#i feel like they've said most of it publicly at some point

[ginevrapng]

𝐈'𝐌 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃

pairing: fwb!james x reader

word count: 1.5k words

warnings and contents: for my friends with benefits james there is no smut asdfghjkl, hurt, jealousy, FLUFF

you're sitting in the great hall eating breakfast and you spot james across the hall with all the other gryffindors. you're unable to stop your lip quirk upwards as you hear his boisterous laugh, which you guess is due to some joke or prank he's retelling.

your small smile drops as you see lily evans walk up the marauders. you've never had a problem with her, she is a popular gryffindor that is friendly and works well to get top marks but the way she's walking up to the marauders, looking at james determined and with a mission, fills you with slight dread. if you were completely honest you felt she spent more time with james then necessary, especially considering how they've got their own friends and how many times she turned him down in the past.

the hall is already pretty quiet due to everyone already have eaten and a lot of people stop their conversations or lower their voices as they see lily go up to james. everyone in every house knows that's irregular. for the previous years of hogwarts james followed lily everywhere like a lost puppy always asking her out and coming up to her but he had stopped. no one knew why. it was because of you.

because the hall became so silent you heard what evans asked james and you wished the hall was louder, you wished you didn't hear, you wish you were somewhere else, anywhere else, you started to become sick as she asked james if he's free this weekend to go to hogsmeade. "i don't know, i think remus has to study but i know sirius and peter are free too. are all the other girls going?" at that moment it's hard to tell if he's actually oblivious or if he knows exactly what she's asking him but he's choosing not to answer. he has a smile on his face but even from a distance it looks a bit forced to you.

if you were anyone else you would lean to the fact he's being oblivious but you're not anyone, people always underestimate james and you have a feeling james knows exactly what she's actually asking but for some reason he's pretending that he has no clue what she means but you don't know why he'd do that. james is kind and wouldn't want to embarrass someone so publicly but at the same time you're unsure of why he'd be so sure of turning her down but the fact that he is does makes you incredibly happy, you won't tell him that though.

"oh, i don't actually know what the girls are doing. i meant just us two. like on a date?" lily asks him, not wavering at all even with what james has previously said.

james sighs under his breath. "i've got things to do, you should go with someone else."

"what about another weekend?" lily asks, hopeful and you don't blame her for that, anyone would be hopeful asking out someone who in the past asked them out every other day.

"lily, i'm sorry if i'm hurting your feelings but i don't want to go on a date with you," he tells her and you can see that he's trying to be as nice as he can be in a situation like this. no one caught on to the fact that james said that he's only sorry that he's hurt her feelings, he's not sorry for not wanting to date her though, like it's not even an option on my mind, he's not entertaining the thought about going on a date with her, you don't catch on, lily doesn't, the marauders don't, no one does.

everyone is stunned, they thought for sure he'd say yes, he has been pining after her for so long and most people just thought he started playing hard to get, giving her some distance until she recognises how much she misses him but that wasn't true at all. lily never crosses his mind anymore, why would she? he has you. you're all he thinks about. yeah at one point he fancied lily but he loves you.

after a couple beats lily replies with an, "oh, alright then. i guess i'll see you in the common room." this time it's lily that forces a smile. james doesn't respond. she has just been rejected and it's making her feel dejected, not only does james not want to go on a date with her but he doesn't want to hang out with her either. the whole time she thought this was some ploy from james to get her attention but she realised she was wrong. he has no interest in her at all.

as soon as lily's out of earshot and going out of the great hall you hear the loud voices of james' friends. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT PRONGS? DON'T YOU WANT LILY ANYMORE?"

"that was mean james, you didn't have to reject her in front of everyone."

"YOU DON'T WANT EVANS? I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME. CAN I GO FOR HER?"

"i've got to say i'm surprised to prongs, i never thought you'd shut lily down like that. she really does like you and if this is some trick to get her to like you more, don't do it. she talks about you a lot."

james interrupts his friends knowing this could go on all morning and knowing that you're definitely hearing all this, worried you might be getting the wrong idea. "you can go for her pads, it's none of my business." they all look even more shocked as they hear this but he carries on, "i have no interest in lily whatsoever, yes i used to but i moved on from that. i didn't try to be mean peter but she wasn't taking a hint, i kept trying to tell her no and to let her down gently and moony honestly you shouldn't be surprised if anything it's more surprising that this hasn't happened sooner, me and lily have absolutely nothing in common and we can barely hold a conversation together that last more than ten minutes."

they're all rendered speechless at james as they realise he is 100 percent serious about this. no matter if lily chases james just like he chased her his answer will always be the same, no.

in james' eyes lily doesn't hold a candle to you.

he flicks his eye to where you're sitting and you briefly make eye contact. james was feeling in a bit of a negative mood after what happened but that immediately changed when he glances at you to see that you're already looking at him. you see a stupid grin appear on his face, uncontrolled and automatic, you quickly look down knowing that you've been caught watching him. as you're looking down you smile at the whole situation. james told lily no, and he said it so certain like nothing could change his mind. that absolutely stopped the sicky feeling you had. no one would notice you smiling as you're looking away from everyone but james knew that's what you'd be doing.

james wants to grab your face and lift it up so you're looking at each other again, he already misses your face and the colours of your eyes and it's only been a second since you've looked away from him. he wants to see your bashful smile as you try to look away from him again but he'll just place hundreds of kisses all over your face instead. he wants to desperately tell you that lily doesn't mean anything to him, you have gotten jealous on occasion due to lily even if you deny it, hopefully this might help. he wants to tell you that there's nothing to be jealous about. although you both know that he'll likely tease you about how you was "staring" at him the whole time when he turned down lily.

"what the fuck are you grinning about james?" remus asks, he seems the most annoyed with james about how he handled the situation, remus and lily are study buddies so they are actually good friends and he's known for awhile how lily has felt about james he's just always thought james still feels the same way, he thought it was mutual.

james snaps out off his thoughts of you, not wanting the marauders to question him about you. "nothing important," james replies, not looking back at you.

he hopes that he'll have the chance to talk to you today, even if it's for five minutes. maybe you'll talk about your plans for the weekend and you can try and find time to get together, maybe you'll tease him and say lily invited you to hogsmeade while you were at dinner.

[freckliedan]

if they're both out, then why bother hiding their relationship / stuff like sharing a room and going on couple holidays? surely all of their fans know that they're together so i don't get the point of buying a home with 2 bedrooms and having a fake apartments? sorry very confused very casual fan here

hi!!! i am always so happy to share information, so ty for asking me about it! i'm going to take these questions piece by piece ^_^

if they're out why bother hiding: most of the examples of them taking serious steps to hide their relationship are from before they came out! they have been together since 2009, but dan wasn't even out to his family until 2019, shortly before he came out publicly.

why not come out sooner than that? i'll try to be brief and avoid rehashing dan's entire coming out video (which is worth watching). several reasons: he was severely bullied from early childhood onward for being gay—from before he even had the chance to consider if he was actually gay. his dad was homophobic to the point dan seems to have removed him from his life completely, & he was raised by religious grandparents so unsure of the reception there.

and significantly: he and phil were outed by a youtube glitch that leaked an extremely personal video in 2011 that leaked again on a broader scale about a year later. being outed was a part of the bullying dan had experienced so this was retraumatizing but on a bigger scale.

they had had SOME level of plausable deniability regarding their relationship before the leak, but hadn't been very actively closeting themselves before that point? and then the leak happened around when they were blowing up in popularity/around when youtube was becoming a viable career, so they were already grappling with sudden fame & a lot of other things happening in their lives at the time.

dan was 20 and phil was 24 the first time that video leaked; they were 21 and 25 and living in an apartment they couldn't afford on their own hoping the bbc would hire them (they did) the second time it did. it makes sense that they came down hard & firmly closeted themselves, especially dan, especially with what he's shared of his personal experiences.

