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ynbabe · 15 days

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Come Through ୨୧ George Russell x Rockstar! Reader

Is rockstar the right word? idk I just know bro is crazy bts, the white boy with Excel persona is fooling NO ONE Georgie boy. Also, Reader has vibes of the Weekend song, hence the fic name.

Lando thinks it's all a joke. He hadn't been crying, screaming and manifesting for the past three years only for his celebrity crush to be dating someone else, another driver that too.

"WHO-" He yells as he storms into Max's room, where most of the drivers had collected, they hadn't decided but they all just gravitated towards the blonde with sweet blue eyes who listened to the vent and gave the best hugs, "AFTER ALL WE WENT THROUGH- WHO IS DATING Y/N L/N?"

All eyes were on him, Max lying on his bed, Charles, Carlos and Daniel with him. Lance, Esteban and Pierre were on the sofa, playing FIFA on Max's PS5, George and Alex were sharing the smaller two-seater, Zhou and Yuki were passing a tennis ball to each other and Logan and Oscar were sleeping, cuddling close on the floor surrounded by pillows, but were now woken up by Landos yelling.

"Lando stop screaming," Charles yelled back.

"No," he simply replied and made his way to the bed where he jumped on top of Carlos and Daniel, the older of whom groaned and grumbled something about his back, but Lando didn't care, he pushed his phone in Max's face, blurring his face in Carlos's neck.

xoxof1

xoxof1 Y/n l/n an infamous British rockstar most famous for her multiple dating scandals and most recently an arrest is rumoured to date a F1 driver.

username MOTHER WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE 😭😭😭

username girl... knowing her it's like Lewis or someone

username fr like hasn't she 'dated' a dozen older guys not to mention her record with women username girl why are you hating like a man, she's iconic and we all know it

username just lost my wife to a vroom-vroom man no one talk to me

Max began laughing, looking up from the post to the distraught Lando currently getting his hair played with by Carlos.

"Mate, I don't think you're her type," he threw the phone back to the whining boy.

"Yeah? And how would you know? I look exactly like Edward!" He pointed to the bassist of the band you were a part of.

"Kelly loves her music..." he muttered, looking away much to the younger man's amusement.

"HAH!" He shrieked, "SHE'S NOT YOUR GIRLFRIEND ANYMORE!!" He laughed to which Carlos pushed his head down, eliciting an 'oomph'.

"I've been told many times," Max muttered to himself and turned to Lando to hear the rest of his rant, though loud and fast, the boy was the best source of entertainment they had.

"Max, look at her band, she's so coooool," he groaned, passing the phone to him again.

Cupidd

Cupidd THANK YOU LA!! We'll be back with 'young, numb and brunette' after this short break!!

y/nl/n My old man said I had to be in Shangai this weekend 🫡 but trust- I will be back to piss y'all off with Eddie asap

edwrdnotcllen MY WIFE HAS LEFT ME FOR A TWINK HELP y/nl/n shut up Eddie your the twinkiest twink I know username I love that they have had multiple partners in the past yet still always call each other husband and wife username I pity her boyfriend 😭 imagine having to compete with a man who looks like Edward

username SHES GOING TO A RACE????

username nooooo pls my parents

username girl they have never dated, both y/n and Edward have had multiple partners and relationships with men and women in the past. Leave them alone, they're adults username FOUND Y/N'S BFS ALT GUYS!!!

"She's coming to China?" Max asked no one in particular but Lando took it as an invitation to freak out.

"Bro please, please, please let me win this one, I'll owe you forever, bro please," Lando tried his puppy eyes on Max but Max jumped out of bed calling his girlfriend, walking out the room trying his best to convince the older woman to not attend the race.

"I have so much work to do," Lando gasped and followed Max out the room.

The race was one to remember, with Max winning but George a close second and Lando barely a tenth away on the third.

He hadn't been able to find the girl anywhere but at least he got points for the team. He went to the McLaren team party and forgot about the other celebration taking place.

xoxof1

xoxof1 The unexpected couple have been revealed in a series of leaked pictures of the private f1 party after the driver George Russell had a podium finish for his Shangai race.

username Mr.Russell I was unaware of your rizz, forgive me sir.

username WHITE MAN DOES IT IN ONE DAY 😭😭😭

landonorris When i catch you george when I catch you

username LANDO??? username he's one of ussssss username bbg you get me 😮‍💨 in ways no man ever has

George woke up with the worst headache he ever had in his life, he was sure he'd never get over this hangover but then he saw y/n next to him, hair tussled wearing the white shirt he was wearing last night.

"Y/n, darling, wake up," he pressed a kiss on her shoulder.

"mmhm," the woman groaned, turning to the blonde next to her and kissing him, the taste of vodka still fresh in her mouth.

She melted into his touch as he deepened the kiss, " Mornin' G," she whispered to him, voice hoarse from the night before.

He smiled in return, placing one last kiss on the corner of her lips. She searched around for her phone, finding it fallen amongst their haphazardly discarded clothes and opened Instagram to thousands of notifications.

She was used to it by now, it was quite fun.

y/nl/n

y/nl/n If I speak... @/georgerussell

edwrdnotcllen @/yn/ln you are so welcome for not squealing as soon as I knew

y/nl/n girl you asked me if you could kiss him after??? edwrdnotcllen And I still am?? username WHAT-

username I just know Lando is fuming rn

username y'all need a third? a dog? a maid?

username it should be me instead of him!!!

username god I see what you've done for others 😭

"Darling, did you post-" George had just begun but his room was rudely broken into, running in he saw a hyper papaya-coloured blur followed by a very hungover Max Verstappen.

Lando gasped looking at the woman next to George, screeching at an inhuman pitch, "HOW'D THIS PIECE OF VANILLA FRAPPUCCINO WOO HER??!?!?" He pointed at Y/n, making the woman laugh.

George offended, scoffed at the boy, "Well if you must know, I met her at Nando's party-" he was cut off once again, this time by the Dutch man.

"That makes sense actually," he said and immediately grabbed Lando by the collar and dragged him out, "Sorry guys!" he yelled after himself.

"I like your friends," Y/n said smirking making the taller man blush and push the woman slightly, before collapsing back into bed, making a silent promise of never trying to out-drink the woman again.

#f1 #formula 1 #max verstappen #f1 fanfic #f1 x reader #f1 imagine #george russell x reader #george russell #george russell imagine #george russell x you #lando norris x reader #lando norris #max verstappen x reader #george russel x reader

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likealittleheartbeat · 6 months

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talk to me about the theme of emotional isolation for zuko and aang

It's the main reason I'm obsessed with the show tbh.

