The Onceler, Omegaverse, and Neopets drama YouTube explainers, explained

Over the years, fandom-exploring YouTube videos essays have become very popular. Take, for example, Izzzyzzz’s overview of the history of Neopets controversies. You might be familiar with this virtual pet website, or have spent many hours there as a child. Some of the stranger happenings at the site might have been unknown to you, as Izzy explores. Izzy reveals the black market in rare Neopet design, the multiple data breaches and the connections with Scientology.

Izzy is just one of many YouTube creators. These creators have used these videos to embrace cringe, and they encourage fans to show no shame about their fandom.

“I collect fandom and internet stories,” said Izzy. In a series of viral YouTube videos, they’ve recounted moments like the Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons crossover fandom or the history of internet chain letters and copypastas.

Izzy has 420,000 subscribers, and videos that have surpassed a million views. This allows Izzy to share these stories with an interested audience. They might not have heard of these topics before and give them something new about internet history. You might even see videos that show creators in situations they were involved, and let them tell how it all fits into a larger context. These creators spent a lot of time online in their youth, visiting sites such as Tumblr and other blogs. They use that vast knowledge to create their videos.

“[That] was such a unique and specific era,” said Sarah Z, a YouTube creator who applies their background in sociology to exploring fandoms as subcultures. Both Sarah and Izzy prefer using their first names online to protect their privacy. Sarah and Emily Bray make videos about media criticism and fandom history that are regularly viewed more than 1,000,000 times per month. Their most popular video, a history of the Onceler phenomenon, describes how an obscure character from the childrens’ movie LoraxTumblr has made this character a hugely popular. The site is also used by them to discover which characters in fandom are getting more attention and why.

Tumblr is still popular, even though it has a smaller user base, Tumblr was a haven for fans and community among teens during the 2010s. Many of these teens are returning to the online spaces that they used earlier in their lives by watching these videos. Sarah compares the nostalgic video comments to high school reunions.

“No matter where somebody is in life, we all came together for this weird period of internet history, and we can all look back on it now and talk about the good and the bad of it all,” they said.

These accounts are well-known on Tumblr. Heritage Posts is a way to resurface old content from the time it went viral. For specific fandoms, similar accounts are also available. Heritage Posts’ original rules about what content it shares have only two requirements. Firstly, posts must predate 2018; and secondly, posts “must be sufficiently cursed/evoke some kind of negative emotion.”

This means it should make your heart ache. Being embarrassed by one’s teenage self is widespread and perhaps natural, but the creators I spoke to are more interested in reclaiming and taking seriously the fandoms that others might find cringeworthy. Their videos help others do the same.

“After any era where people are incredibly passionate about any interest, there’s going to be a cooldown period where people are incredibly embarrassed,” said Sarah. “But over time all of that starts to fade away, and at a certain point when there’s been enough distance from it I think you can largely just appreciate that you were having fun and you cared about something. I think that we’re starting to approach that point for a lot of the really dedicated ex-Tumblr kids.”

TikToker Berklie Novak-Stolz actively encourages this in many of her videos — and it seems to be working. “There are so many people that just tell me constantly that they feel less ashamed now,” she said. Novak Stolz met her audience because TikTok had become so saturated with Omegaverse content, after Muslim fan, omarsbigsister began exploring the possibilities of Ramadan in this universe.

“I’d made a video making a joke about explaining the Omegaverse to my mom,” recalled Novak-Stolz. “And then somebody was like, ‘Well, can you explain it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, no problem.’” She had a joke in her bio: “Ask me about the time I faked my death on fanfiction.net.” Someone did, and the story blew up, getting her account into the algorithms of the fandom nostalgic and the fandom curious.

These deep dives on 2010s internet culture are helping adults who once felt they’d aged out of fandom reembrace fanfiction, community discussion, and generally being excited about their favorite characters. “Just [rediscovering] simple joys, and realizing they don’t have to feel guilty,” said Novak-Stolz. This shift could have been fueled by the pandemic. Many people were spending more time online and returning to comfort memories or nostalgic moments. Archive of Our Own and other fanfiction websites saw large spikes of traffic in 2020.

Many people also are just starting to get into fandom. Fandom is now more popular than ever outside the confines of dedicated online forums. Over the past approximately 15 years, it’s shifted from something kept under wraps to something that’s talked about in the media and by celebrities. Chloe Zhao is an award-winning director who has made it public that she enjoys writing fanfiction.

However, this expansion also means there is a new fandom looking to learn and get advice about how everything works. “There are certain expectations [in fandom],” said Novak-Stolz. We have our own way of speaking to each other, a sociolect.” She often explains the fanfiction tags found on Archive of Our Own, which can be obscure inside jokes that are important to know. “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat,” for instance, is a warning that a fic might include something a reader finds distasteful, and that they shouldn’t click through just to sate their curiosity. But since it’s based on an Arrested Development joke, its meaning might not be immediately obvious to someone who’s new to fandom.

Novak Stolz is trying to ease the transition to this subculture by sharing her content. “It’s honestly a huge honor and a privilege to me knowing that I get to do that for so many people,” she said.

Izzy’s and Sarah’s YouTube videos strike a balance between explanations for the curious viewer who’s never heard of, say, MordeTwi or Mormor, and wider platform and fandom context for people who recognize the events in question.

“That’s a little bit challenging sometimes,” said Sarah. “I want to give enough background and context in my videos for people who might not be super familiar with them, while at the same time I don’t want people who were already there to feel like they’re sitting through 30 minutes of unnecessary contextualizing.”

The public nature of their work has brought these creators into engagement with one another, while their different perspectives, platforms, and pressures mean they’re not always in agreement. They all treat fandom as more than a means to entertain fans. They use fandom dives to discuss broader topics, like digging into the Sherlock fandom as a way of talking about queerbaiting, and unpacking “how fan theories can become popular, [and] how certain figures can become the defining voices of canon,” said Sarah.

Sarah’s focus is on people who were personally connected to events, which helps her understand why so many fans are excited about them. They did this to create a video on DashCon 2014, the notoriously disappointing Tumblr conference. Sarah’s experience as a “bullied teenage girl who came to [Tumblr] because they felt that they were with likeminded people” gave them insight into why the teens involved were so excited about having a real-world space to express themselves.

Izzy also foregrounds their understanding of what it’s like to be a teen online. “I try to approach it from a place of, this is cringe, but I was as much if not more cringe when I was a kid,” they said. “And I would also laugh at the cringe stuff I would make as a kid. So I hope there’s an understanding that it comes from a place of love.”

Tumblr, and all fandoms, are a place where nostalgia and sociological interest meet. As older fans become more familiar with fandom and the wider web of media production and online platforms, younger ones learn to navigate it. It can also be healing for 20-year olds who were once ashamed to admit to their fandom teenage selves.

“Fandom has always been the place for people who didn’t fit in elsewhere for whatever reason to come and fit in with a group of likeminded people and to bond about their shared enjoyment of whatever piece of media,” said Novak-Stolz. “When I’m talking about things I want to make sure that we can laugh about it, but I don’t ever want anybody to feel any shame.”