#vs martins plan

[gammija]

a nuance that gets a bit lost in martin 'murder' blackwood is that while he's definitely not against a good killing, it's more of a fun couple's activity rather than true heartfelt passion, you know?

i mean, twice he's had the opportunity to have Jonah get shanked, and he foils them, even though he wants the guy dead. Like, murder is always an option, but he usually tries other, less direct methods first - in fact id say that his trying to be clever and moral still leading up to the end of the world is exactly what drives him to say, ok well fuck it then, let's get our murder on

[gayofthefae]

You can tell when they wanted to Buddie. Because Buck and Eddie synched up being single for a season a half. Their only plots were about each other, it's when they had the lawsuit angst, it's when Eddie was said to have put Buck in his will if they planned that, which I don't find it farfetched that they did - especially given they were renewed by that point, it's when the technophobe cute domestic plot happened, and it's during that time that Buck got closure with Abby.

Ana was briefly introduced but Eddie's interest seemed to be more a setup for his disappointment by her and they did not start dating for about another season. It was a seed but not one that was required to develop.

They were setting up in season 3. I always thought it was abnormal, now that I know they're really doing it, I get why. In every other section but 3x01-4x08, they have both been dating. Buck wasn't over Abby then in the episode he got over her, Eddie got back with Shannon, then while Eddie was with Shannon, Buck got with Ali - but Ali was off screen and took up 0 plot focus away from his relationship with Eddie. It was the classic bad timing.

Then they were both single for TWENTY SIX EPISODES. Within which, their plots had consistent build, processing of their love lives, and focus on one another with casual screentime being spent together with Chris. That was buildup.

Then Ana comes back into Eddie's life and Taylor is introduced only two episodes later and in the same episode that Eddie and Ana are officially dating. Eddie breaks up with Ana in 5A but Buck is still with Taylor through the end of the season. The episode they both are single again, Buck defines true love to Maddie in a description of Buck and Eddie's season 5 plot and Ravi describes romance by directly referencing a previous season's line between Buck and Eddie.

Then, they are single simultaneously again for 15 episodes during which time they - also abnormally - have very minimal plot focus on each other.

They switch networks. Buck is immediately single from an off screen breakup that does not affect him at all. He kisses a man in episode 4. In episode 5, the seeds of destruction for Eddie's relationship begin being planted. By the end of the season, Eddie is single, but Buck is not. Now, as of season 8 episode 6, they are both single again.

It is also notable that prior to season 4, their relationships did not hog screen time in the way they did in seasons 4, 5, and 6. Ali was seen once or twice. Shannon only had any romantic and not familial focus for Eddie bookending her time on the show, not throughout. But Ana was a repeated topic of conversation and Taylor became a series regular for a full season.

The entire timeline of it all shows itself to be:

1. Moving on from past relationships

2. Romantic buildup

3. Fox says no

4. They can't date because...uh- they aren't single!

5. Break them up in hopes Fox will say yes

6. Fox says no

7. They're both single so just don't have them interact and hope people don't notice until it's been long enough to make them date people again

8. Make them date people again

9. ABC says yes!

[a-passing-storm]

I just finished Episode 160 of The Magnus Archives!!!

[syoddeye]

cozy fic recs 🍁🎃

it's been 84 years since i've compiled a rec list, but with cooler weather incoming, here are some fics/drabbles/concepts to settle in and cozy up with. want something scarier? check the spooky list.

no longer updating

as usual:

beyond the cut, you are responsible for reading tags, warnings, and summaries. some fics are in progress, so keep in mind that warnings and tags may change.

organized by pairing if applicable.

i've checked all the links, but if they're broken, i blame tumblr. i've included enough info to find the fic if need be.

do not harass authors. i will find you.

price x reader

Invisible Red Line by @mikichko | transmasc!Reader

I Wonder How Many Days I'll Bled by thethingsthatimake | f!Reader

Already Spoken For by @stellewriites | trans!Price x f!Reader

Price Dressing You Up by @tojisun | f!Reader

The Prowl by @cordeliawhohung | f!Price

Ursa Major by @the-californicationist | f!Reader

Price and Your Terrible Family by @391780 | f!Reader

Hygiene Care with Price by @secretsynthetic | Reader

Fall from Grace by @tropes-and-tales | f!Reader

Not What Was Sought by @dozeydaisy

ghost x reader

Transferrable Skills by @dragonnarrative-writes | f!Reader

Autistic Burnout by @dutiful-wildcraft | m!OC Darren "Thumper" Martin

Mail Order Bride by @bi-writes | f!Reader

Through Me (The Flood) by @peachesofteal | f!Reader

Snowblind by @sprout-fics | f!OC Fix

Star of the Show by @inkbybambi | f!Reader

Synthetic by @pricegouge | transmasc!Reader

A Reminder by @waiting-so-long | f!Reader

Landslide by @knightjpg | f!Reader

gaz x reader

The Five Year Plan by @wraithdance | f!Reader

Blackbird, Fly by @eowynstwin | f!Reader

Piccadilly Circus by @/391780 | f!Reader

Attentive by @/391780 | f!Reader

Picture Day by @kyletogaz | f!Reader

The Uni Verse by @/kyletogaz | f!Reader

Hit Me With Your Best Shot by @sentientcave | f!OC Rory

Spoiling Kyle @/buttdumplin | transmasc!Reader

A Ride Home @/buttdumplin | Reader

No Hard Feelings by @groguspicklejar | f!Reader

Boyfriend Material by @/groguspicklejar | f!Reader

You're an Angel, I'm a Dog by @cordeliawhohung | f!Reader

Suck it and See by @pfhwrittes | transmasc!Reader

Delete Tinder by @/pricegouge | f!Reader

soap x reader

cowboy!Soap by @ghouljams | f!Reader

Personal Training by @spurbleu | f!Reader

(hunka hunka) burnin' love by @/pfhwrittes | f!Reader

paciencia y fe by @/mikichko | gn!Reader

141 x reader

Cherry Bomb by @swordsandholly | f!Reader

Pierced Ears by @buttdumplin | gn!Reader

The 141 Oiling Your Hair by @femalefemur | Reader

No Binder by @/pfhwrittes | transmasc!Reader

After The End by @waves-against-a-cliff | Reader

other pairings

Across the Way by @/swordsandholly | Ghoap x f!Reader

Chao Mi Niño by @/mikichko | Ghoap x Reader

Laird MacTavish by @auspicioustidings | Poly 141

Call of the Jurassic by @stuffireadandenjoy. | Ghoap, but also the 141 vs. dinosaurs!

The Wellyboot Incident Follow-Up by @pricegouge | PriceGaz x Reader

Get Her a Dog (She'll be Happier for It) by @/pricegouge | PriceSoap x f!Reader

Laswell's Little Assistant by @waves-against-a-cliff | Laswell x f!Reader

Aro!Ghost/Price/Reader by @secretsynthetic | Ghost/Price/Reader

Service Dog Johnny by @void-my-warranty | Ghoap x f!Reader

Asexual Reader by @sigh-tofm | 141 HCs

Branding (Kinktober) by @dragonnarrative-writes | Price x Ghost

general

Righteous Fury by @gemmahale

Citations Needed by @/pfhwrittes

The Daemon AU by @/pfhwrittes

Simon and That Mean Cat by @/stuffireadandenjoy

Driving Headcanons by @kaadaaan

Sunday Dinner Headcanons by @/kaadaaan

beautifall, feeling pretty gourd about this list 🍂 banner by @/cafekitsune

[revoevokukil]

TW3 Story Leaks

It's Saturday, and I bring you some cold, hard rumour.

It seems somebody on reddit is working through the leaks of The Witcher 3, claiming approximately 300k of lines relating to the previous story iterations also leaked in 2023. Much of what they are claiming matches with the leaked files from 2014, which I have also worked through. There is completely new information too, though, and they plan on publishing their work-through early 2025.

So far, this is the information I've gathered from their posts:

Iorveth's daughter was Vernossiel. Her quest had her involved with a cult of the Bloody Mother; spores from a particular "flower" affected her thinking so she got brainwahsed into being sacrificed in a ritual killing in order to rise as the Bloody Mother herself.

Cerys was fake-Ciri.

The Baron (or Baron’s men?) was originally a rapist.

The Big 4 was originally Big 5, including Isengrim. Isengrim and Iorveth had houses in Novigrad.

Vincent Meis' model existed.

There was a quest with “thralls” (most likely Following the Thread involving Jad Karadin and the Faroe island) where Geralt would temporarily get married to a chieftain’s daughter.

We’d lock Yennefer in dimeritium handcuffs at one point to prevent her from interfering with the King’s Gambit questline.

Avallac’h provided Geralt with the means to warg as a rat in order to eavesdrop on the meeting of the Big 5 (including Isengrim) on Dijkstra’s ship. (Iorveth was planning on blowing the ship up.)

