User blog:TheIkranRider/Why I Abhor the Autarch of Flame

I stated that I have a certain hate for one particular person, the Autarch. No, not Rubicante from FFIV, I'm actually talking about the co-founder of the Chaos Theatre, Alex Rochon. Over the years, he's my least favorite countdown artist. While a lot of people tend to like this guy, I don't; and I have my reasons.

Personality

The first thing is his personality. With the case of the Beer Guy, I feel he tries to be funny, but he really isn't. He's often a pushover and antagonistic. Some of his countdowns are negative, while few of them are positive. And whenever he does those long ranges of harsh criticism with them, he doesn't back them up well. He seems obnoxious, difficult to stick around, and hotheaded. Ironically, his mascot was Rubicante, but he's not like him at all! Rubicante is known to have an honorary personality, I feel he lacks that. I, too, think he is a person who stands strongly with his opinions and, unless you agree, is not quite open to those that are different than him. He even said in Response to Lily Peet that the bully, which he was in the past, isn't aware of being the bully; and maybe he wasn't when he talks about these things. That alone could give him some hate points.

The Beer Guy

A minor bother I've always had with Alex was the Beer Guy. I'm not a huge fan of alcoholic beverages as they always leave a foul, burning taste in the mouth, throat, or stomach. In addition, I hate the side effects mostly. When Alex is the Beer Guy, I feel he implies that beer is also hilarious, but he's so wrong! It started like this:

According to the Chaos Theatre Wiki, it's said that Alex "created his now-infamous Beer video for a history project, which his teacher then saved onto his desktop and showed to other classes for no reason other than the lulz."

He made a cameo during the Quarter Guy's intro on "Top 15 Methods of Transportation in Video Games," using the absurd voice as Adam says he'll do countdowns on motorcycles. But actually, it was a video with a broader topic. In Joshscorcher's Top 10 Co-op Games, he talks about Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. He uses that voice making me cringe as he describes the game, uses a drinking pun to power up characters, and even says, "Drink Beer! Seriously! It makes you go Super Saiyan!!"

Metaphorically, it does:

In the US, one person is killed every 39 minutes by a drunk driver. Everyday 36 people die and nearly 700 are injured due to accidents caused by drunk drivers. Nearly half of all teenage fatalities are caused due to drunk driving. More males than females drive while intoxicated. According to statistics around 81 percent of all drunk drivers are men. In 2007, alcohol-related deaths were 15, 387, which is approximately 37 percent of deaths that occurred in the United States. The top five states with the highest number of alcohol-related deaths are Texas, Florida, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania. An estimated 88,0009 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. In 2010, alcohol misuse cost the United States $249.0 billion. Globally, alcohol misuse is the fifth leading risk factor for premature death and disability; among people between the ages of 15 and 49, it is the first. 15 In the age group 20–39 years, approximately 25 percent of the total deaths are alcohol attributable.

In conclusion, Comic Book Guy is right when he said in the Simpsons, "Beer is the Nectar of the Nitwit." As a matter of fact, "Drinking Beer" is absolutely NOT a laughing manner!

Content

You know the story of why so many bands break up because of creative differences? I happen to be no different. There are so many creative differences I have with this guy, it's not even funny. It'll take forever to go through each one, but I'll do my best to summarize quite a few:

One is in his collab with Joshscorcher, "Top 15 Hated Video Game Characters." Most of his entries were from games I don't know. But what really irked me was Tidus as Number 4! They both said how annoying, whiny, and bratty he is. But you know what? Unlike them, I actually love Tidus. He was the star of FFX, he's cheerful and funny, and he's a great character to have on your team since he knows some cool moves like Hastega and Cheer, plus he's the only one in Yuna's pilgrimage that said Seymour is bad news. I always believed he's the way he is cause of his drunken father, Jecht, whom I despise as much as he does. And another supporting factor was that he's a great melee fighter in Dissidia. Also, Alex brought up Bartz and Zidane as immature. I think it's complete bogus; it won't hurt to have fun once in awhile in a serious situation like an everlasting war! And THEY happen to be excellent characters as well; both in Dissidia and IX in the case of Zidane. The truth is Tidus never bothered me in the slightest, and Alex and Josh were overreacting!

Another example is "Top 10 Worst Video Game Clichés;" there are a few issues. One is when he talks about obvious weak spots; that doesn't bother me, but there are a few things to note. Some weaknesses are a slip of the tongue, particularly in the Mario series. Others are right in your face. But have you forgotten to know that games like that could be designed for younger audiences or inexperienced gamers!? I understand they're too easy, but please try to keep in mind that the developers want to make these things simple for some of the common consumers! Btw, you want to talk about obvious weak spots? Well look no further than the Great Mighty Poo from Conker's Bad Fur Day; y'know one of the disturbing characters you kind of admire so much for its humor?! Who happens to open his mouth a lot to make room for some more toilet paper!? Hypocritical, to the fullest!!

Oh, and the weapons found in the Zelda dungeons aren't entirely used for that particular level alone, either. Actually, we saw bottomless pits in Pitfall which was made BEFORE Mario Bros. And spikes and pits were made for level design and challenge; it doesn't have to be logical in a sense. I felt he was being insensitive when he talked about brooding characters, like Samus and Cloud. I also liked him in Dissida and Advent Children. I didn't care about Other M, though. They've been through some traumatic times, but seriously, has ALEX ever lost a loved one before!?

