wittywrites

- people are allowed to have an issue with someone who has a racist past. It’s perfectly understandable if black people don’t want to forgive her.

- Rudy not once addressing the racist comments she made is disgusting. Especially considering he talked about how people called her abuse and manipulative - if he has seen those comments then he definitely saw the ones where people talk about the things she said.

- people on twitter are saying that the text was made in response to people accusing her of sending videos and pictures of Rudy to fan accounts, NOT in response to her racism (because that’s apparently worse??)

- trying to paint this off as people just being unnecessarily mean and refusing to be positive and hating the one he loves uwu 🥺 is manipulation plain and simple. That isn’t the biggest issue people have with her and he knows it. Now every single time someone dares to speak up against her they’ll be seen as the bad guy by the fandom and made out to be petty and jealous when that sentiment is valid.

- being a POC fan of OBX SUCKS. We all see how some of you couldn’t care less about the two BIPOC actors in the cast while constantly praising the white ones. And now we’ll be villainized for even bringing up her racist past even though it’s 100% our right to question the use of certain language.

what flaws? you keep saying pope has flaws, pope stans see through his flaws, the things he’s done wrong… what flaws? can you please list them for us? i’m not even trying to be rude i’m genuinely confused

Okay so I know you’ve been eagerly waiting on the edge of your seat to hear my thoughts on this so I’ve finally got to it. But thank you so for your patience and realising that I don’t actually owe you a response.

Before we start let me state once again, as you’ll chose to ignore this. I don’t hate Pope, I loved him for the first half of the series, that’s the Pope that I like to think of, that’s the Pope that I write in my fics. Then he did some stuff that did not sit right with me, I haven’t completely written him off but I do think that how he’s written in s2 will have a big impact on my opinion.

I’m gonna try and take this in chronological order. So well start with 2x7. This isn’t a big one for me but just something about it didn’t feel right.

So we all know JJ stealing that money wasn’t a great choice. I really wish the rest of the pogues tried to actually understand is reasons rather than jump down his throat and assume he was just being impulsive JJ. So when JJ appealed to Pope about it, points out that JJ had just confessed to a felony, took a beating and now owes $30, 000 and possibly could face time served, and is basically just saying I did that for you can you just try and be on my side here. Pope just goes ‘I’m gonna pay you back. I didn’t ask you to do that’ which I just did not vibe with. It felt like saying ‘well you chose to do that so if I pay back the money I don’t owe you anything’. It completely ignores all the other massive effects it’s had on his life and as if Pope eventually being able to pay JJ back doesn’t eliminate the fact that he owes that money now.

No, it’s not gonna make me hate Pope forever but I just didn’t like that reaction.

So then we have ep 8 and Kie and Pope’s fight on the HMS Pogue. The ‘why is it always about John B?’ which is just ridiculous. Why is it about John B? Because he’s just stormed off in a rage with a gun to confront his father's murderer? Like he could be either getting murdered himself or doing some murdering and while I understand Pope is under a lot of pressure about his scholarship those two situations just aren’t comparable. He also then goes on to call her a shitty friend that only cares about John B and wouldn’t care about him or JJ if they were in that situation but then justifies that by bringing up a situation where she wasn’t there for John B. Which makes no sense? It essentially proves that she’s in a different place now than she was then, in which she wasn’t there for John B - a reason why she is so active in wanting to be there for him now - so the fact that she is now proves that her actions then don’t speak to who she is now post-kook year.

That bring us to what really annoyed me about that fight. Pope throwing Kie’s kook year back in her face simply cause he was jealous and mad that Kie wasn’t giving him the same attention she was giving JB. Like, at a really low point she confided in Pope how bad the Kook Academy was for her, told him that she was suicidal and that Sarah was her only beacon of hope only to drop her without question and turning her into the pariah of the school. And what does he do, uses it to antagise her because he’s not happy. I don’t love that Kie pushed him her but damn can you blame her? She told her friend something she had struggled with alone for so long and he just uses it against her like that. I don’t understand how you can be that cruel to someone you supposedly love. 

