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BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 9.10 - Interlude 9 - Gleaming
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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 9.10 - Interlude 9 - Gleaming!
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, athttps://www.etsy.com/shop/themademarion
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Transcript
Introduction to Brockton Bay Book Club & 'Ward'
00:00:02
Speaker
And we're live. Welcome, everybody. Welcome. Good evening, Megalopolis. a Prison break in the outer worlds.
00:00:14
Speaker
What are our heroes doing off-world? Find out tonight on this special episode of the Brockton Bay Book Club. Starring your host, Alan and Hannah.
Merchandise, Patreon, & Podcast Structure
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello, hi! Jacob. Hello. And Nick. Hello there. And of course, rounding out sports, weather, and production, Michael.
00:00:41
Speaker
Heyo, welcome everybody. Welcome, welcome. We, of course, are a bunch of friends doing read-through of Ward by JC McRae. We ah do this by bi-weekly every other week.
00:00:56
Speaker
And ah we've been going arc by arc, sometimes splitting them up. This week, we are reading 9.5. arc ah nine points ten 10 to the end. 9.i, I ah believe.
00:01:13
Speaker
um So finishing out this back half of Arc 9. A lot happened on here. And yes, as Vic points out, only one of us is wearing our merch that you can, in fact, purchase. I'm sure there's a link.
00:01:28
Speaker
Oh, oh oh does ha does Hannah have something? Oh, also wearing the Brockton Bay Book Club t-shirt. let's go Very nice. Christmas PJs, because cold and cold. Which are not store. You cannot buy the PJs in store. Yeah, that's an exclusive. just the shirt.
00:01:44
Speaker
um But yeah, if you want exclusives, though, ah you are more than welcome to join our Patreon where we, ah you know, talk on there, share some memes, and it's it's a good time. And we have exclusive content that we sometimes produce.
00:02:02
Speaker
know we've been lax on that. We have stuff in the work. I always say we have stuff in the work, but doggone it if things aren't always busy with us. Yeah, do we try. so we We barely, let me tell you, we barely scrape under the wire when it comes to reading every week.
00:02:18
Speaker
We really should be better about that. I say as I finish the last chapter right before this. um Yeah. So it's just all that being said. that's all We just want it the most fresh possible, you know?
00:02:31
Speaker
ah Yeah, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. um But ah you, of course, can join us live every other Tuesday.
Chapter Analogies & Interludes
00:02:40
Speaker
For those of you who aren't live, for those of you who are live, thank you for being here.
00:02:44
Speaker
And remember, no spoilers in chat. ah If there are spoilers, throw up tease to just get that out as quickly as possible. ah Double tease for Tattletail. um And let's see.
00:02:57
Speaker
oh With all that being said, Nick, what did you think? of this week's chapters general overview general overview i was trying to think of an analogy um and here's what i what i came up with for how i felt about the the main storyline the interlude a bit different but the main storyline the main arc you know have you ever had this thing happen where you're walking down a flight of stairs and you start to slip And you're sliding down the stairs, desperately trying to make sure you don't plummet and bang your head and fall and beat yourself up.
00:03:36
Speaker
And then at the end you catch yourself and you land and you're like, I made it through that. I'm okay. That's kind of how it felt with this like rapid descent into terrible things stopped all of a sudden at the very end, but like a secure landing of like,
00:03:56
Speaker
Oh, oh, oh, oh, it's over. I'm done. I'm okay.
00:04:02
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, good, good though. I really enjoyed this one overall. The interludes as always are peak, especially the very last one. Uh, but Byron and Tristan's is also peak.
00:04:13
Speaker
Um, and the rest of it was enjoyable as well. Definitely maybe felt a bit, a bit long, but I think it was necessary in this one, unlike in other portions where it's felt a bit long.
00:04:28
Speaker
Can I interrupt really quick and ask Nick to bring his mic a little closer to his mouth hole? sure can do that. um While he does that, ah Fran asked, what was that before stream? Michael, was there a special thing before stream that we were missing?
00:04:42
Speaker
um No, they can ignore all that.
00:04:46
Speaker
Don't worry about it. frame like an ignore there There's a technical issue. all good. Was the technical issue or conversation before this? Because if so, that's content that could have been Patreon content.
00:04:58
Speaker
No, not really.
Technical Issues & Humor
00:05:00
Speaker
It was like a four second. guy I went live and then stopped it because I accidentally clicked the wrong button. Otherwise people might've gotten me microwaving some milk in the microwave. no and was include This episode brought to you by David Rio's chai and my 80 bags of not Berry Farm raspberry and strawberry.
00:05:21
Speaker
Not actually for legal reasons. We have to say, for legal reasons, by either Alan just really, really likes them. let's unless Do I have five-pound bag of David Rios chai tea?
00:05:39
Speaker
Maybe. um Do I also have 80 bags of Knott's Berry Farm shortbread cookies? Possibly. Do I want more through a sponsorship? Definitely.
00:05:51
Speaker
Shortbread cookies are one of the best types of cookies. That's true. ah Not that we need to rehash our cookie debate. know.
Comparing 'Ward' and 'Worm'
00:06:00
Speaker
That's Patreon content. It's already derailed. Also, Vic, just so you know, you put it in a special microwavable container and you microwave a cup and a half of milk for exactly two and a half minutes, that is the perfect temperature for making milk tea.
00:06:17
Speaker
Alan. Anyway, Hannah, what did you think about the chapters? don't know.
00:06:25
Speaker
and Fantastic work. i i have to I have to echo a lot of what Nick just said. um Although for me, it's less of ah almost tumbling down the stairs and like almost dying and then like actually you made it at the end and more of like going down the slide.
00:06:43
Speaker
and it's a metal slide and it's summer and it's hot and you're wearing shorts and go either really, really fast um you go, whoa, and you slow yourself down, and then you get a ah metal urn on your bare thighs squeaking down the slide.
00:07:02
Speaker
And then at the end, you just kind of like, and it's the end of the slide. And you're like, I don't know how I feel about slides anymore. That's kind of how I felt about this arc.
00:07:15
Speaker
ah Of course, not including the interludes, which were fantastic, and I love them. have a lot of feelings about this arc. That's fair. That's fair. And Vic, to your point, you don't use the stove or the kettle for such a short timer for just one cup chai. it it you need a right temperature and it's just too difficult. And I can put it in for two and a half minutes for my one cup of chai that I make alllan rather than spending 15 minutes slow cooking milk on the stove. Kettle just doesn't work. Jacob, what did you think about the chapters?
00:07:46
Speaker
Hannah, don't be afraid to like walk into the other the room and just slap him once or twice. too i may. I may. ah these are These were good chapters. i i liked I liked this arc in general. I thought it was pretty good.
00:07:58
Speaker
um it Just good writing, good action. ah Yeah. ah Abrupt ending, but not bad. Just kind of abrupt and kind of ah an interesting way of kind of wrapping up this little storyline, which we'll get to.
00:08:11
Speaker
It's funny. yeah This whole time, like I tried not in my head to make comparisons to Worm just because ah it really is two different stories, but you're going to make comparisons to Worm. It's going to happen. But it's funny how With Taylor's story, even though she's like a small fish in a big pond, it never feels like she's not at the center of what's happening narratively, right? Like Brockton Bay's at the center, Leviathan hits, the Slaughterhouse Nine show up to Brockton Bay.
00:08:39
Speaker
um You know, even when something else happens, she goes like she goes to India to fight Behemoth, so she's present. And everything still feels like she's... She's part of the the larger narrative of what's going on.
00:08:53
Speaker
Whereas with Ward, I don't feel that at all. I feel like we're we're getting an isolated story of a couple of characters that are really detached from the larger narrative in the world.
00:09:05
Speaker
And it's not a criticism necessarily, it's just an interesting choice that I think is throwing me off because i enjoy this world quite a bit and there's a lot that I want to know and wish I knew, but is just not being explored because of the nature of the way the story is going, which is and is interesting.
00:09:26
Speaker
That is an interesting point. And i wonder if that was kind of a conscious because
Food Banter & Narrative Structure
00:09:30
Speaker
I could easily see, and obviously i i haven't looked at comments from the time period, but I could easily see from the time, one of the criticisms of Taylor's protagonist nature being like, she is at the center of everything. Like you said, like that could be a criticism in the sense of like, why is Taylor the one who's kind of like solving how to fight behemoth? That doesn't make sense. She's just, you know, right. Um,
00:09:52
Speaker
And so maybe I wonder if it was a conscious choice to make Victoria feel more like a secondary protagonist without a primary protagonist in the story.
00:10:03
Speaker
Right. In a way. Yeah. I wouldn't. sort of like she's ah She's a bystander and in her own story in a weird way. yeah Yeah. I mean, she's even a bystander. I can't say I like that.
00:10:15
Speaker
in kind of the group too, partially. Yeah. Where like she was brought on to be a coach, but like a coach player kind of. ah Yeah. So technically she's not even like the main person in her group like Taylor was.
00:10:32
Speaker
Like you easily could have made ah Tristan Byron, Sveta, or Kinsey the protagonist instead. and Yeah. Right. in that Like Tristan's the captain of the team. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. That person's technically the leader and she's like advisor. Yeah, exactly. It's interesting, though. Not a bad thing, like you said, just different style. I disagree. feel like because we're so much on the fringe, it feels like we're just kind of a tag along.
00:11:03
Speaker
And like the the trouble for me with this are this back half of the arc, and I think I said this earlier when we first brought up...
00:11:14
Speaker
um ah the woman in blue goddess, the that she feels like this, okay, so we have these looming problems that could be the main problems of the book.
00:11:26
Speaker
And she was on the list. And then all of a sudden, here she is. But we haven't really heard much about her other than like the cursory stuff. And okay, now she's a thing. And now she's a major player in this whole arc.
00:11:38
Speaker
And now it's all over. like It felt
Character Dynamics & Antagonists
00:11:40
Speaker
so like wasted time to me ah And i I say this again. ah Again, I feel like i I need to be very clear because you guys know With that being said, I love Wild Bo's works, and this is still fun for me to read. I'm not, like, slogging my way through Ward.
00:11:58
Speaker
I'm just finding myself disappointed at some of the pacing, at some of the character choices, and feeling like we're losing so much of the world because we're this weird little tag-along character that's, like...
00:12:13
Speaker
Like, okay, we got to be at the prison, but then, of course, we get into the interludes and we're like, oh, there's 18 billion other things happening and we haven't, don't know about any of it. Like, yeah i that's very i I, it's really tough for me.
00:12:29
Speaker
it It makes me wonder if maybe actually getting into the interlude, would a character like Chevalier or Valkyrie have been a better protagonist, I wonder, for that, for what you're asking for, of like,
00:12:42
Speaker
a character who we care about and is very interesting but is involved in the world and what's going on. I still stand by my thinking that Armas Master or or Defiant and Dragon would have made a really fun protagonist. I don't think Valkyrie would work as a protagonist.
00:13:00
Speaker
I think that ah shtick with the flock would probably get old a little quick just as a reader. can imagine yeah half a million words and end into her story might drag a little bit. But ah just in terms of interest, I'm far more interested in what she's doing. That yeah that I agree with. Yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
I think Dragon and Defiant would be definitely interesting um because they're dynamic and stuff like that. But I feel like their developmental arc, unless we you know pick a new trajectory, which you could very easily do in terms of character growth, but I feel like they've had their arc.
00:13:36
Speaker
Like we had that in Worm. I agree that. Yeah, I do feel like they're at a, I would argue, relatively solid place that if you were making a TV show, that you would have to bring in other characters just to have the arcs so that they could stay static.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah. Because they've reached their stable point and everything else that they would be encountering would be issues external. um Yeah, that's true. Because like all their internal problems are like, hey, Arms Master don't work so hard. And his stability is like, no, I'm just going to keep working this hard and turning myself more cyborg. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.
00:14:18
Speaker
And we've just accepted that at this point. Like, that's just how it is yeah So like, there's no changing that um what you're saying is nilbog should have been the protagonist hey oh absolutely always um and as fran pointed out i probably could put my milk in the air fryer i do think that is the best way it does give that special flavor from the grease before do i need to so if you guys i'm not reading you and i'm gonna try that next time i'm not gonna read spoilers by accident but if you guys are egging them on right now you guys
00:14:49
Speaker
You're doing this. It's chat. it's I'm going to blame chat. I'm not even looking at chat. and I'm going to blame make Your mic is still too far from your face. my yeah i want to hear
Power Exploration & Tension Rise
00:15:00
Speaker
that deep voice. It's too low. like oh your Your mouth is here and it's down there.
00:15:04
Speaker
Just like raise it up. yeah get get it Get it right up in your tonsils. and we I think Tattletail would have been a good option for protagonists. For Ward, ah I think that like you could have still had... I'm sorry.
00:15:19
Speaker
No, no, all good. I'm sorry. I'm the one with the microphone problems. Just yeah, loosen your stand and like lift it up so it's higher, closer to your mouth. I think over time it's sunk down here whatever.
00:15:33
Speaker
And we want it a little closer. while yeah very a technical Yeah, there we go. Go ahead. How are we? Perfect. Hello, hello. Testing one, two. Yeah, there you go. I just want people to be able to see my beautiful face too, you know? i understand. Absolutely. Oh, well. Hot filters.
00:15:48
Speaker
Hot filters in the way, it's okay. Pop filters be popping. They do be popping, you that's much better. Carry on. Hannah, you were saying. um Yeah, so Tattletail, I think Tattletail would have been a really good protagonist for Ward because we're she's always in the in the center of things by the nature of her information, that keeping her up to date with what's constantly going on.
00:16:09
Speaker
and And kind of that feeling that we got a lot in ah in Worm of the kind of like the board with all the the the the the lines. Everything's tying to this and to this and to this and what about this?
00:16:21
Speaker
And I think that would have made... and it all kind of coming together feel more like a puzzle. Like we're putting the pieces together of whatever is about to happen.
00:16:31
Speaker
um As opposed to like, like I said, Victoria off on the side, but also if we're talking about like character development of it, like don't tell did just lose a huge piece of her team and one of her best friends.
00:16:46
Speaker
So like dealing with the personal of that, dealing with the reshaping of the team, reshaping of the world, I think she would have been a really good protagonist. And I can't help but find, i like Victoria as a person.
00:17:00
Speaker
I like her power. I like her, the internal struggle that we're dealing with here. i don't like the world through her eyes. I find it very boring. so So we're all writers.
00:17:10
Speaker
We're all writers. What we just need to do is we each pick the character we mentioned and we rewrite Ward as we would have written it. Right. Of course. From that character's perspective. Control F. Control, you know, replace it. And somehow it's just like, oh, wow, this is so much more interesting. It's like all I did was replace the name.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah. but if Power is nothing else. You know? Right. Like, wow, Tattletail has so many new power goals. Replace the word the wretch and aura with the flock and ghost. Yeah. yeah ah ah um ah to Hannah, to your point, ah or to a slight counter to that, um I think that for at least this world and for a lot of his writing, ah you typically need somebody who's action oriented.
00:18:06
Speaker
And as much as I love Tattletail, Tattletail is a sit behind the cameras person. You could absolutely show off some stuff, especially if you somehow had her as a protagonist that like Kenzie was ah foster kid that somehow ended up in her care where Kenzie is literally her mode of viewing the world. And then you can do,
00:18:30
Speaker
ah like Taylor did during the entire arc where she's um in the PRT headquarters waiting, where we're getting all these snapshots all over the headquarters of the different things going on because she's sitting there watching through her bugs.
00:18:44
Speaker
But it feels like third-person narrative story. Right. So I like that idea for Tattletail. If we were now doing a complete rewrite where Kenzie is the mode at which the she looks through everything and she has a camera on every single character in Tattletail's arsenal, if you will.
00:19:04
Speaker
And then Tattletail is giving her thoughts on everything. However, and and not even however, and the character that Wild Bo wrote in the story before this is essentially Tattletail.
