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Episode 95 of the Letters Page: Happy Holidays

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Powerhound_2000
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Episode 95 of the Letters Page: Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone http://theletterspage.libsyn.com/episode-95-happy-holidays

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Tuesday, January 1st: No episode!
  • Tuesday, January 8th: Episode #96 - A Motley Crew: La Capitán’s Time-Displaced Teammates
  • Tuesday, January 15th: Episode #97 - Story Arc: Baptism by Fire/War of Heliopolis/Horus of Two Horizons
  • Tuesday, January 22nd: Editor's Note #26
  • Tuesday, January 29th: Episode #98 - Post-OblivAeon OblivAeon Environments

Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31

 
TakeWalker
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This was fun. Nothing overly revealing, but some good stories nonetheless. And something of a reassurance that if the Letters Page turns into nothing but that, I will continue to enjoy it greatly. :)

Okay, but La Capitan is the the most hilariously bad Santa Claus. XD

Phantom5613
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Pretty cool episode, glad they still recorded something for us even when it was so close to the holidays. :)

Still, I kinda wish we meet the ACTUAL Santa in a future story...

Trajector
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What a fun episode! I like the Unity stocking, and I liked the Tempest story, too.

This episode really drove something home for me: it's been ages since we got a Freedom Five story! They're supposed to be the core property of Sentinel Comics, and since OblivAeon the Letters Page has seemed to me like it's mostly Nightmist, grimdark, introducing new side characters, and meta-interactions with questions. I don't listen to the podcast to hear letter-writers role play or to hear Christopher and Adam do a bit. I listen to hear stories about my favorite Sentinel Comics characters!

(I know Nightmist is a favorite for some people. I'm just picking on her because she's my least preferred hero archetype.)

I actually wish Christopher and Adam would run future Letters Page episodes just like this one: no topic! Just a bit of starting banter, and then on to questions - which they can use as jumping-off points to tell Sentinel Comics stories. That would really open up what questions get read each episode, too. When else is anyone going to get the chance to ask about The Naturalist? Or try to pry into a story that they only alluded to early on, before they started digging in deeper? There's loads of unmined material from the first half of Letters Page topics.

If C&A have a specific topic they want to do, because they're developing story material for a particular purpose, I'm all for episodes having a topic. But otherwise, I'd rather they be more like this episode!

Jeysie
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Trajector wrote:

If C&A have a specific topic they want to do, because they're developing story material for a particular purpose, I'm all for episodes having a topic.

FYI, all episode topics as of late have been suggested by Patreon folks and voted on by Patreon folks, so they're things the fans specifically want C&A to do. If there's something you've been itching C&A to talk about, you're certainly welcome to join the Patreon to suggest and vote for things yourself. :) You're welcome to suggest more Freedom Five episodes, more stuff with the Naturalist, follow-up episodes, etc. and see if other people like the idea too enough to vote for it.

Sincere FYI... the tone of your post is that you seem to feel that C&A have been picking the topics, but it's actually the fans who've been picking them, so I just thought it would be helpful to note that.

(Also this episode did have a topic (that of Christmas stories), and your wish of letting questions drive the episode and less meta-roleplay is exactly what's been happening in all episodes as of late, so I admit I'm a little confused at your asking for what's already being done, but...)

***

I personally did like this episode myself. The writers seem to love putting Absolute Zero in Christmas stories and having Tempest be the reason heartwarming things happen in Prime Wardens books. :D

I love how even when La Capitan's being "good" she's still basically being a "jerk". I wonder if there was a followup episode of the Freedom Five having to figure out how to put things back where they belong or having weird time stream effects happen...

I like how we inadvertently finally gave a solid answer to a question asked at the first GenCon: Where does Argent Adept sleep? In a run-down apartment in the Middle of Nowhere, California, apparently.

And everything in the Prime Wardens episode was just hilarious. Starting from "We've outgrown your silly superstitions... that we still have... but just don't want to admit we have..." and working on from there.


"If life gives you lemons, make a lemon cannon."

Not always the best at social skills; I apologize in advance. I don't apologize for any corny and morbid jokes, though.

Resident Argent Adept and Biomancer fangirl, be forewarned.

