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BBBC Reads Ward - Episode 12
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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 8.1 to 8.7 - Beacon!
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
Playful Introduction and Hosts' Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody. We're live. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Good evening, Mega City. but tensions on the rise and other Earths plotting our demise, who takes to our skies its breakthrough in the Brockton Bay Book Club?
00:00:23
Speaker
Nice. Fantastic. Was that supposed to rhyme? Did it not?
00:00:31
Speaker
We call that a slant rhyme in English class. I call it slinging rhyme. Thank you. Slinging lyrics over there.
Explaining 'Ward' and Engaging Listeners
00:00:42
Speaker
like M and easy.
00:00:44
Speaker
Yeah. And Tarizy. And a reason no. Yeah. Welcome to the Brockton Bay Book Club. I'm one of your hosts, Alan, baby faced Alan, they call me because I'm all shaved up.
00:01:00
Speaker
And joining us, we also have ah Hannah. Oh, hello. Jacob. Hello. Nick. Hello there.
00:01:11
Speaker
And of course, the the host Wrangler, Michael. Hey, guys. Welcome. a ah We are a podcast that is reading through a Ward by JC McRae, for those of you stumbled upon this for some reason another. What are you doing here, man?
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, right? Maybe start at episode one and work your way up. Or don't. you know Start in the middle. Figure out from there. what want. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you just started. ah why We are currently reading today. Right in the middle?
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah. Ward, arc 8, 0.1 through 0.7. Yes. um I'm looking for scared faces. i see none. So I think we all read the correct thing.
00:01:55
Speaker
We did. If you'd like to join us in chat, if you're listening to this recording, ah we do this live almost every tuesday every other Tuesday. So ah you might as well join us in chat if you're listening to the recording of this. For those of you who are in chat, we love you very much. Thank you.
00:02:13
Speaker
And to our patrons, also big shout out. We love you very much. And ah we you know you you continue to support... ah hosting a you know, a discord server that you could join ah for as little as $1 a month.
00:02:29
Speaker
um Signing up on our Patreon gets you access to the discord server where you can contribute to our bingo ah and other things. I say the bingo because you can play bingo along with us on the live stream um links in the description.
00:02:43
Speaker
Yes. Otherwise you can contribute with memes. ah Just talking about it. We have a packed spoilers channel, award spoilers channel, and I'm about to, so I've started reading pale. I haven't really gotten that far in it, but ah we might have to make a pale reading channel. Just for people want to talk about pale.
00:03:01
Speaker
um But that being said, ah we're getting into this. ah One last thing. Oh,
Crafting and Cottagecore Fashion with Maid Marian
00:03:08
Speaker
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00:03:12
Speaker
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00:03:29
Speaker
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00:03:47
Speaker
Once again, that's Etsy, TheMadeMarion, M-A-D-E.
00:03:54
Speaker
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00:04:09
Speaker
And Hannah's very Much like everything else, Lincoln. Thanks. Thanks so much. and paul But we are reading Arcade 8.1, 8.7. Reading about exactly of this. reading about exactly half of this um It's long.
Pacing and Timeline of 'Ward' vs 'Worm'
00:04:24
Speaker
Definitely a transitional chapter.
00:04:26
Speaker
It's long. It We only read about 40,000 words. It felt longer. It did feel a little bit longer. um Like, a chapter, if that makes sense. But overall, i didn't feel like I read that much.
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, maybe it's just because Wyrm was such a... intense ride from start to finish. But Ward's pacing to me feels very much like we hit a good high point and then it like the energy drops.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah. And then we, we're slowly building back up and then it drops. Whereas with worm, like if it felt more like an ever rising roller coaster where it's like, oh we have a bit of a drop. Oh, it's ramping up a bit of a drop. Oh, it's like, it just kept getting more and more intense.
00:05:14
Speaker
and don't know. It's weird. ah Ward is very different pacing wise. And I think yes oh section this section probably illustrated that very well for me. Coming off of stuff with Kinsey's parents into this. was Yeah. sharing The whiplash. Yeah. yeah yeah Yeah. It's not bad. It's just different.
00:05:36
Speaker
yeah Yeah, we get the one little mention. Which I do appreciate, though, that Wild Boat is doing time skips and not just shoving all of this together into a one-week period like poor Taylor's life. yeah well Well... Like little little jumps in time, right? Like it's been like, okay... It's been...
00:05:54
Speaker
you know How long has it been since the group? Since the beginning of the story. only waiting and only No, it has to have been longer than two weeks. Yeah. evening of the story i'm going to I was really upset when I found this out.
00:06:11
Speaker
I think the story of... I may be mistaken. ah you know haven't gone back to any look. I think the story of Ward takes place over two months. Let us know, Chet. yeah It's been like six months. It feels like it should be six months.
00:06:26
Speaker
I almost could have sworn, though, that there have been lines like it in this arc, it mentions it's been a couple weeks. Her parents have gotten arrested. Things have been established or like a week, maybe. Right. like It feels like it should have been longer.
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah. yeah ah with the Even just the legal system, like right Rain and Ashley going through the legal system, like that takes fucking forever. You cannot tell me that that happened in like a day or two or a week. like well Yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
Either way, um it feels like time has passed. And as a result, I appreciate that.
Kenzie's Family Dynamics and Legal System Critique
00:07:00
Speaker
Whereas it and definitely didn't feel that way with Taylor so much.
00:07:05
Speaker
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe no time has passed at all. We're all just stuck in gray boy time loop. We have a guess. We're stuck in the time loop. there's There's no coming out of it. We have a guess from before. He's saying it might be three months, but.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yep. We're just going to say, you know, I don't feel like this spoils too much just to look up how long. The story starts September 7th, 2015. It ends mid-December 2015. it ends mid-december twenty fifteen No. The story?
00:07:37
Speaker
The story. The whole of of Ward? accurate yeah Okay, well, so... um but here's here's Here, I'll tell you this right now. Much like Marquise, I'm going to choose to ignore that.
00:07:50
Speaker
yes As far as I know, this whole yeah story takes place over, I'll say roughly, in a year and a half. yeah and has that has the Canonically, I think that's that's how it works. Thanks for the book, Wild Bo. We'll take it from here. yeah like a Great idea. We love your idea, but this is why other people have editors. Oh my gosh. I was thinking that. yeah To Hannah's point about legal system timeframes, I just imagine Wild Bo's at his home like, don't know, how long should a child custody take? Like an hour?
00:08:21
Speaker
An hour? Damn.
00:08:26
Speaker
That's funny, three months. The Wild Boat just got more and more concentrated then over time as he writes. Yeah. The next book is going to be 24 He like, what's lesson I should take from this?
00:08:39
Speaker
You know, oh, two years having a time More, more. wasn't that the time skip was bad. It's that the time passing was bad.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah. We just need to stop time from moving. ah so he was on he's it He was in his Daft Punk era, you know, harder, better, faster, stronger. And we love him it.
00:09:01
Speaker
and we' love him for yeah Time to make a quick meme. I'll post it in the Discord later. Yes! You can that meme in the disc on the in the paint warm Discord.
00:09:13
Speaker
And if if somebody from our Patreon... I'll give a blank statement. If somebody from our patrons wants to post that unless Jacob posts it himself, um you're welcome to because we have been banned many times from the subreddit. Yeah, they don't anymore. I've also heard that they go through mo like mods like tissue paper.
00:09:29
Speaker
So... um Well, we don't want to say anything bad about... No, no, no. That's something that was literally brought up recently in a post on on the subreddit was like, as hey, what what happened to the mods? Because like I've been having issues and Wildbo responded like, yeah, I get them. They don't last very long and then they're out and I'm like, okay, well, I need a new mod.
00:09:50
Speaker
oh i don't think it's I don't think it's like ah a workload thing. I think it's just a like, oh, I can be a mod for the Reddit and then you realize, oh, that's a lot of work and then you move on. Yeah. Do they get paid to mod? Because I could go mod... For Wildbo. Oh my gosh. No, no, you don't. Nobody mods. Get foot in the door, Michael.
00:10:10
Speaker
You should. You know what? if Wildbo, if you're listening. Here's the thing. If you mod for a big Twitch streamer, they they will pay you. But that's... I hope he does. That's about... the Those are the only types of mods I've heard of actually getting paid for their work.
00:10:25
Speaker
who yeah Otherwise, Discord and... Yeah. yeah so Mod pizza. The only mod getting paid for their work. There you go. yeah but Yeah.
00:10:36
Speaker
It started in July. Tying it back. Tying it back. Yeah. 8.1 to 8.7. um is Yeah. Any other initial thoughts we want to get out before we ah click into this?
Returning Characters: Defiant and Dragon
00:10:52
Speaker
um I will say, once again, i did read late, ah and I still remember what happened in the first couple of chapters. So i'm looking forward to the summaries because, boy, howdy, did I skim on the boring parts.
00:11:05
Speaker
Not a problem. I'm so sorry. I will say I i have enjoyed seeing some returning faces, like um Defiant and... Yes. Ah!
00:11:17
Speaker
Oh, Dragon? want to say Dragon. These Nuts. Anyway. book hey Oh God.
00:11:31
Speaker
No, yeah, Dragon and Defiant, D&D. We're glad to see them return. yes Yes. A few other returning cases, but mostly them.
00:11:43
Speaker
Was that not last, Mark? That was 8.1 and 8.2. They mentioned. We see them in 8.1 and 8.2, yeah. Okay, okay. They show i have inter have some nice moments.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, they show up in the interlude and then they have some nice moments with Defiant has a moment with Victoria. a Dragon has a moment with Kinsey. yeah ah Those are both kind of nice. We can give them props for that, that they've grown as people.
00:12:08
Speaker
Or not people. Ah, yes, that's right. That's right. I remember now. Good gravy. so Alan, do you want to show off your fancy, fancy background? oh i was going to i'll talk I'll talk about that at the end.
00:12:24
Speaker
Is it an end thing? ah we We mentioned it before, but that is ah my Antares armor over there with LEDs. In the glowing corner. of like Very lovely. Add some suspense. Stick around to the end, and then you can see the armor. There you go. there we go We did that on purpose.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yep. This was planned. Yeah. We have planned. I totally knew he was going to say that. You guys go ahead and hang on. I'll be right back. One sec. Oh, no. Oh, we're talking about this. Okay. Well, yeah while Nick's well going full parent mode.
00:12:57
Speaker
ah I guess I could talk about this. So for those of you who are the patrons, we you know might get exclusive content for this, but I recently did a drag show where I dressed as Antares.
00:13:09
Speaker
um It was very fun. And competed. And to Hero and and and Golden Remix. Yeah. ah Mixed up by yours truly, Michael, because he's- Your very own.
00:13:23
Speaker
what we call a musical genius. Musical genius! The word to use. so It was great. It was phenomenal. I have the video for those. I did not win, ah but um got everybody everybody really liked the glowing suit and the hero costume I had.
00:13:40
Speaker
um By the end, my armor was falling apart. It still is falling apart. Still needs some repairs, but what else is new? um Sick. And yeah, ah the patrons might get to see ah pictures of that.
