#dphw

[sash0o]

Why do people try to match tmagp cases to tma fears? They are very obviously not the same, even if the things in the cases come from the tma universe the fears have obviously been extremely warped on the way through and no longer match smirke’s 14. Any attempt to assign tma fears onto tmagp cases will result in a headache of overlapping themes because imo that’s kinda what’s happening. The fears in tmagp have been mixed into a homogeneous soup and each case has a certain amount of flavour of all of them which is what the DPHW is, it’s how much of each fear flavour there is.

[aria-bun]

DPHW UPDATE:

Episode 36 (Outside the Box) and Episode 38 (Circling Back) have the same DPHW (2153)

I cant spot any similarities between the statements yet, but if I find any, I'll let yall know

[aro-geo-turtle]

Ok I have finally gotten my tmagp case spreadsheet all caught up and I've been sorting it all different ways to look for patterns in the DPHW case numbers!

As per ep 36's reveal of their being four metrics, thoughts on the last four digits of the code:

Our highest D cases are ep 3 (8), 4 (7), and 15 (6). Guy turns into a tree, blood-drinking violin, and Lady Mowbray. They all involve the woods or the wilderness in some way? Lowest Ds are 16, 17, 19, 24, and 32 (all at 1). No clear pattern there.

Ep 6, 12, 35, and 13 are the highest ranked for P (8, 7, 7, and 6 respectively). Needles, two Bonzo cases, and the gambling app. Physical injury maybe? Not sure. No clear patterns in the low scorers either.

There's a LOT of high scorers for H, including the only 9 we've gotten so far (for the evil volin). Also 2 Bonzos, tree guy, demon baby, statement-giving dead, Voyeur movie, possessed by Liverpool, awful restaurant, Sam's statement, and the split brain experiment. Interestingly, another Bonzo (ep 12) is one of the lowest scorers for this, only a 2. No cases so far have scored a 1 for H.

@cirrus-grey pointed out that W is the highest metric and I'm seeing that too. Split brain, 2 Bonzos, Sam's statement, and Hilltop Center buried in stuff are all 8s. Voyeur movie, painting away body dysmorphia, reanimated pieces of Arthur Winstead, murder your alt-universe double, and Newton's fucked up dog are 7s. Liminal service station, custodian turns to concrete, sailing ship tattoo, coral better self, and snake guy all score 6. Once again one Bonzo statement is out of place, with ep 10 this time. The only case with a 1 for W is Lady Mowbray.

The only case with even 5s in all four metrics is Freddie eating Colin. Perfect balance, eh?

There's also the middle term, with both letters and numbers:

The most frequent middle term is 1RB, used in episodes 14, 35, 10, 6, 15, 12, and 16. These episodes feature Bonzo 3 times, and Ink5oul, Lady Mowbray, and Needles once each, leading me to guess this means externals. I'm not sure why guy-turns-into-pile-of-snakes is here, or why only one Ink5oul case is, though.

2RB is applied to 5 cases: ep 33, 28, 25, 5, and 29. I don't see any pattern here; that's the pier getting eaten by darkness, Sam's Institute encounter, the really gross restaurant, the movie Voyeur, and the flooding lock museum.

2RC is pretty straightforward! Episodes 7, 17, and 30 all have to do with the Hilltop Center! 32 is the odd one out, the woman possessed by Liverpool, but maybe its because it's still about a spot on the planet that's spooky for some reason?

13RBC is the code for ep 22, 23, and 19, all of which have similar body horror/fucked up experiment vibes? And sort of a gaining of sentience, maybe? The dog from Newton's experiment, the trapped other brain half, and the coral-duplicate woman? I'm not sure but the vibes are the same.

Eps 26, 24, and 1a are all in 1RBC. Reanimated pieces of Arthur Winstead, demon baby, and PE teacher killed by the error-chivist. No clue.

There are more middle terms with 2 cases tied to them, but that's not really enough for me to see anything there, except for with 3RB. Both ep 9 and 13 have to do with gambling.

That's about all I can glean at the moment, maybe somebody else can see some stuff here that I can't.

[magnus-marmot]

I think P/S is Power/Stärke

I've been mulling around the DPHW, and I think I've almost got a complete model down. This is based on the quaternity on the OIAR logo (I explain that thought process here) and other observations. So far I'm somewhat certain that W/U = Weird/Unheimlich = Mercury, and H = Hunger = Luna. In this post I'll explain my thoughts on P.

