For a while, I was heavy into Rooster Teeth. I first started through their animation of the podcast. Later, the RT Podcast was a perfect way for me to hear about things I won't experience, like travel and tech. The Patch, their gaming podcast, equally kept me distracted at work and even though I didn't really respect their opinion, it did at least serve as a more consumerist voice. The legendary Fallout 4 episode is an all-time internet phenomenon in showing your ass. It's so good. Considering what a death march my job was, it helped me out considerably, which does a lot to grow a parasocial relationship.

I eventually dove in as far as I could, which is about knee deep. I never liked Achievement Hunter, because chasing cheevos is for idiots and the entire cast were frat culture Gamers™; the exact opposite of how I see games. Most of their animation department was clearly content mill trash, which was later amplified by their games department. Some of their short clips were good. I do have a Funhaus shirt here somewhere (that will never fit me again), but even that was like 80% just Elise. So, it's not a surprise that the only other item I watched every episode of was Always Open, a more conversational podcast about relationships, heavily centered around a more feminine touch.

Always Open is also where I eventually stopped going to Rooster Teeth for anything. That's where they threw Mica Burton, one of their only Black camera-facing women, to the wolves. They let that poor girl get eaten alive by an audience of aforementioned Gamers™ and never addressed it, to the point where she left in 2018. I can only imagine how awful that must've been. That's about where I got off the train as well.

A sheepish apology followed in 2020, when everyone was apologizing, but it didn't really address the core of the culture, so it did nothing to bring me back. In fact, much more followed suit. Allegations of crunch in their departments, bad pay, harassment. They had multiple predators in leading roles. One of their founders is an all-out extremist conspiracy nutcase. A trans woman came forward with a bunch more claims, revealing that her nickname around the office was a slur. This thing was doomed. Who would stay to watch that, except for diehards?

As tough as it is to see something you grew up with go down, it's also very clear that this is one of those things that has to die. The core of it all is built with antiquated ideals, like much of the internet waves before that. This is just one of the largest ships to go down, but even that has the addendum "so far" attached to it. And that's only because selling the company was the step that killed it a long time ago already. The suffocation of acquisition comes for every property, because you either adapt or die. It was always clear that Rooster Teeth did not want to adapt. Death it is, then.