Chris and...

The purpose of this article is to provide a Metro/20 minutes-style summary of the life and thoughts of Christian Weston Chandler, also simply known as Chris. Chris is a 42-year old autistic manchild who is the creator of Sonichu, a mash-up of Sonic and Pikachu. Since October 2007, the internet has developed a devoted interest in Chris and Sonichu: the ensuing drama have resulted in greater knowledge of Chris to such an extent that according to animator Harry Partridge, more have been written about the life of Christian Weston Chandler than the life of George Washington.

About the "Chris and..." series

This series aims to inform people new to the Chris Chan bubble about what makes Chris who he is today. Chris and articles do not cover specific events or time periods; they cover broad aspects of Chris's entire life. Chris and articles are moderate in length, and they are broken up into six categories:

Psyche: Articles related to Chris's mental state

Personality: Articles related to Chris's character traits

Expression: Articles related to the ways Chris expresses himself through language and the arts

Society: Articles related to Chris's opinions on the world and the people living in it

Business: Articles related to Chris's knowledge of business, finances, and labor

STEM + Health: Articles related to Chris's relationship with the natural sciences, including technology and health

Life

Fashion

Main article: Chris and fashion

Chris is well known for frequently wearing the Sonichu medallion in public. Chris originally wore colourful collared shirts and undersized rugby shirts — most of which were decorated with horizontal stripes. Since the start of the Tomgirl Saga, Chris’s fashion choices became increasingly peculiar, resulting in strange and hideous attires, especially when he chooses to wear My Little Pony clothing. Despite spending thousands on video games and toys, Chris is very stingy when it comes to shopping for his clothes, which are usually purchased second-hand at thrift stores such as The Salvation Army and Goodwill.

Health

Main article: Chris and health

Chris, as even those with a cursory knowledge of medicine can plainly see, is not in good health. Considering his obesity, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, refusal to bathe, and the grave uncleanliness of his surroundings, he has an extremely high chance of developing potentially life-threatening medical problems such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, and possibly a premature death.

Internet

Main article: Chris and the Internet

Chris does not fully understand how to surf safely and be a good netizen: although he is aware that anything posted on the internet is available for everyone to see, he has no issue in giving away sensitive or potentially embarrassing information about him, such as his phone number and home address, and his tendency to soil himself. Chris is also not aware how to properly communicate in private, and he rarely follows the established rules of websites: when he was given his own website, he audaciously claimed that he controlled the site, and not the sysop and the advertisers. Chris has also been banned from websites like Flipnote Hatena (in 2010) and Etsy (in 2016).

The media

Main article: Chris in the media

Throughout most of his life, Chris has been featured in the media, being the subject of journalism and paparazzi, whether he's aware of it or not. His life is literally documented on the internet on sites like the Kiwi Farms, Encyclopedia Dramatica, and yours truly. The reason for this is due to his own stupidity to openly admit and display his most embarrassing moments at the most inopportune times. Sometimes, people will learn more about Chris’s life by interviewing him, or he will flat out do something so embarrassing, people can't help but share it with someone else.

Sex

Main article: Chris and sex

Chris has a warped view of sexual intercourse (a.k.a. hanky-panky) as well as gender, mostly stemming from stunted sexual development, a sheltered upbringing, and the twisted, disjointed worldview he acquired as a result. He first developed an understanding of sex from watching softcore porn on HBO at around age 16. He describes pornographic films as "educational".

Television

Main article: Chris and television

Chris binges television, and his taste veers into satirical shows like South Park, Family Guy, Beavis and Butthead, and Drawn Together- the parody in which he does not understand. He also enjoys media from his parents' generation, such as Monty Python. References from the shows he watches are awkwardly shoved into his Sonichu comics.

Video Games

Main article: Video games

Chris heavily invests both his money and time into video games and became obsessed with Sonic from an early age. One could say that video games are a major contributing factor to his current situation, seeing as one allure for trolls was Sonichu – a creation which liberally takes from two popular video game franchise characters.

Work

Main article: Chris and work

Chris has only had two real jobs in his life- his combined tenure at both adds up to less than a year. Because of his infamy (but mostly a lack of trying) Chris has not applied for a job in over a decade and instead chooses to live off of social security checks.

