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red-applesith · 4 years

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You're very dismissive of reyloismine. They had so many things right last time, you can't deny it.

Look, as I said I had no idea who that person was before the last anon. I’m all for giving people the benefit of the doubt, and since you’re all so insisting that this person is legit I went to sleuth into their archive to make up my own mind. If you’ve been following me for a while you know I do not take anyone’s word at face value, especially when it comes to leaks and stuff like that.

I’m putting my observations under ‘read more’ and I don’t tag that post because I’m not interested in calling out anyone but my conclusion is that person read the Visual Dictionary one way or another right before it was leaked, because the only detail they had right and no one had predicted was the green milk and that info appeared on Reddit on Dec. 7 via the VD. That’s also the detail they chose to “prove their legitimacy” when objectively there could have been so many more interesting details pertaining to Reylo. Like if they had said “Kylo Ren slides in the corridors like a 4-year-old or “they hold hands” I would believe they were legit.

Otherwise, from their blog, I have 0 evidence that between Dec. 5th and Dec. 14th they shared information that no one had been able to deduce from watching the trailers, reading the interviews or the leaks on Reddit (aka Shirtless Kylo for instance), especially because they talked like your typical psychic i.e.”Oh yeah, I said that but I didn't’ give details of where and when and I won’t.” or “I’m talking openly about seeing the movie and sharing my old speculation thread where I was about 15% correct pretending I was so right but I won’t say more because I don’ want to spoil the movie for people.” Even saying that there are “good and bad Reylo scenes” means jackshit.

So anyway, Nonnie, you do you but I don’t have to place my trust in someone who couldn’t provide real details and quotes before the movie came out.

Also now I’m annoyed at myself because I wasted the whole morning on that.

On November 1st that person posted their timeline speculation that goes like that (Bolded Italic their words - my comments underneath. Pictures are theirs)

Episode 8 starts, where the last movie ends: Rey and Luke literal cliffhanger.

Everybody believed that would be the case because one of the first detail that came out from interviews is that there wouldn’t be any time jump, which is why the crew was back filming in Ireland.

However, turns out that the movie starts on D’Qar when they evacuate the base so the prediction for the movie itself isn’t 100% correct.

Luke bewildered, takes the lightsaber that once belonged to his father from a stranger. He asked who is she and how she found him. Rey tells him Leia sent her and that he is needed.

That was an easy one. We* pretty much all had deduced from the way Luke look at Rey at the end of TFA.

(*collective reylo)

Luke returns the lightsaber, does not want to be involved, and starts to retreats to his cave when Rey takes off her vest, and showing him that she is force sensitive.

The idea of Luke not wanting anything to do with Rey is there, but the hut/cave scenes and training scenes are all mixed up. There again, that wasn’t groundbreaking speculation since a lot of reylo fanfics started with the premise that Luke doesn’t want to train Rey.

The next day, Luke finds Rey still waiting for him. She was meditating, and he tries to guide her. With his help, her power grew, cracking the floor beneath them.

Continuation of the reluctant master theory, mitigated by the fact we had images of Rey cracking the rock beneath her but Rey wasn’t meditating before he found her. That’s all mixed up.

“I’ve seen this raw strength once before. It didn’t scare me then, it does now“ says Luke and dismisses her once again.

That was in the trailer and it made sense that it was that scene.

Kylo Ren wakes up and finds himself alive on the Supremacy. He does not remember how he got there. The last thing he remember is the scavenger defeating him on Starkiller base. His wounds have been treated, but the scars will remain. A daily reminder of his defeat.

That’s the start of about every fanfics. We knew that Hux had retrieved Kylo and we knew he had the scar from the promo pictures but it didn’t happen like that + turns out Kylo doesn’t even mention the scar at all.

He is escorted to Snoke, who belittles him for being defeated by a girl. He demands from Kylo to prove himself once again. Dismissing killing his father as any form of achievement. Then he is presented with his mask and lightsaber, salvaged from Starkiller base. Snoke orders him to wear it to hide the disgraceful scar.

Same, most fanfics had that kind of element. Snoke being an abuser it was evident he would belittle Kylo and call him on his failure. But the sentiment regarding the scar and the mask was completely wrong.

Once Kylo Ren is back to his chambers, he could not control his rage and destroys his mask.

That came directly from the trailer but it wasn’t in his chambers.

Kylo Ren acts fast and tracks the Resistance fleet, desperately wanting to prove his loyalty. To his surpise, he senses his mother being onboard, and Leia talks to her son. Asking him to come home.

They deduced that almost right from the trailers, apart from the fact that Leia doesn’t say anything at all.

It caught him off guard. He hesitates firing at her ship, then tells his mother to run away and buys her some time before he fires eventually to cover his tracks.

Same. The not firing comes from the trailer but Kylo’s supposed intention to buy some time for Leia to run away was really incorrect.

The Resistance fights back, Leia escapes unharmed and Rose helps an unconcious Finn escape as well.

100% incorrect.

Back to Ach-to, Rey experiences a force vision, showing the events of the Jedi Massacre, her jumping into the ocean, fending off a sea creature, then fights Luke. I also believe, she sees Kylo Ren too.

