IDB

*deep breath*

That's right, I'm doing this.

So, Charlie Casey is a controversial figure (holding balls, anyone?). For a long time I was really confused by him. I found him creepy, and was totally repulsed by a lot of his behavior. I kind of hated him, and didn't care to talk about him at all really.

But in the past couple of days I've started to change my mind and start to sympathize with him a bit. He's actually very interesting, more interesting and complex than I ever used to give him credit for being.

What inspired me to make this thread is that I just watched an old liveshow of his from March 2013 (that is, from before the Dan/Charlie twitter shitstorm of June 2013), and it really humanized him for me. It was like, hey, THIS is the guy who tweeted that shitty stuff. And, yeah, I can imagine this guy doing that stuff, but still being this guy, and it's okay. Like, he's a complex human, he made mistakes, he has problems, but he's not unforgivable and he has redeeming qualities.

Here is the YouNow.

There's a certain mellowness to Charlie that I appreciated as I was watching this liveshow. Like he wasn't trying to be funny, but he wasn't not being super morose or angsty either. He was just kind of interacting and answering the questions, almost apologetically at some points. But it all seemed quite honest, and not in an “okay, I’m going to be real with you now” kind of way. He just kind of seemed like an honest person. I have no idea if he actually is/was, but in the setting of the liveshow, he gave off that vibe to me.

So yeah, I wanted a place to talk about him. He's really vilified by the phandom, and rightfully so, in some ways. But he's also a complicated guy there are a lot of things to discuss, both good and bad.

Also I just wanted to share this tweet of his from last May. I find it really poetic and a bit haunting idk:

SOME INTERESTING QUOTES FROM THE LIVESHOW I LINKED ABOVE (about sexuality and age and stuff, because ofc)

Chat comments are bold; Charlie's answers are indented.

“Charlie are you bisexual?”

• “Probably? I kind of just like…go for people when I like… Like if I see someone, and I’m attracted to them, then I’m attracted to them; I’m not really too bothered about gender. I dunno. But it’s complicated.”

“Pansexual?”

• “Yes. Exactly. But I—I dunno. I feel like even then I feel like labeling it is kind of weird.”

“What’s the youngest age you would date?”

• “Right now, I would say sixteen. But—I don’t—yeah. That’s legal here. Thankfully!” [makes a weird face] (remember he was 20 years 10 months at this time)

“What’s the oldest you’d date?”

• “Ooh interesting. I would say 35. It’s not too bad; I’m 20. I’d like to be with someone who’s 35; that would be cool. But I think older people see me as someone who’s a cretin. So…that ain’t gon’ happen!”

“I’m 29.”

• “Cool! I hope you don’t hate me. Because older people tend to look at me and think: eugh.”

“What happens if you’re like 16 but then you can’t date any younger than you? That’s kinda unfair.”

• “I don’t know. Erm, yeah, I don’t know. When I was 16, for the person who just said ‘I’m 16 and I feel like a baby’: When I was 16, I was literally a fetus. I was tiny, and I had no idea what I was doing, and I was so scared of everything, and I didn’t understand anything. And I just wanted to hide forever. And that was a really long time ago. So yeah, when I talk to someone who’s 16, at first I kind of think about how I was at 16 and I think ‘oh god you’re so young!’ But then, these days people who are, like, 14, 15, 16 seem *much* more mature and self-aware than when I was that age. So I actually quite enjoy talking to younger people now.”

It's probably obvious to anyone that reads my fic but I have a huge soft spot for Charlie. I think it's because from the offset I just saw him as like a darker-timeline Dan, but after watching a lot more of his stuff I can see all the ways he's also very different from Dan. Seeing the things that would have made him compatible with Phil is fascinating to me, too. His personality (from what we see through social media) seems like someone just mashed up the punk!Phil/pastel!Dan tropes and Charlie emerged.

But then I also am at a point where I don't want to just look at him through the scope of what he is to Dan and Phil, I'd rather know more about him independent of them. Which is why I'm so glad you linked to that liveshow, and I can't wait to watch it.

alittledizzy wrote:But then I also am at a point where I don't want to just look at him through the scope of what he is to Dan and Phil, I'd rather know more about him independent of them. Which is why I'm so glad you linked to that liveshow, and I can't wait to watch it.

I feel like since my interest in Charlie is pretty new, it's still a bit hard for me to think about him totally independently. Like the stuff I quoted above: It's interesting because it says something about Charlie as a person, but also because it relates to what may or may not have happened between him and Phil (and I'm not using "may or may not" in a suggestive way; I literally mean we don't know what if anything actually went down). Heck, I even considered quoting a part where the question was “Do gingers have ginger body hair?” and he said, “I think they do. Don’t they?” You know, because Phil used to be ginger. Then I realized his hair is more like auburn. But ANYWAY, I do hope to develop an understanding of Charlie as a person separate from Dan and Phil...though as Deppy are my first loves I'll probably always relate him to them on some level.

