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Arc 3: Agitation
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This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass.
Complete list of potential triggers: here
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Episode Description: “Be quiet, Aegis,” Piggot snapped, “Your trying to speak with a punctured lung physically pains me, and as much as I admire standing up to the Brockton Bay Book Clup, your one lungful of breath is wasted here.”
Get in contact with us @brocktonbaybc
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:20) - Book Club Begins
(01:23:36) - Dissecting Worm Begins
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Worm and Trigger Warnings
00:00:00
Speaker
Worm is a web serial by JC McRae, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans.wordpress.com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon.com slash wildbo. This story isn't intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.
Initial Reactions and Arc 3 Overview
00:01:12
Speaker
Good morning, Brockton Bay. Grab your books and get ready to get shook. It's Arc 3. All right. Thank you, Alan. That lovely introduction. Welcome back, everyone. We're into, as Alan so eloquently put, into Arc 3 of Worm, an exciting arc here. We're going to get the ball rolling into our discussions of the arc with everybody.
00:01:37
Speaker
and go from there. So I think it's probably a good idea to jump right into Kat and Taylor's initial reactions being our first time readers. What did you guys think? Just sort of ballpark big picture reactions to this exciting arc. I thought that this arc was really getting into some of the meat of like how it seems the story is going to go like some of the action
00:02:04
Speaker
more interactions directly versus just talking about other capes. We're starting to see like how the dynamic between the different groups of the good guy capes and it happens and like their purse, the under siders, their interaction, like how their dynamic is with the other capes. And I thought it was, I almost didn't have any notes to take because I was just so
00:02:35
Speaker
enthralled in the story that was happening.
Character Dynamics: Undersiders & Capes
00:02:39
Speaker
So I am really excited to talk about certain segments, but I feel like I was just so grasped by how things were developing that basically the homework portion of it seemed to go away from my mind. What about you Taylor?
00:02:58
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, we had plot, we had action, we had superheroes, we had supervillains, we had everything that I was promised already in the third arc. I am so excited. I was so excited, like you said, to kind of lean away from the undersiders, see what some of the other capes are doing. Definitely seeing Taylor, not me, but you know.
00:03:21
Speaker
The character develop and kind of figure out what she's going to do with her life While I try and figure out what I do in my life. So this is just great. I'm loving it. We're having a great time Yeah opening up to everybody else kind of just get some get some scattered reactions No, this was a this is a very fun arc it's one of those arcs that's so early that after you've read the whole thing you can kind of forget those cool little details but
00:03:50
Speaker
going back into it and going back through the Bankai scene and the lead up to it, uh, and really getting to know these characters more on a, what feels like a personal level. It's just really fun. Um, the interlude is one of my favorites because you get a peek into a different side of the world than Taylor's perspective, uh, which we'll get to later. I'm sure, but yeah, just some great character interaction, great superpowers explored as well. Some really cool stuff here.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. This is, this is the spawning point for the rest of the series in my mind. Uh, having talked it over with, you know, Jacob, like if the, you know, first two arcs haven't grabbed you by now, like this is where everything comes out of for like the rest of the series. I can point back and be like, ah, when did that start? That started at the bank. Like that started in that chapter. And I.
00:04:47
Speaker
forget, as always, how quickly we get to this. Yeah, we do. I was thinking the same thing when I read it. I was like, I remember this happened, and I remember it happened early on, but I forgot how early it happened. Yeah, you nailed it. We just jump right in. This is the pace setter for the rest of the next, honestly, the rest of the whole book, but the rest of the series immediately after, for sure.
Story Progression and Key Events
00:05:17
Speaker
What a, what a fun chapter. One of the fun things too, uh, is just coming back to this as well. After having read the whole thing, there are lots of names dropped in this chapter. And I'm, I want to focus in on that maybe for predictions later, once we get to the predictions part, but there are lots of big names dropped in this chapter are in this arc. So I'm interested to see if, uh, people caught onto that again. Um, and if our newer readers.
00:05:44
Speaker
Uh, if they, what they think of those name drops and what they think they might be. And I, again, I forget. Yeah, that gets, that happens early. These names get dropped early. Um, things happen fast. It's a build off of that. And this kind of goes into stuff we've talked about earlier with the way, uh, wild bow sort of world builds, but not just names, but events and things that just sort of get subtly dropped. Uh, I was joking with Alan. We were talking about this earlier, how I forgot it was this arc.
00:06:14
Speaker
were just casually offhand. They're just sitting in the undersiders, like little hideout. And again, we spent the rest of the day watching movies from the alternate earth when Portal was ripped through reality. And now we just share films and movies back and forth. And then it just goes right by that. Okay. We're going to start with this. Okay. I thought this would come up later. We can move, but we can circle back to it. Yeah, let's definitely circle back to it.
00:06:40
Speaker
Because this was something that Taylor and I both were like, excuse me. I was like, Earth, a lift. But yeah, we'll get to that. Don't even worry about that. OK, well, we'll circle back. But yeah, just the world building is a lot
Heroes vs. Villains: Societal Perceptions
00:06:51
Speaker
of fun. He does such a great job sort of fleshing out this world. It makes it feel so lived in and so enriched with events and names and characters, things that aren't going to be mentioned or touched on to later, if at all is exciting. Yep, absolutely.
00:07:05
Speaker
Something I really liked about this arc is they have the cops and robbers conversation that Tattletail and Taylor end up having. And I love that this is, again, because I've read this before, I remember some pieces, but I never remember when they come in. So like I didn't remember the bank heist happening this early, which is just perfect. I love it. But that conversation too is such a great thing to have so early on in the book to like really grasp
00:07:35
Speaker
how the world sees, you know, the capes in general, like the heroes and the villains and how we view them and kind of how the government has to operate within that space of like, well, we have all these villains and we have all of these heroes. And like, how are we supposed to interact with each other and function in the society with all of us together? And kind of like this maybe game within a game kind of subtly put out there.
00:08:04
Speaker
by Lisa and I just I love it. I think it it really sets a good tone for. For how we're going to see capes throughout the book and how we're going to see Taylor, you know, trying to figure herself out. And try to determine, you know, you know, playing the playing the mole in the undersiders, basically. So, yep, absolutely.
Taylor's School Life and Cape Decisions
00:08:27
Speaker
Maybe we should jump into the summary of the arc so that we could
00:08:33
Speaker
Uh, go through chronologically. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Um, Hannah, did you write anything specifically for this arc? Um, I've got a, I've got a little breakdown here. You want me to go through the whole thing, breaking down the entire arc, or should we go by section by section? Let's do section by section. Yeah. I like section. Let's do sections at a time. See if we have any thoughts as we go through them. Okay, cool. So first up, we have, uh, uh, part one, Taylor jogs, uh, in the morning and meets up with Brian where they kind of talk over breakfast.
00:09:03
Speaker
Um, she goes into school and it doesn't go very well. And she flees at Sophia's taunts. Yeah, I was very surprised. Um, I thought that the school arc, which I know that it'll probably, my prediction is it will come back again, but I was surprised that it kind of got dropped so quickly. I feel like she's like giving up on school. Like she's like, I'll get to, I'll go to school. One thing happens and she's like, yeah, fuck this.
00:09:31
Speaker
Like it's just not worth it. Oh yeah. Um, and I find that kind of, I'm wondering, especially after learning about Ryan and how he is going to school, like online and stuff, I don't think it's going to be, I don't think she's going to be in high school for much longer. Which is good. Cause there's something I picked up on rereading, rereading episode one, episode one arc one again, but just before this.
00:10:01
Speaker
Um, Taylor gives off really strong school shooter vibes, like just kind of the everything about her. And, and there's a moment all the way back when she's dealing with lung where like she gets the upper hand on him and it's kind of giggling and laughing to herself about how, like, how she's kicking his ass.
00:10:25
Speaker
And that happens again in this arc as well. Exactly. And it's like the more and more I think about it, I'm like, man, this really is like, you know, we are the one bad day, you know, the one day that just goes a little bit too far from her essentially doing a school shooting, but with bugs. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's part of why that, that limit that she put on herself, uh, because she still wants to be a hero. She wants to be a good guy.
00:10:54
Speaker
that limiter has really saved her from becoming somebody like Long or like some of the other villains that have been main dropped. But yeah, I think Kat, you make a good point that in the context of her leaving school, she immediately, this is immediately after hearing from Brian, oh,
00:11:14
Speaker
You know, Lisa got her GED and, uh, Alec finished it on his own way and I'm taking online classes and it's all
Undersiders' View on Society
00:11:21
Speaker
cool. Like she's hearing about all these alternative options that don't involve her being around these bullies anymore. She's like, Oh, you know, that sounds kind of nice. I can easily understand why she'd want to move, you know, just leave and be like, you know what? Screw this. I'm going to go hang out with people who actually like me. Maybe they're bad guys, but they're better than you people.
00:11:44
Speaker
Oh, so even as a like, just a general description for the entirety of this book, like that's, that's Brian is showing her like, Hey, look, there's literally all of these alternative ways to accomplish the goal that you want to do. You want to graduate school. There's literally five other options.
00:12:01
Speaker
It's very much, I'm treating it as though they're athletes, like if you were to use this in the real life. She is totally just like, you know what, baseball is what I want to do. That's going to get me there. I'm just going to take rocks for jocks in college just so that I can have a major, but this is what I want to do. And I definitely, she is doubling down on the Cape. She is going all for it and I'm here for it, so.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah. Actually, I was going to say the same thing. She kind of has this weird, like her motivation for, you know, you know, you finish school and then maybe you go to college and you have an idea of what you want to be or who you want to be. But when you get your powers and all of a sudden you have this ability to control bugs, like what?
00:12:44
Speaker
is the point of school if you're going to be a hero. Like, do you need school? Do you need college? Do you need any of it? And kind of this, well, it all feels pointless, especially if, you know, Taylor's getting bullied at school, kind of the question of like, well, do I even need to go back to school? Like, do I need to even think about it? And that kind of played off with this, well, the undersiders are all, you know, they have their GED and they're taking classes.
00:13:12
Speaker
You would think that like, Oh yes. Well, you know, the hoodlums are like, Oh yes, who needs school? But like, no, they're all, they're all, they all have their GED and he's taking classes and they haven't just kind of resorted to the villain life basically. Right. And I, we could imagine maybe an alternate world too, where instead of the undersiders being the ones who rescue her, uh, what if it were the wards? Because her, the reason she doesn't want to join the wards is she's thinking, well, that's just more teenage drama.
00:13:42
Speaker
I get enough of that at school. Why do I want that? Uh, but then she ends up with a, basically a group of teenagers who like her. But what if it had been the wards who had found her instead and you kind of can go into that. Um, you know, it's circumstantial who she ended up joining and joining in a way, but it's yeah. Kind of adds to that. What if mentality that I like to use sometimes.
Taylor & Brian's Evolving Relationship
00:14:04
Speaker
And I think you touched on a really a good point at the end too, Nick, when you were saying how, how comparing school and the undersiders, she's going, yeah, the undersiders are villains, but they're not worse than my bullies, which
00:14:18
Speaker
I think was an interesting dynamic to how she recognizes that they're not the best people in terms of what they do, but compared to where she's been, it's infinitely better. And I think it's funny too, because up until obviously this arc kind of changes that, but up until that point early on. Always are worse than bank robbers, Jacob. I remember that adage, yes.
00:14:42
Speaker
But up until the bank robbery, like we don't, the understanders don't do anything that we've seen that really warrant them being villains that we're aware of other than the little bit of research she's done. But, uh, but yeah, in terms of her interactions with them, they seem like good people aside from probably bitch, but
00:15:01
Speaker
And then, except for arms master drops, the little, I don't know if that happened. I don't remember the order of things in the arc. I don't know when that happened. We'll get to that. So that's actually a great transition into chapter two, which we are back. Before we move on, before we move on, we got to acknowledge. Hot Brian is hot. He's very hot. Okay. How old is Brian? Brian's like what? Two, three years older than Taylor?
00:15:30
Speaker
I want to say he's 18 or 19. I think he's supposed to be like, just turned 18. Okay. Okay. Good. Oh my God. From Taylor's perspective, Brian is hot and she's obviously has, is developing a little crush on him. And why wouldn't she? And why wouldn't she? Yeah, absolutely. Which again, I was going to say ties into chapter two, where we have some hand to hand practice.
00:15:58
Speaker
where Taylor gets to spar with Brian back at the hideout. And we have a little conversation about this potential, not potential, about the sponsor of the undersiders. But ooh, that hand to hand, let's go. Any chance to like spar with Brian? Like let's go. I'm here for it. Brian dropped one of the best pieces of advices for fighting that I've ever had or ever heard like a real person say, but he's like, look,
00:16:26
Speaker
If you're going to do martial arts, if you're going to do any high level of fighting, keeping up with it is going to be a full time job and there are still going to be masters that are going to kick your ass.
