#i need to still finish msq LMAO

[starryscale]

it's been a Hot minute since i've posted ingame screenshots of jai

/showleft

a while back i fantasia'd him from face 1 to face 4 cause it fits him way better :O

[kirkwall]

new dorter alert ‼️ her name's adaline de chevraudan and her special interest is dragons

[ponett]

Bobby's 2023 Media Wrap-Up

So! Like I said before, this past year I kept a running list of everything I watched, every game I finished, every new album I listened to, etc., and wrote one-paragraph blurbs with my thoughts on every single one. Please enjoy this journey through everything I liked, or didn't like, in 2023, with my favorites of the year listed at the bottom.

(Yes! This is long!!)

Some notes:

I mainly only included things I finished. Exceptions are marked with an asterisk.

I included some YouTube stuff as "TV shows" - mostly particularly long, high effort video essays and documentaries.

I was a bit less adventurous than I'd like to have been this year. Part of this was just that I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with Big Releases I felt obligated to check out, and part of this was just executive dysfunction from burnout. Wait until you see how long it took me to beat Mario Wonder lmao

Yes, I need to read more books. I don't read a lot of books these days. I need to get back to Discworld.

COLOR KEY

Video Games • TV / Web Video  •  Movies  •  Comics  •  Music

January

1/15: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (MSQ) - Very slow at times, the Primal shit is generally extremely lame to me outside of the boss fights themselves, but god if the quality of life improvements over WoW, the JRPG energy, and the fact that it Actually Has A Story carry it pretty hard.

1/18: Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island miniseries - One of the most creative and compelling uses of the Sonic IP… ever? Fantastic little self-contained arc about the struggles of Eggman’s abandoned creations that gracefully weaves between heartfelt optimism and moody horror with some of the best art ever seen in a Sonic comic.

1/18: Mega Man X4 - Glad I finally actually beat this after never even beating any of the Mavericks as a kid! I can see why it’s a lot of peoples’ favorites. The gameplay has very little of that X series bloat and is just fun, especially after getting X’s armor upgrades. (But the story really is a long series of missed opportunities.)

February

2/2: Donks - Felix Colgrave continues to be an exceptional artist. The sound design on this is fantastic and really sells this short as something unique. Had to go back and watch his older stuff again after this.

2/4: Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (3.0 - 3.3 MSQ) - I get it now. I get why people say this is just a proper mainline Final Fantasy game built into the framework of an MMO. That shit ruled. Not even walking back the drama in Ul’Dah from the end of ARR can sour me on it because the main storyline was so strong.

2/8: Disneyland's Forgotten Sci-Fi Rock Band - Live From the Space Stage - A nice and honest tribute to a group of artists who could have easily been forgotten. In hindsight this feels like a precursor to Kevin’s Disney Channel jingle video, a tribute to the unsung artists pouring their hearts into “lesser” art for a megacorporation, art that was designed to be transient but sticks with people nonetheless.

2/9: Metroid Prime Remastered* - Not gonna finish because I just played through the Wii version in 2021, but still. Very, very pretty remaster.

2/16: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - It’s more Theatrhythm. What more could I want

2/17: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (anime) - Probably the best part of the anime so far (assuming they continue on to SBR). A near perfect mix of the more structured plot of part 5 with the goofiness of parts 3 and 4 that crescendos into a fantastic, bombastic, emotional, bittersweet ending. The use of footage from the original opening and the new ending set to Roundabout in the finale were perfect, and made me intensely nostalgic for the early days of my JoJo fandom between seasons 1 and 2 of the anime.

2/22: Aggretsuko Season 5 - I don’t really know what to make of this one. Once you get past the agonizing initial arc all about Haida where Retsuko has to be his overbearing mommy GF who flips out and starts spying on him when she’s left on read and chides him when he misbehaves, it feels like an improvement over the previous seasons. But I don’t know how much of that is due to the extremely low bar set by season 4. And then the ending is extremely rushed and anticlimactic. They got legally married and the only acknowledgement was a shot of them signing the paperwork in a montage partway through the final episode?????????

2/24: Double Fine PsychOdyssey - God, what a journey the making of this game was. I already loved 2 Player’s past efforts at documenting Double Fine’s process, but this takes it to a whole new level. This feels culturally significant. The depth and honesty with which they depict not just the nitty gritty of making a game, but also the inherent struggles of working on a collaborative creative work for years at a time, is astounding. Not to mention that they were there to capture the shift from office life to remote work as COVID hit. So much of this would have been nightmarishly stressful to watch if I didn’t already know how successful the game was, but that’s just because they really didn’t sugarcoat it. And yet even after all that, it leaves me feeling optimistic about video games as an art form in a way that the constant headlines about cynical live service games don’t. There are still people out there pouring their hearts into making real art, and this is their story. Everyone who plays video games should watch this.

2/25: Cracker Island (Gorillaz) - New Gorillaz albums feel like less of an event these days, but after Humanz it feels like they’re just more chill with the project and their ambitions with it. Every couple years we get some more laid back jams from Damon along with some fun new collabs. Hard to complain. Favorite track: New Gold

2/25: Pool Kids (Pool Kids) - I discovered this band because Derek knows them and was excited when they got a song added to Fortnite through the Bandcamp collab. Always down to find more cool indie rock bands I can vibe with. The mix of dreamy vocals and energetic riffs on some of the tracks here almost fill the Crying-shaped hole in my heart. Almost… Favorite track: Conscious Uncoupling

2/25: Insane in the Rain (insaneintherainmusic) - I thought it was really funny timing when Carlos announced that his first original project would be a jazz fusion album inspired by acts like T-Square and Casiopea right as I was getting into those two specific bands. The final product does not disappoint. Favorite track: Insane in the Rain

2/26: Get Up Sequences Part Two (The Go! Team) - I’ve never been one to believe that a band’s sound has to remain exactly the same forever, but it really does hit you hard that the first two tracks here sound like classic The Go! Team. Their more recent cleaner sound is still here too, though, for a nice mix of old and new. Favorite track: Divebomb

2/28: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 1) - Oh my god. Oh my god. I got distracted around the time I was finishing SLARPG, but finally catching up now, wow. My assumption that the seemingly lighter tone of the series compared to the prologue was there to lull us into a false sense of security before twisting the knife when war finally breaks out was spot on. This is peak Gundam.

March

3/4: Pizza Tower - One of the best platformers I’ve played in a long time. It transcends its blatant Wario Land inspirations with the sheer speed at which Peppino can move and the way things like the level design, his wall running, and even the hidden ability to do a second lap around the level reward getting into a flow state where you’re just constantly moving. This is the type of game that wants to turn you into a speedrunner. My only real complaint is a few iffy enemy designs that I wish would get patched.

3/6: Bloons TD 6 * - I bought this before bed one night on a nostalgic whim and then the next morning woke up and saw the Steam receipt email on my phone in one of the most “what did I do last night” moments of my life. I like when the monkeys pop the balloons.

3/7: The Book of Boba Fett - I put off finishing this show for a very long time but finally caved upon the release of The Mandalorian season 3. This show spends four episodes failing to make me give a shit about Boba Fett trying to be “the daimyo” and drive the drug trade off of Tatooine, then just gives up and becomes season 2.5 of Mando, which in turn feels like it undercuts the main series. It fails as both its own story and as a spinoff. I know that finishing this after Andor did it no favors, but WHOOF.

3/12: Obi-Wan Kenobi - Some interesting ideas in the first half hinting at a more introspective show, but it’s mostly swept aside in the back half so it can become a generic Star Wars adventure remixing things from A New Hope and Rebels (and apparently Jedi: Fallen Order). Action scenes have zero stakes because you know nothing can happen to any of the returning characters and none of the new ones are particularly interesting. Why there’s a second climax hinging on a Luke Skywalker death fakeout eludes me. Obi-Wan throwing the rocks at Vader is one of the funniest things in Star Wars history. But it was still better than Book of Boba Fett, I guess.

3/19: The King of Braves GaoGaiGar - Wow, cool robot indeed… GaoGaiGar isn’t going to blow anyone away with its writing, but sometimes you just need a really fun monster of the week mecha show with great action and lovably goofy characters. This is a show where like 20% of every episode consists of recycled transformation, combination, and signature attack sequences and I ate it up every time because they look fucking cool as hell. I don’t care. I’d watch Final Fusion another 49 times.

3/21: The Last of Us (HBO) * - Watched the first two episodes out of curiosity, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue because I don’t give a shit about The Last of Us. It’s definitely a well done adaptation, though, even if I know it’s inevitably going to devolve into miserable torture porn with questionable politics if they adapt Part II faithfully. The ending of episode 2 also lines up perfectly with where I stopped in the game in 2013 lmao

3/27: The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse (Folding Ideas) - Another banger from Dan Olson. This time the premise inherently gives him more time to just show off a bunch of stupid ugly bullshit made by crypto guys, which is fun. My main complaint was that I wished he would’ve brought up Second Life more as a point of comparison (a thing I basically always want out of discussion of “the metaverse”), but he at least did touch on it in the last section.

3/31: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - I can’t believe after years of begging for the supporting cast to get more and better material in a Sonic game I got my wish in the form of a freeware murder mystery VN released for April Fools. This kicked ass.

April

4/7: Berserk - Completed Miura’s run and caught up on the chapters that have been released posthumously. It’s hard to say anything that hasn’t been said about Berserk, universally agreed upon as one of the greats of manga and fantasy fiction as a whole. What begins in its first few volumes as a nihilistic and edgy action comic built to facilitate as much sex and gore as possible quickly evolves into something deeply human and vulnerable and beautiful, both figuratively and in terms of its lavish art. The world sucks and is immeasurably cruel, and you will see that cruelty illustrated in graphic, sickening detail repeatedly throughout the series. (Perhaps a little too often throughout the Golden Age, where it feels like Miura never misses an opportunity to threaten Casca with sexual assault mid-battle.) But the point isn’t to wallow in that misery. It’s the story of a victim of horrific abuse learning to slowly open up to others, having those people he cares about torn away from him in the worst night of his life, hardening himself into a cold killing machine, and then slowly learning to open back up again, even if it means leaving himself vulnerable to more hurt. Anyone who says that the series peaked with the eclipse and went downhill in the “Guts’ JRPG Party” era is missing the point. Guts needed to find new people in his life to care about, to begin to find happiness again. Because no matter what unspeakable things Guts has gone through, it’s still possible for him to heal and to be loved. It takes time, but eventually you stop and realize that life has moved on.

4/8: Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe - Skipped it upon release because I didn’t particularly care for the minigame in Triple Deluxe, and I didn’t miss much. It’s fine as a little distraction, but not as a standalone rhythm game with only seven songs. If you don’t bother with the hard modes or chase after high scores this game is 15 minutes long. Oh how I yearn for Kirby to get the Theatrhythm treatment.

4/10: The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar FINAL - Eh… It was okay. Lots of cool robot fights, but said fights are stitched together with a mediocre plot that tries too hard to be more “mature” than its unabashedly schlocky kids’ show predecessor. Not crazy about the ending, either, which tries to be a bittersweet farewell closing off the series once and for all while also teasing that maybe there’ll be ANOTHER sequel after the OVA series they literally called “FINAL.” Ah well.

4/11: The Owl House - Sad to see this one go, but it’s hard to imagine them doing a better finale than this, even if they had gotten the six seasons they deserved. I’m not as obsessed with The Owl House as I probably would’ve been had it come out when I was, like, 20, but it’s a really fantastic show for all the reasons people always say. Great characters, great world, great story. I love that this starry-eyed fantasy story about a teenager finding love and a place where she belongs is also set on the rotting corpse of a titan with Hieronymous Bosch-inspired scenery and freaky monsters everywhere. What a great mix. If anything, I just wish I would’ve watched the first season as it aired so I could’ve had more time with it.

4/29: Mega Man Battle Network 3: Blue Version - FINALLY beat this via the new collection, 20 years after playing it as my first Mega Man game. (Technically my first was White, not Blue, but whatever.) There are more annoyances than I remember - lots of really really bad forced backtracking sections where you have to revisit every previous part of the internet, low chip drop rates, some really aggravating bosses like BubbleMan and KingMan, etc. But it’s still a great time overall. It’s Battle Network. In the back half the story gets surprisingly emotional, too. I was always under the assumption that the Hub stuff never came back up much in the story after 1, so I was pleasantly surprised with how relevant it was to the emotional arc of 3.

4/30: Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun * - Yeah I’m not playing through the whole thing lmao. I just wanted to play the first couple hours for nostalgia’s sake, and as a baseline for how much better the rest are. Even before getting deep in the game and having to deal with all the shit gated between doing two new game+ playthroughs, it’s immediately obvious how much of a downgrade this one is. Tons of glaring errors and typos all over the script, blander music, a way more boring aesthetic for the internet, and a premise that mostly just recycles the tournament idea from 3.

