"And now I am in jail in hell" is perhaps the best line ever written.

You couldn't make petscop today. You'd release it and people would be like "Hey this is just Petscop, stop reposting."

“Animal Investigator” finally made me realize Petscop is Pets Cop. I’ve only ever heard it said as one word.

Sheriff domestic is genuinely so funny it’s like finding game at a flea market hoping it’ll be spooky or something but then it’s just this

I love the contrast between AI Builds and Sheriff Domestic in this video. One is deep dive into suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, abuse, and the trauma that clearly affects the player, and the other is literally just an extended shitpost.

Cannot believe I laughed my ass off at “gun bullet gun gun” over the most bitcrushed beat I’ve heard in my life

I love how Sheriff Domestic is so absolutely nonsensical that it somehow stumbles into a story

Mr.Eye being so taken a back by Nicolas actually standing up to him that he has to pause the game like a streamer getting caught by a jumpscare is great.

i love how sheriff domestic starts as a pretty clear parody of petscop and then by the end it’s just completely off the rails into crazy town

AI builds might be one of the most realistic pieces of art covering suicidal thought and ideation I’ve ever seen. I have said those things to myself line by line in my darkest times. It is scary, stunning, painful, and breathtaking.

A lot of people don't understand how terrifying the display of abuse that Mr. Eye portrays is so real, as a former victim of abuse there is a lot to say about it *especially* how well it gets incorporated, shivers down my spine from that sweet-talking to immediate anger when relenting

i think the part where mr. Eye tricks Nicholas by saying his mom is coming home is also very potent; it's like he tries to recall pleasant childhood feelings, but ends up summoning hurt and trauma as he does it.

Sagan really got out a Petscop 2 before pyro did. Love to see it.

I'm here for using your friend's platform to have a way to show the masses the TWO-HOUR script that you wrote but don't necessarily have the clout to post yourself. Friend solidarity ❤

"I wish I had something to say about anything but I don't" is the best vocalization of creative anxiety that I've ever seen. Figure out how to kill that thought and you'll never have writer's block again.

Hey man, creator of Rotations (or as you called in the video, "Petscop 2777") here, it was super surprising seeing something that I made in a video like this but, here I am! It's super cool seeing someone do such a deep dive on the little sub-communities that spawned out of the petscop-like series boom from like 2020. Being in the Petscop community since way back when in 2017 I've seen a LOT of these types of projects come up and fall, myself being the author of a few, (like the one you showed in the video, which had its channel recycled for THIS project), I can speak from experience that these types of things are indeed really hard to make, so this video bringing light to some of them and outright encouraging others to make more is really nice to see. All-in-all, as a Petscop old-head, thanks. This video is a wonderful representation of a very, very niche sub-community and I'm happy to see that even dumb little side projects that I never finished get shown off to such a big audience, lol

Sherriff Domestic is unironically one of the funniest series I've ever seen. The gun rap made me laugh so hard, the constantly changing art styles are so unique, and the "inspiration" from Petscop just makes this feel even more ridiculous. It still has parts that actually make me feel a little uncomfortable, like "Dave" brushing their teeth and slowly looking over. So much of that series is really funny and surprisingly well made. I still have to finish watching the video, but so far, I can say that Petscop's style will likely never be run into the ground. It requires too much effort to replicate casually. Hopefully.

The acting in AI Builds was incredible, really felt like I was spying on something incredibly personal. One thing that really hit me hard was the age options of 10 and 21. As someone who has experienced a traumatic event, it truly does feel like a part of you is stuck at that age forever. He also exhibits some childish tendencies throughout the series, one example being his pettiness towards his brother. Just that notion that some part of you will always be that little kid really punched me right in the heart.

To call these Petscop clones is definitely an understatement. One is a self aware parody that isn't ashamed of what it is while AI Builds openly addresses the comparisons and struggles artists face when trying to make something original purely out of their own mind. Both have their own themes, styles, and story, and while they're inspired by Petscop and other ARG's, they're not copying anything. They're just making something new out of em

The fact that all of the dialogue in AI builds is improvised is insane to me. Like, that's just another level of talent.