00:16:35
Speaker
Literally, he's like, just pop into these places, learn a few things, pop out, move on. And I was like, okay, this is, thank you. Thank you, Brian. That makes me feel so much better for dropping out of bed with you. I stand with Brian. When I was 11 years old, this is the advice I needed when I was 11 years old and dropped that attack under to play baseball. Oh man, I love it. You can be a jack of all trades, for sure. It's true.
00:17:02
Speaker
Well, yeah. And and honestly, whenever a sparring session comes up between two characters who may or may not have a thing for each other, all I can think of is Mass Effect. And I love it. Oh, that Mass Effect keeps my mass erect. No! Oh, my God. I had reach. She had flexibility. That's right. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Michael, I hope you're noting the time stamps here just to.
00:17:46
Speaker
I also I like to think because we are reading the story from Taylor's perspective So we don't really get to see inside the minds of the other other undersiders
00:17:57
Speaker
that often. But when I was reading this part of me did it does read like Brian does put in a little extra weight behind his punches on Alec
World-Building Elements in Worm
00:18:08
Speaker
when Taylor comes in as he as he quickly works to take him down. Like here's your easy lessons and then and then you're down. Oh, hey, Taylor. It's been clear, at least from the beginning, that we don't know that he has
00:18:26
Speaker
feelings for her or anything, but he clearly cares about her. I mean, he's been the, yeah, I think Taylor even said like, he's basically the only reason she stayed. So yeah, so clearly he cares about her. Like, even if a romantic situation doesn't evolve from this, like they're clearly becoming friends, which is something that Taylor has one desperately needed and hasn't really experienced in a while. So.
00:18:56
Speaker
Um, and she probably just doesn't know how to like approach it. Cause like, obviously, you know, obviously Emma was her friend, her best friend, and now things have completely, like she's completely using her biggest, um, like emotional, like traumas against her. And I'm just interested to see how.
00:19:24
Speaker
Taylor continues to evolve these friendships with the undersiders because of that. Hmm. Is this the arc where the weird TV thing is mentioned? Cause she's hanging out with the undersiders or the Jack. This is this section, right? Yes. Yeah. Cause like, what is it? 3.3, 3.4 is kind of a lot of exposition right there. Interdimensional television like Rick and Morty.
00:19:51
Speaker
Exactly. So if you don't mind, I'll bring this up first because I wanted to talk about it and then we can immediately get to Professor Haywire. But in 3.3, we mentioned the Manton Effect. I wanted to hear people talk about that before we talk about the different Earths that we have going on.
00:20:11
Speaker
But basically it made it seem like, hey, you know, for some reason we have this manta effect where superheroes powers can't necessarily interact with other super superheroes, um, except some heroes can affect them. And it seems to be like a set of rules, um, going on. So I was super excited to kind of see like the world building going on. Yeah. This is one of those examples where wild bow has come up with an answer and a system for
00:20:40
Speaker
everything and just all those things where you're like, you know, well, why doesn't the human torch light himself on fire? Well, you know, all the questions you ever had about any superhero in any universe, the Manton effect is this huge catch all for so many things. And it's so simple. And this goes back in, I feel like we're going to do this a lot, but we all, we love wild, but we love the way he writes and it's such a simple plot device that doesn't break anything.
00:21:10
Speaker
It just exists to explain something that really doesn't need to be explained. I mean, no, no, like you said, no other property has ever tried to explain this or worried about it because at the end of the day, we really don't care. Like we're enjoying superheroes doing their thing. Like we don't really care about all the science behind it. We don't need to break down the science. Yeah, exactly. But the fact that he puts it in, the fact that it exists is just, it's, it's so simple.
00:21:37
Speaker
And it just answers that question that we didn't need answered, but in doing so enriches the world that we're reading about. It leads six nerds to make a podcast. Yeah, exactly. And it adds in too, there's this hint that some of the most powerful superheroes will be the ones who can bypass the Manton effect. Like Anasia, which comes up later. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it gives that Omega level mutant type.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah.
Influence of Professor Haywire
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah. But along are we sticking with a little fun little call out? You said you wanted Taylor, you had some thoughts on Earth a left. Yes, I literally and you already mentioned it because you said this earlier. It was a single sentence.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah. That made me so mad where he's like, Oh, you know, like we send them shows, they send us shows in the first two Star Wars movies. They still weren't great. And I was like, Taylor, I'm about to beat your ass. If you insult my Lord and savior, George Lucas, one more time. The fact that they just dropped, like while Bo just dropped that in.
00:22:54
Speaker
and moved on. Yeah, it's such a random little. Just salt bae, just a little sprinkle. It made me actually kind of question like, did I miss something earlier in the book? Because he's using a little bit, like a lot of times world building in fantasies can over explain. It just feels like they're just constantly hyper describing absolutely everything around them. And I feel like he's almost using this like
00:23:24
Speaker
less is more method where it's like acting like you already know. And then eventually we'll know because things will keep getting sprinkled in. Um, but instead of, you know, going through these long descriptions of, you know, how this world is different than what we're currently, you know, used to, it's like, oh yeah, this, this just does it so casually. And then eventually I'm sure we'll get more, um, later.
00:23:54
Speaker
which I think that this Professor Haywire will be one of those name drops that you guys were talking about that will come up later on. Save it for the prediction section at the end. Yeah, with that, I mean, it just makes me think of a conversation I had with a writer friend of mine.
00:24:14
Speaker
talking about treating the reader as incredibly stupid or incredibly smart, kind of like, well, I don't need to explain this to you in depth. I don't need to take an entire chapter to explain this. You guys will get it. I don't have to spell it out for
Character Motivations and Societal Roles
00:24:31
Speaker
you. And I love that because it really does feel like, like you said, Guy, it doesn't feel like he's waxing on and on and on about this. He can just sprinkle it in. And it's like, we already know it. It's already part of
00:24:44
Speaker
normalcy that we are just a part of, you know, by peeking into Taylor's world. But like, we're not being treated like idiots that need to have everything explained to us. It's like, as it comes up, there it is. And, you know, okay, oh, yeah, earth, earth left. And we're like, what? And then, you know, a little bit later, I'll give us a little something else. Oh, yeah. You know, Professor Haywire. It's like, oh, all right. Okay. Yeah, let's go.
00:25:09
Speaker
And I don't feel like I'm being talked down to, to be like, okay, well, silly, silly reader, let me explain to you how this complex world actually is. It feels so smooth. It's just big dick energy on Wild Boat's part. Wild Boat, you have a massive dick, literally just being like, oh, that's just the Manton effect. Or, oh, they just get it from Earth, they live. It's just, sir,
00:25:39
Speaker
Good job. Yeah. I think for writers, we call it big pin energy. Big pin energy. Big pin energy. Or I guess big keyboard energy since it's a web serial? Maybe. Yeah, we could do this all night. But I will say another part of this chapter right before we close it out. Honestly, the conversation with the dad went exactly like I thought it would. I know that they'll probably have an explosive plot episode whenever he finds out she's skipping school. But literally, this is just classic.
00:26:10
Speaker
parent trying to ignore the problem, but also trying to figure out what's going on. And then child trying to just step tip toe around it. Oh man, that's such a hard, yeah, such a hard line. And I think because we got that perspective from Danny, where we, we learned that he did explode once and that scared the crap out of his daughter. That now, you know, if he hadn't have done that, maybe they could be a bit more honest, but now she's so afraid that he might explode or he's going to
00:26:40
Speaker
You know, do something crazy that she is a bit more wary of talking to him. And yet he obviously still loves her and wants to know. So he's like trying to get in there in little ways, but not really pushed too hard. And that's just, it's kind of heartbreaking in its own way. Alongside with that, something that weird about Taylor's family that I didn't, I don't think I realized that maybe I misread this, but because of the nature of.
00:27:10
Speaker
Uh, how her mother died. We, you know, we find out that it's because she was texting and driving. Nobody else to blame, but her. So it's kind of rough. Taylor doesn't have a cell phone. Yeah. Right. Right. And it's not like it's, you know, it's.
00:27:30
Speaker
you know, the store is a bit dated, but still, every one of the other kids has a phone and Taylor doesn't. And she doesn't even really worry too much about it except for like the two times where like cell phones would be like desperately needed because I'm about to get killed. Like, and I think, you know, that one of those weird things where like she's never had one and that's probably because of her dad, maybe more than her. But she's just kind of always gone with it. But you know, anger being- Who's she gonna text? She doesn't have any friends.
00:28:00
Speaker
That's true. Her dad. Well, she doesn't even talk to him. Like, what would she need a phone for? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, she needs a phone now. Yeah, she does. Didn't she get one? Didn't she get one? Or two? Ryan gives her three. Oh, is it three? It's like two burners and one to call you on. That's right. That's right. So, you know, we've we've kind of moved into three point three here with the
00:28:29
Speaker
you know, that a little bit, but also the, uh, the, the bank job vote and planning. And then talking about some of that stuff. Um, I will admit that this is some of the funniest superhero naming because obviously with glory girl last arc, I immediately thought of a joke, which immediately gets brought up this arc. And then we get the clock blocker.
00:28:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah, this is this is big pin energy from wow. Which is absolutely a name that a teenager would give themselves as a superhero. And that's what I love. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So and with the funny names I loved, like literally like told Kat in the middle of reading it, I was like, wait, wait, wait, look at this. Like the way that they talk about like
00:29:22
Speaker
This one's a Tinker. Oh, this one has the Alexandria package. I love that so much.
Undercover Tensions with Armsmaster
00:29:29
Speaker
Like, I don't know if it's my humane need to classify everything, but I just, I love the superhero classification so much. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
And once again, it's like one of those worlds where like, Oh my gosh, the Zeds or the walking dead are here. Like nobody's ever seen a zombie before or know generally how zombies operate. Like, you know, these guys live in a world that would, you know, Oh, we've got superheroes. We're going to like classify them. We're going to go, Oh, you've got the Alexandria patch kids. You know, like they, they've seen superhero movies. They have superheroes. They're not going to say they're not superheroes. Like, yeah, exactly.
00:30:07
Speaker
Yeah, and yeah, the names you can kind of tell.
00:30:11
Speaker
like maybe who came up with their own name versus who was maybe suggested a name. Like Kidwin and Clockblocker, those two came up with their own names. Oh my gosh. I love it so much. Whereas I could see, I could see like Aegis and Gallant, maybe somebody being like, oh, you know, hey, here's an idea for a name. And they're like, yes, that is me. Gallant specifically sounds like that's a name his parents gave him, which the little bit we know about his story sort of checks out, like, you know,
00:30:41
Speaker
You're a rich son to rich parents and everybody, he was given his name. Yeah. Absolutely. Right after that, Taylor has a meeting with Armsmaster, which made me feel so old. Yeah, that gets us into 3.4 and 3.5 with the meeting with Armsmaster. I loved this scene. I did too.
00:31:10
Speaker
Oh my God, did her immaturity and naivety come out so hard in this conversation with Arms Master? Like, her whole, just like, I'm under covered. He's like, no, you're not. Like for who? Like, what are you even, you're literally asking me for permission.
00:31:35
Speaker
to commit a crime. Yeah, you're a literal child. You're asking super cop if you can go commit a crime. And that's where my age right now, you idiot. Yes, my age got the better of me so bad because I remember being a teenage boy in the high school cafeteria eating just like if terrorists come through those window, I've got them.
00:32:01
Speaker
You know, like we've all met every daydream in church. Yes. And literally just hearing her talk to Arms Master, just I can literally I'm speaking as him just like people die. Like literally, this is a life or death thing and you're just treating it like, no, no, like I'll find out who Big Boss is, which also forgot about that.
00:32:24
Speaker
Who's funding this? Save it for the prediction. I'll save it. I'll save it. I'll save it. Where does the money come from? Exactly. Where's it coming from? Is Donald Trump in this universe too? Follow the money. But yeah, I felt like an old man just like, Oh my gosh, I'm King Triton.
00:32:44
Speaker
Exactly. I was going to say it's the aerial situation. Yes. This is one of those things
Planning the Bank Heist: Strategy Focus
00:32:52
Speaker
where he's so good at writing not one-sided characters because I totally am on Taylor's side. She wants to do this thing. He just won't let her. And you know what? I feel like she's kind of justified a little bit. And at the same time,
00:33:10
Speaker
I also am with arms master. Cause like, what is this child doing? Asking robocop to commit a crime. Like his hand is twitching on that gun. Like, yeah, this isn't like a little crime either. This is like huge freaking crime. And she's literally like, Oh, it'll be fine. Like I agree with, um, like that is the idea that like, she's making this bank heist, this basically like,
00:33:39
Speaker
not a big deal in her head. And I'm like, did you imagine just again, this is like aging us like we're all obviously way into getting adults here because my head is like, could you imagine
00:33:53
Speaker
if you found out that your kid robbed a bank. Your 15-year-old daughter robbed a bank. And for what? What was the reason? Oh, because I'm trying to figure out what's a bad guy. And I'll be like, you fucking stupid.
