I have a lot to say right now so this is gonna be a very long post:
I feel like SMG4 (not whatever they call themselves now, GLITCH Productions) lost whatever made it "fun." Back in the SMG4 days, the animations were cruder, and the plots were arguably "dumber" and had some lore, but you could tell they were just doing it for fun and to actually entertain the viewer. Now GLITCH Productions just makes some stupid "muh lore and scary subtext and LGBT pandering" show and people eat it up, plus the original SMG4 has been overrun with the same "lore" style too (even with Nintendo copyright issues requiring some changes). This is a problem with so many creators, they get big, build a team of creators, and then the quality of everything gets worse. It's never dumb fun anynore like SMG4, no, they need to sell merch and make some "super mega hit" show without considering if it's fun or interesting. Even if they kept doing only SMG4 skits, they probably would have gone this route anyways, but if it was still interesting and fun I wouldn't have cared.
SMG4 is the YouTube equivalent of Modern Simpsons: A once funny and clever show that stayed way longer than it should be, and got overstreched so much that is now so detached from its original iteration and does whatever to keep itself relevant, disregarding everything that came before. It doesn't matter if the animation or character design improves, it won't be worth anything if it still has the same bad writing. SMG4 is essentially a zombie franchise at this point, especially since it is no longer and will never again be Glitch's main priority. They keep doing the show just for money and legacy. SMG4 continues to exist out of obligation, and will continue to do so for who knows how long. (Just to remind you, SMG4 has officially outlived the first 3 original Glitch shows, and since Digital Circus is in its final episodes, it will outlive it as well).
What the hell is going through Luke Lerdwichagul's head that he would allow his longest work to be desecrated in this way? Is he really that afraid that his brother will scold him for saying that SMG4 has to end someday? You know, Luke Lerdwichagul used to be talented at writing fast-paced surreal dark humor. Keep in mind that he started working on SMG4 when he was
11, and the show peaked in the mid-2010s, that means Luke was a teenager when he worked on the best episodes of SMG4. And notice that as more people started writing for SMG4, the show started to decline. Since most Millenials and Gen Z can't write fast-paced surreal dark humor (You can tell this when you watch certain videos from 2018 onwards such as the latter §§ënmØÐnÅr videos), they resorted to do what they do best: Write a quirky subversive dramedy with deep but inconsistent lore, one dimensional characters, shallow anime references, awful pacing, and very forced super emotional angsty scenes.
It's quite sad what SMG4 has become, and over the years, many fans have abandoned the series. The only people who still watch SMG4 religiously are little kids who can't think critically yet, and horny gooners who simp over Meggy and the other waifus. I've noticed something: in the mainstream Glitch fandom, most people don't care about SMG4. In fact, I found people who had no idea that Glitch makes SMG4 or didn't even know SMG4 exists at all. However, those Glitch fans who actually care about SMG4 only like it for one thing, and that thing is Mr. Puzzles. Mr. Puzzles essentially only exists as jingling keys to get the fans' attention. Many people love the "Mysterious TV-headed guy who wears a bowtie suit and a hat" character type, and the mere fact that Glitch has its own TV man makes many people very happy and willing to ignore Modern SMG4's flaws just because they love him. In fact, I seem to remember seeing some comment admitting that if it weren't for Mr. Puzzles, they wouldn't even watch Modern SMG4. Glitch Productions knows that the fandom loves Mr. Puzzles, and that's why they keep pushing him, to the point where he's now a main character, even taking up more screentime than characters who used to take up a lot of screentime like Saiko and Melony. (I've seen people on the SMG4 subreddit complaining that their waifus have been sidelined by the TV man). It doesn't matter if he acts out-of-character or if they retcon something about him, the fact that he appears is enough to keep the fandom watching SMG4. Mr. Puzzles is not the worst SMG4 character, but he definitely only exists as a jump off point for fanarts, fanfics, wiki articles, theories, cosplays and song covers. Mr. Puzzles is the definition of Fandom Bait.
Do I need to remind you that this guy comes from the same series where Mario gave Wario a violent prostate exam?
I doubt they'll be remembered beyond "made a bunch of FOTM slop content shows that nobody cares about anymore."
You know, this reminds me of something someone said months ago on the Cartoon Industry thread, and this doesn't just apply to Glitch, but to the "Indie Renaissance" as a whole:
these indie shows don't really hold up well. What legacy will these shows have other than "it's indie!!!" and that it's just that show you probably saw a million pins of on Pinterest?
TADC won't have a legacy and will only be known as that show that got turned into a content farm and is the modern day FNF.
HH/HB is a complete joke of a series and will only be remembered for being a joke of a series.
Lackadaisy well... that, I do not know. But it won't be something people outside the internet will be clamoring about in high praise.
Along with many other indie shows. They have no real impact outside of the internet. They're only made to appeal to the people of the internet, not outside of it. Maybe they'll be remembered, who knows? A show doesn't need to have a lasting legacy to prove it's greatness. But there's just something about these indie shows that just don't... hit for me
What are your thoughts on this? For me, I think at least Digital Circus will be remembered with nostalgia by the kids who grew up watching it, kinda like how many 2010s kids are nostagic for stuff like FNAF, you know, a franchise that involves child murder. It doesn't matter that Digital Circus isn't for children, Digital Circus raised an entire generation, even if that wasn't Gooseworx's intention. Kids who love the series today will fondly remember Pomni, Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, and the rest in the future, and who knows, maybe when they grow up, they will rewatch it and understand many things they didn't got at first.
I know this sounds strange, maybe even dystopian, but when you really think about it, being a kid growing up in 2020s has to be quite an experience.
They had N appear in SMG4 to promote the series and even confirmed he would never show up again and was purely there to advertise the then upcoming series and nothing else.
Not merch shilling but still.
They also had Pomni appearing once:
And we can't forget when Glitch used SMG4 to vent their anger when Digital Circus became fuel content farm fuel:
MD on 4chan enjoyed an explosive growth in popularity in 2023, introducing many new people to it.
It wasn't just 4chan, Murder Drones experienced a surge in popularity across the Internet in 2023, and much of this is due to the success of Digital Circus. Wouldn't you believe there were some content farms that tried to turn Murder Drones into content farm fuel, but failed because Murder Drones doesn't have kid appeal unlike Digital Circus? (I know Digital Circus' kid appeal is just an artistic choice, but still). Most of them have been deleted, but there is still proof that they existed.
Here's a video in Spanish talking about the topic:
In the comment section of this video, the fandom is totally pissed off. Well, this is the YouTube channel Gooseworx hates the most.
No seriously, Gooseworx actually confirmed that.
This last one is an honorable mention, because the Murder Drones parts are very short. GH'S is one of the few content farms that actually puts effort into their videos, but they are still a content farm as they always rely on what's popular with kids, just check out their Shorts section. As you can see, Uzi dressed as Pomni symbolically reflects that the content farms were only trying to turn the Murder Drones into content farm fuel purely for the association with Digital Circus, and nothing else.
Now, content farms aside, one website I noticed a surge on interest in Murder Drones is Pixiv. Before 2023, there was barely any Murder Drones fanart on that site. After 2023, there was a sudden influx of Murder Drones fanart, though the vast majority of it is Western. Murder Drones doesn't seem to be very popular in Japan. You can tell if a Western franchise is popular in Japan by the amount of Japanese fanart featured on Pixiv (I was surprised to find that Garten of Banban is popular in Japan given the amount of Japanese fanart).
I don't know if I should post this here, but I found this fan comic sequel to Murder Drones on Pixiv (it's on DeviantArt, but I first found it on Pixiv), and I suspect that the guy is meant to be the artist's self-insert. I don't know how old he is, his DeviantArt account doesn't even say his date of birth, but judging by his X account, he's definitely not a child. I still think the guy is a self-insert, since he's later used as a spokesperson for updates. Don't hate on this guy, this comic isn't malicious compared to other fan stuff, and I personally find it interesting how he's trying to replicate Liam's writing style. Here are the first 11 pages.
Here is the link to his account if you want to see the rest:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/18623339
One last Murder Drones thing I want to post before moving on to the next topic is this video. This is perhaps one of the very few Murder Drones reviews that actually criticizes the series rather than praising it all the time.
It's in Russian, but I think the auto-translate captions can help. I only found out about this video thanks to a user who is a huge Glitch fan, but surprisingly ended up hating Murder Drones. (And doesn't like SMG4, but still includes both in his memes just because of the Glitch association).
anyone noticed how relatively weak the reception Gaslight District got?, from this thread to other parts of the web, compared to the TADC and KoG, I personally think its okay but the thing that stuck to me about that show is the amount of lore that was immediately front-loaded in the pilot to the point I found it overwhelming, almost Murder Drones-tier, theres this shit about the birds and the angels and the rotting undead corpses and how this was all caused by something something, not too many people seemed to care, ironic since lorefagging seems to be the biggest driver of fan engagement these days but it just didnt seem to work in this case.
Yes, I've noticed that the Gaslight District fandom has become very quiet over the months. I've barely seen anyone talk about it in detail since May. I was hoping Gaslight District would have lots of songs, fan animations, and video theories like Digital Circus got, but there's has been hardly new fan content since the pilot aired. Most of the recent fanarts are always crossover fanarts, it's like the mainstream Glitch fandom doesn't really care of Gaslight District as a standalone thing, it has always has to be tied to Digital Circus or Murder Drones. Well, at least they confirmed that the series will continue and that's what matters. I'm glad the Gaslight District fandom shows no signs of becoming toxic.
