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Raise a Glass to Pokemon and How to Train Your Dragon (Potluck 7/14/2024)
21 Plays3 months ago
Eric and Hunter take different routes through Pokemon and How to Train Your Dragon, back to their childhoods, when there were dragons.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
so
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Raise a Glass, the podcast where we talk about the stories and storytellers that shape us. My name is Eric Lintola. And I am Hunter Danson. And today, Hunter, we are bringing to our lovely listeners who have not heard our voices in Well, in in our real time, many months, but in their experience, maybe just minutes. It's not longer, possibly, even on the edge of your seat. um We are bringing a potluck. and That's one of the things I really enjoy about this this show. I think, Andrew, you were the was our second episode or was even our first episode was a potluck? I guess technically our first one was
00:01:15
Speaker
We didn't even know it at the time. and I just love that that part of the way we approach this this podcast. but because we're thinking Usually we focus on one story. and In fact, we are even now working on a series of podcasts based off one story by itself, right um which east East of Eden is by itself kind of many stories together, so it makes sense. ah but we also have potlucks where we will share each bring something. And then we do our grab bags, um some of which are actually going to be available on our Patreon, which I am still working on. It's going to be there soon. um It's going to have some bonus content from each of our now three seasons um and maybe some some music. It'll have some fun kind of behind the scenes pieces and it'll have
00:02:10
Speaker
Like I said, some of those grab bags where we are sharing five, 10 minute clips of various things that have impacted us and in small ways. um and And so as that is available, it will be in our show notes. We'll point you to it. um You can support us in helping yeah this dream grow. and giving us the space to, um I don't know. Bias a glass. Bias us a glass, yes. So we can raise one. um Maybe even raise one to you ah yeah for the support you bring. Yeah, raise a glass to our patrons. Yeah, it's Patreons. Patreons. Patronuses. Pretty sure it's patrons. If you had a Patronus, what would it be? What would your Patronus be?
00:03:01
Speaker
but ah I wanted to be a wolf. I guess I I feel like spirit animals and patronuses are kind of the same. And so ah based off what you and many other people have told me, I guess mine would be a golden retriever puppy. um But i would I would yearn for something maybe a little bit um
00:03:27
Speaker
ah more distinguished, per se, but that really wouldn't be who I am as a person, so I'd be trying to lick lick all the, ah all the dementors away.
00:03:43
Speaker
ah Well, as is how as is part of this show, Hunter, I gotta know, what is in your glass today? I have um
00:03:58
Speaker
Homemade lemonade that my wife made from real lemons. And then I didn't want to drink all of the lemonade, so I put some kombucha in it. So it's like half lemonade, half key lime kombucha.
00:04:18
Speaker
And it's it's good. I like both of those things, and they're pretty good together. um Nice and refreshing. And it's also a drink that won't put me to sleep. ah which I discovered with milk. Milk will make me sleepy. um
00:04:37
Speaker
but What is in your glass, Eric? I'm not a kombucha guy. I've tried. Um, so this is my glass. You can see it's, it's a tumbler. It's very heavy. It's got a Pentagon, um, bottom and a circular top. And it will soon be filled with something from my parents' new house. Um, my dad saw it and he gave it to me. He's like, Hey, this is going to be great for your raising a glass. Shout out to my dad. He was thinking about the podcast when he gave it to me. And so I haven't tried this yet. but it is Dewar's blended Scotch w whiskey. Oh my goodness. It's aged 15 years. It's called the Monarch to True Scotch made from specially selected single malt and single grain whiskeys married in oak cases from Scotland. And so everything in here is at least 15 years aged. Wow.
00:05:34
Speaker
The monarch is named after the painter, Landseer's masterpiece, The Monarch of the Glen, depicting a stag, speaking of patronuses, which Tommy de Waar bought at act auction. It is made from specially selected single malt and single grain whiskeys that are at least 15 years old and have been matured in a variety of oak cases, including sherry and bourbon. Once blended together, we allow them to marry. and vintage oak casks for several months make our scotch incredibly smooth with the many subtle flavors layers of flavor in perfect harmony. Wow. There's up to 40 different single malt and single grain whiskies in this.
00:06:21
Speaker
Sometimes I think the stories we tell about alcohol are more intoxicating than the alcohol. It's true. and eat with our eyes and drink with our eyes first. Look at these beautiful seals that are pressed into it, into the glass. Wow. Putting the glass and raise the glass. Yeah, yeah. um
00:06:50
Speaker
Dip in a little bit more than you planned. Cheers. Cheers.