2012-13 was the peak closet, but by 2015 they were already being more open—that's the first couple's trip they went on again after active closeting started. they've just become more and more open from there, but the peak closet era was so definitive that the public perception of them as not a couple WILL NOT SHIFT until they directly express that they are a couple.

they ARE out to fans as a couple, and imo have been since before they came out individually. they've said things along the lines of "we know you know" multiple times.

why not be definitive about their relationship status when they came out? it would've overshadowed them coming out as individuals and they didn't want that. it will be MASSIVE news when they hard launch their relationship. they went ambiguous with it on purpose in 2019 and succeeded.

so. to circle back to your questions.

why bother hiding their relationship? they haven't really since coming out. they've been living freely and being open about that in whatever ways are comfortable to them. they took some time out of the public eye for a while and i'm glad they got to have that so they could explore what happiness looks like without feeling the need to perform. but it was also something that was intentionally temporary!

at this point in time when they call each other friends or roommates etc they're fully doing a bit. like. it's funny! and it's funny at our expense which makes it even funnier—it's their turn to put us through some shit, you know? & the joke is more on people who AREN'T familiar with them than anyone else at this point. it's nice being in on things with them.

why hide sharing a bedroom? they haven't really since moving into their forever home! they have a bedroom and a guest room and there's a murphy bed in phil's filming space/personal office.

phil at some point made a comment that the murphy bed is for if they have two guests over at the same time—something that will only really read as "they share a bedroom" to people keeping track of rooms in their house.

i don't think that they share a bed they sleep in 100% of the time. which is like, normal and healthy? being able to sleep in a different bed when you want/need is NICE i've known so many people who keep seperate rooms in committed relationships and if i was rich enough i'd love having two bedrooms with beds in them in my relationship. even if we'd mostly sleep in the same place.

i also think having multiple beds means dan and phil can have freak sex in one and be lazy about clean up bc they have other beds so that's. a plus for them too.

but like. yeah. i think it's less that they're hiding that they share a bedroom and more that they share a bedroom but have better boundaries with their audience at this point—there stopped being video liveshows after they came out and they'd stopped doing liveshows from their actual bedroom when they moved in to the separate apartment situation.

+ the separate apartment situation was ONLY ever meant to be short term, & was a solution to the situation before that, when every room was in videos and it permanently felt like they were living in sets.

why hide couple holidays? they haven't since before coming out! they also go on a lot of double dates.

no sorries on the confusion and thank you for the chance to infodump!

[meruz]

hi!! im sure ppl have asked this b4, but i scoured your asks tag for an hour or so looking to see if you answered anything abt it and couldnt find anything, so i was just wondering if youve made any posts on your process for making n selling merch b4? and how you know which franchises you can make merch for w/o getting into trouble w copyright n trademark stuff (hopefully that makes sense, im not sure,,,)

hi! got a bunch of asks abt merch stuff lately im gonna put it under a cut.

preface: i don't know if i'm the best person to ask about all this stuff because I'm doing merch on a strictly hobby basis LOL. I have a fulltime job which takes care of the bulk of my finances, I don't really make big quantities of anything and my main priority at cons is to just make enough money to see my friends in different cities at minimal expense. i pretty much always get a refund when i file my con taxes because my profit after all the deductions is like fucking..nothing.. lmao. So if you ultimately lose money following my advice don't blame me. OK NOW lets get into it

my process for making merch: when I have an event scheduled that I want to make merch for I start by brainstorming a bunch of stuff I wanna make. for mgscon this is what I wrote down in my sketchbook lol

i made a legend to denote which ones are actually just reprints. it gets easier to plan out merch when you already have merch. out of the new merch ideas here i actually only made like 4 of them. and out of the reprints i only reprinted like three. i also came up with like 4-5 other merch ideas after writing out this list that i actually did do. LMAOO UM. my point here is that nothing rly goes as planned.

when i get a merch idea i start with thumbnails what i want it to look like (sometimes this is based off merch ive seen before so its very realized and sometimes its really vague bc im kind of pulling it out of my ass)

then BEFORE i go into making the final art I research how I'm going to make the merch. whether its printing/constructing it myself or looking for a manufacturer. There's a lot of different places that you can get custom merch made, i used to go shopping around at local printing shops but nowadays it's really common to do it all online. For both these jet tags and the washi tape I did some of my own research into manufacturers and also asked friends for their contacts/referrals/recommendations etc. most manufacturers either have their specs/template publicly available or will give them to you when you ask. so once I've locked into a manu and gotten the specs I'll start designing the final art.

then it's sending it off and waiting! easier said than done.

i will say this process is a lot lengthier for some types of merch than others LOL. for prints... I've been doing prints for like a million years and I plan out almost none of it. I draw everything at print resolution so a week before I have a con scheduled I'll simply go through all the files I've accumulated since my last con, squeeze whatever drawings I want into standard print sizes lol (ie. 8.5x11, 11x17, 4x6 etc), and print them at a local shop. takes like a couple hours max.

how you know which franchises you can make merch for w/o getting into trouble w copyright n trademark stuff?

I mean. honestly I don't know. selling fanart is the kind of thing that IP holders kind of just let slide as long as they don't think they're losing a substantial amt of money on it. there ARE a couple franchises people avoid because they've been known to send IP lawyers after fanartists... disney is the big one and they're known for being pretty petty abt it... that's why you don't really see people selling fanart of the disney princesses at cons. ive heard pokemon will also crack down if your project seems to be making a lot of money lol, part of why i think a lot of pokemon fanzines operate on a charity basis. I do feel like the pokemon company has bigger fish to fry than someones artist alley table though so i wouldn't sweat it too much.

it's also generally considered impolite/bad taste to sell fanart of small franchises. webcomics and indie games especially if they only have like 1-2 devs who rely on the income that game makes.

I'm not a lawyer so you shouldn't consider this legal advice BUT I will say... I don't think you should let IP law stop you from selling fanart lol. especially if it's low quantities/not mass produced and you're not making crazy amts of money I think you kind of have a leg to stand on. Besides, most cases it seems like the worst you'll get is a cease and desist.

you Will notice that when people start turning their artist alley endeavors into a real business they'll generally ease up on selling fanart (the case most prominent in my mind is omocat lol). but i love fanart and thats why i will never make money and thats a promise [snake saluting gif]

SORRY IDK IF ANY OF THIS WAS HELPFUL. I've been doing merch and cons for a long time (10+ years lmao, you can find record of this on this very blog) and i think im kind of old fashioned about it. i recognize the artist alley/merch scene is a lot more demanding now than it used to be but start small at local low-risk events, online sales etc and work your way up and remember to have fun and itll be ok i believe this wholeheartedly.

its literally just layers of acrylic like any other dinky charm. I'm sure pretty much any manu that does acrylic charms could do it but this specific charm/template i did order through a group order server. they're pretty well known! heres a link to their twitter

@wheatormeat sorry for taking a full month to answer this... anyways. This is tricky because I've actually been changing up my sticker manu everytime LOL IDK if I've found one I actually love.

these ones i ordered thru an alibaba manu because I was jumping on a friend's group order to save on shipping. it was ok. they arrived a liiiitle late and printed a lil dark but i think thats kind of my fault LOL I use dark colors i always need to lighten things before i get them printed and i think i just didnt lighten these enough. otherwise i rly love the quality!

i realized i never posted these online and also this is not a good picture (the lighting in my living room sucks rn) but i printed these tmnt stickers thru stickerninja they feel really solid but they needed kind of a lot of space for the cutline. but their customer service was very nice and helpful!

these ones i got printed at washimill and i was so impressed with how fine their cutline is... pricing and quality of the sticker itself is alright they feel a lil flimsy? idk. but i do like the printing. i kind of elected to go with them solely because i was already ordering washi tape. A LOT of my manufacturing decisions are made based on how much money i can save on shipping tbh.

and thats my sticker manu reviews dont forget to like comment subscribe idk if i have one im gonna stick with forever or anything im rly indecisive. ideally id like a manu based in the u.s...? because im based in the u.s. and international shipping is pricey. but idk if i keep ordering washi tape maybe ill keep using washimill. who knows...

