Morbid Writer

So I thought I was done on the @ember_paradox topic but, I spent all morning watching three videos by him sent to me. My Review of Ember Paradox’s Videos Addressing the Situation. I have never watched Ember's videos before this so I was more through in my thoughts after. Because this is a touchy subject I will attempt to be unbiased in my review portion. First video - "It’s time to be honest... about me.": This is the clearest of the three videos. Ember opens by acknowledging that people have been saying he is a guy, then confirms it directly: “Well, I am. I am. Yeah, I I I I am. So, now that half chat has left…” He frames the start of his streaming career around practical and aesthetic choices rather than a long term plan to pass as a woman. He says he picked a white haired catgirl model because it was cute and had good tracking, and he used a female voice changer specifically so his real voice would not be out there: “I never got into Vtubing to deceive anybody. I didn’t. I never I never got into this to to con anyone, to deceive anyone. Uh, I didn’t do this out of a fetish. Uh, I just when I started streaming with my white hair catgirl model the first time, I picked it because it was a cute model and it had good movement and did a voice changer because I didn’t want my voice out there. And so I chose a female voice and I started started streaming um and more people started coming in and it just continued from there.” He repeatedly states that he understands people will feel betrayed, that he expects to lose friends and collaboration opportunities, and that he was not forthright: “I know that there are some people that won’t want to have anything to do with me after this. Uh I know I’m going to lose friends. I know I’m going to lose collaboration opportunities. I get it. I understand.” “I wasn’t forthright about this and people are going to feel betrayed by that and I understand. … It was wrong of me not to say anything before. Not Not Not to say anything. It was wrong of me.” He draws a distinction between the presentation and his other content, saying every opinion and emotion he has shown on stream has been genuine and that this was “the one thing I held back.” He also clarifies he is not 500 pounds, that he is still 5’2”–5’3”, and that he has been careful with personal details to avoid doxxing himself or his family. On the future of the stream he is explicit: “I’m not graduating. Anybody that’s worried about that, I’m not going to graduate. I’m still here. I’m not going away. Things are going to keep going as they’ve been. Still going to be a VTuber and I’m still going to use the voice changer. Do I consider myself to be trans Wonder Man? I don’t know. … When I’m streaming, this is me. … outside of like Discord, I’m just normal. I’m not going through therapy. I’m not going through uh uh medications. I’m not spending my days dressing up or anything like that. I just am me on stream. This is me.” The admission is unambiguous on biological sex. The explanation centers on starting with a model and voice changer for privacy and aesthetic reasons, then continuing once people began treating the presentation as real. He concedes the lack of disclosure was wrong and that people have reason to feel betrayed, while rejecting any intent to infiltrate or any claim that the whole project was fetish driven. He also signals that the streaming setup itself will not change. What is thinner in this stream is any detailed accounting of specific private conversations, group chats, or flirty/sexual leaning exchanges where women treated him as one of them under the belief he was biologically female. Those interactions are the part of the situation that has generated the strongest reaction from the women involved. Second video - "Why do I call my community The Strays?”: This stream is only loosely connected to the recent drama. Ember spends most of the time explaining why he calls his community the Strays and reflecting on how the community has stayed together. He says he started streaming for fun while working a day job and credits both skill and luck, particularly one react video to a Scott video about a punt gun that hit the algorithm: “I have always said that luck absolutely was a factor in me being able to make a goal with this. … I got very lucky that the one react I did to uh a Scott video about the punt gun hit in the algorithm on YouTube… enough people saw my Scott video, liked it, liked what I did, and came to my stream… That is what helped my stream to take off.” On the community name he explains that many early viewers felt lost or like outcasts: “When my stream started to take off, I noticed something about the people that have that joined my stream. And a lot of them felt lost, felt alone, felt like outcasts, felt wrong, that they didn’t fit in. And in my stream, I’m more than happy to have you just being here and just enjoying yourself. … this felt like a home for stray kittens that were lost in the world, didn’t have anywhere else to go, kind of got rejected by a lot of people, felt down on themselves. And so it’s why I call all of you guys my strays because it’s I can give you guys someplace to be where there are people that care. There are people that love you. There are people that will support you when you need it. And there are people that will call you out when you’re being an idiot. And that includes myself.” He notes that the community has remained supportive through the last week and expresses gratitude for it. He also goes on a longer tangent about suicide and pain