The image attached is ironic, read to find out why!
CHAPTER 1: PRELUDE
An observer of internet culture from the years will have no doubt prototypised the phenomenon that will be referred to as the "Satanic Fandom Process." This is the process upon which "media" with a certain set of traits will tend to attract the "archetypical fandom" and the necessary consequences of such a development. An astute observer will easily be capable of listing examples such media entities, including: Rwby, Steven Universe, Homestuck, Undertale, Five Nights at Freddy's as well as many examples of foreign and especially Japanese media entities, that will follow a very similar "life cycle", the aforementioned SFP.
Before, however, we chart the SFP, we must discuss the shared traits of these media entities. The major shared traits, that any fandom will have likely a significant amount of, but will not necessarily have all of, can be defined as follows:
The series must be exciting and watchable on the surface level, with big moments that can stick in popular perception and attract new fans, This trait is always present. It should also be easy to find, on a platform such as youtube for instance, this trait is often present.
The characters do not have specific depth or complexity, they do not stray far from the archetypes they are based on, or at least this should be the image presented to the fandom. A series of shallow archetypes as main characters is easy to relate to and project on, which will attract the casual viewer, but crucially, this is necessary to appeal to a key fandom growth group, the "fanfiction writers." and will allow plenty of freedom to transform the original media. This is commonly done by putting the characters in foreign situations, the shallowness will aid in accurately determining their actions without going "out of character". Especially crucial to this is the characters being "cute" or "angsty", as this provides for compelling fan created drama, especially when the two traits are two sides of a dialectical process.
The entity is likely a visual medium, and will have a aesthetically easy art style. This ties into the "watchability factor" discussed earlier but also appeals to another key fandom growth group, the fanartists. An aesthetically pleasing and easy art style will make it easy to create eye catching fan pieces which will appeal to the casual audience, especially considering...
Vaguely socially liberal political undertone. Liberal ideas about race, sexuality and economic hierarchy is likely to be present throughout the series. This will make it easy for a typical young person to project themselves on the shells of characters. The liberal ideas about sexuality are the most crucial here, as the aforementioned fan artists will feel comfortable creating pornography. It goes without saying that pornography is almost always the single biggest driver of fandom growth and especially fandom retention.
On a meta level, a strong level of communication between the fan base and the creators. This will inevitably create a parasocial relationship between the two, with a high chance of overt worship of the creators.
Once, these traits of the media entity have been determined, we can outline the "Satanic fandom process" in a vague chronology
Step one: The media entity will be created
Step two: The earliest fandom will be attracted. They will stick around due to the promise and begin creating fanworks to attract more fans.
Step three: The creation of subreddits and groomercord communities creates a sense of community amongst complete strangers
the following events are not guaranteed and may occur in any order
a major figure in the fandom is outed for sexual predation which destabilizes the fandom, especially if the response proves to be inadequate
the creator makes a "misstep" in their supposed liberal values (this could also be the figure outed) and thousands of people send death threats due to the loss of faith in their "hero"
as a consequence of the previous two or not, video essayists and other miscellaneous critics jump on perceived flaws in the writing quality and create drama and groomercord
if these contradictions are resolved or avoided, the series can end with minimal issue
if not, the creator is run off the platform, either chased or tired of the "harassment" and "stress" the process of creation has fostered in them.
This concludes the archetypical example of the Satanic Fandom Process
Chapter 2: OBSERVATIONS
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning is a series that has "archetypal fandom" traits that has, to my admittedly limited knowledge, suffered only a mild to negligible dose of the "Satanic Fandom Process." It is not the focus of this post. What is important is a piece of fan work that was created for it.
Namely, a music video intended as tribute.
What is important to our story is that this music video was, itself, parodied.
this parody would become what is now known as "Fundamental Paper Education" was a reanimation of the video with original characters, created by a very young, obviously mentally unstable child
(Kid doesn't even know a planet with the Lehman Brothers on it ππ)
The video is now deleted, but amassed tens of millions of views while it was still up. The unexpected popularity of the series caused the bewildered child to make wild promises about creating a full series.
Now, you see the inherent problem. A person 15, 16 years old making wild promises of a full series based of a series of funny drawings they made to a baldis basic tribute music video.
The pressure built up, and on november 24th 2024, they unlisted the original video (THE ONE SINGLE SINGLE PIECE OF CONTENT THE FANDOM WAS OPERATING OFF) released a statement relaying the idea that they were already burned out from the sudden surge in popularity but remained hopeful this would resolve. This was identified as a "misstep in liberal values" and she was summarily sent threats and harassment, with defenders and detractors also coming under fire.
