#does matt even know tumblr exists

[chvoswxtch]

oi, matt! can i get a macchiato? mayhaps over ice if that’s what the barista has to offer today….

matt x assistant!reader at nelson and murdock is one of my favourite flavours ever. i just neeeeed your take on it.

you know I had to kick off the celebration with this slut (works for you or matty) <3 also just so you know I could've kept going with this forever but tumblr told me to shut up bc apparently there's a word limit on answering asks but you get the picture ;)

as a reminder, over ice means it's spicy ! (minors dni)

headcannon below the cut

matt murdock is an hr nightmare

when foggy mentions that nelson & murdock could desperately use an assistant since karen is now at the bulletin, before matt even has a chance to speak, foggy is warning him to keep his dick in his pants

and when matt pulls that face (you know the one, the "she wanted to teach me" look of faux innocence) foggy reminds matt that not only is he a whore but he also has a history of being tempted by forbidden fruit (he probably fucked all the female interns at landman and zack, and then there's karen who he would've slept with if frank & elektra hadn't shown up but that's a different story for a different day)

matt does the lil "i cross my heart" thing and swears to foggy that he won't get involved with the new assistant

he also makes this promise to himself bc let's face it he's a human disaster who's life is constantly falling apart and the last thing he needs is drama that could've been avoided if he thought with the right head

but then the day of the interviews arrive and you walk in the room, and matt knows at that moment that he is completely fucked

your scent hits him first, something soft and subtle, a breath of fresh air from the stuffy office smell and the lingering assault of pungent perfume left behind by other candidates that had given him a dull headache

then it's your voice, god your voice, it's the most melodious sound he's ever heard. it's gentle but crisp, and your alluring intonation has him hanging onto your every word, especially his name that fell from your lips in greeting

touching your hand nearly does him in, bc getting to feel your smooth skin caress his rough palm makes it even worse. there's a an electric spark that tingles in his fingertips and shoots throughout the rest of his body, and he finds himself wondering if you feel it too, but then catches himself and quickly plasters on a professional appearance

it was one thing that every single thing about your existence drew him in, but the fact that you were also intelligent and well-spoken, deeply passionate and genuinely empathetic, while also quick to craft clever responses without your sharp wit coming off as ostentatious just made matt want you more

matt was uncharacteristically quiet while foggy asked most of the questions, to which you gave perfect answers, and occasionally chimed in with a few of his own just to redirect your attention where he wanted it: on him

by the end of the interview, foggy was sold on you, and so was matt, but for duplicitious reasons

matt tries so hard to keep his promise, but fuck do you make it (and him) hard. he makes a point to never be alone with you in the office. if a round at josie's is suggested, he makes sure foggy or karen will also be there. he tries to balance between being friendly while also being professional, trying to find the invisible line that crosses from innocent inquisitions to dangerous territory

he does his best not to initiate physical contact, which proves to be difficult, bc you're a hugger and always politely offering matt your arm to guide him whenever you go anywhere

you're so kind and thoughtful and treat him the exact way you treat everyone else and it makes him want to put his head through a wall bc every day that he spends with you makes this attraction worse and worse and he can't tell if it's purely physical or if it goes deeper than that

and then one day he just fucking snaps

matt has a really bad day. a lead he'd been working on for weeks ended up being a dead end, and matt had taken his frustration out on some petty thug in an alley, but it wasn't enough. he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed, late at that, to a handful of voicemails from a pissed off foggy. it had been a grueling day in court, all of his senses were overwhelmed, and he had so much pent up tension in his body that he felt stiff

he was so wrapped up in himself that when he walked through the door of the office, he didn't realize he'd broken his own rule: never be alone with you

as soon as he realizes his mistake, he heads towards his office, returning your polite greeting with a grunt of acknowledgement. he hoped that you'd leave it alone, that you'd say something like you were just about to leave, and he'd be spared from you coming closer. but you being you, noticing every little detail and having learned to read matt, could tell something was off

you just wanted to help. you always just wanted to help, and matt loved that about you, but right now, it was only making this more difficult for him bc his self restraint was deteriorating

and then you gently touched his shoulder and matt let out a groan bc he could smell what you'd done the night previously. the scent of your arousal was still embedded in your skin even though you'd washed your hands several times, and the scent of soap was almost nonexistent as matt's nose focused solely on the delectable scent of your pussy on your own fingers

he'd made himself come many times to the thought of you over the last few months, but knowing that you'd fingered yourself last night possibly to the thought of him is what broke his resolve

matt didn't need his heightened senses to know you were attracted to him, that you felt something for him too. he knew it because he knew you, and sometimes you were obvious even when you thought you were being subtle for the sake of both your friendship and your professional reputation

before either of you could process what was happening, matt was devouring your mouth in a heated kiss, your blouse was halfway unbuttoned, just enough for him to pull down the cups of your bra to leave your tits spilling into his welcoming hands. your soft whimpers echoed around the empty office as he toyed with your nipples while assaulting your neck with his teeth and tongue

in record time you were bent over his desk, skirt bunched up around your hips, panties caught around your calves, and matt was pulling down his zipper to free his fully hard cock

the immense relief he felt as he sank into you fully from behind nearly brought him to his knees. he didn't know if it was the heightened allure of having something he wasn't supposed to, or how perfectly your tight cunt enveloped his thick cock, but he quickly got lost in your warm walls like a dazzling labyrinth he never wanted to escape

you were so fucking wet that it was obscene the noises your pussy made welcoming his cock as he pounded into you over and over and over again. but his favorite sound was you chanting his name, desperately pleading for more, which he was all too happy to oblige

you took him so well, your pussy enveloping his cock in a greedy manner, not allowing him the chance to slip out despite how soaked you were. he reached as deep as your body would allow and fucked you relentlessly like a madman on a mission

his rough hands gripped your hips in a bruising manner, and he was completely lost in a fog of lust. it didn't take long for either of you to come undone and it finally clicked for matt that he wasn't the only one that had been depriving himself for the sake of not crossing a boundary when your cunt tightened around his cock before flooding him with your release

matt waited until the absolute last possible second, swiftly pulling out with a hiss as he replaced your pussy with his right hand, stroking his cock at an inhuman speed just a few times before coating your ass in ropes of his come

he collapsed in his chair, but not without wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you down with him. the sound of heavy panting filled his office, and the air was humid and drenched in the scent of sex. matt nuzzled his face into your neck, hugging your back to his chest while the two of you attempted to catch your breath

he's able to pick up on the fact that your heart is still racing not bc of the incredible spontaneous sex, but also out of anxiety about what happens next, so matt decides to break the silence first

"I uh...know this is kinda backwards but, I was wondering if I could take you to dinner?"

in conclusion, he's a fucking menace

[vanteguccir]

Hey guys! I actually spent long minutes staring at these reblogs and debating whether it was worth responding and talking about or not. But as I'm not the type to take hate and keep quiet, I decided to talk about it.

