The End of EWD: One More Final Monster Discussed

TLDR; For those who are unaware, the show has come to an unfortunate end with the passing of Nicky. The final 3 episodes are all being uploaded at once here for those who want to listen. Two more episodes of Robots in Disgust are on the way, and then the Patreon will be defunct, but still up and won't cost anything.

Back in 2014, there was a show airing called Kamen Rider Gaim. Maybe you remember it. Maybe you think its "epic" or its "cringe" now, but I know for a fact people went apeshit over it as it aired. Even people who SWEAR it's bad now (Hello, Morgue). Especially a certain group of people all clustered on Tumblr Dot Com. I followed Nicky Austin around the time Kamen Rider Wizard, the previous Kamen Rider series was ending. I thought their posts about how disappointing the final arc was were funny and relatable. That Gremlin WAS a shitty final villain and that the Wiseman plot twist was dumb as hell. Yeah, it seems silly to care about that stuff now, but sue me. I was 18. FWIW, Wizard fans, I don't really feel the same way anymore. Also, my favorite Rider is ExAid, so I eat garbage.

I didn't have any online friends. I was briefly friends with a few folks from the Homestuck community, but as soon as I turned 18, I ran from that shit like it was on fire. Thank GOD I never used my real name. Though because of that, I had a lonely presence online, as Wyatt. From afar, little baby Wyatt called out into the void. Making jokes alongside such legendary Tumblr posters like "KamenRiderDickbutts" (who here remembers "Cut My Life Into Peaches"?) and "Hotwings" (The Sopa de Conches Guy) and most importantly: "NumberOneHandsomeBoy" aka Nicky Austin.

It was casual and on and off for the bulk of the run of that fateful show about Fruit Samurai. A joke here, a Pog there, but by the time episode 35 rolled around, I had worked up the courage to talk to them on Skype. My brother and I had a lively chat with Nicky about how much Micchy sucked and how awesome it was when Kiwami Escalation played as an image song for the first time in the series. Even back then, as weirdo 19 year olds, we sort of just hit it off in a way I never have with anyone else. Maybe WILL never with anyone else again.

The years went by. We became close with that small group of fellow Kamen Rider fans. I joined Nicky's crappy podcast, Super Weeb Time, and REALLY Hitler'd it up with my demands to make it more like a "REAL" podcast, with "topics" and "structure" (dark foreshadowing to this very show!) 2019 came along and Nicky dipped from our group chat, but still made sure to keep in contact with me. After a few months of browbeating and brainstorming, I got my wish. I did what every White Guy has as a super power: convince my friend to start a podcast with me.

It began as just a supplement to their YT channel, but became so much more. These past few years have been the best years of my life. The time I got to spend, late into the night, just talking about insane films with Nicky was a joy I will never have again. So many amazing niches we explored. We discovered gems like Latitude Zero, like Daigoro vs Goliath. We finally saw the absolutely ball smackingly good Gamera trilogy. The Kamen Rider series we did was way too long and drove us mad by the end. Planet of the Apes introduced us to the best film trilogy of all time. With Eva, we got to revisit THE Teenage Deep anime and see how much it still affects us to this day. Our End of Evangelion episode with Toby Jones is maybe the best love letter to the whole series we could have delivered and our Rebuild 4 episode with Hazel was the best Stern Talking To we could have given. Not to mention how absolutely phenomenal it was to talk about my favorite anime director, Satoshi Kon?

But beyond every movie we watched and every piece of art analyzed was something more important. In the end, it was all just an excuse to do something I wanted to do more than watch all the movies in the world: talk to my best friend and make them laugh. At the start of this year, what was one of my last conversations with Nicky, we had a long and exciting talk about the future of the show. The new rewards and perks and the new series and ideas we had for when we finished DAM. To me, as long as I got to keep doing this with Nicky, I didn't care if we made 10 dollars a month or if we talked about industrial safety videos for 2 hours. The content didn't matter. And just a few days later, right after our future looked brighter than it ever did before, they died.

I went through a lot of grief, as you might have guessed. I am STILL grieving. Thus the untimely posting a month later. Funnily enough, one of my first thoughts after hearing the new from their brother was "Huh, and they never watched my new OK KO video..." That may seem ridiculous or petty (I promise I hold no actual grudge), but you can't control a brain filled with grief and honestly knowing Nicky they'd get a kick out of hearing that was one of my first thoughts. Just like they may have laughed at someone loudly playing Roblox at their funeral.

Nicky was a hilarious and friendly person. They had their bouts of anger or depression like anyone, but I never once fought with them in the nearly decade we were constantly chatting. The CLOSEST we ever got was me being angry they didn't like Link Between Worlds (Top 3 Zelda Game), to give an idea of how much we clicked. Doing a podcast or ANYTHING with them was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. 

Unfortunately though, for me, Nicky WAS the podcast. As much as I would have loved to finish, as much as I would have loved to end the series with Shin Godzilla and continue to our next main series, I just can't. At least not now. I hope you can all understand, but I am making the decision to end the series here and leave the Patreon up for those that come across it. I won't be charging anyone any money for the rest of time. This will stand as a time capsule to the absolute LUDICROUS amount of episodes we managed to pump out in our tenure. All because Nicky had the free time and energy to match my manic bullshit.

Though Cody and I are still around and all three of us have been friends for the same amount of time. I can't say anything yet, but I hope in the future Cody and I can carry the torch of EWD in some way. Until then, we do have two more Robots in Disgust episodes left to do. The rare side series was so fun cause we got to analyze the worst movies of all time and make Nicky listen to us go insane and make them laugh. I feel like finishing the series is our way of paying respect without having to continue DAM. That will come when it comes, but it will also be free.

So here we are. The end of this long ass, rambly post. I delayed cause as soon as I finished, it would all really truly be over. Maybe that's why I keep stretching it out now? Nah, screw it. I am sad. I will never fill the hole and I will miss them for the rest of my life, but I am not gonna be afraid to say goodbye and keep on living. I will never stop creating and making people laugh, whether it's my YT series or dumb podcasts with Cody or even all my trunk novels. If being with Nicky taught me anything, it's that we both just loved to create more than anything. So cheers, buddy. I'll never stop, for both of us. Later Days