Previous part: 8.99.
The Jonsie Burrows: Help Wanted 2: Tables of contents
​
One thing that I'm not getting here is why Vanessa is even a part of Vanny or Glitchtrap's situation since Double-V is true. When I originally thought up Double-V, I was originally thinking that Vanessa and Vanny were two different people and/or were sharing the role of "Vanny".
It's just one of them was more willing than the other to be a part of Glitcthtrap's machinations than the other. I didn't put too much thought into it, but it was something I wanted to look for until that Security Team revelation came about.
But now, I'm left with this puzzle piece called Vanessa that I'm not quite sure what to do with now that I know that Vanny is an entirely separate person from her.
She has to be involved with Vanny and Gltichtrap somehow. Maybe the therapy tapes will help.

• CD 1-Therapist: — but a routine check of your online history has revealed that you spend quite a bit of time with someone in an encrypted conversation. We have transcripts, and I’ve read them, but it’s not clear what you’re talking about in these conversations. I can’t make sense of it. You must be getting something from these that I’m not getting. Right? Who are you talking to in these?

These are all things that would've pointed toward Glitchtrap if I didn't know better. So it's someone else doing this? Why and why her?

• CD 5-Therapist: — Apparently, the IT department has put together a pretty lengthy report chronicling non-job-related communications that have been coming to your computer. — what bothers me about what I read is that the messages you're getting seem very manipulative in nature. —You know who I'm talking about. What you might not know is that this person who's been sending you messages has been hacking into your personal files too.
• CD 5-Vanessa: Lots of people know more than I do. Sometimes I need to listen.

So Vanessa knows who's doing this to her or think she knows. But she's been refusing to listen to them before and is now being worn down by the spamming messages sent to her. But the fact that she doesn't react to the news that they are digging into her personal life is very concerning!
Also, after going through Vanny's secret dialogue in Help Wanted, Vanessa's overall demeanor in both Security Breach and the Retro Cds clashes hard with Vanny's in both games. Where Vanny sounds and reads eager and nervous, Vanessa is defiant and reluctant with depressed undertones.
Is Vanessa really infected with Glitchtrap?
Yet now that I'm thinking about it, Glitchtrap has no need to do this as him sitting through Vanessa's therapy session with her would give him this info if she was infected. Who's ever doing this doesn't much about her, but would very much like to. Is it Vanny or Gregory...
Wait, hold on. Vanessa's first therapist mentioned that messages were encrypted and couldn't make out what the conversation was about. But the second therapist can understand these messages to know that they're manipulative in nature. Are these two different messengers?!
" I’ve read them, but it’s not clear what you’re talking about in these conversations. I can’t make sense of it. You must be getting something from these that I’m not getting." - The first Therapist
"but what bothers me about what I read is that the messages you're getting seem very manipulative in nature." - The second Therapist
What changed? Hmm... What exactly is an encrypted conversation? Maybe explaining that will help.
Encrypted text messaging is a method of secure communication that converts your messages into code. This means that only the recipient with the correct decryption key can read it. - Google
That sounds like what the first Therapist is referring to, but she mentions that they got the transcripts for it. Does that mean that got the code or the decryption key to read it? No, she says transcripts, which means the code itself.
But whatever the first Therapist saw in that transcript was legible enough to read and comprehend. This means the conversation wasn't in computer coding that would require someone in the tech field to decipher it, but just ordinary talk that's hard to understand what it's about.
Okay, that clears things up, they're still the same messenger.

• CD 11-Therapist: So, on your breaks, it looks like you were shopping for a costume. You purchased some fake fur material.
• CD 11- Vanessa: I can't talk about this. He said he would always be watching. He could be here or there or anywhere in between.
• CD 11-Therapist: No, that's not what I mean. You can't just ignore an issue. You have to face your memory of the experiences and process them so you can let it go. So you don't get triggered anymore. you can use this sort of self-dialogue to release these things
• CD 11-Vanessa: I don't like doing that.

This one conversation right here throws everything about Double-V out of whack. Why is Vanessa buying fake fur material? And for the very first time, we know the gender of who's messaging her along that he said that he would always be watching her.
Again the "he" here, and the "he will always be watching" part allude to Glitchtrap at first glance. And again, it can't be him because he should be within Vanessa since they merged in Help Wanted! Even if you dismissed the ending I proposed for Vanny and went with the ending where she gets locked up by Glitchtrap, it still wouldn't be him messaging her about watching here because he would be in her body!
And like I already said before, Vanessa has shown no memory problems or bodily control problems, which would've suggested Glitchtrap's control. No, this means that Gregory is doing all of this.
But why is he going after Vanessa? Geez, It's been a while since I even thought about his past before Security Breach. I forgot how much of a black hole of questions he is, regarding the lore. I'll give my updated thoughts about him after the Double-V revelation later.
For now, after going through all of Gregory's dialogue in Security Breach. It looks like he's not quite aware of the ongoings within the Pizzaplex and is shocked by the level of security can employ later in the night. There may actually be a hint of his hacker background in his dialogue if you squint. And Gregory has absolutely no idea what the rabbit laddy's name is until he gets to Fazerblast.
As for Gregory's involvement with Vanessa... Huh, that's weird. Gregory doesn't say Vanessa's name even once in Security Breach. Matter of fact, after the beginning sequence where Vanessa confronts Freddy about him, Gregory just stops talking about or even mentioning her for the rest of the game. This includes the confrontation that leads to her locking him up in Lost and Found and after it...
No matter how you slice it, Gregory's silence about her is super loud with alarm bells. Sure, he dismisses her as working with Vanny in the beginning, but it shouldn't mean that she should be an afterthought to him! Like, Gregory only talks about or mentions "the rabbit lady" after the beginning of the game.
In fact, if we were to rank every important character that Gregory talks about or mentions in his dialogue for Security Breach from most to least, it would look like this.

1. Freddy - 33 times
2. Vanny - 6 times
3. Chica - 6 times
4. Roxy - 4 times
5. Monty - 3 times
6. Moon - 3 times
7. Vanessa - 3 times
8. Burntrap - 1 time

That's absurd! Especially since she's the only other human worker in the Pizzaplex, besides Vanny, who encounters and confronts him. Like, he doesn't even try to communicate with her at all during the entire game!
Even when discovering Vanny's hideout in Fazerblast and Freddy suggests that Vanny is Vanessa due to deduceing Vanny's name being a combination of Vanessa + Bunny, Gregory remains silent about it! No, "Oh maybe you're right." or "That sounds too simple to be right", but instead there's no response to what might be the identity of your pursuer!
It's like he doesn't want to talk about her...
He knows her, he has to know Vanessa! Yet, he said, "I don't know who she is, but she's trying to get me!" to Freddy. Is he lying? No, he just knows about her.
​

• CD 14-Therapist: —They report that they've caught you on camera, or at least it appears to be you. — Well the techs are convinced that you've hacked into their system many times. — the electronics you like? I saw in your file that you have developed software programs that talk to you and repeat phrases, right? The program asks you questions and prompts you for responses. It's kind of like your own self therapy, isn't it? Another way of talking to yourself to work things out, right? When I saw some of your recent encrypted conversation logs, that's what I thought I was looking at. It felt like I was watching someone go back and forth in their own head, but the text found something that's different than that. When I read what they found, at first I thought I was looking at more examples of you just talking with yourself. Then I realized it was different. When I study this, it sounds like there is someone else responding to you. Who is it?

This is either hinting towards Gregory talking directly to Vanessa or Glitchtrap. But something that confuses me is why the therapist has or even be able to see Gregory's encrypted conversation logs?
I'll admit that I'm ignorant about therapy, but should your therapist have access to stuff you created outside of therapy? Unless Gregory created the program on a computer in therapy. It could explain how he's gotten access to Vanessa's files. But I'll drop that talk for now.
Something that's being made clear to me now is that Vanessa is not as connected to the villains as Gregory is, as she's more surprised by the changing of therapist than he is. In fact, Gregory knows why the therapists are disappearing, knows exactly when the therapists do something that would cause them to disappear, and doesn't seem upset when they show up mangled and dead.
But more than anything, Gregory knew Vanny long before Security Breach started. There's no reason why Gregory would know Vanny has enough control over the Pizzaplex to cut off Freddy from the network, in just one encounter. If anything, he should have assumed she was some weirdo stranger in the Pizzaplex that the security and the police needed to take care of.
But he already knew that Vanny had power in the Pizzaplex, maybe not the full scope, but enough to know that if she and he ever came into conflict with one another that ended with her wanting to hurt him then he needed to get out of the Pizzaplex.
Funnily enough, this actually lines up with the first-ever trailer for Security Breach, where Vanny says: "Gregory, I may have lost my temper earlier. But it was just a glitch!" Which implies they were talking neutrally before whatever made Vanny lose her temper. Again, I'm not using this as evidence as it's been cut, instead, I'm suggesting that the idea might have merit.
​

• CD-Therapist: — I have this still shot the techs pulled from the security footage that recorded you in the pizzaplex. That's you, isn't it? I know this image is distorted but I think it looks like you. And you're not alone here. You're talking to someone, or something. it's hard to tell. What are those things? They almost look like rabbit ears. What? You find that amusing? Well I guess it is.

I had always flipped-flopped between the mysterious person being either Glamrock Bonnie or Vanny. Both are connected to Glitchtrap, so either would fit here as Glitchtrap wouldn't be captured by a camera. But with the new evidence I've discovered, Vanny fits as Gregory's mysterious rabbit correspondent in the Pizzaplex.
But what about Vanessa? Is Gregory hacking into her files or is it Vanny and Glitchtrap? Or perhaps Gregory is hacking into her files on behalf of Glitchtrap and Vanny. Either way, Vanessa is getting dragged into Gregory and the Villian's group chat.
Speaking of the therapy, if we take into account the Retro-CD's numbering system the first two numbers are the patient ID number, and the last two numbers are the number of times both Gregory and Vanessa have been to therapy, then we can uncover some invaluable information.
Gregory has been in therapy longer than Vanessa and he was also in therapy before her too. But combining this CD's numbering system with a theory from the Talesbook story, GGY, that Gregory only goes to therapy on Sunday. Then Gregory has been going to therapy for a year and a half.
And if Vanessa is following the weekly therapy session pattern, then she's only been going to it for a little more than half a year. This means she started her therapy just about after Gregory hit his half-year mark for therapy. In addition to all that, Vanessa stopped going to therapy once she was transferred to a new location and never met the fourth and final therapist of the CDs.
Just something you all should keep in mind.
But Gregory definitely knows about her at the very least. That knowledge, I guess, is the reason why he's so shocked to see her face under Vanny's mask in the "To The Rooftop" ending. He knows that Vanessa and Vanny are two different people, but doesn't know that they look alike because he never encountered Vanny before Security Breach without her mask or costume.
On the subject of costumes, I still got no answer for Vanessa's purchase of fake animal fur or what's even happening with her now.
To be honest, this would be so simple and easy if Vanessa was just Vanny. But like as I have shown many times before in both this series and the previous one, simple and easy answers are not always the correct ones.
So, instead of looking for signs of the villain's goal with Vanessa in the lore. Let's look at the similarities and differences between the double Vs.
Vanessa's characteristics are.

• Depressed
• Has anxiety issues
• Tired (It's something that has been mentioned by the first and third therapists in CD-1 and CD-10. But seems to have more to do with the messages she's getting than how she usually is.)
• Likes the blue sky
• Likes to sit outside and read
• Watchful about her calorie intake
• Likes flowers or at least the sweet smell of them
• Doesn't like dark basements
• Oh, and hates kids

Vanny's characteristics are.

• Loves Pizza, especially pepperoni (Huh, no wonder she likes Chica)
• Absolutely, does not care about her calorie intake or a healthy diet (Seriously, Girl has gone full gamer mode with the amount of Fizzy Faz, straw drinks, and pizza boxes in areas with her presence in them)
• Hobbies in painting or graffiti
• Likes or used to like Glitchtrap or maybe William Afton (I talk about this in the secret ending)
• Loves Fazbear Entertainment (Vanny uses red spray paint in Ruin and has drawn two hearts on the FAZ ENT. Logo in the main Lobby)
• Likes Toy Chica
• Likes the Daycare Attendant (She seems to be fond of Moon more)
• Likes to read, or at least, read about the World History of Fazbear Entertainment
• Likes Flowers, a specific species of them(that I can't determine right now)
• Likes summer
• Is a mechanic or roboticist or both (She making something in Ruin Fazerblast and has turned Ruin Monty into her lapdog among other things)
• Super lazy (This one may or may not be true, but unless there's a good reason why she refuses to clean up her room in Fazer Blast, this is staying right here as far as I'm concerned)

Wow, I did not realize we already knew this much about Vanny just from the environment storytelling of the games until I listed them!
Anyway, as you can see, there are some very similar likes between the two and very stark differences in traits as well. I'm not about to list them to save word space, but instead, I want to answer a question. Could Vanessa still be Vanny despite their differences? This isn't so much for me, but for the people who believe Vanny = Vanessa despite my Double-V evidence.
At first, I thought there might've been a chance for that as they both like flowers, to read, and enjoy the outside, or at least the summer in Vanny's case. But now, after listing everything out they're just too different to say they're the same.
Even if we say that Vanny's love of pizza, general bad diet, and trashy room is the result of Vanessa coping with her depression and her situation with Glitchtrap and that her graffiti is the by-product of therapy, along with her interest in growing flowers. That doesn't negate the fact that in Ruin when given the chance to express her anxiety, Vanny doesn't take it.
If you don't know, on the wall where Vanny drew her face next to a slice of pizza in the main lobby near the Superstar Daycare entrance, there is a painted graph. The artist who made the graph also wrote on the right side of it; "TAG YOURSELF".
On all four sides of the graph, the artist made the furthest sides of them represent something. The top Y-axis is Wizard, the bottom Y-axis is Cedar, the left X-axis is Filled with a word that ends in a y, and the right X-axis is Filled with anxiety.
What this graph is showing, or what the artist trying to convey with it, is that each of the four points represents not quite the opposite thing but the furthest thing from each other. Of which, Vanny decided to tag herself on the [furthest left X-axis](https://imgur.com/j9ND1V3), not the right.
This tells us that Vanny feels the furthest thing from anxiety. Something Vanessa, no matter if she's under Glitchtrap's control or not, would be constantly feeling as she suffers from it.
As for what she's feeling, I don't know, the word on the left graph is unreadable and covered by Vanny's face to make it almost impossible to decipher. But what I do know without a doubt, is that Vanny and Vanessa are indeed, two different people with some common likes and polar opposite traits.
So after everything I've talked about in the last three? four? However many parts I've been going over Double-V, what is the best possible answer for the "To The Rooftop" ending stinger. Why do Vanny and Vanessa look alike?
I tried, I really did. I looked for as much possible evidence for anything that doesn't just make me give up and say "She's a Fazgoo clone!" or "She's a robot!"
If Vanny was a stranger who mimicked Vanessa's face, then that's cool and horrifying, but only where it concerns Vanessa herself. (The horrifying part, not the cool part.) It doesn't give us reasons why she would do it in the first place or a way to connect it to the greater lore and Glitchtrap, besides she's a human Mimic. Basically, it lacks motivation from everyone in the Villian party.
So it leaves me with no other conclusion except for one.
Back when the marketing for Security Breach was building up to its release. Steel Wool released four old Freddy cartoon episodes on their YouTube channel. Each episode hides a teaser image for the lore, including a character from the games with words, along with a character stinger at the end.
The last carton, which is the most distorted one, just so happened to include Vanessa as the hidden teaser, and Vanny as the character stinger at the end. And before you all jump the gun, previous episodes have already established that the hidden character teasers have no correlation to the ending Character stinger.
Now, the words in the Vanessa teaser image are quite interesting. It includes "Test and Rat" in the upper right corner, "Pool" in the bottom left corner, and "Bleak Reactant".
Test and Rat could be Test rat or Laboratory rat (Lab rat) as in the species of rat that are bred and kept for scientific research. Lab rat here can also be referring to Vanessa being a lab rat for the villain's experiment for something.
Using that explanation, "Pool" would then mean group or pool of people, which means number of people available for an organization or group to use. So Pool would mean that Vanessa was chosen out of all the Fazbear employees or people in general to be used for the experiment.
This leaves us with Bleak Reactant, which the definition of reactant is a substance that takes part in and experiences change during a reaction, while the definition of bleak could mean lacking vegetation (an area of land), dreary (a room), miserable(the weather), or unfavorable (outcome.)
All of this together means that Vanessa was chosen by the villains out of a group of people to be used for an experiment. An experiment of a change in Vanessa that predicted an unfavorable outcome for the villains.
Vanessa was going to be the next Vanny or maybe something else.
That gives a reason why the villains were so interested in her, why she would be shopping for a costume, why she would be at the Pizzaplex, and why she would be still connected to the villains when someone else is Vanny.
But the reason she was chosen in the first place, why her out of a group of people that might've included Gregory in it too, is because the one who chose her was her own twin sister.
If anyone remembers my only Ruin theory then you would remember my mentioning of Glitchtrap's and Vanny's conversation from Scott's website from a Security Breach poster.
Glitchtrap: "Stay the course."
Vanny: "I will."
Glitchtrap: "Focus on my voice."
Vanny: "I will."
Glitchtrap: "Don't let anyone lead you astray."
Vanny: “I won't.”
Glitchtrap: "Have you selected one?"
Vanny: "I have."
In my theory, I proposed that Gregory was the one that Vanny mentioned selecting here. But now, with all the revelations and new information gained, I believe Vanessa works better here. Vanny would've chosen someone for an experiment that she personally knew of or gotten to know, and who better than her own sibling that she grew up with.
Remember, Vanny is just starting out in her following of Glitchtrap. So would be new to the whole evil thing. And most of the time, the people close to you are the ones that would most likely commit a crime against you.
As for the twin sister thing, it actually didn't come from the "To The Rooftop" ending, but a discussion from the GTlive stream where Mat hosted a little get-together with some of the FNAF YouTuber theorists after Security Breach. There, John Fuhnaff suggested the idea for it from the VR Sisters boss from the Security Breach game Scott made when Security Breach got delayed again.
It's something that I saw some merit in after I discovered the Vanny ≠ Vanessa and after disproving in my head that Vanny wasn't Tape Girl either. The best part of the twin sister thing is that there's no need to throw out all that we know from Vanessa's therapy sessions as they both share the divorced parent's backstory.
As for which is the order twin between the two, I believe Vanessa is the oldest since it makes sense that her father would use the oldest to testify against their mother as she would better understand his instructions. Plus it provides a potential grudge from Vanny to Vanessa for what happened to their mother and a misguided parental affection for Glitchtrap. Unless Vanny's just a fangirl of William Afton, which could be the case.
Also, this means that the reason Vanessa looks the way she does in "To The Rooftop" end credits is because she looking at her dead sister. Oof, I realized that this also means she would've been the one who finds what's left of her in the "Disassemble Vanny" ending too. No wonder Faz Ent. is temporarily closed if they find that one employee is disassembled and the other one is having a mental breakdown from it in the morning.
But what about the "Redemption" ending? We know that by beating PQ3 both Glitchtrap and Vanny are defeated in it. What happens to her then? Where did she go? Hmm... I'm not sure.
What happens when someone is unmerged after being merged for a long time? Unlike Vanessa, we know that Vanny lives in the Pizzaplex. Even by Ruin and Help Wanted 2, she's still living in the building despite its condition so she probably needs time to think and process what happened to her and what's she done. Oh, and therapy. And a house.
But I think that just about wraps everything up for— Wait, HW2's Candy Cadet story! I forgot all about it! I know some people mentioned that the second story had to do with Vanessa, Gregory, and Gltichtrap. Let me skim through that real quick for clues.
Oh. Oh, that's really interesting... But it along with the Jeremy and the Memory dolls can wait until after next time. Sorry for the little to no pictures, I needed space to fit everything in one post and wanted to get everything about Double-V out of the way before I go on hiatus.
Don't worry it has nothing to do with burnout. It won't be too long either, though knowing my track record when saying that, you probably don't believe me.
Truth is, I've been severely neglecting my YouTube channel, and should really start catching up the YouTube version of my series with the online version. Plus, I've got more "Prove it!" to work on.
But most important of all, my birthday is coming up, and I don't want to work, think, or have anything to do with my FNAF stuff on that day. So! Feel free to read and become full with these last few Parts until I come back with more.

Just kidding. Hans, Casey, Kam and William are all great comedians, and anyone who thinks otherwise is sadly mistaken. Tony knows what he’s doing, and all you people who think you have a hot take about these guys being bad at their job can go suck a lemon. Seriously, all y’all haters can go take a hike, fly a kite and suck a dick at the same time. Here’s some advice, if you ever think that any of these awesome comedians’ material is “getting old,” maybe you should go fuck your mother, because she’s getting old and probably needs it. When the entire audience laughs, that means the person talking is doing a good job as a comedian. I don’t think some people here understand that.

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.
Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten
Critics Consensus: Heavy on eerie mood but undone by an obtuse script, The Watchers can only hold the gaze for so long before tedium sets in.

	Score	Number of Reviews	Average Rating
All Critics	30%	105	5.00/10
Top Critics	21%	29	4.70/10

Metacritic: 48 (21 Reviews)
Sample Reviews:
It wants to be a kind of fairy tale. In this case, though, there’s too much impeccable pretension and not enough things that go bump in the Shyamalan night. - Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The Watchers, sadly, is less disturbing than dull, less harrowing than hackneyed. - David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
'The Watchers' isn’t very scary and it’s only interesting for as long as it’s an intellectual curiosity, and it’s not intellectual curiosity for the full 102-minute running time. - William Bibbiani, TheWrap
Both Shyamalans habitually make everything dependent on the grand finale, but neither of them seems to be able to tell the difference between a satisfying conclusion and one that makes two hours in a theater feel like a total waste of time. - Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
There’s an inelegant blend of Celtic folklore thriller... [and] contemporary horror movie tropes that renders the result unsatisfying for fans of either genre. And yet, Shyamalan proves herself a proficient director throughout most of this slog. 1/4 - Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle
The director works well with cinematographer Eli Arenson to envelop the chamber-sized ensemble in various shades of dread, or comfort. 3/4 - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Any of the suspense or dread the film might have built up (of which there could have been a truckload more) turns to mush when the horror turns hokey. 2/5 - Benjamin Lee, Guardian
Hints of interesting ideas about mass entertainment compete with lore-ish hokum, and some concussively literal-minded dialogue. The twist? Shyamalan is clearly not untalented. She will also doubtless go on to make better movies. 2/5 - Danny Leigh, Financial Times
Its framework may feel inherited, but its mood is its own and it’s filled with new, unexpected ideas. 4/5 - Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK)
How you watch The Watchers, and how you process its series of increasingly disbelief-suspending climaxes, is your call. Unlike the foursome at the center of it, however, you can always get up and leave. - David Fear, Rolling Stone
Follows the same basic pattern as the work of her dad M. Night Shyamalan—namely, it starts strong and then slowly falls apart under the weight of its obligations to clarify its baffling scenario. - Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
The sudden onslaught of exposition displaces whatever mild investment this movie has earned in its characters. C - David Ehrlich, indieWire
If nothing else, Shyamalan has absorbed plenty of lessons about suspense and atmosphere from her time on the sets of like-minded movies like Knock at the Cabin. But the more The Watchers comes together, the less interesting it becomes. 6/10 - A.A. Dowd, IGN Movies
It's a capable cast and an intriguing premise with some decent atmosphere built, however the weightless script gives very little for the characters to build on. It has strong ideas, but needed a more assured hand to make the most of them. 3/5 - Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
SYNOPSIS:
From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes “The Watchers,” written for the screen and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
You can’t see them, but they see everything.
CAST:

• Dakota Fanning as Mina
• Georgina Campbell as Clara
• Oliver Finnegan as Daniel
• Olwen Fouere as Madeline

DIRECTED BY: Ishana Night Shyamalan
SCREENPLAY BY: Ishana Night Shyamalan
BASED ON THE WATCHERS BY: A.M. Shine
PRODUCED BY: M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, Nimitt Mankad
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Jo Homewood, Stephen Dembitzer
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Eli Arenson
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Ferdia Murphy
EDITED BY: Job ter Burg
COSTUME DESIGNER: Frank Gallacher
MUSIC BY: Abel Korzeniowski
CASTING BY: Rebecca Dealy, Louise Kiely
RUNTIME: 102 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2024

However you identity, everyone needs a good laugh now and again. Chuckle Sandwich has been my favorite podcast since episode 1 and I was already a fan of Ted and Schlatt. I think the podcast is great and I love the humor and rip slimcicle and Tucker haters fuck you!
I hope everyone is having a happy pride month and it's a great time of year to remember that everyone deserves to be themselves.
...but Ted, Schlatt, Tucker.... What if you weren't yourselves?
What if you were drag queens? I was a drag queen for almost a decade and it's so fun. If you're interested in ever meeting with drag queens and getting makeovers, you could enjoy a new way to do comedy, meet fun and interesting people, hear a little bit about gay history, and maybe perform a lip sync and dance to a great song. I know a dozen drag queens who would love to help you pick out fun wigs, put makeup on you, tell you about performaning classic drag dance moves, and much more.
Maybe it's a crazy idea but chuckle sandwich is pretty crazy. And I don't think it's very favorite puppy to never try drag when so many comedians and entertainers have tried it and made some of the most enjoyed movies and skits of all time. Robin Williams a Mrs. Doubtfire, Tom Holland as Rihanna, Bugs Bunny as a lady in like every episode... Maybe that's a bad example because he's a cartoon and isn't real.
Ted just DM me if u like the idea thanks
Happy pride chucklers

I never expected to feel empowered and comfortable in my skin after taking years of JNMIL's crap, being made the scapegoat, and watching my husband not stand up for me. I'm one of the ones that took matters into my own hands, and told JNMIL I'm out if you can't change your behavior. (Surprise, she never changed or apologized) I told DH he can come along for the ride or stay in the muck.
Nearly 5 yrs into this NC thing, we'll be back to his home state to visit JNMIL who is in poor health and declining. I am not looking forward to seeing her or flying monkeys, I do plan to keep some distance.
Now that LO is older, I have been teaching her about toxic relationships - specifically that people who hurt you are not safe people. JNMIL was resigned to call on birthdays, but after snapping at LO, lost that privilege 4 yrs ago, so LO knows exactly who she is.
I was recounting JNMIL's antics immediately after I gave birth years ago. To a new exhausted mother working on zero sleep, she would fake concern, saying "Boy you look like you've had way too much sleep. You're depressed aren't you? You don't seem fit to care for this child..." ??? Of course there was also giving me razorblades to clean because I apparently missed some spots, and screaming at me to have dinner on the table when my husband arrives home from work - all while I'm still recovering. She had to remind me that she "liked her pancakes better" when I cooked breakfast and that my choice in TV shows while nursing was "ridiculous". Nothing I did was right.
She was determined to break my spirit daily and painted me as unstable to the family. Hormones still flooding my body, I admit I was a crying mess, but it was because of this woman living in my house without my permission and sabotaging everything I did, and every move I made. When we told her our choice for LO's name, she screeched in my face, "that's Hitler's wife's name!"
Eventually with an audience of family members, she decided to play a generous martyr by offering me a (one way?) flight to a hospital in Arizona that could care for "moms like me" who couldn't handle life.
It takes a special kind of evil and sickness to bully a person into submission, and use someone's weakened state as proof of angst/troubled nature to anyone willing to listen a made up narrative. Having boundaries was offensive to her.
Unfortunately, I wasn't the one. I said no to the trip, researched my way to healing and found this board (Thank you JUSTNOMIL!), and JNMIL lost the privilege to see LO all of these antics, and referring to herself "Mommy" to my LO one too many times.
DH said please don't share that story, it's not the time. My response was "if JNMIL wanted me to speak more highly of her, she should have treated me better." (Thanks Katt Williams!) Also, it's the truth. LO needs to understand there are manipulators out there.
That's all. Thanks for listening if you got this far.

