im nosy please elaborate hehe (esp on the snf stuff eyes emoji)
you got it 🫡 warning in advance for banter + snf crit but this is all from the perspective of a fan i’m not hating just to hate. and under the cut cause this is everything i’ve been holding in it’s Long
imo the problems with banter boil down to 1) a lack of direction, and 2) that it honestly seems like nobody but karl even gives a shit about it. it doesn’t even need to be a particularly inspired idea to work, just coasting off their dynamic would be fine (i don’t think karl/sap/george is a great combo for this format but that’s not to say it can’t ever work, i’ve enjoyed them in past episodes) but they still need to go into sessions with like…. an idea of what to do. it’s evident in both individual episodes— losing track of the topic ten minutes in, aimless conversations, starting and stopping stories, etc— and the podcast as a whole— celebrity guests seem picked at random with minimal research done, their chris episode that had a chance of being topical didn’t come out until after the general public lost interest, and doing THREE reboots because they keep losing steam after putting out two episodes is just ridiculous (though they’ve been better about that recently, credit where it’s due). their new set actually looks great, i like it a lot, but it doesn’t make their fundamental problems better. and all that would be more excusable if i got the sense that banter was really a passion project for them, but like i said yesterday i just…. don’t think that it is 😭 i do feel like karl genuinely wants to make it work and tries hard. but snf seem like they just said yes because it’s easy for them and they’ve got literally nothing else going on, and at least imo it shows
three guys in their twenties making a mid podcast isn’t the worst thing in the world (in fact it’s healthy for them. enriches their environment) but the reason everyone is so bitter towards it is because it’s ALL we get these days, save for a stream for two every couple weeks. it’s true that banter doesn’t Actually stop them from doing anything else, if they wanted to make content they would make it, but when we hear that group streams have been canceled and snf fly to north carolina a day later that’s still what it feels like! and, maybe most maddeningly, they seem to be under the impression that most of their audience Likes the podcast?? that’s the only explanation i can think of for the hubris of booking a big venue in a low-traffic state just before vidcon with no guests but austin ever announced and the most half assed promotion i’ve ever seen (see my point about not caring). i don’t like them blaming the venue for the cancellation either, i call bs on them being “difficult to work with” and it was almost certainly because of low ticket sales. like honestly, genuinely, did none of you see this coming? it’s incredibly out of touch and even though i like all three of them i can’t help but feel bitter thinking about how the only content we can expect from content creators is something they don’t seem passionate about yet continue to ignore that their audience very resoundingly Does Not Want It
and that brings me to snf’s careers right now as a whole. i don’t have as much to say as i did yesterday cause this anon summed it up so well but it really feels like between dream not micromanaging them anymore, minecraft content in general getting lower views and more creatively burned out, and not being separately stuck inside forced to do Something to stave off the boredom, they just don’t know what to do anymore, so they do nothing (or make seven-minute mr beast videos). dream isn’t the content machine he used to be either but at least with his projects like usmp (🕊) and drusic i can feel like he’s busy with projects he loves and there will be something tangible for me in the future, so i’m more willing to wait and see. and using tommy as another example, he’s done a great job branching out into other avenues and preserving his audience when what he was doing got tired. there’s no reason snf Can’t, they just haven’t. and when i hear about things like them scolding dream for promising us things i’m like ?!? fair i guess, i’d rather not expect anything and not be disappointed, but it’s only not happening because you guys aren’t making it happen. are you really SO busy that you can’t carve out three hours in an afternoon to cook something on stream? (in fairness that could be said about all three) or do you just not want to, and expect your audience to stick around indefinitely like it’s 2020?
and this discussion has been had on tumblr already of course and to be honest i’ve never really agreed with the consensus that it’s entitled to want content from content creators, but just to cover my ass a bit LMAO: this doesn’t bother me day to day, i have life to keep me busy so i just watch something when it interests me and don’t when it doesn’t. i love that dteam seem like friends first and business partners second and i would rather preserve that than grind content! but all the same i don’t think it’s wrong as fans to be critical of what people we like are (or aren’t) putting out but as always yk feel free to chime in with agreements or disagreements or whatever i am a greek forum for minecraft youtubers
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Family Dinners - dpxdc
"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.
The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.
"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.
"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.
"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."
"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."
Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.
Ancients, that's so weird!
The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.
Wait. Family dinners?
He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.
"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.
"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.
From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.
"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"
"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"
"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."
"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."
The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.
Come on, Danny, recover!
"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."
"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?
"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."
"Costume? What do you mean?"
Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.
"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!
"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.
"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.
His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.
"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.
Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"
"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"
"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."
"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.
It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.
It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.
Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.
"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."
Once again, the whole table falls into silence.
"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"
"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"
"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."
Danny's grin freezes in place.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."
"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"
Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.
"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.
"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."
An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.
"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.
"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."
"What did happen?"
"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."
"How long in the future was it?"
"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.
Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"
"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."
"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."
"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"
"What?"
"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."
Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.
"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.
"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."
"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"
"Damian, stop—"
"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."
"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."
"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.
"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."
"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."
"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."
"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."
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