Kingsman is ruined for me

Image courtesy of metro.co.uk

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. I'm sure you've already read my last blog entry, which technically isn't an article but an open letter to the director of both Kingsman movies, Matthew Vaughn. As you've probably guessed, I am no longer a fan of the Kingsman franchise, since I am disgusted by the new movie and how Matthew Vaughn has given us Kingsman fans a massive middle finger.

I feel like such an idiot for supporting this franchise, expecting something as huge as not killing off Roxy but then believing that they would never stoop as low as they did in terms of blatant sexism. I am getting ahead of myself, and for what it's worth, spoiler warning for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and you could probably say "Spoilers? You've already just told me that Roxy dies", and to that I say, well she dies within the first 10 minutes and is treated like nothing so it's no spoiler at all.

So it isn't just killing off Roxy immediately that has got my blood boiled, and even the fact that JB the pug is killed in the explosion along with Roxy. Yes, you want the audience to root for Eggsy but it seems absolutely needless to kill off Roxy, it honestly feels like a proper punch in the gut, when she was such a great character and they could have done so much with her. Plus you could say they go after Poppy to avenge Roxy but they don't mention her at all afterwards and for the rest of the movie.

Let's transition to the overall sexism, because what better way than to kill off the sole woman Kingsman agent who we got so much of in the first movie? Ignoring Roxy (Like Matthew Vaughn did) for a moment, how about we move swiftly to the scene in this movie that has gotten everyone talking, and not in a good way. Eggsy goes to a music festival and has to seduce the ex-girlfriend of Charlie and place a tracking device in her for whatever reason, and what results is Eggsy inserting it into her vagina and you see a CGI animation of Eggsy's finger inside her and the device settling in there, using a woman's body as a means to provide comedic value.

Okay so in the first film when Eggsy was offered anal sex by the Swedish princess Tilde, I could chuckle at it since I know it was referencing Moore era Bond, but could understand why people thought it was sexist since Eggsy asked for a kiss after freeing her. Also beforehand, Roxy who had actually won the Kingsman candidate position was sent up to take out one of the villain's satellites whilst Eggsy fought on the ground and got the reward at the end.

I have defended the first film for this, because Eggsy's mum was in an abusive relationship and Eggsy still loves her despite being unable to muster the strength to leave her abusive partner, and Eggsy wants what is best for her and his little half-sister. Because Roxy was never portrayed as playing up to being a woman among a predominantly male environment and infact bonded with Eggsy due to the fact that they were a lower class and a woman among higher class men, and that they broke the trend of the upper class male only agents. Roxy was never overly sexualised, that her make-up was always at a minimum and the only time she wore anything over than trousers was a long and sleeved dress.

So now we are where we are today. Roxy dead within the first ten minutes without even five minutes of screen time after feeding exposition to Eggsy and looking up information on Tilde's parents (Since Eggsy and Tilde are now dating), before being sent to meet her fucking maker. We have an actual fingering scene which Taron Egerton has stated that he did not feel comfortable filming, and also how at the end of the film when Jeff Bridges' Agent Champagne offered the vacated role of Agent Whiskey to Eggsy and Harry, with Halle Berry's Ginger having to beg to be considered. We even had the President of the US' female chief of staff cower in his presence, like it couldn't be more obvious.

Kingsman felt like a great platform to go against stereotypes and with Eggsy being the main character, I felt there was so much potential to utilise these amazing set of characters in such a unique world. I hate how I suckered myself into this and believing with all my heart that they wouldn't stoop this low, and I know all of you are thinking "Well they brought back Harry, they'll bring back Roxy", let me put it this way.

The fact that we have to rely on that, is an absolute joke. Little known fact, Roxy never existed in the Mark Millar comic The Secret Service that Kingsman is loosely based on, and whilst none of the other characters did either, there were characters in the original comic that inspired the movie characters. Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin was Gary 'Eggsy' London, Harry Hart was Eggsy's Uncle Jack, Merlin was Rupert Greaves and Arthur was Sir Giles, but Roxy never had one so they could just not have bothered.

But they did, they created such a great character who was never exemplified, and any effort for me to be noticed here is not so Kingsman becomes the Roxy Morton show, but to treat this character with some respect and to treat the audience with some respect. I say that not only because the cult following that made Kingsman what it is, but also because in this world of Kingsman to be suckered into any sort of emotional investment with character deaths to only bring them back will lose its tension. It is a lose lose situation if they choose to bring back Roxy, JB and Merlin in the same way they brought back Harry and even Charlie for fuck sake!

