#this seems like a lot of episodes but there are like 250+ episodes in this show this isnt even 5% of them FJDMDJSJDJSJSM

[br1ghtestlight]

OKAY I AM FINISHED BOB'S BURGERS!!!! or im almost finished i have to rewatch a few of the latest episodes but i have watched every episode at this point :) so yayy here is a list of my favorite episodes

obviously the christmas episode from season 13 is the sweetest most adorable and emotional episode in the show <3 louise's poem and gene's music sound amazing together its the most heartwarming episode of the show

the episode where they visit bob's mom's grave and the episode where they visit bob's dad at christmas are both great bcuz i love family backstory!!!

the robbery episode where mickey is introduced is absolutely hilarious and probably the funniest ep of the entire show, or at least top 5

season four finale is very exciting and fun i rewatched it today and its a great prequel to the movie tbh

i loved the water balloon fight episode FJDMSSMSJSJJS its so funny 2 me that mr fischoeder's place was just fighting with water balloons, i love that its a battle royale hunger games kinda story and gene and louise just leaving the competition bcuz they want to play in felix's treehouse is hilarious and something that i would have done as a kid, also its a funny episode and the moment with bob and mr fischoeder was sweet

the episode where gene is home alone bcuz they forgot him is an interesting look into his mind and how he processes things and new situations, also very silly subplots

the episode where gene and louise are home by themselves bcuz tina is in detention is great, its an interesting look into their relationship and how gene doesn't exactly act like a big brother and isn't treated like one but he still loves his sisters, and also him trying and failing to be responsible LOL

bob actually was a cute episode that i watched bcuz i thought the title was so funny bcuz why would they parody that movie, but its actually adorable and i love the ending of this episode :) im not usually into romance-focused episodes but the ending to this was just so sweet and louise's thing with rudy was great

the subplot with gene and bob plumbing is honestly one of my favorites in the entire show idk how to explain why, and i absolutely adore the ending song to that episode its so passionate and so obviously full of love and affection for each other its so sweet <3 the main storyline is also interesting

that subplot where bob is annoyed by linda kicking him while they're asleep so he moves into the basement, but then linda comes down to visit and he acts like a teenager who has a girl coming over and he wants to impress her LOL and them trying to sleep in that tiny bed before realizing they should probably just go back upstairs, it really shows how much they love each other and WHY their relationship works and that they choose to be together again and again

the episode where the kids burn down the restaurant and try to make it up to their parents is great, i love how bob and linda try so hard to be understanding and gentle and how it ends with bob telling his kids that he loves them and that they're the best ever and he could never hate them its just such a healthy example of parenting and the relationship between them and the kids FJDMDMSJSJSM

topsy was a fun episode and also the musical number was so good, the episode where bob gets stuck to the toilet was also very fun and i liked the music in that episode :D that thanksgiving episode where bob keeps putting the turkey in the toilet, and the episode where he carries gayle through the show and home for thanksgiving. the ending gets to me idk, and the mini golfing thanksgiving episode from season 13 is great i love episodes that focus on the relationship between the kids and how much they all love each other!!!! also the episode where they pretend to be mr fischoeders family, and basically any episode with him tbh

the big fish episode where tina wants to be a good mentor and big fish and at the end louise and gene tell her that she's a great big sister to THEM and that they love her, and if other people can't see how amazing she is thats on them. it makes me so emotional for some reason!! sweetest episode ever

the ending of that episode where they do the time capsule thing and they're all sitting together outside the concert and sing that song about how they'll be together when they're older, i know it probably wasn't supposed to be mean anything serious but something about it really gets 2 me and emphasizes the relationship between the kids and how they're going to grow up together

gene cheerleading episode was great, and i liked the season 13 episode were linda volunteers at their school And also the episode where linda gets a job at a grocery store its very silly

also not an episode but i remember a scene where linda like spills her wine and she tries to soak it up with a shirt so she can drink it?? and bob just laughs and says i love you and it sounds so genuine, i dont remember what episode that was but its just sweet how much he genuinely adores her. also that moment in early season 1 where linda is singing and even though bob is annoyed he just starts laughing bcuz he loves her so much

a lot of the early episodes were funny and i like the handdrawn animation style a lot more its very expressive :0 the episode with the trans sex workers is weird but also fun, and i love the relationship between the family and the one-eyed snakes

the christmas episode from season eight?? that was extra long was good i liked watching that episode, the music was great and i loved the giant party with like 500+ queer people Where did they come from

the episode where bob takes gene to that laser rock-and-roll show is a classic, and the season 12 episode where louise asks if she isnt being a girl in the right way. also the sleepover episode with louise and jessica

i also liked the lice episode for some reason LOL

random things i like abt bob's burgers that aren't related to a specific episode:

bob hates jimmy pesto but by like season 2 he accepts that all his kids are just going to be friends with jimmy jr and andy and ollie and he's okay with that and supports their weird friendship, it would be so annoying if he was constantly trying to sabotage the friendship between these kids who have nothing to do with their feud but he and jimmy pesto are like Whatever its fine they're friends :) also specifically that parade episode where jimmy jr was forced to attack tina and at the end they apologize and theyre dancing together it was cute

bob gets that weird horse tattoo for tina and throughout the rest of the show, whenever he's animated with his shirt off and his back visible he still has the tattoo!!! including in the weird bean stock fairytale louise was telling where he was a giant and he never had kids, he still has that tattoo <3 its so adorable to me he loves her so much

everywhere related to mr fischoeder is so fucked up i love him 10/10 best character in animation

[geoviki]

Mo Guan Shan’s Big Feelings

Mo Guan Shan, resident tsundere of 19 Days, pretends to be tough and hard-hearted.  But he’s easily and frequently reduced to tears, as we soon realize.  In fact, he cries so often in the story that this post is pretty massive.

MGS cries as a child, of course.  He’s in a clinic in his mom’s arms when She Li first becomes obsessed with him (ch 294).

MGS has a bad dream about the day his dad told little Guan Shan he couldn’t come to the school’s robot fair (ch 392).

MGS cries in other dreams too.  Soon after meeting He Tian, he has a sensual dream of being comforted in He Tian’s arms after being bullied.  Look closely – there are little tears falling as He Tian assures him he’s the “most invincible badass.” (ch 250)

True to form, he cries in the Santa fantasy extra when his house is destroyed (ch 345).

MGS cries when he’s frustrated, like in this episode after the play when he can’t untie himself to pee (ch 359).

MGS is a weepy drunk as well.  After accidentally destroying Brother Qiu’s bike (ch 427), he drunkenly sobs in bed as he vows to somehow repay him. 

Later, while MGS is still drunk, He Tian slips and falls while carrying him, ripping Mo’s pants in front of He Cheng (ch 429).  MGS cries from embarrassment.

Unsurprisingly, MGS cries over his dad.  After He Tian unknowingly brings him to dinner at what is probably his father’s former restaurant, we see a young MGS in flashback crying in fear at the chaos around him.  Present-day MGS flees and He Tian finds him crying in the parking lot (ch 217)

One of the more moving chapters shows MGS breaking down as he visits his father in prison for the first time (ch 240).

MGS cries from sheer anger in several chapters.  The earliest is when He Tian forces an unwanted kiss on him as a misplayed joke (ch 174-175).  He Tian is taken aback by Mo’s strong, tearful reaction.  It’s probably the first time someone doesn’t try to placate He Tian when he’s being a jerk, and he begins to take MGS more seriously after this.

MGS tries to end his friendship with He Tian after the school play that indirectly causes him to lose his meager job.  He Tian doesn’t help matters by waving money at him as they quarrel.  MGS weeps with anger and says, “Standing with you makes me feel like a failure.”  (ch 364)

He cries in anger once more as he watches incredulously as She Li incinerates his backpack (ch 368).  (She Li seems to walk around carrying gasoline like it’s no big deal – what’s up with that?)

MGS cries when he’s worried.  When he digs frantically through the mudslide during their ill-fated mountain hike, he thinks He Tian has been buried alive.  When He Tian calls out, MGS throws his teary self into He Tian’s arms (ch 329).

MGS’s worry is clear when the last violent fight with She Li is finally over and He Tian has won (ch 408).  The battle was so fierce that by the end He Tian is crying too, and soon they’re embracing (I sense a pattern here!)

MGS often cries when his emotions overwhelm him.  Early on, after MGS is rescued from the fiasco of agreeing to take the blame for a serious crime, He Tian tells him, “Don’t try to shoulder everything yourself.” (ch 188).  MGS tears up at the thought that someone like He Tian has his back.

MGS ends up full-on sobbing in He Tian’s arms (again) when he finally admits why She Li has a hold over him: because of the homeless man who tried to kill him (ch 319).

In one of the most traumatic scenes (and a personal favorite), both guys shed a lot of tears when He Tian finds him after She Li has tortured and burned him (ch 369-370).  These chapters mark a turning point in their relationship from friends to more.

MGS is shown when he’s happy only once, and that memorable event will happen in their future: that Christmas night when He Tian returns and proposes with matching rings (ch 412).  Cue the waterworks!

Thanks to all of the translators who provide the English versions of the story!

[thisisnotthenerd]

follow up to my previous thoughts about the Aguefort Adventuring Academy:

i got more right than i expected, though there's definitely a lot that's being filled in around what we knew from freshman year.

Faculty Updates:

Introduced/Mentioned during the Episode:

Interim Principal: Emergency Backup Principal Arcturus Grix

This is definitely a construct of Aguefort's that's been reprogrammed to focus on an exact impression of "adventuring order".

