why

If there was ever any isekai I wish was good it's shield hero.

It's premise could have been such a fantastic dark fantasy deconstruction of the genre. But instead it's just the genre again. It tries to frame itself as special the first few episodes but it doesn't even keep the attempt up for very long.

"Protagonist who literally cannot fight, can only defend, gets framed for a crime he didn't commit and astrized buys a slave kid because he has little to no choice." It's such a compelling premise. They could have done so much with that. Instead they speed ran Raphtalia ageing and don't even just ignore the implications of slavery they downright say he was in the right. The combination of their character arc shouldn't have been "Naofumi reapplies the magic slavery to Raphtalia" it should have been him getting rid of it as a show of trust and selflessness but her choosing to stay anyway.

Not to mention how much cooler it would have been if they gave the three other heroes nuance. But because they made the protagonist too evil they got to make the others evil and stupid or you're not going to root for him.

saki buys a pair of ripped jeans and tsukasa sees them hanging up and is like “GASP! I cannot allow my lovely sister to wear destroyed clothing!!”

he sews patches into them and maybe goes a bit overboard with embroidering little stars into the pockets

when he presents the pants to saki she doesn’t have the heart to tell him they were meant to be ripped in the first place (and besides, they look cuter like this too)

(he tries to do the same thing to toya’s clothes later and that’s when akito breaks the news. toya is not pleased, he wanted tsukasa-customized pants too :|)

how to treat mikoto plushie: a guide

Here's the thing I keep trying to articulate and possibly failing: I don't actually mind characters who are terrible people. I have enjoyed many. What I mind is characters who are terrible people while the narrative keeps trying to say that they are wonderful, often contradicting what the narrative shows us, with no self awareness

Pegasus' dreams ☁️✨

she carry

All prisoner lines in undercover that got changed

Haruka

If you forgive this sin your as good as an accomplice, I'm alone and lonely please give me some love -> if you say INNOCENT, you're as complicit and weak. I'm so lonesome please give me some love

Yuno

I feel the emptiness inside me, we agreed to seek each out out. I wish I could something about it, future -> my cord's being pulled but nothings ever enough. Contractual desires, oh what to do, future

Fuuta

I am playing hide and seek from the sin I committed, you should all give up and shut up-> hiding and seeking from sin. Bring it, submit, and also shut your trap

Muu

I always have a broken heart, when will it stop aching? -> clutching a broken heart. The pain's still there, after all this time

Shidou

Which will you choose, to deceive or to be deceived-> Which way will you throw down your weight? To be deceived, or be the deceiver

Mahiru

I don’t just want to give, both giving and receiving are good things -> I don't wanna just give. giving and taking, this is how to be in love

Kazui

I keep on seeing dreams, I am always indecisive, I can’t be saved -> I just keep on dreaming. Half in, half out, I'm doomed

Amane

Just need to believe, there is no reason to break a promise -> the magic is in believing, there is no righteousness to break a promise

Mikoto

Don’t lie about me, what did I do? -> don't you lie about Me. Me, I've done nothing wrong

Kotoko

Dedicating my life, there is something I want to remove -> Dedicating my life. Harrowing, burying the thing I want erased

Okay, I don't know japanese AT ALL, like, I've never spent a second on purposefully learning a language in my entire life

But

I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the "Undercover" lyrics using a translator, searching for literally every word in the dictionary and reading a lot of articles about specific language constructions and structures (I was doing it just to kill time, thinking, "Hey, it would be fun to do a poetic translation of a song from japanese to english without knowing both languages!")

I can't say that I understood the lyrics perfectly (or even well lol), but there's one thing I know for sure

This translation is even further from the original lyrics than it was

(If you need a translation closer to the original, you can simply copy paste the lyrics to the Deep L. You shouldn't give it too much sentences at once and it won't make a perfect translation, something will be a total nonsense, yet it doing its job not that bad)

got hit by the emurui beam sorry guys

minigram basically confirmed es sleeps on the COUCH EVERY NIGHT

basically the moral of the story that im trying to say here (jokingly) is that sometimes the position of power doesn’t give you all the benefits

cause the prisoners get beds, can ask for literally anything and can wander around while es gets a FREAKING COUCH and the only thing they get is to do their JOB

You know what’s even funnier? This androgynous disaster actually has a huge ass bed right next to the couch

So, I have some (mostly joking) assumptions about why the hell they're sleeping on the freakin’ couch:

1. Somehow the bed seems to them less comfortable than the couch.

2.  They’re too tired/busy to make the bed, so they just “Screw it, I’ll sleep in bed tomorrow” and go to the couch instead. And it's the same thing every day.

3. “Сoziness and comfort are for losers. As the MILGRAM Warden, I, Es, decided to choose the path of violence and sleeping on hard couches, because I'm not a coward, damn it.”