But at least with Harry and Merlin, their characters have been fleshed out and I could understand why they killed Harry off in the first Kingsman, and Merlin in the second although be it to a lesser extent. Roxy is killed immediately and swept under the rug, she never had the time to develop and what is even more insulting is that if they had not killed her, she may very well have been reduced to being the one behind the computer (Like she pretty much was before she was fried) a lot like what Ginger was. Despite the fact that she won the test to become a Kingsman field agent.

Shelving Roxy so we get more Tilde too, ey? Oh if it puts things into perspective, the Twitter account @EgertonUpdates put out a poll asking who everyone's favourite Kingsman duo alongside Eggsy was, out of Harry, Merlin, Roxy and Tilde. 62% voted Harry, myself and 20% voted for Roxy and 18% voted for Merlin. Add that up in your head (or on a calculator) to work out what percentage voted for Tilde.

If it wasn't bad enough, Tilde is constantly pushed as a main character so much and whilst I was onboard with Tilde going against the Bond trope of throwaway girls to have sex with and not think about again, it becomes overbearing to think that they shelved Roxy for her. According to an article I am looking at, she apparently nags Eggsy and tries to distract him, and at the end, this was the cherry on the cake, they marry and Eggsy retires from Kingsman.

The first movie was all about making something of yourself, so for Eggsy to become a Swedish prince and retire from the Kingsman completely undoes all of that.

Fuck Kingsman: The Golden Circle and fuck Matthew Vaughn for ruining the Kingsman franchise, steering it in the worst direction, never expected to say that at the start of this year. I know I've been foaming from the mouth but this shit meant so much to me, and I feel like an absolute idiot for supporting the franchise. I know for a fact that I probably won't have any effect since the movie was released last weekend and it has already made its production budget back.

But for what it is worth, I want to see Roxy back and if I was in a perfect world, to undo all that Golden Circle did but beggars cannot be choosers. The fact that I had to do this is infuriating, but I created a petition which as of now has 120 supporters, and I will never shut up about it until I have an effect. Link to my petition here: https://www.change.org/p/matthew-vaughn-bring-back-roxy-in-kingsman

If anything, I'd really want to see Vaughn ousted from his own franchise as I believe he is irredeemable and indefensible, but it won't happen. Fuck me right? Getting so invested in these characters to only be told "Fuck you", who to trust other than myself? I guess it's better to be deluded and live in your own little world where people have basic decency.

Roxy deserved better. The Kingsman cult following deserved better. We made this franchise as beloved as it was, but I guess expecting these characters to be expanded upon and treating women with respect was too much to ask for the Kingsman franchise. I am just exhausted, I have shed too many tears because of Roxy and this movie infuriates me. I was the biggest Kingsman fan and the fact that I have condemned it as much as I have should speak volumes to you. I'll be betting all my money and all my body parts that Ginger will be killed off in Kingsman 3.

That will be all. Fuck Kingsman.

Luca.

An open letter to Matthew Vaughn

Image courtesy of 20thCenturyFoxUK

Dear Mr. Vaughn,

My name is Luca and I have been one of your biggest supporters and a former diehard fan of the Kingsman franchise, and since the first trailer was revealed in April this year for the upcoming follow-up to that incredible first movie, I have wanted to be excited, but could not for one reason. And now, my reason is seemingly, justified.

You introduced us to this amazing world that we all fell in love with, and some amazing characters like Eggsy, Harry, Merlin, and the subject of this open letter, Roxy.

People criticise the first film for some sexism, a lot I can understand where they're coming from, like how Roxy is cut out of the final action scene despite out of her and Eggsy, she actually was the official Kingsman agent. The other one being Eggsy being offered anal sex if he saved the world by the Swedish princess, and I have defended you with these choices Mr. Vaughn, but now I can't.

My fear ever since the first trailer was revealed back in April was that Roxy was killed in the attack on the Kingsman HQ, since we didn't see her past that point in any of the marketing and the fact that she never had her own character poster - or she eventually did after the uproar from social media but using a photo from the first film - and I held out hope because I believed in what you would do would be right, and I was a fool!!

ROXY DIES IN THE NEW KINGSMAN MOVIE!!!

Matthew Vaughn, I reserve this statement for only when it is really necessary, I am so disappointed in you.

