Hello, I'm Hank Green, the host of SciShow and one half of the Vlogbrothers, and welcome to the Season 5 recap of The Guild and also, for the uninitiated, lesson number one in Geek Culture 101.

The Guild is a webseries starring actress and gamer and geek Felicia Day.  It's the story of Codex, a neurotic loner who meets up with her game guild IRL and learns that friends help you overcome obstacles that you'd never be able to conquer on your own.  But at the same time they can make life really complicated, so sometimes you gotta let your inner avatar save the day, even if your friends are the equivalent of a freaky nerd reality show.
I said avatar in there, and I'm not talking about the ten foot tall blue James Cameron Avatars, but instead the graphical representation of the user in game, specifically in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPH.  This, of course, is the kind of game that Codex plays with her guild.

The Guild Season 5 starts out with Codex and the rest of the guild on their way to a gaming convention.  And of course, the experience shall be amazing, especially because Bladezz's conversion into an internet meme got them hooked with free rooms and badges. Internet memes basically internet wide inside jokes, often times a random picture of a real person will become a meme like Scumbag Steve or Annoying Facebook Girl or Good Guy Greg. These people then become actually famous. Except the GORAM Baldezz's fame has waned, so they barely manage to get one hotel room for the six of them.
Zaboo: Coffee Table! Not comfortable, no sleep

Codex confesses her ambivalent feelings about Zaboo to Clara and then surprise, surprise, Tink arguably the most mainstream and antisocial of the bunch, cosplays as an anime character. Once on the floor of the conference Codex winds up getting to play the expansion demo of the online game she plays with her guild. Unfortunately, she inadvertently trolls the creator of the game to his face:
Floyd the creator: How's the demo? Great changes huh?
Codex: No they nerfed rising phase. Are they smoking crack crazy?!

After turning to Zaboo for solace, she confesses her feelings of like to him- which after four seasons- blows his mind
Zaboo: *explosion sound* Why now? What-what changed?
Codex: Why do people keep asking that? Do I need a reason? I mean- do people analyze how magnets work?
Zaboo: Yes. In physics class.

Meanwhile Vork and Bladezz have wormed their way into the autograph area with a get rich quick scheme to capitalize on Bladezz's internet fame and the guild continues its tradition of being cameo-licious. High nerd appeal here: Brent Spiner, Grant Imahara, Erin Gray. Meanwhile, a slave Leia clad Tink and Clara stumble onto a steam punk booth.
Steampunk Woman: Aw. Princess Leia. How original.

Slave Leia is probably the most common cosplay of all time. It's how Carrie Fisher was dressed when she was temporarily owned by Jabba the Hut in Return of the Jedi and it's hot hot hot hot hot. Oh and steampunk they say it best themselves: if you don't know, you should probably move on.

Now quick note here, successful indie game creators are in the constant battle between the ultimate goal of on the one hand of making a ton of money with the very rare successful game by selling it to a huge game company that might destroy it- and on the other hand wanting to stay true to the fans that helped build the success of the game in the first place.

Codex overhears the creator of her game finally caving in to the urge to sell potentially because of her douchey comments. In fear for her life, or her avatar's anyway, Codex tries to get the guild to care about this but Zaboo is too busy with his new seat savers network. So busy that he had to get Master Chiefs assistants and the rest of the guild just wants her and Zaboo to hook up and get it over with but a quick chemistry test reveals that there is no longer a spark between them.
Zaboo: Umm
Codex: It's not good
Zaboo: I'm going to stop kissing you now
Codex: Yeah, please do
Zaboo: Okay

Tink is worried that her adopted parents will be disappointed that she switched from pre-med to costume design, Vork becomes enamored with one the stars from a boyhood sci-fi show and Clara doesn't pass muster with the snooty steam punk trio. Meanwhile, Zaboo drunk with power from his seat savers network holds court with author Neil Gaiman who is king among geeks, having written one of the most popular comics of all time and I honestly don't know how they convinced him to be in this scene. Zaboo's rise to power continues when the Master Chiefs rough up Kevin Sorbo and if that's not cameo-licious enough Bladezz and Vork get invited to a celeb party with the likes of Tom Lenk, Eliza Dushku, Colin Ferguson, Dichen Lachman and Zach Levi.

Tink finally tells her family that she ditched pre-med and the consequences are...non-existent. Vork insults his idol, Bladezz blows off his fans and Codex finally figures out who's inside of the fox furry suit that's been following her around all season and it's Wil Wheaton! His character on the show, Fawkes- get it?- had a thing with Codex last season and now is alone and pathetic and in a fur suit and just wants friends. Finally, Codex is able to rally the guild to try to convince Floyd not to sell the game. Unfortunately, the only way to get at him is at a costume only ball. Fortunately, there's now a costume designer in their midst.

So, the guild is able to attend the ball wearing a combination of steampunk couture, Tink's original designs: a munchkin suit of armor and a found hotel room object cosplay of Chewbacca made of hotel carpet, a mop and bath soaps.

In conclusion, Vork reconciles with Madeleine by saving her from the path of a crashing homemade blimp holding Clara and the snooty steampunk trio that Zaboo was able to build thanks to his marathon panel attendance. Bladezz wins back his fan base while Tink heads off the sleazy head of acquisitions with the help of Zaboo's seat savers network in order to allow Codex to convince Floyd not to sell the game. Also the Master Chiefs kidnap Stan Lee and turn out to be hot gamer girls and we some how got through this whole thing without mentioning Nathan Fillion. But Nathan Fillion and everyone lives happily ever after-

But especially Codex because:
Floyd: Codex. See you Monday morning alright. Work on those ideas of yours.
Codex: Yeah I kinda forgot to tell you guys something...

And that's where we pick up with season six, airing October second.