It did not happen like that at all, and we all know the sea creature turned out to be the Thala Siren.

Rey decided to go back to the Resistance base the next day. In the meantime, she set a campfire near the Millennium Falcon and are cooking dinner with Chewbacca and R2D2. Luke visits them to say goodbye and gives her some advice.

100% incorrect

Time passes and Rey senses a new presence on the island. She runs towards Luke’s home, only to find the Knights of Ren.

100% incorrect. Also, the scene with Rey running towards the village was deleted in the final montage.

Rey and Kylo Ren duel, while Luke fights the remainder.

Never happened. But a lot of people believed the KoR would make an appearance on Ahch-To.

Rey learns that Kylo was able to trace her due to the force vision she experienced earlier. Somehow he was able to defeat her and takes her to Snoke.

100% incorrect.

Snoke reveals his intentions with Rey. He wants to train her as his new apprentice. Discarding the old for the new.

100% incorrect

Kylo Ren goes on the offensive, and stops Snoke torturing Rey.

That was correct, but definitely not for the reasons implied above.

Finn learns about Rey’s abduction, infiltrates the First Order fleet with Rose and DJ’s help. DJ has a different agenda, and bombs the place.

100% incorrect apart from the fact that Rose, Finn and DJ are on the Supremacy, wearing FO uniforms

This puts the First Order on alert, resulting in Phasma and Finn facing off.

It didn’t happen like that either. But sure, the Supremacy is in flame and we saw Finn fighting Phasma.

Rey escapes and Kylo intercepts her, pointing his lightsaber at her. Not knowing whether she is consumed by darkness or still the same person. Kylo Ren turns off the lightsaber, not wanting to fight her.

Nope.

Kylo sill say a line similar to “come with me and together we can rule the galaxy”

That was pretty obvious that it was going to happen, unless you believed Hux was holding his hand out to Rey lmao

She doesn’t and joins Finn and Rose, who board the Millennium Falcon piloted by Poe and Chewbacca.

Nope.

Poe takes the team onboard one of the resistance ships. Only for it to get attacked. The resistance retreat by using escape pods and head to the nearest hideout on Crait for cover. There, the team meet Leia and Luke.Luke returned to the base with Chewbacca and decided to join the battle.

I see where they came from when you look at the pictures, but the details are all off, especially Luke returning to Resistance with Chewbacca.

The First Order have tracked them down. This was it. The final battle.

A battle on Crait to finish the movie, wow who would have seen that coming?

Then on December 5, supposedly after they watch the movie they posted that

I got so many things right and wrong!

Personally, I see way more wrong than right. There’s 0 mention that Rey and Kylo have a Force Bond, there’s 0 mentions of Finn and Rose’s journey on Canto Bight, There’s 0 mention of Holdo or any other character that plays an important role in the story, there’s 0 mention that Kylo actually kills Snoke and becomes Supreme leader.

Still on dec. 5 someone calls them out and they mention the milk scene.

Then on the 7th the Visual Dictionary is leaked and that’s where people start believing they’re really legit. To me that just means they saw the VD. Afterward, why not share something that wasn’t in the VD and wasn’t in any trailer and being all cryptic? Something that wouldn’t have spoiled the movie and Reylo.

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eirenare · 4 years

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I’ve just read the new “The Rise of Kylo Ren” interview with Charles Soule (the writer) and Will Sliney (the artist) and thought I’d do a post about it because there’s some very interesting stuff

And also I may or may not be absolutely amused at some descriptions for the former leader of the Knights of Ren

[More under the “read more” because of spoilers of TROKR, and because of speculation/theorizing of TROS.]

“They call him Ren, but that wasn’t always his name.

“Born out of the flames,” as artist Will Sliney puts it, the leader of the Knights of Ren in the opening pages of the new comic Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, arrives battle-scarred and wearing a fearsome, featureless mask — a blank expression save for a smattering of claw-like gouges. Concealed within is a charismatic leader, the exact type of person who would be able to seduce young Ben Solo away from the path of the Jedi.”

They’re going to talk about “The Rise of Kylo Ren”—they spent the first paragraphs mostly talking about Ren

And... *arching eyebrows at the first phrases* So... “They call him Ren, but that wasn’t always his name”, and “born out of the blames”, and “fearsome, featureless mask”... Yeah, this totally does nothing to stop me from thinking Ren’s gonna be future/alternative Ben

Alexa, play “Dark Horse” *looking sideways at Dark Rey and Ren*

“I wanted him to read like a charming Darth Vader,” says writer Charles Soule. “A Vader who is charismatic and who is appealing. That’s why [Ren’s] skin is burned and he sort of looks the way that he does. He’s embracing the seductiveness and the damage that the dark side does. Darth Vader, as impressive and imposing and terrifying as he is, is remote and cold and distant because he has the suit surrounding him. Whereas Ren isn’t hiding behind it. He’s someone you could have a beer with, in theory.”

