Transcript
Speaker: ah whatever you want. You can find little LED lights. They burn out after like two two weeks, but you paid five bucks for it. So what's the problem? You know? But it was a great couple of weeks.
Speaker: It was a great couple of weeks. And you what else is a great couple of weeks? What's that? Hey everybody, welcome back to Pixel It. My name is Kevin, with me always as always is Phil. On today's show, we are finishing up Crimson Skies with the final story in Crimson Skies.
Speaker: That's it's ah We got a couple new authors on this one. We Two authors. Two authors on this one. They double teamed this thing. Two authors to make it half as good.
Speaker: ah i Sorry, that is kind of the math. Tipping my hand early on my feelings on this one. ah i i it it's ah i checked out like 10 pages in and I just kind of went on autopilot. So we'll see how much I actually remember.
Speaker: That's what Phil, tell us about our our authors. ah We're looking at Nancy Berman and Eric Troutman. ah Like our last author, we've got their game people. Nancy Berman, her basic ah claim to fame is a lot of supplements. She wrote a lot of stuff for the game, ah the role playing game 7th Sea, which is kind of your...
Speaker: ah you know, swashbuckling, high adventure, adventure on the high seas kind of thing. Sure. That I've always been interested in, obviously, and just never got around to reading or playing. um So maybe that's what will ah push it. that's That's mostly what she's done. ah Eric Troutman is also a role-playing game writer. He also has written for a lot of video games, stuff like Halo. He actually did editing for the first three episodes.
Speaker: Halo books, so we have kind of ah taken in his work. um He's also written for MechWarrior, Perfect Dark Zero. ah He did the part for, he did a, he does a lot of comic writing as well. And he did like a miniseries of Perfect Dark.
Speaker: Yeah, I was just looking at lot of Red Sonja. Sonja, a lot of Vampirella, you know, with you know ah ah girls in with boobs killing things, which look, I'm sure I'm perfectly comfortable with that genre.
Speaker: Yeah, you've been in involved in that genre. You enjoy that genre on the occasion. I like the genre. I'm not going to play hypocrite and pretend I don't like the genre. Like the genre. Big fan. ah but But a little different from what I mean, I guess it's not that different because it's all pulp.
Speaker: You know what I mean? yeah So it's not that different. But that's who we're dealing with here. More ah games writers, which I think is cool. Those are my people. um ah but that's That's where we're at. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah And you know where else we're at is on patreon.com slash pixel at pod, where you can go and ah give us money or not give us money. You can follow us for free, but $1 gets you the early ad free version of the episode, along with Phil's blog posts where he reviews books.
Speaker: ah The what are you reading segment? uh which he he tries supposed to post to uh you know ah a bunch uh several times a year he's he's on a run right now if you if you want to get in there he's got a weekly run he's got a glut books that he's been waiting to review and he's he they're fired up right right there. $5 gets you access to the bonus episode we record before every episode and $10 gets your name shouted out in every episode.
Speaker: To that end, I want to thank, and you are hiding, Jesus loves you, Kyle Seaman, Ruthless Mudder, Middle Things, Sigma Sal, Sanguine Flatulence, Chup Beaks Dummy Thick and Friendly Friend. Thank you so much for being a friend.
Speaker: Patreon.com slash PixelitPod. Do it today. Did you did you see that? i There's a new person on the list. Yeah, just slipped that in there. slipped that in there for you. Like a tongue at a middle middle school dance. Just slip that right in there like no one would notice. Leave the room for the Holy Spirit.
Speaker: Exactly. but Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit likes to French, too. I went to Catholic school, so that's that's that was like the thing is is you got to leave room for the Holy Ghost. Yeah, we would. we would Yeah, we had to. Y'all tell us if if you had this, too. You had to. You had to you could have hand on waist where I was at, but yeah you still had to like. It had to be arm's length, basically. So there was still a thrill. It's like, oh, I'm touching a girl. ah That's pretty cool.
Speaker: ah But it wasn't. that The Holy Ghost was really in there. Yeah. oh What's your take on Holy Ghost versus Holy Spirit? ah what's What do you prefer?
Speaker: i like Holy Ghost. i like I like Holy Ghost, but I was excuse me i was raised a Methodist, so we went with Holy Spirit. Got it. Yeah. But i like I just like ghosts. I like any any religion that's like, yeah, we got a ghost in it. Sure.
Speaker: but got a ghost. Holy Ghost. Yeah, it was. And in most people don't even know what it's about anyway. So yeah, yeah. The Holy, it was the Holy Ghost for a long time in Catholicism. Then they changed it to Holy Spirit, which I i vehemently disagree with.
Speaker: um yeah I'm writing a sternly worded letter to Pope did they change it? I don't know, probably in the 60s or something. There's a, the only reason I, Holy Ghost sticks around in my mind is because there was a Catholic high school near where I grew up called Holy Ghost.
Speaker: Um, so and obviously named after the original, uh, nom de ghost of, uh, of the Holy ghost of the, the one third of the Trinity, who is the OG, the original ghost, the original ghost. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and Yeah, it's like, it's weird. It's like, it's not to get all religious discussion. There we go. There we go.
Speaker: But the idea of the Trinity is, it's just hilarious. because like It's like, imagine pitching that to somebody. Like, all right, well, you know, we've got the father. He's, you know, he's God, God, God. And then they're like, okay.
Speaker: And then we got his son. And then like, his set he is also God. He is, they're both God. They are both one part of the same God entity. And people are like, I'm i'm with you. and we're like, and then we got a third thing. we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's the third? Who's the third one? Is it is it Mary? Is it the mother of God? Is it like, no.
Speaker: It's a guy you've never heard of. Yeah. going to blow your mind. He's just called the Holy Ghost and he's just there. Kind of the glue guy.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. He's like, he's, he's a, he's a dove sometimes. He's sometimes a dove, sometimes a burning bush. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: the the like i the the the um what do you call it the vestigial ah piece of the holy trinity just just kind of it's it's like it's the it's uh it's like the force if you're if you want to It's like the force of the Holy Trinity. It surrounds us and binds us and and all that. Yeah. um off you so yeah, that's ah that's that's the the Holy Ghost. How did I get here?
Speaker: ah We have some good news for you guys.