Do you think arrow would have worked better like Netflix series
10-13 episodes , 40 mins each maybe
Then we could have a proper 5 season flashback+ present. (As usual). But skip unnecessary drama (William secret, diggle stuff , Cold War, emiko , cut short Ricardo Diaz stuff )
Build Oliver and felicity like the slowest burn. Her and William to befriend and connect and that’s when Oliver and her get together. Let her be a yapper and build herself into tech industry, be her own person but also overwatch.
Also additional 6th season for prison part (coz that was perfect ) and the setup for crisis and the crisis
Yes we have felicity haters but imo in this show laurel and oli have no chemistry and after his line - I’m done with you - I really don’t see them together. Plus initial felicity and Oliver interactions used to be so good. There was a spark and maybe that’s why it was pushed. But we are only speculating - sure swap felicity with laurel. But basically I think it went downhill because they needed content and just dumped whatever they pleased. It went from thriller action to drama

Imma just call this theory. Throughout this beef and even in the end of Mr Morale on Mother I Sober, he’s made it more apparent that he doesn’t care about the industry and has been slowly telling its secrets right in front of peoples eyes and it doesn’t get talked about. The fact that’s it’s been proven he had a mole (and Kendrick implies he has a lot of moles in OVO), that he made all the diss tracks at once. Kendrick referencing the heart part IV in Euphoria showing that he’s known about things for quite a while now. Referencing Katt Williams who just recently outed the industry. When he’s attacking and saying these things about Drake he’s messing directly with the industry and one of its most powerful people, Lucian Grange. (If you don’t know even Ye brought him up in the Like That remix which is the only good angle he had besides “Play J Cole get the pussy dry.) The thing about Drake being a pdf was already circulating that doesn’t just happen outta nowhere. Plus behind the scenes a lot of people high up in entertainment and politics and just important people in general are behind the scenes pdfs (That’s why they’re lists like Epsteins Island that exist.) and doing background Diddy activities (who’s been Been known and exposed to mess around with dudes behind the scenes). Kendrick also mentioned Drake realized that being a “beard would fit him better”, if you need to know what that is then look it up. Kendrick doesn’t waste a single line everything is too calculated, if this battle would’ve went on he would’ve Katt Williams’d the whole situation and exposed Drake even more than he did (which is why on Not Like Us he said the rabbit hole is still deep and he can go further, he also mentioned Katt Williams on Meet The Grahams). He already exposed a shit ton tho. Saying he’s been sex trafficking and even tying it into him leaking his own dick pick and how that’s done in the industry to get woman or even underage girls. He mentions specific people in Drakes camp what they’re doing it’s honestly baffling. Talking about Bakas super weird sex trafficking case, saying stuff like Chubb’s the only one that get his hand me downs which also seems like a crazy double entendre cause hand me downs also go to the younger brothesister so basically saying you have multiple pdfs with you (tying back into the coverart). The whole Euphoria thing in general of Drake producing a show that is connected to teen sex and stuff like it’s so weird, plus it’s known that he messes with a lot of young woman too (he literally talks about it in his music). Drake literally said he knew he was gonna go the Epsteins route, wtf. Also said that he’s too famous to be a pedophile 🤦🏾‍♂️, wtf. This info and with it’s quotables inflections and information, Not Like Us could honestly be a top 3 diss track with Meet The Grahams. He literally told Lebron and Curry to keep their families away. So those are my thoughts on some of the diss tracks that Kendrick dropped are they are unbiasedly honestly some of the best in rap history cause it’s not just attacking Drake and his character but that of the shady industry too.
Edit: Plus I’m assuming y’all caught that super crazy bar on Not Like Us where he says “I’m finna pass on this body I’m John Stockton” who was known to play with Karl Malone who got a underage girl pregnant. Kendrick could be saying that literally like him just having sex with a lil girl or that he did that and got her pregnant. Either way it’s awful

This post is quite large, the first 2 parts are a rant about Aegon the first and House Targaryen and the third isn't as much a charachter rant as a rant about the lack of charachters of some parts of Asoiaf lore and what I considered it failures in worldbuilding that have led up to it. The final one explores the under laying issues behind all of this.
The humour (because I refuse to write a post this big about something I hate without humour) and the more sideline stuff will be marked as a spoiler, there aren't really any spoilers here except something Daemon does early on and the fate of Aegon's younger sister first wife which takes place several hundred years before HotD and GoT both will be marked too, both of these spoilers are minor parts of section 1 and 3 respectevely but neither are big.
1 Aegon is a Gary Stu 100% and I don't know why people struggle to see him as that (+ issues with house Targaryen in this time period)
I don't think he is nearly as cool as William the Conqueror the fact that he married both of his sisters (and likely got cucked by atleast one) is super icky and dosen't make that much sense and him being retconned to being a straightforward good guy is the final nail in the coffin for me.
Many Pre-Blackfyre (not including Aegon the Unworthy which I actually like as a bad king and gets developed in that way instead of book Viserys just stirring as much shit as posible for very little reason) Targaryen kings strike me as Gary Stus (this point won't be elaborated on because I don't have B&F here and the post is long enough, sufice to say House Targaryen gets to have all of the cool stuff even surpasing other houses at their niche while other houses are usually pretty one faced) who wouldn't have been capable of holding a small realm irl, much less a continent , Aegon is the most exagerated example of that.
The nobility hates him
The church hates him
The commonfolk hate him
The order of facechanging assasins living next door who descend from slaves his people used to abuse and experiment on hate him.
Big pharma hates him due to his bloodline hability to be inmune to generations of incest
Matpat probably loves him due to his theory about the GoT ending being right.
How the fuck has this guy not been murdered in a world as full of intrigue as Westeros? wtf is this guy even feeding his armies or his dragons?
The fucking dumbass spends all day burning his fields and going scorched earth would completely fuck with his tactics of "throw dragon at problem if problem not solved throw more dragon at problem unitl problem solved" , fortunatly he got plot armoured out of having to conquer the North, the largest of the kingdoms he ruled over, how or why were the northen houses (which include House Bolton who shas a claim to the North) fine with this to the point of not asking questions is beyond me.
As far as I remeber it's not like the feudal contract between the Starks and the crown is particularly generous so Torrhen Stark just accepted to get taxed as much as the Riverlanders (who Aegon had freed from slavery and granted land) because Rhaenys saw him fuck a goat and he didn't want her to tell on him or something.
Futhermore the North's religion is unique, and now he has accepted to be in a realm mostly consistent of people of another religion, during the Middle Ages in a world where fanatics of the Seven Pointed Star exist, under a liege lord that would eventually convert.
Aegon, a fellow inspired and who is meant to mirror William the Conqueror , who was pretty morally ambiguous irl, and who's consequences of his actions lead up to the of thousands of innocent people and several wars is supposed to be sympathetic.
Aegon isn't build as a bastard, in fact we are kinda supposed to sympathese with him specially after the dagger retcon, GRRM just won't let be a Targaryen main charachter be evil, I don't want the author to remind me that "acktually this charachter who you have seen behave like an absolute bastard isn't really that evil because... " fuck that, if you show me Aegon behaving like a remorseless psycopath I don't care what your intention while writting him was , "Daemon is made out of light and dark in equal parts" fuck that man that's not the charachter you've written, that guy has done nothing good in his life, ffs in the books he might have killed his wife for his own selfish interests. You named the guy Demon ffs , don't go back and try to convince me he is sympathetic.
It's absurd how much favoritism this house gets inside the narrative, mixing some of the most obnoxious fantasy tropes into a single bloodline:
White hair? Check
Special eye colour? Check
I understand that these 2 might have not been as generic as they were when the series started but they definetly were when F&B was published
Last of their kind trope? Check
Descended from nobility even if the books are critical of the feudal system? Check
Chosen ones to save the world ? Check
Dragon riders? Check (kinda deserves it's own post to explain why I find dragon riders annoying but it's mostly stuff that has been complained about before how unpractical it is, how dumb it looks, dragons probably being better on their own...)
Humble origin? Fucking somehow check too, given that they are supposed to be a very small house when they arrived at Dragonstone, which kinda poses it's own issues regarding House Celtigar and Velaryon but it's best to not explore them rn as as I said the post is already long enough.
Own religion disregarding the traditional one which is totes super evil and represive? Check.
These tropes are already annoying when on a random fantasy charachter but they pose a lot more issues when they affect the ruling house of a realm, specially the unique religion one because you would think that the rulers disregarding the traditional religion of an entire continent in a world that has somehow been stucked in the Middle ages for allegedly hundreds of years is insane.
2 I don't care who the IRS sends I refuse to pay my taxes
How he is even able to tax anything beyond the street he lives in is insane given that he is ruling over a continent which has never unified before and dosen't have centuries of chinese burocracy behind it , the clergy should consider him to be (with good reason) the anticrist , the commonfolk don't have money and sure as fuck neither Dorne nor the Free cities are going to be willing to trade with him.
Contraband is going to be rampant, and again in a world as full of intrigue as Westeros I don't believe the lords are going to be enforcing his laws unless Balerion is directly staring and them specially now that they are poorer because of him and the clergy is telling them not to behind closed doors, it's not like Aegon established a secret police (he wouldn't even had had the money to do so) .
You can argue that some lords like Orys Baratheon owed everything to Aegon, but those lords have their own troubles in legitimasing their rule now that they are among the most important in the realm and without an army to back them or money is not like they can afford to stress their rule over the minor nobility which should be the ones to mostly profit from the situation short term as now most of the realm rellies on them deciding to collaborate. They are going to be forced to be granting priviledges to ensure they do their job.
Again this is the Middle ages these guys rule because god sayed so, and while the church might have to oficially recognised them, they can't be forced to preach whatever the crown desires behind closed doors, Aegon's conquest should mean a great trauma to the region, no one beyond the people that directly depend on them is going to support that bloodline, and once the first generation of appointed rulers have passed on, that is really is no one.
Of course some of these problems would be solved if the distances weren't so wonky and Westeros was the size of let's say England , but I refuse to believe Aegon is literally sending Visenya to a town in the middle of the riverlands to collect the 3 sheeps it owes the crown every month (although it's very funny to imagine it).
3 Dragons are just that strong
I think it is very lame how the conquest is Aegon going "nuh uh I have dragons", to every battle even if the Westorosi should have bigger armies and wayyyy better generals. Is kinda boring to see that the whole conflict has no tension because the Targaryens at any point can say , "nuh uh I have dragons".
Harrenhal? Nuh uh I have dragons.
The Eyre? Nuh uh I have dragons.
The iron Isles (which should be unassailable as soon as they get balistas) ? Nuh uh GRRM kinda forgot to write this part .
Even when Rhaenys gets killed in Dorne ,dornish weapons now don't affect Balerion because Aegon is like super angry and thus inmune to consequences from bad judgement calls (let's go to the one place that has weapons capable of killing me,>! and have in fact killed my sister a couple weeks ago!<, yes I am a great tactician how did you know?) , even if the dornish should be pretty good at countering dragons by this point due to terrain and the fact that they have fought against dragons before.
Dragons are an issue there is no way around it , it's really weird that in a world were dragons had been the norm for hundreds of years no one had a reliable answer, Chariots were the norm, and a counter was developed, Phalanxes were the norm and a counter was developed, the roman empires' troops were more heterogeneous but they still were able to be countered and defeated .
It's odd that in a world that makes callbacks to irl history the only ones that have access to unbeatable magic bullshit are the valyrians and the rest can only suck up despite hints that they might have access to magic bullshit too, it would be fine if dragons were the strongest magical bullshit, but it's absurd that no one can counter that whatsoever.
What's more is that Rhaenys' incident is either extremely lucky / caused by her own idiocy (which is weird given that she is a veteran dragonrider by this point) and leaves the Targaryen as fucking dumbasses for not invading Dorne anyway and just a cheap way for GRRM to make something happen to her while asking the reader to never think more of it or to how she died or how Aegon surviving Dorne after is just plot armour or the Westerosi nobility really just forgot that they can make their own with the same wood they are taxing.
In anyway the ballistas being introduced lampshades the issue of dragons being op, because they aren't nearly as relevant as they should, they are introduced wayyyy to late into the narrative (like c'mon no one ever came up with "shot arrow but faster an" even though their families being burnt depended on it during hundreds of years?) and the fact that they weren't refined and mass produced enough into them being atleast decent against dragons leads me to believe my 9 year old niece would be a better duke than any westerosi/essosi noble.
And honestly, as soon as a dragon lands, that rider is getting sniped, actually nevermid I forgot that the Targaryens also have the best archespymastewizard/seer in the setting in Bloodraven.
Dragons are cheap and lazy answer to "how did valirya/Targaryens get this strong?" Instead of the author having to work on an answer that would be complicated or have to create charachters that drive the Valiryan empire forward the answer is "duh they have big fire lizard things"
The following paragraphs are about other fantasy settings and how they handle their own current hegemons/fallen empires.
Why is the Empire of Reikland the hegemon of the warhammer world?
Humans breed faster, they have access to better technologies than their neighbours, their gods are active , they have had a history of poor and great rulers (currently having an amazing one), they are the most reasonable power and they are a diplomatic superpower due to having no grudges with adjacent factions, it's also pretty good at supressing chaos cults.
It has it flaws as it being decentralised leads to internal conflict and it would be utimnatly unable to compete with a great host of another faction, one to one an emperial army that unable to heavely relly on gunpoweder (which can't even be used against every foe effectively) will always lose against a great host of elves (as they are just able to field objectevely better soldiers and mosters) dwarfs (as they are able to field better gunpowder and soldiers), conversely while an empiral army is greater in quality than an undead or skaven army those factions have a way easier time replanishing their casualties.
Why is Niflgard the Hegemon of the Witcher world?
It is technologically more advanced than any of it's neighbours, it is generally better managed , it dosen't have the racial/religious tensions the northen kingdoms have, it can use mages more reliably , it is better at spying, access to slave labour, it is able to field larger armies , it is far more stable than it's neighbours and the Impirial court is more advanced than any of it's neighbours
It has flaws , though it's armies are vast the empire is overextended, it's bad at dealing with monsters due to having purged it's own witchers (or never having them depending on the source) which is a problem as wars tend to create them , it's armies struggle (kinda) with the different climates , the empire being stable rellies on the emperor being competent and it's slave trade forces the empire to continue expanding, upon succesive failed campaings supply of slaves can be complicated and harm the economy
Why was Ventrue Rome the Hegemon in Princes of Darkness (I'm going with PoD because WoD lore is more ambiguous and has gone through many retcons) ?
It was technologically more advanced and cohesive than it's original rivals in the Gangrel celts , it was generally better managed , it dosen't have as many tensions with other clans except the Brujah as it meant the colaboration of most other clans, unlike the Brujah , the Salubri , the Assamites , the setites or the Tmiscze it dosen't seem to have been weakened as much by the baali wars or have been tainted by infernalism.
After the fall of Carthage Camilla it's most influencial leader for hundreds of years was corrupted by an ideology kinda adherent to infernalism focused on hedonism, so that fucks with our point of Ventrue Rome not being weakened by infernalism.
Driving the leading clan the Ventrue into an schisim some being fanatic stoics and others being tainted by Camilla's ideas, this fucks with our previous point of them being better managed as there is now faccionalism in it's goverment.
Seeing the clusterfuck Rome has become one of the most powerfull Toreador vampires has denouced the central goverment and taken his whole clan which so far hadn't been particularly ambitious and many other leaders of other clans to it's own breakaway state after this another Ventrue figure has fucked off to Britain making it his own furthering weakening the main Clan , so that fucks with our point of Ventrue Rome being more cohesive.
What's worse is that first the Gangrel and then the Brujah have rallied around new figures which have been dealing both political blows (taking away some LaSombra and Nosferatu vampires to the Brujah cause) and military ones , so that fucks with Ventrue Rome having larger armies.
Finally the LaSombra clan has pretty much decided the Ventrue can go fuck themselves now that there is land to grab easily and their own clan has had politcal problems because of the Brujah and appropiated much of the Mediterranean and the Iberian peninsula, while many Ventrue have decided to start over in Germany and the Nosferatu always were there because Ventrue Rome was the biggest power at the time.
Why is/was the Empire of Tamriel the Hegemon of the Elder Scrolls world?
....
No one stole dragon eggs to breed, no valyrian lord went independant and created it's own dragon realm outside valyria except the Targaryens (which is absurd given how powerhungry they are written to be) which were a relatevely small house (also Idk why they didn't conquer most of Westeros as soon as they got there).
All around it sucks because in a narrative that's supposed to be complex and ask the reader to think further you aren't meant to think about how the fuck did the Targs or the Vals came to power and managed to hold it for so long.
Like just implement something that banes them, why have the evil ambituous , scheming Tmiszce expanded beyond Carpathia? Well it turns out that they are bound to those lands and struggle to get away from them.
Maybe the dragons could get ill if they get away from Valerya, maybe as some short of curse from the Rhoynar that came as a vengeance from their conquest and was removed by the Doom of Valerya, which the Targaryens were capable of scaping narrowly because of the dream of their ancestor (which is already canon), this would add mistery to the Doom , as maybe it was the valeryans trying to remove the Rhoynar curse except they fucked up, give us names as to who did what , why and what were the consequences of "Ops Valeryans are gone their plannet needed them"
You also don't get the impression of the valyrian nobles being particulary smart or capable because of the fucking dragons, in fact you get the idea that if anything they were a bunch of dumbasses given that despite them being unbeatable on the field and seemingly unvunarable to civil unrest (aside from the slaves that would form Braavos somehow scaping) they weren't able to crush the Dothraki or other external threads and their realm was relatevely small compared to what the romans or the persians got irl, or how much did the Targs seem to struggle with the stepstones, just fly to Lys ,Volatis and Tyrosh and nuke them you fucking dummies.
The only guys that may have had something capable of countering Valerya is Braavos with the faceless men (it's super weird that they just have the most efficient assasins ever and that's it) and those fellows didn't seem to mind the powerhungry dragon lords that kept them as slaves conquering the continent next to them lol.
The "there wasn't any other way to go around it if one has dragons point" is moot because ultimatly that was a choice that was taken by the author that made the history less engaging and he could have choosen to just not take it.
The problem ultimatly is that when writting Fire & Blood or any of the Westeros world for that matter GRRM knew that the story had to arrive at a desired outcome (the Westeros world of A Game of Thrones) and that completely fucks with the whole "gardening writting style" that is fucking non-sense any way, so the only way GRRM saw to arrive at Westeros was making dragons into nukes, and because he was kinda forced to write Fire and Blood and not delay it 50 times and also restricted by pre-stablished lore and ideas he had about the story, he wasn't able to atleast balance that decision.
Actions and consequences , charachters being both people and influencial politicians with their own ideologys, a fall of an empire lasting hundreds of years happening over hundreds of years, we get to know many of the long past leaders of these factions and how their actions affected the world even if we never meet them are just not there,
Even the Dance of the Dragon is much better written as a fall history than the Fall of Valirya (lmao your socerers big died you goof)
End The underlaying issues
One of the issues Pre-Blackfyre stuff has is that GRRM loves to have it's cake and eat it too (no pun intended I don't want to criticise him for his weight) and during that period he is free to write as high fantasy as he wants, the original series points out incestous relationships are bad? Well better point out that acktually there can be positive too, religion fanatism bad? acktually the dragons were killed by religious fanatics defending the future of their continent which idk how the fanbase percieves as something bad (also you probably know how I feel about dragons being killed by common folk after the dragon rant ).
Introducing concepts and ideas that have nothing to do with the themes , Asoiaf didn't need to have an ancient prophetic hyperadvanced world spanning virtuous hyperborea chinese empire (following the steps of GRRM I'm just gonna drop this concept leave you to question if it really is canon or the writer of this is just making shit up at this point or just insane) , it didn't to have weird genetic experiments by the valiryans (the dragon worms were kinda cool ngl), and it sure asf didn't need to have a women moaning so loudly when she was getting fucked by her brother-husband that a maester considered it worthwhile writting it down on a chronicle.
And that's another thing that bothers me it's that GRRM dosen't even commit to an answer he opens himself a backdoor to an easy retcon, in a book that people only buy to know more of the ASOIAF lore,>! following in his steps too, I decided to add information about settings you weren't interested in just because I consider them cool (and because if I don't praise/reference PoD in every post I make here wtf is even the point tbh)!< even though you just wanted to see an Asoiaf rant, except atleast I had the decency to flag what was unimportant and will not be adding lovecraftian elements into my narritive an undetermined amount of time after the release of this post in a follow up that might exist or might just be a way to fuck with my editor.
Edit:
This turned out to be more controversial and more engaged with than I thought it be given the lenght of the post, I honestly don't understand what the fanbase sees in this guy, to me is as bland as a bread and the most enjoyment I get from him as a charachter is from making fun at him, I really mean it it's one of my least liked charachters and I think it's a good example of the issues House Targaryen has in general just how the treatment Valyria gets is a good example of the issues of the wider asoiaf lore.
I'm seeing the complaint that big conquerors exist irl and I by my logic they are Gary Stus too? I might have not make myself clear , my problem is not that Aegon conquered Westeros my problem is that the conquest of Westeros is boring asf.
My problem is not that Aegon is good at everything, but that he was granted the hability to be good at everything because he has dragons, we never see Aegon or the Valeryans developing smart tactics that use dragons or being a good politician or both, he just tosses dragons at problems and then were are told not showned that he was actually great at strategy which is absurd, the dragons being as op as they are makes pre-dance lore significantly worse.
I also have seen incest not being as dangerous as I claim it is being brought up? This is weird to me because it's more of a side point about Aegon breaking religious tabuus of all the peoples he intends to conquer for no reason and him being a bad politcian refusing any marriage alliance, although it is also icky which makes it even weirder that that's a detail GRRM decided to include
I don't want to go into depth about the genetic consequences of incest because : 1 it is a tangent , 2I don't much about biology the biology and 3 honestly I don't care enough about this particular detail as much as I care it being a dumbass decision politcally .
So I'm just gonna link the matpat video I referenced earlier because is the reason why I think that Targ genes are treated super weirdly. Targ genes have to be magical for the amount of incest they carry out having not killing them yet and their bloodline being magical in anyway fucks with the point of the story criticising feudalism and nobility.
I apreciate the comments as I like discussing fantasy lore with other fans and there are people that have raised good points which I apreciate , I had fun writting this and I'm glad some people have liked it and whoemever dosen't feel free to criticise it.

Club season has come and gone. We still have the Champions League final to watch, but internationals are around the corner. Offseason? What the hell is that? Sounds like a bunch of woke mumbo-jumbo if you ask me /s. The Euros being the same summer as the Olympics is certainly interesting timing, but let's be real, what's the real draw on the continent? And why do Yanks like you and me give a shit? The bandwagons are opening now. This will be a long one. (Editor's note: lineups were included before roster cuts)
Germany: The 2014 World Cup was a decade ago. Do you feel old yet? Germany certainly does, given that a few stalwarts from their last international football triumph are still here. Thomas Muller, Toni Kroos, and Manuel Neuer are the elder statesmen in Julian Nagelsmann's renaissance of Die Mannschaft. Joshua Kimmich, Ilkay Gundogan, Kai Havertz, Leroy Sane, Antonio Rudiger, and Niklas Fullkrug are all respected veterans. Newcomers like Max Beier and Bundesliga POTY Florian Wirtz add to the talent depth. Germany's success will always come down to coaching, just like the last few international cycles. Nagelsmann's system shows signs of promise, but its defensive soundness is up for debate. They got an easier group, but we've them underachieve against lower opposition.
Scotland: The Highlands reckon with the sounds of war. The Scottish are on the rise. Andrew Robertson returns from his day job in England to help them get the one-up on their rivals. They are carrying quite the team this season. Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, John McGinn, and Robertson all had fine seasons in the PL. Scott McKenna was sold to Copenhagen to try and resurrect his career after his stagnation in Nottingham. Che Adams contributed to Southampton's return to the Premier League. As did Stuart Armstrong. After spending a season in Spain, Kieran Tierney is looking to regain his spot at Arsenal. Scotland's problem is much like their Group A counterparts: relying on star power. They've managed to come together as a spirited group and can win some games, but not others. If they do get a matchup with England again, get ready for the second part of Braveheart.
Hungary: When you read over the Hungarian National Team squad, you'll probably recognize these three: Dominik Szobozblai, Willy Orban, and Peter Gulacsi. Other than that, I don't know anyone on this squad, but I have seen them do incredible things before. I'm not suggesting Szobozslai will carry them to a group-stage win, but you never know. If something goes wrong for Scotland and Switzerland, the door is wide open.
Switzerland: Making an impossible run to the 2021 quarterfinals and beating France in the process was commendable. Now the Swiss must try it again. Can they repeat their success? With players like Manuel Akanji, Dennis Zakaria, Yann Sommer, Gregor Kobel, Noah Okafor, and the 'streets won't forget' Ricardo Rodriguez, there is a very strong chance Switzerland is going to make some noise. This time, they have legitimate talent, not just relying on national spirit and vibes. Okafor is a mainstay for AC Milan. Kobel helped get Dortmund to the Champions League final. Sommer won Serie A with Inter. Imagine having the same goalkeeper problems as Germany. Granit Xhaka left Arsenal and found the love again (and a league title) in Leverkusen. Just hope that your midfield can hang with the rest of these guys.
Spain: The young Spanish team is ready to take the next step after their run to the 2021 semis. Luis de la Fuente has begun the revitalization. Integrating youngsters like Gavi and Pedri has been a welcome sight, but their injuries have hampered the progress. Spain will need to find the same spirit that followed them between 2008 and 2012. There is a lot of talent here, but they haven't been able to come together. Lamine Yamal had his breakout season at Barcelona. Nico Williams had his at Bilbao. Joselu and Dani Carvajal were critical players for Real Madrid again. Fermin Lopez broke into the Barca first team too. Alvaro Morata was one of Atletico's better players this season. But bringing in an aging Jesus Navas and leaving Pedro Porro at home? Questionable move there. If they can figure out how to play as a team, we may witness the beginning of a power shift.
Croatia: Don't worry, it's not the Luka Modric retirement tour yet. An experienced side once again heads into battle. Matteo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol were important for Manchester City's fourth PL title in four seasons, and now they must replicate it on the international stage. Ivan Perisic and Andrej Kramavic will need to get the attacking game on point if they hope to break through some of these defenses. A veteran squad with some high-value youth mixed in. The Croatian way continues. Will they finally capture a trophy before their golden generation ends?
Italy: The title defense is on. You will need to at least make the quarterfinals to make up for missing out on the 2022 World Cup. But can Italy really do it? They're finally letting go of the 2006 World Cup era and embracing modernity. Out with the old, in with the new. Jorginho, Gigio Donnarumma, Federico Chiesa, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and Niccola Barella are somehow the most experienced out of all the players. Alessandro Bastoni has some merit to him, but this will be the first he isn't playing behind Chiellini or Bonucci. An influx of newcomers like Gianluca Scamacca as the Immobile replacement and Giamoco Raspodori as a secondary striker excites but will it work? Italy's striker problem is well-known. They still have enough talent to pip Spain or Croatia to the Group B win, but I'm just not sure. Luciano Spalletti will definitely have his work cut out for him. Tread carefully.
Albania: God I wonder what uproar that Albania-Croatia match is going to cause. You know how delicate the Balkan geopolitical balance is. Any win for either of these teams will set off a blaze of social media crying and likely real-life problems. The only recognizable names in the Albanian national side are Armando Broja and Thomas Strakosha. Broja was on loan at Fulham and scored...one goal. He assisted another. Yea, you guys might get cooked. Thoughts and prayers.
Slovenia: I doubt anyone has any real expectations for Slovenia. They only have two recognizable names in Benjamin Sesko and Jan Oblak. Oblak needs no lengthy introduction, his class is well known. Sesko is a much different story. All eyes will be on him after his fruitful first year in Leipzig. He's part of the emerging core of Lois Openda, himself, and Xavi Simons. He's got plenty of potential suitors lined up and a top performance at the Euros will surely earn him a move somewhere else. Please don't let it Bayern.
Denmark: My dark horse candidate to win the lot. You might think that's crazy, but is it really? The Danes have depth for once. Christian Eriksen isn't what he once was, and hopefully, this won't be a repeat of 2021 for him. Yet he may not even need to be The Guy this time around. Vets like P.H. Hojbjerg, Simon Kjaer, Yossuff Poulson, Jannik Vestergard, and Mathias Jensen have the drive in them to play well. Round it out with the emerging talents of Mikkel Damsgaard, Rasmus Hojlund, and Mohamed Daramy, there is a lot riding on the line for Denmark. They've been given an easy-ish group. Now is the time to strike.
Serbia: Serbia was once stricken by having no forward depth. Now they have too many. Aleksander Mitrovic, Dusan Vlahovic, Dusan Tadic, Luka Jovic, and some young blood mixed in. Seems like a recipe for success but it will come down to the rest of the team. The midfield, long anchored by Sergej Milkinovic-Savic, is still not the greatest. Neither is the defensive depth. Filip Kostic might float between playing midfield or wing-back, you never really know these days. There is enough talent here to mount a knockout-round charge, but I wouldn't hold my breath. If you make it to the QFs, I'll be impressed.
England: It's now or never time for the Three Lions. Not only are they still lambasting in the loss from 2021 and the ridiculous World Cup exit, but jobs are on the line. If Gareth Southgate can't get it done with this group, it's over for him and a lot of others. This a generational team that must finally meet its lofty ambitions. Harry Kane had a 50-goal season in his first season in Germany but is still searching for his first senior trophy. Phil Foden was voted PFA Player of the Year. Harry Maguire forced his way back into the Manchester United starting lineup. John Stones had another class year at Manchester City but can't stay healthy. Jude Bellingham is a front-runner for the Ballon d'Or. Declan Rice was the missing ingredient for the Arsenal midfield. Round it out with guys like James Maddison, Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish (wtf?), Jarrod Bowen, Jarrad Branthwaite, and Jordan Bloody Pickford. All of these guys had decent to great seasons. It's time to translate it to international duty. Getting an easy group matchup is a major lifeline. No more excuses, lads. Get it done.
Poland: Lewandowski and friends have never been able to put it together in over five different international events. Why should anything be different this time around? There is very little to expect from Poland. They're old and stuck in a group with much younger teams. When you're still relying on guys like Pitor Zilenski and Jan Bednarek, it's gonna be a bad time. They left Matty Cash at home for reasons. I can already smell the humiliating loss for them. I really hope I'm wrong, but I haven't seen anything good from this team. Lewa might bag a couple of goals, but at what cost?
Netherlands: If there was a time for the Netherlands to end their international trophy drought, it's probably right now. They have a ton of experienced players like Virgil van Dijk and Memphis Depay, who had to drag them over the line on more than one occasion. But this time it feels different. This time they actually have high-end talent across the lineup. Young guys like Micky van de Ven, Brian Brobbey, Cody Gakpo, and Jeremie Frimpong are joining a very hungry group. Even more depth with guys Frenkie De Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Steven Bergwijn, and Daley Blind. Not to mention, a legitimate first-choice goalkeeper in Mark Flekken. Finally, some good fucking keeping. Ronald Koeman took over for Louis Van Gaal, but the Dutch way is pretty much universal. This is a tough group, but I think you can go all the way. Show me I'm right about how good your depth really is.
Austria: Austria is basically Germany Lite, and while that might be insulting, they play like it too. Many of their stars are Bundesliga veterans like Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Laimer. They've been led by the class and grace of the seasoned David Alaba, and nothing is changing there. I hope Marko Arnautovic learned to not be so racist to other Balkan people but I figured he's learned absolutely nothing. The only hope is they pick their moments right. They don't have the depth to overcome most teams in Group D but they've been known to shock the world every now and then.
France: Kylian Mbappe hasn't forgotten Qatar 2022. He wants to prove that he deserves another international honor. France is locked and loaded once again. Much of the same core from the Euros 2021 and the World Cup is here: Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Adrien Rabiot, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez, Olivier Giroud, Kinglsy Coman, Benjamin Pavard, and smiling N'Golo Kante. Enter the newcomers like Randal Kolo Muani, Warren Zaire-Emery, Bradley Barcola, Marcus Thurman, William Saliba, and Jules Kounde. Glorius depth!! The expectations are more than sky-high, they are astronomical. After only being a penalty away from denying Messi his greatest achievement, they will be motivated. That and going out in the Round of 16 last time around. Didier Deschamps is also fighting to save his job. It's put up or shut up time. Sheesh, you're just England with better PR.
Belgium: Damn, you're still here? You just don't know when to quit, do you? One more go, you say? With the likes of KDB, Romelu Lukaku, Yannick Carrasco, and Jan Vertonghen still around, why not? No Hazards, no problem. Meet their heirs: Jeremy Doku, Charles de Ketelaere, Lois Openda, Johan Bakayoko, Arthur Veremeen, and even Leandro Trossard. The next generation of ballers is coming, but it's good to see some of the old core. Defense is once again quite sus, and Thibaut Courtois didn't get a call-up. I'm not sure about that one, but understandable when he was out all season. I hope Domenico Todesco has some new tactics. Belgium need something to show for after such a legendary run.
Slovakia: Let's hope you're not the whipping boys for Group E. Milan Skriniar is probably your best player, but he can't do it all. At least you have a PL caliber GK in Martin Dubravka. Seems like the recipe for success is mitigating the damage. Just don't lose too bad.
Romania: I'm not familiar with Romania's style. I know about Radu Dragusin being a Tottenham fan, but there's no chance they will place the weight of the world on their 21-year old defender's back...right? It's a heavy veteran team made up of Romanian League players. I'm skeptical they will have success if they make it out of the group stage, but they've already won the hearts of neutrals. You can figure why for yourself.
Ukraine: A truly war-torn nation is going into Euros with all of Europe rooting for them. Nothing would be better than seeing Ukraine make a deep run. They have some quality players. Oleksander Zinchenko divided opinions among Arsenal fans, but he's still very serviceable. Artem Dobyk won the LaLiga Golden Boot and helped Girona qualify for Champions League. Ruslan Malinovskyi is still a solid scoring threat, even though he's a bit of a shell of himself. Anatoliy Lunin locked down the Benfica No. 1 spot. Of course, we can't forget about the legend of Marlos either. Go win the lot, lads. The world wants to see you succeed.
Turkey: Turkey was the 2021 dark horse, but they fell so far from expectations that we may to rethink the true quality of Turkish football. It was not a pretty year domestically, given that we had club presidents fighting referees, Fenerbache walking off the pitch in protest and forfeiting the Turkish Cup to Galatasaray, the massive earthquake at the Syrian border, pitch invasions, and just more general bullshit. The question is can these guys put it behind themselves and rally togeher? It's a very young team. Kerem Aktürkoglu and Arda Güller are the two young guns attracting eyes across Europe. Hakan Calhanoglu is still the heartbeat of the team. Caglar Söyüncü returned home after a dismal start to life at Atletico. Kenan Yildiz broke into the Juventus first team. Balancing the chaos and team loyalties will be the true test.
Georgia: Georgia is such an unknown country that if you try to look up players on Google and ESPN, you get nothing. I'm dead serious, go check yourself. Yes I know about Transfermarkt, but you're missing the point. Nobody knows a goddam thing about this team. They only know about Khravadona and his sensational work in helping Napoli to the 22-23 Serie A title. I doubt he can carry a full nation, but we shall see. Former Soviet states tend to play with a chip on their shoulder.
Portgual: For all you haters hoping Qatar 2022 was Ronaldo's Last Dance, it's not looking too good for you. Sure, he's a shell of himself and now acts like a spoiled man-child whenever the name Messi is dropped, but hey, he's still around. But the team is no longer about him. Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva are seeing to that. They're the captains now. Add in Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix after productive seasons at Barca. Antonio Silva's rise from Benfica to World Cup starter is well-known. Rafael Leao and Goncalo Ramos are the young guys everyone will be watching, especially Leao. Round it out with Ruben Neves, Nelson Semedo, Ruben Dias, Diogo Dalot, and 41-year old Pepe. Yes, THAT Pepe. Now or never time, lads. You may have 2016 under your belt but it's time to live up to your hype. Don't become the Iberian version of France.
Czechia: The Czech team has some solid players. Patrik Schick scored one of the best goals of the tournament last time around and was a key player in Leverkusen's title win. Tomas Soucek was clutch for West Ham, as was Vladimir Coufal. These are the best players they have, and it probably won't be enough to get past Turkey or Portugal. The same squad charges into the 2024 cycle. Good luck.
I'll see you folks back here for the knockout guide. Choose wisely.

