Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 10.1 - 10.9 - Polarize
66 Plays1 month ago
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
-----------------------------------
The Brockton Bay Book Club discusses J.C. McCrae's Ward live! The gang reads a portion of Ward and comes together to share our thoughts with each other and anyone who want's to participate.
This week we cover Arc 10.1 - 10.9 - Polarize!
Read along here
Play along with this week's BBBC BINGO while you listen!
Support us and connect with us @brocktonbaybc
-----------------------------------
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
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Book Club
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome, welcome to the Brockton Bay Book Club. Again, for another hot Tuesday night, we are raining out. It is cold. It is dreary. We are lonely in the library.
00:00:15
Speaker
Shootings all around. I've got my podcast juice. Are you ready? Are you ready shoot Yes. and Welcome to Brockton Bay Book Club. We are a group of friends that have decided to go through ah Wild Bo's Ward um by JC McRae.
00:00:36
Speaker
um Web serial for superpowers is a sequel to Web Serial Worm. If for some reason you've never, ever read it before, you really should, and because that's what we'll be talking about tonight.
00:00:47
Speaker
And yeah we're profound we are reading arc 10.1 through 10.9, splitting it up because it's a big, hefty, hefty arc. I believe it is about 50,000 words for the section we are reading.
Community Engagement and Patreon Benefits
00:01:00
Speaker
um As always, ah you should subscribe to our Patreon. And i i you may ask, what do you get on our Patreon? First, you get a Chai tutorial video, which I just posted about 20 seconds before this went live.
00:01:14
Speaker
um And I made about 20 seconds before that. ah and other things you get, exclusive video content um that might actually be interesting to you. um And on top of all that, you get to ah do bingo with us.
00:01:31
Speaker
um We have a bingo sheet that we post. That's in the link just below and you can contribute to that as a Patreon member ah to help us figure out what we are going to play bingo with ah this week on the podcast.
00:01:43
Speaker
Like I said, for those of you aren't patrons, link in the description. You can go ahead, sign up for Patreon or just play bingo with us now live. We got bonus content. We've got a Discord. and Oh my gosh, we've got a Discord.
00:01:56
Speaker
That's true. Come hang out. how much Yeah, look, one of my one of our Patreons just said, mmm, chai. You're gosh darn right. yeah That could be you. Ah, so tasty. It's a tasty treat.
00:02:08
Speaker
Good podcast juice. All right, well, um as usual, no spoilers in chat. If we do, I want to see lots of TTs for Tattletales. um Let's see. ah But I think we're ready to go. We're pretty quick to the draw. So, starting off... Oh, I forgot to introduce everybody. How dare There you go. Who are we? who Who are we? I'm unreasonably warm since taking this drink of chai, which is great because it's rainy as hell out.
00:02:37
Speaker
You have any alcohol in your chai? Just asking for a friend. No, run podcast juice. I run on the patrons. Their energy gives me energy.
00:02:48
Speaker
It's like the Hong Moon or whatever from K-pop Demon Slayers. I'm that giant fiery thing and like I'm just being fed souls. That's how this works. And the more souls that feed me, the more wild I get.
00:03:01
Speaker
See, I was thinking and it might be like an energy vampire thing. Like a... Yeah, I mean... In a sense, but... In a sense, yeah.
Co-host Introductions and Arc 10 Critique
00:03:12
Speaker
Don't give them ideas. Anyway, speaking of ideas, the people with the big ideas here that we'll be talking about, my other co-hosts, we have Hannah.
00:03:23
Speaker
Hello. Jacob. Hello. Nick. Hello there. Our seducer slash producer, Michael. Heyo. And of course, I'm hot on the mic, Alan, with my cup of chai.
00:03:38
Speaker
Welcome. So let's get into it. or What did y'all think overall about the first half of this arc?
00:03:48
Speaker
The issue with, and obviously we knew it' was going to be the case, the issue with splitting the arcs up is that we it it we don't get the resolution of what the little arc is building to, which was a lot easier in Wyrm because the arcs were a bit shorter and am more condensed. yeah kind of You could build the whole little story together, and now he's doing 100-plus thousand word arcs, and so we just kind of lose that.
00:04:11
Speaker
Not really a critique. It's just sort of hard to like... i you know've We finished 0.9 and it's like, oh, but i there's there's so much more coming right around the corner. and and Just a slight spoilers, but the next one is an interlude too.
00:04:26
Speaker
ah Yeah, great. Yeah, we didn't get any interludes this time. Yeah, no interludes. i will get I don't think I realize how much i miss a good interlude. I was actually just reading a totally different book and it had interludes from the perspective of other characters in the book. And I was like, oh, this is amazing. I i love this. Like Wild Bill did it first, but well, I mean, I don't know, but I love i love that. And so doing this read it through without one was kind of weird.
00:04:52
Speaker
and really like I'll tell you right now, ah there is, on top of the running word count by chapter, ah put together by username thewhitesquirrel on Reddit, ah which is what I use for my word count thing, they also did an entire subsection for word count by viewpoint.
00:05:10
Speaker
All of the characters who get a viewpoint, including and marked whether they get a full interlude chapter or not. And then totals them all together. There are just in interludes, 565,549 words of just interludes in this.
00:05:29
Speaker
Wow. And then it literally does it by character. That's impressive. Yeah. um what ah What a project. Well done to that person. um Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah. but a Wow. um Yeah, i'd I'd agree with that, what Jacob said. Not only is it not... the interludes are nice to sort of break up the monotony and as well as like he said, i feel the the rise in the conflict and we're like at the tipping point, but we don't quite get to see the resolution of where it's headed.
00:06:00
Speaker
um It's sort of like, you know, the whole pacing of the book is kind of like a roller coaster, but... We're just on the upward climb part of the roller coaster, and so we don't quite get the the the fun part, the drop at the end of like, oh, that's what this was all leading to. Nice. That was great.
00:06:18
Speaker
We're just kind of in the and the steady climb. But there's some great moments along the way. um I think there's some funny moments more than anything, um and obviously some very great reunions of characters that i we like seeing again.
00:06:31
Speaker
um So I'm happy to see... happy to see how everything will work out.
00:06:40
Speaker
I like anytime there's downtime. Anytime we're vibing is so much fun. And the interpersonal relationships between ah characters of this team is really fun for me. And I really like that. So the beginning part, especially the first half half of this arc,
00:07:02
Speaker
The first half of the first half of this arc, I really enjoyed. I felt was really fun. I i did feel a little lost once we got it into some of the tape work, ah as it were, just feeling like I ah wasn't 100% sure why we're doing what we're doing like, okay, all right. So yeah, I think without the ah rest of this arc, it feels a little...
00:07:30
Speaker
Not again, not empty. i actually really did enjoy this arc. This is making it sound like I didn't. I'm just a little low energy today, but like I ah just, i'm I'm excited to read the second half of the arc, I guess I shall say. It's just like, I'm looking forward to what the re resolution is, what some of the thought process is behind some choices that were made or like what the team is trying to do and like what what the end result is going to end up being. Like, this is a lot of setup.
00:07:58
Speaker
I'm ready for the payout.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, very much so.
00:08:05
Speaker
All right. Any other thoughts before we move
Complex Family Dynamics in Ward
00:08:08
Speaker
in? Let's get it. All right. now i for one, really enjoyed a lot of a lot of this arc. I agree that like you know it's a lot of setup to what we don't know.
00:08:20
Speaker
And this is one of those things where I think would be really interesting to... i mean kind of difficult, but go literally chapter by chapter how they were released over two years. You know, and that that would require us to be like meeting like Tuesday, Thursday, you know, for like 30 minutes at a time to talk about, you know, every single chapter or something.
00:08:40
Speaker
um which would certainly be an interesting way. And I'm curious for any patrons, ah if they have any insight on how they felt reading chapter by chapter upon release, if they have any thoughts on that, either, you you know, say it live, or if you have more thought out, you know, ideas, ah writing that to us um in our Patreon discord, that would be helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Either or. um Or below the video And it was certainly a different experience.
00:09:16
Speaker
um So, yeah, call it the Brockton bits. That actually, and not a terrible idea. emletic That's good. That's good. No, I haven't read, i never read this when it was coming out, but i've I've read as a serial, like I used to, used to be into reading Naruto and I was reading Shippuden as it was coming out. So every Friday it'd be like new chapter uploaded.
00:09:40
Speaker
And it was kind of the opposite problem where there's like manga takes so long to create that there's a dearth of content. and It's like you wait a week for 15 pages at most. Yeah. And they're like, no, we're still in the middle of the same fight scene.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah. so So it's it's an interesting experience. I imagine it would have been interesting with this too. I almost think it would have been harder though. Like there's some part of what keeps me going is having the complete thing and being able to be like, because there are some of these chapters where like individually, they just do not hit for me.
00:10:13
Speaker
But like as a whole, the whole thing works. So I don't know. I imagine it'd be an interesting experience yeah is all i'm trying to say. Yeah. Once again, to be contrarian, i think this has some of, not my favorite, but some of my most easily digestible chapters that I've read and a lot of things that I really enjoy more than most of the rest of the story that we've read so far. um But that's just my taste running contrary to everybody else's again.
00:10:37
Speaker
All right. you. and but Let's start, Nick, if you wouldn't mind getting us into 10.1. 10.1. Sveta and Vicky visit and discuss Amy with the Dallin parents.
00:10:53
Speaker
The two of them get pissed. They leave and meet up with the rest of the team, plus Damsel and Aaron, for a shopping trip. um And if fuck Carol is on the bingo card, that's a free speech. Yeah, let's check that off there.
00:11:09
Speaker
Lord have mercy. Yeah, let's just hone in on this thing. ah All right, so Ham. Yep. Almost redeemed. I just want to get get the complete picture here, right?
00:11:22
Speaker
Just of Carol's journey with Amy. We know from Carol's interlude from Back in Worm, she did not want Amy. Right.
00:11:33
Speaker
Glowing up, Amy always felt unwanted, unloved, which is part of why she became a sociopath.
00:11:42
Speaker
Then Amy ruins Victoria's life, escapes to the birdcage, and the Dallin parents now are like, oh no, we screwed up.
00:11:58
Speaker
So I get the guilt that Carol must be feeling, thinking, wow, Mark, we really messed Amy up. Do you think maybe we'll ever get a chance to try again?
00:12:11
Speaker
And so now her energy is, Victoria, we should help Amy, right? You would agree she's a messed up person and needs help, right? And Victoria's like, no, mom, I'm a messed up person because of her.
00:12:29
Speaker
And it's... Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker
yeah It's hard because I can imagine. ah I'm, as a parent, if you have two kids, I can't imagine not loving one of my kids, so i'm going to ignore that part that Carol struggled with.
00:12:45
Speaker
um But so I can imagine the difficulty of having one kid who's an abuser and one kid who's the abused. I cannot fathom what that would be like to go through as a parent.
00:12:59
Speaker
Because the love for both of your kids would make you want to do certain things for each of them. I think the difference, though, is you leave the ah you leave them separate, right? Like you separate those loves in a way. You don't explain...
00:13:17
Speaker
to the abused what you're doing to help the abuser. You sort of leave them separate if you can. But I don't know, like, would the abused child then feel, if they find out what you're doing, would they feel like, oh, you've betrayed me? like ah So I can understand the moral quandary and dilemma. It's just that the way she's going about it is so...
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah. Stupid. And reemphasizing it. I'm so glad Sveta was there because that was just my like, yes heck yeah, Sveta. Thank goodness you're saying what Victoria wants to say but isn't. Yeah.
00:13:48
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I wrote down, yeah, mom the fuck up. Could not say it better myself. like I thought that was phenomenal. like as As parents, like you you your job is to raise them with ah self-awareness and and compassion and...
00:14:08
Speaker
And and and like like you're also supposed to to teach them rules for life. And then discipline is part of that is like, hey, look, you you lied to mom about eating your peas. You know, you stuffed them in your pocket and now you're going to have to eat your peas. Squished, lint, pocket peas. Sorry. Like you just discipline shit as a parent. Like and and this is not like there is no there is no There is no discipline for Amy. There is just, oh, well, you know what she's been through. Like, that's not parenting.
00:14:42
Speaker
That's not real parental love and care. Like, as a parent, you discipline your kids because you want to teach them personal responsibility, consequences. And like, there's none of that is happening here. Like,
00:15:00
Speaker
were just going to shower her with love because I guess that didn't work before. So I guess it will now. Like, what do you mean, Carol? what Clearly, clearly Amy's just acting out. And if we show her the love we should have when she was younger, she'll be fine again.
00:15:15
Speaker
yeah Yeah. It's that time is over. A lot of this reminds me of as I'm listening to like Reddit stories. Um, that ah you have these stories about kids where the squeaky wheel child gets, you know, all the attention.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah. Because there's so much trouble to deal with. it is better that we make the child who's got their shit together suffer because it's just, and, and I get why it's the whole, it's what Carol's striving for. In this case, it's just cohesive family, cohesive family, cohesive family.
00:15:54
Speaker
And the reason she's so pissed off at Amy is because Amy, from the moment she was brought in, throws off the cohesive family unit.
00:16:07
Speaker
Um, like the perfect family that she wants. But Amy, for the most part, learns to be a hero, does the hero track, goes to school, like doesn't get in trouble.
00:16:20
Speaker
All that jazz. But then she upsets the the family unit by like causing trouble for, ah you know, messing with with Victoria, you know?
00:16:34
Speaker
And of course, Carol is pissed about that. um and so she blames Amy for that. But then once ah our girl is back, once Victoria's back, and she's capable of being a part of the family, Amy's okay wanting to be part of the family, but now Victoria's the problem child because she doesn't want to be part of the family, which is why she's like, oh, but you shouldn't be the problem child.
00:17:04
Speaker
You should want this. Why are you making this so difficult? And, you know, it's the like, you know, Amy, you just got to get over whatever it is. It's like, no, like stop giving her the benefit of the doubt in every situation.
00:17:21
Speaker
Just yeah like you said, Nick, or it's a separate issue that you need to deal with. Amy's a bad person and you need to not have her near Victoria.
00:17:33
Speaker
And you're not going to have this whole circular family with no bumps sticking out. Amy's going to be, you can love Amy. You can, you can have her still be a daughter to you and all of that, but you also still have to acknowledge that it is not healthy to have her and Victoria literally in the same room or group chat together.
