Lord Aethelstan claims VTubers shouldn’t be stuck to “traditional standard” in face reveal

VTuber Lord Aethelstan’s face reveal turned heads in the community ⁠— and not just for his looks. The popular Twitch star used his unmasking as a statement, saying “there’s no rules” and creators shouldn’t be stuck to “traditional standard of VTubing”.

Lord Aethelstan is one of Twitch’s most popular male VTubers, going from just a static PNG to a fully-fledged 2D model on his rise up the platform.

Now he’s shown off his fleshy 3D form during an October 12 face reveal that was as dramatic as it could have been. Of course, the castle-dwelling vampire had to come out wearing a thick suit of armor, clunking around his room and knocking down green screens like nobody’s business.

But once the helmet came off and his face shown off, he was surprised by the reaction: “I thought most of you guys already knew what I looked like,” he laughed.

However he used the hype around his face reveal to show the VTubing world that there’s more than the “traditional standard” of schedules, karaoke, and faceless content creation. VTubers should be able to do whatever they want because “there’s no f**king rules”.

Aethel highlighed VShojo star Kson as an inspiration for switching between her human and VTuber forms, and that’s something that should be celebrated if creators want to do so.

“The only reason I became a VTuber was because it’s really fun. I like being on camera too ⁠— it’s good fun both ways. There’s so much stuff you can’t do when you’re just a flesh streamer. There’s so much stuff you can’t do when you’re a VTuber. 

“I don’t think VTubing should be kept as this sacred thing where you’ve got to have a schedule written out and do the idol [stuff] and karaoke all the time. I think, for someone like me, I couldn’t live up to the traditional standard of what VTubing is. Not to say there’s anything wrong with it, but I think you don’t have to if you don’t want to. 

Aethel also believes VTubing as a medium can grow if the community ⁠— not just the creators, but fans ⁠— embrace ingenuity. Streamers like Onigiri have pushed the limits with immersive cooking streams with their VTuber model. 

But if someone just wants to log onto Twitch and YouTube and play some games with their face in the bottom right rather than an anime avatar, that’s fine too.

“Do one day of face cam, one day of VTubing ⁠— it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to fit into a cookie cutter idea of what a VTuber should be.

“I don’t want to make it seem like anyone who follows the traditional VTubing [model] ⁠— there’s nothing wrong with that either. Do whatever you want. That’s the main point of it. Show the face if you feel like it.”

Ultimately, VTubing should be an inclusive environment. If streamers are confident, they should be able to show off their face without fear of retribution without the whole “immersion-breaking thing” some bring up.

“There’s a lot of VTubers who went to TwitchCon and a lot of people who do face reveals, and that should be celebrated. If they feel confident and happy enough in their own skin to show off what they look like, it should be celebrated for sure.

“I was pretty nervous to show my face as a VTuber. I don’t really care about what I look like ⁠— I’m confident in whatever is going on with me ⁠— but I was worried like what if my guys in the castle… were freaked out by having a face on screen. I wasn’t sure. But I knew in my heart of hearts that I’m going to do both. 

“I know everyone in the castle is so chill and I think as long as I think it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be enjoyable and a good time for everybody… they’d be down for whatever.”