#which so far as we can see doesnt necessarily seem to be part of

[boypussydilf]

so i think all the parts of ice king’s personality & behavior that are from simon/not from evergreen are more or less “Simon With MMS” like that would track right? so in a swap au like… ice crown-betty would clearly be reminiscent of Magic Betty, just influenced by evergreen, and magic man-simon would clearly be reminiscent of Ice King, but without the stuff that comes from evergreen. yeah? theres no point to this it’s just mildly interesting.

[possiblylando]

HTP; Ghoul Lore Audio Log Spoilers/Analysis/Discussion

Dude holy shit uh Spoiler barrier and then all in cause

Okay Okay fuck where to begin this episode literally changes everything okay I guess lets start at the Draught. Based on what we know about this unique Draught, it means Grimal might not be the ghoul?? If the ghoul potentially has this Draught (which I vaguely doubt will come into play in this arc specifically) it could mean anyone could be the ghoul so long as they were only in a place without 1 other person. Atleast I assume so because if they could use this high power Dominate on multiple people simultaneously then this whole operation would be cooked from the start. While I was very mixed on the idea of Gloria as the Ghoul previously, I think its far more possible now. This high level Dominate (Lets assume 4 dots) This ghoul could have access to Rationalize or Forgetful Mind, Or any others in that category. If Grimal is was being commanded to act that could explain why everything is so suspicious around her. Have someone else go in and take care of Occam while the ghoul sits with someone else and has the perfect alibi. So now I think the possibilities for Ghoul are; 1. Grimal is the Ghoul (The Draught is a red herring and simply setting up something in a future arc instead of this current one.) 2. Gloria is the Ghoul & has this Draught; this is based more on Vibes and the fact Gloria doesn't actually do too much in part 1 outside checking Occam's pulse. If she's the ghoul and commanded someone (Namely Grimal) to attack Occam, she would have a vested interested in knowing if the attack was successful. Okay thats about it for my thoughts on the Ghoul right now. Onto the far more important bit of this episode. Because this was not simpyl a Ghoul Lore episode, THIS WAS A MARCKUS LORE EPISODE TROJAN HORSE.

But before the deep Marckus shit- Markus was 12 in 1988. Door was present and seems to be in his 20s or 30s. Boy has not been born yet and Boy is 11 in 2006 so he was born in like 1995. So I think its reasonable to place door as being in his 20s here, having Boy in his 30s. This means Door is probably 8-15? (Maybe) years older than Markus which would make him roughly 40 in modern day. D does look markedly younger in these photographs but I'm not sure if thats art style or actually because he's aged. It does put a damped on my thoughts about D being MUCH older than he seems. But we do know his previous Ex-Wife Rozalia (The Ghoul) is roughly 108 in modern day. It seems to be implied D had met & later married her after she was pretty deep into being a ghoul so there probably was a large age gap already. But it still kinda stands out to me. D is very afraid or Marckus becoming a Ghoul because he sees himself in him. I don't necessarily think D was a ghoul (thought it could explain his weird age). Thought all this might be confirmation Bias as in the more recent episodes D's hair has been more consistently colored with grey streaks when compared to earlier episodes where it was more like a sheen in his hair. It just feels like D has done too much to only be roughly in his 60-70s and very fit. While older people can certainly be in good physical condition it doesnt seem like D has suffered any real negatives from aging? He's MINIMUM 18 years older than Door who is in his 40s but again that's a low ball. I don't know. Alright time for the Marckus stuff. So its rather basic background knowledge that HTP's main cast is inspired by the cast of Warhammer 40k TTS. Now up until this point I had thought it was mostly a baseline thing. Only really carrying over personalities and vague relationships between characters while having the freedom to change them with that background knowledge. But based on this episode it appears to be more relevant.

Whatever the fuck Marckus managed to summon, It was something not even D understood. This is in directly parallel with 40k's Magnus who Marckus is based on. For those who don't know about 40k lore (I don't blame you its VERY long.), Magnus is a Primarch (Emperor's special kids) who ended up being manipulated by 40k's god of trickery and ended up fucking up literally everything because of his lack of thinking things through and the influence of said trickster god. Gods in 40k are manifestations of humanity (and alien's) collective subconscious minds and often take the forms of their most volatile negative aspects. They're entited formed from 'The Warp' which is the source of magic in 40k. Magnus is very naturally tuned to the warp. Almost all the issues in TTS (and 40k) relating to Magnus are because he has a MASSIVE complex. He craves parental affection and affirmation but in TTS every time he thinks hes denied it, some shit goes wrong. When he actually gets that parental affection (Earlier season 2 iirc) he mellows out alot until finding out the only reason the emperor (D's counterpart) brought him back was so that Magnus would act as a pawn and decoy in his 5d chess game to deal with political enemies. Magnus is not happy about this. With all this background information, whats present in this episode slots into place. Marckus seems to have forgotten about the incident yes. The better case is that he blocked out the memory due to trauma. But the worse possibility is that a seed was planted. One that's been festering within him since that time. D may be planning to tell Marckus everything in a few months, But I get the feeling before those months are up, That seed will sprout. In one form or another, Marckus will be given the option to go down the same path of darkness as his predecessor. I don't think Marckus would go for such a path without a push but the one providing that push might be D, even if unintentionally. D is so focused on the forest that he's missing the trees.

[lifes-line]

another digital circus post dont mind me-

Just an overview for myself and others - but here is both proof for and against the idea that jax might be the NPC hidden amongst the group organized by each ep we have so far

JAX IS AN NPC:

Ep1

Jax supposedly knows Kinger has been here the longest, either he was told this or he is all knowing, same reason goes for why he says "We've been trapped here for years" how does he know how long its been?

This one is such a reach but Caine says he doesnt have control over ppls minds here and earlier Jax mentions having an adventure for the newbie, while this could be jax fucking around it is plausible he and caine have influence on eachother's ideas when it comes to the humans of this world

pt1 of Jax breaking the forth wall and no one understanding what hes looking at ("She still thinks this is a dream")

"Ow" Jax getting hurt by the gloinks. Aren't their senses cut off for the most part? How come he got hurt?

"I got a key to his room" "You shouldn't have a key to anyone's room!" Jax somehow has keys everywhere with no explicit hiding spot and simply pulls this key out of thin air randomly

Jax breaks the "Spare" sign idk if this is reaching too far but thats weird

Jax seems to be the only one who gets hungry

Ep 2

Jax is the only one who acknowledges a new ai

another fourth wall break

Once again Jax grabs something out of thin air or magically has it without it being handed to him

Can is both unaffected(Mostly) by the fidgeting car and also able to defy gravity?

But Jax is also pretty good at convincing the npcs of things while also yapping with them

Caine mentions if he loses track of whose a human and whose an npc he doesnt know what could happen, but gumigoo's temporary presence in the circus affects nothing so far

WE COULD SEE ANOTHER JAX???

Ep 3

Jax breaks forthwall

wants to see what everyone can do

Doesnt share what he does when he holds his breath

Pulls a shotgun out of nowhere again

impecable memory for what everyone can do?

kills the ghost-

JAX IS NOT AN NPC

Ep 1

Jax says "Just keep pulling on it, that worked for all of us" when Pomni tries to remove this digital headset. This is proof against because unless he is all knowing like ai tends to be in this world he wouldnt know what shes doing unless hes experienced it himself

"Kinger has spposedly been here the longest" Someone had to of told him this, this necessarily doesnt prove he isnt ai but yknow,,

"If there was an exit I'm pretty sure we'd all have left by now" implying he can leave

Caine likes to reuse npcs, we would see another jax

Ep 2

Caine is testing out a new ai which seemingly made gumigoo self aware, if this is brand new it is unlikely there is a self aware npc in the midst

jax seems to have driven a car before

Jax is NOT in the npcs list

Jax knows modern references like his movie ref

Jax has the fascination of harming npcs like a teenage gamer

Jax seemed genuinely upset over someone's abstraction

Ep 3

"We cant die"

deadass tied up for most of the adventure

"Zooble turns straight"

"Her and everyone else" in ref to pomni having a few bad days

"Dont ever quote brainrot again"

[ravenkinnie]

thoughts on jinx largely using pink for her graffitis because the color reminds her of vi??

i like to think its true bcs it makes all those years of stewing resentment/longing/grieving before she sees vi again hits a little more harder. vi seeps into even the most trivial parts be it conscious or subconscious. even in her 'JINX' grafitti tag the first letter 'JI' is drawn in a shape similar with 'VI' the letter J is just tilted kind of, which is a blatant visual representation of how jinx's heart and soul yearns for her sister. its these little things that truly make me realize how obsessed jinx is with vi & idk to me the fandom doesnt talk enough ab it.

