That Fan With The Thoughts

I got a lovely submission from Mosu today, and I just had to share. :3

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(Pardon me for the text dump, it came to me holding a styrofoam cup of useless foreign currency and bottle caps. -Mosu)

No,  I will not pardon you.  Have you seen the length of some of my posts? Believe me, there’s nothing to apologize for. Therefore, no reason for me to excuse you. ;)

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“I know way too much about these people’s lives…Eh, oh well!”

…In some way, shape, or form, I am a creep. 

The magnitude of my creepiness can be estimated as whatever, by whomever. Make your own bets. All I’m saying is that I’m not going to deny it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been that way for a damn while. Before I got into TGWTG, even. My creepitude was measured by different means by different people. When I was in second grade, it was because I liked advancing on boys first. When I was homeschooled, it was because I had already been and was becoming more to social ability as Matt Smith is to his limbs. (I’m still in recovery from that.)

And now I probably get seen that way because I display myself as really into Luke Mochrie.

I adore Film Conscience. I watch his old Youtube videos every once in a while. I keep up with his mom Deb’s blog The Middle Ages. I started watching Whose Line because I wanted to see what the fuss over Colin was about. (For the record, my gratefulness for those last two things extend beyond Luke fangirling.) I ran (for a little bit) Ask Film Conscience. I eagerly wait for his new videos and poke fun at his schedule slips in between.

Once in a while I display some knowledge of his personal life. Skeleton whereabouts and spare childhood. Montreal, “Abley”, summer camp. And yeah, if you’re the kind of fan who gets squirmy at that sort of thing, go ahead, write your score and trumpet my stanliness. I’ll be waiting with a tape recorder. (I’m no Rumor Elf, though; I can’t exactly write the gospel of Luke.)

Just because I know this stuff doesn’t mean I want to hurt anyone with it, though. It’s not stupid or blackmail-worthy to me at all. I don’t think it’s bad that Luke was into ballet when he was wee, or that modern art was really important in shaping his life. I think it’s fucking awesome. I wish I had the will to write tons of fanfic, because knowing all this makes him a way more interesting person, for writing especially. (I tend to push those boundaries of his life, even if only a little bit, in my art of him instead.) If I’d just gone by Suburban Knights or something like that, I’d probably have assume he was just some moderately rich, fresh-faced pretty boy. 

Now, I’m the other admin for TGWTGsecrets. If you’re reading this, you probably know that. I see and process a lot of secrets talking about “the creepers”. Nosy buggers probing right down to the bone, scavengers of bad and mediocre memories and salt to long-healed wounds. They know too much and don’t give a damn who gets hurt when they puke it back up in some unrelated case. Often overlapping with rumor mongers, another tidy target for people.

Okay, so maybe I don’t know many bad things about Luke, I’ll give you that. He’s not a drama magnet by any stretch of the imagination. But I do know a hell of a lot, and from an outsider’s standpoint it’s probably too damn much. Reading Middle Ages the way I do could probably be counted as “digging deep”, although you can just google the damn thing or find a link to it on Colin’s Facebook fanpage like I did. And if you’re a particular tightass, drawing a dude in the poses of several cheesecakey Vocaloid images for kicks could be counted as “malicious”.

But do those things still make me a “creeper”?

—

You? A creeper? Mosu, I don’t think so. You’re enveloped in fandom, and that ain’t a crime.  Imagine if Luke were a fictional character from a book, game, or television show.  Would knowing details of his, and his family’s, back story be considered out of the ordinary? Nope.  

It feels creepy, I know.  Because … where TGWTG people are concerned, they blur the line between real life people and fictional characters.  It’s hard for my fanbrain to decide how to react, because I don’t know about you… but I treat fictional fandoms and RL fandoms VERY differently.  

I’ll give you an example so you can see what I’m talking about.

Let’s take two bands, one fictional and one non-fictional.  I have been VERY involved in the fan culture surrounding both bands, but the type of involvement differs. 

