Dan & Phil Part 95: ASS (Aquarium Staff Seminar)

[blahblahblah8]

I really can’t believe it’s been a year since BIG! I’ve never rewatched the entire thing bec it felt too emotional but I might try to today! I hope dan feels happy seeing it being celebrated!

[lefthandedism]

[Catallena]

Aw Dan

I just rewatched BIG. It's still a masterpiece and I'm very fragile rn. Handle carefully. As much as I like dunking on Dan (out of love), I do love him and I have a great deal of respect for him.

[kavat]

He's said this before but it still makes me so emotional

[Megancita75]

This tweet reply is incredibly poignant to me. I feel like I know exactly what he means but it makes my heart hurt too:

[Amiaw]

I wonder what goes on. People keep tagging Dan asking him to like art and he keeps liking other tweets. Is he just not going to like art this year?

[tipofmemory]

I'm emotional rn. Rewatching BIG, the official anniversary tweet, and the reply about how hearing stories from the queer people in phandom helped him has me: (I mean he said it in BIG but I'm fragile okay). I'm so happy for him, so proud of him, and excited as hell for the next chapter


Another lovely video edit:

[Phantasy]

I wonder what goes on. People keep tagging Dan asking him to like art and he keeps liking other tweets. Is he just not going to like art this year?

That’s another one of those ultra perplexing behaviors that is low key infuriating... liking fan art on tumblr or banner submissions on twitter is such a minimal effort way of subtlety communicating with and recognizing the talented, creative and still very active phanart community—to make no effort towards acknowledgment is rather disappointing.

[Becky.rigby]

I wonder what goes on. People keep tagging Dan asking him to like art and he keeps liking other tweets. Is he just not going to like art this year?

That’s another one of those ultra perplexing behaviors that is low key infuriating... liking fan art on tumblr or banner submissions on twitter is such a minimal effort way of subtlety communicating with and recognizing the talented, creative and still very active phanart community—to make no effort towards acknowledgment is rather disappointing.

Agreed :/ to be honest I was worried he wasn’t going to mention BIG at all. I get he might be busy but so many people have spent their time and energy creating something for him for both his birthday and BIG. It just seems a shame, because people were getting excited that something was going to happen and that is why he didn’t like any art.

[Amiaw]

He just liked art so he may have just been busy? Idk but glad the artists were acknowledged

[Catallena]

Glad he liked so much art anyway. Maybe he just wanted to make sure everyone got the chance to finish and post their art before going on a liking spree? Or his usual Twitter behavior is quickly scrolling through his tl on the toilet and he wanted to take the proper time to look at all the things that were made for him.

Either way, disaster averted.

[flarequake]

Really sweet edit

[madzilla84]

I'm surprised (...well. Not really) that Dan didn't post anything on insta for his birthday (or the BIGiversary); I guess he really *has* decided to ditch it for anything non work-related.

Glad to see he enjoyed the art; hopefully he'll pop onto tumblr some time and see the stuff on there, though I don't know if anyone doesn't post their stuff to both sites these days.

[alittledizzy]

I don't think I realized until this year how much the whole tradition of making art to celebrate birthday was about artists feeling recognized by Dan and Phil. Maybe it's because I'm a creator for a niche in fandom that actively avoids tagging or trying to be noticed but it was disconcerting to me to see artists acting like they'd wasted their time making something if Dan didn't go through and give them a like? I thought Dan appreciating the art was like a nice bonus if he does, not something people would get genuinely angry about if he didn't do.

It sort of makes me feel disenchanted, I guess, because I was always under the impression that fanart to celebrate significant things was for the fandom and the community. But that might have just been me being a naive with my perception. Now it just feels less like a celebration of Dan and more like a transactional exchange in which he's punished if he doesn't live up to his end and validate artists.

[rizzo]

I don't think I realized until this year how much the whole tradition of making art to celebrate birthday was about artists feeling recognized by Dan and Phil. Maybe it's because I'm a creator for a niche in fandom that actively avoids tagging or trying to be noticed but it was disconcerting to me to see artists acting like they'd wasted their time making something if Dan didn't go through and give them a like? I thought Dan appreciating the art was like a nice bonus if he does, not something people would get genuinely angry about if he didn't do.