May

5/14: The Venture Bros. - Glad I finally sat down and watched all of this with Anthony after having seen one (1) episode as a teenager and a bunch of random clips in the years since. Great show. Some jokes in the early seasons haven’t aged gracefully, but what the show grows into over time... man. Hank and Dean go from being the butt of the joke to being characters you actually sympathize with - while still also being funny little goofballs. And the journey Henchman 21 goes on throughout the show. Man. Amazing that a comedy like this could run for 20 years and maintain its level of quality. Can’t wait for the movie.

5/18: Future Me Hates Me (The Beths) - Okay yeah I’m now just discovering bands through Fortnite lmao. I can’t complain really, they pick some really great indie artists for the in-game radio stations. Anyway: It’s very easy to win me over with a combination of energetic power pop, catchy guitar riffs, and earnest lyrics like this. One of those albums where three or four tracks in I know I have to buy it. Favorite track: Not Running

5/18: Jump Rope Gazers (The Beths) - Ditto. Favorite track: Dying to Believe

5/18: Expert In A Dying Field (The Beths) - Another good album. (I’m listening to these in release order.) I’ve been a bit slower to warm up to this one, initially thinking it was a little too mellow overall, but it might be my favorite after a few listens. Some real high highs. Interestingly, the lead singer’s New Zealand accent is also coming out more in her singing? Favorite track: Your Side (or maybe Head in the Clouds)

5/19: The Super Mario Bros. Movie - As a Mario fan, I think I enjoyed it? As a movie, less so? It was decent, in spite of feeling like they came up with a list of fun action setpieces first and then wrote the absolute bare minimum possible for the story scenes tying it all together. Full thoughts here. (This is the first movie I’ve seen this year, huh? I really don’t watch a lot of movies.)

5/23: Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out (Gladie) - I feel like I don’t like Gladie as much as I should. Their style of noisy indie rock is very much in my wheelhouse, and I do enjoy listening to them, but I dunno. Maybe it’s that the particular style of vocals makes it more monotonous to me. A good album nonetheless, if not 100% my thing. Favorite track: Nothing

5/24: City Slicker (Ginger Root) - Yes I am still making my way through Bandcamp artists I heard on Fortnite don’t @ me. Any excuse to get me to listen to some cool city pop-inspired funk like this is a good excuse. Favorite track: Loretta

5/24: Rikki (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: Why Try

5/25: Spotlight People (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: The Classic

5/29: Succession - A good dramedy series that increasingly focuses more on the drama than the comedy as it progresses, but it’s hard to complain about that since the drama is so compellingly produced. I enjoyed it. That being said, I kind of rankle at the claims that it’s The Greatest TV Show Of All Time. It’s great, don’t get me wrong. Amazing performances all around. But the show LOVES to spin its wheels, to repeat itself, and to let most of its interesting dramatic developments fizzle out before anything really comes of them, almost as if the show is constantly getting bored with its own ideas. To some extent this is intentional - Logan Roy is the untouchable billionaire, his kids fail at everything (but will nonetheless remain billionaires), and in the long run none of them really give a shit about anything other than their own status. But it’s not like things tend to visibly impact anyone else, either, be they supporting characters or the world at large. Even the Big Scary Election, where the Roy siblings are directly responsible for plunging the nation into chaos, ultimately has zero impact on the finale a mere two episodes later. Certain Other Things do have an impact in the last season, though, allowing things to meaningfully change for the cast and for the show to sit with the ensuing drama, which has stopped me from souring on Succession more. There was finally a payoff for something. But it does still kind of feel like a show that goes in circles until it’s ready to call it quits, even if those circles did contain a lot of great acting and music along the way.

5/29: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - I’d watched the first 12 episodes when they originally released, but I guess the Netflix binge release and the fact that all three “seasons” came out in one year led to me waiting until it finished… and then I just never got around to finishing it. Glad I fixed that! Really fun and stylish cartoon with an art style reminiscent of Teen Titans, a hip hop-filled soundtrack, dynamic fight scenes, and a colorful post-apocalyptic world filled with mutant (mostly anthropomorphic) animals. I’ll admit that at times I do kinda roll my eyes at Kipo’s unshakeable belief that everyone can be friends in a way that I don’t necessarily with similar shows like Steven Universe, and not every joke lands, but I dunno. It’s a kids’ show. That’s to be expected. It doesn’t detract from the overall package for me.

June

6/1: Craig of the Creek (Season 4) - It’s been years and I’m still processing the fact that kids can turn on Cartoon Network and hear Jeff Rosenstock. Anyway! Craig continues to be one of the best cartoons on TV, consistently funny and creative and way more engaging than a show about a bunch of kids LARPing in the woods has any right to be. This season turned into One Piece with the gang effectively hunting down the Poneglyphs in search of a legendary treasure. The kids think it’ll be magic. It isn't. An increasing number of cartoon logic gags aside, this show is firmly set in the real world. Does that make it any less interesting? Hell no. Season 3 turned a game of capture the flag into an all-out five episode war between the heroes and villains, filled with dramatic turnabouts and a climactic guest appearance from Del the Funky Homosapien. I’m sure however they wrap things up in the (sadly shortened) final season, it’ll be great. (Also? I would watch a whole show based on that “what if” episode that jumped forward to everyone’s 20s.)

6/6: Barry - Holy shit, what a show. I ended up binging it in less than a week in a cycle of “okay, just one more episode.” The way this show is able to swing between tones and genres while still feeling like a cohesive whole is truly masterful. It’s a layered character drama, a tragic crime thriller, a farcical comedy, an understated action series, a surrealist morality play, and a scathing satire of Hollywood, all in one. Even within the criminal underworld subplots the show ranges in tone from Breaking Bad to Paddington 2. And it works! While the show naturally gets bleaker over time as it confronts the repercussions of Barry’s murders, it never completely loses sight of its comedic roots. My favorite episode was easily season 2’s “ronny/lily,” a mostly self-contained episode that somehow manages to keep throwing the perfect curveballs to escalate its dark comedy.

6/12: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) - Y’all heard of this movie? Pretty good, it turns out. (I’d seen the theatrical cut before, but this was my first time watching the extended edition. I’ve also only seen parts of the other two movies, so it’s time I finally watch all the extended cuts. The Gollum game pushed me to this.)

6/13: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition) - give it to us RAW and WRIGGLING

6/17: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition) - I’m not crying YOU’RE crying

6/22: Clone High (Season 2) - While the first episode being about “cancel culture” (or, more accurately, a teenager from 2003 being transported to 2023 and putting his foot in his mouth a lot) put a lot of people off, I ended up enjoying the new season of Clone High. The new clones grew on me as the season went on and their roles in the web of teen romance melodrama crystalized, and it made me laugh a lot, and Cleo/Frida is galaxy brained. Also they played one of my favorite Antarctigo Vespucci songs like a minute into the first episode. I don’t think I could really ask for much more.

6/28: The Mandalorian (Season 3) - I'd been watching this weekly but put off the last episode for no real reason. Responses to this season have been all over the place, but my blistering hot take is… it was fine. Is it as good as the first season? Probably not. But Mando no longer needs to carry the whole franchise on its shoulders and set the bar for how good the live action Disney Star Wars shows can be, because Andor exists, and it’s never gonna top Andor. The Mandalorian is free to just be a pulpy space adventure show where Giancarlo Esposito plays a scenery-chewing cartoon villain and a little puppet does wire stunts. These are things Andor cannot and should not do, but that’s Star Wars, baby. It’s delightful. I could watch Grogu get underhand tossed like a sack of flour all day.

July

7/2: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (Season 2) - LOVE WINS. (More nuanced take from way later: It definitely feels like a lot of the more messy political conflicts in this show got swept aside by the big final battle where some more easily resolved family conflicts take center stage. I’m not sure the ending is the most satisfying. But also this show only got half the episode count that damn near every other Gundam show ever made got, so that might be a factor here. Idk. Still one of my favorite Gundams.)

7/4: Final Fantasy XVI (watched Anthony play) - I had to write my longest Medium article ever about this one because I was so frustrated

7/10: Home Movies - “Things I like that I’ve never seen in full” has certainly been a recurring theme this year. Home Movies remains an all-time classic of animated comedy that went out on a high note before things got stale or the characters became parodies of themselves. While it’s mostly known for its funny improvised banter, throughout the last season you can really see the arc where Brendon no longer enjoys making movies, yet he feels obligated to keep using them to escape from the real world. In that light, the ending where the nature of their dysfunctional makeshift family is cemented, Brendon’s camera suddenly breaks, and life moves on really does feel like the perfect note to end on. Truly one of the best to ever do it.

7/15: The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom - Wow. Just… wow. I had serious doubts about TotK in the months leading up to release due to how close Nintendo was playing their cards to their chest. I didn’t want this to be a Saints Row IV, where the game is fun enough but the recycled map makes it feel like a rehash. Instead, I found a game that made me look at BotW’s map in a whole new light, brimming with so many more things to do and people to meet. Add on a better, more versatile set of tools, more varied dungeons and bosses, and a story that I felt was told somewhat better and we’ve got a real contender for my new favorite Zelda game. It was hard to tear myself away, but as this list shows, it’s been basically the only game I’ve played since it came out.

7/16: Sonic Prime (Season 2) - I liked the parts with Shadow and Chaos Sonic, but I’ve come to the sad conclusion that most of this show is just mediocre. More thoughts here.

7/18: We ♥ Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie - “I’m a dog, but I love Katamari Damacy.” Truer words have never been spoken.

7/19: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Pretty good! It didn’t blow me away, but after how bad the Bay movies got I’m just thankful to have a decently cohesive Transformers movie where the human story is okay and I like the bots (although half of them needed more screen time), even if it is just another Hollywood blockbuster about two sides fighting over a macguffin that devolves into a big CGI battle against an army of nameless monsters in the third act. This is basically a mid-tier MCU movie but with Transformers, which won’t do much for most people, but again: the bar was underground.

7/22: The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart - God DAMN. A phenomenal ending for the series. While I would have loved to see a full final season to get some more one-off episodes in there, this doesn’t feel creatively compromised in any way–either due to the time constraints, or due to a desire to make it more marketable as a movie. It really does feel like they just took their outlines for the canceled final season and gently massaged them into the shape of an 84-minute movie, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s completely on par with the previous seasons. A hilarious and fitting sendoff for one of the greats of adult animation.

7/23: Beautiful Katamari - This was one of my first Xbox 360 games, but a frustrating temperature-based level made me put it down for 16 years. “Maybe it won’t be as bad now that I’ve beaten the first two games and am better at Katamari,” I thought. Nope! Still an absolutely dogshit level. But also, turns out the whole game is only like two hours long lmao. It’s still Katamari, so it’s still fun - the final level in particular, which seamlessly takes you from ground level all the way to space, feels like a logical endpoint for the series - but beyond that it just doesn't have the same soul without Keita Takahashi's input.

August

8/4: Doom Singer (Chris Farren) - I’ve been waiting so long for Chris and Jeff to do another Antarctigo Vespucci album, but god damn. This is the best of Chris’s solo work, and a contender for his best record, period. Every track’s a banger, with more energy than some of his previous solo work but also a good deal of variety. Favorite tracks: First Place, Cosmic Leash

8/4: Transformers Earthspark (Season 1) - This show had a bit of an uneven start, unsure if it wanted to have the emotional maturity of a more serious action cartoon or a preschool cartoon where the characters have little kid mood swings and outbursts and learn basic lessons. It also felt like it was speedrunning its Wholesome Found Family Dynamic with characters who just met, which didn’t feel earned. While these problems never completely go away (see: the cheap and corny way the otherwise very dark season finale suddenly resolves), the show improves quickly, and the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s so great to have a Transformers cartoon that feels fresh, giving us a post-war setting with a bunch of new characters and new dynamics between the Cybertronians and the humans. The returning characters are also uniformly great as the old veterans overseeing the new generation. (Reformed Megatron! Danny Pudi as Bumblebee! Steve Blum returning as Starscream! Keith David as Grimlock!!!) And those super dynamic action scenes! I can nitpick, but Earthspark’s a ton of fun, and easily the best new Transformers cartoon since Prime and Animated.

8/5: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (remaster) - Everyone who told me this game was a masterpiece was right. I had played the first chapter when it dropped as the demo for the iOS version years ago, but never went further than that until now. What a game. Absolutely incredible through and through. Great story, great twists, great characters, great puzzles, great art direction. Everything comes together so perfectly to form a totally unique, unforgettable package, a top tier video game murder mystery. Everyone should play this, preferably going in as blind as possible.

