#from the creator of this brilliant video

[bostonbakeddeans]

Hey! I wasn't sure who it might be good to send this to, but I did a video essay talking about Terry Pratchett and I actually got into the discworld series in part bc you kept reblogging stuff about it haha. If you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate getting some more visibility to my essay. Thank you!

My post about the video: https://whydidoth.tumblr.com/post/692527594093133824/so-i-promise-i-actually-am-working-on-that

The video: https://youtu.be/fVF89_AXW78

Hooooooly shit y'all, everyone who follows me who likes insightful commentary and deconstruction of media, Discworld, excellent voice acting, or dunking on Christianity and colonialism should go watch this video immediately if not sooner. Top tier jokes, excellent review and deconstruction of Small Gods (one of my personal favorites in the Discworld series), a picture of Michaelangelo's David colored as a Feegle, background kitty noises; *chef's kiss* this video has everything. I have never been prouder to have gotten someone into Discworld, hot damn.

This reminds me very much of Shaun's videos, particularly his video on Terry Pratchett and Hijacking the Dead (Shaun is referenced in the video; the video referenced is his refutation of The Bell Curve, which is also very good). Both have a very even tone, a dry sense of humor (delightful), and a thorough understanding of the works they deconstruct - both their flaws and their strengths. (Also dunks on Audible and encourages the support of libraries, which is based as hell.)

Seriously. This is incredible. Go watch this. It's 38 minutes and worth every second. It's about deserts and Christianity and how what we believe affects reality (and how it doesn't) and satire and colonialism and orientalism and damn. DAMN. Thank you for making this, thank you for sharing it with me, just thank you.

#Discworld #terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #small gods #holy shit y'all seriously this is so gooooooood #i am delighted and astounded #this is so so so good #also 👀👀👀 vetvimes fic hello?????? watching this space (op's blog) for that #the video demonstrates a deep understanding of and love for the material (the good and the bad!) which bodes well for fic #vetvimes is a particular love of mine #oh man its just *fist clench* so fucking good #its abt the devotion not to each other but to the city and the ''greater good'' #but also to each other #and the respect and affection and ''dear gods i could throttle you right now'' #its so GOOD and i am *chinhands* abt a potential fic #from the creator of this brilliant video #also ur voice is very soothing i should NOT have listened at 11pm i am so so sleepy now (in the best way) #definitely going to watch again and just absorb everything #(minor pedantic note about the pedantry of ''desert''... it's typically ''precipitation'' not ''rainfall'' #which is why places like Antarctica are still a desert; it's too cold to snow - let alone to rain! but places that get more snow #than they get rain still might not qualify as deserts bc theyre getting enough precipitation to disqualify them from being a desert) #(yes i was an annoying kid in class don't @ me; op pls forgive my pedantry ur video is no less brilliant for it)

[radioconstructed]

// I wish the tumblr search function worked because Al definitely adopted the phrase "bimbo ops" at least once and she's gonna keep using it and y'all are welcome to share.

#// it originates from a video where two (absolutely terrible & rightwing) conservative women content creators were beefing with #an even worse person (the king of redpill podcasters) and they executed a brilliant plan to expose him as a fraud and it worked beautifully. #neither of them fit the bimbo archetype but the 'if she breathes she's a thot' types don't care. so they tongue in cheekly called themselves #and their mission 'bimbo ops' as in 'bimbo ops: 1. redpill guy: 0.' #Al is also extremely far away from that archetype but that's never stopped a misogynist from explaining radios to her in a hellbucks queue. #So. When someone gets dunked on? Bimbo Ops: 1. Anyone can join. #mun post.

[markoliphant]

Four hour long HBomberguy video!

#this is my favourite time of year! the long video essays from brilliant creators

[tubbytarchia]

I haven't been able to stop thinking about Skizz saying "When God made Tango, he's like: I'm gonna give you the biggest brain in the World, but, I don't need the World feeling too inferior to you, so I'm gonna make you a little bit stupid. But the only way I can do that is to make it so that you can't see your own brilliance."

I've never had this before where I passively listen to people talking and then later feverishly think back to it like "hold on that was really thought-provoking. Where did I hear that?" I've just been thinking about Tango and I kept remembering this approximate quote about him being such an exceptional creator cursed with not seeing the value in his own work (so I went on a hunt and just now found it lol, it's from this video) and that's so profound to me. Because I think all of us artists are cursed with this at some point. Well, you're all brilliant, it could be that God just chose that you'd be too powerful to realize just how much. But if you can't think that about yourself then just think of Skizz saying that about you because he would. Or think of yourself as a Tango, and then realize how awesome Tango is, and so that must mean that you're awesome too

#blabber #tangotek #skizzleman #skizz and tango make such a wonderful dynamic and this. has touched my heart #like ok funny casual banter but actually Ive been thinking about this so much you have no idea #tango tek

[intersectionalpraxis]

The Palestinian keffiyeh has a rich history and is full of symbolism. I have seen multiple videos of people at marches and protests in support of Palestine be called terrorists for wearing these beautiful scarfs; I have even seen stories of students in the US who were sent to a school's detention space or ultimately told to go home for wearing them (which is absolutely ridiculous).

I wanted to share this in order to counter the harmful discourse behind the keffiyeh, in order to highlight its' true history and meaning with this creator's brilliant, but quick overview.

From my knowledge, Palestinian people have said people who are non-Palestinian wearing this are NOT culturally appropriating. They are encouraging people who want to wear them to show solidarity and support to Palestine. So if you do choose to wear one, please support a Palestinian business.

#feminist #feminism #palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸 #free palestine #social justice #free gaza #israel is an apartheid state #keffiyeh #palestinian liberation #protect palestine #history #i stand with palestine #human rights #palestinian history

[mister13eyond]

dont normally post about drama but this seems relevant:

im seeing a lot of people jump to "james somerton was never good anyways" in retaliation for the hbomb expose, but there's a really fine line to tread there before you get into stepping on the toes of the people he stole from, you know?

some of his videos and analysis did seem genuinely intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and well-written. yeah, it turns out those are the result of him stealing from other people. but that doesnt mean the original writers WEREN'T intelligent, thoughtful, insightful and good writers. he had plenty of garbage opinions interspersed throughout, but the reason many people (myself included) were suckered in by him is that the queer creators he stole from DID have really important and interesting analysis. the parts of his videos that were good were stolen, but by discounting his essays entirely we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater and insisting those he stole from didn't have anything important to say.

the parts he himself supplied were trash, but he stole the work of some genuinely brilliant and insightful writers and passed it off as his own- and that writing still exists and is still brilliant and insightful; we just know now who was actually responsible for it and who to thank for that work

lets just be careful when we smugly proclaim that we always hated everything he had to say- because a lot of the words we're discounting were never his to begin with, and the last thing those authors need is to have their work trash talked because it ended up in the mouth of someone dishonest

