#I literally don't think I could do the others they all have such obscure songs on their playlists sajkfas

[burning-academia-if]

Two Truths and a Lie: Playlist

tagged by @darkfictionjude thanks for the tag I'm not nearly annoying enough about the BA playlist as I should be lmaO

Rules: post a poll with three (or more) songs from one of your characters playlists, except there is a catch, one of the songs is not truly on their playlist. Have your followers guess, and when the poll is finished, reveal which song was the fake.

Tbh this was pretty hard because I hardly listen to popular enough songs to do this LMAO I decided to go with Rook since some of the songs on his are a little more well known

Anyway uhhh idk who has character playlists but I tag @if-mirrormine and anyone else who sees this lmaO

gonna throw a sample of the lyrics below for those who don't know the songs!

HAPPY by NF:

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a lonely soul/ And the last to admit I need a hand to hold/ Losing hope, headed down a dangerous road/ Strange, I know, but I feel most at home when I'm/ Living in my agony

Over my Head (Cable Car) by The Fray:

Let's rearrange/ I wish you were a stranger I could disengage/ Just say that we agree and then never change/ Soften a bit until we all just get along/ But that's disregard/ Find another friend and you discard/

icarus by EDEN:

So how you gonna scream my name/ When I gave all I got?/ I've nothing left to give you/ And I'm so burnt out and lost/ 'Cause it all just feels the same/

What if by Safetysuit:

What if it makes you lose faith in me/ And what if makes you question every moment you cannot see/ And what if it makes you crash, and you can't find the key/ And what if it makes you ask how you could let it all go/

[ibelieveinvillainsupremacy]

Oooooh!! I have an idea! How about a pitch black x reader where (Y/N) is totally Gen Z, so nothing really scares them and it drives Pitch INSANE.

Reader is so desensitized that anything Pitch tries to pull they just brush it off or think it’s funny!

Omg first request on my AU <33

Of course! Sounds so cool ^^

(After a lot of time i start writing again qwq)

Before starting, here's a little context on this AU:

I was inspired by @seaslugfanclub Disney Villains/ y/n park assistant concept, I thought something.

What if there was another company (generic name supposedly) that to go against this incredible idea of the Disney Parks to make the Villains turn into actual people decided to do the same thing with non- Disney Villains as well?

And this other y/n had to take care of them, because they are also very chaotic without a lead of some kind...

my most recent post includes way more villains i got obsessed with, so check out the list if you want to request me some asks!

Now, let's go <33

The Disney Parks had made such a smart move on making their bad guys come to life, so their most brilliant rival decided to do same thing.

But how to make their choice not sound like a copy of their rivals?

Easy.

Let's include multiple animated universes and let them come to life together!

Unfortunately for Y/N, the park attendant that has to reunite them all together and "take care" of their actions,

(no kids or human was harmed in this, writer of this confirms! at least not yet),

that wasn't an easy job. Not at all.

Don't get this wrong, the newest addition to the park really enjoyed villains of all kind (and despite not being accepted by the other park) she gladly wanted to work at this new one. Yeah, wanted.

Because the poor human didn't know tha chaos that was about to happen.

One of the villains that was a pain in the ass to tolerate was the lord of nightmares himself.

Now, normally one would be a little bit, at least for a moment, scared of what that man had in mind.

Well, let's just say that Y/N was one of those incredible (and so incredibly frustrating) humans that wasn't scared of the tricks and literal creatures Pitch could materialize out of nowhere.

Spiders? No, the park assistant wouldn't even look at them.

Clowns? You'll get a laugh and a few looks that seem to say "Not today, big guy"

Anything that the obscure could think about would never work.

"After months in your company, I'm still not sure on the reason why you are even able of seeing me, without any profound and maniacal fear in that head of yours."

Oh. That day you were literally head in the clouds, well not fully. You were trying to separate Rasputin and Rothbart (those bickering old-) that were for the thousand time arguing on who was the most powerful, had the coolest song, which one was almost going to be part of Disney (let's just think that he didn't succeed). And who had to help that mess? Guess.

So now you had another problem to fix. A big one.

You knew that he was a little disappointed from that look on his ashen face, so you had to fix that.

"Well, I actually am afraid of things, Pitch, but if I actually start panicking at any nightmare creation of yours, this park would be absolutely turned to dust. And I don't know where you'll go without me, and my frustrating emotionless face."

The villain then gave a small nod in your direction.

"Can you at least be scared next time? Just a little bit?"

"Would that make you happy?"

"I think so."

"Then alright big guy. I'll show you my terrified face, promise."

"I can't wait to see it."

[imaginemcyt]

growing up with sbi would include...

synopsis: what it's like to grow up part of the minecraft family in a semi-canon sbi au.

tw: mentions of fighting, some hurt/comfort. i think that's it!

listen to: runaway by aurora, seven by taylor swift, soldier poet king by the oh hellos, poet by bastille

inside jokes with tommy. obscure references that nobody else understands, it's like a secret language. someone will say something and you two will look at each other before bursting into laughter.

"hey mates, i'm thinking pasta for dinner. how does that sound? ...what? what's so funny?" *you and tommy crying of laughter in the background*

you're probably closest with technoblade. it's no secret that wilbur and tommy spend a ton of time together, especially after the creation of l'manberg, so you tend to gravitate towards techno.

techno lowkey really enjoys your presence, you're "marginally less annoying" than your other siblings.

in reality, it's a huge ego boost for him.

you're still super close with tommy, though. you're probably closer to him in age, so you guys hang out together.

you guys have a chore schedule because there was too much fighting over it before.

occasionally you trade chores with tommy, which gets on phil's nerves sometimes but whatever, as long as the chores get done.

wilbur plays you his newest songs to get your opinion on them.

once when you were a kid, wilbur accidentally got gum in your long hair and it had to be cut short. your hair went from knee-length braid to chin length bob thanks to wilbur's gum and phil's handiwork with a pair of kitchen shears.

not quite sbi but some would argue he is (we'll call him sbi-adjacent), you're extremely close with tubbo.

you probably had a crush on him when you were growing up 😭😭

you couldn't help your ten year old self!! he was sweet and he was your age and he was your closest friend! how could you not develop a crush on the bee boy????

maybe it didn't go away and maybe you married him?? and then ranboo gets introduced to the mix and suddenly you're all happily married?? omfg im squealing sorry

you guys are literally the song its nice to have a friend by taylor swift

anyway back to your regularly scheduled sbi content

you're the gardener in your family. techno has his potatoes, yeah, but you have your beautiful garden of sugar cane, wheat, and carrots. you have mushrooms galore and your flower patches? unmatched.

when you were young, you loved hand picking the mushrooms out of your garden for dadza to put in the mushroom stew.

techno used to braid your hair for you when you were young. every day your hair was neatly braided and out of your face.

but lord knows between your habit of tree climbing and your adventures in the creek with tommy and tubbo, the braid would be proper messy at the end of the day.

you'd take a bath and then when you were clean and dressed, techno would braid it for you again before bed.

you'd sit in front of the fire, and he'd braid your hair in silence, but if you asked him to tell you a story, he'd hide a smile and then dive into a tale from greek mythology.

you'd fall asleep there, curled up in front of the fire, and techno would gently pick you up and carry you to your bed, the voices screaming at him to protect you the entire time.

if you get hurt on your little adventures, phil will carefully bandage you up before wrapping you in his wings for a warm embrace.

when you're sad, you usually seek out wilbur. he's the best one to go to out of your brothers. he will give you a hug and listen to you vent, or he'll play you songs on his guitar if you don't want to talk about it.

tommy doesn't know how to handle it if you're upset. if you want a distraction, he's your man. he'll take you to the creek or to visit tubbo, asking what kind of mischief you'd like to get up to, or he's plugging in his video game console, handing you a controller. if you're seeking comfort, look somewhere else because good lord LMAOOO, if you're crying he's probably like "hey what are you doing? stop that" *disgusted face*

techno isn't good at comfort, and he'll most likely ignore you, but he'll let you wear his cloak or rest your head on his shoulder. if you're crying, he might wrap an arm around you and read to you to help you feel better.

if phil sees you upset, he'll wrap his wings around you and let you cry it out before asking you what's wrong. and when phil asks, it's less of a "tell me if you'd like" and more of a "you will tell me what's upsetting you and we will talk it out". he wants to help you feel better and he can't determine the best course of action if you're being secretive about your feelings. he may pry, but he really means well.

techno teaches you how to defend yourself once after a spider catches you off guard in your garden. luckily he was there to protect you, but after that he decided it was time you learn to do that for yourself.

one time you got in trouble at school for fighting a girl and when you got home, phil surprisingly wasn't mad at you. he sat you down at the kitchen table and was like "fighting? really mate? that isn't like you."

you explained to him that the girl was being mean to tubbo and he wouldn't defend himself so you did it.

you didn't get in trouble, instead he gave you a lengthy discussion on how violence isn't the answer, but ended it by saying how he was proud of you for standing up for your friend.

techno was secretly proud that you used some of the moves he taught you.

this got super long my bad 😭 but i could legit go on and on about sbi family dynamic all day long. please let me know if you'd like a part two because i'd be so happy to make one!!

[kokiriofthevalley]

My silly little Link headcannons

hii again I'm very bored rn sooo

again for Zelda, it's only the major ones, sorry obscure link fans

also wtf is this gif I found 😭😭

Skyward Sword

✯has the biggest crush on his Zelda bc they're so close

✯like it's VERY obvious how they feel about eachother

✯His fav flavour of ice cream is Oreo ice cream but he also loves toffee and vanilla too

✯He can talk but he prefers sign language (dialect of sign language may vary on preference ((like ASL or BSL or LSE, ect)) ) and talks to save time in an emergency in case the other person may not know sign, but DOES sign if they do

For this one, I thought about the cutscenes where he's explaining something (like the current location or condition of Zelda) to another character and we can see his mouth moving.

✯no because if video games existed in skyloft, i just know that he's playing stardew valley and papas freezeria. I can feel it in my BONES

✯Definitely woke up under his bed once and hit his head on the bedframe

✯him and Groose have insult battles but then they get ice cream together after

Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask

✯somebody get this poor boy a therapist and a hug PLEASE

Twilight Princess

✯it felt natural to him when he transformed using the Zora mask in mm, because both the models for adult link and Zora link are the same size

✯mute

✯i think he played the ocarina like a recorder (aka with no experience at all) and did each note individually and the magic of the ocarina of time was probably like "there is NO WAY that I'm letting this kid tarnish my reputation goddamit" and made the songs sound nicer after he had played all the notes

✯forgot once that he was a kid again and walked to Romani ranch to get some chateau Romani and was genuinely surprised when Cremia said no

✯Had more of a genuine connection to Midna, but still had a friendship with princess Zelda

Wind Waker

✯felt a strange familial connection to the hero of shades when he met him and made link want to find out who the hero of shades was

✯does NOT like how short he is when he transforms into a wolf

✯Best poker face in history

Breath of the Wild

✯Gives Aryll piggybacks when she wants

✯would gladly eat his grandma's soup for the rest of his life

✯His grandma gave him the recipe to her soup when he left to discover the new Hyrule

✯Has the most major and unhidable (that's not a word but who cares) side eye in the history of time

✯If the events of WW didn't happen, I think he would have grown up to be a cartographer or he would REALLY like making his own maps

✯sorry to get all angsty but I don't think he wanted to kill Ganondorf. I just don't. I don't think either of them wanted to kill eachother. I feel like Link feels guilty about it because it's so obvious that it was only self defense after the triforce was touched by king Daphnes and it literally drove Ganondorf insane

Tbh I'd go crazy too if something I had wanted so badly got taken by another person even tho I literally got SEALED IN ANOTHER FUCKING REALM FOR A LONG AMOUNT OF TIME for it

Again sorry for no totk for this one pls no spoilers

✯Gets ambushed by Yiga so many times that he knows their names

*Yiga poofs into existence* "IM HERE TO KILL YOU LINK, IN REVENGE FOR MASTER KOHGA!!!!"

