#do you not understand THEORY

[asthedeathoflight]

the extended Deaf staging post. under a cut cause um. oh boy. I got a little carried away.

First of all wanted to preserve @subwaylesbians 's tags about Deaf Swan for posterity:

#secondly! okay okay SO#teen swan#already sleeping rough#taking a bad blow to the head in a fight and coming out of it with sensorineural hearing damage#and you know that girl is not getting medical attention. so she just tries her best to adjust#to how it makes the isolation worse and threats harder to clock#cleon taking note of the scrappy kid sleeping under the boardwalk and sending cochise down to investigate. except the kid doesn’t notice her#coming until cochise has a hand on her shoulder. predictably this does not end well#obviously swan doesn’t win the fight - if you can even call it one - but cochise does come home with a split lip. at this point cleon#is definitely interested. so she goes down herself. this time swan sees her coming - barely - and she’s trying to talk her down from another#escape attempt when she realises the kid is desperately trying to read her lips. and so she tries signing. obviously swan doesn’t know#any ASL yet. but it’s enough for swan to realise that cleon’s Deaf. and the first moment in which she thinks that maybe she should trust#this woman#cleon teaching her ASL. and just being so proud to be capital D Deaf that it rubs off a little. and swan holds her head a bit higher#(also future swan teaching mercy. only to find out she’s been bullying the other vaguely-competent ASL users in the crew#into#also giving her lessons while swan’s back is turned. it’s 80% out of love for her girlfriend and 20% out of hating to miss the shit-talking.#she learns pretty quick)

I think Swan having acquired hearing loss is super interesting! Becoming disabled while she's out on her own would be super scary and isolating and she probably wouldn't have any sort of resources to learn ASL or anything. She'd probably be trying so hard to hide it too bc she thinks it makes her a liability to have on a crew. Also love Mercy getting the others to tutor her in ASL that's very sweet! Also kind of heartbreaking because to me the two hearing Warriors who were best at ASL were Fox and Ajax so whenever Mercy asks Cochise or Cowgirl a question about it they feel that little pang of loss.

Okay so for MY thoughts about this whole matter.

In terms of like fanfiction land I think Cleon is Deaf but she can talk so people don't always know. Despite being able to assimilate tho she's very invested in Deaf culture and disability advocacy. I'm not sure what the state of Deaf education was like in New York in the 70s but I think Cleon would like organize community ASL classes and stuff like that. Her and Ajax are childhood best friends in this au. to me.

Rembrandt's parents are both Deaf and they have a very like pearl-clutching Toph Beifong's parent's attitude towards her being in a gang even though shes like MOM 🙄 they're literally a Deaf gang. I think in this au she runs with the Warriors less out of like economic suppression and more because like her opportunities in life are kind of limited from being Deaf and queer so she'd rather hang out with the Warriors. Rembrandt can't talk but also like she's never wanted to learn to talk 'cause fuck hearing people. She doesn't have anything to say to them. New Warriors who didn't already know ASL are always really surprised by her because she seems pretty quiet and shy but then as they pick up ASL they realize she's always shit-talking everyone in the background. Real "they didn't know I knew their language" moments with her.

Okay but in addition to fanfiction land there is also hypothetical Deaf staging of Warriors land. And in theater land I have some different opinions.

Okay so like for those unaware in Deaf theater there's a practice of having Deaf actors signing their lines as Deaf characters and then having a hearing actor say those lines out loud at the same time. This hearing actor is a "voice" and they are of varying physical reality depending on the production.

Some Deaf productions are almost entirely presented in ASL as well as English but I think obviously most of the gangs are not going to be addressing the Warriors in ASL so this show would rely heavily on supertitles like opera-style. I think you could get really cool with it as a production design thing though like if you had multiple projection surfaces throughout the set. Moments like the crowd screaming in Derailed could get really cool. But anyways that's pretty minor.

So the important thing that's going on here is that Cleon has a voice and Rembrandt doesn't. Cleon's voice is not physically real tho she's just a voice. Maybe she's off stage or something. But what matters is that Cleon can make the Riffs hear her. Does Masai know ASL? Is he somehow metatextually hearing the voice? doesn't matter. That's simply Cleon's impact. Cleon's role in the story is already about speaking truth to power and making men listen to her as a woman so this is just adding a disability angle to that.