I mean I'll be real lads, jinx was using pink way before arcane and before her and vi were even sisters and I think they chose it because pink and blue go well together and now shes stuck with it forever ksjsjsj. I'm also glad s2 is coming out soon because the more people try to find VI in every poster the more I'm starting to feel like that encanto tweet that's like were running out of things to say about this movie jaisusj

don't get me wrong, I'm also prone to delusions, like riot renewed their K/DA trademark and I've been reading signs in the water and the sky for an upcoming EP/album so its not like I also don't live in delululand but my stance is we don't need to read the posters for signs of jinx's feelings towards vi when jinx already told us. like vi is one of the two protagonists we already know she's central to the story and we know that the vi jinx relationship is the centre of the show and the heart of it. and if you don't realise that then I think you will really love arcane because clearly you've never seen it before jajsjksks

but like, they are the centers of each others stories, vis entire arc in s1 is basically just defined by her sister and s2 will probably do little to change that at least in the first half. we know jinx defines herself outside of vi in some ways but she can't really cut her off, she says explicitly vi is a voice she heard over the years, and seven years on a bitch that slightly looks like vi is a trigger. silcos dead ass or not, that's not something you just move past, vi will always be the most important figure. esp since based on trailers we saw so far it seems that jinx in her current position is not living her best life, we've only seen her struggling and looking devastated so far and I assume vi will also not be thriving so I think it will only emphasise how they really are all each other has. and you can say vi has caitlyn now but first of all, caitlyn is insane amd also a bitch and now has personal and political beef with her sister. second of all, caitvi fandom simply is classist so you would think its not a problem but the class divide between them is a huge part of vis character in league and I assume they will keep thay in arcane looking at the direction they are going towards. they both will never have another person like each other, someone who knows where you come from

the reason the fandom doesnt care about it is not because its not true and factual to the show, its just how this fandom works. firstly, nobody cares about platonic relationships already. secondly, parts of the fandom that care about jinx don't necessarily care about vi and parts of the fandom that care about vi don't necessarily care about jinx so hilariously there doesn't seem to be a ton of overlap between the two parts of the fandom where you would have that relationship explored. and it's a very messy relationship that doesn't show either of them in the best light and fanon content is chronically allergic to complicated dynamics so at most you're getting like ship fics with background vi and jinx fluff or like few throwaway angst lines. and most meta on them just tries to argue that the other one is the problem kskskksksj

[sounknownvoid]

How about sam owning his power?

Yes, another random too late at night on our boy sammy! - he just wont leave me alone!... :)

Thing that strikes me about spn and the dynamics bw sam n dean is the power imbalance - and theres multiple kinds at play and im sure ill screw it up in laying out all the layers i see in my head out here but here goes:

Theres initially the little bro v big bro power imbalance - in favour of dean - but theres also the perceived (by dean) power imbalance in favour of sam as he thinks dad only cares about sams safety and + his own love for sam makes him think sams got him wrapped around his finger - thing is, the fact that deans willing to do anything for sam is not necessarily sams doing but it scares dean that sam has that effect on him.....never understanding that he has the same hold on sam.

Then, as they get older, deans faster,stronger,better at hunting,fighting and gets all the parise from dad as a result while sam is the "runt" - scrawny & reluctant (and probably part of his reluctance to join hunting family business is that teenage-attitude of "ah well, im never gonna be better than dean or dad, why bother?") So he doesnt try harder than he has to, to get by ....so the physical power balance for a long time is also with dean growing up...and it suits dean just fine - after all, who doesnt like being "adored big brother" ?...but also given deans fear of sams emotional power over him, & sams intellectual prowess that dean already starts to see in him, dean revels in his physical skills and it makes him feel indulgent and sorta ok with caring for and about his sammy and in his mind balances the scales that sams adoration of him for his skills n physical powers somehow negates the emotional hold of sam on him...& so the scales remain balanced sorta...

A bit older again and sam starts to physically shoot up and he seems to pick things up quicker, is braver than dean at standing up for himself (&im sure on behalf of dean too, sometimes) more n more with dad and theres that damn intellect and that emotional hold on dean already...the scales far as dean can see is tipping slowly away from him....and then sam is (whether due to weecest/wincest feelings developing or just normal teenage angst doesnt matter here) pulling away in teenage fashion: more n more away from dean too so now dean feels like hes left feeling the brunt of that emotional pull more n more (again because theres wincest elements on deans part or not is irrelevant here - its just the emotional gap created when the person you're so closely attached to since childhood pulls away - but this is probably felt even more intensely by dean coz of the hunting lifestyle n lack of other human connections) - leaving dean feeling vulnerable af - which hed hate....and resent sam for .... & would see it as sam holding all the power - even if it may not objectively be true or even something sam is aware of....remember, he's just a kid - drawing boundaries n learning about himself as he grows....

Stanford being the 1st big decision sam makes on his own, asserting his independence - is a blow to dean -to him, thats sam exercising that power of his and being selfish and uncaring of impact on dean - after all, dean had to give up his life,his dreams for sam n his dad - why isnt sam doing the same?... and all the resentments at not just him being the only one to make sacrifices in the family but also of this growing power imbalance towards sam kicks in....and he hates it - he hates that sam doesnt need him anymore, is off making his own decisions, hes likely to be off creating and living his own life pretty soon - & wheres dean then?

As s1,s2 progresses, we see more n more sam being pushed into giving up his power, his independence more n more in favour of dean - not just by circumstances and hell/heaven conspiracy but also emotionally/mentally by people he loves the most - dad, bobby, dean...because the choice for him is "its either our love and acceptance or your own power" & ofc he chooses "family" & " love & acceptance" - cloaked in shame,guilt and humiliation.... theres no thought given by his "loved ones" to " how could we help understand sam's powers and help him manage it", train it or anything remotely positive - its instantly :sam has powers = sam is bad - why? - because he's now 6'4, strong physically,mentally and his only vulnerability is his love for his family: dean mostly at that stage... & they even mention munchausens syndrome by proxy in one of the episode - coz thats basically whats being done to him - hes being made to believe that his powers are inherently evil and therefore he's sick and he "needs" dean to deal with it...and terrified & in absence of any support,ofc he does, he does need dean to deal with it/with himself - slowly eroding his trust in himself... not blaming dean here - as to him its his own "life or death" + identity crisis situation - if hes not looking after sammy, who is he, what does he do with his life? (that "african root-induced dream walker in bobbys/deans head" episode makes it pretty explicit)...

S3/4 - hes had a bit of time on his own & hes found a "teacher" - ruby....thing is, he wouldnt have been that vulnerable to ruby to begin with, if hed received even a tiny bit of guidance n care n understanding of how to manage/control his powers ... so ofc, at his lowest he succumbs to anyone offerring him any kind of guidance or control over himself, coz hes already been conditioned to not trust himself - and why shouldnt he take it from a demon - isnt he already been called evil freak by his own? ...he might as well ...

To dean on his return this is worst case: sammy having his own power and his powers....again wincesty lens might add other layers but for this essay(sorry)!: 1xof the factors influencing deans reactions have to be also the power imbalance tipping towards sam again( he even says in one episide all huffy "well you dont need me, you & ruby can hunt demons on your own" whil packing his duffel) - yes theres jealousy n care that his bro is being manipulated by a demon and his own hell trauma etc,etc....but - lets not forget that hes also feeling that sense of loss of control n power over sam specifically...and so ruby is not the only one manipulating sam in this season...and love is not an excuse for manipulation....and dean is not immune to using it to get what he wants - ie sam (wincest or not doesnt matter here either - outcome is still the same that dean wants).

From s4 to almost upto s10 its a steady degradation of sam and loss of him owning his own power,his body,his self,his personhood.... and each time he tries to reclaim it, hes emotiinally beaten up into giving it up again - so that he can be loved - he is pretty much a "batterred wife" at that point, having given up his power to dean (&lucifer&gadreel via dean &...) - until he starts to fully reclaim again s11 onwards - but in a way thats much more "acceptable" to dean.... hearing words he says to charlie or to mary or to sully about how hes accepted that this is his life now and he loves it - this is somehow supposed to show sams "maturity" in acceptance of his respinsibilities in hunting n saving people etc ... but to me, its not really if you've been watching - its him being a "batterred wife", trading his power for love n acceptance... because he knows that dean will never fully accept sam in his full power....he cant as hes too scared of what he doesnt understand (incl himself). Again wincest lens would amp all of this to intensityx10...

It is these experiences that he then uses to help guide and care for young kids that cross his path showing abilities - incl jack.

If theres ever a reboot i hope its this - i hope its with a sam that starts to see visions n telekinesis etc and he gets support n kindness and understanding & faith in him - while he figures out his training himself - itd be amazing if its dean who "comes around" - hell id even settle for a dean that "comes around" in midst of "when levee breaks" and they run off and hole up somewhere n get sam his rest n care from dean and then training for him.....n they stop the apocalypse together but with sam having his full powers n dean proudly supporting him and himself being powerful in his own right... so that i can believe that its possible to be powerful n strong in your own right and still be loving and kind and caring and loved n accepted in return...

I'll stop here with that beautiful image in my head to help me sleep n not cry over how they did sammy anymore... :) ...not sure any of it made sense, sorry ... n thanks for reading?..

[paintingformike]

Bc, some people think those moments were meant to draw a contrast rather than a direct parallel.

People think that Will being in between Mike and El's scenes is not necessarily there to imply that Mike likes Will but rather is there to show Will's unrequited feelings, because Will was blurred whereas Robin was at the center of the scene where we watched her visibly being sad but Will was not sad, he was blurred in the background and when Mike and El have a forehead touch moment, he is entirely out of the picture.

