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One Day From Retirement (Halo: Empty Throne - Part 4)
26 Plays7 months ago
We lay thee thicc book down to rest. Coming up next, The Dig!
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Synopsis
2559. It has been a year since the rogue artificial intelligence Cortana seized control of the Domain, an otherworldly dimension housing a vast information network. With an array of Forerunner weapons at her disposal, Cortana set out to enforce an authoritarian peace on the civilizations of the galaxy. But as the United Nations Space Command flagship Infinity prepares to strike against Cortana at Zeta Halo, another plan has also been set in motion.
An ancient access point hidden on a seemingly insignificant human colony has become the focus of a parallel effort to claim the Domain and its immeasurable capabilities. The UNSC, however, needs a key: a living, forsaken product of an old war. As a new generation of heroes rise to meet this challenge and Cortana's pursuit of control reaches a desperate and sudden crescendo, a cunning, ruthless warrior emerges from the shadows of the Banished, who has vowed to fill the new power vacuum by any means necessary...
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:00:01
Speaker
You know what else is understandable?
00:00:04
Speaker
What's that?
Introduction and Announcement
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey there, everybody.
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome back to Pixel It.
00:00:06
Speaker
My name is Kevin.
00:00:07
Speaker
With me, as always, is Phil.
00:00:07
Speaker
And on today's show, we are finishing Halo, the empty throne.
Theme Analysis: Halo's Empty Throne
00:00:13
Speaker
Hell yeah.
00:00:14
Speaker
We're going to figure out which throne is empty by the end of this.
00:00:18
Speaker
I hope so.
00:00:18
Speaker
I can't.
00:00:19
Speaker
They don't make it easy.
00:00:20
Speaker
Because, Kevin, none of these characters is named a king or a queen.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:28
Speaker
Jeremy's really...
00:00:30
Speaker
He's taken us for the proverbial ride.
00:00:32
Speaker
Deep.
00:00:32
Speaker
He's taken us for a ride.
00:00:35
Speaker
We are in deep satire land, which is just right next to Mississippi.
00:00:42
Speaker
I think so.
00:00:43
Speaker
Yes.
00:00:43
Speaker
Yes.
00:00:44
Speaker
That explains why it's so close to being dead.
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's where, you know, because, you know, Mark Twain would ride up and down the Mississippi between his beloved Mississippi and satire lands.
Humor and History: Mark Twain
00:01:00
Speaker
And he'd say Mark Twain as he was going up and down on those river boats.
00:01:05
Speaker
It wasn't actually a pen name.
00:01:07
Speaker
It's just the thing he shouted to people as he'd go, Mark Twain.
00:01:12
Speaker
They'd be like, who the fuck is that?
00:01:15
Speaker
I think you just told us.
00:01:16
Speaker
Oh gosh, is that his name?
00:01:17
Speaker
All right.
00:01:18
Speaker
Weird.
00:01:18
Speaker
Well, he chose it as his pen name because of the phrase Mark Twain, which was a very common phrase in those days.
00:01:29
Speaker
It's a very, it's like super common thing on river boats literally for like 10 years.
00:01:36
Speaker
It's a really specific reference.
00:01:39
Speaker
Mark Twain!
00:01:40
Speaker
You go, oh yeah, Mark Twain.
00:01:42
Speaker
Mark Twain, everybody.
00:01:43
Speaker
mark twain everybody mark twain mark twain and then uh you know uh on the on the other rivers they would say samuel clements right right yes which is where he got his birth name kevin aren't we are this is just probably one of the smartest shows on the internet do you think about that sometimes this is such smart we're such clever boys
00:02:07
Speaker
This is such a
Community Engagement: Patreon
00:02:09
Speaker
more cleverness.
00:02:11
Speaker
You need to go to Pixletpod.com or Patreon.com slash Pixletpod because guess what?
00:02:17
Speaker
Guess what?
00:02:18
Speaker
There's more clever for you.
00:02:20
Speaker
In this week's bonus episode, I try to explain what bonds are.
00:02:25
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:02:26
Speaker
We really, this is really the intellectual Titanic episode.
00:02:29
Speaker
I try to explain what bonds are.
00:02:31
Speaker
If there's an economist listening, feel free to correct me in whatever I said that was wrong.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:37
Speaker
If you're an economist and you haven't given us 10 bucks or something like that, this is the time to do it.
00:02:42
Speaker
Here's the thing is if I know enough to know that I don't know enough, but I have the confidence of a 40 year old white man.
00:02:49
Speaker
So I'm able to talk about it regardless.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:52
Speaker
It's it's one of those things that you forget that you have until it comes up and you go, why hasn't anyone put their name in the hat for this?
00:03:00
Speaker
Oh, I'm just an idiot who's confident enough to talk about a thing.
00:03:05
Speaker
Despite I'm just going to talk about it.
00:03:07
Speaker
I'm talking about it and I talked about it.
00:03:10
Speaker
You too can talk about it on our Discord, which you can access through Patreon dot com slash pixel pod.
00:03:15
Speaker
You can also give us money.
00:03:18
Speaker
$1, $5, $10, $5 gets you access to the bonus episode and $10 gets your name shouted out in every episode.
00:03:28
Speaker
And to that end, I want to thank Jesus Loves You, Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle of Things, Sigma Sal, Cha!
00:03:34
Speaker
Beaks, dammit, thick and friendly friend.
00:03:37
Speaker
Thank you for being a friend.
00:03:40
Speaker
If you notice, we've lost a couple dear friends on the list over the past couple of weeks.
00:03:47
Speaker
So there's plenty of the water is fine.
00:03:50
Speaker
There's plenty of space for you to come in and be a dear friend on our list.
00:03:55
Speaker
Join the bodies in the marsh.
00:03:57
Speaker
Join.
00:03:57
Speaker
Join.
00:03:58
Speaker
Don't you want to be a body?
00:04:01
Speaker
Don't you want to be a body?
00:04:04
Speaker
We really should call the we really should call the discord the body bag, the body.
00:04:10
Speaker
I think that's I think that's where we're at, right?
00:04:15
Speaker
I think that's where we're at.
00:04:17
Speaker
Maybe I can rename it while we're the pig slip podcast.
00:04:19
Speaker
I'll just rename it to the body bag while we're on on the call today.
00:04:24
Speaker
Beautiful.
00:04:25
Speaker
Chef's kiss.
00:04:27
Speaker
Beautiful.
00:04:27
Speaker
Speaking of bodies, how about we put this body
00:04:32
Speaker
Into the marsh.
00:04:33
Speaker
When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you dump them in the marsh.
00:04:41
Speaker
Once and for all.
00:04:43
Speaker
Okay.
Suspenseful Discovery on the Planet
00:04:44
Speaker
We start at chapter 28.
00:04:45
Speaker
We are back with Severin.
00:04:47
Speaker
He is leading his team on the planet into a barn, basically, because they've been tipped off that it might have the girl, Chloe, the key.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:59
Speaker
He thinks that it might have the team that killed his guards at the North gate.
00:05:05
Speaker
It's just James.
00:05:05
Speaker
This is the area there, you know, the North gate where all the people died.
00:05:09
Speaker
He's assuming that this big team took them all out.
00:05:12
Speaker
It was just James Solomon playing, you know, hit man.
00:05:15
Speaker
And so he's he's he goes in there.
00:05:18
Speaker
They end up taking out a bunch of farmers who are in power loaders for all intents and purposes.
00:05:22
Speaker
It's a pretty great fight scene, actually.
00:05:24
Speaker
And
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a power loader.
00:05:29
Speaker
They call a Cyclops or something like that.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:32
Speaker
Cyclops.
00:05:32
Speaker
Great, great stuff.
00:05:34
Speaker
It's it's because it's like these are not soldiers and but they've got some level of machinery there and that's pretty cool.
00:05:41
Speaker
I liked it.
00:05:44
Speaker
After they take these guys out, they hear from another leader that there is a new covenant force that has joined them, no doubt with Dovo's permission.
00:05:55
Speaker
And this is a betrayal to Severin.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yes, he is.
00:05:58
Speaker
He was already...
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, he was already feeling very strained in his relationship with his mentor.
00:06:06
Speaker
And he's just about ready to snap.
00:06:09
Speaker
The other leader is going to pull a tattletale, basically, and tell Atriox.
00:06:14
Speaker
By the way, he's been working with a covenant leader.
00:06:20
Speaker
I think that's literally word for word what he said.
00:06:22
Speaker
Actually, every time I saw the covenant leader's name, I was like Nyan Cat.
00:06:31
Speaker
I totally see that.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:37
Speaker
So all right.
00:06:38
Speaker
Chapter 29.
00:06:38
Speaker
We cut speaking of James.
00:06:40
Speaker
We cut to James.
00:06:41
Speaker
He finds out the truth about Chloe in that she is she is, you know, a clone of her mother.
00:06:51
Speaker
Right.
00:06:52
Speaker
He sees that he basically sees that there's a lot different about her from Halsey.
00:06:57
Speaker
And remember, this is a guy who was an old school Spartan.
00:07:00
Speaker
He knew Halsey.
00:07:01
Speaker
He knew all this.
00:07:02
Speaker
He knew this life.
00:07:03
Speaker
He knows what she's about and does not see a lot of her in Chloe, which he sees as a good thing.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:10
Speaker
The intelligence is there, but not the willingness to, you know, kidnap babies and create clones of the babies that melt in front of their parents.
00:07:24
Speaker
Right.
00:07:24
Speaker
Right.
00:07:25
Speaker
He's yeah.
00:07:26
Speaker
Which I think he's yeah.
00:07:27
Speaker
He's like, you know what?
00:07:28
Speaker
Let's let's stick with that plan.
00:07:30
Speaker
Let's not let's let's try and make sure she doesn't become that person because it's worked out so well for James.
00:07:36
Speaker
It's a good life for him, obviously.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:41
Speaker
So they are they are being chased by a bunch of grave maker ships, kind of small drop ships, basically.
00:07:48
Speaker
And he starts taking them out by himself, which pisses them off a great deal.
00:07:55
Speaker
And he faces off against, I've written it again, big ass Arxis, the three meter tall Jill, Jill, Renee or whatever they're called, and who knocks him out long enough to kidnap Chloe and abscond with her.
00:08:12
Speaker
So the banished have the key.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yes.
Interpersonal Conflict and Dynamics
00:08:18
Speaker
Cut to Chapter 30, where it told Juran and the Gray team.
00:08:21
Speaker
They are at the Lithos evacuation excavation.
00:08:26
Speaker
They're making their way closer to it.
00:08:28
Speaker
And at this point, the Covenant has dropped in and and they're trying to figure out why the hell the Covenant has shown up.
00:08:35
Speaker
The Banished seem just as confused as they are.
00:08:37
Speaker
At least a lot of them do.
00:08:39
Speaker
Right.
00:08:40
Speaker
Juran is informed.
00:08:41
Speaker
She has she does not have permission to shoot at Dovo.
00:08:46
Speaker
because it's too personal.
00:08:47
Speaker
She's going to get in the way.
00:08:48
Speaker
I can't operate on this.
00:08:49
Speaker
She's not allowed to take a shot.
00:08:50
Speaker
Exactly.
00:08:51
Speaker
Exactly.
00:08:51
Speaker
I can't operate on this boy.
00:08:53
Speaker
He's my son.
00:08:53
Speaker
You know, that kind of thing.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's that for all intents and purposes.
00:08:58
Speaker
You're too deep.
00:08:59
Speaker
You're too deep.
00:09:01
Speaker
And so, but she is told to kill Sally Nyon, who is the Covenant Warchief.
00:09:09
Speaker
Nyan Cat.
00:09:10
Speaker
Nyan Cat.
00:09:11
Speaker
Nyan Cat.
00:09:11
Speaker
And Severin's basic rival.
00:09:17
Speaker
They both draw a bead and just as they're about, it should be the easiest thing in the world because they're literally standing side by side talking to each other with two squeezes of the trigger.
00:09:28
Speaker
They could take out the leaders of both of these enormous armies and save a lot of trouble.
00:09:34
Speaker
And just as that is happening, Soren, the blade master and Merrick, a Spartan,
00:09:40
Speaker
attack everybody.
00:09:43
Speaker
They go total Benedict Arnold and hurt the Spartans very badly before they are killed.
00:09:52
Speaker
Well, except for Sorin.
00:09:54
Speaker
Merrick is killed.
00:09:55
Speaker
Sorin is drop kicked in the chest and launched away, but manages to get away after that.
00:10:02
Speaker
Exactly.
00:10:03
Speaker
So we have betrayal and it's and it's pretty brutal.