I think for the most part the other Warriors rely on the fact that Rembrandt can lipread so if they are using ASL for her benefit it's more simplistic and they'd still get supertitled. Except for Ajax and Fox who sign while they talk, and of course Ajax and Rembrandt's background entirely ASL running commentary.

So. Rembrandt doesn't have a voice. How does that work? Easy. With the help of my handy dandy word document of every single line of hers in the entire musical I can tell you who says every one of Rembrandt's lines.

The really handy thing about Rembrandt is like half of her lines she's saying at the same time as somebody else, so if she's speaking with someone else they're speaking for her. Very easy and fun.

In general if Rembrandt is speaking on her own Ajax is talking for her, with the assumption that this is like. Normal every day procedure for the Warriors. So like all her little haterly asides in the first half of the musical is Ajax talking. In general the delineation between whether Ajax and Rembrandt are speaking as a unit or if Ajax is talking for Rembrandt is whether Ajax is also signing.

There are a few moments where I think Fox would talk for her instead like I think Fox picks up the "what are we gon do?" in Woodlawn Cemetery for sure, and Rembrandt's first two attempts to get Ajax to back off of Barnes.

There are a few other moments though where I think nobody picks up Rembrandt's lines and they're only supertitles. Some of these moments are like just for fun like I think her finding Coney Island on the map doesn't get spoken aloud as like our lighthearted establishing use of the device. But nobody picks up Rembrandt's "where you going???" in Park at Night because she's only talking to Ajax. and Ajax doesn't listen to her anyways.

After Park at Night Fox picks up being Rembrandt's voice for Cardigans and We Got You 1. Then, in the reprise, Rembrandt physically grabs Fox to get her to act as her voice for her monologue. Fox speaking here is blurring the line between things that are really happening and things which are metaphorical but that's the great thing about theater because you can just stand right on the line and not pick a side. As Fox starts to see what Rembrandt means she starts to sign along with her, and then is on the same page as her to start giving orders to the other Warriors when they have to run.

Momentary note that we don't translate Rembrandt saying Fox's name in Reunion Square because by this time we've learned Fox's sign name bc we've seen it in the roll call a bunch of times so no translation necessary! I don't know enough about ASL to have any opinions about sign names but I think that getting to pick out sign names for the Warriors would be a very fun part of doing the translation for this musical and they'd add a little extra pizazz to the roll call. Cool projection shenanigans for the remix in Reunion Square too!

And then finally. Nobody picks up any of Rembrandt's lines after Fox dies. We let that last "What are we gon do?" just hang in the air.

[khruschevshoe]

There is a conversation to be had about the fact that Taylor Swift's album is being played in its entirety across all of iHeartRadio's 868 stations, pushing out the opportunities other artists might have had to get radioplay. That's the literal definition of a monopoly. No wonder she'll hit the top of the radio play charts with this maneuver, because at least 65 minutes (if not the back side of the album, which would take it to nearly twice that length) across EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT STATIONS will be dedicated to her, artificially boosting her radio play and decreasing everyone else's. In this essay I will—

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

I'm sweating and crying, but I own someone's life now so that's cool

You guys BETTER be clicking the pictures to see the details better >:(

Part one is HERE!!

[chapollynh]

Chez le Père Lathuille by Édouard Manet, but make it Good Omens! Muriel is very confused but she's investigating them because she is a human police officer

[willyhoos]

you, and what little remains of your brother.

[elbiotipo]

I would like to emphasize "will". Capitalism will fall. The inherent contradictions of capitalism make for a class struggle. We live in a period of history where the material and technological conditions can sustain a global socialist society. There exists massive exploited populations that run the world economy, unequally distributed wealth, and tools that will raise class consciousness. The end result will be revolutions and the establishment of socialism across the world.

Again, this isn't fantasy or utopianism, it's the logical consequence of applying the theories of marxism to study our current society. It's not something I made up either, it's something that has been discussed extensively.

