#Competition Arc

[theramblingsofadork]

I’m sure some of you have already seen this from my blog banner, but I figured why not celebrate my return by sharing a WIP of the entire Starpoint Squad! ✨💫

[uovoc]

I forgot that Ranma 1/2 starts out as plausibly being about sports before it gives in to its final form of total chaos and absurdity

[gars-weaponeer]

MAY01ST - DAY #2

Prompt: Competition - Featuring: Echo and Fives

What do newly appointed Arc Troopers do when they have free time?

See who is the fastest of course!

Who won?

No-one, Echo tripped before reaching the goal and Fives tripped when he turned around to laugh at him.

Banner (c) Littletroggo Divider (c) Stars-n-spice

Taglist: @may01st

Single pictures bellow:

Drawing leg armor is the bane of my existence Uu

[bixels]

Be honest, what are your thoughts on appledash? Do you hate it or its more of not a big deal

Not a big deal to me. I like it, I see all the appeals, I just personally like Rarijack more.

[etherealplans]

already crazy enough that were getting buddie canon but why are we getting everything else we want along the way

[pownicmania5000]

Appreciation

[theastralbard]

The Fool

[biscuitboba]

No but zoro and his self sacrificing tendency for luffy is very SICKENING cuz-

In arlong park despite being heavily wounded, roronoa zoro's number one priority will always be about luffy. Saving/protecting luffy. Even after hearing from sanji that luffy was at least somewhat 'still alive/fine' but zoro really said "huh, wdym by half-fine??"

Zoro think about yourself first, for once? Im so serious??

Or remember in sabaody arc right after thriller bark arc when zoro hadn't fully recovered from his injuries?

And then when they caught sanji in a metal net and tried to drown him, luffy being luffy his first instinct of course was to go after sanji. But then, despite (still) being injured, zoro really said "you can't you idiot, you will drown. I will save him in your place instead despite my currently very unwell condition"

I also don't think seawater is good for your wounds SIRR??

Im skipping to post TS era, but in wano arc when luffy and zoro fought against kaido-

(need to stop using this panel but maybe not)

Kaido was trying to kill his unconscious captain. At that point zoro was already badly beaten. Like really really bad. But zoro being zoro with his 30+ broken bones really said "okay traffy listen, i may or may not die from this next move that i'm about to perform, but hey, whatever it takes to protect my captain right?, i'll leave the rest to you"

Like yeah, luffy will always be his number one priority even before himself wbk, but i just think that he is insane about his captain and maybe you gotta chill just a lil bit zoro??

But tbh, if i were him i'd risk it all for luffy too so who am i to judge??

[theramblingsofadork]

< Previous Act: Act 1 - The Starpoint Squad Current Act: Act 2 — The Plot

A/N: This is the 2nd part of a 3 part deep dive into my Starpoint Squad/Dr. Starline Redemption AU. If you have not read the previous act, please consider doing so before reading this one! 💖

⭐️ As the end of the competition draws near, Starline’s confrontation with Charge in the lab keeps his thoughts and mind scattered.

Rivet happens to take notice, and wanting to help him de-stress, she invites him to the town bookstore to help clear his head. As they’re browsing the titles, a song happens to come on over the radio that Rivet recognizes and loves, so she invites him to come dance with her. He refuses at first, but upon watching her have fun for a bit, he ends up rolling his eyes and lets her pull him out of his seat. 

As the two dance around the room, they get more and more into it, having a mini competition as they almost try to show each other up by taking turns leading the dance. It melts away any uncertainty, and they end up laughing and having fun, whirling around until Starline ends the dance by sweeping Rivet up into a dip.

And in that moment that the world slows to the stop. They suddenly realize how close they are. How romantic this position is. How beautiful the other one looks in the warm glow of the firelight. 

And Starline realizes with a start— these feelings of respect he’s harbored towards her, may run even deeper than he thought. 

And by the way she’s looking at him, she’s thinking the same thing.

It causes a knot to form in his throat. No no no— this can’t be happening. He’s starstruck by Eggman and his vision, not by a cat who values protecting others and perpetuating the cycle of hero and villain. 

More than that, he knows he’s lying to her. To all of them. He’s not the man she thinks he is, and just like his parents when they learned the truth about his inspirations, he knows, she’ll never accept him either. 

