Fortnite has re-enabled Peaceful Hips, its now-notorious Peacemaker dance emote, after making changes to its choreography in the wake of speculation it referenced Nazi imagery.
Last week, Fortnite maker Epic Games swiftly disabled the dance following the broadcast of a major plot twist in James Gunn and John Cena's DC series, and suggested the emote was unlikely to return.
"We're disabling the Peaceful Hips Emote in Fortnite as we inquire into our partner's creative intentions in this collab emote," Epic Games wrote at the time. "Assuming it's not coming back, we'll issue refunds in the next few days. Sorry folks."
Days later, Epic Games issued a carefully-worded follow-up where it said it had subsequently "worked closely with our partners at Warner Bros. Games to confirm there were no creative intentions to connect the Peaceful Hips Emote and the current Peacemaker storyline."
The end result? "To avoid any confusion," the developer continued, "we're modifying the Emote choreography in next week's update." To some, the statement seemed unclear as to whether the emote was a reference to the show's own Nazi references. If so, why was it returning? If not, why was it being changed?
Regardless, today's big Fortnite patch (which also adds the game's Halloween event Fortnitemares, as well as a first nod to its highly-anticipated The Simpsons mini-season) has now made the switch, with the Peaceful Hips emote now updated.
See the original dance emote and the updated one both below for comparison:
The original emote begins with both arms out, bent downwards at the elbow. After a little sideways shimmy, each arm is then bent upwards one at a time — the movement seen by some as reminiscent of swastika. After that, there's a momentary touch of the thighs before the arms are placed behind the head and the routine ends with a generous double crotch thrust.
The new emote replaces that middle section with a fresh movement — with clenched fists, an arm movement up and then down — that then neatly leads in to the remainder of the choreography.
It's been a busy 24 hours for Fortnite, which last night had to deal with rap star Doja Cat breaking kayfabe to criticise the posting of a sex toy reference on the game's social media account that was designed to look like it had been written by her. For more on Peacemaker, meanwhile, IGN recently chatted with Gunn about the show and its other big surprise, a cameo by Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor.
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