Jefro

I sincerely hope someone has an urn nearby if Dag ever falls in battle. This was really exciting to see this morning and so far it's off to a great start. I think my favorite line of the episode was Ken's background "Lid...?" when the character was introduced.

Best wishes and thanks for all of the work you put into this, Sark! And congratulations to everyone involved on the end of such an entertaining campaign. I really do hope Sark can take a little time out to tell us what he envisioned when this whole thing started. There must have been so many "What the fuck are they doing to my campaign?" moments that called for insane, impromptu overhauls. If we do move on with new characters, I hope Mildred, Bart, Blackie, and Damien are just kind of paused, on hold for Sark's DM return. Otherwise, I think we'd all love a little epilogues for each character, detailing further adventures, retirements, marriages to Trondor, and the like. Such a great show, much appreciated. I know Blaine's gonna be an awesome DM with really cool ideas.

Can't wait for Damien to start Squeaking... Squeaking for Vengeance!

Wow, yeah that ending was completely unexpected. This might be getting too much into how the bread was made, but I really want to know if Andy had an idea for Gil and Golly before the episode then had to completely throw it out the window. Like was Golly supposed to be an actual ventriloquist dummy until he was deemed to be a box from the garbage? Had Andy already envisioned him as a source of evil more powerful than Satan himself? One of the great things about Andy's appearances is when the others try to trip him up and he has to do incredible gymnastics to make his characters' stories work out, but it felt like the relationships of past characters were thrust upon him. I'm sure this isn't a popular opinion, but I kinda hope this wasn't canon for all of the characters involved. I was really interested to hear where it was going before all of the callbacks drove the story and I get the feeling that might always be the case now if Andy wants to bring out a new insane character. Or maybe it was his idea to connect everything all along. Or maybe I'm a psycho for analyzing this so much. Regardless, I think the good vs evil (with mostly evil people on both sides) fight is going to be a fun set up and I'm always glad to see Jason and/or Andy as guests.

I checked the comments just to see if anybody else had something to say about the "woo" lady and YIKES! I'm glad it wasn't just me. At least her crowd behavior was better than Sha Na Na's, when they stabbed that guy at Altamont. PS, I really wish I could have been at that live show for the return of "What's Up Hot Dog?" and a doo-wop sting response. I seriously might have teared up... that's insane, right? Always glad to hear Paul and Andy on here.

Man alive, this was great. Everybody was on fire from the get-go. I completely forgot that Dr. Levine had latent psychic powers until her book plug at the end, and they never got around to exploring that. And yeah, that song was incredible. And I know Neil wasn't copying New No-Nos, but when his Congressman was giving his rules the Real Time theme song was playing in my head.

Great to hear the new season's about to start so I can see some new episodes, but I've gotta admit I'm more excited that this means Jon Hamm will be making the podcast circuit to promote it. I said it before on the old Comments boards and I'll say it again - as much as I enjoy him as an actor, I wish Jon would focus more on his career as a podcast guest. El Chupacabro character seemed like a complete accident, not at all planned, but it was so great I'm glad they stuck with it for the rest of the episode. It was gnawing at me that no one gave the punchline to the "mama was the town bike" set up until we learned that their mother was, in fact, a very beautiful bicycle.

Thanks, that makes complete sense. I wasn't sure what powers had been chosen... they may have listed them all off in an early episode that I haven't relistened to. She's mentioned marking and another strike that provides cover but I don't know what types of powers/actions those are. And, honestly, it's not keeping me up at night, I just wasn't sure if everyone knew what they had at their disposal.

Not sure if this has been brought up elsewhere - in 4th Ed. with the At-Will Powers, would anyone ever choose to just do a basic attack on their turn? On the show they might just do it to speed things up, say "Okay I'm just gonna take a swing at this guy" but it seems like any At-Will Power would have some beneficial effect and can just be done over and over. So in case that's another thing the group hasn't gotten used to, it may lead to some more destruction. Blackie definitely has it down with the Eldritich Blasts. I could just be wrong about powers... I only started this around the time this show started.

Wow, when Scott beat boxes he sounds exactly like Will Ferrell!

The "R.I.P." after Jon mentioned Scott's left eye was one of the all-time best under-the-breath asides.

I think Bartho Shett's new laugh might be my favorite development so far. And it's weird that people thought they were having less fun because of the rules...? The vibe I got was more upbeat in this episode from the start, maybe because it was much more active and not just doomed people listlessly wandering in a strange landscape after taking 50 wrong turns. I really can't wait for Sark's reveal at the end of how he envisioned the campaign unfolding. It's great to learn more and more about D&D. Having had no idea that someone with a dead character can re-enter later with a new one, I just assumed there were two outcomes - everyone dies or the DM basically says "Huzzah, you win! Here's some EXP." But please, PLEASE let Gerry's new character's entry be a complete surprise. No spoiler pictures, no spoiler episode descriptions. That will blow everybody away.

I didn't have a problem with this episode. As Kulap has said in many introductions, the charts are an excuse to get to know the guests. Well, Steve-O talked so much that the charts took a backseat - does anyone really feel ripped off that they didn't get to hear more opinions on some songs? - but we got to know a lot about where he's at these days. And why would anybody think Steve-O knew what this podcast was supposed to be before he showed up? I get that it was abrasive, and his voice was difficult to listen to, but that garnered more sympathy from me than animosity. He just sounded like someone going through a manic episode, not somebody with an agenda or trying too hard to be funny. Jackass and Wildboyz were big enough for me that I was genuinely bummed when it was obvious he was on a downward spiral in that fake gangsta rap era, so I'm actually happy for the guy that he's found ways of enjoying life in non-self-destructive ways. It seems hypocrisy has been a major bone of contention in these comments but he admitted his hypocrisy, feels regret and wants to make things right. It's nice to hear how self aware he his, how deep thinking he is (though I can't get on board with some of the more out there stances)... like at least he knew that, say, the rainbow thing sounded far fetched. There are a few very loud regular guests who I have to skip when I see they're on, even though I love Howard & Kulap and do enjoy the format of the show. This episode doesn't annoy me the way those do, and when they happen - guess what, I just keep my mouth shut because this is a weird place for negativity. (Did I just passive-aggressively contradict myself?) Wait, why did I just write a novel about this episode? I guess just a weird need to defend it, but it doesn't seem likely that Steve-O would be a returning guest no matter how the episode went.

I'd like to think the "Go fuck yourself" line in Garry's new Plugs theme is an homage to Dave Shumka's style of podcast-segment-theme-song authorship... it may have been, unconsciously. Of course this episode was great, Gillian and Paul are consistently two of the funniest guests ever.

This was a lot of fun. Ron was awesome and legitimately funny. I'm just gonna have to chalk that up to being Canadian. It was mentioned a few posts ago but the Sergei Federov mention was great... I don't think any discussions about Detroiticity are complete without a RoboCop mention, though.