#anarchist chess

[anarchist-chess]

The Game:

With a resignation on move 53, the game has ended.

With an accuracy of 86% relative to computer analysis, this is an extremely solid playing level. (The computer managed 93%, which I naively estimate puts our collective rating somewhere around 2000.) As I suspect we had no candidate masters or actual master players, this is a marked improvement over the individual players, who probably cap out at around 1500, with most lower than that.

The most important move was probably 20. a4. Before then, the game may have been a draw or a victory for white, but after that, it became a draw or a victory for black because of how it weakened the queenside. (The computer, as seen here, suggests h3 as the alternative, which I guess is reasonable.)

Incidentally, the correct response to 22... c4+ was not 23. d4, which allows the c pawn to come to sit on b2, where it annoyed us for a long period of the middle and late game, but to offer a trade of queens with Qf2.

This actually was a pretty common thread, where the weak moves would be made in very positional situations, and would be followed by an unwillingness to offer trades. This is actually pretty interesting, because some of the best play from the collective was during tactical positions (Aside from move 24 where we exchanged a rook for a bishop instead of recognizing that the b2 pawn promoting was not actually a threat yet and capturing the f8 rook instead), but the collective's votes also tried to get us into much more cautious and strategic positions, occasionally to our detriment.

This implies that a more tactical opening is actually desirable, perhaps the scotch game or a king's indian attack, rather than the weird hybrid italian-scotch opening we ended up with. However, that might be too risky, as a single mistake in a tactical situation could be devastating.

Overall, the period from move 20-24 was the most damaging to our game, but the overall decline was pretty slow. The position wasn't basically-unwinnable until move 37. d4, which would eventually break our kingside pawn structure.

At the time of resignation, there was a forced checkmate. With fairly accurate play, we'd have been checkmated on the 8th rank by two queens promoted from the h and g pawns. It might have looked something like this.

Thus it goes. And remember, you can send questions to the ask box if you'd like! Also, Anarchist Chess will probably return for a second game (though probably not this month.)

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

Round 0

@my-hobby-is-finding-the-source

“wanna know where that art came from? this blog does that”

@anarchist-chess

(no propaganda submitted)

[13thpythagoras]

Pythagoras, me, I'm basically what happens when you inject the joker from Batman, with eons of past life wisdom, and psychedelic awareness

[rainbow-demoness]

The piece that moves diagonally is a Ship, tacking upwind. I have no idea where the name "rook" came from but that's obviously a Tower.

Also I hope chess.com will soon have the good sense to get off of Nazi Bluesky.

twitter is such a usable site

[coolsketchablestuff]

Welcome to my (outdated) atrocious shipping chart, I apologize in advance

Their opinions on eachother:

(MOSTLY OUTDATED) Headcanons below:

I've been having a story going on in my mind and it's just progressively evolved over time and this is the culmination of that specifically, so I'll try to explain the context of it here:

MAIN THING HERE IS THAT THE BEASTS (for the most part) "GET ALONG" WITH THEIR OTHER HALF

In my au thingy once they get along both half's get stronger, as if the soul jam becomes more whole (yes the ancients still ascended and reclaimed their soul jams as the rightful owners)

Burning Spice:

Got defeated by golden Cheese Cookie, after she left and he awoke from under the rubble of his castle he went to seek her out, to continue the battle, he wanted to be defeated, to be bested by the only worthy opponent, it was his DESTINY to crumble to her hands, he desired it so much. When he found and re-challenged her, she originally did fight him, but upon seeing how badly he wanted to be destroyed she decided to make him one of her treasures. At first he HATED it and would remind her how he could destroy all of it if he wanted to, but after months of slowly wearing him down he's now her right hand cookie and personal guard, very quick to fight anyone who gets to close to her radiance, he is referred to by the kingdom as "his anarchist".

