#Honestly I have made several posts that you can disagree with and can directly comment on those but my gifset isn’t one of them.

[wenellyb]

I stumbled upon this post and at first I just wanted to let it slide, because believe it or not, this is not the first time I have had a Tumblr user who had a personal vendetta against me (esecially since I’m really “extra” about Sambucky let’s say) and I can’t stop random people from thinking what they want. 

But this post is a little different because they are stating their opinions as fact, like the saying that I’m not Black or saying that I stole gifs....???......??? 

1) I do not steal gifs, I hate that. My gifs are bad and still, I have gotten my gifs stolen in the past and I hate it. And unlike this OP, I actually have proof of it, so I’ll be posting screenshots of how I made my gifs if I manage to, just to prove that I made them...This is actually the most annoying part.

The post where I said I can’t gif was from May 2021, by the way, I have watched tutorials and tried to improve my gifing skills since (but I’m still bad at it😂).

2) I don’t know where OP got the idea that I wasn’t Black because I have made several posts saying that I was Black and not American. If OP is saying this because I said I was French, I have some flashnews for them: there are Black people in France  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

3) Here’s the link of the post about the back and forth. What happened was that I was disagreeing with another user, and I still disagree with them,  it was indeed a back and forth because that user had said that Anthony disliked Sambucky as romantic, which I disagreed with, and I still disagree with that... From where I stand, during that interview that was edited for clickbait, Anthony didn’t say anything negative about Sambucky (not that it would matter if he did or didn’t because he has every right to), but in this case, he didn’t, at least that’s what I hear in the audio. And I stand by this. To me Anthony was merely stating his opinion about male friendships, question asked by the journalist. But then they shifted the conversation to Sarahbucky, so I knew the conversation was going nowhere.

OP is saying that they have talked about me already, however I have never ever interacted with that OP before, unless they changed their username or something like that, so I’m really interested to know where all of this is coming from?

If the OP finds this and has more links to some of my posts where I’m either “harrassing” or “exploiting” I’m interested because I would like to know. A gifset isn’t enough of an argument if you can’t back it up. If I “stole those” gifs...Where did I steal them from?

#If you try me you'll find me #Honestly I have made several posts that you can disagree with and can directly comment on those but my gifset isn’t one of them. #Just imagine finding a post like this through one of your tumblatives ..it was not a pleasant experience #And I swear if this is all about me shipping Sambucky and not Sarahbucky I will lose it #mcu fandom #I'll put the screenshots and a reblog to avoid making this even longer lol #I would reply to the post directly #but I'm blocked soo #Not putting the username because I don't want to start anything #I just had to get this off my chest lol #Won't comment on the rest OP is entitled to their opinion

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

Hi, first off I ship Zutara and I come in peace. I was pointed your way by a friend when I asked for people who ship kataang who are nevertheless willing to hear different views. I have lurked on blog a week and finally got up my nerve to ask how you or any other Kataang can deny that the last part of book 3 was completely Zutara but then stopped abruptly with no buildup? You can finesse tone on text so I'm not being sarcastic or bitchy, it is a serious question (1/5)

In The Southern Raiders, Katara realizes she has been wrong about Zuko. In Ember Island Players, she realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was, and in the finale, Katara does not care a whit that Aang is gone. I am serious and as someone who is no Aang stan but likes him, I’m actually annoyed by how little anyone cared about his disappearance. It went from “Aang’s gone!” to “Okay whatever, let’s find Iroh so he can kill Ozai.” (2/5)

Katara was all over Zuko (honestly, again not being a jerk) in the finale until for whatever reason, she wasn’t. She was giving him a pep talk about Iroh, she was going with him to Azula, she was healing him and saying he saved her not the other way around. I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic. I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed. (4/5)

And then literally at the end, Mai shows up after Zuko not talking about her at all for six episodes and declares herself Zuko’s girlfriend. And Katara kisses Aang after being annoyed with and by him arguably since The Southern Raiders. I get that Kataang “won” and I’ve made peace with that, but ... I can’t understand why Kataang shippers are okay with such a crap story. I swear on my gmom [sic] if they’d done this for [Zvtara], I’d be mad as hell. So I don’t understand, I really don’t. (5/5)

As always, I shall begin with a disclaimer: anon, you do not have to agree with this post. No one has to agree with this post, as it is strictly my own thoughts on the subject matter raised here! As per usual, I will not be putting this in the main tags - much less the Zvtara tag! - because I have basic fandom decency, lmao. If you (the general you, not anon specifically) do disagree with this post, that is totally fine, I simply ask that you are polite in expressing your disagreement (if you choose to do so at all! no one is expected to, lmao. i promise).

Alright. Formalities are out of the way!

I’ll admit I giggled a little bit when you say you lurked on my blog for a week, because I’ve actually talked about this subject numerous times in the past! I just found it funny you hadn’t stumbled across any posts about it yet, lol. So, as a heads up, know that I will be providing several links in this post since - again - this subject and related subjects have been analyzed a multitude of times before. I highly recommend reading them all! Mostly because I don’t intend to spend forever restating what’s been said over and over and over lmaooo. I will provide the resources, but it is up to each individual to take advantage of them.

To begin: your ask actually contains a few logical fallacies, anon! I do not mean this as shade or to belittle you - I fall victim to this issue all the time myself. Anyone who writes analyses or participates in debates does! Humans are imperfect and often like to cut corners to reach a conclusion. It is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about because - as the existence of your ask in inbox indicates - you are willing to learn more. So kudos to you, my friend!

Alright. So what logical fallacies am I talking about here? (For the record: specific definitions of logical fallacies were taken from here.)

1. Hasty Generalization.

“A hasty generalization is a general statement without sufficient evidence to support it.” Numerous claims are made in this ask that I have absolutely no doubt you believe to be true, anon, but there really isn’t any concrete evidence to support it! I will go into more detail later, of course, but let’s quickly look at one example:

“In Ember Island Players, [Katara] realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was…”

For the time being, I will ask but one question: from the show itself, not fanon, how do you know this?

2. Causal Fallacy

Ah, this guy. My own worst enemy, tbh! “A causal fallacy is any logical breakdown when identifying a cause,” of which there are several types. “One causal fallacy is the false cause or non causa pro causa (‘not the-cause for a cause’) fallacy, which is when you conclude about a cause without enough evidence to do so.” In your ask, you claim:

“I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed.”

Again, for the time being, I will ask only one question: from the show itself, not fanon, what led you to believe this statement?

“Another kind of causal fallacy is the correlational fallacy also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc (Lat., ‘with this therefore because of this’). This fallacy happens when you mistakenly interpret two things found together as being causally related.” In your ask, you claim:

“Katara was all over Zuko (honestly, again not being a jerk) in the finale until for whatever reason, she wasn’t. She was giving him a pep talk about Iroh, she was going with him to Azula, she was healing him and saying he saved her not the other way around. I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic.”

I will ask one question: from the show itself, not fanon, why would you believe these are indicative of romance? (Consider the context the show is situated in, too - e.g. the war, Katara being Azula’s only available match in skill, etc.)

The reason I bring up the issue of logical fallacies is again not at all to make you feel bad, anon!! You were simply trying to express your point to me and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so. See, your ask actually presents a larger fandom trend:

Misconstruing fanon as canon.

What you have offered to me, anon, are fanon conclusions. To clarify: there is absolutely nothing wrong with fanon. I adore fanon interpretations (an example I have used in the past is Kuzaang - like, I don’t care that there’s no canon basis! I do what I want lmao!), but a line has to be drawn between exploring fanon interpretations and expecting everyone to take that fanon as canon. Again, anon, this is not your fault! It is not any one person’s fault, lmao. It is an issue of fandom as a whole, and all of us fall victim to it.

With that in mind, I will break down the different components of your ask. I will also do my best to be brief - as aforementioned, I and others have analyzed this issue numerous times before, lmao. To avoid confusion, it would be best to read through each or at least most links as they are provided!

Firstly, there are two posts I have made in the past that almost directly answer your overarching question here in this ask. Please read them prior to continuing, as I will occasionally reference them:

This post explains how Zvtara was not built up from TSR/EIP-onwards, and how their supposed “canon enemies to lovers arc” is a completely fanon construction.

This post explains the issue of the “canon Zvtara” rhetoric from rabid zkers (and you, anon, are absolutely NOT one, in case you were worried).

Alrighty. With that out the way, let’s get into it!

“In The Southern Raiders, Katara realizes she has been wrong about Zuko.”

Gotta start by saying that TSR is not about Zuko. TSR is, first and foremost, about Katara. Katara does not realize she was wrong about Zuko, because here’s the truth - she wasn’t wrong about him. Zuko did horrible things to the Gaang. Katara was not wrong to hold him accountable for that. What Katara does realize is that holding such rage so close to her chest is bad for her. This rage was not solely anger against Zuko, either; it was of course about Yon Rha, too, but it was also anger towards Kya and Katara herself. Essentially, TSR is where Katara realizes she has to forgive herself. Zuko is only one part of her journey (similar to Aang’s role in the episode, if a different end of the spectrum).

This post explains how TSR was fundamentally about Katara.

Additional resources about TSR:

This post explains Aang’s comments to Katara in TSR and how Katara herself recognized their validity.

This post explains why both Aang and Zuko were important to Katara in TSR.

This post is an extensive breakdown of Aang and Katara’s relationship within TSR.

“In Ember Island Players, [Katara] realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was…”

You provide no context for this claim, so I’m going to work with the assumption this is about their reactions to the play itself and the infamous kiss!

There is something important we must keep in mind when discussing EIP: the play they watch is literally imperialist propaganda. It is meant to demean the entire Gaang, and indeed it does exactly that. You mention Katara and Aang specifically, so I will recap what I have explained before about their depictions in EIP: Katara, an indigenous woman, is hypersexualized and portrayed as overly emotional (and thus “irrational”). This reinforces the Fire Nation sentiment that women of the Water Tribes are less intelligent and less suited for “responsibility” than Fire Nation women. Aang, a pacifist and the sole survivor of genocide who is also canonly the male character most comfortable with femininity and spirituality, is portrayed as a flighty, airheaded woman (this is a well-known imperialist tactic meant to emasculate the target, seeing as masculinity was often equated with power in fascist regimes; thus, they effectively belittled Aang before the FN audience). This reinforces the Fire Nation sentiment that the Air Nomads were foolish, weak people who deserved to die.

In other words, of course Aang and Katara were upset about how they portrayed in the play. It is understandable that tensions would be running high and consequently that mistakes (we all know the one) would be made.

This post explains how EIP belittles each member of the Gaang (and why the play is not indicative of Zvtara).

This post talks specifically about EIP and their portrayal of Aang and Katara.

Now onto the kiss. As everyone knows and no one has ever disagreed with, Aang was wrong to kiss Katara. Point blank!

But what people do misunderstand is Katara and Aang’s feelings regarding the kiss. Given your above quote, I assume you believe Aang kissing Katara supposedly made her realize that Aang wasn’t as mature as she once thought. On the surface, this seems like a logical conclusion! But digging deeper reveals… well, there’s nothing that indicates this conclusion at all. Even jumping ahead to the finale, when Zuko has doubts over Aang’s return, Katara demonstrates her faith in Aang (although of course she’s nervous - I won’t deny the obvious, lmao) as she says, “Aang won’t lose. He’s gonna come back. He has to.”

In other words, nothing in canon suggests that Katara believes Aang is immature because of what happened in EIP. She still trusts in his return, as she did even before she knew him (and arguably is more confident in him now, given the 60~ episodes of them growing closer). Furthermore, when Aang does disappear, Katara doesn’t have an outburst about how “immature” it was for him to “run away again.” The viewers know Aang didn’t run away, of course (fans who insist he did are not worth arguing with, anon - they don’t understand the show, rip), but that is a luxury the rest of the Gaang is not afforded. And yet even though Aang has vanished off the face of the planet, Katara still believes he will save the world. If anything, that signifies the utmost confidence in his skill and maturity!

To go back to the kiss itself, this post explains the true source of Katara’s conflict in turning down Aang (hint: she says it herself in the episode! you know, the whole war going on) and why the EIP kiss did not sink Kataang’s relationship.

Additional sources about EIP:

This post explains how the EIP kiss was resolved through narrative parallels.

This post explains how the EIP kiss is so often blown out of proportion.

“… and in the finale, Katara does not care a whit that Aang is gone. I am serious and as someone who is no Aang stan but likes him, I’m actually annoyed by how little anyone cared about his disappearance. It went from ‘Aang’s gone!’ to ‘Okay whatever, let’s find Iroh so he can kill Ozai.’”

As I already touched upon, Katara didn’t need a soliloquy to emphasize her connection to Aang once he disappeared. She trusts that he will return. She says so herself. I guess I just don’t understand how you got from Point A, Katara has consistent faith in Aang, to Point B, Katara and the rest of the Gaang didn’t care about Aang’s disappearance. It’s honestly a bit more like Point A to Point Z, lmao! If you would like to expand on your logic here, I would love to hear more!!

There are a few specific aspects I want to note about your rationale, though. You argue the Gaang moves from ‘Aang disappeared’ to ‘let’s find Iroh,’ but the Gaang actually went from:

1. Aang disappeared!

2. They search the entire island for him.

3. Okay, they couldn’t find him, so they track down June and have her try to find Aang.

4. June says to them, “No, I mean he’s gone gone. He doesn’t exist.” (And she clarifies to Sokka that she doesn’t mean dead, either - she means Aang has totally blinked out of their world.)

5. Only after all of this do they decide to track down Iroh.

The Gaang cares immensely about the fact that Aang is gone, and you could actually argue they waste time by trying to track him down. They don’t give up until June essentially tells them that some Spirit World shenanigans were involved. Even if you don’t think they reached that specific conclusion, I have to ask: What else were they supposed to do? They were told Aang didn’t exist! How are they supposed to fix that?

Well, they can’t. So they do the next best thing: they find Iroh, the man who knows Ozai better than anyone and is also one of the most talented firebenders in the world. In my opinion, that’s a very logical step to take.

“Katara was all over Zuko (honestly, again not being a jerk) in the finale until for whatever reason, she wasn’t. She was giving him a pep talk about Iroh, she was going with him to Azula, she was healing him and saying he saved her not the other way around. I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic.”

I’ll be blunt here, lol: in my opinion, nothing of what you listed in your ask is inherently romantic.

Okay. I am going to assume you’ve read the first two posts I linked earlier (“Zvtara did not have an E-L arc” and “the ‘canon’ Zvtara of rabid zkers has issues”), because I do not intend to rehash everything they contain, lol. Consequently, I presume you realize by now that there was no canon romantic interest between Zuko and Katara.

And as I always say, just because there wasn’t a canon romance doesn’t mean people can’t take fanon routes! Of course they can! That’s the entire point of fanon! But fanon is not canon, and I am strictly referring to canon in my discussions.

You claim Katara was all over Zuko, which in itself I don’t think is an accurate assessment, because she doesn’t really do anything with Zuko outside the three points you bring up (other than the June gag, which I addressed in one of the aforementioned linked posts). So I’ll go ahead and break down each instance you provide!

1. “[Katara] was giving [Zuko] a pep talk about Iroh”

Katara asked Zuko if he was okay. She asked him if he was genuinely sorry. She reassures him that Iroh will forgive him. That’s… all. Not to diminish the significance of this conversation, but it’s not exactly an intimate, romantically-charged discussion (unless fanon-ized). But on that note, let’s tackle the canon significance of this moment!

Katara knows firsthand the challenge of forgiving Zuko. And she knows that Zuko understands how hard it was for her to forgive him (note: Katara’s anger was totally justified, and anyone who disagrees is probably a rabid Zuko stan lmao). She also recognizes that Zuko is terrified it will take Iroh the same struggle to forgive him that Katara went through. This scene is not related to romance at all. It’s about compassion. It’s about Katara and Zuko’s friendship having progressed, slowly but surely, to the point where she’s not afraid to extend empathy to him anymore (seeing as the first time, beneath Ba Sing Se, did not go so well; you know - Aang died and all). It’s about Zuko recognizing his own fallibility (and the audience recognizing how much he’s grown). He questions how he can even face his uncle after all he’s done to the man, which is a far cry from his entitled attitude in TSR, where he demanded to know why Katara didn’t trust him when everyone else had forgiven him.

To make this moment, this moment about Zuko’s relationship with his uncle who is all but a literal father to him, this moment of vulnerability, of guilt, of remorse, of growth, to claim this powerful moment is about a nonexistent romantic relationship? In my opinion, that is incredibly reductive to what this scene is supposed to signify. And again, there is nothing wrong with people exploring such a possibility in fanon, but in canon? Nah. It doesn’t track.

2. “[Katara] was going with [Zuko] to Azula”

Don’t forget that at first, Zuko planned to take on Azula alone. He doesn’t request Katara to accompany him until Iroh tells him that he’ll need help. As such, Zuko’s immediate agreement with Iroh is reflective of his personal growth (Book 1 and 2 Zuko would have argued and insisted he didn’t need any help). It also demonstrates, however, that Katara was not obsessively on Zuko’s mind. He doesn’t choose Katara until Iroh points out that Zuko will need assistance in taking Azula down. This means that Zuko’s choice of Katara to join him is a tactical decision, not an emotional one. And by all accounts, it’s a damn good decision! Zuko witnessed firsthand beneath Ba Sing Se a) how powerful Katara was (e.g. that wave after Aang died) and b) how Katara was the only one who could take on Azula*.

Of course, besides the fact that Katara was the only match for Azula, who else was Zuko going to choose? Sokka and Suki, while talented in their own right, were no competition for Azula. Toph, while the greatest earthbender in the world, was needed to metalbend the airships. Katara was the only (and the best!) option.

Also, on their trip to face Azula, the only thing they talk about within their three lines of canon conversation are Azula and Aang. Not exactly a romantic flight, lmao.

*Zuko never saw Aang fight Azula on the drill.

3. “[Katara] was healing [Zuko] and saying he saved her not the other way around”

Actually, this is what the transcript says:

Zuko: Thank you, Katara.

Katara: I think I’m the one who should be thanking you.

You’re right about how their lines refer to them saving each other, but you posit it as a romantic moment, when the lines are actually pretty straightforward. Zuko thanks Katara as she heals him from the partially-redirected lightning strike, and Katara thanks him for trying to redirect the lightning away from her and in doing so saving her life. In terms of canon, there’s nothing romantic about this, lol! (Which I talked about extensively in the E-L post, if you need to reference it again.) The reason being is that you have to take the show itself into context when you do analysis. If there was no canon romantic buildup between Zuko and Katara, why would these lines in canon (not fanon! fanon is free rein, lmao) be interpreted through a romantic lens?

Well, they wouldn’t be interpreted as such. Plain and simple.

“I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic.”

Because looking through a canon lens, they aren’t romantic. That’s all. You are of course welcome to view them as such through a fanon lens!! It’s just about recognizing the line between canon and fanon.

“I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed.”

I asked earlier what content in the show itself led you to believe. I have wracked my own mind, and I cannot think of anything that would point to this conclusion. Zuko was in Katara’s good graces for 5 episodes. That’s 8% of the show. Not exactly a lot of time for Zuko to start believing his life would be pointless if Katara was killed, is it?

This post explains the improbability of Zuko having a crush on Katara within canon.

This post explains how Zuko’s racism towards the Air Nomads in TSR and the finale is, well, exactly that - racism (and not a sign of a crush on Katara).

And, of course, as has been said a million times, Zuko taking the lightning for Katara out of romantic interest would completely undermine his redemption arc. Since it has been said over and over and over, I will be brief: Zuko taking the lightning is significant because it is a selfless act (one of his only in the series), and it directly parallels his selfish act of choosing not to intervene when Azula killed Aang with lightning beneath Ba Sing Se. This moment demonstrates Zuko’s growth, how he has learned to accept unconditional love from Iroh and the Gaang and Mai and even Ty Lee and sure, even from Appa and Momo, too. To make this moment of pure selflessness about a nonexistent romance? To force a fanon romance in replacement of canon redemption and canon platonic significance?

Such a decision speaks wonders about a person’s priorities, in my opinion, as well as how amatonormativity impacts them.

Furthermore, Zuko’s choice cements Katara’s position as his surrogate sibling, as she is Azula’s primary foil. Zuko chooses the sister who heals over the sister who harms. I won’t go too much into it here, because it has already been talked about extensively before! Thus, I offer you this post that explains how Zuko and Katara - in canon - are positioned as surrogate siblings as well as Azula’s role in this matter. I also offer this post that lays out through screencaps how Zuko and Katara - in canon - treat each other like family.

Additional sources about the final Agni Kai:

This post in part discusses fanon misinterpretation of the final Agni Kai and why such a lens is not true to canon relationships.

This post explains why the final Agni Kai is not intended to be romantic.

This post explains how the final Agni Kai is primarily about Azula and how reducing it to be a big Zvtara moment is detrimental to both her and to Zuko and Katara themselves.

“And then literally at the end, Mai shows up after Zuko not talking about her at all for six episodes and declares herself Zuko’s girlfriend.”

This point could probably get a post of its own, lol, but fortunately I and others have already written a few! I will link them below - first, however, I question your choice of “declares.” Technically, yes, Mai does say outright that it doesn’t hurt how the new Fire Lord is her boyfriend, but your phrasing implies Zuko resisted her proclamation. When… he doesn’t. In fact, he embraces it, asking if that means she doesn’t hate him anymore (read: he asks if they’re back on good terms again). Zuko clearly doesn’t have a problem with the girl he loves wanting to be with him again - so why do some parts of fandom so adamantly insist he does? (Not you, anon - I am referring to the rabid fanoners, lol.)

Also, regarding how Zuko hasn’t talked about Mai for six episodes, we’ve gotta be realistic with this assessment in terms of canon:

1. It was the crux of the war. They were either going to live or die. There was no time for romance at this point! Sokka and Suki weren’t professing their love on the battlefield, lmao, so it’s not exactly strange that Zuko didn’t bust into a monologue about how he missed Mai. I think they were just a little bit distracted by the possible end of the world, lol, and all that jazz.

2. Zuko probably thought Mai was dead. He knows what Azula is like. He knows his sister doesn’t have time for people who get in her way (Aang can testify to this, lmao). So can you blame him for not wanting to think about how the girl he loved had died (to his knowledge) to save him?

You gotta cut the kid some slack, lol. Anyways! Additional sources about Maiko:

This post breaks down the notion of Maiko and “deserve.”

This post rationalizes through a canon lens why Mai’s arrival at the palace surprised Zuko.

This post is the mother of Maiko metas, explaining in tremendous detail why their relationships works, is relevant to canon, and was well-implemented for what its role was.

“And Katara kisses Aang after being annoyed with and by him arguably since The Southern Raiders.”

What in canon has led you to the conclusion that Katara was annoyed with Aang? What specific moments from TSR to the finale made you think Katara was annoyed with Aang and remained annoyed with Aang? Are there any, or are you thinking about fanon interpretation? (Canon vs fanon strikes again!)

In TSR, Katara explicitly thanks Aang for understanding her perspective. Nothing there is indicative of annoyance (and as in the links provided earlier, she was not angry at Aang/Zuko/etc. so much as she was at herself. well, she was a little bit angry with Zuko, lmao). In EIP, Katara is understandably angry at Aang’s decision to kiss her, but Aang completely backs off, and we see in the part 1 of the finale that there are no hard feelings or weird tension between them. Katara in fact actively expresses concern for Aang after Zuko sporadically attacked him when she demands of the firebender, “What’s wrong with you? You could have hurt Aang!” Even when Aang and Katara do butt heads later in the episode as Aang tries to think of a way to defeat Ozai without killing him, Katara doesn’t stay frustrated. Like I said - when she and Zuko are flying to Azula, she demonstrates her unwavering faith in Aang through her belief that he will return. So… where is the annoyance that you feel was present?

With all this mind, i.e. looking strictly at canon, Katara wasn’t annoyed with Aang during this time. Thus, Katara kisses Aang because she loved him. Because he backed off and gave her the space she needed to make a decision about if she wanted to be with him (hence Katara being the one to initiate the kiss). Because the issue was never about if she reciprocated his feelings (they both knew they loved each other) but rather it had to do with the war. At the end of the finale, the war is over, and there is nothing that prevents them from being together. Simple.

This post explains how Katara’s feelings for Aang develop throughout the series (and were not neglected, as rabid zkers like to claim, for some reason? again - you are not one of them, anon).

