#Six Defense Squad. Six Apologists Squad

[haemosexuality]

What's an unpopular opinion you have about whatever fandom you're into at the moment?

SIX IS NOT EVIL SHE DID NOT DROP MONO TO BE EVIL.

And she wasnt just using mono for whatever ok. Look. she's 9 years old, for starters. maybe even 8 in the second game bc we dont know how much time passed between the end of ln2 and the start of ln1. you Cannot treat her like an adult, or someone that makes rational logic based decisions with a developed brain. shes literally a little kid.

plus like, take a look at the world she lives in. its a post apocalyptic monster filled world where everything and everyone is out to kill her, and she has to be constantly on the run, with no house no food no change of clothes and no certain company (because whoever shes with could always be killed). no one is there to teach that kid whats right or wrong. every single example she has on how to live is Kill Or Be Killed.

she has been to Several traumatic events. getting kidnapped (THREE times), being kept locked in a room, being tortured (probably) by the porcelain kids, getting her body deformed broken and stretched and her mind deteriorated by a probably really painful experience and then having the one person she trusted continuously scream at her and cause her extreme pain, etc. its impossible to go through all that and come out mentally sane, to not lose touch of what is and isnt okay to do.

and she did care about mono, ok?? you can see that through the game. they probably werent like, Best Friends For Life, or Loved Each Other, bc they both knew each other for a very small time and have like no examples of any type of relationship (yeah mono was very die harfor her but hes described as "naturally protective", i think he would have done that for any kid) but you can see that she cares for him. she continuously saves him from the tv, from falling, waits for him, even when the thin man is coming out of the tv and she is clearly terrified she stays and keeps trying to get mono to run with her for as long as she can before survival taking over. if she truly was just "using mono for her own gain" she would not have put her life in danger for him so many times, especially that last one. plus the whole monster six part, where even in a monstrous form where her mind is probably more animalistic than rational, she still recognizes and trusts him. and if she was, why would she drop him there?? he could still be useful after that??

there are a Lot of reasons why she could have dropped mono. theres no way of knowing which one is right, or if it was bc of another reason we didnt even think of, so its up for personal interpretation, but all signs point for it being for a Reason other than "oooh shes manipulative and evil and wanted to cause him harm for no reason". like, here are some facts

1-she had just gone through a Very Extremely Traumatic thing. she got turned into a monster, and brought back to normal by pain. immediately after she had to run from a gigantic mass of eyes and flesh. shes 9. she was not in a state of mind to make rational thought out decisions, she was probably not even thinking much. her minds was probably clouded and running on pure panic and survival instinct

2-mono has just Continuously Caused Her Pain. you can see that while he was breaking the music box, she was screaming and flinching and desperately trying to get him to stop. that hurt, a Lot. plus he kept screaming at her, which she also visibly flinched when he did. he literally just beat her up and yelled at her, when she had just gone through something very traumatic and was trying to cling to the only bit of peace/escapism she had

3-talking about escapism, the Little nightmares official twitter hinted at it being related to the reason. ln 2 whole message is about escapism, and thats what the signal tower provides. to the viewers, it was the tv, for mono, probably isolation- for six it was the music box. she was like brainwashed by it. ln's twitter said both that "extracting someone from a fantasy can be very painful", and that "more of us understand the pain mono caused six than we know" (when we cope w the ganes ending by making fan content where Nothing Bad Happens And They Live Happily Ever after. and like, yeah, from our perspective, we know the transmission was actually harming her, and from monos perspective, she saved her, even if he had to hurt her to do it. but what about her perspective? (which is also something the creators said a lot- we know our side and monos side of things, but we didnt look through what happened with six's eyes, we dont know what stuff looked like from her perspective. thats why at first, it seems like the betrayal came out of nowhere). as ive said again and again (sorry i dont know how to write without being repetitive), she went through a Bunch Of Fucking Traumatic Things In Her Life, and the signal tower has giving her peace, for one. in the game, its implied that the room monster six was in and the music box etc are all actively malicious, but the way i interpret it its also like, a safe space her own mind created for her to retreat to and escape from that nightmare. she was safe there, no danger, no pain, just a comfy room with all her favorite stuff and a soothing music box (the canon version is the same but malicious and brainwashing instead of good lmao. it doesnt matter the point is how she felt). only for mono to come in and rip all that away from her in a very painful way, both physically and mentally. he dragged her back to a life of endless suffering.

