#why do people believe fringe theories

[lv1rose]

Doomer Boomer, take a hike.

Saw a post about gen Z Marxists, communists, socialists, and anti-capitalists from a disgruntled boomer. This person had lived through the hippie commune to yuppie pipeline. According to their own account, they abandoned their worldly possessions and joined communes, read Das Kapital by gaslamp, and still ended up as yuppies (young urban professionals; corpos). Below is a rebuttle.

Their criticism was that because gen Z wasn't also giving up their worldly possessions, joining communes(, etc) that gen Z is doing it wrong; they don't believe in the cause, they aren't truly detaching themselves from capitalism, etcetera, etcetera. It was essentially repeating the old lie that as you get older you grow more conservative. It was the "you can't buy a house because you're always buying those lattes and eating avocado toast" of anti-Communism.

What this take of a century misses out on is, honestly, a lot. If this person was truly a scientific socialist, a Marxist, an understander of the dialectical materialist method, then they would understand that what they were doing was conducting an experiment. They were experimenting with a method of organisation and resistance. From history and from what this person said, their experiment failed. Since their experiment failed, and failed miserably, why would we do exactly as they did again? It would take more research than I can be bothered with to confirm this for sure but - as far as my knowledge of hippie commune movements goes - the idea was poorly conceived in the first place. It was unlikely to yield revolutionary results. So I ask again, why would we heed this call to repeat things as they did again?

Additionally, if this person understands the theory they claims to have read - by gaslamp none the less! /sarc - then they should know the importance of material conditions - both for analysis and tactics. If they do understand this much - though their take gives me doubt - then they should understand that the conditions of the mid 20th Century are massively different to those of the early 21st. To list a few changes: the fall of the USSR; the deindustrialisation and the crushing of the unions; the rise of neoliberalism and bourgeoise class consciousness; the internet came into being and prominence; the arrival of new tech-industrial barons (Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc.); the introduction of gig work; and more. This means a different analysis and different tactics. If hippie tactics did not work back then, would they work now? No, I doubt it; the hippies described in the post turned to individual liberation which I think is built into the movement because it isolates you from the people. You become the fringe instead of moving among the masses.

Overall, the call to flock to communes like the hippies should be met with scepticism if not derision. It is basically the same stupid argument about being against capitalism whilst also participating in it, repeated so often that it has become a joke:

Credit: @mattbors

#anti capitalism #late stage capitalism #capitalism #socialism #communism #communist #marxism #marxism leninism #marxist leninist #karl marx #hippie #yuppie #yuppie psycho #politics #tactics #leftism #anticapitalism #hippies

[creature-wizard]

Norse Ice giants "Juton" is what the Christians know as "The Nephilim" which were spawned from the fallen angels.. Enki was an Anunnaki so was Gilgamesh. They may have been the Aesir Gods. Read about the Lyrans. Like the Sphinx a Feline humaniod race.. They give hints about this in the cartoon Thundercats Lyrans vs Reptilians.. We all know Loki had a serpent for a son jormungandr. This is why people associated Loki or Enki as Lucifer..

This is a great example of how New Agers get the old traditions they try to appeal to so incredibly wrong.

Norse paganism was animistic. Norse ice giants aren't some kind of half-human hybrids; they are nature spirits. Have you ever been caught in a blizzard? If you have, you have had an encounter with an ice giant.

Loki has been associated with Satan because modern Christians (and even culturally Christian pagans) projected a Christian moral worldview onto Norse mythology and spirituality. They assumed that since Odin was the supreme god, then his rival Loki had to be analogous to Satan. Once you start really digging into Norse mythology and start getting your head around Norse animism, you'll begin to see how wrong and ridiculous these people are.

And of course, all that stuff about the Annunaki actually being space aliens is total racist bullshit. And that shit about reptilians is literally just repackaged antisemitism. In fact, New Age mythology has quite a lot to do with Nazi racial ideology, even if a lot of New Agers don't realize it.

Also, citing Thundercats as evidence of your conspiracy theory is really damn silly. For one thing, many writers borrow ideas from fringe literature all the time because they sound fun (see: Roland Emmerich), so even if a piece of media echoes things you believe in, doesn't mean the creators "know the truth." Also, some of you people (actually, a lot of you people) literally just watch a TV show or movie that seems to confirm some of your beliefs, and you just add its other elements into your belief system.

#answered #anonsense #new age #new agers #shit new agers say #reptilian #reptilians #reptilian aliens #dracoreptilians #lyrans #lyran #annunaki #norse mythology #loki #satan #mythology #sumerian mythology #norse paganism

[tanadrin]

@sadoeconomist

Something politically aware people on every part of the political spectrum from the left to the right think is true and leaders of the Russian, Chinese, Israeli, etc. governments believe in enough to talk about publicly and make major geopolitical decisions based on maybe is not just a crazy fringe conspiracy theory, could be that there's some truth to the CIA, NED, etc. having more involvement in these events than the video author thinks I watched all this stuff happen in real time, and I read your notes, which went over how Russian hybrid warfare succeeded in Crimea in 2014. Every major power takes hybrid warfare seriously, what's objectively stupid is your mischaracterization of how it works. Trying to astroturf a revolution out of nowhere simply by paying random citizens en masse to overthrow the government would indeed be stupid but that's not what it is. Your notes seem to suggest that the video says US was paying little attention to eastern Europe until 2013 but Russia was frequently reacting to imaginary US provocations because they are stupid. It's like there's a giant America-shaped hole in the video's narrative. Ukraine was understood to be a NATO-Russia geopolitical battleground long before Euromaidan, it wasn't just Putin shadowboxing imaginary opponents out of pure stupidity that led to this.

You seem to be operating on the basic assumption that governments don't do stupid things for no reason, or fall prey to obviously inane conspiracy theories. That's simply not true; governments are led by human beings, human beings are subject to a common set of cognitive biases, and when you're an authoritarian right-winger (as the leaders of Russia, China, and Israel all are right now), an explanation for your apparent unpopularity that pins all the blame on the CIA instead of your shitty policies and your attempts to cling to power flatters those biases.

But we don't need to speculate about the propensity of governments to do stupid shit, because we have plenty of historical and contemporary examples of governments believing in nonsense: Havana Syndrome in the US, AIDS denialism in South Africa, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Nazi Germany and Imperial Russia, etc., etc. And often these false beliefs lead to real strategic blunders: the Bay of Pigs, the Iraq War, World War II, etc. Sometimes world leaders are stupid! Like, leadership probably tends to select for some kinds of intelligence and ability--charisma, social intelligence, and so forth--but it doesn't automatically make you a geopolitical genius, or make you immune to believing false things about the world.

And the biggest problem with the conspiracy theory outlined here isn't just that we can trace its origin to a fringe American political cult, it's that it's not necessary to explain any development in politics since 1989. There is no problem in understanding the revolutions of '89 or 2000-2014 that CIA involvement is necessary to solve. Indeed, as the videos point out (if you would actually watch them), trying to use "the CIA did it" as an explanation adds considerable problems, bc color revolution theory doesn't work. It's based on misconceptions, misunderstanding of data, and a healthy dose of paranoia.

The only real problem is trying to explain Putin's behavior--and that doesn't require color revolution theory to be true, only that Putin believes it is true. And why he would believe something is true, when he has the supposedly vast power of the Russian state at his beck and call, is easy to explain: authoritarian dictators surrounded by yes men do not have accurate pictures of the world! From Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, there is a common pattern of authoritarian dictators losing touch with reality, getting really weird, and coming to believe all kinds of counterproductive stuff that flatters their egos. It would be an even bigger problem to try to explain why Putin was immune to that dynamic after 24 years in power.

"World leaders don't shadowbox opponents out of pure stupidity" is an assumption that seems wholly ungrounded to me. Why not? World leaders do foolish things all the time on large and small scales. World leaders make mistakes. World leaders can become paranoid and out of touch--and if they lead countries without functioning electoral democracies, they can stay in power regardless. World leaders are not a magic special class of human being. They're just people. And whether it's because they're your uncle who watches nothing but OANN and Fox, or they're the President of Russia and they have yes-men and the Global Research guys telling them only what they want to hear, they can end up making absolute nonsense a load-bearing part of their worldview.

#like putin has benefited from this myth of being hyper competent and calculating for years in the west #and i just don't think that was ever true #he's not some super capable genius supervillain #he's just a run of the mill authoritarian #who was willing to placate russian elites to get what he wanted #and once in power gradually solidified his power base #in a very run of the mill fashion

[betterbemeta]

Something I am noticing lately on our current 'content and engagement-driven' internet is the mass platforming of stuff that 'sounds like it makes sense to a human being' as its only basis. It resembles 'a real thing' that people can hear of, but it's served completely blind to knowledge of the topic at hand.

It's not quite misinformation because it doesn't have to be an intentional trick or fringe conspiracy theory, or 'fake news' style progpaganda, or something with any kind of comprehensible 'goal.' And its often fully automated: it's about feedback loops in the selection of content, not 'content creation.'

So 'accurate' information on how and how often people select A, B, or C... but no information about what A, B, or C are or any factual information about them. Sort of like how 'AI art' will return output based on prompts, vast amounts of indexed 'reference' and trained data, but doesn't know 'what it's looking at.'

The result is similar to 'enshittification' but doesn't have to do with gutting usability to deliver returns to investors. It has to do with automated systems self-gutting a platform's usability because they do not actually 'know' anything, they just evaluate the navigation patterns of prior users.

This is a really simple, innocent, non-malicious starting point:

This is an audio-based youtube video that was made by a human being (I assume) who mixed Blue Noise and Violet Noise with the sounds of actual blueberries being shaken in a box for relaxation purposes. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. Please don't find and bother the blueberry noise person, nothing (that I know of) is their fault.

The thing is, 'white noise/pink noise/brown noise' are specific audio patterns that are sometimes studied for their benefits on concentration, sleep quality, etc. Which is why people are searching for them on the internet, they want practical benefits. There are other 'color' noises but any benefits are even less well-known, or their application for study is very specific (Violet Noise is studied for tinnitus relief, I believe.)

While the blueberry noise video is just for fun, for the benefit of anyone who enjoys it, it exists within a 'topic' that a platform like Youtube has matched to be 'about' some practical benefit. But you don't need to actually know anything about Pink Noise or Brown Noise to get to that topic, you just need to search 'concentration noise.'