00:17:57
Speaker
Like, Oh, for sure. Yeah. To your, to your point about real life stories. Um, I, I happened to cross a couple of, uh, book reviews of, parents writing about the phenomenon of people our age, like millennials generally, basically telling their parents like they don't want to see them anymore, sort of ah abandoning their parents, right?
Parental Struggles and Denial in Parenting
00:18:22
Speaker
And it it feels a lot like that where what these older parents are saying feels, it feels very unaware. They're like, well, don't know why my kids don't want to see me anymore. why they going to want me around their kids now?
00:18:35
Speaker
like I don't understand why they would do that. And it feels that's exactly how Carol feels to me is like, it's the fucking butterfly meme. Is this good? Good parent child relationship. I don't understand why you're upset, Victoria. And I don't understand why Amy doesn't love us. We just need to do a little better and forgive each other and we'll be fine.
00:18:53
Speaker
you know now I don't want to take ah blame away from Carol here because she deserves all the blame. Do we think that at some point Amy has in the in the in between times here Amy could have or would have messed with her parents brain.
00:19:17
Speaker
No. i mean Sometimes I'm reading it and I'm just like, man, this is so heartless. It's not even realistic. It's possible. I mean, i hate to say this.
00:19:28
Speaker
I know parents like this who their child sexually assaulted somebody and they ignore that that happened. And I i know ah family that's like that. i And that is like...
00:19:45
Speaker
And everyone pretends that it never happened. There's a lot of the word alleged gets thrown around a lot. Or a lot of disguising language. Disguising language, yeah.
00:19:56
Speaker
And so, and, you know, very, you know, loving family, loving parents. But still, there's this this idea that, and I think that maybe it comes into this idea, like you don't want to think that you raised a monster.
00:20:10
Speaker
You don't want to think that somehow it's your fault. Because even if, yeah let's just say that all of Amy's shit comes from them being bad parents to her growing up, because I think it's more way more complicated than just that. But if it was boiled down to just the problem of them being shitty parents, then it would be their fault.
00:20:28
Speaker
I mean, I think it's much more complicated than that and it's a lot more things than just them being shitty parents. But like, oh no, if it's that we were shitty parents, it couldn't possibly be that we were, that I was a bad mother.
00:20:40
Speaker
you know, Carol Dallin, the hero, that I could be a bad mother, heaven forbid. So there must be some other thing going on. Like it's it's so, i think it's just like, you you you can't possibly imagine that this person who grew up in your family could be capable of doing that. And so you don't imagine it because you don't think that it happened or you sweep it under the rug because if it's under the rug, it doesn't exist.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, on on the, exactly on that, it's, you hear all the stories about like you, you have a kid and all of a sudden they're an adult and you go like, man, every time I look at them, I'm just like, that's a child. Like,
00:21:23
Speaker
That's, you know, the little kid running around, you know, going to college, but they're still running around like, ah you know, losing things and everything. Just do you have this image of them? Because you grew up watching them, watching them trip because they had one shoe on because they lost their other shoe and doing cute little kid things.
00:21:42
Speaker
And it's hard to take that image that's been ingrained for, I don't know how old Amy is, but let's just say 22 years. yeah And then take 22 years of, or 20 years of a child that you've raised and have images of them as a baby.
00:22:00
Speaker
And to take an, um you not just a moment, but in this case, a moment and be like, oh, well that trumps all of the history I have locked into my brain.
00:22:12
Speaker
Um, You know, there is a lot to overcome as a parent or any connection with people where you've had for years, decades, and then you have to weigh that against something that happened that's, you know, potentially five minutes, you know, that is ah not saying that you shouldn't overwhelm that, but I'm saying like,
00:22:38
Speaker
Like chemically, that's that's a really hard thing to ah do. Hard. Yeah. I'd be curious to... Because I don't want to discount Jacob's theory entirely. i don't want to take away blame from Carol or just the situation general or just Amy being a bad All the blame to Carol. But i but i do love I do love the idea that intentionally or even perhaps unintentionally as her passenger has gotten stronger maybe...
00:23:06
Speaker
has it created sort of a goddess-like aura where it slowly ah touches the minds of people around her to make them like her more. um Like Dean's thing.
00:23:18
Speaker
Yeah. right I mean, almost yeah almost like the wretch, kind of in a way. Yeah. yeah Like maybe kind of, it really was once she she broke that barrier of touching brains and eventually even went further with Taylor in Worm,
00:23:35
Speaker
what if it was just sort of this like she's gone too far and the passenger has too much power now? And it just slowly is like leeching positive vibes to people around her. Yeah, because I don't think Amy has the gall on her own.
00:23:47
Speaker
I mean, it would explain goddess situation. Like, who the fuck wants to, you know, deal with goddess? You know, and Amy's like, a hot blonde that could step on me. I'll take one.
00:23:59
Speaker
And goddess didn't immediately turn around and be like, ew, gross. Yeah.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah. and We'll get the they get to the goddess situation. yeah we will. Boy, howdy. Boy, howdy. let's Let's move off of Carol and just touch on... Quickly, I have to read chat because it's hilarious. Ian Flagg said... Chat's been fun. I've been enjoying chat. Ian said, your job as a parent is to make sure that they have all the traits Amy doesn't have.
00:24:30
Speaker
Ian Flagg is like popping off. I love it. um Yeah. I was going to talk about ah Mark for a second because I... ah Mark's a little bit more complicated, I think, than Carol. How about dad? Yeah, because Mark has a lot of... Carol's sort of like two directions and she's picked the worst path somehow down the middle.
00:24:55
Speaker
Mark is like... Mark doesn't just have Amy and her to deal with. Mark has that, his ex-wife, you know, and the fact that he's trying to be a good person.
00:25:07
Speaker
As opposed to Carol, who's clearly not. Carol just wants a whole family and yeah the appearance of goodness. Mark, I think, genuinely wants goodness. And if I'm not mistaken, Mark is the one who's kind of dealt with like clinical depression his whole life as well.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yes. Correct. And wasn't Mark also who Amy healed? Yes. He was the first brain thing that she did. That was the damn breaking.
00:25:37
Speaker
It complicates his ah emotional involvement in all of this as well. Because he basically owes his life to Amy. yeah yeah he He seems to be, as opposed to Carol who's walking down a terrible path, ah he is like stumbling down the right path it feels like.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah. Like, it's not good. Like, it's not graceful. It's not always straight and narrow. But he's getting it. i feel I feel like Mark deserves more credit.
00:26:13
Speaker
um I mean, yeah. He's the meme. He's the math meme of the teacher. You know, the so you used the wrong formula, but you somehow got the right answer. and Yeah. like yeah and And I feel like, right, if we go back to the beginning of Ward where...
00:26:28
Speaker
he was lied to by Carol of like, oh, I talked to Victoria and she's fine with Amy being there. And him realizing after Victoria's freak out, like, dude, you, Carol, you lied to me.
00:26:39
Speaker
Like, yeah and I think him reaching out and trying to fix that. I feel like he's made steps with Victoria to try to be better and be, and try to understand like, Hey, what do you need as the person in this quadrant?
00:26:54
Speaker
ah What can I do to support you? um And I feel like, I do wish he was better, but I give him a few points in the sense of he he really is the one sort of trying to spin all the plates of like... That's, yeah, I agree. Trying to keep Carol and Victoria from killing each other. Trying to keep, you know, any semblance of relationship between himself and his ex-wife and his two daughters. Trying to...
00:27:20
Speaker
maybe find reconciliation if possible, but also understanding it may not be and trying to hear out Victoria's side. it Like, I feel like he, you're right. He is kind of like stumbling forward into trying to be the right kind of dad. And I think I appreciate that. I can, I can give him some points for that.
00:27:36
Speaker
I wish he had a bit more of a backbone, but you know, progress is progress. It feels like he's trying to peace keep. Like he's trying to keep everybody happy. Like he's trying to recognize that Vicky has all this trauma. He's trying to recognize that Amy is trying to you know, put out a hand or whatever.
00:27:53
Speaker
ah He's trying to recognize that like Carol wants this big happy family, you know, whatever with everybody. And like also did, did we not, did we not like say in past arcs that maybe they're like trying to get back together?
00:28:11
Speaker
I think it's Yeah, it feels complicated because they're not living together. It feels like... No, no, no. It feels like they got divorced. They were trying to do the, like, we're divorced, but we're still a cohesive family. They maybe hooked up, and then we're like, well... And then he was, like, trying to be the good guy. i was like, I'm gonna... You know, we'll try it. Maybe we'll try...
00:28:31
Speaker
ah You know? And so, like, I agree. I think he is stumbling down the right path, but I... What you said, Nick, he... The backbone. Like... i I need you to not be lukewarm, my man.
00:28:46
Speaker
I need you to have a little... Yeah. um um you know some sort um I'll give, you know, Mark, it is, i imagine that Carol has always been the dominant personality.
00:28:58
Speaker
So, ah um but yeah, as Cool World points out, Mark tells Sveta you're part of the family and Carol immediately pisses Sveta off. Props to Carol for really treating Sveta like a daughter.
00:29:12
Speaker
How true. fucking funny. and So fucking funny. oh my god I don't know what Drew's has been drinking, chat but chat is going off. It is phenomenal. I love it. You are all just my tonight. ah it Just the funniest. So Bernard said, do you mean flash bang? Were they, do you think they flash banged? Is that what you're saying?
00:29:36
Speaker
Like it was quick and it was over and they were like, no, we're not going to do that. Are you saying, Alan, when you say that Carol was the dominant one in the relationship, are you saying it's a stereotype for a type A strong woman to get together with a type B depressed man?
00:29:50
Speaker
And that's just like a common stereotype? You know, mean, I didn't say it You know, truthfully, truthfully, here's the thing is like we say that, but also like personality wise, I'd be willing to bet that she's a bottom.
00:30:05
Speaker
So america like it's just yeah. Think about it. Strong domineering type A personality who's a lawyer. What? A hundred percent of bottom. Okay, so going back to Bernard.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yep. Do you think Mark can guide and correct Amy to the right path or would he just be an enabler? yeah i think he'd be an enabler.
00:30:28
Speaker
think he'd want to smooth everything over too much and he'd make more allowances for Amy than is right. and i See, I don't think so. And here's, we're going to, I would like to chart out what's happened so far.
00:30:42
Speaker
um I don't remember if we get confirmation, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say, because how much Carol likes having the family, that Carol was not the one to divorce.
00:30:55
Speaker
Oh, yeah. interest I would agree with that. I think Mark's the one that was like... I think it was said that Mark left. Which means that Mark did have a moment where he said, this is untenable.
00:31:07
Speaker
I can't do this anymore. So props to Mark. He was the one that pulled the eject cord on that. So we'll start there. I think Mark does have a soft spot, not for Amy particularly, but for Carol because she's, you know, like this,
00:31:26
Speaker
I don't know. ah she she They were partners in everything for yeah decades. Again, it's hard sometimes to break habits of like letting her be the one that talk and you just kind of sit there and nod.
00:31:38
Speaker
And now he's got to be like, oh, wait, no, I disagree with that. We're not a team like we used to be. No, this is not a... We will have this conversation later, but for now, we need a united front. This is a... We have adult children that...
00:31:52
Speaker
can deal with people disagreeing and no, that's wrong. um I think him acknowledging that like they really messed up with Victoria because they were not there all the time.
00:32:04
Speaker
And Sveta was, and he was like, you've earned this. You need a vacation. you you You can come to the beach house. You can do whatever you are. You take care of Victoria better.
00:32:15
Speaker
You are yeah than we did as a family, as a whole, like, yeah, absolutely you're part of the family. um You know, he does a little bit let Carol go on too long and and Victoria notices that and then he immediately basically when they stands up is like, yeah, I think this is good because Victoria's like I think it was I forget what he noticed about Victoria.
00:32:38
Speaker
And she's like oh like, It sounds like Victoria needs just needs needs a break from this conversation or something like that. Something along those lines. But like that he recognized that she was that she was and uncomfortable. She did not want to be there and anymore. It was stressing her out. Like he saw that.
00:32:52
Speaker
and And which is like a, look, this discussion, it's going to be tough to split this up and not have a sit down all the time. Obviously that makes things more difficult, but. you know, we're going to just have to have to do that because I recognize that that's what she needs.
00:33:07
Speaker
And then turns around and in front of Carol is like, also, if you just need something from me, you and i am a separate unit. And that pissed Carol off and he knows it.
00:33:19
Speaker
Like, good you know, fuck her. I think, I think his, i don't know if he's, Like, even with the trying to touch her thing, once again, something that he was not aware of, if I remember right, was like, oh, we got some details, but that wasn't the story we heard.
Moral Complexity of Parenting Amy
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, like, clearly, he doesn't know all of everything, which yeah makes me wonder if Carol does and she's just not telling him or if if if he's not getting all the information because he's not in contact with Vicky. But it sounds like, to me, like,
00:33:52
Speaker
As things are coming out, he's not getting, he's hearing like the condensed version from Carol about like, oh, well, you know, he's like, oh, okay.
00:34:03
Speaker
Finding out later, like, oh, that's not what happened. Actually more. There was more to it. As Fran points out, Amy did say, and I remember this from the end earlier, like Mark tried to be a dad to her, but his depression really got in the way of that.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's it's really tough to like pour out into other people when you are completely empty inside. like yeah I think it yeah going back to the question, i don't think he'll be an enabler to Amy, but I also don't think he'll be able to get her on the right path because it's still her choice. He'll just yeah try.
00:34:38
Speaker
and He could open all avenues. He could say, hey, honey, come back, get therapy, get help. And she's just going to be like, no. And he's going to be like, well, the offer's open. Like,
00:34:49
Speaker
And she's like, ooh, to see Victoria? And he'll be like, no, not to see Victoria. We've talked about this. Yeah. yeah i yeah think Beefaroni says the detail. Mark didn't hear anything about Amy ruling over Shin and changing people's brains, which is something she publicly declared.
00:35:06
Speaker
Stop it. Get some help. That's right. ah Amy, but yeah shut out that one's for you. I think it would be... You know, it would be the moment for Mark where he's like, Amy, come back. And she's like, no.
00:35:23
Speaker
um Or, you know, does the like, only if you abandon Victoria. And he's like, oh, no, that's the line. i'm I'm on Victoria's side. Sorry. now Yeah. Yeah. If the line had to be drawn like that, I think he would take Vicky's side, which ah like, I don't think, I don't know if that's going to have to happen. Cause like, I mean, Yeah.