Shadow milk cookie:

(WILL BE REWRITING THIS) shadow milk accepts pure vanilla's offer at friendhsip

Explanation of the relationships:

Golden cheese

- appreciates how Pure Vanilla's kindness is unconditional and relishes in the praise, though she's worried over him slowly spending less time with White Lily

- loves how loyal Burning Spice is, she is aware he's obsessed with her but she interprets it as him being greedy for her attention (it kinda is ngl)

- has fun doing stuff with shadow milk cookie, they like going to events together like parties and just messing around, they can joke with each other comfortably

Burning Spice

- kinda obsessed with Golden Cheese, seeing her as the only cookie allowed to be stronger than him, he doesn't let other cookies fight her as they're "not worthy"

-(OUTDATED BUT LEAVING IN INCASE SOMEOEN ELSE HAS THIS HC) mostly sees pure vanilla as one of Golden Cheese's treasures and feels an obligation to her radiance to protect him. Is too uncomfortable to get closer to PV because he reminds him so much of pre-corruption Shadow Milk

-(OUTDATED BUT LEAVING IN INCASE SOMEOEN ELSE HAS THIS HC) the new shadow milk cookie is definitely more lively, and ever since SM got along with PV his pranks have become more harmless which is enjoyable, one of his oldest buddies

Pure Vanilla

- Golden Cheese is one of his oldest friends, after everything that has happened he doesn't want to lose his friends again, he's slowly spending more time with her as White Lily is busy with other stuff and after everything he just wants to spend time with his friends

- after learning to get along with eachother, shadow milk is actually enjoyable to be around! They can talk about intellectual magic stuff, enjoy food and drinks, play games like chess, or just spend time together in comfortable silence

-(OUTDATED BUT LEAVING IN INCASE SOMEOEN ELSE HAS THIS HC) does not have any strong opinions on burning spice as they do not talk much, though he isn't sure why considering how often they hang out, PV is confident he's seen BS looking at him sometimes when he thinks he isn't looking

Shadow milk

- pure vanilla is calming, when they feel worked up over something he's always there, PV is helping him get along better with cookies

-(OUTDATED BUT LEAVING IN INCASE SOMEOEN ELSE HAS THIS HC) Golden Cheese Cookie is (currently) his best friend, they jokingly got along under the pretense on not being huge on WL but their friendship kept improving

- it's too much fun to prank burning spice, like SURE he could just find something they both find fun but as long as BS doesn't how actual disdain towards them he's not gonna stop! He loves to tease him too :)c

If I think of anything else I might add It? Idk, genuinely I just like having good guys in media make the bad guys nice, I enjoy "I can fix him" so much, THE ANCIENTS FIX THE BEASTS I SWEAR

[gimmick-spice-tolerance-bracket]

So, I've finally listed the blogs submitted. No bracket set up yet, but I want to give people time to say if the refuse to be in the tournament.

Non-Bot Gimmick Blogs Submitted:

@1337sp34kr

@a-counter

@accidental-homestuck

@accidental-will-wood-reference

@ace-attorney-smash-or-pass

@aistobascistod

@aita-blorbos

@alphabetcompletionist

@alonglistofbirds

@alyrictoasongbythecranewives

@am-i-the-asshole-official

@amongus-text-detector

@anarchist-chess

@apolladay

@apple-counter

@arewebeholdingaman

@asciicompletionist

@ave-daily

@baba-is-blog

@badjokesbyjeff

@baldwillwood

@bible-word-counter

@big-mayo-official

@black-parade-daily

@born-against-daily

@bovineblogger

@butter-muncher

@c-counter

@can-they-lift-thors-hammer

@cantheykillmacbeth

@cantheysurvive2001aspaceodyssey

@cantheywinthehungergames

@card-of-the-day

@carbon-monoxide-detector

@cat-identifier

@cat-spotted

@cccc-reference-counter

@certifiednewyorkposts

@chess-rook

@chicago-mentioned

@colourpickingpride

@contentfree

@contextfreepatentart

@cookieclickercookieeater

@couldtheycatchkira

@couldtransitionsaveher

@counter-facts-i-just-made-up

@critter-creature-or-beast

@dailyhatsune

@dailyquests

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

Random anime, summarized badly (stolen from my Facebook Memories):

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: a movie that contains absolutely no cannibals, zombies, etc.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: teen angst, with giant robots

FLCL: tween angst, with robots of various sizes that burst out of the main character's head in ways that might remind the viewer of other things going on in a tween's body

Gurren Lagann: We don't have time for teen angst in our increasingly growing robot anime, it's about to get MANLY

Promare: like Gurren Lagann, with gay firefighters

Kill La Kill: Wearing clothing is fascist, join the nudist anarchist rebellion!

Fire Force: Takes the term "fire fighter" rather more literally than usual

Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl: Well, I suppose there are *weirder* ways of getting free gender reassignment surgery

Ouran High School Host Club: It's about teenage prostitution! Sorta. Not really.

Cowboy Bebop: episode antagonists include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from "Game of Death," Cruella DeVille as an ecoterrorist, a senile old guy who likes to play chess, The Unabomber with a teddy bear theme, a bored computer with an interest in pre-Columbian South American art, Marshall Applewhite as an online avatar and Baron Harkonnen if he was also the Joker.

