The Amazing Digital Cricus Episode 5 Left me Thinking, this isn't Pomni's Story at all, is it?

So, as a lot of readers may be aware, I am a big fan of the GLITCH Productions series, The Amazing Digital Circus. The aesthetic of the animation and artstyle mixed with the charming and lovable characters really won me over immediately from the pilot, and I, as many others were, was hooked on where the story would go from there. It went places, needless to say, and the latest episode, Episode 5: Untitled, is so far the most... "Places" the show has gone so far.

Episode 5 is where things get really... for want of a better word, real. The show has been real before, but this is where we really get to piece things together. Episode 5 is an episode that will leave you confused about how to feel, but also certain as Hell about what to feel. This is one of those episodes, and I think it largely changes the direction of where the show is going, or our perception of where the show is going.

Ever since the pilot, everyone was damn sure that this story largely about Pomni, how she adjusts to the circus, how she relates to the others, and possibly how she abstracts. Yet, Episode 5 seems to shift the narrative. Pomni is still our main character, but this does not seem to be her story, at least not entirely her story. Episode 5 focuses on Pomni's relationship with Jax and Ragatha, and we learn two important things about them.

With Jax, what we learn is implied, but heavily so. When Ragatha tells Pomni that Jax doesn't have friends "Anymore", it becomes clear who Jax is and why is does what he does. At his core, Jax is afraid, he is a scared little bunny, what is he afraid of? Losing the people he cares about. He's pushing people away so when they do abstract, it doesn't hurt so much. "Let them fall face down if they must die, making it easier to say goodbye". We see Jax look at a door with a crossed out face on it during Caine's intermission. Was this one of Jax's friends? It does seem that he is warming up to Pomni, why is that? Well, I have a theory, but before we look at that, let's look at Ragatha.

What we learn about Ragatha is much more stated, though still largely implied. It is implied in the fact that it is not directly stated to the audience. Ragatha did not have a particularly caring mother, and this is probably why she is the way she is. Where Jax is a nuisance because he doesn't want to be hurt, Ragatha is positive to a toxic degree because she also doesn't want to be hurt, she said it herself in Episode four. "I like, hate you, but I don't want you to hate me." In essence, she is trying to be the one that everyone likes, but this ends up pushing everyone away. She will bottle up her feelings in order to protect herself, and it's only hurting her more.

Ragatha is a rag doll, obvious statement, but what does that mean? Dolls and plushies are popular children's toys, because for a lot of children, they were a source of comfort, a friend that wouldn't judge you or tell you to "Grow up". A friend that was always there for you when you needed them. A friend that Ragatha needs. Similarly, Jax is a rabbit. One may see him as the next version of the "Trickster Rabbit" archetype, like I myself have, but now we see something different with him. Jax is scared, he is a small animal made tall, he is putting on a show to deter predators, or in this case, abstraction.

This is in no way absolving Jax of his actions, by the way. Fandom notoriously has an issue with forgiving male characters for their wrong-doings because of one singular thing. How the fandom is treating Jax is reminding me about... a character from the Sad Wizard Lady's books. I mean, the two are absolutely irredeemable people, but they have one mildly tragic part of their backstory and all is forgiven? Just because we now know why he is pushing people away does not change the fact that he is still doing the things he is doing. Just wanted to Snape, I mean snipe that point before it came up.

Pomni is a jester, not a clown, the distinction is important. Jester's were more than just entertainers, they were also trusted messengers, and were allowed to speak freely without punishment in many cases. To put my theory bluntly, this story is not about Pomni, this story is about everyone else. The show begins with Pomni arriving at the circus because she is the catalyst for change. She is the one who is breaking down the barriers between all the characters, and she is doing so by letting them be honest, listening to them, and doing the things she can to help them.

Pomni saw Gangle and offered to take closing duties for her. She was with Kinger and listened as he talked about his wife. She has broken through to Jax, and seems to be making Ragatha confront a part of herself she doesn't like. Pomni is the main character of the show, but this story is not really about her. The Amazing Digital Circus is really all about the other people in the circus, which makes me wonder... how is Pomni going to get through to Caine, can she get through to Caine?

Gooseworx said that the message of The Amazing Digital Circus is that "there is meaning to be found in a stagnant life". All of this makes me wonder, and kind of reminds me of the Gregory Horror Show. I kind of expect this show to end similar to the first season of that show, something expected but haunting. Untitled was a good episode that makes one shift their perspectives on what they thought they knew. We knew this was Pomni's story, but now it seems like it's really about someone else, or something else. One has to wonder if the circus is changing because of Pomni, if she is bridging the gaps between the others and their previous lives.

Also, because I have nowhere else to put this, I absolutely have to make this observation, Jax and Zooble are trying to out each other without outing each other.

Glitch Pitch Pilot Play: The Gaslight District vs The Amazing Digital Circus

April 18th, 2025, Good Friday. That was the day that GLITCH Productions premiered the pilot to their latest show, The Gaslight District. I've gotta say, this show was pretty hyped, the trailer got a fair bit of attention on social media, and on the pilot's premier date, amassed 3.6 Million views. To put that into perspective, that is almost 0.5 million views away from surpassing the teaser for another Glitch Production, Knights of Guinevere, the show that Owl House creator Dana Terrace is working on with Glitch. The teaser for that show was published on January 17th, and it has amassed 4.1 Million views, as of The Gaslight Districts release date. I'd say that the hype reminded me of another Glitch Productions show, but that would be untrue, from my perspective The Amazing Digital Circus kind of came out of nowhere and caught me off-guard. I've never heard of GLITCH productions until then, though I might have heard of Murder Drones, but it never really stuck in my mind.

So The Gaslight District pilot premiered, I checked it out, I liked it. Genuinely, I do like it, I would definitely rank it higher than the pilot to LS Mark's show Catching Up. The Gaslight District pilot is about a crime family in a post apocalyptic world pulling off a major heist, stealing "The Human Egg", which is problematic because one of the members, Mel, is prophesized to bring the end times to this world. I gotta say, I am definitely engrossed in this world, these characters and this scenario and I definitely want to see where it goes from here. I do really like this pilot... but do I love it? It's got everything here, good characters, great artstyle, fantastic premise... and yet, I don't know if I love it. Why?

I hate to do this... seriously, I genuinely do not want to make this comparison, but I think it would be pertinent to compare it with The Amazing Digital Circus pilot. To be absolutely clear, I am not making this comparison to bring down The Gaslight District, I think The Gaslight District is a good pilot and absolutely warrants a viewing, this is entirely an examination of why I had strong feelings for one and not the other. This is self interrogation, not an indictment of any pilot or show.

It would be wise to begin with what both pilots got right, and that is character designs. I can't say that either show has wholly unique character designs, but they absolutely stand out even among similar character types. What separates Ragatha from Raggedy Ann? Well Ragatha has a simpler style dress, she has a shirt button for an eye, and a less round head shape. What separates Mel from other Mummy type characters? She has red eyes, big gloves and boots, and also she doesn't have zombie green skin. Both shows have recognizable and identifiable characters, and that may be one of the reasons I'm not as much a fan of The Gaslight District. The characters are identifiable, and I've seen them before, the protective but loving father, the rambunctious daughter, the shifty-slimy side character. Granted these are not bad takes on the characters, in fact I actually really like Mel and Mud quite a bit, but I've seen them before.

"So what?' I hear you asking, 'It's not like the Amazing Digital Circus has wholly original characters either."
You're absolutely right, if anything the characters may be less original in Amazing Digital Circus, because let's see, a rabbit character who likes pulling tricks and getting under people's skin? Yeah, Jax is pretty much just the next "Trickster Rabbit" character, made popular by the likes of Br'er Rabbit or Bugs Bunny, but an archetype that has existed since Native American Folklore. Amazing Digital Circus does not have the most unique characters either, so it clearly is not the characters. Besides, it wasn't until episode 2 that the Digital Circus crowd got any real depth, so it's highly likely that the same will happen with The Gaslight District.