00:35:42
Speaker
shin like Once again, Mark is slow to the thing. And part of that's not his fault because he's literally getting information. Like he's the last person to get all of this information every time.
00:35:56
Speaker
i am but he's clearly trying like, yes, he, you know, he messes up, but once again, I really appreciate that he messes up.
00:36:07
Speaker
He makes the corrections. He pays attention. um There there's clearly like a, a movement in the right direction, as opposed to Carol, who is dug in her heels and is promptly stomping off in a direction that,
00:36:24
Speaker
is terrible and um refuses to hear any sort of outside voice talking to her.
00:36:36
Speaker
Fran, I know what you're quoting, Fran. don't want to be better. I want to turn people into dinosaurs. There's this great comic. It's a Spider-Man comic where this guy is Spider-Man's talking to this guy and he's like,
00:36:49
Speaker
wait, you've got this great technology.
Personal Experiences and Story Parallels
00:36:51
Speaker
You could do anything. You could cure cancer. You could do anything you want. and the guy's like, but um I don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs. And that's like his motivation for being a bad guy. Amazing. you so he got to respect a man in singularity. like He knows what he wants. I can respect of that.
00:37:11
Speaker
I mean, how many of us have a degree in something that we, you know, the job that we have? This man said, as a child, I want to make a laser ray that and makes dinosaurs. Alan, how dare you bring up all of our trauma? And then he went and did it, you know?
00:37:25
Speaker
That's crazy. I mean, imagine having a master's degree in a profession you're not in anymore. That'd be crazy. Damn. Who would do that? For a while. Nick, for a while it was you and me. We were holding out for a while.
00:37:39
Speaker
was just us. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And then it was just you. And then there were none. and there were And now we all make podcasts about a book that no one's ever heard of except for seven lovely people. Jacob might be the closest.
00:37:56
Speaker
I mean, you know, communication got ah was this since you got the general degree. was like, oh, I got my degree in being a person and interacting with others. Can't fail. you and never Can't fail. pass fail degree.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah. All right. But moving off from that, yeah ah they prep up. I i love um the the Ashley and Damsel.
00:38:26
Speaker
They're like, a man, shopping is so great. And they're like, oh, man. and it's so cold out, which I'm like excited because it's cold out here right now. And they're like, yes and we're at home blanketed up eating cookies and tea. And I was like, um drinking the dream.
00:38:41
Speaker
Love it. and Fantastic. ah What a way to do it. will say, it was so much fun reading, especially the first two chapters where they're outside in the snow and it's like, all the snow is falling and everyone's all bundled up and we're like crunching through the snow, we're going shopping. And I'm like, I'm literally like sitting at my desk looking outside and it is cold and just rainy. And I'm like, this is perfect. I'm ready to listen to Christmas music. Let's go. I'm so ready.
00:39:15
Speaker
was like all of my cold weather energy. It was amazing. That's great. Shall I read 10.2?
00:39:22
Speaker
Let me see. Other things. Do you have notes? I'm just excited for a shopping trip. You know I love the shopping trip from Wyrm. I love the downtime when they're just goofing off together.
00:39:33
Speaker
The idea that like, yeah, you're a hero in a skin tight outfit. Unless you've got some invulnerability powers, you need cold weather gear. If you're a flyer, double so.
00:39:43
Speaker
Like even the altitude change from ground level to like 10 feet up is going to be a significant difference. And if you're flying ian wind, bone chilling, you need thick gear.
00:39:56
Speaker
I mean, Chopping Trip is also in chapter two, right? Yes, yes. This is just them on their way there um at the end ah because they run into all the people with their hologram masks um and she's like, Rain, come on, dude, make a move. Like, she's like sitting there like, oh, I'm so cold. Like, put your jacket around her, goddammit.
00:40:17
Speaker
So, my question for
Rain's Romantic Challenges and Character Growth
00:40:19
Speaker
here. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, if you want to read that. No, no, I was going to make a joke. I was going to say the listeners don't know how tall we all are, but let's just say Alan's a little colder.
00:40:32
Speaker
he's higher out there Let's also say that since I work in the tree industry, I know that if you're 30 foot up in a tree, the wind is significantly different and the temperature much worse.
00:40:44
Speaker
No, it's just because Alan's so tall. That up here is pretty bad. Alan is really tall. He's like 10 feet tall and real skinny. He's like really tall.
00:40:54
Speaker
Like when i I stand next to him, it's like me and then like up there. am i Am I like whippersnapped? just you know just Yeah, you're like whippersnapped. Like a broomstick, man. Just like a freaking broomstick. That's what they call me. Which of the...
00:41:12
Speaker
The beings is really tall. Bohu. that you? Oh, no. Bohu and Tohu. Yeah. Which one's the tall Building the mile high one. Yeah, there're yeah absolutely. I think that's Tohu.
00:41:26
Speaker
Maybe. i Yeah. Tohu like tower, maybe. I'll figure it out later. um No. ah Question for you guys.
00:41:35
Speaker
With Rain. and Should Rain try to make a move on Aaron?
00:41:43
Speaker
Didn't he already? Like, aren't they past making a move? aren't they like like It was awkward. It was different. Here's the thing. The only two, the the moves that we've seen being made are Aaron commenting that Rain thinks about her when he jacks off and the child bride...
00:42:07
Speaker
that's right That's right. How could we forget about that? To me, that's making... There were more moves. There were more moves. There were moves when they were in the car together all the time, getting snacks and their little road trips.
00:42:22
Speaker
and And there were moves when when and he was trying to protect her. And there were moves when she's literally still here after he was in prison. Those are all moves.
00:42:34
Speaker
Those are... And... it's It feels like the, it just feels like the, again, the meme. It's, you know, Aaron, ah ah so do you think of me when you touch yourself? Rain, I just can't tell if she's into me.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yes, yes. That is, that is yeah that is yeah um And i mean as Ian points out, after all that shit that went down, on one hand, I feel like it might be easier to talk about because a lot of barriers have been broken.
00:43:02
Speaker
At the same time, it is very traumatic. And I don't know, like, yeah, I don't know how comfortable... You know, you would feel being like, hey, do we want to hey, we've already been almost forced into a child marriage. Do you want to try that again, but without being you to go get coffee sometime?
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think they should date yet. I think that they should, i think that they should, you should still, listen, listen, listen, you can, listen, come here, come here, listen, you can flirt with somebody.
00:43:36
Speaker
and enjoy that space of like, we're both flirting with each other. we know we both like each other, but we're not dating, but we both have clear crushes on each other. And we're just gonna sit in this nice little cozy, happy space. i think You can do that without dating.
00:43:51
Speaker
Can we, but I, Bahrain, Bahrain's over here. Like. i think I think what's hard about it is that, um when you're yeah When you're raised in in such a ah conservative religious cult or religious culture in general, conservative religious culture in general, you don't learn how to flirt naturally. Your only tactics are...
00:44:16
Speaker
hey, mom and dad, have you arranged this marriage for me? And or, hey, girls, dad, can I court your daughter? That's the extent of your flirting skill. You flirt with their parents. You flirt with their parents. And I think that because Rain, you know, Rain already did that kind of like Mama Mathers was like, have your wife if you want.
00:44:36
Speaker
I'll watch. um Always watching Rain. And so I think it's challenging to, like, I just imagine maybe he wants to, but he's just like, so, um, you like books you read ever?
00:44:55
Speaker
know like what Do you do you ah read? No, no, you're absolutely right, Nick, though, because they have one. There's only one purpose for dating in that type of environment, and that's to get married.
00:45:07
Speaker
yeah So if yeah you're kind of like like avoiding or that's like out of the picture, then like you really don't know what to do. He ain't got no moves. Here's the thing. it needs It needs to be a slow cooker thing. It just needs to be a slow cooker thing. They're going to take some time. Yeah, we're not going to rush them. We're not going to rush them. And by arc 35, which doesn't exist, we can fantasize that they got together and were happy. One day.
00:45:32
Speaker
ah They went on one date. They're going to go to a cabin just like Gru. No! No cabins! They're going to go visit Gru and his cabin. I actually do think Rain's going to die, but that's another. as a so We'll get to that later. yeah um know yeah i think Rain is a high probability of death. yeah I think you're right, but I'm trying not to think about it.
00:45:55
Speaker
As Bernard points out, why does everything that Hannah said remind me of the Gru-Skitter dynamic? Look, here's the thing. Bernard knows what he's talking about. And Bernard knows me. And me and Bernard have an understanding. No, I just think it's true like the skitter grew flirting of like even Taylor was awkward about it. But like there was still flirting happening. Like. That's what we need. That's what we need.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah. um To back up even more to the winter gear, I love that Fran pointed out, ah Grant Morrison figured this out in the 80s when he gave jackets to superheroes. It looks awesome. Robot Man, Animal Man look way cooler when he gave them jackets.
00:46:34
Speaker
I do love the short cropped like motorcycle bomber jacket, all of that. You look at Superboy with his leather jacket. right You look at Ricochet with also a leather jacket. um with us Once again, slightly cropped leather jacket.
00:46:46
Speaker
You can have the tight pants, looks great. ah Tracer from, uh, from freaking Overwatch. Overwatch is like the descendant character from that.
00:46:57
Speaker
Tracer without the, the bomber jacket would kind of just look a little goofy. Bomber jacket, 10 out of 10. Like, point um,
00:47:14
Speaker
I have to point out that we are 45 minutes plus here and we're through one chapter. We're in one night. the A lot of this is... It's weirdly how much... Even though I don't have too many notes, some of them are for sections. have less notes for later chapters, I will say. We are that meme of like the book that's divided into sections where it's like, the Brockton Bay podcast, 10.1, 10.2 through 10.9. Yeah.
00:47:37
Speaker
All right. 10.2 though? ah yeah all right ten point two though yep Yes, please.
Sveta and Victoria's Identity Struggles
00:47:47
Speaker
10.2. Kinsey passes out the hollow hairpins and the team goes shopping.
00:47:52
Speaker
Vicky and Sveta talk about boys. The team meets back up and the Ashleys think Amy is working for Chris.
00:48:03
Speaker
Yep. My God. Hannah, you have something to say? I have so many things to say. ah My big thing is the one at the end, so we gotta work our way into it.
00:48:14
Speaker
I have a lot of feelings. I really, this was probably my favorite chapter. I loved this one. I have a little show and tell first. ah So there is mention. Yes, if you'll notice there's a coat, it's a little bit dark in the section over here.
00:48:27
Speaker
But in 10.2, they talk about Sveta and Victoria going, ah we broke apart, each of us searching different racks. I pulled out a long coat with material like suede with shaggy fur around the collar, down the front and around the end of the sleeves.
00:48:44
Speaker
Seems standing out in relief. And if you'll excuse me for a second. I'm going to turn on the big light. Oh. Oh, maybe not. No, going to put on. I made the bad screen bigger.
00:48:55
Speaker
I know what he's doing. I know what it is. Getting. ah Oh, Alan, got to turn on big light or something because it's not it's not as bright. Go turn on big light.
00:49:06
Speaker
Big light bad, but go turn on light. We can it, yeah. Yeah. Seams. There we go. Yep. Around the collar. Down. And at the sleeves. yeah It is the jacket. Fabulous.
00:49:18
Speaker
As soon as I saw it, I was like, I love this. Oh, yeah. Fabulous. if you like I do like that. Nailed it. Oh, man. Oh, nice.
00:49:29
Speaker
Nice. All right, Captain Cold. Calm down. Mr. Chill. How about those hairpins? yeah that's what that's what they call me mr chill chill off butto the dr freaky about those hairpins A little bit of ah self magic.
00:49:48
Speaker
I do like the hairpins. You gotta have those. i love i i love that. and i I love the detail. Not that it it happens to them, but I do love the detail that both Sveta and Victoria put on the hairpins and have immediate like body dysmorphia.
00:50:05
Speaker
Yes. Okay. about this. Yeah. we got to talk about the we got to talk like oh that's about this yeah I and made a meal out of this scene. Them in the bathroom, like staring in the mirror and just Sveta like running her fingers like across her arm and like pushing on her skin. Like.
00:50:33
Speaker
It fucked me up. Fucked me up. Okay. Okay. It fucked me up. Still fucks me up. That like that moment of like, we know Sveta has for so goddamn long not felt comfortable in her own body. And Vicky too.
00:50:50
Speaker
But like seeing yourself not as plastic anymore, but as like real human girl for the first time in never.
00:51:01
Speaker
A real human being and a real hero.
00:51:07
Speaker
and That was a good moment. I also think I didn't respect how, like, I knew Kenzie's projections were were realistic. we They said that looks like people. But it wasn't until this scene that I really got that, like, oh, heard though they look yeah and look real, real.
00:51:24
Speaker
Yeah. Like, she talks about the impression on skin. Like, when I press on my skin, it indents and it moves because it's not hard plastic.
00:51:39
Speaker
I was literally listening to this episode going like this with my arm watching because that's what she's doing at this moment. She's like touching. she's seeing the change happening, but feeling like you're touching hard plastic and like.
00:51:55
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah. Cool moment. Yeah. Mm On top of that, when she goes into the changing room and she has the, I'll just call the cleavage moment.
00:52:06
Speaker
Yeah. What an interesting array of emotions to go through there. um but i love the the disappointment but relief. She's like, I'm relieved that Kenzie did not do anything ah because that would be really weird, but also very disappointed because it would be nice to feel like i am a complete person.
00:52:29
Speaker
yeah um Yeah, that hurt. Crazy.
00:52:38
Speaker
ah ah
00:52:42
Speaker
and then in And then talking about her and Weld. ah Yeah. Cute little moment. she She really likes him.
00:52:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And that's so tough to like feel like you're
00:53:00
Speaker
Gosh, yeah. I feel like you're trying to figure out what you should do and you can't do any of the things. I did i did make a promise to myself reading this chapter, which is is that if Wildbow has Weld breakup with Sveta, I will stop reading his works. So it's just, I had that moment when I was reading that and I was like, wow, he could do it.
00:53:24
Speaker
He could do it. And he would be the worst person ever if he did. would you Would you legitimately like leave the podcast? Or would you stay in the podcast but just not read anything ever again? Yeah, right. Just be in the corner. don't even care. Just join me, Jacob.
00:53:40
Speaker
it's just It's just Jacob and it's behind the printer, like just drunk with a bottle. It's just me and Jacob. Are y'all still reading that shit? Just me and Jacob join one screen and just there and not.
