So, let’s talk about Galactic Battle, Death Star Sabotage and Super! (Fortnite)

Hey Fortnite fanatics!

(I’m not calling you that again) (Probably!

So, how about that event? 

I’ll be honest, Fortnite events have… not been nearly as integral to the Fortnite experience for me as they once were. I think, in a lot of ways, the actual buildup to events has become a lot less… impactful? It’s funny, I was watching a Club Penguin retrospective by switch1e the other day, and they spoke to a similar topic. 

So, Fortnite is Club Penguin actually 

The worldbuilding of Club Penguin used to be the core of the experience: when parties, or their versions of events would happen, there would be weeks of buildup to set in place the story or even just the party that would unfold. Wether it was just construction setting up the new buildings, or tarps hiding new parts of the map… The world itself felt lived in, and like the events that occurred had lasting impacts on the island of Club Penguin.

“But Ima, I thought this was a Fortnite blog post?”

Well, you see. Disney brought out Club Penguin, and in turn, the advertising that the game had would slowly begin to shift into more aggressive, explicit promotions for Disney properties within their game. It’s, frankly, a little surprising how close the parallels are between the two games, and that’s a slightly (SLIGHTLY) worrying sign.

BUT! Disney has not *bought out* Fortnite yet, despite everything the game has included. But I remember a time where every action, (nearly) every collaboration was placed with care into a pre-existing universe. A universe that HAD merit without those collabs. And I think that’s the fundamental issue with Death Star Sabotage, and Galactic Battle as a whole: Hope and Jonesy, our Fortnite original characters, were essentially sidelined for the whole month until the event. And in their place was brought a strange hodgepodge of Prequel, Original and Sequel trilogy characters that… didn’t really have any narrative impact at all? And CONCEPTUALLY, this could be *so, so* interesting. Have Anakin confront himself as Vader, have Rey run into Luke, let multiple eras of Sith and Jeda take over the Island PROPER instead of just like- the aesthetic of that? 

Who are these guys?

When Hope and Jonesy banter, and make jokes about Star Wars on the Death Star, when Jonesy goes to do a Jedi Mind Trick, or quotes Han, I don’t *feel* anything other than “oh, he’s doing the thing” because they never ESTABLISH where they learnt that from. And for your average person, we may still clap our hands (paws) like seals and chuckle, but it’s just… it feels like a waste! These are billion dollar companies we’re talking about, why *not* attempt anything more than the status quo?

And like, yes. It’s corporate. It’s going to be safe. But god, I miss when companies were willing to take risks. And no, Darth Jar Jar is not a corporate risk. ALSO can we talk about 1,500 skins with NO backbling??? That happened a TON this season and dissuaded me from a lot of purchases. The idea of separating backbling from skin is AMAZING, IF the skin were actually reduced in price to accommodate. It’s definitely just some weird corporate mandate that requires they stay at 1,500 because non-collab skins DO the actual “sell the backbling separate but discount the skin” thing, and that’s great! But frankly, if you’re going to treat the characters like soulless, unvoiced puppets to not do anything else with, those are the prices I am expecting to pay. At that point, I *am* paying solely for aesthetic (assuming I choose to pay at all) because that is all you have provided.

And the strange cherry on everything. Of course, I can’t NOT talk about AI Darth Vader. What the hell were you thinking. Clearly, you weren’t, and aren’t, because Epic’s continuing to move forward with AI voices in UEFN. 

Now, Fortnite’s got a weird history with dead people. I still questioned the decision to bring Juice WRLD to the game, though I mostly came around to it after hearing that he did have a genuine passion for the game. The thing that’s infinitely impossible for anyone to decide on is the consent of the deceased. Because we can make assumptions of desired intent, but without EXPLICIT knowledge, how can we be sure we’re living up to what they would’ve wanted? That being said, I think Fortnite MOSTLY handled Juice with as much tact as they could’ve. I still think having actual skins for him is a little strange, but regardless. (This could be a whole post on its own.)

