#btw the binary code just spells out “code.”

[casualshrimp-but-undertale]

here’s my entry for @callmeherry’s dtiys (congrats on 800 followers!!! yippee!!!)

honestly, i found some new brushes and i tested them out on this. i love them, and will be using them again for sure hehehe

by the way, i noticed his vest was supposed to be off the shoulder way too late… so sorry for that. o~o��

[quillyfied]

Because it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to, here’s a detailed list of the things I love and don’t love about the Wheel of Time series so far (starting with I LOVE how jam-packed each episode is, makes them seem so much longer than an hour, but also I DO NOT LOVE that they’re releasing them in three-episode chunks, how DARE they force me to go back to waiting for weekly episodes like some kind of 90s peasant). Needless to say, this will be chock-full of spoilers for both the TV show and the book series, so approach at your own risk.

Things I love:

- The CASTING. Everyone is doing so well and I can’t think of a single cast member who isn’t pulling their weight to make this an incredible production, even the background characters (Dana the Darkfriend in ep3 in particular was sparkling, adored her performance from beginning to end). They all work so well together and are great at the delicate moments of tension and the larger gestures of conflict and comradery too.

- The music. It’s so not what I thought it was going to be but the folksy guitar and the dark drama of it really compliment the series. I have mixed feelings about the look of it so far—it all looks amazing, especially the costuming and the locations, but also it just feels like a vague gritty grey-brown dark drama when the books never felt that way to me. They were at least a more vibrant and colorful gritty drama, but we’ll probably have to wait until we get out of the wilderness and into Robert Jordan’s excessive descriptions of everyone’s outfits and dresses and jewels for that.

- Channeling! It’s got a little bit of an ATLA vibe, which I’m into, and is an impressive ethereal visual for the amounts of power Moiraine is handling while fighting Trollocs (who look AMAZING btw, so unsettling). The way they’re describing it and handling it as opposed to the books is interesting too, though it’s early so we’ll have to see how exactly they’re doing it. The show hasn’t gone into how there are two halves to the One Power, and how the threads of Power they make into weaves that become spells are elemental-based, but that might still be a bit much for this early in the series (or at all; the elemental-based threads are also tied a bit into the binary gender split of the One Power, with women being more proficient with air and water and men with earth and fire and both with spirit, so if they’re getting rid of the gender differential it would make sense to also further simplify and get rid of the elemental threads, too. Saves them the trouble of color-coding the threads, which, while cool and also possibly tying into the EXCEPTIONAL opening sequence with the Pattern being woven so chaotically, would take up more animation time. Though we do also lose a bit of what makes Nynaeve such a powerful and exceptional channeler and why she’s Rand’s first choice in helping him cleanse the male half of the One Power, but it’s been three episodes, can’t tell what all is being written off yet this early in the game). We just get Liandrin’s badass and creepy monologue right before she Gentles Logain, hinting at the taint on the Power that comes from men touching it. Are they doing away with the gendered halves of the Power? Are they introducing it later, when Egwene enters the White Tower? WHO KNOWS?? I’m excited to find out, because already changing up the gendered role of the Dragon (or at least the expectation surrounding it) from the books is a change I can get behind.

- How the Emond’s Field villagers start fighting back against the Trollocs. The Old Blood runs strong in the mountains, indeed. Listen there were many times when I just started crying bc I was so excited and pleased with what was happening, and that moment when Daise Congar picks up a pitchfork and the villagers join her in stabbing a Trolloc to death was incredible. Y’know, side note, I also love how the show is taking the challenged gender roles from the books and just augmenting it—they’re doing a delicate dance with the gendered nature of the magic system but in everything else, it’s very clear that gender doesn’t mean much (meaning, women aren’t oppressed or subjected to sexualized violence on the same level as other fantasy series and this was true in the books as well—such a wealth of complex and nuanced female characters equal with the nuanced and complex male characters. And somehow they’re doing it MORE in the show. Incredible. And! AND! Introducing normalized queerness much earlier!! FANTASTIC).