00:07:06
Speaker
Oh, it's so smooth. Hunter, I felt it under my tongue, and then I didn't feel it until it pretty much hit my belly. Wow. Not even all the way down. The water of life. That's just simply because I couldn't drink water. So Hunter, we have shared within our glass. I would like to know now, what are you raising a glass and pouring one out before this week? Well, um i am I am raising a glass to the Chick-fil-A hint and guess game that we got in a Chick-fil-A meal, ah where they have pictures that kids have drawn on little cards. And you play the game, someone gets a card, and then
00:08:00
Speaker
um Everyone else has to like play 20 questions to guess, ask yes or no questions, and guess what's on the card. um And it has been a whole family game at dinner, like multiple nights. um And ah you know we've been able to involve my wife's grandfather. He usually doesn't play games with us. And it's been it's been a lot of fun. um Sounds fun. Yeah. So it's Chick-fil-A hint and guess. Okay. Man, I remember trying Chick-fil-A really for the first time as an adult in the last four or five years after saying I was not going to be a Chick-fil-A person. But it's so good. why is yeah Why is it so good? It's fried chicken. i mean Yeah, but like the Chick-fil-A sauce and the waffle fries and their lemonade.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yep. Like they're all just delicious. Yeah. It's at this point, it's like the only fast food that we get anymore. We don't, we don't really go in for McDonald's or Burger King or any, any of that except for Chick-fil-A. It's the only one that we haven't kicked because it's, it's really good. Our pastor really likes Chick-fil-A too. He mentions it in his sermons all the time. Um, I had a pastor love Taco Bell. Oh yeah. Yeah. Tyler Joseph from 21 Pilots loves Taco Bell. There you go. We saw him at the the Taco Bell Arena. Anyway, um I'm pouring one out for the state of my body after ah working on this shed that I decided to renovate. um
00:09:47
Speaker
because I decided to, ah because we needed, you know, we're like, okay, we're just, we're just going to get a new shed. And then I was out there starting to demo it and I was looking at the frame and I was like, what a waste because this frame is, the frame is fine. It's just the floors and all of the walls and the shingles. but um Yeah, so and there there is a hole in the roof where that where a tree fell, but it didn't hit any like anything structural. so
00:10:18
Speaker
um I'm just like, you know, I can just do it and i and and I'm still committed. i'm I'm in too deep now to turn around. But man, that floor is so stubborn. And it's a lot of work. Do you have the right tools? Yeah, I got plenty of tools. um And i I realized that
00:10:51
Speaker
I've absorbed a lot of handiness from my dad. I always used to be a little bit like, why didn't my dad teach me how to do all of these things? But he did. Like I just learned them just by like, you know, I worked with him for a summer. And so even though he like never formally taught me a lot of stuff, I just kind of, I picked it up. So, um, very thankful for that. Um, but also, It's a lot of work, and I'm tired, my back hurts. And I need to write a book. About the journey? No, no, no. No, I have a book that I need to write. Separate book. Instead of working on a shed, but. ah Do you have the book already written in your head? It's just like on paper, or are you still working it out? is it Is this part of your series? Yeah, it's the sequel. Yeah, i'm I'm trying to, you know, to take advantage of the time in the summer.
00:11:50
Speaker
to get more work on it done. but yeah Well, you're soon going to have a shed that you can hide out in. Yeah, well, after it's done, we're going to have to move all of this stuff that is in our garage right now back into the shed. I mean, it's not no work, but it's not too much work. Not as much work as building. Right, yeah. Anyway, what about you?
00:12:22
Speaker
I'm going to start with my pour. I'm going to pour one out to the but phone calls that one has with large organizations, whether it be internet or benefits or phone or or, or, or, you know, and the feeling of frustration that no matter how many times it's called, nothing's going to change. Um, but that you are not asking a hard thing.
00:13:06
Speaker
And it's in infinitely impossible to have done seemingly. I know you've been on the other side of that. yeah and and i And I do not envy anybody with that job. um But ah to that credit, i'm go to my raise, I was trying to figure out what I was going to raise the class to. This is probably one of the least
00:13:30
Speaker
ultimately long-term impactful things in my life. But I am going to raise a glass to Crystal. Crystal is the name of an individual who works for Spectrum. And i my wife and I decided that we were going to cancel our Spectrum internet because it's the only option we had, but we decided that we'd rather go without internet in a spending $106. for one month of internet that when we first got it four years ago, cost us $45.
00:14:07
Speaker
oof We're like, we're just not going to pay that. We would rather not have it and just handle data like, so I called and I was like, all that automatic automated stuff, they're like, what do you want to talk about? And I said, cancel internet. They're like, do you mean, do you mean? And I just, it's quiet. So then they finally sent me to somebody for my attention and Crystal, It's very honest, it's very open, very understanding. And um within, I don't know, about 10 minutes, it went from having to pay $106 a month for internet and $60 a month for two phone lines. So combined of almost $170 to pay $49 for internet.
00:14:58
Speaker
and $39 for her phone, which meant i was spent i'm as of next week, we will be next yeah next week we will be spending $70 less a month than what we would have had if I didn't call. That's $840 over the course of a year.
00:15:25
Speaker
and don't know how to visually communicate the face that I'm making. Yeah. So that felt like a win. Also, my garden's looking good. So that's big. All right. Yeah. That was a lot of preamble. And you know, on the show, we don't we don't usually do that. that's We're known for brevity. We're known for conciseness. We're known for efficiency. You know, a Hunter, we have the most efficient friendship. We have the most efficient conversations. and We see eye to eye on absolutely everything and agree.
00:16:05
Speaker
as two individuals without strong opinions. And with the exact same communication style, we always land on the same spot. That's right. If you don't know us or haven't listened to a single episode, um you might have taken all of that as truthful. It was not. Entirely sorry. So ah now that we have delayed your potluck feast for long enough,
00:16:37
Speaker
It's time to find out, Eric. What have you brought for us? Let me let me answer that with the sound.
00:17:08
Speaker
ah Does that answer your question? Can you can you tell me what I brought? Pokemon? Yes, I did. Do you know what system? It's a Game Boy. It's blue. Game Boy Color Pokemon Blue. Yeah. this is Those are the sounds of my childhood. um And this is a game I come back to probably once every three years. I think I brought it up on the podcast before. um If I haven't, then here it is. um This is one of my favorite systems of all time. Have we talked about this, Andrew? I don't think so. I think you i i know that you like you've had Pokรฉmon Blue. I asked you one time, I think, and you said Pokรฉmon Blue.
