#again not saying my theory HAS to be correct I'm not the one deciding what must happen lmao

[until-another-one-comes]

I usually don't like having a solid theory on a piece of media before it's finished because I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but at this point I can't ignore this.

More and more people are pointing out and realising that Miguel broke the dimension he was in because he purposely infiltrated a dimension he doesn't belong in and took the place of another version of him, thus fucking up the place and being the real anomaly. His presence there was what caused the dimension to implode.

The real lesson is: Don't fuck around in other people's dimension, NOT 'Don't mess up the 'canon' in your own dimension' but he doesn't realise this (whether purposely cus guilt or he truly doesn't realise it). You can't mess up your own dimension by going against canon. If that was the case, Miles' dimension would've imploded a long time ago if he 'wasn't supposed to be Spiderman' (and if he isn't supposed to be spiderman, then doesn't that mean he HAS no canon to even follow in the first place??). But it hasn't. Miles' dimension is perfectly fine before the Spot came in.

Obviously I have no idea how the next movie is gonna go, nor do they have to follow what a random person on the internet is saying, but this theory makes so much sense. I sincerely hope this will be revealed in Beyond The Spiderverse as the big plot realisation and I hope it will be mind blowing.

[redflagshipwriter]

Halfa Cass Chapter 5

Masterpost

“Well, she has survived,” DamiBat said blandly. He had clearly already showered and changed into casual clothes. His robin colors were neatly laid on the usual table. He had been waiting for her. Cass shut the plane door and swooped down to give him a hug.

“You worried,” Cass cooed. She ignored his struggling to get out of her arms. “Very sweet.” 

Damian hissed and tried a nerve strike. She kissed the top of his head and let him escape. 

“Black Bat, report,” demanded the Batdad. His hair was plastered to his head with sweat in the silly way it got inside the cowl. Worried. Fear. Nothing can happen to my baby, not my baby. 

She pranced over to give him a hug as well. He needed to touch her and know that she was real. 

Only when she detached did she consider answering him. “No,” Cass said thoughtfully. “Shower.” 

Batdad unhappily let her go. Cass took the time to get her thoughts into order. 

She did have to say something. 

She changed into comfy clothes and made her way to her computer. Damian had gone upstairs in the interim, and there was no sign of RedJason or Dickiebird. She sat and turned on the screen. Then she turned a stern glare on her family. 

Batdad and Timmybird looked away sheepishly, as if they hadn't meant to stare. 

Cass wrote up a factual report. Arrival time, important parts of conversation with Marvel, the area they had explored and his magical commentary. Then she got to the creepy laboratory. In the corner of her eye, she saw Timmybird tense. 

Cass sighed and spun her chair to face him. 

His shoulders went up guiltily. He meekly reached out and tapped a key. The secret spying of her computer screen ended. “Bad,” she said, because someone had to teach him manners. “Don't look at my screen.”

Tim hunched over a little more. Sorry. Sorry. (Will do it again.) 

Cass let out a heavy sigh and finished her report. She paused over her word choice a few times. 

“You entered an unknown machine, it powered on, and you received an electric shock?” Bruceman Batdad summarized before she had sent him the report.

Cass threw her hands up in disgust. “Stop spying!” She told him. “Stop it!” 

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry honey.” He was sorry. He'd do it again, too. 

Ugh. 

UGH.

“Yes,” black bat confirmed tersely. 

“No lingering symptoms from the shock?” Bruceman Batdad came closer. Hovered. Flap flap, worried bat. “We should do a full check.”

Cass hissed at him, fed up. 

“Master Bruce is correct,” said Alfie. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly at her. Little Miss, listen now. Caution is the virtue.

She waited until he wasn't looking to roll her eyes. 

There was no sensible reason to escape. She sulked through the examination. 

“Heart rate is normal,” Alfie narrated for their audience. Cass narrowed her eyes. See? See what you've done? Wasted her time, is what you've done. 

“No pain?” Alfie poked and confirmed. Again and again. No, pain, no pain? Always no pain. “Well then,” he sounded very pleased. She blinked to full attention. “You must have done a very good job taking care of that rib, Miss Cassandra. I must admit I anticipated that there would still be soreness.” 

Cass was very still. Then she nodded. 

Uh. 

Um.

She thought about cartwheels. She thought about vaulting down a flight of stairs. 

Hm. 

…Probably her rib should not be totally healed. 

She weighed internally whether this was troubling to her. On the one hand, it seemed very odd. There was pain a few hours ago. Why no pain now? Pain usually left while she slept, not after flying a plane. Could healing be a side effect of magic girl transformation? Big, if true. Should probably tell her adults. 

On the other hand, no pain was objectively an improvement.

Cass decided to say nothing. Maybe Captain Marvel would have a theory. 

Speaking of. When she got back to her room, she sent him a text message. 

🪄 🧙🏻📞?

The answer came near instantly. 

Not yet! 😭 ��� She isn't answering me. Should I contact Constantine, you think?

Huh. Fast response, very good. Cass sent 

😬 

But 

🕵🏽‍♂️ 🤙🏽 🟰 👌🏽

Lol, wrote Captain Marvel. I know what u mean. 

Cass smacked her lips in the quiet of her room. He probably did. But he oughtn't. Old people had a hard time with her communication style. 

Idly, she lined up a theory. 

Captain Marvel had a magical girl transformation. Captain Marvel seemed too young for his body to her. 

Ergo:

He was baby. 

Cass, all of 17, wasn't that pressed about it. Bats and birds usually started flying and fighting as babies. Damian was still extremely baby. But. Hmm. 

Birds weren't in the Justice League. That was the difference: he had to hide it from Batdad, Superguy, and Wonder. 

Oh. Cass put a hand on her heart and frowned. In her dark room there was no one to see it aching in sympathy. 

Baby Captain was… was a little too baby, emotionally, for the Justice League. 

Well. It was decided, then. The next day at breakfast she announced, “Bruce. New rule.” 

Heads swiveled to look at her. 

“We are entitled to make rules for Father?” Damian asked Alfred, sotto voice. He looked intrigued. Alfie made a face that indicated his answer would depend on what rule Cass made.

Bruce lifted an eyebrow at her in prompt. 

“Stop bullying my Marvel,” she commanded. “He’s-” 

She hesitated and edited out the word “baby”.

“sensitive to hostility,” she settled on.

Bruce got a consternated look. “Sweetheart,” he began. 

“Yes,” Alfred said to Damian, voice extremely soft. “Upon occasion.”

“Play nice,” Cass said firmly. No arguments. She took a pointed bite out of her toast. No more need for words. Eat now.

Tim giggled. When Bruce looked at him he lifted his fork in front of his face, as if the slice of pancake was enough to hide that he was laughing at the pater familias.

“If he said that I'm bullying him,” Batdad started, sounding harassed, “then there must have been some misunderstanding. I've never intended-” 

“No misunderstanding,” Cass denied. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I see. I see his body get small when you use the stern Batdad bigman voice.” 

Bruce grumbled into his hand and turned his face away, defeated. Resentment. Insecurity. Do I really do that?

“Yes, Father,” chimed Damian, who loved to kick the defeated. “Surely this fool quakes at the barest hint of your displeasure. But should he not?” 

Alfred huffed a subtle little laugh at the manipulation. He squeezed Damian's shoulder.

Bruce, thinking that Damian approved of his coworkers fearing the Bat, looked even more constipated. Resignation. “I will be careful with my tone around him,” BatDad settled. Sullen. Embarrassed. Resigned.

“Thank you, Daddy,” Cass said cheerfully. She squeezed her eyes when she smiled at him, because she was also baby. He melted, vanilla ice cream in July.

Damian made a solemn nod of respect out of Bruce's line of sight. She winked back her thanks for the assistance. 

Marvel got back to her not long after. Cass took the call outside, so that Bats could not flap nearby without her noticing. 

“Black Bat!’ he said, excited. “I got Constantine!” 

She blinked at her phone. “...In a trap?” 

“What? No,” he dismissed. “I know where he's going to be this afternoon. Can you come meet me?” 

Cass looked back at the house. “...Yes,” she decided. She was off the patrol roster tonight anyway. “Where are we going?” 

“Uhh….” Marvel's voice trailed off for a bit as he clearly consulted his note or phone or something. “I'll send you the address.” 

[respectthepetty]

Peaceful Property - Wild Ass Theories

First and foremost, is nobody questioning the cage that was on the stage when Home was a kid? Because that is a cage, right? Right?

Theory #1 - Grandpa is the last ghost

Home inherited twelve properties, and we have twelve episodes, so we get a property an episode. His grandfather wanted a traditional 100-day grieving period before his ashes would be scattered at the little house, so the Scooby Doo Gang has 100 days to wrap this up since I think the grandpa will be the last ghost.

Theory # 2 - Home and Kan are related

I can't win prizes if I don't play games, and I think these two are related because 1) it would be funny that Home was trying to hit on Kan to begin with but also because 2) the grandpa's first wife had a three-year old daughter when he married her, then when his first wife passed away, he remarried and had two kids, one who is Home's parent, and the other is Home's uncle. There are a lot of gaps here because where is Home's other parent?

Plus the colors are coloring, especially for Kan, who is neutral color-coded up until now.

I've stated it every week, but Kan is not who she appears to be, because, Thai folks, correct me if I'm wrong, but all the names tie into the person. Home needs to find a home. Peach (food) needs to start cooking again. Ride needed to finish his last ride. Rak (beautiful) wanted to feel beautiful again. Pangpang (amazing) needs to be awesome. Even Best, if going off Pangpang's comments, needs to be the best. Which is why I don't think Kan is who she is because what does her name gotta do with anything? She is after something, and is it finding her parents? Her sibling? WHAT?!

She is always off doing something else when the ghost starts ghosting, so she has other plans, and I want to know what they are!

Theory #3 - Kan's ghost is from her childhood

Everyone has a ghost. Home's is his grandpa and Peach's is whoever is in this picture with him and Best.

And Kan is being haunted by . . . a parent? A sibling? Someone from her childhood? Which is why she doesn't believe in ghosts because if they existed, she thinks her ghost would have already visited her, but they didn't. Not yet at least.

We know Kan has a sweet tooth because she eats sugar at the table during dinner and pours more into her meal.

She sits in the car with her sucker in episode three.

In episode two, she couldn't decide which sucker to get in the store.

And in the trailer, a ghost seems to be handing her a sucker, but she seems younger here. If Kan had seen a ghost when she was younger, she wouldn't be skeptical now, so this is Kan seeing her ghost and reliving her childhood.

Which would make my Kan and Home are related theory better if Kan believed her parent went missing due to Home's family which is why she is investigating them, but both of them actually lost a parent in childhood because they had the same parent!

Girl also knows how to lay a wig, so I think she had to work from an early age since she didn't have a parent.

Don't ask too many questions or the theory falls apart. Just go with it!

Theory #4 - This is a BL without being a BL for a reason

Heteronormativity was the issue this week. The Scooby Doo Gang almost missed Thansai being the recipient of Ride's gift because she is trans, and they were overlooking that. And what Ride was gifting her was a home.