And now, for the things I don’t quite love:

- Perrin’s wife. Okay, I’ve mostly worked through this and found my way back to being content to see where it goes, but introducing a completely new character, Laila, as his wife, and then having him accidentally kill her, did NOT sit right with me at first. Felt too close to fridging, in a series that really didn’t need it or benefit from it. However, after talking to some other folks, I’m making my peace with it and the possible implications it could have on the plot later when Perrin’s book wife Faile shows up in fixing a lot of the problems I had with what their relationship goes through in the books. My only persistent complaint is that they introduced Laila but then we didn’t get much time with her at all beyond a sense that she’s awkward, a relentless fighter, probably loved Perrin but had a hard time verbalizing it, and was friends with Perrin’s friends too. Idk she seemed cool but we didn’t get enough time with her for her death to be as impactful as it could have been. (Also it just hit me last night while trying to fall asleep that the “I know” that Laila whispers in Perrin’s nightmare echoes the “I know” she says after Perrin tells her he loves her and THERE’S an added layer of sadness I didn’t need, thanks WOT Prime.) Also it’s a little weird to keep bringing up her name in connection with Nynaeve’s as people they lost during the Trolloc attack because it felt heavy-handed in trying to remind the audience of this rando side character we should also feel sad about losing; Mat’s little monologue about the knife Laila made him and giving it to Perrin had much more impact in getting us to retroactively get to know her and like her more. For book fans, anyway, who would already have an emotional connection to Perrin and feel for him, Laila is a discordant note. I’ll live with it, I’m curious to see where it goes, but I’m not particularly pleased about it either.

- Rand and Egwene’s relationship. Like. Okay. Okay. I get why they had Rand and Egwene sleeping together. I just don’t like it. Also taking Aviendha’s cheeky little “I heard men fall asleep afterwards bc they’re lazy” comment from the books after she and Rand hook up (Rand’s actual first time, I want it known, several books in) was a nice callback but giving it to Egwene and Rand…eugh. I’m sorry, I’m forever attached to the books’ choice of Rand and Egwene having, like, cute little kid crushes on each other and how that relationship between them morphs as they leave home and meet new people and gain new experiences until they finally have to have the awkward “I know in another life we would have gotten married and been happy but now, I no longer have a crush on you, sorry dude, let’s be good friends instead” talk. I get what the show is going for, building the tension between them to something more hard-hitting and emotional as their relationship falls apart, but (and maybe this is the asexual perspective in me speaking) I don’t think they needed to have sex to accomplish that. I’m forever grateful we didn’t get the full scene of it, though, THAT is a vibe I want to stick around because it’s my favorite part of the books, how there’s no sex scenes, just fade to black moments. Sex is normal and part of adult life but that doesn’t mean I want to watch it happen, personally!

- The language. Okay, yeah, I get it, the language they use in the books would sound silly out loud and might not fit with the blood and gore of the world, but that’s another thing I preferred from the books, how we had this complex adult world but without copious swears and sex. And to be frank, having the words most used being piss, prick, shit, and bastard fits, and bitch, but the first time someone throws the C word in there I’m going to have to pause and take a minute to sigh and massage my head because I really don’t think the Wheel of Time world NEEDED that. I just disagree on a visceral level that you need sex and strong language to convey that this is a Serious Adult Fantasy World. People are getting eaten alive by minotaur-like creatures with human eyes and beast faces and the violence is only going to get more bloody and more creative as the stakes and the powers get higher and higher, that’s pretty adult on its own tbh. (And please keep in mind these are just my own personal preferences, I’m a wimpy baby and know for a fact that if I didn’t love the books so much that the violence would be way too much for me to stomach and continue watching, bc there’s a huge difference between reading it and seeing/hearing it, yknow? But. Love the books. Want to see where the show is going. So I’ll suck it up.)