First of all, Reia, you really seem like a person who doesn't read many fanfics for the way you put it in your text, so I'll explain the meaning of the word. Fanfic, short for "fan fiction", is a story written by a fan based on characters, universes, or real people (like the triplets). Fans create their own narratives, expanding or reimagining everything, creating their own version, which in real life does not exist OR, as writers, we often draw inspiration from real-life events too.

And yes, you and Evangeline are trying to be "fanfic police" and even "sturniolo police", if you scroll through the thousands of Sturniolo Triplets fanfics, you will come across A LOT where Matt, Nick or Chris go through situations of anxiety attack, panic attack, OR where the "reader" herself goes through this, sometimes even involving situations way worse than that. Furthermore, there's thousands of fanfics describing explicit sex scenes with them, the famous smuts, does that bother you too? Because in the world of someone who writes a FANFIC in here, it doesn't.

And yes, I was indeed writing about the meet and greet situation, and this was nothing new to ANYONE in the fandom WHO READS THE FANFICS HERE. I even made a post the day before ASKING who would like to read the idea, and you want to know the news? All 200 people who voted wanted it.

I understand that you feel this story is disrespectful FOR YOU, especially because it touches on a real-life situation that may be sensitive or painful for some people. I want to assure you that it was never my intention to cause harm or disrespect anyone involved in that situation.

I myself am diagnosed with chronic anxiety, and even so, I didn't feel affected by the way I wrote. In fact, I described how I feel during MY anxiety attacks.

In no way did I make fun of the situation Matt went through, in fact, my intention in writing this story was to explore Matt's complexity and show how he deals with real problems, such as anxiety. It was a way to give more depth to his situation during the tour and highlight the importance of the emotional support he receives from "Y/N". It was not my intention to mock him, but rather to explore his humanity and the challenges he faced, and I know with all the certainty in the world that I did not mock him, much less affect the people who read the story.

Please, I ask you to reevaluate the need to throw hate at a person who has nothing to do with your outside the box opinions of what WRITERS ON THE STURNIOLO'S TUMBLR should or shouldn't write about.

There are thousands of posts on Instagram and TikTok from "fans" really mocking Matt and throwing hate at him about "their bad experiences" during one of the shows, these are the people you should be giving a piece of your mind to, not me. 🩷

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Okay, I’ve been considering it for quite a bit and I think that if Tumblr existed in Japanifornia… most of us would probably not be aware of the series’ main characters.

Like, lawyers just don’t tend to be high-profile publicly-known figures. Even within True Crime communities or the coverage of high-public-interest cases, people don’t tend to focus on the lawyers as much more than a representative of the defendant and the legal system as a whole. And yeah, you can say this is just because real-life lawyers are Boring and if they did the kind of Bonkers Shit AA Lawyers do we would pay attention to them… but we do actually have textual evidence that Japanifornia treats lawyers not-too-differently than real life.

Mia’s murder, and probably the uncovering of all of Bluecorp’s dirty dealing, was highly talked about, but Phoenix’s actions in court went kinda ignored. And note that this is the case where Phoenix literally defended himself and broke the Demon Prosecutor’s five years winning streak, and that wasn’t enough to draw eyes to his part in this whole case. 

And that’s also generally consistent with how characters treat Phoenix throughout the rest of the games. By the AJ Trilogy era, it’s clear that Phoenix has made quite a name for himself… in the legal world. If you are yourself a lawyer or another sort of legal professional or just unusually interested in court proceeding, you know the name ‘Phoenix Wright’ 

But if you’re just a regular person who cares about the law the Regular Amount, you probably have no idea who this is.

So I’d guess most of Japanifornian Tumblr would probably be aware of a lot of the cases in the games, especially considering how many of them concern, like, corporate corruption and organized crime and legal corruption and international politics and the entertainment industry and other such stuff that makes it likely to get national/international news coverage. And also so many of them are so bizarre and wacky and are thus prime meme fodder…

But most people wouldn’t necessarily know the name of the lawyer the Nickel Samurai blackmailed to defend him after he ordered an assassin to kill the Jammin’ Ninja, or even how involved that lawyer actually was in Matt Engarde’s downfall.

But there would probably be a small mini-fandom of Tumblrina Lawyers and other legal nerds who are ABSOLUTELY obsessed with the WAA, and trying to collect any piece of info they can find about their adventures. 

(That’s also another aspect to consider, the general public in Japanifornia does not have full knowledge of everything we get to see in the game. News coverage of the smaller cases would be extremely minimal and very regional - and even the bigger cases probably won’t give you a full line-by-line record of everything that happened in Court. Apollo Justice was, like, the Biggest Phoenix Wright Stan in the Universe and he had very choppy and partial knowledge of the Gramarye Trial. We have to consider that even folks who are trying to keep track of the AA Lawyers in-universe would not get the full picture from the media. And that’s before we get into fake news and rumors.)

And meanwhile, the rest of Tumblr would probably treat that Fandom the same sort of bemused delight we give to, like, the extremely dedicated gimmick blogs. Like, you’d probably see less posts about Phoenix and Co. as you’d see posts memeing about the fact there’s a Tumblr Fandom for ‘some random law agency in Japanifornia’, they’d be like five thousands people in the notes going “There’s a Tumblr Fandom for WHAT? WHY IS THIS THE FIRST TIME I’M HEARING ABOUT THIS??” and then one person from the WAA fandom going “NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS IS THE GUY WHO UNCOVERED THE PHANTOM HE’S JUMPED OFF A BURNING BRIDGE ONCE YOU LITERALLY TALKED ABOUT A TRIAL HE DID YESTERDAY YOU JUST DON’T KNOW HE WAS INVOLVED”. 

Now, that’s all for the Defense Attorneys. The Prosecutors have a bit more publicity. I mean, Phoenix literally heard about Prosecutor Edgeworth on the news.

But also… I do think this publicity is highly regional. Like, Phoenix ended up stumbling on newspaper coverage of Miles because he lives in the same city as him. I’m guessing that most of the series’ Prosecutors are at least casually known not just to Legal Folks, but also generally to people within Los Angetokyo and people involved in Japanifornian Politics… but also not much outside of that sphere either. Again, the series does establish that they are not that well-known amongst laypeople even when they are famous amongst other lawyers

And are generally recognized by fellow legal professionals and journalists and people involved in criminal activity. So the situation with them won’t be that different than with the WAA, they might be a tad more high-profile, depending on how many Tumblr users are specifically from Japaniforina and wanna make memes about the local politics… but those who will get really invested in their misadventures won’t be that different from the kind of people who’d get really into Phoenix Wright. 

