Transcript
Speaker: Worm is a web serial by J .C. McCray, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans ah .wordpress dot .com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon dot .com slash wildbo. 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. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.
Speaker: Good morning, Brockton Bay. There's a blackout rolling through and you are not in the know. Welcome everybody. Thank you. Thank you. alllan Hello, hello, hello. We're getting this going. Yeah, we're going. We are here in arc 19. Oh, trigger warnings. I'm going to say the word flesh. Probably a lot. I'm going to say flaps a lot.
Speaker: I'm going to cringe a lot, probably. Is that your word of choice? Your holy toads? No, I'm going to cringe at you saying flaps and flesh and what all kinds of other things. What about terryfolds? Well, terryfolds are part of human nature, okay? Yeah. Which arc are we doing, Jacob? We're doing arc 19, which - Scourge! I don't know about you guys. I flew through. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I casually listen to these, I listen to the audiobook, the fan audiobooks just in the morning when I'm getting ready for work and and going to work and stuff on the on my commute. And I'll do like a chapter a day pretty much and just kind of pace it. And i was I was done with this one so way early, like several days early, just because I was listening to it continuously. Nice. It's a little shorter. and it It moves really fast and it felt a little bit shorter too. I don't know if it really was.
Speaker: but it definitely felt like it was a little shorter than the last one. I believe it sits at about just shy of 70 ,000 words. Do you keep the word count like next to you? There's a beautiful bastard. bastard. Uh, I don't, I could not tell you who made this. Um, I'll have to go back and look on Reddit, but they posted on Imgur, a lovely set of wild bow stats. Uh, one,
Speaker: chapter how many chapters are in each one, how many word count for each one, the amount of comments ah for each one. Wow. um Yeah. I'm sorry. Can you pronounce the name of that image? host yeah yeah say Imgur is how you think it's pronounced. You know what? You know what? Let's let our listeners decide. You tell us how Alan should be pronounced. You know what? In fairness, hear me out. I have never said that word out loud. That's fair. That's fair. I'll give you that. This is one of those words for me. I think we all say it wrong. You mean like Genry? Yeah, Genry. Yeah. What Genry of music do you listen to?
Speaker: No, no, wait, wait, go go back, go back to that word. How do you guys say it? Yeah. See, I was supposed to be pronounced an imager. It is. image imager Yeah. Except there's no like spacing or anything between the M and the G, which is always what threw me off. Cause I always thought it would be imager, but the more I looked at it, you know, throughout my and experience in the internet, it looks like m that's how I always pronounced it but it's supposed to be i imager and what ah follow a creator who intentionally mispronounces words in his videos just to increase engagement. Make people mad. Yeah, so everyone comments and it boosts his engagement.
Speaker: I hate when people do that. Like I get, I get why people do it. I just, I hate it it so much. I hate that it works. Not that they do it. Same. but yeah like We're so predictable. Everybody always wants to be right, you know, which this is kind of jumping to the end just really quickly, but as a funny moment,
Speaker: with the last interlude and we'll get there eventually, but just that whole, how realistic that is where somebody's like two things. Number one, I'm going to correct something wrong that you said. its Yeah. So yeah, that's, it's human nature. hearsay Yeah. Objection. You're a dumb, a dummy, dumb, a real dumb, dumb, baloney sandwich. Yeah. The, the consensus I'm gathering from the internet as I'm doing a little research is that the company pronounces it Imager. Yeah. Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. So shall I say now? Say the say the name, Nick. Imger. Okay, nice. I mean, I mean, yeah, Alan is right. I like go Imger. Well, hey, speaking of you mispronunciation.
Speaker: Imger. That's my use. We have a ma you yeah no s my It's boy. I have some podcast juice tonight, nothing but H2O and go. ah I was going to say, do you not have your chai tonight? I do not. I'm running on vibes and water. Wow. I'm drinking so much vodka. I'll tell you right now, I have.
Speaker: never been drunk for any of these podcasts, despite popular opinion. And, uh, I don't need to. Let's go.
Speaker: I mean, yeah. Well, uh, speaking of, uh, of words to mispronounce, we've got a lot of names to get through in these. No, it's names night.
Speaker: ah Well, there's a few. There's just there's a few in here. I think we've I think we've said most of these before, but there's a few that popped up quite a bit. That's all right. and That's all right. We'll get Jacob's favorite Chevalier. Oh, yes. Can't wait. No, we get a great scene. It's beautiful.
Speaker: Now I'll take that to my grave. Let's dive in. We've but what already six minutes into this. Yeah. Uh, it's the warmup period. Yeah, of course. We got to loosen our muscles. Oh, hey, word of the week has been Lucy goosey who's to do words, but that's fine. well i i feel's so much fun ah Much of this arc blends together pretty much the whole thing.
Speaker: Yeah, it really does. So maybe just like chapter at a time might be best. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, what I'm push for sure and for certain we're going to get, um we're going to like get ahead of ourselves a little bit. um And the the chapters do tend to kind of melt into each other a little bit, but we're just going to do our best. I don't think they do it all. There's only two chapters that I think melt to each other and that's fighting Noel at the end.
Speaker: The rest of them are very distinct and have very good cutoff points for what they're about to do. Oh, meaning, but like we go chapter at a time. Yes. We're going to go chapter at a time. Like that's what I was like. I wouldn't, it wouldn't really group. We were just talking about how they blended together. I'm like, I don't know about how they blended. They did not blend together. They were very personally, they blended together for me quite, quite, quite good team as a whole. If I remember is a blend together.
Speaker: Well, I mean, the whole arc is the echidna fight. Yeah. Well, yeah that's, that's 18 blends together as a whole. 19 has a bunch of very distinct moments. Yeah. Right now. Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Okay, so we'll just jump right on in. Let's go. Chapter one. Taylor is stuck in Echidna, where we left off ah with Arkateen, and is dreaming of battles and memories, and it's not a fun time, and is also seeing through the eyes of our bugs. We kind of have this little, like, jump back and forth. ah ah We have some heroes show up to help, and Tattletail drops the building on Noelle.
Speaker: I mean, as if, as if being absorbed by a giant goo monster wasn't bad enough. Right. You got to add in the psychological warfare, right? Of course. Of being stuck inside a kidney. Yeah. The absolute reliving of trauma.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. The reliving of trigger events. Uh, but now they're warping with like worst fears, uh, Taylor's whole, um, I really liked this chapter and I think really this is one of the most memorable chapters because it does stand out for me, at least from the rest. Both because of the back and forth between, uh, between Taylor's visions and the reality. And on top of that, just how Taylor's worst fears are being personified.
Speaker: Right. And ah it's interesting to me that a lot of it goes back to mannequin, um, that that was kind of the character who a lot of her worst fears got pinned on. And it it makes you think like in the moment, we don't really think about it, but you kind of realize, Oh, that whole fight with mannequin must have been deeply traumatizing for her. And even maybe she hasn't processed how deeply traumatizing the mannequin experience was for her. Yeah. It's.
Speaker: You see it a lot in like television, the back and forth while somebody stuck in something and they're like, snap out of it. I know you're in there. And you know, it's contrasted with, you know, them doing something, yeah whether they're gone, they've gone berserk or something in real life and fighting it on the inside. And I can't say that I've really ever seen it done in writing.
Speaker: ah And the like one or two times I have, it's, it's been very brief and very poorly done. So like this was, I didn't like reading it just cause I don't like that trope, but for that trope to be done, this is the best I've seen it written. Easy. I'm trying to remember um what else she sees. I know the big one, the big one that I remember is a mannequin.
Speaker: ah Killing her dad or cornering her dad. and She relives the her in the hallway getting bullied getting knocked around getting getting knocked around ah She relives being stuck in the locker. Yeah, I remember that um And yeah, otherwise though we just see again tattletales great power is her ability to Understand things manipulate things um Blowing up coils base doing all those moves. It was a big move, but it worked um
Speaker: you know and and buries her. The the interesting thing though to me is that, ah you know and there was this very good, I think it was very well done, but Shatterbird is out now, right? Yes. and we did it Am I the only one that forgot about Shatterbird? I completely forgot about Shatterbird. Yeah, 100%. Completely forgot. Did not remember. yeah like As soon as it was like, oh, that's right, she is here. but Yeah, no, i I definitely forgot. I mean, I didn't forget about her, but it's that, oh, she's here where the is now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and of course, Regent got knocked out or wasn't around one of the two um to exert control. So and he was inside of a kid that he got. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: yeah yeah got um Which I mean, that's something else we can talk about too, is them battling these dark clones of them themselves. In the way that echidna's power works on other people's powers, this gets developed more throughout the chapter too, but I just, I was really interested in that and how she's almost like cycling through different versions of powers to figure out which one would serve her needs best.
Speaker: And obviously, GRU's teleportation darkness is very effective in this scenario. Gosh. Unfortunate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We see... I don't feel like we see many, if any, Regent clones pop out. I feel like we see a lot of GRU co clones have to deal with GRU clones, but we don't really have to deal with Regent clones.
Speaker: Am I remembering that correctly? I think they killed them pretty quickly. Yeah. Um, and that's why like even there's only one grew clone that makes it like they do a pretty good job of laying waste to all of them. I mean, yeah if we're going to talk about anybody miss militia.
Speaker: Uh, was ideally suited for murdering these clones. Yeah, for sure. Like they get spit out. And like we've said, most of these heroes and villains couldn't take a nine mil to the head. And she upped that a little and just pulls out two M six teens and starts to just, bam up but but you know? Yeah. I mean, and and even Taylor mentioned how effective she is because.
Speaker: The clone's skin is really weak and yeah you you might even say their flesh is weak. um
Speaker: but Go on. But even she's able to be effective against them because they really aren't. Yeah, they aren't durable. is They haven't had time to ruminate. Yeah, they they haven't festered long enough. Yeah. Yeah. Ew. Yeah. In reality. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, in reality, Echidna versus Nobog would be an interesting showdown. You have Echidna, a city in enough time. all i All I can think of is, I think, the tagline from Alien versus Predator, which is just, whoever wins, we lose. yeah so I think that's what that fight would be. yeah If we're gonna say that fight, it's Echidna by a mile.
Speaker: Yeah, I think i my oh yeah yeah yeah yeah just you shit every single thing that he throws at her yeah until he makes it until she makes it to him. Yeah, yeah. No, I don't think that would actually be ah too far a fight. Mm hmm. Because, yeah, because Nobog just he just creates his own clones. Yeah. It can't. Yeah, he doesn't deserve anything. Yeah. No, yeah. And Kidna wins that one. I kid.
Speaker: Well, we, I would say that we don't know at least at this point in the story. And I don't remember if no bog has more to it than just, yeah, we don't know that much yet. Um, a true. So, so I'll, I'll, I'll open an asterisk, put a pin in that one. Once we find out more, if we find out more about no bug, we'll come back to that question. Cause I think that is an interesting one.
Speaker: because only because no bog is classified as a class S threat, which eventually yeah was classified as true. So I don't, I don't want to say that a kid has it hands down, even though it seems like she would from what we know. But again, I don't remember enough. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's, there's enough. Yeah. That you're right. I don't remember anything about no bog, be honest, aside from what we've read in the interlude. Um, that definitely enough there because S class is like, Hey, big heroes don't engage and It sounds like some of the big heroes should be able to kill Nilbog, so there might be more going on that we're not aware of yet. Anyway, um onlines side rants. Nilbog is going to be played by Danny DeVito. That's literally all I know. Oh, of course. I thought Siberian was being played by Danny DeVito.
Speaker: Danny DeVito meant to be played by Danny DeVito. Look, Danny DeVito can play everybody. Wasn't Danny getting played by Danny DeVito? Taylor, you get back in this house right now. You're just wearing different wigs? Yes. And then for Siberian, he's just got the stripes.
Speaker: Absolutely. Not not not even, issue they're just like painted on him too, right? When he was naked and always sunny and they just got it smeared all over him but he's sweating it off. now yeah No. man. You love it. um Yeah, no. Welt comes to the rescue and I love i love that we have some capes that can ah Get in, dig through Noel's, um you know, goop. Flush. Flush. Her flaps. Her fleshy flaps ah and pull out ah Taylor. i that's That's what's fun. I like because I don't know. It's it can get so overwhelming. You're like, how are we ever going to deal with this? And then you have welds like, oh, everyone's favorite boy. Weld is here to save of the day. Like, no worries. He'll pull everybody out. Like, it's all good. Weld's here.
Speaker: You just have weld, you beautiful bastard. I love him so much. it's such a yeah He's got such a fun ah fun power. It's so simple, but the fact that his power also makes him semi -immune to a lot of other powers no is ah is a really neat addition to what's pretty much a curse in every other respect. get He gets like, well, at least he at least he has that. Got to give him something.
Speaker: Um, but no, yeah, great, great moment for our weld fans, which is all of us, all of us. We're all weld fans. Yeah. Yeah. Well, weld is a delight in every way. yeah I think, I think like, you know, the phrase like pure cinnamon bun type of character, it doesn't apply to many people in the worm universe, but I feel like weld is about as close as it gets. Yeah. He's a cinnamon roll. Mm hmm.
Speaker: All right. Moving on to, uh, what's the, wait, at the end of, end of that chapter. Yeah. The end of that is the, you know, they realized that people have seen the evil clones and, uh, they're fucked. Your face is out. Yeah, that's right. Little, uh, that's true. Yeah. Cause the clones come out unmasked unmasked. So usually sometimes they have like costumes.
Speaker: my biological costumes Yeah. Birthday suits, if you will. Not even that. I mean, like, like, Oh, that's like, she says at one point, like, Oh, that's Gru's helmet, but made out of flesh. Yeah. Yeah. I am not going to lie. I didn't remember that. I remember it later. Like when certain someone steps out ah and everyone's like, Oh shit.
Speaker: ah but I didn't realize that that was happening here. Yeah, I think think it was more with um Vista and just some of the clones for some reason did come out with costumes on, not like completed costumes, but it was, and I remember it being mentioned with Vista in particular and in 18, I think. It wasn't just a bunch of naked people running around, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker: No, you're right. But yeah, no, that what they did mention that the like, um, as some of the, some of the clones are coming out unmasked, we're starting to give away identities, things like that, which is is kind of scary in a universe where, where your identity is super protected. Yeah. And that'll become a problem, a bigger problem even later on. Yeah. We'll see you shortly.
Speaker: Yep. Chapter two. Chapter two. ah So we're we're out of the building. All is sort of okay for now. um Taylor lays her cards on the table about Thomas Calvert ah with Weld and Miss Militia so that they don't come to any you know wrong conclusions.
Speaker: ah But basically like tells them without telling them that she maybe was the one who did it ah who who who put a bullet in his head. um Gets healed up sort of by scapegoat, which is very interesting. I really enjoyed that. Senz grew home with Imp because he's just not doing well. ah And Tattletail makes some enemies because she Likes to go waggling her tongue and talking about things seeing who's gonna twitch, you know Checking out everybody's poker face basically says ah something about cauldron and sees who flinches This was the all these chapters are really good. I loved this arc this one. Oh Yeah, this is a great chapter
Speaker: I do see a non -admission of guilt. Like, listen, I do not recall. There was a bullet in his head and my my gun was one bullet lighter, I admit. Yes, I was holding a gun. um it was it's the I can neither confirm nor deny that I had any involvement in Coyle's death.