Also, people do not exactly notice which music plays at which scenes. Only if they are interested in analyzing or searching, then they can find. Another example is, we know about the 'tender emotional music' because we focused on that and then made an analysis, but even then that wouldn't necessarily look like byler proof to the other parts of the audience, esp when that same music also plays for a melvin scene in one of the scenes where they talk.

It's also that Dan and Vickie broke up but Dan is just some random character, whereas El is a main character and we have been following Mike and El's relationship for seasons (that's how the audience thinks), and they gave Mike a huge monologue, whether or not we argue that it happened due to Will, it still happened. Even if Mike and El do not exactly talk, it does not look like a byler proof for some people but it rather looks like a casual relationship drama which will be resolved in S5 like Jonathan and Nancy's underaddressed situations.

I am saying this bc while I am a byler shipper and I think the narrative has a chance to make Byler fully canon, I also have many queer friends or in general friends who belong to GA, and I can also understand their points when they say that they do not see byler happening because majority of the proof that we have seem far-fetched, random or delusional to them.... or just not enough of proofs in general.

yes i literally just said i know people find it harder to believe in byler because main characters are involved in the love triangle whereas dan and vickie are side characters, and that’s as far as i’ll get their sentiments.

about all your other points, yeah i know that these are all reasons why people from the GA think most byler proofs are farfetched...but it doesnt mean their arguments are valid and understandable though lmao. the rovickie/byler parallels aren't even that hard to pick up on, and if it was only meant to contrast the two relationships then will being out of focus while robin isn’t wouldn’t be the ONLY thing different about their scenes cause everything else is pretty much identical to each other, mike and vickie even have similar conflicted expressions when they look at will and robin (and its ON THEM for not noticing that). also even if will is blurred out he still stands out the most cause he’s dead in the middle of mike and el’s faces and his figure immediately draws your attention (heck he was the first thing i noticed as a casual viewer while watching vol 2), which makes no sense for someone who’s supposed to be just “entirely out of the picture”...and about the monologue. something tells me its just double standards against a queer ship cause this isn’t exactly the first time a character seemingly professes their undying love for another character but still ends up with someone else 🤔

what im trying to say is yeah its true that they have all these reasons for not believing in byler endgame but at the end of the day...how am i just supposed to understand the points they have when they’re the ones who cant read into things that aren’t supposed to be very complicated when you have common sense, and i dont really think their thought process/reasonings are particularly strong anyway. also in this context...the rovickie/byler parallel is literally one of our least “random” byler proofs that just came out of thin air, its very much in your face so 😭 i guess i’d understand if you were talking about other more tiny background hints in relation to this topic but this one is pretty blatant...sorry for going into a tangent

[jeonqkooks]

i couldnt agree more with you! i really dont understand why everyone is so hyped over seven. i have to admit it kind of disappointed me with its shallow lyrics. and i dont understand the purpose of the explicit version? i really hate it. and i think its okay not to like every single song they put out, being an army definitely doesnt mean you have to agree with everything they say, do… but i really hope that the rest of the songs in his album wont be so shallow and i really want them to be more unique like the rest of their songs… i feel like with songs like seven you can listen to them a couple of times and then get bored (but maybe thats just my opinion idk). tbh i think jk is just trying to show us something different than what he showed us previously and i dont blame him for that. but im definitely more looking forward to the songs that he will actually write because im sure that he is capable of writing deeper and more meaningful lyrics. and even if the whole album is in english it doesnt necessarilly mean its going to be completely westernized, right? he did say he wants to try new genres… i think he just wants to challenge himself to try something new and i think a fully-english album is a part of that.

either way, i really wish him all the best because i genuinely believe he’s a bit lost and lonely without other members. to me, it seems that the hiatus definitely had the biggest impact on him? but at the end on the day, 2025 is not THAT far away and im excited for when we can see them as a group again💜 jk even said (recently) that after hiatus they will come back even stronger and i think these words are definitely worth lookig forward to💜

p.s. im sorry for such a long message🥲 i just wanted to share my thoughts on here… and i apologize for my poor english😬

if Watt wanted a no brainer song then he succeeded 😂 and yeah i don't like the explicit ver lol someone i follow here said it sounds like they only did it for shock value, which i kinda agree with. the explicit ver cheapened a song that barely had any meaning to begin with (y'all do not come after me for this. you know it's true) but i guess people really wanted to hear him say fuck 😂

true. jk is definitely trying to show a different side of him and good for him, honestly. but i don't think it necessarily reflects in the quality of the songs yk? i think this is more about presenting a new image rather than exploring the sound.

when you say just bc it's in english doesn't mean it's completely westernized, that is also true. but then considering the people he's working with, i'm not holding out much hope for that 😔

the hiatus... yeah :( they raised him, he literally spent half of his life with them and this is the first time he has to be apart from them in like 13 years. also i feel like there's this kinda pressure for them to all release a solo album before enl*sting, so idk if this also plays a part in him not taking the time to focus on His sound himself but yeah just putting this out there

do not apologize for the long message!! i love it i truly truly do. you could send me 50 whole pages of condensed text and i will still be left wanting more. i love that we can have respectful conversations about this :') and what r u talking about, your english is flawless!!

[sunaleisocial]

Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/despite-its-impressive-output-generative-ai-doesnt-have-a-coherent-understanding-of-the-world/

Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world

Large language models can do impressive things, like write poetry or generate viable computer programs, even though these models are trained to predict words that come next in a piece of text.

Such surprising capabilities can make it seem like the models are implicitly learning some general truths about the world.

But that isn’t necessarily the case, according to a new study. The researchers found that a popular type of generative AI model can provide turn-by-turn driving directions in New York City with near-perfect accuracy — without having formed an accurate internal map of the city.

Despite the model’s uncanny ability to navigate effectively, when the researchers closed some streets and added detours, its performance plummeted.

When they dug deeper, the researchers found that the New York maps the model implicitly generated had many nonexistent streets curving between the grid and connecting far away intersections.

This could have serious implications for generative AI models deployed in the real world, since a model that seems to be performing well in one context might break down if the task or environment slightly changes.

“One hope is that, because LLMs can accomplish all these amazing things in language, maybe we could use these same tools in other parts of science, as well. But the question of whether LLMs are learning coherent world models is very important if we want to use these techniques to make new discoveries,” says senior author Ashesh Rambachan, assistant professor of economics and a principal investigator in the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).

Rambachan is joined on a paper about the work by lead author Keyon Vafa, a postdoc at Harvard University; Justin Y. Chen, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student at MIT; Jon Kleinberg, Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University; and Sendhil Mullainathan, an MIT professor in the departments of EECS and of Economics, and a member of LIDS. The research will be presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.

New metrics

The researchers focused on a type of generative AI model known as a transformer, which forms the backbone of LLMs like GPT-4. Transformers are trained on a massive amount of language-based data to predict the next token in a sequence, such as the next word in a sentence.

But if scientists want to determine whether an LLM has formed an accurate model of the world, measuring the accuracy of its predictions doesn’t go far enough, the researchers say.

For example, they found that a transformer can predict valid moves in a game of Connect 4 nearly every time without understanding any of the rules.

So, the team developed two new metrics that can test a transformer’s world model. The researchers focused their evaluations on a class of problems called deterministic finite automations, or DFAs. 

A DFA is a problem with a sequence of states, like intersections one must traverse to reach a destination, and a concrete way of describing the rules one must follow along the way.

They chose two problems to formulate as DFAs: navigating on streets in New York City and playing the board game Othello.

“We needed test beds where we know what the world model is. Now, we can rigorously think about what it means to recover that world model,” Vafa explains.

The first metric they developed, called sequence distinction, says a model has formed a coherent world model it if sees two different states, like two different Othello boards, and recognizes how they are different. Sequences, that is, ordered lists of data points, are what transformers use to generate outputs.

The second metric, called sequence compression, says a transformer with a coherent world model should know that two identical states, like two identical Othello boards, have the same sequence of possible next steps.

They used these metrics to test two common classes of transformers, one which is trained on data generated from randomly produced sequences and the other on data generated by following strategies.

Incoherent world models

Surprisingly, the researchers found that transformers which made choices randomly formed more accurate world models, perhaps because they saw a wider variety of potential next steps during training. 

“In Othello, if you see two random computers playing rather than championship players, in theory you’d see the full set of possible moves, even the bad moves championship players wouldn’t make,” Vafa explains.

Even though the transformers generated accurate directions and valid Othello moves in nearly every instance, the two metrics revealed that only one generated a coherent world model for Othello moves, and none performed well at forming coherent world models in the wayfinding example.

The researchers demonstrated the implications of this by adding detours to the map of New York City, which caused all the navigation models to fail.

“I was surprised by how quickly the performance deteriorated as soon as we added a detour. If we close just 1 percent of the possible streets, accuracy immediately plummets from nearly 100 percent to just 67 percent,” Vafa says.

When they recovered the city maps the models generated, they looked like an imagined New York City with hundreds of streets crisscrossing overlaid on top of the grid. The maps often contained random flyovers above other streets or multiple streets with impossible orientations.