Klavier is the obvious exception. Like most Famous Lawyers, he’s actually primarily famous for something other than law. It’s just that in his case, instead of politics, it’s being a world-famous rock star. There’s plenty of textual evidence that the Gavinners are an actual household name and they’d probably have a pretty sizable Tumblr Fandom, but… well… while I assume any casual Gavinner fan knows that Klavier is also a Prosecutor, I’d guess only the insanely dedicated fans and the Haters looking for something problematic would actually start digging into the records of the cases he worked on. But then again, Tumblr does have a lot of insanely dedicated fans and Haters, so maybe Legal Misadventures Involving Klavier would be kinda mainstream on Japanifornia Tumblr.

[montparnasse]

average adam faulkner stanheight fan: if adam isn’t in saw xi we riot! @lionsgate @kevingruetert @jameswan #adamlives #justiceforadam #corpseinconsistencies

average john kramer fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

average jill tuck fan: Appreciation post for the Women of Saw 🩷 [the same ten photos that get posted once a week]

average lawrence gordon fan: last night i watched a 2004 tv movie about serial killers called ‘the riverman’, followed by the cheesy family rom-com ‘a castle for christmas’. today my friends and i are going to binge the entire third season of netflix’s ‘stranger things’. none of us have seen a single episode of the rest of the show and we don’t plan on it. then we might rewatch ‘another country’ together

average amanda young fan: sorry i haven’t been online in 4 weeks i’ve been too busy trying to get the new pig cosmetic in the rift [posted 7 weeks ago]

average mark hoffman fan: [underneath a gifset of costas mandylor in a republican christian propaganda ‘sci-fi’ movie] #hes so fucking hot #i would give anything to put him in a sports bra and make him do jumping jacks in front pf me i would literally do #ANYTHING #i need to make him into a marionett and fist him lol

average daniel rigg fan: Here’s a quick low effort doodle I did of Daniel! I just love him so much ❤️ [a literal masterpiece, the best art you’ve ever seen in your entire life] [3 notes]

average allison kerry fan: i am hardcore attached to ONE ship which is probably either allison/amanda or allison/lindsey and my whole blog is devoted to them. there are dozens of us DOZENS

average lynn denlon fan: okay so i know bahar is a realtor now but in her last instagram post where she’s congratulating her son on some new achievement, both the first and last words in the post have 11 letters, AND there’s an X and an I visible in the background of her post 👀?? is this a reach???

average jeff denlon fan: No seriously let me finish seriously when you compare him to the other shitty men in Saw he’s NOT that b

average david tapp fan: i’m 39k away from publishing my 40k tappsing Everybody Lives AU <3 this is going to be epic [account has been deactivated for an indeterminate amount of time]

average brit stevenson and mallick scott fan: Hey I stayed up making this instead of writing my thesis paper for grad school. Here’s a 30,000 word document about the implications of Brit’s promotion within the Marshford group and how it would lead to her eventual demise and also how she rose to the top in her group. It also delves into her relationship with Mallick, whose existence, I believe, is an obvious literary reference to an ancient Roman play read by only me and three other people currently alive. I translated relevant passages and included them in my work. I got understimulated around page 8 so I did take a break to pierce myself in the same spot that I believe Mallick would have a piercing. If you read my fics on AO3 you will already be familiar with the location.

average peter strahm fan: haha peter does CRACK cocoaine haha i think he sniffeds some drugs! why else would he be so MANIC HYPER CRAZY!!! i love my crazy JUNKIE man LOL get him some andderall STAT!! if hoffman didn’t kill him the SPEED certianly would of! LOL!

average lindsey perez fan: i love lindsey perez i’m such a big fan of the character lindsey perez

average matt gibson fan: i literally would eat garbage out of a dumpster

average ezekiel banks fan: holy shit i just finished spiral what a good movie what the hell!!! what a cool addition to the saw universe! i bet everybody else loves this as much as i do! let me take a big drink of water as i check tumblr dot com to see all the nice things people will have to say about darren lynn bousman’s Spiral

average william schenk fan: my hobbies include: being a fujoshi,

average cecelia pederson fan: [pic of cecelia yanking on the metal loop around her neck and smirking] https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT3f5IIzt5PG-M7G9_Z-gjY4gZaiUneTdMlYrFAcdBGcJo0-N-RDQcj2JfxOaBTxKa6J_DiDQNgqVpg/pub

average logan jigsaw fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

[hot-take-tournament]

Okay, listen-

I know it was ages ago now, but do any of you remember this ask that Matt posted?

It was from a user named "a-life-out-loud-a-path-not-taken".

But when people went on that blog, it turns out it was actually from a completely empty, brand new Tumblr.

So, everyone assumed that Matt had sent the ask to himself.

But the thing is, even though Tumblr URLs are meant to be unique, in the past couple days, another blog showed up with the same URL. For a while, they existed at the same time.

The original blog ("Gone Fishing") was deleted earlier today, so if you click this link, it should tell you that the blog doesn't exist.

But the other blog still does. So, the question is, when you click this link, does it take you to a blog that looks like this:

Or does it say that the blog doesn't exist?

(And if you could specify whether you were on a browser or on the Tumblr app, I'd appreciate it <3)

[arizonaconservativegal]

Hi, I'm Anon from the earlier ask- you can call me Matt, if that somehow makes me seem more authentic. (Not linking my Tumblr b/c the last time I used it was almost a decade ago and it's embarassing af.)

I'm just going to ask you to say what's going to stop the people who align with the right from getting their way at this point? Surely, you don't think this is going to be a normal presidency (and if you do, please explain!). With all three wings under the control of a pretty far right wing government, we don't really know what's going to happen. I know everyone is tired of hearing about it, but the overturning of Roe doesn't exactly portend well for Obergefell. And I don't think either of those decisions have/had been opposed without the overwhelming drive and support of the Christians you say don't matter.

I do know what GOP stands for and what that means. I don't understand how you're okay with some of the horrible people under that tent. And your side does attract more horrible people than ours. For every dumbass tankie, there's at least five people with reprehensible (and whether you accept it or not, racist/homophobic/bigoted) professed beliefs on your side. I don't understand you in this sense, and I don't think I'm going to be able to tonight. I appreciate you answering my earlier ask even though I was rude.

