#they have the lowest ranking on their respective relationship chart and still go to the amusement park at midnight

[kanadrawz]

drew them hanging out bc im coping

based on this lol

[redrobin-detective]

Random Quirkless Pro Hero Deku facts

- Pro Hero Izuku has a lot of weaponry on him at all times but he’s personally a big fan of knives. He’s usually got at least 5 or 6 on him at all times in all different sizes. He likes them because they’re multi-use, intimidating and, in the hands of a skilled wielder (like Izuku definitely is) can end fights without permanent damage. His favorite knife is the one he stole off of Stain to Iida’s dismay but its just a really good knife okay, Tenya, nothing personal.

-  Todoroki is rescue hero working at Froppy’s agency in Nara (kind of the middle of nowhere). He doesn’t really get involved in the big villain battles unless he’s caught up in them, does no marketing for himself, rarely takes interviews, does his best to just be another hero... and yet he’s #20 in the charts. He is the highest ranked rescue hero who goes out of his way to avoid the spotlight and he doesn’t know why he’s so highly ranked. This is because he doesn’t understand the overwhelming power of THIRSTY fans.

- Izuku and Katsuki have a very special relationship. They read each other so well, are a well-oiled, scarily efficient team in battle. Outside of that, they’re disasters. Due to past experiences with ‘friendly spars’ that have gotten out of control they need a minimum of 2 babysitters pro heroes to spot them and be in a qualified facility before they go at it (which they don’t always do). Most every time they meet up they’ve got to rough house a bit to everyone’s horror. Bakugou will get loud and indignant if you call them friends but then rant for 30 minutes on why Deku is one of the best damn heroes he’s ever known. 

- Speaking of which, on an operations level Izuku and Katsuki are much better separated than partnered. Kiri much more approachable and adds a sense of balance to Bakugou which is why he’s #1 not long after Izuku leaves. Izuku/Katsuki together were terrifying but a little bit too chaotic? They egged each other on where Kiri calms Bakugou down and Izuku forced to be “in charge” (as composed to constantly competing with Bakugou) of others also makes him less reckless. They’re still a brutally efficient combo but they’ve both agreed that separation really helped them grow.

- Gran Torino went senile not long after Izuku graduated Yuuei having fulfilled his promise to both Nana and Toshi and couldn’t fight any more. Izuku took care of him the best he can and put the old hero up in a luxurious old age home, he visited once a week watching more and more of his mentor slip away. He died when Izuku was still working at Two Hero with Bakugou and it was one of his incentives for leaving the agency and forming One For All. 

- Shinsou ended up in the Hero course during their second year, but he went to 1B. Still maintained a good relationship with Izuku and the 1C gang. After graduation, he was surprised when Yaoyorozu offered him a position at her agency. He works there mainly in intelligence gathering, interrogation and general agency management. He still does field work but not nearly to the extent of other heroes.

- Shinsou and Izuku are the lowest ranked in their grade, Shinsou being in the 90s while Izuku is in the high 70s. Izuku will never let his friend forget that he, quirkless and hated by the system, is higher ranked than Shinsou. Its really because Shinsou is kind of a reclusive hero only known because he works at such a prestigious agency. If and when Shinsou decides to make an effort at his popularity it’s all over for Izuku. Until then, Izuku will lord it over him. 

- As for the 1C gang, Patrick moved back to America right after graduation. He’s doing odds and ends, still trying to figure out what he wants to do. Does frequent calls/visits to Japan to visit his high school friends. Korudo did end up working his father’s company but on his own terms, donates a lot to Izuku’s AFO foundation. Izuku probably sees Taketsu the most, she’s a quirk lawyer and works with Izuku professionally in terms of quirk advocacy and advancement. 

- Hero Names: Bakugou - Kacchan, Todoroki - stays as Shouto, Aoyoma - Lumiere, Shinsou - Hypnos

- As soon as he graduated, Izuku moved into All Might’s old apartment because he couldn’t stand to sell it. He left it almost identical only converting the back study and pretty much living out of boxes the first few years. He’s very, very slowly taking down All Might’s things and putting up his own but each change involves a lot of struggle and crying, but it feels like healing. In addition, Toshi was able to change his will before dying so Izuku inherited an insane amount of money from All Might’s estate. He couldn’t spend it all in his lifetime if he tried. He mostly keeps it away but donates a lot of it to AFO and other charities. 

- Deku is a fan favorite as far submissive ships go. In every fan pairing he’s put in (and there are some wild one out there) he is the delicate, submissive quirkless partner. When asked on it, 1A just comments “have you ever actually seen Deku??” still the trope persists. Popular fan pairings are Bakudeku, Shoudeku, Iideku and Uradeku.

