Avatar & Fairy Tail Reviews, Disney Retrospectives, More Rewrites, & Relaunching My Book? | Big Projects for 2024 (video script)

Intro:

Ciao all, Thomas here! I figured with the year ending, it’s the  perfect time to talk to y’all about where I’m at, and what I have in store for the channel. Admittedly, the past couple years have been… not a mess per say, but it’s been a lot of experimenting with spontaneous breaks throughout. There’s quite a few reasons for that, but I’ve been spending the past few months thinking things over, and developing new systems to ensure 2024 is different.

I’ve focused a lot on video essays in the past, and recently on commentaries, but now I wanna focus on just my personal relationships with all kinds of media, however messy or complex they might be. I wanna provide queer insights into media I love, and I wanna make this a place where you can come here, feel safe, and just vibe with some drinks and snacks as you listen to me ramble for hours at a time.

And in terms of book stuff, I wanna make my writing far more prominent on the channel than it’s been in the past. To weave that into my analysis of media, and also to try and be more outwardly excited about my books, so that I can show you how you can enjoy them too.

So without further ado, let’s dive into all the projects I have in store for 2024.

Commentaries:

Starting in 2022, I began making commentaries: essentially highly edited reaction videos where I watch a piece of media, and I… make commentary. It’s an on-the-spot analysis and riffing, mostly with the later seasons of Winx Club as they drive me to the brink of madness. At the time, scripted content had worn me down, and I didn’t really feel like I could justify making them—more on the whole “struggling with video essays as a genre” thing later.

I do plan to continue these, but they’re not gonna be at the forefront the way they were for the back half of 2022 and most of 2023. They’ll mostly be used to bridge the gap between more intensive, scripted content, and I’m only going to be doing commentary for one project at a time. The goal right now is to finish Winx season 3, then get back around to Avatar Book 1, and then finally, the first season of Fairy Tail.

I’ll likely do other commentary series in the future. Probably for the rest of these shows, maybe for other media that I feel could be fun to riff on, but I think the era of these being my main shtick is coming to a close.

Long-Form Reviews & Retrospectives:

Now, when I began this channel, I started off with review content. But over time, inspired by creators like Lindsay Ellis and Natalie Wynn, I wanted to go for something a little more… high-brow: the almighty video essay. Everybody knows what these are now… at least, I think we do? They’re exactly as they sound—an essay in which you explore a thesis based on a particular subject or piece of media, except in video form, complete with dank memery.

However, I feel like I wound up in this weird space where I just referred to my content as video essays without actually thinking, “Is this really what I wanna do?” Cuz what wound up happening is… I felt like I have nothing to really say. I put so much pressure on myself to come up with unique, compelling theses (hate that plural) about media that I wound up sticking to Winx all the time, just cuz it felt safe. I didn’t trust myself to be able to articulate myself well out of that wheelhouse. So much so I would get an idea for a video essay, then quickly abandon it because I felt someone else could do it better one day.

That said, I’m still proud of most of the video essays I’ve done. But from now on, I’m only going to make them when I feel I have something I really wanna get off my chest, rather than trying to invent one for the sake of putting out content. For my main content, I’m going back to the classics: reviews. Going in-depth about a piece of media I’m interested in, and discussing what resonates with me, what doesn’t, and also discussing the production surrounding it.

This way, I’ll be free to talk about… well, whatever I like without this constant pressure to feel like I’m reinventing the wheel, and it instead becomes about my personal relationships with media that I can share with you. The Arise video I’ve been working on? Imagine that, but with pretty much anything I like: Winx Club, Avatar, Fairy Tail, and more. The possibilities here are endless. It’d be fun even getting into new shows this way too, so feel free to share recommendations.

This approach has a few inspirations, most of them creators who do long-form media dissections: Jenny Nicholson, Krimson Rogue, B Mask, Lady Knight the Brave (sidenote: Lady Knight’s video on Hill House still fucks me up). Krimson’s videos discussing books for hours at a time, as well as Quinton’s videos on the Nickelodeon sitcom universe, kinda showed me that it’s possible to dive that deep into a piece of media for that long, and still entertain people.

So with that, let’s discuss some of the stuff I’ll be talking about.

Monthly Disney Retrospectives:

I’ve really wanted to make Disney content a more regular thing here on the channel. I’ve never been a huge Disney fanatic, but I have loved most of their animated content, and I kinda have Kingdom Hearts to thank as my initial gateway. I loved talking about Encanto, and I did enjoy ripping into Wish recently, but I wanna do so much more in talking about this long history of animation.