#james somerton #hbomberguy #im just saying like #i liked a lot of points he made in his videos because it turns out he was never the one who made those points #now i can go seek out the original authors and Actually read the work that intrigued me in the first place #they DO deserve credit for their writing! #saying everything he ever made was garbage and nothing he said was worthwhile is such a disservice to those authors #they DID do really brilliant work #and then it was stolen and passed off as his #but their work still stands on its own merits- even more so now that i know #that much of the stuff i Disagreed with was his own opinions or tweaks and that the original work #is not bogged down with his bullshit #and can read it as originally intended #i think admitting that the writers he stole from Are really genuinely good writers and that the opinions he stole from them ARE compelling #is the least we can do to ensure that the authors don't feel like their work is irrevocably taken and tainted

[transmutationisms]

ok i still haven't seen the video du jour so i'm not casting aspersions on it, specifically, but i must say i am baffled by seeing responses to it on here that seem to be written under the presumption that newspaper journalism is somehow immune to the economic forces that cause digital creators to churn out endless streams of low-effort, plagiarised content. have we not all had the experience of trying to find information about an event and clicking on a few different news stories from 'respectable' outlets, only to discover they're all using the same three quotes and just paraphrasing the copy around it, and then clicking around more and determining that those three quotes all turn out to have been sourced from a local paper that broke the story last week but has a circulation of approximately ten people and was mostly ignored, and meanwhile critical details of the situation have now been distorted or omitted in a game of lazy newsprint telephone?

this is more of what i mean when i say that plagiarism is not a bug of capitalist knowledge production and circulation; it's a feature. newspapers and academic articles and youtube video essays are all products and they all exist to sell themselves. individual writers and journalists and editors may be more or less invested, personally, in what they're making, but regardless they are all subject to the same forces incentivising more content and shittier source attribution: it's good for your bottom line if you can continually present yourself as some brilliant thinker who is coming up with wholly original ideas and bestowing them upon the masses. it is much less beneficial to you, economically, to direct people openly and honestly to others' work by crediting them and presenting your own output as part of a larger collaborative social endeavour.

this sort of knowledge production is therefore prone to plagiarism as an expression of the contradiction between the idealist pretense to knowledge circulation as a beneficent activity of social enlightenment, and the material reality of knowledge circulation as a capitalist activity both productive of and dependent on structures of exploitation and inequality. it's not a problem that's unique to individual bad actors, or to any specific medium or professional credential or lack thereof. let's be serious

#najia said much the same the other day about academia! i just like dk why there is so much energy put into trying to present certain #media forms as uniquely subject to market forces. or well i do know why but lol

[aimseytv]

Sorry but uh... who is Guqqie? I've seen them mentioned a lot recently and I think I've seen them in some videos (they're very pretty btw) but it's just occurred to me I don't actually know who they are XD

you’ve asked the right person (i am her biggest fan). guqqie is a creator from ireland who’s absolutely brilliant at story telling and having minecraft come to life. she’s mostly known for her character, c!guqqie, due to the tragic fate that character suffered and funnily enough that character is also linked with my character, c!aimsey! we have a lot of universes where our characters are linked, and recently guqqie did a full art animatic stream of their character from her server ‘area unknown’ where her character is revealed to be a clone (very hard hitting stuff but insanely good). we have lots of cool lore streams you can catch up on if you wanna see us do what we do best (create gay angst) or you can just catch up on some of their silly vods (just search guqqie vods and pick whichever, i like her stardew ones). they are also extremely funny, and has very similar humour to me so if you somehow find me funny you’ll enjoy guqqie too i think. oh and also she’s a big fan of anime, if you like anime especially mob psycho 100 she will very much talk about it with you during any of their streams. and important things to mention is guqqie goes by she/they and her sexuality is pretty fluid in where she doesn’t know what she is but she knows she is queer and that’s all okay! also she is my girlfriend and we live together :) she’s pretty cool i think

#asksey #guqqie

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

Rhys Darby has ‘not an ounce of scaredness’ about son’s band dreams

NZ actor Rhys Darby and his musician son Finn interview each other. VIDEO CREDIT: David White/Stuff

Rhys Darby is proudly listing career moments - but they’re not his own.

He’s recalling watching his son Finn’s band, Great Big Cow, “absolutely rock” iconic LA venue Troubadour to sold-out crowds.

As a parent, “you worry about a bit of nepotism,” he admits.

“Are we just ‘yay, our boys!’ when really they’re dreadful?”

But, he says, the band’s indie folk rock is “brilliant”, and keeps getting better. And, he insists, people are paying attention.

“We’re shocked as parents a little bit,” he jokes.

The band, Rhys and I are nestled between a Street Fighter arcade game and a pinball machine, in a dark corner of Auckland’s Whammy Bar. The US-based teen band has been sound-checking for their first international show.

Rhys has donned weathered jeans and a plaid jacket - approved by Finn. His son is wearing Dad’s socks for the night. While Rhys talks, Finn pulls faces and shares quiet in-jokes with his band mates. There are plenty of laughs.

Finn, Paolo Pesce, Will Angarola and Wyatt Nash originally played together in a school jazz combo, and went on to form Great Big Cow in 2022.

Rhys Darby, left, watches his son Finn’s band dreams without “an ounce of scaredness”. DAVID WHITE/STUFF

Now, Rhys insists, they have a growing fanbase. Some of whom “[do] that thing where you dance really closely … Moshing”. He points to my notebook.

“Put down there that I did know what moshing is.”

Sure, Rhys Darby - one of New Zealand’s most well-known comedy exports - helped the band get bums on seats and lock in bigger venues, but they were also recently featured on LA public radio station KCRW’s Young Creators Project, can be found on Spotify and their mainstay is house parties.

“I think because I'm a bigger deal [in NZ], it might have been a little different. In LA, no-one really gives a shit about who I am,” he laughs, looking over at Finn who’s patiently had his hand raised while Dad spoke.

There are people and groups in LA that have helped the band too, says Finn, and he’s not sure those opportunities would have happened back in NZ.

“I would have got you on bFM for sure,” Rhys quips back.

He looks on at Finn’s creative path with, “not an ounce of scaredness”.

“Obviously as a child I had many different dreams, but at the base of everything was art and performance,” he says, describing his younger self as a “dreamer” who wanted to entertain.

Rhys Darby with son Finn before Great Big Cow played Auckland’s Whammy Bar. DAVID WHITE/STUFF

“When it comes to [my kids], I see different ambitions, but they have the artistic talent - I’m completely open to whatever they want to do. I’ll always be there for them.”

Where New Zealand has a bit of a reputation for tall poppy syndrome and an air of negativity, LA is hugely positive, says Rhys - especially for fostering young talent.

And it was in LA, at a house party, that Finn recalls being caught up in the “electric energy” of playing live.

“The whole audience was moving. And I think two people got lifted up above the crowd and surfed around above the crowd,” he says.

Finn’s not the only Darby putting in some work while in Aotearoa. Following Rhys’s joint 50th celebration with wife Rosie, he’ll be returning to the local stage, performing his Rhys Darby 25 Years stand-up show at Waiheke Island’s Wild Estate on April 3.

