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BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 11.1 - 11.8 - Blinding
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This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. Complete list of potential triggers: here
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The Brockton Bay Book Club discusses J.C. McCrae's Ward live! The gang reads a portion of Ward and comes together to share our thoughts with each other and anyone who want's to participate.
This week we cover Arc 10.1 - 10.9 - Polarize!
Read along here
Play along with this week's BBBC BINGO while you listen!
Support us and connect with us @brocktonbaybc
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Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast: This episode of the Brockton Bay Book Club is sponsored by Made Marion. Made Marion creates custom cottagecore and ren faire clothing designed for every body. Whether you’re looking for a lace up bodice, rustic apron and pinafores, or ethereal dresses, you’ll find items customized for every individual’s fit and design. All items are lovingly hand sewn with attention to detail and a touch of whimsy. Visit Made Marion today and transform your wardrobe with clothing that feels as enchanting as it looks. Find Made Marion on etsy, at https://www.etsy.com/shop/themademarion
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Mega so Pregnancy on the rise in the outskirts. Our topic for tonight, arc 11, part one, which will be encompassing episodes or ah chapters 11.1 11.8, believe.
00:00:25
Speaker
true ah and I am your host, Alan. With me joined, we have Hannah. Hello! Jacob. Were you guys waiting for me?
00:00:36
Speaker
Yes. We were. Nick. Hello, and a special hello to all the Sonic Impreg fan art fans. and i looked And Michael.
00:00:47
Speaker
Hello, guys.
Community Engagement and Merchandise
00:00:49
Speaker
oh Michael, you're going to hate this one. You're going hate this one. those of you but who... ah who have joined us before Welcome it's great to see you all we love you in live chat those of you who are playing bingo cat on screen right there look at that all right thing ding ding ding' but lovely backford um and for those of you who are just joining us i don't know why but perhaps you've stumbled in in here were group of people ah friends who ah really enjoyed
00:01:19
Speaker
you know, worm, and we decided to give it another go ahead. And now we're on the sequel ward, uh, by JC McCray, AKA a wild bow. And we just read through and, uh, you know, there's a bunch of people who, uh, read along or listen along with us. And that's pretty cool.
00:01:35
Speaker
Um, Some of them even do this crazy thing where they give us money to maintain, ah maintain stuff, uh, and sound better. um and do a little bit of extra content every now and then our lovely patrons over in the discord. Uh, they help us by giving us their insights, um, and criticisms and, uh, adding all sorts of cool, you know, it's, it's fun to interact with them on the discord. Honestly, I think about doing it more and more.
00:02:04
Speaker
um But I don't know. There's times getting away with us, especially in the holiday season. Speaking of which, just to remind us again, Michael, we are taking a small break during the holiday season.
00:02:18
Speaker
ah When is that again? We are doing back half of this arc. Yep, we'll finish arc 11 on the 9th in two weeks like normal. And then we're going to take off the rest of December and we'll be back on the 13th of January just to give ourselves a little...
00:02:35
Speaker
rest for the holidays and all that good stuff give me time to read pale and give my thoughts about pale in the discord which if you were a discord member uh patron member you would have access to the discord and the extra stuff that we do um and be able to talk on there uh hear my thoughts put your own thoughts we've got memes uh spoilers for like packed and i'll be reading the easiest way to read this for sure oh my gosh yeah For sure. The easiest way to reach us is with a financial contribution.
00:03:06
Speaker
but One dollar a month. One dollar a month. That's all it takes. Or more. Or more. We're still waiting for that golden morning membership. You know, still open. One slot only.
Arc 11 Discussion Setup
00:03:22
Speaker
Yep. You needed worthy investments. true ah We also have merch if you want to support us in that way and also want to wear Brockton Bay Book Club stuff. As you can see, Nick is modeling our Brockton Bay ah Book Club Tee, ringer tee, and I am modeling the Brockton Bay's sweatshirt here. Ta-da! Very soft, very cozy. Really fuzzy, but...
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, very comfortable, very fuzzy. um And Alan is modeling the not-for-sale Chicago Ward sweatshirt, ah which ah was made just for fun. P.O.T. Chicago. Yeah, it's it's a good time.
00:04:02
Speaker
ah But you can find that link in ah our bio or under this YouTube video, if that's where you're watching it right now. And ah get a T-shirt or a sweatshirt. Maybe treat yourself for the holidays. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds when you say support us by getting those, that sounds like we make actually any money off. No, we make like a dollar basically per. Yeah, basically we're selling the the T-shirts and sweatshirts that cost. So we're making maybe a dollar per item. Yeah, it's more were buying those as a moral support. yeah but Yeah, more than anything else. Shows you care. Repping us on the streets.
Arc 11 Initial Thoughts
00:04:35
Speaker
It shows your character.
00:04:39
Speaker
All right, enough peddling. Let's get into this. Let's get into this. First thoughts, first impressions of the opening half of ARC 11 Binding.
00:04:53
Speaker
Hannah, what were your thoughts?
00:04:59
Speaker
This one was uncomfy a bit at times. And then more uncomfy at later times. ah it was It was good. I liked the tempo. um We had us jumping around. It did feel ah at times like we're just biding our time for the big stuff. And so like I feel like the second half of this arc is going to end up being a lot.
00:05:24
Speaker
um But yeah, no. ah i Yes, I have a lot of thoughts, but overall, I feel like this was pretty good. um We're getting into some of the more meat of the story and some of the more consequences to our actions and the problems that are going to end up being bigger than thought and problems of the world and and stuff like that. So, ah yeah,
00:05:50
Speaker
ah comfy, but, you know, fun.
00:05:56
Speaker
Jacob. Yeah, you know, it's funny because I think it was like last episode or or two, I said something to the effect of, oh man, we're kind of splitting every arc in two now just because of length. And so we're going to, it's a lot of like, going to be a lot of buildup at the beginning end of the arc and then the the resolution or the payoff in the back half. That being said, this first half was pretty exciting.
00:06:24
Speaker
dare I say, the best fight scene yet. We'll get into I'm sure. But I'm just going submit that for consideration. I like this this first bit quite a bit.
00:06:39
Speaker
It was a good read.
00:06:44
Speaker
ah Nick? Yeah, not much else add. This one, ironically, even though it is only half of it, Where we ended does feel like it could have been the end of the arc conclusively enough. So I'm curious what the second half entails. um I know there's a couple of interludes and things like that, but um it did feel like, oh, this is a bit of an end, right? The fight scene with Lord of Lost ends. i will tentatively agree with you, Jacob, about the fight scene as we'll get into that later.
00:07:18
Speaker
I think it's certainly one of the more interesting dynamics that we've seen in a fight scene um and really allow some characters to shine that haven't shown before as well as introducing some new powers that were pretty cool to watch go to town on people. So um overall, very good.
00:07:37
Speaker
ah But still a lot of, in spite of that, too, a lot of personal moments as well where it felt like we were getting some good character character growth and character moments as well. um yeah yeah and as for myself I also really enjoyed the character moments we had at the up front um the fight scene I think is very emblematic of all of the combat and ward
00:08:09
Speaker
um in both good and I'll say a little bit of bad ways but ah definitely like It is ward combat in a nutshell.
00:08:21
Speaker
um And yeah, it's a really memorable arc for me. um This is one that stood out and i that i like remember. were a couple that were fuzzy and I recall one or two things, but this one, it's just got so many good interactions.
00:08:38
Speaker
Love it. I do feel like the inclusion of body horror helps it be memorable too. Mm-hmm. i have shock yeahp um Also, actor indeed word count wise, we're close, but we're not.
00:08:53
Speaker
I don't think we're there yet. ah But this is arc 11. We are over halfway through the arcs. oo Oh, wow. Wow. but We're 20 years toward.
00:09:08
Speaker
That doesn't feel right, but. wow The numbers don't lie. Yeah. I mean, granted, you know, after like the first, what, two? The first two were like 58,000. Then you have like 47,000 and then 83,000. And then everything after that is like, oh no, it dips back down. Then it's like 50,000, 50,000, 80,000. And now we're in the, after arc nine, it's exclusively over a hundred thousands, um, or at least around a hundred 90,000.
Victoria's Actions and Chaos Management
00:09:40
Speaker
So,
00:09:41
Speaker
um Yeah, we're we're at cruising altitude right now. Exactly. They're all going to be about this size. Yeah, ah oof yeah. Yeah. But ah really excited to talk about this. Nick, go ahead and kick us off. What are we doing in 11.1? Let's jump right into it. 11.1.
00:10:04
Speaker
Victoria distracts herself from revelations about Chris by stopping Bitter Pill's group from busting out their allies, and they negotiate a brief respite from um them.
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah, very simple chapter, I felt like, for me. um Just sort of setting up this rising chaos and conflict that's going on post- ah post arc 10, post everything going on from the prison. Still, there's a lot going on, especially with the assault on the teams. I am still kind of interested in that this idea of the chaos theory, right? Like somebody's trying to bubble up a lot of chaos for some bigger reason. um And I feel like this kind of contributes to that theory ah where it's like, oh, there's just a lot going on. There's too many things going on for the heroes to handle.
00:10:54
Speaker
yeah. so Whether it's another entity or whether it's another parahuman like Sleeper or somebody else who's trying to bubble up a bunch of conflict for the sake of conflict and chaos, I feel like there's something bigger going on with it.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah.
Chris's Betrayal and Team Dynamics
00:11:11
Speaker
Along those lines, just thinking about that... um You know, everybody gives a lot of praise to a Joker in Dark Knight, you know, being this just chaotic element. it's like, what are you, what is your purpose? It's like basically to sow chaos.
00:11:27
Speaker
um i like the idea in this of like, if, you know, as you're saying, if that were true, like, what is the bigger goal though? It's like, oh, well, if you sow enough chaos, know,
00:11:41
Speaker
essentially the Endbringers show up or something. You know, olden times, that would have been the case. Enough chaos goes on, Leviathan shows up. Yeah, exactly. And could potentially instigate that on purpose.
00:11:53
Speaker
um You know. Exactly, yeah. We know that the entities are inherently conflict-driven beings.
00:12:04
Speaker
And so even after their deaths, it makes sense that parahumans would revel in conflict and chaos just because of that nature the whole entity and agent versus the person thing going on so I i feel like maybe there's something there but don't know could just be the worlds in chaos and that's just the way things are now welcome to the new normal everything's chaos and we're all freezing yeah yeah yeah yeah I like the there's another one of those
00:12:41
Speaker
There's so much going on in this chapter. i kind of thought, did I miss a chapter? Because we kick right off in the middle of it. oh Yeah. ah But ah it's very... i like the the... This is how the world is now, where before you probably wouldn't have had a negotiation with...
00:13:06
Speaker
villains Villains also wouldn't be attacking what is essentially a minor police station. um Yeah. yeah yeah You know, um and and, you know, it's very not the norm of how things were in Brockton Bay.
00:13:23
Speaker
But here you've got them holed up. these you know these crazy monsters you know from Bitter Pill. And eventually they come out to do a negotiation and they're like, hey, you know you take a couple days off, you pay for the damages to the building, we give you your people back. like There's this whole negotiation process between them and like the villains clearly have different priorities and different...
00:13:53
Speaker
um Things amongst themselves like nobody feels as villainous as they once did almost like the things that people are doing are very mercenary, but for the purpose of like making it through the winter, like yeah it it doesn't feel as
00:14:15
Speaker
childish and at the same time like selfish as it once did we're like why are you robbing the bank it's like oh so we can get money it's like are you starving to death was like well no i just i like money and here it's like you know a little bit of that but it's also like well you know we want to have a heater and you know yeah that costs money you know, we want food and that costs money.
00:14:40
Speaker
To bring in the a bit of the future too, right? We get that a bit with the mercenaries where Victoria's like, why the hell are you still fighting? And they're like, because we need home homes for our yeah families. Yeah, housing crisis still hits hard it was after the apocalypse.
