That combination makes them perfectly suited to appeal to the young teens who make up most of their audience. You get the safety and familiarity of cutesy character designs to make the more "mature" aspects feel approachable.
yup. you covered a lot of the points ive made in the past. from what ive noticed, it boils down to most or all of these 1. attractive, appealing characters, typically with a bit (or a lot) of edge. for examples, see the tumblr sexyman contest. 2. dynamics (as you said) that makes shipping easy. bonus points if you have lots of effeminate men. 3. a world/worldbuilding easy for people to insert themselves (harry potter and homestuck are prime examples of this) 4. a bit of counterculture goes a long way. turns out, yeah. theres a HUGE demographic for lgbtq and/or BIPOC characters. just not in the way hollywood thinks. Lots of sad gay people writing about sad gay people (or whose headcanon makes them gay) 5. bonus points for being in what i call "the sonic uncanny valley", which is essentially something that has childish elements (see: amazing digitial circus, undertale) but has darker elements. Basically, what appeals to tweens without being too adult? (theres a good reason hazbin hotel gets called immature alot for the cruder elements despite many adult oriented shows being just as bad). these shows attract teens that feel trapped between child oriented shows and adult oriented shows.
Being on tiktok and going on cons for the past few years has made me realize that there is one group of fans that goes from one media to another: mha - danganronpa - dream smp - genshin impact - hazbin hotel they're all the same people.
i'm fan of genshin and danganronpa. not so much with mha but i did watch it. the rest i know nothing other than the few things i see here and there in twitter or youtube.
There’s a lot more things they have in common - Happy Horror, 90s Nostalgia, Nonhuman characters, portal fantasy, being trapped, a tumblr sexy man with a smile
I know it's technically true, but imagining Sans as a tumblr sexy man is so wild to me... like, he's short, curvy, and has no hair. Isn't he the opposite of a tumblr sexy man ?
@@northybunny Thanks! I definitely want to dive more into other things that fandom media share, such as character designs, and expand to talk about other examples than the ones I mentioned here. It'll be coming in a longer form video essay ^^
Good analysis. I agree that these characters also end up acting as mascots! The 3 media you talked about had another thing in common though: a pre-existing audience for the creators involved! Toby Fox had a lot of eyes on him for his work on Homestuck, Vivziepop’s animations and webcomics had fans, Gooseworx had both animations and Hazbin Hotel pilot music under her belt, and Glitch animation has fans from Murder Drones and SMG4 Mario. Though, I get why this wasn’t mentioned because this is not able to be turned into advice LoL
So if I want to make a popular piece of media I'll also need a pre-existing audience! That's genius! Now all I have to do is get one! ... I don't know how to get a pre-existing audience.
@@Cinnabun9 i think its by giving teasers of it. While everything is still in its beta testing phasing. Even if in its alpha testing phase. Like first just posting random art or small content on whatever it is. Did maybe short comics or comedy skits. Then you ease your way up until you get to your novel/movie/series/game. So when you're ready to present it in its shiny professional glory there will already be ppl that has been there since day 1. This process can take years and allows for so much growth in personal skill and community growth
My goodness I am OBSESSED with this question. I've always been late to the big fandoms- I didn't get into Sonic until 2018, or Steven Universe until 2020, or Undertale until 2021, etc BUT I was there for Digital Circus back when all we had was the pilot trailer and the first couple character shorts and I had this feeling, deep down, that it was going to be the next Big Internet Thing. And yeah, that was exactly what happened. It was SO interesting to see the fandom blow up as quickly as it did when the pilot dropped, and since then I've really been digging around with what makes a Big Internet Thing a Big Internet Thing. Here's what I've come up with. 1) A well constructed world allows for exploration of lore and settings not explicitly shown in the media itself 2) Well developed characters allow for an infinite variation on character interactions through fanfics, comics, etc 3) simple but good character designs make it easy for fanartists to pump out drawings, and bishes love drawings 4) "hot" character designs make for hoards of simps that will post the same screenshots and edits of said characters over and over again 5) this one might be more of a gen Z/doomer thing, but people within the past 10-15 yrs really seem to be into media that can be both silly+wacky or existential+miserable depending the fan's mood that day (Undertale+Deltarune, TADC, Homestuck, and Omori are all examples I immediately think of) 5) bright colors and fun shapes make autism/adhd brains go BRRRRRRRRR, and lets be real, a lot of chronically online people are ND
The Zeno Clash series don't properly apply for 3 and 4 (not really 5 either). Mainly Pseudo from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. Dude looks like a hairy, sore thumb with a fleshy armpit for a throat. If he didn't look the way he did, I wouldn't have been as immediately interested in him. Though he, and Zenozoik as a whole, are quite colorful. And the inhabitants of the world are all manner of freaks, monsters, aberrations and mutants, most of them uncanny and for our standards ugly. It's a big part of waht makes that series as fascinating as it is. Would recommend looking these up. And also The Eternal Cylinder by the same devs. Fascinating series.
Well I’d like to point out that children in particular are naturally attracted to bright colours as well so that can be one reason as to why these kinds of shows get so popular; these shows have a huge fan base of children, I mean look at TADC and the huge kid fan base it spawned.
This is the content that youtube was made for. No pleasing the META, no algorithmic bullshit, or dubious sponsors, just a guy speaking about something he is passioned about.
I don’t know why the video isn’t at a million views yet, this man is absolutely correct. Wanna create something like that? Focus on the characters. Want proof? I can show you.
This is exactly why I’m addicted to shows even if the plot is sometimes kinda ass. I may not remember exactly what happened in that episode but I can remember what the characters felt when they went through it and how they interacted with each other.
Kinda my relationship with The Last Kingdom. It does a bunch of stuff right (and uses “Viking” correctly yay) but also flops a lot and is filled with throwaway scenes and weird unexplained character changes (EDWARD *cough*) And yet I love it. I’ve watched and rewatched all 5 seasons with my parents again and again and never get sick of it.
There’s a Maya Angelou quote that almost word-for-word captures this. “[…] People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
That... actually makes a lot of sense. I think it would be super interesting to do some sort of comparative study focusing on plot first vs character first approach to storytelling. I think that both of those modes have great strenghts as well as weakenesses. Coming up with a story first and then creating characters around it may help you craft a tight narrative in which no space is "wasted" so to speak. If your story focuses on a central theme and you want to explore it then it's fairly easy to create characters that display it as their traits or as something they may be in conflict about. But as you mentioned, that approach can result in characters that feel flat or seem to exist only for the sole purpose of fullfiling specific role. Coming up with your characters first and then making up the plot around them can help you avoid this issue by forcing you to think deeper about your characters. They cannot be simple plot devices anymore, they need to be multi dimensional at least on some basic level. But this approach can cause a different problem- meandering stories where not much happens, characters mostly interacti with one another through talking (which isn't bad ofc!!!) without coming into interesting conflicts that help form the story as a cohesive narrative but rather a series of random events without much connecting tissue. This might also be the reason why those character-based internet media are so potent for fandom works. They can be used in any context (or AU) and still be just as enjoyable. All in all, I think it's best to balance those two aspects, unless you want to specifically go into one of the other extreme
It’s insane to me how forgotten MLP has become despite being the most massive thing in the early 2010s by several orders of magnitude. There was a time where you couldn’t do an image search without seeing at least one pony image somewhere. That’s why people hated it so much, because they couldn’t get away from it.
Another important thing is how demographics interact and respond to the internet. Teenagers and young adults are the demographics that spend more time on social media (both because they usually have more free time and are more familiar with its dynamics), so works aiming at them have a higher chance at getting content made in on-line fan communities, such as fanart, songs, fanfics and overall word-of-mouth. Meanwhile, pieces of media aimed at older audiences will have a smaller reach on the internet, and might seem less popular than it actually is. Top Gun Maverick was a great success in the box office, but it didn't have the same level of fan-made content that many less successful indie project; not because it wasn't as popular, but simply because its main audience (fans of the original movie, who are in their 40's and 50's by now) doesn't necessarily interact with media in that way. In the same way, works with a lot of internet interaction may look more popular than they actually are: the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, while still extremely successful for its small budget, only made a fifth of Top Gun's total box office , even though its much larger amount of fan content would suggest otherwise.
That makes a lot of sense with other fandoms that got popular with the tumblr crowd. I cant speak for a lot of fandoms, but danganronpa fandom spaces are almost entirely character driven, despite the games being pretty plot heavy. People love there blorbos I guess.
I also have no friends but I am more of a worldbuilding person. (I'm very rude in real life because I have no social abilities and people think my humor is meant seriously)
But most of the indie productions are character-driven. I've accepted that my creations will never achieve mainstream popularity because I've never liked the teenage content, even as a teenager myself (now, I'm old haha). I just can't connect with it. However, I've embraced creating for a niche audience, and that's perfectly okay! I believe I'll find my true fans, even if it's a smaller, dedicated group of at least 1,000 (the magic number). (For example, while Hazbin Hotel and similar shows aren't my cup of tea, I love Monkey Wrench and Gobelin shorts.)
Same here, I really hate long stories lol. I want something fun, artistic and feel, not the same boring serious story driven Tumblr unfunny shit, and even If I do want story I at least want it to be explained during gameplay or something like that or even something mundane while being compelling like short and meaningful dialog while being creative at the same time.
@@utopes I'm a comic book artist who has worked for publishers for almost 20 years. Currently, I'm almost halfway through my second creator-owned graphic novel (page 90 of 256). I finished my first graphic novel but am waiting to sell it to a publisher once I've helped some family members. Life is tough, but I won't give up. Working for others is a thing, but publishing my own stuff is another beast. It's harder, for me. I tested webcomics a few years ago and they went well (audience test). So, I'm optimistic about that :)
I love this so much Like people giving all the credits to artist while in reality is the marketing that is do all the heavy lifting And the only reason why do that is that those marketing genius where bored to not receving credit (or maybe they just wanted some pocket money) so later in their life released books and such to descrive how they sold to you their product
There definitely have been fandoms that were created totally unintentionally. Take My Little Pony, which has that character-centric focus involving the Mane 6 and their interactions. Character focus isn't a guarantee to generate a large fandom but it certainly helps.
a slightly more ubiquitous and nebulous element that each of these have in common: they're often the product of a millennial generation of creators taking media from their youth and spinning it off into something less polished but more raw in some way. they're snarky of older works while also being earnestly, sometimes embarrassingly, reverent of them every generation of art is in conversation with the one preceding it, etc etc
I wonder how long it'll take for the next generation of fandom-targeted media become based on Gen Z mid 2000's-early 2010's nostalgia. Maybe 8-10 years til gen z elder artists establish themselves in the market
"taking media from their youth and spinning it off into something less polished but more raw in some way. they're snarky of older works while also being earnestly, sometimes embarrassingly, reverent of them" You just described The Rocky Horror [Picture] Show.
