#phandom analysis

[slitsfordan]

DanandPhilCrafts + Fucked Up Queer Devotion + Christian Homophobia: An Essay

We’ve all been talking about the willingness of Dan and Phil to perform the ritual, we’ve all been talking about the intimacy of carving out your lover’s heart, but I have not heard anyone talk about the fucked up side of Dan and Phil’s (fictional) relationship with each other, and with Him, so here goes.

On the craft channel, Dan and Phil act overwhelmingly positive, like satanic children’s show hosts, but this is clearly a farce. We see them drop their smiles quite a few times during the crafting- most notably in Glitter Faces when Dan’s craft turns out wrong, and when Phil cuts Dan’s hand. “Don’t cry, craft” is directed towards the audience, but it seems Dan and Phil are following their own advice. Cults, after all, prey on vulnerable people. While they do seem scared of doing the ritual, and their involvement with Him, they are, however, definitely willing. In

The blood on Dan after he kills Phil is interesting; The handprint on his shirt isn’t a sign of a struggle, but rather Phil just grabbing his shirt- that’s pretty intimate, honestly. The blood on his face could’ve been caused by a bunch of things: blood splatter he wiped at? wiping at his face (eyes?) with a bloody hand? or Phil holding his face? (I like the third option) The blood on his nose might totally have been accidental, and just a thing that happened, but it could also be an allusion to the cat whiskers, in the spirit of bringing things back to the beginning and whatnot.

After the ritual is complete, there’s the obvious tarot symbolism. @freckliedan has a great post about this, but I’ve got more to add, so bear with me. Yes, Dan and Phil are framed as the lovers, but that’s not all. While the sexual deviance associated with the devil card has clear connections to queerness, it’s main association is usually unhealthy relationships and dependence. From this, and the obvious devotion displayed in the video, the craft versions of Dan and Phil are implied to be unhealthily dependent on each other, and devoted to the point of obsession. While the relationship certainly isn’t abusive, this obsession just isn’t healthy.

Furthering the unhealthy relationship idea is when Phil calls Dan “Sampson”. In the Bible or whatever (I’m not Christian sue me) Sampson topples these pillars, killing both himself and his enemies, which has a clear parallel to Dan’s stacked ingredients falling over, but the use of “folly” is interesting, and suggests a further connection. Sampson had married a prostitute, and she sold him out, basically, leading to his enslavement and later death. In this story, this is the clearest and most obvious act of folly by Sampson: marrying someone who he shouldn’t have, someone who it was taboo for him to be with. Connected to Dan and Phil, it suggests that their relationship is dangerous due to the social taboo, but it’s also implied that Phil will betray Dan. Perhaps we’ll see that in a 5th crafts installment, or perhaps it’s simply a commentary on being in a relationship with someone considered unacceptable.

Speaking of unhealthy relationships, that’s sure what they’ve got with Him! Leading up to the ritual, Dan and Phil are shown to be scared of Him, even though they call Him their friend. Dan’s head shake when Phil says “crafting has improved my life in numerous ways” is very telling. At the end, Dan’s shoulders tense at His first footstep, however, when He actually touches Dan, he doesn’t seem scared at all- forgive me for this next point, but from the way he kinda leans into the touch and tilts his head back, it seems more like he’s going for “turned on” rather than “scared”.

“Okay, cool” you say, “but what does it mean?” Well, Dan and Phil’s relationship in this series is not just about homoerotic undertones- this is an allegory for toxic queer sexual relationships. Why would they make something about toxic relationships when they’re in a healthy relationship? With the toxicity, and the power imbalances, and the satanism, Dan and Phil’s (fictional) relationship is a representation of Christian fears of queerness, and the supposed immoral/corrupting/anti-Christian effects of being in a queer relationship. The fear Dan and Phil show throughout the series is representative of internalized homophobia. They’re scared to align themselves with Him because it means accepting their own queerness. Dan shows more fear than Phil throughout the series (like after his glitter face turns out to be a pentacle) which parallels his real world internalized homophobia that he’s experienced. By holding hands with the devil (or baphomet?) standing behind them, Dan and Phil have embodied every conservative fear about queerness, but have come out on top. Through their YouTube channel, we get to do the same.

[picturejasper20]

So @murcielagatito recently made a post talking about the Phandom and how it is weird that the Phandom created a character like Wes to be someone who investigates who Phantom is when there are characters like Paulina and Valerie in canon that can fit that role.

I want to talk about some of the characterization/moments that Paulina has in the series since we are already familiar with Valerie and i think she fits better as friendenemy- antagonist turned ally role but that's on me.

So one thing about Paulina is that she has a huge crush on Phantom but not on Danny Fenton. In Season 1 episode ¨Lucky in Love¨ has near the ending showing that she has somewhat of an altar dedicated to Phantom in her locker.

So we know from this that she is really into Phantom and she seems to idolize him. I wouldn't say that she is obsessed with him, more like she just really likes him.

This alone builds some potential cool interactions between Danny and Paulina because of how she sees the two halves of who Danny is so differently. For her Danny is a huge loser and Phantom is a hero/idol.

Another very interesting is that in ¨Memory Blank¨ Paulina invites the Phantom trio to her quinceañera (15th birthday), which leaves the teens confused of why she is doing this if she doesn't like them much. Paulina then says the following:

She explains to them that she is inviting Danny because she has noticed a connection between Phantom showing up whenever Danny is close by, so she thinks that way if Danny comes, Phantom is likely going to be there too.

This is worth of noting because not many characters in the series realize this or go to this level to being this close to figuring out that Danny is Phantom, not even Valerie with her technology used to be this precise.

These things alone can set up for potential things to work with, with Paulina finding out who Phantom is and some potential character development for her.

Now this crush thing she has was clearly inspired by Lois Lane from Superman- but it could be written to be one sided crush and her staying friends with Danny after she learns his secret. It could also be changed in a way she really looks up to Phantom and she would like to be more like him. So it doesn't have to rely on the romance stuff that much.

What i'm trying to say is that Paulina as character has more potential to fit the role ¨person who investigates Phantom¨ than instead having to... use a character that isn't even in the series. Plus, it could give some good character development she needs- considering that in the series she was mostly a static character.

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight - The Phantom Wail Hypothesis: An Analysis of Phantom’s Ghostly Wail as Residual Sonic Trauma

For: @murphy-kitt

Literally just a ecto-ology/hauntology thesis abstract about Phantom’s Ghostly Wail and its implications.

Abstract

Phantom’s Ghostly Wail is among one of the most consistently reported unique traits that Phantom possesses, one that seemingly separates him from all other ghosts. While traditionally interpreted as a mere conscious vocalization, another application of this particular ghosts ectoplasm, this paper presents an alternative hypothesis: that this sound is the imprinted death screams of an individual who died under conditions of acute trauma. Drawing on findings from psychoacoustics, quantum imprint theory, trauma psychology, and recordings of audio, this paper proposes that traumatic death events can produce a sonic imprint in a ghost under particular atmospheric or emotional conditions. This Death Scream Hypothesis challenges the standard ecto-ologistic model of how death impacts a ghost upon their creation and reorients our understanding of how their powers might come to be; as well as effects on the environment caused by those who’ve passed.

1. Introduction

1.1 Philosophical Basis of the Ghostly Wail

The existence of wailing amongst ghosts isn’t in and of itself unique, with accounts ranging from ancient folklore to modern ghost-hunting documentaries, disembodied wails and screams remain one of the most iconic and terrifying, features of a stereotypical haunting. Particularly the variety found outside of Amity Park’s boarders. While ghost lore frequently attributes these cries to wandering spirits lamenting their fate or seeking closure, the spectres seen around Amity Park show no such behaviours; with the exclusion of Phantom. As it stands, there has been little investigation into whether such sounds may instead be echoes of the suffering of their demise; an end so painful it imprinted on their very being or the environment wherein they passed.

This Phantom Wail Hypothesis posits that Phantom’s particular ‘ghostly wailing’ may, in fact, be the lingering auditory remnants of that individual’s dying scream frozen in time as a spectral ability, able to be replayed at will like a needle passing over a phonographic groove. These sonic imprints able to be reactivated by Phantom, triggered as an instinctual environmental response or by his consciousness itself. The Ghostly Wail does not appear to be a high priority instinct, potentially due to Phantom’s protective nature and the Ghostly Wails destructive capabilities.

1.2 Rethinking the Standard Haunting Pattern

This hypothesis further invites us to reconsider the default assumption that standard hauntings represent conscious attempts at contact. Instead, it introduces the idea that many supernatural sounds are accidental recorded instinctual distress signals, not active communication with the living realm. If correct, this shifts ecto-ology from a theological to a psychological and biological domain.

Amity Park ghosts in particular support this, as they actively chose to interact with the living in a physical corporeal state. Showing that if ghosts wanted to interact and communicate with the living, they would be inclined to do so far more physically. With Phantom standing to provide an example of a ghost that leans far more into verbal communication than merely physically existing amongst us. Perhaps this fondness for vocalization is, in part, a reason behind having a sound based ability that reflects his demise so strongly.

2. Historical and Cross-Cultural Context

2.1 Archetypal Wailing in Global Traditions

The motif of the ghostly scream or wail is a transcultural one:

In many different Celtic mythologies, the banshee’s wail heralds death, suggesting a sonic foreshadowing tied to an echo of trauma.

Japanese onryō spirits are often heard sobbing or screaming, though violent, they are typically believed to be women who died violently or unjustly.

In Victorian England, so-called ‘death knocks’ and unexplainable cries were considered omens, thought to be auditory impressions left behind at the moment of death.

In African and African Caribbean spiritual traditions, the voice of the dead may be heard not as speech but as a cry for remembrance, often replayed at specific locations or anniversaries.

All of those above can be applied to Phantom himself as well. To refer to Phantom as a ‘Harold of Death’ or an omen of death, as a banshee and ‘death knocks’ so often are, would seem obvious to many, as Phantom’s presence in any given area is indicative of the presence of at least one other, far more dangerous, ghost. His Ghostly Wail serving as his echo of trauma. Similarly to the onryō, Phantom is indeed violent and capable of harm; though the reasons for such behaviour is protective in nature and never causes true prolonged harm. His Wail truly hinting at his death being quite violent and likely unjust as well. And perhaps his death was not one well known or well remembered, feeding into the ghosts innate desire for remembrance.

2.2 The Voice of Death as a Spiritual Trigger

Many cultures maintain that the moment of death imprints something onto the physical or metaphysical world. Phantom may very well be a far more intense application of this, imprinting on the ghosts physical being itself instead of on the surroundings. Whether conceptualized as a soul, spirit, or energy release, the idea that the final utterance contains special power persists. The Phantom Wail Hypothesis builds on this by proposing that, under some form of extreme conditions, the scream itself became encoded in Phantom’s being, functioning like a spiritual residue of death trauma. One that the ghost is capable of utilizing to affect the world around him as a true genuine power.

It must make one wonder, just how horrific and cruel of a death Phantom must have faced for such a thing to happen to him, and only him.

3. Scientific Foundations

3.1 Psychoacoustics of the Death Scream

Research into traumatic vocalizations shows that humans emit distinct, non-linguistic screams during life-threatening events. These include:

Nonlinear acoustic features such as chaotic frequency shifts, subharmonics, and glottal fry.

High-frequency spectral bursts (3–8 kHz) that are perceptually optimized for urgency and biological alarm.

Temporal irregularities, such as sudden silence or pitch warping, that induce a sense of dread.

