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hello! my name is Dahlia, I’m 18 and I've recently found myself obsessing over Aphmau again, so I decided to make this blog. but also this blog is slowly becoming a very niche mix of aphmau, epic the musical, DC, stranger things… and a lot of other things so… you’ll probably find those here too, but the main focus is aphmau!
right now my biggest writing project is The Problem With Popularity which is a gene x popular!reader!! a lot of people like so i think that’s a good place to start if you’re into that kind of story :)
✧.* masterlist
✧.* about me
✧.* rules
all of my writing can be found under the tag dahlia's dreams ☾
answered asks can be found under the tag dahlia's deliveries ☾
rant/conversation posts can be found under the tag dahlia's discussions ☾
the rare art piece can be found under the tag dahlia's drawings ☾
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musicals as timeloops always fuck me up. sweeney will hold lucy, blood on her from his own razor every time. every time the people of france do not rise up, the barricade falls, and marius wakes up to all of his friends dead. again and again the earth is devoured by audrey 2 and the plants. orpheus turns around again and again and again and again and again
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If you're in the Aphverse fandom and you don't know what that title is referring to, you might want to sit down to read this. It's not... the best.
I want to use this post to both compile all the information I have from my own sleuthing, and express my thoughts and nuanced opinions in one place. I'm incredibly depressed by this whole situation, and I think everyone who's ever been a fan of anything made by this team deserves to sit with this uncomfortable truth with as much information as they need for as long as they need it. So lets get started.
This whole ordeal starts in the summer of 2026 on the main aphmau website, aka Aphmeow.com. As a promotion for their back to school line, this image was uploaded to the website.
Now you might not have clocked this as AI generated immediately, I was skeptical, but you can see where the cracks are showing when you look at the notebook on the right. It looks totally wrong, and once you see it, you can't unsee it.
People rightfully clocked this as an AI generated/assisted image within hours of it's posting, both fans and people who have previously worked with CatFace. I first cocked an ear at this whole controversy because of posts made by a voice actor who used to work with them, and when I dug into it, there was not any confirmation from the official team. In this stage of speculation I also heard a claim that I'm going to put in this post, but I need it to be read with many grains of salt.
There have been allegations made that on a job listing for CatFace studios within the last few years, there was a requirement for applicants to "be comfortable with the use of generative AI in the creative process." I have not seen any screenshots proving this, I have checked their recent LinkedIn listings and not found anything to this effect, and I cannot verify the truth of this claim. I bring it up because its a claim that you will hear thrown around this discussion, and I want it to be treated with a critical eye.
I don't think it's impossible that such a thing was on their job listings, I just cannot find proof that it ever was. Also I think it's important to remember that some companies use products and services that have generative AI features built into them, so comfort with those is necessary if you're going to work with them. It's possible that's what the listing is talking about, or it's possible that higher ups will ask writers to use ChatGPT to improve their workflow. We don't know.
Now let's get back to the thing we have proof of, that promotional picture. This we know was AI generated/assisted because shortly after it was posted, the image was taken off of the website and CatFace posted a statement on their Instagram addressing the controversy.
This statement is... a mess. I don't like it, it gave me a bad feeling the first time I read it, and it's only getting worse the more I sit with it. On the surface this seems... fine, but any additional thinking about it shows some flaws in the arguments proposed by the team who posted it.
The main thing that gets to me is the second paragraph, talking about contract artists and previous incidents. To be frank, CatFace seems like a terrible company to work at as a contract artist. Looking up "catface glassdoor" pulls up numerous reviews left by employees past and present, and discussions about how the reviews left aren't even news to some people. Some controversy about people lying in those reviews, and maybe some of them did, but if enough reviews of your company say the same thing, then it's not judt ex employees with an axe to grind.
A lot of these GlassDoor posts talk about a very toxic work environment, one that is unfortunately common for big channels like this, but is still a problem. A lot of crunch culture, last minute changes to staff and plans, and generally leaving a very bad taste in their employees mouths when it comes to the higher ups of the company. In a culture of crunch, where deadlines are sometimes impossible, artists are pushed to their absolute limit in what they are physically capable of. And if they're a contract worker who's ability to keep getting contract work depends on fulfilling these impossible requirements, they might be pushed so far they take desperate measures.
Like using Generative AI to meet those deadlines. And this is why I take issue with the mention of contract artists and previous incicents in this post. If there is a previous history of contract artists using generative AI to meet production deadlines, that is not necessarily the fault of the individual contract artist, even if this post is trying to make it sound like it is. It's the fault of the company that pushed these artists to their absolute limit so much that this has taken place multiple times.
I've heard mutterings of other antics Jess and Jason have gotten up to with AI on twitter, but I have too much respect for myself to actually log onto that website. So if anyone has any proof of any of that, I'd love to see it. As you may be able to tell though, misinformation spreads fast.
That's why I'm making this post. So that way everyone can see what actual easily compiled evidence there is, and come to their own conclusion about continuing to give their viewership to this company and their products. It's on you to decide if you want to keep supporting these series, and I'm sure you won't be alone if you decide to disown it but take a small handful of your favorite characters and claim them as your own.
Well... there was more stuff said because Jason can't not post on twitter. Screenshots and further discussion will be under the cut again because there's a lot more to it. Keep reading to see the bad meme I made in response to all of this
So Jason Bravura doesn't know when to shut his mouth and lie and now we're all paying the price for it. In response to... all the stuff I talked about in the original post, Jason took to his favorite website to give us an update (shout out to @menphias-flame for getting these screenshots for me so I don't have to open twitter).
There's so many problems with this I don't know where to even start. I guess the first thing is that clearly there needs to be some kind of work done on the internal Catface team if this kind of thing is happening without Jess or Jason's approval. That's a huge L on their parts.
The second thing is that comment about how this comes at the tail of character skin tones on merch and all I have to say is YEAH THAT'S NOTHING NEW. Skin tones of these characters have been off in merch for a while, and they have been completely butchered in thumbnails for even longer. Their thumbnails can't even get certain characters eye colors right, let alone their skin tone. That is a weak argument for why they weren't involved in this, because skin tones have been an issue for this team since they were Blujay studios.
Third, I really hate how Jason is making a martyr out of himself here. Talking about how he's responsible for everything, how he personally halved his salary for the team, how this is all his fault. I wish he just. Hadn't done that. Because if your content production is so overwhelming and incapable of keeping up with itself without using AI, MAYBE CHANGE YOUR CONTENT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE???
Nobody is making Catface upload that many cocomau videos a week, and I'm sure if they heard me say this, Jess or Jason would start talking about how much money it takes to run their operation. And my response to that is to downsize your operation along with downsizing your content generation. Because as it is now they are burning the cabdle at both ends, overworking every artist contracted under them, and still failing to meet their own requirements. Methinks their requirements might not actually be humanly possible anymore and they need to change what those requirements are in order to survive.
Fourth, and finally, we have confirmation. Confirmation of the job posting (lightly), and confirmation that yes Catface uses AI in their content creation. Now Jason is trying to convince you in this post that they use it in an ethical manner, that there is no art or writing generated for their works, only ideas and production tool creation, whatever that means. And uh, hey Jason...
THERE IS NO ETHICAL WAY TO USE THE STEALING AND LYING MACHINE THAT KILLS THE PLANET!! YOU ARE KILLING THE PLANET WITH EVERY TIME YOU ASK A CHATBOT TO GENERATE SOME IDEAS FOR AN ASMP VIDEO!!
We now have confirmation that Catface studios uses AI in the process of making cocomau videos. And that sucks!! I wish they had lied to us!! I wish that Jason had gone on twitter and told a bold face outright lie to the entire fandom! I wish we could've been forever stuck in speculation with squinted eyes, instead of having this ugly truth laid bare. This sucks.
That's all there is to this. This sucks.
I'll probably still finish Mermaid Tales because in my social circles I've been the only one who's watching it and reporting back to people on how bad it is, but once that's over? I doubt I'll watch another new Aphmau video. Even if MyStreet Season 7 actually comes back, even if Jeffory and Blaze and Cadenza are all in it, I'll not want to watch it. Because now I can't trust the creators or anything they make. I never can. Until I see a comprehensive behind the scenes production process on MyStreet with reliable proof of no gen AI usage, I can never trust them, and that kind of documentary would cost too much money to film.
I'll still work on my fanfictions, have my fun with these characters in my own worlds, and engage with other fan content. This fandom is a special thing to me, and I've never needed them actually making anything I wanted to watch for that to be the case. But I will probably talk less about critiques of the writing and just do more silly Blaze posting when I'm in the mood for it, cause he's mine now as far as I can tell.
Thank you for reading this far, thank you for keeping a critical eye about you, and remember that Jason can't take your childhood memories away from you. Sparkle on and remember to be yourself
Oh and here's that meme I promised, made in about 5 minutes with a reliable zero usage of generative AI in the creative process
“i'm a boy” “i'm a girl” ok well i'm a car speeding down the boulevard without a brake?? and i'm a heart made of wax and i'm melting in the sun??? and i'm a thread on your shirt that is coming undone???? have u ever considered that?!???
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personally, i believe you can be either accurate or have fun with a story’s visuals that’s historical in any way. unfortunately Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey doesn’t look like it’s doing either
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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got some more minecraft diaries (laurance) content. i wonder who my favorite character is!
i might make a whole thing with my shadow knight hcs but we'll see..
tim would be sitting in his chair in the middle of the night, facing his monitors and typing details of a case on the keyboard while pausing his typing to click the mouse absentmindedly a few times.
the tiredness in his face was evident, dark circles deepening under his eyes every night. even a yawn would escape him one or two times
but you would come, slowly walking from behind him and sleepily rubbing your eyes. it was obvious enough that you had just woken up from tim’s empty side of the bed, and obvious enough that he would be here at his desktop
and without a word, you quietly slid onto his lap and wrapped your arms around his neck to give him a small lazy kiss. a kiss that tim gladly reciprocated, his hands sliding to your waist to make sure you were steady
when both of you broke the kiss, tim’s eyes softened from the sight of you— hair slightly messy and eyes tired yet awake enough to hold that soft look in them— and it made a small, fond smile form on his lips
“everything okay, baby?” he asked in a whisper, gently tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear.
you just quietly hummed and nodded your head, placing a small kiss on the crook of his neck before burying your face there. “couldn’t sleep without you…” you mumbled on his skin
tim hummed back, a hand sliding under your shirt and slowly running through your back while the other kept clicking on the mouse. despite his eyes being pinned on the monitor, his attention was on you. “im gonna take a while here, you sure you don’t wanna wait for me back at bed?”
but there was no answer from you. and when tim paused his clicking to look down, he was greeted by your small snores and the sight of you sleeping peacefully— a sight he would never get tired of
if it were possible to fall in love with you even more, it would be now.
he placed a kiss on your hair before diverting his attention back to his monitors without stopping his hand on your back. sure, he’d take his hand off to type something super quick on the keyboard. but they always returned to you, forever cradling your body onto his
