#this analysis. But. otherwise this is the gist of my thought process

[henrenologist]

so because i rewatched s3/4 recently, when Hen is struggling with having to give Nia back to her mother, she says "we were supposed to have her for 2 months it's been a year" so i think it's not that they weren't told that Nia would go back to her biological mother, but they got attached to her (obviously 🥺) and maybe because she stayed with them for so long they assumed her mother wouldn't want her back or couldn't have her back? tbh it's still a bit.. that whole thing with Hen Refusing to give the child back. and picking a fight with Karen about it. always annoys me. it's the Angst and Drama show tho, so it's like of course there's gonna be Angst and Drama lmao

for one thing, yeah the bond she'd formed with nia made her irrational and angry when the time came to give her back, especially after she and karen had built themselves up with the expectation that they'd become a permanent placement for nia (although im not entirely sure where they got that idea from, beside the length of time they'd had her; the foster agency in 911verse is a nightmare at communication, evidently).

i think the extent of her frustrations can also be explained by hen's issues with loyalty. she's loyal to a fault. sorry im gonna use this ask as an excuse for meta posting:

eva. she didnt get closure when eva was arrested. so even after building a life with karen, hen still felt indebted to her ("i feel like i owe it to her," she says, ostensibly because eva "didn't fight us when we wanted to adopt denny" [ignoring the canon discrepancy regarding the circumstances of denny's adoption] but there's a deeper commitment there to eva). she wants to see the best in eva, and after having committed herself to helping eva for so long, i think that explains why she was still loyal to eva--one of the factors that contributed to her cheating.

chim. "You get to forgive and move on--I get to hold a grudge until I die." so we're all aware of how loyal hen is to chim, but it's important to note when that loyalty got in the way of their relationship. toward the end of s6, hen's frustration with maddie and doubts about chim's proposal was, imo, a little forced on the writers (in being shoehorned conflict) but not baseless. her loyalty is to chim first and foremost, and that loyalty twisted into an unfounded frustration with maddie for perceived "wrongs"--especially as hen was watching chim squirm over the issue of proposing himself.

s7 drunk driver. hen was angry with the rest of the team when they didn't lay down their unconditional trust in her judgement of the drunk driver. logically, hen might recognize that as professionals, it's right for them to have (1) a healthy amount of skepticism and (2) base their judgement on what they have seen for themselves. they hadn't seen and smelled what hen had, but understood that emotions were running high, and thus approached hen's situation with sympathy and measured trust in her assessment. but hen is upset regardless. she says, feeling that they dont have her back, "if the roles were reversed, I'd find a way to have your backs, and I wouldn't have to lie to do it." she's projecting her sense of loyalty onto the team, frustrated that they're not as apparently unconditionally devoted.

so. nia. hen developed an unconditional love for nia in that time that, naturally, translated to undying loyalty. but as demonstrated, her degree of loyalty can translate into misguided skepticism--and harm, at worst.

and hen's listening to nia "damn near crying her eyes out" over it all. nia's cries are haunting her. she's misguided trying to fight the source of nia's pain (and her own pain). she's seeing this whole situation as a threat to nia's well-being and identifying points of harm where there aren't necessarily any.

she's gravely concerned over what nia's mother did to lose custody in the first place, mistrustful of the positive judgement that deidra's giving them, mistrustful of the agency's assurances that nia will be cared for, and wanting to see the proof for herself that evangeline can care for nia.

it's only after seeing evangeline for herself, with assurances from karen on her capacity to care for nia, that hen can let go of her frustrations with evangeline, deidra, and karen. (just like how after talking to maddie she let go of her hesitancy around chim proposing. just like how seeing the team show up for her with the cruise ship disaster let her stop questioning their loyalty)

i'm not personally annoyed or frustrated with hen in the nia situation. i can't imagine never knowing the fate of your once-daughter and i'm not surprised hen wants to see the proof for herself. i think her desire to fight for nia was an expression of grief more than anything. her loyalty, maternity, and grief are all activated as opposed to the logic we usually see hen depend on.

it's like the call where hen continued cpr on a mother for 12 minutes. her devotion inhibits her from letting go. which was a lucky thing for that mother, but it's not always such a blessing for the people in hen's life.

[silent-neutral]

About SH2 Pyramid Head symbolism and the remake PT.1

--mentions of sexual violence, suicidal themes and just overall mental illness-- please PLEASE DON'T READ BEYOND THE CUT IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THIS GAME BUT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SILENT HILL 2!! There will be spoilers in this ''essay'' and I don't want to spoil such a great game for anyone starting fresh and blind, because that'd be the perfect way to start this game imho - your feeling toward this game will be heightened without knowing too much, plus forming your own view and having questions about it is also cool.

(***Had to cut this down into parts after watching 10+ hours of the remake and so much watching gave me a headache that felt like a literal hangover the next day ugh I felt like James lol otherwise it's too many topics and words in 1 post. This way it might be easier to organize them. )

------------------------------- My mind was blown recently. Ig I'm posting this to clarify more to myself than anything, but I had to search up Ito's recent comments about certain scenes with Pyramid Head. (ahem, the first cutscenes specifically). I've always had my own ideas and guesses about specific details playing as James, but after some clarifications on Ito's part about Pyramid Head.. it kind of jarred me, but at the same time explained other things and now my initial view of this game and its characters are validating my assumptions.. And if you knew about this already, well good on you.... Ito tweets so much sometimes, info like this gets buried and I had no idea until a week or so ago lol. So in light of SH2R releasing, I conveniently found out about some crucial details that would *also* inadvertently explain my (petty) gripes about SH2R. I watched the entire playthrough and my views have slightly altered (mostly positive, as this game was actually very faithful to the original imo). but for now I give you...a very wordy analysis on some themes of SH2. Excuse my rambly thought process though, it's very hard to organise them sometimes, I say to future self re-reading this later lol.

We know the monsters all carry symbolism relating to James. Specifically speaking, the series has a lot of sexual undertones present. Man.. Idk where it all started but I'm pretty sure we all assumed it was true when every Silent Hill source or fanpage over decades would bring up James' sexual repression. It made sense because of how things appeared, plus Angela's trauma and her demon....that James even fights... Well.. Ito hates fans saying James 'sexual repression' being symbolised in the monsters are canon. He doesn't mind people forming their own opinion, but he hates when fans say it's canon lol. At any rate, there was a lot of confusion from what I read at first (and the language barrier didn't help, but I think I got the gist of what he meant). --------------------------------------------------------------- Talking specifically about the mannequin scene, Ito says PH is *not* raping them. Ok sure, tbh it looks too vague to label it something extreme like that. But it became something of a meme and Ig it ended up being believed as true. Kinda wish this sentiment was quashed many years ago and not in 2020/2021 gah... So, what's happening in that scene is actually far more deeper than simply to traumatise James.... Pyramid Head is a manifestation of James' guilt AND unconscious desire to be punished for killing his terminally ill wife. James is called to Silent Hill via a delusional letter from Mary he created in his mind.(A made up one to ignore the real one). He's suffering from some kind of selective amnesia throughout the game, hence why everything is there to remind him of his pain. Obviously he's traumatised by what he did that his mind has blocked it out to the point it seems he has remembered a false timeline of events... but his soul is yearning for judgement. Ito says that, therefore, James is suffering from many delusions, that's what's creating and manifesting his inner demons (true for all that come to Silent Hill). Pyramid Head himself is manifested as the executioner, tasked with punishing James, and so.. He is actually attacking James' delusions, trying to remove them:

*o* And Ito goes further! Right after PH kills those mannequins, he stalks over toward the closet James hides in (also meaningful, lmao, but okok it's not about sexual orientation). Apparently, PH's appearance is shifting. Ito says he modelled and animated all the monsters in the original, so I trust him when he says that the front left panel in the corner of his helmet is peeling/flaking back and a tongue-like appendage protrudes from the hole. Although.. he admits it might be too dark to see in that scene, but it's there supposedly. I'm paraphrasing, but Ito implies that PH is impacted by James' delusions in that James *thinks* he sees a tentacle come out of the helmet and thus manifests that. And that's when James shoots at him - He shoots at his own desire to be judged when it attempts to remove his delusions that are keeping him from the truth of his reality!! James can't face reality at this point - those delusions are keeping him somewhat sane and distracted! It hurts too much this early on for PH to attack those delusions so he stops it...this is why he is 'in the closet'. James continues to keep those 'skeletons' there, for now. It makes PH look like the true good guy - an angel.. like Valtiel (interesting to note they have similar body design). Because of learning this, I very quickly noticed how throughout the Remake, you will find plenty already downed enemies.. and it was easy to think ''PH was here''. After James realises the truth from the tape, the Hotel reveals its true appearance (not sure when it burned down or if that has something to do with Alessa, er wait I remember in Origins it was in her house.. well anyway! this could explain James' sketchy memory of events, especially when confronted by Laura having only met Mary and received the letter a year ago in-game.) Anyway, the point is; if James is aware, then the delusions begin to fade. So after watching the Remake, I hoped that the monsters wouldn't appear/be weakened and lo and behold! Bloober was paying attention! The monsters after you watch the tape are weak and limping, can't attack or are already dead and I was delighted! It means Ito was consistent that the delusions the town creates makes up the core theme of Silent Hill. In the original, there are only 2 lying bodies before the PH fight. (I forget the meaning behind them but it has something to do with James' helplessness.) At any rate, Remake did the 'dying vision' symbolism much better here and the explanation is so so fascinating that it led me to rethink the concept behind PH. Side note though, about that hole in PH's helmet. I was always so damn confused about it for so many years!! I used to draw it as a rectangular hole (some art by Ito actually depicted it like that iirc), and then eventually to a gunshot hole since James, well, shot at him, so I assumed that's what it was from. and NOW it's actually a triangular shaped hole from the paneling being 'turned upward' due to how James' is perceiving him in the moment. What a revelation, I cry. Ah.. and note on other design aspects.. Apparently Ito never designed PH with a mass of flesh under the helmet (just a perpetual shadow and the neck bag thing at the back) and he doesn't even know who conceptualised that, but I think it's due to all the cameos and appearances PH has made in many games since SH2. And he looks slightly different each time so.. yeah, interesting that.

Even the figma has that fleshy mass (and gunshot hole!) but I'd say it is accurate on nearly everything else:

It is a very nice figure though. I can't blame all these figures ever released that *weren't* supervised by Masahiro Ito himself, because lmao, Ito just admitted that PH is subjected to changes depending on how James views him, and that explains why details are vague and hard to determine let alone see bc the game is so dark. Take this little gacha figure of PH for example, from a cute baseball game called, I think, Konami Dream Stars (Pal Pro kun?) Yeah, I got Snake as well lol:

...and yes, shameless little peek at my nerdiness on display, all the Capcom stuff is directly below it lolll

------------------------------------------------------------------ So! Having learned what I did, I ofc had to question the next obvious thing; the cutscene just before the first boss fight. PH was without a doubt molesting the Lying Figure/Body which was moaning suggestively the entire fucking time - no one is about to gaslight me into thinking THAT wasn't sexual! And yes, Ito admits that scene was intentionally made to appear sexual (as opposed to the mannequins) and yet he says it has no sexual meaning....wtf does that even mean?! Well, I think I got it. Again, language barrier is most likely to blame, but... To apply the last explanation for the mannequins; James' delusions are making him *think* he is seeing something intimate to the point it manifests right then and there which is so disturbing he recoils and tries to go back through the now-locked door. And so.. it would seem that to PH, he is just trying to destroy the delusions and he can't help how James perceives that; it's just going to manifest accordingly. And while Ito hates 'sexual repression' as somehow being canon to some fans (the majority actually), well, bruh... can you really blame people for coming to that conclusion? The flesh lips, nurses too, are on the risque side. Now, idk how it doesn't indicate something sexual if it's not meaning to be but I am aware of Ito's art style tending to be quite sexual and suggestive, featuring a lot of bdsm themes in his artwork and he is quite obviously inspired by at least HR Giger's work. So making the nurses, for example, look the way they do may be a stylistic choice, but I highly doubt it doesn't also have a symbolic purpose other than referencing Lisa's image or something (This is Silent Hill though ffs, everything is symbolic, it HAS to be). I'll reassess the meaning of those for myself, but specifically I'm addressing PH (and soon in another post, the other elephant in the room: Abstract Daddy.) Initially, I always saw PH as trying to remind James of his sins, jolt his memory, to wake him up to reality. (Which is interesting considering it's not clear if Silent Hill itself is even rooted in reality, the alter dimensions I mean. Another topic I want to address soon.) I also noticed the mirroring effect PH/Maria were doing in relation to their human counterparts; PH is James, and Maria is Mary; James killed Mary, and so PH kills Maria. But.. If PH is actually also trying to destroy the delusions, (which also appears to reflect the fact James is trying to overcome his guilt, his mental blockages that are causing his selective amnesia)that inadvertently means PH will need to destroy himself in the end as well, and that is exactly what happens..

