Hark!
It is the return of Vex's Mechs and Memes! A series of sound clips in which Rhynerd tries voice acting by taking the ransom note memes for the RPG lancer, as started by @vexwerewolf, and voice them in style of the recurring LoadingReadyRun character known as Dave's Spokesman, or just the Spokesman but Dave's the one who often fails to pay him not to advertise his businesses, real or not. After a longer than expected impromptu hiatus it is time to return with the fastest mech in the west universe, Albatross's favorite, the Nelson!
I hope you enjoy/have enjoyed listening to this! I'd like to thank Vex for making these memes and LoadingReadyRun for all their entertainment and for making the Spokesman in particular. I'd also like to thank you for listening, and let you know that you can listen to the rest of the series through this masterpost I made sometime back. Hopefully soon enough I'll make some more of these using the ransom memes done by other folks!
Stolen without shame from spice8rack on youtube(https://m.youtube.com/@Spice8Rack)
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The people who make the game we love have the same concerns as you & I. Concerns that have been routinely sidelined by Hasbro leadership. The best way to make Magic better is to strengthen the voice & power of those workers.
The company has only started taking their grievances seriously because of the threat of a union; imagine what could be achieved when the union actually wins! Sign & show support for the union: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcletter
It Drinks Light: The Origins of the Xenomorph and LoadingReadyRun's Heat Death
In previous drafts of this essay I spent paragraphs outlining my love of the Alien films, defending Alien 3 and Resurrection, and using that to lead into why you would enjoy an Alien RPG actual play series called Heat Death. But I just spent a lot of money on a tattoo that I think will speak to my bona fides:
I like the Alien franchise. I like Geiger’s xenomorph, I like the clunky cassette futurism imagined in those 80’s movies. It feels increasingly like a much needed antidote to modern digital interfaces, and the maddeningly undefiled aesthetics of the corporate digital age.
But after I saw Prometheus and then Covenant it became very apparent to me that Ridley Scott isn’t interested in the parts of the universe that I am interested in. Or at least, his answers to those questions aren’t particularly satisfying.
There are some good things in those movies, don’t get me wrong. The moment when the two Michael Fassbenders have flute lessons is some of the gayest shit in the series, right alongside Ripley and Call having come good ol’ fashioned knife play in Resurrection.
The prequels also continue the theme established in the first few movies that the whims of the rich and powerful will doom us all in general, and the people who work for them specifically. Their corporations are shown time and again to be fundamentally opposed to human flourishing. True as it ever was.
But that’s kinda it for me.
The question at the heart of these prequels is “Where did the xenomorph come from?” to which they answer:
Some sort of chemical weapon or tool synthesized by tall aliens called engineers for ambiguous purposes. Millenia later this was discovered and hijacked by a singular android of human design, flawed in all the ways its creator was flawed. Some iterations and experiments later we get the xenomorphs we recognize.
Admittedly there may be more nuance than that. But as far as I can tell any further details are all muddled in cut content and unskilled storytelling.
Ultimately, according to the prequels thus far, the xenomorph is something we did to ourselves.
That is not a particularly engaging answer to me. I don’t really care about how the titular alien came to be. I don’t need to see the engineers, or the origins of the space jockey. I liked it when it felt like that tall alien was merged with the cockpit, when it looked like one organism, a new and novel form of life from another evolutionary path completely unlike our own.
And if you feel the same, I have something to recommend to you.
Heat Death is an actual play series made by the Canadian comedy/streaming troupe LoadingReadyRun in 2020 as part of their Dice Friends series. They did 6 episodes where Cameron, the GM, leads 4 players through their own scenario in the official Alien RPG.
And it’s one of the best Alien stories I’ve ever seen.
Cameron provides much more interesting answers to the questions Ridley Scott keeps asking, and in a method that compliments the familiar set up of Alien films. A typical day in the life of spacers is interrupted by a combination of corporate malfeasance and/or the existence of the xenomorph.
The setup of Heat Death is thus: The crew of the research vessel Ludomia, our PC’s and NPC’s for the series, wake up on a strange and grandiose space station called New Eden. Their vessel is missing, the rest of their crew is missing, and they have no idea where they are. They seek answers, they seek escape, and they try to figure out what was happening here hidden in the shadows of space.
And in typical Alien fashion, it all goes to hell.
Part of the reason the series works so well for me is because the GM has a background in the sciences. This helps when the characters are confronted with the truly alien things they find. I am an amateur appreciator of things like biology and astronomy ,and so there is just enough detail to make me feel like I know what’s happening, but also enough unfamiliar jargon that I feel an appropriate sense of awe and dread. Cameron doesn’t talk down to his audience or his players, he describes the world in ways that would make sense to the character’s point of view, and offers explanations and details when prompted.
