#cl thoughts

finally had a chance to listen to fall out boy's newest album so much (for) stardust and digest it in full! my final thoughts are as follows....

fall out boy has truly outdone themselves this time. my expectations were high after listening to the singles (love from the other side, heartbreak feels so good) and they delivered! the rest of the album held up compared to the singles and still was able to distinguish itself from fall out boy's previous albums. i will be streaming this album 24/7 for the foreseeable future! my personal favorite songs from the album are fake out, the kintsugi kid (ten years), and i am my own muse!!

Finally feel like I can answer this question cuz every time I tried we just kept losing players again and again.

So, my thoughts..... I think we had better odds when we had all our players. Without mbappe, verratti etc, I don't really know how well we might do. I mean, verratti is our midfield and then mbappe is our primary goal scorer. Without either, I can't see neymar managing to do it all by himself. With Icardi's current form.... well, this looks bleak.

Atalanta ended 3rd in the league. This is the best they have been in their history and we're facing them, half crippled. I dread this game so much. Neymar can't win it on his own and at this point it feels like the pressure is on his shoulders. With the defensive midfield we got, I'm afraid he'll have to go back all the way to Keylor to get the ball. I seriously don't fancy our odds. Either we play a game of a lifetime or we lose. That's it.

like, the characters are still besties. the romance is built off their deep bond, the friendship is why people ship it

I'll see it under edits a lot, comments like, "finally, someone who understands they're JUST FRIENDS" or "why are you ruining their friendship?"

And look, as someone on the aro and ace spectrums, I really understand frustration with other people devaluing platonic bonds, I truly do. However, such statements often devalue friendship within them ("just friends") and assume the people who ship them cannot possibly comprehend the complexities of the relationship simply because they see it as romantic - which is not the case. tbh sometimes I end up shipping a pairing because the only people thinking deeply about their bond and posting about it are the shippers! (that's what happened to me with eremin lol)

uh anyways we know the answer is primarily homophobia, probably mixed in with some genuine frustration about amatonormativity. It sucks that the language aro/ace people have for commenting on this issue is so similar to the rhetoric other people use to poorly conceal their homophobia. There is a genuine discussion to be had about how romantic and sexual relationships are valued over platonic ones and placed on a pedestal, but they get lost in the sea of bad-faith comments.

For instance, I do sometimes see the bond between characters be reduced to their romantic connection, even in well-intentioned analyses. The "would friends look at each other/treat each other like THIS?" style of posts also often rankle me because yes! I do look at my friends with adoration, and we do hug and we do go out of our way to support each other. Yet, those are traits I enjoy in ships, so I can't even get too mad lol. The problem is when that type of affection is thought to be relegated to romance.

Though we know Adora is the main character and must become She-ra and join the good guys™, it's still somewhat of a subversion of expectations. It drew in my attention immediately. What reason would Catra, who seemingly dislikes the Horde and is mistreated by Shadow Weaver, have to stay? How could Adora, who previously seemed so dedicated to serving the Horde with all of her being, leave so easily? It's such a good set up for the series