00:10:08
Speaker
Already you can tell this is this is because this is I I'm not an expert on this universe, but the idea of a Spartan.
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:16
Speaker
Betraying you for the couple.
00:10:17
Speaker
Oh, that's fucked.
00:10:18
Speaker
Like that is fucked.
00:10:20
Speaker
That is a very that is a space marine joining.
00:10:24
Speaker
Not not chaos.
00:10:26
Speaker
Right.
00:10:26
Speaker
Because they do that a lot, actually.
00:10:27
Speaker
That is.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, the space Marines join chaos a lot.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yes, the towel.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yes, that's like a space Marine.
00:10:37
Speaker
That's like, no, I'm not a heretic.
00:10:39
Speaker
I believe in space communism.
00:10:41
Speaker
Right, right.
00:10:42
Speaker
It's almost as good as a space Marine joining the Tyranids.
00:10:45
Speaker
He's just got claws strapped to his arm and starts screaming.
00:10:49
Speaker
That would be a fun story.
00:10:50
Speaker
I'm going to write that story.
00:10:51
Speaker
I'm going to write that one down.
00:10:57
Speaker
Raised by the nids.
00:11:01
Speaker
Oh, that actually, you know what?
00:11:03
Speaker
I could probably get that into a canon story if it's an orc instead.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, because I've been reading some work stuff.
00:11:10
Speaker
I haven't I've never really read a lot of their work stories and novel stuff.
00:11:14
Speaker
They're fucking great because there's there's they've got all that high energy action and shit, but they're fucking hilarious.
00:11:21
Speaker
They allow them to have a lot of fun with it.
00:11:23
Speaker
And it's just a whole other side of that.
00:11:26
Speaker
You know, it's a lot of fun.
00:11:27
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's great.
00:11:30
Speaker
So we cut to chapter 31.
00:11:32
Speaker
Abigail Cole is informed by Oni that everything is foobar on the planet.
00:11:37
Speaker
Everything has gone to shit and it is time to cut their losses and blow up the lithos.
00:11:43
Speaker
She has 10 minutes.
00:11:44
Speaker
She convinced them to give her 10 minutes to try and get to convince the drop team down there.
00:11:53
Speaker
To get the hell out of Dodge.
00:11:55
Speaker
She is going to open fire on this thing with the mag cannons no matter what.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:00
Speaker
So the hope is that she can get them to leave in time so that they don't get fucked up over that.
Tactical Challenges and Communication Issues
00:12:08
Speaker
Right.
00:12:08
Speaker
And she's not able to get in contact with them.
00:12:11
Speaker
Right.
00:12:12
Speaker
No.
00:12:12
Speaker
So she's like reaching out to what's it?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:17
Speaker
Is that this chapter?
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
Well, yes, there is this chapter.
00:12:20
Speaker
I forget his name, but the, he was, he's a former covenant guy.
00:12:23
Speaker
Right.
00:12:24
Speaker
The other, the other ship, the other ship, the ship master, she's like, Hey, can you get in position to make contact with them?
00:12:33
Speaker
We're out of position and we got to do something that, that is like terrible.
00:12:39
Speaker
And the ship master's like,
00:12:41
Speaker
Oh, oh yeah.
00:12:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:44
Speaker
And this is also when they tell him, by the way, I think this is when they tell him that they got betrayed down there.
00:12:51
Speaker
They got fucked up and he's no, no, no, it's later.
00:12:53
Speaker
It's later, but he will be pissed.
00:12:55
Speaker
He will be royally pissed.
00:12:56
Speaker
Cause if you remember this character is all in on the Alliance with the humans.
00:13:00
Speaker
Right.
00:13:01
Speaker
And so this is, that is a big fly in the ointment for him.
00:13:06
Speaker
Chapter 32, we cut to Dovo Nesto.
00:13:10
Speaker
I just imagined him kind of like just kind of presenting himself before the banished and everything.
00:13:17
Speaker
I like to think of him as Jeff Goldblum and as the was the the the is it the game master or whatever?
00:13:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:13:27
Speaker
From Thor Ragnarok.
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:31
Speaker
I like to think of him as that guy where he's just like, hello, just like totally.
00:13:35
Speaker
Oh, hello.
00:13:36
Speaker
Hey.
00:13:37
Speaker
Souped up.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
Hi, hi.
00:13:39
Speaker
Oh, hi.
00:13:39
Speaker
It's good to see you all there.
00:13:43
Speaker
Here comes the Covenant.
00:13:45
Speaker
All right.
00:13:47
Speaker
Hey, hey.
00:13:48
Speaker
It's just hitting on everyone.
00:13:49
Speaker
Covenant is coming back.
00:13:50
Speaker
Exactly.
00:13:52
Speaker
He's just Robert Gouleting it down there.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly it.
00:13:57
Speaker
How we doing?
00:13:58
Speaker
All right.
00:13:59
Speaker
Aren't you happy to see me?
00:14:01
Speaker
You know, the little people need a leader and that guy is me.
00:14:06
Speaker
Dovo Nesto.
00:14:07
Speaker
That's right.
00:14:08
Speaker
That's me.
00:14:12
Speaker
Oh, Dovo Nesto.
00:14:13
Speaker
We do not take you seriously.
00:14:15
Speaker
We do not take you seriously, Dovo Nesto.
00:14:17
Speaker
You're just not a serious villain.
00:14:20
Speaker
No, he really shouldn't be.
00:14:22
Speaker
Severin is there.
00:14:23
Speaker
He's pissed.
00:14:24
Speaker
And Dovo has shown up with Sally Nyon, the covenant leader, and he's feeling...
00:14:32
Speaker
Frankly, pretty insecure.
00:14:33
Speaker
It's very much a moment of him feeling like he's been replaced and wondering, did this guy get promised all the same shit I did?
00:14:41
Speaker
I was used, etc., etc., etc.
00:14:44
Speaker
And he lets that fester in his brain until finally, when he gets a chance, he accuses his discolo of using him.
00:14:54
Speaker
And declares that the lithos is his and the banished ours.
00:14:58
Speaker
It belongs to me.
00:14:59
Speaker
And just as Endovo tries to hit him with a sword.
00:15:05
Speaker
And as he does that, Severin cuts his arm off with his own sword.
00:15:11
Speaker
It's pretty, pretty cool.
00:15:13
Speaker
And in that moment, and I've got it written down right here, and everything goes to hell.
00:15:19
Speaker
Because at that point, they were trying for an alliance.
00:15:23
Speaker
They had not yet set it up.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:26
Speaker
Dopo really overestimated his ability to talk Severn into doing shit.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, he really did not think this through.
00:15:33
Speaker
And the moment...
00:15:36
Speaker
And they're just looking, they're just both sides are itchy and looking for any chance to just start opening fire and, and, and getting rid of this other side.
00:15:45
Speaker
And the moment this all the sword fight goes down, boom, everything's goes going to hell.
00:15:51
Speaker
Um,
00:15:52
Speaker
Chapter 33, Solomon is chasing Arxis.
00:15:55
Speaker
He's trying to get Chloe back.
00:15:57
Speaker
And this is all this is actually really well written at this point onward.
00:16:03
Speaker
The chapters start getting shorter.
00:16:06
Speaker
It's more action scenes and it's happening with a little bit of overlap.
00:16:10
Speaker
But but mostly it's happening.
00:16:12
Speaker
Some simultaneous, some overlap.
00:16:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:16
Speaker
And and as he's chasing Arxis, he sees this in the distance, sees this enormous firefight happening as a moment.
00:16:24
Speaker
Oh, shit.
00:16:24
Speaker
What the hell is happening over there?
00:16:25
Speaker
Jesus Christ.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:26
Speaker
Right.
00:16:27
Speaker
Covenant and Banished are killing each other.
00:16:29
Speaker
Sick.
00:16:30
Speaker
So he he he
00:16:32
Speaker
sneaks up on Argus and just fucking football tackles him, just drives his shoulder into the guy.
00:16:39
Speaker
We get a fight scene that ends with him forcing Argus to swallow a grenade.
00:16:48
Speaker
Metal as fucking shit.
00:16:50
Speaker
And it's just like, it was just like James like walks away and the head explodes until just like gore and viscera just splatters onto his armor.
00:17:02
Speaker
It's just, and like, there's a moment where Arx is just like, Oh shit.
00:17:06
Speaker
It's that it's, it's that moment.
00:17:08
Speaker
You've seen it in action movies.
00:17:09
Speaker
I've seen it in action movies.
00:17:11
Speaker
It's that moment.
00:17:13
Speaker
Uh,
00:17:14
Speaker
He finds Chloe and then Ariana, the Spartan, finds him.
00:17:20
Speaker
Doesn't realize who he is, but then realizes that it's James.
00:17:23
Speaker
So she's assumed James.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:25
Speaker
She's like assumed that he's been dead this entire time.
00:17:28
Speaker
And it's kind of gobsmacked.
00:17:30
Speaker
And he tells her, like, look, if we let Chloe go, this is just a kid.
00:17:36
Speaker
And if we put her in the lithos, she's going to die or worse.
00:17:40
Speaker
And I can't let that happen.
00:17:41
Speaker
I need you to tell.
00:17:44
Speaker
home base basically that uh uh we both got killed we got annihilated and and that's that uh and and ariana just immediately kind of goes sick awesome yeah i mean i love i love how little convincing he has to do does not have to twist her arm no like all right sick bt dubs shit's falling apart you got to get out of here
00:18:06
Speaker
Right.
00:18:06
Speaker
That's, that's exactly it.
00:18:07
Speaker
That's exactly it.
00:18:09
Speaker
And, and it's, it's pretty great because he had me, makes a comment of like, I'm not the Spartan you used to know and all that stuff.
00:18:16
Speaker
And cause he doesn't, he doesn't feel like that superhero anymore.
00:18:18
Speaker
And she correctly points out, she said, I mean, you're out here risking life and limb to protect an innocent.
00:18:25
Speaker
That's about as Spartan as it fucking gets, my friend.
00:18:27
Speaker
It's a really lovely.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's a great moment.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:30
Speaker
It's, it's, it's very nice.
00:18:32
Speaker
And then she does the and I remember this from the early books.
00:18:35
Speaker
She does the.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah, the smile.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:38
Speaker
They run their fingers across their face plate and that indicates it's basically their version of a smiley face.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:44
Speaker
Because they couldn't.
00:18:46
Speaker
It's like it was a tone indicator for the Spartan helmet because they couldn't like you don't see faces with the helmet on.
00:18:54
Speaker
Right.
00:18:54
Speaker
Right.
00:18:55
Speaker
It's really neat.
00:18:57
Speaker
It's a very sweet moment.
00:19:00
Speaker
Chapter 34, we've got Juran and the gray team.
00:19:05
Speaker
They are licking their wounds.
00:19:07
Speaker
Miraculously, most of the people seem in okay order.
00:19:16
Speaker
We get a look into these radioactive rounds, which are fucking cool as shit.
00:19:20
Speaker
They're basically meant to kill heavily armored people like Spartans because...
00:19:26
Speaker
they're radioactive and they essentially dissolve in your body, poisoning you.
00:19:32
Speaker
So whereas a normal round might get in a little, it doesn't really do a lot of damage.
00:19:37
Speaker
All this needs is a little bit of penetration and it, and it just poisons you.
00:19:41
Speaker
It's a lot like sleeping with me and, um, and, uh,
00:19:50
Speaker
But they so we get another pretty kick ass first aid scene of digging out the rounds.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's like Michael is digging out.
00:19:59
Speaker
He's doing the digging or who is he's doing the digging.
00:20:01
Speaker
I can't remember who Spartan is digging.
00:20:03
Speaker
I think it's Michael and he's digging.
00:20:05
Speaker
I was the one who was shot, right?
00:20:07
Speaker
Jai was the one who got like took six rounds to the torso.
00:20:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:10
Speaker
And so Michael's digging them out before they dissolve entirely.
00:20:14
Speaker
It's like putting in like catching them into the thing.
00:20:17
Speaker
And it's like, yeah, it's great.
00:20:19
Speaker
It's like what the fuck is going on?
00:20:23
Speaker
Just like the entire time.
00:20:25
Speaker
It's just it's just more Duran going, fuck, are these people on?
00:20:30
Speaker
It's like a person who's only ever known coffee seeing people on cocaine.
00:20:34
Speaker
It's just a next level.
00:20:37
Speaker
And so basically they neospore on that shit covered up with memory foam and they're getting themselves figured out.
00:20:45
Speaker
They're on the top of a roof.
00:20:47
Speaker
They're on a roof of this great big building and they're watching the firefight.
