#disloyal order series

[saintsenara]

I’ve curious about something you said… you mention that you believe 💯 that Barty Crouch Jr was a full on DE/Blood purist Before being sent to Azkaban but to me the trial scene made me think otherwise- could you elaborate on why you think he was faking and is a true DE?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

barty crouch jr. is - obviously - a fascinating character. but this doesn't override the fact that his primary purpose in goblet of fire is to be a narrative device: the plot twist of the century at the denouement of the book, when "professor moody" is revealed as an imposter; and a man everyone assumed to be dead is revealed to be alive; and a man many people [including harry and, it's implied, dumbledore] suspected - on the basis of his performance at his trial - might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, rather than a fanatical death eater, is revealed to be... a fanatical death eater, who has been working for a full year to facilitate voldemort's resurrection.

like in a murder mystery, the narrative purpose of crouch jr.'s unmasking at the end of the book is to reveal that several things the text presents as clues before harry [the reader surrogate] has all the information are actually red herrings once he does.

the first of these is that, like philosopher's stone, goblet of fire goes out of its way to suggest that the faithful death eater at hogwarts is snape - which it does magnificently:

A grim smile twisted his lopsided mouth. “Oh if there’s one thing I hate,” he muttered, more to himself than to Harry, and his magical eye was fixed on the left-hand corner of the map, “it’s a Death Eater who walked free...” Harry stared at him. Could Moody possibly mean what Harry thought he meant?

harry - and, therefore, the reader - is, of course, immediately primed to interpret this as the real moody suggesting that snape is still suspected of being a loyal death eater. what we learn later, of course, is that crouch-as-moody is actually accusing snape of being disloyal:

“I told you, Harry... I told you. If there’s one thing I hate more than any other, it’s a Death Eater who walked free. They turned their backs on my master when he needed them most.”

and the second is that goblet of fire treats barty crouch sr. not as a villain - per se - but as one of the long line of civil servants who appear in the series whose commitment to doing everything by the book - being precise, bureaucratic, inflexible, and so on - only ends up making them extraordinarily cruel. crouch is the precursor to how percy will behave in order of the phoenix, and he also has numerous things in common with how dolores umbridge [an unambiguous villain] and rufus scrimgeour [an antagonist, but not a villain] are written.

the text suggests on multiple occasions prior to its denouement that crouch's rigidity made him incapable of mercy [a virtue the series really values].

but, in addition to this, it suggests that crouch's cardinal sin isn't that he didn't show mercy to the genuinely guilty... but that he didn't show mercy to the innocent.

how do we know this? because he's the man who's responsible for the miscarriage of justice which defines the series:

Sirius’s face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when Harry first met him, the night when Harry still believed Sirius to be a murderer. “Oh I know Crouch all right,” he said quietly. “He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial.”

sirius also tells us that crouch was power-hungry and corrupt:

"Crouch’s principles might’ve been good in the beginning - I wouldn’t know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort’s supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn’t the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side."

and he also gives the reader a nibble at the other half of this red herring, when he suggests that barty crouch jr. might have been nothing more than a victim of his father's ruthlessness, just like winky - the innocent house elf whose cruel treatment at crouch sr.'s hands not only infuriates hermione, but is also given by sirius as proof of crouch's near-villainy:

“Was his son a Death Eater?” said Harry.  “No idea,” said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. “I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I’ve found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I’d bet my life were Death Eaters - but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf.”

when harry ends up in the pensieve a couple of chapters later, then, he and the reader are primed to view barty crouch jr.'s hysterics on the stand as authentic, to be horrified that crouch sr. could send his son to azkaban with such brutal ease, and to highly suspect that his conviction - like sirius' - was illegitimate.

but - of course - the twist at the end of the book is that harry [and sirius] is completely wrong about this.

barty crouch sr.'s decision to send his own son to azkaban was the right one. and the thing that ruined him was not making a ruthless decision, but making a merciful one.

because, as barty crouch jr. tells us, his father breaking him out of azkaban, around a year after sending him there, meant nothing to him... other than the chance to return to voldemort:

“And what did your father do with you, when he had got you home?” said Dumbledore quietly. “Staged my mother’s death. A quiet, private funeral. That grave is empty. The house-elf nursed me back to health. Then I had to be concealed. I had to be controlled. My father had to use a number of spells to subdue me. When I had recovered my strength, I thought only of finding my master... of returning to his service.”

these are not the words of someone who was anything other than a sincere death eater when he and the lestranges attacked frank and alice longbottom.

and they are, therefore, the words of someone whose performance of horrified innocence - just in the wrong place at the wrong time - at his trial is one hundred percent fake.

[barrencelenny]

✨fav fics published in 2023 ✨

173 fics (+ 15 podfics) (in English) were published in the coldflash tag in 2023! Bless everybody who continues to write fic for a show that has now ended!! Here is a semi complete list of all my faves from this year in lieu of a Spotify wrapped fics edition!!!

heading off the rails by Sandrine shaw

-let Barry be drunk (for a little bit) that's what I always say! he's in his 20s he should be at the club! and that's where he is here! incredible.

Into the Speed Force by captainicecube

-ahhh I just love fics where the speed force is a character and is also Super Creepy Eldritch Horror about it

detox just to retox (i’d promise you anything) by trespresh

-coming back to this series after years since the previous instalment made me go relisten to disloyal order of water buffaloes and single handedly restarted my fob obsession so thanks for that

Seek Comfort, Find Faith by Annawry

-love when fics just have the characters be cursed by magic. it's already a superhero show set in a universe with canon magic users it's not even a reach. also love when their solution is to fuck about it.

to give hope by Aerica_Menai

-Star Trek mention gives me so much serotonin it’s not even funny + honorary mention to ‘Just Another Tuesday Amongst the Stars’ for also being about Star Trek

small favours in high doses by QLaLa

-pov outsider and teacher!barry you are everything to me. the DTR bit had me in stitches. they're both SO goddamn embarrassing my god.

There’s blood on your teeth (let me get that for you) by SoftBoyDepot

-the tag being “if you’re a fan of Leonard Snart begging this is the fic for you!” and boy did it deliver

I Won’t Ever be Too Far Away to Feel You by RedRidingStiles

-this is the only fic where I would agree with len being a cop because it’s so good. the second hand embarrassment of the initial call from Barry makes my chest hurt but hey, that just tells you how visceral the experience of reading can be lmao

So Long, Scarlet Speedster by HowToKillAVampire

-time! travel! You are everything to me! Time travellers wife-esque situations where they meeting out of sync is catnip to me I’m gobbling this fic right up

The Fair Price of a Plate of Dinner by RetroactiveCon

-hehe love fics where both Barry and len are being little shits and causing problems for Joe. Me 🤝 Len “has no interest in Christmas, but do just about anything to cause problems on purpose”

slipstream by wednesday

- competent! Barry is everything to me. Misunderstanding is delicious to me. Len not knowing how to deal with random acts of kindness is Kryptonite to me. You see how this fic is exactly up my alley

[manforsale]

Nobody Wants To Hear You Sing About Tragedy

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes: Folie à Deux Series Pt. 1

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime:

Tarn is described as a "voracious consumer"- but was he always like that? I only ask because Megatron seems scrupulous with his seconds-in-command. Somebody who could be swayed with a fresh batch of T-cogs seems like a weak link he wouldn't tolerate long...

Dear Addiction Acolyte,

It is true that Tarn's addiction worsened over time. I think Megatron never learned of the full extent of Tarn’s dependency. By the end of the war, he was rather disconnected from the low-level operations of his Decepticon Empire, and he evidently trusted Tarn to manage his Decepticon Justice Division with only minimal oversight. In fact, he had never even personally read the infamous List that terrified his rank and file… at least until his own name ended up there.

From Megatron’s perspective, Tarn’s very existence was a way to deeply hurt his old foe, Optimus—this was more than enough to satisfy him, above all the atrocities Tarn perpetrated in his name. Tarn could have been a worthless soldier, disloyal and incompetent, worthy of inclusion on the List himself… so long as he wore the badge, his purpose would be fulfilled.

As it happened, Tarn’s sudden disappearance has sent great waves rippling through the timestream. Without his laser-focused efficiency to keep the rest of the D.J.D. working down their List in strict order, they have instead begun a series of brutal massacres of Autobots and Decepticons alike. And as for Tarn himself, his new Evo-Fusion power has made him more deadly than ever. Surrounded by unfamiliar Megatrons all vying for supremacy, Tarn has thrown his lot in with the one he most recognises—and is now in the uncanny position of having to explain Megatron’s own philosophy to him.