I will say, his acting is beyond belief in this. He perfectly portrays an incredibly depressed, broken spirit. I spent 4 days in a mental hospital after I nearly made a very awful choice and his breakdowns in the video were genuinely hard to listen to because it felt so real, and I've been there. It's a terrible place to be mentally and him acting these scenes out so true to life is underrated.

The acting for Nicholas is absolutely insane holy shit

As someone who's had experience with psychosis, I definitely read AI builds that way while I was watching. The hallucinations, dark thoughts, suffocating feeling, ethereal connection to your past and sense of self, among other things was viscerally real. It's one of the better depictions of it I've seen.

oh my lord those noises of him choking when the pill appeared were actually so gruesome i actually had to turn my volume down

the acting for Nicholas in AI builds is _incredible_, i feel for the man so much it makes the series genuenly hard to watch. it's some high quality stuff. scared me quite a bit p.s. good portrayal of film students, too

AI Builds is utterly horrific on a level you can only create through personal experience. It is very clear that the creator, or someone they know very well, has had major difficulties with trauma and depression. Couple that with some genuinely skin-crawling choking sounds and acting, and damn good visuals, and you have a brilliant work of art.

AI Builds really, truly struck a cord with me. I relate to so many of the struggles that Nicholas faces. The desire to be original, the desire to keep working, the nagging feeling like your worth is tied to your productivity, and his struggles with mental health. Thank you for introducing me to this series, because seeing those struggles be turned into something beautiful is... well, inspiring!

Bro your friend did a hell of a good job writing a script and you did a good job of narrating it

"Loser" spelled with an Ö actually means "solving" in Swedish and is pronounced "luhh-ser", which I just find kinda funny

I just want to point out that I believe the "Congratulations! Y-" voice that loops at the end of that Sheriff Domestic video is the "Congratulations! You won!" voice used on countless scam pop-up/banner ads from the early late 90s-early 00s internet websites.

I’m someone who’s VERY hard to scare. But AI Builds literally gave me a stomachache. Let me tell you this wasn’t the right video to try and fall asleep to. I had to get up and make some food 😔

My take on Mr. Eye and the pills from my own battles with depression, "Self-Check-Out" thoughts, young life struggles with ADHD, having the shittiest father this side of life (Dude was a user of his own peddled drugs, all that needs to be said), and a mother that was complacent on the abuse: To me, Mr. Eye is a sort of coping method. The main character had shunted off all his trauma and pain into a dark part of his mind, trying to block it all out, only for it to once again rear its head and cause him pain because he hasn't faced it and overcome it, only run from it. To me Mr. Eye isn't the villain here, its himself. Mr. Eye is trying to get him to accept the trauma, the pain, and the nightmares and face them, to overcome them. Mr. Eye has a constant theme of 'Let me in' and 'Hatred' for Nic, and to me its a mix of taking the role of his father and the mental anguish hes been saddled with, an anguish that he knows in the back of his mind, he has to face hence its persistence. Even if its obviously not a kind role hes taking, hes taking it none the less. Hes standing in for the abuse his father caused and mother allowed to take place so that Nic can face it in his older years now. Nic's choking and gasping for air sounds to me like a very violent panic attack. A debilitating one stemming from the mental scarring hes been subjected to and now must endure. The scene of the page burning even has him starting to have one, but he forces his way through it and overcomes 'Mr. Eye'. The laughter sounds manic in some way, but to me, as someone who has had a breakthrough and overcome my own childhood mental baggage, I too laughed in that way a bit at the time when I finally accepted the past was the past. Its a euphoric feeling when you feel a weight thats been pushing your mind down into the mud for most of your life finally be pushed off. As for the pills, I feel that the pills aren't exactly meant to be taken as a straight 1 for 1. My belief is that they simply symbolize the act of taking a medication. Anti-depressants can lose effectiveness with time and age, and maybe this pill is to show that hes on them and they are no longer working like they should, which lends credence as to why the painting of one was shown in front of mountain face between him and the face if the face really is that of his father after death. Which is why he now has to face all those negative thoughts that he says himself and that Mr. Eye berates him with. Every thing that Both have said that sound of the preamble of "Self-Check-Out" I have said to myself a few times in the past, INCLUDING vocally lamenting that people love me while also spouting out the contradictory happiness that they do, usually followed with that I would keep going on for them. I had my own 'Mr. Eye' though not so much a aggressive force in my mind, rather my coping method was to make two mental images so to speak. One was a man I thought was everything that I wanted to be, kind, caring, loving, patient, and able to carry anything on his shoulders. And a lady that was everything I hated about myself, always angry, spiteful, sadistic, you get it. As a kid I made them be brother and sister, with her always hating the brother and wanting him dead while the brother loved her with all his heart and only wanted the best for her. It took many many years of living with those mental images, those mental constructs until my middle school days for me to realize that I made them brother and sister while a child because they were supposed to be a reflection of my mind in a way that I could process as a child, the brother being who I actively worked to be (The opposite of my father). The sister being who I dreaded becoming, A copy of my father, and spreading the same pain to others that he spread to me. I think it was my first year of high school and my first exposure to psychology that made me put the pieces together... and from there I had to do a lot of facing that sister, but unlike Nic here, I had the brother to help me face my torments, an ideal and grounding against the storm so to speak.