Coincidentally, this would also reflect James' suiciding.

But first, PH attacks the monsters that are manifested and represent different aspects of James' trauma/psyche. Then he is constantly confronting James by killing Maria, or James having to return to a dead Maria. I thought he was basically tormenting James by showing him what he'd essentially done to Mary. "This is what you're guilty about, this is what you need to accept'' I think that idea still holds water (pun very intentional), but now I feel it adds another layer because Maria is the ultimate delusion... and thus, PH must destroy her. Now when she says 'I'm not your Mary, but I can if you want me to be' makes more sense to me what she is. She too is subjected to James' delusions because she keeps shifting the perspective she talks or thinks in, Mary's or Maria's? But she knows she is not Mary, just a manifestation of an idea. And James deep down knows she is holding him back (like all the other delusions) and that feeling calls PH to thus kill her. When James can't escape the reality of his past, he finally accepts the truth, the memories revived by the tape, and confronts PH after stabbing Maria a final time. 'Stop denying/ignoring your guilt, and stop trying to cover it up with distractions like Maria'. James finally doesn't need to be told anymore, he has punished himself (fitting, seeing as PH is an extension of James anyway) and thus PH, the final delusion/illusion kill themselves and disappear.

-------------------------------------

OK so that's PH! Now to compare that with the remake

My main gripe was that the game is way too saturated in colour and too bright in certain parts, but it improves that as you delve deeper in the game thankfully. Kudos to Bloober for changing James' face to something more 'unaware' and disassociative. Gripe number 2: I do wish they cut out the 'hand rubbing' in the opening scene or at least tone it down bc that kind of foreshadowing is too damn obvious, sorry. Not needed. Especially not right at the start. Not even for old fans playing it, we know what happens, but cmon...It makes James too aware of *something* and his selective amnesia is what gives rise to his own customised demons...if he is even slightly aware of what he did, then what is the point to seeing the monsters, let alone PH attacking them, now that we know what Ito had intended? Wouldnt that change their appearance, or rather, remove them altogether? sigh, anyway. I find PH a bit too bright, not dirty enough and consequently, not as disturbing. Partly for that was how they clearly removed the lying body scene from the boss fight. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but now with much needed context, this now makes sense...

HOWEVER....If my guess about James' assuming something sexual was taking place in that scene is what manifested it to begin with, then what is there to say about the remake?... So the simple act of hand-rubbing (awareness) really DOES make a difference, huh?! >:O it took away our favourite PH scene! 😂💔..

We can talk about DEI and stuff like that affecting certain themes in this game.... but Ito saying 'it doesn't mean it's sexual' would explain why it's taken out of the remake. Ito has supervised the Bloober design team on this, so they would have so much more context and info from the man himself... Still, it appears to conflict with James' psyche, bc it is through his very perspective that we are perceiving the town and how it presents itself to James so ofc if James sees something explicit, so are we the player. We are seeing the town and monsters through his eyes. And there is much to say about whether or not the other characters are even seeing the same town, but I'll get to that too. There is also the possibility that it's just 'creative freedom' on Bloober's part. It sucks, but overall... the game's pros outweigh the cons. Symbolism for Silent Hill is a very strong trait though, so I'm a bit conflicted about those changes. In the end, PH being a punisher and attacking the delusions of James' traumatised state of mind is fundamental, so as long as that is present, then I can't really say it's so inaccurate ig. It does imho, take away from PH's menacing persona and tones the disturbing factor down which consequently, in my humble opinion, makes him less scary. Intimidating, perhaps.. but less so. He looks very cool though lol. Especially how he breaks the walls during the chase and the final PH battle, I was super impressed with it! I didn't really like how PH was animated in the cutscene in the first fight (the way he turns around, idk..) but I love how they both throw the spears at you! This fight definitely improved upon the og version. Ah, and the sound of his heavy footsteps are wonderful as well! There was another creative thing Bloober did with PH's knife where you have to pick it up to advance through the tentacle wall thing. I realised this was a manifestation of James mental blocks since he starts holding his head in pain. But I thought "oh cool! James is gonna use the Great Knife to cut them!" But sadly, no.. but.. those tentacles would peel back, afraid of the presence of PH's knife... they are delusions after all~

Oh btw.. I didn't realize this before, but as soon as you attain Angela's knife, PH appears with the Great Knife - before this, he is unarmed. In Remake, right after you get her knife, you can hear PH's infamous screeching coming from dragging the Great Knife, reiterating that he is James. Subtle but very cool! I can't believe I didn't make that connection myself lol bah.

A bit more gripes to mention though: his strange janky movements that were imitated in remake made it look like a sad parody of the original scene, which was much more disturbing. I think it would have been better had they not added that part, it was random to see when he was moving as normal as one does trying to apprehend the mannequins, then calmly and slowly assessing the room only to suddenly flail about and strike random poses barely reminiscent of what he does in the original...and then just stand there as if James never shot him 🤨 not to mention, James looks so unbothered in this scene, he doesnt look at all anxious like in the original..the whole 'interaction' looked awkward. The original scene was paced better giving PH a kind of build up to those strange movements. I also dislike the lack of reaction and bad pacing with several of Remake's cutscenes as it toned down much of the intensity in crucial moments of the game, like in this one with PH. Yet... improved on others that I think were made better than the original's by elaborating on them.

Anyway I will touch on this and add more criticisms on remake in another post, this one is long enough lol; i just tried to get my thoughts on PH in one post but if I missed something I'll just add it in the PT.2.

If you actually read this, you must be as obsessed as I am (thank you)! Feel free to add your thoughts if you want, I love talking about silent hill symbolism or the ideologies behind The Order.

[rabnerd28]

Okay I just wanna pop by and say how much I loved your Cats video essay. I've never really delved far into the Cats fandom myself, but I do really like the stage show, and I generally just have a strong love for musical theatre and an equally strong hate for the trend of shitty live action remakes. I'll never turn down a good 2 hour video tearing apart a bad remake, but there's only so many times you can watch some guy with a review channel dispassionately go "lol, look at this nightmare fuel CGI. Isn't it weird that they're cats??? And they're singing??? Worst movie of 2019" before it just gets annoying.

Within 5 minutes of starting your video I was like. Oh okay. You're fandom trash. You are absolute fandom trash. This is going to be so good. You are going to tear this movie to fucking shreds. Because I know, from firsthand experience, that hell hath no fury like a fan scorned.

The moment you first made a hint towards Tuggofelees, I was like "yeah, okay, this person is the right person to be reviewing this movie." It really made me realize not just how much Cats 2019 failed as a movie, but also how deeply it failed its core demographic. Like... Idk, people like you should have been the target audience for this movie, but instead Tomothy basically entirely disregarded everything that the fandom likes about the show (the subtle bits of characterization, the relationships between the cats, the feeling of love and community that the jellicles share, even the unique and striking character designs). It really makes you wonder what the hell he thought the outcome here was gonna be.

While I loved Sideways' analysis, and Lindsey Ellis's too, because they both have a lot to say about Cats as an actual show, they're both lacking a certain... Je-ne-sais-quoi. And that je-ne-sais-quoi is the fervent passion of someone who knows this media I side and out and cares about these characters like family.

Anyways I've watched your video like 4 times and I'm gonna continue to do so.

Thank you so much! I literally have watched so few reviews of the movie because after a couple you get the basic gist of "yup movie bad" without explaining any actual reason besides the CGI. And the fact that I didn't see anyone ever talk about the characters made me want to talk about it when I finally watched it.

I never talk about anything on my channel unless I'm fandom trash about it. Otherwise I would get nothing done. I was going to make a different video about cats, and decided to watch the 2019 film for it, and literally got so mad I made the video about how bad the 2019 film was. Especially because nobody talked about the reasons it was actually bad.

I actually watched the DVD commentary for the movie recently and the basic thought process I think Tom had was a mix of "I remember this when I saw the show when I was 8" and "I want to work with this celebrity". Watching that made me hate the movie even more.

Personally I think Lindsey's video is good for the basic history of Cats and the overall problem of Hollywood adapting musicals badly. I think Sideways is good for understanding why they fucked up the basic story and the music, but I think Maggie Mae Fish may have the best video because she gets into the nitty gritty of the original TS Elliot Poems and why TS Elliot sucks...because he does.

Thank you for the views! I have plans for one more Cats video, but things happened in another fandom I'm in and I gotta make a video for that first

[veryvincible]

If tony meets the criteria for ocd, why do you still say he doesn't have it? Not disagreeing just curious

Disclaimer again: I am not a mental health professional, I am simply a mental health advocate with many years of research under my belt, as well as lots of firsthand experience with the diagnostic process and other mental health-related incidences with the medical field (in America specifically). So, as always, feel free to look into it yourself if you’re interested in it, because there’s always discourse in the (very messy) field of psychology. Anyway, on we go.

The thing to remember here is that, with fictional characters, we don’t get to delve into their minds as much as we’d like to; internal monologue, as deep and complex and beautiful as it can be, is still a collection of words to define a mass of feelings, and these masses of feelings can be attributed to so, so many things. When a therapist diagnoses you, they get to ask funky questions like, “Do you feel like your thoughts and concerns spiral, and you’re helpless to stop them?” “Thinking back to your childhood, do you think you exhibited similar symptoms that you’re experiencing currently?” “Do you, personally, have an opinion about what may have been a catalytic event for you adopting this state of mind?” and all sorts of things. Though those are much more formally put than most questions I’ve been asked by therapists, the gist is basically the same-- they get to deep dive into your history, your mind, your self-awareness, your body language, your feelings... and you’re one cohesive person with a cohesive story. 

For comic book characters, we don’t get to delve into that. We don’t get to go, “Well, his childhood was like this, and that explains these behaviors! We can assume his panic response is Like This, and we can assume his attachment style is Like This, and we can assume his symptoms are Like This, and we can assume he feels Like This,” but those are all assumptions, and we can’t probe further. On top of that, most of them aren’t even intentional-- sure, yes, Tony Stark is a very sad man, and most writers make him this very sad man, but I can guarantee that most writers aren’t specifically looking into MDD and writing Tony accordingly. Some may be drawing from personal experience, others may be drawing from assumptions, etc. Whatever the case, Tony is not a cohesive man with a psychological timeline wherein one event leads to a developed response, consistently.

Above all else, diagnosis is a tool for treatment-- yes, it is excellent to be able to better understand yourself and feel the relief that comes along with this, but diagnosis came into being for the sake of medical professionals being able to say, “Hm, you’ve got [whatever]. I will go tell the other doctor you’ve got [whatever], so that guy can help you, because he specializes in [whatever], or you can try these home remedies for [whatever], or we can delve into [whatever] emotionally with talk therapy.”

Because diagnosis is a tool for treatment, you get these funky little footnotes in the DSM (which, again, is not the end-all, be-all, but when it comes to fictional characters, it’s totally fine) and other diagnostic tools that tell you “Even if you meet all these criteria, this diagnosis isn’t necessary if these symptoms would be better explained by something else!” because treating you for every psychological condition you qualify for could be rough on your body, it could end up with conflicting treatments (especially if you make incorrect assumptions, or if certain symptoms are stemming from different physiological factors despite appearing the same externally), and it’s just kind of tedious.

Like, you could potentially exhibit every symptom under the diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety, but if you have severe PTSD from long-term trauma that’s made you super jittery, it might be accepted that Generalized Anxiety wouldn’t be the best diagnosis for you, because ideally the treatment you’d receive for PTSD (trauma counseling, medication, etc.) would help with that.