The alchemical Sol and its symbolism

Like many symbols in alchemy, Sol is both the physical sun and physical gold as well as the metaphysical force they represent. It's the active principle (sometimes called Celestial Niter) that's the source of the active elements, fire and air, and the properties hot and dry. It's most commonly associated with fire, light, and both the noble and destructive qualities of a human psyche. Solar fire is a source of life and growth, but it's similarly capable of burning everything down. Sol contains in itself the metaphysical Sulphur, which is associated with the human soul, consciousness and emotions. But Sol is also gold, which is considered the perfect, incorruptible metal and the end goal of both literal and spiritual transformation. In Jung's psychological worldview, Sol represents the conscious ego, and it must be reconciled with the unconscious (Luna) to achieve individuation or the self (the Philosopher's Stone).

"The “ascending,” active part of him is called Sol, and it is only through this that the passive part can be perceived. The passive part therefore bears the name of Luna, because she borrows her light from the sun." (Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis)

Sol as Power

The cases in TMAGP that have a high P value seem to share some common themes of violence, self-expression, obsessiveness and a sadistic sort of enjoyment. Some examples include Needles (P 8), Bonzo (P 6-7), the self-destructive crypto bro (P 6), and Ink5oul (P 5). (The P-dominant cases are relatively low as of right now.) I first thought it could stand for Passion, since it seems to convey the inner fire that drives these people. But Bonzo is very much less about passion than simple destructive urges, and the crypto bro is less passionate than he's greedy.

Power, however, fits all of them. It conveys the physical power, the destruction aspect, and the power over other people's lives as well as your own. These are incidents where the instigator is more or less conscious of their actions, and they're inflicting the change willingly, or at least knowingly. Compare to high H (Hunger=Luna) cases, where an external force is manifesting your inner fears/desires/trauma into reality. This is why Ink5ouls tattoos are P5 H6. It's partially about their own drive and power, but mostly about reflecting the victim's "heart's desire". It's through the light of Sol that the Luna can be perceived. (Though the P5 in those cases could be about the victims' own drive and not Ink5oul's. It's very difficult to know what contributes to the score.)

How Sol appears in the incidents

Let's first get the most literal representations out of the way. I think Sol manifests as the literal sun and/or gold, and probably some forms of fire too. In ep. 13, the crypto bro mentions looking at the setting sun twice, and both times he makes a major decision with the trading app (when he first bets on himself and when he bets everything). I'd also count money as both a quasi-literal and a metaphorical symbol for gold, since in this capitalistic society it seems to be the end goal of all. Then there's the sun tattoo, the first design Ink5oul lifted from Oscar Jarrett. Not just any sun, mind you, but a sun with a dot in the middle. Combining two common alchemical symbols for Sol. And naturally the victim burned to death. On the other hand, Dr Tree from ep. 3 (P 1) lamented not seeing the sun until the transformation was complete (because the whole episode was a metaphor for the Great Work, but I digress).

Then there's the less literal aspect of light or lumination. Basically wanting to be seen, putting yourself in the public eye, putting up a performance. Bonzo's destructive act was always broadcast publicly, and now he makes a big fanfare out of his appearances (he's even got his own theme music to accompany him). Similarly, Needles calls the police himself and makes a show out of the whole ordeal. Ink5oul wants attention, any attention, basically digging up secrets and exposing them to the world (until they grow tired of it I guess). So there's an aspect of controlling people's attention.

And then there's the Power of it all, which would manifest as described above, so a conscious drive or passion, fighting to gain control, pure or mindless violence, ego inflation, or the sadistic urge to see someone's fear or suffering. Basically all kinds of metaphors for fire (I'm still watching you, Starkwall).

In conclusion

To summarise my current model for the DPHW:

P/S = Power/Stärke = Sol: An active ego-driven force that exposes secrets and makes people go mad with power. (Kind of like a monkey's paw where you're actively making the wish.)

H/H = Hunger = Luna: A receptive force, perhaps representing the personal unconscious, that manifests your inner/secret/unconscious thoughts into reality. (Like a monkey's paw where you don't even know you're making a wish.)

W/U = Weird/Unheimlich = Mercury: A liminal, omnipresent and intangible force that reacts to collective thoughts and dissolves boundaries between realities (including between material/immaterial). Represents the collective unconscious. (Like an AI that reflects its training data but in the most unsettling ways.)

I'm still missing D/T, or Salt. I can't seem to find a thematically satisfying connection between the high D cases. I've somewhat moved on from the "order/stagnation" interpretation and towards the concept of Death, as Salt is often associated with the corporeal matter that remains after the life and soul have left (ie. putrefaction or nigredo). Will update you with any future hypotheses.

[thecorruption-thespiralsversion]

!!!MILD TMP SPOILER!!!

More thoughts on Scores.

So Dash or R does stand for rank them. This breaks things down to:

Categories 1,2,3 and any combination i.e. 12, 23, 13 (would a 123 be possible?)