Maybe then it's the artstyle? Amazing Digital Circus has a much more colourful and cleaner artstyle than The Gaslight District does, but that is kind of the point, The Gaslight District is a gross, disgusting looking show, and it is meant to be. Amazing Digital Circus was meant to look like a more polished early 90s 3D animation, that is the artstyle that fits with that show. Gaslight District is meant to be an ugly looking show with violence, disgusting imagery and other nasty stuff. I think the moment I knew that I was not going to hate this artstyle was when Mud coughed up a bullet for his rifle in the opening, that was gross, absolutely, but it's the kind of gross that sets up the world and character. Really, I think The Gaslight District is visually more interesting than The Amazing Digital Circus, solely because it is darker, grittier and grosser.

I mean really, on a technical level The Gaslight District is fantastic, I really do like a lot of the visual flairs that give it almost a comic book kind of feel, like I can see this pilot being adapted into an amazing comic book, it took me by surprise when The Amazing Digital Circus was announced to be adapted into a manga, but I would not be surprised if a comic book adaptation was announced for The Gaslight District. Plus, the music is great, maybe not as memorable as The Amazing Digital Circus, but it might grow on me, and the voice acting is once again perfectly cast. Allanah Fitzgerald really did capture that spunky and rambunctious vibe of Mel, Jason Marnocha as Ken was just a role I can not imagine a person in the booth, it really did seem like that voice was meant for that character. of course, Michael Kovach is also in this, but he's in every webshow by now.

So, I guess the truth of the matter is, I just prefer the kind of Show The Amazing Digital Circus is a lot more than the kind of show The Gaslight District is. The Amazing Digital Circus is a dark comedy with a more psychological edge to it, whereas The Gaslight District is a crime drama, the video description for the pilot even says as much. I love me some crime movies, but I'll admit I'm pretty basic with the genre, The Shawshank Redemption and The Usual Suspects are my two favourite crime movies for example. The Amazing Digital Circus on the other hand reminded me a lot of things like The Gregory Horror Show and The Stanley Parable, and I am just going to gravitate more towards that kind of thing, I think. I definitely think this is the kind of show that I will grow to love as it goes along, but it's probably not something I would have checked out if it wasn't associated with Glitch Productions.

Again, I don't want anyone to come out of this thinking that The Gaslight District is not at all worth watching, it absolutely is, and I really can see arguments for people saying it's better than The Amazing Digital Circus. Honestly, I think it has the potential for being better than The Amazing Digital Circus, but I think I'll still like The Digital Circus just that tiny bit more. Still, I am absolutely down to seeing more of The Gaslight District, I have no worries that it will get picked up and we'll get a good selection of episodes. So, right now I may not love it, but I am open to the possibility of the show making me love it. Well Glitch Productions, you seem to have another hit on your hands, keep up the fantastic work,

Autism Awarness Month: Is the Media's Representation of Autism Actually Good?

It must be annoying to hear another person complain about representation in media. I get it, trust me, I hate talking about it as much as people hate listening to it, arguably even more because people hate listening to it. Representation is important though, it matters to people, it used to not matter to me because I internalized my ableism thanks to years in a school system that tried its best but was still not as accommodating as I needed it to be in hindsight. In recent years I have been better at accepting, accommodating and adapting with my Autism, I have found comics and graphic novels to be a good alternative to traditional novels, I'm finding new stim-toys that I enjoy, and I'm doing what I can to educate people about autism.

I think ultimately, the answer I can give is "No, but yes, but absolutely not, but kind of, but really I don't know" and that is sadly the straightest answer I think you'll get from me. The media representation of autistic, and really most other neurodivergent people, has never been particularly favourable, with one end of the spectrum being cases like Forrest Gump and Rain Man, the character who is not very smart except for one or two very specific interests, typically some form of mathematics or science, not socially bright, usually needing someone beside them to get them through life, you may also notice that these characters tend to be on the scrawnier, beanpole-ier side of physical builds. This kind portrayal is usually offensive to those in autistic communities, but on the other end of the spectrum, you get things like Music. The problem is, those are cases where the characters are confirmed, or heavily implied to be on the spectrum, it really is sad when the best representation autistic people have comes from characters who are not canonically autistic.

I did a blog last year where I talked about characters that I related to, and the sad thing is that not a single one was canonically autistic, but they had so many traits and characteristics of Autistic Spectrum Disorder that, canon or not, they resonated with me, and some of them have resonated with other people as well. It really does make me question why autistic traits can be given to characters who are not officially autistic. I have to wonder if the creators of these characters were undiagnosed or knew undiagnosed people, which would not surprise me because... well something you may notice about "Hollywood Autistic" characters is that a good number of them are white men. Media does not reflect reality, it reflects ones perception and opinions of reality, and the perception really does seem to be that only certain people get autism, and sadly, people are not helping the perception.

Something that really bothers me is the "Cutie-fication" of autism, largely because it plays on another big stereotype of autistic people, infantilization. It really does feel like a lot of people want to focus on the "cuter" parts of autism, you know the plushie collecting and the stimming and hyper-fixations and the like, rather than the uncomfortable parts. The parts like not being able to sleep because every piece of physical stimuli is causing you agony, emotional outbursts and the mountains of unfinished projects that you never got around to finishing because your hyper-fixation lasted less time than you anticipated and now you're obsessed with something completely different. If I were to hazard a guess, I would assume that this is a response to all the "Autism is evil and a disease" rhetoric that groups like Autism Speaks have been spreading over the years. So instead, let's focus on aspects of autism that are not that harmful, adorable even, stuff like the ability to build Minecraft mega-builds in an hour or "Autism Nests", because we don't want people to associate Autism with the bad stuff.

It's kind of a horribly imbalanced scale, because in media representation, Autism representation is terrible, and I haven't even listed the worst examples, I don't even want to dignify Music or The Good Doctor, but on the other side is people going too far in the opposite direction. It reminds me, on some level, about portrayals of disabled people, how they're often made to be super competent despite their disability as some kind of inspiration, or on another hand are made to be bad guys because of their disability. I remember one journalist being mad at Detective Pikachu because the antagonist of that movie was a disabled man in a wheelchair, and his entire plot revolved around him being a disabled man in a wheelchair. I think to me, the problem lies in the fact that for disabled people, including neurodivergent people, there really is no in-between, it's either one end of the character spectrum or the other, with very little in between. Sure wheelchair users have Joe Swanson, Professor X or that episode of Little Clowns of Happytown, but they also have Elijah Price from Unbreakable. It's either, "this character might as well not be disabled" or "This character's arc entirely revolves around being disabled".

I guess the deeper issue here is that media representation of all disabilities is kind of awful, so I guess the next question is "what do we do?", and the answer to that is really simple. People like to think that getting into media creation is difficult, and yes it can be, if you're aiming to be a Steven Spielberg. The thing lots of people don't really talk about is how much media is created by independent, underground and smaller creators, we all like to dog on Kevin Smith but he was an independent film creator when he made Clerks. I want to give this advice to everyone who says things like "Hollywood should tell this story" or "There should be more of these characters", tell those stories and create those characters yourself. It's kind of harsh advice, I get it, but it is the truth, you can't just wait until business folk decide that this super-niche story is worth telling.