Another thing this video made me notice is why the Object Show Community (and more recently Total Drama) is such a massive thing: The Survivor setting is a veritable goldmine for different kinds of character interaction
We're not talking about an elephant in the room with these, one thats a bit awkward to do. There's something very sexualized and romantic about many of these characters and fanfictions. Thats the joke of tumblr art, but its also just true. Its not just about the 'dynamics' of these characters in how they bounce off each other, but a big part of it is ways for people to play out romantic or sexual fantasies - sometimes because its validating to see characters you love in a queer lens, which is great - but also, it maybe encourages young kids to be thinking about sexuality, romance and sexual acts sooner than they should, and makes it easier for kids watching these things to be put in vulnerable and dangerous positions. The innocence and juvenile nature of these shows on the surface, while also having a dark irony and a sexualization to them makes for an interesting show that can speak to the despair of growing up, the disdain we all feel towards current capitalism, allowing us to both celebrate our childhoods, nostalgia and help us reconnect to our inner kids more even in the oft-hell and hardship of today's life. Still, its a queasy balance when there's some unsettling levels it can be enjoyed on. Think of how there's a subculture on social media of 'sexy pomni' cosplays now, or 'hot clowns' in general, or the clickbait knock-off content created based on these properties that's then raking in views much to the frustration of the OG creators. Sure, when its adults doing what they want to do in their content and presenting that just to adults, that's much less problematic - but we all know that a lot of children are accessing these shows, thats part of how they can get so many millions of views and then be sensations. Its why Mr Beast is so huge - he targets kids and teenagers, even though his metrics won't admit to that cos there aren't easy ways of tracking children online since parents don't do their job of ensuring kids are protected online. He also essentially does illegal gambling for children while looking like a charitable martyr. I don't think everyone watching is consciously perceiving all this stuff, but it does enable it, and sometimes I fear it all enables and simplifies power dynamics for pdf files and bad actors to take advantage of children - whether its people working on these productions, or just 'fans' who use their interest in these properties as a way to connect with kids and teenagers. I quite like these properties, I think they have so much merrit and do such a service to creativity. But their downfall really could be the internet's inability to really regulate fandoms and protect vulnerable young fans, especially since so many of these fandoms are already people who are chronically online, socially awkward, autistic, etc. They're both part of a revolution in the right direction, and unfortunately because of the nature of the internet, the wrong way as well.
I wanna point out as well FPE (fundamental paper education), and even though its literally just a 4 minute animation to a song, the reason it spawned an entire fandom full of fanart and fangames and stuff is exactly that reason, because there's so many details about the characters and their dynamics even if they're on screen for just a few seconds. Plus the very unique designs allow for people to make their own ocs that fit into the art style. There's all kinds of lore and character quirks revealed in every second, (like Ms. Circle's obsession with Oreos, which people love to make animatics about) which lets people's imagination run wild and makes the whole premise of the world a lot more interesting. Lots of people seemed to be confused about how that happened over a short animation but I think what you explained there answers it perfectly without even having to mention the actual video.
I'm on the fence, cause I see your point, but also I feel like one of FPE's strongest aspect that really stuck out(to me anyway) was it's worldbuilding?
Everyone is saying autism, but to me it looks like strong characters are a big selling point. Undertale's whole selling point is how human its characters are, Hazbin is famous for its dark humor and the characters that interact with that theme, and the same with TADC and existential dread themes
Most of undertales main characters have 1 to 2 personality traits or interactions tbh but there's such a variety of them and focus on their interactions in different scenarios and bs that it gets the folks thinking
I think art style and character design also plays an important role. All of the characters in Hazbin Hotel, Undertale, Amazing Digital Circus, and the others popular with this crowd have unique, recognizable, and eye catching designs, as well as a cute and cartoony art style.
So, now you got two pills: The Blue Pill makes you write your story in a plot-centric way, with the characters only serving as tools for the Storyline, and in exchange, you get a more sane fandom. The Red Pill makes you write your story in a character-centric way, with the plot onlyy serving as an excuse for the characters to interact in different situations, and in exchange, you get a weird, cringy, highkey insane fandom. Choose wisely.
@@SodaFrizz666Yeah actually, you have to make your characters into children only so that your characters aren’t openly sexualized on the surface internet cause of their age. People might age up the character if they really like them but atleast it won’t be your EXACT character. Adult characters that are 18+ though…Yeah good luck. Dirty fandoms are a blessing and a curse though since despite being very strange they also do help bring in more viewers to the original creation.
@@OmniNeon900 my little pony flashbacks.. (context: that show was compeletly meant for childern, but ofcourse 4chan took it and all adults started enjoying it more than the kids.. which resulted in.. some interesting fanart... and stuff...)
I agree with your points in the video; however, I think another large part is the shows and series you covered tend to focus on a younger audience who are more likely to latch onto a show and its fandom as part of their personality, something which an older audience is much less likely to do. It’s also easier for younger creatives to make art of a preexisting media rather than make their own from scratch which helps explain the large amount of AUs, mods (for the games), fan art, etc. In a way it works as a reference for them to improve their craft on which older audiences would have no need for or at least less need for.
I kind of think the answer is as much in the art as in the writing. Fanart has HUGE currency in modern fandom and can be a form of word-of-mouth buzz. A property that pulls people in generally has colorful, yet simplified character design that invites fanartists to come play with them, insert their headcanons/visual takes on the characters and make them their own. (Remember Homestuck? Remember how no two Dave Strider fanartists would draw the character quite the same way, yet it was still recognizably Dave?) When I think about it, I see a ton of visual indie media pulling in this kind of fandom, but I've never, ever seen it for a book or written property.
Yeah this is definitely it. 90% of media i start to watch/read/play comes from me seeing a pretty drawn fanart of an character with a attractive design. I feel like aesthetic is a thing that attracts more younger audiences than the plot itself, hence why shows like Family Guy or American Dad don't have that much of a fanbase on fandom-focused websites like Tumble
@@moycorbin4750 an average adult animated show didnt have rule of cool, bright colors and shipping, as they usually either old af before the internet was so big or directed to more mature audience (adult in this contest simply mean more than 8 years old) This obv changed with rick and morty, which fast the first succesful show designed with tumblr fandom culture in mind, spawning copycat and such Thanks god we still have decent adult animation once in a while
@@kingslayerx1716 Rule of Cool is a concept about focusing in the visual aspects of the characters/scenery/sequences using elements that the audience will automatically find cool, badass, epic, classy, etc., over things like plain functionality or any logic. Cybernetics are cool, elite historical warriors are cool, 20th Century and modern military are cool, elemental powers are cool, the dystopian worlds are cool, deadly beasts are cool, fancy melee weapons are cool, martial arts and acrobatics are cool, tuxedos and other sophisticated clothes are cool, motorcycles are cool... The list just keeps going. Btw the Rule of Cool factor was milked too much recently. Just to point an example, every important male character in Hazbin Hotel has the classy tuxedo, as you can see streamers and other internet personalities chose the same tuxedo top icon for their profile; even that cr*p "skibidi toilet" series is filled with tuxedo mannequins with some object as head. In the other hand, for the department of things that look great but with the minimum analysis you realize they don't make any sense we have: Cyberpunk2077 Mantis blades. Those things have no way to effectively carry blunt force to pierce because the blades are hold by a stick that emerges from your forearm. Proper "forearm blades" are like Miguel O'Hara's ones; or the real-life example that a katar gauntlet is. Good Rule of Cool is supposed to be about making badass things that become cooler thanks to the writing rather than sacrificing logic to create spectacle. Genndy Tartakovsky works are the great demonstrations of Rule of Cool executed well; and the vigilante trope for most anti-heroes was the base for great characters (some falling flat like Batman overuse of plot-armour but just blame the writers).
I think one thing that we'd then need to figure out is to how to essentially prune a fandom to avoid nuclear meltdowns like the Voltron show. Cause a pattern with a lot of these shows that are character centric which gain a big audience of people who could be generalized as tumblr users is that they all have an innate showcase to become as toxic as any previous fandom. Part of it might be just making sure people don't latch unto the characters too parasocially in a way where they might lash out at story directions which they perceive as not right. One solution that I see some shows like Blue Eye Samurai have (haven't watched it but have gathered enough info to piece this thought together) is that the subject matter and overall direction is a lot more mature, which acts as a sort of filter. Alternatively via games, Deep Rock Galactic has done a good job growing a community by putting into their game directly ways which encourage good teamwork and sportsmanship. A more crude and third approach is to simply not let the audience impose more influence on the conversation than they should (minecraft update discussion dominated by people who don't quite understand the dev workflow and Overwatch/Fornite nerfing certain gameplay features for the sake of balance vs fun is blatant examples of this) to reorient back to shows, Voltron perhaps let their fandom get too convinced in such a big enough consensus that Klance was happening. Overall, a bigger fandom can always be more difficult to handle.
