Dan & Phil Part 83: Where in the World is Daniel Howell

sonicgreen · Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:23 pm

every time phils head brushes into the oversized plant i lose 10 minutes off my life.
phil. honey. the framing. you look even more static than usual

(im trying so hard to care about his current videos i really am, i’ve just grown apathetic to it and i don’t know what to do.)

Mia · Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:55 pm

I guess as there's more Phil content on Internet that I've watched growing up, I feel protective over him. That's why I really am fed up of the comments on his videos asking about Dan. I just wish they can be seen as individual creators. Their relationship (work/friend/romantic/whatever) is wonderful and I think I want individual content from both for a while now so they can grow and not feel pressured to be doing DAP content. I'm not saying no DAP content but I think I want some more solo Phil and solo Dan videos (whenever we get them) before DAP content.

I enjoyed the video but it was safe. However, I am finding the angle annoying. I wasn't sure about it at first, got used to it then back to not liking it. I am on the moving hill now 100%. Definitely something happening to not show the other rooms/bring objects into shot.

anna_begins · Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:05 pm

(hi there - sorry to jump right in. long time lurker, have some thoughts and want to take part in the discussion)

This year I've really enjoyed Phil's Quiz Show and Google Search videos. I was surprised when I saw that a lot of people didn't find the Quiz one entertaining. Maybe I enjoyed it because I had never watched his appearance on it before (I was worried about second hand embarrassment) so it was all new to me. Anyway those two videos made me laugh a lot and gave me that warm fuzzy feeling that only Phil Lester is a capable of producing. The others have not been my cup of tea, and that's fine because I realize that it's not possible that everything someone makes is always going to appeal to me, no matter how much of a fan I am of them.

I do have to admit, though, that I find myself not wanting to rewatch like I used to, and not clicking on them as fast as before. While it's true we did learn more about Phil in the 'Chat With Myself' video, the concept was super similar to the 'Letter From My Younger Self' one and I couldn't help thinking while watching it that I've seen this before. I noticed that Dizzy even accidentally referred to the chat video as the letter video, which maybe demonstrates the criticism I've been seeing about Phil recycling past ideas (even if they are inherently different they still are perceived as being similar). While I try not to be critical of his content, because he creates things just for the fun of it & nothing is to be taken too seriously (which is valid) I want him to succeed and maybe constructive criticism is needed when even the dedicated fans are feeling like they need something different.

And for that reason I think we need to be cautious of attributing everything to people just missing the joint content so they're taking it out on Phil mentality. While I'm sure that plays a part, in my circles I've been hearing people say they wish Phil would change things up since the 'Drawing My Viewers With My Feet' video. I fear that the (too small) static new setting, switching lions to corgis & the occasional insert of 'adult' words are not enough to keep people interested. In the Mukbang video Dan talked about figuring out how to change things up that worked for both him & his audience while in contrast Phil said he was quite easygoing when it came to the content on his channel. That's cool and what makes Phil "Phil" but I hope that strategy doesn't interfere with the creativity and progression of his content.

liola · Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:31 pm

My biggest complain to that is that it's not up to us to decide whether or not his content need to progress. Towards what? What's the end goal? What should it become? Does it matter whether Phil wants it to progress or not? Why should he change something if he still enjoys it? Change is good and a lot of YouTubers have changed their content - youtubers that weren't happy with the things they were making. Phil seems to still enjoy it though.

Again, it's fair to want something else, to be critical of someone's work. But if that content was okay as long as there was other stuff going on, we gotta realize that the problem isn't really the content then, and phil shouldn't be blamed for it.

Again, it's valid to want something different - I for one would love to know what the fuck we're supposed to expect when it comes to the other half of their brand and whether that brand has completely died or not, but guess I gotta suck it up and enjoy what we DO have right now, and thankfully it's something I've enjoyed before and still enjoy.

Creativity doesn't have to fall into a specific line to be considered creativity. Just because his content might not be your main source of interest doesn't mean it's not creative

starwatersong · Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:41 pm

Dan is the piano, Phil is the saxophone player, and together, with the content from before, they were an orchestra.

