Here's the plain text:

I was a story artist on a project where I had a VERY well-known attachment to a character I boarded a fair amount on the production. I went on leave (bereavement) following my father passing of cancer and, during that time, a prank was pulled where a fake outline for an episode I was slated to board went out "by accident" to the entire crew of our show. In that episode, this character I loved was killed and later mourned by our cast of characters, including his father, at a wake. I actually got the email the day my dad became unresponsive.... Then, to make it worse, a follow-up email/ part of the prank came through. This involved leadership commenting this episode was "going to blow people's minds!!!" and how "worried" they had initially been about the story pitch to kill the character, but as long as (named executives) were okay with it, it would be a "defining moment" of the series.  A third prank email came through from that same leader feigning surprise at the fake outline being "leaked" to the entire crew. Not because it was an authentic apology for an ill-timed prank, but to call attention to the content of the prank and ensure people saw it. Honestly I don't know who, if not me, they were expecting to get a rise out of with that prank. I really don't. I was teased constantly for my love of this character by leadership. At worst the prank was targeted and at best it was careless. I get that we work in animation and we like to have fun with each other...but I would hope not at one another's expense. When one of them apologized to me, they told me there was even a whole conversation about the timing of it given what I was going through before the email got sent. And... it went out anyway. Wild that this was literally leadership's idea. I still think about it years later.

The post I saw this in asked people not to speculate who the victim is, but named Sonnenberg directly and confirmed it was Varian.

But based on the story in clearly wasn't just Sonnenberg (I also speculate another one but I don't want to name him in case I'm wrong.)

Also if I had a dollar for every time I got into a thing and immediately clocked a favorite character only to learn that their backstory is "insanely traumatic childhood" I'd have like 6 dollars

whats funny is that despite doing my best to keep in line with dc comics/comic writing sensibilities throughout the fic (staying as comics-accurate as possible in terms of continuity/tone/characterization/story elements etc) that particular comic writing reality was one that was like. kind of a genuine anxiety that i didn't know i had until i started writing this thing.

ive said before that in the original concept for Frequency all of the clones (besides Thad) were going to end up dead. whether it was via killing each other or unintentionally being the instrument of their own demise (disney villain style). obviously it changed because creating an entire narrative about this one character's redemption arc and then not allowing any of the other villains to have a shot at redemption felt hypocritical and like. mean. not to mention antithetical to the whole ethos of the story.

but the reason why killing off all the other clones was my first instinct is partially because i had this kinda subconscious recoil to the idea that any of them would actually continue on after the story was over.

like, because i was trying to stick to canon so much, while figuring out the story a thought came up a couple times that basically went like, "okay, well, if this was a real comic, then...". and inevitably i had a realization that if this WAS a real comic, my original clone characters would be canonized, and therefore available to any future writer who wanted to yank them out of their respective endgames and inject them into other stories. which i Did Not Like the Idea Of.

That man needs all the help he can get (also have you seen the Rob Liefeld's design for him? Accursed)

I haven't but I also hadn't decided what I was gonna be watching tonight yet, so🤷

The Dragon's Eye is so evil that Evil Star is like "damn, dude".  Al has really had the kookiest history of all the Rogues.

Spoilers for Flash #760 beyond this point!

duke-nitro replied to your photo post: I think the Trickster in the promo was supposed to be James, but they got the designs fused again

That's very possible.  James was gone before Jesse, Max, and possibly Inertia show up, but that pic is probably representative promo art rather than something literally in the issue.  But if Eobard's recruiting half of Iron Heights, there's no reason Axel can't show up too.

duke-nitro replied to your photo post: also I don't see Replicant?

Also Ven actively stops Sora from talking to him, steering the conversation to a place where Sora can’t really input anything