#fan tl vs the official one (help now my head hurts)

[the-nysh]

Meanwhile Caleb's had a stroke trying to localize Camie's internet slang in all these official footnotes:

this translation makes me want to die but i can't deny that hawks being called an s-tier twink made me laugh

[slipscout]

people kept saying that jello joked about trans people being hermaphrodite 5 years ago, is any of that true? i saw someone in the notes talking about it on the original post. i thought you would probably know

Before we begin my computer has witnessed a power outage AND an error code within 5 minutes and WOW have I never felt the need to scream more in my life. 

Let me know if anything needs to be clarified/expanded on or is incorrect and needs to be fixed!

Onto the discourse!

The Welcome to Tumblr video was created January 2014, posted onto Jello’s official yt channel. I suggest you watch it before proceeding. Long post ahead!

Alright! The quote in question, our main suspect!

2:32-2:52

Oh, you’re back! Ah, I see you’ve added something to your facade! (Squeaky toy SFX showcasing a green sticky note with a Y, labelled ‘Vagina’ and underneath, ‘I am a hermaphrodite’). A vagina on a man is a good start, but you can’t go around calling yourself a ‘hermaphrodite’. That’s racist. What you need is a politically correct name for yourself that you can use to yell at people with. You’re not a ‘hermaphrodite’, you’re vagin-abled.

Lets bounce right into it.

A hermaphrodite is where an animal has both sex characteristics. Notably, the clownfish is a sequential hermaphrodite that changes from male to female when needed. Hermaphrodite is a pejorative, outdated term to describe intersex folks.

Intersex is where humans have both sex characteristics, internally and externally. Some people go through their lives never knowing they’re intersex. It’s full of genetics and all that jazz, and I’m not nearly qualified to talk about this, so I suggest you head over to the ISNA to learn more about it.

Anyway, the video is a satirical piece that is supposed to make fun of ‘SJW’s and the radical feminism/inclusionism of passive-aggressive folks on 2014 tumblr. I wasn’t around for that, so I can only witness this post-happening.

SO! Trans people and intersex. There’s a lot of differences here, and better definitions and questions on ISNA. I’ll try to keep it simple:

Trans folks are, for the most part(I’ll get to that in a moment), physically aligned with their assigned gender at birth. However, they experience doubt and dysphoria over that. Its a mind vs body type.

Intersex folks are not aligned with their assigned gender at birth!

Both can use surgery/testosterone/estrogen to align themselves as they please, which is why some intersex folks consider themselves trans! There’s definitely a line that defines the two, but for the most part, they’re separate identities that cross paths every now and then.

Onto the next part.

The ‘vagina on a man’ part can absolutely be interpreted as transphobic, if its taken slightly out of context. The video itself is the context, and focusing on that part alone and not the video as a whole counts it towards being transphobic. 

Some parts of the video just didn’t age well, but here’s the thing: it’s supposed to be satire, comedic, and not meant to be taken seriously.

So, answering your question: was jello making fun of trans people and saying they’re hermaphrodites/not true guys/gals/nb, and is any of that true?

Answer? Yes-ish? In a sense. He was making fun of the 2014 shitshow of tumblr, the pitchforks and mobs if you didn’t show enough respect. The radical political correctness and SJWs was what he was aiming at. He wasn’t basing the entire video on digging at and hurting any selective group, he was showing how random people on the internet will chase people down over anything and everything. 

Certain parts didn’t translate well, most other parts did! Remember, it was a satirical take, and while not one of my favorite videos, it definitely flew right over people’s heads. You kinda had to scrape off the face-value to see the context underneath, and analysing it made it easier to see the comedic effect Jello was trying to get. 

It was ALSO almost 6 years ago. The dude has a series based on AC that he did with his friends that is already a diverse world. 

People want him to take WTT down and apologize, but... he doesn’t have to take it down. Its a somewhat relevant, somewhat poorly aged satirical cartoon he meant for people to laugh at. People took it seriously and, while the quote I’ve been talking about can be taken as transphobic, if you look at the piece as a whole, its purely attacking the 2014 assholes.

((Ok, so now that’s over: political correctness, feminism, and SJWs are a whole can of worms and again, I’m only gonna continue repeating this: be kind. It doesn’t hurt to be respectful towards people’s race, religion, gender, orientation, etc. Just be kind.))

Onto the rest of the video!