You could plonk down a 10 hour video of your own farts and title it "rainbow noise for homework focus!" and the algorithm cannot 'know' that no part of what you posted is "a real thing." It would only see the activity metrics, who got to it from where, and how popular you are, and its potential to keep users engaging with the platform.

People navigate 'white noise/pink noise/brown noise' for ADHD relief, to soothe their babies to sleep, or to help with chronic insomnia or headaches. Even if studies on the effectiveness of 'well known' color noises are still only preliminary (this study only had 22 participants!), there is some basis for their benefit... but no evidence yet that supports the benefit in mixing different color noise patterns, like the blueberry noise video. It's just for fun. The issue is that Youtube doesn't know what 'just for fun' is.

If you listen to enough audio pattern content to encounter our blueberry noise friend you probably are going to run into 'Alpha/Beta/Gamma Frequencies', 'Solfeggio Tones', and 'Binaural Beats.' But, again, the algorithm has no real human knowledge: it doesn't 'know' the difference between any of these things or what they're studied for, or if any real benefit has been confirmed. But content reflecting machine curation's inability to understand will float to the top, based on user activity patterns:

Alpha waves have nothing to do with being an alpha chad. But through association without comprehension, platforms have 'learned' what 'alpha' means and as a result content will appear and be promoted that bridges multiple ways people use 'alpha' as a search term.

High frequencies produced by the human brain have been associated with memory recall and learning, but listening to high frequencies as 'brain waves' has nothing to do with this, and especially not a dystopian drive to 'increase productivity and output.' But people are searching for how to do that, because of the demand their lives place on them.

There is no sound frequency you can listen to that heals the body or reduces inflammation but due to this principle I'm describing that's messing with the internet, you can search this on Google and it will now not give you any credible information on the first page, it will assume that what you're talking about is legitimate and show you results that 'you're looking for':

It will not assume you would be interested in a 'no' or 'this is not real.' None of the Page 1 Google Search Results pictured above are based in any scientific fact. Maybe if you're a stressed out zebrafish. Legitimate medical practices that use frequencies are like... shock wave lithotripsy for kidney stones to break them apart. But once a web platform records people searching for audio content that confers dramatic 'real' results, it will retrieve other kinds of content as if it's credible:

I think it goes without saying that this has no basis in fact and it's not just somebody's fun entertainment project, and it's not something a typical person would seek out or casually believe to be true.

Anyway. The blueberry noise is fun and fine. But the current internet is on a form of evil autopilot that can't discern white noise intended to soothe babies from the innocent only-for-fun blueberry noise from The Law of Attraction. It's like the perfect totally-blind robot salesperson without ethics or morals of any kind. If you ask it for medicine it will eventually sell you cyanide pills simply because they are pills and so many people are interested in cyanide these days.

[volostogekiss]

At some point after stopping Volo and trying to work things out with him, you’ve been sent back to modern-day Sinnoh. You don’t remember a single thing of your time in Hisui, but he does. By Arceus’ blessing, he’s been given another chance with you, after waiting for all this time. No warnings. GN!reader. Time-traveling/immortal!Volo. The typical slightly obsessive behavior. Implied past relationship.

❥ Throughout your life, you’ve always spent a lot of your time at museums, libraries, and galleries. It’s only natural, then, that you’re a young history professor at Eterna University. You were in the right place at the right time for the position. Not to mention, in your graduate years, you had also written a particularly riveting theory about the existence of Dialga and Palkia’s Origin Formes. That had caused a stir for quite a few months, as you’d even somehow had the artifacts necessary for their transformation.

❥ You didn’t know how you’d come to possess them—the Adamant Crystal and Lustrous Globe, later named so by other historians. After a strange week of which you’d remembered nothing, as though you’d simply vanished then reappeared, you’d found them in a chest of old belongings of yours, supposedly from your childhood. The old thing had been tucked back in your closet, and in a fit of your cleaning, you’d unearthed it. It hadn’t been hard for you to see the connection between the newly discovered artifacts and the well-known Adamant and Lustrous Orbs, and so, you’d worked to unravel their purpose.

❥ They’re sitting on display at the Eterna Historical Museum, and even though you’re proud of your contribution, in the back of your mind, you’re concerned about why you, of all people, should have found them. You try not to think about it too much (especially how they’ve been the catalyst for your career or how you feel drawn to them, somehow, or how you’d found them after that peculiar week), and just enjoy the museum instead.

❥ And it’s on one of your routine weekend trips to the museum that you notice him. There’s a very handsome, very intelligent curator whom you’ve never seen before! And right in front of the picture of the broken bust of Giratina, he’s giving an exciting talk about the legendary Pokémon to quite a crowd. (You think that it might not just be his way with words that’s charming more observers, however. There’s a certain charisma and appeal about him. His voice, smooth, expressive, and a tad playful, is lovely as well. You really try to stop yourself there.)

❥ But he’s quite attractive, isn’t he? His golden hair sweeps over his face in an elegant fringe, and then you have to really fight against your frivolous thoughts, for clarity of mind. That blond hair; that enthusiastic, but keen gaze as he speaks of legends and myths… They seem so familiar. Do you know him from somewhere? No, you couldn’t. Perhaps it’s just that he looks quite similar to the former Sinnoh Champion. Could he also be from Celestic Town?

❥ Then, you spot what’s written on his silvery name tag—“Volo”—and you can’t stop thinking about why that name is just so fitting, for some reason.

❥ He notices your staring. You’re attempting not to, but the more you think about it, the more you’re interested! Why does he seem so familiar? Your heart skips a beat when he waves at you, and you can hardly manage to do the same in return. You hope that he believes you’re simply enamored with his lovely speech, and not his beautiful face. But when a slanted, knowing smile curls onto his lips, you think he’s not as dense as you wish him to be.

❥ It’s difficult to keep up your excuse, especially when you’re visiting the museum more frequently, just so you can catch a glimpse of him. You don’t have the courage to ever approach him, however, and you always flit away some time before his explanation ends.

❥ On the other hand, Volo is absolutely thrilled. He’s found you, after all these years! Those rumors had been right! He should’ve started his search here, and not so foolishly in Jubilife. All this searching, waiting, and agonizing… Just for you. He can hardly contain his excitement! He wants to stop everything he’s doing to march right over to you, but he controls himself—he won’t mess this up again—and contents himself to simply watch from afar. For now.

❥ He can tell that you’re curious about him, with how you’ve tilted your head and your eyes have narrowed ever so slightly. Those little things about you haven’t changed. You’d done so all the time in Hisui; it’s a look of your quiet curiosity he knows well. And it’s cute that you still glance away every time he even minutely turns your way. That’s something endearing about you that hasn’t changed either, and Volo wishes he could tease you about it right there, then wrap you up into his arms. But he can’t, just yet.

❥ However, Volo is a bit disappointed that you don’t seem to remember him, even though he remembers everything about you. Hmm, but he’s sure he can change that, given time! And he has plenty of that, now that he’s found you again.

❥ Though you never allow him a chance to speak to you! You’re always gone before he can actually reach out to you, but part of him is pleased with your embarrassed reaction. That means you must feel something for him, right? The other part of him loves that you’re still running away; you have no idea how it deepens his desire for you. It only excites him further—makes him want to chase you—even if he could really just saunter over to you and pin you down one of these days.

❥ After all, it hadn’t been difficult to find out more about you. Everyone knows that you’re the one who’d donated the Adamant Crystal and Lustrous Globe to the museum, and a single question about them in the employee breakroom had given him the answer he’d needed about you. That you’re a history professor at Eterna University, often spending your leisure at the museum or at a library. Of course, it all makes sense to Volo that this should be the life you’d lead, considering what you’d done in Hisui.

❥ His opportunity to finally catch you arrives sooner than he’d expected, but not in the way that he’d envisioned it. You’re not anticipating such a thing either.

❥ In fact, you’d thought you’d seen the last of Volo. You hadn’t seen him at the museum for the past week, and upon asking around for him, no one could give you a solid answer. You’d been met with shifty eyes and shaking heads, and you wonder what could’ve possibly pulled him away from a job he so obviously enjoyed. You regret not speaking with him sooner, as he’d always have something insightful to say about the artifacts or texts at the museum.  

❥ It’s a thought periodically interrupting your work, while you’re tucked into a secluded corner of the Eterna Library’s highest floor. Perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised either, then, that the man on your mind suddenly appears across your table, with that pleasant smile and warm gaze. You don’t even remember to ask him why he’s here, or how he’s found you. He’s a museum curator, and wouldn’t it be normal for him to be at the library as well?

❥ Instead, you invite him to sit down with you, albeit your initial greeting is rather uncouth and surprised. Of course, he accepts graciously, without commenting on your flustered state, but it isn’t long before he notices the question hidden behind your fleeting glances.

❥ “I see you’ve been wondering about where I’ve been the past week,” he muses, and he relishes in how you look away to fiddle with some of your papers.

❥ “Well, yes,” you admit sheepishly, for it’s impossible to hide that truth from him, “you had the most interesting of thoughts on many of the exhibits.”

❥ Volo can’t help teasing you now. “Is that all?”

❥ “Of—of course!” You’re embarrassed, and he revels in seeing the expression on your face. “So it’s only natural that I’d miss your talks at the museum. Where have you been?”

❥ His demeanor turns serious, and you’re shocked when he reveals to you, “You could say I’m on temporary leave. Not of my own volition, however.”

❥ Really? Him? You can’t believe it. He’s the museum’s best! (And that’s not simply just your opinion, or influenced by something other than his proficiency at his job.) “If you don’t mind me asking… Why?”

❥ Uncharacteristically solemn, he’s staring directly at you when he answers, “I couldn’t stand by what had been written on Giratina at the museum. I spoke to the visiting public of the true reason it had had a change of heart. That it was not only due to centuries spent observing the bond between humans and Pokémon, as people have assumed as the sole factor for all these years. It had been that the last time Giratina had awoken, intent on imparting chaos upon the world, it was defeated by a hero of pure heart—someone who could show it that everything was not as broken and awful as it had thought, and that the land was worth protecting.”

❥ Somehow, his words resonate with you, as if you know what he’s talking about. In your heart, you understand it, though you don’t know it. It doesn’t sound wrong, but you wonder why he’s looking at you with such a severe expression. That you should know why it sounds as if he’d been there.

❥ However, you choose not to address those feelings; for some reason, you think this an inopportune time to ask about them.

