Part 1: June 6, 2020, 4:06 PM MDT
I
wish I knew the right words to say. There are many things being said
right now that many others end up saying better than I can.
What I can say is I denounce racism and inequality, especially in light of recent events. I am uncomfortable naming said events but racism is happening, not just in late May but also since March and even earlier.
I've
heard quite a bit about systemic racism lately and I am ashamed of my
own behaviour and uncertainties that may come across as this. This
is in large part due to my own nervousness and apparent overwhelming
feelings due to having to identify who is who around me. Plus, I have a
strict adherence to stuff that I know and it's hard for me to care about
a work of fiction that I don't know about. People hiding in plain
sight-- and not telling me it's them-- is a different matter entirely.
I apologize for any behaviour I may have exhibited.
Opposed's story doesn't help matters, even if it's set sometime during the 2010's. As such, I am placing another delay on this audiovisual series for the time being.
Plus, I feel the need to clarify some intended plot points across this series.
First and foremost, the Opposition, a fictional group of antagonists out for the masked "Lost Fugitive's" blood in Opposed, start their attack by eliminating Pyro and Demoman of Team Fortress 2
from the story, the latter of whom is Black. This is an attempt to
flush out the Fugitive from hiding and, tactics-wise, to put a huge dent
in the firepower of the Team Fortress 2 characters that the Fugitive went to for protection. It is not intended to mean anything else.
To
put the Resurrection Movement, the fictional protagonist team, at a
disadvantage, the story's antagonists have removed the team's fire and
explosive capabilities. Flamethrowers and grenades are Pyro and
Demoman's specialties. As such, I have recorded a new Fugitive line explicitly pointing this out in the already-completed episode 1 audio track. Plus, Opposed will not have anyone getting blown into bits.
Second, I must point out that a certain masked association that originates from Half-Life 2 had, for months, been renamed as Militia for their appearance in Opposed. This name will remain in place due to recent events. My original use of the name "Time Police" for the HL2 masked men, after the story trope, is being excised from Opposed writing; the Militia's harsh actions have been carried over from HL2 with little or no changes, and keeping the original name would not be appropriate, even if their first formal appearance in Opposed is three episodes away.
Third, the story will have a group of anonymous beings in spacesuits whose purpose is to rally for the Fugitive's death and verbally harass any of his protectors-- definitely not peaceful. In the long run, this is meant to harm the Fugitive's self-esteem as the story progresses. He's still in shock from attempting to end his own life and escaping a homicide attempt by the Opposition-- the story's antagonists. Eventually, the spacesuits' obstructions prove to be related to the Opposition, and the ResMov-- the protagonist team-- takes drastic action and gets one step closer to flushing out their leader before they do the Lost Fugitive. I can't say any more due to potential spoilers.
But the important thing right now is that justice will prevail. I just wish I had the right words to say but I must reiterate: I denounce racism and inequality, especially in light of recent events.Thank you for your time,
Jack Y.
Part 2: July 8, 2020, 6:13 PM MDT
I've seen some ugly things this past week, so I felt like clarifying my intentions a bit more.
To follow up from the June 6 message, I can say that I reworked some aspects of Opposed episode 1.
For
starters, I've inserted new lines that explicitly point out that the
series antagonists, the Opposition, have targeted the characters with
more effective weaponry. Again, this is an attempt to put the
protagonist team, the Resurrection Movement, at a disadvantage.
Since
OpMem #1 in the story is a certain blade-wielding character named Rena,
she's also prone to getting distracted by really cute things; this is a
character depiction I'm retaining for Opposed alongside the
admitted character exaggeration of being a "psychopath" stemming from
how creepy the source material is and the inspiration for really old
ideas I had, like bringing the Death Star II into Earth orbit.
I know it doesn't help that the Opposed delays happened so much that Higurashi,
where Rena hails from, is being remade this year and had its first
visual novel episode given away for free on Steam months ago.
I
reiterate that Pyro and Demoman have fire and explosive weaponry, whose
effects are not suitable for a PG-13-ish series, let alone an episode
with Vanellope having a supporting role. (I'm acknowledging some
rotating interests for shows/movies/games I had over the last decade, as
I've done before. However, YT's tendency to falsely-mark an animated
video as "for kids" does not help.)
Heavy's
weapon attacks are also suitably unacceptable in a PG-13 work (not
without bloodless carnage) but Heavy doesn't unleash a spray of bullets
in this episode. Plus, the only reason Rena is unable to attack Heavy--
like she does to Pyro and Demoman-- is because Madoka, someone she sees
as very cute, is with him. That comes into play later. Rena does attack
Spy for having an instant-kill (and thus powerful) move but he actually
fakes his death using a tool called the Dead Ringer-- a pocket watch
that turns him invisible and generates a fake body when he takes damage,
for the tradeoff of making a loud crackling sound when the cloak
expires. However, the depiction is planned as an offscreen moment this
time.
More importantly, though, I've changed the scene where Rena attacks Pyro and Demoman from the Opposed plans from 2017. Pending a few more checks, I'm reinserting a Pyrovision moment where we see Pyro in a vibrant world interacting with Balloonicorn, whereas other characters would see Pyro using a Detonator flare gun. I'm also changing the scene's setting back to CP_Fastlane; Pyro and Demoman will both be attacked there instead of CP_Well's Redshed Distillery. Pyro will still have a prototype Thermal Thruster jetpack, a story addition I made a few years ago after that jetpack was inserted into TF2. Other than that, I won't say how the scene fully plays out this time around.
I want to get this episode finally completed. But there's too much going on around us, and I didn't want to be lumped in. I guess I really am that worried, though not as worried as the Lost Fugitive character is. I'll avoid changing further episodes too much because that would make them too different from a story that started from my own paranoid fears influenced by local events. Opposed will remain a fictionalized dramatization of actual local events, and I want to do it the way I want it.
Regards,
Jack Y.