00:53:53
Speaker
you've You've somehow figured out how to project him like over your shoulder. Yeah. Because my first thought my first thought was, oh man, you know, this is this is the worm, the parahuman universe. I really hope like, well, doesn't die and Sveta's got to deal with that. That would be awful.
00:54:09
Speaker
And I was like, what would be worse? I was like, oh no. But no, only good vibes. They're going to be happy forever. Don't worry. There's gotta be, cause here's the thing. First of all, like i fake scenario. It's like you had a dream about your boyfriend breaking up with you and you're like, oh, you're mad at him in real life. Like first, how dare you?
00:54:31
Speaker
Second, like first, how dare you Weld, even though nothing's happened yet. But also like Weld can't have normal relationships with a human girl either.
00:54:43
Speaker
be a big boy. Like, ah let's let's remember here that Sveta might be actually the best person to be with him because of the way that she's built.
00:54:57
Speaker
And she can literally, like, not hurt him. You know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. But she can't, as she said, she can't please him either. It's this weird balance of, like,
00:55:13
Speaker
they can be together but not fully give themselves to each other in a way that they might want to, which is the... And it's hard, right? Is it a question of like, is that just because that's what Sveta thinks he expects? And so she's like, well, this is what people do in relationships and I can't do that. So clearly something's wrong.
00:55:34
Speaker
Or I also imagine there's also, on the other hand, the tension of like, no, they really do want to be intimate in different ways than they can be. Even just for her to make him happy, like she said, of like, I just want to make him feel something. Like, whether it's food or, you know, physical touch, whatever it is, I just want to make him feel something good. Because he so, so rarely gets that.
00:55:57
Speaker
God damn it, Michael. What? Michael just put it in a tractor.
00:56:03
Speaker
God damn it. Put a tractor emoji in the chat. For those of you who don't remember. He just wanted to feel something. Long, long ago on this podcast.
00:56:15
Speaker
Taylor's last words on this podcast. Our friend Taylor. and An old old host. His last words on the podcast before he left. was dude's fucking attractor.
00:56:29
Speaker
About weld. Talking about weld. Talking about weld, yeah. you know as As Ian asked, not to be rude, but can weld even, you know, slag? Yeah.
00:56:42
Speaker
Listen, you know, but they'll they'll get their tentacle in the butt or something that'll do it. no Sometimes you see that something to push you over the finish line. Yeah, exactly. Okay.
00:56:54
Speaker
i Also, i imagine that like it's more like what's that room temperature liquid like it melts in your hand? Mercury? ah say there There's mercury. There's also like was it palladium? Not palladium, but you know what I'm talking about.
00:57:08
Speaker
So another one like that. But yeah, basically mercury. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. right Yeah. What I was going to say. ah No, Jacob, go ahead.
00:57:20
Speaker
No, no, that's fine. you Let's move on. What I was going to say was like reading. I just felt because wanted to be like Sveta. Like I i like, man, girl.
00:57:32
Speaker
It would not make her feel any better to know that ah literally every couple deals with some form of intimacy. issue stuff at some point in their relationship. Like at some point or another, you have to figure out how you and your partner work together, whether that is sexually or emotionally or just physically in general.
00:57:57
Speaker
So it's like, like obviously for them, it's extra complicated, but. but Like, to make her feel better, just be like, babe, I know you don't want to hear this right now, but, like, no couple just works perfectly in terms of intimacy because you have to learn what works for you. Because whether it's, like, someone having a weird fetish or, like, some people just having a lower or a higher sex drive, like...
00:58:23
Speaker
but This is a normal thing for couples. You are not alone in the category of like, wow, I don't know how to deal with this XYZ issue in my physical relationship with my partner. Like, I think, like, I don't know anybody who hasn't had that at some point to deal with. And like, yeah, this was something that we're constantly talking about or dealing with or moving through or whatever. And like, you find ways around things like that.
00:58:50
Speaker
You just need to figure out what it is that works for you guys. And that is, takes time. You know, it takes time to figure out sometimes. It just, I want to give her a hug and not be squashed, but give her a hug.
00:59:05
Speaker
To go through chat real quick. Fran points out ah to bring it up again. Dot did say that Amy could easily change Sveta's body, but of course Sveta will not let that happen because fuck Amy.
00:59:18
Speaker
um So it ain't all it would take is allowing Amy to touch her and and she could have that magic wish of like, you know, the monkey's paw where like she could get everything she wanted basically, but it would mean having to deal with Amy.
00:59:33
Speaker
um Bernard Taylor is ah could be either name. um Taylor Lautner for one. ah Yeah. That's a boy's name.
00:59:44
Speaker
um And William Doe. Thank you for being here because ah Gallium is what I was thinking of. Oh, Gallium. There you go. and i Big brain. Very smart. nice Yes, Gallium. Classic Pokemon.
00:59:58
Speaker
Weren't they in the Gallium region? yeah Yeah, recently, I think, in Pokemon Z Alpha. Okay, okay. We gotta keep going. <unk>re We're doing good. 10.2. Wait,
01:00:15
Speaker
No, no, another. on. Oh, sorry. We're still talking about Svetta and Victoria. Yeah, yeah. No, continue. Sorry. You you you said 10.2 and in my head, I was like, oh, yeah. We're talking about 5.3. but three we Yeah, we need to hit the end part.
01:00:28
Speaker
I had two yeah two more things on that. One is the equity imbalance. I love talking about that. Like, you don't want equity. Like, equal reciprocity does not, like, it's just not how relationships work. It's not a... Yeah. you know, even thing. And you shouldn't do that because it involves scorekeeping and that's not great for a relationship. Bad road to go down.
01:00:48
Speaker
No, no, no. But it made me think of like the concept of positive and negative liberty where like you have positive, which is like the internal liberty to, you know, have, make the choice to do things.
01:01:00
Speaker
um And in this case, ah you know, with being able, and they even bring up autonomy and Sveta is so sick and tired of being, taking control of, with all these powers that we've been running around. And it's just, she's like, if it's not one person, you know, if it's not one person, then it's literally my own body that's taking control. And like, uh, uh, if, you know, if it's not that, then it's the power or the shard or whatever.
01:01:26
Speaker
Um, and then negative Liberty being like having, being free of external forces on you. And, Um, yeah, just something that comes back to mind again, when we're talking about autonomy and how I just feel like that is the theme of ward.
01:01:40
Speaker
Um, for sure. Yeah. And to that point, and ironically, some great, uh, relationship advice that I got came from full metal alchemist brotherhood. Um, I guess spoilers for the end of that if you haven't seen it, but there's a scene where a couple of characters using the equivalent exchange analogy of alchemy is like, hey, I'll give you 50% of my life if you give me 50% of yours. And the character responds, you dumbass. Love isn't like alchemy. You don't give 50% to give 50%. It's 100% both ways.
01:02:09
Speaker
um And I think that that's unironically some, basically what's happening there where it's like, you know, it's not scorekeeping. It's, You're just giving yourself to the other person wholeheartedly, and that's that's what matters.
01:02:21
Speaker
but yeah um Weeb, thank you, Ian. i am We are huge weebs here, if you didn't know. man We are people of culture.
01:02:33
Speaker
um I do want to say, though... Oh, go ahead. Sorry. good do Last comment. I didn't think about this until the end. Of course Rain gets anxiety when he's in a mall. Yeah.
01:02:45
Speaker
yeah Jesus. Poor guy. He probably gets anxiety anytime he's in a big ah big location with a bunch of people. Oh, that was a bunt. Hello, bunty. A little baby. little strong baby. Oh, my goodness. I do want to say um this goes a bit into 10.3, but the fast food chains in this world and from the original world are kind of funky.
01:03:09
Speaker
But my only guess is that Wild Bo went to Del Taco once, and it was exactly what Del Taco is, which is awful.
01:03:20
Speaker
And okay as a result, he's like, fuck that place. You're getting hated on in my food court as Hell Taco. Hell Taco. Except ironically, it's good.
01:03:30
Speaker
Okay, so that was the thing. I wrote down Hell Taco as Del Taco because I also went there once. And let me tell you, when you pay like the $5 for 10 tacos, I couldn't even eat those because they were so bad.
01:03:44
Speaker
Like... It was it was so the worst tacos I've ever had in my life. Completely unedible. And I will down Taco Bell every day of the week. um the The difference between those is incredible.
01:03:58
Speaker
Which is weird because the Hell's Taco sounds like it has flavor and spice. So it could not be like a full, like there's no way that this is. Well, that's what I think it is, right? It's it's Del Taco.
01:04:11
Speaker
ah Del Taco, but good. And Fran, one with the cow mascot is Patty's Patties, which we'll get to later. Because I think that may also be a joke on something, but I'm not sure. Oh, who else could have cow mascots all around? Yeah, who else would have cow mascots? Talking about not getting eaten? 100%.
01:04:29
Speaker
Chick-fil-A? It's Chick-fil-A. The only issue is that Wildbo's Canadian and I don't know that Chick-fil-A is prolific up there. Listen, he's heard of Chick-fil-A once in his life and he was like, oh, that makes sense. They have like a cow mascot and then they serve chicken. like and yeah And then started making his own versions.
01:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, watch. we We think all these are fake, but these are actual Canadian chains. Beloved Canadian chains. And they're like, don't you dare shit on hell. Don't you know... I've got the Hell Taco right next to the Tim Hortons. Oh, I got me toque on.
01:05:02
Speaker
Right next to the Tim Hortons and the Patty's Patties. Yeah. Oh, I'm so sorry, but I got to interrupt you there, but Patty's Patties is one of my favorites. After I he get up, I put on my toque and I go outside with me duck boots. I ah get some coffee from Tim Hortons and I get some Patty's Patties for lunch.
01:05:21
Speaker
I'm a Canadian. Oh my God. We're sorry, Canadians. We... We're not. What are they going to do? Apologize me to death? i mean, they don't have it. You know what? Worse. They're going to come down and they're going to pronounce a marquee wrong until I burst into a cloud of acid.
01:05:41
Speaker
There you go. um But no, I did think that was funny, though. was like, oh, it's a Del Taco, but it's good and has flavor. um That's funny. Del Taco. I'm getting an upset stomach just thinking about Del Taco. they get about it point to the bigger point of 10.2, the revelation that perhaps Amy is working for Chris is fascinating.
01:06:07
Speaker
Yep. Oh, my God. Okay.
01:06:11
Speaker
For so many episodes, we have asked, who do we think is the problem character? And I feel like I have said almost every single time that it's either one baby or the other baby. And
01:06:27
Speaker
I have to say, when this happened, and Ashley was like, she seems subservient to Chris. I...
01:06:39
Speaker
I didn't fall out of my chair. a slid out of my chair and I just laid on the floor for a little bit because the overwhelming wave of being right all the time.
01:06:51
Speaker
mean i can't even say it with a straight face. It just hit me with such an oomph.
Chris's Mysterious Background and Speculations
01:06:58
Speaker
I just. hey um We're not but not even halfway through. war I got to see what these cats are eating in here. Hold on. That's true. There's plenty of time for me to be incorrect.
01:07:11
Speaker
We're still waiting on that first interlude. Yeah, no, for real, though. still But no, I think Ashley's right. i think Here's the thing. I think Ashley is really good at reading body language. We saw that in her interlude.
01:07:23
Speaker
We saw that she's really good at watching the more small, minute changes in posture and tone to, because for her, the hierarchy is very important.
01:07:34
Speaker
And I think that if anyone were to notice this, it would be Ashley. And I trust that she would notice this and then just be like, guys, I'd like to bring this to your attention and that she would be right.
01:07:48
Speaker
And I'm so excited because it lends a whole new dynamic and problem to the Amy situation, especially literally after having come off of this conversation with Carol and Mark about Amy the
01:08:10
Speaker
I'm excited. Yeah. I'm so excited. I'm really curious more from from Amy's perspective here. Because Chris is still very much ah a bit of a blank page. We know so little about his origin, really what his powers are, all that kind of stuff.
01:08:27
Speaker
So it's not surprising to me that we're getting like a bit more of a deeper revelation to his whole deal. like That's kind of interesting. But why the hell is Amy...
01:08:39
Speaker
assuming all of this is is exactly as Ashley fears, why is Amy listening to Chris, following Chris? My first thought was like, did Chris's, does one of his forms have the ability to like,
01:08:55
Speaker
you know, lightly mimic a power or something like that? Like, did he get like a, so like a, so like a little snippet of goddesses power or so you know, it didn't, it didn't feel that exact way, but, but something is weird there where it didn't read like the type of relationship where Amy would just willingly be like, all right, little child, you're the boss now, you know? so Hear me out.
01:09:18
Speaker
One of his forms that he took was ah blonde woman. And then Amy just did whatever she said.
01:09:31
Speaker
Yeah. chris Chris is like, I can give you what you want.
01:09:36
Speaker
is a child. Yeah. um yeah And Amy is doing the whole anime thing where he's actually a thousand years old and just takes the form of a ah a child. I mean, we did also, ah do do because we also got some of the background. Oh, that's in the next chapter. Sorry, we'll get to that. Yeah. Also, ah chat, be real careful there if you don't mind. And the rest of you don't look at chat.
01:10:00
Speaker
I haven't looked at chat in like two months. Good. was looking at it today. Chat, I love but I fear you. Yeah. and I did say a while ago, y'all probably should never look at chat.
01:10:11
Speaker
Yeah. But I like looking at chat. Yeah. Tease and chat. Okay. That's funny. Tease and chat, please. Okay. i won't I won't look at chat for the next five minutes. How about that? think I remember what you're talking about, Alan.
01:10:28
Speaker
Appreciate it. Okay, for yeah um I was gonna say, remember the conversation we had so, so, so so so long ago about, ah it was like thrown out as like a casual, like whatever. But I kind of brought that back a little bit of like, because we don't know Chris's origin.
01:10:47
Speaker
Well, okay, wait, is the is them talking about Chris in chapter three or chapter two? I can't remember. 10.3 is when they talk about his backstory a bit more. Okay, I'll hold my comments until chapter three.
01:10:57
Speaker
i mean, you want to just read point three if we're going to, this is kind of where we're what we're talking about here. yeah Any other thoughts in point two? No, we could do point three. Might as well. We got i'm down a bunch of chapters to get through. We do a few.
01:11:10
Speaker
um Breakthrough discusses Chris and his background, meets with the heroic mercenaries, tracks them to Tattletail, and discovers that the Undersiders have left New Brockton.
01:11:27
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, this is where we get into Patty's Patties. but Yeah. Wonderland, by the way, has a a bingo to wonderland ya Chris theories shopping spree should rain make a move and cat on screen.
01:11:46
Speaker
We'll see if we have any others.
01:11:51
Speaker
Very nice. Very nice. Yes. We get it. We get a bit of what Chris has presented in the, in the group sessions before Victoria joined. Right.
01:12:01
Speaker
It's like a little bit of the, like what he's shared essentially. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Do we believe it? I still think, listen, he from what I remember, it's a minute since I read 10.3. He just kind of woke up in this fleshy experimental state and he doesn't see he claims to not have memories of before that time.
01:12:26
Speaker
And I think he's the Simmerik baby. I think I'm kind of holding to that theory. That was my, was I was going to say. Yeah. Where I think you know They killed the baby, but really, Cauldron probably grabbed it, and maybe they were experimenting on it, and that's who Chris is, and then he got out.
01:12:46
Speaker
That's what I think, too. I think that as well. What was mine? Mine was just that it was a Nilbog clone. A Nilbog clone. A little homeless type thing. yeah but That would make sense of why maybe, I don't know why Rachel would have met him, but why Amy might have met him is that Maybe at some point, um he was brought in in like a goopy, fleshy state.
01:13:08
Speaker
And so she watched Bonesaw help put him back together, kind of like she was doing for Ashley and other characters. Yeah. You know, Hedwood... knew Chris? Rachel, bitch. I had met him before.
01:13:25
Speaker
Right. Okay. That would also, it's funny because we're just going back to what we were just talking about, if it's a Simmerk baby, would also explain why maybe has a little bit of control over people like Amy. Yeah.
01:13:41
Speaker
That would do it.
01:13:44
Speaker
That would do it. Yep. ah me Thoughts thoughts on um on um
01:13:55
Speaker
Oh, I'll say my little thoughts then if you're thinking. ah No, or hold on. What's her name? Kenzie. Yes, that was my thing. Thoughts on Kenzie and her defense of Chris.
01:14:07
Speaker
I'm curious what guys thought about that.
01:14:12
Speaker
um I kind of forgot what she said. It's been a minute since I read it. Kenzie has a crush on him, and I'm not going to that for everything, but like... she talked about how, you know, all the times he, you know, he was an, ah little ass all the time, but also he took a genuine interest in what she was doing and, um, felt really, you know, kind of seen by him cause they were kids the same age around the same age. And, you know, she never really had any anything even approximating a friend really.
01:14:44
Speaker
So, um, yeah, I think it was a lot of, positive feelings that were maybe I do remember that now.
01:14:55
Speaker
that That in a good light, you would have been like, ah, that doesn't, no. yeah Definitely a rose-tinted look at things, hyper-imposed over Chris's behavior.
01:15:08
Speaker
I do think there's a possibility that Chris, if we're going with the assumption he's not really human, just... doesn't know how to relate to people. And since his whole existence is pain, he just kind of only knows how to do it in a sarcastic, negative way.
01:15:25
Speaker
So maybe there's some truth to it. Maybe. But also, it could just as easily just be... He's an asshole. And she interpreted his attention not as... Yeah. or she and She interpreted it as positive attention instead of like perhaps a bully learning his target's weaknesses.
01:15:47
Speaker
Yeah. And not to not to be like, oh, he's just a but he's just a teenage boy. like But like he's acting like a jerk teenage boy where it's like completely unnecessary. He doesn't need to be. And even though he is in a lot of pain and he doesn't know his backstory and he there's a lot of him feeling...
01:16:11
Speaker
you know, disconnected from himself even, his own identity. But like, everyone in this group has gone through bad shit, like, who can relate to what he has gone through. Like, Sveta, with the whole not knowing your history, not knowing your past, uh, uh, uh, freaking Vicky, for the whole, like, being stuck in a body that you're really not quite sure how to manage sometimes. Sveta as well.
01:16:40
Speaker
Like, being a kid and not having as much control as you would like to have. And because you're limited, because you're still just a child, like, and yet he acts like an asshole.
01:16:51
Speaker
So it's like, and I like Chris. I really do. ah But also the behavior.
01:17:03
Speaker
not great, especially. and I just feel for Kenzie, like, seeing that being like, but he's really nice sometimes. And it's like, okay, but if his default is to be an asshole, I think, I think Sveta says it or somebody says it, but the whole thing is like, if his default is to be an asshole and then every once in a while he remembers to be nice to you, like that's not a nice person.
01:17:27
Speaker
That's a bad, that's a mean person who is being manipulative at times. It's funny how we mentioned that Rachel ah knows who Chris is.
01:17:40
Speaker
Because it's it's funny how there's a lot of similarities between those two, right? Because Rachel has dog brain as a result from her shard. there's clearly a mental component to the shard latch on that can you know wildly impact your body.
01:18:00
Speaker
you know, mental state essentially. So if we give Chris the, the most generous version of he's still human, this is just a really weird trigger or something to that effect.
01:18:11
Speaker
I'm curious what, what that is. That's, that's activating for him. If it's something similar in that regard that he just got like, you know, asshole brain. Yeah. whatever yeah real Yeah.
01:18:25
Speaker
Yeah. Which I mean, being in pain all the time can most certainly affect the way that you interact with the world. so I mean, valid, but also.
01:18:37
Speaker
Yeah. As B for Rony points out, if he was the simmer baby, that would probably be more meaning that he was an Eidolon clone. And as we know, Eidolon is noted to be kind of an asshole.
01:18:51
Speaker
So he's Eidolon's son. just yeah yeah i was trying to come up with something like Smidolon or like... and Sponalon.
01:19:02
Speaker
Sponalon. Sponalon. Which, you know, I could see his powers being a subset of Eidolons, whereas Eidolon is just adopting powers as he needs them. Chris can change his form to fit what he needs.
01:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's his kind of similar. Maybe Eidolon unknowingly, just as he did with the Endbringers, create Chris. but maybe that's how That's what he tells his wife. Oh, there you go. sort Yeah.
01:19:26
Speaker
yeah I don't even I must have done it like the love of hamburgers. It's end preg. It's like end preg. End preg. Oh no. don't like that one. no's so Oh no.
01:19:37
Speaker
no Oh no. Interesting thought. and like i i don't like it. I can't believe you had that thought. I can't believe that thought. i have several questions. First of all how dare you.
01:19:52
Speaker
Eidolon got the Simrf in the prank. know? Ian says maybe Chris is the first power dog. Chris is a dog. Oh, no. Well, we know is not the first.
01:20:04
Speaker
Yeah, there's another dog. I said first. He didn't say first. That's Also, something about end peggers. But, you know. Okay. Come on. We almost got away.
01:20:17
Speaker
I'm sorry. Blame Nick. He put it in my mind. Inception. I can't believe he would do this. Nick, stop impregnating Alan's mind. That's your fault. I can't believe it. I'll never stop, Nick. I'll never stop.
01:20:29
Speaker
I'm all up in those grooves of his brain. Right? Cerebral and sass and he's just in my mind. Gross. Gross. What is wrong with you guys? 10.4. Yeah, 10.4. Before we do moving in we do this is um i found I found a comment that references something we've discussed on the podcast before and it just felt right to share.
01:20:51
Speaker
So on October 2018 11.52 a.m., on 10.3. insane noodly guy commented on ten point three All the Undeciders displaced, all of them, is Coyle Sniper in town?
01:21:05
Speaker
Yes. And I'm just like, oh other people made the joke too. Seven years ago, they made the same joke. ah This is just a move that we're still relevant so many later. We stand on the shoulder of giants.
01:21:24
Speaker
It's true. Thank you, Insane Noodly Guy, wherever you are. Yep. um Yes, the most dangerous villain, Coil Sniper. Coil Sniper, I'm telling you. Give a competent man a gun and they take over the entire world.
01:21:38
Speaker
Well, we'll get to competent person with a gun in a second. Because 10.4. So many chances. 10.4. Yeah, we'll have to speed run this. But only two of them have notes.
01:21:52
Speaker
Yeah, we do start to get into some blending for me as well. they Yes, absolutely.
01:21:58
Speaker
10.4. Teams across the city begin collaborating. Breakthrough investigates the Undersider's retreat with Kinsey's time camera, while March's team is after... And they discover March's team is after Perrion and Foyle.
01:22:16
Speaker
Yeah. yeah some get some I'm telling you, broken record here, but man, do I wish we were following the Undersiders. I know. one of those chapters. I really am starting to really like this new crew a lot. I'm really getting attached to them as characters, but I miss i miss our squad.
01:22:35
Speaker
I miss our warm squad. It hurts. I do love, though, I love Victoria's awareness of how how potent they are, though, because Tristan's like, what if we just go after Tattletail? like Come on, Shirley's not that big of problem.
01:22:46
Speaker
Victoria just goes... No, no, fuck no. but yeah It felt like, what's the ah what's the scene from X-Men where Pyro's like, I could kill the professor if you give me the chance.
01:22:59
Speaker
Magneto's like, Charles Xavier has done more for mutant kind than you could possibly imagine. That whole thing. It's a bit of that, but kind of flipped. Like, Victoria being like, don't even, you do not know who you're messing with.
01:23:12
Speaker
This girl just mock anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. This was a tasty little treat to see them again. A tasty treat for sure. Yeah. The time camera stuff is super cool as well as they're like trying to piece together how everything happened.
01:23:33
Speaker
Sucks for Imp's arm. That's unfortunate. Yeah. That's a hearsome rough, rough buddy. Holy shit.
The March Strategy and Cluster Powers
01:23:41
Speaker
And I don't know if it was named before, but is this the first time Fault Lines Crew's name has been mentioned?
01:23:47
Speaker
Because they have a good name now, and I'm like, I was taken aback by it. Yeah, it took me a second to realize. but they were theyre mentioned Their club that they worked out of was called the Palanquin.
01:24:00
Speaker
yeah Yes. So now it has become their team name. Okay, that's what I thought. Before it was just Fault Lines Crew. It was Fault Lines Crew. Yeah, which is awful name. still Fault Lines Crew.
01:24:12
Speaker
It's still Fall Line's crew, but that's just not a cool name. yeah well but You gotta put it on an LLC, then yeah, you gotta put Palanquin down. Palanquin is a much cooler name. yeah Palanquin's a much cooler name, and I'm so glad that they're there.
01:24:26
Speaker
I'm glad to see... and We'll get to that later, I guess, who's still around in Palanquin, but um i all of these people, seeing all these people back, I'm like, oh yeah, these are the characters I wanted to see again. Like, this group...
01:24:39
Speaker
The Underciders, Palanquin, they're some of the best ones from Worm. So happy to see them once again. so good. um Yeah.
01:24:52
Speaker
Let's see. ah We have a couple of fun things in here. Finally, i was i couldn't remember if it was true, but it seemed like it was true, but we didn't have confirmation. But now we do that Paris is a cluster.
01:25:07
Speaker
Yes. Oh, this is a definite conclusion that we have. Aeris is in a cluster, but he's not in Foil and March's cluster. he's in a different cluster. don't think so, even though that they're it seems like should be.
01:25:21
Speaker
I got a little lost in the weeds of these chapters. did did Was it said that that March and Foil are the only remaining members of the cluster? Yes, there was a third.
01:25:32
Speaker
And March drained them. They've been. yeah right better yeah March has done away with them. Yeah. March looking a little scary. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love it. I'm kind of totally here for it. I actually wish we had more. Like, I want more March. So, like, March scary, bad. But also, more March, please.
01:25:56
Speaker
Very interesting character, for sure. um I mean, seeing her powers in the... Yeah, the aesthetic's great. Seeing her powers in the fight with the Fallen was really cool. yeah Yeah. um yeah eat Very cool vibes.
01:26:11
Speaker
um And it's it's funny because when we were first introduced to March, I had just... The whole bunny motif is funny because I had just watched the Devil May Cry anime that came out on Netflix. So did we.
01:26:24
Speaker
so And I was like, ah! So we talked about this before. Adaptation VFX. who has made a bunch of worm animations and is still working on the Leviathan fight, which is supposed to be like a big project for them, was working on a bunch of Netflix animated shows.
01:26:41
Speaker
One of which was the Devil May Cry show. Now, I don't know if they did the input on that, but when I first saw that and that they had kind of a time, you know, of White Rabbit, you know, goes with it.
01:26:53
Speaker
I was like, What are the odds that they March haired that whole thing? um Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Very cool.
01:27:04
Speaker
Well done. Bernard asked, in and we kind of answered how we feel about March. i am always nonplussed with March. March is just such a mech character to me. um Really cool that they're just shooting people with a sniper.
01:27:18
Speaker
It's just Coyle's sniper. And ah aesthetic and vibes carries March very far, I will say. would say those are what take it down for me.
01:27:29
Speaker
I think she gets lost. oh no. I love a theme. I love a theme. Yeah, but I hate a rabbit and marching band theme. ah no What were you saying, Jacob? She gets lost. in no Yeah, I think she gets to there's there's so many characters and so many powers just kind of gets less lost a bit.
01:27:49
Speaker
But excited for the dynamic between her and foil, which I'm hoping is explored a bit more because I do love a good foil. I hope so, too. Yeah, foil's great. Yeah, i ah I really like the dynamic also with ah the cops showing up.
01:28:04
Speaker
Being like, with the camera being like, hey, why what what you doing over here? I'm making it real. all looks semi-realistic, too. So they're like, it's fake. It's holograms.
01:28:16
Speaker
We're just running a sim. Turn the opacity down. What are cops doing here? I'll be honest. Like, what are they going to do? ah My question, everything going to go outside. There's, listen. All right now. ah But like, I mean, it's easy to forget, i think, that there are so many just normal, regular human people out there.
01:28:35
Speaker
Because like, there are so many regular human people out there. So like, the cops are there to deal with like, human on human shit. Like the day-to-day human stuff. stuff. They truly are there just for the traffic violations. was going to say that they they're the um like the line leaders, you know, in school, the teacher is like, all right, you can you can stand here in front of these people.
01:28:58
Speaker
And you all stand against the wall. Yeah, but the hall monitors. Yeah. Exactly. Aw. Yeah. i love that they act like cops too. There's like so, they're so predictably cops. He's like, you go stand over there with that notepad and look like you're doing something. It was so funny.
01:29:15
Speaker
Oh, it got me really good. Good shit. Good shit. um And over here, Bernard asked about, a shot is March shout out to Alice in Wonderland?
01:29:27
Speaker
um Perhaps partially, i would argue that it's probably closer to the idiom that ah March hair comes from in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
01:29:39
Speaker
um Because there's a British term, say, Matt is a March hair, because how crazy hairs get ah during spring when they're, you know, fucking like rabbits. Like bum-bums.
01:29:50
Speaker
So ah to say, and we've talked, March is an unstable individual. So I think it has to do more with that than the Lewis Carroll part.
01:30:05
Speaker
Yeah. A little wacky doodle. Also, who doesn't love a theme?
01:30:12
Speaker
Alan. sure True, true. Alan. It's Alan. It's Alan. Alan doesn't like it. It's me and Vicky. We just don't like certain, you know, outfits. Oh, I love it.
01:30:23
Speaker
I love it.
01:30:26
Speaker
Moving on. ah No, we were, we, how can we talk about, Perri-Ann has a clothing line and a manufacturing business. Oh, yeah.
01:30:37
Speaker
Makes sense. Because we don't have those EPA or what is it? The EPA five rule where you can't profit off of your powers. And meanwhile, she's just chugging out a factory full of clothing. Yeah.
01:30:50
Speaker
Yeah. Right. um Yeah. ah And we'll get to the other parts that enjoy. um with more people in 10.5. Also, Becky has multiple of her sweatshirts, she says. Of course. She's like, oh got like four of her clothing of Brockton Bay. I mean, a man i mean yeah represent and not imagine that. Imagine if you will someone that someone you know had designed merch for something that you love.
01:31:15
Speaker
And imagine if you will also being that related to Brockton Bay. And imagine if you will also purchasing that merch in support of those things. Where could somebody find that kind of merch if they wanted to support in Brockton Bay?
01:31:29
Speaker
You know, that's such a great question. I'm so glad you asked. I think if one were in fact, support ah that that merch, that Brockton Bay merch, that Brockton Bay's merch, ah you could perhaps find the link to that in um our description.
01:31:49
Speaker
In the description. in the description of this this video or this podcast or wherever podcasts are found. yeah you know? i bet you i bet you I bet you if you looked, you'd find a link. I bet you. Shut up.
01:32:03
Speaker
yeah All right. ten point five and by five and point five 10.5?
01:32:09
Speaker
10.5. 10.5. 10.5. Breakthrough. I feel like we've kind of touched on this a bit, but we'll we'll go through it. Breakthrough describes the scene to the police, then goes to meet Fallon's crew who have been hiding.
01:32:23
Speaker
Tattletail, March is trying to drain clusters, goddess style. Yeah. So we kind of talked a bit about this one already, but I do find it interesting that this is sort of March's promise is like, hey, team up with me. I'll teach you how to drain your cluster.
01:32:40
Speaker
um Boy, have I heard that promise before. yes Yeah, yeah. They have Instagrams for cluster draining if you enjoy those.
01:32:53
Speaker
I don't think you can find that on Instagram, but maybe. it's Cluster draining, pimple popping, you know, that kind That's disgusting. See, Alan was thinking something else because it's Alan. What were you thinking, Alan?
01:33:04
Speaker
I was thinking about powers. yeah Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this where we meet the rest of the of of the new Palinquin? yeah no yeah Yeah. So I do love Gregor and Shamrock are still together. They're married. they got married. You know what?
01:33:28
Speaker
Gregor deserves this. Gregor deserves this. He does. that Gregor is a great, great guy. um We've got Whippersnap Wright is part of this group. ah he but My favorite guy. I love the one that's like, Whippersnap, search them. and i just imagine he's like... Just with weirdly long limbs.
01:33:43
Speaker
was like wow pop pop pop popp as with like weirdly long limbs he looks I'm trying to imagine so what machines are that have like the little wappy slappers i i be clever If it's in the car wash or like there's something in my head that I can see.
01:34:04
Speaker
yeah but The car wash is right where it's got like the rolling thing, but it's like all the the flappy, flappy bits. it ah His whole look is literally, ah because also shout out first like true speedster we've gotten, I think, in the entire universe other than like Velocity.
01:34:22
Speaker
was like, what do be we have the Tinker spot Speedsters? yeah and Yeah, I'm not talking Tinkers because Tinkers are, we all know that. Yeah. um But his whole look is if he was running too fast in the wind and it just made his face and body permanently like that. like that is He just looks like the cinnamon stick from Apple Jacks. some great fan art of him. I'll post it in the Patreon text channel. Yeah, please do. it was the Yeah, let's check out the Patreon text channel. It didn't quite
01:34:56
Speaker
and quite work That is horrifying. He looks like salad fingers in that one. he does look like salad fingers. Oh my God. Except like the bulging eyes are worse somehow. Yeah.
01:35:07
Speaker
Also, as Ian was pointing out and Fran, ah you know, you're telling me that March's whole plan is to suck off your girlfriend?
01:35:17
Speaker
No. Exactly. Oh, looks like we have a second bingo from Wonderland. Poor Sveta. Should Rain make a move? Tattletail hype. And Gregor got married.
01:35:29
Speaker
Married. Wait, is that two for Wonderland? That is true. I just got my first one. Let's go! Yep.
01:35:39
Speaker
ye yeah love I love the new the new faces in the in the crew. It's great. Also, so i you know I like Faultline and hurt her crew. like Shamrock has one of my favorite powers, which is just the domino effect, the being super lucky.
01:35:54
Speaker
Gregor's an amazing guy, and Faultline pisses Tattletail off, and it's just generally cool. for that None of that being her power. like Her power is a whole separate issue that never gets used, and she's still better than Tattletail.
01:36:08
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's good. um Good team. We also see some of the other members of the Undersiders that didn't get much highlighted but in Worm like Chicken Little.
01:36:21
Speaker
Chicken Little! um Stuff like that. So I i did enjoy that. um There was a a Rain and Kenzie moment that I noted because I thought it was where Kenzie's talking about like, be careful. This is...
01:36:34
Speaker
my this is just the one camera and he's like is it he says is that just the one because it's special or because it's your last one rain asked both it's both
01:36:46
Speaker
ah child there's also the point later where she's like come on rain i got the innuendo before you did jesus but yeah exactly It's so good. love i I love, even if it's just a little bit and it's temporary and it's a bit coerced, I do love the Tattletail Breakthrough Team-Up.
01:37:06
Speaker
I'm here for it. I'm like, yes. It's like, listen, you know, keep your friends close, your enemies closer, but as a dang good enemy to keep close and on your side, let me tell you.
01:37:18
Speaker
um Yeah, let's see. ah Do we notice anybody else? congratulations, Bernard, on getting a bingo. Very nice. right yeah Anybody else you recognize?
01:37:33
Speaker
there There was somebody else I can't remember. The lace girl, Chantilly?
01:37:40
Speaker
yes. Wasn't Chantilly one?
01:37:45
Speaker
Not the one I was thinking of, but There's somebody we've seen before in Worm.
01:37:54
Speaker
I'm pretty sure. meet up oh the other Meetup? Oh, the one who gets confused for Sveta all the time. Yes. Yeah, the the ribbon troll.
01:38:08
Speaker
Oh, Troshka. You know, the Russian nesting dolls. Oh, yeah. All the way back. That's right. yeah Wow, that was forever. When she first got pulled through and they were in, um they were in, ah where is it? In Wisconsin.
01:38:27
Speaker
yeah Madison. I think it was. Because they're in the. Oh, the center thing. Yeah, Madison. Right. Yes, yes, yes. um Because we see that group of people there and she's one of them and she has the ability where she like holds people. She kind of starts to absorb them so she can like get some of their memories and a little bit of like powerage. But if she keeps them in for too long, she like absorbs, absorbs them.
01:38:52
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, she can keep just unfurling kind of a bag of withholding or bag of holding. just Yeah. Like Tattletail's buried all the way down in there. Yeah.
01:39:03
Speaker
It was pretty neat. It's just like, that's one way to get around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't track you. You're basically like a non-person for a little bit. It's pretty cool. yeah Pretty neat.
01:39:16
Speaker
And you have all the baby heroes and villains around. I don't know if anyone's... I just had to make it the comparison because... Gen V just finished the boys spinoff, which I have thoughts on. We'll come back to you later from comparison points.
01:39:28
Speaker
But there is there is a character in Gen V whose power is he has a black hole in his asshole and he can he can store people inside of himself and then like pop them out later. Yeah, it's great. No, no, no. I was just very similar.
01:39:46
Speaker
but Essentially what happened. Exactly the same. yeah fact yeah Completely the same. yeah ah Man. That's awesome.
01:39:58
Speaker
One other thing with this. Let me make sure I understand the draining. so What Tattletail says is like my the the way the draining works is you keep them in proximity to you, you weaken them, and then you sort of shunt their passenger piece into you through a weakened state confusing the passenger kind of.
01:40:22
Speaker
Yeah. It's an interesting... Something like that. Yeah. But then, so what what doesn't... check out with that for me is that Gada said a member of her cluster had gotten away almost making it sound like this person i'd been keeping them alive and using them but they got away and took their power back And now I found them again and took care of them. So it's like this... That's the one piece that doesn't quite fit together for me. And I think they kind of catch on to that. Like, I don't know if this is entirely accurate.
01:40:58
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. It's odd. Also, don't forget, we haven't gotten the resolution of ah Snag's, right? Snag's interlude when he dies and has the like...
01:41:12
Speaker
the moment in their like shared dream state ah where he's still sort of conscious there or like the sharded version him And he sees the other member of them or like, cause it's all cloudy, but he can kind of see at that point, but we don't see it, but he does.
01:41:30
Speaker
So like there's, there's some, ah I have a feeling we're coming back to that at some point in some capacity. And we yeah we've had that moment too, where rain sort of, like implores for power and it seems like maybe the passed away member of their cluster gave him a little boost.
01:41:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So there's kind of a, like, it's a bit more complicated, I think, than Tattletail is implying. Yeah. perhaps yeah Perhaps that is a method, but not the method Goddess was using, for example, right? It could be right multiple methods or something like that.
01:42:04
Speaker
Yeah, um because we talked about that not every cluster, no other cluster... like other clusters don't work like their dream cluster did with the rooms. So they work in different ways. But we also talked about how perhaps goddess literally kept ah her cluster mates in close physical proximity for a long time as opposed to March's method which kind of feels like something you could do over the course of like a week a month type thing like yeah goddess had her cluster like physically around her for and
01:42:42
Speaker
And then like could maybe start doing the thing where she goes out and operates with that power because the power is like kind of half asleep and then goes, oh wait, you're not the person that I'm supposed to be following, but because the cluster makes it gets confused all the time.
01:42:58
Speaker
um and and Which we never found out who the though they were,
Shard Interactions and Team Dynamics
01:43:03
Speaker
right? The battery. She just says that she got them back and then that was that and we were all like that. And it doesn't matter because you're fucking dead.
01:43:10
Speaker
Yeah. That's true. Sucks to suck. Yeah. That's true. Well. It does in fact suck to suck. Sucks to drink. Wait, okay, no, Lady in Blue is dead, but that we don't know if her cluster mate's dead.
01:43:24
Speaker
no no, we don't know if the cluster mate is dead. We're saying but ah Lady in Blue is dead, so. Right, like so her cluster mate, who may now have all of her powers, is just running free?
01:43:35
Speaker
We don't know if she has all of her powers. That is a good point that she could, yeah you know, somehow get powers. but That's something I had not thought about. More than likely, if they operate slightly the way that Rain's cluster does, nobody's getting extra powers from one of them being dead.
01:43:53
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah, would have I guess that's true. and like You would have to drain them before you kill them, essentially. Yeah. Okay, all right. I'll mentally backburner that. Yeah, which is what the whole three stand would stand on. We do want to come back. I do want to come back to that.
01:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, that cluster made at some point be interesting. Yeah, don't want to just leave that hanging because it like, okay, it's one of those things where like you don't point something out in a book or a movie unless it's important, right?
01:44:20
Speaker
But Welbo does that all the time. He points out things constantly and you never know if it's going to come back and it's ab important or not. So like i'm just going to kind of like
01:44:32
Speaker
Yeah. Back there with everything else. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I've got the perfect prop for this. and Put a pin in it. Yep. Put a pin in it. There you There you go. After crooked, but it's fine.
01:44:44
Speaker
um I do love, love the description of like how, I mean, in a grotesque way, how you confuse the shard. ah like Yeah, just get as close as physically possible to it.
01:44:57
Speaker
Blood, skin, Blood, skin, bathe in it, wear it, you know. I will say, like, then the This could also fit in really well, though. This theory could fit in really well the kiss-kill theory.
01:45:12
Speaker
theory, right? Whereas like the shards want to be close to each other. They're almost magnetically attracted to each other. So how do humans express the desire to be close to one another? Either you want to be with them so badly, you know, you're attracted to them, you lust after them, or you're so like envious of them, you can't help but want to be them and even kill them.
01:45:35
Speaker
Like there's sort of that like... Where their skin is a suit. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. close. yeah and it and Yeah, it's just weird because we've seen like when the shards have come down. i want to say, I'm trying to remember who was it in my head that was getting attacked in the alleyway and the shard went to go for the dad and then it was like, wait a minute.
01:45:58
Speaker
No. Was it Shadowstalker? was like, wait, I don't want to go for the dad. It was the Shadowstalker interlude, I believe. It also kind of had that and that moment with Ashley too, I think, maybe.
01:46:12
Speaker
Well, no, there's one with the where the pat we're following the power. Literally, the shard coming down. And the shard... I think... remember I think this is in the alien interlude, but the one of the shards comes down. It's not Emma, it? It's not Emma. Bernard said imp, maybe?
01:46:29
Speaker
Which might be true. I think it might have been in back. Oh, that actually, know, I think right. Yeah. We're watching it. It comes down because the daughter and the dad are getting mugged. And... um And it starts to go to the dad and then it goes, no, at the last minute and transfers over to the daughter because they were like, it's like, ooh, somebody of this day DNA strand.
01:46:52
Speaker
I could go either way. And then it goes to the the daughter instead of the father. um So we know that like that, the brothers, like, ah you know, how that worked out. Like the fact that shards do work with DNA, like,
01:47:08
Speaker
like passing down through families. Yeah.
01:47:14
Speaker
So. um Yeah. ah Do we move on Yeah. That kind of got us into more than 0.6. Yeah. Perfect. But we'll go through. Yeah. i want to talk about chicken little.
01:47:27
Speaker
Is that six? yeah and yes yeah yeah yeah yeah um Yeah. Yeah. 10.6. Tattletail gives a breakthrough a list of targets to hit, including love lost.
01:47:38
Speaker
She tells them how cluster mates can drain power. The teams intermingle briefly and Sveta gets mad at Ashley. Hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:47:51
Speaker
Yeah, so kind of talked a little bit about the draining power thing. um yeah It's interesting. Tattletail's like, hey, you should talk to Love Lost, Rain, like because Cradle's either gonna... like March is either gonna go for Cradle or for Love Lost.
01:48:05
Speaker
And... she's obviously going to go for cradle. Like he's the most logical option. You said no to her. So why would she pick love loss over cradle? So it was kind of this like, yeah, go, go talk to cradle and maybe you guys can work together. Yeah.
01:48:20
Speaker
And then the next eat thing is like, who's the easier target love lost. Who doesn't have a great team around her or you who does. And then he can use her power to come beat up you.
01:48:33
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Exactly. Exactly.
01:48:38
Speaker
Exactly. um Yeah, wanted about Chicken Little. Chicken Little and Kenzie, literally. I just want Kenzie to have friends her age so much.
01:48:50
Speaker
So much.
01:48:53
Speaker
And it's...
01:48:55
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate her restraint so much for not asking for contact info because that's one of her rules is she's not allowed to get contact info from people. But then it Sveta who's like, should you guys, you guys want to exchange contact info? I think it's Ashley, isn't it?
01:49:12
Speaker
Oh, I think it is Ashley. You're right. She's like, hey, do you guys want to exchange contact info? like, yeah, we should. like, yeah, I'd really like that. Like, oh, oh, yay.
01:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, which I'm surprised Tattletail didn't shoot that down. Just like, no, no, no, not with her power. Absolutely the fuck not. Well, Tattletail was inside of a Russian nesting doll at that time. Yeah, she was. She couldn't say anything. Tattletail would have for sure been like, fuck no. Probably would have shot that down.
01:49:42
Speaker
ah But yeah, no, Chicken Little, he's like ah cute. He's so sweet. And he's our he's our ah our our he's our shard son for Taylor.
01:49:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He's our little bird boy. Little bird boy. So sweet. Also, he's so grown up. Like, in my head, he's like eight. He's not eight anymore. So, yeah, he's like, what, 12 now? 12 or 13, something like that. Kenzie's 11 12, I think we said, so...
01:50:12
Speaker
eleven or twelve i think we said so Because I mean, we met him at the very end of Wyrm, right? with that he think he was. Yeah. and I'll look it up to see how old he is Yeah. but I mean, kind yeah, you can ask.
01:50:27
Speaker
Right, yeah. So he's like, but he's basically close to Kenzie's age, like the closest to Kenzie's age. Like, oh, so sweet. Yeah, Kenzie needs friends. love that all the bullet shells come out as tiny birds.
01:50:42
Speaker
sort cut key He's 10 at the start of Ward. oh he's 10. He's a little younger. yeah oh my gosh. So he triggered at like really young. I thought it was 8, apparently at 7.
01:50:58
Speaker
um Taylor brings him in at 5, and then he has his moment talking about the whales at 7. Yeah, that's right. Oh, my God. 7 years old.
01:51:09
Speaker
Oh, my God. Okay, we're not going to think about that. no crazy ah yeah oh yay yay children in trauma you'll love to see it no no no but no that's great exchanging them like just chit chatting and exchanging info I love that and Chantilly and oh um yeah that was that was tough
01:51:44
Speaker
Because, okay, it sounds like part of Chantilly's um thing is that her she she just is like Lacey.
01:51:57
Speaker
And you can like see into her, basically. Like her organs, skin, like through her skin. and like um But she's she's done her own design to it somehow.
01:52:11
Speaker
Because when Ashley's like, oh, I really like your dress. And, you know, Sveta has her little like, oh, well, you really aren shouldn't. Like, I know you're trying to be nice, but like you really shouldn't comment because you can't really do anything about it. And Chantilly's like, no, I did design it myself.
01:52:26
Speaker
Like, I don't understand. I don't think I understood.
01:52:32
Speaker
How does that make sense?
01:52:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. out and We don't really know much about about what her power is, though, at this point, right? No. yeah so we Alan, can you lend some sort of... like There's not much to be said about her, um other than her appearance is generally like, she is clearly a case 53, but she's semi-passable.
01:52:59
Speaker
um You know, almost in the sense that like... Gregor with a hoodie on or like, you know, Realt could probably, you know, which which a lot of Case fifty three is are get really, we you know, we talked about this whole thing with, you know, lot of small communities where like, if others have an advantage that let them be more passable in society, then like, they kind of get pissy towards them because they get some of the advantages. And Chantilly is one of those people who,
01:53:34
Speaker
It didn't feel like Chantilly was showing off. And Sveta was, you know, Sveta, I get It sucks. Already, it's been a day.
01:53:46
Speaker
It's been a long day, starting with the thing and being very aware of their body. And... man, sure. Or just kind of feeling hypersensitive to this. Like, can you believe that bitch showing off her hands, her human like hands?
01:54:02
Speaker
What a bitch. And I was like, Jesus, likeveta like like, No, because, no, I don't think so. Because she wasn't even going to say anything. She wasn't going to say anything. And it's Vicky, she sees her. She realizes, like, oh, she needs sha needs vent.
01:54:19
Speaker
And she, like, pulls her away, gives her that space to vent. like Yeah. Oh, i feel for Sveta. Oh, absolutely. he does She does so good. She does so much.
01:54:32
Speaker
And then to feel like you do so much and it's not enough. like Especially this coming off of the conversation about Weld. And like Weld's about to come home. like This is all fresh in her mind. Sveta.
Team's Encounter with Anti-Parahuman Groups
01:54:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:54:54
Speaker
We still need a... I mean, we don't need a Sveta interlude. We've got a lot of her story, but I would love a Sveta interlude just for POV's sake. Me too. yeah so As Fran puts out, everybody should be pissed off at Shamrock.
01:55:08
Speaker
She's a Case 52 and all she has is the tattoo and good luck. yeah It's giving the... ah Oh, man. What's the movie where they're like, oh, we're all damaged. oh Oh, damn it. It's an X-Men joke. It's an X-Men joke, right? Where it's like...
01:55:23
Speaker
Is that what it There's a cure for being a mutant. And one of them's like, we don't need a cure. We're perfect the way we are, says the most perfect, beautiful woman with the power to control weather.
01:55:36
Speaker
Yeah. yeah like But what if there's a cure for us, says the woman with chainsaw hands. Yeah. yeah Exactly. As Beefaroni points out, Shamrock, we forgot, Shamrock did have a horrible mutation because she has red hair.
01:55:52
Speaker
so she's got to live it better that's going to follow her really what we're saying is Gregor is really stooping to her level and like really serving her by being yeah she married up excuse me oh Michael I didn't see you there
01:56:17
Speaker
Ben is red beard just glowing in the lamplight not that serious michael michael we can find that cure probably the audio Also, as someone who has dyed her hair as someone who's dyed her hair ginger for many years of her life.
01:56:34
Speaker
Willingly?
01:56:36
Speaker
Willingly dyed her hair red many times in her life.
01:56:44
Speaker
Love the children. Offense taken. has taken Offense taken. All right. Let's ah do we want to just knock all of these out in one go? kind of feel like we can do seven, eight, nine together. Yeah. I think we can. Yeah, let's do it. It's a lot.
01:57:01
Speaker
All right. you ten points i don't really have notes. Breakthrough surveils Love Lost's group. Communicate with Citrine for confirmation.
01:57:11
Speaker
and the anti-parahuman citizens meet with Lovelost. 10.8. Lovelost's group notices breakthrough, so the team retreats. Antares, Tress, and Precipice fight Lovelost's tinker, and the team destroys guns that the anti-parahuman people were selling. 10.9.
01:57:31
Speaker
ten point nine
01:57:35
Speaker
Breakthrough tracks down the remains of Kinsey's camera, questions Side Piece and Disjoint with Advance Guard, and releases them to misdirect Love Lost about Cradle.
01:57:49
Speaker
and All I have to say is that the show they're watching, which is actually the surveillance, Blood Atoll, it's just one piece, right? like That's just the vibe I got. was It's just one piece.
01:58:00
Speaker
Yeah. They're just watching one piece, but it's not one piece. Rotoscoped. Yeah, this is so funny.
01:58:10
Speaker
Yeah, I really didn't have much for these. Honestly, they were... Weirdly, for the action scenes, it felt very bland. I don't know why exactly. um I think the Tinker's power is cool. The Tinker's power is really cool.
01:58:25
Speaker
Like, that was dope. Lightning tinker equipment to turn yourself into lightning. like that's Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. yeah I will say this is the first fight that I have not completely glazed over for.
01:58:41
Speaker
Perhaps that's how short it is. Because we almost got there at the end where I'm like the like ripping up the stuff out of the ground and I'm like, I could feel my eyes just like doing the glaze and then yeah we finished.
01:58:57
Speaker
but Because the fight's like half of 10.8. So it's not even a full. Yeah, which is you know, a good amount of time for me.
01:59:09
Speaker
I feel like that is an appropriate amount. Once again, not my favorite fight. but one of the easiest to read that we've had so far. Yeah, for sure.
01:59:22
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it felt very, very A to B, right? Where it's like, Tinker wants to get from point A to point B. We yeah need to stop him. It's very clear, like, what everybody's objectives are.
01:59:33
Speaker
So I think that that does help with clarity. It really does help. Whereas like in other fights, it's like a lot of bad guys, a lot of good guys. They're all mixed in together. They're all fighting each other. It's chaos. Yeah. Yeah. That is, that's very true.
01:59:45
Speaker
It's very true. Um,
01:59:53
Speaker
uh,
01:59:57
Speaker
beefaroni these two chapters have some interesting scenes victoria telling kenzie do what you can and and rain saying you can't enhance enhance enhance like guys these are the two worst things you could say to kenzie
02:00:13
Speaker
ah yeah yeah work on it till it gets done is probably gotta be the worst thing you can tell kenzie good god bunty for real Was that your Yes. I think that was funny jumping on my piano. yeah know That's funny.
02:00:29
Speaker
That's funny. funny i do I do find it interesting. the one The one interesting bit here for me in 10.7 at least was the the fact that they're communicating with Citrine and they're like, hey, what do we think about this? And she's like, yeah, good to Go go for it.
02:00:44
Speaker
So it's this weird, you know, they mentioned the tension of like, we know who you are. and But you're the governing authority right now. So we're going to ask you for permission. But like, it's this weird push-pull thing that I do. I do like that building tension there.
02:01:00
Speaker
Yeah. I think so too. Side piece is funny. I do. i do think side piece is funny. Is side piece funny? know. no In the sense of like... It got old a little quick.
02:01:12
Speaker
It did get old quick. I was listening to the ah the audio. The fuck you, fuck this, fuck that. Okay, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Listen, that's my first favorite F word.
02:01:24
Speaker
Okay? Look, I get it. I use that word fucking lot. It was too much. Oh, my God. Maybe reading it was funnier than hearing it spoken out loud, but it was... I could believe that. Probably. To me... yeah me it is It is funny more in the sense of like the person just, you know, like in um what it kind of reminded me of and in Home Alone where the robbers keep saying like they're muttering under their breath, but they say no real cuss words. It's like almost that vibe. It's like, that's just what I imagine Side doing half the time.
02:01:56
Speaker
And that is amusing to me. There was a quote, though, where she's like, um she makes fun of Shortcut's costume. And he says, well, this costume is focus group tested, moron, Shortcut said. And she replies, the Jeep, Rockabye, the Round Phone, and the second Iron Giant movie. So good for you. You're in shit company. Oh, my God.
02:02:19
Speaker
I'm sorry, second Iron Giant movie? There we go. i was wondering when somebody was going bring it up. sorry. you The what? The round phone? And I'm like thinking about what the Jeep Rockaby would be and I'm thinking of like, it's like a cradle but it's in the shape of a Jeep. It's like the Jeep Rockaby. Amazing. Oh my gosh. Okay, but you know how many parents would actually do that?
02:02:46
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah. Like Jeep owners, like they'd get tiny, tiny ducks put on the windshield of their tiny, tiny Jeep. think the phone was like a puck.
02:02:57
Speaker
Was it like a puck shaped or like a sphere? like go Like a little. Ooh, yeah. Okay, so they so they they have like the circle system, right? Kind of on their phones. Rotary. The OS. The rotary, right. It's sort of like a rotary thing. So I do imagine it could be like a puck.
02:03:13
Speaker
Like a rotary puck. It's just rotary puck. just a rotary puck. just a pokeball. It's just a pokeball. Maybe it's a pokeball. Yeah. Have you guys seen, have you guys seen the phones? So back when like landlines and every, like all the kids had a landline in their room, but they had like the cool fun themed ones.
02:03:29
Speaker
There was one that was like a burger, but it was like a round, like round. And it would like pop. So it was a puck. It was just like, there were parts of it. Right. I don't know if it like went like this or if it just like came off the top.
02:03:43
Speaker
It opened up. and you spoke i don't I don't actually know how it worked. I didn't i wasn't cool enough to have it. On one hand, Side Piece, I hate Side Piece's vibe of just being trashy. yeah On the other hand, there are some bangers in there.
02:04:01
Speaker
ah One of which is just you simply and ah calling good old Lisa Brattletail. it's a no one That's a good one. That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
02:04:12
Speaker
That's fair. Also, um you know, don't know where I fall on this, but her bothering disjoint earlier being like, come on, you don't need it. You're not using it now. I could use it.
02:04:24
Speaker
Just pop it off. Just let me have it. And he's like, no, you're going to misplace it. You lose everything. It's what you do. like no and it's like yeah and it's gonna blow me up if you do that like if you you know do anything wrong so i either lose it fucking get it blown up not doing either like no Well, that's more what I mean. Not so much that when she's intentionally trying to be funny, it's not that funny. It's more just like she's funny by accident, stuff like that. Like you're going to misplace it.
02:04:55
Speaker
She's like, no, I'm not. When she's just saying fuck you and being like, I don't know, like I said, just trashy in general. Belligerent. Speaking of getting belligerent. It's not a fantastic power.
02:05:08
Speaker
As ah Wonderland gets a third bingo and asks, soo are we getting blackout tonight?
Future Interludes and Character Fate Speculations
02:05:15
Speaker
oh ah Man, we are pretty close and it looks like we've got, oh, two is that two more bingos? Kenzie made a friend.
02:05:23
Speaker
Cluster theories, poor Sveta, cat on screen. And then Kenzie made a friend. Someone recognizes Matryoshka. Is side piece funny or annoying? And then Chris theories. Let's go. That's accurate. That's pretty spot on bingo.
02:05:38
Speaker
I and know that it's just things that she says, right? Where she's like, Victoria's like, she's dealing with the anti-parahuman group. How does that make sense? And Side Piece just goes, pretty sketchy. I wasn't about that. Stayed home, diddled my boyfriend.
02:05:52
Speaker
And Capricorn's like, stay diddled. It's just stuff like that where I'm like, she's a I hate her vibe, but just unintentionally is funny to me. Yeah. i don't know. Yeah.
02:06:03
Speaker
I do think probably reading her would have been a lot funnier just because it's like yeah she's just got like this side. You make up like your own voice. Talking mouth like she's talking. Yeah. As opposed to listening to it. You're like, I will say I did tune out this chapter a little bit just because I didn't want to hear her talk. and Yeah.
02:06:26
Speaker
Yeah. But to get through. And again, ah kind of, unfortunately, just with the way we're we're having to break things up, it just doesn't end very memorably. And there's still a lot on the table.
02:06:37
Speaker
ah So it's i and not a lot to cling to in my mind. I'm like, how did how did ah did it end? Yeah. It does mean we get to open with an interlude, though. We do. For the second half, which I'm excited about. There will be three interludes within the next time's reading. so yeah Make it up for lost time.
02:06:58
Speaker
Right? I mean, you read 15. All right. yeah So, you know, let's see um anything else we really want to talk about here.
02:07:10
Speaker
i feel like, and I feel like we hit, we hit all the stuff I wanted to talk about for sure. love this episode. All right. Well, let's, let's do real quick favorite powers.
02:07:22
Speaker
We had a few here. Had a few. Had a few. religion did um ah unnamed tinker power kind of goes hard. Like the... electric boy yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. The bracelets that put you into a breaker state to be electrical and just jumping between points using that power. I'm like, that's... Like, I mean, we don't even know what else he can do, but just that application of his power and it being a tinker power, meaning it might be transferable. It's got other things he can do with it. Like, pretty cool. Pretty simple, but I liked it. It reminded me of... um
02:07:58
Speaker
Oh, what is it? Not static shock, but I feel like there's a villain like that. It's in the Superman animated series. Yeah. Not killer shock. Who can turn into lightning or so She was the DJ. She's like the third of her name when it comes to the villains in the DC universe.
02:08:16
Speaker
But um yeah, she was a DJ who gets struck by lightning on a rainy day while doing a big concert thing and gets turned into living lightning. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, yeah.
02:08:29
Speaker
i'm strange To answer your question, Hannah, yes, I did.
02:08:35
Speaker
um For me, it's going to be our boy, our our new speedster boy with the wacky look. Whippersnap. Whippersnap. What a great ah look.
02:08:45
Speaker
What a great intro to his powers. Is it Powerline? It's not Powerline, is it? like that he does everything quickly, not just the thing you'd expect him to do. Just like everybody.
02:08:56
Speaker
His high five is at, you know, speed of sound. It's just, he only operates at that speed. Livewire. Livewire was the name of, there you go. The villain.
02:09:09
Speaker
No, the villain who, in Superman 1, who becomes living lightning and pops around and shocks me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was the music sharing platform.
02:09:23
Speaker
That would be like limewi lime lime wire. know, motherfuckers. Hannah was trying to tell a joke. Get mansplained, Hannah. Yeah, for real.
02:09:34
Speaker
Goddamn. I'll just go.
02:09:37
Speaker
I'll just go. It's fine. Mansplaining is when a man explains something or something. Motherfucker. I will suffocate you in your sleep. Bernard asks, who do you guys think the next interlude is about?
02:09:52
Speaker
If we want to guess. Oh, I hope it's someone from the undersiders. I would love for it to be an undersider. I think that would be really fun. no Give me a chicken little interlude. Give me a chicken.
02:10:04
Speaker
a lot A little chicken little interlude. A little chicken little. Little fried chicken little. just like building snowmen with the other kids and then all of a sudden like I'm getting her arm blown off and Tattletail's getting shot in the ass. Like, yeah. I have a feeling we're nearing the Chris interlude. So that's my logical guess. But I do hope if it's not Chris that it's...
02:10:26
Speaker
that it's something to do with the the bigger picture kind of going on here. So, uh, yeah, more than, ah more than likely. I'd, I'd like like a weld interlude or something. Right. Yeah. i mean That'd be great.
02:10:38
Speaker
Yes. He's coming home. um What are, what are your thoughts on, uh, any theory, more theories since we're in that area? Theories on, uh, I do think Rain's going to die. I just, for some reason, this half of arc up my, like if we're thinking about who in breakthrough would die, i think the odds of rain and Chris both dying have increased dramatically over the course of this arc.
02:11:04
Speaker
So for opposite reasons though, I will, I i think, yeah I think you're right, but I, I will push back only because it also feels like the kind of thing where wild bow would take the obvious choice and not do it, you know? So of course, yeah yeah. Maybe he's slated to die and, you know, Tristan jumps in front of the bullet or whatever it is, that kind of thing. So yeah, exactly. i'm from like But I do agree that of the group,
02:11:32
Speaker
he's He's the most tropiest to die at this point. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the most ready to die, honestly. ah You know what? um He's like, I'll never get with Aaron. I guess I'll just. I was going to say, no, no, no. He needs like have, here's what's going to happen.
02:11:52
Speaker
Actually, no, it's not what's going to happen. But like if this were any other Hollywood movie, he would be like about to go on his date with Aaron. Then Lev Loss catches up with him and absolutely so waters him.
02:12:05
Speaker
And then she's left thinking that he stood her up. She's at the restaurant waiting ah for him. Exactly. She's like waiting and she's waiting. She's not sure. That's the last we see of Aaron.
02:12:16
Speaker
yeah yeah I hate that. i know We'll run away together. We'll get away, put all this superhero, supervillain stuff behind us. We'll go to a cabin in the woods. I've got some friends, Kozin and Gru. I just gotta do one last thing.
02:12:29
Speaker
gotta do one last thing. gotta sign my retirement paperwork. Don't you worry. I'll be there. yeah you won't. you won't.
02:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, last questions. but pretty Pretty locked in. Problematic member is Chris. Or do we have... we i no for to do I think we're due a Vicky-splosion at some point, but the ah the Chris stock is is climbing pretty quickly. yeah i just I just want to keep riding the Vicky train because I'm like committed to the bit now.
02:13:02
Speaker
so Yeah. No, you kind of have to. I'm too far in to say it's not her, so I'm going to keep saying it's her. Fair. It's it's Chris. i i'm I'm doubling down. I mean, i've I've said it's one of the children for, I think, since from the beginning. I feel like I've said it's yeah it's yeah one of the babies. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Finish your thought. I'm still not convinced that, like, Kenzie isn't an absolute...
02:13:27
Speaker
trauma train and will cause immeasurable damage and irreparable damage ah quite soon, inevitably at some point. um But especially with the new info we have here with the whole Ashley thing saying like, oh,
02:13:43
Speaker
i oh I love that idea of Chris being like so much more of a bigger problem than anyone ever thought he was. And somehow this Yamada fucking knew. She fucking knew the truth and like wasn't able to say it because she's like, well, it's not my place to say.
02:14:01
Speaker
And she somehow knew. Like the Simmer thing could totally be a real thing. Like I am i am Chris all the way. client therapist goal posts privilege, you know, she can't share. And you did just say you did to say my thought, which is that the other interlude I would accept is Yamada, obviously.
02:14:17
Speaker
get a yamma interview Oh my God, I would love that. She's like out with her vegetables. She's gardening. And and i hanging out with Valkyrie. random world. You know, maybe, maybe good for her. This is one of the look, you can't save everybody.
02:14:32
Speaker
You need a vacation. and need to pardon your And Colin was like, take it from me as somebody who's a serial over worker. You're going to kill yourself and you don't have cybernetic implants to help you not sleep.
02:14:45
Speaker
So we're not going to take you back. If you want to walk back, it'll be a journey until then. you know, you're required to live here for a week.
02:14:58
Speaker
we've And she's like, you know what? You needed some vegetables. They did. They stopped by her apartment one time and were like, good God, I couldn't even get to the bed because of the pizza boxes. Like, Yamada, like, I know your job is helping people get their shit together, but like drink water, get some sun, a carrot. That's my kind of therapist, let me tell you. Yeah, they took her to a farm upstate.
02:15:23
Speaker
That's terrible. This is the only way to to do for herself what she tells everybody else to do. Exactly.
Closing Thoughts and Community Engagement
02:15:32
Speaker
Exactly. a lot She's earned her vacation.
02:15:35
Speaker
Right. ah Some cleanup stuff. Fran asked, what do you think Amy and Chris are doing? And Beefaroni said, not talking about their problems.
02:15:47
Speaker
ah no, no, no, no All they're doing is discussing how their problems are not their fault. Yeah, exactly. yeah And you know how Victoria is. Like, she always wants to be in control. And Chris is like, oh, my God, does she? Like, they're just egging each other on. Damn. No, I don't want to think that. I like i still like Chris.
02:16:05
Speaker
Fuck Amy. Chris is redeeming himself by not being subservient to Amy. like That is what it is. like If he was just like, yo, I'll follow Amy. Bitch, you touch me. on will kill you. so he's like He's like, no, I'm big boss. I'm big man on campus. Amy's like, yes, sir. I'm like,
02:16:25
Speaker
ah Okay, hear me out. What if, you remember the scene in Fugly Bob's Back and Worm, where Alec is like, i listening yeah listen, Taylor, what let's just torture your bullies.
02:16:36
Speaker
Like, what are we doing? Come on. what What if Chris was just like, Victoria doesn't have it in her. i got to take care of Amy here. I'll do it. I'll do it. My ma man.
02:16:47
Speaker
I'll dab him up. I'll dab him up if that's the case. Good boy. Good boy. Oh, God. Creepy crow number six banana creature. All is forgiven. Just bring it in Bring it in, Chris. No hug? Okay, that's cool. That's cool.
02:17:02
Speaker
Kenzie's still going to hug you for that one. He's not to. He's not supposed to, but, you know. mind, my mind. Hey, we are mind-melt. Okay. So a little little cleanup.
02:17:15
Speaker
ah We're going in two weeks. Michael, tell us what date that is because he's smart. But in two weeks, we will be reading ah Worm starting at the, or Ward is starting at the interlude, which I believe is ten point x to the end, which will be This should be the back 50,000 and change.
02:17:34
Speaker
um Like I said, three interludes. 11th, the 11th of November. All right. We'll be fresh back from the Ren Faire. Freaking year ago. About a year ago.
02:17:50
Speaker
um go And let's see, other cleanup things. um We were discussing in the Patreon chat about testing out feats of strength to show what our D&D attribute would be for that.
02:18:03
Speaker
um I could not find a log that was 200 pounds in my backyard. They're all about 75 pounds. So um I will work on getting one later. for that for next time but it's been rained out so couldn't uh i haven't been outside with the logs Uh, other things. Oh, our, uh, our full thing. We, uh, here's what we got from the bingo.
02:18:29
Speaker
Uh, we got somebody notices the second iron giant movie. We got cluster theories, cat on screen, recognizing Matryoshka shopping spree, TT hype, Chris theories, side piece, funny, annoying debate.
02:18:42
Speaker
Uh, should rain make a move debate? Poor Sveta. Kenzie made a friend. Gregor got married and fuck Carol. three that we didn't get were milk, fuck shortcut, because we forgot to say that, and Hannah spills something.
02:18:58
Speaker
ah Wow. That is mean. But imagine if they got it. yeah Right now. I got, i sadly, because I spent so so late doing this, um and and it was said from Waldo, man, just wait until Hannah spills some milk and swears at shortcut.
02:19:19
Speaker
That's how we could have brought on all this in.
02:19:24
Speaker
From not so certain, some suggestions that I, of course, was too lazy to put in I'm so sorry. Not so certain. ah Sveta wins Goat Award for telling Carol off. Very true. ah ah Theory about the clusters being a major threat to Ward as a whole.
02:19:41
Speaker
ah Proper nouns are mispronounced. um They are, but by Wildbo. ah Sveta is the problem Yamada wanted watched. um Theory. Okay, but Chris is coming back, right?
02:19:54
Speaker
um Which, you you know, we are theorizing. so yeah know ah Somebody completely fails to understand Blood Atoll and what's going on. And these chapters were boring, which...
02:20:05
Speaker
You know, I disagree. I really love these chapters. These are really easy for me to read. um Like not and like a difficulty of word sense, but just in like a digestibility sense.
02:20:16
Speaker
Really thought these were easy to go through. And um as Fran pointed out, there's a reminder that there was a Redditor who figured out months before anything about Chris's backstory um that they figured it out.
02:20:35
Speaker
damn
02:20:37
Speaker
So do we all need to like write down our theories? I guess this is our log. This is our and this is our this is our log. Yeah. We'll just keep doing that. We can go back and see who was the most right.
02:20:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Right. But ah that'll be being said. Thank you so much for chat. You're always helpful in helping us figure out yeah film um so Oh, I really appreciate it on your a game with the comedy. Keep that up.
02:21:05
Speaker
um And we really appreciate that. If you want to interact with us outside of this, of course, have the Patreon for as little as a dollar a month. Subscribe to that. We'd like to hear from you and you get more interactions with there.
02:21:20
Speaker
i know I've been a little bit lazy on that, but I'll try more. We've got some good Patreon content in the like archive. So if you're a new Patreon person, we have some old stuff that's great.
02:21:32
Speaker
And we've got some new stuff that we're planning too. So ah we might be slow on the delivery, but we are... is in the works. We're getting there. yeah Yeah. We also have lives. We're just reading 50,000 words and other things.
02:21:46
Speaker
ah But we do our best. We do our best. Yeah. Yes. Because we love you guys. Song? Anyone on the hero? Oh my gosh. Is it song time? Did you say a new one?
02:22:22
Speaker
Just signing up for our Patreon. It would be my pleasure to have you.
02:22:33
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I love that one. I forgot about that one. See you guys on the 11th. We appreciate you so much.
02:22:47
Speaker
Join the Patreon. Come support us and join the Patreon. Please help us and join the Patreon. We have fun. Join the Patreon. It's great now.
02:22:57
Speaker
Join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon?