#dan is so funny in that specific video i love him

[wannabedragon-yep-lumenemporium]

Okay, Ricker than Fiction truly kicked down my favorite episodes room's door and placed its ass on the podium, I don't even know where to start 💀

There is sooo much to say aaaaaaa I'm screaming and doing some silly little dance 💀💀💀 So let's go as usual my take, episode's themes I noticed and the sus/interesting details.

The episode really stays true to its title: I've spent 9 hours straight reviewing this stuff and there's still no way I can possibly squeeze all of its interesting points in one post, I have no more space for pictures, I had to make pics collage, what the helling hell

_________My take (I'm part of the R&M cult, so, impartiality)________

The episode was absolutely astounding, the animation was great, the creativity was shocking: it has lore, it has multiple characters development, it has action, it's funny as hell and even wholesome, writers need to calm down this season (no, don't you even think abt it)

The meta joke was cool: it really tickled my brain the fact that Baron Thistle plan was completely meta: he was planning to doom his fictional world by turning it into a movie perceived as mediocre by the audience outside the movie itself, an audience that lives inside another tv show who has an audience as well! lol this trope was like a meta Matryoshka doll, super cool.

Rick having so much fun shows his healing process: I cannot express how happy I was to see Rick just interacting without holding the grudge after the first meltdown, just living in the moment, playing as a kid, making friends, happy, wild and free:

look at this cutie, look at this absolute maniac starting to like Tannenbaum just bcs they're fighting ahahah I love it and the rhythm of country music was such a nice addition and also a recurring theme (reference to the April's fool video and the Rick the Mort and the Ugly ep, idk why this season is a wild west season but it's cool💀)

Rick admitting and understanding that he doesn't know how to process his own feelings is so sweet and heartbreaking 😭😭

It was also crazy to see how Rick didn't even react to Morty beating him, just like he did in Cryo Mort a Rickver (many of you pointed that out). He just understood Morty's mood and helped him without too much of a fuss. Like, who is this old fart? I love him!

Campbell's-Darmon's Hero Journey scenes are just:

I cannot even describe how turned on I am by the mere thought we actually saw it in the show, like: "there, I'm literally showing you, look!" I feel so grateful 😭😭 I know stuff abt this topic, I urgently need to say stuff abt this topic

The circle simplifies in precise and repetitive steps the whole Hero Journey, a symbolic summary of the personal growth of the protagonist of a story, it was created by Campell and later on re elaborated in a more modern key by Dan Harmon, with more emphasis on the psychological journey and growth of the character. Every single episode inside the tv show, and the whole series at large, follow this pattern, seen almost as a sacred process by Harmon himself.

This scenes showing the Hero Journey are incredibly important for many reasons: it's interesting to see how they specifically highlight that each phase is a combination of the previous step and the second one, not an independent, separated arc.

It also tell us that, very likely, the Central Finite Curve structure itself is built on this precise model, that would explain why the Citadel (its core) runs on canonical events (all the Citadel events are in fact movies' "clichés" or famous storytelling tropes mixed together, so basically, mini heroes' journeys) and also why Evil Morty needed to go rogue in order to bring down the Curve. The only way to break the circle seems in fact to "go linear", literally ejecting yourself out of its trail by poking out of the narrative circular route, and apparently you accomplish this by pissing everyone off... Remember the "There you go kid, now you're Evil Morty too: sooner or later we all are, on this side of the curve."...?

To return to the circle again, instead, you need to "get curvature" by following the journey steps once again.

On a psychological level, this makes sooo much sense and is such a precious piece of advice when it comes to break toxic relationships:

no one will be happy with you stepping away.

More often than not, ppl will call you out instead of the abuser, for stepping away from the abusive family system, the toxic work environment or the unacceptable social instance, for rejecting any kind of interaction and for putting up solid boundaries. They will demand you to be more patient and endlessly empathetic. Even "in good faith ppl" won't understand why are you going no contact or having boundaries all of a sudden.

So in order to break the cycle, you inevitably end up becoming an outcast, (the actual evolution of a scapegoat is in fact a trickster if you think about it in terms of mythology) living in an in-between of two worlds that both failed at being your safe home.

Of course this doesn't mean you won't be able to restart a new personal hero journey after breaking from the toxic cycle💛

... and also, yes, you guessed it, we are in s8... the season of Change. That means that the cycle will somehow start from a new beginning after this season...

I'm not ready for a new BeNnInG, I'm scared, please pick me up, plz 😰

The switching shirt reference: I guess that the Unmortricken reference I was thinking about since the ep sneak peek, was actually on point. In this episode we see the many differences between Morty Prime and Evil Morty. Specifically, what Morty Prime does differently from Evil Morty, once he find himself in his role (in his… shirt…?), playing the evil guy role... and let me tell you, Prime really does his worst 💀 This is going to be weird because usually I always take Mortys' side (how could I not when it comes to Rick' misdeeds) but this time I feel Morty Prime is acting like... a little shit...? I mean, he's right, Rick once again involved him into some crazy adventure out of pettiness, and yet... you feel like you're just a poor 14 yo who just wanna go home, but at the same time you're grown enough to shoot unarmed, innocent people (remember that nps/characters count as ppl, we learnt that in the Matrix ep), to betray those you manipulated into seeing you as a motherly figure just bcs (classical "we are a family" corporation bs), and to tug Rick that way...?!

After this episode I feel like Morty is actually keep exploring his evil side, but not the kind of "evil" that "Evil" Morty is.

I'll die on that hill defending all Evil Morty's actions, you can build a mausoleum where I die, and another one on top of that, bcs I won't move from that f*cking hill, but we can surely say that Evil Morty's actions are harsh, edgy and often cryptic: Morty Prime's actions on the other hand are quite linear, they are not dictated by difficult decisions, internal turmoil and a harsh reality check, they're rather just actions done out of pettiness, repressed anger, fear and arrogance. Rather than be similar to Eye Patch Morty, Prime is in fact closer to the classical archetype of "The Evil Morty" lately...

hiding behind his armies...

too coward to get things done with his own hands...

emotionally manipulative...

*I never knew I wanted to be a succulent minion so bad, yet here I am*

blusterous, angry, lashing out for futile reasons...

a cruel despot, not a leader.

I don't think this will necessarily be THE Morty Prime's arc, but rather a way to show us what happens when a Morty gets egoistic, highlighting the difference between an "evil Morty" and an actual bad Morty.

I think even the word "bad" instead of "evil" is right there on purpose.

In fact, you know who Morty reminds me of in this episode...?

Remember that this happened in season 3... the other half of an eight... the numbers... the halves... the VOICES!!👁️👄👁️

(I'm also kinda of thinking that we'll never have a Son of Thistle Pocket Morty bcs Morty isn't behaving like a regular Morty this time, rather like a Rick or worse, so maybe they could have added a Son of Thistle Trainer, but that would have been confusing in terms of lore I guess)

What do you think the show is trying to tell us here about Morty Prime? Is he actually still just a poor kid or is he just an immature adult with unresolved trauma that wants to get his way, staying a child more than he should (a little bit like that 30 yo ex that never washed their own clothes/did the dishes...)?

a little bit like a Jerry...?

My take is that he's just an immature rickhead: I mean, Slick was through and through the 14est yo Morty we ever saw and yet he was definitely more well adjusted, than what Morty Prime is after 8 seasons of adventuring and therapy.

Or maybe I'm just trying to cope with the fact that bad tight-coat-Morty being a total 💅✨evil mommy💅✨ is conflicting with the fact that he's technically 14 yo💀

no, really, I think he's a little rickhead anyway and, yes, he really needs to grow up -_-

like, this ain't normal...

dude...

(and if you're asking how u can fall for a cactus-like guy, your answer is: Sylvari. Bathe your eyes onto those sexy plants, you thank me later 🔥🔥)

Speaking of Jerry instead....

Can u believe this season is making me love this character? I really used to hate Jerry, and now I can't live without seeing this goofy little guy in every episode, they really are doing an amazing work with him this season.

How Rick's toxicity is slowly fading...

... to leave space for Jerry to grow more confident.

Also, the writers explaining that Jerry has some little attention deficit issue...

... feels to me like it debunks the whole "Jerry is just a stupid b1tch" trope. I mean, he's still a big baby... and a bad writer...

But he's also a good buddy to the core, that cares a lot about people, he's just having some hard time staying normal, like us all.

He supports both Rick and Morty throughout the whole episode, standing behind the machine and defending them bravely, even after some temporary troubles, just like he did in the Easter Bunny episode.

I was screaming ahahahahah 💀💀

I'm a little sad we almost had no Summer arc, but I'm glad she's doing wonders with her spare time💀💀

In conclusion, is crazy how much I love this episode! I'm uncertain about what Morty arc will be this season, I'm loving how Rick, Beth and Jerry are becoming more empathetic and caring, and I like how Summer is growing more independent (she even dedicates time to write!) and mature: she seems no longer obsessed with being the popular cool girl that everyone likes, and that's wonderful.