Okay Matt-the-Atheist

I'm just going to start by saying I think your idea that there are more bad people on the right than on the left is absurd. That's just patently ridiculous. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and chalk that up to naivety rather than say you you think the horrible people on your side of the aisle are acceptable. Shitty people exist in roughly equal number across the board, with some minor variation for how we personally define 'shitty' people.

Okay that said.

I'm not that worried about our 'horrible' people because they're a pretty small group (as they are on the left) without much power because no one really likes them (not as much the case on the left - y'all seem to be afraid of yours for some reason). And I'm not worried about our Christians because there's nothing wrong with them by and large. I think you have conflated the two groups into one and deemed all conservative Christians 'problems' because you don't understand them.

I do think this will be a pretty normal presidency. The reason for that is that we just had four years of Trump so I feel pretty confident in my estimation of what the next four years will look like. I don't know why some people are acting like this has never happened before when it literally just happened.

Anyway.

There is really is not widespread support within the party for going after Obergefell. That is a media boogeyman, nothing more. Even if we did want to go after it, there wouldn't be much point since there is also an actual law on the books to protect same sex and interracial marriage (another thing no one is trying to overturn but the media likes to harp on anyway) which passed with more than enough Republicans voting for it that I can guarantee you will not see it overturned either. On top of that, you really mean to tell me that Trump, who hosted a gay wedding at his house, is gonna sign a bill to ban gay marriage? Really?

Which brings me to my final point.

Trump is many things but a traditional conservative Christian is not one of them. You don't have to like the guy but he's probably the last person I'd expect to try to usher in a theocracy.

I think we'll be fine.

[yoinkschief]

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

I liked doing this last year so I'm doing it again this year :3

Big Yap below AND Links to the art posts seen above :)

I think it's funny that I started the year off (out of my faves) with Jay and ended it with Jay, I think that's very neat

Ignore October

October was a normal month

And nothing happened

I also like that the ones I've really enjoyed this year have been more experimental with my style such as February and December with a more cartoonish for Feb. and lineless in Dec. with a focus on negative space, I really liked those

And ofc September and October with me messing around with different shading styles than I usually do

And I'm also glad that it's not all Eddsworld LOLLL I mean I love Eddsworld and it's half of what's up there but I'm glad that I'm drawing for other things I'm interested in and not just sticking to one thing, especially when they have different art styles ykwim

anyway, here are all the links to the different posts these art pieces are under :3

January - "Familiar,,,"

February - "Loonytoons Ass"

March - "Thatcher My BBG,,,"

April - "Strip Mafia Tord Teehee"

May - "Ropes&Chains Kiss Cam Meme" (Not a post, a gift I sent to a friend)

June - "Nephy's First Fish"

July - "Guhh Buh Tordd"

August - "NASTY DOG"

September - "Dear God Matt"

October - "I,,, I Don't Know What Happened,,, I,,, Oh God,,," (Does not and will never be posted to my tumblr that shit is so embarrassing the context is non existent I cannot explain it do not put me on the spot I'm just a little guy)

November - "TWCFM Lupin Jigen Screenshot Redraw"

December - "Snow Leopard"

A lot of these aren't even my most liked pieces,,, I wonder if I should do a different version of this with my most liked pieces instead,,,

[olderthannetfic]

A lot of people in your inbox are doing the thing from that Tumblr post about how way too many people only think of feminism discussions in terms of the Most Oppressed Man and Least Oppressed Woman. Y'all really need to stop comparing marginalized men to white cis straight female CEOs, and instead compare them to women who are similarly marginalized.

I think the gender pay gap in many countries - an objective reality with tons of statistics to back it up - is a good way to illustrate this. Yeah, if you're a man in a low level at a company, the women ranked above you probably make more than you. But what about the women at the same level as you? That's what the pay gap is referencing: that women tend to make less than men (of the same race and other factors - there's also a racial pay gap, and black women make even less than white women but also less than black men) for doing the same work, at the same level, etc.

(And sometimes the disparity isn't even between people on the "same level": Claire Foy played Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown, a show ABOUT Queen Elizabeth II, and she made less than Matt Smith did playing Prince Philip until she found out and drew attention to it and the studio was forced to pay her what they owed her.)

The argument of comparing more privileged women and less privileged men, though, is one that anti-feminists like Men's Rights Activists use to deny the gender pay gap. They'll argue that because some individual women in higher-powered jobs make more than they do, that the pay gap doesn't exist, even though those women are likely making less than men in similarly high-powered jobs.

We need ways to talk about these systematic realities because we can't really address the problem if you don't know what causes the problem. But I also hope people realize that this particular thought distortion can be applied to pretty much any type of marginalization.

And, in fact, outside of Tumblr, it DOES get used that way. I've seen people do this with race: suggest that the existence of multimillionaire black athletes and actors alongside the existence of, say, homeless white people, means that white privilege/racism isn't real. Or use the existence of affluent gay people or gay politicians like Pete Buttigieg, or the fact that a lot of white cis gay people can buy into racism or transphobia, to suggest that homophobia doesn't exist. Just about every disabled person I know has a story about someone suggesting their disability "can't be all that bad" because of other advantages they had in life. Yeah, having an advanced degree and supportive family, friends and spouse means my ADHD doesn't affect me as badly as if I didn't have those things - but if I didn't have ADHD I'd still have fewer struggles. That's the comparison point.

When you're designing an experiment you can't alter every variable at once. You have to stick to just one variable at a time.

--

[lolliepops-rox]

It's very interesting to me, as a newer Homestuck fan, to see all the extensions for the offical-unoffical archives that 'fix'/remove 'problems' or 'problematic' parts of Homestuck. I was on Tumblr when Homestuck was at its peak and reblogged all the cute ship art, follow the outrageous ask blogs, my best friend did read it as it was still coming out¹. But I never actually read the comic itself, just kind waves from the sidelines. But I wasn't there to experience the big controversies in real time (i.e. 'peachy'). Hussie is not above critique, but I don't think he's a bigot or even a bad person. What he is, is a troll. A classic 2006 'I said something fucked up not because I believed it, but to get a reaction.' Which, I can see to someone who missed that time of the internet, and only knows now. In which people say those fucked up things, to get a reaction and cause they believe it.

And so to see people younger than me, but have joined the fandom at the same time as me, not understand this context, it feels wrong. The things people are willing to sweep under the rug cause it conflicts with their morals vs the things they condemn and blame Hussie for.

Homestuck is a very long, very complicated, but very important piece of art. To not consider every facet of it does it a disservice.