Speaker: However, if I had, it's necessary. I was going to say Taylor comes out with a book next year. if i had that murder if i had your blog him yeah if i had killed But no, um I do. So that's the other thing we didn't talk about with the clones is that.
Speaker: they come out with knowledge of what the person has been and done. So it's not just secret identities, right? Skitter's clone, the reason why they she has to talk to Weld and Miss Militia about it is because a skitter clone is like, are you sure you want to save her, Weld? You know, she killed your boss, right? And he's like, wait, what the fuck? you cant Pause. um Yeah. And that was something that is just another added layer ah Fighting echidna that is so interesting, right? Not only are your powers getting stolen you're going through psychological torment But on top of that your identity and all of your secrets might be revealed to your best friends Pretty much. Yep. I just imagine a side story where it's like Two two male heroes one of them gets sucked in and the other one comes out and it just gets real awkward later because the clone just says something really off the wall like
Speaker: You know, he's a really into inflation porn, right? yes
Speaker: it Just a side story that we can imagine in a fan fiction movie. Which hero do you think would say that guesses right now? No. Regent. Which twisted version? Oh no.
Speaker: Yeah, good. Moving on. Okay. Great. Uh, yeah. just wanted to dry song Yeah. My top note, my very first note in this, which is related to later is she's still blind, right?
Speaker: Yeah, which is of course answered later with the line that I have been waiting for for like two arcs because I know that it was coming. I just didn't know when and finally we get the she's so good. It was so good. Ellen and I were both reading in the same room when I happened and I and he was like waiting for me to get to that part.
Speaker: and That's amazing. It's one of those moments that has stuck with me for so long in worm that I like, you know, it's, it's what we've talked about. It's bone saw just, you know, but it with the meat locker, it's, it's mannequin creep into the vents. It's Sater going, she's blind. Those are the things to stick with you. The scapegoat.
Speaker: scapegoat. My bad scapegoat. I mean, you're close. Same yeah same group of group of animals. um No, I love, a scapegoat's great. It's just like your dollar store, a panacea, just like You know, mom, can we have, uh, can we, can we have some healing? We have healing at home. I write that down. That's going to be a meme. Yeah. if you I need you to write that down. ah you know I'll write this down. I need to remember this. Yeah. Yeah. But he has the advantage. Well, I guess panacea is still stronger in this way too. He has the slight advantage ish that he can then.
Speaker: basically curse people with whatever injuries he's sustained. So that's kind of cool. Offensive power. But okay, so am I, because this is how the second time reading about scapegoat's power, just to confirm, he is essentially trading the injuries for non injuries with other versions of the person in other worlds. So like a random tailor in some alternate universe is just going to be blind now. Yes. Am I understanding? Okay. That's what I thought.
Speaker: Wow, that sucks. Yeah, that's what Tattletail implies at least, is that if Tavis Power works. Man, so the question is now, if you had a serious injury and were presented with the same option, would you agree to it? Oof. If it was another version of me, maybe not.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's tough because the, at least in their world, other, other worlds or other, it's a kind of a multiverse. Um, that is a known fact that it's a multiverse, right? Yeah. In our world, if that was just offered out of the blue, I'm like, and somebody's like, Hey, you broke your leg. You could have it happen to your alternate you in another universe and be like,
Speaker: probably. I mean, I feel and feel bad, but that's such a foreign and unrealistic concept to me that I'm like, yeahs sorry yeah yeah, I'd rather just not have the broken leg or whatever hor you know horrible injury it is. yeah And so it's, but for them, they have contact with other worlds. And so it's a bit different because it's like, what if one day I meet that Taylor and she finds out somehow that this is why she's blind. You're right.
Speaker: I always liked it. So I, um, it was the classic. Somebody had asked, you know, would you press a button for a million dollars if somebody random in the world would die, you know, classic thing. And the top comment was, yes, people press that every day for two day, two day shipping. Like we're pressing that button all the time. yeah every Rest in peace has a bit about that where the guys like mid explaining it to Jeff and Jeff slaps the button. yeah He goes, if I do it again, do I get more money? He's like, yeah, it's but in that one, it's somebody you know dies and he just keeps slapping the button. The guy's like, stop. It's not supposed to be a dilemma. He's like, yeah why are you keeping the button for me? Come on. ah Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, I think I'd probably also take the scapegoat and deal and I wouldn't feel good about it and until I forgot about it.
Speaker: That'd be fine. Right, right. Man, it's nice to be him. Yeah. What an interesting work around for a healer power. Like we're trying to come up because up until now we, the only person that I feel we've seen heal other people, you know, pansy up being the literally just my ability is to heal. Um, Eidolon has, has the ability to develop powers.
Speaker: So he makes a healing power. I was going to say, I think they ah ah that's northhaa has a regeneration ability. Yeah. She can pass on to other people. That's true. I think they've implied that Eidolon has, has done that in the past because they mentioned that he tried to heal hero after, uh, after yeah but he was too far gone. Yeah. Um, so he can summon a, but his abilities to literally just make up powers. Yeah. So scapegoat is the first time Um, I feel like we've seen ah another genuine, like ah my job is the healer. Right. Um, yeah what an interesting way around it too. Cause obviously you can't do the same thing as panacea. You can't just have somebody that goes, Oh, you're better now. Cause I've fixed you. Like you've got to come up with some interesting way to do it. Cause that's how powers work here. And man, what an interesting method.
Speaker: Also, what a great arc to like have the whole conversation in regards to like different realities and pulling and swapping things out. and like i mean like it's It's a good arc for it.
Speaker: if we're gonna you know yeah yeah i mean I even love how Tattletale gets in later in the arc, kind of gets into trying to use scapegoat with her plan at the end.
Speaker: you know, and but being like, ah, not really gonna work for what I want. Like, it's he's just so wrapped up in the fabric of this universe. A lot of power. I love how she leans over and she's like, you know, oh, I could have sworn I mentioned that. Also, I'm paying you pretty well, aren't I? Yeah. It's like, of course the goat character is corrupt.
Speaker: I just like the idea that everyone is in Tattletale's pocket. and Yeah. Yeah. it She's, she, cause she's got all of coils money and so much money. We know coil was rolling deep in it. So, uh, I think it's implied that she might be the wealthiest person in the world. Well, I mean, they even talk about at one point that she's, she's, you know,
Speaker: lost some money, but then we'll talk about that. She's about to gain a lot of money. yeah girls about girl she's been on investment yeah She's been on a spending spree, expecting a very large return. yeah Yeah. But I think at one point I'm trying to remember where it is, but they even said like, after, after buying, you know, after all this spending, you know, post coil, like, you know, and leading up to coil, like I did drain the reserves a bit.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, cause she has to buy, she buys fault lines crew for, I forget what it was. Like a million. and maybe That's like a million. and Then she doubles it. Yeah. Something like that. Just buys it. Yeah. Easily. So, um, she's spending. How about that conversation with tattletale? And, uh, is it miss Felicia? Right. Oh, tattletale. Miss Alicia. I was going to start with skitter and, uh, weld. Oh, skitter walks over and gives a genuine heartfelt thank you.
Speaker: Like, hey, well, that was pretty heroic. I really appreciate it. You know, what's your spot? Like ah just a good, good on you. And then right away, another thing. Hey guys, I got to clear this up because I don't want this to get misunderstood. So let's clear this out right away. And then immediately quotes basically what I believe about. Like I enjoy rom coms, but the idiot plot thing or like, Oh my gosh, this is a simple misunderstanding. Wild boat. You just get me. Um, not only that, she explains the whole issue in four words. Thomas Calvert was coil that so simple. This is not a, yeah there's no time to explain. I'll explain it to you later. She explained it in four words and we can elaborate from there, but that's all you really need to do.
Speaker: Yeah, she explained it in less time than it takes to say there's no time to explain like yeah Yeah, but yeah and I do appreciate that too that she recognizes that hiding this isn't going to make it better and I think it's really interesting and really telling That it's weld and miss militia because Weld, at least, we know is one of the Case 53s, right? He's semi -inhuman now. right And Miss Militia did have a trigger event. She was not a cauldron hero. So having the two of them, which we'll get more into that later, of course, but having the two of them already listening to her um is really interesting. Although I do love that they kind of call her out on her BS. Miss Militia says something like,
Speaker: You do this a lot, Skitter. You make really big claims that you know that we can't check up on until later. Yeah. So no I will push back on this. Again, when has Skitter ever lied to the PRT about anything? When? She hasn't. she has I'm not saying that she has. I'm just saying I think it's really funny that that is what she does, right? And every time she's right, but it is like if you're on the other side, you're like,
Speaker: Who is this girl? Who is this girl that constantly bats a thousand? yeah Wow, that's wild. like ah You'd think after a while, you're like, yeah, she's a villain, but she's yeahre like she does bad things, but she's never lied to us. like She always comes in and is like, hey, this is what's going on. We need help. I need help. You need help.
Speaker: like You think after a while that you would be like, yeah, look, skitter, we're going to get her. But if she calls us up and says there's a big threat, ah you know, better check into it. And she's yeah, I just don't understand how we haven't gotten this through our skulls that skitter is not like she's not the bad guy. Yeah, she's not the manipulative like I'm going to two time you and I'm a spite. Like but there's none of that. She's never done that.
Speaker: I think, I think the issue though is that she does vacillate back and forth between like, Hey, I'm going to help you with this bad guy. I'm also going to attack the PRT base directly and kidnap and kidnap. I'm good mayor yeah i's going to warn you about these big things, but then I'm also going to blow up half of dragon's robots. It is like, she's not a liar. Look, I.
Speaker: I can pass up a few robots. People getting kidnapped and others getting murdered, but telling a lie. The problem is that except for case 53, every Cape is familiar with deception because they all do it every day.
Speaker: ah so So I think there's just a general sense of mistrust in the Cape community in general. I mean, and it's not about to get better after this arc, let me tell you. but I think that's what like that's one of just the whole themes of the story is that like the Protectorate is really just another gang, you know, yeah essentially, they're just a bit more gang. Yeah, and ah and add a but so bit more morally uptight.
Speaker: But like, you know, murder and pillage quite as much. I mean, openly, not in. They seem to be murdering and pillaging from other dimensions, quite easily, though. Not not not there. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It's all about perspective. Yeah. Yeah. Not a lot of a whole lot of distrust. Yeah. Yeah. I do appreciate that they did not completely blow off Skitter for once, but they were like, hey,
Speaker: Like they listened to her, they talked with her. um I would say even the clock blocker conversation, which is about as close as we got to a decent like back and forth. Clock blocker kind of was on a war path. yeah Like I need to one up you. That's the goal of this conversation. I need to feel like this is the right thing.
Speaker: um Well, Miss Militia was also there for that conversation. conversation So she hurt you know she's telling him, like reminding him, like hey, you're going to get written up if you keep pushing this. And he's like, I don't care. I'm going to push it anyways. Write me up. But she's listening. She was listening to Taylor and clockblock her talk and interjecting events in a while. And so now that we have her, she's again interacting with with Taylor in a scenario where Taylor is being honest and is being truthful and isn't holding stuff back.
Speaker: Uh, I mean, other than admitting that she was the one who shot coil, but like, I feel like there's there are bri allegedly, of course, I feel like bridges are kind of like, maybe not being repaired, but like,
Speaker: there's There's some bridging happening between the gap of like Miss militia and Taylor. And I like that. and And I like this conversation with her and weld and her interaction with clock blocker before. And again, in this arc, like I just, I'm liking that these relationships are, are growing more than just, Oh, well you're a villain and we're going to, you know, take you in. Yeah, very much so. Oh, also.
Speaker: We have the moment where Taylor starts walking and, uh, back to back, Lisa starts walking slowly behind her. And she's like, yes what is up with that? You know, are you trying to push me as the face? And then imp even later says, Hey, you're the leader. And I was like, is that the first time we've had the official, like, I mean, cause Taylor's kind of taken charge quite a bit, but like publicly. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, yeah. Well, they, they talked about it before how grew kind of handed her the reins in a way to say like, look, I'm not really capable of being the leader. You should lead us, but yeah, this is the first time publicly it's become known to other characters outside of the undersiders that Taylor's in charge, at least for now. Yeah. You know, public opinion matters and Tattletale knows that better than anybody. And I love that it's a subtle stepping, you know, for the back.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, she's still speaking out, but she like allows Taylor to shut her down at times, which is, yeah. Um, speaking of shutting her down, uh, for Jesus fuck, tattle tail, just, uh, saying that out loud like that. Yeah. She just went for it. Did she just said cauldron, right? She didn't even like say anything else. She was just like cauldron.
Speaker: And then like waiting to you see who would like flinch. Yeah. Which, you know, who did, who did legend with zero subtlety whatsoever. Yeah. Absolute zero. What a fucking that's just Superman over in the corner. And he hears like kryptonite and all of a sudden Clark Kent's head just like whips around like at super speed, you know, papers below off the table. Cause he whips so fast. Basically. Yeah. yeahsonic whiplash Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I know. yeah Legend not being not the um and not winning the subtle game. he's You know, look, he's a good boy. He's not a super smart. he is I like how even I think later on not to get ahead of the chapters here, but don't they even say they're like, yeah, I mean, legend, we didn't tell him everything. Yeah. Because like, he couldn't handle it. Like, keep a secret to save his life. God damn it. yeah Yeah. Which it is interesting that he reacts the most, I think now.
Speaker: Because we did have that interlude we can see him that he is on high alert for what's going on with cauldron yeah it makes sense to hear a significant villain who you know his sort of cognitive powers. Is that you know just kinda says so anyways cauldron and that you know which is kinda how i imagine she says it yeah i do like legend though and i think. The story of this art just shows.
Speaker: more of how how unlike Alexandria and Eidolon, we're getting closer to the end but of this section, but unlike Eidolon and Alexandria, he really did have the best intentions, right? I don't know. i I just get that feeling from Legend that he wouldn't have let things happen that Alexandria and Eidolon did. And that's why they didn't let him in on it, right? it was like Legend would stop us from experimenting on other people. yeah We got to do that. Because he's a good boy.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I mean, the legend is the like Superman character. He's the hero. yeah Yeah. Yeah, he is. He he is the the as as close to a hero archetype as you can get in the story, I think. Yeah, especially after hero died. Badum Tish. Sadness. I'm going to have to use it, Nick. Oh, God, that's such a bad joke.
Speaker: i Damn it. Am I good to move on, Alan? Yeah. Okay, cool. ah Chapter three, Taylor chats with Wards and Tattletale shares theory about punching a hole through realities. And there's a whole discourse going on there.
Speaker: Hold this course I I forgot what exactly happens here. It's fine, but uh Helen doesn't want to dwell. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was reading I'm sorry. Don't go. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Please. Please. Please.
Speaker: Uh, I was just gonna say tecton. They have a conversation with tecton over here and you know, the rest of the Chicago wards that are there. Um, wanton is back. Yeah, good for him. Uh, he made it. I and was able to D radioactive him. Um, so good, good on him. Uh, but yeah, tecton real great guy, strong weld energy, except with all like less unnecessary rules following bullshit. Like.
Speaker: What a great guy. Yeah. Tecton gets a nice honorable mention in the, uh, in the, in like our list of, uh, uh, honorable capes, I think. Yeah. I really liked the Chicago wards. They seem really cool. Yeah. I see. And they seem pretty chill. I think that says a lot probably about Mirden as a person as well, right? We don't know much about him, but we know he's in charge of the Chicago awards and the PRT. So,
Speaker: whatever influence he's had on them. It must've been a positive one. I think that's good. um You know, similar to um Gallant and Aegis and their effect probably, you know, those good characters who just helped people develop into better versions of themselves.