BACK TO THE POINT THOUGH, it’s just. Tasteless. Whether or not he consented to his voice being used in the future, it has completely shot any reputation Epic had in the foot, ESPECIALLY with any self respecting actors in the scene. A weird part of me wanted to believe it was some weird Disney mandate. Like the Cybertruck, that the Fortnite devs OPENLY DESPISED MAKING. But the fact they’re pushing ahead on their own with it tells me more than enough. And all for Vader to say slurs in a strangely stilted voice. Thanks guys.

I’m gonna shift gears back to the event, Death Star Sabotage. Because that event?

Was kind of just Skyfall again. Like, down to the last shots near directly mirroring that event. BUT AT LEAST. AT LEAST WHEN WE BLEW UP THE MOTHERSHIP IT CRASHED ON THE ISLAND! WHERE ARE ANY REMNANTS OF THE DEATH STAR. Once again, it is not that serious, BUT! If a LITERAL PLANET SIZED SHIP EXPLODES DIRECTLY ABOVE ANOTHER PLANET, HOW IS THERE NO DEBRIS. Even if it somehow doesn’t hit the Island, at LEAST have some space debris or shrapnel in the sky or SOMETHING! It literally just feels like the Death Star just. Disappeared. And it’s not JUST Disney trying to wipe the slate clean, because ALL OF THE STAR WARS POIs ARE STILL ON THE MAP??? it’s just. it’s just strange i dunno how else to describe it!!

The positives

I’ve been talking a lot of smack on this season, but I do have some positives. I LOVED the concept of an all-blaster meta! It was a fun switchup for a month, I know it was contentious with it being hard to distinguish between different weapons, but it never bothered me too much. The TTK was kind of insane at points, though. Certainly hard to play solo, but I definitely stomped some lobbies with a good team :)

The super styles were neat! I still don’t love the “Galaxy effect” we get for the styles sometimes, but the idea to make the pattern the classic star patterns and stylings from the opening crawl is just great. Super charming imo one of the better bits of original content we got

The customizable Mandolorian was neat! Does still call to mind that we will probably now NEVER get a lightsaber pickaxe though LOL

The transition into the new season was done flawlessly. I LOVED having the season drop THAT EVENING, that was honestly a really nice change of pace. I don’t know if I’d want it for every season, I do like the anticipation of the overnight, but for the mini seasons, it might be nice? Just to let people get away from the more subversive gameplay and hop into something more “standard” quicker! But honestly, if they just started doing this, I don’t think I’d mind too much, either.

How’s Super?

Alright, I’m gonna try to keep this briefer than ALL OF THAT hehe, especially because I’ve only played a bit so far! 

I’m really enjoying it so far! It’s nice to have normal gunplay back after that little haitus, all the new powers and guns are SUPER fun to me! I was a bit apprehensive with the battle pass from the key art leaks, but seeing everything in game, I was much happier with them. I love that chameleon… First impressions are strong, but I’ll need more time with it to come to a consensus. Pretty positive for now! Happy to see some DC coming into the fold again, not even necessarily for DC itself, but more for the idea that Disney hasn’t Fully Subsumed the game yet. Don’t really super care for Robin’s design, though. BUT! One Teen Titan away from the full team… Kind of funny that we have two superhero seasons running concurrently. Speaking of…

All I’ll say for OG Season 4: Seven content in the Big ‘25 is highkey crazy. Especially since it’s canon in some capacity??? Really excited to see where they take the new, updated OG storyline. Because frankly, I’m a bit worn on the present story… Modern Fortnite story is probably great but we rly need a lore tab or something at this point… Hard to keep up with.

I’m gonna toss this out into the Ether before my phone explodes and makes me lose it all, bahaha. Thanks for reading my first Fortnite Ramble! 

Stay Fortnitey,

Ima 🐤