00:18:00
Speaker
Is that your original Game Boy? So this is actually my brother's original Game Boy Color. Wow. um And my brother passed away when I was eight. um It was a pretty crazy thing. And I don't really have many memories of him, but this is the thing that I feel like ties me to him. And I don't actually remember him playing it. Well, I'll say that I do remember him um There are a few other games I have. I remember him playing or or talking about playing Tetris.
00:18:34
Speaker
Army Men. Army Men 2 specifically. um Oh my goodness, he loved this game. Gex, G-E-X. Enter the Gekko. like a looks like a Geico spoof on James Bond. see It's even got the same James Bond thing. Yeah, I have heard of gets. I have Pokemon yellow. Oh, there must have been a gift recently. I will have to start playing. Yes. Right. Pokemon yellow is where Pikachu follows you, right? I don't know. I
00:19:10
Speaker
have a crystal as well, but that one doesn't save. It's pretty annoying. It's like, how far can you get? um And then um Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 in the plastic case. And all of this is in this this weird yellow container that I look at this and all I can see is poke is Game Boy Color, but I'm sure it was originally created with a different purpose. And yes, I know you were wondering, I do in fact have one of the plug-in lights
00:19:48
Speaker
Oh wow. And I did grow up playing this underneath the covers in the dead of night um when I was at home. And when my parents entered the room, yes, I did take the light off and put the thing underneath my pillow and pretend I was asleep. Wow. That was so much of my childhood. And what did I say? I played it about every three years. um recent In the last, probably that's probably over the last 12 years, I played every three years. so that's um I've probably played this particular game Pokemon blue through all the way hmm at least a dozen times maybe 20 and It's just i I picked it up. I don't know last week.
00:20:35
Speaker
I'm 13 and a half hours in and I've tried to been going i've been going for a slow ride. I haven't been going for the fast one. I've been trying to catch as many Pokemon as possible. I met 50. And I've been trying to start with to choose different Pokemon than I normally do to be in my and by starting six. um Now that I'm mature and older, I figured I should give myself a a a more mature and um wiser
00:21:06
Speaker
wiser approach to this game. Yeah. who Who do you usually start with? My go-to is Squirtle. I just love him so much. All right. I remember the original Pokemon TV show that came out in the US. Oh yeah. i mean The Squirtle Squad. The Squirtle Squad. Squirtle. So if you're a noob at Pokemon Blue on the Game Boy Color at this point.
00:21:37
Speaker
ah what What's your recommendation for someone who who wants to get through the game faster? The easiest answer to that is you start the game with Bulbasaur because you can beat the first two bosses. now Brock and Misty but then if you can um between Pallet Town and by the time you get to Viridian City it's probably helpful to get a Pidgey just so you can have a Pokemon that as the game goes on you can fly with. Pidgey is good to have, you can have them in your in your starter group but really between Viridian City and the where the Elite Four is, I can't remember the name of the space, there's this little pocket of grass
00:22:22
Speaker
that if you walk through, you can catch a female Nidoran who becomes a Nitto Queen with a Moonstone after you evolve to Indorita. And Nitto Queen and Nitto King can learn pretty much any move taught in this game. So if you're able to get a Nitto Queen, and and maybe even two, honestly, I've never done that, but that's probably a good approach. My Nitto Queen currently knows Thunderbolt um and Surf, Um, and I'm pretty sure you can you can teach a pretty much any move, which all of a sudden means that Nitto Queen was taking down bird Pokemon, the Thunderbolt, and then water can take down fire. And then body slam takes down pretty much anybody else. Um, and so if you got a Nitto Queen, Nidoran, um, a Bulbasaur, um, and then in the, um, the forest between, I think it's on route two, I think it is.
00:23:20
Speaker
I don't know, maybe it's it's root one, not root two. um You can find a Pikachu. If you get a Pikachu, that means you can use Flash for one of the dark tunnels. And so you can kind of speed through those. um Because you don't need to have a full deck, of a full group of all six Pokรฉmon in order to win this thing. and you just You can win Pokรฉmon Blue with a couple OP Pokรฉmon and then Right before you hit the Elite Four, you can hit one of the tunnels where you can find Mewtwo and like level 50 Pokemon. And yes, they're not going to be as strong as if you trained a Pokemon to level 50, but they're going to be strong enough. Yeah. um That you're really just going to lean on your, your three starters that can give you, you know, because, because you you just don't want to have IVs at that point, it'd be Venus or
00:24:18
Speaker
against a Charizard or a fire Pokemon. Or a bird. um But outside of that, like you're just gonna put Venusaur in to just destroy people and then yeah throw Nitto Queen and Nitto King, um or second Nitto Queen, and they'll have your other moves. This is for a fast play, but and I don't know. There are some people that are so good at this game that they play through without taking a single damage. Wow. Like that's the level of skill. That is not where I'm at. That is not how I approach my life. I am not a perfectionist. That it is not the a strength or weakness of mine. Um, and, but there are people that like somehow the place where they have the most difficulty is the first battle you have with your rival because they have to pretty much use growl every time. Right. Um,
00:25:17
Speaker
I don't understand it. That's what I got for you. All right. So, man, Pokemon is taking me back. Because I didn't have Pokemon on Game Boy, but I was into Pokemon, as I think a lot of people were. I had Pokemon cards. I watched the show. oh I remember playing Pokemon at school, getting into an argument with a kid who Was it Digimon fan? Oh, Digimon's the worst. That was about how our argument and went. That was my side. That was how I argued. Who believes Digimon? Pokemon's the best. Digimon's the worst. It's true. it's yeah and we were He was like, we were trying to do like a power battles. Like, okay, Mewtwo could totally defeat the strongest Digimon.
