#thoughts from jorge

[sinfulmicrowave]

currently carrying more gender than the recommended capacity

[dreamsy990]

drew some of my fav ody designs! wasnt originally meant to be also replicating the styles but thats sort of just how my brain works. except i didnt copy the lineart styles of anyone here so its DEFINITELY a bit uncanny for a couple of these (LOOKING AT YOU QINNY IM SO SORRY) but whatever

the designs featured here (from left to right) belong to: me, @gigizetz, @neal-illustrator, @irunaki, @bigidiotenergytm, @qinnyanimation, and @foopsie-daisy

[funnistar]

yall I've thought up the funniest fic I think I've ever thought of

We know how the Epic Cast (Okay, mostly Troy, but it infected others too, you can't deny it) likes to mess around with their characters on their content.

So like. What if.. I made a fic of the poor epic cast having to deal with the fact they're low key possessed by the Greek Gods they voice and have to deal with these gods just casually LIVING WITH THEM? 😭

LIKE imagine a sit-com style of the cast having to talk about whatever Greek God (or even human, looking at you, Ody) they have to live with everyday. I JUST THINK ITD BE HILARIOUS.

No idea if I'll actually write this, but it sounds so funny... if anyone would actually like this then maybe I'll entertain the idea. For now it's just a silly little thought lmao

[imerian]

Aleix Espargaro and his journey with aprilia✧

Little blooper bc my scanner chose violence on me

[ghostlymarauder]

Honestly, one of my favorite parts about Epic it's when someone replies "what" to whatever Odysseus or anyone else is saying. So, I'm making a list of the songs where this happens:

Polyphemus (Ody being surprised that the Cyclop still wants to kill them after he just straight-up lied to Polyphemus because he didn't trust him will never cease to amuse me)

Storm

Keep Your Friends Close

Ruthlessness (Poseidon offended 'what' when Ody says all he has to do is open the wind bag lives rent-freen in my mind)

Puppeteer (I actually think this is the best one, like Odysseus sounds so dumbfounded and I love it)

Not Longer You

Perhaps I'm missing one or two songs, so, I'll probably add more songs once I listen to Epic again (for reference, I've listened to that fucking musical about a hundred times in the last few weeks, Jorge Rivera-Herrans is the vane of my fucking existence (but I love him so damn much))

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

[clownytheram]

One thing that throws me off is that in Dangerous Hermes sings:

'Remember every trick in your domain for this'

It throws me off because hes addressing Odysseus, yet refers to quick thinking and clever planning as 'your domain' and like-

Zeus said he was gonna Athena's 'kingdom fall' so there's a possibility that her domain was forced from her and just transfered to the next best option and, as Athena's student, Odysseus would be the obvious choice so like-?

[xmaveria]

Kinda rusty at drawing my beloveds but that doesn't stop me!!

[batsplat]

casey if you want the showers-

https://www.tumblr.com/kingofthering/766887733130084352/sounds-fantastic

random thought: maybe being a part of a structure like the academy might have fixed teenage casey stoner……

(x) he's getting in the shower, he's enjoying the sausage, he's having it all

and oh hm this is SUCH an interesting idea that had never occurred to me. with the academy, I often think about how valentino himself never ever would have joined it... just this implicitly subservient position to another rider, any restraints placed on individualism, losing the ability to define himself to the same extent... I do actually think valentino would be pretty good at team sports, like it's not a loner mentality that would be the dealbreaker - it's just that specifically the academy vibe would not have been for him

with casey... I mean, yeah, maybe? yeah, I reckon you're right. that could have worked miracles for casey. the closest he got was being one of alberto puig's kids for a while (hence the 27 to dani's 26), but obviously that was a very different vibe. this is how puig is being described in 2006 (x):

Puig is a very powerful figure in the paddock, running teams in the lower classes, as well as the MotoGP Academy, widely acknowledged as the best route into premier class racing for young riders. His influence is hard to exaggerate, and when you add in his forceful personality, known for attempting to silence those who criticize his riders, this makes him a potentially disruptive figure in any team. He is, like so many people involved at the very highest levels of professional sport, utterly driven, and people who are so driven often find it difficult to keep a sense of perspective. Alberto Puig is concerned with only one thing: that the riders he coaches should win. Nothing else matters. In a sense, this is totally understandable: He is paid to nurture young talent to produce winning riders, and he is remarkably good at his job. But his focus and his drive rubs off on his protégés, and can turn them into single-minded, dour automatons, concerned only with their own performance, and little else.