Interim Vice Principal: Jace Stardiamond, the sorcery professor

Artificer Professor: Henry Something? The original name on payroll was Grunding Tomblast. (mentioned only, since Porter wouldn't recommend Gorgug)

Barbarian Professor: Porter Cliffbreaker. Suspicious and rude.

Bard Professor: Lucilla Lullaby (changed from music professor). Fey/Eladrin

Bardic Dance Teacher: Terpsichore Skullcleaver. Tiniest half-orc you've ever seen, always says what you need to hear even if it isn't what you'd expect.

Cleric/Religious Studies: Yolanda Badgood. Air genasi who broke up with a deity to pursue faith.

Fighter Professor: Corsica Jones (mentioned only, though we met her in the Seven)

Wizard Professor: Tiberia Runestaff. Originated in the Mountains of Chaos, very traditional old wizard now teaching the wizards of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. Adaine desperately wants to impress her, and she gets called out for predictions.

We've gotten more information about the other professors though we already knew their names. Eugenia Shadow is the supposed rogue professor that must be found in order to get an A for the year.

Class Content:

For the Barbarians, Porter is an asshole that focuses on the destructive parts of rage rather than the protective elements.

We had a reference to Fighter classes and learning different fighting styles with Ms. Jones, though we didn't see it in this episode.

Cleric classes center around individual connection with a deity, as well as some discussion of spreading faith and proselytizing. Kristen is a very talented cleric who doesn't do homework and is struggling on her faith journey.

Rogue classes are more independent study; finding the professor is the win condition. If the class is based on self-motivated investigative work and research, I can understand why all of the rogues we've seen at Aguefort (Riz Gukgak, Penny Luckstone, Kipperlilly Copperkettle) are the way they are.

Bard Classes can come in a couple of different types: obviously there's the traditional class that Fig attended for the first time, as well as smaller concentrations like Fabian's dance class. The dance course seems to be a smaller track, with fewer students but a more intensive schedule. Granted, we're getting Fabian's multiclassed view of it, so it's not entirely accurate to the experience of a typical bardic dance student.

Wizard classes revolve around studying and practicing spells, as expected, but aren't taught with school endowed material components as I would have expected. Aguefort cares about a robust Wizard's education, but doesn't have classroom material components? He's making it a class of only privileged students. We can't have a poor wizard around here, can we.

Sidenote to that: we know now that Hudol places a focus on theoretical magic while Aguefort focuses on practical workings--actually practicing the skills needed to bind, conjure, enchant, etc.

Sidenote to the sidenote: I started looking into higher level wizard spells with high cost items as material components:

5th level:

create spelljamming helm (5000 gp crystal rod, consumed)

dawn (100 gp sunburst pendant)

legend lore (250 gp of incense, 200 gp of ivory strips)

infernal calling (999 gp ruby)

planar binding (minimum 1000 gp jewel, consumed)

scrying (1000 gp focus, such as a crystal ball, silver mirror, or font of holy water)

summon draconic spirit (500 gp object with engraved dragon iconography)

teleportation circle (inks infused with gems worth 50 gp)

6th level:

circle of death (500 gp black pearl)

contingency (1500 gp gem encrusted statuette)

create homunculus (1000 gp jeweled dagger)

create undead (150 gp black onyx stone per corpse)

drawmij's instant summons (1000 gp sapphire)

magic jar (500 gp gem/crystal/reliquary)

7th level:

create magen (500 gp quicksilver and human sized doll)

draconic transformation (500 gp dragon statuette)

forcecage (1500 gp ruby dust)

mordenkainen's sword (250 gp platinum sword)

plane shift (250 gp rod attuned to plane of choice)

sequester (5000 gp of diamond, emerald, ruby & sapphire dust)

simulacrum (1500 gp ruby dust)

symbol (1000 gp of mercury, phosphorus, diamond dust and opal)

8th level:

clone (1000 gp diamond, 2000 gp coffin/urn, cubic inch of flesh)

mighty fortress (500 gp diamond)

9th level:

astral projection (1000 gp jacinth + 100 gp carved bar of silver, per person affected)

gate (5000 gp diamond)

imprisonment (500 gp component per hit die of the target, changes depending on spell type: mithral orb for burial, precious metal chain for chaining, miniature jade prison for hedged prison, gemstone of corundum or diamond for minimus containment)

invulnerability (500 gp adamantine)

shapechange (1500 gp jade circlet)

so the request for 10 barrels of diamonds tracks; they need enough material components to be able to repeat the spells and practice them and that doesn't run cheap.

personal theory: when aguefort went to war with fallinel he pulled on the school's supplies of material components in order to cast on that scale, and he couldn't maintain it, so even stuff that wouldn't be consumed by the casting probably got dumped somewhere in fallinel or given away as reparations.

I'm also going to guess that in the lower grades, the students wouldn't be paying for everything, but rather paying something like a lab fee that took care of material components on a smaller scale.

Multiclassing:

There's a few things that have that this episode clarified:

If a student wants to multiclass on their transcript, they must fill out a request to their current class' professor in order to request a change to their courseload. The student may be prevented from attending their secondary or tertiary courses if their current professor believes that they cannot keep up with the increase in rigor, or if the student is underperforming in their current class. As shown with Porter, a teacher can technically refuse for other reasons (thinking the student isn't suited to the new class, or determining a lack of class compatibility). This recommendation is easier for some classes than others; it is simple to combine most martial classes, especially those that have compatible traits such as fighters and barbarians. However, it is difficult to combine classes that are prohibitive of each other; the example we have is Gorgug, since his barbarian rage prevents him from casting and holding concentration spells from his artificer levels in battle.

If they get approval, they must take the MCAT, or Multiclass Achievement Test, in order to prove competency in their secondary class. This functions as a way of proving that the student can enter the class at their current level and keep up with their peers.

Upon passing the MCAT, the student's courseload changes; rather than taking 4 semesters of one class, they will take 3 semesters of each class, presumably with some leveling to fit their particular split in multiclass. This results in a 150% courseload as opposed to single-classed students, with a high level of rigor, especially heading into the upperclassmen years

Quest Theory:

We got tacit confirmation from Brennan that the Bad Kids, and even the Seven are unusual for saving the world, when most Aguefort students are doing local dungeon crawls and going to school. This fits with my overleveling theory, especially if they're going to be going back to a major progression cycle as they did during freshman year. I highly doubt it, given the content and themes of this season, but I think the overall structure fits.

This also fits with my theory about D-F class quests; students may only need to complete one or more of these to pass the yearly quest. Technically, retrieving the Crown of the Nightmare King could have been considered a fetch quest, but there ended up being more to it than that. The Bad Kids haven't done traditional dungeon crawls, at least not from what we've seen. There are qualified adventuring parties in Spyre, but the Aguefort Adventuring Academy produces the 'premier parties of teen heroes' that go around addressing world-class threats.

The examples that we have of Solisian adventurers come from the Bad Kids' parents, and the Seven's parents. Sandra Lynn works with the Solisian rangers; the Applebees' (ew) work as paladins, guarding against threats from the Mountains of Chaos, presumably in tandem with the rangers. Karl Cleaver stayed with his party for decades--they went on a dungeon crawl in the 888th and 889th layers of the Abyss during the events of the Seven. There are adult adventurers, but it's made clear that they are dealing with everyday threats, while the teen heroes are out in the world causing problems and solving them.

To add to my previous theory: the Seven were given two weeks to investigate the disappearance of Tectonya Karkovnya and go on their GED quest. The Bad Kids got an extra week of spring break. This allowed them to get their world-saving done, but may have led to the accusations of special treatment.

Theories on the Season:

I'd wager that Kipperlilly and the Ratgrinders are trying to make Aguefort more egalitarian by getting rid of the Bad Kids' quest progress i.e. the reason they're overleveled and getting special treatment. The Rogue Professor seekign Kipperlilly out as opposed to her actually doing the work? Sounds like funny business to me.

Next episode is probably going to be the rest of the day of classes and the start of extracurriculars, based on the mentions of the bloodrush team and student government candidacy.

Riz looks like he's going to be in the driver's seat for seeking out the Bad Kids' academic and greater interests, though Fig is leaning in on the investigation of the Ratgrinders, and they're all full force on the presidential campaign. I think Gorgug's work as an artificer is going to come into play with the main plot if they're facing down the reprogrammed Arcturus Grix.

[felassan]

Along with what he recently said on Game Mess Mornings, Jeff Grubb and a co-host/guest also commented on the recent BioWare news on Game Mess Decides, in an episode called "BioWare Troubles". Here is a transcript of relevant quotes:

Grubb: "I saw this story first from Dean on GamesBeat, then I looked into it a little bit more. Let's start from the top. 50 people of the 250 people that work at BioWare are no longer there. These are not necessarily just low-level people, whatever that might mean, it's people who've been there a long time. It seems like a lot of people who might be pretty high in the chain and maybe have pretty high salaries. This feels like an aggressive cost-cutting measure for a studio that is being asked to cut costs for the first time in quite some time, but they haven't put out a game in a while. And EA is getting pretty strict about this sort of thing, and it's hitting BioWare, pretty much on the cusp of them releasing Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, a game that is now expected internally to come out next year [2024]. The summer of next year [2024] at the earliest is what I'm hearing." 