00:13:52
Speaker
um let's go also hence why i have a baby face right now hey nice we join all right let's get all right nick 8.1 you got it 8.1 dragon and defiant call a hero meeting earth height is launching attacks alongside teacher and other villains Update on Kenzie's situation.
Costume Choices and Identity in 'Ward'
00:14:20
Speaker
Vicky and Kenzie talk with D&D.
00:14:26
Speaker
I feel like we could lump in 8.2 with that as well. because Yeah, let's do it. It's continuation of their conversation with Defiant and Dragon. 8.2 is also Victoria considers Tinkers as Kenzie talks with D&D.
00:14:38
Speaker
Then they go talk with Fumehood, Tempera, Brandish, and Flashbang. Breakthrough discusses powerhouses and the team's future plans.
00:14:50
Speaker
A little more of that kind of just general ah world buildings, kind of the wrong term, but setting building. Yeah. yeah It's interesting.
00:15:04
Speaker
This gathering of heroes, which appears to be missing a key figure in legend. Um, Because Legend is still alive, right? He is, yeah. you know He's still doing stuff. I was going to say, he's not he love the lead because Shevalier is... No, he retired from the PRT, but he is still heroine, I believe. Yeah. yeah um But yeah, so seeing a lot of returning figures and yet as Victoria comments, it was kind of sad for her to even she realized like, man, this is nothing like what it was before Gold Morning.
00:15:37
Speaker
You just remember how many people have been lost. um And even then sometimes some people just aren't there because they're busy. Like Valkyrie is off like doing stuff. She can't be there. So there's also that effect too, which is interesting.
00:15:50
Speaker
Also, I don't know how to pronounce shite. I've been calling it earth cheat. Earth cheat. Yeah, Earth Little cheaters.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yep. I've always said kite, but I don't know how to pronounce it. Okay, but there is a kite called kite that we meet later on.
00:16:14
Speaker
The kite something. They don't know how to... Earth sheet. That's it. that it eat yeah know it's this Cheat. Cheat. Cheat. Is that right? i to Cheating cheat.
00:16:26
Speaker
Hold on. I'm going to be wrong. Nope. Oh, is it? Okay. Nope. That's not it.
00:16:34
Speaker
ah Earth sea, as Bernard says. yeah' Yeah. Honestly. Exactly. That's right. Exactly. yeah Smart man. Kite.
00:16:45
Speaker
I guess it's a kite. yeah eight okay i Anyway, in that place. That's a stupid name. Earthsea. Earthsea.
00:16:57
Speaker
um Actually, I'm sticking with Earthsea.
00:17:04
Speaker
Perfect. um so ah good what What about it? What were we talking about? it No, they're just talking about it. We're talking about it. Yeah. i thought Also, exactly yeah all of you would know, ah we should we should really know chait better ah because it's the term to miss the mark, which... but look Yeah, but we don't use that whatever language it is.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, come on. hebrew all Yeah, but you would know this because it's the word we translate as sin. oh So that's right. Why did Wildboe name it Sin?
00:17:44
Speaker
The Earth Sin. Because they're bad. They're bad people. They're bad guys. Okay, I will say called it like it's probably You called it. Also, let me finish.
00:18:01
Speaker
I think this is actually probably a mispronunciation of the
Teacher's Role and Earth Cheit Speculations
00:18:04
Speaker
word. I think it is just because when they anglicized it, I think it is just Chet because they, it's what Aleph, Bet, Gimel, which are like alphabet. Anglicized it. Oh my God. So Chet would just be, no it's not a word. I think it should it just be the letter.
00:18:20
Speaker
Like it's a Hebrew. They're all Hebrew letters in the alphabet. Right. I think it's probably not sin. It's probably just the letter that in Hebrew and not the word. um But Nick, you did call it.
00:18:31
Speaker
Just want to say I called it. I'm a smart boy. Yep. Religious such fundamentalists like to work together. Aha. Although they're different breeds, as they say. yeah even Even Earth Sheet is like, listen, those those fallen people are little bit rough around the edges for us, but they like Jesus and we can rock Bring them into the fold. Yeah, we can figure out a way to to finagle them in. listen they Listen, Earth Sheet might be Baptist and Southern Baptist and...
00:19:06
Speaker
The fallen might be some crazy backwater Pentecostal. Primitive Baptist. Baptist. Appalachian Church of God. Woof.
00:19:19
Speaker
But, you know what? When it comes to dealing with the heathens, they are united. yeah The goddess doesn't have any actual powers. She's just Episcopalian. That's all it is.
00:19:35
Speaker
Gosh, before we go down a religious joke, grab it all. Yeah, please. Let's turn this part around. lost 80% of our audience already. yeah ah sleep All sex is what they come here for. It's not what they come here for. I had no notes on that person. This actually...
00:19:51
Speaker
This is actually the Brockton Bay Bible Club, don't you know? Oh, you didn't know. Is that in the bingo? Is that in the bingo? It could definitely be in the bingo. I'll tell you right now, we've been striking off bingos left and right already. Oh, no. Everyone play along. Let us know when you get it.
00:20:10
Speaker
But... the The other thing, too, I think that we talked about previously guessing is that Teacher's involved somehow. So it seems like Chet is working alongside Teacher very closely. Teacher, as we know, kind of took over Cauldron, which ah maybe we're not quite sure yet, but we think... Something hanky. What's her face? Jacob's favorite Smash? um And Alan's.
00:20:32
Speaker
Is working with Teacher maybe? Contessa? Contessa, yeah, thank you. First off, not favorite Smash. but up You were literally talking about her just the other day. ah yeah About how she has my favorite power. Now, favorite smash. Jacob's favorite smash. Jacob, jacobs a quick aside.
00:20:49
Speaker
and Well, maybe second to no bog.
Favorite Powers and Characters Debate
00:20:52
Speaker
Okay, hold on. Jacob, quick aside. Contessa or Narwhal?
00:21:01
Speaker
let Let us know the chat what he's going to say. Oh, my gosh. You can't fucking rainbow color this. Okay, I asked what your favorite color was, and you said fucking rainbow.
00:21:15
Speaker
I'm not letting you get out of this one. I mean, that's obviously Contessa. Really? knew he was going to that. Yeah, he said that in the past. If she wants it to be the greatest night of your life, it will be.
00:21:28
Speaker
ah just you tired I We talked about that. I agree. as some However... Yeah. I admire Contessa, but Narwhal is where it's at for me. All right. And that also doesn't surprise me.
00:21:43
Speaker
Not so certain said best is different than favorite. Also, they're asking if... Sorry, go ahead.
00:21:55
Speaker
Just Chad's hilarious right now. Finish your thought. Ellen. Oh, I was reading chat. What's Jeff saying? 53 comments. Where was she wrong?
00:22:07
Speaker
If Jesus is a cape and oh said yes. Oh. So that's good. Zion. It's problematic. You can't in fact smash problematic. I can fix her.
00:22:19
Speaker
ah Biblical Jesus is like... like what, a stranger to? You know? and no. it's It's been established. It's been established that Jesus is part of the lineage of the Jodestar family because he is Joshua, son of Joseph.
00:22:40
Speaker
He is a Jojo. and Okay. Bro.
00:22:46
Speaker
i thought we were going to go with jesus being the lich thing oh that's also that too yeah i'm just gonna apologize on behalf of edge everything that's happening right now i do remember the the one year that it was cool amongst edgy christians to call easter happy zombie jesus day i remember that one year that was a good one year this is a zombie that's let's but we get one year of fun every seven years
00:23:12
Speaker
anyways um yeah one let's go oh oh Oh, I was going to I still have ah a question on here. ah Let's see. Kenzie turned in her parents. my off episode ah Oh, yeah. Kenzie turning in her parents is like a a kid giving up their favorite toy.
00:23:33
Speaker
ah Kind of. Yeah. um I mean, if your toy's trying to kill you. Let's see. the The thing is, right, she, on Kenzie, with the situation with her parents, I think in her mind, she was trying to help them be a better, be better parents.
00:23:50
Speaker
The issue is, the only way she's ever been taught how to make people modify their behavior is through abuse. So it's not just... saving her from them. it Although they are sucky people, it's kind of saving them from her too, I think. Yeah.
00:24:08
Speaker
Of like, they've been living in this living hell. They're probably grateful to be out of it. ah Right. You know, so, yeah, it's... But now she's got caregivers and and they're nice. We have Natalie back, ah the unfashionable paralegal, according to Victoria. Nobody likes and everybody hates and she's ugly. and I actually found myself liking I'm just reading what Vicky's words, did not mine. And by Vicky, I mean wild those words.
00:24:36
Speaker
i know Victoria, she's like helping Kinsey kind of outweighed by being even in the same circle as my mom. So it' it's like she's a horrible person. Yeah. She's horrible by proxy.
00:24:49
Speaker
um My question was, ah Vicky's going on and thinking about this ah whole thing with like not being able to read people because of their costumes. You know, what covers their face and obscures the, you know, the mouth or eyes or whatnot.
00:25:02
Speaker
And it made me think like, if there's a thought process between like people who don't wear masks, because, you know, obviously new wave people who wear masks, like the eye masks, people who wear full helmet or people who do like just the bottom half or just the top half, you know, like if there's a, some psychology with that, um, that would be, don't y'all have any thoughts about who wears what,
00:25:30
Speaker
feel like I'd have to sit down and think about what everyone wears. Like Gru has a full helmet. Yeah. Cattletail has just an eye mask. It's an eye mask. Kind of the Incredibles look is what I imagine it looks like.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Regent doesn't wear a mask. Regent doesn't wear a mask. ah I thought he... I think he wears... Does he have like a little... well i ah little No, it's not the opera mask.
00:25:58
Speaker
He's got a little tiny decorated eye mask. Rachel doesn't wear a mask. Rachel doesn't wear a No, Rachel wears the ah little dog.
00:26:08
Speaker
andt chi She has a dog mask. Oh, the rubber Halloween dog mask. A little plastic dog mask. Yeah, she doesn't wear it that often, though. She wore it a lot at the beginning of Worm, and then I think she just stopped. She wears it for like...
00:26:23
Speaker
the heist, and I feel like that's it. yeah Yeah. Because most of the time it's on her hip or like... Yeah. She just have It's interesting though, I think part of it, part of what you're talking about, Alan, with the psychology of it is it it goes two ways, I think. The characters who have the full helmet versus the...
00:26:44
Speaker
Or no mask at all. They might be on the similar ends of the spectrum in the sense of how much has their cape identity sort of subsumed their whole identity. So like with New Wave, Victoria's talked about how being a cape is everything that she was going to be.
00:27:00
Speaker
Similarly, like there are some people like Sveta or Weld who like a costume doesn't matter. That is who they are. They can't escape that part of them. On the flip side, you have somebody like Defiant who has so enmeshed himself in being Defiant that that you know motorcycle or that you know helmet he's created for himself might as well be his face. That's who he is now.
00:27:22
Speaker
Kind of the whole Batman thing of like Batman is more Batman than he is Bruce Wayne at this point. Yeah, because I was going to go with for the Undersiders at the very least. I feel like it's the opposite where Gru and...
00:27:34
Speaker
grew and ah Taylor both have lives that they're trying to protect. So they have full face. Like they have another life essentially outside.