Ah, yes the love confession scene. Now even if we ignore how bad the timing was - and act like being high was a justifiable excuse. Let’s talk about the fact that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’ve seen Kie get so much hate for how harsh she was but she tried to let him down easy but he just kept pushing and pushing. Insisting that her reasons weren’t good enough as if she needed a reason other than she just doesn’t see him that way.

Now, of course Pope is allowed to be upset by this, but there is a difference between being upset and the friendzone incel nice guys finish last bullshit that Pope pulled. The acting rude and cold and distant towards her like she wronged him. He was angry at her for not feeling the same way and acted like it was her fault and her problem. The revving of the bike scene will never not make my blood boil, she’s trying to approach him as a friend, talk to him and work things out. He could of told her that he needs some time, that he was upset and hurt but no he shows a complete lack of respect for her and literally silences her. It makes me think about that post that goes ‘men like to talk about how much it sucks to be friendzoned. But what about the hurt of thinking you had a friend only to find out they were only nice to you cause they wanted to fuck you.’ It’s understandable he would be upset but he dealt with that situation so poorly - almost in the way that a flawed character would. 

And then to end it all - now this isn’t Pope’s fault I know - our straight white men in the writers room reward him for treating Kie like that with getting the girl. I don’t know a single girl that would change her mind because of that. It was gross and I hated every second of it. 

Because CLEARLY y'all lack common sense, don't critically consume any media outside of the MCU and other heavily white spoon fed forms of media, as well as rely on fanfic on AO3 as your only source of literature, have never had an actual conversation with a black man or any man but especially black men (sexual orientation doesn't matter it effects all men the same) about the effects of toxic masculinity on them mentally, emotionally, physically and how those things are just as big a problem as racism for BLACK AND BROWN MEN and co exist in the blueprint that built institutionalized racism.

If y'all want to have an actual ADULT conversation regarding Anthony's statements, I am ALL FOR IT. BUT IF YOUR STANCE IS CLEARLY JUST CALLING ANTHONY HOMOPHOBIC, BUT YOU REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE SEB'S ANTI BLACK TENDENCIES???THEN BABY YOU NEED TO GET OFF THE INTERNET! Because that clearly shows you can't engage critically in a conversation where someone ACTUALLY can prove how bad your take is, this discussion isn't a matter of you have your thoughts, I have mine because y'all are spewing anti blackness against a black man who has been down for the LGBTQIA community, has family in the LGBTQIA community and who purposely auditions for roles as characters that he actually can learn from and actually takes that lesson into his real life and implements that because he believes in broading his own mind because he KNOWS he's not perfect, doesn't claim to be but wants to do better because he wants his sons to grow up and be kind, open minded individuals as well: modeling the behavior he wants to see in his children.

People need to leave Mackie alone with this take that he's homophobic because of ONE slightly poorly worded, context kinda misunderstood interview. He's talked at length about his support for the black (!) lgbtqa+ community in media, and he's also talked about how he's grown up with homophobia being fed to him casually in elementary school (hey I thought we like it when people hold themselves accountable?), and how it took having a gay room mate in college to start unlearning that, he's talked about how he's deliberately inserted himself into projects where he can represent the queer black community, because it's important to him not just to grow himself, but also to give that representation to queer black men - and how for a while he thought as a straight man he has no right to speak on these issues and has since learned that it's important to shine that light. He's talked about how he's instilling different values in his kids, because he knows how important it is to raise the next generation better, and he literally called the attitudes that were impressed on him "ignorance" that he thinks we should try to "snip out" with our kids.