So, he cuts things off before they can become anything more. Distances himself, claiming it’s because they still need to focus. Rivet is confused, but respects him enough to let him go, sensing his mind is on his goals, and not wanting to force him into something he’s not ready or willing to do. 

This shakeup clears a few things up for him, and forces Starline to focus back on his plan. The deadline is fast approaching, and he needs to figure out what to do.

As luck would have it, he happens to accidentally stumble upon a secret meeting of their rivals’.

⭐️ He overhears Yew scolding Atlas for being so reckless in speaking so freely about their own plan for the end of the competition. It’s revealed that, because of his blunder, they were forced to ‘get rid’ of Skara and Stormy (who had suddenly been announced to be dropping out of the competition earlier that week due to ‘a family emergency’).

“You're just lucky most of the work is already done, or we’d be up a creek for sure.”

Starline quickly realizes he needs to find out what they’re up to, so he decides to sneak into their lab and hack into Yew’s computer.

🎵 Accompanying Music: My Hero Academia: U.A Corridors

He ends up running into Hex in the vents, banging his head when the rat surprises him.

“What are you doing in here?!”

“No one bothers me when I’m in here. …What are you doing here?” Hex squints an eye.

He ends up accompanying Starline, and the two get into their rivals’ lab where they work together to hack into Yew’s computer and start copying her files to a thumb drive.

They happen to be found out by Cello who is passing by outside. When she realizes who’s inside, she whisper yells at them as to why they’re in enemy territory, and Starline assures her there’s a good reason for this. And to stand guard lest they all get caught and disqualified.

Unfortunately for them, Yew ends up returning to the lab from lunch break while they’re doing this. Cello manages to stall and distract her, just barely long enough for the boys to finish copying the files and quickly scramble back up into the vents before she can walk in.

The lab is empty and untouched, but Yew sees her laptop’s power on and gets suspicious.

Once they fall out of the vents, safely back in their own team’s lab, (startling Rivet and Charge in the process), Starline and Hex express relief over getting out of there in time, and the siblings question what they were even doing up there in the first place.

Cello then bursts in, demanding they explain themselves, to which Charge states he knew he was up to no good. And although Starline intended to look at the information on the thumb drive by himself, he’s now forced to include the team. (Lest he end up looking like the bad guy for breaking into another team’s lab space)

As they open the files, to everyone’s shock, they learn that their rivals have a large-scale plan to take control of Atmos Industries by turning the security robots and inventor’s inventions against them during the winners’ ceremony.

According to the notes, they then plan to kidnap the Head of Innovation, who will be attending the winners ceremony, to force him to use his key to grant them access to the CORE. (The massive, living power source that powers and runs all of Aethos).

While it’s usually strictly off limits due to it’s dangerous nature and the Human/Mobian political tensions surrounding it, they plan to awaken it and use it’s Primal state to bring about an end to infrastructure, pollution, and the evil corruption plaguing them. Vanquishing ‘the problem’ threatening nature and society, and sending the world into a new era of rebirth and recovery.

A Great Natural Reset, so to speak.

Charge immediately frowns without an ounce of joking. “That’s a horrible idea.”

Charge is right, Starline acknowledges. The CORE is a highly dangerous piece of tech, and that kind of power in mere idiots’ hands is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. One small, miscalculated input or misstep, and the CORE’s power might fluxuate out of control, causing a massive natural disaster that would spell the end for the entire region, and perhaps even beyond.

It’s a shockingly wild and dangerous plan, and Starline can’t agree with it in the slightest. It’s guaranteed to go wildly wrong!

And yet.. he considers the possibility of using this to his advantage..

He could convince Yew and Co. that they need his help to properly ensure a world ending travesty doesn’t happen, then backstab them and take control for himself—(For while THEY may be idiots, that kind of power in Eggman’s hands would truly give him the power to shape the world as he saw fit! And what BETTER way to secure the man’s approval than to be the one to hand him the very keys to that infinite power?)

In the same vein, he could also use this as a scare tactic to ensure the Starpoint Squad leave the region, thus removing them from the picture so they won’t be dragged down by his plans.

They may be good willed, but SURELY they’ll recognize that no competition is worth risking their lives, especially when the situation is so dire. The odds were stacked against them, and no one in their sane mind would ever see a situation like this and POSSIBLY think—

“We have to stop them.”

????!!! *Break screech sound effect*

“…Excuse me??”

