rapeseed
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 1, 2025
I'm glad you brought this up, I noticed that too and it basically killed the video for me. It feels incredibly dishonest the way the video is currently formatted.
Throughout the entire thing and especially at the end Wendi makes pithy comments whining about how the usage of AI prevents him from meaningfully engaging with the project as he can't even understand it, he doesn't know what's intentional and what isn't as there isn't the hand of a creator to guide him. As an example, after speculating about the existence of multiple Barachiels, he states "(it would) Be really cool if that were the case, that there would be, I don't know, maybe an artist who could draw them with distinctions to show that they are the same, but there are unique ones. Uh, that'd be cool. But since it's AI, I've got no clue." Another example is speculating the identity of a character being possessed, he smacks his lips and says "I don't know, maybe if the visuals were drawn so I could know what I'm looking at, I could figure something out. But, (smacks lips) oh well."
It's incredibly annoying and frankly performative, as the first point he makes in the video is highlighting this issue with solid examples (inconsistent design of the main "angels" and their depictions, mistaking firefighters marching through a burning forest for a legion of Hell). But instead of establishing this point and moving on, he hammers it again and again for the next hour and a half in this passive aggressive bitchy tone as if the rest of the series is going to magically change to accommodate him; but fine, the purpose is to drill in the viewer's head that he doesn't like the usage of AI. He complains that "all of this imagery was imagined by a computer", in a longer quote stating "It's an approximation every time. It is never the art done over and over again, it is just the idea that's vaguely familiar of the art. And you can't get across any core ideas or consistent imagery with it, and you can't do visual storytelling when the thing that is making the art doesn't understand what that means." He goes on a lengthy tangent of how he hates AI because it disrespects the idea of art and what it means to people, what it means to him, he really fucking hates it alright I understand.
And then in the last nine minutes of the video he mentions speaking to the creator, who revealed that he has extensive control in the process and that while AI is involved in generating images, he takes those images and tinkers in photoshop with them and he animates and adds effects and voices and he basically does everything else. The same visuals that Wendi critiqued, they DID have a creator's hand involved; you can criticize the creative decisions made but a creator was making them, which goes directly against Wendi's entire argument ("all of this imagery was imagined by a computer", suggesting it was entirely AI-prompted and generated). Wendi's coping response is that this specifically counters his critique regarding stilted AI-generated movement when this basically refutes the entire video; and yet, instead of delving further on that point, maybe asking if the narrative irony he discussed earlier was intentional, he opts to ask questions about the plot and characters after an hour and a half of dismissing the project as a whole on a false premise.
I genuinely believe he should have scrapped the video and taken it in another direction, I don't know how he thought this was reasonable to upload. However strongly he feels about AI, Angel Engine does not appear to be an example of what he was criticizing; I find it very hard to believe he doesn't understand that, and really the video should have lead with this clarification. He could've included his rants and "you are not entitled to create art" speech as a separate chapter to the actual series discussion; it seems to me that he had an assumption of how Angel Engine was created and he wrote the script based on that premise, and then after learning his beliefs were incorrect he said fuck it and pulled the trigger anyway. It really is distasteful, but the audience is full of normies who are predisposed to hating AI anyway so it doesn't matter.
It's incredibly annoying and frankly performative, as the first point he makes in the video is highlighting this issue with solid examples (inconsistent design of the main "angels" and their depictions, mistaking firefighters marching through a burning forest for a legion of Hell). But instead of establishing this point and moving on, he hammers it again and again for the next hour and a half in this passive aggressive bitchy tone as if the rest of the series is going to magically change to accommodate him; but fine, the purpose is to drill in the viewer's head that he doesn't like the usage of AI. He complains that "all of this imagery was imagined by a computer", in a longer quote stating "It's an approximation every time. It is never the art done over and over again, it is just the idea that's vaguely familiar of the art. And you can't get across any core ideas or consistent imagery with it, and you can't do visual storytelling when the thing that is making the art doesn't understand what that means." He goes on a lengthy tangent of how he hates AI because it disrespects the idea of art and what it means to people, what it means to him, he really fucking hates it alright I understand.
And then in the last nine minutes of the video he mentions speaking to the creator, who revealed that he has extensive control in the process and that while AI is involved in generating images, he takes those images and tinkers in photoshop with them and he animates and adds effects and voices and he basically does everything else. The same visuals that Wendi critiqued, they DID have a creator's hand involved; you can criticize the creative decisions made but a creator was making them, which goes directly against Wendi's entire argument ("all of this imagery was imagined by a computer", suggesting it was entirely AI-prompted and generated). Wendi's coping response is that this specifically counters his critique regarding stilted AI-generated movement when this basically refutes the entire video; and yet, instead of delving further on that point, maybe asking if the narrative irony he discussed earlier was intentional, he opts to ask questions about the plot and characters after an hour and a half of dismissing the project as a whole on a false premise.
I genuinely believe he should have scrapped the video and taken it in another direction, I don't know how he thought this was reasonable to upload. However strongly he feels about AI, Angel Engine does not appear to be an example of what he was criticizing; I find it very hard to believe he doesn't understand that, and really the video should have lead with this clarification. He could've included his rants and "you are not entitled to create art" speech as a separate chapter to the actual series discussion; it seems to me that he had an assumption of how Angel Engine was created and he wrote the script based on that premise, and then after learning his beliefs were incorrect he said fuck it and pulled the trigger anyway. It really is distasteful, but the audience is full of normies who are predisposed to hating AI anyway so it doesn't matter.
Maybe I'm wrong and Wendi is deeply invested in the innerworkings of nigball (which I doubt, especially as the video is prefaced with "A Wendigang Production" and cites a researcher and writing credit) but assuming he isn't it feels almost comical to release this right after a video whining about the lack of soul and meaning in art. Not that video essays are "art" necessarily, but the appeal of his channel at least to me was always the human component and his passion for whatever topic; the unfunny editing in his recent videos detracts from that, especially when his prior editors took care to remain unobtrusive, but to my understanding with Wendigang he's basically just the mouthpiece/speaker for those videos rather than the actual "creator" (as stated in the channel description, "made by the gang and hosted by Wendigoon"). It feels shockingly unaware to make a big deal about authorial intent and the connection a creator has with his art, and then drop a video on fucking basketball where half the comments are picking on his inability to pronounce names correctly (which is presumably born from a lack of experience with the subject).
In other news, I didn't hate Whitefall but it (ironically) didn't give me much to chew on. The two things of note were the sudden twist at the end when a character randomly came out of the closet, specifically the narrator notes how the homo in question must "really love him (his boyfriend) to go against nature (and eat someone)". It's actually not that surprising at all to me that a homosexual would go against nature, but again the theme this week seems to be a lack of self awareness.
I do find it questionable that Wendi allowed homosexuality in the Easter Sunday video when they record in advance so you'd think he could've just posted a separate one, but this leads into the second notable thing which was him volunteering information regarding "gay chicken" in highschool. To be clear he didn't mention participating, but he said he had "PTSD flashbacks" and he described it as "that game guys would play in highschool"; he basically described it as a gay version of Firetruck, if anyone is familiar with that "game". I'm going to assume that he's never had homosexual inclinations nor experiences, but I do find it odd that he doesn't seem averse to deviancy, if that makes sense. Explicitly shouting out Alex Kister in the AE video is a good example, I don't think Wendi ever weighed in on that stuff but in the best case scenario Kister had "gender affirming" discord chats with minors while he was 20; assuming it wasn't more sexual than that, is your tranny pal egg-cracking 14 year olds not enough for a Christian to cut ties? Another example was when he invited a troon on stream to discuss it's analog horror series he was watching. I remember being flashbanged by it's nails on chalkboard voice yet he seemed perfectly comfortable, not just in a "polite" sense but as if it was normal; I know he's a nice guy but he strikes me as too nice regarding things he should set boundaries for, if he truly held strong convictions. Just thought I'd add that to the "Hunter is a fat degenerate why is Isaiah comfortable around him" discourse, I agree with the first part but Wendi brings it on himself and I wish he didn't.
Lastly, I think Wendiglitched kinda sucks. The solo videos are boring with little to engage with (it's an exclusively visual experience unlike the essays, I think a facecam would go a long way but it's moreso just him recording his gameplay rather than interacting with an imaginary audience) and the collab video with Operator Drewski and his friends was annoying with loads of zoomer (millennial?) memes and quirks that made me want to kill myself. Granted it's a brand new channel, maybe he'll work out the kinks, but that first Angel Engine video really turned me off (I thought the game looked terrible). Also I don't like the name, I know Wendigang stole the Wendigames channel link but couldn't he have named it Wendigames and had the official channel link read "Wendigaming" or something? Wendiglitched is a mouthful and I hate it.
do not 
