Easy on the Discourse...!

And other unheeded advice. Fantine_Black on Ao3. Fic, fandom and other follies. Thirtysomething. Loving it.

[msfbgraves]

Crack idea:

Daniel is the coach of the Irish team for the World Cup. They’re doing well, but the tabloids are invested in just how close Coach LaRusso and Captain Silver’s relationship is!

Close maybe in the sense that the Captain of the team is always openly contesting the decisions of the coach. On live TV. Coach LaRusso has a very harmonious style, but not where Captain Silver is concerned. Crucially, though, Terry - nickednamed Silver Bullet - has scored 44% more goals this tournament than in his peak at FC Seoul, especially after another shouting match with Coach LaRusso.

There's a lot of speculation as to where this animosity comes from (the most prevalent is that LaRusso coached FC Ryukyu to a resounding victory against FC Seoul just as Terry Silver was set to lead his club to the top of the league; others state that LaRusso refusing to select John Kreese for the Irish team was when things really blew up), and they sometimes disappear for up to an hour together and remerge looking just as angry if rather tired, but whatever it is, it's working, so the rest of the lads just let them get on with it. Terry Silver has celebrated the semifinal win with threatening firy death to FC Ryukyu, which was deemed inappropriate and he is now banned from speaking to the press, but he did transform a free kick from Argentina into an equaliser for Ireland and then scored the winning penalty by confusing the goalie, so that's as far as the repercussions have gone. He did kiss Coach LaRusso full on the lips after that win so things can't be too bad between them.

[msfbgraves]

There’s been a surge in World Cup fanfiction. Messi/Ronaldo is of course a thing.

lol

Of course.

[msfbgraves]

TIG’s movies are mostly not-good but my goodness. What a ridiculously handsome man. My personal favourite younger!TIG look is Blood of the Innocent (I know it goes by another name but I can’t remember it!) I didn’t think I’d like him with such short hair but !!!!!!

So gorgeous. OMG

Has this man ever looked unattractive a day in his life? I think not!

Yeah, I mean did the man try: writing his own material more than once, doing TV and plays and, well. He gets on a good series and gets fired for being too sexy. One of the films that is unironically good is Time Cop 2. Terry Silver is a very memorable part in The Karate Kid 3, which is... Unlike anything else, but it's not widely considered a good film. I do think that Cobra Kai S4 and 5 is unironically among his best work in film and TV. Most of the scripts he was given in his career are too generic and that film he wrote about Jack Blaylock was ambitious but too slow. I really admire how in every part he does, he's honest about people in the way not many dramas are. What do I mean by that? Well, Cobra Kai is not honest about people for the most part. I swear, they want to give Johnny a romantic perfect bro wedding: all HIS friends are there, because "he just wants to be married right now" while his fiancée is giving birth, after which she names the child after his mother. That's as emotionally as dishonest as you can get. An honest reaction would have been: Johnny, you asshole, you left me out of my own wedding and you are making it about you while I am in excruciating pain. I feel like shit, I look like shit, all your friends are in my face, I need an epidural, none of my friends are here, there is no party of any kind, you haven't asked me what I want once, and that clergyman is the WRONG RELIGION. If you don't get all these people out of my sight right now, not only am I not marrying you today, I am breaking up and suing for full custody of my baby. GTFO. Out I say.

TIG doesn't ever play such nonsense if he has any say about it. He got to play a Terry that took a look at Cobra Kai and said: this is ridiculous, Kreese, you have to grow up about this karate nonsense. You are embarrassing yourself. They walked all of that back in S6, but I feel that if you give TIG any say, that kind of bullshit doesn't make it in, not even on stuff like Black Boat or whatever it's called. He always tries to stay true to how people would actually be.

And he's gorgeous.

His wife knows she's lucked out, and has said so in interviews. I am not saying she didn't build that relationship just as hard, I mean that a lot of men aren't very in tune with emotions. And TIG is.

Plus, he's gorgeous.