I still can like, love, and appreciate the solo saxophone player, but after the orchestra, it just seems like less.

flarequake · Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:12 pm

Can only add that I loved the video, it gave me a good laugh after a tiring day and I was sad at him wasting all that milk, but otherwise I was just really happy to see him.

anna_begins · Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:17 pm

liola wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:31 pm My biggest complain to that is that it's not up to us to decide whether or not his content need to progress. Towards what? What's the end goal? What should it become? Does it matter whether Phil wants it to progress or not? Why should he change something if he still enjoys it? Change is good and a lot of YouTubers have changed their content - youtubers that weren't happy with the things they were making. Phil seems to still enjoy it though.

I'm glad that Phil is still enjoying the content he's making. That's incredibly important. If he doesn't want to change something that's cool, I would hate for him to do things differently if it doesn't feel right or authentic to him. That being said, as a consumer of his content, I've read this book before, played the album over and over and I'm ready for something fresh & new (I was also starting to feel this way about the gaming channel). Move the storyline forward to keep it interesting kinda thing. He absolutely doesn't have to do this, but for me personally, to continue to be as invested in his content as I am, I do need it to progress to keep me interested in his channel (I'll always be interested in Phil as a person though because I love him, lol).

Like you said creativity and how we interpret content is extremely subjective, so this is just my point of view & perspective on what I've been hearing from people I interact within the phandom.

Philena · Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:42 pm

starwatersong wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:41 pm Dan is the piano, Phil is the saxophone player, and together, with the content from before, they were an orchestra.

I still can like, love, and appreciate the solo saxophone player, but after the orchestra, it just seems like less.

I 100% get what you're saying and where you are coming from. I just need to say that, as both a brass player and a Phillie, that analogy is quite offensive to me

kay · Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:09 pm

liola wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:31 pm My biggest complain to that is that it's not up to us to decide whether or not his content need to progress. Towards what? What's the end goal? What should it become? Does it matter whether Phil wants it to progress or not? Why should he change something if he still enjoys it? Change is good and a lot of YouTubers have changed their content - youtubers that weren't happy with the things they were making. Phil seems to still enjoy it though.

Again, it's fair to want something else, to be critical of someone's work. But if that content was okay as long as there was other stuff going on, we gotta realize that the problem isn't really the content then, and phil shouldn't be blamed for it.

Again, it's valid to want something different - I for one would love to know what the fuck we're supposed to expect when it comes to the other half of their brand and whether that brand has completely died or not, but guess I gotta suck it up and enjoy what we DO have right now, and thankfully it's something I've enjoyed before and still enjoy.

Creativity doesn't have to fall into a specific line to be considered creativity. Just because his content might not be your main source of interest doesn't mean it's not creative

100% agree with all of this. phil isn't obligated to make content we like or resonate with, it's his channel and what he does with it is his business, just as we aren't obligated to continue to watch it if we decide it's not what we like anymore, and just as dan isn't obligated to make content anymore or even give us an explanation if he doesn't want to. of course, i hope it doesn't come to that, but they don't owe us anything and that is a harsh reality that i never thought i'd see play out in real time, at least not in this fandom.

on the other hand, the bolded part is where i'm struggling. i never thought we'd be in a situation where we don't know what's going on even just a little bit (i'm not talking about knowing their thoughts on every little thing, but the broad idea of not knowing if dan is ever coming back, not knowing if dapg or joint content in general is ever coming back - i never thought we'd be here, if those things ended i honestly assumed we'd have a real, final answer to them so we could properly mourn them and have some sort of closure tbqh). with phil being the only one out of the two making content, i feel the magnifying glass is obviously much more focused on him and for some, the types of videos he makes aren't cutting it when we were used to a much more varied selection of content to choose from. if AP videos weren't your thing, there was dapg, there were (some) liveshows, obviously there was the tour when that was going on, there was some DH content here and there - we had a lot of different streets to go down and things to consume and talk about.

i understand they're not obligated to share anything at all with us. i just never thought we'd actually be here.