The xenomorph’s biology is described as being reminiscent of Teflon, an immediately startling non sequitur.
The primordial black goo from the prequels is described as incredibly hazardous to human beings through exacting technical terminology. It makes it seem real and dangerous. In the prequels it always felt flat and… out of place.
I like Heat Death because Cameron and the players are actively investigating the question of the origins of the xenomorph without limiting the possibility space. It’s not a closed loop that begins and ends at LV-426 with the space jockey and its ship. Instead we see a possible answer to what is waiting for us in the stars, a galactic ecology that we have stumbled into and are ill-equipped to handle. It makes the machinations of Weyland-Yutani seem even more feeble and doomed.
It also works so well because the players are all in on it. They lean into the themes of the franchise, of roughnecks who shoot first, of commanders in over their head, and corporate representatives quietly manipulating things to their own end. There’s no power gaming or looking to get the upper hand or finding an optimal path to survival. They see the awfulness coming and they don’t look away.
There’s more that I could recommend about this series, but I run the risk of giving away too much. There’s the poetic introductions to each episode that give breadth to the fiction. The investigations of different bits of lore and tech, from faster than light travel to how synthetics work. But I guess I’ll end by going over all the players and their characters.
First there’s Commander Roman Moritaka, played by Ian, who I think more than anyone leans into the doomed nature of the storytelling. Ian is always ready to make the obvious mistake and try to do the most reasonable thing in an unreasonable situation. One of my favourite moments in the game comes from Roman making telemetry calculations. How many AP’s do you know that bother with the drama of rocket science?
Then there’s Clinton Barker played by Alex, a colonial marine who thinks in equipment and utility, and has no time for metaphor or theory. Alex is also obviously an Alien fan and someone who knows military tech and lingo, which lets him launch into interesting asides and funny anecdotes that punctuate the story.
There’s Gregory Sinclair Jr., the corporate liaison played by Cori. He is a perfect mix of uselessness and cold corporate comfort. Cori plays him relentlessly, a perfectly willing pawn right into the final moments of the final episode, and a constant needle in everyone’s side.
And then there’s Harris Schafer, played by Adam. Harris is a laid back academic and scientist, which makes them a great foil for the other characters and the perfect POV character to let us know just how bad things are, much like Adam himself. Adam is a great addition to the table, always willing to ask the basic questions and react in relatable ways.
I’ve already mentioned Cameron, and as GM he plays all the NPC’s with depth, and deftly cuts between scenes, heightening moments of tension and underlining moments of impending dread. His obvious writing ability is on full display. It feels like he loves this stuff. And in a way that Ridley Scott kinda doesn’t. Not in the same way. There’s curiosity and time and thought on display here, and I really appreciate that.
And that’s it. You should watch it, especially if you like the alien series and the art of actual play. It’s good. It’s on Youtube and it’s on podcasts. Check it out. Let me know what you think. Recommend me some other Alien fanfiction.
And if you would have liked to have read this earlier, or would like more essays and stuff like this, kick me a couple of bucks on Patreon. If folks like this sort of thing, I may do more essays. Heck, I'll probably do them if you hate it.
a year-end list thing! yay! i used to like making these on livejournal/etc, so i wanted to continue the tradition here on tumblr.
also feel free to check out my other lists!
my favorite things i first read in 2025
my favorite new mtg commanders from 2025
honorable mentions (in no particular order)
basically anything on dropouttv.
loading ready run: friday nights, season 9 (webseries, 2025). when i was first getting back into magic the gathering my wife showed me this show and i was just beyond delighted by the entire concept of what's basically an mtg sitcom? it scratched a very specific itch that i didn't even know i had. but then it got a new season this year and every single episode was an 11/10 in terms of both effort and results, like they really went for it with literally all of their episode concepts this season, and it paid off in a big way.
jet lag: the game, season 13: schengen showdown (webseries, 2025). if it weren’t for its rather anticlimactic ending, this easily could’ve been my favorite season of jet lag: the game. it’s still top five for sure.
mtg actual play content. mostly cardmarket’s best deck ever series, loading ready run’s friday night paper fights, and tolarian community college’s shuffle up & play.
all of lilsimsie’s animal crossing & nightmare legacy content. plus honestly any of her videos i watched this year. (this is mostly just cozy background watching, but i love lilsimsie and i’m glad she’s exploring non-sims content now that ea was bought by literal fascists.)
folding ideas: “mantracks: a true story of fake fossils” (youtube video, 2025). of his two videos this year, this is the one i enjoyed more. but anything he puts out is always an immediate must-watch.
tons of strange aeons videos. “the history & biology of omegaverse” was the video of hers that got me hooked on her channel, but i’ve watched a lot of her back catalog at this point, with special shout-outs to some of her twilight-related content. (look… shut up.)
and the last anime i cut from the main list, the 100 girlfriends who really, really, really, really, really love you, seasons 1 & 2 (anime, 2023-25). there are one or two elements that kinda clang loudly for me (the assistant principal and the random gang that shows up to every competition), but the core premise of this incredibly devoted boy running himself ragged keeping all his titular girlfriends happy and said girlfriends forming wholesome & supportive bonds with each other is just hard not to love.
