#back in july i said i'd form an opinion on the whole thing when elton tells us his side

[mwagneto]

Soo, acording to the book, John Reid never lied, in every interview he was telling the truth about they way they met and the managing thing, also the abuse, he was just a cheater, and only hit Elton once, and after that they finished the relationship. The movie is so different (I know, it's fantasy), but I feel Elton lied to us all.

now now, please remember, rocketman isn't written by Elton and he barely had any hand in it and he never ever talked about his relationship with John other than saying, at one point, that they broke up because he was "less faithful than [Elton] liked", which is precisely why I said, for months, that I will put off forming an opinion about the whole situation until Elton tells us his side, which Rocketman cannot be considered, since it's not written by him or anything.

you're right though, he wasn't abusive, as he said. hitting Elton is still shitty and I'm glad Elton immediately left him but abuse requires an imbalance of power dynamic that not only did Elton say they didn't have, he literally said he was always the more dominant one when they were dating which only shifted a while after they broke up

where's that post that's like, not everything is abusive, some people are just assholes - I'm not saying their relationship was good but as someone who's currently a victim of abuse from several people, calling that abusive is just...a stretch and really minimizes the real weight of the word. yeah it was really fucking shitty of John to hit him and Elton was right to break up with him for that, but there's also the fact that Elton punched John in the face so hard some years later that he broke his nose which Elton says more than repaid it (and this is something John never talked about, the only accounts we have were eyewitnesses and now Elton himself. According to him they later found John a few hours of drive away covered in blood crying in his car.).

I don't feel like Elton lied to us because for the past months I strictly maintained that Rocketman isn't 100% truthful and shouldn't be viewed as such and that I would wait until his biography to get his pov on things because as much as I adore Rocketman, there's literally a little card at the end basically saying "this movie is based on real events and people but is heavily dramatised", he didn't write it or really control anything, and we have statements from several people who knew him or literally appeared in the movie disputing one thing or another, none of which I mind - it's a movie! They had to dramatise/change things and characters to be enjoyable and that's perfectly fine! But we shouldn't act like it's 100% truth because it isn't.

I still can't form a solid opinion on John himself, not only because I'm only seven and a half hours into listening very intently to all 12 hours (hell I even listened to and remember the circa one hour of football talk so that's saying something) meaning I'm only at the 80s and haven't gotten to the part where they break their business relationship, but also coz he's like, a real person and I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about him as if I know him even though I've only seen snippets of his life through Elton's eyes. Even this feels like I'm invading someone's life somehow but I feel the need to clarify all this, so here.

ps it's also worth noting that Elton said they parted on good terms, so much so that, while being hit made him fall out of love with John, he said John was still in love with him for a while and Elton said he felt John would've come back if Elton asked, but he ofc didn't.