...

04-21-2024: There’s Some Miscommunication

(Warning: This is blog mentions sexual harassment, grooming, suicidal thoughts, YouTube/Twitter drama and swearing. Please take care before reading on.)

So some of you remembered that last month, I wrote a blog about a former favorite YouTube Let’s Player of mine, Chuggaaconroy who was ousted as a creep and a groomer by three people back in January, which then led to my first meltdown in months. Well on April 16th, he came out of the woodwork to talk about his side of the story. I know this can end poorly for those who were accused of sexual harassment, where they’ll end up blaming the victim and such and such. Oh course, when I saw his name popped up on a Know Your Meme article on the day after he talked about the topic, I got scared that he might say some nasty things about the victims who accused him of doing all those things and that it’ll cause me to have my first meltdown in almost 3 months!

It turns out the scandal is all nothing but some miscommunication on not just on his side, but for EVERYONE who saw it when down! He mention about what happened with Lady Emily (the one who start it all on Twitter) who accused him of being a creep from their private DM on Twitter last fall. It later turns out that there were some miscommunication on both sides as it turned out she was okay doing what they were doing in their private DM. It was when he stepped out of his boundaries, that’s where the problem started. At least he apologized for making her feel uncomfortable after reading what she posted on the day after.

As for how the scandal started, it was from a YouTube video of an Ask Reddit post on who’s the least controversial YouTuber came out, where many said Chuggaaconroy was one of the least controversial YouTuber. After the video was released, it was when she starting telling everyone the terrible things that he did to her and the screenshots to do she’s telling the truth. While he apologized to her after reading her comments, she said that it wasn’t enough and that there might be more victims that’ll come out of the light! Of course, she was proven right over that, but how she handle it was…not that good. I think she even lied on some of the things he did to her, which then caused the Internet to go after him!

Jerk.

And this is why so many sexual assault victims are too scared to file a police report against their abusers because there are people like YOU, who like to spread lies about being assaulted, which can ruin someone’s life if it ends up to be proven false! To make things worse, this wasn’t the first she tried to blame someone for something she had done in the past with them. Of course, I didn’t like that she was getting death threats from some of his fans, which is wrong either way. So as the result, Lady Emily just basically lost respect for many (and some of her fans) over this and that she’s now known to not be trusted at all due to the things she said to make the situation worst.

Then there was the fact he harassed one of his former friends, Masae Anela, which led to her to cutting ties with him and getting rid some of the videos they were in on her channel, as the result of the scandal. It turns out they were DATING (which the fans have been speculating about for years) and were even ENGAGED at one point! Like no one in the fandom knew that they actually dated, expect for their friends as that they rather be quiet on the mum; can’t blame them for wanting to keep it private! But then they broke it off around in 2021, which then led to her getting angry that he posted the Splatoon 2 cameo videos without her consent as he thought they were still friends after the break up. Then I found out that part wasn’t supposed to come out at all as it came out at a bad time when the scandal broke out!

Thankfully, Masae Anela later apologized for bring that out in the blue and nearly damaged his reputation over that. Chuggaaconroy accepted her apology and then apologized for posting her cameo without permission as well. Then they wished each other well before announcing that they are done talking about this as they want to move on. The fact they did that is to show how mature they are on handling a situation like that. It sucks that they’re no longer friends, but at least they patched that up before moving on.

Then there’s the big one: that Chuggaaconroy groomed a child (who was 4 years younger than him at the time of the incident). It turns out that was not the case there as the only thing he did was that he sent her dumb memes based on the time period (the early 2010s’), which back then it was edgy and dark. As for what happened, she started to make a move on him, which made him feel uncomfortable and decided to end all communications with her. Then 10 years later, she found and messaged him on Discord, where she apologized to him for what she did as she was immature at the time when they talked. It was thanks her apologizing, the two managed to put that in the past and became friends again.

I think someone later found their conservation somewhere on the Internet and decided to show it, which what make people think he’s a groomer, which he wasn’t at the case. He mentions that he now regret sending those memes as they has now aged poorly, due to how sexist and mean-spirited they were.

Then there’s the AntDude situation, where Chuggaaconroy is accused of harassing his girlfriend in the past, which caused him to get banned from appearing in AntDude’s future videos. I don’t think Chuggaaconroy mentioned that on his post, what he did that got himself banned or if it really happened since I haven’t heard AntDude’s reaction on this. Hopefully it’s nothing too terrible that will make the scandal worse than what it already did.

Along with explaining that, he then talked about some of the darker part of his childhood, which he mention on and off in his videos. Like, we knew that he grew up poor, had a shitty druggie father, who then later abandoned him and his mom and was heavily bullied in high school due to his hobbies and from being autistic. But what we didn’t know, which he never mention in his videos, is that he was also a victim of sexual assault as a child! Now I know that doesn’t mean to excuse him for what he did, but it does explain on why he behaved the way he did and how the trauma still affects him to this day. So for all those jokes about losing his innocence that he mentions in his and The Runaway Guys videos? It just got darker and sadder thanks to the fact and because of that; I don’t think anyone is going to make anymore jokes on that after hearing what happened to him.