Found this article after doing a quick deep-dive after this post from u/evilez:
https://www.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1d33m4l/does_anybody_remember_what_podcast_this_was/
"Hello fine ladies and gentlemen! I remember listening to a podcast less than a year ago. The main subject of the podcast was UFOs (I think)... anyways the guest told a story that a congressman or senator wrote a bill that was against the CIA or going to defund the CIA, in the 80's... and shortly thereafter, someone broke into his home, dragged his wife out into the street and stuck a gun in her mouth and told her to kill the bill."
Some light Googling brought up this article about the history of the CIA, the OSS, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan's attempts at defunding the agency in the 90s.
Here's an article about that attempt brought by Moynihan published on the Carnegie Endowment Website on December 20, 2005.
https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2005/12/the-case-for-abolishing-the-cia?lang=en
Here's the New Yorker piece about all of this from October 3rd, 2022.

Spooked -- What’s wrong with the C.I.A.? -- By Amy Davidson Sorkin -- October 3, 2022

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/has-the-cia-done-more-harm-than-good
According to the article regarding the resuscitation of the OSS as the CIA immediately following Roswell and the Twining Memo:
"Many of its officers moved straight to the new C.I.A. Most consequentially, perhaps, four future directors of the C.I.A. were O.S.S. veterans: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey."
Here's the New Yorker article in full:
"On January 4, 1995, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, of New York, introduced a bill called the Abolition of the Central Intelligence Agency Act. It had been a rough stretch for the C.I.A. The year before, Aldrich Ames, a longtime officer, had been convicted of being a longtime mole for Soviet (and then Russian) intelligence. Despite having a reputation among his colleagues as a problem drinker who appeared to live far beyond his means, Ames had been given high-level assignments with access to the names of American sources in the U.S.S.R. When the F.B.I. finally arrested him, he was in the Jaguar he used for commuting to work at Langley; by then, he was responsible for the death of at least ten agents. Moynihan said that the case was such a flamboyant display of incompetence that it might actually be a distraction from “the most fundamental defects of the C.I.A.” He meant that the agency—in what he considered to be its “defining failure”—had both missed the fact that the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and done little to hasten its end.
He gave a diagnosis for what had gone wrong. “Secrecy keeps mistakes secret,” he said. “Secrecy is a disease. It causes a hardening of the arteries of the mind.” He quoted John le Carré on that point, adding that the best information actually came from the likes of area specialists, diplomats, historians, and journalists. If the C.I.A. was disbanded, he said, the State Department could pick up the intelligence work, and do a better job.
Moynihan was, in some respects, being disingenuous. As he well knew, even if his bill had passed, spies and spying wouldn’t have gone away. The State Department already had its own mini agency, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The Departments of Energy and Treasury each had one, too. The Defense Intelligence Agency conducted clandestine operations; U.S. Army Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, and the Office of Naval Intelligence kept themselves busy as well. The National Security Agency was nearly two decades away from the revelation, by Edward Snowden, a contractor and a former C.I.A. employee, that it had collected information about the phone calls of most Americans, but it was a behemoth even in Moynihan’s time. So was the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There were about a dozen agencies then; now, after reforms that were supposed to streamline things, there are eighteen, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (O.D.N.I.), a sort of meta-C.I.A. that has a couple of thousand employees, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The Drug Enforcement Administration (which currently has foreign offices in sixty-nine countries) has an Office of National Security Intelligence. Four million people in the United States now have security clearances.
It can be hard to sort out which agencies do what; players in the espionage business aren’t always good with boundaries. Both the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. make use of satellite resources, including commercial ones, but there is a separate agency in charge of a spy-satellite fleet, the National Reconnaissance Office—not to be confused with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which deals with both space-based and ground-level imaging, or with Space Delta 18, the nation’s newest intelligence agency, which is attached to the Space Force. Abolishing the C.I.A. might do nothing more than reconfigure the turf wars.
[NOTE: both Sean Kirkpatrick and David Grusch worked for the NRO and at least Grusch worked for the NGA]
As the senator from New York also knew, a large proportion of the C.I.A.’s resources are devoted not to intelligence gathering but to covert operations, some of which look like military operations. In “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence” (Princeton)—one of several recent books that coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the agency’s founding—Amy B. Zegart, a political scientist at Stanford, writes that it’s “getting harder to know just where the CIA’s role ends and the military’s role begins.” Yet the agency’s paramilitary pursuits and related covert activities go back decades. They include the botched Bay of Pigs landing, the brutal Phoenix Program in Vietnam, and a long list of assassination attempts, coup plots, the mining of a harbor (with explosive devices the agency built itself), and drone strikes. These operations have very seldom ended well.
Moynihan’s bill had no more luck than another that he introduced the same day, aimed at ending Major League Baseball’s exemption from antitrust laws. In each case, people understood that there was a problem, but both institutions were protected by the sense that there was something essential, and perhaps authentically American, about them, including their very brokenness. A sudden turn of events can convince even the C.I.A.’s most sober critics that the agency will save us all, whether from terrorists or from Donald Trump. But, seventy-five years in, it’s far from clear whether the C.I.A. is good at its job, or what that job is or should be, or how we could get rid of the agency if we wanted to.
How did we end up with the C.I.A.? A familiar explanation is that the shock of Pearl Harbor made the United States realize it needed more spies; the Office of Strategic Services was formed and jumped into action; and, when the war ended, the O.S.S. evolved seamlessly into the C.I.A., ready to go out and win the Cold War. But that narrative isn’t quite right, particularly regarding the relationship between the O.S.S. and the C.I.A.
[NOTE: We know how ended up with the CIA. ROSWELL.]
The United States has always used spies of some sort. George Washington had a discretionary espionage budget for which he didn’t have to turn in receipts. In the early part of the twentieth century, the State Department had an intelligence-analysis unit, along with a cryptography group called the Black Chamber, which operated out of a brownstone in New York’s Murray Hill until it was shut down, in 1929. The Army and the Navy had cryptography and reconnaissance units, too. When the Second World War began, their operations ramped up dramatically, and, as Nicholas Reynolds recounts in “Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence” (Mariner), these units, not the O.S.S., handled most of the code-breaking. The problem became the volume of raw intelligence. The task of making sense of it and of turning it into something that policymakers could use went to an office within the Army’s military-intelligence division (or G-2), which, Reynolds says, produced “the country’s best strategic intelligence” during the war. That office’s work was directed by Alfred McCormack, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harlan Stone and a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Many of the people he brought in were young corporate lawyers; the theory was that their training in plowing through mountains of documents made them ideal intelligence analysts.
William J. Donovan, who led and largely conceived of the O.S.S., was also a Wall Street lawyer, but one with an aversion to the “legalistic.” What Donovan envisioned was essentially an array of commando units that would operate stealthily and behind enemy lines. In practice, what he tried to build, according to a colleague, was a “private army.” His escapades often risked too much and gained too little. In late 1943, one of his own officers wrote to him that “the set-up has been incredibly wasteful in manpower and, except for a few spotty accomplishments, has been a national failure.” And it had produced “chaos in the field.” Donovan’s nickname was Wild Bill, but his staff called him Seabiscuit, after the thoroughbred, because of his tendency to race around, engaging in what was basically war tourism. In the end, though, the O.S.S. made real contributions, including through its contacts with the French Resistance. But Donovan’s complaint about D Day was that there was “too much planning.” Counterintelligence and strategic thinking bored him, and the O.S.S.’s analysis division was seen as secondary to its operations.
When Harry Truman became President, in April, 1945, he took a look at the O.S.S. and, in September, 1945, abolished it. About two years later, he signed the National Security Act, which established the C.I.A. (and the Department of Defense), but he didn’t want the new agency to be like the group Donovan had run. Instead, it was supposed to do what its name suggested: centralize the intelligence that various agencies gathered, analyze it, and turn it into something the President could use.
[NOTE: I tried doing some research after reading something yesterday about how the NSA was developed in 1952 under Project Sigma to try and decode "alien" communications. If anyone can offer anything, you'd be helping humanity.]
“It was not intended as a ‘Cloak and Dagger’ Outfit!,” Truman later wrote. He also had to deal with public apprehensions that he might create what a Chicago Tribune headline called a “Super Gestapo Agency”—which is why, in its charter, the C.I.A. was banned from domestic spying.
Reynolds’s book is the best of the recent batch, and the most readable. It does not retrofit the history of the O.S.S. around the assumption that the C.I.A. was the inevitable lead postwar intelligence agency. There were other contenders, including a version of McCormack’s office in the State Department—something like what Moynihan wanted. J. Edgar Hoover argued that “World Wide Intelligence” should be turned over to the F.B.I., with military intelligence subservient to him. In some alternative history, he might have pulled that off; by 1943, he was running undercover operations in twenty Latin American countries. And so things could have been worse.
[WHAT UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS WERE WE RUNNING IN LATIN AMERICANS COUNTRIES IN 1943.]
Donovan was an adept publicist, but what mattered most, in the end, was that he was good, or lucky, when it came to hiring people. Despite the “pale, male, and Yale” stereotype, the O.S.S. was somewhat more diverse than other units, and certainly more eclectic. Among its ranks were Ralph Bunche, Herbert Marcuse, and Julia Child. Many of its officers moved straight to the new C.I.A. Most consequentially, perhaps, four future directors of the C.I.A. were O.S.S. veterans: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey. Each seems to have had glory-day memories of the O.S.S., which is to say that each, in various ways, was afflicted with what a general in Army intelligence called “the screwball Donovan effect.” Casey, who put a picture of Donovan on his wall, said of his old boss, “We all glowed in his presence.” Wild Bill lost the bureaucratic fight but won the personnel and mythology wars.
And, of course, the agency found customers and collaborators in the White House. There was no mention of covert action in the law that chartered the C.I.A., but Presidents—starting with Truman—began using it that way. One of the agency’s first operations involved meddling in the 1948 Italian election, to insure the victory of the Christian Democrats. The subsidies and outright bribery of Italian politicians, some of them on the far, far right, continued into the nineteen-seventies.
Almost from its creation, though, there was a sense that something about the C.I.A. was off. The split between covert action and intelligence gathering and analysis was part of it. The director of the agency was also supposed to be the leader of U.S. intelligence as a whole, but, invariably, the person in the job seemed more invested in preëminence than in coördination. That setup remained in place until the establishment of the O.D.N.I., in 2004, a move that thus far has mostly continued a tradition of trying to deal with the C.I.A.’s dysfunction by setting up ever more agencies, offices, and centers. (The N.S.A. was established, in 1952, in response to a series of cryptography-related failures.) “Legacy of Ashes,” Tim Weiner’s 2008 history of the C.I.A.—and still an invaluable overview—takes its title from a lament by Eisenhower about what he’d be leaving his successors if the “faulty” structure of American intelligence wasn’t changed. Since Weiner’s book was published, the ashes, and the agencies, have only been piling up.
Zegart’s “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms” aims to bring that history to the present. Zegart has served as an adviser to intelligence agencies, and she provides a decent guide to our current bureaucracy. Throughout, her book is clear and well organized—maybe a little too well organized, one feels, after taking in the “Seven Deadly Biases” of intelligence analysis, the “Four Main Adversaries” and the “Five Types of Attack” in the crypto area, and the “Three Words, Four Types” that define covert action. (The covert-action words, incidentally, are “influence,” “acknowledged,” and “abroad.”) Not a few paragraphs read like PowerPoint charts; contradictions are displayed without really being reckoned with. She observes that the balance between “hunting” and “gathering” seems off, but, in her telling, the fact that Presidents of both parties regularly turn to the C.I.A. for paramilitary and other covert tasks constitutes proof that doing so is part of the order of things. The impression she leaves is that if it all goes wrong, it’s because some checklist has been missed. One of the top priorities of U.S. intelligence today, she thinks, should be persuading tech companies to get with the program and help out. She moots the creation of yet another agency, to deal with OSINT—open-source intelligence.
In one chapter, Zegart provides a list of scandals involving spying within the U.S. by various intelligence agencies—notably the N.S.A., the F.B.I., and the C.I.A. “All of these activities violated American law,” she writes. “But that’s the point: domestic laws forbid this kind of surveillance of Americans.” How is that the point, exactly? She depicts the Senate’s 2014 Torture Report, which detailed profound abuses in the C.I.A.’s so-called black sites, as a they-said, the-agency-said, who-knows case. She turns it into a parable about the problems with Congress—suggesting that, although the committee structure may have needed rejiggering, the moral compass of those involved in the program of torture was just fine.
Another new volume, “A Question of Standing: A History of the CIA” (Oxford), by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Edinburgh, offers the insights of a more distant observer. He can be astute about how “false memories” of the O.S.S.’s accomplishments have led the C.I.A. astray. Part of his argument is that the agency has acted as if its influence depended on its standing with whoever is in the White House, thus motivating it to offer Presidents quick fixes that fix nothing. The net effect is to reduce its standing, and that of the U.S., with the public at home and abroad. But Jeffreys-Jones is prone to rash generalizations and pronouncements. He theorizes that, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush’s national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, may have been susceptible to “war mongering” due to her status as “a descendant of slaves,” and that the working-class background of the C.I.A.’s director, George Tenet, made him more likely to vouch for the faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction used to justify the war. “Social mobility so often leads to conformity,” warns Jeffreys-Jones, himself the son of an academic historian.
During the Vietnam War, the C.I.A. had discouraging intelligence to offer, and, when successive Administrations didn’t want to hear it, focussed on being helpful by providing those supposedly quick fixes. That meant abetting a coup in 1963, spying on antiwar protesters, and launching the Phoenix Program, an anti-Vietcong campaign marked by torture and by arbitrary executions; in total, more than twenty thousand people were killed under Phoenix’s auspices.
Phoenix was run by William Colby, the O.S.S. alum, who was soon promoted to C.I.A. director. At lower levels, discontent about Vietnam fueled leaks. In December, 1974, the journalist Seymour Hersh told the agency that he was about to publish a story in the Times exposing its domestic spying. Whether in a miscalculation or (as Jeffreys-Jones somewhat breathlessly speculates) as an act of personal expiation, Colby gave Hersh partial confirmation. Amid the scandals and the Congressional hearings that followed, Colby angered some of his colleagues, and Henry Kissinger, by laying bare even more. It emerged that, in 1973, Colby’s predecessor had asked senior agency officials to produce a list of things the C.I.A. had done that might have been unlawful. The resulting document, covering just the prior fifteen years, was known in-house as “The Family Jewels,” and was almost seven hundred pages long.
The question of how much it matters who works at the C.I.A. is a perennial one. The influence of Donovan’s acolytes shows that decisions about whom you recruit can, in a formative period or at a critical juncture, make a big difference. But, once an institutional culture has become entrenched, it can be easier to see how the institution shapes the people within it than vice versa.
“Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage” (Putnam), by Nathalia Holt, comes at the question from a different angle. It’s about five women who worked for the early C.I.A.; three also worked at the O.S.S., and one, Eloise Page, began her career as Bill Donovan’s secretary. Holt is also the author of “Rise of the Rocket Girls,” about women in the early years of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and “The Queens of Animation,” about women at the Walt Disney Company. Her book contains fine material for a beautifully art-directed streaming series, with set pieces in postwar Paris, nineteen-fifties Baghdad, and nineteen-seventies Greece, where Page was the C.I.A.’s first woman station chief. It even has a framing device in the form of the “Petticoat Panel,” a working group of C.I.A. women that convened in 1953 to document their unequal pay and treatment. Holt quotes the transcript of the meeting at which the leadership of the agency summarily rejected their findings. Helms, the future director, says, “It is just nonsense for these gals to come on here and think that the government is going to fall apart because their brains aren’t going to be used to the maximum.” (In 1977, Helms was convicted of lying to Congress about the C.I.A.’s machinations in Chile.) What the book is not, unfortunately, is a coherent history of the C.I.A., of the era it depicts, or even of these women’s work.
Holt’s research does turn up evidence that Jane Burrell, one of her subjects, was the first C.I.A. officer to die in the line of duty, in a plane crash in France, in 1948, a fact that the agency itself apparently missed. Holt ends her book with a call for a star honoring Burrell to be added to the C.I.A.’s memorial wall. Of the hundred and thirty-seven officers represented there, she writes, forty-five died accidentally, the majority in plane crashes, meaning that Burrell’s case would be fairly typical. Burrell was on the return leg of a trip to Brussels, where she’d been sent to talk to war-crimes investigators about a mess the C.I.A. had created by relying on an agent who turned out to have worked with the S.S. and was now in custody. In that respect, too, Burrell, who had personally handled the agent, was typical of the C.I.A. (After Burrell vouched for him, the man was released.) The subject of the C.I.A.’s postwar relations with former Nazis—some of whom, like Reinhard Gehlen, it helped to install in West Germany’s new intelligence service—and with collaborationist émigré groups is, no doubt, a morass. Holt, alas, manages to make the story even more garbled than it has to be. In the end, she basically treats the whole sordid episode as a learning experience for the Gals.
The problem is that the agency doesn’t seem to learn much. Holt credits Mary Hutchison with helping to build a network of émigré Ukrainian nationalists. Beginning in 1949, the agency parachuted some of them (including one whom Hutchison apparently distrusted) behind the Soviet border, where they were quickly captured—and repeated the same procedure for a number of years. “Despite the catastrophe, the Ukraine operation would serve as a template moving forward,” Holt writes. “The C.I.A. had more success with back-to-back operations in Iran and Guatemala, where covert action was able to deftly oust leaders considered undesirable.” It’s odd to describe these coups as deft. One of Zegart’s handy lists is of the “unintended consequences” in Iran: “religious extremism, a revolutionary overthrow, the American hostage crisis, severed ties, regional instability, and today’s rising nuclear dangers.” Guatemala is still dealing with the violent legacy of the coup that the C.I.A. visited upon it. Then there’s the question of the intended consequences, which were, respectively, to elevate a shah and a military regime. Secret wars tend not to be so secret in the country where they take place.
It was, no doubt, frustrating for Hutchison when, a few years later, her colleagues on the Bay of Pigs task force failed to make use of her Spanish-language skills. But are we supposed to think that the whole misconceived enterprise would have gone off without a hitch were it not for the C.I.A.’s misogyny? One of Holt’s minor themes is that women in the C.I.A. were seen as more natural analysts than operatives—with analysis, in turn, seen as less manly, and less valuable, to everybody’s detriment. But she is more intent on showing that these women were also daring. The main point of “Wise Gals” is that it’s cool that women were in the early C.I.A., and therefore that the C.I.A. itself was cooler than we’d realized. Holt celebrates a big promotion Page got that afforded her access to the secret of a safe containing shellfish-derived poison. You don’t have to be pale, male, and Yale to be complicit in a bungled assassination plot, or, for that matter, a program of rendition and torture.
Why do so many books about the C.I.A. have trouble getting their story straight? It can’t just be the secrecy of the work itself, at least with regard to the earlier years, about which much has been declassified. (Much remains under wraps: Moynihan complained that classification created more than six million supposed secrets in 1993; Zegart writes that the number in 2016 was fifty-five million—not all of which can possibly have been critical.) The aura of secrecy, by contrast, probably does distort the judgment of its chroniclers. And the scope of the agency’s work is a challenge: it’s hard to write expertly on places as far-ranging as the Democratic Republic of Congo (where the agency initially planned to poison President Patrice Lumumba’s toothpaste, and instead ended up handing a quarter of a million dollars to Joseph Mobutu, the country’s future dictator, who facilitated the assassination) and Afghanistan (where the C.I.A. has had forty years of illusory gains and worse losses). But the biggest problem may be the agency’s own pattern of self-deception. Holt, for example, sometimes seems to go wrong when, rummaging through the archives, she gives too much credit to contemporaneous internal assessments of an agent’s or an operation’s worth.
In truth, the C.I.A. has had a “defining failure” for every decade of its existence—sometimes more than one. For Moynihan, in the nineteen-nineties, it was the lack of foresight about the Soviet Union; in the two-thousands, it was the phantom weapons of mass destruction, followed by torture and, in still evolving ways, by the drone-based program of targeted killings, with its high toll of civilian deaths. Barack Obama’s rapport with John Brennan, the C.I.A.’s director from 2013 to 2017, seems to have brought him to accept the view that the killing of American citizens abroad was acceptable, if managed prudently. The overuse of the agency on the battlefield is due not to a military-manpower shortage but to wishful thinking about the benefits of secrecy and of a lack of accountability.
It’s difficult to know, at this point, what the C.I.A.’s next defining failure—or, if one tries to be optimistic, its stabilizing success—will be. Donald Trump has had a complicated relationship with the intelligence community—increasingly capitalized and abbreviated to I.C.—which is presently conducting a damage assessment regarding documents with classified markings that he kept at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home. He might, of course, be reëlected, and have the C.I.A.’s tools at his disposal again. If the C.I.A. isn’t the place to turn for an expedient solution to foreign-policy problems, neither is it bound to be the place to turn for a solution to our democracy’s political problems.
“If you ask intelligence officers what misperceptions bother them most, odds are they’ll mention ethics,” Zegart writes. She quotes an official who complains that “people think we’re lawbreakers, we’re human rights violators.” She insists that “officers think about ethics a lot.” She portrays the agency as being filled with hardworking moms and dads who do a great deal of “agonizing.” No doubt she’s right. But if the C.I.A. keeps falling down all the same, something must be tragically amiss in the agency’s structure or culture, or both. All the talk of coups and assassination plots, Zegart worries, distracts people from understanding the C.I.A.’s more basic intelligence mission. In fact, the party most distracted by such activities—and by the military role it has taken on—seems to be the agency itself. ♦
An earlier version of this article misstated the numerical designation of the Space Force unit dedicated to intelligence.
Published in the print edition of the October 10, 2022, issue.

Hello! This is a compilation of most of the resources I'm using for my search for wisdom.
My goal is simple: to share what I’ve learned/am learning regarding self awareness, self knowledge, self understanding, self love/compassion, and applying these to practical use.
If you are interested in the specific books that has personally helped me in my studies, I would recommend the works of Carl Jung and Manly P. Hall (MPH), as I found their works easy to read and comprehend. Due to this, much of my resources would be mainly from them. They have already done the research on topics that I am currently undertaking, and so it’s like reading their notes instead of having to read the actual “textbooks”, which can be more difficult to read, and so their works are useful to try to understand, while using the actual "textbooks" to check their references for further investigation.
I personally trust their interpretation of wisdom and truth, after having done my investigation and cross-references myself for the most part, so this is a matter of personal resonance. What could work for me, may not work for everyone else. So take everything with a grain of salt, take note of what resonates and investigate these further, discard the rest. Still, I have included what I can of the “textbooks” to use for cross-reference.
This list is still under construction!

Manly P. Hall

“Mr. Hall was a seeker and lover of wisdom, and the very definition of a philosopher. He lived a unique and profound life that centered on his search for meaning in the world’s wisdom traditions. An autodidact and polymath, Hall amassed an extraordinary collection of rare books and artifacts from his extensive travels and devoted himself to the study of these works and their application to the positive development of the individual and society as a whole. He was a consummate teacher who took his deep learning and translated it into an accessible and compelling presentation to readers and listeners for seventy years. Hall attained an amazing degree of scholarship in those branches of learning that bear upon the beliefs, ideals, and convictions of humanity.” - The Philosophical Research Society
Secret Teachings of All Ages ”If you read this book in its entirety you will be in a good position to dive into subjects such as the Qabbala, Alchemy, Tarot, Ceremonial Magic, Neo-Platonic Philosophy, Mystery Religions, and the theory of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Although there are some questionable and controversial parts of the book, such as the outdated material on Islam, the portion on the Bacon-Shakespeare hypothesis, and Hall's conspiracy theory of history as driven by an elite cabal of roving immortals, they are far out-weighed by the comprehensive information here on other subjects.”
Self-Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization Practical Instruction in the Philosophy of Disciplined Thinking and Feeling ”This book aims to develop on the part of a student the skills of awareness and thoughtfulness. Disciplines not to be practiced as rituals, but rather as inherent qualities—as natural as eating and digestion.”
Healing, the Divine Art ”The first part is historical, the second technical, with both parts relating to beliefs held at the present time. This includes practices of Witch Doctors and Native American medicine priests; dream diagnosis as practiced by followers of Asclepius, god of medicine; early clinics of Hippocrates; mystical healing by early Christian priests; esoteric physiology and anatomy; the pineal gland; faith therapy; mental healing and others; and the psychological factors contributing to illness.”
The Occult Anatomy of Man ”Hall begins by reminding us that the holy writings of most "enlightened people" include some version of the concept that God made man in His own image. From this beginning, The Occult Anatomy of Man explores the idea that as a microcosm of the infinite, the human body contains the answers to the secrets of the universe. Hall states, " The priests of the ancient world believed that every star in the heavens, every element in the earth, and every function in Nature was represented by a corresponding center, pole or activity within the human body."
The Initiates of the Flame ”Written in 1922, when Manly P. Hall was just 21 years old, "The Initiates of the Flame" illustrates the great thread, the spiritual thread, of living fire that winds in and out through all the religions and binds them together with a mutual ideal and mutual needs: there is but one religion in all the world, and that is the worship of God, the spiritual Flame of the universe. Initiates is a book dealing with the seven great branches of occult philosophy as they have been perpetuated through the Fire Schools of the Ancients.”
Man: Grand Symbol of the Mysteries Thoughts in Occult Anatomy “The book delves into the ancient mysteries and symbols of various cultures, examining how they relate to the human experience and our quest for spiritual enlightenment. Hall draws on a wide range of sources, including mythology, religion, and philosophy, to present a comprehensive and thought-provoking perspective on the nature of human existence. Topics covered in the book include the symbolism of the human body, the role of consciousness in spiritual evolution, and the importance of myth and ritual in connecting with the divine.”

Carl Jung

”Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology, in some aspects a response to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields.” - Britannica
Man and his Symbols “Full of fascinating case studies and examples pulled from philosophy, history, myth, fairy tales, and more, this groundbreaking work—profusely illustrated with hundreds of visual examples—offers invaluable insight into the symbols we dream that demand understanding, why we seek meaning at all, and how these very symbols affect our lives. By illuminating the means to examine our prejudices, interpret psychological meanings, break free of our influences, and recenter our individuality, Man and His Symbols proves to be—decades after its conception—a revelatory, absorbing, and relevant experience.”
Liber Novus: The Red Book of C. G. Jung “The most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. When Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration he called his “confrontation with the unconscious,” the heart of it was The Red Book, a large, illuminated volume he created between 1914 and 1930. Here he developed his principle theories—of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation—that transformed psychotherapy from a practice concerned with treatment of the sick into a means for higher development of the personality.”
Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead (video) I recommend watching the whole series by Humble-U as a supplement for when reading Jung’s Red Book as it pertains to his 7 sermons. These reflect more of Jung’s esoteric/gnostic side.
Aion - Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self “The central theme of the volume is the symbolical representation of the psychic totality through the concept of the Self, whose traditional historical equivalent is the figure of Christ. Professor Jung demonstrates his thesis by an investigation of the Allegorice Christi, especially the fish symbol, but also of Gnostic and alchemical symbolism, which he treats as phenomena of cultural assimilation. The astrological aspect of the fish symbol and, in particular, the foretelling of the Antichrist are discussed in detail. The first four chapters, on the ego, the shadow, and the anima and animus, compose a valuable summation of these key concepts in Jung's system of psychology.”
Psychology and Alchemy “In his groundbreaking work, "Psychology and Alchemy," acclaimed psychologist C.G. Jung delves into the intricate connection between the ancient mystical practice of alchemy and the human psyche. Through a fascinating exploration of symbols, dreams, and the collective unconscious, Jung reveals how alchemy serves as a metaphor for the transformative journey of self-discovery and personal growth. As we embark on this captivating journey with Jung, we are invited to unlock the hidden depths of our own minds, to unravel the mysteries of our desires and fears, and to embrace the potential for profound inner transformation. Join Jung in this illuminating exploration that intertwines the realms of science, spirituality, and the human psyche, and discover a key to unlocking the secrets of our own soul.”

On Hermeticism

Hermeticism: Background Information Way of Hermes
Initiation into Hermetics Franz Bardon
Emerald Tablets of Thoth "Thoth the Atlantean"
Corpus Hermeticum Translation by G. R. S. Mead
The Kybalion "Three Initiates"
The Light of Egypt Vol. 1 Thomas H. Burgoyne
The Light of Egypt Vol. 2 Thomas H. Burgoyne
Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus: Poimandres

Alchemy/Philosopher Stone

The Philosopher's Stone A comprehensive background on alchemy, and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Azoth Ritual Dennis William Haucke, based on Basil Valentine's Azoth of the Philosophers.
Azoth; or, the Star in the East Arthur Edward Waite, on Mystical Philosophy.
Monas Hieroglyphica John Dee
Esoteric Alchemy Manly P. Hall
Mental and Spiritual Alchemy Manly P. Hall
The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus Arthur Edward Waite

Ancient Philosophy

Plato's Symposium Translated by R. E. Allen
Plato's Timaeus Translated by David Horan
The Complete Pythagoras ”for the generalist & specialist” Edited by Patrick Rousell for the World Wide Web.
The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie
The Golden Verses of Pythagoras By Pythagoras
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras By Iamblichus, Translated by Thomas Taylor
Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians By Iamblichus, Translated by Thomas Taylor
Apollonius of Tyana By G. R. S. Mead
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana By Philostratus
Plotinos Complete Works By Plotinus, Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie
The Enneads By Plotinus, Porphyry
Select Works of Porphyry ”containing his four books: On abstinence from animal food; his treatise On the Homeric cave of the nymphs; and his Auxiliaries to the perception of intelligible natures”. By Porphyry, Translated by Thomas Taylor
Moralia Vol. 5 - Isis and Osiris By Plutarch, Translated by Frank Cole Babbittt
The Stoic Handbook By Erik Wiegardt – with Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius
Discourses by Epictetus By Epictetus, Translated by Elizabeth Carter
The Beginning of Greek Philosophy Part 1 Manly P. Hall
The Beginning of Greek Philosophy Part 2 Manly P. Hall
Definitions in Philosophy Manly P. Hall

Esoteric: Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Sufism, Zoroastrianism, etc.

