I was a little sad Mandalorian went the ‘Yoda is from a race of force sensitive beings’ route. Part of the emotional charge of Yoda’s reveal in Empire is that he is such an unlikely and inelegant vessel for greatness. Mandalorian keeps the core of that idea alive with “baby Yoda” (unlikely vessel), but in tying Yoda’s force abilities to his biological origins we lose part of the magic. Where heredity fated Luke to be force sensitive, to me Yoda appeared almost in opposition, an untethered manifestation of a powerful yet anomalous spirit.
“Future Glory For Former Champions?” Two Guys Opine
Slight opening first: This was done in late November and @theanticool
had his done first. With so many shows and news, I Wanted to wait to post it because so much has gone down and I didn’t want it getting buried. It was completed a few days before Anderson Silva vs Israel Adesanya was confirmed as not just being a fight but being a #1 contender fight. Just a heads up on that.
Two Dudes Opine!
As most of you know by listening to any sort of DojoTalkPodcast cameo I’ve done, @theanticool and I don’t agree on much of anything. That said, it’s an absolute joy to bounce ideas around, especially in the idea vacuum that is MMA, and have some good old fashioned debate on things. Conversation creates smarter people in my estimation and I obviously need all the help I can get!
I wanted to take this concept and sort of test how often we truly agree and disagree. As such, I figured he and I might want to dabble a bit to see just HOW often we agree or disagree. Once he agreed after many meetings and contractual negotiations, we agreed on a concept: I’m going to come up with a topic and present him with a list of names inside that topic. Independently we’ll each go through the names provided and see just how we match up at the end of this grabbag assignment. Our first project focused on prospects coming off a loss and I think it’s worth pointing out that Yair, Arjan Bhullar and Cynthia Calvillo were all featured in the discussion and all have gone on to win. This month we have:
In the UFC, it's very hard to regain titles after you lose them. In the modern era, only TJ Dillashaw has flat out won back a title he lost (Daniel Cormier was given it back due to Jon Jones' drug test failure while Jose Aldo won an interim title before getting elevated up to championship status). Fighters such as Aldo, Rashad Evans, Junior Dos Santos and countless others have all come up short in quests to either regain gold or find new gold in other weight classes. With that as the set up, which of the following fighters can either regain their title in their current weight class or find championship success either up or down a weight class:
Conor McGregor
Cody Garbrandt
Robbie Lawler
Holly Holm
Chris Weidman
Anderson Silva
I’m in the bold and @theanticool is in italics!
Conor McGregor- I mean if you want to manipulate it just right, Conor McGregor can absolutely find his way back to the title scene! Conor's a weird one for me---and I'm beginning to wonder if the Conor McGregor we saw at 145 lbs was more about right time, right place and perhaps even right matchmaking than anything else. Conor's wins at 145 lbs are amazing from Chad Mendes to Jose Aldo to Dustin Poirier to even a quality mid level gatekeeper type like Dennis Siver. Even Max Holloway was a case of maybe two guys facing off before they're ready to do so. Since going up in weight, Conor's 2-2. The Eddie Alvarez fight was an absolute demolition job and one of the best wins of his career given the opponent BUT I'm a bit less high up on Alvarez after seeing him struggle with Poirier twice. The Diaz fights revealed problems with Conor's pacing but also his ability to deal with the same stylistic challenges he gives others. Lengthy opponents who won't allow him to just walk them down, put them against the cage and tee off. That and to be honest? I'm really not that high up on Nate Diaz either. The Khabib performance was really good given the circumstances (long layoff from MMA, stylistic nightmare, hurt early in the fight) but THIS is what lurks at the top at 155 lbs. Khabib, Kevin Lee, Tony Ferguson, a rejuvenated (yet still flawed) Dustin Poirier, Al Iaquinta plus other really great fighters who don't get their due because of the weight class depth. This is not to say that Conor McGregor loses to all of those guys or even that he's not a great fighter---he's just a great fighter as opposed to the meteoric supernova who ran through 145 lbs with such ease. Guys like Justin Gaethje are conditioned to wins wars of attrition, something Conor struggled with vs Nate. Guys like Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta present enough of a well rounded overall game to where you could sort of see them finding ways to get Conor in enough bad spots to steal a decision. Tony Ferguson, Dustin Poirier and Khabib are elite and while Poirier's rise to the top hasn't changed the fighter he is, I think his chances in a rematch are waaaay better now that he's not completely sunken in. This doesn't even account for Ortega or Holloway coming up eventually as well.