I will say here that having an “umbrella diagnosis” under which other potential diagnoses could fall is not the same thing as having comorbid disorders; you probably know that already, but I’m going to say it anyway, just in case. Comorbidity involves overlap but separation of diagnoses, whereas the whole “Don’t diagnose your patient with [whatever disorder] if these symptoms are better explained by another thing!” happens more often when the entirety of one potential diagnosis fits under a section of another, more fitting diagnosis. So, if you see anyone with very long lists of diagnoses (probably don’t put big lists like that in your bios, though, please-- that seems kind of dangerous), that’s not a sign that they’re, like, mental illness-hoarding or whatever the fuck, despite that being a very common assumption that a lot of neurotypical people (and honestly, other mentally ill people) can have. Bodies like to be balanced. When one thing falls out of place, a lot of other things might follow. Just a disclaimer for you here, because I feel it’s important to say.

So, that covers... most of the reason why I don’t personally like to point to Tony as a character with OCD. First of all, sure, he has what could be considered obsessions and what could be considered compulsions, but we can’t actually ask him, “Hey, do you think these thoughts are obsessive? Are these potential compulsions things you perform ritualistically in order to make the obsessive thoughts go away?”

And... I don’t know. I think OCD (for me, specifically-- I know there are others with OCD whose opinions differ, and more power to them) is something that has to be written more intentionally for it to read as representation. Sure, they might have what could be intrusive thoughts... but my intrusive thoughts don’t just feel like thoughts that “could” be intrusive. They are intrusive, unmistakably. My compulsions don’t just feel like solutions to the problems I’ve made up or exaggerated in my head; they’re irrational, fear-based, anxiety-inducing. It’s the way you make sure every upstairs door is closed before heading downstairs, because otherwise you get a tightness in your chest and you can’t focus or breathe quite right; or the way you get up out of bed to make sure your door is locked multiple times just in case you forgot; or the way you develop avoidant tendencies or overly communicative tendencies because if you don’t, the ramifications within your relationships could be unbearable. It’s having a voice inside your head that’s not just telling you you’re a monster, the perfect antithesis to everything you’ve ever held dear; it’s a voice inside your head that is the monster, a voice that sounds the same as your own, simultaneously overprotective of your well-being and overly interested in the total destruction of your person.

And... I’m not saying Tony doesn’t experience that. He clearly has this feeling of “I am a monster” inside of him. He clearly has that feeling due to what he perceives as his own shortcomings. But these are comic books, and though there are many ways you could introduce intrusive thoughts in an internal monologue, we don’t really get that with Tony as much as I’d need to in order to feel represented by him. We don’t get him thinking shit like, “You could abandon this all, you could leave this shit to the rest of the team, you could fuck off and live on an island somewhere else, you could hole yourself up in a room and never leave, you could kill them, you could kill him, you could kill everyone, you know for a fact you have the resources to kill everyone, don’t you want to make sure? What if your tech fails? What if you do kill everyone? What would happen, huh? How would that look? How would that feel? What do you think it would feel like to pick up their bodies, to look in their eyes and have nothing staring back at you? You could tell him you hate him. Not to save him from you, no-- you could just do it because you’re able to do it, because you’ve cultivated these relationships and you’ve fooled everyone into loving you despite knowing you don’t deserve it. You’ve tricked them, and every day you continue on like this you’re manipulating them, and you’ve taken so much from them-- they’ve put so much of themselves in your hand that you could so, so easily crush if you just took a second and did it.”

... And we don’t get the accompanying monologue of, “No, god no, what the fuck, that’s not who I am, that’s not who I want, I’m not like that, I love them, that can’t be who I am, if that’s who I am then what does that say about me, what does that say about the space I take up, what does that make me?”

Which is where the OCD version of “I am a monster” tends to originate-- the inherent inability to separate oneself from the illness, the difficulty in coping with an overactive survival mechanism ready to ensure you’re prepared for every single thing that could go wrong, very specifically the things you’re most worried about, because that’s what matters, right? The things you’re worried most about. And Tony’s most worried about love, about his loved ones, about the planet, about life.

But “I am a monster” doesn’t imply that internal monologue. “I am a monster” could be a legitimate analysis of what he’s been through and what he’s done, clouded by self-loathing instilled in him by his father. “I am a monster” could be something he’s thought since he was younger, not because of any specific symptoms he developed, but because of what he was told-- because he was told he was wrong, bad, unlovable.

I think Tony could get there. I think I honestly may have written Tony there at some point, just because it’s easy to write for me. But if we’re following standard diagnostic procedures with a man on a page who really hasn’t been written intentionally with anything other than substance abuse, symptoms of PTSD, and depression... I don’t know. It doesn’t read like OCD to me. It doesn’t feel like OCD to me, and if at any point it did, I think that would be more of me filling in blanks with my own experiences than it would be anything else.

(There is one canonical instance of “I could kill this person right now if I wanted to!” level intrusive-ish thoughts I can think of off the top of my head, and that is in the most recent Iron Man run, and that also doesn’t read like OCD to me because, honestly, nothing Cantwell writes with regards to mental health seems natural or authentic or accurate. Also, I don’t know if it really qualifies as an intrusive thought if it feels more like a justified outburst of rage to the character thinking it, so, uh. Hmm.)

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 5 Production Analysis

Vol 6, Ch 1 Production Analysis 

Vol 6, Ch 2 Production Analysis 

Vol 6, Ch 3 Production Analysis 

Vol 6, Ch 4 Production Analysis 

It can be a bit scary when I’m right on the money about something. The previous production analysis for volume 6 ended on a note pointing out how there were less names in the animation department section of of ending credits of chapter 4 compared to prior episodes. This led me to wonder if either the animators more heavily involved with RWBY would either be working on Gen:Lock at around this point in the volume 6′s production or their time and attention would be spent on a later episode. I am happy to find that it was the latter but also admittedly shocked to find that the “later episode” would be this one.

Before diving into the bit everyone has been losing their minds about, let’s briefly talk about the storyboards and camera layout in the opening scene. Despite having spent time extensively dissecting how Rachel Doda does storyboards and camera layouts in the scenes she’s assigned in the the production analysis for chapter 2, I try to be mindful not to let confirmation bias get the better of me as I’m trying to learn more about the other storyboard and camera layout artists within the show. That being said though, it wouldn’t hurt to least make a conscious presumption that the first sequence had her involvement given the cues and techniques mentioned before. A similarly-presented panning shot and blocking between characters to highlight the reveal of one of them, among other things are signs that Rachel Doda either did the boards or the camera layout for the setup of the scene and probably even the fight itself.

Okay, now to finally address the elephant in the room. Neo is back and in a redone character model no less! Of all the characters to have had a recurring appearance into the show, she has by far been given the most unconventional approach. Many fans by now are aware of the gist as to how she came to be, but for those not in the know, Neo was a character that was conceived a mere 10 days prior to the release of volume 2′s fourth episode. Her design was partially inspired by a genderbent cosplay from Sonja Carter, otherwise known as Soulfire Photography. Her semblance was the result of from is the result of Monty Oum needing an easier way to animate her and Torchwick making a quick escape according to the volume 2 blu-ray directors and animators commentary tracks respectively:

“I needed an uh, it's so backwards how like, I needed them to exit the scene like, Neo was like Torchwick's escape plan. And I was like, "oh yeah, they could get in the ship and then get away." I was like, "That's hard to animate.”  Let's just have them shatter into glass, that's simple!"

“And then we have Neo come in and do... something weird. I guess, I tried to think of it as an illusionary technique. It’s like her version of ninja smoke bomb where it’s like she gets away because she causes some sort of distraction because the umbrella is relatively fast, the ship was probably waiting.”

Her entire character was born from the kind of creative process Monty had in general. It’s something he was a bit outspoken about where he compared his own process to that of most film or animation productions, referring to the latter’s structured, step-by-step process as “baking”, while he referred to his own personal, improvisational process as “stir-frying.” Both approaches have their merits and faults, but whether or not one is seen as more favorable over the other in animation production is not the point to get across. Rather, it’s to point out how a character like Neo can come to be in the first place:

“ When I’m working on my own, I tend to run editorial and animation concurrently. I’m averse to storyboards and over-planning. I like to talk about traditional 3D pipelines as being akin to baking: everything is very deliberate and methodical. My version of 3D animation is more like stir-frying. It’s very live and in the moment. If I need a model, I make a model. If a shot or sequence isn’t working, I’ll cut it, move it, or use it later - sometimes several years later.”

-Monty Oum, interview at Creativebloq (yes, they spelled “RWBY” wrong)

So with the story of how Neo came to be out of the way, let’s talk about her in action sequences since a lot has happened in RWBY’s production between last appearance and her grand return. Up until now, only 3 people have ever had a chance to animate Neo fighting. Monty Oum during chapters 4 & 7 of volume 2 and Joel Mann and Andrea Caprotti in chapter 11 of volume 3, the latter two also animated Cinder, Emerald, & Mercury vs Amber in chapter 7 of the same volume. Without going too much into detail, my stance on Monty and how he created fight scenes have always been more conflicted compared to the general consensus. A lot of that has to do with two of the several hats he wore up until his passing, his role as the show’s initial director and as lead animator. As the director, it always felt unclear as to how much thought was considered behind the character motivations within a fight or the consequences that would logically follow after one. Something just feels off in hindsight when say, a criminal wreaks havoc on a highway by knocking away multiple cars, using a mech that’s stolen, top-secret military property and we don’t ever get a scene showing the military general’s reaction to the incident, whether or not he ultimately does anything about it. As much as I appreciate good choreography and rhythm when I see it, having the story being weaved within and around a given fight in works of fiction is what can make them engaging in the first place.

That being said, Monty’s skills as an animator were definitely made clear in the fight scenes he assigned himself to within the show. Animation in general is not an easy medium to tackle, regardless of what kind of gestures or expressions one wants to sell and creating action sequences require both the 12 principles of animation and a few other guidelines in editing and cinematography to make them engaging. In the case of the character Neo, Monty made it very evident what kind of character he wanted to portray through her body language, facial expressions and poses. She fights in a classy way, but unlike Weiss Schnee who is shown as being more consciously routine and disciplined, Neo is comparatively more sassy and provoking. She likes to push her opponent’s buttons with the way she dodges, defends and attacks. Jumping into volume 3, Joel Mann and Andrea Caprotti picked up the pieces from where Monty left off up until his passing and captured much of the same personality to how she fights. Finally, three volumes later, we have her fight with Cinder in this chapter. Not only were just about all of the same traits with Neo’s character left intact, but the list of animators involved this time around were a pleasant surprise. Matt Drury, Megan Pellino, and Joe Vick were confirmed to have animated the fight with current assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern providing some assistance by animating a couple of shots herself. I’ve gone on record in previous posts on how between volume 5 having on of the biggest waves of new recruits, the overall restructuring of animation teams between RWBY’s sixth volume and Gen:Lock on the horizon, and the staff list on the Adam Character short, it’s now more important than ever to remain aware of who will be animating any fight scene or non-fight scene. “Keep moving forward” is a golden phrase within the fan base originally uttered by one of Monty’s tweets and this mantra can be applied to acknowledging new names involved in the production rather than staying stagnant. This episode is a good example of why that’s vital.

This fight sequence was not only an opportunity to show off the return of a fan-favorite character, but it also needed to formally establish the narrative reason as to why Neo is here now. Keyword being “formally”. Yes, fans have spent weeks speculating the possibility of her character through the opening theme and the second chapter. But that doesn’t change the fact that the CRWBY have been spent several months on the production of this part of the volume and still need to make it clear what this character’s motives are for appearing again after a few years without the scene coming off as pointless fanservice. That can be especially challenging for a mute character, but Melanie, Matt, Megan & Joe made that all clear through the choreography and more importantly, the emotional action and reaction. Despite the supposed intentions to why she’s combating against Cinder, Neo is all about taunting her opponent. So it’s only natural that she would ride the line between fighting aggressively and playfully, going as far as momentarily taking out her blade via a split-second smear, all while displaying an appropriate grin on her face. This constant assault in turn escalates the intensity from Cinder’s perspective by shifting her emotions from confusion to frustration. She drops being defensive and starts swinging fists and kicks so aggressively, that her actions come off a little animalistic and she eventually gets more acrobatic and starts breaking furniture.

