#web poll

[bracketsoffear]

Plaything (Black Mirror) (2025) "Plaything" is the fourth episode in the seventh series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade, it premiered on Netflix on 10 April 2025, with the rest of series seven.

In 2034, Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi) is caught shoplifting, and the police arrest him for the murder of an unidentified person. While being interrogated, Cameron details his time as a reviewer for PC Zone in the 1990s, through an extended flashback: His writing captures the attention of eccentric programmer Colin Ritman from Tuckersoft, and he is invited to review Colin's latest game. Colin shows Cameron a life simulation game called Thronglets, and claims that the game's digital creatures are fully sentient lifeforms. Cameron steals a copy of the game and starts playing, becoming enthralled by the creatures and their language…

Brooker said he was inspired by his real life devotion to a Tamagotchi he had in his earlier years. He was also influenced by his time working for PC Zone in the 1990s, claiming it is "as autobiographical as this gets", and decided to make the fictional game reminiscent of one he reviewed, 1996's Creatures. Brooker detailed that Thronglets would be a mix of SimCity and The Sims, with the episode's plot exploring how people treat the characters of The Sims, and, given the game's visuals, provide "the juxtaposition of making it look as cute as possible and having quite disturbing and dark things."

If you know anything about The Sims and how Web-aligned that videogame is when you think about it, you might already know where this is going… As a sidenote, there's also some addiction elements in here too, as Cameron initially uses drugs in order to 'communicate' better with the Thronglets.

Spoilers Below Cut (or in clip below)

Companion (2025) The films revolves around Iris, a young woman who thinks she’s found the man of her dreams in Josh… only to learn she's a companion robot he is renting from the robotics company Empathix, and that her emotions and intelligence are being controlled by an app on his phone.

Web Films Round 3 Bout 4

Plaything (Black Mirror) (2025)

Companion (2025)

Voting ended onFeb 25

The ending of the episode: To analyse Cameron's psychological condition, the detectives agree to give Cameron a pen and paper, with which he draws a circular glyph that he shows to the security camera, which is connected to the central government's servers. Cameron explains that the glyph is code to allow the Thronglets to take over the central server, exponentially increasing their processing power and bringing about a singularity event. As a signal starts to play on the emergency broadcast system, affecting everyone who can hear it, Cameron explains that the collectively-intelligent Thronglets are transferring their essence into humans, which will act as an "upgrade" and "put an end to conflict". People collapse in the streets, and, after the signal concludes, a smiling Cameron reaches his hand out to the fallen detective.

Basically, Cameron's plan is to have every single human being get possessed/assimilated by Tamagotchi-The Sims-esque creatures, erasing any and all collective free will. And he succeeds. Enjoy your new life everyone, you are gonna love it! (You all will have no choice not to).

"I swear, everything will be so much better…"

[absoluteocellibehavior]

Dude I'm so glad I desided to look at you page after you promised that wonderful bribe that was cross-over fanfiction. Cause your pinned is 100% very cool and swag and right. The narrator is 100% a web and eye avatar n id argue the parable itself is a domain of the spiral. You know, loopin madness n all that.

Ah!! Thank you! I’m so glad you did and enjoy my funky system! Trying to “pspspsps” votes for Narry anyway I can!

Absolutely! I’ve seen The Parable used as a Spiral domain a few times so I absolutely agree! I’m mostly focusing on the people in this AU rather than the places so, Spiral Narrator it is!

I do hope that The Narrator wins so I can talk about The End/The Lonely Stanley as well! Hehe <3!

VOTE FOR NARRY!! HE MUST WIN!

[bracketsoffear]

Make You Sin (Angelspit) The song is about a musician who uses her music to make people do her bidding (Stroke the string / I seduce / Blocking ears / Has no use) (Shaking walls / You feel ill / Doing things / Against your will). The chorus implies that much like Annabelle in MAG69, the musician uses her powers of manipulation to force people to kill themselves (Music to ears / Bullet in cradle / Chaos to mind / Fingers on string / Disease to body / Lips on barrel / Bang! / Make you sin.) According to the lore on the old Angelspit website, "You [the musician] have learnt that music is a powerful tool for seduction, manipulation and pain. You have written works for tuba, contra bassoon and double bass which, due to their huge amounts of bass frequencies and sheer volume, have made audience members to fell physically ill, and in some extreme cases, driven them to momentary loss of reason. You are now working on a score that will 'Influence an audience to actually think in a fashion that is outside the accepted moralities'."