8/15: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 16) - Wow! Recent seasons of Sunny have been kind of up and down, with some interesting experiments (Mac Finds His Pride, the Ireland arc, etc.) paired with some comedic duds. Most of this latest season is standard fare for the series with fewer big creative swings, but it’s just hit after hit in terms of comedy. Not a single dud, whether we’re seeing Mac and Dennis try to start a rental business for inflatable furniture or watching the gang meet Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, believing the entire time that the latter is Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. Even the attempts at topical comedy landed better. Easily the funniest season in years.

8/16: One Piece Film Gold - It’s easy to see why this one has kind of been forgotten in the wake of Stampede and Film Red, which revolve around established fan favorite characters, but this was still pretty fun. Perhaps a little too long, but it’s fun to see the Straw Hats fool around in a giant casino and do a heist. They definitely cranked the fanservice up even more than usual in this one, though, as I probably should have expected for a movie made alongside the anime’s adaptation of Dressrosa.

8/17: One Piece: Stampede - This one goes for a different kind of fanservice. While most One Piece movies are isolated from the ongoing plot and its expanded cast of characters, Stampede instead asks “What if we just put damn near every active character on the same island and had them fight?” The answer: a fun time! It would get old if all of the movies were like this, but after a bunch of movies that are just like “the Straw Hats are gonna land on another new island and fight some more weird guys” it’s fun to see characters like Law and Buggy and Smoker get in on the fun. It’s also nice to get a movie with the Wano era art style, and Usopp surprisingly gets some really good character moments in here.

8/18: One Piece Film Red - This really is the best of the One Piece movies, huh? (Baron Omatsuri is a close second.) It really feels like a change of pace after the last four with the most interesting and emotionally engaging story out of any of them. And even if the events of these movies are never canon, it still feels significant in my understanding of Shanks as a character as we move into the final phase of the manga.

8/21: Pikmin 4 - The opening hour of the game made me really question if they’d changed too much, with all the focus on your new dog unit over your Pikmin and the extremely dull, drawn out dialogue scenes with your new companions back at the base. But once I got into the swing of things I had a blast. This is probably my new favorite Pikmin game. There’s a great mix of activities here to keep things fresh. I also really ended up liking Oatchi’s role as basically your second captain who can also serve as your tank or a rideable mount. The Dandori stuff and nighttime missions in particular show off how useful Oatchi is for your multitasking without necessarily overshadowing the Pikmin.

8/22: Never Get Tired: The Bomb the Music Industry! Story - I literally backed this on Kickstarter eight years ago (my name is in the credits!) and then never got around to watching it for no reason. It’s on YouTube now, and Jeff’s got a new album out next week, so now feels like the perfect time to watch it. And man… what a great documentary. Obviously I’m just a fan of the band, but this also really spoke to me as an artist. Jeff wanting to stick to his principles and give out his music for free and play cheap all ages shows, his discomfort over the idea of selling merch, and the struggles that come with not playing the game like that… It's hard. They readily admit that Jeff is an idealist, that people fight him on this stuff, that he’s missed out on some big opportunities because of these stances, and that he’s had to compromise a bit on some of these things over time. But that incredible climax with their final show, including a full opening performance of the slowly building “Campaign for a Better Next Weekend” and the closing performance of “Future 86” where the whole audience is singing along as the members of the band are hugging and crying… it’s beautiful. This may have been a band where the members had to go back to their shitty day jobs after every tour because they weren’t selling out arenas, but their art meant something to people, and that makes it all worth it.

8/25: Nimona - I haven’t read the original comic (yet), so I can’t compare them too much, but it’s nonetheless pretty apparent that some things were softened and easy kids’ movie jokes were added by the studio to squeeze this graphic novel for teens into a PG animated movie. Regardless, the emotional throughline hits REALLY hard, particularly the very blatant trans allegory and the climax. (It’s no wonder Disney was afraid of this movie seeing the light of day lmao.) The animation is also very squishy and fun to watch throughout. Great movie.

8/26: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Spider-Verse really has done so much for animation, huh? This one was as good as everyone said. Beautiful use of stylized color and lighting throughout, and every time this movie very conspicuously shifted to different framerates for a flashy fight scene it owned. Very cute and heartwarming story, too, which thankfully gave its second act plenty of time to explore the cast and let them go on their journey, unlike a certain plumber movie that came out a few months later. Also I would let Death [redacted]

8/28: Holocure: Save the Fans! - This isn't really something I can beat, but I've been addicted to Holocure lately. I don't even watch VTubers aside from maybe seeing a funny Korone animation every now and then, this is just a really, really good freeware Vampire Survivors clone with a huge roster of varied characters to pick from.

8/31: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock) - A new album from Jeff is always a major event for me. If there were any worries that he was starting to go soft at 40 (because one of the three singles off this album was a gentle acoustic piece), the frantic opening of this album put those worries to rest. The first two tracks are Jeff screaming out for help as he’s pulled in a million directions by the chaotic state of the world, a theme that becomes the thesis of the album. I’d say it lags slightly in the middle, but overall this is another extremely well-rounded record full of bangers that’s unapologetically Jeff, with possibly my favorite closing track he’s ever done. Favorite tracks: I WANNA BE WRONG, 3 SUMMERS

September

9/3: One Piece (live action, Season 1) - They did it. I can’t believe it, but they did it. While I have my nitpicks (Usopp and Sanji don’t get enough big moments to shine), this is an extremely solid and faithful adaptation of the first few arcs of One Piece with a great cast. For the most part the changes feel smart and logical, and the big emotional beats of the story are all there and executed very well. I doubted it a little in episodes 2-4, where the Orange Town and Syrup Village arcs saw some major changes to shift the action indoors, and the increased focus on the drama in favor of repeating every gag and battle from the manga 1:1 took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I was having a blast. It’s a different take on One Piece, but it still feels like One Piece. Genuinely very excited for season 2.

9/4: Pseudoregalia - A great little N64-style 3D Metroidvania focused on platforming and very satisfying movement. I always love entries in the genre that are less prescriptive in what order you have to tackle areas in, a la Symphony of the Night or Hollow Knight, and this one’s great in that regard. While there are a number of new moves to find, most of the map is open to you very early in the game, and smart use of your moveset can allow you to “sequence break” without even realizing it. (You would not believe how long I went without getting the wall run.) I do wish it had a map, but that’s already being patched in.

9/6: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk * - Not a bad game at all, but I quickly remembered how bad I am at skating games, so like… eh? Not sure I have much desire to play past chapter 2. Also the soundtrack is sadly kinda hit or miss for me outside of the obvious Naganuma tunes.

9/9: The History of the Minnesota Vikings (Dorktown) - Jon Bois never misses. Even as someone who doesn’t actively follow sports, Jon Bois is a master storyteller, using graphs and statistics and funny anecdotes to explore these deeply human stories. He can convey why people care so much about these teams, these people, and sports in general, and how our popular sports reflect on American culture. He could tell the story of just about any team or player in any sport and I just know I’ll come out the other side a misty-eyed fan. And what a fascinating cast of characters we have this time, with origin stories for everything from the Hail Mary pass to a Minnesota state supreme court judge to the Griddy. Nine hours well spent.

9/10: Timespinner - A fun and highly polished Metroidvania that maybe doesn’t quite have enough of its own identity in its quest to replicate Symphony of the Night…but also, like, this was pitched as a Symphony throwback on KickStarter in a pre-Bloodstained, pre-Hollow Knight world, so I can’t really blame ‘em! Stopping time to avoid boss attacks is fun, the pixel art is gorgeous, and I liked the dark science fantasy story about warring empires and meddling with time a lot more than I thought I would - lore journal text dumps and all.

9/14: The Decay of Sam & Cat (Quinton Reviews) - All the stuff at the end with Matt Bennett (the actor who played Robbie on Victorious and Sam & Cat) in this was really good and sweet. It’s that kind of thing that makes these videos feel like they’re still worthwhile on some level. But the padding and the things Quinton chooses to spend the colossal runtime on does drive me more and more insane with each passing Nick sitcom video. I don’t know how much longer he can keep this schtick up. I hope he’s able to move on to other things before too terribly long instead of continuing to extend this “miniseries.”

9/19: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales - AKA Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 1.5. It’s fun for the same reasons Peter’s first game was fun. I had a good time swinging around New York again in preparation for the sequel, and there’s a lot of cute stuff with Miles becoming Harlem’s neighborhood hero, but WOW did the Underground v. Roxxon conflict fall flat for me.

9/20: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson - I understand so many posts now.

9/25: Spider-Man (2002) (rewatch) - It’s you who’s out, Gobby! OUT OF YOUR MIND!

9/25: Futurama (Season 8) - I was ready to be a hater, recalling the fact that Futurama has already had three “perfect endings” with the show getting a little weaker with every revival. Then I watched the first new episode on a whim and thought it wasn’t bad, so I was like, eh, sure, I’ll watch the rest. Overall Hulurama is hit or miss. There are chuckles to be had, and it sure as hell beats modern Simpsons, but almost every episode is either a belated take on an overplayed Topical Issue (the pandemic, Amazon, cancel culture, etc.) or a direct sequel to an old episode people liked. Or both! It’s also really noticeable that certain voice actors sound way older - Billy West is struggling with the Fry voice in particular, and it hurts his comedic timing. But just when all hope seemed lost after the nigh-incomprehensible toy-themed anthology episode, possibly the worst episode of the entire series… the last episode, where the Planet Express crew explores whether or not the universe could be a simulation, was really, really solid. Great note to end on to make me not regret my time with this season as a whole.

9/26: Spider-Man 2 (2004) (rewatch) - Once the GOAT, always the GOAT.

9/27: Spider-Man 3 (rewatch) - Revisiting this movie for the first time since I saw it in theaters… it’s not bad. It’s fine! It continues to have the heart and sincerity that make the first two movies work. It’s just not as concise with three villains vying for the spotlight, but I also wouldn’t cut any of them, necessarily. I guess Eddie/Venom would be the easiest, but Peter getting the black suit and giving in to his resentment feels too central to cut. (Yes, even with Emo Peter becoming a meme.)

9/28: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake - I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one, especially since I was never really a fan of the genderbend episodes in the original show. (At the time they mostly just felt like an excuse to crank up the teen romance stuff to 11.) But MAN. This was a fantastic coda to the original series. It made me care about Fionna and Cake and their friends as their own characters separate from their original counterparts, it gave the Simon/Betty arc a much more satisfying (if no less bittersweet) resolution than the original finale had time to do, and it even managed to be a multiverse story that didn’t make me roll my eyes in 2023. A+ all around. Makes me wanna rewatch the original show again. [spoiler: I did]

9/29: Meanwhile (aivi & surasshu) - It’s been a whole decade–they were busy with, you know, all the music in Steven Universe, among other things–but we finally have a new aivi & surasshu album! Their chiptune/piano fusion style is familiar, but they’ve definitely grown as composers in subtle ways. Favorite track: Time Travel

October

10/1: This is Financial Advice (Folding Ideas) - A lot of the nitty gritty finance law stuff turned into white noise for me, but still, great video. I had no idea that the GameStop stock craze devolved into this bizarre cult that thinks they’re going to crash the global economy and rise from the ashes as the new kings with the value of their GME stocks. Glad this video exists to try and balance out the narrative.

10/5: Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon DLC - Good ideas, absurdly frustrating and tedious execution. Full thoughts here.

10/10: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (rewatch) - I didn’t plan this, but very fitting that I would end up rewatching this on 10/10.

10/12: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - ha he! (Seriously though, that finale was a fucking masterpiece. The RTVS crew has an incredible knack for using the framing device of video game livestreams to blur the lines between comedy and horror, or ironic anti-humor and complete sincerity. I’ve never seen anything else like this.)

10/15: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Not sure how much I can say that hasn’t already been said. The most visually creative movie I’ve ever seen, grounded by some really excellent storytelling about Miles (and now Gwen) that’s probably better than his actual comics. But it also does feel like it’s about to end and then the movie just keeps going like ten times over lmao. Can’t wait to watch this a second time on a better TV.

10/20: Sonic Superstars - A mostly really solid and fun 2D Sonic game that’s unfortunately dragged down by an extremely hodgepodge soundtrack and some overly drawn out boss fights. I spent HOURS trying to beat the final boss of the bonus scenario (which is required for the true ending in this one) before giving up. Really a shame that that’s the note I’m leaving the game on, because I otherwise enjoyed it, but ah well. More thoughts here.

10/27: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 - Another good Spider-Man game from Insomniac. Liked the story more than the one in Miles Morales, but maybe not as much as the first game. Extensive thoughts here.

10/28: Venom - Was in the mood for more Venom after the game. As expected this was not a very good movie, but the dynamic between Eddie and Venom made it a fun watch. Tom Hardy is constantly about to shit his pants in this movie. It’s great.