- The Class has varying ways of referring to one another, most of them feel comfortable calling each other by their first names but almost all continue to call Iida by his surname (except Ochako and Izuku when he’s feeling annoyed/sappy). Izuku and Katsuki have a whole language of names within the names they call each other, all you should know is that if you hear Izuku say “Bakugou” or Katsuki “Izu-chan” you better run like hell.

- Midoriya Hisashi was officially killed halfway through Izuku’s Third Year in a villian attack at his office in America. Inko was distraught but Izuku really couldn’t bring himself to mourn a man he never knew (and was already exhausted still grieving for All Might). Inko and Izuku got a sizable payout from it, ensuring Inko will be able to live comfortably for the rest of her life. Izuku never touched the money, relying first on All Might’s money then his own when he had to. ((Most people know I’m pretty ham for DFO so let me say this, on paper “Midoriya Hisashi” was killed it’s up to you if someone else is still around) 

- While OFA doesn’t have any permanent staff, it does have heroes who frequently work there. It started this way because Izuku couldn’t get any heroes to permanently attach and kept it up once he realized the versatility it gave him. Shouto and Uravity usually do at least one or two stints a year. Pretty much all of the unattached heroes of 1A have worked with Deku multiple times (even a few attached, Ingenium surprising everyone by leaving his agency for a month to work with his old friend). Lemillion does it when his schedule allows and a few veteran heroes like Present Mic and Cementoss have done work there as well. And while Number One Kacchan hasn’t officially worked at One For All, he and Red Riot partner do enough inter-agency work that they kind of have. 

- Over the years OFA acquired the respect of many heroes but there’s still assholes who refuse to take orders from a quirkless man. Now officially Deku has no problems with those who do not wish to work with him, it’s well within their rights. However, he’ll usually slyly make it known that people have turned down offers from him or spoke against him. And suddenly those bigoted heroes find they’re getting less support from those connected to Deku (a number that grows bigger by the year). There are less team-ups, less chance of being voted for hero titles, more whispers about how a hero being quirkist in this age is so old-fashioned and not cool. The heroes are like ??? how the hell did this happen while Deku sits there and smiles, not having lifted a finger. He’s a kind man but a vindictive one for sure.

- Izuku named his foundation after All For One, the villain who terrorized Japan and ultimately killed All Might, purely out of spite. While Izuku never confronted him in this universe, he knows the villain is still out there. The AFO Foundation took a name that was once feared and turned it into something that could bring people hope. He wanted to tell all the wannabe criminals who would recognize the name that Izuku knows and he’s not afraid. Also he still considers it his duty as AM’s successor to stop him so the Foundation is two middle fingers up to AFO as a challenge. 

- Rikimaru-shishou (Izuku and later Shinsou’s martial arts teacher in TLWA) has mostly retired from teaching, only taking a few students here and there. Izuku still keeps in contact when possible, meeting up for a friendly spar when he can squeeze it in. Most of the students Daiki takes these days are kids Izuku recommends with puppy dog eyes. 

-Mirio and Izuku end up developing a pretty good relationship. It starts when Izuku tries to intern with Nighteye in his first year and it’s pretty ugly. Nighteye refuses to take him but some, not all, of the Izuku/OFA/Mirio situation comes out. Mirio is very disturbed that his mentor was grooming him to be All Might 2 and kind of separates from Sir and takes Izuku’s side. Really excited by Deku’s vision for a better hero society and they have a big/lil brother relationship. Is super okay when Izuku takes the SoP title from him, like Izuku not bothered with rankings but he knows how important it is to his bro.

- So good news first, Mirio and Tamaki are long term partners and adopt a little girl, Koharu, who has a ‘villainous’ quirk and was abandoned by her family. Mirio being on paternity leave is one of the factors that allows Izuku to take the SoP away from him. So uh bad news, Eri was never recovered during TLWA version of the Overhaul arc. Don’t ask me exact details cause I don’t know lol but Izuku wasn’t really involved and Overhaul and few of his men managed to flee Japan with Eri and haven’t been found since. Mirio and Tamaki both took the loss to heart which is why they wanted to try and pay back that mistake. They’re both great dads though.

- Due to being so outrageously busy during their first year as Pros, Bakugou forgot to maintain a regular haircut schedule so it started to grow out. Izuku and some others commented that the longer hair looked good on him. It got to the point where it was getting in the way so he ties it back in a little tail that looks like a little explosion. That, and his permanent facial scruff, make him a very attractive hero but his personality still leaves a lot to be desired.

