#watcher downfall

[i-live-in-my-bookshelf]

The Ghoul boys betraying their *very* supportive fanbase and pulling out the middle finger in their face makes me physically sick. I was bawling my eyes out yesterday after the news (i already had a shitty week and a shitty day so it was not hard) because It was just a kick in the nuts honestly. I looked at them and saw three guys giving us a fucking act, and I was so mad. Since then I'm not able to look at them the same, and I'm afraid I never be able to watch their videos again like in the past. I only see some man that only wants more money and fame, and would happily throw their fans (who's been there and supportive for years!!) under the bus for a couple of more bucks. This is exactly what happens when regular dudes gets a taste of fame. They WILL fuck shit up just for more. I hate it. I hate them actually. And by the way, I lived through Bon Appétits downfall after that stunt they pulled, and I'm so sad to live it through again.

Ps. I'm mostly mad at Shane because I thought that he's better than this. All men are the same I'm afraid.

[zackbyychocolate]

Watcher needs to take notes on Andrew and Garrett

[xneens]

rolling my eyes HARD on this one

We’re Leaving YouTube

[thatonegeekygirl]

hey, you there! fellow watcherina!

reblog this if you love ryan, steven and shane, and their art. if you appreciate all the effort and care they've put into their creations over the years. if you are rooting for them. if you see them for the human beings they are. if you remain a fan, and will continue to support watcher!

[elementalladymallorie]

WAIT NO, I LOOKED INTO IT MORE AND I'M SETTLING ON THE EMISSARY'S GOD RELATION WITH THE BINARY AND SAYING HIS 'SHE HAS LEFT HIM' AND ASHA'S REACTION BEING Erathis, the Law Bearer BECAUE OF THIS:

"Erathis has a "tempestuous" relationship with Melora, described as a "furious love that is only tempered when civilization and nature are in balance"."

[suetrim]

My favorite comments from watchers goodbye video

Ngl after getting over how sad it makes me there downfall is kinda funny

[the-witchy-sideblog]

Y'know what. Maybe I WILL become the freak professor obsessed with research and eye motifs. Maybe I WILL be on my avatar bullshit with my own work

[kkslicer]

you know what this whole watcher debacle is making me realize, we are NOT in the pages of our children’s history books. we are in the video essays of their favorite commentary youtuber.

[monarchisms]

i just Know that someone on youtube is drafting a video essay on this right now

[astradyke]

i think about dan is not okay a lot as someone who is plagued by thoughts of d&p in 2021 and the potential there. and something i've wondered is like... dan wrote a book, right, and it's conventional though not mandatory that you sign a book deal and write two books. and i think with the terrible influence tour and d&p renaissance i have found this less plausible but i've imagined that DINOK could have taken a book format to explore similar themes kind of like a novel? but i suppose the issue there is that performing is what dan is really passionate about rather than like, writing. but in any case something i am thinking about now as we begin 2025 and look down the barrel of unknown exciting d&p content is like, would DINOK ever make a resurgence or is that kind of the vestiges of like, exploring a subject that WAD tackled? because dan is not okay was exploring what dan's life would have been like had he never come out. and we have basically i'm gay and (though it wasn't totally under his terms in a lot of ways creatively) gay but not proud, where dan kind of tackles (but ultimately leaves an unlinked thread with implications we've yet to see) how his sexuality has affected his life and interacted with his career. and then DINOK failed, leading to WAD, where that's more focused on dan finding hope in the future. and i think WAD actually maybe closed the chapter for where DINOK could happen because WAD set up a very like, looking forward and moving on sort of thing, and TIT functionally does something very similar with d&p right-- both are very life saving things. and DINOK i think is reminiscent in a way that after WAD might not be like, his current mentality. because we never really got that in depth exploration of what his life would have been like had he not been gay, but we saw all these projects come to light of what his life is like now that he is openly gay-- and with the way that in recent content he's seemed to have shaken off some of the bits of his cynical humor (though he still has cynical sometimes self-deprecatory humor!! but i think after WAD and with the TIT era he's been a lot more happy as a person and with that has come him letting go of some of the edgy branding he was confined to. imo), i'm wondering if this is like a new chapter that would leave behind DINOK as an idea. no more space to contemplate the misery of what might have happened, because what happened happened-- that could speak to him coming out, or DINOK failing, or WAD-- and he's moving forward. i guess what i'm trying to say is that there might be a shift in dan's artwork, based on his mentality, from the vulnerability of tragedy to the vulnerability of joy.

this was a very repetitive yap but i wonder if y'all have thoughts on this

[nixii-sabre]

The Watcher

[multi-babii]

some of my thoughts about this whole mess before I go to sleep

first off all i can see where they are coming from with this decision. it's no secret that youtube is fucking over creators more and more so it makes sense they want to move to a different platform

however the way they announced it was just not it and i think it's the main reason for such a huge negative response

if they introduced this gradually then it would be better. this way we basically loose access to all the new content at once (better solution in my opinion would be to put some exclusive things on the streaming service first and then slowly move there once you're sure the audience will follow)

also almost completely abandoning youtube seems like a bad idea. what about the casual watchers?? or new people?? where are they going to promote now??

