A little bit of lore, a little bit of myth.

Like any Online Millennial or Gen Z would balk at the idea of saying a single mean word to their waiter, but as soon as the creator they toss pennies at on patreon sets a toe out of line, (or not even out of line, maybe just not catering to this person's specifics wants, or not producing content as high-quality as it used to be) suddenly the Terminally Online are happy to unleash their unbridled fury, frothing opinions, and full-blown karen I'll take my business elsewhere and tell everyone to never shop here again-ness.

Except the difference is an entitled Boomer will march out of a store in a huff and be done with it, while the internet will try to snowball and dogpile until the creator is run off.

Like I've seen people get so weird about the McElroy content, and how "not-as-good" this that or the other thing is now, and they say this with such justified fury because the McElroys make money. This isn't "eh I've stopped listening as much since I don't like the direction." This is "how dare the McElroys not live up to my quality expectations when they're making money. don't they know they have to earn the right to have money with a good enough monkey-dance??"

Trust fund babies will ride out their McMansion lives never lifting a finger, but an internet content creator pulling in enough money to make a normal human living in a way that does not cater exactly to some segment of the internet's expectations is grounds for the most dehumanizing vitriol imaginable.

And no, before someone asks this is not apologism for people creating kickstarters and running off with the money. This is about how often a severely bad-faith take or plain cruelty is justified and propagated because the subject under storm is a "professional" on account of being compensated for their work.

I'd so much rather have a faceless corporation sign my paychecks for faceless work until I die than stake my livelihood on creating internet content I'm passionate about. I'd be happy to never receive a single dime from the internet. Because as soon as I do that, the public owns me, and the internet would be allowed to waggle a dollar above my head and say "dance monkey dance" without the slightest hint of irony. Or worse, they can say "remember that time we gave you a dollar?" "remember that time you received a dollar from someone?" as an absolute shut-down to any discussion of whether a content creator should have a right to do anything which does not cater directly to their fans' expectations.

Now as an adult I am a bit "bitch you don't even know him" but at the same time I can recognise that Eric was just part of her dreams.

She wanted to be human so very badly before Eric

He was just a bonus that she wanted to smooch

But Eric

Holy fuck!

This dude heard a chick sing and was like "that's the one. Her" despite not even seeing her face clearly

Then he meets a weird naked mute girl on the beach and is like "A FRIEND! I SHALL BRING HER HOME AND WE WILL BE FRIENDS FOR LIFE!"

And like his servant? Advisor? Whatever that dude is is like "okay I know you're hung up on mystery singing girl but this mysterious girl is right here and really into you"

And Eric is like "well damn. I should take her on a date and probably smooch her"

And he almost falls for this new girl so that he has to have a spell put on him by Ursala

Once that's broken and he realises that the two mystery girls are the SAME girl he is like "damn. Better commit murder for her" even though she is now half fish

Like Eric is ALL IN right the fuck away no matter of you're a romantic or platonic interest

Eric is a ride or die person through and through

I like to think like every other week he brings in a new drifter who is his New Best Friend and Love To Learn Ariel is thrilled and asks all the questions and records their life stories