Fernando Alonso as dumb text posts I have saved on my phone.

My thoughts on how the Milgram mv machine works based on the evidence we have:

(I know there’s been discussion about where exactly the interrogations take place, but wherever they are,) the prisoners are made to sit in a specific chair near the wall that houses the machine.

It’s ordinarily hidden, but the wall panels shift aside to reveal it when the mechanical sounds play in the dramas. As well as the walls moving, the chair transforms to restrain the prisoner and attach whatever it takes to access their brain. The fact that none of the more frightened prisoners try to run or break it makes it seem like they physically cannot. This is why Fuuta sounds so panicked, and why Amane is suddenly helpless in front of Es in their T1 vds.

(My mind conjures very classic sci-fi mad scientist machines with wires, pipes, lights, nodes, needles, etc, but I’d love to hear how other people visualize it.)

In some vds (maybe all? I’d need to check,) you can hear Es take some steps right before their iconic line -- it would make sense that for safety reasons, the power mechanism is placed across the room. Once again it could be anything, but the sound effect makes me think of one of those giant wall-mounted levers you have to pull down.

The voice dramas don’t really provide the type of crime details that an actual interrogation would reveal, and it’s odd that they’re placed before the extraction rather than after Es gets to see the new details. This leads me to believe the machine functions with priming. All Es needs to do is get them talking about their murder, so it’s on their mind.

The video produced is much like a (non-lucid) dream. Even if the prisoners figure out that this is how it works, they can’t control it just by thinking really hard about something else. The murders produce the strongest emotional affect, and that’s what it picks up on. If someone else used the machine, it would default to whatever gave them the strongest emotional reaction in the ~15 minutes beforehand, hence why Es’ video focuses on their daunting task ahead. (The Undercover theory is still a bit loose, though, given the private shots that Es wouldn't have known about). It’s why the videos are usually closely linked to the vd topics/beats. I also like to think that the reason their prisoner colors appear so much is because they’re looking at those colors on their uniform 24/7.

The bell rings to inform Es that it’s the optimal time to use the machine -- the prisoner has been thinking about things for long enough that the video will be about their crime, and if the conversation lasts much longer they’ll start thinking of other things. It’s at a different time for each prisoner because it’s based on the specific conversation. I guess Jackalope is listening in to the interrogation, timing it perfectly. (The only one that kind of messes with this theory is Yonah, because they just keep talking afterwards lol, but it could just show that the interrogation is still in Es’ control.)

Their “Sing your sins” is the final priming nudge to get them to think of their actions as a sin, revealing their guilt.

Once activated, the prisoner enters a sort of trance/sleeping state. It’s very much like REM sleep, with the machine forcibly activating neurons and recording the output. The prisoners have asked Es what they saw, meaning they don’t remember the mvs. I like to think the prisoners do experience the mv in real time, acting as the major version of themself that appears, but can’t remember it afterwards. It’s when you experience a dream, but as soon as you wake up you’re just left with fleeting emotions and memories right on the tip of your tongue.

The video plays immediately upon extraction -- whether on a huge projection or little screen depends on which room it’s in. It simultaneously saves the memory so that Es can rewatch it later (on those old TVs in the jailbreak mix). The machine downloads the song and video together, but requires special parts to retrieve them. The technology is pretty new and fragile, so if one is broken, there might be a delay between when Es can hear the extracted song and see it with the video. (That’s my justification for Kotoko’s delays -- after 9 prisoners the parts wear out, or maybe Mikoto himself overheats it with his complex situation.)

Based on the lack of conversation we get afterwards, I picture Es leaving before the prisoner wakes from the trance. The machine adjusts their brain back to normal before they awaken, restraints freed and able to return to the rest of the prison.

It’s very much like a dream, so it’s not harmful despite the amnesia/head injuries the prisoners have. It does, however, exhaust them. Brain activity alone takes a lot of energy, so forced brain activity with added emotional strain would cause them to feel pretty drained the rest of the day.

so much happening im sorry i lost 40 brain cells seeing flashback tess

trying to imagine what a Welcome Home ending would look like (which is extremely stupid lmao considering we dont know shit about jack yet), and it's just... huh.

i doubt it's going to take the "the puppets are turned into humans and they join the real world" route (and if it does, then cool! that'd be sick as fuck!), so what would a happy ending look like for them? would they get a little sanctuary to live freely in? is there a secret world of living puppets out there somewhere?

what if its a tragic ending? the puppets either are repurposed for a new show, or stripped of their Awareness, or become inanimate objects - normal puppets? what if they just straight up fade away?