Can we overstate Aang's isolation within the show. He's not only a survivor--a sole survivor--of a genocide, he's also knocked out of time and history. These are the facts of his physical isolation. But his emotional isolation is such a different beast. It began before any deaths did. He is set apart by the monks and by the whole world as a savior. Shortly after his status as the avatar is made known, his peers exclude him, his power too great. His humanity is denied because he's too divine. Only Gyatso seems to still regard him for who he is rather than his gifts. Of course, that's why the council decides Aang needs to be further separated from worldly relations like that, and vote to send him off. For Aang, it's the last straw. He can't bear further exile from others. To regain some sense of control, he tries to run away from the heavy burden and those who have put it on him. At least this time, he's the one choosing his loneliness. It has become so clear that no one can understand his feelings about the Avatar State.

This is the emotional state he enters the series with, icon rather than human. He starts off concealing his revered identity in an attempt to indulge in simple pleasures, penguin sledding, coy fish riding, etc. But the shame is secretly right there at the surface. He's lovable but mercurial. Friendly and animated with everyone when he first meets them but in a way that's fleeting. The knowledge that he will have to leave the village, in an episodic fashion, having helped the members of the town, even having sacrificed himself for their well-being, is an understood fact of the plot and his life. At most he sheds some of his grief by putting it into words with Katara's encouragement. But despite the whole world fighting through their own grief from the fire nation and Katara's sole-survival of her own culture's genocide, they each have people in their families and cultures who, however bitterly, hold them and hold the broken memories together with one another. No one is as physically isolated as Aang, but, more importantly for his character development, no one is as isolated by their significance to the world.

No one, except Zuko. Zuko, the banished prince. Isn't that what Aang as the Avatar is in many ways: a spiritual prince, an heir by birth to power and legacy, who has been banished from his inheritance. Only, Aang's inheritance would be peace. Zuko's would be the Fire Nation, but because of his humanity, Zuko, like Aang, is without a nation. This is one reason Zuko and Aang are such incredible narrative foils. Aang is rejected from humanity's compassion because of his divine status while Zuko is rejected from divine rule because of his human compassion and failures to demonstrate perfection. (If you're interested in this dynamic in media, Fruits Basket has fantastic explorations of these themes with Kyo vs. Yuki and Tohru vs. Akito.)

How early did Zuko start to notice the disappointment he brought to his father and grandfather? As early as we can see, Zuko seems alone. The episode with that phrase in the title reflects back on his childhood, which, noticeably, lacks the friends Azula manages to keep. He mimics and mocks her cruelty, as well, in an attempt to impress his mother. His insecurity seems already set, a sense that no one can understand. While Aang recognizes that everyone thinks he's too good to belong, Zuko lives in an environment in which he's not good enough to belong.

The reactions to their rejections correspond, too. Zuko's reaction of antagonistic pursuit of anyone and everyone--like Aang's reaction to run away (literally and sometimes emotionally with a smile or joke)--helps keep others in a framework of enemies so he can control his exile rather than the other way around. Yet these behaviors put them in dynamic relation to one another--Zuko is drawn to the endless pursuit of the strangely kind Aang, whose instinct is to behold others while remaining untouchable, while Aang becomes clearly intrigued by the person who refuses to treat him like an untouchable hero, the person who refuses to give up on the possibility that the Avatar can be flawed and fail, no matter how many times he slips away proving his divine destiny.

It's obvious that Zuko is supposed to hate Aang, as the Avatar. "The Headband" illustrates how education in the Fire Nation portrays him if the fact that Zuko's only possibility for regaining his title under his father is bringing the Avatar back isn't enough evidence for you. But Aang ought to hate Zuko just as much, if not more. Instead, they are drawn toward one another with an remarkable intensity, established within the first half of the first season, "The Storm" x "Blue Spirit" combo punch! In fact, the blue spirit episode really reveals what they can mean to each other. Not only in Aang's question at the end that invites Zuko back into the past with him, but in the way that Zuko is made to be the divine entity for a brief period while Aang is helpless in the fort. Then, that question at the end: "Do you think we could have been friends?" Isn't that the opposite of the isolation they feel. In the woods, without a nation or an allegiance, Aang, remembering the people and time that he was forced to leave asks Zuko, who has just betrayed the people who banished him, in another version of life where they were both simple people rather heirs of vast power, if they could have formed a kind of union that would have dissolved the loneliness that consumes both of them. But it's momentary and they have to return to the world that defines them as the Avatar and the Banished Fire Prince.

This becomes one of the cores of the show, as echoed in the finale, where Zuko and Aang consummate their friendship, but by then, through traveling the winding road toward one another and aiming to take on a part of what the other person represents, they have found a balance that refused the binaries of divinity and fallibility that had previously separated and defined their lives, binaries that exiled them from connecting with others, binaries that built towers to isolate them from the world. The victims and survivors of genocide, the subjects of colonial violence, nor the sufferers of abuse need be pure to claim their pain, nor must the people who want and work towards justice be saints to do that work. Harder for many audience members to absorb, despite their love for Zuko who's arc is meant to emphasize the point, there is a spark of divinity in everyone, from the most unloved to the most violent and tyrannical. This second fact must exist alongside the first, or else the premise won't hold. How you choose to act and engage with that spark of divinity is a human choice we each make on our own, but that does not deny it's existence. The divine ideals must be allowed to fall apart into comedy and tragedy, while the mundane, the profane, and the cruels horrors of life must be allowed to be seen as something that hold the possibility to become beautiful and part of a grander design. The Avatar must be allowed to be Aang and Zuko must be allowed to be the Firelord so that we can have Avatar Aang (the last title of the series) and Firelord Zuko (the most celebrated character arc of the series). They need one another to assuage the fear, isolation, and dread that black-and-white perfectionist thinking boxes us into.

#zukaang #platonic otps #platonic love #yin & yang #buddhism #atla meta #meta #aang #zuko #aanglove

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lmskitty · 1 month

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I made a post a while back of my fave Satosugu fics and here's some of my absolute fave artists! There are so many incredible artists for jjk and I'm constantly in awe but heres some I just wanted to shout some love and adoration too!!! ❤️❤️❤️

@nessieartss - I am obsessed with their older brother Sukuna au and his total lack of rizz with Megumi. It's incredible.

@diosaurr - oh my GOD their satosugu art is phenomenal but the way they draw Yuki too?!? Such a babe!!!

@xo-romiiarts - god I love the way they draw Satosugu!! Their comics are so hot!

@sadbenedict - the iconic basement au!!!! (Their happy satosugu art is amazing also)

@andlatitude -we had a moment where I realised I'd followed them from when we were both in the Supernatural fandom, ADORE their Nanago art!

@fushiglow - should be illegal that they can write amazingly AND draw like that!!!

@fuyuhen-art - I think I've reblogged their art so many times now because I can't get over how hot it is. The way they draw sweat?!? The veins in the arms?!?

@fah-keet - the hottest satosugu content made only better by the use of horrific cakes to hide the nsfw. Sometimes I see an outright nsfw and look for the cake because I'm ridiculous.

@petridumps - the cutest Nanago art. The way they draw teen Gojo and Nanami is incredible. The staring contest comic is such a fave!

@yuutaguro - so in love with the papamin au!!!

@franeridart - all my teacher satosugu headcanons exist in their universe because I love it SO much. It's just pure joy.