The Catriona Plague questline. It had a Nilfgaardian general Martin running a krankenhaus, where was infecting his countrymen with the plague and stealing their valuables. He made deals with Gaunter O’Dimm (his involvement in HOS is as a leftover from here) to get a cure for the Catriona, then with Gaunter’s archnemesis to get to keep the cure. Geralt had to figure it all out as Catriona was becoming more and more rampant and the faction with the cure would have huge leverage in how the war questline would resolve. Geralt would get the chance to hand the cure back to Gaunter, to Radovid, or Emhyr.

Iorveth got infected with Catriona, then infected Thaler to improve his morale on getting a cure (Thaler promised Iorveth a cure for assassinating Emhyr or some such.)

The war quest lines were somehow related to the dreamer Corinne Tilly who was a Nilfgaardian spy.

Voorhis laid siege to Crow’s Perch because Temerian rebels took it over.

The Sabbath originally had slave markets, an orgy meadow, and ritual suicides. Changed after 2014.

There was an option to assassinate Radovid after taking out Roche, so Dijkstra's rule was always an option.

Roche originally preferred fighting for Temeria no matter what. Reason of State had Roche vs Thaler and Dijkstra.

Radovid was more like his W2 self. Emhyr "more like Stalin."

Radovid took over the Temple Isle.

Emhyr was supposed to appear in the army camp center.

If Emhyr lost, Voorhis would overthrow him.

All the content showcasing Nilfgaardian war crimes was cut: a Nilfgaardian general was spreading the Catriona plague, robbing his dying countrymen; Voorhis' cruelty during the siege of the Crow's Perch, Nilfgaardians' direct attack on Kaer Trolde.

Crach died during the battle for Undvik and Voorhis negotiated over his body; the corpse was returned and Nilfgaard respect local burial traditions.

Melusine quest line had more content related to blood shrines.

There was an opportunity to try and convince Caranthir to betray Eredin, after which he'd get replaced by some elven lady (Isilira?). (Conflicted about this, as in 2013 leaks it seemed Caranthir knocks Avallac’h out on Naglfar when Geralt and him try to infiltrate it.)(Isilira is the lady you meet in Avallac’h’s lab in the released version.)

There was a sequence in White Orchard in the Empress ending where Voorhis had announced he'd arrive and propose to Ciri in few days, but Ciri lost Emhyr's signet ring to prove his approval of the marriage. Then some kind of gamble ensued under the influence of a Korred, and Ciri decided if she'd win she'd marry and if not she'd run away (not sure if this shouldn't it be the other way around).

Gameplay-wise:

There was a 'vital spot' system, where you gained points by performing various actions and could then use those points to perform combat moves that would either weaken of 1-shot an enemy.

Manticores were cut.

Players could buy boats and horses; rowboat for rivers and lakes.

Wind tunnels and proper storms in which a boat could tilt over.

Water combat was cut.

Focus mode in combat was cut.

[vintagetvstars]

Diana Rigg Vs. Nichelle Nichols

Propaganda

Diana Rigg - (The Avengers, Diana) - Honestly? Just check her out as Emma Peel in any episode of The Avengers. The character herself was a legend - an exceptional spy, wonderful fighter, certified genius, a true feminist role model - not to mention a renowned sex symbol (that leather catsuit... heavens help me...) and fashion icon. As for Diana personally, she was once described by Michael Parkinson as "the most desirable woman he ever met, who radiated a lustrous beauty". She could pivot from funny quips and endearing jokes to stone-cold badassery like it was nothing, and she looked stunning either way. Whenever I look at a pic of her, I have this feeling she's planning some fun mischief and I get the strongest urge to ask her to take me along. Need anything more? Here, have some pics: (pics below the cut)

Nichelle Nichols - (Star Trek) - She speaks for herself. Legendary, iconic, at the forefront of feminism and civil rights in the 60s, she is a triple threat who did so much more. She volunteered from 1977 to promote recruitment diversity within NASA, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts. Martin Luther King Jr. compared her work on Star Trek as a 'vital role model' to the civil rights marches. She refused to be dismissed, fought for visibility and shone whilst doing so. As a woman in stem, and simply a woman she means the world and stars above to me.

Master Poll List of the Hot Vintage TV Ladies Bracket

Additional propaganda below the cut

Diana Rigg:

When people think of The Avengers, they think Steed and Peel (or they think the marvel property but that’s neither here nor there). I know people who thought Mrs. Peel was the ONLY woman Steed worked with, Diana Rigg was Just That Good (she was only on two seasons!). She was one of those actors that could so perfectly play comedy in any form, her dry, sardonic wit was marvelous, but so was her physical and slapstick comedy, and she could do drama too! If you’ve seen her in interviews you’d also know how fabulously humble and kind she was. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more attracted to a TV woman than I’ve been to Diana Rigg. Some photos of her:

the SMILE!!!!

I like a woman that could kill me in one shot

tell me she's not endearing I DARE you

Gorgeous, sexy, competent, superior, so much leather. Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in the Avengers was foundational to my sexuality and personality. She's classy, she's cute, she's cocky, in one episode she whips a bunch of guys while wearing a corset and a spiked collar...

excuse me I'm overcome with sinful thoughts

 hello 911 I think I'm having a heart attack

Here's an interview I fell for her in:

Diana Rigg | Interview | The Avengers | Good Afternoon | 1974 | Part one

Her first appearance in The Avengers (In series 4, if you can believe it):

The Avengers: Emma Peel First Appearance HD

Nichelle Nichols:

She is the original badass babe. She was a black woman in a leading role on TV in the 60s, a trailblazer for black actresses for years to come. She is so beautiful and so awesome.

she's fantastic. have you seen her? paved the way for black actresses on TV even while her lines and scenes were being cut and improvised the most iconic uhura line in the series. (sulu: "I'll save you, fair maiden!" uhura, pushing him away: "sorry, neither!") she's incredibly talented and it's a crime the show didn't give her more screen time (or make her sing more often because she also has a beautiful voice!)

“Sorry, neither” in response to “fair maiden” was ad libbed by her. There’s a lot more I could say but what else do you need??

A sci-fi icon!

She was such a trailblazer, and Uhura was such an important character for so many people to be able to see on TV. Apparently Mae Jemison (the first African American woman to go into space) cited her as a reason she wanted to become an astronaut. She was just an absolute legend!

The story of Martin Luther King telling her not to quit Star Trek gives me chills. Representation matters. “Thank you so much, Dr. King. I’m really going to miss my co-stars.” Dr. King's smile, Nichols recalled, vanished from his face. "He said, 'What are you talking about?'" the actress explained. "I told him. He said, 'You cannot,' and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, 'Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. 300 years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.' He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling. I said, 'I…, I…' And he said, 'You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd Century.'"

She shared the first interracial kiss on Star Trek, helped propel real life African American women into space-related careers, and looks divine in a mini skirt.

HOW DID UHURA WALK BACKWARDS SO FAR??? WOW!

[saintbleeding]

"I could just see Martin beefing it on a bicycle so easily For No Reason I Plan To Unpack so that leaves jon with the heart problems" vs "what if Jon died from the heart thing because it paralleled the mag200 stabby-stabby so that leaves Martin with beefing it on a bike and maybe that mirrors the Impact of panopticon chunks falling on him"

otherwise I could see jon cycling around his uni like some nerd and then having one (1) Particularly Bad Day meanwhile Martin's got Lonely Heart(TM) or whatever the tmagp-verse equivalent is. All his blood turned into fog or his heart straight up Disappeared one day idk

oiar case that is a collection of unnervingly irreverent proto-clickbait w titles like “Dumb Idiot Classics Student Beefs It To Death Bicycle Style” and “Dude Dies: No Blood - We Aren’t Even In Whitby, What Gives???”

[angsthology]

“so much for identity keeping” — or an alt title: roo’s nighttime job

the grid caught roo in a different light, holding a different kind of instrument

a/n the title’s a bit ambiguous but bare with it 😭😭 (bare?? bear?? which one is it i genuinely dk)

thinking back, this is pretty bad so im sorry for that. still trying to get my mojo back.

THE KANGAROO(KIE) VS THE WORLD

“you think she actually hates us?”

the group of men were currently out and about exploring the night life. though, this time they decided to switch things up a little. instead of their usual glamorous clubs, they decided to go somewhere that offered live music. seb described it as ‘a change of pace’ and in return, lando said that his ‘age is getting to him’ (behind his back, that is).

the entire grid was there as they were all invited — except one.

“what? c’mon, why not?” lando made an expression of offense.

“not tonight. any other night is fine, but i already have plans. sorry, lan.” she shrugged before walking away towards where her car was parked.

that didn’t stop him from following her, though. the curly-haired brit fell in step right behind the shorter girl to—well, truthfully, beg.