________________Ep. Main themes in a nutshell_________________

Feelings over awareness: Despite Rick saying it was an error, I guess the machine truly understood the assignment. Same moral as the Bethjamin Button episode: you need to feel and experience something in order to understand it and care about it. I'm also asking myself if they would have been able to come back to life in the real world without James Gunn's tear, implying that the audience's emotions and love for a show is what keeps it alive, along with all its characters (I would have put *touched Vince McMahon gif* here but I reached the images limit for this post💀)

Different Mortys, different outcomes: Mortys have significantly different ways to approach power, conflict and survival. While Prime seems to have internalized the "nothing matters" concept, Evil Morty knows very well what matters and how important and unique everyone is.

Shooting at unarmed people because they're "evil": Morty Prime anger is getting worse lately and his morality is cracking quite a bit. We saw him defending criminals against Nick's violence a couple of seasons ago, because they were unarmed (unarmed as much as criminals in a den of criminals can be, yet, still unarmed) only to end up constantly pushing for shooting all unarmed ppl he perceives as evil or annoying in later seasons: in Unmortricken he blasts Rick Prime without even thinking and he encourages Rick to "take the shot" on an unarmed Evil Morty that is actively helping and protecting them (I'll never forgive that little sh1t for this è_é). And I mean, u know it's bad when even Rick is weirded out...

he also incites Redwood to shoot Baron Thistle (unarmed) and he's going for an head shot on Tannenbaum -who's basically Goofy from disney, okay?- without any hesitation... Let's say Morty is going through a lot lately and he needs to unpack some repressed stuff...

__________________Sus stuff/interesting details___________________

Rick being the Rickest Rick: Rick Immediately analyzing crystals-like stuff and energy sources right after puking had me dying 💀💀

Directors and writers: I started to pay more attention to the directors and writers of each episode, after I saw a post about how The CuRicksous Case of Bethjamin Button being written by 2 women obviously triggered a bunch of alpha males. Rob Schrab wrote this amazing folly and Douglas Einar Olsen directed it. Just pointing out that Schrab also wrote "A Rickconvenient Mort" (planetina's episode) where Morty goes totally w i l d, and that absolute fever dream of "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie". I would give full credit to Douglas Einar Olsen for the totally crazy action plot though, 'cause he was the director of gems like Final DeSmithation and Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular.

I found interesting the prison brawl parallelism with the Matrix episode, bcs it shows how things somehow always turn unrealistically, positively funny and light for Rick, who just goes with the flow like in a 90' action movie, while Morty lives in f*cking breaking bad episode whenever is left alone, and he gets constantly f*cking stabbed/assaulted/chocked/kicked/shot/mutilated, wat-the-hell-is-going-on 💀💀

Another interesting thing about the shirt-shot on the shoulder reference, is Morty Prime vs Evil Morty reaction to getting shot: Morty has never been shot (if I recall correctly, only his toxic self was) and there’s in fact a huge difference between how Evil Morty handles the situation vs Prime; we could in fact speculate that Morty Prime is a little bit of a pussy and that he should grow up, but that would be a toxic and little bit mean thing to say, and even a little bit untrue maybe, so, instead we will say that he is very inexperienced when compared to Evil Morty 💀

I needed to include more pictures/points but I'll make separate post bcs it's just too much stuff, I'm considering making video abt these analyses bcs one post isn't enough, and like making a short post right after the episode, with just some random impressions and then a full video for the day after, idk (also, I'm shy, I'm not a native speaker u_u' )

Thank you for reading my stuff 💛💛

[danandphileselevel4]

What are your fav danisnotonfire videos?

Thanks for the question anon!

I feel like I have to include an old school and a more recent video. I’m also going to cheat and assume you’re asking about all Dan videos and not just pre rebrand to Daniel Howell.

My old school pick is FANDOMS:

Because it speaks to me and how Dan and Phil have ruined my life (affectionately). It also reminds me that Dan gets it and deep down he is a fangirl just like all of us. Shout out to its kind of sequel video “Fictional Friends” as well. I wish Dan would do a 2025 update video essay on this topic tbh.

My more recent pick (and this may be controversial) is Louise teaches Dan to be a Daddy:

First of all, my take on Dystopia Daily was - you’re giving me literally any Dan content?? Yes please. I get if some people at the time didn’t like the tone but I will take anything. Dan is an actor and comedian and he was playing the character up (mostly). Also, the people who thought he was “mean” to Louise in this video.. listen she would not be there if she didn’t want to be. He would not post it if she didn’t want him to. They are friends and adults. I’m an old school watcher of the Brit crew and OG YouTube as well, so any collab Dan does I love to see. This video was SO fucking funny. The amount of giggles it gave me!!!

Honorable mentions: Basically I’m Gay (BIG) because I’m an emotional sap, but we just had the anniversary and my pinned post on my page highlights my specific thoughts on that video.

What are your favorite videos? :)

Send me any DNP related asks!

[astradyke]

m thinking abt the whole bit in the phaniversary video where they’re talking abt flirting w waiters bc i personally don’t strong care for jealous dan being like the truth to end all truths but it’s so fucking funny that phil is gorgeous and a flirt and dan has a thousand yard stare that makes him incapable of recognizing attractive men in his midst & he’s mildly mad about it. loony toons scenario. good thing he was like fervently obsessed w phil . sorry if this post sucks iknso tired

[geniusphilester]

it occurred to me that a bingo card often has twenty-five squares, and we're going into 2025, so it seemed appropriate to go a little OTT with my phan-in-2025 predictions! i had a better vision for the bingo board's look than the actual predictions, but here's what i came up with.

PH column:

dog hill: might be cheating to include this one considering the extensive breadcrumbing, but i’m adding it anyway.

sims science baby: my chaotic predictions last year had dab and evan + a science baby. i’m rolling it over to 2025.

jan promo metaphor: if dan and phil do any tour promo leading up to the next leg of TIT, we’ll get another promo metaphor. i’m convinced it'll be before phil’s birthday, but i put “january” as a whole because it fit better.

TIT recording: i just need to see TIT again as much as i want, okay!!!

date night: another easy one, but i love when they go out and i love when we get photos of it, so this is specifically “we’ll get photos of a general outing”. while i’ll count tour stuff in a pinch, i’m more thinking something post-tour. like, something around london or maybe brighton.

i column:

goodbye twitter: i think dan will at least test the waters off twitter, probably on bluesky. i would love if they fully crossposted/just did announcements on twitter, but i’ll count any further moves off twitter for this one.

phil novel: i kind of love the thought of phil writing a long, fictional story during tour. is it likely? probably not. do i want an embarrassing sex scene that phil reads in the audiobook? absolutely.

april fool’s phwedding: okay, look. i don’t actually think they’re getting married. but if they got engaged or fully hitched, they would announce it on april fool’s day and not clarify if they’re kidding. after nbsii and onlyphans, how else could they escalate? (i’m scared to learn the potential answer.) they would only talk about it on april fool’s day and we’d never hear about it from them again.

dan bday stream: the chances of a phil birthday stream seem low to me, unless they do it early or late. i think a dan birthday stream is more likely, especially if they take a decent break after tour (especially with a puppy) (puppy stream!!!).

dil dies briefly: sims 4 life and death has expanded death features, including funerals and reincarnation. while i think it’s more likely they’ll focus on dab + evan and dalien in the near future, i bet dan loves the idea of actually killing dil while still keeping him around.

n column:

dan hair: i just want him to grow it out! a shaggier mullet would be great, but i want fully chin-length hair, especially with his waves.

tops only model: i’m sure this one looks weird, but i thought it would be funny if they commissioned PJ to build them a model of a tops only bar. or if some random phannie did it on roblox, and they visited it.

free (hard launch): this is technically a free space that i’ll be able to use no matter what. my feelings on the hard-launch concept are too complicated for a post like this. but if they announce their relationship in a way that randos outside the phannie ecosystem would consider more official, that will also be this space.

it takes two: while i specifically want more it takes two, i just want a multipart narrative game series. something like deltarune would also count.

phil tattoo: phil got really close to getting a tattoo before! if he had a less-potentially-offensive idea, i think it could really happen in 2025.

g column:

concert: what it says on the square. it could be something like dan seeing mcr, or both of them caring about oasis? (i would say muse, but i don’t think they’re touring right now.)

sister daniel retires: i hope i don’t use this square! but i could understand dan taking a break from her for a little while.

produce a game: my original thought was funding a video game about themselves, somewhat akin to danandphilbeats. but then i realized a board/card game would be more likely. so one or both of those.

phil tiktok (maybe): phil goes viral on tiktok. this one’s a maybe because i think it would only happen if tiktok survives in the US; he has time before it's likely to disappear, but not much, and he’ll be doing shows for some of it. not that the US is the only surviving pillar of tiktok! phil just has a substantial audience in the US, which i think would help with virality.

couples costume 2.0: i liked their aziraphale-crowley costumes, but i think we can level up in 2025. jedus?

o column:

philming room: i want to know why phil stopped filming in the room with the murphy bed, and i bet we’ll either get some kind of answer or a return to the room in 2025.

overseas vacation: something that isn’t tour! like another japhan. i wouldn’t count anything tacked onto the end of TIT unless someone who didn’t tour with them comes along.

gamingmas: i just missed gamingmas this year, so i’d love another one! i would gladly take another spooky week with or instead of gamingmas, though. or dilmas.

isle of man pic: i want to see both dan and phil on isle of man visiting phil’s parents again. is that so much to ask?

dan on drag race: i don’t even know if there’s a drag race he would be invited on, but i want to see it!

