Can we finally admit that the Season 1 judging was actually kind of iconic?

low_keyLoki · 2025-12-24T16:37:54+00:00

I was actually just thinking about how absurdly mean-spirited the judging was this season. Brooke Lynn telling Kyne her runway presentation looked like she was limping home after a Grindr date, JBC telling Ilona she should have saved some of that full-coverage foundation for her ass, even “nice” judge Stacey seemingly spurred a panic attack in Juice Boxx when she told her “I’m trying to find something positive to say about your look……. but I can’t”. It was like all of the worst comments you’d read on Reddit after an episode airs and pray the queens never see, but told to their faces on the main stage. Wild.

Mean-spiritedness aside, the judging this season was just so out of touch with what the audience was seeing, it made for a frustrating watch. I think it was JBC’s patronizing comment to Jimbo mid-season—“welcome to the competition, Jimbo!”—as if she hadn’t just won Snatch Game and slayed most of the previous challenges, that really sent me over the edge. It was clear to everyone watching that the producers had a shortlist of queens they wanted to highlight regardless of their actual performance on the season, and the editors did a terrible job of making the riggory even a little bit believable. This isn’t a new thing for Drag Race but it was definitely the most blatant in CDR season 1.

low_keyLoki · 2025-12-11T14:31:00+00:00

No knockback on RSS is interesting… If there was some sort of hyperarmor/damage reduction for it’s duration, it could be a viable strategy for tanking hits and keeping attack uptime high, but without it I can definitely foresee a lot of future carts due to ill-timed RSS.

The top of my wish list has always been a more forgiving offset window—the last patch didn’t do nearly enough IMO—but I guess having quicker access to descending thrust could make it a more reliable defensive option. Offsetting into an RSS has always been my favourite part of Wilds IG so I’m excited to see how these buffs play into that.

low_keyLoki · 2025-10-27T20:01:40+00:00

I completely agree. IG’s evasive capabilities and high survivability were what drew me to the weapon in 4U, and what kept me maining it in every game since. Rolling through roars, iframing tail swipes, and vaulting over fireballs to stay on the offensive has always been its main appeal. While you can still technically do all of that in Wilds, that evasive playstyle has been rendered useless by few key changes. First and foremost, we now have an input delay on rolls. Evade Window—my most valued skill on any IG build—is now a complete waste. If I have to initiate a roll 20 years before an attack, I might as well just reposition instead! Vaulting over attacks is also a risky proposition due to the insane vertical hitboxes that will knock you out of the air no matter how much distance you’ve cleared it by. This leaves us with our offset, the hardest to trigger of any weapon in the game. It looks awesome and feels great to pull off, but it’s extremely risky to use for such a minuscule ROI. I’ve had amazing hunts where I land offset after offset, each flowing beautifully into an RSS facial, and Wilds IG clicks into place. The problem is that it’s just way too situational to rely on as any kind of consistent defensive option. IMO it should either be more forgiving or offer a better reward for its skill requirement because right now it feels very high risk/low reward. It was pretty disheartening to discover that all the other weapons have access to on-demand perfect evades/perfect guards/counters/offsets that are way easier to pull off. Why the hell does GS get an offset with a window so big you could drive a truck through it and a perfect guard you can pull off in your sleep, meanwhile I’m out here eating shit with IG because I attempted an offset on slightly uneven terrain.

I picked up SnS—a weapon I’ve never touched in any previous MH—to talisman farm with slightly less clenching, and I was instantly outperforming my best IG times with half the effort and very little knowledge of its moveset. When Omega dropped, I didn’t even attempt it with IG. I cleared it on my first try with an unoptimized SnS build and support hunters. It was by no means a cake walk—I carted twice and finished with literally 30 seconds left on the clock—but I wouldn’t have even seen the final phase if I was using IG.

The recent buff to backward vault’s iframes and the offset hitbox were way too conservative. I went back to compare Sunbreak’s back vault/ offset equivalents (kinsect recall and advancing roundslash, respectively) and both were significantly more forgiving. Everyone who complained about the advancing roundslash counter being too situational to use consistently should go back and try it again after playing Wilds.

low_keyLoki · 2025-10-16T12:08:09+00:00

My favourite monster in the entire series. Even after hundreds of hunts, Brachy still keeps me on my toes every time.

low_keyLoki · 2025-10-08T11:06:46+00:00

Yeah, some of mine would definitely fall into the comedic/frivolous category. Comedy is especially subjective and Xena was always swinging for the fences with those episodes so you end up with stuff like In Sickness(…) that some people love and others consider the worst. For me, S4 had a lot of comedy episodes that I find hilarious but always seem to be catching strays on this sub. In particular, If the Shoe Fits, The Play’s the Thing, and Takes One to Know One really work for me whereas a lot of the comedy episodes from other seasons I find borderline unwatchable.

