diff --git a/src/base/base_string.c b/src/base/base_string.c
index ac974599..f0f5fdfc 100644
--- a/src/base/base_string.c
+++ b/src/base/base_string.c
@@ -1341,7 +1341,7 @@ utf16_decode(U16 *str, U64 max){
   result.codepoint = str[0];
   result.inc = 1;
   if (max > 1 && 0xD800 <= str[0] && str[0] < 0xDC00 && 0xDC00 <= str[1] && str[1] < 0xE000){
-    result.codepoint = ((str[0] - 0xD800) << 10) | (str[1] - 0xDC00);
+    result.codepoint = ((str[0] - 0xD800) << 10) | (str[1] - 0xDC00) + 0x10000;
     result.inc = 2;
   }
   return(result);
diff --git a/src/df/core/df_core.c b/src/df/core/df_core.c
index e5a2f648..54d0f535 100644
--- a/src/df/core/df_core.c
+++ b/src/df/core/df_core.c
@@ -6900,14 +6900,6 @@ df_core_begin_frame(Arena *arena, DF_CmdList *cmds, F32 dt)
                       String8 string = str8_substr(args, r1u64(start_split_idx, idx));
                       if(string.size > 0)
                       {
-                        if(str8_match(str8_prefix(string, 1), str8_lit("\""), 0))
-                        {
-                          string = str8_skip(string, 1);
-                        }
-                        if(str8_match(str8_postfix(string, 1), str8_lit("\""), 0))
-                        {
-                          string = str8_chop(string, 1);
-                        }
                         str8_list_push(scratch.arena, &cmdln_strings, string);
                       }
                       start_split_idx = idx+1;