Ah, so you thought this was gonna be a cutesy short story for the kids based on the title of this opinion piece, well it's quite the opposite that contains some serious subject matter, as there's nothing whimsical or heartwarming about this piece.
While 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the now defunct Pop culture site "Talkbacker,” it’s also the year where two of their prolific albeit controversial contributors Dio and Robert Indiana Peach unfortunately passed away.
Both, along with me, Bop, Kim, Rose, Creepythinman, Cane the Sutter, Dee and many others signed up during its inception to either collaborate or publish their own article pieces under the stewardship of Finn, Mr. X, Scott, Puck and of course, Tikkanen who handled most of the posting chores.
Now while I knew Dio was in poor health due to diabetes and a bad kidney, so the writing was on the wall, but Peach's death took me and I'm sure many others by surprise! WTF?
He was a few months short of his "40th" birthday! This makes it even more sobering now, I have to keep it real 💯, I was never a fan of Peach's early trolling nether were a few others who are honest enough to admit it.
At times he would constantly pick fights, cause discord, harass and antagonize his fellow contributors. Me of course, being one of them where to an extent, I threatened to challenge him to a real fight in the vein of Uwe Boll facing his harshest critics including Jeff Mira from AICN. But unfortunately,
1. It's logistically impossible to have us face off in person even if it's for a charitable event.
2. It would be costly even if there was some fundraising event.
And 3, As exciting as it may sound on paper, it wasn't worth it, because despite his little "cheering section" or enablers, who referred to him as the "Mongoose" while I was "Cobra." Either because of my affiliation with G.I.Joe, or the fact that "I don't suffer fools in this Dojo!" Two truths can co-exist y'know. At the end of the day, he was like so many on those forums, a shitposter, while some of us suspected bipolar disorder.
Usually, I have no tolerance for "keyboard gangsters" and ignoring altogether would have been the best course of action. Same goes for Dio who made a very sophomoric Christmas podcast along with Dee, wishing I had cancer because I obviously got the best of that faux “white knight"!
But, after Dio who co-founded the Supernaughts was ousted due to overstepping his boundaries, I went on about my business. Sure, I threw shade at him in one of my joint vodcasts, but it was all in good fun even at his expense. The tragedy of it all, is that we all go back during the days of AICN and were online friends and acquaintances only for a few disagreements, stubbornness and his at times, jealousy caused the rift. Not saying we all should've went "kumbaya" fuck that shit, but there should have been a modicum of respect from all sides. Now despite my past grudges, make no mistake, death is a fucked-up thing, especially at a young age, both had families, loved ones and friends and should by all tense and purposes, made it to their golden years, but fate is a cruel bitch.
Peach no doubt had mellowed out in the end and while we never got along, I felt bad to hear about the passing of "Nacho" his cat, as with Scott's Odetta. Y’know, being a cat owner myself.
Aside from his past schtick, he was also a writer of several books based on his Sherlock Holmes inspired Cairo Detective and, there was a modicum of acknowledgment for putting his work out there.
He accomplished a feat most of us have yet to do, especially when it came to publishing. Gotta respect the hustle. Aside from Aliens being one of our top favorite films, we both were fans of Nightmare Creatures an obscure PlayStation horror game and that's as far as commonalities went. Contrary to what some gas lighters were quick to believe, I never hated Peach, maybe the need to place a shuto to his face when he irked me and others back then, but it didn’t go that far. Sorry drama queens.
In hindsight he was executing a shitshow in the form of some surreal promo heel. The back and forth where I called him "The Ringleader" of trolls only for him to claim that username at Nerdbong was amusing within itself. No, we were never friends, but overall, it was performance theater back then. “Fun times!”
In retrospect, if there wasn't as much infighting within the group, me included, Talkbacker would have surpassed AICN, in the meantime, the narrative writes itself; I'm happier away from thread-based sites, while doing my thing, Harry is still "giggling" while the old gang is either gone their separate ways or dying off. For what it's worth, Rest in Eternity Mr. Peach, and may you go to that big orchard in the sky, blasting K-pop music and drinking your six pack of Coors??© Coors is some nasty shit that my brother drinks by the way, but I digress.
"You were always an asshole Gorman. " -Aliens