#however in this situation nothing can be entirely proved or disproved right now

[tiredfoxtf]

.

[8054yamato]

Let's talk about current events of social media.

As an avid viewer of Mr. Beast since he was under 50k subscribers, it is rough seeing this situation with Chris unfold. Regardless of how I feel of Chris' beliefs and transitioning, I believe in looking at a situation from many point of views without bias. This may seem like an obvious action to take, but it is hardly applied online. Here is my POV:

IMO, aside from texting that 13-16 year old, he has done nothing wrong even with the disgusting paintings he bought. It was all edgy humor. Not many will understand it today because it has almost been a decade since then.

We look back to the past from today and we will see how edgy the 2000s to mid 2010s were. Leafy was still active, LiveLeak was still in service, shock value sites like Run the Gauntlet were still up with no videos removed, bantering over video games would get dark and maybe racial fast, and the list goes on. Times were different and people were either there to live in that moment or not.

I believe the tweets and purchased photos Chris have done were being done as an edge lord and nothing serious however fucked up it is. His persona back then was a meme god. People complaining just does not understand it and I can see from their perspective. Buying and requesting pedo artwork is definitely horrible. However, considering the era, I understand. He's wrong for it for sure, but I understand.

People who lived in that era will know how edgy people can be. Me myself I have said a fuck ton of hard r slurs in front of black people (online, sometimes in-person) as a child. I have made suicide jokes, joked about sensitive topics, and so on. My parents and some of my siblings are great people and they did not influence me. It was the internet of that era did. While obviously wrong, many people did it and I got into that culture.

Now...

the messages are pretty bad. It is horrible and with the prevalence of predators back then with Skype and other messaging softwares, looking at this without context is pretty sketchy. So I really will not touch on this topic but I will say it does look horrible.

Finally

I dislike the idea of transgendering, but I will not go out of my way to berrate someone because it is their bodies and it does not affect me. I can criticize the idea but never the person under that. That is just who I am. With that said...

tell me why people are connecting transgenders to being a pedophile in this situation. If I recall, Chris transitioned in 2020-21 while this entire situation were years before this. It is just slanderous. Making up points to prove your ideology is right will only disprove your ideology. Stop making shit up, it's not cool. I stand for anti TQIA+ anyday (I support LGB, not the rest) but would never make obvious wrong and easily disprovable 'facts' to make my ideology correct. People are fucking braindead retard fucktard diagnosed with dyke 2 diabetes piece of shit trash retards.

Ted talk over, I am signing out.

Bye, faggots.

[vidalinav]

Why? Why? WHY? Rant 2.0

ACOSF is very interesting to me, because there was absolutely no reason to have any of them be so antogonistic to Nesta when she was at rock bottom unless it’s to set up that they’re still going to be problems with Nesta in later books. That’s what SJM set up whether she meant to or not and only time will tell. But If the IC and the sisters had said nothing and were more neutral and the plot stayed the same... it would have been a better book. If they showed an ounce of compassion, it would have been a fantastic book. If there was a mixture of different views on the matter, it would have been a realistic book. Except in the narrative we got, the amount of antagonism is too strong for what didn’t happen to negate that, which is also why I have such a bad feeling about this healing arc. Let me explain.

Let’s say they said nothing. They told her about the intervention. Nesta agreed albeit still feeling a bit betrayed because she wanted more time to heal. Rhys was quiet, not sneering. Mor didn’t say anything. Amren was civil maybe business like. They were a bit pushy about using her powers, but Nesta conceded after learning about the baby. They were never directly antagonist. Elain stayed away, but we’d obviously know why from Nesta’s POV. We would also know why Feyre is not there, because Nesta doesn’t want to see her. Cassian would then be there to segment the romance and be the person she leans on, when she is healing. Maybe she’s a bit mean, but he takes it. He challenges, eventually he shows the more caring part of himself and the romance begins. Everything else can stay the same, mostly Cassian too. IF that all happened, then I would be more inclined to believe that the intervention was necessary, that Nesta had a skewed perspective, that they all might have tried to help at some point but Nesta was the one pushing them all away and did so up to this point. She would have her revelations, her epiphanies, and realize hey perhaps she is mean sometimes, or she would still have her personal hatred, and it would be about accountability, but no one is actively proving her right about her skewed perspective. The consequence is then not that she is being shamed into healing, but that without healing, she would lose her relationships and she wants them. She grows to want them. I would then be inclined to believe that the IC were waiting her out, possibly having Feyre or Cassian in their best interest if not Nesta, and that they were minding their own business until they directly needed Nesta involved. Not hostile, but wary perhaps. And then when Nesta did start healing and opening up, then their reactions would have made sense in that they were lightly friendly but not close, and it was up to Nesta to really fix those relationships. And when she did sacrifice her powers, then it would have been purely internal, that Nesta was proving to herself and to others that she’s open for love and that she loves them, particularly Feyre. The entire healing arc then would have been more internal because it focuses on Nesta and not the IC’s involvement with Nesta, and the outcomes and the ending are still the same. 

Opposite wise, let’s say that the IC/sisters were empathetic, as in the arc that would be more external. Healing not just for Nesta but for the relationships. A reciprocal sort of love. Feyre would tell her that they’re intervening, but because they care for her and she’ll learn in due time. Rhys would maybe be more hard-pressed, but we would see instances where he understands the darkness, the hollow feeling. We would have Amren who looks deeply concerned for Nesta, because she had been her friend at some point. We’d have Elain, who would come to the library desperately seeking comradery and even though she cries at what Nesta says, she understands that Nesta is hard-pressed and only recently started healing. Cassian would possibly be getting frustrated, but there would always be this internal monologue of I want Nesta to heal. I want that girl back. I understand as a soldier if nothing else. Having this deep sorrow in his chest from perhaps not being able to do anything but wait. Mor wouldn’t have to be nice, but she would see how Nesta fits in the library, know the pain of growing up in a gilded cage, would perhaps see Feyre and Cassian and feel compassion for her friends and want to perhaps help for them, so she offers to teach Nesta how to dance. Nesta then would slowly open up to them, open up to love, and all of the ugly parts of herself, the hateful, angry parts would then be juxtaposed with the action of everyone else, with the love that she needs to feel for herself, the love that came even at the last moment with her father. And when she sacrifices her powers, it’s just proof again, that she loves, and she wants to love, and she’s willing to be hurt for love, because she wants to feel it all. And then the relationships at the end would then be open to be made, to be healed more completely, but then I would understand this hopeful sort of ending where her story is complete, but also just beginning. 

Third option, is that we could get a bit of everything, because why does everyone have the same opinion as it seems in the book? Perhaps it’s Feyre and Cassian who completely show compassion, empathy. Elain could still have the problems, but either show empathy, or completely be antagonistic. Azriel is fairly neutral, Rhys is maybe more neutral where they’re waiting it out, but there are no bad opinions towards her. The antagonists could be Mor and Amren. Any of these people could be switched in that role, but the point would be that a few are neutral and more business like or minding their own. A few could possibly have bad intentions and it would be clear. And some would be undeniably empathetic, and I don’t mean to be kind--I mean that they understand, they have viewed Nesta through her eyes, and understand what she is going through and are unwilling to give up on her. The empathy would be the important aspect. But the point would be that none of them change their characteristics. The antagonists would still be fairly antagonistic. The mind your own’s would be open to a friendship, but the friendship would need work but there is a foundation for it. The empathetic would be completely close to the main, because they have stood by her, they have fought, and Nesta would realize this in her own personal journey. They have segmented a bond. The plot would be the same, except we’d now see that some characters suck more than others, and there’s definitely character arcs and growth that need to be made, but it would lead to future books that that might be highlighted and therefore leaves the door open for the rest of the series. 

HOWEVER, what we got is very odd. 

Because all of these characters start off antagonistic. All of them have some comments that are goading (except for Azriel). We have Feyre who makes the embarrassment comment, Rhys who... is antagonistic in many places. I won’t list them all. We have Mor and her lines. We have Amren and her lines. We have Elain and her lines. And no variation with anyone. Nesta gets proven right about her wrong perspective. She has an internal healing arc that seems to just morph into another odd perception, because she’s never proved wrong about herself, but she’s proven right about how good Cassian is (rolls eyes). She notes that she might like who she's becoming by the end, but how? Why? What has occurred to disprove her irrational thoughts? At the end, she is still very much irrational. Nesta still thinks too highly of Cassian, and she thinks too highly of everyone, and very little for herself. She is ripped wide open emotionally though, but that happens after the solstice scene where life suddenly looks very good. She apologies to Amren, who probably least deserved the apology, and to Cassian who also makes comments, but keeps making comments until the end where he means to apologize but doesn’t get the chance to by plot. Oh wait, she does apologize to Feyre about telling her about the baby, I think, but that situation is just swept under the rug for how dramatic it ended up being. Her not wanting to exist is also one and done. The necessity of the intervention is never highlighted, so the reader questions if it was necessary. I question if she might not need an intervention from them. Some of them stay the same throughout (Azriel, maybe Elain... maybe Feyre). Some of them miraculously change to neutral, even if nothing happens to change their mind (Mor). Some of them just change completely (Amren). Some of the relationships are only really fixed because of the baby plot (Rhys and Feyre). And Cassian is probably the only one who has the most reasonable scenario on why that relationship blooms, but it’s questionable if it was truly satisfying because ultimately the only person who really had growth was Nesta even though there are two POVs. And at the end, no one still has shown empathy. Well actually Gwyn and Emerie showed empathy, so perhaps the motivation in healing with Nesta was just added friends, a mate, and distraction. Which I guess... but why then involve so much of the opinions of the IC/sisters if they don’t mean too much? Why emphasize the danger of Nesta, the badness of Nesta, the problems with Nesta, and not negate any of these in scenes with the people that are perceiving her like that. Especially if the goal of this is not to just heal but to heal relationships, as it seems like that was the goal or should have been the goal if the perceptions of others were emphasized. So the end was almost too happy, too hopeful for an arc that started off with such deep trauma and every relationship seemingly failing to a point where the others are antagonistic, and who the narrator received the bare minimum at best to facilitate change... It’s a balance issue I’m telling you.

And, I am making general statements about what happened for good reason. I am trying to show how this could be more satisfying, if the aspects of the story was changed just a teeny bit. I have never read a book so deep in good and bad things. So easily arguable and all it took was how other people affected the narrative. So, I ask why? Why not make the IC/sisters empathetic or neutral or a strong variation of all three (empathetic, neutral, and antagonist). Why have all of them start fairly antagonist, very obviously antagonistic actually, and then have no major scenes of disproval? Because if you start that dramatic you need dramatic scenes throughout to facilitate the dramatic ending. If you start very low or very angry and the ending is suppose to be higher than rock bottom, the middle scenes should be a tug of war. So where was it? Why do it? 

WHy? why? WHY???????

[snowdice]

Gaps in His Files (Part 8) [Relabeled; Refiled Series]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan/Patton

Characters:

Main: Logan, Patton

Appear: Remy, Virgil (but only in the epilogue)

Summary:

Logan Berry has learned many things the last 10 years: a lot of math and physics, a bit of humility, and how to be a hero being just a few. Through his education, his experience teaching, and his exploits as the superhero Bluebird, he’s changed in a lot of small and large ways. He has recorded these changes in well-organized documents and files. He’s even had to create two new file designations: a red one for files about his moonlighting at Bluebird, and a light blue one dedicated to his boyfriend, Patton.

When Bluebird is targeted by a memory device and all of those 10 years of progress suddenly disappear, Patton Sanders and Logan’s extensive files are left as his only resource to get those memories back. But what is Patton supposed to do when there are clear gaps in his files? And what does he do when he is one of them?

This is set 25 years before Sometimes Labels Fail though it’s story is completely independent of it and it is not necessary to read that one first.

Notes: Superhero AU, memory loss, past child abuse, past child neglect, unhealthy ideas about ones place in relationships, emotional suppression, self-deprecating thoughts, medical procedures mentioned, very brief unhealthy views of sex

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Erm. Logan says a few not so nice things about people who struggle academically which are very wrong. I think from context it is clear that the author doesn’t agree with it. As a teacher I do not endorse his statement and in the missing 10 years he’s learned the lesson for himself... he’s just a very dumb smart high school kid. That being said, I thought I might warn you all especially with the fact that people might be in the middle of finals and a little emotionally vulnerable to that one.

Patton spent most of the morning getting Logan familiar with his red files while also asking him subtle questions about his real opinions on things. The mention of the crying thing did sting a bit even though Patton already knew it made Logan uncomfortable. Patton knew that from the beginning, but he’d still let Logan force himself to try to help when Patton was upset.

God, Patton was a bad person.

After he’d helped Logan get a good feel of the newer files, they started brainstorming about how best to work on recovering his memories over lunch.

Patton had thought they were on the same page, that being they were going to read through the pages in his files hoping he’d remember something in them. However, now he was doing that finger tapping thing on the table while he chewed slowly on his sandwich.

“What?” Patton finally asked.

Logan had clearly been waiting to share because there was no pause before his response. “Have you heard of Blight?” Logan asked, casually, as though that were not a name that made most of the population shudder when they heard it.

“This is nothing like that,” Patton said firmly before he continued with that line of thought.

“Why couldn’t it be?” he asked with a curious head tilt.

“Because… because it’s not,” Patton said.

“Do you have any evidence that it isn’t? Just because it was a device instead of a superpower does not mean it is not the same methodology.”

“It’s just not,” Patton said, “It can’t be.”

“Why?” Logan asked again.

“Because none of them recovered,” Patton tried not to snap.

Logan hummed. “Ah. That seems like an emotionally charged conclusion.”

“Can we please just not talk about it?” Patton implored, turning back to his lunch even though he wasn’t hungry anymore. There were a few moments of silence.

“Did you know,” Logan started, and Patton sighed, “that Blight was on record as having telekinesis before she revealed herself as a Mind Warper? People say she must have implanted false memories in her victims, but if she really was then it would be evidence of-”

“The Monofacultas Theory,” Patton finished for him.

Logan gave him a startled look. “You know it?”

“I’ve known you for over three years Logan and while I agree that the theory is interesting and feasible, there are no known cases of someone having a set of powers that span more than one of the Tri-divisions.”

“If Blight had telekinesis there is. She would have had a physical power as well as a mental one. Witnesses said…”

“She tore the minds of an entire city apart at the seams and restructured them to her desire. Excuse me if I don’t trust the validity of those mind’s statements especially when they have been disproved by video evidence.”

“Just because she didn’t use telekinesis for that one situation caught on video doesn’t mean she couldn’t.”

“Fine,” Patton said. “Say you’re right. Why does it matter?”

“Well I have telekinesis.”

“So, you want to… move your memories back into place?”

“Basically, yes.”

“With your telekinesis?”

“Well, brains are ultimately physical objects.”

“And you are going to not simply give yourself a stroke because…?” Logan shrugged. “Absolutely not Logan.”

“It would be interesting,” Logan said, eyes alight. “I could prove that powers are not truly divided into physical, metal, or energy powers but are originally one singular power that develops due to circumstance during early childhood.”

“If your brain doesn’t literally explode because you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“All science has risk.”

“No, Logan.”

He gave him the look that Patton was not allowed to call a pout.

“Can we at least try some less extreme methods of memory recovery before the theoretical methods with no hard evidence? Like continuing to read your files to try to jog your memory naturally as we had discussed.”

“Fine,” he agreed, looking downtrodden. Patton really hoped he got his memory back before he got too restless and tried something like that.

“If you’re finished eating, we should get back to reading,” Patton said. Patton was certainly finished with his lunch.

The afternoon went well without any major disasters or talk about dangerous methods to get memories back. Logan had not remembered anything, but he’d been calm and patiently started sorting through his files in chronological order. Then, when Patton left him alone for a moment to go to the bathroom, he somehow managed to find his daily planner from where Patton had hidden under a blanket in the front hall closet.

“It’s fine,” Patton insisted from the couch, watching him pace back and forth and wringing his hands. “I called your advisor and told him you wouldn’t be able to meet with him because you were sick.”

Logan frowned at him. “You shouldn’t’ have done that. I could have gone. I don’t want to appear irresponsible by skipping meetings.”

“He wanted to talk about your research. You would have had no idea what he was talking about,” Patton reasoned.

“I would have managed.”

“Logan,” Patton said patiently. “Your research area is partial differential equations. Do you even know what those are?”

Patton could tell by the look on his face that he had no idea. Yet he still stuck his nose up in the air. “I know what a differential is, and I know what an equation is. I am sure I can figure out how to do parts of them.”

“You haven’t even taken multivariate calculus.”

“It can’t be that hard.”

“It is,” Patton groaned, “It is hard.”

“Perhaps for you,” he said hotly.

“No,” Patton ground out. “For you. The 28-year-old you spends hours a week trying to understand these things and he has a bachelor’s degree and almost 6 years of graduate education under his belt. You are in high school.” Logan just gave him a withering glare and turned his attention back to the planner.