[canonizzyhours]

imagine it's 1982 and you really love star wars.

you go looking for other fans to talk about star wars with. you meet someone. "my favorite character is boba fett," they say. "cool! i love boba fett, he's such a great bad guy," you reply. the person you're talking to suddenly becomes deadly serious. "what? he's not a bad guy," they respond. "how could you even think that? what's wrong with you?"

you laugh nervously, thinking this is some kind of jokey deliberate-reading-against-the-text gag, but it becomes clear your new friend is absolutely deadly serious about this. unsure what to do, you try to redirect the conversation to subjects other than boba fett. you try talking about the first movie. but it turns out this person has an entire bonkers reinterpretation of the first movie where it's all about showing how luke and han and leia will be ultimately unable to succeed on their own, thus foreshadowing the eventual arrival of boba fett as fourth co-protagonist. you try pointing out that if there's a fourth protagonist surely it would be lando, and ignoring him seems kind of maybe a tiny bit racist? this goes over even worse.

you start to avoid this person. you seek out other fan spaces. but people who are like this about boba fett keep showing up. you feel increasingly insane every time you talk to them, hearing yourself saying obvious things like "well, uh, that's certainly one interpretation, but i feel like if darth vader has to caution you not to disintegrate people that might be a sign you're a villain?" and having them laugh in your face like this is absurd and offensive. you gradually realize that while most star wars fans aren't like this, everyone normal has learned to politely avoid talking about boba fett and other subjects that trigger the boba fett guys, because nobody wants to deal with them. you learn to only talk about star wars in closed communities that don't have any boba fett stans.

the saddest part of this is that over time it makes it very, very hard for you to enjoy boba fett, a character you used to really genuinely like.

the first trailer for return of the jedi drops. the boba fett guys go nuts, insisting that this proves their ultimate vindication is at hand, despite the fact that actually he's barely in the trailer. "uh, guys, i don't know about that," you say cautiously, kind of alarmed at how they're setting themselves up for disappointment. "i think boba fett might be a really cool character but not actually a super important one, and maybe he's just going to die in a sarlaac pit halfway through the movie and the rest will be about luke defeating darth vader." the boba fett guys respond by screenshotting your posts (social media exists in this version of 1982 for purposes of this analogy. work with me here) to publicly make fun of you. how could anyone possibly be dumb enough to think this, they say.

return of the jedi comes out. boba fett dies in the sarlaac pit. the boba fett stan community goes even more nuts than usual and schisms into a faction who are insisting that this is all part of a plan to resurrect boba fett like jesus in episode 7 and a faction who insist that george lucas has personally betrayed them. some of the latter faction manage to take control of the fan campaign to get more movies made despite the fact that they've explicitly said they don't actually want any more movies.

this is what my experience of ofmd fandom has been like.

#271.

[alittledizzy]

this a big ask and feel free to ignore but you seem like the right person to come to.

can you give like a dnf overview for those of us who know almost nothing but are sooo curious (minecraft? face reveal? queer?)(i follow for dnp lol)

Okay so... I'm gonna try and do a bullet point overview and for the purpose of not getting in the weeds I am not going into the controversies. I'll be happy to discuss that part - OFF anon.

Dream and George met on a Minecraft server when Dream was 16, George was 18/19 and became best friends.

When Dream decided to start youtube when he was 18, he asked George (and Sapnap) to come along with him. They both said yes.

In 2019, George started talking about moving to America. At the time Dream lived with his girlfriend, though they broke up by 2020. (George and the girlfriend did not get along. But that's also a whole other can of worms because she fucked Dream up pretty badly with consistent cheating and verbal/physical abuse.)

Plans for George to move to the US got more concrete and at some point over 2021 became him moving into a house with Dream and Sapnap.

Dream also came out multiple times in this general period of time. He came out in a post on reddit, on twitter, and on a stream. He does not explicitly state that he's bisexual, but he does explicitly state he isn't straight.

Sapnap had already moved in with Dream for Dream's protection since he was being swatted pretty regularly. Dream had plans for a face reveal but people were stalking and harassing him both to 'reveal' him and also because at this point the Kiwi Farms targeted attack on him had gained a lot of steam.

Speaking of: George used face cam pretty regularly, but Dream did not face reveal. Based on things he's said it seems pretty clear he was trying to lose weight but at some point set the goal of face revealing once George was in America because he wanted George to see his face before anyone else.

George applied for his Visa and would have had about a 6-9 month wait, and then was denied. He had to apply a second time, and wait another extended period of time, which put it September 2022 when his visa finally was approved. This means they'd known each other for seven years and he'd been trying to move to the US to live with Dream for three years at that point.

George arrived in the US and Dream posted his first video with a face camera on. George posted a vlog meeting Dream irl for the first time, which is a great starting point for a watch.

In terms of the ship stuff: they've always had a heavily flirtatious relationship and Dream is open about how attractive he finds George. They've acknowledging having a conversation about if they'd date or not.

Once in a while Dream will reiterate that they're not dating, and we know he spent 2023 having a variety of hookups but no confirmed relationships. (Which lines up with his long history of women that flirt with him complaining he'll be great to them and make them feel good but always says he doesn't want a relationship.)

2023 was pretty wild for them in terms of nonstop travel, events, and making very little content besides Dream's music. So far in 2024 we've seen a complete 180 of that and Dream and George have noy traveled at all, staying at home in Orlando together. (Sapnap has traveled and spent time in LA, but alone.)

This is partially due to controversy, I'm sure, but also seems to be just in line with a rededicating of themselves to Minecraft and content impending. They're working on a project that hopefully will come out soon.

Right now in terms of what they've publicly told us, they're just in the category of Super Not Normal About Each Other. Here are a few of the Not Normal things that are just fun from a shippy pov:

Before George moved, they were open about living most of their life on a call together. This includes sleep calling and staying on the phone while taking showers.

One of Dream's early videos was gifting his friends money to thank them for supporting him. He gave Sapnap and another friend $500 each. He gave George $5000.

Dream took 'am I in love with my best friend' quizzes on stream twice with George on the call and neither treated it quite like a joke.

Dream sent George an oversized Dream hoodie which George has worn repeatedly and even admitted to spraying with cologne before he'd put it on. Dream took pictures of George in the hoodie (a private call, not one fans were in on) and then later shared them saying they were the cutest pictures of George ever.

The first time we really got to see them interact irl at length was a stream they did around Christmas. Here's a supercut that just really shows the vibe between them.

Initially in late 2022 Dream was wearing a very specific chain. At some point in January 2023, George started wearing that chain (the specific one Dream used to wear) and has not been spotted without it since.

At one of his concerts Dream described George as a friend he just met a year ago that he's so in love with.

The entire song Spotlight which everyone immediately associated with George, to George's embarrassment and pride.

And there's obviously way more... but I feel like this is a good starter kit for Them.

[lesbiandatekaname]

The "Rusty Quill Article" from the perspective of a journalism student.

So there has been a lot of stuff going around about an article made by someone that lays out some possible/probable/whatever misconduct. And there are some ways that people have been discussing it that I want to weigh in.

My Credentials: I'm in my senior year as a Journalism and Media Production major (I won't say which university because this is the internet). I've taken a lot of courses about journalism, including its ethics and writing conventions.

The Writer

"Who's Afraid of Alex J. Newall?" was written by Newt Schottelkotte on Medium and edited by Tal Minear and Wil Williams. The article extensively details possible misconduct

Possible bias: Upon publishing the article, Schottelkotte made no note of being the Director of Marketing at the podcast network Fables & Folly. When this was pointed out online, Schottelkotte added an editor's note to the bottom of the article that reads

Newt Schottelkotte is currently the Marketing Director for Fable & Folly Network, but has worked as an independent creator and journalist for longer. This information was not disclosed; a disclosure has been added.

So what gives? That's pretty biased, right? Surely F&F stands to gain a lot if Rusty Quill were to shut down or lose public favor, and the author hid that fact. I, however, would take that with a heavy grain of salt. As noted Schottelkotte has worked independently in podcasting since 2016 and got their position at F&F this year. Furthermore, they've actually worked for a lot of podcast networks, also available in that link, and the emphasis on F&F made by some people may be a bit overzealous. Yes, F&F could stand to gain from RQ experiencing troubles (though more of the nebulous way that a lot of podcast networks would), but Schottelkotte overall is an independent contractor and that's probably the reason they didn't mention it in the article originally. Minear and Williams are unaffiliated with F&F.

Something else about journalistic bias: No article is ever truly unbiased. There is no way for it to be. There are some cases where bias is so blatant that the person shouldn't be put on the story, but most of the time the best people are able to do is manage their bias.

