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 - Episode 13
67 Plays16 days 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 8.81 to 8.Y - Beacon!
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, at https://www.etsy.com/shop/themademarion
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Topics Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody. Welcome back. We're live shenanigans off camera while they were muted. That's why they're all laughing. Hello.
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome. Good evening, Megacity. Tonight, these children, of villains or monsters, are We'll let the crowd decide.
Brockton Bay Book Club Introduction
00:00:26
Speaker
And ah recent break-ins in children's homes ah threatening their lives on the rise. What you need to know about being a lawyer in training and protecting young ones around you.
00:00:40
Speaker
All this tonight on the Brockton Bay Book
Initial Thoughts and No-Spoiler Policy
00:00:43
Speaker
Club. Let's go. there's Fun tangential fact to kick us off before we get started. It's actually pronounced Mige City.
00:00:56
Speaker
Oh my God. Sorry. No, no. I'll get us started and then I'll give us our fun fact. Well, welcome tonight. We are the Brockton Bay Book Club. ah We are a group of friends just recording and reading through Ward by JC McRae.
00:01:12
Speaker
If this is your first time,
Patreon Bingo Game for Patrons
00:01:14
Speaker
I'll go through and introduce us. I'm one of your hosts, Alan. Over here, we have Hannah. Hello. Jacob. Hello.
00:01:23
Speaker
Nick. Hello there. And of course, our most succulent of producers, ah Michael. Hello. Hello, guys. Delicious as always.
00:01:34
Speaker
Oh, my God. Right? So frothy. Yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker
ah Let's see. Well, man, my brain is freezing up on me because I'm still... What was your tangential fact? No, no, no. We'll get to the tangential fact in a second. That's most everything. What are we reading this week? We are reading 8.8 through The back half of the Arc 8.
00:01:53
Speaker
um the back half of the arc eight And boy, howdy, do we have thoughts. But before that, we also have, you know we do this live every Tuesday for those of you are not listening live.
00:02:05
Speaker
um and to You can join us, chat, give us ah suggestions in chat. ah No spoilers, though, as always. We appreciate we are reading for most of us the
Arc 8 Discussion and Ward vs. Worm
00:02:16
Speaker
first time. So we're going through this fresh and new. um So we're just going to treat it with the no spoilers for anything that's outside of what we have just read.
00:02:25
Speaker
um But if you do want to talk spoilers, we've got the award spoilers chat where you can participate by ah contributing to bingo, um which we were playing every week. um I do not have mine up, which I need to pull up, but we play bingo live and you can play along too. If you are a patron, you can contribute to the bingo sheet by going to our Patreon, a Brockton Bay book club on Patreon and subscribing for as little as a dollar a month.
00:02:50
Speaker
which gets you access to ah all the weird extra things we do. And we are starting to work on it. um but I think the last one was just a big my big list of anime recommendations.
00:03:02
Speaker
um It was the last one we were working on. And ah so, yeah. All that aside... Let's talk about this.
00:03:13
Speaker
ah What was everybody's initial thoughts on the back half of our state?
Character Development and Interludes
00:03:19
Speaker
Just know for
00:03:23
Speaker
a minute. I think I'm figuring out Ward a bit in terms of my enjoyment of it. Whereas, like, I'm starting to read it more the way I would read through Unfinished Tales or...
00:03:36
Speaker
excerpts from the Silmarillion, right? Where it's like, this isn't the story in this world that I love, but there's a lot of fun world building and other characters and this kind of stuff that just sort of adds greater context to this overall setting, which is a lot of fun.
00:03:54
Speaker
ah That being said, i don't think we needed three chapters for a talk show. And it was really interesting. Don't get me wrong. We'll get into it. I had a lot of fun with those chapters, but there's a lot of words dedicated to yeah a talk show appearance in this kind of setting.
00:04:16
Speaker
ah do wish we were elsewhere, but I'll get through it. I still liked the chapters. It was it was really interesting stuff, but overall, little slow. Yeah.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, i I think for the second half of the arc, it was interesting. i feel like it it set up a lot of interesting things for future arcs, which I'm you know kind of like you said, like, okay, there's a lot of other people who are fascinating that I'm curious to know more about.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, it it was fine. It felt pretty well-paced, but then I remembered it was only half of an arc, so maybe. yeah you know i was like, oh, wait. was only half.
00:04:51
Speaker
um I will say, i don't know if I just wasn't paying attention during Wyrm, but I feel like either he was writing faster or some... I feel like there's a lot more grammatical errors that just haven't been edited or fixed.
00:05:05
Speaker
like He hasn't gone back and looked at it as much maybe as he did Wyrm. um And it it feels like maybe... he's writing faster, but in a way that's leading, like you said, Jacob, to a bit more, a few more chapters that drag um where he's like writing more content, but not as as concise and not as, you know, just put together, if that makes sense.
00:05:29
Speaker
Not bad, but just something I noticed is it feels like there's a lot more recently I've noticed grammatical errors and stuff coming up. So, you know, points off if you were in my class, Mr. McRae.
00:05:42
Speaker
um I really enjoyed these chapters. i I actually really liked the talk show. I thought that was really fun. But I tend to enjoy chapters or arcs that are like action and talking and less like thinking and strategizing. I tend to get very much lost in the strategy. ah That's probably just because I don't have a good mind for it. But like usually i just feel lost.
00:06:06
Speaker
There are like points being connected sometimes where Victoria will be like, oh my gosh, I just got the connection. But then like John doesn't say what that connection is, and I don't understand what's happening. And it's like not until eight paragraphs later that I realize, oh, okay, he's trying to connect back to this.
00:06:24
Speaker
But like I didn't get it in the moment, and it didn't feel cerebral.
Ward vs. Young Justice: Transition Challenges
00:06:28
Speaker
It just made me feel stupid. So anytime we have action or like where things are clearly being spelled out and said and spoken, and it's happening out in the real world in real time with real words, like,
00:06:40
Speaker
I'm way more engaged in that and like, then I am in lots of like heavy packed action scenes, uh, where it's just a lot of like a punch and a throw. And I flew here and threw him over there. And so in that sense, I did really like these chapters because it is a lot of talking as opposed to as much of the like thinking and strategizing, um,
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think, ah Jacob, I think what you said is pretty pretty close to kind of how I've been approaching Ward as well. Just like, Worm is what I love. And Ward is in the same same universe, but like not in the same way that I like and love Worm.
00:07:23
Speaker
And so like reading it as these extra stories, continuation, but like nothing beats the classic kind of mentality a little bit.
Ward vs. Legend of Korra: Sequel Dynamics
00:07:35
Speaker
And there's hints of, I mean, we'll get to the interludes. I loved the interludes. Yes. You know, broken record here. Interludes were the best part of the arc. um Absolutely. And then there's more like, especially Scapegoats interlude was so good. It was fantastic.
00:07:49
Speaker
And I'm like right back in it. It's like, here we go again. We're we're we're cooking. So yeah, it does it comes waves.
Victoria's Heroic Strategy vs. Taylor's
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. yeah i hey It's so inconsistent, which I think is that but the the story of The story of Ward um is there are moments where overall i I read through most of this and I was like, man, this was good, I guess. There were chapters that I just kind of glazed over because like we didn't need three
00:08:25
Speaker
things for the interview, but I enjoyed them almost separately and then kind of glazed over one so one of them because it was just boring. And then, but then there's moments inside those chapters that I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
00:08:39
Speaker
And then we're lost me again. um And then of course the interludes are always just really good. And, um you know, maybe that's just because they're so separate almost from the larger.
00:08:53
Speaker
They're not separate completely separate from the larger story, but in the narrative sense, like we're not following this one group exclusively. um They're just kind of outside of that, which is nice.
00:09:05
Speaker
um There's a lot that I like in this chapter that builds on everything that we've been moving past and through and um I kind of wonder if reading this as a full arc, how it would feel with like kind of slow action in the middle.
00:09:23
Speaker
And then, you know, ending on kind of this cliffhanger conspiracy note. Like, yeah, I think as an arc, it's got everything in it, but you know, i can't, I tried reading this when it was coming out.
00:09:45
Speaker
um I just kind of fell off just because I was busy. But I kind of can't imagine reading this as not one continual thing. um
Victoria's Past and Influences
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I think it's difficult to do that. Did anyone watch Young Justice, the DC animated show? Watch the first season. little bit. and think First season is peak. It's fantastic. Some of the best storytelling DC has done in the animated space.
00:10:15
Speaker
It's all about you know but Robin and Superboy and all the all the teenage you know sidekicks. um Season two, after crazy positive reception, season two aged the cast five years and made them secondary characters and brought in a whole new team to follow.
00:10:35
Speaker
And understandably, the reaction was, the heck? Yeah. I remember we did drop off after like the second episode of that. Which, and here's the thing, it's still good. and Like, as a, still good, it's a good show.
00:10:49
Speaker
But, like, you're watching it like, but I really just wanted to watch my favorite characters do more cool things. Yeah. And I feel a lot of that with Ward, where it's like, I mean, this is, they're cool characters.
00:11:01
Speaker
I'm having a lot of fun. It's good world. like I kind of wish we were just still following Tattletail and Bitch and seeing what they were doing in all of this. you know yeah like i feel like a fifth if you had the same setting, same pacing, and was those characters, probably a totally different opinion of Ward at this
Major Malfunctions Team Introduction
00:11:19
Speaker
point. yeah but And to Young Justice's credit, I like...
00:11:24
Speaker
the boldness to make a decision like that agreed yeah i wish more shows were um were like that that took the opportunity to okay we're doing a sequel it's not direct So ah do agree.
00:11:44
Speaker
I always respect that. Yeah. Respect the game. Um, and in this, I, I do wish there was a little bit more overlap. I wish Tattletail, um, was more involved. I wish that, uh, maybe one character from, you know, if Rachel was in therapy for some reason, like, um,
00:12:07
Speaker
In the therapy group, like having the, the the crossover helps the transition a lot. Um, you know, even just more like we started off, uh, early on in early arcs where they like, forget what territory they went into and, and tattletales, uh, team was sort of also overseeing it. And there was the back and forth that Victoria had with tattletale briefly on the phone. And it was like, it was great. It was fantastic.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah. oh Um, more of that. I love that. But yeah yeah, overall, I can see that. It'd be cool if it was like somehow, like after the whole fallen thing, somehow Victoria and Tattletail, like, they're like, I'm a hero, you're a villain, but we kind of want the same things.
00:12:53
Speaker
So maybe can work out this tenuous partnership to try to make things work together, you know, sort of the, don't know. But yeah, yeah, it is what it is. Yeah.
00:13:04
Speaker
it is It is different though. it it's and Another comparison would be like the Legend of Korra to the original Avatar series. I mean, I'm going to continually harp that that is exactly what this is. Yeah. yeah Which I mean, if you like Legend of Korra, which I like Legend of Korra, then okay, cool.
00:13:21
Speaker
just don't I don't connect as well with Victoria as I did with Taylor. um Taylor had such a good mind for strategy and kind of controlling her
Knowledge Gaps in Hero Powers
00:13:32
Speaker
bugs and being everywhere at once. And it made it it made it be so that she just did the thing that she wanted to do rather than think and talk and strategize about it. She just did it because she had all these minions at her disposal easily right there.
00:13:47
Speaker
ah As opposed to Victoria, she thinks and she plans and she has a strategy and she needs to have like her PowerPoint presentation you know in her head, basically, to be organized. And that's good. like To her credit, it's it's it's doing the right things as a hero, making sure you have the paper trail.
00:14:03
Speaker
like It makes sense. I just don't like it. like I don't tend to enjoy that part. It's why heroes in like movies or shows or books tend to be the maverick character because nobody. The rule followers aren't fun. The paperwork is not fun.
00:14:22
Speaker
The paperwork's not fun. and And I'm not going to lie for me. While, of course, you know, ah the it is not fun.
00:14:33
Speaker
i do enjoy them having to do the the prep and the the the calling people. And, you know, I wish it was maybe a smaller part. Maybe that was shortened.
00:14:45
Speaker
But I do enjoy the them running around, making phone calls, getting things approved, sending emails in order to do this cool, you know, to do something. um Yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
And i i just wish it kind of... came across stronger um and was more cleaned up, which is why I think Jacob, a long time, you know, a line are dissecting Ward, you know, one day we'll do like a special episode for just that.
00:15:15
Speaker
I think Ward would benefit way more from just an overall editing haul, not even just script wise, like for a show, but just overall Ward needs a rewrite and a touch up.
00:15:30
Speaker
to be as good as Wyrm in terms of continuity. ah to know ear point to your point with enjoying those small things, with we haven't really started into it yet, but with 8.8, like Victoria's meeting with major malfunctions is one of my favorite parts of this section.
00:15:45
Speaker
i was really funny kind of love yeah I just kind of love the major malfunctions too, but also just that vibe of her thinking, tell me what you guys can do. How can I use you best? You want to be used. Let's plan that out and figure it out together.
00:15:58
Speaker
um And her you know realizing the disparity in between heroes um and what they knew what they know. there is a um we can get into 8.8 in a second, but it reminded me, the reference that came to mind is there's an XKCD comic where they're like,
00:16:14
Speaker
well, everybody in this industry knows blank about blank. And it's like how people who think their interest in something is casual talk about it. And all I can think of is like, it's like, well, every, you know, two chess people being like, well, everybody knows the French opening and what on passant means. And then it's like average people are like, wait, you mean the castle's called a rook?
00:16:34
Speaker
is yeah yeah yeah That's the vibe of the Victoria talking to the major malfunctions where she's like, but everybody knows where powers come from. And they're like, what? They're like, what? Yeah. Gosh. i which is a Which is a great tie into like the rest of the arc.
00:16:50
Speaker
Right. We're talking about that. Yeah. Yeah. ah Before we get into it, I'll tell you my rant thing and ah that I have. ah The voice that I do at the beginning, the like the Brockton Bay Book Club, I've talked many times before, comes from the narrator of Irrational Games Freedom Force, which is a Silver Age of Comics real-time strategy, ah build your own superhero or use the superheroes they have in their world.
00:17:20
Speaker
very fun.
Media Management and Public Perception
00:17:22
Speaker
Um, and, uh, I was listening to a wonderful YouTube channel the other day called, um, uh, I finished a video game.
00:17:32
Speaker
I think I played a video game guys just banging out videos over franchises and he covers the Bioshock franchise. All of this to say, I did not realize the guy who created thief, System Shock 2, Bioshocks, all of them, and also did Freedom Force 1 and 2, and SWAT and Tribes of Vengeance are all, like, headed by this one guy called Ken Levine.
