Why are video essays like this?

[Antilocal123]

Because they fucking suck lmao

 

[Deleted member 612095]

What can you say because it is so.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

This also regularly happen in written forms(like essays, thesis, literary analysis, etc) in the "intellectual spheres" is a rather common practice to frequently falling in "circumlocution" discourse(saying the same thing over and over with different wording).

 

[Sfjeov]

This also regularly happen in written forms(like essays, thesis, literary analysis, etc) in the "intellectual spheres" is a rather common practice to frequently falling in "circumlocution" discourse(saying the same thing over and over with different wording).

Yea, I really hate that essayists keeping spewing the same old argument and act 2deep4u as if they're original.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Yea, I really hate that essayists keeping spewing the same old argument and act 2deep4u as if they're original.

More like repeating a mantra with no though processing or spewing a bunch of canned speeches.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

This also regularly happen in written forms(like essays, thesis, literary analysis, etc) in the "intellectual spheres" is a rather common practice to frequently falling in "circumlocution" discourse(saying the same thing over and over with different wording).

Oh, that's on point. I also sense a lot of paraphrasing (beating around the bush instead of getting to the point).


I really feel that some are confusing intelligence with the ability to employ complex words in long sentences.

We are in a wisdom vs knowledge situation: someone smart would know complex subjects in their entirety, someone wise would manage to explain it as simply as it could get.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Oh, that's on point. I also sense a lot of paraphrasing (beating around the bush instead of getting to the point).


I really feel that some are confusing intelligence with the ability to employ complex words in long sentences.

We are in a wisdom vs knowledge situation: someone smart would know complex subjects in their entirety, someone wise would manage to explain it as simply as it could get.

Other way to put it is: "too much theoretical discourse, very little on the practical side"... You need to "land back to earth" your concepts, for example by giving examples or making your listeners apply the concepts you are "teaching".

 

[Deleted member 746185]

Creators like Princess Weekes, In Praise Of Shadows, Accented Cinema, Super Eyepatch Wolf, and Hbomberguy are guilty of it a lot. In fact they and a lot of their copy cats are what swore me off Video Essays in their entirety. I basically loathe that genre now, and the only video essay channel I currently follow are ThorHighheels and F_T_B, and F_T_B is more of a historical video game documentary channel than a video essay channel to be honest. The rest of them, seriously they can burn in hell, especially anyone who makes a video like, "I watched XXXX so you don't have to". Those are the worst kind of video essays because they are basically a summary of the entire thing without adding any thoughtful opinions of their own.

 

[Ne0Griever]

I noticed that in these last years there was a trend of long, deep analytic videos talking about the underlying sub-text of various media (from cartoons to movies while going through video games) as well as making a commentary about how "xxxx is an underrated masterpiece" for anything that didn't meet a certain popularity from people.

I also have seen how many videos online also had long intros that defines the origins or even explain the medium as if it acted as if nobody knew what it was about (we could still search about it online beforehand) so that they get quite stale and I wish they could get to the point (I don't need a history lesson about something if it's barely relevant to the main subject).

I'd also argue that many videos are also making famous quotes or engaging with a higher level of vocabulary to sound more intellectual or credible to its public rather than being more specific with technical terms.

I can understand that essays aren't meant to be short and that at school they expect you to reach a certain minimum amount of words to have at least some substance but when your video is 3 hours long it clearly shows that there is some padding to make it seemingly complete.

I wouldn't be anti-intellectualistic about people online (any form of art can get some fruitful analysis) but I also feel that these people think they're still doing a school assignment and forgot that sometimes simplicity can still be effective.

Here's a simple meme I remember seeing that perfectly represents what I'm saying:
View attachment 3419

Could you please provide some channels as examples?

Not trying to flame or being sarcastic, am rather curious who are this creators are you talking about

Would like to check them out as there are many that do indeed go on and on and on about trivial shit.

Post automatically merged: Jul 19, 2025

Kitty Adventures Didn't Just Die | It Was Murdered

Yeah that mofo was indeed guilty as charged.

 

[Amakuchi]

My big gripe with this type of content is that most of the stuff they cover I would already know. "Did you know that game dev did this because they really liked X?" Yes some Top 10 Easter Eggs in Games video beat you to the punch 10 years ago. Then 3 more essayists will show up later on and repeat the same stuff.

I was always of the opinion that the essayists that go beyond using game magazines as main sources and can somehow manage to get in touch with developers and/or get some design documents gets a passing grade from me.

That's why the channels (usually from mainstream media sources) that sit down and just let a developer talk are way more fascinating than some guy guessing what the developer might have intended.

 

[fmsynthetic]

I've written a lot of literary criticism, and 'video essays' are a branch of the same tree. Literary criticism is basically a sham imitation of actual substantive academic writing which seeks to imbue interpretations of classic literature with more gravitas by making them more verbose and complicated, and also appealing to the politics du jour of whatever time they were written in.

 

[trickybus]

Simplest answer I can give (that isn't "for clicks") is that video essayists can no longer distinguish between "I like this piece of media" and "This piece of media has the markers of quality production". It's not just essayists either. If you're involved in any type of fandom for long enough, you will run into fans who turn a piece of media into their identity, so much so that they take any criticism of the media they like as a personal attack. I don't understand the motive behind this behavior but it's depressingly common.