To wrap this up, I guess it is only fair if I do my part and point you all into some directions of autistic creators. My go to recommendation for autistic and neurodivergent content creators is usually Animation reviewer TheMysteriousMrEnter, and as he is the first person I learned about Autism Speaks from, I think his video is a good place to start. YouTube user I'm Autistic, Now What? also has a video about Autism Speaks, and a video about Hollywood's representation of autism, full disclosure I haven't watched these videos, but that latter video came upon my feed and seeing the title gave me the inspiration to write this. Paige Layle also has a video about Autism Speaks, PhantomStrider has a video about busting myths about autism, and to wrap this up, Amethyst Schaber also has a video about Autism Speaks, yes it is a very popular topic amongst autistic people. This is by no means a complete list, but it should be a good start. I think proper education is always the first step in fighting any adversary, and while the media might not represent autistic people very well, we can at least do our part to change that.

YouTube's Algorithm is Terrible For All Creators, not Just Online Ones

FUTURE ME HERE!

So this blog was published back on March 27th and written prior to that, so past me who wrote this was not aware of things going on behind the scenes. In this blog I make a minor defence of YouTuber SaberSpark as he was in some hot water for making a video on the Snow White remake instead of the Looney Tunes movie in theatres at the same time. I want to stress, that is the ONLY thing I am defending here, but as information about his defending of an alleged groomer and alleged inappropriate behaviour on Saber's side as well, I want to make it clear that I can not defend, will not defend, and am not defending those actions.

Thank you and on with the show!

Do you guys remember back in the day when you could look up on YouTube and find videos on some of the most obscure nonsense ever? Like, watching a movie review on the fourth Karate Kid movie, or a video game review on some unlicensed NES Game that nobody ever heard of, or some foreign cartoon that never made it in the U.S. but was still somewhat decent. Have you ever noticed that now most YouTube creators tend to be making videos based more on trends and things that have become or were always really popular? Is there any reason that the Nostalgia Critic is reviewing the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies outside of the fact that they would get a lot of views? Has AVGN done a review of a lesser known game since Hudson Hawk? Maybe My Horse Prince, but that is an outlier in a sea of Garfield, SimCity and Final Fantasy 6 Reviews. You ever wonder why this kind of stuff is happening? Of course you probably haven't, because the answer has been talked about by everyone from controversial YouTubers to nobodies on the most obscure Social Media platform; YouTube has changed, and that change is bad for all artists and creators, not just online ones.

Obviously, we know why the YouTube algorithm is bad for online creators, it rewards monotony and content theft while punishing original work and obscure topics. I'm sure all those rappers who react to ERB and Freshy Kanal make great music, but the majority of people only watch their react videos, no judgement. If you're a media reviewer then the algorithm will punish you if you decide to talk about an obscure property that you hold absolutely dear to your heart. It makes sense why people make those videos that will do well, YouTube is a business and a job for many people, they have to talk about what will get them a lot of views. The problem with this is that it encourages content farms, YouTube channels that make three or more videos a day or have a dozen or so other channels that do pretty much the same thing, think 5-Minute Crafts or WatchMojo. These channels are able to pump out content because they take less effort and have bigger teams than Joe-Schmoe-Body-o'No with only 1000 subscribers.

However, I also want to stress that this algorithm is not just bad for the YouTube creators, it's just as bad, arguably even more, for other creators; filmmakers, game developers, musicians, animators, comic creators, the works. I realize that this does not seem like something worth complaining about, after all film studios spend thousands, upwards of millions on advertising, as do game studios. Plus, it isn't like the music industry is suffering from a garbage algorithm withholding their paychecks, Disney isn't losing money over YouTube deciding not to push their latest upload. Yes, the studios aren't going to suffer because of YouTube's algorithm, because the studios aren't people, they are corporations that don't have the capacity of suffering. No, the real people who will suffer are the artists who make the content for the corporations to hoard money from, especially indie creators.

Let me create a hypothetical; say you're a game developer, and you're spending months on this passion project video game. You don't have any money to afford a team so you create everything by hand, the sprites, the music, the coding, everything. It's heavily inspired by the games you loved growing up and know there are still demand for even though they really don't make them anymore, and you put a lot of attention to detail into this game, what elements to take from your favourite games, and which ones to leave behind. After years of work, you finally release your game to an astounding zero fanfare. Nobody talks about your game, very few people actually buy your game, and by the time it gains traction as a cult hit, the algorithm will have moved on to something completely different.

I've learned about so many weird movies thanks to online reviewers, Movies like Freaked, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, and The Room. Games like Klonoa, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, Remington Super Slam Hunting: Africa, The Stanley Parable,  Thief Simulator, and of course I can't forget the mention Stardew Valley. Other things like The Legend of Calmity Jane and Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, the Legend of Zelda Manga, all of these things were stuff that was introduced to me via online reviewers and content creators. For a lot of people, the internet is where one learns about media that interests them, everyone from reviewers to comedians to countdown artists, all of these lesser known, up and coming, or cult classic pieces of media that ultimately would have just been forgotten and now have been given a second life. Now it's all replaced with brand sponsorship deals and the popular seeking out the popular.

The internet used to be a fantastic place to learn about this movie that had zero staying power but was completely up your alley, because that is the kind of place YouTube used to be. A lot of this does have to fall on the shoulders of how YouTube is used nowadays, we don't really subscribe to personalities or characters, we subscribe to content, so who cares that this critic is talking about a pilot to an internet animated series that is full of promise? They aren't talking about The Amazing Digital Circus. Recently, some BlueSky users have been criticizing Saberspark for seeing the Snow White remake in theatres while the new Looney Tunes movie, The Day The Earth Blew Up, was hardly mentioned by him. However, to play devil's advocate a little bit, what do you think will get more views? The highly talked about, controversial and rage-baiting Disney movie, or the Looney Tunes movie that has stakes only certain people seem to care about. I'm sure Saberspark would have much preferred to watch and talk about The Day The Earth Blew Up, but between the two movies, one is very clearly the one more people will view. This is not speculation either, I can back this up, Doug Walker made a video about both movies, and in six days the video about The Day The Earth Blew Up got 39K views, while in half that time the video on Snow White got 138K views. (As of writing on March 24, 2025)

I can kind of see why it's becoming more popular for studios and companies to just completely remove stuff from streaming because it's not getting the views, because why spend money on something that is not going to be popular? YouTube is the same thing, why push this video that isn't getting any views when this video could get us more ad revenue? This is why it was surprising to many that Disney extended Elemental's theatrical run, and that move paid off because Elemental was a sleeper hit. However, Disney can pull that off because they're a multi-billion dollar company that can take a hit like that. Imagine if the company behind Flow did that, they'd be bankrupt before making a second movie. Funny enough, I can only find videos talking about Flow after it won the Golden Globe, which says to me that the movie would have been relegated to cult status if it wasn't an award show darling.

My ultimate point here is that, because YouTube's algorithm does not encourage branching out and discussing lesser known properties, a lot of creators are going to suffer. Indie creators depend largely on word of mouth and if that is unable to spread then that project ends up unfinished or completely rushed to finish it. We need YouTubers to talk about lesser known media, up and coming projects that show promise and cult classics that deserve re-evaluation, and the great thing is that the power to change this is in our hands. Encourage your favourite media reviewers to talk about obscure things, and actively watch those videos when they come out, don't just stick them in your watch later bin and forget about them. Be aware of content farms and never be afraid to re-watch a video you've seen before. It's also important to share and talk about things you're into, not just online but in person too, which is why video stores and comic shops are great places to check out. YouTube's push for popular content is bad for everyone, so let's do something about it.

Is There a Place For Physical Media to Return?