Then, Peach popped this banger out of his mouth without hesitation that even if Ride and Thansai weren't able to be together romantically, they were still each other's family.

And of course Pangpang gave us this golden nugget of saying Peach and Home were the mom and dad of the family.

But also, Rak had a husband that the gang didn't even consider, and when the husband shared his story, he said he had done what he could to help her move on, but their love wasn't the focus.

So what happens when red + blue combine?

They make purple.

I'm giving the show too much credit only three episodes in, but is the love less meaningful because it isn't explicitly stated? Is the relationship overlooked because it doesn't fit the standard of what we expect? The story doesn't need to state it's a BL for us to know they are in love, which is why the show isn't a BL.

This show is giving us VISUALS! Like Rak with the wig.

The uncle and the past that is haunting him.

And Ride's head cut off in the mirror, but also being told his face is too serious, so he finally smiles in the end when he delivers his gift.

Kan doesn't believe in ghosts because she hasn't seen one, but she is ignoring everything in front of her. We are being told every episode to believe what we see by the visuals.

We need to believe what is right in front of us and quit overlooking it simply because it doesn't fit the norm or isn't the sole focus.

They are in love.

[accirax]

Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16 Dissection

Wow. Just wow. What a way to end off the chapter. (/pos)

I wasn't expecting to have a whole lot to theorize about with this one (especially given its relatively shorter length), but buckle in, because I'm sure I'm going to have a lot to say about the way that the end of this brilliant chapter played out...

Enough to call this a Part 1 again, much like I did last time. That means I have a rate of way over one image per minute...

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time through the end of Chapter 2. (wild) Also spoilers for SDR2 through the beginning of Chapter 4.

When I was first watching the episode, I definitely had the thought, "I wonder if MonoTV is just saying this for the sake of engagement with the theoretical audience, because it seems like MonoTV should already know what the answer is due to its role and what the students just said." Based on what happens later in the episode, that was probably about correct? I dunno, there's a lot to unpack with MonoTV here.

Who Voted Teruko?

(For all two people who would understand the reference, please read that header in the tone of "who voted Sifu?" from Survivor 45. Or, really, I should probably say one person, because it's probably just Venus :P)

So, it's happened once again. While the clear majority of the votes are on the correct blackened, Ace, we have a single straggler who decided to vote for Teruko instead. But, who is this mystery person? Let's talk possibilities.

First, however, I think we should take a look at last Trial's voting results.

What I find strange is that the order of the students, even those who weren't voted for, changed. My guess was that students who receive votes are put at the front, students who are dead are put at the end, and the middle seems to be alphabetized by last name order?

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Markey - Nageishi - Rosales - Tobisa - Young

Interestingly, if true, this means that J was being categorized as "J Rosales" even when she was still going by "J Moreno" in Chapter 1. Fascinating.

Anyways, the Chapter 2 board has shuffled things around. Obviously Min and Arei have been moved down since they died, and Ace was moved to the top because he now has votes. However, the end of the lineup also changed, for some reason.

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Young - Tobisa - Rosales

What does this mean? Honestly, I have no clue. None of the students stayed in the same positions relative to each other (as in, Whit is no longer after Eden, Eden is no longer after J, etc), so I don't think it can be used to particularly suspect any of them? If anything, I think Eden would look the least suspicious, because at least she stayed in the middle while J and Whit swapped who was at the beginning or the end.

It's possible this was just an editing mistake, but I figured I'd point it out in case it helps anyone with their theories. (Clearly, it's just evidence that Whit is one step closer to becoming a Cuevas--)

Back to the original point, who was the one Teruko vote? In Chapter 1, I think it's pretty widely agreed upon that Min voted for Teruko. However, Teruko got two votes in Chapter 1, so the possibility remains that it could be the same person who's voted for Teruko twice now. I've gone on the record to say that I thought Arei was the one to provide Teruko her second vote in Chapter 1, but thankfully numberoneanika helped me to see how there could have been other options.

Obviously, Arei wasn't the one to vote for Teruko this time. So, with that in mind, here are my best theories:

Ace

Pros: Doesn't want to die, and therefore might not want to vote for himself. Probably the most obvious option.

Cons: At the end of 2-15, Ace was, all things considered, pretty accepting of his upcoming death. He said that the only reason he was fighting back was to stall for time, but that he knew that there was no way he'd get out of the Trial alive. Voting for Teruko doesn't help him delay the inevitable at all. If he were trying to cast a vote in the vain hope that it would save him from death, I would have expected it to go to Eden. Also, I doubt that Ace would have been the extra vote for Teruko in Chapter 1, to the extent that's important.

David

Pros: Dislikes Teruko and wants to cause chaos. It's also possible he could have cast the extra vote on Teruko in Chapter 1, if he had already made up his mind about wanting to take the killing game off the rails.

Cons: Honestly, I don't know if there are any direct cons to it being David who cast the vote. He might have been able to get more emotional damage for his buck if he'd voted for Eden or something? I don't know.

Teruko

Pros: Believes herself to be at least partially at fault for the deaths of her fellow classmates and doesn't like it. Therefore, if she can't bring herself to have another hand in their deaths by casting a vote on them, she could vote for herself (believing she can't die) instead. This is also an option that could easily be repeated across all Trials, if important.

Cons: If Teruko wants to proceed with not helping all of her other classmates die, it's in her best interest to vote correctly, instead of swaying the votes to an incorrect answer and having everyone but Ace die.

The Mastermind???

Pros: While it's not a guarantee, the mastermind likely has a grudge against Teruko (assuming the mastermind is not Teruko herself), due to the "kill Teruko Tawaki" missive/note. Therefore, they could be voting for her due to their grudge. From a narrative sense, this would also "ensure" that this phenomenon can happen at every Class Trial, if that's what DRDTdev wants.

Cons: Although I just laid out their motive, this would be an incredibly petty thing for the mastermind to do and could potentially give the innocent students needless additional information about their identity.

Conclusion? I think it's most likely to be David. After my blunder last time, though, I'm definitely willing to hear out other options if people have candidates to propose!

Also, it's nice that they updated David's portrait to include his new Look. I imagine some art intern scurrying around behind the scenes trying to find a good screenshot of David to use on the board in the last hour of the Trial.

Yo, wait, is that an anti-MM-coded line for Whit? Because the mastermind would obviously expect there to be more than one Trial? Can we get some more of these??? (/j)

Also kinda anti-Whit-knowingly-being-in-a-time-loop lines, for anyone who's been considering that theory. Unless he's just really deep undercover, to the level where he's interjecting lines that go against the theory to a group of people who have yet to suspect him for it at all.

LET'S GO NICO PARALLELS!!!!!!

Hu: How could you say it's just misfortune? Arei wasn't killed because of an accident. Bad luck or not, Ace had made up his mind to go through with this murder! So we can't possibly blame ourselves for failing to prevent something like that.

🔥🔥🔥THE BLAMING YOURSELF SISTERS🔥🔥🔥

Well, more or less. Teruko is fully blaming herself under the name of "misfortune"-- that much was made clear by the end of the episode, if nothing else. But Hu is coping by continuing to blame Ace convincing herself that there's nothing she could have done, and therefore isn't actually to blame. It doesn't matter how reliable she was-- because she was reliable, she promises-- because Ace was going to kill anyways. Basically, it doesn't matter how much of an immovable object she was because Ace was such an unstoppable force. Ignore the fact that the whole debate is about which of those would win.

Hu's stance is fascinating, though, because it means that she's somewhat buying in to the idea of fate. Arei was fated to die, Ace was fated to kill, no skin off your back. Given that MonoTV itself represents fate, it seems clear that one of the main messages of this story will be fate doesn't exist/is what you make it, which means that, to some degree, all of the characters will have to be representatives of or affected by that, with believing in the concept of immutable fate being represented as the villain. (I'm sure I'll talk about this more next time I talk about mastermind candidates.)

Therefore, Hu cashing in on the fate idea could be good or bad for her. It might be important that we establish that she does believe in fate, much like Teruko does, because she'll need to face it and denounce it on her way to survivor-hood. Or, this could be a subtle indicator that Hu will always lean on fate to protect her own sense of self, a red flag for her being a killer or possibly even a mastermind in the future.

Hu is clearly being set up to be a major player in Chapter 3, though, which is great for me, because that's exactly what I wanted! Let's get you some real daily life screentime, girl :)

Absolutely raw line here.

Eden: I... I can't forgive him. He killed Arei, after all. She was innocent, and he killed her for unfair reasons. But... those unfair reasons were unfair to him as well. Veronika: [...] When we first met Ace a week ago, he was the same person, certainly, but he was also different. He was happier, and he trusted people more. And he wasn't a murderer back then. Still, between then and now, he changed. He had to. Like adding stones to a pane of glass, one after another, until eventually, the glass cracks. The only thing anyone can do in this killing game is to shatter.

And another raw line from Veronika at the end of her section. I can't wait to see both of those lines used as captions for people's fanart.

Still though, on top of being true (and highlighting how Ace did actually change for the worse), this also feels like a reminder to us that the characters are changing over the course of the killing game. Therefore, a character who said one thing in Chapter 1 might not feel the same way once they hit Chapter 3 and beyond. Being in the killing game takes a toll on everyone, and the self-discovery it inspires can lead people to do things that they never would have done before. Case in point, Levi sacrificing himself for Teruko later in this episode.

SO true Veronika. Casual reminder to you all that this is literally only overall Day 8 of the killing game. Xander was alive less than one week ago for these people.

If I had a nickel for every time that Ace was compared to glass in Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

(Also, the clock-themed music is back. I wonder what it's supposed to represent...? *adds it to my already way too long list of theories to write now that the Chapter has ended*)

Genuinely WHAT was acevi cooking this episode. (/pos) I had never been super into the ship before because of how seemingly incompatible they were after the first trial, but seeing how much they clearly care about each other (or at least how much Ace cares about Levi) I'm kind of compelled to now. This truly was the toxic yaoi Trial ever.

Hey, FF called it in the "Blackened's Blaze of Glory" idea! Also, WOAH WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!

Let's go, Ace animation! It's nice to see that he was able to participate in one before he died. And wow, did he participate indeed!

It's kind of crazy how breakable MonoTV is due to its screen face. Like, you can't just do that to a Monokuma; his head is likely too hefty. But, even though MonoTV is breakable, it doesn't mean anything in the end. False hope at its finest.

This is the face of someone going, "wait, was it really that easy?"

HOLY SHIT

Out of all the lines and events of this episode, it's quite possibly this line that has made me go the most insane. Just goes to show that I am way too invested in the lore of this series. (/j)

So, this is a direct confirmation that XF-Ture Tech was involved in the creation of MonoTV, and therefore, quite possibly the implementation of the killing game as well. That's huge. I mean, not too unexpected given how important it clearly was to Xander, Min, and even altDRDT, but I wasn't expecting to get confirmation here and now of all places.

Given this, I would not be at all surprised if the altDRDT character known as XF is the one who created MonoTV. Like, she might be the Ultimate Roboticist or Ultimate Software Developer or something. It also means that the mastermind very likely has some sort of positive association with XF Tech, so sus on Min (sponsored by XF), Rose (has connections to one of the Spurlings), and possibly J (family runs in wealthy circles). Of course, if XF Tech is directly partnered with HPA in some way, it could also be someone who's particularly associated with the school-- although, that would most likely be Min again.

