#presumably vietnam

[thebogiscoming]

you can NOT convince me that this isn't an urban angel's true form.

what the fuck is this mess? an angel who's letting you see it for what it is, and you're the next messenger of prophecy.

spread some gospel about street art, the angels freshly painted. tell the world about.. i don't fucking know, climate change and the crises it contains?

(assumed image source, could be wrong about this.)

[shedontknowbutsheknows]

the parade of insanity continues. Another presenter, talking about the Love Canal, said like “imagine serving your country, using Agent Orange as a weapon of war, then coming home and it’s in your water supply”. Girl what. Yeah that’s really who I care about in that situation.

[dnpbeats]

(Almost Solid) Proof That Dan Ran PhilsLion

I'm convinced that Dan was the person who ran the PhilsLion twit and I have receipts.  For anyone who doesn't know, PhilsLion is a twitter account that tweeted from the POV of Lion. It's commonly thought that this account was run by Phil. Besides the fact that he would interact with the account, there are multiple tweets that seem to be about him and dan. Unfortunately there's good reason to believe it wasn't Phil running it. HOWEVER there are many reasons that lead me to believe it was Dan who was tweeting from it, some of which is evidence based and some of which makes logical sense.

DISCLAIMER: All tweets I've included that are ostensibly about dan and phil's relationship are in reference to things that are confirmed by d&p themselves (e.g. the fact that d&p were romantically involved when they first met). I will not discuss anything that is not supposed to be public knowledge.

First let's look at when the Twitter was created. (Note: I am in UTC-8 so all screenshots will be in that time zone. I will say what time it would've been in UTC+0 (d&p's time zone) for clarity.)

Dan’s twitter account was created in May 2009. The first tweet from him (assuming he did not delete any older ones) was May 15 at 1:18pm. Presumably this is the day he got twitter.

On May 16 2009 at 3:19am Phil tweeted that he uploaded “I was kidnapped.” 

In this video he mentions his own personal twitter account, and there is an annotation of Lion saying “i want a twitter” (20sec into the video)

About 3 hours after the video was posted (6:26am UTC+0), we get the first tweet from PhilsLion (presumably this was right after the account was created)

May 16th 2009 was a Saturday. We know from Dan’s video “THE POWER NAP” that he worked at ASDA on Saturdays and Sundays from 5am-10am. So he would’ve been awake shortly after Phil posted the video. Also note that Dan presumably had an iPhone at the time (he tweeted something about iPhones in June 2009 and had no previous tweets before that about getting a new phone). He specifically tweeted in Sep 2009 about tweeting from his iPhone. Based on the fact that Dan literally showed up to work drunk and took a nap, I don’t think he is above going on twitter at work.

While this is not proof that Dan created the account, we can see that it’s definitely possible for him to have created the account. We know he would’ve been awake at the time the account was created, and it was approx. a day after he created his own twitter account, so making a twitter account would've been fresh in his mind.

We do have proof that Phil did not create the account. First, he edited the description of “I was kidnapped.” to say that someone [else] created PhilsLion:

He also tweeted May 16th (10:35am UTC+0 if that matters to anyone) basically saying the same thing as the video desc, implying that someone else made the account:

Finally in “AmazingJason” (posted May 26th) he mentions, again, “someone [else]” creating the Twitter account (about 20seconds in, the timestamp is linked). He encourages everyone to follow it and links it in the description of the video:

So unless Phil was really pushing that someone else created it even though he himself made it, it wasn’t him.

If you want to skip to Proof™ scroll down to the next photo of Phil. Before that, I’d like to debunk the 11:11/different time zone thing–I think this is the biggest reason people have claimed that the account was not run by Phil or Dan but rather some other random fan. On May 30th at 4:12pm UTC+0 and June 3rd at 4:19am UTC+0, PhilsLion tweeted about making wishes at 11:11. In order for these tweets to be made at ~11:11 local time, they would need to have been made in either UTC-5 or UTC+7. UTC-5 is US Eastern Time. UTC+7 is a time zone mainly consisting of Southeast Asia. This includes parts of Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. I have an explanation for this, which is certainly the biggest reach of this whole thing, but it is a plausible explanation :p

It’s very possible that it was Dan who tweeted this if he was on vacation with his family at the time. We know Dan and his family have vacationed in Asia many times (at the very least they went to Thailand in 2006, India in 2010 and 2013, and Sri Lanka in 2016). So while there’s no proof (that I know of) that Dan was on vacation at this time, it’s certainly possible that he was. The location of the tweets would fit with where we know his family likes to go on holiday. Additionally, the second tweet talks about water skiing, which tends to be a fun vacation thing rather than something people do regularly (note this tweet would be at 11:19am in UTC+7)

There’s further proof that PhilsLion was not always in UTC+7. On Christmas 2009, PhilsLion tweeted “goodmorning” at 6:21am UTC+0. This would be 1:21pm in UTC+7. It makes a lot more sense for this to have been tweeted in England.

Then fast forward to January 8th 2011. PhilsLion tweets “I was up all night” at 8:05am UTC+0. This would be 3pm in UTC+7. So again, it seems that PhilsLion was not in UTC+7 at this time.