That’s just a stereotype, I don’t think Tumblr is that crazy anymore unless you’re counting the pr* shippers, but they’re mostly on Twitter because of Elon’s free speech (except for whoever he doesn’t like)
I've noticed the same thing and you wording it as helped me finally realize the correlation. The character driveness of them gives a better ability for people to latch on and an even better ability to use them as a tool for creativity. It's why fanfiction is so popular, it's easier to build on something you like than to make something entirely new. It's also why famdoms like these have excessive creative projects and comics compared to other media
HA when you mentioned 2020 I immediately knew it was Dream SMP 😭 Also one thing that all of the fandoms have in common are TONS of AUs (alternate universes). Undertale is particularly infamous regarding this (it practically carried the entire fandom) with all the different versions of Sans being shipped with each other. As someone who was in the DSMP fandom back in its heyday, esp in the fanfic scene, there were also a crazy amount of AUs, eg Superhero/Vigilante AUs, Medieval Fantasy AUs etc etc. It's still very popular last I checked, with every fic writer I've seen basically kidnapping the DSMP characters into their own OCs. There's basically no Minecraft now it's all AUs This is getting kinda long but Hazbin also has a lot of Role Swap AUs and fan rewrites, and TADC having so many different popular AUs on Tumblr it's hard to keep track. Anyway, that's just some stuff I've observed from these fandoms, I guess it's also due to how character focused they are it's so easy to grab them and squish them into your own custom scenarios :)
yep, this is also extremely plausible because of the established characters. The characters drove the plot, we know the characters and how it's built. DSMP is literally just a bunch of OCs fighting each other, which, you know, was aslo part of the appeal! Established characters and how the dynamic forms around them are very interesting indeed ^^
It’s a shame that the content creators were…ehhhh… but I’ve seen so many talented people take the ideas and make them so amazing and cool! The fans r so talented
That’s pretty much it! A lot of people my age and with my interests will latch onto characters we enjoy, whether our own or made by someone else. I’ve noticed this and now that you bring it up and explain why, it makes so much more sense! I also think the character centric focus helps make the plot not as clear sometimes, and makes it easier to be like “what’s going to happen next?” because with the plot hinging on the characters mainly, it’s open to a lot of possibilities. There’s so much to go in depth about here but I’m really glad you made this video.
this is a really interesting subject for me!! glad youtube reccomended me this, abt to watch i really appreciate that you tackle the topic of fandom without making it seem like a big joke, it really means a lot
This was so well put-together but 6 minutes was not nearly long enough to cover it all! Love that you stuck to your tight schedule but I would love to see you following these thoughts further - you definitely seem knowledgeable and insightful on the topic and there's a lot to delve into.
I think it's the formula of having: A. Appeal to audiences of all ages with things like colorful worlds, humourous characters [Undertale, Hazbin Hotel are gonna be the main examples I use] B. Dark/Edgy or Sophisticated themes/undertones [Undertale, Adventure Time, Hazbin Hotel] Doesn't necessarily matter how sophisticated or personally informed these themes are handled. I'd say something like Undertale or Adventure Time handles mature subjects in a much more mature and serious matter than say, Hazbin Hotel. The later feels more like it uses these merely for premise but fails to misunderstand how they would fit into the world and narrative. C. Creative Novelty that expands on common tropes. Undertale is an RPG where you don't have to kill anyone, creating a moral dilemna. Hazbin Hotel uses the idea of Heaven and Hell and contorts it with power struggles in the real world. While unfaithful to what Heaven and Hell is actually like nor what they truly mean, it is recontextualized to fit an image. This criticizes christianity and many gripes people have with it. Many of the people in hell who are considered sinners are merely poor or misunderstood; living what some would consider atypical lifestyles or worldviews. For example: many of it's demons are homosexual. Instead of having a homophobic lense, the series instead uses hell is represent how people are shunned for not fitting into many's image of god amongst their moral high ground they oppose onto others. D. Community Driven/Involved These worlds were built on communities and despite gripes soem may have with creators you can't seny they give people who are socially shunned a place to express themselves. Vizzypop may be a jackass but they've built a community. Fans can give back or involve themselves with the art they have created with OC's fan-fiction etc. This is something truly inspiring fiction. Even as someone who isn't a fan of her work... I can still see that they have potential and that they've inspired countless others to stary creating too. Think about old text based LOTR games or those Star-wars lore videos. These works prosper because they give people a whole world to explore. Regardless of quality they're founded on emotional connections that mean something to people.
edgy teen/young adult oriented (but kids still get into it even though they probably shouldn't) with a tumblr sexyman anti-hero/villian and tons of gay shipping
@@cloudinal it was originally "SMT sucks" but I added earthbound later. It's only SMT fans who get baited. My honest thoughts about both series is that SMT stopped being good after Strange Journey and Mother 3 >>>Earthbound(which I still like, but I feel it's overrated)
YES! This is spot-on to the niche corner of the internet I've experienced but haven't seen many people talking about. We get obsessed with the characters and their dynamics and interactions, not the plot/story!! exactly, exactly, exactly. One new youtube-based animated indie TV show that fits this, but unfortunately hasn't gone viral just yet, is the Wingfeather Saga. At this stage is has a very small budget because it's completely crowd-funded but I SO want more people to find it and enjoy it!
bro talking about fandoms and doesn't even mention homestuck would have been a perfect example to further the point too. Based on how it got primarily popular because at least one of the 12 troll characters are relatable to a given person and and those characters could easily be takin out of the context of the plot. Also it provided a perfect framework for people to make their own OCs or trollsonas. Homestuck really is the perfect example of hoe to create a fandom (and it's so crazy cause the author andrew hussy neither expected that or wanted it which caused a lotta drama later on)
Your definitely right about the quirky cast syndrome. I think most people in general are attracted to characters more than the plot itself, however. It's what separates a fable or tale from a story imo. Characters are how we ourselves experience the story, whether the characters are people or things. In these particual pieces of media, I think there's alot of "subversion of the genre" going on that attracts many certain people. Hasbin is the "Nickelodeon cartoon but if it had adult and crude humor" Digital Circus is kids show but is seemingly high jacked by a sinister plot direction. Undertale is at first glance a generic low budge game maker rpg but secretly is a self-aware paradoy of rpg tropes spearheaded the movmenet of "self aware rpgs" we would see come soon after. This subversion of genres combined with the fact each of these IPS came from independent artists that all obtained a following years prior to their success, I think we can start to see some patterns here outside of just age group/edge and agst and so on.
It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on how more lore and plot centric stories gain massive popularity. There are stories, that while popular with a different crowd, still enjoy as much attention as the indie shows you mentioned here. Some examples I can think of are Bionicle, Star Wars, Half Life, and the new Dune films which a lot of people like because of the focus on the elaborate worlds the stories are set within. On an indie scale, FNAF/mascot horror and Analogue horror could count since even though some have characters, they are more focused on lore to build atmosphere, and their communities do have some overlap with Undertale and Digital Circus'. Then, on the completely different side of the spectrum, you have fanbases that still add a bunch of character drama to a piece of media that don't have that much. The strongest example of this I can think of is Ultrakill, which is an indie FPS that despite being plot-centric, with only one major character, has an improbably thirsty fandom that has assigned a sex to every in-game enemy.
THIS IS WHY I GOT SO OBSESSED WITH MY HERO ACADEMIA! The plot was nice and all, but each and every character had their own quirks, worldbuilding that allows for a ton of OCs. The focus on the characters in particular is what had my heart for a very long time with that show.
@@mittag983 Which is literally exactly why it appealed to me. Because the writing is ass, it basically encourages the audience to make up their own plot points, characters, headcanons, etc. I'm not gonna sit here and say that MHA is the best anime ever, because it's not. Far from it. But i'll still always love it just due to all of the characters in the story, and due to all of the OCs I created out of the story.
@@Captain_Ravioli7321 Oh, damn! You're actually right. I did the same thing with RWBY. I was so cringe as a kid, I built my self Insert a harem with RWBY characters and called it a day. 💀 It's sad to say, but even now this Mushoku Tensei copy I wrote holds more weight than the actual show. By the way all MHA designs are wasted potential. The characters look better than the story.
@@mittag983 Speaking of the characters, I will never forgive Horikoshi for butchering Momo's character. She literally could've been one of the most OP characters but horikoshi was like "nah shes fanservice LMFAO"
@@Captain_Ravioli7321 Horikoshi's writing is like beginner writing. So sad he came up with a good concept. He literally ruined it. Btw the Todoroki Family arc is cringe and overwritten.
While I think the character driven show angle is correct, I also think that having worldbuilding for an audience to sink their teeth into is also important. I mean look at homestuck, a very famous tumblr fandom that revolves around a comic that is so jam packed with symbolism and lore and whatnot that it required multiple breaks within the story for the author to just explain what is happening so far. Star Trek is also a good example, as that was one of the original fandoms. I feel like this video goes into recent fandoms, and the comments are claiming connections that simply only work for this small selection. I mean Supernatural, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who are the epitome of tumblr fandom, and none of them share nearly any of the features of the new fandoms. I think it's a combination of character driven along with having enough lore to expand upon them. Because there are plenty of character focused dramas and shows that are very popular, but not fandom popular. But also, every show will have its own fandom, because fandom really just means a group of people who are fans of something.
This definitely explains why it feels like a lot of these properties end up having fandoms comprised of the same people, and how they move from one IP to the next as each phases in and out of popularity.
I don’t really see people mentioning it in the comments here but Hetalia. It was my first real internet fandom I joined and it was entirely character driven as there’s no real plot (becides *historic events*) and so people could take the characters and run with them and it was a huge success cause of that (and erm…. Other, less pure reasons). What still amazes me is that the fandom even created a second set of characters based off the originals and… all agreed on their names and personalities (cause the originals weren’t edgy enough).