“it’ll be fun!” he reasoned.

shaking her head, she stopped mid-step and faced the brunette, making him stop abruptly too.

“i’m sure it will. but i’ve had this plan since way before you probably planned yours.”

he pouted. she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his attempt.

“next time, lan. i promise.”

remembering the conversation had lando still coated with bitterness. “not surprised if she does.”

max couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s bitterness. he tapped his back (to which surprised lando), “no she don’t. i’m sure she has her reasons.”

as if on cue, suddenly they hear a familiar voice booming through the speakers.

the men’s heads never turned so quick before.

“oh mY GO—”

max was quick to snap his hand over lando’s mouth. and, on cue, not a moment too soon—

“EW!”

the dutch man immediately removed his hand off of lando’s mouth and wiped it on the british driver’s clothes, all the while holding an (overdramatic) expression of disgust.

he glared at the man and continued to talk (grumble), “if she didn’t tell you — or any of us, for that matter. she probably has her reasons.”

lando blinked. “okay? so?”

“so…” daniel walked up behind his teammate and rested his hands on both sides of his shoulders, “we should sit back, quietly, and watch.” he paused, lando still thinking with furrowed brows, “she doesn’t have to know.”

lando’s face brighten up as he finally catched up. “ah, i see.”

“but don’t you guys think—”

immediately, the older german man stopped his miniature, “don’t even try, mick. you know it won’t work.”

mick was about to say something else when he was suddenly cut off by lando shushing everyone. eventually he gave up trying to reason with anyone and sat down (in the dark, might i add) with everyone else as the stage lightings start to turn on.

there on the stage stood roo on the (audience’s) right holding a sticker-drowned plain white bass guitar. on center-stage stood roo’s friend they knew as daisy-mae holding her own red and white guitar along with an unfamiliar face sitting behind the drums.

everyone was surprised to see the stage lights turn on to a bright neon pink-haired roo rather than her usual hair color.

she wore a sleeveless white top with a big star design in the middle of her chest and a leather skirt paired with a pair of black thigh-high boots.

“interesting…” muttered lando with his chin resting on his interlaced hands. all the while the younger german driver across him tilted his head in an unreadable expression.

next thing they knew a tune starts to play and to their surprise, the once alfa romeo driver turned band geek leaned in the microphone, “angel… with a gun in your hand…”

their jaws dropped at the sound of her voice.

“she can sing…?”

“…she has a life outside of driving?!”

everyone’s heads immediately to the young aston martin driver, all with the same judging expression.

at that, the canadian immediately jumped ahead to defend himself. “what? she’s new! that’s how i thought of all of you when we all first met!” he said defensively with his hands (and voice) going up.

but, in truth was, no one really knew who she was. the closest thing they’ve figured out about her personal life was daisy-mae. and she was way more quiet about it than roo.

compared to the rest of the grid, she was probably the most private person yet. they seem to know so much about her yet also none at all. whether it was because she was new and still hadn’t warmed up to them like that yet or that’s just the way she is and they just haven’t gotten used to it yet. they—the media—would often compare her to kimi but that would just be wrong considering they’re nothing alike besides being tight-lipped.

watching her in another element was a new and interesting experience for them. very interesting. some might even be confident enough to bet it against her racing career.

with furrowed brows, carlos whispers to his teammate, “you think she would ever leave racing for this?”

“we’re not that lucky, mate.” charles mumbled, then shrugging, “plus you’d actually think she would leave mick?”

their moment of entertainment and amazement was cut short when she followed along the lyrics that escaped her lips.

“go on, replace me… when you’re cravin’ something sweeter than the words i left in your mouth… go on and spit me out.”

she. was. shameless.

it was almost as if the girl on that stage was not the same girl they drove on the track with, the same girl they do press conferences with, the same girl that was their co-worker and on-track rival.

that theory only furthermored when she switched instruments with daisy-mae and took over the entire stage with her presence, rocking her own solo riff.

they were seriously doubting this was the same girl as the kangaroo’s grid.

when the last notes were strung and the music died down, the girl walked over to the mic stand that once was occupied by her friend.

she started, “hi, everyone.” she was slightly out of breath — not surprise there — “we are: talking excessively. i’m your bassist slash occasional guitarist: autumn rolfe,”

the men collectively furrowed their brows in confusion, sharing glances with each other with words unspoken.

sure they doubted the rockstar was their co-worker and friend but they knew for sure it was roo. and that was not her name.

“joined by my beloveds—camellia gray,”— she pointed at daisy-mae —“on the guitar holding my bass, and finally our drummer rocky dilltogas.” she pointed at the unfamiliar new character — probably not his real name either after seeing a certain pattern.

strumming a few strings, the girl then continue speaking, “for this next song… i’ve begged and begged dai– cami for so long for us to perform this song. lucky yous, this was the night she finally agreed.” she smiles as she exchange instruments with daisy-mae—or ‘camellia gray’ as she said—once more.

then, an all-familiar tune starts playing. one that completely confirmed her identity.

“stacy, can i come over after school?”

a couple of more songs later (all the while the group of men continue to question their judgement) and the band bid their farewell after finishing their last song.

it was the three past rookies to show themselves — under the light that the girl would definitely notice them.

they saw as the blood draining from her face when she noticed their giggling faces. oh how she hated those three.

roo immediately said an awkward ‘thank you’ hurriedly and basically sprinted off to the backstage, leaving her two bandmates in confusion.

that is, until her best friend spotted the three giggling men. they waved at her happily, feigning innocence as her face dropped knowing exactly that they were the reason.

behind the stage, roo was still in shock, standing like she’s seen a ghost until her bandmates walked over to her.

daisy-mae was the first to walk over to her, a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “it’s fine.”

“i’m going to kill them.” she replied, her expression unmoved.

“i mean that’s one way to do it—”

“what happened?” asked the drummer.

before any of them could explain to him, they were interrupted by said explanation as they all approached them.

her face was almost in a permanent expression, hardening when she saw the three demons that held complete malice in their eyes when instead she was surprised with showers of compliments by her older co-workers.

but still, that didn’t stop the rest from existing and taking the big chance of absolutely mess with her. they would never give up the opportunity to pull a reaction from roo.

“so, autumn rolfe, was it?” george smiled happily with his arms crossed.

“shut up.”

“i think i’m co-workers with your sister: spring.” snickered alex.

“funny. anythin’ else?” she deadpanned.

“yeah—”

but before the mclaren driver could say anything, roo had already had her fingers clasped on his ear—cutting off his shits and giggles.

“what the hell! i haven’t said anything, why didn’t you do it when these guys were talkin’!” he complained.

“you’re the nearest one.”

“you and i are exactly the same distance as you and alex!”

“yeah, but he’s a whole electric pole, you’re a gremlin.”

“just say you hate me the most.”

“i hate you the most.”

he rolls his eyes, grumbling, “you’re not my favorite either.”

“lying? really? you know that’s my thing, right?”

their bantering was interrupted when roo heard her name being called. she turned around to see her bandmates standing behind her with another new presence with them.

her eyes widen and quickly let go of lando’s ear, running off to her friends.

“everyone! since i no longer have any form of privacy, i’d like to introduce you to my friends.” the drivers all crowded the group of four. “you guys know daisy-mae,” said girl waved and a string of familiar ‘hi’s and ‘hello’s greeted her, “this here is atticus,” the boy they recognized as the drummer smiled politely at them. roo then looked at the new girl standing beside daisy-mae, “and uh, this is nika, don’t know when or how she got here.”

“but she’s happy i’m here.” said girl stated happily with a giddy smile.

“sure.”

at her monotonous voice, nika’s smile dropped, rolling her eyes.

everyone then slowly dropped the topic and went on their own as another band take over the stage with their more upbeat dance worthy music.

she was left was now only left with alex, george, and lando. she sighed.

“anything else?”

george shrugged, “but seriously, i think it was pretty cool.”

the girl couldn’t help but feel the heat rushing to her face, she never expected a compliment coming out of his mouth.

“oh. uh, thanks?”

“i mean, by the looks of you i had a feeling you have some sort of hannah montana-esque secret somewhere.” alex mentioned, only making roo’s eyes furrow. “that was a compliment.” he clarified after seeing the look on her face.

then, lando leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, “don’t tell her this but i always thought she was really cool, this was just an upgrade.”

confused, again, roo turned to a goofy-grinning lando with her right brow raised. alex caught her attention when started again, “he’s had a few drinks.”

“well. we’ll see you on the dance floor, i’m assuming?” george asked, sipping from the drink in his hand.

she nodded as the three went on, lando lingered behind with her.