But this isn't about Conor entirely; it's about his chances to get back in the title picture. Conor is basically a long frustrating Khabib suspension away from being in a title fight, even if it's just an interim at 155 lbs. If the UFC opens up 165 lbs, they are absolutely going to hand him a shot to fight for the belt because that's business. Shit, Conor is one win away from facing Colby Covington (Oh lord have mercy) or even opening up the doors for something with Tyron Woodley. Conor McGregor is a star and stars can get away with doing things like that. It also helps that he's a great enough fighter that the public can absolutely buy him potentially beating a guy like Tony Ferguson or Colby Covington or Woodley or whomever pops up at 165 lbs. What Conor does well at, he's one of the best at and that will always give him a shot. Again the people he's ACTUALLY beaten are among some of the best in the sports history----so who am I to say he can't get back into the title picture?
Conor McGregor
I can see Conor politicking himself back into title contention. Let’s be real, he’s never going to be far from a title shot. With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s future kind of up in the air with the pending investigation of the NSAC and his father stating that he doesn’t want his son fighting past 30, the lightweight title could be up for grabs soon. Not to mention Khabib and Tony Ferguson are injury prone individuals. If one or both of them get hurt, McGregor is right back in the title picture. And should Ferguson and Khabib fall out of the picture, I’d like McGregor’s chances against the likes of Dustin Poirier, Kevin Lee (maybe less so him but still), Justin Gaethje, Anthony Pettis, and Nate Diaz. Heck, if the UFC ever decides to make that 165lb division you know McGregor going for his 3rd belt would be too much for the UFC to pass up. If McGregor continues fighting, he will eventually get another shot because of his popularity. By that virtue alone, he’s got a better shot than most former champions of getting a UFC title.
Cody Garbrandt- I still like Cody but there be some issues here. For starters, backs, necks and knees don't get better. That's especially true for fighters who rely on their reflexes and quick twitch ability to enter into exchanges and for their defense. Garbrandt having back problems at the scant age of 27 is rather worrisome. That's more worrisome than the fact that he now has two losses to the champ TJ Dillashaw. Bantamweight is a bit like heavyweight and so like JDS vs Cain, Cody could realistically always just be a title change away from being back in the picture. I'm sure when I read Anticool's retort, he's not going to agree here but I DO think Cody can beat TJ. They've fought twice and he's hurt TJ and both fights. The difference is that Dillashaw is a way better finisher (If TJ knocks Cruz down the way Cody does then the fight's over) and Dillashaw instinct wise just seems better. He seems more capable of surviving bad exchanges, smarter with adjustments and more willing to not be prideful (Garbrant absolutely stands with Lineker and nobody can convince me otherwise). For Cody to get back to the top, he needs to beat somebody in the top 5 but outside of Jimmie Rivera, I don't see a lot of willing matchups. I'm on the fence here.
Cody Garbrandt
MMA is not like boxing. Getting knocked out back to back doesn’t spell immediate doom and gloom for your career. It’s still not a good look though. I really hated the immediate rematch between Garbrandt and Dillashaw because I saw it as potentially burning out a young prospect’s career in a chase for quick money. And I honestly don’t know how Garbrandt will turn out till we see him fight someone in the top 10 at bantamweight who isn’t TJ Dillashaw or Dominick Cruz. This division is currently brimming with young talented fighters who are improving dramatically between fights, while Garbrandt seemingly hasn’t. We need to see him build on his current boxing game. Maybe use more of his wrestling. Add some tools to his kickboxing arsenal that aren’t reliant on the fact that he has a lot of power in his hands. I will reserve judgement on him till we see him fight again. We just don’t know where he’s at after coming up short twice to someone he hates. That has to be mentally exhausting.
Robbie Lawler- Oh what Robbie Lawler has brought to us. Nobody should forget 2013 to 2015 when Lawler fought Johnny Hendricks twice, Jake Ellenberger, Rory MacDonald twice and Matt Brown off the top of my head. Since then? I think Robbie might be broken, dudes. Lawler is 2-2 but should really be 1-3 (fight me about it, guys) and all of those fights seemed less about the skill he had and more about the heart he still possesses. You don't have the fight of year in back to back to back years without losing a piece of you in the process and it's perhaps made all the more remarkable when you consider Robbie fought four times in 2014 and has seen the number decline from 4 to 1 in 2015 to 2 in 2016 to 2 in 2017 to nada in 2018. The matter was made worse by an ACL injury sustained in a fight vs RDA where he was pretty much wiped out even if he didn't ever seem to be in danger of being finished. I like Robbie a lot and I think a serious convo will be had about him as a hall of fame talent AND I remember when the UFC made him one of the first big signings BACK from Strikeforce when everybody had mailed it in on Lawler. A return to WW made him great again but now? I think the time has come and gone. Robbie's 36 years old coming off knee surgery in a division that's ripe to get younger real quick. Of course I can't ignore the shades of Koscheck vs Lawler with this Askren booking but Ben's a lot better than Josh was at that point in his career. I think the Lawler days are done.