Now this something I already said on the Western Animation thread. Something I noticed about Knights of Guinevere is that almost every piece of fanwork of this series is about Princess Guinevere. She is literally the character that the fandom, and the general public, likes and cares about the most. While there is stuff about Frankie and Andi, the amount of fan stuff Guinevere receives is disproportionate to the amount both Frankie and Andi receive. It's especially notable in crossover art; Princess Guinevere is always the one used to represent Knights of Guinivere. It's difficult to find art that uses Frankie and Andi appearing by themselves in crossover art.
And this makes me wonder how well the show's merch will sell. Ever since the massive success of Digital Circus, Glitch expects each new show to perform in that same capacity, hence why they have tons of merch since day 1. However, seeing as how Guinevere is the one character people care about the most, I doubt they'll be able to sell non-Guinevere merchandise in large quantities. It's not like Digital Circus, where each character has their fair share of fans, and so they can cater to each of those characters' fan bases with merchandise of those characters, But Knights of Guinivere so far only has Princess Guinivere as the fan favorite. While I guess there is people who may like Frankie and Andi, I doubt they will love them enough to buy products based on them. In any case, they may just buy them to support the series.
By the way, in the Western Animation thread, with the exception of Princess Guinevere, they are really hating the character designs, especially Frankie's.
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I think this creature is a hideous abomination that makes me not want to watch a show with such unappealing character designs.
Holy shit, I've never cared to watch Owl House, but what few character designs I saw from it were way better than that main character. She literally looks like a fridge with buck teeth, if you told me it was a parody of modern designs I'd believe you.
I fully believe the premise they're going with the ugly ass real world, and the pretty thing being the thing they intend to criticize,
While they sell the merchandise of the ugly thing alongside the fucking Pretty thing DAY 1.
goes against the point so hard, that it's more insulting than anything else I've seen in the pilot.
if this bitch wanted to be artsy with the whole "It's bad on purpose"
how about they go all the way and refuse to commercialize the ugly shit, and only sell the princess shit? or just the pretty versions of the ugly shit?
at least that would fit with the narrative she's setting up.
Saw the guinevere pilot, it was intresting. I like the premise and the setting and the animation is good too. If only the character designs weren't so vicerally disgusting.
Like yeah the setting is great, but I hate both of the main characters. The skinny one is obnoxious, annoying, neurotic and unfunny to the point where I want to punch her in the face and the main character is literally a dude with boltons pretending to be a woman.
The captain seems to be from an entirely seperate show compared to the two main characters, if they shared his visual style I think it would be pretty good. I don't understand the insistence on making the main characters as unbelievably fuckugly as possible.
that's the whole point of show.
to make the point that the beautiful shit is actually bad and evil, and the ugly shit is good.
she's perfectly capable of drawing appealing characters, but it's a case of
"it's bad on purpose"
her specific blend of visual diarrhea narrative just leads to attempting to change the definition of beauty.
It's a very shallow attempt of trying to be deep, that shit is for these retards
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I'd like to remind everyone once again this isn't even her own idea.
every god damn billion dollar company did what she's doing now
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You know, even Quasimodo had a certain charm that that fugly woman lacks.
EVEN IN DISNEY IDEAL WORLD SHE'S STILL A FAT FUCK
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I think the main problem with frankies face is that the nose and mouth are very intensely shaped, yet at the same time weirdly flat and small, which makes her fat face and bug eyes look even larger, and in general it looks really out of place on her generally large, round features.
Nothing wrong with giving characters unconventional features, but when you dont balance/compose it properly it becomes yucky to look at.
Each individual component could look really interesting and charming on another character, but when you pick the ugliest options for EVERY feature and dont even match them its just too much!
Any cartoon artist worth their money should be able to make appealing non-attractive characters.
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Also, eyebags are pretty common to add on your cartoon character, but its the miniscule upper eyelid lines above the eyes dana adds that make them look so bugged. Tho I suppose she IS some kinda schizo, so that gets conveyed well at least.
Also WHY THIS BITCH ANKLES SO SMALL, she constanly looks like shes about to topple over
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One person pointed out that it's kinda weird that they're dissing Walt Disney when they should be dissing Bob Iger, you know, the man responsible for Disney being in the condition it's in today.
I’ll admit that I haven’t watched the pilot, but from what scenes I’ve glimpsed I think it’s kinda weird that they’re ragging on Walt’s Disney. Wouldn’t it be more fitting to make a caricature of Bob Iger, like how Lord Farquaad was based on Eisner if we want to go for the Shrek comparison?
That's all I had to say. Thanks for your attention.