HOLY SHIT, as a writer this is something I've been searching for YEARS! I'm going to go close UA-cam and finally work on that game I've been putting off for a long time
It's a mix of things for sure. It's teens-young adults wanting some edginess, representation, relatability and maybe a little nostalgia. Also autism. I'm autistic, am a fan of many things including Amazing Digital Circus and Helluva Boss. ADC reminds me of some old 3D game from the 90s in the presentation of the world, the characters look like other characters from older media (one looking like Raggedy Anne). Helluva Boss and Viv's art style in general reminds me of Tim Burton's sketches-it's very very Hot Topic and Tumblr had a baby and raised it on Rocky Horror Picture Show and other musicals. Teens and Y adults are looking at these shows and thinking 'This reminds me of that one thing I really liked as a kid, I'll try it out.' or 'I love musicals and there are several LGBTQ characters here, which as an LGBTQ person myself like to see, along with a Tim Burton vibe, I'll watch this!' Plus the characters are cute/ sexy, easily marketable and at a certain point the story evolves more as the characters relationship changes. E.G.-Blitz and Stolas from Helluva starts as transactional sex to extremely complicated as they start realising they have actual deeper feelings for each other, one more in denial than the other (Blitz) I've seen another great video on Hazbin's success-more focused on the pilot and how it got so big views, explaining that it has several elements and themes that pulls in a lot of fans from multiple areas and walks of life, from LGBTQ, to musical fans, furries, nerds, Tumblr teens and neurodivergent people. So if there is a group of friends, one's into musicals but the rest aren't or aren't as much and they notice the LGBTQ rep they can go to the LGBTQ friend and say "Hazbin has your representation in it, Helluva Boss too!" then that friend goes to the furry friend and says "lol there's furries in Helluva, check it out!" the furry goes to the autistic friend and says "There's a theory that the gay owl guy in this show has autism, also the songs are pretty cool!" etc etc What also really helps is spreading it around on social media and what better place to stick such a Tumblr looking thing than Tumblr? Don't be shy with your work, go out and spread your show around, do little 'behind the scenes' stuff, tease some art- don't spoil any major story plots/ character changes, just show like 'Here's an older drawing of this character' or 'This is a bigger version of what the city looks like' 'Here's some random doodles of these characters' One key thing I'd say is relatability. Think of that one show you really like and how many times you've been watching a character in it going through a bad time and thinking 'Oh my God, I can so relate to this! Poor guy!' or how many times you see a scene from some big show with the caption 'Relatable'. There's a reason why it resonates.
Characters with easy to understand personalities that make things like headcanons or funny fanart/memes easy to create & share. Easily shipable characters where the big ships immediately become apparent within the fandom so that it’s easy to join whatever side of the “ship war” you want. & spice it all up with some slapped together “lore” that’ll string the fandom along until the project either gets canceled or has a lackluster ending that leaves no one satisfied. Not hating on any of these fandoms, I’m in most of them, it’s just easy to recognize the patterns
This helped in some ways to understand what will bring people in but at the same time I think it's most important to make it for you. Make what you want to see in the world look at the things that inspire you. As a lot of these popular media were all inspired by something before that Undertale was inspired by games like EarthBound and Touhou, Digital Circus was inspired by Popee the Performer and 90's PC games and Hazbin Hotel was inspired by Invader Zim and Musicals. So I do the same and find things that inspires me the most. Sometimes it's even stuff from real life, people I met or even fears that I had as a child and turned them into a character to help kinda cope with that fear in a more creative way.
My biggest dream is to create my own indie cartoon one day, and its ridiculous how many time I'm spending on just IMAGINING how amazing it would be if people would be creating edits, fanarts, kin playlists, theories, comics etc, instead of spending my time on actually creating the show itself :')
Y'know, browsing the tip of the commenting iceberg, I realize that whole character centricity thing is also what made (of all forsaken things) FNAF: Security Breach so strange. Characters always existed within FNAF, but the only ones you'd really see would be robotic, and (except in SL) they never really spoke directly to your face, and if they did it would be very brief. Security Breach put characters right up there, and gave each animatronic certain vices, sometimes virtues, that made them all veeeery interesting. Subtract that metric ton of glitches, and FNAF's quite perturbed fanbase, and it's a recipe for a Tumblr comfort game honestly.
also a looming mystery or two undertale's got gaster and whether the narrator is chara or frisk TADC's got glitches and the history of the circus hazbin hotel's got it's own things however this is less important as it acts more so as a path for people to fall in love with the show/characters (and also because these mysteries do eventually get solved)
@@ZordynMEDIA LITERACY LOL. Chara and Gaster are intentionally left mysterious, Gaster moreso. You learn some of Charas background, but it's not like you know them. There isn't anything definitive you can say about exactly who they are, and that's the actual point. Mysteries that do not actually ever get solved are more intriguing than ones with a clear conclusion.
There’s nothing unintentional about it, let me fix: “How to intentionally spawn a massive horrible fandom”. Which hey! Spawning fandoms of variable horribleness is something that many people might intentionally do :0
As somebody who was a Homestuck back in the day....yes. Character centric media hits the SPOT BRO. A lot of media in this video I'm either a fan of or am familiar with the source material. And as a writer, who's working on a book and already trying to work out how to make it into an animation, I feel like it'll be perfect for this specific audience, and I'm so so excited for it to come to fruition. There's something about characters acting human and supporting each other that just breaks the heart and leaves us yearning for more
Yeah, I think this makes a lot of sense, especially since it applies to most other well known "Tumblr" fandoms like Steven Universe or Homestuck. However, while it's not universal, I think large fandoms also love to glom onto complex lore or worldbuilding systems as a bonus! It makes it easier to make self-inserts or OCs and gives people things to theorycraft, speculate, or write about during dry periods.
I'd also think that edge/angst plays a big part of it, with lots of secret darkness over a whimsical world, which applies to all three examples.
That combination makes them perfectly suited to appeal to the young teens who make up most of their audience. You get the safety and familiarity of cutesy character designs to make the more "mature" aspects feel approachable.
Hazbin isn't whimsical as much as it's absolutely drenched and steeping in irony but same idea applies
@@meeb_consumer I was thinking whimsical as in bright color scheme, expressive characters, fast moving plot, and it being an energetic musical
mascot-horror as a genre could fit into that as well
@@Zordyn Undertale also has the genocide route.
yup. you covered a lot of the points ive made in the past. from what ive noticed, it boils down to most or all of these
1. attractive, appealing characters, typically with a bit (or a lot) of edge. for examples, see the tumblr sexyman contest.
2. dynamics (as you said) that makes shipping easy. bonus points if you have lots of effeminate men.
3. a world/worldbuilding easy for people to insert themselves (harry potter and homestuck are prime examples of this)
4. a bit of counterculture goes a long way. turns out, yeah. theres a HUGE demographic for lgbtq and/or BIPOC characters. just not in the way hollywood thinks. Lots of sad gay people writing about sad gay people (or whose headcanon makes them gay)
5. bonus points for being in what i call "the sonic uncanny valley", which is essentially something that has childish elements (see: amazing digitial circus, undertale) but has darker elements. Basically, what appeals to tweens without being too adult? (theres a good reason hazbin hotel gets called immature alot for the cruder elements despite many adult oriented shows being just as bad). these shows attract teens that feel trapped between child oriented shows and adult oriented shows.
"the sonic uncanny valley" is an amazing way to refer to that tbh.
In short, your target audience is 12-15 year old theater kids
You called me out when you mentioned sad gay people writing about sad gay people
The sonic uncanny valley KILLED ME good comment op
Great comment. the counterculture and "sonic teenage angst" angles are specially what differentiates a regular fandom from a tumblr fandom good take
Being on tiktok and going on cons for the past few years has made me realize that there is one group of fans that goes from one media to another: mha - danganronpa - dream smp - genshin impact - hazbin hotel they're all the same people.
This is somewhat true, I like mha, danganropa, and geshin. I don’t like the others tho.
Their demographics stay the same, too- even as fans leave and enter, they always keep the same demographics and overall traits.
@@mintydraws3962 WAIT SAME OMG
I like DR but hate the rest.
i'm fan of genshin and danganronpa. not so much with mha but i did watch it. the rest i know nothing other than the few things i see here and there in twitter or youtube.
I got this... Autism! The answer is Autism! I'm so good at this...
Exactly
@@Wapcvm diagnosed autistic can confirm
Now that you mention it you have a point. Never thought of it that way before!
Weaponized autism is a real superpower and i won't elaborate any further
Hyperfixations for the win!
There’s a lot more things they have in common - Happy Horror, 90s Nostalgia, Nonhuman characters, portal fantasy, being trapped, a tumblr sexy man with a smile
damnnn homestuck fits this too. pretty good similarities .
I know it's technically true, but imagining Sans as a tumblr sexy man is so wild to me... like, he's short, curvy, and has no hair. Isn't he the opposite of a tumblr sexy man ?
@@seaemji8591 its not the design its the vibes ig
@@seaemji8591 he is THE tumbrl sexyman, his tumbrlsexymaness killed the queen
"portal fantasy" just say isekai
You forgot the grandaddy of all of them: Homestuck
Real
hetalia kinda predates homestuck in terms of that sort of fandom, lets not forget the main fandom for HS pre-hivebent was nerdy white guys.
He named the forbidden one
Greek mythology is the original fandom.
Touhou
I always loved world building more than characters and this video made me realize why I never really got into those popular fandoms
Same!
This is pretty relatable.
Oh now I know what's different about me (I'm neither but leaning towards worldbuilding)
Have you tried any of Brandon Sanderson's books? He's insane at worldbuilding, but also characters as well.
worldbuilding is amazing, I wish more people saw its charm
it's shocking this isn't way more popular!! this is really well made and packed with information :)
it says in the description you wanna expand on this topic and i would be very very interested if you did!! this video was great
@@northybunny Thanks! I definitely want to dive more into other things that fandom media share, such as character designs, and expand to talk about other examples than the ones I mentioned here. It'll be coming in a longer form video essay ^^
Maybe if it had a better title
@@westform22 it has a good title
@@westform22it has a good title and I commented this when it had 300 views and not 10K! :)
Great characters can carry a bad story, but it doesn't matter how good a story is if the characters are bad.
I don't know about that. I find enthralled by Danganronpa's plot but the character writing is often dogshit
@Eichro Honestly same with hazbin I dislike a majority of the characters but its still like a 7/10 because I love the plot and songs
Great stories with bad characters carry fans that complain about how the story is bad but has a lot of potential. They also have a lot of OCs and AUs
Eh, I can't stand Erin in Attack on Titan, but the story is pretty compelling so I'm still watching it
@@Eichro Lol we think the complete opposite, i love the characters but think the plot isnt very good
I feel personally attacked. That’s how you know this video is well done
😭YES
1:23 HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS H
Very subtly flashes gay flag XD
He knows what?
@@Idonotknowofname what i am
@@Idonotknowofname 🫡🏳️🌈
Wow that is FAST. 👀 🏳️🌈
The DreamSMP part with the mention of them being criminals made me cackle 😂
Good analysis. I agree that these characters also end up acting as mascots!