00:19:22
Speaker
It is a character whose whole power is social dynamics and being like cunning and smart. Mm-hmm. um they are in an action-oriented world that is there. it is a lot of intrigue and espionage. Ward is a lot of intrigue and espionage.
00:19:39
Speaker
So it's not like it's completely undoable. However, perhaps as trying to having just done that and wanting to move from having a character that is not in the action, and and they are, but like,
00:19:57
Speaker
I think of... Rest mind versus frontliner is kind of what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. I get what you're saying. I guess it i like i eight disagree that Ward is... What did you just say? You said... you said Espionage. You didn't say something. Espionage. I would definitely disagree that Ward is espionage and and intrigue. Oh, no no, no, no. I'm saying it's present.
00:20:20
Speaker
Like... Everything they're doing from the spying, the sting operation, them infiltrating the the the prison, doing stakeouts on teacher's minions.
00:20:32
Speaker
All of that could have been done by Tattletail, to your point, in a much more the wire situation where it's her making moves and way less action um because she's observing everybody. She's you know tracking people down. She's sending mercenaries to go do hits.
00:20:52
Speaker
um
00:20:54
Speaker
I... Yeah. Nothing else. i just It could fit. Yeah. yeah It's also just a weird coulda, woulda, shoulda kind of situation. like Yeah.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah. yeah einsteins twenty twenty We just all gotta rewrite it. Yeah. from all right With all of our spare time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no problem. yeah peace be ah Bernard, the only spoilers I'm using are from Twig.
00:21:22
Speaker
so And I literally just talk about the personality of the protagonist. so Yeah, yeah. um I thought I did have about... This reading this because I am starting to get ward fatigue um as well.
00:21:37
Speaker
I feel like I've been the most optimistic about it is that um the more and more I'm beginning to view ward what we've had so far like how I view episode eight of Star Wars where I really didn't like episode seven.
00:21:53
Speaker
Episode eight is really bad. Also remind me but I enjoy a lot more than episode seven. Okay. ah Because it tried something. It failed. Yeah. um it For at least 50% of the movie.
00:22:07
Speaker
um The other 50% was interesting because I'm like, oh, we might be going somewhere with this. um So like, Rian Johnson tried to do something. And ah Ward, the more and more I think about it, is a lot like that in that it's trying to do something into a subversion of what the expectation was for the last story.
00:22:33
Speaker
Wildboat doesn't just want to do the same and the same setting. So almost everything is that. It's similar, but we went the other direction with it.
00:22:44
Speaker
We're not constantly fighting so that we can set up these... mystery moments. We're having a lot of preparation and like mystery moments so that we can set up for combat.
00:22:56
Speaker
And it's not that like, oh, this detail leads to this detail leads to this detail. And it's very in a straight line on a pin board. for this story, everything is, ah has ambiguity. It has, um we know something big's coming.
00:23:14
Speaker
We can feel it in the air. ah The characters talk about it like something, we you know, there's a conspiracy here. And when we talk about it, We don't know it's there because of hard details.
00:23:28
Speaker
We know it's there because you can taste it. um And there's a lot more more stuff to go along with that comparison. But I do think that he kind of just took everything that he did before and was like, I can't do that over again.
00:23:43
Speaker
So he picked the other direction with it. Did it pay out? Obviously not. on At least not on everything. um But, ah you know, I think there are some things that it did pay out for. And, you know, those are a lot of things that we enjoy that are different.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, shall we get into it? Yeah, let's do it. let's go for i'm goingnna I'm going to throw and together. those are the the Whoa.
00:24:12
Speaker
never forget but God damn it. i I... Yeah. The two arcs I'm going to put together. Yes, please do. Like two towers. Alan.
00:24:24
Speaker
I will... See, Alan, my joke was subtle. What's in your tea, bro? don't know. It's the caffeine. It's the caffeine. Podcast juice.
00:24:37
Speaker
By heat up a cup of milk, he just meant a whole mug full of Kahlua that he put some chai flavor in. Two shots of vodka.
00:24:48
Speaker
Hey, look, I water it down with Bailey's. Oh my Oh my God. you Take us away. All right. 9.10 and 9.11. Promise my husband is not an alcoholic.
00:25:00
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:25:05
Speaker
Sorry, go ahead, Nick. Here's here's the rail. We're over here. Yeah. israel Derailed long ago. As Vic points out, let's get into the milk. I mean chapter. Exactly.
00:25:18
Speaker
9.10 to 9.11. So good. Love it. Love it. ah nine point time weapon is so good love it The team meets up with Swansong and Ratcatcher, who go their own way. Rain, Byron, and Victoria fight Lung and the pharmacist, and Goddess intervenes. 9.11. The group continues fighting Lung and the pharmacist, but Vicky loses focus when she thinks of Amy.
00:25:44
Speaker
Then she pulls herself together and takes down the pharmacist, which allows Goddess to align Lung.
00:25:53
Speaker
So... um Yeah, interesting group. ah Swan Song. Was it Swan Song, Rat Catcher, Crystal Clear and Damsel, right? They all go together. Yeah.
00:26:05
Speaker
who yeah Like what a what a crew. i grew What a group. A group of people. I love Damsel Swan Song dynamic. Me too.
00:26:16
Speaker
It's like if you had a twin, but one of them was super dark and edgy. and Yeah. like Like you're still also thinking the same thing like half the time, you know, finishing up other sentences. Yeah.
00:26:27
Speaker
I just love, I put even swan song rolls her eyes at damsel. Like yeah the damsel says something that swan song would say, but like swan song looks over at Victoria and is like, ah what are you going to do?
00:26:40
Speaker
Like, or like how i'm embarrassing, like, I can't believe she would say something like that. And if I were Vicky, I'd be like, you do that all the time. yeah don't Don't pretend to be embarrassed.
00:26:51
Speaker
I would never, yeah I would never be so gauche. I love it. Yeah, no, absolutely. I love Damsel. She's very funny. um Their interactions are cool.
00:27:03
Speaker
i I find it interesting that Goddess's power is ineffective against certain types of of capes. Like, Crystal Fear is totally fine. He's, like, yeah seen through the alignment power, which I think is very fascinating, where he's like... yeah thank you know like even I think at one point, not now, but later, he's like, the protocol is Victoria. And she's like, right.
00:27:25
Speaker
Right, crystal clear. You are right about the protocols. but Yeah. yeah calls The protocols for Master Stranger, the Master Stranger protocols. just ah The Master Stranger protocols.
00:27:37
Speaker
Protocols specifically for the Masters and Strangers. those but those Those protocols. Those protocols. Yeah, very interesting. Did we get like a... um Maybe towards the end we get it. Do we get like a specific list of of capes who were never ah fully aligned or had resisted it without? Crystal clear.
00:28:01
Speaker
um Chris, apparently. Yeah, chris and Chris and Amy doing their own thing. Chris Amy. Obviously. ah anybody mean's a question later like natural resistance yeah There's a question later. Belcher.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He gets a lot. Yeah. You're right. Actually. Rat catcher. There's question as to whether or not rat catcher was immune. It seemed. Oh, but we think rat, rat catcher was probably somebody who ate some candy before that all went down. Yes. Yes. That's also true.
00:28:35
Speaker
but yeah we got but We don't really know who had, about right who had natural resistance. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. i think it was clear. yeah I mean, we just got to like, I'll be honest, because like the power the power is rats, right? Like that's that's the power?
00:28:54
Speaker
It's rats? I mean, yeah. and We know, hold It's you know thats small things. Small things. Okay, rats and small things. So you have her running the rats around the prison and then she's out there detecting like contraband.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yep. And like yeah she kind of was semi outcast from the heroes. So it fits that like. Bless her. She's kind of, she's kind of a little. You got surveillance, dude. We love Ratcatcher. Oh yeah. We love Ratcatcher for that. my gosh.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah. Make that clear. Yeah. no no She was the. She was the prison plant. Ratcatcher for Halloween. Oh, fantastic. I love that even in her most dire, she's made like a paper cone to recreate her costume.
00:29:40
Speaker
I know. Bless. Oh, no, I love her. Yeah, no, it's just that she was the female um plant for the PRT. That crystal clear was the male plant. So she was his counterpart, basically. Right. Yep.
00:29:52
Speaker
So that's the only reason she's there, I assume. Otherwise, she would not have chosen to be there, I think, in that combat situation. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. and um Pharmacist power is cool.
00:30:07
Speaker
I would get to see a bit more of it. Yeah. the whole ah amplifying powers thing. It's very interesting. Especially when it's crazy. cool.
00:30:19
Speaker
very very cool And yet it seems like possibly her power could be one of the only ones that could hurt him, potentially. Because if it's ignited by powers and she hits... Because she has to be careful to not hit him, right? That's the whole thing. is She's like, I can't hit him, but he can like accentuate my flames and use it to spread more flames.
00:30:43
Speaker
So it's this really interesting power balance where... he's kind of wielding a huge double-edged sword where he could at any moment incinerate himself, which is really interesting. Yeah. um Yeah. Very cool power. Very interesting.
00:30:58
Speaker
I liked it. And i just like Lung. Lung is good. was going say, I'm glad we got a good Lung fight, and I'm glad he didn't, like, get got, if that makes sense. Yeah. ah Yes, agreed.
00:31:08
Speaker
i was actually, like, yeah I was not worried about Victoria dying. I was worried about Lung dying. i was like, i don't want Lung to die. They have to kill Lung. I hope they don't have to kill Lung. I keep going back to the interlude where he like battled Leviathan to a standstill. And I was like, this better not be like some little fire up his butt that blows him up or something. You know, I don't want, I don't need like a Ant-Man Thanos situation here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:33
Speaker
um bernard to your question is there a dc or marvel character called rat catcher there is i believe they're a batman villain ah they do a lot of their work from like uh arkham because they've got the rats and they can stay in there and send the rats out or from like prison um i think there's even an episode where or like an a comic episode where he like straps bombs to the rats and like sends some scurrying to places and i'm trying to figure out how the bombs are just going off in places Ratcatcher is a character in James Gunn's Suicide Squad movie as well.
00:32:06
Speaker
Wait. Really? Really? Ratcatcher 2. Oh, is he the one that looks like a rat in the opening sequence? That's Weasel, which I think is an original character.
00:32:18
Speaker
Ratcatcher 2 is Ratcatcher's daughter, who is, I guess, an original character, but is supposed to be the daughter of Ratcatcher. Huh. Don't even remember her. What a forgettable movie. um Anyway, ah moving on. It was great. it It was not good. It was barely better. than You liked it? Oh, my God. The James Gunn one? Yes. The the original. ah What? I forget. I the first one. No. I don't. We'll call it the Jared Leto one.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Another movie ruined by Jared Leto. Not that it could have been saved, but. Goddamn. Oh, my gosh. That's true, though. All right. um Where were we? We were talking about Lung and Powers and the Pharmacist. Just the color combo alone, like the orange you know fire with like the purple fire in tandem like roiling over each other.
00:33:08
Speaker
and Such a cool visual. Very fun. Yeah. i I like the... um The idea, the the fact that the pharmacist is kind of like hidden away, hidden from sight.
00:33:20
Speaker
And Victoria tries a couple of times to get Lung to like look, like get give her location away, which I think is really smart of her to like look for like, where is he like glancing or looking? But he doesn't give her away. Like he's really good at like not looking, trusting her, which is kind of cool. Also like Lung, trust anyone else ever?
00:33:42
Speaker
Like what? He's a professional. Wow, growth. yeah Yeah. I know. ah I love Lung. Also, it's cool. For all the shit that I gave him in Worm, Wild Bill finally calls Lung a dragon. the dragon? again Everybody else can shut the fuck up who was on my case about that.
00:33:59
Speaker
They're like, he's literally not a dragon. I was like, he's literally a dragon.
00:34:05
Speaker
and Okay, I know that his mouth opens like a predator, but he's literally a dragon. And you know what? Wild Boat confirms it, so shut the fuck up. I felt like he went out of his way. Doesn't it have like the two? right and yeah Yeah, because it it it, you know, yeah, like you said, it yeah splits into four parts. It's like the yeah.
00:34:25
Speaker
but As Vic says, Lon will never put milk in the microwave. And that's why tier villain. yeah know Oh my gosh. The real villain of War. No, no.
00:34:39
Speaker
Lactose. No, that's the thing, right? Lung. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Lung lung could just do the cool the cool Uncle Iroh thing where he just breathes into the milk and it's warm. ah You know, i would like to think he'd have to do that, but it would have to be like not fire breath. That's the thing. Oh, yeah, exactly. It's like steam breath.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah, because milk would curdle and and and and melt. It would get all sticky and gooey in that skimmy film, and you don't want that. You got to do the steam breath. That's what Uncle Iroh does. He does the steam ah steam to heat it up, you know?
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah. Do we think that Lung is being influenced by teacher and that's why he's behaving so well, asks Fran.
00:35:18
Speaker
No. I think he's a free agent who likes money. like to think Long is a resisted teacher. It does fit how well he's coordinating and how he's working with teacher and all of that.
00:35:33
Speaker
It makes sense yeah that like ah from events perspective that like that that's what has happened. But personality-wise, I don't think he would ever let that happen. At least not willingly. and The other clue as well... Teacher has to do it willingly.
00:35:49
Speaker
The other clue as well... Teacher does have to do it willingly. The other clue as well is that Goddess is able to align Lung. And Goddess has mentioned, and we talk about it later, how people who work with Teacher tend to be immune to her power as well.
00:36:04
Speaker
Because Teacher has given them that immunity that we find out later from the candy. Right. um Like she, cause she can't control the pharmacist. I remember that's the thing where she's like, I can't align the pharmacist. yeah They just knock her out.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah. um But she can align lung, which I feel like is an indication he's not under teacher's control. Yeah. That makes sense. I like that. And Fran, as you're pointing out lung, ah his name does mean dragon and he has dragon tattoos on his back.
00:36:30
Speaker
I know. And in worm, he just like went out of his way to like, never call him a dragon or like use every word, him a but dragon basically. Every word by a dragon. And I mentioned at one point in time on the subreddit that that was weird and everybody was like, but he's not a dragon. His mouth opens weird. And I was like, in and his scales and his tail and his wings and his wings and his fire. Dragons aren't necessarily pyrokinetic. I'm like, shut the fuck up.
00:37:00
Speaker
If the giant vagina gaping dragon from Dark Souls 1 can be called a dragon, then I think anything can be called a dragon. Wait, wait a minute. you You've never seen the dragon before?
00:37:13
Speaker
It's the gaping dragon is what it's called. gaping dragon. It's called the gaping dragon. That's good one. The gapes dragon, Nick. That's the first WTF moment of that game, really.
00:37:24
Speaker
Pretty much, yeah. yeah Hannah's looked up a picture of the gaping dragon.
00:37:32
Speaker
It's classic. I mean... Yeah, see it, right? And we've all seen the movie Teeth before, i believe. No, stop.
00:37:45
Speaker
No. Some of us still have nightmares about that shit. Also, Vic, the reason I like to use the microwave is because it doesn't curdle the milk. It's a low enough temperature ah to not have it make that film, ah but you can't do it any more than two and a half minutes.
00:38:05
Speaker
You can absolutely blow up milk in the microwave. Please do be careful. Just want to put that out as a PSA. Don't over-peat your microwave, Miller. Please understand that milk, as a former barista and somebody who's also done this by accident, milk, when it starts heating, it expands really quickly.
00:38:21
Speaker
ah Boils very fast. Please be careful if you do decide to microwave any milk. Thank you very much. You'll sooner have your milk. go over and volcano inside of your mug before the explosion, but there's no stopping the explosion. There's not going to be any curdling happen. There's going to be an explosion before there's curdling. Yeah, it's it's more of a steam explosion.