[kittyplushy]

Ok real talk that comic dub channels video of Dan getting high keeps coming up and all I say is this:

1.) she did it once to assimilate in college and possibly durning it she felt or heard those voices ( as it does have that effect for someone)

2.) to say this happened in house guest, probably not unless it happened by accident and the whole time is either them watching Sam’s favorite musical ( ironically it would be that 1983 short based on a musical “ possibly in Michigan “ ) or they actually talk

But seriously they need to stop what next Sam dabs and gets embarrassed in public asmr? lol

OHHH Mannn I hate Noir Rabbit's fanfictiony dubs..I'm Neutral about the voice acting (still heavily dislike her interpretation of Sam!!) but the fanfiction is so tone deaf to the entire series, and this is really rich coming from someone who writes self ship fanfiction, but it completely misses the mark on character intentions...especially that kareoke dub. I'm so sorry...please stop...

Headcanon: Approved. Maybe she does smoke weed every now and then but they only intensify the voices, so she'll steer away from them as much as she could.

I'd love to write this, this is funny bc I do write that after Julianne finds out Sam is a serial killer, they smoke weed she stole from a guy she killed (as a mirror to praludium) and offers it to Julianne. Thing is I don't know how to write people getting high, I can't imagine it bc if I search it up there's a high chance I get killed (Philippines, man!), and my exfriend in a 2020 fanfiction server laughed at me when I first attempted writing a high character and said "Jenkins, it's obvious you don't even know a lick of what weed is"

Yes,,, I can't imagine what territory Noir Dubs will take with these weird ass dubs. I'm scared and I'm just bothered by how dimissive they are of the themes of BTTWNS and WHY you should also hate Nigel. EVEN IF SAM IS THE WORST PERSON BETWEEN THEM, THIS DOES NOT ERASE THE FACT HE KILLED PEOPLE. THIS DOES NOT ERASE HE STALKED PEOPLE. THIS DOES NOT ERASE HIM STALKING AND TAKING PHOTOS OF ONE *WOMAN* SPECIFICALLY AND DOING ALL OF THAT TO IMPRESS HER SPECIFICALLY. THEN THROWING AN ENTITLED FIT WHEN SHE RIGHTFULLY GETS ANGRY AT HIM.

#1 Noir Rabbit hater..please...stop...

[bitchslapblastoids]

Can I ask how much you talk to your partner about Dan and Phil and how do you talk about them? As someone who is not/has not been in a serious relationship, I find it hard to imagine how I would talk to someone about this, given my level of obsession. I don’t even really talk to friends about it. Like, do you talk about fic? Do you show your partner their videos? How did/will you bring up Iceland?

You don’t have to answer this if it’s too personal- totally get it! I’m honestly just so curious when I see phannies talk about their partners who aren’t also phannies.

Hi I actually really love this question bc it’s def something I think about fairly often, bc the tension is real. I am openly thirsting over these men, I have a real life partner, I share a life with him, but I also spend like a third of my life online thinking about the lives of these two dudes….it’s a thing. Just a heads up, my answer got really long.

My partner pretty fundamentally doesn’t get Dan and Phil’s whole thing, so I don’t show him vids or talk much about specific goings-on in the d&p landscape, bc it’s just a bummer to try and articulate or share something knowing it ain’t gonna land, lol. Even trying to explain the tour each time I came home from it all giddy made me feel like language was a hindrance and an impossible barrier to surmount. It’s just so hard to explain d&p’s brilliance when you don’t have some basis of common knowledge to draw on. It’s also hard to make someone else get the inherent appeal of two people’s chemistry and connection if they aren’t inclined to gaf about that kind of thing.

But he does know pretty much the full extent of my whole thing going on here lol. He’s seen my blog, sometimes I show him a post if I’m particularly proud of it/think it’s especially funny, I’ll talk to him about mutuals I’m chatting with sometimes or things happening on here that are specific to and exciting for me…basically I’m deeply uncool about it all. And yeah he knows about my fic (he hasn’t read any and I hope to god he never will, but i talk to him about broad strokes of plot in my longer fics, and he knows i write smut as well). I’m around him all the time when im writing so it’d be a pretty massive thing to hide, plus the process of writing/publishing Bowl of Oranges and its reception was sooooooo meaningful and giddying for me, so it was kind of all I could talk about for a bit there. He was/is wonderfully supportive and is happy that I’m writing and putting stuff out there.

i talked to him about Iceland the other week when i was close to impulse buying a ticket after the tysons shows, and he was down! If i follow through with booking a flight and hotel, he would come (not to TIT just to Iceland) and we’d just make a mini trip out of it. He’s used to me spending dumb amounts on concerts and we’re still fairly independent with our finances, so the money stuff isn’t an issue.

We’ve known each other for so so so long so he really understands my obsessive personality. We’re both quite strange and atypical in our own ways and I think have learned how to grow around eachother’s oddities and be patient and curious with one another rather than judgmental.

There are times I worry about my screen time and that I’m becoming too entrenched in fandom world at the expense of physical world, and i think at times I can neglect nurturing my relationship with him/all kinds of other components of life, bc the dopamine of phannie tumblr is a powerful fucking drug. So i try and be mindful of that. Definitely something im still working on.

To be completely honest about another tricky thing - I have definitely gotten stuck in a comparison trap before, of wishing that my connection and communication with my partner was as inherently easy and joyful and silly and immediate and Dan and Phil’s seems to be. My partner and I have many different interests, so while there are tons of things we connect over, there are also tons of things we can’t really share in the joy of experiencing with one another, and sometimes I’ve held Dan and Phil up as this paragon of love in comparison, feeling salty that I didn’t have what they have. I’ve gotten over that though, bc it’s definitely on the harmful side of parasocial; we only see some of their time and lives and they obviously have differences and disagreements too, and differences are good. And to be frank, will I ever have what they have (someone you grow up with and share 99% of your interests with and can share every dimension of your life with and not burn out on their company)? Of course not. I do think it’s pretty remarkable and special and I think most people in life won’t. And that’s ok because I also feel deeply fortunate to be with the person I’m with and I choose him year after year.

To touch on an elephant in the room - telling him I write smut fic was the thing I put off the longest bc I was scared/embarassed/felt kind of guilty about it all. And then I did and it was literally so fine. Idk, he’s great and I’m very lucky. I do have to be rly mindful of how the fantasy of it can impact my sexual desire. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about Dan and Phil’s life and relationship and, let’s be honest, sex life, and so shaking myself out of that and remembering to be embodied in myself and my relationship and my sexual partner can be a challenge. This feels weird and pretty vulnerable to talk about on here bc it kind of lays bare how you really can’t just compartmentalize this shit to one tidy section of your time and brain. but I can’t imagine other people don’t also find themselves in a similar position.

In sum, I do have a hard time with balance in life, and this is all something i think I’ll always be working on finding better balance with. But it’s not hurting anyone, it’s not rly hurting me, and it’s brought a lot of joy and creativity and connection to my life, so I try not to be hard on myself about it! I’m also deeply fortunate to have a partner who gets me and accepts me and is wholly nonjudgmental.

I’d rather die than anyone else in my life see this blog though. I have a couple friends who know I write fic and have a tumblr, but only the ones who I know are also into fandoms of their own and therefore get it. I’d reeeeeeally rather die than anyone I know irl see my ao3 that’d truly be the end. 🙃🙃🙃

Ok thank you for the question clearly I have a lot to say!!!!!

[footprint-in-the-snow]

I actually desperately want someone to explain every reference in the SATVB art please <3

okay so i havent figured out Everything but this is most of what i can gather. sorry there arent links to specific references im not supposed to be doing this i need to be packing for uni 😭 but this is everything off the top of my head !

starting from the left wall theres the peep show poster which matty has said to be his favourite show in a reddit comment, idk what the streets poster is a reference to, the ghost on an island is an antichrist reference 'theres a ghost on this island' and then the petrol can is an its not living reference as 'danny works in a petrol station'

so the back wall obviously the cancelled banner for lols, 4 days since last incident as a general meme reference?, do not use emergency only is likely a reference to mattys abstinence from social media and being a bit OTG, flushed away poster is obvious, the fake matty quote which he never said and was on the problematic, oasis poster as they need to stop marding and get back together!!! from Q with Tom Powell and various other Oasis call outs, Maroon 5 as problemattic beef, Newcastle United as duh, Frozen as he referenced liking frozen in a couple 2014 interviews particularly the moshcam (?) one, idk about the IDs and then the box from the philharmonic orchestra album, the icon from the mind shower detox thing they did for notes which was a 3d tour thing that's still up and then the height chart as matty is short <3 and the good boy points which i dont know what it is referring to specifically but i think its funny

now the window/right wall has la poesie est dans la rue is etched into the tree and is an easter egg in quite a few music videos and is a reference to love it if we made it, the minion i assume is a reference to the deuxmoi thing of matty sending minion memes to a girl, and then a camera i assume is a general comment on the lack of privacy you get as a celebrity and 'house with just three walls' etc

the couch and table has matty smoking and chained to the couch as a reference to the consumption bit and could be reference to the idea that he is stuck in a position of his own doing, hann is a wizard i presume as a hobbit reference? and then the dubai and malaysia flags as he got banned,oxygen tank from consumption, cross due to the religious signposting on his ig story and a juxtaposition to his atheism, thesaurus for those big words, infinite jest as its referenced in sincerity is scary, wine, cigarettes, xanax as a reference to 'Xanax and a newport' in part of the band, i live cum mug from the problemattic, american flag as a lot of their music is informed by Americana especially on notes(? maybe also just because america)

then on the floor here theres the coke bottles as matty cannot be seen without one, the piss/apple juice from when he was spotted with gabbriette, the fox i saw on twitter means temptation so could be a very subtle hint towards temptation from porn and the right and so on, raw meat from consumption and its being 'swept under the rug' so could be a metaphor for matty being problematic and it being glossed over by him, hairdye as there was twitter rumour he dyed his grays and matty has previously said he would not, flame and wok box as the boys used to work there, typewriter from the typed up letters he used to do but u dont know what 'im not a beatnik im a catholic' is a reference to, true romance is one of mattys favourites and was a key inspiration for the robbers video

i have no clue what this is other than human blunt? and seeds and beans? as a gyat reference? help?