"oh hi jerry, nice weather eh?" -link

✯After he saved princess Zelda, he took a nap that lasted 4 ENTIRE days

✯not even the sound of kass' accordion could wake his ass up

✯very obvious but if he wasn't a knight, he would be a chef. Not sous chef. He would be head chef.

✯His hands are probably rough as hell from all that Hero Of Hyrule™-ing he has done

✯despite being able to lift heavy objects, his arms are still noodles

[gemharvest]

Might not be exactly what you asked for but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go into more depth about the bf and pico drawing with the kinto pet song lyrics 🙏🙏🙏🙏 it has haunted me in a good way and I will explode without more

UR MORE THAN FINE DWWW it's easier for me to ask for prompts but I LOVE ASKS IN GENERAL I like getting to ramble. Forever and always if you see me post something and you want me to elaborate on it/ have specific questions/ literally whatever PLEASE DON'T BE SCARED TO SEND AN ASK IN !!!

okay needed that out of the way first LOLLLLL

The like. Images I get in my head when I listen to this song drive me insane like this was just me putting it into one image but I could deadass do a full PMV if I had the time.

Obvi I prefer to draw in a more Funkin'-influenced style, but esp. with how Pico is drawn I hope it's clear I was leaning into the Pico's School side of things.

(continuing under a cut because I am about to Ramble)

I don't think I was consciously thinking abt it the other night BUT at least the first verse makes me think. Of the Love Conquers All version of Pico's School. An ideal ending; Cassandra is convinced not to carry out her plan, nobody dies, Pico certainly wouldn't be Going Through It. Maybe in this ideal ending they (Pico & BF) wouldn't have split. "In this world, we're friends forever".

I also imagine it as like.. basically how the art I did ended up being. They're just black lines on a white background. Faces obscured. Maybe with some visual effects that distort things too/ some pixelation whatever. I actually think I was planning to have some parts of that pixelated but forgot by the time I was home and could draw; might have been for the best but here's a version with a biit of what I'm talking abt.

They're in a void. Separate from the real world, but happy. Stuck in a loop of the happiest time of their lives (mostly thinking from Pico's perspective with that lol). Is that not better than having to continue on in a fucked reality?

Of course, that's not real. It's just an imaginary loop of "what if"s in Pico's mind. It's a world he built for Boyf.

In this world, Boyfriend is always following with Pico, always showing him kindness and always smiling. Pico's emotions are less readable; maybe in a proper PMV I'd give him his mouth too so he can show he is at least somewhat happy, but despite being the "leader" of the two, he is much more passive, reserved. They are always holding each other's hands.

Verse 2 would be the inverse (lol), signaled by the stronger beats kicking in. White lines on black background. It's no longer the ideal world, and instead the "real world". Real, but distorted by trauma. "Inside my code, you'll always be". The world Cass built for Pico.

The bit of instrumental between verses 2 & 3 would be the Real real world, going forward to when FNF would take place; Pico and Boyfriend reconnected, through less than ideal means, though reconnected nontheless.

We're back to black lines on white background, but everything's less distorted. There's more details too, the world not just being a hazy backdrop for Pico and Boyfriend to play around in, but real.

He's different from Pico's memories, obviously, drawn now in the FNF style fully. More confident, still stupid. He has Girlfriend now.

The first 2 lines of verse 3, his imagined worlds and the real world melt together. Mixed in ways that highlight a feeling of off-ness. Everything feels strange, distorted, unreal.

The last 2 lines it's just Pico and Boyfriend hanging out alone. "All that's left is me and you/Lots of fun that we can do". Boyfriend cheery as ever, while Pico is visibly nervous-- uncharacteristic for him but we don't see if Boyfriend notices.

The strong beat kicking in again sends us back to the imagined world. The good world. But things are wrong. The real world is slipping in, things are no longer stagnant; no longer perfect. Visual distortions/ glitches worsen.

Pico could delude himself when he hadn't known where Boyfriend was; now that he's back, his world warps. No longer under his control. He is not in the lead.

The first half of the outro Boyfriend is still mostly playing along, though still seems to be growing disinterested. Pico is noticably anxious, clearly seeing how the other is no longer like a puppy at his side. Boyfriend is pulling away. Why is he pulling away, when everything's "perfect"? Why is everything going wrong. "The world I built, designed for you".

The second half of the outro, Boyfriend is now actively pulling away. He no longer looks like the idealized, young Boyfriend. He's older, a stranger, he doesn't care for Pico anymore. Pico is older now too, desperately holding on to Boyfriend. Unwilling to let him go again, first in the real world and now in his mind. Boyfriend refuses to hold his hand but Pico still grips onto his arm. Their eyes finally become visible in the imagined world.

Pico's behavior mirrors Cassandra's involvement in the second verse, though unintentionally violent as opposed to her intentional violence. He's selfish, desperate to hold on to his world; to Boyfriend. He's hurting the imagined Boyfriend in the process, but that is second in his mind to him so desperately trying to avoid a second heartbreak. Anything to keep his world together, his peace. Without it, he just has the dark.

Beyond this screen, you cannot leave Inside my code, you'll always be Endless fun that we can do In a world I built for you

In the final instrumental and as the song fades out, Pico wakes up. He's shaken, disgusted by how he acted in his mind and feeling like he's nothing but an anchor to Boyfriend, holding him back. He can't keep clinging to this false reality, nor can he pretend he's doing any good by being in Boyfriend's life again. His mind is made up.

...

LOL I hope the way I summarized The Thoughts I get paints the picture I get in my mind. I've got terminal artist brain I am imagining AMVs to near everything I listen to I am not joking; had to take a break halfway through typing this to walk around a store and I was looping KATAMARI by femtanyl for like half of it imagining an edit in my head. I can imagine anything jpeg.

I wanna very much stress that all that above would have been filtered through Pico's mind. He's not actively hurting Boyfriend, but he's fucking terrified of doing so and he feels so fucking guilty for continuing to hold on to the past they had. I guess it wouldn't be apparent from what I described but he'd also feel guilty for still having feelings for him when the other has moved on and even has a girlfriend.

His world, once his perfect escape from the anguish of his reality, corrupts as he feels worse and worse over even entertaining the thoughts. Him deciding to forget his world and, in turn, go to cut off Boyfriend for the other's sake is not based on objective reality, but an act of self-sabotage that he convinces himself to be the best outcome for everybody.

^ Literally included him doing this shit in a part of that last fic I did you can tell this is something I find interesting exploring with him.

The tone of the song too just fucking.. it adds to the eeriness I'd want out of a proper PMV of this idea. The way it's clearly an homage to the IBM 7094 singing Daisy Bell; the voice and instrumentals just feel so unnerving. Sweet and innocent on the surface, but clearly holding bad intentions. Maybe not intentionally bad, maybe misguided good even, but they are not good nor sweet nor kind. I am talking about the song on it's own divorced from it being from KinitoPET what I describe here is just the feelings it gives me in regards to my favies.

Anyways uhhhh god I could go on for hours but I've been going off for long enough I'm sorry to anyone reading this who had to sit through my insanity. My head is now lighter with this information shared tho.. I guess in conclusion: I am definitely normal and neurotypical and can be trusted to listen to music and be into my games without creating the most devastating ideas known to man. xoxo

[voiceless-people]

MY TOP 10 WARRIOR CAT MAPS 🗣🗣🗣🗣💥💥💥💥

These are all just my opinion, and I don't think any of these maps are "better" than the other, they just have personal meaning to me.

These are in order from highest to lowest!

1 Rut. Come on. Rut is the map ever. Without fail I will start tearing up when I watch it, I cried the first time. Such incredible art with such an empowering song. It's a great watch for when you're feeling low.

2 Blame walked so that Rut could run. This map meant so much to me when it came out- and it got me through rough times. I know every part and the song by heart. Such a lovely message.

3 King and lionheart. This map was MY SHIT back in elementary school. I hadn't even read arc 2 of warriors at the time, and this map does the story so much better than the actual books. Also, the pinned comment about Squirrelflight is a good read.

4 Buy the stars!!! How I found out about MARINA!!! This is one of the most nostalgic maps ever. What do you mean it's almost a decade old. This map is iconic Hollyleaf propaganda. Also this song needs to be more popular.

5 Poor George. This song seriously goes hard. The buildup is so intense and crashes down on you as the singer sobs by themself at the end. Yellowfangs struggle oml. Raggedstars death is done so well.

6 Warriors reprise. This map kicks ass. SSS intro? Hell yeah. I cheered during the buy the stars segment. Every part is so distinct and the animation is wonderful. I love so many of these maps.

7 Millhaven. I knew about this song long before the map was even announced, and I thought it was so cool that this (semi)obscure polish song was in a warriors map. The color palette is so dreary yet fitting, and has a nice buildup as the story goes on.

8 Burn him down. While the map is relatively short, it tells Ashfurs story in a unique almost episodic manner. A very unique song too. Little Lionpaw hopping from paw to paw is lowkey peak.

9 Roxanne. Come on, you knew this would be here. This map changed everyones brain chemistry and you know it. So iconic. WHYYYYYY DOES MY HEAAAAAART CRYYYYYY.. it's this low down for a reason tho.

10 Mama we all go to hell. I DON'T LIKE DRAKINATOR. I think they should've stayed off YouTube, but it's undeniably true that this map influenced a lot of ppl. This was one of the first few maps I really saw, and damn it hit like a truck. It's at the bottom because. Drakinator sucks.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Everything moves honestly should've placed on the list, but unfortunately the map itself doesn't mean much to me on a personal level.

Mama told me This is one of my favorite mother mother songs! The fall theming is so nice.

Kids again okay so. This map is my guilty pleasure. I know literally nothing about these cats outside of this map because I refuse to read dawn of the clans. I discovered the song via this map and now it is THE song I associate with my favorite ship ever.

Beautiful another nostalgic one. I just like it a lot lol

Cowboy Dan I'm not really sure what cheetah z did but I think they're controversial?? Either way I love this fucking song. The cloudy rain part? Immaculate vibes.

[randomvarious]

1980s Power Pop Playlist

Folks, we've got a brand new tune that kicks off this playlist now, and its own title might as well be the four-word credo that really essentializes the power pop genre as a whole: "Fuck Art Let's Dance," by a British band called The Name.