Pistis Sophia Translation by G. R. S. Mead
Apocryphon of John The Secret Book According to John
Gospel of Mary The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Hypostasis of the Archons An exegesis of Genesis 1-6.
Gospel of Thomas "These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down."
The Book of Enoch By Enoch
The Chaldean Chronicles - Attributed to Zoroaster By Zoroaster
The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom from the Ancient and Medieval Worlds - Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Islamic & Cathar Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer
The Hymn of the Pearl Gnostic poem
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: On Magic Brethren of Purity
Esoteric Interpretation of Gospel of Thomas

Theosophy

The Seven Rays Ernest Wood
The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy Helena P. Blavatsky
Isis Unveiled Helena P. Blavatsky
Dreams Helena P. Blavatsky
The Akashic Records: Origins and Relation to Western Concepts Alex Nash (Central European Journal of Contemporary Religion 2)
Law of Correspondences Robert Crosbie

Eastern Philosophy

Raja Yoga Swami Vivekananda
Yoga Sutras Patanjali
Pancha Klesha - Five Klesha Information The Five Kleshas - Sanskrit for 'five obstacles,' pancha klesha are afflictions in the mind which form the root causes of all suffering.
Transforming the Emotions Regarding Kleshas
Secret of the Golden Flower Lu Dongbin?
Three Hun Seven Po: 1 2 Three Ethereal Souls and the Seven Corporeal Souls
Antahkarana: 1 2 Antahkarana is a concept in Hindu philosophy, referring to the totality of the mind, including the thinking faculty, the sense of I-ness, and the discriminating faculty. Antaḥ means 'inner' and karaṇa means 'instrument', or, 'function'. Therefore, the word Antaḥkaraṇa can be understood as 'inner organ', 'inner functions', or, 'inner instrument'.
Pangu Chinese Creation Myth
Fuxi and Nuwa: 1 2 Chinese Creation Myth as it relates to Alchemy

On Religion, Metaphysics, Mysticism, Ethics, Morality, Mortality, etc

The Origin of Evil Robert Crosbie
Recognition of Law Robert Crosbie
The Foundation of Religion Robert Crosbie
Marriage: The Mystic Rite Manly P. Hall
The Urantia Book (aka Urantia Papers)
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn Brethren of Purity
The Animal’s Place in the Universal Plan - (audio) Manly P. Hall
Is there a Guardian Angel? - (video) Manly P. Hall
The Human Soul: Its Nature and Functions - (audio) Manly P. Hall
The Masters of Deception Paul Levy

On Health, Medicine, Sciences

Basic Problems of Diet and Nutrition (audio) Manly P. Hall
Autism through the Lens of Theosophy (video)

Astrology, and other Occult Topics

Occult Knowledge Robert Crosbie
Astrology 101 - translate to English
Mental Healing and Hypnosis Robert Crosbie
Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil Paul Levy
Three Books of Occult Philosophy or Magic Henry Cornelius Agrippa
Encyclopedia of Occultism Lewis Spence
Becoming Supernatural Joe Dispenza

Psychology Self-Help: MPH (Audio Lectures)

These lectures have been so informative and helpful for me personally. View these at 1.25x playback speed. He disseminated information from memory; it was said he did not need notes whenever he held lectures. He is able to express sound wisdom that is palatable and relevant to the modern man.
The Power to Change Your Mind: A Study in Attitude Fixation
The Habit of Thinking Constructively: Cultivating a Positive Outlook
Psychic Self-Destruction: Release the Mind from Regrets
Be Your Own Psychotherapist
From Anxiety to Serenity
The Challenge of Self Expression: The Gateway to Contentment
Analyzing the Anxiety Complex

PLAYBOY Interview With Conan O'Brien Interview by Kevin Cook For Playboy Magazine February 1998 Part 3
Playboy: Now that you're doing so well do you worry about losing your edge? O'Brien: I fear being a victim of success. It's seductive. You have new choices. "Conan, Sylvester Stallone wants to be on, but we're already booked." My feeling is that I must say no to Stallone. "Sorry, Sly. Bob Denver's on that night.
Playboy: How's your relationship with NBC executives now that the show is a success? O'Brien: Better. But I have not forgotten the bad old days. Let me tell you about one executive. He's no longer with the company. I had him killed. But in our darker days he came to the set one night after we did a great show. I come off after the show and this guy says, "Wow, that was terrible." He thought the show should look like MTV. "Run into the audience and tell jokes. Run up to a guy, have him shout his name, get everybody cheering."
Playboy: You didn't agree apparently. O'Brien: Too much of television is energy with no purpose. People going "Whoo!" But that's just empty energy. That's American Gladiators. I often try to lower the energy, especially when school is out and college kids are here. They're huge fans, they're psyched, but we're a quirky comedy show, not MTV Spring Break.
Playboy: Were you thrilled when the Marv Albert sex case hit the news? O'Brien: Oh man, was I into Marv. I would love to trick you into thinking I'm high-minded, but that story made me think, My God, yes, I'll use this, and this... But it bothered me the way he was publicly vilified. People were getting off on the kinky stuff; they condemned Marv for wearing women's clothing, which isn't a crime.
Playboy: Yet tonight you did a Marv Albert joke. You said Marv had a new job as a mannequin at Victoria's Secret. O'Brien: You can be uncomfortable with it and still use it. Isn't that what guilt is all about?
Playboy: What comedy bits do you regret doing? O'Brien: We did one with a character called Randy the Pyloric Sphincter. Now, the point of the joke is that this is not the sphincter that excrement passes through. The pyloric sphincter is at the top of the digestive tract. It basically keeps acid from going up into the oesophagus.
We had a guy in a sphincter costume and a cowboy hat. He says, "Hi kids, I'm Randy the Pyloric Sphincter. No, not that bad sphincter! When food passes through me, it isn't digested yet." He then proceeds to squeeze foods that look like shit whether they're digested or not. Chocolate. Picture a sphincter exuding a huge chocolate bar. We were grossing people out.
Playboy: So why put Randy on the air? O'Brien: I just loved the fact that he wore a cowboy hat.
Playboy: What sorts of bits do you refuse to do? O'Brien: Arbitrary humor. "Here's the sketch: Conan jumps into a barrel of wheat germ." I'll ask him what the joke is. "It's crazy, that's all."
Look, I was a comedy writer. I've been through this before. If the joke is that there is no joke, the writer gets no paycheck.
Playboy: Jumping into wheat germ sounds like Letterman. O'Brien: My show began with me and everyone involved with the show doing all we could to avoid being anything like Letterman. Which is difficult. He invented a lot of the form. He carved out a big territory. He's the Viking who discovered America, and now I have my little piece of northwestern Canada that I'm trying to claim as my own.
Playboy: So how do you avoid being Dave-like? O'Brien: We have always scrupulously avoided found comedy. You never see me going up and talking to normal Joe on the street. The real word of people, dogs, cabbies -- Letterman is great at that. His genius, I think, is playing with the real world around him. Which is not my forte at all. My idea is more about creating a fake, cartoony world and playing with that.
Playboy: Are you goofy in real life? O'Brien: My private life is boring. I've been with the same woman, Lynn Kaplan, for four years, and there ain't nothing crazy going on. Lynn is a talent booker on our show. We go to my house in Connecticut on weekends. I sit around playing guitar.
Playboy: Gossip columnists have placed you in Manhattan with other women. O'Brien: One of them had me with Courteney Cox. Lisa Kudrow and I did improv together years ago and we went out for a while. Maybe that's why I can now be romantically linked to the entire cast of Friends. I may be thrilled with that, but my girlfriend is one of those people who believes everything they read in the tabloids. She's sitting at the table in Connecticut when she opens a tabloid and says, "What the hell?" There's a big photo of me with Courteney Cox. The story says, "Courteney's moving in with Conan."
Playboy: Did Lynn believe it? O'Brien: No, because the story went on to say, "Conan and Courteney were seen at the Fashion Cafe munching veggie burgers." That sentence ended her faith in tabloids. Lynn knows that I would never (a) go to the Fashion Cafe and (b) eat a veggie burger. I'm an Irish-Catholic kid from Boston; I'll eat red meat until my heart explodes out of my chest.
Playboy: Do you still drive an old Ford Taurus? O'Brien: When I got my five-year contract I moved up. Bought a Range Rover. Now I drive the Range Rover to Connecticut for the weekend, park it and tool around in the Taurus all weekend. I can't let go of that Taurus. It's an extension of my penis.
Playboy: Can you forget about the show on weekends? O'Brien: I drive around playing Jerry Reed tapes, fantasizing that I'm some backwoods character. But even then -- you know, it's probably not an accident that people who do these shows tend to be depressive. You want so badly for it to be right every night, but mounting an hour-long show four times a week -- the pace will kill you. One night I put my fist through a tile wall. Another night, I walked off the stage, pulled an air-conditioning unit out of the wall and kicked it. This stuff I can't explain. Nor can I excuse it. But there may be something maddening about these shows. The pace is... I forget shows we did last week. That's why I can't imagine doing this for 30 years. I bet you could show Johnny Carson footage of how he shrieked as his body was lowered into acid and he's say, "Hmm, don't remember that one."
I saw Jerry Seinfeld at the Emmy Awards. He said he liked the show, then he paused and said, "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Do what you do every night for an hour?"
That shocked me. This is Jerry Seinfeld, the master. A man everyone can agree is funny. And I really have no answer.
Playboy: Praise from Seinfeld must cheer you up. O'Brien: (Shaking his head) I worry that we have hit our stride and must be headed for a fall. Because every show has an arc. The Honeymooners had an arc. People forget, but The Honeymooners was mean and depressing. Art Carney wasn't fun and cuddly yet. Even successful shows take time to find their rhythm. Then they get self-indulgent and fuck it up. Look at late Happy Days episodes. They quit shooting on location, Mork keeps visiting, and it's an excuse to spin off new shows.
Playboy: Will you fuck it up, too? O'Brien: Eventually my only consolation may be that I get paid a lot. I'll say, "I know it sucks, but I'm getting $65 million a year!"
Playboy: Letterman said almost exactly that not long ago. When a joke died he admitted it sucked. "But I'm making a fortune!" he said. Do you really worry about losing your edge? O'Brien: I want a living will for my career. I want the people around me to pull the plug when I become a self-parody, an old blowhard like Alan Brady. Remember him, the television star Rob Petrie worked for on the Dick Van Dyke Show? Pompous, over-the-top, over-the-hill. I don't want to be Alan Brady.
Playboy: Letterman paid you an odd compliment. "When I see that show it withers me with exhaustion," he said. O'Brien: That's our new slogan. "Watch Late Night -- We'll wither you." But I think Dave was saying that he knows how hard it is to make a show like this every night.
Playboy: Suppose Leno left The Tonight Show. Would you like to duel Dave at 11:30? O'Brien: Our best slot would be eight A.M.. We have puppets, cartoons, lots of childishness. I think I'm doing an OK late-night show but it's a great kids' show.
Playboy: This from Mr. Hip? O'Brien: No. When someone says this or that sort of comedy is hip and alternative -- "Yes, these are cool people" -- I hate that. Because at the end of the day, funny is funny. People get fooled about me because I went to Harvard. "He's cerebral." But I love Green Acres. I love how Green Acres bends reality.
Playboy: Sounds cerebral. O'Brien: It isn't. In one episode Oliver Douglas has to go to Washington, D.C. His wife says, "Darling, take a picture of the Eiffel Tower." He says, "Lisa, the Eiffel Tower ---" Then Eb comes in. "Mr. Douglas, git me an Eiffel Tower postcard!" Now Oliver is terribly frustrated. He keeps sputtering about Washington, D.C., but nobody listens. At the end, he goes to Washington, looks up, and there's the Eiffel Tower. That is the kind of thing that made me love T.V.
Playboy: As a TV-mad college kid you cooked up scams to meet celebs. O'Brien: I wanted to meet Bill Cosby, so my friends and I offered him some fake award. We took a bowling trophy and called it the Harvard Comedy Award, something like that, and Cosby, thinking it was the Hasty Pudding Award, accepted. So I drive out to meet his private plane. "Over here, Mr. Cosby!" And I chauffeur him in my dad's second hand station wagon. Cosby sits in the backseat, picking old McDonald's wrappers off the floor, and says, "This is about the Hasty Pudding Award?"
"Oh no, nothing like that."
Playboy: You tricked Bill Cosby into letting you drive him around? O'Brien: I didn't realize that one does not pick up a famous person in a 1976 station wagon. They like to fly first-class, to be picked up in a Town Car and put up in a nice hotel. Fortunately I am not directly involved in celebrity care anymore.
Playboy: Did you bring other comics to Harvard? O'Brien: Yes. John Candy's people warned me that John was on the Pritikin diet. They gave me strict dietary instructions. John immediately ran into a bakery on Harvard Square to get pastries. He said they were Pritikin eclairs.
Playboy: You once stole a famous television costume. O'Brien: When Burt Ward visited Harvard there were fliers all over the campus: Burt Ward to Appear With Original Robin Costume (Insured by Lloyd's of London for $500,000). In fact, Burt Ward was said to keep a bunch of them in his car; he'd pass them out to impress girls. Naturally, I wanted to screw with him. A few friends and I attended his speech at the science center. We went dressed as security guards. I said, "Mr. Ward, I've been sent by the dean to safe guard the costume." As if it were the Shroud of Turin. But the guy is humorless. "Yes, very good. That costume is very valuable," he says.
That's when we hit the lights. Which works great in the movies. In the movies the lights go out and suddenly the jewel is gone. In real life, though, what you get is some dimming. You hit the lights and people can see a little less well.
Playboy: Did you grab the costume? O'Brien: We grabbed it and the chase was on. Some Burt Ward admirers -- young Republicans, I guess -- took off after us yelling, "Stop them!" But we escaped in a waiting car. We proceeded to torment Burt Ward for hours on the phone, saying, "This is the Joker, hee-hee-hee. I've got your costume."
Playboy: How did Burt react? O'Brien: Robinlike. He said, "Return it or you will feel my wrath!" Playboy: Burt Ward used to tell reporters he had an IQ of 200. O'Brien: He may be delusional.
Playboy: Were you always starstruck? O'Brien: Stars are fascinating. When I was a writer for Saturday Night Live, Robert Wagner did the show. One day he was sitting offstage, talking on the phone. He had on a camel-hair jacket, silk scarf, and of course his perfectly arranged Robert Wagner hair. "Very good, goodbye," he says, and hangs up. Suddenly his hand shoots up and touches the right side of his head, where the phone receiver may have disturbed a few hairs. At that point you know he has done this smooth move every day since 1948.
Playboy: You seem to prefer goofy celebs -- Jack Lord, William Shatner, Robert Stack. There are photos of Stack and Adam West, TV's Batman, here in your office. Do those guys know you are making fun of them? O'Brien: I'm not. I have a real affection for those men. To me, meeting Andy Griffith is just as interesting as interviewing Allen Ginsberg. I'm interested in Martin Scorsese and Gore Vidal as well as Jaleel White, TV's Urkel.
Playboy: How do Gore Vidal and Urkel compare? O'Brien: I'd say Jaleel White's prose style is not taken as seriously. But the same is true of Vidal's nerd character.
Playboy: As one of the writers on The Simpsons you helped create some memorable characters. O'Brien: What I loved about The Simpsons was that it wasn't a cartoon for kids. A cartoon might look like the friendliest thing in the world, but we were subversive. I loved it when we had Lisa write a patriotic essay in school: "Our country has the strongest, best educational system in the world after Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain..." It was this great sugarcoated cutting remark. I loved her for it.
Playboy: Tell us a Simpsons sercret. O'Brien: When Dan Castellaneta started doing Homer's voice, he was doing Walter Matthau. Like I said, it takes time to find your rhythm.
Playboy: So are you satisfied with your work? O'Brien: Intellectually, yes. The show works. Advertisers like to buy time on it. Young people really like it. But I was a moody, driven, self-critical person before I got this show, and that hasn't changed. It's just that I now have something even more frightening than a Saturday Night Live sketch or a Bart Simpson joke to worry about. I have an hour of comedy broadcast every night. My anxiety has finally met its match.
Playboy: Will you and Lynn get married? O'Brien: The core idea of being a comic, particularly a comic with a talk show, is control. Marriage is a leap of faith, a giving up of control. I'm not sure if I can make that leap.
Playboy: What about kids? O'Brien: What sort of dad would I make? Maybe this job and a normal family life are diametrically opposed. Dave, Jay, Bill Maher, Arsenio -- where are your kids? Jack Paar seemed to have a normal life with a wife and child, but you don't see much of that. And I believe that your kid should be the most important thing in your life. I may not have room, at least not now. I have Pimpbot to think about.
Playboy: Another foul mouthed Late Night character. O'Brien: Half-robot, half-Seventies street pimp. He's got a feathered hat and a metallic voice: "Gotta run my bitches. Run my ho's. I'll cut you." Right now my life revolves around Pimpbot.
Playboy: You need to settle a fashion question. You, Leno and Letterman seldom wear suits off stage. Leno likes flannel shirts, Letterman prefers jeans and sweatshirts. You wear T-shirts. Why wear a suit and tie on the air? O'Brien: There are two schools of thought on that. The Steve Martin approach says that you're putting on a show, so dress up for the people. The George Carlin approach says all that old showbiz stuff is over, this is the new way, so wear a T-shirt. I choose a jacket and tie because that's the uniform people expect talk show hosts to wear. If I came out in a mesh T-shirt and chains it might distract people from the comedy.
Playboy: How would you describe your show? O'Brien: It's a hybrid. If Carson defined the talk show and Letterman was the anti-talk show, where do you go next? That was the question we faced. What we did was make a show that has the visual trappings of the classic Tonight Show -- the desk, the band, the sidekick -- but with everything else perverted. When it works well I'd say my show is one part Carson, one part Charlie Rose and one part Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
Playboy: Do you have any advice for future talk show hosts? O'Brien: You had better love the job. Some hosts don't. You can see it in their eyes. Chevy Chase's talk show -- he did not want to be there. And if that's in your eyes you're finished, because there's another show tomorrow and next week and the week after that. You can't conquer it. You can do two or three or ten good shows in a row and still want to punch a wall when you slip up.
Playboy: Can you ever conquer your repressed childhood? O'Brien: It's always there. I still believe in moral absolutes. Murder, for instance, is wrong, unless it helps the show.
Playboy: Still, talk show hosts have perks most guys can only dream of. O'Brien: It's great to be played over to the desk. You finish your monologue, then the band kicks in as you cross the set. Fortunately, we have a great band. Even when people didn't like anything about the show, they loved the Max Weinberg Seven. The music heightens everything. Now you are more than just a guy in a suit, you're Co-nan O'Bri-en! I think every guy should have that -- if a band played you over to your rental car at the airport, you'd have a cooler day.
Playboy: Is Andy Richter your Ed McMahon? O'Brien: He's Andy. When we were getting started and the network wasn't sure of me, they kept asking, "Who's that Andy guy?" I think we've answered the question. Part of the show's rhythm is my energy played against the quiet steadiness of Andy.
Playboy: Is that rhythm genuine? O'Brien: Yes. Our mentalities mesh. I'm always dissatisfied. He's the guy saying, "Hey, relax. It's good enough." My girlfriend would be happy if I had a bit more of that in me.
Playboy: Who is the guest you can't get? O'Brien: Werner Klemperer. He refuses to revive Colonel Klink, the commandant he played on Hogan's Heroes. Which confuses me. Is he going to come up with another character at this late date -- Werner Klemperer as the aging black man or kung fu fighter? No, he's Colonel Klink.
Playboy: You once said that as a boy you wanted to be like Bob Crane in Hogan's Heroes, the cool guy who "wore a bomber jacket and wised off to Nazis." O'Brien: I asked Werner Klemperer to do some bits as Colonel Klink. He refused. Then a strange thing happened. We're shooting abit on the West Side when Werner Klemperer comes around the corner. Pulling his parka up to his chin, just like Colonel Klink, he walks past our film crew and says, "Hello, Conan. I must say the show is very good lately. Give my best to Andy. Farewell!" It was a cameo appearance in reality. He was there, he was gone. I wanted to shout, "Hey, Werner Klemperer just did a walk-on in my life."
Playboy: Are you losing the boundaries between your life and your job? O'Brien: There are no boundaries. At any minute Werner Klemperer may step in here and give me 30 days in the cooler. It's getting surreal. Just this morning I am going through the lobby downstairs when two girls see me. One girl nudges the other, "Look, it's the guy from Conan O'Brien!" I guess she couldn't quite place me, but she knew which show I was on.
Copyright Playboy Magazine 1998

So I’ve done some studying of this team, been hearing a lot of so called fans trashing the cowboys (that makes them haters by definition) so I’m gona bring some positivity about why I really like our chances this next year, and then follow that up with a 53 man depth chart (way too early. A. I love a player on the final year of their contract (Dak), along with a coach on the final year. I know Daknjas had to prove things in the past, however nothing compares to this year, and you know he wants nothing more than to prove the haters wrong. Add that along with a SB winning head coach on their final years, and that’s a recipe for Success. 2. The fact we still haven’t made any of the jones famous “1 year veteran deals” like we did last year with Gilmore and the trade for Cooks, so I think we still have 1 or 2 moves up our sleeve that will round out this team. Particularly l, I have guys like Donovan Smith, Michael Thomas, Calais Campell, Stefon Gilmore, a run stopping DT, etc… 3. So much young talent with all the potential that have yet to break out yet. Including Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Brooks, Mazi Smith, Overshown, Damone Clark, Eric Scott, Sam Williams, Marques Bell (he kinda broke out in 23, but curious to where we are gona play him), Chauncey Goldsten, Veheko, Donovan Wilson (not as young, but showed flashes of greatness a few years ago), Hunter Lupke, and last but not least in not gona even mention names because there are so many, but all the young guys we have used draft capital on over the last 3 years on the O line. So now I present my way to early look at the 2023 Dallas Cowboys. Offense
Qb: Dak Prescott, Cooper Rush, Trey Lance (emergency)
FB: Hunter Leupke
RB: Zeke, Rico Dowdle, Deauce Vaughn, Royce Freeman
WR: Ceedee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Jalen Tolbert, K Turpin, Jalen Brooks
Tight End: Jake Ferguson (future all pro), Luke scoonmaker, Peyton Hendershot, John Stephens jr.
LT: Tyler Guyton, A Richards or Walesco at swing
LG: Tyler Smith
Center: Connor Beebe, Brock Hoffman
RG: Zack Martin, T.J Bass
RT: Terrance Steele
Defense
DE: Demarcus Lawrence, Kneeland
DT: Mazi Smith, this years run stopping rookie we drafted (forgot name)
DT: Osa O, Goldsten, Vehoko
DE: Parsons, Sam Williams
OLB: Damone Clark, This years 3rd Rd pick
MLB: Eric Kendricks, Damien Wilson
OLB/hybrid Saftey: Overshown, Marquess Bell
CB: Trevon Diggs, Eric Scott
CB: Daron Bland, This years rookie draft pick ( sorry I have forgotten a few names off the top of my head, lol
Nickel: Jourdan Lewis
SS: Donovan Wilson, J Thompson, possibly Bell if we move him there
FS: Malik Hooker, Israel M
And of course the 3 designated ST guys.
So I personally think if a few guys play like we’ve needed them to, this is a playoff caliber roster. The main question marks for me are at O line, WR3 and run stopping DT. I’m not worried about RB, if used right we have a good committee.
And in those few possible holes, we could fix with cheap veteran options.
Any feedback is welcome, thanks DC4L