Okay, now onto much more solid evidence. First, the handwriting of PhilsLion. This is the most tangible piece of proof. On June 25th 2009 Phil posted “AmazingAlex,” where Lion can be seen behind him in one of Phil’s shoes:

Lion tweeted a photo the next day, saying “I’m on a boat :)” in reference to being in Phil’s shoe

Note that the drawing/writing does not appear in the video and therefore was done by whoever runs PhilsLion. Here is some of Dan’s writing (found in TABINOF) for comparison:

This is from the “how to draw cat whiskers” page. Notice how the As all have the crossbar quite high up, just like in the twitter picture. Additionally, the top loops in the Bs are all very skinny compared to the bottom loop. Here’s another one of Dan’s capital Bs from the blindfolded portrait page, which is similar to Lion's writing:

I’m not a handwriting analysis expert, and yes it’s different drawing on MSPaint vs. a piece of paper, but the handwriting certainly has similarities.

And now, the more circumstantial evidence, but things that seem (imo) to be too big of a coincidence to not have been written by Dan (FYI these are going to be added in order of how much of a reach they are, not chronological order, lol). First we have “I month you”:

This tweet is proposing an alternate word for “love” and ends with “I month you” (i.e. is replacing the word love with month), and was tweeted on November 19th 2009. AKA exactly a month after dan and phil met IRL for the first time.

Another one that seems very related to Dan and what we know of his situation is this tweet about “Lion’s” dad:

In Dan’s own words in BIG: “I didn’t think I could ask my family for help or share my feelings about this, mainly due to my dad. Funny guy, kind of a woke hippie who did and said a lot of things I did respect but at the same time used to walk around the house saying how he hoped someone he had a problem with at work would 'die of bum cancer.' Yep, so picked the one area to be a bigot that would further traumatize your child. Nice! This experience coming from a childhood hearing the word gay meaninglessly thrown around as an insult at home[.]” 

Note that Dan was still living at home at the time, so if this tweet was made by him, it wouldn't have meant literally “getting away.” Also, Dan was at home when this was tweeted but it was 3 days before he was going to see Phil.

Next there’s this tweet:

The “admirers” thing could be referring to anything really, but was tweeted during the time that Dan (and Phil) were in the Clipstar video contest. Also, Dan posted this dailybooth two days before this tweet, and most of the comments are just gassing him up, so lol (the pic doesn’t load but based on the comments I think it was a screenshot from his clipstar vid).

This tweet from Christmas Eve 2009. Dan and Phil were together and filming the interactive Christmas adventure:

Proof they were together if anyone needs it:

This tweet (tweeted November 26 5:45am UTC+0)

Many things to note here. The song linked is called “When I See You Again.” It’s by Dave Bullas (one of the founders of SiTC), whom d&p were/are friends with. (They had other friends who were friends with him as well. PJ has the top comment on the video.) The lyrics of the song are not really happy as they insinuate a breakup. But it’s interesting to think about them in the context of wanting to see someone who you are not able to. This tweet was 3/4 days after the “I wonder how biology…” tweet and 3 days before Dan went to see Phil.

Also, Dan just LOVES recommending music to people. He does it a lot.

(^ Proof Dan was seeing Phil on the 29th if anyone needs it)

Now a tweet exchange which doesn't technically prove anything, but I thought was curious. Phil tweeted December 29 2010 about getting a new camera:

Lion tweeted in reference to this 20 minutes later:

I find this interesting because Phil made no comment anywhere about manuals or ignoring them. So it could just be PhilsLion making schput, but a lot of the other Lion tweets are in direct reference to something Phil said/did. It would make sense if Dan ran the twitter acc and he was talking about something that he witnessed Phil do that we don’t know about. Also note “my new camera is here” vs. “phil picked up his new camera” (Lion giving more specific detail than Phil in terms of the manner in which he obtained the camera).

Some Tweets (1, 2, 3) which aren’t proof of anything but just sound like things Dan would say:

For context, this is about floods that happened in Queensland. Again, I have no way to prove Dan said this. But if you’ve ever read, like, anything Dan has said in a print interview ever or watched any of his liveshows, you know that he often tries to say stuff with superfluous/pretentious language and then ends up not making a whole lot of sense. Things that he’s said have been misconstrued so many times, or just outright don’t make sense to anyone but him. So this series of tweets checks out, if it is Dan who ran the account.

This Twitter exchange which doesn’t actually prove anything but is very sweet if it is dan who tweeted it:

The photo is a screenshot from “AmazingJason”:

Note that two weeks later (October 23) in “Life without the internet!?” Phil says the internet led to him “meeting the best friend of [his] life.” The comments all assume he is referencing Dan, but in the video he holds up Lion, so presumably that’s actually who he’s talking about. That is, unless Lion represents Dan :p

Lastly, this tweet which is a Fall Out Boy lyric, but again would be cute if it was Dan:

There's a few more tweets that are interesting to think about being from Dan but don't actually prove anything so I won't put them here lol.

So, at the end of the day, could it be some random fan* who made the twitter account? Yes. But in my opinion there isn’t really anything proving it’s not Dan. On top of that, there are enough things that fit with what we know factually about d&p now, but were not well known at the time, that make it seem much more likely that Dan ran this account vs. a random person.