00:38:40
Speaker
Let's get back into the milk of the chapter, please. Yeah. Milk of the chapter. Do you think guys think that Lung would smash the gaping dragon? I don't know. I think this is what people want. No.
00:38:56
Speaker
Michael, music. Music. No, don't music. I'm asking an important question. He's asking Alan needs self-control. He's asking the questions that that li Imp would ask if Imp was here.
00:39:09
Speaker
You know? That is that is true. We're getting into 9.12. Thank you, Yeah. um' I will combine 13 and 14 because I think they go well together, but 9, 12 is so kind of a brief. and Before we get to that. ah Anything else? yeah Yeah. Oh, Alan, did you have other things to say other than milk?
00:39:26
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe you should say them instead of talking about milk. Look, we can talk about all this, okay? um So, ah I like the point where she talks, what does 110% of the wretch look like?
00:39:38
Speaker
Like, what is the going all out with the wretch? Oh, yeah. Banger line. Loved the fight. Loved her diving through the, like, two sets of flame to, like, shoot out. And she kind of loses, and she, like, goes to the ground and still, like, skids, tucked.
00:39:51
Speaker
um woman Love the imagery there. However... This lung fight goes on for five fucking ever. And at some point in time, most of this chapter, and I realized it's only chapter 9.11, I guess.
00:40:06
Speaker
I just kind of glaze the entire time because it just gets so boring. I think that chapter was for me and the other lung stands who wanted more action in Worm. yeah And so for that, I'm in.
00:40:20
Speaker
You know, fair. For that, we thank you. yeahs I will never say no to more of lung in my life. but i get But you're not wrong. You're not wrong. it it was long. It was for me.
00:40:31
Speaker
It was long, but it was long. It was long and long. All right. and Anyways, 9-12. Victoria speaks with the prisoners. Goddess senses an inevitable danger, and it's revealed that Teacher plans to starve out the prison.
00:40:49
Speaker
So Victoria makes a deal with Coalbelcher, and we find out that Goddess's cluster mate has arrived.
00:40:57
Speaker
So what what I will say um in terms of this kind of being in between the rescue and the tunnel and the fight with Lung, um what I do say like about this is I feel like, especially finding out the circumstances of the end of nine, I feel like this is a really good setup for pointing out like, Oh, teacher is the bigger villain.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yes. Goddess is a problem, but teachers, the one who, of course he had a contingency plan for them taking over the prison before he could. and Right. Like, of yeah, of course, absolutely. He did. That makes absolute sense.
00:41:37
Speaker
Um, So I think it's ah it's a good setup for making Teacher maybe more of a primary antagonist, perhaps. I guess we'll see how it develops now that they're not aligned to Goddess.
00:41:48
Speaker
We'll talk about that later. But yeah, just makes sense. Teacher makes sense. I think he's a smart villain. He's well-written here. We kind of get the sense of that too. I mean even going back into Worm, that teacher was kind of a dork, but he wasn't stupid. Like he was very smart and true of himself compared to all the previous chapters we've gotten with Goddess, where it was like, she kind of dumb.
00:42:12
Speaker
Like not, she's not dumb, but she's not you're You're putting a little too much faith. She's not cunning. Yeah. Exactly. And I think that's... No, you're absolutely right because Teacher was the one with the contingency plan in Gold Morning about like how to rescue a salvage of of yeah humanity.
00:42:29
Speaker
So of course he has a contingency plan if he loses the prison. like He's got like, no, no, I got a backup plan. worry about it. He's got enough thinkers. thinkers He doesn't just need to be himself smart, but also he has a team of people. like Exactly. exactly And i think I think part of what, you're right, Jacob, like Goddess has shown herself, and I think Vicky even mentions that. She's like, oh, this is just a petulant child who got everything she wanted because she can make everybody want what she wants.
00:42:57
Speaker
yeah And is it makes you wonder like, okay, well, how did goddess take over her world? And more than likely, it's probably just the sense of surprise of like, yeah I don't know. i didn't know that that your your power was alignment. Oh, I just want to do what you want to do because that seems natural. like you don'tre If you weren't aware that she had that power, you might not even know she was using it on you.
00:43:17
Speaker
So it makes sense to take over the world. It's like, well, of course we elect goddess to be queen of the universe. Why would we not? We all want that. Yeah. Yeah. you know and she doesn't suspicious about that She just kind of has to be aware of you too. Yeah, exactly. So like potentially like she sees you on TV live and is like, Oh, that person. And then all of a sudden you're like, wow, I really should go help the person ah who, you know, and and you would still have to give them orders, but you've essentially, as soon as you run into them, she can be like, Hey, do what I want.
00:43:51
Speaker
Like you're already locked in as soon as she can and be aware of you. Exactly. Whereas teacher has already developed a pharmaceutical counter to her abilities. like Yeah. Yeah. he like that play that Mind you, yeah we'll come back to this, but mind you, tastes delicious.
00:44:08
Speaker
yeah feel yeah loved Yeah. We'll come back to it. It's like, yeah well, I mean, and they're not, they gotta like it. i mean, you know, not going to be banana flavored. Yeah.
00:44:21
Speaker
really like and i love Listen, those little candy machines at like CeCe's Pizza, I love those little bananas. Little run so little run bananas. They're so good. but ah Although this goes back to another conversation about how I'm weird and like really chalky candy. So we can, you know, put that. Well, it's like there's also the whole thing that like that weird so super sweet banana flavor is what bananas used to taste like before we like like and genetically modified the ever-loving daylights out of them.
00:44:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Or it's just a different variety of banana that went out of fashion. or and The banana marshmallows that are like dipped in chocolate. interest Have you had those? They're super good.
00:44:59
Speaker
I don't know if you can buy them in the US. Speaking kind of things that explode in microwaves, marshmallows, very fun. um Oh, yeah. Good peep jousting. Yep. Ooh, yeah. poo Yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
So, okay, ah help me out with something because I, Goddess's Cluster Mate gets mentioned. Yes. Okay, thank you. Does it ever come up again of who it is what they're doing? which No. that I saw. She's just a battery.
00:45:28
Speaker
He's just a battery? so like I think it's a she. I thought it was a she. and it was a a she is a she I think it's a she, but she's essentially just a battery to like supercharge her. Interesting. we mean like Okay, so her cluster mate showing up is just like, oh, we found them and I realigned them to my purposes and now I can use their power again or something. Is that it, basically?
00:45:49
Speaker
ah Okay. okay That's kind of a letdown. I was interested in her cluster. but Yeah. There's a couple clusters that we've gotten mentioned. but Like talking about things but i like I wish we had more of. We we still have to go back to... um Foil's cluster. Yeah.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yes. Oh my gosh. loyal ah March. March. March is the other one. Yeah. March. Yeah. Yep. And I feel like Paris is similar in powers, but I don't know if they're part of the same cluster or not.
00:46:19
Speaker
Interesting. Oh, really? Wait, very ah but you know that's an interesting thing. i hu and Just as ah a theory, I feel like read something like as a theory that Paris is part of the cluster too.
00:46:34
Speaker
But just because they have similar powers, right? They have matter breaking needles that they can throw. Exactly. Yeah. yeah That's funny. So anyways, um,
00:46:48
Speaker
Yeah, not much about 9-12, really. I have confirmation this was a big talking point before that we were talking about, but Monikeros did, in fact, start her own team later, um which is when the children started missing. So she i I said, like, oh, I thought she was on a hero team when she started doing that.
00:47:11
Speaker
i believe she was, and then she made her own, while... people were interviewing. They were essentially disappearing. So nobody ever joined the team because they ever, every time they went for the interview, they died.
00:47:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So creepy. Yeah. Creepy, creepy. um you We did get ah another Maggie Holt reference, which is packed reference from one of his other series. The character over there.
00:47:38
Speaker
All the series, they consider like the other series is fantasy or sci-fi books or you know magic books in the other worlds. So they'll show up from time to time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yep. 913? 913? nine thirteen 9.13. And I was going to mix it with 14 as well because I feel like they go together. Yeah, go for it. 9.13. Breakthrough, Damsel, and Minakaros enter a tunnel.
00:48:07
Speaker
Deal with Blindside. Kingdom Come has caught Tress but can't control her body and Byron stops him from setting off the bombs. Next, in 914, the team struggles in Byron's whirlpool.
00:48:21
Speaker
Victoria rescues separated allies. Minakuras tries to take Kinsey and gets her butt kicked. Crystal so Clear gets aligned. I don't remember that. ah The prisoners are freed and Chris leaves the team.
00:48:34
Speaker
Yeah. A quick point of order. Maybe we discussed this last time. how How is that one character pronounced their name? Monokaros? Monokaros.
00:48:47
Speaker
Monokaros. I like saying Monokaros. Monokaros. And she's a bitch, so who cares? Monica Ross. Monica sounds like you're saying i'm goingnna i'm going to miss noberg and but I'm going to misnomer her all over the place.
00:49:00
Speaker
you you know That's fine. proper no mean i mean I wasn't going to correct you. I don't know. i said it about three different ways. yeah i studied Greek college. i they say They said in the... the i know they have a the in like the author so Monoceros. Okay. Monoceros. Yeah. No, it is definitely mini Kenny, which again is just stupid fancy for unicorn. Cause she's stupid.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah. um Also, she has a, she has a horn tattooed on her forehead, but it's her forehead. So it's like just a little triangle.
00:49:39
Speaker
That's the dumbest shit I've ever wishes. She was narwhal. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Basically. Don't be. I was, I was very unimpressed. Yeah. okay but but Yeah, we'll come back. We'll go back to... you know Blindside continues to have one of the simplest and yet coolest powers. It's very cool. In all of Ward. It's very cool.
00:50:02
Speaker
ah So cool. You can't look at him. like it's just yeah That's it. But it's so utilized so well. It creates probably the most interesting fight scenes we've had in Ward. Some of the most interesting fight scenes we've had in Ward. Yeah.
00:50:15
Speaker
just dealing with something like that. And i I just love and I appreciate him, even though he's a villain, being like, please don't fly by me too fast. I really don't want you to break your own neck.
00:50:26
Speaker
I love that. He's like, now... Driving down a highway. Yeah. Oh my God. Like everybody that sees him would just like snapping next. Like everybody in oncoming lanes would just be. And what it says to me is that this has happened to him before. Right. and is right i just can't.
00:50:43
Speaker
I don't want to see this again. Please don't make me live through this again. Yeah. Yeah. That's rough. Damn. Because he's a teenager, I believe. Younger, yeah. I don't know he's a teenager, but he's younger for Also, in general, most capes aren't just going around murdering people unless you're an extra bad one. Even the villains, like most of them, unless we're talking about you know the really big bad ones, they're not going around trying to kill people. They're trying to rob banks and...
00:51:15
Speaker
you know, territory party in malls. Yeah, get territory. They're not trying to murder people. Like, they're trying to sell drugs. Like, come on. it feels It feels very much like a canary situation where he easily could have accidentally killed people. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. yeah I mean, imagine just like whatever that trigger event or like the days following, just like walking into a restaurant and everybody being like, oh, looks so away. ah Like, it just would have been chaotic. Yeah, I mean, driving.
00:51:45
Speaker
It's got to a little more than what his trigger event was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it did say he had hit is for several years and he is a teenager, uh, by estimation.
00:51:56
Speaker
Um, also the thing, before only, I think it is, i think by belief by hindsight is a guy, um from what we talked about when he is at the, community center.
00:52:09
Speaker
Um, with that you the They use he pronouns, I'm pretty sure. I believe so, and I think they also carry, like, they have some martial arts training. I believe there's something about, forget if it's a baseball bat or a gun or whatever they have. They have baseball bat. Baseball bat, because they just go up and block people.
00:52:25
Speaker
um Yeah, because they don't need the finesse because you can't look at him. they also can't look at him, so, like, and I don't think he can turn that off, or at least it doesn't seem like that. So, you're probably going to get pushed to a villain role.
00:52:41
Speaker
and Even if like, you know, you trigger like PR, just because of PR, it's not going to be great for you. Like, yeah. is Not only. I was
00:52:54
Speaker
i was just going to say, I can imagine an origin story where he did accidentally buddy. And he's like, well, I was, nobody's going to believe me that this was accidental. Yeah. Like, I mean, it looks like it looks like I snapped his neck. So, you know, whoops.
00:53:09
Speaker
Yeah. yeah crazy Yeah. now it's He says it with the desperation of somebody who's seen it before. yes Yeah. You know.
00:53:21
Speaker
It's like, no, please, please don't. Don't do it. and Let's just remember now. On that as well, Kingdom Come... i on that similar note, Kingdom Come taking over Sveta and him. I just imagine him being like, well, and it wasn't like he was just trying to get Sveta, right? He's trying to get all of them, but he only gets Sveta.
00:53:42
Speaker
And I just imagine, I don't know how his power works or how he controls people, but he's like, I'll get her. And then they he's like, oh, what the fuck is this body? Oh, God. And if she's just doing like the Squidward dance in the corner. I love how even you're a ah spider on roller skates.
00:54:00
Speaker
yeah I mean, Victoria's even like spent years learning how to speak because she doesn't have lungs. So like, it's just like you you stumbled into the wrong body, sir. And you're not prepared for that. How does she speak without lungs?
00:54:19
Speaker
You know, I imagine it's the same way that Taylor speaks through bugs, like ah superhero BS. And we just kind of be like, all right, cool. So you know i burn ten she takes one of her and like...
00:54:31
Speaker
um right right right ah yeah yeah Her tongue is actually a tendril that she can vibrate really fast to make. Oh, I don't like that. I don't like that. That's that's uncomfortable.
00:54:43
Speaker
As B. Faroney points out, um blindside confirmed neither male nor female and they pronouns are used. Oh, I didn't notice that. I guess it makes sense because nobody could look at them to confirm.
00:54:57
Speaker
So, yeah, there you go. I'm curious now. I'm just going to check. Not that I know believe not what you look like No information potentially on file in that case as well.
00:55:09
Speaker
Like if it's, you know, a cape that you're trying to keep an eye on. Like it's a kid, ah troubled kid you're trying to keep an eye on and then all of a sudden no one can see them anymore. No one can look at them anymore. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, like, ah, ha, ha, add it to the file. But like if maybe no one had eyes on this kid, quite literally, now no one has eyes on this kid.
00:55:31
Speaker
Imagine Imp and Blindside trying to fight. Oh, that would be so much fun. Oh, I would love that. Just the two of the walkingest circles. Just the idea of one person not being able to attack or hit the other person, can't figure out why. and the other person walking around being like, I know I have to do, I know there's something I'm supposed to be doing, but I can't think of what it is. Meanwhile, Imp like...
00:55:58
Speaker
yeah yeah That's hilarious. Why? um Also, I love... ahead. Oh, finish. Yep. I was just going to say, I love what Victoria says about attacking him, like because you can't swing your arm at him.
00:56:12
Speaker
Or them, excuse me. You can't swing your arm at them. So she says you have to use something that swings, like a flail. So you would... swing but then you you couldn't swing all the way to them. So you yeah swing here and you let the chain carry the rest of the way, which is so cool. I had not thought about that at all. And I love that idea, mostly because I love the idea of anyone fighting with a flail.
00:56:37
Speaker
True. It's an underrated weapon, truly. We have a first-time commenter named Yash. Everyone say hi. Hello, Yash, welcome. They're wondering what our thoughts are on the preseason college basketball rankings.
00:56:52
Speaker
Well, a seeing as how I could not be bothered to watch basketball if my life depended it. We're a bunch of nerds. That's the one with the orange ball. Maybe the wrong crap.
00:57:04
Speaker
I'm going to say. I'll answer that question on the Discord for our patrons. Wow. Oh, hot dog. What a tease. What a tease. As I monetize everything.
00:57:15
Speaker
Quickly text. my friend who knows everything about college basketball. I was about say, you don't know. That's why he's stalling. I'm going to say that Duke is a team. Kind of mid this season.