---

Grubb: "It's rough. I talked about this a lot on Game Mess Mornings, so if you want the detailed reporting, feel free to listen to that. Just to summarize, kind've, what's happening here: EA is changing. Apex Legends is on the decline, I can confirm that. They said, publically they said they were too aggressive and too optimistic with their expectations for that game last quarter. That's what they told investors. [...] In my opinion, taking risks on things people really want, and having the best studio do the thing they're best at is the right answer, I think in EA's mind that would be like, good money after bad, is how I think they would view that. The other factor here is that EA has had this corporate restructuring, it's no longer EA where everything's 'EA'. It is [now] EA Entertainment and EA Sports. EA Sports used to cover everything, where it's like, hey, that money from FIFA Ultimate Team is paying for BioWare to BioWare, they can keep being BioWare. And now those are two separate buckets of money. And Andrew Wilson, when they announced this split, the words he used were like 'financial accountability for our leaders'. Like, the writing was on the wall for this. BioWare doesn't look sustainable, probably, to EA, when they are no longer looking at that Ultimate Money as like 'oh, this pays the bills, we're fine'. So EA made this choice, BioWare made the tough cuts and now they have to go put out Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, a game that was supposed to come out this year - that's what they were aiming, they were aiming to put it out next month actually [September 2023. episode was recorded in August], was internally, was the first original goal. I know, it's impossible to imagine that now. But now they're thinking next summer [2024] at the earliest. It was actually, for a little bit there, gonna be March 2024 at the earliest, that's not happening anymore, no way. So Summer [2024] at the earliest. And they're taking people off of [the next] Mass Effect to work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, so that means also [the next] Mass Effect is gonna be even further down the line. So, um, yeah, y'know... games are bigger than ever, they take more time than ever, and so the idea that, okay well, you're taking more time, but you're also gonna have fewer people working on these things, that doesn't feel like the right solution here. Baldur's Gate 3 shows that RPGs can be if not the biggest, among the biggest games in the world, how do you not lean into that, how do you not see that and lean into it? But I mean obviously these layoffs were in motion before they ever saw what Baldur's Gate 3 was doing."

---

Co-Host/Guest: "There are people who just, love Mass Effect and Dragon Age." Grubb: "Yes, LOVE - IT." Co-Host/Guest: "They still carry giant torches for those franchises. How do you mess that up? Cause they still care so much about those, right? Man, people still freak out about N7 Day and stuff like that. It seems like they should've just been able to make those games, like take breaks here and there maybe, but now, I just wonder, like what happens if Dragon Age: Dreadwolf comes out and it doesn't work quite well?" Grubb: "Now, I don't want people to take away from this that that's what we're saying, that's that's what's gonna happen. That is a concern, and we're talking about that hypothetical. Still, what I've heard about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is that they are pretty happy with where that game is at, internally. Now, it's taking longer, it's taking more time, it keeps getting pushed back, but that's every game, that's pretty much every game these days, goes through those growing pains. So that's not, some, you know, alarm bell ringing, or anything like that, but, y'know, internally being happy with the game and it being able to live up to, live in a world where all of these other massive games are coming out. Y'know, not just Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield's gonna be coming, Tears of the Kingdom happened, it's like, yeah, if Dragon Age: Dreadwolf comes out and it's just another Dragon Age, and it feels kinda like it hasn't grown much, you know like, if it's as good as Dragon Age: Inquisition, I don't know if that plays as well. But, internally, they're pretty happy with it. So, I mean, take that for whatever it means to anybody, for fans, I don't want people to be like, oh let's go light torches and freak out about this because the game's gonna be terrible now, that's not what I'm hearing." Co-Host/Guest: "That is kinda like my concern though, is that an 'Dragon Age: Inquisition 2' would not be good enough anymore, I don't know." Grubb: "Yes, I mean, that's my feeling, but I don't know. Again, we've noticed this, a lot of fans, maybe they would be happy with that. You know, I think as long as they get the characters that they really love, for the most part, many of those fans actually will be happy, but, we'll see."

---

Co-Host/Guest: "Apex Legends, that's like a whole other side of this story. There's been some intense stagnation in the shooter market." Grubb: "By the numbers, the shooter genre is probably the biggest one, like the biggest genre of video game in terms of dollars and people who play, it's probably the shooter genre. There's probably an argument to be made for some others, but it's very very big. And that meant, you know, at certain times throughout our history of shooters, we would have 20 to 25 different shooters releasing over the course of a couple of years. All these other tertiary shooters. [...] [but] It does seem like these days that money is all sort've coalescing in Fortnight, and then a few other things hovering around Fortnight. [...] I mean, I'm hesitant to go be like, well, and this is the problem with live service games. Because obviously live service games have made a lot of money for the shooter genre. And Apex Legends did pay a lot of the bills for a lot of these other games at EA, and enabled a lot of things, and it was a massive hit. So it's like, it did work for many years, and that's okay, right, like you made a product, you put it out there, it succeeded and made all this money for several years, and now it's not doing that anymore, and you gotta make something new. That's just the way it used to work, just on a shorter timeline. So it's like, oh, they expanded that timeline, that's nothing but a good thing. It's just like, okay well, how do you make something to replace Apex Legends. Cause back in the day it would've been like, make a sequel, the old one goes away, here's the new one. And now there's no like, obvious pathway towards making Apex Legends 2. [...] Internally, Apex Legends, on the decline, they're not expecting it to be the big thing for them going forward. Maybe they're able to bring it back, it's not gonna like, go away over night, it'll keep making money for them, but it's not going to be the The Answer to their problems. They will be looking for the next thing."

---

A question from chat asked "'BioWare Magic' - still there?" Co-Host/Guest: "You know, I see a lot of people say this, people say it about Blizzard all the time. I get what they mean, and I get that they don't really mean magic, but y'know. Magic's not real. There's only hard work, good management, and other factors like that, and good people. But it's also, there's a part of me gets tired where I'm like, oh, those people aren't there anymore. Well yeah, a company like BioWare, whose first prime was in like 1997, of course, right. But, you know, a lot of people making Zelda today aren't the people who were making it in the past. And that series is still able to manage well, so. It's not necessarily about magic. I know what you mean by magic, but I don't really think it's about that. I think it's just about management and a lot of these other factors. Culture. Culture's the important thing. You kinda have to keep a culture consistent throughout. You can't be swayed by trends like 'let's make everything online multiplayer, let's have fifteen zillion microtransactions, we think RPGs aren't cool anymore'. That's the kinda stuff you gotta work against." Grubb: "Yeah, Walt Disney's been dead for a long time and Disney still has some appeal, and it's like, well how does that work? I mean it works in that the people that get good in a certain discipline wanna go work at these studios, and so it's up to the people running those studios to make sure that they're attracting that kinda people. I think there's a lot of people working at BioWare who came there because they deeply care about BioWare and their games, and their fans, and I think a lot of those people were previously working on Star Wars: The Old Republic and kinda getting that game back into shape. A lot of those people are in charge of BioWare, and I think that's mostly a good thing. I would still expect good things from BioWare. Great things might be difficult, but I think the studio has the possibility to still put out games that really please fans, so. And I think the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, that sorta love letter, kinda proved that to a certain extent. Now let's just see if they can do that with a new game."

---

A question from chat asked "Why don't they remaster Dragon Age: Origins?" Co-Host/Guest: "I think I understand why they don't necessarily wanna do a trilogy remaster like they did with Mass Effect, but why not just do Dragon Age: Origins at least? Are they worried that people will bristle because expectations are for a whole trilogy now?" Grubb: "I think the sort've, it makes more sense as a trilogy, if they could do it as a trilogy, cause then you could put it out as this big $60, $70 thing, right. If you're just remastering Dragon Age: Origins, you gotta do a lot of extra work, you basically have to do a remake to get it to a $60, $70 thing, and then the expectation is, well then they'll do Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it's like, well they're not, they're not gonna do that." Co-Host/Guest: "I know at least, Dragon Age: Origins looked uglier than Mass Effect 1, but I remember despite coming out after Mass Effect 1, Dragon Age: Origins may have been older tech, or at least was like definitely, was like noticeably an uglier game." Grubb: "It wasn't Unreal Engine." Co-Host/Guest: "And it was in development longer even than Mass Effect. So yeah, it would be harder to probably remaster than any of those Mass Effect games were, even the first one." Grubb: "And the Mass Effect games were one continuous story with the same character, and it was all in the Unreal Engine, so it was just all kinda lined up easy to do a remaster trilogy of that. Dragon Age doesn't really have that going for it. Obviously a lot of crossover characters, a lot of characters from one game to the other, but not in the same way as Mass Effect."