10/28: Venom: Let There Be Carnage - I had a way better time with this one. Is this a good movie? No. But it cranks the insanity of the first movie up to 11. Goofy as fuck in an extremely watchable way.

November

11/5: Pluto - An absolutely masterful series that anyone interested in sci-fi needs to watch. The anime adaptation was great, and I immediately understand why people who’ve read the manga speak so highly of it. Really makes me want to get into Astro Boy more, and also read some of Urasawa’s other works.

11/18: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - Wow, just wow. When news of a Scott Pilgrim anime broke I was cautiously curious to see if we’d get a more direct adaptation of the comics, and instead it veered off in the exact opposite direction in the best way possible. This is almost entirely a different story, one that’s in conversation with the previous versions (sometimes in very meta ways), and I think it’s really valuable to see O’Malley revisiting these characters with new things to say about them. The major story divergence gives us a chance to examine the characters from a new angle - particularly Ramona, who’s the real protagonist of this version, and the evil exes, who completely steal the show. This was a great reminder of why I fell in love with this series as a teenager. I now genuinely hope we get more Scott Pilgrim.

11/22: Void Rivals (Issues #1 - #6) - The first arc of the new Robert Kirkman series that kicked off Skybound’s new “Energon Universe” is now complete, and I’m left thinking Void Rivals is… okay? I thought the first issue was a decent (if not particularly original) sci-fi comic with an appealing art style, which just so happens to also briefly have a Transformer in it so there can be a Big Surprise. And the series still hasn’t quite shaken that feeling to me. It’s an okay sci-fi series that arbitrarily dedicates a couple of pages of every issue to something from Transformers, but I’m not really sure what the shared universe stuff adds to Void Rivals, or what Void Rivals adds to Transformers and GI Joe. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

11/22: Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History (Defunctland) - Yeah, gotta be honest, I only got halfway through this one. It seems like Kevin just 1) really wanted to push himself creatively and 2) make a love letter to Epcot, and while I respect that, I think it suffers as a historical documentary. It’s Fantasia but for the creation of Epcot. That might be very impressive on a technical level, but it feels more like a piece of Disney propaganda than prior Defunctland videos due to a lack of context and nuance. 

11/24: Aperture Desk Job - A short, sweet, and funny little tech demo for my new Steam Deck set in the Portal universe. More effort was definitely put into this than was strictly necessary.

11/26: ESCHATOS - I am not good at bullet hell games, but I enjoy them from time to time and I really love this one’s FM synth soundtrack, so I picked it up on a whim in the Steam sale. I only beat it on Easy, but still, I had a lot of fun with it! It’s straightforward but very flashy, with the camera dynamically zooming around from set piece to set piece at ridiculous speeds and each level segueing directly into the next. The lack of a powerup system on the main mode in favor of just needing to know when to use your different shot types makes it feel very approachable.

11/27: Lunistice - A great little 3D platformer with a good soundtrack that I had fun hunting down all the secrets in. This is an easy recommendation for fans of games like Kirby or Klonoa - whimsical games set in colorful dream worlds where the underlying story can get a bit more somber. (Although the story in this one is mostly told through mildly cryptic lore dumps, so your mileage there may vary.)

11/28: Spark the Electric Jester 2 - The leap from 2D to 3D here is impressive, but this is very clearly a rough draft for Spark 3. Very, very fun Sonic-style 3D platforming, but the combat is lacking and the storytelling is just kinda bad. More extensive thoughts on this and the above two games here.

December

12/2: Fortnite (Chapter 4) - This was my first full chapter of Fortnite, after having been roped into the game by the siren songs of Zero Build mode and Goku during Chapter 3. This means it’s harder for me to compare this chapter to previous ones, but still, Fortnite remains a genuinely very well made Battle Royale shooter that’s a blast with friends. If I have any complaint about this Chapter, it’s that they would regularly introduce zany ideas and then slowly reel them back in, whether it was the Augment system or the increasingly mundane movement items. It also felt like it was a little too easy to get the perfect loadout in every match, meaning the final showdown would almost always be against players with Slurp Juice and gold shotguns. And I missed the smaller mid-season map updates of Chapter 3. But overall I still had a really good time, and look forward to playing more for the foreseeable future.

12/4: Plagiarism and You(Tube) (HBomberguy) - This will get written off by many as “YouTuber drama,” but this really is an excellent video essay that feels like the kick in the pants that YouTube needs. If video essayists are gonna be a major source of information for so many, then they gotta have standards. I also think it does a good job of highlighting the people that have been plagiarized and trying to drive more attention their way in an attempt to right those wrongs.

12/6: Transformers (Skybound comic) - We only got the first three issues of this in 2023, but I just HAVE to say something about how incredible this series is here. Daniel Warren Johnson is knocking it out of the park. This is the new bar for Transformers. The hand-inked art is extremely dynamic and full of character, and the story is using the familiar beats of G1 Transformers but doing very new things with them. You can tell this from the very first page, but the emotional scene of Optimus accidentally crushing a deer in the forest and realizing how fragile life is on Earth sealed the deal for me. And yet in the very same comics Optimus can do suplexes and clotheslines and lord knows how many other wrestling moves on Decepticons, and it doesn’t feel like tonal whiplash? These comics just fucking rule, and anyone with even the slightest interest in Transformers should be reading them.

12/8: What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5) - [spoilers] WWDITS has very much settled into being a status quo show. Every season has its own little arc where one or two things change to keep things interesting, but then everything returns to normal by the end. Guillermo finally becoming a vampire, only to become a human again in the end, might just be the most egregious example of this yet. But also… the show’s still really funny? And I continue to be happy that Kristen Schaal has stuck around as a series regular as the Guide. So it’s hard to complain. I could see the show running out of steam over the next few seasons, but it’s still hitting for me right now.

12/12: Pony Island - Finally got around to this since the trailer for the sequel dropped. I feel like playing this years later in a post-Inscryption world where Pony Island is a known quantity kind of lessens its impact, but still, it’s a fun and funny puzzle game where you try to hack your way out of a possessed arcade machine. I’m not sure I found it particularly scary, but I’m not sure it’s supposed to be? The way the game messes with you during the Asmodeus “boss fight” was probably the highlight for me. I also like being able to say things like “The part where you have to not kill Jesus was so hard. I kept getting terrible butterfly patterns.”

12/16: Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - As always, Wayne and co.’s commitment to the bit is unrivaled. This kind of got interpreted as just a way to troll HLVRAI fans, but so many moments in this genuinely made me laugh out loud.

12/18: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude - As someone who would list Cucumber Quest as a big creative influence, I was naturally very excited for this first chapter of GGDG’s new visual novel. Their mentality of both scaling things back in terms of labor while also going more shamelessly self-indulgent in terms of storytelling after burning out on making webcomics has really spoken to me, and WOW, the end result of that new process of theirs is shaping up to be something really special. The art and music are sparse but extremely evocative, giving you the rough sketch of the world and letting your mind fill in the rest. The story blends literary high fantasy vibes with the style of fantasy seen in ‘90s JRPGs (you can definitely tell this came from an idea for an RPG), but rather than constantly winking at the audience and making self-aware video game references it plays these storytelling ideas extremely sincerely, giving them real dramatic weight while still indulging in fun tropes to their fullest extent. While it’s a far cry from their most famous work with much more mature content, GGDG always excels at creating characters and worlds that immediately grab me. I can’t wait for the rest.

12/18: Barbie - I’m only… what, five months late for the whole Barbenheimer thing? Perfect timing. Anyway! On the one hand, I get the critiques saying that this movie is just a major corporation funding a self-aware feminist critique of their own product as a marketing ploy. And I kinda agree with that. And the movie is a little too long, and I don’t really know what to think of the way the Barbie/Ken conflict plays out. Anthony asked me to summarize what the story ended up being about, and I had no idea what to even say. But also… I did still like the movie? We don’t get a lot of cartoonish, absurdist, fourth wall breaking comedies like this anymore, and this is a good one of those. Also the whole cast is great, the set design is kind of stunning, and the cinematography is consistently appealing. I wouldn’t say it’s a revolutionary work of feminist filmmaking by any stretch, but it’s a good comedy movie.

12/21: Dr. Stone: New World - Man, Dr. Stone is great. I’ve said this many times, but I just love that this series uses all the trappings of shounen that would normally be used to hype up the protagonist learning a new move to instead hype up things like the protagonist building a loom or a hot air balloon. It’s shounen Bill Nye. I didn’t completely love everything about the Treasure Island arc this season, but it all built towards a really fun climax with a lot of satisfying turnabouts where the heroes use their ingenuity to just barely win.

12/23: The History of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out World Records (Summoning Salt) - Truly one of my favorite Summoning Salt videos ever, even with how repetitive Punch-Out can get to watch. It’s just so hard to beat “and that runner… was me.”

12/24: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - What more can be said that hasn’t already been said? It’s the best and most creative 2D Mario game since the ‘90s. The only real flaws are that it’s a little easy, the Search Party stages are annoying in singleplayer, and I wish that every boss prior to the final boss wasn’t just some form of Bowser Jr. fight. But those aren’t nearly enough to drag the whole experience down. It was a blast.

12/24: Do a Powerbomb! - Got this from Anthony as a birthday present. This is the previous series by the creative team currently doing the new Transformers comics I was gushing about a few entries ago. Even with the high bar set by those comics, Do a Powerbomb! exceeded my expectations. Holy shit. An absolutely entrancing fantasy wrestling miniseries full of dynamic, energetic action and tons of heart. These comics where a guy wrestles a giant talking orangutan almost made me cry. Twice. An instant favorite.

12/25: Adventure Time (rewatch) - We ended up finishing our rewatch of Adventure Time (the main series, anyway) on my 30th birthday, which feels appropriate. I already kinda knew this, but this rewatch has truly confirmed that Adventure Time is my favorite TV series of all time. The entire show is even better on a full series rewatch. In hindsight, even parts that annoyed me when they aired end up being important parts of the beautiful tapestry that is this series. The many low points of Finn’s adolescent love life are important stepping stones in his growth as a person, which leaves him in an extremely satisfying place by the end. Jake having kids didn’t get to be a huge status quo change because they grew up instantly, but then they did a bunch of fun episodes about Jake’s relationships with his adult children that deepened him as a character. And most of the big lore questions they kept teasing over the years (“Where’d the humans go?” “Who are Finn’s parents?” “When’s Finn gonna get a robot arm?” etc.) ended up getting satisfying and creative answers, because the show left itself the room to figure those things out later. This is a truly special, one-of-a-kind series, one that lasted nearly 300 episodes and yet still seems like it was over too soon. And yes, I did in fact cry during the final montage, like I knew I would. I will always cherish this show with all of my heart.

12/25: Olive the Other Reindeer (rewatch) - Haven’t seen this one since I was a kid! It was a favorite of mine back then, and while it might not be quite as funny as I remember it’s still very cute, with a 2D/3D hybrid art style that remains very unique and appealing. As an adult I can also appreciate the cast they got for this, with like half the cast of Futurama bolstered by guests like Michael Stipe from REM and The Sopranos’ Joe Pantoliano.

12/26: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio - Anthony and I capped off our Christmas with the most jolly and festive stop motion movie of all! Jokes aside, man, what a beautiful movie. The animation is immaculate, and we really just don’t get children’s animated films like this anymore. Ones that overtly feature real world politics and religion and so many other dark themes in a way that doesn’t talk down to kids or sugarcoat things. This one hits hard. We need more movies like this.

12/31: Oppenheimer - This was an interesting one. Despite being three hours, the way that first hour jumps around in time makes it feel like Oppenheimer is constantly being propelled forward through life at a breakneck pace, swept up by the rising tide of nationalism in spite of his personal left wing politics, never really reflecting on what he’s doing until it’s too late. Then when he’s no longer useful to the empire, he’s chewed up and spat out, only to eventually be honored as a national hero as a symbolic gesture. It’s a compelling story. However, I’m a little torn on how certain aspects of history were framed. Does the abstraction of the bombings detract from the true weight of those events, in favor of sympathizing with the man who built the bomb? Or is it clever a way to show how the realities of the war were compartmentalized away by people who were complicit in its most heinous acts of violence? One minute a bunch of physicists are talking theory, thousands of miles away from the theaters of war, and the next they’ve killed 200,000 people. So which is it? Eh, probably somewhere in the middle, I guess. But I liked it overall.

