Topic: TheSpoonyOne: The Fall of an Internet Critic (with drama)

[Ratty]

If you're like me the AVGN led you to check out other online comedy reviewers, especially Doug Walker aka The Nostalgia Critic who is the main attraction on thatguywiththeglasses.com.
There is another critic though who for years has been one of my favorites and has remained one of the most popular reviewers on TGWTG, Noah Antwiler aka "TheSpoonyOne" or just "Spoony"
Here's some of his work if you've not seen it
Early review
Yor: Hunter From the Future Movie Review (Part 1)
Always a troll at heart, one of his primary claims to fame is trolling the entirety of the Final Fantasy 8 fanbase with his epic (in terms of length and analysis) critique of that game.
Final Fantasy VIII Review (Part 1)
An example of his more recent work
Ultima 1 The First Age Of Darkness


Despite being a consistently popular draw for tgwtg and his own site thespoonyexperiment, even winning the 2009 Open Web Awards "Funniest Person to Follow" prize over Doug Walker and James "AVGN" Rolfe, he was recently fired from TGWTG.

Why? Well, the immediate catalyst was a creepy and uncalled for "joke" he tweeted at one of his female co-workers on the website which he refused to genuinely back down from or apologize for. Tweet 1. "@JesOtaku Y'know, if things don't work out between you and @Nash076, I'd be happy to chain you to a pipe in my basement and love you. My way" Tweet 2. "(My way of loving someone is dirty. And painful. And ends in tears.)" Tweet 3. "It's not my fault. The voice of an ancient Merlinite Wizard in my head makes me hurt them."

But the roots of the problem that led to his dismissal go back farther than that. It seems that unfortunately the man-child he's played in his reviews is not all an act, and he has been creeping on women and spiraling deeper into clinical, drunken depression for more than 2 years- which is when his last girlfriend left him.
He actually started drinking after watching the latest Twilight movie without her (they had watched them all together previously), while a couple of other guys from TGWTG were on conference call, he then posted this on the net as his review for the movie.
Ironically never able to take criticism of his own reviews Noah's ego has been expanding with his fame, and before their split 2 years ago his Ex was a notorious moderator on his forum who would quickly delete even the slightest critique of his work, often followed by a ban of the poster. (EDIT: This was likely at Spoony's request, my significant other recently joined the swelling ranks of tweeters he has blocked.)

Apparently he contributed greatly to TGWTGs getting blacklisted from interviews with game devs with this response to the X-Com reboot at E3 2010
X-Com Reboot in 5 Seconds
And it seems he's just rubbed some (a lot?) of people at TGWTGs the wrong way for years. This came out when both a current and former member of TGWTG bashed him hard over the tweet.
The current member, Obscuras Lupa, brought it up about a month after it was originally tweeted, speaking up for Spoony's Ex as a victim of his passive aggression. She apparently got so mad she publicly wished Spoony would kill himself, though she quickly (and apparently sincerely) apologized for making said wish.
Not so quick to apologize was former TGWTG member LordKat (best known for the "Until We Win" series) who said things even more despicable than the joke that had gotten Spoony fired, and went into very graphic detail on his livestream about how he hoped Spoony would shoot himself with his brother's service gun. (Spoony's brother, who he lives with, is a cop.) Lordkat split his fanbase like a jackass by saying his fans had to pick either Spoony or him, but quickly changed his tune on that like "I apologize to my fans but NOT TO SPOONY!" It seems for LordKat the damage has already been done, and he may be in danger of losing his current gig altogether, while former friends leave him in droves just as they leave Spoony. Mixed in amongst all this are trolls egging on the three parties one way or the other.

I dunno, it saddens me that Spoony has such issues with women he's gotten creepy like that, though the way the tweet that got him fired is written I think he was probably stinking drunk when he wrote it, not that that's an excuse. I've really enjoyed Spoony's work for years and I'd like to see him bounce back but he obviously needs help, stability and proper self respect (not just a fragile and inflated ego) if that's ever going to happen.

[JR]

Heh, I saw the Yor review and actually watched all of the FF8 review, and part of Let's Play Phantasmagoria. I thought Spoony was pretty damn funny...waaaaay better than your average internet reviewer, but it's too bad that he was/became such a self-absorbed douchebag (which I learned from reading his Encyclopedia Dramatica entry, lolz). You'd think someone that funny would be able to take a little more of what they dish out, but I guess not.

[X]

I can definitely get behind on his FF VIII rant. I could never get into that game as it was just waaaaaay toooooo alien for me. But I'm glad FF IX went back to the older more simplistic system. In terms of Spoony's tweets I think he does need help because his former outlet about ranting on games with big issues obviously isn't helping him with his big issues.

[Ratty]

Looks like he's trying to help himself at least. That's good.


He might have an inflated ego and act like an ass, but that reminds me of someone I'm really close to who has a similar problem.
I think there's a good, fragile person underneath somewhere, I'm pulling for him in this.

[Kingshango]

Been following this e-drama for a while now. I've been a big fan of Spoony since the FFVIII review and loved his earlier work and it's sad to see him breakdown like this. Hopefully he gets the help he needs and move on so that he can get back on his feet before the worst happens.

[Gunlord]

I'm not the biggest fan of women in the world, but I know a lot of misogynists who are knee-jerk defending Spoony because he's one of them. It's stupid, IMO. He isn't being kicked out just for being misogynistic, he's also an unstable, drunken fool. Misogynists already have it hard enough as it is without being tarred by association with lushes.

[GuyStarwind]

I just found out about this today. It really is too bad though.

[Neobelmont]

Crazy Stuff never knew things like this could happen. I remember the final fantasy one hecka awesome made me chuckle a bit.Even if I never really got into Spoony still wow.

[CrashDiary27]

I hate being bipolar. Its awesome.

[Bloodreign]

The only videos he ever did that drew a chuckle out of me was the one for Make Your Own Videos for Sega CD, mainly the Kris Kross one (lets forget this duo ever existed, ugh).


Miggety miggety miggety miggety mack.