Oh, so are we going parallel territory with the Darth Vader, like previously with Ben and Anakin? Interesting... *munches popcorn* Also lol at having a beer with him

“Designed purposefully for the new comic series, with issue #1 out now, Ren feeds the evolution of Kylo Ren. “The entire seductiveness of the dark side poured into one character engineered for Ben Solo is Ren,” Soule says. “He’s sort of a charming evil rascal that can be really fun to write and I really like where he goes in the series. But if Kylo Ren is going to take over the Knights of Ren, which we know that’s what happens, there should be some transition.”

I didn’t think I’d see Mr. Hottie McHotHot aka Ren defined like a “sort of a charming evil rascal”, but yeah, that’s kriffing funny and awesome and I can’t wait to see what happens in January

But now... now comes the super juicy bits...

“The creative team engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider, a foil in many ways to Darth Vader hiding beneath his protective covering. “You expect the dude hiding his face under a mask like that to be all messed up, particularly with his body looking the way it does,” Soule says. But in issue #2 we’ll see what he’s truly concealing, a reveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other level.”

Why does this sound familiar? ... Ah, yes, because it’s kind of the way they described Ben‘s unmasking in TFA, the whole “you expect a monster but you got this young tortured prince”. Sounds like that a lot. Also, the fact that what he’s hiding under the mask seems it will be a huge reveal to Ben and that they’ve “engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider”? Not to mention that, again, we have a comparison with Darth Vader

Yep, this definitely does nothing to keep me from going on with my Ren/Ben theory

“I think the key to writing Ben Solo is to write him as a lost teenager who is deeply in touch with emotions that teenagers often feel,” Soule says. “He feels like no one understands him, no one sees him the way he actually is, he’s utterly alone and there’s no one else out there in the universe. So when he sees Ren, he’s like, ‘Wait a minute — maybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices he’s made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be cool.’”

Okay, so, who the kriff is cutting onions in the room? *Ben feels intensify*

Also there might or might not be a certain Disney song going on my head right now reading this lol

“The story also calls for the re-introduction of a younger, seemingly kinder Snoke, wearing a little cap, no less. When we meet him in the series, the future Supreme Leader of the First Order is essentially a gardener. “When we were in the design process, Snoke is someone that you know is going to defy expectations and it’s not going to be the Snoke that you know,” Sliney says. “And it’s important because we’re going to see a very, very different relationship that Snoke and Ben have. It establishes that this is not the Snoke that’s going to Force-choke Hux and slam him into the ground. He’s playing the long game…so it was important to portray Snoke differently.

And true to his festering nature, Snoke inhabits a place that on the surface seems serene and beautiful, but is rotten at its core, a script note that spurred Sliney to google “rotting fruit” for artistic inspiration.”

Snoke is a scary predator. Whatever he is, whatever it’s his relationship with Palpatine, that’s the thing—they’re both scary predators, and I can’t even begin to imagine all the shit fed to poor Ben’s head

Also, about that world... Another thought that came to me (besides Mortis stuff) is that maybe it could be the deserted/stormy place we see in the TROS trailers, like the planet finally rotten inside and outside, kind of as a reflection as to how appearences have fallen apart and all that’s left to show is the rotting

“Like Sheev Palpatine, the once humble senator of Naboo, “Snoke is someone who knows the playbook,” Soule says. “It’s a similar play in terms of, ‘I’m a nice guy who’s just trying to help you,’ which is kind of what Palpatine did. But Snoke’s path to power, Snoke’s seduction technique, Snoke’s message and teachings are, I think, pretty different from the way Palpatine did it…. His job is not so much to corrupt as it’s to represent an alternative to the legacy [Ben has] been presented.” In concert with Ren presenting an alternate path, Snoke’s suggestive philosophy is appealing to a young boy who feels lost. “Everyone’s telling you you’re X, but what if you’re Y? What feels correct to you? Are you Obi-Wan Kenobi or maybe you’re something else?” Soule says. “All you need to be is whoever you are and no one’s letting you do that…and maybe, shouldn’t you go someplace where you can be who you are?”

Now that’s a specially terrifying way of predating—you may be able to get away from all the people you love, detach from them so as to protect them and protect your heart, but you can’t run away from yourself and your thoughts and feelings, and that’s what Snoke targets with Ben

“To bring these characters alive on the page, Sliney pulled reference material from Celtic myths and poured over books featuring the art of Star Wars. “I don’t think I’ve ever studied as much as I have,” he says. “Everything Star Wars. I have all those art books, whether it’s the modern ones or the ones from the original movies or the prequels. I love the art…I think it’s important to pay respects to the amazing concept art that have made these movies along the way.”

Those artists, of course, famously took their inspiration from earlier works, so Sliney went back even further. “I’m going backwards as much as I can in terms of the feel of it,” he says. “It needed to feel epic and it needed to feel powerful. It’s bringing it back to that mythological kind of feeling. I have a big influence from a lot of old ancient Celtic stories that date back thousands and thousands of years. These stories of lone warriors who died on the hill…. Those ancient books, they carry that gravitas.”

