Why hasn't there been a champion video essay about the themes and qualities of Morrowind? Like an Hbomberguy or a MandaloreGaming joint? Something that is equal parts deep analysis of everything that makes up the experience that is Morrowind, a passionate and enthusiastic love-letter to a cherished thing, and a generally entertaining, background-listenable piece of art in its own right?
(Tangent: the existing video essays on Morrowind and why they don't quite hit the mark.)
There's that 8hr 'retrospective' one that's not really a video essay on themes/qualities/etc, it's 70% a recap of the major questlines, 15% opinions of those questlines, 5% on specific mechanics, 5% on overall sound design, and 5% on irrelevant (but entertaining!) playthrough-specific, character-specific info. It's still a video essay, but the dedication to the rundown of all major quests takes so much of the runtime of the video that, I feel, didn't have to be present at all. To be fair, it IS a retrospective, and not an essay on its themes, but I feel like it's trying to be both, but fails to hit the mark on the latter, especially due in part to its unnecessary length. (I've watched the whole thing three times, mind you, and will probably do so again to make notes.)
There's the Lorerun series, which consists of four stream captures of an average 7hrs a piece, or a total of 28hrs. I have not watched this yet. I intend to. But its format and outset intrinsically bar it from fulfilling the place of 'reigning video essay on Morrowind.' It's an unedited stream capture of a guy streaming his lore recap while playing the game; no thoughtfully researched and written script, brimming with unrelated content, frankly long-tired stream affect, technical difficulties, and more. This can be clearly understood at any point in any episode, and that's also fine, and it's a valid set of media that, from the outside, is clear: this is a Lore-Run, something this person seems to pioneer as a media structure/genre, not a video essay, an established, separate media genre.
There's TWO completely different essays that are almost identical in what they bring to the table, and where they fall apart: each with a respectable 150k views, both videos have all the elements needed to hit the mark - well thought out, structured analysis beyond just mechanics and content, good editing, some comedy or levity, etc, but they both lack in a level of polish across all their facets in a similar amount, that suggests both people, at time of making their respective videos, were/are still honing their craft, and hadn't quite hit the professional quality mark just yet. 150k on a mid-quality Morrowind youtube video essay is AMAZING work however, but neither fit the criteria of 'reigning champion', with respect to the previously referenced bar of quality.
And, other than that?...
There's salty looks at the game's mechanics (almost all of which invariably take away the wrong ideas from Morrowind's mechanics, thinking that because they're unbalanced and obfuscated, they're bad - and they're wrong and I won't be taking questions for fear of multi-tangenting, thankyou), and, mostly, memes, or meme-topic 10min-long videos, or shorter recaps and plays and the like.
There's no Morrowind equivalent of 'Fallout: New Vegas Is Genius And Here's Why', or of 'Mystery of the Druids: A Bizarre Adventure Game'.
Me: mentally hyperfocuses on the idea for the better half of a week.
Me: easily a full work-week's hours of brain-power spent pondering the contents of the platonic ideal of a Morrowind video essay.
Also Me: literally couldn't finalise the categories of research data required to begin analysis of all the facets that comprise the quality and legacy of the game, not to mention ALL of the rest of the categories of genuinely worthwhile topics of the actual analysis itself.
Hm. No wonder both Hbomb and Mando put it off. They do this for a job. That right there feels like a magnum-opus kinda work, honestly.