00:26:12
Speaker
you know and of course like I didn't know anything about Digimon and of course not you probably didn't you probably knew some stuff about pokebot because it was so popular but anyway so take me back to like little Eric how did little Eric learn all this stuff about Nitto Nitto Queen and Bulbasaur and Little Eric did not learn this. Little Eric could not even figure out how to find Flash and so was wandering around one of the caves in complete darkness for an hour to two hours trying to figure out how to get out of the thing until finally by some stroke of luck.
00:26:52
Speaker
ah i I remember the the amount of I used to spend so much time trying to figure out how to even start the game. Because you don't start the game by going to Professor Oak. You start the game by trying to walk into the wild, into the forest. And then Professor Oak, or one of its aides, comes to get you and brings you back. And that's when the game starts. But yeah I remember, I think I was walking around being like, well, I can't go there because I don't have any Pokemon. So I was trying to talk to people.
00:27:31
Speaker
Suffice to say, it took a lot longer for me to get through the games when I was younger. But it's also a pretty well-designed game that pushes you to the next spot. And you get a town map at the beginning if you talk to the right person. which I have right here on the screen you can kind of see. oh yeah and It's pretty extensive. It's a pretty extensive map. But it does a pretty good job of pushing you to the next places. um And they choose good times to give you HMs to you know prompt the next move. Like, oh, you got flash. Maybe you should go to Dark Place. You got strength. me You can now move boulders. And in Pokemon games, I think, even now, I have played
00:28:16
Speaker
But in my fair share, I have not played every Pokemon game, but I've played probably an average to more than average number of Pokemon games. um I do not remember the name of any Pokemon outside the first generation, but I have played many games with Pokemon outside the first generation. yeah um
00:28:35
Speaker
But as you if you randomly talk to people, they do a really good job of kind of like telling you where you should go. Like, oh, you shouldn't go. There's no switch hiding behind the poster in the gambling room. isn my That's not a good space for you to go. You shouldn't go find Team Rocket there. like That level of overt. yeah um and so You just need to figure out where that space is and you go in there. and and They still do that because they're created for
00:29:07
Speaker
an eight to 12 year old to be able to beat the game, but then also for a 30 year old, 30 plus year old to have a blast and like relive memories, but then also experience new things in them. And so like I said, this time I'm trying to go a little bit slower. i am I don't have haven't fully gone fully unique, but I have i i traded my Sparrow for a Farfetch'd. So I have a Farfetch'd who, um fun fact, is the only character and only Pokemon in the original um games that has holds an item. And because he holds an item, he gets extra um experience points.
00:29:56
Speaker
i i' i I've also this time been really enjoying being in the Safari Zone. zone oh you ever Did you ever experience Safari Zones? Does that mean anything to you or not? No. I started playing it a few years ago on your recommendation. I didn't get too far. I named all my Pokรฉmon after authors.
00:30:20
Speaker
i had ah I started with Charizard and I named him George R. Martin. um And then I had a rat-a-tat named Frank Herbert. Because of the Muad-Dib. um
00:30:37
Speaker
You get it? I did. I had a few other ones. um I think I had a Victor Hugo. Can't remember. But I didn't get too far. it's probably so My save is probably still on my phone. I could pick it up. But and think I think I got to like bar Brock. That's okay. He did not get far. Yeah, you barely started the game. Yeah Safari zone is a space about halfway through the game where you can enter a Think of it as like a nature preserve that is um Gives you access to Pokemon that you can't find anywhere else to catch ah and so
00:31:21
Speaker
um There's pretty common for Pokemon to find there, like a Nidoran or... Paris.
00:31:33
Speaker
um But then you can also find, or a Krabby. But then there's also some pretty rare Pokemon. um If you get the right, and I think it's all like percentage based, like you're you're in the right spot and it just like, that shoots a new Pokemon, I think it does it really quick. like Randomized and then there's higher probabilities for some or others versus others. Mm-hmm But if you get the right spot, you can find a Kangaskhan Who I think I've caught one once you can find a chancy who evades all of your pokeballs You can find a Toros Who I've never caught You can find Nidorino and then if you hit the right space you can actually catch a Dratini and
00:32:18
Speaker
who will become a Dragonair, who ought to become a Dragonite, who is one of my favorite Pokemons. in the game. And so I caught a Dratini. It was a very exciting moment. um And I was telling my wife about it. um She was not nearly as excited as I was. And I'm currently trying to use an experience awl to turn the Dratini into a Dragonair. And then I think you need to use a specific stone to turn the Dragonair into a Dragonite. I'm trying with this one also not to Google anything.