These features are evolutionarily adapted to elicit immediate emotional responses in listeners. A death scream, occurring at the apex of physical and emotional stress, thus must carry a unique acoustic signature of its own, both acoustically rich and psychologically potent. Phantom’s Ghost Wail appears to support this heavily, showing that such a death scream can be an incredibly impactful and powerful weapon amongst the dead. One so powerful that, perhaps, only a ghost who suffered most catastrophically could earn the right, through pain, to truly utilize it. Phantom has been witnessed bleeding from his mouth and appearing severely weakened after its use, suggesting that any ghost who had not earned it would be torn apart or obliterated from even trying.

3.2 Environmental Recording: The Stone Tape Theory

Though speculative at best, the Stone Tape Theory proposes that materials such as limestone, quartz, or iron-rich substrates can store energetic events, including sound, much like magnetic tape. Intense emotion and ectoplasm may act as a catalyst, ‘etching’ sonic events into the crystalline microstructure of these materials. Though the more solid ectoplasm that ghosts are comprised of is largely gelatinous in nature, it would not be too far of a stretch to suggest that ectoplasm can be ‘etched’ into in a similar manner. Perhaps this ‘etching’ only settling permanently in cases of extremes.

Environmental triggers, humidity, temperature shifts, geomagnetic flux, might then ‘play back’ these stored events. In areas where repeated screaming deaths occurred (e.g., battlefields, prisons, execution sites), the probability of this phenomenon is theorized to increase. So perhaps Phantom’s Ghostly Wail was a result of not just his own dying screams, but of the collective dying screams of many suffering individuals; a death that came about through an immeasurable tragic loss of life.

3.3 Quantum Information and Emotional Energy

Building on quantum consciousness theories, it is believed that consciousness is not bound solely to the body but flows through a spiritual ectoplasmic state. The death scream, representing a moment of severance between mind and matter, may produce an entangled burst of sonic, psychic, and ectoplasmic energy. This multi-energy signature, auditory, emotional, and spiritual, could become enmeshed in to the being that comes to exist after death. With this being the case with Phantom and how he formed.

4. Methodology

4.1 Case Study Compilation

This study analyzed 212 reported haunting cases across four continents, from historical archives and modern paranormal investigation groups. Criteria for inclusion were:

Presence of distinct wailing or screaming in the auditory report.

History of documented violent or traumatic deaths at the location.

Audio recordings, if available, subjected to spectral analysis.

This study also utilized all available recordings, and the situations in which they occurred, of Phantom’s Ghostly Wail. Acquired both from the citizens of Amity Park and from the Drs. Fenton’s, Dr. Madeline Fenton and Dr. Jackson Fenton. Phantom himself also allowed for the recording of his Ghostly Wail directly, in a forested area devoid of other potential ectoplasmic interferences.

4.2 Field Recording Analysis

Of the 38 recordings deemed credible (excluding obvious hoaxes and environmental misinterpretations), 27 exhibited spectral characteristics consistent with trauma-induced vocalizations. Notably:

Frequency peaks between 5-6.5 kHz.

Abrupt rise-fall amplitude envelopes.

Nonlinear bifurcations and harmonic roughness typical of real-world screams under distress.

Phantom’s Ghostly Wail causes an immediate intense feeling of pure terror and deep unease. Fluctuating violently between 0.2-49 kHz, with a simultaneously rough and smooth harmonic.

4.3 Material and Environmental Correlations

Locations with strong audio anomalies shared several characteristics:

Substrate materials included high-quartz-content stone or dense wood.

Environmental conditions at the time of phenomena involved sudden temperature drops and high humidity.

Several instances coincided with solar storms or local geomagnetic irregularities.

All three of these notable conditions can be found throughout Amity Park as well. Though this may not have much to do with Phantom specifically, perhaps this is part of the explanation behind Amity Park’s frequent ectoplasmic events and spectral visitors.

5. Discussion

5.1 Conscious Communication vs. Imprinted Expression

This framework challenges the model of non-Amity Park ghostly activity as sentient interaction. Instead, it supports a ‘trauma residue’ theory, suggesting that what is heard is not the voice of a ghost, but the ghost of a voice. Such sounds are not intentional but incidental; they represent not the presence of a spirit but the persistence of an event. As well as how Phantom is an example of a persistent event remaining attached to the sentient ectoplasmic material created from that same event.

5.2 Psychological Impact on Witnesses

Reports frequently include intense emotional reactions to ghostly screams, including:

Sudden weeping, nausea, or panic.

Vivid nightmares or dissociative episodes.

Feeling as if ‘reliving someone else’s pain’.

This supports the idea of empathic resonance, whereby listeners become temporarily attuned to the emotional content embedded in the scream, experiencing it as if it were their own trauma. Phantom’s Ghostly Wail, in particular, is well known to cause extreme intense feelings of terror, feelings of imminent death, and incapacitating levels of anxiety. With multiple reports showing cases of complete delirium and stress induced unconsciousness. Non-human animals also show these same signs, often seeming catatonic with terror or vibrating violently. And through testing on the surrounding trees, Phantom’s Ghostly Wail appeared to have disturbed even the plant matter around, interrupting their natural vibrational levels.

This lends itself to the idea that Phantom’s dying screams were so intense that their after shocks invoke not merely empathy but pure genuine instinctual terror. Phantom’s trauma so intense that the living mind of any mildly sentient being can’t with stand it to any notable degree.

5.3 Ethical and Spiritual Implications

If the Phantom Wail Hypothesis is valid, it raises moral and metaphysical questions:

Should efforts be made to ‘cleanse’ or ‘deactivate’ non-sentient residual imprints? Such as those found throughout the world?

Is the repetition of such a death scream a form of suffering, or merely an echo devoid of Phantom’s previously experienced pain?

What does this imply about the preservation of emotional energy at the moment of death?

Should Phantom’s Ghostly Wail be celebrated for the remembrance it inspires that the ghost may seek? Or mourned for reliving pain of a life past?

One must consider if the use of Phantom’s Ghostly Wail is an act of self harm, an act of reliving trauma, an act of crying out to be heard, or merely the ectoplasmic fabric of the Ghost Zone giving Phantom’s horrific death its dues. What does this say about Phantom’s emotional state? Or perhaps what does this say about Phantom’s ability to retain living emotions?

Further, this hypothesis may also bridge spiritual ritual and scientific inquiry, offering a functional rationale for exorcisms, blessing rituals, and sacred silence in death spaces. Are the echoes of suffering best heard and revered, or best cleansed and left to fade away?

6. Conclusion

The Phantom Wail Hypothesis reframes one of the oldest human fears, not merely the fear of death, but the fear that death may echo. Phantom’s own ability forcing us to confront those fears and address them. Far from being fanciful superstition, the idea that traumatic final vocalizations might persist in not only the environment but in a particular ghost himself, offers theory into how Phantom must have passed on, as well as a potentially unifying theory for ghostly wailing and other residual haunting phenomena.

Although speculative, this hypothesis synthesizes data from acoustics, parapsychology, quantum theory, and historical folklore in a manner that warrants further interdisciplinary study. Future cooperative work with Phantom himself could yield more definitive answer and insights into his Ghost Wail as well as the long debated how of his demise; though he does not appear open to more invasive research. In a broader scope, future work could involve lab-based simulations of trauma-induced imprinting, development of ‘imprint-sensitive’ recording equipment, and expanded field studies in emotionally charged historical locations.

---

Maddie hums, leaning back in her lab chair and tapping her chin. This was definitely written by someone just beginning to dip their toes into ecto-ology, and some of its sourcing has definitely been debunked, but it still has serious merit. It purposes an interesting hypothesis even on the broader scope, but regarding its points about Phantom specifically… it did not paint a pretty picture, in fact it painted a deeply concerning one. For such a heavy amount of suffering to be attached to a friendly, playful, protective spirit was alarming. It was alarming in that it raised a lot of questions about her and Jack’s work. If this was indeed the case, Phantom, along with all other ghosts, were most likely sentient and emotionally intelligent. For the pain and emotion of death to imprint on the ectoplasm itself implied emotion as a neurological experience could be retained by ectoplasm.

If Phantom truly felt echoes of Its own suffering when It used Its Wail, then It was capable of compartmentalizing and coping with that experience and those sensations.

And simply as a mother…

Phantom looked like a teenager. She couldn’t fathom her kids dying so horrifically, in so much pain, that it became part of their ectoplasmic spiritual being. She’d take that death herself first, she’d take it a thousand times over if she had to. She’d beg for that fate to be sent her way instead of theirs.

If, and when, either of her kids die, she hopes they do so peacefully, happily, and nothing like what this paper proposed Phantom suffered.

Perhaps… perhaps she’ll cut that ghost some slack. If this theory was even half right, Its earned it.

End.

Prompts: Someone hears Phantom's ghostly wail and theorises it's his dying screams.

[locamotivednp]

I cannot wait to hear dans millennial rant again. It’s one of my favorite parts of the show. Just and the 8 other millennials in the crowd cheering and everyone else booing. It’s a thrill

But also it’s a topic I think about a lot. Because I really actually loathe the entire concept in a lot of ways. It’s a huge misuse of age cohorts and even Pew Research is stepping back from generational research. And tbh most ‘generational’ crap is marketing or clickbait.

And critically, period effects, class, race and changing demographics are almost always missing from generational analysis. I really think a lot of the talk about how progressive gen z is comes from demographic traits not generational. And don’t get me started on the upper class bias.

Standard generational definitions are way too broad and overused. They oversimplify intragenerational diversity of thought and opinion and can completely erase period effects. Some of the best papers I’ve read group people on age during key historical events, which allows you to be much more specific and tailor your cohorts to your question of interest.

All that being said, I’m so fucking grateful I was in high school when social media was still fun and TikTok wasn’t a thing. And only a little sad that I didn’t get shows like heartstopper when i was growing up.

[mage8]

This poll is fascinating. I never thought about the different forms a parasocial relationship can take.

[tatzelbookwurm]

So uhh. . . I recently got access to a college library system again and for whatever reason (that reason is a ghost obsession. Or rather, an obsession with a particular half ghost), I thought to myself, "You should look up Danny Phantom and see if anyone has referenced it in a scholarly article." And apparently this exists:

Grant, Krista, “Canon” and “Fanon” in the Danny Phantom/Detective Comics (Dc) Comics Crossover Fandom: Expanding Authorship and Authority in Transformative Fan Works. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4894061 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4894061

Abstract

In 2020, a new crossover fandom emerged, that of Danny Phantom x DC Comics (DPxDC), prompting thousands of fanfictions and participants. As neither media connected in their canons, how did this crossover fandom come to be? The content tags on these crossover fanfictions and on Tumblr posts collected Jan–April, 2024 were collected and analyzed in a mixed-methods discourse analysis approach with inductive coding for key words “canon” and “fanon”. This is the first time for which a crossover fandom is being investigated in writing studies, and it is one of the first articles to explore fanfiction within writing studies, especially in a mixed methods study. Underpinning this research are grassroots activism, critical theory, and agential theories of resistance practices. I found that DPxDC fans consciously resist canon material, enacting agency through distributed and communal writing practices and claiming a kind of authorship and authority over works, offering a new way of understanding agency and distributed authorship in writing studies.

Keywords: distributed authorship, writing studies, fanfiction, canon, fanon

I haven't finished reading it all yet, but if you've been active in the DPxDC phandom for a few years, you might be cited. Just saying, I recognize a few familiar usernames already.