That’s interesting. Maybe the big “dead” tree around the machinery comes from Celtic mythology? After taking a look at some info, I’d say this screams “tree of life” to me, which would pretty much fit like a glove with the Force and the balance because it represents harmony and all that. Also, if you want to know something funny, according to this webpage (Irish Around the World), “trees were a connection to the world of the spirits and the ancestors, living entities, and doorways into other worlds”, it says, among other things

And, to finish:

“Meanwhile, Soule pulled much of his writing inspiration from the Skywalker saga itself, save for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was still in production at the time. Soule went back and studied the first time we see Kylo Ren on screen, wondering to himself about the implication that Ben Solo had met Lor San Tekka in their younger days. “There’s a lot of data hidden between the subtext and text,” Soule says. “It’s about doing the research on that level just to see what connections might be made, but it’s also the feel of it.”

After all, Ben Solo’s bloodline makes him Star Wars royalty. “This is a story about legacy,” he says. “It’s a story about family and expectations and the fact that Ben Solo is part of a vast network of galaxy-changing individuals from his mom and his dad, to his uncle, to his adopted uncle, Lando, to his namesake Ben Kenobi, to his grandfather, Darth Vader…Within one step of him are arguably some of the most important people in the galaxy. So his story is their story and you can’t tell Ben Solo’s story without knowing all the other ones backwards and forwards.”

Interesting, about the writing inspiration... I’m really curious to see how it’ll fit with TROS

Can’t wait to see TROS tomorrow, both because of the movie itself and to start thinking where TROKR may land because, hey... we’re still 3 issues away from the comic to end, 3 months

#Baby boy Ben Solo #Ben Solo #Kylo Ren #We also have content of Mr. Hottie McHotHot aka Ren the former leader of the Knights #Ren the Knight #TROKR #The Rise of Kylo Ren #Star Wars #SW #Star Wars TROKR #Star Wars The Rise of Kylo Ren #SW TROKR #SW The Rise of Kylo Ren

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kingforevermore · 4 years

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meta on Evan’s equipment, fighting style, skills, magic abilities, and companions.

readmore for length and pictures. Minor?? spoilers??? for the DLC at least. Also this is mostly post game verse related, however it can kind of show how Evan will fight in other verses aswell.

First off it should be noted that Evan can seemingly summon weapons from thin air - but this isn’t the case. His main weapons are stored in what is called an arms band. It is a magical ring that can store a certain amount of items within it - specifically weapons hence the name.

Evan carries three different swords and a wand within his arms band. These weapons can change often as he is always being given new weapons by his smiths, finding new weapons in the wild, or simply a matter of preference. I will say two swords that Evan keeps on his person / in his arms band at all times - post game - at least.

First is the Cat King’s Legacy. This was a sword that previously belonged to his father and was given to Evan by Mausinger. He had been searching for the sword for a while to give to evan but didn’t manage to find it until after the events of the ‘liar of the lost lord’ aka the labyrinth. It’s a standard looking sword, silver with a gold hilt that is unsurprisingly cat-like in appearance.

The second is the Supreme Sword of Unity. This is the Sword of Unity which Evan used to defeat the Horned One, but upgraded significantly thanks to an item obtained in the high higgledy questline / after fighting ‘The Great MadShadow’ (the taint from the god of gods). This sword is almost completely silver with some bright green gemstones, and a soft glow if you look close enough. Matches Evan’s crown.

These two weapons are extremely powerful, and magical, and the arms band helps pull out their full potential.

His third sword and wand tend to be changed up post game every so often. He carried the ‘boy king’s scepter’ wand for a while, but keeps it more as a formal item than one he goes out to battle with. This is also an item he gained from Mausinger.

Now as far as his fighting style goes:

Evan uses a mix of swordsmanship and magic, as stated above.

However he also uses a special technique called the ‘Ding Dong Discipline’. This is a special technique used mostly by the handmaidens of Ding Dong Dell’s castle. Aranella, Evan’s former governess, wrote about and developed the technique even further and doubled as Evan’s bodyguard because of it. After finding Aranella’s diary and reading her entries about the style, Evan incorporated it into his own fighting style.

Gameplay wise, this involves dodging the enemy attack at the last possible second in order for time to slow down and deal combo and power blows. Evan uses his speed and small size to catch the enemy off guard and striking them while they’re vulnerable. I wouldn’t be surprised if time actually did slow down thanks to magic, but I think it depends on the moment / how tense the fighting is / the power Evan puts behind his movements.

Now skills and magical abilities are something I’m going to kind of lump together. I’m mostly taking these from my own personal experience with in the game + some specifics mentioned in gameplay.

Though it should be noticed that magic wise, Evan can pretty much learn anything as long as he studies it / is taught it / is given the spell by someone. In ni no kuni 2, people are able to simply ‘give’ others the knowledge of spells by casting it on them / magically sharing the information. So Evan can pretty much learn any spell this way. He has a bunch of non-battle orientated magic that was learned this way (which we’ll get to a bit later).

Below are the specific skills / magic that i used most in game so if i’m writing a fight scene will probably describe the most:

Cut and Thrust: A series of rapid-fire slashes that can take out enemies on all sides. Pretty much a powerful AOE attack around Evan himself.

Dazzleslash: A slash imbued with the power of light that can cut a swathe through enemies. This attack causes his sword to grow twice-three as large before he slams it down on an enemy. Is actually a pretty fast attack.

