By: Jocelyn Rios
When faced with carrying the legacy of your dead childhood best friend, at some point it becomes a lot to manage. Despite that, you continue to spread his story to make you and his fans feel some type of closure, or like his death had never happened.
Unfortunately, “reheated food will never be able to taste the same,” and eventually, you need to stop eating it.
Eddsworld is a British Flash-animated comedy show created by Edward (Edd) Gould following the adventures of three buddies: Edd, Tom, and Matt. These characters were based on the real life counterparts of himself and his friends: Thomas (TomSka) Ridgewell and Matthew (Matt) Hargeaves.
Since premiering in December of 2004, Eddsworld has established a highly active fanbase on platforms such as Newgrounds, Youtube, and DeviantArt, while also having an official website.
For the community, Eddsworld was much more than a collection of flash animations.
From its crude animation, absurd humor, and amateurish charm, it was essentially one of the first projects that would influence the aesthetic of later indie shows on platforms like YouTube.
What made it all the more special was because it wasn’t made from a massive studio, but a group of friends who wanted to make each other laugh.
However, in April of 2011, Edd would relapse from an earlier diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and unfortunately passed away on March 25, 2012, establishing the end of the show’s Classic era.
This sudden tragedy brought major uncertainty towards the direction of the show’s run, and the future of Eddsworld. With the blessing of Edd’s family, TomSka took over as showrunner and led Eddsworld through its “Legacy” era in an attempt to, not simply continue the show, but to further the vision of someone who was no longer there.
This era would end in March of 2016 with the release of episodes: “The End: Part 1” and “Part 2.”
While making his final remarks and handing the project back to Edd’s family, TomSka would emphasize the emotional difficulties and immense pressures he faced surrounding Edd’s death. Particularly, when the Eddsworld team initially wanted to reproduce Edd’s artistic style, to which TomSka said it became “extremely emotionally taxing” for trying to replicate the work of someone who truly meant a lot to him.
Tomska believed Eddsworld should be a tribute to Edd rather than an attempt to pretend like nothing happened. He argued that Edd himself was constantly growing as an artist so it wouldn’t have made sense to keep the cartoon permanently frozen in the style and story-telling it had when he died.
I personally agree with him as, just like every creative person, in order to grow and better ourselves we must accept change.
Years later, after TomSka’s departure from the show, on Aug. 1st 2020, Matt would announce in the release of episode “Eddsworld: Fan Service 2” that he had been asked by Edd’s family to bring back the show, bringing it to its “Beyond” era.
It initially brought excitement to the community, as their beloved show had returned to continue the unique charm it reflected during the Classic and Legacy eras. However, after six years had passed, the community understood that was no longer the case.
The show began to feel less like a continuation of Edd’s passion and more like something that was feeding off what was already established, all while becoming a space that was no longer safe to express any new ideas.
It’s important to note that Matt, as showrunner, would have a similar experience to the way TomSka had in continuing Edd’s Legacy.
Like all people, they handled this intense situation differently; however, it didn’t feel like Matt was ready to handle the large fanbase and the new responsibilities that came with Eddsworld.
To contrast from the Legacy era’s intention of finishing what Edd had left behind and opening the door for new expression, the Beyond era served to go through that door and build off new ideas in order to exist beyond Edd, to which Matt was opposed by.
This became apparent when Matt, in a response to a Makeship campaign, criticized community fanart and portrayals of the characters, stating “the problem is there is more fanart than the actual art” and because of that, you “forget what the characters look and act like.”
Tomska would also mention how costly the project was to maintain. Costing around £110,000 ($146,261.50 USD) in 2012, he described the entire thing as “financially and managerially” a “trainwreck,” which also added more pressure from fundraisers to keep the show running; “The mental, social, and professional cost of that fundraiser was far, far greater than the money it raised.”
In a similar attempt, Matt would express in promotions like the Eddsworld Matt and Tom Youtooz, the importance of fan purchase to keep the show going.
However, Matt’s attitude toward merchandise and production of the show became important for the wrong reasons.
People began questioning the decreasing episode output compared to the Legacy era and made multiple claims of confusion and a “lack of creativity” in recent episodes on platforms like Reddit.
Additionally, in response to the Eddsworld episode Tord’s New Adventure, fans also stated that, although ecstatic to see a fan favorite make a return, they understood it was somewhat greedy to bring a character back when the real-life counterpart, Tord Larsson, had asked that he no longer wanted his character to be mentioned in the show anymore.
Fans would soon learn this may not have been Matt’s intention at all when, in a post on X and the Eddsworld Official Instagram on Oct. 2nd, he announced he would step down as showrunner and no longer be part of the Eddsworld management team.
Reactions to this announcement were sharply divided: some fans were sad that all original cast members had left the project, while others were relieved that a long-overdue show could finally be put to rest. However, in a correction to the announcement, Matt confirmed he would still be voicing his character and the show was still going to continue, which, although some were glad, made fans more uncertain and upset with the insistence on the show continuing.
It seemed obvious now that Matt had been pressured to keep the show going, all while it reminded him of Edd, who he missed deeply, and that’s okay.
It’s okay to step back from a project that’s meant not just for a deceased loved one, but to keep them in your memory.
Matt wasn’t just handling a cartoon, but maintaining his relationship with Edd.
TomSka would eventually reach this same realization. After years of reflection that he’d been trying to use the continuation of Eddsworld to make sense of Edd’s death.
“I didn’t need the show to be over; I just needed to accept that the control I’d fought so recklessly for was never real,” he wrote.
That doesn’t mean TomSka stopped caring about Edd. It means he understood that caring about someone didn’t mean you had to destroy yourself to preserve what they left behind.
Matt deserves that same understanding: despite wanting to take a show with that meaning alive, it’s going to be messy when there’s already a new set of expectations that combat that meaning, and sometimes, it’s for the best to step back and have someone without that experience take over to put the show’s best foot forward.
It’s a struggle, but maybe that’s what we are missing.