OSP is a YouTube channel run by two people: Red and Blue. Red started the channel as a means to study literature and improve her art. Blue joined her later to create extra videos focused on history.

And, between the two of them, Red’s videos are unambiguously better.

As I (not so subtly) stated in the opening text, Red’s videos (myths, literature, trope talks) are generally better than Blue’s videos (all history).

Now, both Red and Blue lean progressive politically speaking…but, in my experience, Red is more likely to push that aside for the sake of the truth. Blue just kinda lets himself get swept up in the ideology. Though the most egregious examples of that are no longer public on the channel, Blue was at one point in favor of the Black Cleopatra myth and the Black Egyptian thing in general. I recommend Metatron’s videos on the subject.

Red also allows herself to go a little cuckoo, though this is rarer and has gotten much rarer over time. The main example I can think of is her Trope Talk video on Fridging. I should note that I haven’t seen much of Blue’s content outside of his occasional cameo in Red’s videos, though the most recent of those (Halloween Special: Mummies!) indicates that he hasn’t changed that much, though it’s very subtle here.^A)

Among Red’s videos, I don’t watch the Trope Talks as I found those are not as great as the rest of her videos. The ones on Mary Sues, (the aforementioned) Fridging and Dragons didn’t really impress me, though I’m thinking of giving them another shot…particularly if I find something relevant to anything I write on here.
Another point regarding the Trope Talks is that they come off as more…observational than analytical. I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but I’m comparing it to myself a bit. The difference would be that someone like me tries to figure out how the underlying trope functions, whereas Red is looking at how it usually manifests. I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other, but I think Red’s videos are presented as if they were analytical.
Basically, think “this is what the trope is and what it could look like” versus “these are the manifestations of this trope”. The latter (how Red goes about it, from what I could gather) suggests that those are the only ways to write those tropes, which is very…deterministic? Limiting?^B) Whereas I try to point out what makes a trope itself. That said, I’m biased in this regard because I’m comparing her to me, so I’ll think about this a bit more later.

• OverlySarcasticProductions
• There’s an article hidden somewhere in the PlayGround where I plan to make a few minor corrections to OSP videos.
• OSP sells a shirt that says ‘I’m Magic. Ishtar loves me and the Queen of Hell thinks I’m hot.’ which is in reference to the underworld myth where Ishtar attempts to (and fails) to save her boyfriend, then shenanigans happen. Now…considering what Ishtar is like…I wouldn’t consider ‘Ishtar loves me.’ to be any kind of positive connotation, which makes this shirt hilarious on multiple levels.
  • That kind of ‘Ishtar girlboss’ thing is something that just kinda happens with OSP. They’re more likely to roll with modern misconceptions that are progressive leaning (Ancient Greece loved the gays) than they are to question them. This is projecting modern ideas on non-modern people, which is kinda icky. Though it’s not as big of a thing as it was before and I’m guessing Red has since learned a lot more about Ishtar, if we consider the Gilgamesh video. Just watch a lot of Metatron as well.
• ‘Finders Keepers’ is the particularly annoying one. Red even posted an anxious ‘breakdown’ of sorts in the Gilgamesh video where she goes “Brits should return but also because they had terrorists didn’t destroy artifacts AAAA”. Generally, I find this debate tiring because this opposition is entirely moralistic without any pragmatic outlook. I won’t elaborate too much, but I’m very much on the side of ‘finders keepers’. The destruction of artifacts by ISIS is, I think, damning enough evidence.
• I happened to remember something else that bothered me. In one of her videos, though I don’t remember which one specifically, Red goes on a rant. During this rant, she basically says that women can’t express their emotions because society socializes them to internalize all of that…until it reaches a breaking point and someone finally asks them about it. This stinks of Feminist Theory propaganda, as that better describes men. Except, of course, men can’t answer that they’re feeling unfine. This is a trend I’ve observed with Red, where she seems to parrot certain beliefs that are not based on experience. In that rant, for example, it didn’t feel like she personally experienced that, it felt more like she was repeating something that she had been told.^C)
• I’ll note it here before I actually integrate it into the personal evaluation section. The Miscellaneous Myths series should really be split into two separate series. I say this because some of those videos are short summaries of various myths and then the others are deep-dives into some mythological characters. These ones are also significantly more interesting to watch and are unambiguously the best things that Red produces.
  This started with Dionysus, but was then done for Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades & Persephone, Loki, Artemis & Apollo and (most recently) The Muses.
  Depending on how you look at it, you can also count her videos on Quetzalcoatl,^D) Atlantis, The Wild Hunt, The Zodiac, Werewolves, The Nine Realms, possibly Astraea^E) and Mummies.
  • I will eventually link all of them here but, for now, here are a few. They should be listed by when they were uploaded.
    • Quetzalcoatl
    • Dionysus
    • Mummies!
• Also, OSP has a tendency to not understand copyright where music is concerned which bothers me a lot especially when I know where some of that music comes from (Prince of Egypt) and because I know this could/would produce a lot of issues and it’s entirely needless. Literally just use copyright-free music or find a composer.