00:57:29
Speaker
I have good feelings about Notre Dame. I think we should a question to you, Yash, and you should tell us why it's interesting in the comments. and then We don't know.
00:57:42
Speaker
Yeah, because we don't know. This is the wrong crowd to ask about, my dude. How's UGA doing? How's UGA looking? I'm from Georgia. No, that's not even... Do they even play basketball? Yeah. Yeah, of course they play basketball, Nick. Not well, but they play it They certainly do try.
00:57:58
Speaker
And that's all that matters. The trying. don't know. With air, but looking real promising. Ooh. I got money on air, but doing a triple double. So ah yeah, there you go. Vic points out, we don't talk about sports. We talk about milk and ward.
00:58:17
Speaker
That's true. as Yash pointed out, Vicky, though, famously played basketball and got her power but in a fight on the court. So, you know. Oh, that's true. together. You thought thought Yash was only game we care about you thought yeah you know yash was ah just talking nonsense when it came to sports, but maybe Yash is trying to keep us on track. how many rock bay buccaneers looking and rogan how many of you would buy milk a milk line of of shirts from our store if you if we made them?
00:58:50
Speaker
Let us know in the comments. Please don't make me design, man. Please don't just in the microwave. what it should be What it should be is that a picture of milk in a mug. I would read it on every podcast.
00:59:01
Speaker
i mean But it's like a really hipster. It's a really hipster looking thing, but like step-by-step instructions of how Alan makes his chai. I'm not going to lie. I and thought about um immediately making a video of me. You can see the milk inside with like arrows pointing to stuff. Okay, no, way wait, wait, hear me out. the The image is from inside the microwave and it's like the frame and it's the But then like on the other side is like Alan's face through the microwave door.
00:59:31
Speaker
Okay, first off, it's not the mug. It goes in a special microwave container. It doesn't go in the mug. But you can do that and and me like watching it. I like that. and The framing of the microwave and then me just staring it down. Look at you guys. says no No explanation. Brockton Bay Book Club, milkiest podcast on the internet.
00:59:52
Speaker
Please no. I'm ready. Big milkers here. I have to make that.
00:59:59
Speaker
You don't have to. We could just make it and it would be bad. That's also an option. Yeah. could make it and it could be great. Is it better if it's just written in comic sans and like flowy font on the front? No, we want it to be good.
01:00:13
Speaker
The milkiest podcast on the internet. And yes, B. Foro, I do have a dedicated milk vessel. Thank you very much. but but Yes, you have to.
01:00:23
Speaker
You can't just willy nilly stick your whole mug in the microwave. Now that's. Fran pointed it out, if powers get stronger, if you're in a similar circumstance but compared to when you trigger, if Vicky fought goddess on a basketball court or I would think long, maybe.
01:00:41
Speaker
Do you think she could have soloed him?
01:00:44
Speaker
mean, know they playing basketball? Are her parents there watching? Are her parents there watching? Because that's the pressure of it, is that your parents are watching. You're going disappoint your team and your coach and your parents, your school. Amy's also watching.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yourself. Amy's cheering for Lung the whole time. No, no. Well, it doesn't matter who Amy's cheering for. Amy's just there. It might be a negative if Amy is cheering for Vicky.
01:01:09
Speaker
Amy cheers too hard for Victoria is the problem. Amy's reffing. She's the one who brings like a giant banner. like Amy's trying not to be biased towards Vicky because she wants her instinct is to call all the fouls against Long.
01:01:24
Speaker
But she goes sometimes where she's like, oops, I meant it's Long's ball when it was clearly not his ball. Like these the hardening questions.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah. but um Milk. Milk.
01:01:38
Speaker
This is great Patreon content. were talking about Kingdom Come. Yes, thank you. Kingdom Came all over the place. All the tentacles. Going back to this whole thing.
01:01:51
Speaker
michael Michael's favorite joke. um Getting back on track. Yeah, getting back on track. um I will say I really love the snap decision Byron and Tristan made to stop all the bombs, right?
01:02:04
Speaker
like That was a really cool 18-9-13 where they just make that quick eye contact, Tristan and Vicky, and he's like, got it. Snap, Byron, water everywhere from all the rock that was in the room. Destroy the computers. And it makes everything dark, which is crazy too for the next little bit.
01:02:19
Speaker
um I do love that. um we'll We'll bring it up when we get to their interlude, but i I really like the dynamic. This is something I was thinking about even going into this kind of section of of of chapters after the previous chapters was that we, I think I might have mentioned it last time too, the fact that we see present day Tristan and Byron working so well together and then their interlude shows them at complete odds if not just downright wishing the other one was dead.
01:02:47
Speaker
And so like... yeah I knew there'd be some resolution at the, in their final interlude and I'm glad we got it. But like, I love seeing them work together. It's really cool. And I'm glad they, you know, quote unquote, figured it out.
01:03:02
Speaker
well Life is tense, but yeah, I love that moment. Great, great moment. Yeah. Great characters. Yeah, Very interesting. It definitely turns a ah switch for me where like I kind of think they're boring characters up until their interlude. And then one of those things that once you know every interaction with them, you're way more observant about and it adds a lot more depth. Same with... ah Same with... ah Kenzie later on where Kenzie's being asked about or asking about like Chris and she's whole, I forget who she's like hugging or like near and is just like, hold it like, go like smiling and laughing and like, Chris, what?
01:03:48
Speaker
And I'm just like, oh like clearly like um she's very, very disturbed by what's going on because of. Yeah. ah Yash, to let you know, this book is a web serial, a superhero web serial called Ward.
01:04:05
Speaker
It's a sequel, although you can read it standalone. um It's just extremely long, and we just sit here, we we talk about it. um We're reading it through most of us, ah except for myself, reading for the first time. Most of the other people in chat are ah just niche nerds about this topic.
01:04:24
Speaker
So... And the story in general is age drop a dark superhero type story. so Yep. All the links are in the description as well. Yeah. What if what if ah trauma took the form of powers?
01:04:40
Speaker
um And it's really well written. um But ah what were we talking about right before that? 914. Yeah, we're talking about. So they just flooded the room.
01:04:51
Speaker
Flooded room, Victoria has this thing where so ah right after the room gets flooded, she's kind of like lost in the water for a second and she's using her flight to kind of swim rather than swim.
01:05:06
Speaker
And she has this moment of like, has it been 10 seconds? Has it been 30 seconds? Has it been a minute? Has it been two minutes? And it's just like when your adrenaline is pumping, like you have no idea of the passing of time. Like you just know that you're doing whatever you can to like not die.
01:05:21
Speaker
And so... that That moment of like, because it feels like so much is happening because there's so much description on the page. And then to like get a little like reminder of like maybe only 20 seconds has passed, like possibly. Or maybe it's been two minutes. Like we don't we don't know because it's all happened so freaking fast.
01:05:41
Speaker
Like I can't hold my breath that long. I would have drowned so fast. Yeah, that was. Couldn't be me. I do that. always do the thing in movies where like they're going to water and you go. You gotta hold your breath. And I die. and like You know i die every time.
01:05:57
Speaker
Every time. There's no way I'd survive this. Victoria finds my wife. Victoria is able to rescue everybody, which is impressive. She's able to get everybody out.
01:06:08
Speaker
There's a line that I saved just because I thought it was really funny. She gets everybody out of the tunnel and everybody's fine. And the quote is, rain had taken a bit of a beating, but that was usual.
01:06:20
Speaker
ah Yeah. Even Victoria's like, oh, rain got beaten up? Okay, that's normal. yeah Poor guy. ah um I want to go back a second, as I forgot who pointed it out, but the moment where they're having the standoff with Monikeros and she's got Kenzie down there and she gives her the shiv.
01:06:45
Speaker
And it's like, hey. and That hasn't happened yet. Is that is that right after? Yeah, we haven't gotten to it yet. Yeah, it's right after the tunnel. No, it's right after they get out. Okay, never mind. But yes, we will get to that. get to that now. we'll get to that now.
01:06:58
Speaker
Okay. We are basically at that point. We're basically there, I think, because I just mentioned getting out of the tunnel. So yeah you're good. They get out of the tunnel. Does Victoria go back in the rest of them?
01:07:12
Speaker
before of the Monte Caros incident. Yeah, because she gets everybody. Everybody's out at that point. Because she even grabs Monte Caros. Because she rescues Monte Caros. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and yeah, Ratcatcher and all them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, because she goes down further down the stairwell. Speaking of which, though, do we think Blindside survived? I think it's implied he did. it implied they did?
01:07:35
Speaker
but I'm not sure, actually. I don't know because he can reconstitute himself from whatever the last body is. and not not not Kingdom Come. You're right, blindside. feel like they sure they ran away before they got to Kingdom Come.
01:07:57
Speaker
or like got beaten up and then kind of ran away prior to them getting to kingdom come somehow, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm going to assume until it's stated they've died. I'm going to assume they're.
01:08:09
Speaker
Yeah. That's, that's my thing. It's like, I'm not a blind side. ah Good rule of media until I see a body and there is, you know, they're alive. Yeah. Which we'll get to later. Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:21
Speaker
um um ah How did they get the water to go away? Because I don't think I understand what happened. So we have all the motes. Boom. It's all water. Everything is full up to the brim.
01:08:34
Speaker
No airspace. And then all of a sudden, everything's flooded. And then it's all kind of whooshing. mine And then it's receding. Yeah, my understanding is that basically...
01:08:49
Speaker
Byron set off a massive water bomb inside of the room. Yeah. which instantly filled it and created this giant whirlpool. But there is the passage they walked down.
01:09:01
Speaker
So it it fills it up instantly and then slowly, like as the water pressure gets released, it begins going into that tunnel as well, which is what's creating kind of the whooshing motion.
01:09:12
Speaker
So at at some point, they are able to get out of it. It's just that the room is so big and tall that and there's so much of it at first, it fills it up completely at first and then they're able to...
01:09:23
Speaker
Once Victoria is able to orient herself to up is down, she's able to find everybody and pull them up where they can be. Yeah. I guess I just like wasn't imagining it as a huge room. It is. was kind of imagining it as like yeah this size, maybe a little bit longer, but like not as a large space. And so it was like, how did all of that water just kind of like flood everything?
01:09:48
Speaker
Like... Cause I'm imagining it And maybe this is just my, cause I'm space and wild bow stuff just kind of doesn't matter for me. Most of the time there's a stairwell and there's a tunnel at the bottom of the stairwell with more passages.
01:10:01
Speaker
So he fills the stairwell with stone moats essentially, and then drop like turns at the water. So it drops, it's flooding down this.
01:10:12
Speaker
So that passage at the bottom is just getting always full until this water tank of a stairwell drains. So that is a there and it's pushing further into the tunnel. So she has to swim up against the water and through until all of that's drained out that way, including the side room. That makes more sense.
01:10:33
Speaker
That makes more sense. Yeah. I was kind of imagining it reversed. Yeah. Okay. Okay, cool. Solid. Um, yeah. Don't know if that's true, but once again, i thought coil was getting shot, you know, out back behind the building. It turns out it was on a beach.
01:10:48
Speaker
Yeah.
Hostage Situation & Team Dynamics
01:10:50
Speaker
Um, but then we have the Monicaeros taking, your girl hostage. Yeah. Kenzie gives her the ship and says like, Hey, i want you to stick this nice and tight in your neck. And if you can be a good girl, turn it, squeeze, you know, give it a nice twist as you put it in Um, uh,
01:11:07
Speaker
man ah Really glad that didn't happen. but Yeah, geez. Yeah, talk about a tense moment. a bit too close for comfort, actually. But what is it that Kinsey says where she's something to the effect of like, oh, i'm i'm I know what it feels like to be manipulated. I wouldn't have done that anyway.
01:11:28
Speaker
Basically. I know what it feels like to... Oh, God, it's not manipulated because it's like ah strive for acceptance and adoration or something like that. and Because it's the way Monikeros is specifically like, and this would this would make me the happiest if you do this.
01:11:48
Speaker
um Yeah. and yeah it's shes like i I've tried to please people. I know i know what that emotion feels like. Something like that. yeah very interesting that she was able to essentially be immune to that.
01:12:01
Speaker
Interesting. and Not even like a power way, just the fact that her natural life had made her immune to it. Self-aware way. Yeah, because it's not mind control like Valifor's is. It's more of a emotion power is what I was seeing. is that it's um Yeah, it's more of an emotion. Like a deep, you create this deep admiration where you just want to do whatever they say.
01:12:28
Speaker
yeah ah Interesting. But they they beat her up, drop her in the tunnel, and close it up. I love later, she's got us like, where's Monikeros? And they're like, she's gone.
01:12:39
Speaker
yeah He's taking an extended timeout. He's taking a timeout. The amount of times I want to use the GIF from the new 52 DC movie. can't remember the animated film where Green Lantern just goes to punch Darkseid and then just gets backhanded and then just clobbered on by his like parademons. Yep. Yep. Every time. It's what I'm imagining here. Pretty much. I can use that GIF on repeat like every week.
01:13:04
Speaker
Somebody gets their ass kicked. Yep. Yep. So um the summary says that crystal clear gets aligned. um Yes. Yes. When you said it earlier, or you were like, oh, he's immune. I was like, ah, he's not immune.
01:13:19
Speaker
I guess maybe she just wasn't aware of him. That's what I think it was. yeah maybe Like if nothing else. He wasn't a problem. If nothing else, because I don't know if this is true. I wonder if, because he can pull all of the crystals out of his head and he's a normal person underneath.
01:13:37
Speaker
right I wonder if the if potentially having all those crystals in his head blocks a lot of stuff out. ah Probably. probably um Because I think at one point in time they even say something about like seeing his features and I was like, oh, or like you said, it could just be that she was aware of him now.
01:14:01
Speaker
Yeah. So i I have a thing now, too, with nine fourteen At the end, Victoria has that look with Chris, and it's like she knows, oh, Chris has left the team.
01:14:11
Speaker
Like he's no longer part of Breakthrough. Knowing what happens very shortly after, though, in nine fifteen do we think that that was him saying, I'm leaving the team? Or is that just Victoria's aligned brain subtly recognizing that Chris's was not aligned.
01:14:31
Speaker
I think that felt like he wasn't part of the team. Is that kind of what we're we're thinking? Okay. That was more what i was an yeah where I was going. yeah yeah But on like on the flip side, though, I'm like, oh, Chris betrayed the team. Yeah, makes sense. just like I would also wouldn't doubt it from him either. Right after that, she gets the same reaction from ah Natalie, I think.
01:14:54
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah. So I think it was it was her aligned brain being like, not everyone's on the same page here. but Yeah. also Shout out to Natalie. We got another put another point in the sniper's coil or coil sniper could take out everybody if they wanted to. Like, stop overlooking the civilians, please.
01:15:15
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, for real. Goddess is like, why would I want to align that? A civilian, what are they going to do? Yeah. I mean, she can't. Thank God she has a danger sense. like Yeah, I don't think she can. I think you're right.
01:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, she can't do civilians. She can only do parihumans. Her danger sense, though, is freaking hilarious to me. That she's like constantly, she's like, listen, listen, I know it's one of you. It's one of you guys doing something hinky life. Which one of you said it?
01:15:42
Speaker
Which one of you motherfuckers said it? Sergeant Ernie running up down the hall. Which one of you said it? know it's one of you. women Oh, God. I just walk away for a minute, then throw a building at you. Yeah, like, her real I don't think she caught on. Meanwhile, in the background, we're getting closer. Oh, love it. You motherfuckers.
01:16:08
Speaker
Well, should we get to 9.15 or any further thought? Hold on, hold on. I got more thing. 9.13 when they're talking about, oh, we can have our own country and they're arguing about like, obviously I would want a bunch of manservants in my mansion and Reigns like...