after a chat comment, arguing that people in extreme pain who see no other way out should not simply be labeled cowards. The stream is more of a community-appreciation and self-reflection piece than a direct response to the deception allegations. It does not revisit the admission, the private interactions, or the specific claims about informed consent. Third Video - “Setting the record straight about my book”: Ember directly addresses the 2017 novel "Prom Changed Everything". He says the opening section has been taken out of context and treated as fetish material when it is meant to be horrifying: “People are taking this opening portion of the book to be some kind of fetish. It’s not. That scene that entire section that I wrote is horrifying, and it’s supposed to be horrifying. It’s not supposed to be sexy. It’s not supposed to be a fetish. It’s not supposed to be anything that you’re going to jerk off to. It’s literally supposed to be horrifying and disturbing. … The entirety of the rest of the book is all about this character’s survival and recovery and working through PTSD to try and live a normal life and maybe coming out the other side a better person.” He describes the plot point as a young man being kidnapped, mentally and physically tortured, and having horrific things done to him, then says the rest of the roughly 500 page book is about survival, PTSD, and recovery. He contrasts it with his Ember Doyle series, which he says does contain “fun fetish stuff.” He calls the public commentary disingenuous for relying on Amazon reviews and short excerpts rather than the full book: “If you’d actually read the book, you’d know that instead of going by a uh uh an Amazon review and a couple of out of context pages from the book and just assuming. Out of a 500 goddamn page book, you’re going to take two or three pages and immediately make a judgement about what my book is. That’s incredibly disingenuous.” He also notes that another book is simply about a character discovering they are trans without any horrific events inflicted on them, and that these were stories he wanted to tell. He rejects the idea that external commentary dictates what he does on his stream. The defense treats the violent opening as intentional horror meant to establish trauma rather than arousal. It does not address the book’s earlier placement on a crossdressing/trans fetish oriented site, the self insert naming of the main character after one of his pen names, or the broader pattern of presentation that others have connected to the same themes. Those omissions leave the “not fetish at all” framing open to the criticism that context outside the text itself still matters to many observers. My Thoughts on the Entire Situation: Ember’s admission that he is a biological man is clear and matches what Strawb and others said from the beginning. He is also right that people will feel betrayed by the lack of disclosure and that it was wrong not to be forthright earlier. The private conversations and group chats where women treated him as one of them including flirty and sexual leaning exchanges are still the part that carries the most weight. Those interactions happened under a false premise about sex. The women involved have said they would not have shared the same personal information or been comfortable with the same banter if they had known. That is a real breach of trust, not just kayfabe or “it’s the internet.” At the same time, Ember has given credit where it is due on other points. He publicly condemned threats against Strawb and her children, said he told his community not to harass her, and banned the person responsible. That is the bare minimum that should be expected, and he did it. His takes on various topics have often been sharp, and he has been willing to say things others in the space avoid. Nothing in these streams erases the original deception, but they also do not require writing him off entirely if he continues to own the specific lie about sex and the effect it had on the people who interacted with him under that belief. The book defense is partial. Treating the opening as pure horror is his stated intent, and fiction can contain disturbing content without being pure fetish. The surrounding context placement on a fetish oriented site, the self insert naming, and the broader pattern of presentation still makes the “not fetish at all” framing hard to accept at face value for many people. That remains secondary to the multi year concealment of sex in personal interactions. With that said I do find it strange the self insert naming and trans connection though. The consistent position reflected in recent posts stays the same: Strawb was correct that Ember is a man and that the deception mattered. I do believe Ember should keep going if he apologizes for the parts that actually need an apology, owns what needs owning, and streams honestly as a man. Trust does not snap back immediately. I would know look how many people hated me from my past. From experince some people will stay angry, some will move on, and the next few months will show whether the admission leads to consistent honesty. The community he built as “the Strays” can still exist on those terms. The original lie does not. Thank you @CidTheCat75 for sending me one of the videos but, I already was writing this when you replied to me. The quote of Feld (who is a sweet women) has one of the links to a video and thank you all for reading. I am still sick but, I am hoping to stream tonight! If you think I was unfair in my analysis let me know in the replies.