Floodlight: Summons the power of light to protect all allies from physical and magical attacks. Lasts for a couple minutes but does take a bit to cast and he can’t be interrupted.

Sunrise: Balls of Light fly at foes, dealing damage as they strike. The size depends on how much magic Evan puts behind the attack.

Astra: A large amount of MP is expended to summon a great tower of blinding light. This spell takes a while to cast but summons multiple beams of light form underneath the targeted enemy, they go off a few times before doing one large blow all at once. Evan will be drained for a bit after this one.

Lifeline: brings back incapacitated allies, and heals everyone’s HP as well. This is another one that takes a lot out of Evan but he can use it to bring back knocked out or even recently deceased allies.

As you can probably tell, Evan has a large affinity towards light. Gameplay wise, Evan never learns any dark related spells. Writing wise, I put this mostly up to Evan’s personality. He probably has the capability for it, being a powerful magic user even as a young child - but he doesn’t want to learn those kinds of spells. Even if he did they would probably be much weaker in power than his light spells anyways. He doesn’t feel the need to tap into more dark magic - he can if he must but it would take a lot for him to even think about learning those spells.

Evan is one of the only ones in the party that can learn LifeLine - the only other one in the party able to learn it is Tani surprisingly. I would think that this is actually an extremely difficult spell to master to the point that even Leander - who has the highest magic stat and can learn THE MOST MAGIC out of everyone in the group - can’t even seem to learn it. I imagine maybe it has to do with age, that maybe younger people can preform it better than adults, but that’s a theory for another time.

Now Evan knows other magic aswell, mostly from the Wizard’s companion. This is a spellbook from the first game that Evan obtains in the second thanks to the Conductor. So while they’re not battle related spells, he still has learned them thanks to the conductor and can be seen using them on more than one occasion. I’m not going to say that Evan knows ALL of the spells in the companion yet, but he is learning them. Some of these Evan also were taught by others in the game aswell which is why I wanted to list them along with the spells from the companion I think Evan would use. Simply listing them here for ease:

Spring Lock: unlocks almost all enchanted locks

Nature’s tongue: Allows Evan to speak with animals.

Spirit Medium: allows Evan to speak with ghosts

Levitate: does as you would expect, makes him and anyone around him levitate/fly for a short period of time/distance.

Quickened Growth: allows it's user to hasten the growth of a plant - Evan mostly uses these to create pathways via plants.

Bridge: Allows Evan to rebuild a path that has sense been destroyed/covered/made impassable.

Draw Poison: Allows Evan to remove poison from someone.

Veil: allows user to mask their scent, making them undetectable from monsters.

Gateway: THIS SPELL IS ONLY LEARNED FOR THE SAKE OF MY CROSSOVER VERSE. In his canon verses he will likely not mention it. It is a spell that opens up a doorway that transports the caster between worlds.

Waterslide: Allows Evan to use higgledy’s to create a literal waterslide going up or down.

Kindle: Allows Evan to use higgley’s to start a fire.

Now for companions. This is mostly to talk about the higgledy’s which i’ve mentioned a few times. The Higgledies are special creatures that only a select few can see and even fewer can understand and command. Evan is one of those fewer. Below is an example of what the higgledies sort of look like though each has a unique feature about them (normally some kind of accessory) as well as a name, a personality, and a varying skillset.

Evan can have up to four different ‘main’ higgledies with him at a time but they summon others of the same time to help them pull off their attacks, so there’s a dozen of these cute little guys running around with Evan at any given time.

The make up of these higgledies always varies. Some focus on buffs while others focus on offense, defense, or healing. It all really depends on what Evan wants to bring with him at the time.

There are also the ‘high higgledies’ which are considered ‘gods’ among the higgledies and are born from the hearts of some of Evan’s companions / citizens / those he met in his journey. These are born of specific personality traits from a person and are the most powerful higgledies anyone can find. Post Game Evan normally has one of them with him (as these were higgledies he technically gained during the tale of a timeless tome dlc with the conductor).

He does try to switch out these guys often as he wants to show each of them love and support - but it’s clear he has favorites.

But a reminder that while not everyone can see higgledies - you can still get hit with their attacks / affected by their buffs.

andddd this ended up way longer than i thought - sorry lmao.

#Carved in Stone [ Headcanons ] Stories became Legend #[ i can't just right NORMAL / SHORT HEADCANONS CAN I?#NO I HAVE TO GO OFF ON A TANGENT #SPEND HOURS LOOKING UP STUFF FROM IN THE GAME-]

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opedguy · 4 years

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Trump White House Crumbles

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Oct. 5, 2020.--When 74-year-old President Donald Trump succumbed to coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 Thursday night, Oct. 1, it was the beginning of the end to the Trump experiment that worked for a while but in the end couldn’t fight a vicious media establishment all aligned against him. Drip by drip the U.S. press, joined together and coordinated to defeat the president, watched gleefully as the White House staff got infected with the deadly virus, something the press insist the White House takes casually. Democrats figured out a winning strategy for the 2020 election, blame Trump for 214,710 U.S. deaths. With the White House flooded with coronavirus cases, it makes Democrats’ argument in the most dramatic way possible that the White House hasn’t taken the Covid-19 crisis seriously. Whether or not there was any way to prevent the White House outbreak no longer matters.