[archivalofsins]

You know what I'm about to do rent lowering gunshots.

I'm tired of feeling like I'm being held to some higher standard than the average fan just because of how I communicate my feelings on the series. It's tiring to feel like your words are constantly being scrutinized because of how they may impact or sway how the series goes. It's not a fun atmosphere to theorize under.

Plus, the Milgram fandom has a way of rewarding individuals that do less work and devaluing those who do more. Framing them as taking things too seriously, being harsh, or just not knowing how to have fun. While at the same time expecting those same individuals who put in that work sometimes spending days or weeks on a post to explain in depth why their favorite character or that one they hate should be Innocent or Guilty for them.

Yet these same people at other times really need to watch what they say because their words have more of an impact they should try to be kinder to the character or add more nuance to their discussion. Even if doing so compromises their genuine opinion or even how they process information.

It sucks to say because I do enjoy when people like my posts. I do enjoy when I get to talk about Milgram with other people and interacting with the fandom. Yet, I write the way I do in order to process my feelings and thoughts on a piece of media I care about. Milgram isn't special. I have a lot of things that I enjoy just as much and interact with in the same way.

Because I love stories. I love the characters in them. The process in which I digest information is starting off critical to get an objective view of the information and then looking into the emotional implications after. That's always been how I've looked at things. Even if I look at the emotional implications, there's no saying if I'll come out feeling the character is any less or more justified in their actions. Because even if that contextualizes what was done, it does not justify it in my eyes.

I care more about how the character feels about their actions than how it makes me feel. I can't tell others how they should live their life. If their circumstances are happy or sad. Just like I don't do that in my real life, I don't do it with media. I'm happy just letting the characters be the characters, whatever may come of that. That's how I have fun and I can have an opinion on that, sure.

Yet that opinion will always be malleable.

Not just because people have the right to change their minds but because characters in a narrative have the right to develop. They can change for better or worse. Even if the character is static, when more information is revealed about them, the audiences opinion of them can and may change. That's only natural.

At the same time, how the audience engages with a character can impact how said character is perceived and received on a larger scale. This fact heavily impacted the trials of Mu and Kotoko during the second season of Milgram.

It certainly wasn't the only reason that they received such high guilty percentages. However, it played a larger role in it than most people are willing to look into.

Let's talk about

Guilt By Association

Merriam-Webster: Moral guilt or unfitness presumed to exist on the basis of one's known associations.

the doctrine of guilt by association has on occasion been used to brand as currently disloyal persons who at some past time had been members of an organization not known to be or considered subversive at the time they were members

Dictionary: The attribution of guilt to individuals because of the people or organizations with which they associate, rather than because of any crime that they have committed.

Guilt by association has been alluded to through Mu already and is highlighted more heavily through her answer to question eighteen trial two.

Q.18 Do you regret anything?

Mu: I think maybe I should have chosen my friends a bit more carefully.

Through this statement Mu shows that she believes her affiliations are why she wound up in the situation she's in. This is also supported by the line,

"If you want to betray from jealousy."

Something that implies the people she knew were envious of her status and out to take her spot. This is illustrated to be the case in After Pain as well through imagery like this,

Showing her friends, not her victim, icing her out. Along with the flipping of the hourglass, which can allude to her going from being on top to being on the bottom. As we see in It's Not My Fault, Mu's position in the hourglass has switched from drowning at the bottom to being at the top.

Now, getting the room to breathe that she wanted and escaping from that glass.

It's also shown through the board that her association with her victim before she died is weaponized against her after the victim passes away. As it's filled with speculation about how Mu is the reason her victim died and she's only getting away with due to her parents,

"Just benefits from her parents"

Another association she's implied to be taking advantage of.

Kotoko is the same way relying on groups and the support of weaklings to get things done. All while saying she has everything, she's the solution, she's got it all figured out. She just needs the weaklings around her to shut up an let themselves be protected by her.

You see that, though?

She needs weaklings to let her protect them. She needs to make a deal to feel special and necessary. She needs this dichotomy more than the weaklings around her do. Just like Mu needs those she views as lesser to constantly feed her ego.

They need associations, for those around them to see the merit in their existence, and validate them being here just like Shidou. Because they can't figure that out for themselves. They need to grasp through actions the things that they can solidly do and provide.

"I overheard, I found out How much I’m not needed."

22/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Mu: Hey~~~ Isn’t everyone a bit gloomy lately? I get that this situation isn’t ideal, but you’re really bringing down the mood for my birthday.

Yuno: Haha, surely even you can tell now’s not really the time for something like that right. Nobody’s really in the mood, or rather nobody has time time to deal with something like that.

Mu: Boo, how boring. You seem to be free, you can celebrate for me. Go on, celebrate.

Yuno: Wow, what a pain. I’m reading the atmosphere properly and keeping quiet. Well, you just go and have fun with Haruka. In the corner somewhere so you’re out of everyone’s way.

"There’s no special meaning, I got the short end of the stick."

"Tock-tock… tells me, the reason it’s ok to be here. Won’t disappear even if I stop-"

"The love that won't perish."

"“Throw down” connecting you with me, to keep you alive, you are still living." - "Lying, replacing with hope."

"“Throw down” it’s ok, that’s enough. Can’t stay away. Please don’t forgive me. That’s why I want this to end “Throw down”."

"The person that can’t be saved, is now understanding the abnormality."

"It’s ok to dislike, right? Losing it, losing it, what should I hope for?"

"“UNDER” Doltish, a codependency of the weak. “UNDER” Obscene, pulling all cords to stay warm."

"So ridiculous, isn’t it ridiculous? Bringing back the cocky hero again? How embarrassing."

I think it's very telling that while these lines are sung the only one reflected or shown in the scene is Kotoko herself and these are all lines that can be applied to her. She has a codependency on the weak because she needs to save them to validate herself and they need saving by her in turn.

It's the same dichotomy that she attempts to enforce with Es as soon as she gets to Milgram. Something she clearly attempts to get more out of later without putting much more in. As she doesn't give Es more information on Milgram, the prisoners, or even attempt to be on good terms with the others enough in order to uphold her end of the bargain she made despite assuming the deal was accepted.

Along with citing the deal as the reason she's totally allowed to jump people because that is the offer she made Es actually and there was never another one,

"Guard-san. No... Es. Don't you want to join forces with me? I think the two of us would make good partners."

Join... forces with you?

"With you, in the role of prison guard with the information you gather from interrogations, and me, in the role of prisoner with the information I gather from my daily life here... Working together and sharing our findings what do you think?"

Your hand...? What are you trying to say?

"Let's shake hands. We will become companions."

The two of us...companions?

"When the time comes, Es, let me be your fangs."-"Come on, rely on me, go on."

"I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it."

"So make yourselves my reason."

Mu, Shidou, and Kotoko all use others to fuel their actions. To tell them it's okay to be where they are and act how they are. Sometimes even to the point of blaming others for how they respond in certain situations.

"[GIGGLE] It's your fault for doing horrible things to me."

"You're in my way...hurry up and die."

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

They push themselves through their associations and the connections that they form. To the extent of it being detrimental their own Achilles hill. Because if they're validated by those around them they'll just start leaping over boundaries. Even if they weren't validated by that much.

We see that with Mu here after her verdict,

21/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Mu: Yuno. Don’t you have something to say to me?

Yuno: Huh? To you? Me? ……ahh, uh? Your birthday, right?

Happy birthday~

Mu: How mean… Since it’s my birthday, I really wish you’d said something before I had to come and tell you myself.

Yuno: Right, right, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful in future~ Later! Haha… things have become even more of a bother… ……so was that Mu-chan’s real personality, then? It’s probably because the guard did something, right?

Q.11 Which of the other prisoners do you get along with least?

Yuno: I wonder- The ones that are painful just to watch are Haruka and Mu-chan.

20/06/04

Yuno: Huh, so you go to that high school. So you are from a rich family then~! I mean, you already gave off that vibe, though. What year are you in?

Mu: First year…… Kashiki… san…… you’re older than me, right?

Yuno: Yeah, I’m in third year. But you can just call me Yuno, I don’t really like the stuffy formalities. It doesn’t really matter who’s older and who’s younger. If you squint, we’re basically the same age anyway.

Mu: ……fufu, what’s with that? But ok…… I’ll call you Yuno from now on.

"I won't be bothered...."

Just like the characters can get annoyed with each other for being annoying the fans can get annoyed with each other for the same reason and act on it with their votes. If fans of a particular character are being obnoxious, harassing others, being dismissive of or belittling the feelings of others within the fandom then some fans will decide to use their votes to do something about it instead of engaging with bad actors in good faith.

This is how individuals who went around parading like they were the only true fans ended up ruining their favorite characters reputations more. Because no one needs to explain to another person why their behavior is wrong or hurtful when they can just do something that will tangibly and passively enforce that belief anyway.

No one has to decide to vote based on the character alone when said characters fans have done something to hurt that individual personally. Milgram allows fans to vote for any reason and that includes to spite other fans who have wronged them personally. No one has to go high when others continually go low.

Personally I was waiting for the end of the trial to really discuss this facet of Milgram voting as not to impact how others decided to behave. Because yes Milgram as a series doesn't say anything about the people who consume it. It's a neutral piece of media. However, the way individuals choose to treat people in real life because of Milgram does reflect on them.

The series is not forcing anyone to behave towards other people in the ways that they have and a difference in opinion on a piece of fiction isn't an excuse to treat anyone as less than someone else. People can disagree with someone without diminishing their personhood or making assumptions about their character or values.

Just as people can just not talk about something if they don't wish to hear other people's opinions on it or have a genuine discussion about it. People could have actually engaged with the stories of Mu and Kotoko in an authentic way. Instead of making in poor taste jokes, victim blaming, racially motivated remarks, xenophobic statements, mass reporting people, and sending emotionally manipulative dms to people they quite frankly don't know enough about (or even the ages of) for that to be appropriate in any way- Though even if they did that would not have made responding in that way anymore appropriate but they probably might have thought a bit more before speaking.

The behavior of certain people in fandom is honestly why the phrase,

"You forget yourself." Exists.

And I'm speaking about across all platforms through every demographic that Milgram has reached not just Twitter, or any specific nationality of fans. Some of the behavior I've not only seen but been subjected to makes me miss talking about stuff with people in high school.

I'm American there should never be an instance considering how much shit other nationalities like talk about Americans online (most warranted) that I'm sitting here like naw this shit is out of fucking pocket I gotta go to a comic book store or find an anime club talk to some other people in my area about this. Fucking even just call a friend.

Like one of the comforts I've personally gained from experiencing Milgram is knowing full and well most of the populaces of other countries aren't as different from Americans as they like to believe they are and these two trials really embody that and were so sobering really.

Mu's actions could have been contextualized without framing her victim as doing something to deserve to die, headcanoning them as half black for laughs, using right-wing buzzwords, or even the amount off people specifically going people outside of Japan shouldn't be allowed to vote this is because of those westerners.

It's not a difficult thing to contextualize what happened without doing all that. The people who discussed this in those ways were just bad communicators. They didn't know how else to articulate themselves and hell, maybe some even thought they were actually being so funny really. Because it's fun to make fun of the very real plights of bipoc individuals and conservatism when it doesn't impact oneself personally right.

Yet associating that with Mu would only do more to damage her reputation, not help it. Because now some people may not see it as disagreeing or agreeing with Mu but the bigoted tactics of her supporters. Then we're right back at guilt by association. It's bigger than her at that point. To some people, it's not even about her or what she did anymore.

The same thing impacted Kazui's trial.

Since people wanted to highlight him speculatively being gay as a moral failing and one person was bribing people and creating superstitions in order to get him guilty. It was no longer about his trial in Milgram but more so about what it represented in reality now. The sort of message it would support if he was guilty and how that personally impacted fans.

It was the same with Amane.

They managed to scrape by an innocent verdict because these issues mattered to the people who were discussing them, and they treated them like they should matter. Neither of those were easy feats they weren't simple sweeps like any of the other verdicts this trial. They tested convictions. There were some things to discuss there.

Yet with Mu, she was treated as though there was nothing to discuss. It was game over before the starting bell even rang. So, people joked about it, threw tantrums, reduced the entirety of feminism to the idea that actually women can never do anything wrong ever, actually so there. It's not surprising that no one really wanted to engage or cared enough to try to push the verdict in another direction.

It definitely didn't help that Haruka was voted Guilty earlier in the trial and a lot of people really framed giving him that verdict as creating a circumstance in which we could vote Mu at our own discretion later without the threat of him hurting himself over our head because he'd be restrained. She was set up to fail by people more concerned about how dangerous Haruka could be to her, himself, and others if he was validated again.

People who used the idea of Haruka being guilty to go if we do that then we don't even really have to worry about making Mu innocent. Something people ran with even though they had no evidence he'd be restrained. But then, when people tried to cite Haruka's threat as a good reason to vote Mu innocent later.

Guilt by association and spite came in again. People cited the first level of restraint and him being guilty as reason enough to vote however you want. Hell, I was one of those people.

Mu was at the least fifteen when she committed her crime. It was a heat of the moment thing. She clearly and consistently has shown remorse over it. Still a good deal of her fans would rather make fun of the real societal ills that some people in the fandom face on the regular basis in a haphazard attempt to be funny than actually try to make a case for her. How can anyone be surprised she was that guilty?

Now, I feel a certain way about Kotoko's "real" fans.

The environment wasn't right for her to be innocent, and the people who liked her the most contributed to the atmosphere that ultimately led to her fall from grace. Leaving her with a guilty verdict only rivaled by Kotoko's.

That can only be explained by the knowledge I've been looping the song Not Like Us for several weeks and feeling more catharsis than I've felt in a while. Like an excessive amount of catharsis. Like it's fucked up because I really listened to every track involved in that entire beef, have been watching analysis and reactions to it and literally went yeah I did need to hear a guy get verbally obliterated really bad this year. Fucking that song and Euphoria oh my god needed that.

Tell me how the fuck a fan base of one character has several months in advance to make a case for that character and still fails? Make it make sense.

Real fans? I'm sorry real fans show up- As soon as that voice drama dropped and she said she hit kids y'all gave up. Just like a good bit of Mu's fans never even wanted to consider that she was a bully a good deal of Kotoko's fans took the I do not see it approach.

I only had a fucking snippet of Mikoto's voice drama and wrote ten speculative paragraphs on it. Her fans had the whole fucking voice drama, translations, the cover, the song, the instrumental and what did they do with it?

Alright, how'd did not talking about that work out for them?

Oh yeah they GATEKEPT it! Tag it this way, tag it that way, spoilers, spoilers, that's a leak not an official release. Milgram gives you the advantage of a several month release difference between the cd, the mv, and the official start of the trial and Kotoko's real fans did nothing with that time I guess.

They went we don't see that shit. That's a leak, that's a spoiler, don't talk about it.

Where'd it get them-

Damn girl, your fans let you have a verdict that low- What you do?

I didn't even know verdicts got that low. My god- Kotoko had it so fucking bad that Mu fans were gunning to make her more guilty than Mu. They started going she can't be more Innocent than Mu that'd be ridiculous. Bro how?!

Like I understand the reasoning, but again, several months that none of the fans of any other character had. Everybody else here that was a fan of a certain character had to get to making a case for said character the day the mv dropped. Without a translated voice drama at times.

Getting slapped with translated voice drama facts mid trial. It's ridiculous she should not be this guilty with the fucking clear advantage she very much was given. No damage control, no attempts to contextualize or even speculate on her behavior until like the middle of the trial really?! And then not even on their own just mostly passive aggressive responses to the points of other people. They can't make their own points they can only combat and rip off others.

Oh, and then the mass insinuation that people who don't understand Kotoko just aren't traumatized enough. Real good way to continually lose allies while showing people how unserious and inconsiderate others are willing to be. Oh, or victim blaming the child what did the fucking kidnapping victim do to betray Kotoko.

Because safety of children only matters when it can be used to support Kotoko's actions but the moment she's yelling at useless weaklings it's suddenly what did that child do? Just like the Mu fans trying to find a way to go well this is why her hypothetical victim deserved to die actually.

At least with Haruka a lot of what went into his verdict was genuine concern for the character and other characters safety. For Mu and Kotoko it's difficult to tell if their verdicts were even fully about what they did in the narrative or the fanbase just being fucking annoyed with the actions of others who labeled themselves as fans of the theirs.

That's the power of Guilt by Association.

Yuno: I wonder- The ones that are painful just to watch are Haruka and Mu-chan.