12/31: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe - I’ve been really surprised by how good this rerelease is. It kind of flew under the radar for me. I liked the original game, but at the time it also almost felt like the New Super Mario Bros. of Kirby. It was a straightforward throwback game where you went through a grass world, then a desert world, then a water world, etc., and also they added four player co-op. But returning to this one after the kinda mid Star Allies has made me appreciate just how solid RtDL is as a Kirby game. I really like the updated graphics, too - yes, even the new cel shaded outlines around the characters - even though I didn’t think it looked that great in screenshots. Also the two new copy abilities (Sand and Mecha) are fun, the minigame collection is shockingly fleshed out to the point that they could’ve sold it as a standalone eShop game, the collectible character masks are fun, and the new epilogue mode where you play as Magolor is one of the coolest bonus modes they’ve ever done. This is a top tier Kirby remake any fan of the series should check out.

Ongoing things I followed in 2023 that don't have a blurb:

Halo Infinite multiplayer

IDW Sonic the Hedgehog (main series + specials)

One Piece

Chainsaw Man

My Hero Academia (not caught up)

The JOJOlands (not caught up)

Things I started in 2023 that I still need to finish:

Freedom Planet 2

Hi-Fi Rush

Live A Live

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Picross 3D Round 2

Rhythm Heaven MegaMix

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Spark the Electric Jester 3

Sonic Dream Team

One Piece (Wano arc, anime)

Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 (I’ve already read the Shibuya arc already in the manga, though)

Astro Boy (2003 anime)

Futurama (original run rewatch)

One Piece (manga reread)

The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee/Ditko era)

Scott Pilgrim series (reread)

And finally... my favorites of 2023!!!

Overall favorite game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Favorite indie game: Pseudoregalia

Games remastered in 2023 that are now among my all-time faves: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, We Love Katamari

Most pleasant surprise in gaming: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Favorite film: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Favorite live action show: Barry

Favorite anime: Pluto

Favorite anime written by a Canadian guy and an American guy based on the Canadian guy's old graphic novel series: Scott PIlgrim Takes Off

Favorite live action adaptation of an anime that I still can't believe they didn't fuck up: One Piece

Favorite Western cartoon: Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake

Favorite older cartoon I only got around to watching in its entirety this year: The Venture Bros.

Favorite documentary: Double Fine PsychOdyssey

Favorite semi-improvised semi-scripted absurdist comedy/horror/tragedy Twitch livestream performance art thing: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware finale (wayneradiotv)

Favorite manga: Chainsaw Man

Favorite older manga that I only read this year: Berserk

Favorite Western comic book: Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers

Favorite album: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock)

And that's a wrap!!!!! Happy new year, everyone! Here's to me maybe actually reading a goddamn book this year

[larchelle-ffxiv]

more 7.0 spoilers bc I was DRAINED after finishing msq yesterday. also a lot of headcanon stuff for my skrungly bc I have THOUGHTS AND THINGS I GOTTA WRITE

- so this expac hurt obviously, but MAN I didn't expect it to touch on grief and loss, let alone HOW it approached that. where shb and ew had similar themes going on of "regardless of the loss and sorrow we are faced with, we will learn to press on and continue", that sorta thing. dt is here like "hiya gamers are you ready to learn how to ACTUALLY LET GO OF THAT LOSS? HOW TO ACTUALLY SIT DOWN AND PROCESS THAT GRIEF? WELL YOURE GONNA LEARN TODAY"

- everything about alexandria/LM BROKE ME. a really powerful message on how impressive and impactful technology can be, but also how quickly it can be weaponized and abused. and the shit about erasing the memories of those who die just being commonplace???? the turali people who were in the dome, found themselves losing THIRTY YEARS OF THEIR LIVES, their loved ones back in tural thinking they were dead or missing and they were RIGHT THERE, some in that time REALLY DYING/BECOMING ENDLESS? good GOD that fucked me up. not to mention EVERYTHING ABOUT SPHENE. she didn't ASK to be made into an endless, she had goddamn levin sickness and WENT TO TRY TO HELP HER PEOPLE ANYWAY, preservation forced her new self to put the people's needs and desires so much in the forefront of her priorities that she became a TERRIBLY FLAWED leader, but was so blind to her faults bc she "did everything for her people's wellbeing". she's a heartbreaking character for sure, ugh

- this expac gave us SO MUCH GOD DAMN WORLD BUILDING. WOW. ive never done every single yellow quest in an expac, but I've made it a huge goal of mine to do it here esp throughout the expac, and it's been SO WORTH IT. the further extended lore, the foreshadowing/clarification and further explanation for things, it was all terrific jfc. now I wanna go back and do yellow quests for all the expansions bc bro. this shit is just SITTING HERE??? FOR FREE????

- I've finally figured out why people (aka capital g Gamers on reddit/ff forums/twitter) don't like this expac. it's absolutely feeling like what stb has become to a lot of the player base. it features a lot of POC, has female leads, and we as the WoL aren't The Main Character. at least in stb we had more of a presence as WoL, but here one title doesn't matter anywhere near as much in comparison. also, with a lot of the dialogue/plot stuff/music (esp the songs with lyrics) , this expac is kingdom hearts coded AS FUCK. it's goofier than EW/SHB, it has more corny stuff going on, wuk lamat is LITERALLY female furry sora. they're mad that we aren't the Main Character, they're mad it isn't as edgy/horrific/depressing, they """can't relate""" bc everything is so diverse and full of hispanic culture, and they're fucking FIXATED on wuk lamat's VA being a trans woman. jfc I'm so glad I'm not on Twitter and I don't look at the ffxiv reddit, bc the shit I've heard has been pathetic and obnoxious lmao. like, try to have ACTUAL CONSTRUCTIVE THINGS to complain about.

also, I hold the unpopular opinion of HW being my least favorite experience in game. the beginning of it is SO GODDAMN SLOW AND PAINFUL, and i honestly got soooo bored of seeing the same looking white elezens/hearing about the Catholic Control and Drama. i also really dont like the dungeons or trials (minus the last msq one, still great thematically), and playing 50-60 as a scholar was NOT fun lmao. hilda, the OST, and everything relating to the DRK quest line are basically all that kept me going through that expac.

But I won't go being a goddamn asshole about it to people who like it!!! let people ENJOY things jfc lmao, also recognize that every single expac takes time to hit the Big Frickin Moments (aka level x7 most of the time), and not everything needs to involve huge amounts of massacre and horror!!! even then, did yall NOT pay attention to what happened with solution 9/living memory??? where goddamn SOULS ARE A CURRENCY???? how about the mamool ja SACRIFICING INFANTS EN MASSE in hopes of a two headed son being born, and putting all their faith in that son to get them out from the deepest depths of the jungle???? or the war between them and the x'braal???? is2g the lack of media literacy/reading comprehension amongst gamers, I'm so TIRED

RANT OVER UGH ANYWAYYYYY

- chelle is absolutely gonna find her adoptive mom satsuki in the canal town section of living memory. hands fucking down. ive had this idea for y e a r s now of them having a chance meeting in the aetherial sea as she "died" after fighting zenos in UT, but it fits SO WELL to have it take place in LM of all places. satsuki spending YEARS trying to find her lil meow meow again, hearing tales of what sounded like her girl, but how in the hell did the shy, sickly child she once cared for get strong enough to become a whole ass HERO??? and just always ending up in each place she was too long after she had left, bc she was only able to work off of hearsay ;A;

me and my partner have it where satsuki's wife and her always hoped to visit tural together, and she gave her wife notes on how she needed to help satsuki find this young miqo girl she adopted after her wife went to travel again. as luck would have it, enna was in tural waiting for satsuki to join her there (satsuki and her were doing research based on chelle's appearance and accent and essentially crossed every continent off the list over time. esp Ala mhigo bc, even tho that's where satsuki found her, enna knew she couldn't be born there based on she herself being Ala mhigan). enna becomes chelle's viper mentor and says that she knows her mother, but doesn't elaborate much until they get to know each other better.

so them finding her in LM? still running a tavern and keeping people happy with booze and food and sea shanties all sung off key? oh it's gonna DESTROY THEM, but be such an important step in getting closure/learning to face grief head on/letting her go without regrets. and they're gonna be a family and UGH I CANT WAIT TO WRITE IT

- fellow wolgrahas. fellow wolgrahas how the FUCK WE DOIN BOYS, LIKE?????? they really gave us a main story quest to help an endless find an engagement ring to propose to his beloved, AND THEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER. put us on a gondola ride with g'raha so he could have a """heartfelt conversation"""with us AGAIN???? BRO!!!!!!

chelle and him are absolutely gonna finally address their relationship again, where g'raha has been struggling to figure out whether or not to propose lol. he really wants to do something to symbolize them being together for life, but knows that she isn't the kind of person who likes just staying in one place/being tied down and isn't really about traditional. well anything lol. he's gonna stumble his way through all those thoughts before she gently cuts him off, reassuring him that she understands and appreciates how thoughtful he's been about the whole thing. reflect a bit on what they've seen and been through, both in the first and since he returned to the source, and with this couple and them talking about "living without regrets/living life to the fullest"(gotta reread the dialogue for when I write this lol). and thought stuffy fancy shindigs aren't her thing, she knows damn well that he's someone she wants to see the world and share her life with.

and SHE'S the one who gets down on one knee and asks him to elope with her/be life partners. the bitch PROPOSES HERSELF, but is too stupid to realize/still too scared of vulnerability to actually call it what it is. and he's about to burst into tears and before he can say anything the gondola knocks into the pier at the end of the ride, as chelle's kissing his hand, causing her to nearly headbutt the poor boy in the crotch and both of them panicked going "OH GODS ARE YOU OKAY, DID YOU GET HURT, SORRY". and they stare at one another before chelle awkwardly laughs going "i guess this would be a bad time to make a joke about "giving you head", huh" or something else cringe like that, to which they both start laughing, holding hands as they step back onto the pier before those laughs are joined with joy filled crying as they hold each other as tight as gd possible and jfeivoeoivoeor

I'm sure I'll have more to say and reflect on but this is already super long and I just. wow. what a goddamn incredible experience dawntrail has been.

[mentorcrown]

okay i have slept on it and now have somewhat coherent thoughts about the dawntrail msq... less mad than i was when i first finished the game lmao

tl;dr overall it was an okay expansion. not a great one but not bad either. im looking forward to seeing where the game takes us

in terms of where id rate it in my personal scale-- where my personal scale does not indicate i hate an expansion, just that i dont enjoy it as much as other ones-- its below stormblood but above heavensward.

personal scale now: shadowbringers > endwalker > stormblood while zenos is on screen > rest of stormblood > dawntrail > heavensward while ysayle is on screen > ARR > rest of heavensward)

rest is under a read more because it contains blatant spoilers for the MSQ

things i loved

i loved all the ff9 references. ff9 is my most beloved game

i love you wuk lamat. i love you koana. i love you erenville.

the dungeon/trial design is top notch. lots of fights in endwalker feel very flat and not at all challenging. not this time. everything was great. it was engaging. parts were difficult in a good way. loved how even it was basically the same mechanics we've seen before, it was presented in interesting ways

dragons?? in MY dawntrail??? more likely than you think aka mission status sick cutscene

gripes(??)

the pacing was off. some parts felt completely unnecessary. especially the weird cowboy bandit thing ill be honest i could not have cared less than i did. i think that entire map could have been better spent focusing on the nomadic cat tribe(s).

first half of the story was stellar i loved that. it was a bit too expositiony in parts but i still loved every part of the first half (desert story not included). (this was at least partly because by my wife is an anthropologist and was fangirling the entire time)

second half was weak as fuck. i dont know why they needed to rehash the same thing we've seen the past 2 expansions. we did not another emet-selch archetype. i feel like the entire S9 stuff could have been handled so much better than it was.

the theories that people had pre-release about how s9 was likely a hidden city that did trade with the rest of tural. and that one of the brothers were likely working with them to destabilize tural; that story would have been so much better. they still could have had it be a shard idc. they could have kept the azem stuff too. i just did not care one little bit to have emet-selch/amaurot 2.0.

hated the "we have to save the world but lets fuck around as much as possible while our friends hold open the gate" plot sooo much. i get why we did it but holy hell the pacing shift from 'this is world ending' to whatever the hell was going on in the golden city was like Why.

did find the krile parents and erenville mother thing soft though. even if i am still livid about how they dangled erenvilles mother in front of him several times. the poor guy

i dont care about the scions. i DONT CARE about the scions. STOP SHOWING ME the scions. why are these old people not retired yet. rehash the scions. give me a new main cast. the twins and graha can stay.