Outlaw Star: one episode revolves around an alien cactus who uses its mental powers to force people to eat inferior ice cream.

Trigun: why don't more shows involve insurance agents trying to deal with the fallout of your typical shonen action nonsense?

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Just because a critter is cute and says he can turn you into Sailor Moon doesn't mean you should trust him

Welcome to the NHK: even if both you and all of your friends are genuinely messed up toxic people, hanging out together is still probably better than not

Genshiken: If you have ever self-identified as a nerd, geek, or similar term, you either know multiple people who will remind you of characters in the show, or you ARE one of the characters in this show

Shirobako: boy, making anime sure is stressful and hard!

[camo-art]

Now that @mareteart made his Donnie presentation post it's time to post the collab drawing we made.

Donnie (left) is Marete's oc and you can read his lore here.

I haven't made a post that's specifically about Noctis yet so I'll tell you more about this oc of mine here.

Æther "Noctis" Veritas is a vampire from clan Malkavian. Noctis lived at the end of the XV century, a time when she wasn't able to do anything she wanted because gender, but a mysterious mistical person told her about the path of freedom she could choose to follow and the strength of makeing your own decisions. She liked that and is her philosophy in life now. Thing is, to live this new life of freedom she was turned into a vampire (by other person, not the mistical man). and after that, she decided to travel to the recently "discovered" new continent to make whatever she wanted there.

Thing is they told her that women wasn't allowed on the ships, so she said fuck you all, disguised herself as the captain Æther and sailed by (now) himself to the new world.

Thing is, she liked the feeling of being a man but didn't feel as one neither, since then Noctis startes using neutral pronouns (in Latin and romance languages because they are from the Italic peninsula) but the closer in English is "they" so I'll use that as an equivalent.

Noctis arrived at the port of La Havana but then moved North and finally stablished in LA.

They admire the artist from their time (Renaissance) so they wanted to archive that level of excellency, in their case in fashion design.

As they love freemod and hate being told what to do, they decided to build their own new Constantinopolis on LA and make their own faction, if necessary declaring war to local Anarchists, Hecata, Sabbath and Camarilla. They are playing 5D chess and are probably one of the smartest vampires I have ever created.

They adopted @golcorneta 's oc, Alan becoming his Sire.

And as you can see they are besties with Donnie to whom they design clothes for the movies he stars in, but also more resistant equipment for his fight against supernatural creatures.

By the way, all this happens in @alkanette 's chronicle ambiented in Los Angeles.

As always, too much text 😅, so thank you for reading.

AND REMEMBER TO READ DONNIE'S STORY TOO!!!

[wanderingmind867]

My take on Anarky (Lonnie Machin):

Lonnie Machin was born in sad conditions. He grew up in Crime Alley, raised by his single mother, Jean Machin. Jean was poor, so she relied on Lonnie for many things. He had to pull his weight and help his mom make ends meet. She was also sad often, living in her past constantly (since she'd attempted to have a kid before Lonnie, and it had ended with her nearly dying, and then with her losing her husband).

If you can't tell where i'm going with this, let me spell it out: Jean used to be the wife of Jack Napier. She did almost die in an accident with a bottle heater, and her unborn child did die in the womb. But she fell into a small coma (and was briefly mistaken for being dead). Around a week after her accident, she wakes up. And then she learns her husband's gone missing, and she's also lost her baby. So she just sits in the hospital crying.

But she slowly moves on, and she finds a new man. She fell in love with a man named James Machin, who was charming when she first met him. But James tried to keep Jean stifled, living as a homemaker while she raised their baby, young lonnie. Jean wanted to be an engineer, but her husband wouldn't let her be one. She had to be a homemaker. So when lonnie was six or seven, Jean finally gets a divorce, and she lives James far behind (taking lonnie with her).

In a few short years (when Lonnie is nine or ten), Jean goes back to school and manages to start training to be an engineer. Lonnie is in awe of his mom, and he follows her around reverently. As she leads union meetings, as she tells lonnie about how her bosses and coworkers treat her like a second class citizen, as she talks about how she lost her ex-husband jack, how life has been nothing but unfair to her.

Despite being a single mom learning to be an engineer and a proud union member, she always encourages lonnie's interests. They play chess together (and lonnie learns all about strategy), they talk politics and machinery and tech. Lonnie learns he loves to read, and the library becomes his second home. Whenever his mom is off at work (and lonnie's home early from school), Lonnie goes to the library and reads everything he can.

