Zach

That was one of the most satisfying puzzles I've done in months. Loved it.

I enjoyed the theme and got the puzzle in less than 30 hint-free... EXCEPT in the NE corner with the two clues that are linked. I feel like I comment this a lot but if you're going to have a pair of clues relying on each other (ESPECIALLY if one is non-english or a proper noun) then PLEASE don't make it that easy to have one remaining open square where the two join because not knowing one means not knowing the other so all you can do is guess letters until one works. Please.

That was absolutely miserable. It's fine to have some clues that do the "not what word you thought the clue meant" thing but this was everywhere and it made it impossible to even cut into them from the other direction. Number, senior, aerial act, server, synthetic oil, NUMBER (saying it twice), plus archaic words like the zen riddle or group of assistants? Come on.

WAY too much of this puzzle needs hints. It makes sense if you already know the solutions but trying to get through it without help is a nightmare. I did it, and it took forever, but wow that was not at all satisfying.

I still got no idea how 116A worked

That might have been the best "OH MY GOD I JUST GOT IT" I've had in a puzzle in years, wow

Guys I am wheeze laughing right now I read "get to know better" like two people getting to know each other and so I had "BOND UPON" so when I got the puzzle corrected I was so locked into my read of the clue that I thought it was saying the answer was "BONE UPON" and I was like "well that seems like a wildly inappropriate way to phrase that but sure you'd certainly get to know someone that way"

Upper left had too many esoteric answers. The clerk was bad, that is NOT the phrase for being on the verge of failure, the breakfast one feels like the kind of thing that is for NYC residents specifically, and the indigenous thing was entirely new to me. It felt like I was doing a jigsaw puzzle where the box was missing a bunch of pieces.

Yeah... No. I was able to get the whole puzzle except the middle part without help but even then I had no idea what the clues were doing for the themed ones. Then the middle bit was near impossible because there was no indication as to what it was doing. Especially when you're doing it on the app, puzzles like this are just too ambitious.

34a is, for the record, inaccurate. That's not who that was.

Absolutely loved this theme. Once I got the first pair together and I got the trick I had one of those "ah ha!" moments that are the whole reason I play these puzzles. Clever as hell with enough inroads that I didn't feel like it only made sense once already complete. Using one of the pair to solve the other was just so satisfying. If I'm gonna whine when a puzzle irritates me I damn sure better say something when I liked it lol