u can get the ally rn at rog.gg/NoodleAllyX if u want....

As I always say, you have to ask yourself “Do you want to be right, or do you want to have a conversation?” Because those are two very different goals.

This was the WORST Scott the Woz video I've ever seen

step one, everyone else is wrong

noodle adbreak is like the type of thing your remaining brain activity shows you in your last 7 minutes of life

I think a lot of people forget that channels like AVGN were not actually reviewers, the Angry Video Game Nerd was a character for a comedy short. It's kind of crazy how HE became a new blueprint for two decades

I feel like Arin portrays his argument like that because it was a popular way of critiquing things at the time. Channels like Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, RedLetterMedia (specifically the Plinkett videos), and I Hate Everything were popping off at the time doing similar types of rant/angry videos. There was an understanding that the reviewer was being over the top for the entertainment of the video, not necessarily trying to avoid logical fallacies or alienating the audience

Noodle, in 10 years I will make a 30 minute video essay on how you're wrong.

Yeah, Arin’s wrong a lot about OoT, but that video still fucks. I honestly appreciate the blunt opinions. Like hearing a local guy go off about the thing he’s on about that week, and everybody gives him a “fuck yourself, Johnny”, keeps arguing, and at the end it’s beers all around. Not every argument needs to be presented as a graduate level lecture. Sometimes the 2am back porch rants are enough.

i saw the first 10 seconds and asked myself: "why the fuck is noodle now shaggy?"

He didn’t even make it 2 minutes without an Amen break. His condition is worsening.

it's almost like he's some kinda grumpy gamer

"according to wikipedia.... ludonarrative diss-" is one of my favourite bits you've done, because i've seen far too many channels that unironically say and sound like that

I think a big part of this video is just inspired by generational differences in expectations in internet etiquette. Because I’m almost exactly Arin’s age, I fucking love OOT with my entire soul, I watched his OOT vid when it first came out, and none of it registered with me as any more than the standard background reading of Internet Snark and condescension. That’s just how things were.

Arin speaks like he’s writing an early 00s forum post, where a big unwritten rule is: even starting a new topic, you have to act like the conversation has been going on without you before you jump in, and so heading off would-be detractors and acknowledging-through-omission commonly held assumptions like how widely beloved and generally groundbreaking the game is, as not to be repetitive and thus boring, is generally considered good form.

The internet used to be a lot more intimate and interconnected, so you had to take these kinds of actions and assumptions to contribute to the conversation, and that’s the cadence Arin is speaking in. He’s not (or was not) used to how it is today, where every post/video/whatever is made in a discreet space that might potentially be anyone’s first experience on the internet ever, algorithm willing, and has to build context as it goes to account for that.

the biggest problem with the OoT Sequelitis is that it came out when I was an impressionable teenager who got all of his opinions from the internet, and it made me think the game I loved was actually bad

"The strength of a critic lies in the consistency of their voice." Despite coming from Dunkey of all people, this quote still lives in my mind, and for more than just criticism.

Tbh, I remember it being a pretty cathartic video at the time. I could never bring myself to finish OoT for similar reasons like Arin described, but expressing that would be met with angry shit flinging. I never saw the humonculus in the beginning as being aimed at anyone who likes OoT, rather at those who just wouldn't accept criticism of it no matter how constructive.
Having your favourites shittalked is never a great feeling, but losing your cool over it is also a choice.

Something I think that's kinda ignored in this is how OoT was essentially this "flawless game" during the time period, and the amount of slander that was thrown to people who even dared to say anything even slightly negative to OoT. He was arguing against a majority of people who were ready to alienate anybody who even acknowledged their subjective differences. Trust me, as someone who's been a part of the Zelda fandom for as long as I've had internet, I've seen the fanbase at their worst. They were incredibly vicious and would die on any hill, regardless of how delicately you would phrase your arguments. Arin made the guy at the beginning not to represent anybody who liked Ocarina of Time, but instead, to parody the types of people who would ignore rational discussion and choose to bully any opposition to an opinion founded entirely on nostalgia (aka, Keyboard warriors).

I love Ocarina of Time, and I viewed his points as a criticism of his own exprience with the game, and his "slander" towards the aggressive vocal majority who were more than likely going to be writing up multiple essay-long and hate-filled comments. Even I was sick of the fanbase's blatant OoT favoritism, and it wasn't because I hated OoT, but because people were just so aggressive and hostile for no reason. The "I'm gonna get CRUCIFIED" line demonstrates this mentality going into the scripting process perfectly.

Even still though, Arin admits that he wishes he could rewrite the video to not isolate the people he unintentionally targeted. He regrets the impact he left. Personally? I still stand by the video, even if I disagree with a lot of his opinions. His video singlehandedly changed the Zelda fanbase and allowed for a lot of people who were too scared to share an opinion, to actually have the courage to have a voice. Now there's a lot more diversity in the fandom, a lot of people who sent actual death threats to Ninendo due to games like Wind Waker having a different art style would mellow out, and there has been much more open discussion about Zelda's game quality as a whole. Without Arin's video, we'd probably never have gotten BotW. Games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were created because people just wanted more Ocarina of Time. But the fanbase just criticized those games as well. Without the audience like Arin speaking against the formula, Zelda probably would have stagnated into obscurity. But instead we got a revolution in game design, and even though I still like the OoT formula more than BotW/TotK's, I'm glad Arin finally got the games that would speak to him. And that Zelda gets to live on because of his influence

Breaking down one decade-plus-old video feels like limiting the impact of this critique.
A broader look at the era's culture of criticism, or reconnecting the context with how Arin engages in criticism today, would have made this stronger.
This felt a bit incomplete, which is a rarity for this channel. Love what you do, Noodle, looking forward to the next one!

I feel like Noodle, through this video, has fully explored the feeling of "You might have some really good points, but you're pissing me off." more than any other youtuber I've seen.