There are many details one can agree and disagree with, and it certainly isn't a magical or bespoke process (for this to be achieved there must be political organization, this doesn't happen out of nowhere), but it is, again, the logical consequence of historical materialism: there is a class struggle right now between the working people and capitalists, between exploited countries and the imperial core. The contradictions of capitalism will not allow it to sustain itself indefinitively, and socialism aligns with the interest of the majority. This struggle only has one way to resolve itself; with the establishment of socialism.

Capitalism will be just a phase in human history, probably not even a very long one.

[edelgardism]

“machine connor is more deviant than deviant connor” deviant connor will literally spend the rest of his life fighting his programming and being scared to death that one day amanda will resume control of him

[szhreii]

A very very wild crack theory: Maybe they're Muu's parents?

Alright, so I saw this tweet long time ago, and I was wondering what could possibly happen between Muu and Kazui in T3, like it's gotta be intentional right??

Not to mention in Kazui's bday art his watch is now gold and there's bee in it🐝

How did I come up with that theory? Well it's just that the bartender is always associated with gold, example, his wedding ring, his pins and the ornaments (?) at the bar, so I think it has something to do with him

Although I don't really want it to be taken seriously because it's a crack theory.. I think there's still possibilities

In both novelgram prisoners have connections/know each other, so i think it's not too far fetched to theorize about this and it'd be cool if MILGRAM do the same

Muu doesn't seem to know much about her dad. When answering questions about him, she always says "I think" she's unsure about it. Also guys Muu literally said her dad has multiple jobs. In Kazui's first birthday TL, he said that his friend doesn't live close to him and he rarely meets them. It's possible he doesn't know what his friend's daughter looks like.

Uhh starting with, Muu and bar lady have the same eyelashes

But wait their hair color are different though?? I have explanations for this, naturally blonde hair usually darkens as you age. This is why blonde hair is much more common in babies than adults. There's also another factor, which is hormonal changes especially during puberty (which means Muu is quite lucky lol), pregnancy etc. can affect melanin production. Your hair can even go blonde to brown because of this. Also I know that MILGRAM itself is very animek but like we see Mikoto's hair dyes fade during T2, besides Muu is the only prisoner with colored eyelashes instead of black eyelashes like other prisoners (like in their sprites y'know) and in Crying B, Es said that Muu must've stands out a lot (Idk Es there's literally a guy who has blue hair)

BTW you guys ever wondered about the wedding topper on Kazui's bday art?? Like why is the bride blonde? Well I think it might be the bar lady because I color picked and compared them and it's just few shades darker, which fits with this theory

Based on Muu's guess about her dad's age, it can be said that her parents married at a pretty young age considering in 2000s the average age of first time marriage for Japanese guy was 28/29

Next up, do you know that the cocktail she's having is called Manhattan? Which is known as the queen of cocktails dunno if this is just JP thingy or not. Meanwhile Muu T2 VD is called Queen B, crazy coincidence (sad fact about Manhattan though, in JP, cocktail language for Manhattan is "Heartrending love" or "Love that brings you pain")

"Import foreign furniture from overseas" chair in Half maybe? I'll elaborate the chair in half has Fleur de lis. Though I wouldn't count it as a proof due to the image quality

But welll Kazui's mask has Fleur de lis and Muu has it on her bday (obviously)

And Muu said that her dad might be a landlord, that reminds me, Kazui and Hinako live in an apartment right?

Muu's hobby is taking care of tropical fish, meanwhile Kazui's childhood friend hobby is fishing coincidence or coincidence (don't remember the TL so I use his interro instead)

Oh yea back to the wedding topper, I feel like the tailcoat tuxedo resembles a fish tail because large gaps(?) like that is pretty uncommon for a tailcoat tuxedo so I think it's on purpose idk. The bride wears a pearl necklace anyway what I'm saying is that all are related to sea

In Muu's T2 sprite we see her wearing gold shell earrings, which is again related to sea

And like Muu's mom is from Nice, France, that place is famous for its ocean and beach. Heck even Muu said it herself. This is MILGRAM guys even the place they chose have a reason for it, for example Muu lives in Minato, it has a high cost of living and do you guys know more than 10% of Minato’s total population is foreigners? Like they can chose something generic like Paris but they chose Nice specifically

Lastly, I've seen ppl mention about the missing ring in Half but guys Bartender usually take off their wedding ring so it wouldn't get lost/damaged when bartending