15. mobile suit gundam: cucuruz doan’s island (movie, 2022)
i’ve been watching gundam from the beginning with a friend of mine, and while the early stuff is rough, i still kinda get why it went on to be such an enduring franchise. but then in 2022 they remade one of the most infamously bad episodes into an absolutely incredible movie. and i wasn't expecting much from it at all, frankly. turning a 20 minute episode into a full length animated movie sounded like it was going to be an exercise in taffy stretching, but instead it's pretty easily my favorite gundam media i've seen so far.
amuro shoulda just stayed on the island and been boyfriends with marcos. i don't even mean that in a fujo way, just, him being forced into war was always morally reprehensible even with the paper thin justification that he was the only one who could competently pilot the gundam. now that they're literally being mass produced, he's just a child soldier. i'd much rather he got to have a peaceful life of hard but fulfilling manual labor with his found family who love him more than anyone else ever has. maybe he can reconcile with his bio parents after the war, but for now, he should be with people who see him and value him for who he is, who understand that he's just a kid and let him contribute appropriately given that. and who provide him with a really cute boyfriend to smooch. (what a severely underrated yaoi ship. i get that marcos was only in this one movie, but we were eating good with this one movie worth of tension.)
14. tomo-chan is a girl (anime, 2023)
i spent the whole series not knowing if i should be rooting for protagonist-kun's mutual crush who was as big of a himbo as she was and thus unable to successfully start a relationship with her or her mean goth girl lesbian best friend who was quietly pining for her. but man, tomo-chan is just the fucking best. lesbian himbo rights.
13. my dress-up darling (anime, 2022-25)
a pretty compelling anime format is “interesting central relationship and one (1) special interest.” this anime gives us two special interests! and has the protagonists be lovely and supportive of each other about those interests.
it's easy to get tired of will-they/won't-they relationships in media because they're a dime a dozen, but when the two people involved are wonderful and truly care about each other and always reach for kindness regardless of what trajectory their relationship takes, it's a lot harder to complain.
12. kpop demon hunters (movie, 2025)
this one really caught me by surprise. my nesting partners saw this without me and then IMMEDIATELY said i needed to watch it. i was skeptical at first but figured i could just screw around on my phone or something if it was boring but then maybe five minutes in realized "oh no that is NOT what this is." and since then i've made basically everyone i have the power to make watch things watch it. i'm mildly concerned i'm helping spread a mind virus or curse of some kind a la the ring?
anyway, "what it sounds like" is an incredible song that caps off a fantastic messy redemption arc, and i'm kinda obsessed. like, the song has been living rent free in my head for most of the back half of this year.
11. predator: badlands (movie, 2025)
there's a bit in his bloodborne video essay when hbomberguy says he wishes he had been in the room when hidetaka miyazaki said, "hey. hey. take out the shields." my immediate reaction to predator: badlands is that there was a similar opportunity to be in the room when dan trachtenberg said, "hey. hey. make the predator the good guy." yeah guys. that'll work. that'll absolutely work.
10. ranma 1/2, seasons 1 & 2 (anime, 2024-25)
this remake is my first and so far only exposure to this franchise, but wow does it ever hit a very specific spot. there are very few characters in this who i wouldn't be happy to have my ass kicked by. every fight scene starts at an 11 and still keeps escalating. it's silly in the best possible way. it definitely fits a much more specific need than a lot of other anime i vibe with. we started watching it because my partner needed a more lighthearted vibe than most of the stuff we watch, but i fell in love basically immediately.
also, look, no one in this is canonically trans or anything, but a lot of these characters are Very Gender and i love that for them.
9. dealing with mikadono sisters is a breeze (anime, 2025)
“person whose superpower is kindness surrounded by other people with terrifyingly real superpowers” remains undefeated as the single biggest predictor that i will love a story. yu is aspirational and i love this found family.
8. bloom into you (anime, 2018)
slice of life yuri between two people on the ace spectrum that successfully navigates conflict and complicated feelings in a trauma-informed way? yeah, i'll have some, thanks!