Roxy was such an amazing character with so much potential, who has been thrown in the refrigerator so that Eggsy is motivated to go after the big baddie Poppy.

You know, as I am writing this, I am constantly checking Twitter to see if I'm an idiot and it turns out she isn't killed off but from what I have heard from reviewers that I watch on YouTube and from what I have read, she is. Also, don't give me that bullshit that Roxy can be resurrected like Harry has been for the new film, Colin Firth is a name that sells movie tickets and that's why he's back, Sophie Cookson isn't.

On the other hand, this could all turn out to be Cookson's call. In which case, I am disappointed in her but I very much doubt that it was her call, though I won't rule it out. But I can't see that being the case.

I rewatched Kingsman multiple times, I saw so much potential in this franchise because of the characters and lore, I have even written off to games companies, trying to get in touch with Millarworld at Netflix to try and push for video games and a TV show of the Kingsman. I even had a perfect voice actress in mind to voice Roxy being Cara Theobold, I had not thought of anyone else who could voice the rest of the characters!

I even had the idea for the third Kingsman film to begin with Eggsy and Roxy going to an F1 Grand Prix in London as a part of Lewis Hamilton's VIP guests (Since I went to Huntsman and saw Lewis had his suits made there). There they meet the villain played by Leonardo DiCaprio and a terror attack happens in which Eggsy and Roxy are forced to go into hiding when they're exposed and falsely accused of the attack.

Just mentioned it briefly there, I did go to Huntsman and I met Carol Pierce, and she promised me that she would forward every idea I had about Kingsman to you, and to be honest I didn't want to be too comfortable with that. I obviously heard nothing back from you, and I don't hold that against you but the least you could do is respect the audience.

I obviously can't sit here and expect you to compromise your artistic vision for the sake of appealing to the audience, because nothing coherent would ever work. But at what point did you sit down with your pen and paper or your laptop, decide to kill off Roxy and for us to be okay with that?!

Being a fan of something or someone doesn't mean you have to be okay with everything they do, be a yes man and let said entity walk on through life making constant mistakes, if anything we should call them out on their shit. That's exactly what I am doing with you.

I bet once you heard about the constant uproar on Twitter with people demanding more Roxy did you think that you had made a fatal error? That the marketing team had to pull an old image of Roxy from the first film to give her a character poster because nobody would fucking shut up about her.

Again, you can't resurrect her now like you've done with Harry and Charlie. Harry was your only card to play, that if you kept resurrecting dead characters that the audience would realise "Why bother getting emotionally invested, they'll be alive in the sequel anyway!". Why do you think that Marvel Cinematic Universe movies don't grip their audience anymore, and that people are waiting for Pietro, Yondu and The Ancient One to be resurrected in Infinity War?

The people I feel sorry for the most here, are the ones who were completely oblivious to this possibility, the Sophie Cookson fan accounts who are excited to see their woman in action to then only be buried in the rubble all burnt whilst Eggsy saves the day.

I have been sleepless at night because I was worried for Roxy's fate, and I refuse to watch this movie since my worst fear has been realised.

You're going to have some explaining to do when the internet attacks you for killing off the sole Kingsman woman, and they'll be justified in their actions when they say you're sexist. I don't care how much it's about Eggsy, why did you even bother introducing Roxy? She didn't even exist in the original Secret Service comic by Mark Millar so you could have just not bothered and the world would keep spinning.

But you had to hold this metaphorical piece of chicken over your dog's face to only throw it out the window and tell us to sit down and shut up. I am not exaggerating, I am seeing the live feed right now on my Twitter and it's full of "If they kill Roxy in Kingsman, I am not watching". Looks like you've just lost a huge chunk of your audience!

You are a disgrace, you're irredeemable and indefensible, I am so disappointed that you decided to do this and I cannot bring myself to support your work again. Don't even bother bringing Roxy back, you had a good thing going and you fucking ruined it by killing off such a great character even when you already had a lot of potential by bringing back a seemingly deceased character in Harry.

I will not support anything you are attached to in the future, and it saddens me that it has come to this.

Your former supporter,
Luca.

P.S. We, will, NOT, shut up about this.

#JusticeForRoxy
#BoycottKingsman

Why Leia should be recast

Image courtesy of www.bustle.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. I never grew up with the Star Wars movies, and I am waiting on the original trilogy to be restored to their original cuts before Lucas ruined them, but I have seen The Force Awakens and I loved it. I loved the characters, the feel of the storytelling as it very old school, the scale of the film, the incredible visuals, the energy, all of it made for such a great film.

