valko's removal (& infold's atrocious decision making in general) has sent me into my joker arc. bc like TF YOU MEAN you had artists spending this much time and energy creating a character and storyline, just to scrap all of it??? like???? genuinely baffling and disgusting. i'm infuriated not only because of the awful treatment of the playerbase, but because of infold execs' absolute disrespect of their artists & ground floor employees. the main story was literally written with him being an essential part of it in mind, and now they have to rewrite the entire story to have his absence make any semblance of sense.
as a raf main, his story now feels so bittersweet knowing that the real artists working for infold are treated as so expendable. so much of rafayel's character serves as a love letter to artists of all mediums- and to see the infold bigwigs so easily forego that sentiment makes it all feel so hollow. as an artist myself, knowing that the people who created him can get screwed over at the drop of a dime honestly breaks my heart. sending all the love to the creatives who put so much effort into what they do, and wishing them prosperity in all of their future projects. i'm really hoping for a day where the character they poured so much hard work and time into is reinstated, or that they can at least find a new employer that grants them the creative freedom and respect that they deserve. i hope they know how many people appreciate and admire their artistry- and i hope that their future works are given the space to thrive.
🥂 so here's a toast to all the concept artists, storyboarders, animators, writers, mocap actors, voice actors, musicians, composers, programmers, cosers, and every single person who brought soul to this franchise. yall are the true backbones of this game- not the execs, not the investors, but you. 🫂🩵
so free my mans valko, and free these artists who aren't paid enough to be dealing with this shit.