[msfbgraves]

The massive racism from Latin American countries this World Cup has been horrific. Really shows how prejudice those countries are. Especially from Argentina and Paraguay. Terrible behavior. I truly hope Argentina loses to one of the remaining teams.

Germany was my team, but they were awful and I never had any hope for them. I’m happy USA got as far as they did, because my husband is American and the people are so friendly. But Argentina needs to go and go in a terrible way. Awful team, awful people. Can’t stand Messi.

I don't have much of an opinion on Paraguay or Argentina's teams. I think that in general, being an awful bigot fascist has become a dangerously neutral thing to be. Those sentiments are always there under the surface but right now, movements are coming out of the woodworks everywhere. Latin America is not the only place. FIFA, too, is an intensely corrupt awful organisation. And they are showing us they can get away with it at every turn; the Epstein class rules on largely unaffected, the Gaza genocide has been livestreamed, and every penny I spend getting groceries is used to fund more atrocities. So are Argentina's and Paraguay's teams being racist? Statistically speaking, probably! But I can't get angry at everything so I don't want to get into whether or not those countries, or the whole continent, is racist. There's enough racism in my own country. For my mental health, I like to focus on the fact that Boston and Glasgow want to become twin cities because the Scottish fans and the Bostonians had such a roaringly good time that they have written folk songs about it:

"It took 30,000 strangers to remind us we were neighbours."

That's the energy we need to make people want to work together. There's been enough focus on fascists and their hatefulness all over the world.

I hope a new player wins this world cup; be it Norway or Belgium or any other country that doesn't usually win. And then I hope the afterparty inspires another folk song.

[msfbgraves]

I’m one of those rare fans who seriously hates Terry in KK3. I don’t care if he was on cocaine. He was so awful to Daniel and I wish Miyagi had left him hospitalized. Sure, I like Terry in CK and TIG’s performance is fantastic—but I don’t love Terry, and I do feel like he brought about all his problems (well, roughly 85%) anyway. He is a grown ass adult who could have stopped in CK anytime but he didn’t and that’s deeply annoying, especially as he is so obsessed with Daniel and bullies and torments him and has this abusive villain love for him. (And yes, I have always believed it’s love without a doubt for the KK3 era too.) But Daniel is my all time favorite and I love his sweet cutie pie self, (hot temper/small flaws and all) and does not deserve a person who would hurt him like Terry would and does.

I don’t even talk about Kreese because I have always hated him from KK1 and thought he was a waste of space from season 4 and beyond. He just plain sucks and is embarrassing to watch on screen. At least Terry is an interesting character. I can’t stand Kreese. Yuck.

Anyway, Daniel deserved so much better. I’m sorry that the handsome billionaire in love with you is such a psycho Daniel!

I do ship Silverusso, but I just don’t ship it in canon, simply because Terry is too abusive and cruel in his love for Daniel. Danny deserves the world! However, if Terry actually overcame those traits, I do believe he and Daniel would be excellent together as they have plenty in common and like a lot of the similar things. And their looks complement each other. Shoot me.

I think the other pairing that appeals to me is Chozen/Daniel. Before they ruined Chozen, he was fantastic in season 3 and I loved his relationship with Daniel. Very much Knight in Shining armor to Terry’s Heathcliff.

Anyway, I enjoy your blog very much! I think you’re a fabulous writer and an interesting person.

Thanks for saying that! It's nice when people enjoy what you write ☺️

I think you had the intended reaction to Terry, and I doubt you are the only one. But for me seeing Terry only that way is not pleasant. If someone older makes you like them, and you fall for it and there turns out to have been nothing there... That's more cruel than warped affection. But if you take it at face value you are seeing the behaviour exactly for what it is and I think that is a very healthy way to look at it.