- Mat’s backstory and family changing. Just seems unnecessary tbh. I get that his parents being dysfunctional drunks gives him more reason to want to go back and protect his sisters and causes more plot drama but it also seems like a change made to just make it grittier and I don’t appreciate that in the slightest. Idk, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have the Emond’s Field Five all come from good, healthy homes, and from my refresher on the WOT Wiki, I completely forgot that Abell Cauthon is up there with Tam al’Thor on list of Good Concerned Dads (Who Are Also Proficient At Weapons), and it SUCKS to lose that in favor of Mat, renowned gambler and drinker and tail-chaser, come from a broken home wherein his dad is a renowned gambler, drinker, and tail-chaser giving his mother ten kinds of grief. While we’re on the subject of changing backstories again, Nynaeve kinda got Rand’s backstory a bit, didn’t she? And Rand never learned that he was adopted while dragging his injured father through Trolloc-infested woods. Look I GET IT they’re going to change things from the books, but why change these particular things tho XD It’s only been three episodes, I’m sure their reasons will become clear in time, but for now…blegh it’s different I don’t like it weh weh weh.

Overall I think we’re getting a labor of love and devotion (…and apparently a casting change for Mat come Season 2?? Why???), which comes through in every aspect and soothes over a lot of the stuff about it I’m not enjoying much, and I’m excited to see more!

[jaymber]

Dismay Phase 1: Observation

I'm stuck in a train for three hours, so I decided to put together all the notes from this first week of Dismay. This is our notes as a community btw, not only mine, meaning I will update this post if I missed anything. Be free to add theories, notes, analysis,...

May 18 - May 20

These three days don't have to count as Dismay. These are the first days the Discord Server was created, and open to everyone. We discover the server, its many chatrooms. We get familiarized with its system, the mods, and the community. Four waves happen, without much happening, but on the theorists' den, questions are already being asked. By the end of this week, theories have already been made.

Notes:

Anti's name shouldn't be pronounced in there, at any time

Assume the ones in power are watching you, always

This is the main platform for the ARG (augmented reality game) Seán and the mods have planned for us

Theories:

This is Anti's server. We fell for his trap and have now become his puppets unknowningly

Anti took over the server. He wasn't supposed to be here but found his way in somehow

The mods are puppets guided by Anti

The mods are a protection between us and Anti. When they're gone, he can take over

May 21

The first part of Observation is uploaded. We quickly see that something is wrong. The glitches are back. They grow in intensity until Jack disappears. We have been warned another Egopocalypse has come.

Theories:

Bring her

Anti kidnapped Stacy

Anti kidnapped one of Chase's or Schneep's daughter

Pronouns aren't important. This is about Chase/all the egos

Outro

The symbols at the end hides a message [DEAD END]

Someone took Jack's chair

Someone took Jack away to protect him

Marvin used his magic to make him disappear

This is just an Easter egg to reveal to us what's the JCU will be about

Later that day or night, something happened on the Discord Server. The egos appeared as bots on a chatroom with a cryptic name which was translated to WATCHING. BoobyDoopy is the first to react, followed by all the egos.

Notes:

The bots were controlled manually. Seán couldn't type this fast, the mods helped

Chase can't see

All the egos know something's wrong, but Chase

Only Chase and Schneep talk to each other

Schneep asks what happened, not what's happening

JJ still can't talk

Theories:

Marvin is the one to delete the chatroom

Chase woke up Jack, deleting the chatroom

Chase thought BoopyDoopy was Jack

Schneep stopped Chase from waking Jack

Schneep knows something no one else does

JBM has disappeared for the last year to hide from us and Anti

The chat is vocal, that's why JJ can't communicate

Someone is holding JJ's words back

BoopyDoopy is Anti, asking the mods (puppets) to do something

BoopyDoppy's Jack, he genuinely can't see what's going on

Chase can't see because of the blood in his eyes

All the egos are in the same room but Chase and Schneep

The egos represent the wise monkeys:

See no Evil = Chase (can't see)

Speak no Evil = Jameson Jackson (can't talk)

Hear no Evil = Marvin (most blue-eyed white cats are deaf)

Do no Evil = Jackieboy Man (superhero)

"Smell" no Evil = Schneep (can't tell evil from good)

Evil = Anti

May 22

This day is the beginning of the two videos per day. First FNAF VR, then Observation part 2. In the first, a minor glitch and a number: 101610, a hint quite handed to us.

Theories:

This is a hint to Anti's first appearance (Oct. 10, 2016)

Time is so broken that Jack can’t tell the difference between days, months and years (10/16/10, not 10/10/16)

With the color alphabet and rearranged, it spells CHASE

Seán's colorblind and with the only green letter being 6, this is part of a binary code (10110) [DEAD END]

This is too obvious to be a clue, just some fanservice or Anti making sure we'll watched and speak of him

In Observation, Jack comes back after disappearing with a glitch. The outro is him building up tension until a shadow appears.