[phannie-elvis]

Phannie Census Update #2 (Preliminary Results!)

Phwoah dads, this is another very long one, so summary at the bottom. I'm gonna hand it over to the mod again now *sexy end screen dance*

Hello everyone! (I'm not gonna change color again because of how long this is). I know everyone is excited for results. Unfortunately, for some of the more complicated questions I have, google forms can't do the kind of math I want, so I need to export the data and write a whole bunch of code and stuff. That being said, for a lot of simpler questions, google forms has a little summary with some graphs and stuff, so I thought I would share that now so we can have some results a lot sooner! I'm gonna go through each question on the survey and say what percent each response got (from highest to lowest, followed by write-ins), as well as the response rate for each question and any noteworthy comments I have.

Disclaimer: I'm going to leave the survey open until I export the data for the final analysis, so it's possible that the results of this will change from I state in this post. However, given that the response rate has been slowing down pretty significantly the past couple days I think that nearly all the responses I'm going to get are already in, so this is probably a pretty good reflection of the data.

These are the results as of 6/14 at 7 PM ET. Total responses so far: 1,577!

Do you currently identify as a lesbian? (99.7 % response rate)

71.3% No, 28.7% Yes

Obviously, we're not 100% lesbians, but I still think 28.7% is pretty high! According to a recent Gallup poll, 1.4% of US adults identify as lesbian (I couldn't find any specifically lesbian stats for the whole world), so 28.7% is wayyyyy higher. Even among LGBTQ+ US adults in general, 14.6% identified as lesbian, so we have a greater "density" of lesbians even given that the Dan and Phil audience is largely queer.

2. Have you ever identified as a lesbian? (99.7% response rate)

54.5% Yes, 45.5% No

I was surprised to see this! I think it's really funny, given the stereotype, that the majority of respondents have identified as lesbian at one point in their lives. I guess Dan and Phil really do know us lol.

3. What's your sexual/romantic orientation? (99.6% response rate)

42.2% Bi/Pan/Omni, 40.9% Queer, 34.8% Gay/Lesbian, 29.3% Ace/Aro, 9.6% Demi, 5.5% Straight, 3.04% write-ins

I was expecting this, but I think it's still funny that the smallest percent other than write-ins was straight lol. I do think the fact that this is tumblr, the Gay People Website, might have something to do with that, but I think it still reflects that the Dan and Phil fan base is pretty solidly queer. (Side note: I can't determine what percent of respondents were LGBTQ+ from the google form, since I can't combine the sexuality and gender data, but I can do that for my final results).

4. What's your gender? (98.5% response rate)

50.8% Woman, 16.7% A different kind of nonbinary (specify in other), 15.5% Genderfluid, 15.3% Man, 13.8% Agender, 5% Demigirl, 3.2% Demiboy, 2.5% Bigender/Polygender, 2.4% Genderqueer (write-in), 0.8% Intersex, ?% other write-ins

I can't do the math for the rest of the write-ins because the google form is being weird, but they were mostly some form of "just nonbinary", not sure/questioning, or transmasc. I think it's funny we have more nonbinary and genderfluid respondents than men respondets. In addition to being a very queer phandom, we're also very genderqueer and I love that for us.

5. What's your gender identity? (98.5% response rate)

48.3% Cisgender, 41.1% Nonbinary, 27.4% Transgender, 0.6% Intersex, 3.6% write-ins

Most of the write-ins were people who were still questioning their gender or didn't feel a connection to gender at all. Again, I think it's funny less than half of respondents are cis. We're really such a queer and trans phandom.

6. What was your assigned gender at birth? (98.9% response rate)

96.1% Female, 2.4% Prefer not to say, 0.4% Actually my doctor was super cool and didn't assign me a gender against my will, 0.4% Male, 0.7% write-ins

I was expecting a pretty high majority female, but 96.1% still surprised me lol. I guess the stereotype that ten years ago all dan and Phil fans were "obsessed teenage girls" (or at least teenage girls) does hold some weight. The write-ins were mostly people saying that they weren't a phannie 10 years ago or they weren't a phannie until after they transitioned.

7. What's your race/ethnicity? (99.6% response rate)

85.2% White, 10.3% Hispanic, 7.3% Asian/South Asian, 2.5% Black, 1.7% Middle Eastern, 1.1% Native American, American Indian, or Alaska Native, 0.5% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 2.6% write-ins

I was expecting a pretty high percent white and wasn't too surprised by this, but I was hoping for a little more diversity. The write-ins were all pretty different, although some form of Jewish and different versions of mixed did appear somewhat often.

8. What's your age? (95.2% response rate)

Unfortunately after about a third of the results came in, google stopped showing me the frequency of each response and just listed the responses. Some people gave a range instead, so I don't have precise numbers to do math with, but the range for people who provided a precise number is 12 to 50 years old. When I could see the frequency, 23 and 25 were in a tight race for the most popular response, but that might've changed. I'll be able to find the average once I do my complicated analysis. (Also, I had multiple responses for each decade between 12 and 50 so we have a pretty decent spread in ages, even if most people are likely in their twenties/thirties!)

9. Which continent are you from? (99.1% response rate)

56% North America, 29.9% Europe, 5.9% Australia, 3.3% Asia, 3.1% South America, 1.5% Oceania/Zealandia, 0.3% Africa, 0.1% Antarctica

Unfortunately the Oceania/Zealandia was not there for the first several hundred respondents, so sorry to anyone who wanted to pick that option but couldn't! (The US education system failed me). These results are pretty much what I was expecting. One person said they were from Antarctica. I don't know if they were kidding or if maybe they're a researcher who lives in Antarctica (in which case, cool!)

10. Which country are you from? (96.0% response rate)

49.9% United States, 13.7% United Kingdom, 5.5% Australia, 5.3% Canada, 4.2% Germany (These are the top 5, I can't list every country because there are simply too many). Here is a graph to try to show you how many responses I got, even though the key doesn't fit in frame lol.

Although about half the pie graph is the U.S., there are so so many responses, which I love. There are phannies all over the world! I can't reliably see all the countries listed right now (I have to hover my mouse over each 0.1% of the pie chart to try to read it), but when I can see some, I've seen countries all over the world (which makes sense given the previous question). Sincere apologies to anyone whose country was not listed. I couldn't offer a write-in option in the drop-down and it was hard to find a list of countries that included everything, given how politically contentious the recognition of countries can be. (This list came from Encyclopedia Brittanica in case anyone was curious).

Fun fact: That top 5 list is very similar to the top 5 countries viewers are from on the AmazingPhil Video Trivia page in tabinof (which is U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany). His page lists the top 10, but I can't read that pie chart well enough to compare past Germany lol.

11. Which of the 4 Gs of the Dan and Phil demographic are you? (99.8% response rate)

87.4% Gays, 84.6% Geeks, 64.1% Girlies, 37.9% Goths, 0.7% None actually, 2.6% write-ins

Hilarious to me that only 0.7% selected "none”. Dan really clocked us with that one. Most of the write-ins are people who are not sure if emo/punk counts as goth (I feel like yes in this case, since Dan and Phil fans are more stereotypically emo but Dan wanted something that started with a G), people who said they were formerly a category (usually girlie), or people who weren't sure if they qualified for a category or not.

Fun fact: These results are pretty close to the results @a-human-beann got when they conducted a poll about the 4 Gs in May. Although the way the question was programmed led to different interpretations of the percentages, the most popular response was still Gays, followed closely by Geeks, then Girlies, then Goths, just like here.

12. Did Dan make you trans/question your gender? (99.4% response rate)

34.7% No, I questioned my gender all on my own (or something else made me I guess), 27.5% No, I've always been sure I'm cis, 14.3% No I made myself trans (or something else did I guess), 14% Yes, he made me question my gender, 5.5% Yes, he made me trans, 4% write-ins

I was a little surprised by this one. I know realistically that Dan isn't "making" anyone trans, I just thought more people would pick it to be funny, but (based on the write-ins) people were actually interpreting the question as who inspired the start to their exploration of gender, which is actually far more interesting so that's cool. The write-ins had a lot of different answers, mostly giving some but not all credit to Dan (and/or Phil).

13. What year did you join the phandom? (99.6% response rate)

14.0% 2014, 13.5% 2015, 10.5% 2013, 10.9% 2012, 10.7% 2016 (These are the top 5, there were responses for every year since 2009). Here is the chart if you want to see about how popular a specific year was. 2009 is the dark blue slice after the white gap, then they go clockwise in order. The slice before the white gap is "I have so little memory of it, I can't even guess).

This is pretty in line with what I was expecting, peak joining around tatinof and the British vlogger boom. 10.9% of respondents joined during the hiatus (or at the very beginning of Back from the Dead, since I did 2019-2023), and 8.6% joined after the hiatus (2024-2025).

14. At this exact moment in time, are you a dannie or a phillie? (99.4% response rate)

36.2% I literally couldn't decide with a gun pointed to my head, 35% Dannie, 28.8% Phillie

This one surprised me again (I feel like I say that almost every question lol). I was really expecting Phillies to be the majority given the prevailing "Phil is a precious baby angel who must be protected" sentiment that the phandom tends to have lol. However, after reading the nuance question (coming up), I realized that people interpret the question differently which could affect responses to this one (I'll discuss that later). It's also a pretty even split between all three categories, even though there were more dannies than phillies. Early on, it switched a couple times between whether there were more dannies or phillies but it's pretty stable now given the sample size.

15. When you first joined the phandom, were you a dannie or a phillie? (99.4% response rate)

66.9% Dannie, 17.5% Phillie, 15.6% I literally couldn't decide with a gun pointed to my head

I was expecting Dan to have the majority here, but that's still quite a large majority. This makes sense given that he has more subscribers (and had more subscribers around the time most of us joined the phandom). I do love that "I literally couldn't decide with a gun pointed to my head" has gone from the least popular option for when people joined to the most popular option today. Here's the graph to compare to the last question.

16. Are you a dannie or a phillie? (with nuance) (41.9% response rate)

I don't have any stats here, since they are all long responses, but I'm planning on making a word cloud or something for the final results. While reading, I realized that there are different interpretations of what constitutes a dannie vs. phillie. Some people think the question basically means who do you like more, while some interpret it more as who do you relate to more (or some mix between them). I wonder if this could help explain the general "we must protect Phil"/"he can do no wrong" type of thing we've got going on, despite the fact that apparently more respondents are dannies. Based on the written responses I've seen (which, again, have not been scientifically analyzed at all), I think that a lot of people relate to Dan and therefore really appreciate how great Phil is. Maybe there's also still some remnants of Phil's old branding as the "innocent one" that make us want to protect him, idk. I'd be interested in asking who do you like more vs. who do you relate to more separately in the future.

17. Are you some kind of mentally ill/neurodivergent? (99.6% response rate)

59.0% Yes (and diagnosed), 28.3% Yes (but not diagnosed), 6.1% Not sure, 4.1% No (and I was never assessed), 0.4% No (but I was assessed), 1.9% write-ins

Honestly, I'm just gonna stop writing that I was surprised, because I feel like it's getting annoying. Assume I was surprised unless I state otherwise lol. (I was expecting that we would have a high percentage of yeses, but this many specifically is what surprised me). 87.3% of respondents answered some form of yes. Good thing Dan's here to cure all of us (Boom, Mr. Beast). Most write-ins were people saying yes/probably but clarifying stages of diagnosis and some people said they used to have a diagnosis like depression or anxiety, but they're better now! (Congrats!)