It encompasses the best bits from his previous shows, but performing it at Waiheke is “just another excuse to put on a show, really”, and to show his US mates another part of Auckland.

Rhys Darby, following a stint in the army and then university, kicked off his career with stand-up, before becoming a household name with an impressive TV and film CV, including Flight of the Conchords, Yes Man, The Boat that Rocked and Our Flag Means Death.

As for whether he still loves stand-up, “love is a strong word”, he laughs.

“I still enjoy it. But it's it's less of a thrill than it used to be.”

What he’s really loving is throwing himself into acting, and challenging himself with more dramatic roles - different to the very physical, crazy “shenanigans on stage”, requiring more focus for the comedian and “not just being a silly bugger”.

Plus, he’s 50 now.

“It’s much easier to do the stuff where I'm just sitting down,” he laughs.

Still, there’s no denying he’s been part of a movement that threw New Zealand comedy into the wider world, and he speaks proudly about his own work, but also that of other Kiwis such as filmmaker Taika Waititi and actor Rose Matafeo.

It’s a type of comedy, he says, that “has a signature” and can’t be copied.

Rhys Darby and son Finn at Auckland’s Whammy Bar. DAVID WHITE/STUFF

“I think it’s that positivity thing, which is ironic coming from a place with tall poppy syndrome. We don’t like each other but you guys love us, eh?”

It’s one of the reasons Darby is still living in LA, “still waving the flag [and] not changing my accent”.

And while Darby’s big break may have been the role of band manager Murray, when it comes to Great Big Cow he and Rosie “don’t want to be helicopter parents too much”.

“We're there when they have a question.”

And while Rhys says he can’t talk about any of his own projects, Finn interrupts with a quiet word about vague plans for a comedy musical theatre show featuring Rhys and the band.

Looking back at his own career, the highlight was breaking into the US market - name-dropping X Files and Our Flag Means Death as highlights.

“What's next? It's all peaks and troughs,” he says - mentioning Hollywood is turning to AI, but “thankfully, there's no one that can do a better robot impression than me”.

Still, the changing industry is worrying.

“People are losing their jobs, and AI is having a lot to do with it,” he says - dropping the quips and gags for a moment.

“After the strikes, I know, it's taken a while to get the industry back on its feet, but I'm hoping that it will get there,” he says.

“But it is worrying. It's really worrying the moment.”

Source: Stuff NZ

#rhys darby #finn darby #interview #great big cow band #stuff nz

[dragonomatopoeia]

Air's End-of-Year Youtube Video Rec-List Round-Up

In light of recent events and also because I wanted to, I have put together a rec list of various (mostly longform) videos that I've enjoyed this year. Not all of these videos were released this year, however-- I just happened to see them for the first time in 2023. For readability and quality of life purposes, I have put this list under a readmore and divided the videos up by category, then creator, which means that some youtube channels might appear in multiple categories

I reserve the right to edit this later as I remember more videos, but I feel comfortable publishing it as is, considering it has almost 100 videos on it at this point

Cooking

Get Curried Chili Garlic Rosemary Chicken Recipe | How to Make Chili Garlic Rosemary Chicken at Home | Prateek Anardana Chicken Recipe | Delicious Himachal Style Anardana Chicken Recipe at Home | Chef Prateek Old Delhi Style Tangdi Kebab | How to Make Indian Starter Tangdi Kebab Recipe | Chef Prateek Dhawan

How to Cook That The $10 Million dollar lie (Betty Crocker) Debunking the Pink Sauce Controversy | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Top 7 Best Easy Lemon Recipes 🍋 | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Toxic Foods promoted on TikTok! | How To Cook That Ann Reardon Why is Pyrex exploding? | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

Library of Congress' Youtube Channel El Camino del Mole a New Orleans El Camino del Pan a Baltimore

Immaculate Bites LEMON BUNDT CAKE FIRECRACKER SHRIMP

Simply Mamá Cooks 3 EASY Beef Pot Roast Recipes perfect for the cold weather EASY Chicken Tamales Recipe | How To Make Tamales Easy NO-KNEAD Soft Dinner Rolls + FLUFFY From Scratch Milk Rolls Recipe Zuppa Toscana Recipe EASY | Olive Garden Potato Sausage Soup Recipe

Fraud, Grifts, and Scams

FoldingIdeas Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse In Search Of A Flat Earth This is Financial Advice

Maggie Mae Fish Is the "Off-Grid" Lifestyle a Lie??

Münecat I Debunked Every "Body Language Expert" on Youtube The Problem with Tony Robbins (Deep-Dive - Pt.1) The Problem with Tony Robbins (Deep-Dive - Pt. 2)

Super Eyepatch Wolf The Bizarre World of Fake Martial Arts The Bizarre World of Fake Psychics, Faith Healers, and Mediums Influencer Courses are Garbage: The Dark Side of Content Creation Tom Nicholas Griftonomics: Why Scams are Everywhere Now

We're In Hell A History of Spam on the Internet Hustling America: I Can't Believe This Show Is Real The Problem with Voluntourism WE Charity & the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

Gaming

Hbomberguy Halcyon Dreams: The Legacy of Dragon's Lair

Jacob Geller Games that Aren't Games How Can We Bear to Throw Anything Away?

Li Speaks An Exploration of the Avata Star Sue-niverse It's Time For You To Play Flash Games Again The Strange Case of Kissing and Flirting Games Untangling the Lore of Devilish Hairdresser

Mandaloregaming The Mystery of the Druids: A Bizarre Adventure Game

People Make Games The Games Industry Must Not Stay Silent on Palestine Investigation: Who’s Telling the Truth about Disco Elysium? Working at Valve: 'A Fearless Adventure' or 'Lord of the Flies'?

PowerPak Dead Space 3 Is Worse Than I Thought King's Quest - The First Adventure Game King's Quest 2 - A Bridge Too Far... MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod Squirrel Stapler is Absolutely Nuts Tunic is Deceptively Brilliant

Super Bunnyhop Perusing Pentiment's Boisterous Bibliography

History

BobbyBroccoli The image you can't submit to journals anymore

Cambrian Chronicles Wikipedia's King who Doesn't Exist

Defunctland Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History

Elliot Sang How Tea Became European McMindfulness: When Capitalism Goes Buddhist

Intelexual Media Creating The Conservative New Right In The 1970s A Buffet of Black Food History

Kaz Rowe A Deep Dive into the Deadly World of Victorian Patent Medicine Why Have So Many People Seen Ghost Ships? Why the Myth of the Library of Alexandria Is Wrong

Kendra Gaylord 500 years of dollhouses and what it meant to teach girls Alice Austen, the 1880s photographer: her house, her photos, her love life What happened to cheap food? Diners, Automats, and affordable eating

Nerdsync Bonkers origins of superhero memes The Scandalous REAL Origin of Superman's Lois Lane Superman's Uncomfortable History with Nuclear Weapons

Premodernist Advice for time traveling to medieval Europe

Stepback History How The Vietnam War Birthed a Generation of White Terrorists OK Fine I’ll Talk About Ancient Apocalypse

Tantacrul Notation Must Die: The Battle For How We Read Music

Film and Television

Be Kind Rewind How Breakfast at Tiffany's Turned into a Totally Different Movie | Adapting a Classic Casting the Women of Valley of the Dolls | PT 1 The Making of Valley of the Dolls | PT 2 How the "Old Ladies N' Hijinks" Subgenre Became a Thing How a "Sacrilegious" Film Changed Hollywood Forever... So I watched BLONDE... Why Tallulah Bankhead Never Became a Movie Star

Big Joel The Song That Broke West Side Story

Cherrybepsi Can We Kill the Final Girl Trope Already?