Billy Butcher VS Blitzo (The Boys VS Helluva Boss)- Speedy thought it was neat at first, but, on further thought, thinks that the comparison isn’t very strong since they have such different motivations for killing people, plus there’s a very strong aesthetic clash. DJ, on the other hand, likes the contrast in their motivations and thinks it adds something interesting. Billy says that the comic version of Billy is stronger than the show version, though Speedy disagrees. Sam thinks the aesthetic clash is an obstacle, but it wouldn’t be impossible to make work.
Hiruzen Sarutobi VS Julius Novachrono (Naruto VS Black Clover)- Speedy says it makes sense as they have similar roles in their stories. DJ says “Hiruzen sucks. I want him to die”. Speedy has also seen Julius VS Minato.
Freddy Krueger VS Pennywise (A Nightmare on Elm Street VS IT)- Sam says that Pennywise has some insane stuff from the book, but Speedy notes that the community is starting to think Pennywise isn’t actually that powerful, and says he wants to look into it himself.
Teen Titans Go VS Recreyo- Sam reveals one of Recreyo’s members almost appeared on the Cast. They discuss both series a bit, but none of them are knowledgeable enough about Recreyo to have much of an opinion on the MU.
Nightwolf VS Thunder (Mortal Kombat VS Killer Instinct)- Sam feels that they couldn’t do this episode without discussing the broader cultural context, and doubts that actual Native Americans would appreciate it much. DJ, who actually is part-Native, says he thinks it’s fine as long as they handle it well. Speedy suggests turning it into a threeway by adding T. Hawk from Street Fighter.
Blaze VS Sailor Mars (Sonic the Hedgehog VS Sailor Moon)- Speedy says that, while he’s tired of seeing Sonic characters, Blaze is “one of the exceptions”. DJ really wants to do this episode and likes Mars a lot, and Sam also considers Mars his favorite of the Sailor Scouts.
Violet VS Chisato (Violet Evergarden VS Lycoris Recoil)- They don’t know either series, though DJ has heard good things about Violet Evergarden.
Shulk VS Stocke (Xenoblade Chronicles VS Radiant Historia)- Sam says that the amount of Xenoblade MUs submitted makes him want to give the franchise a try. DJ says the MU’s pretty good, and that he wants Shulk in DB in general.
Kazuya Mishima VS Albert Wesker (Tekken VS Resident Evil)- DJ sarcastically says that Wesker actually wins, before admitting that Kazuya stomps terribly.
Ganondorf VS Griffith (The Legend of Zelda VS Berserk)- Sam doesn’t think it seems very close. Speedy responds that it’s not, as, while Griffith is a lot stronger than Guts, he still doesn’t reach the level of the Zelda universe.
Nagisa Shiota VS Alex Rider (Assassination Classroom VS Alex Rider)- Multiple crew members have nostalgia for Alex Rider, and DJ considers Assassination Classroom a “top 10 anime of all time”. Speedy isn’t sure the connections make sense. DJ says that “Nagisa is getting bodied”. Sam thinks it’s pretty cool and unique.
The Man with No Name VS Harry Callahan (Dollars Trilogy VS Dirty Harry)- DJ loves the Dollars Trilogy and would be down to revisit it for an episode. It’s then argued, however, that the Man with No Name might be better off fighting a classic movie samurai instead. Sam brings up the technological advantage that Harry has due to his movies taking place roughly a century later.
Andrew Ryan VS Mr. House (BioShock VS Fallout)- They all think that it’s really cool. Sam isn’t sure how they’d handle Mr. House, though it’s then pointed out that the OP suggested this as an army fight. DJ asks if Mr. House would get mutants in his army, to which Sam answers no, since the New Vegas Strip is a mutant-free zone.
Nathan Spencer VS Rico Rodriguez (Bionic Commando VS Just Cause)- “Just Cause is such a fun set of games. Bionic Commando, I can’t say as much about”, according to Sam.
Percy Jackson VS Harry Potter- Speedy says the comparison makes sense, but it’s not very fair. Everybody drastically prefers Percy VS Zagreus over any of its alts.
Liquid Snake VS Zeke Yeager (Metal Gear VS Attack on Titan)- Speedy loves Zeke and thinks he’d be fun to use. There’s some discussion about how powerful Metal Gears are, with the general assumption being that they’re about as strong as a nuke, and thus, Liquid wins (though Speedy says large town-level AOT seems legit). Speedy also argues that Metal Gear is a lot faster than AOT.
Stick Figure Battle Royale (Henry Stickmin VS Fancy Pants Man VS Red VS The Second Coming)- It’s cool and fun. “Somebody CC me on an email with the four original animators and we’ll get this done really quick”, says Sam.
Frank West VS Ash Williams (Dead Rising VS Evil Dead)- DJ says Ash would be cool to bring in, and Billy “loves the attitude”. They discuss Ash’s insane supplementary material, and how similar the two characters are.
Joker VS Velvet Crowe (Persona VS Tales of Berseria)- DJ questions how strong Velvet must be to get pit against characters like Joker. Sam jokes that Velvet is getting pit against “everybody who’s also black and red”.
Vigil VS Crypto (Rainbow Six Siege VS Apex Legends)- Sam says it’s cool, but that Apex Legends is also on a whole other level compared to Rainbow Six, so he assumes Crypto takes it.
X VS Optimus Primal (Mega Man X VS Transformers: Beast Wars)- Sam calls it an absolute banger. They were all pleasantly surprised that it did so well in the Tournament of Champions.
Levi Ackerman VS Keiji Kiriya (Attack on Titan VS All You Need is Kill)- They don’t know anything about Keiji, but they think Levi is cool.
Tenacious D VS Ninja Sex Party- Sam doesn’t know what to make of the MU. He reveals that they almost had Jack Black on the Cast to promote the Borderlands movie, but it fell through.
Vilgax VS Ridley (Ben 10 VS Metroid)- Everybody agrees that Vilgax stomps easily.
Hibiki Tachibana VS Yuki Yuna (Symphogear VS Yuki Yuna is a Hero)- Speedy doesn’t know anything about either series, but has seen this MU so much that he’s become interested in looking into them.
Mothman VS Slenderman- DJ calls Slenderman boring. Speedy is into the idea of doing a cryptid, and thinks creepypasta could also be interesting, but thinks there are better options than Slenderman, which Sam agrees with. Someone in the live chat says that composite Slenderman is outerversal, and Speedy “hates the fact that he read that”.
Bendy VS Springtrap (Bendy and the Ink Machine VS Five Nights at Freddy’s)- They prefer Bendy VS Cuphead.
Proto Man VS Shard (Mega Man VS Archie Sonic)- None of them have ever heard of Shard. After reading the connections, Sam says “that kinda makes sense, but Shard? Really?”
Dr. Zomboss VS Dr. Cortex (Plants vs. Zombies VS Crash Bandicoot)- They really only talk about the Crash Bandicoot games instead of the MU.
Kazuo Kiriyama VS Katniss Everdeen (Battle Royale VS The Hunger Games)- DJ loves Battle Royale and is down for this MU. Speedy also thinks that a Katniss episode would be sick. Sam thinks it’s cool, but recalls that they have guns in Battle Royale and “gun beats bow and arrow”. Speedy counters that Katniss has body armor that had allowed her to survive bullets, and has shot down jets with her arrows.
Tommy Oliver VS Lloyd Garmadon (Power Rangers VS Ninjago)- They don’t really have an opinion on it. OP submitted an almost minute long trailer, which leads to a comment about how long fan trailers often are, but Sam says “let them do what they want to do”.
Cuphead VS Dynamite Headdy- They still don’t know anything about Dynamite Headdy, but they’re incredibly impressed by some storyboards OP submitted, with DJ saying the extra effort raises his opinion of the MU.
Diavolo VS Overhaul (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure VS My Hero Academia)- DJ says “I’m so sorry, Overhaul, but you’re super dead”. Speedy disagrees, arguing that Overhaul AP stomps, but DJ says Diavolo is still a lot faster. Sam comments that JoJo has the largest amount of individual characters in Ballot Banter out of any franchise.
Captain America VS Kamen Rider Ichigo (Marvel VS Kamen Rider)- They like the MU a lot, though it would be an absolute beast to research. Billy says there’s always a good turnout whenever they talk about Kamen Rider on the Cast.
Lloyd Irving VS Luke Skywalker (Tales of Symphonia VS Star Wars)- Sam notes that there are a lot of connections. The discussion is mostly about whether or not the OP followed the rules with their submission.
Doctor Doom VS Gilgamesh (Marvel VS Fate)- Sam calls Gilgamesh one of the most requested Fate characters, and Speedy says he’s a sick character that he really wants to use. According to Sam, Liam wants to do Gilgamesh from Fate VS Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy (“or some other weird Gilgamesh thing”).
Robin Battle Royale- Sam says “there’s something there”, and Billy says it’s kinda fun. Speedy thinks Nightwing wins. Sam argues that Red Hood has an advantage because he uses guns, but Speedy then argues that all of the Robins deal with guns enough that this isn’t a major factor. Most of them think that Tim doesn’t stand a chance against the others, only for Speedy to say that Tim’s wings stabbed through Trigon at one point. Sam thinks Damian has a big advantage thanks to his assassin training.
Archie Knuckles VS Juggernaut (Sonic the Hedgehog VS Marvel)- They think it’s pretty sick. Luis says Knuckles probably wins, but Speedy says people have been leaning toward the Juggernaut lately. Billy jokes “it’s no Juggernaut VS Hermione”.
Celestia VS Palutena (My Little Pony VS Kid Icarus)- Sam calls Palutena a more interesting character than Pit. They all agree that Celestia probably wins easily.
Gonzo VS Papyrus (The Muppets VS Undertale)- They consider it to be a pretty solid meme MU.
Dominic Toretto VS Carl Johnson (The Fast and the Furious VS Grand Theft Auto)- DJ wonders how many people who suggest CJ have actually played San Andreas. Sam mentions that CJ has some insane stuff they could potentially give him, which leads to the possibility of giving CJ cheat codes being raised. However, Dom is on an “idiot jet car level”.
Philip J. Fry VS George Jetson (Futurama VS The Jetsons)- DJ says “All George does all day is push a big red button. Not sure what he’s gonna do against Fry”. Speedy likes George Jetson VS Fred Flintstone as an alt, and Billy initially says that MU is more even, but the others argue that Fred actually stomps.
Tokita Ohma VS Baki Hanma (Kengan Ashura VS Baki the Grappler)- It’s brought up that there’s a crossover movie coming out, and Sam jokes that this means they don’t have to do it as an episode. Speedy wanted it on the ToC, but it got rejected by the other mods.
Joker VS Giorno (Persona VS JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)- DJ says “at some point, we’re gonna have to do it”, but he’s not looking forward to the debate that’ll inevitably happen.
Rimuru Tempest VS Ainz Ooal Gown (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime VS Overlord)- Billy is “all over this one”. He thinks Rimuru has a massive advantage over Ainz. Sam says he needs to put TTIGRAAS on his to-do list. DJ asks for Billy’s take on Rimuru VS Kirby, and Billy answers “Kirby’s so out of control, I don’t even know”. Speedy questions the specifics of Rimuru’s multiversal scaling, and Billy says Rimuru’s pretty OP, but the crew agrees to save figuring out the exact scaling for actual research.
Shantae VS Sash Lilac (Shantae VS Freedom Planet)- Sam doesn’t know anything about Freedom Planet, to which Luis responds that it’s essentially an indie Sonic game. Sam and DJ both like Shantae a lot, and DJ argues against the notion of Shantae being an indie character.
Moon Knight VS Azrael (Marvel VS DC)- Speedy calls it “the versus community civil war” because of how close it is. Sam likes the idea of a battle with more grounded superheroes.
Sesshomaru VS Itachi (Inuyasha VS Naruto)- Speedy immediately calls it cool. DJ says he “needs to be convinced Itachi doesn’t auto-win”, to which Speedy responds that Sesshomaru’s daughter cut the moon in half, and that there are arguments to be made that he has counters to many of Itachi’s attacks, so it ultimately comes down to certain specific details.
Jolly Green Giant VS Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (Green Giant VS Ghostbusters)- They’re on board with it, with Sam calling it fun and creative. Billy proposes that the Ghostbusters are on the ground trying to stop them both.
Papa Smurf VS Olimar (The Smurfs VS Pikmin)- Everybody thinks it’s peak. According to Speedy, it was the idea of one of the researchers, and the other researchers wanted him to not tell anybody about it so it can eventually become an episode without anybody ever expecting it. There’s some discussion about how the Smurfs probably have some insane stuff in their long history, and it also gets brought up how Olimar’s ship is said to have star-busting weapons.
Alice VS Flandre Scarlet (Shin Megami Tensei VS Touhou)- DJ thinks it’d be weird to bring in an individual demon from SMT, though he also says Flandre’s cool. Speedy says SMT and Touhou feel like they’re on similar power levels.
Knull VS Orcus (Marvel VS Dungeons & Dragons)- DJ and Speedy are both horrified to see Knull (“Not the Cates scaling!”)
Sailor Mercury VS Tecna (Sailor Moon VS Winx Club)- None of them know anything about Winx Club, but DJ thinks Mercury is very cool.
Jetstream Sam VS Adam Taurus (Metal Gear VS RWBY)- DJ initially says that Adam is “dying very easily”, but Speedy brings up the arguments surrounding Vine’s semblance blocking a nuke and Adam deflecting a particle beam, both of which make it closer.
Master Chief VS Commander Shepard (Halo VS Mass Effect)- Sam says it’s pretty cool, and it feels like a MU they should have seen more than they actually have. The others also think it’s neat, with DJ commenting that Ben would have a lot to say about it. Sam argues that Master Chief wouldn’t be able to stand up to Commander Shepard’s biotics if you allow them access to the full extent of them, but he still thinks “any opportunity to talk about Mass Effect is a good time”.
Spear & Fang VS San & Moro (Primal VS Princess Mononoke)- They’re all extremely enthusiastic about and think it’s sick.
Sackboy VS Maxwell (LittleBigPlanet VS Scribblenauts)- DJ loves it a lot, having grown up with both games and considering them some of his favorites.
Penny Polendina VS Zane Julien (RWBY VS Ninjago)- They get it. Sam comments that people love Penny, and DJ says “they love killing her too”.
Yoshikage Kira VS Tohru Adachi (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure VS Persona)- Glossed over because it’s been talked about a lot. It’s pretty good, and DJ thinks Adachi stomps.
The Warden VS Black Hat (Superjail VS Villainous)- They talk a bit about Superjail as a show, before getting distracted by the next MU.
Dragonborn VS Fluttershy (Skyrim VS My Little Pony)- They laugh at the randomness of it. Speedy jokes that it makes perfect sense, but refuses to elaborate, causing them to scroll past it.
Perry VS Skipper (Phineas and Ferb VS Madagascar)- Erin calls it based, and the others agree. Speedy questions whether Perry could beat all four Penguins of Madagascar on his own. Someone in the live chat posts a TN of Perry VS I.M. Weasel, which they think is funny.
Cell VS Garou (Dragon Ball VS One-Punch Man)- DJ asks if they would include God Garou, and Speedy says they would, because the MU is actually pretty fair with that form. Sam is surprised Cell hasn’t really come back yet. Billy makes a comment about DevilArtemis voicing Cell, and Sam says they’d 100% do that.
Medic VS Richtofen (Team Fortress 2 VS Call of Duty: Zombies)- They understand the idea, and mention some of the insane stuff that happens in COD: Zombies.
RuneScape Protagonist VS World of Warcraft Protagonist- Speedy asks if anybody has ever power scaled RuneScape, and assumes the answer is no. Sam discusses how insane the scaling for the WoW protagonist can get when you consider all the different expansions.
Winnie the Pooh VS Mini P.E.K.K.A. (Disney VS Clash Royale)- Speedy thinks a Winnie the Pooh episode would go hard. Luis says the right MU for Pooh is Cocaine Bear, which is a fight that everybody agrees Pooh wins.
Kaguya VS Ultimecia (Naruto VS Final Fantasy)- DJ likes it, calling it different from “other Kaguya MUs” (as in, Kaguya VS Yhwach). Sam calls Ultimecia a very cool, underlooked Final Fantasy villain, and says Final Fantasy VIII is his favorite PS1 era FF game.
Beat VS Red (Jet Set Radio VS Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)- DJ loves Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Sam doesn’t think there’s a lot to go off of for Beat, but does think it’s a very cool MU thematically, and says it would go hard if they could emulate the animation style of FLCL.
Lan & MegaMan.EXE VS Takato & Guilmon (Mega Man Battle Network VS Digimon)- Luis likes it a lot. Speedy asks if EXE stands a chance, and DJ answers that he doesn’t. Sam would rather see EXE fight somebody from ReBoot, but DJ would prefer a ReBoot VS Code Lyoko fight.
Neo VS Kirito (The Matrix VS Sword Art Online)- General consensus is that they’d like to use Neo, but none of them are fans of SOA (Luis says “if Neo can beat Kirito, then yes”). There’s a big debate about whether or not SOA is responsible for the popularity of the isekai genre. DJ ends up saying Kirito VS Kite is pretty cool too.
Ken Kaneki VS Tsukune Aono (Tokyo Ghoul VS Rosario + Vampire)- None of them know anything about Rosario + Vampire, and the discussion gets derailed by the topic of Death Battle’s logo coming up.
At this point, they make the decision to end the stream there and finish it later.
(Skipped Matchups: Naruto VS Luffy, Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat, Gohan VS Ultraman Zero, Monokuma VS Korosensei, Tatsuya Shiba VS Moroha Haimura, Doctor Manhattan VS Richard Nixon, Luffy VS Nastu, Angry Video Game Nerd VS Nostalgia Critic, Isaac Clarke VS Gordon Freeman, Doomsday VS SCP-682, Luke Skywalker VS Saber)

Billy Butcher VS Blitzo (The Boys VS Helluva Boss)- Speedy thought it was neat at first, but, on further thought, thinks that the comparison isn’t very strong since they have such different motivations for killing people, plus there’s a very strong aesthetic clash. DJ, on the other hand, likes the contrast in their motivations and thinks it adds something interesting. Billy says that the comic version of Billy is stronger than the show version, though Speedy disagrees. Sam thinks the aesthetic clash is an obstacle, but it wouldn’t be impossible to make work.
Hiruzen Sarutobi VS Julius Novachrono (Naruto VS Black Clover)- Speedy says it makes sense as they have similar roles in their stories. DJ says “Hiruzen sucks. I want him to die”. Speedy has also seen Julius VS Minato.
Freddy Krueger VS Pennywise (A Nightmare on Elm Street VS IT)- Sam says that Pennywise has some insane stuff from the book, but Speedy notes that the community is starting to think Pennywise isn’t actually that powerful, and says he wants to look into it himself.
Teen Titans Go VS Recreyo- Sam reveals one of Recreyo’s members almost appeared on the Cast. They discuss both series a bit, but none of them are knowledgeable enough about Recreyo to have much of an opinion on the MU.
Nightwolf VS Thunder (Mortal Kombat VS Killer Instinct)- Sam feels that they couldn’t do this episode without discussing the broader cultural context, and doubts that actual Native Americans would appreciate it much. DJ, who actually is part-Native, says he thinks it’s fine as long as they handle it well. Speedy suggests turning it into a threeway by adding T. Hawk from Street Fighter.
Blaze VS Sailor Mars (Sonic the Hedgehog VS Sailor Moon)- Speedy says that, while he’s tired of seeing Sonic characters, Blaze is “one of the exceptions”. DJ really wants to do this episode and likes Mars a lot, and Sam also considers Mars his favorite of the Sailor Scouts.
Violet VS Chisato (Violet Evergarden VS Lycoris Recoil)- They don’t know either series, though DJ has heard good things about Violet Evergarden.
Shulk VS Stocke (Xenoblade Chronicles VS Radiant Historia)- Sam says that the amount of Xenoblade MUs submitted makes him want to give the franchise a try. DJ says the MU’s pretty good, and that he wants Shulk in DB in general.
Kazuya Mishima VS Albert Wesker (Tekken VS Resident Evil)- DJ sarcastically says that Wesker actually wins, before admitting that Kazuya stomps terribly.
Ganondorf VS Griffith (The Legend of Zelda VS Berserk)- Sam doesn’t think it seems very close. Speedy responds that it’s not, as, while Griffith is a lot stronger than Guts, he still doesn’t reach the level of the Zelda universe.
Nagisa Shiota VS Alex Rider (Assassination Classroom VS Alex Rider)- Multiple crew members have nostalgia for Alex Rider, and DJ considers Assassination Classroom a “top 10 anime of all time”. Speedy isn’t sure the connections make sense. DJ says that “Nagisa is getting bodied”. Sam thinks it’s pretty cool and unique.
The Man with No Name VS Harry Callahan (Dollars Trilogy VS Dirty Harry)- DJ loves the Dollars Trilogy and would be down to revisit it for an episode. It’s then argued, however, that the Man with No Name might be better off fighting a classic movie samurai instead. Sam brings up the technological advantage that Harry has due to his movies taking place roughly a century later.
Andrew Ryan VS Mr. House (BioShock VS Fallout)- They all think that it’s really cool. Sam isn’t sure how they’d handle Mr. House, though it’s then pointed out that the OP suggested this as an army fight. DJ asks if Mr. House would get mutants in his army, to which Sam answers no, since the New Vegas Strip is a mutant-free zone.
Nathan Spencer VS Rico Rodriguez (Bionic Commando VS Just Cause)- “Just Cause is such a fun set of games. Bionic Commando, I can’t say as much about”, according to Sam.
Percy Jackson VS Harry Potter- Speedy says the comparison makes sense, but it’s not very fair. Everybody drastically prefers Percy VS Zagreus over any of its alts.
Liquid Snake VS Zeke Yeager (Metal Gear VS Attack on Titan)- Speedy loves Zeke and thinks he’d be fun to use. There’s some discussion about how powerful Metal Gears are, with the general assumption being that they’re about as strong as a nuke, and thus, Liquid wins (though Speedy says large town-level AOT seems legit). Speedy also argues that Metal Gear is a lot faster than AOT.
Stick Figure Battle Royale (Henry Stickmin VS Fancy Pants Man VS Red VS The Second Coming)- It’s cool and fun. “Somebody CC me on an email with the four original animators and we’ll get this done really quick”, says Sam.
Frank West VS Ash Williams (Dead Rising VS Evil Dead)- DJ says Ash would be cool to bring in, and Billy “loves the attitude”. They discuss Ash’s insane supplementary material, and how similar the two characters are.
Joker VS Velvet Crowe (Persona VS Tales of Berseria)- DJ questions how strong Velvet must be to get pit against characters like Joker. Sam jokes that Velvet is getting pit against “everybody who’s also black and red”.
Vigil VS Crypto (Rainbow Six Siege VS Apex Legends)- Sam says it’s cool, but that Apex Legends is also on a whole other level compared to Rainbow Six, so he assumes Crypto takes it.
X VS Optimus Primal (Mega Man X VS Transformers: Beast Wars)- Sam calls it an absolute banger. They were all pleasantly surprised that it did so well in the Tournament of Champions.
Levi Ackerman VS Keiji Kiriya (Attack on Titan VS All You Need is Kill)- They don’t know anything about Keiji, but they think Levi is cool.
Tenacious D VS Ninja Sex Party- Sam doesn’t know what to make of the MU. He reveals that they almost had Jack Black on the Cast to promote the Borderlands movie, but it fell through.
Vilgax VS Ridley (Ben 10 VS Metroid)- Everybody agrees that Vilgax stomps easily.
Hibiki Tachibana VS Yuki Yuna (Symphogear VS Yuki Yuna is a Hero)- Speedy doesn’t know anything about either series, but has seen this MU so much that he’s become interested in looking into them.
Mothman VS Slenderman- DJ calls Slenderman boring. Speedy is into the idea of doing a cryptid, and thinks creepypasta could also be interesting, but thinks there are better options than Slenderman, which Sam agrees with. Someone in the live chat says that composite Slenderman is outerversal, and Speedy “hates the fact that he read that”.
Bendy VS Springtrap (Bendy and the Ink Machine VS Five Nights at Freddy’s)- They prefer Bendy VS Cuphead.
Proto Man VS Shard (Mega Man VS Archie Sonic)- None of them have ever heard of Shard. After reading the connections, Sam says “that kinda makes sense, but Shard? Really?”
Dr. Zomboss VS Dr. Cortex (Plants vs. Zombies VS Crash Bandicoot)- They really only talk about the Crash Bandicoot games instead of the MU.
Kazuo Kiriyama VS Katniss Everdeen (Battle Royale VS The Hunger Games)- DJ loves Battle Royale and is down for this MU. Speedy also thinks that a Katniss episode would be sick. Sam thinks it’s cool, but recalls that they have guns in Battle Royale and “gun beats bow and arrow”. Speedy counters that Katniss has body armor that had allowed her to survive bullets, and has shot down jets with her arrows.
Tommy Oliver VS Lloyd Garmadon (Power Rangers VS Ninjago)- They don’t really have an opinion on it. OP submitted an almost minute long trailer, which leads to a comment about how long fan trailers often are, but Sam says “let them do what they want to do”.
Cuphead VS Dynamite Headdy- They still don’t know anything about Dynamite Headdy, but they’re incredibly impressed by some storyboards OP submitted, with DJ saying the extra effort raises his opinion of the MU.
Diavolo VS Overhaul (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure VS My Hero Academia)- DJ says “I’m so sorry, Overhaul, but you’re super dead”. Speedy disagrees, arguing that Overhaul AP stomps, but DJ says Diavolo is still a lot faster. Sam comments that JoJo has the largest amount of individual characters in Ballot Banter out of any franchise.
Captain America VS Kamen Rider Ichigo (Marvel VS Kamen Rider)- They like the MU a lot, though it would be an absolute beast to research. Billy says there’s always a good turnout whenever they talk about Kamen Rider on the Cast.
Lloyd Irving VS Luke Skywalker (Tales of Symphonia VS Star Wars)- Sam notes that there are a lot of connections. The discussion is mostly about whether or not the OP followed the rules with their submission.
Doctor Doom VS Gilgamesh (Marvel VS Fate)- Sam calls Gilgamesh one of the most requested Fate characters, and Speedy says he’s a sick character that he really wants to use. According to Sam, Liam wants to do Gilgamesh from Fate VS Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy (“or some other weird Gilgamesh thing”).
Robin Battle Royale- Sam says “there’s something there”, and Billy says it’s kinda fun. Speedy thinks Nightwing wins. Sam argues that Red Hood has an advantage because he uses guns, but Speedy then argues that all of the Robins deal with guns enough that this isn’t a major factor. Most of them think that Tim doesn’t stand a chance against the others, only for Speedy to say that Tim’s wings stabbed through Trigon at one point. Sam thinks Damian has a big advantage thanks to his assassin training.
Archie Knuckles VS Juggernaut (Sonic the Hedgehog VS Marvel)- They think it’s pretty sick. Luis says Knuckles probably wins, but Speedy says people have been leaning toward the Juggernaut lately. Billy jokes “it’s no Juggernaut VS Hermione”.
Celestia VS Palutena (My Little Pony VS Kid Icarus)- Sam calls Palutena a more interesting character than Pit. They all agree that Celestia probably wins easily.
Gonzo VS Papyrus (The Muppets VS Undertale)- They consider it to be a pretty solid meme MU.
Dominic Toretto VS Carl Johnson (The Fast and the Furious VS Grand Theft Auto)- DJ wonders how many people who suggest CJ have actually played San Andreas. Sam mentions that CJ has some insane stuff they could potentially give him, which leads to the possibility of giving CJ cheat codes being raised. However, Dom is on an “idiot jet car level”.
Philip J. Fry VS George Jetson (Futurama VS The Jetsons)- DJ says “All George does all day is push a big red button. Not sure what he’s gonna do against Fry”. Speedy likes George Jetson VS Fred Flintstone as an alt, and Billy initially says that MU is more even, but the others argue that Fred actually stomps.
Tokita Ohma VS Baki Hanma (Kengan Ashura VS Baki the Grappler)- It’s brought up that there’s a crossover movie coming out, and Sam jokes that this means they don’t have to do it as an episode. Speedy wanted it on the ToC, but it got rejected by the other mods.
Joker VS Giorno (Persona VS JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)- DJ says “at some point, we’re gonna have to do it”, but he’s not looking forward to the debate that’ll inevitably happen.
Rimuru Tempest VS Ainz Ooal Gown (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime VS Overlord)- Billy is “all over this one”. He thinks Rimuru has a massive advantage over Ainz. Sam says he needs to put TTIGRAAS on his to-do list. DJ asks for Billy’s take on Rimuru VS Kirby, and Billy answers “Kirby’s so out of control, I don’t even know”. Speedy questions the specifics of Rimuru’s multiversal scaling, and Billy says Rimuru’s pretty OP, but the crew agrees to save figuring out the exact scaling for actual research.
Shantae VS Sash Lilac (Shantae VS Freedom Planet)- Sam doesn’t know anything about Freedom Planet, to which Luis responds that it’s essentially an indie Sonic game. Sam and DJ both like Shantae a lot, and DJ argues against the notion of Shantae being an indie character.
Moon Knight VS Azrael (Marvel VS DC)- Speedy calls it “the versus community civil war” because of how close it is. Sam likes the idea of a battle with more grounded superheroes.
Sesshomaru VS Itachi (Inuyasha VS Naruto)- Speedy immediately calls it cool. DJ says he “needs to be convinced Itachi doesn’t auto-win”, to which Speedy responds that Sesshomaru’s daughter cut the moon in half, and that there are arguments to be made that he has counters to many of Itachi’s attacks, so it ultimately comes down to certain specific details.
Jolly Green Giant VS Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (Green Giant VS Ghostbusters)- They’re on board with it, with Sam calling it fun and creative. Billy proposes that the Ghostbusters are on the ground trying to stop them both.
Papa Smurf VS Olimar (The Smurfs VS Pikmin)- Everybody thinks it’s peak. According to Speedy, it was the idea of one of the researchers, and the other researchers wanted him to not tell anybody about it so it can eventually become an episode without anybody ever expecting it. There’s some discussion about how the Smurfs probably have some insane stuff in their long history, and it also gets brought up how Olimar’s ship is said to have star-busting weapons.
Alice VS Flandre Scarlet (Shin Megami Tensei VS Touhou)- DJ thinks it’d be weird to bring in an individual demon from SMT, though he also says Flandre’s cool. Speedy says SMT and Touhou feel like they’re on similar power levels.
Knull VS Orcus (Marvel VS Dungeons & Dragons)- DJ and Speedy are both horrified to see Knull (“Not the Cates scaling!”)
Sailor Mercury VS Tecna (Sailor Moon VS Winx Club)- None of them know anything about Winx Club, but DJ thinks Mercury is very cool.
Jetstream Sam VS Adam Taurus (Metal Gear VS RWBY)- DJ initially says that Adam is “dying very easily”, but Speedy brings up the arguments surrounding Vine’s semblance blocking a nuke and Adam deflecting a particle beam, both of which make it closer.
Master Chief VS Commander Shepard (Halo VS Mass Effect)- Sam says it’s pretty cool, and it feels like a MU they should have seen more than they actually have. The others also think it’s neat, with DJ commenting that Ben would have a lot to say about it. Sam argues that Master Chief wouldn’t be able to stand up to Commander Shepard’s biotics if you allow them access to the full extent of them, but he still thinks “any opportunity to talk about Mass Effect is a good time”.
Spear & Fang VS San & Moro (Primal VS Princess Mononoke)- They’re all extremely enthusiastic about and think it’s sick.
Sackboy VS Maxwell (LittleBigPlanet VS Scribblenauts)- DJ loves it a lot, having grown up with both games and considering them some of his favorites.
Penny Polendina VS Zane Julien (RWBY VS Ninjago)- They get it. Sam comments that people love Penny, and DJ says “they love killing her too”.
Yoshikage Kira VS Tohru Adachi (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure VS Persona)- Glossed over because it’s been talked about a lot. It’s pretty good, and DJ thinks Adachi stomps.
The Warden VS Black Hat (Superjail VS Villainous)- They talk a bit about Superjail as a show, before getting distracted by the next MU.
Dragonborn VS Fluttershy (Skyrim VS My Little Pony)- They laugh at the randomness of it. Speedy jokes that it makes perfect sense, but refuses to elaborate, causing them to scroll past it.
Perry VS Skipper (Phineas and Ferb VS Madagascar)- Erin calls it based, and the others agree. Speedy questions whether Perry could beat all four Penguins of Madagascar on his own. Someone in the live chat posts a TN of Perry VS I.M. Weasel, which they think is funny.
Cell VS Garou (Dragon Ball VS One-Punch Man)- DJ asks if they would include God Garou, and Speedy says they would, because the MU is actually pretty fair with that form. Sam is surprised Cell hasn’t really come back yet. Billy makes a comment about DevilArtemis voicing Cell, and Sam says they’d 100% do that.
Medic VS Richtofen (Team Fortress 2 VS Call of Duty: Zombies)- They understand the idea, and mention some of the insane stuff that happens in COD: Zombies.
RuneScape Protagonist VS World of Warcraft Protagonist- Speedy asks if anybody has ever power scaled RuneScape, and assumes the answer is no. Sam discusses how insane the scaling for the WoW protagonist can get when you consider all the different expansions.
Winnie the Pooh VS Mini P.E.K.K.A. (Disney VS Clash Royale)- Speedy thinks a Winnie the Pooh episode would go hard. Luis says the right MU for Pooh is Cocaine Bear, which is a fight that everybody agrees Pooh wins.
Kaguya VS Ultimecia (Naruto VS Final Fantasy)- DJ likes it, calling it different from “other Kaguya MUs” (as in, Kaguya VS Yhwach). Sam calls Ultimecia a very cool, underlooked Final Fantasy villain, and says Final Fantasy VIII is his favorite PS1 era FF game.
Beat VS Red (Jet Set Radio VS Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)- DJ loves Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Sam doesn’t think there’s a lot to go off of for Beat, but does think it’s a very cool MU thematically, and says it would go hard if they could emulate the animation style of FLCL.
Lan & MegaMan.EXE VS Takato & Guilmon (Mega Man Battle Network VS Digimon)- Luis likes it a lot. Speedy asks if EXE stands a chance, and DJ answers that he doesn’t. Sam would rather see EXE fight somebody from ReBoot, but DJ would prefer a ReBoot VS Code Lyoko fight.
Neo VS Kirito (The Matrix VS Sword Art Online)- General consensus is that they’d like to use Neo, but none of them are fans of SOA (Luis says “if Neo can beat Kirito, then yes”). There’s a big debate about whether or not SOA is responsible for the popularity of the isekai genre. DJ ends up saying Kirito VS Kite is pretty cool too.
Ken Kaneki VS Tsukune Aono (Tokyo Ghoul VS Rosario + Vampire)- None of them know anything about Rosario + Vampire, and the discussion gets derailed by the topic of Death Battle’s logo coming up.
At this point, they make the decision to end the stream there and finish it later.
(Skipped Matchups: Naruto VS Luffy, Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat, Gohan VS Ultraman Zero, Monokuma VS Korosensei, Tatsuya Shiba VS Moroha Haimura, Doctor Manhattan VS Richard Nixon, Luffy VS Nastu, Angry Video Game Nerd VS Nostalgia Critic, Isaac Clarke VS Gordon Freeman, Doomsday VS SCP-682, Luke Skywalker VS Saber)

Vibhajjavada and Sarvāstivāda: Analysing the Heart Sutra from Theravadin Perspective—Part 11

5.1. Vibhajjavāda vs Sarvāstivāda

Āṇi Sutta

Sarvāstivāda

In future time, there will be bhikkhus who will not listen to the utterance of such discourses which are words of the Tathāgata, profound, profound in meaning, leading beyond the world, (consistently) connected with emptiness, they will not lend ear, they will not apply their mind on knowledge, they will not consider those teachings as to be taken up and mastered.

Vibhajjavada

Thus, bhikkhus, the discourses which are words of the Tathāgata, profound, profound in meaning, leading beyond the world, (consistently) connected with emptiness, will disappear.

• Suññatā, (f.) (abstr. fr. suñña) emptiness, “void, ” unsubstantiality, phenomenality; freedom from lust, ill-will, and dullness, Nibbāna
• MAJJHIMA NIKĀYA III: Kāyagatāsatisuttaṃ Kayagatasati: Ten benefits of Kayagatasati:

Bhikkhus, mindfulness of the body in the body, practised, developed, made much, made the vehicle, made the foundation, indulged in the practise with aroused effort, I declare ten benefits. What are the ten?

• ākiñcañña-āyatana: The sense of nothingness
  • One is to sense nothing in this formless jhana (outside the five senses)

Vibhajjavadis (Theravadis) follow the Dhamma-Vinaya Sasana established by the Buddha.

5.1.1. The meaning of "great vehicle"

Nagarjuna explains in the Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra the meaning of Mahayana.

[Prajnaparamita (CONZE page 32):]
1 . Its Constituents :
(a) Six Perfections.
(b) 20 Kinds of Emptiness.
(c) 112 Concentrations.
(d) 21 Practices.
(e) 43 Dharani-doors.
(f) 10 Stages.

1. Three questions concerning the great vehicle.
   
2. Why the "Great Vehicle" is so called.
   

• Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra presents the 10 stages of bodhisattva career. Lankavatara presents the ten stages of bodhisattva nirvana. Lotus does not but it shares Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, the concept presented by Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra. Lankavatara does not.

[Prajnaparamita (CONZE page 577):] Gradually they are nirvanized in the realm of Nirvana which leaves nothing behind and that through the three vehicles, i.e. the Disciple-vehicle, the Pratyekabuddha-vehicle, or the great vehicle. It is thus that Bodhisattvas achieve much good when they raise their thought to the supreme enlightenment and progress to Thusness, etc. to : until they win final Nirvana in the realm of Nirvana which leaves nothing behind.

• All the three vehicles can reach the realm of Nirvana.
• Bodhisattvas achieve much good for what? What is it necessary: the appraisal of the public or Mahayanist ego?
• Mahayanists with Sarvāstivādi sutras did not understand their goal clearly. They chose one or mixed some and could not stop developing new schools.
• Vibhajjavada is one school with some branches. Some value the branches. Some value the Dhamma-Vinaya.