WTT is still somewhat relevant, considering portions of it. (still not a fan of the trigger portion, but that’s for another day and I’m tired)

1:22-2:30 is still true! Check your sources kids! Also, the part of ‘if you don't reblog you’re heartless!’ It’s like those chain letters of ‘if you don’t send this to 20 people then SHE’LL be in ur room at 3am tonight’. I hate seeing those. There are absolutely people on here that are self-diagnosing and are almost always incorrect in their ‘diagnosis’. If you want a diagnosis, please go to an actual doctor and not a stranger on the internet, or even TRUST what half the info you see says. The facts/symptoms on tumblr are so out of proportion and sometimes aren’t even ‘facts’.

That’s all I’ve got for WTT, but there’s a couple other takes I think would help form a better understanding:

@hotfox69‘s long take. While I don’t agree with it wholeheartedly, it makes a lot of really, really good points.

@themightylorax​ had a small take on it. I can’t tell when this was created, but 2014 Tumblr was garbage. It was not a safe place, and the people defending it as a ‘safe place’ knew it wasn’t. It’s just a little better now, but there are still pitchfork-wielding people out on the platform.

@kingofdersecest​ has a cursing and somewhat vulgar take, and while I don’t agree with parts of it, it surrounds the rest of the video and simplifies it down into what Jello was jabbing at.

Tl;Dr: Jello’s Welcome to Tumblr didn’t age well in certain aspects, and while some of it is relevant today, a lot of it was focused on the overly political correctness of 2014 tumblr and the radical feminism and inclusionism that took place. It was also made 6 years ago. The quote in question can absolutely be taken as transphobic out of context, though it was directed as a satirical take on the aggressive people of 2014 tumblr.

[bbhl-incporated]

Who Is Next + Why + Full Teaser Order

There are two patterns that point to Suho or Sehun being next, with a slight possibility of Chen. If you combine the two or find their intersections the argument strengthens.

TL;DR for those who don’t have time to read below the cut: I theorize it’ll go like this: if Sehun is next (Sehun could have spoiled it during EXO’s V Live broadcast) then it’s going to be Sehun > Suho > Xiumin > Chen > Kyungsoo

First, let’s tackle the teasers, because they seem to override any teaser / “hint” things exo has done in the past such as the order of pathcode order and the name order on lotto (which is what some people thought was going to dictate the order this time around, but proved faulty when chanyeol’s teaser dropped). So, why was Kai first? Well it is by now tradition that he be first: MAMA debut teasers, Overdose teasers, Pathcode, first name at the end of Lotto, now this. (There were no daily-released individual teaser photos for Monster; SM dropped all the Lucky One photos in one day then all the Monster ones a different day.)

And it is by what little semblance of consistency and tradition that we can figure this all out.

And to really hit it home I went all the way back to the MAMA music video for this.

Recall that BBH’s teaser then followed Kai’s.

Chanyeol was very much evident in BBH’s teaser thereafter:

…And his teaser followed Baekhyun’s teaser.

As a side note, some people [1, 2] already highlighted the parallels between their teasers (and you bet your bottom dollar I’ll make a post about it – once more teasers come out and I have more information so I’m not just screaming nonsense into the void). For now, leave that thought in the back of your head, knowing that this may influence the order of the rest of the teasers. (FYI: I think there will probably be more parallels between other members.)

Sehun has been seen in all the teasers so far. In fact he’s the only one who has been in every teaser that has not had his own released (rip). Sehun was also the only member aside from PCY whose face one could even see clearly in PCY’s teaser. And in that same scene where Sehun is present, Sehun is running with Kai and Chanyeol (I did say clearly; look at how blurred nini’s face is):

And that running scene is also evident in Kai’s teaser:

So OSH might be the only one who really connects things; after all, why is pcy alone so much? Neither of the other two were alone in their teasers for most of the time. Sure they got plenty of solo time because I mean that’s what the individual teaser is for but seriously…

Bbh was with suho and the group:

and Kai was with Sehun (in running scene above), and a group:

and with Suho and Xiumin at the table:

So what gives?

Well, Sehun and his teaser might help us understand where the mv plot is going, and maybe SM wants to advance that help. But Suho’s could also help. Author note: sehun’s helped marginally, but Suho’s was a gift that continues to give.

So what about Suho? While he was not present in pcy’s teaser, he was present in everything else even if blurry and in the background. And if there is a song pattern to be deduced, so far we have harder + edgier song > more vocal-focused, softer song > harder + edgier …. with a vocal and softer song for the 4th teaser. The songs in the background also feature the audio of the focus of the teaser too, in case you haven’t noticed; e.g. kai’s voice is prominent in his teaser, bbh’s in his, and pcy’s in his. So if the next teaser will feature both a vocal and someone who has appeared clearly in a teaser before, suho is most likely. Author note: it’s clear there is no neat switching back and forth between vocally-strong and bass-strong songs but the songs do match the character of the subject’s voice and where their lines usually lie.

Short break to handle some counter theories and arguments to this: There was a post circulating saying that the next person will be Chen:

He definitely fits the song background pattern I pointed out and his teaser would interject a trend of originally exo k members, which would be a good way to balance the flow of teasers. However, it seems SM is officially nixing the exo k + exo m thing as part of their branding, as seen especially on facebook and the new SNS accounts stressing “we are one,” so this is likely not a concern for SM. On top of that, we haven’t really seen Chen in previous teasers (only teaser he appeared in up to PCY’s teaser is Baekhyun’s.) In keeping with the song pattern, it’s likely we’ll see Suho, Sehun, then Chen. You should re-watch Chanyeol’s teaser and note that Sehun’s voice is clearly heard in that song (probably entitled) “Chill.” He’s probably not going to have a softer song for his teaser. EDIT: He didn’t. But that’s not the pattern. MAMA is.

Not having seen Chen similarly works for why I don’t think Ksoo is next either; he hasn’t been visually present.(Ksoo might be last anyway if all the concepts are connected like I think they are, but again that is for another post.)

Moving on to how MAMA supports this…

First: why again did I pick MAMA of all things? Well EXO said themselves they’re returning to a time when they were younger, like children, so I decided to give re-watching MAMA a shot. Plus the initial Monster, Lotto and Pathcode stuff was failing pretty hard.

Thank God I did. This is quite possibly the key to everything.

If we look closely at this video and give MAMA the 100m views it deserves there is an ORDER to members truly revealing their powers that intersects with the order in which Kai teleports and crosses them. Kai of course being the teleporter he is, not only reveals his power first (!) but he transcends the worlds and locations of all the other members (!!) thus serving as a link between them (!!!) and setting off a chain reaction of members realizing their powers’ potential in the mv (!!!!) across both k and M (!!!!!) so that’s something to keep in mind.

He is first there and first in this teaser series’ order. Point one in the pattern marked.

Okay so how is Baek the second, you ask? Well consider this: perhaps it’s the order in which a member “demonstrates” his power after the time Kai visits them and thus allows them to realize their power. While PCY was trailing flames early in the video, before Kai Teleported to him, nothing truly clicks with any member in K or M until Kai poofs by them. Imo he would be at best second always because that’s the tradition SM established with teasers, so that takes precedent.

Baekhyun is the “second” (3:04): 

The reason Chanyeol is the third rather than later in the series has basis in several factors: 1) he had a bit of a jump given that he was … honestly sort of “leaking” powers early in the video; 2) going back to my first argument about teaser order, they were going to alternate song styles; 3) and Chanyeol precedes Sehun again due to 1) and due to the fact that Jongin came by him first. 4th, going by this order, is 100% either suho or sehun. EDIT: It’s clear that SM considered Sehun to precede Suho and likely for the reasons stated below.

One could say it’s Suho at 3:33:

And 3:37:

But one could suggest that it’s Sehun, who appears just a few seconds earlier at 3:27. EDIT: SM went for this.

Despite the fact that he’s not really… “doing” the wind thing until later in the video, something seems to click with Sehun at 3:26.. but again he’s not really exhibiting the power until whereas Suho begins to at 3:33. For reference, Sehun does so at 3:40: (Edit: this doesn’t matter so much since SM took sehun to be preceding suho)

Now this next part… really gonna makes my head hurt if it’s right in predicting exo’s teaser order. The order in which different members sing might have a part in it. Vocal line goes Baekhyun > Suho > Kyungsoo and the rap line (at the time !! at the t i m e !!) goes Kai > Sehun > Chanyeol. If we merge the previous lines of argumentation, it makes the most sense that PCY would be first, especially since he has the parallel with Baekhyun and it already seems Sehun is becoming a unifying piece this comeback rather than Kai (!!!). The parallel thing is important because of the mirror and same-ground-different-skies synch between xiumin x suho and chen x kyungsoo.

Next let me explain how (former) exo m members fit into this. 