Lonnie ends up obsessed with politics, reading all sorts of books on communism and anarchism. Marx, Proudhon, Bakunin, Engels, etc. He also reads a lot of fantasy novels, stories of underdog heroes working their way from the bottom to the top, all just with their wits and cunning. It inspires Lonnie to dream of being a heroic rogue, saving society from itself.

When Lonnie is 15, his local library starts getting harassed by conservative parents, who get all the LGBTQ+ and Left-Wing Political books banned from the shelves. Around the same time, Lonnie's mom loses her job as an engineer, since her boss hired a dumb male who did the job worse, but who was willing to work without a union. All these things happening at once solidify to Lonnie that the world is unfair, and it leads him to begin planning his revenge. He owes it to his mom, and he owes it to all those society has oppresed.

A few weeks after the library gets censored of all "filthy material", the conservative city council members find everything is going wrong for them. Their appliances don't work, their computers are all broken, and lewd LGBTQ+ imagery has been plastered all over their homes. Similarly, his mom's old boss finds his home defaced with the hammer and sickle of communism, as well as quotes from all the great anarchist and communist thinkers. And his home has no power or electricity either.

Lonnie didn't view this as bold enough to get his message across, however. So he starts hacking into all the TVs throughout Gotham, and he starts preaching and leading people in union songs. He hides behind a cloak and a mask, but he goes by Anarky and he begins to form a popular front. In the end, he becomes a hero to his mom, and to working folk everywhere!

For his biggest and boldest stunt, Lonnie hacks into the Wayne Enterprises websites, and he successfully manages to steal all their records. All of it. He exposes the company for hiring scabs, for paying below minimum wage, for being a capitalistic machine of evil! And then he begins realizing that Batman must somehow have a connection to Mister Wayne. He never figures out they're the same person, but he quickly learns that Batman is a puppet of the status quo.

Angry and outraged that a superhero could be such a sellout, Anarky begins messing with Batman. He destroys his tech, he almost shuts down the Batcave, Lonnie comes very close to destroying Batman for good. It's only due to speed and luck that Batman manages to track down Anarky before he can find out Batman's true identity.

Now caught and exposed, Lonnie is sent to juvenile hall. But his name is still whispered in proud tones amongst all the poor and downtrodden of Gotham. The name of Anarky is still more popular than Batman in some circles. Because he represents real heroism. This 15 year old boy stood up for our rights, when no one else did. Anarky is revered as a modern robin hood, and he's stunned. But when he gets out of juvie hall, he knows there's still work to be done. He will stop the bat. And he will save this city from the festering rot of capitalism. So says Anarky, the voice of the voiceless!

PS: Yes, the story of Jean Machin wanting to be an engineer was stolen from a union song i've heard before. I've been listening to union music nonstop as I write this. So y'know, that helped me get in the mood for the character.

[anarchist-chess]

The Most Popular Move was... Kc3

to which the computer responds... Kg4

Happy New Year!

The deadline for this position is January 8th at 11:59 PM Pacific, so get your moves in before then!

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

The reactions to my previous post made me realize I should probably post all the competitors that are a part of this competition, in alphabetical order. This will be split into several reblogs to bypass the mention limit. I'll leave this to simmer a bit before I actually get around to seeding.

If you're on this list and don't want to be, please let me know!

@1337sp34kr

@a-counter

@accidental-homestuck

@accidental-will-wood-reference

@ace-attorney-smash-or-pass

@aistobascistod

@aita-blorbos

@alonglistofbirds

@alphabetcompletionist

@alyrictoasongbythecranewives

@am-i-the-asshole-official

@amongus-text-detector

@amphibianaday

@anarchist-chess

@ao3org

@apolladay

@apple-counter

@arewebeholdingaman

@aroace-everyday

@aromantic-everyday

@asciicompletionist

@ave-daily

@bad-time-analogies

@badjokesbyjeff

@bear-detector

@best-u-of-feenis-program

@bestanimal

@bible-word-counter

@big-mayo-official

@binas-official

@birdcounter

@black-parade-daily

@blood-heritage-posts

@blorbo-court

@bocchidaily2024

@booktomoviebrawl

@born-against-daily

@bovineblogger

@bozarotexts

@bugthingsdaily

@c-counter

@c-official

@ca-dmv-bot

@can-they-assemble-ikea-furniture

@can-they-lift-thors-hammer

@cantheykillmacbeth

@cantheysurvive2001aspaceodyssey

@cantheywinthehungergames

@carbon-monoxide-detector

@card-of-the-day

[tothisemptiness]

