#maybe this is controversial lol

[phoneybeatlemania]

I think one mistake people make is equating John’s output with his taste in music. John was critical of or uninterested in music of his peers that might have been considered cool or in line with what his fans would like. He also loved music that would have been considered lame at the time by those same types i.e. Disco/Donna Summer etc. I recently read an antectdote from someone who had met Bob Gruen who said that John spent a lot of time listening to the radio and loved Silly Love Songs (and thought the “I love you” was meant for him lol). Not sure the validity of this, but I fully believe that he would like SLS based on the music he was listening to around this time. Obviously, he also loved a lot of older music despite his “granny music” comment. My point being, I think he enjoyed/loved music that was not in his wheelhouse to perform or make himself, so although his solo output may not have been similar to Paul’s it does not necessarily mean he did not enjoy it (same for their work in the Beatles).

I agree that realistically he probably didn’t like all of Paul’s music and am more inclined to buy his comments from the mid 70s, but comments from the early or late 70s (especially early) have so much interpersonal baggage behind them that I wouldn’t take it at face value. And unfortunately people did and some still do and use it as a criticism of Paul (without using their own independent thought or judgement) Also want to note, Paul did not like all of John’s solo work either, he just did not publicly criticize it.

Hiya anon—only just getting to your ask now because (real) life has been super busy, but I hope you come across my response anyway, and sorry about the wait!

So, I do agree with what you're saying in that John Lennon isn't necessarily someone whose comments you want to take at face-value, especially when they're relating to Paul (and especially when they're post-breakup). And I do think that there were songs John either pretended to dislike, or liked but never made any documented comments on.

My hesitation with this analysis though is that I think it can be kind of easy to fall into a habit of always reading between the lines, and figuring that John must have at all times had an underlying motivation and/or been lying any time he made a comment that was less favourable to Pauls solo work. Sometimes he might have genuinely just not liked the song/thought it could have been improved; sometimes Pauls solo stuff might have just not resonated with him.

When it comes to earlier 70s criticisms, I do agree that these types of comments would have had a much higher chance of being shaded by a bias against Paul, and I do think that's worth taking into account. And as John himself said, "its very hard to listen to your friend", because knowing and having a relationship with the actual artist makes it difficult to be objective about these things—so I do think that his opinions on Pauls work would have always been informed, at least to some degree, by his relationship with him.

I just think on the other hand though, it can be a difficult call between is he just being Mean for the sake of being Mean, or did he have a genuine critique/dislike.

So essentially, I do agree with what you're saying anon, and there are plenty of instances where I think it is worth reading between the lines of what Johns saying and/or taking their relationship contexts into account. I just think as well (to reiterate) that its easy to fall into a pattern of always assuming there is an underlying motive, when sometimes his opinions might have just been as simple as: he didn't particularly like the song/album.

[datkat08]

Ranking One Piece ships!! My opinion ofc

Zoro x Sanji: 100000/10, my otp, I would die for them, never a dull moment with this ship.

Franky x Robin: 11/10, incredible, showstopping, even better as t4t.

Usopp x Kaya: 10/10, no notes, they’re adorable.

Nami x Vivi: 9/10, very cute! Now all we need is for Vivi to come back 😔😔

Shanks x Buggy: 7/10, very funny, and childhood friends to enemies to lovers is a fun trip.

Luffy x Zoro: 5/10, I hc Luffy as aroace so it doesn’t work, but I can at least see where people are coming from with this one.

Sanji x Usopp: 5/10, it’s cute and the fan content is nice, but it’s just not my thing.

Luffy x Law: 4/10, their dynamic is amusing but it doesn’t really work for me as a ship.

Luffy x Nami: 3/10, doesn’t work because of my hcs for them and I don’t think they’d like each other that way, but there are worse options.

Ace x Sanji: 3/10, I can see Ace being Sanji’s bi awakening but they wouldn’t work as an actual couple imo.

Zoro x Robin: 2/10, where’s the chemistry? This ship would be boring more than anything else. Also don’t love 19 x 28.

