The Death of Chris-Chan:
1st August 2021
I suppose I'm a bit late to this discussion, since I've been away for much of the weekend to see family, but I first took in much of the gruesome details surrounding this event on the the journey there, and they've basically been all I've been thinking about this past day or two. In case you're somehow not aware, no; Chris isn't actually dead, but let's just say he's "dead to us", if you know what I mean. Last Thursday, word came out about how Christian (or "Christine") Weston Chandler, one of the internet's most infamous figures, whose online presence has been tied to his seemingly never-ending "Love Quest", has finally found perhaps an end goal to this predicament, but in the worst manner possible. Chris has admitted in text and audio to a new "gal pal" that he has recently had sexual relations with his own mother. There's little more that needs to be said in order to nail in how shocking this whole event is to the communities that have documented him, but its actuality was cemented when news came of local police and doctors conducting a wellness check on the Chandler residence, which subsequently saw Chris removed from his home, whilst his mother Barb, was transferred to a care home, with Chris being forbidden from interacting with Barb due to an Elder Protection Order. This EPO was shortly violated once news came out that Chris was discovered to have been syphoning $750 from her account, in order to pay for his "expenses", whilst expecting a $1000 donation in the pipeline (which was obviously withdrawn once this came out). Last thing I've heard was that Chris is currently residing in a hotel and may or may not go to court for the things he's done.

This whole event has been a lot for me to take in personally. I first heard about Chris' escapades around early-mid 2015, shortly after his first proper run-in with the law following the whole GameStop incident. I'm well aware that this was long after the "Golden Age of Chris-Chan" as you might say, had come to an end, but I quickly grew fascinated in the history of this individual, like many others have before me. Whilst I was well aware that Chris had basically gone off the deep end with his more erratic behaviour, even compared to his past behaviour, I looked at him with some degree of sympathy, as I saw him as a sort of cautionary tale, partially because of his status as the Elvis of "lolcows", for his early following in an unfamiliar environment, but also because of his personal issues that people like me could fall into if we're not careful enough. His oftentimes ridiculous beliefs and creations also managed to capture my imagination in their absurdity, as you may have noticed by my more recent addition to this website's "Works" page, "Two Worlds Collide", which was based directly on Chris' ramblings on the so-called "Dimensional Merge". However, as you might expect, everything's changed. You can't look at a man who committed sexual acts against his own mother, who is far into her old age and could possibly even have dementia or a similar illness that results in a lack of proper consent, and still be sympathetic towards them. The best that can come of this is if Chris is taken into psychiatric help, where he can finally make steps towards bettering himself one way or the other, and at least become a semi-functioning member of society, like how he seemed to be shortly before the internet first found him. However, you can't do the things Chris did, and expect everyone to welcome you with open arms, and an event like this may spell the end of his documented online presence, and perhaps even the beginning of the end for his own life, at least as we know it.

There were many things that you could say got Chris to where he is today. Despite this event, one could argue that Chris was the victim of a lot of things: Excessive parental coddling, manipulation and verbal abuse from vast numbers of online trolls, and especially his own continued naivety and inability to change or gain motivation to do anything. But regardless, whatever direction his life has gone in, it all seemed to culminate in this event; something he can never take back, and something that the online world could never possibly forgive or forget. I know this whole thing has been a bit of a downer, and honestly I'm still trying to process all of this myself, but I still feel like I've got to say something about this event. At least we still have those shared experiences and memories surrounding that strange man from Ruckersville fresh in our minds, even if they've practiaclly soiled by what we found out in these past few days.