4. “So... My first memory is waking up on the couch. Which means I've been sleeping on the couch before. Why? Why didn’t I sleep in the bed next to it? It wasn’s comfortable for me? Was I forbidden to go to bed? What happens if I sleep in bed? Will my body ache the next morning? Will I even be able to go to bed? Some restrictions will work on me the same way they did on the prisoners? Jackalop will come and forbid me? What if this is some kind of test that I need to pass? Then what would be the right thing to do? Show independence and go to bed? Or not to check my boundaries about what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not? What will be if I fail? Will someone come and say what I have to do? Will be punished? Will I be eliminated and replaced by some other warden who obeys and does not test the patience of  whatever forces that rule this place of self-government, independence from generally accepted laws, justice and bias, mercy and cruelty? ... I’ll just keep sleeping on the couch, you know.”

WAIT ARE YOU SERIOUS ES HAS A BED TOO?!?! SO THEYRE JUST LIKE

"sleeping on the couch is a concious decision."

LMFAOOOO HELP HAHAHAHAHAH

They woke up and chose violence couch

THAT WASNT EXACTLY WHAT I HAD IN MIND LIKE THE OTHER PRISONERS ARE LIKE "es wait you have a bed but you choose to sleep on the couch?!?!" AND THEY (the prisoners) START THE INTERVENTION SO ES SLEEPS ON THE BED IN THEIR (es's) ROOM

HXFXFHCGICGKCGKUTDRUSYRS I'M SO DUMB I'M SORRY XDD

Okay, now it became even more funny

minigram basically confirmed es sleeps on the COUCH EVERY NIGHT

basically the moral of the story that im trying to say here (jokingly) is that sometimes the position of power doesn’t give you all the benefits

cause the prisoners get beds, can ask for literally anything and can wander around while es gets a FREAKING COUCH and the only thing they get is to do their JOB

You know what’s even funnier? This androgynous disaster actually has a huge ass bed right next to the couch

So, I have some (mostly joking) assumptions about why the hell they're sleeping on the freakin’ couch:

1. Somehow the bed seems to them less comfortable than the couch.

2.  They’re too tired/busy to make the bed, so they just “Screw it, I’ll sleep in bed tomorrow” and go to the couch instead. And it's the same thing every day.

3. “Сoziness and comfort are for losers. As the MILGRAM Warden, I, Es, decided to choose the path of violence and sleeping on hard couches, because I'm not a coward, damn it.”

4. “So... My first memory is waking up on the couch. Which means I've been sleeping on the couch before. Why? Why didn’t I sleep in the bed next to it? It wasn’s comfortable for me? Was I forbidden to go to bed? What happens if I sleep in bed? Will my body ache the next morning? Will I even be able to go to bed? Some restrictions will work on me the same way they did on the prisoners? Jackalop will come and forbid me? What if this is some kind of test that I need to pass? Then what would be the right thing to do? Show independence and go to bed? Or not to check my boundaries about what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not? What will be if I fail? Will someone come and say what I have to do? Will be punished? Will I be eliminated and replaced by some other warden who obeys and does not test the patience of  whatever forces that rule this place of self-government, independence from generally accepted laws, justice and bias, mercy and cruelty? ... I’ll just keep sleeping on the couch, you know.”

WAIT ARE YOU SERIOUS ES HAS A BED TOO?!?! SO THEYRE JUST LIKE

"sleeping on the couch is a concious decision."

LMFAOOOO HELP HAHAHAHAHAH

They woke up and chose violence couch

minigram basically confirmed es sleeps on the COUCH EVERY NIGHT

basically the moral of the story that im trying to say here (jokingly) is that sometimes the position of power doesn’t give you all the benefits

cause the prisoners get beds, can ask for literally anything and can wander around while es gets a FREAKING COUCH and the only thing they get is to do their JOB

You know what’s even funnier? This androgynous disaster actually has a huge ass bed right next to the couch

So, I have some (mostly joking) assumptions about why the hell they're sleeping on the freakin’ couch:

1. Somehow the bed seems to them less comfortable than the couch.

2.  They’re too tired/busy to make the bed, so they just “Screw it, I’ll sleep in bed tomorrow” and go to the couch instead. And it's the same thing every day.

3. “Сoziness and comfort are for losers. As the MILGRAM Warden, I, Es, decided to choose the path of violence and sleeping on hard couches, because I'm not a coward, damn it.”

4. “So... My first memory is waking up on the couch. Which means I've been sleeping on the couch before. Why? Why didn’t I sleep in the bed next to it? It wasn’s comfortable for me? Was I forbidden to go to bed? What happens if I sleep in bed? Will my body ache the next morning? Will I even be able to go to bed? Some restrictions will work on me the same way they did on the prisoners? Jackalop will come and forbid me? What if this is some kind of test that I need to pass? Then what would be the right thing to do? Show independence and go to bed? Or not to check my boundaries about what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not? What will be if I fail? Will someone come and say what I have to do? Will be punished? Will I be eliminated and replaced by some other warden who obeys and does not test the patience of  whatever forces that rule this place of self-government, independence from generally accepted laws, justice and bias, mercy and cruelty? ... I’ll just keep sleeping on the couch, you know.”

Allow me to intervene and be that "Well, ACTUALLY🤓" guy

Well, ACTUALLY...