00:14:59
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah 2008 housing crisis really hit the worm universe pretty hard. yeah it's It's the alternate thing where like when they talk about like we we got 9-11, they got ah the Endbringers, and it's like we got the 2008 housing crisis, they got the 2018 housing crisis.
00:15:16
Speaker
They got Gold Morning, we got the 2000s. As if those are comparable in any way. Right. Basically the same thing. Yeah.
00:15:28
Speaker
Basically, yeah. if Yeah, it's it's interesting. Victoria notes in this ah verse chapter here, that the guy who's like running stuff at this police station or wherever it really is.
00:15:43
Speaker
That he used to be PRT, but like he was part of a tiny little branch in a small town, and he was a paper pusher. like He was a paper pusher in a team of like six. And she's like, cool, great. This is who I'm working with. like Okay, cool. Just to show how... Surprisingly reliable in this tough situation. Yeah, ends up being totally great. Reads the the situation perfectly. ah But still, you're all the move.
00:16:12
Speaker
yeah yeah but yeah to your point though hannah yeah still shows how like desperate they are for people and yes how stretched thin they are how the world is yeah that we're like desperate for anybody who was part of the previous order who like understands the systems because like we see a lot like with the uh master stranger protocols that if you weren't in prt or wards you don't know some of the terminology and some of the things that have been set in place or, you know, a situation like that. And so it's like, okay, well, who do we who do we have who knows the protocols?
00:16:44
Speaker
Like, well, okay, you know, Paper Pusher Dave over here, or whatever his name is, I don't remember. ah You know, he can
Imp's Attack and Victoria's Research
00:16:50
Speaker
help us out. Like, okay, cool. Great. Paper Pusher Dave. Killing it.
00:16:56
Speaker
Perfect.
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah, but, ah then and and alongside the other things that sort of indicative of the rest of the the world and we'll get into later on is that, um, you know, the, ah the amount of emotions going on in the battle with Victoria thinking about her own emotions, the emotions of the enemy, people inside, you know, i think this is even the start where she, she ought already has all just called Dean thoughts, um,
00:17:36
Speaker
I want to say it happens in this and throughout the rest of the arc too. Um, that like just starts off very emotionally charged and the rest of the rest the arc kind of continues with that. so yeah.
00:17:55
Speaker
but any other thoughts before we move to 11.2? was two i was just looking back. Yeah, not too much. I was just looking back at the, uh,
00:18:06
Speaker
characters who are there so it's bitter pill is kind of in charge we've met her before um i believe right uh she's the one that put the stuff in the prison yes yes yes no um but then the one that stood out to me was bird brain who has like near perfect tracking which I thought was really interesting it's like almost like a piece of yeah almost like a piece of like Contessa's power with like being able to see exactly like the right place to to shoot things I thought was interesting none of the other ones really do much but ah but bird brains just that little thing of like okay if she aims at you she's guaranteed to hit what she wants which is like just again that like
00:18:56
Speaker
had them ah Crazy powers like that, right? Guns. yeah good A good shooter. Good sniper. snipers And blue stalking. blue stocking blue stocking yeah there's a Bitter Pill, Foggy Idea, Blue Stalking, and Birdbrain. And they're there to get Aetna and Cresting. But we don't really see many of the other powers. It's mainly Bitter Pill's powers that are at work.
00:19:19
Speaker
ah Rioting the mob and making them superpowered. So... and It feels like such an overkill reaction for just breaking out to two villains. Like, oh, y'all went y'all went ham. Jeez.
00:19:36
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. You don't care. You don't care, I guess. yeah and As Bernard pointed out in chat, yay, no first chapter 40 minutes this time around. Bernard, I'd like to point out that it is currently. Hold on.
00:19:52
Speaker
It is currently 8.42, which means we have been doing this for 40 minutes. Technically. Technically. Not quite, but... But we can move on to 11.42. Also, Bernard, are you telling me you don't like it when we spend 40 minutes talking about Chapter 1? Because I also don't like it when we spend 40 minutes talking about Chapter 1. But, you know, it happens. It happens.
00:20:18
Speaker
We gotta get our wiggles out. I'm trying to read this new dis name tag. Vati needs a pina colada. I think that's Vick. We're so happy to have you here.
00:20:31
Speaker
Really? Maybe. Is it a new... We're about to find out. Anyways, moving on. They'll theyll let us know. Yeah. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. Either way, I'm happy to be have you here.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. 11.2. 11.2.
00:20:49
Speaker
him Vicky thinks back to her past and tells the team about
Side Piece Interlude and Alliances
00:20:54
Speaker
Chris. They discuss what Labrat did before the birdcage. Kenzie takes it hard, but gives the team access to Tattletail's notes.
00:21:06
Speaker
Oh, poor Kenzie. Honestly, the summary focuses on Kenzie, but I think I felt worse for Rain in the moment, right? Yeah, so did I. Kinsey being in denial makes sense, but Rain being like, I i thought he was my friend. was like, yeah yeah i don't know. There's just something about his quiet sadness that is more sad to me than Kinsey being like, it's fine. No, it's totally not that. like he's not that He's not a bad guy.
00:21:35
Speaker
so what if he was bad? He was my friend. Yeah. Yeah. ah Yes. Vic, it is good to have you. Oh, it's Vicky. There we go. Always. Yeah.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, that's tough. And i yeah, it's with Kenzie too, like the, the giggling, the nervous giggling that she just like can't seem to stop. I, because her, you know, emotional responses are so usually completely inverted. to me, that's the equivalent of like her sitting at the table and just quietly crying to herself. Like, yeah,
00:22:16
Speaker
that This yeah realizing that like, oh my God, wait, what? What? yeah like her immediate impulse to defend him and be like, well, no like Chris is different. he's He's a clone. Maybe he's not a bad guy. Like Ashley is a clone and she's not bad. and But then like the sensitive nature of it because Labrat experimented on people much like Cauldron did. So it's very sensitive for him.
00:22:45
Speaker
soveta And with animals and human bodies, much like Victoria's experience. So it's like, yes it's hard because you understand her reaction to be defensive, but it's like with the worst people, right? It'd be like right trying to, i don't know, I'm trying to think of a good analogy.
00:23:05
Speaker
But like, yeah find it trying to defend trying to defend your friend who got caught drunk driving to two moms who lost kids to drunk drivers, you know? like Yeah, yes absolutely. No, but my friend's not a terrible person. I know he did it once, but he's not a terrible person, you know? And it's like, a wrong wrong audience to try to defend that too.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah. the The conversation went about, went about as honestly as well as I think it could have gone, all things considering. True. um Yeah. Yeah. I think so as well.
00:23:39
Speaker
We'll see. Obviously, there's going to be a ah lot more that happens there, so I'm curious. I will say on a funnier note, ah this is why you've got to be very careful when you're Googling...
00:23:52
Speaker
Worm stuff online. Just, you know, you gotta watch out for spoilers. I didn't have this spoiled, but I'm realizing, thinking back, that it it kind of spoiled it. So, months ago, i was trying to remember when the very first Endbringer attack was, so I just, I googled, like, the Perihumans timeline, and I was just looking back in, like, the 80s, right, behemoth attacks, and I'm kind of just scanning through, and it says at one point, forget what the year was, 1980-something, Lab Rat Born, and I remember thinking at the time,
00:24:22
Speaker
Why the hell? Why do we care? It was like next to, you know, Eidolon. Oh my gosh. He was attacking us like, oh no. It's lab rat's birth on the timeline. Who cares? Because he would come to betray us Now we know. Turns out he was a rat. He was a rat the whole time. That's crazy. Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
ah Yeah, I... I will, yeah, I will say, echo what you said, Jacob.
Weld and Sveta's Relationship
00:24:52
Speaker
The, the, this went about as good as it could have gone.
00:24:55
Speaker
Like, we could have had a full blow-up. Kenzie eventually, like, you know, she leaves with with um with Ashley, and they, you know, kind of step out. and i i was preparing for, like, a team fracture. Yeah.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, i was I thought there was going to be a full... Because the way that Kenzie was going, i was like... i was i What I thought was going to happen is she's, you know, saying this, and they're all like, Kenzie, stop.
00:25:22
Speaker
Talking, like, stop. I thought Sveta was going to, like, tentacle whip something because of how yeah upsetting this is and the fact that Kenzie is, you know, trying to ah trying to make it be okay.
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah, i did love um I did love the way that Victoria had this mental plan, right? And I think it was smart the way she did it, breaking them up into groups and talking them separately. Yeah. But then like she's like, okay, I've got this plan, right? My uncle taught me this like you know trauma plan, which I love.
00:25:53
Speaker
um And then she's like, okay, they get back and they're like, okay, now we need to tell Kinsey and Chris. And she's like, okay, I'm going to do my plan. And Tristan's just like, he's fucking lab rat. Tristan, shut the fuck up. Don't quiet. oh It was great. But yeah, it went about as well as you could expect, I think, given...
00:26:17
Speaker
the whole situation vic if i were going to rate lab rat i would put him possibly s tier rat um you know the other rats i think of you think of like uh chariot um chariot probably like i guess c tier rat because they knew he was a rat the whole time um but you know he still did his job you know of being a rat So, you know, I'm sure if you have any other rats that you'd like to let us know about, um absolutely. need to revisit our rat bracket. was going to say our rat bracket. If you don't know what we're talking about, you're clearly not a patron.
00:26:59
Speaker
You got to be a patron. The rat down. The full rodent tier list. Rodent tier list. We did do that. yes or ah Not a tier list. It was a um battle royale yeah sort of thing. that was battle Yeah, yeah yeah ah it was a Yeah. a, what's it called? the The March Madness bracket system. Yeah. madness.
00:27:20
Speaker
bratt rat madness March ratness. That's true. Skitter was going to be a rat originally. um
00:27:33
Speaker
and But she also didn't do a great job. and Yeah, was going to say, she's like D-tier rat because she is failed as a rat. Yeah. She got assimilated. i's Yeah, that's true.
00:27:45
Speaker
um But yeah, ah anything else in this this section? i don't have any thoughts on this other than really sucks. Tristan got really interesting out really angry.
00:27:56
Speaker
Which makes sense, of course. They're all dealing with the different stages of grief here in this moment. But I don't think i I expected him to get so angry. And for Rain to be so sad. Yeah, didn't he switch to Byron? Just because he was so mad? like You get so upset that you just give up some of your time in in the world.
00:28:16
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Because I mean, he's still thinking, but at least he gets to essentially like walk off in his head. Yeah. and like yeah because it It was after he had the outburst and Victoria was like, hey...
00:28:26
Speaker
you know, let's be careful how we handle this. And he's like, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm going to go for a bit. and Byron's got this. Yeah. Hey, brother. Sorry. I just worked up the crowd. Here you go.
00:28:41
Speaker
Got him ready for you. Yeah. All right. I'm, I'm also really glad. Um, what's her name was there. What's the lawyer's name? and i can't Natalie. Yes. I'm really glad Natalie was there. Kind of as like a, uh,
00:28:57
Speaker
you know, third party. What's the word I'm looking for? ah
00:29:03
Speaker
my gosh, my brain is so... Just a neutral observer. Thank you. Neutral observer. Yeah, yeah. Just a neutral party to kind of be there and like observe and know and kind of see how this is unfolding with the group and stuff.
00:29:18
Speaker
Jacob in an odd nostalgia. Um, there was a time where a roommate of yours was going through a terrible breakup. And, I, it was the first time I'd introduced our Taylor to your crowd of people. Um,
00:29:32
Speaker
you cause I think we're coming over to play a game or something. We came over and that was his first experience was hearing this entire breakdown. Oh no. And, ah you know, getting like a two hour breakdown of the entirety of this, of your roommates, uh, love life. Um,
00:29:53
Speaker
And he was just sitting there just going, uh-huh. Wow. and That is, I imagine Natalie having to deal with that's the lab rat situation.