Ādhārayogasthāna

The Yogācārin mahayana advocates for Buddhahood but does not accept everyone can become a Buddha:

Yogasthāna one is titled the section on the basis (ādhārayogasthāna) because it deals with the basis (ādhāra) for becoming a bodhisattva (topic 1). There are three main aspects of the basis of a bodhisattva. The first is an inborn unique predisposition (svagotra) for the bodhisattva path, those who lack this are said to be unable to reach Buddhahood. The second is "the basis of initially engendering the resolve to reach Buddhahood (prathamaś cittotpādaḥ), which refers to arousing bodhicitta, practicing the perfections for the benefit of oneself and others, and so forth. The third is "the basis of practicing all the factors leading to Awakening" (sarve bodhipakṣyā dharmāḥ).^\82]) [Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra (wiki)]

On the other hand, chanting the name of Amitabha (Avalokiteśvara) alone is enough for a place in heaven:

if we can recite Namo Amitabha Buddha exclusively, we will have grasped the essence of the Dharma [...] It doesn’t matter if a person is of superior, intermediate or inferior ability, intelligent or dull, literate or illiterate, male or female, young or old, worthy or unworthy – anyone who recites will achieve rebirth [and then Buddhahood in the Pure Land]. Such certainty does not apply to practitioners of other schools [although our Buddha Amitabha and bodhisattvas have mercy for all of you]. [A Discourse by Dharma Master Huijing Amitabha-Recitation Society, Tainan, Taiwan; March 10, 2007]

Mahayanist Scriptures

Some early authors of the Savāstivādi/Mahayanist sutras were Mādhyamika, Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, etc. However, the authors of the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra) is not known, forgotten or revealed.

in his Treasury and Twenty Verses arguments, Vasubandhu argues that naïvely to require that all scriptures be interpreted literally is to insist that the Buddha repeatedly contradicted himself. He cites many internal references to lost or unknown texts, and argues that this shows that no lineage or school can claim to have a complete canon. Unlike his Mādhyamika opponents, Vasubandhu believes that the Mahāyāna Sūtras must be read under a “special intention [abhiprāya],” so as to prevent the danger of nihilism. [Vasubandhu: 3. Approaches to Scriptural Interpretation (Jonathan C. Gold)]

• That is the background of the Savāstivādi/Mahayanist scriptures. They understood their scriptures were not flawless and reliable.
  • Ancient intellects with good intentions analysed the TiPitaka to find flaws.
  • King Milinda created several questions, and the Venerable Nagasena Mahathera answered them and removed doubts from the mind of the king. He followed the Buddha and became a member of the Sangha.
• so as to prevent the danger of nihilism: But it is eternalism (sassatavāda), of "outside agent" (Ephesians 5:18: be filled in the Spirit)

The outside agent

[Ephesians 5:18 (Eddie Rasnake):] being “filled with the Spirit” involves the Spirit getting you. Paul contrasts being drunk on wine with being filled with the Spirit. In both cases, an outside agent is influencing the person. With both, it is initiated by an act of the will, and both are results of the outside agent’s work on the inside. With wine, it is alcohol released from the stomach into the bloodstream and brain. With filling, it is the already present Spirit released into all parts of the body. Both result in altered personalities consistent with the altering agent.

• The ten-stage bodhisattva training comprises “filled with the Spirit” and "result in altered personalities"
• “filled with the Spirit”: the Tathagata's universalized life as manifested in its transformations
• "result in altered personalities": he no longer lives unto himself

[Lanka Chapter 13:] In the perfect self-realization of Noble Wisdom that fallows the inconceivable transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualized will-control, he no longer lives unto himself, but the life that he lives thereafter is the Tathagata's universalized life as manifested in its transformations. In this perfect self-realization of Noble Wisdom the Bodhisattva realizes that for the Buddhas there is no Nirvana.

• for the Buddhas there is no Nirvana: they become Buddhas because the original Tathagata (the Spirit) fills the completely. Thus, both Amitabha Buddha and Avalokiteśvara are forms and names only, as the same original Tathagata is in them—form is empiness/empty; emptiness is form. That Tathagata is emptiness.

Magic and Witchcraft

A magazine interviewed a famous Theravada monk Thit-cha-taung Sayadaw U Tiloka about witch-craft and possession. The Sayadaw explained a fine-particle body of a paranormal being can possess and unpossess a coarse-particle human body just the way milk and water can merge and unmerge, and a flame can move through metal mesh without destroying each other. The fine-particle body can occupy the spaces inside a coarse-particle body. The paranormal being can possess a human or animal by suppressing consciousness that resides around the chest. The possessed becomes totally unconscious and unaware of the situation. Such a paranormal being can be parasitic.
The fine-particles like the cool-therm (sita tejo) can pass through a coarse-particle body. We can see the sita tejo as shadow or the dark when the light is off. All beings on the Earth are made of the fine or coarse particles (the different forms of the four mahabhuta).

There are thus two types of tejo and sita tejo. Utu (climate) is another name for tejo. When the body and environs are cool, sita tejo pervades the entire atmosphere. When hot, unha tejo does the same. If this tejo dhatu is hot when it should be hot and cool when it is the time for cool season, we have healthy climate. In our bodies if tejo is moderate we are healthy; if not we are sick; if in excess we die. [Abhidhamma in Daily Life (Ashin Janakabhivamsa): Part 1 - The Four Fundamental Elements]

• One feels comfortable when sita tejo (cool therm) and unha tejo (hot therm) are in balance. When sita tejo is more, it is cold. When unha tejo is more, it is hot. It should not feel anything in a vacuum. However, sita tejo is everywhere. Unha tejo can be blocked by objects. Sita tejo can go through objects and be seen as shade and shadow.

The paranormal being like gandhabba devas (translated as fairy) can come and dwell with their mansions inside humans, like a tree-spirit in a tree. A gandhabba deva can be summoned and made to come and reside inside a human body. That is not a type of possession. Either way, the individuals with gandhabba devas dwelling inside them can get a share of the deva's supernatural power to perform (extraordinary) magic, witchery, etc., These individuals with such power can follow the amoral path to hurt others or the moral path to treat or help those attacked/hurt by those from the lower path. Not all gandhabba are good devas. They would not come and reside in a human unless they can get something back.
The Vinaya prohibits the bhikkhus from using these devas, performing magic and fortune-telling.
Think Again Before You Dismiss Magic (Roger R. Jackson): An article on the Lion's Rore (a Buddhist website) explores the practice of magic and spell in the Buddhist world. The author argues for the practice of magic and spell. He asked a young Siri Lankan bhikkhu, who replied, "That is not [Theravada] Buddhism."

"Magic is our shared heritage.” — Sam van Schaik

• Why isn't Buddhism our shared heritage, too?
• Shouldn't the practice of vipassana be our shared heritage?
• Rather vipassanā-ñāṇa (insight knowledge) should be our shared heritage.
• The fact is gandhabba devas do not enjoy the Dhamma.

In the Atanatiya Sutta (D.iii.203, 204) the Gandhabbas are mentioned among those likely to trouble monks and nuns in their meditations in solitude.

• Practicing magic, spell and witchcraft is not Buddhism. Theravadi bhikkhus do not let the gandhabbas reside inside their bodies.
• In the Theravadi countries, some bhikkhus treat the patients suffering from spells, possession, and magic.
• Taung Twin Sayadaw Khin Gyi Phyaw (a book written in Burmese);
• The same book: တောင်တွင်းဆရာတော်ခင်ကြီးဖျော် - ကဝေသာရကျမ်း.pdf;

Alavaka Yakkha

Alavaka Sutta: DISCOURSE TO ALAVAKA: The seventh question of Alavaka: Who is tactful and energetic, And gains wealth by his own effort. The Buddha's answer: Fame will he acquire by truth, And friendship by his giving.

Understanding the meaning of the Buddha's words, Alavaka said, "Now I know what is the secret of my future welfare. It is for my own welfare and good that the Buddha came to Alavi." Alavaka prostrated before the Buddha and begged to be accepted as a disciple. [Life of the Buddha: 10. Alavaka, the Demon (Buddha Net)]

• Buddhists celebrate the taming of the Alavaka Yakkha as one of the eight glorious victories of the Buddha.

Mass Conversion (Dhammābhisamaya)
[King of Alavi] with his hosts of ministers, troops and were joined by the citizens of Āḷavi who did obeisance to the Buddha and sat down around him and asked: “Exalted Buddha, how could you tame such a wild and cruel ogre?”
The Buddha then delivered the aforesaid Āḷavaka Sutta in twelve verses in which He started His narration with the attack made by the ogre and went on relating in detail: “In this manner did he rain nine kinds of weapons, in this manner did he exhibit horrible things, in this manner did he put questions to me, in this manner did I answer his questions.” By the end of the discourse eighty-four thousand sentient beings realized the Four Truths and found emancipation.
Regular Offerings made to The Ogre
Now King Āḷavaka and the citizens of Āḷavi built a shrine for the ogre Āḷavaka, near the (original) shrine of Vessavana Deva King. And they regularly made to the ogre, offerings worthy of divine beings (devatabali) such as flowers, perfumes, etc. [The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (Ven. Mingun Sayadaw): Part 4 - Taming of Āḷavaka the Ogre]

The birth of all things

'The external agent' rejects upadana-paccaya bhavo (life arises due to clinging), as the Buddha stated in the Paticcasamuppada.

[Lanka Chapter 3:] They foster the notion that the birth of all things is derived from the concept of being and non-being, and fail to regard it as it truly is, as caused by attachments to the multitudiousness which arises from discriminations of the mind itself.

• How do such attachments act as the reasons for the birth of all things (all dharmas: living and nonliving, physical and abstract)?
• Lankavatara: the mind's discrimination and false imagination—but what is the mind?

[Lanka Chapter 3:] When objects are not seen and judged as they truly are in themselves, there is discrimination and clinging to the notions of being and non-being, and individualized self-nature, and as long as these notions of individuality and self-nature persist, the philosophers are bound to explain the external world by a law of causation.

• The individualized self-nature can be understood as atta, which the Sakyamuni rejects.
• Svabhāva-Śūnya (empty/emptiness of self-nature) is used to reject the individualized self-nature or self, which is however replaced with buddha-self (buddha-self-nature).
• The Savāstivādi/Mahayanist scriptures replaces atta with svabhāva (sabhāva) without rejecting its meaning. That atta is the atta (buddha-sabhāva) of the original Tathagata, who is presented by Lankavatara.
• Thus, Svabhāva-Śūnya does not represent anattavada (Dhamma-Vinaya/Vibhajjavada).

5.1.2. Heart Sutra: Background

Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya) is believed composed in the Kushan Empire in the 1st century CE.

[Heart (Red, page 21):] since the Heart Sutra was clearly organized as a response to the teachings of the Sarvastivadins, it was probably a Sarvastivadin monk (or former Sarvastivadin monk) in this region who composed the Heart Sutra upon realizing the limitations of the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma

• For some reasons, the Heart Sutra author(s) brought the Venerable Sariputta into the scene inferior to a bodhisattva, who was equipped with the knowledge invented by the Sarvāstivādis.
• The Heart Sutra is a mantra. Mantra was originally developed by the Brahmins and the Jains.

[Heart (Centre):] Hear then the great dharani, The radiant peerless mantra, The Prajnaparamita...

• dharani: [Red Pine (wiki)] mantra and dharani were originally interchangeable, but at some point dhāraṇī came to be used for meaningful, intelligible phrases, and mantra for syllabic formulae which are not meant to be understood.

5.1.3. Jñānapāramitā vs Prajñāpāramitā

The Savāstivādi/Mahayanist scriptures present two sets of pāramitā. For the concept of Avalokiteśvara, they present the set of six pāramitās, excluding Jñānapāramitā.

[Heart (Red page 5-6):] Whoever the author was, he begins by calling upon Avalokiteshvara, Buddhism's most revered bodhisattva, to introduce the teaching of Prajnaparamita, the Perfection of Wisdom, to the Buddha's wisest disciple, Shariputra. Avalokiteshvara then shines the light of this radical form of wisdom on the major approaches to reality used by the Sarvastivadins, the most prominent Buddhist sect in Northern India and Central Asia two thousand years ago, and outlines the alternative approach of the Prajnaparamita. Finally, Avalokiteshvara also provides a key by means of which we can call this teaching to mind and unlock its power on our behalf

• the author was certainly not the Sakyamuni, nor Nāgarjuna, but unknown one(s) who probably wanted to remain secret.
• the author(s) were Sarvāstivādi scholars obviously, the pseudo-bhikkhus who will not listen to the utterance of such discourses which are words of the Tathāgata (Āṇi Sutta).
• Avalokiteshvara (Avalokiteśvara), Buddhism's most revered bodhisattva is unknown in the Pali Canon.
• What is reality used by the Sarvastivadins? It is emptiness—[as per Heart (Dharmanet),] the futility of any concept to accurately express the nature [svabhāva] of reality [the original Tathagata (citta-matrata)].

5.1.4. Prajñā in place of Jñāna:

[Heart (Red continues)] The basis for this reformulation is the teaching of prajna in place of jnana, or wisdom rather than knowledge.

• Nāgārjuna may reject jñāna (the 10th pāramitā) to allow Avalokiteśvara keep the bodhisattva ideal according to Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra.
• Both Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra and Lankavatara were composed in 100CE. They share the concept of prajna as understanding emptiness and as a pāramitā.

What is prajñā (perfect wisdom)?

[Prajnaparamita (CONZE page 56):] The Lord: Here the Bodhisattva, the great being, coursing in the perfection of wisdom, truly a Bodhisattva, does not review a Bodhisattva, nor the word "Bodhisattva", nor the course of a Bodhisattva, (nor the perfection of wisdom, nor the word "perfection of wisdom". He does not review that "he courses", nor that "he does not course"). He does not review form, feeling, perception, formative forces, or consciousness. (P38) And why? Because the Bodhisattva, the great being, is actually empty of the own-being of a Bodhisattva, and because perfect wisdom is by its own-being empty.

• Lankavatara also advocates for the giving up of individualised will-control.
• Do these two sutras advocate for 'Blank Mind'?
  • [Nayaswami Asha:] diminishing self-control and awareness by drugs or alcohol, or deliberately reducing your will power and blanking the mind, can be a way of opening the door for someone else to move in. [A Blank Mind: Dangerous or Desirable?]
• When buddha-nature (mind/awareness) is cleared and developed, the bodhisattva is no longer living for himself, according to Lankavatara.
• Citta-matrata (mind-only) means the lack of physical body, which the mind needs for interaction and emancipation.

[Prajnaparamita (CONZE page 189):] a Bodhisattva who courses towards enlightenment. If, when this is being expounded, the thought of a Bodhisattva does not become cowed, stolid, or regretful, and if his mind does not tremble, is not frightened, nor terrified, then that Bodhisattva, that great being courses in perfect wisdom. [...] It is because of the nonbeingness, the emptiness, the isolatedness of a being, because of the absence of an own-being in it, that a Bodhisattva does not approach (a Bodhi-being) at the beginning, at the end, or in the middle. And why? Because as a result of the nonbeingness of a being, its emptiness, its isolatedness, and the absence of own-being in it one cannot apprehend its beginning, etc.

• Emptiness is a result of the nonbeingness of a being.

[Lanka Chapter 2:] you and all Bodhisattvas should discipline yourselves in the realization and patience acceptance of the truths of the emptiness, un-bornness, no self-natureness, and the non-duality of all things.

Defining prajñā:

[Lanka Chapter 3:] By emptiness in the highest sense of the emptiness of Ultimate Reality is meant that in the attainment of inner self-realization of Noble Wisdom [āryajñāna] there is no trace of habit-energy generated by erroneous conceptions...

• Prajñā means emptiness in the highest sense...

[Prajñā) (Buddhism) (Williams):] prajñā according to Mahayana Prajñāpāramitā sutras is ultimately the state of understanding emptiness (śūnyatā).^\16])#cite_note-:6-16) [What is Prajna? (cont.) (FoGuangPedia):] Prajna is understanding the inherent emptiness of dependent origination, and knowing that true emptiness is only possible because of wondrous existence. [Prajñā) (Hinduism):] Prajña or Pragya is used to refer to the highest and purest form of wisdom,

• Prajñā and jñāna (knowledge) are similar. Jñāna (knowledge) can replace prajñā to describe the same thing.
• Hypothesis: Prajñā in Hinduism is why prajñā became the most important in Mahayana to reject jñāna (knowledge) and Vibhajjavāda.

Prajñā cannot replace Jñāna

Lankavatara presents its Noble Wisdom as perfect-knowledge (jnana) in Chapter 4, 11 and 12. Lankavatara does not consider prajñā as wisdom.

[Lanka Chapter 4:] There are four kinds of Knowledge: Appearance-knowledge, relative-knowledge, perfect-knowledge, and Transcendental Intelligence [...] Perfect-knowledge belongs to the world of the Bodhisattvas who recognize that all things are but manifestations of mind; who clearly understand the emptiness, the un-borness [...] and is the pathway and entrance into the exalted state of self-realization of Noble Wisdom. Perfect-knowledge (jnana) belongs to the Bodhisattvas who are entirely free from the dualism of being and non-being, no-birth and no-annihilation, [...] To them the world is like a vision and a dream, it is like the birth and death of a barren-woman's child; to them there is nothing evolving and nothing disappearing. The wise who cherish Perfect-knowledge, may be divided into three classes, disciples, masters and Arhats. [...] Arhats rise when the error of all discrimination is realized. Error being discriminated by the wise turns into Truth by virtue of the "turning-about" that takes place within the deepest consciousness. Mind, thus emancipated, enters into perfect self-realization of Noble Wisdom.
[Lanka Chapter 11:] The Blessed One replied: The Bodhisattvas are those earnest disciples who are enlightened by reason of their efforts to attain self-realization of Noble Wisdom and who have taken upon themselves the task of enlightening others. They have gained a clear understanding of the truth that all things are empty, un-born, and of a maya-like nature; [...] and they are abiding in the perfect-knowledge that they have gained by self-realization of Noble Wisdom.

• Avalokiteśvara's discovery of Svabhāva-Śūnya (Maya)

[Lanka Chapter 12:] Second, as Jnana, [Dhammakaya] is the mind-world and its principle of the intellection and consciousness. Third as Dristi, it is the realm of dualism which is the physical world of birth and death wherein are manifested all the differentiation, desire, attachment and suffering.

• [Lanka Chapter 4:] Ones who have perfected jnana are who clearly understand the emptiness,
• [Lanka Chapter 11:] They have gained a clear understanding of the truth that all things are empty [...] they are abiding in the perfect-knowledge that they have gained by self-realization of Noble Wisdom.
• [Lanka Chapter 12:] Jnana is Dhammakaya.

Prajñāpāramitā

To reach āryajñāna (the Noble Wisdom), Lankavatara chapter 11 recommends "to practice the six Paramitas" which are presented in Lanka chapter 9 as charity, good behavior, patience, zeal, thoughtfulness and wisdom.
Lankavatara does not recognise jñānapāramitā, nor āryajñāna as a paramita. Nevertheless, Nāgārjuna presents Daśapāramitā (दशपारमिता) (the “ten perferctions”) in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 18), including 5) dhyāna-meditation, 6) prajñā-wisdom, and 10) jñāna-knowledge.
If Nāgārjuna authored both the Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra and the Dharma-saṃgraha, why did he reject jñānapāramitā? The true author of the Dharma-saṃgraha might be a different Nāgārjuna if Nāgārjuna the author of Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra did not present the Daśapāramitā. The four further virtues [were] added later, but the authors are not the famous Nāgārjuna.
Florin Deleanu proposes a hypothesis:

It is not so important whether the content of the four extra perfections, or for that matter the daśapāramitā model itself, was known to the authors of the Ādhārayogasthāna or not. [...] The ten-pāramitā model must have been adopted later, and one of the reasons probably was the introduction of the complex vihāra-based path and the need to have more perfections corresponding, whenever possible, to each major stage. (On the pāramitā-theory in the Bodhisattvabhūmi in general and its influence on later Yogācāra texts, see SHIMIZU, 1987.) [Meditative Practices in the Bodhisattvabhūmi Quest for and Liberation through the Thing-In-Itself (Florin DELEANU. Page 905)]

Ādhārayogasthāna is an invention of the Yogācāra school

[Florin Deleanu (page 884):] The textual history of the Yogācāra tradition begins with the Śrāvakabhūmi, an exposition of the theory and praxis of the spiritual path along lines common to a few Northern Śrāvakayāna schools, most notably the Sarvāstivāda.

The Sarvāstivādis claim Sarvāstivāda was a part of the original Sangha, which they argued with, without ever been a part of it. Thus, their doctrine does not come from the original Dhamma-Vinaya established by the Sakyamuni. Their doctrine existed during the Buddha's time, so it was rejected by the Buddha Himself.
The followers of Lankavatara and Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra (the mini version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra) ignore the āryajñāna (the Noble Wisdom). Instead, they follow Anuttarasamyaksambodhi from the Lotus Sutra but not the Nirvana concept presented by it.
Prajñāpāramitā is the sixth stepping stone to reach Āryajñāna (Noble Knowledge), buddhahood, understanding of emptiness. Prajñā (wisdom) cannot replace jñāna (knowledge) without a successful rebellion.

5.1.5. Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara vs Arhat Śāriputra

[Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (chapter XV): Śāriputra (शारिपुत्र):]“Śāriputra is by far the foremost in wisdom (prajñā). A stanza of the Buddha says: ‘Except for the Buddha Bhagavat, the knowledge (jñāna) of all beings would not equal a sixteenth part compared with the wisdom (prajñā) and learning (bahuśruta) of Śāriputra’”.

• Śāriputra's wisdom is Paṭisambhidā (Analytical understanding). It is not 'understanding the inherent emptiness of dependent origination, and knowing that true emptiness is only possible because of wondrous existence (FoGuangPedia)'.
• wondrous existence is dukkha, too.
• Yet for an obvious reason Avalokiteśvara had to teach wisdom (prajñā) to Śāriputra because his prajñā is not 'understanding the inherent emptiness of dependent origination...

[Buddhāvataṃsaka (the Flower Adornment Sutra):][the Sound Hearers / arhats] constantly dwelling in the reality-limit and ultimate stillness and quietude, they were far removed from great compassion. They forsook living beings and dwelt in their own affairs.

• Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra predates Buddhāvataṃsaka. The latter was written for attacking the arhats.
• However, Nāgārjuna was an original thinker of the superior wisdom of the bodhisattvas. He ignored the Tathagatas of the past were Arhats.

[Prajnaparamita (CONZE page 3):] It is then said that the wisdom of a Bodhisattva is superior to that of the Arhats, because in his compassion he puts it at the disposal of all beings, so that they may be able to win Nirvana. This superiority is based on the "thought of enlightenment"

• upadana-nirodha bhava-nirodho: The arahant arises from the cessation of clinging.
• This bodhisattva concept ignores the eradication of anusaya kilesas, which the Sarvastivadis were very much aware of.

and the 6 perfections (P 41), and it finds an expression in the fact that, as the source of all that is good in the world, the Bodhisattvas are worthy of the gifts of all beings, including the Arhats.

• Some Mahayanist sutras insists arhats are not good enough while admitting the Buddhas are arhats.

5.1.6. What Is the Āryajñāna:

[Lanka Chapter 1:] In the days of old the Tathagatas of the past who were Arhats and fully-enlightened Ones came to the Castle of Lanka on Mount Malaya and discoursed on the Truth of Noble Wisdom that is beyond the reasoning knowledge of the philosophers as well as being beyond the understanding of ordinary disciples and masters; and which is realizable only within the inmost consciousness [...] Then said Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva: O blessed One, Sugata, Arhat and Fully-Enlightened One, pray tell us about the realization of Noble Wisdom [...] By which, going up continuously by the stages of purification, one enters at last upon the stage of Tathagatahood [...] Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva: By Noble Wisdom, going up continuously by the stages of purification, one enters at last upon the stage of Tathagatahood, Noble Wisdom is involved in all the stages of purification

• masters are Paccekabuddhas, whom Lankavatara does not recognise as arhats.
• Mahamati's questions also explain about Noble Wisdom.
• Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva: By Noble Wisdom, going up continuously by the stages of purification, one enters at last upon the stage of Tathagatahood,
  • Noble Wisdom is involved in all the stages of purification
• Tathagatahood enables Bodhisattvas-Mahasattvas to bring all beings to the same perfection of virtue.

[Lanka Chapter 13:] Nirvana is the realm of the Dharmata-Buddha; it is where the manifestation of Noble Wisdom that is Buddhahood expresses itself in Perfect Love for all; it is where the manifestation of Perfect Love that is Tathagatahood expresses itself in Noble Wisdom for the enlightenment of all -there, indeed, is Nirvana!

• Noble Wisdom that is Buddhahood expresses itself
  • Nirvana or Tathagatahood are not attainment but rather developments inside a bodhisattva.

Lankavatara presents the āryajñāna as the highest stage that is Tathagatahood that develops within a bodhisattva. Then he should perfect Jñānapāramitā the “perfection of knowledge.” Lankavatara explains about Noble Wisdom from chapter 1 to chapter 13.
Rejecting jñāna is rejecting āryajñāna.

• Prajnaparamita rejects Jñānapāramitā. That is how Nāgārjuna rejects Nāgārjuna— an evidence that indicates Nāgārjuna was a pseudonym of many Nāgārjunas.
• Āryajñāna of Lankavatara is not Anuttarasamyaksambodhi of Lotus, Mahāprajñāpāramitāsūtra and the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra).
• Rejecting jñāna is to reject āryajñāna and Sabbanuta Ñāna.
• Ñāna (jñāna) means enlightenment in both Vibhajjavāda and Sarvāstivāda.

5.1.7. Sabbanuta Ñāna (Omniscience)

The Great Discourse on the Wheel of Dhamma Part VIII [Buddha Net]

Sammasambodhi is the arahatta magga nana which is attained only by the Buddhas. The Buddhas gain this arahatta magga nana intuitively by their own efforts without any instruction from others. By this nana, they rightly and perfectly know everything because with it arises simultaneously the sabbannuta nana which knows everything.

PIC AND HISTORY Mahidol University Mara tries to prevent the going forth, telling the Prince that in seven days he will inherit an empire; the Prince does not listen

When Prince Siddhattha had ridden the horse through the city gate into the moonlit night, a voice like music arose from close to the city gate. That voice forbade the Prince from going forth.

• Parinimmita-vassavatti is the highest deva realm in the kama-loka (sense-pleasure world, opposed to mind-pleasure brahma-loka).
• Vasavattī is a name given to the Māra, Maradevaputta.

[Mara's visit to deter the Bodhisatta by feigning goodwill in The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (Ven. Mingun Sayadaw):] (...the Mara was in fact just a powerful Deva inhabitant of the Paranimitta Vasavatti Deva world, leading an insurgency there with a large retinue of evil Devas, causing great nuisance to humans, Deva and Brahmas in their performance of meritorious deeds.)

Trump’s lawyers rested their defense of the former president today, putting an end to the testimony we will hear in the case. Trump did not testify.
Trump's refusal to take the stand encapsulates the MAGA approach to politics. Since the 2020 presidential election, he and his surrogates have made repeated accusations and statements about how the system is rigged against them and alleged there is evidence that proves them right.
Crucially, they make those arguments only in front of television cameras or on podcasts and radio. They refuse to make them under oath in a court of law, where there are penalties for lying.
After the 2020 presidential election, for example, lawyer Sidney Powell insisted to media outlets that voting machines switched votes from Trump to Biden. When Dominion Voting Systems sued her for defamation, her lawyers defended her by saying: “No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact.” “[R]easonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process,” they said.
Similarly, Trump ally Rudy Giuliani insisted that Georgia election officials Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye (Shaye) Moss were changing votes from Trump to Biden. When they sued him for defamation, he conceded that “to the extent the statements were statements of fact…, such…statements were false.” When a jury awarded Freeman and Moss more than $148 million in damages, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy and continued to defame them.
Freeman and Moss sued him again, asking a court to stop him. Today, in a settlement in bankruptcy court, Giuliani "agreed to never again accuse either [Ruby] Freeman or [Shaye] Moss of engaging in any wrongdoing in connection with the 2020 election,” according to the women’s lawyers.
Like his colleagues who advanced lies to shape a narrative, Trump insisted that he would testify in his own defense. “I’m testifying,” he said before the trial. “I tell the truth, I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there is no case.”
Then he tried to weasel out of that promise by saying the gag order put in place to stop him from attacking witnesses or members of the court and their families prevented him from testifying. “I’m not allowed to testify, because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order,” he told reporters. Judge Juan Merchan corrected him, clarifying that Trump had the “absolute” right to testify and that the gag order “does not prohibit you from taking the stand and it does not limit or minimize what you can say.”
Nonetheless, true to form, Trump declined to testify despite all his protestations. Instead, he has argued his case in front of the television cameras. “I had nothing to do with it,” he said yesterday. “A bookkeeper put it down as a legal expense. This is why I’m here, because we called it a legal expense, a payment to a lawyer.”
Dan Froomkin of Press Watch noted that juries cannot consider in any manner the fact that a defendant doesn’t testify. “But the court of public opinion is under no such obligation,” he wrote. “And, notably, it is the court of public opinion that is voting in November.”
The court of public opinion weighed in on the man who pioneered the practice of telling repeated lies to the cameras and then moving onto the next lie before journalists can fact-check the first. That man was Senator Joe McCarthy (R-WI), who as a mediocre freshman senator in 1950, during the Cold War, needed an issue for reelection. On February 12, 1950, at a meeting gathered to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday in Wheeling, West Virginia, he claimed there were 205 members of the Communist Party working in Democratic president Harry S. Truman’s State Department.
By the next day, the number had dropped to 57, and the numbers bounced around after that, but it didn’t really matter. McCarthy insisted that Truman was protecting Communists, and he ramped up his claims that there were Communists in government after voters put Republican Dwight Eisenhower into office. McCarthy’s investigation of the State Department enabled him to bully witnesses, spread innuendo, and destroy careers.
McCarthy loved attention and headlines. He kept them by concocting ever grander lies. His hearings produced little evidence of Communists in government, but newspapers found they had to reprint his false accusations—they were news, after all—and by the time they could issue corrections, the storyline had moved on.
Finally, in fall 1953, McCarthy accused Eisenhower’s beloved U.S. Army of harboring “subversives.” In early 1954 the Army turned the tables, charging that McCarthy had pressured army officers to give a friend favorable treatment. This time, unlike McCarthy’s congressional investigations, which were behind closed doors and spread to the media on McCarthy’s terms, the Army-McCarthy hearings were televised.
The chief counsel for the Army, Joseph Nye Welch, repeatedly demanded that McCarthy’s aide Roy Cohn provide to the U.S. Attorney General the names of the 130 “subversives” they claimed were in defense plants. Unable to do so, McCarthy pivoted to accusing one of Welch’s young associates of being a Communist.
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” Welch asked. “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Up to 20 million people watched on their televisions as McCarthy was finally facing real lawyers and oaths in a congressional hearing about his accusations that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. Army. And when they saw him for what he was—a vicious, lying bully—most of them turned against him. His popularity plummeted, reporters ignored him, and the Senate “condemned” him in December 1954. When he died two and a half years later, Democrat William Proxmire, who won his seat, told voters that McCarthy was “a disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America.”
But McCarthy’s serial lying had shown how to dominate politics with an unceasing string of lies.
There is a direct line from McCarthy to Trump in the person of Roy Cohn, who became a New York power broker after his years with McCarthy, helped the Trump Organization when the federal government sued it for racial discrimination, and mentored Trump as he rose to fame in New York. That relationship is chronicled in the new biopic about Trump, The Apprentice, now debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. Trump campaign spokesperson said that the Trump campaign will be filing a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
There is perhaps even a more direct line from McCarthy to Trump today than the one Cohn provides. After the trial today, Trump noted that the Department of Justice had “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE—25TH AMENDMENT!” In an email with a subject line “They were authorized to shoot me—I nearly escaped death,” the Trump campaign said: “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger…. But here’s the one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) exaggerated the story further: “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres[ident] Trump and gave the green light…. What are Republicans going to do about it?”
The truth, as former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi noted, is that there was nothing special about the order for Trump’s search warrant. “[E]very FBI operations order contains a reminder of FBI deadly force policy. Even for a search warrant. Deadly force is always authorized if the required threat presents itself,” Figliuzzi wrote.
MAGA lies have become part of the Russian state narrative. Following the 2020 presidential election, the Fox News Channel had to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems after its personalities repeated MAGA lies on air. Less than a week later, popular host Tucker Carlson, who pushed those lies, left the channel and launched his own show on X. Today, news broke that Russian TV has been dubbing Carlson’s show into Russian and rebroadcasting it on state TV.
—
Notes:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/sidney-powell-s-legal-defense-reasonable-people-wouldn-t-believe-n1261809
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23887430-us-district-court-for-the-district-of-columbia
https://protectdemocracy.org/work/freeman-moss-giuliani-verdict/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/giuliani-agrees-cease-election-fraud-accusations-2-formestory?id=110451611
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/21/giuliani-georgia-defamation-agreement/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/18/giuliani-defamation-lawsuit-georgia/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/giuliani-defamation-trial/giuliani-insists-freeman-moss-were-changing-votes-105566553?id=105479446
https://presswatchers.org/2024/05/trump-choosing-not-to-testify-in-his-defense-should-be-a-banner-headline/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/politics/fact-check-trump-testify-hush-money-trial/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-apprentice-cannes-83958ff061a475a203424e8b9916ada1
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fox-news-media-tucker-carlson-part-ways-2023-04-24/
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4677767-tucker-carlson-russian-tv-without-permission/
https://newrepublic.com/post/181782/tucker-carlson-show-russian-tv-kremlin-stooge
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/roy-cohn-donald-trump-trial-b2548168.html
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/this-day-in-politics-april-20-1966-117125
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I think it’s a good time for people to revisit some of Min Heejin’s previous personal and creative choices. When you see everything together it no longer looks like a couple of coincidences but a long leading pattern of behavior
I’ve tried to link as much as I can. Please let me know if need to edit or add anything. None of the MV links are the actual music videos and are instead stills posted on Imgur
-Hyein’s top in the Attention MV was a bralette while the older members all were more covered up. Hyein is 14 in this MV
-In the Attention MV their laptop falls to the ground as they’re on a video call and the people on the other end watch them dance
-Minji wears a shirt that says pimp is yours
-In the Hype Boy MV(Danielle&Haerin ver.) Danielle takes a heart shaped lollipop she had in her mouth and puts it in Haerin’s mouth
-The Hurt MV is made up of almost entirely zoomed in shots of the members. The only moments that are not is a hand in the water and Minji playing with Hyein’s hair
-Min Heejin does a interview with BE(ATTITUDE) Magazine. She talks a bit about Hyein

Our youngest member is cool and sophisticated. She came to my home one day and we ate together, went to the bookstore, and walked around the neighborhood, talking about this and that. There was a passing awkwardness, but after a while it felt like I was taking a walk with a friend. She’s got so many talents and amazing skills. She’s young, but thoughtful, with that innocence they have at that age. I still remember bathing in her refreshing energy, and the sublime weather only added to the effect.