Speaker: um I think even at a certain point, they mentioned that as well, that they, and they seem, the Chicago wards, I think more than the other wards that we've met too, seem very, very like, we need to talk to our higher ups about this. I don't know, I feel like they said that a lot more. Going through the proper channels. Yeah, they go through the proper channels, right? They're like, but that shows a level of trust with the higher ups in the sense of, okay, Mirrodin will know what to do. Why don't, we should talk to Mirrodin about this, he'll understand.
Speaker: which kind of does happen later. And they're right. Mearden does kind of under, I mean, kind of, ah but, you know, like they kind of get it, you know, and it, it, it says a bit about their relationship, I think between, as opposed to like arms master in the war. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think anybody was going to arms master for anything.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, yeah, i just in relation to the Brockton Bay Ward, it's like that they're kind of a mess and but they they they, I mean, I'm sure all the wards fight, but like they the Chicago wards just feel more coherent, ah more of a group dynamic and the Brockton Bay wards just kind of felt like they were always butting heads.
Speaker: and like getting on each other's nerves all the time. Like it just, it seemed like it was a lot. Yeah. i guess say to their you it oh I was going to say to their credit, I think it's gotten better since miss militia and weld took over and got rid of sat ironically yeah and got rid of shadow of soccer. Ironically after, you know, post Leviathan, it feels like they're functioning better. At least the weld miss militia relationship seems really healthy from, you know, leader to follower.
Speaker: Yeah, I do like them a lot. And I mean, that's probably part of it just because I really love weld. but yeah And you get the sense too that like, this is touched on especially at the very, very end, which we'll get into, but you get the sense that Brockton Bay is recovering. Like the city is on demand and you've got to credit that at least somewhat to Ms. Militia and Weld and the heroes doing their part too. Yeah. Cause they're putting in a lot of effort in order to like keep the city safe, keep the city running.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. Um, yeah, I will say, I think Chicago's doc got it literally the same. Sorry. Again, that was me. Cause all I was going to make was in a name comment about how I don't remember much about this chapter in the conversation, to be honest.
Speaker: Well, they get into talking a little bit about like Scrub's power and like, what does he actually do? And they talk a little bit about like the realities between things. Uh, we also have a conversation about Gully and kind of how, uh, as, as weld has said, and also Gully says is like, they don't tend to put case 53 is in charge of shit. Like but they, they, they don't tend to, to let them lead very often. And so Gully is like,
Speaker: kind of helping lead stuff, which is exciting. And. I mean, she gets to co -captain, which might be the biggest, like, but yeah you know, there's that vibe. They're like, yeah, cause they'll never let her real captain. Yeah. Like weld welds got to, which is a big deal. And probably in part cause his mentor slash adoptive father is a PRT director. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they do talk in the section about how powers work, right? This idea that the passengers are actually yeah pieces connected to a larger whole, which I think was really interesting.
Speaker: um A multiversal hole. which A multiversal fleshy hole. Exactly. yeah Probably with a flap or two for good measure. got yes you Well, that keeps, you know, people, you know, like scrub or stuff from busting between the holes.
Speaker: yeah you know ah
Speaker: Okay. We're talking about powers. Of course, of course. Did anybody see... Continue. So, Scrub's Power, and this is just my childhood kicking in. It was one of my favorite episodes of the Justice League, the old animated Justice League show, which is still goaded, by the way.
Speaker: um where they're fighting. And I forget who it is. It's like Toymaker or something like that. And he's got a new gun that he developed that looks like it's just a racing matter. But in reality, it's just sending it to some undisclosed portion of the future. And it's exactly like Scrub's power. It's a great episode, one of my favorites. And it's all I can think about when I keep thinking about Scrub. It's like he's just he's just transporting it to a different dimension.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, the, the concept, and yeah I still get the vibe in this that, you know, it's tattletale, so she's guessing at it. So, yeah, you know, while it's, it's, it's almost like her explanation for a night where she's like, okay, think about this. That's not the correct answer, but that is as close as we're going to get to the, um,
Speaker: You know, cause it's the multiverse and how are you supposed to wrap your head around that? Uh, you know what? Props to wild bow. That's, that's a great way of just writing away things that are too hard to explain. Like we get it. Yeah. You know, you can't, you can't, you know, create an entire new, uh, dimension of physics that we haven't explored yet for the sake of your story. You know,
Speaker: But, but yeah, a man, it's just, it's so cool because, you know, once again, we've explored talked about, uh, Merton's powers that essentially he's a portal person. That's his is magic. Um, and, and the way he's, you know, casting shooting fire out or shooting water out or whatever is that he's opening a tiny portal in his sleeve.
Speaker: To the water dimension or to the fire dimension and it can't help but burst out because you know, it's fire and That's like that's where all the fire is going like oh man. He's sitting there. We're just letting fire out for a while like Well, yeah, cuz he's tapped into a whole dimension That is our world if it were nothing but fire like yeah Or so like it's base yeah with those portals so it's basically endless, you know, it, it isn't in reality, but for practicality sake, it's, you know, it's infinite fire, which then you can go on to explain almost every power, you know, you go through like Marvel and DC and it's like, Oh, well, how do they get all their energy? It's like, where, do where does the speed force or, you know, the metabolism rate explaining the flash, like, you know,
Speaker: if you're some sort of speedster, depending on the type, it's like, oh, well, he's really traveling to a different dimension that's very close to our own and moving. Like almost every power gets its own version of planar, planar, planar travel. Like you could probably explain that for like, oh, what is Victoria doing with her?
Speaker: Um, if you wanted to, oh, what is Victoria doing with her force field? Oh, maybe she's really just bending, uh, a portal around her. It's very, you know, thin and easily breakable, but that's all she's doing is she's putting a portal. That's, you know, or a thin layer of plane around herself. Like the the possibilities are endless. Right.
Speaker: Well, that's, that's what makes it so interesting that but total mentions yeah, that mentions the passengers are multiversal beings. And maybe what's happening with echidna is that her, um, her passenger is trying to emerge into the world. Right. And you think about that and that kind of makes sense because what is echidna's power? It's taking heroes, which have passengers.
Speaker: and spitting out corrupted versions of them right with different modified powers. Do her clones all have passengers? How is that functioning? But it's this idea of, well, if they're all connected to her, who i .e. is a passenger body invading our world, then that kind of makes sense why they all still can have powers because they're not just clones, they're passenger -ified clones.
Speaker: um and whatever and And I think maybe that's why you experience that psychological trauma because it's reminding you of your trigger event because it's sucking the energy out of your passenger to to create the clones and to power the clones. It's redoing the triggers to retrigger these new clones basically.
Speaker: I think it's also worth pointing out. It's not ever, I don't think explicitly stated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's you know it was supposed to be implied as well that all of the travelers are still suffering from the Simurf. So having her influence and effects, lingering effects ah with echidna,
Speaker: there could be a whole lot going on there, especially with the psychological elements that, that is, you know, she's still being manipulated slightly by all of that. Yeah. We're just talking about biomass alone. Like where does, cause originally, you know, Cody touched her and she produced three clones. She was not in taking enough biomass to produce that much biomass. So like, where's the biomass coming from? Well,
Speaker: We have other dimensions, you know, we're just pulling them through basically. Like that's where the, but you know, we're just getting biomass from ambient other dimensions, which is great. Cause then you can also explain like beast boy from teen Titans that way.
Speaker: Yeah. How do you, how do you solve the, I mean, that's the, the, the one underlying like rule breaker for all of these types of stories is that you can't add or take away mass from the universe unless you have other universes. Then it doesn't matter. shortcut Genius, genius move. Yeah. Well done. Moving along. What do we got next? Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, up next we are into the interlude. Yes. And we have Blasto.
Speaker: ah Makes ah a deal with a Accord and gets a new lab. ah But while he's working Bonesaw and Defiant, absolutely trash it. ah We get some information about capes and about samples and a little bit about the endbringers. And then Bonesaw wears Blasto like a suit.
Speaker: and steals a bunch of the samples. So fuck. But let's start all the way back at the beginning of this, uh, which cause it's a great thematically. We've just been talking about, uh, essentially clones. And then we move right into this chapter, which is a different types of clones, but same thing. Like we are.
Speaker: talking about sort of how powers work and how they and work in regard to reproducing them and stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so thematically it makes sense why Wild Bo stuck this interlude kind of in this arc, I think. um Man, this was the one and I was so excited to get to this interlude because this is the one that stuck with me for so long after my first read through. And I was trying, I was wondering how much of what I remembered was accurate. Turns out it was a good bit of it. I don't know what it was about this interlude, but everything is so memorable.
Speaker: It's got so much cool world building. Blasto is really unique in terms of the way he's described and his mentality. And then of course, I mean, like a plant tinker. Yeah, it's it's it's he's really cool. I like him a lot as as brief as our time is with him. So I remember this chapter like you know, him getting off or, you know, taken hostage and his information being used by the slaughterhouse nine. I don't remember any of the other stuff. So this chapter was like out of nowhere for me, kinda.
Speaker: I think I always had... I mean, I don't remember anything ever, so it was all out. The visual image of a partially bisected bone saucer just crawling towards him, not in pain or agony, but just like, it's a bother to her. Yeah. And then she's just got to make use of this body, I guess. Like, come here. You're mine now.
Speaker: she's kind of She's got a prehensile spine? Oh, that was the creepiest. That was the creepiest thing. And she just jacks in through his throat. Yep. She doesn't wear him like a suit. she She fucking shoves her spine down. And so she's like sticking out of his open mouth. She's sitting on his head is what it says. And she's basically puppeteering him in through his spine. It's the worst ratatouille I've ever seen.
Speaker: There's a whole interlude. This whole interlude is so visually just interesting. like Even yeah even from from when Blasto first you know comes into Accords, I don't know, house, whatever it is.
Speaker: chamber And into the left yeah into his chambers into the lab but like these like hench people of accords that are like all dressed up in these fancy masks and these fancy dresses and it's like very visually appealing then we get down to the lab and you have all these bats of fluids and and all these chemicals and everything and then you have this this like Well, this is, you know, me in my head as I'm reading it, but like the crystal clean white of the lab, like slowly getting destroyed. And like, there's blood everywhere because bone saw has been cut in half. And there are people being thrown around in vats and there's glass everywhere. Like the the the whole interlude is so visually interesting and like,
Speaker: This is the one that I i really ah really want to see. like when when you know Of course, when when um someone picks up the script and this finally becomes reality, but you know this interlude is just so cool. It's great because you feel bad for Blasto, yeah despite the fact that he's literally trying to grow an end bringer. But he's doing it for science, you know not for chaos.
Speaker: But it kind of it dies at the end, the vat spills open and you know and you're just like, oh, no, it doesn't, like it's so sad. Yeah. That even even the visual descriptions of a chord in the way that he runs his group is really interesting, right? So everybody has.
Speaker: Everything has to match, right? And we've met a chord briefly before, so we know that he is OCD. And so everything has to match. Everything has to be pristine. He says, basically, if you would like to remain alive, blast so you will stay out of my sight after we talk here. I never want to see you again.
Speaker: um You know, just bring me confirmation you did what I hired you to do. I love it. um Which is to get rid of members of the of the the former Empire 88 too, which I thought was really interesting. The chosen. The chosen now, yeah. Which is why you definitely hired them to wreck Blasto's shop, right? Ah, no. Maybe. I would have said no. Blasto like complains like, oh man,
Speaker: Yeah, my place got wrecked by those freaking Nazis. And the court's like, that's terrible. Anyway, I need you to go kill some, so a specific group of Nazis. That's 100 % a court just being like, yeah, I don't care about your shit. like ah you need I think he hired him to wreck his shop so that he can now use him and take his territory. And then he's just going to turn around and use him not only for his own devices, but then also to get rid of the people he just hired.
Speaker: She doesn't want these Nazi rebels running around causing trouble in his town like troublemakers left and right. But no, I don't think that he hired them. I think that that was just an unfortunate cause and effect moment. I'd agree with the coincidence. I think not. To be fair, there are very few coincidences in the worm universe, so you could get on to something.
Speaker: Um, I do love the idea of blastos power, right? So he's got these growing seeds. He can he takes DNA and creates living creatures. And then like with plants, I, you know, he basically does like rapid genetic modification where he's cutting off the weak ones, growing the strong ones, cutting off the weak ones, growing the strong ones.
Speaker: pruning. He calls it pruning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pruning. Of course. Pooning. Pooning. Pooning. Jesus. Genetic puning. ah and one He just, he just wants to work.
Speaker: Just leave him in peace. He's an introvert. I love the description of the end bringer, the Simrff that he's trying to build is like, Oh, nope, too many arms. Like, okay. Too many wings. Like, let's try and whittle that down a little bit more. Like that's so.
Speaker: Cause already, I mean, i've we've talked about this before with the ah Traveler's arc, but like the Simrff just looking the way that she does, like looking like a, you know, biblically accurate angel, like all the wings and the creepy eyes and whatever. It's like, it's just like this, this tiny little end bringer that's just not just like too many arms. Okay. Too many wings. um Okay. Well, okay. Too many eyes, too many eyes. I just love it. It brings me joy.
Speaker: And let's not skip over ah what Nick's about to say. Go ahead, Nick. yeah ah um yeah I was just going to say, I love the portrayal of somebody in flow as well. In the sense of he's like, wait, have I been working for like a whole day? Oh, well, yeah was he's just totally in flow in vibe. He's like, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't need sleep. Just going to keep working. He's like hyper focused. Yeah. Oh, what a great just image. ah Yeah. I really liked his character.
Speaker: and i love I love that he asked. I just love to. It's this great odd couple moment with just him in a cord talking. That whole conversation is great where he's like, he got any grass and he's like, I'm sorry, would you like to see my yard? No, I meant something else. He's like, ah please do not imbibe substances in my pristine presence.
Speaker: I love it so much. Yeah, that's great. Have we? OK, again, Jacob was going to say something. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, please go ahead. End of end of the end of the yeah a chapter. So go ahead first. I was just going to ask, we I can't remember a chord is the one that the travelers talk to the trickster talk to, right? yeah Yes. Yes. That that mirrored um what's his face? Presumably murdered Cody.
Speaker: Yes. Okay, cool. Cause I had this moment where I was like, a cord, a cord, a cord, a a cord, a cord. Now who the fuck is this again? And, and yeah, no, I'm, but I remembered, I'm glad I remembered. Nice. I like the masks too. I don't know. He's just got like, as far as getting the villain vibe down, he's got it. Yeah. He's, he's classic. Very few times do you ever see the super,
Speaker: Costumer as their own, like, I don't know, front runner entity. Like you have Edna mole and, um, who, uh, the mode he meant mode and Edna mode. Is it? I don't realize that mode. I thought it was Edna mole. Um, oh no Edna mode, you know, she's like her separate off to the side and that's how like they all feel. There's a.
Speaker: Uh, I think in the boys, there's a guy called like the historian who, you know, is basically Stan Lee, but the comic strip may go to him for information. Like there's all these characters that are, uh, assisting to the heroes and, you know, costume them and equip them. And this is feels like a very interesting time to have somebody who's a front runner. And that's what they do. He like judges you, makes you a costume and a mask. And so that you're perfect. And like.