“guess you did ended up goin’ out with us after all!” he said before leaving her with a smile mumbling a ‘yeah’.

roo was about to follow behind him when a certain spanish driver approached her, putting his arm around her frame. he took a sip from his drink before speaking as they walked together towards the bar.

“ever think of performing at birthday parties?”

“whose?”

“mine.”

“your birthday’s passed, nando.”

“incase you didn’t know, they’re a yearly thing.”

she chuckled, “sure thing, pop.”

“oh, and nice hair, by the way.”

“thanks.”

taglist; @treehouse-mouse @disneyprincemuke @yansbolobao @leilanixx @judespoision @vellicora @bborra lemme know what ya think 🥰 & tell me if u want to be added

[hockeyandhrsepwr]

Quarterfinals

Spain vs Netherlands

Max Verstappen x reader (fc: Lieke Martins) username: yn

Carlos Sainz x reader (fc: Teresa Dueñas) username: playyn

F1

F1 lots of familiar faces at this years FIFA World cup, as more than half of the grid is down supporting their countries and partners over the summer shutdown

F1fan please, they all just didn’t want to wait a month to get laid

Fan34 F1 x Wosc crossover when?

Fan45 next years charity match!!

Fan25 they’d get smoked 😂

User94 only showing the ones who’s gf made it to the quarters 😂

User26 who else was there?

User94 Lance, Mick and Zhou all dating players from their countries and Landos dating one of the Americans but they’re all out now

Uset37 it’s kinda crazy that so many of them are dating high level players

Yn

Yn It’s game day!! Let’s play

MaxVerstappen let’s go!! You’ve got this my love

Yn hell yeah we do

TeamNetherlands whole country’s behind you

Redbullfan and the orange army too!

Playyn loser buys dinner tomorrow?

Yn deal!

Yn on second thought, make the boys pay

Playyn ooh, great plan

F1fan86 the way I sung along to the Dutch anthem because of max 🤦‍♀️

Playyn

Playyn Vamos chicas!!

CarlosSainz VAMOS!!

CarlosSainz win please, max has expensive taste

Playyn oh sure, that’s the only reason to win 🙄

Fan62 😂 the sass

F1fan I wonder if that double dates actually going to happen 😅

Yn good luck! (you’ll need it 😏)

Playyn well see in 90 minutes won’t we😉

Fan68 I love that they’re besties as well

F1gossip

F1gossip Carlos & Max carpooling to the match today. Bets on whether they’ll be going home together 😂

Edit: looks like Max will be buying dinner tomorrow

[fat-oc-battle]

FINAL MATCH

jake martin (he) character & art by @maxinstoresnow

Jake is 18 and fresh off the divorce of his superhero parents. His father has just moved him from Primrose--the city of superheroes--to the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania and he's looking for an outlet for his angst. Luckily, they've arrived just as a strange new team of young superheroes has just started operation. He plans to impress them with his (limited) shape-changing ability and join the team.

He collects vinyl, is a bit obnoxious, listens to punk music, and cares very deeply for both of his homes. He's bisexual and he loves his mom. He plays guitar and gets his kicks being a nuisance to his new friends.

VS.

naomi (she) character & art by @ackee

naomi chung, one of the main characters of my future webcomic, traversion. she's a chinese-jamaican immigrant who moved to miami in her mid 20s to pursue her dream of becoming a tattoo artist. outside of work, she spends her time hitting up alternative and caribbean clubs around town with her best friend and roomate, xia. loves to use men for free drinks. a huge bitch with even bigger boobs.

neocities page

[charles-leclerc-official]

2024 China Grand Prix Race Analysis

Here is my full analysis of the 2024 Chinese Grand prix. I already covered the sprint in a separate post here.

The important thing to keep in mind about this weekend is that the Chinese track was a very unique surface. It caused a lot of unusual grip problems for many of the top teams. I think as a whole that this race saw some outlier results as far as car behavior goes.

Table of Contents Stake - Zhou - Valtteri Ferrari - Start - Charles: his race, vs Lando - Carlos - Data Analysis Mclaren - Lando - Oscar - Data Analysis Penalties - Logan - Kevin - Daniel - Lance VCARB Aston Martin Red Bull - Checo Final Thoughts

Stake

Zhou

I usually start these with Ferrari. However this is a special occasion. So we are starting the analysis by celebrating Zhou and his performance this weekend.

This was the first Chinese Grand Prix in Formula 1 history with a Chinese driver racing on track. Zhou Guanyu made history and considering the car he's in he gave a good performance for the home crowd. Between qualifying 10th in the sprint, making some pretty good overtakes during the race, and carrying his team after Valtteri's DNF it was a pretty good weekend all around.

It was so nice to see all of the home support for Zhou. He was given an honorary spot at parc fermé after the race, and I am so glad they did something special to highlight this moment for him and the country he is representing in F1.

Zhou driving this weekend really was the highlight. This was only ever going to happen once in F1. Glad I was here to see it.

Valtteri unfortunately suffered a power unit failure and had to retire from the race. No damage to the car. This did bring out the yellow flag and a VSC. And when the marshals were unable to roll the car off the track quickly enough it upgraded to a full safety car(don’t worry we will be coming back to this)

He was looking pretty good in the car until that point, actually getting close to the points. I think we might see Stake in the points this year if they ever get their pit stops under control.

Ferrari

Ferrari's race was probably the weakest for the team so far this season. It wasn't really a surprise though. The cooler temperatures and inconsistent track surface were not ideal for the SF24.

Charles started in P6 and finished P4, Carlos started P7 and finished P5.

I do consider this not to be indicative of any downward trend for Ferrari. It was pretty predictable and it did not reveal any issues in the SF-24 we weren't already aware of (tyre warming)

Ferrari did say that they sacrificed more in qualifying in favor of a better race setup. And I don't think this was necessarily a bad idea. It's impossible to say if a different setup might have put them higher and if they have been able to defend with that setup. Going for a more race focused setup and relying on the better tyre deg to be able to allow for overtaking is a pretty good plan, especially if they didn't think they could get much more out of qualifying.

This did mean that we got to see some proper overtakes in the SF-24 from Charles and that is something we just haven't seen a lot of this season so far. So seeing how it handles in that regard was good.

So the big question is, why did Ferrari suddenly end up behind a Mclaren when Ferrari have been easily beating them all season?

Well there are a few factors:

- Ferrari struggled this weekend with grip and failed to find the best balance in the car to maximize top speeds. They did sacrifice some downforce in favor of speed during the race but I don't think it was enough. It didn't do enough to help the top speeds and it sacrificed grip so we ended up a weird middle ground that didn't optimize either problem. This track surface really made it so hard to figure out the right direction for setup.

- Mclaren(Lando) were stronger than expected. Lando was really the one pulling performance out of that car.

I will point out some key areas on this in the data analysis section as well.

Race Start

The most notable thing about Ferrari’s race was the start, when Carlos compromised his and Charles’ start by attacking right into turn 1. This forced Charles to have to defend(something he should not have to do right off the race start from his own teammate who started behind) and this resulted in them both immediately losing a place to Russell. This was a place they both had to fight to make up.

Again, this kind of thing isn’t good when compromising the results for the whole team is the result.

Footage Analysis

Just so we are clear about who is responsible for the loss of placement I want to show the footage from this start. This is from Carlos' driver cam footage as it most clearly shows what happened.

Charles starts P6 with Carlos behind him in P7. George is behind them in P8.

Into turn 1 Charles has the inside line, very clearly. Carlos has the outside line into the turn, this is fine. Charles is also clearly ahead.

Carlos pushes inside more, putting pressure on Charles. Notice how much closer Carlos got and how much space he left on the outside(another vulnerability he left open)

Charles pushes Carlos back(to defend which he has to do if attacked especially into a crowded corner like that a the race start)

Charles then took full position in front of Carlos, and this allowed George to slip past both of them on the inside line.

Because Carlos forced Charles to defend George was able to take that inside line that Charles had and passed both of them, dropping Charles and Carlos down a place.

Charles cannot defend both the outside and inside line on his own. He defended against the car that put pressure on him first. His teammate should not be the main one he has to defend team track position against.

Carlos compromised Charles' ability to defend position against George(which is the priority, he's on a rival team that is more important than racing between teammates)

Again if he is attacked Charles has to defend, why would he give up the place to the teammate he was faster than? Nothing would have happened if Carlos hadn’t pulled this move. Charles would have kept George behind and they might have been able to overtake earlier in the race and gain one more position, because they lost a full position to George this early they had to take that back before they could make progress climbing further up the field.

Carlos

This was Carlos' weakest performance so far this year. He compromised the race start for himself and Ferrari causing them both to lose placement immediately. Then he was unable to overtake. The only real overtakes he's pulled off were on cars with seriously compromised brakes.

He struggled with grip and tyres more than Charles. They both had issues in this area but it was more noticeable in his performance.

