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[personal profile] goaltender

earlier this week shakti was like so should i get into the stars and i was like well yes OBVIOUSLY but also i realize that there really is no way to snipe someone who doesn't care about hockey with like... the stars... because their fandom narratives are so few and far between. arguably that distinct gap of fandomability can create narratives that are more interesting if you really want to push them that far but i honest to god just don't think this is a team structured for that and also frankly that in itself makes them more fun and interesting and endearing to me but then i guess it really just becomes a matter of like priorities and fandom perspective and vision i guess.

upon reflection i guess what it is is that it i just have a very consistent character archetype that i gravitate toward and it translates easily into sportsfandom. i like inconspicuous people and i like men who are boring and i like when people are quietly good at what they do but also intensely passionate and weird about their interests in a way that's all-consuming and i love how the stars somehow manage to be fraught with individual and team-based sports narratives without being upheld by any tangible ship profiles whatsoever. LOL (talking post-1491 domination era obviously but i was the biggest 1491 hater when i was younger so that's kind of meaningless)

there are so many little things i like about this team that are like 💚 i think i just love something about a non-traditional market team that can challenge expectations in weird and unexpected ways, i love the growth of its young core and the unpredictability of its unexpectedly great drafts and the kind of quiet ways in which its rising stars have had to prove themselves... You know? sometimes my most favorite hockeydude is just this random guy from arcadia who fell to the second round because he couldn't skate for shit and then put up 40 goals on the most productive line in the league. normie rinkrat ipadkid who loves the Game before anything else, like on a purely technical level divorced from the prestige of the league itself or having grown up caring for any team in particular, but also has a certain inherited world awareness and business savvy about the nhl too and is just like... you know. i don't know.

the funny thing is we always talk about how boring oscar is but when i think between hockey and f1 it's like the "aura" of celebrity is so inherently different and then i wonder what makes someone care about supporting a certain driver or what about them appeals to them as a person etc. i think risa discussing why she likes sharl made me think of this too..... imo it actually takes a lot of conviction in your craft to manage to be likable and boring but also genuinely good at what you do, and robo is interesting because he actually has an untraditional family history/pathway to his draft year and is cognizant of that and has discussed the minutiae of it before, but he's also deeply just a Dude who's shown a great amount of social adaptability and doesn't struggle whatsoever with team dynamics or structure, BUT he's also not exactly a bro either and i feel like the stars having such "unassuming" franchise pieces coupled with its aging core and obviously the cultural divide between Finnish Mafia and The Rest make for a really fragmented culture that is fairly observable to the outside eye. i think i kind of love that about them too...... "i mean roope's first language isn't english you know" tfw the main language is just hockey and there's nothing else to fill the void with. and i think i love that pavs is kind of this unexpected anchoring piece for both the top line and the rookies filtering in because i have a huge soft spot for him from my long historied background of [redacted] so i really can't not root for his continued success. i think there's a part of me that will always be like..... he used to be OUR captain!!!!! but seeing his "resurgence" in part with the stars and the entire idea of iq and inherent hockey skill trumping speed is like yet again another perfectly crafted narrative for me personally......... t__t me when people bring up oscar logan f3 h2h quali gap like You Wouldn't Get It.

i will never care for jbenn just cuz but i think recently and even partially with the biz stuff i realized that i'm very much neutral about tseg. i used to dislike him too but now i just think he is very much... A dude. which is fine. and then from a sportsfan, general human person etc. perspective or whatever i do always have a lot of respect for how people rehab from life-altering injuries so it's been nice to see him healthier and more confident. i'm hardwired to never have expectations for anything because it makes the general slog of life and its various unpredictabilities more bearable but going into this season like feeling actually good about the team's offensive depth has been nice.

sorry where was i!!! i think the stars are like. do you want to care about people who know each other in all the ways that matter but also don't know each other at all??? or who only know how to impart convenient fragmented versions of themselves? whose achievements will always be framed in a celebratory manner because the market expectations are so low and the media scrutiny nearly non-existent? like if someone were to come to me like Hey get me into a hockey team i can consume narratives about then the stars ARE a team loaded with that because honestly every team is. me like so There's this advanced stat that makes miro look good... (twirls hair) but if you're like what are the ship narratives and what fic can i read then it's like ermmm. Sorry about dat. it really makes me laugh that after all this time 8771 are still objectively real too like why is 87 always doing the fucking most........... the fact that it's been 8 years and i could still get into hockey fandom with the exact same ship and team and it'd be just as relevant is kind of ridiculous.

anyway in a lot of ways oscar is kind of like that. or i don't know...... To Me a man is enjoyable when 1) he has that dawg in him but also 2) he's not annoying about it but also 3) he isn't deterred from his own conviction and confidence but also 4) he's not annoying about it. what i love about otter is that he's very much normie ally loveislove gfguy who molds perfectly into team culture and is the kind of guy you genuinely want to block shots for etc. but at the end of the day he still embodies ultimate goalie mentality and focus and is just as insane as they come.

to be clear boring is a term of endearment and also there's nothing wrong with being horrible at media but honestly i don't think boring = hockeyrobot media personality either you know!!! and speaking of oscar it's not to say that oscar doesn't come from a generally typical and privileged driver background because obviously he was well-supported coming up the ladder but i like that he and lewis both started with rc cars and he wasn't necessarily super young when he first got into karting and there are various optics and angles you know!

also i think i enjoy guys who have Potential And Skill for punditry but not necessarily Hunger for punditry. this is an important distinction!!!!!! i love that story of jenson showing up hungover as shit in the commentary box during his 2005 ban and still being a natural... oscar weirdly good and charming in his media duties despite having zero tangible interest in being paraded around by alpine and sky. likeee 🥴 britney fucking wishes. also robo always being generally upbeat in postgame interviews too vs the reserved/dry intensity of otter or roope etc... i love that kmag quote that's like jenson knew how to extract from his environment to the fullest and best exploit every nearest possibility because i do just think it's like... all about that smooth, competent, consistent killer instinct. smooth driver, unexpected wins, weird easy inimitable kind of championship. maybe it's Bleeding for the game but not the team. sharl is easy to explore narratively because he's pathetic and beholden to so much fraught legacy and ferrari's prestige and doesn't have a strong grasp of his self-autonomy, which is fun and not boring <3... but i guess i like a guy who knows himself without needing other people to know him!!!!!!

t__t anyway i'll stop here. Good night!
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