#pop theory

[mythicmemex]

There's something of Persephone in every pop princess, but Britney embodies it most purely: the eternal maiden dancing on the edge of darkness. The world wants its pop goddesses innocent and dangerous at once, sweet and sultry, controlled and wild. They must live in that liminal space between innocence and knowledge, like a pomegranate seed caught between teeth. The public eye becomes our modern underworld. The pop princess dances between realms, seen by the world as neither fully mortal nor divine.

[dickotomia]

YouTubers making music seems like something that would never work, and it has in fact failed 99% of the time, the one exception being Troye Sivan whose debut album, Blue Neighbourhood (2015), remains an underrated masterpiece of alt-synthpop, being both expansive in its sound, which almost anticipates the rise of glitchpop in the later half of the decade, and a premier example of contemporary pop concept albums in the vein of Lorde's Melodrama or Lana del Rey's Normal Fucking Rockwell! In this essay I will...

[anoraktrend]

[Pop-Theoretician of Popular Musics]

Once in a lifetime may or may not be about a man who’s committing suicide after something causes him to become delusional. The diagnosis is delusional misidentification syndrome. To be clear, I’m not a psychologist, and I don’t think that a song is enough to make a diagnosis, despite my wacky framing device I’m using to talk about this syndrome. Because I’m not trying to misrepresent these delusions or this syndrome, I’m going to explain a little bit because most people probably aren’t aware of what Delusional misidentification syndrome is, or why someone might think this song is from the point of view of someone who is experiencing one of the delusions.

Delusional misidentification syndrome is an umbrella diagnosis for a group of delusions that all involve a belief that the identity of a person, object, or place has somehow changed or has been altered, however there are two particular delusions within the that may be going on here. Reduplicative paramnesia, and the Capgras Delusion. I’ll try to explain the Capgras Delusion first, and the evidence in the song before it. The most commonly known delusion of the syndrome is the Capgras delusion. The Capgras delusion is the belief that someone close to you has been replaced with an imposter. This belief can be intense and the patient may be aggressive and/or violent towards the individual who they believe to be an imposter. Verse 2’s “You may tell yourself, “This isn’t my beautiful wife.””Followed by Verse 4’s “And you may say to yourself, “My God! What have I done?”” May suggest that the narrator killed his wife, thinking in the previous line “am I right or am I wrong” about whether the person he killed was an imposter. The Capgras delusion can sometimes be induced temporarily by taking the drug Ketamine. Which is why it might only held the mind of the narrator briefly.

Another delusion the narrator might have is reduplicative paramnesia. This delusion is the belief that a familiar person, place, object, or body part has been duplicated, and that the patient is interacting only with the duplicate, or that they are from a fantastical or exotic location. “This is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife” and “What is that beautiful house?” The house may still be seen as a duplicate, but as previously described, the aggression towards the duplicate wife has lessened. This delusion is unfortunately more permanent.

Reduplicative paramnesia is more widely studied, and we even know a possible reason why it occurs. Modern theories tend to point towards the disorder being caused by disruption to the brain systems involved in memory and familiarity, particularly impaired visuospatial perception and visual memory due to damage to the right side of the brain. Recent research broadly supports this view, and one case study suggested a refined explanation, that damage to the ventral stream to the visual system is to blame. Something else might have permanently damaged the ventral stream of the narrator, causing him to be permanently stuck in this particular delusion.

[elder-dwarf]

HUNTR/X outfits

I love the attention to detail in the outfits for Golden and What It Sounds Like.

The outfits are a representation of what they are feeling. For example:

When Golden is first released Rumi has the most black on her outfit. It’s a physical representation of the shame she has. Zoey and Mira have less shame than Rumi, therefore less black.

But…

As the movie continues the more shame everyone starts to have. HUNTR/X is being torn apart and we see how that is affecting each of them through the amount of black in their clothing.

But that all changes at the end.

When Rumi, Zoey and Mira finally accept their faults and let go of their shame they didn’t have any black clothing, despite wearing it moments ago.

And that also explains why the Demons always wear black. Just like Jinu said, all they feel is their shame.

[ughhhdavid]

[brionbroadway]

there are two wolves inside you. one is sad that junior year is ending. the other can't wait to know what the fuck never stop blowing up is.

[jarlskona-evilyoyo]

Listen you can have Rumi be a top in your fics all you want, and I can even believe it a LITTLE bit, but there is no way in god’s green earth that she’s calling anyone a slut. I don’t care how much Zoey might want her too— she’s incapable of any kind of dirty talk.

