#and I acknowledge that's not a universal opinion and that's fine I'm really only speaking to my personal experience with what's happened

[golbrocklovely]

Unpopular opinion, i think fans are really mean towards Sam and there's not such a big reason behind it. He really wants to help people in his own way and just because his way of coming out with a piece of advice or a way to offer some kind of support is just different from Colby's, that doesn't make him less caring than Colby

Also, i don't understand why people hate on his dumb and wise newsletter or whatever u wanna call it because there aren't many influences who take their time to do something like that (i mean starting from scratch and managing to come out with something, cuz forwarding emails is easy afterwards) and also takes time to find things that might come in handy for fans who need that piece of advice. If Sam does this, even if it's a lot of Internet information and his side notes in that email, he did something good, tho unnecessary, a money grabbing brand. But if Colby comes on Snapchat and starts talking about life, he's a role model and he's so amazing and look how nicely he responds to questions and how nicely he speaks. Colby is way too overrated when doing the bare minimum any influencer should do, like staying in touch with fans and talking about mental health and anxiety and problems that don't go away by clapping ur hands. I appreciate a lot the fact that he talks about this stuff, don't get me wrong, especially because Sam and Colby are 2 of a small number of influences who address these important topics, but when they're both trying to answer their fan's questions or even talk about it how well they can, why try to make a difference between them? One might have a certain pov, while the other one has another pov and that should be alright. Any topic should be seen from more povs, it's not just colby who's right, it's not just sam who's right and u can't stay sam hasn't been through depressive episodes and bad anxiety. If he doesn't talk about these things is strictly his choice, but u can't say that he sounds cold and very objective when talking about stuff because "he didn't go through it"

This thing is literally like u and ur best friend giving the same answer in class but ur best friend gets the credit because "she's prettier"

Where i use u, I'm not talking about u 😂💜

this is so fucking long of a response to you. omg, i apparently have a lot of opinions lol

well, i can only speak on my behalf and say how i feel about the advice both boys give.

while i love the boys a lot, i do think sometimes their advice isn't as universal as they make it seem. i think that sometimes their lack of acknowledgement towards their own privilege makes it hard to want to listen to them. bc they give out advice and think that it will work for everyone listening, when that's just not the case. i do think over the years they gotten better at recognizing when their advice can help and where it can't, but they still struggle to realize that (especially for neurodivergent ppl) their advice doesn't go as deep as it could. or that in general, their advice isn't as prolific as they believe it to be.

like with metalife. one of the major problems i had with it is that a lot of their advice was basic or surface level. a lot of their philosophies weren't that deep. hell, most of the things they said on that site they said on the life project first, so they were just repeating themselves at that point. and while it's great that that worked for some ppl, i think it's also fine to admit that it doesn't work for most fans, especially those dealing with deeper issues. but that's okay. i don't expect snc to have the answers to my mental health issues. they aren't professionals. but i think another major problem was just the fact that anytime they gave advice, it was hard to listen to it knowing that they haven't lived a 10th of the life i have. i don't wish for them to struggle like i have, but when they are miles above me in every which way, it's hard to listen.

as for the split between sam and colby, again, i think it has a lot to do with how they sound. and while sam is genuinely trying to help, i do think that sometimes his words don't quite hit the mark. i think sam has a tendency to just repeat what other ppl say just bc that advice worked for him. which is fine, bc realistically none of us have original thoughts anymore lol, but if the advice was barely advice in the first place…. repeating it and putting your own spin on it lessen it's value.

i think there is also this out of touch attitude that sam can get that colby for the most part doesn't have. like, when sam wrote about not living for your vacations in the dumb and wise email….. like, bro, in this economy? you're telling ppl not to live for vacations, as if they can even get one in the first place?????? you just sound out of touch. i get what he was going for, but there are better ways to have said it. and he makes himself more out of touch by looking up to musk and bezos. i get it, you're a business man. but there is no ethical way to make billions of dollars. and then to keep it all??? even worse. and to top all of that off, he never apologizes for upsetting fans. he'll just ignore things until ppl forget or stop talking about it altogether. and while i get that for some situations, doing it all the time doesn't work. it makes it sound like he doesn't want to listen to fans.

also, i just gotta add this in bc i just remembered it, he has this vibe/attitude/whatever of "feel less, work more". he's surrounds himself in so much business but does little to no introspective work. he doesn't allow himself to feel, and would rather be busy all the time. but that doesn't work for anyone, let alone him. and i think that if he would allow himself to either work thru his emotions or just…. feel for once, he might be able to give good advice.

and while i say all of this, i still genuinely love sam. i can love him and still be annoyed at him tho. both things can be true. bc on a basic level, i feel like he does try his best to give the advice he thinks will work, but it comes across a bit pretentious bc he doesn't recognize his own privilege. and his dumb and wise emails, if i even read them in the first place, i just kinda shrug off and go about my day. sometimes i read them and think "oh that's good advice" but for the most part, i don't pay attention to them.

and as for colby, i think (and i know, at least, i feel this way) a lot of ppl relate to him more than they do sam. maybe it's bc sam is extremely closed off so we don't know as much about him as we do colby. maybe for some ppl (even tho they'll never admit it) they just generally find colby more attractive than sam and thus are more likely to listen to him. who knows, who cares. for me, colby comes in with advice that at least shows hesitancy. he outright refuses to answer questions about mental health problems, and tells those that need help to seek professionals. i don't think i've ever heard sam do that. maybe he just ignores those questions and instead goes for ones he thinks he can answers, maybe i just don't remember him doing what colby does. either way, colby tells does that, and then any of the advice he does gives, he follows it up by saying "this may not work for you, but this is what worked for me" and that alone puts him above sam in my book for giving advice.

that hesitancy shows a more realistic side to him than sam. sam comes in with a certain tone that's just very matter-of-factly, that there's no way he's wrong. colby, bc he's cautious about what he says or at least understands that his words may not help, shows that he acknowledges what he saying. he's not just regurgitating something someone else said in a book he read.

and i think as much as colby claims to be private or closed off, he tells a lot more than he shows. i don't think he realizes how much stuff he's actually told fans, and just that bit of vulnerability helps to make a connection. that's why i believe he probably does struggle with depression and, at the very least, anxiety. he's shown us what he's like after being super anxious all day. he's told us the stories of needing to take tums everyday at school. and as for the depression, which i know is just an assumption on my part, there are things he has said in the past (like not being able to leave his couch for weeks on end, like feeling like he was on autopilot, like isolating himself from ppl when he's feeling bad) that makes me believe he has struggled with depression without realizing it bc those are things i went thru as well. and that, i think, helps fans connect with him more. if sam struggles the same way colby does, we wouldn't know bc he doesn't tell us. and i get that he has every right to his privacy and that he doesn't have to tell us that information. but bc colby has, with or without his own knowledge, means ppl connect with him more and want to listen to his advice.

all of this being said, if you don't agree with me, totally fine. you might relate to what sam says more. that's great. if his advice works for you, please listen to it and use it. i'm just saying it doesn't work that way for me, but that's okay. i don't look at sam as less than bc of it. i still love sam. he's just a bit annoying sometimes lol

#ask #personal #sam and colby

[missholoska]

(answering as a screencap to avoid this showing up in any tags/searches, I don't wanna Start Anything)

I did like A/ltertale up until a couple years ago, but I have several issues with it that prevent me from enjoying it anymore. I've heard some not great things about its creator since I unfollowed, but I don't want any part in discourse and I'm only gonna give my thoughts on the AU's actual content:

Undyne being shipped with a man is... pretty bad. in fairness not everyone has to like a ship just because it's canon, and it's entirely possible to prefer other ships while treating the canon ship respectfully and without any homophobia or harmful intentions. but completely writing out Alphyne, mostly ignoring Alphys' existence, and shipping Undyne, the one character who makes multiple references to her attraction to women and never once says anything of the sort about men, with Asgore doesn't seem like there were respectful intentions. what could've been less of an issue is that if A/ltertale had to write out Alphyne and have an Undy/rus equivalent, it's already a swap AU and Alphys canonically both has a crush on Asgore and is bi/pan. there'd at least be some logic to it if Alphys were swapped with Undyne and shipped with Asgore instead, rather than going against Undyne's extremely heavily implied, all but stated outright sexuality.