not very valentino, is it. like you do probably want an actual academy-esque structure where the kids within it actually get the chance to... y'know. bond. care about each other. no puig

and while puig did play a critical role in casey's career, that's still a connection that had more or less fizzled out by the time casey gets to motogp. so obviously no real equivalent in casey's career. and... I mean, yeah, surely it would have changed a lot. it always comes back to the same few things with casey, doesn't it. casey, who was bullied at school, who was frequently made an outsider even in the australian motorcycling community until he was eventually pushed out of the country entirely... the impact of this hypothetical academy structure does depend a bit on when it would GET to casey - because by the age vr46 typically steps in, a lot of casey's formative experiences have already happened to him. he doesn't get a racing licence from the AJRRA (the australian road racing association controlled mainly by parents of kids casey had been beating most of his life). he has to leave the country. they leave his sister behind. they depend on the charity of others in england. his family is 100% financially dependent on his racing success. every opportunity feels like it could be his last. like... this is stuff that's kind of set by the time he's 14-15. the contrast between his childhood and valentino's is discussed in this post:

and yeah, obviously a lot of that stuff would have already happened. then again, having somebody step in when he was... what, maybe 16-17-ish? and give him some job + financial security... I mean in blunt terms, I know this ask was probably more thinking about the community aspect - but you cannot understate the importance that these practical elements would have had for casey. and yes, there's the more emotional element of... finally being let into a club, of having someone fight your corner, of knowing you've got this structure looking out for you. of handling your contract negotiations - casey also talks about how he and his father frequently just felt like they didn't GET the paddock politics; the insider/outsider dynamic is so foundational to his experience in the sport. all these unspoken rules casey just didn't know... having someone there who DOES know and is looking out for you and can take care of everything bar the riding would have made such a difference

and my god, yeah, there's the community aspect. so much of casey's time in the sport is defined by how deeply, deeply lonely he was. the childhood friendships he'd had either get left behind or are eroded by competitive tensions. he never gets close to another premier class rider, doesn't get particularly close to his team either. in 2009, he said his only friend in the paddock was his wife. and... y'know, while I have no doubt the paddock could feel like a pretty hostile place, I also reckon it would've been a good thing for someone to force casey out of his shell a little bit. like, I get not getting close to your direct competitors, I doubt I'd be massively different, but maintaining that level of distance from basically everyone you travel with most of the year feels... not ideal. at least befriend some of the mechanics my man. looking at some of the canonical vr46 academy riders - naming no names, but I can also easily imagine them in the loner category if the academy hadn't picked them up. and at least THEY could still fall back on childhood friends and acquaintances if they hadn't had the academy, more so than a bloke who moved to a different continent aged fourteen. casey needed some friends!! and maybe just an occasional reminder that not the whole world is out to get him

so YEAH I do agree an academy-esque structure would've made a MASSIVE difference... to the extent that it's almost tough to imagine that version of casey. it does make you realise just how foundational all of this angst feels to casey, in a sad way. what does he even look like without his isolation... you might wonder whether that change would take a bit of his edge away - it's just undeniable that he got a lot of motivation and drive out of his oppositional dynamic with the rest of the world. he wanted to show everyone that they were wrong about him... the rejection by the club back home in australia made him angry, the rejection of teams in motogp made him angry... and well, his circumstances did make him desperate. they made him hungry. it's what he talks about here, isn't it, the feeling that some young riders just aren't taking their riding seriously enough, contrasting it to how he knew he had to take every single opportunity he was given. valentino vs casey about young riders (2009//2013):

