#fandom reflections

[rainbowsky]

In all my years of being a GGDD fan, I don't think any year has ever been better than this last one.

In the past I have watched them struggle and face incredibly difficult situations, be forced to spend almost all of their time apart, and deal with scandals and setbacks.

2024 was a year I could never have dreamed of for both of them. Watching them both thrive so well, take charge of their careers and their lives to a degree never before seen, and to have so much time for their personal lives - it's all I've ever wanted for them.

And you can see how well they are thriving, how much happier they are, how much healthier they are, and how much of themselves is stamped on every single thing they do.

I frequently see fans spinning negative fantasies about them, and it makes me sad. As if there isn't enough pain in the world, why generate more in your own mind?

A lot of turtles tend to overly romanticize 2018 and 2019 because they were the years that The Untamed was filmed, promoted and aired, and that's where a lot of our favorite GGDD content was born. I think that's rather self-centered and shortsighted. If we take five seconds to remove our rose-colored glasses, surely we can see how difficult those years were for them.

Yes, they got to work together for a few months, they got to spend some fun time together promoting The Untamed and even got to be somewhat open about their affection for each other in front of a crowd, but outside of that summer dream, they were both in pretty precarious positions in their careers, and both of them faced a lot of really gruesome anti attacks. Neither of them had very much control over their careers or their choices, and their management situations were atrocious.

We don't even have to talk about 2020. That was an incredibly difficult year. GG was the focus of one of the worst cyberbullying and nearly career-ending scandals that's been seen in that industry. He was being threatened, the people connected to him and the brands that he dealt with were being threatened.

Any time he tried to do anything in his career, whether it was an appearance or an endorsement, antis would come out in droves and protest until it was shut down. There were active organized hate campaigns whose entire purpose was to destroy his life and his career. People were trying to infect him with COVID, and there were other threats upon his life. Multiple times online hate campaigns tried to spread the rumor that he had died.

He couldn't go anywhere without people following him and chanting hateful slogans at him and trying to infiltrate the hotels he was staying at. It was terrifying.

DD was constantly overworked, exhausted, always on the move with barely any time to come up for air.

They had to spend most of their time apart, including some of the quarantine time, when DD was isolated so that he could begin filming LOF, right when the worst of the scandal broke. GG's grandfather died, and he faced so many personal burdens.

They did get some fun times together of course, and there were some huge successes for both of them, including GG's spectacular comeback at the end of the year with his sea of red for Tencent All Star Night. Even turtles worked to help ensure he had his red sea.

And GG and DD got to clown around and be silly as well, and they made a real effort to show us that they were getting through fine, they would be okay and that they were still the same people, still able to be happy. We got so much candy that year, and so many great LRLG messages as well.

But that was just a sign of their character and strength. Make no mistake about it, that was a difficult year.

The intervening years between then and now have been a bit of a mixed bag. There were a lot of COVID frustrations (scheduling issues, Kafkaesque hoops to jump through, inability to travel outside the country, risk of ending up in a prolonged lockdown, inevitable health stress), they had to spend a lot of time apart and there were more and more crackdowns on the entertainment industry, on the queer community and on fandom culture, which made things feel positively dismal and oppressive - at times even scary.

However, it's undeniable that things have been gradually improving for them. They've both been building more and more autonomy and control in their careers, and building more respect from audiences and within the industry. They've both been prioritizing their personal lives more and more. And yes - they've BOTH been looking happier, more relaxed, more balanced.

I've talked about that a fair bit over the past couple of years. Most recently in this post.

Looking at 2024, they have had so much more free time in their lives, have been able to spend so much more time together in the same city, have spent time with each other wherever they were filming, and even got to travel and spend some fun downtime outside of China.

They are in such powerful positions compared to even a couple years ago. They have made great connections and worked on some amazing projects.

GG has been working with some of the top directors on some of the most anticipated projects in C-ent. He recorded an entire solo album and several music videos, and did all of that on his own time and on his own dime, and released it to critical acclaim and massive success with audiences.

He has been the talk of the globe in fashion circles and entertainment circles, and has been the global face behind some of the most successful and exciting campaigns for some of the most prestigious brands in the world.

He got to travel a lot outside of China, and build on some of the great connections he's made over the years. He got to spend time with his parents traveling Europe!

