late 90s rossi was actually my wife 😭😭 like the embodiment of effortless cool… tucking his long hair behind the ears! the collection of sunglasses! silly costumes and gags! the outmost delicate facial features!!! she is everything to me
truly!! lemme dump my archive, I've seen most but not all of these floating around on this website
but yeah, it's really the flare! the charisma! the celebrations! the stunts! that whole beach wear episode in 250cc where he was so happy about his success he completely stole the thunder from that poor older rider getting his first win! playing with the crowd at jerez 1999! he had it all going on! aggravating rivals! laughing at them getting mad! essentially blackmailing team principals to get what he wanted! that was a girl living her BEST life
that being said. what I really love is when an older version of valentino consciously reclaims that energy at brno 2003. say what you will about sete gibernau, but he spooked valentino so badly he un-'just some guy'-d that girl. valentino's repsol period had been SO 'just some guy' up until that point, but we brought it back round! he might have been successful on-track but he was feeling REPRESSED, he was feeling like his individuality was being constricted, he wasn't feeling the joy any more!! it's so telling that his response is getting rid of the 'just some guy' shit and showing up again with the cute red hair inspired by some woman on ibiza and the dumbest most elaborate celebrations he'd pulled off in YEARS
look at her!! the yamaha deal was agreed that weekend!! massive moment of Individual Expression like it's all big on the symbolism!! this means something!! we re-girlified her!!
and then at yamaha valentino grew out his hair and we were free of 'just some guy' syndrome forevermore