01:16:23
Speaker
I would like to just have a cabin alone in the woods. And Kenzie's like, but don't you want another room for you know who? And he's like, you know, I once almost got everything I wanted and it was the worst.
01:16:36
Speaker
And I was like, oh, we're going to bring this up again. God damn it. That hurt me. yeah hurt me. Also, he says, he says in like in my wildest fantasies, like I,
01:16:48
Speaker
ia I had you know was finally free and have my own place that I could call home. And like that plus a family, like that was too big for my dreams. Sad boy, sad boy, sad.
01:17:06
Speaker
yeah I did like how they were like, as we need a lot of girl servants. And then I think it was Ashley was like, but we also need one boy servant, like a real Jeeves type. Like you you got to have your butler. You got to have a wood house. Yeah, exactly.
01:17:20
Speaker
Well, that was, that was her suggestion for rain. She was like, yeah, You've got to have a lot of maids because that was damsel saying that not. yeah Right. Right. Right. and byron This is what the note I have. Byron steps in and says, no, he wouldn't like that.
01:17:34
Speaker
And I was like, Byron knows what rain likes up top. Let's go but They've talked before. That's right. He knows what he's into. It's like, trust me, French maids ain't his thing.
01:17:47
Speaker
He's into the more girl next door type. I was about to say, it's a real girl next door and a cult kind of vibe is what he's
Goddess's Downfall & Team Strategy
01:17:54
Speaker
into. Yeah, you know, the um girl girl next trailer.
01:17:58
Speaker
It might be your cousin. o Sweet home Alabama. Well, no no, no, That was the thing. That's the one person that wasn't his cousin. No, I know. It's true. It's true. Allegedly.
01:18:10
Speaker
Allegedly. We don't know for sure. and I didn't like that section though. That was great. What if the fallen are just asking the question, what if, you know, being from Alabama was a power?
01:18:26
Speaker
so Basically, yes. Or better yet, what if Florida a man was a power? Florida man. Yeah, no, absolutely. Florida man the power. For sure. No, no, and a cult. It's just in Florida. That's just, that's you.
01:18:39
Speaker
so there was it Wasn't there a big cult in Jacksonville? Wasn't that a thing? Or am I misremembering that? Which old folks home are you talking about? Like, could be.
01:18:49
Speaker
God damn. As always. Throwing fireballs tonight. All right. 915. Yeah. At 923. All right. yeah at nine twenty three all right um The team meets with the Goddess and they prepare to fight the Wardens.
01:19:06
Speaker
Victoria finds the anti-alignment food and spreads it around. In response, Goddess throws a building, but then Chris kills her and Amy becomes the Red Queen and departs for Earth's shin.
01:19:19
Speaker
Goodness. o So this is the... um This is the sudden stop at the bottom of the stairs I was talking about yeah at the beginning. we're yeah just like ah You're falling, you're going, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. And then you stop and you're like, oh, I'm at the bottom.
01:19:35
Speaker
Oh, here we are. And yeah, just kind of out of the blue. ah Win for Ratcatcher, of course, finding out about the candy. Always Win for Ratcatcher. Small things.
01:19:48
Speaker
Giving her the little signal too. Being like,
01:19:53
Speaker
yeah like I like, got it. I almost want to say, i don't want to i don't know if I want to give him all this credit, but with teacher's plan being starving the prison, I feel like he already got the candy in, the food in. He knew. he was like, oh, if I starve them, eventually they'll probably be forced to eat what I gave them. if And then I win.
01:20:17
Speaker
you know like I just imagine that could also easily be part of his plan. Yeah. Oh, yeah. ah So shout out to, I forget who it was, if it was even named, the random cape.
01:20:28
Speaker
it was just like, fuck yeah, give me chips. That's my spirit. He was like, share shared them. And he was like, I'm not going to share. You ever shared a bag of Doritos before? There's like five of them in there.
01:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, not going to fucking happen. Bruh. Bruh. I did like, and again, credit to Wildbo's writing here, but the... the pullout from aligned POV narration to unaligned. so good. It's so evident just in reading. It's real like the switching from goddess to back to woman in blue, who she was before aligned POV took over was just all that little, little subtle wording was great. my gosh.
01:21:13
Speaker
How did I not notice that? Yeah. Right. didn't notice that at all. The change in naming. That's so cool. Really great little techniques. Yeah. I just like the. ah Oh, sorry. alllan No, no, go for Go for it. So I was listening to the audio book.
01:21:31
Speaker
So it's ah it was great because it's like, yeah, because goddess, she was a. Fucking bitch like. So good. Because there's this like slight pause and then they came back in and I was like, oh, yeah.
01:21:46
Speaker
yeah It's the severance transfer in the elevator. I'm gonna the zoop fucking and bitch. Yeah. ah Loved it.
01:21:57
Speaker
ah ah good You sneaky mom.
01:22:03
Speaker
you who Who stops the building? I'm trying to remember the details. they She throws a building at them, but they're fine. They dodge. I think they just stop. They just dodge it. They just run. They see the building coming and they're like, serpentine.
01:22:17
Speaker
ah but but vicki grabs Vicky grabs a few people and flies away. She drops Damsel, I think. I mean, Damsel makes it, but... But yeah there's this moment where Damsel lets go because she doesn't want to cut up Vicky's arm. yeah And then, just out of nowhere, I guess Goddess's danger sense wasn't that good because Chris just jumps her out of nowhere and rips her
Role Evolutions & Moral Ambiguity
01:22:41
Speaker
apart. the Maybe she's still thinking of him in terms of like he's part of their He's part of the unders... No, no, they're not the undersiders.
01:22:52
Speaker
No. or That they're... Yeah, right. But ah yeah, so he's like part of their team and she's getting the danger sense from their team. And it's like, well, it's it was from him and Victoria with the candy.
01:23:03
Speaker
But like she didn't think of him as his own separate entity. She thought of it as like the team is a problem. Like somebody is being problematic and I don't know which one of you it is. And turns out was ready to go. And it turns out k Croco shit was feeding her Croco shit.
01:23:20
Speaker
Yeah, I like that too. i like that. That was great. Oh, Croco shit's been lying the whole time. Also, what a great just visual like Croco shit. Like just yeah like as far as like trashy villains go, what a great vibe. I love it. The ultimate Florida villain.
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I was a cat on screen right there. That's another. know in the background. no Try again. You almost got him. You almost got him. Keep going. yeah go Use more power in the distraction.
01:23:51
Speaker
And then as Fran points out, goddesses telekinesis is Manten limited as we know, and she can't pick up people, but she's good enough that she can pick up costumes, which are usually subject to the Manten rules because they're so tight to the skin, which a great explanation for like why you want to wear skin tight clothing.
01:24:10
Speaker
Right? Because if it's too baggy, it could be outs outside the Manton effect. yeah Which is why I have to wear this busty, skin-tight outfit all the time. The keyhole cut out on the tip. Yeah, right? The keyhole is actually, for the less skin I have covered, the less affected by the Manton. The more Manton covered I have.
01:24:31
Speaker
We always credit Wild Bo for like un-troping the tropes did he just fix the stupid video game armor plot hole yes yeah he did that bastard yeah by minutes punish for trans though and because i was i was gonna say i i just was reading something about that of the like no no no she has to wear that because of her powers and it's just like who do you fuck gave her who do you think gave her the powers what do you think wrote him that way
01:25:01
Speaker
Exactly. But she can pick up people and control them by their clothes and armor, as we saw. Unfortunately for her, Chris always fights butt-ass naked. So her ultimate weakness, nudity.
01:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah Just flacking on the Yeah, that was that was visceral. Yeah, just shreds. Wow.
01:25:25
Speaker
It happened so fast. i was going to say, yeah yeah done by someone who didn't hesitate the way I would imagine a child killing someone would hesitate.
01:25:36
Speaker
Uh-huh. I just wanted to say. Oh, yeah. Chris has definitely killed people before. More reasons that I love Chris, to be perfectly honest. We love a villain. Even if he was slightly Amy-touched or whatever we're going to call that now.
01:25:51
Speaker
I don't want to think about that. Touched by an Amy. Touched an Amy. My favorite, my favorite, like 90s TV show. Oh, I want that shirt also.
01:26:01
Speaker
i wouldd wear that. Speaking of, I don't, my ADD brain went crazy for a second and I just realized, doesn't the Red Queen sound like a euphemism for a period?
01:26:13
Speaker
what i mean, yes. It didn't. but i'm in my, I'm in my, okay. Yeah, i was going to say, like, I'm in my Red Queen era this like this week. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, the euphemisms for being on your period are many. but Let's see. Amy is of pain in the vagina.
01:26:31
Speaker
You know, always having to fucking deal with her once a fucking month, apparently. You know, ah nobody wants her around. Causes a huge mess. Like, yeah. You know, lots of body dysmorphia from this bitch. Like, of course, we can call her the Red Queen.
01:26:51
Speaker
but you Although I do the the one the one plus that Amy gets in this scene where she makes her like Red Queen speech and then goes off to Earth's shin to fuck off or whatever, is I just see like Dot, the or yeah, the visual of Dot on her shoulder just going, yes, yes, yeah yes, yes.
01:27:09
Speaker
is just keeping me alive yeah good yeah my heart thank you amy is such a fascinating character and i hate her and i love to hate her of course but she's ah ah like just a really good antagonist to this story because so truly other than victoria who she harmed and is very wrong for doing so not to ever overlook that but other than that interaction Amy has not a villain is not presented as a villain. She's, she's got a hero power. She's does as much hero poweriness that she can do with it.
01:27:45
Speaker
Aside from also helping, you know, save the world in other regards where she can. And so like positioning her as an antagonist for Victoria's story is just so good. Cause it's, it's the only, it's the only dynamic that could work for Victoria in that sense, where she's got to like,
01:28:04
Speaker
fight against her sister while also recognizing that her sister is doing good a lot of time and just did good. Like it's it's great. It's a great dynamic.
01:28:17
Speaker
Fuck Amy. ah Another reason why the protagonist, and we wouldn't have Amy's impact as much if it was a different protagonist. So that's one thing.
01:28:30
Speaker
Also true. ah so That's very true. I wish we just had more. it's almost worth it. It's almost worth it. Honestly, actually, like ah it it it really is. like It's almost worth it just to have that kind of back and forth because Amy is so easy to hate. like She's so easy to hate on.
01:28:47
Speaker
She constantly makes the wrong decision, which like I don't know how that's humanly possible, but like yeah there you go. That's what I was thinking the whole time. like But we wouldn't have the Amy hate. That's true. Yeah.
01:29:01
Speaker
And we do get to continue that because now Amy is taking over her own planet. Right? You know, not surprised. Really? Not fucking surprised.
01:29:12
Speaker
I do like how she question is she pulled the same shit, though. She was like, you're not going to be anyone's control. but I do have to touch your brain a little bit. so Just a little bit.
01:29:24
Speaker
I'm just going to lobotomize you a little. Just yeah form a line. ah Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Amy, oh, oh, okay. No, go off. Go off.
01:29:36
Speaker
Sans, anything else? Alan Rand. How did Amy grow the balls to do this? Like, Amy couldn't go to a new grocery store without having an anxiety attack.
01:29:48
Speaker
Like, how did Amy be like, I'm going to be villain leader of the world now. She went to prison. Wow. She went to prison and came out. She got prison chats. She was connected with her dad.
01:30:00
Speaker
ah Honestly, all of that was probably peer pressure. Like ah she is a weak ass bitch. We've seen that she's a weak bitch. Like we should blame Marquis for this personally. um have But like, this just seems so un-Amy to me and ah for her to do this. But then let's just say she makes up more like, but we're going to be, we're going to have rules and you're going to protect people. You're going to be heroes.
01:30:25
Speaker
And it's like, to be good it's how are you going to do that? Like, how are you going to enforce that? What are you going are you literally going have people line up and you got to go and lobotomize every single one of them?
01:30:36
Speaker
Like, mean, yeah With Amy logic, she'd probably think that was fine. Right? And then somebody stay up steps out of line and like, I'm not listening to this bitch. Bam. She's dead.
01:30:46
Speaker
and they're like, party! And then Earthshin just, you know, honestly becomes chaos. Chaos, yeah. Or they just keep them on Australia and they're just like, that's where the hero, the villains go.
01:30:59
Speaker
is um Earth's shin was Goddess's planet, right? Correct. That's where average she was from. Okay, yeah. Because that's where she was going to try and go back to. So they're used to being conquered. Yeah, they're used to being conquered.
01:31:11
Speaker
Oh, another one. How nice. ah First one was blue. Now it's red. Next one will be yellow. um But no, i ah I see though, Alan, I had the same thought you did of like, where did where did Amy get the gall to not only betray Goddess, which is very unlike her,
01:31:29
Speaker
bold But then to be Betraya Blonde? She's never done that before. That's true. Fran says it's because of the goblin. This is what happens when you get a go the goblin. That's what happens when you have a goblin on your shoulder just telling you to go goblin mode all the time. Wow. Eventually you listen to it.
01:31:47
Speaker
We love Dive. I like to think that she got really bold after Gold Morning. She went she stuck she like probably stepped back and was like, wait a minute. I did that. Like, yeah, Taylor pulled the trigger, but I gave her the gun, you know? Like, yeah yeah i think that was probably... You know what could be?
01:32:03
Speaker
It could also be bias bias of the narrator protagonist as well because Victoria is certainly Amy's one weakness. But if she's conquered every other weakness she's had, the only reason Amy still appears weak to us is because we're reading the story from Victoria's point of view. um That's very true. but yeah but So it's very possible. She's been a very bold villain for a while now. And like just slowly stewing, she's healing everybody in the for the wardens.
01:32:33
Speaker
Yeah. yeah um And we haven't seen her for a while either. She's been healing for the wardens and doing other things. Under observation. Good point. But, um so I don't know. Could just be she's gotten bold and it's just Victoria is still her weakness, you know?
01:32:48
Speaker
Yeah. Bernard points out, rightfully, looking at the parallels between her sending herself to the birdcage and her sending herself off planet. Yeah. Also true.
01:32:58
Speaker
Yeah. Which, in my mind, is just like, I i know it for her, it's like, oh, I'm taking responsibility for my action, just... by you know by turning myself in when the real answer is she's removing herself from the situation that she created so that she doesn't have to be responsible for what happened. when someone gets mad and instead of dealing with it and talking about it, they're just like, I'm going to walk away because if I stay, i'm going to do something. and you're like, or you could just learn how to curb your anger and actually talk.
01:33:27
Speaker
Right. Yeah, right. Yeah. As Truett points out, and Amy just fails upwards. Yeah.
01:33:35
Speaker
She just trips her way up that ladder. godam God
01:33:40
Speaker
I do want to see more. Yeah. Wow. I do want to see more of Rezabellen for sure. For sure. Yeah, that's the question is like, is this like ah she ships herself off to Shin and we're like, goodbye.
01:33:53
Speaker
When will I see you again? Oh, never. Never. Or is this going to be like, oh, this is going to be a problem that's going to come and like kick us in the ass later. Yeah. I mean, I hope so. I think it would be a great callback.
01:34:04
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I want to see a whole world full of ah untethered shards under Amy's control. Oh. thought you were going to say goblins. We'll get to that eventually.
01:34:17
Speaker
And goblins, yeah. Oops all goblins. Oops all goblins. I could spend like an hour on these interludes, so... Yeah. 9.Z? 9.Z. Interlude Tristan. Let's do it.
01:34:32
Speaker
interlude then It goes back and forth between past and present. Tristan copes with Byron's death, quote unquote. Breakthrough debriefs with Mayor Citrine.
01:34:43
Speaker
Tristan's life collapses with the lie and barcode checks out the twins. So, who wild conclusion to the Tristan. So, was I right? Did I call it that Tristan's murder charge was Byron?