00:27:47
Speaker
Tattletail, Rachel, Regent. They, this is the only, they barely give a shit. Cause like, yeah, everybody knows who Rachel is. Like Rachel's not even trying to have an identity. She just got slapped with the name kind of, um you know, the other is really just trying to hide from one person.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah, and Lisa doesn't give a shit either. like So, you know, they barely have ones as opposed to, I think, Miss Militia. Miss Militia wears like scar, like a bandana around her mouth because what she doesn't have a day personality.
00:28:22
Speaker
like She doesn't go to school. She went from being a war zone kid to a hero. That's her her life. And same for Colin, except Colin's like transition where like,
00:28:35
Speaker
You know, Colin has the, from what I remember, like the Judge Dredd look going on. He did, yeah. You know, so like his is, he he did probably start out as something else, you know, a person and then got powers.
00:28:50
Speaker
So like he is, but he's also very into the hero thing. So my thought was like, at least in Worm, it feels like it's, you know, the more you have to protect, the more of a helmet you wear as opposed to the less, the less of a mask. Probably true. Yeah. Cause you think about people like long as well, who didn't wear a costume at all.
00:29:10
Speaker
um And you know, he, what does he have to protect? Nothing. Like he doesn't have an, the slaughterhouse nine versus somebody like, ah like Kaiser or like coil who have a lot to protect with their identity.
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. they wore full body suits so you couldn't even tell who they were yeah um oh yeah i don know it's interesting i mean i actually was thinking about that with grew too like grew wears full leathers full motorcycle leathers and the motorcycle helmet doesn't he also wear gloves like nothing he is completely covered as well mm-hmm mm-hmm Yeah.
00:29:45
Speaker
and And, you know, I think back to heroes like, once again, like Narwhal. You're not going to hide the fact that she's seven foot tall. You know, yeah and everybody knows the seven foot tall woman is Narwhal.
Defiant's Redemption and Team Dynamics
00:29:58
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, Lung did have a full mask, but he also didn't wear a shirt. So yeah I feel like that counts as more on the bottom half. Yeah, more of an intimidation factor, maybe.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah Anyway, just something I thought. Costume design is an interesting part of this where we get to see a bit more insight into that maybe. i did like um I did like Victoria's conversation with Defiant since we're on him um in that that moment of her wondering what he's thinking.
00:30:32
Speaker
I think at least it's showing he's continuing down that path of redemption, right? Where he's just completely honest. He's like, yeah, I thought if anyone had to die for me to beat Leviathan, Kaiser wasn't the worst person to eat it.
00:30:45
Speaker
If other people died and that included somebody you cared about, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have done that. And if there is anything I can do for you, let me... I'm like, wow, what ah what a guy. Like, what a change from who he was. It's very... Yeah, it's very, like, wrapped up in the acceptance thing of, like... Yeah. he He's accepting the what he did. And there's no, like, avoidance. There's no, like, yeah, well...
00:31:07
Speaker
You know, he's like, no, what I did was wrong. i hurt people to get what I thought was going to be the correct answer. And I was wrong. And I'm sorry. And it's crazy Victoria just has no idea that any of that happened.
00:31:19
Speaker
Right. Because having seen it now, like from Taylor's perspective, we're like, oh, Victoria was just out of it. She was gone. And that's, yeah. So for her, this is like the last thing I remember about you is not everything you've done that's good since that terrible moment but your worst moment of your life probably yeah yeah yeah he's like damn that sucks it does um fume hood pointing out like oh there's people walking this way and and points it out by saying are these guys enemies and like looking at victoria she's like no it's my parents and she goes and like and
00:31:55
Speaker
not question no less yeah you know And I was like, Fumehood gets it. yeah Oh, God. And Kinsey being like, I know where she lives. And Victor was like, damn it, child. Fuck up! yeah Put a sock in it, kid.
00:32:11
Speaker
but No, no, don't don't hit the abused children, Hannah. Okay, look. Oh, gosh. Especially not with the wretch. She will not come out of that.
00:32:22
Speaker
Not gonna lie, I don't remember Fumehood being this kind of like i don't know, one of favorite characters, but like... Oh, yeah. Every time Fume Hood has showed up since the beginning, I'm like, oh, you know what?
00:32:33
Speaker
Kind of cool. She's been really great. i I've enjoyed the the new insights we get into her character because, you you know, we first meet her at the beginning, but it was fun to see her pop up again in like Ashley's interlude chapters and here she is again and and then again later and I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's good. mean, my policy. 8.3? 8.3. Let's do it. Victoria visits and cleans the old headquarters, it discusses the effects of powers with Tristan.
00:33:07
Speaker
Breakthrough then visits Rain and Ashley and begin their investigation. um
00:33:14
Speaker
So, kind of a... I'll be honest, I don't really recall much of her conversation with Tristan. here neither do i he well she remember in the moment thinking it was kind of interesting but yeah i mean i remember she shows up to clean and then he gets there and he's like oh you did it already and she's like yeah and then they chat about i really don't remember They talk about ah the the like thrill of like being a kid, going to parties, and feeling like you know tonight might be the best night or the worst night, and that he like thrives in those moments. That's right. yeah like He's having a tough... you know Kind of talk about how it's hard for him to live life and...
00:34:00
Speaker
um you know, having trouble with that. And then, but that it's, he doesn't need checking up on like, you know, the kids do. And he's, he's glad that somebody's doing that.
00:34:11
Speaker
Victoria did go to Chris's place to check up on him and did go to dinner with, uh, with Kenzie. Um, yeah. You know, he, he,
00:34:22
Speaker
We've had questions about that, you know, where we're like, oh, um you know, should, you know, should she have gone and to check on Chris?
00:34:33
Speaker
And it seems to at least be from Tristan's point of view. Yeah, I think i think that was a good idea to go check on him. I'm glad you did that. um and Because she's at this weird place where she's not quite a team captain.
00:34:49
Speaker
but she's more involved than ah she's like a player coach kind of. um Yeah. You know, just because she's got the experience and she does want to be involved. So she's weird player coach that does a lot of things, but says like, Hey, you know, you technically Tristan is kind of our team face. So, you know, I'll let you take the reins on this. And yeah.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah. It does seem like though, Victoria does have a hard time letting Tristan be the leader. I think she... Whether or not she's willing to admit it to herself, she does kind of want to take that role.
00:35:25
Speaker
I think so, too. I don't think she should. But I think she's just used to stepping into such main role. Like, she knows so much information about Capes. Like, she has so much so much of an asset that it makes sense for her to step in as a tactical leadership role. But i Can't say i approve that much.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is what, like you were talking about a tactical leader. It is the, when Taylor steps into the Chicago team, Taylor does the same thing that she did with, I mean, this is thematic also, but the same thing that she did with, uh, uh,
00:36:12
Speaker
or The Undeciders, where she came into The Undeciders. Technically, Gru was leader for all the the good that that did. Lisa was really the leader, if you asked me. Yeah. Like, Gru was the face, the tactical leader, if you will.
00:36:27
Speaker
And Taylor subsumes him, like, so hard. um yeah And then she goes to Chicago and she does the same thing basically where she shows up.
00:36:38
Speaker
She gets dropped immediately into the behemoth arc and is like shows up and they're like, oh my gosh. She's like, you ever fought an Endbringer before? I have, you know, yeah I've got by far the most experience doing really hard shit.
00:36:55
Speaker
And everybody's like, we default to you in these matters. Yeah. Even though you just showed up. Yeah, Victoria does give kind of those former cheer captain vibes where it's like, oh, no, I'm not really the leader, but also here's how you should do things. Yeah. ah Bernard asks, how do you think brian Byron would feel if Tristan became full leader?
00:37:20
Speaker
Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah. I think it's good that there's technically no true team captain. i do think that Vicky provides a lot of the tactical expertise and leadership when it comes to making contacts.
00:37:37
Speaker
Like she sets up the deals and Tristan is the one that she makes shake hands with the other person. And then because he's a good face, but I feel like Sveta and Ashley and Tristan were leading the ship.
00:37:57
Speaker
um You know, Tristan's just that more outgoing personality, but Sveta would essentially pump the brakes if they needed to. And Ashley would pump the gas if they needed to. Yeah.
00:38:08
Speaker
Yeah, I see that. And Tristan is essentially steering. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then of course, the natural issue with Tristan taking too big of a leadership role is that he shares his time with another person.
00:38:19
Speaker
So then that would either mean taking on more during his time and not really getting a break or taking more of Byron's time, which Byron wouldn't be happy with, I don't think. No. Yeah.
00:38:30
Speaker
I don't even think that. I just, I also think Byron and Tristan... you know, their relationship, I think Byron would also just kind of be up.
00:38:41
Speaker
would be It would annoy him to Tristan to become this leader and be doing all this stuff. Like not even, even if it didn't eat into time to see Tristan be doing that would kind of be annoying to him.
00:38:55
Speaker
Sure.
00:39:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Then they head to the, um, they head to the prison. The prison, which is, in my understanding, right, is sort of between worlds. It's like in between two portals or something.
00:39:13
Speaker
It's like on their world ports to get there. Okay. Yeah. Well, it's like far and it's like 20 minutes from each portal. So it's like you have to go through the portal, travel 20 minutes and go through another portal and then travel another 20 minutes.
00:39:28
Speaker
So it's a hassle to get to. Absolutely. They were even like there's like basically no security or walls because it's just in the middle of miles of nowhere.
Prison Setup and Security Challenges
00:39:40
Speaker
so there's no bombs strapped to their legs. Yeah. so yeah There's like apartment complexes and yeah the yard. Right. So there's like designated areas.
00:39:54
Speaker
But yeah, like. wow Yeah, it's pretty... It's an open-air prison. It's an open-air prison. yeah Or was that just to go through the portal?
00:40:07
Speaker
It was... I mean, it might have just been Victoria sort of exaggerating the the lack of like formal... I think it's more... Fencing? Yeah. There's not... and I think it's more also, too, right? The concept of you have a bunch of supervillains here, so if... Like, I imagine, like, maybe it's not they have no walls, but it's really just like a chain-link fence.
00:40:27
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah yeah It's more to understand here's where the boundaries We'll blow you if you try to cross the line. Exactly. it's it's Because the reality is they're like any number of people here could just fly, teleport, speed run, like do anything to get out of here.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah. um A lot of them probably could bop out of the little a leg thing too. You know, depending. Right.
00:40:53
Speaker
Somebody Fran said that there is there is walls. Okay. no okay That makes sense. Either way, still, the concept of a wall and most parahumans is like, it's a moot point, you know?
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah. Bernard pointed out that someone predicted that, I don't know who, but somebody predicted that Rain and Swan Song wouldn't be imprisoned. I do vaguely remember this.
00:41:16
Speaker
I guess they were wrong. Whoever that was, you were wrong. And if it was me, then I wasn't wrong. I never said that. can't prove It was actually Nick's stranger power.
00:41:27
Speaker
He makes you think that he said something wrong when in fact he never did. He never did. Just call me Gaslight. Yes!
00:41:39
Speaker
Perfect power. Character's already getting written. That's great. No, I hate it. I hate it! oh This little section does start my first favorite Chris quote of the First seven chapters?