[darrowsrising]

You know, I will just throw questions back at you if you don't mind because I can finally scream with people! Tell me about your favorite RR characters aswell, please? ♥

I never mind people asking me things about RR. I love this series with my heart and soul and everything in between. Also, stop apologizing to me about long posts regarding RR, I love them and I have lots of long rants to confirm that.(don’t search for them, they are full of spoilers…and my distaste for Dancer and Roque!) Also, I’ll try not to spoil the fun for you…

Darrow:

My absolute favourite. I love him to bits, he’s my precious, murderous baby! I’d start a #DarrowDefendingSquad or a #DarrowPreciousMurderousBabyBoy, but that’s not my style. Or his style for that matter. He can take care of himself, 75% of the time…the other 25% is not really up to him (it’s a combo of his friends and pure luck).

Jokes aside now, Darrow’s feelings and realness always got to me. When I started reading Red Rising I was 17 and I was recovering from a very bad…burnout (I went to see a psychologist and she told me that I was hurting emotionally from many bad things happening at once, but it wasn’t like…depression or anxiety per se). His feelings, whether it was rage or kindness or anything in between, were so valid to me. He reminded me that it’s perfectly alright to have confidence in yourself, to go after what you want, to be proud of yourself, to love again (friends, lovers, whatever) and many other things. I was at my lowest then and he showed me that ambition is not a dirty word, that confidence in yourself isn’t a bad thing and even if these things intimidate the people around you, they are valid and you shouldn’t be ashamed of despicting such things.

That made me relate to him a lot. I still find myself (whenever I revisit the books) being like “mood” or “same” or “that’s my boy” or “my pride and joy” or “Hail Reaper” at many of his thoughts, actions and one liners. I will always love him, although he is very thick headed sometimes and that’s annoying.

Mustang:

She is my favorite female character. I love the fact that despite growing up with Nero au Augustus as a father and Adrius as a twin, she is still kind. She is also fair, open-minded and highly intelligent. And strong in more ways than one. I love that she is multi-faceted (although haters think she is bland and 2D…Pixies, where? Did we read the same books?) and despite her family and the way she was brought up, she finds it hard to pretend and is mostly genuine (unless she has a plan). I love how she doesn’t give (to use Sevro’s terminology) two squirts of piss over the title of heir of House Augustus, although she’s more than capable to fill in the spot. But she’s more concerned with making the world a better place (she is a Reformist and although the story follows Darrow more, that is a big deal giving that she tried to make laws to help other Colors including the banning of the Board of Quality Control). I love how she is a logical person, yet she sacrifices a part of herself for her family, because she is human and bound to do illogical things. I love how, despite loving her family so much, she often goes against them, because it’s the right thing to do. I love how she is underestimated and she just spits (not literally) in their faces. I just love how she is a fighter, a politician, a leader, because we rarely see females like that. 

Sevro:

Sevro is a breath of fresh air. He is who he is without warning labels and apologies. He is a survivor, a loyal friend (very rare kind), a badarse. He is amazing. His existence is a defiance and I love it, although that resulted in a lonely childhood. I love him to bits tho, because he also shows how good it is to be yourself and like yourself despite everything. He is very sweet despite being a hard arse and his insults always leave me very impressed. It’s obvious that at the Institute, he just wanted to survive and get a modest job (like Fitchner - thing which Fitchner probably encouraged), but he started to see Darrow and his behavior with the others and he wanted to make friends. And when Darrow became his friend - his only real friend until then - it made him want more, dream for more. And I just love that. I love how Sevro evolved and how he protects his friends - Howlers included. The only thing I’m not a fan of is his hygene…and his pornographic collection of holoFilms.

Victra:

Victra is a warrior, an heiress and a business woman. She kicks arse, takes names and simply slays. I love that there is more to her than meets the eye (although I don’t trust NerdsTM to appreciate her like she deserves). I love how bad arse and loyal she is. I love how she enjoys life and all it entails. I love that she lets herself be vulnerable in public and it makes her courageous. I love how open she is about herself, yet she is still mysterious. I love the fact that she never lies and she loves jade jewelry and displaying her scars like jewelry and the smell of the air before the rain hits the ground. 

Fitchner:

I feel like Fitch is way too underrated. He was fairy chosen to be Rage Knight -  a position Lorn filled which only makes it legendary and harder to get. He beat Proctor Jupiter and Tactus’ eldest brother - which I hope is Tharsus, because Apollonius is in my graces atm. Not only that, he created the Sons of Ares, he lead them and infiltrated into the Society’s highest ranks to destroy it from the inside and build something better. It was his plan, his sacrifices, his dream. There would be no Rising without Fitchner. Not even Sevro, but hey, it’s not like the guy would say something like “The entire world should thank me for Sevro - he came from my sperm, ok, my swimmers made the little Goblin. You’re welcome!”…when we all know Sevro’s enemies would rather curse Fitchner’s balls for helping create their doom…

Getting back on track, Fitchner was the okay-est Proctor and one of the best characters.

