#this is their general vibe imo

[mur-art]

hii :D

im genuinely curious about how you perceive the texacali dynamic (especially with the calivada tag that said texacali was the relationship california deserved /neg and now i’m super invested)

Okay so my comment about Texacali was mostly tongue-in-cheek but what I mean by that is that Texas and California are two sides of the same coin, more alike than they realize and would like to acknowledge. They drive each other mad because they're so similar but just different enough to constantly be in conflict. They're both too proud, too outspoken, too stubborn. Sometimes they wonder (whether seriously or not) if they were put on this earth solely to annoy each other. My perception of them is heavily influenced by fanon interpretations so I don't really have any original insight here, BUT, in summary: I think they could have a healthy relationship if they embrace the things they have in common and learn to communicate better about the things they don't. But it won't come easily; they'd have to work hard to make it happen, and learn some things in the process. They would both have to learn how to admit to being wrong (god forbid) and learn how to put their egos aside. I think they both need each other for that reason-- it takes one to know one, as they say.

[autoraton]

riz redraw!

side-by-side comparison under the cut :-)

[shopcat]

i think in the hamster wheel of my mind a big part of where people go wrong with eddie and his shitty garage band as an extension is that they for some bizarre reason think he's gene simmons metal when he's jack black metal. heavy metal. he's tenacious d metal. he's school of rock. he's stoner lord of the rings metal he nearly wore blue jeans and plaid. jack black literally in real life once said eddie was the best character bc he's heavy metal like him. LOOK AT THIS

[markantonys]

the music in WOT is never random. even if it's just very soft background music, it's relevant to the scene. practically every time there's music playing while egwene is onscreen during s2, the tune is egwene's theme, rearranged and reinstrumentated in dozens of different ways to match the tone of the particular scene. mat has quick little snippets of his theme tune play during various scenes of his, often mixed with the old blood theme from s1, and it finally blares out in full glory for the first time during the horn of valere scene, to parallel how mat is truly finding himself for the first time. even secondary characters like liandrin, siuan, and aviendha have their own dedicated theme tunes that play during their scenes and are never repurposed as background music in other characters' scenes. and all the themes have lyrics in the old tongue that suit the character or concept the theme is about! in conclusion, lorne balfe is truly doing the Most, and i'm so grateful he's the composer for WOT and i hope he'll return for every season the show goes for.

[milfygerard]

but fr outside of my contracted madness i absolutely refuse to give joe alwyn gold rush like how is that song at all related to their relationship the lyrics clearly spell out a relationship that either never existed or only existed in implication and fantasies and maybe-maybe nots and its so bitter and yet desperately soft in the bridge where it almost projects a sense of envy, of wanting to be them as much as you want them. It continues an interesting oft ignored lyrical trend of taylor wanting just as much to be her lover as to have them, envying their easy charisma (you were flush with the currency of cool/i was always turning out my pockets) or quiet dignity (your integrity makes me seem small) dating back to her earliest songs (the kind of flawless i wish i could be). Theres a projected self hatred and yearning to be better that twists itself into both romantic and sexual lust for her partners thats so fascinating and speaks to how all of her songs regardless of who theyre about are also an act of self reflection on who she is and who she wishes to be.

[aq2003]

omfg . radio play version of much ado with david as benedick from 2001

[batsplat]

as our resident Casey expert i wonder what do you think would have happened if marc and casey competed against each other? since casey retiring is so important for marc coming into motogp im always thinking abt the what ifs...

my initial instinct with this hypothetical is always 'that sounds horrible', though I do have more thoughts and opinions about it than that! marc obviously would have loved the chance to race casey, and casey has even been one of his picks of 'guys he would've liked to be teammates with' before, so, you know, clearly something there - and he does very much respect casey as a rider. I think it's quite likely that by the time marc entered the premier class, casey had already developed... I don't know if wariness is going too far, but maybe a little bit of unease or caution where marc was concerned. marc already very much had a reputation based on his 125/moto2 track record, and some of these incidents were controversial enough that the motogp riders commented on them. so take the phillip island 2011 incident where marc rode into the back of another rider:

the valentino quote serves as a bit of a benchmark here, given he was generally pretty pro-marc. yes, casey's phrasing is perhaps a little harsher, but unsurprisingly none of the riders were big fans of marc's behaviour in that particular incident

on the other hand, it's not like casey never sided with marc. take catalunya 2012, where marc was slapped with a controversial post-race penalty:

yes, casey's main complaint was about inconsistent stewarding - but still, he believed marc had been unfairly treated here. feels like these incidents were some of the only things casey and valentino actually agreed on in those years, so that's nice

that being said, it's hard to see how casey wouldn't have his issues with marc and marc's whole approach to racing. I did include some thoughts on the teammate question here, but mainly I'm going to pilfer the relevant autobiography passage:

