Yeah, I didn't like Numair/Daine from this to me and felt that their relationship was incredibly problematic, but that did feel different to me, too. Still messed up, but different.

To add to your list:

IIRC, Daine was about 16 when she and Numair was about 30 when they got together. She'd also been functioning as a largely independent adult for a few years at that point - or, at the very least, she certainly wasn't functioning as anyone's child. I still think Numair is creepy for the relationship, but it's clear that 1) he fell in love with Daine after she'd finished going through puberty and 2) he fell in love with someone who was largely responsible for addressing her own needs.

That's not true of Daja.

You do have a point... but I also feel like when you're talking about that kind of age difference when the younger person is that young, the difference in creep factor between the older person being 15 years older and 20+ years older just isn't that big. I mean, I guess it's creepier for a 50 year old to decide they're in love with a 14 year old than for a 30 year old to do so, but it's kind of a race to the bottom.

I can only speak for myself, but for me, the issue isn't so much that I feel like I need to participate in the Mark Spoils community to be okay grabbing videos - people have said that's not the case enough that I'm happy to take them at their word. ;)

For me, the problem is that it's an extra step and a lot of extra hassle - from my scanning it quickly, it seems like links get used up fast, and I'd get frustrated if I had to try a lot of links or check back a lot of times before I could access a video, and I can foresee that happening pretty easily. It would particularly be a problem for me because one of the things I like about MR is that I don't have to be on top of the videos - I can just watch them when I want, whether it's the day they're released or two weeks later. I also personally wouldn't feel comfortable clicking more than once to rewatch a video when others haven't watched at all, which I do tend to do on youtube.

This solution might work well for a lot of people - I can't speak for anyone else, nor would I presume to! - but for me, at least, that's why Spoils wouldn't work well for me, and I'm not sure those issues are really solvable if MR moved to an MW format.

I'd personally be fond of, "Stabbing Isn't an Answer." :P

I'm in that field as well, and this has also always been a concern of mine, too. Tamora Pierce has pretty clearly given her blessing to the project (though even that might not be a legal blessing, so much as a "I won't stop you" - I obviously don't know the details!), but if other authors haven't, that could become a copyright issue, particularly if you start charging for access.

. As a somewhat poor graduate student, I would not be able to handle the videos behind a paywall at all, and your Tamora Pierce reads have been the highlight of my week for the last 3 years. I know you're almost done with all of her books (cry) but if I wasn't able to finish out the series watching the videos, I would be so so heartbroken.
This, except I'm an unemployed recent grad! I rewatch the Tamora Pierce reads so often.

Mark, you totally have to do what's right by you, and I understand that - if youtube is being a huge pain or triggering you/others, I understand leaving it.

For me, though, I really love having them on youtube. The ads don't really bother me (though I do get that some people find them triggering and am super sympathetic to that), and it's so convenient to access from pretty much anywhere. I also feel like it's very inclusive - anyone can access it, which I love. I don't have much money, and frankly, it's worth it to me to deal with occasional ads so I can continue to access MarkReads for free.

To be honest, if you switched to something like MarkWatches, I would probably stop following new MarkReads videos, as much as I'd miss them. Like I said, I don't have much money, and I just can't afford it. I buy a book for myself, like, once every couple months (if that), and even then it's usually less than $10. While I get that people share the links, I'm often kind of pokey about getting to new videos - will there be views left two weeks later? I also rewatch books you've read over and over and over - I think I've probably watched PotS and the first Circle series five or six times through - and this would basically eliminate my ability to do that unless I downloaded them (and my laptop/phone have limited space).

Cost and inconvenience have been what stopped me from getting into MarkWatches, tbh, even though there are series I'd love to follow.

Would it be possible to have that by a patreon perk for people who are bothered by the ads, but keep them on youtube too?

I think that both authors and fans can do it - authors, when they get involved in fan discussions and correct them (which, as I said, I felt that TP did to me once or twice), and fans when they correct other fans. Both are problems, and I think that what should be happening (because I agree with you about what the ideal is), the reality is that it's often hard to argue with what the author said. If the author or a fan responds to you and says, "No, this is what Aly was thinking, WoG" (for example), it's difficult to say "I disagree."

I mean, I don't dislike WoG entirely and think that it's always bad - like I said, I have very mixed feelings about it. But both sides of those feelings always come up when WoG is invoked.

"Do you ship any of the characters? And if so, who with whom?"

Ooooh, I second this question! I've actually always kind of shipped Briar/Sandry and felt a little weird about it. (If anyone has any good fanfic recs, I will love you forever.)

I feel like our wires are getting crossed up a little here, so let me try to back up a bit.

I don't feel like sharing background always shuts down discussion. However, I have mixed feelings about WoG stuff because I think it often can shut down the discussion - I get very frustrated when people start discussing theories and someone comes in and says, "But that's not the way it happened, WoG!" It just doesn't feel fair to me. And, I think that authors can sometimes do that themselves - like I said, there were a couple points on here where I felt like TP corrected me, which really made me more reticent to share my views.