00:32:53
Speaker
ah Nice and maybe this is important thing to say about myself is when I'm playing through games I Go the slow route. I like exploring because I find that for myself Once I beat the final boss the game loses its interest interest to me. I'm no longer interested in support Exploring and just defining new things even though Nothing's really changed But I feel like the primary point has been achieved and so I'm just done with it And so I would rather meander back and forth until I hit the the finish line, then go for the finish line, and then try to accomplish all the extra things. um yeah Which I think is different from you, Hunter. Because I know we've talked before and about the Witcher, and like you have gone and completed every side quest. And I know the Witcher is not as much of a
00:33:44
Speaker
you know That yeah game but like i I would never do that That's not something that's interesting to me because I don't also don't want to look up how to do things Unless I'm getting frustrated and like know that there's something stupid I've missed um Yeah, and even then I usually won't I'd rather be in my own ignorant space and enjoy I Think I get tricked by my curiosity ah because I think of it as like trying to experience all of the content that is in the game. um But I think this past year, also just getting older and having less time and energy for games, I've just decided, you know, I'm just gonna play the game the way I want to actually play the game, which is I like to do it like immersively. um like So i I'll try to make decisions based on
00:34:44
Speaker
what I think the character would do, or like what me playing this character would do. ah Like I've been playing, finally started Red Dead Redemption 2, which I've owned for like two years and haven't played yet, but finally started it. And I think the problem with open world games that I run into is I want i want to see everything, do every little, open every chest. And, but I'm not, I'm not really, uh, I don't consider myself like an obsessive person in that way, but I just, I just want to know, I'm just very curious. So I'm like, but I've played enough games to know that like it, a lot of the time it's not really worth it. And you know, I'll end up like backtracking just to do a certain thing. And I just feel like it's a waste of time. So I'm like, you know what?
00:35:38
Speaker
I'm just gonna based is based on you you know play this based on what I think Arthur Morgan would do at this point in time. okay um And it's been it's been kind of freeing just to stop worrying about trophies and and whatnot and all that stuff. um yeah because it really is pretty meaningless at the end of the day. Trophies. Hey, Jordan Speaks just said something I have to add to that call. And like Trophies winning Trophies, it's about how you're treated that matters. Not about any trophy you get. So I have one more question. I have a question about Pokemon. Yeah. I guess shaping question.
00:36:22
Speaker
I don't know if you had any other things you wanted to add about it. yeah can add a few more but take your question okay um What do you think it is about Pokemon that draws 8 to 80 year olds to it? Because I remember you know when I was a kid,
00:36:50
Speaker
Pokemon was just hitting the west. um And like it it took over. um yeah for for For me, at least, I remember just everybody. but All of my friends were watching Pokemon and had cards and stuff. um And you know lately, I've a friend group is into Magic the Gathering. And so I've learned some Magic the Gathering and I've noticed some similarities where in like with Pokemon cards, at least, you know, you collect the cards and you have these creatures that you use and you do that in the game, you know, collecting these things. um So if I were to take a stab, I would say the collecting aspect of it, the sort of like owning these things that are parts of you.
00:37:42
Speaker
But I don't know, I'd like to hear from you. What yeah but brought you to Pokemon keeps bringing you back? Well, the thing that brings me back is the connection to my brother, the connection to my own background and experience. um And it is fun to kind of like feel these small spaces of accomplishment and um I think winning the battles gives you those little small like adrenaline rushes, like those gentlemen hits. And I think that experience, like catching a Pokemon, like, are they gonna... The Pokemon wobbles back and forth, and like sometimes they they burst free. And I think that that's part of it.
00:38:22
Speaker
um
00:38:26
Speaker
I think it's also a very simple game that can be played however you want to. So you can create your own internal goals. Like, I'm going to try and beat every single trainer along the way. Or like, I'm only going to fight the trainers I have to. Or I really want to get a geodude. Like, for no reason. You just want it. You're like, and oh, there's a certain way. like I have at different times found out i looked it up because like things that you just can't do naturally. um Looked up like how to catch a Mew in Pokemon Blue because you can in Pokemon Blue but not in other Pokemon games. um and It's like a whole process you got to go through and then you got to go to a certain space and you need to walk back and forth a certain number of times, and but then you can catch a Mew. That's a cool thing. or if you
00:39:15
Speaker
If you're riding a dugong or a seal and you're carrying a specific item and you hit a certain spot, you can then duplicate whatever thing you're ah you're carrying. and so Some people use that to get 99 master balls or to get more TMs. um or TMs. TMs are a move like Thunderbolt that can only be taught to a Pokemon once in the original game. And HM is something like Surf or Strength, which is another move that the Pokemon learns and they have to keep on, but it provides a ah utility to the game. So Surf, you can like ride on the Pokemon through the water. That's how you get on the Pokemon through the water. ah nice Strength allows you to move certain boulders so that you can access certain spaces or certain Pokemon or certain um
00:40:07
Speaker
items. um Fly allows you to fly between both between spaces. Flash allows the Blindly Flash, the light up cave. um Those are some of the main ones. Cut allows you to cut down a tree that's blocking path. Yeah. ah Other later games add a lot more things. You can carry items. You can do all sorts of things. You can find berries. You can somehow create your own Pokemon combinations.
00:40:32
Speaker
But I've even get to the point where you can catch a legendary Pokemon with a Pokeball or a Grape Ball. You don't need an Ultra Ball or a Master Ball to catch it. but yeah um and so What you do is you right before you wake the pokeme up Pokemon up, you got get to them, you save the game, you fight them, you bring them down to one health and you um put them to sleep with the Pokemon and then you can throw the Pokeball and you'll probably catch it. And like, that's really cool. Like that sense of accomplishment of like, I just caught a zapidose with a great ball. Like I still got my master ball hidden away. Um, like your, your, your Pokemon are continually learning new moves as they're growing up. Um, and you don't even know, like, Ooh, are they going to evolve when they get to this level? Like is work, I'm like, wait, is the wardrobe going to be a blast stories yet? Like, come on, I want it. We're like, Oh, I, I can, I can get, um,
00:41:31
Speaker
ah specific item that's gonna evolve my Pikachu into a Raichu or like you can if you go to the right space you can find an Eevee and then you can I turn my Eevee into a Flareon because I'm on the fire Pokemon um but then um I forgot that you then need to teach some fire moves I think it's you got a evolved to pretty high level before i'll like naturally learn a fire move like the first fire move they've learned it's Ember which is really lame and And like at that point, I was like, I give up. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to go a different route.