He's given us so much incredible content with his vlogs and photo sets. It's just mind-boggling how much he's given us over the past couple of years.

DD took initiative to propose and participate in a documentary series where he got to explore interesting locations and engage in some of the most extreme outdoor activities. What could possibly be more exciting for someone like him?

He got to work with a team of conservationists who are fighting to save pangolins, and filmed a documentary there as well. Knowing him, that has to be one of the most rewarding things he's ever done in his life.

Both documentaries were highly acclaimed and award-winning.

Speaking of awards, he debuted as a film star and has been nominated for all of the top awards in China both for his film work and his drama work!

He has signed a new contract with his management company that will certainly have put him in a very powerful position in the company as their top breadwinner. He has been exceptionally successful with endorsements, holding more endorsements than anyone else in C-ent.

He got to play tennis on the top of The Great Wall with one of the top players in the world (regardless of how much I despise Djokovic).

He got to be an Olympic torch bearer! He is the ambassador for multiple high profile organizations and projects.

He earned his auto racing license, joined a racing team and finished in first place in his first ever auto race!

Make no mistake about it, they are both now solidly calling the shots in their own lives and careers, they are living their best lives, and they are both happier than I have ever seen them in all of these years.

And much more healthy! Just take one look at them and you can see how much healthier they both are. They've been playing a lot of sports and doing a lot of active outdoor activities together, and it shows in how much happier and healthier they are.

Frankly anyone who can't see that has their head stuffed firmly in a moist dark place.

I urge everyone to center GG and DD in all of our fandom explorations, theories and interpretations. The reality is that the more that they get to focus on their own lives and careers and personal freedoms, the less candy and CPN we're likely to see. We should be happy for them rather than try to spin sad tales about it.

[cobaltsoulsearcher]

Finnish February (following prompts from @thepromptfoundry)

Like a lot of others, my first fandom was Harry Potter. Which really kind of sucks, to be honest. It was my consuming special interest for 6 years and gave me so much; it was my introduction to fanfiction, roleplay, and fan music, as well as fan studies in general. The marauders fandom was instrumental in defining myself as queer and podcasts like Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and Witch Please exposed me to religion and marginalized studies and overall had a huge impact on my life. After everything was revealed with JKR, I felt devastated; and then again when I found out about Ministry of Magic (the band); and then again when stuff got worse with JKR; I tried so hard to replace it, to get equally into HDM, Tolkien, Werewolves, Math, and I couldn’t force my Brian to move on. Eventually, over three years, I weaned myself off anything that gave JKR money, and then everything official, and then fanwork altogether. It was genuinely a mourning process and greatly impacted my wellbeing in terms of having a safe space and my moral OCD. Sorry that this is depressing: fandom is amazing. I just wish my first experience had reflected that, given that that is what I hope it should be like for everyone

[maristela1968]

Fiction Meets Reality: A Personal Take on RPF

Creative storytelling can be inspired by real people—without crossing the line.

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of backlash against RPF (Real Person Fiction) across fandom spaces. Some call it disrespectful, unethical, or even disgusting. I get it—some RPFs cross boundaries. But I’d like to offer a different perspective.

I’ve been writing RPFs for a long time, mostly as entertainment and creative exploration, never as an attempt to rewrite history or make assumptions about real people’s private lives. My stories are fictional narratives set in alternate universes, often inspired by historical facts only to create a stronger sense of time, place, and character. They’re not gossip. They’re not meant to be "the truth."

And yes, I always treat the people I write about with care and respect.

What surprises me most is the assumption that RPF is “for preteens” or somehow unserious. I’ve read (and written) thoughtful, emotional, and imaginative RPFs featuring artists like The Beatles, The Monkees, The Who, and more recently, 10cc. These works can be incredibly moving and clever—just like any good fic.

Of course, RPF isn’t for everyone. But to dismiss the entire genre as a whole? That feels unfair.

If you’re someone who enjoys alternative takes on familiar faces, or simply believes in the power of imagination, then RPF might just surprise you.