Speaker: ah How did I get here? Yeah.
Speaker: And the days go by, water flowing under. And you know where the water is flowing? It's flowing to the marsh where we're going to put the body.
Speaker: Let's marsh this body. I think it's about time. When I tell you to dump a body in the marsh, you them the marsh. In the marsh.
Speaker: Let's marsh it for good. Okay. um We start with another intermission, Rogues and Thieves. This is where we're going to get ah more information, a little more backstory on Nathan Zachary and his pirate team, the Fortune Hunters.
Speaker: um We've got some chaos good shit. Yeah, yeah, they're pirates, but they do their best to make sure that nobody innocent ah it gets too fucked up along the way. And, and you know, so this is this is a little more a little more chaotic good than maybe we assumed based on the initial introduction to him because this is our second introduction to this guy, which I think one too many, but that's fine.
Speaker: ah But he is kind of the protagonist of the franchise in a way. He's the he's the protagonist in both of the video games. So why not? Why not? Let's just let's give him. He can have two intros. Big deal.
Speaker: ah But we start out, we we are starting our third and final story, and it is called The Bayou Blues. ah The prologue opens midnight on Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and we are following a bum as he shakes a trio of thugs and makes his way to a hole in the wall bar where he pays for some time on the phone. Basically, here's a lot of money, and all I need is for you to leave me alone with this phone for 10 minutes.
Speaker: And, uh, and that's pretty much what we get. It's he one of these freaks, huh? Right. He's up to something. yeah Yeah. He's gonna, he's, he's gonna get, this is how, this is how you get dirty phone calls. Like the, the, the, you know, the, the prank phone calls. That's what he's after. He spending so much money on prank phone calls. One has to wonder if it's worth it.
Speaker: Um, but I don't know. I would love to say that it's a boring time, but you're flying around and shit. So I could be wrong. Uh, so yeah.
Speaker: Uh, chapter one, uh, Nathan Zachary is drinking at a bar. He watches as a young woman rushes into the arms of a young junkie, a junkie, as far as he knows, as far as I know, he's not a junkie, a young jumpy pilot.
Speaker: ah the girl starts crying. She's wearing a huge diamond ring, which of course, Nathan almost immediately clocks. ah She is crying and sobbing. And as this happens, a bunch of thugs led by a gentleman called Bertrand Deshane enter, and they're trying to take her away. ah We find out the backstory.
Speaker: ah It's Emmy and Tommy. How cute is that? ah They are in love But the Deshane family is basically all we can tell at this point is they're basically bullying her into marrying. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's very peer pressure marriage type situation going on.
Speaker: um Yeah. It's time he used to fly an airplane. Yeah. ah he still does and they call him tug by the way because his last name is isn't it yeah tommy boats aka tug great name by the way tommy boats i love that name i i would love to play a first level character named tommy boats uh that sounds like a lot of fun that's gotta be the name of of my next um next dnd character absolutely yeah you gotta do it
Speaker: yeah to just Tommy Thompson boats, Tommy Thompson boats. I love it. Uh, so basically, uh, they're at a standoff.
Speaker: Uh, Tommy wants, uh, to, to blow everybody to hell to protect his dame. Nathan sees that as a, I don't know, a bad idea and stops a giant shootout from ah happening.
Speaker: And they send the thugs on their way, uh, with, uh, the girl, uh, On the way out, DeShane recognizes Nathan Zachary, who ah is not thrilled about that because for a long time he has ah used his anonymity to get away with better heists. But he has become something of a legend recently.
Speaker: And so people like that know him and he's not thrilled. He's too well known now. Yeah, it's hard. It's you know it's like, it's like a it's like ah you know ah what's Sacha Baron Cohen. like how How are you supposed to fool people? How are you falling for Sacha Baron Cohen? How are you falling for Borat still?
Speaker: Right. You have to leave the country for that to work and not even leave. You have to leave the Western world for that to work. Uh, so yeah, that's, uh, that's where we're at. Uh, chapter two, Tommy's story is that he's from Texas and he's joined up with the raging Cajuns, a pirate band led by Thibodeau, who is a con man that Nathan knows.
Speaker: Um, We find ah the elder Deshane Henri, ah Bertrand's dad, was ah Emily. is It's like Emmeline her name is or something. Yeah, but Emmy is – they go by – she goes by Emmy. Or or they call her Emmy. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. So Emmy, ah her Henri Deshane was ah her guardian. And basically he wants her to – she's rich. She comes from a rich-ass family. like And he wants her to marry Bertrand so he keeps the money in the family there.
Speaker: um He ah wants to Tommy wants to join a race that's being run by the Shane family. the the top the the The main prize is like twenty thousand dollars, which is enough money that he could win that and get him an Emmy out of town. No questions asked.
Speaker: ah But his boss, Thibodeau, will not lend him the money to repair his plane. ah So Nathan, ah again, knowing Thibodeau, agrees to to help him out. Yeah. You know, let's go talk to Tibbs. Yeah, old pal. My old pal Tibbs.
Speaker: ah Chapter three, we are in Raging Cajuns HQ. Tibbadoe is basically the Firefly from Frog and Princess. ah He's a cartoon character. They all are. It's it's like, oh, yeah. like Yeah, it's it's basically the the bad guys are the the guy from our or the Tim Heidegger pie guy. It's just going to say, if you don't say Tim Heidegger, I'm going to be so disappointed.
Speaker: I just need to make a super cut now of of me referencing that that Tim Heidecker sketch. Boom. That's who they are. Yeah. It's seersucker from here until the cows come home.
Speaker: that's That's who they are. um and our Yeah. And you're right. and our And our heroes, on the other hand, are scrappy Creole folk. Wow. Down there, swamp folk.
Speaker: Wow. Down there, swamp folk. They got them gators. Yeah. Fix up some gator pie. Yeah. We don't teach you how to make a root. It's that kind of shit. it is and And this is done, by the way, and yeah I don't see this as frequently as I used to.
Speaker: ah it's It's written phonetic, not phonetically. It's written. how do you say it? It's like it's in the accent. yeah it's Yeah, it's written in the accent, which I hate.
Speaker: yeah Just tell me what accent they're supposed to be saying and then write the fucking dialogue instead of you know, writing like... day damn dare no da dumb gun ga damnde da um da but damn bad and immediately It the only thing I can compare it to, and I don't know if they still do this, but I used to read X-Men in the 90s.