00:41:53
Speaker
Ah, yes. I can turn into a monster that's 90% mouth. I could do it now. but Great. I've met those people.
00:42:07
Speaker
He's trying to yeah justify like why he shouldn't have to turn out his pockets to the security. Right? yeah He's like, listen. and he's i mean, he's got a point. I mean, he's not wrong, yeah. Especially with the form we end up seeing later. Like, oof.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah. Chris, I don't care. Just put the goddamn thing. Empty your goddamn pockets. We all have to go through the TSA check line. I don't care about your philosophical reasons.
00:42:32
Speaker
I don't care if the TSA is fucking useless. Just empty your goddamn pockets. Put your shoes in the fucking Yeah, I will say this. This had me be like, um I've liked Chris for the most part. Like,
00:42:44
Speaker
Absolutely some problematic stuff and like definitely think it's going to be more trouble along the line. But this was the moment where I was just like, oh my God, your juvenile-ness is showing. Like your kid...
00:42:58
Speaker
ah Why do I have to empty my pockets? Shut up and empty your goddamn pockets. We do learn that there's more to this scene, though. ah fine But you're not wrong. Which I do feel like justifies a lot of his shittiness here. A little bit, yeah. Like, if at the end of that, like the he was just being a dickhead, then like, bro. Yeah.
00:43:19
Speaker
I mean, he was. ill But the thing is, he behaves like that all the time. So it's like... It's the role he falls into naturally. So it wasn't hard for him to pretend for his sake. ah He would have said at least one thing, whether or not Kinsey had put him up to it. so Exactly.
00:43:34
Speaker
ah Exactly.
00:43:38
Speaker
got a cool little conversation with the ah prison duo.
00:43:44
Speaker
I really want more. I want an interlude with Ashley and actual damsel.
00:43:55
Speaker
or prime dam whatever we're calling her. We could call her damsel and we've got swan song. Yeah. Yeah.
Clone Relationships: Slashley and Ashley
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah. You know, Ashley scissor fingers.
00:44:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. but oh Because they keep just kind of bringing it up a lot that she's there and present. Okay. Also, I know this is going to be weird, but there's always been the like, what if you had a clone? Would you bang them?
00:44:21
Speaker
And everybody jokes and whatnot. Okay. Okay. But hold on. Hold on. Hear me out. Do you feel that like the Ashley Slashley? Thank you, Fran.
00:44:33
Speaker
you feel like a slash the Slashley ones is like the one time you see that you go? Yeah, they would.
00:44:42
Speaker
They would. Yes, absolutely. um Which I'll be honest later. Maybe it's just my mind. But later when she's like, I have a video to show you guys, but the kids can't watch. I'm like,
00:44:53
Speaker
I'm sorry, how did you interrogate Monoceros? I was wondering something. where I was like, how did this go? We'll get into that pronunciation later. Yeah, I was going to say, please, can we come back to that? No, no, but that was just one of one of my many takes on how to pronounce that name.
00:45:12
Speaker
I know. I went through about three or four different iterations trying to figure that out. I'll have a different one later. Like trying to pronounce Mononoke? Mononoke. Yeah, Princess Mononoke. Vanona and LK.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah yeah, interesting little prison thing. And they kind of talk about right how ah we need to investigate. There's stuff going on in the prison. We think something's happening.
00:45:37
Speaker
Yada yada. And Crystal Clear is there. Crystal Clear is there. Yeah, that's an 8.4, which I can read real quick so I feel like it's related. um Oh, yes, please. Yes, please. yeah Sorry. So 8.4, there's a discussion of life on in the prison.
00:45:51
Speaker
We see Monakaros for the first time in 8.4 as well. um Kinsey, though, hacked to the prison and smuggled in Tinkertag cameras. They discover Goddess is interested in the prison and Crystal Clear is undercover there.
00:46:08
Speaker
So. Yeah, interesting, interesting stuff. Also, as NotSquartan pointed out, ah both Slashley and Ashley are both tops, so it wouldn't work. True. We've discussed the sexual dynamics there. I agree. There's... there's I don't know if it's a top situation so much as it's a dumb situation.
00:46:31
Speaker
but so well Or even... in i Maybe not even that. Maybe like a strong pillow princess vibe. Yeah. ah've we've But we've talked about the control aspect. So, you know, but once again, like the eye thing, like there's only one person they would trust to do it. So um there you go.
00:46:53
Speaker
Anyway, back to ah our. our um I did not pick up at all that Crystal Clear was under, was like there as a situation. I didn't actually pick up that he was undercover either. all. also did not pick that at all. Not at all. I like that was a spoiler in the summary. had been a spoiler in the summary.
00:47:12
Speaker
but Well, mostly because, right, yeah the I guess the the main hint is that like, they're like, wait, Crystal Clear's a good guy. Yeah. yeah're like And they don't know why. And we're like, why would he be in prison?
00:47:24
Speaker
It's weird. Because they're talking about it, and Rain's like, I haven't seen him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. But when Ashley talks about, like, well, I've seen him, but i haven't talked to him, and they're like well, Rain, why don't you go talk And he's like, why why is it me? Like, why doesn't Ashley go talk to him? But it's it's very they don't know why he's there. They can't figure out what what happened. And he's, like, avoiding...
00:47:47
Speaker
some people. And I think in ah in a later chapter when we talk to Rain again, he says something similar where he's like, yeah, Crystal Clear doesn't want to talk to me. Like, he didn't believe me when I said I knew you. Yeah. He's very cagey, it seems like.
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, like I guess that makes sense, but I definitely, that's got to be like a spoiler in the summaries because did not pick up on that at all. Yeah. um Yeah. No, because like in my head and and I remember, like I knew that you know, ah what the story
Kenzie in Prison: Tinker Tech and Goddess
00:48:18
Speaker
is. But in my head, if we were going to explain why he's there, the answer is he's very prone from his backstory that we've seen that he's very prone to ah not understanding kind of what's going on.
00:48:35
Speaker
Like yeah that was trigger event that he didn't see the fact that he had been kidnapped for his whole life, even though it was very obvious that that wasn't his mother. And so people like blamed him. Like, why didn't you even know that you were kidnapped?
00:48:47
Speaker
That he could have been working for the fallen, like with the whole portal blowing up thing. ah yeah Like let them through. And when they ask him why he goes, oh, well, like this guy that I've known told me to. And they're like, and you just went with it. And he's like, I mean, he wasn't like giving me any danger vibes.
00:49:12
Speaker
Like, yeah, it's like dumbass. He was fallen. He's like, I can't see that. yeah i Yeah, I guess it's not explicitly stated, but it doesn't didn't really make sense for him to be there otherwise.
00:49:25
Speaker
yeah on i feel like he would have been a rain situation. We're like, oh yeah, I fucked up. I go to super prison. He's very yeah go with the flow. he has a good heart, and if you but also can be led astray. So like, oh, I messed up. I need to go to prison.
00:49:41
Speaker
Or like, you don't have to, bud. And he's like, no, no, I should. Like, yeah. Right. It's the right thing to do. i Yeah. So. Well, but Kinsey sneaking in the Tinker Tech trying to get an eye things. Genius.
00:49:56
Speaker
Genius. And you know everybody else is like, whoa, hey, no, but... But also, it's really handy. yeah Once again, a great example of... the She put it in... ah we have the example of the Maggie Holt series, which, as we've said before, is ah mentioned in a couple other series, ah but is a character in Pact.
00:50:22
Speaker
um A lot of the, you know, each series essentially treats the other worlds ah that Wildbo writes as franchises of some kind in their respective units. That's funny.
00:50:34
Speaker
So I want to i want to say, i want to say there's the superhero universe is mentioned or at the very least some of Twig's books are mentioned in Pact as well.
00:50:47
Speaker
um And we we know that's also been the case for Ward and Worm. um What else we were we talking about? let's see. We did that. We talked about crystal clear. Oh,
00:51:07
Speaker
oh about it. Oh, no, no. we've said that crystal clear is there that he is um undercover. He did say something like that, that he, and he I don't think he did.
00:51:22
Speaker
I want to say that the communications that they intercepted, I'll have to go back and read. Cause I took a note of it here to explain it specifically. I wrote down that he is undercover, uh, that somebody recruited him to infiltrate the prison to be there. When goddess showed up,
00:51:43
Speaker
And we don't say who it is. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. So we assume he could be for the good guys, but we don't know. Any guesses? Right. I mean, he was with a he was with that watch team before, working for the PRT-ish people.
00:52:02
Speaker
um So... ish Yeah. my My assumption would be he's working for them. But... ah you know we We do know that with Goddess, we have some other characters who are interested in those things as well, like ah Gary as well. could be Gary. Gary could hired him.
00:52:22
Speaker
That's his name, Gary? ever Yeah. Oh, get right, Gary. Had to forget about Gary already. Yeah, don't forget about Gary. That would be interesting, actually. I like that idea.
00:52:35
Speaker
Curious. We'll watch his career with great interest. Exactly. That does not count as a movie reference. I going to say, are you sure? That's kind of a movie reference. I feel like that should count.
00:52:48
Speaker
No, no, no. That's just a quote. Quotes, sheev, palpitating. Quotes, not movie references. Okay. Also, I did forget 8.4 does have my only other Chris line that I noted from this section.
00:53:01
Speaker
Let's go. Which
Relationship Struggles: Sveta and Weld
00:53:02
Speaker
I'll set it up and then read it. Let me get this straight, Tristan said. You hacked a secure facility using a virus? Vector of attack, Kenzie said. Yes.
00:53:13
Speaker
Chris feigns being an asshole to buy time to hack in. I didn't feign. Thank you, Chris said.
00:53:23
Speaker
Love it. Love it. Yep. Boxes, man. You got to watch out for the small ones. They'll box you. Yep.
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah, well, 8.5. And
00:53:40
Speaker
the one the where they mentioned Conquest, I don't think so. I don't think we've mentioned that yet. we're getting We're getting to all of that, I assume, in the next part of the arc.
00:53:52
Speaker
um But let's go to 8.5.
00:53:55
Speaker
eight point five Sveta talks about her relationship with Weld. She, Antares, and Capricorn helped some advance guard fight trial and error at Mayday's request, and Prancer has made a return.
00:54:11
Speaker
um Yeah. It's just... what do What do they have in the trucks? It's wheat, milk, and cum. Is that what he says? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What? What? Grass, milk, and cum.
00:54:24
Speaker
What is it? and they Grass, milk, and cum. Yeah, it something like that. no so Are there cows? Cows in one? No, no, it's cal it's it's specifically to repopulate the cow population.
00:54:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I know that. The cum is for that part, but there's cocks is one of them. There's a joke made about the cocks, and they're like, it's hens, actually. and oh is it chickens? It might be chickens, yeah, yeah.
00:54:52
Speaker
Chickens, milk, and cum. Maybe. Anyway, chickens but to tick go back while we look that up. Pigs, chickens, and cum. There we go. Thank you. To back up a little bit on this, because we um we just passed right over. ah Nick, how do you pronounce the child killer's name again?