This post also covers Katara’s interest in Aang throughout the series.

“I can’t understand why Kataang shippers are okay with such a crap story.”

I mean, you definitely don’t have to ship Kataang. It may not be your cup of tea, and that’s totally okay! But as the above links demonstrate, Kataang was a fantastic story. It was well-implemented into the narrative from Day 1. The soulmateism is unparalleled!

Also, it’s worth noting that A:TLA itself was essentially pre-written. The writers knew how the story would end from the get-go, including that the show would end with Kataang. A few Zvtara gags were thrown in to add a sense of “who will Katara choose?” drama as the show aired, but Zuko and Katara were never planned to end up together. One reason so many newer fans are fine with Kataang from the start is that there’s no tension of waiting a week for a new episode when you can watch all 61 episodes straight through on Netflix, lmao. It’s even more obvious now than when A:TLA was airing that Aang and Katara will end up together, if that makes sense. (Although I talked about this in the E-L post linked earlier, so you probably understand this point already, as it was explained in detail there!)

All of this is to say that Kataang is not a “crap story” in terms of writing (again, personal taste is a different matter) because it was woven in from the beginning and had powerful narrative significance! (Kataang represented numerous complementary components of the series, such as yin and yang, push and pull, air and water, Oma and Shu, etc.)

Now. If you really and truly want to understand why Kataang shippers like Kataang, anon, consider reading some Kataang fanfics or exploring some Kataang headcanons. I read fics involving Zvtara more regularly than you might think, lol, because… well, it’s just a ship. I understand the appeal of romantic Zvtara and I can actually appreciate it when it’s well-written! I’m sure if you’re willing to put in just a little legwork (you don’t need to go the whole mile, lmao - ‘tis just fandom), you’ll realize why people like Kataang, even if it isn’t exactly your thing. You have the range, anon!! You got this!

I hope I managed to answer your questions, my friend! As always, you do not have to agree with anything I have said here. It is totally fine if you and anyone else disagrees! Everything above is simply my own perspective on the matter. Thank you for taking the time to read my response and all the different links I provided! I hope it has expanded your understanding of the subject at hand!

#i spent all day writing this lmaooo #TWO WHOLE HOURS SPENT COMPILING LINKS #amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

[chikkou]

masterpost on the ryan haywood (and adam kovic) situation

so i already made this post as a more general “whats wrong with rooster teeth” post, as i honestly didnt expect the ryan haywood/adam kovic situation to go as far as it has - but at this point i think it’s much more prudent to put that information into its own post because the situation with both of these men, ryan primarily, has gone off the fucking rails 

tl;dr for the situation: ryan haywood and adam kovic both had nudes leak and were outed as cheating on their wives as a result of being catfished, but a great deal more information surfaced after the initial leak which led to the discovery that ryan haywood is a manipulative sexual predator, and adam kovic may have been sending sexual pictures and videos of his wife without her consent. 

i will try to break down this post chronologically as best i can and provide ample sources, and i will update it as new information is gathered. please be aware that many of these sources will be coming from kiwifarms, as it has gathered all of the relevant info into one place, but i will not be linking to the thread directly for a myriad of reasons, so if you want to find it, youll have to look for yourself. apologies if any of the screenshots contain disagreeable language; i wouldnt link them if they werent relevant.

general tw for pretty much everything in this post. all pictures of people will be largely sfw, but there will be nsfw text under the cut. i will not link to any nudes of ryan or adam. this is going to be long as fuck.

here goes.

NOTE: this post is currently up-to-date as of january 28th, 7:27 pm (EST). 

GENERAL BACKGROUND:

adam kovic and ryan haywood are both employees at the entertainment company rooster teeth. ryan has been working there since 2011, originally for more behind-the-scenes work before becoming a regular achievement hunter staple, while adam kovic was a personality who originally worked for machinima before he and a few others branched off to become funhaus. funhaus was later purchased by the media corporation fullscreen, as was rooster teeth, and both were merged sometime in 2014/2015. 

HOW THIS ALL BEGAN:

sometime in august, there were rumors circulating on certain forum sites that a catfisher had been sexting with a handful of e-celebs, and had their nudes. a torrent link was put up containing the files, but was quickly taken down. this didnt gain much traction, but was brought up again on the same forum in late september/early october. this time, the person posted images directly, showing that they’d been sexting with adam kovic and ryan haywood.

according to them, they didnt get very far with ryan and so there were only a small handful of his pictures and videos, but there were over 400 of adam’s nudes, also pictures and videos, and some of which featured his wife. after this news broke, a thread was made on kiwifarms to document everything (the thread was created on october 4th). another thread was made on /pol/ shortly before this, claiming that ryan was grooming underaged fans, and that both ryan and adam had sexted with fans (both of age and underage). no sources or corroboration for this claim were given at the time.

WEEK 1, DAY 1 (october 4th):

initially, most of the focus was on adam, due to the sheer number of his nudes and the content within them. while people were suspicious of the veracity of ryan’s nudes, it became clear that the photos of adam were legitimate, as his face was shown in several of them, there was no evidence of photoshopping, and he has a distinct tattoo which made it pretty hard to dispute. heres a more sfw picture as an example.

the catfish had all of these images on hand, and due to the “sent to you” header on top we know that they were sent directly to the catfish, and not taken from adam’s phone, meaning he willingly sent these images to the catfish. note that his wife was indeed almost naked in the background (wearing only underwear), and there are multiple pictures and videos of her completely naked and sometimes even engaging in sex with adam. after a bit of analysis, people came to the conclusion that the pictures of ryan were real, as well.

ADAM’S WIFE, JESS KOVIC:

no response came from him at first, nor his wife - the only indication she gave that she knew what had happened was this cryptic comment on her instagram account, which she has since privated. no one is quite clear what this reaction means, nor has she confirmed or denied whether she consented to the pictures and videos being taken and sent to others.

soon after, people who’d (puzzlingly) decided to sift through the nudes discovered something jarring - some of the nudes he’d sent appeared to have been taken IN the rooster teeth office. heres a sfw example, but there were at least a dozen others taken in the same location.

RYAN:

ryan’s nudes were largely ignored in the beginning - there were a great deal more of adam’s, and while ryan’s were pretty standard nudes, adam’s were much more plentiful and had a lot more variety in the... activities depicted, shall we say. people were also fixated on the status of his wife’s consent in the matter, and so little attention was given to ryan, who was simply deemed a cheater and left at that.

ROOSTER TEETH & THE FANBASE:

unsurprisingly, rt attempted to immediately suppress any and all mention of the scandal when it first broke. heres an image of a handful of threads that were made on r/roosterteeth that day; as you can see, the ones highlighted in red have been deleted, and all were about the leaks. comments on the official rt site were instantly deleted as well. no official comment from the company or any of the employees, though a former funhaus employee (rahul kohli) commented mocking adam for the situation, and implied that things were worse than we yet realized.

WEEK 1, DAY 2 (october 5th):

although adam had been the primary focus of the first day of the news breaking, it began to look like there was little else to discuss with him. at worst, he seemed to be a cheater, and potentially sent nudes of his wife without her permission. still disgusting, but as there was no comment from him and no new updates on his situation, attentions turned, and a slow rumble began bubbling up with more accusations about ryan.

ANONYMOUS ACCUSATIONS:

an anonymous twitter account, @brotherxteresa (whose account has since been suspended), claims to have been speaking to girls who’d been sexual with ryan. they state that everyone they’ve spoken to was of age - significantly younger than ryan, true, but still legally able to consent. however, they confirm that ryan has indeed been getting around with fans, both via sexting and in-person. he also strongly implies that the mods knew, and asks them to comment, but their responses are predictably vague. notably, though, is this tweet from @grandaddyskulls, in which they condemn “proven disgusting behavior,” heavily implying that the mods did indeed deal with “unproven” accusations against ryan in the past. unfortunately, there are no sources for this at this time.

on the same day, tumblr user @juggey creates this post, containing screenshots of a conversation they had with one of ryan’s victims. within those screenshots is this particularly interesting one, in which ryan receives a nude from the fan in question, only to ask, in an almost joking tone, if they “turned him into a felon” by sending a nude. they confirm that they are an adult, but it becomes clear that ryan did not know the age of the fan before getting sexual with them, and seems to have a very flippant and casual approach to this.

later on, this tweet is posted by @jasminewill123, confirming that ryan has indeed been messing with fans for years. no sources are posted, though, just a verbal confirmation. @brotherxteresa also reveals that he is speaking to someone who was solicited by ryan for sex when they were a minor in this tweet thread, but doesnt share any info, stating that the minor is saving it for a potential court case. there is also this tweet from someone stating that they slept with him in 2017, and that he claimed to have never had sex with a fan before and removed the condom mid-sex. once again, no corroboration for this just yet.

RT’S RESPONSE:

still mainly radio silence from the company, except for this tweet cancelling the days stream. replies on this post are locked almost instantly. rt also begins a quiet sweeping of all ryan and adam-centric content and videos, including a video of ryan reading “thirsty tweets” from fans, and straight up cut ryan out of certain videos (like a recent AHWU). some of these videos were archived, but we dont have a complete list of what was removed.

on the slightly less official side, r/roosterteeth issues a statement basically saying that any post attempting to discuss the leaks will be deleted immediately, and the people who post them will be reported (and likely banned).

WEEK 1, DAY 3 (october 6th):

we get our first confirmation of ryan having sexted a fan from @jasminewill123, in the form of this previously-unseen picture of ryan (it’s sfw but is clearly a cropped nude). rahul kohli again makes snide comments about adam and funhaus in general, but does not share any details of what he means. rumors spread that one of the former funhaus members, lawrence sonntag, has sent an email to his subscribers regarding adam kovic, but no evidence of that comes up yet. jess kovic posts this tweet plugging her online store, but still declines to comment on the situation. things are pretty quiet for a while, until finally, the first shoe drops.

TESSA GRAVES

at 4:13 pm, a woman named tessa graves posts this youtube video and links to it on her twitter account (with associated screenshots in the same thread). she discusses at length how she met ryan and when their relationship became sexual. 

as a brief summary of her video: they met at a con in 2017, when she had just turned 17, and started talking on snapchat. the relationship was platonic for a while until tessa accidentally sent him a picture meant for a friend in which her bra strap was visible. ryan began to flirt with her after this, and soon their relationship became sexual, with nudes being exchanged and dirty texts being sent. she states in the video that ryan did not know her age, nor did he ask for it. the two of them sexted and sent nudes on and off for two years, and planned to hook up in person, but it never came to fruition.

shortly after uploading the video, she posts this screen-recording of her snap messages with ryan, scrolling back through months and months of messages between them, all the way back to late 2017. the snapchat account is confirmed to be his, and the screen-recording proves to be incredibly compelling evidence. this is the first girl to come out and say that ryan was sexual with her when she was underage, and that she did send him nudes as a minor. on her twitter account, someone noticed that ryan was online in the video and inquired about it - tessa confirms that ryan messaged her when he saw her recording their chat, but declined to share what his message said.

RYAN’S TWEET

around an hour after tessa’s video was posted, ryan posts this tweet, announcing his departure from rt. he states that he “made mistakes,” acknowledging that the pictures and screenshots were real, but specifically insists that he “did nothing illegal,” a clear comment on tessa’s accusation. 

(he also asks people to stop harassing his family, but im unsure if the claim is true, as i personally have only seen people empathizing with his wife and children and no negative comments about them at all. he may be referring to people messaging his wife for comment on the situation, or he may just be straight up lying. given all hes done, the latter seems quite likely.)

people quickly begin speculating whether or not ryan was fired or quit of his own volition. personally, i believe the company offered him the option to either resign right then and there, or let them fire him publicly, and he chose the former. this is all speculation, though.

WEEK 1, DAY 4 (october 7th):

lawrence sonntag’s email to his subscribers finally gets leaked; it basically just says that hes grossed out and pissed off by what happened, and ends with the cryptic comment that “adam never washed his hands.” (he later stated that he meant this literally. EW!)

later the same day, adam privates his twitter account, and removes all references to rooster teeth and funhaus in his bio. shortly after, he unfollows everyone he was following and changes his icon and header to a black image. (basic public breakdown stuff, i suppose?) 

NEW LEAK TIMELINE:

it’s discovered that an anonymous twitter user, @d74840281, had messaged ryan and adam weeks before regarding these leaks on september 18th. they also accuse ryan, adam, and several other youtube personalities - alec paul, kootra, nenreaper, and dormstreams - of “grooming the same minor.” (i dont know any of those people, but it seems relevant so i added it.)

it’s also revealed that the r/funhaus subreddit was aware of the leaks 2 weeks beforehand, meaning that the info was successfully suppressed until october 4th, and that it was likely well-known by all funhaus members and probably general rt staff, as well.

RT’S RESPONSE:

the official rt account on roosterteeth.com posts this update to their programming schedule, cancelling several rttv programs, putting both achievement hunter and funhaus on a week long break, and delaying the premiere of two new shows (”rvb zero” and “grudge night”)

not long after, they post these tweets stating that they have “parted ways” with both adam and ryan, confirming that both men are no longer rt employees. they are deliberately vague about whether the men were fired or quit, but given the responses from both, i think ryan likely chose to resign instead of be fired, and adam was probably just fired outright. 

RYAN’S MODS:

you may recall that, on the second day, the question of whether the mods knew about ryan’s doings was posed. their answers were, of course, extremely vague, but one of them in particular strongly implied that the mods had dealt with some kind of accusation against ryan in the past and either ignored or actively suppressed it. well, sure enough, two of the mods (@grandaddyskulls and @ohdeerbambi/) post tweets admitting that they knew the entire time. 

specifically, they state that someone came forward with accusations of ryan behaving inappropriately two years ago (2018), coupled with screenshots. the mods confronted ryan about this, and when ryan (predictably) lied about it, they decided to drop it instead of pursuing it further. 

ADAM’S TWEET:

at 10:49 pm, adam finally speaks up with a post on twitter, formally stating that he is leaving funhaus. he apologizes to his coworkers and fans, but primarily apologizes to his wife, stating that he has “upturned her life.” he describes the events thus far as an “unbelievable breach of privacy and peeling back of [his] life,” and says that he is stepping away in order to focus on repairing his relationship with his wife and working on himself. 

while we still have no confirmation on whether his wife consented to having those pictures and videos taken, we know with a good amount of certainty now that she did not consent to having them sent to others. this would likely qualify as revenge (or otherwise non-consensual) porn in the state of california, so if she pressed charges, adam would likely see jail time.

CAST MEMBERS REACT:

the first direct response from cast members come from michael, jeremy, and lindsay, stating their feelings of anger and betrayal, and strongly implying that none of them were aware of the goings-on. (while they definitely HAVE to say this cookie-cutter stuff for the sake of their image, i will say that theres really not much else a person can say in a situation like this while still being professional. i do tentatively believe all three of them, with the most doubt on michael.)  

at this time, lawrence sonntag unfollows ryan, as do gus and lindsay. interestingly, the first person ryan unfollows himself is lindsay - this could potentially mean that lindsay actually blocked him, which forces the other person to unfollow.

WEEK 1, DAY 5 (october 8th):

at this point, discussion of adam kovic all but tapers off. he has gone full radio silent, and no one has come out with any more stories about him, so it seems very likely that his wrongdoings begin and end with the initial sexting and sending nudes of his wife. the conversation begins to turn to focus on ryan in earnest.

RYAN’S WIFE:

a reddit post (that is sadly deleted now) is uncovered from 3 months ago that reveals he and his wife have been sleeping in separate rooms for some time - we’re unsure exactly how long, but most people who’ve mentioned it have said it started in may. according to ryan, this was because his wife was exposed to covid at her job, but the quarantine period for covid is only 2 weeks - why would they be sleeping in separate rooms for so long when they clearly were not doing so before?

it is speculated that his wife may have somehow learned of ryan’s dalliances, as he was also seen without his wedding ring in streams much more often around the same time. it is unknown exactly why, though, so take this with a grain of salt.

MORE ANONYMOUS ACCUSATIONS:

a deleted user on reddit makes a post stating that they, too, sexted with ryan while they were also married. their husband found out and threatened to leak the info, but the user was able to convince him not to do so and he - according to op - deleted what proof he had. although the original post is now deleted, a pinned moderator comment on it states that the user provided proof corroborating the story in private. you can read a copy-pasted version of that story here. (apologies if it’s out of order.)

MORE CAST MEMBER COMMENTARY:

a list of all known cast member statements can be found here. it’s pretty comprehensive, but there are some i want to address here directly:

lindsay snaps at someone who tries to call her out for “not supporting her family” (meaning ryan). this, for me, is the big reason why i feel that she, at the very least, is being sincere.

blaine posts this.... weird video of him working out and captions it “me figuring out how to convert anxiety into energy.” i guess it’s supposed to be somewhat of a mood lightener, but honestly it just feels kind of trivializing to me. idk what he was thinking LMAO

aaron marquis makes this... interesting (and vague) comment. no further elaboration on it, but it’s definitely unique in comparison to many others.

meg’s statement strikes me as particularly devoid of sincerity. it may just be confirmation bias, but i just feel like it’s incredibly hollow in comparison to the others (which are also kind of hollow LMAO).

joel heyman, who was fired from rt not long ago, doesnt comment directly, but does like this tweet which calls him “the only non-degenerate connected to rt.” (OCT. 12 EDIT: he has since posted this tweet with no context, but i think it’s pretty clear what hes referring to.)

tina dayton, streamer and wife of ray, posts this tweet letting people know that mentioning the ryan/adam situation to ray in streams will not be tolerated. (OCT. 21 EDIT: she posts this tweet a few days later, on october 15th, decrying anyone who wants to play “devils advocate” in support of an abuser against their victim.)

JAN 30 EDIT: this is very late, but sometime on or before january 6th, alfredo briefly discussed the ryan haywood situation on his stream and berated those who still support him. his closing statement is the perfect summation of all of these events: fuck ryan haywood.

WEEK 1, DAY 6 (october 9th):

adam kovic deletes his twitter account, and all other public social media. this is the last piece of relevant adam kovic information for several months to come.

MICHELLE VOLOGS

at 11:26 am, a twitter user named @MichelleVologs posts this tweet, containing a link to this video, called “what you need to know about ryan haywood,” in which she asserts - with proof - that she and ryan had sex on september 23rd 2017, when she was 17 years old.

brief summary: they began talking when she was 17 and dm’d him on instagram. it was platonic at first, but he began flirting with her and trying to sext with her, at which point she inquired about the nature of his relationship with his wife. he insisted that they were in a “sexless marriage” because his wife hates sex, and that he needed to seek it out elsewhere. (we have no idea if this is even remotely true - the only source claiming this is ryan himself.) they sexted for a while, then eventually met up in california and had sex in person (and much like the story that @jasminewill123 told, ryan removed the condom in the middle of sex). when michelle told ryan that she was underage, he simply stated that it was okay and that he “trusted her.” 

she shows screenshots throughout the video of their instagram dms, as well as some candid shots of ryan in their hotel room. (people have speculated that the latter two pictures may be ryan removing his wedding ring.) this picture also proves that they definitely met in person. take note of the fact that, in the dms, michelle keeps the conversation very platonic and professional - ryan is the one to initiate the sexual talk, and with zero prompting.

on top of this, michelle is also the first person to posit the idea that ryan deliberately chose to pursue young girls with mental health issues, a notion that will crop up again later.

EVEN MORE ANONYMOUS ACCUSATIONS

a reddit user by the name of “klowbie-frenzy” states that they, too, were victimized by ryan, though they dont publicly share their story or any particular info. they are encouraged to go to rt directly.

WEEK 1, DAY 7 (october 10th):

ryan begins deleting tweets, but other than that is completely radio silent. people analyzing ryan’s instagram notice this post, made on september 24th 2017 - the day after he and michelle had sex. sure enough, he is still in LA as he was the day before, and michelle herself comments on the post in a clear reference to the events of the day before, reasserting that she is telling the truth.

LEIGH:

yet another girl, leigh, comes forward and says she was sexually involved with ryan. she posts this (very long) document to her twitter account @leigh__sucks, which details the entirety of her relationship with ryan. unlike tessa and michelle, leigh was over 18 during the course of her experience with ryan (she was 20 when they first started talking).

brief summary of the document: she started messaging ryan on snapchat in 2017, and it remained platonic until february 2018, when they exchanged nudes for the first time. they sexted for a while, until hooking up for the first time at rtx 2018. leigh told someone she knew about the encounter, and this person began harassing leigh and ryan about it, threatening to tell his wife and leaving nasty comments on ryan’s stream. eventually the person backed off, and ryan and leigh continued sexting and meeting up for sex, on and off. according to her, they sexted as recently as september 2020.

this story is MUCH different than tessa’s and michelle’s, as leigh was still engaging with ryan fairly actively until only a month ago, and had a different perspective as an adult than the two underaged girls would have had. still, she is absolutely correct that ryan held a similar power over her due to his celebrity status, and that he took advantage of this.

she also provides screenshots and pictures of the two of them in the thread. although it is all VERY convincing - as if everything else hes done wasnt enough - theres something particularly unique in her thread, which is these screenshots of payments sent to her by ryan, under the name “sorta malicious gaming.” why is ryan sending leigh money under this name relevant? well...

RYAN’S DONATIONS:

one of ryan’s mods reveals that the email ryan used to send this money was connected to his stream. according to ryan, the money he received from twitch donations and bits went to his children’s college funds, or any necessary big-ticket expenditures like home repairs - however, as we can see here, that was a complete lie. this means that all donations he received, which he claimed went to taking care of himself and his family, were actually being spent on gifts and plane tickets for the girls he was hooking up with. im not sure if he could get into any legal trouble here - im doubtful, since they are donations - but this is just another way he took advantage of his fans, only this time is financial instead of sexual. and speaking of taking advantage of fans...

RYAN “VENTS” TO LEIGH:

shortly after posting her document, leigh added an update to say that ryan had redownloaded snapchat and that she’d immediately began taking screenshots. surprisingly, ryan messaged her and asked if she’d speak with him. leigh agreed (for the purpose of getting more screenshots, according to her), and ryan began talking about how his marriage and career were over, how he never meant to victimize anyone, and that the girls coming out would rather “make him the bad guy” than accept that theyd slept with him willingly. 

leigh mentions that it occurred to her how ryan would always cast doubt on any rumors by claiming that whatever girl hed been involved with was “crazy,” and notes that he did the same to her, all while calling her his “friend.” this will be relevant again later. 

ryan goes on to point the finger at leigh specifically, saying that he ‌“still‌ ‌didn’t‌ ‌know‌ ‌if‌ ‌[she] ‌was‌ ‌going‌ ‌to‌ ‌add‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌fire‌ ‌at‌ ‌this‌ ‌point,”‌ ‌and‌ ‌how‌ ‌he‌ ‌“hoped‌ ‌[she wouldn’t]‌ ‌for‌ ‌his‌ ‌kids’‌ ‌sake.” all the while, leigh notes that he was deleting messages, proving to her that ryan was more fixated on his image and manipulating her into doing what HE wanted, rather than doing the right thing. here are screenshots of the conversation between leigh and ryan, and here are some clearer photos (as some are a bit blurry due to being taken on another phone).

WEEK 2, DAY 1 (october 11th):

this day is mostly quiet as people attempt to digest the absurd influx of information from the days prior, as well as the huge bombshell dropped by leigh in particular. 

RYAN’S DISCORD SERVER:

it’s discovered that ryan likely found out about the leaks very early on (either the very first day, or the day of tessa’s accusation), because he was noted as being online in his discord server, which he apparently rarely used.

the users in his discord server immediately disown him upon learning of his preying on minors, and assert that the server is now a general server instead of a ryan haywood server.

YOU GUESSED IT - MORE ANONYMOUS ACCUSATIONS:

this tweet thread is made by @trickstress_ stating that, while working with “the madhouse” (not exactly sure what this is, but it seems like some kind of ryan-themed community server), they attempted to get ryan to address a situation occurring behind the scenes in which someone was being bullied and harassed by other members. when ryan is sent five pages of screenshots and evidence, he basically says that screenshots are not proof and that the victim simply “wanted” to be offended. this caused trick and a few others to leave the madhouse.

in the same screenshot, he mentions a situation involving another certain user that he is dealing with (the name of the person in question is redacted in blue), and trick speculates that the person in blue may be another one of ryan’s victims.

meanwhile, twitter user @eacalpreon (whose account appears to be deleted) states that they uncovered this tumblr post from august 25th, 2019, about someone who spotted ryan at an austin hotel they used to work at, entering a hotel room booked by someone that was certainly NOT his wife. at the time of posting, this was simply brushed off as speculation and ignored.