These results show that transformers can perform surprisingly well at certain tasks without understanding the rules. If scientists want to build LLMs that can capture accurate world models, they need to take a different approach, the researchers say.

“Often, we see these models do impressive things and think they must have understood something about the world. I hope we can convince people that this is a question to think very carefully about, and we don’t have to rely on our own intuitions to answer it,” says Rambachan.

In the future, the researchers want to tackle a more diverse set of problems, such as those where some rules are only partially known. They also want to apply their evaluation metrics to real-world, scientific problems.

This work is funded, in part, by the Harvard Data Science Initiative, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, a Simons Collaboration grant, and a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

[jcmarchi]

Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/despite-its-impressive-output-generative-ai-doesnt-have-a-coherent-understanding-of-the-world/

Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world

Large language models can do impressive things, like write poetry or generate viable computer programs, even though these models are trained to predict words that come next in a piece of text.

Such surprising capabilities can make it seem like the models are implicitly learning some general truths about the world.

But that isn’t necessarily the case, according to a new study. The researchers found that a popular type of generative AI model can provide turn-by-turn driving directions in New York City with near-perfect accuracy — without having formed an accurate internal map of the city.

Despite the model’s uncanny ability to navigate effectively, when the researchers closed some streets and added detours, its performance plummeted.

When they dug deeper, the researchers found that the New York maps the model implicitly generated had many nonexistent streets curving between the grid and connecting far away intersections.

This could have serious implications for generative AI models deployed in the real world, since a model that seems to be performing well in one context might break down if the task or environment slightly changes.

“One hope is that, because LLMs can accomplish all these amazing things in language, maybe we could use these same tools in other parts of science, as well. But the question of whether LLMs are learning coherent world models is very important if we want to use these techniques to make new discoveries,” says senior author Ashesh Rambachan, assistant professor of economics and a principal investigator in the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).

Rambachan is joined on a paper about the work by lead author Keyon Vafa, a postdoc at Harvard University; Justin Y. Chen, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student at MIT; Jon Kleinberg, Tisch University Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University; and Sendhil Mullainathan, an MIT professor in the departments of EECS and of Economics, and a member of LIDS. The research will be presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.

New metrics

The researchers focused on a type of generative AI model known as a transformer, which forms the backbone of LLMs like GPT-4. Transformers are trained on a massive amount of language-based data to predict the next token in a sequence, such as the next word in a sentence.

But if scientists want to determine whether an LLM has formed an accurate model of the world, measuring the accuracy of its predictions doesn’t go far enough, the researchers say.

For example, they found that a transformer can predict valid moves in a game of Connect 4 nearly every time without understanding any of the rules.

So, the team developed two new metrics that can test a transformer’s world model. The researchers focused their evaluations on a class of problems called deterministic finite automations, or DFAs. 

A DFA is a problem with a sequence of states, like intersections one must traverse to reach a destination, and a concrete way of describing the rules one must follow along the way.

They chose two problems to formulate as DFAs: navigating on streets in New York City and playing the board game Othello.

“We needed test beds where we know what the world model is. Now, we can rigorously think about what it means to recover that world model,” Vafa explains.

The first metric they developed, called sequence distinction, says a model has formed a coherent world model it if sees two different states, like two different Othello boards, and recognizes how they are different. Sequences, that is, ordered lists of data points, are what transformers use to generate outputs.

The second metric, called sequence compression, says a transformer with a coherent world model should know that two identical states, like two identical Othello boards, have the same sequence of possible next steps.

They used these metrics to test two common classes of transformers, one which is trained on data generated from randomly produced sequences and the other on data generated by following strategies.

Incoherent world models

Surprisingly, the researchers found that transformers which made choices randomly formed more accurate world models, perhaps because they saw a wider variety of potential next steps during training. 

“In Othello, if you see two random computers playing rather than championship players, in theory you’d see the full set of possible moves, even the bad moves championship players wouldn’t make,” Vafa explains.

Even though the transformers generated accurate directions and valid Othello moves in nearly every instance, the two metrics revealed that only one generated a coherent world model for Othello moves, and none performed well at forming coherent world models in the wayfinding example.

The researchers demonstrated the implications of this by adding detours to the map of New York City, which caused all the navigation models to fail.

“I was surprised by how quickly the performance deteriorated as soon as we added a detour. If we close just 1 percent of the possible streets, accuracy immediately plummets from nearly 100 percent to just 67 percent,” Vafa says.

When they recovered the city maps the models generated, they looked like an imagined New York City with hundreds of streets crisscrossing overlaid on top of the grid. The maps often contained random flyovers above other streets or multiple streets with impossible orientations.

These results show that transformers can perform surprisingly well at certain tasks without understanding the rules. If scientists want to build LLMs that can capture accurate world models, they need to take a different approach, the researchers say.

“Often, we see these models do impressive things and think they must have understood something about the world. I hope we can convince people that this is a question to think very carefully about, and we don’t have to rely on our own intuitions to answer it,” says Rambachan.

In the future, the researchers want to tackle a more diverse set of problems, such as those where some rules are only partially known. They also want to apply their evaluation metrics to real-world, scientific problems.

This work is funded, in part, by the Harvard Data Science Initiative, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, a Simons Collaboration grant, and a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

[deadmunds-ghostbee]

Rambling thoughts/analyses on even more (!) stills (p.ii):

Part 1 here

11. This is a really fun picture and I’d assume it’s maybe from middle episodes? Instinct is to say its Anthony that they’re looking at bc of the happiness from Lady D, the skeptical look on Mary’s face, and nervous on Kates. Which makes Edwina’s reaction very interesting! She may be in a phase of souring on him (which makes me think it’s not super early). Hopefully she isnt mad at Kate. They could very well be looking at someone else tho! Another thing ppl have noticed is that Kate’s dress is the same fabric as her pap boat dress but the wig and jacket are different. so I don’t think it’s the same scene. In an interview Simone said Kate starts out “wanting to blend into the background” so it makes sense to reuse dresses bc we haven’t seen the same dresses on Edwina. All in all love this still. It���s so funny and their little line up of faces so charming.

12. Another great still and this one is most mysterious to me of them all! Anthony and Lady D dancing and laughing is so sweet to me also spot little greg in the background. This is a smaller party at Bridgerton house I believe and people have speculated a birthday or maybe (??) an engagement ball. Brazilian fan sources say this is ep 2 but we have no confirmation of that and it doesn’t make much sense to me because why is Anthony smiling so big? What occasion? And what sort of fallout/drama could there be so early on (see maids in the background reading whistledown and the fallout of it in the next still). Also interesting because since I think this is bridgerton house, they aren’t in the country but that’s where middle eps take place? I’d love to know when this one is so hopefully someone finds out soon. Also note the markings on the floor -- I *think* someone said it may have some cultural significance (don’t quote me on that) I don’t remember who said it or what it meant though and I can’t find the tweet. I’m interested to hear if it does have significance, what it is because it’s just interesting to know and it might be an indicator as to what type of event this is. LMK if you know once I open up my asks again! EDIT: It’s prob just paint. 

13. Okay onto the next one from the same event. See the big cake in the background. It’s a celebration of something for sure and they allow kids to be there so birthday seems like a fun idea. In this still they’re clearly dealing with the consequence of whistledown. Mary is worried and Kate is kind of still and concerned and Edwina is...spiteful. Whether she’s mad at Anthony or at Kate or the ton OR on her sister’s behalf is so interesting. Notice we haven’t seen an Anthony/Edwina interaction beyond ep 2 (that scene of them dancing in the teaser is confirmed like the second ball in the show from Charithas q and a). But we also know that Edwina/Anthony dance in the pink ball in episode 4 because we saw bts pic of them rehearsing so this shall be interesting how it plays out. Other things: they all look hot. Love Mary’s hair. Love the color of Kate’s dress. Ed and Kate have matching jewelry. 

Okay now quick commentary on some of the posters before back to stills

14. Love Kate’s dress so much. Peacock feathers and it’s the same scene is as when she’s fanning herself but that doesnt necessarily mean that’s her *actual* pall mall dress? i would say it’s most likely tho. 

15. BY FAR THE MOST INTERESTING POSTER. First off love pens dress it’s the one from episode 7 still (which i suppose can mean anything but it’s interesting they chose that one!) I love the flowers but theyre real sus to me. Does she hang out in the garden and see the bees sting/expose Kathony in whistledown? Am I just overthinking this? Lol. 

16. See Eloise’s dress from ep 7 still. Now that I think on it more I don’t think Pen or El will be present for Pall Mall. 

17. Now I’m only including this because it looks so weird. They do all the actresses so dirty when the mamas (milfs) are the most important in this show. No mary (BOOO!!) and portia looks so out of place. Netflix. Do better. 

18. Last poster bc these are the only ones that interest me. Love the heart wig. Kinda dumb that they’re keeping the pall mall balls in even her still. Also I know she’s not in front of AH here but...they’re not dragging the queen to aubrey hall just so she doesn’t miss out on the drama? That would be fuckin stupid imho. I guess QC feels isolated and also throws herself into gossip but inviting herself to the Bridgerton’s party is maybe a step drastic for her characterization. 