The 3 media you talked about had another thing in common though: a pre-existing audience for the creators involved! Toby Fox had a lot of eyes on him for his work on Homestuck, Vivziepop’s animations and webcomics had fans, Gooseworx had both animations and Hazbin Hotel pilot music under her belt, and Glitch animation has fans from Murder Drones and SMG4 Mario. Though, I get why this wasn’t mentioned because this is not able to be turned into advice LoL
So if I want to make a popular piece of media I'll also need a pre-existing audience! That's genius! Now all I have to do is get one!
...
I don't know how to get a pre-existing audience.
@@Cinnabun9 i think its by giving teasers of it. While everything is still in its beta testing phasing. Even if in its alpha testing phase. Like first just posting random art or small content on whatever it is. Did maybe short comics or comedy skits. Then you ease your way up until you get to your novel/movie/series/game. So when you're ready to present it in its shiny professional glory there will already be ppl that has been there since day 1. This process can take years and allows for so much growth in personal skill and community growth
@@Cinnabun9 oooor find media that you're super into and make something inspired by the style. Undertale basically attracted Homestuck fans
@@sasielb8922 ah that makes sense! Now all I have to do is do that without getting unmotivated at random times!...
Well this is gonna take long lol
@@sasielb8922 speaking of homestuck I wish I could get into it but it looks as long as the one piece 😭
3:27 basically answers the question right there
My goodness I am OBSESSED with this question. I've always been late to the big fandoms- I didn't get into Sonic until 2018, or Steven Universe until 2020, or Undertale until 2021, etc BUT I was there for Digital Circus back when all we had was the pilot trailer and the first couple character shorts and I had this feeling, deep down, that it was going to be the next Big Internet Thing. And yeah, that was exactly what happened. It was SO interesting to see the fandom blow up as quickly as it did when the pilot dropped, and since then I've really been digging around with what makes a Big Internet Thing a Big Internet Thing. Here's what I've come up with.
1) A well constructed world allows for exploration of lore and settings not explicitly shown in the media itself
2) Well developed characters allow for an infinite variation on character interactions through fanfics, comics, etc
3) simple but good character designs make it easy for fanartists to pump out drawings, and bishes love drawings
4) "hot" character designs make for hoards of simps that will post the same screenshots and edits of said characters over and over again
5) this one might be more of a gen Z/doomer thing, but people within the past 10-15 yrs really seem to be into media that can be both silly+wacky or existential+miserable depending the fan's mood that day (Undertale+Deltarune, TADC, Homestuck, and Omori are all examples I immediately think of)
5) bright colors and fun shapes make autism/adhd brains go BRRRRRRRRR, and lets be real, a lot of chronically online people are ND
DAMN YOU WENT FOR THE THROAT ON THAT LAST ONE 😭😭 I believe I may have autism or adhd and you really done called me out there
@@TotallynotredtailI say it all with love and understanding 😂😂
The Zeno Clash series don't properly apply for 3 and 4 (not really 5 either). Mainly Pseudo from Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. Dude looks like a hairy, sore thumb with a fleshy armpit for a throat. If he didn't look the way he did, I wouldn't have been as immediately interested in him.
Though he, and Zenozoik as a whole, are quite colorful. And the inhabitants of the world are all manner of freaks, monsters, aberrations and mutants, most of them uncanny and for our standards ugly. It's a big part of waht makes that series as fascinating as it is.
Would recommend looking these up. And also The Eternal Cylinder by the same devs. Fascinating series.
Well I’d like to point out that children in particular are naturally attracted to bright colours as well so that can be one reason as to why these kinds of shows get so popular; these shows have a huge fan base of children, I mean look at TADC and the huge kid fan base it spawned.
Your analysis makes my brain go BRRRRRRRR 😂🧠
This is the content that youtube was made for. No pleasing the META, no algorithmic bullshit, or dubious sponsors, just a guy speaking about something he is passioned about.
Clowns, furries, and genocide are a reoccuring theme
And effeminated men to
Where is genocide in ADC?
I don’t know why the video isn’t at a million views yet, this man is absolutely correct. Wanna create something like that? Focus on the characters. Want proof? I can show you.
Yeah honestly I don't give a shit how good the plot is, I'm here to watch characters progressively fuck up their relationships more.
V e l m a
you would love hbo's clone high
Helluva Boss.....
That's why I read oyasumi punpun
@@Alexanderissilly oh, and also High Spice Guardian.
This is exactly why I’m addicted to shows even if the plot is sometimes kinda ass. I may not remember exactly what happened in that episode but I can remember what the characters felt when they went through it and how they interacted with each other.
Thisss, it’s kinda embarrassing but I only really hyperfixate if the character dynamics are really good or there is a great ship 😭
Kinda my relationship with The Last Kingdom. It does a bunch of stuff right (and uses “Viking” correctly yay) but also flops a lot and is filled with throwaway scenes and weird unexplained character changes (EDWARD *cough*)
And yet I love it. I’ve watched and rewatched all 5 seasons with my parents again and again and never get sick of it.
There’s a Maya Angelou quote that almost word-for-word captures this.
“[…] People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
That... actually makes a lot of sense. I think it would be super interesting to do some sort of comparative study focusing on plot first vs character first approach to storytelling. I think that both of those modes have great strenghts as well as weakenesses. Coming up with a story first and then creating characters around it may help you craft a tight narrative in which no space is "wasted" so to speak. If your story focuses on a central theme and you want to explore it then it's fairly easy to create characters that display it as their traits or as something they may be in conflict about. But as you mentioned, that approach can result in characters that feel flat or seem to exist only for the sole purpose of fullfiling specific role. Coming up with your characters first and then making up the plot around them can help you avoid this issue by forcing you to think deeper about your characters. They cannot be simple plot devices anymore, they need to be multi dimensional at least on some basic level. But this approach can cause a different problem- meandering stories where not much happens, characters mostly interacti with one another through talking (which isn't bad ofc!!!) without coming into interesting conflicts that help form the story as a cohesive narrative but rather a series of random events without much connecting tissue. This might also be the reason why those character-based internet media are so potent for fandom works. They can be used in any context (or AU) and still be just as enjoyable. All in all, I think it's best to balance those two aspects, unless you want to specifically go into one of the other extreme
It’s insane to me how forgotten MLP has become despite being the most massive thing in the early 2010s by several orders of magnitude. There was a time where you couldn’t do an image search without seeing at least one pony image somewhere. That’s why people hated it so much, because they couldn’t get away from it.
Another important thing is how demographics interact and respond to the internet. Teenagers and young adults are the demographics that spend more time on social media (both because they usually have more free time and are more familiar with its dynamics), so works aiming at them have a higher chance at getting content made in on-line fan communities, such as fanart, songs, fanfics and overall word-of-mouth.
Meanwhile, pieces of media aimed at older audiences will have a smaller reach on the internet, and might seem less popular than it actually is. Top Gun Maverick was a great success in the box office, but it didn't have the same level of fan-made content that many less successful indie project; not because it wasn't as popular, but simply because its main audience (fans of the original movie, who are in their 40's and 50's by now) doesn't necessarily interact with media in that way. In the same way, works with a lot of internet interaction may look more popular than they actually are: the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, while still extremely successful for its small budget, only made a fifth of Top Gun's total box office , even though its much larger amount of fan content would suggest otherwise.
That makes a lot of sense with other fandoms that got popular with the tumblr crowd. I cant speak for a lot of fandoms, but danganronpa fandom spaces are almost entirely character driven, despite the games being pretty plot heavy. People love there blorbos I guess.
You called me out bro 😂 I do like character-focused stories…probably because I write fanfiction, have tumblr ocs, and have no friends.
It’s ok
@@yumalove7223 thmanks
I also have no friends but I am more of a worldbuilding person.
(I'm very rude in real life because I have no social abilities and people think my humor is meant seriously)
You can be a better storyteller.
@@kenrichgumanid9235 Ofc which is why I write.
But most of the indie productions are character-driven.
I've accepted that my creations will never achieve mainstream popularity because I've never liked the teenage content, even as a teenager myself (now, I'm old haha). I just can't connect with it. However, I've embraced creating for a niche audience, and that's perfectly okay! I believe I'll find my true fans, even if it's a smaller, dedicated group of at least 1,000 (the magic number).
(For example, while Hazbin Hotel and similar shows aren't my cup of tea, I love Monkey Wrench and Gobelin shorts.)
Same here, I really hate long stories lol. I want something fun, artistic and feel, not the same boring serious story driven Tumblr unfunny shit, and even If I do want story I at least want it to be explained during gameplay or something like that or even something mundane while being compelling like short and meaningful dialog while being creative at the same time.
eh,that’s fair
What do you make?
@@utopes I'm a comic book artist who has worked for publishers for almost 20 years. Currently, I'm almost halfway through my second creator-owned graphic novel (page 90 of 256). I finished my first graphic novel but am waiting to sell it to a publisher once I've helped some family members. Life is tough, but I won't give up. Working for others is a thing, but publishing my own stuff is another beast. It's harder, for me.
I tested webcomics a few years ago and they went well (audience test). So, I'm optimistic about that :)
@@Amelia_PCis there any where we can follow your work?
What do you mean “unintentionally” this has been a science for 20+ years these were firmly created with fandom culture in mind 😭😭😭😭
It's kinda sinister when you put it that way.
It's like Poochie, but more ✨quirky✨ and ✨anxiety-ridden.✨
I love this so much
Like people giving all the credits to artist while in reality is the marketing that is do all the heavy lifting
And the only reason why do that is that those marketing genius where bored to not receving credit (or maybe they just wanted some pocket money) so later in their life released books and such to descrive how they sold to you their product
There definitely have been fandoms that were created totally unintentionally. Take My Little Pony, which has that character-centric focus involving the Mane 6 and their interactions. Character focus isn't a guarantee to generate a large fandom but it certainly helps.
I don't know, some of them feel genuinely accidental
a slightly more ubiquitous and nebulous element that each of these have in common: they're often the product of a millennial generation of creators taking media from their youth and spinning it off into something less polished but more raw in some way. they're snarky of older works while also being earnestly, sometimes embarrassingly, reverent of them
every generation of art is in conversation with the one preceding it, etc etc
I wonder how long it'll take for the next generation of fandom-targeted media become based on Gen Z mid 2000's-early 2010's nostalgia. Maybe 8-10 years til gen z elder artists establish themselves in the market
"taking media from their youth and spinning it off into something less polished but more raw in some way. they're snarky of older works while also being earnestly, sometimes embarrassingly, reverent of them"
You just described The Rocky Horror [Picture] Show.
