User blog:Appelmonkey/Monthly News January 2020



Will also include the news from December.

Wiki News

 * New year, new Yearly Deadliest Fiction Awards. Do you wanna help your favorite battles and users of 2019 get the recognition they deserve? Head over to the blog and go nominate them!
 * With the shortening of the warrior infoboxes, which included the 'weapons' section, the weapon pages had become irrelevant. What was worse was that the formatting of most weapon pages no longer held up with our current standards with no one really interested in improving them. So we deleted all of them, they're gone now. Please give us praise for getting rid of all the trash. Thank you.

Battle Advertisement

 * Tarot Royale BR: After the critically acclaimed Juuni Taisen and Operation Zodiac battle royals wiki veteran Leolab presents his latest massive battle royal, this time centered around the tarot arcana. Taking place inside of the dystopian city of DFederal, alliances are forged, backs are stabbed and titans clash all to obtain the #1 spot. With fighters from mythology, anime, video games, and novels, there will be no telling who will be the Deadliest Warrior.


 * Grazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka (Warhammer 40k) vs. Thanos (MCU): Oi, ya listin'? Gud, cauze the boyz are havin' themselves a big ol' WAAAGH! but not just any piss poor little WAAAGH! thrown by sum low lyfe warlord. Nah, this is a WAAAGH! thrown by teh profet of brutal but kunnin' Gork and kunnin' yet brutal Mork, Grazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka! And they arent goin' to fight some puny humans either, but some purple big shot calt Thaneus. I dunno who dat is, but his chin looks like a littel purple bum. Hehehe. I donnot like that gluv tho.


 * Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) vs. Sabrina Spellman (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina): The latest battle in the DFRI! Two of the most powerful and intelligent witches of their time clash. In one corner, the muggle-born Minister of Magic who assisted Harry Potter in his battle against the Dark Lord Voldemort: Hermoine Granger vs. the half-witch who reformed the Church of Night and defeated none other than Satan himself.


 * Jonathan Joestar (JoJo's Bizare Adventure) vs. Ghastly Bespoke (Skulduggery Pleasant): When you're living in a world full of snarky assholes where everyone is a dick to everyone else it's refreshing to find a character whose just an all-round nice person, despite the hardships they've faced. But just because these men are proper 𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷 that doesn't mean that they can't square up when they need to brawl to protect the ones they love. Will Jonathan make Ghastly feel the burn of his Hamon? Or will Ghastly beat Jonathan in a clash of fists and style?


 * Green Lantern (DC Comics) vs X-O Manowar (Valiant Comics): Space: The Final Frontier. It is a place that is almost mythological in today's popular culture. It is in space where a lot of our favorite science-fiction heroes lived and died, where aliens visited or invaded, and whole empires and galaxies rose and fell. Within its fast empties, two warriors will do battle today. Hal Jordan: the most iconic Green Lantern and founder of the Justice League vs. X-O Manowar: the Dacian barbarian abducted by aliens who has found himself in another time.


 * Alucard (Hellsing) vs. Andrew Bennett (DC Comics): Don't lie alright? You like vampires. Don't feel to bad, there is nothing 'emo' about liking these bloodsucking creatures of the night. More often than not these creatures tend to be more monsters rather than men, but that doesn't mean they have to be evil. Some use their unholy powers to protect others from the shadows, more often than not killing their own kind as they do. Like Alucard the Ultimate Vampire who has loyally served the Hellsing family for generations and Andrew Bennett the vampire created by Cain who will stop at nothing to kill his former lover Mary, Queen of Blood.


 * Vandalic Warrior vs. Han Soldier: The Han hegemony is in danger. While facing internal political strife a new threat has been closing in on their borders. Strange men with long messy beards, wide eyes and big noses have shown up, raiding their villages for riches, leaving nothing but destruction and death in their wake. Some even say that they are demons send by Heaven that the Emperor has lost his Mandate. In an attempt to dispell this foreign threat and maintain internal stability, the Emperor has send his armies to deal with them. But deep in his heart, he knows that this won't be enough and what was long united will divide.