Hazel weird & kinda scary tokusatsu girls

Jane Mulcahy The Lunacy of Teen Wolf (Part 1) What is the 'psycho biddy' genre?

Maggie Mae Fish BLACK CHRISTMAS Before & After "Me Too" The War on "Woke" Hollywood: A History of Blacklists and Strikes Why is Clint Eastwood

Princess Weekes Black Trauma vs. Black Horror Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires? Why Don't Worry Darling Doesn't Work ...

Shanspeare EUPHORIA: Sam Levinson’s Unfulfilled Fantasy The Girlboss-ification of the Horror Genre TikTok Femininity Coaching and Aestheticizing Racism

Science and Technology

BobbyBroccoli The $21,000,000,000 hole in Texas The man who faked human cloning How to catch a criminal cloner

Eastman Museum's Youtube Channel Photographic Processes Series

Technology Connections What's the deal with the popcorn button?

Practical Engineering How Flood Tunnels Work What's the Difference Between Paint and Coatings? Why Is Desalination So Difficult? Why Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints

#rec list #youtube video rec list

[threadtalk]

I came upon a video yesterday where a creator was bemoaning how a period piece had patterns that were "inaccurate" given their brightness and design.

Friends, we've gone over this. As if the existence and popularity of chintz weren't enough, we have many, many extant gowns (such as this one) which employ the most dizzying, brilliant, and (to some) almost garish patterns imaginable. The past was not blush and beige, brown and dun. We LOVE vivid colors!

This dress, via the Fashion Museum Bath, dates from 1740 and is made of the most stunning, high contrast brocaded silk. It's a closed robe, or early robe a l'anglaise, and I am absolutely obsessed with the pattern. Alas, FMB doesn't have digital collections and so all this information is just from one of their tweets. I would love to know MORE.

Either way, you can see how similar this is to both 100 and 200 years forward in time: with a little extra on the sleeves, this silhouette could work in the Gothic era and with some narrowing, the 1950s!

#18th century fashion #18th century #robe a l'anglaise #historical costuming #costume history #textiles #silk dress #costume #fashion history #threadtalk #history of fashion

[storiesfromgaza]

Do you see this charming young lad?

He holds a microphone in his hand while an angelic smile graces his face.

His name is Awni, "Awni Adel Eldous," a twelve years old boy.

Children at this age are often mischievous, aren't they?

Yes, but Awni was different.

Despite his deep passion for photography and editing, he was diligent in learning, dedicated to it.

Awni was one of the top students in his school, securing the third position in his seventh-grade class with a remarkable 97.78% average.

Despite his profound passion for photography and editing, his teachers dubbed him as the outstanding and creative student. He received numerous certificates, including winning the Friends of Libraries competition, achieving fourth place in the Fruit of Reading competition, and being selected to represent his school in the Addressing addiction through the internet competition.

Due to his excellence, and his passion for computers, his teachers chose him to explain to his friends the computer ports under the supervision of his teacher as part of the young teacher's strategy.

Doesn't all of this indicate that he has a brilliant future ahead of him? Awni, alongside all of this, had a deep affection for computers and video editing, aspiring to become a YouTuber.

On the second of May in 2020, he decided to create a YouTube channel and posted his first video over a year later, marking the start of his dream.

Awni used to contact famous YouTubers on Instagram, praising, supporting them and interacting with their stories. They were somewhat his role models in this field, and he aspired to succeed like them in this field.

“Nothing is impossible; keep going, legend.”

“My brother, there's nothing quite like the winter in Palestine, in Gaza. Legendary weather, sahlab (warm Middle Eastern sweetened milk drink) with charcoal nearby, it's a fantastical experience. and roasted chestnuts on the charcoal. I hope you come to Palestine. All the love”

“Aouni's comment on a story showcasing a page from the Holy Quran shared by one of the YouTubers he deeply admires: 'Your voice is incredibly lovely, I swear, I hope you keep sharing it with us through the Quran.”

And a year later from this date, specifically on the 18th of August 2022 he posted an introductory video in which he revealed his face and celebrated reaching one thousand subscribers. He expressed his gratitude to his followers, and this achievement was monumental for him. It served as a reason for joy for him, he felt his soul soaring in the sky with joy. but despite this, his enthusiasm and ambition continued to soar. He dreamt of his channel reaching one hundred thousand subscribers, half a million, one million and, eventually, ten million.

It is a colossal dream, Isn't it? But, don't we all have the right to dream, even if our dreams are as vast as the expanse of the sky?

Yet, he didn't know that on the very same day he achieved his first dream, the 18th but in October this year, the occupation would bomb his house in the Zaitouna (olive) neighborhood of Gaza City. Killing him, along with his family, and that his body would be covered in dust, laid to rest with his dreams...

On the same day his soul had soared in the heavens due to happiness a year before, his home was struck by bombardment, leading to his soul departing to the heavens, for eternity.

Awni departed, leaving his channel looming on the horizon, lifeless and soulless, mirroring his body's fate, as the spirit of its creator succumbed to this harsh world that refused to let him live in peace.

Today, eight days after his departure from our world, Awni's YouTube channel has reached 489K subscribers. But where is Awni?

#gaza #palestine #غزة #فلسطين #humanitarian crisis #israel #middle east #gaza strip #genocide #storiesfromgaza

[simplydnp]

I get the sense that Phil just likes to make “”weird”” stuff and has somewhat dialed back his weirdness due to his popularity and age. But I would love to see what an unfiltered 30 year old phil Lester video would look like. What stories does he want to tell? How does he want to tell those stories?

honestly i think phil is really good at playing out whatever his brain is thinking at the time. i think a lot of people struggle with ideas because they'll be seen as too 'weird' or 'strange' or even 'impossible', and what's neat about phil is he either doesn't have those boxes, or he's able to push through them in pursuit of creating the thing to its full potential. people describe him as creative, which he is, but i think it leaves out some of his best attributes as a creator. he's inventive--remember the countless trends and challenges that came from him that have swept the internet? he's fearless--and this doesnt mean that he's not afraid of anything (for phil its probably the opposite actually) but he does things despite the fear, regardless of the unknown. he's a relentless and passionate creator who likes to make things and values seeing them through to the end. but he's not naive either--he and dan have talked about each other being their harshest critics. it's not just that he's an ideas guy, he's a good ideas guy who knows how to make something flourish.

