Anonymous #1 7w

they don’t have to do anything—but nicolandria fans are abnormally parasocial and will attack anyone who doesn’t believe in the genuineness of the couple. they almost always resort to personal attacks and will call you ‘anti-black’ just for having a differing opinion. and that’s exactly my point: if you can’t articulate your argument without resorting to personal attacks, it shows how little faith you actually have in their connection to begin with.

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Anonymous OP 7w

I disagree, I think they’re more so calling out the fact that many are second guessing the genuineness of their relationship, but not Amaya and Bryan or Iris and Pepe, who got together under the same conditions. A lot of ppl are also calling out the fact that some ppl really don’t think Nic can be attracted to Olan and vice versa bc of they’re disclosed “types” beforehand, acting as if they can’t change

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Anonymous #1 7w

the thing is, bryan and amaya—and even iris and pepe—didn’t get together under the same conditions. they coupled up organically. nicolandria only became a thing after the producers put them together. and when their original options (cierra and taylor) left, that’s when they finally chose each other. if we’re being honest, if cierra had stayed, i don’t think nic would’ve chosen olandria over her.

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Anonymous #1 7w

and none of what i’m saying has anything to do with race. i’m not denying that there are people with racist views out there—but assuming any critique is rooted in racism just because someone doesn’t share your opinion? that’s where my frustration lies.

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Anonymous #1 7w

i have multiple valid reasons why i don’t believe in the genuineness of nicolandria. but when people shut down the conversation by calling others ‘anti-black’ instead of actually engaging with the argument, it tells me they’re either being lazy or they don’t actually believe in the connection themselves enough to defend it.

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Anonymous #2 7w

yeah bw/wm couples have historically faced racism and anti-blackness, that’s not something i’m denying at all. but it’s also important not to weaponize that reality to shut down any and all critique. my opinion isn’t that nic can’t like olandria. it’s that, based on the actual timeline and circumstances we watched unfold, their connection didn’t develop as naturally or consistently as some of the others who coupled up by choice and built something without producer intervention.

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Anonymous #2 7w

saying ‘he’s mentioned his interest and fought for her’ doesn’t erase the fact that his strongest interest seemed to show only after his preferred option (cierra) left. that’s a fair observation—not anti-blackness. when people can’t separate a critique of behavior on a dating show from a personal attack on black women or interracial relationships in general, the conversation becomes dishonest.

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Anonymous #2 7w

it’s possible to care about representation and acknowledge when a couple lacks emotional depth or authenticity.

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Anonymous OP 7w

The only thing production did was give them an option to stay on the show. It’s not like they were feeding them lines and forcing them to do things. And even then a lot of yall make them coupling up seem very black and white when that was never the case. They had their friends and past connections to think about when making a decision on whether or not they wanted to be together. It clearly wasn’t an easy decision to make and they’ve even said so in their interviews outside the villa.

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Anonymous #2 7w

Also, their coupling up was as natural as it could be on a reality tv show where people are kicked off and people pick their next best thing and for her that was him, especially given her options. And it’s not really a fair observation when people can look at Pepe and Iris and say that their connection is authentic and valid when Pepe’s strongest connection was Hannah and Iris’s strongest connection was TJ yet they coupled up after their “preferred option left.” So what makes them different?

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Anonymous #2 7w

Why’s it so easy for everyone to believe their overly sexual relationship is authentic and real, but it’s difficult to believe Nic and Olandria’s slow burn relationship? Or we can even look at Bryan and Amaya’s relationship where Amaya was technically his 3rd choice and only option. People believed their relationship was genuine and they ended up winning. Not everything is anti-blackness but it really depends on the argument you’re making and what it boils down to.

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Anonymous #2 7w

the difference is that nicolandria was the only couple pushing this intense ‘friends-to-lovers’ narrative so suddenly—and that’s what made it feel disingenuous. almost overnight, their conversations were filled with things like, ‘it’s always been you,’ ‘everyone else saw it before we did,’ and ‘our journey has been crazy,’ when just 24 hours earlier, nic was still pursuing cierra. it felt rushed and performative—like they were forcing a storyline for tv.

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Anonymous #2 7w

if they had taken their time and let things develop naturally without trying to frame it as some destined love story, it honestly would’ve felt more authentic. and let’s not forget: when production first paired them together, they both admitted it felt platonic. so the fact that their entire dynamic flipped the second cierra left just doesn’t sit right with me. it came off like they were faking it to make it to the finale.

