#ep 465

[outofcontextilivealone]

[marshmallowgoop]

And I'm just a little messed up I'm a little out of my head

[Song link] [YouTube link]

[ultrakdramamama]

[SUB] What K-POP song is JACK BLACK singing? (1) #JACKBLACK

[chu-diaries]

100 days of mental healthcare: day 77/100

It was a turbulent day and this stayed in my drafts because I wasn't feeling well enough to post. Unfortunately, my grandmother's cat spent the whole day in the hospital and I was very attached to her. While the test results weren't getting released, I kept my routine as normal as possible: household chores, running, meal prep, working… but before bed I broke down because I received the news that the cat had passed away. I trust that Father Obaluae is already taking care of her. Apparently, she had a tumor and my grandmother never knew. I'm very sad so today I’ll just skip those self-knowledge questions I was answering due to grief.

🥀: day 24/28

💧: didn’t track but I’m sure I didn’t reach my goal

🏃🏻‍♀️: running (3 km)

🏋🏻‍♀️: 🚫

📝: 🚫

📖: 🚫

🇰🇷: 🚫

🎧: simple joys - doh kyungsoo

🎮: 🚫

📺: one piece ep. 464-465

📚: 🚫

🛑: 4 days pick-free

💊: took all my vitamins

[bizarrequazar]

Collected Information about the Bangkok Concerts

This is a post collecting information and sources about the concerts held by the Zhang Sanjian scam gang on May 10th and 11th. I will keep this updated as more information comes out. Please let me know if you have any questions, corrections, or additions.

[Masterpost of my informational posts about the situation]

Lead-Up

The earliest account to promote the concert was a planted fan trying to collect information from other fans in group chats, not an “official account”. This was on April 10th, only a month prior to the day the concert would be held. Accounts officially associated with the scam would not start promotions until April 20th.

Someone who contacted the venue on April 20th was told that the hall had been booked for 05-11 but that the venue could not disclose who it was for.

On April 22nd, the Instagram made a post announcing the ticket sales using a promotional photo from 2021 that had been made for the concert the real Zhang Zhehan had been planning prior to 813. This post did not include a link for purchasing; including links to purchases increases the chance of Instagram checking an account for fraud activity.

The production company for the concert is partnered with CAPA.

Seat prices went up to 16,000 baht ($465 USD / 3200 RMB) and went on sale on April 22nd. As a comparative, the BTS member Suga held a concert with VIP tickets pricing at 6200 baht.

Within hours, scam believers were saying that tickets had sold out, but on the actual purchasing site they were instead listed as not available (ie. reserved for sale by scalpers). On May 3rd, these reserved tickets that had not been sold were made available again with less than half sold.

On April 23rd, it was announced via the Instagram that an additional concert would be held on 05-10 due to “popularity”. (As I write this, I realize that it’s odd for them to book 05-10 rather than 05-12 since it means those first comers who bought tickets for 05-11 would not get to be the first ones to see “him”.) Tickets for this became available the following day and “sold out” within ten minutes only to become available again; it’s likely this was just a glitch. 

On April 24th, a promotional video was posted for the concert using only footage from 2021 (same context as mentioned above).

Some tickets had been available as a “tour package” through a company that had a history of scamming customers. On April 26th, the tour package’s name was changed then deleted from the company’s website. On April 30th, the Taobao shop selling these packages was closed without refunds and over 400 people who had made purchases had their information leaked. Some people who purchased these packages were later left stranded at the airport for hours when they arrived.

On May 5th, the Weibo Supertopic used by scam believers, which had been filled with people reselling tickets and encouraging others to fake information for travel visas, was deleted. The following day, “official” accounts directed users to a new Supertopic that was created less than 15 minutes after the previous one disappeared despite it taking 1-3 days for Supertopics to be approved. This new Supertopic was made private on May 9th then deleted as well on May 10th.

On May 6th, photos were posted to the Instagram of “Zhang Zhehan” in what appeared to be Thailand. The following day several photos and a video were spread of “chance encounters”, originating from accounts that did not belong to fans.

The scam gang requested that people who had bought VIP tickets provide their home addresses so they could be sent tshirts and light sticks, four days prior to the first concert date. Have fun getting doxxed, I guess.