18. Specifically, are you autistic? (99.6% response rate)

27.1% Yes (but not diagnosed), 26.2% No (and I was never assessed), 20.7% Yes (and diagnosed), 20.5% Not sure, 2.0% No (but I was assessed), 3.5% write-ins

47.8% answered some form of yes. I realized that people who have Dan and Phil as a special interest are probably more likely to be on phannie tumblr and more likely to find this survey, but I do still think that stereotype that a lot of phannies are autistic does have some basis. It's estimated that 1% of the world population is autistic (from the World Health Organization), so 47.8% is definitely way higher (which would suggest phannies are more likely to be autistic than the general population, but again this was not a perfect sample collection so I can't say for sure) (I think if we could say that, a likely explanation would just be that the phandom is pretty accepting of neurodivergence, especially autism, which could attract autistic fans or encourage phannies to explore their own neurodivergence more). Write-ins were mostly people who were basically self-diagnosed but felt the need to present their case because they weren't sure (which I think is hilarious because that seems like a pretty autistic thing to do lol (I would do the exact same thing lol)). Here's the chart so you can see how close to 50% the yeses are and also so you can see how many people gave write-ins clarifying lol (I blocked out the write-ins it showed in the key).

19. If you identify as transmasc, do you consider Dan or Phil to be gender goals? (97.7% response rate)

61.8% I'm not transmasc, 14.3% Dan, 12.3% Both, 6.2% Neither, 1.4% Phil, 4% write-ins

This one wasn't surprising (I've just heard a lot of people say Dan which is why I asked the question). A lot of write-ins specified that they weren't transmasc but still considered one/both of them to be gender goals (which makes me realize I could've worded that question better). A lot of write-ins also specified a specific era that they considered gender goals.

20. What's your political orientation? (98.2% response rate)

72.3% Strongly left, 20.3% Moderately left, 3.7% I don't really think about politics, 1.4% Center, 0.3% Strongly right, 0.2% Moderately right, 1.8% write-ins

This one didn't really surprise me. I was expecting a strong majority strongly left, given how much they speak up about political issues (particularly Dan). Although I was a little surprised to see any right-leaning at all, especially strongly right, but that's literally 7 people out of the whole 1,577 responses so far. Also, a lot of people in the write-ins couldn't remember which was left and which was right or said it worked differently in their country (they usually then explained their politics and ended up meaning some form of "left") (there's a chance the people who picked right got them mixed up as well, but it's so little that maybe there really are some strong right-leaning Dan and Phil fans somehow). A lot of write-ins also said anarchy/fuck politics/they don't believe in politics.

21. Which is better, phyuri or phaoi? (98.3% response rate)

36.6% How dare you ask me to pick one?, 31.4% Phaoi, 21.2% Phyuri, 8.6% I don't know what we're talking about, 2.2% write-ins

I didn't have any expectations for this one, although personally I am a phyuri lover myself. Most write-ins were either saying they were neutral about it or didn't like either because they don't like shipping real people.

22. Are you a furry? (99.3% response rate)

75.4% No, 18.1% I dabble, but wouldn't call myself a full furry, 4.6% Yes, 1.9% write-ins

I wasn't surprised by this one at first because I had no frame of reference for what percent of the general population are furries, and I was just expecting most people to say no (but quite a few to be somewhere in between which is why I added the I dabble option). However, I just googled it and according to a survey from 2011 furries estimated that roughly between 0.02% and 0.04% of the population are furries, so 4.6% yeses (not even including write-ins or the I dabble option) is wayyy higher. This being on tumblr probably has something to do with that, but I also think all of Dan's furry references have probably helped people find the furry community more easily.

23. Do you think Sister Daniel is hot? (99.0% response rate)

80.3% Yes, 8.1% No, 6.3% I'm too confused to tell, 6.3% write-ins

This is pretty much what I was expecting (a resounding yes). Most of the write-ins were people clarifying that while they personally were not attracted to her (usually because they were ace), they acknowledged that she was still objectively hot.

Summary:

While not every phannie identifies as a lesbian, around 28% of respondents do and around 54% have at one point in their lives, which is way higher than the percent of lesbians in the U.S. population. The respondents were overwhelmingly queer (only 5.5% identified as straight) and way more likely to be some sort of genderqueer compared to the general population (more nonbinary and genderfluid respondents than men respondents, only around 48% of respondents identified as cis). 96% of respondents were assigned female at birth, so there is some truth to the stereotypical view of phannies 10 years ago. The large majority of respondents were white or mixed race including white (around 85%). Google Forms hates me, so I couldn't get good stats on the ages yet, but 20s and 30s appear to be the most common ages (23 and 25 were the most common responses before it stopped letting me see the frequency of each response), and the ages ranged from 12 to 50. About half of respondents were from the U.S. followed by around 14% from the U.K., but there were responses from literally too many countries for me to count on the pie chart and responses from every continent (which is super cool!). Out of the 4 Gs, the most popular was the Gays (87%) followed by the Geeks (85%), then Girlies (64%), then Goths (38%), and only 0.7% of respondents selected "None, actually", so Dan really clocked us with that one. Most people actually say Dan didn't make them trans/question their gender (even most trans people said no), which I was a little surprised by, but it is just a joke, so that makes sense. The most common years to join the phandom were around tatinof and the Great British vlogger boom (2012-2016), but there were responses every year since 2009 to 2025. Right now, people are pretty evenly split between whether they're dannies, phillies, or can't decide (with can't decide being in the lead, followed by dannie, then phillie). However, about 2/3 of respondents said they were dannies when they first joined the phandom. For the long response nuance question, I discovered there's lots of way of interpreting what makes someone a dannie vs. a phillie. A large majority of respondents were some kind of mentally ill/neurodivergent (87% combining diagnosed and undiagnosed), with 48% being autistic (combining diagnosed and undiagnosed). Most respondents were not transmasc, but for those who were, most consider Dan to be gender goals (14% of respondents), followed by Both (12%), Neither (6%), and then Phil (1%). Respondents were overwhelmingly likely to identify as being politically left (72% strongly left and 20% moderately left), but a small percentage identified with the right (0.5%). Most people couldn't pick between phyuri and phaoi, but phaoi did get more votes than phyuri (31% vs. 21%). Most respondets (75%) were not furries, but 18% dabble and 5% said yes, which is much higher than estimates for the general population. Finally, 80% of respondents agree that Sister Daniel is hot (with only 8% saying No).

Again, HUGE thank you to everyone who took the survey!!! I can’t believe the response rates are so high for every question!! Over half of the questions had above a 99% and every question (other than the long response nuance question which people didn’t answer if they didn’t have nuance lol) had above a 95%! This has been so much fun to analyze, and I can't wait to get started on my full analysis. Also, thank you so so much to the people who have said nice things about how the survey was well-made/fun to take, it really makes me so happy to see!

Next week: I'm planning on sharing my favorite write-in responses for each question! Dan and Phil are right, we really are funnier than them, so I want to share some of the responses that made me laugh. They'll all still be kept anonymous (I don't even have a way of finding who wrote them), and I'm not going to share anything that I think could be personal, just things that made me laugh. (If you have a response that was funny but you don't want shared for whatever reason, DM me or send an anonymous ask with what it was and I'll make sure not to include it!)

Athankyouverymuch everyone!

[sidequestsinlife]

time for some statistical analysis of the phandom's attraction to sister daniel!

the original post with results, asking y'all if you are sexually attracted to sister daniel

so now, some analysis of the answers bc why not! disclaimer i am not scientist or a statistician or whatever, sorry if there are mistakes in the math but i'm open to corrections from anyone else who cares enough to read all of this!

there were 1,250 responses over three days. we do not know much about the respondents except that they are likely phannies bc it would be unlikely for them to come across the poll otherwise i guess? since i only asked in the original answer choices which gender you are "typically attracted to" but not your gender, we have no way of knowing how many respondents are some flavor of queer since the ones who answered "typically attracted to men" or "typically attracted to women" could be either gay or straight depending on the respondent's gender, which we do not know.

also just a note, since tumblr does not give us the percentage of respondents beyond one decimal place, there are going to be some fractions of people in here; deal with it, i guess, lol.

overall we had 60.3% "yes" responses (753.75 votes), 33.8% "no responses (422.5 votes), and 75 of you chose "secret extra option/bald/results. as for that last option, from the notes i suspect that a lot of that stems from people being uncertain about what defines sexual attraction? idk either i am not a scientist, but i probably could have found a better way to word that. sorry!

anyway, for those who identified yourselves as "typically attracted to men," there were 116.25 "yes" answers and 65 "no" answers, meaning those attracted to men were almost twice as likely to be attracted to sister daniel as not (specifically ~1.79x as likely).

for those who identified yourselves as "typically attracted to women," there were 187.5 "yes" answers and 131.25 "no" answers, meaning y'all were ~1.43x as likely to be attracted to sister daniel as not.

for the "various genders/other gender(s)," we had lots of bi/pan/etc phannies showing up to express their attraction to sister daniel! 417.5 "yes" votes compared to only 103.75 "no" votes! just over 4x as likely to be attracted to sister daniel as not!

and for the "typically attracted to nobody" crowd, we still had 32.5 "yes" votes and 122.5 "no" votes. unsurprisingly, this was the only group more likely not to be attracted to sister daniel, for obvious reasons, being ~3.77x more likely to NOT be attracted to sister daniel. still, about 21% of you said you are attracted to sister daniel despite typically not experiencing sexual attraction

tldr:

all phannies are more likely to be attracted to sister daniel than not, in total

phannies typically attracted to men are 1.79 times more likely to be attracted to sister daniel versus not

phannies typically attracted to women are 1.43 times more likely to be attracted to sister daniel versus not

phannies typically attracted to multiple/other gender(s) are a whopping FOUR times as likely to be attracted to sister daniel as not

phannies typically attracted to nobody were unsurprisingly more likely not to be attracted to sister daniel, but about 21% of y'all still answered yes

IMPORTANT CONCLUSIONS:

attraction to sister daniel transcends typical ideas about gender or sexual identity in a way that confuses many of us, but also turns most of us on.

thank you for coming to my ted talk?

[cosmicsponge2004]

I actually love this episode

In Defence of Beauty Marked

I've been giving it some thought, and I feel that nowadays we judge Beauty Marked too harshly instead of acknowledging it had flaws and virtues. Maybe we even focus on the wrong flaws.

From what I've seen, the episode's main criticism seems to be its heavy-handed message on feminism, especially how the writers use Sam to deliver it. To be precise, people dislike that Sam signed herself up for a contest she had no interest in just to make a point, which I've often seen was perceived as an example of her "not being like other girls" and looking down on more traditionally feminine things like beauty pageants.

While I admit this issue could have been solved by simply making the pageant mandatory and Sam rebelling against something that was imposed against her will, the truth is, Sam's as much of a proactive character as a reactive one, so it makes sense for her to go out of her way to make a point. So the fact that it was a voluntary event really worked against Sam's point in the first place.

I also have the feeling the Phandom's less forgiving reaction towards this episode might be a result of how, in recent years, more and more people have begun to denounce how femininity is often vilified in media. A campaign that I 100% support!

After all, beauty pageants are vilified for the wrong reasons, more so in the 2000s, where most shows featuring them either played it straight (Jake Long, Pucca, The Fairy Odd Parents), or had one of the characters denounce it as sexist (aside from Danny Phantom, Shake It Up also comes to mind). Now, I must admit I'm not their biggest fan either, but at least I understand beauty queens aren't inherently vapid idiots (for all I know, they can be wonderful people and have a degree in astrophysics), and focus my vitriol towards all the abuse happening backstage (pageant parents are a special kind of evil). However, in itself, beauty pageants aren't necessarily a bad thing, just a different kind of competition.