I don't gotta like your fucking friend because I already know I don't like you! I'm not going to like them because fuck them and fuck you. Plus vice versa what a good friend/associate you've got there. I didn't know you hung around those type of people I'd personally never hangout with people like that. All fucking things Yuno and Jackalope said to Es about their partnership with Kotoko.

Let me highlight this again for the people that don't get it in the back-

What did Haruka do other than hang out with Mu and through association he's annoying Yuno just as much. Sadly, that's just how it works. Another person can ruin someone's reputation simply through associating with them. I know some fans have been assuming certain individuals who theorize about Milgram all speak to each other and have simply been blocking individuals that seem to be on good terms with each other or vice versa (following people in the fandom who are on good terms with each other).

So, the last thing I'm personally going to do in a situation where what I want to happen is dependent on more individuals than myself working together towards that outcome is create an us vs. them environment. That's kind of counterintuitive to what I not only personally want to accomplish long-term but how I want to live in general.

The only thing behaving that way does is diminish the chances of anyone understanding another persons point, taking said point seriously, or believing that the person speaking is a considerate and respectful individual. As the person doing this usually creates a circumstance where people know full and well that this individual doesn't like them, what they are working towards isn't for them, and the person doing this probably believes that anyone else's feelings aren't important and views others voicing said opinions as a threat.

So of course when met with that sort of hostility I'm going to choose not to write anything that will help, placate, or support the ideas or views of people that are treating other real people poorly.

Oh, why was the fandom so mean to Mu and Kotoko?

In response a good few others may simply ask,

Why were some fans so cruel while still expecting others to not only make their points for them but change their mind after taking their feelings into more consideration? Despite them not once taking into consideration the feelings of others.

The level of entitlement some of the full grown adults in this fandom have to other people's ability to express themselves properly instead of working on their own communication skills.... Well, some people never see mirrors is another thing I've learned from this experience.

I'm gonna be straight with people I don't give a fuck about what the characters do in Milgram. Milgram isn't real. I do and will continue to care about how people in the real world treat others. I will get annoyed and upset when individuals in any fandom start making what I'm doing for my own personal enjoyment more difficult or the lives of others I care about worse.

All because they have no respect or consideration for anyone outside of themselves.

That's not being a true a fan that's just being a cruel person. If I or anyone else uses the only means the audience is given to interact with the series/have their voices heard to be spiteful that's just as much a part of Milgram as any other reason people have to vote. The series has always let fans choose how, why, and if they vote on the prisoners. Regardless of if it has to do with the character personally or not.

Kotoko and Mu's trial are the perfect example of this in my opinion,

In the trial two commencement notice Jackalope implied this trial would in a way be testing the cooperation skills of the fanbase. Mu and Kotoko both foreshadowed and highlighted this the best in their second voice dramas and before them. They knew that in order to succeed in Milgram they needed help. They needed the favor of others, comrades, people that valued them enough to stand by them and take into consideration their concerns over anyone else's.

When that was shown to be at risk Mu tried to work with everyone by suggesting Es just vote everyone Innocent. Then no one would singled out and her safety would be secured as well. Plus, forgiving everyone now would set a precedent of well if I was able to forgive the last thing how is this really that different. At a point, the audience would just be in too deep. In a cycle of if I can excuse this than I can really excuse anything- Does it really matter let's all just have fun and not think too hard.

It sets a mood of if it didn't matter then than it doesn't matter now.

While Kotoko on the other hand was just being like trust me be concerned with me and my feelings. Not the others. They're not like you and I Es we're,

"Let's shake hands. We will become companions."

A crime is a crime, sin is sin that's not going to change. You and I aren't like the others here though.

Just hate their evil behavior for what it is and rely on me. We're the only people we've got in here the prisoners don't like you and they don't like me. Placating them would be a waste of everyone's time. Just leave these tough calls to me.

At the end of the day, Kotoko and Mu both recognized that as much as they say, they have everything and can do it on their own... They cannot they need packs and swarms. Then their fans gave us a perfect example of why the fuck that's the case.

Yeah, I feel bad for Kotoko and Mu fans but I'm not going to mislead myself into believing how some of them publicly and privately behaved towards others within this fandom didn't put them where they ended up.

I could defend Kotoko and Mu publicly. I really could. I do so in private just fine. However, a good deal of their fans made it clear that's not my fight because they labeled me as the person they're fighting against. Unlike Futa I know how to only mind the business which minds me. No, thank you that's none of my concern. Because I've been shown through the actions of others my feelings wouldn't be given the same consideration I extend to the feelings of others.

So, why bother?

I'm not saying this to rub anything in. I'm saying this to go how people in this fandom behave impacts how the characters they openly like are treated. That too is a part of Milgram. That too is a bias that we should all take into consideration before trial three.

It's a common bias as well. It's only natural that if one has a friend that's like a certain character and they trust and care deeply about that friend then they'll probably be more inclined to vote that character innocent. If an artist you follow really likes a character and is lamenting that their verdict isn't going how they want you may feel inclined to change your verdict or if you really can't agree with changing your verdict you may even stop following that artist or fan.

These are just natural reactions.

However, the things we do as fans- The way we treat others will impact how this experience goes for all of us. Regardless of if we personally think it's fair of people to let those interactions impact how they vote or interact with the media itself. Others may still take that into consideration when making their decision because all of us are human. Yes, objectively, these should be two different things. People can like something and still dislike the fans of that thing for one reason or another.

Still it's reasonable and natural for someone to begin having muddled feelings about a idea or character when the way they interact with said idea is continually scrutinized by people who also claim to like it. At a point it may just become easier to for some to go I can't be the sort of fan this environment is expecting me to be but I can still be the sort of fan that I am and makes me happy personally. If someone has been bothered by other fans to egregious extents then they decide to vote a character guilty to get back at those fans that's a personal choice and I honestly believe it's a fair and valid thing to do.

Even without Milgram supporting any reason the audience votes. Spites honestly a great motivator. So, people can fuck around and find out I guess. Oh, wait people already fucked around I suppose we're at the find out part now huh?

I personally have never cared if things don't go my way in any of the media I'm engaging in. I'm here for the experience. I know it sucks to not get ones way. For things to turn out differently from how one wanted them to. Yet, honestly some of the people in this fandom need to calm down.

Especially if the people behaving like this are over the age of eighteen. Bro I like Terra from Kingdom Hearts a character that gets far more flack than anyone in Milgram. I'm a Damian Wayne fan. I read comics, I'm a comics fan. I've seen worse takes it should never get so serious that people are going the extra mile to harass people after they're blocked.

This is a genuine warning; please stop doing this.

I would have liked for Kotoko and Mu's verdicts to have been more of a battle. However, they were both the most disappointing trials of season 2 to me. No one could even defend them without stooping to emotionally manipulative and silencing tactics. None of the discussions around them were even a fraction of as thought provoking as the other characters trials to me.

I left feeling like Kotoko at the end of this interaction,

20/06/06

Futa: Ahh…… This is really pissing me off. I can’t believe they won’t let us have computers or phones here…… Don’t they understand our human rights? I’m gonna ask them for better treatment.

Kotoko: Human rights for murderers, huh…… Well, it’s not like there aren’t facilities that are like that. For example, in Norway, the Halden Prison allows its prisoners access to computers. Not only do their cells not have iron bars locking them in, but apparently they’re even allowed to return to their houses and go out shopping. Even compared to this place, it’s very lax. But as a result, the rate of second offence in Norway is the lowest in the world……

Kotoko: ……I’m the idiot for expecting to get a reasonable debate here.

Futa: Ahh. Yeah, Norway! The famous thing they have there! It just shows they respect their prisoners’ rights. On that point, you can really tell Japan is lagging behind the rest of the world. Because all our politicians here are just idiots.

That's the worst part of it- all that hate for something that wasn't even entertaining. Well, that's how Milgram is... Losers exit stage left indeed.

[danglovely]

Sidekicks

Kim Possible's in universe dialogue includes a lot diverging opinions on sidekicks.

First and most obvious: Every villain condescendingly calls Ron "the sidekick."

Conversely, heroes mostly maintain a very sidekick positive attitude. Kim deploys Ron, Wade, her mother, and Monique in the position at varying points and they all understand the deal: Kim is the main attraction. When she enlists someone's help, they aren't going into it to advance their own interests or in search of the glory associated with being a "hero." They're there to support Kim, thus the badge of "sidekick" is an honor unto itself.

Ron, at minimum, has a sense of pride about it.

Kim's reliable stable of wingmen only brings attention to the more interesting point: Shego is the only evil side kick on the show.

Sure, there are some instances where it seems like someone else fulfills the criteria (Lucre was a "protegee"), but the words "evil sidekick" themselves appear to be exclusively reserved for Shego.

Why is Shego the only evil sidekick on the show? Beats me, but a few reasons come to mind.

First, Drakken appears to be the only villain who even wants one and he claims that he has a sidekick three occasions:

#1. Shego: Who we'll come back to.

#2. Warmonga: Called a sidekick by both Drakken and Shego, but who was brought into his employ under false pretenses and who clearly did not understand what the term actually meant.

#3. Remy: A parrot, who was called "sidekick" by Drakken when he was a possessed pirate and was surprisingly disloyal for a bird..

No other villain claims that they have a sidekick Even when Electronique reverse-polarizes Team Go, she refers to them as . . .

On the flip side, it seems like most of the villains view being a sidekick as an insult. There are plenty of examples where "sidekick" is a used as a term of derision:

Thus we have the double whammy as to why villain-circles aren't environments where evil sidekicks thrive: no one wants one and no one wants to be one.

So, back to Shego. Why is she a sidekick?

Throughout the series, she is loathe to call herself the S-Word. She only says that she used to be an underestimated one in Sitch in Time and she implies that she was Drakken's sidekick pre-prison in Mad Dogs and Aliens (but isn't anymore). When Drakken asks for "sidekick enthusiasm' in Dimension Twist, she gives possibly the most sarcastic response since the invention of the art.

She actually only definitively calls herself Drakken's sidekick one time: in the middle of his rant, when she thinks she's being replaced, after she had already said that she isn't his sidekick anymore earlier in the episode. Interestingly enough, this is the last time either of them call her a sidekick for the remainder of the series.

But why was she ever a sidekick? Honestly, I think it just might be a Drakken and Shego thing. They have a strange relationship where she is universally acknowledged as the more competent of the two, but Drakken is the one who is in charge. Would Drakken ever let himself take orders from Shego sans obedience collar? No. Would Shego ever let Drakken treat her like a henchman? Double no. So "evil sidekick" is where they landed. Sure, Drakken assigns the label to Warmonga, but just you try and tell me that he wasn't doing so to fill a Shego-sized hole in his heart.

Maybe for them, Shego started as a sidekick because that's the only word they could think of for their stupid-ass relationship. It keeps them together, so that's what they roll with . . . even if Drakken does not understand how his interactions with sidekicks may -ahem- come across.

[not-souleaterpost]

You must live on a strange planet. Your tags aren't funny at all. And Mifune doesn't appeal to girls as a "pretty boy to ship with other pretty boys." That's not why girls like Stein or Spirit either. I'm sending this because your generalization is extremely offensive.

As a girl I can't speak for why Mifune would appeal to boys. But I can speak for the girls.

The reason ALL of these characters appeal is due to their complexity as characters! I'm going to talk anime perspective first here because it's more brief.

Mifune: a warrior who has taken time to hone and perfect his craft. Didn't seem to have a purpose in life, just taking jobs where he could. Until Angela. Then he makes a 180-degree turn and shifts his entire life's focus to protecting her. He has a great compassion for children, for those who can't defend themselves. He'll fight not to kill most of the time, giving those second, third, fourth chances. We see it in his repeated compassion to Black Star, and also to Sid. But then the moral conundrum! He's chosen to protect the defenseless, but he doesn't mind if that means choosing to fight for the "evil" side. How does he truly feel about this? Is his morality truly that grey?

Stein: presented as a villain in his introduction so powerfully that you don't believe for sure he's on the side of good for practically the entire series. You keep waiting for the betrayal, the slip-up. Is he going to target a student or someone else for his dissection experiments? Is he going to go mad at random? Is he going to join Medusa willingly and fight for her "new order?" Or is he just the victim of madness? He claims to want to fight for "good" but then the madness takes him to the witch. We are never certain with Stein, right up until the very end! We can't be certain of him really until after Marie saves him from the madness. What a combination! The unknowns about what he's truly thinking, his inherent battle with "mental illness" (madness), and then the tension of what's going to happen to him in the end: will he fall entirely, or be saved? Which does he truly want?

Spirit: presented as a disloyal womanizer, a boozer, and...Death's weapon!? Already a conundrum. Are we supposed to hate this guy or think he's cool? From his very first appearance, just like Stein and Mifune, we are not given a box or stereotype to fit him into. Then we soon discover he was violated in his youth, experimented on, betrayed by his long-time partner in the anime all about trust with one's partner. We get to see him fight competently and powerfully, we get to see him make thoughtful and wise decisions. We get to see him having various breakdowns and various responses to the fear of losing the ability to be with his daughter. We see him lonely and desperate. And we see him at the bar, his only friends the girls who serve him drinks. And we see that he adores his daughter to the point of staying awake three days and nights just to send her "good vibes" for her test, and buying her a gift that he never bothers to check to see if she likes! Because he didn't buy it to build himself up in her eyes, but just as a gift of celebration. (Sad that backfired on him.)

All three of these characters have a complex morality that doesn't fit into any stereotype or any box. Stereotypes are presented for each of them in their own ways, but they break them at every turn.

It's neat how that aligns with the overall question of the show, regarding where moral power comes from and is there any true morality. Each character plays into the question fantastically simply by each of their natures.

And, this is true for the manga as well. Each character's story simply goes farther and ends differently, but these moral questions? Remain at the end. No conclusion is reached for any of them. Mifune doesn't get a chance to reach a conclusion, but he is true to his presentation until the very end; Stein blatantly states the morality will always be a question for him; and Spirit's life is flipped upside down, but he's still the same person.

So, no, as previously stated, your generalization that girls like these characters to ship them with other pretty boys is wrong and offensive. We like the characters because they are interesting characters!

Also, a boy doesn't have to fall into a "pretty" stereotype to be interesting OR to be shipped. Examples from other animation off the top of my head are Senshi from Delicious in Dungeon, Vox from Hazbin Hotel, and Greg from Steven Universe. Three characters with deeply interesting stories!! The stories! We don't like or ship them because they're pretty. It's the stories!

I can't even vote in your poll since your premise is so wrong.

I mean this is a good and interesting answer, yet still its hard to walk on eggshells and make jokes that everyone finds funny (especially when I joke about myself often so I hope it makes it clear that its tongue in cheek atleast partly)

Still I think its dishonest to imply that many anime fans dont just ship charachters cause they get off to it - Like when we look at what boys ship, its often the two hottest female charachters, like I found out that even in kids cartoons like Kim Possible instead of the basically confirmed relationship, people rather say "Oh the teenaged girl is hot and the henchman lady is hot so I like them together!"

Ofcourse some may genuinely say "No actually I dont care about that aspect, its-"

But to say that not a significant amount does is just in my oppinion ridicolous, and maybe its impolite to say but thats just my blog, if people dont like it, it is what it is🤷‍♂️

[backslashdelta]

Gifs Masterpost - Ships/Dynamics

Kurtbastian

Guilty as Sin? - Taylor Swift

Pavlove - Fall Out Boy

Bully In Brooklyn - The Academy Is...

The First Time AU

(Fic: ACITW) as a novel

willow - Taylor Swift

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve - Taylor Swift

A Matter of Distance as a Netflix show

Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift

cardigan - Taylor Swift

(Fic: IWOAK) Mr. Brightside - The Killers

(Fic: ACITW) Summerboy - Lady Gaga

(Fic: ACITW) Fourth of July - Fall Out Boy

illicit affairs - Taylor Swift 

The Name of the Game - ABBA

Gorgeous - Taylor Swift

(Fic: ACITW) Begin Again - Taylor Swift

Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift

All Too Well - Taylor Swift

Klaine

Candles - Hey Monday

I Know It Won't Work - Gracie Abrams

What A Time To Be Alive - Fall Out Boy

Relationship stages

Love From The Other Side - Fall Out Boy

Every Klaine duet

I’m with stupid/I’m stupid

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes - Fall Out Boy

Friends In Low Places Netflix series

Come What May

Kurt and Blaine in The Hurt Locker, Part 2

Klaine proposal, blue/yellow moon/sun

Louder Than Words - tick, tick...BOOM!

Come to Your Senses - tick, tick...BOOM!