00:42:04
Speaker
um
00:42:07
Speaker
yeah know All of these different things, right? These are all completely unique things. like You can walk around the safari zone for hours, or you've got to pay to go into it. You get in there for, you can like move 500 spaces. um And then each of those times, like work on finding that kangaskhan. And like you got to know I'm going to be I want a Kangaskhan and a Chansey on my team. That feels so cool because I haven't done that before. and like There's 150 plus Pokemon to catch, 150, right? Actually, you can't catch all 150 in this particular one. so um They did that purposefully with the Pokemon red, blue, and yellow.
00:42:44
Speaker
that certain Pokemon could only be caught. like There's like a few. Right. You can have like 130 out of 150 that you can have and in Pokemon Blue. But then a couple of Pokemon, I think like Geodude only evolves into Graveler if you trade him like across devices. um And there's a few other Pokemon. Did you do any of that with your friends? A couple of times. Not too often, though. Yeah. um i was We were on the young side, i myself and Luke, to have Pokรฉmon colors. The first system for us was like play at PlayStation 2.
00:43:20
Speaker
I had a Game Boy Advance. The first ones for us were Game Boy Advance. You could still play Game Boy Color games, but why would you choose that over the new and better Game Boy Advance games? Tony Hawk's Underground. And then you could get the Nintendo DS, which wasn't even cooler, because it had the flip screen. So I think part of the reason I also love it so much is it it
00:43:52
Speaker
It's the oldest system that somebody in our generation, sorry, somebody on the young side of millennials would grow up playing. Right, because yeah because they could have had the original Game Boys and stuff like that. Mine's always, mine's had this crack in the screen. You can barely see it right there. I think my brother did that, or if not him, then me early on. But I take it as like a connection to the game. And this thing runs on two AA batteries. nice And they run almost like forever. I i picked it up and I played like 12 hours of this game and then finally the batteries died after I think they saved it. And then I just turned it back on and they went another 30 minutes before the batteries died. And so I finally took them off and I just saw that there were two corroded double batteries in the back.
00:44:41
Speaker
it's step
00:44:45
Speaker
Ancient bet. I love it. It's great. ah Now the game will go a lot faster. The bettors will run a lot faster if you have the light on. That's true. But just I have so many good memories on it. And and Pokemon, um maybe also to answer your original question of what keeps people coming back to Pokemon. um
00:45:06
Speaker
I think that for some people, and and maybe some of the approach for even for some of the girls, at least when we were younger, um and maybe some boys as well was like, the Pokemon are cute, or cool, you know or manly, or feminine, or whatever you want to say. like You can find Pokemon across the the the visual like spectrum of like you I relate with, I relate to this character. like I've always felt like a Squirtle. yearning to be a dragon egg. I've always wanted to be as cool as a Kangaskhan.
00:45:40
Speaker
um or yeah and and That's random things, but like there's thing you can relate to those types of pieces along the way. um and Then I'm sure, i mean Pokemon did an incredible job marketing. right I mean, they had the games, they had the cards, they had the TV show. I have a pokeball with a gold-plated Pikachu in there that I got from Burger King. I remember that stuff, yeah. um And then my sister and I, after my brother passed away,
00:46:14
Speaker
um My sister was a bit older than me. um She learned and with me the the songs to the original Pokemon CD, which I know you've heard me play them. I want to be the very best. No one ever was bound to catch them. It's my real test to train them is my cause. da I will travel across the land Searching in far and wide Boun-boun-bout these Pokรฉmon To understand the power that's inside Pokรฉmon, yet I catch on as you win I know it's my destiny Pokรฉmon, you're my best friend In a world we must defend Pokรฉmon
00:47:14
Speaker
continues on. um And like i that that song like was on a lot of teams like warm-up mixes like in high school. There's some epicness yeah to it. right uhu And if that plays, like every millennial is going to start singing the song. And everybody younger is probably going to start singing it, too, because it's just Very catchy. We're just inundated with all of the stuff, like all at the same time. I think Pokemon cards, least the Pokemon cards also opened up the opportunity for other types of cards.
00:47:54
Speaker
Right. Like other types of non-sports related cards means maybe more accurate. Like I had Star Wars cards. I liked, I didn't collect Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but I ended up with quite a few of them. Um, I had like four different types of stars, you know, and, and you they just kind of kept going and obviously magic gathering. It's been around for a long time and I understand that. though Um, but all of these pieces hit me at the same time. It was a great cultural moment and, and then it continued. Right. I remember when. um Our about our senior year of high school junior senior of high school. There's a new Pokemon game that came out that um You could carry one of your poke you could transfer your Pokemon from your device I don't know was a DS or what at the time to a Tamagotchi type thing um That had a pedometer on it. And so then you could walk around school gaining experience points for your Pokemon through your steps and like showing off and probably even trading your Pokemon back and forth and
00:48:52
Speaker
and Like what a cool idea I never did it cuz you know, I'm Very much a you know, this is my thing. I'm gonna own the original, you know, or at least my version of the original, right? But I respected those who did ah and you play Pokemon go i I tried it, but I never had enough data. um Funny story on that though, i was um my goodness I was working at a boat launch for the city of Rochester ah which for a summer, which was probably the worst job like when this game came out. like I'll say my job involved me sitting in a six by eight or six by 10 foot box for eight hours, and one of the two things would happen. One, there'd be pretty much nobody, and I would just sit there.