It sort of makes me feel disenchanted, I guess, because I was always under the impression that fanart to celebrate significant things was for the fandom and the community. But that might have just been me being a naive with my perception. Now it just feels less like a celebration of Dan and more like a transactional exchange in which he's punished if he doesn't live up to his end and validate artists.

Oh God, YES. I found myself thinking this over the last couple days as well and hesitated to say it. But like, for me it's less about the artists getting something out of it and more about how.... this need for Dan to like fan art has given him a job on his very own birthday?

Like, I always just pictured him logging on and getting a bit emotional about all the awesome work people have made for him and liking a few of them. But this year, it weirdly felt like: Has he had his cake? Called his family? Okay, open the laptop, check the hashtags, and start clicking "like". Very prescriptive and disingenuous.

I know it feels good to have Dan and/or Phil like your work, but wouldn't you rather it be organic? He can't cancel his birthday like he did his youtube channel or live streams, so is he expected to like everything for the rest of his life? IDK how I feel about that.

[Amiaw]

I’m on the fence with this because I do think the spamming was excessive and that he isn’t obligated to like the art but it is something he set the precedent for so suddenly not liking art when he’s done it for years must feel like another loss for people.

It’s also hard with Dan because this really is the only time of the year he’s pretty much guaranteed to be active and most of the people I saw upset are people who buy his merch and support him strongly so taking two minutes to like art is an extremely easy way to show people he still appreciates his fans.
I’m not going to stress about it though because it’s pretty obvious by now that dan’s not going to do anything he doesn’t want to so if he liked art he must be okay with the status quo.

[Grey]

Hmm I can see it both ways.
I understood the upset about dan not liking art as being that people wished he wanted to look at their art, not that they wished he would like art that he doesn’t actually care about. I could be wrong - I’m not an artist. And also have never interacted directly with Dan before.

But on the other hand, I understand why it could seem like a “job” to him. Sure that sucks.

It’s also just sad to me though. He has hundreds (maybe thousands) of people putting in a lot of effort to celebrate him and he just feels burdened by it? Yikes. I’m not saying he’s not allowed to feel like that - obviously it’s his life. But it’s sad because there’s such a disconnect between Dan and his audience now.

Probably there always was. But personally, I used to feel somewhat of a “real” connection to Dan . Now I really don’t. This is obviously a job that he feels contempt for. And probably always did. Which means all those “good” years (for me) were a lie.

This is in no way his obligation to “fix”.
I’m glad that he is finally being true to himself and no longer doing things that make him unhappy. And apparently liking the art is something he still feels able to do so that’s good.

It’s not that I want him to do things that make him unhappy. It’s that I wish this whole YouTube thing hadn’t made him unhappy. I imagine that that’s what this art debacle was about too (but again I could be wrong).

[alittledizzy]

I feel like I should clarify that I do actually think that Dan enjoys fanart and wouldn't normally see it as a job. This was just the first time that I saw multiple people directly @ mentioning Dan with a somewhat aggressive tone that he hadn't yet. I feel like in the past it's always just been a nice surprise when he did but... I'm not an artist either so I guess this is me realizing that maybe people making art sort of view their role in the fandom as differently than I'd view mine as a creator because we're creating different things for different purposes. Without having ever give it much thought, I guess my assumption was that the validation fanartists get from making stuff for Dan's birthday would be coming from other fans enjoying it and not that they wouldn't feel completely happy until Dan did.

But like, if he hadn't done that, I would absolutely have been sad. So maybe I'm just arguing myself into the middle ground too, idk. I guess what it comes down to for me is what rizzo said - it's nice when it feels organic, like people made things for Dan and Dan got to sit down and enjoy it and have an emotional moment - and not like a responsibility people will be upset with him for not fulfilling and spam him on twitter to acknowledge until he does.

