The Guild – Is it over?

The Guild season 6 finale aired last Tuesday. That happened.

I was not expecting it to end this way. This doesn’t seem like an end for the season; it seems like an end for the show. Just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things I went back and re-watched the first scene of the first episode of the first season:

“So, it’s Friday night, and… Still jobless, yay…”

And in the last scene of the last episode of the last season:

“So, it’s Friday night. No longer jobless, yay!”

And for the first time we see Codex turn off her webcam, shut down the computer and walk away from the desk, and we listen to the original cut of the show’s theme as the camera lingers.

And after reflecting, yeah, I think this pretty much fits as an end for each of the characters. Vork, who started out alone and without any meaningful human contact, has formed a healthy, stable relationship with someone he cares about. Tink, who once manipulated boys and hid her true self from others, has opened herself up to her guildmates and found a boy she’s actually happy with. Clara, who was a neglectful and unproductive mother, just got a job as a vlogger giving relationship advice.

And Zaboo’s character arc has now come full circle; the first season took off with him seeking out a girl he met online with the mindset that she was his true love, and the final episode had him preparing to seek out a girl he “met online” with the mindset that she was his true love.

I suppose Bladezz is the one with the least conflict resolution, though it was at least implied that he got Bruiser to break up with his mom.

All I’ve seen regarding whether or not this is the end for the show is Felicia Day’s Twitter statement: “Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on the Guild s6 finale, all. We will see what the future holds. <3”

We will see what the future holds.

Honestly, I think I’d like it if this was the ending to the show. I wouldn’t mind it if spin-offs were made or the characters were expanded on in different stories, but I guess what I’m saying is that I’d like this story to end. And that doesn’t mean I don’t like the story. In fact, I want it to end because I love it.

Most people I know don’t care about The Guild, or don’t like it. I’ll admit that the show has its flaws. The acting isn’t always stellar, especially in the earlier seasons, and sometimes the writing comes off as a bit … trendy. (I cringed when Bladezz said “I got a real ell-oh-ell situation” in the first season.) Things become less believable later on; the finales of seasons 5 and 6 felt almost too ridiculous at times.

So I’ve done a lot of thinking about why I like it so much, and after re-watching the beginning I may have found an answer.

“So, it’s Friday night, and… Still jobless, yay… I haven’t left the house in a week… My therapist, uh, broke up with me…”

The story began with Codex sitting in front of her webcam, clearly miserable, sharing to herself that she was jobless and had nobody and nowhere to go to. Her mannerisms felt genuine, and as Felicia Day has shared since the episode aired, they came from personal experience. When I watched this show for the first time, I saw a reflection of myself, staring back at me. I saw someone neurotic, afraid, desperate and depressed; someone who was immersing herself in a virtual world to escape the crushing emptiness of her life. And from that moment on, I wanted to know what would happen to her.

To me, the emotional heart of the show was enough to carry it. I cared about Codex and her life. I wanted her to be okay, and all the twists and turns kept me watching. Throughout season 6 I sometimes wanted all the segments with the other characters to hurry up and end so that I could see what would happen to Codex in her new job.

I wanted her to be okay. And now she’s okay. She realized that her guildmates are her friends, and she ended up with a job because of the game. She re-framed a negative as a positive and now lives a fulfilling life. The show ended not with a twist, or a cliffhanger, but with a smile. She was happy. Can we please leave it at that?

Thank you, Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, Vince Caso, Amy Okuda, Kim Evey, Sean Becker, and everyone else involved in the creation of The Guild. It was quite a journey to witness.