Today’s announcement that White House Press Secretary Kaleigh McEnany tested positive for Covid-19 adds insult to injury to a White House now decimated by the virus. Instead of taking all the precautions necessary to assure the vital operation of the White House, it’s now besieged with the virus. When Trump hosted a Rose Garden ceremony Sept. 26 to announce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the next Supreme Court Justice, a super-spreader infected many of the attendees, including Trump, Notre Dame President John I Jenkins, former Gov. Chris Christie, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah.), White House Communication Director Hope Hicks and today, Kaleigh. Hosting the crowded event with some in attendance not wearing masks or social distancing sent a horrible PR message less than a month before the election.

What happened to the White House with Trump and key members of his staff getting infected is a clear harbinger of what will happen on Nov. 3. Trump has no more rabbits in his hat, his nine lives being fully expended. While most are happy he looks like he’s making a fast recovery, it’s already too late to salvage his flagging campaign. Hopelessly behind in the battleground polls, there will be no doubt on or near Nov. 3 who collected the 270 electoral votes needed to declare victory—and it won’t be Trump. No wants to see anyone infected with the coronavirus but American voters have seen enough watching Trump and his staff get infected, while his medical experts begged him to take the highly infectious nature of the virus more seriously. There’s zero evidence that 77-year-old Democrat nominee Joe Biden would have stopped the 214,710 death toll or nationwide infection rates.

Democrats have been handed an early Christmas gift with Trump’s infection and brief stay at Walter Reed Medical Center. U.S. media outlets continue to pile on while Trump’s hospitalized, receiving the most aggressive treatment known for treating the novel coronavirus, including experimental Regeneron’s polyclonal antibodies, FDA emergency use Gilead Sciences antiviral Remdesivir and the powerful steroid dexamethasone. Most people wish Trump well but the media’s overkill is like watching the late Col. Muammar Gaddafi torn limb-for-limb by an angry mob Oct. 20, 2011. Watching cable propaganda stations like CNN rant-and-rave against Trump while he battles cornavirus is beyond revolting, showing the American public how the U.S. has failed to maintain any degree of objectivity. Trump will be gone in less than a month but there’s something to be said for decency.

Washington’s piranha-like press corps looks only advance the Democrat political agenda, thinking that turning the country socialist will somehow benefit the have-nots in the U.S. population. What Biden and his left-leaning backers don’t get is that Wall Street is inextricably attached to Main Street. Without economic incentives like low taxes and less regulations, Wall Street sells off, dropping values in retirement accounts for ordinary American workers. Trump has tired to convey that message but Democrat are content to trash Trump’s economic accomplishments to gain power on Nov. 3. But the real loser in the election will be the very people, including the press, trying to hound Trump out of office. When you consider the media’s fraud over four years linking Trump to the Kremlin all to overturn his 2016 election, it shows there’s not a shred of integrity left in American journalism.

Watching the White House get infected with coronavirus completes the symbolic, almost literal, destruction of the Trump presidency. With the media not focused on Trump’s health but on “contact tracing” to blame Trump’s White House team for extreme negligence in managing the virus. There’s no question that more safety precautions could have been implemented, including, more face-coverings, social distancing and Zoom Conferencing. But Trump tried to help normalize a traumatized U.S. population, too afraid to go to restaurants, fly on planes, go on cruises, stay in hotels, go to ball games and all other aspects of normal American life. Trump’s a dying symbol of America’s can-do attitude, now replaced with “Critical Race Theory,” blaming the white man for holding down the blacks and other minorities in American Society. Democrats and media have less than a month to celebrate