❥ “So they kicked you out for saying that?” Your gaze is defiant when you cross your arms, and a steely resolution gleams in your eyes. “While maybe you shouldn’t have said so immediately, it’s a bit harsh to remove you like that. History benefits from multiple opinions, doesn’t it? I’ve been saying that the bureaucracy here really needs to change. I’ll speak to them.”

❥ It’s so like you, and Volo is taken back to the time when he’d been slated for banishment after you’d defeated him. With that very same conviction, you’d said the same thing—that you’d speak to Kamado on his behalf, and that you’d convince the villagers to give him another chance. …You haven’t changed. You still would do such a thing for him.

❥ Volo’s heart twists. All this time he’s spent waiting for you is suddenly worth it, even more so. Maybe he can finally thank Arceus for something—that he’d been allowed to live for all this time, to meet you again. Oh, he really, really loves you, and he almost tells you so, with no warning at all.

❥ But he holds back. Instead, he lightly claps his hands together, before leaning in with an index finger pointed toward you mischievously. It seems so familiar. Nonetheless, you’re startled by his abrupt shift in mood, and you’re nowhere near ready for what he says next.

❥ “While I appreciate your sentiments, there’s no need! I’ll be reinstated next week.” Volo reaches toward you, his larger hand resting atop your own for just a moment before he pulls away. “For now, I’d much rather focus on other things, and I believe the most fascinating of them all is finally sitting right before me.”

❥ You feel the heat from his skin on yours, process his words, and then that traitorous heat is crawling back up to your face. This man…

❥ “If you’ll allow me the chance, I’d like to get to know you better, professor,” he says deliberately, with an easy chuckle. And even though he wants to confess that he already knows you well enough, he’ll take it slow, with you.

❥ Your heart is fluttering, and the way he’d addressed you makes you feel strangely hot inside. He’s interested in you? You have to set aside your papers to fold your hands together nervously—to focus your thoughts so that you can properly provide him your name and a coherent reply.

❥ “I’d like that. I want to get to know you better, too, Volo.”

❥ You’d said his name, just as you’d done before, during the first time you’d met in Hisui, and his smile widens.

❥ Oh, he’ll have so much more to show you, so that you may know him as well as he knows you. Even if you remember nothing of what he’s done, he knows that he has a lot to make up for, and he won’t mind spending every one of his days alive for you. And with a love he hopes you might one day soon recognize and remember, he silently promises you that.

#volo x reader #would volo not be that guy who reads whatever inaccuracies there are about giratina and go: this is horribly wrong. i will fix this. #proceeds to get almost fired from his job because for the sake of accuracy he will do what he must. #anyway new idea taking over my mind for the week <3

[aemiron-main]

The First Shadow, Timelines, Alice Creel, and Swapping Family Members: New Thoughts On Alice Creel vs Karen Wheeler Regarding the Edward Timeline 

(Karen Wheeler Might Be Alice, Just Not In The Way Anyone (Including Me) Thought She Was)

So, to start this off on an insane foot (bear with me).

I think that this is Alice Creel:

But before you go “oh, Em, you’re just rehashing an old Alice theory, everyone knows this theory”- I DON’T think that this is Alice Creel:

I a.) don’t think that they’re the same person and b.) I don’t think that the second girl is actually Alice Creel.

Most Alice is Karen theories claim that these two are the same person, and that Karen uses contact lenses or something to have brown eyes, something that I disagreed with.

And I thought that Karen was actually Daughter Virginia until today, and that that little blonde girl was Alice, and that they’re two separate people. I talked about it posts such as this post. Now, I'm not letting go of that theory entirely, I think there's still a chance that it might be true, especially since some of the TFS stuff is still being revealed/might be changed regarding contacts etc etc.

But now, I offer a new idea: that little blonde girl is not Alice Creel.

She’s also probably not Karen Wheeler either (at least, not the brown-eyed karen that we see in the show. I'm still undecided about the blue-eyed karen childress in all of this)

I think that little blonde girl is Virginia Creel/Daughter Virginia, and that Karen Wheeler IS Alice Creel, but is NOT that little blonde girl that we see. I don't think we've ever seen Henry's sister, Alice Creel, as a child on-screen.

Now, setting that aside, let’s start at the beginning of what I think is going on here, and we’ll circle back to that, and I'll explain why I think this is the case, and why I also believe that the brown-eyed "Virginia" Creel that we see is actually Mother Alice.

SECTION 1: Did Victor Get Peter'd? What The Hell Happened to Victor Creel? 

So, I'm wondering if one of these is true: A.) The Victor in Pennhurst is actually the Edward Timeline Victor, who has been brought into the Henry timeline.

BUT, he's had his memories messed with by the lab and believes himself to be the Henry Timeline Victor (the father of Henry and Alice and the husband of Virginia) but is actually the father of Edward and Virginia and the husband of Alice)/. They likely left the visual part of his memories alone, but messed with the name part of his brain OR B.) The Victor in Pennhurst is the Henry Timeline Victor (the father of Henry and Alice and the husband of Virginia), and never crossed timelines, BUT he's had his memories messed with by the lab.

He doesn't believe himself to be the Edward Timeline Victor the way that the previous Edward Timeline Victor in option A.) believes himself to be the Henry Timeline Victor, BUT he DOES believe that the people he's seeing in his memories are his family when they're not.

This would be because they messed with the visual part of his memories, but left the names alone. And therefore, his actual daughter IS named "Alice," but the little girl in the visuals/his memories is NOT Alice Creel, and instead, is Edward Timeline Daughter Virginia Creel.

Either way, I think his memories got messed with, and either way, both options lead to that little blonde girl not being Alice Creel. Let's go through option A.) first.

This would be the option where Victor got "Peter'd"- aka, being pulled into another timeline like Peter Bishop was in Fringe (and Fringe is confirmed inspo for ST, the ST writers have tweeted about watching it). You can also see this post for more proof of that. In Fringe, it's the son (Peter), who is taken to another timeline. But, if ST wanted to subvert this/flip it, as they often do with their sources of inspiration, then it would make sense for the father (Victor) to be the one who is taken to another timeline. We'll talk about Fringe more later, though.

And you might be thinking "didn't Victor straight up say that Henry was his boy, Alice was his daughter, and then said "Virginia" in reference to his wife? Doesn't that imply that he's Henry Timeline Victor?

And YES, he did, but, like I said earlier, if the names were swapped around for him/if he believes that he's Henry Timeline Victor, then it tracks perfectly for him to believe that those are the names of his children and the name of his wife, even if they're not. His memories would still be the same visually, he would still be picturing His Kids in his mind, he would just have their names wrong/believe them to be someone they're not (much like Hopper talking about the "wrong kid," back in S1).

And I'm also wondering if The First Shadow is going to be the first time that we see Henry Creel and his family, rather than Edward Creel and his family.

Why am I wondering if TFS is going to be the first time that we actually see Henry Creel's family/see Henry Timeline Victor? Well, it's partially because, like I talked about here, Mike Jibson, who's going to be playing Victor in The First Shadow, resembles Owens WAY more than he resembles Kevin L Johnson/the guy who plays Young Victor.

So, I'm wondering if this guy/Pennhurst Victor:

IS this guy and IS Edward's father:

But is NOT this guy/is not actually Henry Creel's father:

But that This Guy is Henry's father, and possibly a young Owens/if we're seeing Henry's Creel's Father In The 50s for the first time & if Kevin L Johnson solely played Edward's father:

I know that previously, I said that Owens might be Edward Timeline Victor, but NOW, I'm wondering if he's Henry Timeline Victor, an idea I'll come back to soon in this section when I talk about WHY Victor might have been pulled from the Edward Timeline to the Henry Timeline.

And regarding the idea of us not having seen Henry's family before, there's also the matter of the wallpaper. I talked about the colour-changing wallpaper in the Creel house and how it connects to multiple timelines in this post, however, I want to talk about it again, because I want to talk about what we DON'T see in this regard, rather than what we DO see. And what we DON'T see is the red wallpaper in the family room in any of the 1950s flashbacks. This is relevant because as I talked about in that post, the red wallpaper seems to be from the Creel house in the Henry timeline, whereas the green wallpaper seems to be from the Creel house in the Edward timeline- and the green wallpaper is the only wallpaper that we see in that room in any of the 1950s flashbacks. This would mean that we're only seeing the Edward timeline when we're seeing 1950s flashbacks. However, it's also hard to tell/hard to say Definitively if we're only seeing the Edward timeline because in many of the flashback scenes, the door to that room is shut/simple not visible, so we COULD be seeing shots of the red wallpaper Creel house/of the Henry timeline, but we would have no idea because we can't see that room. BUT, if we ARE seeing solely the Edward timeline in those 50s, scenes, then it would track with the little blonde girl NOT being Daughter Alice/Alice Creel, because Daughter Alice doesn't exist in the Edward timeline- but Daughter Virginia does, and therefore, that little blonde girl is actually Virginia Creel. It would also mean that the mother "Virginia" Creel is actually Alice Creel/Mother Alice.

This would explain why Virginia Creel in TFS has blue eyes whereas Victor's "virginia" in his pennhurst sequence has brown eyes but is never referred to as Virginia by name in the 50s (it only happens when Victor says her name in pennhurst but that tracks with him having his brain messed with)- because she's not Virginia.

It would also explain why in the Dear Billy script, it has Virginia and Alice's names swapped in that moving-in scene: because that's exactly what it would have been for Edward Timeline Victor. He would have been standing beside his wife, Alice, which is what's birefly in the script (the line where they put thier arm around eachother):

And now here's the big question: WHY? WHY bring Edward Timeline Victor into Henry's timeline???

WELL! I mentioned the idea of Owens being Henry Timeline Victor. And I think that's exactly WHY the lab might pull Edward Timeline Victor into the Henry Timeline. I've talked repeatedly about how it's extremely likely that a.) the lab was involved with the Creel murders/present on the night of the murders but also b.) the lab was setting up the murders/planning things right from the day that the Creels stepped foot into Hawkins.

And we know that the Creel Murders in Edward's timeline happened a few days before the Creel Murders in Henry's timeline. So, if the lab was basically using Edward's timeline as a test run for pulling off the Creel murders in Henry's timeline, but if Henry Timeline Victor is Owens, then they need a fall guy to take the blame for the murders.