(R)ank A,B,C and any combination i.e. AB, BC, AC (Same Q? ABC?)

I saw someone else's post on this and it looks like we are headed in the same direction. I suspect CAT;

1 - caused by person/avatar/monster

2 - cause by a place/location

3 - cause by a thing (not necessarily tangible)

However, Ep. Give and Take (DPHW basically stands for "A MASS gathering of Stuff" Agglomeration means "collecting in mass" and a congregation is , for the purposes of this, a gathering of people, animals, or things) and Doll, Watching don't fit this. I see the argument for both these events happening "at a place" (the "donators/employees" came and brought the stuff to a "location" and doll don't move, so you kinda have to go to them (a place/location)), but they also involve "things", but... this should be as good segue as any

(R)ank;

A - Dunno we've had 1 episode with this rank

B - Regret

C - Obsession (Compulsion)

I'm assuming they all have to do with fear, right. This is a horror podcast, horror is meant to cause fear. So I'll be working with this assumption until I'm told/proven otherwise

CAT2RC would be "Fear cause by an Obsession with a Place"

That still doesn't satisfy Dolls, Watching or EP. Give and Take for me though.

Kinda fits for Making Adjustments

CAT3RBC "Fear cause by Regret and Obsession with a Thing (the Tattoo, Perfection, Her Body)

CAT3RB for "Rolling With It" and "Futures" is "Fear cause by Regret due to a Thing" (Dice, Application and both statements emphasize how much is wasn't a "compulsion")

[hazel0159]

I Think I Solved The Magnus Protocol Categories

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, in the description of every Magnus Protocol episode, there is a serial code describing the contents of the case. For example:

CAT2RBC4254-04011998-12042024

Architecture (landmark) -/- corruption (entropy)

The first part of that code is the category. Each case can be assigned a category of 1, 2, 3, or any combination of the three. In the example I just gave, CAT2 signifies that this case is classified as category 2. Despite the fact that The Magnus Protocol has aired over twenty episodes so far, there still isn't any consensus as to what the categories actually mean. I had an idea for what they could be a while ago, but didn't really have enough evidence to make a convincing argument. Now, nine episodes later, here is that theory.

First, I need to define some terms. Something is sentient if it can experience emotions, sensations, and its own perspective. Something is sapient if it has human-level intelligence and self awareness. A dog or cat is sentient, but not sapient. Human beings are both sentient and sapient. 

Which brings us to my theory. Category 1 entities are sapient and sentient. Category 2 entities look sapient, however it's a trick. They aren't actually sapient, and I don't think any of them are even sentient. I'll be calling these entities pseudo-sapient. Category 3 entities aren't sapient and aren't trying to look like they are. They may or may not be sentient.

As for the rationale for why the OIAR would care about the sapience of subjects, I think it's a measure of danger. Compare a situation in which a wolf wants you dead versus one in which a person wants you dead. Yeah, the wolf may be stronger, but the person's sapience gives them a different type of danger. Sapient beings can plan, manipulate, and coordinate in large organizations. Compared to that, a non-sapient wolf is just a set of teeth and claws. Considering the OIAR is a systemic institution, it can only really be threatened by an understanding of human organizational structure.

CAT 1

The biggest question that this theory has to contend with is how we can actually tell the difference between sapient and psuedo-sapient subjects. This is the foundation of the theory, so we need something more objective and falsifiable than just vibes. Fortunately, there is a way to tell the difference. Category 2 entities are machines designed to serve a function (generate fear). Their pseudo-sapience is part of that and any emotions or thoughts they appear to have only exist to serve their purpose. In other words, Category 1 entities have lives, beliefs, and emotions outside of their job. Category 2 entities never display anything that doesn’t work towards their job. So let's see some examples of CAT 1 entities being more than just their job. 

Reanimation (Partial) & Memory (Derelict):

I don't have anything to say about the consultant/Arthur/both? or [ERROR]/Violet's talking corpse beyond the fact that they seem sapient. We just don't know enough about either, frankly.

Mascot (Kids):

I'm on the fence about Bonzo. When Gwen meets him, he acts embarrassed and doesn't want to be seen. This could be a fear of the unknown/unseen thing, but Bonzo’s shtick is much more “unhinged, violent frenzy” than “unknown and uncanny”. I think this is a case of Mr. Bonzo being legitimately embarrassed over what a monstrosity he is, implying that he is self-aware and sapient. 

Hunt (Aristocratic):

Mowbray seems legitimately curious about Celia. She also doesn't try to intimidate Gwen and presumably used to be a normal person.

Transformation (Canine):

The episode is about a dog being granted sapience. CAT 3 being alchemically transformed into CAT 1. This could just be a trick, but considering this episode probably isn't based on fear, there wouldn't be any reason for it to be fake.