this corner has the married computer so man who married a robot, lotion and tissues for activities, cow with glassjaw hoodie as a nod to when we are together and also the nme interview where he mentions that hoodie as the one he put on at 13 and took off at 19 if im correct, grass block from satvb promo, tent could be a nod to reading and leeds? then skeleton with the lab coat i dont know exactly but i think it could be another problemattic reference with me on the brain, and then 2013 george with his blue gatorade as in most gigs you can see his blue gatorade with its own stand!! (though i watched trsmnt the other day and it was orange) and he is producing i think it could have been drawn from a photo but i cba to find it

and last but not least, ross!!! who is also jesus as there were lots of memes surrounding him looking like jesus or being a personal jesus and so on, also could be to do with the problemattic post of ricky gervais on the cross for being an atheist, penguin!! because ross likes penguins, bees are a manchester symbol, beer, robber with the iconic 2014 shirt, greggs sausage roll i presume from when one got thrown onstage but also the twitter meme of 'i saw matty crying in x greggs' and then i think the last on is a mortal kombat character and nearly forgot but ross also has a lamp as he turned off the lamps at the end of when we are together during atvb on stage

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Fics That Start With F (4) Masterlist

part one, part two, part three

faded like yesterday (bright like tomorrow) (ao3) - dizzy

Summary: Dan existentially spirals about the things he can't remember anymore. Phil's just playing a video game.

fall in love again and again (ao3) - manchesterau

Summary: Two days into their holiday while lounging by the villa pool that they rented out for the week to ensure maximum privacy, Dan has a thought:

I’m going to marry this boy.

Fall in love again and again (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: An evening, right before tour. Phil thinks about feeling lucky and different ways to take care of someone.

Fall Right Into Me (ao3) - euphor7a

Summary: "Any plans for the full moon on the 15th, kings? It’s the Beaver Moon. Maybe we’ll turn into were-lesbians."

Falling for You (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: Dan is at the front door waiting for Phil, eager to get outside so he can put his secret plan in motion when he hears a chilling thud of his partner colliding with the bathroom tiles.

Falling for you (ao3) - dnpangels

Summary: Dan and Phil are cuddling in Phil's tour bus bunk. When Dan slips and falls out of the bunk, he wakes up the entire tour crew. Fluff and teasing from the crew ensues.

falling into lava (for a second, forever) (ao3) - jonsaremembers

Summary: Dan did a thing and Phil's so proud of him.

False God (ao3) - ForeverJustAnEmoKidAtHeart

Summary: After a stupid fight, Dan has been in the office editing the Easter Baking video for the entire afternoon. He specifically told Phil not to disturb him but was amazed (and worried) that Phil didn't.

family (ao3) - hello456there

Summary: Dan and Phil unexpectedly have to babysit their niece

Feels Right (ao3) - philforscale

Summary: Dan proposes.

Find (ao3) - imademon

Summary: A fic based on the WDAPTEO 2 text exchange shown at the beginning of the fic: "pope" "slime" "where are u" "find". Dan is having a bad day and Phil goes to find him and comfort him as best as he can.

Find Me Again (ao3) - llama_sidekick

Summary: Phil wanders into the forest and upsets a forest spirit, right when a handsome stranger steps in to help him. Dan didn't plan his day to go this way but maybe it ends in a pleasant surprise.

Finish Line (ao3) - dnpangels

Summary: Six Months after Dan and Phil broke up, Phil is already moving out and in a relationship, but Dan feels like his life has been put on pause. Through his pain, Dan tries to move on, but he is constantly reminded of the memories he made with Phil.

First Day Jitters (ao3) - dprkives

Summary: Dan comforts a nervous Phil about meeting his audience again after 6 years.

first impression (ao3) - possumdnp

Summary: It's October 19th, and Phil feels like a nervous wreck.

(A fic based on Phil saying in "Date Night with Dan and Phil" that his first impressions of Dan were "posh and confident.")

First Love/Late Spring (ao3) - leewritesstuff

Summary: Dan and Phil are a ranch metaphor.

Dan and Phil are the moon and the ocean.

Dan and Phil are first loves.

Phil left in late spring.

Five Nights at Poppy's (ao3) - skygremlin

Summary: Dan think's it's funny when he catches Phil talking in his sleep about a threesome with Freddy Fazbear and Josh Hutcherson. Little does he know, Phil's subconscious gets a whole lot stranger, as Phil dreams up a world where they're stuck in Poppy Playtime under the suffocating watch of Mommy Longlegs, tasked to create hot pizzas rather than hot threesomes. And just maybe, Dan might like the idea too.

Fix You (ao3) - emodnp

Summary: Dan deals with some painful memories and feelings and has a good and important conversation with Phil.

Float (ao3) - Aliquis

Summary: Dan's a professional, after all, and this is his job. Just another day at the office in front of hundreds of their grown-up fans whose expectations exited the stratosphere somewhere between his last two posts on socials. Fuck.

Flying home to you (ao3) - harrysbabyboo

Summary: I just found out Dan flew back from the Australian leg of his ‘we’re all doomed’ tour for Phil’s birthday and I am DEVASTATED.

for all the joy that is to come (ao3) - foxtrot_writes

Summary: Dan heals his inner child in the back of a theater

(TW) for who more foolish than I (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: Classes felt dull and gray. Just like last year’s. And the year before that.

Every year Dan grew a little taller, a little older, and every year, everyone told him that this was the year that really mattered. This was the year he’d get to choose more of his classes and find out his passion and live his dreams or whatever. And every year it was the same. Drab classrooms, boring lectures, pounds of busy work.

Except for Mr. Schostack’s classroom, it turned out.

for your eyes only (ao3) - blossomsphan

Summary: and they were roommates

(the fluffy tatinof bed sharing fic no one asked for in 2024… or did they?)

Forever & Always (ao3) - ForeverJustAnEmoKidAtHeart

Summary: This was written for possumdnp who wanted a fluffy tour fic. I hope you like it.

forever is in your eyes (ao3) - starrydnp (starrydoie)

Summary: but forever ain't half the time i wanna spend with you

Fourth (Crystals, Blisters) (ao3) - amyoffline

Summary: A series of strange events in Shibuya leads to Dan and Phil... getting married? Maybe? (In which they are caught up in one of the objectives of the Reaper's Game during their 2015 vacation to Japan.)

found wanting (something more) (ao3) - indistinct_echo

Summary: I want to be able to tell you this. I want to be able to tell you everything.

A fic about wants and the bravery it takes to chase them.

french toast, again (ao3) - buskingalbatross

Summary: Dan's ice cream shop dream, sort of. Not really.

from emo to angel (ao3) - starlightphil (adreaminthedark)

Summary: “Oh my god you did it. Crisis twink era.” “Isn’t it my crisis twunk era at this point? You did a whole thing where you claimed I went through twink death, remember?”

Phil surprises Dan with a new hair color.

frozen in time and space (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: It’s 3:30 in the morning and Dan hasn’t been able to stop looking.

fuck being remembered, i think i was made for you (ao3) - cutekai

Summary: valentine’s day in the phouse

[accirax]

Look at this: https://x.com/chuckecheesez/status/1852077124057759864

Best DC crossover in the history of the internet! (2nd half here)

Also this is the best part for me

😆😆😆

OOOOH it's a crossover between the first generation characters (is that what i should be calling them now? yeesh) and the DC4 cast! that's so fun! i really like the limited motion of this video, it really sells that old timey/kinda hokey feeling. plus Thriller is always a banger.

i agree that that part was probably my favorite part in the video. the detail of Drew holding up the paper that says "BRAINS" is so funny to me. my guy, nobody else in this video is talking. you could've gotten away with it. but the artist paid attention to the details. that's quality craftsmanship right there.

more tweet asks below the cut!

I am about to cry... BABY DREW!!! 😭💛

aww, this is so cute! and very in-keeping with the style of the show, too. i love his little star hat, it makes him look like the protagonist of a bedtime story adventure :)

also, this art inspired me to look up whether people with selective mutism would make any sound when they cry or not. apparently the answer for many of them is no! i know that the noise isn't the only reason why people give babies pacifiers-- obviously you want them to not be upset as well, and i think there might be something beneficial about the sucking action-- but it's still an interesting difference to consider, imo.