For something made by a 2006 troll, it put a lot of queer characters worth caring about in it. The alpha kids & trolls both exist to be parodies of their beta counterparts. This is partly why Dirk is queer, and that Dirk refuses a label. But is still allowed to opening like, then date, then break up with a boy. It's a response to how the fandom wrote & treated Dave. For those who know it, compare the S19Ep6 of South Park, Tweek X Craig. Matt & Trey, who in my opinion embody the same sort of troll sense of humour Hussie has, handle fandom making their characters being gay quite differently. Tweek & Craig in this EP aren't treated as genuinely queer characters, but the kids trapped in what the town has decided are wacky hijinks of this week. It's not necessarily bad, but compared to Dirk it feels way less genuine.

There's topics I can't talk on fully like the way Hussie's racial biases appear in various characters, as I'm from a completely different country. But in my very non-american opinion, it reads more as 'someone who has never thought to question the stereotypes they were raised with', than as someone who is genuinely and actively racist. There is a difference, and as a mixed kid that's important to me.

I'm not really sure how physically disabled people feel about the way Hussie wrote their physically disabled characters (but if people have written about this I'd love to read and linked to me) but he definitely uses mental disabilities/illnesses as a substitute for the word 'quirky' without thinking much about it (i.e. Nepeta is off-handedly called autistic) it's not really great, but the bar is so low when it comes to these things that my tourettic ass cling to Mituna like a lifeline.

Maybe I had a further point here. Maybe my point was just antis in the Homestuck fandom is still weird to me when there's canon incest. Maybe I've drunk a fair bit of vodka while writing this. I have work in the morning. Good night beloved tumblrinas.

¹she gave me classpect and everything, and it's the one I use to this day, despite having a completely different theory on how classpects work. I also joined a cosplay ask blog despite never reading Homestuck (at the time) cos she asked me to (simp) and bought black lipstick to do AMom.

[leaveitalonesky]

That poll got me thinking, so headcanons of CM character's online presence.

Garcia: has a private insta. She probably has her own server on Mastodon and/or she uses BSky. As I said on the tags before, I fully believe Garcia has a neocities and a bearblog, and it's all very cute/glittery and she posts a lot of tutorials and help people out. She's probably part of the free software movement.

Emily: had/has a tumblr nobody (except Garcia) knows about. She mostly posts about sci-fi and literature, sometimes art. I also think she would make those posts explaining how to get certain services from the government; every once in a while she'll post or correct an information about self-defense tips for women

JJ: private insta. she also has an account on reddit, which she uses mostly to judge if people are the asshole or not, and later in evolution uses it to learn about IA and stuff.

Reid: if he has an online presence (not likely) is probably a very simple bearblog where he posts reflections on works that he's read.

Morgan: insta. and he barely posts on it, when he does it, it's a thirst trap.

Hotch: His insta only exists so he can see what Jack is posting. (he also see what his other children - aka BAU - are posting)

Rossi: He has a offical instagram (usually taken care by someone else), and a private one with only like the BAU and his daughter and that's it. He also has a twitter, which he posts in every once in a while, mostly to fact-check info that's going on about profiling and talking about cooking. And I bet he did once the "I was one of the founders of the BAU, AMA." on reddit before a book came out as part of the marketing for the book. I can also see him showing up in streamings (either youtube or twitch) and playing something silly like Fortnite and being really fucking good at it.

Alex: has a blog where she talks about literature and weird things she's fascinated about. She doesn't use her actual name on the blog though, cause she doesn't want her students to find her. (Garcia makes Blake a part of her webring and help her set an guestbook on her blog so people can send her a message)

Tara: Private insta (she most posts stories though, nothing on the feed). Also a twitter account that doesn't have her name or picture on it and no mentions of her real life and she mostly post memes and comment on stuff. She might be even a little internet famous with that account.

Luke: Has 2 insta accounts. One, private for him. The second is for Roxy and she's famous.

Matt: private instagram account is mostly pictures of kids and wife. Has some pictures of himself being silly taken by his kids.

Elle: only twitter, without her name of course, she probably likes to shitpost.

[amywhereyouwant]

Some TOH HCs I wanted to share

There are a LOT of them, so They're under the read more for your scrolling convenience

Luz

-Uses She/They pronouns

-Would watch the entirety of Sword Art Online just to be able to shit on it properly

-Eats way too much Shredded Cheese even though she’s Lactose Intolerant

-Has made a Your mom joke to Willow only to remember she doesn’t have one

-Mains King in Tekken and made a custom attire trying to make it look like the other King

-Screenpeeks religiously in Split Screen Multiplayer

-Predicted Hecazura 2 books into the series, still won’t shut up about it

-Relatively known Digital Artist, her blog probably took off when she started making art of the Demon Realm 

-Hates baking

-Helps Amity bake out of the kindness of her heart(Also seeing Amity enjoying herself is really nice)

-Had a cold once, hasn’t had a Human Realm illness since

-Has SH scars from her depressed period back in the human realm(S3E1), still ashamed over them

-Quotes Memes constantly, only Hunter understands what she’s talking about

-Cracked a rib tripping on a rug on her way to bed

Amity

-Absolutely hates Bugs, like, genuinely despises them

-Does not know how computers work, but still tries to use Luz’s laptop to look up date ideas

-Can and will dress as the most stereotypical Witch ever

-Adopted(All 3 Blight Kids are in my HC)

-Likes to bake

-Does not know how to bake

-Gets sick constantly

-Works out a lot so she can help out with rebuilding the Isles(and also a little bit for Luz)

-Used to apologise a lot for minor things(Pre-timeskip)

-REALLY Bummed she didn’t get to see Titan Luz

-Watched the barbie movie the same day Gus watched Oppenheimer

Gus

-Goes nonverbal when stressed out, uses Illusions and his palisman to communicate

-Cried for hours when he finished the last Cosmic Frontier book, even though it was a happy ending

-Likes the idea of Professional Wrestling, but wishes the fights were to the death

-Quotes Cosmic Frontier as a Vocal Stim

-Dramatically perishes in Matt’s arms on the regular

-Headcanons O'Bayley to look exactly like Hunter just for the memes

-Thinks Human 2D Animation is the most beautiful thing to have ever been created

-Watched Across the Spider-Verse and Begged for Luz to draw a Spider-Suit for him, she did one for everyone

-Got really jealous when everyone else got flapjack tattoos, then he realised he could just make one of his own with an Illusion

-Got insanely mad when he learned about Human Discrimination(“How can you hate someone for something they can’t change? That’s ridiculous!”)

-Watched Oppenheimer the same day Amity and Hunter watched the Barbie Movie

Hunter

-LOVES Dino Nuggies

-Didn’t know Dinosaurs were real for a while until Luz showed them to him, Velociraptors are his favourite because “They’re like Wolves but Lizards!” (They’re not)

-Has a tumblr account where he posts about Wolves, Luz is his only follower

-Definitely has a Fursona

-Kicks Luz’s ass at most video games, except for Halo 2 specifically(I wonder why)

-”Will you go out with me?” “Hunter we’ve been dating for a year” “Oh.”