on the topic of Alphys, I don't like how she's barely ever acknowledged. as with my first point, you don't have to like every character much less create content about them, but for an AU that otherwise focuses on the main cast, her lack of presence really sticks out. and it's a shame because Alphys absolutely could have a place in A/ltertale! even without changing anything, AT Toriel and Alphys could be close friends who help each other through their anxieties, and considering this is a Soriel AU? towards the pacifist ending UT Alphys talks about shipping Toriel and Asgore, but they're siblings here as are the skelebros in their roles, so instead you get AT Alphys as the in-universe number one Soriel shipper!! it's such a missed opportunity :<

speaking of Soriel, I'm not very fond of AT Soriel anymore for a few reasons:

I find their age gap kinda uncomfortable. please note I am not calling it pe/dophilia, because it isn't; AT Toriel is canonically "about 21", not a minor. given that I ship UT Soriel I'm obviously fine with mortal/immortal ships, but my condition for those is that the mortal character must be a decent number of years out of their teens (mid-20s at least), and for my preference Toriel is just slightly too young compared to AT Sans' physical age being "about 35". it's not illegal and I don't expect anyone else to have the same specific preference, I just don't like it.

it's so common for m/f pairs to have the man be taller and older than the woman, and this not applying to UT Soriel is a small part of their charm for a lot of people. AT Soriel undoes this, and I know that's the entire point as the AU started from an ask about "Toriel and Sans in swapped bodies", but it's just Less Good.

they both feel too UT Sans-like to me with not enough UT Toriel in either. maybe if AT Sans was more openly parental, lonely and out of touch like UT Toriel, or if AT Toriel retained more of UT Toriel's personality, one of those might balance out better. as it is, they both seem too chill and meme-y aside from how AT Toriel gets flustered.

also the sexual jokes and art are really really not my thing but that's purely me being sex-repulsed @_@

this isn't every thought I have but anything else would be nitpicks and I'm not trying to be needlessly negative oTL

anyway as I said above, I just quietly unfollowed the creator rather than actively complained or anything, and regardless of what the creator's said or done with the AU I don't wish ill will on her or anyone who still likes A/ltertale. I only ever really talk about my opinions like this when I'm specifically asked about them, so having said all this I'm just keep focusing on the stuff I enjoy instead 👍

#sharing my opinions already makes me nervous enough let alone when it's largely negative ughghh #to list one small positive I do still like some of the designs. AT toriel and sans' colour palettes in particular are real nice #but I can't imagine having anything more to say about the AU and I won't be drawing it again so. please no one send more asks about it #bad opinion zone #holoskart asks #anonymous

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

jimin will be just fine i think, the same people who would have bought his album will as far as the already bts fans go...it's what they are going to do about engaging new people that has me worried. I love jimin I do, I think he is cute in any form he comes in, but that mullet bang hair cut will do him NO favors in the usa. people wonder why radios/new fans/ the public in general don't care for bts....it's because butter, dna, ptd are not songs that are going to be popular nor do any of them deserve a grammy. I would not have been a fan if i had not come around in 2016 and found them. those songs man, the world they created...i wish they could have performed songs in the usa on radio charts now what they did from 2016 to 2017. the world missed out if they aren't willing to look pass the superficial packaging we got with these newer songs that were the only ones to really grace the radios globally.

I also believe that being on the cute side won't really catch much people's attention if we're talking about the US. There can totally be a generally objective conversation about it, and acknowledging facts does in no way mean anything about Jimin. The US music industry is very much sex oriented, most things that blow up (that aren't Taylor Swift) are very sexual. And even Taylor had a really long phase of her career where people talked about her dating life more than they talked about her music. The amount of female rappers like Cardi or Megan that have driven the music industry for the past years... it all has a reason. It's either sex or drama. Even with kpop or when it comes to BTS members themselves, people do flock more eagerly towards something/someone sexy. So, yeah I agree that mullet and bangs and a cute sweet attitude don't really go a long way when it comes to "first impressions" outside of Korea. This doesn't mean anything particular about Jimin himself as an artist or person, it just talks about what people are more easily attracted to. If I think about Jimin's brighest moments, those that "will go down in history" (as far as people's memories go) it's always been colored hair or a sophisticated hairstyle, and really just quite different from mullet and bangs. It's not even about the hairstyle itself tbh because JK rocks it a very different way. I think it might actually be one of JK's best haircuts yet. But on Jimin it really does make him look so much younger ahahsjhfsjd

That, as a general commentary. None of that opinion actually speaks about the music or his performances. That hasn't happened yet, and I'm sure everyone will be discussing that in due time. Maybe he won't have black hair or a mullet and bangs for when he gets to post-release schedules. I don't know. I personally hope he won't, especially if he'll do promo in the US. As someone brought up in a different ask, his hair was blonde for some time in December.

On the other hand, I think here's where what you said comes into play "the world missed out if they aren't willing to look pass the superficial packaging we got with these newer songs that were the only ones to really grace the radios globally." So, like even if Jimin does promo with a vest and bangs, maybe someone will look pass the superficial packaging and check out his music. I think also that it's just brilliant that he already has a reputation of being an amazing performer and having great music, because just as first impressions are important, reputation also has a lot of weight when people decide to check out a new song or not. If you've liked someone's work once, you will come back for more and that is a universal truth, no matter how differente we all are, we're all the same in that matter.

DNA... that's mother, I'm sorry. I still feel a rush of dopamine when I hear the whistle at the beginning. I wholeheartedly agree about PTD and butter, to my own personal taste; but I'm fairly sure that BS&T for example wouldn't have blown up because it wasn't an english song. It's fair to acknowledge that they got so much more "out there" in the USA after dynamite and butter, even if the songs aren't of the greatest quality. It was huge for BTS career. And that's one example of how talking about certain facts doesn't change other things. It was their greatest moment in terms of success and achievements, but personally they were all struggling and really just feeling done with the group.

[staringdownabarrel]

I know this isn't exactly a groundbreaking opinion, especially on Tumblr, but I feel like it was a mistake for Enterprise to have Affliction/Divergence as a storyline.

Some of this is just for the simple reason that the Klingon foreheads never really needed an official explanation. It would have been fine to leave it as makeup effects and special effects getting more sophisticated as time goes on. Most people probably would have been fine with that, even if they were predisposed to starting "Why do the Klingons look different?" threads on social media.

You sorta know that this was a storyline that was always going to be ignored when they eventually got around to making a new Star Trek show. The Klingons were probably always going to be brought back because they're the iconic Star Trek antagonist/borderline antagonist (depending on the era), and the writers of a new show either wouldn't know or wouldn't care about this one two-parter from the show that caused Star Trek to not have a new show for twelve years.

A lot of the newer fans that got into Star Trek because of Discovery wouldn't have known about Affliction/Divergence, either. To them, it'd probably be just another little bit of lore in a franchise that probably already seems daunting to an outsider. If Discovery had have insisted on perfect consistency on this point early on, their response would have been, "Why do the Klingons not look like Klingons? Why does it look like they cut corners when they were spending millions on each episode?"

So having that plotline in probably did make the franchise more inaccessible to new people. This only would have worsened if they had have kept it as hard canon.

The thing is that this wasn't necessarily Enterprise's fault. I think the real issue stems from Deep Space Nine. In Trials and Tribble-ations, Worf's explanation for the forehead thing was that they don't speak of it with outsiders. Having this line in acknowledged the difference from an in-universe perspective and paved the way for there to eventually be an episode explaining where it actually came from.

I think this was the wrong move. Really, the better move would have been to have Michael Dorn in TOS-era Klingon makeup during the 23rd century scenes and TNG era makeup during the 24th century scenes, and have this be totally unacknowledged in the episode. This would have broadly fit with the general tone of the episode because it's kind of a silly episode in general.

My other issue with Affliction/Divergence is that it encouraged the absolute worst kind of fans. The kind of Star Trek fan who'll get annoyed about one button being two inches to the left aren't just a meme; they really are out there. Twenty or thirty years ago, you'd only ever encounter them if you spent a lot of time at sci-fi conventions, but nowadays they're on social media and they're everybody's problem.

When Strange New Worlds was first announced, I was having this discussion with someone who was worried that they'd have to explain why the bridge looked different because of this new show. Keep in mind that the SNW bridge looks pretty much like the TOS bridge, but with a Kurtzman-era aesthetic to it. Most people would be fine chalking that up to advances in production values. This is the kind of person I'm thinking of when I think of the people the foreheads episodes encouraged.

And that's sorta just going to be an issue forever now. It used to be that these guys were sort of just a joke but didn't really annoy anyone because they never left the house, but now even someone who never leaves the house can still breach containment. They aren't going away until the popular definition of nerd shifts from someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of the canon to someone who can consistently engage with it thematically.