My artsy friend - who I’ll be referencing quite a few times here - helped me formulate an idea: monthly Disney reviews and retrospectives. Every month, I talk about a different animated Disney film or series, beginning with Disney’s first film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Going into the history of how it came to be, and seeing how well it holds up for me. I’m particularly excited given most of the older films are more known to us through cultural osmosis than the films themselves, so it’ll be fun to see how they might differ from our expectations.

I’m thinking I’ll probably just go in order of how the films released, but I’ve also considered shaking it up a bit and jumping between eras here and there. Not sure. If you guys have any fun ideas, feel free to let me know.

Avatar Content:

While I am excited to eventually get back to my Book 1 Commentary, I think just diving into reviewing each season one at a time will really allow me to delve into the things I love about the Avatar series. I already enjoyed discussing the specific problems I have with Legend of Korra, as well as the elements of it I loved, but I think eventually getting to review Korra’s seasons after Avatar will also allow for a space to talk about Korra in a more complex way than we usually see online.

Something I’ve thought about a lot is how we’re never really taught to think of our relationships to media as complex. It’s either, “You love it or you hate it.” But no. You can love a piece of media dearly and think it’s a mess, or that it’s of quality, but just not personally jive with it. And I really hope by talking about Avatar and especially Korra in this way, I can demonstrate the way your relationship with media can be far more complex and dynamic than you think.

It’ll also be fun since I’m introducing one of my friends to Avatar for the first time. She introduced me to MASH (which I might also wanna talk about at some point, and which Lady Knight the Brave has also covered, so WOO), so I figured after loving it deeply and becoming a Margaret stan, I’d introduce her to Avatar. It’s been making me realizing exactly why we hold Avatar on such a pedestal, and helping me to understand storytelling on a deeper, more accessible level.

Fairy Tail Content:

As a lot of you likely know, my friend Maxwell Media Inc. has gotten me into Fairy Tail, along with a lot of other great content like Girlfriends, Charmed, and Black Clover. Really, our friendship has taught me a lot about myself as a person, along with my relationship with media, and how important it is to have an expanded, varied media diet. It really changes the way you interact with people, the world, and yourself.

So to make Fairy Tail more present on the channel, I’ve decided when I get around to it, I’ll be doing in-depth reviews of the show by arc. It’d likely start with the first 10 episodes, then the Galuna Arc, and so on. As many problems as the show has, I can’t help but love it for its characters, and its earnestness. It’s a show that sticks to its running gags and status quo for dear life, and which I wish would embrace change more, but it’s also a show that always makes me feel at home now.

Plus, we desperately need more gays to talk about these kinds of things. Lots of things about Fairy Tail can easily read as queer, especially to do with found family and the importance of friendship and community, and standing against oppressive authorities. And I wanna create a space for queer fans, and really anybody, can feel safe and talk about things they love, and things that drive them crazy about the show.

Redoing My Winx Documentary:

Now for the Winx girlies… y’all have really been spoiled the last few years. After fleeing the RWBY fandom, I kinda clung to Winx like my life depended on it, because it just felt so safe. I’ve had Winx with me for most of my life, so it finally felt nice having this space where I could talk about how much I loved it, and I knew people would listen and enjoy it. Legit, hearing the way it brightens up y’all’s day makes me so happy.

And it’s so nice to me to see even more Winx creators popping up, like Lola with the Winx Forever Podcast, Josh’s Winx Chronicles, Lisa Fevral’s in-depth series breakdowns, Rosie Vision’s opinion pieces and lookbacks on the 4Kids dub, and of course, Winx Decoded’s ranking videos and in-depth analyses.

But that said… I have kinda felt like I’ve hit a dead end with Winx. Like… I’ve talked about it all I need to, and I’m kinda just spinning my wheels and not growing the way I need to be. And I do kinda have myself to blame for that. I often say I wanna branch out to other things, then I fall back on Winx for weeks, or even months at a time because it’s safest. Cuz, ya know, bills. But this year, I wanna mean it when I say I wanna branch out.

The Winx girlies will still be fed, though, through commentaries, season reviews, the occasional video essay if the mood so strikes. But I also wanted to redo my first true piece of Winx content: my documentary series. Now, I barely consider it a documentary now since I feel my standards have risen so much over the years. And so during this year, I’m gonna be redoing all my research, and creating one big documentary on the Winx Club franchise up until this point. And if it coincides with the reboot? That’d be cool too.

But I want the Winx girlies to know I am grateful for your support. I wouldn’t be where I am without you… along with the girlies of a certain other show, which we’ll get to later. And I want you all to know that I’m not leaving the Winx creator space anytime soon. I’ll just… not be around these parts as much. But when I do, I’ll make sure to make it worth your while.