"if a rider doesn't care about his own safety then it stands to reason he doesn't care about anybody else's either"... there's nobody really who embodies the 'doesn't care about his own safety' maxim better than marc. he was the young rider desperate to win, and I can't imagine casey would have enjoyed actually racing him much. casey mostly didn't enjoy racing valentino, after all, who is a generally a lot more selective with his aggression than marc is (though casey did have to experience some of the worst valentino had to offer in that regard). casey talked in his autobiography about getting a sense when he just wasn't really able to trust another rider on the track, how much it bothered him - and that exact lack of respect is something that's been pretty closely associated with marc. that doesn't mean he would immediately declare marc his enemy... he'd just want marc to change, to learn, to grow up, to start treating his competitors with a little more respect. the way casey talks about young riders, there is a sense in which he has more time for them than he does for valentino - whose lack of respect casey views as more integral to who he is as a rider. valentino isn't a bully on track due to the exuberance of youth, he's a bully on track when he thinks he can use it as a tactic of intimidation. then again, marc by this measure is worse... and I think very quickly casey would have grown pretty disenchanted with how marc approaches all his wheel-to-wheel racing, especially when it becomes more and more clear marc does not feel particularly inclined to change

it's always important to remember how recent the trauma of losing simoncelli was for the whole sport, and it coloured both dani and jorge's wariness of marc... but also (in my opinion anyway) their restraint in how they dealt with him. how they tried to stop themselves from actually making an enemy out of him, in part because they'd just had an experience of harshly criticising a rider for a whole year and then having to process his death. both dani and jorge actually had more public and more serious disagreements with simoncelli than casey did, but I reckon there would have been an element of that restraint with casey too... on the other hand, his experiences with marc would have left him feeling even more alienated from the sport than he already was - at times frustrated (like jorge was) less with marc directly but more with the regulatory bodies for not holding marc back, for not giving him a race ban or whatever to teach him a lesson. that being said, marc's shamelessness vs casey's stubbornness means that if they had direct on-track encounters and casey didn't like marc's post-race response... well, I certainly think that'd end up being a pretty tense situation, even if it falls short of active hostilities

worth including irl!casey's take on marc in 2013:

which, you know. it's not just that marc's a hard racer - casey is accusing marc of deliberately wanting to make the defeats extra painful for his opponents, of wanting to not just beat but humiliate them. anyone else that reminds you of? someone who is as motivated in securing his psychological victories as his actual ones? perhaps someone who has a bit of a history himself with casey?

let's bring in valentino. it's not that casey would really have begrudged marc his friendship with valentino, and he generally kept his hatred of valentino quite 'clean' in that he wasn't conducting any proxy wars or anything (for instance, I don't get the sense the vale/sic friendship ever affected his view of simoncelli... though I have very little to go on here either way). also, if nothing else in this timeline changes, we're assuming valentino in 2013 is fairly clearly the... fifth? best rider? kinda depends where dani would have landed I suppose (casey's retirement announcement did save honda from a bit of a headache)... but anyway what this means is that valentino probably wouldn't initially have been much of a competitive threat to casey. mostly he would have been consigned to the sidelines

that being said, I doubt casey would have massively enjoyed the whole laguna seca saga. unfortunately, we don't even really know what real life casey's stance on the copycat move situation was... though if I had to guess, in this timeline I'd say his position would've been, a) marc could and should have carried out that overtake two corners later, there was no need in that race situation to take that risk, b) still, it was valentino's slight error as he attempted to reclaim the position (in what was a pretty aggressive manner, it has to be said) that led to them both ending up off-track and fuck that guy, and c) the problem with 2008 wasn't just or even primarily the corkscrew overtake and it's annoying that that's the only bit everyone talks about. of course, there's also the question of whether casey would have bought marc's explanation that it was totally by coincidence that the overtake happened there... and again, complete guesswork, but my sense of casey is that he would have assumed marc was being at least a little bit dishonest. (which, you know... laguna's not an easy track to overtake at, but marc did prove with the bradl move that he was perfectly capable of overtaking after turn 8 - might not have been planning on the off-track excursion, but he was still attempting to overtake just ahead of a blind crest that happened to feed into the corkscrew lol.) I think casey by his honda days had calmed down a bit (though he still certainly had some conspiratorial tendencies), but I also don't think it's a stretch to imagine that he would've felt like he was a victim of a joke between the pair of them... not ideal