@owwllly - the way they draw the chests is too much. Too powerful, obsessed with their art style. The way they draw Suguru?!? 🫠🫠🫠

@3-aem (not letting me link not sure why) the way they draw Gojo is godly. He's SO pretty. Just absolutely beautiful artwork.

@arinavah - I'm feral for their chosoyuki content. It's just so good.

@uotuok - the way they draw soft and sleepy satosugu just warms my heart. I love it SO much. These boys need more cuddles!!! And the colours they use?!? It's such a beautiful art style I adore it.

@cottonhide - their art is SO pretty. I love the way they draw Fushiguro 🥰 but their satosugu kiss comic is one of my absolute faves. These boys are so dumb my gosh.

@strawbaryarts - my fave drawings of Shoko. Just the eyes get me so much. She's so done, I love their pieces so much!

@wacuoms - the artwork they do of Suguru breaks me, the way they draw his expressions is just phenomenal. Also buff lesbian Gojo my god 🫠🫠🫠

@to00fu - their Yuri satosugu is amazing and how I headcanon them as girls now! I loooove the way they draw Suguru's piercings 🥰

#satosugu #goge #nanago #sukuna #basement au #jjk #Jujutsu kaisen #itafushi #stsg #jjk fanart

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queenendless · 5 months

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🍂🍁💝Thankful (Adult!SatoSugu x Adult!Fem!Reader ft Various JJK)💝🍁🍂

A/n: Spontaneous short fiction.

Sequel to Spooky Lovin'.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. To those who don't, well do whatever makes you happy.

Lots of characters/pairings, pure cavity esque fluff, with a twist!

All credit for JJK goes to Gege ... despite what happens canon wise.

*Please don't plagiarize, translate, or repost my FANFIC work. Like, reblog and follow instead, thank you.

The enriching enthusiasm boomed out throughout your private abode.

You watched in beaming amusement through the open archway at the packed company.

Yuji laughed at what Megumi had to say which made the other smile; both close together on one end of the couch.

Nobara gushed over showing Maki upcoming winter attire releasing on her phone, to which the latter was intrigued, both also bundled closely on the other end of the couch.

Kento and Yu leaning against the wall, drinking apple cider as the latter rambled enthusiastically on their latest endeavor, while Ino popped in, praising a blushing Nanami on his caliber as his sorcerer icon.

Aoi clapping and weeping all up in the big TV showing Takada-chan's live performance in the themed parade happening down South.

Panda and Toge jumping in the leaf piles, a beaming Yuta swinging a giggling Rika around through the whisking leaves. Kamo sipped tea on the front patio as he watched the sunset.

Down the way, a car crossed by, with Shiu at the wheel and Toji eyeing the house with sharp ambivalence. Part of him missing his kids but accepting long ago that this is where they truly belong, nodding for Shiu to drive off.

A tipsy Shoko cuddling up with a blushing smiling Utahime in the hot tub on one end and Mei lounging and sipping on cider on the other end with Ui holding her bagged gear and waiting on her outside the tub, on standby, cause he's just that devoted.

Mai and Momo taking selfies together in the backyard garden before teasing a flustered Kasumi after Kokichi gifted her a flower in her hair.

Yuki and Choso; also in the backyard, napped together on the bench under the tallest looming tree, cozy smiles on their faces.

Kusakabe excused himself just to sneak into the bathroom to try out the jacuzzi.

Nanako and Mimiko braided Tsumiki's hair as they sat at the katsudon, smack dabbed in the center of their spacious living room.

Junpei blushing from Tsumiki noticing him gazing at her, smiling widely in return, to which a flushed Junpei jumped from Megumi's stern-faced warning to which his sister complained for him not to scare him so much and a nervously laughing Yuji consoled his horror buddy by hugging him and patting his back, simultaneously trying to calm down his boyfriend going all overprotective brother mode.

Masamichi made some festive themed cursed corpse dolls that were taking up space on the other couch.

Kiyotaka fumbled with his drink as Akari's beaming smile had him and Arata covering their flushed faces from how pure she looked.

Riko and Misato assist Suguru in the kitchen as they prepare the food.

Suguru, knowing you were still unwell, insisted you take it easy and let them handle the feast.

You had been feeling unwell the past few days.

You called in sick today when you felt something change.

You had to see for yourself.

And when you did, you felt inspired to message everyone you know for an impromptu get together at your place. The word spread via group chats, texts, and calls.

Watching everyone enjoying themselves at your impromptu get together heightened your spirits.

Just not for the festive touch.

But to be surrounded by all their beaming warm faces when —

Satoru warped right before barging through the front door with dramatic flair, exciting a few, scaring some, and annoying the rest.

“Honey, I'm home~!” Dropping the bag of pies on the counter, Satoru smooched Suguru fully on the lips.

The moment he noticed you practically glowing, the Six Eyes told him all that there is and will soon be, straight down to the first traces.

In that moment, everyone inside and outside felt the shifts in the cursed force as Gojo warped right before you, startling you out of your hidden viewing spot, his arms wrapping around your figure to catch you. You imagined his eyes trained on the right spot.

“You … you're …”

You couldn't suppress your smile. “I found out this morning. But I didn't know how to tell you both. I had a feeling your Six Eyes would show you the truth – AAH~!” Your yelp as he lifted you up in the air reverberated throughout the house, grabbing everyone's attention.

“Gojo-sensei?!” His students exclaimed in a jumbled mess.

“Satoru! Be careful – !” Suguru's concerns were cut short when he watched as you tugged down that blindfold just to see Satoru's awestruck eyes with your own.

Tears made his eyes sparkling that much beautifully, sniffling softly, beaming with that lovestruck smile as he lowered you down to embrace you, swinging side to side gently, laughing as he smooched your face with so many kisses.

“Y/n … thank you.”

As he sets you down; keeping you wrapped up in one arm, his other arm waving you two's partner over before intertwining their hands together to pull him in quickly. “Suguru~ We've got the hottest scoop of the year!”

Pressing himself right by your side, Suguru leaned down as you got up on your tiptoes to whisper your secret right in his ear. His stunned face was all you could read as he replayed your words in his mind, but he wanted to be certain. “Are you sure?”

Satoru's closed eyed smile and thumbs up added to the buildup. “These eyes don't lie!”

Burning wetness swelled up in those beautiful almond eyes as Suguru kissed you lovingly, smiling at you in the same smitten manner. “Best news ever.”

“Everyone!” Satoru hollered as his arms became yours and Suguru's thrones, lifting you both up, as he floated for literal joy. “We're having a baby!”

“And yes, it's all true!” You exclaimed boldly, knowing the people would take your word more easily than Satoru's.

First stunned silence. Which immediately erupted into cheers and applause of congratulations.

The twins, Tsumiki and Megumi were the first to get up and hurry on over to embrace you, shedding tears of joy.

Yuji and Haibara high-fiving Satoru who was over the moon.

Nanami shook hands to congratulate Suguru, warning him to make sure Satoru took extra caution with taking care of you and your little bundle before embracing you himself. You personally wanted to deem him as the godfather, just a side note.