Thanks for reading. If you’re open to respectful RPF, let’s connect! I love meeting fellow writers and readers who approach this with creativity, humor, and heart. 🤍

[motleystitches]

So there's an entire fake history about Russia on Wikipedia (articles started in Chinese, translated to other languages including English)

It was uncovered by a writer who was doing some casual research on a potential novel about medieval Russia. There are maps, timeline, fake characters, fake bibilography, sockpuppets! In sum, there are about 200 articles of the most detailed world building exercise over the course of ten years because someone's lonely. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhemao_hoaxes). The problem is, of course, it was presented as real history.

Now, that's the PRE-AI world.

[chaosinthemultiuniverses]

Loki show is juat overfilled with romantic tropes, especially S2. Music, camera angles, colours, their actions, situations Loki and Mobius get together, body language, subtle signs, implications of the words they're saying to each other but unable to go more sincere because it's homophobic Disney they are on. It all hugely reminds me of Supernatural and Destiel, "they silenced him (Dean)" fan movement after 15x18 released three years ago.

Even with all those signs I kind of new it was all a bloody queerbating. Like in Supernatural, 12 years in a row. And when Castiel has finally made "a homosexual declaration of love" (as Misha Collins called it in his livestreams and on panels during conventions), he died. "Vlassic Hollywood 'kill all the gays' trope" which are another bitter words Misha used to describe that bittersweet and heartbreaking scene from that episode.

Misha had been desperately fighting for that line for all his years on Supernatural, being almost alone. In "Loki," Tom or Owen don't fight for Lokius the same way Misha did for Destiel, so realistically, rationally speaking, I always knew it won't become canon. Just because studios are still that homophobic, they put toxic, manipulative relationships with the character's other self above a healing, beautiful, soul-saving, inspiring, healthy, character-growing, fresh and the most important, sincere and based on unconditional trust, relalationship where both allow themselves to be vulnerable around each other and trust one another with that. Only because the former is a hetero, and the latter is same-sex. Smh.

Both Lokius and Destiel are example how true love "can pierce throughthe veil of death and save the day," it's another bravest quote from Supernatural. They were insane for putting such lines without intention to make main SPN pairing a canon, if it weren't for Misha's dedication to Destiel.

Maybe if Tom or Owen (or both of them) foufght for Lokius the same way, we would have got a chance. I'm just saying, not judging. I totally understand why they show their support to it subtly, carefully. I like it too.

In conclusion, I want to say I'm just a simple fan. I just want healthy relationships to win over toxic ones. At least in TV shows, since I don't see it in real life. And to finally see a proper representation of queer relationships that lead to character growth and a happy beautiful life of two adults being deeply in love, regardless of their sex and/or gender. I want it to be normalised.

Dear Disney,

about this:

The fit check and hair slick thing are romantic tropes in film:

See?

Now, you are film makers. I take it you have all the experience and the know-how there is when it comes to TV and film. So, when you use these tropes, I have to assume that you want to tell us one of two things: Either you want to show us that there is a romatic story to be expected between two characters or you want us to believe that there is one when in fact there isn't. In this case (this case being Loki), that could be considered queerbaiting.

[curioscurio]

I'm rewatching Steven Universe and I will never forgive Fandom for what it did to her

[smearp]

I finally gave in and started playing rdr on pc instead of my console and the difference in quality?? I've been missing out

[emiplayzmc]

Doodles based on conversations about Twisted Glisten and Rodger with @tdlizardowo :3. Mainly with the Mini AU thing I doodled the other day where Rodger does solo runs down to the Twisted floors to meet with Glisten.

|| "Well, what do you normally do when I'm gone?"

|| "Wait for you to get back..."

Based on an idea we had that Glisten literally just. Sits outside the elevator waiting for Rodger to return whenever he leaves. Probably sits with his head turned to the side so he can listen against the wall for the elevator moving in the shaft.

|| "he's gonna come back for this isn't he

he wouldn't leave this it's his favourite briefcase he wouldn't leave it

if he comes back for this that means he comes back for me right

he's coming back right

|| please please please please please don't leave me alone again please"

We also made the headcanon that when Rodger was first going to see Glisten and trying to get his trust back with him, Glisten had such low self esteem and such high anxiety at that point that he thought literally anything was holding more importance in Rodger's eyes than himself. So Rodger would catch onto this and leave items down there with Glisten, the latter of whom would basically hold them hostage until Rodger came back (I also think sometimes Glisten would outright take to nicking stuff off him to hold hostage as well, something he felt was significant enough that Rodger would come back for it had he lost it).