The Purpose

Some people have disparaged the article for trying to "cancel" RQ. To this I would merely like to point out that the article is not addressed to podcast consumers, but to podcast creators.

They do address the possible consumers later towards the end, where they attempt to dissuade people from harassing former/current employees and projects

In the final section, they do ask readers to think about supporting The Magnus Protocol Kickstarter with the clear bent of "Supporting the Kickstarter could mean that you're supporting abusive industry practices." There is clearly some biased language here, and a call to action such as this could definitely be considered "iffy" journalism, so take that as you will.

The Sources

Oooooooooh the sources. Schottelkotte's article uses a few external sources, and then a number of anonymous sources that are ex-employees of RQ or people who were offered a position there. All interviewees are anonymous, and people have raised some eyebrows at this.

In journalism you are generally supposed to avoid confidential sources. They cause an obvious verification issue. If people don't know who your sources are, how do they know that you're not just making everything up?

That being said. The audio drama podcast industry is rather small. RQ itself is somewhat of a household name, and is even more of a juggernaut in a place like Britain. I can absolutely understand why these people would feel nervous about speaking publicly for fear of being blacklisted due to being considered "hard to work with" or "disloyal" or fear of backlash from RQ themselves. Take these sources with a grain of salt, but also understand that there are reasonable grounds for these sources being confidential.

Conclusion

I encourage people to go read the article, hence why I linked it at the beginning. Something that I would ask for people who point out the issues with sources is to demand accountability from RQ. Demand that they respond (As Schottelkotte asked them to do at least once, possibly several times. It's a bit unclear in the article). Look at the facts that we do know and ask yourself that even if they don't directly verify claims do they at least line up with them? Journalism is meant to inform, but there can also be more beyond a dichotomy "this article is can be trusted" vs. "this article cannot be trusted." Use this as an opportunity to ask questions.

[lol-jackles]

https://x.com/therollyjoger89/status/1803071536166842633?t=aIN3CWBuG2Xgfrc0R4IBzg&s=19

Congrats!!! You made twitter, again! anyone who thinks logically is accused of being a Jared stan. 🤣

Link. LoL the Anon had a legit question and Jenna turned it into a Jared stan thing.

Jenna is sore that Jensen is finally first on the call sheet at age 46 but the Jared stans are going "whom?"   That's what is really going on.   For over 20 years AAs were mad that Jared's fans generally don't give a flying fig about Jensen.  It's why AAs threw temper tantrums over SPN girls giving fandom-made awards and gifts to Jared during J2 panels so they pressured CE to ban the practices and move it to private M&Gs.  Then AAs threw temper tantrums that SPN girls were publishing their M&G experiences and AAs said it was making M&G less special, so they pressured CE to ban fans from publicly sharing their M&G experiences.

See the pattern? It's all about their weeble feels, it's not even about Jensen or Jared.

The indifference by Jared fans is partly why AAs work extra hard to gaslight everyone that  Jensen is the most popular and the most special guy ever and make straight men gay.  Lol dude, that's not how it works!  AAs' relentless campaign has succeeded in gaslighting some fans, especially the newbies.  Until they find my blog and scales fall from their eyes.

That's why the Jennas of the world keep reading my blog and trying to discredit me with "he's a Jared stan!", a label they have tried to stick on me since 2016.  Remember kids, according to Jenna and AAs, anybody who isn't hating one Jared 24/7 is a "Jared stan".  They've accused quite a few Dean girls, Jensen girls, and even nice Destiel shippers of being Jared stans just because they don't want to talk about Jared or bash him and rather focus on favorite characters and ships instead.

Hell at this point  AAs have obsessed and talked way more about Jared's future appearance on The Boys than Jensen's new show The Countdown.  Seriously, I actually have to look hard and wide to find AAs talking about The Countdown, but AAs are regularly slamming their dicks in my face with their meltdown over Jared and The Boys

Jenna, nobody was saying Dane should have been the lead like you've been saying Jensen should have been the lead on Supernatural for 15 freaking years (X).

[sophieinwonderland]

(Might as well get this reply to a syscourse post about me out of my drafts too.)

You hit the nail on the head when you said "if it's not fun" that you don't see the point, even if it also has to do with what you believe you're doing to help. You're here to have fun firstly, and if the work of eradicating bigotry isn't fun, you're not all that interested.

I've been here for years having the same discussions, trying to help people when I can and do my best to help grow the community and counter misinformation where I see it.

And there are a lot of days when it can feel exhausting.

I'm one person. And I'm arguably not even an entire one of those. I don't front nearly as much as my host, and most of the time I get ends up dedicated to this.

So yes, I do want some of the time I spend on this blog to be on topics I enjoy.

And nitpicking this just feels gross and manipulative.

I don't particularly care about the anti-psych conversation. I think we all agree there are significant flaws in the psych system. It just seems to me that your plan to fix those flaws would be destroying what's there and rebuilding it completely, where I would prefer the Ship of Theseus approach of replacing it bit by bit.

I don't generally use spoon theory much, but I don't know a better way to put it than saying I don't have the spoons to hash this out. Or at least, it's not somewhere I think would be beneficial to dedicate them towards. 🤷‍♀���

The heart of deradicalization is compassion. To disentangle bigotry from big, messy emotions, you have to approach it from an emotional standpoint.

Absolutely! This is 100% true! If you want to deradicalize, this is the best approach.

When it works, anyway. Thing is, I tried this approach early on. Spent a couple months talking to an anti-endo. I honestly thought we were on good terms and that I was making progress. We had been exchanging questions about our own experiences with plurality.

Then when I was banned, they turned around and cheered along with most of the anti-community.

Even then, I wasn't going to completely give up on compassion. I tried more. But the thing about notoriety, whether deserved or not, is that it immediately poisons any attempt at genuine conversation. By this point, I had already gotten a rather undeserved reputation among anti-endos, and if I tried communicating publicly with one, it wouldn't be long before they got an anon or reblog telling them how bad I supposedly was.

And while I feel my reputation was undeserved at the time, I realized that if I would never be able to convince them, I might as well play into my role as the boogeyman anti-endos want me to be.

No, calling anti-endos worse than parasites and an evil hate group is probably not going to deradicalize them. But they've already been fed so many lies about me personally and are primed to disregard anything I say anyway. Compassion from me won't work.

You know what I think this tactic does do, though? I think it shifts the middle ground for people who can't make a decision. Many people have a natural attraction to the center. It's a logical fallacy, but this too is rooted in emotions.

If the spectrum is "endos are scientifically impossible and are hurting trauma survivors and you're ableist for supporting them," and just "endogenic systems are actually real and valid," what do you think "neutral" means in such an environment? Because to me, it seems like centrism lands in favor of the anti-endo when these are the extremes presented to neutrals.

But amp up pro-endo rhetoric to match that of anti-endos, replying with "anti-endos are an evil anti-science hate group bent on hurting a marginalized community for existing," and now the center alignment shifts a bit more in the pro-endo direction.

And to be clear, this isn't far off from how I've always felt. The only things that's changed was a willingness to say it out loud. But I don't actually need to convince everyone this is true. I just need to shift what appears to be the moderate position to something that would actually be more moderate and advantageous to us.

...

And that brings me to one final gambit I'm making.

That I'm am going to lose people with these idea. That there will be some pro-endos who will be pushed away from this blog by me labeling anti-endos as a hate group or by my tactics in the way I respond to them.

These pro-endos will shift more towards moderate stances.

And that, IMO, can be useful too. Because it positions them to do what I can't, where they'll appear more approachable and "reasonable" to anti-endos. That allows these systems to do what I can't and be able to connect with people on the other side.

There is a reason why I will often turn a blind eye to pro-endos who are saying horrible things about me, personally, and just let them carry on. (As long as they aren't attacking other members of the community.) It's because, whether they are with me or against me, as long as they're pro-endo, they're still useful in spreading our message.

And I'll admit, this might be a dangerous play. Push people too far, and they might go straight to the anti-endo side.

But... I don't see that as too much of a risk... despite playing into the boogeyman persona anti-endos gave me, I have lines I don't cross. I'm not sending threats. I'm not saying people deserve to die. I'm not going on to positivity posts to start fights like Hyaena-Bites did back in the day. And if I see pro-endos crossing these lines, I do my best to rein them in or call them out.