Notes:

The shadow is reminiscent of Anti's appearance in Dark Silence

The siren is heard

Jack acts as if the outro of part 1 didn't happen

Theories:

Anti took Jack's place

Another ego took Jack's place, angering Anti

Yet another glimpse at what the JCU will look like

Observation takes place during or after Dark Silence or Exiles

May 23

The first video of the day didn't have much to theorize. The ending gave a little Quit the Game to Win vibe, but Seán could've also just wanted to thank us.

The next part of Observation, however, is much more interesting. All happened during the outro. First, we can hear Jack says that "it's all coming together". Then, we can see Jack glitch, get pixelated and get divided or cloned, telling us “Time is Broken”. Finally, a robotic voice tells us they’re "here". In the tags, we can find "keep watching".

Notes:

His eyes turn brown during some frames

Jack has his eyes closed and under a red light during others

Both Jacks merge into one

Theories:

Anti and Jack are becoming one

There are multiple timelines, we're not always watching the same Jack

The eyes means JJ has taken over

Multiple egos run the channel now, not just Chase

The egos are Jack divided in multiple timelines

The break of time is affecting Jack and/or Anti

May 24

So many things happened that day. First, the fifth Discord wave started, adding 800 people to the server. Then, a second video of FNAF was uploaded, the outro consisted of a glitched Jack, emiting a long groan.

Notes:

The sound resembles the one in Exiles, only longer

These are new glitches, not the style we've been used to

Jack's skin is paler than usual

We can't tell the color of his eyes

Jack is partly divided during some frames

Theories:

Jack is waking up, Anti can't control him anymore

Jack is dying, Anti is slowly forced out of his body

Jack is dying, Anti hopes we'll save him so he can keep using him

Jack's braindead

The sound is Jack trying to talk through his slit throat

Schneep and/or Marvin have trapped Anti within Jack's body to either protect the egos or save Jack from dying. Anti's escaping

The egos are fighting to control Jack. Without an ego in control, Jack cannot move

Then comes the second upload and what happened during the video on Discord. Let's talk about the video first, then the server.

A glitched happened when Emma talked about the place being "compressed". A green glitch, something we're used to. In the outro, we saw Jack taking about his theories for the game before glitching and restarting the game. The last seconds are the first seconds of Observation - Part 1. There's a loop.

Notes:

The first frame of Observation - Part 1 can be while Jack’s still glitching

Jack's eyes are brown during the glitching

The last seconds glitch as well, the first seconds of Observation part 1 don't.

Theories:

Anti's playing the game. He's stuck in a loop, hence why he hates circles

The egos are all stuck in a loop

Someone is forcing Jack into the loop

We're in Jack's head, who can only remember so much before his memories loop

On Discord, when we were all watching the video, something happened. Jack's pfp changed, then turned into a gif. His role got zalgoed. Then, all the pfp of the mods changed, turned black, before all their names simply read ???. They sent cryptic messages on the panic chatroom, sending emotes and asking us if we were happy. Then, they all disappeared, only remained the community and a glitched BoopyDoopy. It lasted an hour, before all came back to normal but for Seán's pfp which had changed. The mods don't remember anything happening.

Notes:

Mod Lauralie was the last to glitched, the last to reappear as well;

Some people might have glitched as well. This isn't part of the ARG. The mods have asked to refrain from copying their actions in the future.

Theories:

The emotes were a code [DEAD END]

Each mod is an ego. Lauralie is Chase

BoopyDoopy is Anti. The mods are Anti's puppets

Anti took over and "kidnapped" the mods

The mods are protecting us from Anti

The mods became one, they merged together and could've merged with BoopyDoopy as well

May 25

Today. There's a stream coming up. We'd better keep watching.