*technically when the account was started, Dan himself was a random fan. So there’s that too ;)

P.S. best practice is to not interact with old tweets, so pls don't go on a retweet spree

[berenwrites]

Guardian at the Gate – Steddie Flashfic – PG

A/N: Didn’t get a chance to write for last month’s prompt (only got as far as the first line) but was determined to manage for November. Hope you enjoy my efforts. Don’t forget to check out all the other great fics at @steddiemicrofic too💖.

Written for prompt: REST | 387 words | rated: PG  | cw: none

Wayne stepped into Eddie’s hospital room unsure what he was going to see. What he wasn’t expecting was a filthy, dishevelled teenager to surge to his feet and plant himself between Wayne and the bed where his nephew was lying, covered in bandages.

“Won’t let you hurt him,” was the flat warning.

The handle of some sort of bat poking out from behind Eddie’s guardian’s leg caught Wayne’s eye. He held up his hands.

“Not here to hurt him, son,” he said slowly. “Name’s Wayne, I’m Eddie’s uncle. You must be Steve.”

When the Henderson boy had told him Steve was looking after Eddie, Wayne had not expected anything so literal, or the Steve in question to be Steve Harrington, former star of Hawkins High.

“Oh,” Steve said, all the strength seeming to melt out of him, “Dustin found you. Eddie’s innocent, sir, he’s a hero. I’m sorry I didn’t recognise you.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Wayne replied. “You were protecting my boy.”

Wayne had seen the look in Steve’s eyes on soldiers in Vietnam. Exhaustion and determination in equal measure clung to the young man. Now the danger was past, he also swayed in place.

“It’s okay, son,” Wayne said, gently taking the bat from Steve’s hand, “I’ll take over for a while. You can rest.”

Steve looked confused by that, eyes glassy and unfocused.

“Rest?” he asked as if that didn’t make sense.

Wayne nodded.

“Eddie…he…”

Whatever Steve was trying to say was lost as Wayne found himself with an armful of semi-conscious teenager. He propped the bat against the bed, wrapping his other arm around his burden. There was a second empty bed in the room, presumably because no one had wanted to share with the suspected murderer. With barely coordinated help from Steve, he manoeuvred them so he could get Steve lying down.

That was when the kid’s jacket fell open and Wayne saw the congealed blood on the shirt on the inside.

“Jesus, son,” Wayne muttered, “what have you boys been about?”

The only response from Steve was an incomprehensible mumble even as the kid rolled so he could still see Eddie through mostly closed eyes.

Wayne was going to get help for Steve, he was going to protect his nephew, and he was going to get answers, in that order.

[hackedhearts]

Me, acting very normally: Klaus changed Dave's life significantly twice! First by their 10 month romance during the Vietnam war as an adult BUT THEN him meeting teen Dave in Dallas erased the existence of that romance in Dave's life completely because he doesn't end up enlisting into the Sky Soldiers in that timeline due to Klaus interference and warnings about his death, instead he enlists into the Marines which presumably saved him in the end and allowed him to live a long life after the war ended. So Klaus is still a very important figure in Dave's life no matter if they ended up together or not, Dave will always remember him one way or another! So Klaus arc with Dave could've closed with him meeting old vet Dave in the future—

[naamahdarling]

Revelations during tonight's dinner conversation with my dad:

His father was a top secret class engineer at a big aerospace company who worked on the Echo satellite program. He was highly placed enough that several times during the cold war, the infamous "men in black" came and removed him from the house to (presumably) Cheyenne Mountain in case of nuclear strike. They were fine leaving my grandma, uncle, and dad to die, though. 😨

The "men in black" came to talk to my dad's teen brother one day out of the blue and demanded all correspondence from his stamp-collecting Norwegian pen pal with whom he had been trading stamps and boys' magazines. His pen pal was a 58-year-old Russian spy. 😧

My dad was a courier in the Vietnam War with top secret clearance, running communications through active combat zones. I did not know this. He once risked his life to deliver a mislabeled order past a firefight - an utterly trivial order for flags on the base to be flown half-mast that had been labeled top secret. Heads rolled for that. 😬

The park across the street from the house I lived in my whole life and he lives in still was at one time partially a cemetery containing about 30 gravesites. They were supposedly all moved, but you know how it is. You can't be sure they found or bothered to remove everything. This explains why the park was so creepy, why the perfectly ordinary 50s-era ranch house had vibes so septic and haunted even my dad could sense it, and why I felt watched, always, from every window in the house that faced that park. 😱

None of this is touching the time he and his group of coworkers were mistaken for bank robbers and almost killed by small-town cops, the time his twin prop plane lost an engine and almost crashed over the Sea of Japan, the time he caught a several million dollar accounting mistake for his company before it tanked their international branch, or why he is partially responsible for why swipe-to-pay credit card machines were for a short while RADICALLY different, not standardized, and very frustrating to operate (but he saved thousands of regular people from potential fraud).

[elsa-fogen]

Generally thinking about the 20th century & war, like. Almost all the (guy) Sinners would've fought? Like Angel Dust was 30s in 1947, Vox was 30s-40s in 1950s, Husk was 60s-70s in 1970s. All of them would've presumably fought or been drafted to WW2, & Husk mightve fought in Vietnam depending on if he got drafted there or not. (We don't know for sure if Vox was american but, I'm guess)

It's just. Idk. Kind of sad when you think about it

This is an interesting thought.... tho i like to headcanon that Vox didn't fought (and in general didn't kill a single person in his life) and got to hell for capitalism KHFKUSHGKLSJFHF

i just find it funny that like. even angel was in mafia. and probably killed pepole. now i kinda wanna make vox a single member of the cast who never killed anyone during his human life (well, maybe Velvette too, just because she's more modern). WE SHALL MAKE VOX AS PATHETIC AS POSSIBLE. Even Niffty killed her husband and got lobotomized (headcanon, not confirmed).

