The Unestablished War

The Unestablished War was a key point during 2011 and 2012 that marked a dramatic shift in content within the Speakonia Community and saw conflict arise between 2 groups, OldSchoolSwellness and SwellDrewTube.

What is "Unestablished"?

According to the community, the term "unestablished" usually refers to something that is not directly a part of the established Barney Bunch lore. The Barney Bunch in and of itself has had an extremely loose continuity to put it mildly, but even so, there were several key factors that were easily connected from video to video (things like Drew Pickles' status as World's Gayest Man, the Barney Bunch's rivalry with the Pube Muppet, etc.). Any changes to the status quo or character addition was usually met with criticism, with claims that they were "not established" prior. This idea of being "unestablished" would lead into the titular conflict that would be the driving force for the community, for better or for worse.

Synopsis

The war originally began in summer 2011, with FireGoron conversed with timmyt333 sometime after learning the ways of Singonia, a video style that uses the program Melody Assistant to have text-to-speech voices sing MIDI song covers. He then proposed to Timmy that should call forth and establish a group of the most prolific and best video makers in the community, who had unparalleled skill at creating Speakonia videos, including RCDeschene, BakaSurvivor2102, FuzenKuden, Pwnisher248, and HuckleberryHound69, thus forming OldSchoolSwellness, or OSS for short. They chose the name because they held onto the belief in sustainability and maintaining the status quo regarding characters and events within the way videos were made and the structure of videos.

Members then began uploading older videos quickly. Around the same time, prolific community member MrCaptainJeff, who was deciding on whether or not to retire, was offered a position in the group. Things took a heal turn right after OSS formed its YouTube channel and uploaded its first video. A massive argument broke out in the comments, primarily between Timmy, Baka, and Jeff. RCDeschene did make one video with Nigel Thornberry trying to explain the whole situation, however, this was met with immediate backlash.

Following these events, Jeff went on the offensive. He uploaded several videos featuring either Yogi Bear killing Drew Pickles, Yogi declaring that he was gayer than Drew, some unflattering videos towards RCDeschene, etc. And with that, SwellDrewTube, or SDT for short, was soon formed shortly after. Some members of OOS quickly jumped ship to SDT as a result, primarily Pwnisher and Huck, while many of the older members stayed with OSS. They did see some appeal with SDT's philosophy, but the problem was that they did not do anything about the videos being uploaded of "unestablished" characters, and only used established characters to retaliate attacks.

Ending

Things got very heated very quickly with both sides at each other's necks, whether it was Huck trying to take over the OSS account or OSS boycotting Singoinia methods for themselves. Things began to die down when accounts began to be terminated left and right, as was what happened to both leaders on each side.

By then, it was already too late, and the damage had already been done to the community. Speakonia content wasn't really the same after, with any new character or concept being introduced was met with claims of them being "unestablished", whether one believed in SDT's philosophy or not. At the same time, OSS's content was deemed repetitive and boring. And it begs the question: Who was really right in the end? No side claimed victory at all, bit there have been ones of members being legendary, particularly Oldmanhemmaha to himself as a recurring joke within the context of Skype calls. Some members retired, new ones joined, and with it comes changes in philosophy, leading to discussions on who was truly right in the end.

OSS believed that they were doing good in the end, backing this up by stating that they were open to new characters being introduced, but stated that the proper way was to establish characters and build them up, leading to more interesting videos and in turn more views. They also stated that using the characters only one time with the same formula as the others makes it more repetitive.

Lasting Impact

In the years since the Unestablished War, many in the community have taken both philosophies of OOS and SDT to heart. Most of the veteran community members (and especially members from the Renaissance eras) tend to stick with the already established characters and lore from the Barney Bunch, much like OSS, but they were open to introducing new characters, so long as they were at least were built up and made more than one appearance. They also insisted that at least one new character be introduced each year, as an influx of characters only leads to nothing more than a bunch of nameless faces filling up a video. Likewise, the Foot Fetish Community seem to take more of an approach to SDT, adding in several characters and groups that were previously "unestablished", such as the Ketchum Klan, the Repulsa Republic, and to a lesser extent the Betty Bunch, among many, many others.