Band: Dethklok (fictional)
Fan-fiction?: Yes
Fan-art?: Yes
Roleplayed the members?: Yes
Paid obscene prices for merchandise?: Yes
Discuss plot theory/meaning of lyrics in depth?: Yes

Band: The Mars Volta (non-fictional)
Fan-fiction?: No
Fan-art?: No
Roleplayed the members?: No
Paid obscene prices for merchandise?: Yes
Discuss plot theory/meaning of lyrics in depth: Yes

I love both bands equally, but from a cursory glance you might think I like Dethklok more. That isn’t the case!  I just respond to The Mars Volta differently.

With TGWTG peeps, it’s sometimes hard to draw a definitive line between the fictional and the non-fictional.  So when you’re finding out what are really personal details about someone’s life, it might feel a bit icky. It does for me, sometimes.  

Mosu, what you’ve described there is what I’d call a healthy expression of fandom. You seek information about Luke because you have a genuine love and appreciation for his work, and the more you find out about him as a person… the more you want to know.  That isn’t a negative thing.

Now, what would be an unhealthy expression of fandom?

Well, developing an unhealthy attachment would be a good start.  Having a crush on someone doesn’t count.  What I mean is … you sit awake nights pining for their presence for you are totally in love with them, you do nothing but stalk their Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or what have you, obsessively watch and re-watch videos — without downloading them, of course. You’re overly concerned about their ad revenue — and find yourself forgoing other tasks in order to keep yourself immersed in them…

Yeah. That’s when it becomes creepy.

I don’t think you’re quite there, Mosu.  I wouldn’t stick myself with a label like ‘creep’, because you’re toally better than that.  What you described there is fandom in its purest form.  You’re not a creep, you’re a fandom nerd. And that’s a frigging AWESOME thing to be!

Also, RumorElf? I get the impression that all they want is the information. All of it. Positive. Negative. Neutral.  Truth be told, we need bookkeepers like this in fandom.  When past mistakes and missteps are forgotten, it paves the way for future fuck ups.  As grim (and unpopular) a task as it may be, it is a necessary one. Elf? I tip my hat to you for the work you do.  

I believe Lindsay took issue with some rather graphic guro-style fanart (the picture in question shows her armless and disemboweled).  It’s said she considered quitting her job as the Chick, which is partly connected to the long period where she did not produce any videos with the site.  However, she was also busy with school at the time, so between homework and creepy guro fans, she wanted little to do with the internet for a bit.

tgwtgsecrets:

“That secret that said “maybe Lindsay told [Oancitizen] a bad picture of the fandom” made me feel sick to my stomach. What did she say about us? She’s the whole reason I found out about TGWTG.com in the first place, she’s funny and cool and I really admire her. The idea that she might think my friends and I are creepy or mean or something is freaking me out. “

Phew. Here I am at part three.  Well, this is actually the FOURTH part if you want to be highly technical and count the prologue.  As you can see, it’s entirely too easy for me to yammer on about Spoony and his videos.  The guy gives me a lot to think about, and as a result I find that I’m compelled to talk about it.  

Rants wrote some really beautiful things in this post about Spoony, and I found a lot of what he said mirrored my own sentiments toward Spoony.  I wouldn’t say I have a crush on him, but out of all the reviewers, he’s the guy I want to sit down and have a beer with the most.  But did my heart break just a little during the Breaking Dawn VLOG? You bet it did.

One of the things that’s gotten me through some tough emotional times is laughter. That’s always key.  As long as you’re laughing, you’re not dead yet.  Another thing that helped was finding a project to keep myself occupied.  But … both of those things combined pale in comparison to the healing that I did with friends.  

And Spoony could have ALL OF THE FRIENDS if he wanted, he’s just kinda closed himself off from interacting with his fans beyond occasionally acknowledging them when they start to bark too loud.