00:55:11
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:55:14
Speaker
Antares? No. The child killer? isn't Taylor? Taylor? child killer that isn't Taylor. The one that literally takes control of M name. Monokaros.
00:55:28
Speaker
Oh. Monokaros. Yeah. no sorry is Is that how everybody? I pronounce it Monoceros.
00:55:38
Speaker
i That's how I pronounce it. I don't know if that's correct. so I would say Monoceros. It's a fancy way of saying unicorn. um If you didn't catch that from 8.7.
00:55:50
Speaker
Boo! Yeah, it's it's real dumb. Uh-huh. yeah much um um Yeah. No, I like i like to say Monoceros, though, because it's funnier. It's way better.
00:56:01
Speaker
Yeah. I assume they gave her like the, she's essentially the, what is it? Dr. Zoom to Flash when it comes to the unicorn type characters because she's unicorn four and she's like, she was a hero too, which is even more disturbing. luster No, no. She was on a hero team and was a serial killer.
00:56:22
Speaker
That's how she. It said she started. I thought she was just pretending to be a hero. Like she was starting a pretend hero team. Ashley says it later. She says something about either you started a hero team to lure in people or she says you... I think it's like she pretended to part hero team. I'll look it up so we don't spoil anything, but... Yeah, please do.
00:56:46
Speaker
She says it in the... Oh. She was... No, yeah. She was a successful men ah member of the sponsored hero team, Goldenrod, receiving multiple sponsorship. Oh, wow.
00:57:00
Speaker
She was number 23 in the American Cape popularity rankings and number six in an early 2010 online para-humans vote. Wait, this is outside information. where this This is all this is all you know yeah way out of things. but yeah The goldenrod thing is straight from from this chapter. I'll find it.
00:57:18
Speaker
I'm going to find it. yeah The goldenrod is from this chapter. That I remember. But yeah. you but yeah she She was she was a serial killer operating within a hero team.
00:57:37
Speaker
Damn. That sucks.
00:57:41
Speaker
Quack. um Also, I just have to point out because now i was I was looking up pronunciations. So that it's based off the word, but it's spelled differently. It's spelled with a C. And it's where we get the word rhinoceros.
00:57:53
Speaker
So it's monoceros is the way you'd pronounce it. mean And I'm guessing he made it a K so that people wouldn't pronounce it monoceros. and Monoceros.
00:58:04
Speaker
Yeah, monoceros. Which is also what I would do. Which but my thought was like... And obviously I'm just bullshitting names here, but like Keros for like, is it, is it keratin that like is what makes up the horn?
00:58:19
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Like Mono Keros. That's where we get the word keratin from, I believe. Yeah. Is what horns are made of. So like,
00:58:28
Speaker
it would make sense to pronounce it like Kairos. Yeah. But, you know, not pronounce it like that.
00:58:38
Speaker
Either way, Wild Bow strikes again. Yeah. And we have fun. Yep. Yep. Good time. All right. Yeah. it is It is literally a fancy way of saying unicorn though, which is funny. Yeah. Yeah. um um Anyways, 8.5 though, we get this sort of like Sveta talking to...
00:58:57
Speaker
ah talking to Victoria about like, hey, I've got boy problems. Which was a I don't know. It's a funny... it's It's so interesting, right? Because on one hand, it's like you want to treat Sveta and Weld's relationship and like, oh, they're just a couple trying to deal with normal relationship problems.
00:59:15
Speaker
Which they kind of are. You know, Weld is out fighting. He's stressed. he and She's at home trying to, you know, do nice things for him. The issue is they're both... such unique biologies that she can't do the thing. Like you would think like, Oh, what would be nice? Like if you've had a really stressful day at work, what could be nice? Oh, well you have a nice homemade meal when you come home, you know? And she's like, i want to do that, but he can't eat anything.
00:59:42
Speaker
ah can't taste anything. Yeah. of Yeah. I think at one point in time they mentioned that the only way to get them to taste something is if it's like really strong, ity whether it's really terrible, like, or extremely spicy. Like, only he says. But doesn't he tell Victoria, like like, it's nice that she tries, but she really doesn't have to. And if you ever get a chance to tell her to not worry about it, please.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think it's that feeling of like wanting to be normal, like wanting to have some sense of normality. and like You can't because it's just it's just not.
01:00:21
Speaker
You're not going to have no normal with the two of you. and like they're Yeah, they're pretending to be humans like other people are, but in their own struggles.
01:00:32
Speaker
I think the moment that she can like move past that is going to be a good moment. because like Don't try to be something you're not. like just You and Weld have a very unique relationship and don't worry that it doesn't meet the expectations that you think it should meet of what a relationship should look like because you guys have a very different relationship and that is okay.
Trial and Error's Powers
01:00:54
Speaker
Find what works for you.
01:01:00
Speaker
Also, I did find that section of the way, by the way, it's later, but I'll, I'll just read it now. Yeah. ah Good. Ashley says, and your victims, you pretended to set up a hero team and baited young heroes and heroines in only to kill them.
01:01:14
Speaker
Yes. Was she a leader of golden rub? No, she is not the leader of golden rod. yeah Okay. Or is that more recent? That's post-cold morning that she did that. Yes, I believe so. Post-cold morning, maybe. maybe sheet now Okay, interesting.
01:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, Goldenrod is mentioned in one of these chapters um talking about her. It might be when they refer to like that she's Unicorn the Fourth Yeah. and Is it it's an inherited power kind of like Butcher? No, no, no, no. just Okay. Yeah, I didn't understand the force. She got permission from Unicorn 3 to use the name. Okay.
01:01:54
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:56
Speaker
Gotcha. um Yes, we meet Trial and Error. who yeah Okay, Trial, don't understand why Trial's name is Trial. um yeah Because it they it literally, they say it doesn't it doesn't work. Trial to deal with, maybe.
01:02:15
Speaker
yeah so Error, though, is a very interesting power. Very interesting. um yeah Basically, sort of like... sort of like probability influence in a way, which is really interesting of like, if I focus on you, you will critical fail, whatever you're trying to do.
01:02:34
Speaker
it's really interesting. Yeah. Cause they're like trying to figure out exactly how it works too. Cause they're like, i think it's also maybe percept like the way it affects you to get you to do that thing is maybe perception wise also. Yeah. they Like everybody's not exactly where they are.
01:02:52
Speaker
Um, stuff like that. But yeah, the fact that like you essentially are going to crit fail no matter what you do and probably crit fail near her as well or yeah.
01:03:05
Speaker
Oh man. That fail enough that you're going to attack your fellow people too. Definitely filing that away for future D&D sessions as a boss fight. No. Yikes. oh just It's in an incredibly simple character, like a level five character.
01:03:24
Speaker
They can't do a whole lot, but you can only crit fail against them. Yep. Yep. Well, it's like the, I mean, yeah, it's not to get on a D and d tangent, but it's, I think one of the hardest enemies is the Rakshasa, which is just a simple enemy, but it's immune to like any damage below six level magic, ah like in piercing all that kind of stuff. Same idea.
01:03:49
Speaker
So just like super annoying to deal with. can't really kill you unless they get up super close or something like that. But yeah, like the idea would be you drop a building, like get them isolated and drop a building on them with the hope that like, there's no way the probability can deflect a building getting dropped on them.
01:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, basically. Yeah. Which is, yeah, I love a good team fight in D and D one of my favorite boss bosses. I came up with, with you guys when I was doing it was the, uh, the the giant barbarian and the sniper in the tower where it's just yeah you're yeah you're trying to deal with a barbarian right in front of you but meanwhile somebody up above is hiding shooting at you it is just this it fights like that like with this trial and error fight it creates this interesting push pull dynamic where you can get too close to trial or he will hit you or make you hit in or error will make you hit somebody else and it's this really interesting push pull fight which I really like um
01:04:51
Speaker
Although they then they get desperate and they're like, how we're going to threaten the civilians if you don't. And it's like, all right, no. Boo. Stupid move. But we find out they were hired by Prancer.
01:05:02
Speaker
he So he's still over. Fucking Prancer. What a dick. Okay, here's the thing. I really want to like Prancer. And then this kind of shit happens. I'm like, motherfucker, what are you doing? Like, it just makes me think worse with Moose.
01:05:16
Speaker
Moose. Yeah, I love Moose. Moose, Prancer, and Velvet. Everyone's favorite little try. Moose could do so much better.
01:05:26
Speaker
They are ranged that way too, right? Like it's Moose way up here and then Velvet and Prancer in that order. Yeah. With a big gap. the Very large gap between Moose and Velvet. Much like the age gap, you know, he Prancer was messing with earlier. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah. Prancer the creep.
01:05:47
Speaker
Prancer the creep. never forget. he's He is unfortunately the guy who thought that he didn't leave high school after he'd already graduated college.
01:05:58
Speaker
um You know those guys. We can move on. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. 8.6?
01:06:05
Speaker
yeah think no thank you um eight point six Oh wait, before we do that though, Advanced Guard, we have some people there like Sprite. We get to see him again, which I like. I Sprite.
01:06:19
Speaker
On the other hand, that we have, um who's the person who hates Victoria? Who's that guy? Shortcut. our Shortcut. He's like, no, we got this. We don't need your help. Do you Shortcut alludes to anything about him?
01:06:34
Speaker
Like perhaps he is both circumcised and, you know. and And teeny. So, you know, he got bullied and that was his trigger event was getting the fuck out of the bullying because they would chant shortcut, shortcut.
01:06:49
Speaker
No. Or just a botched circumcision. That's what I would say i was guessing. Yikes. The botched circumcision was the pat was the the thing? was I was thinking that him getting bullied for the botched circumcision.
01:07:03
Speaker
Oh, i yeah yeah yeah, yeah. His ability is to, like, dodge and run away, you know? Yeah. oh what a What a time. and He deserves every bit of that. That'll be our first question we ask Wild Bo. We don't need to ask Wild Bo. Like we said, thanks Wild Bo for the characters. well you don't tell okay This is important because as one of our ah people in chat was pointing out,
01:07:26
Speaker
that ah scion is one of the only people to be confirmed absolutely hung because fans were bothering wild boasts so much about was it distracting when he showed up and was flying through antarctica or whatever um you know what it looked like and i guess he answered um so you know yeah he's got he's got answers I want to know. no ah why got comp quiet The file is there somewhere in his hard drive. It's written down. I know him.
01:07:57
Speaker
Yeah. it's I remember talking about that. favoriteing like What's their Myers-Briggs? How big is their dick?
01:08:06
Speaker
I like to think that they're they're their threat level is inversely proportional to their dick size. You know? ah so ah Well, here's the thing. i'm going to say it now.
01:08:17
Speaker
yeah Armsmaster? like five inches, but incredibly insecure about it.
01:08:26
Speaker
Here's the thing. Defiant is cybernetic and he is not worried at all.
Hero Jurisdiction and Collaboration Issues
01:08:32
Speaker
yeah I was going to say, if we know anything about Defiant, it's notice that we know that he can pack a lot into a tiny space.
01:08:38
Speaker
Right, and I think he's learned to live with that. like If anything, he probably chopped it off and replaced it. like, look, I've got a tool I could add if I need to, but I don't need to because i you know I'm secure in who I am now.