His answer isn't really about shipping, that's not what he's calling "twisted". He's calling out the toxic masculinity aspect that two guys being sensitive with each other and loving each other (bc yes, he calls both Sam's friendship with Steve *and* Bucky love explicitly) is immediately labelled gay - he pushes back against the term 'bromance' because *that* is something he feels devalues masculinity *and* homosexuality (something he calls beautiful btw, which I see everyone ignoring to feed the narrative that he's homophobic). He's talking about how the kneejerk assumption that because two men are being sensitive with each other they must be gay is damaging - and he's not wrong about that, because the implication that only gay men can be sensitive is as damaging as the implication that being sensitive and therefore gay is incompatible with masculinity. Anthony has literally spoken about wanting to raise his sons to embrace different shapes of masculinity than the ones he was raised on - and please take into account he's a 40something year old black man from the US American south - I'd bet money he's grown up in environments were "gay" was levelled at other men to demean them, because the implications of softness, femininity and homosexuality have been used to insult and demean men exactly like that.

He's not saying you're not allowed to ship, he's not saying there doesn't need to be more representation - that is in fact something he's advocated for before on all fronts! Literally, poorly worded as it is, he's just making the case that if you see two men being sensitive with each other and loving each other as friends, then calling it a bromance is devaluing actual homosexuality. Stop taking his words out of the context of who he is and what he's advocated for. Could he have worded this shit better? Sure. But please for the love of god watch other actual interviews with him, not just funny clip compilations of group interviews that show him goofing off, and you'll see understand that clearly what rankles him is the thought process of "oh they're sensitive that must mean they're gay" - he's not offended that people are shipping Sam and Bucky, he's just not here for the narrative that a character that he's proud to portray as emotionally sensitive, caring and *loving* is gay *because* of those qualities, because Mackie's been pretty damn vocal about pushing back against toxic masculinity and wanting to find ways to portray other forms of masculinity. THAT is the core issue he was speaking on, NOT judgment on whether or not Sam could or couldn't be gay and whether or not that would or wouldn't be a good thing.

If you think that if Marvel decides that Sam is gay - whether in regards to Bucky or in general - Mackie would push back against it rather than examine the story that could be told and how it could represent the black community, then you haven't been listening to anything else he's been saying outside this one interview.

nat: oh no, it’s happening

steve: this shit is bussin

bucky: what are you even saying

nat: okay, who taught steve gen-z slang

peter: nice fit cap, that shits fire

The hardest part wasn't the flying - it was finding a place to land.

There were days when Sam wished he'd never done it - tried to catch that guy running impossibly fast down the Mall, joked with him afterwards, talked with a fellow vet about sleeping on hard ground. His life might be easier now if he hadn't.

Or it might have been even worse. There were many variables between here and there, and George Bailey he was not. All he could do was deal with what was right in front of him - which at this point was a glitching intake vent on Redwing. Sam carefully pried another lump of glue off the hardshell case. "Ham fingered..." Who on earth did they have working on these things, anyway? His nephews did a better job on their Lego dioramas.

Still, there was something oddly comforting about doing his own repairs. If it failed, there wasn't anyone he could blame but himself. Which felt safer, honestly, given the present climate.

"Sam, Sam, the traffic jam." He looked up across the hanger, where a tall woman with a big smile and her hair in a bun was making her way across the floor, aviators tipped up on the top of her head. She looked like she might have just come in from a field exercise - but the two cups of takeout coffee in her hands suggested otherwise. "Someone said you were causing trouble in here."

"Hey, it was your flat tire I was fixing, Sergeant Whitman," Sam shot back, sitting up a little taller in his chair. "So technically the traffic jam was all you."

all of us: YOUR BOY BOY B-B-B-B-B-BOYFRIEND YOUR BOY BOY B-B-B-B-B-BOYFRIEND YOUR BOY

Sam lived a life far different from bucky and Steve. those two were in ice while the whole world continued, of course they're never going to understand the true fear and intensity of being black or poc.

that scene with cops was the perfect example of not knowing how far the show was willing to go to display a harsh reality even in a fictional world.

i hope the show does something to help bucky understand how deep this whole thing really goes. BUT DO NOT TRY TO JUSTIFY THE OBLIVION.

the writers are black and people of color, i think they know well enough what they were going to put into the dialogue.