“I’m supposed to teach two courses tomorrow,” he said.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Patton said.

“I have a responsibility rather or not I have my memories.”

“Logan, listen to me. You have not graduated high school. You cannot teach a calculus class.”

Logan bristled. “I took calculus last year and got an A.”

Patton had to take a steadying breath. “That is not the same as teaching it.”

“It can’t be that hard. I will simply explain the information to them.”

“And when one of them asks you how to add two fractions?”

Logan’s eyebrows crinkled. “That is a basic skill. I am sure anyone in a college calculus course can do that easily.”

“You have clearly never taught a day in your life.”

Logan bristled. “Any adult who cannot add fractions should immediately be kicked out of university and returned to kindergarten where they belong.”

Patton looked at him for a moment hoping perhaps he would figure out on his own why what he just said was completely out of line. He just kept his jaw stubbornly firm. Patton took a breath. “And that is why you cannot go and teach these students.”

Logan scoffed. “I am not sure why my future self would put up with such things.”

“Because you almost failed your real analysis course,” Patton answered in a heartbeat. “Your first semester of teaching, you were also taking a first-year graduate real analysis course and you couldn’t understand a word of measure theory. It was the first time in your life that you had to work for a C. One day you looked at your students and came to the realization that the look on their faces when you tried to explain the product rule to them was likely the same expression your professor saw on yours when he tried to explain the existence of non-measurable sets. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and if we let someone else draw the line for stupid, there is every chance we’d end up on the wrong side of it. So,” Patton said crossing his arms, “I am not going to let you go ruin your own reputation with your students as a teacher who is not an asshole because you’ve not had to toe your own line yet.”

Logan met his eyes, clearly wanting to argue, but Patton just kept his face strict and his arms crossed. Logan’s face cleared suspiciously quickly, and he backed down. “Fine,” he agreed. “I will stay here.”

“Good,” Patton replied eyeing him. “Now put down the planner and let’s go back to work.”

Want to read more? Use the links below!

AO3 Part 9

My Masterpost 

[rethesun]

Is there a name for middle lane larries?

Topic: An opinion on larry

I think there is substantial compelling evidence, but I'm not 100% convinced that there is still something but it’s possible there is we just don’t see.

If someone calls me a larrie, it's not insulting at all, but if someone were to call me an anti i’d be sad, honestly. Below I say many things that make it seem like I negatively judge hardcore larries, but I don't. I find it extraordinary that people can be so brave and sure of themselves, and I wish I could be too. I tend to get along with larries, while I mostly avoid antis unless they manage to be respectful, which is unfortunately quite rare. 

I think it's practically effortless to get toxic when trying to prove or disprove things. I think it's dehumanizing and feels stressful to me as a fan. Therefore I can only imagine the difficulty and what it takes for people in a position of fame to get to a place of inner strength and resilience where the millions of opinions of the world don't affect them as much. It's sometimes hard to judge/differentiate what is and isn't disrespectful, and it hurts terribly to know I'm crossing boundaries. So I'm putting my opinion together in hopes it isn't as counterproductive or pointless as it feels.

I'm not at all trying to convince anyone of a narrative to sway people to believe or not believe. What and how much you know and where you "stand" is down to you. 

Do I believe in larry? 

First and foremost, being a fan of someone means supporting that person without expecting anything from them. It means any fan theory isn't crucial. What’s important is just supporting them as is, as an individual. It means caring about how the person may feel about things more than caring about how I feel about things that aren't my business in the first place. 

That said, here is my not long-awaited opinion.

I think there is substantial compelling evidence, but I'm not 100% convinced that there is still something but it’s possible there is we just don’t see. I will not disregard what Harry and Louis said back in the day and pretend they had nothing when at the very least, Harry said it on video directly twice. Yes, he was a kid, but people will decide Harry is with a skinny blonde woman older than him for much less, so I don't take what he said as a platonic joke. However, I try to be as realistic as possible. As an outsider, it's not easy for my brain to conclude on most things. However, this doesn't mean I disregard how bad the industry can be. One big reason is that I don't know any of these people personally, and I want to believe in the best in others. Even though I understand controlling narratives in the industry happens and happened to 1D. I don't know to what extent. It's hard for me to judge that any or all of Harry's "relationships" are fake, and thus, he's had a few "stunt" songs for those relationships, etc. It’s plausible that he wrote female pronouns on a song or a few and the song refers to a man/men but that's far from saying this is a stunt song which would imply an entire fake relationship which is too far for me to say wasn't real as I am just an outsider. 

Whether people say it's the fans who say it or the boys behavior, the statement, 'larries ruined their friendship,' is sometimes interpreted as centered around homophobia. I do not see it this way.

However, whether there was or is a relationship, it's entirely reasonable to consider, the circumstances as a whole hurt them and likely the rest of the band in multiple ways that made things really hard. I do not think fans ruined the band or their connections with each other. I think being overworked with little freedom or breaks to discover/express independence were just a few reasons why.

Why I think larry appeared to become distanced to the public eye: 1. Understandably, putting blame on the heteronormative gender restrictive times we were in and still are in. 2. How some fans react to Larry's interactions due to reason number one. Otherwise, all the 1D members, their families, and friends have been honest. That would mean there isn't an elaborate conspiracy; they are just tired of people messing with who they care about and want to live without the harassment. Regardless of whether some fan theories are accurate or not, people in the spotlight and their families deserve peace of mind. They don't deserve to be dehumanized. I wish some fans would understand how wrong it is to swarm people or ask strangers to confirm any personal things. Not only because it's rude and invasive but because of mental health. If that's confusing, imagine if it were you in their position.

I used Zayn's interview because he shared it eloquently while the other mentions that ‘Larry isn't real’ were mostly screen captures of constituents replying impatiently to larry comments on social media saying the Larry thing is delusion and not what real fans do.  Zayn in this 2015 fader interview. "There's no secret relationships going on with any of the band members," he explains. "It's not funny, and it still continues to be quite hard for them. They won't naturally go put their arm around each other because they're conscious of this thing that's going on, which is not even true. They won't do the natural behavior." He goes on to add to the statement, "But it's just the way the fans are. They're so passionate, and once they get their head around an idea, that's the way it is regardless of anything. If it wasn't for the passionate, like almost obsession, then we wouldn't have the success that we have." Before the subject changes, Zayn said that fans would find a way to water down what he said and make any excuses, e.g., that he couldn't speak the truth.

I can't speak for anyone but myself. (I’m a queer cis female) I don't think I would want to 'get dragged through a round of 'coming out' press. Why should sexuality be treated as an oddity by the median, and why should queer people have to subject themselves to that treatment?' The amount of coming out stories and things that could follow a person, or the people around, in the aftermath, would be atrocious. People, personally and professionally, may treat you differently after. The queer stereotypes would be exhausting. Also, it's not always as safe sometimes to be out. Whether there was/is a relationship at all between 1D members. “Being open to everyone isn't easy. Now imagine yourself no less human than right now, but add millions of eyes on you. It's insensitive to assume about someone when they could be doing their best/what is comfortable—please let's stop invalidating what we don't understand.”

Zayn's career connects to Hollywood, and he’s in the spotlight so it's not easy to suddenly believe everything I hear and see is the truth just because someone like him said it. However, at the same time, it's rather discomforting for me to disregard and look into everything people like Zayn or his constituents say. I want to believe the best in people and sympathize and “back him up” in a sense. It's also way to hard to believe all things other fans say because we are passionate and obsessed, so there is confirmation bias. 

Do I concretely believe anything? 

Yes, but those things don't directly confirm or deny anything especially Larry.

I believe the boys were responsible for RBB & SBB.

I have some reason to believe the song Carolina could be about experimentation with drugs since Johnny Cash's Cocaine-Carolina song is plausibly similar. Also, it's not uncommon if you're wealthy or famous to experiment with drugs, including harmful drugs; the environment can make it more accessible and normalized. I don't condone drug abuse; I hope Harry is wise enough not to make it a reoccurring thing. I want him naturally happy and healthy, but it's not my life, and I don't know him to have any right in making that call. I trust from Harry's character and what he said in his Zane Lowe interview that he knows better. However, the song Carolina might be about Townes or maybe it's both, I have no clue. 

I believe SOTT is about "fundamentals" like Harry said it is, not just from the perspective of 'a mother telling the child to go forth and conquer.' I notice some people readily look over the childbirth story, saying 'it makes no sense,' but it can easily coincide with fundamentals, "Equal rights for everyone, all races sexes, everything." Check out this in depth lyric analysis?

I think most of us know and support that Harry is a proud member of the community. If he wasn’t he’d just say that. 

I think maybe COAC and SOTT may have been collaborative. There are multiple writers on both songs and if it’s possible to have a ghost writer then I say it's plausible they chose to write them similarly. 

I think Louis possibly queer codes. Straight people don’t queer code so you might think it’s queer baiting but I don’t think someone sick of gay rumors would go that route. Either that, or he's a passionate and sympathetic ally.

However, Louis is still "with" E. From a perspective of committed fans, it doesn't look like a sincere relationship. As an outsider, again, it feels far too presumptuous for me to have a B&W opinion.

It seems that adults with somewhat official platforms let rumors run rampant, and not many grown adults of the time seemed to correct or silence it. I should have said this early and cannot stress this enough, ANYONE who is not the Louis Tomlinson or in his family tree is in no way an official source. If they're acting like they know things (not just reporting on what's happening), they were/are either trolling or want people to freak out for clout. Being led astray by people looking to capitalize on fans is always a danger. It's insensitive, inappropriate, and unprofessional, but it happened. I am surprised by that and that 1D's management didn't try to protect Louis and his image more. I’m not an insider able to judge him negatively or to overanalyze the situation. So I won't assume he's not a dad, and I hope he's doing well.

(About the above paragraph about Louis this is an update after the original post I made to say I don't have a further developed opinion because I never looked into it and don't know if I will so don't hold that against me please I just personally don't feel like it’s a thing I need to do and I know larries don’t appreciate when non-larries make comments on things without thoroughly looking into things so you won’t see a further opinion from me or judgment unless I do actual research)

In conclusion, and to reiterate, I feel like there is some truth to some things. Again, it feels disrespectful or too presumptuous for me to have many opinions, especially of the negative kind, as an outsider. I don't know any of these people personally, and I want to believe in the best in others. I am not harshly judging things because I don't have a complete story or the right to. However, this doesn't mean I disregard how bad the industry can be to people in multiple ways.

As fans, we can do much better. It's not unreasonable to wish people didn't constantly objectify/sexualize people with fame and didn't harass them/their families about fan theories. Also, always wanting something from these people and expecting them to fulfill god-like expectations as if they don't go through the same human experience and aren't completely flawed like the rest of us, or stalking them—something sick and a behavior that's saddening and disgusting. Real fans just leave them be to live their lives. Please call out stalking and discourage it if you notice it. Overall, I think we can all be a bit more respectful and understanding or try to make an effort. I'm not a superfan, but I'd like to be genuine and not a reason why these people dislike being in the spotlight. I feel like that means being as grounded, realistic, and sensitive about how these people may feel about things more than caring about how I feel about things that aren't my business in the first place. It ultimately means any fan theory isn't crucial. What’s important is just supporting them as is, as individual.

[#’s are for exposure and may not correlate]

[ds-sparrow-manufacturing-co]

A Rebuttal

Ok so I really did not want to make this post. I would’ve loved to have left this whole thing behind because I’m aware I made some mistakes and would like to atone for them, but it seems I’m going to have to go over this one more time. For anyone seeing this post who somehow doesn’t know, I said some regrettable things about Aidan Gallagher here. I later made another post here summarising the entire situation that resulted, so I would suggest you read that first. 

I’m still getting people telling me what I said was fucked up, which is entirely justified. However, I have just now realised that the person who took it upon themselves to ‘correct’ me about my opinions of Aidan Gallagher (something that has not changed, I still strongly dislike him) later made several derogatory posts about me. I was not aware of this because after the first rude post they made about me, I blocked them to save myself the additional stress. 

I have done my best to deal with this whole thing as calmly and politely as possible. When this person was downright evil towards me, I didn’t bother to argue with them, I just made an admittedly-snarky post with a screenshot of what they said, and then blocked them because I had no desire to begin an argument. When I realised that what I had said about Aidan Gallagher had been fucked up, I apologised, accepted my mistake and did what I could to fix it. But I am out of patience. I don’t take kindly to being treated the way this person has treated me, I don’t think anyone does. So here I am, about to break down everything they said about me bit by bit to show you how much of a lying scumbag they have been towards me (as well as possibly others).

warning: this post is incredibly long

tw: su*c*de mentions

My first interaction with this person was when i got an anon ask who wanted to know what Aidan Gallagher had done to make me dislike him. I responded with a brief list, excluding most of my evidence because it was late at night and I didn’t have the energy to go down the rabbit hole of all this. The following day, the blog this post is about reblogged my post, attempting to disprove everything I said. I will not include screenshots here, because it was a long post, you can find it in my archive if you so wish. I read what they said, took everything into account, and responded with my proof for things I hadn’t previously included the proof for, as well as explanations for why certain things he’s said annoyed/upset me. I expected a polite response, as we had both been courteous so far. 

Instead,  I received the following:

Now, lets break down some of what they said.

‘stop saying things you can’t prove, because it’s fake’ - I provided my proof. I am not trying to lie to anyone, or perpetuate rumours. All I aimed to do was explain my point of view and why I personally dislike him.

‘some of your screenshots are fake’ - That’s just blatantly untrue, especially as they have at other points said things along the lines of ‘well yes but he apologised/he didn’t mean it like that’ for everything I have provided screenshots for. Make up your mind.

‘you’re so gullible’ - For... having an opinion? That I researched before forming? And which is based on something other than my blind faith in a 17 year old? Right.

This was when I blocked them.

I thought that was going to be the end of the situation. Then, I got some asks.

I saw this and, being a minor, was a little creeped out. I had assumed this person was a teenage fangirl because that’s who the majority of Aidan Gallgher’s fans are so this information was surprising.

This one scared me. I did what the anon suggested, created a backup (i won’t tag it here because I get the feeling some of the aforementioned ‘army’ are going to see this) and reported the other blog. Once again, I thought it was over.

It was at this point that people started telling me how fucked up what I said in my original post was, and I realised they were right. As mentioned at the start of this post, I apologised, and did everything I could to fix it. End of, right?

Until today, where I started thinking about what the above anons had said and decided to fact check, mainly out of curiosity. I unblocked the blog, only to discover they had made 3 posts about me that I hadn’t seen.

This was the first one, as you can see they began it with a screenshot of my original post. Let’s talk about this.

“but you wishing him dead is ok?” - I never wished him dead, to start with. Stabbing does not automatically equal death, but I know that’s nitpicky of me. I also did not wish he was stabbed. I said in that exact tag that I didn’t, because of TUA. However, I know that this ‘joke’ was really shitty of me, and I have already apologised multiple times.

“what kind of a low life do you have to be to have nothing better to do, but talk shit about a kid?” - Why don’t you tell me? As I’ve said multiple times, I am a minor. That doesn’t excuse what I said, but that does make it incredibly hypocritical of them to say that given everything.

This was the second post they made about me, beginning with the same screenshot as in the first post.

“they’re spreading false rumors” - I’ve already covered this one.

“they want a reason to be mean, even if it isn’t true” - I would never be mean to someone if they hadn’t done anything to deserve it. I’m a strong believer in the moral philosophy of respecting everyone until they give you a reason not to. Aidan Gallagher has given me more than enough reasons to lose respect for him. And, honestly? I still respect him as an actor, even if only that.

“you can’t say you’re a decent human being and wish someone dead. you can’t say you’re anti-bullying and want to prevent suicide and then bully someone” - That is some big talk from someone who claimed they were ok with what Aidan Gallagher said about mental health because they’ve had their own experiences with suicide, before immediately telling me to rot and burn in hell for disagreeing with them. And, wait a second, wasn’t Aidan Gallagher the one supporting women’s rights and feminism who then turned around and made gross comments towards a bunch of girls? Hmm. Also, wishing someone dead is too wide of a blanket statement to actually measure whether someone is a decent human being with. 

“i tried to be nice” - I didn’t know telling someone to rot in hell, calling them a stupid hoe, was being nice. I didn’t know lying, and telling people to report someone because they disagreed with you was being nice (notice how they never said anything about my stabbing comment until I disagreed with them.) I guess we have very different definitions of nice.

“if they really cared, they would kindly ask a fan if the rumors were true” - And that, ladies gentleman and variations thereupon, is a brilliant example of how not to perform unbiased research! I based my opinion on actual evidence, and neutral articles as well as arguments from both sides. Not on one fan who’s likely to deny everything.

“they said it themselves, they have no proof” - That is so incredibly cherrypicked. What I actually said was “supposedly used the f-slur although i can’t find proof“, one of the many points on my list of reasons I dislike Aidan Gallagher. You know why I said that? Because I found a screenshot of him supposedly having called someone that slur via Instagram but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided it was probably edited. I included the point on my list in the hopes of people doing their own research. And I certainly did not say I had no proof for anything, as you would know if you saw my original response to this blog, where I provided proof.