01:08:52
Speaker
Hannah, don't run away from this like you're not yeah interested in it.
01:08:57
Speaker
You're going to go look up pictures? No. I'm going to go to Y'all. but I'm asking the important questions. And then, you know what? Look, I do appreciate it. Imp would have asked these questions, you know, but she's not here right now.
01:09:14
Speaker
Alan playing the role of Imp tonight. ah Yeah. Well, 8.6. ah 8.6. 8.6. eight point six eight point six and vo six ah Tress, Cap, and Antares gather a team of nearby heroes to capture trial error and the collateral criminals.
01:09:32
Speaker
Breakthrough tries to replace the jurisdiction setup. um So this part felt... It's funny to me because like the meeting of all the heroes at the beginning didn't feel as fun or interesting as this meeting.
01:09:46
Speaker
And I think that's maybe intentional. Like that one's like, okay, big high level stuff. You know, we got to save the world. 8.6 though. I liked because it was like, Hey guys, we got a couple of dickheads and trucks and we got to catch them. Y'all want to join in? phil ah come on And the amount of heroes who are just like, hell yeah, let's go.
01:10:05
Speaker
ah Ah, the good old days. Yeah. brings me back We need to have some road justice. yeah Yep. It's great.
01:10:16
Speaker
It's fantastic. Yeah. It is funny to me that like so much of their focus is on like ah jurisdiction and the rules and that there has to be said, like hey, we're these fuckers went after random citizens on the street. like they're We're going to take them at home.
01:10:41
Speaker
Who cares about jurisdiction anymore? and like It feels, or for Capes being so... like weirdly one off like you can kind of do your own thing start your own group be part of a bigger group or or be a ah rogue or whatever it there feels like there's so many weird rules about things which like we know about already like the gun thing but like i don't know it's it was it was weird to think about jurisdiction like yeah oh reminder guys don't worry about jurisdiction this time like okay
01:11:15
Speaker
Well, that's kind of Victoria's whole point, right? She's like, look, we don't need to worry so much about jurisdiction. And if you guys are cool with it, let's just stop crime and not care who gets credit for it. let's just Exactly.
01:11:26
Speaker
Exactly. It's weird to think about that. Because it makes sense. If you think about like, oh, yeah, politicians aren't just... politicians to like help the country like they have strategy and they have rules and they have things in place that you do and you don't do and you don't step on this person's toes and you don't do this you don't do that but like to the normal person you would think like yeah your job as a politician is to like get shit done so that you represent us therefore to the government
01:11:59
Speaker
Right? You know? And it's like, no. No. Of course not. There's a whole agenda happening. Like, why wouldn't there be also with capes? Like, i don't know. I'm constantly surprised at how much I... I think I just disconnect in this world a lot more. In Ward a lot more than Wyrm.
01:12:17
Speaker
But I'm just constantly like, oh, yeah. Okay. All right. and ah In a weird sort of way, splitting up Brockton Bay into criminal territories made more sense to me than like hero territories. So much more sense. In the sense of you like like, I get the idea of like, oh, this is your area. Like, you know, you maintain this area, we'll maintain this one. But the idea of them being like, no, we're not going to help out with that crime because it's your jurisdiction.
01:12:43
Speaker
Right. Or like, hey, don't help us because this is our area. Like, no, that's stupid. You guys are on the same side. what her like That's but the one advantage the good guys have is that they're supposed to work together. Yeah. They go by like old school, like, yeah, state borders.
01:13:00
Speaker
You know, they need amber alerts for criminals now, I guess. So dumb. Yeah. Gold alerts, maybe. is I like that. but But yeah, no, I think part of it, though, is that is an old way of thinking when the world made sense. And because Megalopolis is a world that doesn't make sense, Victoria's like, no, we we're not going to go back to the way things used to be. we just need to move forward and not care anymore.
01:13:24
Speaker
And i I think that's, you know, it only took eight arcs, but we're getting there. you know We're getting there. But almost no time in World we were learned today.
01:13:35
Speaker
Apparently. That's true. two days yeah this is one of those that This is one of those times where it just, oh my gosh, it feels like it moved so fast, even though i was like, how quickly did you get these guys out here?
01:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, right. Like, how quickly did these people show up? It feels like they call them, because you think about it, right? They're like, okay, trial and error are actively driving these trucks as fast down the road as they can.
01:14:01
Speaker
going to take 30 minutes to call a bunch of people. right And not only that, she talks about when they all arrive, some of them are on motorcycles, some of them are running. Like, Megalopolis is fucking huge.
01:14:14
Speaker
What if you were just on the other side of the city? yeah And how are you all of a sudden here? Like, it would have taken like two to three hours for them all to mobilize, and the trucks have traveled like four blocks. like Yeah. What the fuck? So not only is time really just bad, like keeping track of time and in this is bad, also space.
01:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
Victoria's Reputation and Mobilization
01:14:35
Speaker
Space is hard. Two other points to this. Number one, Chris called them. So what was Chris's pitch? Because yeah part two was Chris's pitch.
01:14:46
Speaker
Hey, we've got some villains in this pocket world. Let's just say you could beat the shit out of them. No questions asked. And the heroes came running. Yeah. They're like, oh, hell yeah. True.
01:15:00
Speaker
This wasn't like, hey, guys, we're going to have a meetup. you want to ask You want to make a difference and punch an asshole? Hey, yeah yeah how would you like to get in on a lynching? That's how that's how a Chris punched it.
01:15:13
Speaker
I feel like he just called people up and went like, yeah. thank I feel like he just he called them up and went like, hey, bad guys being dickheads.
01:15:24
Speaker
Want to like step in and teach him a lesson? Go help Victoria. Meet her at this location. And then he hung up. He didn't even wait for a response. He called all 300 people on the list. And Victoria, what is she known for? Beating up Nazis in back alleys, like to the point that they need to get fixed up. So people are like,
01:15:43
Speaker
Victoria Dallin's doing it. I know this is about to be some police brutality. Let's get in on this. i can On the other hand, I can see Chris following like a call center script where he's like, yeah hello, this is Cryptid with a breakthrough. I'm calling on behalf of Antares. We've got some bad guys. And if you're in the area, we'd like your assistance.
01:16:03
Speaker
Please meet us at North Poplar Street in approximately 15 minutes. Have great day. And then it just cuts off and he's like, well, that's another fucking asshole to add to the list. Yeah. home them back That's fantastic. I can see it. I can see k Chris doing it either way.
01:16:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's just a group call. He just calls them all at once on the circle. Yeah. Just like lines up all the contacts. Exactly. Put them all into a Facebook group chat. Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:31
Speaker
Yep. ah That's amazing. All right. I mean, the only way they... Yeah, the only way they beat trial and error is eventually they're like but they just kind of overwhelm error's power and get them to surrender.
01:16:45
Speaker
ah Yeah. 8.6 does have my most hype moment. and I don't remember this at all the first time reading it, but very hype moment where, you know, he's swinging, Trial is swinging Cleet around.
01:17:03
Speaker
you know, who's just ball of spikes on on the end of this ju chain. And he's just swinging him around. And then, you know, like she's like counting one, two, and she's like, now the time. And she just steps in and the wretch just like fucking full stops him.
01:17:19
Speaker
He bounces off. And like, it's so close as spikes like hit, like poke through the wretch and like touch her and scratch the armor. But she doesn't budge. She just stands there and the wretch just...
01:17:33
Speaker
and grabs him out of midair. I'm like, holy fucking shit. That's some, yeah, it's big, a big animal energy right there. Yeah. Cause I imagine she's just there, you know, arms crossed ball comes swinging, just dead stop.
01:17:51
Speaker
Which cle gets I love. wrong I do love, uh, cleat solely because he reminds me, this is a vague reference, but, um, There's a character in Dark Souls, Kirk, Knight of Thorns.
01:18:03
Speaker
Yeah. um his whole His whole thing, and if you get his armor set, it's hilarious, and there's some great videos out there, but basically, his whole thing is he doesn't really wield a weapon. He just wears spiky armor, and he rolls into you to kill you.
01:18:19
Speaker
Right. I was going to say... One of my favorite, and now I know one of my favorite, an interesting anime to watch is, um um not Monogatari, Katanagatari.
01:18:30
Speaker
Every episode is finding a different one of Masa Mune's legendary swords and figuring out how to defeat its wielder to get it. The fourth sword, I think, is a pirate and they go to fight, like, be like, where's the sword at?
01:18:44
Speaker
The sword is the armor that they're wearing. And it's exactly that thing where like they essentially can like, you know, swing them themselves and roll in the armor and cut people up.
01:18:57
Speaker
And they're like, yeah oh the sword is the armor. Gotcha. Interesting. Yeah. yeah Anything else in 8.6? Not in particular. Not much.
01:19:11
Speaker
Fun little fight, but 8.7? Not it. Yeah, 8.7 to wrap
Teamwork and Breakthrough's Investigation
01:19:17
Speaker
things up. ah Teams across the city begin working together. Breakthrough continues its investigation.
01:19:24
Speaker
Ashley shows the team elders her conversation with Monikiku. um And Kinsey listens in. um Yeah. this is This is the conversation I thought was going to take a different turn than it did.
01:19:39
Speaker
um Yeah. Because to me, I guess in Ashley's mind, she's thinking, i don't want Kinsey to hear, but I can't just leave Kinsey out. I'm going to say that it's for adult ears only.
01:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. um yeah but But when she said that, I'm like, what kind of a conversation did you have here? and Because she's like, no, it's embarrassing. I don't want you to see it, Kinsey. And I'm like, what going on here?
01:20:03
Speaker
I've been... Maybe it's the fan fiction on the brain. I don't know. It's just...
01:20:09
Speaker
We did just kind of briefly skip over. It's not really a good way to put it in, but Cryptid does show up to the fight. I was going to... You were going to bring it up. right yeah We didn't even talk about that.
01:20:23
Speaker
It did. Whatever that was So I have a new Cryptid theory. and don't think it's true because I don't like diluting... what's probably just an average thing and then make myself sad later but i had a really lot of fun with this theory which is so it still bugs me that chris's power like take like sloshes off of him and takes things away from him um and there was an aspect of his form here
01:20:54
Speaker
that reminded me of someone. And so my big theory now is that Chris is a Nilbog clone who for some reason ah is not, for whatever reason, is not that has no desire to get back to Nilbog.
01:21:12
Speaker
But his powers and the ah fact that he's kind of falling apart is just very interesting to me. I don't think that's true. For the record. yeah But I'm having a lot of fun with his thoughts.
01:21:25
Speaker
Well, we kind of get a bit of an insight with 8.7 as well, where he talks about how like he took on this form. I don't remember the name of this one. but because but when he shrinks back down to his normal form we'll call it for now um pieces of those creatures that were inside of him don't totally leave him he has to poop them yeah yeah so my my thinking is that whatever he's doing to us like that's probably why it's so bad for his body is because
01:21:57
Speaker
anything that the these forms create get put into his body somehow, right? Like maybe that's why he has to wear braces all the time because every form like breaks his mouth open and the braces have to kind of hold it together. um And like with that, like he he filled himself up with these like little parasite babies.