I have also followed the other films that are being made which also exist within the Star Wars universe, such as Rogue One which I thought was amazing. I am highly anticipating the upcoming ones like the seemingly troubled Han Solo movie, potentially an Obi-Wan standalone with Ewan McGregor and of course, the two remaining episodic movies including this December's The Last Jedi.

However as you all know, the Star Wars universe was hit with some tragic news last December when the absolutely wonderful Carrie Fisher - who played Princess Leia - suddenly passed away after suffering a heart attack. I was distraught as I had only really come to know Carrie Fisher during the build up to The Force Awakens, so I can only imagine how upsetting it was to everyone who grew up watching her as Leia.

With the very unfortunate news that Fisher had passed, the question had to be asked eventually, what happens to the character? Because with the new trilogy not finished yet, what will happen to the Leia character, considering the highly sensitive nature of this question. The answer? With LucasFilm confirming that Leia had a very large role in the yet to start production Episode 9 and Fisher having completed all of her filming on The Last Jedi, they confirmed that Leia would be written out of Episode 9.. and to me, this is the worst thing they could do.

Remember my article about Hugh Jackman retiring as Wolverine? A lot of what I said there will probably be repeated here, and whilst the situations are not the same, they are very similar. Hugh Jackman didn't die whilst he was still playing the character of course, but after he capped off his time as a character that he had served for the fans after 17 years, I heard endless amounts of fans saying "NEVER HAVE ANOTHER WOLVERINE, IT'S DISRESPECTFUL!", which annoys the shit out of me.

So translating that same point into this regarding Leia, I know that LucasFilm doesn't want to get any backlash regarding this and so they have done a reactionary move to not get any bad press, and that isn't a bad thing on their part, they can't control public perception and reaction. However, when Paul Walker died during production of Furious 7, they didn't write him out at all and infact, gave him a proper send off by having his brothers stand in for him.

Paul Walker like Carrie Fisher, his life's work was on the Fast & Furious and in my eyes, anyone saying that the respectful thing to do is to write out the character or stop the franchise, it baffles me! I've always said that no film, story or character is built to service the actor, that the actor is brought in to service them, and when you have someone like Carrie Fisher who spent a lifetime bringing to life this beloved character, it is obviously devastating to lose her, but does that mean we should not have Leia at all?

These characters are immortalised for all of us, they will exist longer than we ever will and they exist for all of us. I am not saying that these actors are interchangeable and expendable because they are not, and I know a lot of people will see what I am saying as undermining Carrie Fisher's legacy but again, but I know I am not. I know I cannot speak for Fisher but honouring this amazing character and servicing the fans who have watched these movies for over 40 years now, to just write her out for Episode 9 to me, completely undermines her legacy.

Again, I am not saying that Fisher was interchangeable because had she lived, no doubt in my mind would anyone have been for recasting Leia but I am here to tell you, I know who can finish Leia's story in the Star Wars universe for Episode 9, Holly Hunter.

Image courtesy of www.thedailybeast.com

Hunter may or may not be a name you remember but to list off what IMDb claims are her biggest credits, The Incredibles, Batman V Superman, and her Academy Award winning performance in The Piano, as well as recently appearing in The Big Sick. I don't know about you but I think this is champagne casting, as Hunter has proven herself as being a great actress in her own right but she's the right age, looks very similar to Fisher and sounds just like her, it's uncanny. I believe that Hunter would do more than just an imitation, she could bring a vulnerability, leadership and a quality that Fisher also oozed in spades, charisma.

I do feel the need to reiterate, this isn't me saying that Carrie Fisher is easily replaced because she isn't, she will always be our Princess Leia, but let's honour Fisher's memory and legacy by carrying it over the finishing line to finish out the new trilogy. Please do not for one second think that I am trying to dishonour Fisher, just because if you think by not finishing out the story with the character she spent her whole life serving is honouring her, then at least our intentions are the same, but our methods are different.

As for these rumours about a standalone Leia film, I think this is a terrific idea also. Feel free to have an opinion on this as well, outside of this whole casting someone to play Leia in Episode 9 is the possibility of a movie set around Leia aged 13 being granted political power and influence and being on her way to earning her PhD at age 19. Quite the unique story and honouring exactly what made Leia an idol to all the women who have grown up both with her and afterwards too.