[farfromdaylight]

i have a 600 person queue to chew through, so let's make another post.

i'm level 95 and have finished the third solo instance, plus a few quests after it (but not that far.)

this expansion feels very political in a way that's different from the previous expacs. ff14 doesn't really hide its politics and never has; it's always been a story about the power of friendship overcoming the most terrible of foes. and in that respect, it's very simple and straightforward. a little basic, maybe, but the core theme of "you should actually listen to what other people want" is very honest and true to itself.

wuk lamat wants peace. and peace is a wonderful thing to want, but what does it actually mean? it means looking at how your society is set up. it means looking at who has advantages, and who doesn't, and why that is. and then when you find out, you have to do something about it. a truly egalitarian society is a pipe dream, but it's the thought that counts.

that doesn't mean it's not worth trying. and even if you fail, you'll have learned valuable lessons in the attempt. this, too, is a constant refrain of ff14: you have to try, even if it's hard, even if you're not sure you're going to succeed. you have to put in the effort.

it's interesting how the claimants each display different parts of this struggle. koana's lust for innovation is all well and good, but there's no depth to it. bakool ja ja wants power for the sake of power, to justify but not right past wrongs. zoraal ja — well, i suspect we'll be getting more into him soon. i do not think he will accept defeat so easily.

and wuk lamat is so clearly meant to be the victor. this entire setup is perfect for her, and while she's plainly struggled along the path, she's still tried. she's given it her all, and she hasn't backed down even when it's tough. it's admirable, i think.

on the whole, i'm really liking this expansion! it feels very reminiscent of stormblood, in that the warrior of light is kind of just There and not particularly integral to the actual story. but after all the drama of the past two expacs this is nothing short of a relief. god knows we needed a rest.

some misc thoughts:

how the fuck is kenteramm still alive, lmao. i stopped msq right before going to his house (sidequests spawned and i had to do them) so i guess?? we'll find out?? most HD roegadyn i've ever seen tho, damn

i can Feel a twist looming. with the rite of succession nearing its end, there's gotta be something beyond "search for the city of gold" to carry us five more levels.

on a gameplay note, i have no idea when to use vice of thorns. it seems as though i have the freedom to use it whenever, which is nice, but i like a slightly more rigid burst window... i suppose i'll just use it after party buffs go out. other red mage changes are v good so far.

i did a leveling queue as summoner this morning to try and keep pace with red mage and lucked into the level 93 dungeon (the top one i could do, nice). these dps queues tho. killer. (i'd comment on summoner changes but l o l)

THE VALIGARMANDA TRIAL WAS FANTASTIC. i did it in trust (what a surprise! i never thought they'd do a trust trial again) and died when the boss was at like 12% health because....... i was trying to RDM LB3 and the avalanche got me and none of the NPCs broke me out of the snowball. THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLES. went fine the second time though.

as a red mage main, alisaie as your trust healer is fucking hilarious.

this goes without saying but the game looks so beautiful, goddamn.

i still have 83 in queue but i've run out of things to say. LET ME IN

[zwei-rhunen]

I JUST CLEARED SEPHIROT EXTREME WTF

>be me, it's like 10pm, i'm on BLU, i saw a party in PF earlier doing a spell run, I've never done that before. I've only used PF like twice lol. I wonder if it's still up?

>it's not still up, ah well. but i still see a listing for Sephirot EX that i saw like 30 min ago - a someone requesting help to clear for their friend and there's like 4-5 roles filled already

>well. i like sephirot hard. i dont remember sephirot extreme. i probably cleared it once with @lucia-dartancours a long ass time ago, maybe. sounds like fun tho i'd like to help out. i'll probably remember some of it during the middle of the fight or smth.

>join, be upfront that i'm "not experienced with this one" and i'll drop if needed. im told its all good and we'll figure it out, cool!

>duty begins, and i get.... the cutscene???? huh??????

>oh. suddenly, a shadow of the past echoes in my ear. flashbacks flit across my mind's eye as i recall asking @lucia-dartancours to do sephirot EX with me, but we cannot, bc alas, it is one of the few that is difficult to solo and may require a party.

>ohfuck.jpeg i am about to act very clueless in front of strangers

>"i'M nOt VeRy ExPeRieNcEd-" hi sorry guys, by that i mean it as in i havent seen this AT ALL EVER IN MY LIFE LMFAO OOPS

>sweating.gif

>okay i've seen exactly ONE video and that was when @ was soloing it on WAR, and i probably had just finished HW, and knew fuck-all about trials. except that it was cool and flashy and looked fun and maybe someday i'd do it, when i got past all this dang MSQ.

>welp i guess it's "someday".

>get full party, do fight, our first ever attempt goes REALLY well. we managed to clear the first phase and wiped at maybe the second towers/right after the first towers? something like that.

>i have no idea what i'm doing and ngl i'm surviving off of sheer beginner's luck up until the very end of this first attempt lmao. idk how i managed to survive that long.

>... and i did not manage to recreate that again, up until the tail-end of that two hour time-frame.

>we try again a few more times, then the markers get broken out to divide the group up into 2 parties

>LMAO'ing because me and the other first-timer get the kindergarten shapes... xDDD

> the mentors/experienced people lay out the plan

>i understand half of what theyre saying, but i keep the mantra "green=hug, orange=spread out"

>idk what colors mean when they refer to that but i'll figure it out/i think it's similar to zurvan with the hot/ice debuff mechanic (i later figure out this is exactly what that is)

>tbh, at first that "color" meant the tether color. but now i think you get that tether if you stand close to Sephirot, regardless of your debuff color. And im MNK, so at first i thought i was always orange b/c the tether color is orange, and i was always getting that tether b/c i'm always up close as MNK. but color refers to debuffs, i figured it out.

>not me sounding like a lunatic everytime we get to the debuff phase, muttering "okokokokok, orange is run, orange is run"

we keep wiping in the first phase, but slowly learn and adapt and improvise and overcome our way to the second phase before the duty timer runs out.

lol

>it is 11pm. someone mentions they can stay on until the next duty runout, i'm like same (bc it's 11pm lol). one of the healers switches to SMN for shields, tank offers to do a discord call to do calls, no one takes the offer, so we continue on-wards

>about midway into the second duty attempt, i finally understand what people mean when they say "stack in front of green bubble for the flash to bait the (whatever you call it), and then spread out", bc i started noticing the flash, and at one point i had died early and was able to kinda notice what ppl were doing, plus short snippets from @'s video from 500 years ago are coming back to me and i'm starting to remember this part of the video)

>so i finally stop dying at that part (i always kept getting wiped out by his flash attack bc i kept forgetting that it takes up the entire side of the arena T_T)

>i keep dying at the 2nd phase, when he does the flash and then the first middle knockback fist, and im like how tf does everyone else keep surviving. oh, is it arm's length? and someone replies about positioning and i'm looking at the screen like "okay 1-130, i'll just stare hard at everyone else and follow them" b/c up until that point i was focusing hard about the debuffs and trying to make sure i was in the correct zone lmao

>AT SOME POINT, i dont die + the stars align for everything else + we have just enough people constantly alive and suddenly we survive phase two and we're blowing past the fist slidey part and now we're killing the air add and there's a flurry of pings going off in chat from the tank and now we're in the stack and the fist is going across the floor and THANK GOD the third phase is mostly a repeat of the second phase and LB3 gets hit and we trim off the last few HP on his bar and ITS OVER WE'RE DONE OH MY GOD.

15 minutes left to spare T-T we got out at 12:15am lol but shoutout to the person who stayed up till 1am to see this through

a few things:

> green debuffers are supposed to "pass the tether" to the orange debuffers. i still have no clue how to do that. I thought it'd be like, we run to them. but the green bubbles are always in the way, and i never saw people touch each other. so i have no clue how we pass on the tethers lmao

>tanks also take both towers in the second tower phase. but also, people with orange debuff must take towers? i am still confused on that part. I'll probably watch a video later.

that was really fun!

but also

i think i'm going to stay far the fuck away from PF extremes for a bit lmfao

[kimoi-boi]

I went from 23,130 in-game points and 21,945 Lalachievement points up to 23,380 in-game and 22,195 on Lalachievement. I was rank 23 last week and I actually rose to 22 this week, with only 5 points separating me from the next rank!

(Spoilers for DT location/achievement names under the cut!)

Total points gained: 250 Title(s) earned: Arbiter of the Land, Arbiter of the Arts, Master Goldsmith, Sunforged, Domebreaker

Still making our way through MSQ! We're on level 98 quests now, so I'm sure it won't be too long before we actually finish up.

I got all my crafters and gatherers to 100 AND I finished up the last of the unique levequests achievements. Also got GNB to 100.

Grabbed my 10k HQ items as a GSM achievement as well! I'll definitely be getting the others ones that I'm missing before the end of Dawntrail at this rate lmao.

I finished up 3/5 of the role quests so I could get my mentor crown back lmao. The stories were pretty great this time around so far. Just need to get a melee and p.ranged to 100 and then I can finish the rest.

We're far enough into MSQ that I can fly in Shaaloani, so I was able to do the capybara mount fate a single time. Just need to do it one more time to get the mount itself!

[avaritia-ffxiv]

While I’m a crafting and gathering fanatic in the game, being a master at everything is, unsurprisingly, not canon for Saahe. He does know how to repair basic equipment, but the only thing he has any noteworthy skills in is cooking.

While my cul is a solid 0 in the game ‘cause that’s the only crafter I haven’t bothered to level. STILL. He’s no master chef, but he is an above average home cook and rather enjoys cooking.

When he has the time for it, which isn’t too often. 

[stormclaws]

it looks like my summer vacation......

is over 😔

[yloiseconeillants]

this isnt specifically what that suggest an npc thing was asking but im curious and it made me think of it so i wanna ask anyway: whats yloise's opinion on each of the scions?? which ones are her friends and which ones are just coworkers?? any prospective lovers?? (as of where youre up to in msq rn)

thank you so much for this ask, @kuroimarzipan! i wanted to wait to answer this one when i got home from my trip and now i am slime :/ Uh, just putting this one under a cut because I'm sure it's going to get long lmao. EDIT, on day three of writing this up OKAY THIS GOT REALLY LONG also spoilers up until where i’m at in the msq which is just finished Stormblood proper....

BESTIE ZONE

Y'shtola: Yloise met Y'sthola first, and it was Y'sthola's recommendation that led to Yloise joining up with the Scions in the first place. Yloise is a little intimidated by her, but in a good way? She wants to impress her and she wants to be friends - Y'shtola will insist that they ARE friends, particularly after the Titan quests. Yloise respects and trusts Y'sthola. I imagine they can both get a little catty if they're in the mood for it.

Thancred: Given my fucky timeline for multi-WOL shenanigans, I think Yloise met Thancred for all of maybe five minutes before he was possessed by Lahabrea (but she still thought something was off, given all the stories about him that Erasmus told her, when he was inexplicably absent for her nameday party), but after the whole Lahabrea Fisticuffs Incident where she fractures Thancred’s nose and breaks her wrist doing so, they trauma-bond hard enough that Yloise can consider him one of her closest friends among the Scions during the 7th Astral Era. Thancred’s been busy and distant post-HW, though...

Yda/Lyse: I have talked about their relationship extensively elsewhere but by means of update, I think Yloise is at peace with Lyse’s decisions (even if she was railroaded into them by the plot :/ and i disagree w/ them on a fundamental level but whatever) and ready to move on from her mess of feelings re: Lyse without resolution. It’s fine.

Dariustel (who is still a Scion, despite the game dropping him entirely after ARR it’s fine): Yloise and Dariustel have had a rocky friendship considering that the very first time they met, they were both immediately struck by an Echo vision of the most fucked up moment of Dariustel’s life (when Yloise’s evil dad forced him to torture a farmer to test his loyalty). He very nearly quit the Scions then and there, but Yloise essentially begged him to stay to 1. prove that Dariustel did not have to be defined by his past and that he would make a worthy Scion 2. so that she could seek out her father (who she’s never met) to resolve her own drama/end his reign of terror in the Twelveswood. I’ve written a Lot about this in the Googledoc but very little of it ends up here because I keep changing her father’s Whole Deal, but by the end of ARR, they are very good friends and a sort of trial run for Echo-intimate relationships (Ysayle).

Tajih: Yloise first met Tajih as an Assessor at Mealvaan’s Gate, but I would call them acquaintances (or friends of friends) until they meet up again at the Waking Sands, when Yloise appoints herself matchmaker between Tajih and Liavinne (they can manage all on their own, thanks, AND Yloise doesn’t care for Liavinne), but after the Massacre, Yloise realizes that Tajih needs a different kind of support than just romantic cheerleading and actively works to be a better friend to Tajih.

Erasmus: They’ve been tanking and healing for each other since Sastasha and it’s the sort of working relationship that requires a kind of preternatural ability to read each other (which is inevitably helped by the Echo, but also some people just get each other’s vibes through prolonged proximity). Erasmus is too fucking polite to call her on her deceitful bullshit when he sees it, but he will try to work with her through her own self-imposed barriers. He’s been presumed dead since the Banquet, though, and I need to figure out when I get him back into the Soap Opera plot proper.

