theguywiththewhitespot

[theguywiththewhitespot]

I’m a little torn. In my opinion, I don’t like it when dropout gets all self referential humor about things (a specific example I can think of is any Noise Boys specific prompt in a Noise Boys episode of Make Some Noise). That means that, from a humor standpoint, I actually didn’t really enjoy Samalamadingdong. The best bit from it was making Sam destroy a $6k vase.

That said, as something for Sam to go through, it was a delightful celebration of everything he’s done through game changer up until then and it was clear he had a blast.

Hell, if I were given the opportunity to go through a dropout inspired escape room the same way he was, I’d be just as delighted.

So overall, maybe not my favorite standalone episode, but also one I’m glad exists.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Face of a man really considering just paying $6k out of pocket instead of solving a riddle.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Do you think Brennen could fell the cosmic shift of his online brand on the same day Vic pitched the American girl doll thing?

[theguywiththewhitespot]

The cast of Expedition 33 has the exact same vibe with each other as Trader Joe’s employees have with on another

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Biggest difference between Smosh and Dropout is just how unprepared Shayne was for how horny people would be about an insane old man.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Gang after various attempts by him to specifically figure out what will make them happy, I think Caine is gonna just straight up kill Zooble. Like not even abstract, just find a method of killing them that is as close to culling as he can do without actully killing them.

Put them in a position where they feel the need to scream, but they have no mouth.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Between this and the Parlor Room episode, I think Vic just chooses a different person on each episode of whatever they are doing to be their girlfriend

I’ve never been more powerfully attracted to somebody in my life

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Storytellers are still struggling with how to inform people a character is trans without having them look at the camera and be like “by the way I am trans.”

Shout out to Beardsley for finding the creative way of “my character as a baby could pee so far.”

[theguywiththewhitespot]

WBN SPOILERS!!!

Steel feels like the most fulfilled version of a character type that Brennen has been.

We’ve seen his “friendly NPC who is actully the big bad behind the worst things that have happened to each PC” before, with various degrees of notoriety, getting the PCs to just hair their guts. It’s to the point where if you were in book one being like “oh yeah steel is the big bad I’ve seen this before” that’s not a fault of the story telling, you’ve just had this cake before.

What makes Steel different is the lead up. Instead of maybe ten to twenty episodes of time to play with, Brennen got to let Steel marinate for years. Give all three player characters a reason to like and trust her. Show little cracks to make her seem more human. Hell, only having to have three players to get on her side over that amount of time even helped things.

Let’s be real: we all knew this shoe was going to drop. The fun of it, the impressive thing, is the pageantry of watching the show raise up the shoe, and just how high it could get before the fall.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

One thing I always think about when it comes to protests and boycotts like this is this time, back when The Wizard Game came out, a YouTuber I slightly followed began streaming it. They got such pushback from their fans that they got a ton of negative attention and dropped the stream.

They defended themselves after by claiming that they got the game for free and were playing it for charity, therefore from their point of view none of the money was going to JayKay.

I always think about this because, like, did they not know why they got the game for free? If them playing the free game for charity encourages even one person to purchase it, just like if even one person decides to get a Disney + subscription to watch Andor along with AMCA if they were covering it, it would ultimately be them putting money in the hands past the boycott.

(I know what this implies about the implication of people subscribing to D+ to follow other AMCA episodes, but that’s a bigger conversation that the hosts have not been shy about saying they’ve struggled with.)

Really interesting and a little heartbreaking hearing the AMCA cast talk about the response to their decision to support BDS - Natalie makes a great point that all of the 'pivots' in the show's history weren't bits, they were often directly to support her! Yes, the other members of the podcast agree with supporting SAG-AFTRA, I think that if Natalie hadn't been on the podcast they still would have joined the strike, but also, Natalie is the only one who directly works in film production with SAG. And of course, the pivot to the Thrawn Trilogy specifically happened because of Natalie's health, and because they didn't want to do the show without her.

So like, one, it's devaluing the show's history and political leanings to pretend like this is another silly bit (or has not been a backup plan they've made specifically because they've had to have backup plans before), but also it's devaluing its support of her specifically!

Plus I think there are things that people have taken as bits that weren't bits - I believed Austin when he said that the Mon Calamari genocide conversation seriously made them reconsider whether they wanted to keep doing the show. Like he said, they had a Kanye West podcast once.

I also really like Austin making a point that he believes that art and criticism are not a means in and of themselves - I think there's a conversation to be had, obviously, but I'm very sympathetic to his point that in the long run, in the observable, meaningful sense, art and criticism are just not accomplishing the things that we'd like to believe they do. I think that there's value in making art and making criticism beyond just 'it makes us feel good', but I also think that there are too many people these days who will argue that watching a movie is praxis, and it just isn't.

I've still got a lot of episode to go (5 star run times) but I'm very happy that they're willing to have this conversation on air, and really disappointed in some of the fans that it's necessary to have it.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Superman animatic where he says a bunch of Ricky Matsui quotes

[theguywiththewhitespot]

I watched the final draft Darling videos and like what am I supposed to think, Zane DOESN’T wanna fuck that nerd???

ALAN WAKE PLEASE COME BACK TO THE DARK PLACE DARLING AND ZANE ARENT EVEN DOING ART ANYMORE THEY ARE JUST FUCKING NASTY STYLE

SAGA ANDERSON IM SORRY I TRIED TO KILL YOUR DAUGHTER PLEASE PICK UP YOUR GRANDPA BEFORE HE JOINS IN

[theguywiththewhitespot]

ALAN WAKE PLEASE COME BACK TO THE DARK PLACE DARLING AND ZANE ARENT EVEN DOING ART ANYMORE THEY ARE JUST FUCKING NASTY STYLE

SAGA ANDERSON IM SORRY I TRIED TO KILL YOUR DAUGHTER PLEASE PICK UP YOUR GRANDPA BEFORE HE JOINS IN

[theguywiththewhitespot]

One of my favorite things about The Lake House is that one of the lessons from it is “AI art is immoral and cannot replicate true human passion”. Not even to the point where the various AI pages the Marmonts made worked and that was their folly, it just got no reaction from The Darkness.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Jacob Wysocki makes me wish I was fatter just so I could pull off his fashion style.

[theguywiththewhitespot]

Jacob Wysocki what was your comedysportz nickname??

[theguywiththewhitespot]

FORESHADOWING

I know that 90% of the reason Jacob donated the money was because it’s a good cause, but I know in my heart that the other 10% was just the chance for him to hold a big oversized check on TV.