#star trek #star trek enterprise #star trek ent #star trek deep space nine #star trek ds9 #star trek discovery #star trek dsc #enterprise #ent #deep space nine #ds9 #discovery #dsc #klingons #rant

[mid-weast]

Will you keep it down? | Jeon Jungkook

Summary: You and Jungkook attend the same university and have been neighbors for 3 months now. It drives you crazy that he plays loud music at 2AM, and it drives him crazy that you barely acknowledge his presence.

Pairing: Jungkook x Female!Reader; Black!Reader

Words: 2.6K

Genre: enemies to lovers, student!jungkook, student!reader, fluff, mention of smut, angst? (in the form of bickering back and forth).

Authors note: Hi hi! This is the first fic I’ve ever written so if it’s bad I’m sorry. Also it is unedited so if there's grammar / spelling mistakes I'm sorry again! Also this is catered toward the reader being Black but I hope it can be enjoyed by everyone. Thank you for reading! Feedback is appreciated ok love u bye!

“Y/N? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!? Open this door RIGHT NOW!”

Even though you were studying in your room, his knocks were so loud you nearly jumped out of your skin. You had expected a reaction, but not a full-on explosion.

You and Jungkook have been apartment neighbors for about three months now, and a constant problem is that he blares his music hella loud late at night. Of course he’s a music major so he listens to music a lot, but at this point you don’t care. It doesn’t even seem like he’s working on composition homework anyway, just being an asshole with no regard for his neighbors peace. Now don’t get yourself wrong, you're not just some uptight bitch who complains about everything. Well, you do have several pet peeves but over the years of going to school in Korea you’ve picked and chosen your battles very wisely. In most cases you let things slide. You wouldn’t care at all about someone playing the music loudly, but it is 2 AM, and while you’re up studying you know a lot of your other neighbors are trying to sleep.

You tiptoe toward your front door and twist the knob slowly. You only open the door wide enough to be able to see his face. It’s not that you’re scared that you’re in danger or anything, and you rarely back down from people giving you a hard time. But you were tired, wearing a big ass t- shirt and short shorts (your regular sleep attire), and it was late at night. So if anything was going to pop off you felt pretty vulnerable. Even though you’re the same age, he towers over you and you find his size kinda intimidating.

As usual, you have to crane your neck to see his face, and your view of him is limited by the narrowness in which

you opened the door.

“Can I help you, lil boy?”

From what you can see of him, right away you can tell that he is pissed. Dawning his usual attire of a black sweatshirt with the hood up, black sweats, and stomp a hoe boots, he stood extremely close to your apartment door with his arms crossed. His usually wide, puppy dog eyes are now pressed in narrow slits. His normally pouty lips are formed in a hard line, and his jaw is so clenched you could carve an ice sculpture with his jawline.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You called the cops on me? Are you INSANE???" Jungkook shouts.

Obviously he's mad, and despite the amount of times you've gone back and forth he's never raised your voice at you. The old you would have screamed back at him, but over time you've tried to respond to anger with calmness. Also, you were a little scared because this mf is kind of big.

"I already told you if you keep blaring your music at 2AM, I was going to do something about it!" You respond in a hushed whisper, slightly concerned that your elderly neighbors will be even more disturbed by the noise. "I've told you this a million times, and you barely do anything about it. If anything, it's gotten worse like you're doing it on purpose. People are trying to sleep and I'm trying to study, why is this so hard for you to understand?"

He sucks his teeth. "You're such a little snitch. And I've already told YOU that YOU can't tell me what to do."

"I know I can't...but they can," you nod toward the exit, referring to the police officers that most likely just left out that way with a tiny smirk growing on your face.

If it was possible, he clenched his jaw even harder and you think that he's going to pop a blood vessel. He pushes his way into your apartment, which sends you stumbling back and you grab the door handle to regain your balance. This causes you to close the door shut.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're-"

He steps right up to you and leans down into your face.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, seriously??? Why are you such an annoying little brat? Just because you're a nerd with no friends who gets no play doesn't mean you can take your bitterness out on me.”

You have to laugh in his face at this point because hello??? First of all, who is he talking to? Second of all, you have told him a BUNCH of times to turn his music down late at night. You didn't think that was too much to ask. As far as you were concerned, being aware of your noise level when you live in an apartment is the universal bare minimum for being a human being.

"ME? Who do you think YOU are? Actually let me tell you. You're an entitled little rich boy who thinks he runs the world. I don't give a fuck about how popular you are on campus, how many people fall at your feet to be around you, and how many hoes you have, you cant talk to ME like that. And how are you going to try and tell me about myself when it's too much of a task for you to be a decent neighbor? I've never done anything to blatantly bother you, so why can you just.." You started to panic because usually when you raise your voice out of anger, your voice cracks and tears threaten to pool out of your eyes, but you tried to get a grip and not back down..."why can you just be nice to me so we can live in peace? Is that too hard for you???"

He looked kind of taken aback by your question. Being nice to you? It never crossed his mind. Also, you kind of had a point. When the semester started and you both moved in on the same day, you would shoot him a small, friendly smile in passing but you never seemed interested in getting to know him. He always wondered why that was. It's not that he had a problem talking with girls, since all he had to do was breathe and girls would come flocking around him, but you would flat out ignore him. Even at all the major parties at the beginning of the year and on Thursday nights when students take over the clubs in the city, you'd barely even acknowledge him. He KNEW that you had seen him too, since you would make eye contact, but you acted like he was just another guy at the club.

And he'd be lying if he said you weren't fine. You had thick thighs, a beautiful face, nice curves, and always wore outfits that hugged you in the right places. He always wondered what it would feel like to wrap his arms around your body and press it against his own. He would constantly sneak peaks of you throughout the night at the club, but something stirred in him when he saw that you were chatting up other guys. Was he...jealous? Jealous that you were so eager to pay attention to these dudes who, in his opinion, were decent looking but they were nowhere near his level, and you never even gave him a second thought? One night he even saw you leaving with a man he knew through mutual friends, and he had to physically stop himself from breaking the glass he was holding, because that guy, while objectively handsome, was nothing compared to him. Jungkook wasn't blatantly cocky, but he let his talent, charm, and looks speak for themselves. He was THEE Jeon Jungkook, and nothing ever really bothered him....except you.

Was he....interested in you? Nah, that can't be it. You were some random chick who happened to be his neighbor, who also is one of the only girls he's met that doesn't give two fucks about even having small talk with him, and that infuriated him for some reason. So the first time you came knocking on his door in an adorable pink satin pajama set with a matching bonnet complaining about his loud music, he knew the game he had to play.

He's still standing over you, centimeters away from you face, but you notice that his eyes soften a little and so does his jaw. He unclenches the fists he was holding crossed against his chest

You continue, “I don't care what you do, and I'm DEFINITELY trying to run your messy ass life. Believe me," you scoff, "you don't have enough money to pay me to do that. But when your dickhole behavior fucks with MY life is when it's a problem. And it's BEEN a problem."

He rolls his eyes. "Whatever, little girl, maybe I should call you little mouse now, since now I know that you'll go squeaking to the cops now, don't fuck with me or my music again.”

Without moving your head you look him up and down with a confused expression. "Am I supposed to be scared of you? No seriously, you look like you cry during Disney movies while wearing footie pajamas, and now here you are throwing a fit because I forced you to stop bothering the entire wing with your music?"

Girl...what are you saying??? This man just barged into YOUR place, is in your face, and is strong enough to pick you up and throw you, and you’re insulting him? But you figured if he's going to be rude, you'll throw it right back because you're tired of his bullshit.

Whatever softness he was feeling for a fleeting moment immediately left, and annoyance once again washed over. He straightens up a bit and puts on that annoying confident smirk he wears when he thinks he's won arguments between you two.

"You should be nicer to me, all it will take is for me to tweet one thing about you, and you'll be the most hated person on campus."

At this point, any suspicions that you had about him annoying you on purpose were confirmed. You've concluded that this mf is a bully and you, small and shy but not one to take mess, will put him in his place to-motherfucking-night.

You take a step toward him, now crossing your arms tightly against your chest, but he doesn't even move a hair backwards.

"Clearly you need a rude awakening so here it is. I don't know what type of people you've dealt with all your life, always saying yes to you, letting you boss them around and taking whatever bullshit you dish out, but let me tell you I am not the one. Never have been and never will be. Unlike the other fools around here who cream their pants at the mention of your name, I don't care about who you are. You'll respect ME and MY peace as long as we're neighbors, you get me?"