Right Where You Left Me - Taylor Swift

Heal Me - Snow Patrol

I Lost a Friend - FINNEAS

What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get? - Snow Patrol

(Fic: Solid Gold) Solid Gold - Tom Chaplin

Red - Taylor Swift

Solid Gold - Tom Chaplin

First kiss and Kurt's hands

Oh god no. No more candles.

Sebklaine

High Infidelity - Taylor Swift

I could fix him/make him worse/rail him

And Why Is That?

Night at Scandals

Kelliott

Google edit

Favourite dynamic edit

Kurtofsky

Prom King and Queen quotes

King and Queen playing cards

Brittana

Churro kiss

Prewedding kiss

Other

Kuinntana / Prom Queen posters

Sebtana / Pointing in Smooth Criminal

Kurt+Brittany / Dancing in Purple Piano Project

Puck+Beiste / Hugging

Kurtcedes / 4 Minutes

Faberry / I Feel Pretty/Unpretty

New Directions / Seasons of Love

Puck+Sam / How many tennis balls?

Season 2 (collab)

Klaine + Kadam / performing for Kurt

Sue+Will / Hump Day (old version)

Pizes in Original Song

Worst rated songs in the Glee Soundtrack Rating Project

Submissions to the Glee Playlist Project

Quinntana / august - Taylor Swift

Hudmels before and after Finn's death

Seblaine / cardigan - Taylor Swift

Walter is Sebastian’s Dad AU

Jesse/Finn/Brody / betray, belittle, boytoy

St Sambastian / manipulate, mansplain, malewife (+ bonus manslaughter)

Sebkelliott / bestie, beloved, bastard

New Directions / "This is your Glee club..."

Hevans / The World Has Its Shine (But I Would Drop It On A Dime For You) - Cobra Starship

Quinntana / Shake Tramp - Marianas Trench

Pucktana with sparklers in 6x02

The Scientist

Klaine x Kadam / Only The Lonely Survive - Marianas Trench

Edge of Glory

[pierremcguire]

people I’d like to get to know better ~ tag game :)

tagged by: @olliebjorkstrand and @burkysmirky (thanks friends!)

last song: disloyal order of buffaloes - fall out boy (I genuinely haven't listened to anything but fob in over a week)

currently watching: in-between series right now so if you have any reqs, let me know

spicy/savory/sweet: sweet for sure

relationship status: single bc dating is exhausting

current obsession: quinn hughes and revisiting all of my big feelings about the 2015 top prospects

tagging: genuinely anyone that sees this and wants to do this, I am giving you a blanket tag! uhh I'll put some new mutuals on the stand too @methylbromide @rohruh @19871997 and @mitchyymouse

[tomorrowusa]

Ron DeSantis has endorsed his Florida neighbor Donald Trump – while using a fake Winston Churchill quote.

Maybe we should call him Reek rather than Ron.

In front of enormous rally audiences, Mr. Trump painted Mr. DeSantis as a submissive sniveler, insisting that he had cried and begged “on his knees” for an endorsement in the 2018 Florida governor’s race. In a series of sexually charged attacks, Mr. Trump suggested — without a shred of proof — that Mr. DeSantis wore high heels, that he might be gay and that perhaps he was a pedophile. He promised that intense national scrutiny would leave Mr. DeSantis whining for “mommy.”

Trump, of course, is a hypocrite. In addition to being a corrupt and lying Toad, he's personally repulsive and ignorant. Despite that, Republicans can't stop lining up to kiss his butt.

All of DeSantis's blustering and political machismo looks that much more pathetic after swearing his allegiance to the Orange One this week.

Now he is both defeated and debased. His departure from the race on Sunday was a far fall from grace after opening his campaign as the heir apparent in a Trumpified Republican Party. Rehabilitating that reputation as he considers his next political move will require plenty of repair work with donors and Republican voters, thanks to Mr. Trump’s ruthless parade of insults over 242 days on the campaign trail. “I don’t care if he’s a Republican,” Mr. Trump said of his belittlement of Mr. DeSantis at a November gathering of the Republican Party of Florida — the governor’s home turf. “We hit him hard, and now he’s like a wounded falling bird from the skies.” [ ... ] The missives were often led by Mr. Trump’s chief spokesman, Steven Cheung, who leaned into his background as a public relations operative for the Ultimate Fighting Championship to deliver brutal slams with the force of the sport’s suffocating guillotine chokehold. In November, Mr. Cheung told The Wall Street Journal that in Iowa, Mr. DeSantis would face “unimaginable pain that he’s never felt before in his life.” In a news release, he cast doubt on Mr. DeSantis’s masculinity, saying that he walked like “a 10-year-old girl who had just raided her mom’s closet and discovered heels for the first time.” Mr. Cheung also referred to the Florida governor as a “desperate eunuch,” questioned why Mr. DeSantis would “cuck himself” in front of the entire country — sexual slang that implies weakness in a man — and accused him of searching for “new sugar daddies” to fund his campaign. He called Mr. DeSantis a “disloyal dog.”

A truly "disloyal dog" would have bitten Trump. DeSantis just drooled on Trump's shoes.

Don't feel too sorry for Ron/Reek, he allegedly has about $100 million left in his campaign war chest. He could sit on that until 2028 while hoping Trump loses in order to vindicate his own failed presidential bid this cycle.

EDIT: In case that wasn't enough humiliation of Republicans for you, Stephen Colbert was firing on all thrusters last night.

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

gimme your most impulse lyric 😃

you got one of the guys i have a whole playlist for (and specifically a playlist i really like) so you get the whole playlist link BUT ALSO a lyric. this is specifically life series impulse by the way cause it’s the guy i’m most familiar with/have the most emotions about.

from disloyal order of water buffaloes by fall out boy:

and i’d promise you anything for another shot at life/and perfect boys with their perfect lives/nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy

impulse has talked about the fact that he (especially in secret life, but throughout the series) will often sacrifice content, sacrifice a story, to try and win, hence “i’d promise you anything for another shot at life”. impulse has always been at least top ten, and other than two Bad For Him seasons (and honestly secret life wasn’t that bad) he’s been top 5 and died because he had the wrong allies, trusted the wrong people. he trusted bdubs would choose him over scar and grian, and he didn’t. he chose to trust joel, etho, grian, and scar over scott, pearl, cleo, and martyn. by the time it got down to him, scott, and martyn, impulse knew he was screwed because he’d been their enemy the whole season, and tried to go out on his own terms, offering his life up to martyn so he could win. but martyn and scott promised him a fair fight, and he believed them, and that trust was his downfall. he sacrifices a good story because he wants to win, because when he doesn’t sacrifice a good story, when he sticks to his allies and his morals, he gets an axe or an arrow or a sword in the back (or in martyn’s case, the chest).

as for the second part, every life series character obviously has their tragedies, it is a death game after all. and there are certainly characters less popular than impulse with their own tragedies very much pushed to the side (cough bigb cough lizzie cough) but idk maybe it’s just the corner of the fandom i exist in but i feel like i really never see people give impulse the time of day. nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy.

[pixelatedquarter]

And Now for the next batch of madness:

The Tour Of Fuck It We Ball part 2: Electric Boogaloo Days 4-6 of US Tourdust: The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (The Woodlands, Texas), Dos Equis Pavillion (Dallas, Texas), Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre (Phoenix, Arizona)

People west of the Atlantic woke up on day 4 to a fall out boy tweet and an instagram story with 1 picture of Pete followed by CAPTAIN PLANET followed by ARAB SPRING, then LA RIOTS, RODNEY KING was added and then DEEP FAKES, all in the same typography. There'd already been rumors of people hearing a cover of we didn't start the fire playing through the PA system and a day before this, a still from the animated character from HMLAG labeled we didn't start the fire was posted on discord. Here's a great summary of it by kat-scribles. Hours later they confirmed the cover covering newsworthy things from 1989-2023 which released on day 5 (external link, RIP if something happens to the falloutboy youtube account).

In true 'Fall Out Boy Releases A New Thing' fashion it's been criticized by news and people who didn't like it and so on and so forth. Nature is healing, people are actively hating on Fall Out Boy. This is truly the tour of healing.