More theories:

The titles of the Observation playlist is a conversation between the egos

Something is incredibly wrong here... (Marvin)

There’s someone else here! (JBM)

No, it’s not possible... (Schneep)

There’s no going back now! (anyone)

The Discord shenanigans don't mean much yet, they're a test to see our reaction and act accordingly later. Same goes for this entire week

Tell me if I missed anything ;)

[parkyooni]

Everyone is talking about the various glitches in bts videos (btw I think they were confirmed to be the fault of youtube itself. But I still find them extremely weird). Which I agree, are weird but aren‘t as weird as the codes that probably most of you have already seen. 6 members have an encoded instagram account. It seems that only taehyung doesn‘t have one. Every account has an encoded bio. The code is called binary (it‘s a basic coding language). When you try to translate the binary codes that’s what you get.

1)      chxm.chxm_ (Jimin)  START GAME

2)      n0chuu_ (Jeongguk) Level 1

3)      mang_hobb (Hoseok) Level 2

4)      sh00ky_ (Yoongi)  Level 3

5)      k0ya_rm (Namjoon) Level 4

6)      rj_gn (Seokjin) Level 5

They all follow each other. However, only Yoongi follows additional 3 accounts and seems that one of them is Taehyung (tata_vui); his account displays a photo with words „GAME OVER“. Every account has posted photos with unreadable codes. A few that are decodable and some that I have no idea what they mean. For example, one photo on Taehyung‘s account has a binary code „ 01000001 01000010 01010010 01000001 01011000 01000001 01010011“ which translated means „ABRAXAS“

Abraxas is a word of mystic meaning. There are many explanations of what it can mean but as I was reading through I came across something that send shivers down my spine „The seven letters spelling its name may represent each of the seven classic planets.“ Maybe it has some kind of connection with time traveling that seems to be the main theory of the MV‘s. Whatever Abraxas is connected with, it‘s placed here for a reason.

But let‘s start from the beginning:

1) Jimin – START GAME.

I managed to decode these things: Kookie is 9 The universe has moved for us 4 September 16

Besides these codes, there are also a few that seems to be random number sequences or dates (I tried to look for the dates on bts youtube channel but I couldn‘t find any that corresponded) However, probably the most interesting hint is the message: 

무서워, 나는이 순간 위험에 처해있다. 얘들 아, 나는 Fejl에 가입하는 것이 좋지 않을 것이라고 말했다... 우리는 지금 무엇을 할 것인가? @n0chuu_ @mang_hobb @k0ya_rm @rj_gn @sh00ky_ (trans: I am afraid, I am in danger at this moment. Guys, I said it would be bad to join Fejl ... what will we do now? @ n0chuu_ @mang_hobb @ k0ya_rm @rj_gn @ sh00ky_)

The username above ( 6c_6f_73_74_20_75_73_65_72) lets me speculate that perhaps they’re playing a game with a person behind it and Jimin feels  threatened.

2) Jungkook – Level 1

Whistles in my ears

There are also morse codes which can be translated to: eva+ wings+

The most interesting piece is a hashtag that connects jungkook‘s and jimin‘s accounts: #침침 #노추

3) Jhope – Level 2

Find the self that was innocent I know I've drunk from the poisoned chalice 지금 날 위로하네 (trans: I am comforting you now)

4) Suga – Level 3

I looked up and wished you NOT/ TODAY 04:06

It‘s especially interesting because when you go to the time mark in Not Today MV, it‘s an image of jungkook looking at himself.

5) RM – Level 4

180917 02:56 (the only date and time mark I managed to find. It‘s LOVE YOURSELF Highlight Reel '起承轉結' on 02:56)

Omelas 03:47 (Which is of course connected with Spring Day MV)

Jungkook once again sees himself.

RUN+ 02:22 the many meetings and goodbyes of yesterday existed for this moment The bird fights its way out of the egg

6) Jin – Level 5

AWAKE+ A house made of cards, and us, inside BECAUSE/ THE/ SUNRISE/ JUST/ BEFORE/ THE/ SUN/ RISES/ IS/ THE/ DARKEST+ |||||||| Calico cat |||||||| 만나러 갈게 5:08 (trans: I'm going to meet you. 5:08) 血、汗、淚 2:06 (trans: Blood, sweat, tears)

Jin says  "미안해" - “Sorry”.

The additional 2 accounts that suga follows seems to also have photos with various codes.

1) @6c_6f_73_74_20_75_73_65_72 (@thuybinnie has figured that 6c_6f_73_74_20_75_73_65_72 in hex translates to “lost user”)

Basically has undecodable codes that don‘t make any sense for me.

2) @repl4y__

Seems to have a bunch of photos some with normal words and some with morses codes. N/ OF/ NAM+ (this seems to code Namjoon) Y/ OF/ YOON+ (this looks like Yoongi) EYES+ SHADOW+

The other photos has normal words, however, with quite an interesting hint (@CateHarmonic did figured it out)

At least for now, that‘s everything. It‘s hard to say what they‘re thinking to do on this comeback but it‘s clear that bagstan want us to play a game. As you probably already realized, this is not a theory post. I’m not smart enough for that. This is just a bunch of information that I managed to gather while I was going through the instagram accounts.

***UPDATE*** I’m super thankful for my friend who has much more knowledge of codes and coding languages. He found a message that was hidden between numbers on one of the photos on 6c_6f_73_74_20_75_73_65_72 account. It says: THEY___HAVE___US___LOCKED___UP. 

He also recognized the other code, that is used on the other 3 photos. It‘s base 64 code. And sure it is... When I put it in the decoder that‘s what I got.

”Can you read me, right? Are you really still here? You must continue Do not stop, you are so, so close ... or maybe not? Suppose that if you are here is for something, I suppose you will not remain among us for no reason or to put yourself in what does not concern you. Although I can make the decision to leave things as they are, a small part of me trusts you. In fact, I depend on you. Therefore, what I am going to say is only between you and me, player 1 and user: this is not just a game. Take it seriously.”

”Should I start the day by communicating with you? It does not seem like a bad idea either. I'll start by greeting you, dear player 1: Good morning, did you wake up well? I'm glad! Okay, now if what I came to claim. Why do not you want to understand me? Why do you ignore me? Is it because I am "bad"? Is it because I give you terror? The least you have to fear is me ... why do you have bad thoughts about me? I'm friendly. I understand that it does not look like it, but seriously, are you one of those who judge a book by its cover? If so, GO! I DO NOT WANT YOU TO BE HERE, OUT OF HERE. You're done, you've already lost, you've lost your chance, what more do you want?”

“I want to be good, but you force me not to be. I want to help you, but you will not let me. I want you to believe me, but you do not. I want you to stop, but you continue ... You want me to say the whole truth, but I only confuse you more. You want to see my face, but I hide it. You want to know who I am, but I'm still anonymous ... We all want many things, it's true. But not everything we want we can have. So, no matter how much you want security, you will not have it. As much as they want to escape, I'll catch them. Even if they want to hide, I'll find them. And if you want to plan something against me, I'll know. A game must be fair, dear player 1, and these are the rules.”

 As I was going through the accounts once again, I tried to find what kind of coding system they used. And it looks like I found it. There are three kinds of codes that I found. 1) It‘s a simple texting code (I don‘t even know if you could call it that way). If you had a phone with a keyboard, you definitely had used that code every time you texted.

In Jhope‘s: First love (333-444-777-7777-8-555-666-888-33)

2) A1Z26 code (which basically looks like this: 3-15-14-20-9-14-21-5)

On Suga‘s account I found: this / realm/ was / familiar / to / me / in / almost / every / way the/ other/ realm/ however/ was/ completely/ different

On Jungkook‘s account: it‘s up

On Jhope‘s: It‘s so sweet but so bad

And 1 on Jimin‘s: Continue

3) It‘s an octal code (which looks like this: 122 157 165 156 144 40 141 156 144 40 162 157 165 156 144 54 40 167 145 40 141 162 145 40 162 151 147 150 164 40 167 150 145 162 145 40 167 145 40 163 164 141 162 164 145 144 56) On Jungkook‘s: Round and round, we are right where we started. There is still some that I can’t figure out. But trust me, I’m going to try and figure them out. I’m too invested in this at this point... I know, some of you are probably thinking I’m wasting my time searching and decoding all these codes. And you’re probably right... I’m starting to doubt that this is bighit’s job, maybe someone is simply having fun. But honestly, I’m invested!