Okay back to stills that came out this morning bc honestly the posters are just kinda underwhelming. They don’t inspire many thoughts other than I wish they were more action oriented. like you think ppl are gonna love them and be enticed just because of the mallets? eh. They could’ve done better but s1 posters are bad too. Anyway I don’t wanna talk about the posters beyond this. 

19. Pen and Eloise in Eloise’s room! This room was featured in the Architectural Digest article but it’s unclear whether it’s her aubrey hall room or the one in bridgerton house. Did Daphne give eloise her room at the end of s1? Am I making that up? I cannot be bothered to check myself. My gut is bridgerton house tho bc Pen and El were there in ep 7 and why would they still be hanging around Aubrey hall? This goes back to the big group photo in front of Aubrey hall where my gut said Kathony were married but that didn’t make sense based on their location. Maybe they just spend time at AH in later episodes too? ANyway onto the actual still. Eloise is still wearing her dresses way up to the neck. Pen’s dress is still cute. And their faces--Pen excited el overwhelmed? Is it about the debut or about a guy (would explain the reactions) or something else entirely?

20. Love that we’ll be getting an awkward dinner party! Kate’s wearing that color again and it’s clearly at Lady D’s house bc she’s head of the table but also the red curtains. Looks like Mary’s family is there which makes me wonder what that relationship is? Is her (I assume) sister supportive? Is the husband kind? Would Lady D even invite them if they aren’t? I love that this almost confirms Mary gets an arc or at least some interesting relationships beyond the main cast to play off of. 

21. Last one. Episode 2x04 Pen looking over the pink ball (shits really gonna go down there isnt it?) I forgot to include this earlier. Oh well. Nothing to say really other than I like the idea of her overlooking everything. It alludes to the looming and seemingly all knowing presence of LW. Dress is fine wig is weird. 

I know there’s ones I haven’t analylzed like the theo sharpe one from weeks and weeks ago (nothing to say there) and some bts photos dropped today. I will say there was that Lady D + Mary photo of them in a carriage in the costumes from the big group photo in front of Aubrey Hall. So clearly Lady D and Mary are involved in whatever the Bridgertons are watching in the trailer in some way or coming up on it? Maybe they’re sharing a carriage with Kate and Edwina, maybe not. Maybe Anthony goes down the steps to greet the 4 of them or maybe he’s already with them. 

Anyway. This is tiring and i bet more still are still to come or maybe more posters? (No Daph, no solo Kathony, no mary?) They’ve also teased pall mall so much I’m surprised there isn’t a still of that. If we get episode numbers or even titles maybe I’ll do another update. 

Good luck to you for reading all this.

[lime-bloods]

(actual discussion question not an attempt to start a fight) i rea dthe spamton post twice and idk if im dumb or smth but im not sure i understand the ending bit? like spamton doesnt hide a tragedy, and in fact never says much about his backstory to you (directly or implying) other than that he used to be big. his backstory is actually told to you by the addisons (who were actually there to witness his falk from grace) after you beat his boss fight in a normal route. he has no control over how his story is told to you. regardless of the progression of time in the dark world, that backstory was real to the addisons and real to him.

him being read as a mastermind manipulator is also a bit odd because like. he lives in the dumpster as a failed businessman specifically because hes just godawful at lying and manipulating. his entire plan relies on the kris’ puppeteer, the player, being curious enough to see where this leads, even if we dont at all believe what hes laying down (and the player is very clearly part of the narrative in deltarune).

like spamton isnt a good person (he’ll ice kris for his own “freedom” whatever that entails, and hes p foul mouthed and rude to kids) but his backstory is real enough to him, and it lends him a pitiable quality (especially the scene right after his normal route boss fight where he seems to regain hold of his senses for a few moments). and his established backstory doesnt really leave room for him to be particularly cunning (like his best plan to get into the mansion was to try and imitate swatch. which is hilarious btw).

again idk if i like misunderstood some parts of the post or smth.

(in reference to this post)

You're the second person to use words along the lines of "master manipulator", which is a misinterpretation of my post, so I think I should start with that. My saying that Spamton is a character who is essentially manipulative isn't the same as saying that he's particular good at it (though it needs to be said that being a "good manipulator" can mean a myriad of different things depending on context, or the manipulator's intentions). What Spamton's constantly deceptions say about him is that he is a desperate manipulator. Like the advertisements and the car salesmen he is inspired by, he doesn't need to deceive everyone; he only needs to find one vulnerable or gullible enough person to make his big break. That's why he attaches himself to Kris and insists that Kris only ever interact with him while they're alone; both battles with NEO show that Kris cannot beat Spamton on their own.

(Whether it is actually Kris or the player that Spamton believes he is manipulating is largely irrelevant. He's looking for someone who'll listen to him and believe him; and in the case of Snowgrave, he's willing to push children to extremes to attain what he wants, whether someone else is also manipulating those kids or not.)

You're also the second person to mention the fact that he lives in a dumpster as evidence that he's ineffectual... I think this is majorly missing the point. The fact that your first encounter with Spamton involves him crawling out of a dumpster like a miserable lowlife is part of the act! This kind of "I've fallen on hard times and need your help" ploy is a classic part of the toolset of this type of person/advertisement. As a Darkner, Spamton's life plays out to a certain script, and being a pathetic, seemingly sympathetic person is precisely part of the spam advertisement script.

Now, this is where a lot of people seem to be losing me. I am not necessarily saying Spamton's backstory did not happen to him (in as much as anything can "happen" to a Darkner). I do not necessarily deny that Spamton (believes he) fell upon hard times and had to start living in a dumpster. My main assertion is that very little of this actually effects Spamton in the way he pretends it does. He's milking his tragedy as a selling strategy.

One needs to examine the recurring themes in Deltarune thus far. We know Darkners can't die, at least in the sense we are familiar with; hitting them until their health runs out only results in their running away. This makes sense, because they are objects. You can't kill a playing card any more than you can kill a window on your operating system. Similarly, though we are led to believe that King is rough with his son in Chapter 1, as of Chapter 2 this actually seems to have been a joke. If you throw Lancer against something, he just bounces. Again, he is a toy, an object. He doesn't seem to experience "hurt" in the same way a person would.

This same logic should be applied to Spamton. If you throw a playing card on the ground, the playing card doesn't care; why should a spam email "care" if it's put in a trash folder? (Again, this is part of the spam email's "script".) Furthermore; if we are to believe Spamton was at one point, at least in his mind, thrown out of Queen's castle, then Queen or her underlings should be the ones held responsible for this, no? But if one thing is clear from Chapter 2, it's that Queen is not a malicious character. If Spamton was thrown from Queen's mansion on her orders, then there are only two real options that are consistent with Queen's character.

Queen believed that throwing Spamton on the streets would not actually effect him adversely, in the same vein as King's treatment of Lancer. Again, why should a computer feel badly about putting a spam file in the trash? It's in both of their very routines. OR

Queen did think Spamton would suffer from his punishment, and she believed that he deserved it. (Refer back to the idea of Spamton representing some past trauma of Noelle's: given Queen's (albeit misguided) maternal fondness for Noelle, this would also be a perfectly fitting scenario).

It is true that much of what we know about Spamton's past comes from the Addisons; but if we take the Addisons at their word, Spamton's story is not a particularly sympathetic one!

It's the classic story of selling your soul for power, becoming big headed, and having everything blow up in your face. Of course he tries to get his power back by having someone else sell their soul to him.

It's only when we take Spamton's own lines into account - see the situation from his tinted, warped view - that it starts to become anything resembling a sad story. When he talks about how badly the acid burns, or wails and cries about his furniture being taken as Queen evicts him...

...he's performing for an audience, instinctively, even when an audience isn't there. There is no reason whatsoever to believe him when he says this stuff. I'm not here to tell anyone how they should feel about a video game character. That's not what this blog is for, it's not really something I give a shit about. This is just analysis of a character with regards to the themes of the greater work. But if I were to voice my personal opinion, as informed by this reading of Deltarune Chapter 2, it would be that if you do take pity on Spamton, don't do it just because he tells you to! It's exactly statements like "the scene where he seems to regain hold of his senses for a few moments" that I take issue with. Why is it that his sympathetic moments are treated as "the real Spamton" and his cruel, manipulative moments are simply an affliction, when that way of thinking is the complete reverse of what a personified spam email represents?