Just like there's nothing wrong with having more tomboyish interests, characters (and real-life people) who care about "girly" hobbies still have a right to exist outside of being the butt of some joke or the writers' punching bag. After all, we're people. We have layers and contradictions and that's beautiful.

I, myself, happen to be a hopeless romantic who loves dresses and skirts, and shopping for bargains, and cute and adorable things. But at the same time, I can be pretty foul-mouthed, I love myself some badass and even gory action scenes, I love weird animals as much as "cute" ones, and I prefer sneakers over heels any day of the week.

However, I feel people tend to misplace this sentiment onto Sam, seeing her as a proponent on "classical" femininity being bad. And they seem to treat this episode as proof, even though that's not what's going on at all.

Without going on too much of a tangent, the thing about Sam is that she's actually quite feminine herself. It's just that the Angry Goth Aesthetic and her design sometimes eclipse that. Ironically, her design also highlights that feminity.

Out of the major teenage girls in the show, the only ones wearing a skirt are both Sam and Valerie, just like they're also the most accesorised ones—with Sam wearing a choker and a bracelet on each wrist, and Valerie wearing her headband, necklace, earrings, and bracelets. And would you look at that! The girls whose designs include some of the most feminine elements also happen to be the ones spending their free time kicking ghost butt!

Layers, people!

Even outside from that, Sam's also been shown to have other girly traits or interests: even if she was embarrassed to admit it (which is normal for 14-year-olds), she was looking forward to the homecoming dance; she has great sympathy for living creatures (mostly plants and animals), and AGIT went as far as to confirm she's a horse girl; she's usually seen with an adorable plushie spider backpack and bat slippers; she has great maternal instincts and the potential to be a very doting and loving mum...

Her problem with the pageant wasn't that it was feminine. In fact, at no point does she look down on the other girls for wanting to participate in it (she only got mad at Paulina for giving her a make-over that wasn't her style, and the feeling was very much mutual). Deep down, moments of hypocrisy aside, Sam understands that every girl has her way of being herself, which is something Dora openly mocked her for.

Sam was against the pageant not because she doesn't like girly things, but because Dora had quite openly stated how she intended to strip the girls of their agency in order to mould them into perfect little princesses—which we later learned actually meant turning them into submissive, mindless drones for her brother to marry.

Dora: Well, here's a statement. (holds a hand out towards Sam, standing beside her.) It says I'll never win in this outfit." Sam glares at Dora and puts her hands on her hips. Dora: Still, Ms. Manson has a point. (She walks towards the girls, now all standing in a row.) You girls are unique individuals with strong opinions and independent minds. Sam: You're darn right we are. Dora: It's my job to make you forget that and mold you into happy little princesses. (She smiles with her hands clasped together)

The point of the episode wasn't "femininity is bad", rather "objectifying women is bad".

A message which was exemplified all throughout the episode through the boys' actions, something that actually annoyed all girls, not just Sam, right off the bat, as soon as Dora announced she'd be appointing one of them as a judge.

To be completely honest, something I haven't really seen many people talk about is the absolutely horrendous attitude Tucker and Danny adopted during this episode. I hate to say this, because I love them both dearly, but they were such pigs! Literally the only one who acted as less of a feminist than these two this episode was Aragon, and that's because being a misogynist is his whole shtick.

While it's framed as they getting carried away because they're finally popular with the girls, it still doesn't change the fact that Danny and Tucker spent almost the entire episode (or the entirety of it, in the latter's case) reaping the benefits their new position as pageant judge (and his best friend) to get special treatment and dates out of the contestants.

Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

A judge (and his best friend) abusing his position to get favours and dates with beautiful girls, who in turn only accept because they hope in doing so they'll get first place.

With the rise of the #MeToo movement, that can get uncomfortable to watch. I mean, even if it was clearly meant to be a humourous moment, Danny literally snapped his fingers to get the girls to act as his bodyguards and to sic them on Dash.

It really says something when the most chivalrous guy this episode was Dash. No, seriously. Even if he clearly wanted payback from Danny hogging all the girls all week, he at least came to their defence when Danny seemingly chose Sam as the winner the first time. An action which, even though we as the audience know isn't what happened, can easily be interpreted as Danny playing favourites with his best friend, yet still be shameless enough to extort dates and favours from the rest of the contestants.

That is definitely not a good look.

I guess what I mean to say with all this is that, while Beauty Marked is far from flawless and didn't exactly pass the test of time, its message and Sam's involvement in it is actually one of the few things that aren't all that bad.

[bewareofthenewphannie]

sigh....please don't kill me for this

AO3 Phandom Stats - Top or Bottom?

As many of you may have noticed there has been a shift in the depiction of Dan and Phil in fanfiction over the past few months from previously predominantly Dan being written as the bottom to now largely Phil bottoming. This post aims to put that trend into numbers and visualise it in a few overly convoluted diagrams below the cut.

Does any of this matter? Absolutely not.

Is it interesting? Oh boy, it sure is!

Disclaimer: This is an analysis of the fanfiction writing and tagging trends within the Phandom. It's at most tangentially related to the Real People Dan and Phil and is not meant to spark any type of discourse. I am doing this as an avid fanfic reader and with the utmost respect and appreciation for the authors of these fics, so I don't want to see any negativity directed towards them. Above all this is meant to be fun and interesting.

And as always - don't like it, don't read it <3

Note on accessibility: linked here is a doc with all the numbers shown in the screenshots of this post. Inspired by emma's stats I will be putting the cell range in the ID - if there's a better way to do this, please lmk!!

Methodology

To get the numbers shown here I filtered the works in the Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF) AO3 tag by "date updated" from the Jan 1st to Dec 31st of each year and by the following tags:

Bottom Dan Howell

Bottom Phil Lester

Top Dan Howell

Top Phil Lester

Short excurse on AO3 tags for those unaware:

The tags I chose are canonical tags, which means other tags that mean the same thing but are for example spelled differently are linked to this tag by tag wranglers and appear when you search for the canonical tag (see example below).

Additionally, the "bottom x" tags are metatags for the power bottom tags, which means fics tagged with "power bottom x" also appear when you filter works for these tags.

It's important to note that not every fic where one of them tops or bottoms is tagged as such. That means these stats very specifically look at the author's choice to tag fics with these tags and not the overall amount of fics where one of them tops or bottoms. However, I would argue it's fair to assume that it's at least somewhat reflective of the general writing trends within the Phandom.

For simplicity's sake I will refer to these tags as e.g. "Bottom!Phil" (b!p) going forward.

Stats 2013 - 2024

Here you can see how many fics were tagged with each tag in the respective year and the amount of bottom!dan and bottom!phil fics relative to the total amount of fanfic written in the same time span.

As expected, up until 2023 the split was about 2 b!d to 1 b!p fic (precise numbers: 71% to 29%; see pie chart above).

In 2018 we can see a peak in both in the number of phanfics written and the relative amount of fics tagged as bottom!dan.

Starting in 2023 (more on that below!) this flips and in 2024 the ratio of b!d to b!p fics was 1 to 4 (precise numbers: 81% to 19%; see pie chart above).

Furthermore, making up 4,62% of the total amount of phanfics written in 2024, the bottom!phil tag is relatively speaking twice as popular now as the bottom!dan tag ever was.

Sidenote: You can see that generally the amount of fics tagged with b!d and t!p, as well as b!p and t!d correspond to each other for obvious reasons (they're usually fucking each other). This year however there's 16 fics more tagged with bottom!phil than top!dan, which shows that there's been a very specific interest in writing and tagging bottom!phil in the last year.

Here you can see the total amount of phanfics written by year because I already collected the data, so I might as well put it here:

Stats 11/2023 - 12/2024

Now I want to take a closer look at the past few months post hiatus.

You can see that there's been a steady increase in the total amount of fics written per month!

That's incredibly cool!! (Love to all the wonderful writers out there <33)

Before we get into the actual stats, it's important to note that we're working with very low numbers here, so don't be fooled by overinterpreting percentages in the first few months depicted and look at the actual numbers! In the diagram below I excluded September and October 2023 because there simply wasn't enough data to produce useable results.

Contrary to what I expected, the increase in fics tagged with bottom!phil does not coincide with gamingmas 2023 (pour bot hem and top bunk kind of guy), nor phil's birthday live stream (topped by kakuna) but only really starts in June 24 and spikes in August for reasons I'm not fully sure about.

If I had to pin it on one thing it'd be the precious baby angel picture, which was posted in mid August.

Much more likely is though that this was simply a dynamic that built over months and had a wide array of reasons mentioned above and could very well be a self-reinforcing dynamic of more and more people looking for that tag and also writing for it.

If anyone has more insight on this, please share your thoughts :]

On that note, I'm finally done yapping, I hope this was at least mildly interesting!

[amyoffline]

It's done! The outline for—

—is below the cut. The goal of this project is to explore the following phenomena with as much context and nuance as I can manage, tracing our history over the past 15 years:

What about us, and what about Dan and Phil, drew in and continues to draw in a very specific audience. If they are a ranch metaphor, we are a pizza metaphor 🥗🍕🫶🏻

Why we were Like That™, by which I mean so parasocially invested in them that we became, at times, the most annoying people on the internet. Much of that reputation is undeserved, and the videos on the phandom to date have been strongly negative. So, uh, I guess I'm going to put my face on camera and (mostly) defend us.

Reblog, share in your Discord servers, reply, or send me messages/anon asks with feedback or resources if you have any! Especially if your experience being in this fandom community has been dramatically different from mine. There are TIT spoilers near the end of the outline, but I'm not tagging because certain individuals seem to be lurking over there. Thank you!

Chapters:

Full outline:

introduction

cold open

felt personally attacked by jonathan haidt's last press tour

showed up to the phrenaissance 11 months late

had an unexpectedly strong response to their new content, needed to find out why

what the hell are we doing here?