 * Viking (Scandinavia) vs. Samurai (Japan): In their search for new lands to plunder and settle, a group of Vikings has found themselves far away from home. This land is strange and different from their cold homeland. Yet it is filled with riches ripe for the taking. But as they land, the Norsemen will find that this land isn't without their defenders. As they get near to a seemingly undefended town, they are met by riders on horseback, carrying strange weaponry and wearing demonic masks and armor. Should the Vikings wish to return home with their desired treasures they have to get through the honor-bound Samurai first.


 * Postal Dude (Postal) vs. The Crusader (Hatred): Will somebody please think of the children!? This so-called 'video games' are turning the youth in violent monsters. Just the other day, my good little son Billy picked up a so-called 'Gameboy' and now he is shooting up marijuana and having premarital sex. What's worse is that he has been visiting this so-called 'Deadliest Fiction' website and voted on 'Postal Dude vs. The Crusader', whatever that means, and now he is listing to rock and wearing leather and having even more premarital sex! We must stop this 'Deadliest Fiction' from further corrupting our youth!

World News

 * US President Donald Trump has been impeached on two counts, much to the joy and anger of the nation depending on which side you’re on. Abuse of Power being the front and center one as the documents have headed to Congress in order to be reviewed and examined by US Senators; who will then decide whether to remove the man from office. Many Republicans have voiced their opinions on the matter and are going to actively seek to shoot down this resolution despite new evidence being presented to the group. I’m waiting for the note from the President saying, “Yes, I am ordering this, what are they going to do throw me in jail?”
 * In a bid to distract the American public from the impeachment trial or just because he was feeling quirky, Donald Trump nearly caused a major conflict against Iran. Killing one its top generals by luring him in on the promise of peace talks and attempts to de-escalate tensions. What followed was immediate backlash from everyone and their grandma, a massive fiasco that is added onto the pile and a missile bombardment from Iran upon several targets. Thankfully no one was killed, and tensions seem to be calming down for the time being. Iran also shot down an airliner during the tensions causing major protests in cities around the country.
 * Sydney is one fire with an estimated half billion animals having been estimated to have perished during the fires. PM Morrison denies all allegations that increased climate change issues are the reason for these fires while he was vacationing in Hawaii. Upon being recalled to the nation, he was met with disgust from those had suffered through the flames, both citizens and volunteer fire fighters who have gone weeks without pay. PM Morrison believe there is such a thing as clean coal, so you have an idea what they’re contending with other there in the land down under.
 * Taiwan’s incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen has won Saturday’s presidential election gaining a second term and beating her rival who seeks closer ties with the Chinese mainland. News outlets report a 74.1% voter turnout rate as she claimed the largest number of votes of any candidate in Taiwan’s history with 8.1 million votes beating out her opponent’s 5.5 million. Tensions have increased in recent years between Taiwan and China are expected to continue as Taiwanese officials are pushing the idea of a truly independent Taiwan republic.

Popculture

 * Taylor Swift has broken Micheal Jackson's records for holding the most American Music Awards. At the time of his death, Jackson held 26 awards which has been surpassed by Swift's 29. The other big winners of the AMA are Billie Eilish for Best New Artist, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes' Señorita for Best Collaboration and the Korean boy band BTS for Best Tour.


 * Pokémon Sword and Shield has been released and has received much praise for new gameplay elements and visual flare, though it received major criticism from fans for leaving out some Pokémon. By now the Pokémon franchise is 23 years old with over 800 in its national Pokédex. With so many creatures roaming around the game's world it naturally becomes hard to balance the game not to mention to read all the Pokémon so developer Game Freak was forced to pick and chose which Pokémon to leave in and out of the game, including some from the first game in the series Pokémon Red and Blue. Naturally, this lead to some fans being quite upset at the fact that their favorite critter was being left out while others got seemingly preferential treatment. However, this didn't stop Sword and Shield from becoming a success, surpassing even Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in Japan as the most sold Switch game on launch.
 * If you're a fan of SCP Wiki then you might have heard about this already, but if not let me share you the recent 'tea' as the whippersnappers call it these days. The SCP wiki falls under Creative Commons (CC) meaning that it's publicly owned. 6 months ago, however, Andrey Duksin, a Russian artist who worked with the Russian branch of the wiki to create some art and other merch, has copyrighted everything SCP under the Eurasian Customs Union (EACU) and used it to exert power over the Russian branch and several fan communities. Not only that, but he has demanded to be made admin over the Russian branch and it to be turned into a huge advertisement for his own work. This is obviously illegal, but thanks to the EACU's backward bullshit he has been able to get away with and the SCP wiki has decided to lawyer the heck up. If you wanna help out you can donate here to their legal fund or by simply spreading the word. DF stands with SCP Russia.


