• Swedish YouTube megastar Pewdiepie, also known as Felix Kjellberg, has been on hiatus from the platform on for almost a month. 
• In their beloved leader's absence, Pewdiepie's fan community has been forced to find other ways to entertain itself online.  
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It's been three weeks since Felix "Pewdiepie" Kjellberg — YouTube's most popular (and notorious) creator — began his indefinite hiatus from the video platform. And already, his legion of diehard fans is getting restless. 

In a 17-minute video aptly titled "It's been real, but I'm out!" the Swedish gamer and entertainer announced that he had finally "made up [his] mind" to step away "for a little while" in early 2020. 

"I am tired," he said in the mid-January upload that has since garnered over 20 million views. "I'm feeling very tired. I don't know if you can tell."

With more than 100 million subscribers and an expansive catalog of daily uploads that dates back to October 2010,  Kjellberg's break from YouTube has hit his fandom, the "Bro Army," rather hard. And in King Pewd's absence, things in his community subreddit, r/PewdiepieSubmissions, are getting, well, super weird.

On a normal day, r/PewdiepieSubmission is a place for fans to share content (read: mostly memes) about gaming, anime, or YouTube drama. But in light of their beloved leader's departure, Pewdiepie's followers are deviating from their usual activities to explore other hobbies and interests. At first, they turned to cooking. Some baked cakes in Kjellberg's honor, while others shared recipes and recommended their favorite Swedish dishes. 

In week two, gardening became the new theme.

Other distractions, such as painting and Lego building, were proposed for week three and beyond, but the dominant theme now appears to be sadness and longing. 

Kjellberg is a controversial figure, and has, in the past, joked about having "the most annoying fans ever." But it's hard not to find the devotion he seems to inspire in his subscribers — dare we say it — endearing? It's unclear how much longer Kjellberg's hiatus will last, but in spite of that uncertainty, his subscriber count continues to grow, up one million since December. 

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