Rivet stands up from her place at the counter. “We can’t let this happen. If what you guys say is true, then a lot of people are going to get hurt if their plan succeeds.”

“Did you not hear me when I said it’s incredibly dangerous?!” Starline argues agastly. “Even if every single one of us were to go, we’d still have no chance against such insurmountable odds.”

“It doesn’t matter! We still have to try.”

“I’m with Rivet. As much as I’d like to sit this one out, we have to stop this.” Charge adds, standing up as well.

“You too?! Why throw away your lives so needlessly for people who mean nothing to you??”

“All people hold value, Starline.” Rivet states.

“Something someone like you probably wouldn’t understand.” Charge adds, being cold cut.

Starline argues he’s being logical about this, not emotional. Again tries to convince them they’re better off leaving before it’s too late.

But the siblings refuse. There's a pause of silence as their differences in priorities really starts to shine.

The others slowly agree to the plan as well, much to Starline dismay and alarm.

Hex states that the heroes in his game wouldn’t run away, and if he wants to emulate his heroes, then neither will he. Lug agrees, chiming in that they're part of a team, and if they’re going, then he’s going too.

Starline turns to Cello, desperate for someone to respond with some common sense. And although she’s the most reluctant, she’s convinced to join the team as well, as she would want someone to do the same if her town was in trouble.

“You all are being incredibly foolish!”

“Well, think of it this way, Doc,” Charge walks backwards and shrugs as they all turn to go. “If we fail and something happens to us, you won’t have to worry about pretending anymore.”

Those words hang heavy in the air as they leave, and Starline is left alone.

At first, he brushes them off. “Tch!! It’s fine! If they want to be reckless, then so be it. I can’t stop them. This opportunity is too good to afford to let it slip by…”

But… his hesitation grows as he looks over the plan again.

They’ll likely be heading straight into their own demise. Rivet and Charge had seen battle before, but the others? Never on this scale. They were almost undoubtedly going to get hurt… or worse. And if Starline joined with their rivals… well.. he was going to actively have a hand in watching it happen..

Despite Charge’s accusations about him, Starline has secretly gained a selfish attachment to the Starpoint Squad, and he finds himself at a crossroads as his ambition and concern for them begin to clash.

Team up with Yew and the others, and betray his team at the cost of losing more than just their friendship?

Or help his team stop their outrageous plan and lose his best opportunity to make his dream come true?

He’s torn.

But as he thinks on all his time spent with them, on their smiling faces and the good moments they’ve shared… he heaves a heavy sigh as he comes to the realization that he can’t bring himself to let them get hurt so needlessly.

“I’ve gone soft. Ha..!” He snorts. “Eggman would be so disappointed in me…”

He quickly leaves to follow and join up with them. Yew’s plan is set to take place in the morning during the winners’ ceremony, so there’s little time to waste.

When he finds the team, they’re shocked to see him, asking why he’s here when he was so vehement that what they were doing was hopeless.

And he replies with, “Your heroism is foolhardy at best. But what kind of leader would I be if I let you all charge in so recklessly without a contingency plan?” He flashes the warp topaz with a smug smile.

They’re all surprised and relieved by his decision, and Rivet smiles, practically glowing like a warm ray of light. “I knew you’d come around.” It makes him feel... good about his decision, for a moment.

Together, they discuss the situation and realize that they can prevent the event from happening entirely if they get Yew and the others’ caught before they can cause any damage.

This inspires an idea, and Starline has them quickly craft up some homemade EMPs, with Charge questioning if he was planning to use something like this if it seemed like they were going to lose. But that point is dropped fairly quickly, as they need to work fast so as to not get caught.

Hex then hacks the security cameras, looping the feed so the group can sneak into the warehouse where the inventions are being stored for tomorrow. They split up and begin to discreetly plant the devices on the competitors’ inventions. They’ll activate them come the winner's speech in the morning, and short them out when Yew tries to put her plan into action, getting them busted on live TV.

However, just as they’ve finished setting the charges and are about to leave, the trigger gets knocked out of Starline’s grip. They suddenly find themselves not alone, as Atlas and Katrina appear from the shadows, the latter of whom freezes them with her telekinesis.

