#same with the new ep like the plot ends at like minute 40 the rest is just them hanging out😭😭😭 it's so good....

[mwagneto]

a thing about rtd's era that i really really love seeing again is how he will usually wrap up the plot 10 or even 20 minutes before the episode ends and then the rest of that time is just dedicated to the characters talking to each other and dealing with their emotions and situations. like instead of a last minute win and a two minute goodbye they always get these massive spans of time to really get into everything emotionally and it always makes the episodes hit even harder

[popculturebuffet]

Animaniacs: King Yakko Review (Comission by BlahDiddy)

Hello my beautiful technicolor rainbow! It’s time for Animaniacs, and while there is no balonga in my slacks there is one last christmas review for my friend to finish up, and after two visits to Acme Lab for the spinoff we’re finishing up with a look at Animaniacs proper.  Suprisingly for a show that stands so easily on it’s own it’s existance is entirely thanks to another show: Tiny Toon Adventures, which had largely the same staff, including ep and co-creator stephen speilberg and Todd Ruegger, who was brought aboard from A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Since TIny Toon was a colossal hit with tons of awards and merch, including some very good video games I wish Warner would find a way to re-release, I mean.. come on if disney can rerelease the disney afternoon games (If...not..for..switch), and LIon King and Aladdin games (If somehow FOR switch), then Warner, which has it’s own game stuido no less, can put together a collection of the good Tiny Toons games when the new show comes out soon. 

Point is it was a mass sucess and Warner Bros likes money, so they had Speilberg try to get Rutger to come up with another show for the two of them to do, something with name value. Rutger found his inpsiration when seeing the iconic warner water tower and taking some platypus characters, came up with our heroes and the rest is history.. well okay he retooled them from plataups’ to early looney tunes and other toons style characters minus the racisim of say bosko the tall ink kid but still, the rest after that is history. And the rest of this review is after the cut

The show was, and KINDA still is, a variety show: taking a page from looney tunes, as well as tex avery’s other work, the crew decided rather than just focus on the warners, to instead create a whole cast with various ensembles to work with so we got Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers, Rita and Runt,  the Hip HIppos, Katie Kaboom, Chicken Boo, and my personal faviorite Slappy Squirrel.. and the bane of my existance, Buttons and Mindy.. or rather Mindy’s Mom. The kid did nothing wrong.  So naturally the first thing Animaniacs related I cover.. is an episode entirely breaking from format for one 20 something minute Warners cartoon. I do intend to do more animanics stuff in the future, so i’ll hopefully get a chance to talk about everyone, I just feel unlike with say house of mouse most people reading this probably know who they all are, and I can save any deep dives for if I cover the characters specifically. Spoilers: there’s probably never going to be a buttons and mindy deep dive unless someone tourtues me by paying for it. 

So with that out of the way, we can dive into the episode.. which I won’t be covering in my usual recap it point by point because the writers have freely admitted that’s not what Animaniacs is about. While some of i’ts SEGMENTS are more story based like Pinky and the Brain, Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, most are just based on simple set ups to reams and reams of gags. And I love it. I grew up with this stuff not just Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs but the classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Droopy shorts. 

Their well timed, well executed feats of comedy and most have aged pretty well.. emphasis on MOST. I’m keenly aware why there are several gaps in the shorts for both Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes on HBO Max, including all of the Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzalez shorts. Also all of Droopy is missing. 

My grumblin aside though, it is VERY NICE to have all the classic Warner and Tom and Jerry shorts at my fingertips and it was one of the biggest selling points of Max for me. Last year I gained an intrest in the old disney theatrical shorts, hence my various birthday specials, so I BADLY wanted to revisit the theatrical shorts I grew up with. And honestly.. Max is the best way to do that: their in crisp hd, in neat season collections (Though the Looney Tunes one is better sorted, tom and jerry’s seasons are just.. random smatterings of shorts across various eras), and most importantly EVERY SHORT they felt comfortable with putting up there is on there. Every. Single. One.  I make a big deal about this because Disney.. has only maybe 30-40 of their hundreds of shorts on there. Now lucky for me the vast majority are still on youtube and I get why some really arne’t suitable.. we probably don’t need the donald duck short where he prepares to shoot a penguin in the face or the Goofy short where his own reflection, the goofy equilvent of tyler durden I guess?, keeps saying “Hey Fat” to him. And yes BOTH of these actually happened. But.. there’s MANY shorts with no clear excuse why their absent like the triplets first apperance, gus’ only apperance, and one a friend told me about.. that time mickey built a robot to box a gorillia. Again not making this up, just wondering why you can’t restore the rest of these for plus. They’ve ADDED shorts ocasionally, but it still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense to just.. not have them all up there. and to not put them in some sorta collection for easier consumption but hey it’s Disney. They either full ass things or half ass it. There is no middle ground.  Point is Warner.. actually cares about their heritage in shorts and honors it and thus has everything avaliable in the best quality, so tha’ts nice.