Though none of Cinder’s actions and reactions are displayed senselessly, despite her facial expressions and vocal cries on Jessica Nigri’s part suggesting otherwise. In the fifth episode of season 2 of CRWBY: Behind the Episode. In it, Matt Drury. who seems to have animated the bit with Neo and Cinder going at it on the bar stand, talked about applying the notion of “see, think, do”, in which a character stays keen on his/her opponent’s movements based on what the latter is going to strike with and then responds accordingly. It’s essentially something learned in Martial arts in general, even competitive fighting games apply this concept. The same use of “see, think, do” can also be seen in Matt’s previous animated sequences in the Adam Character Short. Despite wearing a mask, there are various alternative ways he goes about handling each opponent such as the gunshots in the forest sequence and the framing of shots in the Schnee Dust Company facility to help see what Adam sees and thinks. 

I could go on about how great the physical aspects of the fight turned out adding the great use of staging in certain shots and even the brief instance of Neo attacking with her hidden blade through the different colored smears and sound effects that would’ve been easy to miss otherwise. But there’s still a bit more to talk about Neo and Cinder’s conflict outside of the fighting animation. Being a mute character, facial expressions are important to get right in both fighting and dialogue scenes and when Neo’s worn-&-torn character model is shown, heartache, surprise, fear and reluctance are all emotions made very clear. Finally, there’s some 2-D visual effects, likely from Myke Chapman again, this time in the form of wind. I can only imagine the overall design of the wind column surrounding Cinder is fairly elaborate to animate, despite it being looped. But it’s pulled off really well. The wind seems to be divided in three layers: there’s the swirling wind in front of Cinder, the wind swirling behind her and the base on the bottom which seems to be animated on 2s while the former two are animated on 1s. There’s also the additional wind bursting out at the bottom when Cinder levitates up or back down to the ground. Even though I have praised the 2-D effects in chapter 3, a bit of concern was felt as to whether the timing would be played around enough by utilizing what is called “frame modulation”. To put simply, the phrase has to do with an animator fluctuating between animating a sequence on 1s, 2s and 3s, depending on what exactly is meant to be conveyed. This was what I was slightly worried about with the 2-D effects going forward, but thankfully, this one effect soundly put the concern itself to rest.

Despite the harsh criticisms being common knowledge at this point (some of which are certainly valid), I have contrarily been willing to defend the general presentation of fights in volumes 4 & 5 for at least tapping into the idea of more consciously displaying the motivation and consequences between characters engaged in conflict. That being said, both the emotional narrative and physical choreography can both coexist and this Neo vs Cinder conflict served as a great, concise example of just that. I would not necessarily call the scene a “return to form” like many fans have been quick to state. But that should not take away from the level of effort being paid off in the first half of this episode serves as a effective reminder of moving forward to acknowledge both new and recurring talent. With that said, the topic of Cinder vs Neo has been greatly exhausted so let’s move on to a different change of pace in the latter half of the episode. It’s almost night and day in terms of what to break down with the Brunswick Farms scenes. Though there is just as much to talk about, just for mostly different reasons. The latter half of the episode has more emphasis on character acting through a mixture between motion capture and hand-keyed animations, timing of staging of moments through camera layout and editing, 3-D effects for the snow, and even the sound effects taking the spotlight to capture the eerie feeling of the setting.

Speaking of sound effects, let’s talk about that. Despite, talking this series of posts being about breaking down and speculating the production of RWBY, I’ve admittedly been very negligent on the audio and mixing up until now. But the audio department’s effort definitely deserve their due this episode with Chris Kokkinos taking the helm as lead of said-department since volume... Immediately, the sounds of the winds picking up in the storm are the first things made clear to the viewer. Even though there are dissolve transitions to shots of just the snowy setting for a few seconds, with the visibility being deliberately kept at a minimum, one can’t help but be drawn to the audio of the harsh winds. Once they barge inside, the music actually drops entirely for a moment and the sounds within the household immediately come to play. The creaking and footsteps of the wooden floors increase the tense feeling that something is amiss and though the music starts again once Ruby spots the family portraits, it doesn’t fight against the sound effects for attention. Next is Kara Eberle’s well-done screaming and panicky breathing as Weiss which is probably the only moment where the vocal delivery plays a punchy part of the uncomfortable setting. That, combined with the zoom-out from Ruby and Blake entering the room to seeing the rotted, sleeping corpses serves a great reminder of why I don’t care for horror movies in general, regardless of how laughably bad they can be. Congratulations CRWBY.

Next is the scene with the gang at the living room, starting with a shot of the fireplace. It’s more 2-D effects work on the fire which is simple and serviceable, though I’m not the most fond of the... “rendering” of the soot, for lack of a better way to explain it? It’s slightly jarring to look at in that it’s made too obvious that the elements of 2-D and 3-D don’t mesh as well as they could. But it’s really just a nitpick when all is said and done. The fluctuating shadow or lack thereof is interesting however since this extends to the characters. As much as the Pencil plug-in in 3DS Max has served as beneficial to the overall shading effect in RWBY’s character models for the past few volumes, making shadow flicker in front of a stable fire does not seem to be that doable. Whether this is due to lack of a simulation feature or it being possible to do manually but too time consuming, what very likely the lighting or compositing department have done before and did again in this chapter is use a subtle flickering effect that doesn’t change the shading on the characters so much as it slightly dims the light source, being the fireplace. It’s an interesting trick and it works fine, though I’m curious whether there is at all a way to manipulate the shading itself or rim lighting if added via the Pencil plug-in. Though the rim lighting is definitely seen a bit later in a couple of shots with Weiss.

Moving on, the living room scene itself seems to have been at least partially animated by Asha Bishi since much of her tells in character acting are there. Very expressive gestures and a combination of Blake’s cat ear shifts and eyes widening with the pupils being a tad more dilated, the last of which is something that been made more obvious after the last CRWBY episode. With that said, it’s a little hard to pin down when her sequence of cuts end. Next is the cut with Blake and Yang traversing in the snow which is actually the first shot and only shot newcomer, Nyle Pierson has animated in the show as of this episode. It’s a small bit but it totally nails how Blake and Yang would go about dealing with harsh snowy winds differently with one covering herself while the other tries to tough it out. Plus the follow-through on their clothing and hair are very well handled by avoiding feeling too similar, almost distinguishing which character’s clothes are sturdier. Now would also be a good time to briefly talk about the snow effects in this chapter and in this volume in general thus far. It’s all possibly a simulation done via Adobe After Effects from the compositing team since it doesn’t really interact with the main cast themselves. One exception though may be the moment Qrow stepped inside to dry off, though it’s honestly hard to say. The snow being brushed off seem to be done by the visual effects artists, but the wet spots formed on the floor may have been composited since they fade into the ground.

Moving into the shed scene, the quiet atmosphere is consistently well-set where only the sound effects and voice acting are heard. The choice of boards and camera layout also help ease into the sense of intimacy being brought between Blake and Yang’s conversation, going from wider and more distant shots that show the entire interior to having more medium and close-up shots and then back to a wider shot to take things back to square one. The last shot of this scene especially couldn’t be any more obvious as the visual equivalent of being given the cold shoulder. The animations through the facial expressions and gestures also serve to compliment the intention of the scene. I want to say Hannah Novotny animated this, but It’s still a little tricky to say for certain since she and Asha have similar approaches to animating the same characters. Jumping into the last scene of the episode and we get a couple of neat lighting choices, particularly with the small flames from Weiss and the flashlight on Ruby’s scroll. The show is no stranger to artificial lighting via vehicles and objects, but there hasn’t exactly been a light source done as small and bright before. There’s also an interesting detail by having the shape of the light be a couple of rings. Aside from that, nothing else to add beyond the cute, comedic character acting between Ruby and Weiss at the end of the episode. Not sure who the animator was that worked on it, but it served as an appropriately small, light-heard break in an otherwise very atmospheric set of scenes.

With that, this marks the end of another production analysis for volume 6 thus far. Despite the length being only slightly longer than the previous episode, chapter 5 had more going on overall with a more varied change of pace between the two-halves of the episode. With the return of a character who has been overdue for another appearance and a setting that invites visual and audio techniques from the horror film genre, it’s a bit hard to imagine how much more absurd things will go. But based on tweets Miles Luna and Melanie Stern have been teasing, things are expected to get even more nuts. This has made me especially curious as to what the next chapter or so is going to offer. One more thing to add: I want to give a special thanks and shout-out to Changyuraptor from the RWBY sub-reddit and his Source McGourse document on practically every confirmed scene each animator has done over the course of RWBY’s production. As much as I do my best to keep track of who has done what, Changyuraptor is arguably more on top of things than I am when it comes to searching high and low for any up-to-date information of confirmed sequences in volume 6 and a couple of the animators I found out from him.

[justmysicklypride]

P-P-P-Play that shit: ptv analysis - Part 2

 Hi what’s up everyone and welcome to this week’s pew news. This is a continuation of my last post where I pretty much summed up Pierce The Veil’s career from the beginning to present and gave an overview of their rise and downfall. You can check it out here, but if you already know about everything or have read it already then feel free to ignore it. In any case, I was originally gonna make these two posts as one but ran out of room bc who the hell would read that much text in a blog post (me) so here you go - part two of this fucking conspiracy theory because I didn’t even get to share any of my thoughts in the last one. (I also forgot to put headers with each new topic smh apologies to the English language)

Edit: it’s been fucking eons since I wrote the last one/started writing this one like legit I even changed my user. The reason why this has been put off for so long will be explained later but yh smh

Gigantic obligatory disclaimer: Everything that I will discuss whether it be in this post or my last, or any future posts that relate to this subject IS NOT going to touch on the subject of the “sexual relations with a minor” incident in itself. I will not go into detail about my own views on this specific matter as there is literally no way to win because whatever I say could be taken out of context by literally anyone. That being said, I do not condone pedophilia, I do not condone sexual harassment or rape, and I do not undermine the importance of consent. I respect the laws of different states, as I know they vary with time and place, and I understand that everyone has their own opinions and I do not wish to impose my own onto others.

In regards to this, however, I do have to acknowledge that I, first and foremost, do not think that Mike Fuentes is innocent, and I strongly believe that how the band handled this situation was just plain terrible, but I do also have to acknowledge the fact that this situation is to stay between the accuser and the victim, as well as their respective legal teams and that I should not go nosedive headfirst into anything like this when it does not directly affect or require my judgement as a necessity, lest I face any legalities or blacklash as a result. Furthermore, everything that I will be talking about are conspiracies only and I do not in any way assume or imply that any of this is true.

In other words, I don’t mean to offend anyone but if you end up getting offended then that’s on you, not me. Let’s begin.

Introduction 

The points that I am trying to highlight in this essay post is, in simple words, that Pierce The Veil’s... well, everything, comes off as kind of a conspiracy, almost, to me. I have had these thoughts for a long-ish time, and so this post is basically me finally making a post that covers all things that I have been thinking of in the past. Unlike my previous post, this one is a lot less fact-based and a lot more opinionated, so if you’re not into that, then that’s fair. Otherwise, I will be discussing the following things (in this order): the topic of kellic, Misadventures, and the accusation + response.

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Ship Them Together And Call It Lemonade

I refer to my last post and assume that everyone understands how “kellic” came to be and what it means. To summarise to the bare minimum best of my abilities, it’s the ship name of Vic Fuentes and Kellin Quinn, aka what people call it when someone wants or is keen on the idea of these two frontmen having an affair with each other in a (typically) fictional setting. It happens all the time, especially in this day and age where you can easily just find someone with the same obsession as you with a click of a button. That’s why King For A Day, and inadvertently Collide With The Sky, became such a huge success. It appealed to the right demographic of teenagers and tweens who were ecstatic at the prospect of shipping, and went on to achieve even more impressive feats following that. How you ask? Well, by going on a tour around the world of course. Together. Playing shows every night that ends with one of them literally carrying the other off the stage. Gotta give the people what they want, hey?