00:49:43
Speaker
with a boat in a box that had no air conditioning in the summer. Or two, it would be a holiday or something like a weekend date or a fishing competition, and there would be an infinite number of voters mad at me because there weren't enough parking spots, which I couldn't do anything about. I had zero control. Zero power. And i I was also taking money from people.
00:50:16
Speaker
And like I'll say at this point that that that job, that the the boat launch is now entirely automated. Just to give you an idea of how bad of a job it was. um But I bring that up because while I was working there, Pokemon get Go came out. And it just so happened that in the city of Rochester, there was one particular spot where three different Pokey stops intersected, intersected. And that was about 250 feet away from my box.
00:50:49
Speaker
um And people found it in like the first week. And wow all of a sudden, like and there were just were then hundreds of Pokemon goers, which are probably the most docile group of people you ever interact with. um And the boaters got even more angry Because these Pokemon goers were taking up their parking spots and like they called the police on them Wow, and I was like wait what are you About like but they're standing they're walking around in circles and they're
00:51:28
Speaker
chatting. I think somebody brought a boombox and so they got in trouble for being a sound nuisance. It was like, this is the most innocuous event. And there was a restaurant right nearby that was so mad that Pokรฉmon Go made their restaurant a Pokรฉstop too. like They're literally bringing customers to your restaurant. like You are a fast food burger place ah across the street from the fast food or slow fast food burger place or across the street from like the space in Rochester where people go to get burgers. like You need all the help you get.
00:52:11
Speaker
did you Did you play Pokemon Go at all? I didn't. I was aware of it though. um i mean it was It was huge. yeah People still play it. We had some friends that do still. After the original, like i've played like i said I've played through a few different games and completed them. um And I find it fun, but if there's one game that I'm going to go back to for sentimentality, for connection with my family and my own background, um and just for just pure enjoyability, like there is no pressure for me in playing this game. If all my Pokรฉmon get knocked out, I know the Pokรฉ Center I'll end up at but i when my character blacks that blacks out. And I'll go back out there. I actually named my character in this one after my son.
00:53:03
Speaker
So that's fun. And I named his rival after one of his cousins. Oh, that's fun. That would be fun. Yeah. That's cute. Yeah. So that's me. I will be playing this game until I complete it. um Much to the sugrin of those around me who are like, yo, like, good birthday, Eric. Sorry, what my non backlit screen it is very hard to see him backlit screens one of the backlighting was probably one of the greatest inventions like i'll be like Yeah, got to get the right angle This is so much fun under thanks for
00:53:50
Speaker
talking through one of my favorite things and and giving me the space for that. I know it's it's kind of corny or can seem kind of corny, but we're about the things, the stories and storytellers that have impacted us. And this is a story that I go back to time and time again, more often than any book or any particular story within a book. But that's me. I want to know what is it that you brought for us today? Okay, so in answer, I think I will read the,
00:54:29
Speaker
kind of like the prologue of this book that is not just a book series. A little hint there, but I think you'll guess it soon enough. There were dragons when I was a boy. There were great grim sky dragons that nested on the cliff tops like gigantic scary birds. Little brown scuttly dragons that hunted down the mice and rats in well-organized packs. Preposterously huge sea dragons that were twenty times as big as the big blue whale and who killed for the fun of it. You will have to take my word for it, for the dragons are disappearing so fast they may soon become extinct.
00:55:19
Speaker
Nobody knows what is happening. They are crawling back into the sea from whence they came, leaving not a bone, not a fang, and the earth for the men of the future to remember them by. So, in order that these amazing creatures should not be forgotten, I will tell this true story from my childhood. I was not the sort of boy who could train a dragon with a mere lifting of an eyebrow. I was not a natural at the heroism business. I had to work at it. This is the story of becoming a hero the hard way. So do you know what it is? Can you hear it? A little bit.
00:56:06
Speaker
It's coming through pretty bad. It's how to train a drag. Yes. That's why I was trying to play that music. Yeah. That was the intro to Burke.
00:56:21
Speaker
So did you know that this was a book series? I did. I haven't read it, but I've had it recommended to me by many people. I think you included. um And I'm excited for when my son is able to understand a little bit more. I think he's like, in the next year, we'll be ready. yeah um I've just heard incredible things about the books. that They're very different from the movies, but the movie the first movie itself was absolutely phenomenal. and The soundtrack to the first movie is even more phenomenal. so I hear the books are even better than that. Well, it depends, I think. um They are very different. so you know My main interaction with How to Train Your Dragon was the movies.
00:57:07
Speaker
um Which I guess we'll start there, because I think for a lot of people, that's where they start. Without a Train Your Dragon, that's where I started. um I don't know if I can remember the first time I i actually saw ah kate what did it. It came out in... um We were in high school. Yeah. 2010?
00:57:35
Speaker
2010. Yes! I got the right date. I'm proud of myself. Yeah. 2010. I remember. Yeah. So I, I must've seen it then. Um, and I really liked it. It, it was, it wasn't like, I liked it, you know, it wasn't like a favorite series, you know? Um, and then, you know, they did the second one and the third one. And I think I was at college by the time the third one was coming out.
