YMMV / Etika

---

• Awesome Moments:
  • His famous Mewtwo DLC reaction video being retweeted by none other than Super Smash Bros. creator and director Masahiro Sakurai himself.
  • His stream of Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation got upwards of 80,000 concurrent viewers.
• Awesome Music: Etika may have seen his Iceman mixtape as embarrassing, but there's no denying that they're actually pretty sick tunes. For instance, his "My Boi" freestyle.
• Broken Base: Even though Etika had a huge following, Etika had a fair share of detractors as well for various reasons:
  • Etika's overall demeanor was seen as immature by some people. Some even go as far as to accuse his over-the-top reactions as fake, with some noting the shelf destruction noted below as a blatant clout-chase. However, other people liked Etika for the exact same reasons, viewing him as a Large Ham whose Big "YES!" moments and Chewing the Scenery to be entertaining.
  • A large amount of members of Etika's own fanbase have gotten notoriety for spamming the reply sections of anything he covers on social media with his Fan Community Nickname and other inside jokes from his content. It doesn't seem to help that these people tend to be on the immature side. This behavior also started to become much more vividly criticized when certain fans posted these types of replies to tweets Etika made during his April 2019 manic breakdown, with people now believing that the shitposting helped feed into his behavior.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Officer Matt for leading the SWAT team in professionally detaining Etika during his breakdown on April 29, 2019. Memes about him and another Twitch streamer had to be banned from the subreddit.
  • AlicePika continues to be appreciated by the fanbase even after Etika's break-up with her, especially with her efforts to help Etika during his breakdowns despite not being romantically involved with him anymore.
• Fan Nickname: Etika was referred to as "Black Guile" on 4chan in the earlier days of his channel. Japanese fans similarly called him "Guile-Kun".
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: He has a sizable Japanese audience who call him "Guile-kun" due to his similar hairstyle.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Quite a few moments have become hard to watch after his death and the circumstances thereof came to light.
  • One of Etika's livestreams had him asking his audience, "What if memes hurt?" Considering his mental decline, it's likely that some of the memes made about him did truly hurt him.
  • Etika once talked about disturbing videos and guessed that the reason why disturbing videos seem so interesting despite their content is because it's "a dose of reality".
  • Etika talked about how one of his classmates got sent to jail for involuntary manslaughter of a police officer and pointed out that whether his classmate (a known class clown and prankster) was joking or not, this means someone's son, father, and/or husband isn't coming home.
  • In an interview by Keemstar after one of his breakdowns, in response to Etika stating that the world isn't real, Keemstar pointed out that if this is true, why doesn't Etika just kill himself by jumping off of a bridge? Whoops.
  • Shortly before his disappearance and subsequent suicide, Etika asked on Twitter when most schools in the U.S. get out for the summer. When he was told June 20/21, that also became the day he went missing.
  • When talking about death on a stream, Etika once noted that if he ever killed himself years from now, he wanted to be buried in front of YouTube's headquarters. This was months before his suicide.
  • Etika asked his viewers to keep their perception of him and other Internet celebrities realistic to prevent a Broken Pedestal scenario. Etika's subsequent Creator Breakdown is believed to have been partially caused by toxicity from his fanbase in both Yes Man-type fans and fans who responded negatively to his mental issues.
  • Subsequent announcements for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after his passing, particularly the Sans and Cuphead Mii Fighter DLC costumes, Steve, Sephiroth, Sora, Min Min, who was Etika's favorite character in ARMS^note Fans of Etika paid tribute to him after Min Min's announcement and especially Pyra and Mythra (two of his "waifus" and favorite characters, as well as his most requested characters for Ultimate, along with her voice actress acknowledging him), feel a lot sadder and quieter without Etika's iconic Big "YES!" reactions. Some have even said that Fighters Pass 2 felt "tailor made" for him.
  • Etika talking about how NYPD accidentally friendly fired one of their own to death while trying to apprehend his former classmate would be this after another similar incident would happen again later that year.
  • Etika's signature hyperactivity, overreactions, and Lovable Sex Maniac status took on a much darker light after his manic episodes in late 2018 and early to mid-2019, which ramped all of these traits up to a personally dangerous degree, leading to his untimely death.
  • In this reuploaded video about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he said:
    "If I seem like I'm functioning a little high right now, it's because I'm pretty much dead. You're looking at a corpse right now. I've sent this to my man on email. You're speaking to a fucking disintegrated corpse which is now floating through the ether along with particles of atoms and other miscellaneous things in the fucking universe, alright? I don't exist anymore, but then again, did you expect me to?"
  • While streaming Persona 5, he jokingly stated that he would record himself committing suicide if Steve was added to Smash Bros. Steve would end up joining the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate long after his death.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • One year and three days after his death, Min Min from ARMS was announced as the next DLC character for Smash Bros. Ultimate. Not only was she the creators' favorite character, but his as well. The internet soon took notice of this as an accidental tribute.
  • Also, his response towards Chris Taylor's death, the person whose final wish was to play ''Smash Bros. Ultimate'' due to having terminal cancer.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
  • He got a bit of flak for not being particularly into the Mario franchise, even though he wasn't unwilling to play/stream its games.
  • While he was otherwise an avid fan of Pokémon, he earned himself much more heat when he bashed its fourth generation and expressed complete apathy toward the possibility of remakes.
  • Inverted. He genuinely liked Teen Titans Go! and thought it was hilarious, in spite of how widely disliked it is by those who liked the first cartoon.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • His reactions to many trailers, particularly to the Smash Bros. Ultimate reveal teaser, are often edited to have him react to anything major.
  • The fact that he broke his shelf in response to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hype is something that the fans will probably not let him live down.
  • "Eviscerating" someone, in other words, roasting someone.
  • "SANS?!?!" for when he came across Sans while streaming Deltarune.
  • "TRY ME, BITCH!" and "GET! FUCKED!" from the refund video.
  • Etika's Joycons toppling over in the background during his Large Ham moments, also from the refund video.
  • The "I'm gonna say the N-word." "You can’t say the N-word, that’s racist!" / "Mrs. Obama, get down!" / Ended Racism memes from The Penguins of Madagascar: Operation N-W.O.R.D. became popular among Etika fans after Etika got in trouble with YouTube and Twitch for his excessive use of saying the N-word.
  • "Do you know how FUCKING ANGRY THAT FUCKING MAKES ME?!?!?!"
  • Subway footlongs, referencing when Etika used to be a YouTube news channel and reported on the infamous discovery in 2013 that Subway footlongs aren't as long as a foot.
  • Etika loves Minecraft, because he claims he vehemently hates it due to him having done a Minecraft playthrough in his early days and Minecraft being held in a dorky light due to being a popular children's game.
  • "I LOVE TOTINOS!!", from his, as always, highly Large Ham reaction to a Totinos Pizza Rolls commercial.
• Misblamed: Debatable. Keemstar was blamed by Etika's fans for helping contribute to Etika's suicide because he had Etika for an infamous interview on DramaAlert in April 2019 after Etika's manic episode that month. Etika's mother actually contacted Keemstar to tell him that he is not to blame for her son's death. Of course, while she could be just saying that to keep up appearances, she is his mother. Obviously, she knows more about Etika than his fans ever will.
• Most Wonderful Sound: HOL UP
• Never Live It Down: Him explaining his Creator Breakdown in October 2018 as an ARG and apologizing for his outburst, which led to a backlash towards him emotionally manipulating his fanbase with concern over his well-being. This has led to people initially dismissing his subsequent breakdown in April/May 2019 as another fake episode, and even if this is a real episode (which it was), calling Etika a hypocrite/liar for letting himself publicly breakdown again. Even after Etika disappeared, some people spread rumors that he only disappeared to pull off of a publicity stunt. It wasn't until his body was found and he was confirmed dead by means of suicide that all this actually died down.
• Nightmare Fuel: During a livestream with Cobi, Etika read a message left by a commentator saying he's using his fans to make money. Etika goes silent as Cobi awkwardly jokes about it, all while Etika slowly grabs a bottle of wine he has on the table before shouting "Do you know how FUCKING ANGRY THAT FUCKING MAKES ME?!", all while slamming the bottle on the table and then throwing it to the ground while Cobi holds him back. It's a complete surprise out of nowhere, especially when Etika sits down and begins to calmly (but bluntly) explain how insulted he is at the comment.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: In his final months, Etika became known for his mental breakdowns, particularly due to a large part (or vocal minority) of his fanbase handling it in a manner that has been criticized as being unhelpful and perhaps even outright harmful towards Etika and other folks with mental issues, such as denouncing Etika's breakdowns as staged due to Etika claiming his first breakdown in October 2018 was faked or supporting Etika's harmful behavior during his episodes.
• Sacred Cow: Mocking Etika, and especially mocking the circumstances of his death, is a good way to end up on the end of an Internet Counterattack. Etika's struggles with mental heath have made him an unacceptable target among Nintendo fans and those who used to view his content.
• Signature Scene:
  • His reaction to the announcement that Mewtwo was coming to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
  • His reaction to the announcement that Super Smash Bros. was coming to the Switch.
• So Bad, It's Good: Many see his Iceman mixtape, Written in Ice, as an endless source of unintentional comedy for numerous reasons:
  • The poor sound quality and questionable mixing (at some points, his ad-libs are louder than his actual verses).
  • The mixtape cover, which features Etika in gangster garb with a hardened expression taking a selfie on his flip phone in his mother's bathroom.
  • Etika's abysmal yet heavily quotable verses, which in any other context would be likely be chalked up to being intentionally bad, but are played completely straight here.
• Tear Jerker: His reaction to killing Papyrus on the Genocide path in Undertale - he takes several minutes to work up the will to do it, and after actually doing so, he's visibly distraught, eventually having to remove his headphones and walk off-camera to compose himself.

---