#and it's 100% the fact people forget that this is literal promotion

[messrsrarchives]

the thing that annoys me the most about ben barnes mentioning harry potter on stage AGAIN isn't even the fact it leads to a mass of people forgetting that we hate jkr and she's a massive transphobe.

it's the fact that i have to see ben barnes.

[f1byjessie]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS ━━ LN4.

sometimes the right words are hard to come across, and sometimes everything you need to say can be captured in an image.

( lando norris x photographer!reader )

━━ part nine.

INSTAGRAM.

liked by yourusername, oscarpiastri, and 714,148 others

tagged: yourusername

mclaren As we get closer and closer to the start of the 2024 season, we thought we’d take the time to introduce new fans to the team that works behind the scenes! Starting us off, we have Y/N L/N, our personal paddock photographer! Y/N has been here with us at McLaren since 2019, and is the genius mind behind many of the photos we’ve posted throughout the years. She’s an important part of our community and helps tremendously in not only capturing our drivers in action, but also in getting the other behind the scenes members of our team the recognition they deserve. We’re glad to have her back here with us in Bahrain, and we can’t wait to see what beautiful concoctions she comes up with this year! 🧡

view all 9,147 comments

user if there is 100 y/n fans, i am one of them. if there is one y/n fan, it is me. if there are no y/n fans, i have died.

user love love LOVE that mclaren takes the time to recognize the hard work of everyone who supports the drivers

↳ user i feel like f1 promotes the racers, team principals, and pit crew so much and forgets about everyone else that makes sure these teams are able to function so seamlessly

user CAN WE GET A MEET THE ADMIN POST TOO??? 👀👀👀

user i bumped into y/n back in silverstone 2021, like literally bumped into her, and she was so sweet!!

user she’s my photography inspo 🤩

user her dedication to the mclaren team is so apparent when you think about the fact that she DOESN’T get the same recognition as the drivers, but she has chosen to work for them for what will be 6 years as of this season. she could have easily move to a different formula 1 team or even another sport entirely, but she still comes back and that’s a dedicated artist

↳ user the fact that she did a little stint over at manchester city fc and STILL chose to come back to mclaren even tho i imagine f1 has a much harsher and stricter schedule with the intercontinental travel than football does

user this is who we have to thank for all those beautiful shots of lando??? cuz if so, bless her omg 🙏🙏🙏

user in this household we appreciate the crew that works tirelessly to keep us entertained

user so tired of seeing ppl disregard her skill as a photographer just bc of who she’s dating

↳ user OMG SAME

yourusername glad to be here, can’t wait to travel the world with these amazing people 🧡

INSTAGRAM.

liked by oscarpiastri, mclaren, and 214,051 others

tagged: mclaren

yourusername locked in and ready 😎

view all 1,514 comments

oscarpiastri so glad you’ve gotten over your temporary obsession with blue 😁

↳ yourusername so glad you haven’t lost your ability to get on my last nerve 😁

↳ oscarpiastri so glad you’re still insufferable even on your best days 😁

↳ yourusername now that’s a comeback i can be proud of 🥹

user MISSED THESE LADS OH MY DAYS

user ONE DAY UNTIL TESTING GUYS

user oscar looking fine asf these days 😩 that winter break treated him well

mclaren The boys are back in town!

↳ yourusername dare i say my milkshake brought them to the yard?

↳ mclaren It certainly called us 😍

↳ yourusername you flatter me mclaren admin 😌

↳ mclaren Only the best for our best 😘

user that’s some pretty intense eye contact from lando in the last image…

↳ user he ain’t even looking at the camera

↳ user nah bruv is def looking at y/n 👀👀

↳ user I NEED THEM TO GET OVER WHATEVER HAPPENED AND GO BACK TO BEING FRIENDS CUZ I MISS THE BANTER IN THE COMMENTS

↳ user i think we should probably respect their privacy and understand that something happened (presumably in the off season) that we weren’t privy to. so long as they can both maintain professionalism around one another, they don’t have to do or “get over” anything. does it suck to see two very close friends no longer get along in the way they used to? absolutely. but we don’t know what happened or if anything even did happen. in the event that something did, we don’t know who’s involved or who, if anyone, is at fault. they’re both justified in choosing to end a friendship due to a falling out, or even if they just grew distant. but even as i say all of this, it’s still speculation.

↳ user we don’t actually know if they aren’t friends any longer or if they’ve just moved their friendship off of online platforms. it should be noted that y/n is very publicly dating someone, and idk about you, but i know firsthand how delusional fans can be. her bf’s fans could easily attack her over banter with another man, and lando’s fans could just as easily start reading into that same banter which runs the very real possibility of putting all three of them in an awkward situation where y/n is being shipped with a man that ISN’T her bf.

↳ user what about the banter she has with the mclaren admin? 🤔

↳ user context is super important here. the flirting between y/n and the mclaren admin is very obviously fake. it has been from the beginning, and when ppl “ship” the two of them together it’s for the bit and to play along with their fake bromance. lando and y/n have both been legitimately shipped together since they both started working with mclaren, which changes the undertone of the shipping comments bc ppl often genuinely misconstrue their banter as REAL flirting.

user why do comment sections related to y/n always turn into debate sessions

↳ user REAL like ain’t no way i’m reading all that

user oscar’s hair sticking up in every picture is my roman empire

user I’VE BEEN MISSING THE ORANGE I’M SO GLAD IT’S BACK 🧡🧡🧡

user wait i didn’t even realize until now that this is the first post in like a month that’s actually had public comments turned on

↳ user probably bc her bf’s loser fans have finally stopped harassing her

jackgrealish must be nice having all that sun 😒

↳ yourusername it really is, bet you’re jealous

Testing goes fine, until it doesn’t.

“A drain cover?” Lando’s voice echoes across the garage. “Another fucking drain cover?”

You purse your lips.

Yesterday, he’d been upset on Oscar’s behalf when they’d cancelled the remainder of the morning session after only a couple hours to solve the problem of the track’s dislodged pieces. He’d complained and cussed out the incompetence, and then reassured Oscar that things would be better for the third day.

But the third day is here now, and he’s even more upset now being told to pit after a measly thirty minutes for the same issue.

“This is the second fucking time━” he cuts himself off with an angry huff and runs his hands roughly through the curls of his hair, letting his fingers catch on the tangles and yanking through them in his frustration. Sweat glistens on his furrowed brow. His cheeks are still flushed from the heat of the car.

It’s the most emotion you’ve seen from him since you’ve come back.

The time you’ve already spent in Bahrain has been stilted at best. Lando continues to stick with his attempts at avoiding you, but it’s harder to do so here when your hotel rooms are on the same floor and you’re limited to the confines of the garage for most of the day. Even when he isn’t in the car, there’s not a lot to do wandering around the paddock and even if there was they’ve encouraged him to stay where he can easily be reached.

You’re trying not to be smug about it, but every time you glance over your shoulder and catch him watching you━ catch him quickly looking away when your eyes meet and he realizes he’s been caught━ you feel pleased.

If there’s one thing you’ve learned about Lando, it’s that he’s always got a limit.

If you wait long enough, stand your ground and prove that you really have no intentions whatsoever of giving in and breaking the ice between the two of you, eventually he’ll cave. When he realizes he won’t get what he wants, that he’ll have to actually put in the effort to repair what he’s broken rather than having it magically fix itself, he’ll have no other choice but to do so.

“They might not cancel the session,” Oscar chimes in, attempting to placate his aggravated teammate. “Since they already had to yesterday, I doubt they’ll do it again today.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t actually calm Lando down at all. If anything, it just reminds him again of the fact that this is the second time this same complication has happened which has him huffing angrily again and running his hands through his tangled curls even rougher.

You wince at that.

Andrea, McLaren’s team principal, steps forward. “Take a breath,” he orders, resting a heavy hand on Lando’s shoulder. “Go walk a lap around the garage or something, whatever, but I need you to calm down.”

You’re prepared for that to be the end of it, but then Andrea looks over and catches your eye. “Y/N,” he says, nodding his head towards Lando. “You go with him. Keep him out of trouble.”

Well.

You like to think you do a much better job at keeping your emotions off of your face than Lando, which isn’t hard when his features scrunch up into a pained scowl at Andrea’s words, but you can feel the pinch of your own eyebrows furrowing and the smile you send towards the team principal probably looks more like a grimace if Oscar pursed lips in your peripherals is anything to go by.

Lando storms out and you follow reluctantly after him.

He can’t really go very far, not if he wants to be within a reasonable distance when━ if━ they call him back to continue the morning testing session. So he paces back and forth and back and forth just outside the garage’s exit out into the paddock.

Your phone tells you that ten minutes pass like this. It’s the longest you’ve been alone with him in a while and his distraction lets you focus on the finer details that you’ve missed when he’s going out of his way to avoid you.

There are deep, dark, bruise-like circles that hang heavily beneath his eyes. His skin is sun-kissed and tanned from his time out catching rays during his travels, but there’s a pale pallor beneath the added color that makes him look sick. Despite his current anger and the tension coiled in his muscles just waiting to lash out and strike, his shoulders seem to droop beneath the invisible weight of whatever he’s carrying with him.

He looks small.

Lando’s always been on the shorter side, but he’s never before looked small. Not like this. Never like this.

The longer you watch, the more the back and forth pacing starts to transform into the anxious stride of a cornered animal.

You aren’t arrogant enough to assume he’s like this because of you entirely, but it does occur to you that maybe he’s having just as rough of a time as you are with the newfound distance between yourselves.

You watch him silently, for a little while longer, observing the way his stride hitches every few steps and he just barely manages to stop himself from stumbling over his own feet. He’s still running his hands through his hair. By the seventh time he practically claws his fingers through his curls you heave a sigh.

“Quit that,” you snap.

“Quit what?” He fires back with just as much bite.

You roll your eyes. “You’re gonna rip your hair out if you keep pulling on it like that.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he stops in his tracks and turns on his heel to face you with a sneer. His words drip with sarcasm. “I forgot you must be used to Grealish now, right? And I bet he’s got at least a ten-step hair care routine. I wonder, does he use unicorn sweat and essence of rainbow to keep it that smooth and bright? There’s no other possible way!”

“You’re being an asshole, Lando.”

“My sincerest apologies,” he says. “How could I ever think Grealish would use unicorn sweat of all things? He uses pixies tears, my mistake.”

You’re not sure how a few words managed to turn into this━ you’d just wanted him to stop pulling at his hair. It looked painful and he’s always been a bit tender headed. Now, instead, you can feel the anger bubbling up inside you and it seems like Lando’s frustrations about the testing delay, and your friendship with Jack apparently, have made things worse.

Like throwing gasoline onto a flame.

You scowl, “Seriously. You’re being a fucking prick.”

He throws his arms up into the air, “Why not just run off to Grealish then? Since he seems to be your new best friend and you tell him everything.”

If your life were a movie, this is the moment in time when the stars would align and fate would force everything to position itself perfect in place. Like the pieces of a puzzle, it would all work out and you’d calmly explain to Lando what happened back in January with Garrett and Manchester City, and he’d understand immediately and apologize, and you’d hug it out and then both return to the garage just in time for them to announce the testing session would re-commence.

But your life isn’t a movie, and reality feels significantly different to the scripted perfection of fiction.

The precarious security of the perch you’ve settled yourself upon comes crashing down, and the tentative balance you’ve managed to maintain since the start of February when you were back in papaya again shatters with it. Something inside you snaps. The dam has burst and everything held back comes rushing to the front like a torrential wave.

“At least he was there for me when some prick blackmailed me into a relationship at the threat of my livelihood,” you snarl.

Lando pauses for a moment. He makes a couple different faces before settling on a mix between pissed off and confused, and his arms cross over his chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I didn’t want to be in a relationship with Garrett Ward, Lando!” You exclaim. “He threatened that if I didn’t pretend to be his girlfriend, he’d fake some misconduct rumor and ruin my career and I was too afraid to say no because this is all I have!”

