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No video that uses “SJW” unironically should be taken seriously.

1) People claiming it's just a MeToo witch hunt haven't been paying attention for the years of less viable claims but in retrospect probably truthful ones going 'round. This is ---- that's been going on for a while, it's only been taken seriously just now due to actually being organized and putting names to accusations. 2) The photoshopping thing is a false flag. Literally the person who "said" it is a neutral party being impersonated. And even so it's a single individual, and should not discount the other accounts that are unrelated. 3) The whole thing with Todd is "telling on yourself" of the most bewildering type. His "accuser" didn't even bother to name him and wouldn't have lest others first came forward with their own accounts. Then he tries to cover his ass in spite of this, and someone else who was present confirms, no, the victim really was being fed a LOT of alcohol to an unsavory point. It's... a lot. How that should've been handled was privately if, as he claims, he didn't realize he was doing something wrong but... "Whoops"? Honestly it's a headache to keep up with, but given the fact those in the industry are either victims themselves or stand with the victims at this point (or are not saying anything), and then those who are backing the Vic diehards are a bunch of... how to put it diplomatically... Always Online™ types apparently trying to start "Animegate" and outright harass individuals like Monica Rial in person (with one death threat so far) and threaten Funi with arson should be telling. If you're not invested either way it is probably best to just disengage. I'm only invested as I am, again, due to the experience I and my sibling have had. Like... is a big conspiracy involving people who appear unrelated to each other that has roots in the industry itself against Vic more likely, or just simply that Vic's just not the guy people thought he was? Just think about that. Any video with SJW in the title should be taken with massive, massive grains of salt if considered at all, tbqh, my dude. >_>;

My sibling and I had an awfully awkward encounter with Vic that while not nearly as bad as some of the accusations kind of definitely made me believe this stuff ever since I started hearing it. And given the stuff I've heard before this, and with especially scary stories like Jessie Pridemore's, I'm glad to see the anime community largely supporting those who have come forward, including a number of other voice actors either directly voicing support or showing support by liking those posts or the posts of people who have been harmed by Vic in some way. Like there's some pushback, particularly from the Gamergate-adjacent crowd or diehard Vic fans who could never believe such things, but largely it's not as bad as I think it could've been. Like.... there's something like 100+ accusations or accounts, the vast majority coming from people unrelated to each other, the chances of them all or even mostly all being false is pretty low. So even if you've only had good experiences with him, keep that in mind.

It's back hons! This thread is a place where Otakon goers can stay ahead of any potential troubles getting to or from the 26th Otakon. I'm opening the thread early because the con is a little sooner in 2019, but also because Metro are about to consider one of FOUR different options concerning operating hours. They are: OPTION 1: Maintain current hours (Mon-Thu 5:30a - 11:30pm / Fri 5am - 1am / Sat 7am - 1am / Sun 8am - 11pm) OPTION 2: Revert to pre-2016 hours (Mon-Thu 5am - MIDNIGHT / Fri 5am - 3am / Sat 7am - 3am / Sun 7am - MIDNIGHT) OPTION 3 [Alternative 1]: Reduce weekend morning service, and increase late night service w/weeknight single tracking (Mon-Thu 5:30am - MIDNIGHT / Fri 5:30am - 3am / Sat 9am - 3am / Sun 10:30am - MIDNIGHT) OPTION 4 [Alternative 2]: Add an hour to Fri. & Sat. night and Sun. morn, but also increase weekend single tracking (Mon-Thu 5am -11:30pm / Fri 5am - 2am / Sat 7am - 2am / Sun 7am - 11pm) Each of these options will have an effect on how Otakon goers get around on Metro. More on this story as decisions are made.

Couple of things wrong with this: 1) A number of fellow voice actors and industry insiders have come out- first in support of victims, and then revealing they themselves have been victimized or witnessed creepy behavior from Vic. This isn't only congoers or fans coming forward, it's people who really know the guy. 2) RoosterTeeth has broken ties with him and Funi has replaced Vic in an upcoming dub with another actor. It's clear that at least these two companies think that the information presented is enough to choose to stop doing business with Vic. Perhaps they even have information we don't have (nor are we privileged to). 3) Filing charges for sexual assault or even non-sexual harassment long after the fact is hard, if not impossible. Consider that Texas's statue of limitations for sexual assault is five years, and sexual harassment is 300 days- if it's been that long since the event, it cannot be filed. Many other locales have similar statutes, and a lot of these stories seem to be at least that old if not older. This doesn't even get into the fact that research shows that many, many legitimate sexual assault and harassment cases are thrown out before they're even filed due to police choosing not to believe the victim or, in the case of harassment, that it "wasn't that bad", so if he did anything creepy recently, it's not unfathomable it'd never reach investigation let alone trial. Just because of the biases inherent in our system of law regarding sexual harassment and assault. So a lot of victims simply don't bother reporting, and even if they did, chances are nothing would come of it in spite of it really happening. For this reason, public knowledge is as important in protecting people as the court of law. And the fact is, there are hundreds of people coming forward with firsthand stories of sex-pestery, or unprofessional or rude behavior... a good many putting public-figure-names to their accusations. Like, you can personally choose to think EVERYONE is lying (somehow), but the fact is, most people are going to see that Vic's got a lot of apologizing (actual apologizing, not shedding crocodile tears and giving a non-apology that puts the onus on his victims and subtly encouraging his fans to go after them) and growing to do, and that people aren't going to instantly forgive him until he's proved he can change- not that victims need to EVER forgive who's wronged them. Yeah, a lot of fans have been heartbroken seeing Vic get outed (and Todd more or less self-out) like this, thinking that they "knew them", so the fact that people who actually spend entire weekends with them or work with him are discovering this must be even harder on them. I'm sorry you had to find out like this. And of course I feel even more sorry for the victims. For what it's worth I agree that, while a list of people at cons to avoid is a good idea, the fact there isn't a lot of vetting going on and the individual hosting it is completely anonymous (not even a real username to speak of) makes all but the most backed-up named names worth taking with a huge grain of salt.