i don't think current phil is sitting in a box waiting for his chance to break free of his popularity. he could've stopped years ago, similar to dan, if he didn't want this. but he likes doing it. he gets to have his choice on which of his ideas turn into projects, without having the stress of Needing a brilliant idea and execution every week. right now i think a lot of his energy is focused on the gaming channel. as he's expressed to us a few times, it was him who really wanted it back, and he's been ready for a long time. dan's even admitted that he's been enjoying it, and i think a lot of that comes down to phil's creative directing. he loves the gaming channel and is so thrilled it's back--his own content has taken a step back in terms of upload regularity, and i genuinely don't think he could be happier about it.

i would love a big phil project, but i honestly don't see him doing a tour of his own unless he brings dan with him, and then why not have it be something they can do together? does that make sense? that seems to be his thought process about things. it's why i've suggested taskmaster cause it's a local thing that wouldn't keep him from home for a long while, but he does get to flex his creativity, intelligence, and humour.

i'm looking forward to anything phil does. his current project seems to be making dan happy and they're both having a lot of fun doing that

#i dont know if i answered your question anon. i think in some ways people play up the 'weird' side to phil bc he plays into it #as well as his past history of old school videos #firstly let me say i love when he's 'weird' #but i think the way i categorize it is less about a line between weird and not weird. and more of like a spectrum of zany #dnp are not mainstream guys. theyre self proclaimed nerds with pride. anything they make is gonna seem a little off Broadway #but it doesnt always feel that way for us #people inside the community #saying he's lost his weirdness/he's putting on a front is a bit. off. for me. especially considering its been 14 years #for most of his 'experimental' content. he's said it himself he was experimenting. i think he learned a lot and had fun #but i dont think its his personality and hes been trapped into this different persona ever since #anyway. i am yapping just like a dannie would so. thank u for your ask! #dnp #c.text #dan and phil #answered

[boybff]

wait hiiiii hi hello bestie i didn’t know u like video essays!! i’ve been trying to find more to watch recently, do u have any other recs? about any topic 👀

HIIIIII bestie Robin, are you ready?? After harvesting my Youtube subscription and liked video lists here is what I have compiled. I'm gonna put my current top 5 video recommendations and then the rest of the list, under the cut, is organized by creator.

Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires

The art of religious interpretation (midnight mass vs god’s not dead)

Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.

Hogwarts Legacy, JK Rowling, and Trans Advocacy

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1 - Water 

CHANNELS

biz barclay - hilarious, brilliant, my best friend who drinks wine and weaves me long insightful stories while sitting on the dresser or in the bathtub. The vast amount of knowledge, historical 

understanding snapewives: religion, fandom, sociology, & erotica

Goncharov (1973) video essay

The art of religious interpretation (midnight mass vs god’s not dead)

Xiran Jay Zhao - Author of one of my FAVE YA novels, “Iron Widow” (which is a MUST read). I always want more avatar content that focuses on cultural inspirations from trusted sources. Xiran taught me so much about the avatar universe I already loved as well as valuable critiques. They also do retellings of historical events such as- Bisexual Han Dynasty Emperors and Forgotten Warrior Queen - Fu Hao.

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1 - Water 

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 2 - Earth 

Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 3 - Fire 

Fundie Fridays - Jen, a leftist queer feminist, and her husband James examine different aspects of Christian fundamentalism, American conservative politics and pop culture. She has remade a lot of her older videos so make sure to watch the updated versions! She was also featured in the Amazon docuseries “Shiny Happy People” which I would HIGHLY recommend. 

Vacation Bible School of Rock (3 part video series History of Contemporary Christian Music)

Ken Ham’s Creation Museum & Ark Encounter

Ask a Mortician - Caitlin Doughty!!! The adult Wednesday Addams we should have got. So compassionate, informed, and moving!! I love her work and she has taught me so much about what it means to have a relationship with death and grief. Her work deals with heavy topics and you can tell she does this work from a deeply respectful, informed place. 

The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead

Let’s Visit the Churches Made of Human Skulls

Why are Black and White Funeral Homes STILL Separate? With Dr. Kami Fletcher

Iconic Corpse Series

Princess Weekes -  Nuanced video essays on pop culture, race, feminism, and other social issues. Takes time to break down complex concepts, their origins and material consequences. The essay on confederate vampires and the connection later made to sci-fi media like Firefly were so paradigm shifting to me!

Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires

The Magical Negroes of Stephen King

Ro Ramdin - Poetic, biting, and introspective essays on pop culture. 

Do Celebrities Hate Their Fans? (Doja Cat, Frank Ocean)

Hogwarts Legacy, JK Rowling, and Trans Advocacy

DefunctLand- History of extinct theme parks and themed entertainment experiences. 

Defunctland: Walt Disney's City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.

Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery

Mina Le - Fashion, movies and pop culture

WHY IS EVERYTHING SO UGLY: The Curse of Modernism

FAIRYTALE COSTUMES: it’s giving renfaire but why?

Quinton Reviews - Extensive videos covering niche topics, most popular for Nickelodeon deep dive retrospectives.

How Documentaries Lie to You

The ICarly/Victorious Saga Playlist

TheEpicNate315 - yea i fucking love endless hours of useless skyrim lore because the conspiracies are so deep and I have to do 0 of the research to get all of the information years of scouts worked to piece together! 

The Skyrim Mysteries Iceberg (Part 1 of 4)

The Fallout Mysteries Iceberg (Part 1 of 2, incomplete series)

Mike’s Mic - Silly, goofy, and thorough breakdowns of nostalgic TV shows

Any of his unhinged recaps - LOST, Pretty Little Liars, Glee

Tiffanyferg - Media criticism and commentary

Internet Analysis Series 

Zoë Ligon - sex educator, artist, and writer, who also owns SpectrumBoutique.com, a health and education oriented sex toy store. Such a special place in my heart for her!! Her bondage mini-documentary with Midori was so touching. 

Sex Stuff | Japanese Rope Bondage with Midori

Channels Newer to Me

Broey Deschanel - a mixture of film analyses, retrospectives, politics and just absolutely overthinking anything to do with pop culture

Elvis (2022) and the Utter Mediocrity of Biopics 

Meeptop - rambling about movies and stuff

Who is Dahmer Even Made For?

LadyJenevia - discussing entertainment media content including films, television series, etc. Expect to find reviews of recent cinematic releases, video essays on older releases, and interviews with talent from the film/television industry

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and The Art of Hiding in Plain Sight (Netflix Review/Video Essay)

As a disclaimer, I am not endorsing any creator fully and if you see someone you think I should not promote please reach out to me so I can edit this list. As a general rule of thumb the more I had to write about someone, the more informed the recommendation.

