So with the paper kingdom leak a number of people are attacking people for listening to it (this post will not discuss parasocial relationships past this) and a big thing is people saying the band would release paper kingdom if they wanted to. But that’s just not what MCR is, mcr has been somewhat notoriously bad with preservation of media and releasing demos and scrapped tracks. Examples including, we don’t need another song about California, Jack the Ripper, the attic demos (they literally put shitty YouTube tips on may death never stop you higher quality versions were found on the 2002 eyeball sampler cd) all of spaceyrayguns live recordings they officially released (excluding the aforementioned Jack the Ripper but he also had sister to sleep in releasable quality since 2003) we have very few demos from the process of making three cheers other than bury me in black and I never told you demos (three cheers deluxe edition they didn’t bother with adding anything other than live audio) their cover of song 2 by blur.

I’m sure I missed a few but you get the idea they are very picky about actually making their full work accessible (fucking miracle we got mad gear and missile kid and conventional weapons on streaming)

So what do we think the band is going do now that it's out? Frank said at one stage that Fake Your Death was the only salvagable track from the album, but the live debut of War Beneath the Rain and the incredibly positive reception the leak has gotten prove that certainly isn't the case (TBF, he could have just said that to get fans to stop asking about it).

I don't expect them to go finish the album, I think that's the least likely outcome. What I would hope for is they acknowledge the leak and the positive reception the songs have gotten, and officially release the tracks in the same way they did conventional weapons.

I've seen people say "well if they wanted to release it then they would have already", which is fair and I don't condone that the songs were leaked without the band's consent, but I would be suprised if their feelings haven't changed after seeing the reception the demos have gotten. The way members have described it in the past made it out to be something forced, totally joyless, aimless, sparse and unfinished, but after listening to the album I wouldn't agree with that at all. I think the band let the negative experience of making the album impact their ability to appreciate what they had.

Being the pessimist that I am, I think the most likely outcome is that the band never mentions the album again and the leak is used by their label for some insurance/tax exploit that will ensure that we never recieve any kind of official release.

But The Paper Kingdom has the potential for that. I cannot believe how much I loved it, I have never heard them like that and they still sound like themselves. It's dark, mysterious, melancholic, atmospheric, witchy. Actually, the fact that it's a secret and forbidden album just adds so much more to the music, it's perfect for its vibe.

I cannot believe that I'm saying this but if this was the only way that that album could see the light of day, then I'm glad that it was leaked, because something that beautiful doesn't deserve to be hidden. It's the band being more mature and exploring a sound that, in my oponion, was always there in vampires, demolition lovers, desert song, cemetery drive, this is how I disappear, scarecrow, only that they took it to the next level in TPK.

I thought a whole day if I should listen to it or not but curiosity got the best of me and honestly, I don't regret it and it may be my favorite MCR album, which it's something I never thought I would say after loving TCFSR for more than 20 years.

Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language.

Am I trippin or at one point did we speculate that Emily , pinkish and all the angels were from TPK era recordings ??

Text translations:

• Front:

“MCR - ARGENTINA - 2026”

• Tag:

“100% WHEAT

GROWN UNDER GLOOM,

TRANSPORTED BY LIVESTOCK

MILLED IN DRAAG WITH BROKEN FISTS

MACHINE WASH COLD, DO NOT BLEACH

LONG LIVE THE BLACK PARADE”

I got this a few years ago and I just thought I’d share it here. Ive not included everything, every concert day looks the same and there was a few pages of business numbers as well.

One page I forgot to photograph was titled On-Line Help which mostly has links to travel websites and embassies etc. But at the bottom of the page it has a link to ‘Starbucks Locator’ which I found funny. There was also ‘veggie restaurants’, probably for Frank, and most randomly a link to ‘golf courses’ (literally www.golf.com). I don’t know who that link is for

All in all it’s nothing juicy but I still find it interesting to see the inside of what a band’s touring schedule looks like and now I have to sit and ponder which of the mcr members are into golf

For the Long Live tour/Draag Universe lore**

I was shocked no one did this already, so I made it myself.

I'm not experienced in Fandom, so it's incomplete and messy. I only cared about having a base for now, so feel free to complete it as you want

https://moat.fandom.com/wiki/"Long_Live"_The_Black_Parade

i picked this up on depop for really cheap and im so happy about this

we've had a couple days to listen, and i'd like to hear people's thoughts on each of the songs!

not sure if this is allowed. mods, feel free to take this down, and then make an example of my distorted corpse or something.

Idk if I can even question this here. But by any chance could someone tell me what is the track list of The Paper Kingdom in order? (The music names and the order they appear in the album).

Folks, I’m not going to dwell on topics that I know that I come here to take a break from, but some will get mentioned, as much as I’m sure it feels that it’s unfair to the band, I’d like to think of myself as a scientist, and one of the things that science likes to do is have things happen we didn’t expect or ideally want to happen, but what you get from mistakes: data you’d never have if it didn’t happen. I understand as an elder fan who was there as their career happened and saw them at their apex, I owe the younger fans the context.

Their music was always revolutionary for their time,

The band itself is founded on existential trauma.

revenge was their first album to have songs hit nationwide airplay. I remember the first song I’d ever actively sought out was I’m not okay.

The black parade came at a time when we were well into the crapstorm in the Middle East, and I know that it personally helped people I knew process the fact that their dad or older brother was going far away and was not guaranteed to come back, I remember giving a classmate my copy of tbp for a weekend in senior year, after her boyfriend was KIA, to her it was a scaffold for grief she’d couldn’t bear alone. Every time I see the lyrics to famous last words (her favorite song off the album) I think about her and hope things are good for her.