[skipps-writes-for-gojo-satoru]

A short thread I found about Gojo's character that helps shine a light to how caring he is:

https://twitter.com/musikawu/status/1376984416485007363?s=19

Also, I actually just realized this recently after rewatching JJK that Gojo got super attached to Yuji really quickly. Gojo not only got very angry on his behalf but went out of his way to ask Nanami for help in caring for Yuji when he's supposed to be the strongest sorcerer. And at that time, Gojo made it clear to Nanami that he didn't ask him to do so due to Yuji's potential as a vessel. Gojo asked Nanami for this favor as an adult who wants to see the growth of a young man. Gojo was very precise in telling Nanami that he was looking not at Sukuna and Yuji's power, but at Yuji himself as not only an individual, but a child that needed nurturing and care. Before Yuji's death, Gojo had already even made preparations to have Yuta take care of Yuji cause he knew something might happen to him- even more development is that despite what Gojo says about himself, he's aware of his own flaws. What he appears to be on the outside is nothing like what he truly feels on the inside. He doesn't delude himself into narcissistic behavior that makes him unable to ask for help. He asks for help willingly and of his own accord- Yuta couldn't even fathom how the strongest sorcerer would face a problem he couldn't solve on his own, but Gojo does. Gojo is smart enough to know he needs to rely on others to move forward, and relying on someone means putting a certain amount of trust there. Gojo puts just as much faith in other people as he does himself, and the interesting part is that while it's more admirable to go out of your way to protect someone else, Gojo never brags about that. He only "brags" about things that will annoy the other person, but really he is only saying a commonly known "truth" in order to rile people up. It may sound like bragging- which it sort of is- but Gojo saying he's the strongest is not a lie. Him saying "I alone am the honoured one" is not necessarily a lie either. People don't call him the Strongest for nothing.

In fact, even more interestingly enough, besides Gojo, who includes Geto when people talk about the "strongest?" Despite being the definite "strongest," Gojo is the one who constantly says "We are the Strongest," not the other way around. He's also mature enough to recognize and point out other people's strengths, such as Mei Mei's, saying she is too strong to cry.

If Gojo truly was a narcissist, he would have mentioned everything else he's done for people, like stopping Megumi's sale to the Zenin clan and getting the Fushiguros financial aid. He could brag about being persuasive enough to save Yuji from execution or even saving Yuta from execution- Yuta becoming a special grade sorcerer soon after Gojo saved him is something you can easily brag about- but Gojo doesn't brag about his personal achievements at all- not in the way that demands respect from others, at least. Gojo only "brags" to tease others lightheartedly and to tick them off a little- and I don't think the demeaning things Gojo says to the higher ups can be used to show he's a narc because *many* people in Gojo's position would have said (and done) much, much worse things.

Also, when Yuji died, Gojo had become so emotional that even Shoko, who had been there since Gojo's youth, had commented on how unlike him it was. People irl really thought it was because Gojo couldn't use him as a weapon against the higher ups anymore, but reading how Gojo had told Nanami that he saw their relationship as an adult and a child makes me think differently. Something very important in the Light Novel is when Gojo tells Nanami that his students, because they are sorcerers, will soon have to "face the evil intentions of sh*tty humans." Not only sorcerers, but "every person has to bite into that bitterness, know what it means to give up, and pile up despairs to become an adult." People like Gojo and Nanami, Gojo had said, are capable of withstanding and releasing the "poison" that runs through the heart. However, the youngsters are more sensitive in that age, and "one poison could destroy their hearts" (I'm sure Gojo was thinking of Geto as he said this). That's why he wants to leave Yuji in the care of Nanami, "an adult who understands other people pain." Not that Gojo is unable to understand pain, but in the earlier events of the Light Novel as context, Gojo is faced with a mother who is mourning the loss of her child. While Nanami tries to gently comfort her and secretly find information on the cursed spirit at the same time using vague words, Gojo's words are straight forward and to the point, which startles the mother. It's not necessarily a bad things, however- Gojo's words had ended up allowing the mother to see her situation as it was without delusions, a tough love situation, so to speak, and the two were able to confirm their intel to be correct. It was Gojo who helped her to heal quicker by allowing her to realize her problem through his cutting words, but I'm sure Gojo realizes his "bad personality,"- which isn't really so bad in some cases- isn't for everyone. Gojo is very aware that people react negatively to his behavior, even if he is unable to understand just how deeply they despise him (*cough* Utahime) In that way, Gojo shows he cares very much for Yuji's mental growth, even in that short period of time, by entrusting his care to Nanami, who he comments would do a much better job than be could.

Therefore, I think Gojo might actually get attached to people more quickly than it might seem like. He also thinks very deeply and no matter how he acts, he's able to recognize others' strengths and acknowledge his own flaws- this is a key part of his character because he doesn't delude himself in his position as the Strongest. To those who think Gojo sees himself as a God, he is far from that behavior, and he is self aware enough to know that people need more to grow than just power and strength. Unfortunately, it seems most people either despise Gojo or are too enamoured by his looks to see past the surface of the more boisterous and childish part of his personality. That's likely the main reason he finds it hard to commit, too.

(More ranting 😭. There was this reddit post saying Gojo's narcissistic enough to be a more evil villain than Sukuna, that he would actually end up becoming the villain- like really??? And so many people really agreed that he's incapable of feeling true emotions that it's absurd. I really can't believe they even think Gojo has a God complex. Someone with a God complex, like most of the other disorders, wouldn't be able to admit their own flaws, let alone ask for help! The fact that Gojo even admits to having a "bad personality" is another tell against that. Sometimes I wonder if people are just projecting, but I also realize it's hard to differentiate between being an ENTP and being a sociopath because of how- on the surface- they seem so similar! But if you just dig a little deeper to look at their roots, they are so completely different it's a wonder how you'd get confused in the first place)

- 🤔

OH I COULDN'T AGREE MORE 🤔 anon here spitting FACTS. Yeah alot of people think gojo's a narcissist with huge ego but that ain't the case at all as explained above. I mean he was put on a pedestal since birth he gotta have some ego in that but that fact doesnt blind him. yeah sure he's the strongest but just one line "I'm the strongest" doesn't mean he's bragging it may sound like it but he's just stating facts he is indeed in fact the strongest in the jujutsu society. He knows he can't do everything on his own I mean why did he even become a teacher in the first place? Becuz he wants to make the next generation of jujutsu sorcerers stronger! No one asked him to do it he himself wanted to be a teacher even though at time he sucks at it.

He genuinely wants to do good not just for himself but for others as well. As interesting as the concept of Gojo becoming a villain it will never happen. Don't judge a damn book by it's cover even if it's a very attractive one hes just such an interesting character its shame most people don't see that.

[evilvarric666-archive]

that post about self sacrifice narratives made me think of how da accidentally goes a step further and ends up (in part) being a cautionary tale about self sacrifice, or rather showing people the other side of self sacrifice and the ugly side of the glorification of martyrdom. like im not going to mention it all, but take dao as an example. the figure of the warden/hero necessarily originates from sacrifice (except in the brosca origin where brosca's life was already permeated by sacrifice, and the figure of the warden is born not from sacrifice or tragedy, but from both this sense of chance or destiny, rage and revenge, which is VERY interesting to me but i dont want to go off topic), and the game seems to constantly insist on the idea of glorifying sacrifice "for a good cause". this is not alarming to the audience, because its something constantly seen in other similar mainstream narratives: the someone sacrifices themselves for the greater good and everyone is better off because of that sacrifice. because a narrative that shows the good and virtuous side of sacrifice for a greater purpose is useful, so why would they bother to explore how inhuman it is to ask someone to give up their life, how painful it is to resign oneself to misery so others can live. they never make you think about the person behind the act, they take advantage of the distance of the audience, they dehumanize the figure of the martyr to make them perfect and virtuous to further a certain narrative, and they focus on showing the "bigger picture" to promote a certain message. but there are instances where the game tries to show the player some hidden cracks in that particular "self sacrifice is noble act" ideology. the issue is that they are fairly easy to ignore. we can choose to ignore the fucked up-ness behind the deaths of the recruits during the joining because they happened to further a greater cause. we can ignore the grief of the families that have lost loved ones in battle because thats what happens during war and there's nothing anyone can do about it. we distance ourselves from the grief and misery of martyrdom by glorifying the heroes that sacrifice everything, distance ourselves from the messed up inhuman nature of the idea of asking a person to sacrifice their life in exchange for the lives of others, because we're playing a game, we truly don't risk anything, and we dont have to give up our lives, so its easy for us to mantain this idea of "sacrifice=good" and even easier to get influenced to carry that idea into real life and see it as a virtue. to think only of the heroic part. but if we choose to go through with the dark ritual, the game instantly turns the tables on us, gets personal, and forces us to pay attention to the misery and pain, the unfairness and the helplessness, the mutual suffering that self sacrifice truly entails, using the only person we can't completely help or "save": morrigan(1/2)

(putting the rest under a readmore bc it's long but OH MY GOD?)