#if you read/watch this monster list thank you and I hope you enjoy!! #you can really see my niche interests displayed here lmao #send me asks if you have questions! or have recommendations for me!! #boybff reccomendations #video analysis #video essay reccomendations #video essay #YouTube recommendations

[kitkatopinions]

Okay, so I just watched a Miles Luna cameo video talking about the chant Pyrrha does to unlock Jaune's aura, link here to the reddit post of it. And it's a very interesting video for a number of reasons. Please note that while talking about this, I wanna be aware that my interpretations of what he's saying may not be definitively true. Miles Luna is someone I don't know and I'm unable to ask for clarification on anything he says. I'm simply talking about what this video made me think and how it came across, not trying to say like "this thing he said definitely means blah blah blah." This was just very interesting and I wanted to talk about what I found interesting and what I got out of it.

So he was answering the question "what's the deal with Pyrrha's aura unlocking chant thing in volume one? Was it like a standarized thing, or was the mantra unique to a person's beliefs?"

I'm going to be putting things that Miles said in indented and then talk about the things I think are worth talking about.

"I've always been in the camp that it's the latter, that that's like a Pyrrha Nikos thing."

So this'll happen again, but it's just interesting that Miles' answer comes in the form of 'this is how I saw it' rather than 'this is how we saw it,' which makes it seem like there wasn't an agreed upon conclusion or even an agreed on supposition on what this moment even was.

"The story behind that is a wild one, it takes us back to volume one. Back when me, Monty, and Kerry were... Learning how to tell stories." *Laughs* "Stories that lasted more than like - you know - five minutes, and build worlds and stuff. And back then, you know, so much stuff was rough around the edges. And it was a lot of experimentation, and just trying things, and having to just like, throw ideas out there and commit to them because we just had to work really quickly and..."

Miles talking about how rushed they were, how they didn't know how to tell a real story yet and were just 'throwing out ideas and committing to them' is just... To me, it really seems like it indicates what I already thought, that things weren't 'planned from the beginning' because they were just writing, and writing on a deadline, so they were putting things into the story without fully thinking them through and committing to them because it was all they could do.

"I remember we were trying to establish, you know, we need to teach the audience how aura works. First off-" *Laughing* "I don't think we did a super good job with that. The same with semblances, and a bunch of things."

It's so funny to me that if rwde posters and rwby critics said something along those lines, like 'they weren't good at telling us how aura worked' or 'they really just didn't establish a lot of things very well,' many anti-rwde posters would just hate us. XD And this is what I mean when I talk about how overly defensive some people in the fandom are, because one of the main writers and creators can look back and laugh about the ways they went wrong in the early volumes and recognize that they weren't the best at storytelling, and meanwhile there are fans that would be like 'ummm why do you need your handheld? Obviously aura works like *insert headcanon here* and you should've gotten that through the brilliant scene, you fucking idiot." Like, it's so much easier for me to fondly smile and shake my head at the sort of charming follies of early-RWBY. Random tangent, but it reminds me of watching a movie with my ex-boyfriend where he got angry that I said a character who was getting in a physical fight was aggressive and he rewound the movie several times and made me watch the character start a physical fight repeatedly to 'prove to me' that the character wasn't being aggressive, and I was just sitting there thinking 'I would like this movie a lot more if you weren't so defensive over it.' But anyway, back to the video.

"But I remember we were like 'okay, well Jaune's kind of our like - our big dummy who needs to be taught everything so the audience can learn a lot through Jaune. So Jaune doesn't - It makes sense that Jaune doesn't have an aura, and maybe he like um, unlocks it at some point like during the - the Emerald Forest trials, but like how?' And we were trying to figure stuff out, and Monty goes like-" *Shrugs* "'What if we just have Pyrrha unlock it for him?' And we were like 'how would that work?' And he was like 'I don't know, man, Pyrrha's supposed to be the best. Maybe she's really in tune with her aura. And so like, you know, maybe if like, people are really in tune with themselves and - and in sync with their aura, they can give people with more potential - they can just give them a little nudge.' And we went 'yeah, sure! Why not?'"

So if you applied the ideas of the two criteria here to world building, you have 'People who are really in tune with themselves and in sync with their aura can unlock other auras' and 'People who have potential can get their auras unlocked.' Which means potentially characters who are shown to be confident, self-assured and who know who and what they are - like Glynda, Robin, Maria, maybe WBY now that they had their 'I am a Huntress' moments - could hypothetically have this power if it hadn't been dropped. And who has potential is a bit trickier, but civilians who can or want to fight, maybe? So, would Whitley count as being able to unlock an aura? See, the interesting thing is that I wouldn't consider Pyrrha to be particularly self-assured emotionally. Physically, yes, but emotionally I think she suffers from some insecurities that might give her blind spots. So maybe unlocking aura requires someone to be physically in tune with their body.

"I remember Monty wanted to write uh, Pyrrha's monologue and - and it's so Monty. Um, but it's one of the few things where he was like 'Hey, can I take a stab at that? I think it would be fun.' And he did, and I think it's really great."

Him saying 'one of the few things' is also interesting to me. But I do tend to have the opinion that from what I've heard, Monty would have ideas and Kerry and Miles are the ones that did most of the writing and like, turning the ideas into a firm thing. That's just the vibes I've gotten from the way that they've talked, and this just kind of makes me think that more.

"And it's very - It comes across as very, like, mystical. And like, ooh, exciting, mysterious. Because that was - that was kind of what we wanted the vibe to be about like aura. Like it's this spiritual thing that like, we understand how we can kind of use it um, practically, in combat. But like, emotionally and spiritually, there's so much more depth there. It has room to grow, there's things about it we don't understand. And um, we felt that what Monty wrote kind of encapsulated that sort of mysterious, spiritual um, like, side of it. And also for Pyrrha too. Like it made her seem like she was just levels upon levels higher than where Jaune was at the time. And we also felt - I mean I definitely feel as though, that it's something that like, she likes to think about and something that she says to herself to give her courage. Because if she's gonna fall in battle, then so be it. But she believes that her spirit - that there's a part of her that will live on, long after her body falls, and will go to some other plane on some grand adventure."

A part of me wishes that this had been so much more explained, but also I feel like the spiritual part of things isn't something that I want heavy emphasis in when it comes to the characters that seem to disregard their lives a bit, if that makes sense? Like, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of the people who think that Pyrrha going to fight Cinder is some indication of fault with her or Ozpin or something, I think it's perfectly logical that she went up to fight Cinder. I just also think that adding in that Pyrrha thinks 'if she falls then so be it,' before having her actually die. RWBY has a very dicey at best track record when it comes to suicide (Penny, Ruby in V8) and I think adding in these elements for Pyrrha would just have made it even worse.

"And I think that gives her the courage to... Be Pyrrha Nikos, out on the battlefield, fighting for the lives of others. That's kind of always been my take on it. But yeah, the short behind the scenes answer is um, Monty thought it would be a cool thing to do. Um, that was the answer to a lot of things from back then."

More 'not everything was well planned' indications here.

"Um, and I - and I like it a lot too, because we were really trying to explain to the audience that the creatures of Grimm don't have souls. There should be no moral quandaries about slaughtering hordes and hordes of these scary looking creatures."

