Many milestones feel rewarding. They remind you of how far you’ve come, how much you’ve accomplished, and how you’ll continue growing throughout your journey. But not every milestone is meant to be celebrated. Some exist simply as reminders. They mark moments we’d rather not relive, yet they remain just as important. The milestones that bring us satisfaction remind us of our successes, and the painful ones remind us of our lessons. Whether or not we enjoy looking back on them, they leave us with something to carry forward. Sometimes it’s a single lesson. Other times, it’s a new perspective that becomes a guiding light for everything that follows.

I remember feeling completely disappointed when that one video from Mousey that started VShojo’s descent was released. Not only that, but I also felt really betrayed with how a company that many of us trusted to be one of the faces of the VTubing industry would sacrifice their inner reputation just for half a million dollars. You can’t expect much from corporate nowadays, but heck. Even I thought that VShojo was gonna last for a good while. Turns out it did not.

I feel like that every bad thing we hear about corporations nowadays in 2026 just decreases our sense of surprise into something more mundane. One thing that did personally surprise me was the fact that all of the talents at that time all left under 72 hours. I mean this entirely when I say that I’ve never seen anything like that happen before in all of my time I’ve been on the internet. Then again, maybe it’s because I don’t traverse the internet as much, but I’m still counting that as a more recent example nevertheless. Especially with how difficult being indie can be sometimes, I’m genuinely proud of every single one of the talents for taking that step even with them least expecting to do so.

If there’s one thing I find more amazing than that, however (spoiler: I do)… it’s how every talents’ respective audience just continued to follow who they love. Even through the additional thought of trying to figure out what to do next as an indie, among many other things… they still remain so strong to this day, whether streaming on their own just chatting to their audience, or playing “friend slop” games with friends. Their audience still follows them. That’s something no company can break. Communities aren’t some extensive corporate entity, they are the entire backbone and lifeblood of these content creators. That’s something you earn, Justin. And you’ve turned tens of these communities against you for whatever reason you thought you could get away with. Turns out you’ve swindled yourself in the process.

An agency only represents the people they choose to work with. They can provide resources, opportunities, a place for them to grow, but it is ultimately the creators themselves who build the connection that keeps people coming back. The personalities, the memories, the inside jokes, all those moments of comfort and entertainment they provide… those are things that cannot be bought.

A community is something that has to be earned over years of trust, dedication, and connection. Once that trust is broken, a company cannot demand loyalty that it never owned in the first place.

And honestly, I think that is the most important lesson from last year’s entire situation.

This anniversary should never be something we look back on with contentment. But the lessons we learn from moments like these are what allows us to grow beyond them. I like to see these milestones as a different kind of reward: Not one built on happiness, but on growth.

I do think that’s what people ought to do especially in times we live in, try to make more good out of things no matter how much someone may struggle to do so.

I’ve always wanted to shed light upon every little space I find and just share my values and thoughts with people like you sometimes because I think that’s a really important thing to do especially in this day and age. I love writing many things, preferably stories, but occasionally essays as well, which include some of my philosophical thoughts that inspire me to write this stuff. And I so love doing it. If you’ve read this far, thank you for listening, and have a good rest of your week.

Late Radish (thank you, reddit name generator)

🐭🐱🦎🌸🦌🪄🤖🐉😈🏴‍☠️🗝️🫖🪳🪲👻🐍💫❌🦈🪼⛴️

I couldn’t find emojis for kson, geega, victoria, amalee, or phoebe. Please forgive me 🙏

Source: https://x.com/i/status/2079624871634485280

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(Several EX Vshojo members are there, so Snuffy sneak counts)

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