I have a strong belief that the key to success is through beating the system at its own game. In this case, the game is simple - get fans, get money. Unfortunately, as we all know, getting fame isn’t as easy as simply earning it through grit and determination. To achieve fame, one must find a way to do something at the right time in the right way so that people will notice. If one person does, and your fire doesn’t die out right away, then you’ve got yourself a forest fire. Then later on, all you gotta do is keep this forrest fire going, but assuming that there isn’t someone standing on the other side with the whole fire department’s resources in tow, then the only thing stopping this fire is itself, because with all things in life, fire dies out, and fame stops accumulating after a while if nothing is done about it. Humans need entertainment. If something starts to fail to pique their interests, then they move on. That’s why YouTubers are required to change up their content every now and again in order to try and relight that spark they once had, and even then there’s a good chance that they won’t. 

I was originally going to write another blog essay about this whole YouTube analogy thing but quickly realised that for one, I don’t have time bc I’m getting my ass fucked by university on a daily basis; and that for another, there’s most likely a billion other videos or essays about this topic as is, so I’ll just link one or two of them here. I haven’t watched them all yet or I don’t remember much of them, but all they do is pretty much summarise up stuff like how YouTubers become successful and their downfalls and all that, and even though they kinda focus on a specific person or group of people, I feel like it could be generalised.

Even without the YouTube metaphor, we know shipping works. It is evident in multiple works across various media that giving the fans what they want is often what gives these people their continued success, such as Dan Howell and Phil Lester, who have all but stopped trying to create their own individual branding (save for their separate merch stores that are probably there just to get more people to buy their overpriced clothing), and who at this point have become such an overused example that I actually hesitated writing that. Why do you think movies and shows and cartoons mostly have a romantic subplot? Romance is an essential trope in literature and easily one of the most popular genre out there for various reasons. According to a Bustle article written in 2016, romance often gives the readers a sense of hope or gives them a way to live out their fantasies in the easiest way possible, and while this may not apply to everyone, (personally I’m not a romance fan much at all but I can appreciate good literature), it’s hard to deny the phrase “sex sells”.

Given that, you’d think that any company with half a brain would learn to exploit it, but for some reason this wasn’t the case in Pierce The Veil’s management, and no matter how I look at it, I can’t really see the reason why. It’s not like the band members are uncomfortable with the ship - Jaime Preciado has been seen kissing Vic Fuentes on stage (not on the lips guys chill) (I had forgotten how fucking difficult it takes to find this one specific clip so here’s a couple different fuenciado pictures instead to make up for it smfh), and Vic Fuentes has mentioned kellic in a live stream once jokingly - and Kellin Quinn is notoriously known for being completely okay with it (so long as he doesn’t have to look at it), so just what is the reason?

This Ain’t A Hiatus, It’s A Goddamned Arms Race

I’d be lying if I didn’t miss all the memes that all stemmed from the Pierce The Veil boys not being able to release an album when they’d promised, before postponing said album yet again and disappearing off of the face of the earth digitally for another year or two, giving them a total of four years as their unofficial, unannounced hiatus. For this, I have several questions.

We all know Vic Fuentes loves taking his sweet ass time releasing music - he’s admitted to remaking his first album a second time before releasing it, as stated an interview a couple years back - but you can’t honestly tell me their management just let them get away with it. Sure, through this time they’ve been pushing out new merch to no end, but something tells me that this giant gap they’ve wedged between the new album and Collide With The Sky isn’t gonna be good publicity, despite all the memes that’ve sprouted from it. There’s been fans who stopped taking interest in this band because of it, as well as fans who have just gotten fed up with having to wait so long. They scrapped a whole completed album in the process of creating Misadventures too, and while it’s not uncommon for bands to throw away near-completed ideas at whim, it’s also not unlikely for there to be some external factors or reasoning behind why they did it. Could it be that the album they threw away stayed too close to their roots and management or some other person told the band to start again, so that they can create something more appealing to this day and age? Or could it be something else that is hard to see at face-value?

You’ll Never Get Ahold Of Me Now

Finally, I’m gonna address the overdue elephant in the room. If you want to read the full thing, here it is because I’m tired of having to reiterate what happened. Mike Fuentes received a sexual allegation by some girl(s) and the band released a shitty statement that has since gotten deleted - that’s the general gist of it. 

Like I said, it’s been literal months (or weeks idk my perception of time is severely fucked) since I actually started making this post so literally no one cares anymore, but regardless of what past me has promised or written down, I’m not going to be discussing the allegation in itself, but rather what and/or how the band and their subsequent management has handled it, in that they handled it so bad that I honestly can’t believe they did it like that. 

Edit: I wasn’t gonna bother finding another copy of the statement bc no one’s gonna give a shit but then I’d be doing some baseless shit and I honestly can’t stand people who half ass these things, despite my growing urge to do the same thing, so here’s the statement. 

For starters, who the hell waits one whole month before releasing a statement? From what I can remember, their excuse was allegedly that pretty much management forbade them to talk or make a statement about it earlier for... reasons? (Just realised I don’t actually have the source for this so idk take it with a grain of salt I guess because I was sure I had read this somewhere but I can’t back it up.) 

That’s not even the worst part, either. The statement itself gave zero closure to literally everything. Yes, they acknowledged the allegation, but that’s just about as far as they went. The whole point of a statement is to clear things up, whether the accuser was right or wrong, and what steps will be taken from there, whether an apology is to be issued or not. No shit you know about the incident, who in the fandom wouldn’t? Instead pointing out the straight up obvious, what they should’ve done was 1) not waited an entire fucking month before talking about it, most likely hoping the whole thing to blow over by then and 2) actually talked about the incident in their statement instead of tiptoeing around the subject like some sort of time bomb ready to go off. There is no right or wrong answer, because literally all they had to do was tell the truth - as in write down a statement from Mike (not the whole fucking band mind you) about his take on the whole thing or get him to say what had happened from his point of view. Then resolve it privately with your legal team and whatnot if they really feel the need. Hell, all he needed to do was apologise. Whether something like that classifies as assault or rape or whatever is up to you but the fact of the matter is that she’s underaged at that point in time. Even if she was fully aware of the risks and whatnot and gave legitimate consent, under the eyes of the law and pretty much 80% of the people reacting to this incident, it will be deemed illegal and inappropriate behaviour. All these people had to do was literally just be open and honest about it regardless of whatever the hell happened, because this is all happening on a public platform where everyone can see/read it to their hearts’ content. Viewers can’t judge or make a decision to support or not support you if you don’t tell them your side of the story, so for the love of god, why the hell didn’t they?

The statement was filled with bullshit about how they love the fans and all that shit, and honestly my thoughts can be accurately summed up in this video right here. So much backlash could have potentially been avoided had they just told it as it is, because now all we have is a vague ass response that gives no closure and tell us nothing as to whether Mike actually did it or not, because in the statement he manage to spout some bullshit about how he’s “never intentionally manipulated or abused anyone in [his] life” and that he’s just a ball of empathy which at first glance could suggest he at least thinks he’s innocent, but then they go on to say how Mike’s taking a temporary leave from the band for, you guessed it, absolutely no reason. At least, no reason that they’ve given us (what else is new) (I’m becoming more petty as the night drags on it’s literally 1am). Honestly, .@piercetheveil, please tell me why the honest to god fuck did you have him leave just after suggesting that he might be innocent? I know the world isn’t black and white but when you’re making a stance and defending yourself or admitting to something, it really is - black and white that is. Either you’re innocent or believe that you’re innocent and stand your ground by not leaving the band, or you admit that you are guilty, in which case your leaving of the band would actually feel justified, because now it’s like you’re gonna come back as well, so what does that even mean? Mike isn’t gone indefinitely, he hasn’t pleaded guilty or innocent, and now the band is telling us they love us? Fuck out of here with that bullshit.

Yes, I support the band’s decision to pull out of the All Time Low tour and to not have Mike out there in case fans feel threatened or unsafe or whatnot, but if you’re pleading innocent, then honestly the whole band should’ve just said “hey we’re gonna go on hiatus for a while until our legal team’s finished with taking care of everything”, and not just said hey guys we’re gonna kick him out because he may or may not have done something that we’re not gonna tell you because we’re shady fuckers like that. I know they are on hiatus right now, but at the “start”, they only said that Mike would be withdrawing temporarily or whatever so it’s kind of like, okay? Sure? It’s a right mess I assure you. Honestly, throughout this whole incident, it was this statement part that made me really fed up with this band. My interest in them had died down significantly from since I hit fifteen all those three years ago, and right now when I dug up an old iPod shuffle to bring with me to university to save my phone battery throughout the day, I can honestly say that I won’t be adding any Pierce The Veil songs onto it anytime soon unless I get peer pressured to. Personally, I feel like that’s kind of the mentality of a lot of had-been Pierce The Veil fans, too.

That’s Great And All But What’s Your Point?

Pierce The Veil’s management sucks ass.

There’s no easy, lawsuit-prone way for me to say it but, and this is just a conspiracy theory I swear to god if I get the fucking ASIS kicking down my door in the middle of the night you better read the fucking disclaimer, there’s obviously some shady shit going on in there no matter what way you slice it. Either they’re sabotaging Pierce The Veil’s success or whether it’s all some big confusion or misunderstanding, or if they’re just plain dumb, we can all agree that this whole thing - the kellic fan service, album making, allegations and subsequent statements - should’ve and could’ve been handled a hell of a lot more gracefully and professionally. Believe it or not, waiting until things blow over is frankly just childish and solves literally nothing, so either they can pull their act together quickly with this next “special secret” album to redeem what little quality/dignity they have left, or they can just fade away into irrelevancy and become a band that no one cares about anymore. 

History repeats itself. This band is quickly becoming just another Leafyishere, and as ominous as that sounds, it’s honestly not unlikely at this point. I am intrigued as to where they go from here, because if they manage to breakthrough again, then I would be very surprised given their current situation. I want to know how they choose to handle this - whether it’ll be the same or not, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thank you so much if you read through this honestly like I am beyond happy that this is fucking over because I have a bunch of non-band related post essays I’ve been meaning to post but this one’s been nagging at the back of my mind for the past few months or however long it’s been. I’ve clocked in at around past 3k words for this one, and none of this is edited because I’m honestly so done with this you don’t understand. Like I said before, this took ages because I was gonna make another post talking about other shit that relates to this before realising that there’s way too many people that’ve addressed the whole YouTube thing so me doing it would literally be pointless, and even though no one really reads this shit, as big of a nerd as I am, I do enjoy writing bullshit because maybe then I’ll stop ranting to my friends and family about topics they don’t care about.

Regardless, that’s it for this two parter thing, and until next time or whatever.

Catch’ya x

[atrumpetofsedition]

Review: The Unfathomable Ascent-How Hitler Came to Power-by Peter Ross Range- Little, Brown and Company (August 11, 2020) 464 pages.

"Hitler pounded out Mein Kampf " with two fingers on his little typewriter."[1]

"If twelve or fifteen thousand Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas . . . the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain."

—Adolf Hitler,  Mein Kampf

"Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, indeed, but with a false consciousness. The real motives impelling him to remain unknown to him. Otherwise, it would not be an ideological process at all. Hence, he imagines false or apparent motives." [2]

"When a state turns fascist, it does not only mean that the forms and methods of government are changed in accordance with the patterns set by Mussolini – the changes in this sphere ultimately play a minor role – but it means, primarily and above all, that the workers' organizations are annihilated; that the proletariat is reduced to an amorphous state; and that a system of administration is created which penetrates deeply into the masses and which serves to frustrate the independent crystallization of the proletariat. Therein precisely is the gist of fascism".

Leon Trotsky, What Next? Vital Questions for the German Proletariat[3]

When researching for this review, my first thought was did we need another biography of Hitler?. At the last count, it was estimated that there were nearly twenty thousand biographies, but this book changed my mind. Ross Range's political biography is an extremely well researched and thought-provoking political analysis of how Hitler came to power.

I want to say that I have been following Ross Range's work for decades and that this was my area of expertise, but I would be lying. I was drawn to this book by the extremely interesting and important interview with Ross Range by David North on behalf of the World Socialist Website[4]. Significantly, Mr Range agreed to the interview, although he does not share the political views of the World Socialist Website, it is a sign that broad layers of the middle class and, for that matter, the working class are starting to seek answers to today's problems through learning the lessons of the past.