00:17:56
Speaker
And, like, as they're listing the things, I'm like, I think I like everything this guy touches. That's fun. i know I know that Freedom Force and its sequel did not do well, but darn it if they aren't, like, ah fun to play. It's a superhero real-time strategy game where you can build your own superheroes and use them in the story mode.
00:18:20
Speaker
Like, come on. yeah What's not to love? And then as they progress, you can give them different powers or upgrade whatever powers they have. Yeah. man. Anyway, if yeah weren' I figured Worm fans would love to go play that. I've probably talked about it enough.
00:18:35
Speaker
now That's cool. That's cool. like cricke one ah Shout out on our Patreon to a Wonderland um for finding the exact XKCD comic I was talking about. Holy cow.
00:18:47
Speaker
Amazing.
00:18:50
Speaker
ah No way. Thank you very much. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. It's just silicate chemistry is second nature to us geochemists. So it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the formula for olivine and one or two feldsparce and quartz, of course. Of course. So it says even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. ah Yeah. and that That was the conversation. Well, should we get into 8.8? Let's do it. Yeah, let's go. eight point eight 8.8. Antares meets with the major malfunctions and assigns them to follow prison guards in case of betrayal.
00:19:32
Speaker
Kinsey finds Goddess and loses a camera, and Kinsey's parents begin to share their story.
00:19:40
Speaker
Hmm. Hmm. So yeah, I... I love the major malfunctions. I need to get their names again. Karyatid ah finale period and withdrawal.
Chris's Mysterious Origins
00:19:55
Speaker
Yep. yeah yep And just... I like them Yeah. they i feel like feel like between the names Breakthrough and Major Malfunctions, we've really got some some great...
00:20:09
Speaker
Major malfunctions were basically the name we were trying to pick for the therapy. yeah Yeah, pretty much. Oh, oh man. So, yeah. Funny funny group.
00:20:24
Speaker
um very Very diverse, obviously. like Kind of slap shot costumes and um it's great. they They are the vibe of what I feel like most hero teams would be like, right? Like, we have to remember we've kind of dealt with big metropolis hero teams, but I feel like the the major malfunctions, they are the, hey, there's this small town team who's saved a dog and stopped a purse robber. yeah Like, that's all they've done in their career.
00:21:00
Speaker
I love it. I love it.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah. I...
00:21:09
Speaker
I think just for writing wise, it was really fun describing how the malfunctions move towards Victoria. I think there's a standout of some writing here where like finale starts.
00:21:25
Speaker
i if I remember right, starts first, like skipping towards her energetically. But carry it to like does the moving chess piece just straight up to her.
00:21:35
Speaker
And then withdrawal takes like two steps and like the power armor and they all beat an alley there. I was like, what a great, like just describing. I mean, I feel like it describes their power and personality to just like, yeah, instantly like just how they, they all like, oh, there she is. And then move towards her.
00:21:57
Speaker
Just. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. and just some Which one's the one with the syringe? withdrawal Withdrawal. yeah yeah just The way she describes his costume is looking like he's going to fall apart at any moment. She's like constantly worried she's going to catch him before he falls over.
00:22:14
Speaker
Good. It's how we would... Us if we were superheroes. yeah how we would us if we were superheros so yeah around here you like don't ask me how this works. like, getting paid for this?
00:22:29
Speaker
We're in costume and we're helping and that's best we've got.
00:22:34
Speaker
oh it's the um it's the you are getting paid like we we be like we in costume and we're helping and that's oh go yeah I mean, it's great too, Hannah. We've got you as our costume designer. Bro, would design us some sick costumes. Hell yes. We're looking so good.
00:22:55
Speaker
We've got Jacob for funding and Helen for strategy. Jacob for funding. Jacob's our sugar daddy for funding.
00:23:06
Speaker
we're not getting we're not getting a far are Ah, you're right. yeah Yeah, there we go. Collective sugar daddy. Patrons, yeah. and What would that look like? We'd go the lead.
00:23:17
Speaker
i Uber and lead. yeah the like Yeah, no, exactly. Superhero team that's run by the stream or the Patreon. yeah um Should I save this man? Yeah, yeah exactly. i Should I go after that person? Building from Burning Town.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah. Chad, should I violate his human rights?
00:23:41
Speaker
oh All I can hear is the like funk, like that sound by the... I don't i don't believe in human rights. can't. I can't. It's so terrible, but it's still probably one my favorite sounds on the sound line. Oh boy. Chad, thank you for 420 glizzies. We're going to go into glizzy overdrive on this guy.
00:24:02
Speaker
Oh, boy. Oh, no. Why glissing? oh Okay. What else would I like to talk about?
00:24:14
Speaker
I've always loved the name. I don't know how you actually pronounce it, but either way is fun. Karyatid or Karyatid. Yeah. Good question. I always say Karyatid in my head, but...
00:24:27
Speaker
Let's see what Google says. The audiobook said Karyatid. Yeah. carrie it And it sounds like a beetle, perhaps. yeah Or if you said Karyatid, like a blood vessel you shouldn't cut.
00:24:42
Speaker
Karyatid is what Google says. Karyatid. I didn't know what it was. um A stone-carved female figure that is structural to the building.
00:24:54
Speaker
Oh, like a pillar. Like the Greek. Yeah. the the in yeah yeah The pillars. but Yeah, there's a lot of. Those are karyatids. And it's a whole like. criminal Karyatid.
00:25:05
Speaker
Karyatid. Yeah. yeah yeah and That's cool. Cool. That's so cool. I didn't know that. You know, I'm going to be honest. I think my brain auto filled the word Katie did. And I've been thinking it was a bug this whole time. Okay. Which is why I i thought beetle.
00:25:22
Speaker
I also was thinking beetle, but I was kind of you know mentally thinking cryptid adjacent. What's a Katie did? Well, that's much cooler than I thought it was. Michael, that's um I'm glad you asked. yeah It's a bug that is really loud and annoying at night, it except the the sound it makes sounds like Katie did. Katie did. Katie did.
00:25:43
Speaker
ah Terrifying. you're Fascinating. Yeah. up there with like you know pine beetles when they get really really loud and um i'm trying to think of other bugs bugs are loud outside my window i don't have to know which they are yeah that's taylor's job um all right uh yeah i major malfunctions i love them they're great uh yeah they bring an interesting and dynamic especially when they describe like they're they're very much teenagers
00:26:14
Speaker
Like, post yeah upper end. even Even ah finale who, you know something happened with the powers there. Yeah. that's That's so interesting to me that there's, like, even with...
00:26:31
Speaker
the the lack of access you know to information, public access to information regarding powers. um And they'd say later in the when they're on the talk show that there was a book released by the ah the Protectorate or by somebody who's supposed to be the expert on supers and powers and parahumans, and it's not true. It's like ah some of it's made up and some of it's a lie. and And that idea that there's so much this team doesn't know because they just don't, they haven't had
00:27:09
Speaker
like the PRT looking out for them and giving them the information and the training and the schooling. We saw the wards have in Brockton Bay classes and, you know, PR PRT one-on-one, but a pair of humans one-on-one and one stuff like that. So it's, there's so much, it makes me wonder how much of a,
00:27:30
Speaker
truly how much of a gap there is in their knowledge of like just even how their own powers work and why they work that way. Cause they didn't know about, about um what's her name?
00:27:41
Speaker
On encore. um The music one. Or what? They didn't know about the girl in the group that,
00:27:54
Speaker
allie Thank you. yeah allie She's the one in the in the like marching band kind of van out but yeah military uniformish with the note on it. Yeah, finale. I don't know why my brain wants to keep calling her Encore.
00:28:08
Speaker
I'm going to probably... Encore might be a cooler name, you might say. That might be why. but yeah Yeah, I mean, and yeah that that whole thing about the PRT propaganda because...
00:28:22
Speaker
But in the sense of like pop propaganda because they just didn't want people self-harming so they would try to get powers. absolutely. like Which is a valid reason for gatekeeping that knowledge. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. yeah But it's an interesting paradox that they mention where it's like if you want to get powers or think you might get powers to save you, you probably still won't because that means you're not quite low enough yet.
00:28:48
Speaker
You're not low enough. yet yeah like and That comes up back later with Natalie. um Yeah, which I like. yeah I thought that was a good call back to that. I thought that was good. ah There's also a callback to the, I think they call them the black trench coats, which is something that's mentioned all the way in glow worm that ah Armstrong is actually talking about that. There were a couple of kids originally, I think three involved that involve like involve some torture and um they only caught them because they were going to the store to get more power tools and they were trying to
00:29:22
Speaker
mate powers happen and they did end up getting powers later when the girl was sent to the asylum and the boy was, I think in jail or something like that, um, or on the run.
00:29:39
Speaker
And then they got powers. Um, yeah and then they ended up meeting back up and they're currently loose. And they even say, ah yeah, we know where they are and we're keeping an eye on them.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. So yeah. Yeah. Or even like we see that with bone saw as well, like studying the Corona polenta, like trying to, um, trying to force powers and four second triggers and stuff that. Understand.
00:30:08
Speaker
Try to understand where they come from, how they work. Very interesting. It, it, it gives off that like the malfunctions are in a small town and they're not like internet people.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, their resources they've pulled from the local library. Again, they're from North Dakota. They don't have internet up there. You're right. They don't have internet. We discussed this last time, I think. We discussed this last time.
00:30:30
Speaker
This funny. One of my coworkers is from North Dakota. I think you brought that up last time, too. like I probably did. um No, but like like for real, we were talking today about like things being very... like ah People who don't touch grass and people that do and... like Yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker
You know, honestly, Taylor kind of in between, like she was very online, but also very like going out running, doing things. um And it kind of feels like these kids were on the like, oh yeah, we were like out trying to do stuff, trying to figure this out.
00:31:07
Speaker
And they were like, well, why didn't you go to parahumans online? And they're like, what? That'd be like somebody saying, you know, why didn't you go to Reddit? And somebody would just be like, yeah what the heck is Reddit? Because yeah that that's the correct answer for a normal human being, is what the heck is Reddit? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:31:25
Speaker
Well, and like, it's this vibe of, they're so small town, they think to themselves literally, well, what's the best way for us to do this? Well, we'll just walk around and see if any any crime happens, I guess.
00:31:36
Speaker
We'll make some phone calls. Beyond the streets. Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah. And for other things for 8.8, got us doing the gym look to the camera during the office and breaking the camera is funny.
00:31:51
Speaker
um Gym look. Just through like eye contact camera breaks. Love it. um Yeah, but there really wasn't much else with 8.8. It felt like the end kind of came quickly.
00:32:04
Speaker
And then we hear Kinsey's parents are starting to share their story. So ah the theory that we had... Oh, for sure. The theory we had about um them being alternative Earth versions of her parents appears to be wrong.
00:32:19
Speaker
They were her original parents. They were just like, we were fine without you. Why did you find us? Leave us alone. They were just douchebags. yeah Yeah. Honestly, we were trying to give them a more sympathetic angle when it turns out they just sucked. Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to make them human when they're bad at being human.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And, and again, i don't know, I guess you, after the end of the world, you want to cling to something that you recognize, even if it's awful. And I guess that's why Kinsey tried to find her parents.
00:32:51
Speaker
yeah I don't know. It still feels like she made the wrong choice. And even, i don't know. So many, so many other people that she's hurt who have, who hit who have hurt her that she should have looked at first. I feel like besides finding her parents.
00:33:05
Speaker
Right. Right. Like, uh, kind of like, i will, I don't necessarily understand how human relationships work. So I will force them to happen kind of a thing. So, yeah, that too.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah. As Fran says in chat, I can't believe those fucking robots would expose her like that. Guys, this is the dangers of ai Your fake AI parents that drag your mother dragon made, you know, unleashing you all the secrets that you've had.
00:33:36
Speaker
We had so many interesting theories about them. Turns out they just suck. Yeah, I do still i do. yeah It's one of those things where it's like he did linger a long time on the fact that they would just at when the the reveal came and they were just sitting at the table, not moving.
00:33:52
Speaker
And like the language was really odd during that section. So I still like to cling to something more being up, but we'll see. Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:34:03
Speaker
Mm hmm. yeah i just ah Yeah, I'm with you on that. I agree. It's just there was something too weird. and I guess them being assholes is enough, but also not enough for me.
00:34:15
Speaker
Well, assholes combined with the fact that they are they were under constant surveillance. and i think Constant. And I think just the idea that every action is being recorded, it's better just not to move.
00:34:29
Speaker
Well, she specifically said like she yeah don't she was keeping them under threat of like, oh yeah, if you mess up, I just send the blackmail out. Like, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that's why they were like, they would say stuff, but they wouldn't like physically do anything most of the time because she was like, you sit there and eat your food and don't get up till you eat your food. And they're not about to eat it.
00:34:53
Speaker
So they're just like, Well, if I get up and she's a child who gets, yeah you know gets pissy all of a sudden, what's to stop her from just being like, oh, blackmail it is, you know? Yeah. Yeah. yeah True.
00:35:07
Speaker
True. What a mess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's rough. Bernard, we will get to your question. Is Kenzie's parents justified?
00:35:19
Speaker
Are they justified in going on the show? Yeah, we should definitely talk about that. Yeah. um Ella, I mean, do we want to wait until we get onto the show? Yeah.
00:35:32
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Okay. Let's do 8.9 then. If we're good on 8.8. Good? Yeah. 8.9. Breakthrough deals with their first PR crisis.
00:35:43
Speaker
Victoria calls a Brandish. The team is hiding something from Victoria, but they plan to get out ahead of the public narrative by trading info for airtime.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yeah. So this one, um this one felt a little bit slow. This is kind of what we were saying about these next three feeling like maybe they could have been two or probably two.
00:36:07
Speaker
um Right. But I really liked the conversation between Victoria and Brandish. And again, it's this thing of like, when she's Brandish, she's cool.
00:36:17
Speaker
When she's Carol, she sucks. and Right. I was like, dang, this was a really good conversation. Oh, it's because she's in costume. Okay. Yeah, i was to say because we're literally going to have a conversation later that's yeah just noddty yeah kind of the opposite.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. in power mom mode and it works. Yeah. She's Mrs. Business. You know? Yep. Yeah. Also, um two things that came to mind in this chapter. ah Number one, no wonder Victoria hates Nazis.
00:36:52
Speaker
They fucking murdered her aunt. Yeah. Like... Forgot about that. I forgot. I was like, yeah, it put kind of puts her beating the shit out of the guy in the back alley into, car like, a little bit of a lighter perspective for me. I'm like, oh, yeah.
00:37:10
Speaker
It wouldn't have been, you know, that for, yeah you know, she was a child when it happened, but that's a core memory to have your parents be murdered by Nazis. Like, yeah.
