‘Fortnite’ Pulls ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Dance Emote After Earth-X Reveal, Launches Inquiry “Into Our Partner’s Creative Intentions”
Following the reveal that the Peacemaker Season 2 opening dance sequence contains a not-so-subtle reference to its Earth-X plot twist, Fortnite has completely pulled their collaborative ‘Peaceful Hips’ emote until further notice, its ultimate fate resting on a pending inquiry into DC Studios’ “creative intentions”.
RELATED: ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2: Lex Luthor’s Surprising Return Explained
Set to Foxy Shazam’s Oh Lord, its lyrics a somber admission from a father to his son as to the endless cycle of conflict inherent to human existence, said dance sequence was initially taken as nothing more than standard Peacemaker fare, as it not only followed in the footsteps of its first season opener but also served as a perfect encapsulation of the show’s surreal, ‘play it straight’ style of comedy.
However, with the premiere of the season’s sixth episode, Ignorance is Chris, that the ‘perfect’ alternate universe Peacemaker had spent the entire season idolizing was not the ‘ultra heroic’ Earth-2, but rather the Nazi-conquered Earth-X, as originally introduced into DC canon in 1973’s Justice League of America Vol. 1 #107.
And thanks to this added context, it became retroactively clear that the Season 2 intro’s pop-and-lock choreography was actually chock full of visual references to this fact, including goosesteps, ‘Seig Heil’ hand motions, and Swastika-evoking arm movements.
RELATED: Despite Earth-2 Focus, James Gunn Says ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Is Not “A Multiverse Story”
With Fortnite being the ‘go-to’ platform for youth video game advertising, the premiere of Peacemaker Season 2 unsurprisingly brought with it the battle royale debut of the Charlton Comics hero as a playable character, along with a gun wrap themed after his costume, a costumed Eagly back bling, a shield-logo pickaxe, and a pair of emotes, ‘Peace Approved’ allowing the player to rubberstamp Peacemaker’s emblem into the air in front of them and ‘Peaceful Hips’ to perform said opening dance.
Hitting the in-game store on September 14th, these DCU-themed cosmetics would ultimately be available for both purchase and use for just 13 days, as Epic Games would completely disable the emote following the episode’s premiere.
“We’re disabling the Peaceful Hips Emote in Fortnite as we inquire into our partner’s creative intentions in this collab emote,” announced the developer on September 27th via the official ‘Fortnite Status‘ Twitter account. “Assuming it’s not coming back, we’ll issue refunds in the next few days. Sorry folks.”
Interestingly enough, while the developer was relatively quick to completely disable said emote due to its Nazi imagery, they have not taken such decisive action against other cosmetics whose source material is far more controversial.
For example, September 13th saw the debut of Kai Cenat-themed set of cosmetics, its offerings including ‘The Tylil Dance’ emote, as named after a member of the popular Twitch personality’s AMP streamer collective, thetylilshow, and which plays the audio to the song Violent Crimes, as written, produced, and released by self-professed anti-semite and Adolf Hitler fanboy Kanye “Ye” West.
Further, though their most recent, respective appearance in the in-game store on September 8th and September 11th may admittedly end up being their last, players who have already bought them can still access two Jam Tracks – Locked & Loaded and What Are You Waiting For – from singer/songwriter David ‘D4vd’ Burke, who is currently attached to a murder investigation relating to the September 8th discovery of a heavily decomposed corpse, later identified as 15-year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, in the trunk of Tesla registered to his name.
As of publication, Epic Games has yet to render a final verdict on the ‘Peaceful Hips’ emote.