Anyway. Some of them could fight in both wars btw, like Husk

I wonder if we get bonding moment like "war is a bitch" for them all, that would be interesting

Also! I mean, Angel survived when Vaggie threw him in the middle of the battle.

ALSO [2] I think Pentious if from 1800s right? What if he participated in the war of 1812? that would make sense

[apas-95]

Have you seen For All Mankind

i have tried to watch it and was simply unable to bear how hilariously propagandistic and badly-written it was. its like if a Heinlein fan were given a billion dollars and twelve seconds to think of a pitch.

the opening episode is a bunch of people in a small-town US bar depressedly watching the soviet moon landing and zooming in on how this is the Bad Timeline when the cosmonaut starts talking about 'the Marxist-Leninist way of life'. our plucky heroine's mentor figure is Wernher 'nice jacket, human skin I presume' von Braun.

they send actual vietnam-era US marines to the moon to ride sidesaddle on a modified LEM like it's a huey. they make EVA suits entirely out of duct tape. all their references to space-race era tech proposals are just done as material for a surface-level pastiche of Casette Futurism type wanking over stereotypes about Soviet Engineering XD and, increasingly, orientalist ideas of Chinese and DPR-Korean communist fanaticism.

it's as if the spirit of reddit became animate through the medium of Apple TV.

[uss-edsall]

The battleship USS New Jersey was patrolling off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War, 1969.

An unidentified American small naval vessel commanded by a lieutenant sent a flashing signal - within visual range - of the New Jersey: UNKNOWN VESSEL IDENTIFY YOURSELF.

The commanding officer of the New Jersey, J. Edward Snyder, Jr., had a standing order not to send messages without his personal approval. The Officer of the Day ignored the first two messages by the small vessel, presuming they’d figure out they were New Jersey eventually.

That is, up until the vessel flashed: IDENTIFY YOURSELF OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE.

The Officer of the Day got the captain. The captain ordered a response made using the battleship’s massive 24-inch searchlight instead of the normal signal lamp, in part because the other ship should’ve been able to identify the New Jersey on sight.

From USS New Jersey to unidentified small naval vessel: OPEN FIRE WHEN READY. FEAR GOD. DREADNOUGHT.

[allthehumanflaws]

The Umbrella Academy S4

If you haven't completed season 4 please don't read any further

This is my complete rant- I just ughhh ohkay

So the ending huh I don't even know what to say. I don't know what that was. Was it just me or did someone else also presume that Viktor would be the one dying?? Why did all of them die? It seems so rushed. Just 5 minutes between Five realizing what's gonna happen and what they need to do and then just bam it's over i'm sorry what the fuck- I had so much hope and thrill and passion going into this season all doomed.

Don't even get me started on the Five and Lila thing. hey stevie when some of the people said they'd like to see a number five romantic subplot...... THIS IS NOT WHAT THE MEANT!?!? You're tryna tell me Five "survived 45 years in an apocalypse killed hundreds and thousands of people and the board of directors of a deadly commission just to get back to his family and keep them safe" Hargreeves the Five Hargreeves who had many a year and opportunity to find himself a woman after joining the commission but stayed loyal to a fucking mannequin fell in love with his brother's wife after 7 years of being stuck with her? SPECIALLY after he specially told Diego that Lila wouldn't throw all that away he fell in love with her and was heartbroken when she didn't throw that away????? What of the frenemy dynamic? What of the 'you killed my parents in cold blood' part of that equation? All gone cause of what? I see no point or use of that in the already fucked storyline? I don't even know what to say.

Luther had NO character this season. He's just a big soft bag of fluff I mean i don't hate that not at all but like... and his powers were just reduced to what... accidentally breaking an alarm clock and jumping of a stage into a crowd of women? yay i guess. And WHERE WAS SLOANE? WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?

Klaus oh my poor heart- a germaphobe. Really a germaphobe? Of all the things he could've been. When the grave scene happened where they were shooting outside and he covered his ears I got so excited like yes yes Vietnam Klaus... I mean yeah he's traumatized but I thought they'd work with that even just a little bit but no. None of that just terrified of ghosts druggie Klaus.

Allison Hargreeves - I have a vent about her already posted. And there it seems I hate her and maybe a little yeah but that means there was like a pacific load of area they could've worked with but no? none of that. She is just back to normal a little scared but that's all. "Since Ray walked out!" THAT"S ALL WE GET FROM RAYMOND CHESTNUT!? What why how when under what conditions??????????? Nothing?? Huff man. I know this is too much for one season and I know they couldn't have included everything in one season but they had such a great show. Such a brilliant show. Season 3 was a very apt ending. It was perfect to be very honest, this is just uncalled for. All the characters are so not who we as viewers were shown for 3 seasons which is why I feel it feels more like a disappointment. Yeah without their powers they'd be different, but they're just not them anymore.... Anyway I should probably sleep.