Speaker: And, you know, X-Men is a very worldly group. They've got people with accents and stuff. And that's how they would write it. So you've got Gambit going, oh, yeah, Cher. Oh, man, I'm very sorry. Yeah, and then you've got Nightcrawler going, ze daughter he took picked off you know, it's just like that was little Frenchman. Still, you know, and and they would write it out like that.
Speaker: And I don't know if they still do that. Professor X. Yeah. Yeah. it's it's It's all very it's it's that. ah So and and this is sadly not the last time we're going to be dealing. It gets worse.
Speaker: It gets worse. It's way worse. Uh, so they draw cards to see if Thibodeau will back Tommy in the race, basically to help him take care of his plane and and let him go take, do the race.
Speaker: Um, excuse me. Jesus Christ. bored. Um, so, uh, Thibodeau is a renowned card sharp. Uh, but despite those skills, Nathan still beats him.
Speaker: And Thibodeau says it doesn't matter because Henri de Chien is the only one who will be allowed to win this race. Um, chapter four, we start in the middle, of an illegal race. It's a qualifier for the big race.
Speaker: Uh, our, our heroes are not a part of it. They are, they are at the arena, if you will, uh, and watching it happen. Uh, a lot of jet and weapon porn, uh, that train's never late.
Speaker: Here we go. um We learn more about the New Orleans history and that Duchesne basically owns the cops in town. And that's that's why he's so dangerous. Duchesne owns all those coppers. All them cops. All them police is what he's got. All them police pie. Lord.
Speaker: Police. spy Swat team. Swat team stew. Swat team stew. We got some stars. top We got them raccoon city. You.
Speaker: if you If you shoot a SWAT team member in the head and you hold on to one of his bones, you throw that in a bowl, add a little water, you got a stew. You got a stew going. You got a stew going. A SWAT stew going.
Speaker: God. Fuck. Who was it? No, that was from, ah but who said that? Carl Weathers. Carl Weathers. Carl Weathers.
Speaker: Oh, rest in peace. Oh, my God. Rest in peace, Carl Weathers. God damn it. Oh, God. The legend. The legend, Carl Weathers. ah He was just really getting into directing, too, when he passed away. I didn't know that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think he had directed a few episodes of Mandalorian. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Because he was a, one of the supporting characters on the show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that.
Speaker: Yeah. He seems, he seems like he was a cool guy. Uh, based on everything I've seen, i haven't seen a lot of shit about him, uh, being a douche, yeah which is always yeah nice to hear. Um, so while they're at the racetrack, they run into Bertrand Shane and, Nathan, for the first of many times that Nathan is going to antagonize the shit out of Benny Bertrand's, uh, uh, bodyguard.
Speaker: who is described as basically a a fire plug of a man. He's like a fire hydrant. He's like short and squat, ah Wolverine style. And and he is just constantly antagonizing this guy throughout the story.
Speaker: And this is just the beginning of it. He's just constantly trying to get his goat. um He gets into a scrap ah with the bodyguard and and drops him after quick scuffle.
Speaker: Um, So Bertrand orders at that point, Bertrand orders them to kill Nathan. ah But the Ragin' Cajuns all pull their guns. And recently, as they went into the arena, ah they had to check their guns. And and Nathan was the only one ah dumb enough to actually give over his gun. Everybody still has their guns.
Speaker: Everyone is still armed as shit. ah So ah so they they all pull their guns and stop that momentum from happening. So ah we get a little bit of schmuck bait here at the end as a raspy voice demands to know what's going on here.
Speaker: ah So we cut to chapter five. And guess what? It's Henri de Shane, the old man. he says, go Henri. He's dead. He's dead for the pie.
Speaker: Oh, Henry, call me. Did someone drop a plate of grits? Here come Henry. Here come Henry. You're eat them grits. I am never going to stop doing this voice, by the way. If you're listening at home.
Speaker: You've heard me do this voice in dozens of prior episodes. It's going to just keep going, regardless of whether we're set in in the the deep south or not.
Speaker: yeah yeah In terms of accuracy, i don't care. ah doesn't matter. It's fun. It's fun to do. it feels it It feels good coming up out of my throat and into my mouth. Yeah.
Speaker: i what ah What do you want me to say? Anyway. He's coming in there with his grits. and and it dare he's dead Those grits, them cook faster than than grits anywhere else in the world. And that is a big moment in My Cousin Vinny.
Speaker: That's, that's, that's going to decades, decades in the future. I'm going to visit Kevin on his deathbed and, and, and, and it's going to be this tender moment. I see it. It's candle lit for some reason. and And we're holding hands and and going over the old days. And I'll say, Kevin, just one more time for old time's sake. And Kevin will go,
Speaker: palm And that's when I die. And he slips away.
Speaker: the Camera just slowly pulls out.
Speaker: And April and Camilla had left for a second for whatever reason. They're like, what did he say? And I was like, oh, said he loves you guys very much. Loves you very much. Very much. Loves you very much. We want you to remember him. that's that Those are his final words. Yep. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Yep. Yep.
Speaker: So. Very much. Yeah. So, uh, Henry stops all the, all the, the, the fighting, uh, says that there's too much at stake, uh, and says, you know, get your shit settled in the race.
Speaker: Uh, and he figures that Tommy can't afford it, but Nathan also offers to pay for him. Uh, It's weird. Like he's having these ah public qualifiers for anyone who doesn't want to pay the entry or who can't pay the entry. ah but But if you got the money, you can you can be in the race. No question asked.
Speaker: So Nathan's going to pay for Tommy to be in this race. Yeah, it's because the public qualifiers or have we not gotten there yet are like they're like fixed, right? They're like oh yeah they're scam. there a scam I don't think it's – yeah, I don't know over there yet, but I don't think that's a stretch to to bring up now.
Speaker: ah Yeah, yeah. And ah so ah Nathan harasses ah Benny the bodyguard a little bit more, and ah he – Henri quote-unquote invites him ah to his place for dinner.
Speaker: So we cut to chapter six where ah he is kind of forcefully taken ah to the bad guys plantation home. Classic. like Like this is the kind of plantation that Ryan Reynolds would have gotten married in front of. It's the Blake Lively would have had an entire blog dedicated about to so to styling this plantation home.
Speaker: Absolutely. Big old plantation. It does have an interesting detail that they never get too far into, which I was disappointed by. But when they go into this huge palace-esque plantation, it's all it's kind of bare.
Speaker: ah There are like they're like some drapes across a few pieces of furniture, but it's kind of like a haunted house almost. And we don't really go too deep into why that is, um but it was a really cool detail. and I wish there was more of that.
Speaker: By the way, the name of Blake Lively's antebellum blog was called Preserve. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, boy. i don't like that.
Speaker: ah Yeah. it's you You don't want to no ever... really you don't have to hand it to them you don't know you like antebellum south doesn't need to you don't need to hand it to them just like that uh the what what's your name uh hayley williams the paramore uh singer uh said uh the south will not rise again um in in that song that came out uh like a month ago or something like that um it's a good song it's a good song yeah
Speaker: So, uh, it's, uh, basically waiting for them are the chains, uh, and Emmy, uh, it's dinner time. ah they have a very, they have a very opulent dinner where they're basically just kind of shooting the shit and getting to know each other.
Speaker: Basically, Henri wants to know what, uh, uh, Nathan's angle is, why he's, why he's doing this. Um, uh emmy excuses herself and slips nathan a note uh henry uh also henry is not looking good he's clearly sick uh he seems like consumptive it's what it sounds like he's got the he's got the handkerchief he's he's coughing into it uh one point he says i'll be your huckleberry know it's It's a whole thing.
Speaker: He just broke up with his Hungarian girlfriend. You see a flash of red in the handkerchief. It's all there. It's all there. It's all there. ah God, I got to watch that movie again. Or at least Val Kilmer scenes.
Speaker: At least Val Kilmer scenes. It's a great movie, but yeah, it's it's it's. Oh my God. Absolutely. That tells you how good of a performance ah Val Kilmer gave ah in that movie. It is a terrific Western with a lot of really good performances and Val Kilmer fucking steals the show. It's it's yeah just phenomenal. It was the movie that ah that basically Kurt Russell had to just like take over for the director. right I've heard that. Yeah.
Speaker: Like the director was so was like fucking up and Kurt Russell basically directed it. But the director who was fucking up was still has the credit or something like that. Right. He's never given credit, but I think that's it's kind of like that the the the best kept secret or the worst kept secret of ah right Hollywood.
Speaker: yeah That it's just kind of understood that Kurt Russell like you know saved the day with that movie and didn't only make it passable, he made a fucking kick-ass film. Yeah, um it's a it's a long movie, though, if you haven't seen yet if you haven't seen it, ah Tombstone, right? Tombstone.
Speaker: Yeah, Tombstone. ah It's it's a long movie. So a if you haven't seen it, then be prepared ahead of time.
Speaker: It's a very indulgent Western movie. Yes. Indulgent is the word. ah It's it's it's a over the top, pulpy, ah very dramatic, melodramatic. It's a melodrama. No question about it.
Speaker: ah it It is crazy. It's absolutely crazy. And if you go into that, you're going to enjoy it no matter what. But I think you'll enjoy it more if you go into it knowing that it's a 10 cent dime. It's a dime store novel. It's It's a, right it's a you know, a pulpy Western. That's what it is. Period.
Speaker: Uh, it's, it's so good. It's, it's, it might be my favorite Western. It's just fucking, you know, it was funny. i I realized the other day that the like, uh, five and dimes don't exist anymore.
Speaker: when I was talking to Camilla, was like, Oh yeah, yeah. Like a five and dime store. And i was like, no, that's not saying anymore. That's not really. Yeah. I mean, a nickel and a dime are barely things anymore. Those are. Yeah, I know.
Speaker: They're not making pennies anymore. Yeah. Nickel and dime aren't going to be too far behind. I was like, oh, yeah, like Woolworths. you're like, Woolworths isn't a thing anymore. Wouldn't go down to Sears and Roebuck?
Speaker: like Yeah. The Sears and Roebuck catalog are here. Whatever happened to Roebuck? I demand to know. i demand where. Justice Roebuck. Justice for Roebuck.
Speaker: Hashtag justice for Roebuck. Hashtag justice for Roebuck. I think I'll start that. Was Roebuck racist before I start that hashtag? Let's just do it. Yeah. Probably. I mean, i mean yeah that's kind of unfair.
Speaker: It almost certainly was. Roebuck. Well, not a male deer. A male roe deer. That's not what I mean. I mean Roebuck as in the guy from... Why is it not even the... It's like not even... Who would have been a Roebuck from Sears? There we go. Alva Roebuck passed away 1948.
Speaker: He left the company. He left the company in 1895. He left the company in 1895. Jesus. He left in 1895. he left the company in eighteen ninety five jesus he left it and eighteen ninety five
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That guy that guy said the N word on the regular. There's no question. Yeah. Personal life. Not much. look at Wikipedia and it's like personal life. Dude said the N word a lot. Citation needed.
Speaker: Yeah. He co-founded Sears Roebuck and Company with Richard Warren Sears in 1891. He was bought out in 1895 for about $20,000. Oh, for ah twenty thousand dollars i Shout over a matter of $20.
Speaker: Oh my God. Tell me that that was worth a whole lot more. ah twenty man Sorry, we're on a tangent now, but what is $20,000 18? I don't mean to shock anyone, but we might have ADHD. Oh, wow. So it would be worth $771,000 today. Okay.
Speaker: okay but that's still less than i would have accepted but you know what okay fine yeah especially if it wasn't like much of a thing at the time money yeah no money wasn't as much of a thing well no no if if sears wasn't that much of a thing you asshole he uh he retired in florida so i don't know if you're retiring to florida in the 1920s there's something weird going on there that's It's true. Something's going on. up that There's a story there. and and and
Speaker: And he's dead now, so we're never going to find out. We're just not. We're never going to find out. um Anyway, hashtag justice for Rob. Hashtag justice for Rob. Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah. So anyway, Andre, he's trying to figure out Nathan's angle, what he wants. um and And Nathan basically lets him know that he knows that he's planning on fixing the race and basically cleaning everybody out. He has set it up so that.
Speaker: he is going to win on such a scale that anybody involved in the betting who isn't Henri de Chien is going to be penniless by the end of it.
Speaker: ah It's his big scam. ah And he knows all that. news And he offers ah to keep Tommy out of the race and stay quiet for a percentage.
Speaker: And Henri says he'll consider it and and has Benny escort Tommy out. And as ah ah no, but sorry, Nathan out as he's being escorted out, he gets clobbered.
Speaker: And ah the easy way, the easy way. It was a real easy way moment. It was an easy way moment. That's exactly what that was. ah Chapter seven, we wake up ah in a back room of a bar ah with Thibodeau and Mamon Leone.
Speaker: ah For the audience, the audience stands and offers a ah standing ovation ah for the book's first person of color. ah ah even if even if we're going to get a lot of voodoo mama bullshit in the short amount of time she's going to be not even going to do an impression this point that would be wrong and bad ah given the way that they write her also ah the the pejorative word for Romani just
Speaker: All up and down this chapter. just but it's so But it's okay Nathan's part Romani. So he can he can say that word. It's okay. say that word. It's okay. He's cool.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. ah Yeah, the patois gets worse. I have to believe it. yeah Maybe it's just she talks more. But at first, it's just this little kind of thing. But by the end of it, she is like...
Speaker: slurring and like just going nuts with it. ah She is also a cartoon character. yeah And she has basically no use in this story. This is the last time we're going see her.
Speaker: She basically is just kind of helping a guy She's just holding the ice pack to Nathan's head. That's that really pretty much it. Her job in the story. She gives a little background information, and that's pretty much it. She adds a little ah color, if you'll excuse excuse the expression.
Speaker: um So Nathan figures out, he figures out that all this scheming, all this money that the shame is after it's more than the payday.
Speaker: It's more than just the money. There's something there. He takes a look at Emmy's note. It's useless. ah They don't say that. I'm saying that it's literally just her saying,
Speaker: Please, these people don't like you. Bring me my boyfriend. And yeah yeah, it's like, that's it. Thanks. That was ah sure. That's yeah. That really it it doesn't even it's not that it doesn't move the plot along. It just it's just like, thank you for the note describing the plot.
Speaker: Right. That's exactly. It doesn't move it. It just tells you what's already happening. We do get a moment where Nathan's like, well, that took balls. It took balls for her to like pass that along to me. was like, yes, but it also was like a stupid thing to do. Like she, she risked all that for the stupidest, most unhelpful note.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's not even flavor text. It's garbage. ah So the note is it's nothing. um It's nothing. It's a nothing note. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And we get and and Maman ah Leone gives us us background information on the Deshane family. Basically, they they play it up like they are from New Orleans, born and bred.
Speaker: ah but they came in looking for a a scheme and they partnered up with Emmy's like grandparents and Maman. Shane had the smarts and his grandparents had the money and they joined forces and, and, and just basically made a bundle.
Speaker: And so that's, that's, that's who the Shane's are. Um, Chapter eight, we are back at the Raging Cajun hideout. ah Nathan's got a fast binder, an old German man tinkering on the planes.
Speaker: He's kind of your ah goblin artificer ah kind of guy. He's 100,000 years old, and he's like adding like turbo boosters and shit to these planes.
Speaker: Yeah, um more guns, whatever. yeah Yeah, he's that guy. Uh, uh, uh, Thibodeau demands the full story on the scheme. Cause he's been kind of in the dark this whole time.
Speaker: Uh, later, uh, it's about an hour before the race and Nathan approaches Henri who, uh, rejects his previous offer. Uh, and so Nathan says, well, that's fine then. So I'm going to pay for Tommy and I'm going to pay for, Thibodeau.
Speaker: And I'm going to pay for myself. All three of us are going to fly in this race. And then he bets 5,000 that Tommy will beat Bertrand in the race.
Speaker: 5,000 francs, I might add. Because this the it Louisiana is its own thing, but it's also getting pre it's also being pressured by the French government.
Speaker: yeah And there's a whole... like Here's the thing. i I would differentiate it between A and B plots, but it's like an A and it's just a runner story.
Speaker: The French are also here. Yeah, it's just it's just the background information. It's background noise. yeah It's barely a point. And that's the thing. And I will say ah the world building in in in in this is always great.
Speaker: And I feel like the writers always take advantage of the world. We have not visited the same area twice. ah It's pretty cool the way they do that. I think it's one of the strengths of this book.
Speaker: Uh, I bring that up cause I'm going to complain about the story later. Um, chapter nine, ah the race is about to start. We get a little more plain porn. Uh, that's, that's another, that's the plain porn and the weapon porn and the really good dog fights are kind of the thread that unite all of these stories.
Speaker: Uh, and, uh, so we get some plain porn. Uh, Thibodeau's plane is sabotaged before he can even get it in the air. Uh, so he's grounded. He's going to stay on the ground and the race starts and Nathan takes off.
Speaker: Uh, chapter 10, it is dog fight race, dog fight time. ah really, you know, good, good, good dog fights. The, the, the action's good.
Speaker: Um, I'm not going to get into the details cause will be here forever. Um, During the race, the the thing with the the thing that I i kind of got hooked on was that it was like, OK, so we're just doing the same thing basically as the last story.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. Yes. And it doesn't end there. Yeah. ah This is this. Yeah, it is basically that it's it's pod racing. It's the same goddamn thing. We're pod racing.
Speaker: This is pod racing. We're pod racing. This is pod racing. Exactly. And ah complete with racist accents. ah That's what it is. So. during During the pod race, ah Nathan radios Henri and makes another bet ah saying he wants to bet 10,000 that none of Henri's men will finish the race.
Speaker: Henri accepts. Um, chapter 11 during the race, Henri then bets $250,000 that not only will his one of will at least one of his men win the race, but Nathan won't complete it at all. He will be shot down. He will, he won't, he will not pass the finish line.
Speaker: Uh, Nathan accepts, uh, And to kind of ah deliver on this, Henri plays his hand and basically shows that he has the cops on his side. We have a ah cop ah Zeppelin basically hovering over the whole goddamn thing.
Speaker: And Nathan goes into this long... drawn out thing explaining that he knows that Henri has the mayor of New Orleans under his thumb that he has incriminating photos of him.