00:34:12
Speaker
Don't worry about it. I'm gonna undercover the criminal organization all on my own. Oh the arms master like for him he's probably like yeah if you're telling me that you have information give me that information right now and I can stop this bank heist and like you could come join the wars like probably still like
00:34:34
Speaker
You have information right now. Why won't you give me information right now? No. Yeah, exactly. Because she wants to be friends with them still. She wants to be on both sides because she's starting to like the undersiders. So she doesn't want to completely give it away that she isn't on their side because I think subconsciously she is. So.
00:34:59
Speaker
And her final lines in that chapter too, I think just illustrate that where she's like, and I'm going to rob the hell out of this. And, and not only am I going to rob the hell out of it, I'm going to tell miss militia, I'll be in permission. Teenage like loyalties. Like I love it. She's just like, Oh, okay. Gladly of superheroes right now.
00:35:29
Speaker
I do like I do like to though how we get a hint that part of the reason arms master is so standoffish is because Taylor finds out that when he took the credit for taking down lung and then lung almost died yeah like that came back on him and so he he comes into this already upset at her and
00:35:51
Speaker
but not really being justified in being upset at her. So that definitely doesn't help him either. I w again, this is kind of my what if thinking, but I wonder if he'd come in a bit calmer and more rational and hadn't been so upset at her. If that would have changed her mind at all, because part of what ends up happening is she's like, you know, being a teenager, but reasonably she's like, well, you've been an asshole to me. I'm going to prove you wrong. You know, I kind of get that. It's like, you know, you know, I don't want to do something until you tell me that I can't or shouldn't.
00:36:21
Speaker
And then an arms master is the most authoritarian character that you can be just because in my mind he's Robocop and It's just like when he's like don't do that like immediately the gut instinct is like, oh I'm gonna do the hell out of that I got
00:36:40
Speaker
the Incredibles vibes from, you know, Buddy when he's a kid, you know, before he's syndromeed. And then he's like, go home, Buddy. And then, you know, that's the beginning of his villain origin story. And I'm like, oh, this is what we're getting for Taylor. Like this, like this for sure is her going to be a villain. I still think anti-hero though, because I don't think she's suddenly going to be like, yeah, I'm okay with killing people because she's so
00:37:10
Speaker
against that part, but I feel like she's going to be like, I don't care about committing crimes as much as I, as long as I'm not like hurting people or, you know, and I don't think, I think her motives will be more, I think that's obviously it's going to be more gray as we go. But, um, I think again, I still think I'm going to let you finish, finish, but did you finish the arc?
00:37:36
Speaker
No, I'm joking just because I do love I do love how Taylor I because I 100% agree with you. I think that's exactly where her mind is. But then we get into the bank heist to jump ahead a couple of chapters here. And I mean, to me, she begins to enjoy herself maybe a little too much in her in her intimidation of the hostages and her confrontation towards the end there. So, yeah, no, I think I think you're absolutely right.
00:38:05
Speaker
She likes being powerful. I think she likes being powerful against other people with powers. Yes, I don't think. I think because having power over the hostages, I think made her feel good, but. I don't think that I mean, obviously all of it before, but I'm just thinking like she's not suddenly going to be like it's going to be a long time before she's like.
00:38:33
Speaker
Accepting of like the possibility of people dying on her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I agree. And I think actually that whole power thing is just something that just comes to mind. She doesn't like it when she has to take control of the hostages and scare them. But when other heroes who she perceives as more powerful than her are being harmed, that's when it starts to be like, Oh, I'm beating somebody better than me.
00:39:00
Speaker
And I think it power for her is really important because of the whole bullying dynamic. She knows, she knows what it's like to be bullied. She doesn't want to use her powers to hurt people who can't fight back. But when it comes to like Aegis, who is clearly nearly invincible and he's getting bullied around, it's kind of like, Oh, Hey, now I'm beating people who are stronger than me theoretically, who are better than me, potentially deserve it.
00:39:24
Speaker
Exactly. It is this idea of like, I'm, I'm more power. Yeah. Punching up. Exactly. That's the phrase. Yeah. She doesn't want to punch down yet, but she's, she's very much okay with punching up every time. Even with the hostage, like she's, she taking control of that situation and being like, okay, well, I'm gonna, I'm suggesting a solution here by having my bugs on everybody. She is still playing, you know, the hero in a sense, because she can keep an eye on everybody.
00:39:51
Speaker
she can, while she might be outwardly threatening people with venomous spider bites, she's actively trying to keep an eye on all of the hostages, make sure everyone stays safe, make sure everyone stays calm, keep them out of harm's way, and then she's able to completely let go against the capes that show up, the heroes that show up, and kind of like, well, I can't outwardly defend myself at school,
00:40:17
Speaker
but I can do it here and I can let loose here. And that feeling of flipping the power dynamic of being like, well, I've been powerless at school and now I have power and I can use it and I can be vicious if I need to be is like an interesting little flip that I see in her and I love it. I love it. This is a great moving to the next section with the cops and robbers talk. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
Cause there's, there's a, there's two dynamics that I love here. One is that, you know, it's all theatrical. Like at the end of the day, these are grown ass adults and sometimes kids dressing up, having the things like a bank full of hostages be their like stage, you know, going through the motions. And at the end of the day, like they go to jail knowing that they're going to break out again, you know, with the whole three strike rule, which
00:41:16
Speaker
As always, great explanation for why everybody keeps breaking out of jail in like Batman's world. Um, but the other part of it is in them doing this song and dance, the good guys and the bad guys are constantly song and dancing with each other. Um, and it goes all the way back to when she was looking at the enforcers on the boardwalk. These aren't the cops and like they're like hired thugs essentially.
00:41:46
Speaker
for the boardwalk that like, Oh, if you're causing trouble on the boardwalk, these kind of pseudo criminal guys drag you out back and beat the shit out of you. You know, it's really, yeah, it's very Vegas-y vibes. Yes. It's like, okay. If, if you have someone who wants to be a mass shooter and shoot up a casino in Vegas, the cops got to take you out because you're crazy. But if you're trying to like plan a heist or just rob a store or something, then,
00:42:16
Speaker
the casino is going to take care of you because they're like, okay, you're going to, you're going to drive away business and we can't have that here. And I, I loved that whole, cause to me, it's just the tale as old as time, um, the bread and games where it's like the people are distracted with superheroes fighting super villains. So if you're just dressing up in your tights and just fighting each other, who cares? But it's the real bad ones. That's what we have to focus on.
00:42:44
Speaker
Yeah, they talk about that, right? Yes, yes, absolutely. Well, and that heroes need villains to be heroes. Yes, exactly. There's literally no other way for them to have that power over society, and especially because the Protectorate is a government-run thing, right? So in order to ensure that their capes have
00:43:13
Speaker
the most influence and power over society's perception of capes and like the protectorate, you need villains for them to fight and win against, which later on is the reason why Miss Pigget, Piggy that they called her, but Piggo, Piggo. Okay. Um, I think that's why she's so mad. Yeah, I think so. I think so.
00:43:42
Speaker
Um, when that gets into as well, the, the different categories of people with superpowers that, uh, take that, uh, Lisa mentions, um, where it's like, okay, you've got your regular run of the mill capes. That's 90% of people, but then you have your, um, all of them.
00:44:03
Speaker
There's the like the people who go too far. Yeah. S class threats. Um, or the one that she calls is the real monsters who are barely even human anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She actually mentions a couple of them. I'm, I want to, I wanted to pull them up really quick. I don't have them. Well, like, I don't know if it's here that they talk about somebody essentially looked and I can't remember if it was the hero of the villain even, but they found out about somebody's.
00:44:32
Speaker
at home life, you know, outside the mask and they went to their house and everybody's like, that's an absolute no, no. And you know, all of a sudden he got robloxed. Like, yeah, just where, where you cross that line. Yeah. I think they even mentioned, which this is kind of foreshadowing just the type of story this is going to be, but like male superheroes, like beating the female villains and then having their way with them.
00:45:00
Speaker
And they're just like, okay, like that's a big no, no, we have to stop you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the list here, she says, if I can quote from it, um, the people who take it all too seriously are those who wouldn't, you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of like lung only Lee heartbreaker bitch. And then there are monsters, the really dangerous motherfuckers who are barely human anymore. The slaughterhouse nine nil bog, the end bringers. Hmm.
00:45:26
Speaker
I think it's interesting that, that she mentions bitch in the same category as, uh, as lung in the term of, you know, the people who you, who you really don't want to get on the wrong side of. And I think that's interesting because I don't feel like we've really seen, like we see in here in, in the, in the, you know, the bank heist, we see what
00:45:52
Speaker
what Bitch and her dogs can do, but they don't, and while they are very vicious, are they comparable for what we've seen? Are they comparable to lung? And like from what we've seen so far, I would say probably not. But then again, if Lisa is putting Bitch and her dogs in the same category as lung, I can't wait to see when Bitch like lets loose.
00:46:20
Speaker
You know, like I. Well, I think I think it is usually worse than long, like because she clearly has we'll just call it autism for now. But like she long probably even understands that like the whole having a gang is part of the song and dance like, oh, somebody lost territory, gain territory, all that jazz bitch has no real social like
00:46:48
Speaker
understanding. She doesn't understand social cues very clearly. She doesn't understand why people ask questions. Like she doesn't understand that this is a song and dance. Like to her, she's kind of getting pointed in a direction and anybody that annoys her even is worthy of like, they just need to die because that's the easiest thing is just to kill them and get them out of the way.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah. And don't forget, of course, that even though Taylor did, of course, significantly weakened lung bitches, dogs did essentially pin him afterwards. And so just in terms of power, too. Flaming out. Yeah. Yeah. So she is she is quite strong. Yeah. But yeah, I wouldn't even think of a strength perspective, just like like they said, who takes it too seriously?
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah. For bitch, this is 100% serious for everybody else in the undersiders. They do not like, this is a, this is a job, you know, put on your uniform, you go put in your hours, you clock out. Which I think also gives perspective on their individual responses to the idea of the bank heist. Cause like Brian was very much like,
00:48:04
Speaker
Why would we do that? Like that's so risky. And like, obviously he's like, I do jobs to get money, not because I want to do this job. Like, like he's not, versus like, I can't remember specifically like bitch's reaction, but I feel like it's very much like, yeah, I'll do it. Like, of course I want to do this thing. Um, but Brian's like, I don't think the risk is worth the reward. And I think that is going to,
00:48:33
Speaker
Continue like he's not a villain to be a villain. I guess yeah. Yeah Do we want to go ahead and kick off this bank heist? Yeah, let's put the let's put the bugs in the van I was gonna say the bugs in the van We should group some chapters here Just so we can talk about the heist as a whole so we have the arrival at the bank and and sweeping through taking hostages and
00:49:02
Speaker
Taylor puts a bug on each person so she can monitor them and know where they all are without necessarily having to have eyes on them. They start backing up the money. There's a little bit of small talk with bitch. And then whoopsie-doo, the wards show up in much larger numbers than we had anticipated with quite a large little group, little six of them, I think, show up. We end up with an all-out attack with Taylor taking on clock blocker, some more fighting.
00:49:29
Speaker
Tattletale goes back into the bank. We have Kid Wind's insane cannon. And Taylor gets a fire extinguisher to the head, in which case turns around. Oh, hey, look, it's Panacea and Glory Girl hanging out in the lobby. And we have a fun little interesting moment where Taylor and her bugs and kind of getting a little bit of a headache and trying to figure out what's going on with her power. And a conversation with Tattletale and Panacea and Glory Girl
00:49:58
Speaker
and kind of a good little conversation there where Ted will play some mind games with ending it as the undersiders retreat into the rain.
00:50:10
Speaker
All right. So I'll go with the prep phase first. So as far as prepping goes, I thought it was, cause I was wondering, I was like, where's Taylor and how is Taylor going to get as many bugs as she can to the scene? Um, beautifully descriptor. They are just, and literally the image of a van full of bugs is terrifying. Penske moving van full of dogs. And then the other full of monster dogs.
00:50:36
Speaker
They roll up to this pack in heat. And the, uh, the image of, um, bitch basically having to transform these dogs slowly, like just basically like molding them and crafting them into these beasties just slowly. So she doesn't burn out. I thought that was a great just little descriptor edition. Yeah. I love that. We're kind of getting more of an insight into bitch.
00:50:59
Speaker
how she uses her powers a little bit there, which is great. Cause I mean, it's not, I mean, clearly it's not instantaneous. She can't just like poof and there's a giant monster dog.
00:51:09
Speaker
Right. And then I know that this really got to me, but I always wondered for gated communities in different areas like that, just, well, what happens when an ambulance needs to show up? And I learned when I started working at a hospital, you know, ambulances have certain transceivers to where it's just a universal code that will open up gates.