Tell me what you think of all this :)

[ddarianne]

Apologies if this is super messy but when you get good info YOU NEED TO HAVE ALL THE REFERENCES AT HAND KBJFEKJBWEJKBKEWGBJKWEGBJKEW.

Okay so a lot of my mercenaries I've been searching their clothing and found out a lot of them or a mixture of things specially around world war 2, vietnam war AND korean war, I know this thanks to soldiers boots, and hell even the little pouches from the mercenaries, yeah real. but I want to make this post so I never loose this information because holy crap medic has been the hardest merc to find proper references, doesn't help he's a mad scientist and does all the technology himself. " this is Yuri Grebenshchikov, presumably, this photo is from a play in one theater, it was called "Once Upon a Time in Twentieth." From Andro commented on here" funni this is a russian actor hahaha. Is this why xeby güepons gui likes doktorr? Because he is literaturr characterr incarrnate >:OOOO (I'm being dumb)

Also thanks to @da-boogieman for helping me find this photo.

I've concluded that medic has a modified coat that's painted in white something closer to this. vvvv Except just a bit looser and with the flaps of the coat a more open shape to give him a more epic look for his villanous side lmao.

I think that's as far as I can go for his weird coat because the cuts just don't exist irl I've looked through a lot of references, and non come close to it. UNLESS they're doing a soldier and mixing both a battlefield and surgery medic on both.

Surgery medics:

And field medics:

I would need to read the whole article above because I wouldn't be surprised if these two were the same considering the situation. OR maybe not it would be safe to keep the man who does surgeries in a safe place while nurses go out in the battlefield in case the go dedge. Will need to read but as far as I'm concerned for getting references, this is gucci 4 me.

[lovetransaction]

It's wild to me that people's opinions of John (not factoring in personal bleed) are based ENTIRELY on the shitshow that was his life post-Mary death. Like people are out here measuring Sam's and Dean's heights to calculate the nutritional deficit in Dean's physical development but can't spare a minute to think about John as a whole character. Okay come with me for a minute:

you're John Eric Winchester from Normal, Illinois, and you're a pretty ordinary child, there's literally nothing exciting about you but here you are! You exist! You like yo-yos and guns and planes or at least that's what your parents buy for you.

your dad, who tends to go to work at odd hours, takes you to see an Abbott & Costello movie about a mummy when you're a pre-schooler and it scares the piss out of you. Your dad (who has intimate knowledge of the REAL things that go bump in the night) buys you a music box to calm you down. This music box plays a song from one of the most famous cinematic scenes of romantic melancholy that exists. Despite the late 50s being music box heyday with many options available that play lullabies, for some reason everyone thinks this is a reasonable choice. You will in fact idly whistle "As Time Goes By" all throughout your life.

when you're four, your dad abandons you and you never hear from him again or ever find out why he left you.

your mother Millie doesn't remarry. You have no family around (presumably?) so she raises you, alone, a single mother who can't even claim her husband died in the war, any war. You barely talk about your childhood even in relation to your own sons and how you raise them.

you play baseball/softball because where else can you find a readymade source of companionship and a built-in father figure (from a distance).

at seventeen full of anger and a dad-hole a mile wide you fake your age to join the Marines and be shipped off to Vietnam. While you don't talk about it much when you return to the World, you will default to drill sergeant when your back's to the wall.

you become a mechanic because you come from a family of mechanics.

you meet Mary Campbell and your whole future falls into place. Or at least, that's what you believe. Until November 2nd, 1983.

like there's ALL OF THAT before the John Winchester who's an enormous mess but does everything he can to keep his kids alive. I'm not saying anybody needs to like John but the kneejerk response of "he should be KILLED ACTUALLY" to even the canonically unequivocally good things he did while examining other characters' microexpressions down to the nth degree to ascribe victimhood is just so weird.

[clonerightsagenda]

Actually if one hypothesizes that the "are we the baddies" subgenre arises when a nation has its imperial intentions and/or self-image damaged in some way then presumably there should have been an uptick in American fiction after the Vietnam War. Do I need to spend summer break trawling Wikipedia summaries of retro SFF to confirm or deny this

[msfbgraves]

Terry's backstory confuses me.

He's in Vietnam, but with his brains, and the implication that he comes from a wealthy family with his dad's business, why isn't he in a fancy Ivy League college? Or why couldn't his dad buy his way out of the draft, if Terry was drafted in the first place? But then Terry himself subtly implies in the parlor scene that he and his dad might not have the best relationship, so maybe Terry "drafted himself" to prove something to his dad, or his dad didn't care about him potentially dying?

And the other thing: how did Terry get into to special forces in Vietnam, and go on that mission that got Ponytail killed? He seems out of his element in Vietnam, very young and a little dorky and much more naïve and innocent than (the presumably older) Ponytail or Kreese. And physically Terry is still growing, and comes off as very young, 17 or 18 at the very most. (I headcanon his birthday to be 1950/1951).

He doesn't seem to be on the same level as Kreese or Ponytail either physically or mentally. Maybe Terry was chosen for his intelligence?

Only after "the cage" does Terry seem to grow up a bit, but then he's shown to still be under the thumb of his dad in the parlor scene.