Adrius: (no, it’ not an unpopular opinion, here we love Adrius)

I believe Adrius is the best villain hands down. There are no excuses for his actions, he is a genocidal maniac with daddy issues. He looks at people like they are objects, not human beings, he has no compassion and has no knowledge of empathy. And I love him. I give him sympathy, because he is a monster, but he was made that way. Although he displayed terrifying behavior from a young age, his fall towards evil could have been avoided if his father gave two (2) fucks about him. I love his relationship with Darrow and how they were rivals, then sort of allies, then…you’ll find out. I just love how Adrius was written. He is really great as a villain. I hate what he did to Darrow, tho. When he killed Nero I was happy for him, but no one touches Darrow, so that was his worst move ever. Like…Pixie, you just signed your death warrant, stay away from Mustang’s Bitc- Boo!

The Telemanuses: 

All of them are amazing! Much love to all of them! They deserve the world! I include Niobe, Thraxa and Xana, but that’s all I’m going to say, because you need to read for yourself to believe me.

Cassius: (long stoty, because i didn’t really like him at first)

You know what? I disliked Cassius as much as Darrow did first time he saw him…too annoyingly perfect. And after what Darrow endured it felt like a disgrace to see an entitled little Pixie dance his way on marble corridors at the expense of so many Colors. As the story progressed, Cassius’s entitled arse didn’t improved and the most annoying part was him bragging about the death he claimed. I know he did it to make people talk and find out who killed Julian, but that doesn’t make him right. The 49 other people killed in the Passage were just as innocent as Julian. He made the death of the person he killed sound cheap. Even Antonia had more respect towards that. And Titus made it worse, but that gets off tracks. I understand his pain. If someone would have killed my sister in the Passage, it would have sworn revenge too. But the painful thing is that Cassius saw only Julian’s death, Julian didn’t deserve to die. But that is also true for all the other people who got murdered in the Passage. They didn’t deserve to die either, but you don’t see anyone going at Mustang or Sevro with blood oaths to murder them. The whole system is fucked up and must be changed. Killing Darrow might be a thing of honour, but honour doesn’t bring back Julian.

The fact that he lied to everyone that Darrow was killed by Adrius to claim his spot as Primus of Mars wasn’t good publicity either. And then, he got to be even more of a Pixie in Golden Son. But it was Mustang who convinced me to give him a chance. Because she was the one who revealed that Cassius is conflicted, that he regrets losing not one brother, but two. That he suffers, but tries to do his duty to his family and honour them. Bit by bit, I was open to seeing Cassius from this perspective, so I gave him lots of benefits of the doubt. Until he killed Fitchner and all I wanted was to see his head on a spike turned ugly by gore and maggots. Then Morning Star happened and I went from: fuck Cassius (and not in a nice way) to Bloodydamn finally, Pixie, you made me so proud. Then, we got Iron Gold and man, if something happens to him I’ll kill all the Gold families of the Rim and then that bitch of a ward. 

I really love his character development. I can see that mine is an unpopular opinion everywhere in this fandom, given that even the author has a soft spot for Cassius (not that that stops him from making Cassius suffer even more), but yeah…that is the story of how I got late to the “We love Cassius” party. I’m being short on the good details, because I don’t want to spoil you, but I hope you understand.

Holiday and Orion:

They are amazing human beings and although they are side characters I love their contribution to the series. I love their personalities and talents and their overall no nonsense attitude. 

I’ll stop here, before we go off charts. Here are some honourable mentions in no particular order: Aja au Grimmus, Ragnar Volarus, Theodora, Matteo, Mickey, Tactus au Rath Valii, Lorn au Arcos, Apollonius au Valii Rath, Alexandar au Arcos, Rhonna of Lykos, Diomedes au Raa, Trigg ti Nakamura, Volga Fjordan.

[baddieromanova]

Why do you hate halice so much

Iwas deliberating on whether to make this short and sweet or long andintriguing. I went for the second. 

