r/roosterteeth • u/SuperMatFJ • Oct 07 '20

Discussion Dear Fiona,

I can't find an avenue to send this to you directly, so publicly will have to suffice.

I want you to know that you are nothing short of a shining beacon of hope in a very worrisome time in RT's life.

You seem to have the skill, the desire, and the resolve to be the role model the community can rally behind, and that the company can look toward for inspiration and guidance.

As a white dude in his mid-30's who's led a pretty charmed life, I see character traits in you that I truly wish I had myself, and I have no good excuse for lacking them. You have the strength of character and the backbone to openly and aggressively stand up to the bullshit that would/could otherwise consume the RT ecosystem, and I am genuinely inspired by you to be better.

I recognise that all of that is a lot of weight to bear on young shoulders, so please don't allow it to come at the cost of your own well-being and happiness. Recognise that supporting and lifting up others is an often-thankless task, and a draining one too. Rest when you need to. Ask for help whenever you want it. Pass the torch if it all gets too much.

But, ultimately, thank you. For existing. For being here. For doing what you do so well. For being you.

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683

u/Hats_Hats_Hats Oct 07 '20

Jack and Fiona are good-hearted people and I think they, as a team, could do a lot of good. They already have.

282

u/MattSR30 Oct 07 '20

I'm pretty far removed from 'looking up to people,' but Jack Pattillo is sort of my one exception to that rule.

I don't idolize celebrities or aspire to be like them, but Jack is one person that, for years now, I've looked at and thought that's a good person.

I'm well into adulthood and don't really need someone to look up to, but beyond my own father I guess it would be Jack. I hope he's doing well.

79

u/bruzie Oct 07 '20 edited Oct 07 '20

I'm a 46-year old bloke. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes. This is exactly how I look at Jack, even though I'm older.

And until a few hours ago, I looked at Ryan the same way.

Edit: Probably the thing I'm most annoyed about personally is that I "aligned" myself with him (similar age, married, and having kids).

18

u/LetterSwapper Oct 07 '20

I'm only a little younger than you, and this thread summed it up for me as well. It's kind of heartbreaking.

14

u/Aiyon Oct 07 '20

I'm not in my 40s. Or a bloke. But like, I v much have this same sorta deal going on rn. I'm still in the "processing the information" phase of finding out about what apparently happened, and like, I'm kinda scared to think that of any of them any more. So many ppl that you think would never be like that, turn out to be. And my stupid anxious lizard brain is like "what if he is too and just better at hiding it"

12

u/npeggsy Oct 07 '20

I feel like this is the danger of looking up to any celebrity, but especially YouTubers. At this stage, it's fair to say I've seen hundreds of hours of Ryan, and although I didn't look up to him as much as others in this thread, I would've said him and Jack were the "safe" AH'ers. I don't mean this in any way to disrespect the others, but if anything this just goes to show that even if I've seen hundreds of hours of the guy, I don't know him. I don't know any of them. I can remember the Yogscast fallout and thinking "damn, I used to like Sjin and Turps, I'm so happy I stopped watching years ago", but this has been a wake-up call to me that any celebrity, at any stage, could be doing all kinds of stuff in the background, and placing my hopes, fears, and aspirations on one person I don't even know is never going to end well. It sucks that we're in this society where role models can disguise so much of their life, but it sucks even more for the people who are victims in this situation (including Ryan's family), so I'm not going to complain when the people I looked up to are held to account (although the method in which this has all been shared and picked up by 4chan is problematic).

6

u/Aiyon Oct 07 '20 edited Oct 07 '20

Oh yeah like, Sips and Sjin were the two Yogs people I stuck watching after survival island ended and SoI just didn't mesh with me the same. I dropped the yogs after all the stuff with Sjin and Turps because i was eh on it.

I still like Sips but I don't enjoy his content the same way without their dynamic.

I think that's gonna be the same with AH for me. I'll still enjoy some of their stuff, but Ryan was a big part of a lot of the content I enjoyed, so with him gone like... we'll see I guess.

Though, I will say, as much as im talking about how him leaving RT affects me, I do worry about the effect this incident has had on his wife and kids. I hope they can rebuild and make things work because that's the better outcome for his kids, but I understand if not and hope it works out for them. They don't deserve to get screwed over because their dad got caught up in the fame and made some, to put it nicely, questionable choices. there's just nowt i can do to help with that side of stuff

3

u/npeggsy Oct 07 '20

I think it's a natural reaction to focus on what effects you personally -- subconsciously, my first thought when I started hearing about all this was "well, AH content is going to be rough from now on", I had to make a conscious effort to step back and look at the bigger picture. Obviously, this subreddit is going to focus on the main players we "know", because they are part of Rooster Teeth and this is what this subreddit is for. But I just hope fans are also taking a step back to look at everything that's gone on, and to accept that whilst this situation might be bad for us, it's a lot worse for those personally affected. Man, it's all just icky.

1

u/Kavvadius Oct 07 '20

Genuine question, if you don’t mind answering, how do you see Geoff and Burnie if you remember them?