Just found this Dan appreciation/analysis/rant post when I opened up Twitter, in case you or any of the "Dan Stans" might be interested. The thread does open some interesting perspectives in terms of the show's favoritism and the creators' writing abilities/choices. So you can check it out if you want.

speaking of interesting differences to consider, thank you for sharing this! i always enjoy hearing other people's perspectives on media, even if i don't agree with them, as long as they're 1) generally informed and 2) not overly hostile, which i don't think this person was. they were definitely angry, but it came from a place of passion, and they at least didn't insult anything personal about who Jared and Robert are... for the most part.

anyways, a good analysis! i know you said you have no interest in Danganronpa, but as a fellow elimination game, i can definitely draw parallels between that franchise and this. specifically, in behaviors i've noticed in fans.

these are probably over-generalizations, but i feel like you could roughly break down DC/DR fans into three broad categories. first, there are the people who like heroic characters that last for a long time-- in DC's case, your Miriams, your Aidens, or your Connors. they seem to pick their favorite characters based on who they think would be the coolest to hang out with irl, or who they would aspire to be like.

opposite them, there are the people who like the villainous characters that last for a long time, more like Alec, Fiore, or Riya. they seem to pick their favorite characters based on who they think provided the most intrigue for the story, whether in terms of driving the central conflict or promoting the story's themes.

those groups have obvious tension between each other, with the hero enjoyers often not understanding how their compatriots could "condone" such vile actions by stanning villains and the villain enjoyers often seeing any character without a penchant for mischief as "lacking depth."

and then, in their own little corner, there's the third group, who enjoys the characters who left the game early-- i would imagine, because they find it fun to fill in the gaps that canon left with their projections and headcanons.

as someone whose favorites are typically long-lasting villains (with long-lasting heroes as a close second), it's really interesting for me to hear the thought process of someone of the third category! to me, if i like a work of fiction, it seems natural to me to have a general preference for the characters that last longer, because they make up a greater percentage of that thing that i like. but i really like this analysis of Dan's character as it shows how much importance he had even as a relatively early, non-returnee boot, and how he had layers without the tragic backstory typical of DC characters.

however, i also understand where Jared and Robert were coming from in not bringing him back. in theory, if you like Disventure Camp, it's because you like all of the over-the-top drama and plot twists the show throws your way. i (mildly) disagree with the OP's point that bringing Dan back would have been good as a way of differentiating their plot lines, because while that may have been true, it also sort of goes against the fundamentals of what DC has become. if that's not the kind of story that Jared and Robert wanted to tell, then they shouldn't be forced to write it.

not to mention, i could see why they would pass up on Dan for All Stars if they considered DC Season 1, as opposed to Adventure Camp, their second shot at Dan already. it's not a perfect solution, given that plenty of major characters from Adventure Camp continued to be major characters in DC1 and/or DCAS. however, if what this person wanted was "Dan transforms from a minor character into a more important role," that did already happen for him. he could have then become even more important in DCAS, but that loops back into "let Jared and Robert write the story they want to tell." flawed as it may be, at least they're (presumably) having fun if they're writing what they want as opposed to what the fans want.

and, on that note, i also personally perceived the "who's Dan?" comments and the idea of bringing him back to boot him first as more of a meme than anything else. but, i haven't read many of Jared's tweets nor am i in the DC discord, so i could be missing important context there. plus, i'm sure it'd sting to hear that about your favorite underrepresented character, even if it wasn't meant as a joke.

ramble over! at the very least, we can all agree that Genesis did a fantastic job voicing Dan :D i hope he gets cast in more roles in the future, whether in DC or otherwise.

[angevinyaoiz]

Hiii, I'm a newbie :') Could you recommend me books and documentaries about Richard and Philip, and that period in general (12th century)? I read somewhere that a new book about their relationship came out recently. Thank you <3

Hi! Thanks for asking. Its funny since I still think of myself as a "newbie" in a lot of ways since I just got into this whole mess of 12th Century England/France drama probably around like last December, so there are definitely lots of people who know more (ppl, feel free to suggest anything if I haven't mentioned it)

To my knowledge there aren't any specific books or sources that are just about their interactions (aside from That One Recent Fiction book that is. Well that's it's OWN thing lmao) but since the family affairs of the Angevin-Plantagenets and the French kings were very closely entwined with the rest of the family and various other parties, there's lots of overlap.

I personally love it because on one hand it's Free Soap Opera Entertainment, and on the other, a look at a time and environment that is very fascinating and extremely different than the time we live in now. Here I've listed the different books and video I've gotten around to, my thoughts on them, as well as some of my thoughts on uhhhh historical RPF shipping in general:

Books:

The Plantagenets by Dan Jones - An overview of the dynasty overall. A good general read, and available as audiobook! Should be available in most libraries. I haven't finished it since I've only read up to the reign of Henry III, but it presents the overall timeline in an entertaining and straightforward way, with a lot of general context and room for showing the colorful personalities of these Messy Bitches

Henry the Young King by Matthew Strickland - this is probably my FAVORITE of the books I've read so far! Sadly out of print, but it's available to borrow on The Internet Archive, and copies can be found pretty easily on eBay :) It focuses on Henry II's original heir, the titular Henry the Young King, eldest of his son who was co-crowned with him, rebelled against him, fought against Richard in Aquitaine, and died early. It goes into a study of his person and role in the politics of the day, how kingship and war were viewed in the 12th century and a lot about the weird lord/vassal relationship between the French and English Kings that made up the bulk of the conflict and drama. Very long and comprehensive, but very readable. I came away with a much better understanding of everything from this book especially.

Richard the Lionheart: King and Knight by Jean Flori. Flori has a very entertaining writing style that somehow is very funny to me when he's talking about the interpersonal dramas, especially with Philip during and after the crusades. The first half is a biography, the latter half of the book is devoted to exploring the concept of chivalry and how it developed, and also exploring subjects of Richard's legend and image

He has many amusing but overall respectful beefs with fellow historian John Gillingham's scholarship throughout, especially in regards to the much debated subject of his sexuality.

Richard I by John Gillingham - haven't finished this one yet but enjoying what I've read so far. Gil is more detailed in some aspects, which is pretty fun. Apparently he has a reputation (from Flori) for being a bit too much of a Richard fanboy which I haven't come across yet but he is informative, including accounts from Muslim historians during the Third crusade.

I haven't read as much specific media/biographies about Philip and the Capetians, and thus all my media is very Plantagenet-biased. there is an educational graphic novel in French that looks interesting but I don't have access to it (and also I don't speak French but. Ah well). For my purposes however since the role of Louis Vii and Philip II are very entwined with the story of the Angevins we do get a pretty decent look into people's personalities, decisions and behaviors, and how they viewed loyalty and kingship in a lot of the books above.

VIDEOS

"Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty" timeline documentary centering about King Henry and his drama with Becket and his sons and hosted by Dan Jones (who also wrote The Plantagenets, which I listed in the books section) It's a pretty fun and understandable intro, even if the overly dramatic faux Game of Thrones reenactment is really corny and also hard to see because the lighting is SO dim. It's a little oversimplified and focuses a bit too much on analyzing Henry's Personality as the source of his Issues rather than maybe looking at a wider picture, but it's fun and very beginner friendly.

Confessions de l'histoire - french web series in a reality show "confessional" style about historical figures, there's a video on the 2nd crusade (focuses on Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII's relationship), and one on the 3rd crusade (with Richard and Philip) It's very comedic focused but from what I've watched includes a LOT of detail. It scratches my itch for that goofy edutainment but good quality.

Secrets de Histoire - Alienor d'Aquitaine - this one is also french only but documentary focusing on Eleanor's life . It also has very goofy Reenactors in it with one of the worst wigs I've ever seen, as well as reusing footage from the earlier documentary and other movies loool

"The Place of Battle in the Context of Civil War c. 1100-1217" Lecture by Matthew Strickland about how people viewed (or avoided) Battles specifically in the context of civil wars and dynastic contexts. - I love watching lectures by the authors of books ive read, and this one is both very watchable and provides some great context!

On Shipping

My approach to my yaoi delusions (both in general fiction and in perceptions of historical people) is mostly that i am less concerned about "was XYZ queer FOR REAL," since while I do find serious discussions of historical queer history etc very interesting, a lot of this is more separately blasting my problematic sicko radioactive beam of perception in any direction lol. I like seeing characters who are tied up in a web of context (especially familial/dynastic context) and I love knowing familial-cultural background since it gives me a lot of fun material to work with for characterization. Learning more details the better for me, since a lot of the reality is stranger and more fortuitous than fiction , and thats what makes the characters unique, having so many angles to them. But also in the end, it really is all a delusion informed by my very 21st century fujo inventor taste, and I like keeping that in mind, as a sort of separate category from being informative haha. I could write about my headcanons and how I make things interact with the fictional portrayals, as well as thoughts on eh various problematicisms. But this has gone on long enough. Those are posts for another day...That being said I'm weak for both serious drama behavior and really silly drama behavior and the way people come across in these books especially lend itself well to both .

Hope this was somewhat helpful! I enjoyed reading a lot of this a lot, it's a fascinating subject, thanks for giving me a chance to ramble about it.

[lavender-phannie]

Hi hello I wanted to share my story of how I started watching dnp bc everyone’s stories are so fun! Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, I tend to overthink and write every little detail and it’s a lot lmao.