🎵 Accompanying BGM: Kalki - Villain’s Theme

Yew then appears on a large flat screen and commends them on their finding out her plans. She suspected they were onto her when she found the files still open on her computer. (Starline glares at Hex a bit at this one)

Atlas then expresses his surprise of Starline still being with the squad, POSITIVE that he would have defected to their side upon realizing they were on the winning side…

...To which Starline scoffs and chastises them on how their plan is reckless; how they’re more likely to wipe the region out than save it since they don’t know the first thing about handling things delicately.

Atlas is quite stung by this, especially considering he always thought him and Starline to be equals. (Spoiler alert, they are not and only Atlas believed that.) But he moves past it and pronounces that his insanely good luck is on their side anyways.

When Cello then asks why they’re even doing this, Yew shares her reasoning for resorting to such a crazy plan, declaring that there was no other way since all other avenues have failed.

She was simply another nature enthusiast. Poured her money, time, and research into ways to protect the planet from destruction. But time after time, she kept running into roadblocks.

Her conservation plans and serums were denied, or would be stuck in bureaucratic limbo for years before they ever saw approval. The higher ups on large scale conservation efforts she met appeared to be more concerned about themselves and keeping the shareholders happy than protecting nature.

Her view of the ‘corruption’ got to the point where her anger boiled over, and she was finally convinced it was time to take matters into her own hands and speed the process up.

“So your way of solving pollution is to eradicate all of modern civilization?!” Cello exclaims.

“SILENCE!!” Yew booms. She’s tired of this conversation and their lack of faith in her plan. So she commands Katrina to lock them up so they can’t interfere.

They’re thrown into a room guarded by an energy wall, where Skara and Stormy are already being held after discovering their secret earlier on.

Starline attempts to warp them to freedom, but the field nullifies all arcane magic or tech, preventing the usage of said warp topaz, much to Atlas’s amusement.

As such, they’re stuck and ready to give up as all their escape plans fail. Squabbling starts up as some tensions ignite between the rivaling teams, playing the blame game with each other.

How do they get out of this now?

However, Lug manages to silence the ruckus, and rallies them together, reminding them of who the real villain is here. They can do this! They just have to put their brains together.

So, with some creative thinking—and a few extra disruptors he still had hidden on him— they manage to use Charge’s sparks to activate them without the trigger, and fry the grid keeping them locked in.

By the time they get out, the winners ceremony has already begun. They’re almost out of time, and Starline, despite the awful odds, knows that now they have no choice. They have to see this through, or it’s over for everyone. —

> Final Act: Act 3 —The Battle for Atmos

[kiyomitakada]

it's abouttttttttt how misa defines herself as someone who is in love with light and how the narrative goes out of its way to superficially agree with her (htr describes her as "the second kira who loves light" like it's her defining personality trait other than the mass murder) but also she definitely does not love him. she has like two panels max "justifying" why she likes light and both of them are the most weak "he's cute and perfect" justifications i've ever seen. misa amane i love you i love that there is a hole where your heart should be after your parents' deaths ripped it out of you. you can try to refill it all you like but you're never getting it back

[robbyykeene]

Anyway I wish this show was actually bold enough to give Miguel an arc exploring his feelings of entitlement over the captaincy spot. Throughout the show Johnny has repeatedly told Miguel that Robby is a lost cause but hey, It’s okay because he has Miguel now. That Miguel’s his champion, his Number One Boy. So how could Miguel not feel at least somewhat entitled to the captain spot? How could he not feel insecure about his place in Johnny’s life with Robby not just back in the picture, but now literally taking the number one spot? When Johnny has repeatedly put into both kids heads that when it comes to his love and attention its one vs. the other, how could there be no lingering feelings of resentment and jealousy?

[littlespoonevan]

911 is so funny bc sometimes we'll predict things with absolute laser-like precision, right? we'll pick up moments of foreshadowing like they're breadcrumbs and meticulously identify every single beat of the rest of the story that's yet to play out, to the point that sometimes we even get the dialogue right. and then other times, we do the exact same thing but for no apparent reason the show decides to go in the complete Opposite direction to where we think. and there's no pattern to this!!!! one minute we're writing spec fic that turns into actual episode plots a week later and posting the dodgeball apollo meme, the next the show is bypassing every possible scene we've predicted like we're in a game of minesweeper

[fullscoreshenanigans]

The little bow of reflection and smile Ray makes as he briefly soaks in the last morning Emma and Norman will be able to carry out their routine as usual knowing the horror they'll endure before night's end.