My point after that detour is I really love this kind of humor, and now as an adult I can see the effort the timing, pacing and character chemistry these shorts had takes. And Rugger and co.. they got it. They got it down perfect. And this episode is a great show of that and just how they barely updated this format for the 90′s. But as I said it’s more about the jokes and basic setup, our heroes are slotted into x scenario and just left to run wild. It’s been the basic seutp for looney tunes, tom and jerry and all the gag based greats, and it works perfectly here. Sure there’s some setting and continuity with the warner lot, scratch n sniff, ralph, plotz and in the reboot Rita, but it’s mostly just our heroes go up against “X asshole” and it just works. 

And that’s.. entirley what this episode is. The short is an homage to the graucho marx film Duck Soup, which given the warners were based on the marx brothers that isn’t a huge suprise, a film like brian’s song I have not seen, but genuinely want to. The basic setup is the same: An underqualified womanizer, though since htis is Yakko it dosen’t get past hitting on his chancelor, played by hello nurse, constantly, which is still.. ewwwww... but clearly not the same thing, becomes king of a small nation and ends up at war with another country. There were spies and other stuff in the original short but that was left out to streamline things.  But this homage stands on it’s own fine: The basic plot is this: Yakko, due to being a distant relative and the last one alive, becomes king of the small happy and very musical, as the wonderful opening number shows, country of Anvilania, which makes anvils and why yes there is one MASSIVE anvil gag as a result at the end. Yakko says he’ll try his best and geninely tries to with the shenanigans you’d expect, including Dot not gettnig Polka Dot’s are a thing and instead taknig any mention of it as a sign to polka, Yakko again hitting on his colleague and wanting ot get a new anthem because the current one by “Perry Coma’ puts people to sleep. Honeslty that gag didn’t do it for me: Partly because I genuinely know next to nothing about Como and he’s far past my generation.. and because despite this, SCTV did a MUCH better Perry Como gag over a decade before this episode that while still left me baffled as to why anyone cared about mocking him, was 80 times funnier and felt far less like you needed to know who he was to be funny. 

That being said it’s one of only three running gags, and jokes period that didn’t land for me. The other ones being the hello nurse bits, because it’s aged really badly to have Yakko harass one of his employees and his age is hte only thing that keeps it from scuttling the episode as he’s just 13 or 14. Maybe 15. 

So SO glad I now have that on hand whenever i need it. The other being the “Your highness” joke as it just.. dosen’t make much sense and isn’t very funny. But that’s it: a refrence i specfically don’t get and I doubt most of you will, and if you do fine we all have our frames of refrences, a joke that’s dated very poorly, and one that just.. didn’t land. And even then the Perry Coma thing’s third use to knock out the opposing army DID work for me as did the VERY clever joke of “Sire” “Maybe later”, so even the weaker bits still had some legs.  But getting back to what little plot there is the king of the rival country, upon hearing this, assumes he can easily intimidate a child into giving him the throne and goes to a royal reception. Instead, as you’d expect, the Warners mistake him for a party clown, show him no respect and fail to take his delcration of war seriously, and while in a REALLY great gag, and the reason i’m not doing a strict summary is 90% of the review would be me saying something to that effect, Yakkos’ call to action for his troops ends up having them all run off in fear, the Warners take out the army as noted above and then in one of the most GLORIOUS climaxes in the series history...