Team Alliances and Character Motivations
00:30:01
Speaker
Like, yeah I mean, I didn't know him that well from the, you know, three times we'd interacted.
00:30:07
Speaker
Right. But holy shit, that sounds bad. yeah wow I love that wild bow. Yeah. Every, every group he was, he realized early on, on every, every Cape group needs their Sierra, their, their Natalie. yes yeah there Yes. Oh my gosh.
00:30:23
Speaker
yeah i mean and so true and the To that degree, that's literally Justice League Unlimited why they bring in a Green Arrow. Like, we need guys like you to keep guys like us accountable, you know, and grounded because we don't have the non-powered, just a dude with some arrows and a shit ton of money. Yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
ah It kind of breaks down when I say like that. was going to say, we need a billionaire so badly. So that we can keep our moral compass. No, no, no. Because they you have a millionaire. You need a hippie millionaire. Because you already have Batman.
00:31:03
Speaker
You need like Green Arrows. You're hippie millionaire. yeah yeah You're a commie. Two billionaires are always better than one, always say. Exactly. They balance each other out. as They always balance each other out. Oh, my gosh.
00:31:21
Speaker
Let's continue. you Let's do it. Yeah, so, yeah, Chicken Little playing a risky game. so pool Risky business, let me tell you. I forgot about it for the interlude last time, too. Like, yeah yep. Oopsies.
00:31:37
Speaker
You know, you want them to be friends so badly because they need friends. But also, they should, like, be in a room with, like, a deck of Uno cards and no electronics.
00:31:53
Speaker
Exactly. like No, as as one one commenter said, they said, wow, Aiden is really testing the boundaries of Tattletail's care for him.
00:32:05
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Tattletail's patience as well. Just wow. like like ah Such a bold move, buddy. Right? She's about to hit a button on her desk and be like, we've got a code Aster on our hands.
00:32:19
Speaker
yeah No. God.
00:32:25
Speaker
I have to go in and drag Taylor out of the alternate dimension. We've got to come back with more job. last take. Just when I thought I was out.
00:32:38
Speaker
They bring me back. He's like, well, he's like 11. They're like, well he's he's like eleven they're like It's too old. I can't do it. I can't i' got you old They're getting too old for this shit. Hold on.
00:32:57
Speaker
I've got so many meme ideas to make now. oh yeah and But what if I told you it was a child? You son of a bitch. I'm in. Thank you, Michael. Oh,
00:33:09
Speaker
oh but thank you michael or deskic oh All right. oh oh Well, 11.3, shall we? Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:25
Speaker
All righty. Vicky takes Kinsey to a sleepover at the Ashley's and does cape research. Then the group fends off an attack from Imp and Breakthrough cuts a deal with the Undersiders.
00:33:40
Speaker
There's a lot of the that you're just starting with the first half before imp attacks um is quite fascinating. Just kind of getting into all of the Cape powers and um the scene of the Ashley's fighting in the kitchen feels very much like because somebody lacerated the nice bed sheets. I bought those bed sheets. They were going to lacerate our money.
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah. yeah You wouldn't have anything without me. They're so like married couple bickering. It's so funny. go That's what I'm telling you. Energy, it's there.
00:34:20
Speaker
and then with Kinsey being like, I always fall asleep to a screen being on and Victoria's like, you know, maybe that's maybe you shouldn't do that every night. Let's relax. yeah Turn the brain off, Kinsey.
00:34:31
Speaker
um I'm trying to remember more of the cape research. I remember thinking it was interesting, but then... um I can't remember specifics of what, what it was she was looking at. i didn't write it down in my notes either.
00:34:46
Speaker
um She was, she figured out who it was that she had been trapped in the arena bubble with.
Power Dynamics and Heartbroken
00:34:51
Speaker
um So she figured out who that was. and of And we had a little bit more information about Goddess's cluster and the people who were in that. Right. um Who have kind of ah ah embedded themselves into the new world, as it were. um Remade names for themselves. um And I think one of them had joined, not with the Shepherds, but with...
00:35:20
Speaker
somebody else is it the shepherds maybe i can't remember it doesn't matter um but yeah just it's a lot of like connecting the dots and being able to categorize people into like oh okay well this is a threat this is a problem you know these are our known factors stuff like that yeah yeah yeah yeah But like, Vicky's been collecting information since the beginning, like back when she was with Bill Patrick and them, like her office was full of binders and papers and stuff because she's been collecting all this information for so long as, you know, resources for the system being basically down and lacking so much information.
00:35:59
Speaker
And so like. To have like all this stuff and all these papers and folders and then now there's gasoline all over it. God damn God damn it, Imp.
00:36:16
Speaker
and that seems to be like... was just to did you guys know it was Imp? like How long did it it take you to realize it was Imp? It took me a minute. yeah I didn't i didn't quite didn't quite get what was going on when I was...
00:36:29
Speaker
That was Bernard's question. but He's like, when did you realize it was Imp? So perfect segue. Wasn't even looking at chat. There you go. I'm trying to think of who I thought it was initially. don't remember if I had a good thought. Because I want to say, for me, it was like the second break, we'll call it.
00:36:52
Speaker
Because the first break's pretty quick, if I remember right, where they're like... oh, something weird's going on here. And then by the second break, you're like, oh, I saw a person and then they were gone.
00:37:04
Speaker
And you're like, hmm. Yeah. kind of written the way...
00:37:10
Speaker
yeah Yeah, you get the sense like something's missing and that is usually a clue of Imp. Although it's it's funny, they mention doesn't don't they mention she has like a hairy man's arm for her missing Yes, because remember she has the missing arm. It's the missing arm, they haven't gotten it back yet. And so the that's like her the hairy man's arm isn't fully imbued with her power.
00:37:36
Speaker
So you don't remember seeing a person, but I remember seeing a man's arm. That's hilarious. Which is funny to me. A very hairy man's arm.
00:37:48
Speaker
yeah yeah it's like Do you think her and Forrest hold up their arms to see who's got more hair? i What I'm imagining is... 100%. Believe it. if you I don't know if you guys watched a lot of Powerpuff Girls as kids, but the episode where the three men dress up as the Powerpuff Girls... and Yes. Yes.
00:38:05
Speaker
like I'm just imagining this like imp, but with like one of those men's arms of just like this big gorilla man arm. of it's weird Yeah. Also, Jacob, that meme that you put in Patreon exclusive Discord server.
00:38:21
Speaker
Very funny. There you go. That is very funny. Wow. what ah what a What an image. how it yeah um Vic asks, how would you guys rate Tattletail as a mom?
00:38:37
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Tattletail is just crushing it compared to everyone's least favorite. As a mom? but I mean, A tier? Better than Kale.
00:38:49
Speaker
first well Way better than Carol. i mean i would say I would say the issue is Tattletail is the classic overworked... You know she reminds me of, actually? She reminds me of Hogarth's mom from the Iron Giant. Ah, yes. yeah She's just like... Every time with Aiden, she's just like...
00:39:09
Speaker
Aiden, I got a headache. I've been working all day. i don't want to deal with you right now. Just stop. And and so he just goes off and gets into trouble. And he he's like, he's like, oh, Aiden, dang it.
00:39:20
Speaker
yeah yeah I'm trying to save up money for your college so that you can go off and you're set to be a good supervillain. And because that's what you said, what you want to do. if, if If Aiden was like, I just want to go to school to be an engineer, you know for sure that's all Tattletail would have done for him, would have been like, okay, go be an engineer. I'll make sure that you get a job. I'll make sure that he'll, then the the whole thing is like, oh man, it's so tough when your mother, your surrogate mother is a super villain that is basically in control of the city.
00:39:54
Speaker
you know And you're just trying to do things on your own. You're always second guessing yourself. like Did I get into college on my own merits or did my supervillain surrogate mother like bribe somebody to let me in? like a right right As Fran points out, then Rachel's your aunt.
00:40:11
Speaker
yeah Yes. that's great Well, if you you remember, I believe the heartbroken all the way back at the epilogue of... They call her Aunt Rachel. I'm pretty sure. and that you should Bernard asks, would Tattletail be a good mother to Lookout?
00:40:33
Speaker
Or would Lookout be better off with Tattletail? i oh I think. I don't think so I think there would be a... along Okay, okay, here's the thing.
00:40:45
Speaker
If Tattletail is forced to take care of Lookout, I think that they synergize both power-wise and control-wise really well.
00:40:59
Speaker
Because... Tattletail is pretty strict on her information control and stuff. And if she had been the one working with Tattletail from an early age and is forced to deal with her, then she is like, I think she lays a lot of those hard rules that like, Hey, you can't do this. You can't do that.
00:41:22
Speaker
You know, you have to operate this way. And I think it would actually be a lot better for her than, you know, her shitty serial killer parents.
Love Lost and Cradle's Plot
00:41:33
Speaker
Well, yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah, if you're if you're talking from the beginning, i think Tattletail is an incredible person to pair up with any new cape. I mean, just her power gives her such great insight into knowing how to navigate that. So, yeah, if she was if she was around from the beginning, absolutely. If it's if it's late stage, you know, foster mom at this age...
00:41:54
Speaker
Yeah. A little tougher. She's like running Tattletail into an early grave. Yeah, absolutely, right? Whereas, like, their powers synergize so well, but they'd have to be in agreement.
00:42:04
Speaker
And I don't know that they would be in agreement of how to use their powers. And i think they would both feel an invasion of privacy and a sense of Lookout being, like,
00:42:15
Speaker
you're always, you always know what I'm doing, even if I don't tell you. And Tattletail's like, well, yeah, right back at you. like Yeah. yeah for really I think, I think that for, uh, for Lookout, she wouldn't care. Like, oh yeah, I'm an open book. Look at me. And Tattletail's like, no, don't do that. Don't be open. Exactly. You got to shut that down.
00:42:38
Speaker
Um, great question. Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
Sorry, go ahead. was going to say, I think Tattletail would be great as a mentor for Lookout. But like you said, ah and honestly, maybe even now, but it would have to be like, look, girl, I will shoot you if you do not follow these rules.
00:43:03
Speaker
And Lookout being like, I'm just happy to be around a villain who wants to mentor me. yeah And I think if you had that and like Tattletail would absolutely like use the ever living daylights out of her. But I think yeah would also have the wherewithal to be like, I know her limits because her limits are kind of my limits as a thinker of like, I get massive migraines and will work myself to the bone.
00:43:31
Speaker
She will still not take care of herself, but she will make sure that the person who has the exact same problems doesn't do it. Like no, no, no devices after nine o'clock.
00:43:42
Speaker
Like Tattletail would be all over that shit. Exactly.
00:43:52
Speaker
ah ah but Back to the arc, though, I do love the appearance of Imp anytime her power appears, especially when we see it from an outside perspective. It's so fascinating.
00:44:03
Speaker
Where it's the like, wait, why is there gasoline over here all of a sudden? Oh my gosh, everything's ruined. What is happening? Just the confusion she causes and so much more is so interesting just from a power perspective. It's always...
00:44:18
Speaker
unique. I think something that stood out to me as well, though, is that Tattletail, I think, reveals that there are people who are looking into the time bubbles. Yeah. Specifically looking into trying to break Jack out of his bubble.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yep. Well, that doesn't she say she's like, they think it's Jack, but then Tattletail says something to the effect of no, nobody's that stupid. so Yeah. yeah is it Is it him or is it... is They were looking at Dauntless...
00:44:47
Speaker
lookness um yeah It's Dauntless and the two white supremacists. one Yeah. Yeah. The ones in Brockton Day. Jotun and Alabaster.