For starters, they have no chemistry. Andchemistry is an important component for me when it comes to shipping, as I’msure it is with everyone and I know that doesn’t say much given the fact thatchemistry between couples doesn’t seem to be Riverdale’s strong suit anyway,but back to my initial point; The chemistry between Alice/Madchen andHal/Lochlyn was never strong to me and they seemed to lack it in everydepartment, sexual, emotional, romantic, platonic, intellectual, you name it,they ranked low on the scale in all of them. There appears to be a generalconsensus within fandoms that chemistry is subjective based on the sexualpassion between two people but as briefly mentioned before chemistry is a muchlarger scale. This isn’t just something I’m applying to Halice either becausebelieve me I’ve shipped couples who’s sexual/passionate chemistry wasn’t thatstrong but their emotional and intellectual and platonic chemistry was off thecharts, so despite Alice and Hal’s sexual/passion related chemistry lackingwhile Alice and FP’s literally jumps off the screen, I still couldn’t root forthat ship because the other aspects of chemistry are also non existent. 

Secondly, and I’ve stated this before, they are an incredibly boring and clichecouple, who to be honest have nothing ship or root worthy going for them.There’s no interesting dynamic, they’re very dull and incredibly basic. They’repretty much an adult B/ghead to be honest. While the Riverdale writers triedand failed to apply the bad boy good girl trope to that couple, Halice gotslapped with the suburban Stepford duo trope but also included the woman with abad girl past married to the rich guy who could help her escape it trope. Bigmistake as it pretty much rendered Halice as doomed from the start, not tomention those tropes are over done and the first one can be incredibly boring.I’ve seen this trope with TV couples before who I knew were destined forfailure from the beginning and I was always right. So in my head, whenever Isee these types of pretty suburban picture couples I don’t care about thembecause they always end in disaster and I’m starting to think it’s intentionalfor TV writers. I’m sure there’s a whole list but one TV couple/family thatcomes to mind that I compare Halice/the Coopers to is Bree and Rex/the Van derKamps from Desperate Housewives. Bree and Rex? Not ship worthy, in fact sounworthy of shipping that I’m pretty sure a lot of Desperate Housewives fanshave forgotten who he was and he ranks the lowest on the list of Bree’s ships.These couples are always more concerned with keeping up a facade of being theideal perfect suburban family for the rest of the town while behind that whitePickett fence is a whole bunch of fuckery going on that they deliberatelyignore or try to brush under the carpet. These couples also seem to haveproblems within their marriage or their marriage is already dead and they’vespent so long caring more about their image over anything else that they don’teven realise it yet. There’s also never really any romance, you find yourselfquestioning if they’re actually in love or just a legally binding co parentingarrangement under the same roof. I absolutely hated what this obsession did forAlice’s character and her as a person. I wasn’t fond of her in the early stagesof the show, I started to understand her more in 1x08 and warm towards her inmid season two because I saw who she really was. When Hal wasn’t in the pictureand she decided the bullshit he pulled with Polly was the final straw, shestopped being that judging heartless suburban cow and actually became a mother.And then when Hal came back into the picture in early season two parts of thatAlice that I didn’t like before kind of creeped out and I hated it, it made menot only sick but skip a lot of Cooper family scenes. That for me confirmedthat it was Hal’s presence that made Alice so unlikeable, and that’s the reasonI had been rooting for a Halice divorce since season one. And to get personalfor a minute, I believe in ship and let ship but I’m sorry, I have to abandonthat rule where Halice is concerned because I just don’t understand how anybodycan genuinely ship them and I don’t believe anybody actually does. The onlypeople who “ship” Halice are people who are anti Falice, which pretty muchproves my point as they don’t like the couple, they just hate the onesupposedly competing against it. It’s what I like to call spite shipping;Rooting for one of the characters in an established ship to be with somebodyelse, despite it possibly being a toxic pairing, (this isn’t always the case,most times the couple that’s being spite shipped is perfectly unproblematic andhealthy) simply because you hate the relationship that character is already inor even pretending to care about a couple and “ship” them because you want topit them against a couple that you hate and use that spite ship to shit onthem. I’ve seen this so much in the fandom recently and hey, I’m no stranger toit either, I spite shipped Barchie because I’m not a fan of the other Bettypairing but the truth is I honestly do not give a rats ass about Barchie,whether they’re endgame whether they get screentime, I just don’t care and Inever have, in fact I want Archosie to be endgame and I don’t actually shipBetty with anybody because to me she’s one of those characters who are betteroff single. While we’re still on topic I’ll provide more examples, Fladys has abunch of spite shippers. FP always looks like he wants to blow his brains outwhenever he’s in Gladys’ presence on top of that she’s also using him and hasan ulterior motive for coming back into his life, Skeet has also describedtheir relationship as toxic himself. Given all that you’d think they’drightfully have no support but of course people hate Falice just that much sothey’ve jumped aboard the sinking Fladys ship. I’ve also heard this appears tobe the case with some Veggie and Archosie shippers or should I say “shippers”as I’ve seen one or two people make call our posts about some fans of those twopairings just being very anti Varchie, I’m not 100% sure but if it’s true thenyes it’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. As for putting shipsagainst each other this also happened with some of the Falice anti’s in theteen character fandoms and Tierra. For like 3 weeks, it was all “We don’t careabout the parents! This is a teen show! Fuck the fossils!” whenever parentdalestans talked about the parents and screen time then after 3x12 it was all “Tomand Sierra are the only wrinklys who deserve rights! The best parent ship!”They did all that just to shit on Falice they never cared about Tom and Sierra.What made it funnier is that these very people didn’t even know Sierra’s nameuntil maybe a month ago, they had been calling her mayor McCoy or Josie’s mumfor like 3 seasons. 