Golden Hour: Part 2 Analysis Series Part II: "Ice On My Teeth" MV

Hey everyone! Welcome to the second part of my analysis series of this comeback. In this post I will be analizing the Ice On My Teeth MV step by step. Please watch it before you read this post so that you can follow along easier. If you would like to see the other parts of this series you can find them below:

Part I: Golden Hour: Part 2 Diaries

Part III: The Chess Piece Theory

Bonus Part: Character Studies

Meet Counter-TEEZ

Author's Note: This must be what Atiny felt like when "Say My Name" MV first came out because dude I understand nothing and I have nothing at my hands. I only know that ATEEZ MVs have a pattern of representing future events especially when they are filmed at the early stages of their respective story arcs, like "Say My Name" and "Answer". Therefore, I think this MV takes place during a plot point that will be revealed to us in a future diary and we will be able to make perfect sense of it then.

First off we see the towel turn from white to black. I am hitting you so hard with a theory right off the bat. Now, let's settle that the ATEEZ we see in this MV is represented by the color black. They wear all black except for some scenes of HJ and San and according to the members are chess pieces theory, the ATEEZ in this MV are the black pieces. Who is the white one? Z's regime is characterized by white uniforms, sure. Who else wears all white though?

These guys.

Also these guys. We can basically conclude that the ATEEZ we've known from the start are characterized by white, which symbolizes purity and ingenuity. It is very fitting considering their youth and noble goals.

Then who is this ATEEZ, why are they black and why are they against our ATEEZ? I genuinely don't know. For now I will be calling them Counter-TEEZ which will make more sense as I proceed with this analysis.

The ring kissing move is usually part of patriarchal establishments, or at least groups with heavy hierarchy. When compared to Black Pirates, this isn't very anarchist of them.

Snow. Keep this in mind, it will come up later. I also want to point out how, except for group shots and a single shot that is immediately followed by a group shot at the same setting, Hongjoong is always alone in this MV, he doesn't interact with his groupmates at all.

A broken mirror. We know this is an important symbol because it also shows up on the D-Day poster. Mirrors are symbols of self-perception and identity, this was the main reason why in Z's regime people were impeded from seeing their reflection in any way. Here, the mirror is broken. This may indicate ATEEZ's own identities are somehow distorted in this MV, further supporting my Counter-TEEZ theory. Notice how a chandelier appears in the background, which is also in the poster? Also keep that in mind.

We said that Counter-TEEZ are the black pieces. I imagine the tennis player army and the ballerinas to be their pawns because otherwise what would the tennis players' presence even mean. Interestingly, they are dressed in all white with just a black ski mask. I don't exactly know what this means, but it means something.

More chandeliers! San is pulling himself up using the chandelier but it barely budges. Gravity seems to be fucked since normal weight doesn't apply here. Another instance of weaker gravity in the MV is when Hongjoong floats in front of a neo-classical painting. Tumblr won't let me add more photos, just look at my icon. Usually we think stuff like this happen in the dream sequences, so this must be a dream sequence. Except we don't have the bright colors or extra-absurd imagery. Do you remember where else we see mention of fucked gravity?

"Halazia". The MV very likely takes place around the time of "Halazia" or at least after the event that caused the world to lose its gravity.

Excuse the shitty GIF, I did my best putting it up here, just focus on the move. The footwork is a Charleston move, which was a dance very popular during the Roaring 20s. Also HJ's flapper-esque styling belongs to the same era. The Roaring 20s was a period in the US characterized by the American Dream and extravagancy that showed off your wealth. Does the theme sound similar? "IOMT" in itself also shows us extravagant displays of wealth: a giant mansion, way too many chandeliers, diamond covered jewellery everywhere, a classical car on the dinner table... Is this dance move or HJ's clothes plot relevant? Not really, but it is fun to notice and draw parallels from! They also subtly reinforce the themes very well while keeping the artistic touches.