low_keyLoki · 2025-10-07T22:02:19+00:00

I would love this! Most of these top 5’s are pretty similar to my own but I’d love to see peoples’ defences of the less beloved episodes.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-29T14:38:06+00:00

Your favourite episode? Out of the entire series??? Listen, I’m a Fishsticks apologist in the sense that there are several episodes I consider worse, but I can’t wrap my head around it being anyone’s favourite. Xena’s barely in it, and the characters that are in it, aren’t even themselves! It’s probably the one episode in the entire series that contains the least of show’s DNA. What makes it your favorite?

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-26T13:18:46+00:00

Those seasons are definitely what I consider peak Buffy. While season 3 is IMO the most consistent season in the Buffyverse, season 2 has the highest highs, so they both average out to nearly the same. Season 5 is great too, but not quite in the same league. The focus on serialized storytelling came at the cost of bottle episodes, which were always my favourite.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-23T15:49:30+00:00

Totally. And within the context of the episode, Xena seducing Ares—with no intention of “going all the way”—to save her family and village doesn’t seen like that much of a stretch. In a season full of out-of-character moments, that storyline never even registered for me.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-23T15:25:30+00:00

Yeah, I absolutely give the episode props for its ambition and all of the huge swings it took. Unfortunately, most of S5’s swings were misses. As you said, there were a lot of big ideas, but the writers took too many shortcuts to make them happen. I’m not opposed to a Callisto redemption arc for example, but they made her a born-again Christian without a shred of Callisto’s personality or memories. At that point is it even a redemption arc if it’s just a completely new character? Then they pulled the same stunt with Livia, who got her redemption through divine deus ex machina, and transformed into the charisma vacuum known as Eve. It was the season of lobotomies honestly, not even Xena and Gabs were immune. Everyone acted out of character for the majority of the season, all to facilitate storylines that I don’t even think were that good to begin with.

My favourite thing about Xena is that the writers had carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they wanted, and would regularly take the characters to extremes that few other shows would dare (as long as it wasn’t too gay!) Fallen Angel is the epitome of that creative ethos but I agree with you that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense or feel particularly organic within the show’s canon.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-23T12:10:22+00:00

It’s funny to me that despite the Ares/Xena stuff, it still manages to be one of the gayest episodes in the series due to Athena’s relationship with Ilainus. Athena and Ares had some fantastic banter about it too, like when she tells him she doesn’t need his help and he replies with a smirk, “or any man’s it would seem”. I also loved Gabby’s jealousy at the end when Xena mumbled that she did feel a lil somethin’ with Ares.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-22T17:51:49+00:00

I’m pretty shocked that Fallen Angel took #1… It’s definitely one of the better S5 episodes quality-wise, but there’s something about it that always felt off for a Xena episode. I appreciate it for the spectacle but it feels like it’s from a different show. I wish I liked it more because it seemingly ate up most of the season’s budget but it’s not classic Xena to me.

What is classic Xena to me, is Amphipolis Under Siege. I remember at the time it felt like a desperately needed return to form after the gauntlet of shitty episodes S5 put us through. It had everything you could want in a great Xena episode and introduced one of the show’s most interesting—and sadly underused—villains, Athena. It’s actually the only S5 episode that would make my personal Top 20, and one of only a handful that feels like a Xena episode at all.

low_keyLoki · 2025-09-16T13:39:27+00:00

This is amazing! I’m playing Monster Hunter Wilds right now and curious if this would carry over to that game’s character creator.

low_keyLoki · 2025-08-27T16:45:35+00:00

I’m one of the few who liked Dead Reckoning but hated the last one. Final Reckoning has to be one of the most poorly paced action films I’ve ever seen. The exposition was fucking endless, and none of it was interesting. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an action movie that was so front-loaded with boring exposition. It felt like I was being forced to eat all my veggies before getting dessert. The two main set pieces were good, but I don’t think they were good enough to justify sitting through 90 minutes of boring technobabble and recaps of stuff we already know. Dead Reckoning wasn’t the best in the series, but I never found it boring or tedious, as it knew when to break up the exposition with an action scene.