Psyche/Personality

Anger

Main article: Chris and anger

Chris has anger management issues that usually surface when he is under stress. Trolls refer to Chris's fits of rage as "tard rage", an expression normally used to describe the seemingly superhuman strength a normally mild-tempered slow-in-the-mind displays when he or she is pushed too far and goes on an anger-fueled rampage. Although in Chris's case "superhuman" and "strength" can easily be replaced with "impotent" and "bawling".

Ego

Main article: Chris and his ego

Chris has a massive sense of entitlement, mostly because his parents taught him to blame other people for all of his troubles. Chris sees himself as superior above everyone else, and considers anyone who challenges his egocentrism as a potential enemy: the Sonichu comics also reflect Chris’s egocentrism, with the self-insert effectively being a Marty Stu. Attempts have been made to entice Chris to bring his ego under control, with little success.

Hypocrisy

Main articles: Chris and hypocrisy and List of Chris's lies

Hypocrisy is the act of claiming to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Chris is an accomplished hypocrite, holding others to standards to which he himself does not live up. This is possibly due to the fact that he's incapable of serious introspection and self-examination due to his autism (but on a more self-inflicted level, his ego). Chris believes that he is a blameless, holy creature that is practically perfect in every way. However, he sees plenty of flaws in the world around him that cause him stress. He blames all of his problems on external factors like trolls, homos, conspiracies or the entire male population. In the past he's faulted the police, store managers and mall security guards for complications during his Love Quest. When Chris can't fault other people for his problems, he relies on autism and stress as fallback excuses.

Kindness

Main article: Chris and kindness

A lot of people that know a bit about Chris’s failures label him as an irredeemable monster due to his more malicious fails. Others view him as a naive but good-natured idiot that doesn’t deserve to be trolled. In reality, Chris’s morality and standards are much more complicated. Despite all of his moments of rage, death threats, lies, and...yuck, Chris does have a soft side, and he is not afraid to show it off. Due to Chris’s willingness to show how benevolent he is, and possibly due to what he’s watched on My Little Pony, Chris will be motivated to act kind towards most other people, even towards complete strangers.

Knowledge

Main articles: Honor Roll and Manchester High Leaks

Chris's presence on the honor roll in high school is something he often brings up as evidence of his intelligence and his deep knowledge. Despite his insistence to the contrary, Chris's past behavior and obvious gullibility, poor communication and self-delusion cast doubt upon this claim. Chris likes to boast of his honor roll status wherever possible as it is one of the easily measurable accomplishments in his life.

Nostalgia

Main article: Chris and nostalgia

As a person who faces an unfulfilling existence, Chris tries to live in the past and cherishes his childhood as well as the media which impacted it.

Psychology

Main article: Chris and psychology

Chris has a troubled relationship with psychology. He claims that he was held down by the school psychologist in grade school while his screams were recorded (almost certainly a lie), and was forced to see a psychologist for anger management classes after being kicked out of Piedmont Virginia Community College. Chris has refused to see a psychologist in the past, opting to see a pastoral counselor instead. However, during his court hearing in July 2012, he was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment and evaluation. Only time will tell if this will finally force Chris to accept the help he needs, or ultimately accomplish nothing more than draining what little remains of Chandlers' already depleted funds.

Reality

Chris believes that CWCville and his characters are real.

Main article: Chris and reality

Chris already had a poor grip on reality when the internet first discovered him. Many people on the autism spectrum do struggle to distinguish between reality and fantasy, but Chris has done nothing to minimise its impact, instead embracing his realm of fantasy as a way to escape from anything he does not like. Notably, Chris believes that CWCville and his characters are real, he had the power to curse anyone, and that anything bad that has happened to him was a conspiracy. Since 2017, Chris’s grip on reality weakened further with his belief that the Dimensional Merge would happen, and that the alleged merge would make him rich and bringing his fictional characters to life.

Remorse

Main article: Chris and remorse

Every so often, one of Chris's less flattering deeds catches up with him, and he is forced to apologize. These apologies, like most of the other times Chris tries to come off as emotional, often feel very forced and insincere, leading many trolls to wonder if Chris is even capable of feeling remorse.

Stress

Main article: Chris and stress

Stress is Chris's favorite excuse for his laziness. Given the fact that none of Chris's coping methods are useful, stress is a constant plague on his life.

Society

Death

Main article: Chris and death

Death is a concept that Chris has a notably hard time understanding and/or coping with, be it the death of a human or an animal, or even a fictional character.

Gender

Main articles: Chris and gender and Tomgirl

Similar to the topic of faith and the topic of morality, Chris's actual beliefs on gender and how it is classified are more complex than his stated beliefs. For someone so preoccupied with gender identity, Chris displays a staggering ignorance of how either gender typically behaves, and his views of both genders are extremely warped due to him taking the stereotypes he is presented with in television and music at face value.

Law

Main article: Chris and the law

Chris has demonstrated little respect for the law in the past, in a similar way to sovereign citizen and freemen movements, and considered himself to be above the law, as reflected in the Sonichu comics. Chris has six misdemeanors: three from hitting Michael Snyder with his car in 2011; one from macing a GameStop employee in 2014; and two from failing to acquire tags and licenses for his dogs in 2016. Another misdemeanor, involving an attempt to enter Charlottesville Fashion Square after being banned in 2012, expired after completing the Therapeutic Docket program in April 2019.

Politics

Main article: Chris and politics

In recent years, Chris has been quite vocal about his political views. He was once a moderate, and then shifted left. During the Tomgirl Saga, he shifted further left. His progressing support of LGBT may have been why he has been more vocal about politics.

Race

Main article: Chris and race

Race is a thing that Chris has shown a variety of feelings for; unfortunately, they are not always in a positive light. It is believed by some that Chris's racist tendencies can be traced at least partially to his Southern U.S. heritage. However, certain other factors seem to imply that the rest of his worldview on race comes from stereotypes depicted by popular culture. In some cases, however, Chris seems to be completely unfamiliar with even the stereotypes.

Religion

Main article: Chris and religion

The religion of Christian Weston Chandler is a complicated topic because his stated religious convictions often starkly differ from his actual, peculiar beliefs about God, sinfulness, and the nature of good and evil. That Chris professes a belief in Christianity completes the general stereotype of the naïve hillbilly idiot who thinks that citing divine authority is the way to win arguments about things he doesn't understand. With religion, as with all things, Chris only hears what he wants to hear. For example, he long espoused his religion's teachings condemning homosexuality yet ignores the fact that it also forbids pre-marital sex, pornography, and gluttony.

Sexuality

Main article: Chris and sexuality

Up until 2011, Chris adamantly stayed on the straight path and feared any deviance into homosexuality. He became a transgender (MtF) lesbian in 2014. Chris continued to be exclusively attracted to females up until the Idea Guys brainwashed him into being bisexual.

Socialization

Main article: Chris and socialization

Chris's social skills are impaired by his autism. For Chris, there is no line between acceptable topics of discussion and personal information that should probably not be shared with acquaintances.

The World

Main article: Chris's homes

Chris has lived all his life in Virginia, only leaving the state to visit other parts of the United States on a few brief occasions. To date, Chris has never travelled abroad, and his financial management make travelling abroad as challenging as conquering the Muchu Chhish.

Business

Brand Loyalty

Main article: Chris and brand loyalty

Chris may misinterpret advertising as evidence of a product’s popularity (rather than a way to attract new customers): when combined with his fear of change, Chris has developed strong loyalty towards certain products (such as the PlayStation 3), and deep hatred for its rivals (such as the Xbox 360). Elements of his style of brand loyalty extends to areas that would not normally be considered “brands”, such as mental disabilities, and sexual orientations.

Censorship

Main article: Chris and censorship

Chris is very insecure about others’ opinions regarding him and his work, due to his massive ego. This has resulted in Chris ruthlessly censoring out anything that he does not like, such as people telling him to get a job. However, his views on censorship remain very inconsistent: for example, Chris does not like swearing, even though he uses it against his enemies.

Copyright

Main article: Chris and copyright

Chris’s misunderstanding of copyright law is best represented by his belief that Sonichu and Rosechu are parodies, despite being a derivative of Sonic and Amy Rose (both copyrighted by Sega), and Pikachu and Raichu (copyrighted by The Pokémon Company). Despite being very protective of his characters — going as far as to encourage readers to report copyright infringement to the police, he continues to plagiarize many works, and freely use fanart without giving credit to the original artist.

Money and business

Main articles: Chris and money, Chris and business, and Financhu Crisis

Chris’s parents never taught him financial responsibility, resulting in Chris having no idea on how to manage his own finances. Chris notably refuses to get a job, because his parents believed that Chris would be better off as a benefits scrounger: while an online business based on selling arts and crafts is not a bad alternative to a job, Chris struggled to fulfil orders from Etsy (to the point of being banned), and pledges from Patreon.

Barbara and Chris’s ego-driven excessive impulse spending, combined with their unwillingness to save even the smallest amount of money for anything, has resulted in serious financial trouble since February 2016: the Chandlers’ owe at least $160,000 to creditors (as of January 2019), but Chris has paid scant attention to the mountain of debt, believing that the so-called Dimensional Merge would make him extremely wealthy.

Negotiation

Main article: Chris and negotiation

When dealing with Chris, trolls often experience a unique form of negotiation. Due to a severe sense of entitlement, a lifetime of coddling and other factors beyond his control, Chris has no grasp of how to compromise, and often fails to understand what sort of bargaining position he's in.

Skills

Art

Main article: Chris and art

Chris’s artwork plays a major role in the internet’s devoted interest in his life, but his choice of art materials do not progress well, despite extensive education in the visual arts.

He uses printer paper, Pentel RSVP ballpoint pens, and a 50-pack of Crayola Super Tip markers to produce most of his artwork, including the Sonichu comics. Chris is so devoted to the aforementioned art materials, that he hesitates to try potentially better methods to create his artwork, such as ink-based drawing pens, drawing and sketching paper, watercolors, and modern technology such as a Wacom tablet, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

Until Sonichu 12, Chris’s font of choice was Comic Sans — a font widely criticized for being overused, childish and ugly: in Sonichu 12-9, Chris’s main font changed to Proxima Nova, but his handwriting dominated The Awakening of a CPU (originally known as Sonichu 16).

Cinematography

Main article: Chris and cameras

Chris’s cinematography (and photography) skills have improved from the days when he regularly abused his camera. Problems with color, focus, framing, lighting, orientation and post-production continue to appear, but the impact of the problems on some recent videos and photos are now more in line with most people.

Contests

Main article: Chris and contests

Ever since the early 1990s, Chris has entered a number of contests. Chris places great weight on his success and failure with regards to promotional contests. He becomes elated and sees victory as a indication of his own greatness when he wins, yet he becomes enraged and lashes out at the winners when he loses.

Cosplaying

Main article: Chris and cosplaying

Cosplay, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which a person dresses up as a character or idea. The practice is commonly seen in the anime fandom, but can also be seen in other fan realms, such as video games and Star Trek. Chris was first seen in cosplay attire with the famous Ash Ketchum costume. Any attempts at cosplay are usually rare; however, a major wave of cosplaying by Chris, presumably to impress/amuse Jackie, appeared in late 2010.

English

Main article: Chris and English

Chris's English skills- like most other things he believes he's mastered- leave much to be desired. Much of this can be attributed to his autism, which often results in awkward speech patterns. He spent years of his childhood mute and took speech therapy classes at James Madison University. Chris's grasp on English appears to have deteriorated as he's become older, presumably due to his increased isolation.

Mathematics

Main article: Chris and mathematics

Mathematics ("math" or "maths" for short) is the study of quantity, numbers, space, and change. Calling Chris's mathematical ability "bad" is putting it lightly, even though he claimed honor roll status. There are many examples of his mathematical errors, including errors of basic arithmetic, as well as quantity, measurement, weight, and time. His poor grasp on math and measurement is a sign of dyscalculia, a common symptom of autism.

Music

Main article: Chris and music

Chris’s taste in music is not unconventional: many people have deep interest in multiple genres and decades (from 1970’s hard rock to 2010’s dubstep) and it is also common to develop interest in songs from their parents' music collection, as well as video games, film, television, and radio. However, what sets Chris apart from other music fans is his belief that a Guitar Hero controller is a real instrument, as well as his overstatement of his singing ability and music recording methods.

Oration

Main article: Chris and oration

Whenever Chris wants to make an argument regarding his opinions or his childlike mindset, one way he’ll attempt to move people is through orating his reasoning onto them. Since Chris lacks some of the basic skills needed to make an effective speech, rarely ever plans out anything he makes, has serious communication problems, and never does research, his speeches always turn out lackluster at best and horrifyingly naive at worst.

Spanish

Main article: Spanish

Chris uses Spanish a surprising amount in his works for someone without a solid grasp on the language. He has taken at least four semesters of Spanish in high school but has not developed his fluency since.

Writing

Main article: Chris and writing

Chris lacks understanding of how to write narratives and butchers even the most basic literary common sense. Chris's trademark style of jamming himself and his personal life into a fictional world alongside his characters regularly leads to self-serving power fantasies.