[source]

[rebornrosess]

going to be terrifyingly sincere about greg for a moment here sorry but the dynamics between greg, logan & ewan are so fascinating to me and even if they can’t explicitly explore it anymore due to obvious reasons, this one short sequence from the funeral is soo catered to me specifically. even in death, logan overshadows ewan in greg’s eyes. and yet greg didn’t need to tell ewan that he gave a good speech. he could’ve given him the cold shoulder after he cost him his deal with roman. but he doesn’t. and either greg is in too deep that he doesn’t realize what ewan said about logan closing men’s hearts and feeding the dark, hard, mean, hard-relenting flame in them (that melts their wax wings in the end) was most likely pointedly directed at him (thus proving his point)—or maybe greg did a little bit. he still goes to mencken at the wake but he still tells his grandpa he did a good job. it was a good hard take that he gave.

i think of this a lot but something that truly sets him apart from everyone else is that HE’S at the intersection of the brothers’ decade old feud over family, betrayal, ambition, integrity, and greed—central themes of the show but also, crucially, to his arc over the last few seasons. he has that dual connection to the past that the others don’t. a past that has stayed nebulous for so long until ewan’s eulogy. in previous seasons, we’ve gotten some really interesting scenes with him in which ewan sees the danger of power and ambition for greg because he’s seen it in logan, but it would have been so interesting to explore it more between greg and logan too (like in 2x08 when greg tells logan ewan is cutting him out of the will. i like you greg). i do think that ewan’s point about logan and masculinity and meagerness in his eulogy is particularly relevant though. maybe ewan was saying “men” in the way old history books use “man” as the default, but the performance of masculinity at ATN is one best embodied by tom, which trickles down to greg, but is evidently shown in roman too. and he fed a certain kind of meagerness in men. perhaps he had to. because he had a meagerness about him. (and maybe i do about me too. i don’t know. i try. i try.) i selfishly wish greg and logan could have had more than just one scene together this season (even though logan attempting to emasculate greg by pointing out his lack of a traditionally masculine father figure as a final interaction is very funny). i don’t think my threshold for second-hand embarrassment could have survived an on-camera take of greg trying to explain the whole rummaging situation from ep.1 to logan but logan being oddly chill about it is. interesting???????? what greg wants, greg must have.

but before s4 at least, logan’s awareness of greg’s connection to ewan, his estranged brother, has informed their interactions and it’s always fascinated me because logan doesn’t quite treat greg like his own kid but he’s still a kid that he’s trying to win over by being “uncle fun” rather than “grandpa grumps.” logan last saw his mother at age 4 and greg has been on his own for some time now too. marianne made her first appearance since the PILOT in the before last episode of the fourth season. i’ve found his interactions with ewan reaaally interesting because the brothers didn’t come from wealth and, when compared to the siblings, greg didn’t either. the hirsch’s financial situation is never fully delved into but i’ve always found it a bit peculiar given greg’s inheritance is like. 250 mil he’s sleeping in a youth hostel and a chapel in s1 and tells his mom while on his flip phone that shiv took his last $20. at the beginning of s3 he’s helping his mom get a new credit card because she maxed out the last one. i feel like ewan did the celebrity parents thing where they don’t spoil their kids so they learn real world skills or something, which iirc is something logan regrets not doing. yet ewan also seems to regret his use of his wealth, which he voices in his eulogy when he states maybe he has a meagerness about himself too, but he tries, and is disappointed in men who do not try harder (and the camera pans to the siblings. ouch.) i sometimes wonder if ewan hadn’t withheld his wealth, would his daughter and grandson have become so desperate that they turned to his brother? or would they have turned out like the siblings too if they had enjoyed wealth since birth? are the throes of capitalism inevitable? marianne is the sibs’ first cousin but they never really acknowledge that. if anyone has thoughts on her absence and/or exclusion from the family tree, i’d love to hear them.

anyways. i could 100% be overanalyzing this but i do love how much information succession packs into each of their shots. greg will forever be seeking approval from both sides of a broken brotherhood and will never receive it from either. you beautiful ichabod crane fuck you. what greg wants, greg must have. i don’t want to see you hurt. one big happy family. “greg?” he’s an addendum of miscellaneous matters in pencil with a question mark.

[grimbeak]

Welcome to Night Vale episode 250 "Father Kevin" transcript

Episode description: There is no Night Vale. There is Mother Lauren's Brood. We are loved.

I don’t make the rules. I just gleefully enforce them, even though I don’t have to.

Welcome to Night Vale.

###

There is no Ralphs. There is Mother Lauren’s pantry. There is no hole out back of the Ralphs-- there is Mother Lauren’s soil embrace. There is no Night Vale. There is Mother Lauren’s brood.

We are loved. We are loved! We are--

[Radio interference. It fades in and out between incomprehensible moments of a man speaking, a woman speaking another language, and a band, before increasing in volume and suddenly cutting out.]

Sorry. It is difficult to break free of the malign influence of Mother Lauren. 

We live in two realities. One in which all is well, and one in which we are teetering over an edge from which we cannot return. I speak from both realities. I speak from both sides of my mouth. 

The conflict that roiled Night Vale continues, but in a strange, slow way. Mother Lauren stands on a podium in what once was Grove Park, her tendrils snaking through every part of the town, and through many of the people. The buildings expand, and contract, like lungs. The trees are melting. The people of Night Vale still bravely fight, but like people fighting in a painting; smudgey, and two-dimensional. 

The Boy--who is the younger version of Kevin from Desert Bluffs--stands next to Mother Lauren, holding her hand. His face shows exertion, as if the greatest battle is inside his body. But he cannot move. 

The last time Lauren came to Night Vale, she came as a representative of StrexCorp, here to conquer us in the name of capitalism. This time? Is different. This time she fights with stranger, stronger stuff. I don’t think she is turning us into another Desert Bluffs, I think, if anything, she is making all of us part of her body. She is transcending, and we are fodder for her change. 

Mother Lauren speaks, and her voice rings out from every part of her body-- which is the entire city. “I am bored already of this,” she says. “It was too easy to defeat you. Your loss is not as delicious to me as I had hoped.” 

But all is not yet lost-- there is a plan. Our future lies with Alejandra Nuñez, Ronnie Sharma, and Nanako Barnes of Mr. Prescott’s 5th Period AP English Class, otherwise known as “The Library Tweens”. These brave children have followed in Tamika Flynn’s footsteps, coming face-to-face with a librarian and emerging victorious. Now they must come face-to-face with something maybe…  fifteen percent more horrifying than a librarian. A twisted, cosmic god. 

The kids told me they could not give me the specifics of the plan, only that it involved using ropes and grappling hooks to cross the dangerous city streets through the air, guerrilla-style strikes on Mother Lauren’s weak points, capturing Kevin, and finally attacking Mother Lauren when she least suspects it-- at noon today. She’ll never see it coming. 

As part of the plan, I have been asked to create a distraction so that Mother Lauren and Kevin won’t notice what they are doing until it is too late. They told me it is “vitally important” that no-one notice until the plan has been completed, and so I had been sworn to secrecy-- a secrecy I will break for no-one! Except of course, you, my listeners. I could never keep anything from you. 

I thought a lot about what a good distraction would be, and here’s what I’ve come up with-- Hey! Look over there!

[Cecil runs away from the microphone, his footsteps going right-to-left-to-right, before they fade away. In the distance, after a brief pause, a window is smashed. Several sirens sound, seeming to be cars driving down the street as they fade in and out accompanied with scraping metal. Multiple dogs bark before they fade away as well. A car zooms down the street, seeming to possibly loop around the station before fading into silence. An air-raid siren fades in and out as wind blows, brief chanting is heard, what sounds like an old movie with incomprehensible dialogue plays. The siren stops as the chanting returns, an incomprehensible voice seeming to come from a radio plays, a rumbling is heard, and the Indiana Jones theme plays follows the rumbling right-to-left. Wind seems to blow again and fades out as Cecil’s footsteps return, the beginning few sounding like he just jumped through the window he may have broken. He continues walking over what sounds like metal, and then returns to the microphone, panting through his words.]

So…sorry… little out of breath. …We’ll see if that worked. 

Oh no. Despite what some might say is the best distraction anyone has done in the history of getting people to look away from something important, it appears that Mother Lauren somehow got wind of the plan. She flinched, and the world flinched with her. She glared, and the world swooned. She no longer even has to fight; Night Vale is her thick, sludging heart, her pockmarked lungs-- she has made us part of her disease. 

“I am the universe itself,” she howled, an air raid siren of a voice coming from all places at once. “To fight me is to fight the fabric of existence-- a laughable effort.” 

The Library Tweens were seized by Mother Lauren’s drones--who once were our own citizens, but now are pink, spongy lumps with no eyes, constantly screaming; “Help me! I still feel all of it, there is some vital part of me that remains untainted, I still have a soul!” as they lumber comically towards the tweens. The tweens put up a valiant fight, but they were captured and thrown into the town prison-- which now is covered in a pale, flakey skin. 

The Boy watched this all happen, holding onto Mother Lauren’s hands, enfolded in her multitude of oil-slick wings. Something came over him, and he turned, and struck out at Mother Lauren! With the effort of his entire soul, he resisted her influence, and he stuck a knife into her side! …Without bothering to look his way, she weaved her tendrils around him and he was absorbed into her being. The Boy now stands at her feet, the tendrils fused with his skin, and pulsing sickeningly. His eyes are blank whites. His hands flap about like they are playing an invisible piano. 

Oh, Night Vale… This is the moment of greatest despair. We have not only been defeated, but… changed. We are no longer who we are. 

And to make matters worse, here comes Kevin, unfolding himself from the crowd, strutting up to the podium of his victory. 

He looks around at the city that he has finally driven under his thumb. After years of resisting him, we can resist no more. He sees the bowling alley, enrobed in veins and arteries and malignant tumors. He sees town hall turned into a tongue, covered in white fuzz. 

He sees my own station, my beloved radio station, now entirely made of the same stuff as toenails. He sees all the evidence of his victory. And then he turns, and looks at The Boy. The Boy that he came back for. The Boy that is the younger version of himself, he looks at the helpless boy and he smiles. 

Here, there is a… heavy stillness, but somewhere, thunder. Somewhere, snow. Somewhere, far away, weather. 

###

Weather: Cutting Teeth by Priscilla Snow.

###

Well. 

Okay. 

I don’t know what to do here, honestly. 

Usually when we go to the weather report, a great struggle, or, climactic event happens concurrently with it, and we come back to a problem solved. With my perspective now shifted to the past I can then fill you in on how we made it through yet another dangerous day in our fair town. Now some people mistake this for the weather actually fixing the problem but that’s… that’s not the case. The weather usually just happens at the same time as what fixes the problem, and then I, (utilizing my expert narrative skills), tell you how that happened. 