So it was January 2016 and I had recently got a Wii U (I only had a Wii for a while lmfao) and I was super into Mario kart 8. I got super hyperfixated on like Mario game soundtracks out of nowhere and idk how I remember this but it was specifically the super Mario world overworld theme that I watched when an ad started playing. It was Dan and Phil promoting TABINOF going to Barnes and Noble in the us and for some reason I was interested and didn’t skip. I don’t remember who I looked up first but I watched a ton of videos right away.

The first Phil video I watched was of him watching his old home videos of his childhood, and I think the first Dan video was the one where he looked at his 12 year old website and I thought the do not click section was super funny. I think the first gaming video was Mario kart 8, and I found out about undertale bc of their playthrough lmao. I know the exact date (January 16 2016) bc I wrote a little journal entry about it for some reason lmao.

Anyways time went on, I kept watching them throughout all of middle school, I went to tatinof in Vegas when I was literally 12 years old despite being from the east coast and having to fly there?? I went to II in a state that was closer to me in 2018 lmao, and I just kept watching them even throughout the gaming channel hiatus bc despite not being as hyperfixated they still meant a lot to me and I loved seeing what they had to say whenever they uploaded on their main channels.

The gaming channel revival has made my hyperfixation stronger and I’m excited for what’s next :)

Oooh anon you and I joined the fandom at a very similar time! (I joined December 2015) and they also introduced me to undertale!

Anyway wow!!! Their ads actually worked that’s wild??? I was about to say I can’t imagine getting a fandom related ad but then I suddenly had this memory come back to me where I got an ad for a song called “thank you dan and phil” when I was like 14 and honestly it was a banger I listened to it a lot after that!! (Sorry random tangent 😅)

And same all through the hiatus I stuck by them (mostly, I think I had a brief dip in interest at one point) cause they impacted me so much as a young teen!

[stabosins4]

dont know if you expected anyone to do all of these dont know if anyones gonna read these here we go

1. difficult to say. I'm very distant but stil in contact with my mom, I appreciate she's trying to improve but until she's willing to admit she hurt me we'll never be close. I'm very close with my dad, but I don't feel safe around him and feel he's been mislead by his therapists and doctors into thinking his behavior is not his choice.

2. My dad! I say it every time I end a conversation with anyone!

3. Yeah. I think if you don't regret things you haven't done anything at all.

4. No. I realized at a point that being insecure was annoying for everyone around me, so I stopped. I like to say I "hated myself into loving myself".

5. Not in a romantic relationship, never will be in one. But I've recently been thinking about my best friend (if you follow me, you'll knpw her as The Lesbian) as a dan-and-phil-like platonic soulmate, semi-QPR.

6. I accepted at some point I'm going to die of suicide, but not in a way where I'm planning for it to happen soon. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die by my own hands, I guess.

7. Leftover tacos

8. I used to play soccer when I was really little, I also did cross country, but the asthma + fainting disorder sorta got activated by covid and I'm probably never gonna be much of an athlete. I do do musical theater tho! And that is one HELL of a work out!

9. Yes, habitually. When I was super little I couldn't use soap when I washed my hands because it would get in the wounds from where I bit and burn so bad.

10. I don't think I will ever be in a physical fight. I'm very weak and cowardly. I know better.

11. No.

12. Probably, but I can't remember a specific event.

13. I was in a cult for 3 years. Yeah. There's someone I hate.

14. I was in a cult for 3 years. Yeah. There's someone I miss.

15. Yep! 2 dogs, Chewey and Harley, and a cat, who we just call The Kitten (she was initially named after an anime character, and everyone immediately forgot her name)

16. Inexplicably sad.

17. No.

18. Horribly terrifed. This is funny because my bestie loves spiders.

19. I don't think I would. There's a lot of good in my life that wouldn't be the same if I had a happier childhood.

20. My bedroom, several years ago.

21. Clean up where the dog pissed on the floor again, maybe sweep up around the pianos. Mostly just relax.

22. I hope to be a foster parent someday. I was in foster care for a very short period of time and I want to be able to make scary things like that less scary for kids like me.

23. Just the two regular earlobe piercings. Mom pierced them when I was just baby. I rarely wear earrings, tho.

24. English. Everyone always thinks its art, but I hate being told what to make with my art, I'd rather just draw for fun. English is easy when you're traumatized.

25. You already asked this question. Yeah, I miss a lot of people from my past.

26. Coffee ice cream, all the time, always. Actually coffee generally. I'm gonna get some coffee after this.

27. Not as far as I'm aware.

28. No.

29. Not as far as I'm aware.

30. I'm stressed about preparing for college, and my therapist's on vacation but her message isn't clear on if she'll be back for our session next week.

31. Lots of people love me.

32. Probably indigo, like, a dark indigo, maybe leaning a little more blue than purple.

33. Sort of. I struggle to believe that people aren't talking about me behind my back.

34. Balatro, the video game.... im playing too much.

35. My therapist, yesterday.

36. Depends. I certainly give second chances when it's clearly just someone's mental health doing poorly and they want to get better, otherwise no.

37. Forget. I have almost no function long term memory lol

38. God, no. Yes, but god no. It feels like the whole world is against me (as a disabled queer transmasc agender person) but personally I'm doing the best I've ever been mentally, I have great friends, I'm going to college, and I'm creatively fufilled.

39. 12 I think?

40. Nope.

Skipped some, cool :)

51. Chef Boyardee Cheese Ravioli. Yeah, I'm diagnosed.

52: No. Things just happen, we just have to get through it, the end.

53. Prayed

54. No. But I don't believe in like "emotional" cheating like just cause you're attracted to someone that isnt cheating, you can't control attraction.

55. Yeah

56. Zero

57. I'm aromantic, not really. Is there platonic true love? I might believe in that.

58. Rain, but not thundering

59. I like looking at snow, I hate the cold tho

60. Only for tax purposes

61. No

62. My friends, my art, youtubers i love, my family, the stupid things my best friend says, when my loved ones infodump to me, my stuffed animals, protests, cheez-its, chocolate frosting, peanut butter cream pie, my brother's face when I give him the reeses cup off my piece of the peanut butter cream pie because i dont like the texture, old queer couples, soft blankets, my cool forest green t-shirts, newly-out trans people, the color orange, my torah, my pac-man earrings, my old kandi, brightly colored hair, hearing moms in public ask their babies to say things, being able to bring up things i learned in school, remembering rednote, remembering the dream smp, making lesbian couples in the sims 4, the new sims 4 pack!, my mom's crochet, the dinosaur banner hanging above the hallway, my old sketchbooks, my brother's weird taste in tiktoks, old minecraft youtubers, my best friend, my best friend's friends, that old minecraft server my best friend hosted, the narcissist cookbook, my guitar, the music I've written, my dad playing piano, elton john, billie joel, cloudy days, my squishmallows, coffee, baths, my dad and me doing weird reoccurring bits, pukicho, gaud, creaturesinposts, stimming, my hairy legs, my cat, my older brother, my eldest sibling, my inhaler, being off meds that made me emotionless, crying, living, breathing, existing. Existing makes me happy.

63. Already have four times, what's one more?

64. Very hard. Impossible. I couldn't even be in the same room as them.

65. Girl, we already broke up the one time, and you a lesbian, what's wrong with you? go to therapy. /j

66. Yeah, The Lesbian.

67. The Lesbian

68. I don't totally know what "deep conversation" entails, but it was probably The Lesbian.

69. Yeah, platonically.

70. The Lesbian, my dad, my younger brother.

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

[twiggyspuzzlegamearchive]

Riddle School: The Saga

By Jonbro

⭐️ 8/10 ⭐️

Played: Jan 20th-21st 2025

Status: Fully Completed

TW: Mention of Pedophila

Ok so, im not gonna do my usual format cause 1. Ik no ones seeing these and 2. I just wanna rant, cause like, i have sm to say ab both the games and the rabbit hole I went down ab the creator.

Ill start w the easy part, the games:

I first discovered them through my 11yr old selfs devotion to DanTDM. I wouldnt really call my feelings for him at the time romantic, more just someone to look up to. Nonetheless, i still diligently watched every single one of his posts. I loved specifically when he did multi-parters as the next instalment gave me something to look forward to when I got home. Riddle School was no different in that respect, just a funny lil game I watched my favourite youtuber play. When the games became more plot focused, i got really invested it them and the aliens storyline. I think I was dreaming about it for about a week after. Then Dan moved to the next series and Riddle School faded into the back of my memory.

Then this week, I was scrolling through my game site and there it was again. It had the same art style and puzzles I remember, though this time I didnt have much of a problem solving them. I worked my way through the series quickly, with each game giving me bits of that old nostalgia. I even remembered the twist ending and the photo album at the end. It just felt really good to connect w an old piece of myself when everything around me is changing so much. I wanted to pay respects to the person who brought this piece of my childhood to life, so i went back through each game and read the endnotes Jon had written. His openness and creativity was really inspiring to read, so I went to youtube to see if I could find what he was working on modern day.

I found that he'd also made that one egg fnaf spoof and a bunch of animations, but his most recent video was ...strange.

You can find it for yourself, i feel like I can't really do it justice rn. It should still be up on his channel.