Robbie Lawler
Hindsight is 20/20. It looks like Lawler’s fight with Condit was his last real hurrah. The Lawler that went toe-to-toe with Johny Hendricks twice and had one of the greatest fights of all time with Rory MacDonald is gone. And fair enough. That MacDonald fight honestly would have been the end of most other guys’ careers. If his fight with Rafael Dos Anjos is any indication, I do think Lawler has something left in the tank if his body can stay together for 15-25 minutes. He’s still got a lot of technical savvy and he’s still tough as hell, but I can see his upcoming fight with Ben Askren going south if the man can’t generate the volume we’ve seen from him in the past. I don’t foresee another title reign in Lawler’s future, as sad as that makes me. But he’s proved us wrong before.
Holly Holm- Chances are Holly Holm will absolutely fight for a title and pretty soon. Can she win it? Yeah, I actually kinda sorta think she can. Holm's title losses can be summed as getting taken out of her game by a very gutsy Meisha Tate, some sketchy borderline late work from Germaine De Randamie and getting outphysical'd by Cris Cyborg. Holly Holm is still a good yet flawed fighter who will probably be able to out athlete most of the fighters she faces AND if we're being 100% fair? She and Mike Winkeljohn feel like one of those pairings that just click. That on its own could be enough to get her not just back in the title picture but win her title especialyl if Nunes is broken vs Cyborg. I still think there’s SOME paper lion in Amanda Nunes’ game and I could see Holm giving her all she can handle.
Holly Holm
Of the 6 fighters considered for this article, Holly Holm is my pick for best chance to regain her former title. At least by doing it the “right” way. Of the 6, I think she’s in the best place mentally and physically. She has not shown she’s falling apart yet like Lawler and Weidman. She hasn’t shown she has slowed down yet like Silva. We haven’t seen her succumb to her own hubris yet like Garbrandt has twice. And women’s bantamweight isn’t the shark tank division that lightweight is. She can and most likely will get another shot at the women’s bantamweight title. Plus Holm presents a whole slew of challenges for Amanda Nunes that we have yet to see Nunes face. She’s a range kicker who can fight hard for 5 rounds, set a solid pace, and will have a good sized reach advantage on the outside. And unlike Shevchenko, Holm will throw volume. That of course means she’s going to leave herself more open to counters from arguably the hardest hitting woman in the sport but Nunes is fighting on a short timer. If Holm can survive the first round, you know she’s going to be the fresher of the two from rounds 2-5.
Chris Weidman- This is the one I'm most on the fence about. If Chris Weidman cuts less weight, goes up to 205 lbs and manages to stay relatively break free? I don't see why he couldn't do something really good at the top of the division. We're seeing worse fighters step in against top 10/top 15 LHWs and have zero issue being not just competitive but thrust into title contention. I know their respective styles are different but Weidman can absolutely pull an Anthony Smith; feast on being the more athletic guy with more tools in his arsenal vs bigger guys who may not even be all THAT bigger. I'm just beginning to wonder if Chris Weidman might be for a lack of a better term broken. Perhaps broken beyond repair. Weidman's kind of in that Gray Maynard stage for me now and I think that's worse than it sounds to some people. Gray Maynard after the Edgar fights was still competitive AND improving in some capacities---but his chin was cooked, his wrestling suddenly seemed either outdated or ill equipped to deal with the rising talent levels and even when he was doing good, you just felt a sense of inevitability. I never once felt like Jacare was in danger of losing vs Weidman but I spend every second of that fight believing we were just one something away from it falling apart for Chris Weidman. It's one of those weird feelings to see a fighter doing really well and just feel almost resigned to an inevitable bad thing happening. Chris Weidman fights in a much easier division at 185 lbs than Gray Maynard and could move up to an even EASIER division at 205 lbs. The problem is I just wonder how many times we can see Weidman with a bloodied up face saying "I'll be back from this" before we just have to accept that Chris Weidman hit the point of no return on his career? It's entirely possible that his win over Gastelum (another fight where he got hurt really badly) was a brief last gasp for his career as a whole. Weidman's ability to will himself through wars of attrition hasn't diminished but his body's ability to hold up in those fights has.