And lastly, there was the entry of fake deaths, particularly in FFIV, my all-time favorite FFDS game. In it, Tellah passes on, but many characters don't. They die and mysteriously come back. Yes, that is confusing, but think about it. I loved using most of those characters, like Palom and Porom, Yang, Edward, and even Rydia. Alex needs to appreciate these characters more, especially when he has the chance in FFIV: Advance, where he could use them throughout the game again and even against Zeromus! Even in The After Years they're not too shabby. Oh, and as a kicker, here's a theory: I believe Tellah was the only one who passed cause A) They warned him about the price on using Meteor and B) I think the developers came up with the better replacement of Fusoya. All these factors make me despise this video, even if I happen to slightly agree with some entries.

He has even done a video on the topic with Josh and Chewie to redeem himself; in my eyes, it was so-so. Unfortunately, I could easily look for others that happen to do a better job such as The Quarter Guy, Fawful's Minion, the hated Rabbidluigi, and the earliest being the Polish Valsion. I love them all A LOT more than his putrid, destructive list of his! Including the Burning Trinity's.

Then there's the collab with Chewie, "Top 10 Worst Pokémon." I slightly agree with some entries, but in hindsight, I thought it was bland and it needed to be elaborated more. A better comparison is "Top 10 Worst Unova Pokémon" by Itionoben and Fawful's Minion. They had so much fury, intel, and humor to back up their opinions; the former doesn't.

Another is "Top 5 Things He Hates but Everyone Likes/Top 5 Things He Likes That Everyone Hates." One example is in "Secret of Mana;" I haven't played it, but I slightly disagree. If it's weird that a tree happens to be the hero's mom, then you're calling the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time strange as well. Plus, I like the "Dark Lich" song. I find it catchy even for a boss battle, so I don't understand how it's a mockery to the player. Plus it rocks when I first heard it in a Let's Play of a hacked version of FFVI named "The Eternal Crystals." Another segment is when he talks about the Mega Man X series. He says it's a repetitive formula on getting upgrades for X's power suit, and fighting similar groups of robots over and over again. It's not quite as formulaic as he thinks with a lack of innovation. Each game is different in a way, and I feel that he could be comparing it to the Metroid games, his favorite franchise, as they tend to do the similar things as well. It sounds kind of hypocritical in a sense. And I quote from Fawful's Minion's Top 10 Franchises, "The fans still do care about Mega Man. If you don't get that through your thick skulls, you'll be going just like Rare did; down the shitter." The games that he likes are fine, and thank goodness he owned up to his mistakes with a Hades Riff, but still the damage was done. It's no wonder that almost in all his old videos, he has the comments and dislike bar disabled. As many people, such as myself, can't agree with him!

Another video was "Top 10 Nostalgic Animated Shows." To me, this was hardly worth the watch. A lot of cartoons are unrelatable, but only one I could go to was Pokémon. I agreed why a lot of people quit, so did I, and it was for the sake of nostalgia. Unfortunately, others were either unfamiliar like Digimon: Tamers, Medabots, and Megas HLF. Others I never cared for like Magic School Bus, as I've only read the books; Transformers: Beast Wars; and Johnny Bravo, as I felt he was some Elvis clone in which the show goes nowhere. I understand he's a Canadian, and he grew up with these cartoons, but I honestly didn't give a second thought. If he would just find footage for more notable series like DBZ, ReBoot, or maybe Cowboy Bebop, then it would've been so much better to see and share for generations. Even the Nostalgia Critic has a list more likeable than his. What a waste!

One more thing, is that he mentions he likes fighting Malus in "Shadow of the Colossus," at Top 15 Final Bosses, Part 2. Yet he doesn't like the fight against Ganon from "Ocarina of Time?" Again, it shows he's a hypocrite; he complains that the final boss is too dark, as seen in Part 1. I never had a problem with him. And I could easily see; even with the Z-Targeting marks around his body makes it easier, though I always do the crotch roll. They did fix it with the 3DS, but it didn't suit the atmosphere. Yet, Malus is extremely dark and you have to climb up his body with slippery controls, and rinse and repeat after you stab the head. From what I saw, it's worse than Ganon, and I'm not a fan of Colossus. So, there's another blemish here.

Since then, I never cared about his other videos after that. And I just lost interest in him. I never wanted to watch any of his work, cameo or not, as it kept reminding me of all things that I just can't stand anymore! It was such a relief when I found out he was retiring from countdown making; even though he does some small clips. Nevertheless, I never bothered. Good riddance!!

Conclusion

To be blunt, the co-founder and former admin of the Chaos Theatre is the main source of hatred in the countdown community; and it's been almost nonstop. There's hardly anything that I like about him, and some of the other guys in the group followed in succession. His personality is annoying and sometimes unsettling, the Beer Guy is a complete joke in itself, and his content is the worst thing I've seen from anyone! I don't care how successful he becomes as a singer, voice actor, or producer. I don't care who likes Alex; not even Rabbidluigi, Speedster, Adam, Oscar, Logan, Black Mage Maverick, not even Shadowash Senpai. He will always have a sense of loathing within my heart. It's nearly with a passion as hot and fierce as Rubicante's flames, and I desperately wish it to be doused. I hope this rant will do justice for that!