(remember that the question valentino got explicitly referred back to an earlier answer about casey - "serious and sad" is kinda his characterisation of casey specifically)

then again. saying this pain was necessary to casey's success would be needlessly myopic, casey has plenty of drive even without piling on the horrors when he was 16-20, give the kid some friends y'know. you can still be plenty neurotic within an academy, you can still cultivate a persecution complex, look at pecco. also, y'know, obviously sports success isn't worth miserable children and never will be. and I suspect casey himself has softened a bit from the stance expressed in his autobiography - I've been thinking again about that podcast interview he gave earlier this year that takes a more explicitly critical view on how his parents forced their dream on him

speaking of, another big benefit of the academy is in outsourcing the role of enforcing discipline so that it's no longer the parents doing it, which again just feels considerably healthier. casey basically says as much in his autobiography:

though, again, I wouldn't call puig a particularly helpful influence either, and jorge's experience with amatriain should be enough evidence that it doesn't take a parent to establish an unhealthy (and even abusive) dynamic. obviously, the assumption here is that you drop casey in a vr46-esque academy - for all his sins, the academy valentino set up in no way resembles how these other 'talent spotters' manage their charges. it's just... it's a safety net, isn't it, in every sense. financially, job security-wise, socially... obviously it's always going to be performance-dependent, yes, but that bit's never going to be an issue for any version of casey

so, yeah. maybe not 'fix' casey exactly, but it would've changed so much for him... it does feel like it would've been an unambiguously positive presence in his life. no, it wouldn't just erase all his issues with the sport - but if he could've found a place within an academy structure like that, he would've been a lot happier for it. probably could've loved the sport more than he did. certainly would've felt a lot less alone

[red-moon-at-night]

One thing I want to say about the Vengeance Saga, is the instrumentation was so, so good. It's probably the most video game-y sounding saga yet, especially Charybdis and Six Hundred Strike. Which fits well with how video game-y and anime the plot got.

But also Charybdis in particular is incredibly synth-y and giving me Jeff Wayne's War of The Worlds soundtrack vibes. Very otherworldly.

Absolutely loved the strings in I'm Not Sorry For Loving You as well. The minor key slide (reminiscent of the strings in Puppeter), not just at the end of the song but building up from the beginning, lingering in the background... chills. Isn't Penelope's instrument the viola? If there was indeed viola in that track it would fit so well.

[unhonestlymirror]

A little devil on my shoulder sometimes tells me it's embarrassing to love this country so much, because I've never felt about my homeland or any other state I've visited the same way. A lot of people hate a place they live in - but I really can't understand them. Even if I have to go through difficulties or when I have a bad day, my love for Lithuania only keeps getting stronger? is it supposed to be this way???(⁄ ⁄•⁄▽⁄•⁄ ⁄) People here are so smart and kind and beautiful and funny and reliable, they smile prettily and they have warm hands, and each one has their special interest - so even if I enjoy time in another state, I always think "Well, I wonder how it's going on in Lithuania." It's a very strong, pure and sincere feeling - which scares me a bit.

Nevertheless, I'm not gonna lie that "everything is bad in Lithuania" just to stick with the worldwide society and amuse the vanity of the unfortunate. I'm sorry if you don't love your home, but I love mine, nothing else to add.

[zeb-z]

Bad has so many reasons to be cautious, even paranoid, as anyone else on the island. From Federation nonsense to Dapper being kidnapped to the whole purgatory nonsense to whatever fuckass suit of armor “old friend” was setting up cameras in his house. But it compounds on his regular overly aware paranoid self to this state of hyper-paranoia. And as a demon who can and usually will lie, cheat, steal, and use sneaky underhanded tactics, he expects the craziest extent because he thinks of it, realizes it’s possible, and would use it himself. We saw this very obviously in purgatory - when he thought greens desperate last ditch effort to balance the scale was a super planned out tactic to tip the scale, so he did it first, all the hardcore base hunting, the spawn killing, there’s a reason every other tactic he used usually followed a main channel qsmp post with updated rules - all usually things he was surprised no one else thought of. But then this also piles onto the fact that he has to have things go his way, all the time, and that he’s argumentative as all get out, which led to the debate between him and Bagi yknow. Especially because he’s not just doing it for the sake of being right, he doesn’t think he’s paranoid, but that he’s exercising the right amount of caution.

