#publication: the lasso

[absmarchive]

TWU community gives their opinions on Roe v. Wade

[nancywheeeler]

i love that the pub lads stand by isaac even without knowing specifically what the fan said. they've been going to the open practices for months now and have seen the players beyond two halves on a television screen every week. they've seen them working their asses off, and making mistakes, and getting frustrated, and puking their guts out. they saw isaac's disastrous first attempt at a corner kick! and they know that fan would have had to say some truly vile shit for isaac to do what he did. free nelson road tickets for the pub lads for life, i think.

[lunar-years]

It's interesting that when Keeley is telling Ted about the implications of that photo of him and her leaking to The Sun, she says "Jamie is going to go mental" but it's not followed up with "he's going to think i cheated on him" or "he's going to break up with me" or "it's going to ruin our relationship" it's instead followed up by, "there's going to be photographers all over us!" And later when she's talking to Rebecca it's, "My god, Jamie would've been so pissed off with reporters poking around in our love life." There's something to be said for like, she never once expresses doubt that Jamie won't hear her out on the truth or believe what she tells him. The major focus of her concern is just keeping their business out of the press. Their relationship in season one is far from perfect but there's a lot of implicit trust between them.

[somethingserious]

Manchester City episodes are the top rated of their respective seasons and Mom City is the highest rated episode of the series thus far

everyone say thank you Phil Dunster

[camgoloud]

one small detail that stood out to me about this latest episode that i haven’t seen anyone else talking about yet is that when the commentators are calling colin “inspiring” and the “man of the match,” they are celebrating him not for actually scoring the goals himself, but for providing the crucial assists to make both of them happen. and i really love that because for me it’s the absolute perfect wrap to his character arc across all three seasons!

like, we know that colin’s job on this team has never been to score goals. in fact i’m pretty sure we’ve never heard about a single goal that he has scored. colin is and always has been a team player, not a star—and we’ve seen that crop up over and over. notably, we’ve seen the fact that he’s not entirely at peace with that crop up over and over: see the way he was affected by nate’s entire holidy-inn-painting monologue, being benched to make room for zava, etc.—like, this is the thing he’s sensitive about! this is where all of his insecurities come from!

but at the SAME TIME it’s also tied very intimately with all his struggles re: hiding his sexuality— “colin’s a chameleon,” etc. it’s fascinating because there’s SO much tension there between colin 1. feeling bad about the fact that he never stands out on the pitch the way some of his teammates do, because of who he is on the team, and 2. feeling like he CAN’T stand out, ever, because of Who He Is As A Person. etc. it’s like. he’s filling this role in the background. he’s afraid he’s not doing it well enough. he’s afraid that what and who he is isn’t good enough and isn’t worthy of recognition. he wishes he were someone different. trying to be someone different in the locker room is clearly making him so unhappy and stressed out. it is All Connected and my thoughts have been doing laps around it at an ever-increasing rate since i watched episode 2.07 ‘headspace’ if not before!

and all of this is why it’s so incredible to me that in the end, colin’s big moment comes from making assists and not goals! because on the one hand i understand the fandom desire for the colin post-coming out glowup that we all knew was coming—to see him, like, ~prove everybody wrong about him~ and inspire people by suddenly becoming a standout player and scoring goals left and right, even though that never used to be his role on the team before. and don’t get me wrong, i was 100% on board that train, and would have loved it for him if that was how it went down in the end, also. i think he should get to score here and there! as a treat! especially now that richmond are playing total football and there’s been so much emphasis placed on how it’s not just jamie/dani/occasionally sam who are making all the goals anymore!

but i don’t know! especially after the events of the last few episodes, there’s something very special to me about getting to see a colin who, rather than becoming someone entirely new in the moments right after coming out, just feels free to become, and be at peace with, the best version of the same self he’s always been. he’s still a team player first and foremost, but now that he’s not as weighed down by the need to chameleon/hide/pretend to be someone he’s not, he’s so much better at it. and everyone sees this! he gets to be celebrated for his contributions within the role he’s always played! he (and everybody else!) finally recognizes the value that he adds to the team just by being himself—fully himself! it resolves all the tension and insecurity that we’ve seen him struggling with this whole time, on every level. and so this moment was genuinely the perfect ending for his journey in my opinion—i’m so so happy that we were tall enough to join him on the ride here, and so excited to see what he does going forward these last few episodes now that some of that pressure is off him <3

[wildsflag]

how many onesies does james lance own?

[mr-independent]

Ok but.... Hear me out.

Y'all have watched Our Flag Means Death, right? Where a clueless overly-earnest anxious father who likes to rhyme runs away from his failing marriage to a smart and confident woman to do something completely unadvisable a world away and in doing so takes a group of rugged violent men and teaches them to be soft and to respect each other and the world around them (and has a panic attack when he meets his ex wife again and found she moved on and might be getting remarried)? And his love interest is a man with long salt and pepper hair who is well-versed in the ugly sides of the life the other man chose blindly, and who has become disillusioned by the whole thing and therefore completely compromises himself for the possible chance at a life with the first man since he was the first person who showed him how truly powerful kindness could be? Also the grey haired man starts off the series appearing aloof and stern and slowly gets more silly and authentic because of his exposure to the earnest man, and comes around to believe in the kind way of doing things despite himself, and spends the final season (barring renewal) following the earnest man around and trying to earn his place back with this crew who, rightfully, spurned him for his callousness.

Anyways. Wild coincidence, huh?

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Sometimes I think too hard about Roy only cracking his knee back into place before he walks onto the pitch and not before.