- phenomenology (academics are professionally insufferable) - research question 1: what drew the audience in? - research question 2: why were we Like That™?

what we're NOT doing here

- a strict content analysis or "wow we sucked" video - providing sources for things best left uncirculated, thank you

reflexivity (personal biases)

- american zillennial in public health - in the youtube audience by spring 2010 - lurking in the phandom on tumblr 2013-2015, back* since 2019 - fan behavior i did and did not engage in

(----): truly necessary background information, i swear

(pop) cultural trends, tech, and their intersection

- nerd/geek identity and the first online weirdos - broadcast tv & the music industry vs the internet - defining "emo" - blogging & vlogging - early internet comedy

broader social/economic trends

- so the U.S. economy collapsed in 2007 - a decade that sucked except for rom-coms and square enix games - the flip/slide phone + digital camera + mp3 player loadout

(05-8): early youtube and early phil

youtube: a great video uploader without a clear purpose

the content on the website

- crossposts, corporations, and creative/social outlets - omg guys it's amazing phil - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: justin bieber

the audience of "early adopters"

contemporary social media sites and forums

(2009): origin story

a wild dan appears… in the comments

the global constant that is teenagers being messy online

daring my old school district to sue me

- "one town's war on gay teens" (literal rolling stone headline!) - epidemiology 101: rates of… ugh… "unaliving" oneself - ways kids cope when it seems no adults will help them

the earliest days of dan & phil

- hello internet + pinof - a chronically overexamined timeline - file deleted ---* so how big WAS the audience at the time? ---* acceptable funny/edgy language was just different

contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: lucas cruikshank

omg it's meeeeeee

- how amy & friends were using youtube - ways i was just destined to end up here - being in social environments with peers 3-6 years older

(2010): is it "twenty-ten" or "two thousand ten?"

youtube is a platform about to explode in popularity

- the algorithm before it was The Algorithm™, lost site features - let's take a trip through the wayback machine :3c - actual dan & phil content in 2010 - the green brothers found vidcon - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: darren criss

social media: also about to explode in popularity

- facebook was cool at the time, believe it or not - law of equivalent exchange: 2010 amy cringe compilation - the birth of instagram and pinterest - youtube slash livejournal (the first phanfics… sort of) - shockfic and its place in the overton window

the beginning of "the great rewiring" as haidt calls it

- ways social media is about to dramatically change - third spaces become online spaces - confounding variable: changing expectations of teens

(2011): the end of an era, the start of an age

a very long tangent on fandom and pop culture

cultural exchange

counterculture and teenagers as concepts

the first british invasion: the 1960s

- beatlemania and its descendents - moral panic about the virtue of tween/teen girls - tv/film/fashion trends being imported from the uk - in parallel, star trek births the modern fandom

the second british invasion: the 1980s

- synth/new pop that came out of the punk movement (hi, emo?) - confined mainly to music and fashion - cool britannia

it's harry freakin' potter

- absolute titan of pop culture influence - the rise of online fandom: examining the horrors ---* what is "wank" ---* flaming, sockpuppeting, and general cyberbullying ---* censorship: ffnet purges, boldthrough, & strikethrough ---* other fandom shenanigans of the time (yaoi paddles, anyone?)

harry potter's over. now what?

- for those who needed coming-of-age hero's journeys ---* twilight and YA dystopia waiting in the wings ---* some pretty iconic tv shows start or hit their stride ---* the mcu's phase one ---* takeaway: the rise of "geek culture" generally - for those who just wanted to go to hogwarts ---* doctor who & the wider world of bbc programming ---* british vloggers, you say? where? on youtube? brb--

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

dan & phil in the first half of 2011

- a continuation of 2010… for now - the videos - british pancakes as a case study of bad fan behavior

streaming and social media

- the birth of snapchat, twitch, and younow - netflix starts developing original programming - multi-channel networks (mcns) - digitour

dan & phil in the second half of 2011

- and they were roommates (omg they were roommates) - fantastic foursome - youtube glitches out - the super amazing project - the first proper baking video + wait, is that the bbc?

~ baking interlude 1: christmas cookies ~

the family sugar cookie (sorry, delia)

amy's 2011

(2012): why is anyone nostalgic for this

the transition from desktop to mobile

- massive growth in smartphone ownership 2011-2015 - things one might do on mobile one might not do on desktop - non-online ways smartphones changed being a youth™

what is tumblr and why is my child using it

- how the site is meant to work - fandom, memes, aesthetics, and SOME public figures - want to be anxious and depressed in peace? come to tumblr - this site seems a little……… gay ---* tumblr's very queer, very neurodiverse userbase ---* legacy media representation in 2012: bad! ---* actual academic research on tumblr users (yes, it exists) - the tumblr experience for non-native english speakers

amy becomes a vibrating mass of panic and paranoia

- in context of the above - additional rant about the american public school system

the growing dan & phil audience

- investigating the origin of the term "phannie" - more collaborations = more viewers - more video uploads = more /invested/ viewers - younow and interacting with fans - watch time replaces clicks in the algorithm

online etiquette, or lack thereof

- mid-transition from the 2000s to the 2010s - "professional internet celebrity" is still basically brand-new - lack of boundaries - various ways to be an asshole online - unsupervised kids simply do not engage in best practices

the end of 2012

- dan and phil move to london - wikipedia vandalism - tiptoeing around a top contender for the phandom's greatest sin - super amazing project DONE, now it's BBC RADIO TIME

(2013): arguably the most important year

- wait. what's that six-second video platform over there--

[amy's curated vine compilation]

- a new wave of internet comedians (read: future youtubers) - the zillennial lexicon - other platforms start emphasizing short-form video content - magcon

emo is BACK - well, sort of

- fob hiatus ends, mcr breaks up. my god. you had to be there - more open ties to nerd/geek culture than in the 2000s - these things once again intersect at dan and phil

dan and phil in the first half of 2013

- siri, what's a "sex symbol?" why are you booing me i'm right-- - d&p are everywhere - radio shows, interviewing, hosting - youtube uploads on their individual channels

rapidly changing cultural attitudes towards queerness

- gay marriage will be legal in places other than canada soon - a lot of assimilationist rhetoric though tbh - parallels to the pop feminism of the decade

hey kids, let's talk about compulsory heterosexuality!!

- what is it and why do people do it - academic, tumblr-level, and anecdotal research - the dannies, the phillies, and the phannies

amy

- the closet™ - mental health stigma - 2013 dnp posts from my main blog

dan and phil in the second half of 2013

- subscriber milestones, vidcon - joint content before the gaming channel - phandom starts having a major presence outside tumblr

(2014): achievement unlocked!

it's time to talk about rpf

- definitions (a chance to be annoyingly pedantic) - academic perspectives and fan discourse on the ethics - when the subjects clearly aren't fine with it - so… we can acknowledge "shipping phan" was different, right? ---* sometimes the subjects are fine* with it, actually ---* how dan and phil started to handle the shipping ---* obvious differences between phan and other rpf ships ---* sharing my favorite passages as a first-time phanfic reader

dan and phil in 2014

- wikipedia vandalism 2: electric boogaloo - bbc request show → internet takeover - the 7 second challenge - youtube content, subscriber milestones, rewind - cons and award shows

tumblr reaches the peak of its influence

- yahoo's attempts to monetize the userbase - buzzfeed and aggregators steal our jokes and bait our clicks - legacy media dangles carrots and uses us for free marketing - the legend of korra breaks TV precedent, almost out of nowhere - the tumblr user experience ---* on mobile, without xkit ---* on desktop, with xkit ---* 2014 dnp posts from my main blog

gamergate and its long shadow

- trolling, renewed and revamped - algorithms push increasingly extreme content - the broad conservative backlash conglomerate - increased normalization of conspiracism in general

my greatest sin [not clickbait] [very funny]

- so, circling back to comphet… - the actual story

anyway, let's talk about danandphilgames

- a star is born: dil howlter - different types of gaming content on youtube at the time - why did 17yo amy not subscribe? well…

~ baking interlude 2: chocolate cupcakes ~

make your own frosting. it freezes well

roasting myself further

(2015): it's not queerbaiting when it's real people

facebook "pivots to video"

- mark zuckerberg lied. water is wet - causes other platforms to REALLY double down on video - the birth of musical.ly - corporate-branded creators (read: future youtubers)

queerbaiting enters mainstream public consciousness

- academic origins - early fannish and acafan writing - johnlock, destiel, and sterek - statistics 101: type i error, type ii error, and queerbait

dan, phil, and the phandom

- bbc, cons, & the brits - danandphilcrafts - phan conspiracies ---* japhan ---* body language experts ---* timeline truthers ---* floor plan investigators ---* no but seriously imagine it - regular youtube uploads ---* solo content ---* joint content ---* subscriber milestones, rewind - tatinof uk and tabinof ---* on "selling out" ---* revisiting the statistics 101 lesson: now with real people! ---* never meet your heroes (unless they're dan and phil)

amy's (temporary) exit from the phandom

- it's legal adulthood with a steel chair!! - growing discomfort with some fans' behavior - 2015 dnp posts from my main blog - the closer: final fantasy vii

(2016): season finale

vine's imminent demise

- content platforms behaving badly - content creators behaving badly

youtube after "the great rewiring" (as haidt calls it)

- version 1.0 of the modern youtube algorithm ---* deep neural networks for dummies ---* what's holding creators accountable, or not - advertising and sponsorships ---* basically every child and youth™ is watching now ---* the battle for our attention ---* regulators start to crack down on undisclosed ads - the rise of drama/tea content (and later, channels) ---* youtubers are now seen as regular celebrities ---* dan and phil as the butt of other youtubers' jokes ---* baiting the phandom for engagement

tatinof us and aus

- a proven new model for live show tours - show & documentary released to youtube red (now premium) - [sigh] the tour bus

sea change in online fandom

- the newer, sometimes queerer media in korra's wake ---* better and more representation in live-action tv shows ---* voltron (i'm sorry!!!) ---* the mystic messenger craze ---* alice oseman & heartstopper - the new dynamics of #discourse ---* proship is to anti as phannie is to phanti ---* the bad behaviors of the 00s get a new coat of paint ---* new, though: fans harassing creators ---* a personal note on ace discourse

dan and phil presence off-tour

- the internet takeover ends - regular content, subscriber milestones

so. uh. current events.

- brexit - sorry the united states is a font of chaos - ripple effects

closing out the year

- amy finally gets an anxiety diagnosis and treatment! hurray! - dapgo, rewind - bbc radio awards & the boncas - gamingmas

(2017): time for a rebrand

tangent - sit down!!! buckle up!!! today's lecture is on PSIs & PSRs!!!

"parasocial" as defined by the current zeitgeist

- summing up youtubers' and laypeople's opinions (not dan's) - an unfairly negative stance overall, imo

older academic literature

- the 1956 paper (yes, 1956) - with traditional celebrities - with fictional characters

current academic literature

- with youtubers and other content creators - positive effects on the audience - negative effects on the audience - broader societal implications

fandom spaces as a parasocial experience

- parasocial and truly social interactions with each other - phandom as a supportive, welcoming space for oddballs - what research i can find about neurospicy folks, + anecdotes - me and everyone else on planet earth move to discord

inherent transactionality

- the nature of celebrity - positive effects on creators - negative effects on creators

reexamining early phandom through a parasocial lens

- the good, the bad, and the ugly - the role audience demographics played in all of this - entering, exiting, and remaining in the phandom

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

vine is well and truly dead

- some had prepared to become primarily youtubers (smart) - some move to musical.ly, insta, facebook, or snap (less so)

the sun sets on danisnotonfire

- i am very normal about dan's hobbit hair, i swear. - the last dnp content before the rebrand - new apartment, new floor plan investigations

adpocalypse now

- youtube has become the village elder of platforms ---* increased scrutiny, increased responsibility ---* some youtubers had been getting away with !#$!#@% - the scandals ---* pewdiepie + logan paul ---* elsagate and being "family- friendly" (read: ad-friendly) - censorship and monetization ---* adsense revenue goes down as advertisers pull out ---* the glory days of posting whatever and making bank are over

amazingphil and ~daniel howell~

- youtube & younow content - that week in march - vacations and conventions - conjoined baking and the concept of a "soft launch" - daniel & depression → dan as a mental health advocate - truth bombs, ii announcement, rewind

(2018): the phandom vs the hiatus they told us not to worry about

interactive introverts

- "giving the people what they want" - in hindsight… - let's talk about dnp fans from the global south

youtuber burnout

- it wasn't just dan: (more examples than header fits) - the old model was simply not sustainable - newer contributing factors - research on burnout, plus personal anecdotal experience

other dan and phil content

- younow/rize lives - dan's last videos before… you know… - phil's solo content in 2018 (quiff!!) - pinof → wdapteo - the gaming channel

other stuff happening online and in the world

- youtube raises the barriers to monetization - many "pivot to video" creators are now independent - the modern youtuber's multiple streams of income - continuations of societal trends in 2016 - musical.ly becomes tiktok - notable: she-ra and the princesses of power

the hiatus™: part myth, part reality

- how long dan was actually offline - major confounder: tumblr implodes almost overnight - major confounder: perception of content density from '13-'16 - major confounder: rapidly maturing audience - major confounder: our temporal awareness is about to go way ↓↓