I think that's all thank you for listening to my yapping session🙏🙏 Also about the location I don't really think it's really a problem because adult don’t necessarily live close to each other… especially since Kazui use birthday to have an excuse to contact them yk

[apas-95]

I’m an anarchocommunist that thinks a lot of other anarchists are stupid. For example, I don’t think that most people will just make insulin or do garbage collection/processing out of the kindness of their heart, and I also don’t think if it was genuinely done out of the kindness of their hearts that it’d work great. My idea is that for the “getting people to do the shitty jobs” question, the people that do those jobs should be compensated better in some way. Maybe a larger/nicer house, I’m not sure on the details. But other anarchists will say “all labor is equal”, and while I’d like to agree in the “work is hard” sense, I think things for the obvious common good, like teacher or garbage man or doctor deserve some sort of reward over other jobs. And for the efficiency of the labor, I think *specifically for labor* there needs to be some sort of organization, and we can use what’s worked before. We don’t need to have bathtub insulin if there’s a factory right there, and if there’s no connection from the insulin factory to doctors/pharmacists and truck drivers then it won’t work either. Really, my main problem with Marxism/Leninism or Stalinism or Maoism or any combination of those is that there are specific people with far too much power over others. I’m ok with light power in the way of “man you gotta drive the firetruck to the burning building even though you hate the dude that lives there”, but I’m not ok with the idea of a supreme leader or representatives in a political sense due to as I’ve amounts of power obviously corrupting people.

Really I’m sending this to you to get your criticism of my ideas- I think you’re pretty smart, and even if I disagree with you on some issues, I think I agree with you on others. I also want to say that not all anarchists are… like that.

So, years ago, before I started reading any Marxist theory, this is about where I was at politically. If you think about any of the practicalities, you come up to points where, very clearly, the maxim of 'no authority at all' conflicts with being able to do anything. If you're seriously considering how society could be better organised, if this is something you actually intend on bringing about, then you make some amount of concession to reality - as you did with the firetruck example!

Now, myself, I went on like this for a good while, coming up with methods of truly democratic organisation that wouldn't be susceptible to the types of totalitarianism I'd heard about, ending up very similar to your position. I was interested, however, in how these 'failed experiments' that I'd learned devolved into bureaucracy started out, and I started reading up on the history, and realised, with some discontent, that what I'd developed, once I'd made all the concessions for reality that would be necessary if this system were to be the actual one real human beings lives depended on, was essentially identical to the Soviet system.

From there, I read up on Marxist theory, still basically wary that this had all, at some point, been taken over by an evil dictator, but able to see that the earliest stages, at least, had been exactly what I was imagining, but put into practice. Reading the theory, reading how their experience experimenting with different forms of organisation, and the failures of some types, had led them to discover what did and didn't work, and adjust accordingly, made me suddenly appreciate why certain things were done certain ways. The harsh experiences of civil war had revealed certain dynamics and mechanics in the way society and production worked, which translates into political theories that bore out results I wouldn't have expected (and neither had the communists who had discovered them through practice!).

Eventually, with some chagrin and a significant deal of excitement, I realised that much of what I'd passively absorbed about socialism, many of the common-sense maxims that I'd been taught by capitalist society about the nature of power and so on, were very much artifacts of a decades-long war against these communists and the system they'd built, carried out by exactly the corporations and empires I had thought myself opposed to.

I won't critique any individual point of yours, but I will enjoin you to try out some Marxist theory - Dialectical and Historical Materialism, or Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, or Principles of Communism, or even the Communist Manifesto, and to read between the lines of whatever capitalist source you read on socialism, to notice every [citation needed] and wonder what actually happened such that someone felt the need to make something up.

[utilitycaster]

I'm vagueing a very specific post here but there's one post from a few days ago that manages to be both unbelievably patronizing, to the point of dehumanizing, towards people from colonized countries and cultures, and also claims that maybe the reason people who don't like Campaign 3 Don't Get It is because maybe a game based on Pathfinder would have more complex villains than one based on that childish black-and-white game, D&D. And while the first point is, well, white and western-centric and I find it genuinely horrifying that 40-odd people in the fandom liked and reblogged this one. I do want to point out that fully and eloquently debunking the that point would probably require I spend a while reading Spivak and hooks, and to be clear, I am attempting to do so, but that takes time.