There's a big honking gap between a credible account and an indictment. He doesn't need to be in handcuffs for people to conclude he did these things or for him to suffer consequences like being disinvited from cons and recast in RWBY and at least one other show. There have been whispers about him for years. Even Monica Rial, a fellow voice actor, says she was on the receiving end. The difference is that now, people are listening. If I catch wind he's going to be in the dub of something I'd like to buy, I don't know about you, but I won't buy it. Or I won't go to a con that would invite him from now on. And I can't possibly be alone.

Hotel offers/requests should be placed in the Rooms & Rides subtopic.

Hey all! So it has come to my attention that the previously posted thread I had posted about a year ago with a link to the unofficial Otakon Discord server has expired, so here's the new one that won't expire: https://discord.gg/JR7xGKe See anyone that wants to be there, there!

That's indeed the case, as is the case in all industries, really. You have to recognize that dealing with sexual assault and harassment isn't something we as a society are all that good at. Companies would rather silence dissent or tell people to hash it out quietly, in order to keep things running smoothly. Or, again, due to the failure of us as a society to address sexual assault and harassment, not saying anything out of fear. I could get into it further but that'd take the discussion into a political realm and I'd rather keep the discussion centered around Vic. Basically, people staying quiet on such things isn't due to pure negligence - it's a fear of losing a livelihood of their own, or being thought of as a liar or rumormonger. I feel that's a positive of #MeToo: It's a signal that people can openly talk about bad experiences where they were assaulted, harassed, or made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe without being apologized to, and that many will believe and support them. As they always should have, tbh. And, like I said, like it's obviously horrible people have been hurt by Vic, it's a shame people who have had nothing but good experiences with people like Vic have to deal with this. This idea that someone they admired on some level and treated them kindly might be someone more sinister. To that I say you should take the good you got out of your experiences- whether in person or via experiencing Vic's roles- and cherish that, while also understanding he's severely fucked up personally and needs to be held accountable to improve himself and stop harming others, and that his victims ought be supported. If that makes sense.

but... but... I'm not cool! *hides*

LMFAO

There are lots of cool people in it That's why I didn't say including me

feh and you're not one of them... LOL jk jk

There are lots of cool people in it

most likely said person is part of the risembol ranger cult that doesnt believe said accusations.

I made my judgment based on the fact these rumors have been around vic since 2000 ish. If he honestly cared he would have made a statement and changed his attitude way before the fact. to say he was completely unaware is laughable but now that consequences are happening is when he suddenly starts the tearful apologies is what i call guilty to some degree. He shouldnt be completely cast out from his primary source of income because i doubt hes rich enough to be unemployed for years. he should lose some so at least that puts said behavior in check. unless a far more serious crime becomes apparent with evidence. And this is long overdue in our community for so many reasons. The sheer amount of horror stories from women are reason enough to treat every accusation as truth. all the times ive talked to any women i know who are active as cosplayers have a list of horror stories that could fuel a blog for years. the truly sad part is even non cosplayers have just as many stories of people pretending to professional photographers or some other lie to try to get them alone. burn it down and build it better is what we need to do for every aspect not just our culture. The rot is too deep to expect minor actions to work at this point.

well thats really good to hear and that apology is absolute bs. i was afraid due to the nature of anime they would shrug this off due to him being a draw. But really glad to see the predators running out of places to hide from the light. as much fallout as this will cause i hope it starts a trend and we get as many of these people out in open. especially since they wield a scary amount of power with young people in the anime scene.

In general, I really hope the Makerspace comes back! We kept meaning to go, but just never found the time. Anniversary-wise, I agree that a retrospective of the AMV contest would be a great idea! Maybe some sort of panel discussing the history of the con from its inception to present day? That might be cool.

Here's hoping for delicious yet affordable food.

Some reproduction stuff would be cool; I miss my '09 shirt. ;_;

I hope they do a "best of AMVs" segment for the last 25 years (or however far back they had the AMV contest) for all the best in shows. I know they did something similar for the Baltimore years.

I'm hoping for lanterns kimonos and umbrellas and the classic Japanese specials we see in our anime

Yeah, I don't see someone setting off fireworks in the WEWCC, because that would be dumb. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe outside, if it were feasible? Like sparklers or something. Some food trucks selling Japanese style food would be nice, yeah.

I would love to see some Japanese style food vendors with festival foods

Since one of Otakon's missions is to spread knowledge about east Asian culture beyond anime, what if we had a guest or two that was involved with a different style of animation? Like stop-motion. It's kind of to come mind recently that stop-motion animation isn't really an animation style you hear about coming from Japan. Like what if there could be a guest who was involved with stop-motion? Like anyone who's worked on the holiday specials released by Rankin/Bass? Not too many people know about this but the animation for practically every stop-motion tv holiday special released by Rankin/Bass (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is comin' to Town, etc.) WERE ALL ANIMATED IN JAPAN. That's just an example, of course, and I was just thinking that having someone who was involved with stop-motion would be a nice guest to have, and we could all learn how in any sort of stop-motion production, how the many figures and puppets are made, and setting the frames to the flow naturally in every little shot. Unless if it's already been done before, what if we could have a guest whose works involve stop-motion animation?