Transformation (Snake):

Snake guy clearly has some sort of vendetta against the Magnus Institute. It's never used to generate fear, so he and his anger are real. Also, he probably used to be a normal person.

Injury (Needles), Tattoo (Influencer) & Transformation (Tattoo):

These are easy. Needles’ and Ink5oul’s blatant insecurity actively makes them less scary. They also self-reflect and used to be normal people.

CAT 2 

Dolls (watching) & Tattoo (Corpse):

We don't know anything about the dolls or the Thing In The Water. 

Transformation (Eyes), Infection (Full Body), Disappearance (Undetermined), & Architecture (Liminal):

The CAT 2 refers to 

The forum members harassing RedCanary

Weber’s hallucinations of Maddie

The invitations and the theater’s cashier

The tower’s stewardess and diners

 All of these entities appear sapient, but don't display any evidence that their sapience is real. They only ever act aggressive, uncanny, and comforting in order to lure in their victims. All of these serve a clear purpose in generating fear and these entities don't have any depth beyond it.

Architecture (Landmark):

I know I said I wouldn't go off of vibes, but let's indulge for a moment. What if the withered doppelganger was sapient? Their function is clearly temporary. Once the construction worker dies, they would no longer serve any purpose and would be disposed of. If they're sapient, they must have some level of self awareness. Surely they would know they're temporary, if only subconsciously. And yet they don't seem to care, killing the construction worker and also themself. Why would the fears create an entire being with free will, just for that being to only exist for a minute or so? That seems like both a large risk and waste of effort. Maybe the doppelganger is some kind of shape shifter and just disguised themself as the construction worker at that moment? But that contradicts the psychological feeling of stagnation and constancy that the incident was supernaturally powered by. It feels like you can't make the doppelganger actually sapient without it being a pretty large stretch, implying that the doppelganger is pseudo-sapient out of necessity. These arguments can also apply to some of the previous 4 cases, though to a lesser extent.

Agglomeration (Miscellany):

This is the big one. For the first half of the episode, the charity shop volunteers act like every other CAT 2 subject. They act uncanny to generate fear and that's it. The interesting part begins once the security firm shows up and starts gunning them down because the volunteers just don't react. They keep up the uncanny shtick as if nothing is going wrong. This is absolutely not how any of the CAT 1 entities would react. Imagine putting Needles or Ink5oul in the same situation. They would break down in panic, and do anything to save themselves. Generating fear would be the least of their worries. Bonzo might throw a tantrum or try to hide. Snake guy might get angry and desperate. They'd all do something. Yet, the volunteers just don't react. Furthermore, when Dianne escapes from the burning shop, what convinces the security firm that she's innocent? The fact that she's scared, an emotion that the pseudo-sapient volunteers are incapable of expressing. They're made to act uncanny and that's it. Again, imagine if it had been Needles or Ink5oul in that shop. They would be just as scared as Dianne. In this case, the security firm would have been briefed ahead of time that their assignment was pseudo-sapient and therefore knew anyone expressing true fear must be innocent. Hence, the security firm knows the difference between CAT 1 and CAT 2 entities and utilizes the difference between sapience and pseudo-sapience.

CAT 3

Transformation (Full), Tattoo (Corpse), & Transformation (Canine):

Neither the tattoos nor the crystal fruit are sapient or sentient.

Transformation (Eyes):

This refers to the box that RedCanary stole from the Institute. It doesn't seem sapient and may or may not be sentient.

Collection (Blood), Dice (Bone), & Gambling (Application):

These are the violin, dice, and insectoid/trading app respectively. These three definitely have a sentience and personality to them, but they come off as much more animalistic than sapient. The violin and dice especially seem driven exclusively by hunger and spite when that hunger is denied. Their inability to communicate is also notable, as that's something that almost all the CAT 1 and 2 entities can do. Finally, the fact that they manifest as objects and animals instead of taking a humanoid form obviously can't be ignored.

CAT i

Ok, so I was lying when I said that the only categories are 1, 2, and 3. For some reason, the trailer is categorized as CAT i. Why? Well, we can explain this by adding a new rule. Only supernatural subjects are assigned CAT 1, 2, or 3. Nothing supernatural happened in the trailer, so none of those three are applicable, and it wound up getting assigned CAT i instead. Whatever that means.

This also makes some previous episodes make more sense. Namely, Collection (Blood) and Agglomeration (Miscellany). Neither the merchant nor the security firm seem to be reflected in their respective episodes’ categories. This could be easily explained if neither of them were supernatural.

Doppelganger (Interdimensional):

This case is assigned CAT 2. On first glance, it might seem like this would refer to Alternate Darrien. However, at no point does the episode indicate that Alternate Darrien is supernatural. If anything, the fact that Darrien killed him so easily would be evidence that he's perfectly normal. So the CAT 2 doesn't refer to Alternate Darrien, but to Doctor Dumfries, the therapist. After all, Dumfries is the one who seemingly caused Darrien to hop realities. Darrien repeatedly mentions little things Dumfries does that set him off. Dumfries may also be installing a false sense of security in Darrien, similar to a lot of the other CAT 2s. Finally, Darrien seemingly refers to Dumfries with both male and female pronouns which might be an indication of … something? As for Dumfries’ sapience status, he/she definitely appears sapient. There's not any evidence for or against the idea that he/she is pseudo-sapient.

The Assignment Process 

Let's go on a tangent to talk about DPHWs. More specifically, how the DPHWs are assigned. According to episode 1, the DPHW is a code written next to each section/subsection combination. For example, “dolls comma watching is... 1157”. So the DPHW is determined exclusively by the section and subsection. This is reinforced in episode two where Sam comes up with possible cases, Gwen guesses the applicable sections/subsections, then tries to remember which DPHWs are connected to those sections and subsections. However, this creates a problem. Episode 10 and 12 are both Mascot (Kids) yet have different DPHWs. How do we resolve this contradiction? It's magic. FR3-d1 is magic and FR3-d1’s categorization system is also magic. When a case comes in, the binder rewrites itself so that the DPHW (and category and rank) accurately reflect the case. In episode 2, Gwen was really confident in her inaccurate memory of the DPHWs. This could be overconfidence, or it could be more evidence that the DPHWs change over time. 

What Gets the CAT?

Now we can get into the weeds about which part of the case is referenced in the category. Agglomeration (Miscellany), for example, has both the pseudo-sapient volunteers and non-sentient items. So how is it decided whether the category is 2, 3, or 23? Well first off, it seems like connected entities are only referenced in the category once. So Ink5oul and their tattoos are either CAT 1 or 3, but both would be redundant? On the other hand, in Tattoo (Corpse), the The Thing In The Water isn't part of the tattoo and was just summoned by it, so they each get their own separate CATs. Maybe? Furthermore, lower numbered CATs have priority over higher numbered ones. So in cases with both pseudo-sapient and non-sapient elements, 2 takes priority over 3 and the whole case is CAT 2. If the idea is that sapient entities are more dangerous than non-sapient ones, then there'd be no reason to reference non-sapient entities when there is a more dangerous sapient one present. I think this schema is okay at fitting every case except Transformation (Full).

I think a lot of the weirdness around the sections, subsections, and crosslinks comes from the fact that the authors don't have objective criteria as to how they work, or what each of them individually do, so just make them up on a case by case basis. This is probably what happened for Episode 2 as well. Whoever assigned its category just figured that the tattoo was more important than Ink5oul and arbitrarily gave it CAT 3.

ARG Stuff

There's not much to say about Kl4-u5.xls. The only cases which might cause problems for this theory are the Unhappy Child and Cats, which are CAT 3 and 2 respectively. I guess the child would be sentient and not sapient? Maybe a crying infant based on fears of failing at parenting? And then for some reason there are pseudo-sapient cats. We don't really know anything about the ARG cases, so I'm not losing sleep over either of these.

Conclusion

That's my theory, Sapient/Pseudo-Sapient/Non-Sapient. It's definitely not perfect, but I think it's much better then any other major CAT theory that I've seen (namely Person/Place/Thing, Tria Prima, and Agent/Subject/Catalyst). CAT 2 being pseudo-sapient is definitely the least substantiated of the three. Hopefully Gwen will encounter a CAT 2 External sometime soon, as that would be really helpful in proving the theory. I doubt that would happen before the end of Season 1, though. Anyway, I know this was very long, so thanks for reading it :). If you can think of any points for or against this theory, I’d be more than happy to hear them.

[origami-trust]

magnus protocol DPHW meaning theorizing part 2: part 1 in brief: I agree with the theory that DPHW numbers are scores in the fields of Fear of Death, Pain, Helplessness, and the Weird. These score are true incident responses - as in, measuring the amount of fear present and generated in response to an incident. So let's talk category numbers and tiers. From the ARG, it seems that the same DPHW almost* always results in the same category number and tier. In ep 1, Alice says, "That’s the DPHW. So “dolls-comma-watching” is… 1157. Then you cross-reference with the table here, that would be a 2-C." So, if you can look up DPHW's in a table and see what categories and tiers they match, and they're usually the same, it seems logical the DPHW itself is being used to generate the Category number and Tier letter. I think category generation is based on two premises. 1. The output is a logical category/tier system to rank and identify incidents. 2. The input is needlessly and ridiculously bureaucratically complicated, as benefits the OIAR DPHW's are scored from 1 (low) to 9 (high) or 0, which I think may mean, rather than very low or very high: not able to be scored. The four numbers that are the DPHW are then put through a complicated series of internal calculations against each other and in combination, for additional hidden scores. e.g,: If Death is less than 5, calculate Helplessness+Weird for the Existential Dread score. (or Lonely) If both Death and Pain are above three, calculate D*P for the Bloodthirst score. (or Desolation) Pain+Helplessness = Savagery Score (or Hunt!) D+W= Public Noticeability score (or End) and so on, so forth, and some of these may correspond a little more to the Fears as we knew them, but they don't have to, it's its own system! All these numbers are then run through an internal calculation to output the category and rank! *We'll get into this next time.