There's also the question, "why did MonoTV have a different personality than the default driver," which is related to the question, "what was the default driver created for?" My immediate thought was that XF Tech might just have robot assistants that generally help them, and that was the default personality that was assigned from MonoTV. However, XF (or whoever else) found that boring for the sake of entertainment, and decided to jazz MonoTV up, possibly to make it more like Monokuma.

Then again, it's been highlighted again and again that MonoTV is really incompetent. Surely, that's not something that someone who wanted the killing game to succeed would want to program into their host. It could have been an accidental side effect, but if MonoTV really was made by the Ultimate Roboticist, would that person really make mistakes? Is it possible that MonoTV's personality could have been made that way to subtly sabotage the killing game?

(I understand I'm furthering logic off of a string of assumptions-- not trying to lay down the law here, just running you through my initial thought process upon considering this evidence.)

Given that MonoTV told us in Chapter 2 Episode 3 that it has a lot of limits and there's a lot it still doesn't know about the killing game, I don't think that this is a situation in which MonoTV's AI expanded so much over time that it developed a new personality. Especially because that means that all that development would have needed to happen before the killing game began, off screen. That's why I think that MonoTV's alternate personality needs to have a human explanation, which I believe might be tied to XF.

I don't have any "answers" to this question because I don't think we're meant to have any at this point, but I also can't make any particularly compelling guesses about it without reviewing a lot of the evidence we already have. (*adds another theory to my mental theory list*) I am thinking about this though. I'm thinking about it a lot...

MonoTV: Full restart scheduled in one hour.

Also, I take this to mean that MonoTV will likely be back to its usual personality come Chapter 3. It might have a slightly different design to take into account the broken screen, but I think the personality will remain the same.

(If MonoTV's body does get fixed, would that mean that there are multiple copies of MonoTV out there, or that someone fixed MonoTV within that tight time window???)

MonoTV is in your walls.

Also, here's a list of all the students who are shown reacting in a confused/scared manner after MonoTV begins to restart: Eden, Rose, Ace, Nico. Doesn't mean that they can't be the mastermind all of a sudden, but it is probably evidence to the contrary. After all, the mastermind would likely be the one most aware that this could happen. And, if you only build in four slots of people reacting in disbelief (such that there are plenty of people who could slip under the radar), it might make more sense to give those lines to people who are actually genuinely shocked, much like the audience.

Also also, I think that the text on MonoTV's screen reads, "Falling back to default driver. Restart in an hour." AKA, not much lore to be taken from there, other than that it's once again called the "default."

It's MonoTV Time Again

More absolutely essential information when it comes to cracking what exactly MonoTV is. This is a killing game that is, first and foremost, designed to kill everyone, not going for anything like "redemption" or "revealing the truth."

It's also fascinating that it says "every participant." Not even "every participant except one"; the killing game wants to kill everybody. What does that tell us?

This killing game is likely NOT an attempt to imitate Junko. In that case, they would be prepared for the possibility of multiple survivors.

The mastermind, assuming they're amidst the cast, is willing to die for the bit. Every participant includes themselves.

XF-Ture Tech also default wants everyone to die. This likely means that they were willing to sacrifice Min for whatever this plan was. Sorry, Min :(

Now, it is definitely possible that any of these ideas are an overstatement. Killing all of the students is stated to be MonoTV's purpose, NOT the purpose of the killing game as a whole. Therefore, it could be that MonoTV is programmed to want all of the students to die, to minimize the chance that it would develop any feelings of sympathy and start to work against the killing game. Meanwhile, the mastermind is expecting there to be one or more survivors, potentially including themselves.

However, that is just a minor potential discrepancy, and I find it likely that DRDTdev intended this scene to comment more on the rationale of the killing game as a whole. In which case, this is a fascinating look into the mastermind and XF Tech's rationale.

He cares about Charles so much :,) <3

I know some people have been using this as reason to suspect him ("why would he be more focused on Charles not getting traumatized than telling Teruko, who he theoretically also cares about, to run"), but personally, I didn't read it that way at all. (I say as, like, the #1 Whit Isn't Evil defender lmao)

First of all, from a pacing perspective, I think it was nice to have a quick break from people just telling Teruko to run. We have Eden saying that, followed by Charles saying that, so having the third instance be something a little different helped break up the repeat information, in my opinion. J tells Teruko to run immediately afterwards anyway, so you still get the same effect of everyone warning Teruko as the clock ticks down.

Secondly (and more importantly), I think that this could easily be an indication of Whit seeing Charles as sort of an extension of his mom. Not in the sense that he sees Charles as family, but that Whit had one person who he really, really cared about, and he couldn't stop them from dying or being hurt. Even though Whit does generally care about the others, after Xander and Min died, he realized that he wouldn't be able to save everyone. And, he wasn't even particularly interested in trying in the first place-- after all, he said that solving the fights between others wasn't his business, so it's not like he's trying to be everyone's savior.

If Teruko is already dead, then that's how it's going to be; there's nothing he can do about it. But he can try to protect the person he cares about most in this killing game from suffering, because he refuses to have that person exit his life again. The fact that Whit is prioritizing Charles' safety over anything else in this moment will only make it all the sadder when Whit fails to prevent Charles from dying in Chapter 3, and make the impact of his returning loneliness all the more catastrophic.

Obviously, that's just my theory and not a fact, but I do think that it's one reasonable way to explain why Whit said that here without having to cast him in any sort of suspicion. It's a possibility.

Yet another instantly iconic line. I'm so happy that DRDTdev is doubling down with this being the reality of Teruko's talent, because pushing the abilities of someone who's talented with luck is so fun!

Although, not gonna lie, in this moment, I was actually flabbergasted and frantically running through options of who I thought the replacement protagonist might be. Like, Eden? Charles?? When people said they thought David might become the protagonist, THEY DIDN'T MEAN FOR CHAPTER 3!!!

Also, absolutely diabolical to hide Teruko's execution in plain sight as the thumbnail, under the guise that this was meant to represent Ace's death. Gosh.

But it was actually Levi who got shot, which is fascinating! I also thought they might kill him here as sort of a pre-emptive double kill (as in, "keep on pace with the typical number of fangan survivors while not actually having to explain why a double kill occurred"), but from the way the rest of the episode plays out, I think it's pretty clear that he'll live through this experience.

He'll almost certainly have some sort of design update, though, which I'm excited to see. Let's hope he doesn't suddenly turn into a robot, a la Nekomaru. (I imagine this scene may have originally been inspired by creating an alternate take on Nekomaru taking a bullet for Akane.)

As for why Levi did this for Teruko, Venus explained to me what I now believe is probably the most likely reason: he's repaying a perceived "debt" he owed to Teruko after she saved him from being executed back in the Prologue. (Other people may have reached this conclusion as well, but I heard it from Venus first)

Teruko already saved his life once before, so now, he believes he owes it to her to save hers. Obviously, Teruko seemed pretty confident about surviving the execution, but he may have still thought that causing her to suffer a coma or the loss of a limb was big enough of a threat that she shouldn't have to suffer through it.

That sort of idea would also tie into what I originally thought might have been some of his reasoning: that he doesn't think very highly of his own life, and was willing to sacrifice it for someone who he considered "good"/more important than him. It would also allow him to die as a hero saving someone's life, rather than a heartless monster who ended lives. Not saying that this is a healthy rationale, but, well, the guy just threw himself in the line of fire for someone who said they'd be fine. Also, it's DRDT. Nobody here has a healthy rationale.

Btw, this ⬇

Levi: I don't understand. I can't understand you, no matter how hard I try.

Is the last thing that Levi was ever able to say to Ace (as well as Levi's last line of the Chapter). Have fun with that, acevi nation.

My heart broke in half when I saw Rose react in this way. Hang in there, queen...

MonoTV: Don't worry. I shut off the gun as soon as I detected that Levi was in the way. His injuries are not fatal.

Also, MonoTV's default programming still includes it saying things like "don't worry"? Fascinating.

Motherfucker Not Another Clearly Important Info Jumpscare-- (/j)

So, uh. Whit got a new sprite in Chapter 2 Part 2 other than his trying not to laugh one. Yaaaaaaay... (dissolves into tears)

Points of interest about the sprite itself: obviously, this is the closest thing that we've gotten to a scary/breakdown sprite for Whit thus far.

If you look at his eyes, you'll see that they've gone gray/black as opposed to his usual blue, and his heart-shaped pupils and arrow-circle design have gone completely missing. This makes him I believe the third character whose eyes turn gray when they're experiencing negative emotions thus far, after Xander and David. Another knight at the table of Sir Light Pollution! Although, notably, Xander and David's eyes always had some gray in them, while Whit's, prior to now, were 100% blue.

Whit is also holding one hand behind his back, which could be concealing something? I saw a comic (which I thought was drawn by gooseagain8, but I checked their account and I couldn't find it--) where he was holding a remote to keep the Trial doors shut behind his back, and now I can't think of anything else, haha. However, I also don't know where Whit would have gotten that remote from, so it's probably not that specifically.

I don't think I even have to explain why people would use this to think that Whit is the mastermind. It's pretty obvious. However, I do think that this probably diminishes the odds of Whit being your standard "revealed in Chapter 6" mastermind, because it's so obvious. Fangan authors, naturally, can do whatever the hell they want, but it seems unfitting for DRDTdev's behavior so far to give such a massive hint for something that's so far down the road. I say this because, with the mysteries of Mai, and XF Tech, and who says the quotes at the beginning of the Chapters, and LGI, DRDTdev seems to have a track record of enjoying a long-running mystery, and making complex, layered puzzles that the most insane of fans can go back and forth on for hours.

If this was meant to be a hint that Whit will be revealed as the mastermind in Chapter 6, I'd think we'd get, like, a sprite with Whit's hand behind his back but without the scary expression, or he'd say something more subtle like "don't you just love it when you can't get the door open?"

Instead, we get this incredibly in-your-face, obviously suspicious sprite, that even someone who had never seen an episode of DRDT before in their life could easily point out to suspect that Whit is evil. So then, why else could it be included?

One option is that it is meant to foreshadow that Whit will take on a more villainous role, but in the shorter term. He could be revealed as a mastermind or traitor in Chapter 3. My problem with this sprite as evidence of Whit as a late-game mastermind is that this is a really big hint. Generally, with a reveal like that, you'd probably want to build up to the reveal with bigger and bigger hints. For instance, you could say that DRDTdev started off with the small hint that Whit knows a lot about what people think, then move up to the medium hint that he and MonoTV have similar styles of humor and meta jokes, then move to the bigger hint that Whit suddenly knows a ton about how hanging works, for some reason. This piece of evidence is such a big hint that Whit is the mastermind (under the assumption that it is that) that I don't really know where you'd go from here without just saying that Whit is the mastermind. We've eliminated the possibility that the hints could grow any bigger, cutting the trail off early. Therefore, at the moment, I think this only (narratively) works if this is the last hint we get that Whit is the mastermind, which would mean that Whit would have to be outed soon.