The whole thing is a mess to me. That's why I don't care for the scene where Terry tells Kreese about the Sekai Tekai. They both look way too young for the era, and they both still come off a way too nice and normal. It clashes with how we see Kreese just a few years later in KK1, and Terry in KK3. Those are enormous and negative personality changes!

Yes, it is inconsistent writing - UNLESS

All these flashbacks are only through Kreese's eyes. Indeed, the Sekai Taikai scene especially makes no internal sense, except when you consider that Kreese may be an unreliable narrator, even to himself.

He sees himself as a sweet guy to his protegees Da Eun and Johnny. We know from the film that he demonstrably insn't, but that doesn't change his perception of himself. So how he sees Terry, as a scrawny, scared sidekick, has as little to do with reality as anything else. Often, in flashbacks, characters imagine their younger selves or other people as shorter, to symbolise immaturity. Kreese remembers this scrawny boy Twig, the sidekick he saved. But was Terry ever that insecure Twig of a man? Granted, Terry confirms the nickname in Cobra Kai. But this boy in Special Forces, the way Kreese sees him? No way. Did he play a weakling? Certainly could have been a strategy. It worked in the cage, didn't it? Got Kreese to take the fall? If people think you're weak they think you're less of a threat. Why did they shoot Ponytail? He SEEMED the more threatening one. Which gives Terry the element of surprise to work with. He does it in the fight with Chozen too. He seemed beaten, which made Chozen lower his guard - big mistake. He teaches Kenny this. Feign weakness, win. Use the fact people underestimate you as a weapon.

Definitely worked on Kreese!

And yes, why is he even there at 18 (can't have been much older with how young he looked in 1985. I would have never given him 35 there, let alone more than that). Why would anyone let a boy like that join a war that was known to be going poorly, casualty wise? He wasn't drafted. No way. Not with his smarts. He joined.

His father was likely a WW II vet, and if he fought in the Pacific and got his status from there... Terry will fight in Asia too. He clearly knows about the heroes of WWII and he is very jealous of their status and heroes' welcome. None of that for him, and we see that's a big wound. He risked his very life in a war to be like his father, to no avail. And the man likely didn't stop him joining. Terry needed to prove himself worthy in his eyes too, and it didn't work. He still has something to prove to his father after the war. John disdains that, that's why he remembers Terry, again, as a weakling. "I'll go where you lead, Terry"? It's certainly what Kreese expects, but even Kreese becomes aware that this is not how Terry acts now. And John feels that he only needs to pull rank to restore that dynamic, except that it never existed. Terry has always used feigning weakness as a trick, but when Kenny asks him: "What should I do?" He says: "I want you to stop asking me, or anyone, that question." Kreese simply has a warped view of Terry and himself, and Terry has used it against him, likely more than once. And that talent might have well gotten him into those special forces. The talent for trickery. Using the more obvious super soldiers as a smokescreen, even for the enemy. For all we know Terry speaks fluent Vietnamese. It's like the scene in Men In Black: who is the most dangerous foe? Everyone goes for the scary looking aliens, only the smartest one goes for the little girl among all the monsters. Terry is likely there to make them all look like regular draftees, when they're in fact anything but. And if he can make his comrades think he needs protection, he's far more likely to survive.

Indeed, he's the most dangerous one. If he had been forced to fight in the snake pit, he would have tricked his officer, the same way their officer messed with Kreese's head. Indeed that's what command may have seen in "Twig". Kreese simply never saw through it.

Now, in business as a ceo looking a weakling is not an advantage, so Terry changed his image (he does that). But by that point the way Kreese saw him was too deeply entrenched already.

His mistake.

[the-one-who-isnt-an-anon]

comic timeline

All non-holiday dates are approximate but should be accurate relative to each other. Using past tense for events before the comic, present tense for Day 1 and beyond. I'm not inferring anything that isn't explicitly supported in canon even if the events seem obviously linked.

Last updated 2/13/2024.

Referenced events from before the comic, undated. Sorted by main topic:

Showfall productions:

Riptide from JRWI was produced but canceled early.

Bizly played Florida Man in the original 100 days film. Tommy played Patient Zero on contract.

Slime Demon had an ad-libbed baking show. Niki's character debut was written out and show was canceled in the middle of filming only a few episodes in, supposedly due to lack of viewership.

Sneeg had an 8-episode-run detective show.

Personnel:

Hetch fired 5 people over the years, including Criken.

In pretty quick succession, 1) Frank was hired, 2) Jerma left, 3) then Charlie was hired.

Frank and Charlie are the non-founding members who have worked at Showfall the longest without breaks.

Showfall fired Charlie's stunt double without notice.

Criken worked alongside Sneeg and others. He was fired 1 month in.

Before the tapes, employees were still leaving or planning to leave.

Hetch:

Hetch had at least one parent who treated him poorly (implied to be due to the parent's trauma from serving in the Vietnam War)

Hetch previously wanted Ranboo involved in Showfall.

Hetch got his jacket as a birthday present.

Hetch stopped filling Ranboo in on Showfall's production details.

The Founder used to be Hetch's best friend until she said something inappropriate to Hetch about Kate (Hetch's former girlfriend, implied to happen around or after Kate's death)

Charlie:

When Charlie was 20, he posted homework from a college film course on Youtube. He was approached by Showfall to do the original 100 Days film.

Charlie got a day off on his birthday. once.