[alwaysbooyahback]

DPHW, Hypercategorization, and Art within Capitalism

Disclaimer: I’m not theorizing on what DPHW is in universe.

DPHW, as a structural component, connects back brilliantly to its creators, particularly Alex, who runs a podcasting company and therefore professionally deals with targeting content to potential new listeners.

The DPHW is a counterweight to TMA’s entities. It’s the RGB to TMA’s ROYGBIV. It’s hypercategorization, hypercompartmentalization. We know little about it in universe:

It’s a system to very granularly categorize incidents with a 4-digit number.

It’s part of a broader categorization system

Humans act as a slow (and error-prone) LOOKUP() function using paper

Nearly 10 years of familiarity isn’t enough to have the system memorized, though can get you close.

Any incident involving the same main element gets the same number. Any incident with the main element as “Dolls, watching” is 1157. Doesn’t matter if it’s ghosts, cameras, if they’re made of human skin, whatever; dolls that are watching means it’s an 1157.

The last point has been one of consternation for me and others I’ve been discussing it with. It sounds daft.

But maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s daft because it’s a critique. Hypercategorization drives modern advertising, it’s what puts ads blogs and videos and podcasts in front of us.

To the mighty algorithm, we’re all just a number to crunch to serve us the content that will keep us Engaged and on the Platform. No one knows how it works, it just does; it’s a black box, just like the DPHW.

But that’s wrong. It fundamentally misunderstands our humanity, for we contain multitudes.

Yet the algorithm reflects enough of ourselves to do real work; it may only see the shadows on the cave wall, but that’s better than seeing nothing at all.

Of course Jonny and Alex want to make good art. But for them to make art and a living, they have to get that content in front of an audience, one that will either pay for it directly (eg, Patreon and Kickstarter) or indirectly (eg, ads).

They have to deal with this reality, with the tension between the algorithmically targeted portrait of their target audience and the deep, multitudinous, and complex people their audience is. That’s just part of what it means to be a content creator, to own a podcast company.

Thanks to etymologynerd for his great vertical video on generational labels all being made up and how hypercompartmentalation drives social media and targeting.

[riveracheron]

i made a little dphw generator for writing my own fr3-d1 cases! just has stuff from the show rn but i will add more once i think of words to put in

https://perchance.org/6za9n09v28

[wwpbviiid]

I kinda wanna make a quiz for rating peoples DPHW’s numbers (essentially a TMAGP equivalent to the ‘which Fear would you serve’ quizzes) but I can’t think of how I’d do that, does anyone know of a quizmaker that would let me sort people along multiple independent axes

[aria-bun]

So i was putting the TMAGP episodes into a spreadsheet, as you do, and realized something about Outside the Box.

The In-Universe date of that episode is May 28th, 2024

The statement says it came in August 4th, 2024

Which is 3 months in the future.

either a. meta error

or b. Freddie can time travel

[fuckthisshitimin]

I spent too much time just staring at the other spreadsheet but look I think I'm onto something.

You know the DPHW/TSHU IDs? Yeah I've been staring at those for the most part of my day, and I very much had other things to do so I hope I can get my mind off it soon.

I've read the Theory of Fears, and it's cool but it doesn't scratch the itch in my brain because this is a classification system used by the OIAR; so the codes you get should give you... an assessment and a suggestion of response, I guess.

I don't know what the letters stand for yet, I don't speak German, but I highly doubt the numbers are 'ratings', that would be extremely inefficient. More likely, they're sub-categories. I'm gonna disprove this example in half a paragraph but just to illustrate:

Let's admit D=T is Death=Tod, then we have cases 5246 (the dug up corpse with a tattoo of a boat), 5257 (the woman who sees something that is "some of [her deceased partner]") and 5337 (Dr. Frankenstein). Cases 4426, 4622, 4728, 4824 are respectively; death by snake horde transformation, death by gambling shady app, death by Bonzo crashing your bachelor's party and death by Needles. So if D=T is Death=Tod more than a scale of deadliness it might be

D (death)

non-lethal

violent death (misc)

???

violent death (creature)

corpse desacration/post-mortem vitality

???

feeding

or something like that. No it doesn't work because the D3 cases have very different attitudes towards death, but maybe I'm just missing something crucial.