Stranger Things' actress Millie Bobby Brown is apparently in line to portray Leia if such a movie were to happen, and whilst I haven't seen much of her since I haven't seen Stranger Things yet (Please don't hurt me, I think I'll do so before season two is released), I hear she's brilliant. Plus, she's the right age for the timeframe of the movie and looks spot on as far as looking like Carrie Fisher and Natalie Portman (Who portrayed Luke and Leia's mother in the prequels).

As I've said countless times throughout this article, Carrie Fisher is no longer with us and it still upsets me considering how loveable and just truly amazing she really was. I know this will not make LucasFilm see eye-to-eye with me and Leia will be unfortunately written out of Episode 9 because the general public believes it is disrespectful to 'replace' Fisher when really, it isn't replacing at all.

I can only speak for myself here but if I die before something I had put my life, soul and hard work into had been completed, I would like to use this article that will hopefully still be around when I do get round to dying, to let the world know that I want it finished. Because we are what we leave behind, our legacy lives on. Steve Jobs didn't ask for Apple to shut down completely before he passed away, he made sure that it would continue to thrive in his absence, and I am certain that none of you want what you had set out a lifetime to achieve to then be halted because you had passed away, don't let your legacy die with you.

So if anything, I hope this article has at least opened your eyes to the mentality of how it is disrespectful to recast Leia because it isn't, and I do hope somehow LucasFilm see it fit to finish out Leia's chapter. As for Carrie Fisher, Rest In Peace you wonderful woman, you made me laugh so much when I went looking at YouTube clips of you, we miss you.

Until we meet again everyone,
Luca.

My online racing desires and gaming experiences

Image courtesy of www.racedepartment.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. I have been playing online on video games since about 2010? I can't be exact. It all really kicked off for me on Gran Turismo 5, I had a lot of friends on there that we would race with, one of my racing buddies being a young kid called zombe127, or Will as was his real name, who I would always be battling with for the win.

Those were some of the best experiences online for me, I have so many great memories racing online. One that always stood out to me, my friend Ben or Onyx1998 had been catching me at Suzuka when we were racing Super GT cars and I was trying my utmost to save fuel. We got to the last lap, and I ran wide at Spoon Curve which Ben took advantage of, and I was trying to catch him but ever conscious of how little amount of fuel I had.

We made it through the last corner and I had accepted defeat at that point, but all of a sudden, Ben slows! He ran out of fuel, I re-overtake him and go on to take victory and all of us laughed, and Ben took it like a great sport, big respect to him.

I wasn't the greatest example of a human being and I believe since then, I have developed humility and a sense of fairness and equal treatment, and it's a shame as a lot of the guys who I raced with normally, we have all grown apart. Zombe has vanished off of the face of the earth, I still occasionally hear from Ben and I do plan on playing with him should he be getting Project CARS 2 later this month and GT Sport next month, but it isn't the same.

Right now, I for the most part play with my friends who all congregate on GTA. We are all a very effective and helpful bunch, as the majority of us on GTA try and get money, we assist each other all the time and it's not without its enjoyment of course. Just now, I was helping my friend Ahmed (who is probably reading this, hello Ahmed!) sell all of his Motorcycle Club businesses and it is very enjoyable indeed, and it's great having a group of helpful and wonderful guys to assist each other.

However we all have our own games we like to play otherwise. I for one am not into Need For Speed or The Crew, whereas the majority of them are and I play circuit games like F1 2017, Assetto Corsa etc. I also play Rocket League, and I just downloaded Just Cause 3, whereas my friend James is now going to be on Destiny 2 for the most part and I shall finally surpass his rank on GTA at long last! MUHAHAHA!!

I don't like to think that I'd make people buy games that they wouldn't want to play otherwise, and I cannot say enough how much I appreciate all of my friends. However, ever since I got the original Project CARS on PS4, I have been missing the love of what I have come to call, 'Gentleman racing' and I'd love to seek out an online community that solely focuses on organising online racing.

Since I own Assetto Corsa, F1 2017 and will soon own Project CARS 2 and Gran Turismo Sport, I want to look for a load of people seeking a friendly and competitive environment where we can just race. All of this for me was brought into perspective when I picked up my copy of F1 2017, the first F1 game in a while which actually feels to me at least, somewhat capable of driving on it. I was loving every moment whilst driving on it, and coupled with using my wheel on Assetto Corsa and the first Project CARS game, I was taken aback by how much I wanted to race again.