Chris Weidman is the ultimate boom or bust guy; the boom says that he could possibly be the champ at 205 lbs if Jon Jones vacates the premises while the bust is that Weidman takes unneeded additional damage against bigger guys who hit him really hard. I'd like to see Chris Weidman TRY at 205 lbs, maybe against a relatively easy touch. It's often times been said that the UFC doesn't just start giving guys easier opponents when they're earning bank so Weidman has a really good shot to walk into 205 lbs and be greeted by an OSP or a Shogun or someone who has name value and is probably good enough to test him. If it doesn't work then we can call it a day but if it does, I think Weidman has a sizable chance to find a way to the title.
Chris Weidman
Weidman will never be champion again at 185lbs. You can’t get stopped in 4 of your last 5 fights and expect my confidence in your chances at the belt. I am not sold on the idea though that Chris Weidman is a chinny fighter so there’s no way he could cut it at 205. Most of his stoppage losses have seemed to have come from exhaustion as much as they’ve come from eating a big shot. Weidman needs to control the pace to win fights. He can’t rely on his wrestling because it’s too draining on his stamina, except against Gastelum who basically did nothing to stop the grappling game of Weidman. It’s why we’ve seen him change from a come forward pressure fighter to an out fighter. I think his team thought it would be easier on Weidman to control his output and range if he didn’t constantly have to move forward. Problem is that being an out fighter requires a lot of movement, pivoting, and things that also require a lot of energy and precision. Weidman can’t afford to let the flow of fights get away from his because it drains his gas tank too quickly. It’s how Jacare eventually wore him down. That’s why we see him win the first round of fights where he ultimately gets stopped. When other fighters do not concede, Weidman fades. I think a move to 205 could help with a lot of these issues. No more weight cut, no more energy dump after 6-7 minutes of fighting. I am afraid though that all the injuries and the big cuts to make 185lbs are cutting short his career. The first 5 minutes of his fight with Jacare, however, was some of the best we’ve seen Weidman look technically. There could be hope for him yet at 205. I don’t know if he has what it takes to beat an Alexander Gustafsson or Jon Jones. When you consider those guys are just as likely to get either hurt (Gus) or suspended on some dumb (Jones) though, the division could be wide open for Weidman to come through and make a title run.
Anderson Silva- Silva will not will a title. Will he fight for one? He shouldn't but he will, right? Remember Anderson Silva could have an argument to having beat Michael Bisping and he owns a win over Derek Brunson who is a top 10 gatekeeper. Silva could even go as far back as to point out that there was SOME talk that if he beat Nick Diaz, he would've gotten a title fight. My best guess is that when Silva's back, he is just one fight away. After all who isn't in MMA these days?
Anderson Silva
No. In terms of fighters that are past it, I actually think Silva is on the upper end of guys who are still functioning. If Tito Ortiz would be a sizeable favorite over 95% of fighters on the regional scene, Anderson Silva is a favorite over most middleweights not in the top 20 and probably a lot of mid-tier 205ers. His super close fights with Derek Brunson and future champion Michael Bisping attest to his ability to stick around the upper end of the division. Problem for him is the high end of middleweight has become a shark tank of athletes with well rounded technical games. He would no longer be fighting the Chael Sonnens and Yushin Okamis of the world. And honestly I don’t need to see Yoel Romero flying knee Silva’s head through the fence. I’m good. I’m content with his upcoming fight with Israel Adesanya. Of all the fights he could have gotten against the top of the division, with the exception of maybe Kelvin Gastelum, Israel Adesanya is probably the most kind. I do expect Silva to picked apart here. I don’t expect to see Silva bum rush his way into something crazy like Derek Brunson did and I don’t expect Adesanya to push a crazy pace in search of the stoppage. Maybe we’ll get some fun spinning stuff but I think the fight ends up looking similar to the Adesanya-Tavares fight - Silva being unable to pull the trigger while Adesanya casually styles on him.
would dirk vape? i trust your input so i am asking you
I feel firmly that his relationship to nicotine is one of strained control. He smokes / vapes on occasion when he feels like it, and when he notices he's doing it "too frequently" cuts down because dependency is weak. Pretty sure I've mentioned this here before but in my mind he is the kind of the guy who just stops being addicted to anything anytime he wants regardless of how bad / how long the withdrawals are just because he's determined to do so... he'll just suck it up and truck through it anyway because he's just that singleminded.
