UNHhhh Ep. 173

Still trying to unpack this past week. Now in fic form.

Shane: In real life - I don't - you know, I want - I want to hype him up and make sure he's feeling good, you know, but when we're in a haunted location, I want him to be as freaked out as possible. I want those eyes bulging. Ryan: They are, they - yeah. Shane: He's a bulger. Ryan: They were. They were bulgin'. My balls were bulging. Shane: [laughs] Eyeballs. Ryan: Correct.

Ryan & Shane Talk The Future of Ghost Files & Watcher Streaming Platform Apr 25, 2024

Alan Rickman filmography >> Galaxy Quest (dir. Dean Parisot, 1999) as Sir Alexander "I would rather die than be here" Dane

On Steven Lim, Making Watcher

"Every day I thank God for Steven Lim" - Shane Madej, 2024

Watcher + favorite quotes | part 1 [inspired by]

i keep saying "one last thought" BUT I KEEP HAVING MORE and i type this one out as i am in literal tears ajshshsh.

i am not going to speak for steven bc he is a grown man with his own feelings and i have no business projecting my own feelings onto him but i will say there's something i feel asian americans are really good at doing and that's holding space for others. as a fil-am i think asian americans are so very good at stamping down our own needs and desires when it boils down to surviving, to navigating tough decisions, to making sure our loved ones can weather bad storms. i feel it's something usually so ingrained in our cultures, especially with first and second gen immigrants. and i could spend time here making the obvious connection here to steven but i won't.

what i want to do is extend my heart out to the watcher fans of color, specifically the asian friends in our community, and i want to give you back some of the space you held onto this past weekend. i know there are people out there who long ago joined this fandom for fun, then last friday, saw the fan response and was hit with this large wave of burden. because people were mad. and then people were cruel, in a way they might not even have understood. and you wanted to say something but there was nothing to say that wouldn't invite the same cruelty onto you.

out of three people behind a business decision, i saw one man receive the most hate for it. and the hate was so disproportionate, so deep and personal, that you knew the hate was coming from somewhere else that's usually unspoken. not everyone felt it, and it's not something any one person can describe to make them feel it. but maybe you felt it.

if so, i am so sorry that you had to hold that space, hold your tongue, and absorb it all. of course all folks won't feel this strongly affected but to the folks who do, to the ones who feel like this community has permanently changed for them, to the ones who are still grieving something that was never supposed to hurt them in this way—i am with you, i believe your pain, and i'm sorry that people are still trying to blame you for your own pain. i don't even know what else to say other than i love and support you. you're part of what made the original community so fun, inclusive, and welcoming. i hope you know that you're still so valued as a part of this community—maybe not the same exact one as before, but the one i want to see and create for us moving forward. some people will not hold the space for us, and to that, i say good riddance. together we can hold a kinder space large enough for us all... ❣❣

I’ve never been very far into the Watcher fandom because the unexamined racism has always made me uncomfortable as a non-white person and I was never super into the shows but I liked the guys and I was rooting for them as soon as Watcher started. I’ve always kind of vaguely followed the company at a distance instead, so there are only a handful of Watcher blogs on my actual dash. I happened to have some free time last week and caught the countdown and made the mistake of going into the tag. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you so much for being one of the horrifyingly few voices of uhhhhh not-hate in the fandom and I’m really glad I managed to accidentally follow the handful of fans who aren’t terrible people. I’m really just a lurker in the fandom, but I wanted you to know that there’s at least one person lurking around who is grateful for the lighthouse. I’m planning to send this thank you to the others on my dash as well ❤️

Anon, I am not exaggerating when I say I am about to cry. The past few days have been rough on us all, but I'm glad I could be someone who you feel comfortable following. Thank you so much for this, I truly appreciate you and hope you are doing well today. ❤️

i am going to keep this succinct.

i, alongside many other people in this fandom, watched and saw as people got comfortable in numbers and showed themselves to be capable of absolutely reprehensible behaviour. you acted out because you felt comfortable doing so alongside other people who were doing the same.

you do not get to be absolved of that now that popular opinion is shifting once again.

you are allowed to feel your feelings, and they can be complicated and hurt and raw. you also have the right to act on your feelings however you see fit. however, this does not prevent you from the judgement your actions deserve. if you react to something in the manner that some of you did, you deserve criticism, you deserve shame, and you deserve to think long and hard about what part of yourself holds a belief that allows you to feel justified in that kind of behaviour.

i hope you get right with yourself. i have very little faith you will.