Luffy x Boa: 0/10, I’m sorry but I’m not shipping a 17 year old with a 29 year old. Her infatuation with Luffy bothers me tbh.

[ramlightly]

Holy shit, yuri from ramlightly???? LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO

lol yup, finally! In fairness, the very first couple I made for this account was a wlw relationship (between a green fairy named absinthe and a former nun that worked at her bar) but yes, I have been infected with the yaoi brain worms for a while.

[1hot-mess-express1]

BIG DILFS, THAT R REALLY JUST SOFT BOYS

Please humor me. I was thinking about soft, freaky boys, and this made me think about big, scary dudes who are just the sweetest. Like they're huge and mean and scary, but for their cute little lady, they're the softest, sweetest man ever. Bro, don't manhandle or anything; nothing but gentle touches and hand-holding. Whispers praise while placing little pecks on your cheeks cause he's huge, and you're such a good girl for taking him so well. You'd have to convince him to be a little mean with you, and even then, he's stopping himself regularly to make sure you're okay cause you're the best thing to ever happen to him, and he would be devastated if he ever hurt you.

[bmpmp3]

sorry to be a bit of a hater but i do wish youtubers weren't so scared of making their videos just like, "reviews", whys everything gotta be a "video essay" all the time. every day my recommendations are filled with 40 minute videos titled "_____: An Underrated Masterpiece" where the first like five minutes are reading the wikipedia definition of "masterpiece" in a somber voice with dramatic themed text on screen. please just tell me how good or bad you think something is and use the rest of the runtime to explain why. you dont need to put on all these airs

[itsraining-honey]

reject modernity

EMBRACE TRADITION!!!!!

here’s a bonus cute helena hehe :3

[dollypopup]

y'all can all cancel me (again) for this, but if there's even a SHRED of 'who should I pick?' from Penelope in season 3, I am tuning out SO fast because like. . .sorry not sorry, there IS no choice. Debling is some crusty OC suitor she barely even knows and Colin is a man who she has been so supposedly in love with to the point where she'd ruin her entire family's reputation to have a potential love story with him. Penelope and Colin have background, years of knowing each other, intimacy that few people in the Ton can boast of having (letters, conversations about purpose, fights and arguments and makeups) and her and Debling have. . .a dance or two at a ball because he's a rebound for Penelope's broken heart. he means nothing. he has no nuance, he has no weight to the story, he is such an afterthought to me. either I wanna see Penelope going 'you know what? I don't even LIKE this dude. he's. . .fine, but I don't care about him even a shred as much as I care about Colin' or the INSTANT Colin's like 'you know what? we should get married' if it's not an immediate 'say less, you're already my husband, try returning me without the receipt, Debling whomst?' then I don't want it!

like. . .it's just so frustrating to see all the 'I hope Debling sweeps her off her feet and she rejects Colin's proposal and she makes him work for it and and and-' nonsense from the fandom and it's always tagged and no matter how many times I block it, it just keeps popping up. I go into the Polin tag for POLIN. I don't give a SHIT about a male love interest other than Colin. Not one. Not a shred. Not an iota.

and also. . .Debling has the 'benefit' of not having depth, or character traits, or HISTORY, so peeps can project onto him however they want, but I'm calling it now, there is NOTHING he could do or be that would make me like him more than Colin. Colin will always hit different, and I will always love him more. and if Pen's not on that same page? lol bye

you want me to believe Penelope and Colin are soulmates and it's romance for her to hem and haw about how difficult a decision it is for her to marry a stranger who knows barely anything about her. . .

when Marina was out here dropping banger lines like 'You were the only man with which I could see myself being happy' and 'I do not care about any of these men, where is Colin?'? like hello??? and she wasn't even fully in love with him!!!! but we'll demonize her until the cows come home in our fandom and make her the villain in Polin's love story for DARING to get in between Polin, yet Debling, a white man, is a darling dear perfect prince for getting in between Polin? existing in our fandom solely so Penelope can be like 'lol, Colin ain't shit, let me entertain any and everyone else'?

if that's the direction it goes then, ten toes down and on my mama, she doesn't deserve Colin and she can move because I'm on my way to court him my damn self

and that's that on that

[on-leatheredwings]

on that thought, its frustrating as a batman/comics fan-writer b/c all these diff representations of characters across DECADES got me so confused on how to write these people b/c every writer has a diff take. whereas with manga/anime, it's just one guy writing or at least just one team.

with manga/anime im kinda more of a canon snob...... but after a month of batfam writing girl this shit is hard............ i dont blame ppl for just writing the batfam with WFA personalities at least everyone feels distinct ihfosdjodsi.

ive never done so much studying to write characters like i have with this gihdfsifg ive read so many runs and still feel confused....

