happy, and yet they were willing to give it up for someone they might not even know.

Flint knew from the examples of his and his friends' parents that both a soulmate relationship could be a disaster and a relationship between people who, according to the universe, were not meant for each other, could be perfect and full of love. He didn't get his hopes up for the whole farce.

Despite this, when he went to bed on June 21, he couldn't stop thinking that when he woke up in the morning, he would have a tattoo of his soulmate.

***

On the morning of June 22, Marcus had a hard time stopping himself from examining his body for the tattoo. He didn't want it to be the first thing he did when he woke up. He didn't want to admit to himself that he cared.

He was saved by Terence Higgs, who, unasked, said:

"Below your collarbone."

Marcus slept shirtless. They had a room just the two of them, he and Terence, and Flint was always comfortable around his closest friend. After all, the blond had seen much more than his muscular stomach.

Higgs had had a soulmate mark for six months now. On the palm, near the thumb, there were waves and a purple shape they still hadn't identified. Terence would never admit it, his parents weren't soulmates after all, and they were an incredibly lovely couple, but he cared who his soulmate was. It annoyed him all the more that he couldn't even tell what it was, let alone who it might symbolize.

Marcus looked at himself in the large wall mirror that hung next to their wardrobe. He automatically looked down at his collarbones and almost laughed at the tattoo. Broom. Well, he could agree with the universe, apparently, he and his soulmate were a good match. It wasn't an ordinary broom though, it looked a bit like branches with leaves and reminded Marcus of a Russian school of magic where Quidditch was played on small trees.

He stopped laughing two days later when Lucian Bole, who was by far the best in herbology among them, made him realize that the twig growing from the broom was most definitely an olive tree. Marcus didn't know many Quidditch-obsessed Olivers. Fuck.

***

Marcus did nothing with this information. Contrary to appearances, he did not hate Oliver Wood, he considered him a great player, but the younger Gryffindor was so easily irritated and it gave Marcus a strange pleasure. But he didn't think Oliver shared his opinion, and regardless of their relationship, Marcus knew he wasn't anyone's ideal.

So he hadn't mentioned it to Oliver, who was still a year away from his sixteenth birthday, but the thought always flashed through his mind when he and Oliver were arguing and arguing. He found it a little amusing.

***

Oliver Wood stayed up all night waiting for the characteristic itch of his skin. Most people got their soulmate mark shortly after midnight, regardless of what time someone was born. So Oliver waited, taking advantage of the fact that it was vacation and he didn't have to get up at all.

Wood would describe the feeling as a tickle rather than an itch, but perhaps that's because his tattoo appeared on his ribs, reminiscent of the feeling of running your fingers over someone's ribs to tickle them. Even though it was a late hour, he switched on the light to examine the newly created tattoo. He was genuinely surprised. Usually, the soulmate mark had its symbolism and referred to the person destined for man. The meaning of their name, passions, favorite things, or colors. Meanwhile, Oliver had... a stone on his ribs. A gray boulder with irregular shapes.

***

Neither Oliver nor any of his friends could understand what the boulder in his ribs might have symbolized. Wood didn't care too much about that. He'd thought about it a lot over the summer, but when the school year and with it the Quidditch season started, the stone moved to a very distant place in his mind.

***

Everything went down in November.

Oliver went flying, taking advantage of the drizzle that kept most people from being active outdoors. But of course not one particular Slytherin. Marcus Flint flew aimlessly around the pitch and between the loops. As soon as Oliver entered the pitch, the Slytherin flew over to him, and as always, they began to argue. Wood hated that amused smirk that always showed on Flint's lips when he was barely keeping his fists from clenching. At one point when Oliver bluntly called him an unprincipled creature that brings shame to the human race, Flint laughed and swashbucklingly said:

"Not a nice way to talk about your soulmate."

***

Flint couldn't help himself. He hadn't planned on confessing their bond to Oliver. He often wondered what Wood's tattoo looked like and whether the boy knew they were soulmates. Now, seeing his face, he was sure that the Gryffindor had not deciphered his tattoo.