I love Chozen too for having Daniel's back when nobody else did. Daniel is being targeted by a psycho? Well then he needs help, not gaslighting. (Amanda, I am salty about you. How long have you known him? Why wasn't his word enough? Why did you need Jessica to confirm it?) Because that is another trick Terry pulled - being so insane it undermines the credibility of your victim. None of that with Chozen. He knows Tang Soo Do and he's insane enough for some of these things himself. Danzen is a lovely dynamic, though to me it is always incomplete without Kumiko (another personal preference).

Another reason why the show should have A: ended with S5 and B: have had Johnny more involved in helping Daniel. True, it would have ended on a low note for Johnny (but the way he's been written, that's all he deserves), but it would have had Chozen helping with Terry's downfall and repaying his debt and that would have been enough. The way they butchered him after is another one of the reasons why I have had zero intention to rewatch S6. Bullshit storylines all around. Kreese dies, Terry is defeated, Chozen shows you can use Miyagi-do to defeat Cobra Kai no problem. Sure Johnny got written out of his own story, but that's because he left Daniel hanging. Couldn't evolve. Chozen and Daniel could so they win. Terry regressed, so he lost.

[mxmorbidmidnight]

I sort of hate how people with disabilities are always expected to be an “inspiration” and in good humour about their disability. We must conform to this idea, hide the worst of our symptoms to make others more comfortable. They are disgusted by our rage. Shout out to disabled people who don’t want to be an inspiration, who are pissed off and sad.

[msfbgraves]

It's sometimes funny to me how shocked people are when you do not sugarcoat it. Since I don't look sad all the time, they feel they can ask me very personal questions and end up clutching heir pearls when I refuse to tell them that I am unaffected by it, and am quite happy to illustrate all the ways my disability sucks. And the strange thing is they will keep prodding until you say: "It's fine." But it's not fine. Still they have to hear it or they can't go on with their day and they always end up slightly green because even after twenty questions, I refuse to tell them not to worry about it. That is not what they want to hear - they need to be reassured - and they always leave these conversations with a thousand yard stare.

Don't ask then, OK? You brought it up!

[msfbgraves]

As long as Argentina doesn’t win the World Cup! Racist Nazi lovers!

I hope Belgium wins.

I am also having a hard time finding a country where a sizable portion of the population isn't openly being nazi, racist or otherwise horrible right now. I like how many happy encounters the tournament has managed to generate in spite of all this, though!

[msfbgraves]

We see Terry get (seriously) hurt in Mobverse and Daniel’s reaction…but what about Daniel getting physically injured?

Maybe it happens years into their marriage when most of the kids have moved out. Maybe Daniel snooped around at Terry’s request and got caught up in a hit meant for someone else. It doesn’t have to be life threatening like Terry’s, but significant enough to get Terry and the kids all worried. It comes in threes after all. First Terry, then Yasmin, now…

(Or maybe it’s just Daniel being clumsy and breaking his wrist and now his family won’t leave him alone for a second. And Terry has increased all bodyguards much to Daniel’s intense eye rolling.)

I don't think it's much different than how we see it when Daniel gives birth, or when he was mock attacked in Sicily, or when he had spent the night at Terry's bedside in the hospital or when he went into that unexpected heat with Luna. Terry will get very worked up, will be able to channel that rage and go ballistic on the perpetrator. Remember how he was allowed on the premises finally when Sammy was born? "Like they could keep him out, he really wanted in." Terry is quite good at directing his energy until the right moment, so if Daniel injured himself, he'd get him to a doctor and then he'd find something to fix and someone to get revenge on. And though it may be somewhat cute he seriously harmed his relationship with John by being too obnoxious and Alpha about Daniel.

And if Daniel would be injured snooping... he is not the one supposed to be snooping, ever. He's supposed to get the right person on the job of snooping. Through his contacts. Which he btw never does. If he somehow went out incognito and got himself hurt... That's his freedom completely gone. Ultimately Terry would let up but there would be weeks of intense scrutiny, likely by Terry. Daniel doesn't really risk that, why bother?

