All of my Eddsworld reviews/rants

Eddsworld Legacy: A 10 Year Retrospect

Now, where did I put Tomee Bear? Oh hey, there fellow Eddheads. I didn't see you there. My bad. Do you know what today is? No? Well, today is the day when Legacy was first released exactly 10 years ago. I know right? It's crazy. It felt like only yesterday when Legacy was a thing.

Man, where has time gone?

Anyway, I had plans on making a retrospect, documentary(ish) type look on Legacy as a whole for quite some time. What better way to do it is talk about on its anniversary day.

So, come with me to the unofficial Eddsworld vault. Careful where you stepped because contains a lot of Eddsworld inside it.

Now, where is that memory lane? Oh, here it is. We're at the starting part of it. Now, we can go back and reflect on Legacy along with me expressing my thoughts on it to the best of my ability.

Let's start, at where it all began.

Chapter One: In The Beginning There Was Light and Darkness
It was the early 2010s, most specifically 2011. Eddsworld was up in its peak of popularity on both YouTube and Newgrounds combined. Around this time WTFuture, Hammer & Fail, Zanta Claws 3, and Fan Service were the most viewed episodes and were were loved by many. Everyone was eager and excited to see what was in store for the future. What crazy shenanigans that the three main characters, Edd, Tom, and Matt would get into next? The possibilities were endless. The future was looking bright and I mean sun blindingly bright.
Ok, maybe not that bright, but you get the point.
But that's when the Fire Nation- I mean, tragedy struck. On March 25th 2012, Edd Gould sadly passes away due to six year battle with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. A few days later, Tomska and Matt uploaded a video about Edd's passing on YouTube. The fans were shocked and devastated by the news as many wondered if this was the end of Eddsworld and what will happen in the future.
That's when the unexpected happened. Eddsworld was continuing with Tomska taking the role of director, producer, and lead writer. Knowing that he and Matt can't make new episodes by themselves, they had to expand the team with Paul ter Voorde being the lead animator and had to find a voice actor for Edd's character which was given to Tim Hautekiet. Eddie Bowley, who works with Tomska on ASDFmovie and makes appearances on the Tomska And Friends YouTube channel, became a producer and helped write Fun Dead.
Thanks to having a team of 17 people and having 13 talented animators along with raising $83,211 during a charity event, Eddworld was back in full force with the release of Space Face Part 1 on June 2nd 2012 which gave birth to a new era of Eddsworld. That new era being Eddsworld Legacy.
Legacy was highly successful to the point where it lasted from 2012 to 2016 as The End Part was the last episode to be released.

Legacy's Reception
So, what did the fandom think of Legacy as a whole? Well for me, it was a good continuation during both it's run and by retrospect. Tomska and everyone else really gave it their all while knowing that it was different from how Edd worked on the series.
So, what was the fandom's feeling towards Legacy? Well, a majority liked it a lot and then there's the people absolutely hated this era. Those people that I like to refer to as the og fans of Eddsworld who were there since 2004 also known as the Elderheads. Oh yes, these old die hard veterans. They aren't something that you should mess around with and I am here to tell you why they disliked Legacy by giving you three different reasons... which I've gathered. So, yeah let's just get into them.

1) The Art Style
Yeah, we're starting with this one because it's usually the first thing that brought up whenever Legacy gets talked about as a whole.
Many people praised the art style, myself included. At the time, it was fresh, it washes, and it made Legacy stand on its own feet. Now, there's people that absolutely disliked Legacy's art style because it was nothing like Edd's original style. As I stated before there were 13 animators with Paul ter Voorde being one of them. Space Face Part 1 was the last eddisode to be animated by Edd before his passing. Paul was tasked to finish animating the episode which was the birth of Legacy's art style which was dubbed as the Paul ter Voorde style by the fandom of course.
Paul's way of drawing and animating was smooth and clean and it was really impressive. After Space Face Part 1 and 2, Paul's style was used throughout Legacy's run minus a few episodes such as Mirror Mirror and Saloonatics had special guest animators who had their own unique styles.
Thanks to this, Legacy had its own identity which made it stand out compared to the Classicera of Eddsworld and Eddsworld Beyond. Plus, it made Eddsworld look like an actual cartoon if it were to air on either Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon and had a higher production budget.