Speaker: ah Yeah, it's just wild that like he is a front -runner villain because of that. Like, ah yeah. Well, he's a, he's a tinker too, right? He's a thinker, I believe. he Is he not a tinker? I thought he was a tinker as well. Am I wrong? I thought he was just, I mean, I guess tinker in the sense that he makes the costumes, but who is it? Michael, can you check on a cord? No, no, he is a thinker.
Speaker: I'm looking at this thing now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would make sense. I guess that, that does make a bit more sense. Yeah. But yeah. Uh, is this power anyway? I know that's kind of a, we'll talk about it. Yeah, we can't talk about it. We forget that in the future time. Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't think I don't think they mentioned it here. I believe it's mentioned, um, maybe on Reddit or on space battles, but, uh, I know that, do do you guys remember watchdog being mentioned? No, can't say that I do. They sort of talk about post Vegas going under because of, you know, superpowers being a thing.
Speaker: Um, the government is, I believe is the government instituted this group called watchdog. And their whole goal is just to keep an eye on the economy and stuff, uh, to make sure that nothing's being fucked with. Um, so they've got a ton of precogs and thinkers that are all just looking at the numbers and being like, Oh, Oh, somebody's covering, somebody's doing some funky stuff with, you know, voting or something doing funky stuff with wall street. Like that's their whole job.
Speaker: And, um, as ah smallest side a uh, a cord, uh, I guess belonged to them at one point in time, um which, I mean, you know, makes sense, makes sense. power and You know, and making sure that everything's nice and neat and clean very much makes sense. We appreciate that. I had, you know, forgotten about that until we clicked over to his thing and I was like, Oh yeah. Like.
Speaker: and about watchdog yeah i has been mentioned not in what we're it's not at all inworm alllan i was okay to say what he said We're good. ah you can cut that then well i know you' no you're good it's not in it's not in this it's extracurricular extracurricular like homework stuff umwork information ah good We interrupt our scheduled program to bring you a word from our sponsor, Zencaster. A one -stop shop for all your podcasting needs.
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Speaker: Last thing I'll say about this interlude is let's not skip over Defiant just being on a mission and not letting anything stand in the way of his Vibro Blade or whatever he calls it. Oh, his you mean his nano kick that he got to do? His nano thorn kick? Jesus Christ.
Speaker: There's this, I'm sure you guys have seen the meme. There's a ah meme about like old surgeons back in the day and there's apparently it recorded. There is the but the deadliest surgery ever recorded was a surgery with a 300 % mortality rate for the doctor.
Speaker: dr cut ah Did cut a guy's leg off? That was the surgery. But did it so quickly and carelessly that he killed the guy, killed the patient, ah cut the ah artery of the nurse that was helping him. And so she died. what And then the scene was so chaotic, another nurse died of like just shock.
Speaker: it It was it's just the worst day ever. And that's just kind of how I imagine Defiant in this scene is just swinging this blade all over the place. Because he kills one of Accords, ambassadors, whatever they're called. I forget who he kills. It's not Citrine. Citrine's the first one. Damsel? Is it Damsel?
Speaker: No, it's not Damsel. No, Damsel's the one that, what's her, fricking shit, what is her name? Bonsaw brings in. Oh, that's right. She has Damsel. They had grabbed her because she was a Boston resident and they'd snagged her last in the outlier, an outlier town to Boston. They'd snagged Damsel in distress. That's right there. And that was the last time we saw Defiant and Dragon, I believe. But he's just slicing and dicing.
Speaker: Yeah, it although I do think that that may be one of the reasons we like Blasto, right? Is because he he looks at the situation. Bonesaw says, if you keep going, you're going to kill this guy. And Defiant kind of looks at him and Blasto just goes, yeah, cool. i Yeah, I get it. I guess so. I really get it. Yeah, also, fuck. It's it's the nine. like yeah i If you get them, like good on you.
Speaker: It's just that I know what I'm about, son. yeah Also just, he's got her at the end of this spear and he's like throwing, like speared her and like slapping her against the walls. And then she's like, what? You're not going to come over and like deal with this little girl. You're too afraid. And of course he like, she's going to spit acid in his face or some shit. He's like, nah, I'm going to keep you away with a 12 foot ball. Keep stabbing her.
Speaker: Why he's my favorite is he's done. And then unfortunately, you know, couldn't get out of whatever she's web. She spit in the doorway. So like he was free to take her sweet time and god inject herself into blasto and spend some time on the computer. Like, which show by the way, there is a fan art of a bone saw bone saw blasto.
Speaker: Oh, no. Which one of you sick fucks did this? Blast off. No, where? If you go. I can avoid it. It's on the blast on the worm wiki. If you look at blasto, it's a it's a really good piece of art. Anyone should. I'm going to look it up. Why are you making me do this? Do worm. Doop, doop, doop, doop.
Speaker: Oh, that's a cute as we've established means he's a nacho home sorry salad one hour wolf illustration. Wait, I clicked it and it took me now. Where did it take you? It took me to Reddit. Gross. Why is it doing that now?
Speaker: Yeah, I've been too deep now. I gotta get back out. How did I? Oh, it's in the gallery at the bottom. Okay. Okay. In the gallery. Okay. I'll click through. And I also went to Reddit. Oh yeah. Yeah. I see what happened. That's disgusting.
Speaker: you
Speaker: gros Okay. All right. Um, moving on. We got, are we ready oh well i was okay did they get, they got like four slaughterhouse nine members in that fight, right? No, think as well i say they got killed. Yes. But it was, it's not like known, like they have been, they've been recruiting this whole time and they've just been whittling down the recruits. So it's not like named members, but they did get man, except they got Manton. I forgot. I skipped over that. Yeah. They got Manton.
Speaker: ah So the only two that I'm aware that are left. Jack. our Jack and Bonesaw. We don't know if hook wolf is. Storm tire. I'm going to say I'm pretty sure they got airol air Air wolf. Air wolf. It was only Jack, Bonesaw, Manton and hook wolf that left Brockton Bay.
Speaker: And so, yeah, it's really just, really just Jack and both. Wait, and Mannequin, right? No, Mannequin got last. Mannequin don't dead so big. Oh, you're right, he didn't do last. That's right, in his little pose. I remember you, right? Yeah. But yeah, I thought it said that they'd gotten, that Dragon said that they'd gotten four of them.
Speaker: Well, yeah, um but it's because that they've been recruiting this whole yeah time. so it's it's So it's sort of implied that they've been picking up new members and that Dragon and Defiant have just been whittling them down, preventing them from getting stronger again. Yeah. So yeah, four in one fight. Man, you're almost as good as, you know, the undersiders. Keep it up. but He's getting there. He's getting there. Yeah, dang. um Are we ready for chapter four?
Speaker: I think we better be. We got a few chapters to get through. Yeah. ah Quite a few, actually. um So chapter four, Taylor retrieves Atlas. Yay. We love Atlas. Tattletale spills some cauldron secrets and Echidna starts round two as she bursts forth from the Earth. So is this the chapter because a couple of these bled for me. Is this the chapter where Miss Militia puts a gun in Tattletale's mouth?
Speaker: So that was, that was a little far. Missed. And aroused. Yeah. I know that she's like, I'm not cauldron, but sure feels like you're doing all the cauldron's work. I guess, but I'm pretty sure as possible. You have a. Wait.
Speaker: um be of his possible clip real quick so Actually, as soon as. as soon as you said that i immediately started thinking because there's also a moment later at the very end with alexandra and tattletale where alexandra wraps her hands around tattletale's throat is So, so tattletales just getting. That'll fill up by all the mommies today. Well, don't forget forget, don't forget that too. And like, she's getting shut up by everybody is telling her to shut the fuck up. Like she also has Taylor fly a fly down her. She goes to say something and she's likerow those just her best.
Speaker: Oh man. yeah it does It does feel like in this chapter, in this whole arc, I mean, as it does in several other points, it does feel like, man, if you guys would just let Tattletail do her damn thing, yeah we wouldn't be in a much better place. Echidna would be dealt with. Rockin' Bay would be healing.
Speaker: and we You probably you'd probably have an end bringer to dead at this point, you know? Yeah. We'd be on our way. we'd be well on our Honestly, Lisa's just upset that she's not part of Galdron. That's really what the issue here is. And she's gonna make enough noise until she gets the invite. It's like, hey, you'd like to join our evil council? And she's like, would I?
Speaker: No, but you kind of touched on it for a second there. That's kind of what I wanted to ask about was like, Miss militia is not a cauldron Cape. Why is she so? Well, yeah right. I mean, from what we, and I mean, this is not a spoiler because I don't remember if this has changed at all, but like we see her trigger.
Speaker: we We know that she's probably working for Cauldron. I think we can assume that much based on this, but like she doesn't owe anything to them. She's not indebted to them that we're aware of, right? Here's what I think of this. I don't think it's a Cauldron thing. I think it's an Alexandria thing. I was going to argue that it's a hero's thing.
Speaker: It's like a you you you when it comes down to it, it's you versus them. And so you're going to side with the heroes because you're doing the right thing and you have to believe that they are doing what they think is best.
Speaker: you know And so like, I think there's this idea like, uh, it's like a sunk cost fallacy. Like you've understood that. Well, you know, they lead the, the, the, the triumph for it, the protectorate, like they're supposed to take care of us and, and, and I'm part of that system. So I'm going to back people up because I'm, I'm supposed to, because we're heroes. We're in this together against the villains.
Speaker: And I think that like that that is taken to a point where it's like, well, I mean, when faced with all of the truths, it's still hard to swallow the truth, you know? So I'm going to argue that it's actually more the opposite of that. And here's my reasoning why. I think based on the previous conversation with Skitter and Weld and Miss Militia,
Speaker: I think Miss militia knows that something is up, right? She's kept a close eye on a lot of the stuff. We don't know what she knows, but she's been getting higher up in the PRT. And I get the sense that she stops tattletale, not just because she's worried about Um, the heroes versus villains thing. I think she kind of wants to believe them, but doesn't want to be around Alexandria when she's explaining it or around the other, but you know, potentially cauldron capes. I don't know exactly what it was, but I got the vibe more that it was just like now is not the time. And we really don't need to talk about this now because we're about to be in a big fight.
Speaker: I do want to hear what you have to say, but do not in tech. Like basically she's saying like, please do not make Alexandria legend and idle on all run away right before we have to fight. right Don't antagonize our biggest hitters right before. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Good conversation. Tattletale shut up because we're going to mess things up right before they shut the fuck up. Yeah. so As we'll learn later, like legend freaking reads lips and I'm surprised, you know, others don't have super hearing. So.
Speaker: What's preventing them from being like striding over and being like, Oh, got to snap tattletales. Next. She was about to fucking help a kid. And I think Miss Volisha knows that they need tattletales. So at this point, and she's like, please do not make these people kill you. Like kind of, I don't know. I kind of got more of a defensive vibe from it. I know it came out aggressive and obviously that's how it turns out and how it appears, but I don't, I don't know why, but I got the idea that it wasn't.
Speaker: I don't like you. Stop talking. I don't know. She could have backhanded her. She could have done anything, but she sticks a gun in her mouth. Like that is... It's her power. She knows no other way. Wow. Okay. I don't know about that.
Speaker: No, I like that interpretation. It's not how I read it, but I think that's a ah valid reading. Um, I did read a bit more aggressive, but I mean, again, if you're trying to shut up a cape, whose power is to talk, then, you know, you gotta, you gotta close the mouth. You gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Also it's a good explanation of like, uh, when Lisa, you know, basically says, Hey, it's all the big three.
Speaker: And then they were like, well, what about Merton? It's like, it's not Merton. I'm like, yeah, that's why he's not on the triumvirate. Did I stutter? I said the big three. I didn't say the big three and their little brother. It was actually just Merton using a portal to other to another Merton's voice in the back. Well, what about Merton? What did that guy say? He's pretty cool, right?
Speaker: Also, I think it's interesting looking at Miss militia um in comparison to her former, you know, uh, what was going to say when you take someone's place replacement,
Speaker: whatt you she would be the replacement whoever had a job before her that's the word i look predecessor predecessor, thank you goodness gracious her predecessor arms master.
Speaker: Um, how they feel like when it comes to their careers, she doesn't really care about the career route. She cares about just doing her job. Whereas arms master did have that bit of ego where he's like, I think I deserve to move up the ladder. Um, Melissa, miss militia is not concerned with that. Um, and at the same time, I feel like she takes a lot of the same actions that arms master would have. Um,
Speaker: I think Arms Master would have done the thing like, hey, shut up, I will investigate this because I you know i think he would be genuinely curious about this um and would probably track it down, maybe ultimately siding with Cauldron, but you know who knows?
Speaker: um But I feel like he would also be like, shut up, I'm going to investigate. Don't say a goddamn word. like And and you know stick a spear in her mouth or something like that.
Speaker: like It definitely feels, she feels very much like, like she emulates a lot of what arms master does or or or would have done. Um, but all at the, so at the same time she has, uh, like a different, you know, she obviously has different values. So for her, like it really is kind of about doing the right thing and holding this all together for right now. Yeah. That's a, I think that's a a pretty,
Speaker: a pretty valid insight into that. I love that. It's not how I read it. I think, I think that's more what I was going for too, is that she's just trying to keep everybody cohesive and not let Tattletail blow it all up. rope acetic even and yeah keep it sitting baby I think it's also worth somewhere where wild roe is getting hard yeah it's worth remembering that the last time Miss Militia let Tattletail do her thing post Leviathan fight, the Protectorate also broke down and, you know, Arms Master was outed and it was a whole shit show. so there's Oh, and Legend like threw shit around and then went off in a temper tantrum. I forget that time too.
Speaker: yeah So, Tattletale doesn't have a good history with Miss Militia in terms of keeping the peace. But also, again, when was she wrong? When was she wrong? Well, okay, Tattletale has been wrong a couple of times. Oh, but she does talk about that. She does. She does mention that to Taylor. I realize that it probably wasn't the best choice. It didn't seem like the best choice at the time, but like,
Speaker: I weighed the options and it was, it was, you know, at least problematic. Yeah. But then we keep getting into a bigger conversation. More people just keep coming over and they're like, Hey, everybody not related to this. Fuck off. and Walk away. And, uh, you know, Merton's like, Hey, Gully, walk away. And.
Speaker: Basically with all due respect, essentially go fuck yourself. murder
Speaker: yeahs fine I'll go, I'll go find, I'll go find a kid up by myself. Fine. Yeah. And the and then, and then welds, uh, who did get to be a team captain, uh, still stick chooses to stand over next to her. What a couple of absolute ballers. Hmm.
Speaker: We love weld. Yeah. i Well, we'll say that is all this best is the one moment where, um, it does feel like they're standing up to someone who's like, Hey, I've cared a lot about you. You can, you know that I'll talk to you later. And they're like, no, this is for me now. Right? Like I need to know this. Yeah. Yeah. And then Jesus Christ legend, like back to the sea, try at least try to keep a fucking secret.
Speaker: Like he like comes over to this guy's like, I heard you say cauldron. So let me tell you everything. ah like Who are they? Even then he's still lying. Like yeah cauldron. I've never heard of a cauldron. I've never been there. Barely know her. yeah
Speaker: Definitely don't go looking out at the oil rig out in the Atlantic. You won't find any secret entrances over there. Don't worry about it. Don't, don't worry about it. Legend. and let's so Who is it that says the phrase, uh, because they're talking about this and they're like, I think it's, I think it's legend that's still saying this. And he's like, yeah, we were trying to see if we could make capes without trauma to drive them to villainy, which I'll be honest, sounds like some pop psych bullshit.
Speaker: yeah i know Yeah. Okay. So, so there is, I say this a lot, the whole like hurt people hurt people as a joke. And you say it as a joke. Yeah. I, I always thought you were serious. I mean, as a joke, like it's you, i'm I mean, and you could generally like say like, Oh yeah. Like,
Speaker: you know, cycles of, you know, the different cycles, cycles of violence, cycles of abuse, yada, yada, yada. But that is not a absolute rule and ah kind of has a bit of a stigma in the psych community because that gets thrown around enough that like, oh, why is this person the way they are? It must be because of their family or some incident. A childhood. Yeah, it must be part of their childhood look back. It must be repressed memories.
Speaker: When in fact, some people are just pieces of shit and they don't need an excuse. Like, uh, you know, uh, point Emma, you know, uh, she has her traumatic moment, but she was kind of being a ah ah sort of a bitch before then. So like who's to say that she wouldn't have been a bitch sans the trauma. Um,
Speaker: But yeah, I just was like, oh man, this, this fucker and his like, well, if they have trauma, then they have like, then they're obviously going to probably become villains. And it's like, people have trauma all the time and granted they don't get superpowers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of these people who have trauma then are on the you know move to pass on their trauma. Like that's not a, that's not a 100 % thing.
Speaker: It's not an absolute.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's, and I, yeah, I was just like, and legend that is a, you know, it's, it's dangerous to look at it like that. But at least in their world, it is kind of backed up by some evidence because they talk about how many more villains there are than heroes at the time when they founded Cauldron. So there is some evidence that, you know, and, and I think that generally, although we do not have superpowers in our world,
Speaker: the The outcomes, while there are people who are simply assholes because they want to be assholes for whatever reason, the you know if you take a somewhat controlled group of people versus a group of people who've experienced a lot of trauma, I think you are going to end up with a higher percentage of people who are just worse people in general.
Speaker: I don't disagree with you. but
Speaker: But coming from legend specifically, I was just like, you fuck. Well, yeah, coming from legends specifically. What I think too, what really corrupts it, right? Is that if that was the ideal, then Cauldron instead turning it into a profit machine and just selling it to whoever has money. Yeah. That's where the issue lies then because then you're just selling it to the highest bidder. Just cause someone's got enough money to pay for cauldron doesn't mean they're a good person. And in fact, right probably means the opposite. Yeah. I mean, we, we talk about ah like, uh, you know, that they do psych tests and stuff. Cause you know, and not that that screens for, you know, we don't know what they're screening for necessarily, maybe just unstableness, but you could be completely stable and a piece of shit. Like,
Speaker: Yeah. In, uh, but, but yeah you know, back to the profit thing, like they talk about, yeah, our funds went to end bringer recovery, which could be true. Or, you know, is that how coil got a ton of his money?
Speaker: Yeah. Like I never say. did Did they like grassroots start his ass? And then he was like, Oh, if I had some capital, I could, I could work with this. And they were like, you know what? Have some, have some moolah.
Speaker: Well, and, and what do they mean by in bring your recovery? Because that literally could just be. Eidolon vaccines. Right. yeah You know, it could be Eidolon vaccines. I'd like to think that it's like literally all, you know, all the stuff that coil had.
Speaker: Yeah. You know, prep basically like he's, he had a lot of supplies and you, on one hand you could go, oh, that's just quail thinking ahead. On the other hand, you could go with, well, you know, he, maybe he was given that money specifically to do that because, uh, you know, cauldron was like, Hey, you need to prep for end bringer stuff. That's part of the, we give you a ton of money. You do that. And he's like, ah, I was thinking about that anyway. I like perfect. Then this won't be that big of a deal. Could be. Mm -hmm.
Speaker: Yeah. And then, and then, and then this legend motherfucker goes and is like, Oh, you know, actually the case 53s were Manson or someone else. Maybe that's like tattletale is right. They're legend. You, you know, that she calls you on your bullshit. You're looking at her. We it's a bullshit legend. How are you this dumb? And I bet that's what he's been told too.
Speaker: Honestly, I think he's not telling a lie in his mind. He's probably telling what he thinks is the truth. No, because he went to the meeting. He brought the lie detector and he knows it's a lie. That's true. That is a good point.
Speaker: In his mind, it's the it's the noble lie. But we can move on. You could have taken the opportunity to be like, oh, man, I i don't know when I have my suspicion. You know, anything else. Just like you've already been caught in the lie. Yeah. Just if you're going to be a blabber mouth about it, which you clearly you are, like just, you know, ah keep it going. Yeah. Anyway, 19 .5.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. ah Taylor gives some directions. Clones run quite a muck. And ah Noelle, unfortunately, gets two big old chomps and swallows Alexandria and Eidolon. And now we're fucked. Yeah, that's pretty, that's not good. It's good. ah and It's real not good.
Speaker: Before we get to that though, the the um Chevalier, also known as a Chevalier. Thank you. hi some um Or as a as ah some of our friends across the pond might say, Chevalier. Don't you mean Geevalier?
Speaker: Oh, yes, yes, my favorite kind of cheese, um, cheese, a liar cheese. Anyways, um, Chevalier and Mirden working together is really cool. I love both of their vibes Chevalier just with his cloud strife, Buster ass sword.
Speaker: Don't you mean a squall ass gun blade? Also, that is both, man. It's both and it's wonderful. And I love, I don't know if he has to do it, but if he doesn't have to, I love Mirden's commitment to the wizard bit. Like, man's got a staff and robe. He's riding runes in the sky and opening portals to other dimensions. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's the good stuff.
Speaker: Like ah it's for it's very obvious that Chevalier and Mirden are friends outside of the cape world and they are hardcore nerds. They are absolutely 100 % like going to conventions together when they're not, you know, on patrol. I mean, Chevalier is a a like a huge anime fan. Obviously, you know, is every say arms master and Chevalier have a kind of really similar powers now that I think about it. They they are similar. Well, cause arms masters, arms masters specialty is, uh, is, is being able to condense items, like condense things. yeah And he can like fold items into condensed spaces, but Chevalier, I don't, I don't know if he can fold. He just finds a way to make compact versions. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if he's space spending as opposed to Chevalier.
Speaker: who is like actually warping space. Yeah. Well, because, because Chevalier is not a tinker. I think that's the difference is he's not, he's not a tinker. Chevalier's power was a tinker. No, his power just allows him to combine aspects of different objects together. Is that, is that not, doesn't he also tinker power?
Speaker: I mean, he uses it to make armor and weapons, which is tinker ish, but it's not like like a tinker is doesn't have an innate power. They just have, you know, the ability to to make things. Yeah. So he is a striker is his classification. Yeah. Because it's touch based. Right. I guess is what they're saying think ah um He's a striker and a thinker. He has the power to combine properties of several items into one, selectively taking their attributes into his primary weapons. ah He viewed these different attributes as shapes and lines and an abstract representation of the object's properties.
Speaker: Um, yeah, so basically he can, his distinctive cannon blade was constructed by overlaying three distinct swords, a decorative ceramic blade with a molecular cutting edge, a functional lightweight aluminum sword for ease of use and a massive steel sword, usually transported as the floor of a dragon flight carrier with all identical cannon mechanisms built within. Oh, so cool.
Speaker: I want that sword so bad. Hard right now. I mean, literally you look at like the drawing, uh, that cannon, that wild bow drew and honestly it, it is a combination of the Buster sword and the gun blade and it's wonderful. And I love it. It's great. The thing though, they're, they're very different kinds of nerds, right? Chevelier and mirrored in my theory.
Speaker: is that Chevalier is the anime nerd, you got that right. Mirden though, you know how every, well, I won't say every, but you know how most young boys at some point go through a phase in their childhood where they're really into the middle ages? Mirden just never grew that phase. Girls do that too, I just wanna tell you. And girls probably do too. Okay, good, I'm glad to know it's universal, right?
Speaker: But like, you're just like, oh, yeah, knights. Yeah. Swords. Yeah. Castles. Yeah. Mirdon just never grew out of that face, right? He read, he read King Arthur and Merlin and was like, this is me. I am. I will be this man one day. And he was. He gives strong, uh, what's the dude from ready player one who like is the big nerd that makes the whole Oasis. I don't, is it Ogden or was that, I think that's his best friend.
Speaker: But it it gives that guy vibes where he's just like, yeah, murdered kind of feels like a socially awkward dungeon master that got powers and is now in charge. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's pretty accurate. They just what they gave the keys to the city, to the wizard, the wizard, the wizard king has spoken.
Speaker: grammar And just imagine that they have some super nerdy like, like combo names for their team ups. Oh, like they're shouting their attacks, like they're going to animate. Oh God. 100%. Absolutely.
Speaker: That's a great mental image and I love it. But then bad things happen. Things happen. The heroes get a little too close. They dug too deep into the flesh.
Speaker: So to speak too deep into the flesh. You know what they, oh hannah I'm so glad you're on the flesh boat now. It's a flesh boat. Why does it have to be a flesh boat? It doesn't have to, but it is. It is. have to be exactly course how The replicator like power, the replicator hero is Kudzu like man, I don't know if y 'all have ever been to North Carolina, but they used to have to burn entire like mountain sides to get rid of that shit. And it's still there eating the whole state. It is funny that Taylor mentions it's a, it's a Japanese sounding name because it is an Asian plant, but, um, but it is so like, for me, it's like such a Southern thing. yeah Oh yeah. cusu It's freaking everywhere, man. Apparently you can eat it like spinach.
Speaker: Oh, I've heard. Just cause you can eat something doesn't mean you should. I was, uh, I just had a drink the other day that had kudzu in it. How was it? It was good. What did it taste like? um Alcohol. wow I mean, the kudzu was like and a small ingredient in a larger drink. That's unfortunate. Yeah.
Speaker: It was weird. Wasn't very kudzu forward then, huh? Anyways. now Um, kudzu, kudzu dialogue aside. Never thought I'd hear that. What? Kudzu forward. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's the slang. The kids will be throwing around soon, right? I understand on business, you'll have kudzu forward. I like it. I'll use it.
Speaker: ah man, weld Atlas and skitter back to back in the fight. Oh, I love that. I was here. This was the Avengers scene, you know, the swinging camera, you know, getting ready. I was so here for it. Uh, it was a good moment. Well takes his serrated blades to the back of the, like the one dude's head, which is gross, but like, whoo, pretty cool.
Speaker: Oh, and, uh, skitter is safe now because, um, scapegoat puts his powers onto a clone. Yeah. that was cool. Yeah. That clone got real. Cause after that scapegoat went and healed a bunch of other people. So he's just like limping around half dead, clown and is like, finally carrying him around. Yeah.
Speaker: that What a terrible power poor guy. It's really what he's like i'm I will do this for money so that I do not have to do this. Yeah. Yeah. you get He's very, ah he's, he's, he's kind of done with this. You can tell like, yeah. All right. One last ride. All right. Moving, uh, moving on. What do we got? yeah point point six Oh, ye yeah. Okay. So here's where.
Speaker: 19 .5 and six blended for me. So I clearly yeah a little bit have a divided. Yeah. This is, this is where things kind of blended. Um, it's just fight. Uh, Chevalier Chevalier, uh, takes his shot. The psycho idol on drops bombshell telling all about his connection with cauldron. Uh, and Taylor cuts Noel deeply with clock blockers help, which gosh, what a, what a, what a lovely little bit of teamwork. Yeah. ah it felt good That was such a good moment. i was One of my favorite moments of this arc for sure.
Speaker: one of my favorite moments of maybe the entire story. It's so good. I remember having to read this twice the first time I read this, you know, way back in the day, yeah where I was like, well, what? Like, what just happened?
Speaker: it It is one of it is so good. It's like such a, it's just such a beautiful merging of powers that I did not see coming, but made so much sense. It was like, it's, I mean, it just speaks to, to wild boas ability to, to develop powers and characters in this way, because it doesn't, it doesn't feel like cheap. It doesn't feel forced. It is just,
Speaker: It's just like a great natural moment where she has this idea and it all sort of comes together and it works perfectly. It's, it's so good. It's just a great, great paragraph. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And it's a twofer as well. It's not just Noel, but also the line that's like attached to her is wrapped around the pole and up to, yep. Um, yeah. It was an evil, uh, it goes to like,
Speaker: jerk his hand away and it's just stuck in place so it like breaks. So has any anyone seen as a similar scene visually? Has anyone ah watched the three body problem? Yeah, we did not finish it, but we got a bit of weight into it. Did you get to the? Yes. nanofiber scene. That's what made me think of this. It's like, oh, so that's what that would have looked like. but ah There's there's another movie where this happens. It's in the it's the ah it's the zombie one.
Speaker: It's the zombie killer, but it's not zombies. It's, um, it's a different shit. Fuck. It's, um, wait, okay. Hold on. Hold on. This is, this is my nerd moment. Um, it is, it is that it was a bunch of games and then they made a bunch of movies and it's like, it's like zombies, but it's not quite zombies. They're like something else.
Speaker: And there's a, there's a part where they're infiltrating the, they're infiltrating the base and they're in the hallway and the lasers come flying down the hallway and it gets the first guy. And then the next time it happens, they're like ready, except the lasers come through in a different formation and that you can't, you know, run from and just slice.
Speaker: Do you remember what the name of the movie is? Give me, give me just because it's like, dude, see, here's the thing. I can see his, I can see the actor from the video game. Stupid face.
Speaker: ah Yeah. And there's a hot dummy mommy in it. There is a hot dummy mommy in it. Um, just, just don't say it and I'll be thinking about it. And when I remember, I'll just, no, no, no. You'll come back to it. We'll see if you make it to the end and I'll tell you. Uh,
Speaker: Yeah, tell me at the end, because I'll think about it and I'll remember. I appreciate that. That is a good one. Not the one I was thinking about. I believe there's a movie or a show in which a bunch of people are dancing on a boat, much like this one, but it's like everybody at once and they all, like one of the boat cables like quickly like whips through. Wait. That sounds like Final Destination. It's the Final Destination? No, the one on the boat, they talked about it in the They did in the corridor digital crews, um, uh, analyzing of movies and such, don't remember at all which movie it was. But let me think, I'll, I'm going to keep thinking about the video game one. Don't you, don't you worry? No, all the way back. Jacob. Yes. I did think about that as well. Um, with the whole like slice and then Dyson, um, you know, what a scene.
Speaker: Great scene. Great moment. Highlight of the arc. But, uh, we did skip past, uh, psycho -idolon, uh, or idolan, I guess, as we're supposed to say. Is it idolan? What do you think? Hold on real quick. About his powers. yeah What do you think his warp powers are now? Psycho -idolon?
Speaker: Yeah. Psycho idol on like we know that before like his powers were essentially he took time, he would build up and he would have basically hold on to three different powers. But this new one appears to have this whole flickering thing in which he can do different abilities, but it's almost like when he flickers, the abilities are almost instantaneously, like they are kind of, does anybody have any guesses as to what it is? have I don't know the answer, but so skitter kind of makes a couple of guesses that I think makes sense. Right. So we know that Noel or, uh, echidna modifies powers, but.
Speaker: So what I'm thinking maybe it is, in part, is that he retains the ah original Eidolon's ability to grab powers, but I think maybe it's more physical than the other Eidolon. So he's actually, whereas Eidolon is usually, and maybe Eidolon can do this too, but psychoidolon is taking physical things from other universes.