00:20:50
Speaker
They are very lucky.
00:20:52
Speaker
And this is something that I think is an interesting theme that continues throughout the book for the rest of the book is that
00:20:59
Speaker
They didn't particularly do anything right.
00:21:01
Speaker
Well, they didn't do anything wrong either.
00:21:02
Speaker
They got fucked over.
00:21:03
Speaker
And in that moment, they should have been swarmed by the banished and the covenant and everything like that and killed if it weren't for the fact that right when that happened, they
00:21:18
Speaker
everything went down and the banished and the covenants started killing each other.
00:21:21
Speaker
So they were, they actually managed to find, and this, this happens a lot in a lot of different ways throughout this book.
00:21:26
Speaker
Um, and they, they managed to find their way to some higher ground.
00:21:32
Speaker
They are way safer than they used to be.
00:21:34
Speaker
And, uh, they get, um, hold on.
00:21:36
Speaker
I have his name written down here.
00:21:39
Speaker
Uh,
00:21:42
Speaker
Admiral Jalan.
00:21:43
Speaker
I'll.
00:21:43
Speaker
Nope, that's not him.
00:21:45
Speaker
Vatum.
00:21:46
Speaker
Vatum.
00:21:46
Speaker
Shipmaster Vatum.
00:21:47
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:21:48
Speaker
Shipmaster Vatum.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:50
Speaker
Shipmaster Vatum contacts them and tells them what we already know of.
00:21:56
Speaker
By the way, you guys need to get the fuck out of there.
00:21:59
Speaker
Right.
00:21:59
Speaker
Because in about five minutes, this whole place is going up and you got to get the hell out of Dodge.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
We cut to chapter 35, Abigail Cole.
00:22:09
Speaker
Her ship is they are trying to get into position to fire on the lithos.
00:22:15
Speaker
And an enemy ship seems to know what they're trying to do and rams them.
00:22:21
Speaker
It takes out a lot of their systems.
00:22:23
Speaker
Their maneuverability is gone as one of the other just spinning.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:27
Speaker
As one of the crew says, we are dead in the water.
00:22:28
Speaker
We cannot move.
00:22:31
Speaker
We do find out this is a beautiful bit of deus ex machina that the natural gravity they are now in the orbit of this planet because they're not doing anything about it.
00:22:43
Speaker
The natural gravity and the way they're turning the trajectory will give them one shot.
00:22:50
Speaker
In a few minutes, they will be at the perfect point to fire onto the lithos.
00:22:55
Speaker
Weapons is like, listen, we're going to just spin around into the firing solution and I'm going to have to program it to just go when we hit that mark.
00:23:05
Speaker
Do I have your permission?
00:23:06
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so.
00:23:08
Speaker
You got to do it.
00:23:10
Speaker
And they get confirmation from the last half of the team with the funny names, the Paris contingent.
00:23:17
Speaker
They are going to be covering them and giving them the time they need to do and dying in the process and dying, dying horribly.
00:23:23
Speaker
They they're pretty frank about like you're giving your life to.
00:23:28
Speaker
to allow us to do this.
00:23:29
Speaker
Like you're going to die.
00:23:31
Speaker
There's no getting out of this alive.
00:23:33
Speaker
So all of them are going to – all the ships by the end of this book will be gone.
00:23:37
Speaker
Those guys anyway.
00:23:40
Speaker
Chapter 36.
00:23:40
Speaker
Oh, sorry.
00:23:43
Speaker
Sorry.
00:23:43
Speaker
Hold on real quick.
00:23:45
Speaker
As they finally get to that trajectory, that firing point.
00:23:50
Speaker
And just as they fire, they are rammed again.
00:23:53
Speaker
And it goes black, basically.
00:23:56
Speaker
So we get a very dramatic moment.
00:23:59
Speaker
Chapter 36, Severin and his captain are in the rubble of Lithos and the surrounding area.
00:24:06
Speaker
The fucking...
00:24:08
Speaker
The shot was dead on.
00:24:10
Speaker
Dead on walls accurate.
00:24:12
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:24:12
Speaker
Lithos is gone.
00:24:15
Speaker
And so are a huge amount of both sides of this little conflict.
00:24:21
Speaker
Miraculously, as he points out, Lithos and his captain are both alive.
00:24:25
Speaker
And the captain's like, how the fuck did we survive this?
00:24:29
Speaker
And Severin's like, the gods.
00:24:32
Speaker
God's protected us.
00:24:33
Speaker
Obviously, very confident.
00:24:35
Speaker
If I say that, Kevin, if we are in a war with a group of religious fanatics,
00:24:43
Speaker
Let's just say that that happens.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:46
Speaker
And I say we're alive now because of the gods.
00:24:51
Speaker
I want you to know I'm being sarcastic.
00:24:54
Speaker
Sure.
00:24:55
Speaker
So I figured I didn't have to say that.
00:24:57
Speaker
But at the same time, important to note.
00:25:00
Speaker
Gods must be crazy.
00:25:01
Speaker
You know?
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:25:03
Speaker
I haven't seen that movie fucking forever.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:07
Speaker
So they are making their way out.
00:25:10
Speaker
Severin's legs are busted up and they see the victory ship, the victory of whatever it's called, Abigail Cole's ship in on the horizon, just running down.
00:25:23
Speaker
It is on its way down.
00:25:25
Speaker
And he gets this real satisfied feeling from watching it fall out of the sky.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:30
Speaker
He's they basically what they were doing is they were on drop ships and they were heading back up into orbit and the mag blast came down and knocked them out of the sky.
00:25:41
Speaker
Right.
00:25:41
Speaker
They see that Dovo ship.
00:25:43
Speaker
The same thing happened to them.
00:25:45
Speaker
They were also escaping and they also got knocked out of the sky.
00:25:49
Speaker
So Severin sees his opportunity for vengeance.
00:25:52
Speaker
He hops into a ghost speeder and just hauls ass.
00:25:57
Speaker
across the distance to try and get to Dovo before another ship can try and come and pick him up and save him.
00:26:04
Speaker
He tells his captain, I think it's Cavus, tells him Cavus, Cavus tells Cavus, evacuate everybody.
00:26:13
Speaker
Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do what I, I'm gonna finish what I started.
00:26:17
Speaker
Uh, so you guys get the fuck out of here.
Heroic Sacrifice and Protection
00:26:19
Speaker
Uh, chapter 37, we've got Solomon and Chloe.
00:26:24
Speaker
Uh, he is hurting.
00:26:25
Speaker
He has been blown to shit at this point.
00:26:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:29
Speaker
Uh,
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:31
Speaker
Lola gone.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:33
Speaker
He there.
00:26:33
Speaker
They're making their their effort.
00:26:36
Speaker
They're they're they're getting closer to the ship.
00:26:39
Speaker
And this is when they see more more of the grave tenders.
00:26:43
Speaker
Right.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:43
Speaker
Grave makers.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:45
Speaker
Grave makers.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
His it's his armor so fucked up.
00:26:49
Speaker
And Lola is literally in his helmet going.
00:26:51
Speaker
I can't help you.
00:26:52
Speaker
You're you're you're fucked.
00:26:53
Speaker
Like your armor is fucked up.
00:26:55
Speaker
We could maybe help if we could get to like.
00:26:58
Speaker
Smithy shouldn't say that, but that's what I assume.
00:27:03
Speaker
But for now, there's nothing we can do.
00:27:05
Speaker
So he realizes he's at he remembers the character he is in this book, basically.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, he was never going to get out of his life.
00:27:15
Speaker
He was never.
00:27:15
Speaker
He was one day from retirement.
00:27:17
Speaker
And he knew that he knew that.
00:27:21
Speaker
And so he takes his helmet off and he gives it to Chloe so that she can wear it and hear Lola to give her instructions because Lola has basically got the cataphract, his ship, and it's touched down and they are heading towards there and Lola can help her get there.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:39
Speaker
So he lets them, they have a really sweet, tender moment and it's very sweet.
00:27:46
Speaker
And he says, go get out of here.
00:27:48
Speaker
And she runs.
00:27:50
Speaker
We have in what is the weirdest moment in this book?
00:27:54
Speaker
This is a very long book.
00:27:56
Speaker
What I think might be the way he watches Chloe and the grave makers see her and they kind of veer off.
00:28:03
Speaker
One of them, at least veers off to go get her.
00:28:06
Speaker
And he's like, oh, shit, because he was kind of counting on them sticking to him because he's a Spartan.
00:28:11
Speaker
He watches in the distance as they touch down.
00:28:14
Speaker
They get out of their ship and they start going towards her.
00:28:18
Speaker
She is making her way to the cataphract.
00:28:20
Speaker
And then what are they called?
00:28:23
Speaker
Pathodrons.
00:28:25
Speaker
Yeah, but basically a fucking giant jungle cat comes in.
00:28:31
Speaker
Bunch of jungle cats come out of the fucking woods.
00:28:34
Speaker
Like basically like they must have heard all the commotion, he guesses and like attacks.
00:28:39
Speaker
Everybody slowing, slowing the the the covenant raiders down, but also running after her, but giving Chloe enough time to, you know, she has a moment.
00:28:49
Speaker
She gets into the to the ship just as one of the last clauses slow motion just barely clips the back of her foot.
00:28:56
Speaker
That whole thing.
00:28:57
Speaker
So she's saved by Deus ex cat.
00:29:01
Speaker
Deus ex Pantera.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah, there you go.
00:29:05
Speaker
There you go.
00:29:05
Speaker
It's.
00:29:07
Speaker
Really weird, a really weird moment.
00:29:10
Speaker
And now that they're out of now that they're not available, everyone starts descending on Solomon.
00:29:20
Speaker
And as he pointed out before, he's wearing armor that if he has a fail safe on it, that will make it it's like a mini nuke essentially.
00:29:28
Speaker
Right.
00:29:29
Speaker
And when they get close enough, he sets the fail safe.
00:29:31
Speaker
And this is established in the first James chapter.
00:29:36
Speaker
Yes, yes.
00:29:37
Speaker
This has been figured for a while.
00:29:39
Speaker
And they basically told you right up front how he was going to die.
00:29:42
Speaker
And he nukes himself and all of them and all their ships.
00:29:47
Speaker
Everyone's boom, gone.
00:29:50
Speaker
So that's a wrap on James.
00:29:53
Speaker
Rest in peace, King.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, what a guy.
00:29:57
Speaker
Great character.
00:29:58
Speaker
Great character.
00:30:00
Speaker
I'm a sucker for the...
00:30:04
Speaker
I used to be a good cop and then I fucked up and now I'm drunk and I got one chance to redeem myself.
00:30:10
Speaker
I like that character.
00:30:11
Speaker
I like that.
00:30:12
Speaker
Sergeant Al Powell and diehard where.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
He's like, what do you like?
00:30:21
Speaker
What happened to you?
00:30:21
Speaker
And he's like, shut a kid.
00:30:24
Speaker
And you're like, oh, yeah, you sure did, Al.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:29
Speaker
Okay, Al.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:33
Speaker
They're just by the way, that scene in the beginning of Die Hard where Al Pal is at the convenience store and he's buying a whole bunch of Twinkies.
00:30:49
Speaker
The guy is just like standing there judging him and he goes, they're for my wife.
00:30:54
Speaker
The guy's like, yeah.
00:30:57
Speaker
And he goes, bag it.
00:31:02
Speaker
The counter goes big time.
00:31:05
Speaker
He's buying porn or something.
00:31:09
Speaker
It's like my favorite interaction.
00:31:12
Speaker
I need to watch that.
00:31:13
Speaker
I honestly haven't watched that movie in like 15 years.
00:31:15
Speaker
I need to watch that again.
00:31:17
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:31:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:19
Speaker
Chapter 38.
00:31:21
Speaker
Juran is also alive.
00:31:23
Speaker
It's a it's a miracle.
00:31:24
Speaker
All of the named characters after this small nuclear explosion blew up this.
00:31:32
Speaker
All of our named characters have survived.
00:31:34
Speaker
It's it's it's fascinating.
00:31:37
Speaker
So Juran is alive after this blast.
00:31:40
Speaker
She is separated from the gray team and everybody else.
00:31:45
Speaker
She sees Dovo and Severin in the distance.
00:31:49
Speaker
She finds a beam cannon, like a sniper rifle, basically, and draws a bead.
00:31:56
Speaker
She sees this as her opportunity to take out Dovo.
00:32:01
Speaker
But before she can shoot, she's attacked by Blademaster Sorin, who shows up.
00:32:06
Speaker
And they have this big... It's a very...
00:32:10
Speaker
you know, you seem a good fellow.
