#ki.ask

[odericevertz]

do you have any thoughts rpf-istically about martin zubimendi......... i feel like it took me the whole season to begin to understand him as a player and i haven't even started piecing together what the #dynamics are

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT. i have loved the concept of martin zubimendi ever since i read this guardian article about him way back in 2022 about his connection with xabi and thought wow….wouldn’t it be so crazy if he came to arsenal given mikel’s connection with xabi….well well well look where we are now

most of my thoughts are from the first half or so of the season because after that i got a bit busy lol but i remember v clearly a reporter asking some absurd question about odezubirice midfield clicking because they were all born within 2 months of each other and then going hmm. rpfistically i think he is far easier to pin down than the rest, he has a real consistency of character about him primarily because it takes a certain sort of person to play a 6. most articles describe him as clearheaded, calm, cheerful - there was one that called him “subtle and selfless” - and i really do agree with that! there’s a steady confidence about him but also very clearly a shyness (see recent gifs of declan shoving him towards the crowd).

in practice that means the relationship i’m most interested in exploring is zubirice lol, in some cases with martin as the distant third point. they’re fun to me because zubi has absolutely no interest in making a bid for authority i.e captaincy and therefore declan’s posturing makes 0 difference to him because he’s not interested in the power play bs. he knows he’s good, he knows he plays a midfield role that’s indispensable, he cheerfully lets himself be manhandled by declan because it’s not threatening in any way. plus the language barrier i think that removes the more substantial reasons for declan to affect a persona and actually clears the way for some authenticity and a friendly coworkers w chemistry vibe. tbh i’ve written some lighthearted hetbending stuff for them as a way to destress from the rest of my wips, girl!declan zubirice is so fun

[odericevertz]

about the captaincy debate going on right now, about the calls of dec being performative, about kai scoring in the ucl final, about the whispers about martin not contributing to the club at all....

there has never been a better time to be user odericevertz

[odericevertz]

Wait I want to hear about what you think is going on with Ødegaard/Rice and the proxy war with teenagers, because I was also looking at Rice sort of like laying claim to Max Dowman like, is he *purposefully* trying to keep Martin and Bukayo away from this one so he can have his own child protégée?

YOU GET ME. obligatory disclaimer that i’m putting on my tinhat from here on out.

declan laying claim to max as his Government Assigned Child Prodigy (GACP) is a perfect way to put it, but to fully understand the significance of what he’s doing here we actually have to talk about ethan and myles and to some extent their contrasting personalities. it’s really funny to me that ethan was positioned as martin’s GACP (see the video where the club sat them down and had them talk about/advise and be advised on being a 15-16yo child prodigy) but that pairing hasn’t taken off the way max/declan has. not because they aren’t close — ethan clearly looks up to and respects martin, and is evidently trying to model some aspects of his game after him — but because they’re both just more introverted and a lot of this modelling is presumably taking place offline/off-camera/more subtly.

meanwhile declan clearly attempted to ‘lay claim’ to myles in the same way he’s doing to max now — but it didn’t work because myles has blossomed faster and more confidently than anyone, even the team, expected. you can’t really be a mentor figure to someone who’s become a full-fledged character in his own right (think myles’ haaland celebration, big game performances etc). you can be a big-brother figure as declan has settled into—the way myles and declan tussle and jokingly put each other in headlocks is very reminiscent of sibling banter—but that leaves declan without a GACP, without a social-media-friendly, social-capital-boosting way to establish his authority.

enter max dowman! especially interesting to consider declan and max’s relationship in the context of max’s ascendancy in the u-17 england nt and declan being heavily earmarked for the upcoming england captaincy. it’s important also to note that like ethan, max on paper has more similarities to martin (position, child prodigy etc) but declan and him are bound by their shared british boy vibes (see: their social media, where declan regularly comments on max’s posts etc etc.) the recent selfie of them after max’s debut against milan is like the nail in the coffin for me that they’re super aware of it. not to say that it’s not genuine, because it definitely is, but i think they’re both actively playing into it bc it’s mutually beneficial—it’s something to be Declan Rice’s Government Assigned Child Prodigy, and it’s something to be Max Dowman’s Government Assigned Mentor. in fact in max’s post about the spain offseason the last 2/4 pictures are of him in very similar poses with declan and martin respectively, which suggests to me that beyond simply vibing with declan more because of personality there’s also a layer of practicality there: better to be rice’s GACP than odegaard’s in terms of social capital!

this ties in to the bigger picture of how i interpret martin/declan’s characters as well: to me oderice have an extremely complicated relationship wherein everything is about power, authority (formalised or otherwise), and how they can exercise it over others or each other. the hale end kids are imo just another front through which they fight this psychosexual proxy war. if declan’s competency and authority can’t be rewarded with captaincy (of arsenal or england) just yet, mentorship of the ridiculously gifted next generation is a low-hanging and obvious way to prove that authority!

this really got away from me but the oderice relationship is genuinely so compelling to me i could talk about it for hours. please ask away / pop into my dms about it!!

[odericevertz]

WIP tag game (tagged by @unrealcities)

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then you post a snippet or tell them something about it!

self indulgently talking about these. i have waaaaay too many arsenal projects but i also have far too much work to ever finish any of them

ordered in likelihood of actually finishing…….

1. TO GET TO THE HEART YOU HAVE TO CUT THROUGH (odericevertz pacrim au. 2 years old and probably 10k words at this point. my pride and joy. ridiculously sprawling)

2. twin high maintenance machines (23/24 season odericevertz origin thesis. closest i’ll get to sitting people down and running them through a crash course)

3. serrated sound (2025 summer tour in singapore and hong kong, odericevertz. viktor gyokeres is also there)

4. alone we may fight (odericevertz man from uncle au, gaby!kai and ilya/napoleon-esque oderice. yeah)

5. nothing ends unless it has to (arsenal gijinka…cesc, thierry, mikel, martin, declan. northendgirls please come back)

6. best game in town (girldeclan/zubi, tinhet american high school tennis club doubles partners au)

tagging @defensivemidfielders @purefractals @red-and-white-and-black-and-gold @portrait-of-a-dog @crimsonicarus. no pressure at all i just like listening to people talk about their wips!

[odericevertz]

not sure if I'm too late for the ask meme but I'll send a word in just in case you feel like answering (fine if not obvs <3)

"bite"

“I don’t even want to pilot with him.” He took a loud bite of his toast.

Kai stared. “What?”

“Just wanted to know.”

“Know what?”

Declan grinned. “If I was better.”

[odericevertz]

Have to say I ship oderice at first.

But the video that Dec been asked about the goal assist by Martin, his first facial reaction, was so negative (my major was psychology), it’s the first time I start to think that he probably just acting. It hurts me so bad.

this is so funny. anon i understand but i also need you to understand that the very real possibility of him acting / being performative about all the odegaard is my captain stuff makes it even more compelling to me. this is genuinely irresistible stuff

[odericevertz]

love

https://www.tumblr.com/odericevertz/818607645430857728/whole-dash-in-a-rpf-mood-and-so-am-i-chipping?source=share

“Well, if something ever happens to you, I’d love to.” Declan shrugged.

“Is that a threat?”

“Is that what it sounds like to you?”

He felt frustration rush up in him, saw Declan see it too. Forced himself to exhale and let go of the doorframe. “Just come in.”

[odericevertz]

it's not always about a third person the fact of the matter is neither of them are close with declan like that and declan doesn't respect odegaard at all so why ship him with him

come onnnnnn we can’t have anything nowadays…….open the schools