Final Stage Podcast (William and Arsenette)

[Shuberb674]

Within the range of 5 to 20, where do you anticipate ratings to lie?

[kianmike]

Do you think there will be an American Ninja Warrior video game designed for the Nintendo Switch,XBOX One,& PS4?

[arsenette]

We record tomorrow night - thanks for the questions!

[arsenette]

Shownotes/photos on the website.

[DonalM]

You guys got a shoutout on ANW Nation!

[arsenette]

Feb 13, 2017 16:05:48 GMT -5 DonalM said:

You guys got a shoutout on ANW Nation!

Yes thanks! William found the article and tweeted it to me. It's an honor to even be IN that company. I adore their description of us. LOL!!

This is for the hardcore fans. Hosts William and Arsenette dive deeply into everything that’s related to the Ninja world. We’re talking Ninja Warrior, Sasuke, Kunoichi, with lots of history to provide context to their discussions.

[arsenette]

Those that follow me on Twitter will understand at least a little bit, but William and I will be finishing the podcast this year. We will record March's episode at the end of February which is a week and a half away. April's podcast will have his experience at NNL and it will be our final podcast. I'm leaving Sasuke altogether and hopefully over the next two podcasts I can explain the reasons why. At the moment I'm not in any real position to explain without screaming but I'm done supporting Sasuke effective immediately. Will has been amazing and I will miss doing this particular podcast however we plan at some point to collab again in other stuff we feel like on our respective YouTube channels. We will make more announcement later. Brain kinda wonky and heart is heavy. Thanks for your support and understanding and am sorry I can't go into detail for the moment.

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Feb 15, 2017 20:01:32 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Those that follow me on Twitter will understand at least a little bit, but William and I will be finishing the podcast this year. We will record March's episode at the end of February which is a week and a half away. April's podcast will have his experience at NNL and it will be our final podcast. I'm leaving Sasuke altogether and hopefully over the next two podcasts I can explain the reasons why. At the moment I'm not in any real position to explain without screaming but I'm done supporting Sasuke effective immediately. Will has been amazing and I will miss doing this particular podcast however we plan at some point to collab again in other stuff we feel like on our respective YouTube channels. We will make more announcement later. Brain kinda wonky and heart is heavy. Thanks for your support and understanding and am sorry I can't go into detail for the moment.

May I ask if you'll still continue the book? I thoroughly appreciate all you've done arsenette and I understand if you must drop something on such short notice. Will you continue to be here on the SMF or is this your swan song here too? Sorry for asking so much but I still want to thank you for everything.  

[arsenette]

Feb 16, 2017 0:58:26 GMT -5 LusitaniaAngel313 said:

Feb 15, 2017 20:01:32 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Those that follow me on Twitter will understand at least a little bit, but William and I will be finishing the podcast this year. We will record March's episode at the end of February which is a week and a half away. April's podcast will have his experience at NNL and it will be our final podcast. I'm leaving Sasuke altogether and hopefully over the next two podcasts I can explain the reasons why. At the moment I'm not in any real position to explain without screaming but I'm done supporting Sasuke effective immediately. Will has been amazing and I will miss doing this particular podcast however we plan at some point to collab again in other stuff we feel like on our respective YouTube channels. We will make more announcement later. Brain kinda wonky and heart is heavy. Thanks for your support and understanding and am sorry I can't go into detail for the moment.

May I ask if you'll still continue the book? I thoroughly appreciate all you've done arsenette and I understand if you must drop something on such short notice. Will you continue to be here on the SMF or is this your swan song here too? Sorry for asking so much but I still want to thank you for everything.  