He would smoke ciarettes now and then. Just here and there. But even this he's SO paranoid about actually being addicted to anything. and like. the downside of vaping. aside from how lame it is is that it's super high nicotine content, you can do it inside anywhere at any time, it is not a PRACTICE... you get addicted so much faster with so much more intensity than with cigs. It isn't even really just my personal turning nose up at vaping I just don't know if he would get anything out of it. Like you get something out of having to walk outside and have a smoke. Or even if you're doing it inside there's like a physical connection to the object it's literally the worlds most common stim. I dont know if vaping would give him that feeling. There's a reason a lot of autistic people and schiz people smoke cigarettes specifically in a very different way from how you'd hit a vape. It's just not the same. Also it's on FIRE you have to hold it and it sounds like I'm making a big deal out of nothing here but. It's a process it's an interaction it's a practice. You can't vape outside under a balcony in the rain. Or like. You can I guess. But it doesnt mean anything.
^this edit is a joke, of course... Dirk has his moments where he’s genuinely thoughtful and helpful, but the way he comports himself in conversations, even with friends, is like...
>brofriend explicitly expresses excitement towards a movie
>immediately makes fun of said movie
He justifies his usage of ‘’so gay’’ here one with being a future baby ergo not living in a ‘’society’’ for it to have connotations anymore, but the fact that he said it at all....like... he is a historian he KNOWS these connotations...and he said it anyway....he so easily could’ve said literally anything else...
These are just what I got rapidly skimming, like, five of his pesterchum logs, so there's undoubtedly more examples... I just reflect on these mannerisms a lot and think about how much I would hate it if a friend ever talked to me like this, it’s so insanely rude... he's naturally very pessimistic and I think that really shows in the way that he constantly ribs his friends in ways that I think often go "too far".
And then there’s. well.
this one...tears in my eyes laughing at how dirk doesn't do anything to stop caliborn from calling his friends bitches. sorry. it's funny he's so funny
BGD; Jake's inherent perception of dirk is that he is impolite.
I'm trying not to put too many caliborn examples here because they just naturally get into this antagonistic rhythm with one another that dirk doesn't really show with any other character, and because caliborn is...well. caliborn. and kind of naturally deserving of ridicule by his conversational partners... but dirk is the only one that ever really dishes it out to him. I feel like this is the closest snapshot to what dirk is actually like and what he's capable of being... much of this can easily be attributed to not being socialized, I think. he was never shown how to BE polite, I imagine he learned how to talk to people off of witty movie banter that often emulates this kind of repartee. that sort of thing.
in the thought exercise we're doing here at ottiliere labs we're building off of his canonical assholery in a specific way. specifically spending a lot of time really sitting with the extent to which this guy is cynical and snotty and aloof and disingenuous. canonically of course, being kind of a dick is an important aspect of his character and removing that of course takes something away from who he is. but putting him in other situations and keeping that general douchery about him... it has ample opportunity to grow into something that would make him quite rancid to be around. I think I would greatly dislike talking to this guy, I think he would be overwhelmingly rude to me and wouldn’t really care how it made me feel... even if I was his friend.
any thoughts on a dirk/jade friendship? from my understanding a lot of people source any possible dynamic between them from a (albeit only partially) shared interest of the scientific variety, but given your image of dirk i’m really curious as to whether or not any sort of camaraderie between them is even viable
nobody asked but here's my essay on why dirk would use 4chan:
Channers tend to have a sense of superiority because they’re isolated from the rest of the internet, and yet influence(d?) it so much, while having a reputation for being a cesspool. If you are cringe on 4chan people WILL make fun of you. They are ruthless. If you post like you haven’t been using the site for years or haven’t “lurked” enough, people WILL make fun of you. If you look like you’re possibly active on another site people WILL make fun of you. For comparison, reddit is more of a melting pot. On 4chan, every board has its own unique culture, and most of them hate each other even while using the same site. Ex: people on /a/ making fun of people using /v/ (and basically nobody serious about 4chan uses /b/ anymore) etc. Everyone has their pool of frequented boards, their main “stomping grounds,” and considers the rest of the site, and usually the boards they use as well, garbage.