 In which the Warners give the bad guy “all the anvils” as he requested. I sadly coulnd’t find a clip of it but seek it out if you got hulu, my words can’t do it justice as they hit him with anvil after anvil in increasingly clever and insane ways till the guy finally gives up and it .. is glorious.  Other highlights not already mentioned include: The opening song, the bad guy dictator from the other nation not being able to hear because of his helmet and his attendee having to lift it, leading to Yakko taking off his helmet just to end the “what’ running gag, Yakko’s bit explaning his distant relation and more.  So yeah not a ton to say on this one. It’s a very good, very funny episode but also very typical of a warner cartoon in structure, just stretched over 22 or so minutes. As I said with few exceptions the jokes work, the anmation is crisp as always, and the climax is one of the series best. A crisp, quick watch and a nice quick review after a week of with some really tough ones behind me and ahead of me and a month of rather large ones a few weeks out. So yeah if you like animaniacs, even ifyou’ve seen this one worth a watch, if you have any more animaniacs you’d like me to take a look at feel free to comment or comission and until the next rainbow..

[klaineownsmysoul]

hello. i've just started glee (lol i know i'm super late) and i'm obsessed with klaine. could you explain why you don't like season 6 klaine? should i not watch it

First off - welcome to the Klaine fandom!  Its never too late to join. I’m pretty sure as long as this show is streaming somewhere, new people will be discovering it all the time.  I myself am notorious for wandering into a show after 3 or 4 seasons - Modern Family, Supernatural, 24 - are some prime examples of shows I was late to the party to and then lost my mind catching up on. Secondly - congratulations on having excellent taste! 😉  Klaine is really the only thing worth remembering Glee for.  

With regards to your question about season 6?  Well, I’m not sure where you are in terms of episodes and seasons and I don’t want to spoil anything for you if you don’t want to know, so consider the rest of this post as one giant spoiler. I would also never want to dissuade someone from watching, so please keep in mind this is just my opinion on things.  I watched through to the end as did all of my fellow Klainers here so its doable.  Its just not the easiest or prettiest thing.

**********Spoilers below************

I think for me, the word that comes to mind most and sums season 6 up best is waste.  They were utterly and completely wasted in those final 13 episodes. These were going to be the last eps we were going to get with them and my reaction week after week was “tick tock bitches, where’s my Klaine?”   Their storyline - if you can even call it that - went nowhere.  People’s opinions on season 6 varied - some liked it, some like me loathed almost every moment of it, some disliked it as it aired but have mellowed since - but I think one thing we could all pretty much agree on is that no one wanted to go back to Lima.  Doing that erased any forward momentum they gathered during the last half of season 5 episodes when they finally dumped all the dead weight holding this show back and concentrated solely on an NYC arc.   As off kilter as those eps felt Klaine-wise, at least they were interesting and a move in the right direction.  Watching Blaine waste away in Lima alone for all of season 4 and then ¾ of season 5 pissed me off to no end.  It shouldn’t have taken so long to get him and Kurt back in the same place and I’m not going to get off on a rant here about how they never should have been separated in the first place.  I could write a dissertation on how that one decision - de-aging Blaine and making him a junior - was the dumbest fucking thing this show ever did.  And considering the dumbass decisions this show made along the way, that is really saying something.  But I digress.  They ended season 5 in such a good place relationship wise that to decide to break them up again in the season premiere and then have their story grind to a halt for 7 episodes before they got married was a knife to my heart week after week.  Breaking them up in a cold cruel flashback was bad enough.  Having Blaine be so upset that he was kicked out of the school he worked so hard to get into, his so-called friends forgot all about his existence and he had nothing and no one to lean on so he had to move back home to Ohio was terrible.  But the worst of the worst - Blaine and DK.  That was an unforgivable sin as far as I’m concerned.  It goes against everything that makes Blaine Blaine and was nothing but a giant glowing middle finger from RIB to the Klaine fandom.  To bring back a character that was not missed, not even mentioned during season 4 and only once in season 5 and placing him in a romantic relationship with the soulmate of the boy he physically and emotionally abused for months on end was in the most appalling taste possible.  It was deliberately aimed at our fandom by RIB as the ultimate “fuck you.”  Nothing more because they are petty little assholes.  Every single time he was within 50 feet of Blaine or god forbid touched him, my soul died a little.  The Blaine I know and adore would never ever ever in a million years look at him and see anything but the guy who drove Kurt to Dalton because he feared for his life.  And Kurt?  He realized he fucked up, left NYC to come back to Lima for Blaine and then…nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  He spent more time as Rachel’s god damned cheerleader than he did trying to woo Blaine back, which would have been the only redeeming piece of them being apart.  Because it had to come from Kurt.  He was the one who ended things; Blaine never wanted to leave.  So the apology and reasons and the heartfelt declarations of love that we are accustomed to coming from Blaine had to come from Kurt to make this worthwhile.  But sadly, like every other aspect of season 6, they fumbled this too.  Badly.  They danced around each other awkwardly for 7 episodes and nothing was accomplished or moved forward.  I can’t get into an angry rant here about their wedding; I will be here all damn night. I have made my feelings crystal clear about that already during many a rage post, but let’s just say that ep may be the biggest disappointment I have ever experienced tv wise.  Nothing was theirs, nothing about the wedding had anything to do with them as a couple.  They were a throw in and then thrown aside just as quickly.  Their 30 second “reunion” if you can even call it that after 7 eps of pure hell was yet another slap in the face.  Blaine’s “there’s no one else” was everything that he needed to hear from Kurt and a small novel of explanation more.  But no.  We weren’t gifted with one of those trademark heart to hearts that we got during season 3; those convos that separated them from every other couple on this show and made me believe that even though they were so young, they really were meant to be.  And then once they were married, they disappeared.  Sure they were around physically, but that’s it.  Dalton burns down and Klaine is given fuck all to do story-wise.  A place that held so much importance for them as a couple was destroyed as a plot device and their reaction was limited to Blaine’s sad puppy eyes at the beginning of the ep.  We got one sentence from Kurt in some ep I can’t remember about Blaine getting into NYU for the next semester and that was the extent of their future plans.  They never had a conversation about moving back and what they would look like, what that would entail in terms of living arrangements and how they would do better as a couple now that they know what they have and how much they don’t want to lose each other again.  Nothing,  Season 6 should have built upon 5x20 and culminated in their wedding.  We should have gotten wedding planning and vows and honeymoon destination discussions and ring shopping and they should have had a wedding that reflected who they are as a couple.  It should not have been a means to end so Glee could show off their super awesome double gay wedding that managed to unite 2 fandoms that generally don’t get along in their utter dislike.  Congrats - RIB managed to craft an ep where 2 fan favorite couples got married that was panned by both fandoms.  That takes a special level of obliviousness.  