"Excuse me, what?!"

Marcus laughed at Oliver's indignation. He hadn't expected a positive reaction, so he was glad it was at least comical.

Flint took off his shirt without a word. He would have been able to show the boy his tattoo without it, but he wanted to show off his muscles. Is there anything wrong with that?

***

Oliver blushed as the Slytherin randomly began undressing. Flint pointed to a small drawing under his collarbone, Oliver looked at it, and before he could protest that the broom wasn't necessarily related to him, Marcus explained:

"Those twigs and leaves, that's an olive tree, Oliver Wood." He gave him a suggestive look "What does your tattoo look like?"

Oliver ignored the older boy's question and stepped closer, then without warning ran his finger over the tattoo. He felt a pleasant shiver, and Marcus hissed. Hell, it's all true.

After that, he lifted his shirt, showing Flint his ribs.

"I have a boulder on my ribs, a bloody boulder. I have no idea what's that supposed to mean."

Flint chuckled and between laughter asked:

"You do know what a flint is, right? You've literally had my surname on your ribs for three months and you haven't figured it out?"

Oliver got angry. A stone is a stone, why delve into the topic. Now the drawing seemed awfully obvious to him, not even a hidden meaning, just Flint.

"Since when did you know we are meant for each other?"

"It was pretty obvious, about two days after my birthday, I was sure it's you," Marcus admitted.

"And you didn't say anything?!" Oliver yelled, "for a year and a half?!"

Flint didn't seem bothered by his anger and shouting, he awkwardly scratched his head and explained:

"What did you expect? That one day during a fight I'd randomly confess to you that according to the universe, we would be a perfect couple?"

The Slytherin said it ironically, joking about the bizarreness of the situation. It wasn't until the words left his mouth that he realized it was actually true. Oliver noticed it too and didn't fail to point it out.

"You literally did it today, why not a year and a half ago? You selfish asshole, you laugh at my ignorance of boulders, at least I'm useful for anything more than Quidditch..."

The string of insults was interrupted by the boy's loud laugh.

"For your information, I draw, pretty well from what I've been told, and I'm a hell of a magic dueler," Marcus rarely bragged, but he liked to surprise the Gryffindor. His puzzled expression was almost as funny as the furious one "By the way, it's not very nice of you that the first thing you do when you find out I'm your soulmate is to yell at me."

Marcus' voice definitely didn't indicate that he was actually feeling unfairly treated or hurt.

"The second thing I'm going to do is break your nose."

Flint burst out laughing, not expecting Wood to follow his threats.

***

Oliver, as well-mannered, polite young man he was, took Flint to the Hospital Wing, making sure not to stain his robes with the blood still dripping from Marcus' broken nose.

Madam Pomfrey sighed hopelessly when she saw them. Both boys made frequent appearances in the Hospital Wing, especially Oliver. Wood spent a lot of time on that bed, both due to injuries from games and training, and general exhaustion. The boy often ignored his own body and overtrained himself, which ended up with nights in the hospital wing and chatting with Madam Pomfrey.

"What happened?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know.

"I broke his nose," Oliver openly admitted. After all, he had no reason to feel ashamed or guilty.

"Oliver," Pomfrey groaned, "You know I have to inform Professor McGonagall? It's shameful to break someone's nose. Again."

Marcus kept his head down, letting the blood flow freely, though it almost stopped by now. Madam Pomfrey placed a cold compress on his neck and gave him a painkiller.

"Please don't tell Professor McGonagall, there's no need to" Marcus protested. "Let's not lie to ourselves, it's not the first time and it probably won't be the last time. There's no reason for me to want to send him to detention, what do I get from that?"

Oliver sighed in relief as the boy stood up for him. Apparently, Flint agreed with him that he deserved a broken nose. Wood wasn't afraid of losing points, he didn't care much, but the detention was just a waste of time that could be used for training.