Alternatively, I definitely think it's possible that DRDTdev is setting up Whit as an intentional red herring, a bait with which to divert the audience's attention away from whoever the real mastermind is. It could just be a fun game for the fandom, or actually come into play in the main plot in the future, if someone accuses him of being the mastermind on these charges. That's sorta the assumption I'd been operating off of before witnessing this scene. However, if that's the case, then DRDTdev shouldn't just have Whit do all of these things without creating an in-universe explanation for why he did them. Whit would have to have a completely innocent reason for striking this pose at this point, which... oh boy.

Not gonna lie, it's been difficult for me to come up with a non-sus explanation for this sprite that doesn't make it sound like I'm 100% coping, but I'll try my best. Anybody got some more of those spare anti-MM-coded Whit lines I asked for earlier?

Given the presentation of DRDT, when we see this sprite of Whit, we don't know what he's looking at. It's easy to jump to the assumption that he's looking at the students who are trying to open the door, but it's also possible that he's just looking at the door itself. Like, he's also just expressing his anger at the door for not opening.

If that's the case, it would probably be for the same rationale that I used to justify his line protecting Charles earlier. He doesn't want Charles to suffer, which means that he wants Charles out of this room now. The hand behind the back, then, is a tad confusing, but there are a few explanations I can think of.

The first is that this sprite was created with further uses in mind down the road. For instance, if Whit later hides a gun behind his back (don't ask how or why he would non-suspiciously have a gun), then this sprite may have been prepared to handle that circumstance so that it doesn't have to be redrawn later. Of course, to this point, DRDTdev hasn't held back with creating unique sprites for unique situations-- check out how many sprites Teruko and Ace have for likely just this episode. So, it's probably more likely that, if Whit does need to hide something behind his back later, it would have been drawn then.

The second is that just the hand is a red herring. The facial expression is real (being mad at the door), but DRDTdev made him hide his hand behind his back so that people would think he was concealing something. Overall, I think that's an acceptable level of red-herring-ness. You aren't faking something as big as the facial expression itself, but you still throw in a little false lead to throw the audience off of the scent. However, in an ideal world, there would still have to be an in-universe explanation for why he did it. Unless he just chose this moment to scratch his lower back, I don't know what that would be.

That's all I have for now, but I don't necessarily think that this sprite means that Whit has to be evil in some capacity. However, it's done the best job so far of making me think that he is, so I'll keep my mind open to that in the future.

This is such an excellent end to Ace's character. Like, I was already nodding my head along with all of the people who expressed why Ace's death here was narratively satisfying, but having him finally accept death in order to save Levi's life is a beautiful cherry on top.

I like it because it doesn't make Ace's death as overall depressing as everyone thought it would be. Ace was about to die believing that he was a piece of shit who never changed, even when everyone else wanted him to and was able to themselves. But, even if he might not have realized it, accelerating his own death for Levi's sake means that he did change. He was finally able to conquer his fears by looking them straight in the face. And, if the theories are correct that Ace had a hand in Taylor's death...

Ace: Because... because Levi is gonna fucking die, and I'm going to have a third goddamn death on my hands!

(Here's iistardust-and-sprinklesii's post, which first brought the idea that "third death" might mean that Ace was adding Levi on to his kill count of Arei and Taylor to my attention, at least.)

...it means that he also got to save a friend this time instead of killing him.

Obviously Ace's death is still a tragedy-- every death in the killing game is-- but just like Arei, he was still able to improve himself from who he was before he died. It's a really poetic ending that really hammers in the point that everyone has the capacity to be a good person, even in their last moments.

Really really really loved Logan's performance as Arturo here. This is the most... I don't know, human? Arturo has ever sounded. He sounds really young and afraid, which is totally befitting of the scene. It's not like I now believe that Arturo is a great guy and shoo-in survivor or anything, but it endeared me a lot to his character.

Also "I have no experience with saving lives" Felicity OOF.

This CG goes so fucking hard. First of all, I love the way that DRDTdev drew the hair and the fabric folds. They're always great, but I think that the extra sharpness and blockiness going on here serves the pointedness yet bluntness of Ace's words. Second of all, THE COLORS. Not only has everything become more red to highlight the fire and passion behind Ace's words, but it's also ACE'S COLOR. Ace is literally dyeing Arturo with his final message before he dies. I don't think we've really seen Arturo and Ace interact before (other than implied horror trio, I guess), so this was a fascinating move to make with regards to Arturo's character moving forward.

This is another way that Ace's character ends satisfyingly. Kind of funny that he's parroting this message when he just internalized it from Teruko, like, 15 minutes ago, but I understand why it resonated with him. And, like Levi, why he might have overstated this lesson so that he could go out as (even more of) a hero.

Execution Rambling Time!

This execution had a lot going on, so I expect to have a lot to say about it. We'll start here, with the name: Thanatophobia. For anyone who wasn't aware, it means, "fear of death." Totally makes sense, especially given Ace's eventual cause of death. I guess MonoTV/the mastermind/XF Tech(??? INSANE) knew enough about Ace to know that he was going to die of fright at the end? Eh, that's how most executions work, so I don't think it gives us too much to work with.

However, this is a confirmation that executions in DRDT are more based on what will cause students despair than directly what their talent is. It was kind of hard to tell with Min, given that her talent (Ultimate Student) and her fear of failing and being wrong kind of went hand in hand. However, horses were not the focus of this execution; Ace's personality was. Cool to keep in mind for future executions.

Drdtblingsceo (and perhaps others, but they were the first person I saw) was able to make out that not only does the grave on the left say "Taylor Riley," but the two other graves also say "Felicity Giles" and "Elliot Cuevas." (You can't really make it out in my screenshots, but you can see it better in the linked post. Sorry, I have a fairly old computer :( ) Terrible news for Mr. Riley, but great news for us when it comes to speculating about Ace's past. I wonder what caused Ace's secret to be about his eating disorder, rather than his dead friend that he seemingly blames himself for?

I was very closely inspecting this frame to see if it would contain any easter eggs about what happened in Xander's past. As far as I can tell, the article titles read, from right to left:

Unexplained Illness Kills Thousands

More People Are Dying of Cancer Than Ever Before

Flu Season Claims Thousands of Lives

Chronic Kidney Disease Mortality Death Toll Continues to Climb

??????? (I don't think this one actually has any text)

Falling Rates of Survival for Hospitalized Patients

Antibiotic-Resistant Infections a Growing Threat in Hospitals

Article #1 is the article that's zoomed in on for dramatic effect. As far as I can see, none of the actual paragraphs of any of the articles are legible.

We can fully rule out #2, #3, and #4 as being related to Xander-- those are all real-world diseases that don't really match up with the sickness Xander described. #5 is also out, because, even if it was meant to relate to Xander, it has no content, and therefore, nothing to analyze. I don't know why it's there, but it gives nothing.

#1, #6, and #7 all have the possibility of being related to Xander-- most likely #1, given that it was the one that was zoomed in on-- but that's only because they're vague. Therefore, we can't really learn anything more about the North C and Chariton incident from them. Still a good idea to check them, in my opinion, but they don't seem to bear any fruit.

Goddammit, do I really have to run out of images *now*? Like, in the middle of the execution? Fine, I'll be back to finish what I've started in a bit. Thank you for reading this far, and look out for the reblog hopefully later today!

[fullofwoe5321]

Delulu time of the day is back!! The discussion topic is about our infamous Hyde! LOL

I've already said here that I really think there's something in the air about the Hyde -I don't know if it's the correct word but there you go- likes Wednesday somehow. There are some fragments that made me realize that and then I'm going to share. BUT ONCE AGAIN: THIS IS A THEORY!!!!!!! MY OPINION AND ANALYSIS THROUGHOUT THE SHOW.

I guess up to the episode 3, Tyler didn't remember or couldn't handle the Hyde properly. So my guesses are based until episode 3 but I'll use some examples from other episodes.

1- The hyde SAVED Wednesday from the attack of Rowan. Tyler didn't even remember what had happened the night before. He was in the woods stalking his father to check things up or hide eventual proofs from the monster's attack. SO that confirms that Laurel didn't order him to kill Rowan. He made Wednesday tell him exatcly what happenned and he looked surprised. I don't believe he was lying even though he was nervous. So the Hyde acted instinctively in order to protect Wednesday? Why? Once Tyler didn't know who Wednesday was for Laurel's plan.

2- Then Wednesday went to an unsafe place, according to Tyler, and found a man who threatened her. She had a vision and she thought it was the man, BUT NO!!!! The hyde was stalking her and HE DIDN'T ATTACK HER!! in fact he has a frightened and soft stare ? The monster went there to check if she was okay? hmmmmmmm He probably saw her laid on the floor and waited to her wake up to leave? At night, THE SAME MAN WHO THREATENED WEDNESDAY was the his victim. The monster killed another man who threatened Wednesday. HMMMMMMMMMMMMM And Tyler was clever enough to use this man to collect a body part for Laurel so she won't suspect anything about Wednesday.

3 -I keep telling you this BUT I DO BELIEVE that line ' I knew there was a reason I liked you' was said by the Hyde and not Tyler. If we analyse better, we can see when Wednesday confronted him about Xavier's assault, he got pissed and maybe that triggered the Hyde in order to manipulate the situation one more time. I mean Tyler has anger issues and it benefits the Hyde emergence. When he sits, he is already different! His stare is deep and dark. He also has seductive stare! I'm sorry but Tyler has puppy eye! I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE! LOL and the most important: his voice was snarky and husky. He has a low tone. It was not Tyler!!! (There will be a video for you to see what I'm talking about).

4 - THE DATE! Ok, since episode 4, the Hyde was more present. At the beginning of their perfect date, Tyler was there. BUT when he decided to confess his feelings and they had that small banter, it was not Tyler. THE EYES WERE DIFFERENT! Whenever the Hyde is out, Tyler has a deep and dark stare. I don't how to explain exactly, but there is a sort of dark fog in his eyes. I know that Tyler wanted to kiss Wednesday, but why does the Hyde have to come out as well? Maybe Tyler needed some confidence from the Hyde to try something else with Wednesday? Probably! And maybe Wednesday wanted to kiss him because she saw or/and felt something different through the darkness of his eyes? Definitely! And he only shifted to Tyler again when they were interrupted by his father!!! So yes, the Hyde wanted to kiss her as well.

5- With the help of my friend @weylerforever, we found out that in the scene of 'Kind of a déjà vu thing we got going on, huh?' we have the same voice and stare from episode 4. THE SAME! Even the shadow on his face is the same! (check the video below).

Well, what I'm trying to say that MAYBE, IN MY OPINION, MY PERSONAL BELIEF, is that the Hyde KNEW since the beginning about their connection. THAT explains why he protected and saved Wednesday from Rowan and never attacked when he had the opportunity (the original Pilgrim House). I mean she was a potential prey to him when he attacked Rowan. It would have had more sense if he had attacked her than had saved her. BUT HE CHOSE TO PROTECT HER ?? WHY?? And no, it was not because of Laurel's plan because he didn't know about it! He was about to head her to the train station some minutes ago. He would have helped her to escape for sure.