This isn’t how you’d wanted it all to go down. You’d always imagined you’d get the satisfaction of an apology, and that Lando would get drunk on cheap wine with you like old times, and you’d explain what all happened with the confidence of being a little tipsy and you wouldn’t feel ashamed because Lando’s your best friend and he’d reassure you that you did what you had to, and then you’d listen to him shit talk Garrett for the rest of the night. In the morning, he’d have some idea of how to fix it all without ruining your career, and then you’d be able to put it all behind you and go back to how things were before the winter off-season ever started.

This is far from that, but there’s a sense of relief that comes nonetheless from getting it all off your chest to Lando━ to the person you’ve wanted to talk to from the very beginning

You feel tears burning your eyes, blurring your vision. “I can barely pay my rent as is, and I’m only actually living there for a few dumb months out of the year anyway. Do you know how much worse it would be if I got kicked from McLaren too? Nobody else in the country would hire me if he followed through with what he was threatening.”

“Well,” Lando shrugs his shoulders, looking properly chastised. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I fucking tried, you muppet!” You throw your arms up in exasperation and then wipe at your eyes in frustration when the tears start to roll down your cheeks. “I called you every day for a week and you ignored me! I sent you text after text after fucking text━” your voice breaks, “━and you didn’t even read them! Did you know I locked myself in the bathroom and cried every single day I had to work there?”

You glare at him.

“The only thing that made it better was Jack fucking Grealish coming into my office and telling me I could at least go to him if I ever needed anything,” you snap. “So fuck off with this whole holier than thou bullshit. You left me, and Jack took your place because I was drowning!”

“Y/N…”

Crying hadn’t been a part of your plan, but the tears won’t stop now that they’re going. It’s embarrassing. You’re already worried about just how many people heard you shouting, and now you’re even more worried about someone coming back to look for you both and finding you sobbing your eyes out.

“I’m sorry━”

Lando’s arms wrap around you, warm and strong and sure.

━━ tags: @maih23 @urfavnoirette @leclercsluv @f1luvur @formulaal @a-disturbing-self-reflection @starlightpierre @chezmardybum @marshmummy @405rry @sideboobrry11 @d3kstar @mcmuppet @happylittlereader @casperlikej @5starl1ght @bellezaycafe @whentheautumnleavesfall @mess-is-my-aesthetic @ssprayberrythings @landosgirlxoxo @lifelessfan @81ja @wcnorris @a-disturbing-self-reflection (CLOSED).

━━ a/n: and there we have it folks. lando is finally back in the picture! this part was a lot of fun to write, because i've been waiting for this moment since the initial fallout in the beginning. on that note, i finished getting it all whipped up this morning while watching the qualis, so if there are any mistakes that i haven't caught that's why. i was a bit distracted, so please pretend they aren't there haha!

[theoversky]

Why Kittyuri should be endgame?

So let’s see Kitty’s options until now:

1.Dae Heon Kim: a reason

Dae was literally 1/2 main reasons why Kitty applied to KISS. They spend majority of S1 figuring out how to be together and when they’re finally dating Kitty found out she’s actually in love with Yuri.

It’s sad or funny the fact Dae was too perfect for Kitty and maybe for that, no one ships Dae/Kitty.

2.Min Ho: a season

S1 was for Dae/Kitty, S2 will be for Min Ho/Kitty.

I actually shipped 50% Kitty with Min Ho and 50% Kitty with Yuri, but after so many bifobic fanbase I really wish Kittyuri is endgame at the end of the series.

Min Ho fanbase is terrible, they use weak excuses to not validate that fact Kitty is in love with Yuri, even her sexuality. That’s so real that the one and only Jenny Han had to reply a comment on instagram validating Kitty’s bisexuality and her love for Yuri. Also Jenny had to close some comments on instagram because of Min Ho’s fanbase spamming every single “XO Kitty” photo asking for their couple.

Arguments like

A)“but Juliana and Yuri fought so hard to be together” when Juliana did absolutely NOTHING to be with Yuri, but KITTY was the one to give Yuri her girlfriend back

B) “Kittyuri happened because of a dream” bitch didn’t Min Ho/Kitty started the same way?

C) “You guys can’t ship Kittyuri because you don’t support when bisexual people date opposite gender”

D) “Kittyuri isn’t healthy because you don’t want Yuri to be with her black girlfriend, that’s racism”

E) “Kittyuri doesn’t have chemistry and Gia Kim is too old to kiss Anna”

Are some examples of this fandom behaviour and that’s why I am now 100% team Kittyuri. I don’t think Min Ho is the worst but I also don’t think he is the best. And I don’t even mentioned he’s Dae’s best friend but people send hate to Kitty and Yuri as couple or separated in order to prop Min Ho excusing ALL his toxic behaviours.

3.Yuri Han: Lifetime

Yuri Han is the series main villain in S1, she’s responsible for Kitty’s unhapiness and the fact that her and Dae can’t be together. Kittyuri are the real enemies to lovers from this tv show. Min Ho was an asshole to Kitty for nothing, Yuri had a reason the whole time.

Plus we can’t forget Kittyuri is the one and only main LGBT ship from Jenny Han’s universe. It was a real plot twist in a very straight universe and as a bisexual girl I really felt the representativeness’ of Kitty falling in love with a girl without even having a relationship with her. Even as friends.

For this season, I expect Yuri in deny to believe Kitty really likes her until find out Kitty is bi and hanging out with other girls. A very jealous Juliana chasing Yuri’s relationship with Kitty and every step about Yuri’s reaction founding out Kitty is bi. The trailer (and S1) was pretty clear that Juliana is jealous of Kitty, even when Kitty was the person to reconnect them again.

Before everything, analyzing the trailer it seems Kitty will write letters to the person she loves (it’s a Covey’s thing apparently) and Yuri’s friends will find them and tell everybody about this. I don’t think she addresses Yuri’s name since Yuri is rolling eyes when Jealous Juliana passes throught the door and Kitty acts like she had been exposed. I don’t think Yuri would react like that because she doesn’t figure Kitty could like her, but Juliana suspects for the whole S1.

Also I guess Peter Kavinsky will be Kitty’s bisexuality’s cheerleader and be the person to push Kitty to explore her sexuality with both genders. Peter and Min Ho promotional is pretty like a straightbait to me, since the fandom is majority Team Min Ho and I can bet Jenny Han will fight for Kittyuri. I’m afraid for Netflix wanting fanservice for Team Min Ho, but I guess Kitty will try to like Min Ho back in S2 and they can work until Yuri finds out Kitty likes her at some point and break up with Juliana.

So S3 will be with about Min Ho/Kitty break up and Kittyuri finally connecting. I HOPE at least.

[isaidyoulookshitty]

idk it is so upsetting to me that veilguard is the first dragon age game i won't be replaying. when i was 15 i played origins so many times (almost a dozen) it is one of the only games i have ever 100% finished. da2 was the same! and while i didn't make it through as many playthroughs of inquisition i put hundreds of hours into it and made an effort to get to the bottom of everything the game threw at me. until veilguard, i had bought every available dragon age dlc for all games, tried to play almost every route given in the story choices, and spent hours reading through codex entries to soak up as much lore as i could.

veilguard has rendered all of that completely null.

it feels almost spiteful at this point that this new frakenspliced bioware cared so little to honor the bones and meat of the first three games. 15 years i have spent loving and cherishing (and criticizing) this franchise and now i feel like a fucking idiot for it. my grey warden? canonically awol and never addressed again. hawke? irrelevant and, for some players, potentially stuck in the fade forever. inquisitor? stripped of any complexity or depth i had given her in favor of the most syrupy, out of character fairytale true love's kiss ending with a man that shattered her worldview and broke her heart. how do you take 10 years to craft an ending this dissatisfying and thoughtless?

and the world i spent a decade and a half fighting for, shaping with player choices, and calling home? gone. "overwhelmed by the blight." literally scorched earth for the next game to build on with whatever the writers pull out of their ass to make players forget all about the original dragon age. it's tragic! disrespectful to longtime fans at best, at worst it feels intentional and like i am being made the butt of a joke told by writers who in the promotional material sound like they could not even be assed to play the games they're attempting to draw from. veilguard is just a product to be sold, not a story worthy of The Dragon Age Setting.

and i haven't even touched on all my gripes with the game's writing, the sanitization of any canon conflict that could be uncomfortable or difficult to address, the stale and cutesy therapyspeak and lessons in basic morality that are baked into every in-game interaction (most of which are shallow and all the same anyways) compared to the dialogue trees from the other 3 games. it is so frustrating to see that the devs chose to cave to a decade of vitriolic fandom politics in favor of addressing the kettle they wrote themselves into.

instead of hand-waving racism toward elves, the panic over qunari, the isolation of the dwarves, the corruption of the chantry, the abuse in the circles of magi, and slavery in tevinter, we should have been given the chance to confront all of it. to put a real end to it. we will never get to do that now. in fact, in their failure to follow through, bioware has only succeeded in exacerbating all of these issues. they have made the elves, which they have openly ADMITTED were "inspired" by Jewish and indigenous peoples, their mouthpiece for white guilt and shame passed down from one's ancestors (while also gutting elves' religion, culture, history, social differences, etc. i could go on). they PERPETUATE the same stereotypes of barbarity, violence, and warmongering imposed on the qunari by the rest of thedas by continuing to make them an opposing enemy force with the exception being a couple of friends they have neatly packaged for us. the unsatisfying conclusion to the mage-templar schism in inquisition is inconsequential. who the player chose to HEAD THE SOUTHERN CHANTRY as divine is deliberately made irrelevant. the dwarves are still isolated and ignorant of their origins save for harding (assuming she doesn't end up killed) and a single closed-off group. and the slaves in tevinter (again, mostly elves)? conveniently kept out of sight and conversation when we finally get to minrathous. everything that happened to fenris to make him the character he is, arguably the most impactful and sympathetic out of all the da2 companions, is not even addressed, much less tackled. all of it is swept under the rug.

i wanted dragon age: dreadwolf. i wanted a solid conclusion to a story almost 20 years in the making. a dragon age reboot might even have been a great idea somewhere down the line, but this was not the game to do it with. it was supposed to be a sequel and they couldn't even get that right. did i enjoy parts of it? of course! i finished it! but i won't be doing it again. the game clearly intends you to, considering a significant portion is locked away by decisions players are forced to make pretty early on, but i can't make myself do it. it makes me way too sad.

i could go on about how i, a queer and nonbinary adult fan, thought their handling of gender and LGBTQIA+ identities was heavy-handed, infantilizing, and felt so out of place within the setting it makes easy fodder for the "woke=broke" crowd that wouldn't have been receptive to queer rep anyway, but that would need to be another post in itself. not to mention the romance! unfortunate that i chose to romance lucanis not knowing his is now notorious for a lack of content, meaningful dialogue, pacing, and actual development. i won't even get to see the other romances in comparison because, as i have said, i will not be replaying.

[rockyp77mk3]

Right my side lost and your side won. I am trying to understand but I want to know what is the big difference between the Progressives and conservatives? Why do Progressives piss off conservatives so much? We only want equality and fairness.

Thank you for the question. These questions are deceptively simple but they require somewhat complicated answers. I will try.

Oh, I am not just a conservative. I am a Constitutional Conservative which means that the Constitution is considered the supreme law of the land. It is the guide against which all legislation, taxes, regulations, and issues are judged. It applies equally to all and is therefore a protection for all. It can only be changed by amendment and is not subject to any foreign law or restrictions even those promoted by the UN.

Since I like checklists I will try to answer your questions in some kind of order.

Problem solving. When presented with a problem Conservatives try to solve it using known facts and reason. Progressives tend to use spending and regulation. I have never witnessed a Progressive try to solve a problem (Or perceived problem) in any other way than raising taxes or sponsoring legislation that further truncates our individual rights.

Control. Progressives seem to love control, either being in control or being controlled in every aspect of life. They want to tell or be told what people can own, how far people can succeed in life, what people can think, what people can eat, what people can drive, and lets not forget what people should do with the very money they earn. In that last one Progressives are content to confiscate wealth through taxes for redistribution to their liking. Conservative just want to be left alone. We want to keep most of what we earn, we want to enjoy our enumerated rights unfettered by social pressure or governmental overreach. We would like government to literally get the Hell out of our lives.