(2/3) For someone like morrigan who's had to fight tooth and nail all her life just to survive in a wild and hostile environment with not a word of kindness or a helping hand ever being offered to her, for someone like morrigan who had to learn that she could trust no one but herself ever, that the world was a cruel savage place and the only way to survive it was to be just as cruel, cunning and manipulative, that was certain that love and friendship were illnesses experienced by fools who were looking for a quick death or betrayal or worse, that fully believed that having power over everyone acquired through any means so that she couldnt be hurt or taken advantage of was the only important thing in life, for someone like morrigan who finally got the chance to make her seemingly impossible dreams come true and also be in a relatively safe position for the first time in her life, who finally got to experience love and care from others and mutual companionship, friendship and selflessness, and finally was part of a real "family" for the first time in her life, to give up ALL THAT and her own freedom simply for the sake of another person, without getting any real reward or benefit from it, when she could've just thrown everyone under the bus like she'd been taught all her life and lived safely the way she'd ALWAYS wanted? thats messed up and painful to experience, and made even more painful by the knowledge that the warden can only watch, because nothing they say will make her not sacrifice herself. and she'd be the perfect martyr, the perfect example of the virtue in sacrifice if only the whole thing was seen from a distance, if it wasnt for the warden/player getting to see firsthand and personal how terrifying, fucked up and unfair the whole situation is, for both them who are on the receiving end and for morrigan, but mainly for morrigan. morrigan, whose life has been nothing short of miserable, choosing to give up and destroy her own dreams, choosing the prospecy of misery and loneliness, choosing to be far away from the world she loves, choosing to GIVE UP HER LIFE IN THEIR WORLD to let someone she loves live happily and safely, even despite all the pain and grief that separation and sacrifice cause in her heart. she gives up EVERYTHING WILLFULLY for ANOTHER PERSON'S SAKE, she puts the life of another before her own in the most absolute and painful of ways, going aganist every painful lesson in her life, solely because of love.

(3/3) theres just no bigger sacrifice than what she did. to not only go aganist everything youve been taught and completely believed all your life, but also to sacrifice yourself and decide to face the idea of not death, but the idea of a life of pain and loneliness again, a life with little to no benefits for which you had to give up everything you wanted, a life that includes the terrifying reality of having to give birth to and raise a child, alone, with all the trauma morrigan has surrounding the idea of that particular experience, just for the sake of another person that only offered you love and friendship for a short moment in your life? it's the biggest declaration of love for another being that could ever be made, and it's the most messed up thing ever because it speaks volumes about how starved morrigan was, how messed up her love is for her to consider that one chance given to her by another person, that hand extended towards her, that moment of friendship, love and kindness, worthy of sacrificing ten years of her life and her dreams for. how little she must care for herself if she gave up so much for the first person that extended kindness to her for a short time. and it's painful because it goes both ways, because sacrifices always do, because it's unforgettable and it stays with the warden forever, not only because of the emotional bond they have with morrigan, but because now they have a literal bond between them. the warden now has to keep living a life they took from morrigan, and with the grief of not having morrigan around. they can no longer live for themselves. every day alive is a reminder that someone else gave up their time so the warden could have it. someone else is not seeing the world just to let the warden see it. someone else is alone, while the warden gets to be around people. and the sacrifice is mutual in the end, because the pain is mutual, because the love was mutual. the warden doesnt get to see morrigan, and can only keep this life and the memories, the love and the grief, and the undying hope as a reminder that someday they might meet again. but its mostly grief, and learning how to live with it, with all the love they can't give, and how to carry it gracefully.

[maschotch]

the stranger for hotch reid and derek

the stranger: has your character ever thought they knew someone, and then found out they were completely wrong about them? have they ever felt betrayed?

oh my god i was typing up my response to this ask in the notes app of my phone while making dinner.. got to my laptop all excited to answer ur ask and i realized u didnt just ask for hotch aksdgljd so they uh. got kinda long. i felt bad if hotchs was like 5 paragraphs and everyone else got two sentences but i think i overdid it

its all getting a little much, may have to put this under a read more

hotch:

a full on betrayal? no. if only because he’s skeptical, good at reading people, and doesnt give his trust easily. between those three things, he’s avoided being completely blindsided by someone other than my love and human remains college fic i’ll never write. but he’s been lied to, and he realized he may have trusted someone more than he should have.

emily obviously comes to mind. she’s been lying to him—to all of them—since the day she stepped into his office. there was an entire part of her life that she kept secret. she’d been places, done things, knew people he never would've expected. but it wasn’t quite a full on betrayal, because his trust in her was never broken.

sure he was angry about her deception. of course he was, they all were. but i firmly believe that what went on between them “in name and blood” cemented their trust in each other. nothing was going to change that, not even keeping an entire world hidden. whatever happened, whatever was going on, there had to be a reason. he never lost faith in the person he knew she was. he knows she would do anything to protect the team, and so he tries to do everything to protect her.

ok this one may not necessarily be a betrayal, but it definitely had hotch questioning himself and who he’s chosen to follow. gideon trying to alleviate his guilt by attempting to justify his rash decisions that ended with elle getting shot was something that seemed to take hotch by surprise. he had to reassess the man he’d spent the last decade looking up to.

out of all the former bau members, gideon was somehow the chillest and, even though he certainly had his quirks, he earned everyone’s respect with his unparalleled profiling skills and keen insight into the human mind. hotch held gideon in high esteem. we see him in season one bending over backwards trying to protect gideon, defending him with a ferocity that we don’t often see in hotch. he saw him as a sort of father figure—less so than reid, but hotch had been with gideon far longer. he looked up to him. and when elle gets shot and the only thing he can think of is trying to excuse himself from any blame, hotch was hit with the brunt of reality: gideon’s flaws ran deeper than hotch had imagined.

we know how personally hotch takes it when one of the team gets hurt and how he holds himself accountable for anything bad that happens to them, even when its not his fault. he values responsibility. hotch has only been unit chief for a short while and, even though he’d undoubtedly been handling many unit chief tasks on gideon’s behalf, he’s still new at being a leader. he’s figuring out his style and the principles he intends to uphold as the head of the team. i think witnessing gideon manuevering around any culpability for elle’s trauma and hotch’s personal mentality of the obligation he has to others, solidifies in hotch’s mind the importance of accountability. he looked at gideon and said this isn’t who i want to be as a leader. its the first time he’s had to disagree with gideon on a fundamental level, and it catches him off guard. the man he loved may not be a good man.

morgan:

emily’s past resurfacing hit morgan the hardest. he’s far less trusting than hotch (which is saying something), so anytime he does decide to let someone into the fold, it means a lot. he allows himself to be vulnerable around very very few people: not even everyone on the team—probably not anyone outside the team either. so to discover that he’s been lied to the whole time is damn near apocalyptic.

we see him wrestle with that in "lauren" and we see him struggle with coming to terms with his anger after her death. in their final moments, he holds her hands and tells her that she’s his partner and how much she means to him—that’s not something that just goes away. especially when the reason she did all of this was something that’s so in character for her.. even though she lied to them, she was protecting a child. and when her past resurfaces, she lies to protect them. it’s so emily prentiss that he questions if he has to doubt her at all.

he barely processes all of this as she’s dying in his arms and when she comes back, its the same thing all over again. she’d lied. morgan still loves her and trusts her with some things, but he’s not as open as he once was. he can’t. after a betrayal like that, it affirms his skepticism, even if it’s not as black and white as he may think. he doesnt blame her for it. he understands why she had to do it. but that unease stays with him and never quite leaves.

morgan probably felt more betrayed by hotch when emily returns. a man he’s trusted for at least eight years. a man he’s looked up to, respected, confided in. probably the only one morgan trusted more than emily was hotch, so losing two of them at once… he’s too tired for anger. because there are reasons and justifications and layers to their decision—and it clearly wasn’t one either of them took lightly—it makes everything convoluted in a way that he doesn’t want to bother untangling. he’s quicker to reestablish trust with hotch (he's not the one who's been lying to him from day one) but it cut the deepest because it came from someone he least suspected.

morgan doesn’t trust readily. in general he’s not easily fooled and his careful guard he maintains around others keeps him from the betrayals he anticipates. he’s quick to make judgements of people. even though they’re rarely wrong—he is a profiler after all—he’s surprised when he realizes they’re not who he thought they were. ultimately he’s too cautious to allow for genuine betrayals, which is why hes so wounded when it happens anyway.

spencer:

reid.. for lack of a better word… is rather petulant. he got so used to being mocked and ridiculed by others when he was a kid, and joined the bau so soon after it all, that he carries that suspicion with him in the initial seasons. but he’s also a hopeful, almost naive, kind of guy. he wants to have faith in others, which is why he’s so quick to snap at someone who he feels has wronged him. thinking specifically of “the popular kids” where he accuses derek of betraying him by telling hotch and gideon about what he’s going through. he’s so used to humiliation that he hasn’t figured out that there’s a distinction between humiliating someone for the sake of it and doing something painful because its best for somebody. he’s so used to being demeaned by his peers that he hasn’t yet discovered that there’s a difference between being humiliated by malicious bullies and feeling humiliated by someone trying to do what’s best for you. essentially, he’s felt many betrayals, even if thats not the reality of the situation.

by season 5 he’s shaken off a lot of that immaturity. he may still grumble about being pushed to grow in ways that would be inevitably uncomfortable, but overall he has a better sense of genuine betrayals. he’s not as easily offended. he’s more willing to open up to others—certain people about certain things, knowing how likely they are to just listen and talk him through it or get the others involved—and that settles him down.

the issue is that when he trusts, he trusts completely. again, his optimistic nature leads him to only pay attention to the traits he admires and ignore their flaws (its not like garcia where she actively tries to focus on the good in everyone). put simply: when he trusts someone, he lets his guard down. like all the way down.

reid wasn’t as bothered as emily’s secrets as the others. but his faith in jj was clearly shaken. it just didnt occur to him that she would do something like that because he hadn’t even considered it before.

i think its more interesting that reid believes he betrayed his mother by putting her in a hospital. diana accuses him of betrayal and he takes it to heart. he does feel guilty for sending her away—so much so that it takes him years to comfortably visit regularly. its something that needed to be done; she needed help and care that a hospital provides, even if she’s initially reluctant. ultimately its for her benefit. but for a long time he was scared he would have to face her resentment. his initial misconception of betrayals was probably fueled by this. and even though he’s a genius, there are still things that he has trouble learning.