I'm not talking about a romantic connection here because I don't want to be biased LOL I'm serious! I don't want to lead to this discussion because I don't even know if the Hyde might have good feelings. I believe that maybe the Hyde sees her as a potential Master!!!???? Because I don't know how to explain that behaviour as well.

Well the only person (?) who can answer this question is the Hyde himself. And I hope we had scenes with him on S2.

The chances of my theory are correct are 0, but it's been on my mind for a while. I need to get it off my chest! So tell me, Cockroaches.... Am I delulu and I need some break from my Weyler obssession? Or does it make sense to you?

[linkspooky]

Hey! sorry to bother you but after your jjk break down i wanted to know what you think about Shoko and her role in the story. I'm just not sure where to put her narratively.

This is going to be a brief answer, but I believe for her limited screen time she still has an important role in the story and it's the same role she plays in the S / S / S trio. Shoko is the adult, as evidenced here by how she's the only one who undercuts Geto's dramatic monologue to point out how childish he's acting. Unlike Gojo who can't get through to Geto whatsoever, Shoko underlines his problem in one sentence. Geto thinks that he's growing up by finding his purpose in deciding to become an extremist, but Shoko calls him out and says he's actually regressing as a person.

Jujutsu Kaisen is a story about children growing into adulthood, and there's a reason that Shoko is the only person in her class to actually reach adulthood. It's because unlike Gojo and Geto who were eternally trapped in their "springtime of youth" and failed to ever adjust to the trauma they experienced in that youth Shoko grew up.

A character who doesn't grow in a story is as good as dead. Gojo had a character arc, but looking back from beginning to end it almost seems like his death against Sukuna was inevitable because he never learned who he was outside of being the strongest, and he never moved past Geto's death in any real way and tried to make connections with other people.

It's something even Shoko of all people was able to see that Gojo wasn't. That for all of Gojo's claims of being alone, not only did he have Shoko by his side all along, but he also has an entire group of students who he was responsible for who were all relying on him. Gojo could have continued living for them instead of going out in a blaze of glory against Sukuna, but he wasn't able to see all the people in his life until it was too late. He kept on being blind to them because he was trapped in the mindset of his youth that he was too powerful to be understood by anyone and then never grew past that.

Shoko is one of the few teachers left alive at Jujutsu High and that's not a coincidence. Nanami's death is deliberately tragic because he was unable to protect people properly as a sorcerer the system was against him. Shoko's not a fighter on the front lines however, she's a doctor who exists sort of outside that system. Yaga was killed by Gakuganji as well. Haibara died an unfortunate victim in his youth. Geto defected because he was unable to grow up, and Gojo goes out dying against Sukuna in a battle to see who's strongest.

The only teachers who are alive are Kusakabe who's a minor character, Utahime who is the only other adult who shows concern for her students, and Mei Mei. I doubt Mei Mei is going to survive either considering she's the game master (this is just my theory but watch I'm correct).

Which leaves Shoko and Utahime who are both adults, and who also have a much more functional friendship that explicitly parallels Geto and Gojo's. There's a reason Gojo's death dream reverts him back to seventeen years old again, because in a way he didn't grow significantly since that time. Nanami, Gojo, Geto they were all unable to leave the regrets of their youth behind so the last we see them in the imaginary afterlife they are seventeen because that's the time they failed to move past.

Shoko grew up. She and Utahime are the only ones who were able to grow up, and because of that they ended up leaving a lot of their friends behind. I think Megumi and Shoko will parallel each other in the end of Gege decides to stick with his plan of three of the four dieand one lives. Megumi the child that needs to grow up, will be the only one of his friends to reach adulthood just like Shoko.

It will be bittersweet because Megumi won't have his friends with him, but unlike Gojo who was trapped in the past forever, life will go on for Megumi and he'll be able to live with all those losses.

[kcwriter-blog]

I'm of two minds when it comes to the information that Solas has been slowly preparing his ritual for longer than anyone in game was aware of.

On the one hand, my mind goes immediately to the idea that he has been working on this from the Fade side for hundreds if not thousands of years. There was something when the teaser to the teaser came out about a merging of the two worlds hundreds of years in the making - if I remember correctly. That would mean Solas has been up to something for a long time.

Except he seems so horror stricken by what the world has become when he wakes up. Pulling the strings from the Fade side implies he's always known how bad things are in Thedas.

The only other thing I can think of that makes sense to me, personally, is that he always knew there was a time limit on the Veil. He knew it would degrade eventually. He somehow sets an alarm clock that wakes him up when the Veil is very weak.

The entire point of the Veil is that it serves as a prison for the Evanuris. I can't see him wanting them to get out. But, what if knowing the Veil would eventually degrade, he decides he needs a powerful object that gains magical energy for thousands of years? He can take down the Veil and destroy the Evanuris with, say, an Orb.

That might be why he has been preparing the ritual. He probably thought his people would be fine and maybe even strong enough to help him. He didn't realize the Veil would mean the destruction of his people. Now he's faced with a Veil that is coming down no matter what, so he tries to move the Evanuris into another prison before continuing with taking down the Veil. With his Orb broken he doesn't have enough power to take them on. Basically he decides to move them, bring the world back to what it was and then try to figure out a new plan (given his track record, that's a scary thought).

I know I'm rambling.

On the other hand, I'm reminded of the original premise for Veilguard when it was still Dreadwolf. Then devs said that our hero would have no power and the game would be about what happens when no one in power is listening or paying attention. We see in both Tevinter Nights and The Missing that there is more magic in the world in the sense that non-mages are starting to get magical powers. Lucanis gets Fade headaches. Sister Laudine, in the short story In Genitivi Dies in the End seems to suddenly get Rift Mage powers. In The Missing Arlathan Forest is a magical disaster. So much so it's led to the creation of the Veil Jumpers. There's also the activation of Ghilan'nain's monster factory in Horror of Hormak. There are probably other examples.

So is it possible that what Epler is referring to is just what Solas has been doing for the past 10 years? We have all been thinking that Solas would tear the Veil down in one fell swoop with a single ritual. What if it isn't? What if he had to do a lot of things before he could get to the big ritual? Those things brought even more magic into the world.

In that situation, his gathering of magical objects makes sense. They may be the anchor points for pulling down the Veil. I've always suspected those artifacts we have to turn on in DAI for him were used to help create the Veil. That's why when we activate them, they strengthen the Veil and keep rifts from forming. Over time, they got picked up by people, lost, stolen and turned off. It's possible our Inquisitors are the only ones who could activate them because they had magic tied to the Fade. Solas certainly isn't activating them.

Then again it could be both. Solas was aware of what the Veil is doing to spirits in the Fade and wanted to help them by pulling it down. He starts on the Veil side and then wakes up to finish the ritual on the waking world side. He has no idea what's been going on in the world so he's pretty upset.

I don't know if any of these theories are correct but I'm glad we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

[lover-of-mine]

Hi! So much has happened. Picking through different details to make sure this message is not repetitive because I know you have many many spies by now.

Firstly: the fake article. I cannot find who originally posted it. Only a screenshot from a BT mad about it. But apparently a Buddie made a fake post about a fake article about Lou quitting acting. They are very upset about it. It is ‘harassment’ apparently. People are offended that it cites mental health scare as the reason Lou would allegedly quit acting. As if BTs were not saying that Eddie should kill himself to mirror Ryan’s history of suicidality? Throwing stones from glass houses.

Here is the fake article screenshot. https://x.com/xfirepilot/status/1822790104525500839?s=46&t=i5gFcB_0q-6E5MZXiGtU_w

Secondly: Mark decided to lie about having ‘sources’ saying Lou is back on set this week. If he is not spotted… prepare for a full meltdown. They are CONVINCED this is the week. Especially because of the hangar. The longer they go without a sighting the more they lose it. They keep saying ‘quiet’ in hopes that it will make things happen (ie make Lou show up) which is kind of lame tbh. Taking all the fun out of the q word bit.

Thirdly: Happy birthday Peter! 9-1-1’s Instagram account posted a video of JLH + Oliver + Tracie + Ryan + Aisha + Kenny wishing him a happy birthday. Declan (Denny) also posted a photo of him and Peter. BTs are pretending that this is fine but are secretly losing it. Lou should be on set because of the hangar photo! Why is he not in that video! Why has he not posted about Peter’s birthday! But at the same time they are falling back once again on the ‘Lou is purposefully being hidden’ theory. Which is incompatible with their beliefs they will get a sighting this week.

Fourthly: one of them is saying a promo video will be released this week and promo photos the week after. I was not in the fandom in previous years but afaik this does not line up with past promo timelines? But correct me if I am wrong.

Fifthly: someone created a tumblr account called @killkinard and they are saying it is a death threat against Lou? Not Tommy? Very dramatic.

https://x.com/hofevanbuckley/status/1823057221053251994?s=46&t=i5gFcB_0q-6E5MZXiGtU_w

Sixthly: the subreddit drama… oh the subreddit drama. Okay. So. A BT shipper decided to make a new 9-1-1 subreddit because the main subreddit is way too Buddie focused. Complaining about anything to do with Tommy being downvoted on the main subreddit. So far the new subreddit has 35 members (as opposed to the 34170 members on the main reddit). So far half the posts on the new subreddit are transplanted from the main subreddit or the BT subreddit. Literally cross-posted. Makes sense that they do not like the main subreddit though. There was recently a post saying ‘why does Tommy get so much hate for being a bigot when half the main cast are cheaters’ uhhh because he is RACIST? And SEXIST? Honestly maybe it is a good thing they have that space now. Keep them contained away from the rest of us.

Seventhly and finally: someone said ‘I hope Lou posts a black and white picture Oliver takes of him on set’. They want Oliver and Lou to be Oliver and Ryan so bad oh my god. Not beating the Tommy/Eddie conflation allegations. Really all they ever do is steal from us. They have started calling Buddies ‘BDs’ now like we call them BTs. They are claiming Oliver’s new happy social media presence is a sign that he is filming with Lou. Everything we have or we say gets twisted and made about that man.

Anyways. I think it will be very funny if Lou does not show up this week. Especially because the hangar seems to be related to a Ryan and Kenny scene: https://x.com/buckleysbf/status/1823000264183271494?s=46&t=i5gFcB_0q-6E5MZXiGtU_w

Hi love 🩵

I don't even know what to say. I'm just staring at my phone. They really can't tell actors apart from characters huh? And this is a lot. I did the see part of the fake article drama but didn't fully get it. They definitely just want Tommy to be Eddie. I can't believe they dropped the BoB thing, come on guys, you don't have to copy everything we do. I do expect them to continue to detach themselves from reality more if Lou doesn't show up soon, even with the whole "they're hiding him" fantasy they have going.

[picturejasper20]

Danny Phantom A Glitch in Time and the concept of ¨Tikkun Olam¨

A few days ago i was talking to my friend @chestfullofnuttycream about Furiossa's A Glitch in Time theory about how the Ghost Zone could be result of the equivalent of a nuclear wasteland. While we were commenting on it she brought up the concept of ¨Tikkun Olam¨, which comes from jewish culture and how that could apply to A Glitch in Time. (For context she is jewish).