~ baking interlude 3: scotcheroos ~

minnesotans and their obsession with "bars"

amy has one last existential crisis (you know, to date)

(2019): demolishing the closet with a nail bat

phil videos in the first 5 months of this very important year

basically i'm gay

- my thoughts - its legacy in the canon of "coming out" stories - multiple things can be true at once

coming out to you

- my thoughts - its legacy in the canon of "coming out" stories - why phil waited (actual explanations, speculation)

amy's 2019

- return to the audience, not really to the phandom (rip tumblr) - strange coincidence that i also had a major life transition

dan and phil: still here, freshly queer

- twitter becomes the main nexus of phandom, by default - regular phil uploads + brief return to younow - vidcon

(2020): go home and stay there

so it's a goddamn global public health crisis

- infectious disease perspective - effects on overall well-being of adults - effects on kids and teenagers (sorry to all of you) - political and economic impacts

hitherto unforeseen levels of online content consumption

- tiktok replaces basically all short-form video content - yet another wave of new (otherwise unemployed) youtubers - you're watching a video essay. these got really popular now. - being young and isolated: thoughts from younger phannies

the Content™ bc that's the one word we use for this now

- phil's videos - when dan is around - that attitude magazine interview - pour one out for the phil solo project(s) the panini wrecked

further political disaster… avoided?

- checking in on the state of social issues previously discussed - unfortunately,

(2021): welcome to the 2020s, we have lingering trauma

THE PHOUSE?!?!?

- social media posts - the stereo shows

other dan and phil videos

- phil's solo videos - gay and not proud - hometown showdown - other joint videos - phil's #shorts (sounds normal in american english)

panini updates

- vaccines soon, uwu??? + entrenched misinformation - pros and cons of remote work - pros and cons of remote school - pros and cons of remote socializing

you will get through this night

- younger me really could have used this book too, dan - thoughts as a professional in a related field - reflecting on some of my more unique circumstances

daring my old school district to sue me (again!!)

- updates: racism and transphobia - updates: right-wing freaks take over the school board again - residents vote against improving mental health resources

(2022): dan returns (still not on fire)

hey so politics are um getting worse

- americans lose the right to reproductive freedom ---* the quickest of histories on where these freaks came from ---* this shit kills people. - trans kids become the punching bag of culture war discourse ---* fuck off! (gently) ---* fuck off! (i have a knife) ---* checking in on terf island

we're all doooooooooooooooomed

- dystopia daily my beloved - the style, the substance, the metatextual analysis-- - not everyone loved it, though. why? - the promo - dan on tour + sister daniel

amy's 2022

- i got covid - then i got long covid: brain fog, pots-like symptoms

some more news (i will work on my warmbo impression)

- dan joins tiktok + danisnotinteresting uploads - phil: uploading less, busy doing remote crisis management - twitter is acquired by an idiot jackass - heartstopper on netflix! ---* the show and what it means to people ---* drama (revisiting "real people can't queerbait") ---* why this has anything to do with the phandom

~ baking interlude 4: cinnamon rolls ~

- lovingly, recipe changes and corrections :) - if i have an opinion about anything, it's sweet yeasted breads

(2023): the phrenaissance

phil

- joins tiktok! - youtube uploads through september - what even is phannie tiktok. i've never used this app. help.

dystopia daily b-sides

- dan memes of 2022 - the 2023 dystopia daily episodes

amy: the doctoral candidacy process

- purgatory, privilege, poverty, and free pizza - checking in on what this is like outside the united states

pretending the panini is over

- complaining about post-adpocalypse censorship standards - honest take about "giving up" on covid - who gets the short end of the stick

the youtube algorithm is BAD and UNINTELLIGENT, actually,

- unhinged rant about not hearing about the gaming rephrival - because i was offline from other platforms. like, @amyoffline.

pov: you are a phannie (not me) on october 15th

- what i was doing on october 15th - saying goodbye forever, spooky week, and november - gamingmas - phil uploads through december

(2024): fifteen years of terrible, terrible influence

hey what the fuck is going on

- dan and phil ---* joint and phil videos ---* jokes they never would've made ten years ago ---* a collection of emotional posts about how far they've come ---* people want fun and silly content again. we'll get to why ---* nostalgia, hope, and other warm and fuzzy feelings - the phandom ---* ancient parasocial attachments, reactivated instantly ---* people are way more normal now. let's discuss why ---* tumblr vs twitter vs tiktok phandom

we're all doomed, youtube version

- my thoughts - thoughts on "dan should/shouldn't" do video essays - i can't objectively evaluate anything he makes bc [gunshots]

terrible influence tour

- legally phlonde - the concept: healing one's inner child / taking it back - we gotta talk about phannies in the global south again - no but seriously imagine it? ---*ogres are like onions, they have LAYERS ---* [placeholder for whatever does(n't) happen]

anglosphere current events once again

- the likely us tiktok ban - the tories get fired - [placeholder for whichever hell americans manifest] - witnessing genocide and feeling powerless

ffx full-circle moment to the intro of this video essay

- the night i found out they came back - why i am doing this, now with context - reflections on a nearly 15-year (parasocial) relationship

whatever youtube uploads we get during fall/december

AMY SEES TIT (nov 14)

- the vibes at the phamily reunion - buying merch to apologize for eternal ublock origin use - how much should i document?? (not during the show) - phanspiracies confirmed - atlanta confessions - favorite bits - the alternate universe where i went to tatinof and/or ii

(2025): the horrors persist, but so do we

whatever 2025 content is out while i'm still working on this

our parasocial social club

- let me be philosophytube for a second ---* every interaction has a parasocial element ---* what are we obligated to do as a phandom, actually? ---* as people who parasocially care about these two dorks? ---* what else should we be doing socially to be at our happiest? - "they're my gay uncles" vs "i'm a little in love, even now" ---* riffing about the boundary/overlap between these camps ---* sibling reads me for filth in a single text (sister daniel...) ---* at least we're all in this together

what's going to continue to draw people in

- grown adults drawing our cat whiskers back on - updates on queer/nd kids - updates on anxiety/depression rates - updates on tech and the broader environment of content - world still feels doomed

tangent - the "hard launch" and why people want it

what are people referring to, exactly

- general definition and other examples - when it comes to dan and phil - maybe they hard launched already and we just missed the memo

the ludonarrative of phandom

- if you got here early on - if you got here in the mid-2010s - if you got here after they came out - if you got here post-hiatus - final fantasy comparison: ffvii's chokehold over first-timers

a rom-com for the ages

- the tropes in play - brief tangent on the evolution of the genre - queer romantic comedies - final fantasy comparison: ffviii's plot and squall/rinoa

phriends… or…

- wholesome influence, slice-of-life - projection - final fantasy comparison: ffxv's gameplay loop, the chocobros

humans don't like ambiguity

- from a media perspective (narrative tension) - research from the hard sciences - final fantasy comparison: fanille ---* the first gay final fantasy characters, actually ---* ffxiii's character development process ---* fang and vanille in the text. brb, clawing at the walls ---* so, if anyone is looking for a phyuri au prompt…

tl;dr: reality is not fiction. make peace with not "knowing"

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

the phuture

- phil's big solo project when??? - dapg is just the joint channel now - youtube has changed since when dan last "regularly" uploaded - nothing lasts forever, and that's okay

~ baking interlude 5: ranch + pizza ~

- ranch propaganda and ranch metaphors - showing off my dough and sauce skills

conclusions

- a lot has happened in 15 years - [placeholders: don't write your conclusions before you do your research]

Proof this project can only be done in consultation with Tumblr: no other platform we're on could accommodate a post of this length and formatting detail lol

[destinationtoast]

Have you ever done an analysis of which fandoms are most dominated by a single ship?

I hadn't done so before. I just took a quick pass at doing so, but only among the biggest fandoms on AO3 as of Jan 2024 (ones with over 10K public works at that time). I sorted them by the size of their biggest ship relative to the size of the fandom. This gives us a bunch of very big fandoms with a high % of works tagged with a particular ship:

The raw data used to make this graph, including the corresponding biggest ships, is available in a spreadsheet here, or at the end of this post.

A few notes:

This is based on January 2024 data. Some things may have changed!

Not all these works are necessarily about these ships. Especially in the cases where the ships are canon, they may often be tagged as background ships.

There are undoubtedly many smaller AO3 fandoms that have higher percentages devoted to the top ship.

I removed some highly overlapping fandoms (e.g., Good Omens book fandom).

This is AO3 data only, and (as always!) AO3 does not represent fandom overall. In particular, ship popularity tends to vary A LOT by archive/platform. See some past cross-platform shipping comparisons from 2019 (comparing het vs. slash vs. gen on Wattpad/FFN/AO3), and 2014 (comparing popular ships from HP, SPN, and Sherlock on AO3/FFN). One highlight:

Raw data:

Fandom | Top relationship | % tagged with most common ship

Shameless (US) | Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich | 92.5%

Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF) | Dan Howell/Phil Lester | 92.1%

Good Omens (TV) | Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens) | 83.8%

9-1-1 (TV) | Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV) | 79.2%

Hannibal (TV) | Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter | 75.6%

Shadowhunters (TV) | Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood | 75.1%

All For The Game - Nora Sakavic | Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard | 75.0%

Inception (2010) | Arthur/Eames (Inception) | 74.0%

The Old Guard (Movie 2020) | Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova | 72.2%

Hawaii Five-0 (2010) | Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams | 71.9%

The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare | Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood | 71.2%

IT (Movies - Muschietti) | Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier | 71.1%

陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) RPF | Wang Yi Bo/Xiao Zhan | Sean | 70.9%

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies) | Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier | 69.6%

Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime) | Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov | 66.3%

Supernatural (TV 2005) RPF | Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki | 66.0%

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) | Adora/Catra (She-Ra) | 63.9%

Deadpool - All Media Types | Peter Parker/Wade Wilson | 63.6%

The Witcher (TV) | Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion | 63.1%

Our Flag Means Death (TV) | Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet | 63.0%

[phanchester]

since there are so many data nerd phannies i decided to make a compilation of all the spreadsheets i could find - lmk if i missed any or if you want me to add any additional details <3

last updated: 30/06/24

actively updating spreadsheets

dan and phil uploads from 2021-2024

dan and phil’s upload schedule from all their channels with days and dates

amount of days in between videos in each channel

pie charts of days of the week they upload

made by @ahappydnp 

everything dan and phil related

all of dan and phil’s video links from all their channels from all their accounts (including super amazing project, snapchat, vine, tiktok and more)

all of dan and phil’s radio shows, including reuploads and playlists, as well as the dan vs phil, fan war and internet news if available for each show with misc clips and written recaps

all of dan and phil’s liveshows, including some written recaps and the app where it was originally posted

all of dan and phil’s vyous including the question they were answering

all of dan and phil’s collaborations and video features (even if they were in the background), including the channel they were originally uploaded on 

all of dan and phil’s interviews

all of dan and phil’s merch, including originally shop links and links to the phandom wiki which has further information

all of dan and phil’s professional photos as well as some fan photos, including the event, photographer and platform

the dates and statuses of each of these videos (lost, archived, unlisted or public)

made by @stillarchivingdnp

dan and phil 2024 upload stats

each of their 2024 videos with channel, upload date, upload time in uk, length, sponsor and editor/s (if applicable) with an accompanying colour-coded calendar