I've intentionally established myself as an extremist in my views and rhetoric, certainly. But not in my actions.

Finally, for all that you position yourself as an expert in psychology, ironically, you yourself are acting in a way that serves to further radicalize anti-endos. Rather than learning and engaging with genuine, known, deradicalization tactics, you are the perfect "enemy" for the genuinely malicious anti-endos to use to convince the ones indoctrinated into thinking they're doing good that pro endos are dangerous.

To be clear, I've never positioned myself as an expert in psychology. I'm a girl with a blog who did a couple free psychology courses and has read a few papers in a very specialized area of interest.

But I think this line of reasoning is silly. Anti-endos are always going to be able to find targets to vilify and make into an enemy.

I just figure that if their enemy is inevitably going to be someone, it might as well be me. I think I'm better able to take harassment than many others in this community.

Putting a giant bullseye on my chest isn't an accident. It's an intentional decision.

But also... am I really? Am I really the "perfect enemy" to convince anti-endos that the endogenic community is dangerous?

Because guess what? There are a lot of pro-endos out there who take things too far. There was the doxxing incident a couple years ago. There are people who send death threats. There are people who send gore. There are genuinely abusive people who have been in various endogenic communities. That's not a problem with the community. It's just a fact that every large community is going to have bad people in it.

And then there's me who... is not always totally polite? Comes off a bit strong? Calls anti-endos a hate group? Calls them evil?

Do you really think this actually compares to the worst things in the community?

Does this really seem "dangerous" to you by comparison?

[windvexer]

doubling down into this witchcraft-as-RPG thing and I think I have a good point to make so here we go:

This is something I've been trying to speak on for a while and I feel like I've said similar recently but it's still on my mind, so,

the practitioner is a vital ingredient in witchcraft that you cannot remove from the equation,

and,

IMO a huge part of why spells and magic can feel hit-or-miss is because you aren't the same person as the guy who developed the spell,

and what works for them might not work for you at all.

And no, I don't necessarily mean sensory/belief/meaning stuff. Because a lot of the time we see people say stuff like this:

"Spells that call for long periods of focus and attention don't work for me because I can't focus." (valid)

Or for example, someone might say this:

"Due to my upbringing I strongly associate the color green with envy, weakness, and spite, so I can't do a money spell that uses the color green." (valid)

But that kind of thing isn't what I mean.

If you like, envision a witch as being an RPG character that has their own skill tree. (RPG metaphors are so convenient)

So let's take one witch who has heavily invested in spiritual elemental magic. This witch has dedicated time and energy to studying elemental magic. They have initiated under the Elemental Guardians. All of their spells are built around an elemental framework. They maintain offering shrines for elementals. Their spiritual calendar is based around honoring the cycle of elements within the seasons.

Like, this witch min/maxed their spiritual elemental magic. They've unlocked that entire skill tree.

And skills within that skill tree include things like:

Skill Unlocked: [Fire Elementals Appear When Called For]

Achievement Unlocked: [Elemental Fire Favors You]

Achievement Unlocked: [Initiated Under King of Fire]

Achievement Unlocked: [Your Spells Are Welcomed on Roads of Fire]

Skill Unlocked: [Lighting Candles Automatically Increase Spell Power]

Okay, so. This person starts sharing "witch tips" and spells publicly. Like this:

"Hey, guys! This is an incredibly powerful banishing spell that uses nothing but a candle and visualizing fire burning away your problem. When I do it I can make people move across the country!"

Let me ask you this:

How is that spell going to work for someone who's spiritual elemental magic skill tree looks like this?

Skill Locked: [Fire Elementals Appear When Called For]

Achievement Hidden: [...]

Achievement Hidden: [...]

Achievement Hidden: [...]

Skill Hidden: [...]

Recently I was working with some lovely and very naturally talented practitioners who were going through a bit of a spirit problem. As is normal, they began to feel like their spirit problem might be insurmountable - that they were beset by a spirit of immense power that could not be gotten rid of.

What was one reason they felt nothing they did worked?

They followed a valid, authentic spell format written by a very serious, deeply initiated practitioner - and this initiated practitioner said the spell should last for months.

For these naturally talented practitioners who had never before worked with those powers or received any of those initiations...

the spell only lasted for weeks.

So naturally, that means this spirit is not able to be defeated even by the most powerful spells, right?

(wrong)

The practitioner is a vital ingredient in witchcraft that you cannot remove from the equation.

Or, in other words,

Just because you vibe with a spell, you like the correspondences, and you like the technique, doesn't mean you've unlocked the skills necessary to perform that spell!

Which, in my opinion, is some

Goddamn good news

Because if all this is true, then it would imply things like:

Sorcerous talent is something that can be developed and it stays with you (barring sudden class change, of course).

Hey, there's a reason spells feel hit-or-miss, random, or work more poorly than expected - and that reason can be fixed!

When I want to "practice" my path, but I have nothing to cast on, instead I can explore and develop relationships, techniques, and knowledge within my chosen area of interest.

When I gain an understanding about my own character sheet place in my path, it will give me a greater ability to craft and modify spells to specially work for me.

When I examine the techniques and spells given by others, I will gain an understanding not of whether or not I like their work, but whether or not it will work for me.

So the next time you cast a spell and you feel any part of it fall flat, or you didn't feel what you expected to feel, consider that it might be because you didn't unlock all the skills needed to cast that specific spell.

Sure, there are some cool cats out there who can gain miracle-like success in almost any spell all the time and they don't have to work for it.

But that's not me! And chances are, that's not you, either. So treat thaumaturgy as a skill to be improved upon, why not? Explore foundational, supportive, and adjacent magical techniques, why not? After all, everyone likes unlocking achievements.

[anti-endo-safe-space]

We’re not aggressively anti endo but we just think the whole idea is just kinda stupid. Maybe I just don’t understand it but why would you have dissociated states of self if you had no reason to dissociate? Or are these not dissociated states and just parts of oneself they’re deciding should be recognized as their own people?

Why make a whole community that brushes so closely with a group of people who are trying to heal from issues you don’t have to deal with?

Like at this point most of our system doesn’t really care. But if you’re splitting, you’re dissociating an identity and if you’re dissociating, why would you be dissociating if your brain hadn’t trained itself to do that as a defense mechanism?? Or is that not what’s happening with endos??? I feel like we had some natural inclination for anxiety and dissociation as a child (or at least that’s what the parents said was the case…) but we wouldn’t have gotten to this point if we didn’t experience repeated trauma which made this predisposition become a disorder

Am I just so used to everything stemming from trauma that hearing of people who just randomly have head guys (or have just decided different facets of themselves should be recognized as individual people) and claiming it’s anything comparable to traumagenic systemhood just sounds dumb as hell to me?

This is the first time I’ve really publicly given my thoughts on this because I don’t wanna be mean but I also just can’t take it seriously no matter how hard I try.

From what we've gathered, they say they've just got multiple personalities, sometimes just because, sometimes they "willed it into existence" and sometimes they claim to be born with them

Again, no expert, we don't claim to know that shit but what we do know is they apparently do it so they're "no longer alone". They tend to get pissed if you say somewhere is a traumagenic only due to thr trauma part

They all claim to not have any trauma but have some sort of disorder that lead to this. There's no real sense but

It is dumb, like their "resources" saying it's real is carrd or rentry or that.

[mrs-monaghan]

Hey shaz,

I definitely think that Jikook will be loud af when they get back from MS, or as loud as they can be. Major things will start adding up and making sense in our usual subtle (ISH) breadcrumb way.

But I suspect it'll be a new chapter for BTS, as a whole, on the relationship front. The boys are extremely successful, only getting older, and I think a lot of chapter 2 was them prepping the fandom to see them maturely as well. It's highly likely some of the guys are starting to think long-term both career-wise and family-wise (they're pretty young actually but the idol life moves FAST)

With how famous they are, though, (idols in general), it's so risky to make relationships public unless you're really serious. Read somewhere that they're pushed to keep things secret as much as possible unless it's like a marriage announcement? I'm curious, how do you think the guys will handle this? Cause they're known to break stereotypes and in a way, they could be tired of the airtight romance lock..they're not exactly teenagers sneaking around anymore

Take Taennie (or just Tae with any partner), all this time they had their reasons for keeping it on the down-low, and I suspect partially with the engagement shipping brings in for the company. But I feel like everyone's in new phase of their lives now, so idk if those reasons would still apply to push ships in 2025+ content.