But, even with this superiority, there is this need to be “self aware” about the fact that you are certainly a loser, because well-adjusted people don’t post on 4chan. You have to post like you’re the smartest, the least well adjusted, extremely based, very humble, the worst, the best, extremely genuine, not genuine at all, the “most autistic”, the “least autistic”, the one sane man among a crowd of fools, a fool yourself- resolved to your own audacity, and most of all, funny.
It’s not lawless. There’s codes of etiquette and social rules you have to follow that also change from board to board and with context/how the thread is going, but nobody tells you them, at least usually not in the form of insults. You largely have to learn from observation and osmosis, trial and error.
In the end, it’s really all about looking cool (or fitting in, depending on the board) to whoever is listening, and what is and isn’t cool (or fits in) changes with each board and thread (and even across the same threads with the discussion) so you need to be able to be flexible enough to adjust yourself on the fly to be consistently cool/“in.” So, sometimes it IS cool to be civil and to have genuine discussions (people can be shockingly helpful/nice to each other on there) while at other times, it is not, and god forbid you look like you’re trying too hard to look cool and smart— it has to look detached and effortless, unless it’s entertaining and funny (though keep in mind, it’s much easier to get people to laugh at you, rather than with you, which is just another facet of the site’s humour that some accept and exploit.)
People write channers off as people who post whatever they want under the guise of anonymity, and that’s partially true, or even fully true for some, but at the same time, everyone is a lot more hyperaware and careful about how they speak and what they say. It just looks insane to an outsider. And despite all this hostility I’m mentioning, among those who feel like they “belong” on the site, and know all the rules and in jokes, and play the game properly, there’s very some genuine senses of comradery amongst them.
Dirk would thrive in an environment like this... He would love using the website where he has to walk on eggshells, the website makes him feel like he's in a special "in-group" and has a sense of control. IT'S A CESSPOOL and he loves to put himself in a shit place. His behavior would reflect the weird antagonistic camaraderie he shares with Caliborn (who would also use 4chan btw. he would berate and stalk dirk and Dirk would feel comforted by it).
This whole thought process stemmed, btw, from a convo with a friend on whether dirk would be a redditor or a channer. If people use both they try very hard to not look like it on 4chan because openly looking reddit is a fast way to get mocked and especially if you’re on boards with a smaller community (ex: anime has “generals” which are threads for 1 fandom) people sometimes are able to recognize people posting in those boards posting on the same fandom subreddits and on there you’re NOT anonymous. and that’s a quick way to become an infamous in-joke.
in terms of his usage differential, I think dirk would be less open and "chatty" on reddit because it’s not anonymous but it’s a good way to get information. probably a commenter more than someone who makes original posts, if he uses it (can see him trawling through mechanical subreddits for hyperspecific help on projects).
edit that I added onto a later reblog: the more I ponder this the more I realize that while dirk would MAINLY use reddit as an information hub, the only subreddit he'd actually be active on is r/sanctionedsuicide. he'd argue on there for hours. pro-choice of course. before the site shut it down... the most ''positive'' online community he'd ever be involved in
do you think dirks apartment would be bare or cluttered
This ask reminds me of the tags on this post specifically because... so true. not enough people are brave enough to make him as weird and gross as he is.
I mean, looking at his actual room is like...
it's not "that bad". right. this is a teenager's room. but it's noticably a little messy? and of course a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that he wasn't raised by anybody and is therefore very pragmatic about his environment (e.g., why would I make the bed if I'm just going to mess it back up later?) (IMO a lot of this could be said for Roxy as well, like... her room is equally as cluttered...these kids have no PARENTS to come in and tell them to clean up after themselves).
Overall I think he would be a clean person & very meticulous in, like, only certain respects... he's the type to have a very high tolerance to very certain types of messes. his "organized chaos" except it's even weirder than the generally understood concept of that. certain types of actual garbage do not phase him while others he needs to get rid of immediately and it doesn't make sense to anybody but him. I'd imagine it's largely a sensory experience for him, or at least that would be his basis for what bothers him and what doesn't.. it isn't like he's lazy or idle or anything liek that, he's just got a specific vision of what his environment does and doesn't benefit from.
I imagine he categorizes taking care of himself like this too but with the added concern of like...if for some reason he might be seen or otherwise encountered by someone meaningful to him, that would be a concern. i think any iteration of him has this feeling of pretending to be human in one way or another, somehow in my mind that is very linked to the physical practices of personal grooming and presentation.
