New Year, Same Mess

Some lore in video games is excellent, showing the depth of the medium. Some of it's just wack.

Just a little look at what went on between episodes 4 and 5. I promise it all ties together.

Michael and Nick discuss their favorite to rewatch... at least until Christian crashes the recording.

Christian and Nick return to the podcast to talk about anime in the first half of 2026. That's right, we disappear for months and don't have anything else to talk about.

Michael and Christian talk with first-ever guest Andriy about fighting games.

We're back and what better way to start a new year than by doing basically the same thing as last year. We talk about the shows and movies that disappointed and surprised us, as well as just our favorites.

You'd think after a year we'd have figured this out, but here we are setting up last minute once more.

Nick and Christian talk a bit about The Game Awards, what they played in 2025, and look towards the future.

Michael asked Nick to catch him up on what's been happening with Star Wars. He soon learned Nick can spend a lot of time talking about Star Wars.00:00:00 Intro00:04:56 Solo00:09:44 Kenobi00:23:02 Why did Star Wars become TV 00:26:20 Skeleton Crew00:29:41 Andor00:37:14 A brief intermission and tangent 00:38:32 The connect shows and movies 00:39:15 The Clone Wars 00:47:12 Rebels 00:50:18 Tangent on modern Jedi games 00:51:15 Star Wars Resistance 00:52:39 The Mandalorian & a bit on Book of Boba Fett 01:04:09 Ahsoka 01:07:52 A lot of Ahsoka background 01:10:18 The Bad Batch 01:18:22 Tales 01:31:04 Upcoming Projects

Now that summer is over, Christian and Nick revisit the recommendations they made to Michael in a previous episode. Surely they didn't lead him astray.hottakesreviews.comOur BlueskyNick's BlueskyHot Takes Podcast Episode 8Hot Takes Podcast Episode 1000:00 Intro00:44 The Water Magician04:44 Kaiju No. 807:33 Rascal Does Not Dream10:36 Obligatory Kaguya-sama Tangent13:45 Clevatess18:32 The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity24:12 CITY The Animation (& lots of Nichijou)30:15 Closing Thoughts & Outro