It left me feeling like I was missing context, so I felt the need to look for it. I ended up watching Chazington's Jonochrome Vs The World, and that was really disappointing. I really don't like the thought that I was in Jon's preferred age range when I first found his work.

Chazington's video laid out the works and controversies really well, with a solid sense of humour and a vulnerable view point from someone who was once a fan themself.

There's not really a point to me writing this, ig go check out Chazington and put your respect in the art, not the artist.

[metrosexualcyclops]

“♫”

hiiii kitty thank you for the ask :333

Mr. Crowley by Ozzy Osbourne

the synths in the beginning are so so epic AND i just really like ozzy's vocals in this one!! itches a very specific part of my brain!!

2. I Am A Poseur by X-Ray Spex

listen if you haven't listened to anything by x-ray spex you definitely should. poly styrene is an absolute POWERHOUSE when it comes to singing. iirc she was trained to sing opera? and she definitely weaponises that in their music. not to mention a lot of the band's songs are just fucking fantastic. aside from this song, i really love their song Identity as well.

3. Mansion Party by Ninja Sex Party

this song is actually so funny HDJSKADN dan's nonchalant kind of singing coupled with the outrageous exaggerations of danny sexbang's wealth is hilarious, and the way it slowly devolves into chaos by the end of the song just adds to it all. and yes, you guessed it! i find the bass line sexy <3

4. Ruiner by Nine Inch Nails

i only ever listen to nin (especially the downward spiral album) whenever i'm really feeling horrible and shit's getting bad again, and i have to say that this song specifically gives me Some feeling of catharsis when i feel like utter shit. the harsh and rough instrumentals already make you feel some kind of way, but the song wouldn't be what it is without trent's vocals imo. the way he's kind of singing in a low, softer voice that manages to still drip with anger and resentment in the verses sets the mood for the song as well as the emotion behind it. and then when he screams the pre-chorus, it just adds to the emotion that the verse set up. the chorus feels almost mocking, and then the ending with him repeating the same thing over and over creates some kind of mood that i really can't describe. i really love this song

5. Starlight Brigade by TWRP

another band that more people really need to listen to. also!! this song features dani avidan!! the synths in this song are absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS and dan's vocals are wonderful as always. the music video is one of my favourite music videos, as well. the art style is beautiful and matches the song perfectly. the moment that chorus kicks in, i can visualise the mv so well and i just absolutely Ascend. i know i already said this but genuinely, dan avidan has a fantastic voice, and his harmonies in the chorus are amazing. my absolute FAVOURITE part of the song is the last chorus, because there's a key change there and it works SO well with the song that i can physically feel my soul leave body.

[alittlefrenchtree]

(Spotify part 2)

Oh cool, thank you! I really like the context notes each time. It adds some narrative behind your songs; it makes it personal, I think. Not that songs can't be personal in themselves, but I don't know. It's just nice to see how these musics and you met.

Well, I might share it yep. It would only be fair, after all. Probably not anonymously 'cause, at this point, I'm not sure that it changes anything (and even if it did, it wouldn't really matters I guess).

Ophelia: Of course you have. I love this song too (which appears in my 2023 playlist as well, by the way). It's very catchy. I can listen to it many times without getting bored.

Katoum: Well, I already know the guy, so it's hard to judge your explanation. But it seems clear to me, for what it's worth. In fact, I'm glad that you mentioned him. You reminded me that I didn't listen to his album enough; and that's a shame, 'cause it's actually good? I mean, of course, he is technically not a singer (some could say that he is since he literally made an album but, yeah, it's not his first job), but I like most of his songs.

(And we can't even compare him to Trivia, who is already well-known for her singing ability. She showed it several times, including at two - if I'm not wrong - concerts. Of course, it was also for the Z-Event, but she is just so talented. Oh and her work with PV Nova? Amazing.

Blinding Lights and Toxic are obviously in my 2023 recap. I will put the links - in case some people were lost here, in the French side of Tumblr, and wanted to discover a really good singer. I may not be utterly objective 'cause, well, I love her. But honestly, you could make an unexpected discovery).

https://open.spotify.com/track/51HwpMwkMJacQ32ircRGMZ?si=GeiaguXoSjWobdaBUuVIhw&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU

https://open.spotify.com/track/0PG40nP8ZNcRz6xEF4xfnh?si=XcaEL2wvS0ixMmA_wToN1Q&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU

Mh yes, that's understandable. He makes it hard not to like him, I guess. By the way, it's ok for him to be handsome and charismatic, I can live with it. But he shouldn't be allowed to have that voice as well.

I still listen to the 2021 Z-Event karaoke sometimes (my favourite one, I think). It makes me feel nostalgic - obviously - but that's also very pleasant to hear (and also funny at some specific moments).

And, well, from what I remember, I was quite surprised by ZeratoR back there. I didn't know that he sang, or at least never heard him (I don't have the chronology and so don't remember when the album goal came; but anyway, as he said himself, it's almost common for a famous video maker to do some songs now, mostly for fun, so it's hard to know at what point it is serious). His Graver dans la roche cover was definitely something.

So, yeah, I don't really follow ZeratoR (I guess that - for once - everything is perfectly healthy. 😌 ) I watch Twitch sporadically, following my current random interest (streamer or even video game), so nothing surprising here. But I'm still interested in some of his projects - and this one is definitely one of them.

Now, which are my favourite songs from him? I'm trying to drop some titles, but that's not that easy. I would mention Anonyme, Katoum, Ralentis and The Void (don't get me started on Antoine Daniel's voice 'cause fuck, it doesn't help).

Oh and the two last ones - I Say and Décennies - are not bad either. And let's not forget Lyrics, which I'm listening to right now (and probably a good one to discover his album as a non-French speaker, so I will put the link too; I seriously doubt that any lost soul will ever read it but, just in case, a link doesn't hurt).

https://open.spotify.com/track/04OhfYHHYCEap1coJgObAd?si=mcYjSkPhS3CJgnHXyQVLxA

https://open.spotify.com/track/2fqK2DYGXwysdU27vYlj9o?si=xWM9vdBlSKKpCZcxT57kfg

Belobezvodnoe & Moskva: Ooh it's interesting again! Not for the same reason I guess, 'cause I know nothing about Thylacine (not even his name). I also missed Arrête avec tes mensonges (like pretty much all the films this year). My last time at the movie theater was in September (if I don't forget anything), and it wasn't even for a discovery; so my true last time was in July with the last Pixar, Elemental (a very good surprise, by the way, I don't know if you saw it), which was a long time ago now that I'm thinking about it.

(Time flies again).

(I should take a cinema subscription. Well, it's not that easy of course; it's expensive. But at this point, it appears to be that or nothing. At least, with a subscription, you're quite "forced" to go (if not, it feels like a dumb waste; it's partially irrational, but it's here and it's a good motivation in itself) and - more important - you can go like that, just to give it a try. You can't waste anything else but time - which seems freeing. It's just about you and your envy. Nothing more, nothing less).

I don't even know what Arrête avec tes mensonges is about, but the soundtrack seems to have some potential. It's relaxing, but not only. The two songs that you mentioned are quite different, so I don't imagine the same things for both of them. I'm curious to know if I get them like we're supposed to - like they're used in the movie.

Anyway, thank you again. It influenced my Spotify recommendations in a nice way. It was like: "Wait, you like instrumental songs? Like really, you couldn't say it earlier?", and then Spotify suggested other instrumental stuffs.

Scar Tissue: It happens sometimes. Spotify Wrapped shouldn't be surprising (at least for our most listened to songs) but somehow it is. I don't know much about Red Hot Chili Peppers. I know well the few songs I downloaded like... a decade ago (omg 🫠). But this one wasn't in my playlist, so it feels like my first time. It's a nice one.

Weed For Speed: Ah, a song from You Suck At Parking (perhaps a bit of ZeratoR influence again). I see what it is (Z-Lan oblige, even if I didn't follow the whole thing), but nothing more.

(No context but it reminds me Etoiles and his nightmare (also known as the puzzle). I'm not gonna lie, it was quite funny to watch. But it was way less after on Trackmania. He was just a bit disappointed by himself, if I'm remembering well).

But to talk about the song itself, it seems quite unknown. Less than 1k plays on Spotify? That's not much (it doesn't even appear when you search the title only). Anyway, I like the vibe. It seems to be a good focus music (well, it's a video game song after all).

Your whole playlist: Mh, I literally have nothing to say since the link doesn't work. 🥲 It's not the first time I see that. It may be linked to your confidentiality settings on Spotify? The playlist may have to be publicly shared on your profile to work? I don't know.

But think is : when I just click on the link, it opens my Spotify application and shows me my own playlist. So then, I tried to open without being connected and had a message like "your link is broken", or something very similar.

So, to me, the easiest solution is to create a new public playlist with all the songs on your Spotify Wrapped. I don't have a better solution, at this point. But, well, you'll see what you want to do again.

And that was probably too long again (with a very approximate English, which wasn't even necessary). But, well, here it is I guess. I liked to listen to these few songs and see a bit of your pov. :)

omg please never do that again 😂 and by "that" i mean totally break my brain the first time i read this on a week day at 5am. For the first part I was like who the fuck i'm talking to and then it became pretty obvious - or at least 99.9% obvious (no offense but only you could right this 😘) but I had no idea you were following here? (or i feel like i didn't know, but maybe i should have?) Give me a quick second while i second think each of the 11,845 posts i ever shared on this website? 💀💀💀 bit of self-consciousness going on there but we're going to be fine. i think.