Rodger would slowly get Glisten to realise that, by doing this little habit and being nonchalant about whether an item goes missing or he leaves something on accident, that he really isn't caring about whether he leaves stuff down here or not - notes, a briefcase, research, whatever - it's *him* that he's returning for, because helping Glisten and keeping him company until he can find a way to cure him or get him safely up to the lobby without other Toons being worried or scared of him is the most important thing to him. Glisten is more important to Rodger than some silly items. :)

(Also I choose to believe the briefcase has lore as being a birthday / debut anniversary gift from Toodles to Rodger that she convinced her Toon Handler to help her get for him)

Also the OG SpongeBob scene for the first image :)

[rainbowsky]

Someone sent me the video a couple days ago and I didn't even know what I was looking at until they told me they thought that it was DD. It wasn't DD. 🤦🏻‍♂️

And you don't even need to see the video to know that. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that DD is not going to show up at Hengdian of all places (the single most heavily stalked and leaked location in all of China), to a set that has multiple leaks daily, and saunter around without a mask. Any turtle who thinks that's even remotely possible is seriously beyond help.

Not only do some fans think it was DD, but some think they see the person feed food into GG's mouth with their fingers. FFS, people are reading too much fanfiction if they think that that's even remotely ever going to happen on a set and get leaked to the public.

I swear the same kind of people who buy into this ridiculous nonsense are the same people who thought that the assistant fic was real. People who are so wrapped up in their own fanfiction fantasy about GG and DD that they've lost all sight of reality and don't even see them as human beings anymore.

If you can't respect GG and DD enough to put their humanity front and center as a fan, then you've completely lost the plot.

There's a huge difference between sharing Untamed BTS and giggling about their interactions back then, and spreading around some leaked video from GG's filming set and claiming you see DD in the clip. If you can't see the difference between those two actions then there's something seriously wrong with you.

On the set of the Untamed they were working together, and both consented to being filmed for BTS clips as part of the production process. The footage is 6 years old and ancient history.

GG's current filming set is a private place of work. Sharing any leaked footage, no matter who you think appears in it, is deeply disrespectful of GG and everyone who works with him. Quite apart from any claims about who appears in the video, sharing leaks from their sets is one of the biggest no-nos as a fan.

But sharing footage that you genuinely believe shows the boys together and then giggling about it like it's some kind of candy... you have no business calling yourself a turtle. End of story.

Even rumors like this can endanger them, we should all know this by now.

And like I said before, use your head. There's no way that DD is going to show up at Hengdian and hand feed GG food. It's never going to happen except in somebody's fan fic. Give your head a shake. I would be embarrassed for people who believe this kind of thing if I wasn't too horrified by their behavior to feel anything else.

These are the most depressing and disappointing days of being a turtle. It's garbage like this that makes me seriously consider just packing up and walking away. I don't want to be a part of any group that is this deluded and credulous, and this disrespectful of GG and DD. It's the international fans behind this kind of stupidity who give turtles a bad name.

i was supposedly gonna address this by end of month and with my april candy round up but i think might as well do it now. only because it is being shared primarily on international platforms and i feel the need to put out this reminder. i wouldn’t even dream about controlling how one chooses to participate in this fandom but sometimes people need a wake up call.

so, there has been a video going around of GG filming Legend of Zanghai and there is a staff there that people are saying is WYB. it showed this person talking to GG while he is on standby and shooting etc. first of all, these two are notoriously good at hiding and being professional in their workplace. especially now. i doubt they will flaunt each other on set with one acting like a PA for the other. not only that, they both hate to cause any disturbance on set or have unnecessary eyes on them — much worse, gossip, so this is a no.

and in the very low chance that it is WYB or that whatever rumor we have of XX visiting XXX on set is true, the last person who should be outing their secret meetings shouldn’t be turtles. if there is one thing i really miss from the beginnings of this fandom is how much people protected them. even if at times we became obnoxious, you know that the reason is because we wanted to keep them safe. nowadays, i feel like more turtles don’t even care at all. they will show off anything to prove a point. but at what cost? seriously, how far would you go? how much disregard for their rights as human beings will you allow?