I mean yes, you can race the AI but that isn't the same and you can race the typical selection of online noobs who will try their utmost to knock you out of the race, and the fair players are very few and far between. The lobbies are very small on the typical run of the mill racing game, bigger on F1 2017 of course but littered with the noobs, and I miss this competitive spirit and shared respectful racing which is why I put it to you who are reading this.

So if you know a racing community out there that delves into friendly and competitive racing, I really want to join. All types of racing games, a casual but competitive, friendly environment with gentlemanly rules, some GTA custom jobs and clean racing, also some fun matches on Rocket League, where a lobby can fill up with just community members and nobody plays dirty. I know that's a lot to ask for but if anyone can hook me up, that would be a huge help.

I have it very good at the moment with the people I play GTA with and I am not saying that I want to replace any of my friends, I just want to look for some friendly competition on all my racing games. If anyone can help me, I'd owe you big time.

That will be all from me, and as ever if you're new and are interested in seeing more of me, my Twitter is @TheLucaFormat and if you put your email into the 'Follow By Email' option, you'll have all my articles sent straight to your inbox.

Alright! Hopefully you'll be back soon for my next article. So until we meet again.
Luca.

The unsung genius of satire

Image courtesy of www.reddit.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. YouTube is on a decline ever since the demonetisation of many videos and pretty much trying to drive any channel that doesn't confine to their political views, it won't last long. It was bad enough when they would state what community guidelines they have yet when someone ignores them, they won't do anything about it.

Of course, this goes for many types of people but for the purpose of this article, I am talking about reaction channels, the kind where they take a video and just watch all of it without any effort at all to change it in order to warrant the viewer to go watch the original video. It's one of the worst kinds of videos to make, and along with all the other shit that YouTube won't enforce their own policies on, I came across a few channels that I actually like that don't go against all these policies.

One of these channels was GradeAUnderA, a YouTuber who I used to be a huge fan of. He would poke fun at the small things in life with his funny MS Paint characters, and also pick apart arguments and channels that the majority of YouTube disliked, like reaction channels. I used to think GradeAUnderA was bulletproof and hilarious, and that didn't last long, but we will get to that.

With the shite on YouTube that was reaction channels, a man came onto the scene and started to make videos, this being Reactor.

The Reactor channel was created to satirise reaction channels, the man behind the channel David Richter, made reaction videos that were as low quality as possible with the most inane commentary, this prompted many visitors to his channel to point out the obvious, "Another reaction channel! Get off of YouTube" etc. As you can tell, the satire was highly convincing.

Other things he did was satirise the lack of care that a lot of these reaction channels, like in one video when he would walk out the room whilst the video was playing, he would return seeing the video had ended and acting clueless, then ending the video. He even reacted to a video that he himself made, forcing the laughter that these 'reactionists' (genuine word that these guys call themselves) would do.

He was proving how terrible reaction channels really were and everyone believed it, but Reactor wasn't done, he had more tricks up his sleeve.

When Reactor came onto the scene for me, it was whilst I was still a fan of GradeAUnderA, and it was when Grade mentioned in a video regarding copyright infringement that a guy took his copyrighted material to put together a fake advertisement for himself. It wasn't until a few months later that this peaked my interest, and that was the first time I saw anything of him.

What I saw was that Reactor had taken voice clips of Grade and spliced them altogether and put it to easily recreated imagery of Grade's video style to make it sound like Grade was saying that Reactor was a channel worth subscribing to, also stating how he and Grade were friends in real life, which they weren't. But even better than that, Reactor paid $600 so that the video he created would appear as an advertisement on Grade's channel, so when someone clicked on Grade's channel, Reactor's fake Grade video would play. This highlighted an easily abused system on YouTube, but also kind of highlighted a hypocrisy on Grade's part.

Reactor had begun doing this because Grade had been denouncing reaction channels, and according to Reactor himself, this was intended as a joke. Grade however didn't like this and went to Reactor's channel to attack him, calling him pathetic and a loser after seeing Reactor's joke making the front page of Reddit. Remember this detail, I'll get back to it.

For the next few months, Reactor's trolling further escalated as he saw Grade attacking a lot of YouTubers for whatever reason, which I at the time for the most part agreed on, but very quickly I began getting put off of what Grade was doing. The first time I noticed that Grade wasn't such a bulletproof guy, he made a video criticising Markiplier, PewDiePie and Matthew Santoro who had all denounced YouTube Drama.

