So your analysis is that RT has too many mainstays that can't be removed because it'll piss off the fanbase. GREAT.
Honestly, all I can think of that can really help RT in the landscape that could save them and keep them going is RWBY (if only because it's an IP that you can let run its course before shelving it and rebooting it in the future) and Death Battle (because "who would win in a fight" will never go away and you can easily corner and be at the top of that market if you actually have DB's setup that makes it more than an animation to throw on YouTube or Newgrounds).
Pretty much! There's a good amount of superfluous content that can be cut (like all the animated series they have that no one even knows about, let alone watches), but the sad part is that the majority of the fans are watching a handful of series, and that handful probably also costs the most to produce BECAUSE of how popular they are. Similarly, bogging their site down with too much mediocre content will drive fans away, but so will cutting the popular shows that fans have stuck around for all this time, regardless of their quality level. And so the ouroboros eats its own tail.
Death Battle is weirdly under-utilized by RT, which I've always found odd since they acquired it. I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but just like you said, "who would win in a fight" is a question that can be asked with different pairings forever; it's an endless source of content. I don't know why they don't advertise it better.
I agree with you completely here, though; RWBY has a high rewatchability and could easily be rebooted down the line, and Death Battle SHOULD be a more notable IP due to its popularity, but they're just not connecting themselves to it properly. I guess a lot of the issue RT has had is poor merging of all the new IPs after the Warner acquisition, so things always feel really segmented and classic RT content is - to an extent - understandably given more attention than the newly acquired shows that are probably more popular overall. Very weird dynamic.
RT is in the middle of what I call the "Roman Crisis". IDK if there is an actual term for this, but:
The ancient roman empire would reward roman legionaries with land from newly conquered territories in thanks for their service in the military. This necessitated an expansionist policy so the empire could continue to reward its soldiers and get new ones. Eventually the roman empire became too large, managing the periphery was consuming far too many resources for the empire to manage. They couldnt conquer new lands to acquire resources because that's what got them into the problem in the first place, but they ALSO couldnt cut off their fringe territory because what resources they DID provide were necessary for the growingly complex and demanding core of the empire. Cant expand, cant contract, eventually they simply collapsed (which roman collapse this was IDK)
RT has the same problem. They have too many shows, not enough money, and not enough fanbase to support all those shows. You cant make more shows to try and bring in a newer/larger audience, because thats how you got to where they are now, and cant cut back because that would begin to alienate what audience they have left. So they'll continue this way until warner begins cutting off the necrotic tissue and starting the death throes of RT.
Having children does cause unavoidable changes to the mothers body, and nobody expects a mother to have the body of a teenager/young adult after having kids. Putting on 75+ pounds is not normal for having kids, even if a mom kinda lets themselves go, there's no real excuse for high weight gain especially when constantly working to raise kids. That shits hard work.
...Yes, there are. Have you not heard of hypothyroidism? One of its trademark symptoms is weight gain with low appetite; literally fat people who are barely eating, to paraphrase you. There's a million other factors that can cause a person who is eating healthily and with normal portions to still gain weight or be big, just like how we've all heard stories of skinny people who eat very unhealthy food and/or eat massive portions without gaining weight. It's not as simple as you're suggesting.
"muh hypothyroidism" is a commonly used excuse by fatties to excuse their shit diets. Untreated hypothyroidism typically results in a 10-20 lb weight gain, not 100 lbs. Part of the treatment for such a condition is healthy eating, and the medication used to treat it is both cheap and negates most of the calorie burning problems associated with the condition in the first place (roughly 300 calories a day).
It's not a magic condition that makes you 250 lbs eating only veggies. Calories in-->calories out is a universal constant, if you have a condition that reduces your calorie burn per day it doesnt mean calories dont magically stop working the same way.
And Lindsay has never been confirmed to have this in the first place. She's just yet another individual that got married, had kids, and stopped trying. Both she and Michael have confirmed they eat a shitload of takeout. Takeout is LOADED with calories, it's an absolute red flag to weight management and makes it far too easy to overeat. I guarantee you if she isnt still eating as if she was pregnant, she's eating like she did as a teenager when she was playing both volleyball and softball and was young enough that she could work her ass off burning through her poor dietary choices. A LOT of (especially volleyball players I've notices) high school athletes who dont develop healthy eating habits pile on the pounds in their 20s and 30s once their activity slows down.