As those from out front and out back swarmed in as the announcement shot straight through the roof from the loud groundbreaking importance.

After all the girls in the house fussed over you with hugs, advice and offers to help you through this new adventure, your husbands were in the same boat with almost everyone.

Except Kusakabe who was stuck in the bathroom for a while since the hallway was filled with the rest of your guests.

After embracing and congratulating you themselves, Riko and Kuroi announced the feast was ready.

Exchanging kisses with both your loves, you gave a toast.

Toasting to the new addition to your growing unique family.

Now that is cause to celebrate.

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dear-ao3 · 5 months

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who are the 20 f1 meow meows?

max verstappen (fast but an asshole on the track. lives in fear of his cats. winning everything.)

checo perez (might lose his spot. had two separate did not finishes in the same race. kissed another car at the hairpin)

sir lewis hamilton (fashion icon, classiest mother fucker you’ll ever see, knighted, just wants a comeback and to win his 8th world championship)

george russell (walking meme, looks like he belongs in the window of a tommy bahama, says crikey and blimey unironically, the most british person ever)

charles leclerc (the poorest little meow meow, is a millionaire but has a cracked back of his phone, either is fighting for the podium or crashes on the first lap, please dear god let this man win something he has the worst luck i’ve ever seen)

carlos sainz (smooth operator, dunks on everyone’s golf game especially landos, aparently doesn’t eat his pancakes with toppings, drives a volkswagen golf at least sometimes)

lando norris (usually getting told by carlos he sucks at golf, chronically online, has a blanket with george russell’s face on it, gets in trouble for being too sarcastic, please give him a win it’s been 5 years)

oscar piastri (has never once looked like he’s having a good time but almost did once while building a house of cards, hates horoscopes, almost got sued by alpine when he said he wasn’t signing with them after alpine announced he was signing with them, has an iconic mom)

fernando alonso (old man, retired and then came back for some reason, tad villain and he knows it, don’t mention taylor swift around him)

lance stroll (still waiting for his tennis career tbh, his dad bought aston martin to guarantee him a seat, rage monster)

esteban ocon (french, monster of a teammate aparently, once got beat up in the garage by max verstappen, besties with stroll and mick schumacher)

pierre gasley (also french, terrible awful haircut, did i mention he’s french, had his brain chemistry permanently altered by being teammates with yuki, photo dump king)

nico hulkenberg (looks like that one penguin with the weird hair from penguins of madagascar, dad, has raced in over 200 races and never been on the podium)

kevin magnussen (was kicked off haas because they wanted younger drivers only to reappear the next year after they fired one of the drivers for probably funding the russian ukrainian war, once fok smashed a door, has the cutest child)

valtteri bottas (unproblematic king, cyclist, makes his own alcohol, is ass out on netflix and has his own naked calendar called bott ass, mullet mustache man)

zhou guanyu (baby fashion icon, trying his best in a medium shit car, first chinese driver ever in f1)

daniel ricciardo (class clown, made the worst career mistake of leaving red bull and is now trying to get back in, from australia but is a texas cowboy, usually fucking shit up, just wants to tickle his scrotum and touch his nutsack)

yuki tsunoda (wants to chef, was forcibly moved to italy by his team cause he didn’t want to work out with his trainer, short king, usually gets sacrificed to the luck gods, cursed radios)

alex albon (so insanely barbie coded, filmed a cereve commercial in his hotel room with his girlfriend, definitely dyes his own hair with box dye, incredible oldest sibling energy, single-handedly carrying williams)

logan sargeant (what the fuck is a kilometer!!!! only american in f1, usually found in dead last or kissing walls, one of his essential items is heinz burger sauce, says mate with an american accent)

#f1 #not a tag #from saph #i need 1-3 business weeks to recover from vegas

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hyacinthsdiamonds · 1 year

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Not liking a driver does not give you a free pass to bodyshame them, or to wish literal death and severe harm on them, or to be racist and/or xenophobic towards them. Not liking a team doesn't give you a right to do the above to those afflicted with the team either, or to be misogynistic towards the women involved with those teams. Not liking which team or driver someone supports, does not give you a right to do any of the above.

The drivers and the teams may never see the hate you spill but wait. We all know that they do;

Nicolas Latifi got such severe death threats he had to hire security

I'm not touching on the disgusting racist abuse faced by many of the drivers because there has been far too much to easily unpack but I do want to note that it got so bad last year that Alex for instance got such severe abuse last year his fans had to tell his family to go offline for a few days (not to forget the people who made up conspiracies about him and used his mother's past as a means to justify the abuse they were directing towards him).

I'll never forgot the amount of sexist hate directed at Hannah Schmitz, one of the few and one of the most recognizable women in the paddock who has lead red bulls strategy department the last couple of years, - because apparently women in motorsport are only valid if they're not under the red bull umbrella - which got so bad multiple of the drivers called it out publicly.

The multiple conspiracies created about and general racial discrimination faced by Yuki and Zhou which was and continues to be encouraged and spread by primarily the English speaking journalists and commentators

Let's not forget the sexist chants sung about Sophie Kumpen; Max's mother at Monza, or the literal death threats that were sent to his sister and young nephews.

The way some of you talk about Michael Schumacher, I don't have the words. The ski jokes has not once in the last decade been funny.

I could go on and on. I could literally do this all day.

Sure the drivers might never see it but that doesn't mean nobody will and we all see how conditional any form of your allyship is. "Racism is wrong unless it's about x, sexism is wrong unless it's about y, death threats are wrong unless it's about z, etc". Do better. You cannot claim the moral high ground, if you do any of the above, no matter how much higher you perceive yourself to be than the person you're directing the above towards.

As for death wishes or crash wishes, cop yourselves on to fuck. I would never wish what I've been through, what my family has been through, on my worst enemy, let alone some driver I'll probably never even meet. F1 is nowadays a safe enough sport but that has not always been the case and there is still no 100% guarantee of completely safety. The risk is still there even with all the advancements in safety. So many drivers have lost their lives or have had their lives altered forever as a result of a crash. Some of the drivers on the current grid are directly impacted or know those whose lives have been lost or altered because of a crash. Nearly everyone on that grid has a story. Some of you have their photos as your icons as you wish literal death and injury on their coworkers, their friends. They would be beyond disgusted by you. I can name far too many drivers who lost their lives in this sport, it shouldn't take naming them to make people realize that wishing for some to die like they did is a disgusting act. If it were to come true, would you celebrate? Would you cheer as the red flag came out? I don't think I want to know the answer, considering some of the things I've seen in the main tags over the last couple of years (see that one person who wanted to violently and literally stab and kill a driver or see that disgusting poll about which way would be best to literally kill another driver).

Don't start with but x did this or y fans did that, if they jumped off a cliff, would you? Why are you so eager to lower yourself to what you feel are their low standards or morals? And I don't blame a driver for the actions of someone who calls themselves a fan while doing anything that I've mentioned in this post, because they're not fans, they're people who use the driver they claim to back as a shield and as an excuse for their appalling behavior.