-Thinks Huggbees’ How it’s actually made videos are 100% Legit and honest

-Made Willow a Flower Shirt to match his Wolf Shirt

-Wears Willow’s Flower Shirt he made

-Imagine Dragons is his favourite band

-Has Epilepsy

-Steals Willow’s dresses sometimes

-Found Nicole Coenen on YouTube, showed her to luz “She looks kinda like Amity!”(Nobody else sees the resemblance)

-Probably plays a LOT of Roblox

-Watched the Barbie Movie with Amity(Luz forced him to)

-Has seen every single vine there is(Thank the Titan for Vine Compilations on YouTube)

-Any kind of facial hair he grows is really patchy so he just goes clean shaven for convenience

-Snuck food during TtT even though he was 100% allowed to eat normally

-Bananas do exist in the Demon Realm, Hunter has just never learned that they do

-Gets visits from the Spirits of the other Golden Guards in his dreams

Willow

-Tackled someone to the ground when they only slightly bumped into Hunter(We stan a protective queen)

-Feeds her palisman doggie treats, nobody knows why

-Filled Camila’s entire back garden with way too many plants during TtT, they’re still there despite not being watered for a while

-Made a Garland made of both Demon and Human Realm plants for Hunter on their anniversary

-Has no real idol/role model

-Happily Listens to everyone else ramble about their interests

-Wears Hunter’s Wolf Shirt

-Calls Hunter “Hun” as a short for his name, started doing it even more after she figured out what it actually meant

-Pranks people she doesn’t like by putting giant Grape Vines around their house

-Held a presentation about plant care for the Gravesfield Gardener Society

-Thinks most Human Sports are boring(Except for Hockey and Roller Derby)

Vee

-Pulls off some crazy ass cosplays

-Knows how to drive Camila’s car perfectly, still has no idea how it actually works though

-Laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe first time she heard Metal Pipe Fall Sound Effect

-Considers Luz to be her Sister, Camila burst into tears and hugged her when she called Luz “Big Sis” in front of her for the first time

-Plays Minecraft on Camila’s home PC, has spent tons of time on Hypixel and built a little shrine for the other basilisks on a private world

-Takes after Luz in a lot of ways

-Is way better at Spanish than Luz, flexes about it constantly(Nobody really cares)

-Had no idea how to tell Masha she was a Basilisk when they confessed to her(Masha knew long before she told them)

-Is really cuddly in Basilisk form, not so much when shapeshifted(“I don’t really feel like it’s myself”)

-Her first kiss with Masha was really awkward, she apologised like 45 times and cried because it wasn’t good

-Steven Universe is a canon IP in the universe, so she got really confused when Amethyst sounded EXACTLY like her

I have no idea why I made this

[thephantomcasebook]

I have some inside baseball too that Emma is a bigoted pos who supports Trump and Matt does Shirley Bassey impressions before each take and Eve is having an affair with Condal and Ewan is a raging alcoholic

It's easy to hide behind a Tumblr account or anon, with alt faceless identities and claim to know intimately what goes on in the show behind the scenes without showing actual proof. Olivia and the others are just acting out lines written by shitty writers who should know their source material by now. It's nothing to do with her characterization. Considering Tom and Phia had to fight tooth and nail for their tiny screen time together I hardly think Olivia is telling a room full of investors, showrunners and scriptwriters she is writing and characterising Alicent's part to her own liking. She gets handed a script, she gets a tiny amount of input like everyone else how she plays the scene and that's it.

If you actually believe that ... then you're not paying attention.

Even if I didn't have sources that "Don't Exist" - as you like. Every interview with a director, producer, and actor, have been incredibly open about how much input that main actors - D'Arcy, Smith, and Cooke, have in scenes and in shooting, about shaping and changing the script. Even your "Gotcha" about Glynn-Carney and Saban fighting for scenes together is a testiment that they have pull to change what is on the page and demand rewrites - for good or will.

The issue is that some actors and actresses have good instincts, Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell, and Tom Glynn-Carney, have killer instincts about what works and what doesn't with their characters to add to the story or the scene. Then there are good actors and actress that have incredibly bad instincts that should not be listened too. Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke have been sighted and proven to have some of the worst instincts, because, they're only thinking of themselves and not of the character or the story symmetry.

You can get indignant and huffy all you want, weirdo, and it won't change the fact that Alicent's character assassination is as much Olivia Cookes fault, born from selfish insecurities from online hate, as it is Sara Hess's bad writing and Condal's aloofness as a shit showrunner.

Or to sum up ...

[princesscolumbia]

It's me, it's the hammer context brigade

This is the og post the Tumblr CEO took offense with, and threatened to call the FBI over:

This is the user that was unjustly suspended explaining it all on her alt if you want the full, and frankly, grossly transphobic context: https://www.tumblr.com/cyprederone/742904943801958400/its-rita-were-done-here-for-now?source=share

Yee-ikes! I don't spread any information without context and receipts, and the context is something EVERY transperson on this site knows (blatant transphobia) and the receipts are the CEO's own statements, so 100% legit!

I have been hit by transphobic BS on this site a couple of times, mostly in the incorrect flagging of a post about trans stuff being flagged as NSFW even though it contained nothing I wouldn't say at work. I've seen trans-positive memes get taken down when they're just captions on frames from cartoons with some sort of non-explicit complaint about life as a trans person. And, of course, during the Tumbpocolypse I watched as EVERY trans-creator had their blogs deleted just because they're trans having NOTHING to do with the content itself.

This site has a transphobia problem, the CEO pretending that it doesn't exist and handwaving at one of thousands of similar vent posts does not make the transphobia problem, nor our awareness of it, magically go away.

[luxpenumbra]

ugh ohmygod so I saw this post and it made me so mad that I simultaneously wanted to reblog it just to rant in the tags and to not reblog it so that I could avoid sharing it with /more/ people

listen. music is universal. when a singer, songwriter, producer, lyricist, musician, team puts something out into the world, there may be emotions that they are trying to put into it. They will draw on these emotions as they perform and edit and refine this thing they are making. There may be a story they are trying to tell, an experience they are trying to communicate, and this may not be straightforward; there is a level of abstraction between conceptualization and realization that I am convinced exists to some level in all pieces of art like this. This is not a flaw; this is marvellous. When I the listener interact with a song, or an album, or an artist's entire body of work - the emotions that I feel and the story that is conveyed to me may be just. absolutely different from the artist's intentions and their own experience. It may resonate with me in an entirely different way than intended; it may resonate with someone else in a separate, distinct, discrete way. My and others' awareness of the artist and any context they have made clear may play a part in this or it may not; it depends on how I interact with music and how readily available this information is.