Would love to hear what you think and if you guys know how older K-pop groups handled marriages and transitioning from that ''teenage/young adult, flirty image"?

I honestly believe BTS will be the ones to pave the way when it comes to normalising Idols having rlships. They start everything and others follow. I mean, watch other groups start enlisting together. Boracity did a video about how BTS paved the way

And then also these 2 videos about things BTS started and others followed.

So I can picture the dating thing going on this list. They've never been into fanservice much anyway to begin with and like u said, 2022 & 2023 was them reminding us they are adults. So high chances are when they come back they might be done pretending they don't use their private parts.

V was the first ever idol to somewhat publicly out his rlship. Yes, he later backtracked 🙄😒 but still, he will go down in History for having had the guts to do it in the first place. But damn this man has some shitty fans. Have y'all seen the reactions since the fri(end)s teaser came out? He may have the most fans out of all 7 but they are just horrible. Absolutely horrible. Jimin had so much support when he had a woman in his MV... Heck I don't even remember anyone giving JK shit for his female features but V.... gosh. Do these people even care about him?

Anyway. I digress.

Back to your question. I am not really a Kpop fan, just a BTS fan. So the only person I know is Taeyung. When we first found out Jimin was gonna do a song with him, people were calling him problematic. Turns out his only crime was getting married. That's literally his biggest scandal. Fucking SK, man. 🤦🏽‍♀️

This thing of idols treating fans as their girlfriends is super problematic. I imagine BTS realised that and stopped doing it the older they got. You bring up a good point; It's not just Jikook who will change when they get back, the other members too. Jikook will stop hiding, sure. But... I wonder which other members will do the same. Whatever the case, I'm all strapped in and ready for the ride.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Not a YoonMin-er but would like to add my thoughts around this beautiful relationship. Yoongi was indisputably the member that influenced Jimin’s mindset pre-debut. His words of encouragement to a teenager who was being left in the limbo day in day out was so profound that Jimin has referred to it many many times. Yes Jimin himself is mentally strong and capable but we all need someone in our corner and for Jimin, that person was Yoongi. I also believe that because Yoongi was already making music and part of the industry in some way, his words held more weight.

I do feel that Jimin is closest to Yoongi (after JHope), and Namjoon more than Jungkook and V. Because of how Jimin thinks and because of what Yoongi himself has been through in terms of mental and emotional struggle. YoonMin to me are the true soulmates. They bicker, they make fun of each other. But let someone else do it and then will see red. Their relationship is so beyond the normal brotherhood and friendships.

For all the hate Yoongi gets from JM solo stans about the comments he makes (and admittedly some have been or could be perceived as being in bad taste), Jimin himself would never crucify Yoongi for them. I don’t even think he would take these comments seriously. And if Jimin’s ment at DDay finale wasn’t proof enough if their special bond (he literally called out Yoongi for being a bad host and not introducing his guest, at the guys own show infront of 100s of 1000s of people 😂😂😂), I don’t know what is.

I don’t know whether they had anything between them or not. Most likely not. But it seems that currently Yoongi is the only one Jimin would listen to. He only had to beg twice for a LC and TM performance and he didn’t even bribe whereas poor Jungkook has offered chicken, bam, boxing and even nakedness and got no Jimin 😂😂😂😂

Poor JK needs to beg some more. Maybe he can do a mukbang again with some Kimchi Jigae…but wait, Taeyang already offered that to Jimin 😂😂😂😂

***

You say you're not a yoonminer but after reading your ask, I'm very curious about what you are. It's interesting that you feel Jimin is closest to Yoongi because of what they've both been through "...in terms of mental and emotional struggle" and while I understand that yoonmin have bonded over shared personal journeys, I feel this could be said more for Yoongi's relationship growth with Hoseok and Namjoon. It's not often alluded to in the fandom but Hoseok and Joon have had their own deep struggles with depression and insecurity, and the way Yoongi and Hoseok have been able to emotionally open up to each other, the way Yoongi has deepened his emotional connection to and respect for Namjoon over the years, make Yoongi’s relationships with Namseok foundational to him in the group. Or like soulmates, to use your words. More so than with Jimin, in my opinion.

It’s also interesting that you say “They bicker… but let anyone else do it and then they will see red.” …but don’t you notice all the times this happens and it’s Jungkook that’s seeing red? To Yoongi?

Just off the top of my head, during their last visit to the UN when Jimin made that cute gaff and the guys were joshing him for it after. Yoongi (and a couple others) kept going, twisting that little pain point and JK (plus Hobi) was the first to put an end to it. Jungkook did it in such a sassy way too, considering he was speaking to people older than him. I’m not sure if it was captured in the English subtitles, but Jungkook very easily laid down the law in one second, signalled to the others that they were close to crossing a line in teasing Jimin. Not like Jimin needed his help, but it’s still worth noting that very publicly in their least rehearsed moment (on Vlive) it was JK speaking up.

Jungkook also damn near jumped Yoongi with a frying pan too, in that one RUN BTS episode (ep 100 I think) for mistakenly hitting Jimin. Jungkook in general is pretty big, so how you’ve missed that muscle bunny showing up to show out for Jimin, almost everyday for 10 years, is a real curiosity for me.

I agree with you that in terms of emotional outlets, Yoongi is one of the steadfast sounding boards for Jimin. There’s a lot about those two that does indicate that in another life, they would be kindred souls and I guess in some ways they already are. But today, in this universe, I can’t really say Jimin is closer to Yoongi than to Jungkook. I just don’t see it.

We don’t really know any of them, and who they are close too at various points changes all the time depending on whatever’s happening in their real lives, but Jimin today gives me the sense he’s somewhat detached from everyone in the group for long stretches so he can focus on his solo work. I’m not really seeing anything to tell me there’s been a massive shift and he’s now closer to Yoongi than to Jungkook. He could have become closer to Yoongi than before, to be as close to Yoongi as he is to Jungkook, maybe, but jikook’s relationship fundamentally remains the same in Chapter 2.

[dearweirdme]

The problem with Daeun is, and that's probably the biggest reason why not a lot of fans are taking this seriously, at least not as seriously as Taennie back then, she was caught actually faking things to get herself connected to Jimin. Obviously I'm not just talking about how literally every picture or video she posts from Jimin's apartment are from 2020 or early 2021 but also her straight up manipulating the dates of pictures she uploads.

For example last year she uploaded the same picture twice in her stories, with a couple of months between and both times manipulated the date of when the picture was taken. The picture was taken in a NineOne apartment. (There's an app for Android, people tested it out and it's working.) The other time where she was caught manipulating things was when Jimin and Jungkook were filming their travel show in Japan and she posted a picture of her in Japan at that time. She manipulated the date again to make it look recent. But people found out that a restaurant that was seen open behind her was closed in 2019/2020. So it was impossible for that picture to be recent.

I do think her old videos and pictures are actually from Jimin's apartment, no matter how much "debunking" Jikookers are doing. But I genuinely think she's an ex-girlfriend that got triggered by something and now wants some kind of revenge. Hence her having to fake anything recent. (Like for example that picture of her with a wine bottle was clearly not taken in Jimin's apartment as the kitchen layout doesn't match.) Jimin just screamed single for the past two years or so. Not only did he full time live with Pdogg for months when creating Face, his song Face-Off is also very clearly about a break up.

All right

I guess the blame is on me

Look at me right now

Living like a fool

Believing in people

Is the beginning of a terrible nightmare

Gave you all the money

Gave you all my heart

Your masquerade party

I was fucking drunk

Even those damn days in the past

It’s all over now

or

With those sweet words of yours

You tried so hard to take every single thing from me

Look at yourself

You want more, don’t you, why?