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Anonymous #2 7w

even with iris and pepe, yes—they ended up together after their preferred connections left—but they didn’t rush to label what they had. they took their time getting to know each other and weren’t trying to sell a love story overnight. that’s what made their connection feel more genuine.

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Anonymous #2 7w

the problem isn’t that nic and olandria were a slow burn—the problem is that they suddenly shifted their narrative after other options left, and immediately started pushing a ‘soulmates all along’ storyline that felt forced and inconsistent with how they had been interacting up to that point.

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Anonymous #2 7w

bryan and amaya didn’t suddenly try to rewrite their entire journey. they let the connection develop naturally. they weren’t pushing a ‘meant to be’ narrative 12 hours after a breakup.

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Anonymous OP 7w

They quite literally are friends to lovers😭 and I feel like you’re pushing what nicolandrian Stan’s were thinking on how you saw their relationship and mixing things without context because the whole “everyone else saw it before we did” was after their families came to visit and was telling them about how people were rooting for them together. And them saying their journey has been crazy isn’t trying to push a narrative when you look at where they started and how they ended up.

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Anonymous OP 7w

I also don’t get the rushed aspect of it when for the remaining episodes all Nic spoke about was not knowing what they were because he felt like they weren’t just friends anymore and they were trying to navigate their relationship. They seemed to be getting to know each other at a slow place and left the show saying that they wanted to continue exploring each other. Also, it’s not unusual for them to be having that meant to be conversation when people kept telling them that they were.

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Anonymous #2 7w

the issue isn’t that they were technically friends first, it’s that the shift from friendship to lovers happened so abruptly and conveniently once their other options were gone. they may have heard from family that people were rooting for them, but that doesn’t explain the sudden intensity with which they started pushing the ‘meant to be’ narrative. they didn’t gradually realize anything—they flipped the switch the second taylor and cierra were gone, and that’s what makes it feel disingenuous.

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Anonymous #2 7w

but that’s exactly where the dissonance lies. you’re saying they were unsure and taking it slow, yet they were out here pushing this deep, emotional ‘meant to be’ narrative right away. you don’t get to say you’re confused about what you are one minute, then suddenly say ‘it’s always been you’ the next.

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Anonymous #2 7w

and let’s be honest, nic never took the time to truly explore a deeper connection with olandria until it became convenient. he didn’t pull her when he was with cierra, didn’t try to get to know her outside of lustful challenges, and their vibe before producers stepped in was strictly platonic. the only vibes they gave outside of platonic were sexual.

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Anonymous #2 7w

it just felt like they were trying to fast-track a connection to stay on the show, then justify it retroactively by repeating what other people said about them. that’s why it felt rushed. not because we don’t want them to be together, but because the emotional foundation they claimed to have wasn’t shown organically.

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Anonymous #2 7w

If my family and then fans are saying that “you guys are meant to be,” then you’d start thinking about why they’re saying stuff like that and your actions and you’d most likely will be like “hey maybe we were meant to be bc of xyz.” It doesn’t mean they had ulterior motives. Also prior to coupling up we knew they had a good relationship and after coupling up we saw them struggle to navigate it so I don’t get the pushing the narrative part. I really think it was Nicolandria fans doing that more

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Anonymous #2 7w

but that’s the thing—it wasn’t just the fans pushing the ‘meant to be’ narrative. they were the ones constantly saying it too. it was both the fans and them. the only real conversations i can recall between them were surface-level or revolved around how wild their ‘journey’ has been and how they didn’t see it coming but everyone else did.

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Anonymous #2 7w

they had one convo i remember that wasn’t about their love story, and it was about football. everything else was just fluff to convince the audience this was some fated friends-to-lovers arc, when the reality is they didn’t have any real emotional groundwork before that producer intervention.

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Anonymous OP 7w

But there wasn’t an abrupt shift. When they coupled up, for the majority of what we saw the most “intimate” thing they did was cuddle and then we saw them have constant conversations and trying to see what being partners would look like since they were so used to being just friends. We saw it in the conversations Nic had with Ace and the conversations Olandria had with Chelley. Also, there’s a lot that happened in between so it wasn’t flipping a switch.

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Anonymous OP 7w

Olandria didn’t want Taylor anymore at that point so she wasn’t even going for him anymore after the stand on business challenge and she also felt disrespected by Cierra after she voted for Taylor to stay and gave her a bullshit reasoning. So it shouldn’t be surprising when the recoupling came that she went with Nic, someone she’s had some interest in since the first episode. Nic on the other hand was still on the show and couldn’t leave and still hand interest in Olandria

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Anonymous #2 7w

And again look at Iris and Pepe. TJ left and Iris wanted to go with him but all of a sudden coupled up with Pepe yet that’s not seen as disingenuous? If she can couple up with someone after her “person” left and it doesn’t cause red flags then so can Nic.