00:45:00
Speaker
yeah Alabaster. But i think I think she said that they're worried they're looking at them so that they can help Jack as well. Like there's a concern that's connected to Jack um in some way.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I was just like, oh my gosh, what a what a callback that would be. the This villain you think who's taken care of permanently is back in commission somehow. i I gotta say, though, like, i I am all for bringing back old people that we dealt with before. i think if we bring back Jack, I'm really hoping it doesn't happen. It's gonna feel like the Slaughterhouse 9000. Like,
00:45:40
Speaker
let Let Jack lie. we've got We've got so many other things and problems and interesting people. Like, Jack, obviously, big problem. Clearly.
00:45:51
Speaker
But I don't. i'm I'm over Jack. Like, Jack was great. Love Jack, obviously, not Worm. But i don't I don't want him in Ward. He can stay. It'd kind of the somehow Palpatine returned of Ward, I think, if Jack comes Yeah, it's just, it doesn't. we There are so many other worst people. Yeah, we've got so many other things that we can look I used to imagine him going toe-to-toe with, like, Love Lost. And sure, he's got his little danger sense, but Love Lost just goat looks at him and he's like, don't you know who I am, Jack Slash? And he tries to slash at her and she just runs up and just eviscerates him and he's like, oh, what the fuck? And dies on a street in Hollow Point. Like, that's what happens to him. she's like He's like, don't you know who I am? And everybody's like, your time is over, old man. and
00:46:35
Speaker
yeah I do think it's an interesting concept, though, because you could play around like someone like Dauntless who might have... When when was he frozen? like How long ago? the bathan fight It was during Leviathan? Because they were using the Bakuda time bombs.
00:46:50
Speaker
Oh, right. gosh I was trying to remember how he got God. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, you're talking four years that he's been in stasis, essentially. Yeah. So, like, his mind can't be all there. So, like, that's kind of would be interesting to see someone like that who you would expect yeah would be probably more of a hero but could have ah a pretty significant side effects.
00:47:12
Speaker
but kind of Oh, yeah. yeah for sure That would be interesting, yeah. For sure. Yeah, because those aren't like the other ones where they're speeding up time. These are... Yeah, these are stasis bubbles.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And I think they mentioned there's a couple people who have ventured into them that are also... Like, they don't know exactly who they are, but there were a couple of curious seekers who were like, oh, there's yeah materials inside of there that we could use if we can get them out.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, the gold and some other stuff. Yeah, so... So it's, I mean, there could be a whole ecosystem in there, right? Like a separate reality almost um in that stasis bubble. We don't really know.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Very weird. hand Very interesting.
00:47:58
Speaker
m Well, cutting a deal with the Undersiders to work together is always ah always a pleasure. I'm glad to see. i mean, honestly, the more Undersider time we get, the better. I'm happy Never complaining about more Undersiders time. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. Agreed.
00:48:13
Speaker
And I like that they've kept that name too, right? They're still the Undersiders after yeah the brand and if shoes the angels. you know yeah They've got good brand recognition for sure. well They really do. Should we get to Hannah's favorite interlude, I assume?
00:48:28
Speaker
Hell yeah. Because I know how much you love Side Piece, Hannah. oh i Your favorite villain of all time, Hannah. It's Side Piece. Time to get all up in them guts with Side Piece. Let's go. ah yeah eleven a Side Piece and Disjoint surveil the meeting from the last chapter. They take the top card of their library, put it into their graveyard, and inform Love Lost's team of the results before meeting with Cradle.
00:49:00
Speaker
um Yeah, so I will say I really do like the insight into side piece and disjoints powers. That is really cool. That's probably the coolest part of this interlude is getting a a picture of how their powers actually work.
00:49:18
Speaker
Basically that like side pieces organs are no longer just organs. They're like slowly growing bombs that she has to release. and like Like she can like do things she can purposefully like it sounded like from what she was saying she could, for example, purposefully over drink way too much soda to give herself a bunch of kidney stones so that when she throws her kidneys, it's like a shrapnel bomb. yeah oh my god yeah weird and she can feel them like brewing inside her she can feel all of her organs like what they do because each organ has a different thing like muscles are a flat concussive uh the liver and stuff is like you know and stomach are like acidic or skin weird you know gas bombs um you know yeah some do splash damage um
00:50:16
Speaker
And then Disjoint's whole thing being like he can teleport pieces of himself around basically. Yeah. basically You know, so he's like, take my eyeballs, put them over there. just let me just His long distance judo with the one guy in combat where he takes his arm and it like grabs the guy and like that throws him over.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah. I'm thinking about the the detachable kid from Suicide Squad. just like pops off an arm, just like flies it over to the enemy and just starts, you know, slapping him in the face. professionalness Yeah, exactly. Same thing. Super, super fun little... I really felt like this interlude didn't contribute much to the story except making us realize Love Lost and Cradle are together.
00:51:02
Speaker
Like that they're already working together and that's like all... That was the whole point of the interlude. It's like, oh, Love Loss and Cradle are working together and they're going to talk to March. and i was i was trying to think if, did we, because the last I remember of Cradle was the fight where he goes down. Fallen fight.
00:51:20
Speaker
Yeah, the Fallen fight. And Tattletail was like, yeah. And they stick him in prison. Right. And did we not get an update? Like, this is the next time i've seen him? Okay. Okay, I just want to make sure i wasn't missing anything.
00:51:32
Speaker
So wait, was he ah in the prison break prison? Yep. He just wasn't... We just didn't see him during that film. out. He just got out.
00:51:44
Speaker
I'm sure he was mentioned. I mean, a lot of fucking people got out, but like, he didn't try and... is Isn't Rain? Rain's there. didn trying yeah right He also doesn't have any of his Tinker stuff. Yeah, he wouldn't have had any of his Tinker stuff. That's true, I guess. ah He's just a nerdy dude.
00:52:01
Speaker
Yeah, unlike the others. Just nerdy man. yeah Unlike the other three, it really does feel like cradle Cradle's tinker power is really impressive, but it feels like he doesn't have hardly any of the other powers.
00:52:15
Speaker
Besides the balancing power, maybe. you know the Being able to balance on all of his hands and stuff. so it it did yeah yeah I can imagine he's just like, and I'm not... like you know Goddess is throwing buildings outside. He's like, I'm staying put. I'm not going anywhere. That looks rough.
00:52:32
Speaker
so Yeah, that's a problem for somebody else. Yeah. um Yeah, so it makes sense that he could escape unseen because he also maybe just looks like a regular guy and nobody thinks twice or too hard about it.
00:52:46
Speaker
Yeah, um but otherwise, though, it just feels like, okay, yeah, duh. Of course, Love, Lost, and Cradle are talking and they're so they're still both on the same side of just like, look, if we're going to kill one member of our cluster, it's going to be, it's going to be rain. It's not going to be each other. Right. oh Yeah.
00:53:05
Speaker
So. um There was one other thing that I kind of wondered if, because again, that this interlude does feel kind of sort of useless, but okay.
00:53:15
Speaker
um
00:53:18
Speaker
Later,
00:53:21
Speaker
Later, when Victoria is hacking into Lovelace's phone or computer and is, like, canceling all the payments and whatnot, there's this there's a text message that she sends, and she thinks to herself, I hope they don't call.
00:53:38
Speaker
Then, you know, we'd be screwed. But we know from the interlude that Lovelace doesn't talk. Does the Victoria not know that Lovelace doesn't talk? Or is that just some dumb thing that I hyper fixated on?
00:53:52
Speaker
It might be that she doesn't know if she doesn't talk. Like, it could be like she saves her power or like she just chooses not to. doesn't the specifics. Yeah, because she doesn't talk at all in the interlude and it kind of feels very much like...
00:54:07
Speaker
she can't or, you know, or chooses not to or something. And then later, if that's like a a worry of Victoria, so like, oh no, if they call, you know, they want to talk to her, that's going to be a problem. It's like, okay, well, no one's going i know that.
00:54:20
Speaker
just Probably doesn't know. Yeah. I mean, it could be that they call somebody else's on the phone and basically talks for her, like everything else. That makes sense. That makes sense. Cause, um, who is it? Who the claw? Yeah.
00:54:33
Speaker
Nailbiter. Nailbiter is kind of the spokesperson for her at times.
00:54:41
Speaker
but Yeah. yeah okay interesting Interesting catch there. It would make sense too that like because there's a difference right between choosing not to talk and being unable to talk it feels like she's unable to talk but from an outside viewer who has who only sees her occasionally it could also just be easily interpreted as, oh, i she just chooses not to, or... does't Does she have a screaming phone?
00:55:07
Speaker
Does she have a screaming phone? Yes, she does. okay so it's Yeah, so it could be that of life she chooses to. Every now and then she'll undo her mask. Yeah, she'll undo her mask and scream, right? yeah Yeah. Also, Beef, i was gonna I was going to mention that ah it says that she does talk to Snag after he dies in the Fallen Raid.
00:55:28
Speaker
um which I don't remember exactly her words on that. I remember him talking a lot. But on top of that, ah she hears him talk currently. ah That comes up later. yeah her Oh, clusters.
00:55:46
Speaker
i Just when you think you might have it figured out. Yeah, I was going to say. i Yeah. Not yet. it it it makes me It makes me really curious um about the the other member of the cluster, the dark high, the dark segment yeah in the room, you know. That we don't that we don't know about. That Snag saw in his interlude.
00:56:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And... If that is going to play back into it. Because, like, I don't know. You can never tell with Wild Bo, to be honest. Is it a sleeper? Like, is this important or is this not? I don't know. Like, this could just be a throwaway thing. All does add more. You know, like, the pastor incident. You know, two other things he added this time.
00:56:36
Speaker
oh yeah Yeah. Or even just, like, ah Valkyrie's interlude where she's, like, fending off world-ending threats, but in other places in the multiverse, you're like, is that important? right I don't know.
00:56:48
Speaker
Maybe. Who knows? We'll find, and who knows? I'll never tell. um It does confirm the most important thing. Maybe we need to go back to our smash or pass list, but well no damsel of distress, no ass. So we're going to have to move her to pass. Okay.
00:57:14
Speaker
ah That's true. that yeah Who was it who said that? Was that Side Piece? find Of course it's yeah Side Piece. Too flat for my taste. Says I. ah We love a good bisexual. Right, Hannah? Struck it from the list.
00:57:30
Speaker
Struck it from the list. Listen. Listen.
00:57:35
Speaker
Look, we love a bisexual queen, okay? But... Side Piece.
00:57:44
Speaker
that Would you say that Side Piece needs to get herself together? Perhaps? ah ah ah oh She can't seem to hold herself together. That's for damn
00:57:59
Speaker
It always blows up in her face. I thought you were saying in her pants. That works too. okay
00:58:08
Speaker
Might blow up in Disco's pants. They've gotten interesting. She might give you her heart. she like Beware if she gives you her heart. That shit's caustic.
00:58:23
Speaker
Fantastic. and foil meet with some heroes.
00:58:35
Speaker
Weld asks Vicky for relationship advice. Imp spies a little on Mayor Wynn. The team learns about new cauldron and agree to hit common enemies.
00:58:47
Speaker
Ooh. So. Yeah, I forgot the ah dr the dream sequence that Wildbug gives us with Wild was pretty interesting. It's a good thing it doesn't happen. Yeah, that was really kind of weird out of the blue, but like, okay, sure. Listen.
00:59:00
Speaker
Real Coil is my dad's situation. Thank goodness it never wasn't real. And there's no other Matrix movies besides the first one. What a great movie. Exactly. True. Yep. which yep i am Oh, man.
00:59:13
Speaker
There are no Weld-Sveta relationship problems in Ba Sing Se. Yeah. yeah ah Exactly. This is my fear. oh This is like, here's the thing. Yeah.
00:59:24
Speaker
Here's the thing. See, we've read enough Wild Boat to know that what this means is that he's gearing up for either Weld or Sveta to die. And I'm not okay with that. Because what's going to happen yeah is they're going to break up.
00:59:40
Speaker
Sveta's going to be heartbroken. Then they're going to... The fight's going to happen. Sveta's going to die. yeah And then Weld's got to live with breaking her heart and watching her die. can't you know that's ah it's I'm not ready for that chapter.
00:59:54
Speaker
It's going to rough. What's going to happen? Mark it down here. Predictions. Emotional damage! Yeah. Which is the actual title for Ward. Ward Emotional Damage. Ward Emotional Damage. Or he'll kill off Weldon before he can break up, and then Spetta's all sad, but will never know the truth.
01:00:18
Speaker
And Vicky will never tell her, because she'll be like, man, thank goodness he would never have broken up with me, and Vicky's just like... think He's got a and the whole Alfred. He's got it inside forever.
01:00:31
Speaker
It's just one man. The dark night rises. Yep. Alfred's got the letter and then he's like, nevermind. going to give it to you. Yep. She was going to wait for me, Alfred. She was going wait for me.
01:00:46
Speaker
He's like, yeah. Yeah. thank yeah cry forever. Into the fire you go. Yep, burns the light. Yeah. ah Things yeah are better left like that.
01:00:58
Speaker
ah Yeah. yeah that's That is a rough place to be in. and Yeah.
01:01:10
Speaker
um It's not great. i don't like it. i don't like it at all because honestly, i i understand Okay, but also... get it Also.
01:01:23
Speaker
Also. um I just... Not that I truly want to know the deep mechanics of this. but why Oh my god. I know you're not a furry, but... we all says i'm I'm not get some somebody you you know metal head Why do you give metal head? No, but I am very much curious. What did she try? is we ah Well, there's that too, but also Weld is like, I although I am a case 53 whatever case it is 53 he's like, although I am that I do like you know, the female body
01:02:09
Speaker
And part of me is like, Weld, have you slept with people before? Weld, have you fucked? Weld, do you fuck? You're like a thousand pound hunk of metal. How does that work? How does that work? It works. hard works hard. That's right, but I mean, I don't know. That's a fair question. is it I don't think a lot of people can do anything. I know that he can be raised for a pleasure.
01:02:34
Speaker
but Yeah. However... I don't mean, and yeah no. Just mechanically, right? Like, I'm just not sure how that works. No, no, no. It works fine. It's just we've already said, like, he's normal size. He's just a little heavy, you know. Yeah, he's normal size. Right, but, like, if he gets kicked in the nuts, he's not going to feel it.
01:02:56
Speaker
So, like, you know. What out of him now and... I assume like, what's that stuff that melts at room temperature? We said gallium. Mercury or gallium? No, no, not mer- Oh god, not mer- What the hell? you gotta wear condoms so the mercury poisoning doesn't get to you.
01:03:16
Speaker
You better like triple tag and bag that shit, man. Oh. yeah Yeah. yeah allll just Did they try a tentacle in the bud? That's what we all want to know. Really? That's what she needs to be asking him. Now you asked and i all I can think of is, well, she's got a ball.
01:03:36
Speaker
No. And it's got a hole in it. no. Oh, my God. okay A Sveta light, if you will? deathly curious. Okay, so i I just want to know about everything and everyone's life all the time. i just want to know all the things. And I want to know what they tried that didn't work. I'm i'm dying to know. I need to know. I need to know. And also, I'm proud of that.
01:04:07
Speaker
Ellen, I will kill you. i will come in there and I will eat you to death. The Venetian oyster. Stop! Oh my god, Alan! Stop it!
01:04:19
Speaker
This does feel like a case of... Michael, can you mute him? We tried holding hands and it didn't work, so we're out of options. Yes, right? Like, I feel like you need to go to a sex therapist, go to a kink therapist, go to somebody who's like... You get into some weird shit and be like, hey, look, have you tried this? And someone's like, but you what? And you're like, yeah, have you tried that? Because...
01:04:39
Speaker
Maybe it doesn't. agree You're telling me after 30 years there, there, had there, there aren't like professional Cape sex therapists at this point. Come on I'm sure there are. Yeah. Have you tried it while floating?
01:04:52
Speaker
Yeah. what either I'm just curious too, right? Like, because the whole thing with Weldus, he's saying like food doesn't really provide sensation for him because he doesn't have that normal sense. So even though he's staying in this arc,
01:05:07
Speaker
I feel like it would have made more sense for his character to be like, although I appreciate her efforts and I appreciate the female form in general, I can't enjoy it. Like I i don't get physical pleasure from sexual contact.
01:05:21
Speaker
I feel like that would make more sense for Weld to say instead of this weird implication of like, it has worked before, just not with her. And I'm just like, well, how, like if, if food doesn't work. Yeah.
01:05:34
Speaker
Like also, like you might, he might've given us into how, when What was that, Nick? was that nick frare No. yeah what were I was just saying how. Like, we don't like metal doesn't feel and up right.
01:05:48
Speaker
Okay, metal doesn't feel, but the other side of that kind of that sentence is metal doesn't feel good, question mark? Like, okay, I'm going to... They make metal and glass dildos.
01:06:02
Speaker
it They do that. They do that. Great. We're going to get... totally rip pulled right off the internet for having this conversation. do but But, like, like yeah he's acting... I just, I want to know, like, what... Okay, first, you have fucked previously with... has he I think it's a question mark. I don't know how to say it better, but flesh, ladies, and you... And or tractors. Right.
01:06:26
Speaker
if right or track like and or attractctor yeah right as So, like, for like how it for them, because metal's not... That was actually his trigger.
01:06:37
Speaker
of He's been hard ever since. he All I can think of is the Barbossa quote, for too long I've been parched, thirst, and unable to quench Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died.
01:06:54
Speaker
i feel nothing. Not the wind on my face, nor the sea of the sp spring, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. Like the whole, it all works perfect for weld and that's all I can hear now.
01:07:05
Speaker
Oh my God. I had to pull it up. I had to pull it up. had to pull it up. Okay. I thought you just pulled that out of your back pocket. I had a lot of it in my head, but I had to look it up just in case.
01:07:18
Speaker
ah i think I think in all seriousness, I think you're right. He has trouble tasting, but it doesn't stop him from knowing that he's got food in his mouth and like the sensation is there.
01:07:31
Speaker
I think it's a combination. If I had to guess that he can in fact feel good from sex. It feels probably a little muted more than it normally would for ah that case. 53.
01:07:48
Speaker
And at the same time, it's really hard to do stuff with Sveta being a case 53. like. so like Right.
01:07:59
Speaker
Yeah. Which is why he gets a little excited when Victoria slaps him and it hurts. And he's like, oh. oh Yeah. like That's what it takes. Weirdly excited to get just punched in the shoulder into the wall.
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe the world crawler crossover fic. No. Oh,
01:08:27
Speaker
see, I was. and Yeah, I'm just imagining now, like whatever Svetta tried, I'm like, definitely involved some kind of bondage, I imagine. um That's what he likes.
01:08:39
Speaker
who But she couldn't she didn't hit hard enough because, you know, yeah, yeah. Everything's like pulling and pushing and he needed slapping. ah' Well, now that everyone's left, let's, you know. Yeah, for real. Everyone's gone. One last question on this thing.
01:08:56
Speaker
mar yeah What if, if... Oh, no. He needed an ideal partner, who would it be? Oh, okay.
01:09:07
Speaker
Besides Crawler? beside you Besides Crawler. Okay. obvious The obvious answer. um
01:09:15
Speaker
See... I'm trying to think of power synergies. I feel like he would need somebody equally durable, right? Would be an ideal partner. So somebody like Alexandria, yeah who's like, you know, not gonna break if they go to her. Not saying her specifically, but somebody with that power. Someone who can take a very strange dragon has a partner leave dragon alone with mao nursery get the fuck out of here with that nursery shit well people are saying kaiser and nursery kaiser yeah i will come through the i was gonna say we know that he prefers the female form so unfortunately kaiser is out
01:10:01
Speaker
Who's our other metal bender? um Age, right? All ages appropriate. Okay. Careful. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Let's not be gross. trying to have Yeah. There's a couple metal benders, though.
01:10:14
Speaker
Oh, golem has the material bending. Wait, what did you say? Golem? Yeah. but Once again, are you're you're probably looking for the the female form here. Yeah, yeah I think to the female form is...
01:10:26
Speaker
Again, looking for somebody. genderbending them. Genderbend Kaiser. Who they are, who they are. feel like you... you i mean, Victoria. You would have to have somebody who's... See? that's what I was going to say, actually. Because, like, Victoria can take a hit.
01:10:44
Speaker
it's um Victoria's hits are from her power. You can take a pounding, you might say. True. yeah ah oh But only one good one. Ouch. Ouch. didnt see That would be worse. That would be worse. Canonically attracted to Shadowstalker. That's true. Nailbiter. I don't know how durable Nailbiter is.
01:11:03
Speaker
well. Worse than one of them dying would be Victoria playing Homewrecker. That would be the that would be yeah worst. yeah I don't think she ever would. She got so mad just at the thought of it. millionai She would never. Besides, I kind of ship her in what's-his-face.
01:11:19
Speaker
Vic is correct. Annalise. Make a wig. Nick in a wig. All right, we can move on now. figured it out. Got it. Perfect.
01:11:29
Speaker
next ah Next chapter. 11.5. um so eleven point fire What can we have more thoughts for this chapter other than the well nonsense? boom The offhanded comment that Tattletail makes, being completely in the right, a cauldron doing everything unambiguously for like the right way, and every but in making every an enemy of everyone along the way. Like, yeah. ye yeah like If they had like been like, hey, the end of the world is approaching.
01:12:00
Speaker
We all need to get on board with the shit the end of the world is approaching. I'm sure that Contessa's stupid power that I love said, hey, don't tell anybody or something like that. Or maybe she just forgot to ask.
01:12:16
Speaker
But, you know, they were in the right at the end. However, they the way they went about it got made an enemy of every single person. so Yeah, yeah.
01:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot going on with that, too, of course. And now with Citrine being the mayor of Megalopolis, who has that new cauldron connection, at least with the number man is like, OK, there's a there's a lot going on here.
01:12:46
Speaker
And we did talk about that. She could potentially end those time powers. Oh, Citrine could. Right. But she said she she said, no, everybody I'm talking to says don't do it.
01:12:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't know why, but everyone's saying don't do it. Yeah, which is also interesting because it's so much. There's that whole like the teacher doesn't want to do it.
01:13:12
Speaker
Right. Right. Mercenaries from oh what is it? Mercenaries from kite split off to go explore that. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, there's something which is so interesting, right? Because there's that whole thing.
01:13:27
Speaker
of like in Tattletail's notes, there's something in the city that people are trying to escape in a way, right? Like teachers avoiding goddess was going to avoid, like there's something about whatever's happening and maybe it's connected to those time bubbles as well. But the fact that those are both things that teachers like, Nope, not dealing with that makes me very leery of like, okay, something, there is something bigger going on under the surface. We just haven't figured it out yet or hasn't, hasn't been revealed yet.
01:13:58
Speaker
Yeah. Which is cool. I like that building mystery and conflict of like, okay, something bigger is going on, but we don't know yet. But it is Friday at the same time, in a way.
01:14:13
Speaker
Now, 11.5. Mm-hmm.
01:14:17
Speaker
Ahem. The teams split up. the heart Some of the heartbroken tease Rain, while Vicky's group Hunts Love Lost. Then the team has to hide from Lord of Loss, gets their tech jammed, and finds nursery's territory.
01:14:33
Speaker
Before we get too far in this, I don't know about you guys, but I got brain looped on the chicken wolf corn riddle and had to figure out the right answer. I don't know if you remember that being mentioned. Yes. yeah i I had to stop and be like, I'm going to stop reading.
01:14:52
Speaker
I'm going to figure out the chicken corn wolf for again because I know this happened to me before. Again. yeah And then I can keep reading. yeah That's funny. don't know if you guys got the answer to and figured it out. um i I solved it and then double checked. I got it right. So I was happy. but I paused it.