Sometimes you really just gotta stop taking all of this music stuff so damn seriously all the time and come to appreciate the mass-appealing pleasures of tried and true simplicity. British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Who may have made significant artistic progress since their earlier works, but that was no reason to leave the vibe of that early stuff behind. What's already been done is no longer fresh, but some of the formulas that were used back in those early-to-mid-60s days were proven to have been pretty golden, and a late 70s-to-mid-80s crop of rockers who had grown up with those early British Invasion records on their radios had their hearts set on bringing it all back to the fore. So, fuck art, let's dance!

While this little playlist once had a combination of songs that were mostly from the indie stalwart Bomp! Records branch of American power pop and mid-to-late 80s stuff from the C86-UK indie/twee pop label Subway Organisation, it now adds a bunch of tunes that preceded that British indie pop wave too, from a pretty big subculture called mod revival. Helmed by The Jam, who used the same iconic blue, white, and red 'target' as The Who for their own band logo, mod revival was an insular scene that really took off after The Who's Quadrophenia movie came out in 1979, instilling in UK teenagers and twenty-somethings a deep desire to emulate the Vespa-riding lifestyle that the film itself had depicted. Essentially, mod revival mixed a new wave and punk rock sound with the 60s mod sound of yesteryear, but if we're going to generalize it, it was really, for the most part, a regionally specific variant of power pop.

So in addition to "Fuck Art Let's Dance," a catchy-as-shit song with only a little over 10,000 plays, we've got another couple mod revival bops too, like the soft, dreamy, and keyboard-infused "One Step Ahead" by a band called The Stripes, which only has a little over 6.2K plays. And I added a couple other tunes from Bomp! and Subway Organisation too, with "I'll Get Lucky" by SoCal power pop heroes The Plimsouls, which has 39.3K plays, and the much more obscure "Do It Again" by Clockwork Orange-referencing UK band Korova Milk Bar, which only has a little over 6.2K plays.

The Name - "Fuck Art Let's Dance" Deadbeats - "Choose You" The Plimsouls - "I'll Get Lucky" The Stripes - "One Step Ahead" Small World - "First Impressions" Korova Milk Bar - "Do It Again"

And then for the YouTube version of this playlist, I was able to add all the songs that were added to the Spotify one too, plus a handful of some more mod revival tunes that aren't on Spotify at all. And I don't think that I have a total favorite among this YouTube-only set, but The Scene's super bouncy "Hey Girl" is so irresistibly catchy and deliberately simple, from both musical and lyrical standpoints, that it almost sounds like it could be from the 60s itself, which I don't think can be said about any other song in this playlist. Really seems like these guys took the term 'mod revival' quite literally with this record of theirs, and for those who might be keeping track, this is The Scene who hailed from Bradford in West Yorkshire, and not the other UK mod revival band called The Scene who were from East London 😅. "Hey Girl" is nearing 27.7K plays.

Also added a tune from The Groove Farm, a band that was on Subway Organisation, and whose "Crazy Day Sunshine Girl" is criminally short, but makes its 45 seconds really count. And that one's only got 53 plays as of right now!

The Reputations - "I Believe You" The Scene - "Hey Girl" The Clues - "No Vacancies" The Groove Farm - "Crazy Day Sunshine Girl"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with this update, our Spotify playlist is now at 19 songs that clock in at over 55 minutes, but over on YouTube we've got 30 songs that clock in at 85 minutes. So if you want an extra half-hour of power pop-type tunes from the American-centric Bomp!, the UK's mod revival scene, and UK label Subway Organisation, you better check out that YouTube one!

And here's the list of compilations that were used to put this whole thing together:

100% British Mod (1998, Captain Mod) Destination Bomp! (1995, Bomp! Records) The Roots of Powerpop (1996, Bomp! Records) Battle of the Garages: Part 1 (1994, Voxx Records) Whole Wide World, Volume 2 (1994, Subway Organisation) Take the Subway to Your Suburb (1994, Subway Organisation) Burns From the Valley of the Sun (1991, Frontier Records)

Next week we'll be getting a little bit deeper into mod revival ✌.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[yellowloid]

I swear this album is so Milex-coded. Gonna put my fangirl glasses on and look for shipping clues :DD

i think this ask has been in my inbox ever since they dropped the album and i'm so sorry for being so late, i'm bad at being a tumblrina 😔

but YEAH can we actually talk about that?

obviously this is just speculation and theories and bla bla bla we know that + alex's lyricism is so nuanced and full of multi-faceted meanings, and we will never have confirmation on what most of his lyrics actually mean... and i love that, i love that he's always let everyone have their own interpretation(s) of his songs without imposing a single one.

now, i do think most of this album is centered on self-reflection. it's very very very personal and introspective, and what i get from most of the lyrics is him reflecting on his present situation (private life, work life, any aspect of his life really) by using two main elements as his devices to do it:

1) obscure references (the first ones that come to mind are "the simulation cartridge for city life '09", "they shot it all in cinemascope", "lego napoleon movie", "richard of york, the executive branch")

2) even more obscure memories from his past, and especially his childhood (which is particularly clear in the title track itself)

but right along all that self-reflection and addressing himself we also find instances of him clearly addressing someone else. sometimes it's particularly tricky to understand *when* exactly he's talking to himself or that other person. as i already said in other analysis posts, i think sometimes he mixes the 1st and 2nd person pronouns voluntarily, using 'you' not only to refer to his interlocutor but also to himself. that's what makes songs such as mirrorball and body paint so complicated to analyse (ESPECIALLY mirrorball. i'm still so conflicted on my interpretation of it) (+ ever since the album dropped my interpretations of body paint and also mr schwartz changed a bit too. but that's another story)

i think overall most of the songs on this album are not that easily interpreted through a romantic lens. i'd say the one that falls the most into the (very very broad) category of """""love songs""""" is mirrorball - and even then, it'd be a breakup song AND most of it could also still be interpreted as self-reflection. again, multiple interpretations.

there are also some lyrics that could easily pass as...... him throwing shade? lmao some passages in sculptures + hello you really give off that vibe.

getting back to the point of this ask.... yes, i have spent an embarrassing amount of time reading the lyrics over and over again and i do have my crazy little milex theories about them!!!

but what i really love about this way of interpreting the album is the fact that to me, its queerness doesn't necessarily come from it being about a certain person. what makes it so relatable to some aspects of queerness is, again, how self-reflective it is. so many lyrics could be interpreted as him struggling with *his* queerness and expressing that struggle through looking at the past, addressing himself as well as an (imaginary) interlocutor and just finding himself coming back to the same recurrent themes over and over again. ESPECIALLY - and that's what really fucking gets me - the whole mask/façade/persona situation, seasoned with a whole lot of regret and self-deprecation, which is especially clear in body paint (!!!!!!), mr schwartz, big ideas (i feel like as a fandom we don't talk about "the ballad of what could've been" enough. can we actually sit down and THINK about that for a second. such a fucking important line. he was so fucking insane for that) and perfect sense (about which i have a very specific interpretation and is2g don't even touch me that song makes me too emotional it's literally one of the most perfect songs i've ever heard i'm not even joking)

so yeah, some (many) lyrics could be directed at miles (never say never, you know?) but what i really love about the possibility of this album having queer connotations is that it doesn't look for its own queerness from the outside, from a hypothetical (ex-)lover, but rather from alex's own psyche and emotions. its queerness comes from within. from self-reflection and (perhaps unwanted) realizations. from having to hide and keeping a mask on to not be found out. from the inner battle between denial and acceptance.

and then there are a million other unrelated meanings that blend together with the possible queer ones and create such an elaborate set of layers that just makes it so interesting to analyse it!!! and that's the whole point of critical analysis and what makes it so cool!!! having possible multiple interpretations that can coexist with each other!!! i just!!! love that!!! so much!!!

[dearmahiru-archive]

even without textual evidence id love to hear your thoughts on kotoko not killing anyone directly!! i never hear 10 theories, & especially not ones that dont revolve around her beating up the prisoners. if youre comfortable, i would love to hear your thoughts on my wife ~with love

Ahh so sorry for how long it took to me to answer this ask my brain has been gone for the past few days. But you're right!  How could I pass up an opportunity to talk about Kotoko? She deserves so much more love than what she's given. Kotoko appreciators please interact I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So we already know I subscribe to this particular theory:

Since it serves as a extension of the parallels found in the prisoners. It also fits with Kotoko since she states she'd be an innocent person outside of Milgram:

Kotoko: [...]To defend and protect the weak, there’s always situations when you can't do anything else. I say again, what I did is, “facing an urgent and illegal infringement, an action taken out of necessity to protect the rights of myself and others”. You do understand what that means, right? Es: "Criminal law, the 36th paragraph, article 1. Justifiable self-defense." Kotoko: "Looks like someone has studied. So in reality, my case, if taken to the judiciary, will also be judged as justifiable defense.

(Kotoko you did nothing wrong so true so true!)

Though, I'll admit this doesn't outright confirm she didn't kill directly anyone. However, if we work back from the idea Kotoko commited an indirect murder then you start noticing a lot of weird details in her case.

— The Warehouse

First off, Kotoko didn't directly killed the warehouse guy. We know this because her actual victim died in a nearby street in Sendocho, Kyoto.

There is the possibility there's multiple murders underneath her belt but she hasn't mentioned it hereself:

Kotoko: I did kill someone. This is why I believe in the power of Milgram.

And, unlike other prisoners, Kotoko has no reason to lie about herself. She admires the prison and believe she's done nothing wrong. If she wants to become our fang then certainly she'd jump at the chance to mention all the villains she's defeated.

Which is amazing and everything but. . . if Kotoko's victim didn't die in the warehouse then why is it the climax of Harrow? It's obviously meant to be presented as her murder. Why are there so many strange details included in the warehouse scene too?

I pointed this out in a seperate post but there's three major strange details in the warehouse scene:

1). A car suddenly appears the second time Kotoko enters the warehouse.

2). Kotoko's outfit shifts midway through entering.

3.) Despite that, her cap still appears on the ground.

(I don't even think Takao, the warehouse guy, is even bleeding...! I've been told otherwise but I turned up the saturation and stared at the image like twelve different times but I think its shadow. Why is it obscure anyway??? Just make it outright!! Some of us have vision problems y'know!!)

I don't have any answers for why these details are here but it's weird. This is only time I can think of in S1 where the "real world" has muddled up details like this. (Apart from maybe Rei's change of eye colour which is more subtle than this).

Which isn't to say her victim isn't Takao. Again, it's the literal climax of the song and her wolf imagery comes out full stop while dealing with him. She's been hunting this guy down for possibly two years and he's done inexcusable harm to children.

Several news article through Harrow Flash news: A girl's dead body was found near her home, presumed to be another victim of a killing spree targeting little girls

New evidence: tire marks, same as the marks found near where the girl's corpse was abandoned. The culprit seems to have kidnapped her by car, murdered her, and dumped her body near her home

 The person who killed 10 people in two years was the spoiled son of an upper-class citizen. He ran over an elementary-school girl and she died, which may have been concealed due to his father's power

It also fits with her theme of protecting others as opposed to Mikoto's theme of protecting himself. Murdering a serial killer who's done inexcusable harm on this level can make it harder to punish her in the future. She did a very, very good thing by taking this guy down.