THAT JUMPSCARE GAVE ME FLASHBACKS😨😨😨😨
What jumpscare?
@@Idonotknowofname 4:48
PTSD 😰
Another thing this video made me notice is why the Object Show Community (and more recently Total Drama) is such a massive thing: The Survivor setting is a veritable goldmine for different kinds of character interaction
>unintentionally
as if every single aspect of Amazing Digital Circus isn't cynically designed to be marketable to twitter users
We're not talking about an elephant in the room with these, one thats a bit awkward to do. There's something very sexualized and romantic about many of these characters and fanfictions. Thats the joke of tumblr art, but its also just true. Its not just about the 'dynamics' of these characters in how they bounce off each other, but a big part of it is ways for people to play out romantic or sexual fantasies - sometimes because its validating to see characters you love in a queer lens, which is great - but also, it maybe encourages young kids to be thinking about sexuality, romance and sexual acts sooner than they should, and makes it easier for kids watching these things to be put in vulnerable and dangerous positions.
The innocence and juvenile nature of these shows on the surface, while also having a dark irony and a sexualization to them makes for an interesting show that can speak to the despair of growing up, the disdain we all feel towards current capitalism, allowing us to both celebrate our childhoods, nostalgia and help us reconnect to our inner kids more even in the oft-hell and hardship of today's life. Still, its a queasy balance when there's some unsettling levels it can be enjoyed on. Think of how there's a subculture on social media of 'sexy pomni' cosplays now, or 'hot clowns' in general, or the clickbait knock-off content created based on these properties that's then raking in views much to the frustration of the OG creators. Sure, when its adults doing what they want to do in their content and presenting that just to adults, that's much less problematic - but we all know that a lot of children are accessing these shows, thats part of how they can get so many millions of views and then be sensations. Its why Mr Beast is so huge - he targets kids and teenagers, even though his metrics won't admit to that cos there aren't easy ways of tracking children online since parents don't do their job of ensuring kids are protected online. He also essentially does illegal gambling for children while looking like a charitable martyr.
I don't think everyone watching is consciously perceiving all this stuff, but it does enable it, and sometimes I fear it all enables and simplifies power dynamics for pdf files and bad actors to take advantage of children - whether its people working on these productions, or just 'fans' who use their interest in these properties as a way to connect with kids and teenagers.
I quite like these properties, I think they have so much merrit and do such a service to creativity. But their downfall really could be the internet's inability to really regulate fandoms and protect vulnerable young fans, especially since so many of these fandoms are already people who are chronically online, socially awkward, autistic, etc. They're both part of a revolution in the right direction, and unfortunately because of the nature of the internet, the wrong way as well.
I wanna point out as well FPE (fundamental paper education), and even though its literally just a 4 minute animation to a song, the reason it spawned an entire fandom full of fanart and fangames and stuff is exactly that reason, because there's so many details about the characters and their dynamics even if they're on screen for just a few seconds. Plus the very unique designs allow for people to make their own ocs that fit into the art style. There's all kinds of lore and character quirks revealed in every second, (like Ms. Circle's obsession with Oreos, which people love to make animatics about) which lets people's imagination run wild and makes the whole premise of the world a lot more interesting. Lots of people seemed to be confused about how that happened over a short animation but I think what you explained there answers it perfectly without even having to mention the actual video.
Yeah it's literally someone's OC animatic and it managed to spawn a fandom
Similar with ENA
I'm on the fence, cause I see your point, but also I feel like one of FPE's strongest aspect that really stuck out(to me anyway) was it's worldbuilding?
Everyone is saying autism, but to me it looks like strong characters are a big selling point. Undertale's whole selling point is how human its characters are, Hazbin is famous for its dark humor and the characters that interact with that theme, and the same with TADC and existential dread themes
Yeah, as if people who aren’t autistic aren’t capable of being interested in media. 🙄
tadc is kinda like the matrix but with more colours than black, grey, brown green and red.
I like hazbin for Charlie, the lore, the story, the music.
Me too and personality too whit these show,i never really was into a fandom but i alaways was a fan
Most of undertales main characters have 1 to 2 personality traits or interactions tbh but there's such a variety of them and focus on their interactions in different scenarios and bs that it gets the folks thinking
I think art style and character design also plays an important role. All of the characters in Hazbin Hotel, Undertale, Amazing Digital Circus, and the others popular with this crowd have unique, recognizable, and eye catching designs, as well as a cute and cartoony art style.
So, now you got two pills: The Blue Pill makes you write your story in a plot-centric way, with the characters only serving as tools for the Storyline, and in exchange, you get a more sane fandom. The Red Pill makes you write your story in a character-centric way, with the plot onlyy serving as an excuse for the characters to interact in different situations, and in exchange, you get a weird, cringy, highkey insane fandom.
Choose wisely.
The important question in all this is: can I make money off the weird, cringy, highkey insane fans without being stalked by them?
what if i down both
Ok so how do I do the 2nd one but attain a sane fandom? Is that option in the play books?
@@SodaFrizz666Yeah actually, you have to make your characters into children only so that your characters aren’t openly sexualized on the surface internet cause of their age. People might age up the character if they really like them but atleast it won’t be your EXACT character.
Adult characters that are 18+ though…Yeah good luck.
Dirty fandoms are a blessing and a curse though since despite being very strange they also do help bring in more viewers to the original creation.
@@OmniNeon900 my little pony flashbacks..
(context: that show was compeletly meant for childern, but ofcourse 4chan took it and all adults started enjoying it more than the kids.. which resulted in.. some interesting fanart... and stuff...)
I agree with your points in the video; however, I think another large part is the shows and series you covered tend to focus on a younger audience who are more likely to latch onto a show and its fandom as part of their personality, something which an older audience is much less likely to do. It’s also easier for younger creatives to make art of a preexisting media rather than make their own from scratch which helps explain the large amount of AUs, mods (for the games), fan art, etc. In a way it works as a reference for them to improve their craft on which older audiences would have no need for or at least less need for.
I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER, I LOVE SEEING THEIR DYNAMICS SO MUCH
GOOD VIDEO
I think your caps lock is on buddy.
But I agree
I kind of think the answer is as much in the art as in the writing. Fanart has HUGE currency in modern fandom and can be a form of word-of-mouth buzz. A property that pulls people in generally has colorful, yet simplified character design that invites fanartists to come play with them, insert their headcanons/visual takes on the characters and make them their own. (Remember Homestuck? Remember how no two Dave Strider fanartists would draw the character quite the same way, yet it was still recognizably Dave?)
When I think about it, I see a ton of visual indie media pulling in this kind of fandom, but I've never, ever seen it for a book or written property.
Yeah this is definitely it. 90% of media i start to watch/read/play comes from me seeing a pretty drawn fanart of an character with a attractive design. I feel like aesthetic is a thing that attracts more younger audiences than the plot itself, hence why shows like Family Guy or American Dad don't have that much of a fanbase on fandom-focused websites like Tumble
This video is amazing! Ur editing, humour and analysis!!! Super Cool!!!! THE JUMPSCARE GOT ME NGL
Edgy stuff, dark humor, rule of cool, bright colors, swearing and shipping. Together they combine their powers to call forth Internet Fandom tm.
So an average adult animated show but without ugly designs
@@moycorbin4750 an average adult animated show didnt have rule of cool, bright colors and shipping, as they usually either old af before the internet was so big or directed to more mature audience (adult in this contest simply mean more than 8 years old)
This obv changed with rick and morty, which fast the first succesful show designed with tumblr fandom culture in mind, spawning copycat and such
Thanks god we still have decent adult animation once in a while
Remove swearing,lots of fandoms do not have that
What’s rule of cool mean though
@@kingslayerx1716 Rule of Cool is a concept about focusing in the visual aspects of the characters/scenery/sequences using elements that the audience will automatically find cool, badass, epic, classy, etc., over things like plain functionality or any logic. Cybernetics are cool, elite historical warriors are cool, 20th Century and modern military are cool, elemental powers are cool, the dystopian worlds are cool, deadly beasts are cool, fancy melee weapons are cool, martial arts and acrobatics are cool, tuxedos and other sophisticated clothes are cool, motorcycles are cool... The list just keeps going.
Btw the Rule of Cool factor was milked too much recently. Just to point an example, every important male character in Hazbin Hotel has the classy tuxedo, as you can see streamers and other internet personalities chose the same tuxedo top icon for their profile; even that cr*p "skibidi toilet" series is filled with tuxedo mannequins with some object as head. In the other hand, for the department of things that look great but with the minimum analysis you realize they don't make any sense we have: Cyberpunk2077 Mantis blades. Those things have no way to effectively carry blunt force to pierce because the blades are hold by a stick that emerges from your forearm. Proper "forearm blades" are like Miguel O'Hara's ones; or the real-life example that a katar gauntlet is.
Good Rule of Cool is supposed to be about making badass things that become cooler thanks to the writing rather than sacrificing logic to create spectacle. Genndy Tartakovsky works are the great demonstrations of Rule of Cool executed well; and the vigilante trope for most anti-heroes was the base for great characters (some falling flat like Batman overuse of plot-armour but just blame the writers).
One very good rule of writing that is that a character should still be interesting regardless of the story they are in.
I think one thing that we'd then need to figure out is to how to essentially prune a fandom to avoid nuclear meltdowns like the Voltron show. Cause a pattern with a lot of these shows that are character centric which gain a big audience of people who could be generalized as tumblr users is that they all have an innate showcase to become as toxic as any previous fandom. Part of it might be just making sure people don't latch unto the characters too parasocially in a way where they might lash out at story directions which they perceive as not right. One solution that I see some shows like Blue Eye Samurai have (haven't watched it but have gathered enough info to piece this thought together) is that the subject matter and overall direction is a lot more mature, which acts as a sort of filter. Alternatively via games, Deep Rock Galactic has done a good job growing a community by putting into their game directly ways which encourage good teamwork and sportsmanship. A more crude and third approach is to simply not let the audience impose more influence on the conversation than they should (minecraft update discussion dominated by people who don't quite understand the dev workflow and Overwatch/Fornite nerfing certain gameplay features for the sake of balance vs fun is blatant examples of this) to reorient back to shows, Voltron perhaps let their fandom get too convinced in such a big enough consensus that Klance was happening. Overall, a bigger fandom can always be more difficult to handle.