Which I TOTALLY get, by the way.  Spoony’s hardest core fans come with a disturbing level of obsession that is only topped in intensity by something I like to call their White Knight Syndrome.  They will defend Spoony’s honor whether it needs defending or not.  And I don’t really blame them either.  Given their average age and apparent lack of social grace, getting in a huff about someone that has not given respect to Fearless Leader is damn important to them.

Think about that from Spoony’s perspective.  There’s a wall of people around him, clamoring for attention in one way or another.  It would be pretty hard to distinguish someone as a “friend” through all of that noise.  And then there’s the constant paranoia … “Will he/she repeat what I say in private somewhere? Do they like me or my fame? What are their ulterior motives?”

So he ends up building his own wall around himself. There’s just not one barrier, there’s two.  Spoony’s rambling rants about Sasquatch Hunters on Twitter or constant swinging of the almighty banhammer makes total sense in context … if you stop and think about it for a moment.

Spoony is incredibly smart. A genius even. Sometimes, being smart means that you can also be incredibly stupid.  Sometimes underachieving is much more satisfying than living up to your potential.  I can’t say why.

Take me, for example.  By the time I graduated high school I was fluent in three languages, had encyclopedic knowledge of ancient history and had already won several awards for my writing prowess.  You’d think I’d have a bright future, universities banging down my door, an endless road of possibilities open to me.

Nope!

When I accepted my diploma on commencement day, I was leaving high school with a solid 1.7 GPA. That translates to a D average.  About a 67% performance rate, there.  Not only that, I had refused to take the SATs or even the ACTs… because I didn’t fucking feel like it.  The only honors-level marks I ever achieved were in my language and art classes.  If I had put even the slightest amount of effort into my schoolwork, I would have done better.

You know what’s worse than that? I didn’t fucking learn. Right after high school, I enrolled in community college for a few semesters. I didn’t fair much better. I just simply didn’t care about what was expected of me, and I flunked out fairly quickly.

BECAUSE I AM A MORON.

It doesn’t matter how well I write, how many languages I speak, or whatever else. I was an idiot.

Years later, I decided to try college again. They mercifully forgave my earlier attempt and… this time, things went better.  I had some hiccups, but generally, I’ve maintained a B average. And I’ve worked pretty hard for it, too.  I wanna be there. And I know I have to jump through whatever hoops are set for me. Because what I learn isn’t the entire point of the experience… it’s almost as much about what I do.

My point is: I fucked up. And being able to admit that hasn’t always been easy.  It’s really hard to own up to something stupid you’ve done when your whole life people have always told you how smart you are.  There’s definite pressure, there. But you know what’s worse? When people point out how stupid you’ve been. You already know, and the last thing you wanna do is hear about it.

Does that mean I’m crazy to shoot myself in the foot like that? … Well, maybe a little bit.  I’m the first one to admit I’m batshit nuts. But! Does that make me insane?

No.

And shut up. There is a difference.

So when Spoony acts oddly by acting out? I can kinda understand where it’s coming from.  At least, I can see it as a reasonable result of all of the contributing factors I’m aware of.  For all I know, there could be things going on that I don’t even know about which would make things make even MORE sense.  

Being the target of trolls can’t be much fun, either.  While trolls are omni-present in the TGWTG scene, they are especially vicious with Spoony.  Because he reacts to them.  If he’d ignore them, or even let them prance about in their U Mad Bro underwear, he’d probably see a huge dropoff in their numbers.

Take the Amazing Atheist/Distressed Watcher/TJ.  A few months ago, a pretty kinky sex tape of his leaked onto the internet… and since he was already a favorite troll target, he was inundated with teasing and torment.  

How he handled this is a shining example that each and every one of us can learn from.

He made a video addressing the issue that basically said “So, you saw my sexy video. So what. If you hadn’t figured out that I was a kinky guy from my videos, then I don’t know what to say.  Go ahead and taunt me. I’m not ashamed to be a sexual being.”