which leads me to the main problem here: sharing leaks. i personally sometimes can’t avoid it, especially on weibo cause it depends on who you follow, it will come up. or worse, the leaked videos/photos goes on hot search. xz has been very local against proxy shooting for this project so idk why some turtles continue to disrespect his wishes. it’s one thing to see it accidentally, but for international fans to share it and then make it out to be this “scandalous” video proof is so questionable. what makes them different from professional weibo paparazzis who out celebrity couples? who follow them in their homes and even their parents? how are they different from ss who put trackers on their cars and obsess over their personal itinerary? it’s so sus to call yourself a fan who care about them but applaud this kind of behavior. these kind of fans honestly don’t see xz and wyb as people. leave them the fuck alone. i don’t think i can stress that enough. let’s speculate all we want from the materials they willingly give us and try not to make it harder for them to live their personal lives.

i understand how material like that can make someone happy and affirmed but think about them first.

and if you are someone who needs solid video proof to support the boys and be on the bjyxszd train, then please leave this fandom now. i can tolerate alot of behaviors but never ones that endanger them like this. this need for constant validation is dangerous. it’s their relationship, not ours. they are real people and not fictional characters.

[synthsays]

Chamber of Reflection - Mac DeMarco

[lidicanread]

Somewhere in the world right now, this minute, is a young man who will one day play my beloved Lestat de Lioncourt in our TV series. I wonder what that young man is doing.

Is he reading a book tonight, or watching a film? Is he out dancing at a club? Is he studying for an exam, or perhaps acting in a stage play in Los Angeles or Chicago? Is he on the set of a film, waiting for his time on camera? Maybe he's driving on a narrow highway alone from London to Manchester; or through the traffic of Berlin or St.Petersburg or Brussels. He may have the car radio on, or be musing in silence. Perhaps he's playing the violin in an orchestra, or tap dancing on a Broadway stage.

Is his hair already long, to his shoulders? Is he a snappy dresser? I wonder if he is in love. Has he read any of the Vampire Chronicles?

I hope his parents are proud of him for his talent. I hope he is happy. What kind of wine does he like?

What did he have for dinner? Wherever he is, I'm thinking of him. I'm wishing him well. I'm wishing good things for him. Stay safe, young man. We're coming for you. We love you. We want you.

- Anne Rice, in a post on The Vampire Chronicles Facebook page.

I wish she got to see her beloved Lestat come to life so beautifully through Sam Reid. To me, there is no Lestat but him.

[rainbowsky]

Anonymous asked:

Big fan of your posts! What do you think of Huang Ziteng's [redacted]

Love to hear your thoughts!

Hi Anon. Thanks so much for your kind words, I am glad you're enjoying my blog! ☺️

I suppose you must be a bit surprised to see your name come up as anonymous, since your question was not submitted anonymously. It is because this particular ask put me in a bit of a dilemma and I decided to err on the side of caution. I don't want anyone getting offended by what I have to say about things like this.

The material in question

The content that you shared with me was indeed video footage of Huang Ziteng speaking on a livestream about GG and DD. I asked a dear friend who is fluent in Chinese to give me a rough overview since there was no translation, and this is what Shufu is saying:

They've been together for 6 years.

DD was the one who was more outward in the pursuit, but GG was expressing his love with his eyes, and it's impossible to say who was attracted first.

A bit of background about The Untamed, saying that an actor with the last name of Ma was already cast as Wei WuXian and only needed to sign the contract, but Ma was in a series that was popular at the time and decided he wanted more compensation. The production couldn't afford it, and switched to GG.

Turtles will have a lifetime of candies.

This video is also not new (based on other copies found online, it's at least as old as October of last year), and apparently this isn't the first time he's spoken fairly openly about them in a livestream.

My thoughts

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this, and I want to dig into a couple of issues because this really touches upon some of the core considerations of being a turtle.

1 ] Supporting closeted couples

GG and DD are closeted, at least when it comes to being in the public eye*. This isn't just because of their queerness, but it is also because they are celebrities and as such they're required to appear single.

*It is obvious they are out among their friends and close colleagues, but that is very different from being publicly out.

We need to consider audience expectations and the pressures of investors, brands and productions to be able to market stars on the perception of romantic availability. This is why stars in that industry tend to hide their relationships and even families and children.

As celebrities GG and DD are not able to be publicly out.

Being queer is undoubtedly also a complication. Even though many Chinese citizens are tolerant of homosexuality, especially the younger generation, many are only tolerant of it as long as it is not seen or discussed. It's highly likely coming out would result in a lot of backlash among audiences, even from people who aren't fans that dream of one day marrying them.

Chinese audiences can be absolutely savage towards anyone who takes up a certain type of public airspace. Anyone who sticks their head up too far for any reason stands a chance of having it chewed off.

That's quite apart from the political implications for them. The current government has had a very anti LGBTQ approach. GG and DD are not at liberty to be open about their sexual orientation if they want to be able to continue to enjoy a top spot in this heavily government-regulated industry, where they are frequently put in the position of being role models and ambassadors.

If they were to come out publicly about their relationship, or even just about being queer, it's very likely that a lot of queer people and queer allies would be inspired and emboldened by them.

While that might sound like a good thing to our Western ears, it's likely not so in the eyes of the government. This government treats LGBTQ people as potential political dissidents, which is why they crack down so much on opportunities for queer people to gather. Night clubs are shut down, queer organizations and agencies are shut down, Pride marches are no longer allowed.

The last thing they would want is for two of the top celebrities in the country to become poster boys for the queer rights movement. And this could easily happen whether GG and DD wanted it or not.

If they were seen as in any way leading or even just inspiring a politically subversive movement (as any movement that is critical of government policy is treated), it would not be good for them.

There is another, in some ways potentially more serious issue. This government has repeatedly characterized queer people as having a corrupting influence on youth. GG, and especially DD, are extremely popular among young people. If they were to come out about their relationship or about being queer, there is a possibility that in the eyes of the government they would instantly become 'corruptors of the youth', with all of the outcomes that one can imagine for such a corrupter.

In other words, it could be very unpleasant indeed.

Make no mistake about it, the government knows they are a couple. This government knows. But GG and DD are allowed to play the roles they play in the industry because they are useful to the government, because they are mouthpieces for political messaging, and because they keep a low profile with regard to their personal lives.

There's also the personal side to this.

As queer people, our identities and our personal lives frequently become a source of controversy and friction. Therefore our personal stories absolutely must be under our own control. We must always be the ones deciding how much about us is known, and who knows it.

All of this to say, this is not Huang Ziteng's story to tell, and as somebody who knows them personally and is publicly associated with them - having worked with them in the past - outing them like this to fans is extremely not okay. Unless he has their permission, he is seriously violating their privacy and potentially putting them at risk.

For this reason, I find it extremely difficult to imagine that GG in particular would have given him permission to speak openly about their relationship. He would have understood that it could make Huang Ziteng look bad, as there's no way for him to say or prove that he has their permission to discuss these things.

All other considerations aside, I just don't see GG being okay with that.

2 ] The issue of veracity

Turtles love Shufu. Of course we do. He gives us candy, and we all love candy. There are many turtles who starve and suffer without candy. Some of our favorite candies came directly from him. What's not to love?

The problem here is, there's absolutely no evidence or proof of anything that he says beyond what we already know as turtles. He isn't giving us any new evidence or proof of their relationship (and that's probably really good thing given what I just talked at length about above), and most crucially he has not given any fresh insight into them as a couple. Nothing that might show he really has an inside perspective on them.

There's absolutely nothing to say that he isn't simply parroting everything we say back to us, telling us what we want to hear.

For what purpose? Well, people can be a bit strange, especially when it comes to fame and attention and popularity. I've actually seen this with my own eyes IRL. Humans can behave in puzzling ways when in the proximity of people who are very famous and popular.

Personal opportunism aside, the world can be very cold and lonely, and people will often go to great lengths to feel special, to feel powerful and to feel loved.

I just finished talking about how much turtles tend to love Shufu. That alone is something that should give all of us pause when it comes to a situation like this. We are vulnerable to being taken advantage of by somebody in his position. We need to proceed with caution and understand the possibility that he could be just saying these things for his own purposes.

This actually happened with Cheng Yi. Remember she used to share a lot of cartoons and candies and other things related to GG and DD. It turns out that she tried to profit from impressionable c-turtles a while back, in ways that made them uncomfortable. We all need to be very careful who we trust. And I say this as someone who has a chronic problem with being too trusting and naive.

I am by no means saying that Huang Ziteng is lying, or that he is setting out to take advantage of turtles, I'm simply pointing out that we do not know where he's coming from or why he's doing what he's doing, and there are a lot of legitimate reasons to be concerned. We don't even know what his current relationship with them is, or if he actually has any recent information about them.

So I know a lot of turtles are going to be extremely excited about the idea that someone who knows them personally is openly confirming their relationship. However, I would urge caution on this.

The way I see it there are three possibilities:

He is directly aware of their relationship, and was sharing this information with their permission. Of course anything is possible, but given all of the issues I just discussed above, I find it highly, highly unlikely. They already have the fake rumor house and their own social media accounts and various other ways of feeding us. I find it unlikely that they would authorize friends and colleagues to out them publicly.

He is saying all of this without their permission, and doing so for his own reasons, whether that be emotional validation or personal gain or some other purpose. Unfortunately we have to accept that this is a very real possibility.

He is a turtle himself, whether he has direct knowledge about their relationship or not, and is excited to talk about them with other turtles, and everything he is saying is just the ramblings of any turtle - without any actual validation, just like any other turtle.

Which of these possibilities am I leaning toward? For now I'm sitting somewhere between option two and option three - much more leaning to two. I'm going to reserve judgment for now, but I'm starting to look a little bit more carefully at past candies from him and thinking they might need to be reevaluated.

In other words, I'm starting to have doubts about him and his motives, although I am keeping an open mind. I will need more information before I can really make a decision on where I stand.

I would like to conclude by saying to everyone - don't be cynical, don't view everyone as a grifter or an opportunist, but also don't be naive and gullible. Things are rarely what we assume, whether we are assuming well or ill.

The truth usually falls somewhere between, in the grey area between the extremes.

Maybe one day we will get the answers to some of these questions, but for now we really don't have much information to go on. It's up to each turtle to chart their own path, I just hope we will all exercise critical thinking and discernment.

Final thoughts

Someone like this coming along and saying a bunch of stuff does not change a single thing for me as a turtle. I have no way of knowing whether he is speaking based on his own personal experience and close relationship with them, or whether he is speaking as a turtle who has been at some remove from them since filming.

I long ago stopped needing any validation of GG and DD's relationship. I trust my own judgment, so this kind of confirmation isn't really something I seek out or feel any kind of way about at all. I already believe BJYXSZD.

I feel like that insulates me somewhat from being swept away by something like this, and makes it possible for me to look at it with a skeptical eye.

If we analyze what he's saying, he sounds like somebody who has been watching the BTS. This is exactly the sort of thing I've seen many turtles say over the years. And if you examine his statements, for example, "It's impossible to say who was attracted first," a comment like that makes my spidey senses tingle.

If he was close enough to them to know the details of their relationship, and especially if he was close enough to be given permission to share those details, surely he would have some insight into such things, or at least some personal flourish to add.

So for reasons I already stated, I'm not able to take this at face value and just trust he is acting in good faith and out of complete honesty as someone who is in their close inner circle. If anything this throws everything he's previously shared into doubt for me, and makes me wary of his motives.

Like I said, every turtle has to chart their own path, and develop our own perspectives based on the available information.

It's not like we have to decide one way or the other, either. It's always an interesting thought exercise to explore a variety of different perspectives and possibilities, and keep our minds open. Since we are unlikely to ever get confirmation one way or the other, there's no point in jumping to conclusions.

In any case, I will be keeping my eye on him.

My friend said the most interesting thing about this livestream is what he says about GG and the role of WWX. I have to agree. Production talked during promo about GG being first choice for WWX, so this statement from Huang Ziteng is very interesting (and likely impossible to verify).

Standard disclaimer: this is my personal opinion based on my own experience and perspective. There may be people who will disagree with what I have to say and that is their right, but I won't tolerate any hostility. We can agree or disagree on friendly terms. Anyone who is unable to be friendly and civil in their disagreement is asked not to respond to this post.

[obamerzslop]

The smudge...

Love me some reflective detective :]

Kofi | Comissions

[frownyalfred]

the funny thing about tumblr is that sometimes 16 year olds will get on here and tell you with the confidence of a thousand suns that you are the worst person in the world and you should kill yourself….babe have you heard of ISIS??

[mega-nerd-and-i-need-help]

<3

[salamispots]

glint