damniamgay

[damniamgay]

new fic new fic new fic

shauna and mel play pool and get pretty gay with it

go read it i beg

[damniamgay]

let's talk about tai

i'll have to give two thoughts on this dependent on the formation. we'll start with a conventional 433. in the 90s it was typically a flat midfield or with your 10 acting as the more attacking option with two defensive midfielders. we can see tai is confident on the ball, dribbling past plenty of people, and that she can ping a near perfect pass. from this it leads me to believe her existence as a box to box midfielder, typically known for being hard working and being good at both defending and attacking. they operate in between the edge of each box and just run for 90 mins.

however, im very conscious that this position didn't start to really crop up until the early 00s, think gerrard and lampard as box to box. this kind of leans me towards saying tai has more of a playmaker role. I'm between your bog-standard or a deep lying playmaker. they typically wear the 8 6 or 5 but I could do a whole other rant about squad numbers in the uswnt in the 91 and 95 wwc. dlp often your carrick, nécib to a certain extent, dictate the tempo of the game and seem to be in charge of when and how the team form their attack

in a 1333 with shauna in that libero role, I feel inclined to see tai as a variant of the italian regista which has seen usage since before the 30s. the regista is seen as a sort of precursor to this dlp role, which could feel like a cop out from me to say I SEE HER AS THREE VARIANTS OF THE EXACT SAME POSITION. however, to that I say you can completely mind your business.

the regista was seen most commonly in a 2323 'metodo' formation, considering the libero stemmed from a variation of the metodo, it's not out of the question to imagine that a regista type would also be of usage. when I think of regista's I think pirlo, yet he has never particularly been known for his defensive abilities and we see tai tracking back and purposefully making a tackle showing this desire to indulge in the defensive side of her role

the difference! regista's aren't known for their defensive prowess, much more happy to intercept passes and let everyone else do the defensive work for them. whereas dlp while not known for their tackling ability will get stuck in and force turnovers in play when they can. there are more tiny details to it but that's the main gist.

even in the pilot we can see tai has this desire to control the game and control their fates with the allie plan. we see her being decisive, controlling the attack after winning the ball back, and playing an all important pass from distance for jackie to score. all definitive of the dlp role.

i think this can say a fair amount about how we see the evolution of tai as the show goes on. she craves this control but can't quite seize it. like there's this barrier to it, I can think the assumption that despite having this importance to the attack, she knows she has no merit to assisting with the defence. she has partial control and tries her best to maintain it as best she can. you could argue the existence of other tai is synonymous of this struggle for power and control also.

tai as a dlp or regista will rarely drop back fully to help defensively and a lot of the guilt for not being able to save van during any of her near death experiences and then eventual death can be linked to her not believing she needs to drop back and help. every time van has been in some form of trouble tai has been elsewhere, van in the plane: tai not knowing where van was and unable to help her out of the plane. the wolves: other tai had her in a tree, tai comes to the rescue but only when absolutely dire. the funeral fire: mari is the one to eventually realise that van isn't dead. mel stabbing her: ofc not her fault why she couldn't save her but the guilt of her lack of forward thinking when that is what a regista does will break my heart.

tai isn't a defender. she probably never will be. but when she is she goes 1000% (killing the wolf, fucking up allie's leg). and I think her desire to have something that her position is not known for, is quite poetic in the way her grief, guilt and everything else will later manifest

let me know your thoughts on this one because I went on about ten different tangents in this one post

[damniamgay]

i think the connection of football (soccer) into the overall story of yellowjackets is intensely interesting to me

there's a lot of discourse about positions and formations. i think this could be a tricky thing to pin down when you consider the huge differences in football in the 90s between europe and the US. women's football has had this interesting positional player known as a sweeper defender, this seems to be where the idea of a sweeper keeper/ball playing defender from and seems to be heavily influenced by the european libero known by its originator Rappan as a verrouilleur. the libero saw developments across switzerland, russia and most prominently italy where it gained the name 'libero' to mean 'free man'. and interestingly enough in italy the libero typically wore the number 6

the uswnt functioned with this sweeper defender, carla overbeck, in the 91 and 95 wwc. only changing to a european style of a 433 for the 99 wwc.