Speaker: That explains the knife. Yes, whereas regular Eidolon takes powers from other universes, Psychoidolon is literally being like, oh, I need a suit, boom, have a suit. I need new body parts, boom, new body parts. And he's pulling them rapidly from other universes. That's what the the flickering thing is, I think. And then when he's moving out of the way of those shots and like they say like slowly the shots start missing and he's out of the way,
Speaker: Theoretically, you i may be he's saying, I'm flickering myself into other universes where the exact same thing is happening, but I'm slightly to the left. Something like that, maybe. That's just ah maybe an out there theory, but that's what came to mind. I'm not opposed to that. i'm i'm I'm here for that theory. It's interesting um as I'm trying to find something on the worm fandom page. One of the trivia facts is Eidolon can mean an unsubstantial image or an ideal or an idealized figure. Um, which is interesting because, you know, he, ah like both in this power and his other power, he is very insubstantial. Like he can't hold onto his powers for too long. He is power is fading in general. And this new one is a very flickery image, um, as its power. So that is, uh,
Speaker: I think that's just interesting. It's definitely a very interesting take on idol on this for sure. What I don't see in here is his relationship to the psycho idol on, and I'm a little upset that that is not talked about in here. But yeah, that was odd that he was pulling stuff from other universes, you know, thus again, leading into, if that's what he was doing scan to ah more multiversal stuff in this arc. and we just have um We just have a lot of it packed in. There's like a lot of little things. Yeah, I mean, well, this this whole arc is like a is sort of a big ah story revelation for the story with Cauldron and all of this and then the admissions and then Tattletales sort of.
Speaker: figuring things out about other dimensions. And so it's like - The passengers. Yeah, it's a culmination of this aspect of the world building that we've kind of been building to for a while. So it's kind of neat to see it all sort of coming to light at the same time. Yeah. We haven't had it for a while, but ah Taylor's like, man, if I you know was trying to come up with a one -liner here as I do my big move and get, you know, idle on, I would have said something like, flicker this.
Speaker: Which she's immediately like, that's dumb. No, that's great, Taylor. Don't doubt yourself. i you know If there's one thing I could sit her down, I'd be like, you gotta stop doubting yourself on this. You're funny. You just gotta let it out. you know You're funny, Taylor. You really are. and I did love that, the flicker this. That's so good. um What would you call So, so, you know, I'm sure there's clock blocker, skitter ships, of course. I'm just going to say tick tock is my guess of what they are. or like that Or bug blocker, or I'm trying to come up with something else. Skit talk, maybe. talk No.
Speaker: No, I think I think tick sock is the right answer yeah better than glitter because I just I don't like What would you name their wombo combo here though Because the only thing that I could come up with was web of time. Oh I like that. I like that a lot actually Any other any other bids or a cool combo name there. I mean, yeah, web of time is good, like stuck in time. Trying to think of Fred related. Nick, do you have something to share? Yeah, I just heard Nick laughing. You can cut this out, Michael, it's totally automated. God damn it. Just came in. And she was like, she saw that I was drawing while I was still recording. She's like, what are you drawing?
Speaker: i'll post the What are you trying? Oh no.
Speaker: It's a hot dog. It immediately looked at me and she's like, Oh, I don't like that. where And you too.
Speaker: find yeah Okay. What is it? What is it? Got that dog in me? Yeah. Got that dog in me. No. And it's a hot dog doing it, Jojo. Well, now we have to post this on our social media. Yeah, i'm so sorry. Um, I just her reaction got me and I was trying to keep it quiet while you guys were talking. No, it was too good. You have to keep that in. Nick, what, what, what store could people find this in a few times? Uh, my, my, uh, red bubble store and my Instagram and TikTok handle are all, uh, winter's knickknacks. Um, knickknacks is spelled N I K N A K S. Um, but yeah.
Speaker: I like to have something to do with my hands while we're talking and drawing has become talented artists. So definitely. I thought you were about to say he's Italian, but I was like, I got to talk with my hand. No, I'm not Italian. I'm sorry for all the Italians listening. Um, but no, I'm, I'm so sorry. It was just this reaction of just the, the guttural disgust.
Speaker: I have never related to her before. I love that so much. And she was trying to be quiet too, because she knew we were recording, so she was just quietly like, no. Ew. Oh, no. Why? Oh, God. Sounds like we're just getting all the the Bad 8 memes going around.
Speaker: With that ape from Planet of the Apes. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. I've seen some of those. Anyways, where are we? I'm so sorry. We were talking about the Cauldron, the Clockwalker, Web and Time. Yeah. The Wombo combo. The Wombo combo. But if we want to move on from that, they were talking about my biggest gripe. And I think about this.
Speaker: You know, as much as the marquee thing, um, it didn't bother me when I was originally reading because I was reading all of this. I didn't know how people were pronouncing stuff, but I knew that this was a fuck up. This was a fuck up that I couldn't let go. And I've held on since the very first moment I read this, they sit there and they go, Oh, what are we going to think about these cauldron made capes? You know, the cauldron made. I love it.
Speaker: motherfucker, look to your left. The cauldron born are right there. You already have a mythos about this that exists in the world. The cauldron born cauldron born. How could you let that go? Wild bow. They do have a military made born cauldron born. Oh,
Speaker: I like to think he did that. For those of you who don't know, a popular fiction, you know, a more modern fictional retelling of this, the second book would be The Black Cauldron in a series that is pro my primarily about the cauldron born, you know, from Welsh fairy tales. Yeah,
Speaker: yeah literally. so That is what that is where that comes from. Um, so like, I just can't believe that he would not read ACOTAR. Well, that's not what I meant. That's not what I meant. You know, we have Glastic Wenye, but you're not going to have like the pair in Yeben or whatever the name of the freaking ice been five ever since I've looked up. You're doing great, babe. Yeah. I just, you know, I couldn't, I, I, I know Cauldron born because of
Speaker: mech warrior and the battle tech universe because there's an awesome like 65 ton mech called the cauldron born yeah you know and i had to research that as a kid and so i'm on no very familiar with cauldron born myths and he just he didn't do it he didn't do it it was right there and it's upset me so much i mean it's it's my least favorite born movie as well so i'd exactly shit yeah ah
Speaker: Okay, we hit the two hour mark. We're doing good. yeah well that's it i i just yeah We can move on to 90 .7. I've been holding on into that for years now. Oh, we thought you got it now. Yes. Glad we're here for you. i He holds a lot of things inside of himself. He does. Very well.
Speaker: Please support us on Patreon so we can send out into therapy. We've said it once, we'll say it again. Yeah. goal I mean, I've offered, i've I've offered to get him into therapy. I have. He's turned me down. Couple counseling with Wildbo. No, no, I, know yet no, no. Ooh. Ooh, that's a fight we don't want to start.
Speaker: Anyways, next section. 19 .7. Yeah, so 19 .7, the last chapter ah before we have the final interludes, um with the help of Scrub and the just arrived Labyrinth, a portal is open to earth a left. Sundancer sets Noelle alight with her her son, ending ending the fight. And the travelers, Sans trickster, because he's in the birdcage, go back home.
Speaker: Finally, back through the portal. ah They decide they're not going to leave the portal open to Earth or the left, so they just open it to another random world. And Telltale is like, yeah, no, can't, can't close that. That's just open now. ah The Triumvirate face a bunch of angry heroes. um And as the day comes to a close, Lisa opens up about her past back home as she talks with Taylor back at the base.
Speaker: Hmm. Okay. So we, we kind of skimmed over it, but psycho idol on revealing everything about cauldron is crazy, right? Because now, and and he reveals that, of course, in the most blunt and least tactful way, because he's crazy idol on, but you can see the effect it has, right? This idea of.
Speaker: um galley and weld and there's another hero too who goes on golly sorry go is it golly or galley golly um and weld and there's another hero who i think goes unnamed they all kind of start talking and gathering together and you can see yeah the effect that the words have right there's a because there's that question you imagine why am i this way right there's so many people with powers and You know, maybe I'm glad I have powers and maybe I don't, but why am I weird? Yeah, and you don't remember. And you don't remember why. And to have the answer be, you were just a messed up experiment. We dumped you out. You were stolen from your home world. Yeah, potentially stolen from a home world. And then, and then trying to make it better, Alexandria just later says, well, we don't get as many people like you anymore. Yeah.
Speaker: We're not experimenting as much anymore. Yeah. I'm going to call bullshit on that one too. Oh yeah. The whole thing. I think everything she said, like all of it is so, it's, it's so that mentality of like the ends justify the means and you know, it's fine because, you know, because it it led us to this point. It's like, yeah, but this point, what? Like, what, what do you, what do you mean that you at the, say for the,
Speaker: ah Like just all of these poor people who've who've had their lives completely ripped apart. And you're not even like, you're barely acknowledging that. And instead you're holding yourself up as like, well, I did what I had to do. Like, bitch, please, like you are not above the rest of us. Like, get fucked. But then, so I do want to say though, I mean, I don't know, Noel's ending.
Speaker: for whatever reason didn't hit me that much. And I think yeah i agree i think that part of what part of what I realized is that I didn't actually remember how she died. And it feels like her story is so full of emotion and trauma and pain and just this great depth of human despair and body image stuff that we've talked about before.
Speaker: And it's not that it's anticlimactic per se, but it kind of is. It feels like it goes by too quick, right? I agree. Like I, I wanted her to have a full on conversation with Sundancer, like begging, pleading, like maybe her normal voice comes out one last time, right? Like whatever it is, maybe they see the real her again one last time or or what's left is like a little bit of her face. I don't know, just something. Yeah. Something more. And it, it felt,
Speaker: I guess maybe a little disappointing. And I think maybe, you know, we've talked about how Wild Bo tends to write really quickly, not just in the sense of he produces a lot, but in the sense of the pace of the story is so fast. And it felt like between all the revelations about Cauldron, the division between the heroes and on top of that, the death of Echidna at the hand of Sundancer, it felt like so much happened so fast. And then they all go home too, in that same chapter. Yeah.
Speaker: Which is it have the end of their story too. It just feels like it happens way too fast in the payoff. For me, I like good emotional payoffs. yeah I like getting that like lump in my chest when you have that emotional moment. And you don't have to have that all the time, but it kind of felt like this was a moment that could have had it maybe. Just my feelings.
Speaker: Yeah, i I also I didn't remember obviously didn't remember because brainful goldfish but in my head as I'm reading it I'm like trying to guess what they're going to do and I thought that they were going to open it to a random world and then push her through the portal and then change the portal so she's stuck on some home some other world that is uninhabited, you know, like that she's just kind of stuck where she can do no harm to anybody and and And in that same idea of that emotional that emotional end of like Sundancer with the big sun was going to be like her pushing the sun backs like well either you're going to get completely eaten by the sun or you're going to have to back up into the portal like those are your two options.
Speaker: And so as you know she's backing up, she's like, don't do this. so And they could have that dialogue there and it would give us the space to have it, but it it doesn't happen. she just She just does the sun and that's it. like you know And honestly, I kind of had this moment where it's like, after all of this fighting, it was so easy. like That was so easy for Marissa to just like, well, sun, boom, done.
Speaker: And it's like, well, if that's, like, if that was the case, if if the reason that that Marissa hadn't done it until now was because one, you know, she used to be friends with Noel and there's like an emotional connection there. And two, you know, her payment as it were for taking out Noel is to be able to go home. Like, it i I don't know, I just, it felt like, but well, there's so many people died.
Speaker: in the process of all of this. She was ready to do it. And then Trickster fucked him up. We can't forget that part too. That's true. that' tried to forget I forgot about Trickster being a fucking dickhead. I always forget that Sundancer actually is a really powerful ability and because I have like, man, Sundancer really could have killed her way earlier. um And I think the reason in my head that Sundancer gets so nerfed is because the first person she runs up against with her powers that we see.
Speaker: is a pyrokinetic and steals her ability, like her side away from her, like immediately. And she admits the whole time she's held back every fight because she doesn't want to hurt people. Yeah, she's such a pacifist. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's what I was going to say is that like, she also has a whole thing at the end of like, oh, she's empty. Like there's nobody still inside of her. And Taylor's like, yep, we're good. Go for it. Even though she knows that there's still three shapes in her. That's where she flies the fly.
Speaker: liasess throattletails throat I love it that Tattletale's the only one who's like, Ooh, let me show you how much I know. I know there's a person in there. And literally everyone in the crowd is like, Nope, no one in there. Yeah, man. It's I send dancers whole conversation at the end to talking about how She'll, she's not like her life's, even if, even though she's getting to go back, her life is never going to be the same. And she's probably going to be sun dancer on earth, a laugh as well. Um, because they're at the left is they're of portals. They're aware of everything going on on earth bet. So they know who sun dancer is and all this kind of stuff. And it's just really, it's just really sad. He's got such a sad little story. The only interestingly person she killed as her friend.
Speaker: Yeah. Only interesting though, only ballistic goes through in costume. ah Because he's about to be a fucking hero over there. Yeah. He's like, he's like, I'm ready for this hero scene, right? He's like, get bitches, make money. I believe that's what he said his his mission statement was. I do really like ballistic. So the idea of him like actually being a top, top dog and are the left. Like I like that for him. Like I want that for him.
Speaker: Yeah. Cause apparently the best heroes earth left has is the equivalent of 1960s Batman and Robin. So yeah is about times you just have to get rid of a bomb. No shade to 1960s Batman. yeah No, we love it. Oh yeah. Um, yeah. Lisa gives her big talk. Oh, oh, back, back up real quick. Uh, attempted humor.
Speaker: She, she, when Taylor's criticizing clock blocker, like, Oh, this must be a coping mechanism. Attempted humor, Taylor. Clock blockers, comedic genius. Okay. Maybe you should take some pointers from him. Say your flicker that bitch next time. You know, he just is brave enough to say the good stuff out loud. That's true. That's true. God, he is what Alec wishes he could be. ah Oh my gosh.
Speaker: And, uh, we also don't want to skip over to like idol on and Alexandria, um, trying to make up for it. Right. And also, okay. Just as in terms of like just utter badass scenes, right? Alexandria just standing there metal melting yeah down her body.
Speaker: Right. Mostly nude. It is just like, whoa, that's a that's a. Oh, and let's not forget the cool eye thing, too. Yeah. Just got the one eye. She's got like and she Taylor says that as the metal melts and then cools, it sticks in her hair. And so she has these like metal strands in her hair. Like, oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. However, she unfortunately is a bitch. Yeah.
Speaker: That it is unfortunate that she would hurt. Yeah. Um, and what I think, Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, no, no, please. I was just going to say what's so interesting though is again, that contrast right between Alexandria and idol on Alexandria is almost making deals. Like, look, I can step down from the PRT if that makes you feel better. I'll retire as Alexandria. If that makes you all feel better.
Speaker: but just know that what we've built, what this world is and our survival wouldn't be possible without Cauldron. You might hate us, but you might also beat us yeah need us. and And even Taylor admits she's like, yeah, she kind of has a point everybody, but I do love the response of like, you don't get it. just You also work with these people. Yeah. And then.
Speaker: I like what she says though. She she says, she says like, well, but okay, like this, you know, talk to your teams. Don't make a hasty decision right now. Like you have time to think about it. Like we don't have to make a choice today. And then she walks away. Like, because in the end, it's not after her, you know, it's up to them.