00:51:32
Speaker
for like those gated communities. And they very much so talked about that where it's like, Oh yeah, you know, SWAT teams and superheroes, we just give them codes to buildings. That way they can just get in and they immediately exploit it. And I'm like, okay, well, that was again, those little details. That's just kind of thrown in like, Oh, Hey, you know, just in case you hadn't thought about this while putting it out there. I love it. I love it. Exactly. Just craziness. Um, but the fighting.
Descriptive Fight Scenes in Arc 3
00:52:00
Speaker
Oh,
00:52:01
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Y'all, y'all told me it was great, but I was not prepared for just how great. Um, I had never thought about having telekinesis used within like an inch of a person, but then being able to personify strikes. I mean, holy cow. That was just the biggest thing that stuck out to me. I mean, what, for y'all, what was, when you read this for the first time, if you can remember, like what, what got you excited?
00:52:29
Speaker
as far as the fighting goes for me it was it's one word and it's the same word i use to describe good fight scenes visually as well in films television and that's weight like when you can feel the impacts and effects so
00:52:44
Speaker
The example I use in reading this chapter is when, when bitch jumps at ages for the first time, wraps him in the dog's tail and slams him into the ground. The way wild bow writes that he just, you feel your bones breaking as he's describing the impact and he carries it throughout the rest of the fight. Just at the weight of every throw, every punch, every hit, every bite, every sting, everything like that is just so visual. Um, it just, it sells the scene for me.
00:53:14
Speaker
The bugs and cloth blocker. Oh, my gosh. All right. We're going to enter the podcast within a podcast. Welcome to what the fuck, Taylor? Yeah. Shoving just as many bugs down clock blocker's throat as possible. And up his nose and in his ears. And up his nose and in just any hole. That's fine. In his freaking eyes. Oh, my God. You know what they say? A hole's a hole. And Taylor will find it. Oh, my God. And she'll put a bug in it.
00:53:44
Speaker
Yeah, she'll put a bug right up in it. And it gets worse because his power as he's like randomly freezing bugs in place. They're frozen in his throat. Some of them are frozen in him. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Taylor says it so nonchalantly, but like, Oh, well, let's hope he doesn't vomit because he'll choke on his vomit. Like I'm sorry. What? Taylor. Yeah. Taylor.
00:54:09
Speaker
That whole, that was so fucked up. And I was like, oh my god. That scene had my skin crawling. It had me, I don't ever want to see a bug.
00:54:25
Speaker
ever again, I didn't even have to see a bug. Oh, get ready. We're only in our three baby. Get ready for your main character right now to be nothing but bugs. I mean, obviously, but that I was not ready for the eyes, the nose, ears. It makes sense though, because her power is against certain characters. It really is essentially useless. Like against characters like ages, she knows, okay, that's a losing matchup.
00:54:54
Speaker
And even against clockwalker, like for a while, he was fine. Like he was just. The only reason he got tripped up was because he was trying to help ages and he got distracted. And, and also because he's a goofy motherfucker. And also because he's a good, yes, because he's a good describes him so well. I love, I love him. And that this just intro, even how he gets beat, he runs into one of his own frozen bugs in the air.
00:55:21
Speaker
Like, like, of course, you're not going to see it. Yeah, he knocks himself out with his own power. Like, which just goes to show what kind of a goober he is. But I also say, though, OK, daily. Oh, the only thing I was going to say, I also loved it was two jocks just trying to be smart. And they're like, what if I wore your costume and you wear mine? And then literally, since Block Blocker wasn't in his costume, he fucking got attacked.
00:55:50
Speaker
Yeah, which honestly, honestly, though, it would have worked. The only reason they looked dumb is because the undersiders have tattletale. And that's legitimately the only reason. Such a good ace. Ace up the sleeves. Oh, I love it.
00:56:05
Speaker
And I will say though, that I had my suspicions whenever they were talking about Aegis just earlier on in the chapter. They're like, Oh, you know, Aegis has the Alexandria package, but he's actually not invincible. He just heals really well and he can just damage himself and then like recover. And I had my suspicion and I was like, that sounds terrible.
00:56:25
Speaker
And then throughout the fight, and then especially in the interlude, it's like, okay, this guy punches you, just shatters his wrist, and he's got a floppy arm, and then he just keeps hitting you with it. And I'm like, this poor dude. This poor girl, just wet noodle slapping you all over the place. It sounds like he must have some kind of mental pain blocker or something with his powers too. I pray to God he does. Well, because I mean,
00:56:52
Speaker
I think that's part of the point that was like, if he would, because he has those built in redundancies, I think the theory would probably be if he would feel pain, his body just says, you're not going to feel pain. And that's like part of the package of his powers, which is so crazy. And you, you see him in this fight and it's like, you know, that, that weight, like Jacob said, where bitch's dog throws him to the ground.
00:57:16
Speaker
And then he gets up immediately. You're like, what? Yeah. I mean, I know that panacea like basically deals with the healing for most of them, but I hope that they have good health insurance because between, between grew just knocking the fuck out of vista and then Taylor knocking the fuck out of Venice panacea. And then ages get knocked out. I mean, these are just like NFL players getting CTE left and right.
00:57:41
Speaker
Although, although even then at the end, Taylor was describing how they had to hide from ages because he was probably flying around, still looking for them. Oh, just like a floppy little newly armed guy, because he's all broken. Like a limp dog just flying through the air. He's like a wind sock. You know what it is? Massive holes out of his body that he could stick his whole arm through. He is Spongebob. That's what it is. Oh my God.
00:58:12
Speaker
I just squish him and cut him and slice him up and he doesn't, he doesn't care. Oh, go ahead. I was going to say that it's interesting. You bring that up Taylor about the, like talking about, he has the Alexandria package, you know, he's invincible, but not actually. And I think that's a great foreshadowing to, Oh, look, here's glory girl. She also has the, you know, the Alexandria package and same way she's not actually invincible.
00:58:42
Speaker
And for all intents and purposes, they are all super strong, like Superman type flyers, but they all do it different ways. Yeah. Like nobody has technically the exact same power. Yeah. And, uh, speaking of, of Gloria girl, how about her confrontation with Taylor and Tattletail?
Tattletale's Strategic Advantage
00:59:09
Speaker
Ooh, Lordy. Ooh, Lordy.
00:59:11
Speaker
Tattletale almost has as big of balls of steel as freaking Wild Bo. Big dick swingin'. Big dick swingin'. I know, just like Wild Bo. Wild Bo is S tier dick and freakin' Tattletale is like AA plus. Let's go. Yeah, I love that. I love that she, I mean, she says it like, don't call me stupid because like you, by calling Tattletale stupid, you are so,
00:59:41
Speaker
vastly underestimating her and her abilities and just her kind of little glance and like, hmm, and breaks down walls. Like I, oh, I love it so much. I think, cause I know we've talked about this in previous episodes, like favorite cape of the episode, but tattletale, oh, just fricking crushed it.
01:00:03
Speaker
I love it. I love it. I loved her. I loved her jab when she's like, Oh yeah. So my power is I'm psychic. And Gloria girl's like, nah, that's not possible. She's like, bitch, you're invincible in camp fly. What are you talking about? Like look around.
01:00:20
Speaker
Oh did mommy help you get into parahuman college. I love their their their rivalry it's so great and it starts off she walks and she's like oh hey glory hole right away.
01:00:42
Speaker
It's the epitome of this brains versus bronze matchup that we see everywhere, but it's so clever. And there's an interesting... Oh, go ahead, Alan. I was gonna say, it's also really, really great because in the brains versus bronze matchup, Tattletale is so smart that, you know, she's playing these chess moves and
01:01:03
Speaker
Uh, every now and then she kind of forgets that glory girl's just going to throw Taylor at her, like just wipe the chess board and just bludgeon her. And it's like, is that the smartest option? No, but sometimes like Lisa forgets that like, oh yeah, sometimes dumb people don't do rational things and glory girl could just beat you to death. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's um, what's, what's interesting about that too is I feel like.
01:01:32
Speaker
Uh, you, you find out importantly that panacea wasn't actually manipulating Taylor. It was manipulating her spiders, which is really interesting that panacea. She obviously doesn't have the same powers that Taylor has, but clearly her powers extend to other life forms, which is really interesting. And on top of that, you kind of have, I feel like you have.
01:01:54
Speaker
brain and brain versus brain and brawn. And cause you have Taylor who's pretty smart. She seems pretty smart throughout the series. I'd say panacea is obviously very clever. Uh, tattletale is like double smart. And then you have glory girl, the semi truck.
01:02:11
Speaker
Who's like, yeah, the semi truck that you hope you can get out of the way of, but I love the subtle way that tattletale is helping Taylor while they're talking to the laser pointer, pointing it at the bug so that she could kill them. And yeah, it was just like, Oh, that was brilliant. And just, Oh, I'm so sorry. Go ahead. I was just about to say just.
01:02:34
Speaker
The fact that you have that level, because usually you'll have like a moral dilemma where it's like, Oh, since I'm this smart, I know the pain that I'll inflict. I know this. So I, so I can't, I can't ever, I can't ever stoop down to the brawn. And then she's just like, Oh, her force field. Oh, okay. And then shoots her. Yes. I was like, she is about to be a force to be reckoned with.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah. And this is going to, not to get ahead of our sections here, but I'll bring this back up when we get into favorite superpowers because the Taylor firing the gun for me, and I was like reminding myself as I'm rereading this, one of my favorite Taylor moments of the whole series. Cause it's just, it's so perfectly encapsulates the power that tell tales ability gives her and just being able to see the subtleties and weaknesses in people.
01:03:30
Speaker
Um, that gunshot comes out of nowhere. Like nobody sees it coming. And I read that night. I remember reading it for the first time and going, did, did she just kill her? Is glory girl dead? And then of course she's not, but like, Oh, it's such a good moment. Yeah. Tattletail is favorite character. Yeah. Moving on to another section of the fight. Um, I love, I kind of like kid win. I don't think he's not my favorite hero from the arc, but I love he's just like,
01:04:00
Speaker
She turns around and he's like, yeah, Kidwin is summoning a huge fucking cannon. Oh my gosh. Kidwin to me is like Green Lantern from all the new 52 DC films where he's just there and has so much power. It could do so much, but he has absolutely no idea how to handle any of it.
01:04:23
Speaker
It's like he's just back. There's so many giant weapons. Yeah, just gets wrecked by Regent. Regent just calmly walking towards him and just like flicking him off the skateboard, making him drop the gun and then stabbing him with the taser. It's like, yeah, that's about right.
Kidwin's Role and Comedic Elements
01:04:38
Speaker
And if that's the case, I'll just go ahead and just talk about him in the interlude right quick just to keep it flowing. But literally just.
01:04:46
Speaker
They're like, what are you doing? And he's like, well, you know, there's big bad enemies. Like, what is it? Threat S or what do we say? Threat S ranks. He's like, yeah, I just, I just came up with a giant weapon to like fight S class enemies. And then, you know, um,
01:05:02
Speaker
Did we say it's Pigo Pigo like director? Yeah Pigo or director Pigo is like, oh like Well, I'm gonna need to see that power source so I can totally study it You know because it's just like wait you just you just made that and he's like, yeah, you know big cannon go boom and they're like, okay and just the fact that the government so much bureaucracy, you know matter what
01:05:28
Speaker
Just no matter what galaxy you're from, literally they're just like, yeah, we're going to need to see that and inventory this cannon to make sure it works. And he's like, well, it totally did. And then it did. We just showed that he was about to blast the hell out of every one of those hostages by accident. And you notice, and they ended up using it against, against the team too, because they, that's what they get to hold ages down as region just kind of locks it in place, firing on ages.
01:05:57
Speaker
repeatedly to keep them down for a bit. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But no. So I looked up the name so we pronounce it correctly. Apparently it's pronounced Piget. Okay. That's how it's usually pronounced. Anyways. All right. Um, but yeah, that, that whole like, and again, that's that little subtle world building where they come back and she's like, did you register that weapon? Did you have it go through the proper checks? Are you sure you didn't just kill a bunch of people? Cause you wanted to play with your toys like that.
01:06:26
Speaker
Which again is a subtle world building where it's like, Oh, the heroes actually have to go through review processes for their equipment. They can't just make whatever they want and go to town. Yeah, they are held accountable. And like we see it in the interlude in after arc two with kind of Victoria and Amy and talking about how like, well, the, the, I can't remember what group are they.
01:06:47
Speaker
New Wave is under a different category, under different management as it were. But the words, they have to follow the proper process, the procedures. And they have tourists coming through that they have to put on their masks and smile and wave in their dorms for. And it's like,
01:07:10
Speaker
As much as they are like, yes, we're the young heroes of the future, but they're also under a microscope so that they stay the heroes, that they don't take little cheats here and there and here and there and then ultimately become a corrupted power from this little view we see into their world.
01:07:33
Speaker
they have to have these things set up because they're still kids. They're still underage children with crazy powers. Can we talk about how, since we've moved into the interlude, like all of the damage was done by the heroes. Yep. I feel like that was an important detail.