“threatening him and bullying him is wrong” - I am fully admitting of the fact my stabbing comment was in poor taste but it was very clearly not a threat and not even close to being bullying. Furthermore, I would say making four posts harassing and telling others to harass someone because they disagree with you is a lot closer to being bullying than anything I did was.

“defamation is a crime” - I live in the UK, so let’s use those defamation laws. A statement is not defamation unless it ‘ has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the claimant.’ Less than a hundred people are even aware my blog exists. Nowhere near enough people have seen anything I’ve said to count as defamatory. Not to mention that a statement is not defamatory if it is a statement of opinion.

“you’ll get karma for lying and playing the victim” -  Ohhh the irony. I have not lied once. I have provided all the necessary proof for everything and I have owned up to my mistakes. And yet, they, who have repeatedly lied about me, twisted my words and oddly enough, avoided including proof outside that one screenshot of my original post, are the one accusing me of playing the victim. Classy.

“hi to your little follower that you cry to” - This one’s just hilarious to me. I’m happy to have people on here who will let me know when people are, you know, harassing and bullying me. And, what the hell do they mean by ‘cry to’? Do they mean ‘mentioned that this situation was stressful once’? Wow.

“I promise you misery for the rest of your sad little life” - Honestly just re-read the other screenshots after seeing they said this. Jesus Christ. And, as someone who already struggles with depression and other mental health issues I’m interested to know what they’re intending to do that’s gonna be any worse.

“you’ll pay! that’s not a threat it’s a promise” - Are they planning on tracking me down? Or are they just going to keep sitting on their throne of yes men and echo chambers acting as if they’re actually affecting me? 

I would say this is the last post I plan to make about this situation but I’ve said that over and over again throughout the last 12 days and it’s never the last post. This whole situation has honestly been very emotionally taxing, and combined with some real life things, it’s been a bad week or so. Hopefully this post is enough to end this whole thing. 

[princess-of-the-corner]

Hero Chat: Lila

This is just something for me to write out my thoughts on how to handle the Lila plot in the Hero Chat fic. And in general, but mostly this. Because I discussed using the ‘Lila has some kind of Magic’ plot for why everyone believes her.

I want to discuss both the ‘Magic’ plot and the ‘everyone kinda fucked up a little’ plot. Because both are things I want to talk out.

This isn’t necessarily salt, but it does involve Lila and the class believing her lies and a little of Adrien’s ‘don’t do anything’ plan. So you know. 

Let’s start with the Magic plot.

I’m calling the Magic ‘Silver Tongue’, because of course. It was a kind of Magic created by someone who used the Fox Miraculous for selfish gain in the past. They used the Fox’s Illusions to trick their way into fame, money, and power.

Eventually, they created a more subtle version of the Magic. Illusion in just words. Silver Tongue is just words that are believed as much as the Fox’s Illusions. They are also just as real as the Fox’s Illusions, believable, but destroyed if you try to touch them.

What I mean is that as long as the Silver Tongue’s lie is not given proof that it’s a lie, they will believe it. But they won’t believe something they know is false. For example, Alya believes Lila when she says ‘oh, I’m bffs with Ladybug’. But if Lila said ‘I’m Rena Rouge’, Alya would be able to tell it’s a lie.

Which, yes, brings us to Lila. In an ironic twist, she was right about being descended from someone who used the Fox Miraculous, just not a Hero. She actually had no idea and was making it up but hey. Everyone gets lucky sometimes.

The thing that makes a Silver Tongue lose their power, is the realization that they’re lying. Once you know that their words are lies, you won’t be enchanted by further lies. This is why Marinette and Adrien aren’t effected by Lila.

Marinette knew Lila was lying due to her saying ‘I’m bffs with Ladybug’. She knows for a fact that it’s false. Between this and the fact that she knows other lies are false, such as Jagged Stone having a cat or Lila being traveling for months, she isn’t enchanted by Silver Tongue.

Adrien was suckered in at first. But Ladybug showing up and calling Lila out on her shit broke the spell. It would’ve been broken anyway if Lila kept talking about having the Fox Miraculous, as she would’ve made up stuff about it that Adrien would know is false. For example, he could ask her to transform and she’d make up a reason why that doesn’t fit with what he knows. And she’d say nothing about a Kwami. So he would’ve figured it out without Ladybug’s help.

However, while there is Magic making the class believe Lila’s stories, she doesn’t control their reactions to it. Sending Marinette to the back without asking, dismissing her as jealous, and ignoring how uncomfortable Adrien is around Lila? That’s all on them.

There is also nothing stopping them from doing their own investigation, other than the fact that they feel like they don’t need to because ‘Lila is obviously telling the truth’.

When the classmates realize they’d been tricked, they will still feel guilty and apologize, recognizing that they fucked up even if Magic was involved.

-

Now for the non-magical version!

There’s a lot of factors of why Lila’s lies work. Some of it is because she’s good at manipulating the situation, and making up other lies when she’s called out.

Next, there’s the fact that Lila knowing celebrities isn’t that far of a stretch given the classmates.

Chloé and Adrien are actually rich and famous, but are in this one random public school class.

Marinette has gotten the attention of several celebrities and big names in the fashion industry.

Rose knows Prince Ali. And while we don’t really know how often they talk, a lot of people assume they talk a lot.

Then there’s Kitty Section. The band has gotten a lot of attention in the short time they’ve been playing.

Alya runs the Ladyblog, Number 1 source of Ladybug news.

Not to mention the Heroes. Everyone knows about Chloé being Queen Bee. From Alya and Nino’s perspectives, there’s three heroes in class. Other classmates who have been Heroes think there’s themselves and Chloé, making two.

So yeah, Lila, daughter of someone from the Italian Embassy who travels a lot, says she knows some celebrities. That’s kinda believable when compared to the rest of the classmates’ fame.

But there’s also the fact that multiple people expect other people to fact check or say something. For example:

When Alya makes a post on the Ladyblog about Lila being ‘Ladybug’s bff’, Ladybug doesn’t challenge that. Ladybug knows about the Ladyblog and knows how to find Alya. From Alya’s perspective, if it wasn’t true, Ladybug herself would have said something.

Not to victim blame, but Marinette really should’ve done that. If only to keep Lila and her family from being targeted by Hawkmoth.

Rose talks to Prince Ali. She could’ve asked him about Lila. Everyone probably assumes she did. Since she didn’t call Lila out either, he probably told her she’s on the up and up.

I do headcanon that Rose mentioned Lila to Prince Ali, but she didn’t do major digging. It was probably like: Rose: “Hey! I made a new friend! Lila Rossi!”, Ali: “I’m glad you’re making new friends! Would you like to hear about this cool thing that happened earlier?”. It’s the kind of situation where she didn’t ask directly, and since Ali didn’t go ‘who?’, she assumed that it was fine.

Lila’s ‘disabilities’.

From the Class’s perspective, it’s not on them to ask for documentation. It’s on the staff. If the staff members believe Lila has tinnitus and whatever else, then they have the documentation necessary to confirm it.

As for the staff believing it, that’s probably Lila forging doctor’s notes and hijacking her mom’s email. Or giving a fake email on the paperwork.

Lila being out of Paris for months

Like the disabilities, the class doesn’t need to confirm it as the school staff have done that. After all, Lila couldn’t just be skipping class for several months without consequences! The school would’ve contacted her mother, and her mother would’ve done something about it!

Obviously Lila also used the email thing from the disabilities section to fake an email from her mom saying ‘we’ve been traveling lately. Can you email Lila any classwork she needs?’.

As for her mom, we know she’s lying to her about the whole Akuma situation. Saying the school is closed because of all that fuckery.

So yeah, between decent lies, people assuming things are cool because they’re naive kids who like to see the best in people, and a few screwups, it’s easy to believe Lila’s claims.

And once she has a hold on the class, getting them to believe her, she can turn things around on those who try to call her out. Marinette tries to say something? Lila pulls out the ‘I’m being so nice! Why do you hate me!’. And since, from the class’s perspective, there’s no reason for Marinette to be mean other than jealousy over Adrien, they assume that’s the problem.

If Adrien had spoken up, Lila would’ve found a way to turn it around. Maybe she spins it as ‘Marinette’s obviously been telling you horrible things about me!’ or ‘Now he’s making stuff up to protect Marinette!’ . It depends on how dedicated she is to thinking she can win Adrien over.

So yeah it’s not that they’re entirely falling for a bunch of lies without proof. There’s enough plausible to Lila’s lies that they don’t feel the need to search further. Of course if they looked into it they’d find the truth, but for now they’re sitting back.

And of course when they do realize what happened, they apologize to Marinette and Adrien.

-

Side note: Adrien’s view of ‘why does it matter, she’s not hurting anyone?’.

First of all, Adrien wasn’t there for all of Lila’s bullshit. He does know she was lying to impress him and the classmates. He might be skeptical about the tinnitus claim, but can’t really prove that she doesn’t have tinnitus(obviously he knows the ‘how’ is fake, but she could hypothetically have it from something else). And it wasn’t Lila who made Marinette sit in the back, just the classmates assuming she’d be chill.

Adrien didn’t see the scene in the cafeteria where Marinette tried to call Lila out and everyone turned against her. He didn’t see the bathroom scene of Lila threatening her. And no one told him about it.

So, again, from Adrien’s perspective, Lila is just telling grand stories to try and impress everyone. Which doesn’t really hurt anyone. Maybe it will in the long run, if people keep believing her and base all their decisions on what she says instead of thinking for themselves. But that’s a bit unlikely. Also he’s still a teenager and they’re not the best at thinking long-term.

Adrien’s experience with liars is also more limited. He would mostly deal with paparazzi and tabloid reporters that make up gossip for clickbait views. People who saw him hanging with Marinette in ‘Gorizilla’ and tweeted out that she was his secret girlfriend. There’s a line I keep wanting to put into a fic somewhere of Adrien saying ‘If my father stopped what he was doing to disprove every rumor about him having an affair with a model or intern half his age, he wouldn’t be able to get any work done at all.’.

From Adrien’s perspective, it’s not worth it to call Lila out like Marinette was doing. All it’ll do is enrage the class and push them further into Lila’s side. They would be alone. They’d have each other, but no one else.

As shown in later episodes, like ‘Oni-Chan’ and especially ‘Ladybug’, Adrien does come to realize Lila is less of a ‘hey pay attention to me’ liar and more of a ‘I’ll manipulate the fuck out of everyone and destroy anyone who tries to stop me’ liar. And he decides to do something about it. Even if he can’t prove Lila lied, he can ‘make a deal with the devil’ and get her to fix things.

Okay, that’s it now. Goodnight everybody.

[blayzez]

So I recently rewatched Voltron s1e01 - The Rise of Voltron to compile screenshots of my favorite Lances of that episode, as I believe that episode animated him BEAUTIFULLY while the rest of the series tends to make him more off-model than any other character (don't deny it, you know it in your heart it's true).

Anyway, while doing that, I made a few... observations. As per the usual with pilot episodes, a lot was packed into this episode. Some of it probably seemed pretty throw-away, early season stuff that won't really make reappearances in the future. However, I am seeing some stuff that actually DID reappear -- sometimes late in the series. I am referring to these as planted seeds; these seeds were planted in the very first episode, but some of them are just late bloomers.

So I have decided to make a meta about this. I want to point out the different seeds that were planted in this episode and when they actually bloom later in the series. Keep in mind that some of these are very obvious and stuff that everyone knows, but I feel they should be here for reasons I'll explain later (and just to have these seeds in a nice compilation).

DISCLAIMER:

I have nothing against ANY ship. While I don't ship many things myself in this show, I'm not against the ships people have for this show, regardless of what those ships are. That said, my confidence in the endgame ship is Klance, and as such, other Lance- and Keith-related ships may not be shown in the best light in this post as one of the points I make in this meta is WHY I believe Klance will be endgame. I will not use the full ship names other than Klance so that this post will stay out of the tags of those ships. THAT said, know that I do not find the ships I'm trying to disprove unhealthy, wrong, or bad in any way, I just don't believe they'll be endgame. Please go into this with an open mind.

All that said, let's get this show on the road!

I am starting with the most obvious and well-known seed:

Okay, we all know about this one. Pidge being iffy about the Kerberos mission, eventually revealing to Shiro that the two people who accompanied him on the Kerberos mission were her father and brother, showing us that she desires ro find them in space. We all know this, the show has beaten us over the head with her arc repeatedly. Still, this seed was planted in this first episode and so it warrants mentioning. It's also noteworthy that this seed did not fully bloom until season 7 -- one season away from the finale season. This is important, but I will get to it later.

Onto the next one!

Another obvious seed. Allura's insecurities as well as her expectations of herself and the Voltron crew to carry her father's legacy. This seed is still growing and got a lot of focus in seasons 5 and 6, where it bloomed the most. This is a seed that I don't think CAN blossom until the series is complete, though, as bringing peace to the universe is how Allura and Voltron can fulfill her father's legacy. Not much to say here, just posting it for prosperity's sake and to show that, like most of the seeds on this list, this seed did not/will not fully blossom until the very end as well as the fact that it's something we see throughout the show and does not get ignored.

As for this next one:

I hesitated to add this one because it is a bit of a reach. After deliberating, I decided it was worth adding in.

So Allura was integral in Pidge's season 1 arc regarding Pidge's identity. I've noticed that Pidge seems to be reciprocating come season 7 -- Allura helped Pidge by trying to get her to admit to her true self but also keeping it a secret and letting Pidge be to one to reveal it, and now Pidge is Allura's MVP in getting back the castleship.

Allura is impressed by Pidge in this scene. This is actually Allura's first impression of Pidge, as Pidge didn't say much before now. And her first impression of her is that Pidge is extremely intelligent and has a mind that can be relied on. I think it's possible this is a seed that is sprouting now in season 7, when Allura is relying on the intellect of Pidge and Pidge's family get back a piece of Alfor's legacy -- the Castle of Lions. Allura even eluded to this in The Feud, when she chose Pidge to leave the game show and said it was because Pidge and her family have the best chance of finishing what Alfor started. And that started right here in this scene, I think.

So, next seed:

This is a small seed, and an unexpected one. I've always viewed Iverson as a jerk and thought this scene no different. Fresh off the heels of season 7, I rewatch this scene and realize how... honestly concerned Iverson sounds. He doesn't sound angry or too business-like or gruff, he sounds concerned and confused and seems to actually have Shiro's well-being in mind when he requests they put Shiro under. His voice, especially when compared to how he spoke to the Garrison Trio, is softer and hints that he really isn't as bad a guy as we've all pegged him to be. Come season 7 and we see how right that actually is. He ISN'T a bad guy; he's a strict guy, yes, but he has everyone's best interests at heart and honestly feels gutted when that entire crew is wiped out.

I know that was a small seed, but it still counts. Next seed, ahoy:

This explains a lot regarding Allura's connections to the lions, but we don't really see the fruits of this until season 6. In season 6, Allura was able to use her powers from Oriande to take Shiro's soul from the Black Lion's consciousness and place it into Clone Shiro's body. Yes, she has powers from Oriande -- that's how she was able to mess with Shiro's soul like that -- but it was her connection to the lions that allowed her to connect to Black Lion's consciousness in the first place. Oriande didn't do that -- Alfor did, and this scene proves it.

This next seed is... wow:

This one caught me by surprise because holy crap how did I miss this???

Okay, so I made a post talking about that Lauren Montgomery art and how it's playing into the show in unexpected ways. Please go read that to understand this to the fullest extent.

This scene? This scene foreshadows Lance's inclusion in Shiro's arc. Shiro offers a hand -- his Galra hand -- to Lance for shaking (Lance being the only person in the room aside from Keith whose name he knew). Lance looks at the arm trepidatiously for a split second before smiling and reciprocating the handshake.

This moment is focused on for a reason and I can't believe I missed it. Because isn't it interesting that Shiro offers his GALRA arm despite it being a symbol of his trauma and not something he'd be eager to flaunt? Isn't it interesting that the episode puts so much focus on his handshake with LANCE, but his handshake with Pidge is barely given any thought?

It IS interesting, and here's why.

Lance was much more important to Shiro's arc than we thought. While Keith brought Clone Shiro to an end, and Allura brought the real Shiro back to life, Lance was the support he needed. Clone Shiro wasn't doing so well. I mean, he's a Galra-created clone being controled by Haggar, of course he's not doing well. The ones who suffered the most from this were Allura and Lance. Allura stood up for herself and refused to be pushed around and sometimes managed to get her way. Lance, however, respected Shiro too much to do more than try and keep the peace. He didn't stand up for himself, didn't call Shiro out on his bullcrap, just tried to keep him calm and keep the peace among the team. It's no wonder that Lance is the one Clone Shiro goes to about how he's actually feeling. And what does Lance do? He supports him. Comforts him. Promises him they'll figure it out together. He's worried at first, much like how he showed worry before accepting Shiro's hand in s1e01, but he ultimately puts that aside and accepts Shiro.

