Champion: A Songs Of War Fanfiction

Announcement

Hello, everyone.

This chapter will be entirely an author's note.

Yesterday, approximately 23 hours ago, Mattsquared posted a rather long announcement in the discord. I will attach it at the bottom of this post. After the initial publication of the announcement, he later made a second statement, though it was quite vague and somewhat milquetoast in tone. It too will be attached.

David, the former director and primary animator for Black Plasma Studios, has been accused of pedophilia. Black Plasma Studios has condemned his actions. I myself have not seen any court filings and I am unwilling to decide whether he did rape or sexually harass a minor or not.

In the announcement, they discussed the potential of Songs Of War (among many other classic and well-beloved animations) being taken down to avoid any future reminders of David. I am quite certain people have already begun re-uploading their favorite animations, but just in case Songs Of War misses that process, you might want to record the episodes. 

In the wake of this, I do not intend to stop writing Champion, nor do I encourage anyone else to stop writing their favorite Songs Of War fanfictions. Songs Of War is one of the reasons I fell in love with Minecraft, it's why I fell in love with animation, it's why I picked up writing again.

I know this news will shape the Minecraft animation community. I know that some of us will never be able to enjoy our favorite animations again. But I also know that we will download the videos, I know we will read the scripts, I know this community of Songs Of War fans will live on.

Be safe, and may God bless you all.

-KOS

P.S. I will address any future statements made in future Author's Notes. No more announcement-only chapters will be published.

Here is the first statement, made on January 6, 2023

Please take the time to read all of this announcement. This is important to the future of Black Plasma Studios.Matt here, on behalf of the BPS director team. Please take some time to get yourself situated somewhere private. This is a very heartbreaking announcement and it will come as a shock to many.Today, during our Friday's work meeting, David pulled all of the directors aside for an impromptu meeting. He informed us of recent allegations against him for past actions of his involving a minor. He will be leaving BPS indefinitely and transferring ownership of the business to an existing director. We are in contact with the people involved and will make sure that things are handled professionally and justly. In no way shape or form does BPS condone David's past actions in any way. Please do not harass anyone about the matter, including David; the parties involved are dealing with the issue themselves in private, as it is a private matter and will be pursued however the parties involved see fit. It is not our place nor anyone who is not directly affected to get involved with the matter itself. Please bear with us as we figure things out. This news was a shock to us all. I will try to answer some of the first questions that I think would come to mind upon reading this, since I know it's a bombshell and many of you (and us) looked up to David for his many achievements through directing. Will Black Plasma Studios be deleted?-We have no intentions of deleting the BPS channel. However, we are discussing a re-brand, with a channel name change and taking down all of David's content. This means that Animation Life, Songs of War, Blocking Dead, and others will be removed from the public. Will the directors be leaving?-Many are undecided. Some, such as myself, will be staying full time in the near future and trying their best to preserve what we can through the re-brand. Others will be taking short breaks, and others are considering leaving permanently and trying to find new jobs. It's day 1 of the news for almost all of us directors, so we're still taking time to process. This is our livelihoods, after all. Will this discord server be deleted? Will there be a new discord? -Yes, to remove all traces of David's actions and history. We will be removing him from everything we can moving forward and disassociating with him entirely. You will have a few days after we close the channels for chatting when this announcement goes live to screenshot your chats before everything gets deleted. -Yes- We will likely be making an announcement on Black Plasma on our next upload or community post. Until then, please be patient with us. What about my patreon pledge?We are still in talks about this, but as things will be going through a major shift, we are thinking of refunding all payments for January and closing down the BPS patreon, and starting fresh after a re-brand.There is so much more I wish I could say, and so much more I don't know how to say. Many of us have made friends here, found community, created fan art, formed game groups, learned blender, the list goes on... and a lot is about to change. We want to keep Black Plasma as a safe place for our community, and we feel that a rebrand is the best way to go about that in light of allegations against David. We will be deleting this discord server shortly. Please keep an eye on the BPS channel for a rename on YouTube and a community post in the coming weeks about a new discord server. So make sure you're subscribed... or just keep an eye on which channel Starfall is uploaded to. That works too!Thank you all for supporting us through our journey as Black Plasma Studios. Myself- as well as the rest of the director team- hope to see you in our new discord community under a new name in the future once things have settled down. See you all on the other side!-Matt, and the Black Plasma Director team. (Sam, Thomas, Mont, Omeleto, Skyfall, Striker, Michael)

Here is the second statement:

I would like to address recent concerns about the following line: -We have no intentions of deleting the BPS channel. However, we are discussing a re-brand, with a channel name change and taking down all of David's content. This means that Animation Life, Songs of War, Blocking Dead, and others will be removed from the public. I was not clear enough stressing that EVERYTHING after "discussing" meant that all of this was not finalized. We are still in talks and will be for some time of how to handle David's past content, since we know how much of an impact it's had on the community. We will update everyone once we have come to a decision at a later time. Again, the decision to remove the content is currently not final, and for the time being, the content will remain on Black Plasma Studios until we reach a decision we can all agree upon. Thank you for your patience.