Blazing Larvesta

Blazing Larvesta (born: September 20, 2000 [age 20]) is a YouTuber who started his channel in 2016. Though he is most known for commentating, he also does plenty of other content, such as countdowns, Let's Plays, skits, meme videos, and fanart.

The Not So Good Old Days
Blazing Larvesta opened up his channel on August 19, 2016, though he had not made any videos until his first countdown, Top Ten Disappointing Games, on December 20, 2016. Larvesta would not start making commentaries, the type of content he is most known for, until September 9, 2017, where he made a response video to Phantom N's on his Disappointing Games list. Unfortunately for Larvesta, his commentary was very poorly received, with it being commentated on by Lebers and Doodletones.

His commentary on ProJared was also a source of major backlash, with many citing it as one of, if not his worst commentary to date. The video was the target of several commentaries, and would go on to make Larvesta a major response bandwagon within the Commentary Community.

Overall, his videos at the time, especially his commentaries, were not well received, with Keyblade Master ranking him as the worst commentator of 2017, and Kirbystarwarrior ranking him as the 2nd worst commentator of all time, losing only to TheMetalBlade5.

Hiatus and Return
On February 6, 2018, Larvesta had announced in the comments of his fourth countdown that he would be taking a short break from YouTube to reflect on some of the criticism that he had been receiving over the past year.

I’m dealing with a few things IRL, and I want to get those taken care of ASAP. That, and I’ve been getting a lot of backlash lately, and I want to take some time to reflect on a few things."
 * "Just want to let you guys know I’m going to be taking a break from YouTube for a little bit.
 * ~ Blazing Larvesta, February 6, 2018 &mdash; Source: Comments section of "*DISOWNED* Episode 4 - Top Ten Worst Video Game Power-Ups"



He would not be seen online since then until he suddenly disowned six of his videos, including his reviled commentaries on Phantom N and ProJared, on March 31, 2018. His next video following his hiatus would be his commentary on Sean S, released on June 7, 2018, followed by a commentary on Halofan HP00 on October 21, 2018. Both videos were widely considered to be an improvement over Larvesta's pre-hiatus videos, and he has since started to become more positively received.

Making Changes
On January 28, 2019, Larvesta had put up an update video discussing the future of his channel as well as updates on videos he was working on. As far as commentaries were concerned, he had stated that he was going to put less attention to them so as to put more attention to his other videos, such as his Let's Plays. Despite this, he would still go on to make commentaries on his channel in 2019, such as his commentary on Lucky Crit on February 17. Another change Larvesta would make to his channel would be the thumbnails on his videos, as he had switched over to a new style of thumbnails on his commentaries the day after his update video. His Lucky Crit commentary mentioned above would be the first commentary to start off with the new thumbnail style.

On February 9, 2019, Larvesta had announced that he would start crediting the fan art that he had been using in his videos in a Google Doc that he would place in the description of his major projects (i.e. countdowns, reviews, commentaries). This followed a recent outburst from certain commentators both in and out of the CC to tell other commentators to credit artists of art pieces used in commentaries, which at the time was taken for granted by some commentators, most infamously in The Cloud Palace's then recent commentary on TheCamProject. While the document was (and still is) heavily incomplete when Larvesta made it public, he hopes to finish it as quickly as possible. The Google Doc in question was first seen in one of Larvesta's videos in his Lucky Crit commentary, and can be found in the link below.