And you know what? The taunts pretty much died out. Every now and then someone’ll bring it up, but it’s generally ignored as outright trolling or people that weren’t smart enough to think of anything better.  

You gotta admire the balls on that guy. Figuratively. And I suppose literally, if that’s what you’re in to.  The internet saw his dick and he does not give a single fuck.  He just … went on doing what he does.

But, as I’ve said before, not everyone can just handle a “situation” like that. But that’s something to aspire to, isn’t it? I’d feel like I could conquer the world if I could bounce back from something like that.  It might behoove Spoony to take a leaf out of his book and just stop fucking caring what the haters say. Just ignore them. Eventually they’ll move on to more responsive targets.

Spoony has already given us some great stuff in the year 2012, and evne he says that he feels like he’s starting to bounce back.  Perhaps this is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we’ll soon have our old Spoony back.  His Ultima 8 and FFX-2 finale are (I can not state this enough) some of his best work.

Also, Diatron 5! Because Spoony screaming in abject terror is ALWAYS hilarious. Plus, Sage and Spoony really work well together.

So what have we learned today?

Well, we’ve learned that I can write a lot about Spoony.  It’s kinda complicated being one of his fans, but never has it not been worth it.  Noah, if you ever read this, your work has meant a lot to me.  You are amazing talented, funny and capable of fantastic things.  And don’t ever forget … that even if you give up on yourself, we won’t ever give up on you.  

I could watch Spoony’s Counter Monkey videos ALL. DAY.

They bring back so many pleasant memories of many of my teenage hours whittled away in one friend’s basement or another as we declared our devotion to dark gods and left all that opposed us in bloody pieces.

We weren’t like the rest of the losers at our school, smoking pot and listening to Bush (or Bush X, as they were known in Canada due to a copyright issue).  No. We had purpose to our lives.  

Fuck, we lead double lives! We did twice as much living as those fucking loser cool kids.  Stupid cool kids… thinking they’re so cool… with their No Fear shirts… and their overrated mid 90s radio rock… those stupid assholes probably couldn’t even tell the difference between an orc and a goblin.  

Idiots.

Dungeons & Dragons made the transition from junior high school to high school bearable.  I was an awkward teen, and the fact that I was a super-ultra-mega-geek didn’t help very much.  I was often the target of ridicule … but despite my little rant about those ‘fucking loser cool kids’, I didn’t really care all that much.  I had more important things to think about, campaigns to plot, characters to design, Monster Manuals to research and most importantly of all — dice to roll.

Oh, the dice I did roll!

I had an amazing set that has sadly been lost during the course of several cross-continental moves.  They were a glorious site to behold, a beautiful purple and black marbled pattern with glow-in-the-dark numbers.  I miss those dice…

Because, really, the last time I saw them was the last time I played D&D.  More than ten years ago now.  I miss it terribly.

I’ve tried to get a game going a couple of times, but my efforts never got beyond the basic planning stages.  People would drop out, or not take things seriously, and I was left on my own.  My current circle of friends is not interested in tabletop gaming at all, which is a shame! I know we’d have a great time with D&D. The kind of batshit campaigns we’d run would be the stuff of legend.

But, alas, that’s not a nerd feather they want in their cap.  So, I’m left with my own memories of my favorite characters and their storylines, and how caring about them made it easy not to care about the bullshit my peers gave me at school.

Because… shit, if I can take on Orcus and survive? I’m sure as hell not going to give a single FUCK about what someone thinks about my wardrobe (Logo T’s and track pants, baby. Can’t go wrong.)

I wish I could share tales of my past adventures with Spoony. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’d be a proper way to thank him for sharing his with us.  

I’m just another Counter Monkey, after all.

I would like to call upon my fellow tumblrs to promote the everloving shit out of this.

We can make a difference.

The first thing I ever saw of Spoony’s was his Final Fantasy VIII review.  A friend sent me a link to the review on YouTube with a message that said “Haha this guy hates this game more than you do!”