Yes. In fact that is full speed ahead. If anything.. this.. incident has caused me to hone in the title of my book. I just can't support production of this show anymore. I promise I will formally explain in as much detail as possible. I just have to clear some political hurdles and make sure I don't burn my bridge or open myself to a lawsuit on the way out. I'm mulling how I handle SMF. That decision hasn't been made yet. I have 1 project I'm still working on, I'm abandoning 3 others, I already scaled back my blogs last year anyway so that is unaffected, and I'm finishing what I started with the sponsored trip to Japan last year. I will definitely finish that as that since I only have very little left and none of it was the tournament - besides.. I had fun. Either way, really sorry to be cryptic, I just have to be careful how I handle this. It just hurts. I poured 10 years of my life in this show and 9 of it through Rambling Rican. I'm not really doing so hot right now personally. So please give me time and I'll explain it the best I can without getting sued.

[TCM]

I was going to put this on Twitter but I know how verbose I can be so I might as well not even kid myself.  I know some will roll their eyes and scoff at this, but if you don't like it, there's a neat little feature browsers have that allow you to do a magical thing.  You can go back a page to keep from subjecting yourself to posts you don't like to read!  You can even close it entirely!  The Internet can be a wonderful thing.  Anyway...

Just from my imagination based around what could possibly force this hand (and chances are it's worse than that), it is nothing short of a tragic shame that behind-the-scenes has gotten so toxic that they are willing to throw away a decade of goodwill for whatever political nonsense or downright incompetency that is occurring (and just to clarify this isn't me inquiring, I have full intention on respecting your right to disclose what you can when you can both from a legal and emotional standpoint).  A bad apple spoiling the whole bushel is an often mis-used metaphor and it's unfortunate it seems as though it'll actually be accurately applied in this case.


I, like a plurality (if not majority) of people here have personally used your work as a branching off point for our own appreciation of the show in a variety of ways.  Whether that's analysis, speculation or even using your blogs and tournament reviews as reference points.  There are times where I've known your info to be more reliable than the wikia at times, especially now haha. My first entry into the community was through the G4 Ninja Warrior board and from that branching onward to the entire lifetime of SMF, you have been a constant presence and your commitment not just to give people the little information we as fans can be privy to but to be willing to fact check and stick your neck out as a face of the community, an ambassador for the fans of sorts has honestly helped make me a bigger fan of the show than if I simply just tried to catch it on TV when I could.  And I thank you for that.  It helped grant an escape for me at times, even when I was one of those kids who just didn't know better or a staff member who you wish could do things just a little bit differently.  I mean, you might as well be honorary staff with the amount of mail you get   I could only hope to have been as in the know/knowledgeable as you were and make it worthwhile to be here.  

As for whether or not you'll stay here on SMF, I know I'm not saying anything mind-blowing when I say you don't owe us anything.  You are one of the anchors of this community in terms of helping it grow and thrive even if this place is drastically different now than it was then.  Whether you leave this place entirely or even just lurk, this community will not just have a hole in terms of coverage and stability (I don't mean from an administrative aspect, I mean a social one), but in my eyes, an irreplaceable one.  Most of us can gleam social media and post announcements and pictures and links.  But your ability to gain a perspective such as from competitors we otherwise might not be as able to obtain, which has been cultivated from years of trust people have been willing to give to you, is second-to-none around here.  Again, it's not impossible to gleam that, but that sort of consistency and dedication will be missed greatly.  I'm sorry that none of that matters to some powers that be, and that the show is increasingly becoming hostile and even more alienating.  I'm sorry for the amount of distress this must be causing; you have been around as long as I've been aware of the show, so I can't imagine the kind of emotions.  Thankless job doesn't even begin to describe it.  I can imagine a decent amount of people, fans and competitors would be upset by this, whenever it comes out. The community and show will roll on, for however long it does, but it will not be the same.  Much love and support from a fan and follower <3   

[Deleted]

As a SASUKE fan i'm ashamed of how TBS has treated you. You deserve better than that. Racism, whichever way it goes, is just downright unacceptable...TBS better sort themselves out immediately.