It’s okay if you do

It suits you, babe

or

Even though you test me

Even though you try me

Even though you kill me

Even though you stab me harder

I don't care about you

Even that day that felt like hell

This is way too romantic partner coded. To add to all of this Jimin continously mentioned living alone for the whole past year, spent his days before leaving overseas with his friend Saeon and even the days after coming back he was immediately seen with Saeon again. Jimin made sure to mention that he's just by himself or meeting up with friends after work. But that there were also times where he didn't speak with anyone for two weeks or so. Of course he could be lying but I feel like he wanted to make it clear he's single, probably because he saw that Daeun posted old videos.

That would also explain his silence. Because if he said something, he would have to admit that she is his ex-girlfriend and I think that's something he doesn't want to do. I think they've dated from the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 and ended things in early 2021 because that's the latest pictures and videos she has. Something triggered her to get revenge. Maybe she feels wronged. Or maybe she just wants attention. She announced that she would start a Youtube channel in 2024, so it's also possible she wants some promotion for that, who knows. I genuinely can't imagine her dating Jimin currently with the information we have right now. But those are just my two cents and have nothing to do with Taekook. Sorry. 😅

Hi anon!

Thanks for the input! I haven’t followed the whole situation this in-depth, so I have no clue whether this is all correct. I think what’s most interesting in all this, and that cannot be debunked at all, is that she very publicly linked herself to Jm. It’s not even small hints, it’s undeniable that she means to point to him. The reasons as to why can be speculated on ofcourse. It seems unlikely to me that it’s solely for attention and there not having been a relationship between them. So perhaps she is an ex who feels sad/angry/whatever and decided to expose some things. Could very well be.

[inchidentally]

https://x.com/McLarenF1_News/status/1747978653189767464?s=20 Knowing life, a certain portion of a certain driver's fanbase will use this as a dig at their favorite driver.

I do find it hilarious that this hasn't gained any traction and I actually think it's bc all Lando fans have been here before mANY times with his own quotes being misappropriated. if we went off what ad revenue based journalism says then Lando wants to personally and intimately destroy like 75% of the grid at any given moment.

I do laugh tho bc Autosport just got a big red strike against their name by Oscar's very protective team. not a great idea since it looks like they've already alienated a lot of the grid and don't get many exclusives.

but this is actually a really good example to use going forward since we're bound to get even more as the years go on...

to break down the notes in the images, the only quote from Oscar is that he personally doesn't like to tear himself down publicly but that he's very hard on himself privately. that's the only "scoop" lol. this dude at Autosport actually got Oscar on the phone and decided to bin most of the interview in favor of singling out something he could twist into a clickbait headline.

and the tweet links to a content aggregator website that itself has pulled from another article which is almost completely the Autosport guy's personal opinion about Lando and Oscar with the Oscar quote (in which he only refers to himself) and then some old quotes about Alpine and Mark Webber to stretch the ads out further.

as I said, Lando fans are used to this. he once said in this interview how lost and down he felt during his first season comparing himself with how competent Carlos was - easy as piss to suddenly decide that Carlos was of no help to Lando's mental state - and maybe harmed it!! - and that they weren't as close friends as everyone hoped! and whenever Lando's said how calm and down to earth Oscar is compared to Daniel and that Oscar and Daniel are complete opposites, super easy to decide that he's shading Daniel and they're not as close as everyone hoped! except he's fully still friends with both of them and that adults can hold opinions and also manage to NOT have some crazy subtext of drama underneath it wowwwwww

the crazy thing is that Oscar is saying exactly what a ton of Lando fans - as well as Martin Brundle and Jenson Button - have been saying about Lando's attitude toward himself during the 2023 season. I'm personally on the fence with my feelings but the popular sympathetic opinion is that Lando isn't helping himself at all with public self-flagellation and that it's only fanning the flames of people who already have it out for him. so it's truly a stretch to turn that one quote into 'ooohhhhh he's being mean to Lando' when Oscar famously avoids all public conflict after the Alpine drama and also is not wrong for not wanting his teammate and possibly friend to shit on himself so much ??

the point of sports journalism - outside maybe one or two sources who don't want to burn bridges with the 20 guys in F1 - is to create drama and generate engagement. I took the hit and loaded those pages but that's all the ad revenue I'm going to give shitty websites for at a while lgfljahfa

this is why I ignore everything except authorized sources who either legally have to run everything past the driver's reps first or who actually put up full content and not cherry picked quotes. and in Oscar's and Lando's cases anyway, that's what they both want their fans to do.

[weaselbeaselpants]

Lily, I did/do agree with you on some fandom takes, especially back during the DownWithMolestia days. Heck I agree with a lot of your takes in current year. Even if I agreed with you on everything you say I'd still fucking drop you and hope every single one of your fans wakes up and does so to for the right reasons --that you're a predator/lying abuser, not that you hate Gay Rocks in Space-- too.

Like, you wanna hear proof some folks' who I not only liked but REALLY like their videos and still absolutely think are in the wrong?

JonTron and Brad Jones.

I still find myself quoting their damn videos every now and again because god damnit that shit is/was funny, sue me. I loved CinemaSnob especially and god JonTron's videos were so much fun.

Too bad JonTron said some of the worst, most horrendously antiblack shit I've ever heard and has never fucking apologized for it or even BEGUN to have an iDubbz moment. I believe Pewdiepie feels+understands what he did was wrong more than JonTron and that's a bad sign. Jon was funny, a white person. Don't care. I'm never going to follow anything he makes again because the stuff he had to say was heinous and no it doesn't just "go away" because another white yter is in trouble for this kind of thing or it's been so many years since his 'canceling' and 'doesn't matter'. Really?

CinemaSnob is less racist (publicly) but he showed his true colors by publicly choosing to stay with his toxic friends and showing he was a two-sided jerk, and then made up lies about doxxing and harassment just to sweeten the deal. What he did (while roping Double Toasted in no less) was straight up admit that he doesn't care about any of the shit leveled at Channel Awesome, even after CA themselves admitted to hiding a sexual predator, because "he'd still have a career" even after he hurt anybody. Say all you want about any yter, breadtube or whatever, being callous and 'uncaring' or blocking ppl that just disagree w them- "apologize even if you don't mean it = dumb", "Logan Paul filmed a dead body and he still has a career", it's that side you showed of yourself, Brad, that is always going to make me actually genuinely hate myself for quoting your old videos or seeing you show up in an old Phelan or Allison vid.

Whether it be personally or politically, you can look like an ass and even the biggest fans of your work are gonna be shaken up and drop you for it-- to which you'll probably say they were never really "your REAL fans" for being "sensitive" w really it's just people having independence and critical thinking.

I would not be the person I am now if I didn't disagree/look into the drama buzzing around my personal fav yters like Lindsay Ellis and Jenny Nicholson with an open mind. I know (of, not rlly know) these women and their careers and the points where they were definitely getting harassment and if there's any credible basis for shitty behavior they've done - no matter how I feel about their work, I DON'T want to defend it just because I have this parasocial comfortzone in their essays. I don't want to entertain hate campaigns and lolcow farmers, I want to always do my due diligence and genuinely know "wait wtf did 'x' say about 'x'." In the case of folks like Ellis or PanPizza or Quinton Reviews here's usually always some degree of nuance or-"yes soandso isn't a [thing I thought they were cuz of drama I saw], but I'm personally allowed to not like them bcuz of how they handled these accusations"-vibes. Valid asf. That's me with some of the people I watch, like Wendigoon. It's fine.

In the cases of JonTron, Brad Jones, Emily Youcis and now Lily Orchard....no. Fuck this. I'm an adult and it's not the quality of your work you make whatsoever, it's all about your personality. If you are shitty and vile, possibly even criminal (hate speech should count as criminal, Youcis) and you don't even begin to care that you are any of those things...yeah why should I give you the time of day or treat your work like it's different from you as a person?

[starlightshore]

explain Danny phantom to someone who’s never seen it before?

uhhhhh so i can only talk about it as the most insane kinda fandom person because

i was obsessed with this show when it first aired when I was 8 years old. it was my first fandom. i read fanfic for it before i even knew what fanfic was. its HEAVILY tied to my nostalgia and I've been engaging with the fandom on/off for literally 19 years. at this point DP is in my DNA.

while it's not my main hyperfixation (thats undertale) its the one tag i visit regularly and the one fandom I'll jump to every few months and binge fics for. i don't even read UT fics anymore but the DP fandom is always doing something. its very active!

under the cut I talk about my thoughts on the show, the fandom and explain the premise. It's a wild ride.