This scene was the planted seed. It was subtle, so subtle I completely missed it, but here it is. And it took a while to bloom, BOY did it take a while! Took until season 5 before we got to see it blossom. But it did and Lance was the support Clone Shiro needed to stay sane until Keith could come in and fix the situation.

Speaking of Lance:

This seed came to fruition in season 3 -- it was definitely foreshadowing. Most of the other paladins get are shown alone when shown their lions. There are two exceptions to that (one of which I will get to later).

This seed is the first exception. Lance and Keith are both shown with the Red Lion here, rather than Keith alone. Come season 3, Lance becomes the Red Lion's new pilot.

With this next seed:

This was planted in this first episode and didn't really see the light for day for AGES. We were told from the very beginning that Hunk is the one who is meant to help keep the team together, but we don't actually see that happen.

Until season 7.

Hunk's arc in season 7 seems like it came out of nowhere (his family arc kinda did), but it was foreshadowed from the very beginning. There was always going to come a time when the team seemed like it was falling apart and it'd be up to Hunk to keep them together. And in season 7, that's EXACTLY what happened. This seed actually sprouted in season 6, when Hunk got their Galra allies to stop arguing during a crucial moment. It stagnated then, until season 7 came along and this seed finally bloomed in full.

I love this next seed:

This seed is one of my favorites, because the principle of its existence helps prove a point I will make later in this post.

It's Leifsdotter! This is a seed that didn't begin blooming until season 7. I know, the showrunners could have just needed a design for an mfe pilot and pulled hers out of the episode, but there are two things that make me disagree with that notion:

1. Her design is so much more... detailed and not standard-background-character-ish than the rest of the students in that scene. She's not the focus of the scene and doesn't even speak, yet her design makes her stand out. The showrunners WANT us to see her.

2. Hers is the only mfe pilot design pulled from that episode. That group had multiple different character designs and all of them could have easily suited the mfe pilots. But the showrunners didn't do that, which makes me think this was very deliberate and planned out.

I will be getting to these points soon.

Now for the seeds that have been growing throughout the series but have not reached full bloom. First off, we have...

Okay, this one is super subtle. Shiro actually has had a hand in Lance's romance arc since this first episode. We have a very tiny hint of Shiro's sexuality with this shot:

Color theory is often used in media to portray subtle clues to the audience about something happening in the background or as foreshadowing. This scene is the latter; it foreshadows Shiro's arc by using a rainbow in the background, right above his head, and the lemur-sloth-thing that's guiding them blocks the rainbow off from extending to Pidge as well, keeping the rainbow strictly to Shiro. So we had a subtle hint in this very first episode about Shiro's sexuality.

And I think that alludes to the expectation we all have of Shiro helping Lance with a sexuality arc. It makes sense, and it's interesting seeing that Shiro has kinda of been involved in Lance's romantic arc this whole time! Right from the first episode!

We see it continue throughout the series; the people that are most annoyed with Lance's flirtations are Shiro, Keith (who isn't really verbal about it but almost always looks disgruntled), and Allura (who is often on the receiving end of said flirtations). Shiro interrupts flirtations on multiple occasions and has shown a lot of annoyance with it.

This... kind of continues in season 7 with the reveal of Shiro being gay. He doesn't have much interaction with Lance, but I think his sexuality being revealed here (however... too subtle it may have been) is paving the way for the climax of Lance's romance arc in season 8.

The next seed is not nearly as subtle:

Black Paladin Lance! This is the second exception to the paladins + their lions scene I mentioned earlier.

I know a lot of people lost hope in this, but not me. There has been way too much set up for this, and as I will talk about soon, almost everything that has been set up has come to fruition.

So let’s look at this scene.

The Green and Yellow Lions have scenes with their paladins alone -- no other paladin is in the shot. For the Red Lion, both Keith and Lance are in the shot, which foreshadowed Lance eventually taking over the Red Lion -- which happened in season 3. Then we have the Black Lion. Three people are in that shot -- Shiro, Keith, and Lance. Shiro is, of course, the original Black Paladin. Keith took the helm in season 3 and then again in season 6 - present. So this shot foreshadows that. This leaves Lance.

I want to point out how this shot is set up. Shiro is the largest, which makes sense as he was the Black Paladin for the longest -- seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and half of 6. Keith is the second largest. Again, this makes sense as he's been the Black Lion's pilot for seasons 3, half of 6, and all of 7. So he has been the pilot for the second longest. Lance being the smallest makes sense if he's only to be the Black Lion's pilot for a short while. So theory time!

I believe something will happen to Keith in season 8 -- he'll be captured or perhaps Honerva mind-controls him. The Black Lion then enlists Lance to be its pilot long enough to get Keith back, who will then take over as the Black Lion's pilot and Lance goes back to Red.

And it makes sense, considering how this shot is set up, for it to have taken this long for Lance to be the Black Lion's pilot. He's the smallest in the shot, smaller than Keith, and Keith had only just gotten back to piloting the Black Lion. With the way the series is set up, it wouldn't have made sense for Lance to pilot the Black Lion sooner; seasons 4 and 5 (keeping in mind that seasons 3 and 4 and seasons 5 and 6 were meant to be single seasons each and were split up last minute), while not featuring Lance -- although Lance has always been developing in the background, it's just slowly done and not at the forefront -- do show the changes he goes through in losing Keith to the Blade of Marmora. We see him become isolated, ignored, and any confidence he had built up being Keith's right-hand was shot. Season 6 was about resolving the overall problem of which Lance's issues were a side effect. Season 7, meanwhile, allows us to see Keith coming back into action with a clearer mind while also showing us how much he relies on Lance despite being a much better leader. You can see the difference in Lance's actions in the show between seasons 4 and 5 and seasons 6 and 7; in season 7 especially, he's much more in-action, plays a much bigger part, and shows how necessary he really is. This was all needed for Lance's arc -- getting rid of this flow (even if season 4 was not the best by any stretch of the means) would have weakened Lance's arc and made him less able to be the Black Lion's pilot.

Another point I want to bring up is the "following in his [Keith's] footsteps" thing. This is something that has also been a constant in the show -- not the phrase, but the action. Because Lance is ALWAYS following in Keith's footsteps. ALWAYS. He literally followed Keith's footsteps in this episode to save Shiro. The series shows how often he follows Keith -- they're constantly next to each other, Lance often wants Keith's glory, and in more serious points, he takes over Keith's lion, takes Keith's role as right-hand man to Shiro, gets a sword like Keith gets.

Quick diversion, on the subject of the sword, Lance has yet to use it despite having it for three seasons. In my opinion, this was to show us how alike he is to Keith and serves little purpose beyond that (perhaps will have a plot point sometime in season 8).

Back to the point, Lance has always followed Keith. "Don't follow in his footsteps," was something that was a focal point of the scene it was said in. It was that scene's finale line, a line that we were supposed to pay attention to and remember, and then the episode shows Lance disobeying that repeatedly and constantly following Keith's footsteps. This seed was planted -- a whole scene gave us focus of it being planted -- and it has slowly grown and blossomed over the course of the series. It hasn't fully bloomed yet, but season 7 did not ignore it like some might think. There was a bump in the road, but we saw him really slide into the role of right-hand man to Keith, showing himself reliable and actually being better as a right-hand than Keith was. He's followed in Keith's footsteps and, in some ways, has surpassed him. We also saw his relationship with the Red Lion and how similar it is to the relationship the Red Lion had with Keith. He's been following Keith's footsteps throughout the show and that hasn't stopped -- season 7 made sure to showcase that.

One last point I want to make is Lance's progression. His main issue in leading the team in this episode was his ego. Season 7 is such a huge jump because Keith leaves the team in Lance's hands and we see how responsible and logical Lance is in doing so, making keeping the team safe his number one priority and not even caring about the glory. When Keith put his, Pidge's, and Kosmo's lives in Lance's sniping hands, Lance had a chance to brag to his sister and the mfe sniper that was with them. He didn't. He explained what his gun does in a no-nonsense manner and left it at that. There was no ego, not talk of the glory he'd get for his skills, no showboating. He stayed on the task and his only concern was getting his job done right and keeping his teammates alive and safe. That seed was planted in the first episode -- that was his starting point, and much like his leadership seed, he has grown and bloomed into something much bigger and better than what he started out as.

And there's my point here: His leadership skills have grown. This seed is the seed of his leadership, and it has slowly grown as the show has gone on. It sprouted in season 3 and now season 7 is showing how beautifully it's blossoming. A seed planted in this episode didn't really start to blossom until the second-to-last season! As mentioned before, yes I will come back to that particular point soon (we're almost to the culmination of these "soons" and "laters", I promise).

I swear this next seed is important please bear with me:

I know the A//urance in season 7 scared a lot of people off, but PLEASE bear with me, I swear I have a point. Also, I promised Klance would be a big part of this meta and I was not lying so just... be patient. This is important.

Lance's arc has always been romance and that became the most obvious here. I want to say that out of all the un-bloomed seeds on this list, this is the one that is nearest to completion because his arc with Allura will conclude -- I predict -- early on in season 8.

Allura is important to Lance's arc, we can't deny that. His crush on her is superficial at first. This is proven later in the season; when Allura sacrifices herself so Shiro can escape the Galra ship, Lance is no more worried about her than the other paladins. Honestly, Coran and Shiro are more worried about Allura than Lance is. And that's saying something considering how much he worries about her later in the series.

The A//urance seed -- which I believe is mostly platonic and only dips into romance a little bit but will go right back to platonic -- was planted in this episode. It doesn't really grow much until season 5. That's not to say Lance's thing for Allura is not mentioned or focused on until then. No, what I mean is it is not DEVELOPED until season 5.

In the first two seasons, it's basically a running gag, there's not real seriousness behind it. Season 3, after Lance supports Keith's leadership, shows a turn in their relationship from running gag to actual friendship. However, season 3 doesn't show us much of this -- we only get focus on it in episode 2. After that, their relationship is sidelined for Lance and Keith's development.

We got a scene or two in season 4 of their friendship, but relationships aside from Pidge's and Matt's are not really explored or focused on in this season.

That's where season 5 comes in, because that's when we see them have serious scenes together that are akin to their scenes in s3e02. It's also where we see that Lance's crush on her is no longer a gag. In fact, until season 6, it's practically non-existent. Season 5 instead focuses on their friendship. Season 6 focuses on his one-sided crush.

And season 7...

Here's the thing: Season 7 isn't as A//urance-friendly as is believed. Sure, they get two nice scenes together, one including mutual blushing, and both including teasing from Lance's sister. However, there's something much, much different about their interactions here than in the previous seasons, and that is Lance's attitude.

Because Lance doesn't seem that terribly happy that Allura might be reciprocating his crush. He smiles, yes, but he only really blushes because of his sister's teasing, and he denies that Allura could possibly have any feelings for him. While, yes, that could be due to his insecurities, but if season 7 showed us anything about Lance, it's that his insecurities are finally lifting and he's finally gaining confidence in himself and his abilities.

If season 7 showed us anything about their relationship, it's that Allura initiated both of their scenes. Aside from that? Lance... actually kinda of ignored Allura for most of the season. His attention was more focused on his family and, well, Keith.

And that's something I've noticed has been consistent throughout the series since season 3.

In season 3, once Lance became Keith's right-hand man, his flirtations stopped COMPLETELY. He not only stopped flirting with girls in general, he even stopped flirting with ALLURA. And this stuck throughout the rest of season 3.

Season 4 had Keith leaving the team, yet Lance's flirting didn't pick back up. I believe this was because he really missed Keith and wasn't quite ready to fall back into his old habits. Season 5 is much the same.

Now his sudden flirtations with Allura (he only flirts with her on two occasions, I must point out) in season 6 seem out of nowhere. However, there was some build-up to it, what with his development with her in the previous season and the fact that he was jealous of Lotor's closeness with Allura. Not a lot of build-up and was still kind of sudden, but there was some.

However, I want to point something out: He started flirting again in the same season that has Keith's return. I believe this was deliberate and will play an important role later on.

Season 6 is also when we find out the depth of Lance's feelings -- it's not love, but it's a much deeper crush than he used to have.

This seed was planted in the first episode and was focused on quite a lot throughout its introductory episode and the episodes through the rest of the season. It took a while to grow, but it finally is and it is nearing it's blossoming. Like I said, I believe this seed will reach its full bloom early in season 8.

The last seed, however, will not reach its own full bloom until the end of season 8.

And the very last seed is-- oh come on, you know exactly what it is.

Yes, it's Klance. Of course it is.

Okay, so Lance's and Keith's relationship was one of the focal points of the episode. The seed that is their relationship was planted here and it's been growing this entire series. We've watched it grow and bloom, its growth being a focal point of the series, and season 7 did not ignore this. Actually, season 7 showcased their growth. It showed how much their relationship, which was once built on jabs and competition, is now built completely on mutual trust and respect and devotion. For God's sake, Lance called Keith the future! Compare that to how he interacted with Keith in the first episode and you see how much their seed has bloomed and how much season 7 did not only NOT ignore this growth, but actually made it one of the season's main themes.

I want to bring up these screenshots:

This might be a reach, but I find it interesting that Lance is standing in between Allura and Keith in this shot. Like, right smack dab in between them. Meanwhile, he isn't even looking at them. He's looking at Coran's pod, his face being in neutral territory. To me, this screams a subtle hint of Lance and his two love interests.

His front is facing Allura, his back to Keith. This seems like a visual to Lauren Montgomery's "He knows what he wants but not what he needs" thing. He wants Allura, is facing her, and he has his back to what he actually needs because what he wants and what he needs to not align. His face is in looking in neutral grounds, showing that while he prefers one side to the other, both sides are options.

It's also interesting to note that Allura is above him because of the pod. Later in the series, we find out he believes that Allura is above him, that he is beneath her, inferior to her.

Keith is below him but is stepping up to reach Lance's spot. He stays on the steps for a bit, but...

He obviously makes those final steps and a few minutes into the scene, he is standing beside Lance (something that happens a lot throughout the series). This is interesting because while Lance always secretly viewed Keith as being above him (i.e. better than him), him and Keith have always been on level ground with neither of them being superior to the other -- they just have different strengths and weaknesses and it takes Lance time to realize that just because he and Keith don't have the same strengths doesn't mean Keith is better than him because there are things that Lance is better at Keith in (shooting, being stealthy, strategies, etc.). They were always on level ground. Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck.

We have this shot:

In this one, everyone is looking at Shiro, and everyone's faces has the expression of excitement (and trepidation for Hunk because he's concerned about the bodysuit's size in proportion to him). Everyone is looking at Shi- no wait, Lance is definitely looking at Keith.

See? His line of sight is pointed directly at Keith. Someone pointed out that he supposed to be looking at Shiro, that his line of sight, if continued, points to Shiro. This is what I had to say to that:

"See I thought that, too, which is why I didn’t catch it until now. Lance’s line of sight COULD be leading to Shiro, but instead of looking at his face like everyone else, he’d be looking at Shiro’s man-titties. And while they are very nice, I doubt Lance was actually looking at them. If he was supposed to be looking at Shiro like the rest of the team, his irises would have to be right in between the top and bottom lines of his eye outlines. That’s how everyone elses shes are animated – even Keith’s irises are positioned upward to properly look at Shiro. Hunks irises are more down, yes, but that’s because hes taller than Shiro. But Shiro is slightly taller than Lance, so the position of Lance’s irises if hes looking at Shiro doesnt make sense as his irises would have to right in between the top and bottom lines of his eye outlines. Instead, they’re pointed down, at Keith."

Here's a quick edit I did to show where Lance's irises would have to be to be pointing to Shiro:

NOW he's looking directly at Shiro. But that's not the official animation we got. No, what we got was this:

While this could boil down to Lance having small irises, making it difficult to animate exactly where they need to be, I don't buy that. Hunk's irises are small in this shot and were animated fine, and s1e01 has some of the best animation the series has seen (I'd say only The Black Paladins tops it). The animators knew what they were doing. This was deliberate.

Then there's this screenshot:

I just think this one is pretty.

I also want to show just how often Lance and Keith end up standing next to each other. Here's a link to a compilation someone made of all the times Lance and Keith stood next to each other in just the first episode.

This? All deliberate. There is no way this was done accidentally, considering how often it happened in just this one episode and how often it happens in the series henceforth. One post would not be enough to showcase all the times they stood next to each other throughout the series. They're next to each other more often than any other character -- they always gravitate to each other, are constantly and consistently animated next to each other, even in season 7.

A lot of people assumed that A//urance and Ka/cxa was now set up for the endgame ships, but I think those people are jumping to conclusions waaaaaay too quickly.

You see, here's the thing about endgame ships.

They happen at the end.

Any ships being set up in season 7 are going to be rushed because they are not endgame. Josh Keaton keeps repeating that this is being written as a slow burn -- he wants us to remember that, so he's constantly saying it. Only Klance fits that term.

I want to bring in the Legend of Korra for just a second to prove my point.

LoK did not start off with Korrasami. One of the creators (Bryan, I think) really liked the idea of Korra and Asami being together, but they were operating under the assumption that they only had one season and Makorra was considered the easier relationship to develop. So Korra and Asami started out somewhat as rivals -- what with both girls liking the same guy, and Korra being suspicious of Asami's father and allies. Then they got greenlit for more seasons. What's the first thing they do? Season 2 dismantles Makorra and the season finale makes sure we know that these two are NOT getting back together and will not be endgame. Seasons 3 and 4 then go on to develop Korra's and Asami's relationship, but it was done subtly, to the point where there were many fans that thought the romance in their relationship came out of nowhere. They were wrong -- the friendship between these two was probably the most developed one of the series. Asami ended up back with Mako in season 2 after he and Korra broke up, but their relationship was shown to have ended season 2-3, where Asami began developing with Korra more. Both Asami and Korra had romantic relationships before ending up as each others endgame, and their relationship didn't take its real dramatic turn until season 4 -- the series' finale season.

Keith and Lance's relationship share a LOT of similarities -- which makes sense considering how many of Voltron's showrunners worked on Avatar and LoK. Klance is practically genderbended Korrasami IN S P A C E. A lot of what I mentioned up above about Korrasami fits Klance a lot -- both relationships started out rocky, turned into a friendship of mutual trust and respect, and are the most developed relationships of their respective series. The difference is that Voltron's showrunners knew how much time they had and didn't have to divert the relationship's endgame like LoK had to do with Makorra/Asamako/Korrasami. Klance's relationship development ended up much slower but much smoother because of it.

I actually regret judging season 7 as harshly as I had, because there was a lot of goodness in there and it really didn't kill Klance (a conclusion everyone, myself included, jumped to). A//urance and Ka/cxa? Yeah, it's there. But they're so tacked on that they're practically afterthoughts. The relationship that actually got focus this season? Klance. We saw the inherent trust Keith has in Lance in almost every episode, and we saw the high opinion Lance has of Keith as well as how much Keith leaving hurt Lance more than anybody else. Their relationship was a focus in season 7, one that I feel a lot of people overlooked because of a few tacked-on scenes featuring the other aforementioned ships. Honestly? I'd say that while this season isn't as Klance-centric as season 3, it probably fits in the number two spot. Don't believe me? Go watch it again, like, REALLY watch it and see how much Klance meat is in this season. Because there's a LOT.

Their relationship has always been a focal point of the series, and while some seasons didn't focus on it as much as others (compare seasons 1, 3, and 7 with 2, 4, 5, and 6 -- keeping in mind that seasons 4 and 5 hardly had Keith in it and seasons 2, 4, and 6 still had some noteworthy Klance moments), it has still been the most focused-on and developed relationship.

And that started with the very first episode.

The very first episode planted their seed and that seed's growth has not been ignored, contrary to popular belief. And that's where the "laters" and "soons" come in.

Because see the finished seeds list? All of those seeds were planted in the very first episode. And how long did it take for them to blossom? A LONG TIME. The earliest one we got was the Lance and Shiro seed, and that took until SEASON 3 to bloom. Another took until SEASON 5 to even SPROUT. The rest? Took until season 7. SEASON 7. That, to me, is proof that the showrunners have not thrown out the seeds they've planted in the beginning; it's just taking a long while for them to sprout and blossom. The fact that most of them took until the second-to-last season to fully come to fruition is absolute proof that early-planted seeds are not suddenly being ignored. We just need to be patient. Just because these seeds aren't blooming fast enough for our liking doesn't mean they're not blooming at all. It's not over until it's over. We still have another season for those seeds to blossom, so let's look to the future with hope and confidence!

[wanderingmelodies-blog1]

Post-S7 Galaxy Garrison Meta

(aka the meta about ranks and shit that no one wanted)

So as we return to Earth for season seven, we get a lot more information about the Galaxy Garrison and how it works. This prompted quite a few questions on my part, so I sat down and started to think about varying things that we can infer from what we see. This post will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t watched season seven yet, proceed with caution!

In this post, we’ll go into possible ranking structures based on what we see and hear, as well as the varying ways that cadets are possibly trained, and wartime differences. This will focus specifically on the installation that the Paladins were cadets at and thus we see more of, rather than the organization as a whole.

So the ranks we hear for certain are Cadet, Lieutenant, Commander, and Admiral. Captain does not necessarily infer a rank, but rather a position. For example, we see Shiro as the Captain of the Atlas, regardless of what his rank is. Prior to his taking command of the Atlas, we see him called both Lieutenant and Commander, so the likelihood is that he got promoted upon returning to Earth, alive and well. However, the rank in question he’s promoted to? There are actually two possibilities.

Given Shiro’s age, the possibility is that they’re using the rank of “Lieutenant Commander” which is a Naval rank. But it’s entirely possible he is simply a Commander, which would skip him a rank if they were using Naval ranks. However...the fact he was a Lieutenant before leaving Earth brings things into question, because if he was indeed twenty-five, then reaching such a rank at such a young age would have been difficult if not impossible.

On the other side, however, Lieutenant is the first rank in the Army upon completing Officer Training -- Second Lieutenant, to be exact. But...the Army doesn’t have a Commander rank.

So my train of thought currently leads me to believe that they use a ranking structure that combines multiple ranking structures from the modern world, to make things simple. So, my thinking is that the rankings go like this for officers and cadets: Cadet, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, Commodore, various Admiral ranks. 

However, no fighting force, even in a supposedly peaceful planet, will be made entirely of officers. There are also enlisted ranks as well, those who didn’t do officer training, those who signed up straight out of high school and went into the field they wanted to pursue. Now, theoretically one could say we don’t see any proof that this is possible beyond my assumptions based on knowledge of the US Military from limited time enlisted and in training, and random bursts of obsessed research due to writing fanfic and being involved with the Star Trek RP community on Second Life. However...

Right here, we see three separate uniforms. The one Admiral Sonda wears is most likely for Flag Officers -- so Commodore/Admiral, while Iverson and Holt are wearing Commissioned Officer uniforms. Veronica and the guy way in the background? There are a couple possibilities. We are never given any sort of rank for Veronica, or else this would narrow it down (or at least we weren’t that I saw, but I saw the season itself once so far). The possibilities are she is a Warrant Officer (someone with specialized knowledge prior to joining the military), a Non-commissioned Officer (basically, Sergeants and similar ranks), or enlisted (your Privates and Crewmen).

Given she is the one relaying the messages, that she’s the one they’re talking to, I’m inclined to think that she’s an NCO (non-commissioned officer), but we haven’t got anything that proves it one way or the other, especially since they don’t have noticeable rank insignia anywhere. Even when we see Shiro in the flashbacks with Keith initially in training at the Garrison, there isn’t much difference between him and Sam Holt.

The only difference is that he has two golden stripes on his shoulder, while the rest we see all have three stripes. Only among the cadets do we really see differences in rank based on the shoulders -- here later in the same episode we see a single stripe on the Cadets’ uniforms.

While later on we see two stripes with no indication of how much time has passed, and when the Paladins return to Earth, (excepting Shiro) they’re all given the Cadet uniform with two stripes.

Shiro, however, seems to have been promoted around the time that Keith moved up to a two stripe cadet uniform, so there...really is no telling what rank is what anymore.

Even these supposedly senior cadets who are being put into planes, and are the same age as Hunk, Lance, and Keith ought to be (or at least James is) are still at two-stripes, showing a lack of more ranking among the cadets, which isn’t bad necessarily, but is odd, given how long they would be there at that same rank.

Now, away from the ranking system and over to the Garrison itself. It’s obviously a military base and a training location both in one. The kids there are obviously high school to college age, which makes me think it’s likely they have multiple programs they’re training kids in. With the teams and simulations they put together, however, it looks as if they have a focus on space exploration. So the focus is placed on training pilots, communications personnel, and engineers. Often, training bases will have specialties and train specific things. Sometimes there’s more than one for a specific thing, but still there’s typically specializations. There might be others trained at this specific location, but there’s just as much chance that there aren’t.

However, we do see other officers/enlisted running around doing other things. There have to be those who take care of administrative details, medical personnel, there’s mentions of cooks in one of the flashbacks Pidge has in season one, there’s likely other kinds of scientists as well milling around, especially once it’s discovered that yep, there are aliens out there.

Given the ages we’re given for Hunk, Lance, and Keith, and how long we can estimate they were there (since Pidge is an exception to the rule given she did her plot magic to get in), they are literally high school students. However, they’re later on in high school, so they’re likely high school juniors when they start by today’s standards, and they probably take courses that are a mix of what they would’ve taken in high school as well as courses in their chosen field, getting them ahead of the curve. Otherwise, they would likely be twenty-two upon ‘graduating’ and the like.

I do think there’s likely other programs in place at the Garrison, for those who merely want to enlist, and for those who decide to join up after high school to become officers, and those who join and already have a degree. But we don’t see much of anything to prove or disprove that in what we’re given in canon.

However, something that every cadet has to do is physical training. Not like rehabilitation of injured limbs or the like, but training to make sure they’re fit. There aren’t many bigger folk there, but the assumption can be made that everyone there is fit, or close to it, or they wouldn’t be present. Especially once they get into wartime.

Now, for something a tad bit more specific. Shiro’s rank. We hear him called ‘Lieutenant’, ‘Commander’, and ‘Captain’. However, there are a lot of things that are called into question by this. First off, we know he was Lieutenant when he left Earth, based on how Iverson addressed him when they all pulled into the base. However, not too long after, he was addressed as Commander. There are a couple of possibilities here. One -- he was promoted because he would have been in the time he was gone regardless, and thus was moved to Lieutenant Commander or Commander in rank (as both are addressed as Commander for short). Two -- he was promoted despite being gone but not because of it, and the promotion was a wartime promotion, something that normally wouldn’t be done but given the situation, it seemed fitting.

Now, the problem with two is...if Shiro was promoted because of wartime, why weren’t the cadet pilots promoted to officer? Why weren’t the Paladins promoted to officer? It would make sense for them to be promoted to whatever the lowest officer rank is rather than keeping them as cadets.

The only thing I can think possible is that perhaps Shiro borrowed a uniform from someone, but the others got new uniforms, and cadets were still treated pretty damn well and put into situations cadets shouldn’t be in, because it was war and every little bit counted. And they only had spare cadet uniforms.

I honestly hope this little bit is addressed come season eight, but I’m not holding my breath.

Now, back to Shiro’s rank specifically, I think his rank is either Lieutenant Commander or Commander, despite the fact that he is later called Captain. Why? Because, Captain is not just a rank, it’s also a position. He was the Captain of the Atlas, he was directing everyone and acting as such, so when they called him that, they weren’t being little shits -- they were addressing him by what he was doing, and admitting he was the best suited for the job. Sam Holt might or might not outrank him, but he is still going to follow Shiro’s orders, because Shiro is the Captain, he’s effectively the commanding officer of the whole shebang.

I hope that this random burst of thoughts has been helpful to anyone who just wonders about the Garrison -- and I’ll point out these are just my own thoughts on the matter, and nothing in this is strictly canon. This really is more headcanon/meta than anything else.

[violetsystems]

#personal

It can be a nightmare after all these years to be too transparent for public record.  I imagine it would be something like a poltergeist; always bumping into things and being misinterpreted or read into.  The age old posit of “Shit Happens” doesn’t leave much room for argument or even proof of life  Nobody ever seems to hear my side of things other than when I write about it here.  Nobody registers the endless frustration because I hide it all so well.  I changed a lot of my routines in the last two weeks specifically.  A year ago I started getting harassed at the gym so I changed my schedule there to an early one.  Eventually I quit the gym altogether.  These days I don’t even own a gym membership.  The Nike Training App core routines and some barbells have delivered far more than the stress I had leaving the house.  I think I’ve learned over time that Yoga and Pilates in the back bedroom teaches you more about form and control.  I use a mirror to monitor my posture.  I don’t feel any prying eyes on me behind closed doors.  For years everybody knows I’ve been my own coach and source of motivation.  The source of inspiration is a given and that’s always been fiercely personal to me.  The fact that it should be so obvious is something I’ve learned to enjoy because it is to me.  But nobody particularly knows or cares what goes on in my personal life other than here where I write.  They forget about the weeks and the work therein.  So I probably resemble a ghost clanking with chains in the hallways.  There’s no causality because nobody pays enough attention to accept I exist.  I’m stuck in a limbo between the known and unknown.  There’s some attention I avoid.  I avoid heavy doses of it every day because I know better.  It’s sticks out like a sore thumb socially and I’ve had to practice a sort of poker face.  People often have a habit of expressing their distaste that I think for myself.  I changed my train route to work.  I still bump into awkward invisible walls.  People trying to hijack my narrative in public.  People afraid of ghosts I guess.  Some cultures leave offerings for the dead.  Others try to exorcise and eradicate them.  Some people throw dust to the wind and some people keep their loved ones in a jar above the fireplace.  I’m still alive clawing at the fabric of society and not so much reality.  Society is fake this we all know.  More obsessed with post truth and fake news than statistical based science.  I used to have more dread towards my situation.  That I would be completely forgotten and misunderstood for the rest of my life.  Obviously people following me around on my commute regardless of my route disproves that fate.  People treat me like Frankenstein sometimes.  Pitchforks, torches and all.  Every other week I’m on trial for a different section of my being.  I’m a patchwork of things I’ve picked up from art school year after year.  And year after year there’s something else that claims it’s cooler, fresher, and more alive.  A good excuse to keep me buried.  To keep the heresy out of plain sight.  And then there’s me banging away at the keyboard early in the morning on the internet like a spirit in the tv static.  People free to read into the message however they please.  Most people just surf right through me.  The noise is still out there every Saturday pulsing like a brain in a petri dish.  The horror.

I read this article about how they were growing brain tissue in a lab.  There was this rhythmic pulse of electricity that they couldn’t explain.  The ethics of testing on conscious living material are dicey at best.  So are half the relational aesthetics driven social experiments done in the name of justice and revolution.  What is right and normal is a lengthy discussion.  But it requires dialog. Sometimes I feel like that brain in a dish trying to give a signal but nobody wants to acknowledge.  No one wants the inconvenience of reading how I really feel.  My routine the last year has been fairly measured and predictable.  Yet people still feel the need to watch and make sure.  It’s been a bit of an insult to come full circle a year later and know full well I told you so.  And some of that sting from my own pride is softened by the fact that I broke free from the petri dish a long time ago.  Patch worked my own identity in the face of valid harsh criticism.  I am who I am and I accept pretty much everyone at face value.  I have saved so much face this year that I’ve become more weary of public and how much it takes to put on the act and show.  For all the revolutionary movements I’ve supported and all the calls to action I’ve heeded nothing much has changed for me.  In America there is this endless cycle of outrage.  Right versus left.  Good versus evil.  Black versus white.  And it spirals into a fractal of endless opinions and vitriol.  Nothing gets defined.  Compromise is completely nonexistent.  Closure is a luxury most cannot afford.  You can’t have closure without getting yourself wrapped up in a bigger drama which limits and belittles the argument in favor of populism or worse.  The tribe of public opinion has spoken.  You have been voted off the Deleuzian Island you were shipwrecked on.  A reality exposition in front of camera phones and a conscripted army of influencers.  America has moved from clique to tribe.  Everything is a little more Mad Max than it used to be.  On the weekends I still stare out my kitchen window early in the morning.  People have so many hidden expectations for me now it exhausts me just thinking about it.  It is pure mental anguish to read into all the projections and there’s no real payoff.  What statement shirt will I see today.  What hidden message or Easter Egg do I have to squint my eyes at to prove I’m fully woke.  It’s what is expected of me to be left alone I guess.  Yes I’m ok.  Yes I have a job.  Yes I keep myself busy.  Yes I keep myself out of trouble.  Yes everything outside of my apartment these days seems to be causing me more trouble than it’s worth.  Yes I’m very sad on the inside.  And yes none of that really matters because when I shut the door and think about the people I care about it’s all worth it.  Because I’m not some experiment in a dish that demands some qualitative proof of my usefulness to science, life and America.  I’m my own science project.  A mixture of phantom, shade and shambling mound.  I figured out a way to hide the scar tissue in broad daylight and let the sun fill the hollows in my face.  I’m the most handsome Frankenstein to walk the Earth.  Maybe more of the Hulk for good measure.  Aren’t they pretty much the same thing anyway?