On May 8th, a new song was released to streaming sites by the scam gang despite it being only two days before the first concert. As a comparative, for his mini-concert to promote his Another Me EP in October 2020, Zhang Zhehan released only two of the three songs for streaming prior to the concert, leaving the third song 不说 to be debuted at the concert before releasing for streaming.

On May 9th, several photos and a video were posted by paparazzi of the venue being set up. It was noted that workers present in these photos were fully dressed despite there being a heatwave with outside temperatures climbing to over 40°C; it’s uncommon for AC to be on during set up, though not impossible.

On the same day, a figure fully covered in sweats and a hoodie was filmed entering the venue for rehearsals. Again: heatwave. 

May 10th

The venue looked less than half full less than ten minutes before the set start time.

A collection of some photos that look obviously off: [1] [2] [3] [4] 

Chinese CPFs keeping track of things concluded that three different impersonators were likely used, with one possibly being a woman. There were visible differences in the nose, jawline, eyebrows, Adam’s apple, butt, and stature. Furthering this, people watching reported that the costume changes were remarkably fast and there were no breaks over the course of 20 song performances (3 hours).

It’s quite likely that the cameras used for the screens inside the venue were using deepfake tech to correct for these mistakes. Yes this can be done live. It was noticed that the screens seemed to noticably lag more than is standard (example, comparison to another concert) and occassionally jumped.

Some of the audience members visible in photos look quite unexcited to be there. It’s possible that people were hired to fill empty seats, especially given that so many were left unsold that they decreased the number of seats physically present in the venue. A number of people looked to be in quite a hurry to leave afterwards. There is hearsay that some of them may have been students who were paid to attend. [translated chatlog between Chinese fans]

About an hour and a half after the concert started, the bought hashtag #Primordial Theater# suddenly appeared on the general Weibo hotsearch, reaching #14 before completely disappearing ten minutes later. Coincidentally, the Weibo administration account made a post shortly afterwards warning about celebrity impersonation fraud.

Around this time, all photos of the concert posted by Ranyi, one of the “official” accounts, were removed by Weibo and the account was later banned for violating community rules. Similar photos and a video were also removed from Xie Yihua’s Weibo accounts.

A whaler who made a post that she shook hands with him at the concert forgot to change her VPN to Thailand, with it instead saying she was in Japan. 🤡

There are rumors that some whalers who attended said it was fake and closed their accounts, I haven’t seen direct evidence of this yet. Also a rumor that one went to the police. Some whalers were reportedly afraid to speak out about what they had seen at the concert because they had given the scam their personal information.

May 11th

There was significantly less posted footage and discussion of this day. Many people who had attended gave excuses such as phones being too low on battery to film, only having blurry photos, wanted to capture the moment with their own eyes, etc.

Additional photos that look distinctly off: [1] [2] [a whole collection] (Here’s an example of full-face prosthetic makeup btw) 

Videos show that barely anyone in the audience appeared to be singing along to some songs, including Surround.

Comment about the vocals from a trained musician: “The voice doesn't feel open, it feels like it's covered with a layer of veil. Generally speaking, the voice is not clean, and secondly, the breath is not stable, and the voice is obvious. Trembling, as well as out-of-tune and treble, the treble sounds very laborious, and the out-of-tune is also sandwiched between the two notes, and the way of vocalization is not right, it is all in the throat, singing like this is easy to hurt the throat and make it hoarse.” (mtl) 

[Video comparing the singing to Zhang Zhehan’s]

A video and group photo showing Xiao Yu were passed around, with him being visibly too short in relation to “Zhang Zhehan” in the photo.

Again, many of the photos posted by Xie Yihua were removed by Weibo.

VVIP ticket holders (on both days) were able to take photos with Zhang Sanjian afterwards:  -  Reports from them say that Zhang Sanjian was quite touchy-feely and eager with hugs (😰). If you look at old photos and video of the real Zhang Zhehan, he was always very polite and often kept his hands clasped when taking photos with unfamiliar people.  -  The attendees were assigned a number so the photos could be sent to them afterwards. Standard practice for celebrity photo ops is that the photos are printed there; being sent later allows time for editing to be done.  -  It took two weeks for people to be sent their photos. Despite this, some of the editing is... not very good.