Ablissa · Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:56 pm

Um, Kyoto Gardens is in London, right?
Way to get our hopes up... (very cute regardless)

glitterintheair · Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:06 pm

For a moment there I really thought it was actually in Kyoto and I felt alive. Oh, well.

kay wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:09 pm on the other hand, the bolded part is where i'm struggling. i never thought we'd be in a situation where we don't know what's going on even just a little bit (i'm not talking about knowing their thoughts on every little thing, but the broad idea of not knowing if dan is ever coming back, not knowing if dapg or joint content in general is ever coming back - i never thought we'd be here, if those things ended i honestly assumed we'd have a real, final answer to them so we could properly mourn them and have some sort of closure tbqh). with phil being the only one out of the two making content, i feel the magnifying glass is obviously much more focused on him and for some, the types of videos he makes aren't cutting it when we were used to a much more varied selection of content to choose from. if AP videos weren't your thing, there was dapg, there were (some) liveshows, obviously there was the tour when that was going on, there was some DH content here and there - we had a lot of different streets to go down and things to consume and talk about.

i understand they're not obligated to share anything at all with us. i just never thought we'd actually be here.

+ 1

Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:27 pm

lesterchuu · Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:28 pm

Ablissa wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:27 pm Hey everyone! As some of you may know, we're continuing our stream of gaming videos tomorrow (Saturday, March 23rd) starting from 7 AM UTC
We're starting with Cuphead. We have about 26~ hours of videos to get through, so pop in whenever you like! We'll post the link to rabb.it later tonight.

Also... we need help!
I'm going to be away for some of the morning/afternoon, and @lesterchuu will be sleeping. The lovely @Ataraxia25 already agreed to help with the morning, so we need someone to 'man the stream' from 11 AM UTC to about 2 PM UTC.

This entails only stealing the remote on rabbit (which I'll teach you how to do), skipping the videos we need to skip, and kicking people if they're rude (hasn't happened all last weekend). The videos play by themselves from a playlist so you don't even need to search for them.

Can any of you please help us out? I'd much rather have someone from IDB helping us than ask people on twitter.

Also, just to add. There is a huge time gap between mine and @Ablissa 's timezones (about 8 hours apart). So, we do really appreciate it if someone could come help us out.

Thank you in advance.

Amiaw · Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:31 pm

I wonder if the outing today has anything to do with Phil’s new merch pictures. They could’ve also went on an irl outing since Lauren is in town.

citizen_erased · Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:52 pm

my phan trash brain immediately went to "they got married at kyoto gardens today and dan's been so absent because he was busy wedding planning"

jk jk, I think phil just had a nice walk there today, either with or without someone else, idk.

starwatersong · Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:00 pm

Philena wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:42 pm
starwatersong wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:41 pm Dan is the piano, Phil is the saxophone player, and together, with the content from before, they were an orchestra.

I still can like, love, and appreciate the solo saxophone player, but after the orchestra, it just seems like less.
I 100% get what you're saying and where you are coming from. I just need to say that, as both a brass player and a Phillie, that analogy is quite offensive to me

Lol! Make Phil whatever instrument you need him to be.

Whoa, that sounded dark.

sonicgreen · Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:07 pm

kay wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:09 pm i never thought we'd be in a situation where we don't know what's going on even just a little bit (i'm not talking about knowing their thoughts on every little thing, but the broad idea of not knowing if dan is ever coming back, not knowing if dapg or joint content in general is ever coming back - i never thought we'd be here, if those things ended i honestly assumed we'd have a real, final answer to them so we could properly mourn them and have some sort of closure tbqh).

THIS. this is how I feel and why I’m so disconnected.
I understand we aren’t owed anything, but that doesn’t mean it can’t hurt.

headaches · Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:58 pm

Hi, I'm usually a lurker but I just wanted to jump in to share some of my thoughts.. I think what makes me most ~uncomfortable about 2019 so far in terms of d&p is how some/most of us had this kind of expectation of "They're opening up more!! Being more real and open! Im excited for the future!" etc, and what we're getting rn is quite the opposite. I feel as if we're going backwards and they might be closing up if anything. Like with phils vids we being cramped up to a wall, with insta stories its also tight-angled and vague, we have no idea whats up with dan, not much about their current life is being shared with us... Idk if this all makes sense lol. Obviously they have a right to privacy and doing whatever they want and yeah, maybe we shouldn't have expected them to be more open in 2019 but idk... I guess as a viewer I just find this sad and weird :-/

sweetlyphan · Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:07 pm

headaches wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:58 pm Hi, I'm usually a lurker but I just wanted to jump in to share some of my thoughts.. I think what makes me most ~uncomfortable about 2019 so far in terms of d&p is how some/most of us had this kind of expectation of "They're opening up more!! Being more real and open! Im excited for the future!" etc, and what we're getting rn is quite the opposite. I feel as if we're going backwards and they might be closing up if anything. Like with phils vids we being cramped up to a wall, with insta stories its also tight-angled and vague, we have no idea whats up with dan, not much about their current life is being shared with us... Idk if this all makes sense lol. Obviously they have a right to privacy and doing whatever they want and yeah, maybe we shouldn't have expected them to be more open in 2019 but idk... I guess as a viewer I just find this sad and weird :-/