I like the takeaway that "originality" is about as transient as "genuineness". People often give the advice that the way to make friends is to just "be yourself!" and a lot of people end up taking that advice and becoming someone with no boundaries who is a drain on people around them because they're letting their every whim and passing misery rule their social interactions. People think that "being themselves" when they're depressed is... the misery, when the reality is that we are more than our moods and more than our tastes. I definitely feel like more people should make art and try art and see what it brings out in them even if they make derivative things or poor-quality things or any other number of "bad" art because art is such a fantastic tool for getting to know *ourselves*. Why did this inspire me? Why do I want to make this? Is the reason I am giving to myself making me feel like I want to make it more? :) I'm really glad you chose to go ahead with the production of this video. A fantastic job was done both in highlighting the influences and finding common threads between Sheriff Domestic, AI Bullds, and the act of working within an established genre.

There's one thing about the medicine in AI Builds that I think may have gotten lost in the analysis: the one constantly persuading Nicholas to stop taking the medicine is Mr. Eye, an obviously malevolent actor. And he's not just warning about overdose, he appears to be trying to get Nicholas to avoid it altogether. Could it be that the medicine helps keep Nicholas stable such that Mr. Eye cannot influence him? My immediate reaction was that it was some kind of antipsychotic that prevents Nicholas from hallucinating or something. While at the same time, I've heard of cases where people taking things like antidepressants and antipsychotics have the way they think affected in some negative way. For example, they lose their inspiration or creativity and don't want to keep taking the medicine because they can no longer think right.

I think that the “this game i found” horror genre is the scariest to me, it’s because these types of series feel so real. They don’t feel like a horror web series but an actual series of videos showing a very real game. The people playing feel like real people uploading to a youtube channel. 10/10 content

AI Builds has always stuck with me even more than Petscop. When it came out I was in a part of my life where every creation I ever made reeked of insecurity and wondering if all ideas I had were just inferior ripoffs of far better works. I had never seen a work of art that tackled that specific fear so clearly and it hit me to my core when I least expected it. I still think about it even as I grow more confident in what I make. If Alex reads this, genuinely AI Builds has stuck with me more than you know, and if you decide to finish it I’ll be waiting!

I kinda thought Animal Investigator was about an abusive father and the son’s trauma to overcome it. My dad (and mom, majority my father though) was extremely abusive especially when I was little, so I picked up the signs of the abuse in AI almost immediately. I was also a gifted kid and have adhd, autism, depression and anxiety so I almost immediately picked up on that as well.

Genuinely the discussion regarding art originality is superbly done and the nuance is true. There are no truly "original" art, or even idea, in the world. What matters (at least, IMO) is to make your creations distinct, no matter how derivative.