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Anonymous OP 7w

And also I don’t think they were pushing that narrative, I think they were just talking about their past actions and what everyone was telling. Talking about something ≠ pushing a narrative. Also two things can be true at the same time. They already expressed liking each other yet they didn’t know how to act around each other or what to do. Which is normal when your relationship started on the friendship side and is trying to head in a more romantic way.

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Anonymous OP 7w

If we’re being honest nobody really spoke to anyone’s partner unless it was a bombshell. Olandria was very focused on Taylor and it’s kinda hard to talk to someone who’s very invested in someone else. Nic also had drama in the first few episodes with the love triangle he was in with Bella and Cierra and Olandria didn’t wanna be in that. Lastly, they’ve acknowledge that they were friends hence the friends to lovers story they have so it makes sense why they seem more platonic.

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Anonymous OP 7w

Exactly. There’s not a lot of things that weren’t shown so who’s to say that their connection isn’t organic. We barely saw clips of them when they were coupled up because production was really pushing Amaya and Bryan like we never saw him giving her breakfast yet there’s allegedly a quick scene of him eating with her or she has his jacket but we never saw her in it or him giving it to her or even on parents day, we barely saw clips of olandria in the beginning. Nic also said

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Anonymous #2 7w

they flirted with each other and we never got to see it. So maybe to you it looked rushed and fast but we missed a lot of in between for them where their feeling grew “organically.”

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Anonymous OP 7w

And how is that pushing the narrative? They ended up in a couple that everyone else was rooting for. People behind a screen saw something they couldn’t see themselves and when you’re told that you clearly will talk about it especially if your feelings grow for that person. And their journey was individual was wild and even their journey as a couple was wild too if you look at it from casa to now.

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Anonymous OP 7w

You’re making it seem like the chose which scenes would be put in the episodes😭 the producers decided what they wanted to include to make them look cuter especially seeing how fans reacted to “nicolandria crumbs.” We don’t know the full extent of their conversations only what they’d want us to see. I feel like you’re reading too much into simple conversations with people trying to process their actions and what people are telling them.

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Anonymous OP 7w

Y’all always make this point as if y’all lack the ability to see body language. They both already admitted that they lied about not having feelings after the soul ties kiss to protect Cierra and Taylor’s feelings bc Olandria was still cool with Cierra, and Nic wasn’t sure if Olandria was over Taylor yet. Yes the producers put them together at first, but no one forced them to couple up at the last recoupling. Iris and Pepe got together when they’re connections lefts, as did Nic and Olandria.

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Anonymous OP 7w

They’re still together and they have no reason to fake a connection. Theyre out of the villa and they’re both already successful and are minding their business.

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Anonymous OP 7w

Lazy is more than likely the option. I don’t think claiming anti blackness tho means that you don’t believe in the connection. They just see how much hate black women get when they enter an interracial relationship and assume that that’s the reason

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Anonymous #2 7w

you’re giving them a lot of benefit of the doubt based on things we didn’t see, which is fair if you’re a fan—but let’s not pretend like there wasn’t a clear shift in energy once taylor and cierra were out of the picture. olandria wanted taylor up until the stand on business challenge, and nic never seriously pursued olandria while cierra was in the villa. his energy toward olandria was only ever flirtatious during challenges—never deep conversations or private chats like he had with cierra.

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Anonymous #2 7w

and yeah, they had unseen convos, but that applies to every couple. i’m only going based off of what was shown on tv. i obviously wasn’t there in person, but i’m just talking about what was shown.

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Anonymous #2 7w

as for the ‘meant to be’ narrative—they absolutely leaned into it. whether it was fans or producers planting the idea, they still chose to sell it like a fairytale, even though they barely had any emotional depth shown onscreen. you can say they were figuring things out, but to go from that to ‘soulmates’ in like, three days, is rushed. fans can’t push a narrative unless the couple gives them material to run with, and nicolandria definitely did.

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Anonymous #2 7w

comparing them to iris and pepe is a false equivalence. iris and pepe weren’t pushing a narrative, that’s the difference.

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Anonymous #2 7w

all I’m saying is, if your love story only exists because your top choices left and you’re suddenly ‘meant to be’ days later, it’s fair to question the authenticity. if it works out for them, which it seems like they’re figuring it out rn, that’s good for them. i wish them nothing but the best. what we saw on the show though felt like it was more for tv than it was actually real, in my opinion 🤷🏽‍♀️

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Anonymous #1 7w

i don’t think they should’ve lied about their feelings. you can still acknowledge your feelings for somebody yet not act on it out of respect for other people. and it’s not like their feelings were even that deep at the time, so admitting it wouldn’t have been that hurtful to begin with. them lying about their feelings is probably why they felt so disingenuous to me.

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Anonymous #1 7w

i also don’t believe race should be weaponized to shut down critiques. that’s what’s been frustrating: i’m not saying anti-blackness never exists, i’m saying not all criticism is anti-black. and when fans immediately accuse people of that instead of engaging with the actual argument, it’s a deflection tactic. if you truly believe in the couple’s connection, then explain why—it shouldn’t require throwing around heavy accusations every time someone disagrees.

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Anonymous #1 7w

at the end of the day, i can see body language just fine—but if fans are going to talk about ‘soulmates’ and ‘destiny’ and frame nicolandria as this rare love story, it’s not unreasonable for people to ask, ‘okay, but where was the foundation for all this before taylor and cierra left?’ that’s a valid question, and it’s not anti-black to ask it.

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Anonymous #1 7w

if they end up working out, that’s good for them. i have nothing against them exploring their connection. all i’m saying, what i watched on tv felt disingenuous to me, and it’s not ‘anti-black’ for me to say that.

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Anonymous OP 7w

What deep conversation did we see? Cierra also said their conversations were about the most random shit so I’m confused about those deep conversations. I’m also giving them the benefit of the doubt, I’m taking their words towards each other, their actions and how they spoke about each other to other people for what it is. And if Olandria wanted Taylor up until the stand on business challenge then why would Nic purse her? Why would you chase someone else focused on another person, that makes no

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Anonymous #2 7w

sense. So you kinda just explained why he didn’t purse her and after she was done with Taylor she went to test things out with Zak and that didn’t work out and then Cierra left freeing up Nic so she decided to be selfish and picked him. And you’re so stuck on this “pushing a narrative” thing which makes no sense because they have no idea what’s being shown to the world. Damn near all the islanders have been confused about the backlash they’re getting because they didn’t know what was shown.

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Anonymous OP 7w

And you’re blaming them for fans and producers actions when they’re having regular conversations about shit people are saying to them and then reflecting on their journey aka time in the villa😭 A key factor is that they don’t get to pick what’s in the episodes. You can’t push a narrative when you have no control over the story. Also, prior to family day they didn’t even know how people felt about them and after they still didn’t rush things and seemed to be in shock about how they were viewed.

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Anonymous #2 7w

And just because it’s not included in the episode doesn’t mean they didn’t have emotional depth like it’s 24 hours in a day and that’s enough to connect with someone and grow an already existing friendship into something more.

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Anonymous OP 7w

And you can compare them with Pepe and Iris because even they had their little “you’ve been here the entire time and we’re just now exploring” moment mixed with they now like each other. The only difference is that they didn’t get as much screen time and didn’t have a fan base looking for crumbs of their relationship and pushing it to the public. They also only became a couple after their “top choices” left. You can very much question their authenticity especially

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Anonymous #2 7w

When Iris was crying about finally feeling what everybody was feeling but the next couple of hours flirting and fucking on Pepe. And when Pepe was basically calling it quits with Gracyn because he was stuck on Hannah but then was all over Iris after TJ left. I feel like that’s way more questionable than Nic and olandria and they did it in the same time frame so it is comparable

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Anonymous OP 7w

And you can say that everything we saw from every islander was more for tv than it was actually really because they were all on the show and formed connections relatively quickly especially the ones that formed in the last two weeks. It’s just weird that people are hypercritical of their relationship yet are quick to jump onboard Amaya and Bryan’s and Pepe and iris’s relationship when they were all formed around the same time and each have their faults.

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Anonymous OP 6w

Problem is there’s plenty of proof for that foundation that you guys keep browsing over, and then when ppl bring it up it’s excuse after excuse. Eventually ppl get sick of explaining and go the lazy route bc why try when you’re already stuck in your bias

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Anonymous OP 6w

And ppl lie about their feelings allll the time to protect the ppl they hold close to them, ESPECIALLY if it’s one of your closest friends. Neither of them thought that they’d get the chance to explore so chose not to, and when the chance opened up they took it

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