Her smile also matches up with the shot in Undercover where she's presumedly beating someone to death.

— The Alley way

If we're discussing a potential victim here then it's more likely to be Mikio Oshii, the man she beats up in the alley way. However, I'm not convinced of this either because it's never given full confirmation.

An article from Harrow: "Mikio Oshii, a man wanted for theft was found unconscious yesterday night and taken to the hospital, his face and stomach beaten up. Footprints of a man's sneakers were found at the site, and the police are searching for a male culprit."

(transmasc kotoko so true!! handsome boy!!)

It's possible he could've died later in the hospital—like, genuinely I believe it, there's plenty of evidence, and I don't have a direct argument against it—but for the sake of this theory I don't think this is the case.

Unless Mikio laid a hand on her prior, tracking down to corner a thief and beating him until he's unconscious wouldn't constitute as self defense. If this was the case then why not show the audience?

As for the indirect murder part, there could be a debate over whether a death caused later constitutes as murder but I don't think it'd be an interesting debate.

It's also a pretty tame murder in the context of Milgram. Kotoko "I defeat evil doers" Yuzuriha beat up an old guy, didn't even finish the job, and he died by blood loss. Not only is this the legal definition of murder (Kotoko had the intent to harm + the victim died as a result of her wounds), the literal children of Milgram have done worse. When Amane wanted to kill someone she atleast brought a steel pipe and aimed for the head!

However, this isn't to say her victim isn't Mikio. Atleast, not entirely. The alley way matches closest with the Sendoku street and beating up someone is presented as her murder. This scene is definitely important to understanding case.

—So Like, What Is Her Murder Then?

Haha... remember in my original post when I this theory was half-baked and had little evidence? I can croon all I want about how it's not Takao or Mikio but she had to killed someone, y'know? There's no other character in Milgram where you couldn't reasonably guess the victim based off of the first trial alone. I've also noted why it still could've been either of them too. This also isn't conclusive evidence she didn't directly or indirectly murder them either.

Personally, I think Kotoko's crime should be an extension of Milgram prison, similarly to Fuuta. Her judge/jury/executioner vigilante traits fts this already but I think it could go even further. I'm thinking she might've turned to a higher authority and they recieved a lethal punishment of some kind? That's kind-of just my shot in the dark through.

Kotoko's case interests me the most because of how simple is appears to be while having so many elusive elements. For instance, who're the two girls and the man with the hammer? One of the girl's could've been Kotoko herself too which makes for an incredibly interesting backstory. There's also this line in her voice trailer:

Kotoko: "From the begin I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless Weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!"

Which is strange because every voiceline happens before their time in Milgram. Who is she talking to and why does she need to defend herself while talking to them?

This conclusion is a bit of a mess but wow I'm really excited for Deep Cover. Recieving confirmation on anything is going to make me ecstatic. Inno Kotoko truther through and through I adore her.

[boxwinebaddie]

hi nina! do you have any other songs that you think cd would cover? i just really liked new perspective and i think ur music taste is rlly cool :3

d'awww!!! hi there, sweet pea! <3

tysm for your ask but, before you start reading ( because this message got VERY long ), i just want to let everyone know that i used this ask to explain some Very Complex Ravenstan/Callgirl Fake Dating Lore...so if you are interested in that, it starts towards the middle of this ask...it's a lil chaotic, but i tried to make it as interesting and clear as i could! no obligation to read, ofc, as always, but i did want to preface this ask with that info, so you know this one is

*Secretly An Important RM Lore Ask.*

but back to what i was doing ( screaming ):

— because aAAAAAAAAAA!!!! c': <333

i am not even joking, you guys, despite the fact that my fic is based almost entirely around Music, i avoided answering music-related asks for so LONG bc i was legitimately so nervous about it being negatively perceived or read for filth on here, which, i Know, is silly because it's my fanfic and what i say goes, i can't change my music taste anymore than i can change the way my dna loops, but...idk.

like, i feel like A Lot of people are self conscious abt their music taste, but my social anxiety/inferiority complex can get so gnarly that i actually get Nervous when people ask me about what kind of music i like and i never EVER sit shot gun in cars bc i am...scared to aux. :/

iiiiiit's...That Bad. ( nina, please get therapy. )

i also feel like people in this fandom can get Very Intense about what kind of music they associate with the boys/what music the boys listen to and are FRIGHTENINGLY QUICK to rip people to shreds over opinions that don't align with theirs or aren't obscure or 'cool' enough.

bc of that, i try to be Very Lowkey on this blog because the larger part of this fandom and the criminally insane level at which they escalate petty fights over canon/fanon, like to the point that they are frothing at the mouth and start doxing people...gives me Extreme Stress. which, in my line of work, i actually CANNOT have happen.

tldr; i want absolutely NO part of it and like my lil corner.

thank you for keeping it Safe. <3

AND THANK YOU FOR ENJOYING MY MUSIC TASTE!!! EEEE c: <3 THAT IS SO REASURRING AND HEALING FOR ME TO HEAR!!!! MUSIC TO MY EARS, BABY! LITERALLY! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THAAAANK YOU! *holds you* *squishes you* *kisses ur head*

istg, if nothing else the fact that i have a bunch of you rocking out to New Perspective and positively associating it with my fanfic means that i have done my job and that's a legacy i'm willing to die with.

i'm being so serious, i feel like if rm was a tv show, it would play as the outro to every episode...but like a nice, soft, raw version w/ ravenstan on acoustic guitar to contrast the hard ass cd cover of style by tswizz that i think would open every episode...smh, nina, please, pleease stop imagining your unfinished, crack-fanfic as a netflix og series. >.>

BUT!!! okay!!!! in vein of trying not to worry about the perception of my music taste or what other people want from me...tHIS IS A KIND OF CONTREVERSIAL TAKE BUT I TIED IT TO THE PLOT, OKAY?

so, as a little nina lore and for context, when i was in elementary school around like 4th/5th grade, i was listening to like a lot of early y2k bangers, ig. dirty little secret by all american rejects, hey there delilah by the plain white tees, girlfriend by avril lavigne core, etc.

( just to make you giggle, i also had a ps2 and there was a series of video games called singstar that were some off shoot of rockband/gh that had mics you plugged directly into the system...pls note my high score on sk8r boi really should be put in the guinness world records, like if you held a gun to my head and told me to sing that song, i not only would i fuck it up but i would LIVE, baby! better luck next time! )

...it was also around early disney channel times ( the disney channel games with the team colors...that was my OLYMPICS, bitch! ) and i had this Disney Pop Hits Vol...1? i think? cd i used to play on the prehistoric radio thing in my room and my favorite song on it was...

pop princess by the click five.

AND I KNOW!!! I KNOOOOOW!!!! controversial take, but i am sorry, THAT SONG FUCKS!!!! THAT SONG IS SOOOO AWESOME!!!!!

and i feel like when ravenstan was fake dating call girl during the great hate south park embark, cd covered it: i am picturing a less finger-bang, btr, disney channel esqe sound and more of a pop-punk, pedal to the metal, electric guitar type, edgy rockstar boy typa beat.

but Yes, i think ravenstan covered it or idk i really think that it was made FOR call girl. and it was BAD ASF. i also think bc tcf wrote that song about hannah montana ( iconic ), and bc call girl is basically the whole internet's e-girl bubblegum pop princess in my fanfic, it just...

makes...Sense.

am i making sense? do we see the vision? aka rs in his lil pants w/ the ripped red and black flannel tied around his waist, fallin to his knees, singing his heart out, pointing at her, winking? PPL DIIIIIIIIIED.

and by people, i do mean jerseykyle n bebe who were MAD AS HELL,

-- but also tapping their toe...smh.

it was both very cool and very annoying. RIP.

( ...do i have jersey and bebe make out during the pop princess call girl tribute as mlm/wlw solidarity? HEEEELP ICOOONIC *jk vibrating with stress and anger vc* barbara, i need you to do somethin for me don't ask questions, i'll explain later, It's Important sdks MESSY! )

BUT OKAY!!!! SPEAAAAKING OF THEM AND THAT AND CALLGIRL AND RAVEN OF CRIMSON DAWN DATING!!!! i wanted to give you some lore and some spoilery plot about that/them bc it is burning a Hole in my brain...i must discuss r.s. and call girl becaaaause

~Its....Complicated.~

ANYWAYS!!!! IMPORTANT PLOT TIME!!!!

so, for more context: i am currently working on another ask abt how ike found out that jerseykyle/ravenstan used to be dating and during that conversation in kyle's room about three days into the sp trip, CONCURRENTLY somewhere Else, ravenstan and call girl are getting ready to do some flashy PR thing like go on a date/get din, idk.

BUT RIGHT BEFORE IT: ravenstan and call girl are alone together, and ravenstan, who, i am not even kidding you, is sooo fucking Pissed that this is EVEN HAPPENING because kyle is super mad at him, was like you are Actually Dead to me, WILL NOT TALK TO HIM...

( which without spoiling too much -- is actually why ike can tell that somethin Fucked Up is happening because j.k. is super aggressive and loud and is not afraid to Fuck Your Shit Up...but has not laid a FINGER on raven of crimson dawn...and actually, seems to not even want to be Near him, barely acknowledges his existence, leaves rooms that he is in and is Radio Silent around him...WHICH IS TWICE AS SCARY AS J.K. YELLING AND TRYING TO KILL YOU. so, uhh, Not fucking...Good, you guys. ike was like...this is...not fucking normal. )

but again, he cannot tell kyle what is going on bc he might actuuuuallly get MURDERED??? uh???

anyways, in whatever secure, secluded space rae/cg are in ( its somewhere private, i pictured a dressing room of sorts, like a makeup trailer, somewhere they have to take pics ) stan is Extremely Straight Up with her and says something to the effect of:

"i have no idea what you think this is or what you want this to be or what they told you, but we are not dating and this...is NOT. Real."

and call girl ( aka wendy whose identity is a secret to EVERYONE, No One has seen the bottom half of call girl's face...Ever. she changes her wigs everyday, they are Very Elaborate and is always in a very high tech face mask that covers her face from the nose down and uses a voice modulator to mask her speaking voice...a mysterious queen ) oddly enough seems completely relieved by this statement and is like

*squints*

"don't worry, Emo Boy. feeling is mutual. like, no offense, but you are seriously...not my type. Ew. trust me, i don’t want to do this either but,

— I Have To."

wHICHSHDLSKDHLSD SHE GUTTED HIM HELP. he was *gigantic stan slow eye blinks in shock* like "right, okay, Ow. that was...Mean." kshdlksdls but then was "--but i am glad we...agree. i Also HAVE To. not because of publicity, it's...Deeper than that...i can't really ta--"

to which call girl, locking eyes with him, dead seriously, lowering her modulated voice is like...

"it's tenorman, right?

He Threatened You."

and r.s, gagged! Again!!! is like

"holy shit, he THREATENED /YOU/ TOO?!?!"

and call girl nods very slowly and starts to say

"he told me if i didn't do it he would..."

and rs with the same kind of mounting horror whispers

" — Kill Everyone You Love And Care About?"

which, at this point, folks, they are both like...