Speaker: And it's pretty ballsy that you did that. I'm totally not wearing a wire. It's that kind of fucking thing. Right. Yeah. it's good You should say out loud and incriminate yourself that you've done this thing to the mayor. Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker: Let's all just lean in closer to my lapel. Right. It's exactly what it is. ah Yeah. Chapter 12. We're still in the race. We're still in the pod race. Tug takes out Bertrand.
Speaker: um And it looks like Benny, who is, yeah, the the the the squat bodyguard guy who is flying in the race. And it's looking like he is going to win. But the old switcheroo, which we find out that Benny is actually Nathan's wingman in disguise.
Speaker: Uh, uh, we'll get more details on it in the next chapter, but basically, uh, they planted the wingman posing as that's who the homeless guy in the very, very beginning of this thing was.
Speaker: They planted him as a bodyguard early on. They've mentioned several times throughout the story that like, yeah, he's new, you know, dah, dah, dah, dah. So, They planted him. He has been waiting for this moment and he basically loses the race on purpose. ah and And as you said, ah just like the last one, we yeah it's basically the same fucking twist as the last one.
Speaker: um We've done this. So the cops start in on him ah because Henri's just pissed at this point. And Nathan's Zeppelin, the Pandora, comes to the rescue along with the Flaming Witch Company, ah who they briefly have mentioned before.
Speaker: And they come to the rescue and start taking out the corrupt cops. um Epilogue. ah Basically, the non crooked cops arrest the crooked ones ah because ACAB isn't true in this world. I was about to say, but how can you tell? which you Yeah, they they started to look at the pigs and the humans and none could tell them apart.
Speaker: None could tell them apart. Yeah. So, uh, the, the mayor is there, and the compromising, the mayor of New Orleans. Well, uh, Lord, Lordy, he's here.
Speaker: and, and, uh, these, these compromising pictures that Nathan just mentioned in the past five minutes, uh, well, he's got them. Don't you worry. Uh, uh, uh, Nathan's wingman posing as Benny, uh, snuck in and, and got them out of, uh, you know, the safe or whatever, wherever Deshane was keeping them.
Speaker: Um, we get more information on the wingman posing as Benny, um the fortune hunters, uh, we find out that the fortune hunters were posing as the raging Cajuns,
Speaker: who were flying in the race. There's a whole lot of switcheroos that are, it's like, you know, at the end of Ocean's Eleven, when it's revealing how Danny Ocean's crew kind of like pulled off the heist.
Speaker: And, you know, you got the jazzy music. Pow, pow. wow boy playing in the background. yeah it's like, oh like what we saw, it like the heist had already happened by the time we, the audience, see it. And and yeah ah what's his name? Andy Garcia is just so angry. um Yeah, that's this scene, but terrible. Yeah.
Speaker: It's awful. Just fucking awful. be Like, hey, they they swapped out for the other dudes. They'd be like, what do mean? Why did we go through all this?
Speaker: why It's truly a hat on a hat. It's like... it's like they So he he explains to Thibodeau, he's like, yeah, your guys were on my Zeppelin doing the shooting and my guys were in your guys' planes doing the race because I didn't want to put your guys at risk in the race. like You still put them in the Zeppelin. They still went to war with the cops. You still like, who gives a shit? It's so random. It's like, it's so...
Speaker: it's It's just, it's just, wait with but it's another twist. Okay, fine. Yeah, sure. So, and then we get introduced. Just put the book in the bag. Right, right, exactly.
Speaker: And then we get introduced to the VIP members of the Pandora crew. ah If you had not played the first game or maybe the second one, ah this feels very confusing ah because we take the time to like get to introduce everyone in um fine detail, three or four members of the Pandora crew, part of the fortune hunters, like, and they're just introduced for no, and like described in great detail. And it's because they're characters in the video games.
Speaker: ah So this is, this is kind of the ham fisted, like, Hey, a They did video games. Yeah. They didn't do anything until now, as far as you know.
Speaker: ah But here they are. um Blah, blah, blah. Explanations all around. um And ah it ends with, as Thibodeau the boy gets the girl. The bad guys go to prison.
Speaker: Nathan starts planning their next heist and a tip it Oh is pissed because it's a heist that he's already had his eye on. Nathan asks him to pick a card to get to see who does the honors and scene and book.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Crimson skies. That's it. ah Kevin, what did do you think? First and foremost, what did you think of Bayou blues? And then overall as a collection, what did you think of, of the Crimson size book?
Speaker: ah last and The last story I thought was not good in a bunch of ways, i including the characterization of literally anybody who wasn't Nathan Zachary.
Speaker: um And the characterization of Nathan. Nathan Zachary is such a nothing character this. he's like he's He's suave, but he's he's a pirate with a heart of gold. And we're like, yeah, okay, but why do I...
Speaker: care about him other than the fact that he's the dude you play in the video game um it reminds me of the uh the cw term the people that uh the p the term people use to describe the actors on the cw uh have you heard this term it's called no go on it's called blant some Oh, I have heard that term. Yeah, Blansom.
Speaker: That's exactly what they are. Yeah. They're like, they're handsome. Like in in ah in a room with a bunch of normies. Yeah, they would probably be the hottest person there. But like on TV, you're like, meh.
Speaker: Yeah. they They don't have the they don't have the that on screen charisma that and it like that's the thing is like. They're just handsome and they act fine.
Speaker: and But they're not so handsome that you need to watch them. And they're not ah good enough actors that you really need to care. um they're They're fine.
Speaker: um But yeah, that's Nathan Zachary. ah And then you know the point the book gets docked plenty of points for ah just you know using the slur for Romanis. All just fucking dense with it.
Speaker: And then making the only really notable person of color in the entire book series. just the the Just the way she is written with that accent is atrocious.
Speaker: ah It is beyond parody. And it feels like... this book would get hit with the, the Warner brothers pre Looney tunes warning of these cartoons are made in a time and place and are no longer blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like, yeah, but it was like 2002 or 2003, you know, it's, don't think that that really works. Um, i don't think that that really worked um and overall Overall, I really loved the first story.
Speaker: Loved the first story. Amazing. Just a fun, fun little mystery. It's locked rooms. It has it stuff. It has high flying fighting stuff. it's It was great.
Speaker: um yeah By the way, we never follow up on who the girl is from that that first book, that first story. Oh, I've already forgotten about it her.
Speaker: Remember, she he was like, I recognize her. Where do I know her from? ah guess we'll find out later. Yeah, no. Yeah, that's that. This is i These were all collected. These all got released individually.
Speaker: um And I have to wonder if there wasn't some tie in with some other story that didn't make the cut or something like that yeah for a lot of these things. It's weird.
Speaker: Yeah. ah First one, loved. Second one was is pretty good. Third one, ah did not like at all. Like I said, I was about 10 pages in when, you know, your your eyes just start to like... I basically did the the Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise where like my eyes just started drifting to the sides of my head. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Yeah. Oh, I... I totally feel that. Yeah. yeah I agree. i'm I'm in the same boat. I think the first one was great. I still, I liked the second one. It wasn't as good as the first one.
Speaker: um And the third one yeah was just kind of dull, especially compared to the other two. And I think if, if Nathan Zachary, um, um,
Speaker: slash the guy from uncharted slash Han Solo slash every charming rogue. If that, if there wasn't already a hundred thousand flavors. Right.
Speaker: right Well, just, yeah, it's just, this is Nathan Fillion. That's who he would play him. Composite, composite Nathan Fillion character. It's like, thats a take, take Mal from Firefly, throw in castle, throw in his character from two guys, a girl on a pizza place. Sure. Why why not? not? It's all that. And it's just it's just done over and over again.
Speaker: And yeah if you'd opened with it, maybe, then that wouldn't be quite as noticeable. ah But because this is the last one and the protagonists of our first two novellas were really interesting.
Speaker: Yeah. And pretty cool and unique ah in their own ways. ah It's that much more bold faced that, that this is just kind of an unoriginal, uninspired sort of character.
Speaker: And, and that's by design. That's because you're playing the video game as Nathan Zachary, Uh, uh, you're playing that and you want him to be charming enough that you feel cool to play him, but bland enough that you can insert yourself into that adventure, into that character.
Speaker: And, uh, and, and that works really good for a video game. And we're finding that it's, it's not quite as interesting, uh, for a self-contained thing, like a novel. um So yeah, I'm with you. I think this was overall strong collection, ah ah but the most recent or the final a story in it just didn't impress me all that much.
Speaker: ah Okay. So that's that's Crimson Skies. We wrap that up. Crimson Skies. Yeah. ah bit then Yeah. That only leaves one thing ah left to ask you, Kevin.
Speaker: Yeah. What are you playing? Oh, you know, I didn't think you would ask me that. I'm always surprised. I'm a surprising guy. You're surprising guy. Okay, so I've been playing two things. First, I'll talk about Outer Worlds 2, which oh is, i talked about a little bit last week. It's a sequel to Outer Worlds, and it's kind of like a spiritual successor to
Speaker: I guess Fallout in a way because it it was created by Tim Kaine and I'm blanking on the the gentleman's name, but they were two of the original guys to work on Fallout.
Speaker: um By the way, RIP Rebecca Heineman, who passed away a couple days ago. Burger Becky, the ah one of the co-founders of Interplay.
Speaker: um along with Brian Fargo and a few other folks. But yeah, RIP Rebecca Heinemann. matter Very involved in in video game history. um so But yes, ah the the Outer Worlds continuation of kind of like Fallout in terms of the way it's written and all that stuff. Tim Kaine ah was involved in the first one. he has since retired. um he he He actually retired.
Speaker: in this economy. I know. I was impressed too. Tim Kaine retired and he just does his YouTube channel now where he talks, he basically gives video game development advice and and answers questions and stuff like that. It's great.
Speaker: ah But the second one is it's a beefier game than the first one. ah You can, the first part of the game It's so much longer than the first world in Outer Worlds 1.
Speaker: It is it is a is a dense segment of the game. And also, I'll say, the tutorialization of the opening level, so to speak, does a really good job of in introducing you to all the different things that you can do with your character. Like at one point, there is a point where it's like, hey, do you want to go this way and take the guards head on? Or do you want to go this way and stick to the shadows? And you basically can t can see like, oh, I want to play sneaky character. I'm going to go to the shadows route and stealth attack everybody. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So the tutorial level is really good. It introduces you a lot of different ways to solve problems. So because there's always like you could either brute force it with guns. You can hack your way through. You can do engineering. You can do lock picking, all that stuff.
Speaker: So that's one of the cool parts. The other thing that they really worked over is the flaws system. So the way it works is every every level up, you get some points to put into your skills.
Speaker: And then every two levels, you get a perk. which is based on you have the options of perks that you get are based on the levels in those skills. So if you're like level five medical, you can have there's like a certain set of perks that you can choose from as opposed to level four medical. Like you get more perk options to choose from the higher up you are in a skill. Oh, cool. But all right the flaws are based on things that you as the player do.
Speaker: So once one thing I do all the time is I reload my gun before the ammo has written has run out. And at one point it said ah the Earth's Earth Director has detected a flaw in you. ah And it's something like over prepared and basically The it's like if you have this flaw, ah the drawback is if you let the ammo run out in your gun, it'll do 20% less damage for like 30 seconds. Right.
Speaker: But your magazine size doubles. So as long as you remember to just never let it run out, right you will always have more ammo.
Speaker: So if you're just like an obsessive reload button hitter like my like I am, it's a good flaw. There's another flaw where if you're like, if you'd like to, if you crouch a lot and you're sneaking around a lot, it'll say Earth Director has detected a flaw in you. Creaky knees.
Speaker: And it's like, so it'll go like you can move at sprint speed while crawling, but every once in a while, your knee will pop, making a sound that everyone can hear in a 10 meter radius.
Speaker: Oh, that's hilarious. I love that. That's really clever. That's like, that's a really cool way to do flaws. Like that's really neat. I was like, okay. So you give the person like, it's like your way, it's like pro and con. You're giving the person like, and you can, you can decline it.
Speaker: Uh, but, ah So, and then once you take enough flaws, there's a flaw that pops up saying ah flawed. Like ah it's just a flaw that that called flawed. And it's like, it says you have to auto accept every flaw that pops up, but you get ah two extra skill points every level or something like that. Oh, okay.