This time however, everything is more or less how we left it. The Boy? Still captive. Mother Lauren? Still ascendant. And Kevin? Still smiling. 

There will be no victorious shift in perspective. Only a terrifying march through the ceaseless present. And in that present moment, Kevin turns to The Boy. He kneels down, still smiling, and takes The Boy’s hand. Gently, he untangles Mother Lauren’s tendrils from The Boy’s skin. He guides The Boy down from the podium. Mother Lauren, her eyes to the cosmos, is seemingly impassive to the final meager death throes of our little town. 

The Boy looks at Kevin. Kevin smiles at The Boy-- I do not like that smile, but then… I have never liked Kevin’s smile.

 “The last time I was here,” Kevin says, “I said that this was a situation I would not be able to handle alone. And I was right! And I was wrong. Because I can handle it with just me, but, I cannot handle it with only one of me.” 

“I’m sorry,” The Boy says, “but I don’t know who you are.”

It seems that his encounter with the body and mind of Mother Lauren has left him without his memories. He stares blankly at the world like it was a book in a language he took a few classes back in high school, like he should know it, but he doesn’t. 

“That’s okay,” Kevin says, “because I remember enough for the both of us. I’ve never talked much about my father-- he was a jovial man, but a stern man. He was a fair man, but with priorities I did not always understand. I think he did the best job he could-- in fact, I know he did, because, in this moment, I understand him better than anyone has ever understood their own father.”

“Okay,” The Boy says. He clearly doesn’t know why this man is telling him this. He says, “I don’t have a father.” He doesn’t say this tragically, but like he was telling the time to someone who asked. 

“Ah,” says Kevin, “but you do. My childhood was a strange riddle I never could quite solve, and here you are, a neat solution to the question of my life.”

Listeners, I am starting to understand what Kevin is getting at here-- and I’m not sure I like it, but it does have a certain… symmetry to it. Life is rarely fair, but it is often balanced. 

“What are you saying?” The Boy says. 

“Your name is Kevin, and I am your father, “ says Kevin, who is Kevin’s Father. 

“I am? You are?” says The Boy who is Kevin. 

“Yes,” says Kevin’s Father. “I will raise you well, or well enough, or, well, enough, you know? I will see you through.”

He looks up at Mother Lauren. She finally looks down, her tendrils weave through the earth and the bricks and the flesh of Night Vale, her sunny smile clouds over. 

“I thought I was through with you,” she says. 

“You were wrong,” says Kevin, and Kevin’s Father, simultaneously. Kevin’s Father stands tall, and Kevin stands as tall as he can, which is not nearly as tall as his father. Not yet. 

“Dead wrong!” calls a voice from the crowd, and here steps forward Alejandra Nuñez, Ronnie Sharma, and Nanako Barnes of Mr. Prescott’s 5th Period AP English Class, otherwise known as “The Library Tweens”. 

“I thought you were in jail,” I say from my radio booth, because this is all happening in the present moment so it just now occurred to me that I could be an active part of these events. 

“We were,” says Ronnie, “but then, this nice old lady busted us out!”

“I am not old! I’m in my early twenties for God’s sake!” says Tamika Flynn.

“She did a real daring and action-packed jailbreak!” says Nanako. “I wouldn’t have known someone that ancient had it in her!”

“Ugh,” says Tamika. But she does look exhilarated about having once again taken part in an adventure. In one hand she holds a rope, and in her other hand she holds a copy of the novel “Autumn” by Ali Smith. It’s the British first-edition, the one that was printed on a working blowtorch. 

“Point is!” says Alejandra to Mother Lauren, “You’ll have to stand against us!”

“And me,” says Tamika, shooting a menacing jet of fire from Ali Smith’s elliptical portrait of Brexit-era Britain. 

“And me,” says Kevin’s Father. 

Kevin, the young boy that he is, looks around, unsure. This is all a lot of new information all at once. But he makes his decision; “And me,” he says. 

Mother Lauren laughs, and the mountains laughs with her, hollow booms in canyons and passes. She swats at Kevin-- but Kevin dodges. Mother Lauren’s face flickers with concern, she swats again-- nothing connects. The streets roil. 

“I knew you before,” Kevin’s Father says, “I know that somewhere in there is human vulnerability!”

“Laughable!” screams Mother Lauren. She is not laughing. 

Mother Lauren’s drones advance, but a few stop. And then, human faces start to come out of their pink, fleshy lumps. 

“We could neither breathe, nor could we die!” the people inside the drones say. “We were… trapped! In the moment between breaths! It was torture without end!” 

Other Night Vale citizens give them thumbs-up, indicating empathy.

“No! I am a god!” shouts Mother Lauren. 

“Yes,” says Kevin’s Father, “and like any god, you are defined by the belief of your worshippers.”

Mother Lauren’s face screws up in fury. And then she scowls, up again at the cosmos. “Yeah! Okay! Screw it!” she says. “This universe was getting too small for me anyway.” 

And with that, she floats into the sky. The stars open like a door for her. She steps through-- she glances back, for a moment, at the city below her. “One day, I will return,” she says. “Or I won’t. T B D.” And then the stars swing shut behind her. And she is gone. 

Gradually, the city comes back to itself. The people shake off the influence of Mother Lauren. The buildings. and the earth, and the trees return to themselves. All is as it was. Minus those who are dead, or injured, or missing, which is… a good amount of people. 

At the center of all this is a boy and his father. The boy is holding his father’s hand. The Boy is holding his own hand. Kevin is holding Kevin’s hand, and together, Kevin walks back to his home, to live, if not always happily, then at the very least, ever after.

After the Kevins pass through it, Carlos pulls the plug on the portal, deciding that science, while worth some cost, is not worth every cost. Science must be in the service of humanity, never the other way around. It is a tool, not a goal. 

Oh-- he says that the portal made a real cool “zap” sound as it turned off. 

The Library Tweens--as they wish to be called--have declared the creation of a new teen militia, to protect Night Vale from any further incursions from Desert Bluffs Too, and anyone else who might want to mess with them. Tamika Flynn, who knows a thing or two about leading a teen militia, offered to be a mentor, but The Library Tweens put out a statement saying; “Uh, that’s okay, no thanks, ma’am.” 

What lies ahead for Night Vale? 

I cannot say. Our future is an unwritten slate. Our past is a diary scribbled in handwriting none of us can read, and our present is the view through a dirty window-- specifically, for me, the dirty window in this studio, through which I can see Amber Akinyi teaching her son how to ride a bike. I can see Michelle Nguyen and Maureen Johnson taking their poodle-earwig mix (or, poowig) out for a walk. I can see-- ooo, I can see a mysterious van with the symbol of a labyrinth on it with a man who is not tall and a man who is not short inside, driving some unknown cargo out into the scrublands.   

In short, I see the day-to-day of a town who has been through… a lot, but remained, through it all, very much itself. 

I see Night Vale. 

And I love it. 

Goodnight, my favorite town! Goodnight. 

###

PROVERB:  Hit me with your best shot! Ow! Okay, actually, that sucked! Uh, please hit me with one of your worse shots, instead, thank you. Ugh.

[grimmestofdays]

I want to hear. It was horror that got me into this, but that hhasn't stopped me.🦉

OK SO WARNING FOR WTNV SPOILERS

TWs include: Cults, brainwashing, murder, cosmic horror

Welcome To Night Vale is a cosmic horror podcast that you listen to from the perspective as (assumably) a citizen of Night Vale listening to the radio. The main person you hear in the podcast is Cecil Gershwin Palmer, the radio host and Voice of Night Vale (I will get into why Voice is capitalised here in a bit), but you also hear other voices sometimes!! Cecil is assumed to be some sort of immortal eldritch being because he's been around for AGES

WTNV has over 250 episodes as of writing tbis and has been going since 2012. It's gone through a lot of arcs, including:

The Cecilos Subplot - A scientist named Carlos comes to Night Vale in episode one, and Cecil catches feelings. The two pine for each other for a while before getting together, and in episode 100 they actually get married!!

The Strexcorp Arc: We are introduced to Night Vale's sister city, Desert Bluffs, which appears to consist of people who look identical or similar to Night Vale residents - being its sister city because of how bear the two are to one anither and also this similarity, and its Voice, Kevin, in The Sandstorm parts A and B!! At first, Desert Bluffs seems to be your run-of-the-mill Town Run By A Megacirporation, but throughout the arc it is very obviously stated that it is a brainwashing cult, and that the citizens of the Bluffs are victims if said brainwashing, with Strexcorp having brought the cult to them! They attempt a hostile takeover of Night Vale, but are defeated, and sent to the Desert Otherworld, where they have since rebuilded, and now live in Desert Bluffs Too! Kevin now has a partner named Charles, who's a theologist (and a paralell to Carlos but not a direct mirror) and a stepson, Donovan!! I love them very much, one can imagine Kevin getting therapy

The Who's A Good Boy? Arc: Cecil's ex-intern, Chad (Cecil goes through onterns at an insane rate, most die or quit in the sane episode they are first mentioned in), summons a Beagle Puppy. This puppy turns out to be LITERAL ACTUAL SATAN. LIKE GENUINELY. Satan is evil in wtnv but tbh the morality of majority of deified entities in wtnv is either evil or very ambiguous. And it starts turning Night Vale citizens into Hollow People by trapping their souls in hell (which, in Night Vale, is less fire and rocks, and more being wternally trapped in an inescapable muddy landscape) while their bodies stand and breathe, and turn others near them into Hollow People as well. The Beagle Puppy is defeated by a combination of the angels that live in Night Vale, but don't legally exist, so they're not legally allowed to be acknowledged (their existence is legalised later in the podcasts), surviving Night Vale Citizens, and Khosekh, the eldritch cat who floats about four feet off the ground in the unisex (used to be the men's) bathroom, and is usually stationary (unless he is fighting Beagle Satan I suppose).