also it seems like the details about the streaming service are not set. will they only make 4 new videos a month?? because that really doesn't seem worth it for 6$

not to mention the huge disadvantage for international fans who will have to pay more

also them saying it's just 6$ and that they made it affordable for everyone was not it

over all this either isn't very thought through decision or they are not disclosing all the details which makes them look shady

also the fact that it's basically confirmed they wanted to pull everything from youtube but decided not to after the backlash is truly disheartening

another thing, a lot of people are blaming solely steven for this decision which i think is unfair. just because he is the ceo (which also means he has better knowledge about the overall situation of watcher) doesn't mean he makes all these decisions himself. ryan and shane are still owners too so they have to agree with what is happening with their company. i think it's possible that steven was the one who pushed the decision but i believe he would have a genuine reason for it

lastly i saw a lot of people calling out the fact that shane is very eat the rich and rob the banks type of guy and that this goes against it. IT DOES NOT. THEY ARE NOT RICH. which is the whole reason why this is even happening. this is their job so it's understandable they need to make enough money.

in conclusion, i don't think they made this decision out if greed or anything but unfortunately the way they presented it was very poor and that's why it was taken so wrongly by the fans.

[butchdykeorpheus]

in retrospect the whole watcher tv situation was nuts. remember when the watcher team made a kind of ass business decision that alienated many fans before scaling it back and instead of just being like "guys i think you made an ass business decision that's alienating us as fans" entire swaths of people decided to act like steven lim was holding shane and ryan hostage and had also personally shot their dog

[rustyrainedrops-blog]

It would be kinda funny if in a year or two this thing failed and shane had to get another barista job lmaoo

[pandasaurio-espacial]

The watcher news make me legitimately sad. I understand they need the money and I don't believe it's a move made out of greed. But I don't think it's going to work and it might very well mean the end of the watcher.

[ashleyisartsy]

Problems (objective and personal) I'm not seeing discussed a lot w this new WatcherTV thing, in no particular order:

-Alienates people internationally who literally CANNOT GET the streaming service!

-Alienates casual fans who don't watch or want to watch all of their shows. Putting down 60 bucks a year to watch just one or two shows is kind of insane, at least for me.

-The volume of content Watcher has produced historically hasn't been enough to justify a separate streamer. I understand there's no way a small team could compete with something like Netflix, obviously, but that's what you're trying to do by putting yourself in the streamer market.

-Will this streamer be secure? What steps are in place to protect your viewers info? ESPECIALLY payment info.

-Will it be easily watchable on multiple devices? I watch YouTube videos on my phone at work 90% of the time, or at home on my TV thru my switch. Is this a browser only deal?

-What are the internet requirements for this? Believe it or not most streaming services won't run on my internet personally. I don't have any for that reason. I can watch YouTube on 360p, or on my 2-bar-reception phone data. Not everywhere has stable reliable internet.

-The suddenness and totality of the move was going to be jarring no matter what, if the idea had been introduced gradually or started as a hybrid model to test audience interest there wouldn't be nearly this amount of pushback.

-I understand the people saying "pay artists!!" Bc I am one, and I get that their quality is expensive and they have a whole company's worth of people to support. I do actually think their work is worth paying for! Everyone's is! But convincing anyone to pay for something they previously got for free is going to be a hard sell. They were still getting paid before, they're now just asking us to pay instead of the advertisers. Idk about you, but that's a way bigger hit to my pocketbook than a multimillion dollar company's bank account.

-I get that YouTube can be a really shitty place to be a creator sometimes, and that being beholden to advertisers is something they don't want to be. It's why they left Buzzfeed! They already have a patreon and merch and it's clearly not been enough for their ambitions. But shooting yourself in the foot because your running shoes are wearing out isn't going to make you a better marathon runner. They had to know that there was going to be a not small portion of their audience unwilling to make this move with them (and again, lots literally aren't able to!)

-If they had a free w/ ads option, or even did a hybrid model with whole shows behind the pay wall, or even just ran a fucking crowd funding campaign to help cover costs of new seasons of shows, any of those things could have worked. They don't even have YouTube memberships turned on, which I've personally seen many many channels do even when they already have a patreon. It really doesn't seem like they've exhausted other options, at least from an outside perspective, which is all we have as viewers!

-I get that this has been in the works for a long time, and that there probably isn't a way for them to back out now. But I hope they can find a way to make this more accessible if they want it to work at all. I truly am not wishing for their downfall, but the whole situation is an awful mess.

Idk, rant over. As a lot of you are I'm feeling very disappointed and upset with this one, and I'm not paying for it either. Hope the boys can salvage this one for their and their crew's sake. Would really hate for this to be the end.