TLDR; i have a lot of THOUGHTS on this show and i do not actually recommend it. MAYBE if you're curious explore the fandom and some fics but be careful about it, it's a bit gratuitous with its angst.

If you want a basic premise: local 14 year old accidentally lets loose hell but also has become part ghost. This kid can fit SO much trauma in him.

first off: I fucking love Danny Phantom.

And I'm going to spend the next two segments complaining about it. Feel free to skip if you're already aware of this /or don't wanna linger on it.

Second off: This show fucking sucks*

* Ok fine yes sometimes it can be good, but it will always have an asterisk next to it.

it has NOT aged well. it was created by an asshole who's got a long shitlist of things he's done and still does that's all terrible. i am not one to hate someone publicly unless its for something like this. Feel free to google what Bitch Fartman has done if you're curious but I'll warn you: he is a horrible person and he disgusts me. I only acknowlege him when its to mention how awful he is and how I do not want to support him.

This is not like with FNAF where supporting that franchise supports Scott. Danny Phantom first aired 19 years ago. The show was written, directed, and sure as hell animated by a team of professionals. It is not his sole creation. Studio Animation is not the sole work of an individual. I respect (most) animators and the hard work they've done and do. IIRC Shitfartman doesn't even have the rights to the IP anymore. I assume he gets residuals though. That said the only canonical piece of media we've gotten is a graphic novel that was released last month. Up until then, supporting DP was just not literally a thing you could do!

Its not just the creator who sucks. There's a lot of BS in the show too.

the show is very early 2000s (and even then thats no excuse) and it has a bingo card worth of shit in it. racism, bigotry, ableism! you name it. I do not condone and i do NOT recommend this show because of this! its horrible with what they did with this show and its shocking it was acceptable enough to put on TV. you literally can't do shit like that anymore.

I'm not going to go list every detail of every horrible, fucked up thing the show has done. The list is too long and I haven't watched the actual show in a few years now. by god, I know there is a list out there though.

Anyway outside of my obligatory "fuck this show actually" rant aside

i do love this show because it DOES have a lot of good and cool stuff outside that. but also. its so much wasted potential.

the core premise is:

Hey what if a pair of paranormal obsessed mad scientist parents punched a hole into the after life hell dimension- and what if their son was basically spiderman-ed about it?

And here's the core part of the premise: Danny only keeps his identity a secret to the humans. Ghosts learn like, pretty much straight away that he's a Halfa (half human, half ghost). He's if spiderman's worst fear wasn't the villains but if like. Aunt May was going to rip him apart.

Oh yeah that's. a thing. Danny's parents literally want to rip his ghost identity apart from, and I quote, "molecule to molecule."

For a an comedy-action show its WEIRDLY morbid and dark at times but then has the tonal whiplash to make you question what the fuck did they just do. How'd they do that and then not care they just wrote that in. Seriously. It'll just lore drop or hint to dark things and then brush it aside because it's main focus is comedy.

Anyway back to explaing what the show even is about. the show likes to say Danny got his DNA merged with ectoplasm but that's stupid af i'd rather say he died but only stayed half dead. He can transform between the two states: living and dead. But he's not just two halves that make a whole -the two sides blend together. He can use his ghost powers as a human -and early on he couldn't control them so he'd just. go intangible or invisible at the worst moments.

The show just. jumps right in. You don't get to see the accident outside the intro (at least until season 2 when they retcon some stuff) you just have it thrown into your lap. He has powers now. He sucks at it. Deal with it.

I think it's important to acknowledge that this show was written before Netflix did streaming. Before Plot heavy cartoons were a thing. (Not to say they didn't have reoccuring plot, it justw asn't the same thing as it is now.) You had to write the show with the limits of:

Comedy being a major focus

You have to write it with the expectation that anyone could jump in and (reasonably) understand most things going on. While there's some continuity and plot progression, the status quo is god.

because streaming wasn't a thing yet, you could only watch the show by jumping into whatever the fuck episode was playing. I doubt it played in order all the time. You just couldn't make a cartoon that had weeks upon weeks of plot developments and expect people to keep up.

The show is, in fact, meant for kids. While it does dive into some darker stuff (being ya know, a ghost show) its still going to be overly silly.

So while YEAH i'll complain about the very very shitty things the show did but I can't soley blame Fuckhateshitman for all of it. It's the restrictions it was made under + likely a lot more circumstances I don't understand. I am a hobbiest animator. I have no real world experience in the animation industry. I can critique the final product but I can never understand what shaped the cartoon. If shitheadmcgee wasn't involved and the studio gave the show more room + had you know, more POC and women on team + animation (even for kids) was respected more then who KNOWS what the show could of been! But like. its a 2000s show. It is what it is. I think the show has its good and bad and i'll harp a lot on the bad rn because I think its important to acknowledge especially to new people, but I do want to frame it by saying it really is the product of its time.

I want it to be better and I hope if it gets rebooted its better. We expect a lot more from cartoons now then we did then. (I know this was a long tangent + kinda over simplifying things but whatever, moving on.)

The (Ph)Fandom

19 years later and here we are. Enter the Phandom (called that before that phill and whoever used the term, idc i'm still going to use the term.) We, the fandom, almost completely just retconned the show's finale. (obviously SOME people still like it but its like. an incredibly small percentage) Like. we straight up pretend it didn't happen. i don't even want to get into it rn. It was SO BAD that the graphic novel that just released literally (spoilers) retconned everything about it aside from a ship pairing.

Anyway the Phandom- personally I think it goes a little TOO harsh in its angst. LIke, maybe a bit too much. But it DOES add nuance and explores the themes and lore that the show just flat out refused to engage with at all. It really digs into the premise of "hey wtf this 14 year is half dead. hello? hello??? thats fucked up.... lets explore that." and i'm here for it.

As long as its not like, masochistic and gratuitous for no real reason. 😬That is my biggest complaint with the fandom is that sometimes it goes over board.

But yeah outside of that, it can also be VERY silly so expect tonal whiplash here too! We got memes. We got fandom holidays and events. Whacky stuff.

OH AND OCs. We have fandom OCs like Wes. The best nonexistant character ever. Love that lil weirdo <3. His whole schtick was "What if Danny had another human villain? What if this random background classmate knew his secret and was trying to expose it?" and its spiraled from there. No one ever believes Wes and he's tortured by it. Some make him out to be a conspiracy nut while others make him more of a threat. (or a joke, as I do) Considering this show has a ghost-version of the Men in Black (Guys in White) conspiracy actually lines up accurately for what Wes does. And, you know. The Fenton's have a portal to the afterlife in their basement. Honestly pretty reasonable.

so like the fandom just kinda... picks and chooses the canon. It does have an edge of "we can do better" but in fairness, as I just discussed, there's an awareness that the version we make is not restricted by the environment the show was made under. I would hope most of the fandom understands this and doesn't say it in the sense of like "oh yeah I know better than professional writers and artists fuck the show 1000%" instead of acknowledging Yes He Fucking Sucks but its also more complicated. I don't want to foster an environment of superiority and disrespect to any media/creators (with exceptions ofc) cause. Jesus christ we live on the internet in 2023 you have to know why I feel this way by now.

Anyway with that in mind, I do think it's a positive thing! I mean, fuck, the show had no new content for almost 20 years I think its obvious by now we'd just make our own doll house out of it by now.

So yeah the Phandom is like this:

We're oddly consistent with the phandom lore we've built around from the canon's lore. We expand it, we make it more queer, we do our own thing. And I really enjoy it! I partake in it! It's pretty cool.

So while there's some merit to the OG show I would not recommend it on account of the amount of BS I mentioned at the start of the post. But I would recommend the fandom! As long as you got a strong black list with trigger warnings in place. Again, I think the fandom is a lil too gratuitous. But oh my god I love so much of what the fandom does. There's so many fics that just stick with me and (ha) haunt me. There's a reason I still come back after all these years. there are SO many good fics.

also the fandom got adopted by the DC fandom a year or two ago. personally i have to have like 80 tags blocked so i can even navigate the tag. Its not my thing but i'm happy people are having fun!!