On january 27th, every FPE related post on the creators twitter page was removed without notice. They changed their bio to "I just want to start over again" and shortly after removed that as well
On February 11th, the entire twitter page was summarily purged and she deleted every community post on her youtube channel
On February 14th, has made all of her videos private and also hid her last post on her YouTube channel, as well as changing her bio to "Fall is my favorite seasonπ". Before erasing this as well.
The Satanic Fandom Process, though accelerated, has reached it's inevitable conclusion.
This is where the project currently stands. completely scuttled before it even left the harbour. Throughout all this there was never a single official episode.
Chapter 3: SATIRISM
But here is the promised subversion. Throughout this entire process, the fandom has been almost completely unreactive. The subreddit has been posting fanart of the characters without missing a SINGLE BEAT. They literally don't even care there is ZERO official content, the fandom has become the content.
https://old.reddit.com/r/FundamentalPaperEdu/comments/1iqpami/art_tips/
https://old.reddit.com/r/FundamentalPaperEdu/comments/1iqkebd/amalgamation_mx/
https://old.reddit.com/r/FundamentalPaperEdu/comments/1iqorvz/nothing_much_today_just_oliver/
https://old.reddit.com/r/FundamentalPaperEdu/comments/1iqejbr/if_fpe_fandom_make_fpe_movie/
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It is a satire. Just because it's real doesn't erase it's satirical elements. The idea of a "fandom" of content that does not exist is practically analogous to the satirical tradition stretching as far back as don quixote (chivalry when there is nothing to be chivalrous about, the windmill replacing the man eating giant). Its not a perfect analogy but there's pretty undeniable parallels βin my opinion of course
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The content does exist. I just saw the video. I think the most important thing we should take away from this is that redditors are the most r-slurred people on the internet.
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The content would only be an unprecedented level of shallow if it was a music video from a different fandom with original characters, but it's now deleted. It does not exist. Again, it's not a perfect analogy but it is, in the absract, a fandom of nothing. If the fandom stopped when the series went kaput i wouldn't make this post, it's that there is zero episodes, zero plot, the "characters" don't have a single canon trait or interaction to memorize because there is no canon but the fandom, what should be the derived structure, exists anyways.
Don Quixote fancied himself a giant slayer, which is inherently a reaction to the idea to the synthesis of the two terms "there are existing giants" and "giants need to be slain" the whole reason it's satirical is because this literally just isn't true and Don Quixote is reacting to literally nothing.
In the plainest terms possible, the same way Don Quixote as a character is satirical because he exists as a reaction (in this case a solution) to a nonexistent problem, the fandom is inherently satirical because it is a reaction (in this case a community) to a nonexistent media entity
!commenters Do you understand me?
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There are interactions with the characters in the original music video, the teachers act evil, some of the students are stupid or pranksters. Even shit like the oreo meme in the fandom comes from the original music video. The creator did release additional material, names for the characters and a little lore and such that some of the fan stuff is being based upon. I absolutely get the point you're trying to make I just don't feel like the base material is nonexistent.
Sprunki is an even better example, it's literally just an incredibox reskin with no lore no character interaction and nothing of substance that also blew up and had the creator abandon it. Everything around Sprunki is just based off of funny looking characters and nothing of substance whatsoever basically. Now ping commenters again but this time under my comment.
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Not a perfect analogy, but what i was going for is the fandom exists despite the complete removal of what little canon content there was. According to the wiki the only piece of content was non canon and the creator was going to change some personalities implied by it anyways. Sprunki is at least still up, it has "gameplay". FPE had very little, and now literally nothing and the SFP is still going anyway.
ping them yourself you have the money
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Frick you
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I don't sleep with dramacoin-stingy bums who live and post in inhumane conditions and still have C- waifu taste.
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Keep yourself safe
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I'm going to edge you
! commenters
!commentors
!peoplewhomadecomments
!/commenters
!commenters1
and i'll never ever let you release
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Aware me.
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I like Don Quixote
literally me fr fr
except the windmills are redditors
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It appears that you're in a fandom about fandoms.
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Good response nerd.
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Just because you learned the word satire yesterday and now want to use it everywhere doesn't mean you have to inflict it on the rest of us.
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I suppose you've thoroughly studied the satirical tradition going back to Cervantes, Swift, Mencken, Voltaire, Austen, Gogol, Waugh, Wyndham Lewis, Kafka, etc.
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!commenters this is what i meant by "satire" if it was confusing by the way
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