Whilst one of my favourite YouTubers 'I Hate Everything' pointed out that their arguments were flawed and actually dug into their points, GradeAUnderA didn't do this. He instead insulted Markiplier saying that we shouldn't listen to him because he's a retard and has bright red hair (That he dyed for charity by the way). He went on to say that PewDiePie shouldn't be listened to despite being the most subscribed YouTube channel because another channel that held that for a long time was Fred. The lesser said about Fred the better but it doesn't take away from his arguments.

Finally, Grade exposed Matthew Santoro as being a plagiarist which of course, I won't defend Santoro for but I feel like if Grade had all the right intentions, he would have exposed Santoro in a separate video and not as a way to denounce him as someone who we should listen to and agree with.

This was the first video of Grade's that proved he wasn't what everyone in the YouTube community had set him up to be, and a few months later after the video demonetisation had began kicking in and he called out a lot of YouTubers for complaining (Even though Grade complained many times before on so many things), that was when I decided to unsubscribe from Grade. I am so happy that I did, because I realised then how toxic this guy really was, and that is what makes the Reactor saga that so much more hilarious.

When Grade began making a lot of these videos, whether or not I agreed with them, one thing was for certain and that was that these videos garnered more traction than any light hearted comedic videos. So Reactor decided to use Grade's own words against him, in a video where he again spliced together Grade's videos to put together a fake collaborative effort between the pair.

The video began with Reactor being downbeat, and then Grade stopping in the middle of his video to ask what was up, Reactor going on to say that he didn't know if he would ever get his channel to be big at all. He asks Grade if he could help, and this is the genius part, in a lot of Grade's videos calling out whoever he was calling it, the points he would make, Reactor took these segments and spun it to showcase how hypocritical Grade really was.

Then the final showcase of easy trolling by Reactor himself, you know how I told you that he made it to the front page of Reddit? He put himself there. By using countless accounts and changing his IP address, he made it to the front page of Reddit with his fake Grade advertisement that he put on Grade's channel, also with a kid recording his computer screen showcasing this fake Grade advert whilst on Grade's channel and Reactor took that to the front page of Reddit as well as also making that video an advert on Grade's channel too! Finally, the video I just mentioned above he also got to the front page of Reddit, and this is where it all comes to a close and summarises the whole situation.

Reactor begins to grow bored of the channel.. which is incredible as it was so easy for him to troll the internet. It was so easy for Reactor to showcase how terrible reaction channels are by making videos as bad as possible that were believed to be real. It was so easy for Reactor to showcase GradeAUnderA as being a drama fuelled and toxic dick who would hear a comment from a nobody calling him a drama whore and actually fan the flames by getting pissy about it, and going to a channel with 37 subscribers when he had over a million to start drama over a clear joke. It was so easy for Reactor to show that Reddit can be broken and have any video you want on the front page.

Reactor was one of the most incredible examples of satire and trolling, and before he left his channel, he published a fake article on the Huffington Post which was up for over a year saying that he had been arrested on charges of major copyright infringement against GradeAUnderA. One of Reactor's friends Mumkey Jones uploaded an update video on his channel, again further mocking the situation saying that Reactor and Grade were good friends, why would Grade do this to him? Clearly playing off the trolling that had brought Reactor this far.

It wasn't until a video that Mumkey created was recommended to me on YouTube that I did bare witness to Reactor's satirical heroics and I was amazed. Even though he was not uploading, I subscribed to the guy and now he's returned with a bang, mocking the trends that exist on YouTube today with his first video back, saying he broke out of prison.

The stuff this guy did was incredible, and I have no idea what Reactor intends to do to mock YouTube culture today. I'd love to see the guy mock all types of YouTube content, whether it be the clickbait vloggers, GTA abusers, gamers, commentary, all corners of the site need to have the piss taken out of and I reckon David 'Reactor' Richter is the guy to do it.

For now, he seems to be finding his feet and I'd hope he's reading this. Reactor, if you're reading this, I was in your Mayweather/McGregor pre-fight stream saying you were a hero to me. I'd like you to consider trolling all types of YouTube content genres, someone needs to prove how bad these things are.

As for the rest of you, thank you so much for reading. If you want to see more of what I have to offer, follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or put your email in the 'Follow By Email' option in the top right to have my new articles sent straight to your inbox.

Alright! That will be all, hope to see you all again here soon. So until we meet again.

Luca.