I think a lot of people's frustrations with the CCOD finale (and the ensuing 'discourse' around it) can be solved by one simple answer.
This season was an experiment. This is the IH first time playing a game that is ENTIRELY improvised. There is no battle sets (i.e. no direct plot threads the IH KNOW that have to follow), there was no set BBEG, there was probably no set idea of what the finale would even look like.
The results of said experiment was that to have a cohesive story, you need to have some structure. I think the people arguing for a more cohesive through line remember that a lot of our favorite bits/side charas were improvised in prior seasons, but with this season basically the ENTIRE plot is cobbled together based on the characters actions. We all laugh and have good fun, but behind the scenes of prior seasons is Brennan and the rest of the team doing a lot of work to keep things on track. And the IH did as well, because they knew there were story beats their wonderful team and fellow creatives had set out for them! This season there was way less pressure to stay on track because there was no set story points, only a million different options in this sandbox for them to explore and have fun with. So of course this group of improv comedians, having fun with their friends and basically NO limitations, are gonna go off the rails.
All in all, I think everyone needs a reminder that this is not a typical season that 'went off the rails'; this was a season that was intentionally a hands off story, and consequently you're gonna get wilder misadventures and less time/ability to tie every single one of them together. This is not the death of powerful, thoughtful and wacky d20 seasons. Its just a small snippet in the large d20 catalogue, literally meant as a tester to see if it would work at all. It was never going to be wrapped up in a tight little bow, because it was never designed to be that way. You can say "meh I don't think I like this style" and be content with that!
(I personally love the idea of shorter, wackier IH seasons in between larger more emotionally intense ones. The crew has fun, I had fun, it was a blast!)
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