... you're absolutely right! But I think it would be interesting to add a few more details.

(Sorry, I don't have an official english translation, only a translation into my native language, and english is not my first language, so PLEASE tell me if there are any mistakes. Not only in translation, but also in the post)

«"Why didn't you clean up the corpse?"

"You see... my party told me it could become a treasure trove for adventurers, and I thought it was a good idea."

I recall a villager saying that it really helped them.

"The villagers and adventurers also convinced me that the corpse could be left to them. But..."»

So it wasn't exactly "We can't get anything from the body, so let's just leave it to rot here", it's more like "This is a treasure of valuable materials, so instead of taking it all away, why not leave it to the villagers so they can make money from it and repair the damage caused by the dragon?"

And the villagers were not only informed of it, they supported the idea.

Then, why did the corpse end up rotting and causing a plague?

Weeeell, that's because instead of just disassemble it for materials, the village (or its headmaster) decided to turn it into a tourist destination were everyone can go and see the dragon defeated by the Legendary Sword Hero, collect materials from the corpse and (almost) safely explore the area in search of dragon's treasures. As a result, the corpse began to rot, because no one wanted to get rid of such a source of money.

You can see it in "The Reprise of the Spear Hero" when Motoyasu and his team (including Naofumi? Naofumi and his team including Motoyasu? Motofumi and treir team? They) visit the village shortly after Ren's battle with the dragon.

To be honest, I can imagine Ren not bothering to clean up the corpse and just leaving it after receiving the necessary materials, because large animals die eventually, yet nature must have its own ways to deal with this (scavengers, for example), but maybe he really wanted to get rid of it and, unfortunately, entrusted it to people who couldn't stop themselves when it was necessary.

While I think Fuuta makes an interesting point about unintended/unforeseen consequences in his voice drama, I don't think the comparison between him and Es is completely valid. This is because Fuuta had a choice that Es didn't: to not get involved. Es was brought to Milgram and told that they had to judge guilt or innocence. But when a middle schooler is being weird online, you can decide it's none of your business and move on. Fuuta didn't have to judge other peoples' behavior the way he did. Es is forced to make a decision. Fuuta and Amane are probably my favorite characters in Milgram, but that doesn't necessarily mean I think they're both innocent or deserve to be forgiven. I think you could make a stronger case for forgiving Amane than for Fuuta, but that's another post for another time.

(I usually don't use this site for anything more than liking posts and maybe sometimes reblogging, and also english is not my first language, so I'm REALLY sorry if I messed up in this text, tags or anywhere else)

I've been thinking about it too! And yet I came to another question: does Es really have no right to just... Not judge anyone..? Because, yes, they definitely have different circumstances than Fuuta. He at least has memories of his life since childhood, while Es, as you have already said, was simply thrown into this prison with no memory of themself and told that now they are warden and should judge people for their sins. But... Does this really deprive them of the right not to be involved or just creates the illusion of the absence of this right?

Es is a separate character, but no one can deny their connection with the audience, it's literally their function. So neither we nor Es were told that we just... Can't not participate, right? Funny thing: we were told that something bad would happen if everyone was voted innocent (forgiven), but we (hence Es) don't know what will happen if we just don't vote at all! No one told us we could refuse to vote, but no one told us we couldn't, did they?

We (and Es) had the option not to participate. We (and Es) have willingly decided not to choose this option.

So even if their circumstances are not equal, I can't deny that Fuuta's words make sense. Es had the right to say "no". But they decided that if they "had to", they would do it.

Also I think this brings us (or just me, lol) to another interesting topic: actually, who the hell gave Es (or us) the right to judge people? A cool uniform? A perverted talking rabbit?

Not only do they have the opportunity not to participate, as Fuuta had, but they also have no more right to judge anyone than Fuuta has. Es were put in the decoration of an authority and entitlement, but they are literally amnesiac fifteen year old kid, HOW THE HELL DO THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO JUDGE PEOPLE THEY'VE JUST MET, AND WHOSE CRIMES THEY KNOW ONLY FROM SOME ABSTRACT MUSIC VIDEOS. And not only "judge", but "judge by any criteria they want, even if it's just the prisoner's look".

I'm not sure how to end this, so I'll just say that the Milgram project is quite an interesting thing as a social experiment, and I like how it repeats the essence of the original experiment: people will believe that they have to do something, and that they have no other choice if someone who seems to be an authority, will tell them to do it.

"Sorry. You reminded me of someone."

this post has been made hundreds of times before but it bears repeating. you cannot be proship if you harass antis. i get it, they suck, they really fucking do, but at the end of the day they're still humans behind the screen with their own lives and shit. they have emotions just like we do and to harass them goes against what we stand for. proship is to be against the harassment of others for what they consume in fiction, it would make us hypocrites to harass others when we can just as easily block and report them.

"love yourself" a lot

hiii listened to milgram with my friend so i drew the best milgram character sooo excited for her next song 💖💖💖

Milgram as a concept is very cool but also can simutaniously also be very unintentionally hilarious

Some quick Parasite screenshots with Mahiru 🌻