Lack of tolerance. When a progressive gets an idea they believe it to be so good that it must be shared with (Inflicted upon) others even at the point of a governmental bayonet. Socialism for instance, also limiting 2ND Amendment rights, private property rights, etc. Conservatives don't care what you want to do as long as we are left alone to do what we want to do. If you don't like guns, fine, don't own one. If you want to be a socialist fine, get fifty of your closest friends and create a commune, I wish you luck. Do what ever you like, just leave me and my rights alone.

Happiness. Conservatives seem to be relatively happy. Progressives aren't happy unless they are angry or upset about a situation that either happened over 100 years ago or is an isolated incident, or is just something with which they don't agree. Progressives aren't always right but they are always certain. In that pseudo certitude they are willing to trample any and all rights. Individuals be damned the cause is all.

The US is always wrong. No matter the issue Progressives will unerringly take the side of anything that goes against the US. Progressives will support despots, terrorist groups, rouge nations, and criminal politicians as long as those support the inherent anti US sentiment of the hard left. Conservatives acknowledge that the US makes mistakes, sometimes hideous mistakes but at our core we are generally damn good. For example, if Kamala had won you won't see too many Conservatives wanting to leave the US. We are Americans and will stay and fight to the last.

Equality. Progressive want an equality of outcome. A guarantee that all people will have the same success. They call this "Equity". Conservatives believe that equality means that all people will have a fair chance at success. That hard work, effort, and inventiveness will pay off. You can't ensure outcomes only starting points.

There are more but you get the idea. By the way, Progressives don't piss us off all that much, we just don't want you in charge.

[docholligay]

Shamash answers: Live action, Round 2

The brief was: Overwatch thought, funny

For making me #triggered, 3rd place:

Winston and Lena take a yoga class together on a doctor's recommendation. The doctor said it would help with stress and injury prevention.They both struggle mightly, Winston with adapting the moves to his body, Lena with trying to stay focused in all the quiet. She needs the sharping thrill of a fight or all out sprint to focus, not deep breathing and incense, dammit!

@beefsaladthethirtythird I know that Lena would absolutely hate yoga, and everyone would tell her that yoga would be so good for her, and i know this because IT HAPPENS TO ME AND THEY ARE PROBABLY RIGHT BUT DEATH FIRST. You know what I hate the most? the end part? shivasina? where you just...lay there? You can't make it more difficult or anything it's just five fucking minutes of laying there.

Okay, so, I'm pretty sure I just thought of this answer and didn't actually send it in for another question but I not 100% sure. So! If I have already given this answer, apologies. Anyway! Blizzard actually exists in the Overwatch universe. They make tv shows, specifically, and when they approach OW with the idea of writing a tv, it seems like a good idea. Seems. They're generally pretty solid but the person they put in charge of the show had very specific ideas and also has a lot of pull with the studio so somehow manages to keep getting away with things. It doesn't seem like he fact checks anything. He gets their ages wrong and says something different in different episodes. When called out on it he just says he's done his research and refuses to acknowledge any wrong doing. The only silver lining is that after a while the characters of the show only resemble the real people in the vaguest possible way so OW takes to just mostly ignoring the show. That is, until he pairs has Fareeha start dating Genji, and Angela has to literally hold Fareeha back from killing him. (The lack to research is already so horrendous and fucking Genji?!?! What's even the point of people who won't do research?) Lena, meanwhile, is laughing so hard she's crying. Genji disappears and no one sees him for a month which leads to speculation that Fareeha killed him. (Lena goes on message boards under a pseudonym and proceeds to list increasingly bizarre ways that Fareeha has probably killed him. When he does eventually pop up she starts a conspiracy theory that he's actually a robot Fareeha made to cover her tracks.) The next few weeks are spent with Fareeha verbally flaying anyone and everyone she can find that has power over the show. The show has one of the bad guys kill Genji in response which Genji fans blame on Fareeha. (Lena laughs so hard she cries and adds more absurd death ideas to her post on the message board.) Angela, meanwhile, is calmly sitting in a chair sipping tea because she has chosen to ignore the show entirely, knows little to nothing of it, and until the day she dies the only thing she can tell you is that she's pretty sure Fareeha killed Genji.

@madegeeky Fareeha thinks she would be so chill about any and all uses of media to promote Overwatch, but I doubt she can handle a documentary, not to mention a show made for ENTERTAINMENT, that takes LIBERTIES, meanwhile Lena is buying her action figure and gifting it to her family, who put them in increasingly lurid situations around their houses like some sort of bastard Elf on the Shelf.

First place, for knowing exactly about the vagaries of love and terrible cooking:

Angela can't cook. She knows this. (Everyone knows this.) But when she and Fareeha move in together, the domestic bug hits her hard and she decides to start packing Fareeha's lunches. It's lunch. How hard can it be? Really. She's managed to feed herself for over thirty years. Sure she eats a lot of take-out, or simply forgets to eat, but not ALWAYS. She can do this. "It is not necessary," Fareeha says. "I can eat lunch at the Overwatch headquarters cafeteria. It is no trouble, truly the food there is rather good." (And often she ends up bringing lunch from the cafeteria to Angela, though she doesn't mention this now.) And yet. "I would like to do this for you." Angela responds. "It will make me happy, to treat you like this." What can Fareeha say to that? She acquiesces. The lunches are… not good. At all. But Fareeha eats each one without complaint, and is always sure to show Angela her gratitude. Three weeks in, Tracer (being Tracer) swipes half of Fareeha's sandwich despite her protestations. Tracer takes a big bite. She chews once… twice… and promptly gags. "What the bloody 'ell is THAT?!" Fareeha sighs. Overwatch gossip spreads like wildfire, and this is DEFINITELY getting back to Angela.

@seolh girl, you killed these OW prompts. I have my polls set so I don't see the writers until after I click on the response number--it means I can't give anyone 'a break' or anything, because I don't know who wrote what--so when i clicked on this one to reveal the numebr one place I was so happy for you. This was so funny and I enjoyed it so much.

Bonus one point for bringing up a point I've thought aout writing myself:

Tracer being forced to air travel like a regular person. The documentation for her medical equipment alone is a nightmare.

@vassekocho not just the insane process for her security check, but I imagine if they hit turbulence and stop serving G&Ts or something, she's getting up and going to the back of the plane like, "Oh I'll get meself, it's a 'andful of bumpy clouds what a load of bloody schoolgirls.' The attendants trying to tell her it could be dangerous, Lena, mid-cutting a fresh lime she stole from first class: "THIS??? Could eat a sausage roll and steer with the other 'and, in this"

[dtupdates-archive]

♡—DREAM replied to a post and a comment on Reddit! A transcript of the long comment is under the cut.

"So many people in this thread are just being ridiculous or saying things that are completely factually wrong. Like you are so pessimistic and hate twitter so much that you feel the need to disagree on everything. Like you can hate twitter and still recognize when a twitter take is right or not criticize everything I do on twitter.

Me asking the fandom to not comment about “body doubles” wearing the mask for required promotional content while I’m literally recovering for surgery, because it takes away from the content, is totally ridiculously okay. Especially given the fact I told them that would be the case in the first place, and far less people would comment on it in the first place. I’m not “policing” anyone, I’m asking and explaining why, as I have done tons in the past because it works because my fans respect me and I respect them (very generally lol). People say it all the time when it’s me under the mask that it’s not because of X or Y or Z and sometimes even those reasonings make me a little uncomfortable, especially in times when it is me.

Or speculating that George or Nick or Ken or whoever is under the mask.

People saying stuff about TikTok stats being terrible and that it’s trash content and not because of fans. First of all, no one’s blaming fans for anything, and it wasn’t even about past content it was seeing everyone comment “Ken” (when it’s not even Ken) on my TikTok and me realizing that would be confusing and could impact views, that’s just how I am, I analyze everything.

And anyone saying “TikTok views are trash because trash content” are just morons. My TikTok views are high, and I’ve uploaded more in the past months than I have like times 30 in the past years. Yea I’ve posted shit ones as well, that comes with trying to post more and more frequently. I’ve gained more followers recently than in years. Some of what I’ve uploaded is high effort skit content, others low quality memes or whatever. But I’m uploading what is fun and unique to me and that’s it and you can not watch it if you don’t like it.

For those complaining so much about the mask, literally just step back and realize how ridiculous you’re being?? Of my last 12 TikTok’s, 6 of them featured the mask. a few of them my face, a few of them Minecraft/normal content I’d make. Most the mask ones were just making fun of me wearing it in public lol. I post snaps in the mask, and also not in the mask. For those saying it makes my music impersonal, I’ve promoted on different platforms in the mask and out of the mask, for that reason lots of the UIEUD music video wasn’t in the mask since that was such an emotional piece. For my tour I plan to have plenty of show elements where I’m wearing the mask, and lots of singing and stuff where I’m not. At TwitchCon Paris I was in and out of the mask, at the boxing event I was in and out of the mask, I take fan photos without the mask. Like you’re far over exaggerating, and you’re forgetting I WAS A FACELESS CREATOR, I made 100% of my content without showing my face, AND I said I didn’t plan on showing my face all the time after, said I wouldn’t do face-cam streams, etc. If your complaint is that you’d rather see no person than me in the mask, then you’re just trying to look for something to complain about.

You could say “well now that we’ve seen your face we just realize that we’re missing out on seeing your face in that TikTok or post or whatever and it’s annoying” that’s totally valid, but have you ever thought that maybe you wouldn’t see that post at all if it wasn’t for the mask? I’m fairly confident, but I’m still very conscious of my looks and being judged by hundreds of millions of people makes me double take about putting just anything out on to the internet. “Oh I have a bad hair day, usually wouldn’t record, oh fuck it throw on the mask”

I’m not obligated to make content with my face in it, and I ALWAYS SAID I WASNT GOING TO, but I’ve actually grown a healthier relationship with how I look and the internet, so I do plan on showing myself more than I originally said. That being said, I love the mask, it’s great for me, and it’s always been my brand so get off your high horse about “dreams an idiot everyone hates it!”, when that’s just YOU being parasocial and not even recognizing it. I am enjoying what I’m doing and amplifying things that make me enjoy it, and I like the mask. I don’t owe anyone content of my face, but there will be plenty. I plan on making public appearances showing my face, making TikTok’s showing my face (as I have), posting pictures showing my face (as I have), and lots more. But only when and where I want to, and not because you think it’s stupid to wear the mask, but because I want to.

It’s fine to not like the fact that I wear the mask and express that you’d rather see that TikTok or post as my face, but just try and remember that I was faceless, and hardly planned on posting my face after the face reveal. There was years were I never showed myself, months where I was caught up in everything and showed myself so much, months where I JUST wore the mask, and now we’re slowly moving to a middle ground. Coming to terms with what I enjoy the most and is the best for me overall. Jesus reading this thread was exhausting so many just patently false things out of anger. I get it I haven’t communicated here much with this side, here’s a comment rip me apart"

[cerys-capricorn]

The country I live in is on fire with millions of acres destroyed and thousands of people evacuated. This is potentially the 2nd time in 4 years that people will loose everything they have (as the 2019 Canadian wildfires were also horrendous). Millions are suffering displacement, homelessness, and health risks due to the wildfires across the country. I live in British Columbia and I remember 2019. This is so much worse. The ENTIRE country is pretty much on fire.

And what do the people of the U.S.A immediately say? “Blame Canada!” “We need to invade them bc clearly something is wrong up there” “Canada fucking sucks!” “Ugh, here is my Timelapse of how smokey the sky is, but apparently it will be gone in 2 days.”

Well Americans aren’t the ones who have to deal with the LITERAL GIANT FIRES SCORCHING THEIR NEIGHBOURHOODS AND FORESTS! They don’t have to pack up everything they own and hope, JUST HOPE, they come back and their homes aren’t burnt to the ground. They don’t have to hope their communities aren’t entirely destroyed. They don’t have to worry if their friends, families, and animals are okay. They are not the ones trapped due to roads being closed and heavy debris falling as the fires become uncontrollable. And they only seem to care when it is them on fire. But if another country is? They don’t fucking bat an eye, and yet the rest of the world helps them when they are in need.

So instead of complaining Americans, how about you fucking help for once? We are thankful you sent some of your firefighters to help us, but in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t enough. The U.S.A as a country is the 2nd biggest C02 producer in the world, which heavily contributes to the worsening of climate change, hence the wildfires. But Americans seem to forget this little fact. They forget that their politics and their environmental policies have literally fucked the rest of the world. So stop being so fucking selfish and actually help for once by contacting your local, state, and federal government(s). Stop voting for absolute idiots that want climate change to worsen so their pockets can be filled. Help by spreading information that will help those impacted, volunteer if you can, and maybe consider donating if you have the means. Or at least have some goddamn compassion and sympathy.

Here are some ways you can help:

• United Way for the Northwest Territories

All money donated goes to those affected by the wildfires in the NWT. Every donation is matched by the Federal Canadian and NWT governments.

• The Canadian Red Cross

All donations go towards those most impacted by wildfires across the Canadian Maritimes "with immediate and ongoing relief, recovery and resilience efforts in response to the wildfires, as well as supporting community preparedness and risk reduction for future all-hazard disaster events within Atlantic Canada”. The Federal Canadian and Nova Scotia provincial government have committed to matching each $1 donation to become $3.

• Donate A Mask

This organization ships free N95 respirator equivalent masks across Canada to those affected by the wildfires and for those who cannot afford high-quality and high-grade medical masks.

• Firefighters Without Borders

Firefighters Without Borders is a organization based in Ontario that provides equipment and training to local firefighters and communities across Canada. This helps in fighting current and future wildfires and promotes prevention. It also supports local firefighters to host and provide equipment to international firefighters when Canada needs assistance.

• Odawa Native Friendship Centre

The Odawa Native Friendship Centre is an organization serving the Ottawa-Carleton region in Ontario by helping Indigenous peoples that have had to evacuate their homes due to the wildfires. They accept money donations and usually accept clothing donations as well, but they are not taking clothing items at this time.

• The Central Okanagan Food Bank BC Wildfires Emergency Food Relief Fund

This organization donates much needed food to those impacted by the wildfires who are currently facing food insecurity. They have expanded to helping the entire province as the wildfires have spread.

For more information and to stay up to date:

[godraet]

something something my god gan is truly lion and sun aesthetic and i continue to promote persian coded gerudo im never going to stop idk why nintendo let us down on so many fronts but it's my sacred duty to FIX IT ig im also going to be hero of the people

and speaking of that, i KNOW that gan made some real fuckshit choices, but as rauru says, he is in fact some entity born of prophecy to his people, every 100 years the padishah is born as hero of the people and has the right to rule simply by meeting the goddamn criteria, and im just going to say, if the things he was doing were like Evil he wouldn't be seen as a hero of his people

gan sends a literal stampede of molduga on hyrule but honestly its not like his people were objecting, which means he wasn't attacking for no fucking reason??? like ok yeah it's not Great but it sorta implies that huh maybe the gerudo didn't actually provoke this shit, what a wild concept, gan not just being this power hungry entity, but actually having like a real reason to be fuckin MAD

which also ties into gan wanting to kill rauru, like ok yeah sure sonia had a sacred stone too but he doesn't have beef with sonia, she barely seems to do anything other than sit next to rauru and not be seen as his equal if gan says that rauru was ignorant to her power it's like dude ok you obviously disapprove of the entire ass dynamic they have which is a whole different story, but why go for sonia who he has no apparent issue with when he could kill rauru who is "king of hyrule" like killing sonia doesn't actually do anything in the grand scheme of things???

there's this horrible anger and hurt that has built up in gan, he's evidently been doing things FOR HIS PEOPLE that they see him as a hero, not just a king that they have to follow because of some prophecy and the conditions under which he was born, it's so much deeper than like. him just being evil and the incarnation of demise. the man even gains a crown that looks sorta like the sun's rays and thats when he gains a sacred stone???

also there's truly a 0% chance that he could just suddenly master that level of magic if he didn't already HAVE it. much as the triforce just augments what already exists in someone, the sacred stone probably just does the SAME THING, it removes the limiters on his abilities, some of those which were absolutely self-made, because divine power makes someone rather isolated, be they loved or feared- gan already had the divide of being padishah by birth, he would never be like the other gerudo, whether he would be raised as vai or voe, there would ALWAYS be this massive divide in the end,

let's also not forget that gan just sorta wipes the floor with the other sages in the old days, and rauru only manages to seal him away, and even after 10,000 years of supposedly having no magic, he just YEETS the master sword??? yeah uhhhh theres a 0% chance gan wasn't a deity in the first place i just have no other way to explain this anyway this is getting very scattered but i have IDEAS for where this blog is going thanks

[thegreatimpersonator]

like, do i feel a little bit of empathy for taylor rn bc i think she’s probably in self destruct mode? yeah but my feeling that is not a choice lmao and it’s certainly not a feeling that i’m going to feed and defend. like im honestly mad at myself for even feeling that but it is what it is. much more than that though i am unbelievably pissed at her.

everyone is soo fucking concerned about protecting her but what about all the people of minorities that she’s hurting rn? what about the fact that she 100% knows everything matty did and decided, as a grown ass adult, to double down anyway? “empathy” is not the catch all that everyone thinks it is. its just a feeling. what matters is words and actions, and her total lack of those things is a statement in of itself. she doesnt care that shes promoting racism. theres no empathizing your way out of that.

sorry for this rant i just literally feel a little sick every time i see people on here move on and go back to normal and calling her soo cute tiny babygirl mommy perfect infallible baby child queen of gay rights <3 like. shes an adult and her choices rn fucking suck. the consequences are real like this has real effects on people, not everyone has the privilege to just forget about racism. hurts my fucking heart rn.

the people who just went back to how it was a few weeks ago and are acting like everything is back to normal are very concerning to me because like you said, it's erasing the pain and hurt of the communities affected and ignoring it is a privilege, a privilege they are actively taking advantage of.

i get feeling sad she's obviously not in a perfect place, but a decent person in a self destructive place would just chop their hair off, not start dating a vocally racist, antisemitic, sexist, ableist, homophobic person. that's not self destructive, that's just revealing your true colors.

[ballonleaparadise]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 100 is a thoughtful take on Leon's character

So I loved episode 100 of pokemon Journeys so much! I'm really glad that the writers touched the different side of Leon's personality, like Twilight Wings did. It was a cute, lighthearted episode, but there's also a lot to unpick:

One thing which episode 100 of Pokemon Journeys does better than Leon's past episodes, is exploring the Champion's emotions. Of course, we have been given some details about Leon's personal life earlier in the series. Back in episode 43, Sonia explains how she grew up with Leon, and taught him about pokemon battles. However, episode 100 elaborates on this, revealing Leon's 'true face' as promised. The episode has a similar set up to episode 43, with Sonia taking Goh for a drive in one scene, and Ash helping out Leon in another. I thought this structure was effective for showing both Sonia's and Leon's perspective, in terms of his identity.

At the beginning of the episode, Ash finds out that Leon is in a match against Flint. Here, we see the same version of Leon that we have seen during his battles with Lance and Raihan: Confident, cocky, and powerful. Shortly after, Leon is shown signing autographs for kids. By contrast, here he is much more relaxed and down to earth. I think this shows another side of Leon's personality that we saw during episode 82, which is like an intermediate between his 'true face' and his Champion persona. While he is still playing the role as the unbeatable champion, he is more calm and less of the cocky personality which he presents in battles. This is for two main reasons: when surrounded by fans, Leon needs to maintain his Champion status, in order to meet everyone's expectations. This is frustrated by the fact that many of Leon's fans are kids, who literally see him as a superhero. However, underneath it all, he just wants to be able to chill and chat with people.

Leon's situation is arguably similar to how irl celebs have to present themselves. I'm going off topic, but when signing autographs or being interviewed, celebs still have to play a part in order to promote themselves. This is exactly what Leon is doing here. It's less of the act which he puts up during battles, but still very much a 'champion' persona for his fans.

The first revelation we have about Leon's 'true face', is that he is actually quite ordinary. For instance, we already knew about Leon's bad sense of direction, but this episode makes it even more hilarious. Leon's poor sense of direction continues to prove that he's still a human being underneath his celebrity status: When Sonia tells Goh about Leon's terrible sence of direction, Goh is shocked. He even says "I thought Leon was the perfect Champion". Leon has been lost in previous episodes of Pokemon Journeys, so you'd think that Goh wouldn't question this. However, I think that Leon's flaws are so overshone by his champion demeanor, that people forget about his imperfections. I feel like that was why Goh was so suprised at Sonia's remark. Everyone has their faults, which is makes Leon relatable and believable as a character, hence more 'ordinary' than he initially seems.

The thing about Leon's celebrity status, is that he has to carry it around with him nearly all the time. Even outside of the limelight, he is representing the Galar champion and 'reigning monarch' of the coronation series. This extends to all the trainers he meets, including Ash and Goh, and even his younger brother Hop in the games. In this episode, Leon finds a chance to be himself while training with Ash. At this point, Leon has known Ash for long enough to realise that putting on an act around him is not neccessary. Ash is determined to beat Leon, and he doesn't need a 'superhero' personality to convince him. As a result, we see Leon being carefree for once.

Next, we have the revelation from Sonia that behind Leon's "Charismatic figure" he is just a "big kid... a pokemon freak". Goh then observes that Leon is "basically Ash". Immidiately after, we see a shot of Leon and Ash almost mirroring each other. The assimilation of Ash and Leon is neat, but also pretty sad. Leon is basically Ash under the influence of fame and power. As I said in one of my earliest posts, Leon may battle for his love of pokemon, but this doesn't meant that he is completely happy. (The post was on my old blog page so I don't think I can reference it, but that's pretty much what I wrote about). Being famous for what you're good at can come with immense pressure, especially if you're depicted as an idol.

Sonia also drops a hint about Leon's childhood. She states that Leon didnt have many friends as a child other than Sonia, and was often "Helping with chores around the house and taking care of his little brother". I'm not sure why there's no elaboration about Hop here. It would have been interesting to explore Leon's relationship with his brother. It is implied in the games that Leon had to step up as a parental figure for Hop, as he "practically raised him". Whether there was a deceased parent, or familial issues that Leon and Hop went through, it's not clear. But then, as Sonia said, pokemon changed Leon's world.

The main reason why Leon pursued pokemon in the first place seems to be due to the joy they gave him as a lonely child. However, reaching the heights of a champion has made it so much more complex. The later part of the adventure shows Leon being completely honest. When Ash asks "what's it like to be champion?" Leon says: "I'd never lost a pokemon battle, and it scared me". Being as successful as Leon arguably would be terrifying. Once you are the best at something, you're stuck. There's nothing left to gain. As Leon puts it, "I'd reached my limit, and couldn't improve any further". Also, Leon's winning streak diminishes his purpose to "learn from every battle I take part in". He's ends up doing the same thing over and over again, and nothing changes. It's no wonder that it gave Leon hope seeing how strong eternatus is. In order to stay sane, everyone needs something to look up to. If we don't, our goals seem meaningless. Leon now realises that "There's still guys who are stronger than me! and I can chase after them!"

Finally, when you consider the fact that Leon became champion at the age of 10, he's been carrying around his celebrity persona for most of his life. He's never had a chance to know what to do with his fame. As a kid's show, I think it's great that the writers are putting this concept out there like Twilight Wings did. Fame can turn you into someone you're not and trap you, if you can't see beyond it.

That's about it lol. I hope there will more wholesome Leon content like this in future episodes!!

[vicea]

it's that time of the day again, thinking anon's daily dream and friends' love posthing hours!!!

no thoughts, just sapnap and dream's dynamic... to think all this started because baby sap and dream got teamed up for a game on a minecraft server. they've known each other for almost a decade, they've seen each other through everything. relationships, school, youtube, you name it, they were there for the other. sapnap saying he'll go wherever dream goes before he even made a name for himself on youtube with no doubt that his best friend would succeed. dream constantly raving about how talented sapnap is at minecraft and calling him brother at any milestone. dream saying that he thinks him and sapnap are platonic soulmates and them moving in together. them having designated days for this specific food and sapnap meeting dream's mom and her loving him as if he was her own son. drista liking sapnap and teases him like she would dream. sapnap talking to dream about their future and him being uncle nick to his kids and the fact that he thought of the future and seeing himself still at dream's side makes my heart warm :( there is no doubt in my head that they're brothers for life.

- thinking anon

lets fucking go dreamnap my beloved, oh my GOD how i adore these best friends with my entire fucking heart like lord their interactions together make me so happy because yes, they are the pinnacle of childhood ride-or-die best friends

dream just entering sapnap’s room and sitting criss-cross on his floor just to accompany him and talk to him just exudes their brother energy. sapnap wanting to eat with dream on their burger day will always get to me like... I think it’s really fucking sweet when people wait for their loved ones to sit down and eat with them. like that’s how much you love their company- when you want to share such a simple every day task with them... that’s so fucking wholesome 🥺 and when dream and sapnap watched boxing together and dream sending a text message to him to remind him... i love them so much gosh 

i also remember super fondly when sapnap was playing valorant on his alt stream, dream came in and then sapnap started showing off his gun skin collection. and then he was like “look this one is an axe, like a minecraft axe, you’d like that right?” and then he let dream pick out the skins for guns and IDK that moment itself also just POURS brother energy and makes me so fond of them...  

sapnap did his best to gain patches’ love and trust by leaving his door open so she can enter his room whenever, by feeding her despite her more or less complicated meal, how he always boasts about patches. and remember when sapnap was with karl for a week and he was like “i can’t wait to go home” (x) home being dream and patches. i just... it got me punching the fucking air in the best way possible. and connected to how you mentioned sapnap will become uncle nick to dream’s kids... they truly are a family already :’)

moreover, i remember they made these smoothies/sandwiches once over video call when they were younger and i was like aw, that’s sweet. but then - here’s the tear-jerker - them making mayo together present day with dream’s mom and dream sounding so fond about the whole thing and what he learned with sapnap like 🥺 (also pls supply us food pictures with your taco tuesdays and your burger days they sound so good)

i will never not wipe a tear whenever i’m reminded that sapnap said he’ll follow wherever dream goes. he trusts him so fucking much and respects him too and it’s mutual!! like dream is 100% so proud of sapnap and respects him just as much for everything he’s done (not just for his minecraft skills but for bringing home bank from the mrbeast event and the pokemon thing with karl) oh god and this (x) has happened more than once too. i love it when dream compliments sapnap it’s so sweet <3 and whenever sapnap is like “only dream is cool” or like “dream is so smart” (sapnap is dream’s number 1 hypeman you cannot convince me otherwise) like best friends supporting and praising each other you love to fucking see it !!

and sapnap takes every mf chance to promote roadtrip, like mans sings that song like it’s his fucking anthem and you know what?? it probably is at this point (rightfully so). he never fails to sing it at least once every stream (probably an exaggeration but tbh i feel like he actually has) and god i love him so much for that he supports dream so much at every given moment and unabashedly loves that song. i cannot wait for him to start singing mask.

oh my god i will never ever forget how sapnap and dream POPPED THE FUCK OFF in sky battle in their MCC11 together. like holy smokes their synergy in PvP is so unrivaled, dream also mentions how in sync they are. like dream’s health was low once and he asked for a heal (all of this was in a pressure situation with the barriers closing in and in the middle of a battle) and apparently sapnap immediately reacted and splashed him with an instant health pot. 

oh and in their manhunts, their battles are so intense... like sheesh the lava fight and the joust fight is truly Iconic !! dreamnap pvp battles are always so epic

some more brainrot: sapnap has seen the car dream mentions in roadtrip. sapnap has seen the warehouse for dream’s merch, also has every dream hoodie. sapnap also changed his own merch line over to dream as well. and sapnap has a miniature dream (dream’s youtooz i’m assuming) in the background (x).

in conclusion, dream and sapnap’s friendship is literally unrivaled, i love them to fucking death

[cooloddball]

Someone submitted something in my inbox and they wanted to remain anonymous. Since this is an extremely long essay, I will put it under the cut. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

xxx submitted: hey, i was the one who ask what do you think of Misha and Jensen's current relationship First off all thank you for your answear it means much to me cause im easy to be convice and this person who keep telling me that they are no longer friends can be so convicing, so I'm actully trying to forget what she said 😅 so I'm just writing a few. she said that since they no longer work together, they will forget about each other, and do their common things like the gay jokes, face touches ect. With other people, and neglect each other, don't talk to each other, and then meet new people who will replace the other. And and she talked about the gish thing, she said she sure they didn't talk since the end of the series, because Jensen didn't know where Misha was and Misha didn't know about the Radio Company vol 2 (but i saw people say that, they were just pretending, because Misha liked something about Radio Company Vol 2, before the gish live, so in theory he already knew then or something like that) and She said Misha wrote a poem about Darius not Jensen and now I will write down what she sent me : I saw a post about Jensen's current activities on social media, and I've come to the conclusion the only person he doesn't interact with is mish. Sadly this makes my break up theory even stronger. I feel like this is a goodbye to one of the biggest parts of my life. They've moved on from "uk what I haven't told you today? That i love u"+ from "miss my only jensen" from "i love u misha i mean it from the bottom of my heart" from "jensen has no flaws" from "misha is the funniest thing ever happened to me" from all that love and affection from everything they developed together and now they're apart leaving their lives like nothing happened and call me a dramatic but they both have the same energy now as someone has after a big break up. and Jensen comments on almost every of his friend’s post except Misha’s"+ Jenmish is genuinely the best thing that has ever happened in my entire life. I owe them literally everything. They're the reason i hold on. Unfortunately on this essay i have to start using past tense verbs for them, and i have to continue on that. I don't know for how long y'all been in spn fandom. But even if u joined one year before the show ended you'd know how close and intimate jensen and misha were. Everything about them was unmatched.+ The chemistry and how they just fit eachother. They had always been all over eachother. Like they were holding on eachother for dear life. They completed eachother and were like world's most powerful thing. They were the definition of soulmatism. No matter where, they ALWAYS kept interacting with eachother. Each possible tweet or insta post. On cons that the other wasn't there, the other one would bring up the othere's name for no absolute reason. +The looks and repeated love confessions. How invested they were both into eachother. The family they had built together cuz we know how close dee and mish are (look all the charity work they've been doing together recently). There are youtube videos to proof everything I've said so far.When i say break up, my real intention is that they've grown apart. Everything started in the the third or forth month of pandemic. Before than jensen used to interact +(comment mostly) on almost all of misha's posts. But after a while everything just stopped. At first personally didn't care that much. Bcuz I believed too much in them that I thought not even the gods above could separate them. I told myself maybe they spend long hours chatting or video calling and that's why online public interactions are gone. But as it passed it almost diminished to zero. Except some likes from jackles and eventual ones from misha there weren't anything else.+ We got absolutely no content and the show went off too. We were helpless and were sticking to everything we had Dee had a big social media shot down, so as jensen. Misha was busy with the election. We got some interviews for it with all of them. But we didn't get much.except remember both of them pulling a bff

move. and texted eachother during an online con where everyone else were dead-serious about politics? That flickered something in me. That showed me that+ they can't ever possibly let eachother go. And the times everyone else were talking and these too would just talk random things together (the one jackels had a white hat on with stacy abraham).And then Misha posted that for jensen's bday We really overlooked it. That shit was too intimate. To close. Fav march baby? U just don't go around and called ur bestie baby and when u mean it deeply. Especially not when ur friend is jensen ackles the "I suffered form internalized homophobia my whole life+ but fuck my wife's an angel and i have an angel bf too and another angel which is his wife but I'd rather die than come out cuz my asshole dad pulled a John winchester on me". It doesn't work like that. But uk how mish is. Carefree and open. I believe they got into a fight bcuz of this. He didn't even like the post. AND that was when the tiny bit of interactions we had was gone too. For a while jensen didn't even liked his posts. After a month it started again.What made me finally believe in that they had grown too+ far: I still remember the night misha posted that he and jensen were going to have a con for gish together. I remember how hard I cried. Lile the whole world was given to me. But deep down in my heart I knew that something would definitely happen. It didn't sit right with me and unfortunately my senses never lie to me. Jensen showed up at the wrong time bcuz of misunderstanding the time zones (this was HILARIOUS). That's not even my point.+ I've seen that interview 3 times so far. It always reminds me of when i saw my ex at a party and we were both so thrilled to see eachother and we still loved the other dearly, but we just couldn't work it out. Jensen and Misha's expressions were EXACTLY the same. The genuine smiles and longs pauses were they just stared at eachother. I'm so happy that it was online cuz if they actually gave that looks to eachother standing right next to the other one I would've collapsed. Misha didn't know that jensen's album+ was out. And he got so embarrassed when he found it out. He didn't know that jensen was on set and hadn't been home for 8weeks. Jensen had no idea where misha was. And this means that they hadn't talked in a long long time.When you're that close with someone for more than a decade, i mean THAT close, even if u're separated from eachother you'd at least check on the once a week, or at least once in two weeks. But it was vividly clear that they hadn't. I hate how this world works. They would always be in my heart.+ I would be thankful from them for everything. It hurts, and it won't stop and im so sure I'd be carrying this pain for a long time. They mean too much to a lot of us. Sometimes I think to myself that god i love them so much. Remember in 2019 when we used to get SO many jenmishdee interactions? That was LIT. It was THEE year for us. I hope they're doing good. I really do. I hope we don't get more proofs and I won't have to update this thread. Cuz my heart won't be taking it very+ well.Something i gotta add U may say that Jensen's busy and that's why he doesn't comment. But he comments on a lot of jared and his new costar's posts. So that's no excuse. So yeah that's it. I don't know what am I supposed to think. english isn't my native language, so sorry for the mistakes

Here is my response:

I don't know who this person who has been talking to is but I have to say they seem to be project their previous relationship experience on cockles.

I believe Jensen and Misha are okay and are together. Social media likes and comments don't mean anything. I mean it's not like Jensen or Misha used to comment on each other's posts before. Jensen didn't even wish Dee Happy Mother's Day this year, does that mean they are not together anymore? Nope. He has other best friends he has known for over 20 years like Jason Manns, Steve Carlson etc that he doesn't wish happy birthday, does that mean they are not friends anymore.

Please let's not put value on social media likes. I don't even follow my own family on sm and I don't always like or comment on my bf's or bff's posts on sm. So it doesn't mean anything.

As for the Gish Panel, I have talked about it before, the time Jensen was slotted to attend the panel, he was meant to answer fan questions. I honestly believe they decided to not do it at that time because they knew the questions would be about Destiel and not their new projects. If you watched that panel, Misha knew that Jensen's album was out as I pointed out. He was just trying to promote the album and soldier boy. He knew Jensen had also buffed out. It was all to promote Jensen. Anything else you hear is trolls and antis just being loud. Also don't forget Jensen called him "babe".

If Jensen and Misha weren't okay, he wouldn't have attended or participated all those panels Misha organized especially for Gish. Danneel also posts a lot about RA and likes Misha's posts. I am 100% Misha visited the Ackles when he went to Colorado last month.

Stop listening to trolls and/or antis or just people who are projecting and look at facts.

[forestkodama]

Okay, so, wanna hear a funny story?

A lifetime ago (for at least a chunk of tumblr's demographic), when the now beloved meme-source movie The Road to El Dorado was set to be released in theaters, DreamWorks decided to do some promotions. There was some standard tie-in fast food kid cups and booklets (do they even still do that?) but for this movie, someone decided to do something bigger.

"Hey," probably thought some eager mid-tier marketing director at DreamWorks, "This movie is about a quasi-fictional place in America called El Dorado. There are towns named for that place right here in America. Let's have an event at one of those towns!"

Now, in the United States, there are more than two dozen places called some variant of El Dorado. About half so are actual towns, most of which began as oil boom towns. In the year 2000, when this animated delight was made, the largest of these towns (El Dorado, Arkansas) had a whole 21,000 people. DreamWorks wanted to have a promotional event in an El Dorado and they had to choose from towns ranging from small to post-office-was-shut-down-in-the-60s-smaller to barely-holding-a-census-designation-tiny.

For whatever reason, the animation studio's marketing did not select the largest of these towns to get the most publicity for their buck. Instead, they selected the second largest town: Coming in at a whole 12,000 people, El Dorado, Kansas.

My home town.

In 2000, I was in eighth grade and a nerd. I was blossoming into a barely-worldly cinephile, and I knew that this sort of thing wasn't a common occurrence for our unknown town. I was also developing my taste for irony, because the fact that DreamWorks selected us was hilarious for another reason beyond the fact that we were tiny and unknown: We don't pronounce it El Do-rah-do. We pronounce it El Do-ray-do.

Word gets out that the studio is going to host a parade for the town around its premier in December. They will paint the town gold, literally: Gold streets, gold ornaments, gold lighting. The high school band would march in the parade in uniforms with gold trim. There would be a special ceremony that involved giving the mayor a bag of gold. All of this would be recorded as features to be seen as extras on the DVD release of the movie. This was back when DVDs were still a big deal. Cue me, in band but not yet in high school, being intensely jealous.

A day before the parade, I'm watching the news before school - I think on KAKE even though I liked KSN better - and DreamWorks has hired two characters actors as Tulio and Miguel to be interviewed by the news anchors. This was the first time I had ever seen Real Life versions of animated characters outside of Disneyland. Their clothes and haircuts perfectly matched their animated counterparts. They were flamboyant and wonderful and I hope wherever those dudes are now they are having a good life. They talk about El Dorado and the gold to be given to the city.

Everyone is really excited, or, at least, I am.

Then, because this is Kansas in December, weather happened: A tornado snowstorm. It falls hard and piles up fast.

And DreamWorks does not cancel the parade.

They continue to televise it.

Presumably this is the video that would get attached to the DVD.

The parade is set for the afternoon, and the snow continues as the high school band marches on. The golden streets of El Dorado have been buried under a foot of snow. The golden lights glow with auras in the gently falling snow.

I remember watching the beginning of the parade at home and thinking how not-fun it looked, but I still begged my grandfather to take me downtown to watch the gold-gifting ceremony. It was damn cold and the streets were absolutely awful with slush. (Years later, I would ask some upperclassmen what it was like to march that day, and the responses were unanimous: Fucking miserable.) The mayor was in a big coat on stage, but I remember the two actors playing Miguel and Tulio still in their Spanish-esque colorful shirts. They handed her a bag, presumably filled with gold coins (the rumored number ranged from 100 to 1000), and she made a little speech that ended with a quip about how for today our town was known as El Do-rah-do.

We all clap and then rush to get out of the cold and wet situation, entirely unsure of exactly what we just experienced.

Supposedly, the gold coins went to building the six-screen movie theater in town, since we only had the seasonal drive-in and a defunct two-screen. The city still hangs the gold decorations every December.

None of this ever appeared on The Road to El Dorado DVD. So few records exist of this bizarre promotional stunt waylaid by snow, it just doesn't exist outside of my hometown in Kansas. The Road to El Dorado is of course now famous for its characters and their relationships (cause fuck yeah bisexual and polyamorous representation) and a bit of a phoned-in soundtrack by Elton John (I still love Someday Out of the Blue), but I'll never forget the Snow Covered City of Gold Called El Do-ray-do.

[vivithefolle]

Hermione has more complimentary traits with Harry than she does with Ron. Hermione is logical and thinks through her decisions while Harry is ruled by his emotions and follows his instincts. She's enthusiastic/cheerful he is more introverted and bitter. She motivates him to do better, and he reminds her that there are more important things than books and cleverness. Ron's humour gets on Hermione's nerves and her cleverness does the same to him. Their differences tear them instead of balancing.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!! HahahahahahHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh that’s a good one, oh thank you dude, oh I haven’t laughed this hard in... in like 24 hours, I saw a pretty great meme yesterday, but oh thank you that was hilarious.

...

... wait you were serious?

...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHONHONHONHONHONHONHAHAHAHHONHONSNORTHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHOHOHOHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEH HAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH HAHAHAH HAHAHAH HAAHAHAHAHAAAAAA AAAAAH HAAAWWW... oh my god, oh my god... seriously you could build a whole ass circus out of that.

Alright! Now that the hilarity’s over...

Hermione has more complimentary traits with Harry than she does with Ron. 

Prove it.

Hermione is logical and thinks through her decisions 

... and sometimes she also makes very illogical decisions and acts very rash, see how she sets Snape on fire in first year which could have hurt everyone around, how she forgot she’s a witch, see how the Polyjuice plan was total bullshit and relied 100% on luck, see how she acted completely thoughtless to Ron in POA, see how she was completely harebrained at the end of OOTP due to pressure, her very thought-out reaction to Ron and Lavender being together, and such...

Harry is ruled by his emotions and follows his instincts 

You realize you just described Ron too, pal? Ron’s role in the Trio is the Heart. Harry’s the Body, since everything revolves around him, Hermione’s the Brain, Ron is the Heart. That’s how they work.

She's enthusiastic/cheerful 

......... cheerful?

Hermione?

Cheerful?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA(...)HAWHAWHAWHONHONHONHONHONHAHAHAHAHA(...)HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAhahahaha... haaaa...

Hermione may be enthusiastic about knowledge, but she’s not cheerful. She’s not the one who makes the jokes, she’s not the one who has a snarky comment on everything, she’s not the one who makes Harry laugh, she’s not the one who laughs at Harry’s jokes. That’s Ron’s job.

RON is the cheerful one. Sorry pal, better reread the books.

he is more introverted and bitter 

Pro tip: this can also describe Hermione to a degree. Though Hermione isn’t exactly an introvert, she’s more of a socially awkward extrovert. She’s not reading quietly in a corner and demurely asking “oh please don’t talk to me, I just want to read :(” she’s more like “I READ THAT BOOK ABOUT [social injustice] AND IT’S CLEAR TO ME NOW THAT [social injustice] IS UNACCEPTABLE, DO YOU HAVE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT [social injustice], I’M GONNA RAISE FUNDS TO PROMOTE AWARENESS AND EDUCATE PEOPLE ON THIS SUBJECT WILL YOU JOIN ME, WHY WON’T YOU JOIN ME, COME BACK WE’RE NOT FINISHED WITH THIS-”

... or, I could also... show you.

From your own dear and esteemed “Harmony Bible” that is Order of the Phoenix. *snort* “Harmony Bible”... oh my god, the delusion, the delusion...

“It’s lessons with Snape that are making it worse,” said Harry flatly. “I’m  getting  sick  of  my  scar  hurting,  and  I’m  getting  bored  walking  down  that  corridor  every  night.”  He  rubbed  his  forehead  angrily.  “I  just wish the door would open, I’m sick of standing staring at it —”

“That’s  not  funny,”  said  Hermione  sharply.  “Dumbledore  doesn’t  want  you  to  have  dreams  about  that  corridor  at  all,  or  he  wouldn’t  have asked Snape to teach you Occlumency. You’re just going to have to work a bit harder in your lessons.”

“I  am  working!”  said  Harry,  nettled.  “You  try  it  sometime,  Snape  trying to get inside your head, it’s not a bundle of laughs, you know!”

1. Example of Hermione not appreciating Harry’s humour

2. Example of Harry not liking Hermione’s “pushing him to do better”

Oooh, surprise! It’s not just Ron and Hermione that do the silent treatment to each other, Harry does it too! What a turn of events!

Hermione  nodded,  apparently  still  lost  in  thought.  Then,  quite  abruptly, she said, “But you shouldn’t have seen this at all, Harry.”

“What?” he said, taken aback.

“You’re supposed to be learning how to close your mind to this sort of thing,” said Hermione, suddenly stern.

“I know I am,” said Harry. “But —”

“Well,  I  think  we  should  just  try  and  forget  what  you  saw,”  said  Hermione firmly. “And you ought to put in a bit more effort on your Occlumency from now on.”

Harry was so angry with her that he did not talk to her for the rest of  the  day,  which  proved  to  be  another  bad  one.

Ah, lying, avoiding the subject, refusing to consider her opinion... how harmonious. *gigglesnort*

“But why haven’t you got Occlumency lessons anymore?” said Hermione, frowning.

“I’ve told you,” Harry muttered. “Snape reckons I can carry on by myself now I’ve got the basics...”

“So  you’ve  stopped  having  funny  dreams?”  said  Hermione  skeptically.

“Pretty much,” said Harry, not looking at her.

“Well, I don’t think Snape should stop until you’re absolutely sure you  can  control  them!”  said  Hermione  indignantly.  “Harry,  I  think  you should go back to him and ask —”

“No,” said Harry forcefully. “Just drop it, Hermione, okay?”

Hmmm, funny how Harry acts more like a teenager trying to sneak out of bed on Mama Ron and Hermione’s watch rather than as “Hermione’s perfect flawless soulmate uwu”!

He  had  ended  up  saying  to  them  truthfully  that  Sirius  wanted  Harry  to  resume  Occlumency  lessons.  He  had  been  regretting  this  ever since; Hermione would not let the subject drop and kept reverting to it when Harry least expected it.

“You can’t tell me you’ve stopped having funny dreams,” Hermione said now, “because Ron told me last night you were muttering in your sleep again...”

Harry  threw  Ron  a  furious  look.  Ron  had  the  grace  to  look  ashamed of himself.

Yes, she toooootally brings out “the best” of him... the best of all he’s learned at the Dursleys, which is avoidance, lying, deceiving... ha ha ha ha ha... oh, you guys, you’re so desperate, it’s almost cute. But then I remember that you keep bashing Ron and I stop feeling merciful.

“You are trying to block your mind, aren’t you?” said Hermione, looking beadily at Harry. “You are keeping going with your Occlumency?”

“Of course I am,” said Harry, trying to sound as though this ques-tion was insulting, but not quite meeting her eye. The truth was that he  was  so  intensely  curious  about  what  was  hidden  in  that  room  full  of dusty orbs that he was quite keen for the dreams to continue. 

Oh yes, he’s totally motivated to do better. He’s so motivated in fact he’s going to completely ignore her. And guess how that first date ends? With Sirius’ death. What a harmonious pairing.

“But Harry, you’ve just said it,” said Hermione fiercely. “Dumbledore  wanted  you  to  learn  to  shut  these  things  out  of  your  mind,  if  you’d done Occlumency properly you’d never have seen this —”

“IF   YOU   THINK   I’M   JUST   GOING   TO   ACT   LIKE   I   HAVEN’T SEEN —”

“Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learn-ing to close your mind!”

“WELL, I EXPECT HE’D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I’D JUST —”

And and and!! Hohohoho I’m not done!! Let me show you, I have SO MUCH to show you!!

As early as Goblet of Fire... Ah, and don’t say that this is “evil Ron’s evil influence of evilness :(” because Ron literally is harder-working than Harry in possibly every way because Ron doesn’t have the luxury of being the protagonist to promote him to, say, youngest Seeker in a century. Yeah, Ron’s not a Mary Sue like that. But I digress.

"It's Christmas, Hermione," said Harry lazily; he was rereading Flying with the Cannons for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.

Hermione looked severely over at him too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"

"Like what?" Harry said as he watched Joey Jenkins of the Cannons belt a Bludger toward a Ballycastle Bats Chaser.

"That egg!" Hermione hissed.

"Come on, Hermione, I've got till February the twenty-fourth," Harry said.

He had put the golden egg upstairs in his trunk and hadn't opened it since the celebration party after the first task. There were still two and a half months to go until he needed to know what all the screechy wailing meant, after all.

"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet," she said. "Really get to work on that egg."

"Oh I - I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now," Harry lied.

"Have you really?" said Hermione, looking impressed. "Well done!"

Harry’s insides gave a guilty squirm, but he ignored them. He still had five weeks to work out that egg clue, after all, and that was ages... whereas if he went into Hogsmeade, he might run into Hagrid, and get a chance to persuade him to come back.

... but you know what makes Harry change his mind about lying about the egg? Or rather, who?

So you may argue that oh là là, Harry feels guilty for lying to his great soulmate Hermoanie and waah isn’t it so romantic...

Even though Harry can and does acknowledge that Hermione means well… it’s not enough for him. He will lie, avoid her, and go behind her back, like a child would with their parent, and even though he may feel guilty about it, it’s not enough to deter him.

Hagrid's miserable face broke into a wide, watery smile.

"Tha's my boy. . . you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat 'em all."

Lying to Hagrid wasn't quite like lying to anyone else. Harry went back to the castle later that afternoon with Ron and Hermione, unable to banish the image of the happy expression on Hagrid's whiskery face as he had imagined Harry winning the tournament. The incomprehensible egg weighed more heavily than ever on Harrys conscience that evening, and by the time he had got into bed, he had made up his mind - it was time to shelve his pride and see if Cedric's hint was worth anything.

And of course Half-Blood Prince, and if you try to tell me “buuutt hermoanie was ooc :((((” you can put a cactus up your rear you coward.

Welp. Not Ron, not Hermione. Hagrid.

Welcome to the world, Ha... Hagry? Harrid? Oh whatever. Here you go, Hagrid brings the best out of Harry, Harry feels more guilt at the thought of lying to Hagrid than anyone else. OTP.

She’s certainly not encouraging Harry to try new stuff. How is that supposed to help him improve? How is that supposed to make him do better?

“How are you doing that?” demanded Hermione, who was redfaced and whose hair was growing bushier and bushier in the fumes from her cauldron; her potion was still resolutely purple.

“Add a clockwise stir—”

“No, no, the book says counterclockwise!” she snapped.

Harry shrugged and continued what he was doing.

For or the rest of the week’s Potions lessons Harry continued to follow the Half-Blood Prince’s instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage’s, with the result that by their fourth lesson Slughorn  was  raving  about  Harry’s  abilities,  saying  that  he  had  rarely  taught  anyone  so  talented.   Neither  Ron  nor  Hermione  was  delighted  by  this.  Although  Harry  had  offered  to  share  his  book  with both of them, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry did, and could not  keep  asking  Harry  to  read  aloud  or  it  might  look  suspicious.  Hermione,  meanwhile,  was  resolutely plowing on with what she called the “official” instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince’s.

In fact

(dyslexic!Ron dyslexic!Ron dyslexic!Ron)

Well isn’t that fun? Harry is being the “best” at something... and Hermione doesn’t like it.

Incredibly, and to Hermione’s increasing resentment, Harry’s best subject had suddenly become Potions, thanks to the Half-Blood Prince.  

she seems

The only person who did not find these charms amusing was Hermione, who maintained a rigidly disapproving expression throughout and refused to talk at all if Harry had used the Muffliato spell on anyone in the vicinity.

to hate

Hermione's expression could not have been any smugger; she had loathed being out-performed in every Potions class. She was now decanting the mysteriously separated ingredients of her poison into ten different crystal phials. More to avoid watching this irritating sight than anything else, Harry bent over the Half-Blood Prince's book and turned a few pages with unnecessary force.

that Harry is doing great.

(Oh look. Harry is irritated at the mere sight of Hermione. Well that’s definitely a hint they should marry!!! /s)

“Are you telling me,” said Hermione, “that you're going to go back—?”

“And get the book? Yeah, I am,” said Harry forcefully. "Listen, without the Prince I'd never have won the Felix Felicis. I'd never have known how to save Ron from poisoning, I'd never have—”

“—got a reputation for Potions brilliance you don't deserve,” said Hermione nastily.

And then let’s remember Hermione still nattering about Occlumency through Deathly Hallows, or how she breaks Harry’s wand and Harry is “desiring nothing more than to get away from her”, and all that... ah but of course you won’t ever see that in all your “Harmony” analyses, because there’s no way to spin that positively... ha ha ha...

Accomplishing his mission from Dumbledore? Saving Ron’s life? Nah, Hermione is more concerned with one thing: having her top spot back.

*slow clap* Friend. Of. The. Year. Why does anyone like this character again? Selfish brat.

he reminds her that there are more important things than books and cleverness 

You have again stolen Ron’s qualities to pretend they’re Harry’s/Hermione’s.

And here they come... the receipts... all the receipts...

This happens right during the Firebolt fight. It’s still Ron who cares for Hermione, even though he’s angry with her, while Harry is like “oh ok but gotta finish Snape’s essay tho”. Priorities.

“How’s she doing it?” Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books. 

“Doing what?”

“Getting to all her classes!” Ron said. “I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday’s lesson, but Hermione can’t’ve been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she’s never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she’s never missed one of them either!”

Harry didn’t have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione’s impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape’s essay. Two seconds later, however, he was interrupted again, this time by Wood. - Prisoner of Azkaban

It’s Ron who understands that Hermione is driving herself mad. Ron, not Harry. Bye, can’t hear you over the canon facts.

“I don’t believe it!” Hermione wailed. “Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Malfoy, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!”

“You know what, Hermione?” said Ron, looking down at the enormous Arithmancy book Hermione had been using as a pillow. “I reckon you’re cracking up. You’re trying to do too much.”

“No, I’m not!” said Hermione, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag. “I just made a mistake, that’s all! I’d better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry... I’ll see you in Divination!” - Prisoner of Azkaban

Later on...

Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her.

"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee," said Ron, accidentally spraying Harry with bits of Yorkshire pudding. "Oops - sorry, 'Arry -" He swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!"

"Slave labor," said Hermione, breathing hard through her nose. "That's what made this dinner. Slave labor."

And she refused to eat another bite.

[…]

"Treacle tart, Hermione!" said Ron, deliberately wafting its smell toward her. "Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!"

But Hermione gave him a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he gave up. - Goblet of Fire, chapter 12

Dinner was a subdued affair that night. Harry and Ron did not talk much, but ate with gusto, having studied hard all day. Hermione, on the other hand, kept putting down her knife and fork and diving under the table for her bag, from which she would seize a book to check some fact or figure. Ron was just telling her that she ought to eat a decent meal or she would not sleep that night, when her fork slid from her limp fingers and landed with a loud tinkle on her plate. - Order of the Phoenix, chapter 31

Hmm, now it looks to me that Harry is mostly oblivious to Hermione and it’s Ron who’s taking care of her. But hey, “hArMoAnY” I guess!

Ron's humour gets on Hermione's nerves 

Fake news, it’s actually Harry’s humour that Hermione doesn’t like.

Really, just read this essay, written by someone who actually read the books without cherry-picking them, it should show you how blatanly wrong you are.

her cleverness does the same to him. 

*deep breath*

WHY YOU ALWAYS LYIIIIIIN, WHY THE FUCK YOU LYIIIIIIN, OH MY GOD STOP FUCKIN LYING

Again, a comprehensive list of BOOK QUOTES because I’ve dedicated too much time to proving you wrong: https://www.quora.com/How-many-times-has-Ron-Weasley-supported-Hermione-and-told-her-how-amazing-and-talented-she-is/answer/Issy-Dodds

Anyway Anon...

Your ‘Harmony’ is built on a pile of lies, blatant Ron Weasley erasure and a creepy fetishistic obsession with making a teenage girl look like she’s the ideal life partner for a guy who blatantly does NOT want her to be his life partner. Yall have issues.

[jikookuntold]

I Can’t Believe We Are Still Talking About This!

Disclaimer: The post you are going to read here, is my personal opinions, plus some evidence. A part of the incidents I mention in this post, is my own observation and the rest came from some trustable sources but yet I don’t claim to be 100% true because first, the sources can be wrong, second, the human mind is tricky and a long time has passed so I can’t claim everything I remember is true. Some of the incidents could get fact-checked, but some couldn’t because the receipts are gone.

First, I had no intention to write about this controversial subject because many people don’t like to bring this up, and I was with them, but it seems people have many questions about it, and they don’t know the details of the incidents. So, I concluded that maybe it’s not bad if we open up a little bit and discuss this subject from different points of view with more details.

But again, I have to clarify this post is not factual, it’s just the things I remember about the subject in a ranting way. This incident had and still has so many unclear aspects, and everything we say or claim is just a theory. I’m not intended to shade or hate anyone, therefore I’m not going to mention any full names here.

TW: Rumor, Suicide, Scandal, Conspiracy Theory

 The Break

You all might know about the break the members had in summer 2019. When their Japan tour ended, and they did some shooting and interviews (like Summer Package), the LDF concert on August 11th was their last schedule and based on BH statement, they were free for 30 to 35 days.

At this time, the members posted updates about being on vacation, but there was not much coming from JK and JM, except JK posting on weverse about staying awake and eating ramen and JM thanking him for eating ramen because of him (it was interesting that JM answered JK’s post about ramen at the same week we had the run episode moment where JK told JM “This is my heart” while putting ramen in his plate). After that, JM posted the videos of Run bottle cap challenge on August 26th.

Anyways, it was pretty clear that JM and JK were together on their days off for at least two weeks since JK mentioned in Bon Voyage 4 (their first schedule after the break) that he didn’t meet any of the members except JM and JH in his days off and since JH was the resident of the same complex, this kinda approved the theory of living with JM. JM also approved this theory, but we will go on that later.

The Rumors

In late August (27th or later) JM’s photos in Paris leaked, and JK was seen in Seoul eating churros, and a photo of his knuckle tattoos started to spread. Everyone was confused, and it was too soon to believe anything. After JM coming back from Paris for JK’s birthday, and leaving for Hawaii the next morning (as he explained in his 12th October Vlive, that year) things started to get weird. I know I didn’t bring up the Paris incidents, and I don’t want to, because it has nothing to do with the subject.

I still haven’t mentioned the subject directly, but I think most of you have guessed it right. In early September 2019, the rumors of JK going to a tattoo shop in Seoul started to spread. At first, the majority of the fandom didn’t take it seriously since the tattoo shop denied the rumors of JK being there, and even the photo of someone backhugging a short-haired girl claiming to be JK got mostly ignored because the photo was low quality and the man in it didn’t look like him that much. This was the time we heard the news about JK going to Geoje Island for vacation, alone, after visiting his family in Busan.

The real deal started when he appeared at the airport on September 16th (the day they were leaving for filming Bon Voyage4 in New Zealand) when we saw his knuckle tattoos, and the rumors turned out to be true. At first, we were excited about him getting tattoos without even knowing if they are permanent or not. But on the same day, the storm came. A photo of JK (this one was clearly him) sitting with that short-haired girl, (LM) eating lunch broke the internet.

The photo was taken from an angle to make it look like they were together alone, but at least two other people (later we found out they were more) were already there, and it was nothing like the date the person behind the camera was trying to make it look. The hugging photo which was taken from the CCTV of a karaoke room resurfaced along with the restaurant photo, and at this time, almost everyone in the fandom started to believe that they are dating.

The Statements

The mess on social media was getting bigger, and everyone was waiting for an official statement from both sides. BH released the statement a few hours later, denying the rumors and no further explanation. Almost one day passed, and there was nothing from LM, not even a single word. Finally, she posted a statement on her Instagram account (which gained a crazy amount of followers, and she didn’t even go on private the whole time).

The statement was extremely shady and been deleted a few hours later. LM claimed that she wasn’t ignoring the situation, and she was afraid to say anything because she knew we won’t believe her. “I am not dating JK” she used this sentence twice in her statement, and at the end, she said “his “J M” tattoos are not our initials!” and made the situation way worse. But the funny thing is, this wasn’t even the shadiest thing she did.

As I said, she got lots of followers (nearly 100k) and interactions on her account and started to delete the negative comments as she should, but she liked multiple comments congratulating her, saying she and JK look good together and things like that. I heard she even liked a fan-art post, but it didn’t end here. When the member came back from New Zealand she posted a selfie with the caption “I have missed you”. At this point, it was clear that she was enjoying the situation and acting shady to make it worse and fuel the rumors and stay on top of the news. But this wasn’t limited to herself because her colleagues at the tattoo shop weren’t any better.

In those days, one of the close friends of LM at the tattoo shop told an ARMY that LM has a boyfriend and there is nothing other than friendship between her and JK. And guess what? The Tattoo shop manager fired him the next day. What was the reason? Were those rumors a booster for their business, and they didn’t want them to die down? The number of followers and attention they gained at that time can approve my point. They were getting the best free promotion, any business could ever have.

Don’t Forget Me!

A few days later, when the public, started to forget the rumors, someone from the tattoo shop (I don’t remember if it was LM herself or her friend) talked to the media about the harassment they were getting from the ARMY to play the victim role. This again fueled everything and made us think over the situation. Was it all a frame for JK? The evidence suggests that it could.