The way I see Terry is that when he enters your life, it's his now. You have to be extremely strong and cunning to be able to prevent him from doing that. Daniel has become very good at carving out space for himself with Terry by his side, but the man is very Alpha, and Daniel is careful not trigger his protective responses when he can avoid it. If he gets himself injured by tripping, Terry will at least want to level the whole floor. Which is weeks of work. Being careful is simply quicker.

[msfbgraves]

Terry really fucked up with Daniel in KK3 like omg. He had this adorable cutie pie eating out of his hand and gazing at him with those doe eyes and he still decided to go Full Asshole and psychologically bully the sassy sweetheart so badly that Daniel never wanted to be near him ever again. Talk about self destruction to your own chance at true happiness! What the actual fuck Terry!!

As for Daniel, he was a baby bisexual who had such a negative experience with the aforementioned psycho that he never even truly realized or accepted that he was into guys as well and locked up that entire fall/winter in his heart like it never happened. The ultimate bad breakup for a relationship that never even got off the ground. Or the karate mat!

I’m KK3 was an actual good movie, this could have been a tragic coming of age film. Instead we get Cobra Kai 🤮 and the glorification of bullies who get their happy endings. (Not Terry though. He must suffer and die alone and totally unloved because…bad writing.)

The surreal quality of TKK 3 is, that the story beats are those of a cartoon. You have the young Everyman protagonist who has to be put in a fight because kids like fights like that. You need A Girl for The Hero, you need A Mentor and A Villain with some Henchmen. Preferably teenage henchmen because showing a child -avatar going up against an adult sends the wrong message. I mean if a ten year old tries to emulate that they are going to end up dead. They need to be somewhat his size. The bad guy needs to monologue, he gets defeated, Daniel wins the trophy (again), the end.

But they are not playing it like a cartoon. If you play it so that the Bad Guy needs an actual motivation other than "For the evulz, lol", all the other cartoon beats start getting really weird. Why is this man hanging out with a group of teenage boys? Because in a cartoon we don't want him surrounded with beautiful women because this isn't about sex, or shouldn't be. But irl a guy like that would surround himself with eye candy, which means that Mike Barnes, Snake and Dennis are in fact the eye candy. And a cartoon villain hanging out with a teenager because of a lost karate tournament is the same as Cruella de Vil trying to steal your puppies. It's childish and heightened because the message is about defeating every day bullies who feel larger than life. But if you play it straight with actors trying to find layers it becomes something else, something rather insane. So who knows what Terry was thinking. What was he even on? He's very lucid and very rational but what he does is completely unhinged and he is surrounded by people who enable that. And of course Daniel was completely shocked by this. I wouldn't want to be in the same room as the top executives at Palantir because there is something wrong with these people. They use your mobile phone data as target practice for drone strikes. And if you take him seriously, Terry Silver is that kind of person. Now, Terry really wants connection so he doesn't see everyone as disposable the same way other billionaire ceo's might but he is clearly unhinged regardless. Of course he shouldn't have turned on Daniel out of loyalty for Kreese. Hell, Kreese didn't even ask him to do that. So there is something about Terry's sense of loyalty that drowns out even his infatuation with Daniel. Something about him doesn't know where on when to stop; what's proportionate and what isn't.

What the actual fuck indeed! Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe science doesn't know. And poor Daniel has dealt with a lunatic groomer at 18, I don't blame him for shutting down. For probably convincing himself that whatever happened, it can't have been that. While internalising that, if this is what happens when I flirt with a man, no thank you. There is a limited amount of patience for being beaten to a pulp just because some guy wants to fuck you, especially since every time is worse than the next. First Johnny, who at least wasn't actively trying to kill him, then Chozen who was, then Mike and Terry... Better not, ok? Stick to women! (Which solves nothing but you can't blame him for thinking it!)

[victusinveritas]

[msfbgraves]

I have been saying on here that logically, fascist takeovers can only really be stopped by an invasion.

I wasn't counting on FIFA to stage one!!

I really like seeing all the coverage of the US being so happy tae join them, and all the other countries, for a good time!