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma. Reply Reply All Forward

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aboutearn · 5 years

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It's worthwhile to examine Google's definition of Google AdSense and Click Fraud , before delving deeper into “AdSense Fraud” . Google AdSense fraud is one of the diseases that plague the Ad Words advertisers. The AdSense program essentially allows website publishers/owners to sign up with Google, enabling them to display Google Ads on their sites. These publishers essentially act as “Google Partners”. The ads chosen by the Google bot for display are contextual and the ads are related to the contents of the publisher's website, more specifically that particular web page. The intent for Google is to capitalize on the traffic to these (in practice) niche sites and provide highly direct targeted traffic to the advertiser. A subset of the users of the Google Partner website, click on those ads and Google charges the advertiser per click. Google shares the booty with the website publisher but the revenue sharing ratio falls under Google's “undisclosed “criteria. While the exact amount can be reverse engineered, the take home lesson is that the final amount is proportional to Google's income from that click. In theory it's a match made in heaven. The advertiser gets good ROI through targeted traffic, the publisher gets to monetize the traffic on their website and the web browser gets to buy that classic CD that he couldn't live without. Not to mention that Google gets a wad of cash. The gods of lucre smile beneficently on all. Unfortunately, this happy façade hides blemishes. Severe ones. For all Google AdSense Publishers are not created equal. While (we daresay) many advertisers have a genuine website, providing a valuable or interesting service to the world wide community, there is a significant number of unscrupulous operators who are out there to prey on the advertisers. These creatures of the night (and we will explain later why we use that term), make websites for the express purpose of milking AdSense revenue. This category of fraudsters deserves a taxonomy of its own, which we have developed (the other categories, click fraud and impression fraud are even bigger problems in some industries). In the interest of not being gender biased, we have alternated between genders. We hope that our lighthearted tone does not mask the revulsion that we feel towards these cheats. Regressive Fraudster ( aka ClickMonkey ): This guy is at the bottom of the food chain. Inspired by the riches of his neighbor Ms. Jones, who has been making more than ten grand a month in AdSense revenue, he plans a course of action. He “invests” in a clickbot software( a simple google search reveals many) and gets a list of anonymous proxy addresses. He then goes to register a few domains and hires someone off of elance to create a “network of sites”and “ click bot ” . He hopes that the interlinked sites will provide each some “link popularity” and increase his page rank. If only it were that simple! He then proceeds to use the 30 dollar clickbot to start clicking on the sites. Or he could click on them himself manually using the proxies. We don't call him click monkey for nothing. He clicks and clicks all the way to see his account getting banned. No banana for this monkey! His calls of despair to google fall on deaf ears. This person is likely to quit, but sometimes retries to get up the food chain, the Wanna -Be-Fraudster. Wanna -Be Fraudster ( aka BOZO): This girl searches for high paying keywords like “home loan equity” (current ad words rate: 45 dollar), or “web hosting” (ad words costing 20 dollar). She correctly guesses that the AdSense payout is proportional to what Google earns and therefore homes in on such words. Her strategy is to make a page with contents that are appropriate for the targeted high payout keyword. She moves ahead by clicking on the link multiple times and recruits friends and family to give them a click. Or ten! Little does she know that Google has a 45 day inspection period before she get her nubby little fingers on that cash. With little to no knowledge of Click through Ratio , her greed couples with her ignorance. Seeing her ill-gotten paper wealth multiplying in her AdSense interface, she increases the clicks. Google however inspects the CTR and throws a fit when they see a CTR exceeding 20%. Furthermore, Google notices clicks mostly originating from a few IP addresses and that essentially seals her fate (or rather docks her earnings). That virtual cash is now just some deleted bytes on a hard disk on Google's servers. She moans, nay she rail against the cruelty of Google's policy. Some of these people wisely cease and desist such activities, perhaps philosophizing about the NFL (no free lunch) theorem. Others however see it as ground school for the next stage of nefarious behavior. The Almost-There Fraudster. Almost-There Fraudster ( aka SmartAlec ): The archetypical ATF is supremely confident in his ability to fool Google. Like the BOZO, he looks for high paying keywords and makes appropriate website(s). Let's assume that he is in a third world country, just to make the case more interesting. The case described here is 1 year old news. He has read this article and taken the learnt the subsequent lesson . He knows that that the clicks from the IP Addresses of USA, UK & Canada are worth much more than the clicks from the IP Addresses from the third world countries. He therefore seeks to befriend people from such IP addresses by logging onto messenger services. This way, he gets the unique, unrelated IP clicks and (he hopes) that Google is fooled. Remember “creature of the night”. Well, these people typically are more than a few time zone removed from the US or Canada and therefore are up at odd hours whenever they feel that their targets are most likely to be active. Plus they sometimes have to deal with “inconveniences” like a day job. AT fraud thinks that the clicks he obtained by trolling on these sites is a job well done. He has got clicks from the IP address of his choice .. An interesting factoid is that for AdSense, state also matters. Clicks from Washington and New York State have the highest payout for AdSense Fraud. He has just one problem. His tragic flaw. While he worked so hard to get the unique IP and high earnings, he is not able to maintain a good CTR. He is likely to cross the limit of 30-40% of daily CTR and 10-20% of overall CTR. He ends up in the same purgatory as the BOZO. The account is banned, and he gets the abominated email. Yes, the “AdSense account closure”. Almost-There is never good enough in this nether world of AdSense gaming. Although it is possible that he would have made a few thousand dollars before the punishment catches up to his crime. Crime doesn't quite pay, now does it? Well, gentle reader, unfortunately crime _is_ paying to the next category. Fraudster Maestro ( aka Satan's Spawn). Fraudster Maestro ( aka Satan's Spawn): This category of fraudsters is the most sophisticated and rarely gets caught by google . She has researched the high paying keywords as well as the CTR issues well. She has the smoothest