“IMPOSSIBLE!” I cried!

I try not to spend a lot of time focusing on hate. Hate doesn’t really do anyone a lot of good. But in the case of Final Fantasy VIII, I can’t fucking help myself.  I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE Final Fantasy VIII.  I rage-quit that game before I even got to the halfway point and didn’t pick it up again until five years later … and I used a GameShark to rig the game in my favor so I didn’t have to do any work. I just wanted to finish it, because it always bugged me that I never got around to finishing the game.  Not that it made much difference. Completing the game just succeeded in pissing me off even MORE.  I already knew what happened, I’d read a few plot synopsis and had a friend videotape all the FMV scenes for me after I quit, but when I actually witnessed the plot unfold as it’s naturally presented in the game it just… somehow made it all worse.

So, Spoony’s review was good medicine to me.  Watching him tear that game the asshole it deserves was downright cathartic. This guy, whoever he was, knew what the fuck was talking about.

Then came the moment in part of the review where he was reviewing Final Fantasy VII during a “time distortion”. He snarkily mentions hearing grown men admit to crying like a bitch over the death of Aeris.  I chuckle, because as cold as it sounds… Aeries’ death didn’t really effect me.

But then…

He cut to himself, as he was in 1994, playing ‘Final Fantasy VI’. He’s shedding tears over some silly 16-bit sprites and some awful faux-voice synth.

…My heart skipped a beat.

The Opera.

That same scene had brought me to tears when I played the game.  It was … simplistic, yes, but somehow it struck an emotional chord with me.  A chord that was absent from most of the titles that came after VI.  

Even today, though I haven’t picked the game up in years, I remember every word that Celes “sang” in that Opera.

So, yeah. This made me cry like a little bitch. Yet the death of a character I was supposed to care about provoked no reaction from me at all. 

Final Fantasy VI is probably my all time favorite game.  It had some of the best music, the best characters, the best battle system, and … hands down… the best villain. Sorry Sephiroth fans, Kefka is far superior. Kefka’s final boss track of “Dancing Mad” is easily the finest piece of video game music ever composed, in it’s complexity musically, it’s direct connection to the imagery in the boss fight itself, and the character statement that it was designed to make.  Nothing else has even come close.  Not even ‘One Winged Angel’ — which is good! Just not ‘Dancing Mad’ good.  

I digress. Ahem.

A few years went by, and I rediscovered Spoony when I was introduced to TGWTG. I caught up on all the material I had missed in the meantime, but was shocked when he turned his Snark Canons on another one of my favorite games…

Final Fantasy X.

I cringed at the thought. I really, truly, madly, deeply loved Final Fantasy X.

I gave the reviews a fair chance, and I had to give it to Spoony… he did point out a lot of the games flaws that I never gave much thought to.  Ironically, though, some of the things he didn’t like about the game were things that I actually enjoyed.

For instance, I actually liked that the protagonist was a cocky, whiny, overconfident little snot.  He was imperfect, and for me he was easier to identify with than a stoic knight or a girl with amnesia. I liked how Yuna was a doormat. Totally resigned to her fate, a mere puppet of the system she was in. Yet, she overcame that. Her arc was breaking free of that mold.  I even enjoyed Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri.  But even though I liked the main characters, I always wanted to know more about Jecht, Braska and Auron.  I found Auron and Jecht to be some of the most fascinating characters in the game… but we spend the least time with them.  Braska barely has any character at all beyond his self-sacrifice for the greater good.  The tidbits the game feeds us are unsatisfactory, and when all was said and done… it might’ve been a stronger game had it been about the three of them.  Still, I enjoyed X’s story.  And, I was genuinely saddened by the ending.  I thought it was pretty bold of the game to take that risk — building up a love story and not granting the audience an entirely happy ending (which was promptly undone by X-2… but we’re getting there). 