Now y/n, you have never so boldly stood up to someone, where did that come from, babes? You've tried to not let this entitled little boy get to you this whole time, but with him standing in front of you in the middle of your apartment with that extremely annoying, yet handsome, smirk on his face, and after all the crap he's said tonight, he had you all the way fucked up.

After you said that, he just laughed and looked away. Now you’re standing there fuming and confused...was there a joke you missed? You were being dead serious!

"Something funny?" you ask, narrowing your eyes.

"Nothing, just thinking about how I want to face fuck that annoying little mouth of yours so you finally shut up.”

Your jaw almost dropped to the floor. You've never had a guy say something so blatantly rude and vulgar literally inches away from your face. But again, you weren't going to back down.

"Oh really?" Scoffing and tilting your head to the side a bit while narrowing your eyes even more, "I'd very much like to do the same. Maybe then you'll learn your place."

"Oh please, princess, you probably blanch when someone around you even mentions the word sex." He chuckles and leans down close toward your face again and cocks his head to the side, scrunching his nose and in a pouty voice said, "you're fooling no one, but keep trying, maybe you'll get there.”

You're even more annoyed than you were before, if that was even possible. But if he wanted to play this game, you might as well go there with him. It's true, you were a bit more prudent than more, but it pissed you off that he could tell. Regardless, you do know some things to say that could have him leaving with his tail between his legs.

You pouted your lips and in a babying tone said, “Aww sweetheart you have no idea. You think you're big and bad but like I said, you probably cry watching Disney movies. The same way you'd be crying, begging me to let you cum down my throat as I mercilessly toy with your cock for hours.”

Now it's his turn to go pale. Y/n, his stuck up neighbor who has barely even spared him five seconds of her time just threatened to edge him into submission? He has to pinch himself because he must be dreaming....

“Well I-“

“But I don't even think we’d make it that far, hun” you continue, “because in order to humble your egotistical, disrespectful ass, I'm gonna have to ride your face until you suffocate. And when the paramedics come and I have to explain how you died, I won't even hesitate to tell them that you were a punk ass loser who LITERALLY drowned in my pussy!”

You don’t know who this person speaking is, but it is not you. All of the pent up hostility you’ve held towards him just flooded out of you and you couldn’t stop the words from coming out. To be honest you shocked yourself, but you still stood there with your arms crossed and your face unfaltering, just waiting for him to say something smart back.

He stared at you silently, eyes wider than you’ve seen before and his mouth hung slightly open. He wasn’t expecting you to respond with so much fire, but now he wouldn’t be able to sleep until the image you painted came true. His brain said fuck it, and his lips crashed down onto yours. The kiss is sloppy but passionate, and you swore you heard him quietly whimper.

When he feels you starting to kiss back, he smirks into the kiss. Your lips are moving against each other in tandem, and all thoughts about how much you despise the prick fades away. As you uncrossed your arms and placed them on his chest, you could feel his heart beating wildly. Was he as nervous as you were this whole time? You wonder. You knew he was a player, so he was experienced. But the thought that you made him nervous gave you a tiny confidence boost. His hands slowly slide up the sides of your body to sneak behind your back, to pull you further into his chest. As much as your brain was telling you to resist him and push him away, you couldn't help but fall victim to how soft his lips felt against yours. Suddenly you feel airborne as he swiftly reaches down behind your thighs and picks you up. You instinctively gasp but he doesn’t miss a beat, simply biting your lower lip and locking your lips together again.

“Maybe we should test that scenario of yours, and if it comes true, that wouldn’t be the worst way for me to go” he says, doing that annoying but soul-crushingly handsome smirk he likes to wear as he carries you off to your bedroom.

#BTS jungkook #bts scenarios #bts smut #bts jk #bts jeon jungkook #bts jungkook smut #bts x black reader #bts x black girl #bts x black woman #bts x poc reader #black girl kpop #poc kpop scenarios #bts #bts reactions #bts imagines #bangtan boys #jin #namjoon #jimin #taehyung #jungkook #yoongi #bts jungkook scenario #bangtan #kpop smut #kpop scenarios

[sunsetsover]

"I swear half this fandom don't actually like Ben" lmao true! Thing is though he's not likeable all the time and he can be a right old dick. But personally even if I don't like him or his actions at certain times, I feel like the broader picture is still there and I root for him because I get why he's like he is? And I can see and appreciate the softer sides of him even if they're fairly well hidden at times.

I also think some people in the fandom intellectually understand that he's traumatised and a survivor of various abuses, and when that shows in certain ways e.g. like if Callum or Lola is comforting while he's crying. But when it comes to situations like this week with Jags and Whitney, I personally think some people have struggled to understand how his trauma connects to it because it's not as obvious as e.g. Whitney's fiance dies, Gray manipulates her, bish bash bosh hit and run. Even more broadly I think it's easy for the audience to underestimate how Ben's experiences have shaped him because there's a distance created by time, his criminal actions, his (un)likeability factor, not viewing Phil as an abusive parent etc.

I don't wanna say everyone criticising him is like that btw! I'm sure there's a few reasons but I think this plays a part tbh.

i get what you're saying but to me it's like.... why would you even waste so much time invested into someone you don't like most of the time. i genuinely don't get it. ppl tend to ship ballum but hate ben AND hate the majority of the sls lately and it's like.... it's 2021 bro it's not like gay couples are THAT rare anymore there is so much media out there if you're not enjoying what ee are doing then you literally do not have to watch. in fact im BEGGING you for your sake not to. literally just do not engage with media that you aren't enjoying. do not sit in your own negativity writing 20 posts a day abt 'why are they doing this? why don't they do that? if they did this i would enjoy it more' bc you're only making yourself miserable. like this goes for any type of media but literally just stop engaging w it if you're not enjoying it anymore. the think pieces don't help anyone. your opinions aren't universal and they aren't gospel. we all need to stop confusing our opinions w facts. just bc i'm not enjoying smth doesn't mean other ppl aren't and vice versa. just bc i'm not enjoying smth doesn't mean that the thing needs to change. eg i hate the fact that callum is a copper and pray every day that something will force him out of it BUT it doesn't really affect my overall enjoyment of him as a character and it doesn't mean that the show has to make him quit just bc i don't like it. you (the royal you not u specifically anon lmao) might hate the fact that ben still does illegal stuff but that doesn't mean the show has to make him stop just bc you don't like it. if it affects how much you enjoy him as a character/ben and callum as a couple then maybe consider stopping watching. festering in the energy of 'i hate this, i hate what they're doing and here's 1200 words why' is unhealthy! i learned this the hard way !

i know this seems like an irrelevant ramble but i think i've realized that this is what my issue is. ppl not understanding trauma is frustrating and damaging and still pisses me off, but i feel like what actually pisses me off more are the ppl who just don't even attempt to be understanding bc underneath it all they're angry/frustrated at the show/sls and that's how it manifests itself. ppl don't like the direction ben and/or callum are going in and so the minute they (and it's usually ben lbr) step out of line they JUMP on that as an excuse to vent their frustrations and often end up saying shit that is ignorant or damaging or mean or just straight up cruel abt things that are so often symptoms of mental illness or trauma. so they're out here posting so many things and making these cruel little comments bc they can't just acknowledge that they don't actually like ballum anymore meanwhile ppl who are actually disabled/mentally ill/traumatised are sitting there reading all of these things and seeing all the people agreeing w them and it's doing real life damage to people.

is it on purpose? probably not. but that doesn't make the damage any less real. i have never forgotten or forgiven the way ppl reacted after ben went deaf. it was vile. as a disabled person who reacted very badly to being disabled just like ben did, it genuinely fucked me in the head seeing what ppl said abt him during that time. now i understand that it was partially ignorance but also a big chunk of it was ppl being unhappy bc they thought they wouldn't be able to enjoy their ship anymore bc ben was disabled (not that he hadn't been disabled before, but now it wasn't ignorable anymore).

idk there's more i could say but i feel like it's pointless. ppl don't care lmao all they care abt is their ship. which, ok fine whatever, but stop letting ur mentally ill/traumatised/disabled followers get caught in the crossfire bc you can't just admit you're not enjoying it anymore and feel the need to tear the thing down and rant about how it's 'bad writing' or 'out of character' etc etc. it's frustrating to read (which is why im never on here anymore) and speaking from experience it hurts YOU in the long run. negativity breeds more negativity.

you don't need to make excuses! just let it go! find something that does make you happy! you deserve that! and we deserve to be able to enjoy something without seeing ppl tearing it (or worse - us) down every 5 minutes !!