00:37:21
Speaker
Ooh. yeah And then what's said later of, um, uh, huh Oh, yeah, yeah. The ah like, oh, this is weird to say, you know, as you know, as your daughter, she's like, ah, well, it was weird as a mom to tell a 12 year old girl to break a guy's arm or whatever. And you're like, but, you know, you get over it. You're like, whoa, it's life in the big city.
00:37:44
Speaker
yeah I was like, oh oh, Victoria being a dick to Nazis wasn't just like her doing that because they murdered her aunt. It's because her mom probably was like, and this is how we treat them. Now go ahead and break the bone, dear. Here, I'll hold his ankle down. now Just imagine some like Empire 88 initiate just doing the no, no, no, no.
00:38:15
Speaker
And she's like, now, honey, if you want to really do the most damage possible, just take your hand on his femur. I'll do the left. You do the right. Ready? Yeah. Oh, my God. The femur. Not the double femur.
00:38:28
Speaker
now You go for the pelvis every time. It's the biggest. I think it's the biggest solid bone in your body. Cracking that. Do I need to play the the sound bite, Alan?
00:38:40
Speaker
Oh, the actual sound. The... um damn, like, and why do I feel bad for the Nazis?
00:38:52
Speaker
I forgot we keep that one around. Why do we keep that around? moments like this. For moments like this. This is how we get canceled. People are like, you guys are out context, and that's me.
00:39:07
Speaker
I've been waiting for the record. We don't feel bad for the Nazis. No, we don't. Not in the least. Not these ones. I was talking about the child ones that were getting bullied yeah oh real hard. yeah The context. The context. The context.
00:39:23
Speaker
There was still, you know, it was one those things like, look, these are kids. They're stupid, but we can, they can still get help. oh ah Anyway, ah continuing at 8.9 with all the phone calls. Yeah.
00:39:38
Speaker
You know. Yes. We call up paint fumes. Paint fumes. I kind of love it, though. I'm here for it. It's fun. i Once again, I think I said it last time. I'll say it again.
00:39:51
Speaker
Fume hood. who who is, they were like, oh yeah, later on they're like, oh, Tempura's out, but Fumehood's in. and I'm like, well, of course Fumehood's Tempura. Tempura.
00:40:05
Speaker
ah Of course Fumehood's Fumehood is ride or die. Like, Fumehood has been, and you were talking about how long in the game Fumehood has been. I'm like, yeah, Fumehood has a lot of experience on both sides and and is like,
00:40:22
Speaker
Actually, you're doing great. And then I think at one point they sent they sent Fumehood to go watch the major malfunctions. I was like, oh, hell yes. Hell yes. Good mashup.
00:40:34
Speaker
Love that.
00:40:37
Speaker
that's great. but We just need that group now. We need we need Fume Hood coaching the major malfunctions. would love that. I think that could be so fun. Here's what the villains are going to want to do.
00:40:48
Speaker
I know because I was a villain. Here's what you need to know as a hero. Wow, you're a villain. They'll like sit around the campfire like, wow. Yeah. It's giving a cronk at the end of Emperor's New Groove. We need to go to superhero camp.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah. Teaching all the kids how to speak squirrel. and speak Oh, yeah. let's You took my acorns. Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeakity. We're going to end up, that's how we're going to find Fumehood and the major malfunctions. It's perfect.
00:41:15
Speaker
Squeak, squeaker, squeak, squeakity. I have to ask everyone, i know we get our answer at the end of the arc, but what did everyone think that the secret was that the team was hiding from Victoria when she got back?
00:41:33
Speaker
I thought Weld had broken up with Sveta. Oh, that's good. And Sveta was like a wreck and was like, I can't talk about this, but it had something to do with Victoria. That's what I thought it was at first, which I was like, that's dumb. You should just talk about it.
00:41:47
Speaker
i still think it's dumb. They should have just... They should have just talked about it. Honestly, to be honest, I don't feel like it was necessary, I think. What was the secret again? yeah ah That goddess is meeting with Amy. That Amy and her lemur has but have been hanging out with goddess. which yeah Dot.
00:42:07
Speaker
I'm so glad that Dot is still around. That's great. ah Fantastic. But also, fantastic I guess we're we're jumping ahead just to that moment, but is that the first confirmation...
00:42:20
Speaker
I mean, we figured, but did first confirmation that Amy survived the yeah explosion? Yes. Yes, it is. It is. so we all mean We all knew. Yeah, cause because that the primary facility where Bonesaw,
00:42:36
Speaker
ah ah Nilbog, and Amy were most commonly spending their time was part of what was caught up in the explosion. Yeah. So we have some confirmation that Amy still around.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah, which is where Yamada was. Yeah. yeah yeah offices Fingers crossed. yeah You know, it would be nice to continue to go have happy dreams. But it would be par for the course if Amy survived and fucking Yamada died. I don't even want to think about it. We couldn't have nice things like that. yeah And then I wrote, and now we compare Taylor's interview with Victoria's.
00:43:18
Speaker
and and Yeah, we can get, I feel like that's more in 8.11, but yeah, we'll get yeah definitely that interview is interesting for sure. Yeah. um Do we want to just combine? I was going 8.10 and 8.11.
00:43:32
Speaker
Yeah. All right. 8.10 and 8.11. ah The team decides which of them will be on the air. Kinsey shows Niev's an audio recording of her parents.
00:43:44
Speaker
Antares, Lookout, Capricorn, and Swansong go to the interview. On 8.11, team breakthrough debates with the showrunners who dig into the hero's past. There's a discussion of gold mourning.
00:43:56
Speaker
Bare humans aren't as screwed up as is believed. And there's a Taylor reference. it The summary says name drop, but it's not a name drop. Specifically not a name drop. It's a reference. No name is. It's an internal name drop.
00:44:10
Speaker
he Yes, it's an internal name drop. She does say her name. her Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah um Yeah. Okay. One thing before they get to the interview and they're talking about who's going to go.
00:44:24
Speaker
Jacob, I wanted to harken back to your theory about Chris being no bog spawn. Ooh. Because, like and and I don't know if he's a no bog spawn. He might be something similar though, like a bone saw spawn somehow or a um like ah ah Who else would make stuff? Something something similar though.
00:44:48
Speaker
yes yes if yeah Who did Bonesaw take over? Plant guy. What's his name again? Blasto. So chris Chris makes a very interesting statement in 8.10 where he says something about like, that's just the way I'm put together. yeah i like Fascinating, Chris, that you would describe your your existence as being put together.
00:45:11
Speaker
um like And obviously people say that. They're like, well, that's the way put together. you know But Chris's case, it feel it felt like a very specific, this is the way my body has been created kind of thought.
00:45:25
Speaker
I'm so glad you brought that up. Yeah. i I don't know. and I like maybe I was thinking it while reading it. I had the same thought where I was like, maybe he's Simriff baby.
00:45:38
Speaker
A little Frankenstein's monster. Earth baby, perhaps. A Sir Maybe. A Sir Maybe. but yeah Could be an Echidna baby. you know I mean, I don't know. Could be it could even just be a broken ah broken trigger person who drank half a vial like Echidna did, you know?
00:45:57
Speaker
Yeah, never you never know. yeah Anyways, that's all. I just thought that was an interesting phrasing. um No, that's good. I am a little sad that Gary's involved with the parents because i I kind of respected him for being the one who's like, you know, we need to we need to have some accountability for these parahumans. And unfortunately, he chose the worst people to try to use as his as people to bring justice to the parahumans, you know? Like, just, ugh.
00:46:26
Speaker
Ugh. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it it's funny because we were literally just, you know, a couple episodes ago talking about... Bro, that show's on screen. No. Stop it.
00:46:40
Speaker
You just... Jacob. Why is that showing? I'm so sorry. I'm sure you can all see it. Delete it, delete it. There it is. Right on the slide.
00:46:51
Speaker
and you know audio listeners like holiday let me yeah this no no no just Make It's okay. make them go watch that video it's okay it's okay Yeah, to watch it. They have to watch. they have to We can delete it from our history, but we can't delete it from the replay. It's great because I was reading off to the side something for later.
00:47:13
Speaker
so I have no idea what you said. That was peak comedy. That was so good. It's okay. Watch the live. hilarious. Watch the video and you'll see. That was so funny. Good times, girl. Anyways. Oh, my gosh. I totally forgot what I was saying. We completely derailed. Hot damn it, Jacob.
00:47:32
Speaker
I'm not sorry. Harry, not trusting fair humans. um Oh, yes. Yeah. It's so funny because we were literally just talking about this a couple of episodes ago where where we had the Gary Nevis interlude. I think that was two episodes ago.
00:47:45
Speaker
And ah we were debating the whole thing of like, well, was he justified in making the stand, making the statement, making the speech that he did? and and I feel like I think we were pretty divided in terms of like It's a tough situation, like what he's dealing with, with what he's experienced from the human side of it. Like a lot has not been shared with the humans regards to the planets that they live on and the multiverse and how the world ended. They don't even know.
00:48:12
Speaker
and so it's like this, it's ah it's a tough situation all the way around. And so being in that space where we're like, I don't know, maybe he is justified in making these statements and then have him be so like blatantly see the evidence right there in front of him with like look, sees video audio combo and be like, yeah, well you can alter video and then storming off. Like I, all um all of my risk, I think you said it, Jacob, all my respect, just, I was the end of that.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And it's and it's my dude. I don't know. I mean, I think, I think in a way, um, ah Kind of to retract something we had talked about with him before, like he had talked previously about how he dropped out of the governor race because he felt like parahumans were involved and that gave them an unfair edge.
00:49:03
Speaker
um Yeah. I think though, the more I think about it, part of what Victoria is trying to say here with all of this with him to appeal to him is like, look, no matter...
00:49:15
Speaker
who you are, human, parahuman, whatever, you can never fully know what somebody's ulterior motives are. You can never fully know if somebody has an edge on you in some way, whether it's an actual power like a parahuman or just in life, somebody might have an edge on you because maybe they're smarter than you. Maybe they're better looking than you. Maybe they're more charismatic. Whatever that edge may be that you can't always help And part of what makes society even functional at at all is this level of trust of like, look, I might have an advantage over you, but I have our best interests in mind in trying to build that trust and work together.
00:49:57
Speaker
And what's frustrating about this, this is very reminiscent of all those times where Taylor was right about something, but nobody would listen to her is exactly how I felt about Victoria, where she's like, you guys aren't getting it. Like, yes, parahumans are dangerous.
00:50:15
Speaker
But as we can see in reality, if parahumans didn't exist, it doesn't mean like regular humans wouldn't be out killing each other and fighting and you know doing terrible things. Like that's just the world. It just is exaggerated by superpowers and we still need to work together.
00:50:30
Speaker
And it felt very reminiscent of all those times where Taylor was like, no guys, I have the answer. And everybody everybody's like, ah Taylor, just don't worry about it. We'll we't handle this. The adults are talking, Taylor, you know?
00:50:43
Speaker
It's all very much like that. Yeah. Why should I be a warlord? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. This is what happens. You don't listen to children. They become warlords. Yeah. And kidnap their parents.
00:50:57
Speaker
Eventually, they mind control the whole world and be kill God. Kill God. i kill god ah yeah Yeah, it's it's it's it's sad. like It's a frustrating. and And because so many years have gone by, like because so much has happened, capes have been around for, it's been, what, 20-ish years that we've had capes?
00:51:19
Speaker
Longer than that, I think. This takes place in what, 2014, I think is the time. About 30, 40 years. 30, 40 years. In that sense, most people, most adults have lived with capes their whole life. It's like trying to fathom a universe where internet doesn't exist, where internet is just not there.
00:51:42
Speaker
the The way that the world works, is a wrapped around capes and wrapped around powers and how we deal with them. It's in our law. It's in our, our rules. It's in our schools. It's, it's in everything that we do.
00:51:56
Speaker
And this idea that like, ah yes, capes are the problem. Like, no, Bro, we have corrupt politicians regardless. Like, you're going to end up with people. Like, exactly what you just said, Nick. I don't know why I'm trying to paraphrase what you said. Yeah. it's It's good. I mean, it's it's not going to it's not going to be different because you don't have capes or because you you try and cripple the capes.
00:52:21
Speaker
I don't want say cripple, but like. Yeah. Handicap them. Handicap the capes, I guess, is is the correct term, but I don't like that either. It doesn't matter. um Yeah.
00:52:32
Speaker
That like, okay, we're going to somehow do this and by doing this, we'll have a fair system. Like, the system isn't fair. Nothing about this is fair. Like, nothing about humanity is fair. Like, it sucks.
00:52:45
Speaker
What are we going to do about it? yeah and Trust each other, I guess. and i think I think just the difference is the, ah what i what I've often thought of in my mind is like the monarchy democracy problem where Like a a good monarch in the sense of like a good superhero will always will be able to do more good for a country and for a people than a good democracy can because the process of democracy takes a lot longer than just one person deciding this is what's good for society.
00:53:14
Speaker
But a bad monarch is theoretically, does a lot more damage than a bad democracy. Because again, the processes of democracy take so long to do evil that ah a bad person just saying, I'm going to destroy everything, acts and hurts a lot faster.
00:53:31
Speaker
And it's that power dynamic problem, I think, where Gary's thinking, if we just get rid of the monarchs, and you know good or bad monarchs, whatever they are, we'll get rid of them, things will be better. But in reality, it's just a slower process of good and evil.
00:53:45
Speaker
And it's still the same good or evil. um But with the the you know the powers that the parahumans have exaggerated, where it's like, wow, that parahuman destroyed a whole country.
00:53:57
Speaker
But a bad democracy can destroy a whole country too. you know like you're Right, right. So it's just issues different. Yeah. yeah I will say... um Brave of... i'm I'm proud of Kinsey for being willing to be on air.
00:54:13
Speaker
I am so disappointed that she didn't tell the whole story. And I get why. i get why she didn't. She doesn't want people to just think of her as the victim. And for that all to be out there about her family.
00:54:28
Speaker
But man. Yeah. If it wouldn't do... it wouldn't do some good sir yeah To get them just to see like, hey, no, regular humans can be monsters too.
00:54:41
Speaker
um i don't know. Since that is such a big crutch of what what the conversation was about with these news hosts, was just like, man, just for them to see, you know, like regular people are what caused people to trigger most of the time.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah It's also one of those things where like, i mean, No talk show is ever going to give you the space to actually say the truth. Like that's not how it's designed to be. It's designed to shock and awe and scandalize. It's not meant to like find the truth. It's meant to entertain.
00:55:18
Speaker
And like reality TV is the exact same. There's nothing real about it. Most of it's scripted. a lot of it is reshot anyways. Like, you know, oh yeah, you were just scandalized. We're going to roll that again, except bigger, more, you know, and like, that's how it is. And, and this idea that I think Victoria was really smart and going out like, well, we know that they're going to target us. We, we already know that they're going to hit us and all, all sides and try and trip us up.