More newbies introduced in season 6 that no one needed and just took up valuable time that could have been put to Klaine or wrapping up the stories from the already bloated original cast.  I wasn’t going to invest myself in characters with an expiration date, so spending endless time on them was time I wasn’t going to get back.  Everyone and their mother propping Rachel up and telling her how great she is, how much of a star she is, and how nothing that’s happened to her could possibly be her fault because she is perfect was infuriating.  Pointless duets between her and Sam when we all knew their weird sudden relationship wasn’t going anywhere.  Having Mr. Schue and Coach Sue getting as many duets as Klaine did during season 6 is a sentence I should never type but I just did.  Neither Kurt nor Blaine getting a solo at all.  My god, how the fuck did that happen?   Why did that happen?  It was like they went out of their way to screw Kurt and Blaine as individual characters and and as a couple.  Having an entire episode centered on some bratty preteen who sang more than Klaine did.  Having 2 episodes without Kurt and Blaine at all and the only reason they threw Blaine into the 2009 flashback was because people flipped the fuck out at the idea of him not being in a 3rd episode out of 13.  

There’s a reason why during 3 @comewatchklaine rewatches, the only full ep from season 6 we watched was 6x13, the series finale.  Some kind soul pulled together the Klaine bits from eps 5 and on and all of that was only about 40 minutes long.  40 minutes.  40 minutes worth of Klaine in like 7 episodes and that doesn’t include the first 4 because those were a complete waste.  The locker scene and flash forward were the only bits that felt authentically Klaine to me.  That is what I choose to remember because the rest of it taints this show to me.   

So long story long, that is why I loathe and despise season 6 as a whole. I’m sorry I don’t have more positive things to say.  Please don’t take my words as a reason to skip the end - if you want to watch, go ahead.  I would never want to be why someone missed out on something they might enjoy.   Season 6 could have and should have been amazing; so amazing that saying goodbye to them would have been heartbreaking.  Instead, I was glad I got to see them get married and that they got the happy ending they deserved, but that was about it.  If that’s how little this show thought of them at that point, I was glad to see it end.  I will always be grateful that it gave me Klaine because I will love them always.  I will never forgive them, though, for the appalling way they were treated and its why I make a concerted effort to avoid anything RIB has a hand in now and in the future.