Thirdly, and this is more subjective, Hal is just a dick.And that’s putting it nicely. I had this opinion long before the black hoodfiasco, which I will not talk about in this post, so I don’t get accused ofbeing biased or falling for the writers supposed retcon to make Falice happenand end Halice recklessly when Halice stans find this. In fact, I had thisopinion long before I even shipped Falice, which is just shy of a year now. Toput it bluntly I disliked Hal from season one, 1x08 to be exact and even beforethat I just didn’t care about him, learning more about him and his and Alice’sback story certainly didn’t help that either. That whole argument between thetwo of them in episode 8 is enough to hop off the Halice ship. The scene isaround 3 minutes long and in it we learnt that the two are clearlyincompatible, don’t trust each other enough to tell the other important things(more so a problem on Hal’s part), Hal doesn’t respect her highly enough as hiswife and that Hal is a controlling asshole who thinks he can police women’sbodies. (There was more that we learnt about their relationship but it’sirrelevant to this section of the post) As a womanist, heck, as a selfrespecting person who doesn’t let anybody, especially men (aka Mother Nature’sbiggest mistake) treat me like shit I can’t root for a couple where the husbandtreats his wife like that, it’s just not gonna happen. Do I also need tomention he had the audacity to try and stop her from tracking down her longlost son as if he should have even had a say in the matter in the first place?Regardless of paternity? Yeah, nuff said. 

Fourthly, and this is also partly subjective,the writers have established (and I am well aware that’s not saying much eithergiven that the show’s writers are terrible) that Falice is the ship directionthey’re going into and Halice and even Fladys shouldn’t even be consideredcompetition or anything of the kind. This isn’t a love triangle or square. It’snot a rivalry or another Delena vs Stelena or Brucas vs Leyton. Falice is theship they get asked about, Falice is the ship they’ve spent 3 seasons buildinga back story and relationship around, Falice is the ship that gets attention inthe media while the other two are paid dust. The writers have made it clearthat FP and Alice are victims of the one that got away trope and are still verymuch in love. Halice and Fladys are the furthest thing from competition,they’ve already got Hal the fuck up out here and have presented Gladys as avillain making a play for the town and engaging in criminal activity whilesimultaneously pulling the wool over her Sheriff husband’s eyes so they’repretty much a ticking time bomb already that I can’t wait to see explode. Sowith all of this, of course I’m not going to be a fan of Halice knowing thewriters have/had other plans in mind.

[junker-town]

Dorktown: Appreciating the first couple years of Peter Warrick’s career

Photo by Michael J. Minardi/Getty Images

Things were rough for the Bengals in the early 2000s

The NFL has data for how many passes have been thrown to each player since 1992. And for the eight seasons since those records began, no one that had ever had at least 125 passes come his way had ever averaged as few as five yards per target. Only 1994 Kelvin Martin was even close. Then wide receiver Peter Warrick came along:

Warrick entered the NFL after a dazzling season at Florida State, which in 1999 became the first team ever to sit atop the AP rankings from the preseason through the end without ever being knocked off their perch. Throughout the season, Warrick had been their best player. It culminated with a resounding win over the Michael Vick-led Virginia Tech Hokies in the BCS National Championship Game, in which Warrick was the clear-cut Sugar Bowl MVP with 163 receiving yards and two touchdowns, a punt return he also took to the house, and a 2-point conversion.

A few months later, in the 2000 NFL draft, he was chosen fourth overall by a terrible Cincinnati Bengals team quarterbacked by a terrible bust in Akili Smith. Warrick stepped into an inherently tough situation. The Bengals needed him to the immediate focal point of their floundering aerial attack as a rookie. They didn’t have much of a choice — of their top three wide receivers the previous season, one (Willie Jackson) left in free agency, one (Carl Pickens) was cut as a result of a messy, deteriorated relationship, and one (Darnay Scott) would go on to miss the entire season after breaking his leg in training camp.