Now I don't know if that would be correct in German, but I kinda want D=T to be Department=Teilung. Why? At the end of report 3338 (Hilltop Road - Oxford Trust taken over by volunteers), the person says she escaped and then was held at gunpoint by a man wearing black, who let her go when she cried and seemingly partook in burning the store down. Report 3354 (fateful dice) was a statement given to TMI which also burned down. Now, the location of report 3366 (liminal brutality) has not been burned down. So that might just be a coincidence - though if Forton Services catches fire I'll get to say I called it.

But okay, you want to know what's very interesting if I'm at least a little right? 2275.

That's the DPHW for Bonzo's first appearance. That's also the number on Fr3-d1's boot screen on the trailer, with the date 29/05/2023. That's... around six months before canon, right? Around the time Sam had his 'Incident' at work, right? Unlike Bonzo's Incident who's a CAT1RB, this one is a CATIRB, and it's the only one so far with a letter for "CAT". So if I'm right, the conclusion of a "2275" is hire this guy. Why would Lena be so deterrent in the interview then? I don't know.

And if I'm right, you know what might be funnier? The D4 ones.

Because Bonzo's Bachelor Bash has a D4, and he was kinda sent by the OIAR. Serpent shop owner was maybe too obsessed about a certain institute? Don't know if this is gonna be anything, but if the D4 are cases originating from OIAR 'external contractors' I'll be so thrilled.

Okay, I'll stop looking at a screen now and get some sleep. Hope I'll do something else tomorrow.

[magnus-marmot]

Taking a crack at the DPHW

Alright, it's time. This will be my tentative suggestion at what the DPHW measures and a breakdown of how I got there. Feel free to skip the part where I show my work if you just want to hear my proposition towards end of the post. Note that this is probably not the final version of my theory, and I might have to revise it whenever we get new information.

So we know that the DPHW measures four variables independently, but they are somehow linked to each other, and the OIAR is trying to keep the variables balanced in the middle so that none of them becomes too dominant. This much was confirmed in episode 36. But we don't yet know what they actually measure, and that's what I'm here to try and find out. This will be a long post, so full explanation under the cut.

Revisiting the Tria Prima

If you've been reading my posts, you know that I've viewed the supernatural through the lens of the three primes, or Tria Prima: Salt, Sulphur and Mercury. To summarise, Salt 🜔 is the body, structure, rigidity or stagnation, Mercury ☿ is the spirit, mind, solvent and liminality, and Sulphur 🜍 is the soul, fire, passion, activity and catalysis. The incidents are caused by an imbalance between these principles, and each principle will manifest in its own way. You can read my first breakdown of them here, but I've since refined the concepts a little.

However, the OIAR assesses their cases with four parametres, not three. This is quite common in alchemy, where everything is viewed in quaternities. It's very typical to see a circle divided into four quarters, each of which symbolises part of a whole. The circle itself symbolises a unity, where everything comes together. Because of the importance of the quaternities, Carl Jung (the psychologist obsessed with alchemy) thought that trinities need to become quaternities before they can be fully applied. He also thought that the tria prima becomes a quaternity when you consider the dual nature of Mercury (solid/liquid, masculine/feminine).

Lucky for me, we already have a quaternity right there on the OIAR's logo. This, I argue, will be the key in dissecting the DPHW.

Breaking apart the symbolism

What's striking to me about this portion of the logo is that they have fully separated the tria prima. Salt 🜔 and Mercury ☿ are within the unity, but there are four Sulphur symbols 🜍 outside of it, or should I say external to it. It might be worth noting that both the circle and the square are parts of the wider symbol of the philosopher's stone, where the circle symbolises the stone itself (or the unity of elements) and the square symbolises the four elements or the material plane. The sulphur symbols are reminiscent of arrows that either point at the corners or expand what's in the middle. It's an interesting side note, but to me it seems to say that Sulphur is directly related to the actions of the externals (or the alchemical fire they exert upon the world) and not measured with the quaternity. This could confirm what I already suspect, that the externals' role in this is to increase each variable in order to bring them to balance.

Okay, if the unity does not account for Sulphur but does include Salt and Mercury, then we have two spaces open. As far as I can tell, the double chevrons don't have any wide (or even niche) use in alchemy. The best I could find was if you chop up the double sawtooth symbol for water, but that feels like a stretch, and water is most commonly symbolised by a downwards pointing triangle. So most likely these are arbitrary symbols chosen for the podcast, either to obfuscate the meaning or because widely accepted symbolism couldn't be found.

