It's literally a show about a group of people having to hide themselves from wider society because of their fear of persecution (in part due to how they're negatively represented in media). Also, they're only able to be fully themselves (their supernatural powers) around people just as different as them. They're a found family comprised of people ostracized by society. Also, vampires in media have been historically very fruity.
@@comicbookddr Nope. This show was the answer to Vampire Diaries and Sleepy Hollow. Challengers just has people who are same demographic. NOTE: When there's a black female lead in the role of traditionally awarded to white women, that's when they ship the male leads. Its racism, actually. Look at how white women deny Harry and Meghan who are MARRIED!!!!!!! And encourage him to leave her to be with a white woman.
Never clicked on a video faster in my life, such a good video and It was so validating to see sm of the gay subtext most reviewers gloss over (or just do a simple ship joke and thats it -_-) Esp hearing about trans headcanons!! Ethans masculinity is always taken down a peg for 'humor' and nerdy archetypes, and it really is how you feel being closeted and confident as a young trans guy!
@@comicbookddr My Babysitter's a Vampire was the answer to Vampire Diaries's snubbing Kat Graham. This is the role I envision her if she was the main character and Elena (blonde in the books) is the Erica of this universe. Also Vanessa Morgan who plays Sarah looks like Nicole Behari from Sleepy Hollow which is another fantasy series that snubbed another black woman so hard.
in recent years i see the mbav gang like the scooby gang polycule the complex relationships and essentially as stated in the video "moldable" characters lead to sm possibilities
I used to ship Benny and Ethan back in the day! Love to hear that the MBAV fandom is still kicking. Applying a queer lens to a supernatural coming of age story is a favorite pastime of mine. Also, I love the background thunder!
I loveee this I love that upon restarting my mbav obsession I have found so many headcanons of the characters being queer or neurodivergent because when I first watched the show at like 10 I loved it so much and now I know I’m both of those things and I’ve always felt so connected to those characters
I swore I fever dreamed this show in my adolescence since nobody I’ve ever asked has known about this show; it was part of my queer awakening as a child and helped me get through the abusive environments I had to live through as a kid. It’ll always have a special place in my heart and it makes me so happy and amazing to see people still talking about this show and I feel lucky that this video came across my page
My personal feeling is that the main characters all exist on the queer spectrum and that they each would have some form of relationship with the other members of the group, you know if the show was willing to tackle the topics it brings up and then ignores. The group would be a polycule with the more primary relationships being between Sarah and Erica, Benny and Ethan, and with close secondary relationships between Ethan and Sarah and Benny, Erica, Ethan, and Rory. I think Sarah has a fondness for Rory but not canonically enough to think their relationship to be primary or secondary. Similarly, while I think that Benny/Erica could work, I think they would have to work a bit harder at building mutual respect for one another because, as is, Erica likes Benny but sees him as beneath her while Benny sees her as a scary femme fatale who is hot but not completely three-dimensional enough for their relationship to be primary or secondary yet. As for Rory, I like Rory, but none of the group seem to think of him as on equal footing to them yet, so primary seems off the table. Sorry for the rambling, but i don't really know of anyone else who remembers MBAV well enough to speak about ot with. Anyway, thank you for reviving my interest in this show which holds so many fond childhood memories.
Lord this video is taking me back…I used to be in the MBAV fandom back in the day 😭😭 I was literally crushed when the show ended on a cliffhanger. I remember logging in everyday seeing if there was renewal news, there never was 😥
haven’t watched the video yet but my current hcs are and have been: ethan = transmasc bi, benny = cis pan, rory = that man is our vibes but i think he’s gay as hell, sarah is bi but she prefers girls, erika is a lesbian bc i am a warrior for mean lesbians
omg I remember watching the movie premiere as a tween, and didn't know that a show followed up! Then again, I'd pretty much stopped watching Disney at that point (and was beginning my era of obsessively watching sitcom reruns like The Nanny, Golden Girls, etc). I remember the movie ending and having a feeling like there could have been some queerness there, had it not been Disney. I didn't fall into Tumblr until 2013, and I was pretty purposeful about distancing myself from a lot of fandom circles at the time, but I'll have to check out the MBAV tag, now! Great vid!