[irina-something]

Roswell RN ep 12 – Is bad writing the bug or the feature ?

I keep watching genre shows – for all the silly, shallow reasons – the beautiful people, the escapism, the entertaining factor of it all , but I also watch them for better reasons – interesting, original premises, interesting characters, new ways of looking at things, lighter ways of speaking about hard things.

So when a show is about ghosts, vampires, aliens and the lot, there is a build in feature of silliness … I love it when there is, at least, a small percent of tongue in cheek writing going on, a small nod from the show that it knows to not take itself completely serious. But being self aware that you are not aiming to be Tarkovsky, does not mean free license to shit all over logic, to screw continuity, to make it seem that you do not remember your own story, to make the conversations between people seem forced and cringy.

So I guess what I am asking myself is – is bad writing in genre shows a bug or a feature? I have no connection to tv channels and I am wondering how much freedom the writers have. But even with a predetermined framework, even when censorship exists, even when a certain level of drama is demanded – is it really impossible to make it seem organic, to make it all cohesive, to thrive for the realness of human connections and relationships even if we get to also deal with demons, aliens, warlocks and such?

For me the series that I watch are divided in 3 – the ones that are about realism and from which I demand that, since that is what they claim to do ( The wire being my all time favourite in this category), the ones that are complete and utter crap, but the level of crap is so high that it only makes my giggle continuously, I have no demands of this type of series,  except outrageous entertainment and if at all possible somebody to ogle ( series like The chilling adventures of Sabrina comes to mind in this category) and the last category – the one in between – the one where the characters draw you in, you can feel the potential, some real emotions but the plot remains quite silly ( Roswell NM is in this category).

What got me on this path of rambling was watching Roswell NM ep 12. Damn…so much hurt, so much tragedy going on there, so much potential for emotions being discussed, for trauma being analyzed and yet the episode finishes and I feel a lot like crying while face palming ( it is hard, trust me).

So here is what made me cry and what made me face palm...with a side of sarcasm and some profanity...

So we start with an exposition ( never the best device, but sometimes necessary ) about the aliens’ background …. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is actually a face palm moment, because the whole thing, almost word by word will be said again during the episode, only this time not as running background voice, but directly from Noah ….so in a 40 minutes episode, that contains the mass murder of an entire race, we get to hear the same, not all that revelatory words, twice …. mkay…

Then there is the M/M/I scene where they debate what to do and that felt pretty good, because you can really tell the different motivations and the different needs for each of them. Kyle/Liz interaction is also fun, light and it really flows.

The Malex scene at the junkyard is a facepalm moment – first of all because the writers made it so, while writing on twitter, with no indication in the actual story unfolding on the screen, that between the last interaction we have seen and this one 2 months passed … Seriously, if 2 months actually passed, something should have been said here – along the lines of “where the fuck have you disappeared for 2 month”. Also, we are to believe that Michael did not want to know shit more about the government conspiracy that puts him and his siblings at death risk … and now, supposedly 2 months later, Alex shows up out of the blue and is like – here is some info and also you’re hot, but not like really, but your temperature but also here is a smoldering “I would do you “ look for good measure. And for the fun twist, here is also Kyle for no particular reason…

Then we have the Is/Max/Noah/Liz interactions were we hear all the stuff from the beginning all over again, now with the added bonus that somehow since the conversation is in Is’s mind Noah can not lie.,, mkay… Even with the truth serum addendum, Noah’s story makes about zero sense and I face palm hard. The Liz/Is interaction feels good and organic … there is bitchiness that we know is trade mark Isobel, but also vulnerability and Liz lends an ear and some good advice. Honestly I feel like the scenes with Noah/Max/Is/Liz were somewhat repetitive… some of the things were necessary, but overall a lot of time was lost with no good enough pay-off either emotionally or as advancing the story.

Radom appeance from Cam. I just loved her character through out the story. She has been the right amount of funny, badass, vulnerable, good looking and helpful. If the writers didn’t have an arc for her, beyond what went on so far, I feel good about her departure….it’s hella better than keeping here around with 3 lines and no purpose.

