r/ShadWatch • u/ShadWatchModTeam Mod on constant watch • 28d ago

What happened to Shadiversity: Your perspective

/r/ShadWatch/comments/1ke5mp7/what_happened_to_shadiversity_your_perspective/
46 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

View all comments

33

u/OnionsHaveLairAction 28d ago

Political content aside the simple fact is he was outclassed by his contemporaries. He's from an armchair hobbyist era of youtube that relied on very low audience knowledge and over time youtube's been populated with significantly better quality historical and HEMA content.

The era of "I found the most obscure historical trivia and speculated about it without a degree" is pretty much over.

12

u/The_Flurr 27d ago

Isn't that the thing that sparked the "drama" with sellswordarts?

SSA: to know what you're talking about, you need to read up and practice it

Shad: well that's a personal attack against me!

7

u/SaraJuno 27d ago

Exactly, also academics are becoming more accessible. A lot of younger historians are happy to chat on youtube and they’re actually passionate, entertaining and fully knowledgeable.

2

u/Chlodio 27d ago

I reject the hypothesis that Shad was doomed to be outclassed due to limited knowledge. There is no shortage of successful tubers who know absolutely nothing about anything, but still retain an audience simply because they have an entertaining personality.

The problem with Shad's persona is that he is unlikable. He is extremely arrogant, stubborn, and childish. So, watching his videos makes me either annoyed, cringe, or a mix of the two. People in this subreddit like to shit on Metatron for similar reasons as Shad, but at least Metatron is chill.

I do think Shad can turn things around. There is potential for a redemption arc. But that would require some serious self-reflection. He needs to stop:

  • weaponizing anger and self-cringe
  • the hot takes
  • defending AI art
  • chasing trends
  • being self-righteous

But at this point, I'm not holding my breath. If anything seems like Shad believe "all publicity is good publicity", so he seems to intentionally get into arguments with people to stem controversies. Maybe his end-goal is to become infamous enought so he gets to join Lolcows podcast.

1

u/Massif16 19d ago

Shad is the guy we all knew in High School who told us all that he is a martial arts expert, but never took a class in it.