Especially in this part of the MV Yunho looks more in control even over other members and fills in HJ's absence in the leadership. Yunho taking on the role of the leader and HJ being isolated from the rest is also something we see in "Halazia". I usually don't like relating songs directly to the lore but ATEEZ have established that they actually tell the story through their music, so I will consider some lyrics. Yunho basically stops the puppet show Yeosang puts on for the press saying "How do we look?". What was Yeosang about to disclose that Yunho worried about their image? And why through a puppet<*

Yeosang is once again likened to a little bird. Let's draw some parallels between the MV, lyrics and the established lore. Other than this, we hear "Halazia" mention a little bird that is silenced:

"Mm, the little blue bird that lost its voice

I can hear the whispers

The beginnings of a deep echo

The voice that will overturn the world"

In the diary analysis post, we had established that thinking of YS as the blue bird seems like a reasonable idea now. When do we see YS being disregarded when he speaks? When he speaks to his father about his dreams. When he asks members about Sopro again and again. When he goes against WY's idea of starting again. We are so focused on WY but nobody verbally supports YS then, WY at least has Jongho support the idea even a bit. I doubt the theme of disregarding YS's words will end here. Furthermore, we see that he is becoming more and more central to the lore than he's ever been. I will come back to this point.

I need someone to help me understand if he is saying something clever or if he is just saying "WE ATE!!!".

There is a tied tic-tac-toe game between a white and a black player. I will start stretching this out to symbolize something. I think the white player (both in chess and in tic-tac-toe) is the original ATEEZ that lives on passion and dreams while the black player is Counter-TEEZ that live with the desire for money and other materialistic stuff. The reason they are in a tie is without money, they can't do their art but to make money they must compromise from their dreams, however what would the money they earn this way mean if they can't use it for progressing towards their dream? There is a blackish gray cat walking around the game. Wooyoung's symbolic animal is a black cat, so I think it symbolizes him trying to find a way out of this game. Both in this game and in chess whites start first and it also applies to this theory: before they ever thought of money they were already chasing their dreams, the need and desire for money came later on.

Jongho seems to stand in the middle of what looks like a medieval chandelier, with two fallen chandeliers beside him. I know I talk a lot about the chandeliers but they just keep appearing and falling down out of nowhere. I swear I am going somewhere with this topic, I just want to leave it for the end where I can talk about it more comprehensively. For now, I have 2 small theories that explain them:

They represent Counter-TEEZ's greed for extreme wealth falling apart

In "Halazia" not only do we see gravity weaken, we also see it coming back (the floating metal ball San pulls falls down). For all we know the gravity may also get stronger in this case. Then the chandeliers that hang from the ceiling may get unnaturally heavier and fall off from the ceiling since they hang from there with a support system fit for a lighter weight.

Return of bouncing yellow cars. Why though? Why put a recurring image like this? It doesn't even fit the aesthetic or the mood of this MV. Also we see that there are also full black pawns, so the white ones with black masks aren't the only ones. However, these ones aren't dressed up like artists or sports players but more like businessmen or a mob.

The song isn't even about this bro.

Yuh. I have no idea what kind of scheme requires this. I can only trust it will be revealed in the upcoming diaries

Yunho is showing the doctor something like an X-Ray scan of... the mansion? How do mansions have X-Ray scans? Who is the doctor? Why is he so scared of this and why does Yunho look like he is threatening him? Stuff that I hope we will find out in (checks old MV and diary dates) 2 years... fuck.

Is this a generic antique lighter or is it specifically made for this MV with a special meaning to the logo on the lighter? Someone help.

Arson and homicide all at once. 4 questions come to mind:

Why were all those furniture outside?

Why did Jongho pull them all in from a small window on the top floor?

Why did they burn them all outside after taking them in?

Why burn the doctor too?

The destruction of art, something normal ATEEZ covets and puts effort and money in keeping alive, is a theme previously explored in "MATZ", generally considered as a Halazia-related content. Too early to say anything, but I believe Counter-TEEZ may be walking along the same line as MATZ there. Speaking of fire and "Halazia", they prefer to destroy the images of Halateez using fire there.

I don't know if anyone else noticed but they don't put cookies at the end of MVs anymore :(

Loose threads to tie

There are a few elements I left to discuss here so that I won't be tied to a singular part of the MV or the song to discuss them.

I mentioned the chandeliers so much but pianos are also a recurring element in the MV. I believe it is the only musical instrument to show up (despite violins being the focal part of the song).

As I point out the chandeliers fall an abnormal amount of times. When San hangs from one, when Seonghwa claps his hands during his rap, two-three are already fallen while Jongho sings the second pre-chorus. Where else in ATEEZ's videography do chandeliers (fallen or not) and pianos come up? "Halazia".

There are 3 fallen chandeliers and one still standing just in this room. This is an absurd amount of chandeliers for a room of this size btw. In the back we also notice a piano. Not a grand piano like in here, but the pattern is still here.

Where else?

"Answer", which coincidentially (?) starts with a piano melody that has nothing to do with the song itself. Other elements that parallel "Answer" are the presence of snow and the images on the D-Day poster: glasses, a table ornate with candles, chandelier (again), and a mirror. In "Answer" we see an overwhelming amount of mirrors, both full size and as shards. The room HJ is in looks similar enough to that of "Answer" but smaller and not exactly the same. The theme of glasses also come up in "IOMT"s lyrics like "How many glasses? Woo, eight total", even though in "Answer" we see twice the amount. While I am so sure "IOMT" relates directly to "Halazia", I'm not sure how it links to "Answer", but the parallels are there, and out of all the images in the music video they chose the ones that were previously seen a lot in "Answer".

Yeosang Interlude

Another topic is the mansion itself. It feels like an exaggerated version of Yeosang's villa. Below are all the descriptions of the villa:

An antique villa, far removed from the city center and hidden by lush trees

A large table in the dining room

“The dining room let out into a short hallway that connected to the living room.”

Large windows framed by curtains

An antique cabinet is next to the window with a familiar frame and a broken glass object

The location, the hallway we see Seonghwa in that is narrow but seemingly endless in length, the absurdly large dining table that can fit a car on top of it, and the room where we see the Cromer and Sopro is likely the study where we see Jongho (with the large window and antique furniture). The mansion has a lot of artwork in it. Yeosang is an investor who also invests in art, taking on the historical "patron" role. Especially in the previous centuries, patrons would commission artists for artwork that they would exhibit in their own houses, so Yeosang having many artworks in his villa is a very fitting thing for his character. However, as I said, the mansion isn't directly YS's villa, it is an exaggerated image of it. Speaking of the parallels between the villa and the MV, the line "How many glasses? Woo, eight total" may also refer to the dinner scene in the diaries.

The backtrack of this song has violins as its focus. As we mentioned before, ATEEZ uses music to link their stories together. Violins don't come up in the songs, but they come up in "Halazia"s prologue, right after the blue bird flies away. Violins are also representative of Yeosang. "IOMT" basically combines all of Yeosang's imagery in one MV and gives us a good reason to think that he will be central to the story from now on.

Aside from not being able to speak, the little blue bird is also seen guiding Seonghwa to the white-clothed people in "Halazia"s prologue and epilogue. I will theorize a little on Yeosang's role here. He was the only member who explicitly went against Wooyoung in the diaries, saying their lives aren't failures just because they aren't chasing their first dream now. After Wooyoung uses Sopro, I think Yeosang will be the first member to break out of its effect (because he is much less tied down to this old dream than any of the other members, shown by only him being able to refuse the idea immediately) and will try to wake others up but he will, again, either be disregarded or downright shut down by the members who are caught up in its effect, mimicking the silenced blue bird. In this process, he will take on a guiding role for the group and his success will start a series of events that will change ATEEZ's universe completely. In this arc if Wooyoung is the voice of the heart Yeosang will be that of reason. Finally, I think Yeosang will first be able to wake Seonghwa up, leading him to the "Be Free" bracelet will trigger this as seen in the Epilogue, and moving from there will wake the others up with a similar method.

I hope I didn't miss anything but it is currently 3 AM so I very likely did. This has been a very detailed analysis and I couldn't even talk about some details I would like to because I can't really make sense of them. If I remember anything else I will come back and edit this post. If you took the time to read until here thank you very much and see you soon with the remaining parts of the analysis since I still have some themes in this comeback that I would like to discuss <3

[isleofdarkness]

On top of Maverick and Maleficent's endless battle of strategy, there's also a lot of Maverick balancing out Maleficent's strategy experience with her strategy of doing the wildest fucking thing she possibly can. Basically;

Maleficent, trying to figure out how she's losing a game of chess to an anarchist; Maverick, who keeps eating the chess pieces while she isn't looking;

[cubitodragon-moved]

Yesterday Mike added more fuel to my “Tubbo is bugged” theory and it’s making me extra worried about what’s going to happen this week LOL.

This post is rambly and long, so I’m sticking things behind a cut!

Mike’s memories of the last 3+ weeks are scrambled and foggy; an interrupted El Quackity treatment? Unclear. But between saying he doesn’t remember anything and then spouting off pro-Federation propaganda (something his anarchist ass would never willingly do!) and fiercely trying to pin blame to Fit as a traitor, a comment by him during one of the questioning sessions stood out to me.