What I can point out, however, is 1. in a post claiming to speak for colonized people maybe don't end it with a petty dig at the more popular of the two biggest guns in TTRPGs, that's just basic rhetoric and 2. As Critical Role began pre-stream in Pathfinder 1e and your argument is apparently that works that inherit from D&D are inherently overly simplistic I have some real bad news for you about where pathfinder derives from.

[sapphicslaylist]

Most of the fandom: UwU Thorn so soft and demure kissy kissy wife Queen I cannot hurt her she’s too nice. I must “heal” her of her wounds and cuts. She “doesn’t deserve” to be all scratched up.

My disabled, mentally ill ass: Anyways here’s an writhing cynical feral fiend of a woman with severely unaddressed mental issues and overdependency with medication to Control The Instincts™️ and maybe just maybe be worthy of something more than an endless cycle of mutual blood and death. And btw she is physically disabled because I refuse to believe those cuts just “vanished” thereafter and it’s genuinely ableist to think it would.

(Please… Please research your abuse victims and understand why the scar removal is an issue. The rest is just preference.)

[electronicmail]

my costume is elvis is that boring

that depends on your commitment

[wackywatchdotcom]

what intrigues me abt caines dynamic w the rest of the cast is the way that none of them seem to understand why he is the way he is. like not in the comedic sense but how they dont seem to have a clear concept of his motivations or anything of that sort

we havent seen toooo much of it. but we have seen how pomni, zooble, jax, ragatha, and gangle view him and its so fascinating

pomni is like. she doesnt understand what hes doing but seems to view his actions as malicious in some way. i dont think she sees him as a 'mean' person but with how she says she thinks he wants her to suffer its very illuminating of how she sees him as someone who wants all of them to hurt. i dont think she knows why he would, but its the only conclusion shes got. it also speaks to her distrusting nature that upon being hurt by him her first thought is that its an intentional decision to harm her, and unfortunately for caine she hasnt actually been given much of a reason to think he feels otherwise. i dont know how she thinks caine feels about them but its clear to me how she views his goals and hobbies for lack of a better term

zooble doesnt trust him. they find him to be annoying but more significant is that they KNOW he likes them all. it adds an interesting tone to how they see him, that they specifically say that whats 'holding caine back' is that he 'likes [them]', which on one hand is them interpretting caines actions as being done from a place of liking the players, and that his actions are coming from a place of NOT hurting them, because he likes them (its interesting to note that they have participated in less adventures, so its unclear how much they know abt caines adventures firsthand). but on the other hand is implying that they think caines holding himself back at all. that there IS a desire or a capability to be cruel that theyre wary of. theyve also seen caine at his most vulnerable (in the show itself at least) and their comment, 'whose therapy session is this again?' implies theyre at least aware that this is caine having his own problems, though i dont think theyre comfortable safety-wise with how these problems affect them and the others. them asking caine 'why did you think i would like that?' speaks to the idea that they do think hes genuinely trying to appeal to the players, but they seem to find his lack of understanding of the players frustrating and unsafe for all of them

jax i think is pretty vague since most of his lines to caine are brief, and the most telling line he has abt caine is the only one we have. but he seems neutral on caine as a whole. caine is just a guy who makes things for them. he tries to entertain them and thats all jax really seems to be concerned with- whether his 'its not in his nature' line is reflective of him genuinely Believing that is smth i see debated often but i think no matter what, it conveys that jax Generally sees caine as someone who isnt malicious. hes not trying to hurt them, and whether or not he thinks caine is capable of hurting them is whats more vague. either way, jax doesnt seem to like or dislike caine

ragatha has very mimimal interactions with caine and not many lines about him, but i think her line in the pilot, 'thats just one of caines little adventures. theyre just something fun to do to, yknow, prevent us from going insane,' is extremely telling of how she sees caine. of all of them, she seems to have the most positive view of caine, since she interprets his actions as an active attempt to stave off abstraction in the players. whether or not she thinks caine is acting from a place of wanting to stop disruptions or if he wants to ensure the players arent doing as unwell as they could IS up for debate though. the way she talks about him in the pilot in general reads like she has some level of trust in him, but it seems like a surface level trust in him at the worst- she knows hes not malicious and knows he wants to help. she knows he can help her when shes jumbled. but its not clear if she Likes him. she seems to enjoy the adventures though (which, ill keep it brief so i dont derail this, but it honestly reads like a deliberate parallel writing-wise that the two of them both seem fond of distractions as an acceptable solution to a bad situation- if her assessment of Why he makes the adventures is anything to go by)

