"Dedicated to those that will save the world..."
“A Thousand Final Dreams”, the sudden grand finale of the Twig & Pik-pik Universe was released three years ago, on October 15th at roughly 4:00 a.m. (Mexico City time/GMT-6) I’ve been a fan of this plush show for around a decade now, probably longer, and I had the luxury of meeting, collaborating and even befriending the creator, Jakob “Minjak” Dawson. I’m not happy with this ending, nobody was... I appreciate that there was an ending at all, but I can’t get it out of my head…
His work inspired me so much and marked me to the core that my life trajectory spins around this silly video series of a kid playing with his toys and filming himself for other kids to watch… Some years ago I tried making my own plush show which I called “The Great Adventures of King Toad” and later renamed to “The War for Southerland”. This plush show had the quality of being within the Twig & Pik-pik universe, a spinoff of the series, a fanfiction of a fanfiction at its core. It wasn’t that good looking back at it, but it was good enough that Jakob himself implemented my show as part of the official canon and even used my character of Jetbug as the main villain of The End of Twig & Pik-pik 2: Godslayer!
The last time I worked on my own story was over five years ago, but even then, I’ve never stopped thinking about it or Twig & Pik-pik and many other projects and shows contemporary to it like Kirby Bulborb’s Trooper Village Stories or Harvestmoon8109’s Pikmin Adventures. I’m a very busy person, every day there’s always something more important or more urgent than trying to work on a silly plush show (which it’s not by the way, but it always feels that way), and even on the days I feel like working on something big, there’s just too much to go around to get going and not enough time before having to clean up and continue with the routine…
I recently spoke with someone about a similar subject, and they said something that has stuck with me a lot… When making a project, you have to be careful with the time you need to spend, because you might suffer setbacks in your personal life that won’t allow you to continue with the project or keep the rhythm you want, maybe you’ll have to cancel it because those setbacks have now become your daily life…
I understand that Jakob wants to move on with Twig & Pik-pik. I read his post explaining his motives and got to hear him speak about them, they’re not worth the immense effort and they’ve just become too complex to continue them… I’m also aware that he’s working on repurposing his lore and grand story into a completely original IP, “Code of Cinder”, I truly wish him the best with it and maybe have the chance to assist him once again somehow...
However, it’s not the same to me, it’s just not. A lot of details and elements can’t be adapted without the things the plush videos did, others he just has a different thing in mind now… It’s his project at the end of the day, he chooses what he wants to do with it, but I… I can’t let go of it. It’s already been 3 years and I still think about it, and yearn it so much, but as it was, a plush movie series, a massive fanfiction, not a new thing all together. I’m not against Code of Cinder’s creation at all, it’s just that it’s not what I wanted. I’ve spoken a few times with him and his answers have varied, from kind ways of telling me to move on or redirecting me to Code of Cinder, it’s clear to me that he might never return to plush videos again, and I’ve accepted that… I still remember that day, I was staying up in secret, studying for a calculus exam I had that same day, when I got the notification, then saw the video, and stopped everything while holding back tears…
However, what I don’t accept is this ending, the ending of Twig & Pik-pik, and the ending of my own story which is directly linked to it, and as long as I have enough health to stand and work on my own, I am not going to accept this. I made a promise when it happened on that fateful day, that I would seek to finish my show and his series myself as plush videos, the final episodes of Twig & Pik-pik, Steve 7 and 8, Pikmin Plush: The World, no matter what… And yet, here we are, three years later, and my progress is pretty much non-existent…
That’s why I’m writing this, an official blog post, a way to mark an actual beginning for this very ambitious project that is going to be the sum of all my life choices. I need to learn a lot of things, improve and gain skills, have the material wealth and resources necessary, and of course, the time to do it. Doesn’t matter how long it takes, I will do this, I have to, no one else on this planet cares enough about this, so if I don’t do it, no one else will…
Which is alo why I want to declare today, October 15th, as the official “King Toad Day”, at least for this small circle of people who might be interested in plush movies. I don’t want to remember today as the day in which Twig & Pik-pik abruptly ended, so I’m appropriating this date as mine to celebrate my progress and what I might be capable of doing. I’ll try my best to work a little bit every single day I can in some sort of way on this project, from ideas, to learning skills, to meet the correct people that can help me, I’ll try making some concept art maybe and other content related to this project in small doses just to show that something is being done. Even if no one sees it, just to keep it as proof of my dedication, as a record and to force myself to actually get going, to make myself finally get going and keep going.
Considering my pace, I’m giving myself 20 years from now to START the production of this project, no matter what, and another 20 to finish it. Currently I’m 21 years old, therefore I’d be 41 when I start and 61 when I finish, of course the idea is to do this before these dates, but this is at least a sort of deadline so that no matter what happens, I do it at the very least.
This means a lot to me, so much, and I don’t care if it’s not “worth the effort anymore”, I don’t care if Code of Cinder will exist in its place instead, I don’t care how long I must hold on to this, I want to do it this way, and I will, it has to happen, I must make it real… For the moment, I’ll continue with my usual schedule, and I don’t care if my setbacks are my new reality, I’ll squeeze in time for this... This project, “The Magnificent Adventures of King Toad” and Twig & Pik-pik are the reasons I am alive on this Earth and I refuse to leave it before finishing them, first with my own, and then with his, only disease and death will be able to stop me.
I’ll try and write down the list of things I think are gonna be necessary first, and short term goals to seek out.