KAYLA:

at 10:03 am, this tweet is posted by @HADERSRICHIE/, detailing yet another story of their encounters with ryan. unlike other stories, kayla unfortunately does not have any screenshot evidence due to losing it all after unfriending ryan from snapchat in 2018 - but in all honesty, at this point we know hes guilty, so that part is not as relevant.

brief summary of the document: the two began talking on snapchat in february 2017, but they didnt begin talking regularly until june 2017, after kayla had moved to austin (for non-related reasons). kayla reveals that she is the user from trick’s tweet thread that was bullied out of the madhouse, and that ryan was not only unhelpful, but was actively telling people that she was a “crazy psycho.” she also backs up the idea that ryan seemed to deliberately target girls with mental health issues. in late 2017/early 2018, the two “make up” and ryan initiates sexual talk. within the first day of flirting, ryan sends kayla a dick pic. the two sexted for a while, and eventually did hook up in person. they hooked up 3 times in total before kayla unfriended ryan on snapchat and ceased all communication with him. 

unlike other cases, kayla was of age (23/24) when this all went down. later on, trick confirms on reddit that kayla was indeed the person from her tweet thread whose name was censored in blue.

DOT:

at 3:37 pm, this tweet thread is posted by @alijdotroro stating that she was also involved with ryan for a few months. her thread is fairly short, and she states that they never had sex in person or anything to the same extent as some of the others - he flirted with her for the first time while she was at a concert, it continued for several months, then he got bored and stopped it. dot was unable to provide screenshots as she had deleted her snapchat. 

JACK’S STATEMENT:

jack pattillo posts this tweet at 8:16 pm, containing this document regarding the ryan (and adam) situation. he first addresses his feelings of anger, betrayal, and guilt, stating that he feels somewhat responsible as he helped to create the same platform that ryan abused. he goes on to thank everyone who has had kind words for him and the other rt staff, and states that while he knows everyone handles rough situations differently, he hopes that people can understand his desire to think positively. he goes on to say that he knows it will be difficult for fans to trust rt going forward, but that he hopes they will give rt another chance and that they (rt) “will be better - [they] have to be.” 

as far as all of the statements go, in my opinion, this one is the most sincere of all (although lindsay’s is definitely the most sincere for me) - jack clearly wrote this himself instead of using standard “shocked” quotes as many of the other rt cast did, and while it is definitely very damage control-y, i can easily tell that he, at the very least, is taking the matter seriously. this doesnt necessarily mean that jack 100% didnt know, but at this point i am inclined to believe that he didnt.

WEEK 2, DAY 2 (october 12th):

twitter user @fantaisieally discusses her own experiences with ryan haywood; they chatted on snapchat starting in 2017, she would often go to him for dating advice, and while ryan finally tried to hit on her, he got completely deaded when she told him that he was “like her older brother.” honestly this one is just really funny to me, like she completely curved his ass and he had to flounder talking about “i was JOKING lol just a joke!” it’s pretty glorious after all this terrible shit.

someone on reddit notes that after ally turns him down, ryan doesnt apologize or anything, but instead continues the “joke” in such a way that prompts her to accept his offer while still giving him plausible deniability. (that phrase is going to come up quite a bit with regard to his overall “strategy.”)

KATIE B:

at 9:08 am, twitter user @frizzical/ posts this tweet thread, documenting her own relationship with ryan. she states that, while their relationship thankfully never turned sexual, ryan absolutely attempted to groom her into sex and even mentioned her to another girl, saying he wanted a threesome with both of them.

brief summary of the document: katie started watching his streams when she was 17, and ryan knew her by name very quickly. they started talking on snapchat shortly after she turned 18, and although it was generally rt-related, one day she reached out asking for advice on a personal situation that ryan was incredibly helpful with, leading to them talking semi-regularly. they talked about katie’s abusive home life and mental health issues, and while things were mostly platonic, ryan would sometimes drop inappropriate questions in, such as if katie was a virgin and what her sexuality was. when katie hit hard financial times, ryan attempted multiple times to send her money, and when katie refused to take charity, he would make a “joke” about having her pay it off with sex.

eventually ryan forced her to accept the money, stating that he would no longer speak to her if she didnt. ryan was katie’s main support system, and so she felt she had no choice but to accept it. she states that he sent her $1000 in total, all of which came from his twitch’s paypal. he also actively tried to turn katie against her best friend - kayla, who was the other victim mentioned on week 2, day 1 (october 11th) - by telling her that kayla was crazy, but this did not work. in 2019, katie moved in with ryan’s mod bambi, and ryan very suddenly cut off contact completely. ryan and katie got back in contact as recently as earlier this week, and when she began taking screenshots of their snap conversations, ryan dm’d her on twitter to confront her about it, further trying to manipulate her. she ends with a message of support for the other girls. 

the messages ryan sent katie are viewable in the thread, but i would like to link them directly here to show how he manipulates victims. notice how he once again pins the blame on the victim for taking screenshots, instead of himself for being a fucking creep. 

RT’S RESPONSE:

they’ve been pretty quiet the last few days, but someone noticed that the off topic podcast episode #177 has been removed from iOS podcasts. this episode is the one where the guys discuss ryan’s habit of leaving business trips a day late. i find it extremely interesting that the company is claiming ignorance of the situation, yet would remove this VERY key piece of information in the process.

OFF TOPIC #177

i originally just had this as a bulletpoint in the miscellanous info section, but decided to move it to its own segment because it is actually quite significant to this story. in this video, michael, jeremy, gavin, ray, geoff, and andy blanchard discuss ryan’s habit of always leaving business trips a day late.

quick description: michael brings up a conversation he had with ryan about staying an extra day on business trips, and paraphrases ryan as saying that he prefers to stay away longer because “[his wife] isnt gonna watch [the kids], im not gonna get a fucking second at home.” michael then states that theyve “gotten to the bottom of this,” that ryan just wants to sleep before “going home to that nightmare.” 

as michael is talking, geoff and jeremy both go quiet and look very pensive and glassy-eyed, while ray tries to joke that the quote was a “cry for help from ryan” but immediately frowns after saying so. gavin, jeremy, and andy are completely quiet for the entire second half of the video. michael tries to paper over it by saying that ryan loves his kids very much as evidenced by their frequent appearances in his streams, but a visibly-uncomfortable ray makes another “joke” that having his kids appear in his videos is “easy money.”

then there is a VERY awkward silence in which everyone looks super uncomfortable, jeremy takes a massive gulp of his drink, ray has his hand over his mouth as he stares hard at michael and shakes his head repeatedly (as if telling him to stop talking), and geoff lets out a HUGE sigh, as if he’s just realized something terrible. michael ends the clip with the comment that they didnt “jack” ryan, meaning that they werent making fun of ryan to have him come on the podcast and defend himself. (OCT. 12 EDIT: thanks to @juggey for clarifying this!) although it’s not included in this short clip, the full podcast shows that the incredibly tense moment is cut by fiona nova immediately walking on set with a puppy out of nowhere. very fucking weird.

while it is largely circumstantial, i find this clip is extremely telling, and i think this is the moment where they realized that something was going on with ryan’s homelife (either they recognized that the real reason he wanted to stay behind was to cheat, or they’d simply put together that he was not happy at home for whatever reason). the fact that this off topic is one of the only ones to have been taken down also really strikes me as important.

ALISON

at 2:31 pm, twitter user @adothop posted some screenshots of conversations between herself and ryan. they did not have a sexual relationship, but looks like ryan tried hard (and failed hard LMAO) at flirting with her, to no avail. not much else to say about this one - it’s pretty straightforward.

RYAN’S STATEMENT

at 7:48 pm (around the same time i uploaded this post, lmao), ryan posted this statement on his twitter account, discussing the events of this past week. he takes full accountability for his actions, stating that he abused his position and crossed the line as a public figure, while also asking that people stop harassing his family. the statement’s about as cookie cutter as it can get - after all, what can a person really say to absolve themselves after being outed as doing so much horrid stuff?

i again am skeptical of the claim that his family is being harassed, though i dont doubt that people are harassing HIM directly, but in any case it’s as much of a non-apology as one might expect. he even tries to shift blame by saying he “always came from a place of what [he] thought was a shared connection.” it’s boilerplate bullshit, as usual.

ANOTHER RH STORY ANON

sometime around 9 pm, a reddit user going by r/anotherrhstoryanon (i will call them anon for short) put this post on the r/roosterteeth subreddit, and linked to a 30 page google doc detailing their relationship with ryan. the timeline of this one is very difficult to parse, but i will do my best to lay it out clearly. particular tw for this story - it describes in detail sexual abuse, physical abuse, and features ddlg heavily throughout. i will not be linking any images directly - please view the doc for those.

(not-so)-brief summary: im not certain of when ryan and anon originally started talking, but the earliest message shown in their conversation is from december 2016, and the first time they met up in person was april 2017. they were “together” for at least a year, as anon states that it took them until march 2018 to begin distancing themselves from ryan. their relationship was HEAVILY steeped in dd/lg culture - ryan almost solely referred to anon as names like “little girl,” “baby girl,” even calls them “kiddo” in the VERY FIRST SCREENSHOT and asks if theyve ever been with an older man. given that he already dipped below the age of consent twice (that we know of - we currently do not know the age of this anon), this is a very horrifying start.

anon admits pretty early on - to both ryan (in the screenshots) and the reader - that they were very intimidated by him, and felt a sort of compulsion to do as he ordered. but as they say quite clearly, they realized soon into their “relationship” that even though they wanted to please ryan so he’d like them, they hated having sex with him, hated BEING sexual with him, and just generally hated being with him. although they enjoyed sex the first time, they note that sex with ryan was rough and painful every time after, leading to them tearing more than once and bleeding EVERY time, and sometimes causing them to be unable to sit or walk after. 

ryan not only ignored anon every time they asked him to be more gentle, but seemed to get off on it, making comments about how they “needed more abuse” or that they “had to work up to it.” on top of all this, ryan would not wear a condom while having sex with anon, and lied to them about them being the only fan he was having sex with - which they believed until august 2020, more than two years later, when ryan said there was “one other fan.” in actuality, ryan had been sleeping with multiple girls and often removing the condom during sex, a fact well-documented here. 

anon ends the document by tying their story to several other known facts, to show the pattern of ryan’s behavior, and sharing some other pertinent info. some of these include:

- a picture of them taken in a hotel room mirror, in an identical room and position to the picture leigh took. 

- this video, at timestamp 8:27, of the off topic podcast #87. in this short moment, ryan idly licks a cupcake. anon shows a screenshot in which ryan messaged her and admitted that he was thinking about her while he was licking it. 

- screenshots of ryan attempting (again with limited success) to give anon money or buy them presents. anon was resistant to this, as katie had been, but ryan managed to convince them to accept a remote controlled sex toy. later in the same exchange, he uses the term “plausible deniability” again. there is a reason this keeps cropping up - he very likely used the phrase often.

- a screenshot of anon telling ryan point blank that the power dynamic between them was imbalanced. this message is dated may 23rd, 2020 - and around june 12th, 2020 was leigh’s exchange with ryan, in which he tells leigh that he is older and “some kind of quasi-internet person,” and is worried this will influence her.

- screenshots of ryan admitting to choking anon without their permission. according to anon, this was not the first time he did something to them without permission, and it wasnt even the non-consensual act anon was referring to when they brought it up. i sincerely cannot overstate my fucking disgust here.

there is a lot more i can get into here, but im going to cut it off here for the sake of brevity (and out of disgust, honestly). please consider reading all 30 pages, if you can stomach it - it truly is even worse than it sounds. theres a reason i didnt link to any of their messages directly.

WEEK 2, DAY 3 (october 13th):

sometime earlier in the week (im not sure when, as the “adam kovic” aspect of the story has been pretty much lost the plot), jess kovic deletes her twitter account. the reason why is pretty easy to guess. then, sometime today, it’s discovered that she has also deleted all posts containing pictures of adam on her instagram account.

(JAN 30 EDIT: this was originally an archive link which showed all of the most recent posts on jess’s insta, of which quite a few adam ones had been deleted [i saw it myself the day it was posted]. unfortunately, it appears the archive was taken down, so ive replaced the original link with a screenshot from kiwifarms of the first person to mention it on the thread. i know thats not amazing proof, but sadly its the best i can do.)

this all but confirms that jess did not consent to having those pictures/videos sent to other people, if she consented to having them taken at all, and this makes adams actions even more disgusting than we initially believed them to be.

RH ANON PT. 2:

people are still reeling from the absolutely horrendous document released the day before (oct. 12) when anon posts a short update on the very last page of the doc, which you can read here. they clear up some points that people were confused on; most are not relevant for our purposes, but the biggest one is that anon confirms they were NOT underage during their “relationship” with ryan and that he knew this. 

anon also confirms that ryan deliberately lied about the circumstances of their “relationship” in order to keep them from backing out of it, as he knew they would not want to proceed with a sexual relationship if he admitted the truth. based on context, i am taking this to mean that he lied about not sleeping with anyone else, and about wearing condoms if he did. 

MEGASHINY:

at 3:04 pm, ryan’s mod meg (who i will be calling by her username, megashiny, for the sake of clarity) posts this tweet, which contains a link to this document. in this document, she admits that ryan took advantage of his position over her (as, being his mod, she was basically his employee) and started sending her nudes without consent in september 2017 (she says it was a sunday, so either the 6th, 13th, 20th, or 27th - notice the proximity to his encounters with michelle and tessa). 

brief summary: he played the same card he had with the others, talking about his sexless marriage, and convinced megashiny to sleep with him. when she asked him point blank how many other girls he was involved with, he lied and said only one or two - as we clearly note, there were many, many more than that. she did not want to sleep with him, but like anon from yesterday, felt compelled to do what he asked. even when megashiny tried to say no to a sex act he wanted to do, he told her he “knew how to make her say yes.” he also knew about her having adhd and anxiety, and in conjunction with the other girls, strikes me as yet another continuation of his pattern of targeting mentally ill and neurodivergent women and girls.

while megashiny was somewhat close in age to ryan (she was 28 at the time), if youll notice in her picture, she is quite thin and small in stature - both of which contribute to her looking pretty young. while i do believe ryan knew her age, it would not surprise me if he pursued her because she had the APPEARANCE of being in her late teens.

megashiny posts an update later the same day, detailing the exact method weve seen happen with the other girls before - ryan would “throw all this attention and praise at [them], make [them] feel special,” only to “basically ghost [them].” this left the girls feeling like theyd done something wrong, but in actuality, it was all part of his plan to keep them dependent on and obedient to him. these same patterns crop up in every story, no matter the variables.

she also admits that she essentially helped ryan with his “sexcapades” by either covering for him, encouraging the girls to sleep with him, or just generally keeping her mouth shut regarding what she knew about them. (this part is very vaguely described, so i can only surmise what she means specifically, but i do think this is essentially what she is saying.) shortly after she posted this, ryan called her and begged her for over an hour to not divulge anymore information, and to “think of his wife and kids.” 

RYAN BEGINS MESSAGING VICTIMS: 

at 7:04 pm, michelle posts this tweet, with the caption “how it started vs how it ended (hopefully, and please stop harassing me)” and two pictures. the first picture is of her first exchange with ryan on instagram; the second picture is a more recent message from ryan (not sure exactly what day it was received, but as it still shows his old icon, it is definitely a few days old), begging her to take down her video and tweets and to “think about his kids.” (brief tw for suicide mention in the next two paragraphs.)

he even goes so far as to strongly imply that he is going to kill himself, telling michelle that he is “going to die” and that “he will die for this if you [michelle] want.” from the statement michelle made, it seems likely that he has sent her similar messages over the course of the last week. michelle must have blocked him on his original account, because he then made this throwaway account and dm’d her again, repeating the same sort of rhetoric and begging her to remove her statements “for his kids.”

in the same tweet thread, another victim, ileena (who was shown accusing ryan very early on in a previous screenshot) posts an old screenshot of a conversation between her and ryan, in which she is actively suicidal and ryan begs her not to kill herself because “practically there’s no way they wouldnt investigate and figure out you and i had stuff going on.” he straight up tells her that he doesnt want her to die because their affair will be discovered.

(note: ileena’s original screenshot contains a full, unblocked number that could potentially belong to ryan - but DO NOT CONTACT THIS NUMBER. he is a disgusting monster, but it is not anyone’s place to needlessly antagonize him, and we dont even know that that is his actual number to begin with. i am only putting this disclaimer because the screenshot is easily viewable in the thread; i wouldnt even mention it otherwise.) 

CAS:

not long after midnight, @slayercas/ (who i will refer to as ��cas” for short) posts this cryptic tweet, strongly hinting at needing to say something important, but being scared to do so due to a lack of evidence - the surrounding tweets are all about ryan haywood, making it highly likely they are alluding to having been one of his victims. approximately 4 hours later, they received this message from a throwaway account, ostensibly owned by ryan.

notably, though, is the fact that this is NOT the same throwaway account which ryan was messaging michelle from - the account michelle was messaged from is @pleaseR73880233, while the account cas was messaged from, although the name is partially obscured, ends with the number “7384736.” no confirmation on cas’s claim, nor whether the account is truly ryan’s. 

(OCT. 14 EDIT: the full name seems to be @pleaseR27384736, which originally led to this cryptically bereft page. note the join date, amount of tweets, and amount of followers - the account was in use for quite some time, and may have had a different username before messaging cas. someone also takes note of the fact that there was an intern named “amber” who worked at rooster teeth years ago, but so far no connection has been made between the name and anyone else. 

sadly, this account has since been deleted, so no proper analysis of who it is following and who follows it can be done. the username has since been taken and the account replaced with this - take their personal opinion with a grain of salt.)   

MJ:

at 9:21 am, twitter user @mjmills_ posts these tweets containing these screenshots of a recent conversation with ryan. although she declines to share her story right then, she notes that ryan has been taking screenshots of their old conversations, a statement which causes ryan to message her asking “where [she is] on the hate meter” and once again trying to manipulate her. although nothing is forthcoming right away, this will pop up again later.

WEEK 2, DAY 4  (october 14th):

rt’s community manager, jackie izawa, announces her departure from the company. i cant even imagine how much shit she was inundated with after this news broke, but given that she explicitly mentions her mental health being a factor in her decision, im willing to bet it was a lot.

joel heyman also posts this incredibly eyebrow-raising tweet, clearly accusing rt staff of having known full well about ryan’s actions ahead of time. given that he was fired not long ago, it is entirely possible that he is just stirring the pot - but as he is a former rt founder, there may be some truth to his claim. if it IS true, however, then it reflects just as poorly on him, as it means that he ALSO knew about ryan and did nothing.

RYAN’S SOCIAL MEDIA:

sometime in the morning (before 11 am), ryan deletes his twitter account and his instagram. the throwaway account that was used to message michelle is also deleted around the same time, making it highly likely that it did indeed belong to ryan.

interestingly, the account that messaged cas is not deleted until much later (somewhere around 1:30-2 pm), and not before sending some more harassing messages. note the final message which says that “[his] family can’t handle another story coming out.” this strongly implies that there are even more girls than we’ve already seen - and counting every single accusation we know of, not just confirmed ones, we’ve already gotten somewhere between 10-15 girls.  

CAS PT. 2:

after some more messages from the potential ryan account, cas posts this follow-up tweet to clarify some points. she states clearly that she was NOT underage, and lives local to austin, which would explain both her fears about speaking out and how she could have encountered ryan. 

JACK AND MICHAEL:

in the early afternoon, jack and michael go live on youtube to do a stream together - but first, the monumental task of discussing ryan. (OCT. 14 EDIT: the original video was privated almost immediately after its conclusion; here is a reupload. it is sadly missing quite a few moments due to the site crashing periodically, but the majority of their conversation is there.) 

some key bits from the conversation:

- the first minute or so, both jack and michael have difficulty speaking, and stutter/stop short quite a bit before jack finally begins to talk in earnest. jack expresses disgust and regret immediately, apologizing to the community for “letting [them] down,” and thanks people who have been supportive to the victims and rt staff.

- michael point blank states that the achievement hunter staff - and probably more, also - were put into “counseling.” he does not specify whether he means LEGAL counseling or EMOTIONAL counseling, but given the way both he and jack act throughout the video, im all but certain that it’s the latter.

- jack asks that people not bother geoff, as he is “going through his own stuff,” and strongly implies that the situation with ryan has thrown him for a massive loop and possibly sent him into a downward spiral.

- michael states that they will NOT be discussing ryan at all during off-topic, and notes that they no longer want to even mention his name, let alone spend time talking about him at length (and, indeed, they do not address him by name in the video even once - jack mainly refers to him as “that guy” or “that monster,” while michael only refers to ryan as “he” or “him”). i personally am in pretty strong disagreement with the way theyve chosen to approach this, but i can understand the reasoning behind it.

- jack announces the return of rt extra life, and states that they will be doing a full week of 12 hour streams instead of one 24 hour stream “to make up for all the shit that happened this year.” 

- this is a small moment, and COMPLETE conjecture on my part, but i noticed it pretty quickly; at timestamp 14:15, when michael’s child cries off-screen, he slightly turns toward that direction, then seems to suddenly get upset and turns his face away from the camera, so his hair and hat obscure most of his profile. he seems to take a hard swallow, bites his lip (which is quivering), and rubs his face hard before turning back toward the camera. all of these things in conjunction make it seem that he was biting back tears, or otherwise chasing away some bad thought (possibly about ryan’s kids?).  

while i, as always, remain skeptical that no one knew about ryan, i do have to admit that this video is extremely saddening to watch. jack is audibly on the verge of tears for the entire 20-minute video, and michael looks absolutely miserable from beginning to end, as well - his hair is visibly unkempt under his hat, and his face is contorted into a grimace pretty much the whole time, all of which speaks to a sincere depressive state. in any case, rt as a whole has been well and truly fucked by this series of events.

SURVIVORS OF RYAN PT. 1:

earlier in the day, the twitter account @survivorsofryan (run by katie) received these dms from an anonymous account, stating that they were involved with ryan many years ago, around 2004/2005, and that he was still dating his girlfriend (now wife) at that time. they conclude that he has been cheating on her since at least 2004, possibly even earlier than that. note that this anonymous person also fits into ryan’s “preferred” age range of 18 or just over 18, while ryan was in his mid 20s at the time.

RYAN’S MODS 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO:

all of ryan’s mods (katie, bambi, freckles, and more) have their mod powers removed from his youtube and twitch channels. freckles posits an excellent question - why would he remove their mod powers instead of just simply deleting both accounts?

there arent many answers i can think of other than the obvious one - that ryan sincerely plans to return to his online career once this “blows over.” his entitlement is absolutely unthinkable.

ASTRID ROSE:

at 7:01 pm, twitter user @astridrose_20 posts this tweet containing this document, detailing her relationship with ryan. (tw for sexual abuse.) 

summary: their first contact was in late 2018, when astrid was 18. she reached out to him to thank him for his positive content and mentioned her mental health struggle and abusive home life, and ryan responded in a kind way and comforted her. they had a friendly, platonic relationship for a short while, but he soon became suggestive. initially, astrid shut down his advances due to viewing him as a father figure, but was scared that he would sever contact should she not acquiesce. feeling indebted to him for his kindness, astrid rose eventually accepted his advances. 

they sexted for some time until meeting in person in 2019. astrid told ryan she was a virgin and was not on birth control, but ryan assured her he would wear a condom. ryan was, as many girls before have mentioned, very rough and gave her no time to adjust, and removed the condom halfway through sex in spite of astrid telling him she did not want him to. much like the r/roosterteeth anon mentioned, ryan was very rough, and astrid could hardly walk after.

they met up 10 more times after this, and every meeting eventually went this way - astrid could not take pill-form bc due to it making her feel unwell, so every time ryan would promise to wear a condom, and every time he would remove it in the middle of sex. astrid also states that, like the r/roosterteeth anon, ryan did things “similar” to the choking he did to that anon, but astrid did not want to specify any more than this. 

eventually, as a result of her trauma, astrid began binge eating and gained weight. ryan apparently lost interest in her due to this and cut all contact with her, at which point she deleted all their messages and other forms of contact. 

although the story does not have any corroborating evidence, this lines up extremely well with what we have already learned about ryan, and i cant really find myself doubting any bit of it, as it all seems to fit very clearly into the picture. 