[Phanshy]

I feel like if you have to ask someone to like something it takes away the meaning of it, I've always thought fan art should be for yourself and fellow fans it shouldn't be about getting noticed or gaining clout from it. Maybe Dan feels uncomfortable looking through it, a lot of which would obviously be nostalgic for things he wants no part of anymore. Maybe it makes him feel bad because he has a big fan base wanting something he doesn't want to give anymore.

[alittledizzy]

I feel like if you have to ask someone to like something it takes away the meaning of it, I've always thought fan art should be for yourself and fellow fans it shouldn't be about getting noticed or gaining clout from it. Maybe Dan feels uncomfortable looking through it, a lot of which would obviously be nostalgic for things he wants no part of anymore. Maybe it makes him feel bad because he has a big fan base wanting something he doesn't want to give anymore.

That hadn't occurred to me, but ouch yes.

I have no doubt that some of the things we're most nostalgic for played into some of the things that he felt kept him limited and closeted for longer than he might have otherwise. I think it's equally true that we as a fanbase helped him come out - but, people and emotions and experiences are complicated like that, you know?

But of course, right now the past is all we really have to circle our creativity around, so I don't blame artists. I would hope that even if Dan does continue to distance from things that might have associations we don't know about, that artists don't stop making art about them for the community as a whole. And this makes me very excited for the next era where we have new projects, representative of who Dan is now, to show just as much enthusiasm for.

[madzilla84]

I'm sure art of many things Dan has been a part of would continue through and beyond new projects, because people are so fond of it and it means so much to them. I think it'll be a nice mixture of old and new, which is good because it paints a nice picture (pun not intended) of his journey and how far he's come. I hope he sees it like that too, if not now then eventually.

It makes me hugely sad to think he devalues his earlier content because it isn't "important" enough or whatever; it meant a lot to people, though of course what he wants to make has evolved. The old stuff still has so much value and worth that I hope he sees, and events like this - his birthday, BIGiversary - are a good way to show him that, alongside the excitement for and celebration of the new stuff whenever that rolls through.

[alittledizzy]

I'm sure art of many things Dan has been a part of would continue through and beyond new projects, because people are so fond of it and it means so much to them. I think it'll be a nice mixture of old and new, which is good because it paints a nice picture (pun not intended) of his journey and how far he's come. I hope he sees it like that too, if not now then eventually.

It makes me hugely sad to think he devalues his earlier content because it isn't "important" enough or whatever; it meant a lot to people, though of course what he wants to make has evolved. The old stuff still has so much value and worth that I hope he sees, and events like this - his birthday, BIGiversary - are a good way to show him that, alongside the excitement for and celebration of the new stuff whenever that rolls through.

I don't mean to imply he would devalue older work for the content itself, so much as there may be personal associations he has with certain things that we don't know about. Like - we do all know that the instagram recommended page video was made on the heels of a minor breakdown from Dan. We could tell at the time based on the content he was putting out and he confirmed it later on in the mukbang. But if we didn't know that - we'd just see a happy cute video where Phil boops Dan's nose and they thirst over guys a lot. There may be other videos, where other things were happening behind the scenes - related to his mental health, related to things going on in his life, related to personal low points with struggling over his sexuality and being closeted. Now that he's in a healthier place away from that there may be certain things we hold onto as nostalgia that for him are nostalgic in a less positive way.

(And this forum is for speculation and discussion so I don't think I need to say this but just in case - this is all just me theorizing off of what phanshy said, not me trying to state anything as fact.)

[madzilla84]

Yeah, totally! Unless he ever decides to talk about it, speculating is really all we can do.

(And, side note, but oh man, joining the phandom kinda ruined that video for me ... I saw it before I joined and enjoyed it for pretty much exactly as you describe, but every time I’ve seen it since in a watch fest or whatever, everyone talks about how sad it is. I do still like it though, I think it’s cute even if I have more context. Discovering things later can be weird sometimes, a very ‘you weren’t there, man’ vibe)

[Amiaw]

So we’ve got new Phil merch on the way, a new video coming soon, and who knows what else. I’m glad he gave us a chatty update and fingers crossed that live shows come back soon.

[Catallena]

Excited for a new video soon

I hope his back is okay though.