This all left Warrick as by far the most prominent and qualified option in a wide receiver cupboard that was bare and inexperienced. His fellow Bengals wideouts in 2000 were Craig Yeast, Danny Farmer, and Warrick’s FSU teammate, Ron Dugans, who also happened to average just 3.29 yards across his 38 targets. At the time, this was the second-worst mark since at least 1992 among wide receivers with more than 30 targets in a season, trailing only 1996 Alex Van Dyke. Again, Akili Smith was not helping matters.

Neither was Warrick, as it turned out. Doubtless he was hamstrung by atrocious quarterback play, but as anemic as the Bengals’ overall passing game was, they still averaged even fewer yards per pass throwing to Warrick (4.70) than not throwing to Warrick (4.96).

Warrick’s rookie season constituted by far the most inefficient receiving season on record by someone targeted as often as he was. His encore in 2001 — despite Scott’s return and the arrival of Chad then-Johnson, ostensibly alleviating some of the burden — was the runner-up:

In fact, as you can see in the initial scatter chart, even among those with as few as 100 targets, only a couple wide receivers — 1998 Jerome Pathon and 1998 Irving Fryar — had ever come in under five yards per target. (A couple non-wideouts did as well, though backs and tight ends generally have lower yards-per-target averages so it’s more understandable coming from them. It’s jarring, however, to see figures so low from wide receivers, which is why they’re being categorized differently here.)

Warrick was under five yards per target in each of his first two seasons on even more volume! Here’s how that translated for everyone’s total receiving yardage:

Warrick produced 592 and 667 receiving yards in the two seasons; of the 125-target players, not only are those the two lowest figures, but ’94 Martin had been the only other wide receiver who came in under 750:

So that’s how those seasons stacked up at the time they occurred. They still hold up quite well all these years later. Here’s the same chart as earlier, only with everyone from 2002-19 also included:

Only once has someone else been targeted at least 125 times while failing to top five yards per target: 2006 Chris Chambers, who parlayed his 154 targets into just 677 yards, a beautiful season its own right, and 2012 Larry Fitzgerald is the dot with 156 targets just barely above five. With the exception of only that ’94 Martin season, no other 125-target wide receiver’s even close (in case you’re wondering, the cellar-dwelling wide receiver there with 108 targets is 2003 Az-Zahir Hakim). Warrick, of course, had the two such seasons:

The thing is, though, Chambers (and Fitzgerald and Martin) never had a second season in the vicinity of that kind of inefficiency in a high-volume season. Not by a long shot. Warrick’s 2000 season was a fun historical outlier, but that 2001 performance piggybacking off it — and thus rendering the 2000 season not even an outlier to his own career — takes everything to another level (in ’01 he also had eight rushing attempts; in a lovely touch, the final six combined to produce negative six yards). Here are the receiving yardage totals again, this time including everyone from 2002-19:

Two of the most inefficient receiving seasons coming from the same wide receiver in back-to-back years might naturally lead to the question of how said wide receiver fares when assessing two-year periods. Across those 2000 and 2001 seasons, Warrick was targeted with 263 passes which he turned into 1,259 receiving yards. About 4.79 yards per target. Which, here ya go:

The only other wide receiver there joining 2000-01 Warrick under five yards per target is 2007-08 Marty Booker, who, at 4.98 yards per target, just barely sneaks under five while barely exceeding 150 targets. Warrick’s at 4.79 on 263 targets!

Of the 426 other dots with at least 250 targets, no one else is under 5.5. In fact, no one but 2005-06 Chris Chambers (320 targets that yielded an average of 5.61 yards, with that ’06 season mostly responsible) is within a full yard of 2000-01 Warrick. Here are the two-year receiving yardage totals of anyone approaching or exceeding his 263 targets:

In 2001, bad Jon Kitna was his quarterback, which again underscores that this mess certainly doesn’t fall entirely on Warrick’s shoulders. On the other hand, not only have plenty of other players played with plenty of other awful quarterbacks, but, once again, the Bengals still averaged fewer yards when throwing to Warrick vs. not throwing to Warrick. This time by a pretty significant margin (4.87 vs. 5.64).

Warrick went on to have respectable seasons in 2002 and 2003, averaging over seven yards per target in that time when the Bengals were quarterbacked by a competent quarterback. (It was still Jon Kitna, but he was better.) But starting late in 2003, Warrick began developing chronic leg problems that quickly led to a lost 2004 season.

His injury issues opened the door for T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s emergence opposite his Oregon State teammate (indeed, for a couple years, the Bengals’ wide receiver corps consisted of multiple sets of collegiate teammates), star wideout Chad Johnson, which ultimately marked the end of the road for Warrick in Cincinnati.