00:55:44
Speaker
But, Instead of trying to focus on telling the truth, we're going to try and turn the narrative as much as we can. Which, I mean, genius on her part, obviously. Like, this girl was made to have a good brain for KPR shit.
00:56:00
Speaker
Because i I know, like, I'm sitting there. As they're talking, i I just got angrier and angrier. And I was listening to the audio. So it felt like I was... listening to the radio show, you know, basically as it's playing out. And like, it made me fucking pissed. And if I had been in their shoes, I would have done exactly what Victoria did and gone off the rails and just been, you know, used the aura and been like, fuck you.
00:56:24
Speaker
First of all, you know, and then really gone off. And I think Victoria handled that as best as she could with her. And that's the like her, ah the wretch form out there and a sense by describing that and bringing this out.
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah, that was so low. That was dirty. Holy shit. Like, fucking dare you and you know they get into the how dare you how dare you but you know like yeah yeah yeah i didn't like how uh nieves was like uh And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a demonstration of power.
00:57:13
Speaker
It's like, yeah buddy, they know. if i think everybody knows that powers are a thing and and work in funny ways. like This isn't a gotcha.
00:57:25
Speaker
like People aren't expecting... it felt it felt really weird. like he's like he's got He's got them now. Ah, the powerful capes.
00:57:36
Speaker
Oh, those Trixie powers. yeah And of course, the moment the moment they're making any progress, they go to a commercial break, right? course. Yeah, right. yeah We have them winning. We got to go to a commercial.
00:57:48
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. Well, it's so us versus them. It's so- Yeah. Yeah. you know know like there But I did think that Victoria being like, hey, you know what? I'm going to spill some truth about Gold Morning and people might get upset at for doing this, but I'm going to tell you guys- I love that. Part of what really happened. Yeah.
00:58:08
Speaker
One of the interesting things that confirmed for me is if if I recall from Kepri's perspective, the team of tinkers that were working to make the god punching gun at the very end.
00:58:19
Speaker
She was like, am I controlling them or are they doing that? I think Victoria here confirms they were just doing that. They realized, yeah like although Kepri got everybody together, even after losing control of them, they were like,
00:58:33
Speaker
no, she was right. Like we all know, like we all saw the visual in our head of what she wanted us to do. Let's do it. You know, like they just, they realized she was right. Um, you know, once again, justifying her narcissism, but Hey, that's when she's right, she's right. You know, I'd be upset about it.
00:58:50
Speaker
Yeah. Um, but I thought that was interesting just as a side note of like, okay, that does confirm they were acting of their own free will at that point, but they had figured out what Taylor had showed them and that was enough. And I thought that was cool.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah. Um, So yeah, yeah, man. ah Which also makes me think even more so that although people may have been upset at being controlled, even more so Taylor's or Kepri's misunderstanding about people's reactions and thinking that they were angry at her. In reality, I bet so many more people were like,
00:59:26
Speaker
hey, we did this. ah She got us together, but we're the ones who did this. you know like Even more so, like they were let out of her power a lot sooner than she thought they were. Yeah. um Tragic. so My heart all over again. and I'm trying to get that Hannah cries on screen square for you guys playing bingo.
00:59:44
Speaker
ah Well, you got it. Hannah's crying. Yeah, no. Holy shit. shut that age Yeah, holy shit yeah i kept ah yeah yeah feels tragic ending Yeah, so good. and Yeah, it's good.
01:00:00
Speaker
There are two big thing like parts to this interview. I'm thinking about them almost completely separate. One is the argument part you know between like talking about capes and and you know bringing up you know all the dirty laundry and stuff.
01:00:17
Speaker
And the other part is finally airing out the information, which I'm guessing is mostly what she was talking with a lot of people, you know, because we got the, hey, we'd like to do this.
01:00:30
Speaker
um We'd like to start this group that shares information. That's what we do as breakthrough. And a lot of people saw what they did with, you know, trial and error and went, oh, yeah, that would be good. And then all of a sudden they're getting a bunch of, and you know, they're calling out. And it's like, why? oh because Kenzie's essentially putting a stank on that. So we kick we got to, you know, not be associated with you.
01:00:56
Speaker
So then it's like, oh, why are they making all the calls? And I'm guessing the calls are to a lot of people. Hey, is it okay if we go public about gold morning? Yeah. yeah And, you know, it's one of those, like, I really wonder why people haven't said anything yet.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. And part of me goes, is it just because, like, nobody wanted to be the first to say anything? guess so. You're just kind of make busy and you're like, well, I don't want to be the one to talk about it.
01:01:30
Speaker
You know, and as as bad as Shortcut is people, you know, being just a total ass as he is, you know, he does put it right. Oh, like, I mean, if you're wanting to be the one to step in front of that bullet, by all means, go for it. Like.
01:01:45
Speaker
I am. and Yeah. I imagine too, like, I don't know how many, we don't know how many pair humans really know. And not only that, but I bet a lot of pair humans are just thinking like, well, who am I? Like, who's going to listen to, you know, Joe dirt from Kansas say,
01:02:05
Speaker
Sion was an alien. He impregnated us with magical power. you know like Right, right, right. but You have to have a certain level of credibility, right? It has to be like a Victoria or like a legend or an Alexandria type. Not that she's around anymore, but you know what I mean? um Like that level of credibility for people to even probably listen.
01:02:26
Speaker
And I mean, for the most part, i think it's I think it's kind of assumed that the general public is vaguely aware of the events. Like they know Scion went rogue and blew up reality, and then he was defeated.
01:02:39
Speaker
So like the nature of his defeat isn't like ah terribly important, right? So it's I think it's just a lot of that too, not wanting to be the one to really talk through it.
01:02:53
Speaker
The whole mind control thing by Kepri probably messed with a lot of people's heads in terms of yeah what they know and don't know, all that kind of stuff. so Yeah. Yeah. No, but you're right, though. it is It is kind of weird that we haven't even heard like theories about this, right? like I could almost see...
01:03:14
Speaker
If this were edited, like adding a glowworm arc, like just people theorizing about what Scion was and what happened, right? Just kind of adding more to that because it does feel odd. This is the kind of thing, this big of an event in our current day would have thousands of conspiracy theories about what actually happened and who Scion really was.
01:03:36
Speaker
And it does feel a bit odd that there isn't any of that. Where it's like, and rather than, you know, because obviously the the showrunners, they're all like, you know, faces of other talk shows.
01:03:51
Speaker
And so like the one argumentative guy who's like the Alex Jones guy, it i feel like he would have, like that type of personality would have some type of theory about what Zion was, you know?
01:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, right. He's an alien and making all the frogs gay. Yeah, I think lot of those theorizing thingss happen on parahumans online, you know, yeah and and, you know, granted, everybody's busy just trying to survive at this point.
01:04:14
Speaker
Right, that too. you it But, you know, a lot of theorizing happens on the internet, but we also know who moderates the whole internet right now.
01:04:26
Speaker
And it would be very easy for a dragon to shut all that shit down. That's true, too. That is true. to true Or just, like, archive it. Or what's it what's it called when you're when you're just on the internet and all of a sudden your ghost goes... Oh, Shadowban? Shadowban.
01:04:42
Speaker
You're like, oh, man, I got Shadowban. And literally dragon's, like, clicking and dragging your posts and, like, dropping it in the furthest corner of the internet. Is that what happens to all of our posts on Reddit? Yeah.
01:04:54
Speaker
That's what happens. That's what I'm trying to do. You don't have 100% of positive things to say. If we wanted to get into super conspiracy theory mode, then it could also be the Simmer messing with ah ah communications and things about it. That's true. It's the death of her creator. so ah At this point in time, I would like to point out that we have a bingo little bit ago from Wonderland.
01:05:18
Speaker
Hannah cries. Fuck Kenzie's parents. Paint fumes. and Jacob compares worms. Oh, I'm sorry. And comparing worms TV interview with wards. um nice yeah ah Wonderland, I think you're actually missing a bunch that I think also happened. I think we... I think you can get... through a punch of I will stay there have been cats on screen that I don't think you guys saw.
01:05:43
Speaker
There have been multiple cats on screen. You're close to a you're close to a double bingo there. well i know i have a bingo. I'm almost got my double bingo going. Also, I will at the end of the episode, I want you all to know this is a side.
01:05:58
Speaker
This is an aside from where we are. At the end of the episode, I want to play. When did Hannah cry while reading? Because Hannah cried one time while reading. I cry the show all the time, but I cried one time while reading. And I want i won't tell us, tell anybody until the very end. i Okay, perfect. I'm excited. I'm excited. We'll guess.
01:06:18
Speaker
I just want to point out Fran's comment. he has several points about what you guys were just talking about, how you know nobody knows what really happened in Gold Morning. But one of the things that point out is that potentially it's because they don't want the normal humans to know how strong they are because they're already that huge tension.
01:06:38
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. Power and balance. One of the things pointed out when they fight Echidna is like, hey, you know, they give them the code word, hey, you know, cardboard buildings, you know, and everybody knows that Superman episode where he fights Darkseid.
01:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. I live in a world made of cardboard. Right. and And they go absolutely ham and they talk about like, yeah, we don't normally do this because holy cow, this would, just terrify people that we are blowing through bodies, all the echidna clone bodies, you know, like it's nothing. And, you know, we could be doing that to cities if we wanted. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
01:07:21
Speaker
ah Some other informational pieces ah that I thought about is um everyone still believes that Tattletail outed Kaiser. Yes. That was so good. Oil was fine. Honestly, they'll still stuck her with that tab.
01:07:38
Speaker
You got left the bill on the table with that one. It built up her ah her prestige. It built up her reputation. She probably owns it this point too, right? like In her tattletale way, she's not like directly saying I did it, but are like, the tattletale, you're the one who outed Kaiser and she just goes, fire eighty eight so they say. ah thanks that Yeah, exactly.
01:08:00
Speaker
Is that Is that what you've heard? Fascinating. um ah da Bernard, I don't know if the TV show talk show hosts are based on any actual show personalities.
01:08:13
Speaker
I mean, I think the idea is that those are the three generic every show has. but And once again, every i wouldn't know because i don't I only ever seen talk shows reality tv in passing and they seemed about, honestly, this seems about the most substantial one I've ever seen. I was once in the audience of a talk show.
01:08:35
Speaker
o Once I was in the audience of an episode of the view one time when I was in New York. and how fa I wore a blue sweater. I think I wish I knew what that was other than people use it for being vapid.
01:08:53
Speaker
Oh, no, it's a bunch of um ah Whoopi Goldberg and some other women sit around the table and they stand by what I said. Yeah, yeah, that's about right. It doesn't change my opinion of it at all.
01:09:06
Speaker
um I overall, you know, I love this. This feels kind of very action intense for a bunch of talking. Mm hmm. we you know we do get this big moment where she goes, you know, oh, you want the truth? You can't handle the truth. Gold morning go um I'll be honest. I remember this before reading this before um and reading it now. i was hoping it would change.
01:09:34
Speaker
To me, it doesn't feel... like a big moment. It doesn't feel big enough. It doesn't feel enough. We need more mic drop. The entire time I'm kind of waiting for the mic drop and it just, and I know that's part of it is we know that's everything, everything that's going on, but the way it's written, I was waiting for it to feel like a blow and it feels like all, oh yeah, oh yeah, well, well, and never landing a punch.
01:10:07
Speaker
Yeah, I get that. I came away super kind of disappointed with the conclusion of this interview that like we just didn't land the drop of information better.
01:10:21
Speaker
Like you said, the mic just never dropped for me. Do you think it would have hit better if they had name dropped Taylor or if they had said maybe maybe the kind of leave it in the hands of something.
01:10:35
Speaker
Like, what's wrong with just saying cauldron? Like, cauldron's gone. Here's the thing about Taylor. ah so Like, there's like, a her dad might be around, so like, we don't want to bother him, you know, kind of thing. Yeah. You know, she might have family around. Victoria doesn't know.
01:10:53
Speaker
So she's like, protecting identity. Fuck Cauldron. Cauldron's gone. Cauldron's dead. They even referenced Contessa, right? They referenced Contessa as like, yeah, they had this.
01:11:05
Speaker
The boogeyman. The boogeyman who would kill you if you talked about it too much. um Yeah. But they never like say anything specific. And I guess maybe it's kind of like technically Cauldron still half exists in part. Contessa is kind of out there in a couple yeah a couple parts. And maybe you don't want people to know that you can buy powers.
01:11:26
Speaker
yeah that Yeah, I think that's... They even mentioned that, I don't know if it's in this chapter, what maybe earlier in Arc 8, but mentioned the fact that they they don't want people going out there and trying to trigger.
01:11:41
Speaker
right Yeah, exactly. yeah like yeah like Which, I mean, was something that the PRT had already stated. Yeah. Hence the but The book that said good triggers come from really good events and bad triggers come from really bad events, which
01:11:59
Speaker
BS. Yeah. ah ah Honestly, the correct in a perfect world, the correct answer is you get up, you tell people where powers are, how powers happen, where they come from.
01:12:14
Speaker
and or Or you start with Scion was this. You explain that when Scion went bad, here's what happened. And then at the end of all that, you give your own testimony or the testimony of somebody else that like I triggered because this happened.
01:12:31
Speaker
I know that's, you know, I know that's rough. But in terms of PR, and she is good PR, you say, i triggered because of this. This is my life his story and experience. And that's how that's the story for many heroes out there.
01:12:45
Speaker
You know, that you aren't just, you're not just getting powers because the magic alien decided you could get powers or that you just got them because you're lucky. You get them because of trauma.
01:13:01
Speaker
in the many shapes and forms it has. And for like, you know, you, you essentially kind of get a little bit the pity of like you get powers on the worst day of your life and living with those powers is continually having to deal with the after effects of that.
01:13:19
Speaker
Oh yeah. Some, just for some of us, the trauma, the, you know we just happened to get the lucky roll when the trauma hit. That's it. I will say too, Victoria's whole thing talking about the sibling with Eden, I was like, you don't need to talk about that. like That's way TMI. yeah like just Just focus on Scion.
01:13:38
Speaker
He gave us all powers. You don't need to be... Technically, some people get him from a dead sibling of Scion and that's why he was so upset. Alright, Victoria. Don't be a nerd for a second. and all Don't be a nerd number for a second challenge for Victoria. Impossible. if All the wrong information was presented and all the like good information wasn't persist presented on beat.
01:14:02
Speaker
Like it just.