 * Taking a brief break from internet legal troubles we switch over to something more light-hearted. Elon Musk recently revealed his latest electric car: the Cybertruck. An off-road vehicle with bulletproof glass and clad in the same kind of steel being used to make SpaceX's Starship spacecraft. This no doubt made you think that it is a super cool space car, just too bad it looks like it came right from a PS1 game. Not only that, but when Musk tried to show off the car's bulletproof glass by throwing a metal ball at it, he ended up denting it. The Cybertruck is said to hit the markets in 2022, so they will at least of some time to work out the kinks.
 * So, there is a lot of drama surrounding the COPPA law, the FTC, and YouTube. I won't go too deep into COPPA, but to sum it up, it is a law that prevents websites from gathering date on children that are 13 and younger, including cookies. YouTube for a while didn't fall under COPPA because you needed to be over 13 to create an account. However, as children's content on YouTube began to grow and children began to use YouTub more and more the social media juggernaut could no longer support this argument and was sued by several child advocacy groups. Not only did they have to pay a fine but also make a new rule which will go in effect in 2020 that videos that aren't for children and aren't clearly marked as such. The problem is even if you make videos for people in their late teens, YouTube and the FTC might just label it as kids content anyway. Clearly this got some people creators upset, but if it will really be bad as they say remains to be seen.


 * The 9th Streamy Awards were given out and it was the first time that it was done without a host, but that was not why people are talking about it. First, there was the song Six Days of Starrrdom preformed by drag queen and makeup YouTuber Patrick Starrr, which was an LGBT parody of Twelve Days of Christmas that sounded like it was written by a 50-year-old straight person who never emerged themselves into the community and was considered by many (to put it in internet terms) cringe. What drew the most ire, however, was Tana Mongeau, of TanaCon fame, winning Creator of the Year audience's choice awards. Many claimed that it was undeserved and mocked Mongeau for her acceptance speech where she stated how surprised she was to receive it, despite pulling very hard for it on social media. Other major awards were given to Sam and Colby for Best Action or Scifi, Andrei Terbea for Best Animation, MrBeast for Breakout Character, Jack Douglas for Best Comedy, and Shane Dawson's The Secret World of Jeffree Star for Best Documentary.
 * So, Cats came out and I think that it goes without saying that it was pretty bad. Based on the Broadway play of the same name, Cats was fighting an uphill battle from the very beginning as its source material was considered to be mediocre to begin with. Then the first trailer came out which was universally mocked for the uncanny valley-like design of its characters, which resembled strange cat people rather than anthropomorphic cats. Then the movie finally came out the reaction of critics and audiences alike was universally negative, with many citing the non-existent plot and songs that were mostly about introducing new characters that then proceeded to do nothing at all as the main source of the problem. Along with the terrible design of course. Go ahead if you wanna see it, but there are better things to spend your time on.


 * YouTuber Gregory Jackson, better known as Onision, has been going through a lot of controversies as of late. It all started in November when Patreon removed his account from their platform for doxing fellow YouTube creator Billie Dawn Webb, who accused him of abuse and child grooming. In response, Onision uploaded a video of himself where he screamed and poured kombucha on himself. Its unclear as to why, but many speculate that it was done to for attention. The Chris Hansen announced that he and the FBI are currently investigating the matter during an interview with one of the alleged victims, Sarah, and invited Onision on his podcast, which he refused to do without getting paid. He was also fined for disturbing the wetlands in his backyard.

Battle of the Season
It is that time again, Battle of the Season! Users get one week (or longer if needed) to nominate their favorite battles that were written between October and December 2019. A battle needs three nominations to be eligible for the final poll. Users can't nominate their own battles. After the time is up a poll will be posted where users can vote for their pick of Battle of the Season. Good luck everyone!

Birthdays
Will it be your birthday this month? Post the date and/or the age you will be in the comments and I will add you to the list. Happy birthday!
 * Appelmonkey will be 22 on the 23rd.