overall though, I reckon casey's main frustrations would have been less with the move itself and more with how it was discussed. in the presser, while joking with marc, valentino does take the opportunity to get in a jibe at casey for old time's sake. there's this clip, where he directly addresses livio suppo (at ducati in 2008, by then at honda) - specifically about how both casey and suppo criticised him for that overtake. in response, suppo says something about how he's grateful to marc because they finally got payback. valentino is later asked directly about casey's complaints in 2008 in this clip, and replies with the following:

would valentino have said this stuff with casey still in the paddock? well, yes! honestly, given valentino did very quickly lay off needling casey once he had retired, there's a good chance he would have said something worse. and marc would have laughed along at the whole thing. I don't know, I just don't see casey taking particularly kindly to that... he can hold a grudge, that man can, and at a certain point he'd probably be increasingly less willing to give marc the benefit of the doubt. interesting situation though, laguna seca '13 + casey is a very juicy scenario that could play out in several different ways

but I'm guilty of burying the lede here - there's a far more obvious reason than anything I've described above for why the casey/marc relationship would have turned sour. it's the simple fact that they would have been teammates which would do the damage all on its lonesome; they have radically different conceptualisations of how that dynamic is supposed to work and would inevitably have clashed as a result. the one commonality they do have is they don't see their teammates as potential friends, which is... also not helpful! I think they'd probably initially be fine on the interpersonal level - and, actually, given how the casey/valentino relationship played out and marc's general approach to his rivalries, I can see marc/casey more or less being able to maintain a minimum standard of politeness towards each other even at their worst. like, I still think they'd be able to smile at each other and do some small talk when face-to-face, but I also think everything else would be a complete disaster. I talked a bit about how marc approaches his teammate relationships in this post - and I'm not going to rehash too much of what irl!marc got up to, but I'll include some bits relevant to casey

from marc:

related to casey:

and dani comparing the two:

we do obviously even have actual real life controversy wherein casey thinks marc felt threatened by him and forced him out of honda... and this in a timeline where they weren't even direct competitors! if this is the level of tension a test rider role can generate, then if they'd actually been teammates...? yeah, no. casey thinks that teammates should cooperate - and he thinks that riders enforcing divisions within the box are essentially doing so because they are "afraid". marc has openly admitted to lying about what parts he likes to make sure his teammate doesn't get any edge over him. this is the thing, right: marc might think casey is a cool rider, would've liked the chance to race him and even be teammates with him... but this is the stuff he did to dani, who was one of his literal idols! this is his understanding of competition - (like valentino) he might love the fight, but simultaneously he'll do pretty much whatever it takes to win, because he considers this stuff fundamentally part of the game. casey does not. to casey, this kind of victory is dishonest. any kind of gamesmanship is a sign of weakness... the victory is worth less if you're accomplishing it like that

now, hey, maybe marc would never have been able to go as far as he did with dani because he wouldn't have the kind of performance edge that allows you to definitively impose your will within the team. I think it's a popular interpretation that marc wouldn't have won the title in 2013 if casey had been there, which... I mean, I think it's true that it would have been less likely - in that in a season with that much volatility, the more plausible championship contenders you have the less likely it is that any single one of them takes the title (same goes for instance if you add in a valentino who had not gone to ducati for two years and would have presumably been more competitive in 2013). but it's not like casey would have been the defending champion and the clear class of the field... partly due to injury, he ended up finishing in third in 2012. jorge and dani didn't win the 2013 title in part as a result of their own injuries, and who knows how casey would have fared... like sometimes it's just luck of the draw really. you can be the better rider and still not win the title, shit happens. I think for as long as a more or less healthy-ish casey stays in the sport, it would have been unlikely that marc establishes quite the same performance edge as he did over dani... but, well, if anything that would have meant he would have fought even harder out of perceived necessity to win the internal honda wars