01:14:05
Speaker
I do get the sense to play. I'm sorry, Jacob. Go ahead. Go ahead. I just going to say to play devil's advocate, like, realistically you're in this moment and you might have prepared like some form of statement in your head of like how we're going to deliver this information. But the way that it all happens so fast and so accusatory that it becomes a really quick, an attack on them and on Kenzie, of course, but like, yeah, This idea of like, okay, well, I'm going to give you information now because you said this and like, okay, you want this?
01:14:37
Speaker
Okay, fine. And it big it comes tumbling out, not necessarily in the way that you want to. And like yeah the more you tell the story or the more you tell the truth, the smoother that that delivery becomes. So like devil's advocate of like, well, maybe while Bo's trying to show that, that like in this moment where we are chaos, we are just chaos.
01:15:01
Speaker
You want info? Fine. Here it is. You know, kind of a ah thing rather than like the beats that would have made it more satisfying to read as a reader. Because I think I do think that Wild Boat does a lot where he will make something be realistic rather than the story beat that we maybe expect from books because he, and I think, i mean, we've talked about this plenty of times, but it's one of the reasons why the characters, why Wild Bo's characters are so fucking good because they feel so real.
01:15:34
Speaker
They don't always do what the protagonist or the antagonist should do in a book or in a storyline or in a movie because these characters feel real. They have real flaws that that that that just, yeah.
01:15:46
Speaker
really you know connect to us as the reader. And i think that in in a really good way, that can make the characters very real.
Narrative Challenges and Kenzie's Trauma
01:15:54
Speaker
And in a bad way, it can make the story a little hard sometimes to like digest and feel like it has good beats.
01:16:01
Speaker
So... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. If I'm giving my perfect... like what, what should have gone thinking more about this is, and I know we didn't want to play, you know, should they don't want to play Kenzie up as too much of a victim, but as long as we're bringing, like he's already bringing up all this shit about Kenzie. Yeah. the the I think the correct answer is here's how power works work.
01:16:27
Speaker
And then go, so I want you to imagine that something so traumatic happened to happen to that girl that you are giving so much shit for in that household that she triggered.
01:16:39
Speaker
I triggered, yeah we all triggered because something that traumatic happened to us. And especially just be pointing at Kenzie the whole time, being like that that little girl that you're accusing of in that house with those parents had to have something that traumatizing happened to her.
01:16:55
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Like, i think that's the the the winning thing that would have felt good. we just never landed. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. do think...
01:17:06
Speaker
yeah for sure um how they but
Shard Effects Post-Scion's Death
01:17:11
Speaker
I was going to say... um so Nick, please go ahead. Sorry. I was going just mention as well, it's interesting that Victoria believes now that Sion is dead. she She mentions that it seems as if Sion was pushing these pushing the shards and the people the recipients of them to be more aggressive.
01:17:34
Speaker
Victoria believes that now that Sion is dead, that push to aggression is no longer there which I'm not sure is entirely accurate, um just based on experience. I don't think so either. um But I thought that was interesting that she believes that that's a possibility.
01:17:52
Speaker
And obviously that that she explains this is where broken triggers are coming from. It's basically you know the remains of Scion, i imagine, sort of interdimensionally raining down upon the world, but now without purpose, um is causing these broken triggers. Yeah.
01:18:08
Speaker
I did think that was interesting. I don't know that I agree that that is the case, but um I guess we'll see if it bears fruit. Yeah.
Endbringer Attack Anticipation
01:18:18
Speaker
Yeah. um I was going to say, ah whenever we're ready to move on, ah one final thing for our interview.
01:18:25
Speaker
I'm trying to think what else other interview things I had thoughts on. Yeah.
01:18:34
Speaker
Oh, a couple things. One, really love the girl. i don't remember her name. The one who comes over she's and they're like expecting her to kick them off the show. And she's like, yeah everybody good? you you need water? Any snacks?
01:18:47
Speaker
Everyone's okay here. okay or The stage manager or whatever. i thought she was adorable. Loved her. Kept waiting for an Endbringer attack. Not going to lie.
01:18:59
Speaker
It did feel primed for one. Although, honestly, we're eight arcs into feeling primed for an Endbringer attack. So, yeah, at some point, I mean, we had the portals blow up. We had the Mama Mathers. Yeah. on Like close we've had but the Endbringers are gone.
01:19:17
Speaker
They're just hanging around doing Endbringer stuff. Who knows? you're got like a real you know I realize it's not the exact same moral, but I imagine it's like a real sort of Damocles situation. They're just hanging by a thread up in the sky. sure. In the sky? Who knows where they are?
Interviews: Past vs. Present Tone
01:19:38
Speaker
Everybody else is like, well, Leviathan's dead, right? Leviathan's dead. and Behemoth dead. Leviathan and Behemoth are dead, dead.
01:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, Bohu, Tohu, all those. We don't know. We don't know. I think they're just... They just stopped moving. Yeah. Except Simriff, who was doing stuff.
01:19:56
Speaker
Yeah. My girl. My primordial being. Maybe the Endbringers are just hanging out in in... Who is it? Has the little time warp bubbles. Is that Kansu?
01:20:07
Speaker
Yeah. Kansu, yeah. yeah Maybe that's like their way of getting high. is like They just chill out for a few millennia and the time bubbles... I imagine Kansu's just got like bonsai garden that he's been cultivating but because he didn't control time he's just like it's like you just he just regrows it and then watches it die quickly and then he regrows it and just watches it.
01:20:31
Speaker
That's a real slice of life. Before we move on I was going to compare What do we think about this compared to Taylor's interview?
01:20:44
Speaker
trying to remember Taylor's interview, if I'm honest. It's been a minute. um wait um She was on with the Chicago Awards, was she not? I believe she was. They were reviewing the footage of macking with Gru and ah you know doing the whole behemoth fight.
01:21:05
Speaker
Oh, that's right. That's right. I forgot about that. I did forget about that. I think that's... The biggest difference, right, is she's like... Yeah, they were former allies and there's a truce when we fight an Endbringer. You'd be an idiot not to work with people to take down an Endbringer.
01:21:23
Speaker
You know? um Yeah. Yeah. Yes, i I kissed him. Who wouldn't kiss him? you know Look at him. yeah What is the charge? i was about to do that. Enjoy the meal. A succulent groom meal? yeah Exactly.
01:21:41
Speaker
A succulent motorcycle helmet meal? Yeah, ah yeah just ah how they handle the funny contrast. Sorry.
01:21:53
Speaker
oh whereas Whereas in this case, um this is, hey you're being accused of an actual heinous
Parental Justifications vs. Kenzie's Actions
01:22:03
Speaker
crime. Defend yourself.
01:22:05
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. True. The vibe is very different, I feel like. Yeah, it's a lot more accusatory, very us versus them. I think having Gary Nieves.
01:22:16
Speaker
Nieves. Nieves. Yeah, thank you. having Having Gary on there. Nieves. Thieves, yes, thank you. um Having Gary on, that he he gets he gets very,
01:22:28
Speaker
ah mean, they they have him on for a reason. they' It's clearly, that he's the antagonist here on the panel. ah Well, not the only one, but it, it yeah.
01:22:39
Speaker
I think they were, it's this like, oh we got you, we're gonna catch you in a lie moment, as opposed to Taylor's interview, which was a lot more like, we're goingnna we're gonna shock you and we're go to catch you off guard. But like, oh you're gonna have to spill your secrets now, you know as opposed to like, oh see, see, see, we caught you in a lie. You were wrong the whole time. You were the bad guys the whole time. like It's very more accusatory and hostile of an environment.
01:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. One was definitely a civil conversation with some like slightly cheeky nonsense. Some cheeky questions like, oh, when you did this, you know, how about that? And this is clearly like... What about that?
01:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, an aggressive one that was a fight from the start. Like... It was, yeah, it was, it was, it felt like a rigged fight from the beginning kind thing. and they knew it was. That was the sort of the whole point.
01:23:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just, the um to answer Bernard's question, whether or not, coming back to that, whether or not Kenzie's parents are justified. and this Right, right, right, right.
01:23:57
Speaker
I mean, justified in what? Like going on television? No, fuck them. yeah like Yeah. Justified in speaking out against once they what they went through. like i I think you can...
01:24:08
Speaker
Yeah, they can burn. I doubt they would. ah did um you know like We can assume they didn't tell the whole story and they probably never mentioned trying to murder their daughter. ah like i yeah No.
01:24:20
Speaker
If they did, sure, I guess. If they wanted to spill the beans about everything.
Gary Nieves as an Emerging Threat
01:24:24
Speaker
and like How did she trigger again? Just one more time? Yeah. Let's circle back to that. And and what what's so frustrating about it, right, is what Victoria says multiple times. She's like,
01:24:35
Speaker
Because Gary's whole thing is like, well, she can she can manipulate audio and video. How do we know that the evidence she presented is even accurate? And Victoria just goes, there are multiple parahuman and non-parahumans who have evaluated the evidence of her case and determined that they are bad people. Yeah.
01:24:54
Speaker
Who are aware of Kinsey's powers and what she can do. If that many people are saying they're bad, Gary, maybe you should ask yourself, are they the bad guys? Yeah. I mean, at this point. Think about the world they live in and to move that quickly with imprisoning somebody. had it's like It's a little overwhelming there, yeah I'd have to think. Right.
01:25:19
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah like it that And like at this point, Gary, gary like even faced with the information, Gary is not going to change his mind. like He's been... thwarted in his attempts to be, ah it's not mayor, is it? Governor? He was trying to be mayor of the city. mayor Yeah, mayor. Mayor, okay. He's been thwarted by the Capes to be mayor, or mayor and then, of course, the whole kerfuffle that happened for his interlude, which is more than a kerfuffle. It was...
01:25:49
Speaker
Awful. But and which I think his frustration was justified in that space. But like he's moved into something else now, which is just like blatant anger and blatant accusatory whatever and blanket statements about capes. It's it's no longer.
01:26:07
Speaker
you know, this cape who is in a position of power is a problem. It's all capes are the problem. You, you all are the problem now. And, and every single one of you is a liar. And each one of you is going to adjust the truth to best fit your own narratives. And I'm not going to believe it no matter what you say. yes And I'm beginning to wonder if Gary is going to become a bigger problem than we anticipated.
01:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. I mean, it's, uh, Strangely relevant, but that is often how it goes where true grievances do lead to, unfortunately, people being taken it out of context, it being applied to entire groups, it becoming a catalyst for more negative feelings, right? Where it's like you never intended your grievance with this group or your grievance with this ah particular problem to be taken that way.
01:27:05
Speaker
But the people who agree with you are going to take it that way and are going to use it as ammunition to make lives miserable for other people. Right. um And attack other people.
01:27:16
Speaker
so I'm anticipating a um ah Senator Kelly from the X-Men, original X-Men film, live action one.
X-Men Comparisons and Thematic Relevance
01:27:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Where you might get...
01:27:28
Speaker
a sort of dark poetic end to him where maybe he triggers and becomes what he hates. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa. That would be Hmm.
01:27:44
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. Something you can't hide. Right. We need to have, yeah we need to have X-Men being brought up on our bingo list. Cause this, yeah. Yeah. It's very relevant. It's so good. Yeah.
01:27:56
Speaker
In this particular case, to it feels very... Yeah, so it's going to become more relevant in, I guess, Ward and, you know Worm. and more yeah X-Men is a very and particular genre. yeah I would argue it's the most pure superhero genre because...
01:28:17
Speaker
X-Men is X-Men. Like, there's... The problems aren't spy. They aren't, you know, action-adventure. They are pretty exclusively, oh my gosh, we're heroes and we are, you know, mutants with powers and we have to deal with not being murdered for being mutants with yeah powers.
01:28:37
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Using our powers. Like... There's no, it's not like Captain America where it's kind of spy action. It can't be Spider-Man where it's like kind of a fun team comedy movie. Yeah.
01:28:51
Speaker
X-Men is X-Men. It's just hero. Yeah. There was like a meme comic where Spider-Man's visiting like the mansion. He's like, what do you mean? Your whole city doesn't love you?
01:29:02
Speaker
Like it's just. I'm the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. What do you mean? it also It also works too because mutants have a variety of like cool powers versus just awful, horrible things that happen to them. where yeah where It reminds me of that meme where it's like,
01:29:23
Speaker
you know, the rogue versus storm thing when they're talking about like, maybe there's a cure for being a mutant. And it's like, you mean there might be a cure for us? Chainsaw for hands said, it's like, there's nothing wrong with us. The most beautiful mutant woman in the world said pretty tech. But yeah, was, I was, Oh,
01:29:40
Speaker
pretty jack ah yeah ah so not love but yeah um nice boy i was ah No, go ahead, Anna. Go, Anna. No, I know. It's just me wanting to talk about X-Men. We can move on because I just... Patreon content. Yeah, that's... Can we like Patreon content, just watch X-Men and then like... Yeah. You give our directors that commentary over top it. Watch X-Men.
01:30:07
Speaker
What? It's so good. No. so You don't like
Online Vitriol and Public Discourse
01:30:11
Speaker
X-Men? I do not like the X-Men. Oh, I love X-Men. Which is a shame because growing up, the X-Men were kind of my favorite, and that's because I was young, dumb, and the X-Men had the most powerful heroes. What about X-Men 97?
01:30:23
Speaker
i See, the thing is, I barely watched the old X-Men animated like in order. So I've heard it's really good, um but, you know... I've never seen it either. and well do watch party We'll discuss discuss yeah they do yeah well discussing the X-Men genre later as fra said x-men genre is soap opera ah See, that's only in later times when we essentially made it all about Cyclops and Jean Grey.
01:30:52
Speaker
Yeah, it does become that, sort of. That's fair. yeah and And all the other bullshit. um anyway We covered most of 8.12 already, in a way, but 8.12 is the very end of the the interview.
01:31:07
Speaker
So 8.12, Breakthrough talks strategy over the commercial break, but Vicky is pushed into using her aura on the crowd and Breakthrough walks out. When they return, they reveal that Goddess wants to talk to the team and the secret that Goddess has already talked with Amy.
01:31:25
Speaker
So ah they, i feel like we talked about this a lot. Like Jacob mentioned the whole like quote unquote gotcha moment of like, that was her power. And it's like, yeah, no shit, dude.
01:31:36
Speaker
Um, and so they I think the power move of walking out was the right choice rather than being picked or like like slid out. That's as close as we get to a mic drop moment where they're just like, yeah, we're leaving. If you want to help us, you know where to find us.
01:31:55
Speaker
We're leaving. You know what I just never will get? I don't know that I've ever been angry enough at any internet celebrity to take the time to write a nasty comment or send a nasty email.
01:32:16
Speaker
And i that is the psychology of a person that I just can't quite fathom who thinks to themselves, I'm so angry. I need to tell the person making me angry and spend time composing an email, figuring out how to contact them and composing a message to them to express my disappointment.