He knows they'd both prefer the harsh truth over a pretty lie, would hate to think about other siblings suffering the same fate as Conny, Hao, Sadie, Susan, and so many more before them if there was even the slightest chance of being able to do something about it. It's part of what he loves about them; where he had the tendency to give up after years of learned helplessness and self-loathing, they would resolutely say "no" and escape the system they had been born into.

(they are better, they are deserving, unlike him)

He loves them so much he can't help but let some of his fondness show on his face as he savors Emma's reaction to seeing him and Norman, because if that isn't so incredibly her, to love so effortlessly and uninhibited, to live so unabashedly authentic.

It's part of what got him through a life he cursed and part of why he has faith if anyone will be able to do this, it'll be them.

[batsplat]

Agree on the engaging with motogp as a Sport here part... But anyway what is your sporty opinion on the races we've had so far (if you've watched any?)

tbh i haven't kept up properly for various reasons, i just haven't really been enjoying it and it's a better idea to disengage rather than just constantly moaning about it. icl the fandom on here probably does play at least a bit of a role in that... so i've tumblr saviour'd that to shit and hopefully after a bit of a detox i can enjoy the sport itself more again. hence also the lack of motogp posting from me, my semi-regular apology for the many really interesting unanswered asks in my inbox. i have a bit of a mental list of the ones i do really want to get to when i'm feeling in the mood again, they had enough thought put into them i feel like they also merit a response in kind

anyway, i do also feel like i haven't missed that much lol. i watched the highlights from the race yesterday whenever it was which i think will have been comfortably the best of the four, but otherwise i watched buriram on replay and MOST of the other two and the racing quality has been. dire. my real sporting take is that pundits and fans will keep telling you that the alien era was so much worse than this and it's just nostalgia/og 4 alien narrative juice that makes people think otherwise and they are. wrong. they may be right about 2010-12, which i cannot really make any excuses for, but it just straight up isn't true for 2007-09 and whoever argues otherwise has not rewatched those seasons recently enough. it's an overcorrection and also those seasons for real long time fans suffer from such an immediate contrast to 2006, but like. the average race back then was just better. don't let them tell you it's not terrible right now

speaking of things that are terrible. i feel like sprints by now have been Normalised and there is absolutely zero point moaning about them, but they still fucking suck. they're only very rarely good to watch, they make the weekend too hectic, they're dangerous and they skew any championship fight. i appreciated casey bringing it up last november because barely anyone has a moan about it anymore these days. obviously for our present purposes it also doesn't exactly HELP that pecco is substantially worse at the sprint format, which ensures a sort of built-in deficit he really doesn't need. but even in 2023 when they were livening up the title fight i didn't like them, so i've remained consistent on this. just sort of dilutes the product, i still cannot for the life of me understand the problem sprint races are the solution to

another bad thing: tyre pressure shenanigans. no new ground being covered with this take......... it was farcical in buriram but after qatar it's just an intolerable situation. i understand WHY this has happened, i get the politics, but it's an absolute joke that they have not got a tyre that is suitable to aero yet. when this first became a talking point in 2023, when it was in danger !! of fucking up !! that title fight !! everybody in the sport should have panicked and worked to ensure that the situation would be at least somewhat addressed as quickly as possible. it is a year and a half on from that and they have done nothing. this one does actually make me a bit mad, like i just think it's inexcusable from the series and from the teams - i don't give a shit if they don't want to test the bloody tyres, this is ruining the sport both by making good racing so rare and by undermining sporting integrity. it is a joke that you will get penalised for having an unexpectedly good race. it deprived fabio of a sprint podium in jerez, it should have deprived pedro of a podium in indonesia without that extremely fugazi explanation ktm presented, and now it's massively fucked over vinales. you never know what will happen that's why you line up on sunday bla bla - but if you didn't think you were going to be in the lead and you then go into the lead then you'd better stop that right now!! what kind of racing is that? you're only allowed to win if you already thought you'd win before the race?? ridiculous

anyway. now that i've channelled my inner casey stoner. eh... what else. the competitive landscape... well, marc is barring injury or massive headloss going to win the championship, he's obviously a very good rider who is still good so nothing really new there. i didn't like what he did at cota, i'm pro people being clever and dastardly (or at least people thinking they are because they didn't read the rules correctly) but at a certain point there is a bit of a line for me. doing something that could be dangerous outside of races is just... yeah, it simply wasn't really necessary? but also it's not like i want to send him to the gallows for it, just someone very high on their own stock innit. it does really annoy me how nobody in the sport seems to have properly read the rules, i'm sorry but i would know that rule book off by heart, i have very little respect for that kind of thing. be serious. and the cota race crash was really daft, crashes happen but they exist on a spectrum and that one was not great and has artificially injected tension back into the title fight. moving on...