Regarding the quotes...

Sorry for being a bit lame, because I'm like 99% sure this was discussed in great detail on the main thread a few weeks ago, but how old was Charlie during the pabloislove years? And how old was Phil? All I know that Charlie is almost exactly one year younger than Dan, as his birthday is in May and he was born the previous year. It's interesting that he says he likes to date older people, and also that older people are dismissive of him or find him annoying. It's also interesting that the youngest he, and almost 21-year-old, would date is 16. Someone please analyze the face he makes after he says "That’s legal here. Thankfully!" What does he even mean by "Thankfully"?

Yes! I'm really interested in the story of Charlie beside the Dan and Phil relation. He seems like such complicated person, but really nice at the same time, if we don't count the twitter drama.
To add some data, Charlie was 16 soon to be 17 when pabloislove ended and Phil was still kind of fresh 22. So maybe that says something? Maybe he had something with older person (or Phil for that matter) back when then. Hard to say. So many things to uncover.

It could be a reference to the fact the age of consent for "homosexual acts" was only lowered to 16 (same as heterosexual) in the UK in 2000. Prior to that it was 18, and before '94 it was 21.

age wasn't that important to him lmao. have you seen his interactions in 2013ish with teenage girls? a girl i was sort of close to in the kpop fandom/phandom on tumblr used to talk to him when she was 15 and he'd ask her to go stay with him and spoon if she wanted to go to youtube conventions and generally make entirely inappropriate comments. she said she didnt think it was serious but it made her really uncomfortable since he was already in his early 20s and she was underage. no sympathy for him here.

+ stephen was a couple of years older than charlie (younger than phil though. 1989/1990?)

jaej wrote:age wasn't that important to him lmao. have you seen his interactions in 2013ish with teenage girls? a girl i was sort of close to in the kpop fandom/phandom on tumblr used to talk to him when she was 15 and he'd ask her to go stay with him and spoon if she wanted to go to youtube conventions and generally make entirely inappropriate comments. she said she didnt think it was serious but it made her really uncomfortable since he was already in his early 20s and she was underage. no sympathy for him here.

+ stephen was a couple of years older than charlie (younger than phil though. 1989/1990?)

lol, you always say whatever I'm thinking.

Charlie has been way too problematic for me to support. And, maybe I'm watching the liveshow with a lot of biases, but it doesn't make me think he's a better person or something. He seems less mellow, but that means nothing to me. I think the things he has said things that I personally could never justify to myself.

I don't think I'll ever be able to stan Charlie for the reasons jhamba has mentioned. I do understand some of his initial resentment towards Dan when he and Phil first became acquainted (as we all know, Dan can come across as incredibly possessive of Phil,) but I don't think that's an excuse for bullying Dan years later on social media. For the same reasons I won't ever be able to support Evan Edinger and Emma Blackery, I find his past random Twitter digs at Dan's sexuality to be incredibly petty and childish. He might be a better person now or whatever but I'll always be a bit towards him.
I'm still interested in what really happened between him and Phil though. Did anything actually happen between them at all? There's no doubt in my mind that Chalie had feelings for Phil, but I'll guess we'll never know the true story.

what about that story that he allegedly broke Stephen's nose in a fight and that's why they broke up? was that true?

daphenaxa wrote:what about that story that he allegedly broke Stephen's nose in a fight and that's why they broke up? was that true?

That's all I ever heard so I suppose he did? Older phandom people sure treat is as fact. Although they don't say the nose breaking was the reason they broke up - they say Charlie and Stephen had a very messy breakup in general, and part of it was Charlie hitting Stephen. One of these days I'll do some twitter stalking to find out what the fandom goss going around was at the time it supposedly happened (already tried stalking Stephen and Charlie themselves but nothing, literally nothing.)

felucca wrote:

daphenaxa wrote:what about that story that he allegedly broke Stephen's nose in a fight and that's why they broke up? was that true?

That's all I ever heard so I suppose he did? Older phandom people sure treat is as fact. Although they don't say the nose breaking was the reason they broke up - they say Charlie and Stephen had a very messy breakup in general, and part of it was Charlie hitting Stephen. One of these days I'll do some twitter stalking to find out what the fandom goss going around at the time it supposedly happened was (already tried stalking Stephen and Charlie themselves but nothing, literally nothing.)

they broke up a lot, a few of them being messy, most of them lasting 2/3 hours of charlie sitting outside and angsty tweeting before going home. i can't remember his old twitter names, but he had a couple of old accounts which would be helpful if you found them. the hitting thing is true afaik, im sure charlie addressed it and stephen did get his nose broken (more than once but only once because of this) because he got punched (a video about weight loss i think? on his channel, he shoved a cake in his face) and afaik that breakup was because stephen cheated on him and charlie beat him up

I think the most interesting thing about Charlie is his complete disappearance from the social media. Where is he? What is going on? Such a mystery...