Followups

Yahoo! Taiwan published an article talking about the concert, referring to Zhang Zhehan as an “artist who insulted China”.

[Written notes] from a Twitter space discussion about the concert. Main points not previously covered here:

It was learned by Chinese CPFs that any Chinese person who wants to hold a concert outside of China needs to get written permission to do so. There is no evidence that the scam gang did this, and it’s doubtful that someone in Zhang Zhehan’s situation would do so.

If you watch the videos of Zhang Sanjian talking at the concert, it looks very performative, not a real emotional response like what you can see in videos of the real Zhang Zhehan at his past concerts. Especially at a concert after 813 and not seeing his fans for two years, wouldn’t you expect him to get quite emotional?

Likewise, there are enunciation differences and dialectic differences in how Zhang Sanjian spoke.

If the point of the concerts was to make money, they would have started promotions much earlier, it doesn’t make commercial sense to announce it at such short notice. The intent of the concert was to get attention.

Another intent seems to be to try to divide CP fans, similar to how last year they succeeded in dividing haizhe and whalers.

Following the concerts, there was a significant uptick in fans of other celebs harrassing those saying the concerts were fake—especially in c-ent fan culture, fans of other celebs can and will happily take advantage of the scam to eliminate their bias’s competition even if they are aware that it’s a scam.

This post was last edited 2023-05-24.

[lookismstuff]

Reaction to Ep 465

SPOILERS ALERT

While one encounter ended on a positive note, another presented a dreadful possibility.

Once in a very morose mood, Zack asked his mentor Gongseob whether or not he should change his name (note: his Korean name "Jinsung" implies that he was expected to be calm and dignified to conquer his own demons and any challenges presented to him--WHAT AN IMMENSE BURDEN TO CARRY, WAY TO GO PTJ ZACK'S PARENTS).

Gongseob, quirky that he was, was ready to rebuff all that nonsense out of Zack. Zack had to believe in himself, had to live in the present, because the past already happened anyway.

But Zack had so long been dwelling on his insecurities, and the most persistent manifestation of these was Johan.

In sympathy, Gongseob admitted that genius was often a matter of genetics (in the case of Gapryong and James Lee), and was the fate for a legend. Since Johan was not the son of Seong Hansoo (goodbye fan theories)'s and therefore not related to Seong Taehoon of Viral Hit/ How to Fight, then the answer was simple: Johan was a genius that would spark the birth of his own legend.

Basically, all that Zack had to do was to accept this fact. That even though Johan was a genius, Zack must still persist. Even when Johan's attacks were fast and unpredictable.

But it's true that our efforts won't betray us. Zack could now see Johan's attacks, enough to parry them. It provoked Johan to see Gun in Zack again (surely we remember that Gun once wanted to recruit Zack too had Daniel resisted, right? Zack was another brilliant talent).

Zack finally landed the final blow on Johan, the way Gongseob landed the final blow on James Lee all those years ago. Surprise, surprise, James actually wanted to learn from Gongseob but the latter spurned the red haired genius, saying that he'd never take a disciple (whoah congrats Zack, you won him over).

Johan woke up and was all confused, but Zack simply cut him off by saying that yes, he came to save Johan. And Johan thanked Zack for that. (YASSSS! Good job, the two of you!).

Somewhere else, Jay found the person whom he'd been searching for: Big Daniel. Robbed of Little Daniel's conciousness, however, he was an unknown, monstrous entity. And Jay began to realize this bitter truth...

Overall, I'm really satisfied with how Zack vs Johan's fight was handled. Johan had to lose and Zack had to win for their narrative to move onward. Like I said before in that rant post : they could either salvage this friendship or abandon it, and it seems that they chose the former. I'm sad that Jay had to find Big Daniel first before anyone else did, and in that state. But I love the excitement that it would bring me as a reader.

[beccaxwrites]

Message me to have access to 465 gifs of Daniela Nieves in Vampire Academy S1 Ep 1&2. Daniela is Venezuelan. Please cast her correctly. All of these gifs were made by me. You are free to use them as long as you do not claim them as your own. Please do not add to other gif hunts. I do not have a problem if you use them in crackships, but you have to ask for my permission first and give me credit.  Like or reblog if you save or use any of them.

tw flashing, blood

[fayefiona87]

It's almost 4:30am in my area and I just finished ep. 485 of One Piece. Started on ep. 465 this evening.

Eps. 482-484, I spent the majority of them crying and dying over Ace's death. Like, I'd known it was coming and had been NOT wanting to get to it but knowing I NEEDED to get to it so I can someday get to the current episodes. I figured it was gonna break me and boy, did it. I've never cried as much for this show. Like, Merry coming to save the crew @ Enies Lobby and then her farewell, that broke me. Ace's death feels like its killed me and undone me.

I know they're fictional characters but it was Luffy's brother and Ace has been one of my top 5 characters and I've personally experienced losing my own brother so that probably had something to do with it.

Anyways, it's a great show! 😭😭😭😭 My throat is parched and my eyes hurt.

[maylovesfiction]

Random thoughts -that no one wants to know- while watching Impel down/Marine Ford for the first time.

ep 459 Buggy getting himself hyped up by everyone! *sigh* I already knew Ace was Rogers son, but this episode still hits hard.

ep. 460 Garp is in such a bad place here. I feel for him. Portgas D. Rouge is such a beautiful woman, I wish she could have been there for Ace Ace inheriting her beautiful freckles almost made me cry. Buggy taking credit for opening the gate made me smile again though. Thanks Buggy <3 that shot of Whitebeards fleet appearing through the mist gave me goosebumps, such an epic entry from Whitebeard!

ep 461 oh Ace, you are so loved. Whitebeard waking up to Aces attempt on his life, casually slapping him into oblivion and falling asleep again right after is such an anime dad thing that short montage of Ace getting thrown around by Whitebeard was just hilarious I wonder if Whitebeard knew Garp and saw the similarity between Ace and Garp -the sudden falling asleep I mean-

ep 462 Whitebeard is such a dad, this really gets to me Buggy lying there like "draw me like one of your french girls" with his glorious hair oy Smoker, it's good to see you again, although I doubt you will be of much use in this war so it begins...

ep 463 so we finally get to see Akainu Little Oz Jr.? Whoa there... hahaha Gecko Moria being all hyped up and wanting to get his dirty little fingers onto Oz Jrs body was so obvious

ep 464 naww, poor Oz :( I wonder how many great characters and allies we will lose in this war :/

ep 465 Garp </3 I see your conflict, I feel so sorry for you I already know I'm probably gonna cry so much this arc I can only repeat myself: Ace, you are so loved. enter Buggy, Luffy and the crew!

ep 466 Every second with Buggy is a good second While I like that Buggy finally got his signature clothing back, I'm a bit miffed about the acute loss of ponytail exposure it's so funny to me, that Croc, Ivan, Jinbe, Luffy and Buggy all kick the ice to make it break, but you can clearly see that only Buggy didn't create any cracks in the ice xD (god, I love him so much) "Ace we are here to save you" zooms out of Luffys face to reveal Buggy, Crocodile, Ivankov and Jinbe at his side. SO EPIC Sengoku: "GARP, IT'S YOUR FAMILY AGAIN" while Garp losing his mind with those rambunctious boys made me laugh so hard :D Highlight: Luffy telling Whitebeard to shut up

[fnaffersblog]

(For the sun and moon ask post thing if you’re still doing it.) Numbers: 2, 6, 10, 24, 32.

I am!! Thank you!

2. Who is your most hated character?

There aren't any character I really hate on the show! The story progression of every character interests me, and how they interact with each other, and I really do love each and every one of them. All the funky secondary characters, all the AU characters, even the ones we only get mentions of or hear in the backgrounds of episodes, like Nice Eclipses Sun and Moon bring their own theories and discussions with them. Even characters I'm impartial to I don't really hate? I'm just more like 'eh' when they show up at best and cringing at worst.

As I have to pick one, however, Lord Monty or the Garbage Can Guy. Didn't really care for them, and nothing in recent episodes has pulled my interest for them.

6. Who is your least favorite villian?

Hatsune Miku! :D Drop kicking her into space.

Bloodmoon.

10. Who is your least favorite AU character?

Do the Rainbow Friends count as AU characters? I'm never all that interested in crossover episodes with different franchises, so any of those characters (AKA The Rainbow Friends, Wally Darling, ect.)

Otherwise, Lord Monty.

24. What is your all time favorite episode?

What if I said skibidi toilI'm very partial to the 'Minecraft But THE UGLIEST TEXTURE PACK with SUN and MOON'. I go back and watch that episode often, probably the only one I've purposefully pulled up to watch multiple times. It's just a fun, cute episode.

I also really like the one chunk Minecraft challenge episodes, for the same reason.

32. What is your most favorite plot-focused "in VR-CHAT" episode?

OOOOOOOOOOF. This is such a hard quessstion. Nearly half the episodes on the channel are VR-CHAT episodes and very few of those are not plot-focused/lore episodes. (465 vids, 188 VRCHAT Eps) And since all the lore episodes are connected, picking just one from a set of episodes is REALLY difficult for me, because I tend to look at groups of episodes as a whole, rather than individually.

You've got the interview and the episode right after in the bunker. I'm a bit nostalgic for those, the animations and animatics of those two episodes folks did is what drew me to the show.

You've got Eclipse showing up to infect Moon and the introduction of Lunar.

October. Just... All of October.

The Death of Eclipse, Sun and Moon's Secret Sister, Bloodmoon is Shut Down, The Trapping Episode, How Sun Met Moon, Killcode and Moon's Final Conversation, Moon's DEATH, LUNAR'S DEATH, Moon's return, Sun and Moon's New Enemy, Original Moon Returns, Eclipse is Dying, Earth Confronts Eclipse. Over 100 episodes to choose from, there are SO many good ones, and we're still fuckin going!

If I had to narrow it down to one that I personally like, Just One, I think I'd go with 'Sun LEARNS MAGIC!? in VRCHAT'.

It's... I'm always a sucker for the 'person pushed over the edge gains incredible powers because of their emotions' trope. That alone made the episode sing for me. I'm pretty sure I whooped in real life when Sun broke out of that cage.

Alongside that, it's the first appearance of hallucination Bloodmoon. It's the follow up to 'Sun is TRAPPED by Moon in VRCHAT' which is another beast of an episode that I like for different reasons. It's retroactively the beginning of the end for Old Moon, the episode where he makes the decision to follow Eclipses plan to go in and eradicate Killcode for good. The last time Eclipse and Old Moon spoke to one another, their final interaction before the reset. I personally love the interactions between Old Moon and Eclipse in this episode, it feels like they're playing chess with each other. "Energy Spike Detected!" Sun's reaction to seeing 'Bloodmoon'. "I SAW it. You... You DISENTEGRATED. Into ash! Atoms."

"SHUT UP!"

It felt like a turning point in the show. It set up SO many plot points, some of which are still being delved into and going back and watching it again after all this time and noticing the little details, like the way Eclipse says goodbye to Old Moon, or the way Sun tries and assure himself that 'Bloodmoon' isn't real. It's...

It's a really good episode.

[outofcontextilivealone]

[unrelaxing]

media list (15.01.2024 - 21.01.2024)

👂 Listened:

Albums:

The Truth About Love by Pink (2012) [6.5/10, kind of suffers from being too long - I loved all the songs in the first half, but barely any from the second half.]

Sorry For Partyin' by Bowling For Soup (2009) [6/10, fun album - though I think I liked this artist a lot more when I was younger.]

SOS by Sza (2022) [7/10, this album really grew on me as I listened to it - big fan of F2F and Nobody Gets Me.]

Podcasts:

RedHanded [Murder in Ulvila was my standout episode, just because of how the injustice felt so irreparable for those involved. And that's not even getting to the fact that it's unsolved.] Episodes: ⤷ EP 327: Murder in Ulvila ⤷ EP 326: Sarah Payne - Into Thin Air ⤷ EP 319: Lam Kor-wan - The Rainy Night Butcher

Morbid [Leonarda and The Bonebreaker case were the standouts to me this week - the former because of why she committed her crimes and how her upbringing and state of mind impacted her actions, and the latter because it related a lot to my question regarding minors being tried as adults.] Episodes: ⤷ EP 479: World's End Murders ⤷ EP 504: The Sauchie Poltergeist aka Wee Hughie ⤷ EP 505: Leonarda Cianculli - The Soap-Maker of Corregio ⤷ EP 476: Bobby Mackey's Music World ⤷ EP 465: The Devil Made Me Do It ⤷ EP 456: The Bonebreaker Case

National Park After Dark EP 196: The Slenderman Stabbing. Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. [This is the podcast episode that started me thinking about juvenile incarceration and had me doing this poll; it's also what inevitably got me doing more research into prison abolition. Really interesting episode.]