Also, if you have to say "I don't like driver x but I agree nobody deserves this type of abuse", get rid of everything before the but. You don't have to like someone to offer them basic respect or human decency.

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seventhdoctor · 27 days

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A Trapezoid of Foils: Judai/Yubel and Amon/Echo

I'm back on my bullshit, and my bullshit is yelling about the trashfire that is Judai Yuki and Yubel. This post is a collection of thoughts on how Amon and Echo were clearly meant to reflect Judai and Yubel in some way or other, and how it feels like it should be neater than it is. The parallels are there, but it's not fully symmetrical and some of the angles are kind of weird...so yeah, kind of like a (non-isosceles) trapezoid!

(Geometry Tumblr do not @ me, I'm doing my best with this metaphor)

Spoilers for GX season 3, naturally. I haven't said it before, but for this post as well as previous ones I'm basing all information and characterization on the sub version of GX rather than the dub (which drastically changes Yubel's backstory and motives).

Yubel and Amon

This is the most obvious one, because Yubel spends two whole episodes and honestly some of their most iconic monologues trying to tear Amon down after building him up the whole season.

They're both antagonists willing to cause harm to the one they love for their goals. For Amon, that goal is the power to build a utopia. For Yubel, the harm is the goal - or at least, the metric by which they will have achieved their goal (showing their love for Judai).

Yubel, of course, claims that Amon is more selfish in his use of harm. Pain is love in their philosophy, but it's mutual pain - dishing out the pain without taking any back would only be mere cruelty. This of course misses the nuance that Echo wanted Amon to use her as a sacrifice, while Judai didn't welcome any of Yubel's twisted affections.

Still, from what I've seen most people agree that Yubel comes across as more "honest" one way or another. And to understand why things feel that way, it's important to look at their backstory and motivations, as well as how their motivations change.

Yubel dedicated themself to Judai's past life, tying themself to him through lifetimes, and in the present remained true to that devotion in unwanted ways. When Judai sent them to space and it ended up being Oops! All Torture, Yubel developed their sadomasochistic philosophy as a coping mechanism and an attempt to reconcile Judai's past promises and present actions.

Upon their return to Earth, they planned to return the "favor": by sending Yubel to the pain and isolation of outer space Judai made them stronger (i.e., infected by the Light of Destruction, with all that entails), so they'll give him his own painful experience (all of season 3) to make him stronger (awaken his power as Supreme King). Then they'll reunite, having both demonstrated their love for each other, and [this part is where the Light of Destruction really twists up their thinking]. Everything they do is in the name of this motive*, whether Judai really likes it or not.

Amon dedicated himself to the Garam conglomerate with Echo by his side before being replaced by his younger brother Sid, the sole blood Garam sibling. He nearly murdered Sid before changing his mind and dedicating himself wholly to his brother instead, a decision Echo and Yubel both describe as willingly chaining himself to their service. Even when given an opportunity to become the heir (all it'd take is watching his brother die to illness, not even murder) he rejects it, and begs for a way to save him.

And yet, when when given the opportunity he made a deal with the devil to break the chains he put on himself and abandon that same family. Then when he gets the chance to obtain power by sacrificing someone he loves, he does exactly that. Then he plans to become king of a utopia free of suffering, and always remember Echo.

So then, what are Amon's motives? Is he somebody who got tired of being abandoned or unappreciated? An ends-justify-the-means idealist? Just a power-hungry hypocrite? It's hard to tease out a consistent character and ideology from him. And in a show where people wear their hearts in their decks, I think this part of why people hate him - and so does Yubel.

Yubel hates Johan because he's terrifyingly like Yubel in some ways, focused and protective and dear to Judai.** Yubel hates Amon because he can't be like Yubel at all, resenting the brother he dedicated himself to and sacrificing the person he loved for power in an empty world forever devoid of that same person.

No way Yubel can be that kind of person, right? Otherwise, what was it all for?

* To be fair, you don't know all of Yubel's backstory by the time of their final duel with Amon. However, even removing the context of their past life that duel together with Yubel!Johan vs. Hell Kaiser establishes Yubel's central motivations more coherently than they do Amon's.

** Help, I know there's been other essay segments on this topic, text and video alike. But I saw a lot of them back in early 2023 when I was mindlessly going through GX material in a haze of hyperfixation and now I've forgotten all the other good sources.

Yubel and Echo

If Yubel's parallels with Amon are about their dedication, Yubel's parallels with Echo are about who they're dedicated to. Both believe in their loved one's destiny to become a king, and take actions to make them that king.

Yubel has historical basis in that Judai is quite literally the Supreme King, bearer of the gentle darkness. To help him achieve that role, Yubel enacts a plot to break Judai until he awakens his Supreme King side. It fits neatly into their schema of things: this is how they make the person they love stronger, so that they will thrive and survive. Make Judai stronger and awaken his old power, and all will be as it was meant to be.

Echo just believes that Amon is amazing enough that he would make a better king than anyone. When the chances arises to help break his chains and give him a world to rule, Echo takes it.

...And boy does she.

Both Yubel and Echo believe their loved ones are meant to be a king. Both give their lives in support of their loved one, and become weapons wielded in their service.

No wonder Yubel was shaken by Echo's devotion remaining within Exodia for just a moment - it's not all that far from their own.

Unfortunately Yubel's only direct interaction with Echo is goading her attack on field-Yubel during the final Amon duel. Otherwise they only speak of Echo as someone used and abandoned by Amon - which in itself has potential, given Yubel's own feelings about Judai sending them away.

I think GX could definitely have explored this connection a bit more. There's space to fill here.

Judai and Amon

As noted above, Judai and Amon both have roles as kings - at least, in the eyes of their single most loyal people. Judai holds the title of Supreme King as the wielder of gentle darkness, and while not confirmed his past life sure looked like a prince. Amon simply has ambition, talent, and an ideal world in his mind.

And in operating with the ambition of kings, they both do terrible things to achieve power. Judai lays this out explicitly in the Edo vs. Amon duel:

Amon lets his need for power get in the way of his other relationships and priorities, and sacrifices the ones he loves to obtain Exodia similarly to how Judai sacrificed his friends and eventually uncountable innocents for his own goals - finding Johan, and then ruling as Supreme King. Straightforward, right?

But I think there's another parallel between the two that's a lot more interesting. Or...most of a parallel. Namely, their relationship with their other halves and the responsibility of a loyal follower who would give up anything for you, be it their life or their humanity.

What do you do when the person you love most dedicates their existence to you - to the point of throwing everything else away, even their very life?

Of course, the Judai-Yubel and Amon-Echo situations aren't exactly the same even putting aside the issue of reincarnation. (For the purposes of this essay I'm not making huge distinctions between Judai and his past life, but if you want to get into the details I've written about that previously.)