(edit - to clarify anon none of this was aimed at you i just sort of started ranting and didn't even really answer ur question im sorry !! i get what ur saying tho lmao 💞💞💞)

#eastenders #anon #question #like it's just nitpicking and it's too much it's tired #how are you mad they're still social distancing ? you are literally just looking for smth to be mad at atp #like please im begging just admit it's not something you enjoy anymore and GO #i just want peace... that's all i want

[bettsfic]

hi betts! I don't mean to drag you back into a ship or headspace you don't wanna be in, but could you talk a little about what makes the romance as redemption/"bad guy turns good out of love" trope appealing? I'm trying to explain it to a friend but I can't seem to articulate it all very well—she's convinced that redemptive romances are harbingers of misogynistic doom and can only ever be written poorly.

yikes @ your friend. sounds like she’s been drinking the fanpol koolaid.

i think any time someone makes sweeping judgments of a general narrative concept rather than the specific execution of that concept, they’re just flat-out wrong. personally i tend to hate depictions of betrayal, not because they’re morally wrong but because it often disengages me from a story. but in the old guard, for example, booker’s betrayal is done out of a misguided sense of loyalty, and it provides a lovely complication of not only the story but the entire premise of the universe. 

a less kool-aid way of presenting your friend’s opinion is, “i find most redemption arcs unearned therefore mitigating the catharsis i would have received from the resolution.” or maybe even, “forgiveness is not a narrative conceit i prioritize and so i find redemption unfulfilling.” or perhaps, “revenge, bitch.”

i remember the very first redemption i ever wrote was back when commenting on ao3 was still the default interaction of fic, and morality policing was still in a pleasant lull. i was trying to redeem john winchester, who was widely reviled in fandom, and i remember being so viscerally upset about that, because at the time i was still taking other people’s innocuous opinions as a personal slight against me. to me, i translated “john winchester is an abuser who can’t be redeemed and dean should never forgive him” into “your father was abusive and he died before you could forgive him, therefore you will have to live with your rage and resentment toward him for the rest of your life.” 

thankfully, therapy and an influx of bad internet opinions knocked that mentality out of my brain.

in those early days, john winchester’s redemption was a way for me to process my father’s death, which was still very new. i was fascinated by the comments i received on my fic -- they were firmly divided between people saying they appreciated the depiction of forgiveness between dean and john, and harsh judgments of john from people who didn’t believe he ever deserved forgiveness. i felt very confused by the latter opinion, and realized there are just a lot of people in this world who have profoundly firm boundaries, who struggle with compassion, or have fearful-avoidant attachment styles in their relationships.  

it really comes down to a preference between people who are more fulfilled by stories in which a character does something bad and therefore they deserve to be punished; or a character who does something bad and they deserve to earn forgiveness. both preferences are fine, as all preferences are, but believing that the former is more morally pure than the latter is a freezing cold take, and people who find themselves engaging in that train of thought need to take a long hard look at themselves.

but you asked specifically about romance. i’ve had the experience where partners have wronged me so badly that i stopped loving them. but i’ve also had some partners who have wronged me and i kept loving them. the dude who broke up with me and proceeded to fuck every single one of my friends (one of them right in front of me!!) presumably to mess with my head, and then had the audacity to ask for me back? i told him i was never going to speak to him again and blocked him in every way i could. there’s literally nothing that guy can do, even now, ten years later, to redeem himself to me. the guy who groomed and manipulated me at 14 (he was 18), but years later realized the horrible things he had done and devoted his life to being the best and most loyal friend i could possibly have? it took a long time, but i forgave him. he had changed. he grew. he learned how to learn. he never asked me for anything more than friendship, and he loves me for who i am. 

without that experience, that someone could love me enough to step up and take accountability for his actions, apologize earnestly, and earn my trust again, i wouldn’t believe in redemption, and i probably would have less interest in writing and reading it. but i know what it looks like in reality now, and i’m drawn to writing stories that depict the process of growth and forgiveness, from both the betrayer and the forgiver. not only do i find those narratives personally satisfying, but i want to show other people what redemption really looks like, so they can navigate the extremely fraught and confusing question, “should i let this person into my life again?” 

sadly, i think that’s why so many people can’t conceive of a realistic redemption -- no one who has hurt them has ever stepped up, and perhaps they haven’t forgiven themselves or even acknowledged the ways they’ve hurt others. 

maybe that’s what you should ask your friend. what would it take for her to forgive someone who had hurt her? and when she answers, if she can answer, ask, “don’t you think that’s a story worth telling?”

#writing advice #redemption #Anonymous #tw abuse #tw grooming

[misterbitches]

some thots. having a bad time so this is rougher than usual. oh well

....

i guess he really does know hiim best cos if that was my mans (man specifically cos if anyone else did that id take it more srsly) i would be like oh my god ur singing me a love song? i would love it but i woudl SCREAM in embarrassment. UNLESS it was a really deep love song that's about us dying together.

like i want to eat ur skin type of thing (drain u nirvana) lmaoa but i really like this song it reminds me of that velvet underground song (the only one i know cos of juno lmao) and nico or whatever 'i'm sticking with you)

my adhd would be out of fucking control i had to spend my time listening to this looking around i kept getting distracted by a tissue and thinking "wow this song is nice but i wish it would end bc i am getting distracted" and lo and behold i paused it and i have to pee and i know it's gonna take forever to undo this

ok about 12m later i turned it back on and they kissed and then he bit the corn then that night li chen also lost his virgin teas after watching gay porn and being like "hm interesting" and he'll be like "i see, ur dick is not medium sized"

i'm honestly gagging i cannot at this 12 year old marrying his mom

beautiful theyre beautiful

ayea you fucking psycho we do too because he was 17 and we had to witness it (or well, other people did cos i didnt watch the show even tho wayne song is [BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEP] and i want him to [BEEEEEEEP] and ppl even liked it which is fine like i get it in theory but they put this in my eyeballs so i'm gonna make fun of it bc it's fuckin DUMB lmao like i can't I CANNOT and he said "u were so persistent" BITCH UR 30??!?!???!?!?!?)capi hve it on mute and i tried to get a screencap of li chen and mu ren like together and not just his face but i cant find the timestamp and seeing their faces as they get married is literalyl traumattizing i'm like scremaing at my screen going "HE'S 5 HE'S 5 HE'S 5" and every time theyre like "we acn live forever together" like no bitch ur bones rae creaking

also is the officiator white? if anyone knows why or if that's common i'd love to know more. EDIT: HE ISN'T I JUST THOUGHT HE LOOKED LIKE MOBY FROM THAT ANGLE

anyway here

i'm almost done with this fucking bullshit and i am in a really ould mood and usu they make it a bit better but imo it's kind of....annoying i guess balancing all these story elements and introducin gother couples (even in the periphery) since the story in itself can't focus. i feel like all in all the time spent with these two is a lot more limited and we get the feel for the rship because of their chemistry as actors, irl chemistry as friends and colleagues, and hopefully being happy and working on a good set. so it isn't the strength of the writing or production.

for some reason they get like less dynamic ways of being together which i think is part of their charm, they do things their own way, but the writers really should have substantiated this more. it's really just the way everyone in the show has managed to deliver these AWFUL story lines and production decisions (like seriously who the fuck was on costume? lighting?)

like maybe hot take but all the moments that are cringe and insane in the show are not pleasant, per se, because they aren't thought out clearly. so they're not a joy to watch in the normal sense but the actors are good enough to pull it off. i didn't cringe at the talks they had because it felt like actors like acting these lines out instead of us being embarrassed for it and you CAN TELL theyre embarrassed.

this is a huge kudos to the casting director and the actors and whatever crew that actually did a good job. i don't particularly like watching bo xiang and his grandfather husband not because of the content but because i feel like, to me, they're so awkward even though they have chemistry. i don't have that issue with xing si and his rapist brother boyfriend because watching them is actually really pleasant, it's intimate. this isn't to do with the story though because when it hits you how devoid this other person is and how stupid the situation is it changes (for me, for me, for me, this is all my opinion think whateverrrr u want im not telling u 2 ok!)

so truly kudos to this cast. idk if i'm misremembering here but imo the most cast appropriate series in this was crossing the line and close to you. one is a decent atmosphere and execution (yes even with that brother story line, notice the major key differences though because that's a sincere false equivalence. they try to execute power imbalances soooo badly and then fail every time but here's one meant to shock too and it was just likelmao ok girl?)

it may not make sense to say either in a writing way or for the character to do it but i believe that whoever the characters these people are supposed to be especially those super not well written on the page still get that message aacross (yong jie's actor is a good ex. not sure if i should ccongratulate him for having the worst job on earth and the worst character and his character is flat but. ostensibly they should let their actions speak for themselevs but what they do is they back themselves into a ccorner with unsuretyabout their characters or a dilemma that pops up they just want to excuse it. well guess hwat u couldnt do enough legwork. but to some extent the disposable side couple works here on a um "our eyes see them and get it" way

also to me it seems like they chose this story just to have this specific wedding. like it's a timely topic and i'm pretty sure like another provision? (correction? idk) was made WRT taiwanese same-sex marriage so it's topical but it isn't like a "papa and daddy" situation where they're interacting in it and there (for ex: the pride parade) and there being like real life terms and consequences. here it seems like they were like ah yes wedding ah yes dumb couple from modc bc we kiled off the other one sooooo (then outsource them to life love on the line u__u) then hamfisting in some fucking message which is funny bc

- despite the hints peppered in and the clear attraction they both acknowledge ur like ~not gay just him~ even tho...i mean i just. again they dont read over what they write i don't think considering. but wahtever.