it's the kind of thing that can make a relationship quickly deteriorate, especially with a prickly character such as casey, and it's entirely plausible that dynamic would have become strained at best and horrendously toxic at worst... sooner rather than later. and the thing is, this environment would affect marc considerably less than it would casey. again, it's the fact that he relishes the fight... he's very good at shrugging off (most) criticism and thrives in that kind of tension. the emotional fatigue that this scenario generates would be painfully lopsided, where casey offers harsh criticisms and means them and is endlessly frustrated with marc's approach, while marc... doesn't really care. at least dani also had a questionable manager who was conducting behind the scenes warfare on his behalf - casey doesn't want to play these games at all. he just wants to ride a bike, and marc is never going to allow him to live in peace as long as he's an internal threat. if casey were exposed directly to all of that from marc, I doubt he'd walk away from the experience with a particularly positive impression of him

does he walk away? I think there's a decent chance that casey would have ended up so disillusioned with the whole thing that this would have been what pushed him into retirement. if he wants to get out of that mess, let's say after two years, his options would have been pretty limited. yamaha is closed off and I'd struggle to think of a scenario in which either jorge or valentino would have been particularly interested in a direct swap (also, if you're sick of being marc's teammate, you're probably not gonna be jumping at the chance to be valentino's instead). I suppose you could go back to ducati (which he did return to as a test rider so it's not like those bridges were permanently burnt), and maybe casey could do something special even with *gestures* that version of the bike. really though... I think enough would have been enough for him. regardless of the actual balance of success between the pair of them, my guess is marc wins that war because he's happier to get nasty and because he wants it more. casey has his two to four titles... he's done. let him go fishing

[reinabeestudio]

More familial posting. He's like a squeaky toy to me

(also the reference in the first doodle) ↓↓↓

[technicolorxsn]

risukawa playlist + general dorohedoro playlist :]

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

erichthonios during the time period where we meet him really is just that one post that's like [sets one (1) boundary] 'i'm a mean evil thundercunt i'm in my villain era i don't know how to love'

[basementxdweller]

"you cant ship ren and strade its literally victim x abuser and ren is only 19 and strade is 36!!!!!!" womp womp

[moonchild-in-blue]

Can someone please either validate me or send me to the Corner of Shame? This is very silly but I'm wondering.

So. I was talking to my sister the other day about movies and such, and she told me of one she recently watched with this one actor. And I casually mentioned how much I hated him. Not in a "he's a bad actor" or "he's a bad person" way. Nothing to do with whether I find him attractive or not. Just in a "he looks the most punchable guy on earth and I have this irrational rage against him" way, to the point that I just can't watch movies with him without being annoyed.

My sister looked at me like I was crazy because, "what do you mean you hate the guy". And I told her yeah? That's normal? Don't you have at least one person you can't stand for no reason?

Sister was like 😬😬😬 No??? Which is wild to me, because I could easily name 50 (which I did - not 50 but we were getting close to 20 before i got too annoyed lmao).

Now she thinks I'm slightly insane (/j) (I made myself angry and may have referred to a few individuals as "stupid" and "obnoxious"), and I kinda don't believe I am the only person alive who feels this way. But also she's an incredibly empathetic extrovert, while I'm a very low empath socially anxious creechur so. There's that?? I guess ?? Idk.

Can anyone relate to this? Or am I the weird one?

Also wait. Little disclaimer: I am not generally a violent person AT ALL. Do i get annoyed and angry easily? Yeah. Do I feel like bitch slapping someone right across their stupid face? Yeah, sometimes, sure. Do I do something about it? Not really.

I can be real bitchy and extra sarcastic and petty SURE, but that's the most I'll do if I am legitimately angry. Mostly I just go to my room and cry 🥺 (crying when angry yes it me). So yeah. Before yall think I have unsolved anger issues.

[angel---eater]

i kinda wish sometimes that i had more ppl to just like discuss and jam about meat&candy but im having way way way too much of a good time vibing on my own

[lesbiangracehanson]

now if janeway was flirting with me like this i too would be giggling blushing twirling my hair etc 

[morwensteelsheen]

oh also i was in milan for christmas and there were enormous gondor vibes all over the place i tell ya what

[batsplat]

tumblr user batsplat i need you to know that your work for the motogp community is appreciated beyond measure, thank you so much for your absolutely incredible effort!!!