7. there's no freaking way i'll be your lover! unless… (anime, 2025)
oh, you also have harem yuri that successfully navigates conflict and complicated feelings? yeah, i'm never too full for yuri.
if you’re only going to experience one version of this story go for the light novels. they really are special in a way that the anime doesn’t perfectly reproduce. spoilers, but you’re gonna be hearing about these more later on a different list. on which they might be much higher in spite of stiff competition.
6. wolf children (movie, 2012)
at this point i'm genuinely not sure why i consume any media outside of the broad category of "anime that makes me ugly cry." it's so reliably spectacular.
like many of my favorites, and many of this director's other works, this movie loves its characters and wants them to be happy. they aren't always happy, but they're always doing their best. and everyone is for the most part genuinely trying to be kind to each other.
5. godzilla minus one (movie, 2023)
i still miss suitmation, but this is the best godzilla has ever looked in cg. and one of the best crop of human characters. their story was pretty straightforward, but also made them extremely easy to root for. i do hope we eventually get back to godzilla as a good guy. one really annoying side effect of all these constant reboots and standalone movies is it makes it really hard to lay the groundwork for the face turn godzilla did in both of his longer-running series, but this was still a fantastic return to form so i really can't complain.
4. wake up dead man (movie, 2025)
i think this is my “least favorite” knives out movie so far, but i say that knowing full well that it’s really been growing on me the more i rewatch it and think about it, and i really still am in the process of feeling out how i feel about it. and either way, it says a lot more about the other two than it does about this one, because it's still an incredible movie that easily could've topped a list like this in a different year.
3. demon slayer: kimetsu no yaiba (anime, 2019-present)
i want to thank you absolute weebs for making the infinity castle movie so much money that i was able to go from not having seen a single episode to being all the way caught up and able to go see the movie… all while the movie was in theaters.
i really wish this was what we had for “popular shonen anime that people throw at you when you say you're trying to get into anime” when i was in college and everyone just reflexively shoved bleach and naruto at me. tanjiro is a better protagonist than both shows’ to such a degree that i kind of feel silly even making the comparison “out loud” (in text). and he's surrounded by so many interesting characters with so much depth to them and oh yeah also the show has some of the best action scenes in any medium or whatever i guess.
but what really ended up putting this over the top for me was the infinity castle movie. it was such a perfect distillation of everything i love about the anime, and such a great demonstration of how far tanjiro has come. and it had three incredible fights, which i’ve been rewatching on a pirated recording (look, it’s not available on streaming yet, leave me alone) in a way that reminds me of nothing so much as obsessively rewatching all the lightsaber duels from the first two star wars trilogies on vhs as a kid. i simply didn’t think that was a feeling i was ever gonna recapture.
i was woefully unprepared for how much i was going to enjoy this series. in any other year, this would easily have taken the top spot.
2. frieren: beyond journey’s end, season 1 (anime, 2023-24)
so what if melancholy and delayed reaction grief and bittersweet memories of someone you didn't realize you were in love with until he had been dead for decades and it makes you cry multiple times but for some reason all of the above feels good?
this elf can fit so much autism in her. and this anime can fit so many arrestingly beautiful montages in it. and still have room for some absolutely incredible magic duels. oh yeah and my wife picked the end credits song as one of the songs played at our wedding before i had seen the show, so i guess that helps with the heartstrings-pulling.
i have enjoyed plenty of other high fantasy animes, but i feel like this is the first one that really captures everything i love about high fantasy.
1. rascal does not dream/seishun buta yarō (anime, 2018-present)
i’ve come to prefer the light novels over the anime, which is hardly surprising, but i first experienced this story as an anime and i think that was the correct order of operations for me. the anime has such a unique tone that it just sucked me in immediately, and i fell in love with all of the characters so hard i got obsessed long before i had fully grasped what was so special about this anime. sakuta is so relatable i keep trying to headcanon him as a trans girl, and mai makes me swoon every time she's on screen.
but when this series really carved out a unique place in my heart that nothing else can replace was when shoko told sakuta that she thinks life exists so we can learn to be kinder, and that she lives each day trying to be a little kinder than she was the day before. and sakuta broke down into tears and asked if he could steal that philosophy. it suddenly clicked into place why he was such a compelling protagonist. and his version of “kind” doesn’t feel inauthentic to him. he’s still a blunt asshole sometimes, and he’s still enough of a horndog that the series has the title that it has. but that doesn’t change the fact that what is at the heart of azusagawa sakuta and this series as a whole is a desire to make everything just a little bit better for the people around you, in the ways you can control.