FINALLY! Sheriff Domestic is getting the recognition it deserves! GODSPEED PICKLE CHIN

I must say, as an artist myself, your interpretation of AI Builds as an artist stressed with he creation process was the most impactful to me. The idea of needing to put your trauma into your art or it will just feel derivative is something I’ve struggled with a lot myself, especially as someone who enjoys media about trauma as a way of processing my own. I wrote down a note in my sketchbook while watching the summary of AI Builds “everything i make is derivative, so i can’t see why people love me”, which was the strongest take away for me, as it’s related to my own struggles. As someone who’s been artistic since childhood you feel pressured to create, so many people have been praising your drawings since you could barely hold a pencil, so you can’t let them down, anything you end up creating can’t just “be okay” it has to be something standout or you’ll disappoint everyone who once praised you. The piece of the story about the character’s brother mocking them for making a derivative game by making a parody really hurts, when you enjoy a piece of media and just want to make fancontent you get a sense it’s wrong and you NEED to make something original for it to have worth in the eyes of those who once praised you as a kid for having endless creativity.

I've always assumed the pills in AI Builds in some way help to suppress Mr Eye. Maybe Nicholas is concerned that they stifle his creativity, or that he'll go the same way as his father, but they help keep the monster at bay in turn, hence why Mr Eye wants them out of the picture (also creating a perceived link between Eye himself and Nicholas's creativity)

Just listening to Seirasong's bit on "the color blue" and, oh fucking god. You can just feel from what he said the everything he takes from himself and puts into his work. Diminish has that exact same voice, that exact same energy during its brightest moments. I love this dude, what a treasure.

From the perspective of someone with ADHD and social anxiety, Mr. Eye reminds me of the generally unhelpful thought patterns I developed as a child that followed me into adulthood. It’s hard to shake those things. You feel like you need them, because you don’t know how to act without them. Nicholas yoyoing between mania, depression, and fatigue with brief flashes of euphoria is something relatable to me and probably others with mental illness. Recovery isn’t linear, sometimes you think you’re doing well just to fall back into the same old shit. Like how Mr. Eye will let up, only to find some way to crawl back in again.

AI builds is one of my favourite unfiction projects. Thank you for covering it!

Ai build is genuinely so accurate to things that ive dealt with such as addiction, trauma, suicidal ideation, and being manipulated. The scenes for introvert island genuinely gave me so much goosebumps and it felt so cathartic when nick finally took back control. Also.... broooo i used to take fluoxitine, i stopped because it didnt help at all

i fucking love AI Builds so happy it's finally getting recognition

Can we just appreciate Sagan's editing? Or, if it's not him, whoever is editing! Because I've just started the video, but the Petscop inspired title was so well done, I just have to give them props! All of Sagan's videos are super well edited, so I hope they keep it up!

I can relate to Sheriff Domestic as my best friend is also a gun, great video glad I got to watch it early through my patreon privileges

Holy shit guys Pyrocinical just dropped Petscop 2

So I developed "Pseudo-Psychosis" due to my general anxiety disorder a few years back (in fact im also on fluoxetine and for future reference the o is silent to my knowledge.) I gotta say AI Builds is easily my new favorite horror series and has the best representation I've ever seen of those experiences. Many of the points in the plot match real life experiences I had, thinking people were banging at my doors, hearing footsteps were there weren't, constantly feeling like being watched, and even hearing a voice that sounded like a deeper version of my own constantly degrading me. Even the childhood parts are extremely relatable, I dont want to get too personal or trauma dump or anything but I've always felt like I missed out on childhood and to this day i desperately wish i could live through a proper childhood. I've seen many horror stories try to tackle the subject of psychosis and do so in a way I greatly dislike, I was concerned AI Builds was going to be the same and I was initially planning to quit the video when I saw the TW but I'm so glad I didn't. I even ended up feeling the creative process there have been so many fan projects. I've gotten repeatedly stuck in the mindset that I need to make something fully original with no inspiration from anything else until recently. I genuinely thank you for introducing me to AI Builds. There is no way I could watch this series on my own though lmao.

Seirea’s speech of originality is absolutely amazing

Lots of people use teams to work, letting your friend present your work on their popular channel based on that exact thing just means you've joined the team. Good quality

Instead of TGIF, which is too similar to another acronym that we all know, how about "Game that Is Lost and Found," or GILF for short. That should clear up everything.