I got curious and decided to look more into it and see how it could tie with A Glitch in Time themes and lore. In this post i'm going to discuss the term and compare it to what happens in the Danny Phantom graphic novel. For that i'm going to cite this article that describes where the concept comes from and what it means nowadays.

*On note, i'm not jewish myself. There is likely some stuff that i could be wrong or innacurate, so feel free to comment or correct me about it.

Let's start with the mythos of ¨Tikkun Olam¨:

In reference to individual acts of repair, the phrase “tikkun olam” figures prominently in the Lurianic account of creation and its implications: God contracted the divine self to make room for creation. Divine light became contained in special vessels, or kelim, some of which shattered and scattered. While most of the light returned to its divine source, some light attached itself to the broken shards. These shards constitute evil and are the basis for the material world; their trapped sparks of light give them power.

So here already we see some parallels between the mythos and Ghost Zone's origins: The spirit and human-material world used to be one, until there was a great war that lead to the separation of the two worlds and thus with Earth getting ¨shattered¨.

¨All worlds were one, all beings were one, until disharmony struck. Life and chaos amounted to war, such as never has been seen before¨ ¨The toll became too much to bear, and the great divide occured, Spirit was separated from Earth, and one world became two¨.

As the legend explains, this divide isn't meant to be the ¨natural order¨. The current state of both dimensions is wrong. The world itself as its is broken.

While contemporary activists also use the term “tikkun olam” to refer to acts of repair by human beings, they do not necessarily believe in or have a familiarity with the term’s cosmological associations. Their emphasis is on acts of social responsibility, not the larger realm of sacred acts — and on fixing, not undoing, the world as we know it. <> The phrase “tikkun olam” remains connected with human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world. <> Contemporary usage of the phrase shares with the rabbinic concept of “mipnei tikkun ha-olam” a concern with public policy and societal change, and with the kabbalistic notion of “tikkun” the idea that the world is profoundly broken and can be fixed only by human activity.

Tikkun Olam is a term that has changed quite a lot since its origins through out history, it can have different meanings depending on the person. In current times a lot prefer to use it as a call to do acts that can help other people or fix the issues one can find in society. In this context the world is broken and it can be fixed through people's acts in different ways.

After Danny learns about this ancient history of the Ghost World, he says that he wants to make his new emotional drive to be fixing this divide between the two worlds. He wants to find a way to fix what is wrong with this world-perhaps returning to something like it used to be.

So what this would probably involve is Danny trying to find a way that ghosts and humans can coexist together again. He would try to find a way that can work together and not having to fight each other- like helping ghosts or showing humans that ghosts aren't their enemies.

Another thing that is worth of pointing out is that Gabriela has indirectly confirmed that she was inspired by Steven Universe in her reblog from Furiossa's post. Steven Universe's creator, Rebecca Sugar, is jewish and she has been open about her jewish heritage in the past.

Some people have talked about how Steven Universe is inspired by jewish culture elements for its narrative- one of these elements being Tikkun Olam- In Steven Universe the world and the people are presented as broken and it is something that the characters try to come together to fix it in different ways- Steven himself tries to find ways to repair the damage left by her mother's legacy, Rose Quartz, which gets explored through the show.

It is possible that Gabriela was inspired by these themes that were in Steven Universe and decided apply them to write A Glitch in Time lore and story.

Now i don't know if Gabriela herself is jewish- i haven't found much indication about this so i can't fully confirm. Another possibility is that she learned about this term and was inspired by it to somewhat apply them in A Glitch in Time.

But it could also be a case of pure coincidence because she happened to take inspiration from Steven Universe- thus ¨accidentally¨ writing a narrative that can be interpreted as taking elements from Tikkun Olam and jewish culture as a whole.

Whatever it is, it is still interesting to see that this is one reading that one can do of A Glitch in Time and see how certain things take inspiration from others. I'm curious to see how this theme is going to be contuined in the next novel along with learning more about how the two worlds became separated and Danny acting as a bridge between humans and ghosts.

[anachronistic-falsehood]

ok ok ok. if qcellbit did grow up on the island as a young kid and was eventually moved or sent away for some reason or another. what if the prison he and tazercraft were put in was made and controlled by the federation

HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUTTTTTT ok. let me put on my tinfoil hat for a second. we know that the federation has influence outside this one island (tubbo asking "are there other islands in the census bureau" and cucurucho saying "classified" which if there weren't he likely would have just said "no") so THEORETICALLY one of the islands that are part of it could be the one alcatraz was on

the prison on quesedilla island (not the big white "correctional facility" but the one pac e mike were put in when foolish arrested them) does have quite a bit of resemblance to the fuga impossivel prison, and YEAH maybe that could just be a meta homage to their videos but LISTEN OK LISTEN. I'M JUST SAYING. i wouldn't put it past the federation to have made multiple prisons with similar designs and ALSO. ALSO. there is a lot of white quartz used in the fuga impossivel prison-- in the walls of the cells, in the ceiling of the dining room (i think?), in the small hallway between areas of cells-- which yes i know was just a random design choice back then but METAWISE THEY COULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT AND SAY IT WAS MADE BY THE FEDERATION ARE YOU HEARING ME

so like. what if cellbit was an unruly child. the feds couldn't influence him like they could bagi (bc yes i am running with the siblings theory) so they wiped his memory and tossed him away. he ended up in war with bbh, committed some horrible terrible crimes, and suddenly ends up back under the federation's watchful eye when he's sent to their prison. he's even worse than he used to be, but they can't just let him go again, because now he's a danger. he doesn't know where he came from, but they do, and they can't let him out of their sight again.

somehow, the little fucker escapes. they search for him across their many islands to no avail. eventually, they decide to put him out of their minds as just another failed experiment. they have other more important things to take care of, you know?

imagine their surprise and delight when years later, a boat crashes into one of their islands, and their unruly failure is back, sane and well adjusted, along with two of the people who helped him escape.

[imaginarylungfish]

link click season 2 thoughts

so, i started watching Link Click on monday and, within the week, just finished watching the last episode of season 2. and wow, what an amazing donghua! i honestly had no idea what i was getting myself into when chose to turn on this show after work that night. but damn, what a wild ride!

alright, now for my thoughts on the big questions season 2 left us with. namely, i think CXS was supposed to die (ie. died in the main timeline) during the stabbing incident in s1e12/s2e1.

this is what we see in s2e1 after LG was stabbed:

during these "flashback" scenes, LG thinks, "i'm sorry, everything is going to be different now." the viewers don't know about LG diving back at this point in the season, so these "flashback" scenes and those words don't' have much context. however, with the knowledge we now have about LG diving back to try to save CXS, these things have much more meaning.

why would we see CXS' blood on LG's hand, see LG looking at CXS in his arms, or hear LG think things are different now unless LG changed this specific part of the past so he got stabbed instead of CXS?

in s2e12, we see these "flashback" scenes again* (through what QL sees as LG's memories through XiXi's perspective), with added details:

*while QL is thinking "how is that possible? did he [LG] actually see CXS die?"

while the camera focuses on LG's bloodied hand, we now see CXS lying in the background (presumedly dead). and if we notice what LG and CXS are wearing in these "flashback" scenes...

it's the same as what they were wearing during the stabbing incident in s1e12/s2e1:

plus, LG is wearing the same thing in the scene where he decides to break his own rule and dive back to save CXS:

that means LG is wearing the same thing in the stabbing incident, "flashback" scene, and dive scene. so, connecting the dots, it seems like CXS was originally supposed to die during the stabbing incident. and immediately after the stabbing incident (with CXS' blood still on his clothing), LG dove back in time to try to save CXS.

and why could LG even dive back to try to save CXS when that's not his original power? i think it's because a person's power is transferred to the person touching them when they die (as seen in XiXi's transfer of power to QL when XiXi dies):

before moving on, i want to address that, at first, i thought CXS might have died (in the main timeline) after the gunshot wound in s2e12 and LG dove back immediately after that. but LG is wearing something different during the gun scene than the dive scene:

therefore, LG seems to have dove back after the stabbing incident. but where did he dive back to? he says he is going "back to the beginning" in the dive scene. but we aren't really given any clues to when that is. all i understand is that LG somehow dove back to a certain time before the stabbing incident, so that he was stabbed instead of CXS (therefore saving that timeline's CXS from dying).

if my theory is correct, this means the LG we see in the gun scene is the LG who has already dove back to try to save CXS. so, when LG screams in agony and immediately attacks QJ in a frenzied rage upon seeing CXS get shot, it's not only because he thought CXS was fatally wounded but because LG thought he lost CXS again.

and i think this LG assumes CXS will die. why? because during the dive scene, LG says "i know that death is an unchangeable point" (yet he resolves to try to save CXS anyway). therefore, LG recognizes CXS will eventually die, and he recognizes he's just prolonging the inevitable (by prolonging CXS' life). LG just doesn't know when CXS will die (which, again, is why LG was so distraught seeing CXS get shot).

so now at the end of s2e12 we see CXS alive. this CXS is the one that LG saved from the main timeline (because in the main timeline, CXS is dead from the stabbing incident).

but is LG just constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop? for CXS to eventually die because death is not something they (or anyone else) can change? maybe we will get the answers to some of these questions in season 3. in the meantime, feel free to speculate with me!

[thorraborinn]

I know you have done posts about the etymology of the name Sigyn, but what I was wondering was if you might know where the idea that she's a Valkyrie comes from? I see a lot of posts on here saying that her name means friend of victory and that means she was a badass Valkyrie serving Odin, which doesn't make any sense or seem likely to me. I honestly feel this way because of stanza 22 of Lokasenna, wherein Loki calls out Odin's treatment of humans in battle, which makes me question why he would marry a Valkyrie. I don't know, maybe someone else can answer this, if not. I'm going to write a post about my continued quest to find more fun books about Norse mythology and Loki especially, so I will most likely mention it in that.

I agree with you that the theory that Sigyn is a valkyrie is not correct. I'm not sure where it originated, but there are a few reasons that I am not surprised that people believe it.

Sigyn has been studied and debated for well over a hundred years, but nobody really proposed a good etymology for her name until 2017, and he did it in a very dense linguistics paper that's difficult for most people to understand. Especially in his second, more verbose paper on the subject, he also included a lot of comparative Indo-European mythology that most people rightly regard as speculative and outdated, and while it doesn't ruin his etymological argument, some non-linguists might object to it and find the author less credible because of it.

The element sig- or sigr- means 'victory' and is very common in Old Norse names in general, and occurs twice in Valkyrie names (Sigrdrífa and Sigrún). It's much more common in human names, but Sigrdrífa is an important enough figure to stand out and probably adds to the perception that sig- names are typical of valkyries.

We are now fairly certain that Sigyn's name is actually Sígyn with a long i, so it isn't 'victory' at all, and most likely originally meant something to do with pouring liquid, but again, this was only formally demonstrated in 2017 in a paper that few people have read. So the 'victory' interpretation prevails for now. It had a 100+ year head start, and it will take a long time for Ginevra's new etymology to reach people.