All this is to say: the only fucked up thing with this whole gaylor shit is the part where people are convinced that their interpretation of her music and the way it resonates with them indicates some fundamental truth about her identity. The only person who knows that is her and frankly it's none of anyone else's business and it's probably not that interesting anyway. But!!! this does not mean that her music cannot resonate with someone's experience of queerness!!!! It is story and song and a vehicle for emotion, and the details that make something sing true to someone's life and values are not pinned to the artist's "true identity" like a fuckin. butterfly to a corkboard. there is VALUE and DELIGHT in being aware of some additional dimension of queerness by virtue of the singers intentions or identity or whatever but that's a fucking BONUS you NIMRODS the only thing you need is a heart to feel things and a song to feel them about it's about YOU and how you interpret things. you change things just by existing!!! the only person to experience a song the way you do is YOU!!! "if I wanna listen to gay music I'll listen to gay ppl singing about gay sex" good for you!! but what a sad and limited life you must lead to need the significance and meaning of art spoonfed to you by author bios.

AND THEN. fucking condescending ass AAAAAAAH listen. christian rock can slap. i say this as someone who is markedly not christian. and even if you don't think it slaps that's fine. but the fact that someone's out here going "oh poor limited babies who've never listened to real proper good music before projecting sasanaru onto christian rock because they've never known anything else" grow uppppp!!! first of all!!! nobody. NOBODY. is out here saying 10,000 reasons by matt whatever is about sasuke and naruto kissing. you know this in your heart of hearts, just like you know deep down that there is VALUE in eking out meaning in places where you don't expect to find it, and in places that have some connection to the earliest parts of you. (and even if you aren't doing this, aren't interacting with the context of the music and its genre, see above re:universal fucking language). you've probably done it before. it's tumblr, land of transformative works and webweaving of course you have. how limited in scope must you be to think that people who listen to a genre you don't value but who are also queer or something must be just poor deprived children, limited in resource, waiting for that next evolution i'm gonna weep. anyway listen to relient k cowards

[dragongirlsnout]

Alright, let's apply some critical analysis to this:

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community.

It did negatively affect Tumblr's LGBTQ+ community, but the particular group most affected were trans women, and to simply use the umbrella term LGBTQ+ and not mention trans women specifcally detracts from the reality of the situation.

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

So, what was the actual reason then? After being incorrectly marked as an adult blog several weeks ago and having her profile picture removed, Avery contacted staff, was told the flagging had been done in error, and had her blog status returned to normal. So evidently, her blog was reviewed by staff and determined not to have broken TOS for having NSFW content. And if the post mentioned was also not the deciding factor, then that was?

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension.

Again, not the correct language to use here; the community in particular should be specified to be trans women, and this description is again erasing the reality of the situation at hand.

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

It's obvious that transition timelines are not against community guidelines, it's the fact that trans women's selfies have been repeatedly wrongly assigned Mature community labels that is being brought to light here.

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Here's the thing.

Obviously, we all know reporting blogs for anything other than sexual content just doesn't do anything. This is a fault of the system (myself and others have experienced numerous just even trying to submit reports in the first place), a fault of the site's content policies (transphobic, racist, antisemitic, and other inflammatory bloggers are protected so soundly by the site's freedom of speech policies that anything they say short of doxxing people is immediately brushed off by moderation staff), and a fault of the people behind the desks (as seen from inequitable moderation and extremely long response times experienced by people trying to clear improperly flagged posts or blogs).

However, reporting blogs en masse for sexual content seems to work very well, so much so that any time a trans woman speaks up on Tumblr a wave of transmisogynists can just spam a deluge of false reports for sexual content and have her disappear overnight.

So, the real question here, is even if a new amazing anti-harassment feature is rolled out, will anything be done to fix the ways in which the existing reporting system is used to target trans bloggers?

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

First of all, the tag in question that is at the forefront of this discussion is #tgirl. #tboy isn't blocked, #trans isn't blocked, #tgirl is. This is specifically about trans women.

While this response is marginally better than silence,

It isn't a proper apology, and it isn't any amount of transparency for how trans people and trans women in particular are treated on Tumblr. If anything, this stands to only showcase how trans rights are put on a podium at the forefront of a display of progressive imagery while the actual people on the site are swept under the rug.

A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:

We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally. 

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.

Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr. 

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblr’s policies, and Automattic’s policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We’re sorry for how this all transpired, and we’re actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.

— This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.

[northwestofinsanity]

Another REO Speedwagon breakup post… this one was not expected

I didn’t realize at the start of 2024 that when 2025 came around, I’d be coming to terms that at least, for now, REO Speedwagon -one of my major emotional support bands -only exists in spirit, but here we are.

There was another podcast on Ultimate Classic Rock that came out about it, including a live interview of Bruce Hall *and* Neal Doughty, just a few days before Christmas, and that’s was a few weeks ago now… I did *not* want to do this until the holiday season was over, because this situation continues to be sad.  (Didn’t want to kill the vibe for people who enjoy the holidays, and didn’t want to make it harder for those who already have a hard time around them either.) I don’t think it will ever be anything but sad -unless Kevin Cronin comes around and decides to get back together with Bruce, which given Kevin’s track record of going back on major things like this involving members who have left the band, I don’t think he will. (I still hope, but I’m not counting on it.

Anyway.  With Neal’s POV being here, and it being the first time we’ve really heard directly from him in detail, I think it adds more and is worth noting.  I thought my post on the Eubanks Podcast would be the last, as, after that, I did not think I would be able to stay neutral anymore, but with the content in this one, I don’t think I necessarily have to.  (I will *not* be trash talking Kevin, and still don’t condone that per Bruce’s requests not to, but pointing out key points of information that all point against him -so all this will be under the cut so that any Kevin Cronin fans can keep scrolling and not look if they’d rather not know).  While Bruce has stayed very neutral and left out certain details to protect Kevin Cronin in all the past things, Neal has been very open about why he’s sided with Bruce, in addition to just being very close to him, and Bruce is also taking more of a stand for himself here. It seems he’s had more time to process it all and is more ready to talk about it than he was in the previous podcast.

The UCR article is here . Tumblr has embedded them on the post, but just in case things go wonky with those, I’m hyperlinking text, too.