how this relates to the yj for me is that we have to make these assumptions about how 'woke' was football at this time. was 96 too close to the 95 wwc that the coaches would've stuck with a sweeper defender, or had they swapped to a more conventional formation like the uswnt?

it makes me wonder what shauna's role could have been if she had been this sweeper player. in the short clips we get from the pilot we do see her pushing forward and with how fluid positions could be in the 90s if the coaches knew how fast she was, they would probably have this implicit trust in her to function similarly to a box to box midfielder (think foudy 99 or venturini 95) going back to the role of the libero, her intervening and stopping tackles, free from man marking strikers and expected to 'sweep up' the ball and then start counter attacks would make a whole lot of historical and cultural sense

if we look at how guarded she can be, shutting down and believing she has to 'sweep up' the mess as the only one brave enough to be the butcher. even the idea of her claiming they had fun out there shows the duality in the role of the libero, finding the excitement in the defence as much as the attack, being allowed to be a more aggressive player in the russian version of this sweeper role. she is the last line of defence and the one that people rely on whether she wants it or not.

i think there's a lot of merit of making assumptions in the yj functioning as a 433, but when you look at how culturally significant the 1333 formation was across europe and then into the uswnt the positions, ideologies and significance can shift to something ever so slightly different

[damniamgay]

[damniamgay]

AKILAH Yellowjackets 🐝 3x01 "It Girl"

[damniamgay]

FINAL CHAPTER 🗣️🗣️🗣️

i cannot believe its taken me THIS LONG to ever write about rugby but writing this I can almost believe it

so here have a multi-chap fic about an AWFUL love triangle between gen mel and shauna but they also happen to play rugby union (not league because that's shite)

[damniamgay]

the penultimate chapter just dropped 🗣️ go read it or I’ll cry

i cannot believe its taken me THIS LONG to ever write about rugby but writing this I can almost believe it

so here have a multi-chap fic about an AWFUL love triangle between gen mel and shauna but they also happen to play rugby union (not league because that's shite)

[damniamgay]

Jeff Sadecki is the type of guy to say "n- n- nice kitty!" after falling into the tiger pit at a zoo.

[damniamgay]

🥳new chapter of the rugby fic🥳

and then we all rejoice, muscle mommy Gen come home

[damniamgay]

i cannot believe its taken me THIS LONG to ever write about rugby but writing this I can almost believe it

so here have a multi-chap fic about an AWFUL love triangle between gen mel and shauna but they also happen to play rugby union (not league because that's shite)

[damniamgay]

the BEST crossover anyone could have ever wanted actually still geeking out on behalf of everyone else involved I must share because fiona would never promote her own stuff so I will like the big simp I am

bestie @piibble smashed it out the fucking park ONCE AGAIN and I'm still screaming about it so go check out the art now or I'm in your walls (threateningly)

all based on this delicious delicious fic written by @bigspenderfenderbender which if you haven't read by now I'm disappointed

[damniamgay]

now I don’t mean to do a “told you so” type bit, and I also don’t mean to continue the rumours about mary earps retiring from international football RIGHT BEFORE THE EUROS

however, when I was part of the media circuit before the last euros she had weird vibes! I don’t really know how to explain it without being like 🫴 here’s a three year old interview I have with mearps

but I will say from my interactions with her in a strict media sense and out of it (very key part that one) I am not shocked she’s stepped down, and I do think the only way she’ll come back is if she moves away from psg

(Everyone should let me know rn who their three keepers should be cause I need a good discussion desperately)

[damniamgay]

uhhh huge thank you to @piibble for this INSANE art for the nationals fic you are doing gods work

pls go look and enjoy and eat that shit

okay so i may have gotten a bit carried away with a football centric nationals au (33.5k carried away)

so pls go read it because i'll lose my mind if not

[damniamgay]

Melissa?? Is that you, girl???

[damniamgay]

protecting my mental health rn by not making a yj edit to little bit closer - sam fender but trust it’s coming

[damniamgay]

actually fionas best work yet

the one fic I’m ever gonna promote bc marilissa deserves an added spotlight

[damniamgay]

corn plating because i miss yellowjackets but did everyone notice that akilah has taken the sweater she wore on the plane in s3 and threaded a ribbon or scrunchie or something through its collar like look at this.

i love her so much. we need to save akilah idgaf i will put whoever i have to into that pit to bring her home.