Charles finished 10.36 seconds ahead of his teammate who was directly behind him in the final 13 laps this race. And that gap can be explained by the fact Carlos was stuck behind Fernando for more laps(as well as a pit stop), however once he got into clean air he did not make up any time at all, his pace didn’t gain on Charles at all with the clean air. A gap in pace that big between teammates is concerning(at least for Carlos) It may be due to his personal choice of setup, or tyre management, or grip in the track. Given that he had more issues with grip on this track I am thinking that was a factor. He lost most of his time on turns 1, 5, 7, 8, and 10.

Edit: also Carlos did pit under normal conditions while Charles pitted under the safety car, this saved Charles some time(aprox 7-8 seconds), however the main point stands that Carlos did not make any progress closing the gap between them.

Charles

Charles' overtakes climbing up the field really saved Ferrari's race. Starting off by losing a position he climbed up places pulling some really clean overtakes and also helping his teammate through.

It was great to see him doing some overtaking in this car, he hasn't been in the position to do much of that due to track position etc in previous races. SF-24 looked good on that front in his hands.

Charles mentioned the lack of speed on straights, and this is due to the fact he wasn't able to gain on Lando in those sections(when he should have) this is due to the less than optimal downforce balance Ferrari went with this weekend(again I don't this is anything terribly concerning, this was a hard track to get that right on)

Overall Charles ran a really good race, obviously not the results he wanted but he extremely optimistic about the upgrades and that they will address some of the current limitations of the SF-24.

Data Analysis

I want to compare Charles and Lando's pace to highlight where Mclaren had the edge on Ferrari in this race. Charles was the fastest Ferrari this weekend and Lando was the fastest Mclaren.

First here is a breakdown of the fastest lap both driver's set.

Lando's straight line speed was really a big factor in keeping him ahead. That plus the fact he was consistently strong in sector 2.

And here is a look at the overall race pace between the two.

Ignore the mess in the middle, that curve is just correcting a slope for the outlier laps due to yellow flag and safety car conditions. It's not important here.

Lando had the edge on Charles almost the entire race. Until the end on the old hards.

What is important is that Lando had the pace on the new hards. Charles didn’t have the time to catch Lando once he managed to gain the places. He probably would have without the yellow flags and if track placement was better. The point being that Ferrari’s pace was off this weekend but it wasn’t as bad as it looked on track, there were other factors at play.

I think this result was a combination of a sub-optimal setup for this track on Ferrari's part on top of the fact this wasn't Ferrari’s strongest track, and Mclaren getting things right for Lando. Also some fairly solid driving from Lando.

Now I want to compare Charles' and Carlos' fastest laps and pace. This was the biggest gap in performance we've seen so far this year between the two Ferraris. Some of that I will attribute to the fact this track was weird as far as track surface goes, but such a big difference between teammates like this means it wasn't just the car or the track surface. While both were not great with grip or setup this weekend one outperformed the other by a decent margin.

Here is a look at Charles' and Carlos' fastest laps.

Charles having better straight line speed consistently and putting in a strong sector three is what put him ahead of Carlos and kept him there for the entire race.

Now here is the full race pace.

Again remember to ignore the weird lines in the middle that is just the graphing tool not able to create a good slope for all the safety car laps.

But you can see that Charles' pace was better the entire race, on both the medium and the hard tyres.

I don't think there was a lot more to get out of this weekend for Ferrari. It's possible managing the pits a little differently would have gotten Charles up to third but with the yellow flag chaos It was really difficult to gauge in real time when the best time to pit was. I think the pit management was good. We can look back and go "oh we could have gained a place here" So I have no issues there.

Hopefully that clears up some questions about Ferrari's overall race and car performance this weekend.

Overall this was still decent points for the constructors’ and we saw some good racing from Charles. I do fully believe we will be seeing Ferrari come back stronger in Miami.

Mclaren

Why was Mclaren, specifically Lando, so strong this weekend?

Well it's unclear.

They have had the clear #3 car so far this season. So I think that it's a combination of this not being a strong track for Ferrari and some conditions that favored their car that put them ahead.

No one, not even Mclaren expected this so I really think it seems like it comes down to this track being better for them than expected and Lando specifically being tuned into the track. Like after practice Lando was not feeling confident(his words) and the team were also not making any promises. I don’t think they were sandbagging, I think this genuinely all came together for them. 

Now it’s clear that Lando would have finished P3 behind Checo if it were not for the luck/strategy(a little of both they timed that well, but also had to get lucky with Red Bull timing) with the pits. Red Bull lost track position to Lando when they pitted Checo and they were unable to take it back. If Red Bull had timed their stop better Lando would have been P3 because his pace was not going to catch Checo if he was ahead.

So the P2 is due to some good driving on Lando’s part and Red Bull giving up track position and failing to recover it.

Oscar struggled more on this track. However he wasn't far outside where we've seen him in other races and for Mclaren in general. So he wasn’t under-performing, Lando was over performing. I also want to note that Oscar was slightly damaged during the crash between Lance and Dani, Dani's front wing tapped the rear of his car and there may have been a small amount of damage, important to note as he may have been compromised on pace due to this.

Data Analysis

Comparison of Lando and Checo’s pace

The first half of the race isn’t as important, the graph is very odd in the middle due to all of the outlier laps caused by the yellow flags, so that is not important. What I want to point out is that Lando was on the same pace as Checo(or slightly better) for those first 6 laps after the race started again when all the yellow flags were done, but after that Checo was faster until the end of the race. Not enough to catch Lando, but enough that Lando would not have been able to pass him if he hadn’t had track position.

Now here is a quick look at Lando and Oscar's pace.

There isn't a ton to dissect here, Lando was faster the entire race, by a pretty big margin on the hards especially. Given that a lot of drivers this race had issues managing deg on the hards I think that second stint gap really came down to tyre management, an area where Oscar is still improving.

Here is a look at their fastest laps to really see where Lando was making those bigger gains and where Oscar was struggling.

One thing that I find interesting is that Oscar's fastest lap had a section of DRS, Lando's didn't and Lando was still a full second faster. Just a really solid lap from Lando all around. His strength in sector 2 is what really gave him an edge all race.

Overall this was Mclaren’s best finish, but their strongest weekend overall so far this season is still Australia(because both drivers had a strong finish not just one)

Penalties and Incidents

Welcome to the “everyone gets a penalty!” section of the analysis. This was a mess to unravel. After reviewing the footage and reading the stewards judgements as well as the driver and teams statements I have come to a lot of the same conclusions as the stewards. 

The middle of this race was a mess. One yellow flag had just ended before another had to be brought out again. 

There were two yellow flags this race, the first after Valtteri DNF'ed and the second due to multiple incidents right after the end of the first yellow flag. 

My biggest critique is that the VSC was deployed weirdly late. They seemed about 10 to 20 seconds off in calling for one, and that is concerning. A driver on the side of the track is at risk, so it’s important to make sure a race is slowed immediately.

Logan: overtook under safety car conditions after the VSC was enacted when Valtteri’s power unit failed. Nico was coming out of the pitlane as Logan was coming down the straight, Nico managed to barely exit in front of Logan, but Logan’s faster momentum into turn 1 put him ahead of Nico, and thus he overtook under a yellow flag. Time penalty and license points is an appropriate penalty. I have no idea why his team didn’t get him to slow down more. They said they missed Nico, which I really don't know how. Lack of track observation. This was a failure of the team as much as it was sloppy on Logan's part. I think he would have slowed more had the team actually noticed this sooner.

Kevin: Kevin made contact with Yuki going out of turn 6 right after the race restart. He broke late and made contact with Yuki’s rear wheel and this led to a tyre puncture. Yuki had to retire from the race. Kevin was clearly at fault here, he failed to brake when catching Yuki.

Daniel: Dani was penalized for overtaking under a yellow flag and a safety car. He did this deliberately because Nico took a place from him and he thought it was okay to take that spot back. However he should have waited for the race to resume under green light conditions before doing that. He knows better. What happened with Nico is a little murky as far as why he took a position and why he did not get penalized. I think it's because it was right before the safety car but the FIA reporting on that isn't clear.

Lance: At turn 14 Lance rear ended Daniel after the first safety car had ended they were waiting on Max to restart the race. Max was leading the race and setting the pace until proper racing speeds could resume. Lance is at fault here, it’s that simple. This was seriously negligent driving on his part. I really have no idea what he was doing but no competent driver does this. I will agree with Oscar in the sentiment that everyone was crowded together, only one person crashed into another car in that scenario. 

“Yes, but not everyone decided to crash into each other.” - Oscar 

Lance argued that it was the concertina effect, and said the stewards should account for that. This is a weak argument at best. The concertina effect is to describe car behavior on track, it isn’t an excuse. Going into a corner a driver who is supposedly one of the best in the world should know how to account for that effect. The fact is that he was going too fast into that corner and not paying attention to the car in front of him.  