The last two sections of this video were absolutely stellar!! It's so easy as someone who makes Things to get caught up in what is or isn't art or what is or isn't considered original by people who don't even know you. Just make what makes you happy and some people will like it and some people won't. People were made to create at the end of the day. It's good to make things.

tw for the topics discussed in AI Builds the pill that nicholas begins to choke over onscreen at 1:17:00 likes a lot more like duloxetine HCL, an antidepressant used to improve mood, sleep, appetite, energy level, and decrease nervousness. this is apparently a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, (which stops or delays serotonin/norepinephrine from being reabsorbed by the brain,) so there may be some kind of connection by the two, especially because it's mentioned in mr. eye's show that nicholas committed suicide via overdose. i dunno, this is just what i think while chewing apart AI with my dull teeth

Even though it's about more things than just this subject, I don't think I've ever seen a piece of media that captures what it's like being a mentally ill artist struggling with feeling unfulfilled/unoriginal with your art like AI Builds it's kinda scary how weirdly relatable it is in some ways(Ironically, I have clinical depression and ADHD, along with other things). It's so easy when putting your art/work out there and even getting critiqued for it, whether or not it's in good or bad faith, to just spiral because of it. And taking heavy inspiration from things and feeling as though you'll never make anything original. And trying to channel your suffering into inspiration for your work. I also feel as though Mr. Eye in some ways represents the doubt that many ""tortured"" artists feel: the need to create something meaningful and poignant but the perfectionism and that comes along with it and horrific steps they can take to try to get there. Also when I heard PCP, I thought it was a reference to the drug, possibly alluding to what Nicholas or his father is/was addicted to, and also has hallucinogenic effects, but that could most certainly be a reach.

Since u asked for ppls opinions who actually have these experiences! I'm just gonna say as a schizophrenic person just watching ai builds I was seeing alot of things I related to. Especially since I have early onset shizophrenia the "imaginary friends" of nick are similar to my experience. The imaginary friends I had as a kid became my hallucinations as a teenager / adult. Also! Mister eye is super familiar to me since I also have eye hallucinations. And i would like to say age regression is of course in nicks case probably caused by trauma but many shizo ppl experience age regression. I'm gonna stop now hehe

AI Builds is genuinely such a masterpiece, as I can fully relate to this media in my own way. Mental illnesses are absolutely horrific, and this art piece is an extremely good insight in how it may feel. To bring my own thoughts to the table, it's possible that his psychosis may have been caused from such severe stress and the deprivation of what your body needs to function that your mind completely starts to fracture completely. I got this impression because it feels similar to my own real world experiences. Depression can become an absolute nightmare all on it's own if you're constantly overwhelmed, stressed, sleep deprived and isolated, as your own mind starts to turn inward and completely lose touch with reality due to complete chaos of the situation.

At the start of the Sheriff Domestic breakdown I was passively listening (It was mainly background noise for me) but the further into the story you went the more genuinely invested in the story i got eventually I was solely watching the video lmao

The quality, quantity and duration of the videos you push out is nothing short of hard work. Thank you.

Holy shit!! Never thought I’d see somebody cover Sheriff Domestic and the other Petscop parodies. You and your friend did an amazing job

"It's really hard, to make things, when it feels that everything has been done before." Jesus Christ, AI builds has to be one of the most impactful things I've seen, it just, shows what a lot of people who want to create something, who want to DO something, are going through and perfectly explains it through emotion.

Man, I didn't know I needed this video, the second half especially, until now. AI Builds in particular really hit close to home in several ways and the original art portion was really inspiring as someone who struggles a lot with motivation for creative endeavours. You and your friend are pretty cool. :))

I want you to know that you're one of the 4 channels I have full notifications on. I've watched your FNAF retrospective like 10 times in full, and some of the other ones several times as well. They make hour long bus rides to and from my university feel not like a waste of time, but a relaxing and interesting experience. You really are doing great work and it's not going unnoticed.

Barely an hour in and I'm hooked by this script. It pulled me in hard and kept me intrigued. Whoever this "friend" of yours is, they're good.