As for the general reaction, I think people feel bad for him for what happened in the last 3 months and are starting to regret saying some mean things about him. Including the part where they jumped the gun too soon (like me) over the news and basically tried to end his YouTube career over some miscommunication and the boundaries that he pushed too far (a bad habit that he, his friends and the fandom, has known for years). Then he mentions about the suicidal thoughts that he got from the scandal in that he had to go to rehab to get help and had to get off the Internet for a while based on his doctor’s orders. Thankfully, he’s getting the help he needed and the fact he’s willing to acknowledge his mistakes and is taking responsibility for them, shows that he’s taking this seriously, which is a sign of maturity that not many are willing to do.

As for my reaction, I too feel bad for over what happened. So yes, I was rightfully angry for all the things he did when the news first came out in January. But that was based on some of the posts that I saw on both Tumblr and on his TV Tropes forum page (which the latter since been locked down due to everyone going off topic from the scandal), in which caused my first meltdown in months. It didn’t help I had a bad week when the news came out, which made things worse for me. Of course, I admit that I’m gullible as hell when it comes to serious shit like sexual assault and that I shouldn’t even believe those posts said above with seeing proof in the first place! At least I wasn’t on Twitter when the scandal first broke out, which would make my mental health worse.

After all that, I think I’m ready to forgive him for what happened. I will judge him for what he did in the past, thought and that it’ll be a long time until I can gain my trust with him again. Prior to that, he was one of the few YouTubers I respected as he was one of the few non-controversial ones and when all hell breaks loose, that’s when I lost my trust with him. But I know for some, they’ll never forgive Chuggaaconroy for the things he did, even if he’s willing to admit that he did is wrong is going to get help for over the fact. And if that’s the case, then I won’t blame them for not forgiving him as it’s hard for everyone to forgive a person for something they did wrong.

The reason I’m willing to forgive him is because it was after that announcement, one of the core members of The Runaway Guys, ProtonJon, refollowed him on Twitter, which shows that he’s willing to give Chuggaaconroy another chance. To me, if the most serious member of the group is ready to forgive him, then I think it’s the sign that I might forgive him as well.

Of course, he’s won’t be coming back to The Runaway Guys anytime soon as he won’t appear in the future conventions or even the rebranded Thrown Controllers Colosseum, the annual charity event that will take place early next month. And ProtonJon said their channel won’t even post the planned videos that they recorded last fall. Hell, they might not at all! I do know the channel is going to move on without Chuggaaconroy, so I’m wondering what plans they’re going to do after Colosseum.

But the downside is that even after all that, Chuggaaconroy said that he might be done doing the LPs (Let’s Plays) because of how much hate he got from the situation, which it led him to have those suicidal thoughts. The scandal has basically traumatized him of making videos, which he loved to do, makes me sad as his LPs videos tend to be high quality of both editing and research for the game he’s covering. I can’t blame him for losing the joy of making those videos because of all that and if he does retire from doing LPs, then I’ll respect his decision as it’ll be better for his mental health.

At the end, even if I’m willing to forgive Chuggaaconroy, I don’t think I’ll ever watch his videos again due feeling uncomfortable hearing some the things he said in the past and what he did outside of his LPs. But I won’t remove the blog that mention the scandal thought as it was based on my reaction at the time and it explained how I end up having my first meltdown in months. I’ll put a disclaimer on that blog, which explains that the situation has changed since then and that some of things he was accused of are now (mostly) proven false. As for next time, I’ll learn to be more careful on what’s going on with the situation before jumping to the conclusion as this one hit a bit too close to home for me as I have been watching his stuff since early 2013.

But I might watch the rebranded Thrown Controllers Colosseum next month thought, as it’ll give me a chance to see if I’m ready to come back to the Let’s Play community and Twitch streams in general, after staying away from them since the scandal broke out. Since then, I mainly stick to Long Plays instead, which is Let’s Play without the player’s commentary as you can just focus on the story and the game itself, instead. Funny thing is, I watched a Long Play of Super Mario Wonder (the LP that they were support to air right now if it wasn’t for the scandal) last year, to see how the game went and what type of jokes they’ll make along the way. I might do that to the games that Chuggaaconroy would cover on his channel, but won’t now thank to the scandal.

But I’m worried that if I do watch the rebranded charity event and not like it, then that’ll be it for me for the Let’s Play community. At least, his and The Runaway Guys’ videos got me through university, which made it tolerable when life and school was stressful, which I’m thankful for. Then the funny thing is, I was originally going to wait until the end July (as it’ll be 6 months since the scandal), for me to come back to watching LPs and Twitch streams to see if I still have it in me. If not either way, then oh well. At least I tried.

Even if I do feel comfortable in watching their stuff again, it won’t be the same as there was some shit going on in The Runaway Guys community that made this year, one of the worst. From several members getting sick, to some have a mental breakdown, one who had to look for their missing cat (who is known to like spending time outdoors), another one have to deal with their dying cat and one of them, is banned from attending the event for being outed as a FRAUDSTER!!! So basically the charity event came at a really bad time. I hope they can pull it off without losing it. Then I’m carious (and at the same time worried) about their future LPs’ as Chuggaaconroy is no longer going to be there and wondered if they can still pull it off. That I don’t know and I might worry about the future of their channel.

At least I can finally move on from the event as it’s been haunting my mind for the past 3 months as shit like that will force me to remember from time end because of my autism (thanks…). I also hope that everyone (both the fans and his friends), can get some peace over the fact. I hope I don’t have to deal with another situation like that ever again as I worry that next time something like that happens again, it might be too much for me.

🢐 Next Post | Top | Previous Post 🢒