thank you!! that's very sweet! lemme tell you my favourite bit of extremely low level valentino beef. fair warning: this is extremely minor. it's not that serious. I just like old drama

so you know the 2006 season, right, where valentino actually got on pretty well with all the other title contenders? depending on how you want to look at it, there were 4-5 contenders that year... capirossi's a bit marginal whether he counts as a 'title contender'. he was tied leader of the standings after six rounds, but then was involved in a horror crash at catalunya that halted his momentum. the crash was caused by his teammate sete and there's a decent chance capirossi would have been champion without this race. his eventual third place in the championship standings was due to him bouncing back to claim a strong string of results late in the season

here's a few more photos of that crash:

the other four contenders were nicky hayden, valentino, marco melandri and dani pedrosa. to give you a sense of what that title fight looked like, here were the standings after eleven out of seventeen rounds:

obviously valentino was a title contender given he nearly won the whole thing - but, yeah, he was very much on the back foot that entire season. so of those other four contenders, valentino got on very well with capirossi (who valentino had been a fan of as a kid and had met when he was eleven years old) and with hayden (who valentino had helped with the transition from superbike when hayden became his rookie teammate at repsol honda in 2003). he was reasonably friendly with pedrosa and had a long-standing friendship with melandri, if one that seems to have cooled off when they became premier class rivals (according to melandri in any case). you do have to say, the good vibes are a little unusual as valentino title fights go... it's a very chaotic very exciting season that has quite a few excellent valentino performances as he attempts to bounce back from all manner of ill fortune - but no realbeef. it really is a title fight mostly fought in good spirits. the most significant drama between any of these contenders was the hayden/pedrosa estoril crash that very nearly cost hayden the title. from broadbent's 'ring of fire' about the scenes after the race:

in the end dani was bailed out by valentino's crash in valencia (though a lot of american fans did not move on from the incident); it was by far the most significant on-track clash he had with hayden in their years together at honda, at a time when the vibes in that team were *checks notes* not great. hayden said all was forgiven - if with the caveat that he didn't know how he would've felt if he hadn't won the title. but, y'know, heartwarming: valentino is part of a title fight where he is not involved in the biggest beef of the year (the other title fight this is true of was 1998, another iconic season)

there is however one other rider who played an important role in the 2006 title fight - one who thinks that his relationship with valentino was affected by the events of that year. first bit of context: the season opener at jerez went disastrously wrong for valentino at the very first corner, when toni elias rode into him and caused him to crash. that jerez crash was one of those classic first corner incidents that could've easily been a lot uglier, and some riders quite narrowly avoid valentino

kind of started the season off the way it was going to go on, really. anyway, here's valentino reacting to the crash, and also elias coming over to him post-race to apologise:

elias ended up finishing 4th, while valentino picked the bike up to finish 14th. here's what valentino had to say post-race:

"We knew this was going to be a difficult race but maybe not so difficult!" said Rossi, who had been battling chatter problems for much of the weekend and qualified just ninth on the grid. "I saw Toni come up on the inside and he hit me; this is racing and these things happen. "I have known Toni for many years and he is a good rider. He apologised to me after the race so I told him not to worry - only to remember to brake next time and if it is too late then to hit another bike instead of me!"

great line, fairs

by the way, this incident allowed casey to get such a good start to his rookie season, in a race where he ended up finishing sixth:

I made a great start off the line and our luck improved further in the first corner, when Toni Elías got his braking markers completely wrong, took out Valentino Rossi and opened up a gap for me to dive through. I was sixth by the end of the first lap and up to fourth two laps later, just behind Nicky Hayden in third.

and there's probably some symbolism there if you dig deep enough. elias was also involved in the eventual outcome of the 2006 motogp season in another way (from the vale race recs post):

anyway, moving on from the 2006 season for now, there's a couple more on-track interactions we might as well rattle through. the two of them had quite a tense coming together at turkey 2007, the third race of the season and around the time valentino was coming to realise the casey/ducati combination was going to be a real problem that season. the fight between elias and valentino didn't have much of an effect on valentino's race given how he had some nicely fucked up tyres (bit of a theme that year), but that didn't stop valentino from being irritated post-race:

Elias took second from Rossi with a move down the inside at the final complex, but both riders nearly came off their bikes as they touched during the pass. While Elias maintained second to the flag, Rossi later fell to 10th after developing tyre issues. "I'm very disappointed with Elias because he was very unfair with me," Rossi told Italia1 television. "Obviously we're all racing, but he had already overtaken me, and when he came on my side he tried to push me out and make me fall on purpose. I don't think that's fair behaviour. There are other words than 'unfair' coming up in my mind, but I'll leave them to the imagination. "He had already tried to come to apologise another time after the chequered flag. I'll say no more, I owe him twice, so I'll see him in China. I think he has a rather unfair way of riding with everyone. He had already overtaken me, so there was no need to throw me out. We know these things among riders. So now we know, and we'll know how to behave next time we meet him." Elias shrugged off the incident. "These things happen in racing and I'm happy with today's result," he said. "The way I drive may look risky but I feel comfortable with it and I will carry on like this."