"Can you at least explain to me what happened?" Pomfrey sighed deeply, mending Flint's nose.

She didn't understand something about this situation. Oliver had broken Flint's nose, yes, that had happened before, but he also had brought the Slytherin to the hospital wing, propped on his arm, and was still sitting there.

"Don't even get me started," Wood growled, as if forgetting that the boy was sitting next to him and could hear everything. "That... Marcus knew we are soulmates for one and a half years and hadn't thought that it might be nice to tell me about it. He told me that today without a reason really, and randomly started undressing" Oliver sounded indignant, he locked eyes with Madam Pomfrey "I'd like to make it clear that I did not take his shirt off. Well, didn't he deserve what he got?"

Madam Pomfrey was horrified at this news. She knew from her own experience that the more contact there was between the two, the more often they showed up at the Hospital Wing door for a variety of reasons.

But despite all that, she thought, Oliver had brought him here and still hadn't left, waiting for him to get his nose fixed and Flint, even listening to the rant about him, didn't seem upset and didn't even want to cause Wood any trouble.

While Oliver was telling the origin of Flint's broken nose, Pomfrey had just managed to fix it to how it was before. There was no difference. Marcus thanked her for both fixing his nose and not telling the other teachers about the situation.

Then he did something that surprised everyone in the room, probably even himself:

"Wood, how about the third thing you do with this information is go to Three Broomsticks with me?"

Wood did not refuse.

[mediaevalmusereads]

If We Were Villains. By M. L. Rio. Flatiron Books, 2017.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: thriller

Series: N/A

Summary: Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

***Full review below.***

Content Warnings: violence, misogyny, suicide, blood

Overview: I followed the author of this book on tumblr way back in the day while she was blogging about her writing journey. To be honest, I didn't have a strong opinion about her one way or the other, but I found the premise of her book intriguing. As a lover of premodern and early modern English literature, I figured I should give the finished product a whirl. Well, I finally was in the mood. Overall, my opinions on this book are a little mixed, but leaning towards positive. While I do think Rio does a good job creating a Dark Academia atmosphere and the emotional devastation of the last half of the book was well-executed, I think her characters and prose leave a little something to be desired. Still, for a debut novel, this was fairly memorable, so it gets 3.5 stars from me.

Writing: Rio's prose has its ups and downs, with some parts flowing quite well and others not so much. When the scenes were full of action (for example, the Macbeth performance and the Julius Caesar rehearsal afterwards), I was fairly engrossed in the story, so I think Rio does best when there are moments of tension inserted into performances or just after (like at various parties).

However, I also think Rio could have done more to show rather than tell. Because this book is told in first person, our narrator, Oliver, tends to be very straightforward about what he is feeling as well as side comments about background or context info. Personally, I felt like Rio could have held back a little more or been more abstract about how characters were feeling and acting.

Furthermore, I had some mixed feelings about using Shakespeare quotes as dialogue. Looking at the author's note in the back, it seems like Rio took this quirk from real-life grad students she knew at King's College. So while I don't doubt that some people do this, in a novel, it comes across less as realistic and more as pretentious. Maybe that's the point; after all, most of these characters aren't "good guys" and Oliver does say at one point that the school felt like a cult. But for me, I couldn't quite determine if Rio was deliberately creating a pretentious atmosphere to heighten the Dark Academic mood or if she was simply showing off her knowledge of Shakespeare's works. Either way, I felt the quotes a bit over-used and would have preferred if they were sprinkled in less liberally.

Overall, though, I did like the pace and the ease at which I could move through the novel. I was able to read this book fairly quickly, and things were straightforward enough that I never felt confused or lost.

Characters: There are a number of characters in this book, but I'm going to focus on the 7 protagonists, just to keep things brief (ish).

Plot: The plot of this book follows fourth-year theater student Oliver Marks as he and his classmates defend themselves from a bully while putting on Julius Caesar at their exclusive, elite arts school. (Obviously, it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm trying to avoid major spoilers).