Yubel went ahead and made their sacrifice without Judai's input, and all he could do was decide how to respond. He chose to dedicate himself back to them so hard it crossed lifetimes, so hard he chose to risk his own existence for them as well in his next life.

Amon, on the other hand, is the one who proposed Echo sacrifice herself for him. Echo agreed to it, and even by the end she stood by her decision. But Amon loaded the gun and pulled the trigger.

He tries to honor her sacrifice, of course. He's always mindful of Echo's sacrifice and what it means. But in the end, he did choose to sacrifice her, ultimately using her as a pawn. Their love never trumped his own objectives.

And I think the example of Amon and Echo leads to the question: if Judai had the choice of letting Yubel become a dragon or stopping them, what would he do? When it was explicitly their will?

This is another missed opportunity, one that could have solidified the parallels neatly. But GX never asks that question, so the answer is unclear. What could have been a parallel is just kind of...askew.

Judai and Echo

Okay, I admit there isn't a lot here off the top of my head. Probably the best parallels between them are in relation to their other halves, as the people "harmed" by their villainous partners, and how they respond to that harm.

Judai rejects Yubel's torments as unwanted attention, until he remembers the past and flips to understanding why Yubel did they did and makes moves to unite the two of them forever. Echo, meanwhile, understands Amon's motives from start to end and...lets herself be sacrificed, the end.

I don't know about this one. Really, ultimately Echo is supposed to be a willing participant in her own sacrifice but in the end I still don't feel like the narrative gave her a strong sense of agency in the matter and it really weakens my attempt to write this section.

In Conclusion

Some of these connections are stronger than others for sure, but I argue that they're all there in some way or another. They're very uneven and overall I'm not entirely sure what you're meant to take from the parallels, and I wish I could give something neat and concise for this section. Instead, it's a bit messy and misshapen - hence, the trapezoid metaphor.

Still, I think there's interesting room for thought in this awkward space. I was certainly thinking about these parallels while working on the latest chapter of Need (accidental last-minute plug?) and trying to figure out exactly what the prince felt while Yubel was in the middle of dragon surgery. What must it be like, to be in these relationships of sacrificial devotion?

#yugioh gx #yugioh series #judai yuki #yubel #amon garam #echo #essaying #meta #analysis #once again thanks to kaiowut99/GymLeaderLance99 for the subs #they're being used for a good cause?#anyway here's the product of me thinking too much about yu gi oh gx season 3 #and all things yubel related #i am so on my bullshit

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ytsunodabrainrotbaybee · 10 months

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Premiere Date

Yuki and Y/N miss out on the LA premiere of Scream 6, they get sent the movie though so they could still watch it early. part 1

“It’s starting”

Jenna’s text message popped up across the top of your iPad as you cast the movie from the iPad to the hotel room TV.

You slid into the bed next to Yuki, fully laid down on his side and taking up more room than he should.

“I should do more stuff like this,” Yuki says as the opening scene was starting, opening with a shot of a phone ringing on a table.

“We should do a western,”

Yuki’s eyes light up as he rolls over, practically on top of you.

“Yes, yes I want to” he laughs.

You nudge him off of you, pushing his attention back to the movie, before he makes you miss the entire opening scene. Your scene.

It plays out perfectly, better than you’d expect. What with him having next to zero acting experience.

He played the charming teaching assistant well.

“I’m sorry you have the wrong number,” his voice came from the hotel surround sound, as the scene placed him in a New York apartment. His thumb hovered over the end call button, a split second of hesitation.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Pierre Gasly’s voice shifted, changing to that iconic ghostface sound, “Jay Tanaka, was it?”

The realization crept onto his face, starting with his now wide eyes that darted towards his desk, a copy of Gale Weathers’ Woodsboro Murders sat amongst paperwork and a barely closed laptop.

“Funny, who is this?” He moved the phone back up to his ear, “did Professor Bridges put you up to this?”

“Oh no, no that old bastard wouldn’t know the first thing about a prank call, would he?”

Yuki’s arms wrap themselves around your waist, pulling you back against him.

“Yeah, screw that,” he hung the phone up, only for it to ring again. Same number as before. It went ignored.

He continued getting ready to go out, carrying his still ringing phone with him as he made it outside onto the street.

A new number flashed across his screen, his professor. That call he’d answer.

“You wouldn’t believe what’s going on,”

“Oh I would”

That wide eyed realization made it across his face as he turned to make a break for his professor’s apartment.

“Don’t do that” the voice on the other line warned.

Yuki sat up, watching as the kill scene started. A menacing “I warned you” as ghostface appeared behind him and the struggle started.

“yknow there’s something about Ghostface to me,” you pulled your knees to your chest, equally engrossed in the scene in front of the two of you.

“it’s the mask”

“and the voice,” you added, nodding along to Yuki’s comment.

The two of you high fived ad the title card crept into the screen, said high five ending in you holding each others hands.

“You did great Yuki,” you said, leaning towards him as the rest of the movie started, moving on to your own death scene. Notably less elaborate, but significantly more gruesome than Yuki’s.

“I think you enjoyed stabbing me too much,” he moved his arm around your shoulders, pulling you in closer to him, “the bruises didn’t go away for weeks.”

your laugh echoed in the quiet hotel room, over the low volume of the movie playing for you. Your laugh caught on, Yuki joined in for a split second.

The two of you settled down for the rest of the movie, shooting a text to Jenna every once in a while to gush about a scene or shot of here.

#yuki tsunoda #F1 x Scream franchise #Yuki Tsunoda x reader #yuki tsunoda imagine #f1 x reader

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donewiththisshitplsstop · 2 years

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Funny how George running to assist Zhou Guanyu is making you gain respect for him, and Lewis staying quiet after Abu Dhabi made you respect him. But your guy doesn't say ableist slurs for a year and suddenly he's so mature. Funny how George is a Tory and Lando is a gamer boy despite Lando being the rich white boy who probably went to private school. Funny how people hated Valtteri when he was in Mercedes (Not just toxic LH/Merc fans - a whole bunch of F1 fans just did not like him) but then he went to Alfa Romeo and suddenly he's a good one. Funny how Alex complained about an issue with his Redbull and all the commentators thought it was amusing but then when Max says something they go all serious - why won't you listen to the voice of a POC. Funny how Pascal Wehrlein was too high maintenance for F1 and then people had to come out and say they don't know why he has that reputation because he's just a nice person. Funny how Kobayashi's racing was Kamikaze style and just too aggressive but someone gets away with a brake check and running someone off the track. Funny how Yuki screaming into his team radios is aggressive and Kimi doing it is funny and iconic and 'Just Kimi'. Funny how 7-times champion of the world isn't worth his £50 million salary and there were talks of adding a drivers salary cap but then a certain RBR driver is worth the exact same and no one ever thought that a cap was needed. Funny how Zhou Guanyu needed to have a crash for people to sympathise with him because before they were all talking about how we didn't need a driver from China in F1.

So funny.