at this point, I do just have to go on a brief tangent to present my 'casey complains about toni elias' compilation

exhibit a: some exciting solidarity between casey and valentino

exhibit b: casey saying elias is continually stuck on his "arse-end"

exhibit c: peace talks held at casey's motorhome

definitely some fun lines in this, like "I think casey has problems with everybody and not only me". ouch. this does help show elias was just one of those guys who a lot of riders had minor beef with... you know how it is sometimes (incidentally, elias was also a talent linked to alberto puig, so they met quite young before casey was a full time grand prix rider)

the other minor on-track incident between valentino and elias I wanted to include is one where I haven't found any post-race reporting or comments from either rider, so, again, clearly not that big a deal. still found it funny so. it's sachsenring 2008, casey has just won the last two races, and he's well on his way to winning his third consecutive one after dani crashed out from a massive lead. it's raining, which is why the whole field is super spread out. valentino is actually riding a pretty decent race, but his problem is he's coming back from seventh on the grid and casey started on pole, with fairly predictable repercussions for their respective race. still, in those conditions it's always worth trying to put as much pressure as possible on the leader, and valentino does end up closing in until he's around five seconds behind casey

which is how valentino ends up attempting to lap elias - while the commentators chat about how valentino very much does not want to be taking any risks, not with toni elias, not with twenty world championship points at stake ("the front of toni elias' bike knows the side of valentino rossi's bike very well, doesn't it"). elias doesn't really move to one side, which means valentino has to overtake him the regular way. after the move has been completed, he does this:

a little bit annoyed, do we think?

anyway, obviously valentino doesn't catch casey, and casey picks up his third consecutive win. worrying from valentino's perspective... especially given that there's a lot of tracks come that really seem to suit casey, including the upcoming laguna seca

to round things off. after laguna, elias shares two consecutive podiums with valentino at brno and misano - both of which valentino won after casey crashed out of the lead

when elias was unable to secure a motogp ride for 2010, he ended up switching to moto2 and becoming the first ever winner of the series. from his motogp.com profile:

He started the year as one of the title favourites in the Moto2 class, and throughout the season his wealth of experience and race-craft has shone through as he claimed seven wins, including four in a row over the summer period. His characteristic “hang-on” riding style and charming personality has won him millions of fans across the globe, and the Spaniard becomes the first ever Moto2 World Champion at the age of 27.

he returned to motogp and had a troubled 2011 season, before competing in a mix of motogp and moto2 in 2012 - and his last full season in grand prix racing was 2013. I mainly bring this up so I can include this truly charming casey comment:

"one failed" casey. please

elias ends up moving stateside to compete there instead. so, he still runs into motogp riders at austin - which he brings up in a 2020 interview, while accusing valentino pf still being bitter over 2006:

“Being able to beat Valentino [for victory] has only happened to me once in my life,” he told DAZN. "Michelin brought me a new tyre on the Saturday and I managed to improve my pace by seven-tenths and fight for victory. "I thanked Michelin for the help, although I was very angry when I discovered that this rubber, with a softer casing, was the one used by the best riders throughout the season and they only gave it to me in the penultimate race of the year. "When I meet Valentino - I see him every year in Austin - I can see that he still has [Estoril 2006] stuck in his heart, he has not forgiven me… It's over, it's time to be friends, but it is not possible. He is so competitive, he will never forgive me!"

these comments were put to valentino, to which he said the following:

"When I met Toni Elias in the United States, because now he runs there, there were only positive moments,” he told a video chat with BT Sport. “We have a good relationship and I'm not angry with him because he beat me in Portugal, but because he knocked me out in first corner during the Spanish Grand Prix.  “In that season, Jerez was the first race of the year and immediately made me lose points and probably also the championship."

obviously, this is a joke, and valentino is allowed to make those occasionally. it's also probably a joke that has just a little bit of truth to it. who knows how valentino feels about toni elias these days, whether he really was still acting coldly towards elias during austin trips because of a grudge that dates back to 2006. but, y'know, it's also kind of fine to hold grudges for petty reasons sometimes... I'll say it: I support valentino's god-given right to just find some of these guys kinda annoying. not everything has to be an epic feud. sometimes guys just have a little mental list of past transgressions where each individual item is kinda small and silly but they're also literally never going to forget about each of them and they haven't forgiven anything even if it's been well over a decade... you know how it is