That’s just a stereotype, I don’t think Tumblr is that crazy anymore unless you’re counting the pr* shippers, but they’re mostly on Twitter because of Elon’s free speech (except for whoever he doesn’t like)
I've noticed the same thing and you wording it as helped me finally realize the correlation. The character driveness of them gives a better ability for people to latch on and an even better ability to use them as a tool for creativity. It's why fanfiction is so popular, it's easier to build on something you like than to make something entirely new. It's also why famdoms like these have excessive creative projects and comics compared to other media
HA when you mentioned 2020 I immediately knew it was Dream SMP 😭
Also one thing that all of the fandoms have in common are TONS of AUs (alternate universes). Undertale is particularly infamous regarding this (it practically carried the entire fandom) with all the different versions of Sans being shipped with each other.
As someone who was in the DSMP fandom back in its heyday, esp in the fanfic scene, there were also a crazy amount of AUs, eg Superhero/Vigilante AUs, Medieval Fantasy AUs etc etc. It's still very popular last I checked, with every fic writer I've seen basically kidnapping the DSMP characters into their own OCs. There's basically no Minecraft now it's all AUs
This is getting kinda long but Hazbin also has a lot of Role Swap AUs and fan rewrites, and TADC having so many different popular AUs on Tumblr it's hard to keep track. Anyway, that's just some stuff I've observed from these fandoms, I guess it's also due to how character focused they are it's so easy to grab them and squish them into your own custom scenarios :)
yep, this is also extremely plausible because of the established characters. The characters drove the plot, we know the characters and how it's built. DSMP is literally just a bunch of OCs fighting each other, which, you know, was aslo part of the appeal!
Established characters and how the dynamic forms around them are very interesting indeed ^^
I loved those Vigilante/Superhero & Villain DSMP AUs, I would always eat them up (I still have scars from TUMOASD)
It’s a shame that the content creators were…ehhhh… but I’ve seen so many talented people take the ideas and make them so amazing and cool! The fans r so talented
Oh my gawsh passerine was _amazing_
@@tycathedrawer F*ck you. Now I'm crying. Why would you do this...
> "A Writing Analysis"
> 6 minutes
youtube is saved finally video essays that are as long as they should be
That’s pretty much it! A lot of people my age and with my interests will latch onto characters we enjoy, whether our own or made by someone else. I’ve noticed this and now that you bring it up and explain why, it makes so much more sense! I also think the character centric focus helps make the plot not as clear sometimes, and makes it easier to be like “what’s going to happen next?” because with the plot hinging on the characters mainly, it’s open to a lot of possibilities. There’s so much to go in depth about here but I’m really glad you made this video.
DUDE!! First piece of advice I came away from feeling as if it was insanely helpful in a long time!!! Subbed-! And thank you so much-!!
this is a really interesting subject for me!! glad youtube reccomended me this, abt to watch
i really appreciate that you tackle the topic of fandom without making it seem like a big joke, it really means a lot
This was so well put-together but 6 minutes was not nearly long enough to cover it all! Love that you stuck to your tight schedule but I would love to see you following these thoughts further - you definitely seem knowledgeable and insightful on the topic and there's a lot to delve into.
Background music is good. Vibes are good. Editing is good. Content is good. Subscribed.
I think it's the formula of having:
A. Appeal to audiences of all ages with things like colorful worlds, humourous characters [Undertale, Hazbin Hotel are gonna be the main examples I use]
B. Dark/Edgy or Sophisticated themes/undertones [Undertale, Adventure Time, Hazbin Hotel] Doesn't necessarily matter how sophisticated or personally informed these themes are handled. I'd say something like Undertale or Adventure Time handles mature subjects in a much more mature and serious matter than say, Hazbin Hotel. The later feels more like it uses these merely for premise but fails to misunderstand how they would fit into the world and narrative.
C. Creative Novelty that expands on common tropes. Undertale is an RPG where you don't have to kill anyone, creating a moral dilemna. Hazbin Hotel uses the idea of Heaven and Hell and contorts it with power struggles in the real world. While unfaithful to what Heaven and Hell is actually like nor what they truly mean, it is recontextualized to fit an image. This criticizes christianity and many gripes people have with it. Many of the people in hell who are considered sinners are merely poor or misunderstood; living what some would consider atypical lifestyles or worldviews. For example: many of it's demons are homosexual. Instead of having a homophobic lense, the series instead uses hell is represent how people are shunned for not fitting into many's image of god amongst their moral high ground they oppose onto others.
D. Community Driven/Involved
These worlds were built on communities and despite gripes soem may have with creators you can't seny they give people who are socially shunned a place to express themselves. Vizzypop may be a jackass but they've built a community. Fans can give back or involve themselves with the art they have created with OC's fan-fiction etc. This is something truly inspiring fiction. Even as someone who isn't a fan of her work... I can still see that they have potential and that they've inspired countless others to stary creating too. Think about old text based LOTR games or those Star-wars lore videos. These works prosper because they give people a whole world to explore. Regardless of quality they're founded on emotional connections that mean something to people.
yes to all. basically every big fandom i can think of has most or all of these
edgy teen/young adult oriented (but kids still get into it even though they probably shouldn't) with a tumblr sexyman anti-hero/villian and tons of gay shipping
Also undertale had Homestuck fans
To add on, UNDERTALE also had EarthBound/MOTHER fans
I'd argue that Homestuck is just an earlier version of this kind of property
@@cloudinal there's no overlap. Mother fans are well adjusted people with good taste in games.
@@smtandearthboundsuck8400 LMAO
By the way, as both an SMT and MOTHER fan, you have an awesome username
@@cloudinal it was originally "SMT sucks" but I added earthbound later.
It's only SMT fans who get baited.
My honest thoughts about both series is that SMT stopped being good after Strange Journey and Mother 3 >>>Earthbound(which I still like, but I feel it's overrated)
This is actually really helpful and explains so much, thanks.
YES! This is spot-on to the niche corner of the internet I've experienced but haven't seen many people talking about. We get obsessed with the characters and their dynamics and interactions, not the plot/story!! exactly, exactly, exactly.
One new youtube-based animated indie TV show that fits this, but unfortunately hasn't gone viral just yet, is the Wingfeather Saga. At this stage is has a very small budget because it's completely crowd-funded but I SO want more people to find it and enjoy it!
bro talking about fandoms and doesn't even mention homestuck
would have been a perfect example to further the point too. Based on how it got primarily popular because at least one of the 12 troll characters are relatable to a given person and and those characters could easily be takin out of the context of the plot. Also it provided a perfect framework for people to make their own OCs or trollsonas.
Homestuck really is the perfect example of hoe to create a fandom (and it's so crazy cause the author andrew hussy neither expected that or wanted it which caused a lotta drama later on)
no like fr
Great, now i can make my own series and become a trillionare
Wow, I sure do hope my series was accidentally made more character focused as the result of the romance **quietly dumps this into the outline**
Romance by itself will not draw a large audience as Hollywood has been forcing romantic subplots in films since forever.
@@ringinn7880 fair, but that’s not the only thing. It’s just a piece of the puzzle that makes a character focus easier to pull off.
Extremely good analysis and definitely brought me to light on how these fandoms formed. Fantastic video.
Your definitely right about the quirky cast syndrome.
I think most people in general are attracted to characters more than the plot itself, however. It's what separates a fable or tale from a story imo. Characters are how we ourselves experience the story, whether the characters are people or things.
In these particual pieces of media, I think there's alot of "subversion of the genre" going on that attracts many certain people.
Hasbin is the "Nickelodeon cartoon but if it had adult and crude humor"
Digital Circus is kids show but is seemingly high jacked by a sinister plot direction.
Undertale is at first glance a generic low budge game maker rpg but secretly is a self-aware paradoy of rpg tropes spearheaded the movmenet of "self aware rpgs" we would see come soon after.
This subversion of genres combined with the fact each of these IPS came from independent artists that all obtained a following years prior to their success, I think we can start to see some patterns here outside of just age group/edge and agst and so on.
This video bouta blow up. Also the laughs per minute are through the roof. I love all the little edits. Subscribed. Keep it up.
I’ve always noticed it’s just: Make something look like a kids happy thing, then add a creepy “surprising” revelation to the overall thing, that’s it.
So basically the Poppy playtime/Garten of Banban strategy
this was such a good video, i got genuinely surprised when it only had 54 likes :). keep uploading your videos are great!
this is exactly what i've been looking for thank you
It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on how more lore and plot centric stories gain massive popularity. There are stories, that while popular with a different crowd, still enjoy as much attention as the indie shows you mentioned here. Some examples I can think of are Bionicle, Star Wars, Half Life, and the new Dune films which a lot of people like because of the focus on the elaborate worlds the stories are set within. On an indie scale, FNAF/mascot horror and Analogue horror could count since even though some have characters, they are more focused on lore to build atmosphere, and their communities do have some overlap with Undertale and Digital Circus'.
Then, on the completely different side of the spectrum, you have fanbases that still add a bunch of character drama to a piece of media that don't have that much. The strongest example of this I can think of is Ultrakill, which is an indie FPS that despite being plot-centric, with only one major character, has an improbably thirsty fandom that has assigned a sex to every in-game enemy.
I was legitimately flabbergasted when you said this was your first video at the end
THIS IS WHY I GOT SO OBSESSED WITH MY HERO ACADEMIA! The plot was nice and all, but each and every character had their own quirks, worldbuilding that allows for a ton of OCs. The focus on the characters in particular is what had my heart for a very long time with that show.
But it sucks balls, like the writing is worse than what the average 12 year old one AO3 spawns into the world.
