What we know so far about the Slender: The Arrival announcement
(Special thanks to @them0rtal for making the post that helped me realize this is even happening)
#1: On June 22nd at 10:00 a.m., the official Slender: The Arrival Twitter account (@/PlaySlenderTA) made a post. It contained a 13 second video, along with the caption "He's waiting... #slenderman #slenderTA".
#2: At 10:07 a.m., the account for Blue Isle Studios quote retweets this post. They add the caption "The countdown has started: slenderarrival.com".
Following the link will lead visitors to the promotional website established for the game. Underneath an image of Slenderman, a countdown can be found.
This countdown is set to end in roughly 34 days.
Beneath a link to the Youtube upload of the teaser video, visitors also have the option to provide their email addresses in order to "stay tuned".
Aside from this teaser and the updated website, no other details about the project have been provided. Fans have begun to speculate on what this announcement could mean for Slender: The Arrival, and what type of product is being teased.
Ahead are a few speculations and theories on what this announcement could be for.
A remake/remaster of Slender: The Arrival. Due to the updated graphics in the teaser video and the fact that it references a scene towards the ending of the original game, many believe that this is a hint that The Arrival is getting a face-lift.
A continuation of the original game. Some fans, while playing the teaser with audio, have noticed that it contains the sounds of male breathing. Assuming that the figure on the stairs is Charlie (since he is the one guarding the stairs in the original scene this teaser is referencing), this breathing sounds too mature to be coming from him. This has led many to theorize that this could be a new protagonist, likely to be an adult male.
Others believe this could be a port to Switch, a PS5-exclusive remaster, etc.
It is currently unknown what will happen once the countdown ends. Many are assuming there will be an official reveal (trailer, proper announcement, etc.), which should finally confirm what exactly it is in regards to The Arrival.
I will be keeping an eye on this as best as I can. If anyone finds any extra information, please reply to this post!
Part of Sonic Supernova 2025, "The Space Between Us" tells the story of two enemies forced together for survival. After Eggman's ship crashlands on an alien planet, Amy and Metal wake up by each other's sides. They both have a shared goal: survive the long journey ahead, find who they came there with, and leave. But with environmental dangers around every corner, Amy and Metal will have to challenge their preconceptions about each other if they have any hope of making it through.
"There's only one way we're making it off this planet: together."
"The Space Between Us" will update with dual chapters once a week, so don't forget to subscribe!
Read the story here:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fifteen years ago, my favorite animated movie released in theaters. I saw it two days later; at only 6 years old, seeing the film in 3D, my entire world had been changed.
more under the cut; autistic, passionate ramblings ahead.
How to Train Your Dragon came out at the perfect time for me. A few months before its release, my uncle had gifted me his old PlayStation 1 console, and I'd been blazing through Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon over and over again for weeks. Spyro 3 had kickstarted a deep obsession with dragons. From the day I first started playing it, all I could think about were dragons. If it had dragons on it, I wanted it. This led to other core childhood memories -- the one I recall most being my Dad picking up a book for me: "Dragonology" by Ernest Drake.
I'm still not sure where on Earth he found this book, but all that mattered back then was that it'd ended up in my lap, and it had dragons on it.
As I was known to do, I let my obsession with dragons seep into everything I did. While I wasn't as much of a writer as I am now, back then, whenever my friends asked me to come out and play, I'd always have one non-arguable condition: that I could pretend to be a dragon. Sometimes I was a big, mean, scary dragon, the likes of Smaug or Malefor. Other times, I was a cuddly, curious, likable protagonist dragon, like Spyro. But regardless of what dragon I was during play, all my reptilian escapades gave me a reputation: from my neighborhood to the halls at school, I became the "dragon girl." Kids I didn't know would come up to me and show me dragons. Teachers would print pictures of dragons for me, ask me on and on about them (I'd repeatedly bring my Dragonology book to school in order to show my teacher, and ask her fervently if she believed the "invisible dust" on Page 17 would actually work -- her answer was always "It could, but don't experiment in my classroom, please"). It was heaven for me, being the dragon girl.
My instant gravitation towards anything dragon-related makes the fact that I didn't know about How to Train Your Dragon until two days after its release quite comical. But that was how it went: my sibling, years older than me and already tired of my unshakeable instinct to follow them around everywhere, had been invited to come out and see the movie by a friend of theirs, and had done everything possible to keep me from finding out. But eventually the news found me, and as I ran to them to insist I come along, too, the words they used to try to dissuade me are still fresh in my mind.
"You don't want to watch it, it's a scary dragon movie."
And because I'd heard the word 'dragon', obviously my response was, "COOL!"