The UCR podcast episode is here (I don’t know how well it will work on different devices, but I can listen to it on my iPad browser while I’m still on iOS 17 right now, and I don’t even have a Spotify account, so I feel like that’s a sign it should work well and play for most people)

Key point outline under the cut: (and I am actively trying to get the “Keep reading that showed in my draft but now isn’t showing in the published post fixed)

At 7:20, at this time, Bruce reveals that when he went to pick up his gear when it became apparent he would not be coming back for awhile, if at all, Kevin refused to let him have his own amplifiers back, since it was needed for Matt Bissonette to use to help maintain the same sound.  

Neal goes on to clarify that this has been going on since the beginning of 2024, and that they have indeed tried to work this out, as fans have told them to do.  At 9:25, Neal states that he does not think he is legally allowed to quote what was in them, but says that Kevin sent “vicious” and “cruel emails” to Bruce in their attempts to work this situation out.  Later in the interview, Neal goes on to say that this was the biggest reason he ended up opposing Kevin, and not allowing him to use the name.  Not because of it just being that Bruce had been pushed out involuntarily, but he didn’t think Kevin deserved to use it on his own after being so cruel.

Around 10:40, the voting scheme and legal agreement as to why Kevin was unable to use the name of REO Speedwagon on his own without an agreement is explained.  No lone member of the band was ever allowed to go out with the name, unless majority parties agreed on it (e.g. if Bruce had voluntarily retired as Neal had, Kevin could have continued to use it). It is reiterated that Kevin’s refusal to let Bruce back in the band (over all the reasons Kevin has come up with since Bruce’s back surgery) is the only reason he was going to get it taken away in the first place.  This goes on for a few minutes, including a brief mention that REO’s original manager, Irving Azoff, even stepped in to help, but couldn’t reason with it.  It ultimately came to a point of Kevin saying he quit at the same time as being told he couldn’t use the name without letting Bruce back in.

At 14:10, Neal addresses Kevin’s comment that the 2024 lineup of REO is the best-sounding lineup of REO that has ever been.  They do defend Kevin in that it’s something that is *expected* by the press in interviews often, thus, sometimes is required to be done even if it’s not what is actually believed, but they are upset with the implications of that regarding Gary Richrath.

At 17:45, Neal reveals some stuff going on between him and Kevin, and Kevin exerting more control in the band, as reason for his choice to retire beyond what was described with the traveling issue.  But, he also reveals that he would happily rejoin the band for a farewell tour, if it had been done before Kevin went solo.  This leadership thing is also reiterated around 22:35 after going back through more efforts to have tried to get back together for a farewell tour that likely will not happen at this point.

24:00 Neal reviews he was initially pressured by management and Kevin to vote *against* Bruce, so that “REO Speedwagon” could continue on as a name, and he explains it was not a decision he took lightly.  He didn’t want to take the name away from Kevin in respect to that it might hinder him in the future, since his own name as a solo is not as recognized as the band name (and he says he is glad for Styx partnering up with him to help him along, since it made it slightly less hard to deal with that side), and still reiterates that nobody wants Kevin to not do well on his own, but with how close Bruce is to him, and with the way Bruce was treated, he couldn’t vote against Bruce in good conscience.  Neal was ultimately placed into the position as the tie-breaker, and it was a very hard position for him to be in.

28:25 comes a discussion of how unusual it is for bands to use this majority vote thing to shelve a name, rather than someone continuing with it, or two separate forms existing.  Bruce reiterates that he would not find a singer and continue on with it, and Neal explains more directly that the majority reason for his vote -and the final tipping point after everything he had to weigh out -is his inability to support all the cruel things that were said in emails to Bruce.  Bruce feels bad that it was done this way, because he feels if Kevin had done a farewell tour with him -at least let him back long enough for that -and other past members of REO before going solo, he’d have the blessing of fans to do well, rather than being dragged down by this debacle, now.  

30:50 is a reiteration of how the initial fight turned into an all-out war over Bruce, and Neal explains he did not want to be in this position of power, and drops the line, “Brotherhood is more than a slogan” in regard to his relationship with Bruce. Bruce quoted this when he linked this on his Facebook page, and has suggested that this single quote from Neal has meant so much to him while he’s continuing to heal from this.

33:30 goes into more direct detail of Irving Azoff’s role in trying to help settle the dispute, how he ultimately called Kevin, after speaking to everyone else in the band, and sadly, since he doesn’t really have any power in this other than attempting to get Kevin to see how it might have been better for him in the long term to just let Bruce back for a farewell, at least, there wasn’t anything he could do when Kevin wouldn’t hear it.

34:50 goes on the discussion of Kevin’s ultimate choice, and Kimmie Sue Hall chimed in with the exact quote of how the legal documentation was worded with the end agreement that Kevin signed for going solo at the end of the whole dispute: “Withdrew from REO Speedwagon Touring Incorporated”, after many documented threats that “[he would] go solo” (“Kevin will go solo”) if he could not continue to tour with Matt and without Bruce.

36:45 Neal reiterates that fans who still want REO Speedwagon can still see the version from last year in all but name, it will still sound the same as the exact band, and that every possible measure was taken to keep it from coming to this. They don’t want fans who want to continue having the experience to not go see Kevin if they want to because of this, but the dispute over the band name became deeper than they wanted it to be.

38:35, Neal goes on to explain what it would ultimately have been like to him if he had voted against Bruce, and is very open about how much he cares about Bruce -to the point he admits to nearly being in tears -and the pain is audible in his voice.  He states that he will gladly take the rap as the one who broke up REO with his decision to fans who are unhappy with his choice, with what is more important in the grand scheme.  This vote turned into being “purely about human relationships” by the end of the dispute, and the ultimate choice actually disadvantages Neal and Bruce from a business perspective, as since they are still members of REO even while not touring, they get a percentage of tour revenue -which will not occur with Kevin under a solo name -as is put toward the interview as a final reiteration of this not being about ending up on top.

So, with the limitations to what Neal actually can say, it seems like this got even uglier than what was known before, and this has been painful for Bruce even before it became known that he would never be in REO again (or at least as we suspect for now). I’m disappointed with Kevin, but not shocked (as someone who had a hard time coming to terms with how Gary Richrath was treated when I first became an REO fan). I don’t want him to not do well (and his new Facebook page is swamped with trolls right now over this)… but I can’t say what he’s done is okay, either. Maybe he’ll come around, but again, it doesn’t seem likely, or at least not right away. There’s been a lot of speculation I’ve seen as to if he’s actually alright right now, and that’s so much of a speculative can of worms that I don’t think it’s responsible to get into publicly… but I’ve seen things first hand enough that with the people who have said those speculative things, I can’t deny the possibility. At least for that much, I hope something -anything -can come about to give this situation a better ending, even if it’s late, and it can’t undo what Bruce and Neal have had to go through.