KRISTEN M/TATS:

at 8:21 pm, a community member by the name of kristen (nicknamed tats by the community - i will be referring to her as “tats”) posts this tweet containing yet another story about ryan. the story is thankfully not as horrific as some of the others, but is elucidating nonetheless.

brief summary: tats first reached out to ryan in 2013, as she had just founded the blog “fuckyeahrtfanfic” (which is exactly what it sounds like) and wanted to do a q&a with some rt cast members. ryan agreed, and after the q&a she and ryan both kept up contact. tats notes that, while ryan definitely started their relationship off similarly to that of the other girls (being kind and sweet, helping them with emotional problems, sending gifts and other such things, then progressing to sexually suggestive comments and “jokes”), things did not go the same way for her.

simply put, tats did not indulge ryan at all in the sexual stuff very much, and would either brush past it or not notice it. she notes that, after a while - primarily when the other girls, like his twitch mods, came into the picture - their interactions became shorter, more business-like, and much more rare. she concludes by wondering if there was anything she could have done had she been more knowledgeable about what was going on.

while the story is not an allegation in itself, it is indeed telling about ryan’s process, as it shows clearly what happens if the girls he spoke to didnt meet his “standards.” tats does seem grateful to have been spared a much worse fate, but she notes that big parts of her life that were populated by interactions with ryan have now been sullied, and that she feels a tremendous amount of guilt for what little involvement she had in pushing girls toward ryan (as she states that some of the people who’ve come forward were people she knew and unintentionally “placed in harm’s way”). his selfish behavior has had a massive impact that extends far beyond himself and his victims, and it’s horrific to think about.

WEEK 2, DAY 5 (october 15th):

this day was pretty uneventful, overall: only one major breakthrough that i could see.

MJ PT. 2:

at 10:46 am, MJ posts this tweet containing this google doc detailing her relationship with ryan. her story is quite different, as she is currently (as of october 15th) the only girl to have been in ryan’s age range (she was 30 at the time, ryan was 38), and was also married at the time of their relationship.

brief summary: she and ryan began talking around november 2018, and although she was married, both she and her husband were interested in pursuing a polyamorous relationship/open marriage (im not clear on exactly which, as mj uses the term “polyam,” but what she describes sounds closer to an open marriage which allows for no-strings sex outside of the relationship). mj vented to ryan about her anxieties with pursuing this kind of marriage, and ryan talked her through it and vented about his own marital troubles. they began to flirt in earnest.

in december 2018, mj approached ryan about rumors she had heard of other girls, which ryan of course denied. mj found out later that month that there were indeed others. in january 2019, ryan offered to fly her out to austin for a hook-up (using the money from his twitch account, of course). with her husbands approval, mj went in february, and they spent a while together - but when she returned home, ryan immediately ghosted her, and did not talk to her for a few weeks after. mj notes how disgusted and used she felt after the fact, but something still drew her to him, and they continued to have an on-off “relationship” until as recently as this year, where she notes that their conversations slowed basically to a halt. she ends the doc with an apology to everyone who was hurt by ryan. 

at this point, the stories are likely going to be much more of the same, as it’s clear that ryan had a predetermined system for how he’d approach these hook-ups, so i expect many more stories along these lines in the coming days. 

WEEK 2, DAY 6 (october 16th):

@slayercas/ abandons her twitter account due to continual harassment from yet another “pleaseread” account. do note that this is NOT the same account as before, since that one was deleted and then repurposed - this new one is completely barren, with only two (inexplicable) followers and no tweets or content to speak of. i am hesitant to believe that this is truly ryan, as the message really doesnt sound like something he would send at this point in time - however, i dont believe cas has faked this either (after all, why would she abandon the account if she was faking messages from ryan “for attention”?).

my outstanding theory is that someone completely unrelated has made up the account to mess with cas, as we know for sure that at least one person disbelieved cas enough to take the name of the previous account and say so in their description. on top of that, the fact that some of the numbers included are “911″ - making me think 9/11 - and “88401″ - making me think someone tried to slip in a “1488″ reference, but didnt want it to be obvious - have me skeptical that this is a real ryan throwaway. again, this is complete conjecture; please take it with a grain of salt.

SURVIVORS OF RYAN PT. 2:

at 10:25 am, @survivorsofryan posts this tweet containing this document from an anonymous person. (i will refer to them as UK anon, since that is where they are from.)

brief summary: UK anon starts off by saying that, while they did not sleep with ryan themselves, they know someone who has and is going to allow them to speak out for themselves. moving to themselves, they first spoke to ryan in march 2017, and sent him the usual “thank you for your content” message on his snapchat. they were in a discord group for RT, and apparently a few of them decided to send ryan suggestive pictures, which started off a few sexting relationships between them and him. according to UK anon, one of the discord members flew out - on their own dime - to sleep with him, while others had been sexting with him for a long time and were even still doing so recently. 

UK anon did meet ryan at rtx london in 2018, and was even brought on stage and sat next to him by lawrence sonntag (from funhaus) - she states that she’s fairly certain he recognized her, as he made it a point to be very physically close to her and to touch her quite a bit. she notes that, before this, she and many other girls had long since cut contact with him, and he’d promised he would stop the cheating and sexting with fans (which we, of course, know was a complete lie). she ends by saying that they thought they knew the truth about ryan, that he was simply a liar and cheater, but in actuality he was a sexual predator who’d been manipulating girls all along, and that this has floored her and her friends.

ON THE SPOT #80

as with off topic #177, i was going to put this in miscellaneous, but it is actually a huge moment in the context of this story. someone uncovers this moment from on the spot episode 80 (timestamp is 29:40 if the link doesnt work), in which burnie, barbara, jeremy, and ryan are playing “never have i ever,” and jon puts forth the prompt “never have i ever sent nude pics.” ryan takes a big swig, as does jeremy, and jon presses it by asking both of them if the nudes were sent to “someone other than [their wives].” ryan states that hes “not having this conversation” and that he had a life before he was married, to which barbara “jokingly” responds, “and after!”

burnie, however, looks a bit perturbed and says, “you had a life before your wife before camera phones?” to which ryan responds, “email existed back then, and camera phones.” that seems to cover it, you would think, EXCEPT that ryan is telling an out and out lie.

firstly, as we clearly know, he was sexting many more people than his wife, and quite recently. it was stupid of him to not just lie and say no, honestly, but i think weve come to realize ryan is not that bright. secondly, while ryan got married in 2007, he was dating his wife for a few years before that, as this anonymous contributor confirmed days ago - he was already dating his wife in 2004, when he had an affair with the anon. 

third, he is correct that camera phones and email existed back then - however, the average phone at that time did NOT have a camera, and the ones that did capped at 1.3 megapixels, which tended to look something like this. (forgive the random picture; its all i could find to show what i meant.) note how grainy and small the image is, and also take into consideration that this would have been the camera on a top-of-the-line phone in 2004, NOT the sort of phone the average person would have owned. this is assuming 2004 is the latest year he could have sent such pictures to someone without being in a relationship with his wife; camera phones were almost unheard of pre-2003, so his story completely falls apart there. 

he does have a point about the email aspect, but if we are sincerely considering that he may not be lying here, this would mean that he was finding people online to send nudes to (in a VERY pre-social media world; this wouldve been on like, bbs sites, or miscellaneous blogs/homepages, so it wouldve required some serious searching), taking nudes on a digital camera, manually uploading all the pictures to his computer, sorting out the nudes of choice, and then sending them. i dont think i need to go much further into this to show how quickly the basic concept of this falls apart.

WEEK 2, DAY 7 (october 17th):

not much to say in terms of ryan/his victims so far today, but i think this is relevant, so im going to include it - we instead get a surprise tweet from trevor collins, who was previously accused of cheating on and abusing his ex gf, which contains this statement basically refuting the claims entirely with many screenshots. 

i know absolutely nothing about the original trevor accusation, as i was no longer watching rt when trevor joined the crew and had long since lost interest in rt by the time the accusations began going around, so i cannot speak to the veracity of anything said in here, or of the original accusation. i will decline to state my personal opinion on the document, and instead just link it for you all to peruse. 

CAS PT. 2:

at 7:48 pm, @slayercas/ (OCT. 21 EDIT: the account name is now @otpineedyou) posts this tweet containing a document, describing their own story with ryan. 

brief summary: cas informs us out the gate that she was NOT underage, but rather in her late 20s during all this. she reached out to him to thank him for his content, to which ryan responded in a flirtatious way. things quickly escalated to full on sexting from there. when ryan asked if cas wanted to meet in person, she initially declined, but continued talking to him sexually after he confessed to having an open marriage (and cas notes that he did not say this until after she stated that she was in an open relationship herself). cas shared a story regarding a sexual trauma she had with ryan, which he seemed to empathize with.

once they began talking about dom/sub stuff, ryan got more aggressive in tone, and often brought up things like extreme roughness and choking. if cas asked ryan to stop bringing up things that were traumatic, he would apologize but continue to do so anyway. cas became uncomfortable and decided to forgo all sexual conversations with ryan; if he brought up something suggestive, she would either make an excuse to go or change the subject. he tried to guilt trip her into talking to him, but she did not budge, and eventually had to delete all rt-related accounts to put distance between him and herself. she closes with a message of positivity for others in the same situation.

ANON-2:

around 10 pm, this post is made on r/roosterteeth containing this document. although it is also about ryan, a sizable portion of the doc focuses on the anon’s experience with geoff. (i will be calling them anon-2 just for the sake of intelligiblity. i cant link pictures, so please check the doc for those.) 

brief summary: anon-2 was in their early-mid 20s (in mid 2016) when they discovered rt, and decided to send a snap to all of the cast members who had open snap accounts. ryan replied and, although things started out normal, they quickly became suggestive. at the same time, though, geoff also began talking to anon-2 and things also became flirty with them. they did exchange nudes and sext quite often while geoff was still married, but says they never slept with geoff themselves, although they knew others who did.  

anon-2 ended up hooking up with ryan in person, and as with the other girls, he lied about not sleeping with anyone else, and insisted on not using a condom. they had sex multiple times that weekend, and anon-2 confirms that, like the other girls claimed, ryan was incredibly rough and violent with sex. anon-2 then proceeds to share many screenshots and unseen pictures of ryan, and in addition, provides messages from as recently as october 10th, where she goads him into talking about what all happened. ryan confirms he has spoken to a pr agent and a lawyer, and then makes a very weird non-joke about possibly needing an “anchor marriage” to get out of the country, implying he would ask anon-2 to do this for him. anon-2 finishes the main part of the doc by saying she knows ryan has been seeking out sex from craigslist, and that she was just a part of his grand manipulation scheme all along.

WEEK 3, DAY 1 (october 18th):

barely after midnight, we get yet another r/roosterteeth anon, posting a document detailing their relationship with ryan. much like the others, we can see that ryan followed the same pattern of flattery and kindness, getting them to talk about their mental health issues, goading them into doing things they were not comfortable with, and eventually dropping them when he realized he could not manipulate them like the others. not much else to say about it, but i wanted to catalogue it all the same.

ANON-2 PT. 2:

an update is added to anon-2′s google doc, at the end of page 13, addressing the geoff side of their post. they post candids of geoff in a hotel room, sent to them by a friend who’d slept with geoff. they add a third update later the same day, insisting that, like the girls, geoff had no clue that ryan was a sexual predator. anon-2 goes on to add that geoff never mentioned anything about his wife knowing about his sleeping around, but states that they will not be sharing more information unless given permission to do so from the girls affected. lastly, she begs people to stop hassling millie, geoff’s underage daughter. 

GEOFF’S STATEMENT:

not long after anon-2′s update, geoff releases this statement on r/roosterteeth. he basically lays everything out, saying that he did indeed sext with and have sex with some fans during a period in his marriage where they were trying an open relationship, but that he felt uncomfortable with the imbalance due to the fans knowing so much about him and he so little about them. he goes onto say that he has taken a step back from rt due to extreme stress and mental health issues, and that he has not spoken about the ryan situation due to how overwhelming and upsetting it is. he closes by asking that people not drag his daughter and ex-wife into things, and leave all blame for him.

i am extremely mixed on this; on the one hand, geoff is an extremely skilled writer and speaker, and that is very clear in this document. he makes a point to share - almost to the point of oversharing - the situation between him and his then-wife to explain why he was associating with fans, and then moves past that to discuss his tumultuous personal life. however, he does not address the question of any age differences between him and these fans, and just refers to it as “two consenting adults ... getting to know each other.” 

although this all seems well and good, one huge spanner was thrown into geoff’s story here; this tweet from michelle vologs, which states that ryan explicitly told her that geoff was engaging sexually with fans, and possibly knew some of ryan’s stories himself. notice that the anonymous replier, who is concurring with what michelle said, is the same anonymous twitter account who contacted ryan and adam on september 18th about their nudes leak - several WEEKS before the news dropped publicly. 

although originally i was willing to believe what geoff had to say, as there was little conflicting evidence, michelle’s statement gives me extreme pause. if geoff was sleeping with enough fans that ryan knew about it, the chances of ryan not having mentioned his own experiences is very low - and on top of that, ryan has little to no reason to lie about this, as telling the truth would have actually been detrimental to his career, on the off-chance someone blabbed and it made its way back to geoff. so i am highly skeptical of the whole document.

WEEKS 3-11 (october 19th to january 2nd):

complete radio silence from ryan and adam both for a little under three months. as ryan was stated to have hired a pr agent and/or a lawyer amidst the initial scandal, its pretty easy to surmise that he was advised to just shut up and let things die down, and therefore did so. adam had gone quiet for a much longer time, so it was assumed he would not speak out again. however, people still felt that ryan was likely to try and make a comeback eventually. and, well...

WEEK 11, DAY 1 (january 3rd):

freckles, one of ryans former mods, posts this tweet containing this statement from ryan to his remaining subscribers, thanking them for sticking around and vaguely addressing “what a tough year its been” for him. unsurprisingly, this is met with IMMEDIATE retribution, as the message served as a reminder that a) many people forgot to unsubscribe and unfollow in the initial situation, and b) that ryan was still getting paid by twitch the entire time he was being ousted. this, of course, led to calls for ryan to be banned from twitch completely, given that it was his main vehicle for finding and grooming his victims.

it is unknown why he decided to do this, as it is transparently very stupid, but i think the entire series of events has made it quite clear that ryan is not only unintelligent, but EXTREMELY entitled - ryan couldnt last even a week into the new year before trying to lay the groundwork to return to his career, whereas adam managed to go quiet much earlier and remain that way for a much longer time, to let things cool off more significantly.

WEEK 11, DAY 6 (january 8th):

early in the morning, the owner of kiwifarms, null, posts a thread stating that adam kovic has reached out demanding the removal of his and jess kovic’s nude photos and videos. (reminder that i will not be linking to any threads on kf directly - you will have to seek those out for yourself.) 

recall that, in the initial days of the scandal, the vast majority of the attention was on adam instead of ryan - and that was because of the sheer magnitude of his leaked photos, as well as the question of his wifes consent to their distribution (as most of the pictures/videos of her were taken from behind; with the benefit of hindsight, we can say fairly safely that she probably did not consent to the distribution, and possibly not their being taken either). 

im not exactly sure on the legality of the situation, as null did not leak the photos himself but is allowing them to be hosted on his website, and adam himself would likely be found guilty of revenge porn due to him having been the one to send pictures of his wife without her permission in the first place. as for the pictures of adam himself, i would assume that null is somehow protected from prosecution or else i believe he would have already taken them down. the morality of leaving them up is EXTREMELY questionable, and i would say it probably is tipping over the line into morally wrong, but morality holds very little sway legally and so adam may not actually have any recourse here.

WEEK 13, DAY 4 (january 20th)

in the afternoon, its confirmed by twitter account @streamerbans that ryan haywood has been permabanned from twitch, and has lost his partnership with the website as well. this is obviously SUPER fucking late, as the crux of the scandal happened months ago (in october), but better late than never, i suppose.

his ban seems to be a natural consequence of two things: the obvious catalyst is his VERY bold message to his subscriber, but beyond that, twitch has also updated their rules and codes of conduct to address their handling of sexual harassment on their platform, from fans and streamers alike, and ryans actions fall very clearly over the line of acceptability. while its unknown whether ryans actions have anything to do with the drafting of some of the new rules - the rule against “attempting to coerce others into sexual favors via bribes” specifically seems VERY pointed at him - it is likely that twitch was already drafting these rules before the situation occurred, and ryans doings simply expedited their being put into effect.

in any case, the only sad part of this is how long it took; ryan was getting free money off of his fans who hadnt or couldnt unsubscribe for three months before this ban and the loss of his partnership were put into effect, which is very upsetting, but there isnt much that can be done about it now.

(JAN 30 EDIT: as you can tell, the situation has severely petered out from where it began; originally there were new updates and more information on a daily, almost hourly basis, and so it was necessary to break the story up day by day to get everything. since that is no longer the case, i will not be filling in any gaps between time periods; if something else happens two weeks from now, i will not try to fill in the two week silence, and will just skip to the next big event. apologies if this makes timelines confusing, but ive added weeks AND days to each event to make them easier to follow, so hopefully that helps.

any further updates to this post will go here, to keep the timeline together. everything below this line is optional reading, but i do highly recommend it, as it provides a lot of background context.)

-----

MISCELLANEOUS INFO

this is just a section for anything i think is contextually relevant that doesnt really fit anywhere else, or stuff that is not confirmed but highly suspicious. most of this will provide elucidating background for everything that went down, but none of it is necessary to read. 

LOOKING BACK AT RYAN’S CONTENT:

because of how blindsiding these events have been, people began questioning if there were any tells that we as viewers missed over the years, and began going through old videos and other content to find anything of interest. ill link any relevant videos here with a brief summary of why theyre noteworthy:

- this video features ryan encouraging fans to do “whatever [they] need to get [themselves] to finish” (in reference to masturbating), and when trevor states that “there are laws that constrain us,” ryan says that “as long as you do it [in your head], it’s fine.” here he is clearly justifying his own actions to himself.

- this clip of ryan singing “black or white” by michael jackson, but he changes the lyrics to, “thing about my baby, it dont matter if youre black or white - or 12, or 9, or 8.” yeah.... i dont really need to say much else about that i dont think

- this post about ryan’s cover letter from his initial application to rt. the comment about “that sexy, deep voice that ladies love” wouldve been gross even without context, but with it, it appears that playing casanova with fans may have been his intent from the beginning.

- another video in which ryan “misses his flight because of uber.” he states that he missed his flight because the uber driver who was supposed to arrive didnt want to come and asked him to cancel the drive, forcing him to wait for another driver to be available. while they dont say explicitly, i am fairly certain hes talking about returning from pax west in seattle, which took place in early september - around the time that many of these stories (like tessa’s and michelle’s) take place. more likely than not, he fully lied about this story and was actually late because he was hooking up with a fan.

WHY 2017?:

if you’re paying attention to dates, you may notice that almost all of these events transpired - or began - in 2017. there are a few theories as to why, but ultimately i think the answer is quite simple; 2017 is when ryan made an instagram account, and is likely when he had the most direct access to fans. as was noted, he has had twitter for years and his snapchat was created probably a year or two before, and yet there are little to no stories taking place before 2017. most likely, his making an instagram account saw an influx of messages from fans, primarily teenage girls - a huge demographic on insta - and gave him a platform to begin the grooming process without anyone suspecting him.

CONJECTURE PT. 1: THE MEGGENING:

people began to speculate if ryan and meg are/were having an affair, as they spent quite a bit of time together for work, went on a trip to japan alone together, and have been the center of many a “joke” regarding their relationship, to the point of it sincerely bothering gavin (meg’s boyfriend). there are several clips of the achievement hunter guys making jokes about ryan and meg sleeping together behind gavin’s back, but heres one clip of them doing so with gavin in the room. notice his genuinely uncomfortable reaction.

initially i was ready to write this off as “women evil” conjecture, but honestly after looking into it a bit, i can sincerely see what people are talking about. as i said earlier, i find meg’s statement incredibly suspicious - the fact that she explicitly denies any knowledge of ryan’s doings even though that SHOULD go without saying, and that her message doesnt actually say anything negative about ryan or what he did at all, makes me feel extremely wary of her. 

OCT. 12 EDIT: either yesterday or the day before, meg privated most of the highlights from her japan trip with ryan, but a few of them were luckily archived. here they are, if you’re curious: japan #1, japan #2, japan #3.

CONJECTURE PT. 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO:

in early february, its discovered that ryan haywoods home is up for sale, and has been for quite a while. (i will not be linking the listing for obvious reasons.) the house had been on the market for 63 days at that time, placing its initial listing date in very early december - that would only be two months after the initial story broke. on top of that, with the inclusion of the amount of time it takes to find a realtor and begin the selling process, the selling of the house was likely initiated in mid-to-late november, if not sooner.

there are multiple potential explanations for the selling of the house, of course - its possible they could no longer afford the upkeep due to ryan losing his highly lucrative job, or its possible that they moved to escape harassment from others. i find both of these fairly implausible for different reasons: the former because ryans wife also has a fairly high-paying job, and unless ryan is a complete dumbass, they certainly have enough money saved up to remain in that house if they wanted to. in addition, i find the latter implausible because its highly unlikely anyone was going to their house directly, as i think ryan would definitely have played the victim publicly over something like that.

the most obvious answer to me, given how quickly the house was put up for sale, is that the two have begun divorce proceedings and thus sold the house. finances as a motivator make no sense to me due to the speed with which the house was put up - its highly unlikely they blew through all of their savings in a month - and if they were staying together as a couple, it wouldnt make sense to vacate their home for no reason. of course, this is complete conjecture (thus the header LMAO), but it is interesting to note as it comes into direct contradiction with ryans claims of going to couples therapy with his wife.

RYAN’S TACTICS:

due to the number of accusations against ryan now, a pretty clear picture is painted of him and how he operates. a few things become clear when you put all of this information together. lets break it down bit by bit.

first: the girls. as i mentioned before, michelle notes in her video that ryan seemed to target young girls who were either insecure about themselves/their bodies, or had mental health issues. that pattern does seem to hold up, as all seven of the major accusers (tessa, michelle, leigh, kayla, katie, anon, and megashiny) openly discuss dealing with one or both of these issues in their respective stories. it’s almost undeniable that ryan pursued these types of girls on purpose in order to manipulate them more easily, as well as to have plausible deniability when confronted about them - a phrase which multiple girls have used in reference to him.

second: the method. ryan seems to have consistently used the exact same method of manipulating each of the girls. it goes pretty much like this:

- in early conversations, he is sweet and invested in the girl. once they are a bit more comfortable, he begins to “flirt,” making sexual comments and “jokes” to slowly but surely convince them to sext and exchange nudes with him.

- at the same time, he is sure to tell everyone he knows (mods and the like) about how “crazy” his girl of the week is, guaranteeing that she will not be believed should she try to tell someone what is going on between them

- once the conversations turn sexual, his demeanor changes completely, and he starts to become distant. conversations with him become infrequent to make the girl feel miserable when he is away and over the moon when he decides to talk to her, thus maintaining the constant star-struck feeling and ensuring that she is always just a bit more eager to do what he asks in order to keep him around

- he makes sure to litter conversations with comments about how much he loves his wife and kids, thus ensuring that the girl feels too guilty to let anyone know whats going on at the risk of damaging his relationship with his family

- once he has the girls backed into this corner, he begins reaching out only to talk about sex and to schedule in-person hook ups, and will not talk to the girls otherwise. this goes on over and over until he gets bored or the girl cuts contact with him.

he is consistent with this “defaming, denial, degrading” method, as we can see every single girl make reference to him treating them in the same way. from this, we can conclude one thing - he has a system. he has done this before, and he knows it works. even the girl with the most different experience, katie, was clearly being groomed and sexually coerced with the promise of payment, but when she did not budge ryan switched over to straight up financial manipulation, forcing her to take the money - and therefore making her financially beholden to him - and threatening her with cut contact should she not accept.

ryan also tried to isolate katie from her best friend, kayla, in an effort to prevent her from noticing that he was manipulating and grooming kayla for sex as well, and given that kayla was bullied so thoroughly in HIS community that he was one of the only people she felt safe around, it’s no wonder why he refused to deal with the situation when trick brought it up to him. these are straight up abuser tactics, and while i hesitate to throw that word around, it is clear that ryan is a dangerous, emotionally manipulative sexual predator, who specifically targeted young girls with little to no experience with sex and relationships. he is disgusting, and cruel, and i pray that he experiences the pain he inflicted on these girls ten times over.