or a bittersweet ending? they renew the show in order to stay alive and together, but they're forced to return to their old lives & routines? or it's ambiguous and we don't actually see what happens after a certain point - where the ending for the audience comes before the puppet's real endgame; it's not for us to see/know, they get an unobserved close to the story.

its simultaneously fascinating and distressing to think about.

i don’t sleep at night pt. 35

Every once in a while I remember that Bloom had to earn her Enchantix by meditating on the dragon planet and like… that was fine? Putting the main character at a disadvantage and forcing them to do something different from The Way Things Are Always Done (tm) can be very interesting, actually, and I think having a character become more powerful by learning to embrace their inner self is a pretty good message for a kids’ show. But I’m absolutely baffled that this is what the writers decided to do instead of just… introducing a character or characters from Domino.

I know the show acts like it’s impossible for Bloom to earn her Enchantix the normal way because Domino was destroyed and its inhabitants were frozen, so there’s no Dominians for her to sacrifice herself for, but hear me out: that makes no sense lol.

You mean to tell me that in the Winx Club magic dimension, where the main characters are attending school in Magix and repeatedly visit realms other than their home realms, emigration doesn’t happen? Not a single person from Domino immigrated to Melody to study music, to Zenith so that they could be at the forefront of technological development, to Linphea because they wanted to be closer to nature? Nobody ever falls in love with someone from another realm and chooses to immigrate to be with them? (Bloom canonically does that one btw.) There was not a single mixed race Dominian who was born on Domino and later moved to be closer to the other side of their family?

Even if you want to pretend the Winx Club universe hasn't invented immigration yet (which like... a half assed fandom post isn't really the place to get into a discussion about xenophobia, but if you think that's at all a valid argument, then perhaps you should take a minute to consider why you think that), you mean to tell me nobody from Domino left the realm temporarily? There was not a single Dominian studying at Alfea who was excited to tell their family about acing their last exam only to find their family gone? There was not a single Dominian visiting friends in other realms, or just on vacation who tried to return home at the end of their trip, only to find there was no home to go back to?

Just the idea that there is not a single other person out there from Domino is absolutely nonsensical to me, but it's what the series decided to go with. And that's a damn shame because when you think about it, Bloom is a transcultural adoptee whose biological parents and their culture were victims of genocide. (Domino is brought back, but iirc both the characters and the audience were unaware that was a possibility at this point in the narrative.) There's so much that could be done and said with that.

The musician who made it big on Melody could sing Bloom folk songs that nobody else quite remembers. The person thriving on Linphea could show Bloom their garden filled with flowers they brought with them from Domino; flowers that no longer exist anywhere else. The former Alfea student could hold Bloom close and tell her it's going to be okay even though it won't because while their experiences are undeniably different, they remember being there; in that same environment, being forced to come to terms with the same truths and grief that Bloom is now facing.

And I want to make it clear that none of this precludes Bloom earning an incomplete Enchantix. Like I said, putting the main character at a disadvantage and forcing them to do something different from The Way Things Are Always Done (tm) can be very interesting, actually, and I think there's so many ways that could still be done. (I mean this purely from a storytelling perspective rather than a nerf perspective btw. I get that Bloom being overpowered is a common complaint, but it's actually not one I share. She's quite literally the current mortal avatar of the universe's canon Creator God; she should be more powerful than all the other characters lol.)

Maybe no opportunity arises for Bloom to earn her Enchantix while meeting these people and she's not going to purposefully put someone in danger just so she can save them (although in her most desperate moment, perhaps she considers it) (I am biting anyone who insists someone needs pure intentions to earn Enchantix btw; that's not canon and eliminating the possibility that morally grey or outright villainous high level fairies can exist is boring don't @ me). She can then make the active decision to go on the dragon meditation quest or whatever (perhaps with some guidance from the person or people she met), but is doing so with more knowledge about the people and culture she is fighting for.

Maybe the perfect situation to earn her Enchantix does arise, Bloom saves someone's life, and it just... doesn't work. To earn Enchantix, a fairy must save someone from their home realm, but not everybody has the same idea of home. The person she saves may be Dominian by birth, but in the seventeen-ish years they've had to grieve and rebuild their life, they've started to think of the realm they now reside in as their true home. Alternatively, Bloom realizes that despite being Dominian by birth and desiring a connection to her biological parents, their people, and their culture, she still considers Earth her true home. She doesn't want to go back to Earth and put her adoptive parents or anyone else in danger, so she makes the active decision to go on the dragon meditation quest or whatever.

