So much to talk about! Where do I even begin?
Memo to Me: Mishy, you’re supposed to be discussing all of this within the context of DDLV…..
*deep breath*
So, you may or may not remember a couple of days ago when I said to pay close attention not just to the DDLV panel on Friday, but to everything happening at D23 this year? Well, I love it when I seem to be right! (Who doesn’t, right?)
Probably the biggest reveal of the entire weekend was saved until the very last moments of the Parks and Experiences Panel on Saturday night (called “Horizons” and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris): the return of Dreamfinder to Epcot in Orlando, Florida. Those of us who are huge fans of Epcot have been desperate for this to happen since Dreamfinder first left the attraction back in 1998! This big reveal has some potentially enormous ramifications for the still-unfolding mystery of the Realmweaver’s identity in the Valley, but to fully understand where I’m going with my speculations, we’re going to need to take a deeper look at several other things that also happened at D23 over the weekend. (For full coverage of the Parks and Experiences Panel, you can check it out here at the Laughing Place on YouTube, or it may still be available on Disney+.)
One thing that happened, which I very briefly mentioned in my previous post, was a panel focused on the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (SEA). That panel happened on the same day as the DDLV panel. The Society of Explorers and Adventurers is one of those things that, until recently, only Disney “superfans” really knew much about. It was created for the backstory of an attraction at Tokyo Disneysea, but then ret-conned into a host of other attractions, resorts, and experiences–even ones which no longer exist, like the Adventurers Club at the now-defunct Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World (for the full backstory of SEA, please see this fantastic video by the Mouselets). At the panel on Friday, D23 attendees were given a brief history and explanation of SEA, followed by what was promised to be the reveal of a newly arrived artifact via the opening of a crate, delivered by a Jungle Cruise Skipper (you can see the full panel at the Laughing Place). Now, you may well be asking: what does any of this possibly have to do with the Valley, much less with the Realmweaver?
The answer to that question is partially revealed in the note which was contained in the aforementioned crate. It read:
“Dearest Society of vapid Explorers and mediocre Adventurers: You have been fooled! I stole your artifact. You want it back? Then try and catch me in the act!”
I was immediately struck by how much the tone and manner of speaking of whoever allegedly wrote this note sounded like the Realmweaver. Compare the SEA note to the first and second notes we ever received from the Realmweaver:
“I thought I’d keep this raccoon as ANOTHER companion, but he bit me and ate all the snacks in my hideout! Good riddance!
– The Realmweaver
P.S.: I’ll be seeing you, but will you see me? Hehehe…”
“You didn’t think I was finished, did you? I’ve got something EPIC planned for a certain hero and his satyr pal. Here’s hoping the gods like my art style or there could be trouble. Hehehe…— The Realmweaver P.S.: Take some DISGUSTING berries for your pesky raccoon friend! I don’t need them anymore!
Of course, the fact that the writing voices of these two fictional characters highly resemble each other is proof of nothing, but it does get one’s wheels turning (or, at least, it does for me!). Especially if we dig back into Dreamfinder’s history, because the origin story of Dreamfinder and Figment also has ties to the SEA. Way back in the late 1970s, Imagineer Tony Baxter designed a proposed land which would have been situated where Galaxy’s Edge currently resides at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. That land was called Discovery Bay, and its in-world backstory was that it was founded by a man named Jason Chandler, an adventurer and inventor who was later ret-conned into the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. Within Discovery Bay, one of the proposed attractions was Professor Marvel’s Gallery of Illusion. This later (1983) became the basis for the original Journey Into Imagination at Epcot, with Professor Marvel and his little green dragon becoming Dreamfinder and the loveable purple Figment. If that doesn’t make Dreamfinder at least SEA-adjacent enough for you, he also makes an audio cameo in the Skipper Canteen, a restaurant in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Skipper Canteen is another Disney location with heavy ties to the SEA. In fact, almost every other fictional character mentioned or featured at Skipper Canteen is a confirmed member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers.
Why does any of that matter? One Disney.
At a panel called “In Conversation with Josh D’Amaro” on Sunday at D23, Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon A Time; Zootopia; Zootopia 2) sat down with Disney’s new CEO for a very interesting chat (you can view the whole thing here, at The Laughing Place). Probably the most important takeaway from that entire conversation was when Josh talked about gaming, and how it fits into his One Disney ethos (which I talked about in greater detail in this post). We know, for sure, that “One Disney” is “a thing”–a very official thing–so we absolutely should be applying that ethos when theorizing about anything possibly happening in or coming to the Valley.
I don’t believe any of these very timely reveals at D23 are coincidental or accidental. As to why the Dreamfinder would be so snarky now–potentially stealing things from the SEA and doing all sorts of mischievous things in the Valley–well, there are potential canon reasons for that, too, but I’ll save those for a future post. Stay tuned!
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