Welcome, Eorzea, to my new weekly (probably) segment, Babbit Babbles, where I just talk about whatever! This week, I wanted to feature a kind of Babbler retrospective. I wanted to have a “year in review” sort of thing for our issue on January 1, but that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons (read: life), so this will have to do.
I present to you The Babbler…awards sorta!
Favorite HATS
Arenea Wintereye joined The Babbler nearly a year ago, premiering in Issue 18 1/2 on March 6, 2023! It’s been very fun to see Lopp and Winter collaborate every week on new comics!
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I will anyway: HATS #30 from Issue 23!
Runner-up: HATS #57, from Issue 50!
Favorite Song of the Week
This is a tough one, and I have a few runnerups! But one I always go back to is “Petals On The Moon” by the Wasia Project, shared by Lopp in Issue 31 on June 19, 2023.
Runner-ups: Time Adventure, Beneath the Moon & Me, and Kelas!
Special Guest Musical Artist
Kana Beats! Okay, so we haven’t featured very many musical artists (we’d totally like to!), but it’s always a highlight to me personally when we feature actual members of the community who are just doing fun things.
Kana Beats was featured in Issue 18 1/2 on March 6, 2023!
I know we can be a bit standoffish about who or what we do feature (no DJs!), but we’re probably more open to it than you think! Just send us a tell, you never know!
My Favorite Weekly Segment
News Bits! Aside from Letter from the Editor and Bulletin Board, News Bits have been part of The Babbler since the very first issue, and you might be surprised to find out that like 90% of the time they’re based on actual things we’ve seen out and around in Eorzea! It’s not all made up!
It might not all be the complete truth, either, but where’s the fun in that!
Runner-up: Lopp’s Song of the Week! It’s always fun to hear what new music she’s found, and I’ve discovered a ton of new artists from her recommendations.
Hardest Segment to Actually Get Done Every Week
Future Forecasts x 1000. Believe it or not, Future Forecasts isn’t just something thrown together every week out of nowhere. It’s actually a pretty detailed system, though I think there’s still some work to be done bringing them back up to speed after some recent hiccups.
We switched out our original weekly forecasts after someone whose name rhymes with Dople Dorubasay convinced everyone on the staff that the Twelve were dead. Now we go by phases of the moon! Which is just as good, I think! Meanwhile, Triomancy readings are actually drawn every month (including in this issue, check them out!). They’re fun to put together, but also a bit time consuming, which easily makes them the hardest thing to do for The Babbler.
Runnerup: Chocobo Racing League (Which will return soon!). It’s just a ton of work wrangling all those chocobos.
Well, those are my favorite things! Or the abridged version, anyway. You may be wondering why we publish The Babbler every week, but the answer really is “just because.” We’re not looking for gil, or even popularity for that matter. If we were, we’d definitely operate a bit differently. We’d feature alllllll the DJs, for sure. But we don’t, and we won’t. We’re just here, babbling on, forever.
See you next week!