As far as setlists go: We got an update to the first setlist picture, it reads "sophomore, gin, coffee, suitehearts and patron". Notably GINASFS is missing, despite this setlist being from the Chicago show and it is not in the order they played these songs. As of the posting of this update, all songs have been played (on dates 3, 2, 7, 8 and 10 respectively)

Speaking of setlists:

we got one for The Woodlands, 8 Ball song was Kintsugi Kid ("How will you torture us this evening/should we sing a song from 10 years ago?/Should we sing a song about 10 years ago?" codename Tango Yeti, in keeping with the more or less NATO alphabet for Ten Years) also worth noting that this is Joe's favourite track in sm(f)s. This is how we learnt that post hiatus AND in particular current album tracks were on the list of 8 Ball possibilities, marking the first in a long series of "I didn't know the 8 ball could do that"

For Dallas we got an interesting situation with the setlist. We got one, that said and fit with Kansas' set, except that one hadn't been leaked, so a lot of speculation surrounded the magic 8 ball code OCHO, which isn't NATO alphabet. This marks the day we got confirmation that they were upping their game to keep the 8 ball songs a surprise, they posted fake/old setlists at the venue and the codename ocho stands, in all likelyhood for Sophomore Slump being the eight track in FUTCT. Here's the Kansas setlist in question.

After the show we got the real Dallas setlist, song was The (After) Life Of The Party ("Should we play one about hanging out being the afterlife of the party?", codename: Sierra Alpha for Stitch/Scar Away)

For day 6 we didn't get a setlist but the 8 ball song was Homesick At Space Camp ("Should we play a brand new fucking song?/Should we play a really fucking old song?", also of note Patrick tells the audience there's an audience participation moment incoming and teaches the lyrics since it's been so long since they played it last)

As a sidenote, with these setlists we've been able to see the names of the scenes: "AQUA Scene" for the one with the starfishes and the seashell submarine that's present for uma and 16c, "Attic Scene" for the tttyg smaller stage scene, "Dog(Bubbles) Scene" for well the giant dog head with the childlike squiggles backdrop and the bubbles and transparent balls that goes on through arms race (yes i know a lot of people are keenly aware that the dog scene includes arms race), disloyal order and heaven iowa, "Red Drape" for whatever hits after heaven iowa, "TREE Scene" for the one with you guessed it the big fuck off tree that is real and you can touch scene that lasts for fake out and the entire piano + magic section, and "Red Drape" again for grudge and The Magic 8 Ball Slot. Worth mentioning here is that they started playing their shows in Joe's attic

Piano Enrichment time these dates was, SOMETHING:

Pre-Piano banter has been great, arguing over banter between them. Day 4 gave us the banter of all time, with them arguing over body fluid composition.

Piano Boy is still out for blood. On day 4 he did a triple medley of somebody to love and take on me before moving onto don't stop believin. And then he said he had imposter syndrome and did What a Catch Donnie on day 5, which at the time was a very devastating thing.

It got immediately overshadowed day 6 because he did Spotlight, off of Truant FUCKING Wave and Soul FUCKING Punk. That was a lot of lights.

These dates are when we confirmed the fixed setlist also isn't fixed at all, Hum Hallelujah was back for day 6, without sacrificing Take Over this time

Oh yea and someone referenced "Thanks Pete!" in the crowd and Pete said "Heard it", you can hear the response (not the thanks pete) just before the banter that led to Spotlight (these are so backlogged that I can confidently spoil you this WILL be important later ;) )

We hadn't even recovered from the category 11 Soul Punk event when they hit us with the grimace shake video. It may now be part of the cinematic universe of "All the times Fall Out Boy has died, specially Pete, Extra Specially By Patrick's Hand. Guys how does this keep happening."

In the outfits category that's still a thinly veiled excuse to share pics of them being silly and 'FOB stands for Family Of Bestfriends':

No wardrobe updates for day 4 other than them ocasionally picking up friendship bracelets while bantering and the insanity of wearing three layers on 38C weather for the commitment to the emo poet look. Patrick seems to have been feeling extremely daring and wore khakis instead. But he did give an explanation why he's dressed like this.

On Day 5 pete did away with the poncho and we got skirt!, look at the skirt, two days in a row!. patrick went back to tourdust troupe t-shirt and ballcap and for day 6 it was ballcap and shirt.

Joe and Andy up to this point have packed exactly 1 grey t-shirt, one pair of jeans, two pairs of shoes and one pair of shorts for onstage. Collectively.

I do not have a fashion explanation for adding this point to the list. there's no thinly veiled excuse anymore it's just a video of Pete and Patrick being PeteandPatrick. Still fits the fuck it we ball energy that they're just doing whatever onstage and are comfortable getting close, even if the resolution of them doing a head nod is 3 pixels.

Oh yea and Pete wore green briefs. Totally the most important part about that entire link.

Source and credit list is in this other post! Check that one out too! Go give the people i compiled here some love! Specially to Lydia whose posts are linked from here several times and they helped me find pics from the AQUA scene!

Here's links to parts 1 and 3

[blysse-and-blunder]

midweek commonplace book: the rough drafts

5pm, wednesday, june 28, 2023

it's been over a month since i drafted the following ilcb post, and here i am again, in the same coffee shop i was in back then, again avoiding working on a cover letter for a course instructorship position. in the intervening time, i a) got that job b) taught that whole class, c) took a weekend trip to see a friend get married, and d) am now applying for the next one! figured it was time to open the vault (my chaotic drafts folder) and let these musings see the light of day. maybe it's the key to my success.

edits and new text below in [brackets] to preserve the original draft's ~authenticity~. XD

in lieu of a commonplace book: may day

3pm sunday, april 30 -- 6pm sunday, may 7, 2023

it's rainy and there are so many flowers starting to emerge in the neighborhood, and i've been cozily reading escapist fantasy instead of writing my syllabus or facing the future head on.

reading since i last made one of these posts, i've finished reading the following: the golden enclaves by naomi novik (audio), the jasmine throne by tasha suri, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid (audio), dial a for aunties by jesse sutanto (audio), and the tyrant baru cormorant by seth dickinson. this not being exclusively a book review series, unfortunately, we're just going to talk about the [left out the title but did include the picture so we know it was at the feet of the sun by victoria goddard!].

[i think i failed to actually write out my thought about this one because a number of people who follow me (@spoonierbard, @hematiterings) were either reading it or were about to start reading it, and i didn't want to color their experiences. i was also not entirely sure how i felt about it? i think i went in with expectations this time, which is a recipe for disappointment-- and i also had actual literary 'critique' thoughts primed and ready, as opposed to the pure vibes and pleasure with which i approached hote. overall-- and i say this as someone who reads and loves fan fiction-- it felt like reading fan fiction, ambitious, self-indulgent, big focus on relationships and feelings, and with a definite Point to Make. a behemoth of a book, and full of things to love--but less transcendent, for me, than its precursor. happy to expand on these feelings in a pm!]

listening

[i didn't write anything here, but i did include the two videos below. both were new to me this spring-- i never had a fallout boy phase in high school, please don't laugh, so it was very exciting to fall in love with first so much for stardust and then, at the recommendation of my housemate g, this track from folie a deux. 'disloyal order of water buffaloes']

[i think both of these songs are saying something about the mood i was in this spring-- yearning? defiant? a little pissed off? "hundred days" was a sptify recommendation, and fuck if they didn't get me in one. i have since investigated the duo behind the album a little and realized i have... possible thoughts, about their oeuvre, about making art out of their relationship, but this particular song unfortunately goes extremely hard for folk so i am compelled to love it! there's just something about the main melodic hook, the plaintive/desperate tone of some of the lyrics (especially 'i want / a hundred days / of bright light' each! time!), and the way there's so much going on in the arrangement at 2:34 ish-- i wish the rest of the album was as good as this one track. i want a hundred good days! of bright light! I do regularly think about things i'm trying or striving for and think "I want ! a hundred days !" of whatever it is. At least 100 days. there's something almost reminiscent of tiffany aching to this, for me-- using your selfishness/unvarnished wants to motivate you.]

watching taking a break from prestige tv!... with more prestige tv. started severance while my fellow succession and ted lasso-viewing housemate is out of the country. i love the stylization, the aesthetic, the eeriness! this is what i was hoping don't worry darling (2022) would be, in terms of combining a mid-century aesthetic with our main characters working for some enigmatic brain-washing Company or Project. Lumon better not be a simulation-- as i discovered back in january, i like it when there's some *there* there, when the conspiracy is actually as trippy as it seems, i understand that sometimes people want to write misdirection but man i am sad anytime something was all an illusion after all. also watched a bit of the first season of the gilded age and the first truly wild episode of mrs. davis with another housemate; there is no witty comparison or fun snappy one-liner i can come up with about these two.