Speaker: The moment that kills me is she's flying away and she says, legend looks like he's in pain. And if I knew what to say to him, I would, but I can't. yeah that went That part I'm like, ah, cause we know like legend is the quote unquote good boy of the three that we've talked about. yeah So him just standing there watching this all in pain, watching everything he's built up crumble yeah because of a lie that he didn't know about and couldn't do anything to stop.
Speaker: And then he still, as we find out in the next chapter, still steps down because he's that good of a guy. Yeah. He's like, I'm still too involved. Even though I had really no idea what was going on. I can't, uh, I can't in good conscience, you know, keep my seat. Yeah. Um, speaking of, uh, like, I don't know, coping and dealing with this, uh, something tattletale mentioned and we can you know kind of jettison off to her.
Speaker: Like she talks about like, how am I, you know, how am I supposed to cope with things when stuff gets rough? Like, how am I supposed to go to a therapist when like my power basically is to just break down, you know, the therapist before they can analyze me? Like, I was like, man, that, that does suck. Cause that's sort of, you know, as a therapist, you're like, it's one of the reasons you're not friends with your therapist. You're just, you know, they're your therapist.
Speaker: There are certain things that your friends can do that your therapist can't and a lot of things that your therapist can do that. If they were your friends, they also cannot because they're supposed to be. And a person and the you're not really supposed to, you know, get that involved with your therapist and her ability just lets her unpack who they are as a person and what they're thinking. So like, you can't really help it, you know, it's automatic. So who is she supposed to go to? Yeah.
Speaker: for, you know, to, to help her process things. If only there was a great superhero therapist,
Speaker: just anywhere in this world, you know, truly the hero we need. If only we could name one and just one. If only, if only. Um, but no, I mean, that's a, that is exciting.
Speaker: Yeah, we love her. Um, zoom height ah what a, so her trigger event is interesting because she, it sounds like she can't even precisely know when exactly it happened. She said she thought it was when she was sleeping. Yeah. But it's just like there was so much emotional turmoil and weight yeah that And it's interesting that it latched onto the idea of knowledge, like almost this thing of, if I had known more, I could have saved my brother. So I'll give you the power to know more so you can help people kind of. And that sucks. That really does. I, yeah, I really like her trigger event. Um, they're not, you know, it's just, it's so unique and interesting and how she got her power, like,
Speaker: you know, all the others, I feel like are pretty obvious sort of in a sense. um And for hers, ah you know, like we even said, like she triggered it in her sleep, you know, man it's just, it's really interesting. Something she says about, and and the thing that's that kills me about that is she, what she says about her brothers that like,
Speaker: i I still, even with my power, couldn't figure out what it was. Like, even afterwards. Like, couldn't figure out why he had decided to end his life. Like, even though now that she had all these powers, she still couldn't figure it out. And that, like, she still doesn't know. And because he's gone, she'll never know. Like, this is one thing she will never be able to figure out.
Speaker: And that's so sad. like Because of Tattletale already, like we've talked about with like dating and with a therapist, even that like she's already in people's head unconsciously. it's like her Her human relationships are already messed up in a way that like she can't have the same type of relationship with people that Taylor can have or other people can have. And then that made all the more hard with the fact that like her trigger was because her brother was gone and she will never know why, like why he chose to, to end his life. Yeah. Which if you know anything about her, just drives her up a wall and not know things. yeah ah What's interesting though, is the connection then she makes to Taylor and basically saying, I kind of was attracted to you.
Speaker: not in a romantic sense, but in ah and a sense of being interested in you because you reminded me of my brother. And that revelation too, I think is really significant for their relationship um because it it shows that Tattletail or you know Lisa and Taylor have gone from a place of mistrust and not knowing and from Tattletail's perspective, more of that pity to a genuine friendship. And yet,
Speaker: there is still that gap between a deeper friendship that could exist maybe if Tattletail didn't have her powers. move And there is some tragedy there to that, which is really, really, a is very well -written. That part of the chapter I was very happy with. I think, personally, these should have been split into two chapters. ah Focus more on the Noelle ending, and then add in a bit more of a deep what happens after. Of a decompression episode, yeah.
Speaker: But Hey, it's so good. ah that And tattletale saves the day. She saves the day, like it's in some 40 chess. Um, yeah. She, you know, she comes, you know, she saves, uh, Brockton Bay and a sense of like, you know, opening the portal yeah to send, uh, they were, you know, potentially going to shove.
Speaker: a kid in a throw, um, if they had to, but she's not only in one stroke, does she set that up if they needed to, does she send the travelers home, you know, something that they wanted. She also saves Brockton Bay economically, yeah you know, the most important way you can save a place. um oh And, land already because of coil.
Speaker: So she's not so much fucking money. Which is like wild. Like, Oh man, we're having this big team meeting here. And it's like, wow. Like, Oh my gosh, who said we should have the meeting here? That's crazy.
Speaker: Um, yeah, she owns the land that it's on. She's about to like make hella bucks off of that. up It's yeah. And I love the explanation. Like we now have access to.
Speaker: more free, essentially more real estate. And you know, uh, and resources is not going to pass that up. So land and trees and rock and potentially or, and who knows whatever else we could find. You all got to pay the troll toll, the tattletale toll to go through. Oh no. I love that. And she's definitely set herself up well.
Speaker: And it's the best example of like, at least from the hero's perspective of do first and ask for forgiveness later. Because they're like, wait a second, you can't close this portal, can you? And she's like, nope. I guess not. What? Who could have seen that happening? And Alexandra's like, we're going to have a war between worlds. And she's like, nah. That would have already happened. We've got enough superheroes to nuke them and they've got enough nukes to nuke us.
Speaker: oh Oh my gosh. go yeah No, she she's prepped. she had and And I love that in a weird way, I've started thinking of Tattletale as Coyle in the sense of like all of the planning that goes into like like how Coyle was so many steps ahead of everybody. like he just He just was. And part of that was like his power. like But Tattletale is also, you know, 100 steps ahead of people. And she's just, you know, basing it off of a lot of guesswork. And and it's just, I don't know, I just I love I love this idea that, like, even though
Speaker: Tattletale has like kind of become the the new coil. like shes still She still is very much in control and very much of like aware of all the moving pieces. And I i i so much enjoy her as like this this saw you know ah big the big bad behind Brockton Bay. but like She's a mastermind. I love it. She's a classic villain. She's coming to her own. It's so good. I absolutely love it.
Speaker: Um, and then we finish up with Taylor sitting down, having a final breather and oh boy, she's got the papers in her hand. Mm -hmm. want to talk about that. The papers Diana gave her. I assume. Is that what, what we think it is? Cause she never really says, does she? And then at the end she crumples them up. Yeah. Cause she's been blind this whole time. So she hasn't been able to read it.
Speaker: Uh, only, what does is it? Welds or clockwalker? Like looked in her pocket at one point and was like, okay. And then just put it back. Cause it, you know, didn't mean anything. um I thought that the papers were something else. No, it's two pieces of paper. And I assume that that's what, what she's a, what she was looking at. Are they going to reveal that? Are we just going to be held forever in in suspense. You know, maybe much like Lisa, we'll never know. I don't like that. That upsets me. Yeah. Can we skip to the last interlude? Because I want to save, if we can, the online section for the end. So do Emma's interlude first?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm fine with that. Yeah. Um, so the Emma interlude, uh, we see the perspective of Emma. So how she met Sophia, which is unfortunate. Um, when Emma stopped being Taylor's friend and learned to enjoy being a bitch. Uh, and Taylor proves to be the strongest of them all. Love that.
Speaker: I kind of feel Emma at the beginning. Mm -hmm. Uh, like, but only at the beginning where she's like, Hey, no, no, no, hear me out. Or she, it's literally like the opening part where she's like, man, Taylor's my best, you know, my best friend. I really like her, you know, but ever since her mother died, she's kind of a, a damp blanket yeah and she takes so much energy to deal with like.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, I don't come away going, Oh, this was what a time to hang out with my friend. I come away kind of feeling like the day got wasted. Um, and I don't relate to that in that, like, you know, a negative sense. And I don't think at the time she did, you know, cause it was before kind of, she became a bitch, but like, I get it. There are some people you hang out with and they're exhausting and they're your friend, but you know, you're just like,
Speaker: man, when did this become work more, you know, more than it was enjoyable? Um, and I, you know, there's different reasons for that. Sometimes just people change. Sometimes you just, you know, you're, you're tired of it, whatever it was, or, you know, you've changed. And so I, I definitely felt that section, um, right at the beginning. I think this might be maybe my favorite chapter, just in terms of writing quality that and ah Wild Bo's written. um I think this is just a damn good chapter of storytelling. Like it gives context to both Emma and Taylor and Sophia a little bit
Speaker: It's not justifying Emma's actions, but it explains them. And it ends like this chapter capstones the whole story. We talked about the very beginning of the arc of arc 19, how Taylor ah was stuck inside of kidney is seeing visions of her bullies. Like these are her traumas. These are what's made her. And then the resolution with Emma's interlude at the end and the like lingering thoughts that Sophia gives to Emma.
Speaker: with ah how the strongest are those who, who survive as she's like watching Taylor survive. It's like, it's just poetic in, and in beautiful ways. I absolutely love this chapter. Yeah. We talk about a couple of times before about like their most chapters are fun, but there's like the ballistic chapter, which is kind of its own short story. Um,
Speaker: you know, it actually develops a, you know, chronologically as opposed to just being sort of a scene. And this is one of those were like, you could put this into a short story thing on its own and be like, wow, this is incredibly interesting. And, you know, but in the larger universe, it also is a parallel to all the timeline that's happened and before what's happened and, you know, leading up to after what we've read already, like,
Speaker: It's really good. Yeah, I was, I was going to say the same thing that this feels almost like it could be its own short story because you don't need that much context to read into it. You find out everything that happened that you need to know for these characters. And I, I hate, I, in a way, I hate stories that make me feel bad in any way for, for these characters like Emma, not Sophia so much, but Emma, like,
Speaker: getting attacked, getting your hair cut, getting threatened with mutilation and obviously like gang rape and other things.
Speaker: it's It's a lot and it, but it's interesting to see that this idea of her bullying was a coping mechanism or a survival mechanic, not a coping mechanism, a function of survival, right? Like she's just trying to not be weak, trying to not be vulnerable ever again.
Speaker: And the irony is that as we find out at the end that, yeah, she's not as strong as Taylor is. And that because Taylor has survived, not that bullying is good, but because Taylor survived what she put her through, even she's a stronger person for it and happier and healthier. I think that's interesting because thinking about, you know, as, as, um,
Speaker: Sophia says that the idea of predator and prey like Sophia has operated this entire time as though she's the hunter, you know, and and yet at the end, she's behind the glass. You know, and I just I don't know, I think it's interesting. I just.
Speaker: I don't know. I i think that like in the end, after everything, Sophia isn't a isn't isn't as strong. She she isn't. And she's she feels like cracked and broken down by her own like bitterness, almost. like her own like The way that she sees the world is so...
Speaker: is so like harsh that it's made her harsh. like We know that because of the bullying, but more so even that's like Emma's emma's kind of moved past it. like She's also over it. She's realized that like, well, you know maybe I've outgrown Sophia and maybe Sophia isn't as strong as ah She thought she was and then in the end she sees Taylor and it's like what maybe Taylor was the strongest the entire time like maybe Taylor was the one who. Who came out on top in the end. Well that's that's kind of the irony of it all to write with her relationship with Sophia she saying. I'm abandoning you as my friend because you're no longer the predator in a way.
Speaker: And it's ironic because that's the mindset she picked up from Sophia. Yeah. So it's just such a funny, there, there is some irony in that relationship. Right. And I, yeah, that's part of why it's so well -written is that irony as well. Yeah. It's a, it's a good chapter. And it ends with the, the, the, the Heberts are back.
Speaker: Yeah. I was happy to see that. I don't know if it's true, but she bought him a new car and I'm just going to believe that. Oh, a hundred percent. That's what it seems like. I just want Danny and Taylor to... I want their relationship to heal. And seeing this kind of gives me hope that maybe it's on the mend.
Speaker: But I don't know. And I just... like i like Seeing that Taylor is not the person she used to be, that she has come out stronger, that she has come into her own. she's she's you know As she said, and then as Emma notes, it like she's settled into herself, like into her body, and like into her and to herself. and And the idea that like maybe now, now that she is more aware of who she is,
Speaker: that she can have a better relationship with Danny because of it. And like that's what I want for them so badly.
Speaker: I think there's a good contrast, too, there between Emma's dad, Alan, and Danny, too, in that the one the one bit we get about ah from Alan towards Emma, and you he's affirming, he says, we love you, we care about you. But basically his response is like, at some point, girl, you just got to take care, you just got to stop.
Speaker: Like stop being sad that you got assaulted. Come on, like get up, move on. It's fine. And I'm like, I just feel like that's so telling of the relationship between Emma and her dad versus Emma or versus Taylor and ah Danny. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. And she had like, she had only been in her room what a week and they were all like, well, it's time to get up.
Speaker: Mm hmm. There's a therapist number written on the on the on the paper outside. I think about killing yourself. Call them first. Yeah. Jesus. That that was upsetting. and We'll let the cleaning ladies now, I'm sure. Yeah. It's interesting that they were moving back to Brockton Bay, though. Yeah, her family, Emma's family.
Speaker: I mean, they were, they were only temporarily staying somewhere else. Cause like, like her dad said, like, I hate moving. Yeah. Which I get. That's the one thing with Alan I can relate on. The process of moving is painful. It's not my favorite thing. I love moving. I like rearranging. I like moving too. It's the best.
Speaker: I like new things. I don't like, you know what? I love moving. I don't like packing. Yeah. Nobody likes packing. yeah This is the sidebar, but it's the difference between. You guys who have moved a lot in your life and yep until and went and from the ages of zero to 18, I moved once to another house in the same neighborhood.
Speaker: that my boy Wow. ah Sweet baby boy. That's that's not yeah unusual, but still. i've I've heard people live like that somehow. That must be nice.
Speaker: um Oh, well, with that being said. Last one. Last one. ah The last interlude is a very cool format. It's done um the parahumans online, which is the chat boards. Greg is a creep.
Speaker: ah pair humans online um We have some some talk about what's going on. People are speculating. um and And then we kind of jump out away from the chat boards and Greg thinks about things and realizes that Skitter is Taylor. He figures it out. and That's a weird, uncomfy place to end.
Speaker: God damn it. Greg just makes me ah makes me uncomfy. I just want to say I know Taylor said way back when we first met Sparky and Greg. Uh -huh. I hope these characters come back. yeah know Yes, we did. taylor is ever listening He's Greg is back, baby. Got your goddamn wish.
Speaker: Oh my gosh. Yeah, this is a is a fun chapter. Yeah, it's fun. This is what I was talking about with the, the online thing of people being like, uh, two things I'll have to correct you about. ah Number one, we don't give out warnings for anything like that. Number two. Yeah. It's just, just again, it's that perpetual need to be always correct, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I really liked the format of this. I had to read this chapter as opposed to listen to it because obviously the format is so... I had to do the same thing. Yeah, you can't really listen to it. This is not working. Yeah, no, I had to... And you get to the parts where I'm skimming past certain bits because I'm like, okay, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna... Look at the username. Look at their message. That's it.