COWORKERS

Urianger: While her (rotten) attitude toward Urianger softened quite a bit since the moment that Moenbryda arrived and Yloise can truthfully call him a friend after everything that went down with Minfilia, I still don't think they're close. Yloise has observed Urianger, and can recognize when he's overtaxing himself and (as unobtrusively as possible) leave him some tea and snacks, but she's not doing much more to get to know him.

Minfilia: To be certain, Yloise cares DEEPLY about Minfilia, and feels comfortable enough to share secrets with Minfilia she would otherwise take to her grave (the whole thing w/ Midgardsormr, for example), but there is a certain professional distance that Yloise is imposing on their relationship (out of habit? fear?).

Papalymo: I’m pretty certain Yloise just recognized Papalymo as Yda’s chaperone and like, went to the beach w/ them a few times but they’ve probably never spoken outside of like, making fun of Thancred together a few times.

Alphinaud: Alphinaud was firmly framed in Yloise’s brain as “My 16-year-old Coworker” for most of the game and fluctuated between “I guess I’m just going to go along with him leading a mercenary force now,” “This Child Needs To Get Out of My Personal Business With a Certain Knight in Coerthas,” and “Did he literally just refer to me as a dog?” but then, like, Heavensward happened, and now Alphinaud is Yloise’s Son Boy that she is Very Proud Of and she hangs up his art in her shitty apartment.

Alisaie: Alisaie is currently occupying the “My 16-year-old Coworker” position recently vacated by Alphinaud although Alisaie immediately hit her with the Ga Bu deep conversation which Yloise was not ready for by any means.  They need to spend more time together before Yloise can call her a friend, but anything for Alphinaud’s sister, I guess.

Krile: Yloise knows that she Should Not Fuck with Krile (or any other 30+ furry academic, for that matter), but she seems pleasant enough and would probably have tea with her if the opportunity presented itself but, you know, MSQ.

Fred: My partner’s WOL, and the closest thing to a long-term rival that Yloise possesses (she does not have a competitive bone in her body, except, apparently, when this jackass deigns to speak). He is both the Monk who Stands in the AOE AND the Red Mage who will revive her when she is down. The first time they were ever nice to each other was after she was struck by a falling rock during the Titan Fight that should have hit him, and he felt awful and stayed by her side while she recovered at Warmwine Sanitorium (and got in some fishing in the meantime). I WAS playing with the idea when we first started playing that there was something romantic between these two but absolutely not. The very idea is repugnant to her (which makes Fred’s half-assed flirting even worse when it occurs). He now exists to deliver bad news and give her rides on his chocobo while they are both dealing with MSQ nonsense.

Tataru: Tataru is not just Yloise’s Coworker, but she may be Yloise’s Boss at this point. Yloise is wise enough to indulge her whims and support her endeavors.

NOTABLE OTHER DYNAMICS???

She admires the Company of Heroes tremendously and looks upon Riol as both a compatriot and somewhat of a mentor (Erasmus has an outright crush on him and she WILL make it awkward for him for a laugh) (she does have a crush on Landenel though). 

As previously mentioned, she does not care for Liavinne, but it’s not like she wanted her to die or anything.

I have not written much about Zezesu since they keep changing in my plots, but the basic points are the same: Zezesu probably falls on the coworker side of the Scions, but as a member of Yloise’s early adventuring party, they have a stronger bond than say, Yloise and Tataru. Zezesu does die in the Waking Sands Massacre.

Most of the other Very Minor Scions are more friends of Erasmus than Yloise’s friends, but they’re all friendly-by-proxy. She’s always surprised when a Scion later assumes she doesn’t remember them, just because they didn’t interact much, but Yloise remembers every time anyone was nice to her ever, so of course she’d recall the times Erasmus would call Arenvald and A’aba or Una and her companions to share a table with them.

[fistsoflightning]

ABOUT FFXIVWRITE | FILLS TAG

total word count: 19567 words longest fill: cross (3175 words) shortest fill: confluence (253 words)

/playdead... ‘tis done! i finished 4 more fills than i did last year, iirc, which i am going to take as a w b/c the planets went gatorade like halfway through the month & almost took me out, which may explain the amount of wolcred i wrote this year lmao. i’d like to come back to a bunch of these & expand - the fills for tepid, attrition, deiform, vicissitudes, and fuse, mostly - so plfti in the hopefully near but probably distant future??

01. CROSS | perfect balance thancred/zaya | 2.2 | implied alcoholism cw | 3175 wc. zaya and thancred have a late-night spar.

02. BOLT | stardew fantasy tehra’ir & valdis | post 6.0, no-real-spoilers MSQ mention | 719 wc. tehra’ir and valdis are on the hunt for a thief. in their beachwear.

03. TEMPER | how hard could it be valdis & alisaie, minor lumelle/alisaie | nebulously 5.1 | 336 wc. alisaie tries to temper chocolate. valdis is just here for the show.

04. FREE DAY ✧ ASSIDUOUS | forge ahead zaya & a’dewah, minor thancred/zaya | 6.0 end of MSQ spoilers | 985 wc. a’dewah continues to pick up the pieces of his friends after every adventure.

06. ONEROUS | old burdens elidi-themis & atalanta | 6.0 4th area MSQ spoilers | 2353 wc. themis and atalanta, before and after the sundering.

07. PAWN | the best defense minor thancred/zaya | post 6.0 no spoilers | 630 wc. zaya helps thancred out on the checkered battlefield of chess.

08. TEPID | still anything i can do thancred/zaya | lightwarden bad-ish end AU | body horror cw | 1823 wc. thancred goes to visit the last lightwarden.

09. YAWN | the deed is done minor thancred/zaya | 6.0 post lv. 83 duty iykyk | 499 wc. there's something zaya needs to do before they sleep. thancred disagrees.

10. CHANNEL | home point zaya-centric | between 2.2 - 2.5 | 1057 wc. zaya hasn’t been able to attune since the calamity.

12. MISS THE BOAT | end of the world who? lunya & zaya | pre-endwalker/very first quest | 836 wc. there's no better time for fishing than the present, even if it makes you miss the boat to sharlayan to stop the apocalypse!

13. CONFLUENCE | testing in progress thancred/zaya | early 6.0 MSQ, pre 1st dungeon | 253 wc. good ol aetherial sickness strikes again. (6.0 thavnair branch spoilers)

14. ATTRITION | let it all be said thancred/zaya | 6.0 lv. 85 - 86 MSQ | 1582 wc. thancred and zaya have one last conversation before they’re a world apart (again).

16. DEIFORM | peripeteia hermes & “a visitor” | 6.0 lv. 87 MSQ spoilers | 387 wc. when a sneeze sends the chief overseer flying, a visitor is out to save the day.

17. NOVEL | stories told along the way haruki/a’dewah | post 6.0, no spoilers | 561 wc. a’dewah gets a delivery of novels in exchange for being mortally embarrassed.

19. TURN A BLIND EYE | the wind on high zaya & ardbert, zaya & g’raha | 5.0 lv. 88 - 89 MSQ | 804 wc. ardbert lends an ear to zaya’s troubles for lack of a way to not do that.

24. VICISSITUDES | bereft of hearth and home zaya-centric | 2.3 MSQ | 485 wc. the refugees outside ul’dah have it hard. zaya would know, having lived with them.

26. BREAK A LEG | walk forth thancred/zaya | post 6.0 MSQ | 389 wc. when zaya’s bedridden, the scions shouldn’t completely trust thancred to keep them from escaping.

27. HAIL | find your way zaya-centric, zaya & sadu | pre-calamity steppe, lv. 65 dungeon | 873 wc. zaya’s echo wakes seven years before the calamity.

29. FUSE | light up the dark zaya & g’raha | post 5.0, quest ‘for every child a star’ | 583 wc. g’raha recruits zaya to help with katliss’ fireworks show.

30. SOJOURN | wherever the wind blows thancred/zaya | nebulously post 6.0 | 1237 wc. thancred and zaya have a nice dinner at the quicksand before they set out on a new adventure.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Just saw some art that reminded me of my own Stormblood dragoon experience. So, Frog hit 70 Dragoon out in the Azim Steppe while doing the MSQ. I think I hadn't quite unlocked flying yet. But you see, you only need access to the Azim Steppe to get to the 70 job quest because it's not gated behind any higher level area. So I tootled up to it probably still wearing like level 63 gear or something, started the quest, and got all the cutscenes out the way, started the fight, and got absolutely murdered.

Then my brother pointed out it would be a lot less hard if I finished the MSQ (he was always nagging me to do that for some reason) and collected at the very least some 69/70 dungeon gear and quest stuff for Dragoon so I could actually do the fight without being auto attacked to death. And like, eh, not like you need better gear than what I had to continue doing literally anything other than the 70 DRG quest. So I nodded and got on with doing that. But I did really want to get that quest done so I pretty much just waited until I had Castrum Abania upgrades and 68 quest reward gear and tried it again, and did actually beat it after much travails, learned the meaning of friendship and love etc, as you do.

So in Frog Canon, like, the order of events that unfolded as Bounding Frog, warrior of light, was fighting the Stormblood war on two fronts, was this:

Estinien leaves Ishgard and heads directly for the great big hole in the ground that he stares ominously at in a mid-Stormblood cutscene

Despite ominous pronouncements about what he has left to do, he gets distracted and travels all the way to the Far East after deciding maybe the hole in the ground at least is someone else's 70 raid series problem, and I guess he hit a dead end investigating that.

Frog encounters him in the Azim Steppe having his hot girl summer literally at peace, blissed out, free of all burdens save his newfound purpose

Estinien is like "What are you doing here anyway?" and she's like "Ummmmm we're kinda kicking the Garleans out of every single province at once because the twins have absolutely no concept of moderation I guess?"

Estinien looks at Orn Khai and says, "Oh no. Listen, small and extremely ambitious friend I have adopted. I have another, smaller but even more ambitious friend who is doing stupider things. Can you wait here for like. A week. I'll be back, I have all the aetherytes between here and Ishgard unlike some people."

Estinien teleports back the nearest aetheryte in Gyr Abania he has and stealthily follows Alphy around until he needs to do a big damn hero moment uncredited.

Estinien teleports back to the Far East and sits on a rock sharpening his spear and looking moody for a few hours

He and Frog do the 70 job quest together

He's like "cool so did you finish the war so we can hang out?"

She's like "no lmao I still have to liberate Ala Mhigo. Wild, right?"

Estinien slowly drags his hand down his face.

He returns to Gyr Abania to appear in the appropriate cutscene after the Stormblood quest is complete

He returns to the Far East to hide in Kugane until Krile comes to get him for the next time he canonically appears and this whole thing explains is why he is SO resentful that anyone would dare try to pry him out of just sitting down for FIVE MINUTES.

[betafibiiiiiivviiixiiixxixxxiv]

archon quest interlude: the crane returns on the wind spoilers below

traveler, you want more information about your sister but what exactly are you gonna ask? i hope you’re not gonna ask have you seen her, bc i’m pretty sure they would’ve told you if they had

i wonder if the dialogue changes depending on how much of the story past liyue’s msq you’ve completed

oooh shenhe’s eyes are pretty

ahhh the differences between cn and eng once again. in cn, when paimon’s introducing herself, she just says ‘my name is paimon,’ but the english dialogue says ‘paimon’s well...paimon!’