Since deity names usually have some connection to the deity's role, domain, or actions they perform in myth, it seemed for a long time like there was an unanswered question about what exactly Sigyn did that was victorious enough to be named that. Deciding that she must be a valkyrie is a neat solution to that question, because it would mean she doesn't have to acquire victory herself, but because valkyries pertain to granting or withholding victory in general it would make sense for a valkyrie to have that name.

The last thing that I can think of is that it could be an extension to a theory about why Loki is hanging around with the æsir to begin with. It's a common theory that Loki's mother Laufey was an áss and that's why he took her name as a matronymic rather than his jötunn father's. But it also makes some sense to propose that he married into the æsir. It's enough to suggest that Sigyn is an áss, but to say that she is a valkyrie ties up the previous two points and connects it to this one, because valkyries pertain to the æsir through Óðinn, even without really being æsir themselves.

So basically, it's a nice, neat theory that cleanly ties up a lot of loose ends, it's just that whenever you find one of those in the field of Norse mythology it's almost always wrong.

[Edit] I should also add that I understand that for some people this is really more of a gut feeling interpretation and that many people have found meaning in the 'victory-friend(fem.)' interpretation even while understanding that it isn't etymological, I'm really not trying to dismantle any of that, but just to clarify what's represented directly in medieval texts.

[invisibleraven]

"why are you looking at me like that?"

rulie

Julie dreams of him at night-a flash of green eyes and a crooked grin. Freckles that glitter like gold in the sunlight. Never a full face or body, just little glimpses that let her put together an image of him in her mind. She can hear the echo of his laughter, the tune he's been humming lately, but never his voice.

Julie has no idea who he is, but she knows she's halfway in love with him.

Which...sounds insane when you think about it. But she knows him, her dream guy. Knows he likes horses from the flashes of them she gets, that he plays a bunch of instruments from the different callouses on his fingers, that he likes leather jackets and red flannels.

She wonders what he knows about her.

But then she has to shake herself-he isn't real, she literally dreamed this guy up, and he just keeps jumping into her unconscious mind to keep her company while she's so alone in real life.

She has no one but herself to blame for that though, deciding to go to college so far away from her friends and family, for the adventure, to see if she could. Plus they have the best composition program, and her music has improved leaps and bounds in just a semester.

Sure she's made a few acquaintances and is friendly with her fellow classmates, but she's not close to anyone, not like she was with Flynn back in LA. She's tried, but she's yet to find someone she clicks with on that level.

That all changes when she decides on a new coffee shop to study in-her usual one was getting too full of hipsters who complain too loudly and tourists visiting to experience a real New England fall.

She's sitting at her table, idly sipping at an apple chai latte while trying to work through a dry theory book when a voice asks if they can sit in her spare seat.

Julie looks up as she says yes, and has to gape-becausen right before her, in the flesh, is her dream guy. The same eyes, smile, even the same clothes. She's sure she nods, but there's no way she can stop staring.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asks. "Do I have pizza sauce on my shirt?"

"No, sorry. I just-I'm Julie."

"Reggie."

And that's the beginning of it all. Reggie was another LA transplant, here on a scholarship to study math, with a minor in music before getting his teaching degree.

"Ambitious," Julie comments.

Reggie shrugs. "I've always been one to take too much on. But I had some really good teachers who all but saved my life. I want to be that for some kids one day."

"That is so much more noble than wanting to become a song writer."

"Hey, no!" Reggie protests. "A good song can start a revolution, can change minds, can inspire, uplift, console. Music is amazing, and without it life would be less living. That's why it's my minor, so I can teach both."

They spend the rest of the afternoon talking, eating the cafe out of half their pastry shelf as they hang on each other's every word. Exchanging numbers when Julie eventually has to run off to a night class and Reggie has to go work his shift at the local campus bookstore-his scholarship only covered tuition and the dorm, anything extra came out of his pocket.

And that night, Julie still dreams of him. Only this time she can see all of Reggie, can hear him talk, and god, now that he's real, he's even better. Making her groan because she is definitely head over heels for this guy she just met but has been falling for in her dreams for years.

She doesn't tell him that of course-he would think she was insane.

Julie just keeps on being Reggie's friend, the two of them meeting up at least once a week to get coffee, to study, to catch up. She meets his friends through video chat, and she is sure the guys think she's Reggie's girlfriend from the smirks she gets upon her introduction. Then again when she pulls him into a FaceTime call with her dad, she's positive her papi thinks the same, and she doesn't exactly correct that assumption.

"Are you staying here the summer?" he asks her as the semester starts to roll towards the end.

"Nope, heading home. My tia's cooking is calling to me," she said with a sigh. "You?"

Reggie shrugs. "I was thinking about it. Could take a few more classes, graduate earlier, and it means not having to pay rent. But I also really miss the guys, and the ocean. God how I miss the ocean."

"We're not that far from the Atlantic," Julie replied. "We could get a car one day, drive out to see it."

"I meant the real ocean Jules," he snarked. "But a road trip with you sounds great. Maybe before we both head home?"

"Deal," she replied, shaking on it. "Plus if we're both in LA you can show me the 'real' ocean yourself."

Reggie grinned at that, already making plans for which beaches he wanted to take her to, like she hadn't grown up visiting them all her life. But it might be fun to play tourist in her hometown, especially with Reggie on her arm.

The dreams haven't stopped either-and sometimes they turn romantic. Other times-well she blushes even thinking about those dreams. Honestly she loves being friends with Reggie, but maybe-maybe with the summer before them she should tell him how she feels.

Because if it goes bad they have all the summer to get over and hopefully come back to school in the fall and resume some form of a friendship.

So on the day they're set to take off for the coast, Julie dresses in a cute sundress, tying a scarf over her curls, because the car they managed to borrow is a convertible, and she knows Reggie is dying to drive with the top down. She feels a little thrill when he looks at her like she's a meal and he's starving though.

They drive, singing along with the radio, stopping for snacks and to look at cool little tourist traps, but eventually making their way to a beach. It's covered in rocks instead of sand, and the breeze is a bit cutting, but that only means Reggie tosses his jacket over Julie's arms when she shivers.

They tip their toes in the surf, shrieking at the cool temperatures, laughing as gulls mock their tone.

"Okay, I concede the Pacific is far superior," Julie said as they stroll further down the shore.

"Told you so," Reggie grinned, turning to face the water. "View's not bad though."

Julie has to agree-all she can see is stretching waves and sky, endless blue before her. She leans her head on Reggie's shoulder. "Thanks for coming with me."

"You know I would do anything for you Jules," Reggie said, soft and almost lost in the roar of the ocean, the cry of the gulls. But Julie hears it, and looks up at him, sees the way he's looking back. She presses up on her toes, capturing his mouth in a kiss, tasting the salt in the air, the vanilla chapstick he had applied earlier, the sweetness of Reggie.

He kisses her right back, the two of them melting into it, and a part of Julie is glad the beach they found is deserted so that she doesn't have to share this moment with anyone but him.

She blinks as they pull apart, not even realizing she had shut her eyes, but can't help smiling up at him. "That was better than any dream."

"You dream about me?' he asked, not unkindly, but she can hear the mirth in his voice.

"I've been dreaming about you for years," she confessed. "I thought I made you up until you appeared in front of me at the coffee shop."

"So I'm literally your dream guy?" Reggie asked.

"You think I'm crazy," Julie stated.

"A little," he replied with a shrug. "But I like crazy. And I can live on being someone's dream guy for forever. Especially if it's yours."

"I prefer the real you," Julie confessed. "But I have had a bunch of dreams since we met that I wouldn't mind acting out."

Reggie blushed, pulling her in so their noses could nizzle together. "Well darlin', you just tell me what they are, and I swear I'll make your every dream come true."

And it turns out? He did.

[themessengervevo]

Hello my followers. Today I'm posting something that's not a piece of art I made or a responce to an ask, because I need your help. Several days ago, with the help of my very supportful art teacher, I made a Google account and a Youtube channel as well. She wanted me to post my music on there because she liked it alot and wanted other people to discover it as well. I shared those thoughts too. I also wanted to have a Google account as well because I had one up until 2019 where a phone number being removed caused it to instantly remove my access to the Google account, and thus the Youtube channels I had, which included an earlier instance of a channel dedicated to my music. My most succesful channel only had a slight big over a hundred subscribers.

So I got the Google account, and the Channel set up to where I wanted it and started work on the first upload. It was supposed to a full upload of my album "Suffering Embedded in Logic" with a remastering done by me. I completed the full upload, and even gone through the effort of verifying my account for the purpose of being able to upload a one hour video without hassle. I uploaded it, the copyright checks went through fine, and I uploaded it to the channel. I, obviously considering the big steps I took to getting here, advertised it everywhere, and I wanted to advertise it on this account as well. But then, after a total of three days since creating the account, and not even a day after uploading the video, I was greated to a screen.

It said my video was removed because my account has been terminated. I was obviously very much distressed by this. What could've caused this termination? Why? Was it the full album I posted? Was it something completely different? Did I spent all this time wishing to have a channel again to then be euthanized like that? So I sent an appeal to Youtube regarding my channel.

I got an email confirming that they were looking into the appeal, and that I would get it in around 2 business days.

All well and good, right? Well, I woke up today to this lovely message in my Inbox:

This was obviously shocking to me. In the email regarding my termination, Youtube said my channel had "severe or repeated violations of [their] Community Guidelines". I believe that I wasn't doing anything that could break their Guidelines. What part of the Guidelines I was apparently breaking was not detailed in any way, so in my appeal I said for them to atleast guide me to where in the Guidelines I was breaking these rules, but in their reply not only did they not tell what I was apparently breaking, but doubled down on their decision and are keeping me terminated. Fun little fact, you can only make ONE appeal to them, and no more.

This was infuriating to say the least. Not only did they banned someone who didn't do anything, they didn't even include a reason or anything so at to why they did this. So in their Feedback form thing, I wrote them this:

Please, PLEASE read this fully if you want to see my thoughts on this, but if you really can't, here is a "tl;dr" on my thoughts.

I have 2 working theories that might explain why I was inexplicably banned from this platform. And both arent the brightest in their image.

The first theory I have is that this is all a work of a Bot that just so decided to screw over a person for some false reasoning that it sticked to. This theory is confirmed by several support threads on Google's own support forums regarding this exact issue (which are still being made to this day), the one linked as an example. From there, I saw many a person talk about their channels being unfairly banned for unexplained reasons, including a small martial arts group that were only uploading clips of them. that martial arts group got the reasoning of "spam, deceptive practices, and misleading material" for their ban. I believe their network of bots sometimes falsely flag people and terminate them, and that human support doesn't come to correct these bots for many of the smaller people, resulting in an unfair permanent banning. As such, I proposed for them to give reasons as to why they ban people, as well as up the amount of appeals you can do, as well as for them to make their bots better.