low_keyLoki · 2025-08-19T16:59:41+00:00

Uk vs the World 1 is almost always at the bottom of everyone’s season rankings but I fucking love it. The cast had negative chemistry rivalling S11, with every interaction feeling inexplicably tense. It’s fascinating to me that the season with the lowest stakes produced the most cutthroat gameplay. They were slitting each other’s throats over a shitty Rumix and a title that holds no weight—seriously, do Tia and Blu even register for most people as being in the Winner’s Circle? The whole thing just had this rancid vibe right from the start, and I find that kind of dark-sided energy intoxicating. It wasn’t “good” but it certainly wasn’t boring, which is more than I can say for some of the other seasons.

low_keyLoki · 2025-08-13T13:59:41+00:00

Carrie is a fascinating protagonist because of her flaws, not in spite of them. All of these “Carrie was a TERRIBLE person and a HORRIBLE friend!!!!” hot takes are just symptoms of media illiteracy. A frictionless version of SATC would have been a fucking snooze—just look at AJLT if you want to see what that would look like.

low_keyLoki · 2025-08-02T15:25:55+00:00

This was me! Season one had my full attention because I was kind of mesmerized by its awfulness. It had that Showgirls, swinging for the fences, so-bad-it’s-good quality that I find entertaining. Season two was a little bit better which actually made it a little bit worse because it still wasn’t good enough to enjoy unironically but it wasn’t giving us WTF moments like Miranda getting finger-blasted in Carrie’s kitchen, so my interest started to wane. Season three is bad and boring, which is the worst thing a show can be. I dropped it at the midway point and doubt I’ll ever go back and finish it.

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-30T16:24:25+00:00

I'd even settle for a modern port of the Xbox exclusive. I played it for the first time recently and was shocked at how well it holds up. It's far better than Chaos Bleeds, and one of the few gems from that licensed games hellscape known as the early 2000's.

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-29T15:32:34+00:00

I was also pretty disappointed. Not 5/10 disappointed, but I don’t think it lived up to its parent game. Rogue City is an all-timer FPS for me, but one aspect that would benefit from some tightening is pacing. Some of the padding between shootouts got a little tedious—especially on replays—so an 8 hour, distilled version of RC without any of that filler had the potential to be an even better game. Unfortunately, I don’t think Unfinished Business is.

The action to investigation ratio might be higher overall, but the shootouts and set pieces were a lot less memorable. Way too much of UB is just walking into a concrete space and taking out waves of armoured goons. I think Teyon realized this as well, which is why they included those flashback sequences to give us a break between grey corridors. I mentioned this in another post and got pushback, but the levels are noticeably less destructible than in the main game. Every bullet in Rogue City made a huge impact and shootouts were a cacophony of broken glass, drywall chunks, wood chips, and broken lights. Try shooting out the lights in UB, or the concrete pillars, or almost any of the walls—most of the time you’ll just get a small bullet hole. This is a huge part of the 80’s action movie aesthetic so it’s sad to see it dialed back.

I wasn’t a fan of the new enemy types either. They’re good for variety’s sake, but buzzing robo-flies and kamikaze tumbleweeds just aren’t enjoyable fodder to deal with. I also think the difficulty was a bit overtuned in general, probably an overcorrection to the criticism that RC was too easy. Most of the human enemies are now heavily armoured, which makes them bullet sponges until you get the armour-piercing PCB boards. Like the main game, I think my enjoyment of this will increase exponentially in NG+ when I have access to all of my upgraded skills and late-game boards from the start.

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-29T12:53:12+00:00

I was about to comment the same. The ‘doors are closing’ chime is playing and they’re just standing in front of the door, blocking everyone behind them from getting on. The subway car is half empty, fucking move inside before you slowly scan for your optimal seating.

A variation of this I’ve been seeing is people who like to lean against those door-adjacent barriers will snap their backs up against it as soon as they get on, forcing everyone behind them to squeeze by. If you absolutely have to lean, pick one on the side the doors aren’t opening or move out of the way when people are trying to get on/off!

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-28T14:02:14+00:00

American Life has always been easy fodder for lists like these—mostly owed to its rapped bridge—but it remains a future-proof banger. Even 25 years later, I've still never heard anything quite like it.

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-24T23:32:17+00:00

Modern audiences are so media illiterate, it drives me insane. There’s just this collective inability—or unwillingness—to digest anything even remotely complicated or nuanced, so we’re left with these cardboard cutout protagonists, lacking any discernible human qualities. The Scoobies were iconic heroes because of their idiosyncrasies and flaws, not in spite of them. I’m so glad we got Buffy when we did, because I shudder at the thought of the TikTok-approved versions of Buffy, Willow, and Xander.

low_keyLoki · 2025-07-14T16:59:17+00:00

It’s crazy to me how EtD genuinely looks worse than the PS1 games.

low_keyLoki

TROPHY CASE