#roosterteeth #rooster teeth #ryan haywood #adam kovic #long post #REALLY fucking long. im not even kidding #let me know if the under the cut thing is broken again and ill just make a google doc #cause wow #anyway ryan haywood is a piece of shit and belongs in jail and thats that on that #dark lord saltine

[ben-10-setting-omnicrom]

Hey there, you made a post recently bashing one of mine. Totally fine to disagree but bashing other people's posts aren't the way to go about it. Both posts you were bashing were speculation and if you really had a problem with it, you could've left a comment to open up a real discussion about it on my post or the other person's.

I think you misread some of the tones in the posts. We were exploring political themes in a fictional universe. These sorts of things aren't for everyone and there's a wide variety of perspectives on the subjects. The other person's was, as I interpreted it, a "hey what if this happened" sort of post. Mine was a theory about the dynamics between species based on what we see in canon. I don't think either warranted the reaction it got from you, especially considering the fact we're talking about a cartoon. Perhaps they are darker interpretations but not impossible. No bold, declarative statements were made. No one was pushing their thoughts on others. Both were just people sharing their thoughts on possibilities we could not see in canon.

Again, it's okay to disagree. You, however, took it a step further. I deal with discourse on subjects more serious than a cartoon so I really don't care if you think there's something wrong with this but I'm getting the sense you are trying to start drama in the fandom which really isn't appreciated. This is generally a positive space and it's not hard to match the tone, even when you don't agree.

If you keep this up, I'll just block you so we don't see each others posts. Can't speak for the other person, of course, but they're a respected member of the fandom so I'm sure people would also appreciate it if you didn't go after them.

But I will ask two things of you. If you continue making posts like this, consider using a more respectful tone. I have no idea how other people you have bashed reacted but you are saying these things about real people, many of them likely minors. It's not hard to be courteous.

The other thing is to not use the delusional tag or call people insane. Maybe some people have some hot takes or discuss theories in a sphere a bit extreme for a cartoon but that does not mean it's okay for you to directly attack them. And, some of the words you used are ableist language. I am not disabled so I am not necessarily affected by it but a bar must be set and I'm setting it pretty low. You can continue what you're doing but do not disrespect people or use ableist language. Even if you don't care what I think, note that chances are people will not take you seriously if you sound like a child throwing a tantrum or speak like you're trying to hurt someone.

Even though I disagree with your tone, I will admit you weren't completely off target. You had some good points. And if you had brought them up in a respectful manner, I would have been happy to have a discussion about it. But, you didn't and here we are.

Where the hell do I even start with this?

Ok, first of all NO I'm not trying to start drama. I'm expressing my distaste on a trend I've seen in posts in the Ben 10 tag where this echo chamber perpetually spews out ridiculous baseless shit.

"A generally peaceful space" lmao, you mean like the time several users INSISTED Cracker isn't a slur and you can't be racist to white people, after a user called another one it while shamelessly and without irony claim they wouldn't stoop to bullying like @xcatxgirlx was wrongly accused of? Or the fact several users adamantly and insistently warp and twist her words to fit their delusional narrative where she's apparently the next spawn of Satan or whateverthefuck? Or the fact if you disagree with said echo chamber they'll call you bootlicker and say you have brainrot.

Also can you quit with the victim complex? I'm not going after anyone, I'm refuting claims and headcanons by pointing out no such thing is even remotely hinted at in canon.

Gods at this point I'm going to have to pin dictionary.com with how often I've had to quote people the definitions of words.

having false or unrealistic beliefs or opinions:

In other words ideas not based in reality or that can be gleaned from pertinent information. Reality in this case being the canon of the series.

Saying Ben wanted to kill Kevin because he was jealous of him saving the day in the Forge of Creation episode is FLAT OUT DELUSIONAL. Full stop.

Saying the Plumbers would practice brutality and gay bashing at the drop of a hat DURING PRIDE MONTH is utterly baseless and ridiculous, not to mention actively insensitive to irl acts of such. Their WHOLE THING is keeping the peace and anyone practicing police brutality would get jailed JUST LIKE THE NUMEROUS TIMES IN CANON THEY'VE DEALT WITH EVIL PLUMBERS.

Saying the Galvans are totally discriminating against a entire species is absolutely baseless especially when shit all is preventing said species from basically doing whatever the fuck they want. Baz-El is literally a damn archeologist after all.

You want to know what all those things have in common?

They take the flimsiest of "evidence", ignore context, and actively distort facts to shine things in the worst light possible, like a corrupted fun house mirrors from hell.

Also why would I ask for permission to document for posterity posts I reference? I'm literally only doing that shit so they can't say said posts didn't say what it did or if said posts are erased. It's no different from using the Way Back Machine to check on old posts.

Also also, like for future reference PLEASE add spaces to your posts. Your ask was honestly kind of hard to read.

#ben 10 #asks #plumbers #kevin levin #ben tennyson #galvanic mechamorph #galvan #mini omni rant #delusional ben 10

[lilrexsoka]

Helllooo again. You may have noticed that I made a mistake. I accidentally switched the prompts. I thought ‘Brothers’ was the third prompt. I posted this one first... and realized there was no reason why I couldn’t just stick with the order anyway. Hope that doesn’t bother anyone. 

Tagging: @officialrexsoka

Read it on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698138/chapters/65214574

Or read it below! 

Rating- G (Some topics may be more suited for a T rating, though it’s still TCW soo...)

Tag Warnings- Mentions of slavery.

Missions that the council gave Ahsoka and her Masters directly were often incredibly important. Missions that Anakin was put in charge of, no matter the degree of difficulty or danger, were almost always completed. Whether or not he used a traditional method or something irrational was always an ongoing game. Despite his sometimes seemingly insane or ridiculous plans, it was commonly known that he rarely failed. Maybe it was because his Master levelled him out, or because his Padawan and his battalion were willing to follow his roughly-fashioned action plans, whatever they were.

Like now. Ahsoka was going to use his idea of disguises to find out where the Kiros Togruta were being imprisoned and enslaved. She even thought it was going to be a good one, if it succeeded. What didn’t reach her mind was what costume she would have to wear following that decision.

“Well, obviously you are too young and… feminine to be a slaver,” Anakin had answered upon her questioning of what clothing he had for her to wear, half-hesitantly as if he almost disagreed with the idea as well. Obi-Wan had agreed. So had Ahsoka. No going back now. “So I brought along some other options. I have a couple of slave outfits that might just fit ya.”

She wasn’t going to ask why he had half a dozen clothing options fit for a slave girl, but she did protest. Obi-Wan simply backed his Padawan up and offered his condolences. Go figure.

Now she was standing in something that showed more skin then fabric before the dusty mirror in the back of the Zygerrian transport hijacked from a past mission. It was a light blue, silky outfit that probably cost an arm and a leg with the accessories combined; it draped loosely around the swell of her hips with a slit down the entire left side that felt entirely unnecessary. Her chest was covered with more of the fabric, still uncomfortably loose, and more of it covered her lanky arms. The most notable parts of the outfit were the shining gold adornments dripping with jewels; sashes that lay in a ‘Y’ shape over the swell of her breasts and across her lower abdomen, and a ridiculously heavy headpiece that sat on her montrals and dangled jewels over the markings on her forehead.

She hated every second that she stood in that outfit, but she didn’t have much of a choice. This was the plan, and it needed to work if she were to save the Togruta. Her people.

There was a sudden, quiet knock on the door behind her. It was closed, and it wasn’t even loud, but it still interrupted her brooding. Not in the mood for your sympathies, Ahsoka thought and let out a soft growl. “What do you want?”

“Sorry if I’m interrupting something. I just wanted to check on everything. You’ve been back here for a while.” Damn. She hadn’t even considered how this plan would go with Rex dragged along. It was Obi-Wan who insisted this was a four-person job, and the go-to was Anakin’s right-hand man. Ahsoka hadn’t been upset; she loved fighting with Rex, but this was something far more personal and intimate. Rex wasn’t family like her Masters. How was she going to deal with the embarrassment of letting the Captain see her in such a get-up?

“I’m fine,” she called back, suddenly wondering if she could change Anakin’s mind and play a slaver after all. No, I’m just being ridiculous. She couldn’t be queasy around the clone; he was no different than Anakin or Obi-Wan. With the amount of time they spent together, he should be family as well. “Just… getting into my disguise.”

Rex’s answer was loud enough to be heard from the other side of the door. “Ah. Alright. Just wonderin’ why you were taking long. The Generals were getting a bit worried. Kenobi had that crease in his forehead and Skywalker couldn’t stop moving or talking.”

She could easily picture her Masters in her head at Rex’s description. He was trying to joke again; it was as if he always knew when her spirits were down. “I’ll come out soon,” the Togruta called again, fidgeting with the soft fabric of her outfit. When I gather some courage.

“Is… something wrong?” The clone sounded hesitant. Again, he somehow knew that something was upsetting her, like he was the one with Force-Sensitivity.

Ahsoka blew out a slow breath and smoothed the fabric draped over her waist. How in the galaxy was she going to answer this truthfully? “Um… I’m having a bit of a problem with my outfit.”

“Oh.” Another long pause. Ahsoka was sure he was imaging all sorts of embarrassing things that could be happening to the young Padawan. “Maybe… I could help?” His tone was clearly sheepish now. He was hoping his offer wouldn’t lead to an unwanted situation. She wasn’t sure that the situation was avoidable now.

“No.” That was way too fast. “I mean-” Ahsoka just sighed. She had no idea how to explain it.

There was a shuffling noise. “Sorry. If you’re not decent, I can come back later, or…” Poor man. He only cared and wanted to help.

That wasn’t what she wanted, she realized. At one point, she would have to face him. It was better now than later. Plus, it shouldn’t be such a problem. Ahsoka was dressing up for a mission, not for fun. Her embarrassment with idiotic. Besides, it was the boy’s problems, not hers. “No, you don’t have to. I’m dressed, but…” She heaved another sigh. “You know what, just come in. You’ll see.”

“Alright… If you say so.” He chuckled nervously. “To be honest though, Commander, I’m a little worried about what I’m going to see. You’re making it sound a bit ominous.”

Ahsoka worried her lip and sympathetically sent the clone a soothing wave of Force Energy. He’d told her he hadn’t liked the idea of her altering his emotions, but sometimes she subconsciously did so when she knew he was unsettled. “I promise it’s not as bad as I’m making it.” I’m probably just making this a bigger deal then I should. “Besides, you’re a big boy,” she added teasingly. “You can handle it.” She knew it was true, but something about the idea of Rex seeing her in her vulnerable outfit was… strangely mouth-drying.

Stop making this weird! It’s just a slave outfit! Nothing bad is going to happen! the Togruta told herself as she turned to meet the clone as he palmed open the door. His eyes met her, uncovered, wide and still impossibly brown and soulful. He wasn’t wearing his armour, but instead a full set of golden brown slaver armour. Somehow, he suited the stolen plates well.

It wasn’t his disguise that she wanted to watch, (though it was a pleasant view, the depths of her mind argued,) but his reaction. Expectedly, his eyes widened slightly and he opened his mouth several times before he spoke. “I… you look good, Commander. What’s the problem?”

Planting her hands on her hips, the Padawan asked condescendingly, “Good, Captain?” She wasn’t upset, however she knew she had to reprimand him. She was the opposite of upset. His approval had already eased her embarrassment. “Please don’t worry about it,” Ahsoka told him immediately, a little wretchedly with a burning face. “And sorry for all of the drama. I just… was unsure about the disguise.” She gestured pointedly to the loose silk fabric draped over her curves. She shouldn’t be upset over showing a little skin; her very first meeting with the clone had been during the first year of her apprenticeship with the small bit of clothing that had been her top.

Rex made an understanding noise and ran his hand over his face. “I get it now. But your disguise looks really good. You’ll fool all the Zygerrians.” He added the last comment with a playful smirk. It was how he lightened the mood again.

“You’re too pretty to be a slaver,” the Padawan shot back, arching the markings above her eyes with a smile that might have just been described as flirty. “I’ve yet to see your acting skills, though. You might just act like one.”

“I’ll consider it a compliment. Thanks, Commander.” Rex knew she disliked it when he used her rank when they were alone. Either he still had yet to break that habit… or he knew what he was doing. But all past emotion left his voice when he asked, “But really. Why are you so uncomfortable in this new disguise?” Now he just sounded concerned, still possibly a little hesitant.

The Togruta sighed, instinctively wrapping her arms across her chest. She’d been acutely aware that she’d been wearing it the entire time Rex had been… teasing her, but she hadn’t minded until he had spoken about it directly. “Uhm… honestly, I didn’t really have a good reason. I was being childish. I just didn’t like the idea of wearing this skimpy disguise in front of others. Like… you, and Obi-Wan and Anakin.”

The clone tilted his head curiously. “Oh.” His hand went to the back of his neck. “Well… you don’t have to feel uncomfortable around me. I mean… we’re close. Like family. Right?”

Ahsoka sighed helplessly. All she could do was shake her head, though she knew she should feel excited. Rex had just admitted he considered her as family, and she felt disappointed. She couldn’t want that kind of relationship with him… so what was her problem? “Yeah, I guess,” she answered with as much happiness as she could muster, though her smile was half-hearted and entirely pathetic.

Of course, Rex noticed this. “I’m sorry, Commander,” he spluttered immediately, eye stretching wide with realization. “You didn’t like that. It’s just that… you’re close. Closer to me then I would have expected. Like another vod, almost.” He shrugged embarrassedly.

“Vod?” She knew the clones sometimes used vocabulary picked up from their Mandalorian trainers, and though she had picked up the meanings of some of them, she clearly had misunderstood a few. ‘Vod’ was commonly used when the troops referred to each other… but maybe that was purposeful. Maybe Rex really did consider her as valuable to him as his fellow clones.

“Yeah,” Rex answered. “It’s Mando’a for ‘sibling’, whether in blood or in arms.” The expression that crossed his face next was caring and terribly happy. “I know many of the men care for you like a sister.”

Ahsoka couldn’t stop the frown that creased her face, or the frustration that bubbled up under her skin. “But I’m not just another clone,” she protested faintly. “You don’t treat me like one. How can I be family?” Her hands lay under her armpits, as she chewed her lip. If that’s all he sees me as…

The clone shook his head and sighed quietly. “You’re not a clone,” he agreed patiently. “And that’s why I don’t treat you like one. You’re so different from any brother I’ve known; but at the same time, you are my Commander. I shouldn’t be treating you like… a friend.” He chuckled. “But it’s not worth pretending I care anymore. Not with someone like you.” There was a moment of pause, his hands shifting nervously. “If you would prefer to… forget everything, then I could do that too. I know we’re not family, I just thought-”

“No, Rex,” Ahsoka interrupted guiltily. I have a bad habit of explaining myself horribly. “It’s not that at all. It’s my fault for not being more clear.” She paced forward, trying furiously not to trip on her new lengths of silk, and came before the clone. He still loomed over her; it would take time for her to grow into a full Togruta. Looking up into his face, all she saw was careful curiosity, but yet his eyes flickered incessantly with desperation. “I appreciate that you count me as family. In fact, I’m happy that you do. But… I don’t think we can pretend that we are brothers in arms, or even just friends.”

“What?” His eyes widened, and his hands landed on the side of her arm, seemingly with instinct.

She hated having to tell him this… but there was still a future she had to think of. It had been way too long spent with thoughts left unspoken and feelings left buried. “We are something more, Rex. Maybe we can’t label it yet. Maybe it has no name. But we can’t stick with something now, because in the future it will only bring more confusion.” Ahsoka tried a soothing smile. “Only the Force knows what will happen. But for thinking of the future… maybe we should stay flexible. Whatever happens.” She found the hand that had settled on her arm and covered it with her palm. “Okay?”

And maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, but it was probably important that Rex told her seriously, “I… think that’s best.” He left details out, but from his tone- and the turmoil in his Force signature- there were plenty of his own confusing emotions.

Ahsoka thought that she had made herself look like a fool; it happened when she tried to explain her feelings, so her relief at his understanding completely made her lose all care over the slave outfit. She felt that everything would work out with Rex as her companion, but only the Force knew if he would ever become anything more than that.

“Well,” Rex sighed, letting his hand slide down her arm and back to his side. “Do you feel better about the… disguise? I can practically hear the Generals and their worry.” He chuckled good-naturedly and sidestepped with a gesture to the door. “Shall we?”

“Now that’s not how a slaver acts,” the Padawan joked, but still followed his offer and let him trail after her. It was only then she had realized she had left her lightsabers behind, which she quickly excused herself to retrieve. Passing the mirror on the way out, she decided that maybe the slave outfit wasn’t so bad. Rex had approved, after all. She did look good in blue.

#rexsoka #rexsokaweek #rexsokaweek2020 #rexsoka week #rexsoka week 2020

[phroyd]

That bloated, corrupt, incompetent Fuck is trying to scapegoat Fauci for HIS OWN covid-19 policy failures, as well as discredit him to use our children as guinea pigs in reporning schools. - Phroyd

For months, Anthony S. Fauci has played a lead role in America’s coronavirus pandemic, as a diminutive, Brooklyn-accented narrator who has assessed the risk and issued increasingly blunt warnings as the nation’s response has gone badly awry.

But as the Trump administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country.

In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci “is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.” And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci’s assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: “I disagree with him.”

Fauci no longer briefs Trump and is “never in the Oval [Office] anymore,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Fauci last spoke to the president during the first week of June, according to a person with knowledge of Trump’s calendar.

For some administration officials, such developments have been an early sign their job was on the line. But Trump cannot directly fire Fauci, a career civil servant with more than 50 years in government service who enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress. In any case, the president has no plans to get rid of him, said the official.

As for Fauci himself, although he is frustrated by the turmoil and the state of the outbreak, friends say he has no plans to abandon his post, which includes a critical role in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and treatments.

Fauci has found other ways to get his message out, from online Facebook chats to podcasts and print media interviews. And in recent days, with coronavirus cases slamming hospitals in the South and West, he has been frankly critical of the U.S. response — and implicitly, of the president.

“As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not,” Fauci said in a podcast interview with FiveThirtyEight last week.

Fauci did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

A White House official released a statement saying that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things” and included a lengthy list of the scientist’s comments from early in the outbreak. Those included his early doubt that people with no symptoms could play a significant role in spreading the virus — a notion based on earlier outbreaks that the novel coronavirus would turn on its head. They also point to public reassurances Fauci made in late February, around the time of the first U.S. case of community transmission, that “at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis.”

Fauci’s supporters acknowledge those early mistakes, attributing them to the challenges posed by a new, largely unknown pathogen. They agree he downplayed the possibility of the virus spreading from person to person in January and early February even as it quietly seeded itself in communities on the East and West coasts. And, like several other public health officials, he initially said the public shouldn’t wear masks, but now strongly recommends it, especially when individuals can’t maintain distances of at least six feet from other people.

Fauci has said he was worried early in the outbreak about a shortage of masks and wanted to reserve them for health care workers. And he has said from the start that scientists’ knowledge of a brand new virus would evolve and recommendations could change based on new information.

The tension between the White House and Fauci was on full display last Sunday, when CBS host Margaret Brennan told millions of viewers that “Face the Nation” had tried for three months to interview him.

White House communications officials, who must approve television appearances related to the coronavirus, responded by allowing Fauci spots this week on PBS NewsHour, a CNN town hall with Sanjay Gupta and NBC’s “Meet the Press” during the prime Sunday morning slot, according to one person familiar with the situation.

Then Fauci joined a Facebook Live event on Tuesday with Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), disputing Trump’s assertions that a lower death rate showed the country’s progress against the pandemic. Fauci called it “a false narrative” and warned, “Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”

Fauci did not end up making any of the scheduled appearances. The White House canceled them after his Tuesday remarks, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate behind-the-scenes conversations.

The episode underscores the deteriorating relationship between a scientist and a president who once bonded over their shared New York City roots and love of sports, but whose rapport has long since disintegrated over their differences on face mask policy, state reopening strategies and the use of antimalarial drugs to treat covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations, said the White House has asked Fauci to do certain media appearances but is not approving all of his requests.

“Our bigger issue with Fauci is stop critiquing the task force . . . and try to fix it,” the official said.

But that may be an impossible order given his strong differences with the White House over how the federal government should respond to the accelerating infection rate that’s pushing up the death toll after months of decline.

Fauci has argued that parts of the country experiencing surges should shut down, “but there is no buy-in for that,” said an official with direct knowledge of the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Four months ahead of Election Day, Trump wants to “reopen and move on,” said another senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Those who disagree with that approach are out of favor, the official said.Fauci has also expressed concern about the administration’s plan to reopen schools, but White House officials see keeping children home as having even more deleterious effects. Fauci has also called on state and local officials to mandate that people wear masks in public.

Even though his suggestions have been largely ignored, Fauci has not complained that he does not get in to see the president, according to one of the officials.

Trump is also galled by Fauci’s approval ratings. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 67 percent of voters trusted Fauci for information on the coronavirus, compared with 26 percent who trusted Trump.

The internal turmoil and troubled national response have taken a toll on Fauci, those close to him say. He is exasperated that states and individuals are not following the recommendations of experts, such as social distancing and wearing face coverings, said David Barr, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for 30 years.

Three or four weeks ago, Barr said, he and Fauci spoke about the troubling signs they were seeing as cases began to tick upward.

“You could just feel from Tony . . . how unsettled it made him,” Barr said. “He didn’t know what to do to change that, to stop it, but if the leadership isn’t there, and it’s clearly not there, then it’s really difficult to set the tone for the country.”

“What he cares most about is not his influence, but what’s happening — that things are going so badly and it’s going to cause so much disease and death,” Barr added.

People who are close to Fauci say the public undermining of scientists and public health experts has frustrated and saddened him because it adds to the chaos the country is already experiencing from the pandemic.

Despite the repeated pushback from Trump and the White House, however, Fauci has told those close to him that has no plans to do anything differently.

“For somebody like Tony, who tries to deal with people honestly and in a very open and generous way — that’s how he’s tried to approach his personal interactions with the president — it’s immensely frustrating and depressing. And there’s not much he can do about it,” said Peter Staley, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for more than 30 years.

“He’s going to continue being himself, which is always talking honestly about a public health crisis and a new infectious disease,” Staley added. “If things are looking more in conflict, it’s because this administration is going further and further adrift from a pro-science approach.”

White House communications officials say they have told government scientists and doctors that their job is to educate the public by talking about best practices to contain the virus and what the administration is doing to help the states.

Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump ally, approves Fauci’s television appearances, with input from the White House, said one of the senior administration officials. Several White House aides view Fauci’s interviews as unhelpful and say they’re frustrated he has expressed interest in appearing on programs such as MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” which are hostile to the administration. That one was rejected.

“The speculation game doesn’t serve the public in any particular way,” the same official said. “When it gets to handicapping and what’s going to happen next, get a cable news gig. We’ve conveyed that down to all the doctors.”

White House officials generally favor White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, one of the senior administration officials said. Both Birx and Fauci have expressed frustration that their concerns have not gotten to the president, although Birx is working with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, to ensure better communication, the official said.

The administration also plans to have Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary, and FEMA Administrator Peter T. Gaynor do more appearances related to coronavirus.

Among those crusading against Fauci internally is Peter Navarro, the president’s trade adviser, who has clashed with Fauci over his opposition to adopting the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, to treat covid-19 before its effectiveness had been proved.

When Trump and Navarro repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus, Fauci pushed back both internally and at task force briefings, arguing there was only anecdotal evidence about the drug’s efficacy. The Food and Drug Administration eventually revoked its temporary authorization after evidence showed it was not effective against covid-19 and could be dangerous for some patients.

“Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on,” Navarro said. “Now Fauci is saying that a falling mortality rate doesn’t matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening. So when you ask me if I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is only with caution.”

Friends and allies say Fauci doesn’t quit because he loves his job and also feels a great sense of responsibility about helping to develop coronavirus vaccines and treatments — the biggest challenge of his career and the only way the country can truly begin to move past the pandemic. He has long said he does not want to retire before there is an AIDS vaccine.

“He recognizes if he doesn’t intercede, things could fall apart very quickly — even more so than they have already,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “He does it because he cares about the country and realizes he is uniquely positioned to help in this.”