Many people who talk about and discuss things like video games, movies and TV shows online have all probably had the same thought once or twice; "Why is this thing I like not on any streaming service?", truly it is a question that perplexes many. Companies are taking shows and movies off of streaming for... really no real reason and some things are just being put onto some random and unnecessary service for again, no real reason. The amount of streaming services has just made what was once a convenient alternative become the very thing it was the alternative to; Streaming is the new cable. This annoying disregard for consumer convenience and poor treatment of popular shows and movies has made people reminisce about the days of physical media, which all begs the question, can it come back?

Physical media refers mostly to releases of media on physical formats, most notably CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays, also this 4K Ultra stuff, I dunno what that's about, and vinyl records, those have made a comeback. Of course, Physical media has its limitations, discs of any kind are fragile, prone to scratching and degrade over time. That all being said, I remember back in the day you would have a lot of really cool things on DVDs. I remember being just as transfixed on the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD menu, watching a chocolate bar go through the factory being made and tested by the oompa-loompas, or going through the menus on the Red Dwarf DVDs to find the Easter Eggs. Now a-days, DVD menus are just sad, a singular splash image that is usually just a stock image or the DVD cover image and if you're lucky it will have some music. When I watched Wonder Park for my review, I was taken aback by the fact it had an animated intro for the main menu, you just don't see that anymore.

Menus weren't the only cool thing on DVDs though, you also had commentary tracks, sometimes they put interactive games on there, or even other cool bonuses, with some of my favourites including seeing a Red Dwarf episode reversed, as the gimmick was that the crew were stranded on an Earth that was going backwards in time, and on a Fraggle Rock DVD if you answered every question correctly on a quiz you got some bonus episodes of the Fraggle Rock Animated Series... okay that prize was not worth it but it was still cool. These are the kind of things that a lot of people miss about physical media, that and the fact that when you buy it you actually own it outright, which a lot of digital distribution store-fronts are really bad with, treating their services more like online rental shops where the return date is "Vaguely in the future".

So with all of this in mind, is there a place for physical media to come back? I think the answer is... no, because it never really went anywhere. Yes, most people are using digital storefronts and streaming services instead of buying physical media, however, physical media isn't dead. You will still find DVDs and Blu-rays out in stores, a new format was released nine years ago in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and again, vinyl records have made a comeback. The question really is not if there is a place for physical media to come back, the question is if there is a place for physical media to become as big as it used to be, and the answer to that I think is... maybe.

The big problem is that, of course, media of any kind is expensive. You would probably think that something on a digital storefront would be cheaper, and in some cases it is, but I'm sorry, 50 dollars is a lot to spend on a game on Steam, I mean it's a lot to spend on one game in general, but especially on Steam where you don't have to make-up material costs of making a disc, game case and game manual, even if games no longer come with manuals anymore. The reality is that spending a monthly fee for nearly unlimited access to movies and TV Shows sounds like a better deal that buying a hundred dollar piece of hardware and a 20-40 dollar DVD or Blu-ray of one movie or 100 dollars or more for a boxset of one TV show. Physical media also takes up physical space, and as someone who has a lot of video tapes, DVDs and music CDs, it can add up over time, which is a benefit of only having digital stuff as it only takes up digital space.

Of course, there is also piracy, but I would never (Wink) recommend my readers (wink) to pirate their media (wink). In all seriousness, piracy has become a major problem in the streaming era, well "problem" in quotation marks it really only effects the CEOs and shareholders, largely because of the unpredictability of streaming. This show or movie you love could be taken down from the streaming service you have any day and placed on a streaming service you don't have and don't want to pay for, if it comes back to streaming at all. Look, I don't care what Disney says, Prop Culture was one of the best docuseries on Disney+ and taking it down with no plans to put it back was was a terrible thing to do. Nobody wants to admit that the best way to deal with piracy is to make media easier to access, because that would imply that investing in D.R.M.s and SecuROM nonsense would be a waste of money.

That all being said, I think the main thing that keeps people on streaming services is just the simple fact that for the most-part, they don't want that extra content. Most people don't want DVD commentaries, or bonus games or fully-animated menu screens, they want the movie and the option to change the language and subtitles, everything else is not a bonus, it's unnecessary, like a rug on a carpet. So, how do we rectify this? The short answer is I don't know, streaming has completely changed the way we watch movies and especially TV Shows now, to the point where I really don't think that physical media will ever really be as big as it used to be. That all being said and done, it's not like there aren't people who still want physical media, if only for the ability to actually own something you purchase instead of having your ownership of a product decided by a corporation, and collectors are always looking for things to add to their collections. I think the best solution is that, if you prefer physical media you should go out and buy it if you can, and don't be afraid to cancel your subscriptions to any streaming service, missing out on something does not have to be a bad thing. Physical media never went anywhere, it just stopped being as popular as it used to be.

Also if anyone knows where I can find a Video copy of the 1977 Raggedy Ann & Andy movie I would be really happy, I think it would look great next to my other Raggedy Ann VHS Tapes.

The WORST Animated Movies of 2024

How would I describe 2024 for animation? Well, that is kind of a meaningless question. As a whole, animation has had its ups and downs this year, and there was plenty of good stuff, like The Amazing Digital Circus, that was absolutely peak. LS Mark released the pilot to his new animated series this year, and that was pretty good. There was A New Wish, which I hear most people quite liked. Batman: Caped Crusader, which was... I mean it was alright. X-Men '97 has gotten some good attention, and there is probably quite a bit I am not mentioning, mostly because I just don't really have any time for animated shows, I barely have time for new movies, but I did watch quite a few, but I do want it known that I couldn't watch everything, so if you want a more thorough look at the Animated Cinema of 2024, I'm sure Animated Antic can give you that.

There really is no other way to say this, but for animated movies, 2024 sucked, and this will not be the last time I say that in 2024, I'm repeating myself a lot but I really don't know how else to word it. It's not that this line-up was completely bad, there were some good and unique pieces of animation this year. However, it's very clear that we are officially finished that wave of "Pandemic Ideas", ideas that were bred out of artists of many varieties finally being able to take a breather and let their creativity flow and allow them to work on and polish up something truly unique. It would almost be amusing that we have learned nothing from the pandemic if the world wasn't completely on fire, both metaphorically and practically literally.

Really, all this list really goes to prove is that I'm a miserable curmudgeon who wants to go back to the days of watching Disney VHS tapes and racing around to get my pajamas on and my teeth brushed before the previews were over, and that was awful. Still, 2024 is not over until the worst of the worst have been named and shamed, so let's get to it. Here are the worst animated movies of 2024. 

6. Despicable Me 4

Oh... we're starting this list off strong when Despicable Me 4 is only the bottom of the list. Really, this movie should be higher considering it's from my least liked studio, Illumination. Still, I can't be surprised this movie wasn't good, I mean, did we really expect them to start making masterpieces after The Super Mario Bros. Movie? It's not like they were suddenly gonna start making things that would actually rival Disney or DreamWorks, though movies like this don't help with the feeling that The Super Mario Bros. Movie was not a total fluke.

The big problem was that, they had a lot of ideas and just didn't flesh any of them out. The movie is mainly a combination of three major ideas, Gru goes into witness protection, Gru assists a young villain-to-be in pulling off a heist, and the Minions become superpowered, and then a bunch of smaller ideas that spring off of those three plots. Really, I think if they just picked one plot here, the movie would have been a Hell of a lot better, and picking one or another would give them the chance to flesh out some of these ideas. I like the idea of one of the characters having to lie about their identity while not wanting to lie, that is a good dilemma, but that goes nowhere. I also like the idea of Gru having to decide about whether he wants to have his family and his good guy image or if he does miss the thrill of villainy, but that ultimately does not happen. I'll say it again, if the movie was just Gru and Poppy or Gru and Maxime, it would have been much better, but they had to go with Gru and Poppy and Gru and Maxime and also Super Powered Minions because... we need a new way to get merch sales out of these giant sentient tic-tac mutants.

It's only number six on this list because... let's be real, it's an Illumination movie, and Illumination is pretty much incapable to making anything that's really worth getting angry at.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Easily the most disappointing movie on this list, if the only thing I took into consideration for this list was wasted potential, this would be number one, because there is almost a good movie creeping through here. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say there is a great movie hidden within, something to prove that the Lord of the Rings extended universe can be just as good as the Peter Jackson Trilogy. Instead, we got definitive proof that maybe the Tolkien estate should have kept the film rights under lock and key.

It's not even that there is one glaring issue that makes this whole movie suck, it's a bunch of small things that chip away at my enjoyment of the movie bit by but until the massive marble block is little more than a pile of rubble with a Squidward nose stuck to it. My biggest issue was the camera, they tried so many 360 shots and pans and all kinds of camera movement that half the time I swear I was watching The Gondor Witch Project instead, and it doesn't help that the animation just doesn't look right. I am going to say it, I think this movie has worse visuals that Ralph Bakshi's movie, because I'm not convinced that A.I. wasn't involved in this movie whatsoever. Characters look separate from the backgrounds as though they're greenscreen, which should not be a problem because this is 2D Anime inspired animation, but even then the characters are often too anime, Héra often looking more like a character out of Final Fantasy than Middle Earth. On top of that, she just isn't a good character, she's hyped up to be this badass character, but her God damn horse gets a more badass moment than she does, she really does fit the whole "Strong Female Lead TM" nonsense.

On top of that, it was just so anti-climactic, the antagonist gets killed by being choked with a shield, like come on, like their could have been something more to it, which would have made it more tragic too. Just a disappointing movie, and the archived recordings of the late Sir Christopher Lee do not help, yeah, you totally just added them for marketing hype, you printed that archived recordings were used and gave him a total of eleven lines. I really hope that we don't get anything more like this in the future.

4. The Garfield Movie

I think the main reason I can't say that this is the most disappointing movie of the year is that, I did kind of anticipate a middling, mediocre at best, but still watchable movie. Maybe it was just because Chris Pratt was involved, I dunno.

Really, the strengths of this movie is that, on some level, the crew behind it really did have some understanding of  Garfield, like this wasn't just a quick cash-in like some other Garfield movies were, but at the same time, it doesn't get as heavy or rough as some of the earlier Garfield specials did, or even as some of the comics did. Garfield saying goodbye to his mother is ten times the heart-breaking moment that anything in this movie, and they really do try, but it just didn't come together. Maybe with a better script something may have been decent, but it is kind of difficult to really do a decent Garfield anything when Garfield hasn't been good for a long time. The dry wit and sarcasm of the original strips long since been replaced and so are nowhere to be found in this movie, which sucks because there are moments that do almost, if not entirely, feel like Garfield.

It really is clear to me that Mark Dindal's strengths as a director do not like in movies like this, they lie in the zanier movies like Cats Don't Dance or The Emperor's New Groove, but even then, maybe not. Maybe those movies were just flukes, and The Garfield Movie might just prove it.

3. The Casagrandes Movie

On some level, writing these year end lists is easier for me than other reviews because I can just paraphrase or truncate any First Impressions that I have done, or expand upon any Social Media post I made. That being said, when a movie as completely boring and uninspired as this one comes out, really what else can I do?

I don't want to lift my original First Impressions word for word, but there are only so many ways I can say something is boring and doesn't put any new spin on old, tired jokes and clichés. I was finished with this movie when the ancient God was speaking in modern teenage slang, but I kept soldering on, because maybe this movie would have been somewhat watchable. Instead, it was the most boring animated movie of the year, and at one point I might have put it at the top of this list.

2. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

Frankly, I still think y'all are too harsh on this movie. No, it is not good on any level, but it is still better than Sponge on the Run, I mean do you guys remember Sponge on the Run? No, of course you don't, you remember zombie pirates with Snoop Dogg and Dany Trejo, Keanu Reeves in a Tumbleweed, Plankton Booty and Mr. Enter doing another Angry SpongeBob Review. Let me tell you, Sponge on the Run is the worst, because it does not feel like a SpongeBob movie, with the soundtrack full of modern popular acts (seriously the days of Ween and Motorhead cameoing in SpongeBob are over), attempts to satirize common animated movie tropes and moral about inner beauty or whatever... you know what all that reminds me of? Shrek, Sponge on the Run is a Shrek movie with SpongeBob's skin, and worse, it's not even a good Shrek movie in SpongeBob's skin.

With all that in mind, comparing it to a movie that didn't even feel like SpongeBob, what does this movie have? A line about SpongeBob not being able to watch his streaming shows? Uncanny live-action mixing? A weird moment where Sandy Cheeks gets DeviantArt Inflation put upon her? Yeah, really the worst thing about this movie is that even with all of that, this still isn't as bad as Sponge on the Run, there were moments here that did feel like SpongeBob, which I guess is more the shame all things considered. Really, it just falls under the category of "That Kind of Animated Movie", but even then only barely, and really it's only at number 2 because frankly, it's a much more interesting entry than The Casagrandes Movie. Still, I do think there is something that you can get somewhat upset with here, like SpongeBob means a lot to a lot of people and seeing stuff like this doesn't help. In any other year, I probably would have conceded to popular opinion and put this at number one, just because it would have given me the most to talk about, you know without the stigma of a good movie trying to break out of it like with The Lord of the Rings movie.

But this shockingly, was not just any other year, this was 2024 and 2024 gave us one massive surprise that we frankly should have seen coming, yet none of us did.

1. Where the Robots Grow

What, you didn't see this movie? Of course you haven't, at most, you watched Saberspark's video about it and promptly forgot it existed, lucky you.

Really, on principle this has to make number one, because the use of A.I. in creative spaces has truly been the death of creativity. A.I. is little more than legalized plagiarism stuck inside the uncanny valley, and the fact that any movie can be made with A.I., that just has to make it the worst animated movie of the year by default, doesn't it? I don't blame people for not watching it, why would anyone bother to watch a movie that nobody could be bothered to make? At least with the Lord of the Rings movie, I can convince myself that it was all done by human animators, I can believe it was all humans who made it. Really though, this is just giving the creator, or should I say the prompter, what they want, attention. They probably did hope that this was the movie that would make everyone change their mind about A.I. in creative spaces, or maybe they just wanted to show it can be done and get all the attention off of it, well guess what; No.

Come to think of it, I haven't actually watched this movie myself, really. Can I qualify it for this list if I didn't watch it? No joke, I seriously did not watch this movie before writing all of this about it, it is literally number one because it was made using A.I. and really that isn't entirely fair, is it? Can I put this movie on here by principle? Yes, the answer is yes. Yeah it isn't fair, but it also isn't fair that A.I. is being used to replace genuine creative talent while also stealing from said creative talent so I think it's fair game for everyone to call this the worst animated movie of 2024, even if they haven't actually watched it. I don't swear on this blogs, but ---- this movie, just for existing.

Well... that was fun, 2024 was not a great year for animated movies, but I am hoping that 2025 will be better. Like I said, I couldn't watch every animated movie this year, so while Megamind 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King would have been total shoe-ins for this list, sometimes I am just going to have to miss a few things. That being said, the big trend I notice in this batch of garbage is that, at the core of every movie here, there isn't a bad movie, except maybe for the A.I. movie, but honestly most of the movies here weren't even that infuriating, like I genuinely can't think of any real reason why to be mad at the existence of most of these movies, which is entirely why Where the Robots Grow was an easy number one entry. Really, 2024 was the year of the disappointment, where some movies just were not as good as they could have been.

Anyway, to round out the list, here are a few dishonorable mentions:

1. Orion and the Dark - I just did not enjoy this messy film, but I can see why some might like it.
2. Thelma the Unicorn - A very predictable and very mediocre movie, but harmless enough.
3. The Imaginary - This movie just... rubbed me the wrong way, would have been on the list if I actually got around to finishing it. Maybe I'll give it a review in 2026 or something, but no promises.

Old and Forgotten YouTube: Why The Microwave Show Could Never Exist In Modern Times

Author's Note: Look, I can't predict the future, if I knew that Disney was gonna do something terrible, which frankly is as safe a bet as you can possibly make, then I would have decided to wait and write about that. The problem with weekly posts is, when you have something ready by the deadline, you can't really replace it, and when you have time to write about it, it's no longer at the height of relevancy. So, to begin this post, I'm gonna state, for the record, screw you Disney, and Trans Rights!

End Author's Note

When I was a kid, YouTube was an entirely different beast than it is now, it really was the type of place where anything was available, and most of us used it to watch pirated TV Shows and movies, but there was original content, and if you thought YouTube could get weird today, well where do you think it came from? On some level I guess I do miss "Weird YouTube", some would argue we still have it in places, but what do we really have today? Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? That began in 2011, plus, the animations of David Firth are way weirder. The Amazing Digital Circus? That's not weird, that makes tons of sense compared to compared to stuff like There Is Nothing or Olivier de Sagazan, "Transfiguration" performance. You think any of the big name YouTube stars are doing weird things, explain to me what the Hell Shay Saint John was. I should probably clarify here, "Weird YouTube" wasn't just spooky and unnerving stuff, it mostly became that because weird and spooky go hand in hand, but "Weird YouTube" was an era of YouTube when literally any dumb idea could take off, case in point, I have a question to ask you; Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?

"Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?", hereafter referred to as The Microwave Show (yes I did use "hereafter" to be pretentious), was a show that originally aired on July 1, 2007 created by director Jonathan Paula and host Jory Caron. The basic concept of the show was that they stuck a bunch of random crap in a microwave and filmed what happened, if anything happened at all. Then they would decide whether or not it was a good idea to do so. I'm not sure if they ever took this idea seriously but after a while the term "Good idea" and "Bad Idea" were kind of just punchlines, like you never really were meant to take this show super seriously, maybe Season 1, but that's really it. The show lasted for 10 seasons, ending in July, 2011 and it aired a few bonus episodes until August 2015. The many countless microwaves, weird experiments and the hosts Jory, Jon and the sidekick Riley Mcllwain are forever etched in the history of YouTube.

The Microwave Show was my eye opening experience to the wonders and possibilities of YouTube, the reason I got a YouTube channel was to watch an episode that was "Flagged" and so you had to be over a certain age to watch it, shockingly it wasn't the episode where they microwaved a condom. You can imagine that this show has some sentimental value to me, and you would probably expect me to say that this show needs to come back, and while I would love to see a return of The Microwave Show, I also have to concede to the point that maybe it's a good idea to not bring the show back.

Of course the first thing people will say is "You're just saying that because the edgy humour hasn't aged well" and, I mean some of it hasn't sure, but that's not the reason. Jon, Jory and Riley weren't working off of any scripts, so everything they said was improvised and off-the-cuff, so if they came back to do another season, I do think we'd get some different kinds of jokes out of them. Of course, the chances of them coming back to do another season are slim considering Jon and Riley both have families and they might not want to do something like this anymore.

The next thing you might say is "Oh you're saying it shouldn't come back because kids will imitate it even though YouTube is not solely meant for kids", and I will admit, that is a part of the reason. That being said, the guys were aware of how bad some of the stuff they did was, putting "Don't Try This At Home" warnings on some of their more dangerous experiments before making it a common feature in Season 7. I also remember there was an imitation on YouTube that was being uploaded around the same time, "What Happens When You Microwave This?" which was more or less the same idea, but without the Good Idea/Bad Idea thing. I would also be remiss if I did not mention this, but there was another alleged imitator who was uploading his own microwave videos onto YouTube, and during one experiment, started a fire that killed his mother. Jon himself talked about this situation on his secondary channel.

So yes, this has happened before, but it does highlight exactly the real reason I think this show should not come back. To put it bluntly, YouTube has changed.

I'm not saying that YouTube has changed in that, this kind of content is no longer allowed on the platform, I mean, The Slow Mo Guys have done several videos with explosives, firearms and sharp blades, so YouTube would still allow this kind of stuff on their site. No, YouTube has changed in the sense that it no longer has become about having that unique and weird idea that gets all the attention, but it's become a giant, globally scaled rat race, a rat race where following trends and making content farms has become more profitable than having unique ideas.

To be absolutely fair, this is not new to YouTube, the previously mentioned imitation shows still existed, particularly "What Happens When You Microwave This?" with one of their most notable episode being when they microwaved ten of the worst video games ever made. I think this show is mostly lost media now. However, there is difference here, these guys weren't making it a content farm or making any indication that what they were doing was a good idea. Really, the rise of the content farm has made YouTube a far more dangerous place for kids than Television or Video Games, because these content farms with their bright cheery music, colourful visuals and usage of smiling emojis will make things that are irrefutably dangerous and make them seem, like doable and fun ideas.

I really have to wonder how everyone feels about the legacy of The Microwave Show, because it genuinely was one of the shows that shaped original YouTube, it defined a bygone era of YouTube that we may never see again, but at the same time, the YouTube landscape has changed to the point where a show like this is a massive risk. While they might put "Don't Try This at Home" warnings on everything and mark their content as "Not For Kids", the content farms that steal from them might not, and they might get someone killed, someone else killed.

If you want a good channel talking about the dangers of content farms like 5-Minute Crafts, Australian YouTuber and Food Scientist Ann Reardon of How to Cook That does a lot of videos debunking bad and dangerous baking hacks from content farms, and I highly recommend these videos.

The Top 10 Best Death Battle Fights

So earlier this year, it was announced that Rooster Teeth was being shut down, and as someone who has been on the internet for pretty much most of my life, it was a bit of a bummer to hear the news, even if I had made statements about Rooster Teeth being kinda sucky. Plus, it made myself, and a bunch of others, curious about what would happen to their shows, namely RWBY, Red vs Blue and the one I was most curious about, Death Battle. Recently though, it was announced that Death Battle creators, Ben Singer and Chad James and a few others, managed to acquire the rights to the show Death Battle and have finished crowdfunding campaign to continue on with the show. Now, I'm excited because  Death Battle is genuinely one of my favourite web-shows because it really tapped into conversations we've all had as kids, who would win in a fight? Seriously, if you were into any media as a kid and you had friends, you've had this conversation at least once, could SpongeBob beat Aquaman? Could Mario beat Sonic the Hedgehog? Could, I dunno... Lena from DuckTales fight Hunter from The Owl House?

Now being as I am excited to see this series return, I knew I had to do a blog about it, but what type of blog? Well, I could do one about what match-ups I'd like to see, and while I'd love to talk about Cybersix vs Jack from Bioshock, or Katara vs Lapis Lazuli, I've already done that on my Tumblr, so what haven't I talked about? Well, the battles we do have!

Seriously, I can't believe I haven't talked about my favourite fights in Death Battle before, I think it's because I wanted to save it for a different top ten list idea, the top ten animated fight scenes, but that idea hasn't materialized so I'll do it now, but I do feel like I need to get some ground rules out of the way, because Death Battle, and really versus debates as a whole, kind of lead to a lot of... y'know, the "Ak-shoo-allee" types, so let me state for the record;
1. Just because I am a fan of these fights, doesn't mean I necessarily agree with the outcome.
2. This list is about the fights themselves, not the analysis or research
3. It's my own damn list, so shut up!

That all being said, it's time for a Death Battle countdown!

10. Sauron vs Lich King

I think this one is a pretty good standard match-up. Nothing too flashy, nothing too over-the-top, just an entertaining duel between similar enough characters. I'm not actually a huge fan of either Tolkien or Warcraft, so I don't know that much about either character, save for the basics. I'm also really amused at how this is actually one of the biggest time-gaps between characters in Death Battle history. Lots of people will bring up some of the badass lines and moments, and those do elevate this battle quite a bit, but I think on its own, this is just a solid fight that is always one I enjoy coming back to.

9. Samurai Jack vs Afro Samurai

This battle's strength is in how well they emulate the feeling of a Samurai Jack episode, a lot of the editing and shots feel like they were lifted directly out of an episode of Samurai Jack. I didn't grow up with Samurai Jack, I watched it a bit later in life, and I liked it. It was one of those shows that took heavy inspiration from the anime that was becoming more popular in the west, so it makes sense that they would pit him up against a manga character. I do think it is the style that elevates this one for me more than anything else, more than anything, it does make me want to get back into Samurai Jack. I'm not super into the hand-drawn style they used, it just doesn't look super right for Jack, but it does fit the match-up so I guess that's just me.

8. Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro

Oh man, I remember when this battle came out, being a huge fan of Screwattack's Top Ten videos, I was familiar with Segata Sanshiro, the Japanese advertising mascot for the Sega Saturn, and of course we all love the Chuck Norris jokes, so this battle was bound to be epic, and it was... for season 2. Yeah, early Death Battle match-ups do have a bit of a different feel to them rather than more modern ones, if I was gonna do a Crash Thompson style "How To Get Into" about Death Battle, I'm probably put Seasons 1 and 2 in the Procced with Caution section, but they both have good episodes, though it does say something about the season when the joke battle that ends with the fighters destroying the entire galaxy and they are still canonically fighting is one of the better episodes of the season.

7. Joker vs Sweet Tooth

If I had to pick a battle that represents the match-ups I thought we're gonna be lesser in some way (Not necessarily bad, but maybe pretty obvious) but ended up being really fun, I think I'd go with this one. I think my initial thought was that, being that Twisted Metal is primarily a vehicular combat game, I mean it wasn't that I thought Joker was outmatched, but I thought it was a bit unfair. Of course now knowing about the Joker-Mobile, the actual vehicular part of this battle was quite fun, and honestly I do wish it went on a bit more. However, seeing Joker just mess-around with Needles was just hilarious, so I do think the rest of the battle is equally satisfactory. It does go to show, sometimes weird ideas work, and work better than good ideas.

6. Goku Black vs Reverse-Flash

I think this battle was the biggest surprise to me, when I first watched it I genuinely did not anticipate the winner. Beyond that, I think this is another really entertaining battle, it is easily my favourite of the predominately sprite-animated battles. I was vaguely familiar with Reverse-Flash, I knew he existed, but not being a comics reader at the time, I just kind of figured he was an evil version of The Flash. I think this was a great introduction to the character for me, his behavior was just the right amount of vile that he was entertaining to watch. Also, I have to give points for one of the most gruesome defeats in Death Battle history, not the most brutal, but I do think it's got to be up there.

5. Goro vs Machamp

This fight was just straight up funny. Like the basic concept alone, Mortal Kombat champion Goro fighting just an average Pokémon, I mean, that's just hilarious. What's even funnier is that this isn't a joke battle like SpongeBob vs Aquaman, they do actually take this one as seriously as any other Death Battle episode. Just the idea of Goro getting repeatedly frustrated by a Pokémon is grounds enough to warrant putting this battle on the list for me, like I think this may be my pick for funniest Death Battle fight, at the very least a close second. Also, when Goro tells Machamp to face death like a warrior, I don't speak Machamp, but I'm pretty sure its response was "you first".

4. Ratchet & Clank vs Jak & Daxter

Now this one, this one is special to me. As a PlayStation 2 kid, I was very familiar with Jak & Daxter, and my brother did also play a lot of Ratchet & Clank, so this was a match-up we probably would have discussed as kids. Seeing this battle just brings me a fun feeling of nostalgia, it's match-ups like this that really do make these kinds of debates fun. Seeing characters I have known since childhood actually squaring off... you know in something that isn't complete crap, it just puts a big smile on my face.

3. Saitama vs Popeye

Remember when I said that if Goro vs Machamp wasn't the funniest than it was a close second? This battle may be the one that gives Goro vs Machamp a competition for the title. First off, it's Popeye, straight up I don't think they could have done this battle without making it funny considering that Popeye's rubber hose animation style lends itself to slapstick gags. Secondly, the transition between animation styles is just an amazing touch, they even have a style that gives a nod to the original comic strip that Popeye originated from. Though the 3D Popeye model was a weird choice, I mean seriously, when you have a cartoonish model for Saitama and a realistic model for Popeye, that's just bizarre, at least the model could have looked like Robin Williams a little. They really did go all out on this battle, and I think it's because they knew nobody was gonna be fooled, Saitama might be the One Punch Man, but Popeye is Popeye the Sailor Man.

2. Solid Snake vs Sam Fisher

For a while, this was actually my favourite battle. It was such a unique kind of match-up that Death Battle hasn't really done since. Snake and Fisher, both being characters from Stealth based video games, take more stealthy approaches to this battle, resorting to out maneuvering each other as often as they try to beat each other up. I also really like how this felt more like a team based battle, as it was just Snake and Fisher, but also Otacon and Grim, which leas to a battle brain just as much as a battle of brawn. There is a lot about season 2 that doesn't really hold up very well, but I think this one still holds up. It's a unique battle but doesn't stray too far from the formula. Really, the question is, why isn't this my favourite anymore, and I think I know the answer as to why.

1. Balrog vs TJ Combo

For a brief period of time, I was into pro-wrestling, and it made sense. There was something primal about it, something that tapped into a basic part of my brain, it was watching two people fight, and I believe that might have been one of the earliest form of entertainment. I bring this up because, the main gimmick behind Balrog vs TJ Combo is that it begins like a standard boxing match, and I absolutely adore it. I like that they are using a gimmick not as a way to make a battle different, but as a way to enhance the battle. Of course these two would meet up in a boxing match, of course they would take things to seriously and actually go this far, none of it fails to work. I think this is also a great example of taking an idea that didn't work and fixing it, because it is very similar to the episode Hercule Satan vs Dan Hibiki, where the gimmick was that it was a match-up set in the Tournament of Power, but it didn't work there because it felt much slower and was clearly played more for comedy, which makes sense considering the characters, but that was about it. This battle is much faster paced and the announcer isn't as annoying in this one. This battle is my favourite because it is everything I appreciate about Death Battle, it is not too different, not completely the same, and it is a better version of a battle that I didn't really like that much. Gotta give props for this one, it's good.

I am really happy that Death Battle is coming back, and while I can't say I'm super excited for Omni-Man Vs Bardock, I think it's just gonna be Goku Vs Superman Part 4, I can't say I won't watch it, I might even watch it as a premier if they do that. Will the upcoming season have any battles that usurp these as my favourites? Maybe, there are quite a few I am looking forward to, but as of now, we're just going to have to wait and see. Until next time, I'll see y'all in the ring.

Oh yeah, and some honourable mentions:

Batman vs Spider-Man - Definitely worth a mention, I feel like this was really the point where Death Battle really started to get refined into the series it is now. Granted a lot more refining had to be done, but I think this one is where it all started.