Let’s go back a few days in the timeline of the events. Why JK chose that tattoo shop? Because his 97liner friends recommended him to go there (apparently this line of friends, have matching tattoos either) LM herself is a 97liner, and she is friends with plenty of idols, male and female, so they sounded pretty trustworthy. At the tattoo shop, they (LM and her tattoo shop colleagues) recommended JK to spend his days off at a guesthouse in Geoje Island, and based on LM’s Instagram posts, they were there days before JK, waiting for him, to make it look like they run into him accidentally? I don’t know, but this is a stalker's behavior

After having lunch with LM and her friends at the restaurant (where Sasaeng were there, ready to take photos), they went to a karaoke room and JK, who was pretty drunk (based on what the karaoke manager said later) backhugged LM. But the Sasaengs couldn’t be there to take photos, so they (allegedly) bribed the karaoke employee to show them the CCTV footage and took a low-quality picture of it.

The biggest question is, if the Sasaengs weren’t there, how did they know there is something worthy in the CCTV to check? The answer is they weren’t the main culprit, and karaoke or tattoo shop employees or both were cooperating with them. I mean karaoke employees definitely cooperated with Sasaengs, but the tattoo shop benefited the most. So why not? Anyways, that photo and that moment was the most “intimate” thing they could capture to use against JK.

JK went on that trip with his manager (The guesthouse manager gave out this information later, the part that was lacking in BH statement which could close the speculations way easier and earlier) and stayed at that guesthouse for two days to rest, but everything went wrong from there. This incident has three sides, LM and tattoo shop, the Sasaengs, who were following JK as their full-time job, and the media/industry which was trying to ruin JK’s image. I’m going to talk about all these three but let’s continue with the first one, LM and the tattoo shop.

Almost one month after the incident, LM’s friend interviewed with Korean media and claimed that ARMYs keep harassing her to the point that she wants to commit suicide. This was another attempt to bring everything back on top, but this time, it was disgusting because she did this interview right after one of the famous faces of Kpop committed suicide (October 14th, 2019). She used the situation and the public’s emotions to play the victim role on a higher level. Before this, many believed that she was a victim of some crazy Sasaengs, and she had nothing to do with the incident (I’m clearly talking about the people who didn’t think the rumors are true) but after that, it was clear that she is an attention seeker.

But I think she wasn’t just an attention seeker. She benefitted a lot from the situation. Her business blew up, she became one of the most famous non-celebrities in Korea (if not in the world), and she was literally shipping with one of the most popular men on the planet, who doesn’t like that? Anyways, LM had several friends, foreign older friends who were interacting with I-ARMYs for some unknown reasons, and one of them exposed something very interesting. She said she feels sorry for LM because she thought she had a chance with JK and that chance is long gone. Besides, people saw some conversations between LM and her friends on her Instagram comments about finding an idol boyfriend for her. These conversations happened before the incidents but it’s interesting since LM has several idol friends.

LM had another comeback to the media at the end of October and the next and the last update about the situation, happened in early December when BH stated that they (BH and LM!) are suing karaoke for leaking the photo. But after almost two years, we don’t know how this ended up. The last and probably the worst thing happened in the final episode of Bon Voyage when JK unnecessarily apologized for his behavior. I know JK himself, wanted to do this apology but he didn’t have done anything wrong and didn’t owe any apology to ARMY or anyone else, even if the rumors were true.

A New Ship on the Shore

After that, LM did nothing shady except posting photos of JK’s arm tattoos or someone with similar tattoos in December 2020 explaining their meanings, which was a weird action. After the rumors, JK didn’t visit that tattoo shop ever, and now, an artist who works with BH does his tattoos (the same artist who has done JM’s tattoos). LM announced on April 2021, that she has a boyfriend and some of JK/LM shippers, quitted their beloved ship after that. But not all of them.

We believed that the rumors weren’t true from the day JK and BH denied them, but many people didn’t. They were strongly believing that BH is hiding the truth because it’s Kpop and in this industry, idols are not allowed to date openly, so they had no choice but to deny any dating rumors. But this wasn’t their only reason for their denial. The main reason was the way JK was misunderstood and misrepresented by this fandom (I have a post about it, you can check it here).

At this point, there are people out there, shipping JK and LM. They bring several “proofs” for them being real such as:

1. Having similar tattoos: LM had designed and done JK’s tattoos, so it’s pretty normal for them to have the same style, especially the hand tattoos since he hasn’t changed or added anything on that part. But his arm tattoos have changed a lot, and you can’t see a similarity in them. Besides, knuckle tattoos are very common among tattoo lovers.

2. Having eyebrow piercing: This is another common trend. JK loves piercings and tattoos, and it means nothing, literally.

3. Similar drawings: This one is a little bit tricky and it needs a back story and a conspiracy theory. On 13th May 2020, BH released a Bangtan bomb from MAMA 2019 backstage, where JK drew a sketch of the moon and stars on a whiteboard. On the same day, people started to make a fuss, because LM had a design on her Instagram, very similar to JK’s improvised sketch. The date of her post was 11th December 2019, but the day JK drew that sketch, was December 4th (MAMA ceremony), and this means LM posted her design one week later. So who copied who? Does JK saw that design somewhere in that tattoo shop and had it in his mind, and drew it subconsciously? I don’t think so. Because JK improvised it in front of the camera, and it was originally his idea. Do I think BH has some insiders who took the photo of that sketch and showed it to LM, and she took the idea and made it hers? This is exactly what I think because I trust JK, not LM, nor BH. And the timing of the posts and Bangtan bomb is on my side. Preach!

That’s it. These are the only proofs people bring to say something is going on between them, and the funny thing is, this hasn’t ended even after April when LM announced that she is dating (apparently she had broken up with the last boyfriend right after the rumors started, definitely not sus, lol) The only reason people made a huge deal of those two photos, was one word: Heteronormativity. If LM were a man, none of this would have ever happened. But since this fandom is obsessed with the idea of het-JK, they bought these rumors eagerly. Back to the subject, as I said earlier, the other sides benefitted from this situation. I mean Sasaengs and the media/companies who had a part in the incidents.

Sasaengs always follow their targets and collect photos and videos of them, but they barely share anything publicly because they are criminals, and if they get busted they will be punished by the law. They have their isolated communities and share their information inside those communities. Of course, there are many accounts on social media that claim to be Sasaengs and gain lots of followers, but most of them are fake, and the real ones don’t share information for free, they sell them for high prices. So, there are two possibilities, in this case, someone bought JK’s photos from Sasaengs and published them, or Sasaengs did it themselves because someone asked/ordered them. I can’t see any other possibilities. Sasaengs wouldn’t gain anything from publishing these photos, but other people would, and they are the ones who made this happen.

Who were they? LM herself and tattoo shop? The fansite who wanted to destroy JK’s career? Or BH, who wanted to punish JK for his boldness about getting tattoos and make him more obedient? Or the media and rival companies, who wanted a scandal for their enemy? Or the people who wanted to revive the idea of het-JK? All of these are plausible and I can’t prove or disprove anything, but you can read more about this in the post I linked before.

Did This Affect Them?

Here comes the most interesting part; how did this affect Jikook? Did it affect them at all? Let’s review the timeline of the events again, from this point of view. As I mentioned earlier, we believe Jikook were together until 27th August and then JM went to Paris without any plans and came back for JK’s birthday. On the selfie, he posted that night he had written: “I’m glad to see you after not seeing you for a few days” which confirms that they were together before JM’s unplanned trip. At this point, JK had started getting tattoos and had most parts of his knuckle tattoos done.

When JM left Seoul for Hawaii the next day, JK went to Geoje, and the incidents happened, but nothing was public yet. Then he got arm tattoos and added some new parts to his hand tattoos including J which makes an obvious JM on his ring finger (The part LM claimed that is “not” their initials lol). JK’s completed hand tattoos were not exposed until September 16th when they were at the airport to leave for New Zealand. It was the day all the theories and rumors started. But in Jikook’s point of view, it happened on the second day of their trip.

Now we can start to analyze their moments on Bon Voyage 4. Of course, this series doesn’t show everything, but it gives us some clues about the dynamic of their relationship on those days. The first day of the trip when they were at the airport and Thailand (?) was pretty normal, but after that, at some moments I felt a strange atmosphere between them which I decided to not read too much on. But I found out I wasn’t wrong when in the last episode, JK talked about the awkwardness he felt about the issue with the members.

Jikook had many cute and domestic moments in the first two episodes but the grand gesture happened on the third one when JK climbed a hill without telling anyone, to bring a chunk of snow for JM as a gift, and we all know how much JM loves snow. This was an undeniable romantic act, but do I think this had anything to do with the situation? I believe Jikook was unbothered by those rumors because they completely trust each other, but the image you make for the others is different from the things you know and believe. Maybe this was a grand gesture not just for JM, but for us either.

After coming back to Seoul, there was no news from them for more than two weeks, and then they left Korea for Riyadh. The remarkable moment in the Riyadh concert was related to JM’s birthday. The members had planned a surprise for JM on the stage (The concert was on October 11th one day before his official birthday in Korea) and when it happened, JM said that he was happy because he saw JK happy and JK played a big role in that surprise. Honestly, you have to be deep in love to be happy just because your significant other is happy, even if it’s your own birthday. Let’s not forget the vlive JM did the next morning, and some pretty obvious moments happened that I can’t discuss here, but I bet you already know what I’m talking about. And also JM exposed the things he did for JK’s birthday that year.

A few hours later, on 18:22 (1+8+2+2=13) on local time and 00:22 on Korean time (only 22 minutes after JM’s official birthday in Korea started), JK tweeted one of the most amazing birthday tweets of all time which is comparable to a love letter. I’m sure you know everything about these tweets, so I’m not going too deep on this, I’m only saying that this tweet also was a grand gesture. And let me make another conspiracy theory here. After the rumors started, every time we had a big Jikook moment, something was coming from LM the next day. For example, when JK made this historic tweet, the next day LM's friend was interviewed about committing suicide. Or when SYS Seoul concerts happened (one of the biggest Jikook feasts of all time) and LM herself was at the VIP seats with her friends, the next day she did another comeback to the media. These can be just coincidences, but… never mind.

I Never Thought I Would Fall for a Man

Let’s not forget about the most obvious statements JK made on his first public appearance after the rumors. On JH’s vlive on 24th September, JK said: “I never thought I would fall for a man”. He said these words about JH dancing at CNS music video, and it clearly had nothing to do with Jikook, but it had a deep meaning. We know JK is not a shallow person, and lately, he stated that he thinks a lot before doing anything. So this didn't come out of nowhere, he didn't spit this out without thinking, in THAT situation. You never say such a thing when the internet is exploding with your dating rumors with a girl, do you?

His words can translate to “Do you ever consider the possibility of me not being straight?” This is what I read from his words and his facial expression. Maybe you think I say this because I’m a shipper, and I have this shipping goggle that makes me see everyone gay and debunk any girlfriend rumors. Some people even ask childish questions like “if they are dating why they didn’t travel together?” There are 100 explanations for that, and any couple who have been together for more than two years can answer you. When you date someone, you don’t stick together 24/7. Everyone in a healthy relationship has individuality, and sometimes they want to spend time with friends or alone, especially when they already had a world tour together lol.

Anyways, maybe I have a different point of view as a shipper, but this is not the problem. I never have a problem with my ship not being real (which they have shown enough to know they are). In fact, I will be delighted if any of them announce their relationship freely and publicly, but they haven’t done it yet. JK denied the rumors and gave us lots of hints about the truth, and I’m not delulu for believing him. But if you think he has to be het for backhugging a girl or having an eyebrow piercing, you are the one who is delusional because you are living in a heteronormative world where boys and girls can’t be friends and everyone is straight unless they come out in public.

I really can’t believe this post turning to be this long, and I thank you for reading it all. You might ask why I cared enough to write +4000 words about some stupid rumors that happened two years ago. This is the main question. This had to be ended in September 2019, but many people didn’t want it to end, because they loved it, they enjoyed it, they gained from it, so they protracted it as much as they could, and heteronormative people supported it blindly because of their homophobia or Y/N fantasies or whatever reason they had. I can’t believe we are still talking about this!