to say this as bluntly as possible: if you took this as an opportunity to be vile towards someone while, in the same breath, protected your white male blorbo who is a grown ass man capable of making his own decisions on his own terms and is not "being held hostage" or forced or Whatever you want to say to be cute and get likes on instagram or youtube, i do not trust you to have the emotional maturity to handle anything, and your opinion no longer holds any weight. your vitriol and refusal to crticially think is a disease.

get better soon.

and you know i gotta say. the vast majority of the people losing their shit this weekend made it very clear that they do not understand the difference between "artists who want a measure of comfort in their lives" and "the billionaires actually being targeted by phrases like eat the rich." that is such a weird thing to be so proud to announce to the whole entire internet.

it's also extremely weird to behave as though any individual is entitled to an artist's work for free. or that the audience should be the final say in determining what an artist creates. there is a major difference between the betrayal of an artist who produces art and then banks on their social capital to engage in harmful, violent, bigoted behavior (like jk rowling) and the "betrayal" of an artist who decides that they should be or need to be compensated for their work. the latter isn't actually a betrayal at all. it's just a shift.

the thing is that the watcher boys didn't invent capitalism, they didn't invent the streaming model, they didn't invent youtube or patreon. they aren't getting 100% of the money from either. their merch doesn't magically appear as if made by elves while they sleep. their videos don't happen out of nowhere and without incurring bills. they have a business which employs people, and sure, you can say they employ too many people, but do they actually? a bunch of randos on the internet don't actually know that. they don't know these job titles, or how necessary it is to have everyone there. it's pure speculation. the entire company exists within a system they did not invent and are trying to stay afloat in said system while a bunch of assholes on the internet berate them for not acquiescing to their every whim at the expense of their artistic integrity, their ability to compensate their staff fairly, and their ability to keep making art.

and jumping from "i want to continue enjoying this artist's work for free" to "i think people should be fired and the remaining employees should be given greater responsibilities and more tasks to complete" is wild to me. there's nothing leftist in that and so trying to leverage leftist jargon to prove some sort of moral superiority is fucking wild, it's disingenuous, and it's sketchy as hell. you're allowed to be disappointed. you're not magically exempt from being told you're being an asshole if you decide your disappointment entitles you to take part in asshole behavior.

"but we don't want something heavily produced and we don't want these shows" then don't watch! that's it! don't watch! you are not being held hostage and forced to engage with this content. you have the choice not to. throwing a tantrum and launching racist vitriol at steven lim and demanding he step down as CEO shows a level of entitlement and childishness that, frankly, i wish they could have ignored, but they're both kinder & more patient than i am.

anyway congratulations to watcher on their new streaming service and their gorgeous new website, congratulations to the boys on a new step in their careers and on achieving something they've made clear they've wanted for ages, thank you to the boys for all their hard work and for sharing their creativity with us. thank you too for taking such a big and genuinely brave step to no longer be beholden to major corporations and advertisers so you can make the art you want to make. thank you to steven lim for taking so many steps back to keep the company running and for doing your best in a shit economy and while being targeted by this kind of nastiness online. and thank you to the entire team at @wearewatcher for continuing to do amazing work despite being treated like shit by the fan community at large on the internet while you're trying to make a living and create art. you all deserve better than you've been shown of late and i hate that such an exciting moment got overshadowed by so many temper tantrums.

because the whole fucking point, the dream, is getting to make the art that matters to them, without being held back. i'm sorry y'all don't want the heavily produced and high quality shit but your preferences as a member of an audience are not the law by which artists should abide. they are artists and they are free to, and deserve to, make the art they want to make.

Goodbye YouTube posted Friday April 19, 2024

people who are upset about this decision cry that everything’s expensive nowadays but then turn around and say ‘why does ghost files cost hundreds of thousands of dollars theyre so bad at handling their budget!1!’ like do they realize watcher isnt removed from our disastrous economic downfall lmfao

Right!!!! Well said anon.

if you want to show the Watcher crew some love: we got you

do you have the extra scratch to bleach your pretty little asshole?

It's the second time that Shane goes blond that really does Ryan in. He'd been affected the first time, but who hadn't been? What a change! His friend, usually so conservative about his appearance even with the wild shirts and strange colour combinations, making such a change? Not something Ryan would have anticipated at all.

And then. And then Shane did it again. Went to the salon, asked for and received a colour treatment and Ryan just--well. He's lost the plot. He's not to be blamed for any of what happened after that, he's not. He can't be. Anyone would have done the same when faced with Shane and his blond hair and the attitude adjustment it came with.