📷

It has not always been the case that the I.C.F.I. (International Committee of the Fourth International) has promoted, let alone sell, books of this sort on their media platforms. In the past, if a book was important for the development of the movement, it was discussed internally. In my own experience, I can remember one important book being discussed, and that was by Eric Hobsbawm's Nations and Nationalism.[5] I think this is an important change. The Marxist critique of the 1619 project is a hugely important event, and the collaboration with leading historians of the American revolution and the promotion of their books on Mehring Books[6] is extremely important and groundbreaking.

It is eighty-eight years since Hitler came to power. It would seem the purpose of  Ross Range's book is to learn the lessons of that period to prevent it from happening again.

President Paul von Hindenburg gave Hitler power. During his twelve years as German chancellor, as Peter Swartz eloquently points out, "the Hitler regime committed crimes never previously witnessed by mankind. It smashed the organized labour movement, subjected the country to a totalitarian dictatorship, destroyed Europe in an unprovoked war of aggression, and murdered millions of Jews, Roma and other minorities. January 30, 1933, was a historic turning point. Before then, barbarism and antisemitism had been considered traits of economic and cultural backwardness. In 1933, however, the elite of a country that was highly developed both economically and culturally handed over power to a barbaric anti-Semite whose party relied on the dregs of society.[7]

While predominantly a political biography of Hitler and the rise of German fascism, Ross Range does not shy away from showing the terrible economic crisis that paved the way for Hitler to come to power. As Peter Schwarz again points out, "The source of this crisis lay in the irresolvable contradictions of German and international capitalism. The consequences of World War I and the onset of the global economic crisis in 1929 had ruined broad layers of the working class and middle class. German society was deeply divided; democracy existed only in name. The Weimar Republic survived based on emergency decrees and presidential cabinets as it headed towards a social explosion".[8]

This book is a very rare breed in that it contains a masterful political analysis of the rise of Hitlerite Fascism. It has an almost novel-like pace which is the hallmark of good narrative-driven historiography. His book is meticulously researched. Ross Range has deep mined and ransacked many German archives, and many of his sources have been translated into English from the German originals, probably for the first time.

Many things separate Ross Range's work from other historiographies. He does not believe that Hitler's antisemitism was fully developed during his pre-war Vienna period. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler said he was stimulated in his hatred of Jews because they were walking around Vienna, saying they were "an apparition in a black caftan and black hair locks".It is true that Hitler early on had a murderous hatred of Jews.

But as Konrad Heiden points out, Hitler "hated the whole great sphere of human existence which is devoted to the regular transference of energy into product; and he hated the men who had let themselves be caught and crushed in this process of production. All his life, the workers were for him a picture of horror, a dismal gruesome mass, everything which he later said from the speaker's platform to flatter the manual worker was pure lies".[9]

As David North points out in one of his earlier works, "Herein lies the key to an understanding of Hitler's demonic obsession with the Jews. In Mein Kampf, Hitler explained how his conversion to antisemitism flowed from his encounters with the labour movement. It was among the workers that Hitler first came into contact with Jews. He then discovered, to his amazement, that many Jews played prominent roles in the labour movement. "The great light dawned on him," wrote Heiden. "Suddenly, the 'Jewish question' became clear. … The labour movement did not repel him because it was led by Jews; the Jews repelled him because they led the labour movement. One thing is certain, Heiden concluded, "It was not Rothschild, the capitalist, but Karl Marx, the Socialist, who kindled Adolf Hitler's antisemitism."[10]

In his book 1924, Range quotes historian Othmar Plochinger stating that Hitler only started using antisemitism as a political weapon in Munich. Plochinger believes Hitler's antisemitism was "the winning horse in the existing political environment."8

Ross Range does not appear to subscribe to the "great man of history" genre and does not inflate Hitler's intelligence. However, he does make the point that Hitler learnt from his mistakes. According to Ronald Bleier", Hitler's flexibility "was due to a realistic self-appraisal of his extraordinary political, administrative, and rhetorical abilities and his clear understanding of the turbulent politics in which he operated".

Ross Range shows in the book that everything was not plain sailing for the Nazi leader, and on many occasions, he could have been defeated, and his political career ended.

In a Time Magazine article, he elaborates, "Adolf Hitler did not have to come to power. Indeed, during his 13-year quest for leadership of Germany, he almost failed many times. In the end, however, his astonishing success showed how demagoguery could overcome potentially career-ending challenges—and profoundly change history. A determined strongman, not taken seriously by the elites but enabled by a core of passionate supporters, could bend events his way just as his country went into free-fall. Hitler's seemingly improbable ascent is an object lesson in the volatility of history.[11]

This is an extremely valuable book, and I highly recommend it. Ross Range proves that Hitler ascent to power was entirely fathomable. It is, however, not without faults. Ross Range says next to nothing on the betrayals of the worker's movement by Social Democracy and Stalinism. Hindenburg gave political power to a homicidal maniac to save German capitalism from revolution. The monstrous betrayals carried out by Stalinism, and Social democracy paved the way for Hitler to come to power without a single shot being fired.

As David north pointed out in the interview, Ross Range cannot write such a book, but it is down to the Fourth International to write such a book. This new work has to draw heavily on the political writings of the great Russian Marxist Leon Trotsky, whose writings are still prescient for today's political situation. One such book that does that is Why are they Back.

Speaking of the danger of a fascist movement today in Germany, Christoph Vandreier said, "The fascists are not a mass movement but are a hated minority. However, the ruling elite is once again promoting fascism and right-wing ideology in order to suppress opposition to its militarism and worsening social inequality. That is why an independent movement of the working class is the only way to fight this danger."

The working class must learn the lessons of this history. As the writer, Bertolt Brecht warned, "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again."[12]

Notes

1. Peter Ross Range, 1924: The Year That Made Hitler (New York: Little, Brown, 2016), p. 224-225.2 Range, 224-225.

2. Why Are They Back? Historical Falsification, Political Conspiracy and the Return of Fascism in Germany, Christoph Vandreier-Mehring Books.

3. The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany (Merit S.) Hardcover – December 1 1970

About the Author

Peter Ross Range is a world-renowned journalist and author of numerous books. In addition to The Unfathomable Ascent: How Hitler Came to Power (Little, Brown and Company, 2020), he is the author of 1924: The Year That Made Hitler (‎Little, Brown and Company, 2016).

[1] Despair and Triumph in Hitler's First Miracle Year: A Review-Essay on Peter Ross Range's 1924-by Ronald Bleier-http://desip.igc.org/Bleier-Range-Review.html [2] Frederick Engels in the The Jewish Question, Abram Leon, The Jewish Question, Pathfinder Press, pp. 234-35 [3] https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1932-ger/next01.htm [4] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/08/unfa-d08.html [5] Nations and Nationalism Since 1780, Second Edition: Programme, Myth, Reality (Canto Classics) Paperback – 29 Mar. 2012 [6] https://mehringbooks.co.uk/ [7] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/02/pers-f02.html [8] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/02/pers-f02.html [9] Konrad Heiden, Der Fuehrer, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1944), p. 58. [10] The Myth of “Ordinary Germans”: A Review of Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners-https://www.wsws.org/en/special/library/russian-revolution-unfinished-twentieth-century/15.html#fn15 [11] https://time.com/5884522/hitler-ascent-lesson/ [12] Referring to Arturo Ui (representing Adolf Hitler), in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941)

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SEO: How To Use My Favorite Analytics Tool

So, I’ve been asked several times how I monitor the SEO health of some of student’s blogs.

Also, let me make it clear before I start going on a tangent about this product – I do NOT get any affiliate income from this blog. This is my personal blog meant to help you get the most out of your own blogging endeavors, not an affiliate channel for me. I just know that this app is one you could benefit from tremendously.

I can find in-depth analysis on their site health, review internal and external links, and do it on-the-go with a simple, but kick-ass app that I think everyone should have. And, for most people, SEOquake is the last SEO tool you’ll ever need.

SEOquake combines a fully featured SEO analysis suite into a single package which you can run quickly and easily via a browser plugin, or even on your iOS device.

If you are serious about your digital marketing success, dabbling in the information that SEOquake provides will rank up your game.

In this article, I’ll take on SEOquake and show you the ropes, starting from the very bottom.

You’ll learn how to install SEOquake, how to use its overviews, and how to dive into the deep reports that the app can generate.

The best part about SEOquake is that it’s intuitive to use and can explain anything which might be confusing for you, so don’t be afraid that you’re not experienced enough in SEO to get started.

How to Install SEOquake

Speaking of getting started, you’ll need to install the SEOquake plugin or app.

The install process for SEOquake varies slightly between each of the platforms you can use it on, but the gist of it is navigating to the app or plugin “store” for your browser and adding it.

The browser should do the rest.

On Google Chrome

If you’re using Google Chrome as your web browser, navigate to the plugins center.

Once there, search for SEOquake, which should take you to a screen identical to the above.

Click the “available on Chrome” button in the upper right, and SEOquake will automatically install itself. You’ll need to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On Firefox

In Firefox, SEOquake is considered a “browser extension,” but the installation process is the same.

Navigate to the “plugins” section of the Mozilla Firefox website, search for SEOquake, and press the green “Add to Firefox” button. Like in Chrome, you’ll have to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On iOS (iPad & iPhone)

If you’re an iOS user, you already know where this is going. Navigate to the app store or iTunes, search for SEOquake Go, and click install. Unlike in Chrome and Firefox, you won’t need to restart anything. If you’re running SEOquake on an iPhone instead of an iPad, you may want to close other apps that are running because SEOquake can take up a lot of resources.

SEOquake Features and How to Use Them

Now that you’ve installed SEOquake, it’s time to get started with analyzing sites and links. If you have a particular site in mind load it up now. Otherwise, just follow along with the example here. The example here is of Google.com’s search engine results for the search terms “shrimp fishing on horseback.”

You don’t have to use SEOquake on a page of search terms, but doing so can give you a lot of interesting information about your competition, so you should try it at least a few times with keywords that are relevant to your site.

Once you’ve navigated to your site of choice, it’s time to run SEOquake.

Getting Around SEOquake

SEOquake is only running when you click on the badge. To prompt SEOquake to run an analysis on the page that you’re currently looking at, you’ll need to activate it on your browser’s toolbar. To enable SEOquake on your browser’s toolbar, you’ll need to click on the green badge icon.

Finding the Badge

SEOquake’s badge icon lives next to your search bar on Firefox and Chrome. You can recognize it by its “SQ” text, like in the example below.

If you don’t see the badge popping up in your browser’s toolbar after you’ve installed SEOquake, there’s a good chance that something went wrong with the installation. It’s also possible that the badge is hidden because of your browser’s toolbar settings. Be sure to fix the problem before continuing or else you won’t be able to use SEOquake.

Click the Badge

Once you’ve located the badge, left click on it to expand it. You’ll see in the above example that SEOquake pops up as an overlay on the page. Accessing SEOquake via the badge gives you a quick snapshot of what’s on the page.

All the features of SEOquake show up in the badge menu, but they won’t display their full amount of data until you expand the individual tabs into their full size, which you can do by clicking on the tab heading. If you’d rather cut to the chase and skip the overview that you find via clicking the badge, you can also right-click and select from the “SEOquake” menu that should appear at the bottom of the list.

What’s in The Badge?

At the top of the badge, you’ll see the tab headings. Each heading corresponds to one of SEOquake’s major features.

Each tab has a wealth of information which you’ll see at a glance via the badge, but your real in-depth analysis will come from viewing the full data set, which lives in each tab’s heading within the badge.

If you ever want to get to the complete analysis, just click the “view full report” button at the bottom of each tab of the badge.

We’ll go over the badge menu in detail in a moment, but first, take a look at the two numbers next to the “Internal” and “External” tabs.

These numbers are simply the number of internal or external links on the page.

If you’ve ever even thought about SEO, you know that more links pointed toward a site means a better page rank.

Not all links are created equal, but remember to take a glance at the top of the badge to get an idea of the scale of the site’s incoming and outgoing links.

Next, let’s see what other pieces of information we can pick up at a glance.

Above, you’ll see the badge as it will appear to you in full. This overview is an estimation of the total traffic heading to the site.

For a site like Google, in our example, it’s no surprise to see billions of visits. You’ll also see the site’s global traffic rank, the number of unique visitors, and other stats.

On the right, you’ll see the way that people navigated to the site. For Google.com, it’s clear that most people just click a link or type Google.com into their search bar.