Although his message is regularly at odds with the president, Fauci is naturally conflict-averse and has sought to establish a personal relationship with the six presidents he has served over his career.

“He’ll try to be accommodating except for principles that are truly not something he can compromise on,” said one former senior administration official who has worked closely with Fauci for years. “He will try to really accommodate and fulfill your reality, but he’s bound by the laws of science.”

In the previous five presidential administrations, Fauci has almost always played a key role in public health emergencies and infectious-disease responses by advising the president and serving as a chief spokesman for both Republican and Democratic administrations.

In many ways, he was shaped by the HIV/AIDS crisis that emerged during his first years as NIAID director when the Reagan administration remained largely silent about a disease afflicting mostly gay men.

Amid fear of the virus and the stigma associated with having the infection, Fauci learned the importance of communicating with the public about new diseases that were little understood. He found out it was critical to speak honestly about the risks, and help people differentiate between valid concerns and unfounded fears, according to several people who have worked with him.

As the face of the HIV/AIDS response, Fauci also developed a thick skin, experiencing the ire of activists who felt an uncaring federal government was not doing enough to make treatments available for dying patients. But over the years, he forged friendships with some of those who had begun as adversaries, activists said.

The lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS outbreak have had an impact on how he has handled almost every public health crisis since. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the Obama administration made Fauci its chief spokesperson to explain to people the actual risk of the virus.

Fauci briefed Obama about three times a week and had unlimited access to him if something came up, said Ron Klain, the Obama administration’s Ebola czar and now an adviser to the Biden campaign.

But in the coronavirus pandemic, Klain said Fauci is facing a new challenge: He’s the only member of the administration willing or able to speak plainly about the threat of the virus, in Klain’s view.

Fauci “respects the public,” Klain said. “He has this view that the public can handle the truth, whether it’s good news or bad news and the most important thing is to give people the best information he has at the time. Tony is left being the one person having to carry the weight of speaking honestly about all this stuff.”

Phroyd

#fauci #white house #covid

[love-it-or-its-free]

@dyke-diva

[edited to update pastebin and make links clickable.]

First, just some more context about me: I am a 33 yr old lesbian, butch (in a nerd way) and quite androgynous/GNC.

Until a year or two ago, I was an ardent supporter of trans activism, as it went part and parcel with being a member of the LGBT "Community".

Literally, asking this same question to myself was a turning point for me. I knew I was supposed to hate and denounce anything TERF-related.... but one day I realized, I didn't know exactly what TERFs had supposedly done, that would warrant such seething hatred against them.

Like I said, I comprehend hating Nazis, because I have seen evidence of the unforgivable brutality of the Nazi regime and its supporters. I've taken history classes, read books and original sources, and watched documentaries about it.

Basically, I have seen enough evidence to understand the scope of Nazi evil, so it makes sense to me why some people go around saying "punch nazis." Personally, I'm not the type to punch anybody... and I question whether punching actually fixes the underlying evil... but based on what I know, I totally understand why nazis are so hated.

But why are terfs so viscerally hated that they are directly compared with a mass-genocidal regime? I want to know the truth. If the evidence is out there, I want to see it, to keep my views updated and accurate.

Now on to your response.

I do not believe that you should debate hate groups. I think that doing so will only help spread their hate and

I don't really believe in debating hate groups, either. But I also believe that having a closed mind is a victory for authoritarians of all stripes. I have no problem engaging with people who disagree with me, because I generally believe in having "strong opinions, weakly held" -- I am firm in my beliefs, but my mind is open to evaluating new evidence. If I deem the new evidence convincing enough, I may change my mind or update my views. I value intellectual rigor, so I want to keep my views accurate and up-to-date.

I am severely distressed about the number of terfs in wlw spaces and think that something should be done about it, it has gotten to the point where if it is not stated directly that they do not support transmisogyny that I will often feel paranoid about being in the space.

Honestly, I would love if you could PM me about these "wlw spaces" that are supposedly crawling with terfs. I feel like I'm reading this from a bizarro mirror dimension, thinking... WHAT wlw spaces? Is there really anything like this, outside of a handful of unpopular tumblr tags and a couple of small subreddits?

The only spaces I know of, especially IRL, are bending over backwards to be so "q***r friendly" that actual lesbians are being pushed out. One local activist in my city, started a public speech by claiming, "terfs are lesbians who..." and went on to drag lesbians for not being inclusive enough. Why only lesbians, I wondered??

Singling out and pressuring lesbians that way is not okay, in my opinion. Lesbians deserve to have spaces for lesbian (natal) women only. Lesbians are allowed to be repulsed by penises. None of that is hateful! Lesbians should not be pressured to sleep with anyone they aren't interested in. Unfortunately, I see that happening a lot these days. The "wlw spaces" I know of, offline and online, increasingly pressure lesbians in this way. Not cool.

Now, I can handle those pressures... but I'm really worried about younger lesbians. Being a lesbian is hard enough as it is! We have a right to exist, and to express our sexuality without added pressures.

and finally reason three, trans people who are afab have been seen to dismiss terfs actions and beliefs purely because terfs do not actively threaten their existence like they do amab trans people.

I'm not sure if I follow this part... it seems like you're saying that some FTMs ("trans people who are afab") do not feel threatened by so-called terfs, because the perception is that terfs are more threatening to "amab trans people"? Sorry if I misunderstood, but I would be interested to learn more about this phenomenon either way.

The person who sent this ask had lots of “Terf Safe” tagged posts on their blog and in their likes (though it seems their likes are now private), so I had blocked them, on the post that I made on my @la-joueuse-ultime blog that I quoted above they had asked why Terfs and Nazi’s are being compared, saying “I know about the reasons Nazis are bad, we can study history to see that evidence. But where is the evidence that terfs are comparably bad?” I had responded “@love-it-or-its-free it’s not that their comparably as bad, it’s that they’re bad. They are a hate group that has killed trans people and because of that they shouldn’t get a voice to spread their hate.” I then told them I planned to block them, I had done so and then they sent this ask.

Well, just to be clear, you were the first to interact with my post. It appears that you went looking in terf-friendly tags, found my post, and decided to interact with it. I'm happy to clarify the details of this, but I think your wording makes it sound like I sought you out, when it was actually the other way around. I posted mild terf-friendly content, you directly compared terfs to nazis. I think that's extreme.

I guess it's a good thing I hid my likes, too, because it sounds like you were ready to trawl for "punishable" content. I mean... who among us has not accidentally tapped the heart while on mobile or something? I hope you aren't really intending to police liked content like that.

Now to the actual ask, I believe the reason you can’t find Terfs that have killed trans people is that, well, you’re literally not looking,

I am quick to google anything that pops into my head, so rest assured, I would not pose this question to a tumblr rando unless I had actually attempted to answer it for myself. I'm asking to try and gather more info/evidence on top of what I have seen already.

or you think that they needed to have direct (by direct I mean they physically took part in) killing the trans person. You don’t need to be holding a knife to take part in someone’s death, you can encourage violence against the minority, you can bully and harass them until they take their own life, or you can fight against medical procedures that some of these people need to live. Terfs have done all of these.

Right... but I specifically asked how you can directly compare terfs to nazis. I agree that bullying, etc. is wrong. But I am asking for the evidence you used to make the direct comparison. You are shifting the goal posts here. I'm okay with that shift if you are... because I'm happy to provide evidence of trans activists doing things like sending death threats to terfs (or any woman who is deemed to have "terfy" views) which seems directly comparable to what you are claiming here.

It took a second search to find Terfs encouraging violence against trans women.

I found similarly scant search results... but like I said, I'm willing to evaluate new evidence when I see it.

This post on Reddit (I recommend being careful, tw for violence) is of a screenshot of a Terf stating that “It is a shame that people cannot do this in America” the post contained a picture of a man seemingly attacking a trans-woman for using the bathroom where she was most comfortable to do so. The posts were made on Spinster, a “woman-centric” social media platform that was made by M.K. Fain, a known terf.

So... I'm honestly surprised you would link to that particular subreddit as evidence of anything. But I'll charitably ignore the source for now. What I see, as far as content, is a screenshot of an anon comment on a website. You claim that the comment must be from a terf. Why? 1) screenshots can be photoshopped. 2) Anyone can sign up for an account on sites like that.

Sorry, but this isn't convincing evidence to me. Even if it's real, it's not a death threat, it's not an incitement to violence. It could be "real" in the sense that some troll signed up to the Spinster site just to troll "as a terf". It's just a shitty anon comment. Of course I object to the sentiment behind it (see anti-violence disclaimer to follow)... but I don't believe it stands up as evidence to support your claims.

(aside: I don't want to make this post any longer than it is, but I noticed some not-very-nice comments from that link and collected them in a pastebin here )

Finally, I researched the actual murder case in question. All eight people arrested in connection with the homicide are men... not terfs.

(I'll include this disclaimer here, though I'm bummed out that I feel the need to be pre-emptive/defensive about it:

I am anti-violence. I condemn violence of all kinds. (See above: I'm a softy, not the punching type) I especially condemn murder and homicide, and I do not endorse eye-for-an-eye justice. I want less pain and hatred in the world, for everybody, even folks who disagree with me.

I believe "the Golden Rule" is called Golden for a reason... it's Key! end disclaimer.)

Not only that but I found many articles directly denying violence against trans people, that I won’t link because they were made by terfs for terfs and I do not want to give them a platform. By denying the violence trans people face you are encouraging it, telling the people who enact the violence that they won’t be punished for it.

Yes, "denying violence" sounds like a bad or at least ignorant thing to do. But how is it remotely equivalent to committing violent acts? Unfortunately, if I can't see the evidence, I can neither refute nor accept it.

Trans people have a shockingly high suicide rate, there is no denying it. This article talks about a Terf that targeted a suicidal trans woman to harass, as well as provides a link to an article about Cathy Brennan, one of many who try to directly prevent trans people from seeking medical help.

I read this, but I couldn't figure out the series of events it's describing. I looked around on my own, and found that it seems to be a response to an ongoing feud between Dana Taylor (author of the piece) and at least one other person. For instance, I found multiple blog posts from the "other side" which described Dana Taylor's participation in harrassment and doxxing campagins. Here's one person on twitter, describing their experience with being targeted:

I just googled myself and found this from 5 years ago which said I was going to be watched. I don't think they watched me.

source thread

That's just one example I found. There were many similar tweets and comments about doxxing involving the author of the link you gave. So I'm open to reading more about these incidents, if you have more links. If something bad happened, I would like to understand better. But right now, this at best looks like just one side of a multi-sided internet slapfight.

If you just listened to trans people you would hear story after story of them being attacked by terfs if you just paid more attention you would see them encouraging violence against trans people, and if you just cared a tiny bit more, you’d realize that trans people are human too.

I am listening, or at least I'm trying to listen by asking good-faith questions while trying not to be attacked for it. Are you doing the same, keeping an ear out for stories of terfs being attacked, and listening to their stories?

How would it make you feel if I said, "if you just cared a tiny bit more, you'd realize that terfs are human too." ?

Anyway, that’s the post thank you for being patient.

Same here. I want you to know that I truly appreciate your thorough reply and the time you spent on it.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Thoughts on that (formerly?) annoying episode

Star Trek Season 1 Episode 24, This Side of Paradise, is (was) a frustrating episode for me. Spock, who up until this point has never explicitly shown romantic interest in anyone, falls in love with a girl. Not naturally though--no, he is drugged, and begs, on the ground, in agony, for her to stop the effects of the drug. When he finally gives in, then he appears to be free, but we know that he is certainly not himself.

Bones and Jim notice this as well, while talking to Spock over communicator, and Bones is immediately concerned, thinking Spock might be in trouble. What is Spock up to? He's chilling out with his girl.

It had really really really bothered me, though, that when all is said and done, and Spock has gone back to normal, and he is asked about what he has to say about his experience, he says, "For the first time in my life, I was happy." This was super frustrating and hurtful for me, because I relate to Spock's lack of romantic interest very deeply. (I perceive him to be aroace, but other interpretations are, of course, valid.) Is he really saying that all the good times he's had on the Enterprise, all the moments he's shared with Jim and Bones--all the companionship he has found in them isn't enough? That he has never been happy? That he needed to find a girl before he could be? What does that say about someone like me, who is aroace?

It especially bothered me because Spock only explicitly expresses romantic feelings when he is fundamentally not himself, and he recognizes this as well. (This post is already long, so I'll skip the details, but if you're curious, let me know.) Something deep and intrinsic about him is changed, and then he expresses romantic feelings--which further convinces me that he is aromantic. So why was he repeatedly subjected to this invasive altering of his identity? Was he not sufficient as he was? It felt humiliating to watch him behave in ways I knew he would never behave when he was himself. And it definitely felt like the producers were pushing him into a relationship to "fix him" and show his "human side".

But then I looked at it deeper, and I realized that maybe that's not what was going on at all.

While it is likely that a heteronormative message was intended, part of art is its interpretation, and I am choosing to internalize the other narrative that I see. And before we get going, a warning (if you haven't gotten it already): this is a long post. I'm on mobile and can't figure out how to make a "read more".

Firstly, I will say that aside from the romantic element, the episode had very good moments. Especially when Kirk confronts Spock, and you can tell that Spock is holding himself back, and doesn't want to believe that Jim means what he's saying, and he's utterly shocked that Jim would ever say something like that--and particularly that he uses the word "half-breed". (Spock, in an earlier episode, had actually told Jim that it disturbs him to hear that word from someone so close to him...essentially, he admitted that it hurts him. Jim hadn't outright said that he wouldn't use the word again, but it was clear that he knew the damage it could cause and that he had only used it as a last resort.)

But it gets more interesting when we consider what Spock actually responds to, and what he avoids. Firstly, he responds to that word, which he even tries to make into a Spock-version of a joke ("While the term 'half-breed' may be partially accurate..."), using defensive humor instead of addressing his feelings about it. The other thing he responds to, which is the only thing he actually directly answers, is Jim's taunts about his parents. Equally notable is that he didn't respond to any taunts about his relationship with Leila (the girl) that had insinuated he was unable to truly love her. Jim makes several attacks on this front, calling Spock a "carcass," a "computer," a shell of someone "pretending to be a man". "Does she know what she's getting, Spock?!" Jim yells at him. Spock says nothing.

Here's the punch in the gut: Spock only responds to things he believes are wrong.

Spock fights back when Jim maligns his parents, he responds to anything that is factually incorrect. He responds to the word "half-breed" by calling it "partially accurate"--implying he believes it to not be fully apt, but equally, implying that it does have some truth in it...and when it comes to the other personal statements Jim makes, he is silent. He doesn't believe he has enough evidence to dispute Jim's outrageous claims--because a part of him believes it himself.

Not only does this offer insight into Spock's insecurities, it also supports my view of Spock as someone who doesn't have those romantic feelings. Spock hasn't lost his memory while under the influence of the spores, nor does he lose it after their effects are removed; he knows who he really is and how he really behaves. There is a part of him that is freed by being expressive, and that part mostly focuses on appreciating the beauty in things. He comments on how beautiful the clouds are, and rainbows--and yes, perhaps he finds Leila beautiful, but I think he does so from a purely aesthetic and (shall I say it?) scientific stance. He likes feeling free to admire and experience the beauty of things, her included. But deep down, he knows what he's feeling for Leila isn't really love.

He might even like the sensation of kissing her, but not because of any romantic feelings--rather, because it is so clearly and intimately linked with being known, being understood, being trusted; not just from a physical perspective, but (especially for the touch-telepathic Vulcans), an emotional one. That is what truly appeals to him.

Spock feels freed because his usual inhibitions are gone (forcibly battered down, but we'll say gone). So he swings around on a tree branch and does other equally wacky things, and he kisses someone and speaks causally and comments on the beauty of life. He wants to experience the things he's never let himself experience before, because he feels at home; he is accepted, and that frees him. But he knows, deep down, that the freed "Spock" is fundamentally different from the one we've come to know, the one Jim and Bones know, the one on the Enterprise.

That's why he doesn't disagree with Jim when he starts attacking Spock's ability to love. He knows he can't. He knows this freedom, really, is false--and he knows how it came about. Not by a choice of his own, but one forced on him. Nevertheless, he is desperately attached to one particular aspect of that freedom. Just look at what he says as soon as the effects are broken.

First, he says to Jim, "You did that to me on purpose." An interesting choice of words, that belies his now emotionless facade. "You did that to me" acknowledges there was something inflicted on you that you did not want...in a way, that statement alone is Spock's guarded way of saying, "That hurt me. And you knew it would hurt me. I could not believe you would do such a thing...but now, I begin to understand..." And honestly, his face says the same thing. He's shaken up, he looks a little dazed; he's trying to reframe what happened--Jim didn't suddenly hate him for being how he was, it was a calculated move, meant to help him. But, it was clear that Jim didn't want Spock to stay that way. There was a Spock Jim knew, and he wanted (and needed) him back. The "freed" part of Spock needed to be repressed again, or at least that's how Spock saw it.

Think I'm way off base? Listen to what he says next:

"I don't belong anymore."

The entire episode, there's been a repeated mentioning of "understanding", of "being one of us"--but Spock is the only one that calls being affected by the spores "belonging". (Even if he wasn't the only one, it wouldn't detract from the importance of that statement.) His entire life, he has desperately wanted to be loved, known, accepted, and to feel at home, and he never had been able to be fully himself. He was always keeping a part of himself under wraps--not a romantic part, but a sentimental, emotional, free-spirited one. On Omicron Ceti III, Spock was finally able to express that part of himself and find only acceptance for it. Even though he knew the truth of why he was able to do that, he loved being loved and accepted so much that he couldn't bear to give it up.

He even begged Jim to stay with him--and you know what he said the spores offered? "There is belonging...and love..." (The theme of belonging returns again.) And is that a surprise? Unconditional love and acceptance, a sense of belonging--of course Spock would treasure those things; he has been searching for them his whole life! And of course he would want to share them with Jim too; even aside from the spores influencing everyone to infect each other, he is clearly more able to express his fondness for Jim, since during the entire time Spock is affected by the spores, he never once calls him Captain--only "Jim". He has always wanted this closeness, this openness, and he finally found it. It's no wonder that he seemed so heartbroken when Jim broke the spell of the spores--that feeling of belonging, despite how much he treasures the people on the Enterprise, was gone. Not for any lack of care from Jim or Bones or anyone else, but because he had never been able to accept himself before. If the spores hadn't forced him to, he never would have; now that they were gone, he found that he could not do so again.

When he says to Leila, as she realizes that he does not love her and has gone back to being who he really is, "If there are self-made purgatories, we all must live in them. Mine can be no worse than any other," he is not saying "I can't love you because I'll be going away on this ship and that wouldn't be logical." He's saying, "I know a lot of how I am, my refusal to express certain things, stems from how I see myself." In a way, his purgatory is indeed self-made. I don't believe this applies to his romantic feelings, or lack of them--they are not a decision--but instead to the freedom that came with accepting who he is.

And that is why the final line of the episode no longer bothers me. Jim gently nudges him by saying, "We still haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti III," and Spock replies, "I haven't much to say about it," pauses, and says,

"Only that...for the first time in my life, I was happy."

I had originally thought that he was saying he was happy because he had "found love", but now I see what he was really saying.

For the briefest of instants, he felt what it was like to love himself.

#spock #star trek #star trek tos #jim kirk #meta #aromantic spock #asexual spock #my meta posts #quality meta seal of approval #kay can i just catch my breath for a second

[kasiapeia]

Alright, so I’d like to preface this with the fact that I don’t like to vague blog about shit because honestly? That shit’s immature and quite frankly, pathetic, but the user this is directed to has blocked me from every means of communication after my previous attempts to reach out to her.

So, fuck it.

You want to talk shit? I’ll fucking talk shit.

You’ve made, what, five posts in the past three days about your view of the situation? You’re that desperate for attention and recognition? I’ll fucking give you attention and recognition, but you sure as hell aren’t going to like it. And if you want to call me out right back for this? Go right ahead. I don’t think I can possibly think worse about you, but let’s see if you manage to change that.

After the amount of shit you’ve pulled, I think you should’ve seen this coming.

“In a perfect world, this will simply never be spoken of again and the two people for whom I dearly care will be allowed to heal in private from the traumatic event.” You’re right. You’re absolutely right. This was never our problem to fucking begin with, but you’ve got the most AMAZING saviour complex I have ever seen in a single person, and I don’t think you’re capable of staying out of other people’s business. I hate to be like “you started this!” like we’re goddamn children, but you really, really did. It is not your duty to speak on others’ behalf about things. This isn’t the first time you’ve done this, so I don’t know why I’m surprised. The amount of times you’ve told me I wasn’t offended enough by something that was directed at me is staggering, and I’m not surprised you felt it necessary to involve yourself in this too.

The two people involved in this should have been allowed to heal from this in private, you’re right, and my sympathies go out to the two involved, but when you’re publicising this everywhere? Unprompted? And all but demanding sympathy for something you absolutely, under no circumstances, deserve sympathy for? I won’t go anywhere near your health or monetary situation because you’re right, those situations suck and you have my sympathy. Nor will I touch your creative works because honestly? They’re good. Your writing is good.

But no writing in the world is good enough to convince people to look past this sort of bullshit.

“Half the people I told decided I was just being dramatic and making a mountain out of a molehill, adding their own fucking knives to the bunch.” Here’s a newsflash: people aren’t obligated to agree with you, and their disagreements aren’t equivocal to a betrayal. The fact that you see any disagreement as a direct betrayal, the fact that you see anything but absolute loyalty as a betrayal is mind-boggling to me. How delusional do you have to be to believe this? Morality is complex, and people are even more so, and people are not obliged to side with you on things. People are allowed to abstain, people are allowed to disagree with you, and people don’t fucking owe you shit.

“There is no betrayal greater than someone repeatedly telling you that your words and actions saved their life and then that person hearing some bullshit, preposterous lie and immediately believing it.” Can we talk about the implications of this for a second? You went out of your way to help people, to supposedly save their life, but this makes it seem like you want them to be eternally indebted to you. You chose to help. You chose to support someone. You can’t take that back now, and if you did, you want that person to, what, die?

Oh, no, wait, you said something about this didn’t you. “So next time you decide to pile on someone because of hearsay, I want all of the joy and happiness and self-improvement that I gave you to wither and die in your soul because you don’t deserve it.” And here your saviour complex rears its ugly head. You expect people to owe you for your friendship. You view it as a transaction. And the instant people turn on you, you remind them that they “owe” you.

Here’s the thing.

Your friends don’t owe you shit. Not after the things you did to them. You were the one who spread the lies. You were the one who told people what to do, and what to say. You were the one who yelled at all those who dared to ask what was happening. I’m sorry that your Patreon is being affected by this, but what did you expect to happen? No one’s been attacking your patrons so they don’t support you. Your patrons have been jumping ship because again:

No writing in the world is good enough to convince people to look past this sort of bullshit.

Content creating is hard. I won’t make light of that situation, and I commend all content creators for continuing to work even under the most difficult of circumstances, but a lack of comments and boosts, or reblogs, or whatever you want is often just how it is. That’s not a sign of sabotage. That’s a sign of usual fandom BS, combined with you pushing away those who used to support you by accusing them of stabbing you in the back. Not, as you say, “[people] spread[ing] nasty lies about you, directly target[ing] your patrons so you make zero money and bully[ing] you out of all fandom activities.”

You said to not fight toxicity with anger – is that what you call this? People calling out your toxicity with justifiable anger? No. These are what I like to call consequences. You can pretend to be filling your own little corner with as much love and as much fun as you want, but that won’t change what you did. You misconstrued something, and then proceeded to slander someone I care about very dearly, and you’re surprised when myself, and many, many others choose to no longer associate with you? To no longer support you?

And I know, with absolute certainty, that this isn’t the first and only thing you’ve done to people you once called friends.

“No one deserves harassment. No one deserves punishment.” On that, we agree, but why, then, did you decide to bring this up now? This happened months ago, except… Except now, you’re seeing the consequences, aren’t you? You’re finally noticing you have fewer people to turn to than you used to. You’re finally noticing that a lack of your friends’ support hurts. You brought this all up again, months later, bringing up painful memories for those involved, and honestly? I’m sick and fucking tired of seeing you hurt people I care about.

You were the one who spread lies about a situation, and then demanded sympathy for it. I can promise you this: you will garner nothing but pity at best, and viewed as pathetic at worst. All lies pertaining “illegal activities” you spread yourself. All disassociation you’ve received from your patrons, you caused yourself.