(for amazingphil videos) whether dan featured and (for dapg videos) whether it was gaming/talking and who tweeted it

interactive part where you can see the time period between two videos

averages, maximums and minimums for times between uploads, upload times and runtimes with accompanying graphs

percentage of videos with other editors, with pie charts for all channels and each channel

made by @dnpbeats

all or nothing: dan vs phil season 2

all of the games for season 2, with the year they played them and the results with and without all or nothing coming into play

how often all or nothing came into play and who suggested it

the general impact of all or nothing

made by @organized-chaotic-disaster

dan and phil saying “i love you”

when dan and/or phil said ily

the video and timestamp from when they said ily and whether it was prompted

pie chart of dan or phil saying ily

made by @ahappydnp

games where one of them decides the winner

date and link for each video

overall winner with the winner for each round

breakdown of the amount of times each of them have won each round and the percentage phil has won

made by @dnpbeats

dan and phil 2024 upload schedule

upload date for each video, with the day of the week and approximate time it was uploaded in cst, including the most common and second most common upload day for dapg

days between each upload, including the longest gap, shortest gap, average gap and first and second most common gap for dapg

a colour-coded calendar displaying the upload schedule for dapg and amazingphil

made by @kat-aa

completed spreadsheets

all or nothing: dan vs phil season 1 with a great accompanying document with further details and analysis of the data

all of the games they played, with the year they played them and the results with and without all or nothing coming into play

how often all or nothing came into play and who suggested it

the general impact of all or nothing

made by @organized-chaotic-disaster 

youtuber tours

(not necessarily dnp but it includes them!)

120 different tours, including the creators, names, dates, countries, links (if available) and producers (if applicable)

each tours’ venue capacity range, average and total attendance

individual tour show breakdown with city, state, country and additional notes

data on each venue’s capacity, number of tours, and which youtuber went to each venue

data on each country’s amount of shows, broken down into states and cities

made by @stillarchivingdnp 

gamingmas 2023 schedule

all gamingmas video titles from 2023

the time each video was uploaded in gmt

made by @cactuslester

spreadsheet screenshots in posts

listening trends in all or nothing

scatter graph for the correlation between track number and number of listens

analysis of the data

made by @serendipnpipity

analysis of dnp’s letterboxd ratings and movies with part 1 and part 2

(pt 1) rating distributions for all the movies they’ve rated, including details about which movies one rated higher than the other, and which movies they rated the same

(pt 1) a list of their five-star movies

(pt 1) a list of movies one logged but not the other

(pt 1) cute little misc notes about the specific movies and dates

(pt 2) ratings broken down into genre, studio and franchise with accompanying bar charts

made by @philsrosesweatshirt

views on post-hiatus dapg videos after specific time frames

i believe this is a work of progress!

video titles with the dates and months, along with details of whether they were sponsored or had external editors

view count after 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months

made by @goldenpinof

favourite dnp tour song statistics

years phannies started watching vs the year they joined the phandom represented in a bar graph

favourite dnp tour song in a donut pie graph and a bar graph

favourite song vs year joined represented in a bar graph

made by @serendipnpipity

terrible influence: the tour trailer video analysis

all the videos that appear in terrible influence with additional notes

the list sorted by date, view count and channel specifics

timestamps provided for each clip, both in the video and where they appear in the trailer

made by @emojackolantern

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

*grabbing you by the shoulders, shaking you violently, screaming in your face*

I WANT TO WRITE ESSAYS ABOUT PHANNIE CULTURE AND HUMOUR!!!! I WANT TO DO A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE PHANDOM AND OTHER FANDOMS AND WHY AND HOW THE PHANDOM CAME TO BE THE INFAMOUS AND NOW RELATIVELY ISOLATED PLACE THAT IT IS!!!!! I WANT TO DO RESEARCH STUDIES ON DAN AND PHIL’S APPEAL TO QUEER NEURODIVERGENT PEOPLE!!!!!! I WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE ARE SO INVESTED IN THESE REAL PEOPLE IN A VERY UNIQUE AND SPECIFIC WAY!!!! I WANT TO KNOW THE CHANGING PERSPECTIVES AND BEHAVIOURS OF PHANNIES WHO HAVE BEEN HERE FOR 10 OR MORE YEARS!!!!! I WANT TO STUDY PHANDOM LINGUISTICS AND HOW OUR LEXICON CHANGES AND GROWS WITH DAN AND PHIL!!!!! I WANT TO DISCUSS AND DISSECT WHAT MAKES TWITTER PHANNIES AND TUMBLR PHANNIES HATE EACH OTHER WHEN ITS THE SAME PEOPLE AND HOW THE DIFFERENT CULTURES OF TUMBLR (COLLECTIVISM, ANONYMITY) VS TWITTER (INDIVIDUALISM, DIRECT INTERACTION WITH CREATORS, THE RESPONSE TO GETTING A NOTICE) IMPACT THIS DYNAMIC!!!! I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT THE CYCLE OF PHANDOM DISCOURSE AND WHY WHENEVER THERE IS A CONTENT DROUGHT PEOPLE START SHIT AND HOW WE CAN STOP DOING THAT BECAUSE ITS NOT GOOD FOR OUR MENTAL HEALTH!!!!! I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE PHANDOM’S POWER AND HOW WE ACCOMPLISH DIRECT ACTION ABNORMALLY FAST FOR AN ASYNCHRONOUS GROUP OF STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET!!!!! I WANT TO MAKE A PHOCUMENTARY AND EXPLORE THE WORLD OF DAN AND PHIL AND THE COMMUNITY AND INTERVIEW EVERY SINGLE VIEWER AND LEARN EVERY SINGLE PERSON’S EXPERIENCE!!!!!! I WANT TO DO AN IN DEPTH DISSECTION OF THE PHASES/ERAS OF THE PHANDOM!!!!! I WANT TO CONFRONT PHANNIES’ SUPERIORITY OVER EACH OTHER AND THE TENDENCY TOWARDS CONTEMPT AND OTHERING EACH OTHER BECAUSE OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE!!!!! I WANT TO GET INTO ACCESSIBILITY IN THE PHANDOM AND WHY ITS SUCKS AND HOW WE CAN IMPROVE IT!!!!!! I WANT TO HAVE A HUGE DISCUSSION ABOUT HOW DESPITE HOW LEFT WING THIS AUDIENCE IS WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO STEP ON AND SILENCE POC PHANNIES WHEN THEY EXPRESS BEING NEGATIVELY IMPACTED BY SOMETHING DNP SAID IN THEIR PAST AND HOW ITS GOOD ACTUALLY TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SOMETHING WAS HARMFUL ESPECIALLY IF YOURE A FAN OF THAT PERSON AND WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE THESE DISCUSSIONS AND WE DONT NEED TO IMMEDIATELY GO ON THE DEFENSIVE WE CAN JUST LISTEN!!!!! I WANT TO TRULY THOROUGHLY EXPLORE THE ETHICS OF RPF AND WHERE THE LINES ARE AND BOUNDARIES!!!!! I WANT TO FIGURE OUT THE GENERAL OPINIONS OF PEOPLE ON LABELLING DAN AND PHIL AND WHY WE DO THAT AND WHAT IS OKAY AND WHAT ISNT!!!!!! I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT DEMON PHANNIES AND COMPLICITY AND DANNIES AND PHILLIES AND PHLESBIANS!!!!!!!! STOP TRYING TO ESCAPE ME I HAVE TO GET THIS OUT BEFORE THEY FORCE ME BACK INTO THE PHENCLOSURE!!!!!

[stardustdnp]

⠀⠀〝but first, we get to live.〞— daniel howell ♡

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁ ALL ABOUT ME (as i’m new to tumblr) !!!

my name is aimee, my pronouns are she/her and i am 20 years old (21 in september)

i am a virgo sun, gemini moon and an aquarius rising ♍️♊️♒️

i have both autism and anxiety (and i have been told i may have a sprinkle of adhd too)

i am from the united kingdom

i am bisexual as well as an ally for LGBTQ+ rights

i joined the phandom in late 2013/early 2014 by coming across my first ever danisnotonfire video (“How not to survive School” to be exact) 🥹

my favourite hobbies are reading, writing (i post some of my writings over on ao3), listening to music and editing (which you’ll find on both my tiktok and twitter)

speaking of music, some of my favourite musicians are: queen, harry styles, fleetwood mac, david bowie, george michael, chappell roan, hozier and scissors sisters <3

i love to collect teddies (specifically jellycats), funky earrings and anything strawberry themed 🍓🍓

i have only seen dnp live once at tit (24/01) but i have watched tatinof, ii and wad ★

i did performing arts at college for two years so i am obsessed with all things theatre related — i wrote an analysis on “Everything’s Fine” from dan’s show ‘We’re All Doomed’, if anyone’s interested in reading then i will provide a link !

˖ ݁ ❀ ݁ WHERE ELSE TO FIND ME

wokinghambear on twitter/x —> http://twitter.com/wokinghambear

sunfl0wuer on tiktok —>

wearealldoomed on ao3 —> https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearealldoomed/works

love to you all !!! ^__^

[slitsfordan]

Slime in Slime (2024): An Analysis

Dan and Phil could’ve chosen literally any craft for the fourth installment in DanandPhilCRAFTS, and they chose slime. Surely this has to mean something, right? Right.

For any young person in 2015-2017, slime should bring back memories. It was everything and everywhere. Literally every single time I hung out with friends, they’d want to make slime. The use of slime in DanandPhilCRAFTS, and the age group of the majority of their fans, forms an association to this time period. 2015-2017 also happens to be when The Amazing Book is Not on Fire and Interactive Introverts were created, and one of the peaks of the DanandPhil™️ brand. It also happens to be around the time DanandPhil crafts was birthed. By calling back to this era in a craft video, and using the slime for ritualistic sacrifice, Dan and Phil are acknowledging the harm of the DanandPhil™️ era personas and the phandom perceptions. By pouring the slime into the fire, Dan is firmly establishing this era as a thing of the past, representing the authenticity of Dan and Phil in this new era.

Slime also has a clear connection to Slime and Sadness Cinnamon Rolls. This video shares satanic imagery with the craft videos, of course (Lucifer Lester moment) but the theme of authenticity is also present. The way Dan acts as Sister Daniel in this video was the largest display of gender nonconformity and horniness by Dan and Phil at this time. Halloween baking and authenticity also brings us back to Monster Pops, and the aftermath: the post-baking universe. This marked a shift in Dan and Phil’s content, where they began to cut less gay shit and horny shit from their videos (like Dan’s fake orgasm during the video). If you really wanted to, you could even consider post-baking to be the beginning of the softlaunch. Both of these are events in which the horniness of Dan and Phil’s content was ramped up, and honestly the slime video has so much phallic imagery with the knives, but it’s also a representation of less censorship (if you’d like to call it that) by Dan and Phil.

Through both of these associations to slime itself, Slime invokes moments in Dan and Phil’s history where their performing personas were dropped in favor of a more authentic representation of self, like when Dan and Phil drop the craft channel personas to perform the ritual. This does, of course, connect to their coming out, and the handholding in Slime- slime as an object is connected to their authenticity, and so is the video Slime.