I've noticed in recent streams that Fred often announces we're about to get into the main topic, but he has "one more thing" to show us beforehand. This made me think of Fred as Columbo and I couldn't help but draw it.
I finally came around to posting this but this was a lip sync animation final I did back in college, we got to pick the audio we could use so I used my favorite jabroni_mike clip. Audio is from his blue lick road stream, enjoy!
As of today, Loren is being retired as the face of Fred Knudsen's streams, so I revisited my previous portrait to be more in line with his "canon" self as a sendoff.
Looking forward to watching the VOD, Fred. See ya when I see ya.
(Based on character designs by KerpeSamana and Rangifur on Twitter)
As of late, it's become increasingly more obvious that the "members" of Vinesauce would like to formally depart from being seen as a team. Vinny and Limes have both mentioned on stream that they are not a "team" or "collective." They are moving away from this identity, and I would like to as well.
Now, I am faced with a task. I have videos I'm working on for the upcoming month, but, my channel is currently named "VineSwim." But, even though I've made a concerted effort to help distance the streamers from the previous "group consciousness," so to speak, I feel like I'm not doing enough. I want to continue this channel using the adult swim aesthetic, but I want to remove the Vinesauce portion. That way it takes away some of the confusion surrounding the branding, and also so I can make videos on streamers outside of that realm, although, I would still mostly cover streamers who the "Vinesauce" community also enjoys like Criken, Lythero, and Fred Knudsen.
I love this community, but I feel the need to "get with the times" and have this channel evolve, not only with the changing state of "Vinesauce," but also with myself, and my stream watching habits.
So, please welcome me in as "retro swim." Yes, that's the new name. My name on the Internet is "retro dog," so, it kinda makes sense.
This is about how I came across MordeTwi and how it became one of my obsessions. It's kinda funny to look back to because I never really cared about Regular Show back then and I was one of those people who avoided MLP like it was the plague.
The first time I encountered a redraw of the Airplanes meme was actually in the year 2020, when I was browsing the Comics & Cartoons board of 4chan.
It was a "Barney Bait" thread, this was the thread's thumbnail. I had no strong reaction to this image, nor thought to figure out the context for its creation. I wasn't fully aware about the ship yet at this point, I just assumed this image was a commission and not part of a greater cultural phenomenon. Okay, I'll admit: this was also during the time I was in a phase where I irrationally hate Regular Show and what it stands for (I believe the Simp meme was popular at this point too), and when I looked at this image then, I swear I was like "Heh. Mordecai is being partnered up with some random pony." (I didn't know at the time that Twilight is also a main protagonist like he is lol)
Jump forward to more or less a year later, I was binge watching Jabroni Mike's stream VODs. One video in particular has Frederick Knudsen as a guest, and it was about AI generated images (this was back when Dall-E wasn't a thing yet, I think). One of the prompts was the lyrics of Airplanes, and at some point Fred had to bring up MordeTwi because Mike had no idea what's going on. That one fateful second... Fred shared the original Airplanes drawing (Mike showing it to us thru OBS), and that's when it hit me...
"Hey, this image looks familiar. Hmm... A meme. And it involves Mordecai and MLP..."
I had to pause the video but it only took me seconds to remember that 4chan thread. This was also the first time I learned of the pony's name – Twilight Sparkle. "Ah. I know my search term now, thanks Fred!"
Google: mordecai x twilight sparkle
This was when the Airplanes meme was still just about to blow up into mainstream popularity (re: resurge as a trend big time). Searching MordeTwi during this time was better since you got to see more of the older stuff that wasn't to do with the redraw trend or the Airplanes meme in general. At the same time I was deep diving in this search, I was also looking at my browser history trying to rediscover that 4chan thread to make sure I wasn't going crazy (actually, I had to look it up through an archive, e.g. Desu Archive).
I learned a few things that day:
1, Mordecai x Twilight Sparkle was a thing for a long time
2, the ship itself did not stem from the original meme image – which there's a trend over it – but alot of people don't seem to know that
3, there was a trend back in 2020 to "redraw MordeTwi"
4, there was an ongoing trend to make content related to: A, the ship, or B, the meme based on the ship.
There's just something about this pairing, it just... stuck to my head. Like, it's some kind of cosmic horror – they're bound together one way or another, their pairing is inevitable, and your mind just won't quiet about it. But there's something else I learned about MordeTwi in those early times: the original shippers of this pairing were kind of the underdogs. This was a full on fanbase too, I must add, with a fan club. Just a few days in for their existence and they were already getting hate sent their way; they were misunderstood – though granted, they didn't have a FAQ section to clear things up, until two years after their club was founded.