While I do love Final Fantasy X, I can easily understand how a fan of the older games (or old-school RPGs in general) would be completely turned off by it.  And even though Spoony totally hated the game, he did have to admit that Jecht and Auron are made of badass.  It wasn’t a big deal, I’m not the kind of person who takes offense when someone criticizes something I like.  I was just worried he was going to make me feel like a complete idiot for liking the game … and while he did kinda do that, it wasn’t as harsh as I thought it was gonna be.

Then, he revealed he was to review FFX-2… and the fires of burning hatred rekindled in my belly.

While I loved FFX…. Final Fantasy X-2 was the worst thing to happen to the series since…any of the games that have come out since then.  I played it when it came out, and I even wanted to like it a little … it was definitely different, but it felt so … 

“NOT Final Fantasy.”

Exactly.

I also really hated how they felt compelled to undo the sullen ending of FFX by giving you a way out. “Here you are! The fairy-tale ending you REALLY wanted!”

Fuck you, Square-Enix. You tarnished a beautiful tragedy by turning it into a gaudy whore.

It’s pretty moot to talk about it at this point, but the ending to the FFX-2 video? Fantastic. And not even for creepy fangirl fetish reasons.  The effort he put into it, the costumes, and … damn, he even made an intimidating Sephiroth — someone who has lost his intimidation factor for me by being the subject of an INSANE amount of gay porn that went out of it’s way to feminize him to the nth degree.  

I anticipate the Final Fantasy XIII review… although I didn’t play the game myself, I watched a friend play through it.  I could barely recognize it as Final Fantasy any more, and the characters made me want to punch things.  I fear that the kind of Final Fantasy I know and loved is truly dead, and that we won’t ever see something positive out of the series again. Especially with the assload of FFXIII sequels coming out.  They’ve thrown all of their effort into exactly the wrong things, and they will suffer no consequences because no matter WHAT they put out they’ll make shit ton of money.

Sigh.

Back to Spoony.

His Final Fantasy reviews really made me think about why I liked some games and not others, and this is a good thing.  Instead of just saying “Final Fantasy VIII sucks!” I can say “Final Fantasy VIII sucks because the focus was more on graphics and busywork than it was the actual story, which would have been fine if it weren’t a story-driven game.  Which begs the question… if something is pretty but I don’t care about it, is it really pretty at all?”

Being able to explain your position is important.  To paraphrase a famous quote: “If you can’t explain why you hate it, you don’t hate it.”

Spoony’s Final Fantasy reviews are prime examples of his finest work.  Every single frame of those videos is brilliant, because he clearly put his heart and soul into making them.  His rage is his passion, and that is why he’s so supremely entertaining.

I’ve been wanting to write this post for days, but I haven’t had any idea how to approach it.  Mostly, because I couldn’t figure out how to write it without breaking my own ground rules.  

There are a few things I’ve decided not to write about for a myriad of reasons.  Firstly, I don’t want to write anything intensely personal about a reviewer.  Not to say that I’m tiptoeing on eggshells, here, but I am just not prepared to deal with the negativity and drama of other people’s personal lives.  I have enough of that in my own life to waste my time speculating about the scarred psyches and questionable conduct of people I will likely never meet. I want to focus on positive things, and since there are plenty of positive things to say it shouldn’t be an issue.

Secondly, I don’t want to write anything that would be considered disrespectful to a reviewer.  If I talk about something I don’t like, it will be regarding a person’s work rather than something they’ve said/done outside of their show.  

The thing is … in order to talk about Spoony at all … I have to do both of those things. 

And the worst part is? I feel like he’s forced me to do it.

I could easily write a long-winded post filled with nothing but simpering praises, but that would ruin any shred of credibility that I have.  I would be lumped in with the mindless Spoony fangirls and not taken at all seriously. However, I know that he and a good portion of his fanbase react with extreme hostility if anything remotely critical is uttered about him.  I don’t want to be pegged as a Spoony Hater either. Because I’m not.