We all know it’s difficult to fully extrapolate anything from M versions because 3 are gone, so it messes up any kind of original order/schema, BUT it clearly goes Chen > Xiumin > Lay when you take out the other members 

Chen at 2:40:

Xiumin at 4:14:

Lay at 5:17: (I cry because he won’t be in the mv :( )

EDIT: I’m officially nixing the idea of vocal patterns in the teasers. The album of course wouldn’t be half one son and half another; the album has much diversity.

The biggest thing here, between K and M, is that Suho has a link to Xiumin and Kyungsoo to Chen:

So we might see them appear in the teaser order in a way that connects that relationship! (I will get back to this in the “additional thoughts” section.)

Why is Kyungsoo last, you ksoo stans ask? He did conclude Pathcode, yes, but I am inspired by the idea that the end is the beginning. (Also alluded to here and mentioned here .) 

In the beginning of MAMA, Kai teleports from Kyungsoo first and it’s the only time he teleports and leaves white smoke. (No seriously: to and away from kyungsoo are the only times kai teleports with white smoke. The rest of the time is black smoke. Even Luhan and Chen in M version see black smoke in his wake. )

Ksoo represents the beginning and the end; he is the last member in K to demonstrate powers and he is seen at the end paralleled with Chen (standing on the same ground but having different skies :~) ) and he is the last person we see in #Pathcode.... Plus, it seems like, contrary to most other members, he operates on a level of grounded reality while the others have issues with theirs; the dream vs reality thing became a prevalent theory among fans (including myself; don’t go looking for my posts though they are long and ugly) during Pathcode, and especially Lucky One. Retroactively in 2016, fans thought LMR was unreality as well. (Lucky One and Love Me Right were both likely *not reality*... I’m just throwing that out there.)

Kyungsoo’s power is strength but he also has a sense of grounding. His power is not one that can just be … shut off in the sense of oh he “can’t strong” like “kai can’t teleport due to this external force” or “chanyeol can’t produce fire due to the same force.” It doesn’t make sense (barring a situation where he deals with kryptonite and he’s superman). 

It is possible that he is strong in two senses: physically and mentally. He perhaps has the mental strength to tell dream from reality and snap out of it whereas other members may not be able to, and his isn’t a power that’s physically demonstrable apart from that scene in MAMA where he made a crater in the middle of the street. 

But in pathcode he seems to be operating on a mental level: the marbles, the gazes the spinning top, the scenes that seem to cut back to other members’ teaser scenes … Kyungsoo continues to operate on a separate level even in Monster too: He’s on top of the security cameras before the conflict in the Monster MV:

..AND HE’S STILL THERE WHEN BAEKHYUN TURNS OFF THE SECURITY CAMERAS AT THE END to “save” the members in the car:

 why do we not talk about this, again? Kyungsoo now seems to be a sort of alpha and omega figure and so I will not be surprised in the slightest if he is last. EDIT: In fact, I expect it. He should be last unless SM wants to prioritize K members in teaser order.

So to summarize:

EDIT: The thoughts in the “additional thoughts” section came to fruition for reasons I described above, so let’s just move on to that for summary.

Some additional thoughts:

As a special consideration, since we owe Oh Sehun much more than we gave him credit this comeback season… he did say he would dye his hair again on “Wednesday” during EXO’s V Live broadcast. After all his hints from the past few weeks, and the teasers visually including him so much so far, he could very well be next! It would nix the idea of song styles alternating neatly, but that’s fine. Suho and Chen would still be likely to follow, followed by Xiu and Soo in some order. EDIT: As I predicted, Suho followed Sehun. 

Returning to a previous point re: MAMA to address what that order might be... Suho had the link to Xiumin, and Kyungsoo had one to Chen. Although we don’t see this reiterated, it’s possible that, if Sehun did hint that he’s next(edit: obviously we know he did now) we will see them alternated to being ordered Sehun > Suho > Xiumin > Chen > Kyungsoo. If Sehun was just joking (who knows with EXO anymore …. Baekhyun did spoil his own teaser during that broadcast too) and this aspect of MAMA is addressed, I still believe we could see Suho > Sehun > Chen > Xiumin > Kyungsoo, but if they really care about preserving more links to MAMA, Sehun will be up next anyway because they are so clearly maintained via the “Sehun > Suho > Xiumin > Chen > Kyungsoo” line. It’s like all the progression through K and M finally wraps around to Kyungsoo in the end and I’m emotional about that.

I guarantee you that if osh, kjm, or kjd is right then according to this, we can predict the rest of the members’ order and know a good chunk about the upcoming MV’s plot as well.