[yak-leather-whips]

Guys, its not some fucking “bad luck devil” or whatever. It’s clearly this fucking time gargler or whatever the fuck that’s behind all this nonsense. Aguefort literally lays it out for us that the quangle makes things happen out of order. Things like, say…Zelda and Gorgug being broken up even though we know from the Seven that they’re still together in Junior year, or Aelwyn suddenly moving out and going from a snarky 19 year old whose never had a job or gone to college to a middle school teacher with 5 cats in the course of 3 months, or the sophomore album being 10 months late even though Fig only finished her debut a little over 16 months ago AND they were in the middle of the tour, or Hallariel and Gilear getting engaged after like a year when 3 months ago Gilear wasn’t even allowed to sleep in her bed, and Sklonda defending one of the organizers of this folk festival when the festival hasn’t even happened yet, or Figs birthday suddenly moving from Christmas to July.

[screwpinecaprice]

Oh oof I slipped and hit them with dark and serious beam. 😣

[dandelionjack]

> new series release (space babies) coincided with the uk seeing the northern lights for the first time in years

> the devil’s chord coincided with paul mccartney’s long-missing hofner bass guitar being found, by a doctor who fan no less

> boom coincided with an actual meteor crash

> 73 yards is coinciding with a rise in bizarre supposedly-occult animal sacrifice rituals in britain (the folk horror part) and rishi sunak finally calling a general election (the political drama part)

> hypothesis: russell t davies has somehow managed to tune in to the universe’s divine frequency ??

> conclusion: messing with the forces of fate, cause&effect and coincidence, even if it’s for the pop culture franchise you’re showrunning, actually turns it into an egregore, but only if it’s been going for long enough (sixty fucking years to the dot) and watched by enough people (tens of millions). which it has

> ergo, postscriptum: television magick is real and is being unintentionally performed by the creators + audience of the world’s silliest science fiction show

> /jk. unless?

[neunhofferart]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING TO THE JURASSIC WORLD CHAOS THEORY SEASON 3 STORYBOARD ARTIST STREAM!

We had a blast getting some of the crew back together for a fun afternoon of showing off storyboards and madly sketching all the characters we love. Hope you enjoy looking through the chaos!

Finished magma studio boards + detail shots below:

Participating storyboard artists included @tio-trile, @kngstr, @natamouche-art, @dakooftacos, Natalie Ryubal, Shelby Peake, Ben Holm, Toniko Pantoja, Fernando Caire, myself, and one of our episodic directors Dan Forgione!

If you missed any parts of the stream or would just like to rewatch the VOD, you can check it out here! (And you totally should cause we show off everyone's boards all in one place and talk about em)!

[indecisivekatz]

DAY 1 OF KPOP DEMON HUNTER ANALYSIS!: Analysing the Costume Designs in KPop Demon Hunters And Subtle Visual Storytelling Before it Releases

Oh yes, you heard me right-- I've only got this theory and another one in the works, but I might think of some other things to hyperanalyse eventually!!

(Contains potential spoilers for the movie!!)

And warning, as my inner analyst comes out, and I start speaking both formal and casual back and forth-- XD Andd-- I uhh, I'm sorta writing this in one go, so if I start repeating myself, I'm sorry lol XD

The Starting Stage Outfits:

Something I really loved about the HUNTR/X's design is how they balanced looking both uniform and unique! And you can REALLY see that with their outfits at what I'm pretty sure is the beginning of the movie.

I like how they establish Rumi as being different to Mira and Zoey (more on this soon), as they put all their yellow around their lower parts of their designs, whilst Rumi keeps it to her jacket.

I especially love how the designers chose purple for Rumi's hair as it's almost complimentary on the colour wheel against the yellows of her jacket, so there's a really high contrast of colours in her design which again, helps her stand out from the two. She seems to have a more rectangular shape in her design (the jacket, the short pants, the bulky platform boots), and rectangles have often been associated with 'sturdiness'. And judging what we've heard about Rumi, this matches her perfectionist personality.

It's interesting that her hair is the one thing that's not 'rectangular', but it still matches her perfectionist personality as it's super high up (which can at times be uncomfortable). Hair symbolism is a lot of fun- but I'm getting ahead of myself, I swear I'll come back to this later on in the post.

Zoey's outfit features very baggy trousers, which goes well with her round buns. Round shapes are often associated with 'good' characters and safety. In this case, I'm pretty sure it captures her fun goofy personality. She's also different from Rumi and Mira who both sport boots. She instead wears sneakers, which potentially indicates that she values comfort over what's aesthetically pleasing. This theory is further corroborated by how she's the only one of the two who hasn't dyed her hair (assuming she wasn't a brown haired aha).