[arsenette]

I spent the better part of the week vetting all information regarding the incident before I make my full statement. Like I mentioned before I don't want to be sued but I will defend myself. I'm still reaching the same conclusion and I'm getting back up from several sources from different countries who were party to it. It is/was racism but it's "casual" racism. I find that worse because they think it is justified under the circumstances. In other words.. they didn't see that they did anything wrong. That's worse to me than someone being openly hostile on the basis of race. I promise I'll make a full statement as detailed as possible. I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I do it. Needless to say there's a lot of back and forth and obviously it's heated. In the meantime I do thank everyone for your support. Seriously. I expected the hate train of "zomg she opened her mouth so she got what she deserved". I would take responsibility if it was something stupid I did. It's one of those guilty by association things and something I could emphatically and factually prove wasn't me. I'm going to work on the statement over the weekend with my husband whom some of you know by now is really friggin' level headed. So while my own written statement would be about 45 pages long with emogies his would be 1 page factual statement. I've managed to get it to a point where I will do a video thing and actually talk on front of the camera. So much is lost on paper and something this important to me I want my emotions to show and my feelings expressed along with the text. Some will hate me, others won't care. I know that. But I want to get it right because I have soooooooooo many friends inside the Sasuke world. About the 1 thing though that I didn't expect, especially from the Japan side was solidarity. They know what was done was wrong and I was supported immediately. I've spent 4 days straight crying over the overwhelming support. I also spent the same time in anger because this hasn't happened to me in 25 years. So while it's all cryptic and crap right now I do ask please to allow me space to make sure I get this one final message out - correctly - the first time around. And for that to happen I have to make sure I got my information correct. I do.. and that is what is sad.

In the meantime to try to shift the focus because William and I have 2 podcasts to go, I'd like for some questions for the March podcast. The topics we are including are the ANW All-Stars - the only ANW event I actually look forward to! LOL That goes live on Monday the 20th? I think so.. Ultimate Beastmaster (though I we might actually move that to April but just in case feel free to ask - that goes live next Friday the 24th). Also Kunoichi - Yes Kunoichi. I am detached from that enough that I can objectively talk about it - besides William and I quite enjoyed it. Depending on whether or not I manage to get my statement out I may approach the subject.

April will be the final episode because I wanted William's report from NNL which will happen the day the March podcast goes live (hopefully if he manages to edit it before he has to board a plane to San Francisco) and Ultimate Beastmaster. The bulk of any statements and a look back at the 2 years we did this podcast will also be on there as one final episode with a proper close.

I do ask that no one ask me Sasuke 33 questions. That could be possible have aired by that time (I don't know - frankly I haven't had the heart to even research that). I want to stop with Kunoichi in my timeline. And frankly, I'm still recovering from having to stop Sasuke coverage. Something that has consumed my life for 10 years. So if anyone has any questions for either show, I will start amassing them as a way to distract myself.

Edit: major grammar mistakes.. geez..

[Philip]

Didn't see this thread until now.

We have had many fun conversations and arguments over the years, but words cannot describe how much I appreciate what you have done for our community, Arsenette.

Politics f***ing suck

[Ameri]

Arsenette, I used to read your blog all the time. It always amused me. We're gonna miss you.
EDIT: On the HEAVY off-chance something HUGE happens to change your mind (which I don't want to press because I don't want to upset you), would you stop being against SASUKE? This isn't meant to be rude or ignorant to your previous statements. If you don't want to answer this, I can remove it

[arsenette]

Feb 18, 2017 17:15:04 GMT -5 Ameri said:

Arsenette, I used to read your blog all the time. It always amused me. We're gonna miss you.
EDIT: On the HEAVY off-chance something HUGE happens to change your mind (which I don't want to press because I don't want to upset you), would you stop being against SASUKE? This isn't meant to be rude or ignorant to your previous statements. If you don't want to answer this, I can remove it

No not at all. That's a valid question. My problem with the show is the direction of the current set of shows. I've gone on record about it before and my rant last year is a microcosm of what it is that bothers me about the current era of Sasuke and why I retired from spoilerific blogs and news on my blogs last year. This specific incident and ultimately a decision recently made as a result of this incident is something in addition that accused me of a wrongdoing I didn't commit. I wrote my statement this afternoon, hubby is looking over it to make sure I don't say something I don't mean in anger and to stick to the facts and I will most likely record a video by Monday. I want to edit Geoff Britten's interview that I taped on Thursday in the middle of this chaos. So once I get that out then I can tackle this extremely uncomfortable video.