Or maybe the perfect situation to earn her Enchantix does arise, Bloom saves someone's life, and she does earn Enchantix, but it's incomplete, despite doing everything right. If Enchantix must be earnt by saving someone specifically from the realm a fairy was born in, who's to say it doesn't share a connection to that realm? At that point, Domino is a dead world and Dominians are an endangered people. Bloom is a Guardian Fairy with very little to Guard and so she doesn't have access to the same level of Enchantix magic as other fairies do. This would also mean she would get her full Enchantix powers after Domino is revived; a sign that everything will be okay for the Dominian people.

idk I just have a lot of thoughts about all the missed opportunities here, basically all of them related to the erasure of the immigrant experience and how thoroughly the ball was dropped with the show's portrayal of genocide (refusing to even consider the idea of survivors other than Bloom and basically not discussing it at all beyond how it affects the former Company of Light and Bloom)

thinking...

everyone always talks about how mike has rocks in his head and to be clear - we are all so, SO correct!! but i would also like to acknowledge that will is also pulling up with pebbles where his brain is supposed to be. i could go on and on about how he doesn't notice that his boy best friend mike flirts with him at every given opportunity and looks at him like he hand painted every single star in the sky, but like, he can get away with that ig cause he's gay in the 80s, selfless, kind, beautiful perfect etc etc etc. 🙄

i am actually bringing up will's rock for a brain because i need to remind everyone that will and lucas have an actual conversation - this is real! this is canon! - about how the only purpose a bowl has is for cereal. they genuinely cannot think of a single other use! as if will is not having this conversation after joyce cut around the rim of a bowl ON HIS HEAD earlier that week!!! as if she's not been doing this for his entire life!!!! stupid bitch 😭🙏

also planning to catch up on mutuals’ fics, wip wed posts, art, gposes, and tag games tonight now that I’ve had a few days to readjust to being home 🫶

I swear rinas only care about how EJ "isn't the one for gina" and argue with their facts ... but those facts also apply to Ricky too?? Let's for a minute entertain the reasons they claim portwell doesn't work.

EJ is older than Gina. Okay. But so is Ricky. I swear rinas are all pre-teens the way they act like a two-year age gap is god forbidden. I'd like them all to ask their parents what their age gaps are.

EJ is moving on from high school while Gina is still there. Okay. But so will Ricky. Gina is the youngest of the group, so they will ALL graduate high school before she does.

EJ can't prioritize Gina. Okay. So we're just gonna conveniently pretend like Gina isn't Ricky's third choice. I think this is why Gina's "maybe" line doesn't sit right with me. She was never a "maybe" for EJ. She is, however, a "maybe" for Ricky. Maybe Ricky will finally see Gina with Nini out of the picture. Maybe Ricky will consider Gina after his rebound with Lily. Everything EJ has done in season 3 is to prioritize his future with Gina, and it's so disheartening that both Gina and rinas don't see that but they have so much praise for Ricky for "being there" for her when EJ wasn't because he was overwhelmed with trying to make the show perfect because a perfect show translates to a future with Gina.

Hi Anon!!

Can I thank you for filling my inbox with STRAIGHT FACTS?!

These are very strong, very valid points and it's clear that some of y'all just want to ignore them in favor of what you want.

This is also further clarified to me that EJ is really getting the short end of the stick. I would love to say Portwell have made equal mistakes, but if I put my critical thinking cap on, I have to say that there were more moments I was disappointed in Gina over the season. I know she's young and she wants her perfect summer, but between her attitude in 3x05 and changing her mind every 2 seconds ('let's focus on right now!' 'I was trying to pursue a future with you!'), the girl has me frustrated!

hmmm a little scared for tomorrow....

I now have a policy about not interacting with discourse if I wouldn't be able to explain it to my dear friend who owns a flip phone. if I try to explain it to her and she just replies with "that's dumb, why are people fighting about this?" then I know it's not worth arguing about online

i want him to cook for people idk

i forgot today was thursday and tomorrow i have to go to the internship 💀 the bad part is that it limits my time here and tomorrow it's 8h of work on a website. the good part is that i'll see the cute guy again. and the coffee bc someone's addicted to it. i am not sure if i'll be able to respond to stuff here but i will try my best (discord is the easiest way for me to torment y'all). that being said, i hope you had a great day today and if nobody told you this, i'm proud of you. you're not alone. wednesday and i are always stalking watching.

i am a tlou fic machine u guys, workin on a request abt a lovely silly lil game night for our fav duo🥹, i would love to do drabbles or other stuff maybe, if ppl have any ideas, thoughts, comments, anything pls send🫶🫶🫶