Asperchu

It was good. I mean, surprisingly good. I was really just reading it because it caused Chris to rage so much, but ABL is actually a pretty good writer.

So, do you think the ending is what goes on in Chris's head or Alec's?

 

HE SET ME ON FIRE

 

I'd say the thought process isn't simplified enough for it to be Chris.

 

Goddamit, Alec, you left me with dozens of questions and no answers! But that's what good writing should do sometimes.

 

Jivin' and Max needed their own spin-off. I think it would have been great.

 

Alec Benson Leary confirmed as a warlock?

 

I always thought the ending was "Collossal" Chris-Chan and Ultra-Sonichu, who dwell in what is Chris/Sonichu's now combined psyche, debating over the fate of Crystal and some plan they had which involved the destruction of Chris and/or Sonichu, but I'm not sure honestly.

 

I never thought of it like that. The voice is Ian and Sonichu trying to essentially become one entity.

 

I've also never really believed that ending was deliberate, as some have suggested. I don't know if ABL ever said one way or the other, but I think he honestly just got tired of dealing with CWC nonsense.

My fascination with Chris-chan isn't really a fascination with him (honestly I bet IRL he's actually probably incredibly boring and I think if I was ever in the same physical place as him I would just subconsciously avoid him judging by what I know), but really it's a fascination with the reactions and creations he brings out in other people that they create comics, animations, conduct elaborate trolling schemes, and document his life in surprising detail. There's a level of effort, devotion and creativity he inspires in other people that is just something strange and unique I don't think I've seen anywhere else.

It's so weird to me that Asperchu is a poorly drawn retard comic parody of a poorly drawn retard so-called "parody" comic, but it's so damn spot on relative to its source material it manages to transcend the sheer shittiness of what should be a pointless clusterfuck and actually be a genuinely good and often harsh parody. Asperchu is not Watchmen, to be clear, but it's so willfully and cleverly deconstructive of Sonichu it's dis-proportionally good compared to what inspired it I find it bizarre. The use of Bobby Hill for Julie for example is at once funny on its own merits, but it also mocks Chris' complete reliance on the works of others and pokes fun at his prosopagnosia rather savagely.

You could write a long essay showing all the little things like that, and in terms of literary sophistication that essay would be pretty dense. Of course that would be ridiculously autistic to do but the fact is you could do it.

It's just fascinating to me that Chris seems to attract this quality in people, like he is some void of human creativity and it sucks out extra efforts from other people to fill that void with something of merit. But I digress.

The point I was getting at is that I think at some point, a lot of people just get tired of Chris' shit and move on, like they have to work it out of their system or something. I think that's what really happened with the ending of Asperchu. Just as Sonichu is really about Chris, the derivative works others create are really about them. Alec Leary was I believe a young man in his early twenties at the time, which is a time of rapid personal change for most people His life probably changed a good deal through the whole span of Asperchu, and at some point whatever motivated him to do this just dried up once he found more of himself or perhaps his situation just changed, ergo the comic just abruptly ends.

 

To me, it's a very strange symbiosis. If Chris didn't have the trolls, he would probably have been even more depressed and constantly feel worthless while the world ignored his bad Sonic recolor. Battling the trolls gave him a purpose in life, for better or worse. But on that same note though, the trolls need Chris as well. If you look at the real lives of some of Chris's trolls, they're more depressing than Chris's life is. What's more is that the trolls realize that they need this symbiotic relationship. Have you ever noticed how protective the CWC can get towards Chris when it comes to weens and A-Logs? We need the relationship to continue as well. The content that is created not only by Chris, but by his subculture is one of the fruits of that symbiosis.

 

Oh I agree, it's a fascinating social construct. I'm honestly surprised someone hasn't done an academic paper on the cultural or sociological phenomenon of Chris-chan, there's enough material to work with.

 

I think ABL, in one more effort of doing Chris's own comic better than he does, did what Chris couldn't do: get out of working on the comic but keep people hanging onto it. That ending to Asperchu was a great way to do it.

 

It's a pity there is no audio book version of Asperchu.

 

Asperchu is kinda beloved by a lot of people, it could easily go wrong and then what a shit storm that would be