01:32:39
Speaker
I just... In vitriol. yeah I don't... My brain just doesn't work that way. I'm just like... Man, screw that guy. Anyways. Yeah, because here's the thing. I don't want to send an email normally.
01:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, I like sending happy emails.
01:32:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. so the amount of mental energy it would take to send an email to somebody I don't like just... Like, but I i know that there are people who like get... Some people have no... Some people, and i and I get it because like...
01:33:10
Speaker
If you get super personally invested in something, right? Like i i a while ago, i had posted something on Reddit about, it was so innocuous and somebody commented with something like very negative.
01:33:24
Speaker
And i I immediately felt that adrenaline rush of like, well, I got to respond. I got yeah got to defend myself. I got to. And I'm like, wait. Hold on, honey. Someone's wrong on the internet. Exactly. And I'm like, oh, God.
01:33:37
Speaker
And yet it's, you know. And so i like if you get that personally invested, maybe I get it. But just like I'm just watching a news show and I see somebody I don't like. I'm just like, oh, oh, oh.
01:33:51
Speaker
like That's what I don't get. well i mean i mean The world ended because of what they just said. so like but yeah i can understand being more personally invested.
Amy and Goddess Alliance Concerns
01:34:02
Speaker
I'm going to send you an email. You, Victoria, are personally responsible for the fact that my car doesn't have gas.
01:34:10
Speaker
yeah Go fuck yourself with a rake. like i i I'm not the type to do that either. It seems kind of it seems stupid. like What are you actually going to do?
01:34:21
Speaker
Would you go to the town hall discussing the cape problem? local congressman? I'm not going to do that either. Here's the thing. I would have to find the local town hall and I would be more inclined to go if that was actually advertised. I'd have to have parking downtown. I'd have to street park probably. I'd probably have to parallel park and then figure out the meter. I'm going to stay home and write an email. It makes sense though. People are mad. People are upset.
01:34:55
Speaker
think that's part of it. I don't think I understand why they're angry. like the angry messages. i don't I don't think I understand what they're aimed at because if they're aimed at ken the Kenzie situation, then like, okay, yeah, that makes sense.
01:35:10
Speaker
Are they angry that they just dropped all this information about Gold Mourning? Are they angry that it didn't come out sooner? Like we see Victoria is like seeing the and messages come in and she's she mentions briefly like, oh yeah, the vitriol, whatever.
01:35:23
Speaker
But just... ah but i just I don't know. Like, I guess I don't understand also what people are saying. it's It's also like it's extra difficult in this world to even get Internet access.
01:35:39
Speaker
So I imagine somebody is just like, oh, I'm pissed. Oh, that was mad. Honey, get in the car. I got to drive to the library to get to a computer and send that Victoria Dallin an email. like Right. Is that how North Dakota villains did it?
01:35:54
Speaker
yeah yeah You type it out and it hits and it's like, oh, no service. And you go. haven Drive to the one library in town.
01:36:05
Speaker
There's like a line out the door for the library. Be like running Windows 98. Exactly.
01:36:13
Speaker
Post-apocalyptic issues. Hilarious. Exactly. I'm trying to send an email. Yeah. Angry letter. Honey, I got to be a troll on the internet. Get in the car. We're going to the library. Not again, Daryl.
01:36:29
Speaker
Fuck you. You would never support me in my hobbies.
01:36:34
Speaker
Classic. yeah anyway The interludes. The interlude. Oh, anything about goddess and Amy? I think we are. Yeah, let's talk. I mean, we're going to talk about goddess and Amy. was pointed out by Fran, for what possible reason could Amy to have to be one?
01:36:50
Speaker
Yeah. ah Jesus. I think I'm stroking out. Try again. Try again. You got this. But for what possible reason could Amy have to want to be around a beautiful blonde, super powered flying woman?
01:37:03
Speaker
Why would she want to do that? It's true. especially in her, uh, is it a day or or whatever they are with her tattoos. Yeah. God, she covered them up because she's ashamed of them.
01:37:17
Speaker
It is a scary partnership. Yeah. I mean, considering, you know, Amy is one of the most powerful pair humans in the world. Um, still in existence, uh, arguably the most still known to be active. If we're being honest, yeah like,
01:37:36
Speaker
Yeah. One of them. And Goddess, similarly. Yeah. Yeah. So, as Bernard asks, given the small amount that we know and the destruction of the camera that we've seen by looking at it, what is your prediction for Goddess's power or powers?
01:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, i thought about that. I mean, the destruction of the camera definitely implies at least some degree of telekinetic ability. Yeah. she could justcent like She could just be a really, really powerful telekinetic that just has a huge range of of sort of like... um Mob psycho?
01:38:20
Speaker
Yeah. and And also the the notice of the camera... implies I've always thought one of the most powerful subtle abilities that didn't talk about enough is the Spidey sense, Spider-Man Spidey sense, which is yeah the nerd cap.
01:38:34
Speaker
It is technically ah short range omniscience is how it's described, which is like such a cool way of thinking about it. And I like that aspect of maybe something that goddess has is just,
01:38:47
Speaker
the complete and total awareness of everything happening within a certain range. It's kind of interesting. Yeah, which is and not how Spidey Sense works, Hannah, if you're asking.
01:39:00
Speaker
Spidey Sense is originally that spiders can move so fast it sometimes seems like they're predicting the danger before they get there. So it's just hyper reflexes.
01:39:10
Speaker
However, it has moved into... um pseudo magical territory with some of the Spider-Man like stuff.
01:39:23
Speaker
we start Yeah, you can send anything. yeah as a I've had spiders just like see me and like go after me. So like I feel like they're the omniscience thing is true.
01:39:35
Speaker
All spiders are omniscience. They just know.
01:39:41
Speaker
That 100 feet spiders are omniscience. bre For a less spider-related hero, Mr. Incredible has Danger Sense as well. Thank Which is interesting. He doesn't say it's one of his powers, but it's listed on his picture page. On his portfolio. On his portfolio as dangerous. And you see him use it a few times too where he is acutely aware of danger around him. He's in the jungle and he senses stuff coming at him. He senses things coming before it hits him.
01:40:10
Speaker
Some people suspect that's part of why he he told Buddy he didn't need a sidekick. was like He sensed Buddy was dangerous. um I'm always here for incredible c incredible theories yeah so it's been a long time since I've seen that too yeah yeah and all that to say I have no idea no idea what Kata so yeah no clue I well it mentioned she had like some kind of charisma based power to use D&D terms it sounded like it's on whole planet right right but she had a wide array of like generals and commanders underneath her
01:40:48
Speaker
And the theory that was stated is that she, so her name goddess also makes me think this. I think she gains power from adoration or alliances in some way.
01:41:04
Speaker
So sort of, again, for a goddess, and this was a ah theoretical D&D campaign idea I had too. The idea is like a god who gains power from the number of followers they have.
01:41:15
Speaker
um or like yeah god sort of like a yeah like an an influencer power sort of where it's like ah you almost like the reverse of teacher whereas teacher is like granting powers to people and influencing them that way she's like receiving power from people the more they're around her um and the more they trust her kind of thing I could see it being something like that and michael did you see my text or my message
01:41:45
Speaker
very yeah um Moving on from there. ah Interludes. interlodes tolulu Unless got something else to talk about. and I don't mean it was pretty much a tag at the end so yeah I'm glad Dot's still here. yeah Yes.
01:42:01
Speaker
then Thank you, Michael. and American Gods, not Neon Gods. I said that wrong. I said Neon Gods I went, that's wrong. American Gods. Yeah, the idea that you get more powerful the more followers you have.
01:42:14
Speaker
yeah Beyond Gods is a spicy romance book. I see. 8.X Natalie's Interlude. um eight point x natalie's and belude After the show, Natalie takes Kinsey home, talks with Tony. Wow, wow.
01:42:33
Speaker
ah The home is attacked by hook line, kitchen sink, and others. Natalie gets stabbed, but the villains retreat when Breakthrough and the patrol block arrive. And I just got to say, first of all, Victoria, you're watching a thousand emails about how people want to kill you.
01:42:52
Speaker
and Kinsey come into your email and you don't send a single other paracuman with Kinsey and Natalie yeah yeah back to Kinsey's now very public address.
01:43:06
Speaker
Yeah. like The most horror movie move. Like, it's like It's like Iron Man when he gives out his address and doesn't expect to get immediately blown up in Iron Man 3. He's surprised when the bomb comes for his home. It's like, what did you expect, my friend?
01:43:24
Speaker
Yeah, shocked Pikachu face. yeah yeah Dang. But... but like ah In some 5G chess for that. Yeah. You could do that and then be like, I mean, look how dangerous it is to be a superhero. Like they're literally trying to kill a child because, you know, this jackass aired her laundry.
01:43:47
Speaker
who like you If you were doing that and the 5D chess is you're waiting around the patrol block and it's like, no, let them break in Then we rush them. That way we show that like, oh my God, I can't believe they did this.
01:44:02
Speaker
True, true. um It does seem like a bit of an oversight. They did get there quickly though. So I guess maybe that was the case, but I will say this does redeem Natalie in my eyes. you know we We thought she was a bit stuck up.
01:44:16
Speaker
ah Whoa, whoa, whoa. who thought she was a bit stuck up other than Everyone. Everyone other than Alan thought she was stuck up and annoying and little Miss Beauty-nosed. I kind of thought it was Victoria, but I was also just like, I don't i don't care for Natalie. She's like just not that interesting to me.
01:44:35
Speaker
um And you know we my accused her which yeah we accuse her of being a Carol stan, and we were like, no, no, you can't bring that interview into the house. She doesn't know any better. She's just the intern.
01:44:47
Speaker
yeah and you know But this this redeems her in my eyes. I'm like, all right. There's so many redemptions for her. a lot oh yeah There's a lot of moments. right i mean My first thought is, like good on you, Natalie. like like At least somebody's getting some in this story.
01:45:03
Speaker
I was literally... ah Get laid, girl. It's the apocalypse. Good for you. Get laid. I like how it's cold, but not in Natalie's bed. That's how it started out. It was like, I totally thought Kenzie was reading into it.
01:45:18
Speaker
And Natalie was just sort of like, okay, don't worry about It's fine. And then you kind of, they introduce each other and they talk and it's like, okay, no, no. they they make what In the words of, what is it?
01:45:29
Speaker
not Yeah, ProCD, they're like, oh, they fuck in the world.
01:45:35
Speaker
No, they're not. Like, oh, it's good to see you. Oh, they fuck. Yeah. Kenzie being like, I'm not. I took out the cameras. I wouldn't watch ah anymore.
01:45:47
Speaker
You should have never been watching, Kenzie. Yeah. I love that he's like, he was like, oh, yeah, like, you want to hook up later? Like, Saturday, Sunday. And in her mind, she's like, but.
01:45:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah yeah you want to you want to get dick down on the weekend? She's like, please. Wait, wait, wait. It's so cute. I love that so much. people up the ah Both please. There we go. yeah and yeah help me Always a good time for that soundboard.
01:46:17
Speaker
yeah just so Tony has been mentioned before, right? This is the first mention of Tony. First mentioned i think make first sure i first mention of Big Dick Tony. yeah He made blueberry And he bakes.
01:46:33
Speaker
man you got to You got to lock that down quick in this. Did I misread or does he have a mullet though? Because I feel like that's a negative point. I feel like now in my but mu but he's growing his red beard out.
01:46:45
Speaker
He's just growing his red hair out. So, you know, that's a point off. Get listed. Your hatred for redheads is unprecedented. Yeah, the the stupid thing my beard is red when it comes out too.
01:46:58
Speaker
Wait, what did you say? My beard is red when it grows out. Yeah. It's not a this is matter prejudice against redheads. It's just self-deprecation all the way down. Yeah.
01:47:11
Speaker
I also totally thought, Tony, we were like, oh, he's a nice guy. What a great guy in this world. Dead. I thought he was just dead. Oh, shoot. I know me, too. He's downstairs. He's already stabbed.
01:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, they got him. Natalie, you never get in that weekend. That's why we got him. But no, Wild Bo's ah ah softened in his age. It's because because yeah but it's because ah ah Victoria bullied her enough.
01:47:39
Speaker
that like, yeah, I got to give Natalie something. And not only does Natalie get, you know, get some action, but then Natalie like takes a hit for the team. Like, there's a whole moment where Kenzie, like, gets in front of her and is like, no, I'm the hero. I'll do this.
01:47:55
Speaker
And actually, you know, like, kind of has some stuff going on. But Natalie's like, absolutely not. And, like, jumps in front of her and, like, can't get away from the knife, unfortunately, fast enough. And just gets straight up stabbed in the collarbone. Stabbed.
01:48:09
Speaker
Which I've heard when. She gets stabbed and then gets shrunked. Yeah, I've heard when stuff hits your bone, which, you know, just feeling from tattoos hitting your bone, that that's like a special kind of ouch.
01:48:21
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. You know, I've got you cut in a couple different places, but bones, I've got to imagine, is like it resonates in you almost. Yeah. Well, you have to talk about Kenzie's takedown slash attack on... Who was that?
01:48:38
Speaker
That was cool. would Nameless stabber guy. Nameless stabber guy. I can didn't think he was named. Yeah. She, she like... Agent Smith's. Agent Smith's with her like projections grabs the arm and then just little shit little knife or something like that just right yeah down the arm. oh she She takes her hairpin and lays his is is wrist to elbow. I was like, yeah oh, Jim.
01:49:03
Speaker
Goes down the stairs. Yeah. she And then freaking Natalie comes around and Horse kicks him down the stairs. you said Natalie's still going. Yeah. that I'm sorry. You stab me.
01:49:16
Speaker
i'm I'm out. I got a splinter. It was a really bad splinter in my hand the other day. Granted, it was deep enough. It was like in muscle and my hand was like clamped up. But yeah, that's a splinter. You know, it hit me with a knife. I just pretend to be dead.
01:49:30
Speaker
You know, yeah might as well.
01:49:33
Speaker
Well, you know, adrenaline's pumping. I've walked across glass and not realized that my feet were bleeding when adrenaline's pumping. So like, yeah you know. Adrenaline's not pumping. i I walk across uncomfortable carpet. You know, I might give up on that. Alan's like, my tootsies.
01:49:52
Speaker
my My dog's not feeling it. This is real scratchy. Like I i might just curl up and die. yeah We've all stepped on a let go before. That's enough to end any night. Sometimes I just like to feel something, you know?
01:50:05
Speaker
Toss a few out. Ever like stubbed your toe so bad you're just like, I'm done for the day. I'm going to go to bed. Yeah. And I'm done for the day. And for that reason, I'm out.