01:07:58
Speaker
because like, yes, obviously we have the ones that were robbing the bank, but the ones that did damage to like, as a whole, society was the heroes, not the villains in the situation. I mean, the innocence, we're just trying to rob a bank. Yeah. It's just like, let me, let me rob the bank and no one gets hurt. And they meant it. Yeah. You know, this is literally the example of like why like Walmart security doesn't chase you out when you shoplift.
01:08:28
Speaker
You know, it's like, cause you really are going to do more damage by trying to stop them. And if you're just letting them go with whatever, they're also insured for a certain amount of, you know, and I'm sure this bank was insured. I think, I think, I think they say that in, in the, yeah, they talk about how the insurance in the plans, more money. Yeah. That's actually a really good point. Yeah. But what you said, Kat, that is through how.
01:08:56
Speaker
It's this interesting contrast between how the undersiders are so careful about their plans. Taylor is so careful about making sure that everybody's safe. No innocence get hurt. And then the heroes come in and they're just reckless. They invite a glory girl without telling their squad team. They use unauthorized weapons. They're throwing tables and buildings and smashing streets together with vistas power. Like.
01:09:23
Speaker
They're just so, yeah, I think you're right. Like it is an interesting point that they see, they come across very disorganized and very chaotic. Um, and obviously of course, these are the wards, they're the teenage heroes. Uh, you would hope that the protector at the professional heroes, they wouldn't behave like this, but you get the sense that the heroes are definitely not as careful as they should be for heroes. Yeah. And can we just quickly mention.
01:09:50
Speaker
My favorite, favorite line of the interlude, gallon subtle. Just put it on my tab director. Oh, man. I've got that. And then she's like, actually, no, no, I'm not. We're not doing that. I love that though, because it's her recognition of like, look, you can't just buy your way out of this. Like there are going to be consequences and there are going to be financial consequences.
01:10:15
Speaker
You are a fucking team. So you're going to pay the price like a fucking team, which I love. I just love it. I do like to, um, the conversation between Gallant and Panacea is really interesting too, about Panacea. I don't know. It's an interesting side of a superhero you don't really see because yeah, most of the heroes that we read about, they're the ones with the big powers, you know, they've got the super strength or the super speed.
01:10:42
Speaker
They rescue the people, but panacea's power is a lot simpler than that. She can just heal people. That means that she feels this immense pressure that other heroes don't really feel. Cause there's not always a car to be stopped or a bank robber, bank robbery to be stopped, but there's always sick people. And I felt so bad. She literally said I could spend 20 hours
Panacea's Power Struggles
01:11:03
Speaker
a day healing people in a hospital and millions and billions will still die. Yeah. And I just felt so bad for her.
01:11:12
Speaker
And it's just crazy. I love that he did the deep dive into like, yeah, I was healing this boy and he was sleeping soundly. And I was so jealous. Like, I was like, why can't I do that? Yeah. And it just makes you just feel, I think she's going to play a huge part of this story just because, wow. And the juxtaposition between her and her sister. Yes. Since Glory Girl is just a walking, like,
01:11:39
Speaker
destruction bulldozer yeah bulldozer she's just a wrecking ball in her like she's if she wants to do something she'll do it but she'll probably do it a little too hard and versus panacea is over here like I am trying to help everyone I can and it is never ever going to be even a little bit close to enough because her power is extreme like
01:12:09
Speaker
help to society that she just doesn't feel like she can get to, like she can help with. And Gloria girl's just like, Oh man, I almost killed another one. Can you please come coat? Can you come fix them real quick so that I don't get in trouble. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And the mystery of who her dad is too, is such an interesting thing that I forgot about that like realizing that she's not really related and all that stuff. Yeah. I'm interested to learn who her villain daddy is.
01:12:37
Speaker
As your dad, who's your dad? Who's your daddy be? Well, are we at that time? Any other final thoughts or should we move? There's one more thing. Oh, OK. They finally named her. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There are lots on the name skitter. I was pissed. What do you think, Taylor? I was I was mad. I was like, oh, skitter.
01:13:02
Speaker
I was like, oh man, we could have definitely come up. But I did, I absolutely love that scene because he's like, well, what about Van Halen? And they're like, oh, there's already a rock band named that. He's like, well, what about ZZ Top? Oh, well, there's a country band that he's like, damn it. And literally just having to like cycle through all of the index to find a new name. Yeah. Yeah. I like the idea that they probably were also thinking like Venom, but they were like, oh no, that's that Marvel villain.
01:13:30
Speaker
Like that exists in the world. Eartha left already has that, actually. Yeah, exactly. When I like to that, they even think about how the name will be taken by the public.
Significance of 'Skitter' Identity
01:13:41
Speaker
So like, what if we just call her maggot? Because they and they're like, no, it looks it looks bad if we lost to a girl named maggot.
01:13:50
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Their main choice was highly. Sorry. Go ahead. Oh no. I was just going to say, it's interesting too, that a couple of them think that she's a guy at first. But clock blocker corrects them because he knows. No, no, no, no guys. It was a chick. I totally know. She attacked me first. She totally kicked my ass.
01:14:16
Speaker
A dude wouldn't have kicked my ass. It was totally a chick. What were you saying, Katn? Oh, yeah, go ahead. I was just trying to say that I just really liked that they were like, there's absolutely no way that we can have a stupid name person beating us. Like, we got, we completely, like, we sucked, we did terrible, but there's just absolutely no way that we can have not give her a bad name because we're going to lose, they need to sound,
01:14:44
Speaker
badass, which I guess he does sound scary to them. Skitter is badass. Well, I think I don't know if it's badass. It's just it's mundane. It's neither good nor bad. Yeah. I was going to say, Kat, I really do want to know your thoughts on Skitter as a as a name or as a place or a name. It's unique.
01:15:09
Speaker
That's what people say to parents of kids when the name isn't good. Wow, that's unique. That's your kid's name? Oh, that's unique. I just feel like there are a lot of options, plug related options, and they, yeah, they got there quick, but I'm curious to see how Taylor, our main character, Taylor, what she thinks about it when it comes out in like
01:15:38
Speaker
Yeah. The newspaper, you know, whenever the, we get that scene of the newspaper spinning really fast and we see the headline. I love it. She's like, they call me what real quick. I just want to throw in again, just weird powers that we don't know fully what they do, but miss militia, we meet her and she just like is randomly cycling weapons.
01:16:01
Speaker
It's like, I don't remember more details about her, honestly, from the story. So to me, I'm just like, is her power just like cycling through the call of duty gun menu? Like what? She's playing gun game all the time. Exactly. Should we do a favorite superpowers or favorite capes from the arc? Yeah, do our two favorite capes and we'll end with Kat and I with our predictions. I like it. Oh yeah. Uh, I as always, uh, love, um, glory girl. You know, does this cover?
01:16:32
Speaker
of her power kind of. It's so interesting and unique. And yeah, I just really like her and the power all the time. All right. I already said it, but Tattletale is just big dick swinging this arc. Just absolutely. And I love I love seeing her thought process like an action like that with their conversation in the in the bank, just
01:16:56
Speaker
Oh, it's so good. And she's toying with them the whole time. And I just, oh, I love it. I eat it right up. Yeah. I'll let go. I'll let go. Hannah that'll tell us to stand out for me. This arc. Yeah. I, I always kind of gravitate towards the really weird or unique powers. And I think Vista is the one that stands out for me. This one. Um, just because it's one of those powers where kind of like Taylor's at first, you're like, okay, you can stretch your strength space or
01:17:27
Speaker
fine, but then when it's applied by the right person and obviously Vista is in a way kind of a reflection of Taylor because she's 13. She's young. She has no idea what she's doing. Um, she's an actual kid in these super dangerous situations, which is terrifying to me. Um, but just this idea of what can you do by manipulating space? It's such an interesting idea to think through the available abilities that she would have as a superhero going forward.
01:17:57
Speaker
Um, and I don't remember how much it gets explored with her or if she comes back up much, but just that idea I thought was really interesting as a super power.
01:18:06
Speaker
Um, I guess, uh, for me, cause he didn't get talked about a lot, but, um, bro beat or brow beat, um, just, yeah, just because he wasn't, yeah, he wasn't explained a lot, but just the fact that telekinesis was used in that way to where it's like, Oh, like he's this giant, just muscular dude. But then in reality, he's spongebob with the arms that just,
01:18:28
Speaker
Really quick like right before the fight that just was awesome and because then he literally like Like shrinks back down afterwards where he's like, yeah, you know, but um, and then for my prediction side of it Obviously when I brought up did 9-11 happen that leads that's gonna that's gonna be a recurring thing every week but this uh, this just leads straight into it with um director piggett had a line where she's like
01:18:55
Speaker
Y'all are not going to undo all that i've built and immediately anytime any government employee or anything is like you're not going to undo what i.
01:19:08
Speaker
This is my prediction.
Protectorate's Secret Funding of Villains
01:19:10
Speaker
This is going to be a story to where it's OK, we have to undo the status quo because there's actually like the big bank roller behind the scenes is actually some protectorate guy that's paying villains to make sure that heroes can fight that like it's going to be that whole like big smorgasbord thing. So I think that I think that the big boss behind the scenes is definitely Mr. G from the school.
01:19:40
Speaker
It's definitely mr. G pulling the strings but extremely sinister now because he's like if I can just eat my students occupied Maybe they won't be bullying everybody, but that's what I got I Think my favorite superpower was actually clock blocker. I hate his name. I think he himself is
01:20:04
Speaker
still a little goofy and needs some work. But I think that the power is really interesting. Instead of calling it just freezing the way that you would see it normally where they would just be like, oh, they're freezing them. But to think that it's a time, that thing is frozen in time, I just thought that was really interesting and how it becomes a hard force that you absolutely cannot get through until the power wears off.
01:20:34
Speaker
So that was my favorite superpower to learn about this arc. He's definitely my second favorite power. Predictions. I think professor haywire is going to come up because I don't, you know, if you discover an alternate earth, there's no way that that's the only thing you did. Um, so I'm interested to see some more information on who professor haywire is and how much his diet comes into, but.
01:21:02
Speaker
Oh, that's fine. I want to see how I think Taylor is going to be resistant to her name at first.
Taylor's Moral Dilemma Post-Heist
01:21:12
Speaker
I don't think she's going to be like, oh, yep, that's good. I'll take it. Like, I think she's going to be like, no, I don't want that. And then it's just going to stick to where she can't avoid it any longer. And I again, I'm continuing on my strong feelings that
01:21:30
Speaker
As we continue going forward, she's gonna get more and more into the undersiders. I don't think that she's coming back from this bank heist, thinking that she's still gonna be able to be a superhero. I think that after that conversation with Arms Master, she's not quite seeing the good guys as always good, so.
01:21:56
Speaker
And Jacob, if you don't mind right before you say your ending thing and we can completely, we can completely delete this audio of mine if y'all disagree. But I thought a hilarious homework would be at the very beginning of next episode. We all take one show movie piece of media.
01:22:13
Speaker
And what is the funniest way that Earth Adolph like changed it? Yeah, Earth Adolph is wild. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Earth a left. Like what is what is one thing that you think would be hilarious that Earth a left would do differently?
01:22:35
Speaker
Well, we're definitely on Earth now. On Earth Adolph, the Empire would definitely have won in Star Wars. No, absolutely. The Empire would have definitely won in real life. Yeah. All right. Well, if there's no other final thoughts here, we'll go ahead and
01:22:55
Speaker
and conclude this episode where we discussed Arc3. Thanks for everybody for contributing and thanks to everyone else who listened. It's been a lot of fun. We're definitely going to keep it going. Next episode will be Arc4. So same theme, same process we've had going here.
01:23:11
Speaker
arc four plus the interlude. We're going to discuss that on the next episode. And stay tuned for part two of this episode, where Alan and I break down arc three and talk about adaptions and what a screenplay would look like for this portion. And maybe or maybe not how many episodes this would take. It's going to be a lot of fun. And thanks again for listening. Michael, you want to play us out?
01:24:08
Speaker
All right. Bring it into the part two. Let's go. All right. Well, here we are.
Adapting Worm into a Show: Creative Ideas
01:24:17
Speaker
Once again, myself, Jacob and Alan back to break down arc three of worm approaching it from a a adaption perspective, adapting it to visual media, television, film, etc.
01:24:36
Speaker
And kind of how we would go about restructuring and sort of reorganizing the story into something a bit different. I know that we talked about cold opens. You know, I want to jump right into this. Yeah. I like the cold open for this, but let me tell you that I also love like an opening credits sequence.
01:25:04
Speaker
And Taylor's going, like Taylor going on a jog because it happens so often is the perfect time to be putting. Uh, just, you know, the title or the credits over it while, while she's jogging around the city. Also a great opportunity to show the city as it progresses. Yeah. Yep. I agree. Yeah. No, you definitely couldn't.