Furthermore his lack of accountability and attempts to blame everyone but himself for the incident is not a good look. He is very clearly in the wrong here. I think that the penalty he received might be on the gentle side of things as well. Personally I would have liked to see a 20 second time penalty for that, or a grid penalty. 

I agree with Dani’s statement that Lance should have only been paying attention to the car in front of him. He clearly wasn’t doing that, or at least not well enough. He appears to be looking at Max and Oscar waiting for Max to restart the race. But that is not where he should have been looking. Additionally Dani pointed out that Lance’s speed there was too much, he put half his car under Dani, that’s not the concertina effect, that is going too fast. 

Dani of course is heated, and I feel that for him, he DNF'ed because of the carelessness of another driver through no real fault of his own. I don’t think continuing to argue is good on either side, but he has every right to be mad, especially when the offending driver refuses to admit his fault. Two DNFs in a row is hard for any driver. Lance really cost him a lot. 

This isn’t just sloppy driving on Lance’s part, it's outright negligent.

VCARB

Quick note about VCARB. Dani was on track for his best performance all year this weekend. Which makes the DNF all the more upsetting. Yuki struggled with this track all weekend, seems he was not feeling this track or that car. I will say his performance seems like an anomaly compared with the rest of his season so far so I don’t think it’s cause for concern for future races. 

VCARB as a team were obviously the worst off this weekend with both driver’s DNF'ing at no fault of their own.

Aston Martin

I already covered Lance, so I want to just quickly mention that Fernando was on fire this weekend. He was defending, and had that car in places it really had no business being. His recovery from the close spin, the defending, the overtakes. He really is just continuing to show his skill and experience, and he overall had one of the best drives of the entire race.

Red Bull

Max won the race, and it was a pretty clean race for him, which is amusing due to the utter chaos happening behind him. First time he has won at this track, so that is another track conquered by Max. Well done Max!

Sergio

Checo’s race wasn’t actually that bad. He was comfortably in P2 until Red Bull gave up track position and he wasn’t able to recover the place from Lando. I already compared the pace between those two. But I think it’s pretty clear that he would have been P2 were it not for the pits. If he has position he has the pace to keep the spot. However he does not have the same pace Max has in the RB20 to take lost positions back if the car ahead has similar pace. 

I also want to note here that there were a few corners where it was pointed out that Alpine and Williams were outperforming Ferrari on. However taking a look at the data it wasn’t just Ferrari. Pierre was literally faster than Max in that corner consistently. What this tells me is that something about the unusual grip of this track was not suited to any of the fastest cars. So it’s not a Ferrari problem, or a Red Bull problem, it’s just highlighting an unusual quirk of the track that no one really figured out this weekend.

Here is a fastest lap comparison of Pierre and Max. Obviously Max is the best driver in the best car, so I think this just highlights my point about certain corners especially turns 1, 2, and 3. There was something off there that gave the edge to some midfield cars are far as grip goes. All top cars struggled for speed on those turns and I think it was due to weird track surface conditions.

Final Thoughts

This was the most chaotic race of the season. Hopefully we have a penalty free race next time.

See you when I return with Miami GP analysis!

[ingravinoveritas]

I've seen some discourse going on today with one of my other posts, so, very quickly:

The gif above is of David on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show yesterday, where Michael's name was brought up (of course) in reference to Staged. The screenshot beneath that is of a tweet from Anna the day after Michael appeared on Radcliffe and Maconie on BBC 6.

I've already talked about my thoughts on AL's tweet on this post, so I will try not to repeat what's been previously said. But to be clear, what is being compared between these things is not David's "Martin Sheen" comment vs. the one from the radio hosts. The comparison is between how David's and AL's comments on the same topic come across, especially from an optics perspective.

In both cases, the presenters are getting Michael's name wrong (Chris Evans deliberately; Radcliffe and Maconie seemingly by accident). David follows along with the joke that CE is making and adds to it, without it being at Michael's expense. You can see the sweet smile on his face and even hear how soft his voice gets and tell exactly where this comment is coming from/what he means by it.

With Anna's, we are looking at text instead of video, so right off the bat, I fully concede that this puts her at a disadvantage. In the case of Radcliffe/Maconie, the presenter clearly accidentally misspoke, so AL's tweet seems somewhat disproportionate in response. Michael also spent a good portion of his time on that radio show gushing to the hosts about what a huge fan of theirs he is, and how he plans to keep listening to their show. So it doesn't seem to make sense that he would be okay with Anna attacking people he admires on social media literally the day after he was on the show.

Michael is/will also soon again be employed by the BBC. Looking at it from that optics perspective, it comes across as very unprofessional for Anna to be passive-aggressively mouthing off at Michael's employer, because there are actual potential consequences that can come with that (although we would hope this wouldn't be the case). Am I saying that AL could actually harm Michael's reputation or job prospects? I'm genuinely not sure, but either way, why would she be okay with saying things online that would even have any chance of negatively affecting her own partner?

I would further add that it is not misogynistic to suggest someone should be accountable for the things they write online, or the potential consequences that come with it--whether that means costing Michael jobs, or straining his relationships with industry contacts, or just making him look bad. The only thing that is misogynistic is to say that being a woman means Anna can't be responsible for what she posts online. Because if she is going to be in this business and going for an acting career, then she has to be held to the same standards of professionalism as everyone else.

There are so many other things I could say, but I'm just going to urge folks to read the post I linked to above if you'd like to know more of my thoughts. Hopefully this clears things up...

[percheduphere]

people saying, oh it wasn't intended from the beginning so it wasn't intentional thus has to stay fanfiction bug me. like, shows can develop organically based on chemistry. they can surprise you and take you in a direction that wasn't planned but now just works. like, fucking, chandler and monica wasn't planned from the beginning! but the actors had chemistry and the writers tried it out and it became iconic. you don't throw something away just because it surprised you instead of being pre-planned; you cultivate whatever gold you find!

With Hollywood entertainment in particular, I think there is a lot of ignorance regarding how the creative process, production process, post-production process, and business all work. It is readily apparent that in Hollywood, there are many hands in the kitchen when it comes to creating a movie, documentary, or show. The "Original Intent" argument is weakest when it comes to Hollywood art, and in fact fails to be a viable argument in multiple areas. I will discuss how the "Original Intent" argument fails in Hollywood in more depth under the read more, using what I know from having worked in the industry myself as a writer. And to be honest, the fact I have to pull my private professional history out online, just to prove I'm not being delulu when it comes to the importance of queer subtext in film, pisses me the fuck off.

To be clear, since this whole discourse mess on my Tumblr is likely the result of someone thinking I'm an anti-sylki: I AM NOT AN ANTI. I have an extensive analysis on Sylvie as an integral character to the Loki series, Sylki in canon, and her relationship with Mobius here.

I agree with you: a lot of amazing art deviates from the original intention, especially writing. If deviating from original intent in the writing process did not exist, we would not have DRAFT REVISIONS, we would not have IMPROV, we would not have EDITORS (whose entire job hinges on giving the writer not only grammar corrections, but feedback on how to IMPROVE character, plot, and pacing, which inherently means making changes from the original intent!). This is to say nothing of the thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of media scholars--with actual PhDs--who spend years of their lives performing meta-analysis to write academic papers on subject matters like this. Papers that become formal publications and contribute to how queer history is taught in universities! This is no different than academic scholars analyzing women and race representation and resistance in film. Why should analyzing queer representation and resistance in film be treated any less?

LET'S TALK ABOUT ORIGINAL CREATIVE INTENT VS POWER HIEARCHY & POLITICS IN HOLLYWOOD

For context with respect to this ask, a different Tumblr user critiqued against queer subtext in one of my posts using the "original intent" argument for the Loki series and Lokius specifically. By this logic, if original intent is always honored, then the original script for Loki's S2E5 (written by Eric Martin) would not have been NUKED by the executive powers that be at Marvel. [source] But no, the original intent was not honored, it was rejected. So how does one square the primacy of original intent with original intent being rejected by people who are not the artist but the people who manage Disney's finances?

In television, "Executive Producer" (i.e. Tom Hiddleston, Michael Waldron, Eric Martin, etc.) is a title that can be given to a writer or actor who has more creative say in the execution of a story than a regular staff writer or actor on crew. It also indicates that the writer or actor is in a much higher salary range compared to their professional peers. It does NOT mean the same thing as a CORPORATE "Producer" of Kevin Feige's level, who ultimately has the FINAL SAY on what does NOT end up on the cutting room floor. The corporate Producer must take into account the wishes of corporate's shareholders and board of directors, who are often multi-million if not multi-billion global investors who need the distribution of the product to succeed internationally in countries like China, which is very anti-LGBTQAI+. This is how a script like Eric Martin's S2E5 can be nuked and the writer can be contractually gagged from talking about its specific contents by Disney, lest they be SUED TO HELL for breaking their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

This doesn't even take into account politics.

In 2020, Ike Perlmutter, Chair of Marvel, "gave $575,000 to Trump For Victory, $35,500 to the Republican National Committee in April, $5600 for Texans For Ronny Jackson in February. 2019 saw him donate $248,000 to the Republican National Committee, $466,100 to Trump For Victory, $5,600 to Donald Trump For President." His wife, Laura, mirrored those donations. "In late 2016, he also gave $5,000,000 to the Great America PAC." [source] Ike was only recently laid off from his position in March 2023 [source]. Perlmutter was in a power-struggle at Marvel with Kevin Feige for years. Feige was promoted to Chief Creative Officer in 2019, which brought the power struggle to a head, ultimately contributing to Perlmutter's departure.

There is also Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, who was famously quoted during the Writers Guild of America strike for saying, “It’s very disturbing to me. We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption”

This is the worst time in the world to negotiate to pay your writers, YOUR CREATIVE LABOR FORCE, who entertained millions of people while they were stuck in their homes for 2 years, fairly?

And these are just two men in executive power at Marvel and Disney. We're not even talking about all the other board members and shareholders. You think Tom Hiddleston, Michael Waldron, and Eric Martin have any real power compared to these guys? They do not. They are peons by comparison. And these artists (despite their "Executive Producer" title) are always at odds with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), who are ultimately not artists but FINANCIERS.

Here's another quote from a studio executive that occurred during the writer's strike:

"Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to “break the WGA,” as one studio exec blatantly put it.  

To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work.

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”" [source 1] [source 2]

Fortunately, this negative press and the WGA members' solidarity led to the WGA getting everything they demanded. I still have friends in the industry, specifically in the WGA and MPEG. A lot of them were indeed starved out. My friend who's a film editor is still unemployed because pre-production has only recently started to ramp up again and her profession is all in post. She has to wait for production to catch-up and finish in order to get work.

If the AMPTP is willing to use clearly unethical tactics to underpay their writers and actors (don't forget the SAG-AFTRA strike that joined later), do we really think members of the AMPTP (the studio execs) are willing to honor artists' original intent if the original intent may be "offensive to some viewers" and therefore can potentially cut into their financial bottom line?

We're not naive. We know the answer to this.

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH, KILLING EVE, AND GOOD OMENS

But what about OFMD, KE, and GO? These shows are on MAX, BBC, and Amazon Prime respectively. These corporations have a different branding image than Disney. Disney touts itself as "family friendly"; (read: on-screen LGBTQAI+ affection between two lead characters is "not family friendly"). MAX and BBC's branding type also affords them the luxury of creating content for niche audiences. Disney, on the other hand, makes additional revenue through using their plethora of licenses to make toys, additions to their theme parks, and other merch. If a parent is offended that a canonically queer character like Loki has romantic love not just for Sylvie but also for Mobius (a same-sex relationship), what are the odds of parents like them not buying Disney's merchandise? We can apply this same question to Star Wars, Pixar, and any of Disney-branded animation or live action movies. How deeply can audience offense potentially cut into Disney's bottom line? If there were no discrimination taking place, we would have LGBTQAI+ representation through a lead character in any one of their licenses already. We do not, and that is a huge red flag.

In addition, these entertainment corporations (who do not tout themselves as "family friendly") generate other sources of revenue elsewhere. Netflix generates international revenue through the production of international programming like "Squid Game" and other K-dramas such as "The Glory" or Mexican shows including, "The Surrogacy" and "Haunted: Latin America". MAX is struggling. They were bought out for that reason. With AppleTV and Hulu, their target audiences are more diverse, they offer a variety of media product, and their business strategy is ultimately different from Disney. All of this grants them more freedom in what kind of characters they choose to represent, including LGBTQAI+ characters.

Remember House and Wilson from House M.D.? That show was on FOX. We know the political alignment of FOX. Dean and Castiel from Supernatural? WB Television. Both shows came out before streaming became dominant, and thus, these shows had to cater to anyone who might happen to land on their channels. When the market demands that you cater to the widest possible audience in order to generate the largest revenue, the creatives are forced to create relatively conservative artistic product. Hence, creative censorship and our long history of queer subtext.

At Nickelodeon, the artists actually had the support of corporate to move forward with Korrasami because the final season Legend of Korra was only available online. It did not air on their channel. If that had not been the case, corporate would not have approved Korrasami. However, that approval was contingent upon the artists being subtle subtle about Korra and Asami's relationship. Even in this canon ship, the animators relied on subtext for queer romance.

Not helping Disney's case is the cancellation of "The Owl House". Why was "The Owl House" canceled? It didn't fit Disney's "brand". [source]

THE FAILURES OF THE "ORIGINAL INTENT" ARGUMENT IN HOLLYWOOD

The "Original Intent" argument fails when it comes to art in Hollywood because:

Original Intent can change, and often does change, during the creative process. This applies to all forms of art, not just Hollywood.

Multiple artists are involved in pre-production, production, and post-production. At any point in this 3-part process of filmmaking, original intent can be changed for a variety of reasons.

Studio Executives, Boards of Directors, and Corporate Shareholders have more power than the artists in Hollywood. If they think a product will not make money, they will order changes accordingly.

Disney specifically touts itself as "family friendly". Its lack of a lead character (in ANY of its live-action licenses) being in an openly queer relationship with someone who presents as the same sex, is the direct result of not wanting to lose conservative audiences.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are common in Hollywood and prevent artists from providing specifics regarding original intent. This is done not only to safeguard corporate's intellectual property (IP), but to also safeguard their public relations image.

THE ORIGINAL INTENT ARGUMENT WEAPONIZED

The "original intent" mindset can be either very naive or very cynical, depending on the thinker's motives for choosing this belief. Naive, in that thinking creative purity actually exists (it does not) or that oppression does not still occur in Hollywood (it does). Cynical, in that either the thinker doesn't believe in artists intentionally finding ways around mass produced arts' media censorship, which has in turn created our rich history of queer subtext in film, OR the thinker wants the "original intent" argument to invalidate a change they do not like.

The last motive is the same strategy used by fans who reject Miles Morales as being a real Spider-Man. The same strategy fans use to deny that Shuri is indeed the new Black Panther. Both are tactics used to mask racism and sexism beneath the veneer of "creative purity". Fans who have internalized racism, sexism, or queer-phobia may also use this tactic at a subconscious level to protect themselves emotionally from disappointment. Finally, there are fans who use this argument to invalidate another ship, usually a queer ship that cannot be formally canonized because of corporate studio power.

Regardless of the reasoning, using this argument is frequently insidious because it perpetuates straight white male dominance in media representation.

PERSONAL LIVED EXPERIENCE

I'm an old poc queer and have worked in Hollywood long enough to know that the writers' original vision rarely ever--IF EVER--pans out as originally intended. If you ever sit through a movie and wonder why the story feels so weird in certain parts, I can guarantee you that about 2/5ths of the time, a corporate producer stepped in and messed with the original story in post-production (usually in an poor, over-worked editor's dark editing bay) and ordered reshoots the director may not have agreed with.

I've also worked in the industry long enough to know that it is an absolutely toxic work environment in which women, people of color, and queer people still struggle to get a creative foothold anywhere. My first experience pitching a script to a prospective agent involved being asked to meet at a hotel for drinks. We didn't talk about my writing at all. What I thought would be a pitch meeting was actually the writer's version of the "Hollywood casting couch". Yes, I was propositioned. No, nothing happened to me. I walked out. This happened to me in June 2008. It was not my last experience. The "Me Too" movement that came years later in 2017 was in response to situations I have encountered like this.

Those of us who succeed are very rare, and 97% of the time, the executive staff is very, very white and male. There is absolutely oppression and exploitation of all sorts still happening in Hollywood. I fucking lived it and continue to have nightmares about it.

QUEER SUBTEXT STILL EXISTS

Thus, to deny queer subtext's validity as an art form and to only accept the words of those who are either in power or limited in what they can say because of those in power, undermines not only the artists' efforts to tell the story they want to tell but cannot tell explicitly, it also undermines queer joy and queer resistance in cinema. And yes, sometimes those artists are cis straight white male allies who want to tell these stories because they simply make sense for the characters. These people are the artists, not the financiers.

It's more mature to embrace, or at least leave alone, the loud joy others experience from shipping and performing meta-analysis instead of publicly pissing on them with the profoundly weak and ignorant argument of "original intent". Don't mess with me on this. The number of scripts I have worked on that completely warped from what I wanted, and then to have my writing credit removed or stolen, still makes me sick. Yes, I'm bitter, but I'm also glad I left.

[maxwell-grant]

Crossover Question: If Dr.Octopus was in a Marvel vs Capcom game and had to make his own Sinister 6 with capcom villains, who do you think he would choose/who would you choose?

Traditionally the Sinister Six tend to comprise villains covering a wide range of types of threats Spider-Man goes up against, and they also can't be too big as individual villains otherwise because they're all supposed to be operating under at least one leader, usually Doc Ock, which is why you hardly ever seen Green Goblin or Kingpin in the Six unless they're the ones leading it instead. Trying to be as widespread as possible, here goes my picks counter clock-wise:

Vile: We need a Mega Man baddie, he's one of the most visually iconic of the bunch, he's traditionally Sigma's underling but we're not exactly trying to make iron-clad justifications for these. I think we could also argue that Doc Ock did some tampering with his circuits to win his loyalty or is promising him something in return so that he at least goes along with the plan before backstabbing them. Think he works nicely to fill that role filled in by Scorpion or Kraven, someone who is vile or dangerous or scummy even by the standards of the group, someone who helps keep the Sinister Six a oh-shit escalation of threat whenever it shows.

Abigail/Mech-Zangief: We need a Street Fighter character, we need dumb muscle, and we need at least one comic relief guy. The Sinister Six doesn't feel right without Rhino, so I'm elevating either one of these. Abigail is technically reformed but he's not exactly a "good guy", he's a disgruntled taxpayer trying to make ends meet who turns into a destructive rampaging beast at a moment's notice, which is Spider-Man villain territory already. I think we could include him or Mech-Zangief, as a way for Zangief to be in the team in spirit, a tribute to his kayfabe fame as a videogame bad guy that got him the spot in Wreck-It-Ralph's meeting.

Gran Bruce: We need at least one animal costume guy, a Spider-Man villain gathering is not complete without one, and it's good to have at least one guy who's kinda dumb and funny and not really much a threat until he might inexplicably be, sort of the Shocker of the group. I'm not too big on Viewtiful Joe and I could give or take this pick but he's a shark guy, that wins points with me.

Hanbei Takenaka: I think we need one villain who doesn't really fit the line-up, more of a handsome guy than a monster, someone who is bringing extra brains or tactics or weapons to the equation besides what Doc Ock brings. I almost included Vega for this reason but he's too specialized and we already have a major clawed villain, so instead this guy seems to be an interesting fit for contrast, like Martin Li or Hickman's Ultimate Black Cat.

Lady Dimitrescu: We need one Resident Evil villain and at least one more iconic villain besides Vile, and yes I know she is already fanatically loyal to another villain and already has a group, I know, but again, refer to Vile's section, these games don't exactly work on iron-clad character pairings, and if there's a character we need in a Marvel vs Capcom game stat it's her. She just feels right at home in a rogues gallery line-up (the Four Lords are such wonderful villains, they feel like characters you could throw into any series and have it work), and like Vile we need some actually dangerous villains and some villains who don't play nice and threaten to break the group of tiny pathetic stupid man-things beneath her, and she breaks away from the technological aspect by being a biological monster which is, again, definitely ground that needs to be covered. Out of everyone here, she's the one who I could most easily see actually fighting Spider-Man, joining the club of baddies who want to psychosexually tear him limb from limb. Only marginally less horny than Venom's whole deal.

Definitely taking suggestions on what other line-ups could be used for a Capcom Sinister Six, and which Capcom baddies could join.

[slayingfiction]

Plotters VS. Pansters

Don’t forget our Grand Opening Giveaway starts February 1st/24 on Tumblr, Instagram and slayingfiction.com! You don’t want to miss it! Happy Writing!

In the world of writing, there are two types of creators often discussed: plotters and pantsers. These terms describe a writer’s approach to crafting stories. Whether you’re an aspiring author or a seasoned novelist, understanding these styles can offer valuable insights into your writing process. Let’s dive into what makes plotters and pantsers distinct and how each approach contributes to the

art of storytelling.

Plotters: Architects of the Written World

Plotters, often referred to as ‘architects,’ are writers who plan their stories meticulously before diving into the actual writing. They are the mapmakers of the writing world, charting out each twist and turn of their narrative.

Detailed Outlining: Plotters create extensive outlines, character profiles, and world-building elements before penning their first sentence.

Controlled Storytelling: This style lends itself to a controlled narrative with fewer inconsistencies and plot holes.

Time Investment: Plotting can be time-consuming initially, but it often makes the writing process smoother.

Famous Plotters: J.K. Rowling and John Grisham are notable plotters, known for their detailed story planning.

Pantsers: The Free Spirits of Storytelling

Pantsers, or ‘gardeners,’ as George R.R. Martin likes to call them, write ‘by the seat of their pants.’ They dive into writing with a general idea or none at all, discovering the story as they go along.

Spontaneous Creation: Pantsers often begin with a basic concept or character and let the story unfold naturally.

Flexible and Dynamic: This style allows for more flexibility, often leading to surprising and dynamic plot turns.

Adaptable Process: Pantsing can be less intimidating for some writers, as it doesn’t require extensive pre-planning.

Famous Pantsers: Stephen King and Margaret Atwood are known for their pantser style, crafting intricate stories with a more spontaneous approach.

Which Approach is Better?

The truth is, there’s no ‘better’ approach. Both plotters and pantsers have their strengths and challenges. Some writers are strict plotters or pantsers, while others fall somewhere in between, employing techniques from both styles.

1. Mix and Match: Many successful authors use a combination of plotting and pantsing. They may start with a rough outline but allow room for the story to evolve.

Personal Preference: The best method depends on what works for you as a writer. Experiment with both styles to find your comfort zone.

Genre Considerations: Some genres, like mystery or high fantasy, might benefit more from plotting due to their complex plots and world-building.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between, the most important thing is to keep writing. Each approach offers unique pathways to creativity, and understanding your own method can enhance your writing experience. Embrace your style, and let it guide you in your storytelling journey.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to write a story. The beauty of writing lies in the diversity of its creation.

[agentrouka-blog]

This text is from "Untangling the Meereenese Knot, Part III: Dany’s Struggle With Herself": " “The human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about.” –George R. R. Martin.Martin has paraphrased this quote from William Faulkner time and time again in interviews, yet many readers haven’t fully internalized it. It means Martin is not interested in merely showing characters “leveling up,” like a video game, progressing from incompetent naif to awesome badass. His main interest is in exploring his characters’ values. And throughout the series, he creates drama by forcing characters to choose between their core values — love vs. duty, honor vs. pragmatism, vows vs. innocent life.""

I found it deeply interesting. But I would like to ask: what do you think are the core values in Sansa's arc? What do you think is her "human heart conflict"? I love your answers; they are always so well-put and comprehensible, so I would love your insights on this.  ♡ ♡ ♡

Well, it helps to look at the things that Sansa struggles with internally.

We see her trying and failing (and trying again and failing) to operate in a world that promises safety and happiness in return for placing her trust and agency in the hands of other people. Ned starts this cycle by making his daughter a chess piece in his political murder detective plan and then basically abandoning all responsibility to actually protect her until about 16 minutes past way-too-late (and killing her wolf), and it takes a while for Sansa but she eventually tries to place her trust in both Dontos and his mysterious friend, and then the Tyrells, and by the time Littlefinger comes along, it's really way past choice and more a realization that her own vulnerability means that she must protect herself even while placing her fate in the hands of those who hold power over her. And at this point (TWOW sample chapter) she is teetering between this realization and the temptation to ignore it.

Ultimately, one of her inner struggles is the decision to take power into her own hands, to make and own her choices, without the psychological safety net of a protecting authority figure or faith in "the rules". She needs to be honest and she needs to take action. Unlocking the power and freedom that comes with taking her fate into her own hands and rejecting control by patriachal authority figures, no matter how benign they may seem, is one of the most important steps this 13-year-old is going to have to take on her journey toward embracing political power at some point. She cannot rule unless she demands and exerts agency over herself first.

Then there is her painful disillusionment with the idea of romantic love that has gone from bright-eyed certainty to the meek hope of being liked by yet another arranged partner. There isn't much more room to explore in terms of lowered expectations, so we are probably going to venture in the direction of a conflicted fulfillment of this dream. To have her affection returned and her actual self embraced would be a new turn of events that would be a massive validation of everything she believes in and give her a great sense of joy and peace. Except. What if there's an obstacle to it that places this love in opposition to the responsibilities that comes with her identity as a Stark? How does Sansa deal with the temptation of actual love, of her dream fulfilled, if it comes into conflict with the duties that come with agency and power? Duties toward Winterell, the North and her people? Is there an ethical, honest way of dealing with that? And could GRRM show this compasionately, and authentically?

I think so.