01:50:18
Speaker
The laziest reason ever called out of work one day years ago was something so similar. Just get out of bed. You kind of like just roll your ankle just a little bit. Not enough to do anything, but you're like, that's an excuse. We're done. We're done.
01:50:31
Speaker
And we're done. It's when you bite your your lip twice in a row. That's what does it for me. In the same spot. Yes. Oh, my gosh. In the same spot. You it and you're like, oh, ow.
01:50:42
Speaker
Damn. Okay. Well, that's an extended weekend. damn. I did it again. Going back to bed. yeah What I'm getting here is we would have been dead. Yeah. exactly Just based on the current trajectory of how this day is going. if i By the time I got into the door, I would have been dead. So I'd say that, I think. Yeah.
01:50:58
Speaker
Like, watch my car and get clipped? Like, no, not taking My only hope of surviving this scenario is being like Tony and getting knocked out right at the beginning and not touched again. Like, oh, I just didn't have a choice. I'm out of the fight.
01:51:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. all Natalie, absolute badass in this chapter. And you know what, Kenzie? Also, like, Kenzie's been kind of this, Kenzie does Kenzie things, and even though they're cool for the most part, they end up being like, oh, Kenzie, like, why'd you do that?
01:51:30
Speaker
Kind of. um And this is the first time I was like, oh, Kenzie.
01:51:36
Speaker
Good job, man. I see your game. The objections thing was really cool. Shoot. I think dropping a camera on Mama Mathers is still my favorite move she's pulled. Pretty solid move. yeah We know it's a heavy box that floats in the sky and does camera work.
01:51:52
Speaker
Easy. We also get a glimpse of a new cryptid form at the end there, which is kind cool. Yes. Oh my gosh. They're hanging out the window. I couldn't tell it was flying or just.
01:52:04
Speaker
It was going between the cars, wasn't it? Yeah, it was like a snake. Kind of snaking or flying. Eel-like. Yeah. And just took it off after the perpetrators. Great. And I don't know if if he'll ever get anything, but I feel so bad for Chris. I feel like nine times out of 10, he goes through the effort of taking on these forms and then he doesn't get to do anything.
01:52:22
Speaker
Right. He doesn't get to do anything. and he just shows up here. And I love it. Helpful. Yep. Yeah. ums yeah ah Overall, I think this was my favorite chapter.
01:52:35
Speaker
yeah of the arc. It was just... It had action that wasn't that power-oriented overall. Honestly, the tense scene of just like the guy with the stairs with the knife and Natalie kind of yeah and Kenzie being at the top was pretty good for me. like I really enjoyed that whole moment. and Yeah, and the in the tension with Natalie being like, I'm not a superhero. I'm not a cape.
01:53:01
Speaker
This child is a cape. But... I'm the one responsible for her. How do i act as a protector adult for somebody who's clearly more powerful than me? you yeah like that That tension too was great. like I felt like that was played out well internally with monologue or that internal monologue ah was really written very well. I really enjoyed that.
01:53:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too. Okay.
01:53:27
Speaker
8.Y. 8.Y. To wrap it up. ah This is Scapegoat's interlude. Scapegoat is running laps in prison when ah he heals a wounded inmate and gets shot for it by a guard.
01:53:41
Speaker
However, he is broken out by teacher and agrees to work for teacher willingly. And let me just say, starting off... Teacher's description coming into this arc.
01:53:54
Speaker
Shaven head, beard, turtleneck, and circular sunglasses. Looking like a Dr. Robotnik looking ass over here from the Sonic movie. He's got a pachy ass beard too. my gosh.
01:54:08
Speaker
I got a new visual image for teacher that's really helped me like him and and's quickly come on my hair characters. But it's between two and I need you guys to help me figure it out because he's either Jermaine Clement or he's Matt Barry. And I can't figure out which one. They both work so well.
01:54:25
Speaker
and away I think you're giving them too much, but Matt Berry weren't attractive. I feel like they're both so good. Oh, no. Matt Berry's much too jovial to be teacher.
01:54:42
Speaker
They both are though. No, no, no. Imagine that's the thing is like, it's Matt Berry, but trying to be evil. And, but he's too much of a jolly put together character, but also not enough charisma to actually be like, I like your, I like Jermaine, but I don't know. i think they're both really good.
01:55:00
Speaker
Has anyone seen the at Legion? Anyone watch Legion? um You and I watched the first episode. I was going to say, i thought we maybe did. It's great. Jermaine Clement plays a ah really interesting character in that. He's very, he's like a, so he acts like a stoic know-it-all and it just kind of fits teacher very well.
01:55:17
Speaker
um And that's because teacher is a smug little bastard. And so yeah I really hate him, but I also respect him.
01:55:29
Speaker
and I don't. i just i can't I can't find the respect. I've searched and I've found none. The problem is the way he's described in this arc, all I can see is this image, which I posted in our chat. It's just Dr. Robotnik from Sonic 2.
01:55:44
Speaker
but just oh yeah yeah yeah Just as he steps out of the portal, bald head, turtleneck, yeah like dark circular glasses, I'm just like, it's just Dr. Robotnik. What are you doing? Yeah.
01:55:57
Speaker
This is stupid. Anyways, ah that's all. but Jim Carrey is an icon. I think I've been underestimating Teacher's game a bit where he did seem, especially in in Worm, the little bit that we got of him in Worm, was just very selfish. Like the selfish evil villain who just wanted minions to rob his banks and take down his his opponents and stuff like that.
01:56:21
Speaker
Well, he has his description of what he was doing. He's like, we've got to be prepared for the end of the world, but the cauldron was already doing that. yeah Right. Yeah.
01:56:33
Speaker
um Yeah. But he, he feels like he's doing a lot of prep work for and events to come. And he might be, you know, more in the know of things, which is interesting. I also think he obviously was lying to scapegoat when he was like, i yeah won't, you know, he won't be under my influence.
01:56:57
Speaker
You can pass that off. You could pass that off. Like, okay. We already know from Saints Interlude that he hides his influence incredibly well yeah and that people don't know they're under it. So, yeah sorry, escapee. I think you got got there a bit, but we'll see.
01:57:11
Speaker
He's got like reverse charisma where you can't even tell because you're like, oh, I'm so repulsed by this guy. But then he says something and you're like, oh, I guess I'll do it just to get out of here. And you're like, wait a minute.
01:57:22
Speaker
Am I doing it because he just said that or is it because I just want to be out of the same room with him? That's exactly right. Oh my God. um Bernard says between teacher and goddess who should break through side with?
01:57:38
Speaker
ah Neither. neither bad i mean,
01:57:43
Speaker
the yeah The machine. The machine. The machine army sub becomes consumed. the a I got it. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Listen, AI overlords are coming.
01:57:54
Speaker
I will go with, of course, you know, ah how I played Baldur's Gate for that one campaign, which is whoever's the hottest in the room is correct at the time. Yeah. so yeah and so For now, it's just, yeah, teacher never wins. And when Goddess does show up, you know, that it'd be Goddess, you know? Well, like, what confirmation do we have that Goddess is like...
01:58:15
Speaker
really bad, you know? i mean, she's wearing a fur coat. Come on. I mean, yeah. and she only like like jacket code authoritarian and my I mean, and I don't know that they should ally with either of them.
01:58:31
Speaker
my My gut tells me... wasn't the question. It was witch. which well Well, here's the thing. My gut tells me, listen listen, I'm getting there. Just... Let him cook. in In spite of being a Dr. Robotnik looking asshole, um I feel like there's a chance that Teacher is trying to continue positive legacy of Cauldron, if you can say they had one.
01:59:00
Speaker
um However, ah thing is, right, We don't know anything about goddess, so we have no idea besides the fact that she was an authoritarian ruler over an entire planet.
01:59:12
Speaker
That is all we know about her. That's right. Doesn't lend me to trust her very much. And maybe she's got some huge bazongas. Like, we know that. And then she dated Amy. Which is... Yeah, yeah. And then she's gone date with Amy. That's a point against.
01:59:26
Speaker
That's a point against, exactly. That's what I'm saying. No, that's true. Yeah, point against. We'd have to work with Amy if we worked with goddess. Right. Yes. yeah I feel like you work with teacher in the same capacity you work with Tattletail.
01:59:39
Speaker
If your goals align, you recognize the threat they are, but work with them to get those goals complete and then cut them off immediately after. like But I want to work with Tattletail and I don't want to work with Amy.
01:59:54
Speaker
Well, I meant teacher. Teacher in that regard. Teacher and Tattletail are similar in that regard. Goddess we just don't know enough about yet to know yeah what the motives are and what's going on. goddess could be totally fine let's not forget the mention of another party that we hadn't at least i don't think we had been privy to until teacher mentions it mentions the group taking orders from the young precog Dinah's team yeah Dinah has a team I didn't realize there was i mean I forgot yeah yeah and assuming this and which group is that but the anti-hero or the anti-cape group too
02:00:34
Speaker
The anti-cape group, that's what he says, isn't it? The anti-cape group is taking orders from the precog and they don't even know it. They don't even know it, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. is there oh Which kind of also works in line with like, Nieves was approached not by the precog, allegedly, but by Earth Kite.
02:00:55
Speaker
Right. Who has been instigating a lot of shit. yeah So yeah there are, as far as we know, the Mortari, which is the ah people who are currently in power in the city. Yes.
02:01:09
Speaker
Leftover, what is it? Leftover Number Man and Citrine. Citrine. We have... um We have the kite group that's doing all sorts of stuff.
02:01:24
Speaker
We have um we have teachers group that is now essentially Cauldron. um We have goddess who is up to some shit.
02:01:35
Speaker
And then we have Dinah doing shit. Yeah. Like there is a handful of other power plays all over the place. And then meanwhile, and we don't know where Tattletail is on this, but Tattletail said, you know, something about that. She's trying to hold things together and work with some people to do that, like Mortari.
02:01:58
Speaker
But her goal is like to just keep her people safe and keep things stable. That's all. Yeah. That's all she wants. Yeah. and The last big thing from Tattletail was trying to get... What's-his-face from Rain's cluster, right?
02:02:13
Speaker
They would get... Trying to get Cradle. She wanted to obtain Cradle. She's still strategizing there. Yeah, I mean, there's a there seem to be a lot of players.
02:02:24
Speaker
And I think that's what this interlude really did well. was it felt like Between the end very end of 8.12 and this interlude, It felt like, okay, all of these players are converging. Things are happening.
02:02:36
Speaker
that These are the moments I like when I feel like there's a lot that's about to happen. yeah And I'm excited to see what's going on. um Scapegoat's Power. I don't want to overlook Scapegoat's Power being a lot more interesting than it first appeared. Very interesting.
02:02:51
Speaker
Basically passing on bits of... not just like he's not just taking on the injuries of others, but he's passing on bits of it to every dimensional version of himself he can touch as well as the person he's touching, like shunting off bits of it to like, oh, this version will have a little back pain. This version will get a cut on their leg and like throwing bits of it to try to heal them faster.
02:03:15
Speaker
It's very interesting. And then Of course, teacher coming in and being like, you're more powerful than you know. take my hand. I can help you. you know And then it just exploding in potency with his ability to like push things onto other people is so fascinating.
02:03:34
Speaker
it all Very interested to see how that pans out.
02:03:38
Speaker
I would say it also adds dimensionality to... a scion because of how his power works that he can see what's going on that like his power specifically is like when scion came to earth bet and is the cause to split it from earth a left kind for the most part like shattered earth bets reality into a bunch of different pieces as well
02:04:11
Speaker
which are all kind of all the stuff that he's looking at, all the dimensions that are, yeah. Yeah. Dimensions he's touching are all earth bet dimensions. They're not. Yeah. um And he talks about like, yeah, he like split it in order to like see all the different things and work on all the different things. And like, but that, it that isn't how earth a left or Gimel is like, that is an earth bet world.
02:04:39
Speaker
yeah Are you, know, specifically type thing that is caused by scion i was like that's really weird that like inside your own multiverse there's a multi-quantum multiverse going on just in that one um Yeah, because otherwise it'd be like, we know there's other people in other worlds.
02:05:05
Speaker
And what's to say that like scapegoat Earth bet isn't essentially passing it on to scapegoat a laugh. Right. And this is like, no, this is all Earth bet, you know, scapegoats, just every possible version. Like, that's weird.
02:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's it's wacky. Yeah, I'm curious if um that's going to expand any more, especially as his power has grown, because it it seemed to imply as well that he was aware of other versions of himself that had his power, same power, and those that didn't, yeah right?
02:05:40
Speaker
So, like, yeah the implication being if that connection can be strengthened in any way, that becomes a really powerful ability if you can...
02:05:52
Speaker
you know, shunt off your injuries or they can, you know, your, your alternate selves can, can take your injuries and vice versa. It's a really fun power to think about. I like it. too I don't, I don't really think it will, but it's fun.
02:06:05
Speaker
So here's some fun stuff with that. Just thinking outside the box here. We know that other people, you have alternate versions of yourself on, um, you know, probably don't have powers, but,
02:06:18
Speaker
we know that he can shunt stuff to them and we know that shards basically are looking for DNA and that you can confuse them with like siblings or twins and stuff like that adds to weird stuff.
02:06:33
Speaker
And so like the ability to maybe have your power and then shunt it also onto an alternate version of yourself being ability that like he could pass his powers on and then combine that with the fact that we do know that, um, because of Valkyrie that like your shards do collect essentially information off of you as well. Like they do maintain like not personhood, but almost personality slow or like if we want to do even less of that, it's like a shadow of you kind of.
02:07:10
Speaker
Yeah. You know, a very small piece of you, very small piece of you, you know, this is faded image of you, but the idea of like, what if you could essentially take one of those dead ones and put it onto a live person?
02:07:26
Speaker
What if you found, you know, we know she has, we'll just say Eidolon, you know, what if she found earth, a left Eidolon and was like, oh ah and is you know somehow the dead shard is there but it's like oh that's my live person and like and then all of a sudden you have essentially new Eidolon.
02:07:47
Speaker
Nudolon if you will yeah. Nudolon.
02:07:51
Speaker
Fascinating. not not not not Which is not with nude Eidolon. Yes because that but but also not to be confused with nude Xandria. it' it right yeah Oh my god.
02:08:07
Speaker
Very interesting. Noodle. Either way. right um Exciting. yeah or on arc nine And now moves are being made. yeah yeah oh and yeah each teacher has Valifor in custody as well. He does. Valifor, what the fuck?
02:08:26
Speaker
And he's like yeah eyeless, jawless Valifor. They talk about how he's trying to use Valafor to keep up with goddess. Yeah. yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. Ranger Will Robinson. Let me tell you.