I dont even go there but this was a neat piece of fandom analysis. Always love seeing what other people are doing in their 15+ or so years old abandoned by the creators fandom
23:35 one of the more notable examples of this that comes to mind for me is with the supernatural/destiel fandom. fans HATED any female love interest that came up for dean or castiel to the point where the writers stopped trying to give dean a girlfriend in his endgame because fans (destiel shippers) hated them and protested so much. (in the end they did kinda give us canon destiel so maybe bullying works, but i know some people involved in the show really resented fans for that at the time.) now, granted, supernatural was never great at writing women, but specifically the character of lisa was, and honestly still is, almost unjustifiably hated solely because she was “in the way”. some people have been able to come around on her and a decent amount of us appreciate her for what she was and know it was just bad writing that made her bad, but i still see people hating lisa or making her the villain in fics etc.
MBAV will always have a special spot on my heart I remember the summer it came out on Disney Channel I watched it constantly especially after having foot surgery and not being able to do anything for most of the summer. I remember having a big crush on Rory (Cameron Kennedy) I'm a bisexual cis woman but i don't think I ever thought of this show having any same sex relations but thinking about it now as a 23 year old I think there was some queer stuff happening between Rory and Benny when Benny and Ethan pretended to be girl cheerleaders. Rory had a crush on "Betty" but it was literally just Benny in a cheerleader outfit and a wig and while Rory was supposed to be dumb and not tell who it was but it didn't hit me until now but i think yes Rory had a crush on "Betty" and Erica he could have also been Bisexual or something 🤷🏻♀️ idk maybe we're all just stretching things about a show that hasn't been around in years... unless.. we're not.. 🤔
First of all, glad I'm not the only one who had a massive crush on Rory. I was ten when it happened, also Rory was confirmed to be Pansexual by Camreon Kennedy himself so yeah in a way this is canon.
My favorite part of this video was the occasionally disappearing mug (I want it so bad it gives great Halloween vibes). Nah but seriously I really liked this, it was a pretty interesting watch!
my grandma gave me the mug and she said its from target! it was disappearing because i would hold it in my hands off camera in between shots lol. thanks for watching!
I love the sound of the thunder in the beginning!!! Next time there's a storm you should record a whole video of just that and we can have it as a Thunder Sounds for Sleeping video lol. The audio on those thunder booms was top notch. (Also, I liked the rest of the video too)
I'm literally 20 seconds into this video but GASPED when i saw your dolls, another g3 collector in the wild ahhhhHH!!!! I love her core rerelease doll shes so gorgeous Amazing taste!!!! Very excited to watch the rest of the vid :D
Thank you for making this series, i rewatched MBAV over my school break and have been looking for good reviews/retrospectives on it. A lot of the content out is lackluster 💔
I’m someone who puts a queer lens on every thing they watch and I’m appalled that I have yet to consider watching my babysitter is a vampire with a queer lens. I just took the series at face value and what ever I remember for, watching as a kid. I’m sat.
i ordered your radio rebel button and MBAV bracelet recently and i wore them to meet dan and phil this weekend. considering the topic of this video, i had to let you know that lol
omg thats so cool!! would you be willing to send me the pictures? i wont post them anywhere if you dont want me to, i just wanna see them (btw i also saw dan and phil live this past month! lol).
I forgot to sub sooner, so I didn't know you had so much mbav stuff! I saw the long video from a year ago, and heard about the podcast (Saved it), but forgot about it (Need to watch it). I haven't been on your channel in awhile, so I missed last week's video, and another video , both are now saved in my mbav playlist to watch!
Never saw any implications but i also never see implications lol. I definitely WANTED benny to be gay and get with the hot black vamp jock from the movie
Also to add on what Sal was saying at around 23:22 I very much see that in the Hannibal fandom with Hannibal's wife and even Dr Bloom. On top of that also Death Note. L and Light fans with Misa (doesn't help she specifically is not written well, or any of the women in dn)
I definitely agree that women in fandom tend to get sidelined in favour of the male characters. Its most obvious in shipping for sure, and I've noticed it in a ton of online fandoms. I find it so unfortunate storytelling wise but also because a lot of these fandoms claim to be inclusive!