This book is strongest in the second half when all the students grow more and more tormented by their actions and begin fracturing. Rio does a fairly good job of showing how characters began acting irrationally, and in a lot of ways, their descent mirrors some of Shakespeare's works.

I also thing the devastation of the end worked out well, and it was heightened by the emotional tension between Oliver and James. I do want to caution readers that if you're sensitive to the depiction of deaths of queer characters, you should skip this book. But personally, I found it somewhat fitting given the subject matter and the thematic connections to Shakespeare's works.

The main part of the plot that I didn't think flowed well was the beginning. The beginning was a little awkward in that Rio spoon feeds us a lot of information: characters narrate their family situations one after another, like Rio just wanted to get it out of the way. On top of that, there is a scene where one of the instructors interrogates a student until they disclose their greatest strength and greatest insecurity. To me, this seemed a lazy way to communicate characterization, and it almost soured me on the rest of the novel.

As a unit, I really did like the idea of these 7 characters essentially standing in for archetypes. I think it meshed with the themes of the book fairly well, and I liked the easy companionship that a lot of them had. I also liked that their relationships were often messy, especially during the second half of the book; it made them more interesting and when they began to break down, it felt all the more chaotic.

As individuals, however, I think things get a little murky.

Oliver, our narrator, is somewhat of a blank slate in that he doesn't seem to have a very defined personality, but maybe that's the point. He's stereotyped as the "support" or even the "nice guy," and there were times when I could see that shine through. He does seem to care about his friends and does admit to being naive, so I don't want to give the impression that he's entirely without merit. The main thing I didn't like about him was his attitude towards his sister, who has an eating disorder. He's not very considerate of her, and while I can understand being upset that his future at school is financially threatened by her, he snaps at her and says some pretty awful things. He also seems to characterize his family as awful, and while I understand the negativity there, compared to other characters, he has somewhat of a normal suburban middle class family. His whining about them, then, felt entitled.

James, Oliver's roommate and best friend, is stereotyped as a heroic figure, and I could see some of that come out in his actions. What I liked most about James, however, was his relationship with Oliver; the two are best friends, but there are times when their closeness tipped over into homoerotic and romantic intimacy. I enjoyed the tension there, and it did make for a more devastating ending.

Meredith, who is figured as the temptress, could have been written with a little more grace. While I think it's ok that Meredith exists as a sexual woman who is anxious about people overlooking her as a person, it also seems like the narrative does just that, at least until the midpoint of the novel. I very much did not appreciate the misogynistic comments thrown her way, even if they were partially in jest. Her character grew on me more in the second half, though, so she wasn't all bad.

Wren and Philippa are a little harder to define. Wren, I think, is supposed to be the ingenue, but it was hard to see that in the way she was written. Philippa is described as someone who is always overlooked, and I think parts of the narrative do a good job of showing moments when she has a great impact. As individual characters, however, I felt like there wasn't much to distinguish them.

Alexander is a character who is always typecast as (I think) a fool, and off stage, he seems to be mainly defined by his excessive smoking, drinking, and gay sexuality. I didn't quite know how to react to him, in part because his hedonism felt repetitive, but his drug use in the second half made some sense, given all that was going on.

Richard, the "bully," was interesting in that he was simultaneously loved and hated. I liked that the other characters had a complex relationship with him; they agreed he was a phenomenal actor but also loathed his ego. They see him as part of their group and as a friend, but also frequently argue with him. Having this complexity meant that I couldn't quite see him purely as an antagonist, and I like living in that delicious grey area.

TL;DR: If We Were Villains suffers from a few missteps (mainly prose and some characterization), but is rescued by the deft handling of a friend group's ultimate descent into madness. While I think Rio could have done some things to reduce the appearance of pretense and more solidly set up the exposition of the novel, this was a fairly solid debut that delivered an emotional punch towards the end.