RWBY Content:

Now, RWBY is where I got my true start, but uh… I’m not exactly proud of myself from that era. It started off fine enough, reviewing the volumes one by one, then making content as the show dropped alongside my fellow RWBYtubers. But around Volume 6, I uh… I drank the pinkwashing fluid. Basically, in exchange for crumbs of the promise of eventual queer rep, I kinda deluded myself into loving the show more than I actually did, which made me in turn white knight for the show hard, and especially Rooster Teeth.

But given it’s now public knowledge RT as a corporation is… well, awful and deeply bigoted, I’m kinda glad I’ve moved away from it and RWBY as much as I have in recent years. But I also feel guilty for helping to develop the toxic culture the fandom is still rife with in defending the show to the last stand. It’s sorta like creating a horrible monster, and then being surprised when it turns around and bites your head off. Like, I helped make the beast. It’s only natural it turned on me.

I’ve talked about it before, but I wanna apologize to the people I was awful to in that era, especially back in the days of my Twitter addiction (lowkey I revel in its slow decay). I’ve debated if I ever would return to RWBY, but I’m honestly not sure. I think it’d be cathartic to revisit the show after so much time, and after I’ve experienced so much better media that handled the kinds of stories RWBY tackled so much better, see how it stacks up.

I can’t promise I’ll be doing it this year, but I’d like to at some point. Going through the show, reviewing it volume by volume with the approach I use now. And thankfully, I know how to deal with the fandom at this point. Which is to say let them scream into the void as they continue making themselves miserable fixating on things they hate. Like fam, if I really hated RWBY, I wouldn’t be doing all this. Like I said, relationships with media are complicated. I have a very weird relationship with RWBY now, and I’d like to create a space to talk about that. Consider it a… post-mortem, if Volume 10 never gets greenlit, I suppose.

Sailor Moon Content On Patreon:

Sailor Moon is a difficult franchise to talk about… mostly because if you try, Toei will nuke you from orbit. Those videos I made way back when on Crystal? Yeah, those got me copyright strikes. Not claims, strikes. So it’s kinda difficult to talk about this show here on YouTube, no matter how much I would like to.

And so, I’m gonna be talking about Sailor Moon more often on my Patreon. I wanna make my Patreon feel like it’s more valuable to members, and so I’m trying to do more exclusive, fun content over there without feeling like I’m neglecting my more casual YouTube audience. I’m planning on reviewing Sailor Moon arc by arc, both the ‘90s anime and manga. And this could finally get me to watch the live action series and musicals, too.

These’ll all be Patreon exclusive, as Toei is likely to be less of a nuisance over there. Right now I’m actually working on a quick video on why, in my opinion, the reboot era of Sailor Moon failed, since Cosmos is out now, and uh… it feels like no one cares. So, I hope to see y’all there!

Tales of Arise Review:

Now, you’ll likely have seen that behemoth of a video I dropped on Tales of Arise… which yes, is just a preview. The script is about 75% done, and it’s sitting at just under 60,000 words. Not gonna lie, this is the project that made me think, “Oh yeah, I could totally do this for whatever media I wanna talk about.”

Basically, the idea is to explore my praises and critiques of Tales of Arise, but to present it in a way that’s accessible to everyone, even people who’ve never played the game before. The final version will hopefully be finished and released in March, but I’m already thinking about how much I’d love to talk about the other Tales games. Especially my personal favorites: Berseria and Abyss.

However, I currently use the built-in recording capabilities for the PS4, and I’ve never actually… played games on PC. Well, there were obviously some PC games when I was a kid, but you know what I mean. I have to look into methods of capturing gameplay, and doing so in stable, high quality. Cuz there’s so much else I wanna talk about: Kingdom Hearts, the Sly Cooper games. RWhen Is ay any media that I enjoy, that includes games.

Evermore Analysis:

Long ago, I dropped a video on why I consider Folklore, Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, to be a masterpiece. And apparently, people really liked it? I’ve been meaning to talk about Taylor’s music more often on the channel, and Alex Avila’s fantastic video essay about her career as an artist, and our complex parasocial relationships with her, really got me wanting to lean into it more. Specifically, the bit about reparative media analysis made me go, “... Wait, that’s actually genius.”

I started writing a video about her follow-up album Evermore, which is criminally underrated, but I never wound up finishing it. And so, I’ve decided to focus on that again, and to try and do the same with each of her albums. This is, of course, inspired by the likes of Chats and Reacts, who really do a great job at breaking down Taylor’s discography without sacrificing how much it means to them personally, and to their friendship.

So… expect me to talk about her more. And maybe more music, in general. Lord knows I wanted to talk about Miley Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts too, and Endless Summer Vacation. Or SZA’s SOS? I don’t know if I could do SOS justice, but dammit I must try solely for the sake of “Ghost in the Machine.”