The overarching issue is that media illiteracy is quite rampant. If people don't know what the traits of a good story are, they won't be able to identify them on sight. If they aren't taught about personal bias and how it affects perception, they can't engage in introspection. To be clear, I don't necessarily blame these young people for their media illiteracy. They were never taught how to engage with media in a positive way. That isn't their fault; that's the fault of the generations that came before.

 

[shadowcat]

I think they are pretty lame. Most are some dilettante trying to sound like an expert on whatever subject they are speaking on. I avoid them like the plague, it's usually somebody just looking for online notoriety and money, who doesn't have a genuine interest in the topic of the video. They're on the level of AI generated articles in my opinion.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I've sadly delved a bit too much into Iceberg videos but at least while those are also telling the obvious I could accept the surface level stuff since it's how an Iceberg works.

Although they're also getting too long and spreads like vines around Youtube which leads to saturation and too many "Mario 64/popular thing iceberg" and even spread false infos sometimes.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I'm not really a fan of video essays. I skim through them and it's just them doing a whole let's play instead of cutting up to different videos. "Analysis" my ass. They critique every single thing and claim it as "analysis". Just call it for what it is. A Let's play for Christ sakes. A video game doesn't need to be 3 hours long for you to say something in 2 sentences.

 

[ciro64]

I love this one too

2024's Yousef posted the goat already so I'll post these ones instead

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

2024's Yousef posted the goat already so I'll post these ones instead

The last video is so much true.

 

[Questless Knight]

What I hate with anime and gaming community is they always try to find plot point that does not exist or make up shit as they go. They go out make a the first part history then talk about the show and then end with speculations like there is no tomorrow but the issue is they never say it´s speculation they just say this what all fan believe so it must be true basically. I will say if you did not write the story for the game or anime just shut the F up thank you.

Also if I ever here the words "DID YOU KNOW" Im gonna lose.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

What I hate with anime and gaming community is they always try to find plot point that does not exist or make up shit as they go. They go out make a the first part history then talk about the show and then end with speculations like there is no tomorrow but the issue is they never say it´s speculation they just say this what all fan believe so it must be true basically. I will say if you did not write the story for the game or anime just shut the F up thank you.

Also if I ever here the words "DID YOU KNOW" Im gonna lose.

I'm already bored when a video already makes the history of something a lot of people knew already, it makes it redundant and longer than necessary.

Obscure trivias may be interesting but should go with the subject in question, not something random.

My gripe with the Internet is that a false thing is much more spread out than an erratum. That's why a lot of kids repeated that Sans is Ness without even blinking.

Maybe it's the viewers' fault for not thinking by themselves and only assimilate things without filters.

 

[Questless Knight]

I'm already bored when a video already makes the history of something a lot of people knew already, it makes it redundant and longer than necessary.

Obscure trivias may be interesting but should go with the subject in question, not something random.

My gripe with the Internet is that a false thing is much more spread out than an erratum. That's why a lot of kids repeated that Sans is Ness without even blinking.

Maybe it's the viewers' fault for not thinking by themselves and only assimilate things without filters.

Yeah I bet it´s viewers fault I mean back in my day we where taught don´t believe everything on internet heck even school criticized that don´t use Wiki as it can have false information as any one can edit it.

But today every one seams to believe every single shit said on internet.

 

[trickybus]

I love this one too

God, that felt so much longer than 3 minutes

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yeah I bet it´s viewers fault I mean back in my day we where taught don´t believe everything on internet heck even school criticized that don´t use Wiki as it can have false information as any one can edit it.

But today every one seams to believe every single shit said on internet.

Critical thinking isn't a normal thing to get teach at school?

God, that felt so much longer than 3 minutes

That Carl Jung quote is the nice cherry on cake.

 

[Questless Knight]

Critical thinking isn't a normal thing to get teach at school?


That Carl Jung quote is the nice cherry on cake.

I would say common sense is not taught to any one any more and people believe any bogus media tells them. Also people BIG ego of I never wrong and I know everything does not help.

My god every time there is a discussion about something there is soooo many self proclaimed experts coming out the wood and they seam to be experts at everything imaginable just because they can google or even ChatGPT that shit.

 

[KaiserMk7]

Simplest answer I can give (that isn't "for clicks") is that video essayists can no longer distinguish between "I like this piece of media" and "This piece of media has the markers of quality production". It's not just essayists either. If you're involved in any type of fandom for long enough, you will run into fans who turn a piece of media into their identity, so much so that they take any criticism of the media they like as a personal attack. I don't understand the motive behind this behavior but it's depressingly common.

The overarching issue is that media illiteracy is quite rampant. If people don't know what the traits of a good story are, they won't be able to identify them on sight. If they aren't taught about personal bias and how it affects perception, they can't engage in introspection. To be clear, I don't necessarily blame these young people for their media illiteracy. They were never taught how to engage with media in a positive way. That isn't their fault; that's the fault of the generations that came before.

Hmm... It might be fun and peaceful to never look inward and question any of one's own thought processes...