Speaker: okay So you can so one of my ah one of my flaws is Jack of all trades, ah which means that I can't have... i get at extra skill points every level, but I can't have any skill higher than any other.
Speaker: So if I have like five skills, right? And they're all level five, At every level, i get three skill points to invest. I'll go to lockpick and I'll level that up to six, right?
Speaker: Well, I can't hit... I can't go seven, eight. I have to now put a point into one of the ones that is lower than six. Until everybody hits six. Until everybody hits six, and then I can do it again. And that flaw pops up if you start adding points into too many different skills.
Speaker: um It's... amazing That's really neat. Yeah. And there's also a perk just called dumb, ah which gives leads you gives you dumb dialogue options that are just absolutely hilarious.
Speaker: um And apparently there's a background called Lucky, there's a background called lucky which it's like hits rat hits very infrequently, but pays off when it does. And maybe once or twice I've seen a dialogue choice grayed out.
Speaker: because I don't have lucky, where it'll be like, ah where it'll just be at the bottom of the sentence. Like, you must have lucky to see what this is. we're like, huh, I'm interested as to what that would have been.
Speaker: love that ship. There was one option where it was like, ah if you have the lucky trait, it was like, just start randomly randomly smashing buttons. Yeah. I'm like a computer to unlock it. Oh, that's cool. like that. All right. um Yeah, it's a fun, fun little. i was like, this is a cute way. Like I, if I was doing a tabletop game, i would introduce flaws like this, where it's like,
Speaker: Yeah, it's a flaw. You get something out of it, but also it there's some good roleplay negative consequences to it as well. Yeah, it makes it interesting. Yeah, it makes it interesting. ah So the other game I finished Dispatch.
Speaker: Lovely game. ah Really enjoyed the writing, the voice acting, every little bit about it. I kind of want to do another playthrough of it just to to do it better.
Speaker: But ah i I had a lot of fun with it. And so for those who don't know, Dispatch is by is by Ad Hoc Studios. It's the company that...
Speaker: Not the company. It's the developers from Telltale that ah did things like Wolf Among Us, founded their own studio called Ad Hoc.
Speaker: they did the They made this game in partnership with Critical Role, as in Critical Role, like the RPG, TTRPG live play group, Matt Mercer and company. So they made it with this, with Critical Role, and...
Speaker: A lot of the critical role people are the voices in the game, ah but it also features a few YouTubers. So Alana Pierce is is in there. Moist Critical and Jacksepticeye is one of the one of the characters in it. Nice. um And also, what's his name? Jesse from Breaking Bad. Oh, up ah yeah. Aaron Paul.
Speaker: Yeah. Aaron Paul. ah Yeah. He's the main character, right? Yes, he's the main character, and Jeffrey Wright is the other big-name actor in it.
Speaker: um Plays a character named Chase. um But yeah, so Dispatch, it's one of those games where you don't want to know too much about it because it's it's basically about choosing your own dialogue choices and going through the game yourself.
Speaker: But I had a really good time with it. ah Especially in an era of like kind of burnout on superhero stuff, Dispatch was a breath of fresh air in terms of how it handled everything. It's just very uplifting ah with surprisingly mature themes and a healthy dose of nudity in surprising places. Nice.
Speaker: Yeah. I love that. Yeah, Dispatch. Cool.
Speaker: What are you playing? Nothing. ah is This week I played basically nothing. I didn't even i didn't even play like... i played a little Slots and Daggers before we started tonight. i Between like...
Speaker: um i am I am painting the shit out of my Death Corps of Krieg army. I got a combat ah patrol of them, and I am just painting the fuck out of them, really enjoying it. That's become my evening pursuit. I'm not, I'm not, I think I mentioned this in the last episode. I'm not going to ham on making sure that they're perfect or anything like that.
Speaker: I'm enjoying it and using a lot of contrast paints and speed paint and really just it's it's a it's like literally a 3D coloring book for me. That's what it is. And so while me and my wife watch terrible holiday lifetime style movies, you know, which is our tradition, we watch the worst Christmas movies from November to December. While we do that, um I'm working on my heavy artillery team and and and the one thing i did do is i I'm teaching myself how to do ah heat staining on the muzzle of the flamethrower and it's a lot of fun and it's really easy and it adds a lot. and I'm doing a lot of that shit, a lot of analog stuff and getting to know my local game store and that kind of thing. I'm not going to say that I avoided video games because of it. I just like, I think part of it is that, you know, for those of you who can see me, uh, my current situation is that the computer's downstairs, uh, uh, in the basement, um, which I think just because it isn't right there at my fingertips, I'm not immediately drawn to go there, which is why I have been playing a lot of my switch and playing a lot of ah ah ball pit.
Speaker: But there are some games that I'm really intrigued by and I'm definitely going to try out. I've downloaded a couple of couple of demos and that kind of thing. So next next week- Back on your demos. Yeah, back on my demo bullshit. And and we should have we should have more to talk about next week.
Speaker: Awesome. that's Yeah, that's it. That's me. Yeah. um By the way, i forgot to, I never asked you, did you see in the patch updates for Rogue Trader that they added a thing where if ah with a commissar background ah characters, they were given an ability to shoot one of the party members and give everybody else a bonus?
Speaker: Yeah, that's I did not know that, but that's i mean that's a rule in the game. They finally added that in for Rogue Trader where they are commissars can shoot one of the other characters <unk> and then give everybody else a bonus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's double if it's a Zenos character.
Speaker: ah it's like It like makes the bonus even more. it's it's very uh uh the beatings will continue until morale improves kind of shit exactly exactly oh i fucking love commissars i they're out of their goddamn minds i love it yeah the commissar profile portrait in rogue trader is just perfectly it's like this the guy with the huge mustache just like And, you know, he's got the hat and everything.
Speaker: Oh, God, they're there's such pieces of shit, but I love it. It's fucking wild. It's just wild if you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that'll do it for tonight's episode. Thank you all so much for listening. If you can, ah rate us five stars on Spotify and Apple or the podcast listening place of your choice. Follow us on Instagram, blue sky, ah wherever you can follow us.
Speaker: don't know. There's places out there. Uh, join us on Patreon, hop into our discord, all that fun stuff. Thank you all for listening and have a good evening. I...
Speaker: a