Mira on the other hand has a "very sharp" (not super sharp honestly, but noticeable enough) design with the sharp half pigtails in her hair and sharp sidebangs in her fringe. Her skirt has a very triangular sharp which further exacerbates her sharp design, and whereas Rumi has much bulkier boots (which I assume would be easier to walk in, but don't quote me, sneakers all the way lol), she wears "pointed" boots (not the sharp ended kinda ones you see in high-heel pumps). I think this is indicative of her seemingly more harsh personality...? We haven't seen too much of these girls, so I can't be too sure about this note lol.

A little crumb of a much bigger theory I'm going to talk about, but I also like how Mira and Zoey have black in their tops, whereas Rumi wears white. Once again, making her stand out.

The HUNTR/X's Awards Outfits

So this one I can't really talk about without getting into my bigger theory but, the there's more shape language in this with the 'belts' for the girls! Zoey's got these half-round jewellery (??) stuff that connect her belt. Whereas Mira's got a long fabric knot thingy (I'm sorry I don't know the name 😭) which kindaaa calls to her triangular shape language.

Honestly, Rumi's is the most obvious one, with her rectangular belt.

(EDIT: These outfits are not to be confused with these ones

because if I acknowledge this version of their outfits, everything I'm about to say will be undone- LOL XD)

Pyjamas:

Nothing too much to note, but I love how Mira and Zoey both have purple in their pyjamas, indicating what might likely be a subconscious show of their love and respect for Rumi.

Okay, onto our favourite bad boy band:

The Saja Boys:

On Wednesdays, we wear pink yellow. Except if you're Jinu--

I'M SORRY- there's not much I can really analyse since we don't know too much about these boys. But I find it interesting how these guys copied the HUNTR/X by all of them (except Jinu) wear yellow + pink together what I assume to be their public debut.

Love that Jinu's the only one who didn't dye his hair. I like to think he tricked the other four into thinking he was going to dye it, but then backed out immediately after the others did it. "Actually, as the leader of this team, I don't need to dye my hair. It.... uhh- makes me stand out. Yeah!"

Saja Boys After Watching Mean Girls

Jinu finally got the memo that you need to MATCH your bandmates.

Nothing TOO much to say just that if you look carefully Jinu's shirt patterns have got a tiger stripe design! These guys aren't very subtle.

Notice how now suddenly, the boys are all wearing pink... they're starting to all look the same in terms of uniform. But hey, there's still some distinction in their outfit styles!

The Boys After Watching Wednesday ON Wednesday:

Nothing too much to say again (this one is likely gonna be saved for my next theory in a different post), but their tiger markings are starting to show off in their outfits!

"Okay, it looks like our fans don't we care if we're demon-looking, so long as we're hot and can sing enough, they'll love us regardless lol":

Notice how now these guys are completely uniform, and they now kinda lose their individuality (apart from their hair WHICH, mind you is mostly covered by their hats).

I really like how what I'm pretty sure is going to be their final outfits in the battle, they're all pretty much the same. Any of their personalities in their outfits are just gone. It's likely that it's not considered important to them anymore, since they think they're gonna win.

It's really noticeable in the trailer how when they're in their Jeoseung Saja fits, they're really unindistinguishable for each other, especially in the dark.

It could indicate the Saja Boys' way of thinking, a more 'collective mind' sorta thing. Maybe they put aside some of their own wants and desires in pursuit of pleasing whoever the Big Bad is. (assuming Jinu isn't. And let's be real, it likely isn't him). Isn't it suspicious how we don't have any of the other Saja Boys names but Jinu? Maybe they're all gonna go nameless until the very end of the film.

We all know that identity is going to be one of the main themes of Kpop Demon Hunters, so for the Saja Boys to slowly strip themselves of their identities in favour of unity is really interesting!

THEORY TERRITORY:

Okay now we're into the meat of this post. The part I was the most excited to write for and decided to make this entire post on a dime.

So there's this theory floating around that SPOILERSSS! LAST CHANCE!!

Rumi might possibly be a demon! Or half! And I'm not gonna go into all these specifics about that, since plenty of people have already done that buttt- It's been noted that Rumi tends to cover her arms and neck with her outfits, which is pretty visually obvious ^^

So you know how I mentioned hair symbolism? I think the fact that Rumi has her hair up in a high braided ponytail, it's supposed to symbolise how 'trapped' she is in trying to make herself look utterly perfect. The hairstyle is very likely painful (it looks kind of tight) but it stops her hair from running wild everywhere. Just like how Rumi might be trying to hold back on being her true self.