 “God has decided that I didn’t get the message when He had my mother strangle me that I wasn’t meant to be happy.” I know you’ve gone through a lot terrible things in your life, but how dare you use that as an excuse for acting this terribly? How dare you? As an abuse survivor myself, how fucking dare you? This was never about what you went through. This was never about how I’m still proud of how you overcame what you went through to become a better person. This was about how you manipulated your friends, how you lied to them, how you spread lies in order to garner sympathy, and cut out all those who dared to oppose you?

“I would never call anyone stupid for fostering friendships, even with people I don’t like.” But that’s what you did, isn’t it? You yelled at anyone who dared to ask you why they were supposed to cut someone out of their lives? That’s what you told me. That’s what you told several other people. You kicked them from your life, removed them from anywhere they could contact you. You told us to cancel someone we cared about, and when we asked why – we didn’t even say no, we just asked why – you told us to trust you.

Because in your eyes, people are either with you or against you, and there is nothing in between.

And I pity you for that. Your world is nothing but shades of black and white, and unlike you, I will not wish you suffering. I hope you’re happy in your own little bubble. I hope one day, you can learn from this. I hope that you’ll learn that life isn’t that simple, and if you have anything to say? You’re welcome to say it, because unlike you, I’m willing to admit that I’ve made a mistake or two.

But don’t blame any of this on anyone but yourself.

#you know who you are and you know what you've done #and you think you can get away with this shit? grow up #this isn't high school you petulant child throwing a temper tantrum #Would've sent you this entire thing but you decided to block me as soon as I said both parties were wrong so Tea I guess #but your sense of morality was always rather peculiar

[wr4w-blog]

A Growing Community: r/botany

Reddit is probably my favorite websites. You would be very hard pressed to find a website that compares to reddit in terms of diversity and number of users. The implementation of subsections within the reddit website, which are known as "subreddits," allows reddit community members with similar interests to flock together and bond over shared interests. A large part of reddit's success as a platform is the unique use of upvotes and downvotes to rank both posts and comments. Reddit's upvote system, and the way comments are typically ranked as "hot" or "top," greatly influences the dynamics of the community. Particularly funny or informative posts tend to be the most upvoted, so users tend to word their comments accordingly. Comments that reddit community members do not appreciate are down-voted, which creates a welcoming atmosphere that caters to the particular tastes of any given subreddit. One of my favorite subreddits is r/botany.

The subreddit r/botany is a place where botany enthusiasts from all walks of life can join each other and appreciate the beauty of plants. With over 75,000 community members, r/botany is a relatively large subreddit. The content on r/botany has a wide range of depth. The content generated on the subreddit can be as simple as basic questions about common plants, and as complex as in-depth discussions about graduate level plant physiology.

Vaguely worded questions and low effort posts that reddit users add to the subreddit tend to pass through with very few comments, and even fewer upvotes. The community consistently upvotes content that includes thought provoking questions, photos of exceptionally uncommon plants, or interesting botanical facts. Users that post simple botanical questions on r/botany are typically encouraged to head over to one of the many subreddits that focuses on basic plant related content, such as r/gardening, r/whatsthisplant, or r/trees.

Community members on r/botany rarely seem to disagree. The replies usually build off of each other when a botanical question is posted on the subreddit. Initially, there will be one or two responses that broadly answer a question that is posted. Other community members will then join in and add layers of complexity to the pool of responses. One poster may directly answer the question that started the thread, and another user that is more knowledgeable about the topic will come along and augment the information that has already been contributed.  

The subreddit r/botany is most definitely a haven for people that are genuinely interested in plant physiology, plant ecology, and botanical history. The “about community” section on r/botany’s homepage sidebar summarizes the subreddit’s purpose as concisely and accurately as possible:

A great way to gauge the posting style that is most successful on r/botany is to sort the content by top all-time:

 It is clear that r/botany holds botanical education in high regard. Two of the three most upvoted posts in the subreddit's history were made by college students who simply shared their passion for studying botany with the community. The fourth, fifth, and sixth top all-time posts on r/botany are fascinating images of plant morphology, images of specimens that even a seasoned botanist doesn't get the chance to see very often. One theme that the top three posts have in common is the amount of time, effort, and passion that the content creators put into the field of botany. Community members recognize and respect the level of interest they share with the top posters, so they reward their content with encouraging comments and many upvotes. Interestingly enough, the comments on the top posts are typically very simple. The comments on top all-time posts are often just expressions of appreciation, and are rarely more than a few encouraging words. The brief and shallow comment that dominates the top all-time posts goes against the grain of comments on most top-daily, top-weekly, and top-monthly posts.

When the time frame for most upvoted posts on r/botany is shortened, the initial posts and subsequent comments tend to become more complex. This phenomenon holds true across most subreddits, and it is especially common with subreddits that involve a deep well of knowledge or complex subject matter. When enough people who are browsing r/all upvote a post, then it is pushed up the "hot" queue, which then leads to more exposure on the reddit front-page. Posts that are heavily upvoted may also be cross-posted to other subreddits, and as the cycle continues, the range of redditors that are able to see and comment on the post continues to grow

 The botany subreddit is generally pretty laid back, but like all subreddits there is a list of community rules that can be found on the sidebar:

The rules for r/botany are simple and seem to be somewhat vaguely worded, which allows moderators to filter content in a subjective way. There is rarely any aggression or negativity in the comments on r/botany, although this may be due to heavy moderation. Generally, the upvote-downvote system that reddit utilizes discourages people from being aggressive. Negative or hurtful comments are quickly down-voted, which leads to the comments being buried at the bottom of the page when the default "best" comment sorting is enabled. It is hard to estimate how many posts are removed from the subreddit, but many posts that could be interpreted as violating the rules seem to stay up on the subreddit for at least twenty-four hours. 

While many questionable posts appear to stay up on the subreddit, I personally discovered that it is quite easy to have a post removed by moderators for violating the vaguely worded rules. My very first post to r/botany was removed for violating the plant id rule of the subreddit, despite the fact that I was not directly asking for the community to identify a plant. All I did was ask about good botanical guides for use in the Pacific Northwest:

 I then reposted the same question after rewording the title and omitting "ID," but my post didn't gain any traction. I was honestly surprised by the lack of response to my post. I thought that posing a serious question, and sharing some of my personal interest in botany, would be enough to engage community members in a fruitful conversation.

The majority of my posts did not gain any traction. My first post to r/botany wasn't the only content of mine that was removed by moderators for violating the rules. My second post to the subreddit was also removed for "a variety of reasons." Given the rules listed on the subreddit sidebar, I assume that the picture I posted was not particularly unique or interesting, or at least in the opinion of the moderator. I also made a couple of comments replying to topics that didn't gain much traction aside from a couple of upvotes. My comments didn't receive a ton of feedback, but the vast majority of comments on r/botany are not highly upvoted. The majority of comments on the subreddit do not gain much traction. While slightly disappointing, the lack of noteworthy feedback on my comments doesn't mean that I failed to contribute content to the subreddit. Many posts and replies to those posts have low upvote counts, which I attribute to the range of subject matter that is posted on r/botany. There is a good chance that a topic that catches my attention will appear disinteresting to the average r/botany user. The connection that each individual community member has to a niche area of botany will largely drive whether or not they find a post interesting, and botany is a very diverse scientific field with many areas of interest.

I attribute my initial lack of success with engaging with community members to the overall lack of effort that I was putting towards the content that I was sharing. I failed to include enough relatable detail in the content that I generated, which resulted in community members simply scanning over my comments or posts without feeling the urge to build on what I had to offer. Instead of continuing on my path of low effort content contributions, I decided to take a new approach: appealing to r/botany's respect of education. I found that stating the true purpose for my posting on the subreddit, which was to create content for a class assignment, resulted in a surprisingly high amount of feedback from community members. My post:

In addition to engaging the community through the lens of an academic, I also made an effort to stroke the egos of r/botany community members by asking them to talk about themselves. In 24 hours nearly 90 people upvoted my post, and over 70 people gave thoughtful replies in the comments section. As I'm writing this blog entry, the number of upvotes that my post received puts it in fourth place among the most upvoted posts in the past week, and the other top posts have been up for five or more days. At this rate my most recent post will likely receive over 100 comments and even more upvotes. It took several failed attempts, but it appears that I've finally found a way to connect with the r/botany community and contribute high quality content. 

Posting to r/botany with either negative or little to no feedback really helped me understand what makes the subreddit tick. The subreddit truly is a place for dedicated community members to share their common interest in botany. By rotating my community interactions between comments and posts, I was able to see more of the community and experience both sides of the creative process. I feel as though I wouldn't have had any successful interactions if I had simply kept trying to get upvotes by posting a pretty picture or intelligent sounding question (assuming success is measured by karma in the case of reddit).

Overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the time that I’ve spent scrolling through posts on r/botany. I have been able to have fruitful discussions, learn many interesting botanical facts, and I’ve also probably wasted a bunch of time, but that’s what reddit is for. The botany subreddit is a great example of what makes reddit great: passionate people joining each other on the internet to bond over shared interests. I look forward to continuing my visits to r/botany and doing my part to help contribute to this wonderful networked community.

Works Cited

“Reddit.” Reddit, 13 Jan. 2009, https://www.reddit.com/r/botany/.

Gordon, Deveron. “Reddit.” Reddit, 22 Jan. 2020, www.reddit.com/user/Wr4Wthrowaway/comments/esm1cn/pnw_flora_guides/.

Gordon, Deveron. “Reddit.” Reddit, 15 Feb. 2020, https://www.reddit.com/r/botany/comments/f4xy8h/when_did_your_interest_in_botany_start_growing/

#r/botany #reddit #writing #botany

[steves-on-a-plane]

Don’t Get Attached (P11)

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten Words: 1724 Connor x Daughter!Reader w/ Dad!Hank Anderson A/N: Okay so couple of things with this chapter. It’s longer than most, (like double the length!) because a lot of the dialogue is straight from the Meet Kamski Chapter in the game, but don’t worry there is definite enough of my personal flair in it too. Also this is the 2nd version of this chapter that I wrote. Originally I was going to take this in a whole other direction, but then I got an idea from @dragonempress123′s comment on one of the older Parts. (I’m not saying which one.) And honestly I’m really happy with the direction that this version takes instead. I can post what I’ll call the “Non-Canon” Part 11, if there’s enough interest, but going forward the story will be built based on this version. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Jeez, I’m glad Connor gave me this jacket.” You shivered in the back seat of your father’s beat up old car. “It’s freezing up here.”

“Don’t you have plenty of your own coats?” Your father hissed.

“Sure, but this one’s better.” You zipped up the jacket a little bit more to further drive home your point. “You could just get a car with functional heat you know.”  

“Connor doesn’t mind that there’s no heat. Do you?” He cast a brief glance in the andriod’s direction before looking back at the road. The car was almost at the end of Kamski’s snow-covered driveway.

“While I am not affected by temperature changes in my environment, I can certainly understand how the lack of a functional heating system would be uncomfortable for [Y/N].” Connor replied.

“I should have known it was only a matter of time before you two started to gang up on me.” Hank sighed. “We’re here. Leave the coat in the car will ya?”

“Absolutely not!” You argued immediately. “What if this guy is as cheap as you and doesn’t have his heat on?”

“Will you just get out of the car then?” He snapped in frustration.

You and Connor followed your father up to Kamski’s front door. Hank rang the doorbell and a blonde android answered. Introductions were made to the android did not question why you, a civilian, was along with two police personnel. Instead she greeted everyone warmly and ushered you all inside. After a brief wait, you were escorted into the next room. Kamski was swimming in a lap pool, joined by two more identical blonde androids.

“Guess androids haven’t been a bad thing for everybody.” Your father said, only loud enough for you and Connor to hear.

“Who gets blood red pool tiles?” You added  just as quietly. Kamski padded his way over to a ladder and climbed out of the pool.

“What can I do for you and your partners, Lieutenant?” He asked while one of the blonde androids offered him a robe. Now it was clear to you why no one had questioned your presence. They all assumed that you were an android just like Connor. Your father had been right after all. All it took to be mistaken for an android was something as insignificant as a jacket.

“Sir, we’re investigating deviants.” Your father played into the ruse because it seemed easier than explaining himself. “I know you left Cyberlife years ago, but I was hoping you’d be able to tell us something we don’t know.”

“Deviants.” Kamski repeated. “Fascinating, aren’t they? Perfect beings with infinite intelligence and now they have free will.  Machines are so superior to us, confrontation was inevitable. Humanity’s greatest achievement threatens to be its downfall. Isn’t it Ironic?”

“We need to understand how the androids become deviants.” Connor clarified. You could tell from his expression that he was not amused by Kamski’s reveling. “Do you know anything that could help us?”

“All ideas are virus that spread like epidemics. Is the desire to be free a contagious disease?” Kamski asked.

“Listen, I didn’t come here to talk philosophy.” Hank interjected impatiently. “The machines you created may be planning a revolution. Either you can tell us something that’ll be helpful, or we will be on our way.” Kamski scanned all three of your faces before setting his attention on Connor.

“What about you, Connor?” He pried, stepping towards him. “Who’s side are you on?”

“It’s not about me, Mr. Kamski.” Connor replied defensively. “All I want is to solve this case.”

“Well, that’s what you’re programed to say.” Kamski chuckled. “But you. What do you really want?” You exchanged a glance with your father. As much as Kamski’s badgering was making you uncomfortable, you were still curious how Connor would respond.

“What I want is not important.” Connor explained.

“I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Turning test. Mere formality.” Kamski said now addressing all three of you. “Simple question of algorithms and computing capacity. What interests me is whether machines are capable of empathy. I call it the ‘Kamski test’ it’s very simple you’ll see…” He was now looking at you. Studying your face. Surveying you as if you were a prized antique up for auction. His attention made you uncomfortable. Connor made a subtle side step so that he was partially shielding you.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?” Kamski continued, still looking right at you. “Perfect and beautiful forever. A flower that will never wither. But what is it really?” He looked away from you to ask your father. “A Piece of plastic imitating a human? Or a living being with a soul?”

Kamski turned his back to everyone to reach for something. He opened a drawer and removed an object. When he was facing you again, you realized the object was a gun. You stiffened at the sight of firearm. You weren’t afraid of guns necessarily. Your dad had been a cop your whole life after all, but there was something about Kamski’s demeaner that made him seem unpredictable. Connor took a very calculated half step in front of you for protection. Again, you and your father shared a concerned sideways glance.

“It’s up to you to answer that fascinating question, Connor.” Kamski handed Connor the gun. Connor looked down at the weapon, perplexed. “Destroy this machine and I’ll tell you everything I know.” Kamski stepped forward and pivoted Connor’s body. He raised the android’s arm so that the gun was pointed directly at you.

“[Y/N]!” Your father called out for you, but Kamski was standing directly in his way, his hand still over Connor’s with the gun. If he moved, Kamski might shoot him instead.

“It is alright, Lieutenant.” You said in your best impression of an android. It was a shaky impression, but enough to do the trick. There was no doubt in your mind that Connor wouldn’t shoot you. You trusted him implicitly. However, there was still that illogical part of you somewhere panicking because a gun was pointed right at your head.

. “Or spare it, if you think it’s alive but you’ll leave here without having learnt anything from me.” Kamski told Connor. The billionaire released his hold on the gun and took a step back.

“Okay, we’re done here.” Your father interrupted. He’d had enough if this entire situation. “Put the gun down, Connor.”

“No interference from the peanut gallery!” Kamski snarled at you. “For the test to be conclusive, Connor has to make the choice on his own. Decide who you are. An obedient machine, or a living being endowed with free will. What’s more important to you Connor? Your investigation or the life of his android?”

“This is ridiculous. She’s not an android! That’s my daughter!” Your father snapped. “[Y/N], I told you to take that fucking coat off.”

“Even better.” Kamski seemed unfazed. “If she’s human, that makes for an even more thrilling test of empathy. A true machine will accomplish it’s mission at all cost, Connor. Regardless of your relationship with your human partner or his daughter. But a living being? Well how could you look into her eyes and decide that learning more about deviants is more valuable than [Y/N] Anderson’s life?”

“Connor, you put that fucking gun down now!” Hank ordered. His hand hovered slightly over his own gun, but he knew better than to draw it too early. He’d been in enough stand offs to know that introducing more weapons to the situation on decreased you, the hostage’s, chance of survival.  

Connor hadn’t spoke since Kamski had handed him the gun and neither had you. He kept his arm pointed at you exactly how Kamski had angled it, but still you knew that you had nothing to fear. For a brief second the thought did cross your mind that maybe Connor might actually do it. That he could pull the trigger and you’d be gone, but you knew Connor better than that.

Connor had been displaying signs of empathy for several days now. Whether android were supposed to or not, Connor actually cared about you and your father both. You guessed that he was just waiting for the right moment to lower the gun. Kamski was obviously an unstable individual and even if Connor didn’t shoot you, it was reasonable to assume that Kamski might himself if he felt cheated out of his “Kamski Test.”

“Pull the trigger.” The billionaire bated.

“Connor don’t you dare.” Hank took a step forward, obviously not in on the secret revelation between you and Connor.

“From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” Connor recited just in case you hadn’t already figured out that he had no intention on shooting you. He lowered the gun without hesitation.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Your father asked. He jumped between the two of you immediately, just in case Connor changed his mind.  

“Romeo and Juliet, Lieutenant.” Kamski answered taking back his gun. He shook his head. “Cyberlife’s last chance to save humanity is itself a deviant.”

“I’m…” Connor opened his mouth to argue but his processor must have been overloaded. It took him several seconds to manage; “I’m not a deviant.”

“You preferred to spare [Y/N]’s life rather than accomplish your mission.” Kamski disagreed. “You saw her fear and you showed her empathy. A war is coming you’ll have to choose your side. Will you betray your own people or stand up against your creators?” Connor did not respond. “What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?”

“Connor, C’mon.” You slipped your hand inside of his, lacing your fingers together just like you would on one of your walks with Sumo. Now holding hands the android let you tug him away. You walked towards the door while your father gladly brought up the rear. Hank had a protective hand on each of you so that neither of you could turn around or more likely in your case, head back into the room once the shock wore off and go off on Kamski for what he’d just done.

“By the way,” Kamski called out, unmoving from his position. “I always leave and emergency exit in my programs. You never know.”

“Just keep walkn’.” Your father mumbled in warning. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tags:  @racrneko @that-random-chick-named-tori @noodledraw@mariahlambslbs @sdavid09 @baebecca @black-and-white-eyes@twdpansy @revenge-parti @grievance-s@mikithekiki  @kazuha159 @dragonempress123 @the-razy-pie-rope@layinglonely @talle-2002 @trash-is-my-name @geolusun@professionalfangirl1738 @ask-angel-of-death @havanbcby @beautifulsilvermarch @myemoescape @sweetlittleviper@fineactually @manymanyenvelopes @demonpandu @mikkasao @21putnamp@comeheretiger @pringtella @deathbyhollywood @itstrashleydude@clowntapus @dragonempress123@tenderlytremendouskittens @lovelittledoyouknow @etherealpeachh @omelys-space @xesthete-cxssi @itstrashleydude @loopy-lolly-loo @abigfanofyours @onceuponagleepottermindlock @missjayi @treanna-hatake @bunnie-kookie @bvngtanboiz @kumamno @jinwonholeo @erinitoburrito @kinggst @line-viper @treanna-hatake @pxnisparker @goalsweight @ayajackson @taylor-swifter-sweeper @ohskit @ninatheotter @regular-mexican-girl @katiekitty261@iknowrocknroll567 @Ispheygurl @hidenbarrista @doctorpaintedwhore  @dechartduo @rainbowzephyr @sherlockspie @mybrilliantusername@wishuponawriter @fandomloverlord221

*If you would like to be tagged in the Don’t Get Attached series, simply reply to this post or submit an ask.*

#Connor DBH #DBH Connor #DBH Fan Fic #DBH Fan Fiction #DBH Connor x Reader #DBH Connor Reader Insert #Connor DBH x Reader #Connor DBH Reader Insert #Connor x Reader #Connor rk800 #Connor Rk800 Fan Fic #Dont Get Attached #Deviants #DEEE VEEE ANNN TZ

[rahirah]

via Barb's Place We went to see Crimes of Grindelwald Saturday, and while it was moderately enjoyable in parts, it was definitely not in the class of the first movie. This morning I went out to the back yard to dig a hole to plant the sugar cane. About a foot or so down, I struck the corner of a big hunk of concrete. It was too far down to be left over from our recent fence construction, and I was curious, so I dug the whole thing out. It was a fence footing; there was the rusted remains of a metal post in the middle. It was outside the fence line that existed when we bought the house; Kathy suggested that it might have been a fence around the long-dry-and-capped-off well on that corner of the yard. The interesting thing, though, was that once I'd dug out the concrete, I found something underneath it. This bottle was buried upside down in the dirt, placed precisely so the end of the metal pole would have stood on it, as if upon a pedestal. I'm lucky that I didn't accidentally hit it with the shovel and break it. It must have been done deliberately – possibly to hold the end of the pole up off the bottom of the original hole, so that cement could get underneath it when poured? I don't know. It's not an especially old or valuable bottle (given the age of the house, I think it would date, at the earliest, to the 60s). But the knowledge that there could be small secrets hidden in any random patch of soil is a strange and wonderful thing.

I spent some time this weekend doing digging of another kind. Over at seasonal_spuffy there was a post asking people who'd participated in the first round back in 2005 to share their memories. So I went back into my journal archives to hunt for any relevant posts I could link to, and I ended up skimming through a bunch of old entries from late 2005 through mid-2007. It was a nostalgic treat to see so many old names who've long since left fandom, and sad at the same time. There were several notable fandom kerfuffles in that time period: the Cousin Jean thing, the fall_for_spike brouhaha (which led directly to the founding of seasonal_spuffy) and a lot of other, smaller squabbles, many of which I'd entirely forgotten. It was strange reading my old posts. My writing style was a good deal more performative in those days; reading them, I feel as if I'm reading someone who's desperate to impress people with how witty she is. (Which I was. And still am, alas.) Occasionally I ran across things that made me cringe; did I really say that? But at the same time, I envy that old me her willingness to engage in debate. (Even, ironically, as she professed herself to be too worn out on fannish debate to indulge. Ha, Younger!Barb had no idea.) I stopped reading at about the point that the first issues of Buffy S8 were published; it's at that point that Spuffy fandom started to gradually become rancorous again, as people disagreed about the comics, and I didn't feel like revisiting that particular era. (It's not that 2004-2006 were completely free of fannish conflict; as I said, there were several notable wanks during that period. But 2007-2010 was more of an eat-your-own period.) Even in the posts I read, I noticed the beginnings of a few conflicts that came to a head later. For one thing, you can gradually see the political polarization of fandom growing. Prior to the 2004 election, I can't remember politics ever coming up in fannish space. But the huge anti-gay political backlash of 2004 brought politics into fandom with a vengeance. Buffy fandom skewed liberal, as one might imagine – indeed, I'm really not sure why the show would appeal to most social conservatives. Though I certainly knew my share of conservative fannish women who thought homosexuality was a sin in the real world, but nevertheless read and wrote reams of porny male/male slash fiction. A number of my own readers were against civil rights for same sex couples; they didn't like it when I pointed out that if they were willing to consume my fan fiction and exchange friendly comments with me, while at the same time voting to keep me a second class citizen, they were not really my friends – that a polite homophobe was still a homophobe. By 2006, the conservative fans were complaining that liberal fans were oppressing them. (The precise form of this oppression was never very clear.) By 2008, IIRC, the most vocal conservative BtVS fans had closed their journals in a huff. Of course, Strikethrough happened in 2007, and a lot of people closed their journals in a huff. I think the last big argument along those lines happened in 2009, when Aadler objected to the presence of slash programming at Writercon 2009. The roots of some more personal kerfuffles were there, too. One was a person who disagreed with everything I wrote – they claimed to be a Spike fan, but I honestly can't remember them ever saying anything positive about the character, ever. We'd become acquainted at the Tea At The Ford forum, but never friended each other on LJ. Nevertheless, any time I posted meta, they felt the need to come over to my journal and tell me in great detail just how wrong I was. I had long since decided that there was zero point in arguing with them, because our premises were incompatible. But in those days I strove to respond politely to everyone who commenting in my journal, so there are quite a few long comment strings of us going back and forth. Eventually, IIRC, they compared my fan fiction to Silas Marner, while admitting they hadn't actually read any of it, (my fanfic, that is, not Silas Marner) and that made me cranky enough that I stopped responding to them. Another one was a person who was a Buffy/Spike fan, but they only liked the dark, dysfunctional S6 part of the relationship. They were very grouchy about Spike having been redeemed in canon, and even grouchier about the fact that the vast majority of Spuffy writers preferred to write the pairing as more or less functional. To this day I have no idea why they were hanging around my journal (like Person #1, they never friended me, just popped in occasionally to comment on posts they disagreed with.) Eventually, IIRC, I made some sort of grumpy post about something in canon I disliked; I don't even remember if it was about the comics, or Seasons6-/7, or what. But they responded, telling me that if I didn't like canon, I should leave the fandom. Looking at it now, that was a pretty ridiculous thing for them to say, considering how much they themselves disliked the fact that S7 Spuffy wasn't a total trainwreck. I could have just laughed it off. But they caught me in a bad mood, and I was tired of them coming to my journal just to tell me that they didn't like my fic and thought my meta was dumb, so I snapped at them. I don't remember if I outright told them to stop commenting on my journal, or if I just asked them why the hell they were reading me when they disliked everything I wrote. Either way, they were highly insulted, called me a bully or something similar, and stomped off in a huff. I never heard from them again. There were much rider-ranging kerfuffles that came later, towards the end of S8, which culminated in me bowing out of the fandom entirely for awhile. But reading these old posts and seeing the first stirrings of these smaller arguments felt like signs of things to come, signs I should have taken heed of. I always like to think of myself as a reasonable person who can get on with most people, even the ones I disagreed with. Someone who can handle criticism. But a lot of the time, I fail in that. Which is depressing. But all one can do is try to do better next time. That's all any of us can do, really. comments

#IFTTT #Barb's Place

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Spider-Man: Miles Morales review contains spoilers.