01:15:09
Speaker
I thought I paused the audio book. I like sat here for a second trying to figure it out. And then I was like, you know, i don't need to know this right now. I pressed play and I went back to it. I tried to that.
01:15:23
Speaker
I tried to do that. I did that. And then I was like, oh okay, I'm going to, I'll just keep reading. And then I was like, nope, nope. Still thinking about it I'm not reading. I'm thinking about it. So the riddle again is you've got a farmer on one side of the river. He's got a wolf, a chicken and corn, and he needs to get them all across the river. And his boat can only take one at a time.
01:15:42
Speaker
you leave the chicken and the wolf together. The wolf eats the chicken. You leave the chickens with the corn. The chickens eat the corn. So here's what you do. You take the chickens, go back to the other side, take the wolf, bring back the chickens, take the corn, go back to the other side, take the chickens, and then you're good.
01:16:05
Speaker
Right. Yep. right Makes sense. Yep. Good job, Nick. Yep, I just had to... I couldn't stop. was like, I gotta... I was like, I think I know the answer, but I just have to write it out to confirm I get it right, and then I can move on. You're a winner. You're a winner, Nick.
01:16:23
Speaker
Thank you. You're a winner. I feel bad. My note for this entire chapter is God. Rain is basically im ah the main character of an anime. ah He's just this wimpy, uninteresting dude with shitty powers.
01:16:40
Speaker
kind of, you know, boring looking, and yet the girls are all over him. True.
Character Interactions and Humor
01:16:48
Speaker
For no reason. Other than he's just a nice guy. Also, what makes this whole, all of these interactions immensely funnier to me is remembering that the heartbroken are Canadian. and like best french chi French Canadian.
01:17:07
Speaker
amazing
01:17:11
Speaker
So you're right, Fran. This is why Aiden thinks that Rain is cool. yeah Oh, my God. Yeah, um it's very funny where Victoria is just like, Rain, stop engaging.
01:17:26
Speaker
yeah' thing Stop it. Shut up. He's just like, oh but I'm just answering honestly. And she's like, You're a sweet boy, Rain. Please. You're smarter than you. So funny. Shut up and stop talking, Rain.
01:17:42
Speaker
yeah Gosh. yeah The way they split up the teams is interesting to me. um Where you've got like a ah variety of people from different parts of the Undersiders, the Heartbroken and Vicky and Breakthrough.
01:17:55
Speaker
um You end up with a very interesting collection of characters, right? where you've got Victorian rain from breakthrough, which is a weird pair to have together anyway. um Yeah. From, from breakthrough, you've got three heartbroken girls and then you've got foil and Perry and who are like the most normal of the undersiders in the sense of like, yes they're the most like morally grounded. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. it's It's a very weird group of people to throw together, but I like it. It it ends up working out in a really fun way.
01:18:32
Speaker
Yeah.
Victoria's Gadget Malfunction
01:18:34
Speaker
Vibes together are are fun. i am I can't help it. But wonder, though, like.
01:18:44
Speaker
i think it's here. at the very beginning of this chapter. maybe, where Victoria's thinking about it, or it might be... I think i think it's the very beginning of this chapter, where Victoria's like, there're the girls are all bickering, and they're bothering Rain, and she has this moment where she's like, ah, yes, now I understand why Tattletail looks so tired all the time. hu She has to wrangle these small children, these freaking heartbroken, who are just...
01:19:19
Speaker
Oh my God. Right. With, with some of the worst, some of the worst powers to like, yeah, any sort of emotional. And and what's interesting too, right? Is Victoria is very familiar with emotional manipulation power. So it's interesting seeing these groups interact, but yeah, emotional children, especially horny teenagers with emotional manipulation powers is like, sounds like the worst combination of, of person.
01:19:48
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah Oh my gosh, absolutely. e But yeah for me, this was just like, oh, of course the villains know they're coming. like Of course.
01:20:00
Speaker
Of course. We can't have anything good. Yeah, had no, obviously. Love Lost knew they were coming. So. Yeah, I don't know. 11.5 didn't have much for me. I feel like things really start to happen in 11.6. Beyond the...
01:20:16
Speaker
um beyond the oh Yeah, go ahead. I do like the little doohickey that Victoria has on her on her wrist or hip.
01:20:27
Speaker
but don't know. That she can like flip through to like see the status of the other teams. Yeah. To make sure that they're okay. Because there's that moment where all of the power starts to glitch out. And all their electronic devices glitch out. And she's like looking down at it. And all the people are fragmented in pieces. And I was so scared for a moment. Because was like, oh my gosh.
01:20:49
Speaker
They get torn up into pieces. Like, oh my god. And then we realize like, oh no, all the tech is glitching out. Like the phones shut off. and Yeah, yeah no I did have that thought too, yeah.
01:21:01
Speaker
oh man, that scared me real good for a fraction of a second there. Well, although with 11.8, the ending, it feels like they may not be okay. So we'll see what's going on there.
01:21:16
Speaker
Yeah. Terrifying. But we haven't gotten there yet. We'll get there.
01:21:23
Speaker
All right, Bernard, getting there real quick, Bernard asks two questions. um The other two groups, any comments? And can anyone comment on how well the other groups would gel?
01:21:39
Speaker
I'm going to break a rule temporarily for slight spoilers. I believe, hold on, to it's to answer these. As a teaser for next
Confrontation at Love Lost's Workshop
01:21:52
Speaker
week, I believe the next two chapters are interludes of the other two groups. gotcha. We can couch that to other times. Two weeks will answer that question.
01:22:07
Speaker
right, perfect. yeah
01:22:10
Speaker
Moving on then. we up? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, 11.6. 11.6. The Fiennes Love Loss Workshop gathers information and screws up as much stuff as they can.
01:22:31
Speaker
They get caught by Lord of Loss and Nursery on the way out. And yeah that fight begins. Oh yeah. Hi, caramba. Nursery is a nope, nope, nope, nope. nope Yeah, we'll get there.
01:22:47
Speaker
That's a nope.
Nursery's Power and Body Horror
01:22:48
Speaker
ah Well, I think we see a little bit of it because I think in 11.6 is when the tongue comes out of the refrigerator. The tongue trap in the refrigerator gets parrying. Yes. yep and you're right Fucking terrifying.
01:23:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah. you're just Nothing like pulling the babies out of your mouth. Xenomorph ass, face hugger. it Yeah. yeah which um Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure...
01:23:18
Speaker
It is similar in that um the facehuggers were designed to resemble kind of the horror of like sexual assault and forced impregnation, especially for men.
01:23:30
Speaker
um And I do feel like nursery is similar in that body horror of like there's very little worse than And again, it goes a lot back to that bodily autonomy thing. We keep talking about that being a key theme of this, of like, that's one of the most invasive breakers of bodily autonomy is just somebody literally putting a baby inside of you through your mouth.
01:23:59
Speaker
That's how it works. yeah Yep. Yep. That's... who it's before we invented the works there's so much about this that is terrible from how quickly it happens and even though they react rather quickly to try and like stop it yeah like foil cuts it and it's it's all heavy flesh like it's all you know weighs as much as flesh would so when she cuts the like giant tongue thing
01:24:31
Speaker
i Victoria quickly stabilizes and tilts um yeah ah Perian's head because she said it's probably like 300 pounds of meat like quickly falling at an angle that would snap her neck. like Oh, right, right, right. Everything about it sucks.
01:24:50
Speaker
yes Not to mention all the the talk of like, and and, you know, I've been waiting for this imagery to come up finally, but it you know it looks like Is it Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood when they get trapped inside of oh Greed? Or not Greed, ah Sloth?
01:25:11
Speaker
glu Gluttony. Gluttony. When they get trapped inside of Gluttony and you get to see Envy's true form. Yeah. And it's that giant amalgamation of creatures like coming out of their own mouths like over and over again kind of thing. It is similar. Yeah.
01:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's the imagery I definitely felt. And it's got all the tiny hands. like At one point in time, they're talking about the hands coming out of the nostril. Oh, everything about it. And then they have to like pull it out, and you can't break it off because it it can't break it off its sets root. And then like, oh, God. Yeah, this is this is the fun one.
01:25:53
Speaker
Oh, God. who i I mean, you guys know from all my comments on Bonesaw, I fucking love body horror. I find it really fascinating. I really love it. Impregnation, not so much. um Yeah, Igno or Hannah.
01:26:11
Speaker
I mean, that doesn't stop it from being like really fucking cool, but also absolutely disgusting. Yeah, I'll we'll bring it up again. But... ah like nursery has low key some of the best power stuff going on in terms of lore.
01:26:32
Speaker
Because like the first thing we find like, oh man, that's really creepy that it can make this fleshy domain. And then you find out that they're pregnant and you're like, oh, that's weird. Then you find out, oh, nursery is not the one with the power. And...
01:26:48
Speaker
And then this is like, oh, what is their power really? And you're like, oh, oh, it just keeps getting worse. Keeps getting worse. Yeah. Yeah, it's not good.
01:27:02
Speaker
so Do we know what nurseries do, by the way? Yes. Never. is i guess a
Heartbroken Powers and Team Dynamics
01:27:08
Speaker
version I guess my question is, so nursery, the whole thing with her...
01:27:14
Speaker
her baby inside of her is the one with the power, right? Like, that's what she says, at least. So I guess my my theory then, or my question then, is like, is this power, this is it a breaker power that reshapes worlds? Is that what it is, or what is it? Whatever it's called. um No, breakers, when you go into a breaker state. No, that's a breaker state. Shaker. Shaker. Shaker.
01:27:38
Speaker
So this shaker power is all it is. This baby imitating the environment that it knows and just creating that. so Right. Like that's what it is. is It's just creating the womb outside of the body of nursery. Right. Like, and that's why it's got all these parts and bits and like, it's trying to implant itself because that's what, you know, umbilical cords do and like other things, you know, right. well It's just a disgusting.
01:28:09
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah Not a fan. much more and Much less gross power, but I did find Candy's power fascinating as well. Can we talk about Candy's nuts for a second?
01:28:24
Speaker
Jesus, Alan. She's a child. Damn it. up I tried. Michael, mute him. Mute him for five minutes. Time out.
01:28:35
Speaker
60 seconds. Time out. Oh God. Keep going. it Keep going. Please try to have it. I whole plan nick um had a whole had a whole plan? I was going to be like, go ahead. Because we've got a row as blasts and, and chassis slaps and candies nuts.
01:28:57
Speaker
Sorry, bingo guys. I tried no bingo square for you. where was one of the Did you have it on the bingo? and Did you have candies nuts on on the bingo square?
01:29:10
Speaker
Yeah. <unk> But only if I did it successfully. So. That was pretty good. We'll try again. No, Michael, do not encourage that. That was pretty good. Michael, time out 60 seconds.
01:29:27
Speaker
like I hate this so much. It was good. Oh God. Okay. Wait till we get to dragon's teeth.
01:29:38
Speaker
No. No.
01:29:44
Speaker
Nick, what about the power? Quick. Quick. I was just saying it's a fascinating power. to The idea of juicing people with too much of a good thing to make them hate it. Yes. um does somebody As somebody pointed out in the comments, they're like, man, like, candy could be, like,
01:30:01
Speaker
the world's best addiction therapist, you know, like for real, she's like, wow you, you like alcohol. What if you liked it way too much? You want to know what that feels like? And it's like, oh yeah, no, I hate it now.
01:30:12
Speaker
but Yeah. No, obviously there's probably some negative side effects that might come with that, but Hey, um, no, what would we call that? It'd be like overexposure therapy.
01:30:24
Speaker
Yeah. Hyperexposure therapy, hyperexposure therapy, something like that. um ah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So very funny.
01:30:36
Speaker
Yeah. um I do. That being said, I do love all of their, their powers. Chastity's got that fun one where she charges up and then just bitch slaps the shit out of the one dude.