4-mono Continuously put her in danger throughout the game. he was the reason she got captured by the hunter (as seen in the comics), he got her repeatedly shot at, the reason why the bullies got her, he freed the fucking thin man, and coward under the bad while she stretched her hand out for help before being taken by him. yeah, he saved her all those times, and many werent really his fault, but again shes 9 and hurt and is not gonna have the most rational of brains. plus her perspective is different from ours. also, mono has Magic- a Lot Of It, and magic has never been good for her. she only saw a bit of his magic (the whole tv thing), but she was shown distancing herself from him every time that happened. she was Scared. six's whole thing, this Worlds whole thing is about survival. thats the most important thing, bc anything will get you killed. as i said, kill or be killed, and mono got very close to getting her killed multiple times, as well as sharing a trait with the things that usually try to kill her.

5-some ppl also say that she could have recognized him as the thin man, or could be gettung hungry and trying to spare him, but those theories dont make much sense to me (especially the hunger one bc her hungry escalates through the first game. she doesnt jump straight into eating people. so itd make no sense for her to think she was going to eat him as nothing like that had ever happened.)

and like probably more that i forgot or didnt pick up on!!!!! why dont people analyze stuff instead of just jumping to "ShEs eViL"!!!!!

and i think a lot of the fandoms perception of Evil Six comes from the fact that they acknowledge she kills people in the game, but see mono as a uwu soft pacifist boy when hes???? not????? he has killed more people than her. hes ruthless. he absolutely killed anyone tht got in his way and in no moment showed any hesitation. he pulled the plug on someone bc they needed a distractio. shes as ready as six is to kill, and no one paints him as evil, just as someone doing what it takes so survive. which he is!!! but so is six!

i could talk about the first game too but then this would be even longer so i wont. anyways if anyone actually read all that i want to study you in a lab how much free time do u even have. thank you tho bye ❤

[mancitynoise]

Chelsea host reigning Premier League champions Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Maurizio Sarri’s side will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing midweek defeat to Wolves, but the Cityzens are a seriously tough opponent to have to face.

This week’s experts, Manchester City fan and Fixture in Focus podcast regular Chris McMullan and The TT’s resident Chelsea apologist George Blake, share their thoughts and predictions ahead of the 17:30 kick-off…

After a long unbeaten run at the start of the season, recent defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves have halted Chelsea’s progress under new boss Sarri.

With the race for the top four – and consequent Champions League qualification – looking so tight this year, Chelsea can scarcely afford to drop points, especially against newly-promoted opposition. 

After the failure at Molineux, how important is it for Sarri’s side to get a result on Saturday?

George: “It’s incredibly important. If we had got a decent result against Tottenham and won on Wednesday, this fixture wouldn’t be particularly significant, as we’re not looking to challenge for the title this season, and City are obviously so much better. However, given our recent form, we simply can’t afford to lose another game. If we have aspirations of finishing in the top-four, we desperately need a good result. 

We’ll drop outside of the leading pack if we fail to win, and given the fine form of everyone around us, we may find it difficult to get back in. Of course, it’s also important to get a good result to start putting aside this sense of doubt that is quickly bubbling around Maurizio Sarri – and it’s the sort of game that could really kick our season back into fifth gear. Or, it could make this downward spiral even worse.”

After such a strong start to the campaign, it was easy to believe that Chelsea were already close to being back to their best. However, it must be remembered that Sarri took up the hot seat at Stamford Bridge this summer in trying circumstances. 

The Italian coach arrived late in the summer, and therefore had only a truncated pre-season period with his new squad. He also had to negotiate plenty of disharmony amongst the ranks – a legacy of Antonio Conte’s divisive managerial style. 

The introduction of a new style of play, and the bedding-in of several first team acquisitions on top of that, ensured that Sarri would have plenty of work to do in west London, and he will require time and patience to see his ideas bear fruit.

After such a good start, have the recent stumbles put the scale of the task facing Sarri – in terms of getting Chelsea back to competing for titles – into some perspective?

George: “This season has shades of Luis Felipe Scolari all over it. We were dominating for the first couple of months of the season under him, and then a couple of losses quickly made things fall apart. I don’t expect it to get that bad, but it certainly highlights that the honeymoon period is over for Maurizio Sarri. It was always clear that it would take Chelsea some time to adjust to this new system, and a good run at the start of the year really masked over that. The issue is that it’s no longer looking like just a mentality problem. It’s very worrying that so many players are simply not looking good enough, and Sarri has a real task as he looks to get things back running smoothly.” 

Manchester City, on the other hand, have altogether different – and far fewer – issues to contend with.

Pep Guardiola’s side play scintillating football, are solid at the back and lethal up front, and boast enviable squad depth. Most wouldn’t bet against them retaining their Premier League title this season, but Guardiola will know that his side can’t afford to take their foot off the gas.

Given the quality of their squad and vast resources, is complacency the greatest hurdle this Manchester City side have to overcome this season?

Chris: “Possibly.

But the narrative that City’s squad and resources are vastly superior to most of the rest of the top six doesn’t stand up to the evidence. Bear in mind that Chelsea (Kepa Arrizabalaga), Liverpool (Virgil van Dijk) and Manchester United (Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba) each have players in their squad signed for more money than City’s record signing Riyad Mahrez.

This time last year – on the 16th matchday – Pep Guardiola’s side traveled to play Manchester United at Old Trafford. By the end of the weekend, they were nine points clear and sat on 46 points. This time, City are just two points ahead of a Liverpool side who have improved massively on a squad which made the Champions League final last season. A win this weekend would put them on 44 points, two behind their own Super Mario Kart ghost from last season.

So the idea that City only have themselves to beat is a little misguided in my opinion.”

Saturday promises a clash of two very strong sides. Despite Chelsea’s recent struggles, Sarri has a wealth of top class players at his disposal.

The question is, does your opponent this weekend have any particular flaws that your side should look to exploit?

George: “Honestly? Probably not. They may be without Sergio Aguero, but when you consider that they’ve got so many goalscoring midfielders in the side, in addition to Gabriel Jesus, that just highlights how good this team are. The only thing you can hope for is that our midfield, which is likely to be Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and either Mateo Kovacic or Ruben Loftus-Cheek, are on their game. If those three work like they did earlier in the season, we could really control the game, but they’re probably better than us on every area of the pitch.”

Chris: “Received wisdom would tell you that in order to win this game, Chelsea will likely have to beat City at their own game. The Blues are second only to the Champions in average possession stats this season and these are the only two teams who average above 60% so far. 

But given that City are further ahead in their progression under Guardiola than Chelsea are after only a few months under Sarri you’d imagine that it’s the Catalan’s team who will dominate the ball at Stamford Bridge this weekend.  

So far, stopping Jorginho has been the cheat code for automatically stopping Chelsea, but that tactic might be null and void in a game where Sarri is able to call upon the counter-attacking nous of a squad who are more used to playing in that style anyway.”

City may well boast one of the best defensive records in the league, but Chelsea have attacking quality in their side that Guardiola would be wise not to underestimate. 

Are there any particular threats that Chelsea pose that City must be wary of?

Chris: “This is a hard one because I think this is a test we haven’t seen Chelsea encounter yet under Sarri. There’s no question they’ll go out to try to dominate possession despite most likely failing in that task, but would they be better trying to play deeper than usual and springing a surprise on City? 

Sure, few teams get anything against Guardiola’s team with that approach, but this is a collection of players who are used to playing that way in a Chelsea shirt and have won titles doing so.”

We could well be in for a match decided by fine margins this weekend. So, where will this game be lost and won?

Chris: “If Jorginho can get on the ball and dictate play – even in short spells – then City could be in a bit of trouble. They’ll be in for a rough ride, too, if Chelsea’s counter is on-form.”

George: “I think the midfield will be crucial, but the Chelsea defence was shocking against Tottenham, and they rightfully exploited that. If David Luiz has another off-day, it could be a very long night for Chelsea. At least Aguero might not be on the field, so hopefully he’ll be able to get through this one without being two-footed…”

And finally, let’s have your score predictions…

George: “My head tells me that it’ll be a dominant Man City win, but let’s say 1-0 to Chelsea – Alvaro Morata to score it.”

Chris: “I said it on this week’s Fixture in Focus podcast, so I’m going to have to stick with it: 2-1 City.”

[flauntpage]

Had ’em All the Way! – Observations from Sixers 103, Heat 97

When you’ve got a 28 point lead with 11 minutes remaining in a home game, your second unit should be able to close out a win.

But the Sixers don’t have a second unit capable of doing that, so Brett Brown has to come up with something else.

He probably can’t be rolling out T.J. McConnell, Jerryd Bayless, Robert Covington, Amir Johnson, and Trevor Booker at any point, no matter what the lead. So the late-game rotation needs to include one or more of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, or JJ Redick.

Easy enough, right?

Well, not entirely, because this was the first night of a back-to-back, a situation where Embiid was scheduled to play his first B2B ever, so ideally you’d like to pull him in the fourth and let the other nine guys in the rotation do the job. You’re also trying to keep the other four starters fresh for tonight’s game in Indiana.

I think it’s a tough spot for Brown, who, at least last night, was trying to “walk the line” ala Johnny Cash. Sure, you can pull a Tom Thibodeau and run your starters into the ground, thus probably guaranteeing a close-out win, but that comes at the expense of tonight’s game. And if Brett pulls the first unit early, you probably blow a big lead.

The answer, I think, is that he’s just going to have to stagger the starters through the end of the third quarter and into the fourth. If Joel isn’t out there, Ben and Dario should be. Or put Redick and Covington together, just something to get this team over the hump, assuming Roco will, at some point, stop committing the ridiculous, low-IQ plays that always seem pop-up in crunch time (probably his biggest weakness right now, the brain farts).

With a bench that scores in the bottom five league-wide, this roster simply isn’t good enough to cruise in the second half. The squad is a work in progress, and I think that changes with a healthy Markelle Fultz and one more offseason of roster building. For comparison, Miami’s bench, the catalyst for the comeback, scored 57 points last night. The Sixers bench scored 23.

After the game, Brown acknowledged the “scoring deficiencies” in that area when asked about his second half rotations:

“I think I probably would have played Joel his full sort of rotation. You look up at the scoreboard and you’re up 28 at home and you have a back to back game the next night. I never take anything for granted, I hope you just walk of line of, ‘well, this is smart, we got this one wrapped up.’ It wasn’t (like that). We were at home, I felt like we were playing quite well, and you click your heels and the NBA is the NBA. If I had to do it again, I would have ridden out Jo because the group we had on the court, our bench group, there’s some scoring deficiencies (with) that group. I think they play hard and play good defense, but my first reaction would be (to play Joel more).”

I haven’t been a Brown critic, but I don’t think I’m an apologist either. I’m more neutral than anything, and I’m just trying to avoid the knee-jerk route after every single game in an 82-game season. I need to see a body of work that spans the course of a season, preferably with better personnel.

But Brett can probably do better with his second half rotations and use his timeouts more effectively. The growing pains aren’t exclusive to the floor; they extend to the coach as well.

Still, credit where it’s due; they got it done. After Miami started the 4th quarter on an 18-4 run, the Sixers scraped together 13 points and enough stops for a six point win. Brown got his starters in for the final stretch and they got some tough buckets to fall.

More from the head ball coach:

“I took Joel out about a minute earlier than he comes out, and (Miami) started making their way. Usually the things that equal lost leads are turnovers, you foul too much, you put ’em in the bonus early, and there’s a barrage of threes. We only had 10 turnovers for the game but we had three late, sort of on hooking fouls, and a play where we tried to get it in quickly from Ben so we didn’t have to burn a timeout and it went through Cov’s hands. So I think the demise of the lead was stoppages because they were in the bonus, which took away our tempo and rhythm. And I think they made some threes.”

Brett’s not wrong here. They protected the ball for most of the game. The cheap fouls and free throws and timeouts break up their rhythm, but that’s basketball for you. That’s college ball, NBA, Euro Basket, high school, Fishtown rec center, whatever. It’s choppy and ugly and slow at the end of the game, and you’re not gonna be flying up and down the court and finding a groove. It becomes a deliberate half-court game, and Brett has to understand that it’s just not feasible to expect to be able to play the same style for 48 minutes. You have to, for a lack of better words, learn how to run the football.

More from Brown, on hitting big shots down the stretch:

“After I get through the disappointment of losing the lead, and you really look at how we scored at the end, we executed. We ran something that was broken, we got Ben underneath the basket on a play we run two or three times a game, we got him a layup, we got him off a UCLA cut, JJ did his thing coming over the top on a play we run with like a double DHO where he made a jump shot, Joel turned and faced and made a jump shot. We actually, for a period, executed what we were trying to do.”

Yep. They did get some nice buckets when it mattered.

This is the Simmons basket on “a play we run two or three times per game,” which basically starts with a dribble hand-off then a backside, off-ball screen to get him a low-post look:

It’s really a nice design. And even when Wayne Ellington tries to switch off and defend Ben under the basket, he’s at a huge height disadvantage.

You can’t run this play with most NBA point guards because most NBA point guards are not 6’10”.

Justise Winslow gets blindsided here:

And here’s the double-DHO that Brett is talking about with Redick. This play was called out of a timeout after Miami had cut the lead to nine:

Simple, right?

Ellington is screened by Saric, then has to scoot around Embiid, and Redick just finds a little space for an elbow jumper.

And here’s the UCLA cut:

Easy concept on the UCLA cut, where a guard passes the ball to the wing, then drives to the basket around a high screen from the center:

If the glass half empty is Brett Brown’s second half rotational issues, then this is the glass half full. They DID execute when it mattered. At the end of the day, we’re sitting here talking about a win against the 4th seed in the east, and that’s the biggest takeaway for me.

  Had ’em All the Way! – Observations from Sixers 103, Heat 97 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/