When Fit asked who told him his janitor duties were fake/a front, that he couldn’t be trusted, he said Cucurucho.

We and FitMC know that the Feds are sus of Fit, but they’ve had no actual concrete evidence that he’s been misusing his position to obtain information. And yet now Cucurucho, supposedly, is informing Mike of this so called betrayal?

If we think back to the prison cleanup in August, there was a room that had a chess board map on the wall. Only two pieces were present: a queen and a pawn. And the pawn was positioned on a clear way to indicate it’s meant to represent Fit. A warning - possibly to Fit from the ghost entity in the Prison (or someone in a neighbouring pocket dimension, if recent ruminations and theories on the server have any legs) that aided Pac and Mike, OR the Federation itself, reminding him of who has the power and who is always watching.

But they have yet to take any action. And always praised his work when completed.

Enter: Tubbo. Who arrived on the Island as part of a group rescued from a mysterious location. One with lots of strange blocks, code-eggs, frozen floors and who himself was frozen away. Shortly after, Mike and Pac ventured back to that location to explore, and when he entered the tower, the floor vanished and Mike fell. Fell down into a pool of water at the bottom of a trap lined in black concrete, and then frozen.

During Mike’s absence, Tubbo has gotten to know the “morning crew”, has gotten up in everyone’s business. I’ve outlined some highlights in another post. But more recently, every time he talks to Fit about his cleaning job, he’s picked at it again and again. Freaks out over the badge and keycard - especially over the keycard. (This feels important, for more than just Tubbo’s excuses of it being bugged, but I can’t put my finger on why, yet.). Tubbo whines when Fit won’t give him direct insight, or tell him detailed specifics on what he’s found on the job. Fit has made it clear he will not jeopardise his position to satisfy Tubbo’s need to meta-game win over the system to know everything, resulting in accusations, and Tubbo commenting privately to his own chat that this makes Fit untrustworthy in his eyes. Tubbo has been careless with some of his questions. They’ve been asked topside, sideways comments uttered with side eye. He wants to KNOW what Fit is after.

And Fit did spill to Tubbo that he’s not just there for the obvious. Yes, He IS looking for something. Yeah, he IS trying to find things out about the Codes, the Eggs, and the Federation - he wants his beautiful baby boy (made in Heaven by God Himself) back home safe and sound.

But this has not been successful, never mind the long absence of any work in the last few weeks..and we the viewers know that things he has found have been incomplete, or need more time to cook before he goes to others with evidence. Fit is meticulous, his life on 2B2T trained this into him in order to survive. You don’t last 10 years in an anarchy wasteland without being prepared. Better and safer to leave things unsaid than having to walk them back later. And there’s no point in sharing what isn’t relevant to the matter at hand.

And now Mike - who Fit calls friend, who he bonded with, who he swore to help locate Walter Bob with - said Cucurucho told him that Fit was a traitor, and wasn’t looking for what he said he was, even point blank accused him of lying yesterday about what he’s looking for. And when pressed about what he’d found so far when on janitor duty, Fit had to admit that no, he hadn’t found anything related to the Eggs or the Code.

Mike seemed to take that as proof of his lying about what he’s doing. That what he was told was right. But admitting to a lack of success doesn’t make one a liar. And Fit telling him he found nothing is also a smart play - lose lips sink ships, and better to be thought incompetent. Especially if the Federation are now trying to flush you - and perhaps your ties to your employer, outside the island - out into the open.

The Federation did not know about Ramón’s furnaces until Tubbo did. And they didn’t know Fit was in it for more than the obvious until he spoke with Tubbo. They can’t get Tubbo to take on Fit, but they can use a different pawn they have on the board instead.

I may well be completely off base. And I’ll be delighted if I am. It’s been so much fun to theorise about the lore on QSMP! But mark my words, we need to pay much more attention over the next 48 hours. And who knows what everyone will come back to in a week’s time?

[fallenprinceofparadise]

[The Constellation ‘Once and Never King’ offers to play chess with the Constellation ‘ @constalation-bored-anarchist ‘!]

[The Constellation ‘Once and Never King’ smiles!]

[westywrites]

(I haven't touched Tumblr in ages but I popped on for a minute. Now I'm seeing everyone doing this thing and I can't resist)

I'm gonna include some older wips in this that are still always on my mind and a newer one I'm working on with a friend that I haven't talked about here