Speaker: ah But I really like that. Anytime we have like a fun little interlude that has like dragon's code or like the pair of humans online, like I like the the that we can switch it up a little bit. And I imagine like if Worm was published book -wise, you have like a change in font. you know We have like all the cool spacing and stuff. And I love that. That's so funny. like I know all the interludes you know already kind of break up a little bit of the monotony of like yeah the the the flow of the story a little bit, which I like, but then the the format is really fun. And and i I really enjoyed at the beginning when Taylor was getting into the forums. I'm like, checking out like what's going on. you know
Speaker: And, and I love that we have that again. Cause I, I, I love that idea of like all those normies who aren't, who don't have powers who like, aren't in the know of like, what's going on? Like, well, let, let me get on Reddit real quick and like figure out what the fuck is happening in Brockton Bay. Like I love that as all of us uncaped people trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. I love it. I love it. Yeah. You can really tell that wild bow is um is a for fan is a forum Cause like.
Speaker: I don't know. I've read a lot of books that involve people in chat rooms and stuff. And they feel so. Like this person has never been in a chat room and they're like. Yeah. Somebody's never used to aim before. Like, uh, yeah, it just feels really odd, you know, and, and this felt, you know, this is what, this is a chat room right here. This is a, would this is a forum for sure. Like, um,
Speaker: And, and some, some fun stuff about this random lurker on, uh, that chapter, uh, on his website, uh, on, on wild does website where he posted this originally, uh, one of the chatters random lurker, uh, pointed out that, wow, must've taken you ages, especially since you did this straight into WordPress.
Speaker: Which is something to think about if you've ever worked with WordPress, especially old WordPress. WordPress sucks. He formatted that, oh which WordPress works like ass, yeah so that's just impressive in its own right. Yeah, even website developers hate WordPress. Yeah. um Not a fan. so ah Yeah, so that was very impressive that he you know got that formatted. you know We talk about like the Dragon chapters too. like You have to format all of that in WordPress, you know, separate than how you would normally type things in. Um, I just thought that was really interesting. And, uh, on top of that, all of the, uh, we'll go over the rest of them later, but, um, a lot of the names in here are workarounds of people that were regular commenters.
Speaker: or chat rumors or forum people for worm. That's cool. Uh, I'll continue with, uh, random lurkers post, uh, the, the nat being the ant, uh, answer key being the user and zirky, uh, bag rat being pack rat or pack bat. My bad.
Speaker: Senior eel being Mr. Moray, Reeve being Reven, space zombie, who I know is down here somewhere. Uh, I can't find him now, but, uh, is undead space man. Uh, that's the real name of the username and then max dual rocket propelled grenades is user. His real name user is MC two RPG. Um, you also have mock moniker, which is fake name is the name of that person.
Speaker: And then there's a character here named, uh, I'm re as I'm reading on the worm, uh, blog, uh, truth seeker, and he's guessing, Oh, coyote C is probably Loki L. Um, uh, not too sure, but, uh, non deceptive might be me. I guess maybe I'm being presumptive. And while Bo goes, Oh, I think I went with judge for you. It's like, Oh, cool.
Speaker: Um, ah very kind of fun yeah. A laser smile is ah also a razor smile. And then right below that razor smile comments. Holy Chris app. I'm seriously flattered. Uh, yeah. So there's a, there's a few interesting, like interesting people that are regular, uh, commenters and stuff that all got, um, all got put in there. Uh, so.
Speaker: That's pretty fun. Uh, let me see if there's any, this is undead spaceman trying to figure them out. Uh, mock moniker. Yeah. You got all those. Um, yeah. So there is a, there's also a couple, um, I was going to get into those yeah to get into those afterwards. Do we go with the content of what we had in here though? I love the Cape wives forum.
Speaker: Cause that's a thing that exists for everything. There's also like military moms and stuff. Yeah, that was funny. You know, if you've already, you know, worried about their babies and, you know, and basic training and you know, there's Cape, you know, we, there's a cop wives and stuff that have Facebook groups that talk about this. So it it was very fun to see that for Cape wives as well. Skitter getting a five star review.
Speaker: but i love that ah did That was fun. I loved ranking ranking your favorite places to live. Yeah. I love that Taylor's the safest. like Well, you're going to get good supplies. You're going to get safety. um It's just more of a moral thing than anything else. so like Well, you'll be in a villain's territory, but it other than that, it's a great place to be. Great place to work. Yeah.
Speaker: I would recommend, would recommend. Oh, I saw char in there. Love that. That was fun. Yeah. We'll get to that in a second. Oh, sorry. No, no, no, no. It's good. You saw it. So we'll point it out and we'll talk about it in a second. Uh, weld in the irregulars weld. Oh yeah. That was a big moment I wanted to talk about with this one. And he's on the forum too. Cause he's a big fucking nerd. Yeah, he is. Of course he is. Yeah, he is. I can love him.
Speaker: Well, when you only sleep like an hour a day. Right. You spend so much time. What else are you going to do, right? A lot of porn, man.
Speaker: hes fucking the tractor let's go no i yeah make sure i was say and i didn't say it on hugging
Speaker: against me god damnmit ah um It gets me every time Michael it's too funny it's the best it's the best the soundboard sounds are just amazing Yeah. Let's go. We'll go ahead and, uh, and wrap this up, but yeah, we'll get the, uh, hit the other hidden usernames and, uh, put a bow on this one. Um, so one that really bothered me, uh, that I like the one that I remember so off the bat was like, I'm pretty sure. Does anybody have any guesses who white fairy is? Oh, I was thinking about that one. I did not come up with an answer though. Okay. So this is one that bothered me when I first read it because I was like, well,
Speaker: She says that she was in the, uh, the bunker during the Leviathan fight. And the only person that we know that was in the bunker during the Leviathan fight was Mr. Gladly. No, now not just Mr. Gladly, but Taylor got upset.
Speaker: Because there was a woman with Mr. Gladly and she was like, how can she get up with his bitch ass? Is that confirmed or are you just making guesses? Ahem. No. From. No. I remember that Wildo wrote something about, here we go, from the discord. Ahem. Wildo, White Fairy and Mr. Gladly are actually based on people I know. It was a head trip because White Fairy was someone I'd know since I was young and I was talking with her and she asked me about my teacher, Mr. G. And I gave my honest opinion opinion, which is we all know outside of that is that he was probably a piece of shit as you know, Mr. Gladly. Right. Right. um Turned out she was dating him. I was considering breaking up with him. Damn it. Something like that. It was like 18 or so years ago. So. So why harry is Mr. Gladly's girlfriend?
Speaker: Yes. Uh, the head trip for me was be having to recontextualize the guy in my head to be someone with an existence beyond school when he was just such a shallow human being and a poor teacher, that which honestly, every teacher needs to be re contextualized. Cause as far as I'm concerned, they're basically all vampires that don't exist outside of the school. Sorry, Nick. No, no, that's valid. I'm currently inside of a school building myself.
Speaker: You're just hiding in a closet. Yeah, i'm I'm in the broom closet. um Other fun ones. ah Hannah, ah you had one that you picked up on. Yeah, Char. Charlotte. Yeah, jesus' just that is correct. Her thing is Char. As soon as I read it, I was like, well, yeah, of course. And then there's a little section where someone was like, hey, so if I wanted to like join up with bitches or henchmen, how would I need to do that? And Char is like, i i sent ah I sent you a DM. It's like, cool, cool, cool.
Speaker: Like, i let's keep an eye out for wag the dog in the future. yeah I love that. See what, see what happened to her. Um, um or him him. Uh, it's strong girl energy. I mean, in no code I don't know. and always I totally read it as a dude, but okay. Parahumans online's cultural importance is that is often what determines your name. If you come up with a name that's too long, uh, they'll shorten, for shorten it for you online. And, uh,
Speaker: If they don't like your name, they'll just make one up for you. So and picking a name and running it through the internet is very important. Also, perhaps parahumans online is a dragon project. I think it's definitely, if it's not explicitly a dragon project, dragons assumed control of it.
Speaker: wild bow, I believe says, Oh, wow. Who could possibly run all of that? Certainly not a predator, you know, an AI with preternatural abilities to run all of that forum and also potentially be all the mods.
Speaker: You make a good point. Yeah, not, you know, wild those words, not mine. ah But also the fact that all the mods might be just dragon. Yeah, that's funny. It's all dragon, which, you know, as we know on Reddit is exactly how that works. They're all just one dragon all the time. Um, the entirety of Reddit, all the mods are actually just one person with multiple accounts. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, let's go. Uh, any guesses on G string girl? Cause energy wise, I knew who it was, but
Speaker: Um, I was guessing like still that kid energy, but like someone who kind of wants to feel grown up, but it's still kind of a kid. I was guessing like, like Vista or something, but I didn't, but I didn't think it was Vista, but it was like, there's a, there's a, there's a, you're, you're on the right track. There's a big hint though. She doesn't want to show pictures.
Speaker: and she doesn't want to explain why.
Speaker: Yeah, I had ah i had to actually looked this up when I was reading it because I had an answer that was wrong, but I thought my answer was good when I was reading it. who What did you guess? I guessed glory girl, which is not correct. Ooh, that's a really good one. That's what made me think of it. I was like, oh, I just want to see. Yeah. yeah and ah I would say glory girl, not that desperate, but yes, that's a great answer. ah is it a Is it a different like monstrosity?
Speaker: It is is it, um, um, fucking, uh, what's her name? The, the, the ribbony girl, your apps. Well, uh, yeah, one of them, um, it's, it's a code named Garrett or garat, I guess, uh, AKA Sveta is feta. The one that, um, Jessica Yamada was talking with.
Speaker: Yeah. It was always snapping and having to grab things. all like Yeah. And it's funny because, you know, G -string for Garat and also the fact that she is like, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Solid. Hate the name, but yeah. yeah Okay. Yeah. well Well, like I said, she's, you know, kind of trapped and maybe a lot of pent up energy there and you know, once a lot of acceptance. So what do you do? You go online.
Speaker: Yeah, we've all been there. Yeah. Um, let's see. Uh, I think, I think that's all of the fun ones I have. Um, the rest are just foreign people. So unless I missed one, uh, I'm sure people will let us know. One big thing that happened in this, uh, I did, uh, about five years ago, there is somebody compiled a post, um, Husser H U S R.
Speaker: uh, compile the post about brow beat the big PS PSA that, uh, wild bow had recently retconned a bunch of stuff in worm. Um, most importantly, because, uh, it leads up to arc 19 kind of being, I want to say, like the last mention, uh, and the big retcon was that brow beat, um, originally.
Speaker: Uh, made it all the way to this fight. In fact, uh, this quote, uh, from the original is I recognize brow beat dragging Tekton behind him. He must've joined another team in another city, only to find himself accompanying them in a return trip to pocket bay. And he does multiple sources. Great job recording this husser. Um, so this would have been 2018. Uh, and in the one that we just read, um, nothing there.
Speaker: because, uh, of course not because he died all the way back, uh, during park eight. Um, one of the announcements over the watch or the arm band is browbeat deceased, PW dash eight. Hmm. Um, so yeah. And then we had these vista talk about, Oh yeah. People that I knew who died. And she lists off on the, uh,
Speaker: On the, in the, in the interlude on the post, she talks about, yeah, gallon ages, battery arms, restaurantless, philosophy, glory girl, route beat one family. Um, so he retroactively was killed off. Uh, and somebody I spied here, not too far down is a frequent commenter of ours, but wolf tamer nine themself. So.
Speaker: No, the Wolf Tamer 9 is a long time wormer. were And we appreciate them comment yeah commenting on our stuff. Yes. Always very appreciated. That was an interesting post relevant to this one that got yeah redone. Also some geniuses have put together in case you hadn't looked for it, there is a worm quotes and a wild bow like quote repository.
Speaker: Um, on space battles, you look up, Warren coats, worm quotes, and wog word of God, wog repository on space battles. You can find basically wild bow writing. Like, uh, they have collected like prompts like ages versus clock blocker, and then have the interactions that wild bow has talked about with somebody.
Speaker: or why matter generating capes aren't used more often with construction slash reconstruction, and then wild those answer to these. um So if you want to just really dig into some wild questions, ah like why didn't Taylor's power have a second trigger? um All of that is available on this. Somebody has collected all that. Sweet fun exploring. Very nice. um And that is all of the fun facts I have for today. Beautiful. Very nice facts. Is this the end of um our season? I believe this is the end of our season. So stick around for or dissecting it.
Speaker: Yes. Thank you guys so much for finishing a, what is this art? This isn't season. Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season? Third season?
Speaker: ah six seasons in a movie thank you so much Third season keep sticking with us. We got more to go. We do. love know Next week. We've got our dissecting worm finale. Make sure to, well, we have breaking down this arc and then we'll do another episode where we kind of do a finale review what we've done so far with this entire, ah which arcs do you guys know on the top of your head? Which is 15 through 19.
Speaker: 15 through 19 what we've done with those In our dissect Nick and I can tell you guys how dumb they are. Yeah, wait can't wait wow yeah yeah Last thing ah last thing Favorite superpower in five seconds or left. Oh, my God. For me, I got a poor one out from my boy Mirdon. Sucks that he's dead. Mirdon! Yeah, I'm pretty upset about that. that's I think we all know I'm going to say Chevalier. So there it is. Just so you can see the name. And because his power is one of my favorites in the series. But yeah, also the name. I'm going to go Blasto for mine. Thank you so much. Love that. I also really like Chevalier.
Speaker: That was really, really solid, really cool anime moments. Got some good hits. Yeah. Well, I think that's it. One more thing. I was reminded recently that we've been forgetting, we've been leaving out a specific thing in our, in our episodes and we, we, we have to, we have to do it. So for this arc, ah what the fuck Taylor? What was our what the fuck Taylor moment?
Speaker: Uh, I mean, I had a what the fuck bone saw moment for sure. Yeah. Oh, for sure. That was crazy. I think, I mean, he can do a little subtle, what the fuck Taylor with the bug down, petal tails throat. Yeah. Taylor was not the problem in a lot of, Lisa, what a lot of Taylor saying, Lisa, what the fuck? Yeah. Everybody telling Lisa to shut the fuck up. I think the complete list of what the fuck's in this section would be, um, what the fuck Alexandria? What the fuck Isilon? What the fuck Blasto? What the fuck Bonesaw? What the fuck Bonesaw? What the fuck Bonesaw? What the fuck Legend? What the fuck Legend? Um, and then, uh, finally, what the fuck Emma?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What the fuck, Greg? Oh, what? Yeah. What the fuck, Greg? Oh, man. Oh, Greg. Thanks for bringing that back in.
Speaker: I had seen a comment about it. I was like, we have to remember to keep this in the segment. I feel like it's been overshadowed by many other worse things than what he's been doing. The last time we had a what the fuck Taylor really would have been the what the fuck Taylor. Why are you showing up at this family's house with their daughter, their kidnapped daughter and like in the dark?
Speaker: you know, and being like, don't be afraid. And then being like, oh God, I'm gonna kick that door. There's a better way to do that. What the fuck, Taylor? There you go. On that note, we'll go ahead and call it there. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. It's been a blast as always. Stick around for future episodes to come with Michael Said. And we got 11 more arcs. We're coming up. We're closing out on this thing. It'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker: And until next time, ah Michael, want to play us out?
Speaker: Thank you so much for listening. Read along with us at parahumans .wordpress dot .com. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you love? What did you hate? anything you think we missed, etc., as long as it's kind. If you'd like to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter, threads, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit, at Brockton Bay, BC, or click the link in the description.