As for being against Sasuke - I'm against the political nature of this current show's editing (again see the video from last year) but I'm never against the people of this show. Just like I'm frustrated with ANW's direction and presentation but I can separate my love for it's competitors. I'm in that boat with Sasuke now. That is why I'm writing my book so that I can document as a fangirl how much I love this show, etc. etc. I still love Sasuke. I just can't support the production of the current show. It literally hurts to watch.

[Ameri]

Feb 18, 2017 18:23:26 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Feb 18, 2017 17:15:04 GMT -5 Ameri said:

Arsenette, I used to read your blog all the time. It always amused me. We're gonna miss you.
EDIT: On the HEAVY off-chance something HUGE happens to change your mind (which I don't want to press because I don't want to upset you), would you stop being against SASUKE? This isn't meant to be rude or ignorant to your previous statements. If you don't want to answer this, I can remove it

No not at all. That's a valid question. My problem with the show is the direction of the current set of shows. I've gone on record about it before and my rant last year is a microcosm of what it is that bothers me about the current era of Sasuke and why I retired from spoilerific blogs and news on my blogs last year. This specific incident and ultimately a decision recently made as a result of this incident is something in addition that accused me of a wrongdoing I didn't commit. I wrote my statement this afternoon, hubby is looking over it to make sure I don't say something I don't mean in anger and to stick to the facts and I will most likely record a video by Monday. I want to edit Geoff Britten's interview that I taped on Thursday in the middle of this chaos. So once I get that out then I can tackle this extremely uncomfortable video.

As for being against Sasuke - I'm against the political nature of this current show's editing (again see the video from last year) but I'm never against the people of this show. Just like I'm frustrated with ANW's direction and presentation but I can separate my love for it's competitors. I'm in that boat with Sasuke now. That is why I'm writing my book so that I can document as a fangirl how much I love this show, etc. etc. I still love Sasuke. I just can't support the production of the current show. It literally hurts to watch.

So you're okay with older competitions, I take it?

[arsenette]

Yep. Sasuke for me is people not obstacles.

[Philip]

I just hope the parties responsible for this BS they pulled against you get enough backlash that they learn their lesson.

I should probably add that I'm not telling people to start s***, but rather in a more respectful manner... even if this scary trend of gaijin-hating isn't respectful on their part.

[Deleted]

If SASUKE and ANW do the same thing...then the competitors should BOYCOTT the competition and make a breakaway series...that is about the people not the money.

[2D2Will]

It's great to see the support that's coming in. Obviously Arsenette and myself talked about this before hand and I support her 100%. Without her, there is no podcast and I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else. I've been quiet on the topic so far because I wanted to figure out what this meant for me. From March through July I had weekly videos planned out for TwoTwentyTwo Productions, almost all Sasuke related. But after recent events I've decided to discard most of my plans. I'm not really excited to make Sasuke videos at this time. Unfortunately, this also means I won't be doing the Sasuke Live Preshow anymore. I'd like to transfer back into more general obstacle course stuff (and randomness) like I intended the site to be when I created it back in 2007. Of course I'll still be covering the National Ninja League Finals, so you don't have to worry about that. I also decided that I wanted to do one final Sasuke Guessing Game for the community. Some may remember that I've considered ending the game in the past and I think now is the time to do so. As for the forums post April, I'll probably pop by to talk wrestling with everyone and I'll probably stay in the ANW discussion as well.

Thanks everyone for your support these (almost) 2 years.