Universal Studios actually owns the film rights to Frankenstein down to the makeup.  The only Frankenstein movie to ever make it to Japan was because of a guy from Chicago selling the rights to Toho.  He’s also the guy that could have boosted Lenny Bruce’s career.  He instead launched Woody Allen’s rise to stardom.  A parable lies within all of this.  Maybe why we’ll never see a decent standalone Hulk movie inside the MCU.  Maybe I’ll just read the comics instead and let it play out in my own head.  There’s a lot of bullshit that I don’t ever want to be part of.  A lot of soul sucking corporate tactics that don’t honor the actual art form.  And there’s the reality that money, jobs, and careers make the world go round.  I work at a non profit.  I make a non profit salary.  I’ve lived being made to feel like I’m inferior to money.  I’ve learned how to budget myself a return to New York every two months.  Someone at work asked if I had any gigs there.  I said I quit music because it was threatening my safety.  In truth the last year was really about setting up a perimeter in my life.  A place that was safe enough and anonymous to share some intimacy with another person.  Music didn’t serve that for me anymore.  It hindered my goals.  How I’ve gone about building fences around my garden has been akin to that scene in Frankenstein negotiating with the villagers.  Except in a no holds barred me alone against the court of public opinion sort of way.  Modern day Hulk has evolved into a sort of cultured retaliation against the mobs.  He’s still too similar to the mad scientist story to make poetic cinema out of it all.  Me I live this shit every day.  Hulk in Hell.  Abused in some ways and blessed in others.  People don’t like it when I’m angry.  I guess as they say that’s the trick.  I’m angry all the time.  It’s how I act upon it.  How I sacrifice my incomprehensible rage and tortured feelings out of love.  For me I spent the whole last year doing something about it.  Challenging the infrastructure of all this bullshit and leading by example.  Too much force and you break things.  Too little and they walk all over you.  Lenny Bruce had the entire police department after him for saying what he felt.  Woody Allen succeeded in Hollywood.  How you view the hypocrisy of all that is all in what you accept and what you resist.  Resistance isn’t fun.  And it looks different for everyone.  The most political battle to fight is the personal one.  The right to be and the right to think.  What is the real different between Frankenstein and the Human Ken Doll anyway?  Who owns the rights to me being me?  What gives me the right to have an opinion?  Who I can talk to and who I can love?  What I need to become to be treated as an equal in the public eye?  What people have done to stop me from becoming who I really am?  Why do I even care about having a popularly accepted opinion when no one listens?  Who has room for drama in their life when I only make space for all the love I have for you?  Of all the pieces of my life that I stitched together you are the most important one to me.  Because you are the piece that makes me whole just by being you.  It’s not a missing link it’s been an important foundation to my struggle.  If I keep bumping into you in the dark just remember it’s a love tap.  I don’t mind if you tap back.  Only you though.  Fuck all this other shit. <3 Tim

[imum-coeli]

Hi. Ok, I'm not going to speak for all of SoRiku fans when I say this, but as a SoRiku fan myself I have never denied the fact that Sora does indeed have feelings/a crush on Kairi that persists through both games. However, that's not to say he can't possibly have feelings for Riku as well (which obviously, is what I believe). If you don't think that, hey, it's my interpretation and you can believe what you want. I won’t try to prove otherwise to you and I promise I'm not trying to convert you to this pairing (which is probably impossible at this point anyway), I just want to give you some insight on why I like SoRiku and give you some reasons why many others do as well. First, I’ll address what you had to say, then I’ll add anything I still have to explain at the end. Sorry, this will be a little long… You mentioned how back on Destiny Islands Riku and Sora were always in competition with each other and how it mostly seemed to be for Kairi's attention. I would like to point out the fact that Kairi does not seem the slightest bit interested in Riku, so even if he usually wins in competition with Sora, it’s like he’s fighting a losing battle when it comes to gaining Kairi’s favor. What’s interesting though is that if Riku is given the opportunity to act on his supposed feelings for Kairi, does he? No. It almost seems like this battle between Sora and Riku is one sided. When we arrive at Destiny Islands it’s like we’re supposed to know how things have always been with this group of characters. Riku’s the show off that everybody’s impressed with and Sora’s the underdog that never gets his chance to shine. I’ll be honest, I was a lot younger when I first played Kingdom Hearts and I disliked Riku because I thought he was being mean to Sora. Now that I’m older I interpret their interaction a bit differently (this is a personal thing, not a dig at you. I’m not saying that I’m wiser or anything by thinking this and I’m sorry if it comes off that way.) I think it’s sweet that Kairi actually shows more interest in Sora because of how the characters are presented and how I expected her to be all over Riku, but that’s not what goes down. What I noticed about Riku is that he probably shows even less genuine interest in Kairi than she shows in him. I mean, he shows interest but isn’t that only when Sora is listening? I think it’s very interesting that Riku seems to only pretend to have feelings for Kairi in order to get a rise out of Sora. Riku obviously knows at this point that Sora likes her, so why would he do this if he has no intention of acting on his own feelings for her? I agree that Sora got upset when Riku suggested that the winner of the race give a paopou fruit to Kairi because of his feelings for the girl. In fact, most of what Sora did, his actions and thoughts, revolved around saving and finding Kairi for almost the entire game. I won't even try to deny that. No matter how much I love the SoRiku pairing, I would hardly ever use evidence from the first game to try and prove mutual feelings of anything other than friendship between the two. But that's the first game. Anyway, the sunset scene. Not sure how that does anything to disprove the SoRiku relationship other than strengthen the relationship between Sora and Kairi. Which still really doesn't take away from any feelings that might be had by Riku for Sora. The only problem I have here with your argument is that you are trying to disprove the pairing of Sora and Riku, but aren't taking into account how Riku fits into the equation. It’s not only Sora’s feelings that should be analyzed. Sora’s feelings for Riku aren’t going to be demonstrated during a scene with only Sora and Kairi in it. Whether you’re trying to just prove friendship or otherwise. You can’t really argue how a pairing doesn’t exist when talking about a relationship that contains another character. Just my opinion. Whether Kairi is serious or not also doesn’t matter, from the way I’m looking at it. One doesn’t take away from the other, especially in a scene that’s playing favorites. Anyway, onto the next. When Sora tries to grab Riku's hand, that shows how much he trusts Riku. I wouldn't call it so much a yaoi pointer as much as it simply demonstrates that they do have a stronger bond then one might think at first because of their rivalry and bickering. That being said, I think it’s also telling how Riku tried to convince Sora to come with him by telling him that Kairi would be going too. He didn’t actually know her whereabouts, so how could he have known if she would even survive the darkness, let alone be able to find them? It seems he just didn’t care. (I think that changes though, I really do believe that all three of them care a lot about each other regardless of who’s paired with who and just don’t think he cared in that moment because he had Sora with him. Plus the fact that it was possibly their one chance to leave the island.) Like I said before, Sora's main motivation in the first game is to find and save Kairi. I know he has feelings for her. He does have a tendency to daydream about her in both games. However, Riku is a big motivator for Sora at the end of the first game when he's about to give up and during a lot of the second game...no…? On Captain Hook’s ship, I don’t think Riku really gave Sora a choice in the matter. I don’t think he betrays Riku’s friendship by defending Kairi against him. It would have been worse for all if Sora hadn’t acted. In a way, Sora was fighting to save Riku from himself just as much as he was fighting to save Kairi. It wasn’t ever about picking sides or who he liked best. It was about what was right and what was wrong. What Riku was planning was wrong and Sora knew he had to fight him in order to stop him. Riku was angry at the time, not to mention jealous of Donald and Goofy and I don’t think the ensuing fight helps to prove or disprove this pairing either way. If it was Kairi he had to fight against because it was her in Riku’s place, do you honestly think he wouldn’t? It would have been a lot more dramatic and a lot more tears would have been shed, but Sora’s a bit of a hero. He’s a strong character and does what needs to be done. If the fact that he is willing to fight against Riku means so much, then what about the fact that he’s just as willing to accept Riku back into his life, even after all he’s done, as his best friend? Sora didn’t want to fight him, it’s something that he had no choice in at the time. When Sora continuously talks about what he needs to tell Kairi , he doesn’t mention Riku at all. I know that might seem like a huge deal, but I don’t see it as being much of one. We don’t hear his thoughts, we don’t know what he’s thinking. Granted, you could turn that around and say he could be thinking about Kairi, but that’s why there’s this thing called interpretation. When he talks about and envisions Kairi, I actually think those parts of the game are really sweet. I just don’t think that they prove anything more than a crush. I’m not doubting the strength of his feelings, just the depth of them. Again, interpretation. I’m just a bit tired of people saying that every bit of SoRiku evidence points to Riku and Sora simply being really great friends, when the same could be said for a lot of the evidence pointing to SoKai. Depending on how long lasting you think young teen crushes are. Hollow Bastion. This one is pretty difficult to tackle. But, really, you might hate me for saying this, but do you honestly think if the situation had been turned around and it was Riku he had to be turned into a heartless for, he wouldn’t do it? Not even Riku, but Mickey, Cinderella…or anyone really? I think he would. That being said, I’m also a believer in writers actually knowing what they’re doing. If an event happens, in anything. Be it book, tv show, movie and it’s important, I won’t disregard it even if it goes against what I’m trying to explain I believe. What I’m trying to say is that Riku wasn’t the one Sora sacrificed himself for, it was Kairi. And with me, things never happen on accident. The writers/creators of Kingdom Hearts wanted to demonstrate the lengths Sora would go for her. I acknowledge that completely. However, you go on to explain how Kairi gave her heart to Sora and that he risked practically everything to save her and give it back and in the process ‘gives’ her his own. I understand that giving your heart to someone usually means you love them and I’ve said before that I think he does care for her. But something I kind of implied earlier or meant to is that Sora is an extremely selfless person. For him, this act of sacrifice almost isn’t that big of a deal (it is a huge deal, I’m just saying because of his actions towards others), to be honest with you. Yes, it’s very sweet and obviously this means something, I just don’t think it’s everything it’s made out to be and I don’t take it a face value. Kairi giving him her heart means next to nothing to me because of what you’re arguing. If in a television series a girl loves a boy and that boy has a crush on her, but he doesn’t get a chance to reciprocate until he possibly has feelings for someone else and then the series ends, well, does it really matter how the girl feels about it? She could be madly in love, but it doesn’t affect his choice. She doesn’t get the guy, not in canon at least. And the lucky charm thing? Friends give each other lucky charms all the time. I'm going to continue this in a different review cuz i'm not really done...

[kyuu-rereads-umineko]

Ep5, ???? (Part 2)

And so our detective declares that all the clues have been presented.

Okay, not quite, but still.

Battler reflects on having reached the “peak of Mount Purgatory,” then immediately thinks about how Beato’s “an idiot.” It was in Ep6 that Battler describes the two of them as “two idiots who failed to reach each other,” wasn’t it?

He wakes up in the cathedral, still impaled, and finds Beato snuggled up against him, only for her to dissolve when he tries to hold her.

I’ve always been inclined to read Beato’s death in the Meta-World here as a parallel to what happened on Rokkenjima Prime - Even though Prime!Battler got an opportunity to talk to Yasu face-to-face, and even though he reached her heart (as Tohya, years later), he was too late to actually save her. No matter what he says or does, in the Meta-World or in the aftermath of the disaster, nothing can change the fact that she died.

To be clear, I’m not laying all the blame for that on Battler. It’s not as if Yasu killed herself simply because he vanished for six years. In terms of the Rokkenjima Prime tragedy, I feel like - in many ways - he was essentially in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

In terms of Beato’s - Yasu’s - Meta-World death, though, I’m more inclined to label him as culpable. Again, though, it’s not as if the blame is entirely his - I feel that his biggest sin is just not thinking. In Tea Party 4, for instance, he’s not trying to solve Beato’s game so much as he’s just throwing out random ideas to see what sticks. He laughs off his infamous small bombs theory just as readily as Beato does.

Also, it’s only really in ????5 - as seen in the previous post - that he starts to think about why the fantasy scenes exist beyond “to convince me a witch exists,” or about what the implications of someone witnessing magic are. While Yasu might be at fault for making her riddles too hard - and I do understand where he’s coming from in saying that - Battler’s at fault for not thinking about what she might be trying to tell him.

At any rate. Battler cries and laments the fact that he was too late. “You believed so strongly, didn’t you...? That I’d... definitely reach the truth...?”

To be honest, though, the way he flips back and forth between “BEATO YOU IDIOT” and “IT’S ALL MY FAULT” feels very genuine to me. It’s an interesting contrast to his “YOU’RE THE MURDERER STOP BLAMING MEEEEEEEEEEEEE” spiel in Ep4.

Battler clutches the last piece of Beato he can reach - a golden butterfly wing - and swears to himself to “never again lose the truth.”

Meanwhile, in... the exact same place? META GONNA META

Anyways, Erika’s laughing at Battler’s corpse (charming), when the red longsword impaling him suddenly turns gold and he starts sputtering back to life. Bern thinks it’s a joke on Lambda’s part, but she’s just as awestruck as Bern.

Lambda accepts Battler’s request for a retrial, and acknowledges him as “the new Endless Sorcerer.” In terms of the Meta-World, Battler’s now the one holding the key to the catbox.

Battler is officially recognized as the new “territory lord” of the kakera, and by extension, as the new Game Master. Erika screeches, obviously not happy about having her title taken away from her so soon after earning it.

“...I can construct a theory with someone other than Natsuhi oba-san as the culprit. It may be that your truth is impossible to disprove... If so, that means your truth won’t be able to deny my new truth either!”

Dlanor steps forward. “...Battler, I’ve been WAITING.” i may not be able to stand erika but dlanor is soooo goood

“Lady Erika’s reasoning has solved the 5th GAME. No new facts exist which can overturn the truth created by this reasoning...!!” Battler counters with the catbox.

He then proceeds to lay out his theory wherein he’s the culprit, citing Rudolf’s weird behaviour in Ep1 and 5, and his inability to declare Asumu his mother in Ep4 as proof. Y’know, while the whole “Battler’s mother” plot point never really intrigued me that much compared to the rest of the story, I feel like the payoff for it was kinda underwhelming, at least in how it was delivered? Even from early on, it’s easy to see how Battler takes after Kyrie - if it weren’t for the narrative explicitly saying otherwise, I’d have thought she was his mother from the very beginning.

Having said that, to be honest, I really appreciate how the payoff isn’t something ridiculously convoluted, like Battler being Beato’s direct sibling or something (yes I know Yasu is his blood relative, but still). Rudolf’s babyswap is a lot more feasible than some of the other options.

At any rate, Erika steps forward and starts laying out the immediate problem with the Battler culprit theory - the time of the first twilight’s murders. “It’s only possible for the crime to have taken place between 24:00 and 1:00!! During that one hour, you were in the dining hall of the mansion!! [...] From 1:00 until the discovery of the crime, it was impossible for the crime to occur in the cousins’ room!!”

Battler counters with the proposition that they were still alive at the time. Episode 5 really is one of the rudest episodes to the reader, as such - not only is there the constant “detective’s viewpoint” trick, but there are things like Erika checking the cousins’ room without verifying the bodies. Coupled with how Lambda’s going crazy with the narrative, it’s incredibly easy to get lost and overwhelmed.

“How often do I have to say it?! The deaths of the four people in the cousins’ room have been proclaimed with the red truth!! Furthermore, those corpses were witnessed by a large number of people!! It’s already been proclaimed in red that no examination of these corpses would lead to a mistaken result...!! Take that, dead people!!!” EVERY TIME I READ THIS LINE I START LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY

Ronove appears and points out that the deaths were only announced at the opening of the trial - in other words, at the very end of the game, which leaves the “corpses” unverified for almost 24 hours.

“It may be true that all corpses would not lead to a mistaken examination, no matter who it was that checked to see whether they were alive... but it has never been said that there was a rule against something other than a corpse being called a corpse.”

Erika asks why Battler screamed if no one was dead, and Gaap appears with “Kinzo’s already dead,” undermining Erika’s theory on how the bodies disappeared.

One by one, the Stakes appear, declaring that none of the victims of the first twilight were moved after their deaths. Dlanor steps forward, declaring Knox’s 2nd in red, stating that Battler needs proof of Kinzo’s death to invalidate Erika’s theory.

“Presentation of evidence. I’ll present a corpse which could possibly be identified as Ushiromiya Kinzo’s...!!” Dlanor counters that he has to prove it’s Kinzo’s corpse for it to work, and Bern cackles at how he’s cornered - red truth’s been forbidden as proof, leaving him without anywhere to run to.

“How are you gonna prove that the corpse was Kinzo’s if the red truth is sealed? It’s impossible. It can’t be done...!!” “...With red or blue... right...?”

“I guarantee, without a doubt, that this is Ushiromiya Kinzo’s corpse!!” Dlanor concedes, while the witches (and Erika) are left speechless.

“...Gold truth, effective. The gold truth... can only be used by the territory lord of this world... no, only by the Game Master himself...!!”

Dlanor “elaborates” that the gold truth is woven “differently’ from the red, and that its strength is situational. I’m inclined - in no small part due to GRS, because I believe this is how they interpreted the gold truth as well - to view gold truth as... How to put it.

For one thing, gold can only be used on a topic if the person talking about it fully understands everything. Battler’s use of gold here is proof that he understands the entirety of Beato’s - Yasu’s - game and heart. In Ep6, when Elder Beato uses gold to declare that Chick Beato used magic to make the flower petal appear in the tea cup, it’s proof that she understands the true form of magic - how it manifests, who can use it, what its limitations are, etc.

As for what the difference is between it and red... While with red, you can’t say anything that’s patently false (e.g. Battler choking on “I was born from Asumu” in Ep4), the gold is less strict. To use Ep6 as an example again - in the context of the “real world,” i.e. no fantasy layer, Chick Beato would use sleight of hand to make the flower petal appear, so “she used magic” is a false statement. However, in the context of magic itself, she did use magic, so the statement is valid. 

Hopefully that makes sense. Anyways, Erika balks, pointing out that she’s still got points to argue on, “like Hideyoshi’s closed room, the seal on Natsuhi’s personal room, and the button in the closet.” The seal on Natsuhi’s room...? Am I forgetting something here?

“Because of this, Grandfather’s absence has been verified, and the dishonourable relationship between Natsuhi oba-san and Grandfather has been removed from consideration!! Natsuhi oba-san is pure and faithful! I won’t permit this vulgar tale you’re all so fond of!!” Aww, Battler... He then points out that everyone else’s alibis are null and void since the times of death are in question.

Dlanor knows she’s lost, but still confronts Battler on his theory, saying, “However, in the cousins’ room, you witnessed corpses which were impossible to MISIDENTIFY! Are you trying to say that was a FALSEHOOD?! Knox’s 7th, it is forbidden for the detective to be the CULPRIT! The detective is obligated to have an objective point of VIEW. Your theory violates this OBLIGATION!”

Battler responds that seeing Kinzo in the rain after solving the epitaph proves his viewpoint was subjective all along. As I think I mentioned earlier, the thing about Ep5 that I think trips people up when it comes to viewpoints and whatnot is that when Battler “sees” Kinzo, while it’s true he’s with Erika, she doesn’t see Kinzo herself, and she wouldn’t be likely to - it’s dark, it’s raining, and she’s focused on the chapel’s mechanism.

On the other hand, when it comes to the number of people in the parlour, there’s no such room for doubt - the chances of hiding in a room packed with so many people are slim to none... except for Yasu, of course. Anyways.

“So, once you claimed to have seen Kinzo, it was no longer misrecognition... but INTENTIONAL. In other words... this proves that the observer wasn’t objective... is what you are SAYING?”

Battler asks Dlanor to forgive him for his “crazy argument.” She replies, “If a man like you is in this WORLD... You will surely protect the fragile truth from any kind of ARROGANCE. You will surely protect the real truth from the tyranny of any plausible truth... that might claim to exist as the sole truth and try to exterminate all fragile TRUTHS!”

Like earlier, Battler doesn’t strike down Dlanor. “I’ve paid my debt. ...Let honour be to your father. The Decalogue was neither arrogant nor judgmental...!” 

And of course Erika screeches about how Dlanor has BROUGHT SHAME upon Knox and whatnot, and Battler basically tells her to stfu. this feels really good to read

Erika still argues back, though she hasn’t addressed the issue of the corpses disappearing. Bern snaps at her, and she hurriedly comes up with an “explanation,” apparently. i... kinda want to know what it is

Bern laughs at Erika’s “pathetic” reasoning, but Dlanor and Battler step in to defend her. battler’s a better person than i am because i don’t think i could do that tbh

“Because there has been no decision, the Illusion of the Witch still exists. The only one who will be permitted to expose that is neither Erika, nor the rest of you... It’s me alone! I won’t let anyone expose Beatrice’s illusion except me!!!” still possessive, battler ur kinzo is showing

Lambda declares Battler the new Game Master, and he challenges Erika one last time. Bern gives her one last chance to redeem herself.

“Just watch, Beato. ...I’ll take charge of your game!! And in this next game, I’ll prove that I completely understand all of your riddles...!!”

And that’s the end of Ep5. Closing thoughts...

Episode 5 is definitely one of the “rudest” episodes to the reader, with how it plays around with viewpoints and concepts like detective’s authority. I’m also inclined to place it as one of the more difficult episodes, if only because of how Lambda and Bern’s influences manifest themselves - The man from 19 years ago instead of Lion, Beato being portrayed as separate from the culprit, Erika’s presence, etc.

On that note, Erika. As much as I hate her, she’s a great character. She’s a personified reminder that searching for a solution isn’t going to get you anywhere. Don’t look for just what’s possible - look for what’s probable and work backwards from there. I don’t think I need to explain Dlanor as a character, because Ep5 is pretty blatant about her purpose.

In a way, while the first line of this post - about our detective announcing “all clues have been shown” - was meant in jest, it’s pretty accurate. Through the first half of the series, Shannon and Kanon are linked very strongly to each other and Beatrice, the nature of their existences and deaths are explored through Maria and Ange, “love” is suggested as a motive for murder on multiple occasions... Being “furniture” is made very distinct and far deeper than being a servant...

On top of that, we’ve not only had the man from 19 years ago formally introduced, but we’ve also:

Had him implied to be hiding among the 18 characters we’ve already met;

Had another motive for the murders provided (Natsuhi commenting that he must have “lived a very hate-filled life”);

And, while this might just be me, I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that falling from the cliff as a baby left him with a very grievous injury. Coupled with Beato talking about Kanon - a man - “crying himself to sleep” over not having a human body, and the way she attacks Kanon on an emotional basis compared to attacking Shannon - a woman - on a physical basis, I don’t think assuming that “furniture” refers to a physical condition of some sort is much of a stretch.

Really, almost all of it is there. While I can understand why Battler’s deduction and realization seems ridiculous to some people, I don’t feel that way myself.

Anything else... I suppose there’s the question of what actually happens on Ep5′s game board. Frankly, though, this post is getting long enough as-is, so I’ll write a separate post for that. After that, Episode 6! Time to see how good of a writer Battler is.

[fairchildlingpo1]

How to Research Your Target Audience to Increase Resonance

Recently I conducted some target audience research. And I learned something tasty—and a bit unexpected. Ready?

Successful marketers are 242 percent more likely to report conducting audience research at least once per quarter. And 56 percent of my study’s most elite marketers conduct research once or more per month.

So, researching your target audience is a marketing must. And not just for product development—it’s a gateway to connecting with your audience in revelatory ways.

Really, it’s the nuts-and-bolts of what Jay said in his book Youtility: “What if instead of trying to be amazing, you just focused on being useful? What if you decided to inform, rather than promote?”

Target audience research is a way of doing just that—of turning the spotlight from your stuff to their needs. In essence, it’s about going from this:

To this:

Target audience research is a way of turning the spotlight from your stuff to your audience's needs. Click To Tweet

It’s just like finding your content core. Surveys, customer interviews, and other forms of feedback help you laser-focus on the intersection of your audience’s problems and your ability to help solve them.

That big audience research project I mentioned was primarily about learning the strongest predictors of marketing success. We certainly gained some insight and fascinating data. Here are three quick highlights:

Top marketers document their marketing strategy. Marketers who document strategy are 538 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers document their marketing processes. Marketers who document process are 466 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers set goals. Marketers who set goals are 429 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 81 percent of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.

But the most valuable learning came from getting a peek into our target audience. You know, what they care about. The challenges they face. The gaps between their success and failure.

I’d like to share the “why” and “how” of using research on your target audience to increase resonance with them across your marketing channels. Hint: It’s about a shift in mindset and, in turn, resource investment—from “look at me!” to, “Look at you! Now let’s make your life better!”

Your Process for a Target Audience Survey

The best news is researching your audience is easier than ever. It’s a genuine low-cost, high-reward activity, and it’s one of the quickest ways to separate yourself from the marketing herd. After all, we discovered 65 percent of marketers rarely conduct research (if at all)!

So let’s gear you up with an easy, three-step process, plus a template to rock target audience research like a pro. We’ll use the example of conducting a survey throughout. Though, if this is new territory for you, be pretty generous with your definition of “target audience research.” Heck, I’d even count picking up the phone for some customer convos or shooting off an email or two.

Alright, let’s rock.

Step One: Check Your Assumptions

To start, you gotta check your assumptions. We all have them. And research is the best way to prove or bust them. It’s like what Mark Twain said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

For example, I put two marketing assumptions to the test:

Content is king. Marketers who spend more time creating content will say their marketing is successful.

Quality over quantity. Marketers who have higher quality content will say their marketing is successful.

After all, what content marketer worth their salt doesn’t accept a “quality > quantity” mindset? I certainly did. But here’s what the data says:

There is no correlation between time spent creating content and reported marketing success. (R = 0.02; n = 1,597; p-value < 0.0001)

There is some positive correlation between content quality and marketing success, but nothing earth shattering. (R = 0.29; n = 907; p-value; p-value < 0.0001)

What this showed me is that the question isn’t simply, “Are you creating epic, high-quality content?” It is, “Are you creating the right kind of epic, high-quality content?”

Relevant content is resonant content.

To start, make sure to download the “Target Audience Research Starter Template.”

The first sheet is labeled the “Assumptions Buster.” In column A, insert your audience persona or brief description of your target audience. Next, list an assumption about that audience segment plus your reasoning behind said assumption. Then you’ll start brainstorming the questions to prove or disprove this assumption.

For best results, list as many relevant assumptions as you can think of for each persona or segment. You don’t have to test them all. But the more you outline, the better your questions will be.

The final column on this sheet will be for revisiting once you’ve completed your survey. This is where you can confirm an assumption—or put it to rest for all eternity. ⚰️ (Or at least until your next survey.)

Step Two: Craft Your Questions

Next, you’ll move the best questions from sheet one onto sheet two, labeled “Survey Questions.” Remember, your data is only as good as your questions, so clear, concise, and relevant questions are your survey’s lifeblood.

My favorite article on writing survey questions comes from Qualtrics. They outline the 10 Commandments for killer survey questions. (Definitely worth a read!) I’ll synopsize what I found to be the three most important considerations.

Avoid loaded or leading words: Don’t use words like “could,” “should,” or “might.” They may sound the same but can be interpreted differently.

Avoid non-specific questions: A question with issues of “meaning” or “frequency” is hard to specify. For instance, with the question, “Do you watch TV regularly?”, what does “regularly” mean?

Avoid non-exhaustive listings: If you’re listing multiple-choice answers, give people an “Other (please specify)” option—unless you can cover 100 percent of the choices. This is an excellent candidate for pretesting.

This is where sheet two comes in.

Your questions belong in column A. Next, note what type of question you’re asking. Here are some ideas (though non-exhaustive).

Simple question types:

Free text: Simple text entry, y’all. These are incredibly insightful if you’re trying to pick up on the language your target audience uses. However, it’s also the most labor-intensive at high volumes and makes it tough to run any kind of regression.

Multiple-choice: This is the great scholastic standard—multiple, pre-written answers to choose from. These are great to run total percentages on for comparisons against the entire sample. Just keep in mind that if you can’t provide an exhaustive list covering all possibilities, leave room for an “Other option” selection so you don’t force inaccurate answers. (Hint: Remember, C is always the best guess. Just kidding!)

Binary: Yes or no. Hot or cold. ‘Nuff said.

Scale: These questions can run the gamut of “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” With these, make sure to give folks a “Neutral” option if the question isn’t completely relevant to them.

After you’ve knocked out your questions, consider using a pilot survey to give your questions a test drive. This way you can ensure people understand what you mean.

I ran a test pilot survey with some feedback questions at the end:

Were any questions confusing? If so, which?

Did any questions seem irrelevant to your situation? If so, which?

Then I took the responses and cleaned up the frequent offenders.

Step Three: Crunch The Numbers

Now it’s time to get nerdy and run some numbers.  Excel is an easy tool for this. And if you want some quick visualizations, Tableau is a nice tool as well. (If you wanna go ultra-nerd, you can even learn R or Python.)

If you’re serious and have some big data to crunch, two things you’ll want to do well in Excel is use the CORREL function to get the correlation coefficient. And the next is to simply use cells to calculate normal distribution probabilities. (Neither of these is as scary as it sounds!)

Your correlation strength is known as an R-value. It’s measured on a scale from -1 to 1, with 1 being 100 percent correlated, and -1 being 100 percent negatively correlated. What you’re looking for are patterns that signal whether or not two factors have a chance of impacting the other. For example, take a peek at the example CORREL function from your template.

First, select the CORREL function:

Next, choose the arrays (or list of cells) you’re going to compare:

Then, the cell you inserted the function into will output the correlation, or R-value, between the two datasets.

From here, you can dig into “why” these data points are correlated positively or negatively.

And remember, correlation does not equal causation, so ensure to take your context into consideration to use your original research like the savviest of marketers.

Now Go Research!

You’re all set to rock some target audience research. Obviously, you can delve far deeper and use more expansive methods. But if you’re new, this is a high-return place to start. Now sink your teeth into some research, and do the best (and most resonant) marketing of your career!

http://ift.tt/2kDEPr5

[maryhare96]

How to Research Your Target Audience to Increase Resonance

Recently I conducted some target audience research. And I learned something tasty—and a bit unexpected. Ready?

Successful marketers are 242 percent more likely to report conducting audience research at least once per quarter. And 56 percent of my study’s most elite marketers conduct research once or more per month.

So, researching your target audience is a marketing must. And not just for product development—it’s a gateway to connecting with your audience in revelatory ways.

Really, it’s the nuts-and-bolts of what Jay said in his book Youtility: “What if instead of trying to be amazing, you just focused on being useful? What if you decided to inform, rather than promote?”

Target audience research is a way of doing just that—of turning the spotlight from your stuff to their needs. In essence, it’s about going from this:

To this:

Target audience research is a way of turning the spotlight from your stuff to your audience's needs. Click To Tweet

It’s just like finding your content core. Surveys, customer interviews, and other forms of feedback help you laser-focus on the intersection of your audience’s problems and your ability to help solve them.

That big audience research project I mentioned was primarily about learning the strongest predictors of marketing success. We certainly gained some insight and fascinating data. Here are three quick highlights:

Top marketers document their marketing strategy. Marketers who document strategy are 538 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers document their marketing processes. Marketers who document process are 466 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers set goals. Marketers who set goals are 429 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 81 percent of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.

But the most valuable learning came from getting a peek into our target audience. You know, what they care about. The challenges they face. The gaps between their success and failure.

I’d like to share the “why” and “how” of using research on your target audience to increase resonance with them across your marketing channels. Hint: It’s about a shift in mindset and, in turn, resource investment—from “look at me!” to, “Look at you! Now let’s make your life better!”

Your Process for a Target Audience Survey

The best news is researching your audience is easier than ever. It’s a genuine low-cost, high-reward activity, and it’s one of the quickest ways to separate yourself from the marketing herd. After all, we discovered 65 percent of marketers rarely conduct research (if at all)!

So let’s gear you up with an easy, three-step process, plus a template to rock target audience research like a pro. We’ll use the example of conducting a survey throughout. Though, if this is new territory for you, be pretty generous with your definition of “target audience research.” Heck, I’d even count picking up the phone for some customer convos or shooting off an email or two.

Alright, let’s rock.

Step One: Check Your Assumptions

To start, you gotta check your assumptions. We all have them. And research is the best way to prove or bust them. It’s like what Mark Twain said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

For example, I put two marketing assumptions to the test:

Content is king. Marketers who spend more time creating content will say their marketing is successful.

Quality over quantity. Marketers who have higher quality content will say their marketing is successful.

After all, what content marketer worth their salt doesn’t accept a “quality > quantity” mindset? I certainly did. But here’s what the data says:

There is no correlation between time spent creating content and reported marketing success. (R = 0.02; n = 1,597; p-value < 0.0001)

There is some positive correlation between content quality and marketing success, but nothing earth shattering. (R = 0.29; n = 907; p-value; p-value < 0.0001)

What this showed me is that the question isn’t simply, “Are you creating epic, high-quality content?” It is, “Are you creating the right kind of epic, high-quality content?”

Relevant content is resonant content.

To start, make sure to download the “Target Audience Research Starter Template.”

The first sheet is labeled the “Assumptions Buster.” In column A, insert your audience persona or brief description of your target audience. Next, list an assumption about that audience segment plus your reasoning behind said assumption. Then you’ll start brainstorming the questions to prove or disprove this assumption.

For best results, list as many relevant assumptions as you can think of for each persona or segment. You don’t have to test them all. But the more you outline, the better your questions will be.

The final column on this sheet will be for revisiting once you’ve completed your survey. This is where you can confirm an assumption—or put it to rest for all eternity. ⚰️ (Or at least until your next survey.)

Step Two: Craft Your Questions

Next, you’ll move the best questions from sheet one onto sheet two, labeled “Survey Questions.” Remember, your data is only as good as your questions, so clear, concise, and relevant questions are your survey’s lifeblood.

My favorite article on writing survey questions comes from Qualtrics. They outline the 10 Commandments for killer survey questions. (Definitely worth a read!) I’ll synopsize what I found to be the three most important considerations.

Avoid loaded or leading words: Don’t use words like “could,” “should,” or “might.” They may sound the same but can be interpreted differently.

Avoid non-specific questions: A question with issues of “meaning” or “frequency” is hard to specify. For instance, with the question, “Do you watch TV regularly?”, what does “regularly” mean?

Avoid non-exhaustive listings: If you’re listing multiple-choice answers, give people an “Other (please specify)” option—unless you can cover 100 percent of the choices. This is an excellent candidate for pretesting.

This is where sheet two comes in.

Your questions belong in column A. Next, note what type of question you’re asking. Here are some ideas (though non-exhaustive).

Simple question types:

Free text: Simple text entry, y’all. These are incredibly insightful if you’re trying to pick up on the language your target audience uses. However, it’s also the most labor-intensive at high volumes and makes it tough to run any kind of regression.

Multiple-choice: This is the great scholastic standard—multiple, pre-written answers to choose from. These are great to run total percentages on for comparisons against the entire sample. Just keep in mind that if you can’t provide an exhaustive list covering all possibilities, leave room for an “Other option” selection so you don’t force inaccurate answers. (Hint: Remember, C is always the best guess. Just kidding!)

Binary: Yes or no. Hot or cold. ‘Nuff said.

Scale: These questions can run the gamut of “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” With these, make sure to give folks a “Neutral” option if the question isn’t completely relevant to them.

After you’ve knocked out your questions, consider using a pilot survey to give your questions a test drive. This way you can ensure people understand what you mean.

I ran a test pilot survey with some feedback questions at the end:

Were any questions confusing? If so, which?

Did any questions seem irrelevant to your situation? If so, which?

Then I took the responses and cleaned up the frequent offenders.

Step Three: Crunch The Numbers

Now it’s time to get nerdy and run some numbers.  Excel is an easy tool for this. And if you want some quick visualizations, Tableau is a nice tool as well. (If you wanna go ultra-nerd, you can even learn R or Python.)

If you’re serious and have some big data to crunch, two things you’ll want to do well in Excel is use the CORREL function to get the correlation coefficient. And the next is to simply use cells to calculate normal distribution probabilities. (Neither of these is as scary as it sounds!)

Your correlation strength is known as an R-value. It’s measured on a scale from -1 to 1, with 1 being 100 percent correlated, and -1 being 100 percent negatively correlated. What you’re looking for are patterns that signal whether or not two factors have a chance of impacting the other. For example, take a peek at the example CORREL function from your template.

First, select the CORREL function:

Next, choose the arrays (or list of cells) you’re going to compare:

Then, the cell you inserted the function into will output the correlation, or R-value, between the two datasets.

From here, you can dig into “why” these data points are correlated positively or negatively.

And remember, correlation does not equal causation, so ensure to take your context into consideration to use your original research like the savviest of marketers.

Now Go Research!

You’re all set to rock some target audience research. Obviously, you can delve far deeper and use more expansive methods. But if you’re new, this is a high-return place to start. Now sink your teeth into some research, and do the best (and most resonant) marketing of your career!

http://ift.tt/2kDEPr5

[mercedessharonwo1]

How to Research Your Target Audience to Increase Resonance

Recently I conducted some target audience research. And I learned something tasty—and a bit unexpected. Ready?

Successful marketers are 242 percent more likely to report conducting audience research at least once per quarter. And 56 percent of my study’s most elite marketers conduct research once or more per month.

So, researching your target audience is a marketing must. And not just for product development—it’s a gateway to connecting with your audience in revelatory ways.

Really, it’s the nuts-and-bolts of what Jay said in his book Youtility: “What if instead of trying to be amazing, you just focused on being useful? What if you decided to inform, rather than promote?”

Target audience research is a way of doing just that—of turning the spotlight from your stuff to their needs. In essence, it’s about going from this:

To this:

Target audience research is a way of turning the spotlight from your stuff to your audience's needs. Click To Tweet

It’s just like finding your content core. Surveys, customer interviews, and other forms of feedback help you laser-focus on the intersection of your audience’s problems and your ability to help solve them.

That big audience research project I mentioned was primarily about learning the strongest predictors of marketing success. We certainly gained some insight and fascinating data. Here are three quick highlights:

Top marketers document their marketing strategy. Marketers who document strategy are 538 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers document their marketing processes. Marketers who document process are 466 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers set goals. Marketers who set goals are 429 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 81 percent of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.

But the most valuable learning came from getting a peek into our target audience. You know, what they care about. The challenges they face. The gaps between their success and failure.

I’d like to share the “why” and “how” of using research on your target audience to increase resonance with them across your marketing channels. Hint: It’s about a shift in mindset and, in turn, resource investment—from “look at me!” to, “Look at you! Now let’s make your life better!”

Your Process for a Target Audience Survey

The best news is researching your audience is easier than ever. It’s a genuine low-cost, high-reward activity, and it’s one of the quickest ways to separate yourself from the marketing herd. After all, we discovered 65 percent of marketers rarely conduct research (if at all)!

So let’s gear you up with an easy, three-step process, plus a template to rock target audience research like a pro. We’ll use the example of conducting a survey throughout. Though, if this is new territory for you, be pretty generous with your definition of “target audience research.” Heck, I’d even count picking up the phone for some customer convos or shooting off an email or two.

Alright, let’s rock.

Step One: Check Your Assumptions

To start, you gotta check your assumptions. We all have them. And research is the best way to prove or bust them. It’s like what Mark Twain said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

For example, I put two marketing assumptions to the test:

Content is king. Marketers who spend more time creating content will say their marketing is successful.

Quality over quantity. Marketers who have higher quality content will say their marketing is successful.

After all, what content marketer worth their salt doesn’t accept a “quality > quantity” mindset? I certainly did. But here’s what the data says:

There is no correlation between time spent creating content and reported marketing success. (R = 0.02; n = 1,597; p-value < 0.0001)

There is some positive correlation between content quality and marketing success, but nothing earth shattering. (R = 0.29; n = 907; p-value; p-value < 0.0001)

What this showed me is that the question isn’t simply, “Are you creating epic, high-quality content?” It is, “Are you creating the right kind of epic, high-quality content?”

Relevant content is resonant content.

To start, make sure to download the “Target Audience Research Starter Template.”

The first sheet is labeled the “Assumptions Buster.” In column A, insert your audience persona or brief description of your target audience. Next, list an assumption about that audience segment plus your reasoning behind said assumption. Then you’ll start brainstorming the questions to prove or disprove this assumption.

For best results, list as many relevant assumptions as you can think of for each persona or segment. You don’t have to test them all. But the more you outline, the better your questions will be.

The final column on this sheet will be for revisiting once you’ve completed your survey. This is where you can confirm an assumption—or put it to rest for all eternity. ⚰️ (Or at least until your next survey.)

Step Two: Craft Your Questions

Next, you’ll move the best questions from sheet one onto sheet two, labeled “Survey Questions.” Remember, your data is only as good as your questions, so clear, concise, and relevant questions are your survey’s lifeblood.

My favorite article on writing survey questions comes from Qualtrics. They outline the 10 Commandments for killer survey questions. (Definitely worth a read!) I’ll synopsize what I found to be the three most important considerations.

Avoid loaded or leading words: Don’t use words like “could,” “should,” or “might.” They may sound the same but can be interpreted differently.

Avoid non-specific questions: A question with issues of “meaning” or “frequency” is hard to specify. For instance, with the question, “Do you watch TV regularly?”, what does “regularly” mean?

Avoid non-exhaustive listings: If you’re listing multiple-choice answers, give people an “Other (please specify)” option—unless you can cover 100 percent of the choices. This is an excellent candidate for pretesting.

This is where sheet two comes in.

Your questions belong in column A. Next, note what type of question you’re asking. Here are some ideas (though non-exhaustive).

Simple question types:

Free text: Simple text entry, y’all. These are incredibly insightful if you’re trying to pick up on the language your target audience uses. However, it’s also the most labor-intensive at high volumes and makes it tough to run any kind of regression.

Multiple-choice: This is the great scholastic standard—multiple, pre-written answers to choose from. These are great to run total percentages on for comparisons against the entire sample. Just keep in mind that if you can’t provide an exhaustive list covering all possibilities, leave room for an “Other option” selection so you don’t force inaccurate answers. (Hint: Remember, C is always the best guess. Just kidding!)

Binary: Yes or no. Hot or cold. ‘Nuff said.

Scale: These questions can run the gamut of “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” With these, make sure to give folks a “Neutral” option if the question isn’t completely relevant to them.

After you’ve knocked out your questions, consider using a pilot survey to give your questions a test drive. This way you can ensure people understand what you mean.

I ran a test pilot survey with some feedback questions at the end:

Were any questions confusing? If so, which?

Did any questions seem irrelevant to your situation? If so, which?

Then I took the responses and cleaned up the frequent offenders.

Step Three: Crunch The Numbers

Now it’s time to get nerdy and run some numbers.  Excel is an easy tool for this. And if you want some quick visualizations, Tableau is a nice tool as well. (If you wanna go ultra-nerd, you can even learn R or Python.)

If you’re serious and have some big data to crunch, two things you’ll want to do well in Excel is use the CORREL function to get the correlation coefficient. And the next is to simply use cells to calculate normal distribution probabilities. (Neither of these is as scary as it sounds!)

Your correlation strength is known as an R-value. It’s measured on a scale from -1 to 1, with 1 being 100 percent correlated, and -1 being 100 percent negatively correlated. What you’re looking for are patterns that signal whether or not two factors have a chance of impacting the other. For example, take a peek at the example CORREL function from your template.

First, select the CORREL function:

Next, choose the arrays (or list of cells) you’re going to compare:

Then, the cell you inserted the function into will output the correlation, or R-value, between the two datasets.

From here, you can dig into “why” these data points are correlated positively or negatively.

And remember, correlation does not equal causation, so ensure to take your context into consideration to use your original research like the savviest of marketers.

Now Go Research!

You’re all set to rock some target audience research. Obviously, you can delve far deeper and use more expansive methods. But if you’re new, this is a high-return place to start. Now sink your teeth into some research, and do the best (and most resonant) marketing of your career!

http://ift.tt/2kDEPr5

[rodneyevesuarywk]

How to Research Your Target Audience to Increase Resonance

Recently I conducted some target audience research. And I learned something tasty—and a bit unexpected. Ready?

Successful marketers are 242 percent more likely to report conducting audience research at least once per quarter. And 56 percent of my study’s most elite marketers conduct research once or more per month.

So, researching your target audience is a marketing must. And not just for product development—it’s a gateway to connecting with your audience in revelatory ways.

Really, it’s the nuts-and-bolts of what Jay said in his book Youtility: “What if instead of trying to be amazing, you just focused on being useful? What if you decided to inform, rather than promote?”

Target audience research is a way of doing just that—of turning the spotlight from your stuff to their needs. In essence, it’s about going from this:

To this:

Target audience research is a way of turning the spotlight from your stuff to your audience's needs. Click To Tweet

It’s just like finding your content core. Surveys, customer interviews, and other forms of feedback help you laser-focus on the intersection of your audience’s problems and your ability to help solve them.

That big audience research project I mentioned was primarily about learning the strongest predictors of marketing success. We certainly gained some insight and fascinating data. Here are three quick highlights:

Top marketers document their marketing strategy. Marketers who document strategy are 538 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers document their marketing processes. Marketers who document process are 466 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t.

Top marketers set goals. Marketers who set goals are 429 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t. And 81 percent of those successful, goal-setting marketers achieve them.

But the most valuable learning came from getting a peek into our target audience. You know, what they care about. The challenges they face. The gaps between their success and failure.

I’d like to share the “why” and “how” of using research on your target audience to increase resonance with them across your marketing channels. Hint: It’s about a shift in mindset and, in turn, resource investment—from “look at me!” to, “Look at you! Now let’s make your life better!”

Your Process for a Target Audience Survey

The best news is researching your audience is easier than ever. It’s a genuine low-cost, high-reward activity, and it’s one of the quickest ways to separate yourself from the marketing herd. After all, we discovered 65 percent of marketers rarely conduct research (if at all)!

So let’s gear you up with an easy, three-step process, plus a template to rock target audience research like a pro. We’ll use the example of conducting a survey throughout. Though, if this is new territory for you, be pretty generous with your definition of “target audience research.” Heck, I’d even count picking up the phone for some customer convos or shooting off an email or two.

Alright, let’s rock.

Step One: Check Your Assumptions

To start, you gotta check your assumptions. We all have them. And research is the best way to prove or bust them. It’s like what Mark Twain said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

For example, I put two marketing assumptions to the test:

Content is king. Marketers who spend more time creating content will say their marketing is successful.

Quality over quantity. Marketers who have higher quality content will say their marketing is successful.

After all, what content marketer worth their salt doesn’t accept a “quality > quantity” mindset? I certainly did. But here’s what the data says:

There is no correlation between time spent creating content and reported marketing success. (R = 0.02; n = 1,597; p-value < 0.0001)

There is some positive correlation between content quality and marketing success, but nothing earth shattering. (R = 0.29; n = 907; p-value; p-value < 0.0001)

What this showed me is that the question isn’t simply, “Are you creating epic, high-quality content?” It is, “Are you creating the right kind of epic, high-quality content?”

Relevant content is resonant content.

To start, make sure to download the “Target Audience Research Starter Template.”

The first sheet is labeled the “Assumptions Buster.” In column A, insert your audience persona or brief description of your target audience. Next, list an assumption about that audience segment plus your reasoning behind said assumption. Then you’ll start brainstorming the questions to prove or disprove this assumption.

For best results, list as many relevant assumptions as you can think of for each persona or segment. You don’t have to test them all. But the more you outline, the better your questions will be.

The final column on this sheet will be for revisiting once you’ve completed your survey. This is where you can confirm an assumption—or put it to rest for all eternity. ⚰️ (Or at least until your next survey.)

Step Two: Craft Your Questions

Next, you’ll move the best questions from sheet one onto sheet two, labeled “Survey Questions.” Remember, your data is only as good as your questions, so clear, concise, and relevant questions are your survey’s lifeblood.

My favorite article on writing survey questions comes from Qualtrics. They outline the 10 Commandments for killer survey questions. (Definitely worth a read!) I’ll synopsize what I found to be the three most important considerations.

Avoid loaded or leading words: Don’t use words like “could,” “should,” or “might.” They may sound the same but can be interpreted differently.

Avoid non-specific questions: A question with issues of “meaning” or “frequency” is hard to specify. For instance, with the question, “Do you watch TV regularly?”, what does “regularly” mean?

Avoid non-exhaustive listings: If you’re listing multiple-choice answers, give people an “Other (please specify)” option—unless you can cover 100 percent of the choices. This is an excellent candidate for pretesting.

This is where sheet two comes in.

Your questions belong in column A. Next, note what type of question you’re asking. Here are some ideas (though non-exhaustive).

Simple question types:

Free text: Simple text entry, y’all. These are incredibly insightful if you’re trying to pick up on the language your target audience uses. However, it’s also the most labor-intensive at high volumes and makes it tough to run any kind of regression.

Multiple-choice: This is the great scholastic standard—multiple, pre-written answers to choose from. These are great to run total percentages on for comparisons against the entire sample. Just keep in mind that if you can’t provide an exhaustive list covering all possibilities, leave room for an “Other option” selection so you don’t force inaccurate answers. (Hint: Remember, C is always the best guess. Just kidding!)

Binary: Yes or no. Hot or cold. ‘Nuff said.

Scale: These questions can run the gamut of “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” With these, make sure to give folks a “Neutral” option if the question isn’t completely relevant to them.

After you’ve knocked out your questions, consider using a pilot survey to give your questions a test drive. This way you can ensure people understand what you mean.

I ran a test pilot survey with some feedback questions at the end:

Were any questions confusing? If so, which?

Did any questions seem irrelevant to your situation? If so, which?

Then I took the responses and cleaned up the frequent offenders.

Step Three: Crunch The Numbers

Now it’s time to get nerdy and run some numbers.  Excel is an easy tool for this. And if you want some quick visualizations, Tableau is a nice tool as well. (If you wanna go ultra-nerd, you can even learn R or Python.)

If you’re serious and have some big data to crunch, two things you’ll want to do well in Excel is use the CORREL function to get the correlation coefficient. And the next is to simply use cells to calculate normal distribution probabilities. (Neither of these is as scary as it sounds!)

Your correlation strength is known as an R-value. It’s measured on a scale from -1 to 1, with 1 being 100 percent correlated, and -1 being 100 percent negatively correlated. What you’re looking for are patterns that signal whether or not two factors have a chance of impacting the other. For example, take a peek at the example CORREL function from your template.

First, select the CORREL function:

Next, choose the arrays (or list of cells) you’re going to compare:

Then, the cell you inserted the function into will output the correlation, or R-value, between the two datasets.

From here, you can dig into “why” these data points are correlated positively or negatively.

And remember, correlation does not equal causation, so ensure to take your context into consideration to use your original research like the savviest of marketers.

Now Go Research!

You’re all set to rock some target audience research. Obviously, you can delve far deeper and use more expansive methods. But if you’re new, this is a high-return place to start. Now sink your teeth into some research, and do the best (and most resonant) marketing of your career!

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