gangle is harder to read on this front, as she has way less lines about him, though she does have multiple notable interactions with him in ep 4, in the way of her seeming genuinely enthusiastic about his adventure (it doesnt seem completely directed at him, but she seems genuinely a bit happy about his praise of her leadership skills). when she calls him it doesnt convey TOO much i dont think but the way she talks to him and requests he make a punishment could imply she doesnt think hed normally make one, but also that hes not opposed to it, which is confusing in what it means about how she sees him but it feels important. her interaction with him at the end of the episode also doesnt convey much in this way (i feel like caine is not the main focus of most of that scene- which works for the scene and is good writing wise bc the scenes important for gangles writing of her own problems, but in terms of breaking down this idea it means im not sure this scene conveys much about how she sees him)

and then. i didnt mention kinger at the beginning specifically bc i dont think we have... almost any indicators of how he sees caine. he tells caine abt kaufmo in ep 1, suggests caine could find pomni in ep 2, doesnt address the thing pomni says abt caine in ep 3, and even his suggestion in ep 4 to sit out the adventure doesnt convey almost anything. the only throughline is that kinger sees caine as someone who can help them if they ask, but it doesnt convey any thoughts on what he thinks caines motivations are or his thoughts on caines actions. which frankly reads like a deliberate choice when kinger should be the one with the most history with caine

this post is long but i just am bery intrigued by this. i thinka ll the character dynamics are so deeply fascinating but with caine being the closest the show has to an antagonist (which of course is a loaded statement but i mean it in the writing sense and not in the 'antagonist is evil' way) it means that the way the characters see him holds a lot of weight. it conveys a lot abt them all with how they interpret the person that has (at least on the surface) the most control over the situation

[knight-says-rawr]

The kenlynn breakup actually still makes me feel so violently ill wdym he still loved her but had to break up bc he couldn’t handle going through that sort of emotional neglect again

Wdym she wasn’t even being all that unreasonable for keeping him out of the loop bc of how much the case was spiraling and the group’s existing trauma from being hunted n her parinoia around being wrong

Wdymmm Brooklynn thinks the breakup was bc Kenji wanted her to be someone she isn’t and Kenji still doesn’t know why Brooklynn did that to him

I’m on the floor who wrote this why does this happen Every Time with my ships

[orengejoshi]

Pregnancy as a kink makes me uncomfortable so man am I glad your pregg Flug stuff is explicitly not kink oriented!

yeah I... don't wanna judge anyone... but it's more than that, it's downright terrifying to me. Blame my hormones bc I'm expecting irl but wow... I'm very sensitive and it feels dehumanizing. but ig that is kinda the point of the kink(?)

it's so common in fandoms!

I'm completely vanilla anyway tho, so not surprising.

I've tried to pretend for a super long time that I'm into kink, but most of them are off putting and I consider them intrusive thoughts, not fantasies. I'm kinda fluctuating between sex-repulsed and neutral (aroace) even fictional... ig kink just isn't for me. I tried so hard to get over it. I know some people in my asks/requests are gonna be disappointed but I'm sorry💔

I'm slightly ashamed of how boring I am and I have serious trouble connecting to anyone in fandoms due to this actually🤕 feel like the most NT autistic person ever.

anyway here's a doodle!

[greenfiend]

Mike Stopped Time For Will

Seriously. He did. Let me explain.

These scenes represent stasis. These cars are broken; their wheels unmoving. Not unlike how time is “stuck in 1983”.

I really, truly, believe that wheels represent time in this show.

This scene, where Will encounters the “Demogorgon” for the first time tells us this. The closeup shot on the wheel spinning clockwise then stopping- that’s time!

And who’s responsible for stopping the wheels of time?

Wheeler of course.

We could steal time… just for one day (Heroes by David Bowie)

If you fall, I will catch you, I’ll be waiting… time after time (Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper)