Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 14.9 - 14.z - Breaking image

BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 14.9 - 14.z - Breaking

S6 E25 · Brockton Bay Book Club
Avatar
71 Plays5 days ago

This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. Complete list of potential triggers: here

-----------------------------------

The Brockton Bay Book Club discusses J.C. McCrae's Ward live! The gang reads a portion of Ward and comes together to share our thoughts with each other and anyone who want's to participate.

This week we cover Arc 14.9 - 14.z - Breaking

Read along here

Play along with this week's BBBC BINGO while you listen!

Support us and connect with us @brocktonbaybc

-----------------------------------

Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast: This episode of the Brockton Bay Book Club is sponsored by Made Marion. Made Marion creates custom cottagecore and ren faire clothing designed for every body. Whether you’re looking for a lace up bodice, rustic apron and pinafores, or ethereal dresses, you’ll find items customized for every individual’s fit and design. All items are lovingly hand sewn with attention to detail and a touch of whimsy. Visit Made Marion today and transform your wardrobe with clothing that feels as enchanting as it looks. Find Made Marion on etsy, at https://www.etsy.com/shop/themademarion

Recommended
Transcript

Hostage Situation in Mega City

00:00:00
Speaker
Good evening, Mega City. Tensions on the rise as our heroes held hostage high and dry on the other side.

Introduction to Brockton Bay Book Club

00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to the Brockton Bay Book Club. This is your host, Alan, joined by Nick. Hello there. Jacob. Hello.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hannah. Hi. And our producer, Michael. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. This is the Brockton Bay book club. Those of you first time joining us that we are a group of friends reading through ward, a superhero web serial by JC McRae.
00:00:41
Speaker
Um, You're more than welcome to join, read a along. And if you catch up, you can join us live, which is what we're doing tonight. And if you want to, I don't know, say play bingo with us tonight, we've got a link in the description.

Discussion on 'Ward' Chapters 14.8-14.9

00:00:57
Speaker
And you can add to that bingo and talk with us outside of the podcast by joining our Patreon for as little as a dollar a month.
00:01:04
Speaker
um Just go to Brockton Bay Book Club on or Brockton Bay BC on a Patreon and just join us there. lets us know that there are other people out there that enjoy this series and sharing memes and talking with us about that.
00:01:18
Speaker
But without further ado, this past two weeks we have been reading 14.8 believe? 9. ARC 14.9. fourteen points eight ah believe nine far our core point nine through the end of arc 14. Z. Z. i but Yeah, a little bit shorter than the first half.
00:01:44
Speaker
ah But overall, thoughts? Hannah. Oh my god. my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. my god i god Oh my god. um yeah. Oh my god.
00:01:57
Speaker
Yeah, those are my thoughts. Just, oh my god.
00:02:04
Speaker
And that sums it up. Yeah, do pretty much. Yeah, I mean, it was, ah of ah you know, broke record and all that, but back half of the arc seemed to be more enjoyable than the front half, which kind of makes sense as you're reading through the arc. So I i had a little more fun with these chapters. I think my my reoccurring issue with with Ward as will always continue to be pacing. I mean, we got the the confrontation moment here that we've been waiting for for a while, and
00:02:34
Speaker
was great. i mean just a fantastic couple of chapters to start us off. But that really feels like Everything else in Shin has been a little slow.
00:02:45
Speaker
um i like the interlude at the end. We'll get through all of that. But ah yeah, it's just this's just been been Ward. It's been a lot of slow buildup to a really great moment. And I love being in those moments. And then we leave them and it just sort of drags again. So ongoing issues. But when it's good,

Double Confrontation and Character Chris

00:03:02
Speaker
it's good. And then there were some really, really good moments in this section.
00:03:07
Speaker
there Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. i I have to say, I agree. Um, this is definitely the better half. at don't even know if it was an even half, but you know, better third perhaps of the arc, but it was, uh, yeah, solid section. we finally do get that conversation that has been building for so long.
00:03:28
Speaker
um, And there is so much more that happens here. i feel like it's kind of a double confrontation in a way where they get get to confront Chris as well. Not as intensely, but enough that it it felt satisfying.
00:03:43
Speaker
Obviously not the end of his character journey, I'm sure, but um like a good satisfying, this is the first time we've really talked to you since ah you left us moment, which was good.
00:03:55
Speaker
um And then, yeah yeah, the interlude was great as well. Great characters, great building. um Yeah. Screw Amy. Right? Screw Amy, in indeed.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, this ah ah this is one of those, another one of those arcs, or maybe set of chapters that I... remember being like a very vivid point.
00:04:26
Speaker
um Like, all in a way, it's it is, it and always stood out in my mind the same way that like the Leviathan arc does.
00:04:39
Speaker
Just because it's,
00:04:43
Speaker
I don't know. it's It's you and Amy trapped in a room. How bad can it be? like yeah yeah yeah ya like it just it It is a sum of all of the fears you could possibly have as that character.
00:04:58
Speaker
And we've just decided we're going to force this confrontation.

Victoria's Search and Tensions

00:05:04
Speaker
Like, what do you do? And there is a battle going on. And it's rough.
00:05:13
Speaker
so It is a a battle of wits. ah too Yeah. Yeah. But, um, great introduction to this. Let's get into this. Uh, Nick starts off with that 14.9, 14.9. The group looks for a hospital and talks to Citrine.
00:05:40
Speaker
Victoria gets knocked out, is healed by Amy without consent, and they have a discussion about their past and the city's future.
00:05:52
Speaker
and okay before i get to yeah Before we get to Amy's thing, I do the image of the group limping through the hallways looking for the hospital, like trying to read trying to read the foreign signage and you can't talk to anybody. you know They're like and pointing at themselves like, bleeding, where where do we go? And people are like, that way? is so unhelpful. It's It's the peak.
00:06:21
Speaker
I imagine it's like the closest I could imagine it to it would be like if you were visiting a foreign country and you were you were by yourself and you had terrible diarrhea and you had no weight. Like you were just trying to find any bathroom that you could use and nobody was being helpful.
00:06:38
Speaker
Please! And then they have that tough choice, right? Where they're like, Citrine's here, but she's only going to be here like 20 more minutes if you don't go talk to her. um And so they walk in and Citrine's like,
00:06:51
Speaker
I'll make this quick. I need to talk to you, but I'll make it quick. You guys gotta go. you got a Literally dropping blood all over the floor. Howie. Yeah. Geez, the freaking wheeze.
00:07:03
Speaker
I understand you don't like bearer humans. Like, I get that. Wow, okay. But like... You're...

Shin's Trade Agreements and Impact

00:07:12
Speaker
Someone's gonna have to clean up all the blood. If anything else, you know, save Geraldine a moment when... Because she's gonna have to mop up all of the blood. So, like, someone just... just point Like, you don't have to be nice about it.
00:07:25
Speaker
You can swear at them and point. That's fine. But, like, what is this? Like, my girl's walking around with flayed fingers, man. Like, oh, God.
00:07:37
Speaker
should...
00:07:40
Speaker
Oh, the fingers. Oh, the fingers. ah i I had forgotten. So when we like open it, they're like, okay, hospital, medical, where where do we go? And I'm like, what did we do again? Oh, yes.
00:07:56
Speaker
We were in a fight, and Amy was looking down from her high fucking tower, and now they're just walking through the maze,
00:08:08
Speaker
And I, oh my God. i just, I, yeah. I have a lot of feelings. I just don't, like, ugh. ah yeah don like um
00:08:23
Speaker
Shin gonna do Shin things, I guess, and just be impossible. Shin gonna do Shin things. Like, look, they're giving us food and, like, building materials, but, like, maybe we don't fucking need them.
00:08:35
Speaker
Hmm? Maybe we... I mean, we need them. We desperately need them. But, like, maybe... I didn't realize how dependent... I mean, it makes sense. You just basically have almost nothing, but I didn't realize how much stuff they are getting from other planets.
00:08:51
Speaker
Right. yeah he's little we is They said, because it was like, how much was Shin? It was like 30% or something like that. with Oh, Shin is like... I thought it was higher. i thought Maybe Shin is higher. so tiper highly higher too If supplies are coming from there, like from Kite.
00:09:11
Speaker
and yeah yeah ah Like 10%. I'm surprised they're getting 10% out of old earth. that Oh, yeah. ah gosh Yeah. yeah um That's probably just the stuff that's coming through as it's falling apart and people are escaping. Right.
00:09:29
Speaker
right I mean, there's raw materials, lumber, concrete, concrete.
00:09:37
Speaker
So how when did the... ah ah The assumption is that this has been the trade agreement for like a couple of years then since Gold Morning essentially-ish. Sounds like it. Okay.
00:09:47
Speaker
I was trying to put the timeline together of like when everything started, when the goddess takeover happened... but I guess that didn't impact trade too much. Well, I guess my assumption would be goddess kind of brokered the trade agreement,

Political Events and Governance Post-Gold Morning

00:10:03
Speaker
maybe.
00:10:04
Speaker
ah no, no, no, no. Goddess was a goddess is a ah drop off from Cauldron. That's right. Oh, that's right. But when did she take over? She grabbed during Goldmourning. That's right, she did get grabbed during Goldmourning. So she was in charge of Shin.
00:10:22
Speaker
Shin loses Goddess and she's trapped on Earth Gimel, I guess. um yeah And so Shin kind of has set up their own government. It's interesting that they're like, we'll trade with you, but just make sure you know she doesn't come through the portal, I guess. Seems like an oversight.
00:10:40
Speaker
But... yeah You know, whatever it's going to do. Yeah. yeah
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it also makes sense that they've ave provided all of these things and now we're pretty much reliant on them for a lot of stuff. And it's like, you hold this upper hand now economically that you can just decide that you're going to you know, pull the rug out if you want to or make certain demands because like we've realized that. Yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker
that we are dependent on them and that we would be very scared without them. And now that we've gone through a couple winters and we know how bad it can be, we know that this one could be very bad if we lose the support of Shin and the politics there. But don't know. What does Shin get out of this?
00:11:28
Speaker
I'm sorry. didn't interrupt your thought. It just occurred to me. No, I'm totally with you. i what is the... It seems very unbalanced. Like, I don't think I understand what this was built on to begin with. Like, if if it's all just built on the idea of, like, oh, well, eventually you're going to owe us and we want to you know, leverage that power, okay, great, but, like, that's not enough.

Analyzing Amy's Character and Her Impact

00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah. be giving them so much food and resources, like... Yeah, because Gimel is giving something. i just can't remember what it is exactly. they mentioned I think they even mentioned what it was, but I don't...
00:12:04
Speaker
I don't remember. Alan, do you remember? i believe the big thing that they are doing is that they... Like...
00:12:16
Speaker
Gold morning happened to everybody, but obviously bet got hurt the worst. So this is somewhat of a like humanity coming togetherness a little bit, but an also, Hey, you fucking keep the capes on your side of the.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. That's kind of what I thought it was is almost like, And I think there was even an agreement like they would take dangerous parahumans from Shin, right? Like if Shin had a problem with a parahuman, then Gimel had the resources to put them in in their secret prison was originally the agreement.
00:12:54
Speaker
ah Perhaps. I could be wrong. I mean, listen, the only other frame of reference I have for trade agreements is Star Wars Episode I, so I feel like if there's not a blockade involved, then I don't know what's happening. Yeah.
00:13:09
Speaker
Lockade. Yep. Yep. but but Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah, it just feels like... Either it's just a detailed oversight that doesn't actually really matter all that much, or it feels like they've got so much more up their sleeve. And, like, we see that, you know, in this arc, they're clearly trying to play this game.
00:13:33
Speaker
um but Yeah, I don't know. It feels really aggressive coming out of seemingly nowhere. but like, obviously, political stuff has been boiling and going on in this in the, you know, offstage that we're not familiar with or unaware of as of right now.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. but Like, um Ms. Militia alluded to some of it. Yeah. And there's the, we can't ignore the fact that there may be some teacher influence where teacher has been pushing. out yeah Right. or Yeah, for sure. You try to cause more div division. So that way he, it's easier for him to take over that kind of thing. Yeah.
00:14:15
Speaker
That's the interlude I really want is a teacher interlude where you find out that all of this has just been gotten out of hand for teacher and he's he's had to divert attention from global domination to like global trade agreements. It's just killing him. It's like now he's just making sure the economy functions.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't know world domination would have so much paperwork. Yeah, exactly. Always does. It's always the paperwork in triplicate.
00:14:44
Speaker
It's true. It's not the heroes that get you. It's the clerical errors. It's exactly right. The h r nightmare. Oh, man. So funny. Yeah, i um I am happy, though, that Viggy gets some medical help, although the way in which it happens had me, like, freaking out a bit. Evil, sketchy doctor.
00:15:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah. like And you see it coming, too. You're like, no, no. I'll sprinkle the little rainbow crystals on her Don't do that. no but piy dust little A little bit a pixie dust. Oh, God. It's just like, oh, I can't feel my hand. Oh, I can't feel my arm. Oh, I can't feel my chest. Oh, God. Here we go. And then blackness. And you're like, no. Come on. Horrifying scenario. But as a side note, man, i and it going under anesthesia is a great feeling.
00:15:37
Speaker
like as I can't say that i've I've only ever I mean I went under for getting my wisdom teeth removed and that's all I remember I just remember counting debt down from 10 and being like 10 no then being gone and waking up and like sitting in a wheelchair and in a hallway being like yeah yeah no waking up from anesthesia waking up from anesthesia is not great going into anesthesia is a great feeling but I can imagine like if you caught sight of Amy or you know your emotional equivalent of Amy as you're blacking out oh my god as an aside it's the uh there's this video of this guy he's going under for anesthesia and the doctor is like alright bud looking forward to your surgery
00:16:28
Speaker
getting ready for this gender reassignment surgery i hope you're ready and as he's falling asleep he's like what no um video it's that it's great it's that feeling i'm i mean it's that but like seriously like that yeah would be the worst feeling ever if like i'm now in the most vulnerable state with the person who i'm most afraid of or right and that sucks I'm making light of something terrible because I can't. yeah i can' a good experience Especially because she wakes up. The first thing she sees when she wakes up is amy Amy reaching out for her.
00:17:04
Speaker
yeah like It's exactly what you expect when you go under. You're like, I don't want to go under. Why? So that Amy doesn't get me. it's like yeah And what's the first thing that happens? Amy gets you. aiming the Oh my god, this girl!
00:17:16
Speaker
oh Talk about not following directions, not listening, not... Oh, my God. Oh, my God. ah i am... oh Yeah, as we get in the conversation, all I gotta say is, Amy, you had a lot of time to prepare for this conversation. Everything fell like in place exactly as you wanted it to, and you fumbled it. You you fumbled it. just like yeah yeah I didn't realize it was possible, but you did bad, babe. Real bad. ah My notes, i as you guys know, I do i rarely take notes, but... um
00:17:55
Speaker
hold the note and Consult the notes. my not cuts the notes For 14.9. is it Fuck this bitch. Buffy ass with a rusty spoon so hard she feels it in her teeth.
00:18:10
Speaker
That was my note that nice my note. Oh, I thought you were quoting Victoria. Yeah, okay. yeah I mean, basically. yeah yeah just Just, oh my god. the the The, like...
00:18:22
Speaker
And she still doesn't see that she's wrong. She's so convinced that she's right. She's so It's like, if only you would just sit down and listen to me, but could come to some understanding. And it's like, bitch,
00:18:41
Speaker
what is wrong with your brain but you don't understand? that that Nothing will fix this. And you have, in fact... You see, what i use when I touched you, I could see how angry you were. oh my god and I understand
00:19:03
Speaker
that uh, uh, and she doesn't get it. Like, she looks directly into it and goes, oh no, this is okay, this is fine.
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah. yeah fuck is wrong with her? it's yeah It's the... I keep going to analogies because it's the only way i I understand things, I guess. There's this clip I saw. I don't know if it was real or not, but it was one of those like surrounded videos.
00:19:36
Speaker
um where somebody's in the center, they say something, and then there's a bunch of people who debate them, basically. right Horrible format, but I love clips from it. But there's one where I feel like it's a girl who's like, and this would be Amy in this situation, where the girl in the center is like, my trauma is just as bad as your trauma.
00:19:53
Speaker
and but the first person who steps up is like a ah veteran and he's like yeah so when i was in the war i got to see you know i was laughing with my buddy one moment the next but moment his head is flying one way and his spleen the other and it's just like and that's victoria right or it's like and he's like my trauma is so bad and victoria's like um You raped me. yeah You used my body and you raped my brain. so like You abused me in every possible way. And body, Anna, as well. yeah Oh, yeah, no. i ah Body, mind, soul, and time. Body, mind, spirit, soul, we shaped her entire being. Yeah, no, that is the most fucking... yeah
00:20:36
Speaker
You could do to a person. Oh god. She's kind of talking about being a victim. We're kind of alike, don't you see? I grew up with a troubled childhood. Peace of the hate. no idea what it was like to go to a prison where my dad was king and everybody loved me. Everyone respected me and not a single person went against me. And how now I rule planet if I want and I've been offered positions in every hero team
00:21:08
Speaker
yeah and yeah yeah Fucking wrecked, man. What the hell? like one of the most satisfying things from the last arc earlier this arc, I guess, the first half of this arc is Carol being like, yeah, she's fucked up. And we're like, yeah no shit. Like you spend five fucking minutes with the girl and you realize real quick that she actually...
00:21:33
Speaker
Might be insane. She might be so far up her own ass that she thinks someone has turned out the lights. Like, i i don't... I truly don't understand the the lack of self-awareness. Like, it's too... Such an extreme... And then, oh, I can't remember if it's this this chapter the next one, where Vicky's like, yeah, I want you to be in therapy. Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
and our And Amelia's like, I tried therapy and didn't really work for me. Like, bitch, try harder. hu oh but yeah crazy They wanted me to do things like change but who I am. And I was like, but I love who I am. It's a my actions. just The amount of times that Victoria's like, Amy's like, what do you want me to do, Vicky? And she's like, i want you to die.
00:22:28
Speaker
and she like You don't mean that, a bullet you don't mean Victoria. And she's like, you've you felt it. You know. You know it's real. You read my brain. You know how serious I am. and Jacob, I mentioned it to you before, but ah Hannah and I have been watching Pluribus.
00:22:45
Speaker
The main character for that has such strong Amy energy in terms of like, oh my gosh, every time they are proven... wrong wrong.
00:22:58
Speaker
if the whole it can't be me. The whole world is gone, Matt. likes Everybody's against me. couldn't possibly be wrong. right Literally all the problems.
00:23:16
Speaker
are self-created. You are the problem. It's the ah the the Principal Skinner Simpsons meme, you know? Am i this out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong. You know? Yeah. Just...
00:23:31
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, no, exactly. same I always like, we talked about a little bit when talking when we were obviously going through Worm, but I always liked ah reading Amy's character as like the antithesis of Taylor.
00:23:42
Speaker
And she really does embody that, I think, fully. like Like Taylor is convinced she's right, and she is. And Amy is convinced she's right, and she isn't. Like it's just, yeah yeah it's a great correlation there. And it's just funny to read.
00:23:59
Speaker
it's It's that mirror, too, and I think this might be more in 1410, but um Amy has very important information to convey.
00:24:11
Speaker
yes yeah And unlike Taylor, who isn't listened to solely for plot reasons sometimes, it feels like. yeah For real. Yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
Amy is like, again, it's that the worst person you know knows what the right thing to do is. yeah um Which sucks because it's like, of course it would be Amy. Of course she would know, right? Like literally any other character could be here explaining the problems. And I think Victoria would listen to it. Like Bonesaw could be the one explaining it and Victoria would listen to her, you know? Right. But because it has to come through Amy,
00:24:49
Speaker
It's just it, which is why it's so perfect making Amy this villain of ultimately, and maybe it's a passenger thing too, right? We talk a little bit about passenger versus person.
00:25:02
Speaker
Ultimately, it's this, perhaps Amy's narcissism kind of comes from this belief that she can fix anything. right like her power is a fixing power so it it's this inherent belief of i i if i understand it well enough i can fix it um that makes a lot of sense yeah and so

Dot's Role and Narrative Tension

00:25:23
Speaker
yeah but it just it's ah it's that's why she's such a great villain because she's like so convinced she's right she has real important things to teach the characters but she's also the worst person and it's it's a perfect mixture for a well-written character
00:25:39
Speaker
It really is. i better It doesn't help just having the time of its life. Pulling levers. Speaking of radical levers, you get in the sandbox with the little crane shovel thing. Two levers. It's, I can fix it. Hold up, I can fix this. It's full steam ahead. god.
00:26:00
Speaker
um is Speaking of pulling levers too, it doesn't help that she has a literal devil on her shoulder and nothing else. Oh my god. Yes. Freaking weak dot. I was waiting for Victoria to grab like hold dot and do the whole like and you know and and you know we've tried the the whitest gives you no bit and every time dot gets hurt Amy knows that I know that Amy knows that she hit my car with her golf ball. yeah yeah So I squeeze Dot. The reason that Dot is hurting.
00:26:38
Speaker
yes I know. Yeah. 1410, just continuing the conversation. Yeah, still conversation. So fun things before we have a name.
00:26:50
Speaker
I think this is in 14. Did we get a name for a Dauntless? Yes, the Kronos Titan. Oh, the Kronos Titan. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:01
Speaker
Big fun name now for a big fun guy. Great name. Yeah. I can't wait to come back to that. Yeah, we'll get into more in that in a second, too. We'll just add in 1410. Victoria continues her talk with Amy, drags Dot into the discussion as well.
00:27:14
Speaker
Teacher attacks the Wardens and Breakthrough won't be able to join the fight until they're out of jail. Womp womp. um But yes, to that point, the Kronos Titan, and again, Amy communicating very important information.
00:27:28
Speaker
um She says not he's not the only one. There are others not in existence yet, but like primed, basically, is what it sounds like she's saying.
00:27:39
Speaker
is like There are other shards like this that are primed to explode. um And Teacher is going to try to make it worse and control them.
00:27:51
Speaker
So that's exciting. You start with that, and girl. like when yeah When Victoria wakes up, you're like, fuck in. Here's what's happening. And then, you know, you earned un earnared trust that way, but you you fumbled on the goal line. Actually, no, before the goal line. You fumbled like in your own end zone.
00:28:07
Speaker
yeah. You weren't out of the locker room when you tripped and bashed your nose open. Yeah. yeah yeah i i the I think the thing that annoys me the most about this is that she's so, like, she knows that she has important information. Amy knows that what she has is vital to humanity.
00:28:24
Speaker
And ah as as ah Chris says much, much, much later on, that she thinks it's the end of the world. It's going to be the end of the world. And so this is clearly incredibly important information.
00:28:41
Speaker
And yet, she's held on to it as a way to talk to Vicky, as a way to connect and be build some sort of ground between them by holding on to this information sharing that with her. Right now, as opposed to telling literally...
00:28:59
Speaker
Anyone else who might be quicker to trust her and listen to her than the person who would be the last on the list to trust and listen to her. But she does it in such a manipulative way because she's like, I know that I can. This is important information. And if I share it with you, then this potentially builds a, well, what are we going to do about it?
00:29:20
Speaker
you know, headspace because that's what she cares about. She wants to be forgiven by Vicky. I'm, I'm going to, I did my time. I did my time. like There's no amount of time, babe. Like there's no, there, you there's no coming back from this. Like we've gone so far past the realm of her ever being,
00:29:43
Speaker
speaking civilly to you ever yeah we've yeah victoria's like best i can offer you as a jury of my peers who like me better than you yeah basically what ah why okay i feel like she shouldn't have told her about vicky shouldn't have told amy about the uh her idea of basically handing her over and then them dropping her off on a planet
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... <unk> Information... Yeah, she didn't didn't need to, but... Yeah. At the same time, it scares her. Yeah, it does. I think trying to show her how serious it is of like... Yeah.
00:30:28
Speaker
There are things... Like, I don't want... you know, she's like, I want you to die, but I kind of want you to suffer a fate worse than death, too. um and she's, I love the part where she's like, my plan was just to push you into a portal and not think twice. You're lucky, Amy, that I'm yeah basically considering letting you talk to others and let them decide what to do with you.
00:30:52
Speaker
Um, you know, considering you're probably the most dangerous living parahuman. Um, Yeah. Yeah. um I do love, though, how Victoria, I feel like Victoria is really smart. She's like, I feel like I can't talk directly to Amy without like saying something wrong. But I want Amy to see how messed up she is, which is where Dot comes in as this perfect like, I'm going to talk to Dot.
00:31:18
Speaker
And when you have this

Can Amy Have a Redemption Arc?

00:31:19
Speaker
little gremlin celebrating how much you screwed up this girl. And you're like, it's it's that perfect... I feel like that's the closest Amy gets to actually realizing I'm messed up, right?
00:31:32
Speaker
When Dot's like, nah, she's she's like she's doing great. like Did you see? like it's yeah Oh, man. like i feel like... um for amy it's like the conversations she was having with neil bog and bonesaw like i almost feel like although neil bog and bonesaw are both villains especially neil bog considering how much he had changed over time uh and in a weird way it seems like it was getting better i feel like those conversations would have helped amy be like oh
00:32:03
Speaker
I don't want to be like them, but I did things like them. I need to acknowledge that I'm just as bad as them. Because that was kind of Bonesaw's thing always, It was like, Amy, you and I aren't that different, you know? And no box saying Amy, you and aren't that different. She's babysitting Bonesaw.
00:32:18
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. She doesn't understand that Bonesaw's just as much checking up on her work. Exactly. yeah Well, my earbuds yeah don't want to stay in Like if she were to, I think as much as I would like that to be the case, if she were suddenly confronted with like Nilbog being like, you know, you're really fucked up, right?
00:32:43
Speaker
She'd be like, what did they know? They're crazy villains. correct You know they, you know, they just misunderstood. but What they need to do is like a a slideshow with the three of them, right? where it's PowerPoint night.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yeah, PowerPoint night. It's close-ups of things that they've done to real humans. Yes. But they don't know whose work it is, and they have to try to guess whose work it is. Yeah. And it's all Amy's. It is all Amy's. Exactly. It's all Amy's. It's all Amy's.
00:33:15
Speaker
That's good. Yeah. ah So... i I do love ah Dot's cute little pinafore floof dress that she's wearing and her little striped-y socks. she's I will say she's so cute. i yeah i i My note was, Dot is a winner. i I love her because she doesn't have, she doesn't, she's not trying to win anybody. She's not trying to be diplomatic here. She's just like, I love my Red Queen and I'm gonna, and I'm gonna talk about how great she is. And, you know, she's done it to 13 or 15 people. And Amy's like, no, it was like one or two. she's like 13 or 15 people. And it's so interesting. And I, I, I really do like her as, as this actress.
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah, as this character that kind of moves with the conversation a bit. and I also just really like her, like this little kind of... weird pup little... I don't even know exactly, but I kind of... In my head, she's like the Zabumafu puppet. Not like an actual lemur, but she's kind of got this weird, like, Zabumafu-ish vibe where she's got the tail and the hands, feet thing. Yeah, no, I can buy that. And her big old bat ears, but also has hair and red hair, and I don't know. I... I kind of imagined her like that size little. Next tattoo, Hannah. Next tattoo.
00:34:44
Speaker
What? A ZabumaFu dot puppet? Weird creature? Yeah. right know If you and happen to be on our Patreon, I found some really cute fan art that I'll post.
00:34:56
Speaker
um Oh, if Dot? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, wait. I really do need to see this. Oh, that's horrible? Horrible. wow. it's like it's like if you It really is like if you combined lemur and um like ah what are those what are those really creepy...
00:35:17
Speaker
um Dolls from the 90s. I never had one, so I don't know what they're called. no No, no, no, no. They were like fuzzy and they had the big eyes.
00:35:28
Speaker
Herbie? Herbies, yeah. She's like a lemur. She still exists. I always imagined... Herbies? Terrible. um I always imagined that Dot looked like a combination of Raggedy Ann and Rat Catcher.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, I can see. There's a lot of cloth going on, but there's also a lot of... lot of rat? lot of rat. so It's as if...
00:36:00
Speaker
ah Yeah, like a doll made by Bonesaw and the clothes designed by Bonesaw. You know. Yeah. yeah yeah Take a Rattata and put it in a dress and you've got.com.
00:36:14
Speaker
yeah As Jamie pointed out, Amy is putting off helping Dot's family in order to traumatize her sister again. So frustrating how much good Amy could do if she just wasn't messed up.
00:36:26
Speaker
I think about it, too. Like, if she could let, if she could truly let Victoria go, like, if she could truly just put Victoria out of her mind, stop thinking about everything that happened.
00:36:38
Speaker
Well, not stop thinking about it because she should carry that guilt around for the rest of her life. But the idea of being able to, like, I fucked up and I need to put it aside. i need to put her out of my mind because i will never see her again. And I will go out of my way.
00:36:51
Speaker
To not be around her because that's what she wants. And I can care for her by doing what she's asked of me. Which is to never see her again. And focus on what she can control. Which is working on herself and helping other people. And not zoning out in the middle of a freaking... Yeah. yeah Surgery. Like, what the hell? Like, here's what I was thinking with some of these surgery things.
00:37:17
Speaker
Like... ah Part of me wants to say, just own it. Like how many people look, I feel the thousand people this week. If three of them get fucked up, that's just the price of

Victoria's Psychological Struggles

00:37:30
Speaker
business. Like it's terrible, but think about how many surgeons, like how many surgeries they do.
00:37:38
Speaker
And like, you're still going to have some go wrong or something just like, and it look, you want super powered, you know, healing or whatever. There's look, you just got to know there's a 1% chance it doesn't work.
00:37:52
Speaker
yeah you know that it goesways It goes sideways. And is that due to operator error? Maybe. you just But maybe you just, like I said, own it. You're like, look, small percentage, it goes wrong.
00:38:04
Speaker
you know Otherwise, bet 99%. Do you want to die of smoke cancer? do you know Lung cancer? Do you want to give it the old Amy College try? you know Right. Slam a couple Red Bulls.
00:38:17
Speaker
but Yeah, girl. Gosh, focus up a little bit. Jeez Louise. She literally was building ear canals out the guy's f freaking head. So he's Swiss cheese in it all over here. And she's like, oh, I zoned out. Bitch, take a fucking nap.
00:38:33
Speaker
What are doing? Put some fucking classical music on in your ears. Get in the zone. Do your thing. And guess what?
00:38:45
Speaker
You're this. Oh, my God. she She should be learning from her dad. oh mad easy She should be learning from her dad. Look, I run a business here. You come to me. I do this thing. I'm not going to be helping everybody. Sometimes I go do my community service. Other times I'm doing plastic surgery type stuff.
00:39:05
Speaker
But I have a limited amount. I do that for however long I feel like it. And if I'm done feeling like it, I just leave. You just need to have that fuck off super villain energy and own it. yeah She would be a better person if she was a super villain.
00:39:20
Speaker
but Instead, she's just a shitty person. Yeah. Unfortunately. Because like you have other villains like Midas and all these other people. It's like, what do you do with your powers? I'm like, I make money off of this. I have a, you know, like I'm doing stuff. What do you do with yours?
00:39:40
Speaker
oh get obsessed with my sister. I said it before. I think I've literally said it about Amy before, probably a month or two ago. But there's that, there's that in my opinion, underused a character trope of like the eternal arc of redemption where you have a villain or someone who's just done wrong for so long and it's this isn't done enough. But where they are like, okay, well, I have to fix that.
00:40:07
Speaker
I've got to do good for the rest of my life. And even though it'll never be enough, they have to dedicate their life to like fixing their big mistake. and like Amy is perfectly poised for that character arc, but she's not going to go down it because she sucks. She doesn't even take the first step. No, that's what I was going to say. It's like, what can I do to fix this, Victoria?
00:40:32
Speaker
Dedicate your life to doing good and helping people. Impossible. yeah I don't know if I can do that. you know it's yeah it's the ah It's the sitcom character problem, right? Where if you've got characters in a sitcom, you can't truly have them grow and develop past their problems because then there's no longer any comedy for the sitcom. right And that's kind of where Amy is. is She's the perpetual...
00:40:55
Speaker
Like, oh no, i I can't become better. If I did, then what would Wild Bo write about? um yeah Also, for perception the the the meme that came to mind too in this was the, ah you guys know the Obama then perish meme?
00:41:13
Speaker
Where it's like the, ah it came from this old like, Yeah, it's it don't it's it's like this weird role-play text conversation. but Hey, I have to lift this up now. Yeah, yeah. But part of it at the end is basically like, is that you, Mr. Obama? Please help me. They're imagining they're like in a cave rising with water. They're like, Obama, I'll do anything if you save me. And Obama goes, anything? They're like, yes, anything. And Obama just replies, then perish. Yeah. Yeah. This is hilarious. Also, the whole thing, in the text thing, is all in the like, the uwu. Yeah. You're like, hello? Hello? Mr. Obama, please? Please? Oh, my God. God bless your soul.
00:42:01
Speaker
no. Oh, that's that's disgusting. But yes. easily But then Parish is actually hard line. It's like as a tree drag a low slow zooming in of like, there's this great picture of a bone just like... And it like slowly zooms into the eyes.
00:42:22
Speaker
It's such a banger line that came from such a terrible meme of the like, I do anything for you. Anything? Yes, anything. anything Then Parish. Then Parish. There's this a really good moment in in the conversation that I appreciate Wild Bo throwing in um because I think it helps because there's there's a point, even as even as a reader, as much as I was like, yes, Victoria, get it all out. Yes, tell her how she feels. There is a point at the end of the conversation as it approaches that where you're like,
00:42:51
Speaker
okay you know tone it back a little let's get some let's get some info out of this you know you've you've you've done well now let's move on and you kind of start you almost start to feel bad for amy which is good writing um there's that moment there where you do and then victoria feels her fingers and realizes that amy lied to her when she was like i just all i did was knock you out I've won too many fingernails. I

Attack by Teacher and Mixed Reactions

00:43:19
Speaker
don't think you did. And it's just that reminder that even at this most vulnerable moment, Amy's still a bastard who ah is going to lie to her. And it was a ah really good moment. I gotta ask.
00:43:31
Speaker
For her own good. yeah yeah anybody for one second think that maybe she didn't do a fucky-wucky? No!
00:43:43
Speaker
No! that she Oh, that she didn't do? no, no, no yeah. It's the sky blue. do dogs wag their tails? Oh, yeah I'm sorry, Vicky's passed out and Amy's not going to touch her?
00:43:56
Speaker
oh that's funny. and Again, more credit to Wild Bo. I think that's because of their almost conversation, you know, whatever it was, 10 arcs ago, when Victoria catches Amy, like, trying to touch her when they're, like, walking back the other... Because, like, imagine this is the first time in Ward they've spoken that we've had. if She tries to... yeah you might You might be more sympathetic as a reader to, like, okay, we'll hear her out, Victoria. Let's see where this goes. But because of that interaction earlier, you're just like, mm, don't trust her. The goddamn floorboards. It was, like, a whole thing. yeah
00:44:32
Speaker
i There's a there it's in ah the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, there's like this really cute scene where Mr. Bingley's following Jane around and she's like, they're like walking through a ball and he like reaches out. He's like walking right behind her and he just like slowly touches the ribbon that's like on the back of her dress. And it's this very cute moment because like men and women don't touch. And it's like the whole like very ah little women like he has your glove, like this very like cutesy sweet moment of like he can't hold her hand. He can't touch her. But like he just touches the light silk of her dress. and it's like this sweet little moment. iss very cute.
00:45:07
Speaker
I imagine Amy's like trying to have that moment where she's like, I'm just going to like fix her little fingernail really quick. And I'm just going to like brush the hair off her face while she sleeps. She's so peaceful. Wow. My gosh. And meanwhile, like everyone, it's like in Amy's mind, right? It's like this beautiful rosy moment. And then in like actual reality, everyone's like,
00:45:30
Speaker
because Meanwhile, everyone else in the room... um you Yeah. Yeah, just like, that rag! And it it is you're right, I agree with you, Jacob, it is good writing, because they're There does come that point where you... I at least felt some sympathy for Amy.
00:45:47
Speaker
in ah Near the end of the conversation. Because it was like... You could tell she was like, wait. I was supposed to tell you important things. i I... Like, yes, I care about our relationship. But also there's more to this. And just the... I don't know. You almost feel like... Yeah, that... i don't know. Like, I just... I can understand...
00:46:12
Speaker
If you had the power to cure every disease and every sick person, and it was just a matter of your time and ability to do so, like, that's... That is a
00:46:30
Speaker
yeah that is a big burden. But... Yeah. ah Like Alan said, if she were a villain who did good things on the side... And just, like, had a, you know what? I don't have time to heal you today.
00:46:42
Speaker
Sorry, my eight-hour shift is up. I'm done. You came at 8.01. Like, that she would be a better person, unironically. um Yeah. J-Man also commented, Amy casually mentioning she mentally blocked the sexual assault despite claiming Victoria would have all her memories, too. Yeah, like, just the the problem is the layers, right? Where it gets to that, like, well...
00:47:06
Speaker
you know that person who you you catch them in one line and then it all starts to unravel um like well it it was a little bit worse than i i said it was or you know it's yeah very well written definitely a yeah it's it's as compelling as any any good fight that he's had oh yeah in his oh yeah yeah in any of his stories like it's very well written It's... ah Honestly, i i You know, I hate Amy.
00:47:35
Speaker
I hate Amy. We all know this. I... Loved these chapters. Because I felt like I really needed... Needed it? I needed it? I needed a little bit of the... i don't know. I just... needed... Her to get it through her skull. And I needed this conversation. And, like... For the important information also. But, like...
00:48:00
Speaker
I... Yeah. Especially after the conversation with Carol. I really feel like we needed a conversation with the two of them. and so starting things out like that was... Yeah.
00:48:15
Speaker
i I want to know what she said to Mark and Carol that made them so aware of how off she was. Same. My only guess is that the whole time she's healing her, she's like, so how's Victoria doing?
00:48:30
Speaker
Like basically the whole time. And that's the only thing I can think of that would make them be like, oh, I think she's got it. like Or my conspiracy is true. And they and this we're actually following a Victoria clone. And Amy's got Victoria still in a still in a in a cocoon sack. And she's too afraid to fix her. And we've been following the clone around.
00:48:51
Speaker
that's That's my whole conspiracy. Wait, have you told us this theory before? I feel like I did, but maybe he did that's I do not remember that. but I have no memory of that. That's fantastic. that's my whole yeah Okay, Amy blocked it from my mind.
00:49:04
Speaker
Oh, no. That's my... There's no way this is true because of I know the discourse around Ward isn't too positive and I feel like that'd be too good if they went down road. It feels like it would be something that would piss a lot of people off. It's true also. It it could be that it would piss a lot of people off. Either way. Yeah. No, I feel like um but just as a future prediction, I kind of feel like we're headed towards a Devilman Crybaby type ending. Yeah.
00:49:35
Speaker
Just as a... Basically where Devil May Cry Baby... Well, I don't know. guess that's a spoiler for how it ends if you haven't seen it. Oh, um theyre my later Tell me later. yeah I won't spoil that if you haven't seen it. It's a phenomenal show you maybe should watch once if you can handle psychological trauma, but it's very fascinating. I read work twice. What do you mean psychological trauma? Come on. Bring it. I would say...
00:50:03
Speaker
there To me, at least, there's a difference between reading Worm and watching Worm. True. And Devil May Cry Baby's a lot closer to watching Worm. Yeah. maybe i baby yeah So, but anyways.
00:50:18
Speaker
Have you not seen a Hannah? I don't... I probably have. Y'all know I have the brain of the... At least the first, like, half of the first episode. Because I've shown that opening. yeah that's very accurate, probably. I don't know, man. Alan and I regularly have conversations where someone's like, oh, yeah, because blah, blah, blah, movie or TV show or whatever. And I'm like, oh I've never seen that. And Alan's like, we should have story.
00:50:47
Speaker
like three months ago and I'm like I have no memory of it don't ask Hannah if she's seen it ask Ellen if Hannah's seen it ah yeah basically as she said here's what's so great about that is that i can re-watch stuff and i do regularly this is how i can re-watch criminal minds over and over and over again and literally ever a bunch of other stuff too and not get bored because i forget shit every time either have it memorized or i've forgotten half the plot so i'm never bored

Minor Characters and Narrative Tension

00:51:19
Speaker
oh you know i will say that was that was the fun of re-watching avatar with my son because i got to see all these parts again i was like oh yeah so that's great good time that's awesome anyways um wild bow did do something that i wasn't a huge fan of but i think he made up for it um by the end, because ah we do find out the attack on a Teacher has attacked the Warden, so we know the attack on Teacher is kind of happening. Yeah. um
00:51:54
Speaker
Which I was kind of disappointed they weren't there for the beginning. He makes up for it later by saying they're they're leaving the prison to like join the fight and it's not going well. So, yeah you know, i'm I'm happy with that.
00:52:05
Speaker
I'm like, okay, okay at least we're we're going to get into the action, right? We don't have to have three chapters of them talking about how they're going to walk into teacher's base only for it to not go the way they planned anyway. Just shoot them straight out of the cannon into the action.
00:52:20
Speaker
Straight out of the cannon. Yeah, i it's Yeah, that they that will be that'll be a nice change of pace. ah These chapters do feel, at least the first couple of these chapters, like this really feels like it it isolates...
00:52:34
Speaker
for For me, a lot of a lot of what worm has or Ward has been lacking compared to Worm, which was that sort of central conflict. like The central conflict of Ward feels like Victoria and Amy.
00:52:44
Speaker
And I feel like that should have been the running conflict this whole time, to some degree. Or at least a much larger part of the story than what we've been getting. Because like this bit is so good. The bit where they interacted like a few arcs ago was so good. like All of that stuff was has been the best that Ward has been.
00:53:03
Speaker
and it's And it feels like we're going to leave this. And yeah, the teacher stuff is is kind of interesting, but I know it's not going to be as good as what we're reading. No, I shouldn't say I know. But, you know, it feels like we're we're definitely going to get into something that's not as interesting. So I'm hoping that there's more, and I'm sure there will be. But I'm i'm excited to get back to the Amy stuff at some point.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's felt like... I feel like one of my biggest frustrations with Ward has very similarly been that like in Wyrm, Taylor was at the center of everything. She was at every Endbringer fight. She was because she had Tattletail and because she was a major villain and basically controlled parts of the city. Like she she had her fingers directly on the pulse. She was at the center of everything that was happening. and therefore was putting together the pieces is because she was at, you know, the secret cauldron meetings, and she was at, you know, all this different stuff. And Victoria in Ward has not been. Like, she's, we're finding things out much later, or we're dealing with the aftermath, or we're seeing the results of and And this feels like we're finally at the front of something. Like, we're ahead of the action so that when it hits us, it's like a wave, and we're you know we ride it through the next couple of arcs and i i am i i don't like the teacher stuff i find it very boring and i feel like obviously we've been leading up to all the teacher stuff and i'm very annoyed about that but whatever and like the the the fact that we're finally here when everything's going down with shin and oh and then oh and then also don't forget the wardens and teacher and you're like
00:54:41
Speaker
okay Okay, I know we're to have to deal with this, so like, alright. But I'm going to enjoy the fact that we're in prison for now. Because that seems way more the forefront of problems that are going to impact everyone else rather than whatever teacher bullshit, I guess, is important. I don't... I can't be paid to give a fuck. I don't care, honestly, if teacher takes over the world. Okay, fine, whatever.
00:55:08
Speaker
ish that would have been an interesting time jump, right? It's like two years after Gold Morning, the the story starts and teacher is just in charge and yeah of everything. that would have been That would have been interesting.
00:55:21
Speaker
Kind of follow it from that point. I would have cared probably. No, that's that's well said. I agree. I think, yeah, that and it's difficult, right? I i can't i i don't even know how how i would try to write a giant world in which my characters weren't the main focus and or like the main you know player in the world. And like Worm does that. like Taylor doesn't feel like she's the main player in the world, but yet...
00:55:46
Speaker
Like you said, she she makes herself the main player. Yes. She earns that climax and conclusion of the story where she's the savior. um and And Ward has has been lacking that for sure. That's that's a really interesting observation.
00:56:04
Speaker
Because it sounds good on paper, right? It sounds cool. Like, okay, have this really expansive world. Like, hey, let's, you know, tell Lord of the Rings, but from a couple of the guards and in Minas Tirith, you know?
00:56:17
Speaker
And it's like, okay, that's kind cool. It's a fun idea. a million words later, it's going to get kind of rough. You'll be like, all right, let's let's get to the battle, you know? um And it does feel, war does have a little bit of that at times where it's just like...
00:56:32
Speaker
But what if we were where all the cool stuff was happening? um What if we were following the ring, actually? See, we have... There's... you know I'll reference back to Tag and Bank, ah the Star Wars comic series, um I want to say by Dark Horse, that follows two goofy guys that just play the two background characters in every scene in the Star Wars movies.
00:56:56
Speaker
um And they have a whole plot... And they are not the main characters, you know, obviously of the story. They're not a Skywalker. However, they are always there.
00:57:09
Speaker
They, in fact, cause things to happen that do happen in the main story. So you're constantly tying back to that. And I don't feel like in Ward specifically, like that has, like we're not, there's not enough of that.

Armstrong as a Father Figure

00:57:26
Speaker
In Wyrm, at least you like don't know about things going on out in the wider world. So Taylor is worried about her own stuff. in So that's what matters the most. But here we know that things are going on, like the Machine Army.
00:57:41
Speaker
And... We have yet to... Never going to get to run into that. so Oh, boy. That's the last line of word. That's how it ends.
00:57:52
Speaker
And the machine army... And then the machine army arrives. Somehow the machine army... They're still out there. is still out there plotting. That's even worse. Oh, gosh.
00:58:06
Speaker
Lord have mercy. ah Shall we? Yes. One hour in. One hour in and we've got two chapters. To be fair, and those were the two big chapters. The important ones. of yeah Yeah. For sure. money Well, I won't say these will go quick, but I don't have as much to say about these. Yeah, I have no notes for the next 1411. Victoria visits Sveta in her, in her cell and talks about other asylum inhabitants and relationships.
00:58:40
Speaker
The group learns about an assassination plot against Armstrong and makes a deal with another group of prisoners to cause a distraction. Before I forget,
00:58:53
Speaker
I can't remember if it's this chapter or the next one. There was a ah neat bit of world building that I don't remember being referenced in Worm or anywhere else. um But they mentioned that powers don't work in space because... Yeah.
00:59:08
Speaker
Gravity. Yeah. Because the passengers are tied to like the planet. Yeah. to the planet Yeah. Which i was like, whoa. That's cool. That's cool. That's so fun. Yeah.
00:59:20
Speaker
I love that. Yeah. but The whole thing about like what's his face when he was building the base for the moon, he had to build it in parts on planet it Earth and then ship it up because his powers didn't work on the moon. Yeah.
00:59:31
Speaker
I love that. That's so freaking cool. Which is very interesting because, right, it it doesn't work in space, but it works interdimensionally. Right. Yes. It's kind of fascinating how how it works that way where it's like, oh, it you can't go to the moon, but you can go to a different parallel Earth. It's kind of this very, like... It's so fun. It really is like if you had, like, a stack of five papers with a circle drawn on it, the shards have, like, stabbed through all five of those circles, but nothing outside of that, right? Right. That interdimensional kind of tunnel there, yeah. I think that's in 1412, and Chris is talking about making a civilization off of Earth, but...
01:00:13
Speaker
yeah right right creat creating people to live in space and to survive the environment of space which is also wild kind of fun to imagine very cool 1411 I did like the beginning Victorian Sveta it felt like the right length for the conversation too for once where it was like this didn't go on too long but them just kind of taking some time to reminisce about the asylum and other people they knew and like what's going on yeah um And then, of course, oh, man, speaking of, like, characters, I never realized how much I cared about um Armstrong until they're like, oh, they're going to frame us for killing Armstrong. I'm like, well, no! Not Daddy Armstrong.
01:00:52
Speaker
Not this man we've never actually met. just Yeah, we've never... He's only been talked about or... but Maybe he was in one scene in Wyrm. I don't know. But either way. you said Yeah. And he's been referenced so fondly as such a father figure for Sveta and Weld. And Ashley is like this guy who's just kind of taken people under his wing who are...
01:01:15
Speaker
looked down upon or, you know, who just need a father figure and he stepped in. And, like, the fact that he's coming Sveta, basically, and, like, ah like I know it was organized and planned, whatever, but, like, I i do love that. It's like, and, ah gosh, yeah, no, we'll get to Z later, but I love that man.
01:01:35
Speaker
yeah Bless him. Bless him! Yeah, yeah, I mean, oh man, yeah, the just... The utter antithesis to someone like Gary Nieves, right? Where it's like... Yeah. Just willing to understand people. I mean, we'll get to his interlude later, where he is, like, literally sympathizing with the person trying to assassinate him. And it's so beautiful. But yeah, just... I didn't realize how much... He's one of those characters where you're like, oh my gosh, I... no way, like, not Armstrong.
01:02:09
Speaker
Like, in terms of, like, really minor characters, right? Like, when Vista fake died, that was a big deal, because we've known Vista, we care about her, right? ah When, you know, like, there's a bunch of stuff like that that's happened, but with, it was just funny, because he is such a minor, minor character to be like, no! not Wow, took the last character that was just so pure and just so beloved. Exactly, it's like,
01:02:36
Speaker
Must be protected at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah Yeah, like there are very few of those, right? Where it's like him, it's ah ah Mr. Kaye, the lawyer. Yes, oh my god. It used to be Miss Yamada, but... Yeah, ya like yam butda pre-ward we might free ward you yeah free war Yamada Yamada.
01:02:59
Speaker
This is why you don't put your heroes on a pedestal, because then they can fall so far. yeah Who else would you put in that category? i think like yeah Minor, minor characters.
01:03:10
Speaker
Danny is more significant, though, than than those characters, I'd say. um to fair We've seen Armstrong approximately one time.
01:03:22
Speaker
i think so. he was one He met with Taylor once, right? That is right. He was on the board determining whether or not yeah Taylor would... would would go to back to prison or become a Chicago ward.
01:03:38
Speaker
A ward, yeah. Right. Yeah. um And I think he, of course, he was one of the people that like, yeah, we could give her a shot. yeah Give her another chance. Yeah.
01:03:49
Speaker
The people that we've said, by the way, so far, every single one of them has been unpowered. yeah Yeah, exactly. I think that's part of what makes them endearing, right? Is they feel more vulnerable, maybe? Coils sniper.
01:04:02
Speaker
They're putting themselves on the front line knowing that they have no magical defenses. I think that's what it is. that like You're willing to put yourself out there and like stand on principle for the things that you believe, even though you have no powers to back it up. Yeah.
01:04:16
Speaker
the right on Right on. Jacob, I'm just imagining you as the Darth Vader meme. It's like post-Gold Morning. It's like, where is Coil Sniper? Is he alive? Is he safe? Is he safe? i just need to know. he's safe He's got to be somewhere on his next assignment. I'll be kidding. Let's be honest.
01:04:35
Speaker
Exactly. Oh my gosh. Do we need a t-shirt that says Coil Sniper shot first? yeah That's good. i like that. Maybe.
01:04:48
Speaker
I don't know. The word sniper and shot on a t-shirt. I don't know if I want to wear that. Not great. We'll workshop it. It's a good idea, though. We'll workshop that one.
01:05:00
Speaker
ah Yeah, this day and age, it's perhaps not the best thing. yeah I feel like there's like a like an image issue issue you may be but it's our yeah' maybe. Yeah, yeah. Snipers on roofs are sensitive subjects nowadays. Understandable. These are dark times. i yeah know I am trying to think, though, of who else would be in that category, right? Like of really minor characters who we've really enjoyed for whatever reason and, you know, would be heartbroken if something terrible happened to them.
01:05:36
Speaker
Yeah. um There really aren't many others. I mean, that i think of Powered, you could you could throw in a few capes. Like, I mean, we really have seen Narwhal for all of like half a chapter. Yeah.
01:05:49
Speaker
Yeah. Characters like Narwhal. I would say like, ah yeah, Valkyrie is another one. um Valkyrie I think the unpowered though the unpowered are the interesting ones where it's like yeah yeah i mean Natalie yeah we've seen a lot of Natalie or um what's some i always forget her name i mean laser dream her off screen boyfriend who's ah what's what's Crystal Crystal yeah the cousin yeah the cousin it's such super girl lives
01:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, like, Sierra, Charlotte, and Forrest. Yeah, Sierra, Charlotte, Forrest are definitely... Oh, yes. bla Like, again, we we haven't seen, like, any of them in Ward, but if we found out, like, oh, no, something happened to Charlotte and Forrest, I'd be like... Oh, I'd be so sad. Yeah, exactly. no no No, no, no, no, no. I mean, yeah. ah Natalie, if anything happened to Natalie, I would be really upset, especially after the chapter with her and...
01:06:48
Speaker
Kenzie holding off the punks. Yeah, yeah,

Prison Dynamics and Escape Plans

01:06:52
Speaker
yeah. Natalie earned her stripes after that one. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we'll get to some Natalie. She's got a boo thang. She's got a boo thang. Gotta protect her and her boo thang.
01:07:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, well, um I do like they make a deal with the group of prisoners be like,
01:07:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I did just watch Avatar, so the scene comes up where they're like, we need to start a prison riot. And he goes up to the guy and he's like, how do you start a prison riot? He's like, oh, I'll show you a prison riot. And he just picks up a guy and goes, riot. Amazing. Amazing. Now, what does he what does he say?
01:07:39
Speaker
they're they're talking about Is it here that he's asking him about like different different groups of people? And he's like, oh yes, they fuck dogs. We we will go for them. It's like, it's probably an idiom. and that He's like, no they fuck dogs. Oh, maybe not. i don't know. Some weirdness. Maybe not. Would you like to know?
01:08:02
Speaker
Maybe not. Oh my gosh. yeah Rachel would be unhappy. Oh, Barry. She'd have words. So many words. She wouldn't have words. She wouldn't have words.
01:08:19
Speaker
as She would have words for her dogs, and those words would be like attack. and Attack, bite, hold, rip. Yeah. Play. All right. right Thank you, Rachel. I miss Rachel. We need more Rachel.
01:08:34
Speaker
I know. I was just thinking it. Every time we have any of the Underciders on screen, I'm like... Finally! We're sad to tell during a diplomatic talk when you need her. Golly, where he? The Kylo Ren meme that's just the more. paul Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:08:54
Speaker
You know, we just, you know, we got Imp, we've got Tattletail, we've had Rachel, and you know, Hannah, I know you're looking forward to seeing Gru again. like... Listen! Listen! He's back from that cabin. He's back from that cabin. He's been having a trip.
01:09:11
Speaker
Oh my gosh. He's roasting marshmallows. He's having a grand old time. I don't want to talk about it. hey i mean you know There's got to be an alternate earth crew out there somewhere. There you go. That's true. He's in a cabin. I'm damned on this. with Another great t-shirt.
01:09:29
Speaker
still at the cabin oh oh um jayman did mention as an aside very excited for the avatar fighting game it's only 30 i didn't know it was only 30 that is exciting and uh yes i i too am excited oh that's a hard question jayman uh what characters would y'all want in a worm ward fighting game Oh my gosh. Can we just do the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Everybody's Here, where it's like a thousand characters?
01:10:00
Speaker
No, we can... You know what? Maybe if we have time, we can save that for the end. Or we could even talk about... Maybe that could be a Patreon thing, too, at some point. That would be a great Patreon. Actually, as a great question, how would you translate Worm Ward into other...
01:10:17
Speaker
yeah like media forms besides movies, so like a fighting game would be great. um I've tried to conceptualize like custom magic cards for warm characters.
01:10:28
Speaker
um one You know, stuff like that. yeah a You fucking nerd! It's true, what can I say? Golem would be great in a fighting game. Anyways, getting off topic. yeah they revisit the yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great.
01:10:48
Speaker
Top would definitely be Narwhal, because you know she'd have that annoying ranged attack where she just throws it all over. I was just about to gotta have Narwhal in the lineup. The tiniest chip damage, but stuns you just enough so you can't move for a second, and she's just like, cat, cat, cat, the whole time. just imagining a ah I'm just imagining like a perdition ability that just sets your character back to where they were. and the Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they just spamming that over and over again. That'd great. It doesn't do any damage, it just keeps moving you back. just hits them back, yeah. you Yeah. Yeah. That's great.
01:11:17
Speaker
yeah yeah that's great Oh, man. A worm worm fighting game would go hard.

Chris's Confrontational Role and Development

01:11:23
Speaker
yeah Anyway, I could think about that for way too long. Alright. Anything else on 1411? We ready to go to 1412, the run from Chris?
01:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, 1412. I got some Chris thoughts. 1412. The team runs from Chris and tries to stop Armstrong from being killed.
01:11:41
Speaker
Chris catches up and is a jerk to everyone. The group beats up Cole Belcher and Cryptid. Chris lies to the guards. um a I do go ahead good no' no you go ahead I was just going to say I do love the plan where they're like we can't get to Armstrong directly there's too much in the way what can we do to save him and I love that the best they can come up with is we can send him a text and let him know it's coming and hope that's enough don't know
01:12:14
Speaker
and ah no I was very scared for him, honestly. I was yeah oh yeah very scared for Armstrong. This is the best you guys can come up with. us one the sex Once the interlude started and it was like it was Armstrong, I was like, oh, we're getting his last moments. We got an interlude. was three days away from retiring. Damn he was like while i was away from retiring exactly yeah me though there's a um There's a really stupid thing here.
01:12:47
Speaker
So one of my favorite little subgenres of nitpicky critical media analysis is when you like hone in on something really, really stupid from like a production standpoint. it's like For example, at the end of ah Rogue One, right the great Vader hallway scene, ah Vader comes clean out of the darkness. His his chest lights are off.
01:13:10
Speaker
But that's his life support system. Which means that he shut off his life support system just to be extra intimidating in that scene. Like, it's great. It's great. Just the aura farm? Yeah, just to... like We love that. Sometimes you hold your breath when you're hiding behind the door and then, you know...
01:13:28
Speaker
exactly it's great so in i in the same way there's a moment in the fight with with chris where victoria mentions he's like uh because he's obviously he's injecting himself and all this kind of stuff he's like i heard another syringe hit flesh uh as i forget what the thing went on and i thought to myself so syringes don't make a sound when they hit flesh like they do in cartoons, but not in real life.
01:13:56
Speaker
Like it's a, it's just a, it's a syringe. So that means that Chris specifically engineered his syringes with the cartoonish ability to make the sound of of a syringe hitting flesh just for the aura of it. I would, I would love to, I'm going to do this as close to the mic as I possibly can. This is a pin cushion filled with beans. So it will be louder.
01:14:22
Speaker
And this will be a pin. Okay.
01:14:29
Speaker
Nothing. No? I think it's more so... Did they say the syringe hitting flesh or the syringe like injecting? Either way, tell me what part of the process makes a sound. i think You know what I think it is? is it It's like those steampunk devices. It's more like the sound of it, like like the like a like an pneumatic pump.
01:14:50
Speaker
It's the thing forcing the syringe like to... So it's yeah this pump back here, not the syringe entering, not the plunger going down. It's the mechanical part that pushes the plunger. is So he's got one of the one of the ah Mission Impossible 2, the virus guns, right? little dot like The little pop syringe guns. Is what it is? It could be pneumatic, in which case you would hear the like... He's got like a hydraulic press. case or Not hydraulic press, but like he's got like a hydraulic pump. He's got an air gun. He's got like a... yeah she's just like yeah yeah
01:15:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah ho guy exactly exactly. Yeah, if he goes in instantaneously and like fires the whole dosage right away, then it would be like a it would be like a nail gun, like a... drunkk yeah But if it was like a slow push, like you should be doing a syringe, then it would be like a... Probably like an... er DW40, if it's that goddamn loud. No, that's just the sound of the the electrical motor pushing the hydraulic fluid to push inwards. I prefer the tinker syringe.
01:16:12
Speaker
i prefer nope because i mean we' tinker syringe It's a tinker syringe that he engineered to make sounds. Because remember, the whole point with Chris is that he was hiding all of that initially.
01:16:23
Speaker
And he didn't know that he was just injecting himself. So we knew it we could be silent. But now he's made it loud. He's made it loud on purpose. Made it loud on purpose. I love it.
01:16:35
Speaker
Oh, gosh. What a fun little fight. I do... Yeah. I... ball chris ga Chris. She's Louise. I feel like Chris is like such the classic like kid who thinks they're an adult and they've got all like the cocky ego of a stupid fucking kid who's not an adult.
01:16:59
Speaker
And like technically he is an adult and yet still has all the cockiness of a dumb teenager. A dumb teenage boy I'll even say. Sorry.
01:17:13
Speaker
Uh, just, like, the stupid, I can't, like, oh my god. he And he's he's so mouthy, too. Like, he makes me so mad. He's just such a dumb kid. Like, ugh. Ugh.
01:17:26
Speaker
He's definitionally a teenage dirtbag, but he has like good grades. Yeah, right. He's really good at science. and like Why are you smoking cigarettes? Because you told me not to?
01:17:38
Speaker
yeah yeah Chris, if you would just not smoke cigarettes, you'd be valid Victorian. Yeah, and like but like his and his whole thing with Ashley, he's like, ah i figured you out. like You're just such hypocrites. What?
01:17:54
Speaker
Stupid boy. Like, what are you talking about? He's like, figured you out. And like, you're just afraid. Like, you're just pretending. What does he say to her? What's the word? You could pick one word to describe. yeah. You could pick one word to describe. If you were one kitchen instrument, what would you be like? If you were kitchen utensil, what would you call it? To be I think he calls it.
01:18:20
Speaker
I think he nails it. However, he forgot the the like the golden rule when it comes to like calling people out. It's who the fuck cares?
01:18:31
Speaker
yeah Yes. If you could describe Ashley in one word that isn't just theater kid with explosives, it is facade. She's the whole whole personality is like all a facade.
01:18:46
Speaker
Yeah. Which is could be accurate. But who fucking cares? Right. He's like, he's so smug.
01:18:57
Speaker
Like, dude, you're not that cool. Please stop. Golly. You're not like oh rain cool. Yeah, you're not like rain. Ain't nobody got like it down like you nobody got the ripped like rain oh Alright, that's it, folks. Good night. Good night. I will say the whole thing, kind of said this earlier, but the whole thing with them like trying to figure out where what they're going to do, they're like, we can go talk to him.
01:19:33
Speaker
ah We can go talk to, oh my god.

Plan to Retrieve Kenzie's Phone

01:19:38
Speaker
Armstrong? Yes, thank you. We can go talk to Armstrong. And they're like, no, no, no, no. no no no This is what we're going to do.
01:19:45
Speaker
We're going to go to storage. We're going to go all the way to the basement, fucking storage. And we're going to dig through until we find Kenzie's cell phone. Then we're going to take Kenzie's cell phone and we're going to go all the way back. Like, I can't. And they stand there talking about it for what seems like impossibly long.
01:20:06
Speaker
Like, they they discuss it for a significant amount of time that makes me wonder why they haven't been caught already. Like, I know that Vicky has her cool eye thing so she can kind of see the cameras and through the walls and stuff. But, like...
01:20:20
Speaker
they They talk about, please stop talking about the plan. Please stop talking about this terrible, terrible plan. Please do it and and and and be going, this is so fucking stupid. This is so fucking stupid. And have somebody else go, it's going to work. It's going to work. Don't have a, don't talk about it on page. I don't need you to talk about it. It's so stupid. It's such a stupid plan.
01:20:46
Speaker
I it's so dumb. I mean, it works. It does end up working. But I... We're going to all the way downstairs. We're going to come all the way back. Oh, my God. Please, please.
01:21:00
Speaker
ah You know, funny i think I think this comes with just because his brain is always working on large systems that sometimes Wild Boat forgets that simple things can happen.
01:21:16
Speaker
I go all the way back to like the plot with the mayor and coil and all that. oh like Yeah. Yeah. Why? Why is so much going on? Like, and it really didn't need to be. And this is one of those times where, like, what if they just didn't?
01:21:35
Speaker
Yeah. What if they just ah saved him? Yeah. Like, so what if they find out it was you? Like, come on. But... Whatever. Yeah, who knows? Yeah, on the plus side, though, it does allow for this confrontation with Chris and for Chris to insult Cole Belcher by calling him fat and slow. Also, by the way, Victoria says he's like 250 pounds. Like, what?
01:22:01
Speaker
victoria says he's like two hundred and fifty pounds like A bold statement for someone who's 250 pounds. I'm 220 pounds or 15. Like, come on. that's not That's not that big of a deal, man. Oh, no. 250 pounds. He can't run. Like, stop, please. Come on, man.
01:22:21
Speaker
i mean, it is funny, actually. Now that you mentioned that, how tall is Cole Belcher? Because if he's meant to be like a big guy, Like tall wise? Then he's fucking proportional. Then he's probably a normal dude. He's a normal man. Is this where we discover... If he's 16, he's actually skinny. Wildbo has no concept of human proportions and what normal... You know, listen, we've talked about the whole thing. It's been brought up before. Yeah. Okay, he is relatively short.
01:22:56
Speaker
Quote, unquote. Relatively short. So he's a short king. But with fire powers. Yeah. Stabby baby. Yeah. yeah Okay. Well, that makes more sense. She does say 250 pounds minimum.
01:23:12
Speaker
And he's peritarian short and heavyset. So maybe Victoria's just really bad at gauging. Yeah, that's the other option. I think we've just discussed it before about Colton.
01:23:27
Speaker
yeah There's some judgy language in regards to people's appearances that gets thrown around quite a bit, and this is one of those times. Yeah. money no Oh, man. really Really channeling your mean girl there, John.
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, for real. Damn, John. Let's say you can get it you can get away with it in the and the first person POV then. because by No, no, no, it's not exactly thought me. It's just the character. It's Krypton. Krypton's an asshole. Yeah. Victoria doesn't understand how things work. I don't know about that. yeah yeah oh Exactly. Listen, Victoria's only ever dated a twink. We know this to be true. That is no confirmed to what men's sizes are. Yeah.
01:24:08
Speaker
valid. Oh my gosh. We know that ah twinks are her type. Yes. point It's true. It's true. Oh man.
01:24:19
Speaker
ah Anyways. um ors yeah they they ah They do convince Chris to lie to the guards for them where they're just like, like Chris, just stop. Just let us do let us do this thing. And he's like, fine. Yeah.
01:24:34
Speaker
yeah I think I must have missed it. Why does he agree? i think I must have missed it. a reasoning here. Like, why he's like, cool, yeah, no, I'll lie to the guards.
01:24:46
Speaker
It's fine. Off you go. I mean, he doesn't really care about Shin, you know. mean, he talks about, like, oh, I get to have my own i have a fucking island or whatever. Yeah.
01:25:00
Speaker
like I get the sense, I kind of got this, maybe this was just me reading into the text, but I kind of got the sense that Chris doesn't, like he's saying that to to try to make himself sound impressive to everybody, but like Shin feels like an awful place to live if you're a parahuman right now.
01:25:17
Speaker
And I imagine he's under constant surveillance. You know, it's it's very, you know, house arrest-ish. Yeah, the thing he hated so much about being back on.
01:25:29
Speaker
Exactly. Planets. So I kind of got the sense that, you know, maybe he kind of enjoyed the fight a little bit and yeah was like, you know, all right, you beat me.
01:25:40
Speaker
Here, I'll give you this. trying to... I know he says something about the like, well, if I cared, like basically like, if I cared at all, I would, you know, fight to keep you guys here, but I don't care. no skin off my nose. Kind of vibes. Right.
01:25:58
Speaker
That was such a deep sigh, Alan. Oh my God. I just, I saw Bunty right in the corner here. She's such a sweet bean. Oh my gosh, look at her. yeah so how agreeable yeah I was trying to remember as well, Hannah, how they convinced him. So i was looking back at 1412 and
01:26:14
Speaker
basically they convince him of like prove you don't care by my god but by not ratting us out. sure yeah Because she's like and if you like listen like you say yeah that you don't forget about us you don't care about and about Shen but here you are trying to screw with us and trying to stop us doing something.
01:26:38
Speaker
Seems like you kind of care. yeah and if if you don't care then just let us go. um they're also They're also threatening his life at the same time. They're also threatening his life at the same time. So they're like, we can kill you or you can just not care. Like you say you don't.
01:26:54
Speaker
And he's like, fine, whatever. I guess I don't care. Off you go. you know Yeah. Yeah, they they reverse psychology. Oh, God. That's hilarious.

Complexity in Contacting Dragon

01:27:04
Speaker
You know what? Look, we we do love it when reverse psychology works at least once.
01:27:08
Speaker
wo You know? And also, he kind of has been, because it's... I'm drawing a blank on the on the chapter. Because it's Ashley that's like, I'll kill you, right? Yeah. or is And he was kind of gone for her little redemption-ish arc.
01:27:25
Speaker
so yeah No, he he was there for that. was it okay because that he was long He was there through the Fallen fight, through the post-trial stuff. and up after He was, right you're right. He saw that. okay um yeah my Which is why I think he's calling her bluff. He's like, you don't have it in you to kill me. yeah you're right.
01:27:42
Speaker
You killed Bob, but you... Please. Come on, anyone would have killed Bob. Everyone would have killed Bob. God, what a dick.
01:27:54
Speaker
yeah what a dick That's funny.
01:28:00
Speaker
But yeah. see He lets them send their text. You're right, Hannah. The more I think about it, the more it is kind of a dumb plan. But it's very funny. It's such a dumb plan. The whole thing is a dumb plan. It's so convoluted.
01:28:17
Speaker
it's It's like the most complicated things that we could do. Okay, so... Okay. it's So... They, so, Kenzie's tapped in with the the heartbroken children.
01:28:34
Speaker
So she can, they're communicating back and forth this whole time, right?
01:28:40
Speaker
So why why can't we text him from outside? And he makes the thing of like, in his, in his interlude, he's like, oh, I thought I put that on airplane mode. That's really weird.
01:28:53
Speaker
Kenzie's obviously a brilliant hacker. Dragon exists. Yeah. oh Oh, my gosh, Alan! What the fuck? He's digging his claws into my leg this whole time. Okay, that was unnecessary. Jesus.
01:29:14
Speaker
I guess I'm going to put on the bingo. Somebody just gets a bingo there. Yeah, that's definitely... He just got yeeted through air. you Oh, my gosh. Uh...
01:29:27
Speaker
I forgot what I'm saying. we're talking about Kenzie. Yeah, you're right. I mean, they could have easily just bounced it back and Kenzie could have done it. Yeah, they didn't need to go through this whole thing.
01:29:39
Speaker
it feels like we're tapped into their security. We're tapped in that stuff. We have communication with the outside world. we we could We didn't need to go through all of that. Just go like, hey, we need to, this is like high priority. Get in touch with Drago right now. You need to get a message to his phone, even though it's on airplane mode.
01:30:02
Speaker
We need to do this now. And Drago could have figured it out. And it this whole, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
01:30:14
Speaker
Onto the interlude. Onto the interlude.
01:30:20
Speaker
Nick, you want to do the honors? Yes, indeed. On to the interlude.

Armstrong's Negotiation Skills

01:30:25
Speaker
ah Armstrong has a conversation with Natalie, is escorted into the prison by Chris and Kroc, and reveals that he's been recording. Sveta pulls him out of the line of fire, and Armstrong gets the group out of the prison.
01:30:44
Speaker
yeah oh, man. What a What a guy. What a baller. What an absolute dad. Did any of us guess? Because I know we always try to guess who the interludes are going to be. I don't think any of us said Armstrong. Definitely not. Did even know he was coming until later this arc? No.
01:31:02
Speaker
no the trying and had know We know he was going to be around. say and no way we would have guessed that. We didn't even know until 14.10 14.11 maybe? and or fourteen point eleven maybe I thought it was 14.9. I think Citrine mentions it in 14.9. Yeah. What a man. I love how competent he
01:31:23
Speaker
yeah yeah um but a man i love i love how competent he is you know You know, we talk a lot about how some of some of Worm's, this world's strength is just when people are really damn good at their job and what they do.
01:31:41
Speaker
And like Armstrong is the epitome of that, i feel like. Like his ability just in talking with the crock of shit uh, being able to like figure her out and what her power is and like how to navigate it and just gets in the conversation, like how ah her ah truth, uh, detector kind of works yeah and all that kind of stuff. Like he's just very, very good at his job. and It's yeah really, really fun to read.
01:32:07
Speaker
man. Haven't you guys said that the average age of the, everyone is quite young. So like, he's probably one of the only adults or am I wrong with that? Yeah. He's one of the few adults in the parahuman circle because he's not a parahuman. Yeah. That's actually a good question. We don't know his age, but I am imagining someone who's like 55. Me too. I feel like he's old. He's giving dad. He's giving daddy five. 50. At least about 50 is what I imagined. Yeah. Oh, man. They're like beer belly, but still works out, you know. For some reason, I get the idea that he's like...
01:32:45
Speaker
Doesn't even have that. He just like right he like bikes or something. In in the beginning of Ward, he's in his 50s. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:32:59
Speaker
Yep. So yeah, like he's like the only mature, experienced person who has a more more than a couple years in his job under his belt. And he's like... pretty but yeah yeah He probably is one of the older characters that we know...
01:33:13
Speaker
but I mean, obviously we know there's older characters in in the world, but like that we've met. i mean, yeah. live yeah Like him and Marquis maybe might be kind of oldish. Oh, yeah.
01:33:24
Speaker
Yeah, Marquis is getting to 40s, I assume, right? Yeah, yeah he's he's not dad his dad vibes. Yeah, yeah. yeah um I mean, Amy's 20s. Yeah, yeah.
01:33:37
Speaker
Well, how old is Victoria again? 21? She's 20. No. she' is she's twenty no But she's also she's also stunted a little bit, so she should be... looks like she's 20, but she's... Oh, that's yeah, that's that's right. Because Amy's the same age as Victoria, right? Or very close? Amy's younger.
01:33:57
Speaker
Amy's younger. Yeah, that's what I thought. think, is like two years younger. Something like that. Yeah. So Amy's like mid-20s-ish. Yeah, yeah, but that does... The age definitely does help. Now, fan casting-wise for Armstrong...
01:34:14
Speaker
Who are we thinking? Lawrence Fishburne, Denzel Washington. ah Right. What great actor would... Either of those. Perfect.
01:34:25
Speaker
Either it would be good, yeah. Oh. That would be a lot of fun. I'm thinking somebody wiry. Apparently he's an overweight black man.
01:34:38
Speaker
Is he over-weight? Yeah, no, does I definitely think he was a little... larger guy Yeah, I thought he was around 250 pounds, probably. Okay, so the correct answer... steve Oh my gosh.
01:34:50
Speaker
No, what's his name? Hold on, I gotta look him He's You know who, he's quite short. He's from American Fiction. I'm sorry, I thought of terrible... In Westworld. That's the correct answer for right now. Okay, yeah, yeah.
01:35:02
Speaker
i was like vogue Oh, um but I thought of a... You know the the how much does a banana cost meme from... Arrested Development. arrested every like is yeah How much could a fat an overweight person weigh? What, 250 pounds? 250 pounds. Exactly. And Alan is right, by the way. Jeffrey Wright a free roughy right right answer is indeed the correct answer. He's 5'6". What?
01:35:31
Speaker
no that's how use snis every right He gives six foot energy. Oh, Jeffrey Wright. Yeah, I've seen him before. That's it says. Armstrong is five, six lies. Thank you, Wild Bo. We'll take it from here.
01:35:45
Speaker
Don't worry. You're saying you thing Armstrong is five, six. Yeah, Armstrong. Okay, okay. In the adaptation, that is how he is.
01:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, we'll give him a few inches there. Yeah. Five six is actually short. He gets such good, like, dad vibes. Like, he's... Wait, that's where we just stunt cast and we just get Obama in his first role.
01:36:08
Speaker
There you go. Oh, my my God. But actually, though... Listen. Rock of shit. Victoria. Yeah. ah I understand. My girls. Yeah. Fidelis. Please.
01:36:22
Speaker
amazing yeah you know is is there anybody other than obama who you simply say his name and everybody instantly

Armstrong's Paternal Care for Ashley and Sveta

01:36:30
Speaker
tries to do an impression mean i can think of a couple people yeah no is it just it just hit me that michael says whoever says jacob says obama and we're all like oh oh I would blame that, though, on the Game Grumps doing the voice all the time. Because it really, it doesn't come from me, like, having, like, listening to Obama's voice a lot. It's more just... It comes from people doing impressions of him.
01:37:01
Speaker
and That's exactly what I mean. It's not actually him, it's everyone's impression of him. yeah boy you like The only other person I can think of in that category would be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's exactly who I was thinking of. If you mention him, everybody's like, oh yeah yeah know yeah Once again, we'll never get another one where we have dementia because we just vocal stim all day already.
01:37:27
Speaker
because our entire live. Oh, man. So funny. Yeah, I'll be.
01:37:37
Speaker
That's good. That's funny. Oh, man. Hilarious. Anyways. anyway retir whereas I love... Sorry, Truett said Christopher Walken.
01:37:53
Speaker
Very true. Another oh yeah chrisy another classic. Sorry. holding What were you going to say, Anna? Or Steve Buscemi, too. I just want to quote the Spy Kids 2 line every time I see Steve Buscemi. All the time.
01:38:08
Speaker
but No, I love that he calls them when he's sitting with Natalie. He's like, so, are my girls? And she's like, you're girls? And he's like, I'm sorry. How are Ashley and Sveta doing? But, like, I love that he calls them as girls. Like, that's so sweet. And, like, he cares about them so much.
01:38:27
Speaker
And... Ashley's, Ashley, because obviously, like, Sveta looks up to him and admires him and a lot, but, like, Ashley is so protective of him.
01:38:41
Speaker
And you see it in the previous chapter, but, like, i just, that's really sweet. I love it. It makes me so happy. We need more, like, father figures in this world when everything's going to shit. Exactly. it's crazy Yeah, right, really. Yeah.
01:38:58
Speaker
Hey, Armstrong, can I introduce you to Amy? Maybe you can help her. Maybe. Help her get some perspective. Yeah. now she needs many He seems very good at like, like listening to people and being like, ah, this thing that happened is why you're reacting this way. Yeah. yeah You know, and like, he's really good at like piecing that apart like he does with Croc of Shit.
01:39:30
Speaker
yeah finding um just real quick just I'm trying to think of ways that would be satisfying and to Amy I think about this a lot and what if what if her work with Chris and these other tinkers they're able to bypass the Manton effect and Amy accidentally like brains herself I don't know what made me think of that. to be true. a
01:40:01
Speaker
oh my god oh man um i was trying to think like the only the only way amy gets help is like ah Some kind of like unholy or holy triumvirate of Armstrong, Worm, Yamada, and don't know, somebody else. I like not War-Jamada, Worm-Yamada. I do appreciate the distinction. yeah um one when The one we trusted.
01:40:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. um Yeah, i oh man, I do love too getting the bits of... uh, Croc's power and how it, um, how her power affected her. She was a hero, but like, um, I was, I was looking to see if there was any fan art of her in her,
01:40:47
Speaker
um in her thing, in her wiki, without spoilers for anything else. But um in the trivia section, it talked about how what she did as Fidelis was something that, like, military operations kind of were doing at the time. um Yeah.
01:41:03
Speaker
And just that idea of, like, your work kind of literally consuming you is such a fascinating one for her. i i will say my only disappointment because of the form she takes is the spelling of her name.
01:41:17
Speaker
She takes... Basically a crocodile form. So if it had been croc, croc-a-shit, C-R-O-C, without the K, it would have been, like, perfect. I agree. It would have been so much better. But...
01:41:32
Speaker
Alas, here we are in an imperfect world. I'll be honest, it took me a minute to get the name correlation because of the spelling. I just, I wasn't making the link. And then I think it's finally at the end when it was like, I think Armstrong says, oh, yeah it looks like a crocodile. And i was like, oh, okay, there we go. hold No, no, no. It says she's got the scales on her, but she doesn't look like a crocodile. and yeah' warm at um yeah Yeah, she like a crocodile.
01:42:00
Speaker
But, you know, like the joke of it is there if it hadn't been spelled the other way in last, you know. It happens. Sorry. We're all imperfect. um But yeah, just the idea of like, she, she went from this, she was this like beautiful transformation that slowly got corrupted by the lies she absorbed is such a compelling character story. I really, yeah. Very interesting.
01:42:26
Speaker
I really, really like that. Yeah. Like just the transformation of no, like she was a good guy doing good things, but the work she did turned her into a villain. like Yeah, pretty cool.
01:42:38
Speaker
Good. and And Armstrong catches on to that and is kind of like that. But they're still good inside of you. I can see it.
01:42:47
Speaker
Grok. I'm ashamed. We can't believe it.
01:42:53
Speaker
mas
01:42:57
Speaker
ye And then, Savannah to the rescue, fantastic, great reunion moment where he's like, I'm so proud of you, vibe. Immaculate. Yes. And cool thing where she goes through the drain and like she's like, oh, ah hello!
01:43:12
Speaker
Didn't expect you there. um Just one second while I change a change really quick. like oh it's It was ah it was a good little little moment Yeah, it was a great... i as the As the scene was kind of approaching that, it did sort of feel like it was setting up him being saved, but I couldn't quite tell.
01:43:31
Speaker
um But I i really liked the way it was written. it was It was very clever. And then who better than Sveta? So it was just it was sort of perfect that it was her that saved him. great. Yeah. I also, i like that he notes that she has so much control that she never used to have.
01:43:46
Speaker
Yeah. and rolls And over her body. And that just, ah my note, my one note was Sveta at her peak is my favorite thing. Her just crushing it. She's through all the drain pipes, right? And just like, yeah oh, so cool. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah.
01:44:02
Speaker
yeah That's great. Fucking killing it. Which is why it's funny that she's in this like little asylum cell when she could escape anytime she wanted to. but she's like yeah It's great. I love it so much. They could bust out at any time, but they're purposefully not because it's about pushing their boundaries. so i yeah yeah i do as a So we don't forget it. I do want to mention too, I love Armstrong's like brief mentoring conversation with Natalie.
01:44:31
Speaker
Where he's like, when he asks, like, how are my girls? And she's like, I feel like I'm just kind of an observer to a car accident. yeah he's like, yep, I felt that way too. You know, just like in his head of like, he's like guy yeah like, I hope she can push through and get there because I think she could be she could be like him, right? Kind of that advocate for people. And he's like, but she's not quite there yet. She's in the hard part when she has no idea what's going on.
01:44:56
Speaker
Bless Natalie. Gosh. Yeah. I think Natalie will stick around. I think she's got it in her. Oh, I hope so. I think she's just such a peach. And she has such a good connection with Kenzie. And I think she just like, you know, when she first joined and kind of, you know, she just kind of like, uh, that's illegal. Uh, that's illegal. Um, this is so illegal, you guys. Like, now she's like, she's on diplomatic missions. I just love it. She's she's she's gone so far.
01:45:24
Speaker
know She's done such good things. and And, I mean, we end on a little bit of a cliffhanger-ish, I guess. Still gotta get out of there. But they're out.
01:45:37
Speaker
Yeah, they've gotten out, they just have to leave. But it ends with the, like, we're going into the fight with Teacher, and it's not going well. Yeah. Gosh. I'm not, I'll be honest, I'm not looking forward to the next arc simply because of more Teacher stuff.

Speculation on Armstrong's Assassination Plot

01:45:50
Speaker
And I feel like it's gonna be a lot of strategizing and a lot of, like, thinking. And I just don't tend to Enjoy that. Unless we get another saint interlude.
01:46:01
Speaker
Let's go. Give me back oh stupid little boy. He's gotten a lot stupider, I'd say, after being with teacher. He probably has. yeah He's got a few more few more teacher taps to the head. Yeah. josh yeah Lobotomy. Take nice sweet chunk out of your brain, the talking back part.
01:46:24
Speaker
Exactly. ah Bernard asks, who do you think came out with the plan of killing Armstrong, Chris? I feel like they... don't know it would be Chris. If we've argued that Chris it doesn't really care that much, then I don't know that it would have been him.
01:46:41
Speaker
um It feels like, a not Luis, but who was the other guy who was really aggressive? Yeah, the other guy that's... Yeah. yeah I can't remember him. Yeah, i i would my guess would be on him of anybody. yeah um Just because he was the most like, we need to do something to stop these bear humans vibe.
01:47:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that that whole dynamic was was very interesting. How Shin was like, Again, kind of going back to what you were saying earlier, Hannah, about not understanding the trade relationship here, because like Shin doesn't want to end the treaty because they're obviously getting something out of it. But they want to be like...
01:47:23
Speaker
We've got to make these pair of humans look as bad as possible. Jamin said Yusuf. Yusuf is the correct. youef Thank you you. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah ah Yeah. So we have a bingo.
01:47:34
Speaker
Oh, bingo. True it. We have Alan Rance actually afraid for Armstrong's life. No one for a second believing that Amy didn't touch Victoria and fuck off Amy.
01:47:47
Speaker
Yeah, yep. There you go. Nice job. Good job on the bingo. For what you were saying, Jacob, i i just had a thought. So
01:47:59
Speaker
we know that parahumans make up only a small percentage of the population. So the trade deals that they're doing back and forth obviously benefit everyone, not just the parahumans, not just the normies, benefits everybody.
01:48:15
Speaker
We do know that there's some shit going on in the background with What's-His-Face, who's real salty that he didn't win the mayoral election. And we know that there... Yeah.
01:48:28
Speaker
Nueves, yes. ah That there's something... Something brewing there. There's something happening there. What if they are in collaboration with Shin on this? To basically be like, we've made these agreements with your planet, with your people, including the parahumans. Well, what if we helped you add a nail to the coffin, gotrit maybe helped your society get rid of parahumans,
01:49:00
Speaker
By having them on a diplomatic mission to hear. Jeopardize your food source. And kill one of their own. So like what if.
01:49:12
Speaker
This is two things working together in the background. Because it doesn't make sense for them to jeopardize something like this. But it would make sense if they were partnering with someone on the other side. That's like hey we want to keep these trade deals open.
01:49:26
Speaker
And we both don't like the pair of humans. and we want to fight for humanity, basically, let's maybe work together, we can kill two birds with one stone, and keep our trade negotiations in place place, and then the blame doesn't fall on Shin as a, oh, well, we killed this guy, you know, as we killed Armstrong, but more of putting it on the parahumans, who, like, have been the troublemakers since the beginning.
01:49:54
Speaker
i like that, actually. I think that could work. That's not not bad. i mean, I just think that Nueves is like, something's going on there. There is definitely more to his character.
01:50:09
Speaker
yeah He's not just like this pesky little guy who won't get over it. He's been given too much focus but so far. Yeah. He's being funded or something. Like, there's something else. I like it. I like it. fucking oh We know that he's being funded by Earth Kite.
01:50:28
Speaker
Pretty sure. Yeah. Talked about that earlier, didn't we? right yeah or she it Maybe Kite's in it as well. Yeah, because there's that little interlude ages and ages and ages ago where he sits down for dinner or lunch or something and someone approaches him and sits with him at the table and they're basically like...
01:50:45
Speaker
So we know that John is a parahuman. And we know that you are trying to fight for humanity. We just want to, like, offer support. yeah So, like, it we never figured out who that was.
01:51:00
Speaker
Yeah. Every slightly right-wing podcast host has with somebody in the darkness at some point. It's like, hey, we can pay you if you talk about what we want you to talk about. if you're talking yeah Or chorus with the ah the the freaking Democrats.
01:51:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, exactly. exactly what What if, to build off of of your point, Hannah, what if ah all the other Earths have like their' their non-CAPES are talking to each other and the goal is to get all the CAPES in one location and then close the door, you know?
01:51:39
Speaker
Yeah. Get them out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about that. Or just nuke it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so far, even with the good that, like, yeah yeah i mean so far the even with the good that like Oh, no, that's a bad analogy. We're not even going to go there. um Even with the good that some people have done to protect the world, there it's been a lot more bad than it has been good. Oh, yeah. We joked about what it would have been like to have been a person in this world. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah.
01:52:13
Speaker
Yeah. 100%. i'm out I'm out of thoughts. I'm out of notes. um Well, for wrapping this up then, ah let's just spend a second talking about ah since new powers, there's only one real new power.
01:52:30
Speaker
I've always loved Croco shit. um Specifically because they are a changer and they're changing thing is tied directly into the like lying like a lie detector that like internally they are changed it reads the lies and then those lies feed off and form the creature as they continue to change like more yeah yeah but it's not a mind power like you would have with Tattletail right
01:53:10
Speaker
It's a power. It's a gut power. Again, how do you do lie detecting? you know with yeah with people Because we've seen a bunch of people that work with um you know screening people.
01:53:25
Speaker
through the portals. And that's so cool to be like, oh yeah, I see... um you know You've got ah Crystal Clear, who kind of sees things in these weird a fractured, crystalline connections and their sharp edges and yada yada.
01:53:42
Speaker
You've got... um the the I can't remember what their name is, but they can essentially see like group distress, kind of like dangers to groups. and ah Sort of overall vibe, danger sense.
01:53:58
Speaker
um you know And and in this case, you have Tattletail who can fill in the gaps. I'm sure you have people who they've talked about they don't exactly have mind readers, but it's just amazing the ideas you come up with. We're like, okay, if I were going to roll, okay, they're a changer and their power is telling if somebody can lie or not.
01:54:21
Speaker
how do you How do you write that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. now it It makes me wonder, too, just like from a purely experimental perspective with her, her original form was a 10-foot-tall ethereal woman.
01:54:36
Speaker
um It makes me wonder, had she not become basically a lie detector? But what if you like took her, even now, you took her and put her in like a like a Buddhist monastery or something, right?
01:54:52
Speaker
And just surrounded her with like good thoughts, even like positive truths about the world, you know, would that actively reshape her being? And I just, I'm curious. It's such an interesting thing, but the issue is the world is so filled with deceit or partial truths or pain and suffering that there would be no way for her to not...
01:55:18
Speaker
allow that to feel know allow her to feel those feelings pretty much constantly i imagine because you know we all speak partial truths probably more often than we'd like to admit yeah so yeah no i i definitely think it has things that's cool uh is related Something that Fran put in.
01:55:41
Speaker
ah Armstrong is confirmed to be black, which I like because Headcan and Weld is a black-coated metal man, and he's kind of like his dad. i've True. i know I've got a thought of Weld that way.
01:55:53
Speaker
I've always assumed Weld was black, but and I know People can be from Boston, and but that accent is just so done ah white ah annoyingly white. I would ah put that upon ah ah Don't ruin this for Fran.
01:56:18
Speaker
Don't ruin this for Fran. Let him have this. sorry I'm sorry. the Part of it is the audiobook. Headcanon, he does not have a Boston accent, I'll be honest. yeah He doesn't until i listen to the audiobook. And again, all the love to Rain and the team that puts it together because it's an amazing project. now sometimes great job Sometimes the accents are a little funny. that ra mean that's what Oh my gosh. And some of the pronunciation too, it just just kills me. It's so funny.
01:56:50
Speaker
i ah it's so It's actually... funny you said that. So... i always I honestly haven't sat down and read Ward probably for arcs and arcs and arcs now. I always tend to listen to the audiobook so I can work and listen at the same time, and I really love that.
01:57:05
Speaker
um So I tend to listen on 1.1 speed or occasionally 1.2 speed. Depends on how much I have to listen to in a day. ah So normally today I was listening to it on 1.1 speed. And then we get to the interlude.
01:57:19
Speaker
And interludes are usually read by somebody else. And the interludes reader was so slow. I was listening to it at 1.5 speed to make it sound normal, like a regular tempo. And I could have probably listened to it at a two speed easily and not felt like I was getting a bunch of like jumbly gibber gibberish. So i I just thought that was so funny. Yeah.
01:57:41
Speaker
And when you're listening to the audiobook, like, it's all fantastic. Like, I love it so much. Honestly, like, it makes consuming Wild Bo's works are so much better ah because it's so much fun. And also they have, like, some of the best, like, intro music and outro music. And it changes every couple of arcs. So there'll be new intro or outro music, which I love. It's really fun.
01:58:04
Speaker
But yeah. Anyways, I thought that was funny. Going back to Croc for a some second, something else I thought about, because I had originally started reading this at the same time that you and I went to the library up in Upper Peninsula, nowhere, ah Michigan, and watched True Detective.
01:58:25
Speaker
It's first season had come out in 2014. And I believe Wild Bill was working on this and well ah this in 2017. So, um had time to think about it. But, specifically talking about how...
01:58:41
Speaker
ah
01:58:44
Speaker
ah That Croc of shit had been ex-military and then was running around in rural Louisiana solving these um supernatural crimes and whatnot, which just screams rust coal.
01:59:01
Speaker
Like, that he was, i you know, I don't remember if he was ex-military, but he was the whole, like, he'd gone too deep in the in ah being a narc, undercover narcotics And, like, it really messed him up. And, you know, he's got this trouble, and he's always talking and nonsense and people having to deal with this shit. But it just feels...
01:59:25
Speaker
Like, I really want to watch Crocker shit just drive around Louisiana solving these crimes and then occasionally, you know, getting sick and tired having to hulk out on some motherfuckers.
01:59:39
Speaker
that's funny Oh, I'm telling if you did like a Reacher-style show, where like like an anthology series where you're he's just walking through a town in the middle of Georgia, you know, and just has to, so you know, get what hijinks is in this town this week, and then, you know, that's the whole thing. But just do that in with Worm, and ever it's every season's a different a different cape, just like fumbling around in the middle of nowhere trying to solve a mystery. Oh, yeah. yeah That'd be great. A lot of fun.
02:00:08
Speaker
I'm telling you, that's what Lanterns is going to be. High hopes. Fingers crossed. There you go. great With Kroc in particular, um just thinking about that whole concept made me realize something I read in her bio. you know We find out like she ended up eating a crime boss as part of why like when she went off the rails.
02:00:29
Speaker
The bio speculates on the wiki that she, the entirety of her time in the PRT was a facade so she could get back at that crime boss. Yeah. And so what if it wasn't the lies she was absorbing, but the lies she was living? Ooh. I mean, that stuff eats you up inside.
02:00:51
Speaker
Literally. And then she ate him up inside. yeah yeah That's good. I can't wake up.
02:01:02
Speaker
inside yeah wake up yeah in Nope. All right. Well, ah and unless there's anything else, I think it's time to go over ah what we're going to be reading next week. Arc 15. Well, I think it starts with an interlude, actually. My God. fighting Whatever the interlude, you know, 0.5. the In two weeks.
02:01:33
Speaker
on the thirteenth in two weeks or No, 13. What? 15A to 15.5. Thank you, Nick. made five Okay, excellent.
02:01:46
Speaker
and I don't know if it's A or not. I'm going to double check. i'm It's the whatever it starts with, the 0.5. Yeah, yeah. 15.5. is 15A.
02:01:56
Speaker
it is it just way Yeah. yeah be Things we missed on the air. Well, thing I'll just go over the bingo. ah We've got forgetting who a dauntless slash Titan Kronos and a genuine emotional reaction between the Sveta Armstrong hug.
02:02:10
Speaker
Fuck off, Amy. Alan rants. Maybe Amy has a point. Croco shit confusion. Nick goes full parent. Milk. Chris is a bitch. No one for a second believing that Amy didn't touch Victoria. Yeah.
02:02:23
Speaker
Jacob is a cinephile cat on screen, actually afraid for Armstrong's life. What is Amy even talking about? Hannah cries another prison debate. yeah i have a i have a quick question.
02:02:35
Speaker
Yes.
02:02:38
Speaker
I did cry. If you can guess when it was, Michael knows because he always knows. He can always clock it immediately. He always gives me a look, too. like I can tell I'm crying, and I like glance it at Michael, and he's always like... He knows. i know. but But if you guys can guess but when it was that I cried, i will allow it for the bingo.
02:03:08
Speaker
I'll give you time to put in your answers while we do. Don't forget to subscribe to our Patreon ah just so we know that there's others of you out there. um And as a special treat, I'll post my pale tattoo in a better quality that I just got. yeah um So you can see that.
02:03:26
Speaker
ah If you would like to buy Brockton Bay Book Club merch, we have sweatshirts and T-shirts. What do the T-shirts look like? king Yeah, they're rocking right now. So it's a white finger to you with black cuff and neckline, and it is the classic Brockton Bay Book Club logo. smack dab on the front and then we also have a Brockton Bay's sweatshirt as well which is a little fun neon it's white sweatshirt with the cool design on the front and I am in the process of working on some new designs I keep thinking I know when I'm going release them and then I don't so you know sometime before we finish Ward I'll have some new stuff but for now they're just in works indefinitely
02:04:12
Speaker
Truett guesses how are my girls? Oh, that's a good one. Good guess. I also definitely had a reaction to that. it was like just like, oh. um Yeah. ah Victoria telling Sveta stranger master protocols.
02:04:32
Speaker
ah No. no moment ah Mine is, this my guess, personally, is Sveta hugging Armstrong because this is Sveta's first time getting to hug him with her new body. And we also don't know if they've ever hugged before. That's really cool.
02:04:55
Speaker
Very similar to the Victoria Sveta hug. Yeah.
02:05:01
Speaker
When was it, Hannah? ah Jacob, Nick, you want to take a guess? was trying to think. i can i can't think of anything that hasn't been said Michael, do you remember when it was?
02:05:13
Speaker
I'm trying to remember now. I noticed at the time, but is it was, you know. it it was I will say it was early on in the episode. It was. ah It had something to do with Amy. It did. It did have to do with Amy.
02:05:28
Speaker
Amy just blowing right through ah Victoria's clearly marked do not enter signs. It's her her when she touches her when she's asleep. That's what got me. me really fuck it and it's like i'm i'm like angry like my eyes immediately were like welling up and i michael michael has a pinned every time i always lean back a little bit always like it says ever it's funny because when i'm sitting here i can see my eyes are super like liquidy wet like and so i'm always like don't let them know don't let them see
02:06:01
Speaker
She finishes a thought and it but it and then she's like, ah and she like leans back. Leans back, yeah. I'll have to keep an eye out for that next time. That's good. thanks I'm going to start doing it randomly now just to throw you guys off. I'll just start going.
02:06:18
Speaker
Yeah. Just throw it off. J-Man says, i crying too. crying too. J-Man and me, we both crying. We crying. Yeah. crown Beautiful.
02:06:30
Speaker
Angry crying, frustrated crying, pissed off crying, murderous crying. yeah but yeah it's so It's so upsetting. like even yeah no i've I'm riled up again just thinking about It it just makes me so angry.
02:06:45
Speaker
exactly It makes me wonder now in retrospect if they didn't specifically allow this because like Amy to be in the room with her knowing how terrible yeah like she had been to Vicky in a hopes that Vicky would kill her because then it does the exact same thing that the other like There are other stuff of like trying to instigate them to do something.
02:07:12
Speaker
and they're like, well, we couldn't get Vicky to kill her own sister, so I guess we're just going to have to frame it then. Yeah, right. Interesting. yeah Not a bad idea.
02:07:23
Speaker
Alright. um We'll see you guys. Anything else before I close this out? don't know. Sign us off.
02:07:34
Speaker
Okay, we'll see all on the 13th in two weeks with... Heck yeah. What are what are the arcs again before, just to remind everyone? 15.8 to 15.5. Yep, there it is. Beautiful.
02:07:49
Speaker
Let's go. the Patreon. Please come on in. Join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon? Come support us and join the Patreon.
02:08:01
Speaker
Please help us and join the Patreon. We can...
02:08:07
Speaker
Why don't you join the Patreon? Why don't you just join the Patreon? Come on, come on. Hello, princess. I noticed you haven't joined the Patreon.
02:08:19
Speaker
Daddy's not happy.
02:08:27
Speaker
Phenomenal.
02:08:31
Speaker
Y'all have a great night. Good night. See you.