Ghost Story from Wondery [This one was intriguing, and I was super shocked to hear actual Hugh Dancy appear in it. It's absolutely what eventually led to me re-trying Hannibal, I just found him charming and smart and introspective and supportive - I would say the last episodes were a bit repetitive - especially with the psychic - but otherwise highly recommend.]

📖 Read:

Articles:

What About The Rapists and Murders? by Angel Parker from Medium [Article trying to formulate a response to the question of what should be done about people who commit violent crime should prison abolition take place - I found this article was not what you should read if you're truly looking for answers to this question. While I appreciate what the author is trying to do, in terms of highlighting the injustice that happens to those who are incarcerated, and the corruption that occurs within the penal system, it was a frustrating read for someone who was trying to learn more about the more practical aspects of prison abolition as a movement.]

NYC to pay $125K to woman who accused two NYPD cops of rape in last-minute civil suit settlement by John Annesse from Daily News

Should police officers be able to get away with having sex with detainees? from Daily Times [Has some good statistics about police who commit rape. "In 2015, after a year-long investigation, the Associated Press revealed that in the six-year period from 2009 to 2014, about 550 police officers had lost their badges for rape, sodomy and other types of sexual assault; and a further 440 for possession of child pornography and other sex crimes; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens, sexting juveniles, or having consensual but prohibited sex while on duty."]

The Mysterious and Lonely Death of Joyce Vincent from Historic Mysteries

Books:

Luck In The Shadows by Lynn Flewelling [in progress, pretty much no progress since last week due to me being totally distracted by trying to read a 40 page article on prison abolition - that I still haven't finished!]

📺 Watched:

Television:

NBC Hannibal EP 1 & 2 [I wrote a post about this. I'm enjoying it so far. Incredibly dark, but also a lot of subtlety in the characters' dynamics! Definitely something to watch slowly.]

[queertigo]

yuki chose violence w cabin fever era

✦ ₊˚⌇ ₊˚꒷︶︶꒷︶︶꒷꒦︶︶꒦ ♡₊˚ ❜︵ ⋆｡˚ ⊹˚.⋆ ₊ ✧꒷

via: intro: save me & sweet juice , show champion ep.465

[sukehiroselei]

One Piece ep. 465:

Tons of great quotes in this episode!

One of my favourite recurring themes in One Piece is the idea that the winners dictate which side is the right side of history. This statement by Doflamingo Don Quixote is very apt:

Lowkey want it to be a hint that he's a morally grey character who will always side with "the winners".

Like, c'mon. This is a raw ass thing to say!!

Also, crying over Garp/Luffy/Ace's little family flashback.

I don't have pity for villains, but family is a different story.

We lost Bon-chan and now we're about to lose Ace too 😮‍💨 I'm not prepared. 🤧

[gustumble]

One Piece, ep. 465

😂 que isso. Ficaria chocado se já não tivesse visto ele fazer isso mas a entrada foi nota 💯. Também excelente foi todo momento do Garp. É muito interessante, o conflito policia x ladrão x familia tem muito pano p/ manga. Nada excelente foi cabo sendo executado por ter medo de lutar. Koby devia vazar desse carai. (B. Branca não tomou ciência do gigante. Foda.)

[lookismstuff]

Reaction to Ep 465- Pt.2

Pt 1

SPOILERS ALERT

I feel like there was always bound to be a certain way out for both Johan and Samuel from their drug-induced predicaments, because they were people with their own sets of memories and consciousness and everything else. "KNOCK THEM OUT" was the tried and tested method. They would then return to their normal state.

But Big Daniel had always been a huge blank slate.

Who was he to suddenly come to Little Daniel's house at night and seemingly out of nowhere? Was he ever conscious at all? If he was, why and how did he lose it? If he wasn't, how should one stop him? How were we and Jay to bring him back from his beast-like state when Little Daniel's activities all this time couldn't? What would happen if, and only if, he was beaten down? Would that body be carried somewhere? Or be discarded somewhere?