Charlie and Hetch used to get along, but Hetch treated Charlie coldly.

Ranboo:

Ranboo used to want to be an author until a dumb thing happened at school.

Ranboo "did" something which the cyberbully told all their (former) friends about.

Other characters:

Wilbur and Niki used to stream before she was hired by Showfall

Mark and Ethan were popular let's players who were going to start a collab channel (Unus Annus).

Mark Iplier went to Chuck-E-Cheese many times.

2007-ish (when Ranboo was 4):

Hetch taught rats to "talk" by coding a program with pre-programmed phrases and a standard computer keyboard.

Ranboo had nightmares that Skitters the rat was experimenting on them.

2010-ish (11 years before early 2021):

Showfall had a Youtube channel for shows/movies before later creating their own website. Original team consisted of Hetch, Founder, (implied) Jerma.

Doll House (Showfall's first production).

April 3, 2013:

Showfall was officially founded. (Presumably the Youtube channel predates this and this date refers to the website - if not, the above events move down here.)

A couple years before comic start:

Hetch used to be a better director to Charlie.

2 years before comic start (2018):

Vinny was hired at Showfall.

A year before comic start (2019):

Ranboo bought a varsity jacket at Homecoming (presumably 10th grade).

A couple months before comic start (Fall 2020):

Ranboo's mom died ("earlier in 2020," implied autumn).

Ranboo's 2020 birthday, they couldn't leave their bed (also only implied autumn or winter).

Hetch became an asshole.

Showfall sold its building and moved to the mall.

Ranboo liked to hang out in the woods and pretend they were being chased by a serial killer.

Ranboo found the tapes. (implied)

Dec 14, 2020:

Charlie's first interview.

Dec 15, 2020:

Sneeg's first interview.

Showfall has only 5 current shows. 1 of them is the 100 days TV remake.

Charlie meets Ranboo.

Ethan fights geese.

Twitter blows up about Hetch's misgendering of Ranboo.

Founder threatens Hetch into hiring Ranboo for a 1-year contract.

Dec 16, 2020:

Ranboo has his first interview.

A light almost falls on Vinny.

Ranboo meets Niki.

Midnight meeting between Hetch and the Founder in order to further threaten Ranboo.

Dec 31, 2020, NYE:

The crew plans a strike.

Last day/s of refilming the 100 days pilot with Ranboo written in. 14-hour work days.

Cast party was moved up to be a New Year's Eve party.

A light almost falls on Vinny.

Rebrand is announced.

Hetch warns Ranboo not to get attached to the actors.

Frank is mentioned.

Jan 1?, 2021:

Ranboo runs off set of 100 days in tears.

1 month hiatus begins.

Some point in January 2021:

Vinny breaks his arm due to a falling item.

5 new actors are being hired. Hetch was not consulted due to being busy with editing.

New projects greenlit: 2nd season of 100 days, soap opera, a game show for Austin, slime demon baking show reboot.

(possibly later into February) Frank is promoted to head of HR.

Jan 31?, 2021:

Ranboo passes out 3 times in one day, attributed to low blood sugar.

Feb 1?, 2021:

1 month hiatus ends.

100 days tv show was popular.

New Showfall streaming service and VIP pass.

100 days is filmed at a rate of 1 episode per week (at least?), filmed in a single day. The first season is wrapping up.

5 new actors are hired.

Feb 2?, 2021:

First day of work for Wilbur Soot (approached Showfall), Mark Iplier (1 year contract), and Valkyrae (was approached by Showfall).

We meet Frank.

Austin is rehearsing for a game show.

Sneeg and Vinny are forbidden from greeting the new actors.

Valkyrae works as an assistant on Austin's game shows (implied/offscreen).

Feb 3?, 2021:

Mark and Ethan get Unus Annus greenlit.

Vinny writes a song with Wilbur and Niki.

Cameron, Mike, and Ashley's names are shared with the audience.

Cameron is masked.

Hetch gets drunk after work.

Sneeg drives Ranboo home - they talk about true crime.

Feb 4?, 2021:

Frank gives Cameron the rest of the day off due to weird behavior.

Hetch greenlights "Untitled: The Musical" for Vinny/Wilbur/Niki.

Ranboo wants to stay at Showfall for the rest of their life.

Feb 5?, 2021:

Hetch plans Unus Annus filming to start in a month.

Hetch confronts the Founder about the secrets she's keeping and is told to take the day off.

Ask the Actors: Lightning Round before another month break.

Hetch almost tells Sykkuno to suck it as Sykkuno's first on-screen appearance.

Unus Annus has its first 8 episodes written at this point.

Ethan recently splurged on a new plant for his fish.

Ranboo has another on-set outburst while trying to defend his dad.

Jerma is revealed.

Niki? is invited to coffee dates with Charlie and Sneeg.

1 month hiatus begins.

Feb 6? - March 4?, 2021:

Charlie starts a prank war with Jerma.

Twitter teasers for the convention in Lostfield town square.

Ranboo remakes their twitter account

March 5?, 2021:

1 month hiatus ends.

Ranboo sees Charlie and Sneeg at the coffee shop.

Lostfield town square convention. Unus Annus's first 2 episodes and a teaser for "Your New Boyfriend: A Musical Obsession" are released.

March 6?, 2021:

Ranboo is up in the wee hours of the morning getting cyberbullied by a classmate.