I have to give it to the writers, the interaction among the women of the series has been good and has been consistent. They are not all bitches or all goody two shoes. But while sometimes butting heads, they came through for each other and I am here for that.

The boys arrive at the prison. Kyle has some funny lines, which are genuinely funny and I would have appreciated them so much more if not for WTF I was experiencing from the previous interactions.

Back at the prison it all makes as much sense as pineapple on pizza. High security facility with aliens in it and yet the boys enter with no problem and without alerting any alarms… we have some interaction between Alex and his brother, which I appreciated... I liked the lines, the tension, the background offered about Alex’s life ( see, it can be done without flashback and exposition … yeyyy writers)… but again it’s like the prison has 3 people working there and yet, somehow they developed kickass technology … mkay…

Kyle has the silliest conversation with random army girl … he learns about his father death, actually important for the story, but how the whole scene comes to be is like it’s written in kindergarten… dear lord… how the hell in the prison with 3 people, a guy appears and random army girl is not all that alarmed.

I really wanna know what is the reason and what is the pay-off of making Michael be the initiator of the demise of his mother and what is left of his race? WTF???

Then comes the Malex scene. Damn…. I loved the point of the scene but the execution was face palm level ( not the acting, the acting was top notch and the only thing that help sell the scene ). But this is the pivotal scene of the episode… damn… cut some of the other stuff that had no purpose and really sell us Michael trying heart and soul to save his family, the urgency of the whole situation and how they really had no other choice …. Because honestly, if it weren’t for how talented Vlamis and Blackburn were, the “my mom said run “would have made me giggle.

And after the “you’re my family speech” Alex says nothing to Michael and drives into the sunset with Kyle … it’s been so hard to face palm while the script gave me whiplash … seriously…

And you know, I actually like the conversation between Alex and Kyle at the end… I loved the point of it, what it actually says and how it gives us a little more about Alex … but fucking hell, it is ill placed … because we are to believe Alex let Michael to just drive alone and go wherever the fuck after witnessing the murder of his mother and the rest of his race …. What the actual fuck? Where there no people with writing abilities in the room at that moment?

And then we have the clusterfuck that is the interaction between Max and Michael and I don’t even have fucks to give ….

Really? Really? Were the writers in some sort of race to the finish? Did they not get the chance to look over everything one more time and fix the plotholes ? How come they manage some great lines and interactions and then they fuck up epically ? Is it mandatory ?

[eponymous-rose]

okay okay okay new list: top ten favorite critical role eps. IN ORDER

This is difficult, holy cow! I thought about defying this post and making a list of my ten least favorite eps, but was tragically unable to come up with ten episodes I disliked so, uh. Probably should’ve seen that coming. Okay, you win, here goes nothing, I’m definitely missing a bunch, this list changes on any give day, etc. etc. etc.

10. Episode 31: Gunpowder Plot. Every now and then, despite its huge cast, the show gets to highlight one-on-one interactions between Matt and a player. Scanlan spends the better part of an hour alone, a single gnome bard trying to navigate an ambush in an enemy stronghold. The process involves turning into a triceratops, defeating a dozen guards, breathing fire, and shoving a goliath off a flaming rooftop in the rain. That sequence is legendary for a reason.

9. Episode 25: Crimson Diplomacy. Mainly the first half, although Kit Buss is wonderful as Lilith and gets more screen time in the latter half. I think this episode kind of jump-started the more serious RPing on the show (which isn’t to say there weren’t great moments earlier!)--for the first time, it felt like it wasn’t so much the players worrying about losing a character as it was the other characters worrying about losing a friend. Vax completely failing to talk his way out of the Briarwoods’ chambers, “Jenga!”, Vex storming in with double natural twenties, “Sylas!” Matt did a phenomenal job juggling the tension in order to make this encounter feel like a difficult situation that was still winnable.

8. Episode 69: Passed Through Fire. I remember seeing a post from somebody who happened upon this episode on Twitch without having seen any of the rest of the show, and they said they were blown away by the emotional extremes in this episode alone. Pretty much everyone was crying, and then pretty much everyone was crying with laughter. There’s also the wonderful letter from Kerrek, VM doing shots, and the start of several RP threads that unravel over the course of the next few episodes. Also, the cliffhanger at the end of this one jumpstarts the endgame in a big way.