01:22:17
Speaker
And very because... What is it? Not crawler. um Very... Spawner. Spawner, yeah. Spawner coded. corner-coded, little bit of Echidna vibes as well. A little bit of no-body like you said,
Victoria's Challenges and Chris's Transformation
01:22:35
Speaker
too. I don't like it. I get the the fact that he's not seemingly not protected by Manton effect, that his power does chip away at him in some way is is just very interesting.
01:22:49
Speaker
Yeah. Before he said, form was brooding anger, maybe. i don't remember it was, was it brooding anger? There was another name he mentioned. yeah Maybe it was brooding anger, but yeah you know, brood.
01:23:03
Speaker
ah you know oh good I do like how they're like Chris no no don't yeah Chris whatever you do do not let those out not just because they're the creepiest fucking thing in the world and we don't want to see that but also it probably could go wrong yeah yeah yeah we no no they wouldn't listen to me probably probably you know like latent intelligence thing
01:23:28
Speaker
It was like, what was the line? Jacob, you probably wrote this down, but the line where he's like, you this isn't for, you know, this is for like, is it for kids? I would have had kids if you'd given me five. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't write that one down. This is something that parents need to deal with. I would have been one.
01:23:47
Speaker
I would have been a parent.
01:23:50
Speaker
And then at the what they're like, are you know, wow, he's a pretty creepy dude. And he's like, eh. And they're like, what? You don't think you're creepy? ah like you You're a creepy dude? Eh.
01:24:00
Speaker
Oh, not the creepy part. The dude part. The dude part. yeah yeah ah they're They're like all like teeming. Okay. They're all like teeming inside of him, but they're put they're pointy. They've got like stabbies.
01:24:15
Speaker
They're sharp. Yeah. Sharp. Yeah. Yeah. ah yeah wow Not great. Not great. um No bueno. Put it back. Put it back, Chris.
01:24:26
Speaker
yeah Shove it way up there, Chris. Put it back. If someone has some non-spoilery fan art of of that form. Oh, God. See, the thing is that I don't need fan art.
01:24:39
Speaker
I can imagine it so perfectly in my head. It's horrifying. Just imagine like he's a magic school bus. it's at all of sure oh my god no no it's if you've ever if you've ever anytime being around a pregnant person when the kid is like kicking and like pushes a foot or a hand up against the belly and the belly like shifts and moves that's creepy enough and there was there's one sucker in there i don't need like 30 with pointy claws and the skin is slightly translucent
01:25:15
Speaker
yepps seen alien yeah Thank you. That's just an alien. Yeah, no, I feel like there's a there's a creature in something that it reminds me of, but I'd i'd have to think about it.
01:25:27
Speaker
I see it like a bolt so clearly in my head. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It makes me wonder if it's like in a Doctor Who episode or something where there's like a creepy thing like that. Like a creepy. that would make sense. I don't want to say it.
01:25:38
Speaker
Flesh sack with mutant aliens inside with pokies. Like I. Just Ace Ventura coming out of the butt of the rhino. In Fat Detective. Yep. Yep. Woo.
01:25:51
Speaker
what's ah Oh, oh, I see. I found the one. We need to watch Alien together and I want to watch you watch that. I would love to watch Alien. yeah I was actually just thinking about how much I'd like to rewatch Alien. I was going to rewatch the franchise on my own while I did some work the other day and I was like, now I should watch these with people. It's really good. We should, especially with ah Predator Badlands coming out soon. Yes. Oh my God. I also really want to see Prey again. That was so good. I think was really good. and
01:26:22
Speaker
Unfortunately, the only movie I've seen in either of those franchises is Prometheus. Oh, that doesn't make it. We can rectify that. We we can fix that. Movie night.
01:26:35
Speaker
ah Yeah. Also, I'm going to go ahead and put the picture of it doesn't even show the other part. It doesn't even show that the the alien Bebe's blanket. work like Hold on.
01:26:49
Speaker
Oh, no. It doesn't show the alien Bebe's.
01:26:54
Speaker
It makes it look like the caterpillar. I thought this was it. Okay, thanks. I'll have to look. There's just a really creepy one. He's got the body of that caterpillar from A Bug's Life is all I'm imagining now. I was going to say the ones from... The big floppy caterpillar.
01:27:12
Speaker
The ones from... Oh, shoot. Alice in Wonderland smoking the smoke ma hookah, but he's just got the pulled back mask face on it. Fantastic.
01:27:24
Speaker
um Did you blink it? Yeah. but yeah No, I don't think it's the right one, but it looks like... Yeah, that's not the right one.
01:27:34
Speaker
because the the The one I'm looking at... have they don't have mouth pulled back. they don't have the like mouth pulled back as opposed to... All right, well, join the Patreon and you can see it. Sorry, we'll have to link it later.
01:27:47
Speaker
Join the Patreon! Y'all can look up his creepy-ass forms and just typing... Woof....for someone fanart. It's terrible. Fair enough. Yep. Two different Rhino mentions, by the way, we've had already. There was. Not so certain point of that out.
01:28:07
Speaker
um But yeah, um the only other thing I think we didn't mention is that we see the conversation with Monica Eros, which we kind of talked about already with her posing as a hero, becoming a supervillain, or not a supervillain, a serial killer.
01:28:25
Speaker
um And it seems like the main her main shtick is she wanted beautiful children to be part of her team. And so she actually, the reason why Ashley didn't want Kinsey to listen in is, of course, because she says, I saw that Kinsey had a blemish.
01:28:43
Speaker
Which is interesting because that means, though, Monikeros can see through Kinsey's illusion. Yep. Or the hair beret.
01:28:55
Speaker
Yeah, the hair beret wasn't working. Unless, I don't think Kenzie ever mentioned not wearing that around people, right? Like, she still has that on, we assume. she's really self-conscious about it. She wears it all the time. yeah Yeah, so somehow, Monokaros, Monononokaros. Monononokaros.
01:29:13
Speaker
Yeah, knock my rocks off. Princess Monononokaros. this Right. Right. ah could see Kinsey's scar, which was interesting.
01:29:24
Speaker
And then we see again, of course, at the end, Kinsey was listening and she smiles. And smiling. Oh, God, that one hurt. That one hurt. Like, you you have things about yourself that, like, you don't like.
01:29:39
Speaker
And in your head, you think to yourself that, like, sure, i don't like these things about myself, but, like, Maybe someone else will still like me because of these things.
01:29:49
Speaker
And you think like, well, no one else will care about this, right? And then to hear someone else be like, no, they're blemished. They're broken. i don't want them. Like even from a creepy serial killer, like you don't want to hear that.
01:30:03
Speaker
Yeah, no. Jeez, my girl has been through enough. Leave Kenzie alone. Yeah, exactly. sucks. Also, her talk of like basically why she was doing everything was also super creepy. Did not like. Super creepy. Like talking about the the keeping them, like when people die, they say when you lose a loved one, they're still close. They're still in your heart. And you're like, oh, oh no. I don't like where this is going. This is,
01:30:32
Speaker
so Yeah, it it's giving, not that I think she did, but it's giving like, cannibal vibes of the whole like... That's what I was thinking. You know, like, they're you know like yeah it's the the the joke or the the meme where it's like, you know, you feed somebody to a bunch of people and you're like, oh, so-and-so is a part of all of us now.
01:30:53
Speaker
You know? Yeah. That's the vibe. Absolutely. Terrifying. They're a part of me forever now. I'm like, oh, you sewed part of their face onto your skin, didn't you?
01:31:05
Speaker
Yeah. does You made a skin soaked into it. And makes them kind of like to some degree it's they they're not ignoring the pain. The pain is there but also she's making them like like her. Yeah. For doing it. Yeah.
01:31:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's a it's a I mean it's very reminiscent of of that weird like emotional manipulation head manipulation that Amy did to Victoria. Yeah. Like. Yeah. Once again it's the The whole like... I of definitely feel... i was thinking about this while i was you know in between reading that like... The big theme for Worm being essentially doing whatever it takes.
01:31:49
Speaker
ah Almost a destiny, fate being a big part of this, but also... um you know know, the moral justifications and the choices you make along the way, like, right. Is, is it worth it?
01:32:03
Speaker
Kind of, you know, when it comes to the end of the world and the end of destiny and the end of fate, you know, is are your actions, how do they line up? And then for this, it's the complete opposite.
01:32:16
Speaker
It's, um, it, it, it is autonomy instead. And we we, you know, we've gone on rant. I've gone on rant about this before, But once again, have just this constant dealing with autonomy, both bodily and mentally over and over again is kind of hammered home.
Emotional Themes in 'Ward': Autonomy and Struggles
01:32:34
Speaker
And why I talk about Ward is a much more emotional, emotionally driven story, not just because we are seeing it through an emotion power person, but I think that Wild Boat just...
01:32:51
Speaker
like had that wherewithal. And I know he did this with his other stories working up to this one. Just emotion literally plays a part on the battlefield, you know?
01:33:02
Speaker
And in this case, you know, it's not that she's just directly taking control of somebody. She's hitting Kenzie with this almost overwhelming admiration power to be like, hey, get over here.
01:33:18
Speaker
And... Yeah. And the person most susceptible to that would be, or not Ashley, uh, Kenzie. Kenzie is not the person. i think, uh, one of our persons, uh, Fran mentioned and that, uh, they, they should be worried. Kenzie's tendency to be obsessed with people would be so easy. Holy moly. Coming Monica. Right. um Yeah.
01:33:39
Speaker
Um, yeah. In a heartbeat. Yeah. A hundred percent. yeah Creepy, creepy, creepy unicorn. And the way that she describes, like, nobody talks about what happens after a unicorn. You meet a unicorn. It's always the process of meeting the unicorn because that's the big important moment.
01:33:58
Speaker
And, you know, you don't walk away from that, but the unicorn essentially does. um And, you know, there's a lot of other fun stuff about just unicorn of in stories if you want to go watch Overly Sarcastic Productions' detailed diatribe on the last unicorn.
01:34:16
Speaker
It's a big talking point about that. Oh, I bet that's lovely. It's really good. Reminder, need to rewatch The Last Unicorn. And read. And read. Haven't seen The Last Unicorn either.
01:34:30
Speaker
Oh, it's fun. well All I can think of. Fun. Yeah, yeah. All I can think of, though, is um the... I thought of Charlie the Unicorn. and its oh it air different than he's like He wakes up and he's like, oh, damn it. They stole my kidneys.
01:34:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah like You know what? So maybe not old that different. That's some old. That's some Yeah, that's some old internet. Old internet, maybe. old internet. Going up to Candy Mountain, Charlie.
01:35:00
Speaker
Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain. Candy and Sweepers. Okay. All right. All right. magical little bird on Charlie. We're losing viewers. Michael, you don't like... We're losing viewers. how they do we have it Do we have any wrap? I think we've reached the end. Do we have any wrap-up questions? This has been a shorter one.
01:35:18
Speaker
That was fun. yeah um i Good for us. Favorite powers? I mean, I feel like error is the obvious ah new one. Yeah. In terms of being interesting. I give a you know an honorable mention.
01:35:31
Speaker
Yeah. Honorable mention to Foxtrot. with the weird kind cool teleportation Yeah, that's pretty cool. Like teleporting specifically to advantageous positions around a target.