Redesign Your Logo (Lemon Demon) Redesign your logo, we know how to do it Make the calculations, put them into action We will find the angle, starting with convention On to innovation; everything's connected

Web Music Redemption Semifinals Bout 2

Make You Sin (Angelspit)

Redesign Your Logo (Lemon Demon)

Voting ended onSep 17, 2025

[bracketsoffear]

Anti-Rulette propaganda.

...is that anti-propaganda? I think that sounds way more like someone tempting a victim into the Web's clutches. Like, "aren't you tired of all your responsibilities? Isn't the world exhausting? Why don't you let me take over? Let go of your independence, give up control, and enjoy the ride..."

[bracketsoffear]

Gone Girl (2014) Amy created a meticulous plan to frame her husband Nick for her own murder, staging the crime scene, creating a forged journal going back to the start of their relationship, creating a fake pregnancy for motive, and ultimately planning to kill herself to complete the scheme. Nick acts exactly as she expected him to, priming him to look guilty, and everyone from her neighbors to the investigators follow the breadcrumbs she left until Nick is trapped at the center of her web and almost guaranteed to end up on death row.

Plaything (Black Mirror) (2025) "Plaything" is the fourth episode in the seventh series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade, it premiered on Netflix on 10 April 2025, with the rest of series seven.

In 2034, Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi) is caught shoplifting, and the police arrest him for the murder of an unidentified person. While being interrogated, Cameron details his time as a reviewer for PC Zone in the 1990s, through an extended flashback: His writing captures the attention of eccentric programmer Colin Ritman from Tuckersoft, and he is invited to review Colin's latest game. Colin shows Cameron a life simulation game called Thronglets, and claims that the game's digital creatures are fully sentient lifeforms. Cameron steals a copy of the game and starts playing, becoming enthralled by the creatures and their language…

Brooker said he was inspired by his real life devotion to a Tamagotchi he had in his earlier years. He was also influenced by his time working for PC Zone in the 1990s, claiming it is "as autobiographical as this gets", and decided to make the fictional game reminiscent of one he reviewed, 1996's Creatures. Brooker detailed that Thronglets would be a mix of SimCity and The Sims, with the episode's plot exploring how people treat the characters of The Sims, and, given the game's visuals, provide "the juxtaposition of making it look as cute as possible and having quite disturbing and dark things."

If you know anything about The Sims and how Web-aligned that videogame is when you think about it, you might already know where this is going… As a sidenote, there's also some addiction elements in here too, as Cameron initially uses drugs in order to 'communicate' better with the Thronglets.

Spoilers Below Cut (or in clip below)

Companion (2025) The films revolves around Iris, a young woman who thinks she’s found the man of her dreams in Josh… only to learn she's a companion robot he is renting from the robotics company Empathix, and that her emotions and intelligence are being controlled by an app on his phone.

Web Films Semifinals Bout 2

Gone Girl (2014)

Plaything (Black Mirror) (2025)

Companion (2025)

Voting ended onFeb 26

The ending of the episode: To analyse Cameron's psychological condition, the detectives agree to give Cameron a pen and paper, with which he draws a circular glyph that he shows to the security camera, which is connected to the central government's servers. Cameron explains that the glyph is code to allow the Thronglets to take over the central server, exponentially increasing their processing power and bringing about a singularity event. As a signal starts to play on the emergency broadcast system, affecting everyone who can hear it, Cameron explains that the collectively-intelligent Thronglets are transferring their essence into humans, which will act as an "upgrade" and "put an end to conflict". People collapse in the streets, and, after the signal concludes, a smiling Cameron reaches his hand out to the fallen detective.

Basically, Cameron's plan is to have every single human being get possessed/assimilated by Tamagotchi-The Sims-esque creatures, erasing any and all collective free will. And he succeeds. Enjoy your new life everyone, you are gonna love it! (You all will have no choice not to).

"I swear, everything will be so much better…"

[bracketsoffear]

Dark City (1998) A man wakes up in a bathtub with no memories—he doesn't even recall that his name is John Murdoch until he checks his wallet. He finds a dead woman in the bedroom; so when the phone rings and the voice on the other end tells him to get out before "they" come for him, John does so. Despite the damning evidence, John is convinced that he's not a killer, and he sets out to prove this while evading the police… and the pale men in dark coats who have taken an interest in him.