Winx Season Reviews:

Like I mentioned, the Winx girlies shall still be fed. I’ve decided to focus on reviewing each season, and movie, in full, breaking down what works and what doesn’t about each. These’ll be spaced out, so that I don’t wind up overrelying on Winx like I have for the past few years. Naturally, this’ll start with the first season. I’m not sure how to approach the question of dubs. I might just bring up dub differences where they matter, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

Winx Season 6 Rewrite:

Now, this one I know a lot of you have been waiting for. Honestly, I regret a lot of things about how I’ve handled this rewrite. Not in terms of story, because I’ve really appreciated all the feedback and enjoyment of the episodes released thus far, especially with darker, more mature elements that I was admittedly nervous to try and tackle.

Nah, I mean in terms of release. Trying to do all the visuals in Blender on my own after learning Blender during 2022, and then pedaling back to just stills. And then also releasing the rewrite two episodes at a time, rather than splitting it into two halves like I did with the season 5 rewrite. Yeah, I regret that. It really burned me out, and I think a lot of people were waiting until it was all done to fully indulge.

So for 2024, I’ve decided to re-release all the episodes currently available as part 1 (with updated, more consistent audio quality, because yay I finally figured out how to use my damn mic after like six years), and then release the rest of part 2. I’m sorry for those who’ve been waiting for so long, and I promise I’m gonna do everything in my power to make it worth your wait. And I promise… to never fumble the bag like this again.

Rewriting Wish:

Wish really got me upset with how it ruined its stellar premise (and yes, that pun was intentional). My artsy friend and I have been working to rewrite Wish, going back and forth with different ideas on where to take the story, and she’s even been making visuals to accompany them.

And so, one of the big rewrite projects this year will be for Wish. Alongside the full rewrite, I’m also gonna be doing a video on the process of putting it together, and exploring different ideas my friend and I had in where the story could’ve gone, in case any of you wanna play with those ideas yourselves. For context: right now the main pitch has Asha as a much older, more jaded character, who is the reclusive sister of King Magnifico. Their past informs where Asha is now, and she’s going to have to step back up to save the people of Rosas, and their wishes.

W.I.T.C.H. Season 3???:

Now, this might make some of y’all froth at the mouth. I’m a big fan of W.I.T.C.H., and I think we’re all sad that while the comics just… kinda decayed after five hundred arcs, the show ended after just two seasons, made even more maddening by the teasers of a new story in the last couple episodes.

And so, I figured… why not write a season 3? Based upon the original Arkhanta Arc, but tying it into the universe and arcs created by the show, and going, “How would I handle this if given the chance?” It’s not exactly a rewrite, but it’s in the same glorified-fan-fiction lens. And also, cleaning up some of the… uh, yikes-y albeit vibes of this arc in the comics, because dear God.

Relaunching My Book:

Now, this is the big thing for me, and what kinda sent me into the spiral I’ve been in the last couple years. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a writer and author who published my first book, De Cineribus: From the Ashes, back in November of 2021. And… it went fine. It didn’t perform exceptionally well, but I wouldn’t really consider it a failure either. I’m still proud of the story I wrote. Rather, I feel like I really fumbled the release and marketing.

Through a combination of factors, I didn’t set my book up for success. The title is… well, there’s a reason it’s like that, but it made the book incredibly inaccessible to most potential readers. It really only internalized for me when people in real life would ask about my book, and when I spoke the title, they nodded in confusion as I looked like I had 5 heads. And in general, I also didn’t promote it as much as I should’ve, likely because at the time, I was going through things that made me doubt myself, and thus self-sabotage.

But now, I’m ready to try again. I’ve been working with a character artist - that artsy friend I’ve been mentioning - to create new character art fo the principal cast, and she’s also been helping to brainstorm how we can get this story into the hands of more people, namely queer readers looking for queer stories in the vein of Harry Potter. I can’t share all the details yet, but i’ll be doing a full, proper unveiling of this rebranding in a few months’ time, with plans for the series’ future, including the next book.

And yes, De CIneribus will be getting a new name. And no, I can’t tell you what it is yet. But I promise it’ll be a name you can pronounce. Admittedly, still not sure on audiobook stuff yet. There are personal things I need to work out before we even move in that direction, but whenever Book 1 is re-released with its new name, I’m thinking of doing some live readings here on the channel in case y’all are interested.

Conclusion & Outro:

It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about YouTube. While this is definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, the past 2 years have admittedly felt like a free fall. Like I’ve been experimenting and grabbing at straws, all the while trying to figure out where I’ve failed, and where I need to go in order to keep growing.

And I think with all of this… I’m very excited about my future. I really hope you enjoy all I’ve got to offer in 2024, and I hope to see you there! I’m the Unicorn of War, and may this be the most glorious shit show anyone has ever witnessed.