...WOAH.

bc they realize they are both stuck in the same torture chamber together, they Both got cornered into this really elaborate ruse and have to keep it up in order to keep the people that they love Safe and it's...A Lot. it...really is. but it's also sort of freeing and cathartic to knowing you are not alone going through what is pretty much the worst thing that has ever happened to you in your entire life.

i also feel like...there is this natural bond. this Energy between them. like they understand/see each other and feel...safe with one another.

and call girl, guard still up, dips a toe in uncharted water, and goes:

"well...since were partners in crime now and have to live a lie in public...i think we at least owe it to each other in private...

...to be Real."

she offers this bc they have reached an understanding, an impasse, a standstill, a draw of sorts. and there is a thick tension...as well as this crescendoing vulnerability that hangs the air with her ultimatum as they stare warily at each other, strangers, both wearing still wearing their masks, call girl physically in hers and stan in his metaphorical one doing the dark, raspy smoke and mirrors raven voice bc he is...not sure about her in the same way that she is...

...still not sure abt him.

( they are basically that one spiderman meme where both the spidermans are holding each other at gun point. ) and it's a huge Risk to indulge her request, but again...they both have everything to lose.

and no one...but Eachother.

so he indulges her very tentatively and counters:

"alright...then, tell me something Real, call girl."

to which she nods, closes her eyes and goes. "fine. my real name..."

call girl trails off, reaches up to tap the voice modulator on her mask, turns it off, reaches out her rhine-stoned, sequined, hot pink faux leather gloved hand out to shake his and in her real voice, says,

" — Is Wendy."

and this...is a Very BIG Deal.

again, no one has ever heard call girl's voice before. no one knows what her name is or Anything about her. she doesn't even preform live, she does virtual concerts and is basically this sort of mysterious, ai, vocaloid/miku internet personality that is very Carefully and elaborately Coded and ENCRYPTED to keep her identity Safe.

so her turning off her voice mod and speaking to stan, not as a fictional, larger than life computer-generated celebrity, but as a human being...is massive.

it's also very...Comforting to ravenstan.

who has not been himself...for a very long time. and it's not smart, it's not a good idea, but he decides to trust her and in turn,

in his real voice, says,

"stan. my name...is Stan.

It's Nice To Meet You, Wendy."

he shakes her hand and she shakes his.

she says, "it's nice to meet you too, stan." :)

and it feels...Nice. it should feel wrong, what they're doing, but it feels right, it feels fucking amazing to stop Preforming. she knows his name, she's seen his face...but realizes he still has not seen Hers and running on adrenaline, bolstered by a rare surge of bravery, chinks at her armor, or mask rather, and makes a motion.

literally.

bc he reaches up towards her face and goes, "oof. it's nice to hear your human voice; the dystopian robot voice was lowkey espantoso."

he laughs, it's genuine and super ugly, god bless him. so you Know he's being really real when he asks "but...if it's all the same to you. if were going to speak freely; i'd like to...see Who i am speaking to.

so can i, please, uh...see your Face? your whole face.

your...Real face."

and oof. this...is a little nerve-wracking for wendalends.

she's neeeever taken the mask off. ever. Ever. EVER.

For A-n-y-o-n-e.

but...she might never have the chance again and it is...really stuffy under there. so she Agrees and lets stan remove her face apparatus.

ravenstan does say "Wowza." HDLKSHDSl amazing.

he's also my boyfail king and says something very fucking stupid like

"sorry, you're REALLY Pretty. i was worried might look like deadpool under there." she smiles, it's beautiful. no one has seen her real smile before as call girl and thanks him. she goes on to apologize and is like

"thank you, stan. you're really sweet and i...am sorry i said 'ew'. it's not because you're ugly, you're kind of...Cute for a guy, actually? you have really nice bone structure and very kind eyes. it's just, when i said you weren't my type i meant Boys. in...general."

her voice shakes a little, she's never admitted this out loud before, not even to her girlfriend. but she trusts stan with the nice bone structure and dumb ugly laugh and very kind eyes, so she says

"i'm a...Lesbian.

i'm also Seeing Someone at the moment.

It's Complicated."

and stan is like, skhdlsd way too excited to talk about kyle, and is like

"okay, whew! i'm ALSO seeing someone! or well..." then remembers and is like oooof "well...i Was...seeing someone i guess. it's..."

my man is Depressed and is trying to change the subject because he realizes he actually can't talk about kyle because not only is cartman going to kill him if he does...he is also gonna freakin K!ll Himself because he's actually so sad that kyle currently hates his GUTS.

so he sighs, echoing her and admits "It's...Complicated." :/

he wants to hear something nice though, something real...and nice. because he is a romantico king. who believes more than anything...

in Love.

so he asks her what her girlfriend's name is. <3 :')

annnd i think she is About to say bebe's name...but realizes if she does, it will completely blow her cover.

like her ACTUAL Cover.

because stan knowing her first name and her what she looks like under the mask is one thing...but the second she says bebe's name, it's going to reveal that she is kyle's bebe's wen/wendyl which...is

Meeeeessy.

but she reasons ( as an intelligent, rational queen ) that regardless of how messy things get, her and stan are in this mess together and that the best time to make a mess...is when you are Coming Clean.

still...this is...very sensitive information. she’s not sure how he's gonna take it and needs some sort of collateral.

so she states her terms.

and call girl, who stan now knows is wendy, but not bebe's current girlfriend ( yet ) says "okay. i am going to tell you something, but in order to do it. i have to tell you...Everything. in exchange, i need YOU to tell me Everything. i am going to give you One Chance to do so willingly. if not...i do not care how untraceable you Think you are, i am very familiar with the dark web and i will find out everything i Need to know about you. and do with that information...What. I. Please.

...so /please./ promise me you won't tell anyone about what i am about to tell you...and then, tell me...stan...Something Real."

stan agrees and wendy goes into everything. comes out as trans to him and explains her origin story. ( i started to write everything in this ask but it got too long, i'll tell you all about call girl/wendy in another ask i have a couple in the box i can use, haha. ) she tells him pretty much everything ( it's a big therapy session in there ) up until this point, gaydhd ravenstan...manages to understand

Everything.

and when she finishes, true to the deal, she gently volleys the ball into his court, ( they are friends now, aw <3 ) and softly goes:

"okay...Your Turn."

and so ravenstan...who is Deeply Inspired by wendy...Wowza. he seriously thinks she is so fucking cool and ALSO A TRANS ICON??? HELLO? he feels v seen and heard and safe, so uh...jesus christ, he grabs wendy's hands, takes a veeeeeery deep breath and goes,

"so, i...

— Am DEAD."

LKHDSHSDLKDS HEEELP KSHLKDS

annnnnnd proceeds to tell her everything.

and i do mean...Everything.

they talk for the rest of the night basically, having this heart to heart, at the same time that, unbeknownst to ravenstan, jerseykyle and ike are also having a heart to heart....wendy and stan are platonic besties, they agree to keep each other's secrets as t4t legends stuck in cartman's fucked up marionette hell together, they agree to keep their crazy charade up while they try and find a way out/back to bebe and kyle, take some v convincing publicity pictures together ( i do think jk and bebe see them and want to die So Bad, it's not funny...bebe/jk or wendy/rs...choose your doomed broship. Fml. )

and that's...

Your Crazy Uncle Nina RM Lore Drop For The Night!

i hope you enjoyed it, haha. <3 please feel free to drop me a line in the ole ask box about it and ofc, as always, to ask me anything you would like! if you're still with me...after all this time. thank you so much for supporting me and enjoying my content.

it means...Everything to me.

and in writing something fake...

thank you all:

for being my Something Real. <3 c':

-uncle nina, callgirl/raven superfan

[pancake-breakfast]

Trigun Book Club! Maybe Wolfwood will show up in today's reading....

Archive

Trigun Volume 1: Covers + 1-3, 3 Detailed Thoughts, 4, 4 DT, 5-6, 5-6 + DT, 6 DT, 7-8, 9-10

Trigun Volume 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 1 Supplemental Research

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for Trigun Vol. 2, Chapters 2-4 below.

Chapter 2: Diablo

Ok, Legato Bluesummers is a HUGE problem child, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE his character design. This guy would adore goth fashion.

I wonder who's decided Vash deserves this particular hell. Also, it's noteworthy that the fact that they're sending TWELVE assassins after him (presumably one at a time) suggests they expect at least the first few to fail.

"Anyone in their right mind would keep that man locked up!" Hahahahahahahaha, try it.

Ugh, poor Vash.... He looks so sad and angry... and a bit scary. I'm worried for him.

It would be absolutely understandable if his feelings here were toward the humans unjustly locking him up, but the text goes on to let us know that the primary thing on his mind... the source of all his feelings right now... is Knives.

Flashback time!

Ohhhh, this is a place where '98 hard deviated, but Stampede stayed the course. '98 had Vash, Knives, and Rem running around with a handful of other characters back then, but here, it's just them.

Honestly, I feel like this panel is hitting on more story themes than are immediately apparent.

How sad that loneliness drove her to join Project Seeds. Sad, but understandable.

Oh, Vash, babygirl. Someone hug him.

You know, there's another character who wears an outfit that looks very similar to this in present day. And it's not Vash.

Full-on mom mode here in telling them what to do.

Vash looks older in this scene than he did in either anime adaptation.

Obscuring Knives's face. Smart. Can't see too much of him until it's Time.

TBH, Knives's argument here feels like justification after the fact. Like he needs a reason for everything that just happened to be right despite any elements of it going sideways.

For a pacifist, he sure can rock some serious murderface.

The ease with which he flips from murderface to softboi face is a bit disturbing.

He says this, but babygirl here looks SO TIRED. Whether or not he believes what he's saying, I think he really needs their kindness right now.

I don't know what Milly is trying to say/do here, but I wish her the best!

I just want to note that knowing my kana has made the sound effects a LOT more fun for me than they'd be otherwise.

Mmmmmm, something tells me Vash is likely to be out of there before morning. It might be this big guy who just showed up and opened fire, it might not. Who can say?

Oh, honey. Vash is NEVER unarmed. Even when he's literally missing an arm.

Hi, Monev! Thank you for introducing yourself to the class! You can sit down now. There's an empty seat right over there.

Yeah, the LAST thing Vash needs is to be trying to protect some bystanders against anyone making this level of posturing.

Good question, Monev. I don't think Vash is quite sure what he's up against, but he's clearly not going to underestimate you or take any chances. Not after meeting Legato.

Goshdarnit, the girls are still here.

Yeah, this could get messy.

I feel like Meryl taking a hit here was kind of nodded to in Stampede, where she also rushed in against Monev and nearly got herself killed.

See? Gun arm. Vash is never unarmed.

Annnd he's no longer chained down, either.

Not sure what's going on here, but I doubt it will be good for the building.

Yep. Sayonara, windows. We barely knew thee.

What's wrong, Monev? Looks like you might have bit off more than you can chew.

Oh, man. This end panel, though. Current favorite Vash murder pose.

Something something Hellsing something Alucard something aesthetic inspiration.

Chapter 3: Fragile

(The title makes me think of this song.)

Oof, little Meryl. I'm glad Milly's taking care of her.

I wish it was apparent who was thinking they can't let Vash go. I'm guessing it's Meryl, but that's based on metagame knowledge.

Iconic Vash pose.