01:34:58
Speaker
Yeah. That people were basically suspicious. You did call it. We think that you killed Byron, so. I mean, the the it only got interrupted because of Gold Mourning. Otherwise, he probably would have been, it would have been a He was going to go to trial.
01:35:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:35:12
Speaker
I guess it wouldn't go to trial. It could probably take a plea, but. Yeah, i it's interesting, right? Because they they kind of, when I finished the chapter, at first, I really didn't like the resolution. i was like, that was way too quick. Byron was way too forgiving.
01:35:25
Speaker
But it grew on me really quickly the more I thought about it. Because like Byron says, he's like, I don't want you to go to prison because then I would go to prison. Like we're not separate and we need to overcome that immediately or we're both going to be in prison. Like that yeah that kind of money mentality, like everything bad that happens to you is also happening to me and vice versa.
01:35:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I feel like there's a conversation to be had about society in general with like the two of them being like, Look, when even though you know we're putting ah person some person away, that like that does affect society as a whole in a certain way. But feel like you've got to stretch imagination and that's farther outside this topic than we want to go.
01:36:13
Speaker
We live in a society. it's It's an interesting
Negotiations & Threats
01:36:17
Speaker
thing. One of the most societies of all time. mr Certainly. Sociologically, even. um Yeah.
01:36:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's an interesting thing how even immediately the guilt hits Tristan. yeah. But he goes with the like, I got to stick with it now.
01:36:38
Speaker
And even immediately like trying to confess to somebody and being like, I think I did something terrible. And they're like, no, it's okay. Like your brother died. as You feel responsible. It's normal to blame yourself. And he's like...
01:36:52
Speaker
It did the the discount Yamada over here. Yeah. Oh my God. He can hang with a parahuman trauma. Reaches, psychologist or whatever. No, they have the equivalent of a psychologist. Like we had the equivalent of like the counselors that were chaplains at our Bible college that like had no degree in that bullshit. And we're just like old people that, you know, just had some words of bullshit wisdom to be. lost Because old people. Because you haven't played that play. Would all of us trigger because of all of the like religious trauma? Was that all of our triggers? I never hit. not all um
01:37:33
Speaker
I thrived in it. This is why we started the podcast. You guys don't even know. This was your trigger. i Ellen, you triggered in the right direction. Yeah. You triggered with like separation anxiety. No, I need it.
01:37:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah That's hilarious. Would I be part of the Shepherds? Probably. We're niche. yeah know you know that You know the scene at the end Spider-Man 3 where ah what's his face like jumps back into Venom like as the grenades going off. like Yeah.
01:38:08
Speaker
Back in the mouth. See, I was imagining Alan is like a high ranking member of the Shepherds and he's like when other members get to the high ranks he's like, all right, I got to tell you the secret. None of us believe this shit.
01:38:24
Speaker
It's just a useful paradigm for organizing people. The problem was that I would, you know, it would be more like I'm the one person who takes it seriously and everybody else is like, he's too much. yeahs He believes too hard. He said he doesn't believe it.
01:38:39
Speaker
and It's like, no. It's like, I don't. That's the problem. But I like it. to yeah but i But I like the structure. The utility. yeah But the robes. and the yeah Robes. It's a culture.
01:38:55
Speaker
yeah come on. lost Okay, back to the interlude. We got so much to cover. This whole interlude, to me, as I was reading it, all I could think of is is this is just the telltale brother.
01:39:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I like that, actually. I can hear him. I can hear him beating underneath within my chest. Oh, I was so confused. Me too. Not Telltale, the video game company. Telltale. as That's where my brain went. It's fine. It's fine. your all and b telltale I know what you mean. yeah I know what you mean. You said yeah he's always.
01:39:27
Speaker
I was like, oh, it's Edgar Allen. Got it. Yep. Yeah. I like it. o Man, man. And then it just, it compounds in Tristan's mind because he he can't read Byron's mind, but he can only assume how he would feel if he were in that scenario. And we know how Tristan feels when he's on the inside. And so he's like, now i it's this compounding thing of like, well, I can't let him out because now he would punish me and never let me out again.
01:39:55
Speaker
Yeah. and So it's a it's really interesting, though. I did love the twist where he's like, okay, I've got this plan. I'm going to do this. And then he realizes mid-moment, oh, I've been betrayed because there's this hero who's been hired, who can or you know mercenary who's been hired who can control people.
01:40:11
Speaker
And he finally gets caught and is forced to switch back into Byron. And Byron just comes out yelling. It's just it's such a visceral moment of like, oh, that hurt. like it was just so...
01:40:24
Speaker
So good, but so painful at the same time. Because at first you think he's just like really leaned into the paranoia. Yeah, you think he's super paranoid. Because I was like, so i was like bro, you need to chill out, man. like This is how you get caught. like you get You get into your own head. like Calm down, take a breather, you're fine. And then I was like, oh no, no, he's not fine. he iss not he ah but All the paranoia was valid. Like, whoa, okay, here we go.
01:40:52
Speaker
Yeah. Damn. And you know, it makes sense why Moonsong hates Tristan. Oh, yeah. get it. get it. I would. Same. Yeah. i get it get it you know i would make a e same yeah It makes me wonder if she ever truly ah believed that Byron was dead. Because, you know, when it first happens, she's like, no, you're lying, you know you know, whatever. You killed him. you She's very blaming him, doesn't believe him.
01:41:18
Speaker
And then over the course of the the months, basically, that pass, Tristan says that he kind of builds this relationship with Moonsong where they're like, they hang out, they reminisce, they talk about Byron. Like, was she pretending that whole time? Because, like, I 100%...
01:41:34
Speaker
She was just like, why are you pretending? I think she she probably had that moment where it's like, um I've never seen the show, but because it's a meme, I know where it came from now. The meme of the detective who believes Dexter, who is the only one who knows Dexter is a psychopath.
01:41:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And it's just the meme, all the memes him. can't stand it. it's ah there's this meme of like... Surprise motherfucker. Detective, yes, a surprise motherfucker guy. But he it's just him sitting in the car just like looking out the window pensively thinking.
01:42:04
Speaker
yeah um But he's like... People regard him almost as like a conspiracy theorist because he's like, there's no way Dexter's a bad guy. um And I imagine Moonsong... That's how I imagine Moonsong. Just like sitting in the car watching Tristan. Everybody's like, no, dude, Tristan's not lying. And she's like, no, something's off.
01:42:22
Speaker
Something's wrong about that boy. i love it. That's actually great. I do think all of it is like, um yeah it's very much that. It's all fake. She's just trying to get to know him, see if he'll slip up in his language maybe and be Because, you know, the moment he referred Byron in the present tense instead of the past tense, like he's fucked.
01:42:43
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, not enough to prove anything necessarily, but in the sense for Moonsong of like, okay, he's still in there. We can get him out. Yeah. yeah um Wild.
01:42:53
Speaker
it I don't think it justifies it necessarily, but the extent to which Tristan then went to to protect Byron um and makes a bit more sense, I think.
01:43:05
Speaker
I think so. because Because you're kind of like, why would you hire a hitman to kill you if you don't let your brother out ah enough? Yeah. Yeah. mean, it's a weird kind of an accountability, but it's still some sort of an accountability. Also, what a name for a hitman barcode.
01:43:19
Speaker
That's a great name for a hitman. Because it's not just it's not just the guy either. It's the group is called barcode. Yeah. yes Yeah, yeah. The group's called barcode. definitely brings up, when they talk about fates worth, then death, and like...
01:43:33
Speaker
what they do is some sort of dismemberment, I believe. Um, but, uh, I, and I may have mentioned before that very much feels like genetic repo, the genetic opera where the guy cuts, like comes and collects people, repossesses organs that people have loaned and haven't paid back. The company repossesses organs and they have barcodes on them and they scan them.
01:43:59
Speaker
They're like, yep, that's the right liver. Gotcha. Gotcha.
01:44:05
Speaker
It's crazy. and Love it.
01:44:10
Speaker
One more interlude. Nine-eye. yeah Only other thing is ah we get Citrine again with the number man. i just don know we did yeah let's not Let's not forget this. Let's not just not forget this.
01:44:25
Speaker
So basically they negotiate with Citrine and the number man and they're kind of like I know who you are. like Kind of like, we know who you are. We just want to work together with all the parahumans. And they're like, fair enough. We know you know we know you were part of Cauldron. Give us access to the files.
01:44:42
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. Very cool, though. Maybe some hopeful stuff there for K70s and K53s, too, perhaps. It was pretty cash money of them to let up all that ah info and help along. That was very... Number Man was always chill, let's be honest. Right?
01:44:59
Speaker
Yeah. He was like... Number Man... Flutterhouse 9, little too much. want to chill down, I'm just going to be an evil banker. I was going to say... um yeah And he does that for fun. Like that's, that's his like, I'm going to some money on the side. like Better money and better money, less risk and less homicide. Yeah. I'm down. Exactly. Exactly. He just wanted an office job.
01:45:19
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. He just wanted to be in a cubicle. I saw number man came up recently as well. so Oh yeah. Got married as well. Yeah. He ends the tree and are married.
01:45:31
Speaker
so Oh, I missed that. Oh, funny. Did he take her last name too? I feel like he took her name. I don't remember, but it was talked about before they have matching gold bands in her interlude, I think.
01:45:42
Speaker
ah Yeah. yeah yeah um Her and Kurt. Or in Kurt. Yeah. What and what a dopey name though. i would all Diane Wynn. No, Diane Wynn's the person who wrote um Gene Wynn.
01:45:56
Speaker
Diane Wynn's who wrote Howl's Movie Castle. Yeah. That's funny. Um... So quick side note, just as a fun thing I saw, i on Reddit, I occasionally pop into the ah top character tropes subreddit, which I think is an interesting one. Basically like going through examples of a thing common in media and like whether it's good or bad.
01:46:18
Speaker
One of them was a seemingly inconspicuous power that when applied correctly is actually extremely powerful. And Number Man was in the list because it's like his power is math.
01:46:31
Speaker
But he can literally see the numbers of the world, and it's fantastic. And I, yeah, every time he gets brought up, I'm like, what a great, what a great character. I always go back to when in Back and Worm, very quick scene during the Nilbog, like, fight kind of towards the end of the story.
01:46:47
Speaker
There's that moment where out of a portal, Number Man and Contessa pop out of portal, and both, mind you, both Contessa with perfect... OP power of all time.
01:46:59
Speaker
Both just start like doming people. Through the fog. Through the fog. They can't see through. Contessa can't miss because her power told her she can't miss. Number man is just like the math works.
01:47:11
Speaker
He did the math. The math yeah the math is math. and it did yeah yeah So, you know, whoever knew that math could be so hot. Yeah. That's true. ah His perfectly tailored outfit.
01:47:22
Speaker
yeah he's now here's the thing He's got no collar gap. I don't care. No bunching. Yep. A whole bunch of homewreckers. No pulling at the None that weird crease across the back shoulders. Right.
01:47:34
Speaker
well Do you think he does his own clothes? Oh, yeah. Yes. 100%. one people hundred jeff He knows exactly. hand Handmade. Yeah. wow You know what?
01:47:46
Speaker
Maybe that's why Citrine ended up with him. She just wanted to go from one handmade costume maker to another handmade costume maker. You have a cat on me. That's a tail.
01:47:59
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Now that is a once in a lifetime. Once in a podcast. Yeah. time It's like because you have that black background, it's like the shadows are just coming out and striking She's just below the camera. She's like right down here.
01:48:15
Speaker
but yes. The Duchess. yeah The Duchess. Yeah. it's funny that Very good. Oh yeah. I know I grabbed the camera, where she'd move nine. i I getting into or anything else about what, what I feel like that, that nine Z is sort of a conclusion to, I think what breakthrough has been trying to accomplish when it comes to like, Hey, we've been doing these little spurts where they've proved themselves in the cute hero community and in the greater Cape community, even that like, Hey, we're trying to do something here. We're not just trying to put out fires. We're trying to set up a fire tower to spot fires and start, you know, be able to call down and coordinate watch. Yeah. um
01:49:01
Speaker
You know, for all intents and purposes, they are like centralizing, trying to centralize and coordinate intelligence. So this is a payoff where they've moved up the step where they've gotten the respect of certain teams, coordinating with them.
01:49:18
Speaker
And now we are at kind of one of the biggest informational sections you can get to, which is the mayor of Megalopolis, who is also the spiritual successor to Cauldron.
01:49:31
Speaker
Like, yeah That is a big win in terms of like moving. Oh, pun not intended, but now I think a big win, ah moving up through the, uh,
01:49:44
Speaker
through our like a little chart if we were doing, you know, yeah how we would do with Taylor, we would say, oh, we we conquered the neighborhood, we conquered the city, we're holding Brockton, now we're fighting, you know, the world, you know, and for them, this is moving that pin up the little tracker to be like, and now we've essentially gotten the attention of Megalopolis or, you know, at least the mayor.
01:50:08
Speaker
This is where we're at. This is our win. Yeah. Yeah. And this is confirmation that she won as expected. Right. Um, but that was kind of implied from the meeting with everybody with Gary who left, but the others kind of being like, yeah, okay, you can take the mayorship and we'll just support you.
01:50:25
Speaker
Um, yeah. So, but just confirmation that that did go through as planned as her number man planned. Yeah. Very interesting. Very cool. Um, I going back to the end of it to, um,
01:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, the the connection at the end between Byron and Tristan, I feel like I just have such a deeper respect for Byron, i think. um yeah Obviously, Tristan, I think, has grown as well. And he's showing like, even if it's a bit drastic, he's like, I'm willing to take steps to fix this because I know that I'm... And and just that relationship is such an interesting one.
01:51:01
Speaker
i almost wonder... oh there What is it? There's some character like them, I feel like, in some media where they get an opportunity to split apart, but then they realize they're actually better together and what they do. It's just this vague concept.
01:51:20
Speaker
I almost wonder if that could happen for Byron and Tristan, right? They're getting information about K-70s. Maybe they find a way or Cauldron had some way to try to split them apart um and it succeeds, but they kind of realize like...
01:51:32
Speaker
Positive, we can live our own lives now, which is what we've always wanted. Negative, though, like I kind of miss that unity that we had in a way when we were one person. So, just a theorizing for the future.
01:51:45
Speaker
Yeah. yeah um Nine-Eye now. Nine-Eye, Valkyrie. Let's do it ae Valkyrie and her flock of resurrected parahumans deal with...
01:51:59
Speaker
in no particular order, a world-killing air gun, put down a dog with superpowers, fight some warlords, and locate the people lost during the portal incident.
01:52:12
Speaker
And finally, an unknown bigger threat looms. The person that matters has been found.
01:52:21
Speaker
um um I said, I said she's not dead until I see a goddamn body. We knew. We knew. We knew. We knew. was like, she gone. was like,
01:52:33
Speaker
now she go um like no I love that Valkyrie is also like, although she's not part of Team Breakthrough, she has the same vibe of like, I need my therapist. Yeah.
01:52:44
Speaker
I need to find my therapist. We all need Yamada. I have. We all need Yamada. I was reading, so sometimes I'll read the comments on the chapters on the WordPress, kind of just to see what the vibe is at the time of the chapter releases.
01:52:57
Speaker
And on the chapter scroll, I scrolled down quite a bit. when somebody had the best theory that i hope is true because it'd be great and it's that yamada actually is a cape but her shard is from abaddon the third entity we know about who uh decided that uh it because just conflict isn't working in solving entropy abaddon flipped it oh and is now trying to solve entropy through kindness and love And so Yamada is his first attempt. And yeah, and her power is just that she can bring out the best in everybody.
Valkyrie's Challenges & Ethics
01:53:35
Speaker
That is hilarious. was like, damn it. So a quick backing up. Fran puts out, Nick, to your idea on the... ah talking about splitting up and realizing they're better together.