Fan meetups.

Ranboo feels anxious from cyberbullying and lost sleep. They stick by Charlie at the audience's suggestion.

Founder confronts audience on their "roleplay."

Charlie and Hetch fight over who deserves Ranboo's trust more.

Charlie and Hetch are arrested. Founder bails them out with 1/4 of the Unus Annus budget.

Charlie sees a drone, yet unnamed.

The Box.

March 7?, 2021:

Ranboo greets Hetch at home after Hetch has been gone for 24+ hours.

March 8?, 2021:

Hetch leaves Ranboo at home and returns to Showfall.

March 9?, 2021 (2 days after Hetch survived the Box):

Charlie interviews other workers (Sneeg is the only one onscreen) about working conditions to bring about the "death of Showfall Media" - to spend his last months at Showfall getting as much evidence of worker abuse as possible. The terms he uses imply a legal case.

Hetch meets the askers with less of a filter.

Ranboo is left behind at home again.

The crew's behavior has become stranger lately and they rarely interact with cast.

Cameron appears with a mask and without, seeming his normal cheerful self.

Frank organizes an HR meeting with all Showfall employees except Ranboo and Founder. They discuss working conditions, the missing funds (allocated to death traps), and Hetch's behavior. Hetch apologizes.

Frank makes plans to "fix the Founder's issues" via HR

Hetch confiscates Ashley's iPad and uses it to contact the askers that night.

Hetch reveals that the mind control "wasn't supposed to get this bad" and was just to make employees stay at Showfall and follow directions on set.

Hetch agrees to work with the other employees to get them out of Showfall.

Hetch is told about Ranboo's cyberbully.

March 10?, 2021:

Hetch comes up with the "Sorry" pilot, an improv-based show made as an apology to Showfall cast.

Hetch uses the iPad and two spare earpieces to make a non-censored audio-based method of communicating with askers. Hetch later gives the iPad back to Ashley, but it is broken.

Ranboo confronts both Charlie and Hetch on the fight at the coffee shop.

Hetch gives Charlie one of the earpieces. Charlie doesn't believe the askers' uncensored warnings.

Half of the crew is out sick, which Charlie attributes to COVID.

Ranboo locks themself in a storage closet while their cyberbully messages them.

Hetch lends his own earpiece to Ranboo. The askers convince them to leave the closet. Ranboo apologizes to Charlie.

The Founder is aware of the situation and frustrated. She has created a black mask with red circuitry, apparently Hetch's mask from TSE, to "get him back soon."

Later in the day, filming for Sorry begins.

Hetch is reminded of the vote, confusing Charlie and inspiring Ranboo and Charlie to cheer him up with a "try not to laugh challenge." Hetch agrees for the sake of winning Charlie's trust. Ranboo seems to recover from earlier.

The Founder encourages Jerma to invite Hetch out to drinks as a distraction. Jerma and Hetch argue but end the night getting along.

Charlie explores the mall overnight for proof for his ongoing battle against Showfall, ignoring warnings from the askers; Sneeg waits in the car and notices someone enter the building.

Ranboo meets up with their stalker in the mall and pushes them during an altercation. A light falls on the stalker, killing them. The Founder and Charlie both witness this.

The Founder offers to hide the body in exchange for Charlie's silence and Hetch's cooperation regarding the earpieces. Charlie argues with the Founder and, with Sneeg, takes Ranboo home.

Something prevents everyone from contacting the police.

Ranboo explains what happened before going to bed.

Hetch warns Charlie and Sneeg about Showfall's future plans.

March through May, 2021

Ranboo continues to rise in popularity at Showfall. They start keeping a journal and socially withdraw.

The police have still been unable to be reached.

Sneeg, Charlie, and Ranboo are given extra work by the Founder.

The Founder makes Hetch watch her experiments.

Hetch buys a gun for himself and a pocket knife for Ranboo.

Hetch makes financial preparations for himself and Ranboo to flee Lostfield along with Sneeg and Charlie.

May 10?, 2021

After a 2-month gap where he tried and failed to contact the askers, Hetch manages to get through.

Hetch plans for him/Ranboo/Sneeg/Charlie to leave town at dark, asking the viewers to watch Showfall from now on on his behalf.

[todaysdocument]

"I want men to follow me because they want to; not because they have to," says Sergeant Major Edgar Huff, June 3, 1968. 

Huff was the first Black sergeant major in the U.S. Marine Corps. 

Record Group 127: Records of the U.S. Marine Corps

Series: Black and White Photographs of Marine Corps Activities in Vietnam

File Unit: Divider/Subject - 230 - Individuals and Groups - 1968 Local Savings Bonds campaign banner, absentee voting

Image description: Sergeant Major Huff is seated at a desk, wearing a dark (presumably green) uniform with the sleeves rolled up. He is holding a pair of dark-framed eyeglasses, and is not smiling. 

Transcription: 

60

2 1/4 Negative

3M-2-0949-68

III MAF

Vietnam

3Jun68 Photog: SSgt Samson

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE--Example, not fear, is the key to effective leadership believes Sergeant Major Edgar R. Huff, who has 26-years experience in leading men. "I want men to follow me because they want to; not because they have to," says Huff.

DEFENSE DEPT. PHOTO (MARINE CORPS)

rfs

A191497