#simultaneously the funniest and the most cursed job in the whole paddock surely. tough to see others living ur dream

[batsplat]

RANDOM THOUGHT! BUT

jorge lorenzo choosing that dichotomy angel/demon as his symbol, u cant tell me he wasnt inspired by the sun/moon thing

Like come onnn

oh my god yeah. surely!! like you say, it's a dichotomy just like the sun/moon thing, and it's conceptually similar enough to valentino's that... surely... yeah. all about establishing this little network of symbols for himself, his own web of meaning - overtaking around the outside!! x-fuera!! lorenzo's land!! butter and hammer!! angel/demon!! - to build his own narrative about his career. and this tendency is obviously tied to his penchant for celebrations, where he ALSO has a complicated relationship to valentino. on the other hand he's very insistent that the whole thing was NOT originally inspired by valentino, but then on the other he's hyper aware of valentino's influence... so of course he wants his own set of codes too!! that are both inspired by valentino but doing his own thing! and yeah!! sun/moon vs angel/demon,, that does feel like!! surely!!

what I find interesting is how valentino doesn't really talk much about this sun/moon stuff, there's just a bunch of symbols and narratives and imagery he tosses in there sometimes without really verbalising why he's doing it. kinda leaving it up to others to read into it for the most part. whereas jorge is obviously... not like that, way more willing to actually discuss this stuff. there's clearly something appealing to him about the idea of having a 'good' and a 'dark' side, he likes all this self-reflection stuff, loves a bit of omphaloskepsis, wants to continually analyse himself and discover his inner truth or whatever. and if he'd seen all the sun/moon stuff growing up and was thinking how much he vibed with that kind of dichotomy... of course it's extremely jorge to want to put his own spin on something valentino did in this way. makes perfect sense

was thinking about this passage from jorge's biography, obviously not written by jorge directly but the whole thing was written in close collaboration with him --

The material for this book was therefore a little unusual and the only possible objective was to get to the bottom of this combative, glory-hunting rebel, who sometimes looks at the world with defiance and arrogance and at other times with fear and a burning desire to learn and be liked. The devil in him has probably become more famous than the angel, because there have been plenty of controversial stories written about Jorge in the past. But his intimate side is interesting as well, and it's never too late for you to get to know him.

-- which. lol. what a writing style. but anyway, I do think this ties into the appeal of the whole thing to jorge... he sees the two sides in fundamental opposition and also thinks the devil side is non-negotiable for professional athletes (true) but. but,,, the angel side is kinda like. what he's had inside him all along. the secret soft boi underneath the hard shell

and then there's a quote from yamaha stablemate james toseland,, where he's talking about jorge and valentino and it's kinda on a similar theme (x):

once the helmet's off, jorge's shy!! reserved!! a nice bloke!! the devil version is cocky and annoying, but he's also got this Other Side to him....

but yeah, unlike with valentino, we do actually have jorge himself talking a fair bit about this stuff. give us some insight into his thinking on this. like from 2013 --

-- where he's linking the branding to the 'devilish' number... the 99. he wants to be a good guy!! but he also can't lose his devilish side!! and this from from 2014 (x) --

-- where he's saying he's more of a devil than an angel because of the nature of competition. and this from 2017 (x) --

-- which. fascinated by the idea that yamaha was like... no. no devil horns on our bike. in the same spirit as forcing him to work with a psychologist, a red line. he did finally get to add the devil's horns in his ducati time:

and lastly this from 2017, where he expands on his choice to switch to two devils (x):

it's all aggressively jorge, isn't it. like valentino, he's hyper aware of his personal branding and puts so, so much thought into it. but he's more talkative about it than valentino is, just a bit more earnest about the whole thing. still talking about switching numbers, getting rid of the manager linked to the original '48'... of course that was hugely meaningful to him, of course he takes these branding exercises very seriously as a means for self-expression. also very endeared by him talking at several points about how he's more of an angel now, he's striving to be more of an angel, the angel as an ideal etc etc. BUT the demon/devil is non-negotiable and a part of him he must also embrace... to achieve his internal balance... but now that he's got TWO devils, he interprets the devil as being more mischief than evil. fascinating

and it's very valentino in how jorge finds a way to tie this into his own arc!! "special tastes that may not be understood by everyone" - Your Fave Is Queer-Coded lol - but also the point is that it's very much an expression of individuality, him determined to make his peace with being a bit of a rebel, a non-conformist, his own guy etc etc. the valentino commitment to self-narrativisation, this tendency to refer back to his own past work and build on it. very valentino-esque commitment to the drama of it all, the theatre of talking about The Angel and The Devil inside himself,, he's so sincere about it, so dedicated to verbalising what these two sides mean to him at different stages of his career, what it means for him to balance them. he needs the devil!! he's becoming more of an angel!! the devil is an inevitable part of competitive sports!! he's getting himself two devils!! the two devils are about mischief not evil!! and so on

MY random thought I'd somehow never had before is that. given that this is jorge's whole... thing, isn't it kinda funny that valentino repeatedly used 'god' and 'devil' to describe casey?? I mean to be clear this definitely wasn't aimed at jorge, it predates the jorge rivalry and certainly the angel/devil thing, it's just kind of funny. valentino, jorge would have loved you to use those descriptors for him!! but no, it was very much a casey thing to valentino,, he deploys the 'devil' label once each for two other riders (toseland and elias) but not for any of his other major rivals afaik. valentino uses the word to talk about casey as early as 2007 and as late as 2011 -- for whatever reason, this is very much linked to casey in his mind. annoying

anyway. yeah. I agree with you -- I think it's got to be very likely that jorge was on some level inspired by the sun/moon thing. similar conceptually in terms of exploring his inner dichotomy or whatever, a way of building on his own little network of symbols, him once again wanting to put his own spin on some rossi magic. and he stuck with it a long time!! he adopted the symbols in 2008, in a period of personal turmoil and also during his first year as valentino's teammate. and so he dealt with all the stress and the change and the trouble and the heartache by: coming up with a new number, figuring out all the ways said new number was weighty and meaningful to him, thought of new symbols that would fit in with this rebrand, made it all part of his Journey of Personal Growth. probably inspired by valentino - it is just quite similar the more you think about it!! the balance between valentino's light and dark side, of course jorge would vibe with that. and it makes sense for jorge to look to valentino for inspiration on that kind of thing!! and then he made it into a Whole Thing... very sweet