But you know what's not too visually obvious? The OTHER ways Rumi's character outfits are always just slightly different to the other girls. Let's bring back those outfits again!

This could be coughed up to how Rumi is the leader and therefore, she must always have her outfit be different to the other girls, but I find it very intriguing how it's around the upper area, which is where Rumi always hides her skin the most (potentially due to having demonic marks there), is where she always seems to differentiate from the other girls.

And in this set of outfits case, not only is Rumi the only one wearing white compared to the other girls who wear black on their shirts, but she's the only one wearing the yellow in that area too!

Although, we do see a hint of black on her jacket!

We see this again in their awards outfits:

Notice how Mira and Zoey both wear black shirts, whilst Rumi wears a white shirt?? And how she's the only one with a black jacket. Again, this could possibly just to help her stand out. But I'm wondering if it's symbolic of how she's got a 'good' heart deep inside, but her 'outside' nature as potentially being a demon distracts from that.

And I think there's something to be said about Mira and Zoey having white on the outside, but black on the inside too! Perhaps it's symbolic of how they too are struggling too with appearances, though in their case it's more metaphorical. They want to appear perfect on the outside, but deep down, they have all these 'imperfections' which they consider to be bad, so they do their best to hide them with the white (perfection).

Alternatively, the black could be symbolic of their lives as Hunters. Rumi believes her job as a hunter to be everything, hence why she has a black jacket, it's all consuming her, wrapping itself against her tightly. Whereas with the girls, it's more of their 'inner selfs' and they're a bit more comfortable with it....? If I'm making any sense.

Now this one is really interesting. (I know I've said interesting like a hundred times already) Notice how when the girls first see the Saja Boys, Rumi is all consumed in pink, which is what I'm pretty sure is the Saja Boy's theme colour. And this time, Rumi's covered in black alongside the pink. And she's once again, visually separated from Mira and Zoey who both wear white.

And hey, Rumi's not the only one who does this sorta stuff! Jinu, the leader of the Saja Boys (a fun foil in designs), whilst not as obviously, also differentiates himself from the group. He's the only one who doesn't initially match the Saja Boys in their supposed debut. And if not for Abs Saja (believe me, I'm going to get into that guy next time!!!) he'd be the only one wearing short sleeves, actively promoting his demonic marks in comparison to Rumi who distracts everyone with her big hair (vs Jinu's natural hair colour) and covers her upper body up (verse Jinu who doesn't wear long sleeves)

Anyway, there might be more I have to say, so I may end up editing this later on, but I hope y'all enjoyed the analysis XD AND- I may end up making a following post to this when the movie comes out!

Stay tuned next time for when I talk about why Abs Saja both hates and admires Jinu.... yes, that's actually the next theory coming.

[poprocksriot]

Gonna throw out a crazy theory. Almost certainly not true but it could be interesting.

What if Ragatha and Jax are siblings and don't remember?

Sounds stupid but hear me out.

We both know they have backgrounds with farms. Ragatha flat out gave her backstory living on a ranch and Gooseworx has hinted at Jax living on a farm with her reasoning of him being afraid of corn coming from it reminding him of "the farm." In addition, she confirmed he has mulch in his front pocket. So they both come from a farm background.

Next comes the parenting issues. Ragatha obviously had a messed up mom. We don't know a lot about Jax, but we do know after she finished talking about her mom, he briefly looked upset:

Maybe he just feels bad for her, but I think it's more likely that he can relate to her in that way.

The next part that shows he also had a questionable past has been mentioned by many others. He mentioned his mom was into hunting and his avatar is a rabbit. It could be a throwaway line that was put in just to explain why he was good at hunting, but knowing Gooseworx, it probably had significance.

This whole thing is just kind of rambley, but it is interesting that both Ragatha and Jax grew up in similar situations with similar moms. Could they be siblings? Quite possible. We don't know how much Caine messes with their minds and he could have made them forget. Perhaps Jax noticed his sister was missing and went looking for her and ended up in the Circus.

Whatever the case may be, there's an obvious connection between the two that Gooseworx is trying to show. Maybe she just wants us to see how they're opposites. But they seem a little too similar for that to be the case.

[negative-speedforce]

K-Pop Demon Hunters theory bingo!

Feel free to download and play, or make your own!

[aracariwren]

fourth anniversary of switch Miitopia! hooray!

[omegathenook]

I’ve got a theory:

What if the outfits Huntrix wore in the climax implies they magically transformed into these outfits when their feelings align?

(Please do a sailor moon reference Mother Maggie)