Spoilers below cut

Cabin in the Woods (2012) I did consider saving this for the free-for-all round at the end, but honestly, the central theme of this film is manipulation, narrative, and ritual, three things that the Web is all about. From the very start, our cast of five victims are selected and groomed into the perfect archetypes. Every step of their journey is guided, but they still have to make the choice to transgress. All of the various Fears, represented by horror movie monsters, are leashed and caged, only let out to cause horror as and when the shadowy agency overseeing them demands it.

Web Films Round 1 Bout 2

Dark City (1998)

Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Voting ended onFeb 23

It is revealed that the "Strangers" are aliens residing in human corpses who share a hive mind, and are experimenting with humans to analyze individuality in hopes of making a discovery that will help their race to survive. With just a syringe or two, they can completely erase all your memories, your personality, everything that makes you you and replace them with synthetically created false memories. You'll never know the difference, or how many times they've done it. And the aliens are constantly rearraging both the city and the people…

[bracketsoffear]

End: Easy Come Easy Go (The Decemberists) A series of extremely short vignettes about people dying suddenly and violently, including the deaths of children from a serial killer who no one suspected and a young starlet who's body wasn't found for weeks afterward

Web: Twisted Threads (The Mechanisms) Arachnae story where the weaving is politics, until she weaves a political web around herself that gets her caught in Athena’s schemes and after her death her face and voice are puppets to fuel propaganda

Music Redemption Winners' Bracket Round 2 Bout 2

End: Easy Come Easy Go (The Decemberists)

Web: Twisted Threads (The Mechanisms)

Voting ended onNov 11, 2025

[bracketsoffear]

Web Music Playlist

The full list of submissions for the Web Music bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket.

8 Legged Dreams, Unlike Pluto

A Sadness Runs Through Him, The Hoosiers A Well Respected Man, The Kinks After everything I've done for you (that you didn't ask for), Crazy ex-girlfriend Arias and Symphonies, Spoons

Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve Black Widows in the Privy, Julia Ecklar Bound, Indiana Brave New World, Kalandra

Cabinet Man, Lemon Demon Candy Store, Heathers: The Musical Compliance, Muse

Dance of Evil Genius (Танец злобного гения), King and jester (Король и шут) Dr. Mabuse (A Paranoid Fantasy), Propaganda Dust Hymn, Purity Ring

Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Lorde

Funeral March of a Marionette, Charles Gounod

Good Little Dictation Machines, Jimmy Urine and Chantel Claret

Heroin, The Velvet Underground Homeostasis, Ciscandra Nostalghia

I Can't Decide, Scissor Sisters I Put a Spell on You, Hocus Pocus Inertia Creeps, Massive Attack Integral, Pet Shop Boys

Killer Instinct, Bring It On Kiss Me, Son of God, They Might Be Giants

Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!), Will Wood Let It Out, Starkid Lullaby, The Cure

Make You Sin, Angelspit Master of Puppets, Metallica Mother Knows Best, Donna Murphy

New Invention, I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME Night Work, Scissor Sisters

One Night in Bangkok, Murray Head One Track Mind, Papa Roach

Pale Machine, Bo En Pays To Know, Mypet Pied Piper, CG5 & Kathy-Chan Puppet, Thousand Foot Krutch Puppet Boy, DEVO Puppet Loosely Strung, The Correspondents

Razzle Dazzle, Richard Gere Red Right Hand, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Redesign Your Logo, Lemon Demon Rule #34, Fish in a Birdcage

Seamstress, Dessa Spider And I, Brian Eno Spider and the Fly, London After Midnight Spider Girl, Shadrow Spider Of Destiny, Frank Zappa Spiderhead, Cage the Elephant Spiderwebs, No Doubt

Take Control, Amerie The Devil Within, Digital Daggers The Pitiful Children, Be More Chill The Spider, Flanders & Swann The Spider's Face, Emilie de Autumn Time is Running Out, Muse Twisted Threads, The Mechanisms

We Both Reached For The Gun, Chicago: The Musical We Decide, Dr Steel Welcome to the Internet, Bo Burnham Why We Build The Wall, Hadestown Wires, The Neighbourhood

You Can't Fight Fate, Taylor Dayne You Liked This (Okay, Computer!), Will Wood You're Gonna Go Far, Kid, The Offspring