[the above remains true-- i just watched a bit more severance yesterday! there was a massive cliffhanger just where i stopped, but the tone of the show is so Much that i actually was glad for the break. don't get me wrong-- i love how stylized it all is, still, i love the aesthetic and all the visual and verbal details that build up to mad-men-esque 60s office culture-horror, it's fantastic. getting that little extra moment with dichen lachman's character and hearing her talk about her experience was...gutting... but my favorite character continues to be devon.]

[playing]

[triumphant return to both dnd campaigns in the past week or so! it hasn't been entirely my fault that neither group met for most of the past six weeks, but i didn't help. campaign B had our one-year anniversary on sunday! one of the players went really overboard and commissioned a bunch of beautiful cards and badges and coins for us and our characters' little secret organization!! we broke the dm's screen door briefly and saw how big her baby has gotten!! we cried over @dimir-charmer's wedding dress! we successfully escaped the wild west!]

[making]

[didn't even draft this section. i thing i had just fixed...something, but who remembers what. pro cooking tip, leftover tortilla soup can become poor grad student shakshuka so easily. two eggs + in a pan + simmer = profit]

[working on]

[aforementioned cover letter for a course instructorship for next fall is due tomorrow. technically there are two i could be going for, both of which have definite pros and cons, but i'm pouring all this time and angst into one and just kinda forgot about the other? also i'm grading for two different classes, figuring out how to have sooo many tabs open at the same time and how to juggle spreadsheets+answer key+word+ pdf reader all at the same time. oh for the days of paper submissions, you know? last but not least, i am desultorily staring at the manuscript + outline for my conference paper for next month (less than a month now! fuck!) for like an hour a day, and making very little practical progress on it. so.

[noblest-roman-of-them-all]

Happy Birthday, Virgil!

I can't tell if feels like longer than a year or not even a year since I last wrote to you, time is weird, you know? But either way we have made it!

A lot has changed in the last year, in the last six months, really, and one of those things has been my taste in music. Your playlist really opened up a new genre of music to me and I am really grateful for it. And maybe that sounds silly or inconsequential, but it truly means a lot to me.

Songs like Sing, Famous Last Words, and Welcome to the the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance have pulled me out of some grim places this year.

(Coffee's For Closers), Hum Hallelujah, The Kids Aren't Allright, and Disloyal Order of the Waterbuffaloes by Fall Out Boy are songs that never fail to get me singing and having a good time and help me to feel seen in a lot of way that I can't quite explain.

The Only Difference Between Martydom and Suicide is Press Coverage, The Ballad of Mona Lisa, Do You Know What I'm Seeing, High Hopes and New Perspective by Panic! At the Disco have become absolute staples in my music library.

Roman may have introduced to to Marina and the Diamonds, but you, my friend opened up a whole new world of music to me. I found music box versions of some songs for Panic!, MCR, and FOB, that have been absolute game changer for making my bedtime routine so much more tolerable.

I still use the tools of dealing with anxiety that I learned from you and Logan all of the time, and I am still very grateful for those things, but I know I mentioned that in my last letter, and I wanted to have something different for this year. So thank you for opening up my world of music.

To a lot of people music is just another trend, it's not something that deep, but music is incredibly important to me and it can be really hard to get myself to open up to new stuff and full honesty, if it wasn't for your playlist, I probably would never have found what are now some of my favorite songs and bands.

Happy birthday, Virgil, and thank you so, so much for sharing your favorite music with me. It's not always an easy thing to do, but I'm really grateful you did because it has helped me so much. Thank you for everything. And Happy National Emo Day as well.

And thank you to @thatsthat24 for sharing this incredible character and series with us. It truly has made such a positive impact on my life.

[snugglyporos]

// sometimes, I like bad games.

For example, Imperator rome is not a good game. But it being bad gave me an amusing moment.

After four god-kings conquered everything from bengal to turkey, I found that my capital was so far away from the states in the mediteranian that I literally couldn't declare war.

So my plan was to suddenly integrate the tens of millions of people all at once.

In hindsight this was a bad idea. It turns out that suddenly giving citizenship to tens of millions of strangers who you recently conquered resulted not in the sudden burst of unity I was hoping for but in all my noble families getting jealous and becoming disloyal.

To solve this I tried putting them all on trial and having them executed.

This did not, in fact, result in peace.

And if this were a historical series of facts I can only imagine that people would look back and assume that the great-grandson of the guy who declared himself a god went absolutely insane, upset the entire social order of his multi-cultural empire, and then attempted to execute anyone who disagreed.

Very Henry VIII.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Would it be okay for you to talk about some figures who aren’t always the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother of the West daughters but sometimes are depicted as such in some form or another (like Yao Ji, who has one backstory where that’s the case but also another where she’s the reincarnation of a human princess, or Xihi, who was on that one family tree from a recent ask)

I mean I guess it would be okay for me to talk about Yaoji and Xihi, no one is stopping me. I see people taking it that Xihi could have been JE's sister or daughter, hard to pin down which one is more popular. But yeah it is said that JE and QM have COUNTLESS daughters so really there is no limit for them to have as many daughters as they want.

If you wanna know more about them then here is a good link to Yaoji and Xihe.

Yaoji is the goddess of Wushan in Chinese mythology. The daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, or the daughter of the Red Emperor ( Yan Emperor ). She died unmarried and was buried in the sun of Wushan Mountain. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, she was considered the twenty-third daughter of the Queen Mother of the West.

The Warring States Period and Chu Ci Fu master Song Yu's "Gaotang Fu " said that the "former king" Zeng Zhou dreamed of meeting the goddess, and the goddess said, "I will care for the descendants of the emperor and the vassals between Jiang and Han", "I am in the sun of Wushan, The obstacles of high hills are like morning clouds in the morning and rain in the evening. " Later Song Dynasty Yu advised King Xiang: The meeting between the king and the goddess can enlighten the ignorant, teach the way to govern the country, unblock the nine orifices, and prolong life. Later, in " Ode to the Goddess ", King Chu Xiang dreams of the goddess at night, but the goddess, who had "wonderful bone skills and responded to the king's appearance", is clean and self-possessed and rejects King Chu Xiang.

The goddess is a combination of the God of Yunmeng Wushan in Chu State and the emperor of Guguang Mountain in " The Classic of Mountains and Seas". The King of Chu actually went to worship God Gaoqi in order to pray to the clan goddess of Chu to protect the country's political clarity and personal physical and mental health. The image of the goddess is dignified and elegant, stunningly beautiful, deeply affectionate, chaste, pure, and incompatible. She is actually a symbol of the wise men. Song Yu used it to express her desire to be valued by the king but not to be disloyal to him. Wushan goddess is often used as a metaphor for beautiful women, and Wushan Yunyu, which is spread as erotic, has gradually become a symbol of love between men and women. People use "Except Wushan, it's not cloud" to refer to loyalty to love, which means that love belongs to no other than Yi, and love cannot be given to others.

When Dayu was controlling the floods, the goddess Yao Ji taught him the secret book of flood control and sent gods to help him. In the Three Gorges area, the goddess of Wushan destroyed the twelve evil dragons, sent divine crows to guide the sailing ships, sow clouds and rain for the world, and treated diseases and cultivated seeds for the people, Rishi mushroom, and other legends. Yao Ji brought benefits to the people, and over time, she turned into the goddess peak of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.

The myth of Yao Ji has led to a series of literary works such as poems and songs in the past dynasties, forming a literary gallery of rhymes describing and chanting goddesses, and has a profound impact on the history of literature

According to ancient legends, Yao Ji is not Yun Hua Nu, the mother of Erlang Shen / Yang Jian. The rumor originated from online articles and TV series.

Xihe, the sun goddess and calendar maker in ancient Chinese mythology, is the earliest astronomer and calendar maker in China. The original form of Xihe comes from ancient mythology. In the changing times, she evolved from the original "Sun Mother" to the "Sun Royal". In the subsequent continuous evolution and development, Xihe also became a representative figure in solar mythology and astronomical historians, clearly assuming the functional carrier of culture, and focusing on its application in the cultural environment of ancient poetry.

Some Chinese scholars believe that Xihe and Changyi are the same person. "Xihe and Changxi also have the same name and the same story." Therefore, Xihe is also a goddess of the sun and moon. The name of China's first solar exploration science and technology experimental satellite "Xihe" means "imitating Xihe's control of the Tianma, aiming to herd the stars in the sky", symbolizing the origin and expansion of China's solar exploration.