01:53:47
Speaker
um Fran points out that happened to Hulk and Bruce Banner, Truett, and also Wonderland also pointed out Dragon Tales, which I don't remember. I'm just going to say Sneezy and Wheezy.
01:53:58
Speaker
I do remember that episode. Yeah. um i know And one of them's Wheezy. I don't remember the other name. What is it? Hold on
01:54:07
Speaker
Oh, you're saying the name of the names are wrong. Yeah. Zach and Wheezy. Zach and Wheezy. Zach and Wheezy into Tales Apart because you know two heads are better than one. Yep, yep. They have the episode where they split apart and they end up realizing they'd rather be together. Right. Firestorm, DC hero, same thing.
01:54:23
Speaker
Yep. So yeah, it's a not ah not a unique trope, but done very well. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. um Okay, so Valkyrie, I guess the homunculi plan worked that Nilbog and Bonesaw were working on.
01:54:46
Speaker
i guess. because so Because she's got embodied heroes with her. Yeah. Okay. Embodied guards and others. I was confused if we were just getting her like internal perspective on how she viewed them or if if they were actual physical bodies that were like... Yeah, because there's there's a difference. She refers to them differently. There's the ones where...
01:55:11
Speaker
The flock and the shadows. The flock and the shadows. Yeah, the flock are like the ones who've been brought back permanently yeah through the homunculi bodies that Nobog and Bonesaw made um versus the shadows, which are the ones that she she rotates through and uses their powers.
01:55:26
Speaker
Yeah, okay. yeah Very interesting. And I'm like, wait, so are they... But they're still under her control, it seems. Because, i mean, there's still the shadow, but just with a body. I guess so. And they're just the parahuman part. They're not like the full identity, it seems. They have like emotions and feelings and thoughts, but they're not. Yeah, they have personality.
01:55:51
Speaker
yeah They have personality, but they're not like, oh, my name's Steve. It's like, no, my name is Clairvoyant, you know, or whatever their superhero name would be. yeah Right. um Well, some of them get names like Eidolon's in there, but Eidolon's a shadow. Eidolon's a shadow, though. Yeah. Eidolon's a shadow.
01:56:07
Speaker
Like, is, I believe Cleo's part of the flock. Cleo's part of the flock. And she's like, why did you bring, like, she's asking questions. She's like, why did you bring me? Like, Yeah, yeah. yeah What am I doing here? Oh, man. The air gun thing is crazy, too.
01:56:22
Speaker
oh that was... Wow. So cool. Yeah. Yeah, what a cool scene. just of Just a... I mean, what it wasn't just a rogue Tinker, right? It was like a shard took over a Tinker, kind of Taylor-esque. So I can actually, we can actually talk about this because this is ah later point out. Ten years ago, Wildbow commenting on a, ah hey, pick your classification and rating po and you'll get a random power.
01:56:52
Speaker
ah And somebody said Tinker 15, at me
01:56:59
Speaker
And instead of somebody else replying, Wildbow replied. ah wow. So remember, we normally do a one to 10 in terms of danger scale. 15. Right.
01:57:11
Speaker
You can build anything and you can manifest advanced materials with which to build more, secreting it from your own body. Further, your produced gear upgrades itself over time.
01:57:24
Speaker
However, this comes at a cost. Your volition is gone. The shard is in full control. And in the course of its building frenzies, you're a mind trapped in a body that has been altered to a cyborg state.
01:57:38
Speaker
Every limb and joint bending painfully in the wrong directions as you scurry and lurch this way and that. vomiting up materials that tear up your throat and mouth and knock teeth loose.
01:57:50
Speaker
And we're feeling red hot agony as ceramics and hyper specialized alloys thrust themselves out of your body and spears and slabs because the shard doesn't know how to take care of a human body.
01:58:02
Speaker
You fester maggots eat dying flesh. You starve and the solutions, the shard devises and tinkers to sustain its host only barely keep you sustained.
01:58:14
Speaker
hauling you back into existence when your body or mind start to give. If it needs you sane for the occasional reference, so it drugs you to do just that. Your waking existence is forever dying and slowly going mad, but never quite getting that release filled with dread for those moments that are absolute torture where the shard produces materials and Your sleeping existence is worse because you get a sense of how the shard thinks and of why things are the way they are.
01:58:44
Speaker
You were a threat to Sion. His path to victory figured that out. So he took you out of play in the most efficient way possible by destroying you and making you ah tool against humanity.
01:58:58
Speaker
Yeah. And thats many years later, ah that would get essentially built into the story. In fact, my favorite is that ah ah it's like there is a one that's two years from here, two years ago, that just says, yeah, what do you think about that now?
01:59:22
Speaker
That's so crazy. and But she notes that it's not... Sion's shard, right? That it's um it's not. Eden's shard. It's something else. Eden's shard.
01:59:34
Speaker
It's not broken. Right. It's just, it it is very close to what Glastig was. Yeah. um Just even more so. Hyperactive, you might say.
01:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, where it's very little of the person there, very much of the the shard being the thing. All I could think about is when... Go ahead, Nick. It is really cool.
01:59:59
Speaker
I was just going to say, I get the vibe after Valkyrie kills him and takes his shadow. He's like, oh, thank God. Yeah, right? Yeah. For real, though. Oh, thank fuck I'm dead. Yeah. Yeah. yeah ah When that chapter opened, I think just was thinking, like what kind of weird you know Final Fantasy DLC did she find herself in? Like this endless tower.
02:00:24
Speaker
What in the name of Baroque, the Wii RPG, are we on? 32 miles of enemies. How high can you go?
02:00:36
Speaker
yeah exactly. What in the name of ho Pokemon Colosseum 100 Battle did we just step into? Yeah, the concept is just like, so how ah how does it work? It's like, well, it takes the atmosphere and shoots it into space.
02:00:51
Speaker
Yeah. just It's like, what is it shooting at? And it's like, it no, don't worry about that. It's not, it's not that's not the part that's not the problem. Yeah, it's just getting rid of it' not the edge that. It's the fact that it's sucking it up and we have no atmosphere is the is the point.
02:01:09
Speaker
It's more of a vacuum generator than it is a gun. You know, like if you were in space,
02:01:16
Speaker
except magnified you know how the earth is a ball floating in space but we have like a little you know a little sheen over us what if that was gone sheen what if there was we got a little little glossy you know I had a dream about that one time actually um um may I mean I can explain the dream did you make it Nick Oh, no, we all died.
02:01:38
Speaker
Everybody died. Oh, great. was Basically, we were all like... It was actually... I think you guys were there, too, and a bunch of other... No, don't put me there. um But we were it it was a nighttime, and we were like outside looking at the stars, and it was like sort of like we see this glass-shattering effect in the sky. And we're like, oh that's the atmosphere falling. And so we all decide last as long as possible. we are going to lay down on the grass and watch the atmosphere fall on us, and then we'll die.
02:02:07
Speaker
You know what? and i If I was going to die with you guys, dream ah that be a good way to do it. is this before or after the time that all of us hung out around a campfire looking out This was only a few months ago. This was more recently. recently.
02:02:25
Speaker
All right. Okay. Just to be sure. okay yeah um God smote my brain after that night with a horrible dreams. ah He was like... Blaspheme.
02:02:37
Speaker
but
02:02:40
Speaker
But she solos it. And then she moves on. like We're just getting... could She goes from that to the... With all of her solo summons. It's Dark Souls, but you're just summoning.
02:02:51
Speaker
It's literally solo leveling. It's just... yeah yeah Just getting stronger and stronger. And then, yeah, they're just like... They send her on everything that they can't do or can't be focused on right now.
02:03:05
Speaker
She's just got to do it all. Until there's literally nothing else to do. As a yeah a love, death, and robots where you start as Cleo being summoned.
02:03:18
Speaker
And then she's asked the question, why am I there? And she's like, don't worry about it. It's all fighting. She's getting dragged on the platform. You know, she's just there freaking out. Like, why am I here? And then ultimately you get to the guy and she's like, kill him.
02:03:33
Speaker
She's like what? She's like, that's why you're here. Takes the knife, throws it, and the poison... licks it and poison moves super fast. So, and that's what kills him. And that's the whole reason she's there.
02:03:45
Speaker
And, you know, seeing it from her perspective, essentially, would be a great, uh, oh, hello boy. are you really cool i have a void. Yeah. boy Oh man. The, the dog one was sad. Yeah.
02:03:59
Speaker
Oh, that one was a little sad. The broken trigger that latched onto a dog instead of a human. Oh, right. Right. Real quick. On the count of three, ah say who you think was most likely to be affected by that story.
02:04:15
Speaker
One, two, three. Jacob. Jacob. Oh, yes. Oh. I mean, it was correct. It was me. Jacob. Oh, yeah. Jacob is the dog person. I was sad, but I didn't cry.
02:04:28
Speaker
I didn't cry, but that was because I was reading this at work and crying saddled out on the for on company time. Yeah. No, that was rough, though. That was ah thought. i really liked ah her conversation with ah Chevalier during that or right afterwards being like,
02:04:47
Speaker
Yeah. You don't think that this would have been a fun thing. He's like, I wouldn't. Yeah. He's like, I know, but like, you might've, you know, it was like, just imagine a ah creature, you know, not as intelligent or sentient as a human being.
02:05:02
Speaker
With a shard. It was like, this isn't super dog. You were getting yeah mindless beast, you know? Yeah. yeah and And he's, and it's just like, that's the thing is, is see, I'm feeling more emotional and talking about it now than I was when I was reading it. But like, like the doc doesn't know what's going on. Like,
02:05:22
Speaker
He's just being a dog and happens to have stuff going on inside of him that he doesn't understand. And he's hurting people and he doesn't mean to. And he's just a dog. I
02:05:35
Speaker
i i respect the Wild Bo answered that question because I feel like it's one of those lingering questions people probably had. Like, what if a shard just didn't attach to a human and attach to an animal?
02:05:46
Speaker
You know? And... and It was well written in that it was ah was respectful. ah Valkyrie put the dog to sleep first and then painlessly killed it.
02:05:59
Speaker
Like it was very, ah it was, if you're going to kill a dog. which Yeah, it was a good way to do it. yeah I would have preferred a cat. If you're going to kill a dog.
02:06:10
Speaker
If you're going to kill a dog. Lilo's fine with killing babies, but dogs, it's very humane. yeah Yeah, yeah, exactly. and Babies is just, yeah, two shots to the back of the head. who Who? I'm sorry.
02:06:27
Speaker
Listen, I still am upset about the whole Astor situation, so it's fine. Yeah. Whatever. Also, I feel like we hope we're joking.
02:06:39
Speaker
Like, that wasn't a good thing. We'll just always remind ourselves of that. Like, that was a ah bad thing. That was bad Taylor choice that happened that day. It turns out Aster was not the problem.
02:06:52
Speaker
Taylor. No. You guessed wrong. yeah ah You guessed very wrong. yes It's good that our new listener is no longer listening because he would not understand.
02:07:04
Speaker
no It's okay. It's like our core three people. i i respect anyone who wants to jump in and is curious about about this because everybody should read it, obviously.
02:07:15
Speaker
But jumping in ah third of the way through Ward is a rough introduction to this story. and I'm sorry. that they would not recommend that to anybody. Yeah. Worm is great. Read the first eight arcs. If you're not hooked by the end of arc eight of Worm, you're not probably going to like this like the books. And if you're locked in like we all were, then you're going to great time or until you don't have a great time.
02:07:39
Speaker
Yeah. and We have the podcast as a companion listening piece. Exactly. There you go. um Yeah. With Nine, i I also liked her brief conversation with Crystal.
02:07:53
Speaker
the the line that got me is the you can't just call them creepy when they're Valkyrie, Crystal. Oh, just stole a soul, gonna interrogate it. Nothing wrong about that. i love Crystal's brazenness.
02:08:05
Speaker
Yeah. yeah like baile She can hear you. Oh, shit.
02:08:12
Speaker
That's great. I love I do love to Valkyrie's like I've had at least one of these conversations every day for the past few months. Different points, different particulars. I have people telling me to take time off, but this, this is what wearies me.
02:08:26
Speaker
It's like, but Valkyrie, let's talk about the ethics of your power. And she's just like, ah it's again, give me a mission. but me do do something. Yeah.
02:08:39
Speaker
Let me go fight a warlord. trying to do something. I'm trying to do something. I'm trying to do something. Let's also, like, it's implied that, like, oh, wow, it took her a whole week to find the survivors, but she scanned the multiverse in a week and found them.
02:08:58
Speaker
It got, you know, just not too shabby. Yeah, well done. 55 thinkers, masters, brutes,
02:09:08
Speaker
the
02:09:11
Speaker
ok cleo I did love i did love um the the thing with Crystal too. is She's like, Crystal's my name, not my cape name. yeah Why would you pick that name? You'd judge my Valkyrie name.
02:09:25
Speaker
yeah ah wow I was born with it. He's like, um... Immediately after they're like, yeah yes, that's right. Good job, Laser Dream.
02:09:36
Speaker
yeah Yeah, Legend. I forgot that was her name. It was so weird. I was like, oh, yeah. Laser Dream. It's not a good name. It's not a good name. I feel Laser Dream fits with these costume-based sweatshirts so well. feels Here's the thing.
02:09:51
Speaker
ah Laser Dream, to me, it's it's on Crystal, who's a young woman, was a teenager, and now a young adult woman. but it feels like a name a hero from the 80s would have. Yes, and that's why it's amazing.
02:10:05
Speaker
It's true. A little retro. and the good 80s. No, what do you mean not the good 80s? It was all good 80s. I wasn't there for it. It was all synth and we slam. None of us were there for it. Come We say as a generation that missed it.
02:10:22
Speaker
You preferred something last Nightmare? blast nightmare instead of laser dream maybe shooty laser pew pew yeah do you yeah what the lisbo pew nightmare Yeah, I'm trying to think of like a good like gen alpha brain rot one. Oh no, please no. Just beam, beam, beam. That would be the name.
02:10:51
Speaker
Beam, beam. Yeah, beam, beam, beam. But it's Travis Scott's 4x4. Yeah, I see it. We're working. it's yeah travis scott's four by four hey yeah yeah i see it yeah they're we're working at be um We're fading, guys.
02:11:06
Speaker
Yeah. yeah i think I think we're good. i think i don't have anything else to say about Valkyrie. I'm just glad. I'm glad we got her interlude. that was That was needed. glad we got her interlude. I'm glad Yamada is alive. Yamada's alive. And there's bigger threat looming in the horizon, but we kind of knew that. and There's like five at least. I know. All right.
02:11:28
Speaker
There's always at least one. Well, let's ask the question. What is the bigger threat? Right. It's not the airspace gun. I know. I like that they at the start of the interlude, I was like, oh this is the big thing everyone's got to be worried about. Oh, no no, never mind. She got it.
02:11:46
Speaker
Because the fact that you it was all of the stuff out of that world and then transfer worlds. Right. That's, yeah. was like, ah, okay. I thought it might have been originally that it was the computers, the robots. Machine army.
02:11:59
Speaker
Machine army, yeah. Yeah, machine army. Was like, well, we don't need... we don't need air to function true I am all human I'm curious what the simmer egg is up to simmer because ah she gets a drop and people are like she's kind of acting up and the Eidolon shadow is like yeah oh um the the excuse me for a moment yeah Yeah, exactly. Michael, cue it up.
02:12:32
Speaker
Excuse me a second. Allow me a moment to compose myself. Yeah. yeah And so having having the Simriff name dropped makes me wonder, are we going to find out that the Simriff has been like masterminding all of these pieces? Yeah.
02:12:52
Speaker
Mm-hmm. She's been pushing Teacher to do certain things. She's been pushing the Machine Army to do certain things. She pushed to God... ah like Not in obvious ways, but in... Because we've talked about like the Simriff has this disaster aura, and people who are around her for too long tend to kind of go crazy. Yeah.