These are two of my favourite arcs, as well as The Mudstone Abyss three-parter which introduces Charles. I will not be explaining tmua to you if you want to know more listen i beg it is my FAVOURITE part of the podcast because it has Charles in it and I love Charles

Other arcs I remember off the top of my head are as follows

Time Arc: Time starts working in Night Vale. Smiling God (who i am going to go into more detail about) cultist from the future persuades Night Vale Citizens to have their brains frozen when they die so they can be robots in the future. He is Evil and yhe future robots and present day Night Vale citizens team up to defeat him, turn him into a robot, and prigram him to complete the futile task of cleaning up the sand dunes in the Literal Desert.

Mother Lauren: Another Desert Bluffs arc!!! Lauren, ex-strexcorp employee, and mayor of Desert Bluffs Too gradually ascends to presumed deityhood, goes to attack Night Vale, decides to go to space instead. Horrendously underwhelming end to what could have been a decemt arc, episode 250 was Bad

Worldender arc: Night Vale's major, but long-forgotten deity, Huntikar, attempts to save Night Vale from destruction, accidentally nearly destroys the multiverse. It gets fixed though!!

I'm probably missing a bunch but I'm trying not to spoil everything. Just most things! /silly

DEITIES

The Glow Cloud: A morally ambiguous, glowing cloud that rains dead animals when upset. It can also control minds, and is the leader of the school council in Night Vale.

Huntokar: The creator (and almost destroyer) of Night Vale - her appearance is that of a woman with a deer's head. Mentioned and referenced frequently. We love huntokar. Also technically a woman called Susan Willman, as the two become one

The Smiling God: A radiant, mania-inducing being that van take multiple forms, the most prevalent of those being an all-consuming light, and the ither being a giant centipede with 1000 legs and 1001 teeth. It's an all-consuming deity and its hial is to devour everything. Literally everything. The Deity the cult of Desert Bluffs hails

The Woman From Italy and The Distant Prince are also deities, we don't know much about them though.

The Brown Stone Spire: A deity spire that grants wishes with consequences - consequences are always as severe is the wish would be

Now!! Voices.

The Voice of a desert city, of which we have met three (Cecil, Kevin, and a third named Frank Luna who lives in another Night Vale sister city, Vermilion Falls), is usually the radio host!! They're the host of presumably the only radio station in that town, and have a huge amount of influence upon it because of that!! They tend to be able to see tbings that are going on as they're happening, even if they aren't there or being fed info - a level of omnipotence, you know? And although we've only met Frank once, Cecil and Kevin are both quite important character in the Night Vale storyline.

Woogh thats a lot ok I'll stop now

[artisticmenace]

i said it in my little liveblog on the latest episode but. wtnv 251 is literally a message to the viewer and you cant convince me otherwise.

spoilers ahead but its kind of a normal episode with not much plot which is why i think this.

im discussing the reasons why i think 251 was a message below the cut

basically hes trying out whats basically night vale uber and cecil says a lot of things that remind me of the train wreck that was 250.

we arent here to talk that much about 250 though.

so in the episode, cecil is basically trying out the night vale equivalent of uber, Detour. this is coming up later because of the specific events that i think are a message to the viewer.

he mentions something about the older he gets the more he likes trying new things. 250 was. a seemingly uncharacteristic writing failure for them. i think this is them straying from their regular plot structure after, well, twelve years of doing it.

also in this same vein is the structure of this episode. he is "out in the world". he has a portable radio set to host his show. he is not in his studio. could even, if you stretch it, seem like he is "out of the box" 🤨

while in the phantom detour driver's car, he consistently questions the driver's actions. in my theory, cecil is the viewers, and the driver is the writers. the driver stops at a house for a while, and cecil questions if he should go inside.

later the car stops at rattlesnake rest i think he said and he ends up getting out, feeling his ride has ended. he gets lost. he kinda thinks that the app. didnt work? wasnt good? like. episode 250???

he ends up getting out of whatever tunnel he was in and actually gets to his destination, wondering why he ever doubted Detour.

which could bring to mind. whatever their doing with that plot conglomerate of 250.

i mean? theyve done good writing since 2012 but because of how awful 250 seemed. at least me and a few others began to doubt them. and eeeh.

so yeahi think this was a message.

[xo-lesserafim]

FALLING FOR YOUR SMILE AND EYES

EPISODE 7. TIL

a/n: Hey guys! Sorry I waa gone a little bit i had to plan because episode 7+ wasn’t following Xo Kitty’s timeline. Also thank you guys sm for 250 likes and 21 followers. You guys are so amazing. Anyways, enjoy<3

Bold: Korean

Italics: Over the phone

Both: Korean and over the phone.

Back to masterlist

Okay, so no coffee with Q.

It’s fine, I’ll just head to Jenny’s modeling place after I get coffee.

“Order for *coffee order.*” The barista said.

“Thank you, have a great day!” I said.

“You too.” They said.

I made it to the place, and I was amazed.

There was a lot of things happening at once, but it was AMAZING!!

“Andrea!” Jenny said.

“Hi.”

“I’m going to speak Korean mainly, is there a name you would like be to say when I speak Korean?”

“Ah-ri or Ae ri will do.”

“Do you prefer one?”

“Ah-ri when we are alone, Ae ri with other people.”

“Alright.”

“By the way., call me eonnie”

“Anyway…”

I was zoning out, excited for my new career.

A picture of the modeling.

TIME SKIP: 8 HOURS LATER

“I am so glad you called me before I went home to get ramen.” I said

“You’re welcome, anyway, how was modeling?” Q asked.

“IT WAS AMAZING!” I said excited.

I blabbed on all the amazing stuff that happened and the outfits!

“Wow, that seemed fun!” Q said.

“Boring, as ever.”

“Oof. How was Min ho and Kitty?” I asked.

“Kitty has been okay, she’s always asking if your okay, and she’s so worried. And Min ho, he hasn’t been himself, he’s only been himself if Kitty’s around.” Q said.

“Are you gonna come back to the dorms?”

“Maybe, I just don’t feel comfortable going back yet. Plus Jenny or Ji-ae eonnie’s house is really awesome! I wish you could come over.” I said.

“I wished curfew wasn’t a thing.” Q said.

“You should get back. Curfew is in 30 minutes.” I said.

“All right, see you Monday.” Q said.

KITTY’S POV.

“Q!” I said.

“Where were you?”

“I was out shopping.” He said.

“Couldn’t you have gotten the stuff you needed yesterday when we went shopping.”

“Yea, but I forgot something.”

“Okay..?”

ANDREA’s POV

I went to mini fridge for my skincare to do my skincare.

“Min ho wasn’t himself, weird!” I thought.

I looked on my phone and they posted me!

“I looked good!” I thought.

MIN HO’s POV

I looked on twitter and found a post about Ae-ri Song.

“She looks familiar,” I thought.

“But I can’t wrap my finger who she is.”

“But she is a beauty.”

“I hope we can meet soon.”

ANDREA’s POV

On Sunday, I went back to do a run through on the runway.

“She only got in because her cousin owns the place.” A girl said.

“Right, Binna.” The other girl said.

Binna? Hmm…

When it was Binna’s turn to walk, as she was walking she slipped a bit.

“Deserved!” I thought.

When it was my turn, I walked on the runway with a smile, but I was so nervous.

But I guess I had a confident aura, everyone started clapping.

“Nice job Ae-ri!” Ji-ae said.

“Thanks eonnie!” I said

“As a treat, we are going to get ice cream.”

“Really, thank you!

“Yea, you did a great job!”

At the ice cream shop, I saw Q, and….

KITTY AND MIN HO?

Thank God I had sunglasses and mask on, or I would have been fucked.

“Here’s your ice cream, have a nice day.” The worker said.

“Thanks, you too!” I said.

We went back home to eat.

I am so excited for the trip tomorrow.

MIN HO’s POV MASTERLIST NEXT EPISODE

TAGLIST: @chaewon-slays @cherrriesss

Copyrights © 2023 xo-lesserafim. All rights reserved. I do not own XO, Kitty , Netflix does. do not copy, translate, or repost anything without my permission.

[lia-land]

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

3/5

Spoilers for the first book in the Blood and Ash series*

I cannot start this review with anything other than how bad the audiobook is. This is an incredibly slow book for about 250/300 pages, as lots of fantasy series tend to be, so I wanted to get the world building over with on the audiobook. I could not continue listening to the narrator after the first few chapters. Hawke’s voice and accent combination is the worst thing I have ever heard and I can’t believe there was no one else who could have narrated this. Give me a microphone at this point... It’s like she was purposely trying to make it sound bad. I don’t know her name but I refuse to believe that she is not Jennifer L. Armentrout’s biggest hater.

Hawke is a relatively sexy character and maybe a little bit like ACOTAR’s Rhys, but this narrator completely ruined him for me. I can’t even read the books without hearing that stupid voice she gave him. I won’t even digress about every time she says ‘Oh my Gods…’ but I do like that this story eventually acknowledges the Gods that it’s referring to.

The world building was dragged out and I was very bored until around 50% in. I didn’t love that the book immediately jumped into spice; it gave me the impression that this series was just going to be porn with a weak plot, but I was somewhat wrong. Not entirely wrong, but the plot was stronger than I expected.

Then there’s the bad writing. The story is okay after chapter 15, but the bad writing outweighs it. I was constantly aware that I was reading, especially during the dialogue. It didn’t flow naturally and felt really forced. As many others have said, this book would have benefited from a good editor. Get Grammarly on this at the very least. The dialogue reminded me more of a TV show script where they quickly refer to/recap a previous episode since viewers might have forgotten. In this book, the dialogue sometimes referred to things that happened only a few pages or even sentences ago. I wanted to know what would happen, but I didn’t want to actually read it because the writing was really dull. The publisher is Simon & Schuster, by the way. Not sure how this met any standards of such a big publisher. Update: I've since seen a few people say that JLA doesn't have an editor at all? That should have told me all I needed to know before even starting this series.

Poppy was boring. She felt less like a character and more like a device for us to see the story unfold. Of course, every character has that purpose to some extent, but the only interesting thing about her is that she is the Maiden, and we still don’t even fully know what that means. I’m far more interested in the other characters. 

I thought Hawke was probably the Dark One after he made out with Poppy, otherwise he would just be really bad at his job as a guard. I was even more convinced after the Duke was stabbed with a cane right after. It seemed too obvious. Poppy is a very dumb character and I think the purpose was for readers to maybe relate to her? No clue. I could probably justify this partially by house secluded she is from other people, but the cane in the Duke’s chest right after her and Hawke made out was too obvious. Not sure how she didn’t pick that up in any part of her endless inner monologue. There's a big thing now about author's treating readers as if they're dumb and it was very clear in this book. I've also mentioned before that I don't base my reviews off of who authors are as people and I haven't, but if you feel like doing a deep dive into JLA's interactions with her readers, she does indeed think we are all dumb.

This isn’t a bad book, but it’s not good either, in my opinion. There really wasn’t that much plot. It’s just a bunch of repetitive inner dialogue with maybe 100 pages of things actually happening. I was so ready for this to be my next obsession, but it just wasn't for me.

Update: Tried reading the second book but it was just too boring. DNF at 12%.

[zalrb]

Thoughts on Good Omens season 2 over all? I had a great time with it. I see some people saying the plot was kinda thin and the side characters boring, and I sort of agree, but I showed up to watch Aziraphale and Crowley so I didn’t really mind that the rest of it was nothing special. I thought they did a great job showing the strange limbo they’ve been in, where they’re closer than ever in some ways but still haven’t come to a true understanding. And they have such great old married couple energy the whole way through!

I had issues with the Lindsey aspect of the whole Nina/Maggie plot line because I understood Nina and Maggie being mirrors for Crowley and Aziraphale and Lindsey being a stand in for Heaven/Hell dictating how they should act but I was also like, I mean Nina is in an emotionally abusive relationship and to just kind of throw that in and not really do much with it and only use it as a parallel to Aziraphale and Crowley's situation is unfulfilling for me, otherwise I didn't really mind Maggie and Nina, I just kind of felt like there should be more filled in with them if they were going to be a fixture in the season.

In terms of Aziraphale and Crowley, I did think they did a good job in showing how close they've gotten with the details like Crowley knowing Aziraphale's tones of voice

or him being like I understood what you said in French because you've spoken about it for 250 years

or how Aziraphale will just tell him to order him a sherry and what I seem to naturally do with relationship dynamics like this one is focus on the person in the relationship whose feelings are evident and there and clear but not as plainly conveyed as the other. So, for instance, Crowley is the one who Nina and Maggie speak to

Crowley is the one who kisses Aziraphale

Shax speaks of Crowley's devotion to Aziraphale

I think the audience is a bit more aligned with Crowley coming to terms with how he feels than with Aziraphale because of direct lines like this

so I naturally focus on Aziraphale and his feelings for Crowley and how they're portrayed because I don't find it to be as plain as the aforementioned and therefore a little more interesting to observe, like the fact that Aziraphale has diary entries of his various adventures with Crowley (peak crush behaviour)

and that's why this is my favourite part of the season

because this, to me, says more about Aziraphale than Crowley, a) because like I said before, Aziraphale is positively tickled to be saved by Crowley b) making Crowley happy makes him happy even when they're in immediate danger.

So, what I found interesting about their dynamic this season is that while Crowley may "move too fast" for Aziraphale with suggesting running off together, in a lot of ways, Aziraphale is already comfortable with things we see Crowley coming to terms with in real time i.e. Aziraphale already knew in the 40s that they would always get each other off the hook (Crowley knew because he'd been coming through for Aziraphale for a very long time by that point as well but he's not comfortable with admitting it)

he was already comfortable with the knowledge he'd put his life in Crowley's hands, that he trusted him absolutely

or things like publicly showing some form of intimacy

and Crowley being like wait what?

and in that sense, Aziraphale is the one who pushes Crowley and is the one who's actually moving faster

even in the first episode while Crowley natural talks about them as a pair, he doesn't call attention to it

and when he reverts from talking about them as a unit to talking about himself

Aziraphale immediately calls attention to the fact that there is in fact a "them", he verbalizes it

and he has no problem admitting that he both needs and wants Crowley by his side

so it was interesting seeing these things and this intimacy and this personal development of acknowledging how much they mean to each other while they also have fundamental ideological differences that in the past had compelled the other to look at things from a different point of view but in the end (of the season) ends up ripping them apart.

[punisheye]

empatheorem event info.

* if you are interested in bodyswapping with wolfwood you need to be comfortable with possibly writing themes surrounding human experimentation, particularly experiments performed on children. shoutout to xav for the template o7

physical:

he's 6'7" and a brick wall of muscle. not like, washboard abs or bodybuilder type muscle, of course. he's got a soft belly. you will be able to lift so many things you might not have been able to before, including a 250+ lb cross-shaped machine gun. with two fingers. you will be able to reach the top shelf at the grocery store.

man has so much body hair. have fun with the itchy feeling if you're not used to that.

he's got an incredible sense of balance; it's very hard to knock him on his ass.

there will be the lingering taste of cigarettes in your mouth, sorry.

weapons + abilities:

you can find a list of his current unlocked weapons and abilities here.

again, the punisher is 250+ lbs of metal and he can swing it around with one hand.

he can take a lot of damage and still keep going, even without his enhanced durability fully unlocked.

if you take two vials too close to one another you will be able to regenerate at an exceptionally fast rate but your heart will eventually rupture and you will die. there is no way around this. since at the moment the potency of them is lowered it's possible it may not kill you, but i wouldn't risk it. if this is something you're interested in exploring please, please communicate with me first.

mannerisms:

texan accent.

he holds his cigarettes between his middle and ring fingers.

he hasn't been smoking as much as he used to, however.

fondness for sunglasses.

soft spot for children.

loves food, loves making food, loves sharing food with others.

seems to have a perpetual scowl on his face.

he knows how to move without making any sound whatsoever and usually does, but if your muse isn't used to being in this kind of body, it'd make sense if he was stomping around more than he usually does!

very easy to annoy and piss off.

sometimes he flaps his arms like this when he gets pissed off:

memories:

he gets a lot of nightmares and ptsd episodes from his time in the eye of michael, especially when he was being experimented on as a child and training in his teen years. i can provide more information about this in dms.

the memory of him rescuing vash from the ark.

i'll reluctantly open up the possibility of another muse seeing a memory of his final fight with livio, razlo, and chapel, and the moments leading up to his death on the couch at vash's side, but this has already been done in a past event and while it's not off the table i'd definitely prefer to explore something new!

almost anything from spirale is free game except for any memories of his conversations where he learns very personal information about other muses. also, memories of his recent wedding/honeymoon are off limits.

you're free to ask me as many question as you'd like, especially related to canon memories!

other:

he shares a nice 2-story house with vash. be nice to vash and also their cat, kuroneko<3

congratulations you also now have a motorcycle

do not fucking lose that damn wedding ring or i will get you

also event rules already touch on this kinda thing and it should go without saying anyway, please don't be weird to vash or act like a weirdo about their relationship thankyou

icons:

i'm totally fine with sharing icons; i have 700 of them. i just ask you don't share them with anyone or use them outside of this event.

[blastedking]

State of the Kingdom - 27.05.2023

Story

I actually managed to finish "The Court Wizard" - didn't think I would but that's how this usually goes. I say "there is no way I get this finished in time" publicly and then my brain goes  into stubborn "but what if I did?" Mode. And here we are. Some 50k words of Zargothrax mischief. 

The Covers are all sketched out, but there are 23 of them and only 5 are outlined yet. Since the story itself still needs some edits for sure that checks out time wise. So nothing today, probably next week too since I won't be around much next week in the first place (some minor hospital stuff)

Will try for the 10th of June to start uploading this one. 

Website

I pushed out a major update to the side last month, including:

Addition of all Gloryhammer / ULF pictures uploaded so far (aka. Like 250 pictures uploaded which drove me near insane by monotony despite writing a dedicated mass upload function for it) - now only the Story Covers are missing.

Updates to the look and feel of the gallery

Major additions to the Wiki, including a now extra page for all Characters. I added a lot already, not all of them have info yet, but they grab all the relevant pictures from the gallery and display them for each character which I think is pretty neat! 

Also added files for some other things like the Hammer and the Planets Hatir and Tyr!

Major overhaul of the Theshvo Page - now ordered with sense. Disclaimer; I have no clue about grammar. I barely know what word is what kind of word on the best of days xD

Art

The last of the more random art is getting out now, after that there is a whole set of ones I'm really happy with. Seemed like I had an episode there xD One RttKoF art thing too is queued for the release week of the album!

[gameboybuddha]

Hello Again.

People of Tumblr. Let me fill you in on some stuff about me. A few months back I ran a page called “the gaming gainer” and it developed a pretty decent following. But as time went on I decided that the gaining lifestyle wasn’t going to be sustainable for me, so I decided to shut down the page.

Here we are a few months later, and guess what? I couldn’t stay away, so I’ve eased into coming back. In reality, my fatass liked eating and gaining weight so much that I couldn’t stop. So I’m diving back in and saying “Screw the risks, being fat makes me happy.”

For Most people that won’t remember

Here’s the full story on how I got into feedism.

I was an only child who watched quite a lot of cartoons growing up. The weight gain episodes of certain cartoons always seemed to resonate with me for whatever reason (Passion Patties Episode of Totally Spies) after watching (sometimes during) I'd stuff my shirt with pillows and other clothes to pretend I was fat.

My mom was also incredibly heavy when I was a kid (somewhere around 350) so I’m guessing there’s also a biological component as to why I got into this fetish.

Let me preface by saying that I was an incredibly active kid growing up, so I stayed skinny. When I was around 14, I made my first attempt at gaining weight. No matter how much I ate, my fast metabolism and active lifestyle made it almost impossible to gain more than a couple pounds. As time went on, I lost interest in gaining weight, and I forgot all about being into it for over a decade.

Now we fast forward to 2018. My mom (who I remained incredibly close to) had an incident where her health declined rapidly. As a way to cope, I was eating for comfort for the first time. I put on some weight accidentally, and I liked it quite a lot. This got me curious if there were other people out there who liked the idea of getting fat. Tumblr and Reddit opened my eyes to the gaining community and I went deep down the rabbit hole.

Once i figured out a regimine that worked for me, I put on a lot of weight pretty fast. Between February and November of 2018 I ballooned from 180lbs to 240lbs. I’d fluctuate back and forth the next couple years making it up to 250 at one point.

In July of 2020 I myself got very sick, and I ended up losing a bunch of weight because of it. For almost 3 months, I survived on Gatorade Zero and crackers because my body was rejecting everything else. I ended up slimming back down to just under 200lbs.

Since then my appetite has come and gone, but when it comes back my belly becomes absolutely insatiable. I’ve gradually worked my way back up to being within the 230 range. I’ve set an official goal to reach 275lbs at some point in the future.

So there you go, this is my story and I’m excited to document my journey as my body continues to grow! I’m open to any questions/comments/suggestions that people might have so feel free to send me an ask!

GBB

[theowritesfiction]

‘The Boiling Rock, Part 1’

I love how the start of the episode shows that Zuko is still getting teased by the rest of the Gaang, but it's kind of becoming less vicious, even from Katara.

I understand that Sokka feels terrible about the invasion plan failing and his father and many others all ended up captured. That's a lot of guilt to carry around. So, it's time to reverse the consequences of one bad plan by trying to execute an even worse plan!

So where do I even start with this before I take away Sokka's master strategist badge? Let's start from the top. Going to the Boiling Rock alone and taking Appa. That's just reckless and irresponsible. Also, the going alone because 'I must reclaim my honor'? Ugh, this masculine obsession with honor that makes one suspend nearly all functions of the brain... Sokka, weren't you the smart one? Katara isn't missing her father? How does she not deserve to be involved? You don't want to endanger anyone else? Fine, but... don't you realize that the group can't afford to lose you or Appa?

Okay, while I don't approve of them taking Appa, Zuko's reasoning not to do so is bizarre. Prisons don't have bison daycare centers? Umm, none of the places the Gaang go have those. Also, arriving in a hot air balloon is... not exactly inconspicuous? Do you think there's a landing pad for visitors, and nobody's going to ask any questions when they clearly spot your approach? Yeah, I don't see the air balloon being a better choice here.

This episode does give us some epic Zuko quotes, though. 'I'm never happy' and 'That's rough buddy' are classics for a reason. But for saying that the only one he misses in the Fire Nation is Mai, Zuko gets 20 Bad Brother Points, I mean Jerk Points.

Of course, the balloon crashes and robs them of means of escape. Appa wouldn't have had this problem getting in and out through those steam clouds. Also, Sokka saying that he expected this to be a one way trip... what the hell? Did you also think that when you were about to take Appa? Okay, Sokka is not allowed to ever contribute to the group's plans again, this is... awful.

Okay, I understand the reputation of the Boiling Rock, and sure the coolers seem super unpleasant for the firebenders, but... it doesn't really look any better or worse than any other prison. Sorry, but the 'everyone on Boiling Rock is tortured, ergo Azula tortured Suki' "logic" is simply ridiculous.

It's nice to see Suki again, but I'm still salty that a main character's romantic interest makes only her third appearance in 54 episodes. Like come the fuck on.

I'm actually going to give Sokka 30 Jerk Points for trying to kiss Suki while in the guard uniform. Like dude, don't you realize how that might be terrifying for a female prisoner? Maybe it's something Suki has already had to deal with. I know it was meant to be funny, but to me it was just thoughtless.

Zuko asking the Warden 'how did you know who I am?' I'm dying. Also, Zuko with the most half-assed apology in the world to Suki. Sorry for your island, I guess. ;)

Okay, again... I love Sokka's idea of using the cooler to get across the lake of steam. Buuut... what are you going to do once you're across? Row the cooler all the way back to the Air Temple? Also, the lake is in the caldera of a volcano and those walls look impossible to climb, so... again, Sokka has the engineering part solved. Everything else, not so much.

That's it for now, I'll see you soon in Part 2, hopefully with a better escape plan.

Jerk Points for Book 3:

Zuko - 660 Aang – 280  Ozai - 250 Sokka - 110 Roku - 100 Hide - 80 King Kuei - 60 Toph - 50 Haru - 30 

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Strange New Worlds S1

I finished SNW s1 on paramount plus this week. So here's a lot of waffle about it. Containing vague but definite spoilers under the cut

So I watch the first season of Strange New Worlds, and to be honest, I've been a bit hesitant to watch it and biased against it because like The Orville it's heralded by people who dislike Discovery and Picard as 'real proper Trek', and since I like Discovery and Picard or at least think they are at least okay and underrated, that annoyed me greatly.

Now of course, I watched it and it is pretty good. There's no denying that. It's upbeat.  It's characters are likeable. Anson Mount as Pike is especially charismatic. I think it's a triumph of style and tone because I'm sure there are as many continuity issues and just oddities that you could pick up on compared to Enterprise or Disco but people don't want to.

It's episodic and that's a strength and a weakness, it lets you do a lot of different stories but those stories have to take up 50 odd minutes time and then you're done. There a couple of stories episodes 5 and 6 stand out where they took far to long to get to want feels like it should have been the meat of the episode which makes everything wrap up quickly and patly. There's a moral dilemma in episode 6 that Pike just has to… accept because there's no time to deal with it.  

The short episode count is always an issue. The only series were like 250% the size of this one mid 20s number of episodes rather than 10 so there isn't room  for everyone in the ensemble to shine.

The characters well… there's a lot of returning characters from TOS and to be honest I like them all but it feels iffy continuity wise. M'Benga is going to go from CMO to supporting Doc in TOS and having him and Chapel and Uhura all as part of Pike's crew doesn't seem to meld well with The Menagarie heavily implying (iirc it's been a long time) that Spock is the only one who knows him.

It's not the kind of show where you'd worry about the characters overly but it remains we know the fates of a lot of the cast.  Pike, Spock, Uhura, Chapel, even secondary cast like Sam Kirk.  And La'an Noonien Singh descended from Khan, the number of TOS connections seems forced like it's a very small universe and so far aside from a brief moment with Una/Number One La'an connection to Khan hasn't been relevant, so there's no reason she couldn't have not been a Noonien Singh. Likewise Uhura as a gifted cadet uncertain if she wants to be in starfleet, there's no reason that character had to be Uhura.

So the other original characters of note are helm officer Ortegas and Hemmer the aenar engineer. I really like the concept of Hemmer, it makes sense to have more Aliens on board and he would be from a canonical but rarely seen founding member of the federation. (when are we getting a tellarite character?) but they underused him and then killed him, sadly.

The last two episode were really quite iffy conceptually for me. The Gorn are no basically xenomorphs that you have to kill and the message of the finale is 'pike sucks, kirk's great because he's willing to kick ass'. For all the other series get complained about for shooting things to solve your problems this is actually the only series that really came out actually did that. Contrast to Discovery Season 4 which really was about making peaceful contact with a very alien and apparently hostile society.

It's kind of to the show's credit that they followed up on Pike learning about his accident in Discovery but the message that he shouldn't prevent it because inevitably he sucks and Spock and Kirk are what's need to save the universe is just so… eh. No. It's bad thematically and logically. There's really nothing he can do where he and the cadets are fine without Spock dying? It's contrived. Tell all the cadets not to turn up and then retire yourself and let Kirk take over the Enterprise if you must, how does that end in disaster? Like I know they've got to enforce continuity some how but still, this makes little sense.

As to Kirk, In the finale he's an alternate timeline Kirk and he's actually pretty good. Sam talking about him makes him sound like a JJVerse stereotype of Kirk as a renegade womanising maverick that he just wasn't in TOS and is massively overstated by popular culture. But his actual character is good. He's brave, inventive, and principalled and even though he disagrees with Pike he's still respectful, attentive and suggest compromises between there point of view and  there seems to be genuine liking and respect between them which is what I always want in crossovers.

That said I'm less happy he'll be back in season 2 for the aforementioned continuity snarl with The Menagarie.

Hopes for season 2? Give Number one, Ortegas and Sam Kirk focus episodes or at least more material Don't bring in more TOS characters like Scotty. Give us another original engineer and don't kill em.