pecco's done a reasonably strong job thus far in the season, his worst misstep was the quali crash at qatar but otherwise there's no real complaints. he hasn't felt comfortable with this bike and has a very renowned title rival who started the season flawlessly but he didn't panic, he's kept chipping away at it. could easily have leaked far more points than this, which he had by this point in 2022-24 to his respective title rivals. obviously you can't wish away a fundamental pace deficit, especially with his sprint struggles - but i had the first three circuits at least marked as marc-leaning and my advice to pecco would have been 'try to weather the storm, don't do too much and bring the points home', which he's done. can't be doing quali crashes on what could have been a far better weekend for him, though, i get why it happened but. well. can't do it. can't do it!!

i do actually have a bit of a hot take here in that i think marc isn't faster than 2016-19 but To Some Extent he's cleaned up his game, and depending on how pecco does this season you can make the argument pecco's the toughest title challenger marc ever had to deal with. jorge/dani 2013 injury penalty, yamaha line-up post 2013 kinda washed and more often than not on worse bikes (especially ofc when those fuckers from michelin returned). and 2017-19 dovi ofc not quite at that consistently elite level, and the other challengers were ultra-washed valentino and 'maverick vinales'. like idk man i am EASILY taking 2025 pecco over 2013-19 yamaha line-up (or well post-2013 assen jorge) but i kinda feel like we're not ready for that particular conversation yet

i'll admit a. marquez did blindside me with his start to the season, obviously he won't come close to winning the title but it has been very impressive in its consistency. we'll see if the terrorism relapse was a one-off or the beginning of the end of that particular chapter. also i love my sibling more than anything and i would still kill myself in a. marquez's position so kudos on not doing that. i don't have much to say about either vr46 rider. the ducati situation in general though is obviously intolerable, like my god. in 2023 i kinda did self-gaslighting and went 'well you enjoyed 2003 and intra-manufacturer beef can be fun!!' which was true for maybe one season but.... not to this extent. not a complete PODIUM lockout. this is terrible!! it's not what motogp should be like!! every year we think it can't get worse and it does!! i guess i should have seen this coming because i was sniffing the 'surely at some point we've reached peak ducati domination' hopium but then every time i actually went through the manufacturers in my head to guess who might take the fight to ducati, i found all of them deeply unconvincing. this is another thing that has stealth made the racing worse... it helped back in the day to have two bikes with really different performance profiles and two riders with very different styles teeing it off, because you'd get more variation of performance in any given lap and then the speed differential means they can like. actually fight it out in different bits of the track. look, i don't need to explain this. modern poster child rivalry for this is obviously casey/valentino - cumbersome but lightning fast ducati vs underpowered nimble yamaha, wild instinctive casey versus precise calculating valentino. run it back! but yeah, homogenisation of bikes and riding styles is more of a long-term inevitable trend you probably can't really do anything about, but is still a shame

the other manufacturers exist on a spectrum of how pissed off i am at them currently. least pissed off is honda, then aprilia, then yamaha, and the prize for most pissed off is ktm. honda has obviously looked way better this season, though a part of me still suspects this is flattered by how aprilia and ktm have completely fucked it. i am historically not a honda fan but i am increasingly in the 'anyone but ducati' tent so i will offer my support to my allies in this cause. i have however given up on the joan mir revival cause, which deeply saddens me. zarco's been great, he's not been this good a watch since his early yamaha days. so so impressive