01:30:46
Speaker
yeah Yeah, and then it's like a correlated group. She can only hold as many people as she has fingers, basically, so she's like, her fingers light up after bitch-flapping you. Yeah,
Emotion Manipulation and Combat Scenarios
01:30:55
Speaker
and it's all perception-related, too.
01:31:00
Speaker
And what was Auroa's power? I'm trying to remember. Hers wasn't very useful in the fight. The nerve center one. she can yeah She can make people feel... Like change their nervous system so that pain feels good. yeah Pain feels like pleasure. And so they're less averse to like... It was one of those... I remember Vicky commenting being like... it reminded It reminded her of Regent's power.
01:31:26
Speaker
Whereas like... It's the kind of thing where... it doesn't seem that useful until you're able to apply it in sneaky ways. Granted, it sounds like she didn't necessarily know everything region could do if that's what she's thinking about. But yeah, you know, very interesting.
01:31:42
Speaker
um I loved, ah yeah I think this is the most emotional Vicky has gotten in a while. um But specifically her having her little freak out moment um about emotion power people.
01:31:59
Speaker
Or she just goes, fuck fucking but emotion powers. Fuck them. Fuck everyone except for Dean. yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She definitely has some, some, ah you will allow the trauma, you know, it's well yeah. Yeah. Having your emotions fucked with, you know, might bring up yeah awful memories.
01:32:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At least ah Precipice seems pretty useful here for once. Like, he's actually doing... About time. It took him a second, though. you Took him a second.
01:32:34
Speaker
We'll get to.7 and.8, but even here at the beginning of, like, okay, he's slashing. He's throwing his blades. He's trying. ah Yeah. like He's not great on his own, but... No. Support... and Pairing...
01:32:48
Speaker
you know, the silver blades actually do so Even in workshop, they're brighter than a phone. You know, you hold them up in the dark, you can read stuff. You know, we finally found a use for his power.
01:32:59
Speaker
There you go. He's also, get over here, Zach attack. Yes. oh thats is the same But yeah,
01:33:07
Speaker
ah but yeah he's able to tinker some things together, get, get the information, get into love lost computer. Yeah. Yeah. The fact that he could like muscle memory, her passwords was really funny to me.
01:33:18
Speaker
ah that stuff was great like dang that's i didn't get that at first and i was like oh wait which is so real because i'll tell you right now somebody asked me the password at work the other day and i didn't know what the password for our door codes were but i walked up and went hold on let me click click click and was like yeah i have to look over my fingers and read what i typed in i was like okay No, i'm I'm absolutely that too, where I'm like, okay, spatial awareness person. If somebody's like, hey, how do you fill out this form? And I'm like, well, I need to see the form. Like, I need to, you know, or like something like that. Like, I don't know. I can't just describe it to you and answer your question. I need to see it and then I can do it right.
01:33:58
Speaker
You know? Yeah. um But yeah. Yeah. So at least, hey, at least he's trying, right? Yeah. his ah His emotion power, though, is he keeps He keeps trying to hit a freaking...
Lord of Loss's Personality and Combat Style
01:34:16
Speaker
Lord of Loss.
01:34:18
Speaker
Thank you. oh my God. Lord of Loss. and and but And it's just not working. It's just not working and not hitting. And vi Vicky's like, stop it. Because you keep clipping me in the process, bro. It is not working.
01:34:35
Speaker
I mean, that's before she has her big Epiphany moment, but still. like then it's yeah And then it's finally, he's like, oh, he's trying to tell me something at one point. ah Thank you. Wonderland in chat, holding a picture took a picture of them holding Deez Nuts, ranch sriracha peanuts.
01:34:52
Speaker
No. amazing No. Tantalizing taste buds, Deez Nuts. Thank you. Wonderland, how could you? Can I just say, too, speaking of Lord of Loss, can we just talk about who is this cringe lord who puts emojis on every message he sends? Bless.
01:35:17
Speaker
o And not just like normal emojis, too. He's doing the high effort ones, like the Kirby hand ones of like, what has happened like what is So is... he is he He is, if we're talking to like anime again,
01:35:33
Speaker
We're goingnna compare, you know, our bland ass rain boy to being the anime protagonist. This is like the same equivalent where you have that annoying antagonist where they're the like, i have memorized all of the Gundams and now I drive a Gundam and I will defeat all of you. And they're like, oh my gosh, this big weeb is like going to knock us flat on our ass. Like that is Lord of Loss. He lucked out.
01:36:03
Speaker
And they even say, Vicky even called it, if you're gonna call yourself Lord of Loss, you've gotta have two things. One is that you sucked so bad that you, like, people gave you that such a big name as a joke. Like, yeah, because he's a big loser, Lord of Loss, like, on a biblical scale. Or you're so good, nobody questions it. And the thing is, he's both.
01:36:30
Speaker
yeah Like
Victoria's Combat Strategy
01:36:31
Speaker
he is such a, he wears a fedora when he's undercover, like not in our form. And then he transforms like he's in the corner.
01:36:42
Speaker
They'll never know that I'm Lord of loss. Actually. Last is an anime like sheing and like go all white. and like Oh my God. Hello. When's ass. yeah skipping to the end real quick but we'll come back to it but even at the very end of the fight where he's just like oh good fight know like put her there like oh what about it's like dude shut up shut the fuck up yeah like goddamn nerd stick him right back in the pregnancy goop yeah yeah
01:37:13
Speaker
like no one deserves to be in the pregnancy goop Yeah, that's true. Should we just... Anything else in that, or should we just get into the fight? Yeah, let's get into the fight. And I feel like we could probably combine.7 and.8, because that's the fight, right? Yeah, that's the fight.
01:37:30
Speaker
um I don't particularly feel the need to split them, so... Alright, 11.7. Antares tries to bargain with Lord of Loss unsuccessfully.
01:37:41
Speaker
She fights a parahuman hockey puck. Some of the Heartbroken's powers are introduced, and the team tries to fight their way out. In 11.8, Antares uses Precipice's power to fight Lord of Loss, briefly undergoes Nursery's power,
01:37:58
Speaker
And finally gets to check up on the other teams after beating Lord of Lost. Got about the hockey puck. Yeah, hockey guy. He didn't do fucking anything. That air hockey boy and just, bam.
01:38:15
Speaker
Got wrecked. ah There are a couple other parahumans in the mix too, but they never really did anything too relevant. The only one that really even tried was the hockey puck and she was like, okay, sit down. Knocked him down and then, know.
01:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. And then the real fight. Bitch slapped him and then. ye Yep. Yep.
01:38:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's yeah this is this was a good fight. Overall, I do... This is, this is I think, the quintessential fight for... I probably said that before, but this is a quintessential fight for Ward. It goes on a little longer than I think it should.
01:38:57
Speaker
um It... Emotion is such an incredibly... relevant factor to it, both internally and externally and the combination of both somehow, you know, um,
01:39:20
Speaker
And then ah a lot of it is just thinking through the combat from Vicky's perspective to figure out how to beat the opponent and then to just, you know, physically do it. It is such an internal external thing.
01:39:35
Speaker
Whereas comparing it to Wyrm, there was some thoughts put into pulling off stuff that with Taylor.
01:39:49
Speaker
However, it did feel very straightforward most of the time. Like if she figured something out, you weren't necessarily aware of it until after the fact, or, you know, it was almost like a reveal or she figures it out on the fly in such a way that like, it's just kind of happening simultaneously. It doesn't feel as planned or as thought out. And this very much has this,
01:40:15
Speaker
It's almost methodical, um even amidst how hectic everything is. ah
Victoria's Emotional Resilience
01:40:22
Speaker
But it is what I like about Ward ah because she's he an emotion-powered person and we are seeing things from her perspective. And on top of that, emotions are just tied throughout the story much more than they are in Wyrm.
01:40:44
Speaker
the like use of his emotional power to impact her emotions, to drive her to fight better is such an odd play of powers, but it is emblematic of ward combat as a whole. I think.
01:41:01
Speaker
Hmm. I feel that. I think that's fair. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
01:41:08
Speaker
Yeah. The, the, Keying into emotion as being a key part of the fights in Ward is a really interesting thing, aspect of it that we didn't get with Taylor for sure. um And with ah the whole thing of her discovering, don't know, it's interesting. They never quite explain it, explain what precipices emotion power is for.
01:41:32
Speaker
But basically the idea being it causes such extreme feelings of shame that you instantly learn how to fight better as you fail, right? It's like failing upwards, kind of.
01:41:46
Speaker
is that Is that a correct interpretation you think of Precipice's power? Yeah. yeah On top of us learning about ah not chastity Candy's power,
01:41:58
Speaker
like kind of in relation to that, her power is to overload you with a thought so that you avoid that because of it. You've just had that conversation and to have that and be like, oh yeah, if you overload me with your shame and regret, then I will not make that mistake twice when fighting somebody.
01:42:17
Speaker
yeah yeah it's an interesting which is such a long over thought process cool concepts but it's got to be emotionally exhausting to fight that way constantly you know and obviously she feels that right like we see that with the fight we see that when she falls into nursery's power she like there's a lot of those moments of like wow this is terrible but i'm gonna keep fighting through um yeah it It is a little long, but I did like it because i it felt like the reward after um the setup for the arc. Like I said, this feels like it could is where the arc could have ended.
01:42:54
Speaker
um so it's kind of a funky, funky thing there. But yeah, i don't know. It's it's cool.
01:43:03
Speaker
Jacob, you said this was one of your favorites, right? Yeah, i just like the way it was paced. I agree. I think it probably drags just a bit, but that's kind of, as Alan said, pretty ah pretty standard these days with the wild bow fights.
01:43:19
Speaker
um But i prefer I would prefer that. I'll take that over some of the really short little quick fights we get sometimes. Um, it's more fun to spend time. I think, you know,
Emotional Power Dynamics
01:43:30
Speaker
uh, having a problem solved through the fight. i really like seeing Victoria work through the problem. It's something we got a lot from Taylor because i think Taylor's power was just so,
01:43:41
Speaker
ah adept at problem solving. Like that was her whole thing was problem solving. And so the creativity with her fights was always really, really fun to read. And Victoria, we get a lot less of that just given the nature of her power, which is fine. it's so It's a whole different kind of fight to follow. But getting a little bit of that sort of back in this fight was pretty fun. And then just visually, man, like just...
01:44:05
Speaker
I could visualize so much of what she was doing this time. um Especially towards the end of the diving through Lord of Loss's power was was like, oh, was like oh i I can see that. It was great. I don't know. It just worked for some reason.
01:44:18
Speaker
Yeah. this This felt like you said, a much more visually, like, I understood the fight. Mm-hmm. Um... Not in regards to the environment, because fuck the environment, I never remember that. Other than like them breaking up the ground and, you know, the nursery power coming up and constantly trying to avoid that.
01:44:40
Speaker
And then, whoops, not avoiding that. yeah Whoops. Yeah. o Maybe it's the body horror. maybe we Maybe every fight needs a bit of body horror to lock you in.
01:44:50
Speaker
i mean, yes. Yeah, I mean, nothing like a little impreg to make me lock in, let me tell you. no No. that Well, that's it, folks. Great night. Hope you had a good one. And you'll never see Nick ever again. Nick's gone. Where's the that's my fetish gif when you need it?
01:45:08
Speaker
no just ah We're good. Nick, no. Bernard well earned? for art asked does the fight feel well earnared As in, does it feel that Victoria and her group like almost lost?
01:45:28
Speaker
this is Oh, yeah i mean this yeah yeah yeah. Yeah, definitely. This feels very... im where they almost did. Yeah, they basically got real close. They got caught off guard and were fighting on the back foot pretty much the whole time.
01:45:43
Speaker
Yeah. but yeah there's It waxes and wanes, and then you think that she's about to win, and then she gets, you know, gooped, and then she turns around, and he's pinning her two teammates to the ground that he was trying, you know, she was trying to get away, and then she brings it back at the end, but boy howdy, did it feel like a stalemate for a long time.