-NewJeans officially releases Cookie which is filled with sexual innuendo lyrics. Their ages at this point are 18, 17, 17, 16, and 14. Cookie was written by two native English speakers.
-Min Heejin posts a picture on Instagram that includes the Histoire de Melody Nelson album by Serge Gainsbourg on display in her apartment. The album’s storyline is about a middle age man who takes a 14 year old’s virginity
-Min Heejin posts a picture on Instagram of Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting’s nude scene from the 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet. Olivia was 15 at the time of filming and Leonard was 16. (The actors have actually sued Paramount over the nudity in this scene you can read about it here)
-Min Heejin posts several pictures that include a “Baby Brooke” picture as decoration in her apartment. Brooke Shields was extremely sexually exploited as a child
-Min Heejin posts a picture that includes a still from the 1974 film Le Farò de Padre. The IMDb page for the film. The plot is an older man plans to marry a mentally-challenged, sex-crazed, adolescent girl.
-Danielle gets styled like Mathilda from Léon the Professional. Mathilda is played by 12 year old Natalie Portman and there are many inappropriate themes/hintings between her and the titular character who was portrayed by 46 year old Jean Reno.
There are also these two posts that she made but I do not know who they are if they are also celebrities/actors. I’m also sorry for the bad screenshot quality of her Instagram posts, she has since deleted these so these screenshots are from Twitter
-Min Heejin responds to the Instagram post controversy in a interview with JoongAng Ilbo. She says that all of the pictures of minors she had on her wall were gifted to her from a couple years ago. She also says that pimp is yours and Cookie are slang.
-The music video of OMG is taking place in a mental hospital with all of the members having different mental issues.
-Haters are directly talked to at the end of the OMG MV as one of the members stops another one from writing a hate comment on Twitter and tells the other member it’s time to go. The hate comment says “Does anyone else feel uncomfortable watching the MV?”
-NewJeans gets into a controversy ahead of their ETA release as there are many similarities with a Spanish terrorist group(Euskadi Ta Askatasuna)). The teaser video said staring Mikel, Maria, and Eva which are names people connected to the group. The release date of ETA(July 21st) was also the date of two separate group attacks in different years. The music videos for the mini album were also primarily shot in Spain.
-The MV for Cool With You stars Jung Hoyeon as a woman who follows around and falls in love with a man who is unable to see her as she is some sort of invisible entity like Eros. She is able to become human after standing naked in the rain. The 5 members of NewJeans are basically her guardian angels and have been watching over her the entire time including a scene where Hoyeon gets on top of the man as he’s sleeping
Related to the recent Kakaotalk texts that were leaked where Min Heejin calls some of the members fat - here is a predebut video of the members of NewJeans talking with Min Heejin. The girls are only eating vegetables

Min Hee Jin: How is it?
Hyein: It’s so good. I think after coming here, I got used to this healthy taste. So now I like such foods.
Min Hee Jin: Wow, finally something good to hear. Hyein originally liked meat, though.
Hyein: Yeah. I still like meat but, well.

Min Heejin worked at SM Entertainment from 2002 until 2018. These are some controversial moments that she was involved in during that time at SM
Please note that I did not actively follow her career at that point so if I got any information wrong please let me know
-The Happiness MV from Red Velvet references the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 9/11. The MV was edited to get rid of the collage.
-Red Velvet releases Ice Cream Cake which is filled with sexual innuendos. The ages of the members at this point are 23, 21, 21, 18, and Yeri being 16.
-This photoshoot for Red Velvet’s Rookie which I personally think fetishizes the members in a Lolita style. Yeri is 17
-Shinee’s topless photoshoot for Sherlock. Jonghyun’s body had too much muscle definition so they photoshopped it to make his body more boyish.
-NCT Dream in 2016. Their ages were 18, 17, 17, 16, 16, 16, and 14 however they were styled to look even younger
-15 year old Sulli from f(x) in 2010 for Oh! Boy
-The MV for NCT Dream’s My First And Last includes the members being students who are in love with their female teacher. The members ages at this point are also 18, 17, 16, 16, 16, 15, and 15.
-The MV for NCT 127’s Fire Truck includes shooting a girl with water. The actress was in sixth grade at the time of shooting
-The MV for Super Junior’s Devil had a 14 year old actress
-Min Heejin talking about Brooke Shields in relation to f(x)’s Krystal in an interview for GQ Magazine March 2016 edition.

I sent her a photo of Brooke Shields as a teenager, and Krystal liked it. With a charm that only the matured past can embrace, Krystal versatility handles time and distance. Rather than imitating Brooke's hairstyle or pose, Krystal can show expressions of someone who is able to feel emotions and moods. Whether it's a young lady, a vampire, or the cute Sujeong, she can suddenly become independent from herself. Even if she wears the same clothes in the same place, each picture feels different.

-14 year old Krystal from f(x) in 2009
-This photoshoot of EXO’s Kai, Shinee’s Taemin, and f(x)’s Krystal which was supposedly inspired by the movie The Dreamers. The movie has a incestual theme as a pair of twins become sexually active) with a third male student.
-This is a YouTube playlist of Shinee’s Yunhanam variety show episodes. The concept of the show was the members were competing over who the best date was for older women. The members ages were 18, 18, 16, 16, and 15

The latest and most thrilling season of English football would also be the most controversial. The amount of times we had issues with refs, VAR, red cards, and blown calls made the NFL refs seem like experts in their craft. Seriously, the best European football league can't even get a video review correct in less than 2 minutes and it drives everyone mad. We also had further proof of Rich 7 favoritism with the FFP punishments dished out. It was absolute chaos, it caused fanbases to melt down like Chernobyl, but it made for amazing shitposting. How did your team do?
Manchester City: Sigh, the Prem is not beating the farmers' league allegations after this. In some way, we all expected this. After their historic treble, everyone assumed City would take a step back. They weren't even the best team in the country and they still found a way to creep up into first place. Their fourth title in five seasons, six under Pep Guardiola. They still have a chance at a double, too. If you're still living in the "Fraudiola" camp, I suggest you touch grass. Do you know understand how fucking insane that is? Sure, you can say Abu Dhabi bankrolled him and now they may be paying for it dearly but that is serious contention for greatest manager of all time. This time he was up against the adversity, too. They went without KDB and Haaland for long periods of time. Phil Foden was rightfully voted PFA Player of the Year for his efforts in their absence. Julian Alvarez took massive strides in becoming the next great Argentine striker...when he can get into the team. Jeremy Doku showed flashes of greatness, and it might spell the end for Jack Grealish. Rodri was Rodri, Ruben Dias was Ruben Dias, you know the deal. Even academy kids made serious progress. Pep won the Champions League without Messi and with a real striker. He's now guided City to another title. Goddammit, can we please get someone to topple this monopoly?
Arsenal: You did it again...you fucking did again. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You thought you were becoming the reincarnation of Real Madrid. You ended up becoming the red version of Poch's Spurs. Some might even say that Spurs team was better than this team. Arsenal had the title in their grasp again. Then they sat back and drew with City, lost to Villa at home, and in the end, these results cost them. You bottled it again. Bukayo Saka had his best season ever. So did Martin Odegaard. Leandro Trossard made a case for a starting spot. Gabriel Martinelli was sporadic but effective. William Saliba and Gabriel locked down the backline. David Raya won the Golden Glove. Mikkel Arteta has a case for Manager of the Year (likely going to Unai Emery), and they still bottled it. We don't need to rehash how their European campaign went. You should've known Spurs were never going to give you that benefit of the doubt. Why would your local rivals help your title charge? At least you're back in the Champions League, and you showed you could shed some of those demons next campaign, so long as you don't match up with Bayern again. The painful truth is, you went trophyless again. How much longer is the goodwill with Arteta going to last? Doing this once? Forgivable. But twice? Unconscionable.
Liverpool: This was not how Klopp's Last Dance was supposed to go. One trophy, and the League Cup at that, is all Liverpool had to show for it. They hit the worst patch of rotten form at the most inopportune time. You might think losing games twice to Manchester United in a span of a week was bad enough, but to go to Italy and lose to Atalanta? And they kept a clean sheet?? Dear god, they made Crystal Palace look like prime Barcelona at one point. You are fucking cooked, and it shows. Darwin Nunez started to break out, then reverting to forgetting how to play the sport of football entirely. Virgil Van Djik's age showed. Ibrahima Konate shows flashes but is injury- and mistake-prone. Mo Salah is mentally checked out, and he had a goal drought, only scoring three times in the last 12 matches of the season. Him and Klopp arguing on the sideline was peak Liverpool banter era. You literally on the verge of a quadruple AGAIN and you scuffed the run... This team is going to need a massive reset, and that may mean cashing in a few aging stars. New manager Arne Slot will have an absolute gargantuan job ahead of him. With FSG's financial model, it'll be interesting to see who they bring in. But what do you about Mo Salah? Clearly his age is starting show.
Aston Villa: Unai Emery was sacked by Arsenal for "underachieving." When you see the job he did with Villa with half the budget he had at Arsenal and players willing to run through walls for him, you can understand how Villa managed to stay in the Top 4 most of the season. Ollie Watkins had his best season to date. Douglas Luiz become the third-best defensive midfielder in the league, and dispatched a few penalties. Niccolo Zaniolo played a smaller role and still contributed heavily to big wins. It wasn't ever perfect, and there are plenty of wayward results to point out, but Villa has got some of their old mojo back. Get ready, boys, you're going dancing next season. You'll be in the new-look Champions League for the first time since the 1980s. Don't forget: Villa has some European pedigree to them. Sure, it was back when the competition wasn't as fierce as it is now, but respect them. Otherwise all you Madrid fans are going to be shitting themselves when you rock up to Villa Park for the league stage.
Tottenham: Tottenham's season hit some very high highs, and some deeply low lows. A 10-game unbeaten streak to start the season ended with four losses in a row, luckily not on the final matchday. Injuries crippled all the progress they made. Ange Postecoglou's all-out attack works, but when it doesn't, it is absolutely terrifying to watch. Hueng-min Son had a nice comeback season. Richarlison finally came good for the club. James Maddison started out well enough and then had a fall-off for the ages. The backline of Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven showed they can be great but they need real discipline in midfield to balance out the high line. But there are still many players that can't get them over the hump. Make it 16 years since the last major trophy. Fifth seems fitting for a team still going through an identity and cultural reset. Some supporters think Ange isn't the one for the job. They often forget just how big of a rebuild is needed after losing Harry Kane and other core players over the past five seasons. Those are probably also the people that don't see the positive of the Tottenham money-making machine. Why win trophies when you can host NFL games? Sigh, I just want one Cup, is that too much to ask for? At least they clinched Europa League, I guess.
Chelsea: Todd Boehly will no longer be making the calls about Chelsea's transfers. That should make the fans a little bit happier. If you're keeping score at home, he's only got 1/30 of new signings right. Jury is still out on Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Axel Diasi, Mykhalio Mudrk, Noni Madueke, and Levi Colwill. Mauricio Pochettino was trying to build something, but it was hindered by constant setbacks. A massive pile of injuries, extreme fan pressure, and underperforming players signaled it would not be another fruitful season for the Blue Lions. You got beat by a bunch of high school students in the Carabao Cup final, and somehow that wasn't the lowest point of the season. It was the thrashing by Arsenal. Chelsea should feel lucky they snagged Cole Palmer out from under Man City. He's the real Eden Hazard regen, even though he's a bit of a penalty merchant. He dragged Chelsea from finishing outside the Top 10 again. This summer will be a major clear-out. Raheem Sterling, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, and Thiago Silva might or are already leaving. The thinner squad will allow Poch to actually build something...that is if he was allowed to stay. Boehly has sent him a pink slip and called time. Just like Daddy Roman but with American dollars. You're not seriously going to sell Conor Gallagher to Spurs, right?
Newcastle: Eddie Howe can feel sort of vindicated that he guided this Newcastle team to a top 10 finish. They had one of the worst injury sheets in the league this season. The delicate balance of Champions League and the English season exposed their biggest flaw: not enough depth. Sandro Tonali getting suspended for being a degenerate gambler definitely did not help. Nick Pope was out most of the year and Martin Dubravka showed why he's no longer first-choice. Sven Botman and Dan Burn spent time on the sidelines and that killed their defense. Seriously though, they were chucking out Football Manager regens to play critical minutes. That only works in video games. In reality, the club is backed up against the FFP bubble. They will need to sell to buy, and that might mean cashing in on Alexander Isak or Bruno Guiamares. Maybe they'll even cut ties with Tonali and try to recoup some of their money. The richest club in the world is playing inside the rules? I guess they don't want to be the new Man City. I honestly commend them for trying to play within the confines of the rules. Some clubs can't say they do that.
Manchester United: Jim Ratcliffe really had no idea the scope of the rebuild he inherited once he bought his stake in United. He called out the club culture and facilities in the media multiple times, but perhaps it was all reactionary. United had a shit season. And boy do I mean shit. None of their players could stay healthy. Marcus Rashford is entering Dele Alli territory with how bad his falloff has been. There was the Mason Greenwood situation, then the Antony situation, and the Brazilian managed only one league goal across the whole season. Jadon Sancho called out Ten Hag's management and was gleefully banished back to Dortmund, where he started picking up his performances. He's in a Champions League Final...lol. Casemiro and Raphael Varane showed their age. Varane's already said he's done in Manchester. Rasmus Hojlund took 15 games to find his first goal of the season. He had a solid run of form but it didn't last. Alejandro Garnacho is now the best player at the club and even he had beef with Ten Hag's coaching. Bruno Fernandes might be seeking greener pastures. They finished dead last in their Champions League group and were out of Europe by February. Take solace in making the FA Cup final, but you were losing 3-0 to Coventry City, a Championship club, and had to beat them on penalties. Old Trafford may truly be falling down, and it doesn't help with Ten Hag waffling about he is still the best man for the job. Because you know, it was his signings that set the club back so much money. Antony costing 100 million quid needs to be investigated. There's no real sign of progress under INEOS's ownership. It's still too early to judge, but it's clear they will need to make some decisions. Enjoy raiding all your rivals for executives. Apparently "We're Manchester United" still works.
West Ham: Was it a bad season for West Ham? When you deep it, you'd probably say not really. David Moyes started out kinda slow but managed to get the Hammers going in vital moments. Jarrod Bowen continued his remarkable rise even as a center-forward. The pillage of Ajax for Edson Alvarez and Mohamed Kudus was fruitful, even if Kudus's underlying numbers aren't that great. James Ward-Prowse stepped up his game after being freed from the shite coaching at Southampton. Alphonse Areola cemented himself as the true No. 1 in goal. Lucas Paqueta was the real eye candy. So much so he's looking like the heir-apparent for Kevin De Bruyne. He'll cost another small nation's GDP but he was that class. Sure, they didn't reach the Europa final like they wanted to and got knocked out by Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen, but how can you say this was a disappointing season? Disappointing enough to tell Moyes he's done after this season? You're replacing him Julen Lopetegui? I know he did fantastic work with Sevilla, and you may see yourselves as the English Sevilla, but tread lightly. Did you see what happened between Wolves and him? Or what happened in his final season in Seville?
Crystal Palace: Today's top stories: Crystal Palace finished comfortably mid-table for the 11th season in a row. In other news, grass is green. It was a strange but similar season for the Eagles. Spats between ownership over the long-term vision for the club coupled with Roy Hodgson's depressing retirement tour clouded what could've been an opportunity to pounce. With Brighton and Bournemouth shitting the bed, the time was prime to strike. But again, they were let down by inconsistent forwards. Jordan Ayew and Jean-Phillipe Mateta are still struggling to score consistently (At least Mateta is producing now). Odsanne Eduoard is made of glass bones and paper skin. Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, and Dean Henderson were good enough to keep them afloat. Eze's got enough street cred to have City and Spurs linked to him, but we'll see what premium the Eagles charge. More credit is owed to Oliver Glasner. He was a shrewd appointment, and it showed with his tiki-taka style of play. Remember, he took Frankfrut to a Europa League final win and beat Barcelona and West Ham to do it. Next season should be a moment to capitalize on drops in quality from other mid-table rivals, but you'll probably be back here with me in 2025 with a 12th consecutive mid-table finish. At least this time it's in the Top 10.
Brighton: Brighton was my biggest disappointment for the 23-24 season. Maybe that's too harsh, but what the actual hell happened? There was a lot of squad turnover, understandably affecting the quality. But they still had Evan Ferguson, Karou Mitoma, Lewis Dunk, Danny Welback, Julio Enciso, and Simon Adringa to pick up the slack. Oh wait, almost everyone listed above was injured long-term. Roberto De Zerbi's managerial stock took a massive blow. He couldn't properly juggle the league and European football, especially as the injuries piled up and they were relying on academy kids to play key minutes. There's also rumors of him beefing with club executives about the transfer policy. The drawback of such a unique system: the falloff is inevitable. It ended up causing "irreconcilable differences," and De Zerbi promptly packed his shit and left. At least Brighton can take solace knowing they won their first European group stage and picked up sensational victories against Ajax and Marseille. Proud moments amid a rather shite season. Pick yourselves up and go again, lads. Even though De Zerbi bounced, your ownership will already have his next candidate picked out. Just pray it's not a Graham Potter return.
Bournemouth: The Cherries had another fine season where a lot started to come together. I was skeptical about them parting ways with Gary O'Neil after the job he did, but Andoni Iraola was a shrewd appointment. He actually found ways to unlock Dominic Solanke. Not even Jurgen Klopp could do that. Antoine Semenyo appeared as a servicable mid-table winger. Luis Sinisterra brought the Colombian flare to the South Coast and proved he could be the country's next great hope. Some of the English lads like Lewis Cook carved out key roles, and did just about everything right to ensure another comfortable finish. Bournemouth really were not in any danger of going down. The blueprint is there. I doubt Iraola will be able to take them into European places, but I've been proven wrong by plenty of managers before.
Fulham: Another solid finish for Fulham. Look at you, not yo-yoing even amidst Tony Khan's ridiculous pro wrestling PR drama. The Jaguars of English football showed a lot of fight and a lot of class. The signing of the season is surely Rodrigo Muniz. The Brazilian revolution between him, Andreas Pereira, and the aging Willian was glamorous. Antonee Robinson played like a man reborn and may get a move to a bigger club. USMNT fans couldn't be happier. It was tough not seeing Tim Ream playing week in and week out but he's clearly slowing down and might need replacing. But you can't get rid of Tom Cairney! It's not allowed by order of the streets. I doubt Marco Silva will read this, but he may not even have a choice in the matter. Joao Palhinha likely played his final season at Craven Cottage. Even at his age, he's good enough to get into the Bayern or Arsenal first team. Cash in and replenish, you know the drill. They'll have a lot of work to do this summer.
Wolves: Gary O'Neil is a top manager for the jobs he's done with Bournemouth and Wolves. It was not an easy season for Wolves, but compared to past campaigns, this was fantastic. O'Neill successfully unlocked Hwang Hee-Chan and Matheus Cunha. That alone is massive. Toti Gomes flourished in midfield. As did Pablo Sarabia. Pedro Neto showed flashes of brilliance...when he wasn't struck down by injury. Jose Sa returned to form and kept the team comfortably floating between between the top half and upper-mid talbe. What more can you say of Wolves? They were one of the better mid-tier teams this season, and that was after Julen Lopetegui walked out just days before the season began. You thought the Wolves were dead? Oh no, they are still on the hunt. Unfortunately, their pack is likely to find new homes with more money. I think you get the metaphor.
Everton: It was meant to be a Sean Dyche masterclass. Playing attractive football has never been his repertoire, yet that was exactly what he did with this Everton. Meanwhile, Everton fans are still steaming about the points deductions they underwent. I can understand why they feel this way, considering there are much worse violators and they're being made an example of. Yet Dyche thrives on these situations. He could only collect so many points with this Everton group but they did play well enough and have some decent talent. Jared Branthwaite is clearly an upgrade over some of their past center-backs. Consider this his window-shopping season. DCL flirted with injuries and still managed to score key goals. Beto hasn't come good yet but give it a little time. Idrissa Gana Gueye played well for his age, and Amadou Onana too had his window-shopping season. Fear not, Toffees. Even with the points deduction, you will finish comfortably bottom-half, and had it not been for the Premier League's hypocrisy, you would've been as high as 12th. This is a huge moment, because you're also moving into Bramley Moore next season. Godspeed, Everton.
Brentford: Ummm, hello? Anybody here want to win a fucking football match? Anyone want to collect three points? The good vibes at the Gtech Community Stadium are starting to falter. Brentford's feel-good story is starting to get a reality check: they lack significant quality. The plan was to continue Thomas Frank's Nordic Connection since it had produced results in the past. They got Ivan Toney back around mid-winter, but did it really change their fortunes? He wasn't anywhere close to his past self. Too much time on the couch will do that. Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo did step up in attack, but without Rico Henry and Ethan Pinnock in defense it was too easy to carve through them. Mark Flekken did his best to mitigate the damage, but it was not enough to save them from a 16th-place finish. Nathan Collins was ok business but he clearly needs more time to develop to the system. Sergio Regulion put in some decent shifts on load, but not enough to justify keeping him permanently. You passed: DON'T! GET! RELEGATED! But for the love of god, please fix this shit before 24-25. Time to reset on the squad, find another plucky veteran willing to take a pay cut for playing time.
Nottingham Forest: Speaking of points deduction, nobody feels bad for Forest. They made more signings than Chelsea and clearly did it by some fishy means. It was mostly because they couldn't get Atletico Madrid to buy Brennan Johnson, so they had to accept Tottenham's lower offer. That doesn't excuse past transgressions. Then that wild social media statement that called out the Premier League's officiating. Secretly, everyone loved it but also wondered how they had the audacity to say such a thing. The only thing they can't defend is themselves. Steve Cooper, the architect of their return to Premier League and first-season survival, was canned for Nuno Espirito Santos. It kinda worked...I guess. They're not in a relegation spot even with their punishment but they definitely look the part. Gio Reyna came here on loan and had minimal impact. Morgan Gibbs-White looks good but clearly has flaws. Chris Wood is still their only reliable striker. Matt Turner was benched for a 32-year old Mats Sels and that didn't fix any of their goalkeeper problems. They're like a frat house toilet: always leaking. They'll definitely be another clear-out this summer.
Luton Town: At some point, results start to matter. It felt like Luton realized that too late. They did put up some impressive results like a 4-4 draw to Newcastle and a 4-goal dismantling of Brighton, but they struggled mightily. It was expected, but they really did give better teams runs for their money. Ross Barkley and Andros Townsend came off the couch to help. Barkley made a case for Comeback Player of the Year. Townsend provided some experience but football skills...not so much. Elijah Adebayo and Alfie Doughty tried to get the creativity going. Carlton Morris managed to post a double-digit goal season. They had pieces but could never put it together fully. The defense...good god, the defense! It couldn't stop a beach ball from going over the goal line. You brought in Daiki Hashioka to stabilize things, and all he did was score own goals and turn the ball over. It's sad that Luton is going back to the 2nd tier. Rob Edwards's job is probably safe, but can he remake the magic of 2022-23? Might be a step too far. Honestly, I'm more sad to see Jeffrey the Labrador go. The goodest of boys makes the goodest of club mascots.
Burnley: I can only applaud Burnley's ownership for not thinking like a yo-yo club. They chose Vincent Kompany because he is the anti-Sean Dyche. Free flowing, tiki taka football, playing out from the back with inverted fullbacks. Even if all the haters wanted to see him go to bring in a relegation dogfighter like Big Sam, the executives kept their man. Truly cut from the same cloth as Pep, but without any of the Pep players. That was the real downfall of Burnley's return to the Prem. This group won 101 points in the Championship last year? They didn't even manage to get 30 this time around. Kompany played anti-survival ball, and it didn't work. Sure, they had talent with guys like Vitinho and Jacob Bruud Larsen, but after it was shite through and through. At least Kompany had the audacity to play an expansive style, but survival needed more defensive rigidity. Go win it again, Clarets.
Sheffield United: If Burnley was ass, Sheffield United was mega-ass. They played like a Championship club, so it's only natural they got clobbered like a Championship club. They brought in Ben Brereton-Diaz and his fake Chilean skillset and he was...actually kinda good. It can't be said for the rest of them. Ollie McBurnie and Cameron Archer seem like the standouts, but nobody on this team was convincing enough to warrant a move to a bigger team except maybe BBD. He'll likely sign for Everton as the replacement for DCL. The club thought bringing back Chris Wilder in place of Paul Heckingbottom was the move, and it did next to nothing. Setting a record for most goals conceded in a single season is hilarious levels of incompetent defending. Conglats, you are now the new Norwich. Wear your badge of shame in anguish and go win the bloody lot in the Championship.

(Another PSA When looking at industry connections, make sure they are relevant to the mission of the subreddit. They should at least have some ties to Kendrick, Drake, and the beef.)
(Meant to say related in the title.)
I’ve noticed a lot of people who want to help and contribute, but don’t know how to actually research and form any new ideas that aren’t tied to rumors or ones that support facts that are already confirmed to be true. If you want to be helpful look at Thermo’s post pinned to the front. Now more then ever we need to fight against spam posts, so if you really want to help, do your part and don’t contribute until you have something original or something that hasn’t been mentioned.
When I first started looking for connections trying to find the mole, I was looking for anyone who had spoken out against him through out the years and seeing if they had any recent connections to Kendrick. Unfortunately they’ve both worked with pretty much every A list rapper and a lot of them hate Drake so it’s hard to narrow down. I tried thinking of ways to find more specific connections and came up with a new method. I know a lot of people have already made up their minds on who they think it is, but everyone should take into consideration there is probably more than one person pulling the strings.
First I look for people who have a solid connection to Drake, then checked for their most recent connection. Then I checked if they have spoken out since the beef or if they might have had any type of falling out and if they ever reconnected. My theory is it was an old friend who knew how sketchy he was and cut ties, then he pretended to rekindle the relationship so they could collect dirt.
A few more things to look out for:
Rappers who have been in the game longer than Drake, especially if they’re super talented, but never took off.
Look at their label and subsidiaries to find connections.
Rappers with no to little public controversies or major felonies.
Rappers who left or revealed secrets about the industry if were killed I look for any close friends and major collaborators.
Rappers who were imprisoned on sketchy charges, potentially a victim of a smear campaign, or one hit wonders.
Rappers who died at the beginning of their careers and had friends who are still in the industry.
Rappers who went independent, started their own labels, or who never signed a deal.
Musicians from other genres, actors, athletes, or politician with significant ties to the industry.
Rappers who you expected to be team Kendrick, but remained silent on the matter.
Rappers who are in another country, especially if they aren’t touring. Bonus points if they left close to the release of Euphoria
Major feature artists
Any rappers who have ties to Hebrew Israelites or are associated with the Black Panther Party
Musicians who grew up around the industry, especially if they were abused or were around anyone found guilty of any crime involving minors.
Rappers from California or who have lived there a while.
Rappers who make a lot of jokes in their songs. (Usually a solid way to drop truths and not get sued.)
Rappers who have never had any beefs and know a lot of people on both sides
Rappers who publicly promote Christianity and try to elevate people instead of dragging them down with their music. (You should also check for any history that suggests the opposite.)
Rappers who donate anonymously to charity.
(Be careful a lot of predators also donate to these organizations as a cover, so by extension be wary of any rappers who visibly donate to charities related to fighting trafficking. Especially if they have any sketch shit in their past that they might be hiding. If it’s in the news it’s usually for a reason).
Team Kendrick Roster: Suspected Moles, Possible Contributors, and Connections
Please don’t just read the list and assume I’m claiming they are the mole.If one of the names catches your attention, dig deeper and try to find as many connections as you can. Even if it appears obvious, provide the sources and try to point out opinions and rumors until it can be validated. People hear the word, “rumors” and automatically associate it with lies. The truth is unless you have damning evidence that could be brought in front of the judge and be deemed relevant, it’s impossible to know if something from the internet is genuine. Generative AI is getting crazy, and there is only a matter of time before it wins the race against the AI detectors. There is technology out there that will probably make picture/video evidence irrelevant in within the next 10-15 years. Try to stick to court records directly from .gov sites and looking for past connections. If you’re able to, filter by the date and set it so you only receive results from before 2016. This is around the time google and most other search engines went to shit. If the evidence you’re looking for is from after 2016, try to stick to dates before the news broke.
(For example if you’re looking for something about Diddy, set the results from before the Cassie trial because the first 10 pages are going to be covering that and will make it way more difficult.)
A lot of information can be found by examining industry connections. Below is an example of how to look for industry connections and find connections. These are some more possible examples of the industry silencing artists. The Drake, Kanye, Kim Kardshian, and Ray J connections did a lot to set the stage for the beef.
Examples of industry connections that tell a bigger story:
Look into Michael Jackson’s death and the legal situation surrounding his masters. Look at his son’s interview after his death. Then look at Tommy Motolla and Sony Records. Look for Tommy Motolla’s connections to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Look at the connection between Whitney’s death and Ray J. and Brandy. Look at the death of Whitney’s daughter compared to her mom’s death. Then try to put those pieces together and tell me what you see. This is just a tiny example.
Another interesting connection I’ve never heard anyone talk about is the connection between the murder of Young Dolph and it’s connection to Diddy and Jay Z. Look into Dolph and Yo Gotti’s label, Diddy’s dad, and Dolph’s song, “Hall of Fame”. Make sure you always crest a timeline with dates and note any connection, big or small you can throw them out later, but they may be a piece of the puzzle.
When you conducting research a good tool to use are the advanced search features. Always try to be as specific as possible and set your search results to specific time periods. This will help save time by skipping 100 articles that are not relevant or useful. Past connections are a great way to start putting pieces together.
Potential Connections/Suspects:
(I made this list in like five minutes, if you really want to do a deep dive look at the guest lists from his parties in the mid 90’s and 2000’s. Then look at their connections to Drake, Kendrick, and any possible suspects.)
People who may be assisting Kendrick:
Kanye Diddy ASAP Rocky The Weeknd Khloe or Rob Kardashian Will Smith Jaden Smith Jada Pinkett Jay Z Lucian Grange Scooter Braun Black Chyna Duane Davis E-40 Kodak Black J. Cole Jussie Smolett Katt Williams T.I. 50 Cent Rick Ross Will Smith Black Hippy or anyone else in T.D.E. Simon Rex Skimask the Slumpgod Mickey Avalon Ty Dolla Sign Baby Keem Key Glock Andy Milanokis Meek Mill Chris Brown Ma$e Al B Sure Chance the Rapper Killer Mike Zendaya Dave Grohl Courtney Love
I hope this opens some discussion, please be aware of people who try to discredit any posts that you might think are valuable. There are a lot of people actively trying to bury relevant info. If you have experienced it yourself you’ll know it’s extremely common. There are also a lot of incredibly bright people in this sub who are finding tons of interesting stuff. It’s important to see the bigger picture beyond a rap beef. Kendrick and Drake are just pieces of the puzzle. If you haven’t figured that out yet, but still feel inclined to post, please try to come up with fresh ideas and theories instead of slight variations of the same rumors and gossip that got this sub suppressed in the first place.