@@mittag983 Which is literally exactly why it appealed to me. Because the writing is ass, it basically encourages the audience to make up their own plot points, characters, headcanons, etc. I'm not gonna sit here and say that MHA is the best anime ever, because it's not. Far from it. But i'll still always love it just due to all of the characters in the story, and due to all of the OCs I created out of the story.
@@Captain_Ravioli7321 Oh, damn! You're actually right. I did the same thing with RWBY. I was so cringe as a kid, I built my self Insert a harem with RWBY characters and called it a day. 💀 It's sad to say, but even now this Mushoku Tensei copy I wrote holds more weight than the actual show. By the way all MHA designs are wasted potential. The characters look better than the story.
@@mittag983 Speaking of the characters, I will never forgive Horikoshi for butchering Momo's character. She literally could've been one of the most OP characters but horikoshi was like "nah shes fanservice LMFAO"
@@Captain_Ravioli7321 Horikoshi's writing is like beginner writing. So sad he came up with a good concept. He literally ruined it. Btw the Todoroki Family arc is cringe and overwritten.
While I think the character driven show angle is correct, I also think that having worldbuilding for an audience to sink their teeth into is also important. I mean look at homestuck, a very famous tumblr fandom that revolves around a comic that is so jam packed with symbolism and lore and whatnot that it required multiple breaks within the story for the author to just explain what is happening so far. Star Trek is also a good example, as that was one of the original fandoms. I feel like this video goes into recent fandoms, and the comments are claiming connections that simply only work for this small selection. I mean Supernatural, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who are the epitome of tumblr fandom, and none of them share nearly any of the features of the new fandoms. I think it's a combination of character driven along with having enough lore to expand upon them. Because there are plenty of character focused dramas and shows that are very popular, but not fandom popular. But also, every show will have its own fandom, because fandom really just means a group of people who are fans of something.
This definitely explains why it feels like a lot of these properties end up having fandoms comprised of the same people, and how they move from one IP to the next as each phases in and out of popularity.
simple, but creative, and child friendly.
i don't see any cosplayers of any one of Dostoyevsky's characters anywhere because of this.
there are some cosplayers of rodion raskolnikov in russian tiktok tho
I don’t really see people mentioning it in the comments here but Hetalia. It was my first real internet fandom I joined and it was entirely character driven as there’s no real plot (becides *historic events*) and so people could take the characters and run with them and it was a huge success cause of that (and erm…. Other, less pure reasons). What still amazes me is that the fandom even created a second set of characters based off the originals and… all agreed on their names and personalities (cause the originals weren’t edgy enough).
HOLY SHIT, as a writer this is something I've been searching for YEARS! I'm going to go close UA-cam and finally work on that game I've been putting off for a long time
What's the game about?
What are you making?
Good luck with your game!
FINALY I BEEN FINALY FOUND A Video hased of what i needed thank you so much you people inspire me :)
also pls pls make a another video on this thats longer
0:15 crazy amount of sans XD
Really interesting analysis and also some nice writing tips!
i got an actual shiver when the dsmp was mentioned..... dude i was there.. i was in the trenches.
5:07 I love this music piece it's Winter by Antonio Vivaldi
It's a mix of things for sure. It's teens-young adults wanting some edginess, representation, relatability and maybe a little nostalgia. Also autism. I'm autistic, am a fan of many things including Amazing Digital Circus and Helluva Boss. ADC reminds me of some old 3D game from the 90s in the presentation of the world, the characters look like other characters from older media (one looking like Raggedy Anne). Helluva Boss and Viv's art style in general reminds me of Tim Burton's sketches-it's very very Hot Topic and Tumblr had a baby and raised it on Rocky Horror Picture Show and other musicals. Teens and Y adults are looking at these shows and thinking 'This reminds me of that one thing I really liked as a kid, I'll try it out.' or 'I love musicals and there are several LGBTQ characters here, which as an LGBTQ person myself like to see, along with a Tim Burton vibe, I'll watch this!'
Plus the characters are cute/ sexy, easily marketable and at a certain point the story evolves more as the characters relationship changes. E.G.-Blitz and Stolas from Helluva starts as transactional sex to extremely complicated as they start realising they have actual deeper feelings for each other, one more in denial than the other (Blitz)
I've seen another great video on Hazbin's success-more focused on the pilot and how it got so big views, explaining that it has several elements and themes that pulls in a lot of fans from multiple areas and walks of life, from LGBTQ, to musical fans, furries, nerds, Tumblr teens and neurodivergent people. So if there is a group of friends, one's into musicals but the rest aren't or aren't as much and they notice the LGBTQ rep they can go to the LGBTQ friend and say "Hazbin has your representation in it, Helluva Boss too!" then that friend goes to the furry friend and says "lol there's furries in Helluva, check it out!" the furry goes to the autistic friend and says "There's a theory that the gay owl guy in this show has autism, also the songs are pretty cool!" etc etc
What also really helps is spreading it around on social media and what better place to stick such a Tumblr looking thing than Tumblr? Don't be shy with your work, go out and spread your show around, do little 'behind the scenes' stuff, tease some art- don't spoil any major story plots/ character changes, just show like 'Here's an older drawing of this character' or 'This is a bigger version of what the city looks like' 'Here's some random doodles of these characters'
One key thing I'd say is relatability. Think of that one show you really like and how many times you've been watching a character in it going through a bad time and thinking 'Oh my God, I can so relate to this! Poor guy!' or how many times you see a scene from some big show with the caption 'Relatable'. There's a reason why it resonates.
🗿👍🏻
awesome essay! this is a theory I've had for a while but you managed to flesh it out better than I ever did.
Noted
noted
noted
Thanks, now.
The only things left is creating it and show to the right audience.
oh my gosh this is amazing and honestly makes a lot of sense!!! I've been in several fandoms over the years and you nailed it!!!
Characters with easy to understand personalities that make things like headcanons or funny fanart/memes easy to create & share. Easily shipable characters where the big ships immediately become apparent within the fandom so that it’s easy to join whatever side of the “ship war” you want. & spice it all up with some slapped together “lore” that’ll string the fandom along until the project either gets canceled or has a lackluster ending that leaves no one satisfied. Not hating on any of these fandoms, I’m in most of them, it’s just easy to recognize the patterns
Make more like this please!
Gotta cook up something unique that makes them feel like they’re part of something special and part of a secret group and bigger than themself.
This helped in some ways to understand what will bring people in but at the same time I think it's most important to make it for you. Make what you want to see in the world look at the things that inspire you. As a lot of these popular media were all inspired by something before that Undertale was inspired by games like EarthBound and Touhou, Digital Circus was inspired by Popee the Performer and 90's PC games and Hazbin Hotel was inspired by Invader Zim and Musicals.
So I do the same and find things that inspires me the most. Sometimes it's even stuff from real life, people I met or even fears that I had as a child and turned them into a character to help kinda cope with that fear in a more creative way.
The reason why the Geiger counter is going off is because he had to go on tumblr for research.
My biggest dream is to create my own indie cartoon one day, and its ridiculous how many time I'm spending on just IMAGINING how amazing it would be if people would be creating edits, fanarts, kin playlists, theories, comics etc, instead of spending my time on actually creating the show itself :')
underrated as hell, this is the quality of a video that has 10k views
Y'know, browsing the tip of the commenting iceberg, I realize that whole character centricity thing is also what made (of all forsaken things) FNAF: Security Breach so strange. Characters always existed within FNAF, but the only ones you'd really see would be robotic, and (except in SL) they never really spoke directly to your face, and if they did it would be very brief. Security Breach put characters right up there, and gave each animatronic certain vices, sometimes virtues, that made them all veeeery interesting. Subtract that metric ton of glitches, and FNAF's quite perturbed fanbase, and it's a recipe for a Tumblr comfort game honestly.
also a looming mystery or two
undertale's got gaster and whether the narrator is chara or frisk
TADC's got glitches and the history of the circus
hazbin hotel's got it's own things
however this is less important as it acts more so as a path for people to fall in love with the show/characters (and also because these mysteries do eventually get solved)
Chara isn't a big mystery if you have any sense of media literacy whatsoever.
@@Zordyn no i mean is she the narrator or is it frisk
that mystery (sorry for not specifying)
@@enderguardian7443 oh. yea I'll admit her backstory and actual lore is confusing.
@@ZordynMEDIA LITERACY
LOL.
Chara and Gaster are intentionally left mysterious, Gaster moreso. You learn some of Charas background, but it's not like you know them. There isn't anything definitive you can say about exactly who they are, and that's the actual point. Mysteries that do not actually ever get solved are more intriguing than ones with a clear conclusion.
@@amentco8445 You're right about Gaster but Chara is there to represent the player.
Basically the entire premise of The Amazing World of Gumball
absolutely shocked this is so underrated you earned a new sub!
Thank you! This is something I’ve been wondering for a while, and seeing if there is anyway, I could incorporate this into my own writing….
“How to unintentionally spawn a massive horrible fandom” I fixed the title
could never be fromsoft games
There’s nothing unintentional about it, let me fix:
“How to intentionally spawn a massive horrible fandom”.
Which hey! Spawning fandoms of variable horribleness is something that many people might intentionally do :0
@@utopesToby Fox definitely wasn’t…
@Scroom0000 dark souls has a cesspit fandom, it's just a different kind of toxic
@@utopes toby fox did not, dont point fingers because of assumptions that you have made up, its not a good habit
So basically we should create characters that can be played by the fandom like action figures, got it.
This is so helpful actually I understand now. Fascinating!
As somebody who was a Homestuck back in the day....yes. Character centric media hits the SPOT BRO. A lot of media in this video I'm either a fan of or am familiar with the source material.
And as a writer, who's working on a book and already trying to work out how to make it into an animation, I feel like it'll be perfect for this specific audience, and I'm so so excited for it to come to fruition. There's something about characters acting human and supporting each other that just breaks the heart and leaves us yearning for more
Yeah, I think this makes a lot of sense, especially since it applies to most other well known "Tumblr" fandoms like Steven Universe or Homestuck. However, while it's not universal, I think large fandoms also love to glom onto complex lore or worldbuilding systems as a bonus! It makes it easier to make self-inserts or OCs and gives people things to theorycraft, speculate, or write about during dry periods.
1:21 WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME