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Weekly YouTube Recommendations from an Internet Stranger (a.k.a. me)

I think most of us can say that YouTube is an invaluable part of the Internet in today's culture. Since the early 2010s, it has grown into so much more beyond a "let's share funny videos" place. Not only is it endlessly entertaining, but it is also educational, people produce essays and analyses on popular culture, various media, and politics for a living on there, and unlike Twitter, it looks incapable of being "Elon Musk-ed" due to the value of its content (though, we'll have to wait and see if that's the case in the future).

All that aside, here are some good videos that I've been watching over the past week that I think people could get a good watch out of.

#1. Detail Diatribe - Superheroes in Empty Worlds (by Overly Sarcastic Productions)

Like many people, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the MCU. Besides the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and the first two Captain America movies, there has been nothing really to grab my attention from the "superhero industrial complex" as of late. However, there is also another problem that Red from the always-wonderful channel Overly Sarcastic Productions brings up in this presentation, which is essentially: why are any of these heroes around? What keeps them doing the hero work? It's a fascinating look into a bunch of different superhero media, how a bunch of them either fail or succeed at this element of world building that makes the actions of their star characters feel important in the wider worlds they inhabit, with people that matter and are worth saving, giving the superhero a role to play in the fiction.

#2. Tom Barkel, Father of Modern Western Sakura | Animator Archives (by Vingu1K)

I only came across the term "sakuga" a few weeks ago, but it once again instills my envy for other languages, such as Japanese and German, to have singular words that accurately describe relatively niche phenomenon, i.e. "lebensmude", which Collins Dictionary defines as being "weary or tired of life", and "tsundoku", which describes having purchased stacks books and neglecting to have read them. "Sakuga" (lit. "drawing pictures") refers to moments in a show or film when the animation quality noticeably increases, underscoring a moment's drama or making an action scene more impactful. Of the numerous animators that specialize in producing these moments, Tom Barkel is one from the West that I am continually impressed with. Working for Flying Bark Productions, he has been involved with Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Amphibia, The Owl House, and Lego Monkie Kid. This AMV handily summarizes what makes those moments so incredible: they are moments where you can visibly see the increased effort & budget in an animation production, as well as just the artistry behind the person or people that made them. They remind you: these are media made with care & passion, and Tom Barkel's work helps do just that. It also helps that the video uses a killer song and editing that makes the animation & music flow very well together.

#3. Bloodborne DLC OST - Ludwig, The Holy Blade (by dudewhereismyspoon)

I do not play video games. I simply do not have the time or space for them yet in my life, or to purchase the necessary hardware. However, filmed no-commentary walkthroughs and retrospective analyses of games, I can do. Hence, I have come to learn about the existence of Bloodborne, on Wikipedia's list of "Games considered to be the best", spanning from Pac-Man to 2020's Hades, and the masterpiece of boss design that is Ludwig. To briefly & inaccurately summarize: in the lore of the game, Ludwig was one of the first of the Hunters of the Healing Church of Yharnam, dedicated to vanquishing the scourge of beasts that plagued the city, like the player character, derived from the eldritch nature on which the city was constructed. However, over time Ludwig succumbed to his supernatural bloodlust, and transformed into a Lovecraftian horse-like monster, sanity erased and holed up in a catacomb beneath the city. When you first fight him, he wildly flails at you on his arms & legs, with the temper and animalistic drive to kill of pure, mad, bestial primacy. Then, once you chip him down to half health, he sees his old sword, the Moonlight Greatsword Ludwig crafted to wield the powers of the nebulous cosmos, and it calls his sanity back to him. Now, such a sword was previously found in Dark Souls 1 & 2 for the player to wield. It was a known staple of the FromSoftware gaming catalogue. Now, Ludwig is using it against you, STANDING UP, and then this music starts to play. The main thing I love about this song is that it is a waltz - you are giving Ludwig his last dance, fighting him as a man struggling to hold onto what sanity he has left so he can die with honor. It is one of the best songs ever made for a FromSoft game, and captures the moment superbly well.

#4. A Thorough Look at Fallout [Revised/Expanded/HD] (by Noah Caldwell-Gervais)

Noah Caldwell-Gervais is one of the best essayists I have seen on YouTube since discovering him back in 2020. It was his dual videos on the Soulsborne series last year that got me actually interested in a franchise I thought I could never get into. A few days ago, he went full circle, and released a months-long project of his: a redo of his original 2013 retrospective on the Fallout franchise. It is long, at nine hours in length, nine and a half if you want to stick around for the Patreon credits, but it is worth it. For a franchise so near and dear to his heart, it truly is inspiring to observe how Noah analyzes how this series has evolved since its brilliant inception in 1997, to the more political & absurd Fallout 2, to the interesting mess of Fallout Tactics, to the boring & sophomoric mess of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, to the ghost of Van Buren, to the open-world pioneer of Fallout 3, to the masterclass of RPG design that is New Vegas, and finally to the modern simulation-focused iterations of Fallout 4 & 76. It is genuinely fascinating to behold, and I can't wait to see wait he covers next in the months to come. I don't care if it takes him as long as Joseph Anderson's Witcher 3 video, I will be eagerly waiting to hear what this man has to say about the wide world of video games.

That's all for now. To whoever reads this, I hope you found these things interesting. I wish you a good day, and stay safe.

#noah caldwell-gervais #fallout #bloodborne #tom barkel #MCU #overly sarcastic productions #Youtube