02:13:12
Speaker
Who was the biggest fighter at Gold Morning that Taylor took over? It was the Simurf. Well, she didn't take over the Simurf, but she was there. She was there exposed to everybody. Everybody exposed to every cape touched by the Simurf's danger aura, disaster aura. so I feel like that's a possibility is my conspiracy theory is that the Simurf is the main antagonist and is behind everything.
02:13:37
Speaker
I like it. You know, I'm not upset with that at all because I love the Simmer. My favorite one, actually. Most fuckable Endbringer right after Behemoth.
02:13:48
Speaker
After Behemoth, yeah. That's not what I said, Nick. We'll debate that. God damn it. We debated that. Not what I said. We'll put a post and like we'll put a poll. A poll. In the Discord. I'm disagreeing with you, Hannah. I'm just repeating what you said in different words.
02:14:02
Speaker
i Look, and you might be right, but that's not what I said. I knew it you yeah cha brings up yeah what meant. Chat brings up a fun question ah that we can ask.
02:14:14
Speaker
if we want to Are we done with the ah big... I'll throw out yeah my quick my quick big... Only because... i actually don't think this is it, but I do think it was an odd throwaway line that was tossed out at the end of the chapter of the interlude. It was... um ah there was ah There was a mention of other entities, and it was like, no no no, no, no, don't worry. When the entities, yeah, Valkyrie's like, when the entities claim like a ah world or reality, they put a little thing so that no other entities mess with it.
02:14:44
Speaker
I was like, interesting to bring that up. It feels really not relevant to anything. Why do you bring this up? So it's just in my mind. It could just be Wild Bo reminding people to like, no, don't think like that. But then of course now I'm thinking like that. So yeah. that's it Right. oh no think like that We will see.
02:15:04
Speaker
Wild Bo, when you say, don't think about a giant elephant space worm, that's all I can think about. All got. Yeah. Giant shard elephant. Yes. Yeah. Sharding all over the space.
02:15:15
Speaker
You're right. It leaves a little skid trail in space to other know that it's already sharded there. line Yeah. Yeah. It's just a skid mark. It's the token girl on this podcast.
02:15:28
Speaker
Please no. bla Anyway, what does ah what does chat say, Alan? Chat was asking, is there anybody that ah could be any familiar names or faces in, ah maybe not the flock, but in the shadows?
02:15:43
Speaker
um Or later on the flock that you'd like to see? got a few shadows here. ah shadows I mean, we know about Clockblocker being a big one.
02:15:56
Speaker
And then did she did she grab the she grabbed grew? I think she was there at the oil rig. She did. when She was there. that's where She got Clockblocker.
02:16:08
Speaker
Right. It was the same you might same thing. I don't think she ever was Clockblocker died at the oil rig. yeah Yeah. I'm pretty sure he was the one that like held. Yes. And then they gave him enough time to like jump off kind of. Oh.
02:16:22
Speaker
Yeah. is Because he dies specifically, I think, kind of jumping in the way of. Yep. Like sort of by Taylor. Yeah. I'm sad again. Yeah.
02:16:35
Speaker
I don't think the Gru one was a thing, though. Okay. and yeah i don't I don't know. I feel like... This was the whole debate. You're right. Gru didn't die there because he's on a farm that Tattletail clearly told us all about. He's very much alive and he sleeps on a rainbow hammock full of dreams. God damn it!
02:16:56
Speaker
Listen! He's right there where Valkyrie dropped off the dog with the shard so that they can play together. Yep. It's all fine. So... Okay. oh it's all fun so okay i ah use my own sound this time instead of letting it be used against me. yeah i mean, she's got to have a few other people. She's got Eidolon. She's got Eidolon. I remember she was almost, she was hanging around the the fucking death zone around Scion just picking up bodies. so yeah
02:17:32
Speaker
Pretty much anybody that died in the big gold mourning fights is probably with her. do love I was just going to say, I love some of the names. She might, no, I don't know that she had Doormaker.
02:17:46
Speaker
She was under Taylor's control when Doormaker died, I think. So I'm not that she have known to ahead. No, no, no. I think she does have Doormaker because he died, remember? Because he was like, basically died of heart does go around really fast, though. Maybe she does have Doormaker. We took him over, and then I think that's how they kept the, they were able to keep portals open that fight was because of her.
02:18:08
Speaker
Was it not? Oh, you might be. You're right. I think you're right, actually. They did the three-man deep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. i gotta i want to go back and look at it. I think you're right, though. Yeah, also, J-Man, watch for spoilers.
02:18:21
Speaker
Tease and chat. Yeah, tease and chat. um I do like, I will say I really like some of the names of the people she has with her. She's got Volt Rage and Zapator.
02:18:33
Speaker
Zapator, which I love. Yeah, great. And then with the dog scene, she pulls out somebody called Machinavelli. ah Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's probably, it's supposed to be like Machine and Machiavelli, so oh it could either be Machinavelli or something like that. But however you pronounce it, visually, it looks really cool.
02:18:56
Speaker
Machinavelli or Machinavelli. um Great name. Both very cool. um And then, yeah, I also like seeing more of Chevalier being the leader. Always.
02:19:08
Speaker
Yeah. you know I find it funny. Legend is like just there and he's like, I'm happy to help you, Chevalier. tell me where I need to go. I just don't want to be in charge anymore. yeah Tell me what to do. yeah good Good boy, Legend. Too pure for this world.
02:19:23
Speaker
For real? Fran...
02:19:29
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if that's spoiler or not, so maybe we just... Leave that be. Oh, goodness. a lot of stuff happening right now. yeah It's a lot of speculation. J-Man, don't worry about too much about it. I appreciate the info.
02:19:41
Speaker
it was all and It's all speculation and some of it's jokes, but some of it gives away stuff even though it's joke. ah Yeah, I can't tell. and um for um and I looked it up. I try to. so Just know that everyone agreed that that Gru is alive on the farm immediately, even before we said it.
02:20:02
Speaker
Yeah. This is why I love you guys. This is why you're my favorites. This why you're- No. Now he's with a big-breasted rogue bimbo. Yeah. Whoa, whoa. Yeah, the red girl.
02:20:15
Speaker
She wasn't a rogue. ah Like d in in terms of D&D classes. Yes, yes, yes. Panda, red panda. The coven, the red, red, red circle, red house the square the red the red. Taylor was super judgy about because. Yeah, because it was all valid. it No, it wasn't.
02:20:38
Speaker
Coven was great. um my mom right um I hope she made him happy.
Favorite Powers & Character Survival
02:20:44
Speaker
when they died. I mean, when they went to the farm. Yeah, when they died. um All right. ah Last question.
02:20:53
Speaker
Powers, as per usual. It's blindside. It's blindside is one of the top ones for me always. um I mean, I love Valkyrie's flock and I love that now she has physical bodies for them.
02:21:05
Speaker
But blindside's power is just the simple power that when applied correctly does something really cool in his power is or their power is just one of those that really hits hits differently i like that creates such interesting writing scenarios so yeah
02:21:24
Speaker
yeah that's tough uh yeah i like the i like the the simple power that uh is really creative really fun to use um ah ah Freaking... Not the chemist. What was your name?
02:21:40
Speaker
Pharmacist. Pharmacist. Thank you. Pharmacist was pretty cool too. The tag team of of the pharmacist and lung fighting was really dynamic. Enjoyed reading that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
02:21:50
Speaker
and The pharmacist power is cool because... in particular of just going back, we didn't talk about it much, but how it interacts with Victoria's flight and how it follows her flight because it burns hours. It's like a chemtrail. It's It's weird. It's so cool, though. It's very unique.
02:22:09
Speaker
I don it really like that. Yeah, very cool. Most words... yeah and again but well i was excited think bye mine I was going to say my favorite is a Volt Rage because he just sits there, puts up the... I mean, it's just... It's a classic power.
02:22:25
Speaker
You put up the thing, you collect all the bullets and the electricity, and then you just shoot it all back. I love it. Yeah, right. yeah ah so you know Who doesn't love that? um And also, as somebody pointed out, you know with Kozen, Kozen survived because she's there at the meetup.
02:22:45
Speaker
Cozy-cozy. Yeah. um put Because she meets up with the Undersiders at the end. He does, right? there Which means Gru must have also survived because they were in the cabin together. Obviously. exactly Exactly. He's just retired.
02:22:56
Speaker
What was your favorite power hand? He was very retired at the time. um I was saying Lung. um i i i Anytime we get to see Lung again is so great. I like seeing him at his full capacity with the full...
02:23:11
Speaker
mouth
Chris's Choices & Friendships
02:23:12
Speaker
and the wings and it's just when he's full dragon mode it's great also just like ah we got so attached to him and in worms so anytime he's back I'm like yeah yes always always um and last now that we've had Chris betray the team yeah supposedly Supposedly.
02:23:37
Speaker
Yeah. He's not dead until I see a body. Waiting on the interlude. not dead to me until I i see body. How are we feeling about ah feeling about him and his...
02:23:50
Speaker
and the the Who who do we do we still think that... Who's most whos the most troublesome member? Listen, until proven otherwise, I'm sticking with Victoria, so... Yeah. I...
02:24:04
Speaker
yeah i
02:24:08
Speaker
Until proven otherwise. i'm so I'm still kind of stuck on Chris. I don't think he's gone yet. i don't think we we're going to lose him. Did he leave with an end Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. But we haven't gotten his backstory.
02:24:21
Speaker
We haven't gotten more insight into his power. And I feel like we're going to get it. We just have to wait for the payoff. So. Yeah. I mean, we're just we're waiting on the interlude. Right. So.
02:24:32
Speaker
ah Yeah. He's the only interlude we haven't gotten from the core. Yeah. Group. So obviously that's going to be a good one. Sveta. Oh, yeah, we haven't got oh we haven't gotten Sveta's. Yeah, but we also kind of already. We know her from Worm, so it's a little bit less proof. But sure, I do i do want a Sveta interlude.
02:24:50
Speaker
I wouldn't mind That would be great. Yeah. um Let me see. ah I thought I had just sitting here thinking about it. I like, um we know that Chris's power really sucks kind of sometimes.
02:25:02
Speaker
And I wonder if he, in a very selfish motive, was just like, I just go with Amy because like she can just kind of fix my power. Yeah. like if i have some I take some experimenting, but she might be able to fix the negative side effects. And then I just have the, you know, my yeah power to just shape shift.
02:25:23
Speaker
Exactly. Right. He's talked about expelling body parts and things that he's had to get rid of when his bodies fall apart. So I'm like, Makes sense to go with the the flesh crafter who can hopefully make that less painful. Like I get that.
02:25:37
Speaker
just sucks if she's the worst person in the multiverse. Yeah. Yeah. All right. On that note, one last thing from chat. As Fran pointed out, remember that one young prisoner that saw Victoria's gold warning badge and decided to listen to her just because she respected the capes that took part in that?
02:25:53
Speaker
That was pretty cool. um That was cool. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a good little callback there. um And as Fran also points out... those good respect. If we were talking about, ah you know, you have to make a choice when it comes to Chris if he did go over because of Amy.
02:26:10
Speaker
Is it better to have friends or free healthcare? A problem that a lot of us struggle with today, ah except we don't get a choice. You get to have friends. um So.
02:26:23
Speaker
Friends and a weird pain in my leg that I try not to think about. Yes, but that's why you have friends. Tell me forget about the pain. Exactly. Exactly. um Anyway, ah you're welcome for the very milky episode ah tonight. um We really milked this arc, you might say. we Really? I'm glad we could froth it up with the best.
02:26:45
Speaker
Isn't there actually over here one of the one of ah Valkyrie's people was named Milk?
02:26:52
Speaker
I hope so. I hope so. Am I remembering that correctly? And we totally meant to bring it all the way back around. I'm going to find that. i'm goingnna I'm going to choose to spiritually believe that that is true.
02:27:06
Speaker
And that's why we were all on the milk hype tonight. Gosh. gosh I know somebody else pointed out way back in the day. is he
Humor, Camaraderie, & Future Plans
02:27:15
Speaker
hannah Hannah's got milk on the brain.
02:27:17
Speaker
but's Just like the rest of us. And as somebody pointed out way back in the beginning, Michael Jordan, famous basketball player, also very famous for drinking a lot of milk.
02:27:28
Speaker
and I drink a lot of milk. was that got milk era. you know right I'm that got meal milk era. but This is a full circle. Yeah. ah This is where we've come.
02:27:41
Speaker
This is where we've come. This is where we've come. This where we've kingdom come. This is where we've kingdom come. yeah What's wrong with you, in My mind, your mind. I love sometimes in moments in the podcast where I, even though it's whoa even though it's one one web camera, I can like look through it and I feel like Michael and I make eye contact. both just go...
02:28:09
Speaker
It's true. Every episode. And I'm like, it's up to one of us. Yeah. One of us. Yeah. Every episode. Okay. Thank you guys so much. We'll work on those Got Milk Ward shirts.
02:28:21
Speaker
um No, we won't. We might. And let's see. It's two weeks. That'll be the 28th. 28th. All right. right And we will be reading now that I have this up.
02:28:32
Speaker
We just finished a... third almost 140,000 word arc. We did the back half, which was, I think, a little bit shy of 70,000.
02:28:44
Speaker
It was like 60,000 maybe for that one. ah We're going to be doing 10, arc 10 polarized. We're only going to do 50,000. So a little bit less, but we'll cut it in half again ah because it's a lot of chapters.
02:28:57
Speaker
Actually, most of the arcs from now on, I think, are going to be around 100,000. ah hundred thousand So... um but's over those um So we're just going to probably be doing two splitting all of them into the two.
02:29:12
Speaker
So ah that'll be 10.1 we'll just say 10.9. think is a good spot. ah It's slightly bigger on the front half than the back half.
02:29:24
Speaker
ah The second half will have all the interludes. 10.1 to 10.9. 10.1 to 10.9. nine anyone Did anyone get a bingo? we had a smaller bingo this time and I accidentally put in Jessica Hype twice.
02:29:37
Speaker
I got a bingo. i had Alan Rantz, Cat on Screen, Jessica Hype. ah The other ones were, of course, the usual Nick Ghostful Teacher. Someone cries other than Hannah, which my guess was Jacob. Hannah cries and ah Jacob does TV movie comparison.
02:29:51
Speaker
so ah like No milk on the bingo. have bingo this week. yeah Yeah, you know what? It'll be on the next one. Milk on the bingo for next time. No, no because you make the bingo and you're going to bring it up.
02:30:06
Speaker
Not allowed. Whoa, we don't know. We don't know that. No, no, no. Stop, stop, stop. Cover it now. Put that away. and put that away no I hate you all. i feel like yes I feel like, at least for me, me going full teacher should just at this point be replaced with nick's make Nick makes an inappropriate joke that makes Hannah roll her eyes.
02:30:31
Speaker
just Something to that effect. yeah Literally like every time we hang out, Nick. It's one of my favorite things. I roll my eyes, but I'm dying laughing because your jokes are funny.
02:30:42
Speaker
Alan makes a joke and I'm like, I'm going to kill him later. it's It's spousal privilege. Krista feels the same way. My wife feels the same way about me. I don't know what you're talking about. This is comedy But does Crystal laugh at Alan's jokes?
02:30:56
Speaker
That's the real question. No. Probably not, actually. No. There you go. yeah ah The litmus test. All right. All right. Okay. All right. We've got a song. I'm going to play It's been fun. You guys are the best. It's song.
02:31:09
Speaker
Join the Patreon. Please come on in. Join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon? Come support us and join the Patreon. Please help us and join the Patreon.
02:31:33
Speaker
I hate that you only see me every two weeks. Join the Patreon so we can be together forever.
02:31:45
Speaker
Hey, you guys are the best. The best. We'll see you on the twenty eight Thanks for all your chatting and we'll see you soon.
02:31:58
Speaker
Thank you.