I totally agree! I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

noodlebum · Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:40 pm

I think lack of any live shows is contributing to this feeling of disconnect

Phantasy · Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:52 pm

citizen_erased wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:52 pm my phan trash brain immediately went to "they got married at kyoto gardens today and dan's been so absent because he was busy wedding planning"

jk jk, I think phil just had a nice walk there today, either with or without someone else, idk.

Or engagement! Brings me back to the tour when they would do their sightseeing with all those picturesque romantic spots around the world, I kept thinking anyone of these places will do boys! (Not that I think either one of them has any particularly strong affinity for marriage.) The romantic in me dreams the proposal would take it back to the beginning and happen at a sky bar somewhere.

How is it they are able to get around town these days without being sighted?? I think I’ve seen 1 picture the past few months of them out in the wild.

sweetlyphan wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:07 pm
headaches wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:58 pm Hi, I'm usually a lurker but I just wanted to jump in to share some of my thoughts.. I think what makes me most ~uncomfortable about 2019 so far in terms of d&p is how some/most of us had this kind of expectation of "They're opening up more!! Being more real and open! Im excited for the future!" etc, and what we're getting rn is quite the opposite. I feel as if we're going backwards and they might be closing up if anything. Like with phils vids we being cramped up to a wall, with insta stories its also tight-angled and vague, we have no idea whats up with dan, not much about their current life is being shared with us... Idk if this all makes sense lol. Obviously they have a right to privacy and doing whatever they want and yeah, maybe we shouldn't have expected them to be more open in 2019 but idk... I guess as a viewer I just find this sad and weird :-/
I totally agree! I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

2018: Giving the People What They Want
2019: Taking Away Everything You’ve Ever Loved

Philena · Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:09 am

starwatersong wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:00 pm
Philena wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:42 pm
starwatersong wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:41 pm Dan is the piano, Phil is the saxophone player, and together, with the content from before, they were an orchestra.

I still can like, love, and appreciate the solo saxophone player, but after the orchestra, it just seems like less.
I 100% get what you're saying and where you are coming from. I just need to say that, as both a brass player and a Phillie, that analogy is quite offensive to me
Lol! Make Phil whatever instrument you need him to be.

Whoa, that sounded dark.

Thank you for understanding.

And will do

Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:34 am

Based on Sarah and Lauren's instagrams, it looks like today was maybe an IRL Digital staff day?

(Couldn't let that camera slip Dan's way just one little time, girls? Sigh. Fine. Be all... respectful of boundaries and good people and shit. If you must.)

madzilla84 · Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:39 am

noodlebum wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2019 11:40 pm I think lack of any live shows is contributing to this feeling of disconnect

I can't imagine Phil could exactly do one at the moment, unless he wanted to watch 5000 people screaming 'WHERE'S DAAAAAN' at him for half an hour. I think a joint one would be a great idea whenever Dan's ready - a sort of 'state of the union' type thing. That's sort of what I was expecting at some point, actually, it just - hasn't come. (Or perhaps another mukbang, in place of a ls, to provide an update.)

Anyway, speaking of liveshows, I keep coming back to the Xmas one because of some of the stuff they said there... some of it makes me hopeful, some of it makes me go wtf a bit given how this year has gone so far, and the fact it's *nearly April*.

So did something change? Or are the plans the same/still being decided but the timescales have just dragged out a bit? Or did they change their minds? Or are they Up To Something else that we have absolutely no idea about? Or - what?? I know, I know, we just don't have the information, but I look back at this liveshow and I can't quite believe things are the way they are now.

kay · Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:46 am

madzilla84 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:39 am
D: But, no. People are only saying that because they care--
P: Thank you for caring!
D: --and we appreciate that people care.
P: We care about you! Yeah.
D: But it’s all in the service of doing even better things for you to enjoy.
P: Yes.
D: So it’s all good.
P: It’s all good.

this bit absolutely just stabs me right in the heart.