LMAO YOU KNOW WHAT I’D SUPPORT YOU ON THAT QUEEN

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NO

MHY

YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME

I ALREADY DECIDED I DIDN’T WANT HER

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME LIKE HER

ESP WITH THAT OUTFIT

ah that explains it

cloud retainer what are you teaching her...?

oh baizhu is here

they really be teasing dendro like that huh

uh

we did pay for those herbs...right?

gee i wonder who that might be

was it supposed to start raining after you removed that protective spell?

ah damn it i brought ganyu into the domain when i didn’t need to bc there would be shenhe

oooh this abode is pretty

man trial shenhe as A LOT of hp

chest here

hm i plunged atk down but i wonder if you’ll actually take fall dmg

aw there was water at the end after you broke the second partition

chest here

another chest here after you move the first rock to the right

there was another chest but i claimed it before i could take a picture

when you move the rock on the left, if you move the first rock on the right revealed by pushing the rock on the left back, there will be a chest in an alcove on your left

i almost missed this exquisite chest XD if i hadn’t sat down, i would’ve missed it

it looks like none of the chests aside from the precious chest at the end give primos, unless i missed every single primo notification

man, mhy i want a stack of liyue books and a stack of scrolls now

aww that’s so cute

aww paimon’s so sweet

holy shit shenhe

ah, cloud retainer!!

cloud retainer is so prettyyyy

does this or does this not include zhongli

oh, so she didn’t get it from you

ah, gonna have to cross check this with cn text

oh? is it possible that the voice we heard in shenhe’s teaser was moon carver?

ahh the good old emotions are sealed away trope

well this isn’t ominous at all

and it’s fucking raining while you’re saying this

hahahaha

wait wtf it’s literally only been a night ningguang holy shit

wtf, mhy don’t you think this is a little fast????

oh it’s just the base, i see i see

that’s still a lot tho

ngl if the base was on the ground underneath the platform holding our unactivated plaustrite the day before, i did not see

hehe you can walk on the metal ropes tying the jade chamber to the ground and your steps make a little clank sound

LMAO 还有不认识的人

i hope that’s the right de

yun jiiiiiiiiiiin

her cute little wave

wahhhh she sounds so elegant in cn

eyyy we a team now

teamwork makes the dream work

why the zoom out?

eh?

qiqi? what are you doing there?

oh i walked into pervases’ world quest hahaha can’t do it until i finish the archon quest though

oh, you can talk to her!!

i wonder if i’ve missed anyone else i could talk to...

eh? evacuation? something bad in the sea?

qiqiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ToT <3

oh that’s a mechanic they haven’t used in a while

i think the last time they used this was probably with the meteorite event

oh

that’s sad

oh, shenhe’s shoes are open toed

what are you doing here

what

what happened in guyun forest

nvm i take it back traveler, ningguang would definitely hide things from you on purpose it looks like

MHY, NINGGUANG, THIS IS TOO FAST

THINK OF THE WORKERS

lowkey, is this how the devs are working bc oh my god the amount of content you guys bring out every six weeks in insane

ehe, fooling around a bit

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

okay that’s enough fooling around

awww even the millelith have little helmets to protect them

that’s a cute touch

eh, this guy also talks about guyun stone forest

apparently some of the soldiers were sent there

eh? beidou had other business to attend to...?

i figured she’d figured traveler would ask this question

i guess we can ask about guyun stone forest then?

oh that sounds nice

awww shenhe

lol is it bc you lost to her in chess?

this is probably about guyun again huh

makes me wonder exactly what the oceanic defender thing in lantern rite is...

it’s all coming together

but since ningguang said they set up an ambush....i can think of either the fatui or the treasure hoarders, but beidou’s fleet would be able to handle them i’m pretty sure

so i guess it’s osial or whatever has crawled its way out of guyun this time? dunno why you’d ambush them instead of just fighting them though

aww beidou told ningguang to take care of herself

i see i see

i still think we should know though???

i mean cloud retainer is concerned

and so is xiao

oooh that’s what she meant by ambush

osial had a wife?

lol traveler’s expression when it started getting stormy

i know it’s probably that they were narrowing their eyes but it looked like they were unimpressed hahahaha

“really? on this fine day?”

traveler why did you rush out like that

what were you hoping to accomplish

just hitting it won’t make the giant wave go away

THAT CUTSCENE

HOLY SHIT

THAT WAS GREAT

damn i was looking around guyun forest but i didn’t look at that island

i’ll have to ask someone else to check it for me

also i’d just like to say

I SHOULD’VE BROUGHT GANYU

I SHOULD’VE BROUGHT A RANGED CHARACTER PERIOD

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS

guess she’s what we’re fighting in oceanic defenders then

awww i think cloud retainer is proud of shenhe

this is really cool of you to say ningguang but also please don’t

i don’t think we’d be able to build another one

ehhh, not sure how i feel about ‘traveler is the one who helped me feel welcome thing.’ gonna have to rewatch this quest when i’m not half asleep bc right now i feel like paimon was more conductive to that hahaha

alas, the shortcomings of having a protagonist who barely talks

LMAO THIS IS JUST LIKE WITH GANYU HAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHA

cloud retainer, you’re so petulant

oh cool you can teleport straight to the jade chamber, just like with beidou’s boat

oh that probably means we’ll be coming back here for hangouts huh

oooh looks like they’ve set up the opera!

oh that was really nice

awww yun jin that’s so sweet

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas go off queen

oh nice you get 2 of shenhe’s boss mats after you finish the quest

lol, when you talk to zhu tao after finishing the quest, traveler and paimon both recoil

ahhhh that was a nice quest. i really enjoyed it! i’m looking forward to lantern rite now

[goldshitter]

so im around chapter 13 in the main story line in honkai, and am on chapter 39 for the second honkai eruption manga. i need to put some thoughts together bc im not reading in any particular order but things are starting to match up and line up

- so kevin who is the serpent who is a kaslana who was from the previous era who is a friend of fu hua who is also from the previous era (i saw something during the last event about kevin and fu hua being friends, havent gotten there yet in the game though)

- kallen is dead (for now? idk the details of her “death” yet other than otto will stop at nothing to bring her back)

- in some of the bubble universes that seele traversed, yae sakura was there, and MANTI and dr. mei were mentioned, and in the last few manga chapters ive come across MANTIS and dr. mei again. so im assuming yae from the open world samsara and her various appearances, is a soldier of humanity from the previous era (this would explain a lot for me, because back when i first started the open world stuff it was so confusing lmao)

- i read a comment that said otto messed with teresa’s memories, which is why in the game she thinks shes meeting AE personnel for the first time. also welt, is the welt in the second eruption arc a clone of the sovereign of AE? bc i know welt is in the msq with bronya’s adventures into the sea of quanta, but a welt that otto shouldve recognized in the manga but didnt died on the moon to sirin

- i think the manga will (hopefully) provide more clarification for cecilia’s status, because from the msq alone all i know is from teresa’s story that cecilia supposedly died to a nuclear attack ordained by otto. im mostly more confused because of kiana’s ventures into “the past” in chapter 5 or so, and “meeting” her mom. i like that the manga provides so much context for the in game stuff, but im also worried things wont match up perfectly? even though so far i have nothing to worry about, the writing is really well done 

- i need to finish fu hua’s story fragments, where she’s delving in her past memories with otto’s interference. i kinda know she’s gonna be a herscherr because of the last event

- still confused as to the kiana we’ve gotten to know in the msq, she’s a clone right? but there originally was a kiana, daughter of cecilia and siegfried? i hope the manga spells out the details for me lol

- ngl, when fu hua’s identity was revealed in her confrontation with otto, i gasped. i didnt know much about fenghuang (or wait what was the phoenix protector’s name again? i may be getting this mixed up with some other name lol), other than like a short during an event with the storyteller (i should find that short again, i think id understand more now), some of the elf wing names, and maybe other miscellaneous mentions

- i was so happy to finally get context for kallen’s sixth serenade suit, because i had that and had no idea why she was dressed like that lmao, her appearance in yae’s open world as well, a lot more is making some sense from the manga

[mrpinchy]

5.3 MSQ IM VERY UPSETTI SPAGHETTI but in GOOD WAY

FINISHED 5.3 MSQ I went in soon as the servers came up and didn’t stop, went in completely blind from start to finish took about 7hrs? I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS 

SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING:

holy shit jesus christ OKOK

so first of all I cried A LOT like, way more than I expected and NOT JUST CUZ IT’S THE LAST PATCH OF AN EXCELLENT EXPANSION but cuz like, damn it hits hard man lol

so Leon is my WoL but he’s never been leveled/geared enough to do endgame UNTIL YESTERDAY when I caught him up on all the patch content (my main is Sig but he’s not my WoL). it was A LOT OF FUN to go through everything with the “right” character sorta speak, just a lot of really cool stuff idk how to explain it lol

HELPING THE LIL KIDS!!!!!! OH MY HEART also I noticed Tiqi-Rio had sunseeker eyes AND MOONKEEPER FANGS nicenicenicenicenicenice GOOD I WANNA SEE MORE OF THAT

so the FIRST Exarch fakeout death with Elidibus and him at the watchtower LIKE???? WHY YOU WANNA GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK SO EARLY omg but honestly seeing him so crystalized and struggling HURT ME A LOT baby boi BABY BOI NOO

going back to Amaurot so Elidibus can force you to kill the Scions soon as you get there WOW WHAT A DICK MOVE LMAO and then all the other characters they brought back like, even in the background it was really cool to see them in Amaurot????? idk I think some people will call it hammy or too referential? but fuck it I loved it LAY IT ON THICK, YOSHIP god it hurt me to kill Aymeric tho

holy goddamn I was so excited when Y’shtola ripped into Elidibus YEEES GET HIM but wow like, Elidibus is essentially a primal then idk AGAIN WE COME BACK TO THE THEORY THAT WoL IS A PRIMAL anyway

HEROE’S GAUNTLET I went in with Trust so I could take my time and it was the right choice, I LOOOOOOOVED seeing the role quest NPCs helping at the end -- I loved seeing all the NPCs helping you but especially them lol ESPECIALLY GIOTT FUCK YEEEEEEAH

god okay the SECOND Exarch fakeout death when Elidibus is like, hey I need your corpse die lol I WAS READY FOR THE PAIN and then jk jk jk OR IS IT

running up the tower with the Exarch, seeing/hearing how painful it was for him to keep up with his failing body, how he had to send you away without him.. OH MAN i cried YOU COULD FEEL HOW MUCH IT HURT HIM he was so close to having an adventure with WoL ;v; also liek... damn that ESPECIALLY hit, the whole “failing body can’t keep up with my dreams” thing HOOOO I KNOW THAT FEEEEEEEEL

went in completely blind with a random group for the Elidibus fight, I went WHM (im bad but semi-geared) and we only wiped twice!!! figured out we had to use tank LB midway and then healer LB towards the end LOTTA AOE HEALING

Emet-Selch’s shade giving us a boost during the fight, BOY MY GROUP WAS VERY UPSETTI in like a good way CUZ IT WAS VERY UPSETTING in a good way lmao emotionally everyone was just POINTING AND YELLING THERE HE IS!!!!

Exarch using the tower as a big auracite IM SO GLAD that was really cool to see, also like........ god idk but I cried A LOT when Elidibus turned into a little amaurotine kid all scared and alone just playing with the soul crystals and talking to himself, AND CRYING and and MY HEART EXPLODED goddamn i cried. he tried so hard for so long that he forgot what he was doing or why he was doing it, why he was suffering so much, and damn if that didnt hit hard. was Zodiark’s heart just a lonely kid all along

saying goodbye to the Exarch like I KNEW WE”D SEE HIM AGAIN but it still was Emotional, I felt so sad for Lyna especially SHE LOST HER GRANDPAAAA

Alisaie crying after Halric spoke ME TOO ALISAIE 

holy shit Dulia Chaii’s parting words to Alphinaud WOW I CRIED A LOT and when he got choked up?? I CRY god the Chais love that baby boy so much IM SUFFERING

holy shit Seto............. ohhhhhhhh I cried SO MUCH

Thancred saying goodbye to Ryne and telling her how PROUD he is of her like damn that hit me right in the HEART goddamn

finally i must say

IM SO GLAD GRAHA IS A SCION NOW I KNEW IT WE ALL KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN BUT IM STILL SO HAPPY AND EXCITED I YELLED SOOOOOO MUCH WHEN WoL STARTED RUNNING TOWARDS THE TOWER LIKE!!!!!! AND THEN WHEN THEY SHOW GRAHA AGAIN OHHH!! BABY BOOOOOOI!!! HERE COMES A SPECIAL BOOOOOOOOI!!!!!!!!!!!!

that whole cutscene with Alisaie at the table WAS VERY WELL ANIMATED the whole thing was noticably better animated than previous cutscenes I LOVED IT!!! IT WAS VERY GOOD!!!!!! also ALISAIE IS VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!!

ALSO I NOTICE that gwaha’s ears wiggle A LOT MORE im so GLAD thank u yoship

OH GOD I FORGOT ABOUT ALL THE GARLEMALD STUFF oh jesus CHRIST

FUCKIN

ASAHI?????????????????? OH GOD OH GOD 

no idea who Fandaniel is (henceforth known as Fandango) but I ALREADY LIKE HIM A LOT he’s so animated (also this cutscene was very well animated GOOD JOB FFXIV TEAM YOU’RE DOIN GREAT HONEY) I sort of wondered if maybe part of Emet was like... around...?? cuz he reminded me of Emet with his flair for the dramatic but WOW I WAS NOT EXPECTING ASAHI UNDER THAT HOOD holy shit I yelled

also idk if unpopular opinion but I FUCKING LOVE ZENOS HE’S A SCARY PIECE OF SHIT AND IM TERRIFIED AND EXCITED

ALAS........... the final chapter......... it sounds like the next expansion is planned to be the FINAL EXPANSION and honestly.. Im so sad but also I Respect that decision. I respect that they want to end things in a good place, they dont want to “live long enough to become the villain” etc. and yeah it means FFXIV WILL DIE eventually but yknow, maybe that’s okay. even knowing the game will end i’m still so excited to play it all the way through, whatever it may be. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT with all my heart and happiness

..im still SO EMOTIONAL lmao