The Current State of the CC Document
On April 3, 2019, Larvesta had taken notice of tons of backlash and drama that had been going on in the CC and had devised a plan to help the CC get back on the right foot: A survey he had dubbed "The Current State of the Slideshow Commentary Community". In the survey, he had asked surveyees to answer a series of five questions asking them what they had thought were positives and negatives the CC had, and how the community can improve. He initially gave people interested until May 3rd to submit their entries with a release date of May 10th planned, though he had delayed the deadline and intended release date to June 3rd and 10th respectively, as well as made a Twitlonger explaining the delay, due to a lack of submissions throughout April. Even despite this, though, Blazing Larvesta had not received many entries after announcing his delay, and his final tally on the number of entries would amount to a measly five when the document was finally unveiled. On top of that, negligence and a lack of care from the outside put development of the study to a halt, and the document would not meet its June 10th deadline. Larvesta made a second Twitlonger explaining the tardiness of the document despite his promise, and the actual release date of the document would be the night of June 30, 2019, twenty days after the document was due. Despite all of these shortcomings and considering the survey itself to be unsuccessful, Larvesta still showed interest in trying the idea behind his survey out a second time, whether it be in the CC or some other community/group/etc. The document in question can be found in the link below, as well as in the sources.

A Period of Silence
Throughout the following months, Larvesta would not release many major videos onto his channel. Though he had issued a challenge in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game with a prize (said prize eventually getting claimed on May 10, 2020), as well as made a joke commentary regarding his mascot's initial lack of an appearance in the Pokémon GO game , he would not release any big videos for a long time. While Larvesta was able to keep up with making monthly uploads, most of his uploads ranged from episodes of Let's Plays to one-off meme videos. Though he has made appearances on other channels, such as in BlazinHope's commentary on drakethehuman, he would not release another commentary after September 20, 2019 until his commentary on the Fire Emblem Heroes game on May 22, 2020 , a difference of over eight months.

Commentary Style
Larvesta's style of commentaries is rather par for the course compared to other similar commentators. As his videos are developed in Microsoft PowerPoint, they do not feature editing as detailed as the likes of others. Of note in most of his videos is a screen in the corner featuring the video he is covering (A computer screen from Foolish Phantom to Jumpscare Jared, a TV screen from Going at a Snail's Pace onward). He also always uses a degree marker in his videos no matter how small of a chain he is covering, a trait which has fallen under scrutiny from some users such as DynamoTheDum.

Non-Commentary Videos
While he is primarily known as a commentator, Blazing Larvesta’s full catalog of work extends far beyond commentaries. He also does Lets Plays in his spare time (Currently, he is doing Lets Plays for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Papers Please, and Persona 4 Golden), though most of these videos tend to get overshadowed by his other content. Larvesta has also shown interest in speedrunning and livestreaming in the past, such as in his seventh update video, though neither type of content has appeared on his channel yet. Starting in late 2020, he has made a number of skit videos using the Objection.lol editor based on the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series.

Outside of YouTube
Aside from videos, Larvesta is a part-time artist, and has worked on several art pieces for himself and others. Some of Larvesta’s artwork has been used by himself as avatar poses in his videos, including his commentaries. Despite this, he does not currently have commissions open for potential buyers. As an artist, Larvesta has worked with the Fire Emblem Compendium on a couple of occasions. As his debut into FEC, he drew Wolf from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon as a part of the Sharena’s Springtime Egghunt group project. Larvesta would later go on to draw Surtr from Fire Emblem Heroes as a part of the main Fire Emblem Compendium project, a collection of Fire Emblem art spanning over 700 artists and 1000 art pieces.

Blazing Larvesta is also currently on Fanfiction.NET, with his biggest passion project on the site being his Pokémon fanfiction, Pokémon: Legacy of the Valiant.

Blazing Larvesta is a news editor on Bulbagarden, a Pokémon fansite most known for the Bulbapedia Wiki.

Quotes

 * Time to ignite my flames! ~His catchphrase, mostly in his countdowns
 * *mocking laughter* My goodness, Phantom, you missed the forest for the trees! ~Foolish Phantom, Larvesta’s 1st commentary
 * Double standards are the best... ~Larvesta infamously misusing the double standards term against ProJared
 * Alright, time to wait for my brand new- *warps* Hey, I didn’t even get a chance to pack up my stuff! ~Going at a Snail’s Pace, when Larvesta changed his visuals after receiving backlash for his prior visual style.

Links

 * His statistics on SocialBlade
 * His art credits Google Doc
 * His "Current State of the CC" Google Doc
 * His TVTropes page