- the only gay dude (verbally said) is with his rapist brother with an awful power dynamic oh or IS a rapist (gao) (or his brother but i think it was just a "im a psycho so it's him" thing unless they said it. in which case idc cos i wasnt paying attn but that's also not great) or i guess the wedding but like....that's also a ridiculously inappropriate and dumb relationship taht it's built on. i mean i don't really see much respect her so i dont particularly want to hear abt gay weddings being important when they didn't even utilize it in the story beforehand and have we ever. this is a huge indication to me that it was a reverse engineered chosen story beforehand (if it was one) or thought of

soooooo

so reversal of that....it didnt give us enough time to breathe with these two at all but for both of the actors they can capitalize what's on the page and the writers didn't. like their dynamic is very i give/you give like taking car eof each other etc that's why

again, no artist worth their salt will ever say their work meant nothing. that's a cover up. i'm sick of lazy production and then getting away with it claiming being subversive or attacking an issue by not doing anything. we show crazy shit all the time but it has a POINT and ur point is "i like the gays" then girl.....i mean it's not great

but the acting really carried it. i have a feeling if this series continues it might continue to use more experienced actors cos maybe the budget goes up but they also have less inhibitions now when it comes to acting. i like the way li chen expresss himself and teng teng too. i like anson a lot and there's some angles that did not do any favors and i think eh has to get more control of his body movements (bc he's SO LARGE and thin) but he wasn't bad at all and there were real human tears. of course i, personally, favor charles tu. he has more control over his body because he has...less to work with and he's a bit bigger and he was really great in this role. he's a himbo a bit of a meathead but you like him. you like them. there's some things i think they had them say and do that they wouldn't let happen if they stuck to the characters and the story (mainly liking that dumb idiot rapist)

what i notice is that the reprehensible actions people criticize others for in the show and in real human life lalways gets turned around. teng teng being surprised that this boy's grandfather boyfriend met him when he was a junior in high school and he's 12 years older and him apologizing for being shocked and then whatshisface going "ur better at it than most people" and then the convo about gao with whatshisface and then rapist brother comes to pick him up. they are admonishing gao but thinking that rapist brother is noble for doin gwhat he did (and oh rapist brother shows up) like the hypocrisy and the decisions are immense. so now it's like "guys see he's a great guy" like girl STICK TO SOMETHING but whatever so i live in this universe where muren and li chen do everything right and have lots of different interesting fun seex with all their friends. i would write this but i cannot i am dying

#history 4: close to you #history 4 #li chen x mu ren #a thot

[claroquequiza]

Hey, I never did this and I don't know where else to go with my question. I'm a 20 year old Muslim woman. And I don't know what the fuck my sexuality is. It's mostly straight, I think? BUT YOU CANT BE MOSTLY FUCKING STRAIGHT. I like men. I think men are hot and cute (yes I would date a trans guy), I think men are strong and protect me. But then I also like women, but not in the same way. I am attracted to women, not by their bodies (which I do not find hot at all) but more by their personality--

-- their interlect, their voice, their smile. I usually crush on women that are stronger and look like they could bench me, but rarely pretty women. I don't know what's wrong with me. Am I being selfish? Am I being ignorant or fucking stupid? Youre like 30 so you have to know something right? Please it's making me really confused, and I honestly don't know what to do. Hopefully this question is not the dumbest thing you have ever heard.

So--

It’s hard for me to offer advice, because this is simultaneously a lot of info and no info, LOOOL, but first and foremost I’d say it’s okay to be confused--you’re young, and sexuality is both complicated and fluid. If you don’t know what exactly you are, that’s fine! There’s plenty of time to figure it out! 

I would say try to step back and breathe and think a little without overanalyzing it. If you like men, that’s fine, and if you like women, that’s fine, and it really can be as simple as that. It doesn’t really matter if the attraction is “different”--everyone has types, and so long as those types aren’t rooted in prejudice, there’s no harm in that.

If you want my non-expert and completely non-qualified opinion, your attraction to women may feel different because you want an emotional connection rather than a physical connection with them--you describe men as hot and cute, but like a woman’s intellect, voice, and smile. Many wlw (Women who Love Women) have said that this was a stage in acknowledging their attraction to women--they had been socialized all their lives to be physically attracted to men but could never form an emotional connection the way they could with women. Once they acknowledged that, many found that the physical attraction followed once it was “allowed”--and some didn’t, because human sexuality is just like that sometimes.

That’s not to say you’re definitely not sincerely attracted to men, but that did stick out to me, so that may be something to consider.

Two things, though:

One, I have no idea how your faith might be impacting this. When you say you’re Muslim, that could mean almost anything--there’s 1.8 billion of you! And religion is almost as complex as sexuality! 

If you come from a conservative background where alternative sexualities are actively discouraged or condemned, then that will have an impact on your journey and how free you may feel to think through, explore, and accept your sexuality. Seek out the most accepting and affirming branch of your religion that you can find so you have a safe and healthy environment to grow in, and try to find as much material by Muslim wlw and Muslim LGBT+ activists as possible so you know you’re not alone AND to see if any of it resonates with you!

But if you cannot find that safe and healthy environment in religion, you may need to consider leaving it altogether. I turned out to be an atheist, but that was my journey--you are you, and if you find or are already in an Islamic sect that supports you, then I am or will be super happy for you! But religion doesn’t always pan out for some people, and while it can be a painful process, it can ultimately be very rewarding--but the most important things are to find what helps YOU be the most healthy YOU and to have the freedom to be who you are, and some religions/sects are absolutely stellar at helping that happen!

Two, I do want to caution you about the way you speak about trans men--I’m completely cis, so I don’t claim any “authority” on whether this is a valid appraisal or not, but saying that you’re attracted to men and specifically commenting that “yes I would date a trans guy” may be a good intention that unnecessarily singles out trans men. Like, it’s good that you would! But outside of a conversation that specifically concerns trans men, pointing that out serves to reinforce a sense of “otherness” rather than of inclusiveness. It’s possible to read an unspoken “even” in that sentence when it’s offered out of context, as in “yes I would even date a trans guy,” which I am completely sure you did not intend!!! But that’s a possible conclusion when it’s offered out of context.

But again, I am no authority on this--and I say it partially because when someone says “I like men!”, I think it should be a given that that includes trans men because trans men are men! So if you like men, then they’re included! By default! So, for me, specifying that you’re attracted to trans men should only happen in the context of a conversation addressing when trans men are excluded from being considered men--but I am well-aware that that is faaaaar from being universal or even well-accepted, so my feelings and thoughts may not be applicable.

If so, I apologize! And I want to stress that I don’t think it was your intention to be disrespectful! It’s just another detail that stuck out to me that was potentially dubious.

Last of all, I offer you my most sincere wishes for your happiness and safety no matter where your self-discovery takes you! Thank you for the message!!

#asks #personal #Anonymous

[walsiegirl]

You don't have to answer this question if you don't want to, but it's been bothering my mind quite a bit lately - how did you come to your conclusion in believing Geoffrey to be innocent in his case? I'm not judging or hating, I'm just curious. This is all coming from a fan new to him and his work, who really admires him but is feeling unsure. Again, you don't have to answer if you're not comfortable. I've looked at both sides and I'm just very, very confused as to what the truth really is, so I figured getting an older fan's perspective would help me understand anything I might be missing. Thank you in advance.🙏

Hi Anon! Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I’ve been away and stuff.