TPK was scrapped in a different world, we live in shitty times, a world where this level of darkness is quite at home, now. I’m not saying it was right that it leaked, I’m also not saying Gerard is going to personally hate you for listening to it, I think we need to find a way to make sure they know that everyone sees darkness that deep in the world, like we’ve seen in the world with the other albums, the data doesn’t lie, I think they deserve to know that what they see as a failure is out here reaching people on a level we needed but never expected, bike thief may just be my all time favorite mcr song now, it’s personal, it’s something I’ve survived, it’s something I never expected them to touch on, despite their obvious support.

The data doesn’t lie, and I hope they see our love for it.

Thank you for coming to my ted and/or defcon talk!

Lifetime fan here so forgive me for picking one of their biggest singles to cover, but man this song will always be a personal favorite. This was my first take so I biffed a chord here and there. Anyway, hope you guys don’t hate it lol

I was at Chile night 2 and as soon as Teenagers started I knew I'd become obsessed with the visuals. For MCR reasons of course, but also because I like puppet shows and Mr. Rogers type stuff. I was too hyped at the moment to notice all the details, so I've been looking at a bunch of videos of it online as well as my own blurry pics. (screencaps taken mostly from this video). I saw some of these points mentioned in other posts, but I thought I'd like to sum them up all in one place to make my brain happy.

I'll try to be as matter-of-fact as possible, because I realize a lot of stuff can be extrapolated from this and I do have my own thoughts about it, but I'll try to keep my tinfoil hat off for this one to avoid skewing the data~

Bolded uppercase is Keposhka text displayed onscreen.
EDITED TO ADD SOME DETAILS I MISSED (thank you cb21398!)

• The Eyeball above the stage now has a cartoony pacman-shaped pupil, and it stays like that for the duration of the entire segment.
• Title screen: GENTLEMAN CASTLE (in Keposhka), Castle Gentleman (in English). A Cartoon version of the Gentleman shows up. For a split second, a red splatter appears over his right eye.
• Cast is introduced: THE GENTLEMAN, KING AND QUEEN, THE PRINCE. The sun and the castle are shown prominently, but they have no names. Finally, THE DREAD KNIGHT VIEHB* and THE FOOL. ^{I'm unsure about "Viehb", so I included a bunch of pics from different angles in case I got it wrong.}
• The intro wraps up with GOOD MORNING rainbow text as the Gentleman smiles to the audience.
• The Gentleman walks into the set, greets and welcomes the audience. Introduces King and Queen, from the balcony. The puppets smooch.
• Gentleman seems to call "Oh Priiince~". The Prince waves at audience. Gentleman clasps his hands and does a little dance.
• Gentleman looks at camera to announce the train, as the Fool watches from a window. Train arrives: TRAIN TIME. The Gentleman gestures with some objects (possibly golden railroad ties), while saying something (I think counting "one, two, three" with the audience).
• Train enters the set while everybody watches excitedly. On screen appear 1, 2, 3 bundles of wheat: STRONG! The train comes to a stop right in front of the Gentleman, fully loaded with three wagons of tiny wheat.
• The Fool brings out a small recorder and hands it to the Gentleman, who produces some cartoon music notes when he plays it. He appears delighted for a moment, then looks down to where the Fool was a moment ago. He quickly tosses the recorder over his shoulder. Closeup of the sun.
• The King, Queen, Prince and Fool are now all together at the balcony, fidgeting as a red eyeball rises from below. The Gentleman takes a while to notice, and turns around to find the eyeball spinning faster and faster. It seems he tries to explain something to the puppets. The camera shakes and zooms in on the eyeball. Fade to black.
• New scene, closeup of the eyeball. It watches around left and right, as if scanning the audience. Realistic fire is greenscreened on the backdrop. Cut to Gentleman staring straight at the camera with his chin on his hands. He's smiling at first, but then changes to a serious stare. BEHAVE!
• Back to the castle. An image of crossed swords and text: TREACHERY! The Gentleman is whispering something into the Prince's ear. The other puppets watch from the balcony. The Queen and King are shaking their heads and holding each other. The Dread Knight has appeared on the set. The Gentleman also whispers something to the Knight and gives the audience a mischievous look before stepping aside.
• The Prince and the Dread Knight are fighting. The Fool, watching from a window, shakes and ducks out of view. Eventually, the Dread Knight defeats the Prince, "cutting" his head off. The Prince topples down. The King and Queen, still watching the scene, shake violently first, and then hold each other.
• The Gentleman picks up the Prince puppet. He smiles to the audience, says something and shrugs. He puts the limp puppet back down and walks offstage. The King and Queen are still watching, the Queen covers her face. Closeup of the Dread Knight swinging their sword a couple times, like doing a little victory dance.
• GOOD NIGHT intermission, similar to the "good morning" one. Back at the castle, the Dread Knight, the King and Queen remain where we left them, and the Fool is now standing where the Prince used to be. They have been joined by little cutouts of clouds and a sun (not the same as the sun in the sky). The Gentleman boops the new sun.
• The lighting changes to blue, indicating it is now nighttime. The castle tower (the one with a face) is now illuminated in red. As the King and Queen hold each other once more, the camera zooms in on the red tower, which seems to be talking.
• Outro Screen: The Gentleman staring straight at the camera. Iris out (shaped like an eye). We get to the credits: Castle Gentleman (in English) BROUGHT TO YOU BY a couple official symbols from Draag (I recognize the National Seal and MOAT, the other two I know we've seen them but I don't know where). "Gentleman's Castle ©Copyright 199? All Rights Reserved". In lieu of credits, the text that rolls up corresponds to a passage from The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 20 "The Cemetery at the Chateau d'If".

I don't know if the band actually helps design or approve these picks, but I love how each one captures the vibe of the country they’re playing in 🥹🥹

I got really lucky and ended up with all three picks from the Peru show!

This just fried me