At the dawn of a new console generation, Insomniac Games brings us the PlayStation-exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a continuation of the studio’s excellent Marvel’s Spider-Man. It’s a full-bodied game with a compelling, emotional story at its heart, and while much of the game will feel familiar to those who have played its predecessor, the storytelling and characters have a distinctive tone that sets the game apart.

The story picks up one year after the conclusion of the first game, with teenage hero Miles Morales sitting under Peter Parker’s proverbial learning tree, helping the OG webhead keep New York City safe and learning on the job. When Peter goes on holiday with Mary Jane to Europe, Miles is left as the city’s sole protector, and it’s not long before he’s put to the test. Urban warfare breaks out between shady tech corporation Roxxon and a mysterious mastermind named the Tinkerer. Throughout the game’s campaign, we follow Miles as pushes himself to the breaking point to keep the peace.

What I appreciated most about the story is that it’s deeply personal and more culturally in tune with New York City’s diverse communities. Outside of his superheroics, Miles is anchored by his city council-campaigning mom, Rio Morales, his social media-savvy best friend Ganke, and his “other best friend” Phin, with whom he built an “energy converter” at the tech academy they attended (they’re…giant nerds).

Some of the best games released this year have featured people of color in prominent roles, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is no exception, boasting a diverse and fleshed out cast. Miles and his mom move from Brooklyn to Harlem at the story’s outset, and it’s clear the developers took the time to ensure that the game reflected what these neighborhoods and communities are all about. The game’s title screen features a close-up of Miles’s 6-inch Timbs on an NYC subway, at one his mom buys them dulce de coco while out on the street, and on several occasions we see residents of Harlem calling Miles’s Spider-Man “OUR Spider-Man.” I’ve got absolutely nothing bad to say about Peter Parker or the mainline Spider-Man franchise, yet it’s such a joy to see blockbuster superhero stories being told that don’t revolve around white men.

It’s important to note that this review is based on the PlayStation version of the game. While the graphically enhanced PS5 version will undoubtedly look spectacular, I’ve got to say that this game already looks dazzling on current-gen hardware. The New York Cityscape from the first game is as picturesque as ever, except this time you get to see the city blanketed in snow, with Miles swinging up and down Manhattan in the wintertime as the city readies for the holidays. 

The game looks smoother and more refined than its predecessor. Lighting, shadow effects, and texture quality seem to have been improved, but what really stands out is the animation. Insomniac did a great job with character animations in the first game (the game’s excellent motion blur effects aid this greatly), and the studio has managed to push things even further. Characters move and gesture more naturally than ever before. Miles’s movement reflects his personality and age in an interesting way, too–he’s less confident and experienced than Peter, so his swinging and fighting are a bit less elegant and slightly more awkward.

The animation is of course driven by the gameplay, which is fundamentally the same as what we saw in the original game but sees some interesting tweaks, particularly in regards to enemy encounters. While Peter Parker’s three skill trees were “Innovator,” “Defender,” and “Webslinger,” which focused on combat, evasion, and traversal, respectively, Miles’s three trees are “Combat Skills,” “Venom Skills,” and “Camouflage Skills.”

“Combat Skills” improve melee attacks and give you perks that shorten cooldown times, allow you to perform more effective disarm techniques, and more. “Venom Skills” harness Miles’ newly acquired “Venom Power,” which allows him to charge objects and fry enemies with crackling bolts of electricity that can break through armor, take down gigantic foes like the rampaging Rhino, and even launch Miles and his enemies high into the air (this affects traversal as well). “Camouflage Skills” revolve around Miles’s other new ability, to turn invisible for a period of time, with the various skills in the tree bolstering your ability to take enemies out stealthily.

Miles’s venom power and camouflage abilities help enemy encounters stand out from the first game while maintaining the same fluidity of combat that Insomniac perfected in the original. The combat system isn’t without its flaws, though. For example, things can get a little messy and too cluttered when a ton of enemies are all lunging and shooting at you at once, which can make it almost impossible to follow the action or discern what the Spider Sense indicators are telling you. A few of these hectic action sequences resulted in my death, which felt a little cheap, but turning invisible also saved my ass numerous times in tense situations. Overall, though, the combat is on par with what you’ve come to expect from this franchise. The stealth elements were also a blast to mess around with, especially in combination with the venom powers.

Release Date: Nov. 12, 2020 Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), PS5 Developer: Insomniac Games Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Genre: Action-adventure

There are a multitude of missions and tasks to complete around the city, including enemy base takeovers, hidden enemy caches, and ability trials that earn you new skills. I loved the latter—Peter set up the trials for Miles, and his commentary during these sections via “hard-light” hologram is hilarious.

The game also offers a new way to accept missions in the form of a social media app Ganke creates where civilians in need can connect with Miles directly. There’s also a “Social Feed” tab that’s been added to the pause menu where you can read comments from people around the city and watch Rio Morales interact with her supporters as she campaigns for city council. It’s a supplemental feature that you can choose to ignore, though it does help flesh out the game world. I appreciated Insomniac’s commitment to making New York feel alive with activity and social interaction, and it definitely added to my experience in a good way.

But again, what truly makes Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales such a worthwhile experience is the story, and it unfolds nicely, with a central plot twist that isn’t simply meant to surprise you—it adds depth to the narrative and raises the emotional stakes about as high as they can get. This is a story about New York’s marginalized communities, embracing one’s true self, and the sacrifice it takes to exceed expectations.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers here, but I do have one major gripe with the storytelling. One of the main character arcs in the game feels disingenuous and unearned, especially toward the end of the game. The story sets this character up nicely in the beginning and conveys a clear sense of who they are, but the way they behave at the end of the game just feels too extreme and doesn’t make much sense. This wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, but it definitely left me scratching my head.

Insomniac created one of the best superhero games of all time in Marvel’s Spider-Man, and all of the things that made that game great are still present in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Swinging around New York is as exhilarating as ever, and the new weather effects Insomniac has implemented — a brutal thunderstorm late in the game is a standout — look fantastic and a bit more depth to the game world.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

One of the geekier appeals of the original game was the array of unlockable costumes, and the feature returns with even more awesome costumes for Miles to don. His version of the 2099 costume is one of my favorites, as is the Into the Spider-Verse suit, which is sure to please fans of the runaway 2018 hit movie.

There are a ton of surprises and tie-ins to the first game that are revealed as you play Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales which I can’t reveal here, but it’s safe to say that Insomniac isn’t anywhere near done telling this story. I had a great time with the game, and while some will probably complain that the campaign is a tad short, I respectfully disagree. It took me around 16 hours to complete the main story (I often got lost in side missions and aimless swinging on the way), and this honestly felt like the sweet spot length-wise. The story felt tight with little filler, the gameplay never grew stale, and I enjoyed myself from beginning to end.

The post Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/36etMJo

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[coyotelaughingsoftly]

What’s your take on JKR’s stand on Johnny Depp/Grindelwald issue?

Okay. It’s important for everyone to first of all understand that I don’t give a damn about celebs as people. Yes, I wish them well, hope nothing bad happens, yadda yadda yadda. I don’t care who they marry. I don’t research their relationships with their mother. I don’t, as one acquaintance of mine, have every picture of Suri Cruise ever published. (What about Rupert, I hear some of you ask? He’s a complete behavioral aberration that confuses even me, although I think part of his appeal is his reticence.) Aside from (some) actors/actresses, I don’t even know what they look like if they don’t perform in a visible media—I only know what JKR looks like because so many people reblogged her on here. Needless to say, I don’t follow any of them on social media platforms, I don’t read tabloids, and as soon as I see a text post with a famous name in it that isn’t short enough to be a joke, I skip it. The point I’m trying to make is that I haven’t followed any of this closely (nor do I care to), so I’m only going on the little I’ve seen and a couple of casual conversations I had.The main thing I’m getting is that people are pissed at her for allowing, or at least not speaking out against, Johnny Depp appearing in the latest movie. I can see why, for some, that would be hard to take. (And let me make really clear right now, since I know if I don’t I’ll be accused of it; I don’t care about him. I don’t care if I ever see another movie he performs in or not.) JD was accused and went on trial. The details I saw felt.....off. Mainly the fact that she claimed to have concrete evidence, then failed to give it even though she had plenty of support and was being given the chance. Instead, she took the money, which increases the feeling that something was wrong about all that, or else that she, the victim, considered that full recompense for herself. (And no, I personally don’t believe something like that can be bought off, but I’ve known several victims that were more than willing to to accept it as such, and that’s a personal decision each one has to make for themselves.)His wife retracted her accusation for money. Even though I’m sure some will argue the point, she didn’t have to. She could have kept going and made him bleed. In essence, she made a final legal statement absolving him of guilt. Whether that was true or not, that’s what she went with. Given the nature of the evidence and how things concluded, for a lot of people there’s too much nuance to render a verdict and be 100% sure of being right. One friend of mine was getting heated about it, and I made the comment, ‘I’m surprised he doesn’t just go ahead and blow his brains out; that’s all he’s good for now.’ Cue much spluttering about how horrible it is to wish suicide on someone, that while they’re alive they could change, or maybe they really didn’t do it, etc. Then I asked what was the point? ‘You say he shouldn’t have any type of career, he should be abandoned by friends and family, and universally loathed for the rest of his life. What’s the point of living with that?’ Naturally they got very defensive, and said that even if he wasn’t legally convicted, he could confess and make a public apology.And there’s the rub. That’s what people want. A big, sloppy, public apology for them to wallow in so they can feel either morally justified in denying, or benevolent for accepting. The court of law might be through with him, but the court of public opinion demand their bite, too. And it’s one that will never be satisfied on this point. Some seriously do believe he should die for it, whether he did it or not. Some say that if he makes a public and genuine apology and owns up to everything, they’ll never feel the same about him, but they can allow him to rebuild, so to speak. Some are confused why, in spite of his wife having similar claims leveled against her (which still obviously wouldn’t make anything that might have happened to her right), she’s allowed to continue on her way, as if her victim doesn’t matter. No one is going to agree to the same exact extent. If you honestly believe that watching a movie says ‘yes, I support his every action outside of a role’ (which, if you actually think about it, leaves you open up to condoning quite more than you realize since no media you consume is pure), then you shouldn’t watch it. If you’re not sure what to believe because you genuinely want the facts no matter what they are, but the whole thing is making you feel guilty or disgusted just looking at him? Give it a pass. Because whether it’s right or wrong, at this level you shouldn’t go against your own private moral compass.Do you feel that there’s insufficient evidence for you to feel comfortable making a judgment, and you don’t think that consuming a product immediately means that you condone every single action by every party involved? Watch the movie. Do you think that her acceptance of money and the public statement she made, in tandem with her dropping the suit, means that in HER eyes that the outcome was legally acceptable, and that the public’s opinion is less than hers? Watch it, if you want.Do you think that what actually happened doesn’t matter, or think that even if he is guilty, you don’t care? Then you are a miserable shitstain on the panties of Mother Earth, and any argument I make won’t sway you out of the choice that brings you gratification. (All of) that being said, JKR has apparently decided that A) He’s been legally cleared, B) There’s not enough evidence for her to make a call, C) For all we know, she’s spoken to the actual parties involved and has enough insight into the matter to go ahead. That’s her choice. And aaaaaaallllll of the different people I’ve mentioned are trying to demand that she share their view and act as they would. She doesn’t owe anyone that. No celebrity does. The fact that we WANT one to pass judgement as if their word is some type of Divine law is kind of......creepy. Seriously. We want someone to make a judgement so we can judge both in turn. We’ll let ourselves be swayed by what one person—a person not even involved mind you—decides about someone else. And we’ll either follow along and pat ourselves on the back that we’re Socially Conscious and a part of the Morally Elite, or if what they say doesn’t line up with what we wanted them to say, we turn on them and get the same satisfaction for burning a wit—calling them out. Personally, I’ve never cared for JKR outside of what she wrote in 7 books. I’ve ignored her opinions and views on the world not because I disagree with them, but because I don’t believe that someone’s voice should have more weight just because of fame. If she did it because she cared more about money than the abuse, that’s disgusting and indefensible. But if she has weighed the evidence and doesn’t feel that it is strong enough to give her the right to judge, or that since his wife has taken the settlement and made a statement that she felt she has been given her due, that’s her choice. If she’s privy to information that the public doesn’t have access to, it’s also her choice. One she’s allowed to make, just like the rest of us, and it’s pointless and ridiculous for people take a nuanced situation and say, ‘If she’s not out for his blood, she’s an apologist!’AGAIN, I’ve been asked for my personal opinion, which I can only give on the information I have. Ultimately only the two people directly involved know what went on. Based on what is known, I’m not going to bay for his blood or plead his case as a misunderstood and wronged angel. Nor am I going to say whether JKR was right in making supportive statements (ignoring the outcry of whether or not she should have refused to have him, since I’m not sure of her contractual rights in that regard) because she is ALSO having to judge a situation that’s had enough inconsistencies to make certainty murky at best. It really depends on why she came to that decision. And as much as I know everyone wants a step by step guide to her thought process so they know whether or not to like her is okay anymore, it’s unlikely to happen. In summation:Domestic abuse: Bad. Wrong. Never justified. (I’m not counting striking out in defense of self or others, obviously.)Excusing or ignoring the above. Bad. Wrong. Being confused about conflicting evidence and being afraid to make an inaccurate judgement call without firsthand evidence: Perfectly natural, as long as it’s motivated by a desire for true justice and not just wanting to admit someone you may have admired has done a bad thing.Choosing how you, personally, react to someone who has been convicted or casually accused, and how much of their content you consume: Depending on motivation can be right or wrong, but it is your choice.Forcing someone to comply to your choice and accusing them of supporting abuse if their opinions don’t line up exactly. No. Wrong. Welcome to New Wave Puritanism.Wanting someone (whether celeb, politician, or blogger) to be the Priest/Priestess of High Morals to sway people to follow their judgements on others without giving your own thought and research: A Fucking Extremely Unwise Choice.(Sorry this is long and rambly, but I’m on mobile and half sick. If I wasn’t clear about something I’ll try to fix it later.)

[topoffyourhat]

Thoughts On SDCC Supergirl Interview:

Okay so take my thoughts, feelings, and opinions on this matter as you see fit. I know everyone is entitled to their own ideals here and may not take mine seriously since I’m a white, heterosexual woman but I just wanna get mine out there based off what I’ve read, seen, and heard regarding this topic. Here are the things I gathered and taken from this:

1. The interview wasn’t taken seriously from the get go (except for Katie, David, and Odette) which is what pissed me off the most. Your show represents and stands for so much or at least it’s supposed to and if you really give a crap about it, your character, career, and how people see you: answer the damn question seriously and not sing around it. People have questions and have to wait for so long to be able to share them and want answers that matter just like if you asked a question and someone continious tip toed around you avoiding to answer, wouldn’t you be annoyed or upset too? I fucking would so at least answer the best to your ability to proudly represent your show, your characters, and your capabilities as actors/actresses. This is the biggest and largest convention in the country where everything happens (promo, trailer, concept art, future plans, and etc releases) so at least have the heart to understand your purpose here and what it means to people. Yes obviously we don’t expect you to ruin the whole upcoming season for us, but for fucks sake actually act like you give a shit about your jobs and not treat them like a fucking joke because this show has helped and brought many people together more than I think you realize. 2. To all the people calling out Melissa, Chris, Mechad, and Jeremy for being gigantor homophobes. That song they sang about the Supercorp ship vs. the Karamel ship sounds far more condescending, mocking, belittling, and honestly it feels more like an attack than anything. You can hear it their tone and see it through their body language and presence and even Katie, David, and Odette found it awkward and because of that the whole thing was extremely uncomfortable from start to finish. They obviously weren’t expecting to be bombarded by such a fan base for that ship in particular and were more prepared to discuss the ships that were canon confirmed in their show but I don’t think this necessarily makes them homophobics. I know Melissa, Jeremy, Chris, and Mechad all proactively support gay rights and marriage and just because they support these ideals doesn’t necessarily mean they fully understand lgbtq and all that it entails. I know plenty people that they say they support gay rights and marriage and all of lgbtq but are still uncomfortable or can’t handle witnessing any kinds of displays whether public or private which is very naive and hypocritical thinking but I don’t think that’s what caused this to spark and get them in trouble. I think what got them in trouble is when: A. Jeremy tried validating himself by saying he’s a “theater kid” and because of it knows how to properly represent the lgbtq community and insinuated that all “theater kids” are or are not lgbtq. Yea no not how it works. 1st of all, you can’t say stereotypes what kinds and types of people are involved in theater, they all come from mixed backgrounds. Secondly, you can’t validate yourself or your character consentually acting like their experiences are better or worse than others, especially those in the lgbtq community. B. Melissa wasn’t helpful either telling Jeremy he was “so brave” when he told people in regards to the Supercorp ship that he “debunked it.” Being lgbtq, coming out as lgbtq, living as lgbtq, and so on are very brave, strong, and inspring things to do so what’s there to debunk? I obviously don’t know and can’t act like I do, being heterosexual, but I have witnessed some of my friend’s journeys with it and while people are becoming a little more accepting and aware, we’ve still got a LONG fucking way to go to help and better lgbtq equality, representation, and value and this little conversion definitely made me realize how much progress we have to make in educating people what lgbtq means in how we discuss and regard the subject amongst others. 3. While I may not like certain pairings or ships it doesn’t mean I act oblivious to them or exile them like they don’t exist. Everyone has their own preferred otp’s that they couple off but it’s based on each person viewing the show. Without these kinds of responses (these responses can come through several forms like video reactions, fanfictions, fan art, and etc), shows don’t get this mass attention and overwhelming popularity and also without these, your show can’t build a strong, healthy fanbase and yes all shows, movies, books, and so on aren’t always perfect. They all experience good and bad moments from time to time it’s all a part of being in fandoms which are almost always divided unfortunately (you can choose how you want to be and represent yourself) but it’s how you acknowledge and handle these types of situations that keep your fandom united and content and because of these guys lack of seriousness that makes it more difficult. There’s ways you can properly respond to this and the perfect example being Katie handling Chris’s comment regarding sexuality by simply stating, “It matters who you are, not who others think you are. You are your own person despite other people’s perceptions.” That’s how you handle and shut that shit down. It wasn’t rude or overbearing. It was very mature and while it was directly proving her point, it was also indirectly addressing a wide audience of people that may or may not understand the situation and quickly ended the discussion which is what I loved more than anything. Acknowledge the fans and who they are, what they want, their views and opinions. Be open minded to new possibilities which doesn’t mean you always have to agree or disagree but at least recognize it because if you can’t guess who doesn’t have a fucking show? 4. Also based off what I’ve seen just recently since I posted this, I get that what happened has really hurt and offended many people including myself but you attacking and harassing the cast and crew with death threats and planning on boycotting the show doesn’t make you any better. You’re literally stooping at the same, possibly worse level and instead of trashing and directing your hate and anger at them, direct your love and compassion to help people better understand and educate why this is such a huge deal and maybe just maybe they will learn from this. Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes and we have to remember that even with celebrities but they’re not going to if we continue to make them feel less. Yes we all go through this pain and hate and it makes us stronger but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be the better person. Instead channel this energy into something more meaningful and use this experience to raise your voice in a more uplifting and influential way. Share your stories, your thoughts and feelings, your emotions, and what not. Let it all out in the open but just think of how you’d present this information amongst yourself and how you’d want others to present it to you. In this day of society, we should be treating others the way you want to be treated and despite our convictions should continue being kind to 1 another and striving for 1 common goal, coming together. We all want to feel loved and like we belong somewhere but it’s not going to happen if we keep going this same path time and time again. Finally all in all, I’m not going to let this crap stop me from watching the show. I love supergirl and all that she stands in comic and film universe. I love this cast more than anything and the whole thing was blown up for a reason because people care about them and this show and while I’m skeptical about this upcoming season I just hope the cast and crew and even the network learn and grow from this incident and use the experiences surrounding it to better and educate themselves and make this show what it’s meant to be: super.

#sdcc #sdcc2017 #supergirl #melissa benoist #katie mcgrath #supercorp #personal #rant time #here we go #come at me

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/sports/efcc-reportedly-uncovers-%e2%82%a66-billion/

EFCC Reportedly Uncovers ₦6 Billion Fraud At Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

It has been reported that Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency EFCC has uncovered fraud at the (NFF) running over $16 million (about 6 billion Naira) between 2014 and 2016. These monies were from grants by FIFA and CAF.

“Our weeks-long investigation showed that the Amaju Pinnick-led Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) exploited this independence to mismanage funds at its disposal, which include allocations from the public treasury,” reported Premium Times.

In a most damning investigative report by Premium Times titled ‘Above the Law: How Nigeria Football Federation exploits ‘borderline’ status to mismanage funds’, it was exposed that the NFF have hid behind FIFA prohibition of government interferences to divert grants and funds from sponsorship deals to private pockets.

EFCC has since charged three officials to court as regards this corruption charges.

But former international Harrison Jalla insisted that these officials were mere pawns and their bosses needed to be charged also.

“They just only arraigned some messengers, leaving the approving authorities,” Jalla maintained. “We have protested and demanded that Amaju Pinnick and others be prosecuted.”

The report also touched on how the NFF have circumvented the Treasury Single Account (TSA) made mandatory by the Federal Government to all government agencies.

The NFF have instead warehoused their funds with private company Financial Derivatives and the owner Bismark Rewane argued that the football federation “is not a government body.”

It is a position that sports ministry spokesperson Nneka Ikem disagreed.

“Of course the NFF is a parastatal under the ministry of youth and sports development,” she said.

“How can you say that (they are not a government agency) when their funds come under the ministry in the budget like the NYSC and other parastatals under the ministry?”

The NFF financial and administrative director, Salisu Mohammed, disagreed with Pinnick’s leadership on the management of sponsorship funds.

“I wrote a memo requesting that the funds in the custody of the Consultant be transferred back to the Federation’s (NFF’s) account since such funds are public funds and kept with the federation in trust,” wrote Mohammed in a July 2018 letter to Dalung on several payments taken by Financial Derivatives on behalf of NFF.

In that letter, Mohammed also included payments taken by NFF directly. That included N450 million from Nigeria Breweries and another N150 Million from the Zenith Bank.

That list also included Nike but with no corresponding amount. The column for the amount received was just left with ‘??’

Pinnick shunned repeated calls and text messages to request an interview with Premium Times. But NFF’s spokesperson, Ademola Olajide, when contacted, declined comment on his organisation’s finances.

“My brother, it’s not a topic I have interest in honestly,” he said.

#Sport gist