Crash vs Spyro - As a massive Spyro fan, I do like this battle, but I think it's just a bit too goofy for my taste.

Aang vs Edward Elric - If we ignore the show ignoring Aang's pacifism for this battle, it was a pretty solid fight.

Ghost Rider vs Lobo - Probably my second favourite Marvel vs DC match-up.

Cable vs Booster Gold - Second to this one.

Deadpool vs Deathstroke - This fight was just funny.

Red vs Blue - The new voice cast weirded me out a bit, but the fight itself was really good, and in keeping with the actual Red vs Blue series.

Pretty Much all of Season 10 - I didn't really want to include Season 10 on this list because, this season was just the best and it would have taken up like, half of this list if I included any of the battles, so I decided to play it safe. If you're curious, my favourite battle from this season is Frieza vs Megatron.

Ben 10 vs Green Lantern - PSYCHE!! I actually don't care about this one, I was never a Ben 10 or DC comics kid, so as far as I'm concerned this battle was a meh. I do enjoy a harmless trolling sometimes though.

Why is The Amazing Digital Circus Absurdly Popular?

Absurdly is probably not the right word for it, in under a week the second episode of The Amazing Digital Circus reached not ten million, not twenty million, but fifty million views on YouTube, currently at ninety-three million, and as of June 13th, 2024, the pilot is at three-hundred and twenty-seven million views. Now, I loved the pilot and the second episode as much as the next person, but there is a question that is sticking in the back of my mind, something I've wanted to ask with the pilot but never really got the chance to. All in all, it really isn't a big question, frankly it's inconsequential, but I got to know, does Caine ever accidentally bite down on his eyeballs? Okay, in all seriousness, the question I really wanted to ask is, why this show? Specifically, what is it about this show that makes it so popular?

Somethings, it makes sense why they're so popular, SpongeBob, Superman, Minecraft, Star Wars, I get why these properties are so popular, but a lot of that is hindsight and years worth of fans taking about every aspect of these things to death. The most recent example in that selection was Minecraft, which was officially released in 2011, thirteen years ago, and it was available to the public since 2009. The Amazing Digital Circus pilot was released in 2023, just barely a year ago. Yet it already has more views than the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room. Hell, the Angry Video Game Nerd episode on NES Accessories as of writing this has only eighteen million views. Is It a Good Idea to Microwave an Airbag, one of the most well-known episodes of the webseries that got me into web-content, is at two and a half Million views. Actually no, I think the only way I can really illustrate how crazy insane popular The Amazing Digital Circus is, is by stating this fact; The Amazing Digital Circus pilot has amassed more views in less than a year, than Don't Hug Me I'm Scared did in twelve years. So, why is this show so popular?

Well, let's start with the very basic; the show is accessible. The Pilot is available in eighteen different languages and has closed captions for sixteen. Granted that is not anywhere close to the amount of languages there are in the world, but that is still an amazing amount. It goes to show the obvious, accessibility is a good thing. However, I don't think this is the full story. I'm sure the accessibility helps, and I'm sure it helps quite a lot, but all that accessibility wouldn't matter if nobody was watching it, and clearly people are, so I ask again, what is it about this show that appeals to people, to the point that it does actually matter that it's available in other languages?

Well, let's move from the very basic, to the very obvious; The Internet loves horror. "Oh, but I'm on the internet and I don't like horror", hey, I was like that too, but I still read Creepypasta, I wasn't too good for Jeff the Killer and Candle Cove, Hell I got my start in reviewing by talking about creepypasta on DeviantArt, don't go looking for those journals, I have honed my craft so much since those days. It goes way beyond Creepypasta though, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was a sensation to the point that it was referenced in children's cartoons, Five Nights at Freddy's was such a viral sensation that it spawned a whole generation of horror games entirely made to be played by talent-less clickbait Let's Play channels, Hell it's not even just true-horror that gets popular, the most popular Homestar Runner toons are almost always the Halloween toons, to the point where those are pretty much the only thing we get out of Homestar Runner anymore. So horror and Halloween vibes are practically worshipped on the internet in the same way that Led Zeppelin is worshipped in rock and roll communities.

Once again, I don't think this is the full story. The internet loves horror, but that doesn't mean every horror thing is beloved. A lot of those old creepypasta stories are, rightfully, dunked on and mocked online, and bad horror games are practically a dime a dozen and often ignored, and terrible horror movies are almost never talked about, in fact I took part in one of those Twitter Retweet Response Thread things which asked for terrible horror movies, so while the internet loves horror, it also clearly only loves good horror, and bad horror is mocked, criticized and forgotten about. Besides, I don't think I'd call The Amazing Digital Circus a full on horror series, not like The Gregory Horror Show, honestly not even in the same vein as Courage the Cowardly Dog. It definitely has horror elements, but the kind of horror it reminds me of is more like The Stanley Parable, which... I don't know if you would call a horror game, but it certainly has a bleak, almost psychological horror vibe at points. So if it isn't the accessibility, or the horror, what makes it so popular?

Is it just that the show is THAT good? Well... of course, people wouldn't watch it if it wasn't. However, that's not the full story either. "Good" content doesn't always explode in popularity, especially not instantaneously. Many creators will talk about having that one video that opened the floodgates so to speak, some creators will even have a video that completely revitalizes their channel. So the excellent quality is definitely a factor, but it doesn't fully explain the immense amount of views.

There is also the possibility that the show is genuinely so eye-catchingly unique and different that it had to stand out and become popular. Which is a fair argument... except for the fact you could say the same about most internet content. Again, I must bring up Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. It has significantly less views than The Amazing Digital Circus does, and I'd argue it's just as, if not maybe more unique. Really, the entire reason that internet content is more popular than traditional television or cinema is entirely because it is different, new and arguably groundbreaking. Any old fans of Game Theory or James Stephanie Sterling will recognize this comparison, it's like pasta sauce, there is always a market for a chunky sauce. Well, the internet is filled with that "chunky sauce", and all manner of pasta sauces that you can't watch on a television station or in the movie theatres. So, if The Amazing Digital Circus is not popular solely because of accessibility, the fact the internet loves horror, the show being of excellent quality, or the fact that the show is unique, what is the reason?

Well, isn't it obvious? It's all of that and more. It's kind of the perfect storm really, the description of the pilot describes it as a "Psychological dark comedy", so people who are into horror and horror adjacent content, i.e. the internet, would check it out, they would be impressed by the quality of the video and the fact that they haven't really seen anything entirely like this before and share it around, and because the show is available in multiple languages, anyone who is interested in it can check it out no matter what language they speak, it was the perfect storm of right idea in the right place at the right time, because... 2023 was not a very good year for animation. I say that like I am an expert on everything that was happening at the time, but no, 2023 was pretty bad, in fact the 2020s has not been a good decade for mainstream animation. However, independent animation, now the 2020s has been a fantastic decade for that. It blows my mind that The Amazing Digital Circus came out in 2023, because it feels like the kind of thing that would have been released in the absolute golden year that I did not give enough credit to, 2022. 

Honestly, I can see The Amazing Digital Circus being one of those shows that inspires the next generation of artists, like a lot of animations, comics, video games and short stories are gonna come out in the next few years that have such obvious traces of the Digital Circus in them, that it stops being funny. The popularity of The Amazing Digital Circus is an interesting phenomenon because, on the surface it is very obvious why the show is so popular, it's a really good show, but when you really look at how popular it is, that is where it becomes fascinating. If it was just a good show, it wouldn't be this popular, and I don't think it is just one thing that makes it such. If there is one thing I can say however, is that we want justice for Gummigoo!