01:35:45
Speaker
And it ramps up. and Yeah, and it gets... That was really cool. I like that. Very neat. like the ramp up. It's yeah. and um In errors power. I was thinking like one of my favorite abilities is um the, the blissfully accomplishing things.
01:36:04
Speaker
You know, it's it's the, the satisfying nature of just like all those satisfying to watch videos where the things, the slides in the hole and goes down. Yes. There was a video a long time ago called The Perfect Day where it's just a guy doing things like that where he like puts his keys on the railing, walks down the stairs and the keys like fall into his back pocket.
01:36:23
Speaker
And he it's just him doing like a minute of his day getting ready in the morning where everything goes perfect. um Best example would be Domino in Deadpool 2 where everything just goes her way.
01:36:34
Speaker
I've always loved that power.
01:36:37
Speaker
This is the inverse of that so much. um You know, not nearly as satisfying at all of a power, but holy shit, is it, you know, good. um Yeah.
01:36:51
Speaker
Big shout out to Air. Like it. Yeah. and Unfortunate that you got paired up with a guy who just swings things good. you know You know, probably change his name to, a you know, to accompany you. Probably. Yeah.
01:37:05
Speaker
If you have that good of a power, you need someone else to be like, oh, I got this. I'll be trial to your error. You're like, all right. I love that ah and vi Victoria was being super judgy about that. It was like trial, hate the fucking name outfit, solid, solid,
01:37:22
Speaker
you know, doesn't go with the name all. We're going ignore that. But error, just what the fuck is going on with your outfit? And then gets to the end of the paragraph and goes, oh, wait, your power is about fucking up hard.
01:37:33
Speaker
Of course. You know what? That's on me.
01:37:38
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. and was Who was it who said, ah who was it who was like, oh, trial and error, great names. And she was like,
01:37:49
Speaker
and judge yes Oh my gosh, we do get some shout outs for a couple of other hero groups that get mentioned as she's trying to contact people. She gets an email yeah where everything's misspelled from the... what are the Major Malfunctions. a mouth Major Malfunction Junction.
01:38:04
Speaker
Who were heroes for six years but did literally nothing. Because they were in North Dakota and nothing happened in North Dakota. They were kids in North Dakota.
01:38:15
Speaker
And nothing ever happened there. Three towns because they couldn't find any crime in any of them. On the plus side, we finally discovered like, you know, we've talked about like, where would you live to be safe in the worm universe?
01:38:28
Speaker
North Dakota. That's there we go. I like the thing that they showed up to these, like these, these gatherings. They were like, where you guys been stationed? Like, oh, we've been, and we've been up in North Dakota.
01:38:39
Speaker
It's like North Dakota. Yeah. no crime in North Dakota. And they're like, exactly. Exactly. You're welcome. Never lost a fight. yeah yeah They say the billion know the the best safety is the one that never needs to get you know enacted.
01:38:53
Speaker
and yeah and it's It just gets worse because they dropped out of high school to become heroes and so they can't spell or write well. It's just bad at everything. my gosh. Like it makes me wonder The people who vouch for them are the super kitty power team or whatever.
01:39:09
Speaker
Oh yeah. The Super Mega Dream Parade. Super Mega Dream Parade. Like of course they did. like a works made head and They just aped off of them. Oh my gosh. like what What happens up there that would be traumatic other than the constant domestic violence? like Moose attack.
01:39:28
Speaker
That's it. It's the moose. Are there moose in North Dakota? I don't even think the moose i want to be that. like They're up in like some forest. They're not on the plains of North Dakota. You're right. I've never been to North Dakota. I can't say know what the terrain is. Nobody has.
01:39:43
Speaker
yeah Speaking of ancient internet memes, there was a... very large Facebook meme group just called North Dakota doesn't exist for a long time. It doesn't. Everybody's triggering from boredom. North Dakota, don't you mean like East Iowa? Yeah.
01:39:58
Speaker
Exactly. There are moose in North Dakota, a good population apparently. They're just triggering from boredom. Thank you. I'm glad checked that. I'm hard.
01:40:06
Speaker
yeah Anyways, just wanted to shout them out because of their names. Yep. Worth a shout out. Those poor children need some education. Right. and I mean, do you think it was that or the fact that they just grew up in North Dakota that's the result
Humor and Safe Zones: North Dakota
01:40:21
Speaker
of their education? like Could be either or, honestly. Or both and.
01:40:25
Speaker
Why not both? They didn't drop out of high school. That's just where it stops. Yeah, i was about to say the the one room schoolhouse for the state, you know. And they probably, you know, if they did write that email from North Dakota, they probably had to like, what, get their wagon hitched and like ride to South Dakota just to send a telegram to Kansas. We're really good at making fun of other people. All the way over to some civilized country.
01:40:49
Speaker
We're really good at making fun. Alan's really good at just insulting everyone. to all of our to all of our not dako North Dakota fan. a Sorry.
01:41:01
Speaker
Sorry, but you know it's true. We're so sorry. and They can't listen to this. They don't have electricity. What? Oh, my God. You think some company's going to We quit while we're behind. You think the government's going to pay to run power lines, you know, 250 miles to the three towns in North Dakota with a population of 15?
01:41:22
Speaker
Alan's power is like foxtrots, except it just rants up the insults instead of the... Yes, but we haven't. I've been holding off on the ins the incest insults, okay? Oh, please. Thank you. Thank you.
01:41:35
Speaker
That's a good call. Yeah, we don't need them. Now, if we were talking about Kansas again, you know. Okay, Michael, thanks everybody for joining us this evening. It's been a fun time here over at the Brockton Bay Club. but but You know, we try to have a good time as best we can despite all of whatever Alan brings to the table. Michael, do you have a song for us to play?
01:41:59
Speaker
ah Okay, well, wait, wait. We have to say when we're reading all that stuff. There's more. Yeah, we still have theories for next week. We will be reading 8. no, no. no let me read Let me finish this, okay? Okay, bring us home. We'll reading 8.8 to the end, which I believe is another two interludes.
01:42:20
Speaker
yeah should be another i want to say seven let me look it's for another 40 000 words you know those are baby numbers i think we could do better but you know the next arc after that is like 140 000 so you know lovely out that's fine yeah to tonight um and i think i you know again I didn't hear it be shout out of bingo. I didn't. Oh, wait. Oh, I got a bingo.
01:42:48
Speaker
ah Alan rants and Tari's catching cleat hype. Fuck shortcut and mispronouncing kite. Yeah, I'll read the rest of them to you. We did get favorite power is air and Michael has to reel them in and crystal clear my boy.
01:43:00
Speaker
However, but we did not get talk on goddess cat on screen. There is one literally right here. um and Hannah cries. It could compare something to a TV show slash movie.
01:43:13
Speaker
um ah Nick goes full teacher bringing up Capricorn's murder charges. ah Dragon and Kenzie are a dangerous duo. Chris theories and fuck Carol. Fair. but We did have a Chris theory. We have a Chris theory. I had a Chris theory. yeah right you know You did have a Chris theory. it doesn't give me a bingo, but that's fine.
01:43:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and Bernard Co. did point out that they would have generators ah so in in North Dakota. Oh, my God. Moving on, moving on.
01:43:43
Speaker
all right there There's only so much coal to go around, though. They got to ration it. Oh, Bernard's great question. ah Who's the most worrisome still? It's still Chris for me.
01:43:56
Speaker
Still Chris? I still like the idea that it's Victoria. we got Cat on screen. Oh, that's great. Hey, Backford. Yeah, i'm I'm still down for picking Victoria, but at this point, i I am, for his own health, I'm most worried about Chris, but in terms of like the story meta and what's going to be happening, I'm sticking with Victoria.
01:44:21
Speaker
um Yeah, poop out some more bones, Chris, and yeah hope you feel better. We'll get you into those. maybe um Any more fiber in your diet, kid?
01:44:32
Speaker
More theories? I mean, they're building towards a lot. Yeah. yeah something yeah Yeah, I feel like we're going to get... It seems like we're heading sort of towards a three-way war between Goddess, between the Cheaters of Earth, Shea...
01:44:49
Speaker
and the people that we know of, Gemmell, of the Megalopolis. um I feel like that's pretty apparent we're heading in that direction. um my My theory, though, is that something's going to come out of Bet that will unite two of those groups. I think...
01:45:09
Speaker
One of the, either Shiite or Goddess will like, one of them will eliminate the other and then something will come out of bet that's like, hey, this is a bigger deal actually. We need to unite to take care of this.
01:45:21
Speaker
We did talk about that. Yeah. My guess would be Goddess gets eliminated, but that's my guess. Yeah, we were talking about there was things mentioned in one of the talks that like, you know, obviously we talked about Sleeper was mentioned.
01:45:34
Speaker
We talked about dealing with the machine army. I think dealing with Teacher. And then there was a new one like Saparos or something like that. Yeah, something like that. another Which might just be another name thrown out. Listen, you you throw so many things at me all at once. There's no way I'm going to know which one is important. And like this is my same thought with Goddess. You're giving me info on Goddess, but you're not ramping up the intensity on Goddess. So honestly, to me, Goddess isn't a problem right now.
01:46:04
Speaker
Because all you've given me... Like when you said Machine Army... Not when you said it, but when I read it and was like, oh, machine army, I got chills because I was like, oh, shit, that's going to be one of those like, we don't think it's a problem until it suddenly is.
01:46:16
Speaker
Like, goddess, you've been given me all this information. You're telling me that she's telling me and not showing me. I'm not feeling this the spookiness. I'm not feeling the scares. Give me the scares. Yeah.
01:46:27
Speaker
want to feel it in bones. I think part of is we just like we don't know what we know that goddess took over a planet. We know that goddess also did it with people like. All right. Yes. and That's it's so ambiguous ah but also doesn't have like ah like machine army scary.
01:46:43
Speaker
like inherit Yeah. Yeah. Well sure. We've seen the machine army too. So we've seen the machine army also. But before we saw the machine army it was scary. Yeah. Yeah. The phrase machine army is scary.
01:46:55
Speaker
yeah I'm feeling a lot of tell and I need a little bit more show. Yeah. yeah All right. Well, with that, ah in two weeks, we'll be reading the 16th.
01:47:10
Speaker
Sounds good. um Yeah. Anything else we want to say before we sign off? Nope. All right. can you Subscribe to our Patreon and as always.
01:47:21
Speaker
It's a fun time there. ah Michael, do you have a song? About that? Yeah. Join the Patreon. Please come on and join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon?
01:47:33
Speaker
Come support us and join the Patreon. Please help us and join the Patreon. We have fun. Join the Patreon. It's great to join the Patreon.
01:47:44
Speaker
Why don't you just join the Patreon? Sometimes, just for fun, I'll cancel my Patreon subscription just so I can have the pleasure of signing up once again.
01:48:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:48:03
Speaker
All right, guys. Thanks so much. We'll see you the sixteenth We love you. We love you. See you soon. Bye.
01:48:20
Speaker
Come support us and join the Patreon Please help us and join the Patreon We have fun Join the Patreon It's great to join the Patreon don't you just join the Patreon