01:25:32
Speaker
But if we were going to do our like title sequence, you know, like one that's just, you know, every time at the beginning, I think. Running around the city, the different parts, literally like having, you know, the different gangs and stuff as she goes by the different areas of town. And of course, at the end, she ends up on the pier looking over the water. There's a bright flash of light.
01:26:01
Speaker
and her silhouette, you know, with the protectorate headquarters off to the left. Right. And then all like all black with the white letters worm. Yeah. Yeah. I do like that. No, I love the imagery of her running. I think that's it's because it comes back a lot. It's sort of it's it's it's very definitive for her character. So I think that makes a lot of sense. And you don't have to do it every time. Just every time you don't have one of those good
01:26:30
Speaker
cold opens with just the worm on the screen. Yeah, no, I agree. The other thing too is that because the way this interlude sort of picks up right at the end of the arc, you could only ever do it as a cold open two ways, either one,
01:26:45
Speaker
It's like a sort of ominous, you know, three days later and then after the cold open, we do like a three days prior, that kind of thing. And we don't really fill in the details or two. And this might just be the better bet. Although I can't remember because I haven't read the next arc yet. I haven't reread it. And I can't remember what that interlude is, but this could just be the cold open for the next episode after the bank heist is that you just open on the wards.
01:27:12
Speaker
You know episode four and the cold open is their reaction to the previous episode. Yeah, you know I'll even say that I think this might be the first episode that we Potentially
Balancing Episode Complexity and Pacing
01:27:29
Speaker
have to split in two
01:27:31
Speaker
You know what? I didn't, I was thinking it. I didn't quite write that down, but I was thinking, I was going, as I was looking over this, I was like, man, this is going to be a long episode. There's a lot here. This goes on for a little while. I'll usually do it, but I'm going to pull out my pen right now. Okay. Pulling out my pen, I'm going to my notebook. Yep. And I'm going to say it's after the beating with Arms Master. Okay. Okay. All right. Interesting. So everything, oh man, I wish I had some better notes because
01:28:01
Speaker
Everything before Arms Master is the breakdown in the loft, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. Yeah, it starts with the jog, goes to school. Yep. All the stuff in the loft. Yep. OK. So then, and then leave. Yeah, then after the after Arms Master. That could work. That could work. That could absolutely work.
01:28:31
Speaker
And then just have the entire heist as the like the next episode. Yeah, because there's there's two options. There's one is to finish it with arms master. With, you know, on that tension, you know, or you finish it on. The taking hostages. And it's Taylor's idea. Yeah.
01:29:01
Speaker
I'm a little more inclined for that route simply because aside from episodes one, the fight with Lung, episode two is pretty character driven. There's not a lot of action, not a lot of movement. It's a lot of character development and introductions. So if you do more of that in episode three pacing wise, it's probably gonna be pretty slow. So it might be a good idea to get into the heist a bit
01:29:29
Speaker
Just to sort of kind of ramp that up. Yeah. And then, and then cut there. I like it though. Yeah. This could easily be, easily be two episodes.
Exposition vs. Dialogue in Engagement
01:29:38
Speaker
I was just thinking about like, that's, that's a perfect place after having the meeting with arms master. And for her essentially to give him the middle finger by not only aiding in a betting, but contributing good idea on making this even more evil. Yeah. Yeah.
01:30:00
Speaker
All right, let's operate for the sake of framing some of this. We'll go ahead. We'll kind of frame it for one episode since it's one arc. But I definitely like the idea of splitting this one up for nothing else just to help build the tension. And then in addition to that, too, because, oh, another good reason to split it is because we get that introduction to the wards via Paddle Tail.
01:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, Lisa. Um, and so having that payoff really come in the following episode could, could work well as opposed to just cramming it all into one episode. Yeah. I guess, I guess you could do it with, uh, if you wanted to do it with the wards arriving larger, I think having like the super chaotic right out the back of them bagging money, you know, getting into a fight with bitch already.
01:30:56
Speaker
And then the wards showing up and, you know, it being like, well, when, you know, they weren't supposed to show up to later. Also, there's way more of them than they're supposed to be. Right. Right. We just kick off the, uh, you know, the first half of the episode with the action, you know, we go hog wild and then you kind of slow it down with all the negotiation and finish it off pretty nicely. Just, you know, walking out.
01:31:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's the thing with these. And I think we're going to have this this flexibility with a lot of these arcs is you can drag out or or condense action scenes to fit whatever length you need. Right. Oh, yeah. We need some more time. They just fight a little longer. Oh, you know, we need to get to the ending. You know, you just end the fight a little sooner. There's so much room to work with. So we can absolutely focus on
01:31:49
Speaker
a couple of characters fighting over here over there versus like they're just in the background while two people or your main girl is fighting. I mean a perfect example is in in this arc right so during kind of the big showdown between uh with Lisa and Taylor versus glory girl in panacea kind of that whole scene I mean that takes up like a majority of those chapters
01:32:14
Speaker
meanwhile the fight is still going on outside so like you could easily cut back and forth you know building tension going over here coming back there's so many ways that you can play around with with that whole scene it can just it can take forever if you wanted it to oh yeah um yeah before i you know start monopolizing stuff is there anything you want to go over uh kicking off this arc uh kicking not not particularly i got a few
01:32:43
Speaker
a few things that that in order because my big thing whenever I'm whenever I'm watching a show especially of any sort of fantasy or or science fiction something like that where there's a an extensive world that's ripe for exploration when I'm watching that on television I hate
01:33:07
Speaker
exposition. I hate rote exposition where a character is just sitting down and explaining the story.
01:33:15
Speaker
nostalgia aside, perfect example, the Star Wars title crawls right at the beginning. Like we love them now and nobody else does them because they're too iconic and we love the way they make us feel when we see a new title crawl. But the fact that if you, if you have to contain your story to a title crawl in order to get your audience up to speed nowadays, I think most people will get to that pretty lazy writing, right? We see variations of that.
01:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, you're 100% right. I have never liked the title crawl in Star Wars for that reason. Yeah. But I have always loved the title crawl for its like epic aesthetic. Oh, 100%. Like, I mean, it sets the tone and everything.
01:34:04
Speaker
Yeah, I can't, I can't knock it. It's perfect. It's what makes Star Wars. I mean, you got, it's a whole, it's a whole thing. And of course, yeah, I mean, if you're, if you've got a style and everything like that, then that's one thing leads into that space opera. Yeah. Oh yeah. Very much so. Like having, uh, there's some books where it'll be like, you know, the not, not the characters. There's another word for it. Like they'll essentially be like the cast and order of appearance. And I'm like, I'm reading a book, but okay. And it literally gives you everybody in their pronunciations, like up front.
01:34:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. More referring to, and you see this, you'll see this a lot, a lot of times today where you're not getting a title crawl, but you will get like a few, like over a black screen, right? You'll get some text of narration. It's the year 2100 and mankind is on the brink of extinction. Yada, yada, yada. Like, you know, you don't, to the mech warrior franchise as always, you know, the year, you know,
01:35:01
Speaker
It's the 23rd century, and mankind is once again at war. And that's all they have to say. It's so good every time. Yeah, but all that to say, if we can avoid just spitting out exposition, then we need to.
01:35:22
Speaker
in terms of how it died. And I say that only because the scene when reading this, the point where that popped in my head was when Lisa is running through the wards, running through the list of the wards. It was who, what their powers are, yada, yada. And it goes on, it works really well when you're reading it as a book. But like, if we're just sitting there listening to her say that,
01:35:51
Speaker
you're going to lose the audience. There's not enough to keep an audience engaged just listing out characters and their powers. So we have to do something with that, whether it's you're cutting to the ward specifically, the character, and you're watching a quick scene of them displaying their powers, or if there's another way to do it.
01:36:14
Speaker
But that's, that's the only thing initially. I liked that for like some comedic bits, but even then the cutting to them and cutting back kind of irritates me a little. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's not, yeah, you got to do it well if you're going to do it. I, I think the, and I can't believe I'm saying this because I don't actually like it. Uh, I think the guardians of the galaxy exposition.
01:36:40
Speaker
of going around in the circle. Everybody makes their snide remark while we're talking about people. I think is a great because they even do it later. Like the heroes even do it. The wards do it when they're talking about the villains. You literally have the same exact thing, but in reverse. Yeah. So in this case, like I think it works if we're back at the meeting room or going around the table.
01:37:09
Speaker
We're maybe bringing up some personal history about characters, but for the most part, I do genuinely think that this is interesting enough, that it makes it worthwhile to have it said, but for it to be done quickly and with witty dialogue.
01:37:32
Speaker
And yeah, and maybe that really is the, just the solution is just to, is just to shorten all of that to just one or two quips. Right. Because, because you're
Action Scenes Revealing Character Traits
01:37:42
Speaker
right. We do want to hear about it, especially because specifically with the, with the heist itself, we need to be aware of what ages and, and clock blocker can do because they switch uniforms and we didn't know why that's significant. So we need to know enough about who they are to understand the importance of that.
01:38:00
Speaker
that moment during the heist. So, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe it is just as simple as just shortening that down to, like you said, a quick quip, a one line or something kind of witty while they're prepping for the heist in other ways, something like that, just sort of getting Taylor up to speed. Yeah, because I think given the amount of thinking that we are already going to be cutting out, which is a great deal, I think this show is going to fluctuate wildly between
01:38:30
Speaker
Uh, good character moments, you know, good dialogue back and forth. Um, a lot of exposition as well. And then some just bad-ass fights. Oh, yeah. And sometimes, uh, those will be entire arcs. Like, I don't think the, you know, the explanation might take up a chapter, but fights will take up an entire arc.
01:38:59
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. And character moments will take up, you know, an entire chapter. So I don't think that we'll be crowding. You're going to be crowding with exposition up front. But I don't think it's unwarranted for people who are coming into this world. Yeah, I think I think.
01:39:24
Speaker
There's a lot more that we could be putting in because we're we would be doing good editing. We're not going to. One example that I have written down are pretty early on is I would love to show off why Taylor specifically picked running. Hmm. And we know from flashbacks that it's because Emma, I think, picked like a bunch of boys on her.
01:39:52
Speaker
Right. And they ran after her and she outran them, but she got just winded immediately. And she was like, yeah, I'm not about to have that. Yeah. Yeah. So she started running. Right. But I don't think it would be prudent for us to show it even in a tiny flashback. I think it would be better. She like runs up and Brian hands her the coffee and goes.
01:40:21
Speaker
Like when did you start running? She's like about the same time that, you know, Emma started like telling the cross country team to like chase me down. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do. I like that. I see. I see where you're where you're going with that. In fact, I think that's going to be a reoccurring theme is there are a lot of thoughts in her head that I think we need other people to pull out of her. Oh, that's good. I like that.
01:40:50
Speaker
Cause you're right. We do just naturally in changing the medium, we're going to lose a lot of that internal monologue just naturally. Yeah, that's good. I think that's, I think that's pretty smart. And again, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. Like that's how you insert exposition without having to read it off of a flashcard. Right. Yeah. You work it into the story, into the dialogue so that it flows so that it feels really natural.
01:41:20
Speaker
Which actually makes me think about something, you know, that I'll probably come to have come to, you know, in the other section. But I think Tattletale. Tattletale's power is literally exposition. Like, yeah. Yeah. And what she does. Kind of in and out of combat is just exposits. Yeah. So.
01:41:47
Speaker
You have to attach it to somebody who's really witty and interesting, who makes the exposition fun. And Lisa does that pretty well. Yeah. Like when she's talking about things with Taylor, not only is she informing her about stuff, but she's also like you can feel it's an active bonding experience with her. She is telling you this
01:42:14
Speaker
because she's relating to you because she cares, like that's what she's doing for Taylor. And then in other points, she's doing it because it's her job, you know, there's like, she's giving information across at all times, that's just who she is and her power. But also, she does it in different ways. And I really like that because she is our main exposition for this chapter or for this arc. Yeah.
01:42:42
Speaker
And I mean, and that's perfect. And like there's some subtle rules to exposition that you can follow in order because like sometimes there's no way around it. You have to put you have to put that in into the script somewhere. So little things like as long as you're not like as long as two characters aren't talking and one character is explaining something to the other character that the other character would definitely know. Right.
01:43:09
Speaker
Like, for example, if during that quick cold open with Glory Girl and Panacea, if Glory Girl was explaining to Panacea who their parents were, that wouldn't sound right. But they don't have that. She has a Glory Girl explaining to the criminal.