For other sites, you may want to optimize your content for search traffic or social traffic. Be sure to take frequent snapshots of your site with the overview from the badge.

Display Advertising

One of it’s great features is the ability to take a glance at the advertising profile on the site that you’re analyzing.

The “Display Advertising” tab on the badge clues you into the total number of different ads and publishers that live on the site you’re analyzing and breaks them down into media ads versus text ads.

This information is precious if you’re planning to deploy advertisements for your site on another site. After all, you wouldn’t want to deploy your text ad on a site where media ads dominate and vice versa.

Next, let’s look at how SEOquake gathers its data and how it figures out the numbers that you see in the badge and elsewhere.

Changing Parameters

If you’re interested in breaking into the guts of how SEOquake estimates the traffic that a site gets, check out the “Parameters” tab.

In the Parameters tab, you’ll get a deeper look into the data that you saw reflected on the overview, and you can also modify the indices and rankings which SEOquake uses to make its estimations.

To alter, remove, or add to the Parameters, just click on the little arrow next to each parameter.

Preferences

If you click the gear in the top right of the badge, you’ll see SEOquake’s preferences and configuration page. Here, you’ll be able to enable or disable SEOquake itself as well as see patch notes, and get access to the even larger preferences menus.

If you do end up looking at the larger preferences menus, you’ll be able to define the filenames of your CSV exports, add delays to your parameter requests, and alter every other aspect of your app.

You don’t need to get involved with these preferences to make full use of SEOquake, but if you wish that you could change a certain setting and aren’t sure how it’s probably in the extended preferences menu.

Once you’ve configured your parameters and plugin to your liking, it’s time to take a deeper dive into SEOquake’s full analytics suite.

Page Info

Click on the “Page Info” tab, then navigate to the full report.

You’ve already seen most of this information on the preview, but there’s a few tidbits worth picking up here that aren’t on the badge.

The meta description of the page is especially worth a look.

You could harvest this information without SEOquake by looking at the page’s source code, but it’s faster this way.

Page SEO Audit

You can navigate around the full reports by clicking on the tab above each report. Clicking on the “Diagnosis” tab takes you to this “Page SEO Audit” report, which contains a ton of valuable information that you’ll need to understand.

On the general audit page, you’ll be able to see whether the URL length, meta description, headings, and images are properly proportioned to optimize for high ranking.

Check out the top of the page and make a note of the icons which indicate which metrics your site has passed, which need to be fixed, and which could be improved.

If you’re not sure about why your site isn’t optimal, click on the Tips tab to get some tutelage courtesy of SEOquake. As search algorithms change, so will the advisories.

Next, it’s time to see how our site stacks up to others—perhaps your competition.

Compare URLS or Domains

Part of the appeal of SEOquake is that you can easily compare the page rank and SEO friendliness of a bunch of different sites at once.

Click on the “Compare URLS/domains” tab, and paste all of the URLs you want to compare.

Click the “process URLs” button, and a detailed report will spit right back at you.

Using this page, you’ll be able to crunch the numbers and optimize your site for keyword competition or other SEO strategies.

Don’t be afraid to import dozens or hundreds of links via a CSV file, either—it might take a while to get your results back, but you can also export the results for safe keeping and charting.

You could probably use SEOquake for this feature alone, so be sure to play around with it.

Internal Links

What would an SEO analysis tool be without reports on the internal links within a site? The internal links tab offers a full report on just that.

If you’re concerned about the kind of links or the throughput of the links that you have on a given site, this tab is your friend.

External Links

Similarly, external links are of critical importance when trying to optimize your site for page rank. The external links tab is identical to the internal links tab and worth a look.

Getting Started on Your First SEOquake Analysis

Now that you’re familiar with the badge and SEOquake’s basic features, it’s time to take it out for a whirl on your own.

You can pop open the badge on whichever site you navigate to, so take advantage of SEOquake and use it to help you understand how sites rank for different properties.

If you’re not sure which stats you should be the most interested in, just let the plugin’s tips guide you.

I specialize in all things blog related – so please hit me up in the comments below if you’re looking to get started on creating your own revenue generating blog.

Anthony Aires Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

If you’d like to connect with me my social media channels you can go here:

Anthony Aires Facebook Timeline: Friend Here >> http://facebook.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Facebook Fan Page: Follow Here >> http://facebook.com/aireswins

Anthony Aires Never Stop Striving Facebook Group: Join Free Here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnthonyAires

Anthony Aires Twitter: Follow Here >>http://twitter.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires YouTube: Subscribe Here >> http://youtube.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonyaires

If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

You can sign up for FREE for the next one by saving your seat here >> https://anthonyaires.com/webcast

Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

from Anthony Aires https://anthonyaires.com/5374/seo-how-to-use-my-favorite-analytics-tool/ from Anthony Aires https://anthonyairescom.tumblr.com/post/164709338675

[anthonyairescom]

SEO: How To Use My Favorite Analytics Tool

So, I’ve been asked several times how I monitor the SEO health of some of student’s blogs.

Also, let me make it clear before I start going on a tangent about this product – I do NOT get any affiliate income from this blog. This is my personal blog meant to help you get the most out of your own blogging endeavors, not an affiliate channel for me. I just know that this app is one you could benefit from tremendously.

I can find in-depth analysis on their site health, review internal and external links, and do it on-the-go with a simple, but kick-ass app that I think everyone should have. And, for most people, SEOquake is the last SEO tool you’ll ever need.

SEOquake combines a fully featured SEO analysis suite into a single package which you can run quickly and easily via a browser plugin, or even on your iOS device.

If you are serious about your digital marketing success, dabbling in the information that SEOquake provides will rank up your game.

In this article, I’ll take on SEOquake and show you the ropes, starting from the very bottom.

You’ll learn how to install SEOquake, how to use its overviews, and how to dive into the deep reports that the app can generate.

The best part about SEOquake is that it’s intuitive to use and can explain anything which might be confusing for you, so don’t be afraid that you’re not experienced enough in SEO to get started.

How to Install SEOquake

Speaking of getting started, you’ll need to install the SEOquake plugin or app.

The install process for SEOquake varies slightly between each of the platforms you can use it on, but the gist of it is navigating to the app or plugin “store” for your browser and adding it.

The browser should do the rest.

On Google Chrome

If you’re using Google Chrome as your web browser, navigate to the plugins center.

Once there, search for SEOquake, which should take you to a screen identical to the above.

Click the “available on Chrome” button in the upper right, and SEOquake will automatically install itself. You’ll need to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On Firefox

In Firefox, SEOquake is considered a “browser extension,” but the installation process is the same.

Navigate to the “plugins” section of the Mozilla Firefox website, search for SEOquake, and press the green “Add to Firefox” button. Like in Chrome, you’ll have to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On iOS (iPad & iPhone)

If you’re an iOS user, you already know where this is going. Navigate to the app store or iTunes, search for SEOquake Go, and click install. Unlike in Chrome and Firefox, you won’t need to restart anything. If you’re running SEOquake on an iPhone instead of an iPad, you may want to close other apps that are running because SEOquake can take up a lot of resources.

SEOquake Features and How to Use Them

Now that you’ve installed SEOquake, it’s time to get started with analyzing sites and links. If you have a particular site in mind load it up now. Otherwise, just follow along with the example here. The example here is of Google.com’s search engine results for the search terms “shrimp fishing on horseback.”

You don’t have to use SEOquake on a page of search terms, but doing so can give you a lot of interesting information about your competition, so you should try it at least a few times with keywords that are relevant to your site.

Once you’ve navigated to your site of choice, it’s time to run SEOquake.

Getting Around SEOquake

SEOquake is only running when you click on the badge. To prompt SEOquake to run an analysis on the page that you’re currently looking at, you’ll need to activate it on your browser’s toolbar. To enable SEOquake on your browser’s toolbar, you’ll need to click on the green badge icon.

Finding the Badge

SEOquake’s badge icon lives next to your search bar on Firefox and Chrome. You can recognize it by its “SQ” text, like in the example below.

If you don’t see the badge popping up in your browser’s toolbar after you’ve installed SEOquake, there’s a good chance that something went wrong with the installation. It’s also possible that the badge is hidden because of your browser’s toolbar settings. Be sure to fix the problem before continuing or else you won’t be able to use SEOquake.

Click the Badge

Once you’ve located the badge, left click on it to expand it. You’ll see in the above example that SEOquake pops up as an overlay on the page. Accessing SEOquake via the badge gives you a quick snapshot of what’s on the page.

All the features of SEOquake show up in the badge menu, but they won’t display their full amount of data until you expand the individual tabs into their full size, which you can do by clicking on the tab heading. If you’d rather cut to the chase and skip the overview that you find via clicking the badge, you can also right-click and select from the “SEOquake” menu that should appear at the bottom of the list.

What’s in The Badge?

At the top of the badge, you’ll see the tab headings. Each heading corresponds to one of SEOquake’s major features.

Each tab has a wealth of information which you’ll see at a glance via the badge, but your real in-depth analysis will come from viewing the full data set, which lives in each tab’s heading within the badge.

If you ever want to get to the complete analysis, just click the “view full report” button at the bottom of each tab of the badge.

We’ll go over the badge menu in detail in a moment, but first, take a look at the two numbers next to the “Internal” and “External” tabs.

These numbers are simply the number of internal or external links on the page.

If you’ve ever even thought about SEO, you know that more links pointed toward a site means a better page rank.

Not all links are created equal, but remember to take a glance at the top of the badge to get an idea of the scale of the site’s incoming and outgoing links.

Next, let’s see what other pieces of information we can pick up at a glance.

Above, you’ll see the badge as it will appear to you in full. This overview is an estimation of the total traffic heading to the site.

For a site like Google, in our example, it’s no surprise to see billions of visits. You’ll also see the site’s global traffic rank, the number of unique visitors, and other stats.

On the right, you’ll see the way that people navigated to the site. For Google.com, it’s clear that most people just click a link or type Google.com into their search bar.

For other sites, you may want to optimize your content for search traffic or social traffic. Be sure to take frequent snapshots of your site with the overview from the badge.

Display Advertising

One of it’s great features is the ability to take a glance at the advertising profile on the site that you’re analyzing.

The “Display Advertising” tab on the badge clues you into the total number of different ads and publishers that live on the site you’re analyzing and breaks them down into media ads versus text ads.

This information is precious if you’re planning to deploy advertisements for your site on another site. After all, you wouldn’t want to deploy your text ad on a site where media ads dominate and vice versa.

Next, let’s look at how SEOquake gathers its data and how it figures out the numbers that you see in the badge and elsewhere.

Changing Parameters

If you’re interested in breaking into the guts of how SEOquake estimates the traffic that a site gets, check out the “Parameters” tab.

In the Parameters tab, you’ll get a deeper look into the data that you saw reflected on the overview, and you can also modify the indices and rankings which SEOquake uses to make its estimations.

To alter, remove, or add to the Parameters, just click on the little arrow next to each parameter.

Preferences

If you click the gear in the top right of the badge, you’ll see SEOquake’s preferences and configuration page. Here, you’ll be able to enable or disable SEOquake itself as well as see patch notes, and get access to the even larger preferences menus.

If you do end up looking at the larger preferences menus, you’ll be able to define the filenames of your CSV exports, add delays to your parameter requests, and alter every other aspect of your app.

You don’t need to get involved with these preferences to make full use of SEOquake, but if you wish that you could change a certain setting and aren’t sure how it’s probably in the extended preferences menu.

Once you’ve configured your parameters and plugin to your liking, it’s time to take a deeper dive into SEOquake’s full analytics suite.

Page Info

Click on the “Page Info” tab, then navigate to the full report.

You’ve already seen most of this information on the preview, but there’s a few tidbits worth picking up here that aren’t on the badge.

The meta description of the page is especially worth a look.

You could harvest this information without SEOquake by looking at the page’s source code, but it’s faster this way.

Page SEO Audit

You can navigate around the full reports by clicking on the tab above each report. Clicking on the “Diagnosis” tab takes you to this “Page SEO Audit” report, which contains a ton of valuable information that you’ll need to understand.

On the general audit page, you’ll be able to see whether the URL length, meta description, headings, and images are properly proportioned to optimize for high ranking.

Check out the top of the page and make a note of the icons which indicate which metrics your site has passed, which need to be fixed, and which could be improved.