I'm not going to answer to everything but DM me your secret identity when you have a minute? it will be easier to talk, even if my brain doesn't fully grab the concept of writing in French on tumblr dot com 😅

Just a few things that could be interesting for general audience:

I've tried something else for the whole playlist, maybe it'll work better here? Otherwise I have no idea.

Also, as not-so-anon said, listen to Trivia (aka LittleBigWhale) :

[breakingarrows]

Games Media in Review: Giant Bomb

I don’t have as long a history with Giant Bomb as I do IGN or Kinda Funny but the love and enjoyment from when I was a fan is definitely equal to those two. I have strong memories of listening to the Giant Bomb Game of the Year discussions in 2014 while pushing shopping carts around outside the Wal-Mart I worked at. I was a premium subscriber from June 2016 until I let it expire in March 2022. About a year ago I sat down to try and narrow down what my personal “golden age” of Giant Bomb was by counting the various shows or highlights put out in each year, this narrowed it down to the 2017-2019 period as being the strongest. Drew Scanlon’s departure was softened by the hiring of Abby Russell and Ben Pack, later joined by Jan Ochoa. Abby and Ben’s later departure, the COVID pandemic making in-person recordings no longer possible, and the later departures of Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker pretty much killed any and all enthusiasm I had for the site. Jeff Gerstmann’s firing (still such a strange warped reflection of his firing from GameSpot due to external ad-pressure which led to founding Giant Bomb, now being fired from that website) didn’t help any interest that may have remained, especially given the site’s response following his sudden departure.

Watching and listening to the current Giant Bomb for these past two weeks has been the most disappointing experience of this series so far. Kinda Funny may not have very strong critical bones, and I can’t say Giant Bomb really does either, both are more to provide entertainment than thoughtful critiques, but only one of them ever provided any laughs: Kinda Funny. I know some of this has to do with finding Dan Ryckert more obnoxious than funny, but also just the overall content I watched (34 videos checking over my YouTube history) wasn’t very fun to watch along with.

When discussing Kinda Funny I mentioned their adherence to enthusiast press talk of excitement and positivity above all else, and while I don’t think that is true of Giant Bomb, I did find their critical talk similarly lacking. Most of it I can attribute to the shadow Dan Ryckert casts over the site. Dan loves wrestling, and specifically loves reenacting the role of the “heel” from wrestling in his work life, a term referring to someone who plays the bad guy who is supposed to make the audience and other cast members mad at them for their behavior. Dan finds this funny, I find it obnoxious. At least during his previous employment at Giant Bomb he had Jeff Gerstmann, Vinny Caravella, and his fellow GameInformer coworker turned Giant Bomb staff Jason Oestreicher to somewhat counter his heel tendencies. All of them are gone now and it shows. During the Giant Bombcast 808 Dan explains why he didn’t like Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Lord of the Rings around 1:42:37, and it was at an early point in my watching that I began to question whether or not I really wanted to continue. It isn’t that I disagree with the opinion being expressed, that either can be/is “boring,” but it is the way this thought is explained that irritates me. This feeling is expressed by others as well. This has always been an issue with people when watching Dan, as I remember my wife never liked him once he started showing up in Giant Bomb east videos with Abby. To me, I’ve always found his critical thought skills severely lacking, and am still surprised he was a writer at GameInformer and for several years and was contributing his voice to the greater critical volume.

Blight Club is their “playing through a bad game” show, but since bad games are so different from bad movies, especially given the time required and the lack of any editing on the backend (which is completely understandable from a production standpoint), it never reaches the sort of fever pitch of RedLetterMedia’s Best of the Worst series revolving around watching bad movies together. I also just don’t find the concept of dressing up in cheap halloween costumes that amusing. Additionally, they’re never together; they're always on video calls with each other, something which really killed a lot of game coverage/channels for me when COVID hit. No more Business Dave Top 10’s on UPF as everyone was working from home now. This has led to some hijinks, such as Dan using layers to replay video during livestreams to the bewilderment of the participants. Again, the specter of his character casts a shadow that makes it something I find mildly amusing instead of laugh out loud funny. Zoom/Discord video chat recordings just do not have the same energy as being in the room together. It is unfortunate because I do support remote work but there is just something magical lost when you transition from doing UPF in the same room together to doing it over a video chat service. This is primarily why I never kept up with Nextlander despite consisting of the Giant Bomb members I’ve followed the longest, and would likely kill Jeff Gerstmann’s channel for me if he ever ends up expanding beyond being a solo show.

The Bombcast continues to be their general gaming podcast of “whatcha been playing?+news+reader emails”, Voicemail Dumptruck is an extension of reader emails in voicemail form. Quick Looks remain a varying-in-length playthrough of recent releases. Unprofessional Fridays are still mostly a grab bag of cooperative games to play together. Game Mess Mornings is the newest show to me, but is basically a version of Kinda Funny Games Daily, itself a version of many familiar morning shows viewed everywhere that runs through the news, now with commentary from Jeff Grubb and a guest. Demo Derby returned recently though with Dan at the wheel it went about as well as I thought it would, that is: he called Final Fantasy X [ten] “Final Fantasy X [x]”  and called Final Fantasy X-2 “Final Fantasy Twelve” to annoy Mike Minotti and beat it into the ground by the end of the demo.

In addition to the standard shows they also have Mortal Kombat playthroughs, and miscellaneous streams such as F-Zero 99 and Counter Strike 2. Checking the video feed from even just a year ago and I was wishing I had done this then instead of now as my perspective would probably be much more popular. They had these shows plus Albummer and Arcade Pit. Two years ago they didn’t have Arcade Pit but did have Bak 2 Skool, VoidBurgers Hot Takeouts, and the Very Online Show. Not only was the video feed more varied but the community was more populated. Comparing the most commented video for the last couple of weeks in September from 2013-2023 paints a pretty bad picture.

Essentially the trend has been ever downwards for the community participation on the site. I previously used comment counts to gauge the audience size of IGN versus GameSpot, and here on Giant Bomb comments on their main site are even more valuable due to their premium subscription. Prior to June 2022 when all premium shows were made free and premium subscription was changed to give you behind the scenes stuff and discord access (though knowing how discord works for large communities this is not a benefit for all but the terminally online), premium would get you exclusive shows like Unprofessional Fridays (where the crew would each bring a game of their choosing to play and show off for the others or for entertainment), Metal Gear Scanlon, Playdates, Game Tapes, Demo Derby, Mario Party Party, and many more. It is important to note in the chart above that prior to the change, five of the nine top commented videos were premium videos, meaning you also needed a subscription in order to comment.

A lot of Giant Bomb’s best content was on these premium shows, but now with premium no longer having any exclusive content, at least none that appear on the site’s premium feed, there doesn’t appear to be much draw to give them money. This conduit of funding was previously what set Giant Bomb apart from most other games media sites before the advent of Patreon, as their fan’s directly helped fund them meaning they could rely on more than just click-through rates to earn them money. Nowadays, with dwindling community engagement, I’m not so sure they have solid footing, especially given the ownership changes and layoffs. CBS sold off Gamespot, Giant Bomb, and CNET to Red Ventures in September 2020. Red Ventures then turned around and sold off everyone but CNET to Fandom in October 2022. Despite promises to keep things as they were, Fandom laid off around 40-50 people in January 2023, including Jess O’Brien and Jason Oestreicher of Giant Bomb.

Other signs of diminished community are that qlcrew has essentially stopped updating its member tags, instead pretty much serving as an RSS feed for the new content but still remains a great filter for older content based on timestamps and tags. Best of Giant Bomb stopped uploading in mid-2021 and has returned for monthly installments for the back half of 2022 and only three videos for 2023 as of this writing. The subreddit is clogged with posts from Jeff Gerstmann and Nextlander, speculation about potential drama and collaboration between those two new channels, and the usual doom-posting about the site you often find on dedicated subreddits. Some of that doom is warranted, however, not only by the comment metrics but also the YouTube views. Out of IGN, GameSpot, Kinda Funny, and Kinda Funny Games for the past four weeks of uploads (discluding trailers), Giant Bomb is at the bottom with an average of 6.68k and GameSpot surprisingly at the top with 257k average view, mostly thanks to their “ALL Fatalities - Mortal Kombat 1 4K Gameplay” video hitting 5.7 million views. Kinda Funny with 12.65k average, nearly twice as many as Giant Bomb, is the second-to-last ranking.

I’m just not sure what you can do with Giant Bomb at this point. I’m sure the backlog of premium content doesn't help with server costs, and with a low view count on YouTube and a guaranteed lower premium subscriber base than ever before I’m just not sure how long you can expect them around, especially given how much they rely on outside staff to help pump up the staff count and variety on their content. It’s sad to see how far the site has fallen. Despite my complaints I think Dan Ryckert is a capable production lead, some of the shows he created for old Giant Bomb were among the best (Burgle my Bananas and Mario Party Party), and I don’t have any ill will or blame for the individuals currently working there. It just is sad to be so disappointed returning to a channel that was once so beloved, and to see that this sentiment appears to be the prevailing one amongst the, admittedly, minority of online forum posters.