Injuries robbed him of a chance to put together a more productive career, as he was well on his way to rebounding after that inauspicious start. It’d have been interesting to see how the rest of Warrick’s time in football might have gone had he stayed healthy. But no matter how else his career might have played out, those first two seasons would have remained things of terrible, awesome beauty.

Previously on Dorktown:

The NFC East could give us a 6-win NFL playoff team

MLB’s lost treasure, the bizarre and terrible 1994 AL West

The 2019 Nationals won the World Series, but their three-game extra base binge was even more impressive

Video: The History of the Seattle Mariners

[cyanoscarlet]

Progress Notes 1/?: Some Ground Rules

26 days, 1 Neuro-Psych rotation and ¾ Derma rotation later, I finally found time to wind down and write about stuff. (Red status happened, and I’ve never been this glad to catch a break.)

Some things I’d learned in here so far:

You never question the “noodle theory”, ever. It is said that eating noodles during a hospital shift will make everything become really hectic. (In Filipino colloquial, we are fond of using the word “toxic,” and for very good reason.) On our last 24-hour shift under Neuro-Psych, the group decided to order two whole bilao of spaghetti and palabok, among other dishes. On top of the usual rounds and errands, one patient expired, another had to be revived, and we had to receive three ER referrals for neurological assessment - all before the food arrived. We ate dinner pretty late that night, and things actually haven’t quieted down yet that time. Even now I haven’t dared eaten anything with noodles, which is really a shame, given how much I love pasta dishes.

(Conversely, the flip version of this superstition states that eating ice cream will make the hospital shift a “benign” one - not much work, not much happenings, like a slow-growing tumor that knows its limits. This isn’t always true.)

You are the second-lowest form of animal in the hospital hierarchy. (Yes, that exists, and it sucks). Apparently it seems that the residents (especially the first-years) are considered even lower. Technically and strictly speaking, they are higher than us in rank (and we do genuinely respect our seniors!), but when it comes to rounds and conferences, the consultants tend to pick on the residents as badly as they do the clerks, sometimes even worse. I don’t know how it is in other institutions and services, but it seems to be that way in my first rotation, at least. It is still true that us clerks are the ultimate gofers in the hospital, though. Personally, I don’t really mind, since I like talking to patients and learning from charts and not sleeping and walking a lot.

You learn to accept everything (and I mean everything) because there is nothing you can do anyway. True for getting scolded at every turn, for accepting the blame for things you are not even responsible for, for picking up the slack and covering for the others’ shortcomings, among other things. Some of these have happened to me, others I have merely observed and heard from the IV grapevine. I’ve never said as much thank-yous and sorrys in my entire life as I do now. Not that I’ve never used them generously ever since, but system and custom seem to dictate that I bow my head even lower than necessary just because. Or, I might be the only one bad at standing my ground.

Friendships will be broken - and not just in the “you will know who your true friends are” sense. There will be misunderstandings, there will be arguments, there will be full-blown wars, even among the closest of relationships. This we have been warned of - clerkship does things to everyone, no exceptions. It hasn’t happened to me personally yet, and for my own sanity, I hope it never does.

What sleep? (Needs no explanation. Also, what self-care?)

You do not lose weight in clerkship. Or, generally, the humongous amount of food and coffee we inhale is evened out by the seemingly-endless amount of work we do, but ultimately it depends on the individual, I guess.

Life is finite. A universal truth, made even more true and more heartbreaking as I see how it slips away from our grasp. Some go quiet in the night, some go through extreme suffering before they flatline. I have reflected on it so many times, but I have yet to fully understand the mystery of it all. Yet with this I have gained much more appreciation for health, for life, for what we do.

You will learn to appreciate the simplest, tiniest things in life. Every wink of sleep, every drop of coffee, every crooked smile, every small gesture, every laugh, every tear, every heartbeat. It’s proof that we grow, that we live. And that in itself is a beautiful thing.

In just barely a month alone, I have gone through extreme highs and lows, smiled a lot, cried even more, ate way more junk food than usual, slept way less than I should. My seven-day week has become a three-day cycle of “pre-duty-from.” From living by my plans in college, to surviving by the week in med school, I now subsist by the day or by the shift in clerkship. I nod my head during conferences, but not everything I understand (yet). I over-present some of my cases, bullshit my way through others. I have met many doctors, some great, some terrible, some in-between, and I realize how much I still do not know, even after three years of medical school (and four years of premed before that). It both excites and scares me terribly to know how much room there still is to grow. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow. Maybe next time, maybe never. But like always, we’ll see.

One month (almost) down, eleven to go!