[greatyme]

Okay. So. I had a whole 1700+ word essay written about my thoughts on too many bl fans assuming actors are straight but it was very uhhh rant formatted and got too heated so I’m gonna try again and be a little more chill and concise abt it…

Let me get straight to the point. I didn’t mention fanservice or shipping real people in that little post I made (I wasn’t expecting it to get any notes tbh lmao) but that’s very much related to what I’m talking about. In my experience, being vehemently against fanservice and rps goes hand in hand with assuming these actors are straight which is of course heteronormativity (homophobia!).

Fanservice & shipping are a vital part to the bl ecosystem, and they aren’t going away any time soon. And I don’t mean because it’s great for promoting a product or an upcoming series (which, yes, it can be, not denying that) but fanservice, in fact, queers our perception of “truth” and “reality” when it comes to these actors’ lives. When an actor is purposefully vague about their relationship or sexuality, they’re able to simultaneously not put themselves at risk by being “out” in a more traditional/upfront (perhaps western…) sense while also being capable of being perceived as queer to some degree by their audience. Infinite homosexuality glitch! Shippers are important because they play a role in believing their fav bl couple are together for real aka they are gay for real (also it’s just fun to do…). Yes, some people overstep boundaries but for the most part people are capable of being respectful.

I see a lot of people say bl actors are absolutely not dating each other and 99% of them are straight and probably even homophobic etc. constantly but like… who told you that? If anything, a job where you’re perceived as gay while still being not out enough (having such a hard time phrasing what I mean by this lol) to keep your safety would be way more appealing to literal queer people right? And surely most actors know what they’re getting into by partaking? Yes there can be issues with fanservice, rps, etc. but I can’t help but notice everyone seems to be focused on the issues and never the benefits. Assuming the majority of bl actors are straight is just plain homophobic, and I might argue it’s counterproductive to resist and say it’s “none of my business” when they’re purposefully going out of their way to make it our business (if you’re not into fanservice/shipping that’s fine whatever but what I’m saying is they are trying to make a point to be visibly queer on some level). Yeah, not everyone is gay, I know. But I have a good feeling there’s a lot more queer people in the industry than most people assume.

[salmonentrees]

my biggest pet peeve is when people redesign alastor and make him masculine. he’s very gnc in the show, and it’s a big part of why he’s so beloved. are there not enough men with short hair and moustaches on tv for you or something

[jessicas-pi]

it's actually, genuinely, honestly hilarious that in a fandom where popular ships include characters who are biologically related, characters with a 10+ year age gap who met when one was a teenager or even a child, and characters who have tried to kill each other, people hate on a friends-to-lovers ship with a <2 year age gap where the characters have a deep emotional bond and plenty of romantic subtext, because "they're siblings". my brother in the force they are literally not.

[roscoehamiltons]

i'm watching a random interview that will buxton did with red flags podcast and learning that he used to(?) beef w nico rosberg all the way back from the GP2 days

[sassyandclassy94]

The fact that my friend, who is a former English teacher, even struggled through reading The Boys in the Boat makes me feel so much less like an idiot🥹🫶🏻 You’re the best, Red!!

i mean don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the World War II sidetracks and the great depression rabbit trails but… man. Laura Hillenbrand would’ve done a way better job sorry not sorry🫣

[marsbotz]

i find it veryyyy very funny when ppl hate on theatre. and especially musical theatre. thats where all ur favs came from......

[faunabel]

apparently i also put tolerate it by taylor swift on my playlist for vene....... i also see it. perhaps in a looser sort of way.