[writingpuddle]

(responding to your tags bc it's interesting and i've been thinking about it a lately) andrew isn't necessarily less violent when medicated be he definitely follows through more when he's sober? and he gets distracted much more easily from being angry when he's medicated. in the first book he smacks neil with the exy racket, but it seems more like an impulse than planned, and then we see him threaten people twice (nicky and kevin) but not follow through, also on impulse, his plan to drug neil, which is carried out semi-sober, and that's about it. (he also threatens to hurt himself but doesn't follow through, impulse as well) after easthaven he pretty much immediately chokes allison and has to be bargained with to stop, punches matt, threatens katelyn, chokes kevin and has to be physically pulled off him before he stops, attempts to physically fight the fbi, nearly punches neil, and breaks rikos arm. idk i wouldn't say he's like, nonviolent on medication by any means but i think it did defang him in the way the court intended it to, for the most part. he does genuinely seem to lose interest in following through in the first part of the books, and he gains that focus back in the latter half. obv this isn't like, an ironclad theory and also it's possbile i'm missing smth bc this is off the top of my head, but i also think that as far as it cosmetically looking like it's making a difference it could just about pass muster for a parole officer who's making sure there haven't been any extra murders yet.

sorry this is super long i just have many thought thank u for ur time

oh my GOD do not apologize for sending me this i am so happy to see all your thoughts and i think its totally fascinating. i am 100% with you on the fact that sober andrew has more follow-through--hitting someone who hit someone else like...yesterday is a very pre-meditated, almost clinical sort of violence. there's no real emotion to it, it's just methodical punishment, and drugged andrew seems like he would respond at least less reliably with violence since the drugs would wash away his immediate emotional reaction by the time he ran into matt again.

so its more a matter of...is clinical violence more violent than impulsive violence? which is why i would want to actually like. collect all the incidents and compare them not just in number but severity. because of the nature of plot, a lot of really insane shit happens in late in the series when andrew is sober, versus many of the triggers for his violence when he's drugged are a lot less serious; nicky making an off-colour joke, kevin being pushy about exy. it's hard to directly compare that to like, someone andrew loves being kidnapped and presumably murdered. i couldnt confidently say if drugged andrew would react with less violence to that situation because drugged andrew never encounters a situation that serious (excepting drake, in which case its a) against himself, who he doesnt value as much as his family b) he's too physically injured to do much other than hold on to aaron).

(actually speculating about how drugged andrew might have responded to baltimore is an interesting puzzle--but then its begs the question of how neil and andrews relationship might have evolved if andrew was still drugged, since i personally hc that andrew isnt comfortable with engaging in sexual activity when he's high)

BASICALLY i could make a case for either side really, because its so ambiguous. i can kind of see how andrews sober, methodical and premeditated violence would be more frightening to people than the emotionally impulsive one-off incidents that happen when he's drugged, but the volatile nature of andrews moods when he's on his medications do not seem super safe either.

i think tho we can agree that andrews medications werent really about his own mental health--they were about controlling his behaviour. whether they worked or not...unclear. whether they were ethical or not? hell no.

ugh. next time i read the books im gonna have to use sticky notes to keep track of all the incidents. im gonna have a goddamn spreadsheet of andrew behaviours.

[prismartist]

(warning: i wrote this past midnight, so if i seem deranged at parts, that’s why)

okay, so after eret’s recent lore stream, i think it may be safe to say that there’s possibly something weird going on with members and not having any memory of their past. we’ve seen it in three people so far, and most of the other inhabitants never mention their backgrounds aside from their time in the server. what’s weirder is that there are exceptions to this case, with people like phil (tentatively) or schlatt using their past SMPs as background, even though other people who were in those same servers, like wilbur or eret, make no mention of them at all.

from a meta standpoint, there’s a simple explanation: those who had significant roles in those smps are more likely to reference them, especially if the fandom keeps reminding them of it. everyone is at least a little familiar with the Antarctic Empire, or Schlatt & Co. but not as many people know of the time when eret dug out the entirety of hawaii in smpearth, so he doesnt bring it up as much, or at least, not in character. it’s also probably because people pick and choose which aspects of their former servers to induct into their character’s past, which is confusing, but yknow.

there’s also the fact that backstories not directly linked to the smp became more popular with the arrival of ranboo, who constantly hinted at his ~mysterious past~ (and the possibility that it’s the cause of his memory loss), and some people taking that, but simply without the amnesia. foolish, for one, seems to have a pretty good grasp on his past, and didn’t see a reason to have his character forget it. 

from a worldbuilding standpoint, though? when considering the fact that everyone’s individual character lore, no matter how separate they are from the current plots, will probably be all connected at one point or another like dream promised? i feel like we have to look at some possibilities as to what this could all mean.

(keep in mind the following probabilities could overlap with each other.)

tis farfetched theory time :]

so, what are the possible causes for the unnatural amounts of amnesia in the dream smp?

1. the dream smp is something akin to a night vale-esque region, one protected by a god albeit through extreme means, wherein there’s (almost) no way in, unless accepted by a mysterious force, and (almost) no way out.

isn’t it weird how members can travel as far as possible and yet encounter no civilization aside from some villagers? yet tales has confirmed that such regions definitely exist and even operate in more real-world rules, like only having one life instead of the usual three? 

don’t you ever wonder if the dream smp perhaps operates on a different... level, than the rest of the world? mod-less, the end being barred, no farms allowed?

do you think the inhabitants of the smp never mention/don’t remember their past because they’ve been totally cut off from it?

the dream smp could be a creation in a similar vein to night vale; a specific section of the world completely separated and hidden from it, as well as oblivious to the fact that it's hiding from anything. 

the reasoning for this could be to serve as a sort of protection. if you look at it a certain way the server does seem sort of baby-proof compared to other servers. three lives instead of one, no access to the end, no automated farms. why does it need to be protected? maybe it's a safe space for dreamxd to keep people theyre fond of. maybe it's a social experiment. maybe a tragedy has befallen it before that forced it to be so. nonetheless, that part remains a bit more vague. 

of course, there are exceptions to the "no one can get out" bit; karl is basically given permission to travel a bit more beyond the boundaries, glatt is a ghost and ghosts have been shown to have a bit more free will than live people, and connor potentially has necromancer/fellow time traveler/main character privileges. basically he's just connor. 

now i know this completely ignores the characters who i just mentioned have pasts, but there are ways to go about this: a) theyre simply Built Different (aka these people are mentally stable or powerful enough to remember their past), and/or b) past smps could have inhabited the land before it dissolved and dream took over (risky, but not impossible). 

My brain did come up with c) people can retain memories from alternate dimensions, not if theyre from the same world as the smp itself, but it does seem the least likely if you want the narrative to make sense, as this wouldn't explain how foolish, who is implied to have been on the server long before the dsmp was established (as judging from jack the potato farmer’s journal) still remembers his past, and why wilbur doesn’t remember smplive. but he does seem to be the only one with this problem, as everyone else that i know of who was on smplive seem to have some familiarity with each other. which leads me to the next possibility. 

2. the amnesia picks and chooses. 

this post by @noobsomeexagerjunk brings up this point; if there is someone behind the amnesia, they simply pick and choose whose past to wipe. beatrix’s post suggests it’s mostly people who do potentially stand as some sort of threat against dream, as they all oppose him and can overpower him provided they have resources and are in the right state of mind, which they seemingly are not as of late. that suggests dream does have some form of power over the server, or maybe works with dreamxd to make it happen. 

but if not that, then what? perhaps these people are more likely to figure out how to break the server rules? maybe they have abilities that could easily overpower dreamxd themself? if that is the case, maybe we can consider karl as well; there are theories that dreamxd is possibly connected to the inbetween and could be behind karl’s amnesia as well as the others, perhaps as a way to limit his abilities. but again, foolish would be an exception, as he is incredibly powerful. but then again again, foolish is incredibly powerful, so he could have avoided this fate. 

3. it’s all purely coincidental.

out of the five amnesiacs on the server, two of them have causes that we are aware of; ghostbur because he’s repressed, and karl because of time travel/whichever one of the two alternate dimensions he’s visited that are fucking with him. ranboo’s reason is hinted to be because of something that happened to him. so i don’t think it’s unlikely that puffy and eret’s memory losses don’t necessarily have anything to do with the nature of the server. maybe puffy hit her head on a rock and washed ashore far from her ship, and eret’s a reincarnation, similar to link from legend of zelda, except he can’t remember anything about his past life/lives (there’s also several theories explaining this). this is… the most probable one, as it would be a clean explanation with no inconsistencies. so. 

tl;dr either the dream smp wipes the memory of most people in the server when they enter, it picks and chooses based on who is a potential threat, or the amount of amnesiacs is purely coincidental.