Edit: Funny how Toto saying RBR influenced the stewards and race directors is disrespectful but Christian saying girls watch F1 for the good looking drivers is true and Helmut and Christian accusing Lewis of purposefully crashing and faking injuries after Monza and accusing him of performance enhancing drugs is peak shithousery.

Edit 2: Funny how people use POC discrimination to defend their racial abuse defending driver and Nelson Piquet. Funny how people decided to see Zhou Guanyu talk about the discrimination he recieved and stayed quiet about it despite attempting to berate us for not saying anything. Funny how they want us to call out shitty behaviour but then when we call out their drivers use of ableist slurs we're the villains. Funny how people bought up POC struggles as some sort of bargaining chip to defend their driver all the while telling us that we're hypocrites. This one because of @holdmyhopeinyourhands and their anon.

Gosh there must be so much other examples of the double standards within F1 and the fandom that I haven't even mentioned. And ain't that disgusting, I have a whole paragraph of lists and there's so much more.

#f1 #george russell #lewis hamilton #zhou guanyu #valtteri bottas #kamui kobayashi #yuki tsunoda #pascal wehrlein #alex albon #christian horner #toto wolff #helmut marko

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specialgels · 2 years

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Testing

#little prism dragon;; yuki talks #[crawls out just to see how the ramuda icon border I made looks hehehe]

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nflstreetsanimereviews · 1 year

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Anime Review: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009)

Despite losing its relevancy a while ago, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya maintains to be an iconic anime series to this day. It was a staple of the anime fandom in the late 00s–a time when anime was way harder to obtain, the most common way of consuming it being through watching Cartoon Network, watching episodes on a dodgy streaming site, or watching episodes in ten-minute slices on YouTube. Well, in America anyway. Despite all of that, the fact that it was released out-of-order, and some episodes having no context at all at the time, Haruhi was still a hit worldwide. Goes to show you that ‘vibes’ is a huge contributing factor to whether or not an anime is a hit.

In order to fill in gaps (and piss off many viewers), Kyoto Animation made a successor to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006), named…The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009). Only slightly confusing.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009) is nearly identical to its predecessor, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006). The second season of Haruhi shares the same name as the first season, which is understandable when you find out that all of the 2006 edition of Haruhi is contained within the 2009 edition. The fact of the matter is that this isn’t a ‘second season’ and more of a ‘remake’. The confusing part is that KyoAni includes episodes from the original series un-edited. Hell, the first ‘new’ episode doesn’t come to episode eight–the only reason I could tell that it was from the new season is because it had a different opening and ending. It makes it a nightmare to log on sites such as AniList or MyAnimeList. Like, how am I supposed to categorize an episode that I’ve watched if it gets counted twice? Do I just count it twice? Or only when it’s actually an episode from the 2006 edition? Clearly, KyoAni didn’t have pedants like me in mind when it came to the Haruhi series. For shame.

With the 2009 edition containing all of the 2006 edition, it renders watching the first iteration pointless. Not that you’re missing out on much, since the broadcast order in season one was swapped around to make little sense chronologically. The first episode in the season one broadcast order is the twenty-fifth episode chronologically–yes, it’s so far in the future that it requires context from the 2009 edition to make sense. Of course, there are, presumingly, traditionalists that prefer the broadcast order over the chronological order. I personally see no reason to watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in the broadcast order since there’s no payoff. The only reason why the first season was broadcasted in that order was to end on a high note. It serves no purpose beyond that as far as I know. If you want to have the plot make sense, watch in chronological order.

The two ways of watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Sorry if the image is a bit small, I took it from imgur.

The plot of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is pretty simple: Kyon is selected by Haruhi Suzumiya, an energetic, annoying, and eccentric classmate, to be the second member of the SOS Brigade. Haruhi forms this club to research and investigate for proof of the supernatural. In her ideal world, aliens, espers, and time travelers exist. Thankfully for her, they do! It turns out that Haruhi has god-like abilities, and can will all three into existence. Too bad for her that they’re hiding in plain sight, purposely never letting her discover their existence.

All three other three members of the SOS Brigade are important in their own right, since they all were gifted powers by Haruhi. The third member, Yuki Nagato, who’s the sole member of the Literature Club, has her clubroom annexed by Haruhi. That’s fine though, since Nagato is actually an alien sent to keep watch of Haruhi. Nagato is essentially silent, only speaking when spoken to or when she really wants to. This makes dealing with her challenging at times, but she is also more useful and less of a headache to deal with than others. She’s by far the most powerful person within the SOS Brigade, besides Haruhi of course. The fourth member, Mikuru Asahina, is ‘forced’ to join the Brigade like Kyon. Asahina, being the prototypical ‘alluring, cute girl’, is a time traveler from the future that’s ALSO here to observe Haruhi. Her inclusion makes coming to the SOS Brigade Clubroom worthwhile for Kyon, and Haruhi often uses her physique to obtain things she wants. Her fragile demeanor lends to her being frightened easily, something Kyon doesn’t mind if it involves her clinging to him. She’s rarely useful beyond following Haruhi’s outlandish demands. The fifth, and last, member is Itsuki Koizumi, who fits the bill of being a ‘mysterious transfer student’. That alone is good enough for him to be invited to join the Brigade. He accepts, because he’s an esper that’s here to, you guessed it, watch over Haruhi. Unlike Nagato and Asahina, Koizumi acts as a yes-man for Haruhi, which gets really on Kyon’s nerves. His insistence on always going along with Haruhi stems from him wanting to keep her happy, since his job as an esper is easier if she’s in a good mood. It doesn’t help that Koizumi is also a type-A ‘gentleman’, making it hard to find fault with him.

Kyon is the only ‘normal’ person in the SOS Brigade. Unlike Nagato, Asahina, and Koizumi, he doesn’t have any special powers anointed to him by Haruhi. And unlike Haruhi, he doesn’t have god-like powers. Kyon’s inclusion is mere happenstance–only because he was the one to suggest that Haruhi form her own club instead of trying to find the one perfect for her. For whatever reason, she has picked him to be part of the brigade–and since she has the power to rewrite the world to her will, he has to be included, whether he likes it or not.

Haruhi, unaware of her god-like powers, uses them for the silliest of reasons, such as changing the color of pigeons in one area or having specific cherry blossoms bloom out of season. The reason why her power is used for silly reasons is because…well we don’t exactly know why. The theory behind why she has these powers is disputed by the members of the SOS Brigade. Whether she was born with these powers, anointed by god, or given them after performing a ritual is unknown. All we know is that she has them, and that her finding out would only mean bad things.

Part of what makes Haruhi, or at least this iteration of Haruhi, so infamous is the inclusion of the ‘Endless Eight’ arc. For those who don’t know, Endless Eight is an arc where Kyon and friends find themselves stuck in a time loop. This time loop, like most other things that happen in this series, is caused by Haruhi unconsciously. She can stop it at any time, but since she’s unaware of a time loop happening in the first place, she doesn’t. The only reason why Kyon and the rest of the SOS Brigade know about the time loop existing is because of how it interferes with other characters' abilities.