wait mbav fandom is alive???? what???? I'm glad you addressed both the bashing of female characters in fandoms when the female character is perceived as "in the way" of a mlm ship (life hack: canon becomes a lot more fun when you view the "straight" ship as bi4bi!), and the flattening of queer female characters - these issues are actually what made me turn away from the SuperWhoLock fandom back in the day lol
me and my brother use to watch this relgiously like i hated that they didnt close it propperly cause they had a lot of loose ties to end 😭 like we was kids but dedicated kids
love the fact that you called out the whole thing with people hating on a female character just because they “get in the way” of an mlm ship. like the fact that theyre always the sweetest characters ever too
I have a personal theory that queers of a certain age range all had 1-3 Canadian teen shows that spoke to us. Idk what it is but I feel like I've never met a lgbtqia millennial who didn't have a love/obsession with one
You really thought you were cooking or original at all with the Love, Simon hate. Becky Albertalli is NOT a straight women and the story is not for straight people. Yes it is very safe queer representation but just because it doesn't represent at YOU personally does not make it automatically bad representation or "for straight people." Queer media doesnt all have to be groundbreaking or appeal to every type of queer person.
I don’t know if this is just because I self project on Rory a lot, but I seem definitely as a trans and pan guy because I’m one and I ship him with Benny because I think I’ve always had a crush on him
Like I said in a trans video, anything is (insert identity here) if you want it enough. What I came to understand as a gay man myself is everyone want to relate to someone they already can, but in a hyper personalized way. “I can’t relate to this coz there’s no visible connection I have with this show or movie, oh wait they have a male friend they show emotions to they must be gay. All is right.
It's literally a show about a group of people having to hide themselves from wider society because of their fear of persecution (in part due to how they're negatively represented in media). Also, they're only able to be fully themselves (their supernatural powers) around people just as different as them.
They're a found family comprised of people ostracized by society.
Also, vampires in media have been historically very fruity.
SO REAL SOOO REAL.
You never need to say sorry for the ominous thunder. He is simply just being a paid actor in the background leave him be.
You're so right
The iconic shot of Ethan sleeping on Benny while locked up in that cage came to mind... (And the one with Ethan's dad and the computer lol)
YES. When I was younger I had to double take 😭
Love it when I randomly get a TH-cam video in my recommendations that caters to my specific tastes.
Same here!
Sarah, Ethan, & Benny walked so Tashi, Art, & Partrick could run!
this is my challengers
@@comicbookddr Nope. This show was the answer to Vampire Diaries and Sleepy Hollow. Challengers just has people who are same demographic. NOTE: When there's a black female lead in the role of traditionally awarded to white women, that's when they ship the male leads. Its racism, actually. Look at how white women deny Harry and Meghan who are MARRIED!!!!!!! And encourage him to leave her to be with a white woman.
Aki max and aubrey comes to mind too
Never clicked on a video faster in my life, such a good video and It was so validating to see sm of the gay subtext most reviewers gloss over (or just do a simple ship joke and thats it -_-) Esp hearing about trans headcanons!! Ethans masculinity is always taken down a peg for 'humor' and nerdy archetypes, and it really is how you feel being closeted and confident as a young trans guy!
im glad you liked the video! thinking too much about mbav is our specialty
@@comicbookddr My Babysitter's a Vampire was the answer to Vampire Diaries's snubbing Kat Graham. This is the role I envision her if she was the main character and Elena (blonde in the books) is the Erica of this universe. Also Vanessa Morgan who plays Sarah looks like Nicole Behari from Sleepy Hollow which is another fantasy series that snubbed another black woman so hard.
in recent years i see the mbav gang like the scooby gang polycule the complex relationships and essentially as stated in the video "moldable" characters lead to sm possibilities
I used to ship Benny and Ethan back in the day! Love to hear that the MBAV fandom is still kicking. Applying a queer lens to a supernatural coming of age story is a favorite pastime of mine. Also, I love the background thunder!
My preteen version of The Challengers 🩷
I loveee this I love that upon restarting my mbav obsession I have found so many headcanons of the characters being queer or neurodivergent because when I first watched the show at like 10 I loved it so much and now I know I’m both of those things and I’ve always felt so connected to those characters
I swore I fever dreamed this show in my adolescence since nobody I’ve ever asked has known about this show; it was part of my queer awakening as a child and helped me get through the abusive environments I had to live through as a kid. It’ll always have a special place in my heart and it makes me so happy and amazing to see people still talking about this show and I feel lucky that this video came across my page
My personal feeling is that the main characters all exist on the queer spectrum and that they each would have some form of relationship with the other members of the group, you know if the show was willing to tackle the topics it brings up and then ignores.
The group would be a polycule with the more primary relationships being between Sarah and Erica, Benny and Ethan, and with close secondary relationships between Ethan and Sarah and Benny, Erica, Ethan, and Rory.
I think Sarah has a fondness for Rory but not canonically enough to think their relationship to be primary or secondary. Similarly, while I think that Benny/Erica could work, I think they would have to work a bit harder at building mutual respect for one another because, as is, Erica likes Benny but sees him as beneath her while Benny sees her as a scary femme fatale who is hot but not completely three-dimensional enough for their relationship to be primary or secondary yet. As for Rory, I like Rory, but none of the group seem to think of him as on equal footing to them yet, so primary seems off the table.
Sorry for the rambling, but i don't really know of anyone else who remembers MBAV well enough to speak about ot with. Anyway, thank you for reviving my interest in this show which holds so many fond childhood memories.
This was a very satisfying read & breakdown thanks!
so can I read your ff or..
Lord this video is taking me back…I used to be in the MBAV fandom back in the day 😭😭 I was literally crushed when the show ended on a cliffhanger. I remember logging in everyday seeing if there was renewal news, there never was 😥
Worst part is that they all technically died in the canon ending and the baddies won… it’s my Roman Empire I mention it often…
this was my pink opaque! the show I saw when nobody cared about me, when I just wanted the world to disappear.
I saw the tv glow reference W
This is the exact type of niche content i was looking for
the rain adds to it luv!
just started watching ur channel today (its my bday) and u uploaded! tysm :3
@@sweatyysug3r happy birthday! thank you for watching
I watched mbav when I was younger and have rewatched it over and over again since. Seeing this has made my day, thank you.
haven’t watched the video yet but my current hcs are and have been: ethan = transmasc bi, benny = cis pan, rory = that man is our vibes but i think he’s gay as hell, sarah is bi but she prefers girls, erika is a lesbian bc i am a warrior for mean lesbians
Agreed i love this
i absolutely love and respect mean as hell lesbians
to me erica is bi (preference w men) and sarah is a lesbian
I agree with this so much!!!!!
Real, Ethan has big transmasc energy, no wonder I saw myself in him a lot!!! I didn't know but my heart knew 💀
omg I remember watching the movie premiere as a tween, and didn't know that a show followed up! Then again, I'd pretty much stopped watching Disney at that point (and was beginning my era of obsessively watching sitcom reruns like The Nanny, Golden Girls, etc). I remember the movie ending and having a feeling like there could have been some queerness there, had it not been Disney. I didn't fall into Tumblr until 2013, and I was pretty purposeful about distancing myself from a lot of fandom circles at the time, but I'll have to check out the MBAV tag, now!
Great vid!
are we not gonna talk about cameron kennedy (rorys actor) officially approving of and retweeting an edit of rory with a pan flag ??!!
Came for the MBAV discourse, stayed for the MH dolls in the background hehe
It’s crazy because I always thought Sarah was the main character when I was a kid
I dont even go there but this was a neat piece of fandom analysis. Always love seeing what other people are doing in their 15+ or so years old abandoned by the creators fandom
the monster high dolls on the bed omg!! i love seeing fellow collectors, two of my favourite things are colliding!
Also the fact I have the exact same sonic pillow u have in the background is really throwing me off
The commentary over the thunderstorm is crazy why aren't more ppl doing this
23:35 one of the more notable examples of this that comes to mind for me is with the supernatural/destiel fandom. fans HATED any female love interest that came up for dean or castiel to the point where the writers stopped trying to give dean a girlfriend in his endgame because fans (destiel shippers) hated them and protested so much. (in the end they did kinda give us canon destiel so maybe bullying works, but i know some people involved in the show really resented fans for that at the time.) now, granted, supernatural was never great at writing women, but specifically the character of lisa was, and honestly still is, almost unjustifiably hated solely because she was “in the way”. some people have been able to come around on her and a decent amount of us appreciate her for what she was and know it was just bad writing that made her bad, but i still see people hating lisa or making her the villain in fics etc.
Ohh, now I get why I was obsessed with this show when I was a kid
MBAV will always have a special spot on my heart I remember the summer it came out on Disney Channel I watched it constantly especially after having foot surgery and not being able to do anything for most of the summer. I remember having a big crush on Rory (Cameron Kennedy) I'm a bisexual cis woman but i don't think I ever thought of this show having any same sex relations but thinking about it now as a 23 year old I think there was some queer stuff happening between Rory and Benny when Benny and Ethan pretended to be girl cheerleaders. Rory had a crush on "Betty" but it was literally just Benny in a cheerleader outfit and a wig and while Rory was supposed to be dumb and not tell who it was but it didn't hit me until now but i think yes Rory had a crush on "Betty" and Erica he could have also been Bisexual or something 🤷🏻♀️ idk maybe we're all just stretching things about a show that hasn't been around in years... unless.. we're not.. 🤔
First of all, glad I'm not the only one who had a massive crush on Rory. I was ten when it happened, also Rory was confirmed to be Pansexual by Camreon Kennedy himself so yeah in a way this is canon.
@@creativecutieprincessd oh cool I had no idea!
my fav genre of youtube video thank you for this needed it bad
6 hours ago!! I searched up this show from my childhood on a whim. Glad people r still talking about it!
My favorite part of this video was the occasionally disappearing mug (I want it so bad it gives great Halloween vibes). Nah but seriously I really liked this, it was a pretty interesting watch!
my grandma gave me the mug and she said its from target! it was disappearing because i would hold it in my hands off camera in between shots lol. thanks for watching!
I love the sound of the thunder in the beginning!!! Next time there's a storm you should record a whole video of just that and we can have it as a Thunder Sounds for Sleeping video lol. The audio on those thunder booms was top notch. (Also, I liked the rest of the video too)
If this was released today we would have gotten one gay kiss minimum
I'm literally 20 seconds into this video but GASPED when i saw your dolls, another g3 collector in the wild ahhhhHH!!!! I love her core rerelease doll shes so gorgeous Amazing taste!!!! Very excited to watch the rest of the vid :D
yes s/o to g3 monster high! i mainly get cleo dolls (if that wasn't obvious already lol) and i think they're great. thanks for watching!
Thank you for making this series, i rewatched MBAV over my school break and have been looking for good reviews/retrospectives on it. A lot of the content out is lackluster 💔
HOLY SHIT I LOVE THE RISE OF MBAV CONTENT ‼️‼️
this kinda reminds me of the Marauders fandom except theyve been going wild with head cannon since day 1 basically bc they got nothing to work with😭
I’m someone who puts a queer lens on every thing they watch and I’m appalled that I have yet to consider watching my babysitter is a vampire with a queer lens. I just took the series at face value and what ever I remember for, watching as a kid. I’m sat.
MBAV MENTION IN 2024 WITH BLOWING UP VIEWS???
REALLL it makes me so happy this was my fav show as a kid & still is one of the best Disney shows
this and the 5sos videos how did I not find you sooner?!
i ordered your radio rebel button and MBAV bracelet recently and i wore them to meet dan and phil this weekend. considering the topic of this video, i had to let you know that lol
omg thats so cool!! would you be willing to send me the pictures? i wont post them anywhere if you dont want me to, i just wanna see them (btw i also saw dan and phil live this past month! lol).
@ yeah i can! unfortunately you can’t see my radio rebel button cause it was pinned to my bag. but you can see the bracelet in the pictures :)
omg if u want u can email them to me at gallegossa68@gmail.com
@@comicbookddr i sent them ! :)
I forgot to sub sooner, so I didn't know you had so much mbav stuff! I saw the long video from a year ago, and heard about the podcast (Saved it), but forgot about it (Need to watch it). I haven't been on your channel in awhile, so I missed last week's video, and another video , both are now saved in my mbav playlist to watch!
Dang I am a old head this show came on when I was 14, and I was obsessed with it.
The fact you love mbav AND monster high?! Icon
IMO the thunder is so fitting the vibe
one of my favorite shows AND it's about the queer subtext? perfect to watch
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE THUNDER, IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED ME AT THE TOP OF THE VIDEO.
jokes aside good video
I remember this was the show I most liked when I was a kid but currently I don't remember much of it.
Never saw any implications but i also never see implications lol. I definitely WANTED benny to be gay and get with the hot black vamp jock from the movie
The thunder is amazing I love it
That very first clip, that intro made me laugh so hard
Also to add on what Sal was saying at around 23:22
I very much see that in the Hannibal fandom with Hannibal's wife and even Dr Bloom. On top of that also Death Note. L and Light fans with Misa (doesn't help she specifically is not written well, or any of the women in dn)
the thunder is such a vibe
I definitely agree that women in fandom tend to get sidelined in favour of the male characters. Its most obvious in shipping for sure, and I've noticed it in a ton of online fandoms. I find it so unfortunate storytelling wise but also because a lot of these fandoms claim to be inclusive!
this is the most me youtube video every i adored this show as a kid
in case anyone didn’t know as well, the movie and the show are on The Roku Channel for free!
Thank CHAOS. Inwas scrilling and scrilling for something to gove me life force and this is it!!!
THIS IS A MOMENT OF HISTORY EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT MY BABYSITTER IS A VAMPIRE THE SAME WEEK GOSH DAMN
thanks now im gonna rewatch all of it
Talking about gay stuff??? With monster high dolls in the background?????? Oh I’m sold
This was one of my favorite shows when I was younger, I haven’t seen it in years but I am in fact queer
I’m awake!
This show was my twilight tbh
gravity falls you say.
Honestly I loved the spooky thunderstorm vibes
Honestly rain sounds nice
MBAV MENTION AHH i love this show sm !!
wait mbav fandom is alive???? what????
I'm glad you addressed both the bashing of female characters in fandoms when the female character is perceived as "in the way" of a mlm ship (life hack: canon becomes a lot more fun when you view the "straight" ship as bi4bi!), and the flattening of queer female characters - these issues are actually what made me turn away from the SuperWhoLock fandom back in the day lol
me and my brother use to watch this relgiously like i hated that they didnt close it propperly cause they had a lot of loose ties to end 😭 like we was kids but dedicated kids
I loved this show.
Hope you're having a good day
FUCK! SLAY! YES! WTF! I needed this
Only ships I cared about in this show was Sarah/Erica & Benny/Rory 😂
i LOVED this show as a kid!! no wonder i turned out to be gay
ok i havent watched this video yet but isnt thte isnt this literally what i saw the tv glow was about
love the fact that you called out the whole thing with people hating on a female character just because they “get in the way” of an mlm ship. like the fact that theyre always the sweetest characters ever too
ok how do i reach the code lyoko fandom now
11:40 stawp ahhhhh💀
I have a personal theory that queers of a certain age range all had 1-3 Canadian teen shows that spoke to us. Idk what it is but I feel like I've never met a lgbtqia millennial who didn't have a love/obsession with one
looking back on it, this show literally molded my life lmao
my gender identity, my name, my fashion sense… _it’s all mbav…_
Sal needa buy a mic
Edit:
All your freakin guest speakers need a mic
Clicked so fast
I had only just discovered this series a few days before it left streaming, thank you for letting me know where to watch it!!🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️✨💞
MBAV turned me gay & trans /j
You really thought you were cooking or original at all with the Love, Simon hate. Becky Albertalli is NOT a straight women and the story is not for straight people. Yes it is very safe queer representation but just because it doesn't represent at YOU personally does not make it automatically bad representation or "for straight people." Queer media doesnt all have to be groundbreaking or appeal to every type of queer person.
I don’t know if this is just because I self project on Rory a lot, but I seem definitely as a trans and pan guy because I’m one and I ship him with Benny because I think I’ve always had a crush on him
Look idk about Benny but Ethan was fruity af
Like I said in a trans video, anything is (insert identity here) if you want it enough. What I came to understand as a gay man myself is everyone want to relate to someone they already can, but in a hyper personalized way. “I can’t relate to this coz there’s no visible connection I have with this show or movie, oh wait they have a male friend they show emotions to they must be gay. All is right.
Love seeing Monster High in the wild. I was a bethan shipper in my youth.
The fact you love mbav AND monster high?! Icon