(Sorry for typos or grammatical errors I’m on my phone and it’s a ton of info to edit.)
At this point I’m a 99 percent sure Diddy is the one pulling the strings behind the Kendrick and Drake beef.
At this point I’m a 99 percent sure Diddy is the one pulling the strings behind the Kendrick and Drake beef. I believe that Al B. Sure! was planing to release all the info he had on Diddy in 2022, but may have been poisoned beforehand similar to theories about Diddys’s ex wife Kim Porter who was originally married to Kim before Diddy stole her away along with Al’s son, also Diddy’s stepson Quincy. Diddy has also been directly tied to the murders or mysterious deaths of at least a half a dozen more people who were close associates from the beginning of his career and were key players in the formation of Bad Boy. Coincidentally many of the victims had either exposed or were threatening to expose evidence related to all of these crimes. They are also using Keefe D. to take the charge for 2Pacs murder so he can spin the story and leave out and ties to Diddy who ordered the hit or did it himself.
Unfortunately for Diddy, unlike the rest of the people he had successfully silenced in the past, Al ended up coming out of his coma and revealing all the info he had on Diddy, including that he was responsible for him falling into a coma. After he came out of the coma Diddy knew he was about to go down and before the raid he destroyed and staged all of his homes with evidence that would verify all the claims related to other celebrities over the age of 18. Meanwhile he got rid of all the videos involving murder, sa, child abuse, bestiality and other evidence that would bring major charges. This is so he can cooperate with the Feds and help reduce his sentence. If he hid all the evidence they would know and work overtime to find it. Instead he lied by omission and corroborated the accusations that won’t completely destroy him. He can then release all his dirt to seem like he made all the blackmail with the intention of bringing down known predators who were able to get away with the same things he’s guilty of.
In the video of Diddy in the wig, he talks about partying with Drake and The Weekend and I believe he was able to acquire the blackmail. He then released the blackmail to selected people to ensure they leak at the appropriate time. The plan is to publicly out Drake for sex crimes so the rest of Hollywood knows not to testify against him. During the auction mentioned by ebony prince they are going to auction off all the dirt Diddy has collected the last 30 years. This includes dirt on Trump, which may be the reason behind all of this. The auction is four days after Election Day and will be used as a fail safe in case Trump wins the election.
I’m trying my best to add everything, just struggling because I have like 30 pages worth of write ups. If you want more evidence I have a ton, on my other account, I don’t want to spam so just dm me if you want additional evidence. The full post above is multiple pages long so I just chose the important part because very few people on here have the attention span for it.
You don’t have to believe it, it’s just my personal opinions, but they are based on facts and about 80 hours of research.
https://www.reddit.comRationalSchizo812020/s/IsgRSkK8KM
Check out the post covering Diddy, Drake, Kendrick, and Kanye
Two articles about modern sex cults still in operation: https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/new-york-satanic-cult-764-fbi
https://www.complex.com/life/a/brad-callas/accused-cult-leader-nature-boy-sentenced-to-life
Yesterday I found Ye’s full interview with The Download from before the beef blew up. It discusses a lot of my connections and hints that Ye is partially involved. You can skip to around 13 minutes in.
(Recently the charges against Lucian Grange were dropped showing he most likely is working behind the scenes as well and has some influence. He may be related to the leak as well. He could have also been the one who supplied the blackmail. Another alternative is Diddy went to the feds on his own accord, but when multiple lawsuits pop up very quickly, especially after thirty years of avoiding charges related to tons of sketchy shit, it usually means there is some type of coordination. Look at TI and his wife’s allegations and what lead up to those events.)
Full post:
This is all speculation so please don’t victim blame or spread conspiracies about a possible survivor of C.S abuse. This is why many don’t come forward. All I’m trying to do is point out the large amount of details surrounding the rumor that stand out as odd to me. By no means does this dismiss his claims. I’m not a lawyer, but if he was suing my client, this is some of the evidence I would use in the case.
Before I start I need to put in a small disclaimer. **The subjects I covered in my essay are well known to be linked to conspiracy theory communities that have been equated to terrorist groups. The end goal of a lot of these communities is to promote political divide, antisemetism, homophobia, and violence. I think the ultimate goal is to create such a massive gap between the left and right that the two party system fails and we fall into anarchy allowing the people who really pull the strings to restructure and in order to retain their power. It’s already evident that Biden isn’t able to do nearly as much as he could do if he didn’t have to consider the opposing party’s majority vote as well. Whoever wins I feel the results will be the same, violent protests aiming to reverse the vote. If this is achieved it will be the death of democracy in America.
I highly encourage anyone who identifies with either political party and are attracted to controversial subjects or consider themselves to be contrarian to please look out for any conspiracies that seem to be targeted towards you or the community you’re a part of. If they share similar ideas to the findings I made in my research, please do not engage.
I’ve watched the conception and the eventual downfalls off the P-gate and Q conspiracy communities. It didn’t take me long to figure out the eventual end game and step back from the community while continuing independent research. If you’re letting someone else to the research for you, you really need to be sure to trust the source and be aware of possible ulterior motives. It’s really dangerous territory though, filled with hidden traps that can draw you in and send you so deep that you either end up going into psychosis from the stress and paranoid, or you do what I did and step back for the sake of your mental health. I hate even sharing things like this because I know it may not have the effect I intended, but on the other hand people who are new to these subjects and conspiracies really, really need to take them seriously. They are not just games on the internet and there is a reason members of these communities have to hide in the shadows and lure people into their dark corners. There is also reason why they target the groups they do and I’ve noted a huge effort to indoctrinate people in rap community, the content creator community, and the celebrity gossip communities. I’ll let you guys draw your own conclusions as to why this is. I assume if you read this far you’re not dumb.
Once you’re stuck in their web it’s very difficult for most people to find their way back to society without seeing examples everywhere. I hope this is able to at least help one person who might be teetering on the edge of these rabbit holes. It’s not worth it and if I wasn’t sober and taking my meds, Id probably end up having a psychotic break. If you feel like you may be approaching that point you can still quit while you’re ahead.
Here are just a few of the things you can do to keep yourself from spiraling.
Take a step back for a while and focus on other things. Taking a hiatus from social media is crucial. If you can’t control yourself maybe detach from the news and internet entirely for a couple days. Even a long weekend can make a MASSIVE difference.
Try to get a good nights sleep and consider taking melatonin or an over the counter sleep aid.
Spend some time with friends or loved ones.
Eat some good, somewhat healthy, food and stay hydrated.
Try to get some sun and consider taking a walk or doing some other form of exercise.
Volunteer or do something to help your community if you want to continue working to benefit society.
Try to read a book or spend some time doing your favorite hobbies that aren’t related to any of the subjects I discuss below. Without further ado…
Ties Between Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Violent Antigovernment Conspiracies
I recently saw an article about Bryshere Gray, a rappeactor best known for his role in Empire. He was born in Philadelphia and started rapping at 16. His manager Craig Mack, who facilitated his big break by getting him a role on the TV series Empire, is life long friends with Will Smith. Currently there are conflicting claims about whether he is currently suing or planning to sue Will Smith and P. Diddy for s. abusing him as a minor. It’s rumored he is trying to get 50 million dollars in damages. That number alone seems suspicious to me. That’s 20 million more than Cassie got and she dated and lived with Diddy for over a decade.
One of the other things I noticed off the jump was the fact that the only sources regarding the case were on social media along with one article on MSN, which is known for being a nest of clickbait journalism. Essentially they are the written version of gossip videos made by content creators. The only evidence I could find in these videos were a few short clips from his socials where is talking about the negative sides of fame and a clip of him on the red carpet with Will Smith. This might hint towards suppression, but I’m leaning toward this whole story being bullshit.
The only connection I found between him and Diddy is a song he did with 2 Chainz and Fabolous, the latter being signed to Bad Boy. He ended up getting signed to Columbia which falls under the Sony Music Entertainment while Bad Boy is under UMG. Considering these rumors came about a while back he hasn’t mentioned it at all as far as I know. Some might argue this could be a product of friction between labels or that he included Diddy because everyone knows he’s going down. On the other hand if he is a victims he may not have wanted his story told and doesn’t want to stoke the rumors by responding whether they’re true or not.
One of the biggest things that led me to question the validity of the claims is the fact that 90 percent of the sources I found were using a three minute clip from an interview with one of the top content creators on YouTube, I’ll call her J. At this point I’m 99 percent sure J is an opp, whether she knows it or not. She told his story in vivid detail accusing Will and Jada of luring young artists with promises of mentorship, then involving them in their bedroom activities.
It’s not really a stretch to think that Will might have a cuckold fetish and probably swings both ways. Two things that could ruin you in the 90’s, but neither or them could do more damage to their careers then they have already done by airing out intimate details of their relationship to the public. However the allegations involving minors are complete heresay. This leads me to believe these are just rumors from the 90’s updated to include modern conspiracy theories. J clearly also clearly has some homophobic tendencies, but uses her bisexuality as a pass to bash on most black gay men and even straight men who she claims to be gay. It’s all too obvious she still holds onto resentment over her career never taking off while a lot of the people she collaborated with turned into megastars which is a huge motivator for her content. She clearly still lives in the nineties when these type of allegations alone could seriously damage your career.
In Bryshere’s case, regardless if any of the details she shared were true, they shouldn’t have been aired to the public by anyone but Gray himself. This isn’t the first time J has leaked recordings, exploited, or stolen from victims she claimed to be advocating for. She has even doxxed victims by starting a women’s group for sa survivors and recording all their meetings. She eventually leaked some, claiming they were trying sabotage the group. When the rest found out or were threatened themselves, the group was quickly dissolved and covered up. Considering her track record it’s not unlikely that if true, she released Gray’s story after trying to ask for a payoff and not receiving it. Considering their is no evidence they’ve even met, it’s more likely she’s just reporting on local rumors considering her and Gray are both from Philly and now both live in the Dallas. It’s very important to look at J’s history to see the bigger picture here.
My theory is J was given permission to share her story detailing the dark side of the industry and promised protection if she also included certain details that they provided to her. If true, the motive could have been to help her home channel gain credibility and attract a large viewer base so they can manipulate the message. I believe these people do know some shit about some people, and they want to get out ahead and make sure they only go after their rivals.
I followed J, an up and coming influencer, to examine to see if I noticed any obvious agendas and stumbled upon a full blown conspiracy. I use as an example started with very levelheaded claims that were easy to digest and over the course of five years this influence lured in their viewers with insider knowledge that turned out to be true and by the end was spouting rumors that are easily traceable to certain movements that have been tied to antisemetism, anti LBGTQ, and violent ideologies. It started slow with a few buzzwords and before you knew it the comment sections had been taken over. She started by luring in the celebrity gossip community, specifically people over the age of 40, who treat gossip blogs like the gospel. It’s obvious why this community has been chosen as a target, and I’ve seen recently to rap community is not much better. I imagine whoever is orchestrating this campaign probably wasn’t expecting it to be this easy.
We very well may be witnessing a controlled takedown and the purpose usually is to take out any liabilities while painting their innocence. If a lot of sick people get outed for terrible crimes most people will assume the Feds weeded out all the bad seeds. It would be a public win for the FEDs and would address any criticism aimed at them and those in the industry who have been facing pressure to deal with these types of issues for at least 3 decades. It will also assuage a lot of the conspiracy communities who have been trying to bring light to these issues. I definitely believe the people they chose to take the rap are going to take the charges for all their co conspirators, so those close to them don’t catch any charges. This would be very important in a R.I.C.O. case.
After they’ve completed their mission and their message has been delivered they will then allow these messengers to continue to capitalize on their channel’s popularity. This way they could still manipulate to spread whatever they choose whenever it’s deemed it to be necessary, It probably won’t work too many times before people catch on. In they want to continue making content they can force them to dig up their old dirt. They could also easily provide them with a list of names they are and aren’t allowed to talk about. My guess is they know that most of them aren’t going to be able to find anything, and since they picked people willing to to say any thing for money, they know they will continue to do it with or without relevant information.
They could also continue aiding her in an effort to further the spread disinformation as a preemptive measure. They may threaten harm or violence if the view counts dip below a certain amount to prevent the messenger from self sabotaging in case they need to get their message to the massesIf in the future. If they do ever need them again to do the same thing or are themselves being targetted, they can use their messengers to discredit the facts about them and shine light on those who are leveling the allegations.
You may be wondering what if the enemy finds them and pays them more to doublecross their handlers? They can then use their messenger’s mental illness and paint them and their viewers as violent or mentally ill members of a disinformation cult and either blackmail them into retracting their claims or label them and their listeners as a disinformation cult that happened to be right about some things. Mental health issues can also help paint the narrative that the messenger is suicidal so they can take her out easier if needed. In the case of J it’s not out of the realm of possibility considering her recent struggle and probably played a big part in choosing her to be their mouth piece. since they can use her mental illness at any time to discredit her or create plausible deniability if any connection is made between them and they need to go to court to prove the opposite.
She’s such a wildcard their is no way they would’ve recruited her if they didn’t have an iron clad manipulation tactic with multiple failsafes in place. Usually threatening to kill someones entire family works just fine, but she doesn’t seem to be too worried about her families safety. This is why I think it’s the big labels going after their own artists because they know they’re probably going to get busted soon. Also studios rarely sign you and give you a good deal if they don’t have some type of dirt in case the artist to keep them in line, and use them for their own personal gains. They can also keep them from going after the messenger and better ensure their safety. If they had her go after another label’s artists they probably wouldn’t be able to cover all the bases when it comes to protection, which with J is necessary since she never has any security detail and constantly doxxes herself and her family on live.
While going though her interviews it became very clear to me something was very fishy off the rip. It became obvious after watching sections from all four of her main interviews that as time went on she began incorporating more and more lies and more and more ridiculous conspiracies into the narrative. For most people as soon as they hear a blatant lie they immediately write off anything coming from the source. Most people don’t do their own research so if the messenger tells a couple little white lies with a dramatic flair they can get away with it for a while. The more lies though the higher the chance of them getting called out and losing a portion of their audience as well as making any truth information that can’t be verified sound sketchy.
As I’ve said before J first two interviews do have a lot of verifiable claims, juxtaposed with her life story, and a few blatant lies. One thing I noticed is the majority of her allegations are against artists from her hometown in Philadelphia who were breaking into the industry around the same time as she was and managed to make their way to the top of their respective industries. Sadly neither of J’s two albums were well received and she lost her opportunity because of her combative personality mixed with major narcissism.
After her music career didn’t pan out she moved to Dallas, Texas to try to rebrand. After her son was murdered in 2018, similar to her career, her mental health took appeared to take a nosedive. Before the first interview in 2020, apparently rumors were floating around she was living out of cars and motels. She then met her husband who was ex-military and it seemed like he really built her up and helped her, possibly even writing the stories. In that first interview she accused multiple artists of mistreatment as well as assault. It went semi-viral and a good portion of the accused either provided evidence to contradict her or said the don’t want to go into it, and they seemed to know the situation and feel bad for her. The rapper Common, who she claimed had abused her even said he hopes she’s ok and wished her well. A lot of her fans took this and twisted them into him being guilty because he didn’t go off on a rant trying to claim his innocence and shit on J like they were expecting.
I belief either before or after the first interview got some attention she was contacted and either paid or blackmailed into doing another interview where she was fed information, some truth some lies, and told to mix it in to her life story. I also think her husband may have been one of her handlers. My suspicions stem from the fact that he popped up not long before the first interview and married her after like 3 weeks. I also noticed his way of speaking was also was very similar to J’s and he’d even use similar vocal inflections and speech patterns. They also displayed a lot of similar quirks. Another coincide is he claimed he was responsible for most of the technical support and played a huge part in establishing her online presence. He claimed to have learned everything in a day, and apparently people were shocked at how quickly he learned how to code websites and manage her accounts. A few weeks after getting married she had already made him a fifty/fifty partner for the a new television network she was promoting around the time, but was designed to steal peoples money.
She returned for a second interview in December 2022 and during her second video she mentioned Diddy and dropped a lot of information regarding his current case, his connections to many celebrities, and many specific details about their lives only an insider would have access to. Still there wasn’t much evidence to verify a good portion of her claims until Cassie filed her lawsuit a couple weeks later. I’m almost positive whoever is trying to bring Diddy to justice is connected to whoever is giving her all this info. During the interview J once again eloquently details the dark side of the industry.
Unfortunately her second interview was overshadowed by two separate incidents that both occurred only a few days later and were also caught on her live stream. First she was arrested at a Chicago airport for losing her mind at the security checkpoint. Not much longer after that during an apparent psychotic break, she was filmed in a barbershop parking lot abusing her husband then taking her sons ashes and throwing them her husband and his friends while acting like she was literally possessed. In a later interview she claimed to have Dissociate Identity Disorder from all the trauma and admitted that it was the cause of her psychotic breaks, which totally applies if someone was severely abused at a young age like she has claimed is the case. Eventually she was restrained by the police, strapped down, and tied to a stretcher.
After she got out of a mental hospital a couple days later, her and her soon to ex-husband did a couple separate interviews followed by one where they both discussed to situation together. Before the joint interview their original stories did not line up at all. From their description of events it’s obvious she was cheating and he seems intelligent enough to that, but instead claims the now leader of the Carbon Nation sex cult we’ll call Sol. According to their story he hypnotized her the first time they met and manipulated her into joining her and her husband on their planned weekend roadtrip after meeting in person for the first time. He also forced her into saying she wanted to kill her husband multiple times and letting him touch all over her while they were all in the car together. After that she went on and shared a painfully detailed description of the abuse she suffered as a child all they up until she left the industry. Not much longer after that her husband filed for divorce, further contributing to the spiral.
About three months ago she did another interview that clearly was made by someone else and was loaded with editing mistakes and long gaps without sound that are so muffled you can barely hear them. She also obvious took clips of the interviewer from previous interviews and pasted them together to form new questions and edited them in between her responses. This is also where her claims were all either recycled or included the wildest pizzagate rumors. Then as always she included them in her personal anecdotes so people feel bad for questioning her. The last interview I saw came out less than a week ago and it was even worse than the last and it seems like she’s now just shitposting and seeing how much she can get away with and sadly as expected most people are still eating it up out of the palm of their hand. People who literally worship these influencers like Gods.
Sorry for the giant tangent, but it seems obvious to me that the husband and the two interviewers were all working together. He dressed her up, got her sober and kept her on her meds so she could deliver these interviews. At the same time she was the one who agreed to literally sell her soul and I believe she conscientiously made the decision to scam others. I think everything with Sol was either planned by the three of them or at least the two men who both appeared randomly and were obviously both manipulators. They used their, “divorce,” to really kick things into overdrive and then either both left her there jobs were done. In my humble opinion it’s more likely that they are all mentally ill, desperate for money, and playing roles that were assigned to them for a very specific purpose. I’m almost positive the whole marriage was a sham to help contribute to the narrative that everything in the first two videos was true, until she lost her mind because of the DID, PTSD, and stress.
The last thing I’ll mention before getting back to Bryshere Gray is how I found it interesting that she chose a DID diagnosis. Bipolar used to be a big one, but most people these days know at least one person with it, and it’s easier to tell when people are faking. DID and BPD are the trendy ones now because they aren’t as well understood and easier to fake or play up for the camera. The large numbers of people obviously faking their symptoms, based off the symptoms of some influencer who is also faking. This makes it very difficult to know what’s . It’s also commonly brought up in more radical conspiracy groups as being part of the satanic agenda or brainwash people. I think they were intentionally trying to attract people who would get anything related to the movement send to the deep corners of the internet where those types tend to hide.
This all leads me to the wildest connection of the story. In 2015, when Gray joined Columbia Records, he was signed alongside his future Empire costar Jussie Smollett who ended up playing his older brother. For those who don’t know or remember in 2019, Jussie Smollett was found guilty of staging a hate crime against himself somewhere around the 4th season of he show. The expensive investigation revealed the motivation was political after revealing Michellle Obama’s form chief of staff reached out to Smollett’s lawyer and requested the case be handed over to the FBI. His lawyer then forward the request to Chicago’s Superintendent who approved the request and the case was dropped. After a massive uproar, pitting democrats and republicans against each other, he was resentenced in December 2019 and to this day his legal defense team is still trying to drag out the case so the prosecutor just drops the charges and they don’t have to admit guilt. (If interested the Wikipedia article sums up the whole thing very well.)
Up until his arrest for domestic violence over three years ago where he was caught multiple times lying to the police in his interview, he was found guilty. Seemingly overnight his career tanked and he essentially disappeared and clearly seemed to be dealing with some mental health issues. I find it interesting that after four years of silence he’s just deciding to come out now, and if this case is real in the first place I wonder if anyone is going to draw all these connections.
Aside from Smollett and Gray, the cast list attached to the TV series Empire reveals a lot of connections to a lot of high powered figures with strange connections to this whole conspiracy. A good example of one of these connections is Terrence Howards’s character, a top record label president named Lucious. After skimming the first season’s plot points, some appeared to be directly based on attributes commonly associated with Diddy.
When I looked a little deeper I found that Howard, who also originates from Philadelphia, was cast as the lead actor on the show, while still finding the time to deliver his infamous guest lectures around the world. The main focus of the lectures was discussing the theory he hypothesized which he appropriately named, “Terryology.” This came after being blacklisted from the industry for nearly seven years prior for beating up a crew member and being convicted of multiple domestic violence charges. After the incident with the crew member in 2008, it was revealed Howard had been replaced by Don Cheadle in the sequel to his last hit movie, Iron Man.
Around the same time in 2008, he also signed a record deal with no other than Columbia Records. This came a few years before his infamous on screen sons joined a the same label years later. This can definitely be connected to Howard’s relationship with Gray’s manager Charlie Mack. Some other people who made guest appearances on the show include Naomi Campbell, Cassie, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Mary J. Blige.
The creator of the show Lee Daniel’s, the popular democratic activist whose connections go all the way up to the Obama’s, Oprah, and the Clintons. (Before I go any further, please don’t go down this rabbit hole much further, and to the people who use these type of stories to promote their agendas and spark even more political discord. Now more then ever we need to reel in both the far left and far right and meet as close to the middle as possible or else both candidates are going to continue to be worse every election. Please keep any comments politically neutral. I hate both candidates and I’m simply making connections and could care less who wins the upcoming election.
I think what we’re seeing now regarding Drake, Kendrick, Diddy, and people like Bryshere Gray and J and other influencers and content creators are all be used as weapons to distract people from something major going down and the fact that it’s only getting crazier every day, it appears whatever I’m referring to is yet to come, but won’t be long. Please keep all of this in mind before you start trying to research subjects like these. You may realize that some of the ideologies that have been chastised and tied to violence have been saying these types of things for years, and most of their evidence has been proven already or align with everything we’re seeing.
The paid protestors at Columbia is another example of political theater. Here is where people make the connection to Semetism and where most subscribers theories go off the fucking rails. Just because a lot of these things can be tied to Israel and Jewish Americans, a lot of people like to blame them for all the worlds problems, what they don’t realize is most of this stems from cultural traditions and generational wealth that was gained through hard work and promotion of high education. This has resulted in the majority of Jewish Americans holding more wealth than the average Christian household and most if this stems purely from jealousy and fucking Hitler. This is why the majority of people who go all in on these types of theories don’t have any further education than a high school diploma.
I know this doesn’t make them all dumb, but even a lot of very intelligent people like Ye and other major public figures got sucked into these communities without realizing they were part of the same agenda they were trying to expose. That’s how you end up with Ye saying he loves Hitler in a public interview and promoting Trump for president and supporting the fucking, “white lives matter,” movement along with the Candace Owen, the republicans answer to AOC. Even people with more formal education and fewer biases can and have been successfully targeted by these communities. It’s been shown time and time again that many of these recruiters who have been in their respective communities since their inception usually end up end reaching the same conclusions and the more people there are to confirm your beliefs or suspicions, the more likely it is you’ll accept everything else in they say as true. (This is a very similar conclusion the one I reached in my essay about J).
My belief is someone from the same circle that J was in during her singing career are the same people who reached out to Katt Williams and other blacklisted artists with long recorded histories of mental illness and substance abuse problems to lie by omission and allowing them to release preselected pieces of evidence without repercussions. They could easily know what information the Feds were able to acquire. They then had her leak those details to the public so when the details to come out it makes she can work with the Feds and dismiss any other allegations even if they are true. Obviously it won’t determine the outcome, but it can definitely go a long way in making sure certain details of the defendant choosing can be struck from the record if the evidence isn’t good enough.
At this point I’m a 99 percent sure Diddy is the one pulling the strings behind the Kendrick and Drake beef. I believe that Al B. Sure! was planing to release all the info he had on Diddy in 2022, but may have been poisoned beforehand similar to theories about Diddys’s ex wife Kim Porter who was originally married to Kim before Diddy stole her away along with Al’s son, also Diddy’s stepson Quincy. Diddy has also been directly tied to the murders or mysterious deaths of at least a half a dozen more people who were close associates from the beginning of his career and were key players in the formation of Bad Boy. Coincidentally many of the victims had either exposed or were threatening to expose evidence related to all of these crimes. They are also using Keefe D. to take the charge for 2Pacs murder so he can spin the story and leave out and ties to Diddy who ordered the hit or did it himself.
Unfortunately for Diddy, unlike the rest of the people he had successfully silenced in the past, his dirt ended up coming out right around when Al ended up coming out of his coma and I think it’s likely that if my theory is correct he released all the info he had on Diddy. He even may have hinted in an interview at him being responsible for him falling into a coma. After he came out of the coma Diddy knew he was about to go down and before the raid he destroyed and staged all of his homes with evidence that would verify all the claims related to other celebrities over the age of 18. Meanwhile he got rid of all the videos involving murder, sa, child abuse, bestiality and other evidence that would bring major charges.
This is so he can cooperate with the Feds and help reduce his sentence. If he hid all the evidence they would know and work overtime to find it. Instead he lied by omission and corroborated the accusations that won’t completely destroy him. He can then release all his dirt to seem like he made all the blackmail with the intention of bringing down known predators who were able to get away with the same things he’s guilty of.
In the video of Diddy in the wig, he talks about partying with Drake and The Weekend and I believe he was able to acquire the blackmail. He then released the blackmail to selected people to ensure they leak at the appropriate time. The plan is to publicly out Drake for sex crimes so the rest of Hollywood knows not to testify against him. During the auction mentioned by ebony prince they are going to auction off all the dirt Diddy has collected the last 30 years. This includes dirt on Trump, which may be the reason behind all of this. The auction is four days after Election Day and will be used as a fail safe in case Trump wins the election.
When people who already have even the slightest political biases and less formal education, it can be very difficult to look at these things and not choose a side. This is their agenda to promote centrism and split the left and right even further to promote chaos and anarchy. I advise anyone who identifies as democrat or republican to be extremely cautious when exploring these topics and watch out for the type of things I mentioned. If the information is specifically pointed towards whichever party you identify with, they are trying to suck you in and fill your head with their beliefs.
*Update 2- I’ve never seen this amount of negative responses on any of the bullshit reposts and memes. Clearly people don’t want to actually think for themselves and are just trying to shut down any theory that contradicts their own. Y’all need to stop trying to disprove shit that actually promotes alternative ideas. This is exactly why this community was created. You don’t have to agree with everything, but if you see anything of interest you can do some more research if you’re interested if not just move on and mind your business. Either read it if you’re interested and do your own research or move along and mind your own business.

Ain’t no way this idiot just said “They wanna be me so bad”. Talking about haters 🤣🤣 as if that’s a flex or something!
Let me just go ahead and list some of the reasons we would NEVER want to be you!
1- You’re on TT BEGGING for money to pay for your “rent” at the HOTEL. 2- You’re laid up with a pathetic excuse of a man that PIMPS your stupid ass DAILY 3- You have many, many kids that you don’t see nor have a relationship with. 4- You’re supposedly pregnant with twins, but can’t feed, clothe, nor put a roof over the two minor children’s heads that you have in your care now. 5- You nor your bish (corgi) even have a job. 6- You have to walk or beg for money for a ride everywhere you go, because you don’t have a vehicle.
I gave you six reasons I wouldn’t want to be you. I’m sure my amazing friends in this sub can list more reasons why we would never want to be you.
I’m not bragging, because my spouse and I work HARD for what we have. But, due to that, we bring in close to 150k a year. We both have nice vehicles, live on 3 acres, our bills are paid, our children have EVERYTHING they need, and we’re not on social media begging for strangers to meet our every need. Now- that’s a flex!💪🏻 🎤