The second theory though has more serious allegations. I don't usually talk about where I live, mostly for privacy concerns and also that I believe you shouldn't give out all your information for strangers online, but I have to talk about it for this part. I live in Russia. I have been living in Russia for my whole life. It isn't the best place to live in my opinion, but I've been stuck on this patch of land since I was born. Ever since the Russo-Ukranian War started, the already somewhat negative outlook of people outside of Russia has dropped significantly, many people from there who catered to people outside of Russia received many threats. One of my best friends, who I like to call Reggie, that is working in a store dedicated to people with Autism, had to stop working in Global markets because there was so much hate for Russians at the time that the Dollar-to-Ruble ratio dropped massively, and it was just too much. Many sites put sanctions on Russian sectors, including PayPal, which led to many Russians who used it to basically be poor. Which leads me to believe this: The reason why Youtube terminated my account with no explanation is because either it's human support is xenophobic, or that Youtube itself is xenophobic. I do not like this though, but I'm more and more convinced that this is the case.

Which leads me to a wider discussion of how Youtube is fundamentally broken. From letting big youtubers to stay on the platform despite them breaking their own rules, to many spam comments and scam accounts that exist solely to harvest subscribers and unsuspecting victims, to the whole ElsaGate debocle an how it returned in BIG amounts with Youtube doing nothing, to innocent channels getting silenced and punished for just existing, I believe that what Youtube meant in "making sure that Youtube is a safe place to all" is that they would make sure that Youtube is a safe place to all the big channels that are making money for them, which include scammers, botted accounts, hacks, and big television networks. I say NO to that. I say

FUCK

YOUTUBE

Youtube has shown to be late to things that should've been resolved way earlier, that they do not care about serious violations of their rules unless it is explicitly called out on Twitter, that they are inherently racist, homophobic, and xenophobic as was shown in many cases prior to this one (CoryXKenshin immediately brings to my mind), and that they will let their biggest cashcows to continue thriving on their platform and giving them money, even if they are the most scummiest creatures of this earth. This should NOT be how Youtube is. It should be a safe community for many people to go about their lives posting things they want to do, knowing they are safe from the threats of people who would gladfully steal their work knowing they are bigger than you and can get away with it or the system not banning them for arbitrary things they dont know. It should be safe for all, but its only safe for the biggest. So I again say

FUCK

YOUTUBE

Please spread my story everywhere you can. Reblog this, crosspost this, blaze it, share it anywhere (but especially on Twitter) you can to let my story be known. Please let everyone know how broken Youtube is, and keep fighting. Even when my Youtube account gets restored, keep. fighting. Keep fighting for the hope that Youtube will FINALLY listen to their cries, and that they will start fixing their shit, because any win we have is one step towards a truly safe place for all. If you have/had any experiences like this, or you live in Russia as well, tell me your thoughts and your story! Hopefully, this will lead to more stories of Youtube being in the wrong, and this will lead to a better future.

Hope you read and understood all of this.

So now that you have read of my channel's unfortunate sudden end, you might be wondering this:

"Well that was sad to hear, but how can I help YOU specifically?"

Glad you're asking that! I would love to have your support in any way. So here are places where you can help!

Tumblr

Obviously, considering you where you're currently are, you can support me here on Tumblr by reblogging and following this blog, as well my side blog @mailyftw! Here I post the art I make, as well as any serious announcements, while on the side blog I like reposting various things and showing whatever doodles I made today. It would be very helpful for me. You can also support me on Newgrounds, it's basically my side art archive, and also a music archive! Speaking of music,

Bandcamp

This is where I primarily upload my music on. I've been making Caretaker-like music since 2020, and I would love for you lot to hear it, espcially since I improved from that time. I may upload the remastered version of the album I mentioned earlier with some new tracks added, since I was planning to do this for a while now. I also host on there my supergroup The Haggstrom's albums. We've had some stuff out for a while to enjoy, infact we're making an album ABOUT the problems Youtube has! We have a dedicated server where you can talk about them and even make a submission for our projects, so if you want to support not only my work but the collective works of many people, you can do so by clicking this sentence! It would be very much appreciated, since work has exponentially slowed down there.

WeVidi and BitView

These two Youtube alternatives is where I currently upload my work to. On WeVidi, I upload content related to my music, particularly my albums. And on BitView I upload everything else basically, including memes and animation (hopefully soon). If you want to support me on there, please make an account on these platform and subscribe and share my videos, it will not only help me to be seen, but also help these revivals to thrive as more people see them. Hopefully, they won't lead to a Vidlii situation! Hopefully.

Socials, also known as "Other"

If you want to support me somewhere else, here are some other places I frequent: - SpaceHey! It's a revival of MySpace, and it's really great. I'm always on there, and I sometimes make bulletins or blogs. Friend me if you want! I'll accept most people that are sane and like the things I like. - Discord! Message me at the___messenger and maybe friend me too! Again, I'll accept most people that are sane and like the things I like. If you're one of the "big people", and you want to interview me, go ahead! Though please, link this blog post and the big places I'm in, and be mindful that I don't have the best camera in the world so I'll most likely be doing this in text or on phone. - Reddit! I'm active on there under Spot_Mark, you can message me if you want. Again, I'll accept most people that that are sane and like the things I like, or people wanting to interview me. - Escargot! If you are particularly privy, you can message at TheSweet2014s@escargot.chat. Once again, I'll accept most people that that are sane and like the things I like, or people wanting to interview me. Note that you'll need an escargot account and a copy of Windows Live Messenger, preferably 8.5, to even begin messaging. - Anywhere else! I'm on many platforms and places, usually on the smaller side. You can find me under "TheMessengerVEVO" or a similar name on a place. Any support will be thankful. - I'm considering getting a Boosty account for people to help me monetarily, since we here are basically scraping by, plus the wole PayPal nonsense. Hopefully yall could help when it comes out, if at all.

If you supported me because of this, I have nothing but the biggest thanks for you! I'll try updating you on this situation as it goes on, and hopefully it will result in things actually being done. I'm very scared of whatever might come, and also relieved now that I revealed the whole Russia thing. I wanted to reveal that anyway for the past couple of months. Anyway, I hope this gets big and gets the attention of Youtube!

- May our strength guide us forwards, The Messenger.

[camrensrealbish]

Hello, hope you are doing well, I have a theory.

Remember when Camila said she had sex for the first time with that old dumbfuck idiot?(LMFAO). Anyways, this makes sense. Not because it is true of course not, it’s false because 1) that was PR 2) Camila will never fall for his dumbass 3) Camren was actually together during the PR ( AMA, 2018! And number of indirects which were not coincidental) 4) this is subjective because I believe Camila is a lesbian. It makes sense because the narrative made by her team is that she was never in love before Matthew and then again changed it to Shawn( lmfao, they can’t keep it consistent) C being a romantic hopeless fell in love with Matthew and “gave her virginity to him” (🤮) and then she always had a crush on Shawn and ended up being with him after dumping Matthew. That didn’t work out, she tried to move on with a dude who made an app or something (don’t know don’t care) Shawn and C tried again didn’t work out again because he is a person who needs help( lmfao, he does need help with singing especially) and now is in a era of basically just being happy with herself and exploring.

Now, this is interesting(I think), basically the narrative is saying she didn’t explore her sexuality until she was 20( funny how it also destroy the myth of those leaked texts between her and Michael from 5sos) this could be potentially used when she will come out of the closet. Saying, “ I am exploring my sexuality now and I discovered I like women too so I am bi/ pan(whatever her team thinks suits her better)” this also just proves( at least for the GP) there was nothing between Camren back in the band days (sure, Jan), leading to the future where they could come out as a couple without exposing their past. (If they are still together) . I believe this for one more reason as recently in an interview, Lauren said “I was the only queer in the group….AS FAR AS I KNOW” I think it is self explanatory why that is important. Another thing is how much Gaymila has been out. I could be wrong, but then again nothing is coincidence with these two. What do you think?

😅😅 he does need help with singing especially 😭

I love you 😅

Thanks for submitting this, I had a great time reading it. And yes, I think your theory is correct.

Speaking of one more thing that doesn't make sense in this timeline, Camila wrote "Camila" before Matthew. She sings about sex there, and not in a metaphorical sense or whatever nonsense they are trying to call it now, and I'm pretty sure she was talking about it in interviews at the time (Zach Sang interview if I'm not mistaken).

Coming back to your ask, they've been covering the grounds in case she decides to come out one day since 2019. They can keep advising her against it, but ultimately they can't stop her from coming out if she decides to do soq. So they made sure it doesn't turn against them (Epic, managers, etc.) when she does. Lauren saying multiple times by now that there might be other 5H members who weren't queer back then but might be now (literally why would you say that 😅) is a big clue for us that they're planning for this eventuality that Camila might come out.

I think she's a lesbian too, but if/when she does come out it will be as bi, to fit all her PRs and everything people know about her so far into this story. And this way it's less risky too, because it doesn't alienate straight people as much 🙄. They really care about seeing themselves represented in media 🙄🙄🙄.

The thing is, I'm not so certain she wants to come out anymore. She definitely doesn't seem as keen on it as she used to be. But I truly hope she does one day, simply because I'd like to see it 🥹.

[coeluvr]

I'm honestly kinda obsessed with this story. It's so fascinating and I have so many thoughts and theories rolling around in my head, I cant wait to see how things unfold!!

There is one thing I'd really like to see added, if possible, and that's just more uncertain or middle-ground options, you know? I feel like it would make sense for some MCs to be conflicted or have mixed emotions or just not know what to feel or think about certain things.

This stuck out to me the most when we had to choose whether or not we think our sister actually did poison the late consort. I had a hard time choosing an answer because i felt like my MC just wouldn't know. I mean, that's her sister. Nobody wants to believe someone they love is capable of something like that. And from a more logical perspective, if you actually look at the evidence, she easily could have been framed. At the same time, everyone thinks she did it, that is what MC's been told their entire life, and there's no real evidence to suggest she didn't do it. So... 🤷‍♀️

There were a lot of moments like that for me. Like when we had to choose how we felt about Helios coming back. Our relationship with him at that point is kinda complicated and weird no matter what you do. It'd make sense that MC's feelings regarding him/seeing him again would also be complicated and weird. Or returning to Vesphire, being torn between terror and grief from the trauma but also desperately wanting to go back for the chance to feel some semblance of home, to find a familiar face, or at the very least to lay a flower at their family's grave. And I could see some MCs going back and forth on whether they want revenge or not.

I know adding variations can be complicated and cumbersome to do, so I would completely understand if you didn't want to. Regardless I really appreciate all your effort in making and sharing this story!! You're doing incredible and I'm excited for what comes next 💕💕💕

Hello! I am happy to know you like this little story of mine. 🙇‍♀️💗

I can definitely try to add more variations regarding Helios' arrival + for how they feel about their future trip.

And while I can understand that a lot of people can't decide on a firm standpoint regarding Catalina, I can't add a neutral option.

No one is saying that what MC thinks is facts, it's just their opinion. I'm sure MC over the years has leaned toward one or the other and you simply have to pick the one that feels right to your MC. MC's viewpoint doesn't have to be "the correct one", MC doesn't even know the truth of everything, there's no harm in being wrong.

Just in case someone asks for a neutral option regarding the revenge or no revenge aspect of the story, I can't do that either.

Both the Catalina and Revenge choices will be set for at least a while but when MC gets new and more updated view of things, MC will be able to change it so don't stress.

Thank you for your kind words. 💗