00:32:12
Speaker
I hate to kill you.
00:32:13
Speaker
You seem a good fellow.
00:32:14
Speaker
I hate to die kind of thing.
00:32:15
Speaker
Like there's a Sauron is the isn't, you know, an old mentor figure for Jaron.
00:32:22
Speaker
And so it's it's he's he's sad to do this and showing this.
00:32:28
Speaker
She they're on top of like an old crashed ship, I think something like that.
00:32:33
Speaker
And and she loses her footing and she's about to fall off.
00:32:37
Speaker
And instead of like letting like shooting her, stabbing her or something like that, he just kind of breaks her hand and lets her fall off.
00:32:47
Speaker
He doesn't kill her outright.
00:32:48
Speaker
Right.
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:50
Speaker
And so she drops to the side of the perch and he disappears.
00:32:55
Speaker
He's gone.
00:32:57
Speaker
She gets radio from Stolt.
00:33:00
Speaker
What is the name of the little guy or something like that?
00:33:06
Speaker
Was he an Ugnoy or a Kiggar?
00:33:09
Speaker
I can't.
00:33:09
Speaker
He's an Ugnoy.
00:33:10
Speaker
He's an Ugnoy.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:12
Speaker
And so he hears from Stolt and he says, you know, like, we could use your help if you're available.
00:33:19
Speaker
She has no weapons.
00:33:21
Speaker
Her hand is broken and she's fucked up beyond everything, physically and mentally fucked right now.
00:33:27
Speaker
Right.
00:33:28
Speaker
But she still says, yeah, I'm on my way.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:32
Speaker
Chapter 39.
Crisis and Crash Landing
00:33:34
Speaker
We come back to Abigail Cole.
00:33:35
Speaker
She is on the victory.
00:33:36
Speaker
They are in free fall.
00:33:39
Speaker
Miraculously.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I'm going to say that again.
00:33:41
Speaker
Miraculously.
00:33:43
Speaker
We get Deus Ex stabilizers.
00:33:46
Speaker
The stabilizers kick back on.
00:33:48
Speaker
Just just just enough.
00:33:51
Speaker
Just enough to stop them from free falling and just like shattering against the atmosphere of the planet, basically.
00:33:57
Speaker
Right.
00:33:58
Speaker
Right.
00:33:58
Speaker
And they have just enough juice that they can go for an emergency landing.
00:34:04
Speaker
And they find this kind of frozen area on the planet.
00:34:07
Speaker
They make their way down.
00:34:08
Speaker
They hit the ice sheet.
00:34:10
Speaker
And it's a huge crash.
00:34:12
Speaker
And Abigail, once again, blacks out.
00:34:14
Speaker
And she's out again.
00:34:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:15
Speaker
She's out again.
00:34:16
Speaker
Exactly.
00:34:16
Speaker
The easy way.
00:34:20
Speaker
Thank you, Billy Zane.
00:34:23
Speaker
Except instead of Billy Zane, it's her dad.
00:34:26
Speaker
Played by Billy Zane.
00:34:27
Speaker
Billy Zane.
00:34:28
Speaker
I would hope so.
00:34:29
Speaker
I would hope Billy Zane would play my dad.
00:34:31
Speaker
That'd be cool as shit.
00:34:34
Speaker
Fuck yeah.
00:34:35
Speaker
So she has a dream of her father and they kind of like have a brief hash out.
00:34:42
Speaker
Well, you left us.
00:34:43
Speaker
I know.
00:34:43
Speaker
And I shouldn't have left you and I let you down, but I love you and I miss you and I love you and I miss you.
00:34:49
Speaker
It's a really sweet dream.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:52
Speaker
Everyone's having this is this is basically, you know, the the last the second to last episode of Game of Thrones where everyone has a chance to like hug and like, you know, tie up loose ends and shit like that and say, I always loved you right before everything goes to shit or right after in this situation.
00:35:10
Speaker
Right.
00:35:12
Speaker
So we cut to chapter 40.
00:35:14
Speaker
Severin ambushes Dovo's party, basically runs a bunch of his guards over with the ghost, gets into a sword fight with Sally Neon and cuts his head off.
00:35:26
Speaker
Pretty metal shit.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:29
Speaker
Before he can, and he sees Dovo Dovo scared to death.
00:35:32
Speaker
He is genuinely horrified and frightened.
00:35:36
Speaker
And before he before he can do anything, he is run through from behind by Soren, the Blademaster.
00:35:43
Speaker
So Soren's just.
00:35:45
Speaker
Soren is just enemies, picking up enemies.
00:35:48
Speaker
He is all over the place.
00:35:50
Speaker
He is very good.
00:35:53
Speaker
He shot Jai a bunch of times, got away, fought his protege, and then...
00:36:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:04
Speaker
One and then killed.
00:36:07
Speaker
Well, then kill, but fucked up Severin quite a bit.
00:36:09
Speaker
And yeah, just just run Severin through like where's Soren story.
00:36:13
Speaker
I want to read story.
00:36:14
Speaker
This guy's he's just the old badass.
00:36:17
Speaker
Like, holy shit.
00:36:18
Speaker
I know he's a bad guy, but holy fucking shit.
00:36:22
Speaker
And Sorin helps.
00:36:24
Speaker
He goes to Dovo and helps him escape as they escape.
00:36:30
Speaker
Severin is left just basically thinking, OK, I'm going to die.
00:36:33
Speaker
This is how I die.
00:36:34
Speaker
All right.
00:36:35
Speaker
Got it.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:36
Speaker
And just as he's going to breathe his last Cavus, his captain Cavus shows up in a ship and rescues him.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:46
Speaker
Says, you know, you're not you're not dying on me.
00:36:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:36:49
Speaker
It's one of those moments.
00:36:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:51
Speaker
We're going to get a lot of little chapters here.
00:36:54
Speaker
Quick chapters.
00:36:55
Speaker
Yeah, quick chapters.
00:36:56
Speaker
It's like 50 quick chapters right now.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah, right.
00:36:58
Speaker
That's actually exactly it.
00:37:01
Speaker
Chapter 41, Lola and Chloe are on the cataphract.
00:37:05
Speaker
They are heading to Sontero, which was the, if you remember, I think from our first episode, it's like a moon that he found that he said, when I retire, I'm going here.
00:37:16
Speaker
I'm going to live here.
00:37:17
Speaker
It's the moon.
00:37:18
Speaker
It's basically like the moon in Avengers Endgame where Thanos retires to.
00:37:24
Speaker
That's exactly it.
00:37:25
Speaker
Leave me alone.
00:37:26
Speaker
I'm on a moon by myself.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:29
Speaker
And I love this, by the way.
00:37:30
Speaker
It tells you how much Lola cares about him as an AI.
00:37:34
Speaker
When he says, this is where we're going when it's time to retire, she erases what
00:37:41
Speaker
all military and administrative knowledge of this planet from, as they point out, everything she has access to and quote unquote things that she doesn't formally have access to.
00:37:52
Speaker
Right.
00:37:54
Speaker
She, she breaks the rules to make sure that no one can come in.
00:37:58
Speaker
How cool is that?
00:37:59
Speaker
Like, it's so cool.
00:38:01
Speaker
It's also a very, um,
00:38:04
Speaker
It's also not to be the guy and you've made me this guy is the guy who brings up 40 K when it's it.
00:38:12
Speaker
It's a very 40 K thing to be like, we don't know how to get back to like, we don't have the route anymore to get back to that planet.
00:38:21
Speaker
It's gone.
00:38:22
Speaker
You know?
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:23
Speaker
The warp doesn't let us go there anymore.
00:38:26
Speaker
But instead of the warp, it's just shit.
00:38:29
Speaker
Somebody deleted it from all the databases.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:34
Speaker
If James had made it, this would have been an Easter egg in like Halo 12 somewhere down the way where you would have shown up on this place, found an empty cabin and a skeleton and would have garnered from journal entries that it was this guy.
00:38:52
Speaker
Just a skeleton.
00:38:53
Speaker
And it's just in a rocking chair with like...
00:38:57
Speaker
Like the remains of a cigar and whiskey or something like that.
00:39:02
Speaker
Exactly.
00:39:02
Speaker
That's just what it was.
00:39:04
Speaker
He was he and Lola were just going to grow old together.
00:39:06
Speaker
That's all it was.
00:39:07
Speaker
That was the plan.
00:39:09
Speaker
And now Lola's like, well, we're heading there, Chloe.
00:39:11
Speaker
And thank God Chloe's down, because that's a heavy thing to put on a kid's like this planet is all ours.
00:39:18
Speaker
And we're never going to see anyone ever again if things go well.
00:39:21
Speaker
And Chloe's like.
00:39:21
Speaker
Would you like that, Chloe?
00:39:23
Speaker
Right.
00:39:23
Speaker
Do you want that?
00:39:24
Speaker
You'd better.
00:39:25
Speaker
Cause we're going, we're going, we're doing it.
00:39:31
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:39:32
Speaker
So, but Chloe says, yeah, sounds good.
00:39:35
Speaker
Thankfully.
00:39:36
Speaker
So they're heading on that planet.
00:39:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:39
Speaker
Chapter 42, Spartan McKendon and Stolt are in a huge rubble area.
00:39:47
Speaker
Stolt has been pinned by a bunch of fallen debris.
00:39:53
Speaker
McKendon, who is not doing well, uses his dying breath, basically his last ounce of strength to lift the debris and save him.
00:40:00
Speaker
Spartan juice to clear the debris and then he falls over dead.
00:40:05
Speaker
falls over dead has it has a pretty good introspective moment of like oh man if like me from like just 20 years ago saw me dying to save this alien he would have been like what the fuck is going on uh so he saves stulton dies uh was mckendon a spartan too yeah he was spartan
00:40:24
Speaker
No, no.
00:40:24
Speaker
I mean Spartan dash two.
00:40:26
Speaker
Oh, a Spartan two.
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
No, I don't think he was.
00:40:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:30
Speaker
But let me look it up.
00:40:31
Speaker
I want to look it up.
00:40:33
Speaker
Sometimes I'm like, I'm always curious as to who is the Spartan twos versus the Spartan fours.
00:40:39
Speaker
Because the Spartan fours could be any schmuck from off the street who volunteers.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:46
Speaker
Right.
00:40:46
Speaker
Which they point out with Merrick after he betrays them.
00:40:50
Speaker
It's like Merrick was a guy that went through the process and he has all of these biases built in.
00:40:57
Speaker
Right.
00:40:57
Speaker
Right.
00:40:58
Speaker
Whereas the Spartan twos were basically tabula rasa, you know, built from scratch.
00:41:04
Speaker
Which is which is hideous and immoral, but also guarantees almost that they're not going to portray you.
00:41:09
Speaker
So at least there's that.
00:41:11
Speaker
I don't think so.
00:41:12
Speaker
I'm not seeing anything which makes me think he's a Spartan for.
00:41:16
Speaker
But yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
So cut to Chapter 43, Juran finds Stoltz location.
00:41:23
Speaker
He is surrounded by a bunch of leftover covenant people.
00:41:27
Speaker
She's like, why do they want you?
00:41:29
Speaker
And it goes, I don't know, man.
00:41:30
Speaker
Like, I don't understand anything about the covenant, let alone why they're still trying to kill me at this point.
00:41:35
Speaker
What if what's the fucking point?
00:41:37
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:41:38
Speaker
And then we get the surprise of her life when the gray team.
00:41:42
Speaker
Everybody, all your favorite characters, Jai and Michael and Ariana, they're all there.
00:41:48
Speaker
And they just take out the rabble who have surrounded the area.
00:41:54
Speaker
The ODSTs, if you remember way long ago when this whole start, this whole mission started, the ODSTs went off on their own mission.
00:42:02
Speaker
They have returned.
00:42:03
Speaker
Makes me wonder if that's not in Halo Infinite or if it's a
00:42:08
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:42:08
Speaker
Or it's DLC they're playing or something.
00:42:10
Speaker
Cause that could be excellent.
00:42:12
Speaker
That could be, cause we, they, they, we, we, they point out like a bunch of them are dead.
00:42:16
Speaker
Uh, but they come back, they've clearly succeeded in their mission.
00:42:19
Speaker
Their whole mission was like to take over artillery and shit.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:22
Speaker
They did a thing off off camera.
00:42:25
Speaker
The ODS cheese did something.
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:26
Speaker
And I think, I think that right now.
00:42:28
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:30
Speaker
Brighton sweet baby.
00:42:47
Speaker
I think that would make a pretty kick ass, you know, novel of its own or something like that.