Suffice it to say: learning about this ship – how its' fans/creators got treated over time, and how it was perceived overall... that got me rooting for MordeTwi. It's a pity that MordeTwi is mostly seen these as "that fake ship/joke pairing that a nine-year-old made up out of nowhere".
My favourite line from the new Down The Rabbit Hole video on EVE Online.
For anyone not aware yet, Fredrik Knudsen recently released his monumental EVE Online video and I thought this Brass Eye-worthy line from it to be incredibly powerful. It needs to go on his Twitch soundboard. I can just picture Fred dashing people's hopes by looking them dead in the eyes and saying it.
Also, if I can be honest with you, Fred, if and when you read this, I want you to know that while this video was being made, I was always a bit worried in the back of my head that I wouldn't get into it because EVE didn't sound like something I'd really be interested in.
But once again, the way you present things made it so compelling that I found it difficult to even pause the video, like a good book that you can't put down.
Watching twink VTuber Fredrik Knudsen (of "Down the Rabbit Hole" fame) go through the whole Ken Penders thing made me realize how much I've been desensitised to like... everything about it.
And how it's Not That Common to know precisely the sequence of events that lead to him publishing The Lara-Su Chronicles.
I'm like following along Fred reading articles about Penders and nodding at the facts that I already know, and seeing people in chat react to it for the first time and I'm like... oh right it's been more than a decade since the lawsuit and there's more people out there in blissful unawareness of all of that. I saw this shit unfold LIVE here on [tumblr]. The first murmurings of the delayed issues of Archie. The altered comics where suddenly whole swathes of characters disappeared out-of-panel. The scrambling fans had to do to figure out which characters weren't allowed to be even be mentioned again. Mourning for Scourge and what his arc could've been.
Crying fredrik knudsen is finally back from the eve online hellpit- ITS BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THE LAST WARRENS-
AND THEY FINALLY DID ANOTHER UNREAL ESTATE TOYETHER. JOy joYOUS DAY Tbh I've never been big into watching jabroni mike except for when he's with Fred. Idk their dynamic hits so perfect for me
I don't normally get big into specific YouTubers nowadays but fredrik knudsen is the guy I go "this is the exact aura I want people to see me as." i used to want to make videos in his style so bad okay you don't get it
Belated Illustration of November 25th-28th (also might be my last sketchpage for the time-being) | Nov 25th Stream Fredrik Knudsen Astraline (I forgor) followed with Lethal Company
As to why "25th to 28th" is on here, well, this isn't the first version of the drawing, as I had initially made a previous version on the 25th/26th, showed it to a friend i care deeply for and they were honest with me about it, by saying it was really sloppy, but rather than bite the bullet and post it anyways (which would have tarnished my friend's opinion on me), but i thought about what my friend said, and understood they were right with me, they knew i could do better, and so did I despite current things going on with me.
So I decided to restart the entire doodle as a whole and do it again, using the advice my friend gave to me. Of course, I did get distracted (also had college to do) midway through it but eventually with yesterday (being the start of the doodle) and today, I had finally completed it. Compared to the previous iteration, this is LEAGUES better. Thank you, @starry-feathers.
Here's a bonus pic/part that is just the starship opened up and the old iteration
As for something else, honestly, this might be my final sketchpage, don't worry, i ain't dying (not yet at least), but with my... well, condition, I might consider not doing anymore sketch pages until i get better or feel better, whenever that may be. Of course this does not mean goodbye because im still gonna be in chat ofc, i just wont be doodling for the time being. Thank you all for enjoying my doodles I've created over the months and especially you, Fred.
See y'all next time, or once i feel better, which would then like, obliterate this entire heart-felt speech, lmao.
It looks like you get to visit... the bonus bean room.
GBA Fire Emblem inspired portrait of Loren the Owl, Fredrik Knudsen's Vtuber avatar on Twitch. Character design by Kerpė Samana on Twitter.
Reposting old work, and this one is probably due for an update with the changes to Fred's rig.
So who here like Fred Knudsen? Ya know, Freddy Fat Nuts? The owl twink from AstraLine? Well, anyone, here's a clip compilation of all the best stuff since his AstraLine debut! Enjoy, owlets.