#dated July312024

[tumbloggingattheendofitall]

Alrighty

(admin stuff includes : today is July 31st, 2024. I've been having this theory in some form since early in 2023, like about the month after the Return Tour completed in Japan. And it's finally come time to write down my potential prescience. I also want the record to show that in an effort not to shove my potential theory into the fandom's circuit, I'm posting this privately for now. I will make this public either after WWWY2 has finished, if my theory becomes the collective one before then, or if my theory is disproven before the time in which I have theorized.)

All said, there's a prerequisite understanding going into this. You must be willing to buy into the idea that MCR5 is Real and it is Coming. If you have that prerequisite met, other helpful things to have include

Knowing some MCR lore, broadly

Being aware of the specific ways MCR has been opaque and cryptic in the history of the band. Good examples include the lead-up to the Return announcement

The sheer time scale at which they Plan these things

Can't hurt to also know about Gerard's old interviews in which they talked frequently about the ways the Smashing Pumpkins influenced the trajectory of the band, and the ways that this directly contributed to the tinhatting of the fandom in the Hiatus Period

All to say, I believe that I'm being backed up by the methods that MCR have often taken to breadcrumb about their plans in ways that are effective, but only if you have a certain level of colloquial understanding of their particular style of dropping breadcrumbs. Which, in my experience, is a long haul sort of thing - less 100-meter-dash, more cross-country-marathon. Like the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins inspo being used as the foundation for why exactly MCR would definitely be reuniting in 2019 - the original interviews mostly happened between 2007-2009 iirc, and that's still easily a year ahead of when the breakup really happened.

So. My theory, which is dated in its current iteration to this moment (but I'll backdate my officially going hard into it back to Halloween 2023 because I think that's about the time I realized how much the breadcrumbs of it all impacted my opinion here) begins with, duh, MCR5 is happening. I believe it, I Know it, and I won't be discussing the decade and a half of knowledge I'm using to make the claim, you just have to accept it. It's happening. The when and where are the big question marks, much the same way that pretty much everything about What's Next With MCR are also huge question marks.

I think I know the answer is what I'm saying. All this big preamble exists just to say, I think I know when and where and all the rest of the answers. I think I've known since... Ok I guess it's actually November 17 2023.

Theory : I believe MCR was a driving force behind the addition of Day 2 of WWWY Festival. I believe that the box office draw of this band gave them plenty of social currency they could leverage into legitimately getting a bunch of festival organizers to add a second day. I think the only caveat any reasonable event coordinator might have would be that the first date would have to sell out first before a second day could be added. I also think MCR aren't stupid and collectively were Aware that their presence at the festival would absolutely bring those sales through the roof.

I think they've had this plan since at least the Australian/Japanese leg of the Return, in some form. I think they may have finessed and altered it, may have even intentionally delayed it due to Frank's side time with LS Dunes - and perhaps a mosaic of other factors I don't have access to or knowledge of. But I think the plan is as follows with regard to what Will Happen. MCR will take the stage on Day 1 of WWWY2 and they will play The Black Parade, start-to-finish. They Will Not play the stage show that they killed in Mexico, in fact I'm willing to bet they will undersell their own theatricality for Day 1. This is important and intentional. I am willing to bet they will fill the time with B-Sides if needed - maybe even mixing the B-Sides with the original release. That wouldn't surprise me. The point is, I believe they will at least play KAYF and All The Angels. I Don't think they'll play anything from other eras on Day 1. But I'd argue that if they do, it'll be as an encore, a 3-piece-set encore. Blood isn't part of the encore by the way in this version of the set. Either it's the final song of an encore that's just their most loved B Sides after the entirety of Black Parade, or, it's the last song before an encore of 3 songs - Vampires Will Never Hurt You or Skylines and Turnstiles as the first, Helena, You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us, or TYFTV as the second, and Kids for the third. I'm willing to concede I have strong preferences for specific picks, but I also don't think it matters what is done there - I think what matters is, it'll be a 3-song encore set that the band finds emblematic of each of the Non-Black-Parade eras. Who knows, it could be all Non-Album Tracks. An encore could even just not happen - very like them, in some way. The point is, my theory is, Day 1 of WWWY2 is about being a prelude to Day 2, and underselling themselves in that prelude.

I think at the end of Day 1's set, the official site will be updated - next 5 tour dates will appear, or some other announcement if they're feeling generous, something cryptic à la the Return teaser if they're not. Again, this is a prelude - all window dressing, actually. It's why I think they're going to undersell their theatrical bent for this performance.

I think it'll cause uproar, of course, because people will wanna know why they went so Under Expectation, underperforming, whatever. I think the girlies and gays will be rightly Irate at the Horrors for the performance on Day 1. I think it'll be exactly what they said it would be right down the line, and the MCRmy collectively will be Upset. But hopeful.

I think day 2 will be insane.

You see, I remember exactly where I was when Foundations dropped, and I think that's the level of warning they intend to give for anything that comes next. It's not that they didn't leave breadcrumbs for Foundations, it's that until it had actually blindsided the collective MCRmy, nobody had the answer for what those breadcrumbs added up to, just a lot of guesses.

Day 2: they will open the performance 'as usual' with The End and, likely, Dead!. Maybe they'll be really cheeky as it were and get through Welcome To The Black Parade, but I think they'll monopolize their time, so they'll start like they did the night before, but with more theatricality (either marginally or overtly). I also think that by either the end of Dead! or WTTBP, The Thing will have dropped online. My hope and strongest theory is, no warning, they will drop MCR5 in its entirety online and then proceed to perform it in its entirety with the remainder of their set.

(Alternatively, they will still perform the whole thing, but the online drop will be a complete list of tour dates, and/or album announcement.

Otherwise, I could see an Ultimate Greatest Hits Mashup as the set, with either, both, or all being dropped online, either over the course of their set or as one giant Drop at some strategic point during or immediately following their performance.)

What will be dropped, and when, is still a lot of variables based on which breadcrumbs I'm parsing and in what ways I'm analyzing them. My strongest feeling, though, is that Day 2 will neither be a repeat of Day 1, nor will it have anything to do with The Black Parade except in that they're using that as a ... window dressing and prelude to what's Actually Happening. And while I'm willing to concede there's multiple possibilities for what's Actually Happening, I think there's some breadcrumbs that strongly suggest, What's Actually Happening is an album release party that will correctly shatter expectations and cause a collective MCRmy meltdown.

Anyway I kinda look forward to being proven so stupidly wrong, but God can you even Imagine if I were right? Lol