lines in the business of soliciting clicks. She can flirt online, and ask to click the “link” for her picture. Or she may claim that clicking the link causes the hungry child to be fed in Ethiopia . Let's follow a typical “simple” chat session: US User : hello FM Fraud: what are your coordinates, handsome? US User : NY , NY FM Fraud: Oh! Wish I could be there. Can you help out a damsel in distress? US User : sure AT Fraud: I have made a site and want to see if all the links on this page are working or not. Can you please click on the links and see if the other page loads? US User: Sure. Link? FM Fraud:https://ift.tt/2DwoU6F US User : wait! Yes I checked all the links and they are working fine. FM Fraud: Thanks US User : so can we talk about you now? ( Message Not Delivered as the fraudster has blocked the User and is busy looking for a new victim) And she has lots of tricks up her repertoire besides chatting up strangers. She knows about opt in lists, usenet and blogs where she can snare the victims. Technically savvy and able to empathize with her victims she doesn't let arrogance get in her way to success. Since she is very mindful of the CTR issues she has a secret weapon. She has optimized her site for some low paying keywords which are really not competitive. She organically gets lots of traffic (but for things unrelated to those competitive high paying keywords). In her website, she may be giving away free greeting cards Or free screensavers. End result is a fabulous impression count. The second step for her is to makes unrelated pages on the same site and these pages pertain to the high paying keywords. These keywords are used to attract the victims of chat sessions. The process of getting the clicks is different but the results due to CTR are very lucrative. So, how does all this geek talk affect the PPC advertiser? It's a 5 billion dollar+ dollar market(for exact projections onto the future, please check out our FAQ, and with a 20% + fraud rate, we are talking about a 1 BILLION dollars fraud per year. Even Dr. Evil may be impressed by such a number. It's greater than the cumulative GNP of a few banana republics. And a fair chunk is ending up in the coffers of these fraudsters. We know from anecdotal evidence, how people are clearing up to 20 grand a month. All, courtesy of the hapless PPC advertiser. We want to emphasize that there are lots of authentic sites serving genuine content. But unfortunately the existence of these people (as discussed above) reduces the ROI of many advertisers to the extent that they rethink their interest in PPC. In the word of one of our organic SEO customers, with PPC “you always get a little less back than you put in”. It needn't be that way, if you watch carefully where your ad words traffic is coming from and take some steps (such as traffic analysis or at the very least a log file analysis) to protect arm yourself. Look for patterns, some of which are obvious(such as large traffic spikes from India). Unfortunately other patterns may require a doctorate in artificial intelligence. Still the keyword is to stay nimble. Convincing search engines to refund money is a lot tougher and a lot more work than proactively watching for problem visitors and taking steps that you deem appropriate. Before the situation goes out of hand. Remember, an ounce of prevention… We want to emphasize that there are lots of authentic sites serving genuine content. But unfortunately the existence of these people (as discussed above) reduces the ROI of many advertisers to the extent that they rethink their interest in PPC. In the word of one of our organic SEO customers, with PPC “you always get a little less back than you put in”. It needn't be that way, if you stay nimble. Convincing search engines to refund money is a lot tougher and a lot more work than proactively watching for problem visitors and taking steps that you deem appropriate. Some things you can do to stay ahead of the game. This is by NO means an exhaustive list, but it's a start. It's sorted by the level of protection in ascending that you may need. 1> Let your visitors know that you are tracking them and know quite a bit about them. For instance, if you visit www.sofizar.com , you will see information about yourself. You can display this information to all your visitors, or only to some of them. It can be in-your-face or subtle, but it will remind at least some of the fraudsters that they are being watched. Sofizar provides free sample code and connection to its database allowing you to display “premium” information(like City, ISP, ISP contact number). 2> Invest in a serious visitor tracking software. Set alarms based on the number of times a person clicks on your site in a certain time period(hourly, weekly, monthly). Display the same information to someone who is definitely PPCing your budget to death, as a custom message box. Something harsh, if the pattern keeps up. “We are logging the usage, and we are noticing that you keep clicking on our site through PPC. If you don't cease, we would be forced to call your local ISP at +91-23-344-5678”(if you see the information that we can glean about visitors, you will know we can get even more specific). This will weed some of the casual fraudsters. 3> Start checking for things that we have discussed earlier, by investing in an industrial strength data collection package. Based on your data collection, one strategy is to score each visitor, deducting(or adding points), based on the following (non exhaustive) list. a. Visitor conversion/past conversion history. b. Visit Depth Analysis. c. Visit Time Analysis(time spent on each page, and time of day the visit happens). d. Cookies/Javascript/”Unknown OS” e. Keyword Cost analysis. f. Anonymous Proxy Server g. Is part of “Fraudster list”. h. Country/Localization analysis(are you really targeting people in Sao Paolo , Brazil for your French Restaurant in New York ?). 4> Do pattern matching. See what your top 20% of your customers do as part of a “macro pattern” and match the visitor against that pattern. Keep in mind that you will get a few “false positives” and vice versa. A few innocent people may get tagged unfairly as “fraudsters” while a few “fraudsters” may well give you the slip. It's not an exact science, but over a period of time you can get fairly close. If you decide to take up your case with Google, you have to make a very convincing case. All based on meticulous data, instead of (what may be considered by them as) paranoia. Over the long term, as the threat evolves and the fraudsters improve, you have to keep adapting your strategy using your friends, diligent data collection, statistics and pattern matching. If you have any further question, comments or want us to give you a free evaluation if your PPC campaign is a likely magnet for fraudsters, please email to: [email protected] . For more information about adsense fraud visit: https://ift.tt/2RO2MaL

#News Updates #AdSense Fraud

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aboutearn · 5 years

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http://www.aboutearn.com/2018/11/adsense-fraud.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

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