See ya, 2018.

Not much to say, really. There wasn't much activity on the blog because I was too busy watching magical girl cartoons and dealing with other shit to play video games and make many other super-meaningful and esoteric connections. Still, I do adore these little celebrations and looks back at things I wrote. It's about 45 minutes until the year ends for me, so I've still got time. One last walk down memory lane.


An Early Spring Fling (Fire Emblem Echoes)

I said it near the end of the Game Of The Year post, but I really wish I beat this one. Still, it was neat that I got to dig into Fire Emblem like this and get inspired by a game that may be a rare one of a kind treat. Or maybe they really will make more like it. Either way, we'll see if I can clear it in 2019. This is notable for being, if nothing else, one of the two things I wrote on the blog before the big one. The other?

I Attack Your Accurate Adaptation Of The Rules Directly! (Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards)

I didn't put it on the GOTY post but this was... cute. Cute enough that parts of it inspired me. Enough to write this. It's far from the greatest game I played this year, but as one of the few that were interesting enough to get a post out of me? It deserves a spot. (Maybe Trails In The Sky will get one in 2019. Second Chapter, don't let me down.)

Moonlight Shines Eternal (The Sailor Moon Post): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The headliner. The defining bit of media from 2018 for me. I spent six months watching it, and another three agonizing over what to say about it. This show changed me, became a metaphor for my own personal confusions and discoveries over the year, and became an essential part of me. It's got its flaws and all, but in the end it's the symbolism of it all. It wasn't about the quality of the show. It was about the person it helped awaken inside me. For that, I can't thank it enough.

Another 31 Days, Another 31 Screams: Day 10 (The Dark Tower)

Had to put a rep from the Halloween marathon on here. I like this entry the best even though it's, by some measure, the worst. I barely talk about the book, but it's more about the influence it had on me. A perfect pairing with all that Sailor Moon exorcism, as this is a novel which made me in 2003 just as much as Sailor Moon did.

Doctor Who Series 11 First Impressions: Episode 9 (It Takes You Away)

Series 11 was kind of a letdown, huh? I'd love to believe that tomorrow's Resolution will redeem it, but I have my doubts. Still, there were highs. Pity none of them were by the fucker in charge, but this is the highest high for me, I think. Inventive, twisty, and full of lots of gonzo symbolism and occult power. And A SENTIENT FUCKING FROG UNIVERSE HOLY SHIT I STILL LOVE IT.

Frezno's Games Of The 2018 Thing

In case you missed it. Very good games were played and I talked about them. Like two days ago. You probably caught it, but it's here for posterity. You know. I could have added more but I felt the list was getting bloated, so. There we are.

That'll do it for 2018. I have nothing else to say except an expression of my love and gratitude to all of you, the ones who do read this nonsense I sporadically spout out of my brain. You make me feel like I actually know what the hell I'm doing here sometimes, and for that I can't thank you enough. I hope you enjoy your end of year festivities, and let's cross our fingers for some really cool and life-changing positive experiences to be had in 2019. See you on the other side of the year.

Frezno's Games Of The 2018 Thing!

Another one down, just about. I always get all poetic about the year ending at the beginning of these, and this is going to be no exception. 2018's setting, and we once again have an enigma of a year ahead. 2019. What a wild number it is, but then 2018 was just the same enigma when we were sitting here last year recounting the games of 2017. Now we're looking back at that and I'm going to tell you all about the best computer games I played this year. Who needs delays? Let's get right into it and decide what sort of gonzo "categories" I'm going to invent. Here they are, the Games Of The 2018 Thing.

Doctor Who Series 11 First Impressions: Episode 10 (The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos}

This is the way the season ends; not with a bang, but a whimper.

Through the ruin of a season, stalked the ruin of a showrunner.

You know, maybe this would have landed better if we didn't have the news that the New Year's Day special in a few weeks is our only televised Doctor Who for 2019. That's one hell of a bummer and 2016 was a real long drag of nothing, and now we get to do it all over again. Joy. Any hope we'd have gone out on a high note was dashed by the actual quality of the final episode of 2018. It's not bad. Not really. There's no political outrage behind a fun episode like there was with Kerblam!, and no outright indignation at being patronized like with, say, a Toby Whithouse episode. In the end, this is just a Chris Chibnall joint. It's just as passable and of the moment as pretty much the rest of his contributions this year. Let's deal with whatever the hell he put on screen, then. It's time for The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos. Hey, I typed it without looking up. Go me.

Doctor Who Series 11 First Impressions: Episode 9 (It Takes You Away)

And now I'm mirroring you. Fuck.

NOW we're talking here. THIS is the kind of Doctor Who I go gonzo for. I mean, I love me a good emotional through-line (and the episode even has that to boot so HOLY FUCK IT'S FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS) but I really dig Doctor Who when it's going full Bidmeadean science-magic and just getting a little goddamned weird while it's at it. I MEAN DID YOU ALL SEE THAT TALKING FROG? THEY WENT THERE! HOLY FUCK! I could end the first impressions here by just gushing about how the denouement of this episode was a sentient pocket mirror universe taking the form of a talking frog with an elderly black woman's voice holy fuck you guys they went there, but I think I'd like to get a little more in-depth. I used Bidmeadean back there, and that might not mean a lot to you. Christopher H. Bidmead was script editor for Doctor Who in 1980, and he was at the creative helm during Tom Baker's final season, Season 18. (Coming soon to Blu-Ray, fuck yes!) Season 18 had its highs and lows, as most of classic Who did, but its particular relationship to magic-as-science, the filmic and surreal, and general theories of things like evolution, probability, and entropy make it, at the least, really ambitious and just... weird. Doctor Who, if nothing else, loves the weird. Remember that time the moon turned out to be an egg? Yeah. Weird. Except general consensus is that this episode ruled, as opposed to Kill The Moon. My own opinions on moon eggs aside (I lied, here they are, it's gonzo genius), we're gonna look at It Takes You Away and see how it weaves the weird, the Bidmeadean, and the emotional into something that really stands out.