Meanwhile, the Dutch took over Kansas city (if this wasn't Kansas city)

All these American reactions to the fans are so pure, it even makes me look past some of the forced hype here in Holland. Seeing American football mascots moving "Naar links!" (To the left) And "Naar rechts!" (To the right) was not on my bingo card, but it is an amazing sight. The English have better chants but there's something to say for the pure uncomplicated fun that comes with mass movement (be it Viking rowing or moving sideways) and/or putting a cone on a statue, and how absolutely ready the Americans are to join in.

But Australia takes the chants cake. Chanting "We're getting deported! 🤪" right at the airport takes balls.

[msfbgraves]

Terry grins. "Ooooh. In the doghouse, am I?"

He laughs and jokes now but when it actually happens Mr. Alpha here falls completely apart. Luckily for him, Danny takes pity on his pathetic self. ♥️

I think Daniel took the most loving path open to him but it was not out of pity for Terry. It was him deciding that if Terry left him no choice but a life with him or to kill him - no choice at all - he would not kill him, but nurture what love there was yet to be salvaged. He doesn't have it in him. Not when it would hurt his pups. Not when it would hurt him, even now.

But it was a hard, hard choice, and I doubt he ever truly forgave Terry for it.

[msfbgraves]

Daniel is such a cutie pie and his omega charms are off the charts. Why not have Terry use him every now and then as a Honeypot if he wants info? Nothing happens of course, but that pretty face and charming personality can go a long way to get Terry what he wants to get from his enemy. And then he can pay Daniel nicely for his efforts later…

I was thinking of that fill with Officer Jones. Terry certainly made the best of a sticky situation with Daniel. Unfortunately it also made the Officer get a slimy crush on Daniel, but it comes with the territory…

I am not saying he never does that, but there's two things against it. It's dangerous, and Danny doesn't want to do it.

The first one he can mitigate a little by being there and the second hurdle can be overcome because he has made Daniel do things before. But it is a lot easier doing things himself that Danny may not want than it is to force Daniel to act in ways he doesn't agree with. I mean, sure, send a strung out pimped out kitty into the lion's den, he's not the first to try that, but your own mate? Officer Jones was in a controlled environment with Daniel's full cooperation. Also that's not what he wants Daniel to do. He wants intel. The Don must have fought many an old gangster. Vanessa must know a lot of government secrets. Michael could be a source of knowledge. Even Louie might let things slip, and yet Daniel is always completely mum. He was always instructed not to have seen or heard anything, for his own safety, and he mostly still lives that way. Putting him in danger as if he were some clueless thing lost in the city? No. Just no. But why not get Vinny a little drunk and let him talk? What's the harm? He only needs to know a few details, mo cuishle, something he can use. Things they wouldn't let slip to a stranger. Who are you protecting? Stop playing dumb. No! You can find out yourself - listen, they are not going to tell me - then bribe someone - that's our money - I don't know they don't tell me anything - then ask - you ask - like they'd tell me - they don't tell me anything anymore either, Terry! You could find out, Danny, love... That's not my job and you know it! You could help me...! What, you need me to work for you? Your omega mate?? But you could! And make you look weak??!

And there it always stops because if Daniel were too obvious about it, it would make Terry look weak.

It takes them many years to find a middle ground, and deliberately putting Daniel in a position to bait people is too dangerous. He's alluring enough just grocery shopping. They have to be very, very subtle in this game.

[my-deer-friend]

If you ever wondered why writing a dissertation/thesis takes so damn long, this has been my day so far.

Me: Okay, I should probably add a paragraph about the contextual late-18th-century understanding of republicanism. Let me read over a key text to make sure I'm being accurate. [downloads a 42-page book chapter] Me: Hmm, okay, on page one of this chapter they're expecting me to know some nuanced things about civic humanism. Better just brush up real quick. [downloads 9-page primer from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] Me: Okay, cool, but there's some stuff in here about Machiavelli that I really should read in its annotated source context, because that's what my history guys were working from. [downloads 283-page book on Machiavellian political philosophy with source texts] Me: Oh, for fuck's sake-- [downloads Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics]

[enlitment]

how it feels like doing research:

[theweirdwideweb]

A millennial 9/11 coded experience for Gen Z is going to be 8 years from now meeting an adult that doesn't remember covid.