2) Characters Personailty changes
If the art style of Legacy wasn't enough to turn away the Elderheads, it would be how Legacy gave Edd, Matt, and Tom whole new personalities on top of their already established personalities. Looking back at it, it sure did gave these characters more depth in how they might react to certain things in terms of writing. Edd experimented on this during the late 2000s and the early 2010s when Eddsworld was coming out of its edgy teenage phase and was starting to become suitable for all ages. Not everything was completely family friendly though. There were still some dark humor sprinkled here and there along with the usage of "damn" and "hell" but not as much as there used to be.
I sure wonder what the Elderheads thought about the characters getting more in depth personalities.
(Editor: It would seem that some undiscovered footage has been found. Don't worry, I have made it audible for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy :D)

*on a top secret island far away that has a castle on it dubbed as the Elderhead Castle, circa 2014*
Elderhead: What's this? Edd being portrayed as kind and caring? What is this nonsense!? This isn't Edd. He's supposed to be an uncaring jerk. No, everyone's supposed to be an uncaring jerk. These aren't even the same characters. These are imposters and they're all sus. Curse you Legacy! Curse you!
(Editor: My, what a strange guy. Anyway, moving on)

3) Eddsworld? More like "Tomsworld"
We're at the third and very, yet controversial last reason. During and after Legacy's run many Elderheads believed that Tomska ruined Eddsworld in its entirety which has been proven to be not true.
Hell, even Tomska himself said that him being showrunner didn't ruin Eddsworld.
Sure, his writing and decisions were nothing compared to Edd's, but he tried his best. He put his heart into it. Of course there were some stinkers here and there, but overall he gave us, the fans, a continuation of a beloved web series and kept Edd's world spinning for awhile before Beyond came along.
Another thing that Elderheads like to do is blame Tomska and how he wrote The End Part 1 and Part 2, but that's a story for another day. Oh, I'll get to you someday The End. I'm just letting you off the hook for now, but watch your back.

Closing Thoughts
Love it or hate it, Legacy will go down in both Eddsworld and internet history as the biggest yet memorable thing that has ever happened in the past decade. There were many high and lows,but it only made Eddsworld bigger with new fans joining in everyday.
I would like to end this off with a huge thank you to Tomska because this man has been through a lot. There were times where he wanted to end Legacy but he managed to make it live longer. Tomska had suffered through a lot of grief. He, Matt, and Edd were very close friends and when Edd died, he didn't know what to do. There was a point in time where he asked Edd what would happen if he were to die. Edd simply told Tomska that he wanted Eddsworld to continue which Tomska ended up doing as Edd's final request.
As I stated before, Tomska had suffered through a lot of grief. It also didn't help that he had despression on top of being an alcoholic. Yeah, alcohol and a bad mental state don't mix that well. In the end, Tomska decided to move on from Eddsworld after The End Part 2 was released just to focus on another way to remember Edd in the most healthy way as possible without destroying his mental health.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though. Tomska went back to focus on his two YouTube channels and say, he's doing quite alright and is still going strong to this very day. Meanwhile Matt was given the role of showrunner and is in charge of the production of Beyond.
And that should do it. I would like to thank you for making it this far. This took a very longtime to make and actually put out.
Eddsworld will always have a special place in my heart and without it, I wouldn't be here talking about it.
This has been Lbat1901 and remember: stay indubitably and drink cola. ...Erm... maybe not that last part. Uh... yeah. ....Keep Edd's world spinning. That's all I have.
See you in another eddisode review. Bye.