00:42:53
Speaker
And the way they wrote makes me wonder if that's not exactly their plan.
00:42:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I was saying.
00:42:59
Speaker
They leave some threads open, you know, with this book.
00:43:02
Speaker
Oh, there are lots of threads.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah, there's plenty of threads for as many people who die as many people who die.
00:43:08
Speaker
There's still plenty to work with here.
00:43:11
Speaker
The ODST show up in a condor and they all they load everybody on.
00:43:16
Speaker
But before they're leaving, they are going to head to the victory, which has crashed, and they're going to collect survivors and take them to safety.
00:43:27
Speaker
Chapter 44, two weeks later, Abigail Cole,
00:43:32
Speaker
wakes up in a hospital room on the moon.
00:43:37
Speaker
The moon.
00:43:38
Speaker
The moon.
00:43:41
Speaker
She is debriefed by her superior officers.
00:43:46
Speaker
She finds out the victory lost 27% of its crew, which is almost 500 people, but it's still a goddamn miracle.
00:43:54
Speaker
It's better than 100%.
00:43:55
Speaker
I'll tell you what.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:56
Speaker
Which is what it was looking like.
00:43:58
Speaker
So hell, like roughly a quarter, man.
00:44:01
Speaker
And they say that her commanding officers like that is an amazing victory.
00:44:05
Speaker
And of course, Cole's like, no, I'm sad.
00:44:07
Speaker
Those people died.
00:44:08
Speaker
It's like, OK, fair enough.
00:44:10
Speaker
um the yeah we we get the run down the ships with the funny names all dead uh but provided her with enough cover uh to blow up the lithos the lithos is eradicated it is that part of the mission is complete right um we get a lot of talk of like well let's make sure that the families of the people we lost know that this was a success you know even though it was only kind of a success yeah yeah
00:44:34
Speaker
It was a win.
00:44:35
Speaker
It's a win.
00:44:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:37
Speaker
If we didn't get this cool weapon, but nobody else did either.
00:44:41
Speaker
So that's great.
00:44:42
Speaker
So, you know, half of one, you know, six of one, half a dozen of the other.
00:44:48
Speaker
She's debriefed and she is told that like, basically we need you back in the saddle as soon as possible because we need you to hunt down Severin because he is still out there and he's going to be making trouble for us.
00:45:00
Speaker
So that's the next novel.
00:45:02
Speaker
Like that's the next novel right there.
00:45:03
Speaker
We've got to get some
00:45:04
Speaker
Abigail Cole going after Severn stuff.
00:45:06
Speaker
That'll be good shit.
00:45:07
Speaker
That'll be a fun naval battle one.
00:45:09
Speaker
I'd really like that.
00:45:10
Speaker
Oh, God, yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
I'd read the fuck out of that.
00:45:12
Speaker
Are you listening, Jeremy?
00:45:15
Speaker
Uh...
Emotional Aftermath and Reassurance
00:45:18
Speaker
Chapter 45, Shipmaster Vadim.
00:45:21
Speaker
He finds Juran on the ship.
00:45:23
Speaker
She is she is not doing great.
00:45:28
Speaker
She's hurting physically, but more than physically hurt, she is psychologically damaged.
00:45:32
Speaker
The betrayal really fucked her up.
00:45:34
Speaker
The emotions are are hot.
00:45:37
Speaker
hot, hot emotions, big time.
00:45:40
Speaker
Um, uh, Vedum does what any good mentor does in a moment like this and pulls a goodwill hunting.
00:45:46
Speaker
It's not your fault.
00:45:46
Speaker
It's not your fault.
00:45:47
Speaker
It's not your fault.
00:45:49
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, you know, don't do this to me, man.
00:45:51
Speaker
Like, you know, that whole thing happens, uh, and seems to work.
00:45:55
Speaker
Uh, well, it kind of works.
00:45:56
Speaker
Like, you know, Juran is like, yeah, I know, but it's still fucking sucks.
00:46:00
Speaker
And it's not helping.
00:46:02
Speaker
Um, so Juran, uh,
00:46:04
Speaker
And that's where we leave Joran alive, but mentally unwell.
00:46:10
Speaker
So that could be very interesting where we're going with her later on.
00:46:14
Speaker
Right.
00:46:15
Speaker
Chapter 46, we have Severin flying through the ruins of his former planet, finally revisiting this place.
00:46:24
Speaker
And I liked this because way earlier when it happened,
00:46:30
Speaker
They actually make a point of him saying, I will have time to mourn my people later.
00:46:36
Speaker
For now, I got a fucking mission.
00:46:38
Speaker
This is him giving himself time to mourn.
00:46:41
Speaker
Right.
00:46:42
Speaker
It's actually really cool.
00:46:43
Speaker
And to make it even cooler, he's like Darth Vader the fuck out.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:49
Speaker
He's been Darth Vader, Corpse Emperor.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:54
Speaker
He is, he is, he is basically dead for all intents and purposes.
00:47:00
Speaker
He's more machine than man.
00:47:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:03
Speaker
He should not be alive.
00:47:04
Speaker
He's got a machine that like forces him to breathe.
00:47:07
Speaker
Cause he can't, his lungs can't, you know, breathe.
00:47:09
Speaker
His lungs can't do that anymore.
00:47:11
Speaker
Right.
00:47:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:12
Speaker
They're literally like, yeah, lungs don't do that.
00:47:14
Speaker
So you need this, but he's, but he, but the cool thing is he's in power armor and shit.
00:47:17
Speaker
So he's like, he's in power armor.
00:47:19
Speaker
He can never take off.
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah, he's a pissed off dreadnought is what he is.
00:47:23
Speaker
And we're going to bring up 40K for the 40,000th time.
00:47:28
Speaker
And in this moment, he vows to rebuild the banished and to kill Dovo.
00:47:35
Speaker
So that's and that's where we leave him.
00:47:37
Speaker
So we get that that little moment.
00:47:39
Speaker
Chapter 47, we cut to speak of the devil, Dovo Nesto.
00:47:44
Speaker
He's got his team together.
00:47:47
Speaker
Everyone's happy he's alive, but disappointed that the mission failed.
00:47:52
Speaker
And Dovo Nesto tells them that they need they have a new plan.
00:47:55
Speaker
They need a new plan and says, what do you know about Cloyster?
00:47:59
Speaker
And Cloyster is the planet where his people were the prophets, the leaders all evacuated to when everything went to shit.
00:48:08
Speaker
So.
00:48:09
Speaker
We don't get the details specifically, but the implication is that the Covenant is going to find all the other leadership that is gone now and rebuild with the OG leadership team in the saddle.
00:48:26
Speaker
So that's where they're headed now, back to Cloyster.
00:48:30
Speaker
Chapter 48, we get to Admiral Gyllenhaal Signe, who works for Oni Intelligence.
00:48:38
Speaker
Oni is intelligence, works for Oni.
00:48:40
Speaker
On board the Akkadian, investigating the ruins of the Lithos for anything they can glean.
00:48:46
Speaker
Everything is demolished and destroyed.
00:48:49
Speaker
It's vaporized, but anything they find would be helpful.
00:48:54
Speaker
They're obviously very disappointed because they're
00:48:56
Speaker
they wanted all the information they could have gotten from the lithos and domain and everything like that.
00:49:03
Speaker
But, you know, it's at least they're trying to comfort themselves with, well,
00:49:10
Speaker
At least Covenant doesn't have it, I guess.
00:49:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:49:13
Speaker
And then we got a very vague super secret transmission.
00:49:17
Speaker
Super secret.
00:49:19
Speaker
Super secret.
00:49:20
Speaker
We don't find out what the transmission says.
00:49:23
Speaker
It says drink your Ovaltine.
00:49:27
Speaker
Ovaltine?
00:49:28
Speaker
Son of a bitch.
00:49:29
Speaker
Bitch.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah, so we don't know what it says really, but we know that it implies that they are going after Dovo.
00:49:39
Speaker
They are not done with him and that more mysterious things are just around the corner.
00:49:43
Speaker
And that they have somebody on the inside with Dovo.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yes, that they have.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah, they do have.
00:49:49
Speaker
They have a spy of some kind, which makes me.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's going to be interesting.
00:49:52
Speaker
It makes me wonder, like, is it the sword master?
00:49:56
Speaker
Like, did they convince the sword master to like?
00:50:01
Speaker
Like, he's got it.
00:50:02
Speaker
And that's why he did all the stuff that he did, because he has to look like.
00:50:05
Speaker
But he also let Joran survive.
00:50:07
Speaker
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
00:50:11
Speaker
There's something there.
00:50:13
Speaker
And because during the sword fight between Juran and Sorin, Sorin's like, why are you on the Covenant side?
00:50:19
Speaker
And Juran doesn't tell her why.
00:50:21
Speaker
He just says, you don't get to ask me these questions.
00:50:24
Speaker
Right.
00:50:25
Speaker
You don't have the right to ask me these questions and I don't need to tell you why.
00:50:28
Speaker
So it is very vague.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker
So that's probably what we're dealing with.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:34
Speaker
If I had to guess.
00:50:36
Speaker
And that's the end.
00:50:37
Speaker
That's the end of the book.
00:50:39
Speaker
We end on a mystery wrapped inside of a mystery.
00:50:44
Speaker
Kevin, what did you think?
00:50:45
Speaker
What did you think of Empty Throne?
00:50:47
Speaker
I loved it.
00:50:47
Speaker
I think it's a really good companion piece.
00:50:50
Speaker
I think there's like two.
00:50:53
Speaker
So I haven't played Halo Infinite.
00:50:54
Speaker
I keep every time we read a book set around Halo Infinite.
00:50:57
Speaker
I think we have to at this point.
00:50:59
Speaker
It's like I'll play it eventually, but I never do.
00:51:03
Speaker
So because apparently it references like there's a specific part of Halo Infinite where Cortana basically goes offline or deletes herself or whatever.
00:51:12
Speaker
And that's when the Guardians cease to function.
00:51:16
Speaker
uh, in the one moment, uh, in, in the last chunk of the book that we were talking about, um, which is why kind of like at the, it's like three quarters of the way through the book.
00:51:26
Speaker
It, it's like, oh, we need to do this because it will stop.
00:51:31
Speaker
That's where we are.
00:51:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:33
Speaker
But I'm like, okay, well, it seems like Cortana is not doing anything now, but so we need to do this so that the banished or the, the new covenant don't get it.
00:51:44
Speaker
You know?
00:51:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's yes.
00:51:48
Speaker
And I'm glad because because you actually texted me that I was literally going to look it up and go, wait, because we never find out.
00:51:56
Speaker
They never say outright.
00:51:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:51:59
Speaker
Severn's correct.
00:52:01
Speaker
uh, Cortana has been defeated, quote unquote.
00:52:04
Speaker
Uh, uh, that's why all the guardians just stopped.
00:52:07
Speaker
Uh, never says that never actually says it.
00:52:10
Speaker
Um, so I was like, so is that what happened?
00:52:12
Speaker
And then Kevin texted me and basically confirms like, yeah, that's what happens in the game.
00:52:16
Speaker
Like that's when she did it.
00:52:17
Speaker
Right.
00:52:17
Speaker
So that's really interesting.
00:52:19
Speaker
Cause you're right.
00:52:19
Speaker
It is a covenant as a covenant, as a companion piece.
00:52:23
Speaker
Um, it is a covenant piece, uh, but as a companion piece to, uh,
00:52:28
Speaker
You can see where the parallels happen.
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:52:32
Speaker
And that's pretty interesting.
00:52:34
Speaker
And because I know there's a whole bunch of stuff with Atriox getting wounded in Halo Infinite, nearly killed, and Severin is basically the same thing happens to him, and Severin was the second in command in this.
00:52:51
Speaker
But also...
00:52:53
Speaker
just overall, I just really like this book.
00:52:55
Speaker
A lot of, so many good action sequences.
00:53:00
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:53:00
Speaker
Yes.
00:53:01
Speaker
When Soren ends the Spartan of like turn out to be like traitors, I'm like, Oh,
00:53:10
Speaker
It was a literal gasp moment.
00:53:12
Speaker
I did not see it coming.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah, I feel the same way.
00:53:16
Speaker
It totally took me off guard.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:53:21
Speaker
Tal Jaron becomes a character who is really annoying at the beginning to somebody who you really like.
00:53:27
Speaker
By the end, James is is just good guy.
00:53:32
Speaker
James, you know, he he's he's coming to grips with everything he's ever done.
00:53:38
Speaker
He's trying to get out of this job and he just see at the right moment.
00:53:43
Speaker
He sees an old friend and she's like,
00:53:48
Speaker
Well, like you're still a Spartan, like all being said, you still exemplify what the Spartans were for.
00:53:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:55
Speaker
And he he dies pretty peacefully knowing that he took a bunch of Gerald Hanein assholes with him with his nuclear armor.
00:54:05
Speaker
Yeah, saved an innocent person one last time and fucking killed the shit out of some bad guys.
00:54:11
Speaker
Killed the shit out of some bad guys.
00:54:13
Speaker
Can't go much better.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:15
Speaker
So, and it's also, it's another thing where it's like,
00:54:21
Speaker
jeremy uh if you have been listening along i think you need to write more books um yeah this is ridiculous because i because listen uh obviously he was he was amazing at being the the bible keeper you know the story editor those are two different things like yeah two different things uh
00:54:47
Speaker
But this is just, you know, coming out and flexing like this is for your first novel is a big deal.
00:54:55
Speaker
I guess.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it's kind of absurd to have.
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah, your first novel be 500 pages long and it to be.
00:55:03
Speaker
this stuff full of goodies.
00:55:05
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree.
00:55:07
Speaker
I think if I had one complaint, I think the endings became a little too deus ex machina for me.
00:55:16
Speaker
There were a lot of moments where they just got lucky.
00:55:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:22
Speaker
And I can deal with that when it's once, maybe twice.
00:55:26
Speaker
But it kept happening.
00:55:28
Speaker
And I was just like, oh, guys, I think we can do better than that.
00:55:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:32
Speaker
I think I think especially with Abigail Cole's ship there had.
00:55:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:37
Speaker
Like a just like even if that was like, I don't know, something right.
00:55:44
Speaker
Something in there to just be like.
00:55:46
Speaker
It's like Abigail remembers something from her early days as a lieutenant.
00:55:51
Speaker
And she like goes the deck into the guts of the ship herself and rewire some shit and gets the, you know, something like that.
00:56:00
Speaker
Throw that in there instead of like anything like that would have been great.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:04
Speaker
We're lucky this happened.
00:56:05
Speaker
We're lucky this happened.
00:56:06
Speaker
We're lucky this happened.
00:56:07
Speaker
You know, right.
00:56:08
Speaker
And it says something that the quality of the book was such that when that happened, it made me roll my eyes a little bit.
00:56:20
Speaker
But I still was like, this is still a damn good book.
00:56:23
Speaker
This is still an exciting book.
00:56:25
Speaker
The action scenes are great.
00:56:26
Speaker
The characters are so well fleshed out and developed.
00:56:30
Speaker
Right.
00:56:31
Speaker
Lots of really good stuff in this.
00:56:33
Speaker
I love I do love how amazingly foobard the mission goes at the end, like zero out of any no one's goals on anyone's side were accomplished.
00:56:48
Speaker
None, none whatsoever.
00:56:49
Speaker
And yeah, I think you're totally right.
00:56:52
Speaker
That is fucking mental.
00:56:54
Speaker
Like, like how bad it all goes.
00:56:55
Speaker
You know, they, one of the oldest rules in the book for writing is kill your darlings, put your characters through hell.
00:57:03
Speaker
And Jeremy did that.
00:57:05
Speaker
Like he said, yes, I will.
00:57:07
Speaker
I will do that.
00:57:08
Speaker
And holy shit.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:11
Speaker
I totally agree.
00:57:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, I loved it.
00:57:14
Speaker
I loved it.
00:57:15
Speaker
Do you have any other thoughts on the book yourself?
00:57:19
Speaker
No, no, I think I just it's just another example of any time we get a Halo book.
00:57:25
Speaker
My instant reaction is, well, this is a freebie.
00:57:28
Speaker
This will be nice and easy.
00:57:31
Speaker
That's that's an easy, easy one to roll through.
00:57:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:35
Speaker
And it was.
00:57:36
Speaker
It's just terrific.
00:57:37
Speaker
It's another really good one.
00:57:38
Speaker
So I'm stoked.
00:57:40
Speaker
I'm stoked.
00:57:41
Speaker
I'm stoked.
00:57:42
Speaker
I'm a bicycle.
00:57:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:47
Speaker
Great stuff.
00:57:47
Speaker
I didn't even realize that there's an extra chapter at the end.
00:57:52
Speaker
What?
00:57:53
Speaker
After the about the author.
00:57:55
Speaker
Oh, I totally missed that.
00:57:56
Speaker
Can you help us out?
00:57:57
Speaker
I fucking missed that.
00:57:58
Speaker
I missed it, too.
00:57:59
Speaker
I'm reading through it right now.
00:58:05
Speaker
Night sky.
00:58:21
Speaker
Fighters dodged and weaved through the debris on strafing runs to shake off pursuers while other ships continued to fire at one another with everything they had.
00:58:30
Speaker
A great battle was taking place here, but it was nearing its conclusion.
00:58:33
Speaker
All he needed to do was observe that it did.
00:58:35
Speaker
How odd it was to reconnect with the galaxy in this way after so long and still find it so rife with conflict.
00:58:41
Speaker
Neural transmission simply didn't allow his essence to travel into this plane of reality, but he connected his own consciousness to the lives around him.
00:58:50
Speaker
He could feel the tangle of their perspectives, their hatreds and hopes, their lives and loves and loyalties, and their passing into the cosmos.
00:58:57
Speaker
He took a moment to find himself amidst the chaos, for it was far too easy to get it lost among them.
00:59:03
Speaker
At the center of it all, one human ship was moving through the scattered shell of all the others, light erupting around it,
00:59:10
Speaker
as another vessel pursued it on an intercept course.
00:59:14
Speaker
Neural travel had shown numerous possibilities and outcomes for this moment, but all that mattered was the singular eventuality that would take shape.
00:59:21
Speaker
Two strikes flashed from the bow of the human ship just before its pursuer collided with it.
00:59:25
Speaker
Too late, as the horizon was engulfed in fire, he sensed thousands of lives passing in that moment.
00:59:31
Speaker
The structure they had fired upon then burst into a pillar of light that tore into the sky, clouds swirling around it as several dozen ships were instantly vaporized.
00:59:39
Speaker
Others were severely damaged, either cast adrift or sent on a collision course with the planet's surface, their atmospheric entry vectors blazing with streaks of fire like shooting stars.
00:59:51
Speaker
Dawa Madthu, he whispered, though there was nobody to hear him.
00:59:55
Speaker
He could already feel the domain tugging at him as if it were a safety cord warning him to pull back.
00:59:59
Speaker
Indeed, his presence in this place had begun to fade with the destruction of the gateway and the loss of so much life to connect to.
01:00:05
Speaker
No matter, he had witnessed what he needed.
01:00:07
Speaker
His mission was complete.
01:00:09
Speaker
Fortencho closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to be buoyed along the steady tide of living time, finding himself back in the domain's anterior as he opened his eyes.
01:00:19
Speaker
More and more of this place was starting to feel like home.
01:00:22
Speaker
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he saw a great hulking figure sitting on a rock a short distance away.
01:00:28
Speaker
Fortencho approached and settled down next to him without saying a word, content to quietly observe by his side as the sun was rising over the horizon.
01:00:37
Speaker
Oh, shit.
01:00:37
Speaker
We had a call back there.
01:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, so Fortentia was the human guy from way back when, right?
01:00:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:46
Speaker
With the didact met in the... Yes.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yeah, that was part of the book that was set in the domain.
01:00:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's pretty cool that the motherfuckers did a credit sequence.
01:01:03
Speaker
Holy shit.
01:01:04
Speaker
They found a way to do it with the book.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, I was like when I see about the author, I usually stop.
01:01:10
Speaker
And then I was like, I was just flipping through the book.
01:01:11
Speaker
I was like, wait a minute.
01:01:12
Speaker
There it is.
01:01:14
Speaker
There it is.
01:01:15
Speaker
Oh, that's hilarious.
01:01:16
Speaker
I love it.
01:01:17
Speaker
I love it.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:18
Speaker
OK, well, that's even even more exciting.
01:01:20
Speaker
OK, I love that because I was I was wondering if we were going to see.
01:01:26
Speaker
uh, the didact at some point here, uh, in some way, shape or form.
01:01:31
Speaker
Uh, uh, so that's pretty cool.
01:01:35
Speaker
I, I like the sound of that.
01:01:37
Speaker
That sounds really good.
01:01:37
Speaker
Fortencho Oberoon.
01:01:41
Speaker
Love it.
01:01:41
Speaker
I love it.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:43
Speaker
Now that's, that's fantastic news.
01:01:45
Speaker
I'm super into that.
01:01:46
Speaker
That's great.
01:01:47
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:47
Speaker
Um, yeah.
01:01:48
Speaker
Another, another really damn good book.
01:01:51
Speaker
Um, wow.
01:01:54
Speaker
motherfuckers with your good books with your good books god damn it anyway now that i uh my rage uh over this uh being jeremy's first book uh uh uh is is somewhat subsided kevin uh yeah i have a single question to ask you yes
01:02:18
Speaker
What are you playing?
01:02:21
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:02:21
Speaker
So this past week I have been playing Blueprints and that's about it.
01:02:27
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:02:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:28
Speaker
Tell me about Blueprints.
01:02:29
Speaker
I've heard a little bit about that one.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:31
Speaker
So Blueprints, you play as a kid.
01:02:34
Speaker
He's a 14 year old kid who was the nephew of some eccentric reclusive billionaire who leaves you his estate.
01:02:44
Speaker
Um, but it is in his will.
01:02:47
Speaker
It said that you only get to keep it and the riches if you are able to find the 46th room inside of the estate.
01:02:57
Speaker
Um, and so the first day that you go in, uh, you, uh, open the, uh, you're in a, in the main hallway, right?
01:03:06
Speaker
the foyer and you're you go in and there's three doors and as you open the door you're then presented with three plans of what the next room is going to be and then you and it's at random and you choose it and then that room builds out and you go into it and uh you can go through that room and then you can go into it uh through the door on the other side of the room and it'll basically rinse and repeat
01:03:33
Speaker
As you build out the home, you will find a variety of different types of rooms.
01:03:43
Speaker
So early on, you'll find things like a den or a living room or a book nook or a kitchen or a pantry or what have you.
01:03:54
Speaker
And they all have different like...
01:03:56
Speaker
layouts.
01:03:57
Speaker
Some are like there's a door on the south side and it goes up and it exits on the west side or exits on the east side or there will be rooms with doors that exit on all four sides.
01:04:11
Speaker
And but you only get the option of three rooms each time you open a door and it's drawn at random from a stack of basically plans or cards that you can choose from.
01:04:26
Speaker
And you can only use one room at a time until you
01:04:29
Speaker
upgrade your rooms later.
01:04:32
Speaker
And then you'll be going and then on the first day you'll run into a dead end or you'll plan rooms wrong and be like, well, I can't go any further and you'll call it a night.
01:04:44
Speaker
And then day two, you go back into the mansion and you open the door and all the rooms that you did before are no longer there.
01:04:54
Speaker
You plan new rooms again.
01:04:56
Speaker
So it is
01:05:00
Speaker
It's like roguelike mist.
01:05:03
Speaker
Interesting.
01:05:04
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:05
Speaker
Because each of the rooms also has a, will also have like puzzles.
01:05:09
Speaker
Right.
01:05:10
Speaker
And these, and sometimes they'll have like little, like you'll find paper in there and you'll read notes and things like that.
01:05:19
Speaker
And you take down like, oh, okay, this guy said this.
01:05:22
Speaker
And sometimes there'll be a clue in that note that you find in one room that helps you solve a puzzle that you find in a different room.
01:05:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:30
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:32
Speaker
It is intense, man.
01:05:34
Speaker
I was going to say, that sounds exhausting.
01:05:37
Speaker
It's a lot.
01:05:40
Speaker
I really like it, but also at times it's one of those games where I'll do a run.
01:05:47
Speaker
It's a roguelike.
01:05:47
Speaker
So you're basically doing a run.
01:05:49
Speaker
It's architecture roguelike.
01:05:53
Speaker
You'll do a run and you'll be like, oh man, that really took it out of me.
01:05:58
Speaker
I'm done for now.
01:05:59
Speaker
Right, right.
01:06:00
Speaker
Yes.
01:06:01
Speaker
I think that's a thing with roguelikes where it's like sometimes in most roguelikes you get the kind of just one more turn feeling.
01:06:11
Speaker
Right.
01:06:11
Speaker
But every now and then you get one where you're like, that was great.
01:06:14
Speaker
I need a break.
01:06:15
Speaker
Right.
01:06:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:17
Speaker
That sounds like a lot.
01:06:19
Speaker
I've had that several times, and I understand why people love this game.
01:06:25
Speaker
It is the indie darling of the year.
01:06:27
Speaker
But I also understand why people bounce off of it, because...
01:06:32
Speaker
The first few rounds that you go through it, you have, especially if you're going in blind, you have no fucking clue what you're doing.
01:06:40
Speaker
Like, you're just like, oh, I'm trying to figure out which of these rooms is room number 46, right?
01:06:47
Speaker
Right.
01:06:48
Speaker
Right?
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, please.
01:06:50
Speaker
Of course, it's a lot more involved than that.
01:06:53
Speaker
Like, you are trying to...
01:06:57
Speaker
There's like all these little mysteries that pop up that you're trying to solve as well.
01:07:02
Speaker
I mean, I've put, I don't know, 12 hours into it, but let's say it's probably more like nine because I believe I left it open on the pause menu.
01:07:11
Speaker
Oh, sure.
01:07:11
Speaker
For a few hours at one point.
01:07:14
Speaker
I put in about nine hours.
01:07:17
Speaker
And I know for most folks, it takes like 15 to get through the story.
01:07:23
Speaker
Like you get to the end of the main mystery.
01:07:26
Speaker
Okay.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:28
Speaker
So and I'm I feel like I might be getting there.
01:07:31
Speaker
I'm not.
01:07:32
Speaker
But that's the thing with roguelikes.
01:07:33
Speaker
You're like you're you're also not sure.
01:07:35
Speaker
Like I have made progress.
01:07:38
Speaker
Right.
01:07:38
Speaker
But have I?
01:07:40
Speaker
But have I?
01:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, you have no idea.
01:07:41
Speaker
And I can see why that would be frustrating after a while.
01:07:45
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm getting close, I think, to the end of the main storyline in it.
01:07:53
Speaker
And then it's basically you can just keep playing after that because there's a lot of other little mysteries to unravel.
01:08:00
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:01
Speaker
I know Jason Skryer has said he has like 100 some hours into the game.
01:08:07
Speaker
He finished the story, the main quest at like 17 hours, but he's still going, which is wild.
01:08:15
Speaker
Lord, that is crazy.
01:08:17
Speaker
It's bananas, is what it is.
01:08:20
Speaker
But yeah, no, so blueprints is what I've been playing over the past week.
01:08:27
Speaker
I have unlocked zero achievements
01:08:31
Speaker
Oh, wow.
01:08:32
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:32
Speaker
Not even achievement to your name.
01:08:35
Speaker
Not even achievement to my name.
01:08:37
Speaker
It is stingy on the achievements.
01:08:40
Speaker
There's 16 achievements.
01:08:41
Speaker
I've gotten zero after 10 hours.
01:08:43
Speaker
Wow.
01:08:44
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:45
Speaker
That is rough.
01:08:45
Speaker
As a guy who cannot help himself when it comes to achievements, I try very hard to go.
01:08:50
Speaker
You like a little chivo, you know?
01:08:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:52
Speaker
That's rough.
01:08:53
Speaker
Holy shit.
01:08:55
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:56
Speaker
I'm interested.
01:08:57
Speaker
I'm definitely interested.
01:08:58
Speaker
I'm keeping an eye on it.
01:09:00
Speaker
Maybe when it's on sale or something like that.
01:09:02
Speaker
I'll give it a little.
01:09:03
Speaker
If not, then watch Northern Line play it.
01:09:06
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:08
Speaker
He's playing it.
01:09:10
Speaker
It's a very enjoyable playthrough.
01:09:11
Speaker
He apparently finished the, was able to beat it in 10 hours.
01:09:15
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:16
Speaker
Which is pretty amazing.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:19
Speaker
All right.
01:09:20
Speaker
Just from what I've heard about that, that sounds amazing.
01:09:22
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:23
Speaker
Cool.
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:24
Speaker
So, Phil, what are you playing?
01:09:28
Speaker
Oh, well, I'm still playing no skin.
01:09:32
Speaker
I've gotten through a lot of it.
01:09:34
Speaker
It's confusing.
01:09:36
Speaker
It's getting a little weird at the end.
01:09:38
Speaker
Big shocker.
01:09:39
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:40
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:42
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:44
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:46
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:47
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:48
Speaker
I'm not going to be able to do that.
01:09:55
Speaker
After a while, it's one of these things where it gets real samey.
01:09:58
Speaker
I've reached.
01:09:59
Speaker
And I think that happens with a lot of these kind of roguelikes where like you hit a wall for a minute where you're doing the same thing over and over again.
01:10:05
Speaker
And finally, you just need that one crack to happen so you can slip through and get a bunch of new shit.
01:10:13
Speaker
I feel like I'm at that point.
01:10:15
Speaker
Whatever.
01:10:18
Speaker
Whatever.
01:10:20
Speaker
I played a demo.
01:10:21
Speaker
It's a prologue.
01:10:23
Speaker
This is what a lot of people are doing with their demos.
01:10:26
Speaker
It's for a game called Infection Free Zone.
01:10:29
Speaker
OK.
01:10:30
Speaker
This is by a studio that did a game I really liked called 911 Simulator or 911 Operator.
01:10:37
Speaker
Okay.
01:10:38
Speaker
Where you it's just like it says on the tin, you get phone calls and you have to dispatch cops or firemen or something else or an ambulance or something like that.
01:10:52
Speaker
Right.
01:10:52
Speaker
To different places based on what people tell you.
01:10:56
Speaker
And it's
01:10:57
Speaker
It starts out, it's one of those games kind of like, what is it called?
01:11:03
Speaker
Cook Serve something where these- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:11:07
Speaker
It's Cook Serve Delicious.
01:11:08
Speaker
Or like Overcooked or whatever.
01:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, that too.
01:11:11
Speaker
Where it's like,
01:11:13
Speaker
There is a level of relaxation here, but the longer it goes on, the more stressful it becomes.
01:11:18
Speaker
And I really like that game.
01:11:20
Speaker
I put in a lot of time with that game.
01:11:22
Speaker
This is the same studio that did that, and it is a city builder zombie game.
01:11:28
Speaker
Um, nothing too special on the face of it, but I was intrigued because especially because this one, like the 911 operator, one of the things that they're developing is it's a little thing, but it's fun.
01:11:41
Speaker
You can literally play in any city like they're using satellite technology and shit to like.
01:11:48
Speaker
So yeah, cool.
01:11:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:11:50
Speaker
So you could pick a city and you have a and, you know, when basically you start out as a team of survivors and you're slowly clearing out different buildings and turning them into, you know, housing or whatnot.
01:12:02
Speaker
And then eventually you're building farms and and the night comes down and you've got to you still have to you might have to deal with zombies during the day, but at night they're ravenous and yeah, that whole thing.
01:12:14
Speaker
And and honestly,
01:12:16
Speaker
I should like this a hell of a lot.
01:12:18
Speaker
And I did.
01:12:19
Speaker
That's the thing.
01:12:20
Speaker
I really dug it.
01:12:21
Speaker
I was having a lot of fun with it.
01:12:24
Speaker
It has a very good loop to it.
01:12:27
Speaker
It's very satisfying.
01:12:30
Speaker
The the UI is dog shit.
01:12:35
Speaker
It is.
01:12:35
Speaker
Oh, it is.
01:12:37
Speaker
And I and I I left.
01:12:38
Speaker
I haven't left a review on a game in a while.
01:12:41
Speaker
And I left a review on the prologue here so that the studio will read it like that was the whole reason I left.
01:12:48
Speaker
I want them to read it because I would have this game would have been in my library.
01:12:54
Speaker
I would have paid money, money down.
01:12:56
Speaker
It's an it's a it's an early access game.
01:12:58
Speaker
And I don't.
01:12:59
Speaker
tend to spend money on early access games until they're done.
01:13:03
Speaker
I would have put my money down.
01:13:05
Speaker
I would have had... I would be coming to you with 20 hours of that game under my belt right now.
01:13:10
Speaker
If the UI wasn't so shitty, it doesn't...
01:13:15
Speaker
It barely ever makes sense, where it's like you kind of have to trial and error to figure out how this button works and how do I get these people here?
01:13:24
Speaker
You've got this one main base and you've got a bunch of people in it and too many people.
01:13:31
Speaker
And so your first thing that you really need to do is you need to take some of the abandoned buildings around you and slowly convert them into residences.
01:13:40
Speaker
so that people can spread out a little bit.
01:13:42
Speaker
And I do that.
01:13:44
Speaker
I've built a bunch of houses and stuff and no one will move.
01:13:48
Speaker
No, everyone.
01:13:49
Speaker
So we've got the houses.
01:13:50
Speaker
So I'm like, how do I move them?
01:13:52
Speaker
How did there's got to be a thing?
01:13:54
Speaker
I check the discussions.
01:13:54
Speaker
People are asking the same questions.
01:13:57
Speaker
It's and it's all
01:13:58
Speaker
The UI, there's an interesting quest system there.
01:14:03
Speaker
There's a good again, there's a good city builder loop in there with some some some brutal combat.
01:14:09
Speaker
The combat is hard.
01:14:10
Speaker
You do not want to fight the zombies if you could avoid it.
01:14:13
Speaker
This is not a good idea.
01:14:15
Speaker
at least at the point in the game that I was in.
01:14:17
Speaker
You want to avoid it at all possible costs.
01:14:21
Speaker
But, you know, you've got this, you can find an abandoned car and see if you can get it to work.
01:14:27
Speaker
And if you can get it to work, that gets you to missions faster and gets you around the area faster.
01:14:31
Speaker
You can find abandoned weapons that'll make things better for you.
01:14:34
Speaker
It's...
01:14:35
Speaker
It should be a slam dunk and the UI fucking hamstrings it.
01:14:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:43
Speaker
On a level that I like, you know, you know me, I am a, I am a UI like.
01:14:50
Speaker
I knew you'd get it.
01:14:51
Speaker
That's the thing.
01:14:52
Speaker
I am a UI guy.
01:14:53
Speaker
Like you, like, don't, don't put out your demo.
01:14:56
Speaker
Like, listen, listen.
01:14:59
Speaker
Gameplay elements, fucking graphics might not be final.
01:15:04
Speaker
I will.
01:15:04
Speaker
Whatever.
01:15:05
Speaker
That is whatever.
01:15:07
Speaker
The UI being bad to me is a worse indicator of the kind of care and effort
Game Design: UI as a Warning Sign
01:15:18
Speaker
that is being put.
01:15:18
Speaker
The UI to me is the red M&Ms.
01:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
01:15:25
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:15:28
Speaker
It's the canary in the fucking coal mine.
01:15:31
Speaker
A bad UI is the canary in the coal mine for me.
01:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
01:15:35
Speaker
Is that fair?
01:15:36
Speaker
I don't know, but it is a bad, like, that is how people actually access your game.
01:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:15:42
Speaker
So if it's like...
01:15:46
Speaker
you know, uh, Oh man, the novel is great, but Oh God.
01:15:51
Speaker
Like the, the cover is made out of like safety pins.
01:15:57
Speaker
It's right.
01:15:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:00
Speaker
When you, when you, when you get used to the pain of all the thumbtacks they've put on the pages, there's a really good story in there.
01:16:07
Speaker
It's like, you know what?
01:16:07
Speaker
I think
Literary Critique: House of Leaves
01:16:08
Speaker
I'll, I'll skip that.
01:16:08
Speaker
I think I'll skip, you know, but what, what do you want from the sequel to house of leaves?
01:16:13
Speaker
Right.
01:16:14
Speaker
You know what?
01:16:14
Speaker
I read House of Leaves.
01:16:15
Speaker
I don't want anything.
01:16:19
Speaker
I feel like I'm one of the only people who was not terribly impressed by that book.
01:16:22
Speaker
All right, it's fine.
01:16:24
Speaker
Fine.
01:16:24
Speaker
Everybody's like, oh, great.
01:16:25
Speaker
Another layer.
01:16:26
Speaker
Cool.
01:16:28
Speaker
Awesome.
01:16:28
Speaker
Oh, and now I have to turn it in circles to read it.
01:16:31
Speaker
Ooh.
01:16:32
Speaker
Anyway.
01:16:35
Speaker
I feel like I saw someone say once that House of Leaves is the, oh, what is that?
01:16:41
Speaker
Impossible book.
01:16:43
Speaker
Oh,
01:16:44
Speaker
That everyone infinite jest.
01:16:47
Speaker
I heard someone say that the House of Leaves is the infinite jest for the horror world where half the time people have read it and they claim that they loved it because it was because of the sunken cost fallacy.
01:16:59
Speaker
And I couldn't agree more.
01:17:01
Speaker
There was some I'm not going to shit on it too hard.
01:17:03
Speaker
There was some there was some great stuff in there, but I just I didn't have the patience for it.
01:17:08
Speaker
Next week, we will be having an interview with House of Leaves author Mark Danielewski.
Early Access Game Review: UI Concerns
01:17:14
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it.
01:17:15
Speaker
I have a lot of things I want to say.
01:17:19
Speaker
No, but this game, and that's the thing, it's still in early access.
01:17:24
Speaker
So that's why I left the review.
01:17:26
Speaker
I want very bad.
01:17:27
Speaker
And the thing is, the recent reviews, if you go to the full game, they're very positive.
01:17:31
Speaker
They've done very well.
01:17:32
Speaker
I'm hoping that maybe that was just the prologue and they haven't updated it, which is a bad idea, folks.
01:17:38
Speaker
If you fixed a problem in your full game and you didn't fix it in the demo,
01:17:44
Speaker
You gotta, you can't, that's, that's insanity you have.
01:17:47
Speaker
Cause that's, that's a lot of our first option, you know, option for like playing this thing.
01:17:51
Speaker
Right.
01:17:53
Speaker
But yeah, it, I want, I want this game to, I'm keeping this game in my wishlist.
Relaxation in Gaming: Universe Horizon
01:17:59
Speaker
I'm going to check on it now and then.
01:18:02
Speaker
Cause I want to play this game.
01:18:03
Speaker
Do you want it to be good?
01:18:06
Speaker
I want, I guess I want it to be user friendly.
01:18:10
Speaker
And it, it just isn't right now.
01:18:14
Speaker
The other game I am playing, oh, this is a fun one.
01:18:16
Speaker
This is speaking of interesting UI.
01:18:20
Speaker
I'm playing a game called Universe Horizon.
01:18:23
Speaker
This is another clicker.
01:18:25
Speaker
It's I think four bucks or three bucks.
01:18:29
Speaker
The the it's like basic eight bit graphics.
01:18:33
Speaker
You are in a spaceship and you are flying through the solar system.
01:18:39
Speaker
And as you reach different points in the solar system, the moon, Mars, et cetera.
01:18:46
Speaker
There are different things that you can mine there and you mine them and they unlock different abilities.
01:18:51
Speaker
It's clicker.
01:18:52
Speaker
It's clicker shit.
01:18:54
Speaker
Right.
01:18:54
Speaker
And if that's not something you like, that's fine.
01:18:56
Speaker
And that's the thing.
01:18:57
Speaker
I played two clicker games this year and both of them were really interesting for different reasons.
01:19:01
Speaker
And this one.
01:19:04
Speaker
There's something kind of lovely about it.
01:19:08
Speaker
There's it's it's it's very relaxing.
01:19:10
Speaker
There's a very Star Trek, you know, it's you know, you're not there to blow up aliens and shit kind of vibe to it.
01:19:17
Speaker
The the the music makes me think of Malatro in the sense that it's kind of the same 30 second loop, but you still enjoy it.
01:19:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:28
Speaker
And I'm at this point on a Neptune, which means I'm I'm
01:19:33
Speaker
drilling for water and shit like that.
01:19:35
Speaker
And but and I've I've seen based on the achievements, it does not end when you get out of the solar system.
Screen-Free Week: Family and Board Games
01:19:41
Speaker
So I'm really very curious to see how far this goes.
01:19:45
Speaker
It keeps playing when you're not on.
01:19:48
Speaker
So which can be which can be overwhelming.
01:19:51
Speaker
You'll hop on there and go, oh shit, there's all this other stuff.
01:19:53
Speaker
Oh my God.
01:19:54
Speaker
I got things happened.
01:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
01:19:57
Speaker
But it's a nice little game to have playing when you're listening to a podcast or just or just dicking around or something like that.
01:20:06
Speaker
If I wasn't if I wasn't in charge of the book today, I would have probably had it on the background while we were talking because it's just like a lot of these clickers.
01:20:16
Speaker
You start clicking and then you find a way to automate it and
01:20:19
Speaker
You're investing silicone to get more aluminum.
01:20:22
Speaker
And when you get enough aluminum, you're investing in iron.
01:20:25
Speaker
And it's all all in the name of making your ship faster.
01:20:29
Speaker
And as your ship goes faster, you unlock more things.
01:20:32
Speaker
You unlock things simply by traveling a certain amount of kilometers.
01:20:36
Speaker
Your next upgrade will say, yeah, you can you can click on this and have it when you hit 25 million kilometers or whatever.
01:20:43
Speaker
Right.
01:20:44
Speaker
And
01:20:45
Speaker
I don't know.
01:20:46
Speaker
There's something about it that sometimes these games stress me out a lot.
01:20:51
Speaker
Clickers stress me out a lot sometimes.
01:20:52
Speaker
This is not one of them.
01:20:54
Speaker
I'm finding something very relaxing about it.
01:20:57
Speaker
Do you lose if you attempt to make a landing on Europa?
01:21:02
Speaker
Not yet.
01:21:03
Speaker
Okay.
01:21:05
Speaker
I wrote them and wrote them and wrote them and asked them to please implement that.
01:21:09
Speaker
But I passed it when I wasn't playing, so I could be wrong.
01:21:14
Speaker
Maybe it's there.
01:21:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:16
Speaker
I mean, we've been told make no landing there, but.
01:21:19
Speaker
Right, right.
01:21:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:22
Speaker
This is going to be a tough week for this one, by the way, because my wife and I agreed that this week we're going to have an analog week.
01:21:31
Speaker
uh okay you know we're gonna i'm gonna we're gonna come home i'm gonna come home we have dinner and we're gonna have family dinners with the kid it's been really nice and uh and then after we put him to bed we play board games or we can uh play cards or we can just talk or we can work on our projects you know and that sort of thing um but no games no movies
01:21:57
Speaker
screens off just to give us give us and this game.
01:22:00
Speaker
So that means basically unless I cheat, the next time I open this game up is going to be Friday night or something like that.
01:22:09
Speaker
And I'm going to be like, oh, shit, I'm out of Alpha Centauri.
01:22:11
Speaker
What happened?
01:22:13
Speaker
Oh, boy.
01:22:13
Speaker
This is going to be a tough one.
01:22:16
Speaker
But but, you know, it's I think it's three bucks.
01:22:19
Speaker
It's so cheap.
01:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's two ninety nine.
01:22:23
Speaker
It's it's it's just kind of nice.
01:22:26
Speaker
The gold is just to reach as far as you can get as far into the university as you can.
01:22:31
Speaker
I've seen some things on the discussion boards where people are like, yeah, I made it to the end.
01:22:37
Speaker
There is an ending.
01:22:40
Speaker
It's really interesting.
01:22:41
Speaker
It's it's I like it.
01:22:42
Speaker
It's very relaxing.
01:22:43
Speaker
I'm enjoying it so far.
01:22:44
Speaker
So that is
Mundane Task Simulations: Power Washer
01:22:46
Speaker
that's what I'm playing.
01:22:46
Speaker
That's me.
01:22:48
Speaker
I totally forgot to mention the one thing I'm playing was, or I played and beat was a game about digging a hole.
01:22:57
Speaker
Oh, how did you like, I've got my eye on that one.
01:23:01
Speaker
How did you like that one?
01:23:03
Speaker
It's so silly.
01:23:05
Speaker
It's not long at all.
01:23:11
Speaker
And I was like, so I'm looking at it on the end.
01:23:14
Speaker
I was like, well, that's interesting.
01:23:15
Speaker
It's got a it's tagged horror for some reason.
01:23:18
Speaker
Oh, no.
01:23:21
Speaker
That's always a bad sign.
01:23:22
Speaker
Really?
01:23:23
Speaker
Oh, why?
01:23:26
Speaker
Anyway, I'm going to get I'm going to start digging.
01:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I got I dug and I got to the bottom of the hole and I beat the game and there was nothing wrong at the bottom of the hole.
01:23:42
Speaker
Oh, good.
01:23:43
Speaker
Good.
01:23:43
Speaker
I'm glad to hear that.
01:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, I was nervous.
01:23:45
Speaker
There must have been a mistake then.
01:23:47
Speaker
It was a mistake on the heart tag.
01:23:49
Speaker
There's absolutely nothing down there.
01:23:51
Speaker
That's wrong.
01:23:51
Speaker
There's nothing wrong down there.
01:23:53
Speaker
Nothing wrong.
01:23:54
Speaker
So fine.
01:23:55
Speaker
That's fine.
01:23:56
Speaker
Everything's fine.
01:23:56
Speaker
How are you?
01:23:57
Speaker
Everything's fine.
01:23:58
Speaker
It's all fine down here.
01:23:59
Speaker
How are you?
01:24:01
Speaker
But yeah, it's just this, I don't know.
01:24:03
Speaker
I like I'm playing it and it's one of those.
01:24:07
Speaker
I am like, why did I do that?
01:24:10
Speaker
But I got to maybe I'll write something someday examining why.
01:24:18
Speaker
Well, much like Jack Black says in the Minecraft movie, as a child, he yearned for the mines.
01:24:26
Speaker
Why, as a dad, I yearn for the games that are menial tasks.
01:24:33
Speaker
I noticed that too.
Anticipation for Sequels and Gadgets
01:24:35
Speaker
Like last was it last year or the year before?
01:24:37
Speaker
Like that was when you started with power washing simulator.
01:24:40
Speaker
Yes.
01:24:41
Speaker
And I was playing a lot of lawn mowing simulator.
01:24:44
Speaker
Why?
01:24:46
Speaker
While my actual lawn just fucking sat there.
01:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, it was Vietnam by the time I was done with that game.
01:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know.
01:24:57
Speaker
I don't know what that's about, but I've noticed it too.
01:25:00
Speaker
Why do I yearn for the mundane?
01:25:04
Speaker
Is that an essay that I write one day?
01:25:07
Speaker
Who knows?
01:25:08
Speaker
Maybe.
01:25:09
Speaker
I swear I was out of that game.
01:25:13
Speaker
But it's something that's been on my mind recently because I just had to examine myself.
01:25:22
Speaker
I was like,
01:25:25
Speaker
What?
01:25:28
Speaker
Why?
01:25:28
Speaker
Why?
01:25:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:25:30
Speaker
No, I totally feel that.
01:25:32
Speaker
It's a game about digging a hole.
01:25:35
Speaker
Literally, it is what it says on the tin, except for the bottom of the hole, which is fine.
01:25:40
Speaker
There's nothing down there.
01:25:41
Speaker
It's all good.
01:25:41
Speaker
Everything's fine.
01:25:43
Speaker
So what's the problem?
01:25:44
Speaker
Everything's fine.
01:25:46
Speaker
I was so excited to see that the company that makes Power Washer Simulator announced Power Washer Simulator 2.
01:25:56
Speaker
Oh, there we go.
01:25:58
Speaker
There we go.
01:26:00
Speaker
This is my, you know, this is my white whale here.
01:26:04
Speaker
This is how Kevin parties.
01:26:07
Speaker
This is how I party.
01:26:08
Speaker
I'm going to fire it up and just really, I really wish the Steam Deck was waterproof.
01:26:15
Speaker
I'll tell you what.
01:26:17
Speaker
Sure.
01:26:18
Speaker
Sure.
01:26:19
Speaker
Just so you could fully experience.
01:26:21
Speaker
Well, no.
01:26:21
Speaker
So I could take that bad boy into the bath, light a few candles, sit in the bath with some power washer simulator.
01:26:33
Speaker
Didn't that set your mind right?
01:26:35
Speaker
Honestly, that sounds excellent.
01:26:37
Speaker
I don't think they realize what a gold mine they're sitting on if they were able to develop a waterproof fucking Steam Deck.
01:26:45
Speaker
The dads and the moms would fucking buy every last one of them.
01:26:50
Speaker
Every last one of them.
Whimsical Encounters: Naked Mole Rats
01:26:52
Speaker
So before we finish tonight, Phil, have you ever noticed that when you...
01:27:02
Speaker
Like when you put the garbage out, sometimes you get naked mole rats.
01:27:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah, sure.
01:27:14
Speaker
It's funny because they're a little bit more aggressive than raccoons, I've noticed.
01:27:18
Speaker
They are, I think.
01:27:20
Speaker
All right.
01:27:20
Speaker
I think it has something to do with their nudity.
01:27:24
Speaker
That sounds like a joke, but I'm actually being serious.
01:27:26
Speaker
And there was a great quote from Robert Louis Stevenson about it.
01:27:31
Speaker
He said...