This is a tough one and there honestly isn’t a right or wrong answer; it’s absolutely fine to be unsure and I cannot say one hundred percent he is innocent, nor can I say he is guilty. The way the case was initially reported was unfair to both parties, and they both went through essentially a trial by media, with others jumping in either with their own accusations or opinions, before anything really came to court. From a legal perspective, yes Geoffrey has won his case against the newspaper as there was, to over simplify it, little evidence to the contrary, which was a relief for those of us who have always admired him. But does that mean he hasn’t done anything wrong at all? It’s truly impossible to say.

When I very first heard about the allegations, I was confused, devastated and I wondered if I had got him completely wrong from the start. It’s taken time, reflection, and coming to terms with the fact that even people one admires may fuck up some times (some bigger than others) to help me feel, if not sure about things, then at least able to come to terms with it all to a degree. So straight off, I’m sorry I can’t give you a definitive answer, but I can ramble around the points that are central to the reason I still feel able to enjoy his work and the memories he gave me.

Firstly, I think Geoffrey Rush has enough integrity as a person to own up if he’s fucked up. Again, I’m going on my gut, it’s fine to disagree with me and people will. When presented with the allegations, he denied them, but he also stepped down from any positions of responsibility he felt he should not hold whilst being under scrutiny, and also apologised to former co-stars if he had made them feel uncomfortable with his work methodology. That isn’t him being silent and not acknowledging the problem, it’s taking a stand to start to work through it without being arrogant enough to go on as normal. It’s about starting a discourse.

Rolling on from that, I think the “making co-stars feel uncomfortable/sexually harassing co-stars” is probably the area of contention. I don’t personally feel or believe that Geoff would intentionally go out of his way to demean, oppress or harass people - again I am open to being proved wrong, this is just gut feeling and intuition - but Geoffrey is a naturally cheeky, playful, possibly even controversial character who I could easily see pushing boundaries in professional spheres - perhaps being overly extravagant, overly touchy-feely, overly jokey. This could easily make people feel uncomfortable and harassed. I think sometimes it can be too easy when you’re successful to become complacent and forget that not everyone is onboard with your ways of doing things and ways of being, with your self confidence and ego. A lot of people, myself included, are very good at being polite and tolerating things they find uncomfortable because they’re too worried/scared/tolerant to say otherwise. If you’re faced with an A-list actor who has a lot of clout, then by all means you may feel unable to speak up about feeling uncomfortable or not enjoying the way they treat you or work with you. It’s like being faced with the person at work who has been established at your company for a long time and is being overly familiar with you - do you dare tell the boss their favourite is too much for you? Probably not, you want to keep your job. And this kind of power imbalance may be where the issue lies.

So you are saying the allegations are all true? you’re probably asking now. No but I can easily see where there are lots of grey areas in this debacle rather than two black and white possibilities of guilty and not. Things may have been taken out of context or blown out of proportion - or not, who knows? When you’re acting and in close bodily contact with other people, and in theatre/film/tv this is a constant, there is a high risk you might touch people inappropriately. Was there true harassment in this instance, or were actions misjudged? Were comments said in jest, in humour, in affection misconstrued as creepy and inappropriate, or was that their real intent? When you only have two contrasting views, it’s impossible to know the truth. Also everything an individual experiences is relative - what one person may feel is harassment, the next may think is a funny joke or not even notice. This is where consent and communication come in - it’s important people, particularly those in positions of “power”, check in on their other halves/colleagues/co-stars once in a while to make sure everything is ok. If there isn’t trust and communication, then you end up with dumpster fires like this.

So what else can I ramble about? 

People fuck up. All the time. The difference with being accused of fucking up when you’re an A-list Oscar winner is that the whole world will know about it and lynch you for it, regardless of your guilt, and the internet is very good for spreading information quickly, both truth and lies and everything in between. Though it is fine to hold people to account and question accusations, it’s worth remembering that we all have fucked up in our lives; not all to the same degree, and some things it is utterly fine to not to forgive someone for, but I think one of the reasons I came around about things was that I can think of a few occasions in my life where I have royally fucked up, and if I had been famous I would not have lived it down. As I’m not famous though, the fuck-ups were resolved to a greater or lesser degree and now are mostly forgotten - except by me who can never forgive myself and will think about it until I die. I guess I just realised that I cannot judge because I have been a dick in my time, too. It’s not an excuse, I’m not trying to say that fuck ups are excusable if they have happened, but again there has to be a point where we move on or else we just get stuck feeling suicidal and not being able to recover. The important thing is to make amends and face your mistakes if they have been made. Can we let celebrities fuck up and come back? Depends on the fuck up of course, and sometimes it may be they lose their liberties, they need to regain trust, but sometimes there can be rehabilitation and success again - like Robert Downey Jr.

And though positive past conduct does not mean a person will never do or hasn’t done wrong, a lot of people who have worked with Geoff either as a co-star, or have directed him, etc, have voiced their support for him and enjoyed working with him. On a personal note, I will always have ridiculously positive memories of meeting him and writing to him. It’s a totally different kettle of fish to working professionally with him, of course, but I can’t forget that during the 2000s he used to like to keep a distant eye on the discourse between his fans online; he liked to know if his fans would be at such-and-such an event, and he even brought me a promo book about The Golden Age as a thank you when I dragged my arse down to Norfolk in the UK to see him at an event in 2007; he often felt more friend than celebrity to us. He was polite and curious, asked little questions like what you studied at university, what dog you had, what your username meant. He was exceptionally trusting of us, too.  And I just remember how chill he could be - I remember him texting his wife when a group of us met him in NY after his play there, or he’d step out for a smoke, and you’re like that’s a normal person, he’s checking in with his fam, doing his own thing, but he’s still got time for us. He was always a down to earth, friendly guy, beyond generous with his time and we all as a fan community felt appreciated by him. It was beyond cool. And I can’t forget that kindness, the fact he made me feel that I mattered. His benevolence has naturally garnered much loyalty in me.

And finally I also ask myself, if this was a family member, or a close friend, would I abandon them in bad weather? And the answer is no. Even if they fucked up badly, you help family and friends get through things, you help them rehabilitate, you support them making amends, and support them making reparations to anyone who has been hurt or wronged if need be. When I have fucked up, I haven’t been abandoned; yes reprimanded, yes cowed, but I’ve been given the opportunity to make amends and bounce back.

So long answer is, there is no answer. I have never affirmed or denied his innocence or guilt because I can’t. It has to come down to gut feeling in the end and trying to weigh up the mass of information and misinformation. It’s about invading the professional and private lives of people we probably have no business looking into. It’s about understanding that celebrities are just people, and they can potentially fuck up as badly as we do, but they may also be innocent of accusations like we can be too. It’s accepting that we can’t know any truths unless solid evidence is presented either way. So at present, I will continue to enjoy his films, his tv shows, his legacy, and appreciate everything he ever did for me either directly, or indirectly through his work. But I am also open-minded enough that if any hard evidence ever presented itself to the contrary, there may come a day I need to reappraise my position. But hopefully he is true to his word and to his success in winning his case, and he can work toward recovery and potentially even acting again, though the blow has been great, both to him and his accuser. He may never work again. My greatest fear is that if he is genuinely completely innocent of everything, then he has had the greatest joy in his life taken from him. I try not to dwell on that too much.

I hope that diatribe helps. It’s the elephant in the room that is hard to acknowledge but no one can tell you how to feel about it. It has to come from your own heart and soul. I also appreciate there are many other elements to consider but I can’t possibly cover all bases. It’s probably worth saying that I have been a victim of being groomed by a man so I understand the importance of women or vulnerable peoples having a voice, but that doesn’t necessarily mean every accusation against men is true, either.

[the-cryptographer]

Screw it, I'm asking Malik Ishtar for the meme thing! (Only if you want to, of course...)

THANK YOU :D

How I feel about this character:

My secret favourite!!! I think I tend to likecharacters that are all about BIG UGLY EMOTIONS, and Malik is a lot of those,lol. For me, he’s an effective villain – both really terrible and really understandably so. I think the way he gets so energetic about pursuing the God Cards and the Pharaoh, and then gets in over his head and has to abandon ship on his own revenge, and then continues to see through his role as tombkeeper because he’s just so worn out from trying to fight it – aaaaagh! It’s so upsettingly believable.