If you’re not sure about why your site isn’t optimal, click on the Tips tab to get some tutelage courtesy of SEOquake. As search algorithms change, so will the advisories.

Next, it’s time to see how our site stacks up to others—perhaps your competition.

Compare URLS or Domains

Part of the appeal of SEOquake is that you can easily compare the page rank and SEO friendliness of a bunch of different sites at once.

Click on the “Compare URLS/domains” tab, and paste all of the URLs you want to compare.

Click the “process URLs” button, and a detailed report will spit right back at you.

Using this page, you’ll be able to crunch the numbers and optimize your site for keyword competition or other SEO strategies.

Don’t be afraid to import dozens or hundreds of links via a CSV file, either—it might take a while to get your results back, but you can also export the results for safe keeping and charting.

You could probably use SEOquake for this feature alone, so be sure to play around with it.

Internal Links

What would an SEO analysis tool be without reports on the internal links within a site? The internal links tab offers a full report on just that.

If you’re concerned about the kind of links or the throughput of the links that you have on a given site, this tab is your friend.

External Links

Similarly, external links are of critical importance when trying to optimize your site for page rank. The external links tab is identical to the internal links tab and worth a look.

Getting Started on Your First SEOquake Analysis

Now that you’re familiar with the badge and SEOquake’s basic features, it’s time to take it out for a whirl on your own.

You can pop open the badge on whichever site you navigate to, so take advantage of SEOquake and use it to help you understand how sites rank for different properties.

If you’re not sure which stats you should be the most interested in, just let the plugin’s tips guide you.

I specialize in all things blog related – so please hit me up in the comments below if you’re looking to get started on creating your own revenue generating blog.

Anthony Aires Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

If you’d like to connect with me my social media channels you can go here:

Anthony Aires Facebook Timeline: Friend Here >> http://facebook.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Facebook Fan Page: Follow Here >> http://facebook.com/aireswins

Anthony Aires Never Stop Striving Facebook Group: Join Free Here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnthonyAires

Anthony Aires Twitter: Follow Here >>http://twitter.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires YouTube: Subscribe Here >> http://youtube.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonyaires

If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

You can sign up for FREE for the next one by saving your seat here >> https://anthonyaires.com/webcast

Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

  from Anthony Aires https://anthonyaires.com/5374/seo-how-to-use-my-favorite-analytics-tool/

[jenarodriguez]

SEO: How To Use My Favorite Analytics Tool

So, I’ve been asked several times how I monitor the SEO health of some of student’s blogs.

Also, let me make it clear before I start going on a tangent about this product – I do NOT get any affiliate income from this blog. This is my personal blog meant to help you get the most out of your own blogging endeavors, not an affiliate channel for me. I just know that this app is one you could benefit from tremendously.

I can find in-depth analysis on their site health, review internal and external links, and do it on-the-go with a simple, but kick-ass app that I think everyone should have. And, for most people, SEOquake is the last SEO tool you’ll ever need.

SEOquake combines a fully featured SEO analysis suite into a single package which you can run quickly and easily via a browser plugin, or even on your iOS device.

If you are serious about your digital marketing success, dabbling in the information that SEOquake provides will rank up your game.

In this article, I’ll take on SEOquake and show you the ropes, starting from the very bottom.

You’ll learn how to install SEOquake, how to use its overviews, and how to dive into the deep reports that the app can generate.

The best part about SEOquake is that it’s intuitive to use and can explain anything which might be confusing for you, so don’t be afraid that you’re not experienced enough in SEO to get started.

How to Install SEOquake

Speaking of getting started, you’ll need to install the SEOquake plugin or app.

The install process for SEOquake varies slightly between each of the platforms you can use it on, but the gist of it is navigating to the app or plugin “store” for your browser and adding it.

The browser should do the rest.

On Google Chrome

If you’re using Google Chrome as your web browser, navigate to the plugins center.

Once there, search for SEOquake, which should take you to a screen identical to the above.

Click the “available on Chrome” button in the upper right, and SEOquake will automatically install itself. You’ll need to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On Firefox

In Firefox, SEOquake is considered a “browser extension,” but the installation process is the same.

Navigate to the “plugins” section of the Mozilla Firefox website, search for SEOquake, and press the green “Add to Firefox” button. Like in Chrome, you’ll have to restart your browser before using SEOquake.

On iOS (iPad & iPhone)

If you’re an iOS user, you already know where this is going. Navigate to the app store or iTunes, search for SEOquake Go, and click install. Unlike in Chrome and Firefox, you won’t need to restart anything. If you’re running SEOquake on an iPhone instead of an iPad, you may want to close other apps that are running because SEOquake can take up a lot of resources.

SEOquake Features and How to Use Them

Now that you’ve installed SEOquake, it’s time to get started with analyzing sites and links. If you have a particular site in mind load it up now. Otherwise, just follow along with the example here. The example here is of Google.com’s search engine results for the search terms “shrimp fishing on horseback.”

You don’t have to use SEOquake on a page of search terms, but doing so can give you a lot of interesting information about your competition, so you should try it at least a few times with keywords that are relevant to your site.

Once you’ve navigated to your site of choice, it’s time to run SEOquake.

Getting Around SEOquake

SEOquake is only running when you click on the badge. To prompt SEOquake to run an analysis on the page that you’re currently looking at, you’ll need to activate it on your browser’s toolbar. To enable SEOquake on your browser’s toolbar, you’ll need to click on the green badge icon.

Finding the Badge

SEOquake’s badge icon lives next to your search bar on Firefox and Chrome. You can recognize it by its “SQ” text, like in the example below.

If you don’t see the badge popping up in your browser’s toolbar after you’ve installed SEOquake, there’s a good chance that something went wrong with the installation. It’s also possible that the badge is hidden because of your browser’s toolbar settings. Be sure to fix the problem before continuing or else you won’t be able to use SEOquake.

Click the Badge

Once you’ve located the badge, left click on it to expand it. You’ll see in the above example that SEOquake pops up as an overlay on the page. Accessing SEOquake via the badge gives you a quick snapshot of what’s on the page.

All the features of SEOquake show up in the badge menu, but they won’t display their full amount of data until you expand the individual tabs into their full size, which you can do by clicking on the tab heading. If you’d rather cut to the chase and skip the overview that you find via clicking the badge, you can also right-click and select from the “SEOquake” menu that should appear at the bottom of the list.

What’s in The Badge?

At the top of the badge, you’ll see the tab headings. Each heading corresponds to one of SEOquake’s major features.

Each tab has a wealth of information which you’ll see at a glance via the badge, but your real in-depth analysis will come from viewing the full data set, which lives in each tab’s heading within the badge.

If you ever want to get to the complete analysis, just click the “view full report” button at the bottom of each tab of the badge.

We’ll go over the badge menu in detail in a moment, but first, take a look at the two numbers next to the “Internal” and “External” tabs.

These numbers are simply the number of internal or external links on the page.

If you’ve ever even thought about SEO, you know that more links pointed toward a site means a better page rank.

Not all links are created equal, but remember to take a glance at the top of the badge to get an idea of the scale of the site’s incoming and outgoing links.

Next, let’s see what other pieces of information we can pick up at a glance.

Above, you’ll see the badge as it will appear to you in full. This overview is an estimation of the total traffic heading to the site.

For a site like Google, in our example, it’s no surprise to see billions of visits. You’ll also see the site’s global traffic rank, the number of unique visitors, and other stats.

On the right, you’ll see the way that people navigated to the site. For Google.com, it’s clear that most people just click a link or type Google.com into their search bar.

For other sites, you may want to optimize your content for search traffic or social traffic. Be sure to take frequent snapshots of your site with the overview from the badge.

Display Advertising

One of it’s great features is the ability to take a glance at the advertising profile on the site that you’re analyzing.

The “Display Advertising” tab on the badge clues you into the total number of different ads and publishers that live on the site you’re analyzing and breaks them down into media ads versus text ads.

This information is precious if you’re planning to deploy advertisements for your site on another site. After all, you wouldn’t want to deploy your text ad on a site where media ads dominate and vice versa.

Next, let’s look at how SEOquake gathers its data and how it figures out the numbers that you see in the badge and elsewhere.

Changing Parameters

If you’re interested in breaking into the guts of how SEOquake estimates the traffic that a site gets, check out the “Parameters” tab.

In the Parameters tab, you’ll get a deeper look into the data that you saw reflected on the overview, and you can also modify the indices and rankings which SEOquake uses to make its estimations.

To alter, remove, or add to the Parameters, just click on the little arrow next to each parameter.

Preferences

If you click the gear in the top right of the badge, you’ll see SEOquake’s preferences and configuration page. Here, you’ll be able to enable or disable SEOquake itself as well as see patch notes, and get access to the even larger preferences menus.

If you do end up looking at the larger preferences menus, you’ll be able to define the filenames of your CSV exports, add delays to your parameter requests, and alter every other aspect of your app.

You don’t need to get involved with these preferences to make full use of SEOquake, but if you wish that you could change a certain setting and aren’t sure how it’s probably in the extended preferences menu.

Once you’ve configured your parameters and plugin to your liking, it’s time to take a deeper dive into SEOquake’s full analytics suite.

Page Info

Click on the “Page Info” tab, then navigate to the full report.

You’ve already seen most of this information on the preview, but there’s a few tidbits worth picking up here that aren’t on the badge.

The meta description of the page is especially worth a look.

You could harvest this information without SEOquake by looking at the page’s source code, but it’s faster this way.

Page SEO Audit

You can navigate around the full reports by clicking on the tab above each report. Clicking on the “Diagnosis” tab takes you to this “Page SEO Audit” report, which contains a ton of valuable information that you’ll need to understand.

On the general audit page, you’ll be able to see whether the URL length, meta description, headings, and images are properly proportioned to optimize for high ranking.

Check out the top of the page and make a note of the icons which indicate which metrics your site has passed, which need to be fixed, and which could be improved.

If you’re not sure about why your site isn’t optimal, click on the Tips tab to get some tutelage courtesy of SEOquake. As search algorithms change, so will the advisories.

Next, it’s time to see how our site stacks up to others—perhaps your competition.

Compare URLS or Domains

Part of the appeal of SEOquake is that you can easily compare the page rank and SEO friendliness of a bunch of different sites at once.

Click on the “Compare URLS/domains” tab, and paste all of the URLs you want to compare.

Click the “process URLs” button, and a detailed report will spit right back at you.

Using this page, you’ll be able to crunch the numbers and optimize your site for keyword competition or other SEO strategies.

Don’t be afraid to import dozens or hundreds of links via a CSV file, either—it might take a while to get your results back, but you can also export the results for safe keeping and charting.

You could probably use SEOquake for this feature alone, so be sure to play around with it.

Internal Links

What would an SEO analysis tool be without reports on the internal links within a site? The internal links tab offers a full report on just that.

If you’re concerned about the kind of links or the throughput of the links that you have on a given site, this tab is your friend.

External Links

Similarly, external links are of critical importance when trying to optimize your site for page rank. The external links tab is identical to the internal links tab and worth a look.

Getting Started on Your First SEOquake Analysis

Now that you’re familiar with the badge and SEOquake’s basic features, it’s time to take it out for a whirl on your own.

You can pop open the badge on whichever site you navigate to, so take advantage of SEOquake and use it to help you understand how sites rank for different properties.

If you’re not sure which stats you should be the most interested in, just let the plugin’s tips guide you.

I specialize in all things blog related – so please hit me up in the comments below if you’re looking to get started on creating your own revenue generating blog.

Anthony Aires Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

If you’d like to connect with me my social media channels you can go here:

Anthony Aires Facebook Timeline: Friend Here >> http://facebook.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Facebook Fan Page: Follow Here >> http://facebook.com/aireswins

Anthony Aires Never Stop Striving Facebook Group: Join Free Here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnthonyAires

Anthony Aires Twitter: Follow Here >>http://twitter.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires YouTube: Subscribe Here >> http://youtube.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonyaires

If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

You can sign up for FREE for the next one by saving your seat here >> https://anthonyaires.com/webcast

Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

  source https://anthonyaires.com/5374/seo-how-to-use-my-favorite-analytics-tool/ from Anthony Aires http://anthonyairescom.blogspot.com/2017/08/seo-how-to-use-my-favorite-analytics.html