Okay, so... I'm going to get into some controversial stuff here, because if they wanted to ensure that there were no moral quandaries about fighting the Grimm in the early seasons, why were they comfortable having the White Fang being such prominent enemies who Team RWBY would throw off of train cars that were blowing up in a tunnel soon to be overrun by Grimm? To me, if I was concerned that people would take issue with the main protagonist mowing down animal-like creatures that acted mindless and therefore had to establish that they don't have souls, I would be five times more concerned with making sure my main protagonist wasn't just tossing aside talking sentient humans especially if I had made them part of an in-universe marginalized minority group. Just a thought.

"And then, you know, on the opposite side of that, if the things that all of our protagonists fight are soulless, then we should make something that makes huntsman and huntresses really strong, it's the fact that they do have a soul that can manifest itself in ways that can protect the user - like the body of the person. Uh - uh, it's just something that, I don't know. It's like warm, fuzzy like faith and belief. And just, it felt like the nice counterbalance to the like, hollow, cold, violent Grimm."

What's interesting to me about this statement is that they wanted Huntsman and Huntresses specifically to counterbalance the Grimm by having proof of their humanity in their souls being so blatantly represented. If it were me, I would have humanity in general separated from the Grimm through their souls. But it's almost like the only people they care about and the only people they want the audience to care about are the hunters and huntresses, and not the civilian figures and random people just living their lives. I think that does sort of come across in the writing with things like Cinder killing people on the bridge in volume eight and knocking them down but then later on Yang saying in volume nine that they saved everyone, and Weiss throwing the guards into the ocean never to be seen again, and no one really bringing up or caring about how Mistral is pretty much defenseless, and so on and so forth. I think this also comes across in the fandom, where I've seen people talk about 'why would we care about the NPCs' and things like that. This just makes it seem to me that the writers don't really care about civilians.

"So yeah, that's kind of my all over the place answer, I hope you like it. Because that's how I always felt about it. We kind of just rolled with it back then, because we had to, because we had to work so fast, with so many constraints working against us."

The fact that even the main writers and creators seemed to be on time crunches where they couldn't take the time to really figure things out speaks volumes I think about how Rooster Teeth does business. Also, more little reasons here to not believe everything was planned from the beginning. Miles Luna says they just rolled with things not even because they wanted to but because they had to, because they didn't have time to put more thought into what they'd do before they did it.

"And we were super inexperienced. Um, if I were to do it all again, I would wanna - I would wanna dig into that more. I think there's some cool, untapped potential there. And in a million other places in the show."

This is so true that there is so much untapped potential in RWBY. But I just think it's really funny that once again, this is something rwde posters and rwby critics would get blasted for saying. XD Like I remember one time posting like 'there's so much I would change and explore more in RWBY if I could reboot it' and someone in the comment section was like 'I bet your writing sucks, idk why you think you could improve anything about RWBY.' If I said RWBY was full of untapped potential and I wish it was dug into more, I might get accused of being a know-nothing idiot or an obnoxious entitled brat, lol. XD

"Um, but, you know, those rough edges and that sort of like - amateur is too strong a word - but the - the over ambition of RWBY, I think has always been one of its greatest strengths and also greatest weaknesses."

For once, I completely agree with Miles Luna. One reason why RWBY is something I keep coming back to is that there's just so much there to work with, so much that could be really good. But it's also one of the biggest flaws of RWBY that it always packs so much in that it just doesn't seem to have any interest in properly exploring or following through on, and I do think it would be a much better written show if the writers would just stop and take a breath and scale back and edit to what they can handle. It's like filling your fridge with a ton of perishable food in the hopes of cooking amazing meals, but then not taking the time to ever really cook or do anything good with the ingredients and then throwing together a hodgepodge sandwich before (or even after) things start spoiling in the fridge. It's great for creativity and it makes me want to actually cook something good with all those ingredients, but you still think they shouldn't have been that ambitious and you're like 'next time you go shopping just buy stuff for a regular old sandwich because apparently you can't handle it, and this sandwich has moldy cheese, too many vegetables, balsamic vinegar, mustard seeds, uncooked lobster, and a twinkie. What were you thinking?' Anyway, long spiel short, RWBY has great potential, endless heaps of good ideas that are inspiring and that's one of the best things about the show! But it's also way too ambitious and it leaves the show in a mess. I don't even have a good solution that would keep the scope of the show and how it gets the creative juices flowing without being too much for the writers who can't seem to do any real depth or follow through, I'm just talking. XD

"Uh, but it has a lot of charm, and we had a lot of heart back then. And i'm glad that people still think about volume one to this day. It's just cool."

It's interesting to me that Miles Luna says 'we had a lot of heart back then.' Now again, I'm not trying to say 'Miles Luna definitely meant that they don't have heart now,' because I don't know him and I don't know what he meant, but just the nostalgia in his tone and the way he talked, it made me think about how RWBY used to feel like this loved thing that people really wanted to do, whereas now sometimes RWBY feels like the thing that people don't want to do that they're just plugging away at, and like skipping past loads of exposition and having their characters act exasperated and tired out by everything. I've gotten to that state where I was really excited about writing something, and then when I got out of the mood to write it and was just forcing myself too, it would leak into skipping over important things and just writing the characters to go through the motions in like vague annoyance because I was vaguely annoyed. It's a sign that I need to grow as a writer, but it also makes me go 'do I really want to even be writing this, does this even spark joy' and sometimes the answer is no. And it just kind of feels like sometimes that's what RWBY is now, a project people don't want to do anymore that no longer sparks that same joy that it used to.

But on a better, lighter note, I'm glad too that people are still thinking about volume one, because it often feels like the RWBY fandom on the general whole just doesn't even like the early volumes and wants to forget them, or even forget seasons 4-6 sometimes. Some people will act like the only thing that matters is the present, and looking at the setup or the early established things is just stupid when it's like... No, that's the whole thing that RWBY was built on. Volumes 7-9 alone don't tell a complete story. It's a hodgepodge sandwich full of a bunch of mismatched stuff maybe, but I really feel like the people that eat the whole thing and might complain about the bad parts actually like the sandwich way more than the people who take the top piece of bread and then tell you that all that other stuff doesn't matter anymore. XD But yeah, that's just the things that I was thinking about when I saw that cameo video.

#rwde

[tiger-moran]

So Sherlock is Garbage, and Here's Why (I will refer to that from here on as SIGAHW) does talk about Moriarty but not Moran but watching that has made me think about what that show did (or didn't do) with my two favourite characters. Let's get this out the way first, sorry but I'm never going to like 'Jim' no matter what, even if they'd characterised him better and not done... everything they did with him, but that's really not the point here.

What is the point is they screwed Moriarty and Moran over in that show bigtime, and Moriarty/Moran for that matter, which whatever some people try to claim is a pairing that has a very strong basis in the canon, they are one of the most obvious potentially queer pairings of the canon even. There are details in there that are very suggestive even that Conan Doyle could have deliberately coded them as queer, probably for homophobic reasons, yes, but more in a way that tied to the homophobia of the day, so it was a coded way of saying these are characters who break the law and exist outside the laws and the norms of society because in that time and society male homosexual behaviour was literally illegal as well as widely being deemed 'sinful' and a 'sickness', i.e. it could well have been something that emphasised that these are characters who just do not give a shit about the norms and rules of society, something which is not in itself intrinsically queerphobic.