What makes the Endless Eight arc interesting is that it isn’t just eight of the ‘same episode’, as some would want to imply. Yes, each episode goes roughly the same plot-wise, but to say they’re ‘the same’ is being dishonest. None of the episodes reuse animation from the other, making each one of them different, even if they’re the ‘same’.

It goes without saying that Endless Eight is not made to be binged. It was only bearable because I watched only around two episodes a day. Even though the episodes are animated differently, they follow the same pattern. They do gel into one episode after a while. The fact that Nagato has the memory of all of the past time loops is crazy, but not tragic when you consider that the two weeks that repeat are filled with fun activities. It’s not like Nagato is spending those two weeks at school learning the same thing or in solitary confinement. It does get a bit dull–a point which is driven by the fact that we have to sit through this eight times. We get to feel what she felt, because watching the same episode eight times might as well be the same thing as going through the same two-week period fifteen thousand times. For all intents and purposes, Nagato doesn’t seem to mind. You have to keep in mind that this is the same girl that idled in her apartment until it was time to go to school and meet Haruhi. 600 years is nothing compared to having the entire knowledge of the universe, something that would make a mere mortal like you or I freak out and kill ourselves. I don’t think she really cares either way. If she did, she would do something about it.

Endless Eight is the defining Haruhi arc, if not for all the right reasons. It is true that it does start to get old to watch after the fifth or sixth episode. It’s at this point where the episodes start to feel the same, even if they’re technically different due to having new animation and lines. For it to be enjoyable to watch would be defeating the point, but really anything past the third episode until the last episode due to these episodes having no new plot developments past a certain point. I enjoy weird stunts like these, but I can perfectly understand why someone would consider this pointless, if not pretentious. I was very glad to be at the end of the Endless Eight arc, but at the same time, that was the point it was driving home. It's things like this that set Haruhi apart from other anime series. The light novel version of ‘Endless Eight’ is only a short story. It only covers the last instance of the two-week loop. In a way, the story is better that way, since it’s way easier to consume. Not as much when it’s the ninth time you’ve seen it in the last week, but I digress. The difference between animation and light novels though is that it’s easier to justify having eight of the same episode, rather than eight of the same chapters. Both would be controversial, but reading the same thing eight times would actually be torture. KyoAni saw a shot to go crazy with it and took it. Would I have taken it? Probably not, but I respect their decision to. It’s the only time (I know of) an anime doing something like this. That alone makes it interesting. It also makes you miss the other parts of the show–my favorite songs from the OST were missing from Endless Eight, making the arc all the more boring. One could say that was the point, but I heavily doubt that was intended.

The reason why I talked so much about Endless Eight is that, as I said in the paragraph above, it’s the defining Haruhi arc. It’s such a long arc that it’s impossible to ignore. Realistically, you could only watch the last episode if you want to keep it similar to the light novel, but let’s be honest: not many people have read the Haruhi light novel, so how would they know that? The only reason it worked is because of how the 2009 edition of Haruhi was adapted; with them being the second through the ninth new episode, but episodes twelve through nineteen in the chronological/airing order. You could skip episodes three through seven of Endless Eight if you wanted. It’s your call.

Outside of Endless Eight, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is slice-of-life at its best. There is a multitude of reasons that make this so: The fact that Haruhi herself isn’t presented as anything other than what she is, an extremely baffling and uncontrollable girl, is satisfying. One thing that always slightly grinds my gears about slice-of-life anime is the insistence on having the ‘most beautiful girl’ in the cast–while Asahina was selected for that role by Haruhi, her skittish behavior makes you feel more sorry for her than anything else. Haruhi also hogs so much of the screen time that it makes whatever effect she wanted Asahina to have rendered moot. This alone makes Haruhi more interesting than your standard slice-of-life, which often takes the easy route out with which tropes it assigns its characters.

The storylines in Haruhi are often banal from the surface. From going on vacation to a villa on a private island to filming a movie for a school festival, Haruhi herself is the one that livens these arcs with her latent ability to ‘create data’. This manifests in ways such as nasty weather suddenly popping up to less subtle ways such as a cat speaking in Japanese minutes after Haruhi states her wish for it to. It’s unknown how she’s able to manipulate the world–the only known is that the rate of manipulation increases whenever she has mood swings. When she’s in a bad mood, ‘negative space’ forms. When she’s in a jubilant mood, she can get carried away with what she changes. The main job of the other three members of the SOS Brigade is to make sure that she doesn’t find out about her powers, which is where most of the comedy comes from.

Due to all three other SOS Brigade members having different powers, they all belong to different factions. They only get along because all three of them share a mutual interest in keeping Haruhi happy. To Asahina, that means being Haruhi’s plaything. To Koizumi, that means going along with Haruhi no matter what. To Nagato, that means protecting Kyon whenever someone tries to kill him. Kyon is the one person to experience all the different types of supernatural phenomena that Haruhi has spawned into the world. His annoyance at being chosen by Haruhi never gets old.

The Haruhi series avoids issues many other shows with time travel as a concept by never taking itself seriously. The fact that there’s more than one way to time travel is a perfect example. If the Haruhi world sounds like it was hastily made up in someone’s head, it’s because it was! Her supernatural creations contradict each other, a product of one girl’s imagination running wild.

Above all else, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is fun to watch because Haruhi’s goal every day is to have fun. It’s why a dull trip to a remote island can be interesting. Or how watching a really crappy homemade movie can be fun to watch, knowing that you watched five episodes of the SOS Brigade making said movie. Endless Eight is just a part of it–a part that can be shortened if you’d like. If you wanted to be a weird ‘light-novel purist’ (something that I don’t think exists), you could watch only the last episode. Or you could do what I did and watch them all because it isn’t all that bad if you don't try to binge them in one night…okay maybe it does get a little bit old by episode six. But isn’t that the point? We already had this discussion, but I’d like to add that it’s disappointing that Endless Eight’s inclusion sunk its rating. I mean, it has a lower rating than the 2006 Haruhi adaptation, which is definitely an inferior product. What makes this adaption of Haruhi so good is how it fills in the gaps that the 2006 edition had. And it does it without ret-conning anything and having episodes from 2006 flow with episodes from 2009 without it feeling janky. It speaks to KyoAni’s animation skills. Haruhi is one of the most lively slice-of-life anime out there. And it isn’t an accident knowing how on point KyoAni was at the time. If you’re going to watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, then don’t bother with the 2006 edition. The 2009 edition has much more to offer. Endless Eight does take away from the enjoyment, but there’s nothing stating that you have to watch every episode. I’ll look down upon you, but you can still do it. Haruhi would be required viewing if you had an Anime 101 class. KyoAni did everything well, even the parts that made the show suck on purpose. Funnily enough, finally doing all of Endless Eight gave me a greater appreciation for Haruhi. I enjoyed it way more than the first time I watched it, when I only watched the first and last episodes of Endless Eight. Needless to say, it’s a must-watch. Its sequel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, is also a must-watch.

90/100

#anime #review #anime review #haruhi #the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya

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