[toonelemental]

callout post for "work"

"work" has done many terrible things such as

make my friend go there

make my wife go there

please spread this around we can't let "work" keep getting away with this

[msfbgraves]

I still don't buy Carmy never loved cooking. Yes, the monomanic "I'll become the best" was to spite Mikey, and he still self-sabotages as soon as something gets good.

But hey! He did grow! He immediately grew enough to say: "Maybe I don't need to leave, maybe I suck at running the place." Which yes, you do, Carmy! In the job interview he immediately reminisced about how good he'd felt in the service from hell. He's back to cooking (Sure, you gotta eat, but...).

He'll get there. In a position he can't cause a crisis. Go do the internship, Carmy. It'll inspire some great new dishes. And then get home.

A thing you have to give to both the Berzatto brothers, though. They give people a chance nobody would have. The Faks. Tina. Richie. Marcus. Ebra. Even Syd had a meteoric rise. I mean, she would have made it on her own. But he saved her years.

Still, Carmen - learn your servers' names! That is not cool. Fine dining is partly theater. Good service is why you pay $75 for a tiny portion. Servers deserve recognition. No, the food doesn't have to float. But eating out is partly the pleasure of getting served. Otherwise, The Beef is what you want. Which is what the show understands. You would do well to learn it, too.

[msfbgraves]

"Our marriage is about the most gangster move out there."

Terry out here knowing full well what he did to force that “gangster move” and being completely cocky and proud and unrepentant of it. The first two emotions have worn down over the years and decades in their marriage but that sheer unrepentant stance is unrelenting

He wanted Daniel from the moment he laid eyes on him and was never going to let him go no matter what he had to do to get the boy. I would even go so far as to say that Terry would have raped him if it meant that Daniel could be his. That edge to him is razor sharp

It’s a good thing that he loves and indulges Daniel’s sass so much (well, to a point). Terry is very Alpha in this fill but he’s playful and sexy about it. So Daniel gets that edge he enjoys, but also no real danger

Excellent fill can’t wait for the other parts. These two are so hot and fascinating

Terry is not repentant, no, because that is how his mindset got cemented: you want something, you take it, and when others cannot stop you, that's on them. He wasn't shown mercy growing up, why should he go around showing it to others? And was it his fault the Don got so weakened as to create and opportunity for Terry? It was not. All his life, about the only way to get anything was to take it. So he did.

But, he wouldn't have raped him to be his, that is not how loyalty works. And when he did, later, that wasn't a strategic move. It was something to mitigate his own powerlessness. He'd wanted to beat Michael and he'd lost. That couldn't stand but he couldn't touch him... So he touched Michael's brother. Him he could overpower. He might even have done it had Daniel been no relation, to restore his ego. Some wounded men do that at low points; TIG has played someone who did the same thing. And Terry has the same edge of sexual danger towards Daniel. The grooming dojo sessions, the steam room and sauna intimidations, the dog cage. And that side of him scares Daniel, but never enough to stay away. To step back. Stay out of the game. He likes it, he's always liked it. He generally gets in too deep though.

Even here it's not so much that Terry went to fight but that he wasn't around to shield him. He's more angry about that than he is worried for Terry's safety. Terry meanwhile is on top of the world and feels a very urgent need to make money, which in his mind is taking care of Daniel anyway. Nothing against having some fun while he does it, and he likes Daniel's sass too, when it's not getting in the way of what he wants. He even likes indulging that so Daniel won't stop. He wants a mate, not a house slave. As long as he has the last word. Which Daniel at this point knows full well. But he's likely a bit bored here; stuck in the house and not as mobile as he wants, so...