Several new characters and groups did emerge from the War as well. This was around the time that Yogi Bear gained some significant headway, mainly through MrCaptainJeff's videos, as well as the addition of his own group known as the Hanna Barbera Bunch created by Huck, though they would be quickly forgotten about soon after. Another group that supposedly made their debut around this time was the Humongous Bunch, a new rival group for the Barney Bunch that consisted mostly of characters from the Humongous Entertainment games. They stuck around for a bit and quickly fell into obscurity by 2013. They group would later be revised by IronYoshi1212, though according to his take on the Barney Bunch canon, the Humongous Bunch were already defeated and disbanded, leaving Fatty Bear as the only member left.

It is also believed that Maid Marian and Brony Drew Pickles made their debuts around this time as well. Maid Marian was prominently used by Huck in several videos, no doubt thanks to working on the Speakonia dub of Disney's Robin Hood. Her ability to turn gay men straight was not met kindly with the community, and she was unceremoniously killed off after Drew shoots her in a now long-deleted video. Brony Drew was introduced sometime after the brony fandom was starting to pick up steam across the internet, and he was notorious for having sex with the female characters in the show. Naturally, he too was met with backlash and quickly forgotten about. Much like the Humongous Bunch, Brony Drew was given new life by IronYoshi, who made a video explaining that Brony Drew was actually a clone of the real Drew, and was now the proud servant of Princess Molestia and has made a few scattered appearances.

In 2022, well over a decade after the events of the Unestablished War, a similar conflict would break out in the community that involved several of its newer members creating a plethora of new Speakonia groups, leading to widespread criticism from veteran members over the fact that these new groups were barely being utilized in any meaningful way, if not at all. This event was not as damaging as the War, however, and things quickly settled down afterwards.

Main Players

Below are the two sides who faced off during the Unestablished War, as well as the community members who were apart of them.

OldSchoolSwellness

Main article: OldSchoolSwellness

OldschoolSwellness believed in sustaining the current "established" characters, claiming that this is what the community required to survive. New characters would need to grow, and be distinct within the current roster, not be thrown in on a whim.

• timmyt333 (Later known as timmyt333rebirth, main leader. Referred to as Timmy.)
• FireGoron
• RCDeschene (Activity was mainly done on his SwellRCDeschene account.)
• BakaSurvivor2102 (Referred to as Baka.)
• BooNube (Known for standardizing the quote "bag, that was swell." Sided with OSS, but didn't officially come into consistent contact.)
• FuzenKuden (Referred to as Fuzen. Later retired)

SwellDrewTube

Main article: SwellDrewTube

SwellDrewTube is believed to have sought freedom in making videos, adding characters and content in any way, shape, or form. However, this account of what they wanted is not fully credible, in that there was a lot of coordination errors between members, and a fair amount of bias to SDT during this time.

• MrCaptainJeff (Believed to be the main leader.)
• Pwnisher248
• Oldmanhemmaha
• DrewPicklesAintDed69
• Ekonike1
• HappyTheHomo45
• HuckleberryHound69 (Betrayed OSS but also attacked SDT. Mainly sided with SDT. Referred to as Huck.)

Numerous other users who were/are unknown due to few significant contributions. (However, it could be implied that SDT tried to obtain their goal through these users.)

Neutral

There were neutral members as well who either didn't care, were retiring, or just antagonized both. But some had other reasons, and some members purely did things without regard for either side's quarreling.

• HoodboyTails (Saw the beginnings of the war but had just begun his retirement.)
• Mario4356 (Joined for the sake of gathering others to help him troll. Mainly sided with OSS, but didn't become a fully recognized member.)
• MrExpiriMENTAL (Antagonized OSS, most of his attacks were directed at Timmy. Was not affiliated with SDT.)
• Unknown friend of Huck who attempted to take control of the main OSS channel. Otherwise neutral.
• mike5449 (Joined at the end of the conflict. Mainly speaks to OSS but also is in contact with members of SDT. Maintained neutrality, but has a lean to OSS.)