Yes, I will admit that after frequenting this forum for a while, I was only tempted to create an account when I started noticing a complete lack of criticism towards the band. Now I know why - apparently nothing but praise is welcome here. I happen to be a firm believer, that there isn't a single band in this world that would deserve this, so I chose to be the bad guy and occasionaly complain in order to create at least a little sense of balance. And at times, I may not have even been bothered so much by that particular thing, but I felt like stirring things up, offering other people a chance to chime in and vent their own frustration (and it worked for some, because whether you like it or not, there has surprisingly always been someone who agreed with me). But the "praise only" rule might actually be a good concept, so excuse my attempts at disrupting that. I got confused by all the other forums on the internet, which seem to be about discussing stuff. Of course I didn't foolishly think that people wouldn't eventually realize most of the more negative comments come from the same guy (althought it did take a really long time before I was called out for that). But fun fact: If you look up all of my past posts, you'll be shocked to find out there were many positive ones.
It's perhaps worth pointing out that a lot of my complaints weren't initially that bad and were often quite brief as well, but were eventually made to look worse by hysteric responses from inattentive and overly sensitive people, who evidently couldn't be bothered to read my original posts thoroughly. It's their poor attempts at challenging my points, that often made me elaborate and explain further (also perhaps get aggresive at times, but IMHO understandably so) beyond even my own liking. And I cannot even count how many times I've been argued with after simply pointing out some fact. You may not agree with my opinions, but at times you didn't even know my opinion! Still I got attacked. The fact is, that I do always sincerely hope to be proven wrong, because (although some of you question it and I totally get why) I DO LOVE this band. I just get frustrated when they're not fulfilling their potential (which is rather hard to dispute at the moment). Unfortunately, some people on here can't do anything else, but yell at somebody they disagree with thinking they don't need a valid argument, because according to them "boo, you're potentially disrespectful towards somebody who will never read this anyway" is enough. Sorry, it isn't.
It's especially people like you @Electric Mami and everyone who may have agreed with your unreasonably hysteric comment full of false assumptions about me and arguments against things I haven't even said, who could definitely dedicate a bit more time to reading comprehension and less to writing lenghty essays like mine (because I at least make sure to understand whatever I'm responding to). Funny how your conclusion revolves around me not liking MIRROR, yet if you actually read all those comments of mine you've apparently seen, you would know that not only do i like MIRROR quite a bit, but more importantly: Most of my complaints had either very little or absolutely nothing to do with the album itself! If blaming my (admittedly rather frequent) negative comments on me being irrational makes you feel morally superior, then whatever floats your boat, mate. But if you choose to do that, you better not lecture anyone about respect.
I can't help but address the one thing that has been brought up a lot recently: Apparently they were able to ship less gear to America than they'd usually use and some people here thought, that that could be a decent excuse for the set being a couple song shorter (because they're reportedly unable to play some songs from the Japanese leg without the missing gear). Well, the changes in the setlist from night one to night two basically already proved you wrong, but just FYI: Their touring manager, or whoever takes care of that stuff, must have told them way in advance, that they wouldn't be able to bring everything over there. The girls had an entire month or so to potentially rehearse a couple of less demanding songs in place of those they wouldn't be able to play (which we now see may not be the case for any). So no, we still don't have an explanation for these shows being significantly shorther than they need to be. Jet lag, which I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet, is following the very similar second show out of the picture as well. Some of you think 18 songs is a sufficient number. Okay. With 150+ songs to their name, I really don't.
(Also they DID tour Japan following KFTD's relase and played quite a lot of it then, hence why there are and should be more cuts off it at the international shows compared to the recent Japanese ones. Don't get how everyone here somehow missed that.)
I was both disgusted, but also mildly amused by the people who were quick to call me a terrible person for doubting the girls' integrity. I simply remarked, that there have been (way too many) examples of some of their actions possibly pointing towards them not doing as much as they could for their fans. And that's a fact. Yes, it's stuff open to intepretation, but it is there. I just assumed the worst, while you guys asummed the opposite, which is fine, except none of you unfortunately offered anything to back it up with (and once again: I do wish you proved me wrong, but if it can be done, oh boy do you suck at it).
So is SCANDAL phoning it in at this stage in their career, or is there a logical justifying explanation behind all that? I don't know. And neither do any of you. You can't simply attack what I wrote with certainty that it's wrong, because (and that's a pill that's hard to swallow, I know) it might not be. I hope it is, but what if it isn't? We will probably never know. Then why exactly are we arguing? Some of you seemed to have been absolutely triggered by my post and there's no reason for it at all. Why does it matter what some random bitter guy on the internet thinks? Why are you reading this right now? I think you were just startled by the fact, that I may have raised some legitimate points. Who are you really trying to convince, me or yourselves? If you thought that what I wrote was a load of bollocks not worthy of anyone's attention, you had a chance to show your moral superiority by not responding, choosing to instead ignore it or just think about it for yourselves, yet you failed. But don't worry, you're getting another chance now.
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