aprilia comes after that because it's not really their fault that their star rider has been cursed. it's just made the season SO much worse. obviously everything to do with jorge v scary and miserable and i hope he recovers well. could be one of those things where he's never the same rider again and i really hope that won't be the case. might have a pretty substantial psychological impact u have 2 say. bez has been appalling and i think it's increasingly clear which of 2023 or 2024 was the blip. i don't have anything to say about ogura that many others haven't already said, he's been truly fantastic and the star of the season thus far, i was already reasonably high on his stocks headed into this year but nowhere near this high. i hope his momentum doesn't fizzle out and he has a long and very fruitful motogp career, he reminds me a bit of 2008 dovi. raul fernandez needs to be fired into the sun and then fired, i still have no clue why he was given a two year contract extension. obviously this collection of riders makes it a bit hard to judge the aprilia, i don't feel like they've done... a great job in closing the gap to ducati? but also maybe it's the riders

yamaha has been. well. disappointing! i let myself sniff some hopium after the sepang test, which is a mistake that shall not be repeated. fabio's first few race weekends have also been a bit too patchy for my liking (but qatar's been better tbf). these fuckers are my team so i'd really like them to get it together. miller has adapted very impressively, fair plays i thought he was washed. i mean crucially idt there's more to come from him, like he was on the pace pretty much immediately on the ktm and if anything his best ktm stretch was right at the start of 2023. which speaks to his natural talent, he can adapt really well and clearly the yamaha does suit his style,,,,, but i still expect fabio to comfortably be the leading light in that manufacturer (he'd better fucking be). shout out to oliveira, still the most cursed rider. still have not forgiven the 2023 honda for essentially ending rins' career as a front running rider, miss u king

and ktm................................................................ i'm a ktm hater and i can't even enjoy this downfall. vinales being vinales and randomly deciding he's the second coming of jesus christ if he raced motorcycles one sunday per year is very funny, but obviously that shouldn't obscure how otherwise disgusting this start of the year has been. and like, i thought they'd decline in the second half of the year because of the whole bankruptcy situation, but the fact they're ALREADY struggling makes me think... idk man, i feel like there's enough of a lag in the bike development pipeline that they might just organically suck right now. ktm does traditionally have very strange early season periods, but i am kinda over it? and if they're going to suck late season too, then this hypothetical window where they don't suck to me feels rather narrow. maybe they'll get a bit better, but they have a generational talent on their roster who should be fighting for wins and preferably championships at this stage of his career. this sucks!! all the aliens were on machinery that could challenge for titles at latest by their second year in the premier class. acosta should be showing us what he can do on a bike that isn't completely fucked. all you can do is hope it doesn't end up completely derailing his career, i do sort of want him to escape next year even though i understand the reasons why that's unlikely. honda, pay the bill. otherwise... my takes on binder have not changed in the slightest since like 2023, it's everyone else who keeps flip flopping on him. i am withholding my bastianini verdict until a later date, but trust i am Watching and waiting and cracking my knuckles

anyway that's my hot takes on 2025 motogp, sports edition. not all of them but i feel like i've covered the major points. write in with your own

[aliennazero]

This is like... one of the gayest paneling I have ever seen in shounen, IT LOOKS SO INTENTIONAL ISTG. Fujimoto you can't keep get away from this.

The romantic/platonic subtlety isn't very visible in English, in the original Japanese ver HOWEVER—

*open my eyes wide to make sure I'm not insane and hallucinating*

I don't have such knowledge on Japanese language but I could read it for a bit. In this exact scene where their expression is shown face to face, when they talk, they didn't use any specific plural pronoun (they/you all) except for context giver in the middle.

When we exclude the middle frame and directly translate other lines, up and below, we will have something like this.

"Ore tte ii ko na no ni nande?" (But I am a good boy, why?)

"Kimi o kirai dakara sa." (Because you are hated)

*VERY DRAMATIC zoom in*

"Nande demo-tai to tatakatte nda?" (Why fighting the protesters?)

"Kimi o suki dakara." (Because you are adored/liked)

*gritting my teeth and punching the air* If we take a look at it again, that sounds like some sort of a VERY deliberate double meaning words right?

Since "Kimi o suki dakara" could mean "Because I like you" and it sounds like as if Yoshida also fighting for Denji versus people who hates him (the protester).

After that, it cut shorts to the next panel where Denji say this-

Then they had a brief moment of silence where Denji looked up at Yoshida and Yoshida's eyes remain hidden.

It's so??? Skskskskskk. Fujimoto, what kind of yoai are you sniffing when writing these two.

[ladysatoru]

nico robin's drip is unmatched in every single arc even when she was sad like mother really said i might kms but I'll be doing it in haute couture