But there is nothing intrinsically wrong with coding villains as queer anyway (and I will fight people over this), and often a lot of queer people do latch on extremely hard to the queer (confirmed or coded) villains because we see ourselves in them. There's also nothing inherently wrong with having queer male characters be 'camp' or 'flamboyant' or whatever. But SIGAHW does address the queer-coding of Moriarty in Sherlock and it's summing up pretty well why that always rubbed me the wrong way, because it linked queerness directly with villainy. But also it didn't even show him as queer by bringing in the guy who would very obviously be a candidate for his boyfriend, i.e. Moran, it did it by making him obsessed with Sherlock and everything he does has to be because of and revolve around Sherlock because Sherlock is the Bestest Bestest Bestest Ever and So Smart and So Amazing (probably because, let's be honest here, Moffat seems to think he is as brilliant and smart as Sherlock Holmes and sees himself as Sherlock). It basically has it that Moriarty is bad and wrong and evil and all of this is because he's essentially in love with Sherlock, his 'badness' all stems from his queerness, which is fucked up and also, none of that is canonical, it's just an interpretation and a very loose one at that, yet it's taken over and they act like it is literally canonical fact and it's got to the point where even the fucking Conan Doyle Estate Ltd are spouting this shit as if it's canonical fact - they still have that Moriarty is "Sherlock’s number one nemesis and obsessive fan. Moriarty is the criminal mastermind who haunts Sherlock Holmes as the great detective hunts him during many of his investigative endeavours. Moriarty’s impeccable intelligence and wit make him a perfect mirror of Holmes, often in an eerily romantic way" crap on their website. They are literally describing Sherlock while claiming to be the 'experts' on the canon and ~guardians~ of the canon and its characters. Which is pretty fucked up, and OK that's probably not inherently the fault of that show or its creators but it does go to show how their nonsense managed to take over in people's minds while shitting on the canon.

Meanwhile the creators of Sherlock actually did go out of their way to insult Moriarty in the canon and in other versions - that "Moriarty is usually a rather dull, rather posh villain" nonsense from Moffat for instance which having seen that referenced in that video now I do remember and it pissed me off back when I did read that originally too even though way back then I didn't even love Moriarty the way I do now. It always, always felt like they had such contempt for the canon and their treatment of Moriarty was yet another example of that - it felt like this wasn't something they were adapting with genuine love and changing details to create their own interpretation sure but in some carefully crafted still very loving way as some kind of homage to the canon and those that had gone before. It didn't even feel like... they were mocking the plot holes and everything in the canon but in an affectionate way. Loads of us do that, I spend a lot of my time infuriated with Conan Doyle and his lack of fucks about making things make sense or making them not contradict each other, but I absolutely mean that in an affectionate way, whereas they seemed to genuinely think everything that had gone before was terrible, including the original stories, and everything about it needed to be 'fixed' and that they had made the stories 'theirs' now and all the other versions including the original stories could get fucked.

Also there's their habit of just tossing around words like "psycho" and "nutcase" for Moriarty (as well as the "sociopath" stuff for Sherlock) which seems... dangerous territory to be veering into? Not only for linking being a "psycho"' or a "nutcase" with queerness (as SIGAHW rightfully points out that is screwed up, in the way they did it) but also making it (again as that video points out) so you don't have to actually bother to give the character of Moriarty any real depth or consistency or, you know, actual decent characterisation because he's so ~zany~ and ~crazy~ because he's just a "psycho" which yes is piss poor, lazy characterisation, but also... you're basically 'villainising' or demonising actual real mental illnesses, or symptoms of them? And saying he's dangerous and bad because he's "crazy"... I don't know, I don't feel like I'm best placed to comment on that but that always rubbed me the wrong way too even if I maybe can't fully articulate why.

(I'm not really getting into the fact that they ultimately did just waste Moriarty too, like they didn't actually know what to do with him beyond make him infatuated with Sherlock, because I think SIGAHW did cover that much better than I ever could. But I mean, it does seem like they couldn't even commit to anything with their own take on the character, they didn't even ultimately have any respect for him never mind for any other version including the canonical character.

I'm also not really getting into how they basically set up this 'Jim loves Sherlock' thing and then proceeded to belittle fans who shipped them together, but that was very screwed up too that they did that.)

And then there's Moran. My beloved Moran. I do not know which is worse, erasing a character entirely, or effectively breaking him up into various parts, showing some of those parts but then removing the main pieces of him that make him who he is. Because in Sherlock they had a character named Sebastian (who as far as I can remember was a total douchebag), they had a character named Moran who was some sort of criminal, they had snipers, they had other people working for Moriarty. But never a Sebastian Moran, never Moriarty's right hand man, never Moriarty's friend (when he is literally called Moriarty's friend and bosom friend in the canon). Moran canonically mattered to Moriarty and he was way more than just some fucking 'henchman' - I have written many tens of thousands of words about this already including multiple essays. Moran mattered. But he didn't matter at all to 'Jim', or Sherlock's creators. And not only that they also did what they did elsewhere and not only showed utter contempt towards the canonical character, they also showed contempt for the people who love him and for the shippers of the pairing. They knew full well there were people who were desperate to see a Sebastian Moran in that show, they knew there were people who shipped Moran with Moriarty, and yet when they were asked about this they just insulted him and dismissed him as totally unimportant (that "he’s just Moriarty’s henchman. There is not much more to it" shit from Gatiss, though I'm almost certain Moffat said something else demeaning about Moran too but this was too long ago now and so much stuff has vanished without trace so that I can't find any of those quotes any more), and they made it sound like the fans desperate to see him in the show were absurd for seeing anything in him or in Moriarty/Moran or wanting that to happen, because of course 'their' Moriarty only has eyes for Sherlock. Of course (because Sherlock is a fucking Moffat stand in so of course everyone from Watson to the original character mortician to the supposed lesbian to the recurring major villain has to be infatuated with him one way or another because he's just that awesome. Even though in actuality they made him into an insufferable prick).

They did screw over Moriarty/Moran and just erase that pairing from existence in that universe, essentially, to the point where anybody who does ship the pairing in it had to create 'Seb' themselves, to fill this void that the creators deliberately put in because they thought their version of these beloved stories and characters was so much better and smarter and more wonderful than anything else, when in reality it's like that video says, it's garbage, and it's insulting to the fans who care about the stories and the characters and the pairing both in itself and in the way the creators treated those fans. No they are not the only people to do this and smugly act like they're better and cleverer than Conan Doyle and of other fans of the stories and the characters while they were merrily wrecking the characterisation and butchering the stories, I can certainly think of one rather famous author in particular who I think did something similar too, but I think they did take it to a whole other level.

#James Moriarty #Sebastian Moran #Sherlock Holmes #anti BBC Sherlock #anti Moffat #anti Gatiss #Sherlock is Garbage