On the topic of AI Builds, it is extremely accurate for a lot of those themes. It's almost scary how real the depression is portrayed and it seems like the series in itself is a kind of Mr. Eye, in the sense that it serves as a constant reminder of how I felt during the pandemic, and how I'm sure many others felt and still do feel. I was very touched by the series, whether it be a small series inspired by Petscop, it stands on it's own for me. Petscop was always effective, but never like AI Builds in my opinion.

Some sage advice I once heard on originality in creativity - "Whatever you make should have 1/3 new stuff, 1/3 improved stuff, and 1/3 old stuff". Obviously a loose rule, but the idea is that anything approachable or understandable will need to be rooted in *something*, and there's always lots of tropes that are "tropes" because they work! A majority of your project can be things that have been seen before, so long as you make a lot of them better or surprising or delightful in some way, and then the 1/3 that's totally new and you're really excited about has all this runway to work with because you know people are following.

A thought on Animal Investigator and its themes of creativity and medication: those who experience disorders such as anxiety and ADHD often feel like taking medication will make them no longer be "themselves" or remove their creativity (speaking from experience, myself included). This irrational fear could be what Mr Eye symbolizes and why it seems to want to stop Nicholas from taking the medication (Fluoxetine is often prescribed as an antidepressant or for anxiety). Anyway, fantastic and thought provoking video, your friend did a great job with the script and your editing really enhanced it!

I also love the choice of having the Great Wave off Kanagawa lightpiece in the background during the conversation about art, profit and originality because it's such a fascinating example of commercialisation of art creating more, new, exciting kind of art. It's a fitting visual especially for the "Exit through the Giftshop" part of the conversation.

keeping this vague but i used to make a bit of (personal) fan content for a series i was really into, and it reached the point where i was tired of my ideas being confined by the sources, so i branched out and made this content my own. and i spent a whole year trying to distance myself from the original as much as possible before hitting a lot of burn out. those two sections at the end have given me a huge boost of inspiration and energy to get back to what i made and sort out what i do and dont want, without caring too much about if its "different enough." so thank you :0)

re: your AI Builds theories - it's worth noting (from a personal experience, and the experience of a couple of friends as well) that fluoxetine has some extremely bad side effects. I know of three people (other than myself) who began experiencing hallucinations after taking fluoxetine that persisted even after no longer taking the medication.

Thank you for being respectful around the themes of mental health when covering ai builds

Seirea's incredibly passionate rants bring me so much joy

2 and a half hour long petscop inspired video essay on this lazy saturday? Sagan, you're a mensch. ♥

With regards to your first and second theories for AI Builds (as someone who had untreated adhd for about 25 years, having been diagnosed with chronic depression, and as someone who was MISdiagnosed as bipolar due to family history with that disorder) regarding SSRIs and ADHD as well as being a Gifted Child (warning for talking about SI and suicide): Adhd is comorbid with depression due to a lack of diagnosis, especially among young girls if they are inattentive instead of hyperactive. As someone who was once a young girl, a young Gifted Child who fell apart once she needed to actually study and try to do anything, it is So Dangerous. The compounding desire to be good and do good on top of the crushing guilt that You Are No Longer Good Enough is what drove me, one day in my junior year, to overdose so i didn't have to deal with it. The worst parts of that are that, due to me having been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder (my father is bipolar) and being given a medication that made me numb. I hated that feeling so i stopped taking this (addictive) medication and started hurting myself to try and feel I had control over something, anything in my life. Physical pain that was sharp and would heal later was better than the nebulous pain that had no source and could never heal. Since then I've been put on medication that works, I've gone to therapy, and I've started creating again and loving what I create. Loving creating. I'm fond of the idea less that its a failed-suicide-induced coma and more that it is, like other people have pointed out, is a record of lucid dreaming while on an SSRI. Slowly working through trauma and internal horrors to try and heal and become better as yourself. Idk that's just me and mine though.

17:11 my favorite moment from any unfiction experience "oh no!!! uh oh noEAAAAA-"

Nice of you to take on these Petscop Parodies/Fan Series. My personal favorite is Sheriff Domestic.

Here’s my theory on AI Builds: Mr. Eye seems like he’s Nicholas’ father, and after his mother died(I’m guessing from the hospital scene and the green pills but I’m not finished with the breakdown of AI builds), he started abusing Nick. Every time Mr. Eye speaks it reminds me of a father who’s abusing his son, lovebombing then breading nick, possibly under the influence. For mountain face, it seems to represent his mother’s(or someone else he loves) death, Nick seeing his mother’s dead body by suicide at 10, and the face being more and more of a blurred memory until it’s nothing but a generic man by the time Nicholas is 21(I’m guessing 21 because it’s the only other age you can pick).

I don’t think people realize how so many of their favorite projects get their start as “derivative” works! Steven Universe for example started from a Dragon Ball fanfiction, which when you think about it makes a lot of sense. Fanfiction is popular for a good reason (and its not just because people like smut), everyone has a unique perspective on a story or world. We get tons of fun and unique adaptations of classic stories like Romeo and Juliet or Cinderella, each with its own flair and twist. Its part of what makes the gutting of the public domain so frustrating: we are being denied really cool and thoughtful versions of stories that aren’t allowed to be made.

i actually met the guy behind ai builds years before he started it. alex is a really nice, creative guy and it makes me really happy to see his work recognised!

HUGE props to animal investigator on the voice acting. The voice acting in analog horror is one of its big weaknesses, imo, and the guy playing nicholas gave an incredible performance!! It really sets it apart from the crowd

Someone set this guys friend up with a microphone we need more of their stuff.

God I hope AI Builds isnt over yet, everything you described made me fall in love with it, congratulations on the video for both of you! I really wish AI Builds becomes the next big thing and the creator gets more support and if not then at least I'm glad I know of it thanks to this video

AI Builds is so well made. It doesnt even feels like a parody, more like a creepy webseries itself.Also, the voice acting is really well and makes it even more real

AI build was WAY more than I expected it to be. The acting was absolutely fantastic, his voice was heartwrenching. It's amazing.

Alternatively, I understood AIbuilds mother figure differently. For one, he reacts negatively to the butterflies every single time. And when we see Nicholas mother with the butterfly head, again it's not positive, plus I got a very negative vibe from the two raised hands. For me, I wonder if Nicholas mother became either abusive herself, after his father killed himself, or if she became withdrawn, with the raised hands being too high for a little child to reach, instead of being extended down to him to hold him, cuddle him.

I am so happy somebody covered Sheriff Domestic so extensively in a video essay. That series FUCKS.

As someone who went through multiple abusive relationships (though not familial) and has suffered through depression and anxiety and other unpleasant traumatic mental health shit since childhood, as well as a fluoxetine prescription for nearing a decade (and methylfenadine and temazepam on and off funny enough)... Damn. AI builds hits really hard. The acting is phenomenal, and it really accurately captures how it feels. This entire thing is really weirdly personal for me and I appreciate that the creator made a piece of art with such realistic themes. Usually relatable art is more wholesome and lighthearted, which funny enough makes it not very relatable to me, so having something darker presented and feeling that I actually connect to it is really refreshing. Idk sorry this is a ramble, I just really love horror as a genre, it's such a great place to explore real struggles through bizarre and terrifying metaphors. In a way, I think that surreal terror highlights just how serious those real struggles feel to people who haven't been through them, which helps people feel more empathetic towards people (like me lol) who aren't always good at explaining what we're going through.

holy shit i was the creator of beta 95 LOL massive surprise to see it mentioned in this video. i appreciate it dawg

"You have to keep loving the color blue. You have to keep making it anyway" really hit me

i'm on fluoxetine and have been for the past few years--i think a "coma" is a bit of a stretch, but it's known for dulling intense emotions, so nicholas might be intentionally taking more than he needs to avoid confronting his trauma (seen here as mr. eye) either way, it's an incredibly interesting and well-constructed series, and i'm glad you covered it here! i'd never even heard of it before

Bullet in the gun, gun in the bullet. Best line ever rapped in the history of mankind.

honestly, A.I builds made me choke up pretty hard. i don't know why, but considering that in this series' universe this guy just wanted to make an educational game about animals and stuff just seems really cute and sweet and having him be tormented and his creation ruined i dunno it made me want to cry

I'm very thankful for your friend for writing this script and you for covering it! These videos make me feel better about what I want to create in the future :). Also somehow I posted this comment on a completely different video? I didn't notice until someone liked it, must be a weird glitch lmao.

I also came out o AI Builds feeling strongly like this is what being a creative of any kind with depression is like. It's gotten less and less common over time, the idea that the tortured artist draws on their misery to create things that are touching as almost this... magical process, when in reality all art takes way more work to make than it takes to experience and that depression undercuts your ability to work and think critically and examine your work realistically, leading to work you're less proud of, which leads to a tightening feedback loop. The brain is treated like a secular soul rather than a complex organ that needs to be carefully cared for as much as any of your others. I've never had an adverse reaction to meds, but I imagine that someone who has had experiences relating to drug use or overdose on medication would have to work twice as hard on the problem of whether treatment will make you better, or if it'll just make you a duller, more rote version of your bad self, or if it's just the thing you inevitably kill yourself with. To me, Nicholas lashing out at Mr Eye really felt like that breaking point of knowing something is wrong with you, finally internalising that you could be doing better than you currently are, and lashing out and telling your illness "fuck you" for ruling your life for so long. It felt incredibly triumphant, and just because it didn't fix *everything* immediately, didn't banish the demon, it was a powerful moment of catharsis for me. Recovery is incredibly hard, and doing things that you know will make you better (taking your meds, going out on walks, working on creative endeavours) feels so pointless and meaningless and like you're just further a drain on everyone with your flailing rather than just going ahead and ending it all. The bottom of that wave *sucks*.

AI builds really hit me in a place that I never thought possible. I never even heard of it until watching this, and yet I felt like a lot of the imagery, the dialog, everything about it is so familiar. It really made me feel uneasy, yet like I saw some of my own problems displayed in front of me. I don't know, but, this truly was spooked by it more than anything.

SeireaSong is so right on the money. You're setting yourself up for failure if all you want is "originality" in your work.

I'm glad for your final section, this is something very hard for people to grasp as like, a professionally trained artist. I was trained in an extremely harsh art-world in which we had absolutely drudging deadlines, extreme workloads, and we were very much forced to regard our work as disposable via taking our art and grading it on the floor with the regard you would a old porno magazine.--but that was because it was for traditional animation. It wasn't cruelty, it was breaking people into the nightmare of what traditional animation demands, and trying to ween those who couldn't put energy and emotion into their drawings despite it. And despite the harshness, our criticism was always extremely encouraging, it was always trying to find what was amazing about it, and push us forward. But what I notice about, well, non artist art critiques is they do not...get that? They get mad at something being derivative. Derivation is necessary in art, influence is everywhere. The only thing you see in the art world is worry about copying without trying to understand. (I.E. The reason art professors worldwide have long tried to start people 'starting with anime/manga style' is not due to that being a poor style, but because it's expressly designed to gravely simplify repetitive art and does not function well to teach people how to make good art out of it, just imitations with a severe difficulty to understand the art being reproduced. Style is not generally what people should begin with. Unless you're Roman Dirge and obsessed with having no-influence on your art when you get started, but even then, its plainly obvious that he had a very notable amount of influence on his art despite that. His works drip with imagery borrowed from cartoons he grew up with, comic art around him, and even popular works about.)

If there's one thing I like about Sheriff Domestic, it's how it's I guess reimagining beats from Petscop despite it being a joke. Like obviously most of its ideas are just retreads of what Petscop does, but I love how it uses these ideas as a jumping off point to spiral into its own thing. The introduction of Pickle Chin gave off feelings of finding the Newmaker Plane in the original (even though yeah I get they did that idea earlier). That moment captures the feeling of going from an unfinished or rudimentary game that suddenly expands out to something surprisingly more developed and strange that seems to be trying to convey something specific.

Oh my god yes FINALLY someone is covering sheriff domestic! I’ve known about it for so long and have always tried to get people into it to no avail, but finally it’s being exposed to a larger audience. It’s a genuinely hilarious series that works as both a petscop parody and a similarly styled work in its own right, and it rivals petscop in quality (and may even surpass it in my opinion). I really hope that this video brings it a new audience and revives the project a bit as it’s been rather dormant as of late, aside from the April fools video that came out recently.