01:43:27
Speaker
who their parents are, right? So that exposition works. Yeah, exactly. And that works in that scenario because that's natural and that's how you would explain it, but you wouldn't have them explaining it to each other. So, and the nice thing about the setup we have with Taylor and the Undersiders is that Taylor is sort of the POV character for the audience in the sense that she is new to the world of, of capes. And so she can sort of be that sponge to absorb
01:43:57
Speaker
the exposition from Taylor from Brian Hoover maybe and it not feel terribly out of place to have things explained to her. And by extension explained to the audience when necessary. So there's definitely places we can put that in and Taylor. I mean, Lisa definitely makes the most sense for that. Yeah. Let's see. I like the continued mystery that we've got going on of the boss. I think that's something
01:44:26
Speaker
There's a few things in here that I, you know, obviously I'm not sitting behind the camera. I'm, you know, writing this out. But I think we need to emphasize like the mystery of the boss kind of. Everybody wants to know. And I think continuing to play that up is pretty good. I have another note in here somewhere about, you know, maybe like playing up the name until this chapter is pretty is a pretty good
01:44:56
Speaker
Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah, a few things like that. And it's funny, it feels like, and we kind of mentioned this briefly, maybe last episode or before, but Wild Bo definitely wrote the story. It feels like he definitely wrote the story with some cinematic framing in mind. And maybe that's just the nature of the serialized format, just two chapters a week. So they're just getting through everything.
01:45:27
Speaker
But there's elements like that that just play really well and adapt really well for television, where, like you said, you have those subtle mysteries that audiences sort of speculate on week to week.
01:45:43
Speaker
The fact that we had the interlude with glory girl and panacea previously, like last episode, and then we see them this episode, like it's just such a perfect sort of, uh, introduction. And then, and then we, and then seeing them in the next episode is perfect. Um, yeah, a lot of little things like that, that are, that make, make our, our job easier. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, let's see, we gotta, I mean, cause one of the exposition things is he,
01:46:11
Speaker
Like everybody's going to ask about how powers work. Mm hmm. Like it's just going to be something in your head. And, you know, Wild Bo has an answer for everything. And you've got to have him talk about the man to an effect. So, yeah, like that's one of those things where like, yeah, it's just raw exposition to talk about that. But like, you got to talk about it. Yeah. And that's that's an easy one to slip into a conversation with Taylor because
01:46:43
Speaker
I shouldn't even, I think even in the story,
Pivotal Dialogue: Taylor and Arms Master
01:46:45
Speaker
right? She doesn't know what it is or she's like, I'm not familiar. I'm not familiar with it to some extent. So yeah, really easy way to rope that in. Um, there's a, there's a lot of ways cause you're right there. That's going to be necessary for people to understand. Yeah. I think cutting, there's a section after she talks to arms master, which I think is just going to be such an intense scene. Oh, I want, I can't wait.
01:47:13
Speaker
I'm speaking as if we're manifesting this into a show. I have a hard time on the daily not thinking that this is currently in production. No, we're gonna. That's okay. That's why we're here. That's what we're doing. We're willing it. We're willing it into existence. I'm manifesting it right now. That scene between between Taylor and Arts Master just because of how much of a contrast it is from their first conversation. I thought you were about to say there.
01:47:45
Speaker
of a contrast it is between her first conversation just to build up the starting to see glimpses of like who arms master really is. Oh, I can't can't wait. It's such a good scene. Yeah, I think it's also you were talking about doing the little end credit scene with like the post credit scene with like the ripple in the water. Yeah, a little little tease. You know, we got a little bit more tease of that now.
01:48:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna say too much more. But you know, yeah, we get talked about like, you know, I like all that gets thrown up right away. Is Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the cops and robbers speech is another one of those like, that's how the world works. The you know, the these are the we're still laying the foundation for how this world works. And I think that the explanation is
01:48:43
Speaker
genuinely interesting enough to break. You know, a lot of that show don't tell. Yeah. And I know what you mean. Because if you're watching this, you've seen superheroes done every which way under the sun. Yeah. And the problem is. I'll say with the exception of the boys. Most of them are done pretty much the same.
01:49:13
Speaker
And there are some oddities out there. But I'll be honest, they're not good enough to warrant even like they don't first off, I don't think they have good explanations. And to like, they're not that interesting or that deep in terms of like, how their systems work to warrant an explanation. I'm thinking Umbrella Academy in particular in my head. Yeah, okay. That makes sense.
01:49:43
Speaker
Well, and it's one of those things, too, where, like, ever since, really, we had superhero films before the Marvel explosion, but in a post-Marvel world, post-Iron Man 1 world, right, audiences are just so familiar with the superhero setting that you can just start a story in that setting, and no one's really gonna bat an eye. They're just gonna go, they're just gonna accept
01:50:11
Speaker
Okay, this is a world of superheroes. That's fine. Yeah, right. So if you can Improve on that right if you can if you can interject a little bit of that Little bit more right there's there's just there's just something here. It's just not quite right then now you've sort of
01:50:35
Speaker
roped people in beyond just the general appeal of the genre. And I think worm absolutely has that. So it's all about, it's all about subtly keeping that intrigue present throughout the story. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. You know, it just makes me think like, you don't, yeah, yeah. I'll move on, move on. Uh,
01:51:06
Speaker
they went a lot of expectations. We talked about that. Kicking off the bank sequence that feels really good.
Intricacies of the Bank Heist Sequence
01:51:14
Speaker
Man, I'm just imagining worst like, oh, go ahead. We've had our essentially a one v one superhero showdowns. You know, we've got the opening with long. And after that, we have little interactions between people we have. But no full on like, um, you know,
01:51:36
Speaker
Super, you know, a cape versus cape battle. You haven't had that since the beginning. Yeah. And. This is a throw down like what seven be. Honestly, like four. Yeah. And I read about it's a good it's a good fight. It's a it's a drawn out. I genuinely and also I genuinely forgot
01:52:05
Speaker
All those other people showed up at the thing. I, from what I remember, I remember the entirety of the, uh, the Victoria Amy sequence because it's the most impactful. Yeah. Like the other people is just getting their asses kicked, you know?
01:52:21
Speaker
I remember, I remembered that and I remembered just, uh, I remembered the, the turn that bitch makes with her dogs to jump on ages. That's it. I was like, I remembered that and I heard the confrontation, but no, it was so much. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, that whole sequences, uh, Oh.
01:52:42
Speaker
Something I had here is an edit. So the bank sequence gets started. And right away, they've got the two. Essentially, I'm imagining like the moving vans. Yep. And one of them is full of bugs. Right. And I would like to think that we have this entire driving sequence. With tattletale.
01:53:12
Speaker
Um, that is like, we could somehow subtly being showing like the bugs, maybe not obvious, but like, maybe there's more bugs on the window shield than there should be while they're talking. Right. Um, and then they show up and like grew as like, I thought, you know, like, I thought you were going to be late. And, you know, I was like, we're right on time. Like we let you, he's like, yeah, she'll left like an hour early and
01:53:42
Speaker
You know, they're like, well, we needed to get, you know, needed to get everything and they throw open the thing and, you know, all the bugs are packed inside. Yeah. And, you know, of course he goes, do you have enough? And she goes like, this is after I, like she's, this is what, like we drive around so I could pick the good ones. Yeah. Like this isn't even all of them.
01:54:04
Speaker
Oh, no, it's great. Like, we get a taste of Taylor's power in the first episode, right, when the fight with Lung. But it's nighttime, and even if visually you throw a bunch of swarms out there, just in the nature of the setting, you're gonna lose some of that impact, especially because Lung is such a presence in that scene, he's gonna be distracting. But like, when she throws open the van, and just the swarm comes oozing out under her command,
01:54:33
Speaker
marching towards the bank like it's going to be such an image like it just looks so good now here here's my question do you do you play with a little bit of fire and throw like a it makes no sense at the time them driving this van around stopping randomly having a you know turn to each other conversation
01:55:03
Speaker
start the van back up, move again. Oh, I see. And they do this a couple of times and you're just like, and it cuts to wide shots while they're talking of them. Just like there. Yeah. And if you notice, you notice, but like maybe subtly in the background, you've got streams of bugs coming in. Yeah. But very subtle. And you know, otherwise you're just like, this is some terrible CW show, you know, choices. Yeah. And then, you know, they hit you with the,
01:55:33
Speaker
Oh, why were y'all so late? Oh, because we had to make a couple stops and pick up these bad boys and throws the thing open and it's full of bugs. Yeah. Right. Right. And that's good. Oh, it wasn't just terrible choices. It was. You know, the creators were fucking with us. I don't I don't hate that. You know, I don't hate that. I actually like that. There's you could you could absolutely get clever with how you do that.
01:56:02
Speaker
One thing tonally with the heist scene that I think is going to be interesting to play around with is especially just knowing where the story goes. There's no way you can avoid a, a R or mature rating for the show, just in terms of visuals alone, what you see. And it's hard because really in this type of genre,
01:56:30
Speaker
The only times we really see grotesque powers are comedic, right? With like Deadpool or the boys or animated. There's not a lot of, I don't want to say serious because it's not really the right word, but there's not a lot of live action
01:56:57
Speaker
sort of body horror fantasy, really. There's not a lot of it. So like, for example, Aegis's power, right, is gross. Like he could just get cut up,
Depicting Powers Visually
01:57:13
Speaker
bruised. I mean, in the interlude, right? Like him in the interlude, just like with half a jaw and just just holes throughout his body is such a crazy image. But you
01:57:25
Speaker
It's funny in the sense that it's absurd, but it's not a comedy. They're having real conversations and things like that. Tonally, it's going to be really interesting. How do we approach that visceral use of these powers without it crossing into just absurd humor? Yeah. Yeah.
01:57:55
Speaker
I think there's going to be some of these that are like, like you said, they're just so absurd that that's just going to be how they are. You're looking at the sky. You're like, that's kind of gross. And it's, you know, and he's acting like nothing's wrong because that's his power. But then you're going to get to stuff later. And there's nothing funny about it. Like there's no comedic element, you know. Yeah.
01:58:25
Speaker
I think I think this is actually a good way to ease people into the like concept that gore and body horror is a part of this. I mean, every time I think about bitches, dogs, they kind of invoke Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. From Oh, yeah. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Oh, OK. Where the skin is kind of getting so stretched, it becomes clear.
01:58:55
Speaker
And you know, it's the flesh is like ripping out because all the muscles underneath are bulging out and it's very like, all I can think of is like pink flesh. Right. If you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like all the skin is ripped off and you know, all that stuff underneath and that's what the dogs look like. It's that with like bone spikes. Right. Like they're disgusting. Yeah. Oh no, they're gross.
01:59:23
Speaker
Like, that is what happens. They rip their skin off when they, you know, molt. Yeah. No. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe this will. This would be a pretty good sort of introduction to the style of powers and combat that people are going to expect or should be expecting, especially as the arcs continue. Yeah. Anyway, that's beyond the writing. It's into storyboarding and visuals. Yeah.
01:59:53
Speaker
Meeting with some I would genuinely be curious as to see somebody get around a lot of the more gory elements of this. Mm hmm. Through some creative, you know, director is another one of those like somebody who can really nail it by playing inside the boundaries. Was using some creative talents to
02:00:19
Speaker
you know, to make you feel the same sort of uncomfortableness without actually showing it. Yeah, I think that would be interesting. This kind of marked for both, but I think really showing off the chaos of what's going on while we're in the bank. And this is this is, you know, kind of going to overlap with what we talked about in part one. But, you know,
02:00:48
Speaker
Taylor, this is Taylor's moment, you know, it's the moment of, you know, most other movies or TV shows, you know, the explosions going off, their ears are ringing, everybody's shouting, like, what do we do? What do we do? And, you know, all of a sudden, you know, whatever, whichever character, you know, steps up, it's like you do this, you do that, you know, they come into their own. And this is Taylor's. Yep.
02:01:15
Speaker
And just yeah, I think really emphasizing during this back section, that like, there is a rhythm that we hit when it comes to chaos. And it is Taylor's rhythm. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. It's a big moment for her. I mean, not just in terms of her character development, but just in terms of
02:01:45
Speaker
Uh, how she, how she handled herself in these fights. Cause we're going to see this progression continue throughout the
Hooks to Engage Viewers
02:01:52
Speaker
story. And it kind of, it kind of starts here. Like I, you could make the argument it starts with, with lung, but I mean, really it starts here. Yeah. Yeah. And this is sort of, this arc even, cause this is, I mean, we, we, I take it back. I take it back. It starts with bitch.
02:02:15
Speaker
OK, fair, fair. I forgot. OK, it does start there because she finally has the you know, why the fuck should I not? Yep. And still, I did not think I was going to enjoy that scene as much as I did, but I keep coming back to it. Yeah, that. And then you have, you know, you go from there to the arms master conversation. And then all the way to now where, you know, in the middle of it,
02:02:43
Speaker
And this scene really is sort of the effect of that arms master conversation, or the result, I should say. I mean, it just builds into the scene so perfectly.
02:03:00
Speaker
This whole episode, I think, is gonna be, like I said, we probably would split it up, but just thinking of this in terms of one episode, this would be the episode that I feel like people who are trying to convince their friends to watch the show would be like, oh, you guys gotta watch it. It starts off good, but by episode three, man, oh, you're just hooked. I feel like this is where the show would find its footing.
02:03:29
Speaker
If I had to name this episode, which, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and like, we do need this needs to be, this needs to be ours. Like this, the podcast within the podcast right here. What's this episode name? We do need, we do need names. Cause I have one that's stuck in my head right now and it needs some work shopping. Okay. Is morning glory. Morning glory.
02:03:57
Speaker
OK, something to do with I think a combination of like, this is the dawn of Taylor's character. This is the start of it. And the fact that glory girl shows up. I think it was a two really good. It's very poetic because this is also, you know, the start of all, you know, other things to all kind of come out of this episode. Yeah. That's not bad. This is where it all kind of kicks off. So like, you know, morning glory.
02:04:26
Speaker
Dawn, you know, agitation is fine, but I'll be honest, these are very nebulous names for arcs. Yeah, I love Wild Bo's theme that he carries throughout the whole serial. A lot of fun when kind of going back, but I'll be honest, I can remember the name of the last arc of the book and like the first and that's it. I can say some weird words.
02:04:57
Speaker
And I am sure that a couple of them are the names of, you know, arcs here. And, and, you know, truthfully, episode names aren't terribly important. Like, I don't think there's a lot of good television where every episode is titled. And I couldn't tell you the name of those episodes individually. But.
02:05:20
Speaker
But on the flip side of that, there's a lot of good episodes that I can name individually. The episode The Fly from Breaking Bad is probably my favorite episode. And I just know it's called The Fly. If I want to go back and watch an episode of Breaking Bad, I'm going to watch The Fly. So there's definitely something to be said for a well-named episode as well. So definitely worth the effort to think of something good.
02:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, other than I think that maybe on a rewrite, you know, if we're slightly straying off from the path. I think that maybe we put a little bit more emphasis on clock blocker. Yeah, because it's him as a character gets shown off. Even before he talks. Kind of during this fight, it really shows off who he is, which is goofy.
02:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, but he has he has a lot of personality his name's clock blocker Right that right there should it should tell you you know who he is yeah exactly and I think that like he You know while there's so many other people that are important. I think that he doesn't get enough attention In worm and maybe that's just because I'm a fan you know I
02:06:48
Speaker
Everyone's gonna say that about their favorite character. Everybody's gonna say that about their favorite character, but I think he needs a little bit of plumping, you know? Yeah. And especially because as we go on to, like we've mentioned before at the very beginning, we're gonna be cutting arcs, we're gonna be condensing stories. There's like 600 named characters in Worm. We're not naming all of those characters in the show. There will be times when characters will
02:07:15
Speaker
absorb dialogue that belongs to a one-off character from an arc that we don't need to include for a TV series that we could give to the clock blockers and those characters to sort of give a little more life to some of these characters that I agree. I don't think the clock blocker gets enough attention. The wards in general, I think, are fairly underrepresented for the most part, with the exception of a couple of them.
02:07:45
Speaker
And that continues with some other characters as well. So I'm, I'm fine with that. Let's give, let's give clock blocker a little bit more, a little bit more to do a little bit more to say. Yeah. All right. Well, I did. Do you have any, any other things? Otherwise I would love to try and name these episodes. If you want to try and do that.
02:08:03
Speaker
Yeah. I think, I think I'm about wrapped up for this episode. Um, I think, uh, just maybe the last last thing would just be, we mentioned at the very beginning, I like your idea of maybe starting this episode with Taylor's one or something similar. Oh, I forgot about the interlude.
02:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, well, I'm okay saving the interlude for next episode, only because I think it would make a really good cold open for the next episode. But I'm tentative on that because I haven't reread the interlude for Ark 4, so I can't remember what that is.
02:08:43
Speaker
But just in reading this, I was like, man, this would just fit so well as the cold open for the next episode. Like I'm just imagining like, like if you were to condense it completely, you know, you just are showing like bloody footprints and just like knee down as the wards are walking through the halls of the of the protectorate, walking into what's her name's office.
02:09:09
Speaker
And then it just pans up. Yeah, it pans up to her her expressionless face and just like, ah, you guys look like shit. And then just turn. There they are. Aegis is half a body. Bloody as hell. Boom. We're right above them. You know, like just something stupid like that go is like because everybody has their analog. Yeah. You know, like we're just like we're casting
02:09:39
Speaker
Amanda Waller again, right? Essentially. Yeah. It's a very Amanda Waller character. I can't remember the actress's name off the top of my head. Is it Viola Davis? Viola Davis. I'm going to go with Viola Davis. Spiritually it's Viola Davis. Michael, could you confirm? So we don't sound silly. Amanda Waller from the DC universe. I think that, I think it's Viola Davis. Okay. Well, until we get that back. Yeah. That's what I'm going to go with.
02:10:06
Speaker
Um, I think that's, I think that's a great opener for the second, for the next one. Okay. Yeah. But we'll get to that. And we'll, we'll, we'll, uh, we'll come back to that interlude then. But with that, yeah, let's go have a stand with some, some names. And with some names. So you gotta, you gotta, oh, and we are correct. It's Viola Davis. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Michael, for confirming what we already know. Arc one. So episode one, episode one, right now it's titled gestation. Um, which I say you gross.
02:10:38
Speaker
Yeah. Oh man. Okay. I haven't put any, I haven't put, I put zero thought into, into names.
Thematic Naming of Episodes
02:10:46
Speaker
I have put zero thought into naming these episodes right now. Okay. Okay. We'll go out. I'm gonna remember this for the future though. On the spot. First episode. I think you go with like, you know, um, do we have, do we go bug related? Like, do we have to go bug themed?
02:11:03
Speaker
I don't feel we go bug thing. You don't go don't go bug scene because I think worm is already like and this goes with the rest of the worm is already abstract enough that like it's literally just the title of the show. Yeah, you could rename the show something like. Capes. Or. Right. Warm or something like that. Right. Right now. Or, you know,
02:11:31
Speaker
Go the real CW route and go Brockton Bay. Actually, I wasn't going to say it. The Brockton Bay. Yeah. That's where my mind went. Oh man, that's funny. That's funny. Yeah. I mean, you could, you could do like a, um, you know what? Let's do a little. We're here. We're, we got, we got time. We'll cut this if it doesn't make sense and it's bad. All right. So let's just search for, uh,
02:12:00
Speaker
We can always fix it in post. Fix it in post, that's the answer for everything. Best pilot episode titles. Some website has done a list. I like literally saying not an origin.
02:12:26
Speaker
Or, uh, after these, after these are just silent or just titled pilot. Okay. That does. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. These aren't too helpful. I'm just, I was looking more for like theming ideas. You know how to do, I mean, you know, girl on fire is a little derivative, but yeah.
02:12:57
Speaker
girl on your like that maybe bully bully really good for having you know a lot of kind of aggressive characters you've got you know the actual bullies you've got long you've got arms master mm-hmm yeah yeah like
02:13:22
Speaker
I do like shows that will have themes with their episode titles, where all the titles are sort of connected in one way or another, or something like that, or connected thematically, not like... I mean, we could start picking bugs. Oh, yeah, just doing... Oh, man. Oh, okay. See, now you're on to something. Now you're on to something. Yeah, stick with the...
02:13:50
Speaker
There's vaguely like a there's a name for it. There's a name for for every bug in the world. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know. But, you know, some of the more. Or like bug things like obviously you're going to throw in a hornet's nest. At some point, right. You know, you throw in hive, which I'm really sure is already. I think that is maybe into the hive. Yeah.
02:14:19
Speaker
Uh, would be a good one. Um, I mean, you could even, you could even just go. Yeah. I mean, you could go really obvious and just title it like, like, you know, she uses the black widow a lot in that first episode I'm thinking of. Um, yeah. I mean, this most recent one, pretty good black widow brown recluse is a pretty good opener, especially considering like learning about Taylor.
02:14:49
Speaker
Yeah. And with her, you could even just call it recluse, you know, recluse is pretty good. Yeah. Just keep that that bug theme. And I'm going to stick that. I'm going to stick that in there. Tentative. Yeah. Recluse. And then. All right. Yeah. We'll come back to it. I like it. That's episode one. Workshop that. Yeah. Workshop it. Episode two.
02:15:19
Speaker
So right off the top, I have a quote in here. OK. From from, you know, first part and its routines define us. Mm hmm. OK. It's something that Taylor says when she's like preparing in the morning, because that's right. He is a creature of habit. I kind of like creature of habit. Creature or something to that regard. I don't hate it. I like it.
02:15:47
Speaker
Always room at the top to cross out and put something else. Habitat, just something. Ooh. Ooh, Habitat's really good. Because that's when we go to the hideout for the first time. I was going to say, we see their layer. Scratching that off, putting Habitat. Because we start off, we kind of see her house and live in it for more than the first episode it feels like. But yeah.
02:16:18
Speaker
At least the like, I don't know, feels like more lived in in that second episode. All right. Third episode. Here's the kicker. Okay. You've got to come up with a name for it. You've got to come up with an optional second name. Okay. Because of part one and part two. Oh, right. If we split of course, of course. Yeah. If we split this episode, episodes three and four, tentatively. You're right. Oh, tricky. Okay.
02:16:48
Speaker
Well, if episode three is sort of like the character-driven conversation with Arms Master slash intro to heist, and episode four is the heist. So we do like, oof.
02:17:14
Speaker
Oh, this is tricky. I like, and this, I'm, I'm going to sound way too, uh, wild bow when I say this, but I think for the second half, I like hatch. Okay. I don't, I don't, I don't hate it. I like it. Partly because like batch is it batten down the hatches or like kind of holding the bank, but then also this is where everything
02:17:41
Speaker
emerges from this episode, I think. I mean, the, the plan is hatched. I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of ways that makes sense. Okay. Hatch is good. So it keeps the bug theme. I'm here for it.
02:17:53
Speaker
Yeah, work is either the second half or the first half. So then it or so we're gonna have the whole thing if this right I would I would I would say how towards if we are splitting it and hatches episode four here in episode three thematically would have to be like would have to be like you know what am I thinking of like not cocoons a little too on the nose but
02:18:20
Speaker
What's the free hatch stage? The first part could be hatch, like you said, like hatch a plan. And, you know, it's prepping for this next part. True. And the second part could be something like an episode, episode four, I guess, in this case. Would be something like. Sting or. Yeah, right.
02:18:49
Speaker
And I think it's something where, you know, kicking people's asses. And it's a lot of the underdogs, both literally and figuratively, kicking everybody's asses. They're going up against stronger people. There's more of them and they somehow whoop all of them. Yeah, which leads me to think something like ants or, you know,
02:19:19
Speaker
size doesn't matter or something like that. Michael's got a good suggestion here. Keep it in our same sort of train of thought and spawn and sting. Pretty good. I like spawn and sting. I could do hatch and spawn. Hatch and spawn works. They're kind of synonymous. And again, we are sort of thinking if this is a
02:19:49
Speaker
We are splitting. I'm going to write those down at the top on and staying just to have them there. I like that. I write it all down. We're revisiting this for sure. Oh, sure. Probably this is one I'd want to want to bring in some of the rest of the time. I'm going to say, you know, probably around episode 10 or something when. Yeah, when we figure that out. Yeah.
02:20:21
Speaker
We'll. Well, yeah, we'll figure out like what our timing is for like the episodes and how many there will be until we find a good stopping point, which I think will probably end up being around episode 10. Yeah. But I mean, maybe even later than that, but I think, you know, we calculate there with the look back and go, OK, here's a good theming.
02:20:49
Speaker
for naming all of these. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we got started on some chapter titles. We've got some more discussion and formatting onto this third, possibly fourth episode, depending on how we choose to break it up. I think we're looking pretty good. Do you have any sort of final thoughts in terms of this arc specifically? I mean.
02:21:18
Speaker
No, I think this will be... I'm just excited to write all this down. I know. We've kind of been piecing it together. We need to start putting it down. And this is also where we're opening up to suggestions. Obviously, anybody who's listening who wants to throw some ideas our way, if there's something we totally forgot, that you're like, how can you not put this into a TV show? Let us know. We're also open to ideas for chapter titles, things like that. Love to hear your ideas.
02:21:48
Speaker
I know what I know what the thing that's going to be starting off of this one. I opened up. You know, the bag of worms. Changed it up to say we need to have a little bit more focus on clock blocker. And here you can mark the time is when everything started to deviate and they ruined your show. We'll have to track that.
02:22:13
Speaker
But, but we'll start, we were going to end up having like our own multiverse where we're like, okay, here's if we were adapting, you know, that original worm. Yep. And then here's how we would be changing it in this vastly different, all because we said clock blocker was cool. Oh man. We're just prepping for the spin-off shows. That's all. That's all we're doing. We're saving some time.
02:22:39
Speaker
Well, thanks again, everybody for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. Stick around for the next episode where we continue this riveting discussion.
02:22:55
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. Read along with us at parahumans.wordpress.com. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you love? What did you hate? Anything you think we missed, et cetera, as long as it's kind. If you'd like to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter, threads, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit, at Brockton Bay, BC, or click the link in the description.