So. Anyway. Not his fault, is what Ryan means. Definitely the ammonia fumes in Shane's hair colouring. Or something. Ryan doesn't know.

He should really stop thinking about this here, where he is balls deep in the hot clutch of Shane's body, his bare hand pressed against Shane's bare spine while Shane writhes under him, asking without asking for Ryan to move, to do something, to do anything. Ryan's not moving. He's already told Shane he won't. This is a non-negotiable part of the scene. Shane's gotta ask for it. He's gotta look back over his shoulders, pretty eyes wide, eyelashes clumped together, and open his mouth and ask for what he wants.

That's the deal.

Shane shifts and Ryan presses in, like he's not already all the way sheathed. The air goes out of Shane's lungs in a high wheeze, but he's nodding into the pillow so Ryan leans down further, covering Shane with his body, so he can put his mouth right next to Shane's ear.

"You want it, baby?" Ryan husks. "You know how to get it. You know all you gotta do is just tell me what you want. I can wait here all day, Shaney-boy, you and I both know it--"

Shane whines and squeezes his eyes shut tight. He clenches around Ryan, his body a ripple of sensation that makes Ryan have to bite his own lip and breathe through.

"Ry--" Shane starts, and stops.

"Come on," Ryan cajoles, sing song, "or I'll think you're holding out on me. Is that what you're doing? Getting off on the denial? Think you can come just like this? Keeping my dick warm in your pretty little asshole?"

Shane mutters something under his breath, but he hisses as Ryan shifts his knees. "Please," Shane says, finally, and it sounds like he's dragged it out from the soles of his feet. "Ryan--Da--" Shane stops himself and Ryan grins, wolfish.

"Who's gonna take care of you, baby?" Ryan asks. "Who makes sure you have the money for your hair appointments?" Ryan runs his hand down Shane's flank. Shane squirms both into and way from the touch. "Who gives you that extra scratch to keep your pretty little asshole bleached?"

Shane groans. "Fuck. Please, Ryan--fucking move, daddy, I need it."

"Good boy," Ryan says, leaning up and back and before snapping his hips. "Come on your daddy's cock, Shane."

And Shane does. Almost immediately.

Have you seen the critikal video talking about watcher and their finances? I was trying to believe this was a necessary risk for them, but with all the information coming out from other creators who know the website best, it’s getting really hard to believe that ☹️

I don't even know who that is so nope. Like I said, I don't follow a lot of other YouTubers besides Simmers and drag queens so I'm not very immersed in the larger YouTube culture.

I'm not super interested in those takes because that person and the rest of us (very much including me) do not know what their financials are. If you follow me you know I have tried my damndest to understand Watcher's viewcounts since day one and what they mean for their success, but it's always been complete speculation. And even someone who is a YouTube creator and has more of that inside baseball doesn't know Watcher's situation. Only they do. That person is allowed to speculate like we all do but again, it's speculation.

I can't imagine this decision was made lightly or hastily, without hours of meetings and analyzing spreadsheets to see if staying on YouTube could work. And Watcher obviously got to a point where that was no longer feasible. So, for now, I am choosing to believe that Watcher knows their numbers. And maybe I'm wrong! But I'm choosing to have faith and to be optimistic.

Hey there! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the watcher situation. I agree with your take! Tbh I was initially feeling a bit disappointed with the news and I empathise with the fans (especially international fans) who are unable to afford the new streaming service.

But I understand their point of view from a business standpoint. They’re not like some large greedy capitalist corporations. I also find it weird that a lot of people online are solely blaming Steven for this decision. Ryan and Shane are adults and I’m sure it’s a decision made and agreed by all 3 of them.

They should make another statement though cos they’ve been losing subscribers on YouTube and most of the fan/audience sentiment has been pretty negative.

Thank you anon! I appreciate the nice message. The blaming of Steven is appalling, tbh. It's really uncalled for and so much of the blame is just straight up racist. Disgusting.

I do agree that they need to release something with a lot of answered FAQs (some of the crew has been doing this on patreon but obviously not everyone can see it). But I also understand the radio silence. They were very excited about this and have been met with extreme negativity. I think it's important to respond to that with care and care takes time. Also, logistically, it's the weekend before they fly to the UK for two weeks for Ghost Files and they weren't expecting to have to deal with this on top of that. But I hope they're able to at least get some text posts out on socials soon to help clear some of the questions and misinformation.