So like. Listen dude. Yeah he’s got reasons to be paranoid. But his thought process around building vaults for separate cookie caches like they locked up the risus pills, only to scrap it because it’s not perfectly impenetrable, is extreme. His character has hardly been a leading example in someone who has reasonable reactions to things. And even when there isn’t his own children’s livelihoods potentially on the line, he has a need for control, and the most control he has is if he keeps the cookies in his inventory at all times. If he makes himself the sole point in which the others can get ones in a case of emergency, then he can control the variables. The problem is he’s unreliable about himself when he’s at his most rational and healthiest, and he’s far worse with the current memory and health issues he’s been mostly unaware of.

I dunno it’s like. There is never going to be a purely impenetrable base. And it’s not just a case of “Bagi just hasn’t lived through __ yet!”. Bad’s own logic about keeping the cookies on him at all times is flawed under his own logic, because Bagi is right - if someone has enough drive to break into separate secured cookie caches purely for the downfall of eggs, they more than certainly have enough drive to find a way to kill Bad and just take them from his inventory, or to just kill the eggs themselves. All it truly does is give Bad a sense of control, and soothe his paranoia.

[gr8ntaire]

guys in the alternative universe where the motogp grid is a collection of bands instead of crazy bike dudes what instruments/position r u assigning everyone

[callmeindy69]

i swear the only reason i wasn't bawling my eyes out while watching the wisdom saga livestream with my partner was because i had watched the crow for the first time a few hours prior and spent all my tears there

anyway so happy i finally got to hear all of god games, love in paradise was depressing as FUCK holy shit, and telemachus is a disney princess, gotta be one of my favorite genders

[ray935sworld]

🐢 Not you posting about Pedrenzo coming out while I wrote about just that 😭😭😭 BUT YES, DEFINITELY, Dani's content is all like, I love him so much. And Jorge basically just shows the world Dani's middle finger and then jokes that Dani should wear his wedding ring on that finger so that people can see it. He needs to let the world know how in love they are and that he managed to get himself someone like Dani.

And ooohhhhhh the love they would spread on social media. Jorge healing with every positive comment on those pictures while deleting all the negative messages and not even being bothered. And Dani is so proud of him for doing so!!!

And the two of them being in the paddock, hiding from too many photographers but then they post about it and it's the most disgusting (affectionate) pictures of them kissing in front of the motorhomes, on track, in the commentator's cabin, you name it

You really did make me fall in love with them ❤️

YOU DID? Haha mind link. I only gave your ask a quick read tbh (it's amazing as always, so looking forward to answering it and ranting hehe)

YES EXCATLY. Jorge be posting more Dani pics than pics of himself. AND OH. Oh the amount of kiss pictures! Or Dani, being Dani, so more shy and private, would be posting so cute ones. Like Jorge's and his hand intervened and the pic is black and white and you can see the ring. And then Jorge's statues is Dani chilling shirtless at the pool with 😏😳🤤

Help-! Them hiding is so cute. Like imagine the press be looking for them, like during that paddock walk live stream on friday, you see Dani and Jorge in the background or they journo is heading towards them and Jorge just takes Dani's hand and literally RUNS/ drags him around the motorhome/ container stuff. And then a few minutes later there's a video made by Dani of Jorge and him running away, tagging the motogp account with a "Sorry apparently I have something important to do" And Jorge is reposting that with the caption "I am important" A in "He's doing me".

I definitely say Jorge is making THE WORST jokes in the comments. Like he is cringe and now he can be cringy over his husband on live. More than once KTM asked Dani to tell his husband to not comment under ever post of Dani on a bike "Always knew he could ride ❤️🔥" Or Dani doing a wildcard and - either Jorge is standing WAG style in the garage or if DAZN made him comment, he is screaming during every session and NOT saying a word about anyone beside Dani. (Imagine him screaming at Dani over the screen during the Jerez spring when Dani was P4 and could have overtaken Fabio for P3 because he knew Dani had no idea it was for a podium so he fear Dani would be sad later - and yes he tried to surpress his grin when he hears about Fabios penalty). He's staring at Dani lovingly 24/7 and horny and when he's asked not to look at Dani like he's about to eat him when doing interviews he just shows his ring and is like "I'm the only one whose allowed to look at him like I'm about to eat him. Eat him out btw." He then has to do a PR training on what he can say and what he should not say on internal live TV. Dani think it's hilarious.

[gilfrespecter]

Listening to coinstar by the growlers and thinking about mel so hard I get nauseous

Ridiculous stream of conscious in the tags apologies but not really