What's notable about the double chevrons is that they evoke a syzygy pattern common for concepts that are two parts of a whole. The most common example would be the yin/yang, where you have light in darkness and darkness in light. Following this line of thinking, in alchemy we have the duality of active/passive principles, also associated with sun/moon, solve/coagula, masculine/feminine, celestial niter/celestial salt. These are some very common dualities, and they are also represented in the yin/yang syzygy itself.

Sun is associated with light, activity, fire, sources of life but also sources of destruction. The sun-associated celestial niter gives birth to the volatile elements, which include sulphur and the volatility of mercury. Its inclusion in the quaternity would explain the absence of sulphur, since the two align so closely. Moon is associated with darkness, reflectivity, passivity, nurturing and secrets. The moon-associated celestial salt gives birth to the passive or fixed elements, including salt and the calm, solid part of mercury.

Here's a diagram explaining the relations, image snatched from somewhere in the internet:

Note: I have found some symbols for celestial salt and niter, but they are (respectively) a circle with a horizontal line (identical to salt) and a circle with a perpendicular line. So not only would it look confusing, it would also look kind of dull. Which could explain the use of other symbols instead.

Applying this to DPHW

Now that we have broken down the quaternity, let's try and apply it to the DPHW. Through my Amazing Data Analysis skills (/s) I found a small inverse correlation between D/W (-0,21) and P/H (-0,26). It would stand to reason that these variables stand for opposite (but not contradictory) parts of the whole. I've tentatively slotted them as D/W = Salt/Mercury and P/H = Sol/Luna (or sun/moon). In the following I will lay out how I currently understand the values, but this is always subject to change. I also haven't been able to find any alchemical codewords that directly and neatly slot these into the DPHW abbreviation, so I must conclude that they have looked for words that somehow embody the concepts instead. I'm not that confident in my placeholder words, so let me know if you can think of something better.

D = Salt (Definition?)

Could measure the physical boundaries, and how rigidly they manifest. Might also apply to more abstract structure, discipline, societal roles? It can't only be about bodies or meat, or the demonic baby would be higher, and it can't be about preservation, or Hungry Man's Grill would be higher. I keep asking myself what's common between Doctor Tree (8) and the hungry violin (7). Honestly, this is the weakest link in my theory and I can't quite put my finger on how it fits. Let me know what you think.

P = Sol (Passion? Power?)

Measures the internal drive, passion and ambition. Artistic creation but also the destructive qualities of human nature. Something internal that wants to be seen in the light. I think of Plato's "soul" metaphor: a chariot drawn by two horses representing passion and appetite. This would be the passion. Basically "I have too much of X and it needs to come out." Overwhelming energy directed outwards. Jung's Animus archetype. High P cases have involved bursts of mindless violence and aggression, often with some theatrics or showing off.

H = Luna (Hunger? Heart?)

Measures the more reflective and passive forces associated with the moon. Transformation caused by the individual's dark thoughts/secrets/desires or by reflections of external expectations. Deeply tied to unresolved emotions and needs. This is the other horse in Plato's soul chariot, the appetite. Basically "There's a deep void in me and it needs to be filled". Overwhelming energy directed inwards. Jung's Anima. Almost all high H cases have involved memories, trauma or a deep desire (and there are a lot of them, too).

W = Mercury (???)

Measures the presence of an intangible psychic mass of concepts, ideas, thoughts and memories that are constantly present in everything. Sort of like the psychic energy or collective unconscious that includes all of history but is constantly contributed to. High W is often paired with high H, which makes sense if you consider the reflective quality and introspection required to tap into the unconscious and bring it to reality. Bonzo's W is 8, which signifies that he's a solid construct in the collective mind, and his music is a strong symbol that seems to summon him. If Mercury is not counterbalanced by Salt, it can blur or even dissolve physical boundaries, leading to some weird liminal occurrences.

Please let me know what you think of this theory. Does it make any sense? Do you have suggestions for what the letters could stand for? Do you think I have some of them backwards? I could also be totally, absolutely wrong on all of it. I know for a fact that I'm still missing something, but I have dug deep and I at least hope it shows.

[anonymoussong]

DPHW = Dread Powers Have Won ?

[thecorruption-thespiralsversion]

TMP CAT Scoring theory.

Mild Spoilers

I retract my earlier stance on specifically R(ank)

I still haven't a clue what a R(ank) A could be. But:

B is Bodily Harm

C is Cognitive Harm

I could see A being Spiritual Harm if we wanna go with the Body, Mind, and Spirit trinity.

But I don't know.

This fits better with the scoring we have so far.