you know what? thranduil deserves to drink a smidge too much wine and have a bit of a superiority complex and to be a tiny bit of a bitch. like you gotta give it to him, he’s king of a successful kingdom without the help of any sort of Ring of Power. he deserves to bring up how he's managed to defend his kingdom (that is literally right smack dab in the middle of SO much bullshit) for centuries without any help from a ring whenever he gets the chance.
My thoughts on how the Milgram mv machine works based on the evidence we have:
(I know there’s been discussion about where exactly the interrogations take place, but wherever they are,) the prisoners are made to sit in a specific chair near the wall that houses the machine.
It’s ordinarily hidden, but the wall panels shift aside to reveal it when the mechanical sounds play in the dramas. As well as the walls moving, the chair transforms to restrain the prisoner and attach whatever it takes to access their brain. The fact that none of the more frightened prisoners try to run or break it makes it seem like they physically cannot. This is why Fuuta sounds so panicked, and why Amane is suddenly helpless in front of Es in their T1 vds.
(My mind conjures very classic sci-fi mad scientist machines with wires, pipes, lights, nodes, needles, etc, but I’d love to hear how other people visualize it.)
In some vds (maybe all? I’d need to check,) you can hear Es take some steps right before their iconic line -- it would make sense that for safety reasons, the power mechanism is placed across the room. Once again it could be anything, but the sound effect makes me think of one of those giant wall-mounted levers you have to pull down.
The voice dramas don’t really provide the type of crime details that an actual interrogation would reveal, and it’s odd that they’re placed before the extraction rather than after Es gets to see the new details. This leads me to believe the machine functions with priming. All Es needs to do is get them talking about their murder, so it’s on their mind.
The video produced is much like a (non-lucid) dream. Even if the prisoners figure out that this is how it works, they can’t control it just by thinking really hard about something else. The murders produce the strongest emotional affect, and that’s what it picks up on. If someone else used the machine, it would default to whatever gave them the strongest emotional reaction in the ~15 minutes beforehand, hence why Es’ video focuses on their daunting task ahead. (The Undercover theory is still a bit loose, though, given the private shots that Es wouldn't have known about). It’s why the videos are usually closely linked to the vd topics/beats. I also like to think that the reason their prisoner colors appear so much is because they’re looking at those colors on their uniform 24/7.
The bell rings to inform Es that it’s the optimal time to use the machine -- the prisoner has been thinking about things for long enough that the video will be about their crime, and if the conversation lasts much longer they’ll start thinking of other things. It’s at a different time for each prisoner because it’s based on the specific conversation. I guess Jackalope is listening in to the interrogation, timing it perfectly. (The only one that kind of messes with this theory is Yonah, because they just keep talking afterwards lol, but it could just show that the interrogation is still in Es’ control.)
Their “Sing your sins” is the final priming nudge to get them to think of their actions as a sin, revealing their guilt.
Once activated, the prisoner enters a sort of trance/sleeping state. It’s very much like REM sleep, with the machine forcibly activating neurons and recording the output. The prisoners have asked Es what they saw, meaning they don’t remember the mvs. I like to think the prisoners do experience the mv in real time, acting as the major version of themself that appears, but can’t remember it afterwards. It’s when you experience a dream, but as soon as you wake up you’re just left with fleeting emotions and memories right on the tip of your tongue.
The video plays immediately upon extraction -- whether on a huge projection or little screen depends on which room it’s in. It simultaneously saves the memory so that Es can rewatch it later (on those old TVs in the jailbreak mix). The machine downloads the song and video together, but requires special parts to retrieve them. The technology is pretty new and fragile, so if one is broken, there might be a delay between when Es can hear the extracted song and see it with the video. (That’s my justification for Kotoko’s delays -- after 9 prisoners the parts wear out, or maybe Mikoto himself overheats it with his complex situation.)
Based on the lack of conversation we get afterwards, I picture Es leaving before the prisoner wakes from the trance. The machine adjusts their brain back to normal before they awaken, restraints freed and able to return to the rest of the prison.
It’s very much like a dream, so it’s not harmful despite the amnesia/head injuries the prisoners have. It does, however, exhaust them. Brain activity alone takes a lot of energy, so forced brain activity with added emotional strain would cause them to feel pretty drained the rest of the day.