In terms of characterisation, he’s floating around brilliant but lazy territory for me. He’s intelligent, but also an idiot, andalso all he really wants to do is ride around on his bike and sleep alone inhis room and live comfortably. He’s capable, but not very ambitious. Not much of a visionary, lol.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Ryou. Yuugi. Shizuka.

…well that was a very short list for me. I can also enjoy theifshipping to a certain degree, although I’m not really very interestedin it as a postcanon or endgame ship. And the potential for Malik’s torture ofMai to be sexualised is something I think is both interesting and not that farfrom its canon presentation – so I guess that may count as shipping them insome kind of messed up way. And I guess I also I find myself conceptuallyinterested in Ishtar sibling incest, but I haven’t run into any that treats thesubject matter with the kind of tone I’d like.

More on the ships though: Malik doesn’t directly interact with Yuugi or Ryou much in canon, but both ships seem to have the ability to be about softness and healing to me. Since Ryou and Malik have both experiences a violent and upsetting possession of sorts, them coming to move past that together has the potential to be pretty sweet. And since Malik has a kind of troubled relationship with ‘the Pharaoh’, and how he feels his life has been shaped by these ancient politics, I think Yuugi’s kind of in a unique place to be able to understand both the past and Atem’s journey and his ownplace in the present to be able to help Malik contextualise that in a waythat’s meaningful to him.

And Malik & Shizuka is a nice ship if what you’re going for is exploring Shizuka’s massivedisillusionment. Leaving aside the way that a nice trip to visit yourestranged brother suddenly turned upsettingly full of ugly complicated feelings and murder, I think Malik tends towards a frankness that doesn’t sit well with Shizuka's ideals. This is a fun ship~

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Ishtar Siblings!!! Malik’s relationship with Rishid is at once so lovely and so heartbreakingly upsetting. I think they struggle to find the balance between how they see each other as siblings and how they see each other in this hierarchy of master and subordinate – the way they come through for each other at the end of the story is just so touching. And Malik and Isis aren’t as close, but I like that their conflicting values, and understanding of their responsibilities, don’t compromise their love and the desire to protect one another. Ishtar Siblings!!!

I also like Malik & Yuugi & Ryou as a BrOTP. And I have a strange interest in Malik & Jou broing out or coming to realise they can’t bro out because he murdered you and tortured your best lady friend postcanon.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I’m not really sure what constitutes an unpopular opinion regarding Malik, but I have several that might count.

(1) The Millennium Rod only exacerbated problems hewas already having due to the effects of trauma and a shaky headspace. YamiMalik is the product of Dissociative Identity Disorder in relationship to Borderline Personality Disorder, and exists in a reactionary way to Malik rather than being a distinct person.

(2)  He’s about as culturally Egyptian as your standard Amish person can be considered culturally American. (Or, idk, I think the Hutterites are a more apt comparison in a number of ways, if I’m sticking to offshoots of Christianity. More research on different religions is needed but, in terms of daily living, you can take all sorts of cues about the tombkeepers from different isolationist religious “cults”.)

(3) He’s a deadly serious character really –cerebral and ponderous. His sense of humour is along the lines of dry andsarcastic, rather than laugh-out-loud.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I ALSO WISH THE ISHTARS HAD BEEN IN DSOD THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

I think it would have made sense to mention them in relationship to what Seto was doing in Egypt at the very least. Seto was rooting around in Ancient Egyptian ruins that the tombkeepers had the right too, yeah? I feel like it might’ve been an interesting political/business deal he struck with the Ishtars. Maybe Isis needed money to help in the process of reintegrating the tombkeepers into above-ground society? I don’t know, but I feel like there’s a story there~

Also, it might be obvious from some of these other headcanons, but I wish the conclusion to Malik’s story had been more on the side of ‘the hate you’re feeling is valid if completely toxic’, which is why I like the idea of Yami Malik running amok in his head postcanon, even though I think the manga leaned heavily towards a canon interpretation where he was freed of Him.

my OTP:

Malik/Ryou edges out Malik/Yuugi by a little, but not by much.

my happy ending for them:

Not part of this meme, but you made me realise I wanted to write it all down~

Given my incredibly depressing diagnosis for Malik, I think managing his life will always be somewhat of a struggle. Yami Malik is probably here to stay. Malik will likely always have outbursts, and always have a cruel and violent streak. At his worst, the most I can say is that he and the people around him will be aware of the warning signs and be able to restrain him ahead of time instead of having to do so in the middle of an episode. At his best, I think Yami Malik might appear once every month or two, and just kind of storm around the house/apartment being sullen. I don’t think Yami Malik has the same kind of emotional range or needs as one would expect a completehuman to have – so he doesn’t need much more than to be acknowledged by the others and then left to his own devices. I don’t think he likes being touched, but he may someday accept a hug from Ryou or Yuugi or Isis and take a small comfort in the fact that he isn’t hated. Rishid is a lost cause, and will have to stay away during those times, because Yami Malik will without question react violently to him. I think, in a way, a direct reflection of Malik’s own desires– for his hatred and pain to be acknowledge and accepted by those around him, by all except Rishid, who Malik would most keenly like to be less hateful person for. Malik does not want Rishid to see Yami Malik, and so Yami Malik pushes Rishid away with a lot of force… potentially lethal force.

In terms of the more mundane things, I imagine Malik goes through a period where he wants to travel everywhere and see everything to kind of make up for the fact that he was confined to a dark hall his entire childhood. I think he’ll travel Africa and Europe and see more of Japan at thevery least, but who knows where his travels might take him~ But eventually Iimagine him settling down somewhere, since I don’t think his affinity fortravel is about travelling as much as its about taking in the world’s breadth.As long as he can enjoy bike rides and the wind and open sky and the company of those he likes, I think he’s fine being anywhere. He and Rishid are veryride-or-die so they’ll definitely stick together, I think. Him and Isis is moreiffy, but I’d like to see Isis and him also remain close and live close together.

In terms of a job, he’s really not into forty hour work weeks, lol. He wasn’t raised under the expectation he’d be part of a contemporary work force. And he’d additionally have trouble balancing that amount of stress with his mental healths. He’d take odd jobs here and there, or work part time in something pretty low pressure. Depending on how lucrative the limited amount of work he does is, he may or may not need to rely on his siblings or lover for support. In terms of what he does…? Tinker around a souvenir shop maybe? Or he runs errands for or does translations for the museum, through his connection with Isis?

And I don’t think he’d want kids, or make a verygood parent for that matter. He’s satisfied with being the weird uncle to his nieces and nephews.

my cross over ship:

I don’t have one, sorry~

a headcanon fact:

Hasn’t everything I’ve said thus far been me taking my own headcanons way too seriously?

Coptic, Arabic, French, Japanese. Rishid is the same, except he’s not as fluent in the last two, and also not as well studied in Ancient Egyptian scriptures. Isis is the only one of the Ishtar siblings that speaks English.

Oh, jeez, he is pretty much universally hated by his tombkeeper peers. Even when he was little he was a divisive character with how harsh and cruel he can be at times. And then he was shadily involved in the bloody murder of his father. When he left to form the Rare Hunters with Rishid, he bitterly alienated most of his extended tombkeeper family, but some of them followed him to join his crime syndicate. And then those who had followed him took poorly to the way Malik abandoned the Rare Hunters, and followed Isis back home with his tail between his legs. Literally everybody he grew up with except his siblings hates him and Malik spends the time from Battle City to the Ceremonial Duel hiding out in his room having Rishid bring him his meals because the tomb keepers are done with him and he’s done with them. And he’s technically their ‘leader’, but Isis made a bid for being de facto leader when he skipped out years earlier and, disappointed but resigned, she continues to carry the position when Malik’s returned. “She’s a great leader (even though she’s a woman),” everyone says. They all love her, lol.Rishid is more polarising, since he’s generally so mild and polite. Some of the tombkeepers see what he did as betrayal, but a lot of them view him with a sort of condescending pity and kindness - poor boy, led astray by his association with Master Malik. This makes Malik even more angry. ‘We are brothers and equals!!’ he yells. Even though he isn’t completely free of blame when it comes to treating Rishid as lesser.

Also, it’s totally canon that somewhere along the line he makes some big fuss and his criminal record from being involved with the Rare Hunters gets dragged out of the closet, and the Egyptian Government tells him to gtfo of our country… right?

#thank you again for the ask #i feel like i'm rehashing what i've already told you #but i appreciate this opportunity to let my Malik feels escape #headcanon parade #Malik Ishtar #save me from this card game hell #DeLurk words the meta #meta #ask #long post #so long...