Philena wrote:I think the most interesting thing about Charlie is his complete disappearance from the social media. Where is he? What is going on? Such a mystery...

Someone asked the exact same thing to phantaray on tumblr, and last month he had some activity on spotify...that's it

I find Charlie very interesting, and can't bring myself to dislike him. His sense of humour is definitely something I appreciate.


Do any of you know if this tweet is real?
I think he really regretted letting Phil go (assuming they did have a thing), and tried to stay loyal to him in the years after.

Btw, alittledizzy, I loved a better plan for us (but dan/zoe whyyy ). I'd like to see Charlie featured in more fics.

Ticia wrote:

Philena wrote:I think the most interesting thing about Charlie is his complete disappearance from the social media. Where is he? What is going on? Such a mystery...

Someone asked the exact same thing to phantaray on tumblr, and last month he had some activity on spotify...that's it

I don't know anything but maybe simply life catched up with him so he isn't anymore active on social media, he also could have other private accounts as he doesn't wanna to be bothered especially by the phandom.

Regarding his past behaviour I get it he is a real complex person but I can't bring myself to like someone that behaved like how he did in the past towards dan.

Also, here's an interesting timeline from weaboophil on Tumblr (I copied and pasted it into a separate window because it made my eyes bleed a bit).

Handy for me as I never seem to be able to keep all of the dates straight.

Lain wrote:Also, here's an interesting timeline from weaboophil on Tumblr (I copied and pasted it into a separate window because it made my eyes bleed a bit).

Handy for me as I never seem to be able to keep all of the dates straight.

idk how reliable that is lmao
june 2013 was around the time i talked to charlie, i really don't think he was still with stephen. besides that, stephen talks about his nose being broken before in a video he uploaded in february 2012, and charlie deleted his videos when they broke up, which was way earlier than june 2013
its just not the most reliable or we'll put together resource. it's also very selective about the friends it mentions to push certain objectives, it makes it seem like that's it when there were wayyyy more. andrew bravener, kokiriforest, sarahgrace1, bryony were closer to phil than chris. pabloislove even had 3 users on it, that's even missed out

jaej wrote:

Lain wrote:Also, here's an interesting timeline from weaboophil on Tumblr (I copied and pasted it into a separate window because it made my eyes bleed a bit).

Handy for me as I never seem to be able to keep all of the dates straight.

idk how reliable that is lmao
june 2013 was around the time i talked to charlie, i really don't think he was still with stephen. besides that, stephen talks about his nose being broken before in a video he uploaded in february 2012, and charlie deleted his videos when they broke up, which was way earlier than june 2013
its just not the most reliable or we'll put together resource. it's also very selective about the friends it mentions to push certain objectives, it makes it seem like that's it when there were wayyyy more. andrew bravener, kokiriforest, sarahgrace1, bryony were closer to phil than chris. pabloislove even had 3 users on it, that's even missed out

I'm also confused by that timeline saying Charlie and Phil didn't talk except on twitter after 10 March 2009 - Phil was actually visiting Charlie in person through the 14th of March, and posted a video with him that week. (Though the video itself is MIA, Phil's tweet about it is still up with a broken link.)

Well, shit.

I'd really like an accurate timeline. I'd also like to get a hold of that video b/c I'm kind of dying to know what Phil & Charlie's chemistry was like.

Ticia wrote:

Philena wrote:I think the most interesting thing about Charlie is his complete disappearance from the social media. Where is he? What is going on? Such a mystery...

Someone asked the exact same thing to phantaray on tumblr, and last month he had some activity on spotify...that's it

How can we know if Charlie isn't dinofvyou1?

akui wrote:

Ticia wrote:

Philena wrote:I think the most interesting thing about Charlie is his complete disappearance from the social media. Where is he? What is going on? Such a mystery...

Someone asked the exact same thing to phantaray on tumblr, and last month he had some activity on spotify...that's it

How can we know if Charlie isn't dinofvyou1?

I thought that was Phil...?

Now I feel bad for being all shallow and asking this, after some of you saying you wanna see Charlie for who he is besides his relation to deppy, but…
do you know if there is a comprehensive list of d&p-related tweets from him?

I remember seeing a twitter conversation between Charlie, Evan and some friends on topsy, it was about Evan going to some kind of youtube event and they were joking about how there wouldn't be any other straight guys there other than Evan. Then CherryWallis said something along the lines that they couldn't be serious, that there would be other guys as well and that she thought d&p would be there too or something, to which Charlie responded:



And if I remember correctly, iiBrett followed this response up with a second tweet "but…but what about dan and phil?"

I think I've never seen a screenshot of this conversation and I didn't take one either, foolishly thinking I could always go back to topsy(rip) for it. Has anyone of you seen this anywhere?

First time I've seen those messages, maybe you could try asking to big Tumblr users?

Wait guys, apparently I'm friends with Charlie on facebook??