Sort of a rant about tpw fics, no hate intended to anyone. I love all the poppy war fics, this is just to talk about what I would like to see more of
Okay I said it before and I WILL say it again. I'm all for creating what you want, so pls don't take this as judgement, but I want to see more fanwork of tpw characters going crazy/overcome with anger. ESPECIALLY RIN AND KITAY.
Ppl tend to forget just how angry Kitay is in the series, and how he's not just "smart mouth big brain soft boy". Like, he nearly went insane in the series, ffs he killed Niang and burned Rin with a candle. He only has remorse for civilians, none for people he already has beef with.
AND AS FOR RIN, I'm a little disappointed with how many times her rage is played off as "eheh, cute lil tsundere bad at feelings". It's nice, especially in a modern au/no war au, I'm not saying I dislike that sort of thing, it can be very cute if done correctly. But there just isn't much about how genuinely angry she is, how she literally lost her mind. I want to see more of her just being full of actual rage and visceral hurt, and not in the "gentle sobbing" way, in the "screaming at the sun brutal murder tearing the room to shreds" way. I just feel like ppl write her as too calm and gentle sometimes.
IN CONCLUSION, these two are literally tortured to the point of insanity and there's not a lot written about that. THEY DESERVE TO BE MAD, because anger was the only thing keeping them going and it got them into terrible situations too.
This is not a surprise, I literally made a post back then in September-October when I first saw this episode. So I'm not going to elaborate as much as with others, also the thing that make this episode so special not something that I myself fully get, words elude me with this one. So let’s say I love it just because.
I think whe all know and love this scene, this moment when Tina reach to Louise when no one else could cause this is their big sister, and many can say that she don’t get most things but she get her siblings and she’s gonna be with them even if Louise said is not necessary even if they don't mention it, cause she wants to be there with them cause is important. All this while the most beautiful song interpreted by Genie Beanie plays in the back, wrapping everything together, cause yeah even if is mostly Tina and Louise, Gene is there, always there. They are the Belcher kids, the best siblings in the world.
And by the way I want a standing ovation for mah baby bean, cause they save that night for everyone in that auditorium. He is a real musical genius, he can think outside the box and find solutions and his heart is full of music, music that they know and understand despite what everyone says. when Bob look at Gene while they play, like he’s the most amazing person he has ever seen, is cause he is.
This episode is full of quite moments, silent and intimate moments that convey such strong warming and familiar emotions. Is a hug for the heart, like the serie itself.
And I don't want to forget Bob and Linda, they're just the greatest parents in the world, no one is doing it like them.
I truly love this episode deeply. This is the one that got me crying every time.
just watched a bunch of Cut's Truth or Drink videos and it's making me want to read a ted lasso fic where they do it as a team building exercise (being open and honest and vulnerable all that)
thiam is really beautiful. two boys tormented by their demons and past, filled with trauma, who have been abused and mistreated, but eventually manage to love each other beyond the outside and what people think. the beauty and the monster. defects and qualities. the successes and the mistakes. they accept each other for who they really are and not how people want them to be. how is this not pure beauty and true love???????
Happy birthday, Kazuichi Souda. Love my bestest, most pathetic boi to death.
I think a lot of my friends think of him as a simp type of character and he really is. But I also love how much of a vulnerable and emotional person he really is. He’s such a crybaby and I really find that valuable in a male character to connect to. I think more guys who uncomfortable and struggling with themselves need to see that that’s okay. That it’s hard to have trust in other people, but that it’s also okay to put your passion out there too even if you’re scared.
I have a lot of feelings about this character. While he’s mostly a character that comedy is directed at, I still really related too much to his emotional center and struggle. He’s one of the characters in Danganronpa that I just really… felt things about. Even before Chiaki or Nagito.
I don't know if this is just a thing in most online breed communities or what, but the English Cocker groups are obsessed with feeding raw and pushing raw and home-cooked and what not.
When I was really into the Silken Windhound groups when we thought we might get one, they were the same. Big raw pushers. I will say that I don't really see it in the many Mudi groups I'm in. There's a higher population of Europeans in those though, so I do wonder if the raw obsession is a really North American thing and that's why? Or it just varies by breed? Oh especially because different breeds draw different people? (ie ECS have a lot of older white women)