[coachbeards]

no but the way that the show treated beard's repeated drug use as another "oh he's just so wild and quirky 🤪" joke instead of the self-medication and self-harm it actually was....

beard being high during a match because he accidentally consumed drugs he wasn't aware were out..............that's not funny. being a drug addict, getting high without being aware you consumed drugs in the first place must've been genuinely terrifying. while high on shrooms, the best thing you can be is calm and relaxed...beard had to go to work. he had to pretend to be okay. he couldn't let anyone see, since his literal career would be at stake if it was discovered. dealing with the anxiety of an unexpected high (one you can kind of see beard blame himself for. "i drank tea from the wrong pot." instead of framing it like jane left it out and he didn't know. he framed it like it was his fault. and "it won't happen again." again, like it's his own fault) that's not funny. that's not a little haha beard you're so wild <3 especially since two episodes prior, ted was having a panic attack during a match, and all the characters treated that with way more sensitivity than beard's situation. even ted, the one who is aware that beard's life was almost ruined my drugs, just made a joke about it.

making jokes that implies beard routinely gets high with their bus driver.... that's not good, y'all! smoking toad venom with the bus driver??? and ted brushing it off too and the show treating it like a joke? the bus driver also being revealed to be beard's drug dealer being framed as nothing more than just a quirky beard thing. can i just say i hate how much they refused to delve into beard under the excuse that he's just enigmatic and quirky? yeah.

in sunflowers, beard refers to shrooms as his medicine. and yes, meth + shrooms aren't exactly in the same ballpark. but if i heard my best friend, whose life was ruined by drugs to the point where i had to rescue him and nurse him back to health, said that he took shrooms as a self-medication tactic, i'd be a touch concerned. but since they never framed it as an issue, despite beard's backstory (and brendan had headcanoned drug addict beard from the beginning, so it's not like it just was put into the plot for the sake of mom city,) ted didn't make a big deal out of it. he was seemingly fine with beard's drug use, and even agreed to do drugs with him.

but also........................a man devoted to not only ted, but to the team........i just don't think he'd be soooo casual about taking several illicit substances and he wouldn't do it all willy nilly.

especially considering nate leaking ted's panic attacks to the press (which......not that beard was ever nate's target, but he could've easily leaked beard being high, too. which...again. would've tanked his career), beard wouldn't be doing drugs with the bus driver or traveling with illegal substances on a team related event. he'd be aware that his actions have consequences, clearly given his prison record, and i just don't think he'd be so......open and uncaring. beard was guilted by being high during a match to the point where he had to come clean, as it was something eating him alive.

if beard's drug addiction was revealed, especially the port vale match or using the bus driver as a drug dealer or carrying illegal substances on team trips..........it wouldn't just be his reputation and job at stake. it could ruin ted's career, having been aware of his criminal record and his repeated drug use and didn't do anything about it. it could create damage for rebecca, for employing a man without carefully combing through his records (drugs are..............obviously very frowned up in society in general, but within the sports world? yikes.). the team would face struggles as well. beard wouldn't risk any of that. but not only would he not risk it, he wouldn't do it so openly and freely in the first place.

i do not care that brendan waved it away with the excuse that meth and shrooms aren't the same thing. a recovering drug addict using drugs to canonically self-medicate isn't exactly a good thing. beard has substance use disorder, and i wish it was treated better within the show, by the other characters, and by the writers.

[absmarchive]

The coronavirus pandemic is not an excuse to police women's bodies

[bidamonalbarn]

*through tears* jamie tartt you would've loved popular by the veronicas

[lunar-years]

Also I find it interesting that Keeley says Jamie would be upset by the picture of her and Ted hitting the papers NOT because he might think she’s cheating on him or whatever but because he’s going to be mad at reporters for invading their relationship…. There’s never once a fear that he might be mad at her

[twinsunsintatooine]

the jamie roy and jack parallels when it came to their response to keeley's video being leaked speaks VOLUMES especially on jack's character and her values

[v0idwraith]

(rocking back and forth in a corner) trent crimm is NOT going to out colin, trent is NOT homophobic, they are baiting us, trent crimm is NOT going to out colin, trent is NOT homophobic, they are baiting us, trent cr

[writer-and-thrasher]

I've got like 3 Colin Hughes-centric WIPs and I can't stop thinking about how much he loves shoes and cars and Wales.

Because yeah, he's a little Welsh guy who can't drive and would fuck a pair of Jordans.

But also, cars and shoes are two ways for guys to "acceptably" show interest in design and color and style without being considered "gay". Even his teammates and their interest in fashion could be considered "gay" by some -- and Colin is avoiding that with his whole being.

So, he sticks to things that seem straight by just about anyone's standards. He has flashy cars in fun colors. He spends his money on trainers. Straight guys do that, it's fine, he's blending in. He's allowing himself a personality so long as that personality is curated to make everyone think he's straight.

And imo, it carries some similarities to how much he loves Wales! Love for the place you're from is not inherently tied to gender expression, and I don't want to say that at all. But, I do think that the fact that his one primary external expression of devotion is to another thing that's safe is really telling to me. You can love where you're from and be any identity, which means he can be passionate about something and pass as straight.

Idk if any of this makes sense, but it's rotating in my brain and I'm excited to explore it in my upcoming WIPs.

[thedanceronthestreets]

CAUSE HE GETS UP IN THE MORNING AND HE GOES TO WORK AT NINE AND HE COMES BACK HOME AT FIVE THIRTY GETS THE SAME TRAIN EVERYTIME CAUSE HIS WORLD IS BUILT ROUND PUNCTUALITY IT NEVER FAILS AND HE'S OH SO GOOD HE'S A WELL RESPECTED MAN ABOUT TOWN DOING THE BEST THINGS SO CONSERVATIVELY