7. Episode 57: Duskmeadow. This was a really unexpected episode watching live, because the entire cast had been out doing interviews about CR all day and then came straight from that to this, so it’s a wonder anyone was coherent. And yet, true to form, we get Matt playing a dozen different recurring characters expertly, we get the long-awaited confrontation between Vax and the Raven Queen, we get a bunch of other wonderful character beats, and we get one of the most genuinely startling cliffhangers in the show, with a callback that stretches 36 episodes.

6. Episode 49: A Name Is Earned. The first half is a really archetypal low-risk fight for this show in that it showcases each of the characters’ strengths and weaknesses, often in hilarious ways--Keyleth accidentally disarming a trap, Percy attempting to hit someone with a lance and finally giving up and just shooting him, Vax stealthing by sinking into the snow up to the tips of his ears, Vex sending Trinket barrelling out as a cannonball. It’s a good time. And the sphinx’s puzzle is wonderfully fun and just complicated enough to keep everyone guessing--on rewatching, it’s great to see how Matt manages to drop hints without being too obvious about it. And, of course, the utterly heartbreaking moment where the whole Craven Edge arc comes to a head with Grog accidentally hurting Pike... oh man. So good.

5. Episode 63: The Echo Tree. The climax of the Feywild arc wound up being the payoff for a lot of character beats for Vex, and I’m not sure there’s been a villain who so easily and immediately got to the root of a character’s insecurities. Matt having this baddie incorporate the details of a short story that Laura wrote about Vex was vicious. It’s also so impressive that he was able to create a character who immediately brought up all of Vex’s insecurities and worries about putting her friends in danger, about being cruel and unwanted and never belonging, and there’s still that horrible guilt when she finally does fire on him. The sequence between Vex and Sondur is phenomenal.

4. Episodes 43/44: Return to Vasselheim/The Sunken Tomb. I’m counting this one as a two-parter because it features the same guest stars and makes up a pretty coherent little standalone. Absolute goofiness with amazingly funny little interpersonal moments between party members, guests, and NPCs; I’m a big fan of any time we get to see VM from an outsider’s perspective, and Zahra and Kash’s perspective is just the right mix of fond and sardonic. We get an oddly sweet after-school-special Grog moment, we get a beholder fight... and then we get everything going just unfathomably wrong in the last thirty minutes, completely out of nowhere. Half the party’s character arcs shifted permanently because of one failed saving throw.

3. Episode 89: Curious Tides. There aren’t a lot of recent episodes on this list, just because I generally only get to watch ‘em live and so they kind of all blur together and it becomes tough to remember specific episodes. But this one stood out. Any episode that can balance the extreme of a ritual that involves promising one god you’ll dedicate your life to killing another with the extreme of a well-meaning robot sketching the entire party while they’re sleeping? It’s a good time. Intense foreshadowing of some of the plot to come alongside hilarious (and wonderfully soothing) downtime shenanigans.

2. Episode 40: Desperate Measures. The completely world-shattering shift in the previous episode was startling enough, but it’s a testament to the RPing chops of the players and DM that they took the time to carefully play out the consequences of that change. What do you do when all the major population centers are being destroyed and any attempts to fight back are squashed? How far are you willing to go for a slim chance to instantly reverse what was done? Everyone in this episode is hurting and confused and frightened, and that comes across so well in the ways they lash out at each other. Despite the absolute crushing bleakness of the situation, this episode lays the groundwork for the emotional and plot-related beats of the next fifty episodes in the form of a tattered, piecemeal sort of hope.

1. Episode 52: The Kill Box. It’s one big battle, it should by rights drag out, but it’s so good. Every single member of the cast is so invested (Travis: “I can feel my heartbeat in my face...”), and it isn’t often that the party manages to catch Matt off-guard in a combat situation, but in this episode they just keep managing to surprise him again and again and again. And even their clever strategizing wouldn’t have been enough to save the entire party from the very real threat of a wipe once things start going sideways, if it weren’t for an absurd series of natural twenties to save the day. There have been a lot of mega-epic battles on this show since then, but none have hit this absolutely unreal combination of strategy and luck. This is the game-y part of the show at its absolute best.