I can't remember who paid my way in, but I pray it was our mother, and not my sibling's poor, dear friend. Regardless of who covered my $8 matinee, I sat down in those cushiony theater seats not even an hour later, ready to watch the very first dragon-related film I'd ever seen in my life.
And it just so happens that I witnessed not only my first dragon film, but also the pinaccle of animated movies. In 3D.
To say that How To Train Your Dragon changed my life... despite that the highest bar something fictional could achieve, it still feels like an understatement all these years later. The film was nothing I'd expected it to be; simply having dragons in it was going to be enough, but HTTYD had more. I'll never forget the pure exhilaration of Test Drive in 3D, the way the score swept over the room in quiet and daring moments alike; a story that captivated me, about friendship and finding somewhere you belong. I was lucky enough to not have experienced bullying at that time in my life (or, if I had, was simply too naive to realize it was happening), but I remember watching Hiccup struggle and being able to sympathize with him all the same. And while I may not have been Hiccup down to the mark, I could at least relate to my interpretation of him: the wonder yet anxiety of a world opening up before you, and the pain that was trusted adults looking down at you critically instead of out at that world you saw.
Seeing How To Train Your Dragon in theaters was the best experience I could have had at such a young age. I had truly witnessed something one of a kind, and it was obvious not just to myself back then, but everyone else in the roon with me. A recurring story in my family is literally the fact that I stood up and went "WOOHOO" after finding out Hiccup and Toothless survived the fight with the Red Death, only after I had screamed "NOOOO" as Hiccup was knocked off of Toothless' saddle minutes prior. The second I got home from seeing the film, I began creating original characters, writing stories set in the film's universe (what we all know as 'fanfiction'), things I had rarely done in the past, for anything.
I couldn't get enough. I remember trying to track the days until DVD release without the Internet, watching the TV eagle-eyed every day until finally, the teasers for home release began to air. My neighbor had gotten a copy long before I managed to - a copy that would soon end up being mine anyways, after I borrowed it, didn't give it back when I was told to, and was never asked about it again.
How to Train Your Dragon has been the creative backbone to practically everything I've ever made. At least one soundtrack piece has made it into every playlist I've ever made, with the motifs inspiring events in stories from completely different universes (like @peacedoveau , my Sonic The Hedgehog [2006] rewrite project). My love for this film has followed me for 15 long years of my life, and I've always struggled to put it into words because of that; how do you explain 15 years of love? How do you transcribe every little moment where you remembered you saw How To Train Your Dragon in freaking 3d, and how happy it had made you?
I would not be where I am without this film. I wouldn't have made any of the things I'd ever made. I wouldn't even be the same person. 15 years later, whenever I watch How to Train Your Dragon, I'm immediately transported back in time to 2010. I'm watching the credits roll over Jonsi's Sticks and Stones, and knowing deep down that I am not the same as I was.
This movie is timeless -- it will always be timeless. And there is nothing that may be made in the future that can take it off the top of my list.
So, 15 years after release, I'm glad I could finally tell the world just how much this film means to me.
Happy 15 year anniversary, How To Train Your Dragon!
Going from "we're the voice of peace, and bit by bit we will change this world" to "dragons are waiting for us to learn how to get along" is such a downgrade.
Never really paid attention to Hiccup's face in this little part here. I've always watched Toothless and his reaction to the idea of finding more of his kind. Heartbreaking stuff, that.
With that being said: that facial expression on Hiccup is PERFECT. There's something so sad about it. It's frustration and desire, but it feels most like a confused yearning - why hasn't this worked yet?
This is the one thing that keeps getting away from both of them; all their exploring, all their charting the world together, and they haven't found another Night Fury yet, not even on accident. Hiccup Haddock, the dragon lover and conservationist he is, isn't just worried about potentially finding Toothless's family. He's not only sad because his friend has no kin -- he looks worried here. Troubled.
There's an entire species out there that's completely unfindable. And he just doesn't understand why.
And after he makes this expression, his very next sentence:
thinking about the bachelors who searched every corner of the earth for a mate. the ones who died in captivity, having not felt the sun in ages. the new-mates who were struck from the air together and died scared, angry, loving. those precious few who took their last breaths amongst family while the swan songs of their bloodline played outside, unaware. the babies who were poached. the families torn apart.
thinking about the last night fury, who never quite understood. who had always looked to the stars at night, wondering where his proud kind was, why they had not found their way to sanctuary like so many others. thinking about the last night fury, and his new-nest and his new-mate. his new sanctuary where his own swan songs play, speckled in white, half-him, half not. they are the closest to kin he has. and still, he waits. he calls. he searches.