Oof, goodbye, buildings. May you meet up with the windows from the previous chapter in whatever afterlife architecture ends up in.

Ok, this pause, though. This deliberate pause. The way the panels move from Vash shouting as loud as he can, to this almost peaceful pose of his back with the "ooooo" hum being the only indication of movement as he looks at a literal wall, to the GIANT SWISS CHEESE EXPLOSION. That's such a good build.

Ahhhh, and then this show of him focusing on the next page. People are getting shot, the world is exploding, and his gun is PERFECTLY LEVEL, his eyes are open. He's watching and waiting like a freaking ambush predator.

Aaaand he's injured. Darnit.

BUT HE MADE THE SHOT. TWICE. And Monev knows it.

Milly, still trying to help. <3

Heh, Vash might have lost the arm, but he didn't lose the arm. Hahahahahahahaha

Babygirl, remember the lesson you were trying to impress on Katie in the last volume. Don't get so caught up in your memories that you forget to be in the moment. The past is already fixed. The moment is where you can do the most good.

Something something it may seem silly something will to survive.

Uhhhh, why are we going to the bank now? Maybe something about that vault being thick and potentially safe?

Dang, we can just follow the blood trail, can't we?

Oof, trying to reload one-handed like this. Hands shaking. Trying to remember his own potential despite everything.

Uhhh... why was there just a bag of weapons hanging out there? Did Monev put it there earlier? It looks like something you'd find in a video game.

Honestly, this security guard should just take the night off.

Can't have Trigun without the bigass guns...

Vash is using the door as a shield. Just not the way one would suspect.

Again, with that perfectly steady hand.

Goodbye, Monev tough-guy mask. Hello, knee to the face.

Even after all this, Vash's resolve immediately cracks when he sees Monev's genuine fear of dying.

Again, with Rem's form blending into his and dominating the page. Meanwhile, he's just a shadow in the corner. Again, with the heavenly imagery of her, where here the only think keeping her from looking like a traditional angel is the lack of wings. But her hair, the way the cloth flows around her, and her whole pose speaks of angel's flight.

And, shaking, his gun dripping with blood from the force with which he shoved it in Monev's eye, he comes back to himself. And loses it in an entirely different way.

I love this last panel. It makes Vash seem so small and so alone. At the same time, literally everyone else in the panel aside from Monev is coming toward him to help. He might feel alone, but he's far from it.

Chapter 4: Scars

Ah, yes. Fragile things do end up with scars, if they don't break.

Honestly, what Meryl is typing here sounds far more journalistic than insurance agent-y.

She's starting to realize that, while Vash himself is a nice and gentle soul, there's a lot about him she doesn't know. I'm reminded of that quote, "No one will ever know the violence it took to become this gentle."

(BTW, I'm listening to the Stampede soundtrack and it's currently playing the version of Knives's theme with vocals and it's NOT HELPING.)

(Also, it sounds like SOMEONE is developing a bit of a crush on Mr. The Stampede.)

Monev seems to have grown some respect for Vash.

Ha, they gave this line to Wolfwood in Stampede.

I appreciate Vash's response. It says a lot about his character. Even when he seems like he's trusting, he's generally being far more cautious than people think he's being.

Quest #1: Complete! You've acquired a Coin Half!

*sigh* Everyone's scared, but he saved them all. But... their concerns aren't unjustified. If one assassin found him, the others likely will, too. And it's not like they'd send their biggest guns for Round 1.

You really shouldn't just walk straight into people's rooms. Even if you knock. Lucky for everyone he already had pants on.

Ugh, he's such a mess....

LOL, buddy. I hope that's not why you're turning down the opportunity for sex. And... if a partner really cared about you, it's not like she'd think less of you for them. Hasn't anyone ever told you chicks dig scars? Good on Meryl for calling him out.

Vash might have initially been put off by them seeing his scars, but now that they have, he doesn't seem to see a reason to hide them.

I don't think Vash could live a quiet life if he wanted to. Not with the Gung-Ho Guns hunting him. We'll not get into Ericks for the time being.

This is such a thing, though. I don't think she would fault him or think any less of him if he never bothered to settle that score. Then again, all things considered, him taking a back seat in all this would kind of be ignoring a ticking time bomb that might undo all she sacrificed for.

Huh, it's a bit of a surprise they let Monev stay for a few days, too.

There's something hilarious about Meryl's roller suitcase in the middle of the desert here.

LOLOLOL, Milly calling out Meryl for her intense interest in Vash.

Milly is a lot more devious than she looks....

Uhhhhh, what's with the cross? What's with Vash's panic?

Ohhhh, shit. Is that Monev??

Yep, it's Monev. Is... is he still alive??? Crucifixion is specifically designed to 1) be IMMENSELY painful (the spikes are generally hammered not through the palms, where they'd just rip out, but through the nerve bundle that runs up the forearm between the bones, which are holding the majority of your weight), and 2) slowly kill via exposure.

Nooooo, I don't like this guy alreadyyyyyyy....

I... I don't think Monev had a home. Not really. Not like the Gung-Ho Guns were gonna welcome him back to the mansion basement. He'd need to make a new path for himself in the world.

Yyyyep, it's E.G. Mine. Please send him back where you found him. I don't like him.

Vash, staying focused in this.

TBH, that get-up looks EXTREMELY uncomfortable.

I agree, Vash. I agree. I hope you can dodge this trolley problem with an Option 3.

Hahahaha, Vash manages to disable E.G. before his bag has a chance to drop to below shoulder level.

Howwww. How did he know Legato was watching?!

Oh, good. Legato's surprised by it all, too. And almost got shot. He's taking it pretty well, though.

Go for the source of the problem rather than the riffraff it's kicking up. Wise. Legato doesn't look pleased by this change of plans. But I think Vash is right to decide this quest is shit.

I feel very Two Cakes-y about manga Monev vs. TriStamp Monev.

(Warning: Spoilers for Trigun: Stampede ahead.)

There are things I like about both. And while TriStamp wrapping Vash directly into his backstory and mucking much more clearly with Monev's head might be a bit off-putting to some, I appreciated how much more personal they made his arc to Vash. You have all the same elements; a boy betrayed and trained to be a monster, released primarily to cause Vash pain, and then just as it seems he might be saved from everything he's been through, his life is cut short in a way that does NOT endear Vash to his killer.

But in Stampede, Monev's arc also holds the full weight of 20 years of Vash being too late. Too late to save the town. Too late to save the boy. To short-sighted to see the consequences of just trying to help. Too slow to save the man.

It makes it hit in a far more meaningful fashion... but I don't know that it would be right for manga Vash at this point in his story arc. Right now, he needs to recognize and reconcile what he is and isn't. We've seen far more of him being silly than we've seen of him being dangerous, and here, we see him leaning into his more dangerous side. Through his arc in the manga, we too must start to ask the questions Meryl asks, and might begin to wonder if, perhaps, the Humanoid Typhoon is far closer to the edge than he immediately appears.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

What if Harry’s song lyrics aren’t always literal? Pregnancies and babies could be metaphors for other things, like projects or dreams. For instance, I’ve wondered if Kiwi might be about Harry’s relationship with the recording industry.

I think this anon really captures what I find frustrating about fandom discussion about lyrics (not really through any fault of its own - but just because the way it operates within discourse). The fact that 'what is Harry's song lyrics aren't always literal?' is put forward as an idea that might be pondered upon - as opposed to a baseline assumption that you'd need a lot of evidence before you acted as if it wasn't true - is infuriating to me.

I find fan discourse that treats lyrics as literally true and focuses on decoding them - one of the most tedious things about fandom, because of its lack of curiosity. Anyone who has listened to songwriters talk about their process knows that there's all sorts of different ways that songs relate to people lives, or not - and the starting point should always be allowing for these options.

When thinking about what the songwriter might mean a song to be about - or where the song might have come from for them (which can be interesting to speculate about - although they are slightly different) - I think it's important to start not from the lyrics themselves - but what we know about their process.

I think if you're going to speculate about lyrics - the important question to ask first is 'what do we know about how this songwriter writes and how they relate their writing to their life?' Otherwise it's like trying to guess what waterlilies look like after looking at a Monet, because you've seen both an actual Sunflower and the Van Gough picture of a sunflower.

And with Harry we don't have much to go on. He doesn't tell us much about what his lyrics mean to him or where they came from. To me there are two hints - both of which point the same way - and most of which mostly show how little we know.

The first is an interview with Mitch, where he mentions what he learned from Harry as a songwriter:

"It's a bit all over the place," he says. "The songs are all snapshots [of my life] but nothing's in order." The Grammy winner was keen to share his thoughts and emotions in a way that didn't alienate the listener, a trick he picked up from his good friend and frequent collaborator Styles. "Maybe this is something I picked up being a fly on the wall with Harry," Rowland says. "He's always asking, 'How can I make this relatable?' And I often don't know the answer to that, but I tried to make the songs open to interpretation." 

This doesn't tell us anything much about how Harry relates songs to his life - but it suggests that relateability to the audience is more important than specificity in Harry's songs (which is reasonably obvious from the songs themselves) and one solution is leaving the songs open to interpretation.

With two of the Harry's House songs Harry has presented a meaning that was not obvious from the song itself after the song was released - once directly with LomL and once indirectly with MFASR. I think that's very interesting when taken in context with what Mitch said (even if I think it's important to acknowledge that the meaning of MFASR in the video may not have been Harry's intended meaning when he wrote the song). I think that at least some of Harry's songs has a personal meaning that he's obscured. He's taken a feeling or experience, written a song about it, and then made it open to interpretation in a way that means that nobody would guess the original meaning unless they were told (the same is true of Ever Since New York)

That doesn't mean that's the only way Harry writes lyrics - I think it's reasonably clear that he intentionally plays into the fantasies he knows his audience has - although how he accesses that is a really big question. There are moments that casually match his life, but don't tell us much about any other aspect of the song ('I heard Jenny saying "Go get the kids from school"'). And there are a couple of songs that are linked to specific people - Cherry and Carolina.

All that I'm asking is that discussions about what Harry's album means from Harry starts from here - starts from what we do know. Rather than people just deciding that because they're making connections or want things to mean a particular thing - that's what they mean for Harry.

[kogameh]

Some extended translations notes for episode 1

(Or moreso why certain things are translated as it is, because, uh, I put a lot of thought into these subs...)

"Crash through every obstacle."

Now this is the most important one. It IS the series' tagline and Hitto's catchphrase and you WILL be hearing it a lot. HKsubs and most summaries used "overcome the difficulties". D-rights used "Crash your adversity" (this is still the ONLY official English translation we got for Crash lmao) which, imo, both are fine as it is but if we look at the original sentence in Japanese further-

逆境を撃ち破れ uses the 撃 kanji instead of the more common 打ち破れ.

There's DEFINITELY a "crash" pun that needed to be made here, and D-rights' translation definitely went with that intention in mind. But I also don't want it to sound overly quirky like you see with hissatsu lines and all and prefer it as a proper motivational quote, so, yeah.

Uh, now that you know the breakdown/context/etc, with that in mind, I went with "Crash through any obstacles". It sounds both cool AND motivating, and the obstacles could apply to both the actual objects or struggles Hitto would face. There are def other ways I could go like "Crash through any hardship", "Break through every difficulties" etc, but I mainly wanted to avoid something too cheesy or too dry but still applicable in most situations? Yeah.

But eh, this could be just me though. You're always to suggest me something better that fits my description for it. Plus the quote can still be flexible if I eventually decide to do that. (Mainly keeping the "Crash Through Every"!)

Whatever the fuck Koutarou was reading

This...was frankly the hardest part to translate in the entire ep orz. Unfortunately, I lack knowledge of Japanese proses and stuff so googling his entire reading yielded nothing--however, some lines did appear to reference so actual literature and idioms.

"The mountains may have burned, but the birds...scorch themselves for their beloved children..." - This line supposedly references the lyrics to a folk song? It is a slightly different lyric though as it originally says 山は焼けても山鳥ゃ立たぬ 子ほど可愛いいものはない ("The mountains may have burned, but the birds didn't stand up, there's nothing cuter than a child"?). I can't be sure if this is an obscure song or not as googling a similar title is not giving me songs with the same lyrics. But eh. At least you know what Koutarou is referencing.

"Thou one shall not be lost like the fading mountain…like a parent who continues to feed into their child's greed." - OKAY THIS ONE IS FUNNY. Apparently the latter half was a reference to a proverb that originally says 子故に迷う親心 (A parent's mind is lost because of their child) which -- refers to parents that worry or spoil their child too much? OBVIOUSLY Koutarou is throwing shade at Hitto here as he didn't want to be "that" kind of parent towards his son so I did take some liberties with "feed into their child's greed" to emphasize that, rather than literally translating the phrase word by word haha.

"...destroy everything here marble-lously."

OKAY BEFORE ANYONE STARTS RAISING PITCHFORKS AT ME, YOU NEED TO DO THAT TO KODOH FIRST BECAUSE HE WAS ACTUALLY SAYING A PUN IN THIS SCENE.

I think these excerpts from B-Daman wikia explains the original double meaning well:

There's just sadly no elegant way to translate his lines into English without making it sound meme-y. I COULD translate the line literally like the image above but will that give you the same damage of hearing a stupid pun spit out from his mouth? Idk. My reasons for not literally translating this are not that convincing but I do hope you feel anguish knowing that Kodoh's debut line was a stupid damn pun. God. WHY IS HE MY OSHI.

"Rattlebrain"

One of Konta's catchphrase, "ガチャガチャ" / "gacha gacha". I think the MEANING Konta explained (as shown in the third screenshot) is important here, as originally he said 何が出てくるがわからない ("You don't know what's gonna come out") as it's obviously referencing to the randomness of actual gachas. I think going with translations like "fickle-minded" or "reckless" should work fine, but I will emphasize the fact that a) most people are often confused when he started saying it, implying that its not a common word or made up by Konta b) I do want to reference the "gacha gacha" as in the "shakey and clattering" onomatopoeia and the RNGs of real gachas. So yeah. Rattlebrain it is. I think it still delivers the same energy and intention that I mentioned. Plus my friend (Double) said "it's like Hitto's brain is a tin with marbles rolling around in it." WHICH, IS AN APT COMPARISON, ACTUALLY. And hence why I went with rattlebrain. Yeah. ~~~

An afterword: Crash's first ep is not the most complex to translate, but it does introduce some mainstay lines that you will hear a lot throughout the series (and may possibly be constantly mentioned in the fandom) and I think giving memorable, in-character translations is especially important when it comes to catchphrases and such.

It's those phrases where its double meaning and wordplay could be easily glossed over in most contexts (and I don't blame anyone if they do haha) but I personally do want to deliver the accurate intention and personality with these lines, hence the breakdowns. This is where having any familiarity with the source material is important, especially when you're translating an older show instead of an ongoing one. I mean, do you REALLY think me, the Crashhead here would gloss over such details? No.

And...yeah! I hope that was a helpful read? I'll emphasize that my translations are not perfect, but at the very least I want to put all my heart into them since, Crash is a series I hold close to my heart...over anything else, haha.

[chirpsythismorning]

Predictions for Songs That May (or May Not) Be Used to Promote the Final Season of Stranger Things!

While in the process of making my ST5 Vision playlist (with up to 200 songs), I noticed I was subconsciously making categories. And one of the categories I found myself getting especially fixated on, was one for songs that I could actually see being used, in either the official trailer for s5, or some other form of promotion, whether that be a teaser, sneak peak, or even just a simple 10 second clip of all the main characters dramatically looking up at the camera.

As I continue to stress myself out over the near endless possibilities for this playlist, I wanted to share a few songs here right now which I think, with (some) good reason, could end up being used to promote the show, ie. what Separate Ways was for the official s4 trailer.

Now, I want to make clear that I'm just theorizing here. This is all educated guesses at best. Don't take my word for it and please refrain from getting bitter in the case that you dislike one or more of the songs. If you must know I predicted exactly ONE song that ended up featuring in s4 (Object of My Desire), despite only having like 20 songs on my 'ST4 Vision' playlist (and despite not even taking it that seriously last time), so please give me some credit here! TBH I myself don't even like all these, but I'm still willing to consider them after researching through all the options that are out there.

I also want to add that most of these songs require some imagination. I think it's likely that whatever song(s) they do end up choosing, they'll most likely be modified to sound slightly different than the original. It all depends on the vibe they want to go for. And while we wait for the final season, i figure it might be fun to see if we can guess some of the DNA for s5 by doing stuff like this, which is why I wanted to share!

Keeping all of this in mind, here are my predictions!

The Final Countdown (1986) Europe

Likelihood Rating: 9/10

Yep. I'm starting with the most obvious. Sue me. Honestly though, I don't really have any strong opinions about this one. Like, it fits. It's 'the final countdown' aka the final season. This song is most often used in intense environments, like sporting events, etc.. So there is this element of appeal in that it could be quite fitting for an official trailer, let alone a final season trailer. I have said in the past that lyrically there is some potential endgame byler coding in these lyrics, meaning this song would be fitting not only because of it's literal title, but also in a way that could foreshadow what may end up happening in the show itself (wouldn't be the first time). There's this mention of 'we're leaving together', 'missing her so,' as well as something a little more specific, '-- still we stand tall, cause maybe they'll see us, and welcome us all'. I could genuinely imagine this being used to foreshadow Mike and Will leaving for the city (together) at the end of the show, missing El who stays, and the audience maybe (hopefully) accepting that as a satisfying ending (also a Separate Ways parallel: here we stand vs. and still we stand tall).

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire (1941) The Ink Spots

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

Yep. I'm going from the most obvious to the most obscure. Sue me. To be fair, I don't think this song is that obscure (you might even recognize it from angsty s4 Will Byers edits: here and here to name a couple). And although it is very old and therefore would not necessarily fit with the 80's vibe specifically, Stranger Things is no stranger to featuring songs that came out well before the setting of the show. In fact, almost every season, we get at least one major oldie. And so, I guess if I had to choose my prediction for the oldie to feature in s5, it would be this one! It should be noted that the preview Tumblr offers for this song does not do it justice (nor do the other previews listed here for that matter), so definitely listen to the whole thing before giving it your full consideration. I do think that the s5 promo version would indeed be modified quite a bit to match the vibe they want to go for. What made me sort of instantly transfixed by this song in particular, is that it sounds and carries itself like a love song, and that's because it is a love song, no doubt. But because of the lyrics, it also feels like it could be framed in an eery way (I've Got Five On It from Us comes to mind). I think by fully embracing the apocalyptic-toned lyrics, while also embracing the romantic-toned ones, they could invoke a really incredible feeling out of the audience. Now, when it comes to the lyrics, that's what really got me intrigued. "I don't want to set the world on fire" reminds me of the expectations for Will's character going into ST5, with much of the GA being convinced that Mike not loving him back is going to result in this villain arc for him, which will inevitably end with Will sacrificing himself (also Will Byers fireball homage). But the truth for Will, and just like the song also argues, is much less stereotypically violent and a lot more surprisingly pure. The truth is that Will, 'just wants to start the flame in Mike's heart'!! And so we've got flame in heart crumbs, with a dash of end of world crumbs? Sign me tf up.

Mad World (1883) Tears For Fears

Likelihood Rating: 6/10 -

I feel like we need at least one Tears For Fears song in Stranger Things. Although I'm convinced (delusional) that Everybody Wants to Rule the World will feature near the end of the series during a happy moment, solely because of how much that s2 behind the scenes video has changed the brain chemistry of the entire fandom, to the point where a lot of us have been convinced it was used in the show at one point. But for the sake of this list, I think song(s) used to promote s5 before it premieres, are going to be less 'uplifting good', and instead more 'eery good'. We're still in hopeless, assumed failed mission territory and so 'No tomorrow. No tomorrow' is quite fitting. While there is hope going into the final season (we've been reassured the ending is beautiful) there's still a battle ahead in the mean time. Unless they plan to change our relation to that song, from aww to OH SHIT (which they definitely could...), I do think Mad World sort of fits the bill in respects to the impending doom a little more than EWRW, which feels more victorious in comparison. Lyrically, Mad World reminds me of Henry's villain monologue at the end of Vol. 1. I also think it's a good example of a song that has some lyrics that fit very well, while other lyrics don't fit as much. And that's okay. In the past, there has been songs used for ST promo, and even in the show itself, that followed a similar criteria, where they even tweaked/removed parts of songs that didn't match the message they wanted to convey. So keep this in mind as the list goes, because I do think a lot of layers go into their final decision for song choices, especially in regards to promotional picks. And so in this case, I guess you can't go wrong with a birthdaygate easter egg either...

Crazy Train (1980) Ozzy Osbourne

Likelihood Rating: 5/10

This song is extremely well known, and I do think it has the range to mesh well accompanying badass frames of the characters fighting and surviving in the trailer for the final season, as it has been used a lot from this sort of hyped up lens before (fingers crossed Megamind is on the ST5 inspo board!). Lyrically, we've got 'mental wounds not healing, life's a bitter shame, I'm going off the rails on a crazy train'. 'Mental wounds not healing', could parallel to what was going on with El at the end of s3 and throughout s4, with her powers not working bc of the memories she was suppressing, and it could also be related to Max ending up in a coma at the end of s4 at the hands of Venca, with her going into s5 somewhere in between life and death. 'Life's a bitter shame', pretty much sums up a lot of what the characters were feeling in s4 (also Heroes crumbs mayhaps?). 'I'm going off the rails on a crazy train,'... I shouldn't even have to acknowledge the implications of them using this song, or any song that includes the word Crazy in the title for that matter, as the official song for the season... and so, I wont. TBH I feel like this song is a little too similar to Separate Ways, and so maybe it wouldn't get picked based on that reason alone? Or maybe the exact opposite? Maybe it would get picked for that very reason? Regardless, I could see it.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain (1970) Creedance Clearwater Revival

Liklihood Rating: 3/10

This is another example of a song that would need to be modified quite a bit in order for it to work with the vibe of the final season. However, I do think there is quite a bit here to work with. 'Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm, I know, it's been coming for some time'. Those lyrics alongside some eery s5 frames, like, it works. And they feel deeper than just the literal storm itself, as everything likely to go down in s5, has indeed 'been coming for some time'... Also, if I'm being totally honest, any songs I can find that involve storms or thunder or rain, I'm there! And so this is just one in particular that stood out to me. This emphasis on rain pouring tremendously, while the sun shines brightly... I love it. Also we know songs by Creedance Clearwater Revival are very very capable of being covered and changed to something more creepy, Bad Moon Rising ring any bells?

Somebody to Love (1967) Jefferson Airplane

Likelihood Rating: 3/10

Now, ST has used a song by Jefferson Airplane before (White Rabbit), which is from the same album as this song Somebody to Love here. Although I don't necessarily think that alone rules out this song being a possibility, I still felt like it was worth mentioning. Lyrically, we've got, "When the truth is found to be lies. And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." This could fit very well with what's going on with El towards Mike in s3-4. Though I think she already knows the truth, which is that his monologue wasn't romantic and that he's sort of stringing her along with this falsehood, this song captures an emotion that I think is present with her still, and will be until they finally end things romantically. I also think the audience still hasn't realized the truth themselves, seeing as most of them assumed she loved the monologue. It's almost like the audience would also be discovering the truth aka the lie, and so if a song like this were to be incorporated in some type of promo, it could be interesting... El also very much deserves someone to love her the way she wants to be loved. Whenever someone finds themself in relationship, where they're giving 70% and the other is giving 30%, it might be time for the person putting in more to let go and remind themselves they deserve somebody to love them, truly. And this could also apply to every character on the show, as most songs used in promo apply to more than just one character. However, I do think the initial lyric at the start of this song definitely applies to El and her relationship with Mike, along with her desire to love someone and for them to love her back equally. Oh and also "when the garden flowers, baby are dead, yes and your mind, your mind is so full of red"...

Smalltown Boy (1984) Bronski Beat

Likelihood Rating: 1/10

I don't want to hear about how unrealistic it is, it's called manifestation. We all know Smalltown Boy is the very first song on Mike's official Spotify playlist, and so there has been a lot of hype in the byler community that it could potentially feature in the final season, aka the same season Mike's feelings for Will are anticipated to be revealed. To be fair, You Spin Me Round featured in s4 (at Rink-O-Mania where Mike was being an absolute gay disaster bc of Will) and was also on Mike's playlist, along with Mad World which I also listed as a prediction for s5 promo. Even still, personally, I can't really imagine this song in the show itself, as like non-diegetic nor diegetic sound. I could however imagine it being used outside of the show for some kind of promotion. I know all the Netflix socials release more than just teasers and trailers, but also like small snippets of promo, for example the one with the main party all looking up at the camera dramatically for ST4 promo. I could totally see a short clip of s5 Mike looking up at the camera all worried, and accompanied by that notable Smalltown Boy (Bronski) beat.

Should I Stay or Should I Go (1982) The Clash

Likelihood Rating: 7/10

Even though I try to not dwell too much over songs that have already been on the show, I feel like this is one of the clear exceptions. Should I Stay or Should I Go had so much importance early on, like it was literally the Running Up that Hill of the first season. And so if we're going to see a lot of things coming full circle, with us getting some big questions answered related to Will and the Upside Down, I think it's possible and even likely we could hear it on the show again. There's a bunch of popular theories that Will could get Vecna'd based on a decent amount of substantial evidence, meaning we could hear this song play on the show again in attempts to save him... However, it's probably not likely to play out exactly like this, since we know Vecna/Henry needs Will and doesn't want him dead (as far as we know at least). I do think it could also be used as promo for s5. There's one TikTok edit in particular that made me realize how awesome something like this could look. It would feel very much like we're back to s1 vibes if they used this song, and I think that since they've admitted to going back to their roots, it's definitely a possibility we'll hear it again. (Also another iconic s5 concept edit from this user bc they’re a legend!)

Down Under (1981) Men At Work

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

This is probably my most unique prediction of all, because although there aren't a lot of lyrics to go off of here, we don't really need a laundry list of lyrics, as it first and foremost depends on the style of promo the song would be used in. The title itself could parallel to the Upside Down, aka 'Down Under'. Lyrically, we've got, '--Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover'. It doesn't take a lot to recognize this fits pretty well with what we're going to presumably be thrown into at the start of s5. I do think this would be another case of them having to edit the original drastically in order for it to work. But again, I could really imagine it working well for promo that's smaller in length. And if given really eery, edgy modifications in the ST version, I could honestly see it being pretty epic too. A lot of people know this song from other entertainment over the years, so it would be instantly recognizable, but also unique and engaging enough to impress viewers. Underground is another song from this album that feels slightly Upside Down coded, though not as well known so probably not as ideal for promo purposes. (Double also, Men At Work have a couple extremely Mike Wheeler coded songs, including, but not limited to: Who Can It Be Now and Man with Two Hearts)

AND that's all for now!

I'm curious to know if any of you can imagine one or more of these songs featuring on the show in some way? Or if there's any other songs you can think of that might work for s5 promotional purpose? So please don't hesitate to share! I would love more inspiration!

It's been a lot of fun making this playlist, especially knowing there's at least a small possibility in guessing some of the DNA of the final season in doing so. I feel like with previous seasons, it wasn't as easy to guess the music that might feature because there was just such a broad understanding of what was to come. Though, with this being the last time around, there's just so much to go off of in terms of the expected tone, especially with the whole 'end of the world' aspect.

As of now, I'm not sure if or when I'll ever post the ST5 vision playlist. I could see myself being able to release it in chunks, like I did here first with songs that I could see being used in s5 promotion. Some of the categories include themes involving catastrophic weather conditions/war, doors and/or locks, hearts, unrequited love, sleepless nights, magic/powers, etc. are just some of the few categories I have going on. If there's any in particular you're interested in hearing next, don't hesitate to ask!

[lehdenlaulu]

Game asks: 5, 9, 14, 22 😁✨

Thank you, love!

5. Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

First of all, Dragon's Dogma 2! It coming out in this year's March was such a delightful surprise. The original game from a decade or so ago was really interesting and in many ways innovative, though it has remained pretty obscure to larger audiences. Even I came across it pretty much by chance.

It's not that I mind the recent trend of tactical/isometric RPGs (though I've never been that big a fan of turn-based, as someone who grew up on the OG Infinity Engine games, RWP all the way), but an open-world action-adventure is still a welcome change (Starfield, bless its heart, doesn't count). I've also never been into the JRPG genre, but DD is an interesting case because while it's a Japanese production, it doesn't feel like a JRPG, aesthetically or otherwise.

Anyway, feast your eyes on the latest trailer!

There are others that I'm looking forward to as well, like Awoved, Broken Roads, Star Wars: Outlaws, and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 (though with the developmental weirdness and the complete overhaul of the entire concept of the game that followed, I'm more cautiously curious than excited now). But realistically, I only expect one or two of them to actually come out this year.

Oh, and there are some cool visual novels coming out that I'm looking forward to as well, like Made Marion (currently in Early Access with Robin's route already playable), Call Me Under (which I hope has avoided the issues the studio's last two games, Errant Kingdom in particular, had), Imperial Grace, Tenebrae, and When Stars Collide.

9. A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

Huh. It's pretty rare for me to go in completely blind, though I usually don't go out of my way to look things up either as the joy of discovery is a big thing for me. But... I guess I could say the first Dragon's Dogma? I did not have many expectations, and while it wasn't the most brilliant thing ever and had some frustrating mechanics, it was super enjoyable (until the endgame bits ugh, but that's a me issue I guess).

Oh, and Enderal, of course! It's safe to say I Had No Idea What I Was In For.

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons

Hah, how nostalgic do we want to get? Though a song specifically narrows things down a little, hmm.

Honestly, the first one to start playing in my head was Malukah's gorgeous Beauty of Dawn for The Elder Scrolls Online, but my brain also protests because a ten-year-old game is apparently not old enough for it to count as nostalgic. 😂

Something really old, then? How's A Pirate I Was Meant To Be? 😎

22. A game ending that’s really stuck with you

Well. The thing is, I'm apparently chronically allergic to finishing games. It's not that I lose interest, exactly, I guess I just don't like things to end or something? So I'm basically what you might call the complete antithesis of a speedrunner, I have to do literally everything else first and I often find myself loading an older save if I feel like the main quest is proceeding too fast (depending a little on the type of game, of course). 😅

So this is a bit of a challenge for me. Also, endings are tough in any media from a writing standpoint, truly satisfying and impactful endings are difficult to pull off.

But... even though I haven't technically finished it, I think I have to say Enderal. I mean, there are several possible endings, but they're all emotionally impactful, make sense, and will haunt you for a long time afterwards (as does the entire game, really).

Talk to me about video games?

[cray-cray-anime]

Number of reasons why freefonix was pretty cool

Let's ignore the weird slang and could be better plot (tho the creator was told to avoid an overarching plot)

Apologies in advance for the pixels i just took whatever in galleries on the wiki

@obscure-song-tournament if you're interested to read my rambles go for it lol

The music obviously- they literally mentioned there's over 100 songs made for this show and covered alot of genres w different artists; tho honestly idk who done all the singing as the cast list doesn't mention all the characters singing and searching said cast can you get you multiple ppl

I can't remember all of the songs but some of them just has a nice message behind it like do want you want and being yourself which ye typical but still nice

The characters designs I love so very much, from the clothes and general art style. (The episodes are better quality i swear lol)

Especially appreciate they didn't do those ugly black lip that some other cartoons do. Sugar Che is just so pretty and her afro is like those art where people's hair is like a plant or outerspace

Bonus her and Freezone (other black character) is voiced and sung by a black person

Also like expanded on black inspired/based (?) music as a kid who only would hear "those bad raps that kids shouldn't listen too" or that they're the jazz guy + occasional pop song that come on radio; i think I'm more appreciative oh hip hop/ rap partly cos of it

Totally anticonsumerism like prob add on the start of my anticapitilistic views lol

They literally fought with music like the instruments would literally shoot stuff in the sound clashes; also the instruments itself looks cool (the clip is from the first episode so miiight not be the best show of it but ya get what i mean)

The antagonist band Mantyz isn't bad cos they're a rock/metal band, but the fact they just do the same music to keep being rich/famous and don't really care abt staying original

They also used to be free wavers which freefonix is. Which really all abt making your own music (cos they love/really get music) that's against "prepsie" or better known as corporate/manufactured music

Oh ye the other villain Mya who done a contract Mantyz is literally just rich CEO and want to rule the world. Bonus is the accent w/o stereotyping accent and like nothing to do w becoming evil cos of a guy. Plus her suite is cool

I can't remember exactly but there's some interesting concepts around the show like vox, the bigger villain trapped by sugar che that if freed by the "13th note" could rule the world (i mean typical but he doesn't look typical) and destroy sugar che and freefonix

There's also some sci fi stuff idk like time affected by the music powers

General plot is people who are musically talented are one of the guardians of the 13th note which have alot of power

From wiki "Freefonix have discovered a sophisticated way of fighting their battles against rival band Mantyz, by using the power of the Thirteenth Note, an awesome force that can bend space, time and minds when the perfect sound is created. When the two rival bands meet, the result is an explosive Soundclash, where the opposing forces do battle as all the energies of the Thirteenth Note are released."