Trajector
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Jeysie,

Yes, I do understand the purpose and function of the Patreon topic nomination/voting scheme. It's mentioned often enough on the podcast and forum. ;)

The issue I see is if a listener has a question on topic X, they must first get enough Patreon contributors to support topic X in a vote before their question has a chance to be read and answered. If there were no topics, they could just submit the question. Looking through the recent episode titles, the fact that topics haven't been very compelling to me lately actually dissuades me from joining the Patreon, because it suggests I'd be voting against the current most of the time. I'll just have to prefer the more open-ended Editor's Notes.

Anyway, I'll just say again that I enjoyed the format of this episode and I want to offer a friendly, constructive comment that I hope to see more with this format in the future. I'll leave it at that, and I'd appreciate a little benefit of the doubt where tone and such is concerned - I'm not trying to cast aspersions or anything, just offer a positive note about something I enjoyed and wish to see more often.

FearLord
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Trajector wrote:

Jeysie,

Yes, I do understand the purpose and function of the Patreon topic nomination/voting scheme. It's mentioned often enough on the podcast and forum. ;)

The issue I see is if a listener has a question on topic X, they must first get enough Patreon contributors to support topic X in a vote before their question has a chance to be read and answered. If there were no topics, they could just submit the question. Looking through the recent episode titles, the fact that topics haven't been very compelling to me lately actually dissuades me from joining the Patreon, because it suggests I'd be voting against the current most of the time. I'll just have to prefer the more open-ended Editor's Notes.

Anyway, I'll just say again that I enjoyed the format of this episode and I want to offer a friendly, constructive comment that I hope to see more with this format in the future. I'll leave it at that, and I'd appreciate a little benefit of the doubt where tone and such is concerned - I'm not trying to cast aspersions or anything, just offer a positive note about something I enjoyed and wish to see more often.

I would just submit a question on whatever topic you like at this point - my question about Baron Blade was swiftly answered in the next Editors note even though it wasn’t especially connected to any specific episode. 

Jeysie
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Trajector wrote:

I'd appreciate a little benefit of the doubt where tone and such is concerned

I mean, I did give you the benefit of the doubt via assuming you were unaware of how things were structured and that's why you made your post.

But it seems you were fully aware that your fellow fans made the choices of what they wanted to hear about, and you still not only said you dislike everything they wanted to hear about but you also wish there was never be any more of fans getting to choose what the episodes should be about? I hope I'm wrong and just misinterpreting you, because otherwise :/

Trajector wrote:

If there were no topics, they could just submit the question.

As FearLord and you yourself noted, the Editor's Notes are essentially the completely topic-less grab bag episodes. As such, you can always submit any question you like any time you like... and ironically being a part of the Patreon Discord would let you even further guarantee your "Other" questions would be seen and thus most likely answered in the live chat. That's how I've gotten a few lingering questions answered myself, certainly.

Trajector wrote:

that I hope to see more with this format in the future

What confuses me is that... every episode as of late has been "this format". This episode had a topic same as every other episode; in this case: "Winter Holiday-related stories, characters, and merchandise" was the topic. Further, C&A themselves have said they hope to spend more of letting fan questions drive the episode with them only providing overviews if they don't get enough questions, and that's also what's happened.

So I mean... again I feel like I must be not understanding what you're asking for.


"If life gives you lemons, make a lemon cannon."

Not always the best at social skills; I apologize in advance. I don't apologize for any corny and morbid jokes, though.

Resident Argent Adept and Biomancer fangirl, be forewarned.

Phantom5613
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Happy Holidays, everybody.

Jeysie
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Yeah, kinda sad that it had to be the Holidays episode derailed by people complaining about the podcast. :/


"If life gives you lemons, make a lemon cannon."

Not always the best at social skills; I apologize in advance. I don't apologize for any corny and morbid jokes, though.

Resident Argent Adept and Biomancer fangirl, be forewarned.

dprcooke
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I actually think it's relatively appropriate for the holiday special... The "family" gets together, there's a misunderstanding, and then by the end we all come together because we realize that what binds us together is stronger than what drives us apart.

As for the podcast episode itself, I really enjoyed it.  I found two moments that struck me as quite touching, even: the gift La Capitan gave Absolute Zero, and the celebration that the Prime Wardens put together for Tempest.  Great episode!