01:46:04
Speaker
like Oh, yeah. She was yeah winning, but she wasn't doing, she wasn't accomplishing what she wanted to. didn't feel like she was beating him. She just felt like, She kept knocking him over and kept knocking him over. and sure I think it's evident by the amount of times foil feels the need to say, you can leave. like if Like, leave and get help. The amount of times foil feels the need to make that statement of like, hey, you have that option. Keep that in mind. Like, just makes me feel like, yeah, it felt like it was well written as a bit of a desperate fight. Of like, we are mostly just trying to escape in one piece.
01:46:41
Speaker
yeah and And unfortunately, it it became the unskippable boss fight where it's like, oh no, you can't run from this fight. You gotta beat Lord of Lost to get out of here.
01:46:52
Speaker
The white fog is just blocking the exits. yeah yeah like Except it's red mist. Yeah, except it's red mist. Exactly. oh look yeah it Fun fight to read.
01:47:06
Speaker
yeah Yeah, definitely. This will be when I come back. like There's a couple fights throughout the Parahuman stories that I'll i'll just go back and read sometimes. like I'll read the Leviathan fight. I like the Echidna fight. um you know Little bits like that. It's fun to just go back and read those chapters. I'll probably add this one to the list. It's just a fun a fun couple chapters to read. Yeah, yeah that's cool.
01:47:27
Speaker
Lord of Loss's power is super cool, too. Just having like this... extreme breaker form where he can just turn basically into... almost anything he can imagine and visualize, but in very large size. So he's
Victory and Future Concerns
01:47:42
Speaker
got lots of variety. And obviously this is painful for Victoria, but him being like, yeah, I had somebody tell me like, yeah you should break out of your shell more often. Try new forums. And now thanks for giving me a chance to test it on you. Very anime villain. wow well then you I listened to your uncle. He's not my fucking uncle. You could shut the fuck up. Goddamn. Yeah.
01:48:04
Speaker
god damn yeah so yeah my new form yeah you haven't even seen my final form rips him out oh gg hey good fight good fight put it there put it there let's be some good sports about this yeah that she like does she like punch him in the face he's like I deserve that yeah yeah fair go and then he gets bitch slapped right I think yeah Yeah, he gets smacked.
01:48:36
Speaker
Yeah. damn And then it looks like the other groups are not doing so hot. Not doing so good. It's like, hey, hey, hey, here have this nice thing. Hey, would you like a victory? No. It's everywhere. Oh, cookies all over the floor. Eat your floor cookies.
01:49:01
Speaker
Chad, I'm going need to clip that. but
01:49:07
Speaker
I know. I'm excited. We'll see how everyone else is doing. Yeah, i'm I'm excited to start off with two interludes. Yeah. Let's go. well ah If you have any last questions for us, otherwise I've got our normal two questions.
01:49:26
Speaker
um I think we can skip over the who's the problem of the the the therapy group for right now and instead ah ask um what's your favorite power to start from this chapter?
01:49:42
Speaker
Got a lot of them. There were a lot of cool ones. Yeah, it's a good power chapter. i I really like disjoints power. just in the it's It's one of those examples to me of a simple power in concept that an application can do so much.
01:50:03
Speaker
And I really like that, right? Where it's like, I can teleport parts of my body around. Simple concept. what's the application of that? Well, I can take my eyes out and throw them really far to spy on people. I can judo people from 20 feet away. i can, you know, there's all sorts of funky stuff you can do when you can manipulate your body parts that way. And I think
Favorite Powers and Speculation
01:50:26
Speaker
just conceptually, I like that as a power. I always like, you know, it's kind of like Taylor's power. it's like, what do you do? You control bugs. Okay, what do you do with that?
01:50:33
Speaker
A whole heck of a lot, you know? What can't I do? A whole heck of a lot. So very cool. Very cool, simple power. That's good one. You know, if we're looking at just memorable moments, and I'm trying to stick to like some of the newer powers here, Hockey Puck caught me so off guard. It's it just a great moment. I love it. It's so stupid, but it's it's it's great.
01:50:59
Speaker
Shout out Hockey Puck.
01:51:04
Speaker
and the Reflexively, I just want to say nursery because like that's disgusting and I love it. it It's so gross.
01:51:15
Speaker
i want more. I but we we have seen her before. I think I said that she was my favorite when we first ran into her so long ago. ah I I really like um ah What's her name? Chastity.
01:51:30
Speaker
Charity? Chastity. i always get them. It's Chastity. Okay. with i Yeah, I like Chastity's. I think that's that's pretty cool. Yeah, good little power.
01:51:41
Speaker
Because it's also like tied to her mental confidence, right? So if she loses confidence, then she loses the slap. And theirs. And theirs, too. The perception, yeah. Yeah.
01:51:55
Speaker
yeah perception yeah so Yeah, it's how they see her. it's Yeah. Very, very interesting tying together of powers for sure. Yeah. and i'll give the ah I'll give the customary nursery then because, like I said, nursery I think low-key, but a very interesting character to continue to get little drops of lore because such an interesting power that it's not even their power and it continues to get grosser and weirder every time.
01:52:27
Speaker
Yep. Always. No doubt. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. and And then our you know second question from me before we move on to chat questions.
01:52:40
Speaker
ah any Any guesses on the big bad problem?
01:52:47
Speaker
ah I mean, they haven't really narrowed it down too much. There's a lot of problems. There's lot. Yeah. That's okay. We don't yeah you know we don't have anything. I mean, and if anything, they introduced a new one with these groups now messing with time bubbles. So let's just add that the bile at this point. True.
01:53:08
Speaker
I'm not not not too not too happy. Yeah.
01:53:16
Speaker
We'll see. Yeah, I feel like... there is It's not going to end up being one central problem. It's going to be the chaos. It's going to be that there's a billion things happening, and it's like, well...
01:53:28
Speaker
How the fuck do we prioritize this shit? Because we got problems across the board. Like, well, I guess today we'll fight the time bubbles and then at three o'clock we'll ah go deal with the machine army situation. And then, you know, maybe right after dinner we can squeeze it. Like, it's just, there's there's a lot it's a lot going on. And, you know, yeah you know call me old-fashioned, but ah I still get nervous not knowing where the Embringers are up to doing shit. Plus, people keep name dropping Sleeper. i don't know who fuck Sleeper is. i like like i just i you know I think I just live in fear. I think that maybe
Chat Questions and Interlude Speculation
01:54:10
Speaker
that's what it is. I'm just going to continue good way to live in fear.
01:54:13
Speaker
and Yeah. yeah Alright. We've got nothing else with that then. I've got a couple quick questions from chat. ah Well, one comment. um If they end up freeing Purity from her time bubble, what happens if she starts looking for Aster?
01:54:28
Speaker
um oh oh well ah Oh. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Yeah. I'll change this a little bit. How should they kill Weld if he does descend break up with Santa?
01:54:42
Speaker
ah oh Well, we know what a big sphere is. Yep, big sphere. Drop him Mariana Trench. There you go. Call it a day.
01:54:53
Speaker
Megatron is there. Megatron. Until rides some kind of huge fish out of there. Leviathan. We melt him down? Never mind. Turn him into an anvil? Melt him down.
01:55:06
Speaker
him into an anvil. And then...
01:55:14
Speaker
and then you know, I, I did, you know, break a little bit of the spoiler things, but you're asking who do you think the next two interludes will be from? Oh yeah. Perspective wise. I've said they're going to be the next, the other two groups probably. yeah ah do Remind me who, who of our team.
01:55:35
Speaker
We've got Ashley. We've got we've got the wolf pack, if you will, which is Lee Kenzie, um, ah is it Juliet, Roman, Imp?
01:55:52
Speaker
um All of them are in one pack. I might be wrong on the Heartbreakers, but it is like the aggressive heart Heartbreakers and the aggressive people all in one. And then you have ah Tristan and Sveta along with Aiden,
01:56:15
Speaker
And I'm trying to remember who the other ones. ah Probably Darlene is with Aiden, I'm going to guess.
01:56:22
Speaker
Yeah. so We never got a Spetta interlude. I was just about to say that. We haven't gotten a Spetta interlude. So it looks like ah Lookout and Chicken Little are split up.
01:56:34
Speaker
Yep. So Swan Song and Lookout are together. ah yeah Florence, the feral child, went with Swan Song. And Imp went with Florence because she's the best at handling her.
01:56:45
Speaker
um Yeah. And then oh
Podcast Recap and Final Comments
01:56:48
Speaker
the other team. So that means the other team would be um three heartbroken chicken little Sveta Capricorn and Tattletail.
01:56:58
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Okay. So did we ever get an imp interlude? She's popped up a couple of times. I don't think we've gotten an interlude from her yet. in Not in Ward. No, we haven't gotten. Did we not in Ward? I thought we hadn't gotten one.
01:57:12
Speaker
Not in Ward. Yeah. so We got her at the end of Worm. I've already kind of seen who they are because I was pulling up the summaries for me to read off of and it it says who the next ones are. so i There you go. We'll find out shortly. I won't say anything.
01:57:28
Speaker
We'll find out shortly. going to read these probably tomorrow. so Yeah. well yeah I always wait until the day before podcast. I read ah like the first two chapters immediately and then I wait. So then I forget what happened in those two chapters. And I only remember what happens at the end. So that's what always happens.
01:57:48
Speaker
That's funny.
01:57:51
Speaker
Any other questions? We still talk for an hour on the first chapter usually. So that's kind of crazy. Laura from Jake. Yeah. Why do you think I hate him so much? I never remember anything that happened. What are you guys talking ah i i think we're I think we're good then yeah yeah oh bingo card oh of course court I'm glad you asked we you know of course we didn't fill out that many this week um What?
01:58:23
Speaker
No bingos? We didn't have that many tonight. get any bingo winners? I'll go with the ones that we did fill out. Is Lord of Loss a loser? Goddammit, Weld. Cat on screen. Someone didn't get that it was Imp. Impregnate? Gross.
01:58:34
Speaker
Poor stupid rain and the Undersiders are back. ah We did not get Nick goes full teacher, big new, big bad theory. Alan rants. Well, i don't know. Alan successfully pulls off a candy's nuts joke, sympathy for a villain.
01:58:50
Speaker
Jacob does his TV moose movie comparison. Hannah cries milk and Michael has to reign them in. I did almost make a comparison. and then I reigned you in a couple times.
01:59:01
Speaker
I definitely reigned you in. Michael's definitely reigned you in. Give me a bingo. I didn't cry. If anyone needed that. Honestly, we knocked out a lot of the chapter-specific ones and not a lot of the generic podcast episodes. We'll do better next time. I feel like I'm not quite sure what me going full teacher quite means yet. Maybe we'll know. You've done it a couple You have.
01:59:24
Speaker
Fair enough. We'll let you know. It's okay. You don't have to know, Nick. We know. And that's what we have to do. People who need to know. We know it when we see it. Fair enough. The people who need to know know.
01:59:35
Speaker
um All right. Well, let's play a song. um But before I do, I'll just remind everyone we will be back with the end of 11.
01:59:47
Speaker
um on the 9th in two weeks. And then we will take a break until the 13th of January to recoup and rest over the holiday season.
02:00:00
Speaker
But we'll see you soon. Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who are enjoying the Thanksgiving. That's true. Happy Thanksgiving. Michael Plass out. Why don't you just join
02:00:32
Speaker
I noticed you have enjoyed the Patreon. Daddy's not happy.
02:00:46
Speaker
oh good it's so good but had to do that with the with yeah that was perfect perfect choice Michael wouldn't have it any other way well we'll see y'all on the 9th and oh yes Bernard says make sure Nick makes a D&D boss for nursery sounds horrifying thanks for the suggestion hopefully no why we'll be included
02:01:20
Speaker
Bye.