I've been looking forward to this video.
This video is pretty interesting, it also tied up some loose ends.
The video starts with this monologue:
"Rise and shine cult campers, lets put our faith back in mayhem.
We are every old, broken toy born again, and again.
As we turn the hype into hope, we silence the noise.
We are the splinter under the worlds finger nail as we turn the diamonds back into coal."
There is footage of a TV with showing the events of My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark, there is footage that recaps the events of Death Valley and then there is footage of what goes on at the kidnappers HQ. (all the kidnappers seems to do is Kidnap people and destroy music paraphernalia.)
The monologue ends with a shot of Patrick's severed hand in a jar.
The footage simply ( just like all the other video openings in the series) sets the scene, this sequence also recaps a little.
from what I gather from the monologue is saying the reader feels forgotten and they are jealous of the more current people.
She describes herself as an old, broken toy. That would imply that she was liked at some point but now she's old/irrelevant and broken/useless.
I've said before that I think the Young Blood Chronicles is about how artists are treated by society and the media/music industry, I.E rappers like Big Sean have more creative freedom when featuring on another artists track because he stood up to the kidnappers even though it turned out bad in the end because he was killed.
I think Courtney is meant to be an artist that is no longer relevant, I mean this in the nicest of ways of course it's just that she's been out of the spotlight for a while.
In the 90's she was heavily criticized due to her relationship with Nirvana Front man Kurt Cobain.
I guess she feels like the media treated her so badly for so long and then all of a sudden it stopped and nobody wanted to know what she was doing.
The line "as we turn the diamonds back into coal"
Diamonds and coal are both made of carbon, only diamonds are much more expensive than coal.
Assuming Courtney is jealous of more current artists then I would say this is a metaphor of ruining their careers.
If current/successful artist are diamonds she is trying to turn them to coal or less desired versions of themselves.
The song starts with a spot light being shone at Courtney, she stands on the top of a flight of stairs holding a megaphone and she chants the lyrics to the women down below.
Standing above the women implies authority over them, she appears to be ordering the women or trying to motivate them.
The way the film is edited makes some of the shots look like a home video and other like CCTV footage, I'm overly sure what the purpose of making it look like a home video/ CCTV footage.
It's made to look like it was filmed on a camcorder, that would fit in with the theme of time and being out of date because most people will now use things like phones to shoot home videos.
I'm not sure as to why it's meant to look like a home video, I'm sure this organisation/cult has enough money and connections to film better footage, maybe this effect is being used to differentiate the footage in this film with the footage from previous videos, because the cult is purposely filming this video.
Another thing that confuses me is why are they filming, are they shooting a propaganda type film or something?
hopefully this will be cleared up in the next episode.
Women are escorting Patrick Stump through the room where the women are breaking music paraphernalia (instruments, records etc).
Patrick is struggling so that would imply that he is unwilling to cooperate.
He is taken to a room and strapped into a chair in front of a projector.
It would appear he is being brainwashed.Again.
Patrick was first brainwashed in the Alone Together video.
Electric shocks and verbal abuse was used to brainwash him in Alone Together, along with the physical and physiological torture that was used in the previous episodes.
I've looked into brainwashing a little bit. (and of course this is fictional and brainwashing doesn't quite work like it does in the Young Blood Chronicles, eye colour doesn't change for one.)
Brainwashing is a technique to make people feel or react a certain way to something so in Alone Together Patrick was conditioned into reacting violently to a tape.
In this video it appears that Patrick is strapped back into the electric chair from Alone Together and he is being shown a series of images, because of the recent trauma he is more susceptible to being mentally manipulated.
There are images from previous videos such as the flames from My Song Knows What You Did In The Dark, the disco ball and chandelier from Young Volcanoes and the eagle from The Phoenix.
He receives a nasty shock whilst being shown the american flag, a violin being played, hands reaching out at what looks like a concert and the image of his severed hand in a bag.
By shocking him whilst being exposed music related images should make him react badly to music in general.
By doing this the cult should no longer need them tape to change his personality, simply being in the same room as an instrument or simply hearing any form of music should have the same effect.
Courtney is still chanting to the women as they destroy instruments, I think they may have been brainwashed too.
I don't think they have been brainwashed in the same way as Patrick but brainwashing in cults is common practice, people in cults are led to believe what they are doing is right by being manipulated mentally using fears and emotion.
Chanting is meant to enforce an idea/feeling by repetition and by stopping them thinking about anything else and allowing them to make their own opinion.
The women also seem to have a uniform. No women seems to be wearing the exact same thing but they are all wearing something similar, uniform encourages the women to conform and discourages individuality.(which also stops them from thinking as individuals.)
It looks like the electric current in the chair has been shut off, he is then shown images of what the cult has done to him and the band. he can relax.
The relaxing period where the electric is shut of is meant to condition people into thinking that what they are being shown is positive.
They are conditioning him to react badly to music but to not react negatively to the cult.
Else where Andy and Pete are shown entering the cult HQ with a key card, the way in which the shot is edited makes it look like CCTV footage.
This implies that they are being watched, the cult seems to always be one step ahead so it's highly likely that the cult were aware that Pete and Andy were coming.
Patrick's eye's have changed again and Pete and Andy can been seen sneaking through the building armed with the weapons they received in the Death Valley video, again it looks like CCTV.
Patrick is led willingly into Courtney's office, he doesn't look angry (more confused if anything), before when his eyes changed he went straight into a fit of blind rage.
Courtney then hands Patrick a drum and he destroys it, she hands him other musical items like records and a guitar which he also breaks, she has a gleeful expression on her face.
He has been successfully conditioned into wanting to destroy music and cult members.
Pete and Andy have made their way into Courtney's office and so far they haven't run into anyone, the cult probably intended for them to reach her.
Courtney surrenders and Pete takes the sliver brief case which is sitting on the desk.
Patrick looks to Pete.
He has a look of realization, it's important to remember this trance is different from the previous trances where he went into blind rage, he must be able think whilst in this trance because he has to differentiate the difference between music related things and cult related things.
Maybe he recognises Pete and remembers the case and doesn't want to hurt him, but because he is music related/non-cult he will have to fight him.
Or maybe he just clocked the bass guitar machete because either way when Pete runs away Patrick chases after him.
Andy stays behind with Courtney, he feels safe because he is armed and Courtney is unarmed.
As he goes to leave he is grabbed from behind and 2 women slit his throat with a dagger.
Andy subsequently dies and Pete escapes the HQ with Patrick in tow.
I want to talk about the thumbnail for the video on YouTube, I've learnt that Thumbnails are an important part of a music video.
Any point of the video could be used for the thumbnail so the image they used is going to have some kind of relevance or meaning.
This Thumbnail was very misleading, it looked as if Pete and Andy had won because Courtney was surrendering and it looked like a happy ending when in reality it wasn't a happy ending.
I did think the next video would be Save Rock And Roll but I'm not sure anymore , there is only 2 singles left, the next episode is either Miss Missing You or Save Rock and Roll.
I do have some theories of what could happen within the next 2 videos, the lyrics:
"how'd it get to be only me?
Like I'm the last damn kid still kicking
That still believes"
Imply that the only person to survive is Patrick which would also imply that Pete will also be killed within the next 2 Episodes.
I thought Miss Missing You would be the last video because of general message of the lyrics:
the second verse reads:
"Now you’re gone
But I’ll be okay
Your hot whiskey eyes
Have fanned the flames"
This implies that the person with the "hot whiskey eyes" has gone, whiskey is a yellow-gold colour and hot could mean angry and that sounds like Patrick's alter-ego, it sounds that by the time he says this he is no longer effected by the brainwashing, so what ever the order of the last two videos is I presume that by this point he is no longer being manipulated.
I just hope they can finish the story properly within 2 more videos, I can't to see what they do next.
If you have anything to add or you interpreted something differently feel free to comment, I promise I will get back to you.
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Thank's for reading.
