1) Fast but consistently paced
2) The Lego Dynasty because it was challenging and there weren’t too many loopholes
3) Same as above
4) The Election Dynasty

1) I think successful dynasties keep everyone engaged, by giving them something to do constantly, and having something for both players who are trying to really play well and players who are just playing “casually”, so to speak. (Being short is probably an advantage in this; many dynasties end up outstaying their welcome.)
2) I find it very hard to compare themes, because the mechanics are often more interesting to me. I liked the “back to nomic basics” theme of the fifth metadynasty, though; it was a refreshing change against the backdrop of the sort of thing BlogNomic “usually” does. Dynasties can get very predictable, sometimes.
3) The First of Devenger was probably the most consistently fun throughout the dynasty; it was possible to catch up if you fell behind, everyone had a reasonable chance of winning, and although you could play solo, there were also opportunities to team up with other people for nomic-style shenanigans (culminating in the infamous Operation Meerkat), all without interfering with the flavour. (I tend to look more highly on dynasties I won, too; I suppose it’s a natural reaction.)
4) Not really, but mostly because I don’t know enough about long-ago dynasties to know how fun I’d have found them, and the dynastic histories are bad at getting the right sort of perspective. Dynasties since I started playing, and that I idled through, I didn’t really enjoy; if I liked the look of the way they were going, I’d likely have started playing them. (In some cases I jumped in at the end, upon seeing a win scam.) I suppose it would have been nice to have been there at the end of my own third dynasty…

1)Good pace but playful.  If there is fun and interesting gameplay for folks who aren’t trying superhard to win, that keeps things varied and moving along.
2)The Prehistoric Dynasty, because its limitations on the mechanics of nomic encouraged creative thinking.
3)The Lego Dynasty, because it relied heavily on whimsy and creativity, and because there was a human element- one way to win was to impress Josh, which is a subjective thing.  We had to work out what he might like and then make that.
4) Couldn’t say.