So how to do this…

Hm.

Okay. I think I’ve got it.

Time for another lesson that they didn’t teach you in school.

Like sociopaths, love can fuck your life up pretty badly.  Unlike sociopaths, love is probably the best thing you’ll ever do.  Sometimes, you do stupid things for love. Out of the best intentions, yes, but not always with the best results.  It’s a doubled-edged sword.  Anything that has the potential to be so wonderful has the potential to be the exact opposite.  If you’ve ever had your heart broken? You know what I’m talking about.  

In short: love is a bitch.  And a broken heart should be carte blanche to mope and to be a dick to anyone and anything you feel like it until you FUCKING FEEL BETTER because god DAMMIT … someone has to pay for the way your ex has made you feel.   

I don’t blame Spoony for his lack of production or his supposed bad behavior after his very public break-up last year.  The fact that it was public probably made it a whole other level of awful that you or I could NOT even comprehend.  Could you imagine hundreds if not thousands of people talking about your private life? That’d be like swimming in a pool filled with salt and razor blades.  

As for any incidents that came before that? I was personally unaware of them, I didn’t visit the forums much for previously mentioned reasons, but my take on them is such: when a woman is involved, no-one is blameless.

Before you cry sexist, hear me out. What I mean is… sometimes, love makes you stupid. Like a fox.  See the case of The World v. Yoko Ono for further elaboration.  

I’m not really saying anything against Yoko Ono either, I’m just citing that as an example of love turning an otherwise smart, witty, snarky sonofagun into … well, you heard the tracks he let her put on ‘Double Fantasy’, right? If you just took out everything she was involved in, that album would’ve been solid.  I’m going off topic. The point is, John did it for love. You’ve GOTTA give him that.

And before I drift even further off topic, that’s all I’m going to say about that.

So. Now that I have this big, uncomfortable block of text out of the way, let’s talk about why Spoony is great, and what’s kept me coming back for more. 

As it turns out, I have more to say about this than can be contained in a single post. I will break it into three parts, to be posted as I write them. 

Part 1 - Dancing Mad - Final Fantasy Ruined My Brain

Part 2 - The Proverbial Counter Monkey

Part 3 - Insane, Yes? Insano!

I have, just now, completed watching the first Diamanda Hagan video I have ever seen.

It will not be my last. Tonight. Or even for the next hour.  There is a marathon in my future. I can feel it.

I have seen the banners for her videos floating around TGWTG, many awesome secrets written about her on TGWTGsecrets and have seen how kind she is to her fans.  But, for one reason or another, I hadn’t actually sat down and watched her videos.

I’m glad I took the time to do that tonight. It’s certainly serving as a nice distraction from some of the unpleasantness going on around here right now.  

While I knew a bit about Diamanda the person, I knew nothing about her reviewer persona.  

I think that made it a little more awesome, actually.  I loved her presentation as this Empress, this Super Villain, completely in control of her own little universe… and if you don’t fit in to her world view (or even if you simply annoy her), to hell with you. Literally.  I always love anti-hero types that are so badass they have an empire behind them (Seto Kaiba, any of the members of Dethklok, etc.).  But, yes! The world works only one way: Diamanda’s way. Or no way at all.  The way she injects the comedic aspect into this character is also brilliant.

I had to pause the video at the line:

“Opera singing about pussy? My life is COMPLETE!!:D”

In order to recover from my fits of laughter. I knew I couldn’t afford to miss another joke, they were all potential gut-busters. 

There’s one more thing that’s really solidified my affinity for Diamanda and her show.  It’s her LGBT point of view on things.  There aren’t really any other reviewers that speak (openly) from this perspective.  It was a bit of a gaping hole on the site, especially for someone like me, but I’m glad that Diamanda has come with her awesome character and her awesome show to plug that void.

Diamanda? You make me want to be a Lecher Bitch, too.