02:08:40
Speaker
yeah And he knows about like um like you teacher did mention he knows about Kinsey as well. I was like, oh, oh yeah. We know about that. yeah, I was going say, I think but we know about that. It's not, it feels as if.
02:08:54
Speaker
um the kense like the one interlude essentially happened at the same time. Oh, while you were in there like was probably while she was like in the car.
02:09:05
Speaker
And he's like, yeah oh yeah, we got to deal with this. and you know Yeah, right, youre right, right. Yeah, it felt intentional. We'll see. We'll see where it goes.
02:09:15
Speaker
but see what's see our coach
02:09:19
Speaker
lot of interconnected pieces. A lot of interconnected pieces. All right. Well, with that being done, let's go through some last final questions that we'll get out of here.
02:09:31
Speaker
Now, Hannah.
02:09:36
Speaker
And I asked this to the chat and I'll give them some time. When, chat, do you think Hannah cried? We'll discuss. When did Hannah cry? Jacob, prediction for when Hannah cried while reading.
02:09:48
Speaker
When did Hannah cry, Jacob? And it was just a single time, you say? in the it was the only time that I cried. it was just a moment where I just got really choked up. I don't know why, but it just hit me. And that was the only time that it happened while reading. I will guess so when the description of the wretch.
02:10:06
Speaker
and at the talk show came out. My guess.
02:10:14
Speaker
Nick? What you got, Nick? I mean, that was that was going to be mine, too. it was between that or...
02:10:24
Speaker
No, i think I think that was it. That would be the one. Or something random. going throw it to something else. I'm going to throw it to something else. i'm going to throw it to something else yeah i Think stay more random. More random. Gamble.
02:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, Gamble. Not being able to slow down. ah wasn't able Poor Gamble. Who couldn't slow down? Got the speed. um No, you know I'm going to say it was when um
02:10:51
Speaker
it was when Natalie and Kenzie were in the car. There was something in that conversation that that that guy. that Friends times infinity times six.
02:11:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that was a good little moment. I did like that moment a lot. Yeah. And then Infinity times seven when Crypt... We bump it down to... wait was it Is that the moment when Cryptid shows up and she's like, oh, Infinity times seven? Is that the moment? it's my it's It's when Chris shows up and she says he came and then she says Infinity times. And I...
02:11:29
Speaker
I lost it. I lost it. I just, wow, that just got me. yeah like Chris has been my, which will you know we'll just talk about in a second, but like Chris has been my problematic character of the group for a while. And he's also such a question mark of the group. st Still, there's still so much we don't know about him.
02:11:50
Speaker
And that he like he's so contrary and so difficult and such a teenage boy.
02:12:00
Speaker
But when Kenzie needed help, he was fucking there for her. like 10 bingos. Excuse me a second.
02:12:11
Speaker
i might gave me a second
02:12:17
Speaker
My guess was going to be, ah because the one that kind of got for me was um Kenzie stepping in front of Natalie and going, I am the hero. Yeah. I need to be the one to do this. I'm like, the man has a knife, Kenzie.
02:12:33
Speaker
You're a kid. It's
02:12:38
Speaker
a good moment. It's good moment. It's a real good moment. Well, we can move that right along. What are our feelings about the... troublesome person and but breakthrough now, especially given that we've brought up the murder charge again. Yeah.
02:12:56
Speaker
Yeah. So Victoria for me. Yeah. Not a lot changed on that, uh, on that guess. I still, I get the sense, I mean, the more this goes on, the more I get the sense that they were all the the troubled kid and, and that was just sort of, uh, you know, Yamada's way of being like, and you know, Hey, I need you. But,
02:13:14
Speaker
If you got to pick one, I do still like Victoria being the one that she was really concerned about. I'm just going to go ahead and spoil it for you. um The real troubled kid that Wild Bo was writing about was the the reader.
02:13:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah. yeah The real troubled kid was the reader inside of us. The real troubled kid was Wild Bo himself. It was his fan. For the breakthroughs we made along the way.
02:13:37
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Oh, gosh. and These are actually just long-term therapy notes that Wild Bo wrote out for himself. yeah know fli No, I'm sticking. I know I'm probably wrong, but I'm sticking with Victoria.
02:13:55
Speaker
And I felt like she kind of had like a snap moment here where we see that she can't always control her aura very well. yeah didn't Oh, man. when She got pushed. Just waiting for somebody to go through the wretch blender.
02:14:09
Speaker
Which I realized visualizing is definitely just Gandalf's Bilbo Baggins. And he gets all big and dark. I was like, oh, that's a pure aura. Yeah. Now imagine that and it grabs you.
02:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. Your one hand on my shoulder. Your other hand on my waist. Your other hand on my... Your other Oh my God.
02:14:32
Speaker
ah Love it. Oh my gosh. So um theories for what's going to happen next.
02:14:41
Speaker
I mean, we're still building towards some type of interdimensional confrontation. You know yeah what that looks like. Who knows? But that feels like a good theory at this point. All right. Sub theory, sub theory.
02:14:57
Speaker
We love sub theories. yeah This is not not true, but but I want it to be goddess. is an alternative Earth version of Victoria.
02:15:11
Speaker
What a funny... I like that, actually. as it if you If I'm going off of its incredibly powerful, charismatic power is kind of how I read goddess, this thing. And if Victoria had gotten her emotion aura as a thinker power instead of as a... She's a, what, a shaker, a brute, whatever she is? Yeah, a brute. Yeah.
02:15:33
Speaker
and Like, what if, what if, what if? but I mean, following with that, what if she can just like keep, we talk about as a bubble of omniscience. What if within that, like she essentially has her force field, but whatever's in the field, she can control as well.
02:15:50
Speaker
and We know that like the wretch can grab things. So like what's preventing her from like looking at a camera and like retching it out of the sky. That's a fun theory. But then also, Amy, it's like, come on, girl.
02:16:01
Speaker
Just like abandons one reality. It's like, well, I'll try this one. I've got to get it right eventually. Eventually. know that's probably not true, but just think that's funny. That's a fun theory, though. I like that.
02:16:13
Speaker
I think it's a very fun theory. Yeah. Thank you. I have been i had been wondering if we were going to get any crossover characters from other dimensions. Yeah, I feel like we should have gotten more.
02:16:27
Speaker
ol Like more weird versions and crossovers. Like we really, have we run into any? because remember, they're so minimal. Yeah. In terms of.
02:16:38
Speaker
Well. A lot of people died. And I have run into during During Gold Morning, I think it's implied that like across dimensions, a lot of people died.
02:16:49
Speaker
A lot of people died. Yes. you're Your other selves probably got, you know, Thanos snapped essentially. Mm-hmm. Weld's brother Mortar who just has the same thing but for stones.
02:17:02
Speaker
and yeah Mortar. It's good. I like that. I got metal. I got metal. you're rid him I made a rocks. Yeah. He can't walk outside. he's wel man Yeah.
02:17:14
Speaker
yeah Just keep picking up the concrete. yeah and Just find all the alternative selves and just each get progressively worse. Yeah. Objects i can absorb. It's the ah the ghost of Christmas worst power.
02:17:30
Speaker
Like, and this is what you would have been if your power was really shitty. It's like, oh, thank God I have this power. Merry Christmas to you all. You see that that meme where it's like a ghost pops into my bedroom with ah with an alternative reality version of me and it's like, and this is what you could be. And they're like, no, go spam me the horrible visions. Yes, yes. You're just like in your jammies in bed like, for what?
02:17:59
Speaker
What? um um but oh Fran, ah to do a slight correctness, because I know they talk about the divergence point is in the 80s, at least for Earth a left.
02:18:11
Speaker
ah We know that the other worlds had divergences at much different times. Yeah. Because Earth, yeah they they diverged a while ago to have that theocratic Yeah, I want to say it was like the 1700s or something like that, or maybe before then. Because they also didn't progress very well technologically, I believe, yeah compared to other Earths. Interesting.
02:18:35
Speaker
um Yeah, I don't know. Well, I'm just going to pass us by the powers since we didn't do any... What about Gamble? Do we want to talk about Gamble? and Which is a word for essentially like moving with... like I just loved his like Doc said I can't stop.
02:18:58
Speaker
I gotta keep running. I got a doctor. So I got doctor. And then he's like doing zoomies up on the on the fence. Like he has to like jump up on the fence and like jump down and like. It's like kids playing mermaids in the pool. Yeah.
02:19:11
Speaker
yeah think they're The way i I saw it was like you like jumps over him, clings on the fence for a second and then has to jump off and like much like a cat running up the wall. You know what I'm visualizing? Have any of you guys seen Devilman Crybaby?
02:19:25
Speaker
Yeah. you know You know how the the demon creatures run with like their arms just like yeah full on, like their legs are way too long. That's Gamble. That's how he's running. It's disturbing. I can't imagine.
02:19:38
Speaker
They describe him as sort of like getting more giraffe-like, but the end of each of his limbs is like a different animal. Yeah. Yeah. Like stepping stepping on an elephant. It's just like yeah every fourth step.
02:19:52
Speaker
they don't think that's quite. what That's how I imagined it at least. he's got yeah I'm not going to lie. I know that it probably meant like a different animal foot at the end. But in my head, it sounded like he was i get like a foot, like ah a whole ass dog is at the end of his foot is what I felt. Yeah, probably get spoilers. Like walking around like a giraffe in animal slippers, if that makes sense.
02:20:18
Speaker
Yes, yes, that works. um Either way, he wins best power just by default because I think he was the only one. yeah do i think so too, actually. I mean, Kenzie had her fun little moment, but she did. oh yeah. ah The major malfunctions.
02:20:32
Speaker
How could we forget? We didn't see all of them. We don't really see their powers at work, though. Yeah. Karyatid kind of described their weird breaker power. That was so cool, though, to show her form that kind of is like a rolling wave and it's all kind of...
02:20:57
Speaker
Rolling and roiling and a that was so cool. That was really, that was cool.
02:21:03
Speaker
Somebody's gonna have a real fun time rendering that. All right. Well, finish this off, I'll just read off our bingo sheets because we should have bingoed real hard tonight. If you were keeping track.
02:21:18
Speaker
um ah let's see compares worms tv interview with wards fuck neves jacob compare something to a movie slash tv show hannah cries simmer theories ah paint fumes fuck teacher was carol actually okay fuck kenzie's parents uh kenzie's kind of badass let's go natalie cat on screen love for the malfunctions alan rants and nick goes full teacher I feel like we almost hit every single scare. feel like, yeah. That was all the ones we hit.
02:21:51
Speaker
We only missed one, ah which was Michael has to reel them in. Oh, look at that. We were good tonight. i shot well be Well, I wouldn't say we were good tonight. I think Michael was off the game, maybe.
02:22:05
Speaker
yeah mike Michael wasn't wrangling and riding this as hard. You want me to ride you, Nick? I'll avoid if Nick wants you to. yeah I want you to ride me I'll ride him hard, put him away. wow wow Hannah will real listen if need be. And you too can listen to that Patreon content if you subscribe.
02:22:25
Speaker
The boys read through erotica together or something. Oh, super. Oh my gosh. Give us that one out for a baby. Give us the smuttiest worm fanfic that you have with legal people that are okay. and legal thank you And maybe we'll read that out loud. I would love to pass seduction i would love to read some worm erotica. I think it'd be hilarious. Also reminder, we did read, ah so we not read, we all wrote some warm fan fiction that's back in the Patreon that was part of some Patreon clucks that we've done. No. no
02:23:03
Speaker
We need to write good fan fiction. Maybe we randomize some adult characters. Mine was pretty close. it it wasn't It wasn't quite that explicit. If we yeah if i do, i call ah great I call what's his name?
02:23:18
Speaker
Mirrodin. I take off my robe and wizard hat. yeah I donned my donned my robe. I donned my robe. Yeah, yeah.
02:23:30
Speaker
Yeah. ah What another great night. Now, the big thing the great time is we are leading to quite a large arc next time.
02:23:42
Speaker
Arc 9, you know, we just finished a good solid, ah what was this, 82,000?
02:23:51
Speaker
We had break that up. but For all of yeah all of the arcs. ah Which we've been reading 82,000 for the last two arcs. We did split it up because Eclipse had like 52,000. So we split you know seven you know on either side. ha However, arc nine is going to be 140,000. That's a book. That's a whole book. That's a whole book.
02:24:11
Speaker
the whole That whole ass book. Yeah. ah whole last book yeah So the question is, do we want to read two 70,000s or three 40,000s?
02:24:25
Speaker
Man, two 70,000s should be fine, right? I think we can do two 70s. It's, it depends. Alan, you would, is it a good arc? It's, like yeah I would argue. you is it going to be lull because this was kind of high energy? this going to be low energy? Because if it is.
02:24:44
Speaker
I think this is going to be an interesting arc. I think it's going very interesting arc. Let's try it. We have to call audibles. We have to call it audible, but let's try it. What are you going to one The big question is trying to figure out where to split it. Because that's what I've been. That's what anytime I've been distracted, I've been sitting here going, which one?
02:25:04
Speaker
Where do I split it at? um yeah i will take suggestions right now. Don't say anything. But you if you want to look up and tell me where to split it at, I'm thinking that maybe we split it. Oh, man, it's so big.
02:25:22
Speaker
you trying to decide if you want to end on 9.9 or end on 9.Y? Yeah. Yeah. It might be a little bit... don't know. They're a little bit bigger per average.
02:25:35
Speaker
I think 9.Y might be where it's at. Let's try it. That ends on an interlude. Read through 9.Y? Yeah. It's slightly bigger.
02:25:48
Speaker
and and nine point y itself is like... long one. Oh, no, no. 19 X, which is in the middle of that is like 14,000 word chapter.
02:26:00
Speaker
Dang. So it might be a little bit bigger on the front, but I think that's a really good stopping point. Let's give it a shot.
02:26:11
Speaker
So 9.1 to 9.1. 9.1. All right. Very well. Mm. Mm. Mm. and i boy y alrighty very well m o Delicious.
02:26:24
Speaker
Delicious. Eat it up. And everyone's good with two weeks from today, the 30th? Today is the 30th. The last day of September. September. Why you go by so quick?
02:26:41
Speaker
It's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. We'll see you guys on 30th.
02:26:50
Speaker
yeah Should we listen to some music? Yeah. Oh, what song do we have? Oh, yes. Michael, give us some songs. Join the Patreon.
02:27:01
Speaker
Please come on and join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon? Come support us and join the Patreon. Please help us and join the Patreon.
02:27:12
Speaker
We have fun. Join the Patreon. It's great now. Join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon?
02:27:21
Speaker
Oh, you joined the Patreon already?
02:27:36
Speaker
Let's go. All right. We'll see you guys the last day of September, September 30th in two weeks. Bye-bye. Please come on in.
02:27:51
Speaker
Bye.