Because let's say that Jibson and Owens are the same guy, and that that Jibson-Owens is Henry's father from the Henry timeline. 

But if Owens is the father, and if the lab needs to pull off the Creel murders in henry's timeline too (after all, they happened in edward's timeline FIRST/a few days BEFORE they happened in henry's timeline it's lowkey giving inter-timeline lab fuckery and a trial run), then who takes the blame???? After all, in Edward's timeline, Victor got arrested and then was dumped on the side of the road and taken in for questioning and sentenced, but we don't hear anything about what happens to Edward Timeline victor after his sentencing. He could have killed himself in prison, he could have escaped etc etc. 

He could have dyed his hair pink with smuggled dye for all we know, point is, we don't have a damn clue at ALL what happened to edward timeline victor after his trial/after being sentenced to pennhurst. I'm not saying that he actually killed himself or escaped, but i AM saying that if the lab was to grab edward-timeline victor and bring him over to henry's timeline, we, as the audience, would have no idea based on the papers because the papers don't tell us what happened to him. We hear nothing whatsoever about Edward Timeline victor creeel after his sentence.

The weekly watcher is different because it gives us an INTERVIEW with pennhurst victor while he's in pennhurst, after his trial, indicating that in the Henry timeline, there is, in fact, a Victor in prison in pennhurst. But the Edward timeline doesn't have this, the indianapolis gazette article solely focuses on the day of Victor’s trial, we don't get anything about any interviews later on.

TLDRif jibson and owens are the same guy/are henry's father, and Kevin is Pennhurst Victor but from the Edward timeline, brought over into the Henry timeline. And would still track with what I said about how we dont see that red wallpaper room in the 50s/if that red wallpaper indicates henry timeline & we arent seeing it during the 50s, then that implies that we arent seeing the Henry timeline in the 50s. 

But why would Owens want to kill his own family? Well, he didn't. Going back to Fringe, James talked about the fact that the lab in Fringe staged a murder to try and activate Olivia's powers as a child- and while this may have also been done in HNL with El in 1979/during NINA, I'm also wondering if that's what happened with Henward and if the lab was trying to activate their powers.

But if they're staging the murders, and if they want things to be believable, they want the public to think that the Creels are dead, then they need somebody to take the blame- and it can't be Owens/Henry Timeline Victor, because he's researching/part of the project. So, who do you grab? You grab his almost-clone, his alternate timeline self to take the blame. This would, weirdly enough, also make Owens the father of Karen Wheeler, as if Owens if Henry Timeline Victor. It would also mean that Alice Creel didn't die (but Daughter Virginia did/that blue eyed girl we saw bleeding on the ground) did die, and that Virginia Creel (the blue eyed TFS lady) didn't die either. Which, she may have gone on to become Connie Frazier, but that's another matter entirely. However, I'm not fully convinced that Owens is any form of alternate timeline Victor, so just keep in mind that I'm not saying any of this as if it's going to be firm fact. A solid chunk of this is just me swishing thoughts around and speculating. And with that bit of doubt regarding option A in mind:

Let's now go through option B.) Options B does not involve Owens being an alternate timeline Victor, nor does it involve Victor crossing timelines at all.

As mentioned earlier, Option B involves Victor remembering the names of his family, but the visuals being messed with/the names being associated with the wrong people.

How would those visuals be transferred? Well, from the other Victor's memories. And going back to Fringe briefly, it may seem like a stretch for Victor to have somebody else's memories, but keeping in mind that Fringe is confirmed inspiration for ST, in Fringe, one person's memories are transferred into another person's mind REPEATEDLY, often against their will, and often without them even realizing it. Olivia, for example, has memories that belong to Fauxlivia (her alternate timeline counterpart's nickname) implanted into her brain by a Brenner-Owens paralleled scientist to try and convince her that she's actually Fauxlivia (and it WORKS for awhile/absolutely had the potential to work permanently). It's abslutely within the realm of possibility for the lab to have done this to Victor.

And continuing on with Fringe, Victor is EXTREMELY paralleled to Walter Bishop (like, the shot of Victor turning around in Pennhurst is taken basically frame for frame of Walter turning around in St Claire's mental institution), and Walter Bishop had part of his brain removed, and lost a bunch of memories, especially memories of of his now-dead son's childhood as a result.

And it's also worth noting that Walter is Peter's father- however, Walter's original Peter died, and Walter pulled the Peter from another timeline into his timeline instead. But the memories that Walter lost of his son's childhood were of his original Peter's childhood- he didn't lose ALL of those memories, but he lost quite a few. Which has me staring at Henry vs Edward and Pennhurst Victor losing his memories of Henry & having memories of Edward instead, not even realizing that they're memories of Edward.

Long story short, either way, whether it's Option A or Option B, or something else entirely, it's EXTREMELY EXTREMELY likely that Victor had his memories messed with, because like I talked about in this post, the Indianapolis Gazette talks about Victor not remembering anything from the night of the murders, and being picked up on the side of the road.

And, like I talked about in this post, Victor and El's arrests are paralleled- and who was El later taken by as a result of being arrested? THE LAB!!!

And also, like I talked about in this post, Victor's flashback scenes have multiple direct NINA paralells- which would make sense if the lab was messing with Victor's memories the same way they messed with El's memories via NINA.

So, there's substantial evidence to support the idea that Victor's memories aren't reliable, and likely have been intentionally scrambled/messed with.

SECTION 2: Back To Alice

So, circling back to Alice, let's go through why I think that this little blonde girl:

Is NOT Alice Creel. And later on, I'm also going to tie this to why Alice Creel is missing from The First Shadow. You might be thinking “oh, Em, you’re so neck deep in insane theories that you forgot to actually look at the show! They call that little blonde girl “Alice” TWICE! You fool! You buffoon! I banish thee to The Beyond for One Trillion Years for your ignorance and tomfoolery!” However, as indicated by my lovingly labelled screenshots of those exact scenes, I did NOT forget, and thankfully, do not need to be banished to The Beyond:

And interestingly enough, even though in those two versions of the Creels' moving-in-day scene have Alice being referred to by name, there is one version that doesn't- the Creel Family Trailer:

And what's especially interesting abou those two versions of that scene where "Alice" is referred to by name is that they're both intentionally set up as being unreliable. They CHOSE to a.) have Victor seemignly be missing chunks of his memory (for example, he completely leaves out things like the exorcism at the Creel house and a ton of other details that are present in the papers)/be unreliable due to very, very likely having had his brain/messed with by the lab and they also chose to b.) have Nancy be in Vecna's memories, which, again, unreliable due to the HUGE chance of the lab fucking with them. Hell, in his monologue, 001 doesn't even give us the name of his mother or his sister- he seems to forget his sister even existed until the end of his monologue, and even THEN, he still doesn't give us her name! And he also directly contradicts himself when talking about how it was "planned" vs having JUST talked about how it was spur of the moment earlier, like I talked about in this post. He's not reliable, and neither is Victor. They could've just given us a scene of that girl being called "Alice" that wasn't through the memories of somebody unreliable who's very very likely had their brain messed with in a million different ways by the lab. But they didn't. The Creel Family Trailer is the only version that isn't set up as being somebody's memories- and especially not the memories of someone who's been messed with by the lab, and it's also the only version where "Alice's" name isn't used/the only version where that little blonde, blue-eyed girl isn't referred to as Alice. Is it not a little suspicious that the most reliable version of these events (the Creel family trailer) is also the version where, conveniently, that girl isn't referred to as Alice?

And I wondered, initially, if this was to conceal Alice's identity/name in the trailer. However, when I dug into it, that doesn't make any sense for these key reasons. 1.) Alice's name had already been revealed in the Netflix Tudum Creel Newspaper trailer. Alice's name was not a secret when the Creel Family Trailer came out. Why conceal her name AFTER having shown it right on-screen? 2.) The name isnt the only change in these scenes. I've talked about this before, but the trailer has quite a few differences from the scenes in the show, especially with the scene of Alice finding the dead rabbit being COMPLETELY different. But focusing on that "coming in the door," scene SPECIFICALLY, there's multiple differences. The light fixture is missing in the trailer:

But it's there in both the Dear Billly Creel sequence and the Massacre at HNL sequence:

"Henry" zooms into the house and runs up the stairs immediately instead of standing there all sad:

"Henry" runs in FIRST, before "Alice", whereas in the show, "Alice" gets into the house before "Henry":

"Virginia's" line is rewritten- if they simply wanted to conceal Alice's identity, it would have been VERY easy to take the in-show scene, put it in the trailer, and edit Virginia's dialogue to just say "No running," instead of "Alice, no running". But instead, they rewrote the line to say "children, no running":

So, if this was just a case of concealing Alice's identity/name (a name they'd already revealed, no less), why change SO many core parts of the scene (such as "Henry" zooming inside instead of standing at the door), and why rewrite "Virginia's" line? Why not just literally remove the word "Alice" from her line? LIke, it would have been a million times easier. I could do a quick job of it in capcut on my phone! It would take SUCH a small amount of time for them to do compared to all of the weird changes they made for the trailer & instead of recording a whole new line of dialogue for "Virginia".

And speaking of "Virginia," I mentioned this earlier, but I don't think that's Virginia Creel at all. I think that's Mother Alice Creel, from the Edward timeline. Let's look at the papers- specifically, the Weekly Watcher. The Weekly Watcher says that Alice Creel is 15 years old:

But this girl, clearly, is not 15:

And Virginia Creel's daughter, Alice Creel, should be 15 years old. But if that little blue-eyed girl is not 15, then she's not Virginia Creel's daughter. Which makes sense if she's Alice Creel's daughter, Daughter Virginia, and if the brown-eyed mother in those scenes is actually Mother Alice Creel. Like, setting aside production error allegations because I'm not dealing with those anymore, how can "this little girl who is Not 15 is Alice Creel" and "Alice Creel is 15" coexist? Frankly, I actually think there's more evidence to support the fact that the memories/scenes of that little girl being called "Alice," are unreliable than there is to debunk the newspaper saying that Alice was 15.

Why Is Alice Creel Missing From TFS?

If Karen Childress is NOT a Creel in the henry timeline/in TFS, but has blue eyes and is NOT the karen wheeler that we see in the show, as that karen has brown eyes/does NOT go on to become That Karen Wheeler Who Is Mike Wheeler's Mother

And if Daughter Virginia Creel is the blue-eyed little girl that we see in the show, and who Might be karen childress in some way.

And if Daughter Alice Creel is a.) supposed to be 15 in 1959 and b.) mysteriously missing from TFS but is also the brown-eyed Karen Wheeler that we see in the show.

Then, it might explain why Alice is missing in The First Shadow- we're seeing the backstory for another Karen Wheeler/Karen Childress ( whose actress has blue eyes and is likely NOT the Karen we see in the show), and we're also missing an Alice who later goes on to BECOME Brown Eyed Karen- which, Karen Childress and Alice Creel being together in the same timeline causes issues because if Alice Creel actually has brown eyes and goes on to become Karen Wheeler, then WHY THE HELL is she in the same timeline as the other Karen/the blue-eyed Karen??

That would be TWO KARENS IN THE SAME TIMELINE, which might explain why Alice Creel isnt there/might be tied to it. I don't know fully how it works, yet, but we don't really know the ramifications of the same person from two different timelines ending up in the same timeline together. So, if Karen Childress/Blue Eyed Karen somehow got into Alice Creel/Brown Eyed Karen's timeline, then there's a chance that Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Crel was removed from her original timeline, and is therefore now absent from TFS- she's likely still alive, as we see Brown Eyed Karen in the show, but that would still work completely if she simply ended up in another timeline/if Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Creel vanished from the Henry Timeline because Blue Eyed Karen/Karen Childress ended up in that timeline instead. And bringing up Fringe AGAIN, in Fringe, when one person or item is taken to another timeline, something of an equivalent mass must be swapped to the other timeline (like the Indiana Jones sandbag thing- with exceptions to this rule being limited to people with Specific Powers, such as Main Timeline Olivia), and this DOES include people. So, if Karen Childress/Blue Eyed Karen was chilld in a timeline that isn't the TFS timeline, and suddenly got pulled into the TFS timeline, and if Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Creel was the same mass (which makeas sense if they're timeline counterparts of eachother) as her, Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Creel would be pulled into the non-TFS timeline at the same time as when Blue Eyed Karen was pulled into the TFS timeline. Hell, there doesn't even have to be a reason for this happening/it doesn't even have to be the lab planning it! Because in Fringe, things end up pulled into another timeline/swapped simply because of the bridge/dam/veil/wall between timelines getting thinner and the swap happening accidentally. If the blue-eyed Karen Childress is NOT a Creel, and was born outside of the Creel family and coexisted alongside Daughter Virginia in the same timeline originally (before getting yoinked to another timeline), then we have three girls (as mentioned earlier)- Karen Childress, Daughter Alice Creel, and Daughter Virgniia Creel

And if Karen Childress was from Timeline A (Edward Timeline) And if Daughter Alice Creel was from Timeline B (Henry Timeline/TFS Timeline) And if Daughter Virginia Creel is also from Timeline A (Edward Timeline) And if Karen Childress got pulled into Timeline B (Henry Timeline), and Daughter Alice Creel got pulled into Timeline A (Edward Timeline), that would mean that Daughter Alice Creel and Daughter Virginia Creel are co-existing in the same timeline (The Edward Timeline). Which would explain why Brown Eyed Karen/the Karen we know in the show is just chilling and living her life I'll come back to this later, but Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Creel may very well have simply adopted the life of Karen Childress in the Edward Timeline, while Alice Creel stayed missing in the Henry Timeline/Karen Childress was present instead, but Karen Childress chose to keep using her original name, whereas Alice/Brown Eyed Karen adopted the name and life of Karen Childress in the other timeline.

After all, Daugher Alice Creel doesn't exist in the Edward Timeline, and because Daughter Virginia Creel would've still been present in the Edward Timeline, Daughter Alice Creel/Brown Eyed Karen couldn't simply pick up her life, and instead, resumed the life of Karen Childress. And it's hard to figure out what Karen Childress may have done in her new timeline/if she had a family/if her parents were present in this timeline or WHAT, but a lot of this section is just Me Speculating And Trying To Figure Things Out.

However, things also get tricky here, because if Alice Creel/Brown Eyed Karen never returned to her original timeline, then why does the Weekly Watcher report on her death? However, even witih all my theorizing aside, this is an issue that remains even simply with the fact that Alice doesn't seem to be present in TFS- so if she's not around for the murders, how did she die/why are papers reporting about her death? I think there's room there for lab fuckery faking things/covering things up etc etc, but it's still something to chew on.

(and there's ALSO the chance of more than 2 timelines which throws a whole NEW wrench into things)

And you might also be wondering "well, though, how is Daugher Alice Creel Karen Childress' timeline counterpart? Shouldn't Daughter Virginia Creel be Daughter Alice's timeline counterpart? To which I say: no! Not necessariily. There's a LOT of weirdness here, but it's worth noting that ST has chosen a very interesting way to go about the timeline counterpart business, because there's quite a bit of variation. For example, Victor Creel's name stays the same in both the Henry timeline and the Edward timeline AND his position in the family stays the same (the father/husband), but he's younger by 5 years in the Edward timeline compared to the Henry timeline. Edward and Henry's position in the family (son/brother) stays the same, but his name changes to something entirely new, and we don't know Edward's age, so we don't know if that changes. Virginia Creel and Alice Creel are where things get REALLY messy, because they swap names and positions in the family depending on the timeline. Instead of just keeping the same name and position the way that Victor does, OR getting a totally brand new, not used in the family before name but keeping the same position in the family the way that Henry and Edward do, Virginia and Alice instead, swap names and positions in the family with eachother. Virginia Creel is Victor's wife and Henry and Alice's mother in the Henry timeline. However, Virginia Creel is Victor's daughter and Edward's sister and Alice's daughter in the Edward timeline. Alice Creel is Victor's daughter and Henry's sister in the Henry Timeline. However, Alice Creel is Victor's wife and Edward and Virginia's mother in the Edward timeline. And also, in Fringe, timeline counterparts are often messy too/not exactly equal/not always born at the same time- for example Henry Bishop was born and didn't have a timeline counterpart at ALL because there's only one version of his father (Peter Bishop), as the other timeline Peter died as a child. But then Henry Bishop is later erased from the timeline and Peter has a child named Henrietta (born in the opposite timeline from Henry/is Olivia's daughter born in the main timeline rather than Henry who was Fauxlivia's son born in the alternate timeline), but again, because there is only ONE Peter, he fathered both of them and then Henry ceased to exist, and it's all complicated etc.

So, point is, timeline counterpart stuff is not cut and dry or particularly simple or easy here. Which means that there's absolutely stilll room for a.) certain people not HAVING co-existing timeline counterparts the way that Henry and Henrietta don't actually have one because in order for Henrietta to exist, Henry can't exist, and vice versa because there's only one Peter and b.) timeline counterparts just generally being weird/ Karen Childress being Alice Creel's timeline counterpart.

The idea of Brown Eyed Karen/Alice Creel swapping timeline with Karen Childress/wondering why Karen Childress and Alice Creel were timeline counterparts/got swapped instead of Daughter Virginia and Daugher Alice would also tie into Daugher Alice Creel being listed as 15 years old in 1959 in the Weekly Watcher- if Alice Creel was 15 years old but Daugher Virginia (the blonde little girl we see in the show that we think is Alice) is CLEARLY not 15, they're not going to have equal mass- but Karen Childress, could totally be 15, hence why those two would be more likely to swap that Daughter Virginia and Daughter Alice, as Daughter Virginia and Daughter Alice seem to be two different ages/that little blonde girl is not 15, but Karen Childress and Daugher Alice/Bornw Eyed Karen could definitely have both been 15 and therefore far closer to being the same mass.

And also, if Alice Creel/Brown Eyed Karen simply adopted the name and life of Karen Childress after their timelines got swapped (and possibly even gained Karen's memories over time, which as mentioned before, happens in Fringe), then Brown Eyed Karen Wheeler may very well, at this point, believe herself to have always been Karen Childress. As mentioned before, somebody believing themselves to be their alternate timeline counterpart after swapping timelines HAS happened in Fringe. This may also be why Ted and Karen's relationship is so unhappy- Brown Eyed Karen isn't the Karen that Ted originally knew. And this Ted isn't the Ted that Brown Eyed Karen originally knew. And Ted might know deep down that something isn't right (again, this happens in Fringe with people whose loved ones get timeline swapped. Sometimes they notice, sometimes they dont, sometimes they say something about it, sometimes they don't.) Anyway! Lots to think about.

SECTION 3: THE CONNIE PROBLEM

So, this all also leaves us with the question of Connie, though. Why does she have so much Alice Creel coding? Like, the name alice plays on screen twice with her & her body's posed the same way as alice's dead body.

However, I made that post about how TFS blue eyed Virginia resembles Connie. And we don't know what happens to that blue eyed virginia, we only saw a brown eyed "virginia" die. And that blonde little girl with blue eyes is presented to us as being alice creel, but a.) alice creel should be 15 and b.) the whole thing w her name being removed from the trailer.

And so im like. Connie. Are you blue-eyed TFS virginia a few years down the line? Which would be weird if that tfs mother is virginia and not alice, but there's so much name swap fuckery that the association with the name alice could still fit somehow/I just need to dig more. Anyway, things are making me insane as usual.

SECTION 4: CONCLUSION

My conclusion summed up?

And before you come into my inbox calling me insane, please know that a.) I know and I'm having fun and b.) lots of this is speculation. There's parts with firmer evidence, and there's parts with less firm evidence/parts where I'm just trying to fill in the gaps. My main point is that it doesn't make any damn sense for that little blonde girl to be Alice Creel if Alice Creel is supposed to be 15, and ALSO that there's plausible evidence (such as the trailer removing her name) that she isn't Alice Creel, and that her not being Alice Creel may explain why Alice Creel is missing from TFS. This post is less evidence-focused than most of my posts because a.) so much is still up in the air with TFS and b.) I am very very tired today LMAO, but there's still some solid chunks of evidence in here that I think are worth considering.

#stranger things #alice creel #edward creel #timeline theory #henry creel #st creel timeline weirdness #karen wheeler #the creelers

[applejuiceyjuice-art]

i’m replying to this on my personal blog because i do not want to address this on the cloutchase blog. normally, we would delete an ask like this, but it bothers me too much personally.

it sounds like your brother is subscribed to “dead internet theory” which is a fringe conspiracy theory and total doomer talk. it basically proposes that the internet "died" in 2016/2017, and is or will be only made of bots that are generating content for other bots to engage with eternally, and that bot content makes up a majority of the internet in order to manipulate people. it is hyperbolic, using language like "everything online is generated by a bot and you are alone."

idk where he got the idea that it started with discord users, and we aren’t just going to take this information as fact for the sake of making content for our silly website gijinkas. it would be incredibly depressing and irresponsible of us to spread potentially dangerous conspiracy information like this, even if we somehow twisted it into the form of a joke (which we can't). cloutchase is moreso a celebration of the unique environment of the internet. (REMINDER: these are just funny ocs, and while there are serious conversations to be had surrounding actual problems with these sites, cloutchase is NOT the space to be doing so. read the FAQ.)

people believe in this theory because it “feels” true, the internet now feels fake and algorithmically produced and that nobody here is a real person. that’s why many people have nostalgia for “old internet,” where we remember a time where everything was seemingly user run.

but really the main difference between old internet and new internet is commercialization. inevitably, websites grew into businesses and businesses must generate profit. algorithms, advertisements, and ai are much more prominent than ever, flagging algorithms with human bias censor actual people, and so on. seeing and experiencing these things makes it kinda feel like nothing matters or whatever.

what’s actually important to YOUR experience online is asking this: is the majority of content you engage with generated by bots? no!!! you make it your own! the internet is massive, but we still find each other!!! there are REAL people behind this project and receiving your messages. we read everything, you know. WE aren't bots.

bots have always been around the internet, it isn’t a new thing. sure, we didn’t have sophisticated ai generation back then, but spam bots have always existed. malware spread through bots, some ARE bots. in some far off circles of the internet now, there are content farms and viewbotting, but here we are, meeting on this tumblr blog.

the internet will only die when its users decide to stop using it. is this not unlike the y2k scare?

#unreality #i think #do not send us asks like this #i will probably delete this later #i didnt mention this in the post but there are hints of truth in the dead internet theory #its fair to be mad at ai art clogging up google search results and things like that #but there are ways to curate your internet experience and that is really what im tryna say. people make solutions and push back #also viruses are not as threatening anymore because we have improved cybersecurity and 40 years of progress on accessibility #most people now only use a few select popular websites and don't have to worry about protecting themselves from viruses even tho they shoul #if you do get a trojan horse or anything it is far worse than any ai slop you might stumble across now

[lifewithchronicpain]

If you've ever found it puzzling that "do your own research" is a slogan for conspiracy theorists of all stripes, new research may have some answers. While conventional wisdom holds that researching the veracity of fake news would reduce belief in misinformation, a study published on Wednesday in Nature has found that using online search engines to vet conspiracies can actually increase the chance that someone will believe it. The researchers point to a known problem in search called "data voids." Sometimes, there's not a lot of high-quality information to counter misleading headlines or surrounding fringe theories. So, when someone sees an article online about an “engineered famine” due to COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines, and conducts an unsophisticated search based on those keywords, they may find articles that reaffirm their bias.

#google #research #confirmation bias #misinformation #skepticism #study #article

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Something that doesn’t surprise me due to how prevalent they are as visuals to remind the audience what series they’re reading and for the multitude of things they represent but is still of interest to me is how I’ve never seen discussions or fanfics that touch upon the removal of the farm tattoos or Lambda branding once the setting switches to the human world. I’ve seen the latter mentioned as a point of distress post-canon (shout-out to chapter 3 of banana_slug_army’s Sunshine and Solace; definitely check it out if you’re a NER enthusiast), but the thought of removing them is never seriously considered by the kids or Moms and Sisters.

Below the cut is an assortment of reasons I’ve gathered for why this is and some musings on them:

1. Pain of Removal (Physical and Monetary)

This reason is the easiest to handwave. With fantastical creatures like demons being real in this universe, it’s not much of a leap to ask your audience to believe there is now an entirely painless procedure to remove tattoos or brands.

However, if someone wants to venture down that route, it is interesting to consider, especially given how young a decent amount of these kids are. Doing a quick search for tattoo removal and children understandably doesn’t yield many results, so I’m wondering if it’s something that should even be attempted on the youngest of them with the damage it could do to their skin. It could take multiple sessions before the removal is complete. (I’m not going to post images here because they contain nazİ imagery, but check into Bryon Widner for someone who underwent twenty-four sessions of extensive but successful tattoo removal on his face and neck for a year and a half after leaving the movement.)

And then I go with the Lambda marks being brands due to the red coloring they’re given in the anime:

(S2e08. At least the majority of the babies sans Ray don’t remember the tattooing done to them. I hope they granted Norman the small mercy of knocking him out for this.)

Removing those would require more intensive cosmetic surgery.

Regardless, the monetary cost for any of this is a non-issue because even if Norman and co. didn’t start an incredibly lucrative conglomerate so they could avoid as much influence of the Ratri family as possible, I feel like this would be something either they would cover (because not doing so is terrible optics) or the people performing the procedure would do it pro bono.

2. Discrimination/Attention

Discrimination is another one that Shirai handwaves fairly quickly after minor instances of speculating how successful they would be in assimilating into the human world.

(Chapter 179)

So there’s no large, socially acceptable push toward scapegoating the cattle children on the outset of their arrival. However, I don’t think it would be outlandish for individuals or fringe groups to do this, especially with how they magically appeared all over the world. It’s ripe for conspiracy theories. (I’ve talked about this with @officersnickers​ for one of her AUs where a minority of people don’t consider the cattle children real people and dub them “numbers” for some ingroup-outgroup think.)

The opposite side of the coin then is attention.

(Chapter 56)

Glory Bell’s, Goodwill Ridge’s, and Grand Valley’s placements are more easily hidden with clothing, but Grace Field’s takes a little bit more flair to hide in the warmer months. Yuugo is immediately able to tell where the kids are from because of this placement, something he wouldn’t be able to do with the other farms. It makes me wonder if Grace Field children in particular would consider removal the further along they are in life to avoid receiving pity.

[Tangentially related to this, the arrival of all these children might spark a trend of human world denizens opting for some misguided tattoo choices in a similar manner to what happened with the release of Stranger Thİngs season 4:

so another aspect that might factor into this decision.]

3. Paradoxical Sense of Kinship

This is the most thematically resonant reason that’s made most apparent by Emma losing her tattoo as a symbol of the new promise she’s forged and the memories of her family that she’s sacrificed.

(Chapter 181)

With the paradox being that these numbers were used in order to dehumanize them and catalog them as merchandise.

Growing up in Grace Field, the children undoubtedly saw images of people in books from the human world without numbers on their necks. It makes me wonder if the Moms of each house were given free reign on how to explain why this was so to their children or if there was a standard response passed down from HQ, because it is something that the kids notice before they’re aware of the truth in the manga instead of the ominous framing for the sake of the viewer in the anime.

(Chapter 1; I default to the demons flipping them as another hurdle to deter the children from catching on to how closely grouped together they actually are, but like)

(at some point multiple kids must have stood in front of the mirror together and seen the reverse. “If you’re not primed to look, you’re not going to see it,” yes, but still, lol. Chapter 181.1)

Once they escape the house, we again have those panels from chapter 56 of Nat and Thoma shuddering at the real purpose of the marks they’ve carried for their entire lives.

And yet before and after this realization the children of Grace Field undoubtedly took comfort in seeing those similar markings so prominently on each other. As Don states in the English dub of the first episode, “even if we aren’t blood-related, we’re truer siblings than most.” They were brought together by circumstances unknown to them, but they all saw those numbers as a way they were tied together. So despite having the most obvious placement, I feel like the Grace Field children would be the least likely to opt for tattoo removal.

(You could further split up this up by how old the unaware Grace Field children were upon arriving in the human world. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine there being some dissonance between younger children who barely remember life in the demon world and older ones who were nearing the shipment age who bonded with the other children in their orphanages.

And then with the oldest cattle children—the caretakers of the various farms who learned of the truth and were forced to comply with the cruel system laid out before them or die—their memories of their time in HQ might mar any positive association they had with their tattoos as a sign of familial unity in their childhoods.)

By contrast, Grand Valley’s tattoo placement is on the chest.

(Chapter 69)

And Glory Bell’s on the stomach as shown by Yuugo. Combined with the different settings of towns and teachers as caretakers as opposed to smaller family units intentionally framing themselves in that manner, I feel that this could lead to a greater sense of dissociation between the tattoos and a sense of kinship for all the cattle children not from Grace Field, thus potentially making it more likely they would be open to removing them at some point in the human world. Out of sight, out of mind.

Of course, all these characters are their own individuals and with enough proper set-up, I think fanfic authors could reasonably justify any of the cattle children removing these markings within the anime or manga canon or in No Reward AUs where Emma doesn’t lose her memory or her numbers. But these are the general trends I would default to if the topic is put forth in a fanfic, and I’d be interested in contrasting perspectives from characters either as the focus of a shorter piece or a reoccurring point of contention in a larger one.

#The Promised Neverland #Yakusoku no Neverland #TPN #YnN #TPN Norman #YnN Norman #Norman 22194 #Long Post #Human World Arc #TPN 179 #TPN 181.4 #Epilogue #Post-Canon #Post-Canon AU #FSS Chatter #Goldy Pond Crew #Emma #Norman #Ray #Nat #Thoma #me whenever I'm halfway through writing one of these posts: #did Shirai...ever address this in an interview with like a five-word response because it's like a “duh” thing #but this is just me musing what conversations in the human world might be like for them #one of the most striking lines regarding this topic in fic that I've read #described Ray seeing the Grace Field tattoos from far away as a dark slash dividing their necks in half #foreshadowing their eventual grizzly fates #or perhaps it was specifically regarding Norman during a final conversation before his shipment as he dons the shipment outfit #either way‚ very stark and haunting and good

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

Found a saved copy of this ask from a few years back, before my original tumblr got nuked for no reason. Still stand by it:

______________________________________

Anonymous asked: Do you believe all feminists are hateful? I use the word but I just want equality, and that includes standing up for trans people, male rape victims, etc

-----------------------

No, I believe the great majority of people who identify as feminist are otherwise rational, concerned, well-meaning people who have been hoodwinked and peer-pressured into supporting a hateful, bigoted and appallingly destructive ideology by having it sold to them as a force for good through a relentless campaign of hysteria-inducing propaganda and brute force attempts to corner the market on the word ‘equality’.

On the other hand, I think the great majority of radical feminists are either profoundly damaged or sociopathic individuals seeking to project their own internal uglinesses onto the rest of the the world, people we would all avoid like the plague if they did not have this ‘we just want to help the poor defenceless women, you don’t hate women, do you?’ mask to hide behind. And the problem is, all feminist theory (’The Patriarchy’, ‘rape culture’, ‘the pay gap’, etc) originates only with radical feminists - yes, becoming more diluted as it reaches the mainstream, but still exclusively rooted in the same unhinged, irrational, ideology.

Radical feminism is not fringe feminism but core feminism: the ‘why can’t we all just get along’ feminists don’t write the books on feminist theory taught to young, impressionable minds in gender studies classes around the world, or teach those classes, or draw up the petitions to lobby for anti-male legislation, or organize feminist action groups, etc. The feminists who make a life of it (and a living off it) are all RadFems, and the proclamations pretty much every single one of them make about ‘MEN’ would sound like the most unmistakably horrific genocidal hate speech to everyone overhearing them if they were only talking about any other group of people on planet earth. If you don’t believe me, just try mentally inserting the word ‘black’ or ‘gay’ in front of the word ‘men’ the next time you read any feminist text or listen to one of them rant.

If you want equal rights and treatment for all people, there are other words you can use to describe yourself rather than ‘feminist’ - such as ‘egalitarian’ - which are far less loaded with hateful bigotry and accompanying crazed ideological assumptions about the world. You don’t need 60 years of hysterical conspiracy theories to say you don’t want women or men to be discriminated against, all you need to do is say what you think.

So my recommendation for you would simply be to express what you think and believe on your own and in your own way, without being forced to adopt the ideological framework and scaffolding of a hateful political movement with its many accompanying agendas.

Distrust the hive mind. Be yourself.

[rainbowsky]

Hi!!! While I'm really happy with the successful completion of season 5 of SDC, but I came across the clips of 🐢 and 🏍️ fighting with each other & there were staffs removing the red lights from the crowd which kinda made me upset. I know that it's completely fair for the staffs to promote wyb & his team in a show where bjyx related stuff is irrelevant. Anyway I know I should stay away from Twitter it's just bloodbath out there.

A lot of people have written me about this incident, and @accio-victuuri did a post about it as well, which you can find here. I just have a few things to add on this topic.

The question that keeps coming up is, "Should BXG be showing up at GG and DD's events with BXG banners and fan materials?"

To me the question isn't, "Should BXG be there?" the question is, "How should we conduct ourselves in public?"

We have every right to go wherever we want, online or off. We have the right to show our support for GG and DD. What I don't think we have the right to do is make a big spectacle of ourselves, or escalate tense situations in public places or in online spaces.

Here's the thing that I think we always need to keep in mind: we are the fringe group. We are the group that is going to be targeted for bullying and hate. In the eyes of the world at large, we are pervs who ship together real people using crazy theories and tinfoil hat clues. The myths about who we are and what we are about are far more widespread than the realities.

It is the fact that GG and DD are real people that makes our fandom fall under greater scrutiny, and it is why we have to be extra careful about how we behave. These aren't a couple of fictional characters. Everything that we say and do reflects on and has a potential to impact two very real people.

And if we believe they are in a real relationship, that makes it doubly important that we conduct ourselves with extra caution.

Going to an event - even an event that only one of them is present at - with turtle light banners and cute little dolls is totally fine, what isn't fine in my view is to cross over into behavior that might be disruptive. I have said it a thousand times, we should always stay in our own lane.

Solos are going to attack, bully and harass us. It's just the way things are. You've heard me say this a lot in the past - we don't have any control over what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is how we respond to what other people say, do or think. And if we care about GGDD and the turtle fandom we should always be choosing the response that will lead to peace.

When solos attack us, it is better to take the high road and do what we can to de-escalate the situation. This goes for online or offline.

The friendlier someone is to somebody who is being cruel to them, the nastier the cruel person looks. But as soon as we start behaving nasty back, we start looking just as nasty as the person attacking us.

And let me guarantee you, this is one area where appearances do matter. As I stated before, we are a fringe group. We are going to be targeted. If we look like we are asking for it, we're only making matters worse for ourselves. We are only jeopardizing our own existence as turtles.

If our behavior escalates rather than de-escalates fan wars, then we are generating fan wars that can harm GG and DD, and can jeopardize the turtle fandom.

It's likely that some solos are fully aware of that, and try to actively bait us. Be well aware and simply block and ignore.

As for the claims being made about what happened, and who said what and who did what, and which light banners were removed and which were not - and why, none of it matters. What matters is putting a stop to the fan wars. Or, at the very least, putting a stop to our contribution to the fan wars.

It doesn't matter whether turtles or solos, they were all there representing DD and they embarrassed him, at an event that he was not even supposed to be the focus of. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that both solos and turtles made a negative spectacle of themselves. No one here comes away with a clean face.

Everybody from both fandoms should be deeply ashamed and humbled right now, not trying to justify themselves.

I see a lot of hand-wringing from people about what so-and-so said or did, or what so-and-so posted on Twitter. We shouldn't be fooling ourselves. Anything posted on Twitter is going to have a high chance of generating conflict. Conflict is a core feature of the culture of Twitter.

Nothing posted about GGDD or about turtles, no matter how benign or even positive, ever fails to draw solo hate and personal attacks toward BXG. Anyone who thinks that kind of BS can be avoided is fooling themselves.

I've been on Twitter, I see the kind of things that solos flock to and attack. They are just as likely to freak out over a cute piece of fan art as they are to freak out over a video showing fans arguing.

As I said before, it doesn't matter what solos do, what matters is how we respond to what they do. We should be blocking, ignoring, and reporting where appropriate.

Their behavior is their own responsibility. Our only focus should be on our own behavior.

I will never understand why people freak out over the fact that solos are saying hateful things about us on Twitter. Their opinions simply don't matter.

Edit: Follow-up post here.

#solos belong to moling su sect #twitter is a cesspool #it's in the air it's all around #fandom reflections #ask

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Timothy Francis LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have had an insurmountable impact on modern Christianity, and some of you aren't ready to have this conversation.

For those who aren't aware, these two men are the authors of the Left Behind series of books, which has 16 books, 5 movies, and a children's book series, that follows a group of people from the Rapture, onto the end of the Tribulation period, where Jesus comes back for a mighty war to wipe out the forces of Satan.

This book series was arguably the next most popular book, next to the Bible, and still is, for many Christians. Enter any thrift shop, and you're guaranteed to find at least a few of these books in the used books section.

These books are essentially AO3 fan-fiction where the authors took vague symbolism from AD 81–96, and applied it to modern geo-politics, and invented a whole storyline to fit the two author's views on things such as Judaism, Catholicism, the United Nations, Liberal Secularism, and other concepts that are either not in the Bible, or are completely different from our modern understanding of it (Judaism has evolved from the times of Jesus for example).

This book series took what was essentially a fringe view from the 1800s, that's not even held by a lot of denominations today, and made it mainstream and easy to market through average level prose.

So, how has one series that is really only known for shitty Nick Cage films, and books that aren't really seen outside of church libraries affected non-Christians globally?

Well, global warming for example. Many, many, people think that because "Jesus is coming back soon" that we don't need to do anything to prevent the destruction of the world we live in, because it's all going to be gone in a few years anyways, so why should I care?

They often cite the book of Genesis, where God pledges to never kill the world again with water, and by their logic, the ice caps can't be melting because God promised to never flood the world again.

Many policy decisions also center around this, such as global support for Israel by Conservative and Liberal (yes, even Liberals, who are often Christian too) parties, as there's this ongoing belief that one must support Israel, as they're a vital part in "End Time's Prophecy", and that any day now, the Anti-Christ will arise in the Middle East, preform miracles, and be declared the Messiah (falsely), which then starts the war of Gog and Magog, with Russia, Syria, and other countries around the globe partaking in it.

Name any modern shitty policy, and it can be traced back to the concept of the Rapture. Abortion? Anti-Trans/Gay laws? Gun control? All of these have links to Pre-Millennial Dispensationalism.

Some scholars have written on this, such as Bart Ehrman when he wrote the book Armageddon, but I have yet to see any scholar write about the more nitty gritty stuff that you see from pastors and random schmucks on YouTube, that I've seen growing up in a family that believes in this stuff.

Hard to believe that a letter written about a conspiracy theory back ~1950 years ago, is being used to backslide human rights and throw gas on the extinction of life on the planet.

Thanks John Nelson Darby!

#.txt #theology #christianity #politics

[froshele]

does anybody have any theories on how religion actually works in the secret histories universe?

obviously my ocs that touch this sort of thing are either secular magicians (because i don't know enough about other people's religions to hourify them) or strange hasidic types (because i do know the one i was raised with, quite well actually, and i can ruin some 1930s khaverte's life in a maximally heartrending way if you just give me some time to reread whatever the hell was happening in georgia in the exile dlc) so for them it literally doesn't matter

but I kind of assumed based on CS (one of your occultist friends is a Catholic priest who seems to only talk about his Hour stuff to you) that for the most part the Hours had nothing to do with the canons of religions in this History, and their additions are all suppressed heresies? I just found a Vatican-approved text about Hours and a bunch of churches and naves and things in Hush House, though

I did some worldbuilding around Jewish astrology and my little fool rabbis' personal beliefs ("Ah! You are a Scorpion of the Sixth Hour? And I am a Fish born in the hour of the Unconquered Sun! : )") for Fanfictional Purposes but I had generally speaking assumed that they had to be extremely isolated and somewhat fringe-believing people who aired their fucked up minhagim and insane metaphysics only in specific company

BUT NO? the laity knows about hours? there are churches in universe where the laity worship hours, which apparently so much doesn't conflict with this universe's Christian doctrine that the VATICAN is A HUB FOR ONE OF THEM? Catholic orthodoxy in this universe INCLUDES THE HOURS? IN WHAT WAY PRAY TELL. IN WHAT WAY. I THOUGHT THE SUPPRESSION BUREAU WANTED NO ONE TO KNOW ANY OF THIS BUT APPARENTLY THE AVERAGE CITIZEN IS FREE TO KNOW AN EXPURGATED VERSION OF THE TRUTH ?

i think probably based on the Tigrines and so on Judaism in this universe recognizes them in some capacity but just doesn't view the Hours as divine (there is canon precedent for the idea), like they're in the same emotional realm as planets and stars in being heavenly but subordinate to a greater all encompassing power, which I guess is why we kind of got kinassigned Rose by the narrative

BUT HELLO WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING. WHAT IS UP WITH THE STAINED GLASS MADRUGAD???? WHY DOES THE CHURCH RECTOR OUR FRIEND THE PERFECTLY NORMAL CHURCH RECTOR KNOW ABOUT THE PRINCIPLE ILLUMINANT. what are your thoughts about all this tumblr i slaver and hunger to know

#book of hours #the game i am once again so sorry catholics #secret histories

[moralesmilesanhour]

Ooh wait I forgot to do this. Seems like an appropriate time so [game show music plays]

Malika's official spiderverse ranking (REAL)!

(Excluding Miles G and Miles' family sorry guys)

Miles Morales ‼️

Duh. He's like, the Main Guy and the reason why most of us are here. He's weird!! He's lame!! He's smart and annoying about it!! Just like me fr 🔥🔥🔥 hope he gets therapy soon and maybe some meds

2. Hobie Brown

Lives up to his character description in every way possible. He IS an anarchist and he WAS in fact, "this cool the whole time". Bonus points for being the first guy to fuck off to his dimension the minute he did what he had to do (help the youth and ruin Miguel's day). Extra points for Gender

3. Pavitr Prabhakar

He just debuted and he's already got several iconic one-liners under his belt. Banger suit redesign and FAWK Marvel for that first costume ‼️ It's really the curly fringe that does it for me like EATTT

4. Margo Kess

Idgaf she's literally goated. Had she gotten more screen time slhe would've been number 3 tbh. She's here to slay and found a way to stay her ass at home while being part of an elite Spider Squad. Women in stem

5. Jessica Drew

"But she's on Miguel's side!" And wrdgaf 🤣 she beats bitches up not just with webs but with A MOTORCYCLE!! And she's one of the only Spideys not masked Jessica is literally here to clock in, do her job, and clock out. She's #real I can't take that away from her. Bonus points for Issa Rae

6. Spot

I know. Look, I KNOW. But this is quite literally one of the most genius and thematically-coherent supervillain reveals I have ever seen in a superhero movie. HE WAS THE BAGEL GUY I WAS SO GAGGED! I left the theater and had to stare at a wall like this is excellent usage of pre-existing comic book characters to further one of the movie's messages, which is to not underestimate people!

7. Gwen Stacy

DONT GET MAD AT ME FOR PUTTING HER BELOW SPOT I CAN EXPLAIN

Okay look, she's cool. She's a punk that does ballet and she is part of the Hailee Steinfeld Cool Girl Industrial Complex. But she hasn't done anything that blows my mind yet and she clearly wasn't taking Hobie's advice like girl sjdlslk. I also doc points for pissing me off so sorry to her. On god we gon get you a girlfriend and some therapy as well 🙏🏾

8. Miguel O'Hara

Ohh brother this guy STINKS‼️ But they went sooo crazy w his character design shout out to Kris Anka. Bonus points for Oscar Isaac but minus points again for throwing a trash can at a high schooler. He only eats cafeteria food and has NO BITCHES! But upon reading about his character backstory ive decided that this guy is so unhinged and pathetic that it is now comical. Therefore I can't hate him. LEWSER

9. Peter B Parker

Sorry peepaw we're gonna have to put you down. At least Miguel can say that he has strong principles and believes in his own flimsy theory out of trauma. Miguel also doesn't really know Miles, , but Peter MENTORED HIM. Bro literally helped train living, breathing proof that anything was possible and that there was no "right" way for Spider-Man's story to go and he still let Miguel convince him otherwise. YOU HAVE A BABY THAT WOULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT MILES! Sir you may be a genius but you are not smart. Then he has the nerve to insult this kid's intelligence multiple times like don't piss me off. The betrayal puts him lower than Miguel because you've disappointed me peepaw 💔 and put a coat on that baby. I love him but he SUCKS

That's it 🫶🏾 please don't take this too seriously these characters are not real and thus cannot read this and I'm also kind of joking here

#blabbering #semi shitpost

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

In the dekugate stuff, how did the nighteye stuff go down? I'm just curious.

in the style of the 5 point au thing because that's what we're doing:

Nighteye joined up with All Might not fully believing the conspiracies but not disavowing them either. Once he saw enough evidence of the truth, he quickly moved on. Same when the conspiracies about him and All Might came to light. Pointless fan chatter, nothing to get worked up about (even if he was crushing on All Might and a little jealous of Inko). As for Izuku, Nighteye started forking for his dad when he was about six and he didn't see much of him until he was 8-9. Nighteye preferred to keep things professional and wasn't a fan of kids anyway. Him quitting was the same as canon, All Might refused to quit after his fight with All for One, even if it was going to cost him his life.

Nighteye was the first person Toshinori called after he and Inko agreed to give Izuku One for All. And he was even less supportive than canon. Passing the quirk down to his son was plain and simple nepotism on All Might's part. No way such a child was worthy. He refused to even come and visit Izuku, see the kind of young man he was growing into. When pressed about why he was so convinced Izuku couldn't be worthy, Nighteye brought up that he was quirkless. Such a person could never understand the weight of a special quirk. But he used much harsher language. Language that indicated he always thought less of Izuku for being that way. All Might, horrified, basically told him to go fuck himself.

Nighteye took on Mirio same as before; he was a strong, cheerful, blond kid who could, in theory, fit perfectly into an All Might-shaped hole. But there was an extra layer in this story. Reminder that Nighteye was well aware of the various fandom conspiracies around All Might, himself, and they many people suspected Izuku wasn't his real son. Mirio was a lot more superficially similar looks-wise. As Mirio gained notoriety, there weren't just the typical toxic "he's so much better" camps, but s sizable group who believed Mirio was somehow All Might's secret lovechild with Nighteye. Such fringe opinions weren't necessary in the grand scheme of things, but if they're going to be crazy, best to have it on your side.

Izuku ended up interning for Nighteye much more behind his father's back. Mirio, who had no clue about any bad blood, made the introductions. Nighteye promised in no uncertain terms to break Izuku. Convince him not only of Mirio's superiority but his own incompetence. But he had to do it all himself, as Izuku had no social media to be steered in the path of toxic fandom.

Toshinori suspected all of Nighteye's underhandedness, but never confirmed anything before he died. After, it was a waste of time. Top priority was shielding Izuku and Inko from the uptick in dekugate conspiracists from the NightMight side of things convinced Nighteye was assassinated to keep the secret, or was secretly alive. He actually researched the arbitrary signs the conspiracy pointed to as proof, such as certain colors and numbers, and avoided them like the plague. He couldn't make too much of a statement, Izuku would see, but he did put a lot of emphasis in interviews about comforting his son after he witnessed his first death. Of course, it wasn't just for show. There were many quiet evenings of just crying and hugging.

#answers #dekugate

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

Shinji and Ikkaku for the Character bingo? :)

Character bingo

Shinji

THIS MAN! THIS BEAUTIFUL, DUMB, AMAZING MAN. It took me many years, but I have come to. Love. This. Man. One minute he's being beaten up by a girl who's basically half his height and writes everything backwards 'just because', and then the next he's a grinning badass ready to throw down with Aizen and has one of the most OP bankai in all of BLEACH...and then he goes off and gets a questionable fringe haircut (probably believing he's setting some new trend).

Like a lot of characters in the series, there's an unsaid depth to Shinji and you just end up wanting to find out more about him. When you realise the story is over though, you end up turning to fanon, and that's where you can get some awesome headcanons and theories about why Shinji turned out the way he did, what his relationships with others are like, and what he truly thinks about certain things (like Aizen).

When you sit down to think about his backstory, I don't know about you, but I just want to give the guy a hug. He thought he could keep an eye on Aizen before he did anything to endanger someone, but he ended up getting played and actually brought Aizen to the exact spot he needed to be to enact his plans. He was then thrown out of his home world, became the pseudo leader of the people he feels responsible for getting into this mess, and had to learn about human culture and find a way to live in the World of the Living. All the while he's likely blaming himself for what happened, seething about Aizen, and having to deal with a Hollow's voice trying to get him to go full carnage.

But then you see him turn all of this into a means to understand someone who had gone through a very similar experience: Momo. While Shinji had been blinded by his suspicion of Aizen, Momo was blinded by admiration for Aizen. Regardless, this use of of a blind spot and the betrayal she felt is something Shinji can most certainly relate to. So he does what no one else was doing at the time: letting her talk about Aizen. Its stated in Death Save the Strawberry that he never prevented her from talking about Aizen, and he would casually bring up Aizen in a conversation if he so happened to come up. It's in talking about Aizen and in telling her that her friends aren't leaving her behind but are waiting for her that he helps Momo recover from her trauma. He helps her back up on her feet, to become the lieutenant she once was, but with a much healthier dynamic with her captain. She's now more assertive with her feelings, expressing annoyance and exasperation towards her captain, but also able to laugh with him and know that he truly has her back. She retains some of her prior qualities (such as her willingness to throw herself into dangerous battles when her captain is harmed, like with Bambietta), but Shinji helped her develop and grow, and he saw a kindred spirit in her, and that probably helped him get back into his role as captain and motivate him to do right by the division. Hell, he apparently calls her his 'daughter' in We Do Knot Always Love You!! Who else does he think of in that way?! You can just SENSE the dynamic between these two, it was absolutely ingenious on Kubo's part to put these two together!

I love speculating on what his life was like in the World of the Living for 110 years, on his dynamic with Momo and his subordinates and the other captains, on his interests and how he runs the division...I JUST LOVE THIS MAN!

Ikkaku

To be honest, I just couldn't pick a suitable box for Ikkaku! XD I like the guy, he has his great moments (mainly with Ichigo and Yumichika) and I think he's one of the more unique character designs. His lucky dance is in my top 5 funny moments of BLEACH, and every now and then when I need a pick-me-up, I go watch a clip of the dance. However, he isn't oen of my favourites, so I don't think about him too often.

As for why I have 'genuinely. what the fuck'? Simply because of the filler episode where he makes these faces:

I cannot for the love of my think of any other BLEACH episode that has character pull faces as creepy and crazy as this. Also, the heck is happening with his hands in the final shot?

Thanks for sending these in! :D

#shinji hirako #ikkaku madarame #bleach #brotp: the fifth division #ask meme #asks #whipplefilter