00:58:09
Speaker
um Me too. Where'd he go? Yeah. Oh, it started with an H. Oh, me too. Crazy. Small world. yeah
00:58:20
Speaker
um And my main, my main connection to the movies, I think, was the fact that Toothless reminded me, Toothless's hiccups dragon ah reminded me a lot of my dog Frodo. com yeah And yeah, and and after Frodo passed, like how to train your dragon, whenever I watched them, I would think of my dog and I would just cry. Oh my goodness. ah Because I missed him and Toothless is such a, um I think he's actually probably more cat-like than doglike what i weed taking on was finding pushing my cat do the dragons.
00:59:06
Speaker
but um His loyalty to Hiccup and his his demeanor reminded me so much of Frodo, my border collie. And I guess I should sort of give a short summary of how to train a dragon if you don't know about it. There's a boy, Hiccup, who's the son of a Viking chief, except ah Hiccup is not your typical Viking, he's very skinny, he's not very athletic, and he's um
00:59:37
Speaker
Smart. Vikings in this world are, you know, stereotypical Vikings. um and But there is, you know, there is more to them as the series goes on, like the other Viking characters, like his father, Stoic the Vast, played by Gerard Butler, voiced by Gerard Butler in the movies. um And so one huge difference between the books and the movies, in the movie, um dragons, are like Vikings and dragons are like trying to kill each other all the time. um Whereas in the books, they Vikings have dragon pets already. um they They already sort of have dragons that they have trained, um that they use for hunting, for pulling sleds, and all sorts of things. um As Eric shows me, ah
01:00:35
Speaker
picture of his cat that looks a lot like Toothless. yeah ah So in the movie, Hiccup shoots down tootslip shoot's down Toothless and is gonna go kill him um to prove that he's a real Viking, the son of a chief, whatever, and he just can't. A night fire or something like that? Yeah, Toothless is a night fury in the movies, which is a very special, super cool dragon. um And he can't do it. And so he eventually, but Toothless's wing has been damaged. So Hiccup sort of builds a relationship with him as he you know tries to help the dragon fly again. And there's a whole plot. And they end up becoming friends with the dragons. The Vikings learn how to train dragons. and
01:01:35
Speaker
get along with them and live with them rather than you know fight them. But that's the movies. um
01:01:43
Speaker
And they're good. They're good movies. Every time I talk about them with people like, oh yeah, that's a really good movie. Especially the first one. The first one's so good. And the second and third one are good too. They're not great, but the first one's great, I think. The second and third one are still, they hold their own. They're good. Yeah. i think I think the the second and third one, the thing that bothers me is they really lean into goofiness in the second and third one. And so it's really kind of jarring when you have this like really serious story and then you just have like these dumb rough nut, tough nut jokes and it's not loud. And it's like, and the you know, the goofiness is really, it's from the books. Um, these are the books are much goofier than the, uh, movies in the beginning, especially, um, like,
01:02:37
Speaker
it's they're they're you know They're written for for kids, like 11, 12, I think would be probably who who it's written for. Gober the Belch is crazy. There's these like crazy illustrations in here. I love it. um Yeah. There's a Viking chief named Big Booby de Bertha, so that's kind of like you know, like potty humor yeah in in these books. um And there's, the names are pretty goofy. You know, still like the Vast is is a good Viking name, but like, Hiccup's teacher is Gabr the Belch.
01:03:21
Speaker
um there's There's, let's see. Let me get the list of characters here. Dog's breath to the brain. um snot face, snot lout, warty hog, clueless. um
01:03:46
Speaker
Kamikaze is Bertha's, big Bertha's daughter. Bertha's one of the chiefs. Kamikaze's a daughter, and her and Hiccup become friends. And I think that Kamikaze is kind of like they turn Kamikaze into Astrid in the movies. um They share a lot of ah traits. um
01:04:11
Speaker
And it's, I don't know, it's I think the movies are have a really beautiful arc um and tell kind of a really touching story about friendship and and loyalty and um there's just some super cool flying scenes. Especially the second one. Oh, oh my goodness. like Hiccup and Toothless just flying through those, flying through the cliffs and dodging through and all that stuff. It's just, it's so cool. I love that kind of stuff.
01:04:45
Speaker
um
01:04:47
Speaker
And, you know, having this- Sometimes I wish we could fly. Growing up, I thought that people in movies were granted the ability to do the things that I saw, like before I learned about special effects and all those things. And I was like, I want to be in movies so I can fly. Oh yeah. I thought they were actually flying. Like what can we do? Yeah. I mean, what kid doesn't want to have a dragon and ride around on a dragon? I mean, when I was a kid, I, I wanted to believe in dragons so bad that I almost like convinced myself that they were real. Like I would go around with my friends in the woods and like pretend that we were seeing dragons.
01:05:31
Speaker
And I would try so hard to like actually see them, that I would almost like make myself believe that I actually saw it. um And I remember this there was like a fake documentary that, I don't know, for some reason my like uncle burned it for me and I watched it and it was like on National Geographic and they were unearthing this this dragon and I was like, That's real, right? and And then I realized that it wasn't, but um yeah. And it's funny because you read some of the author about the authors and she sort of did a similar thing when she was younger. She wanted to believe in dragons. And so the like the author's notes, I really liked the author's notes. They're probably my favorite parts of the books.
01:06:19
Speaker
You know, the the beginning and after, she's these are like Hiccup's memoirs that you find the way that the covers are done and stuff. It's supposed to be like Hiccup's memoirs that the author of the book has found and has translated for us. Oh, I love that. I love that idea. And so there's notes in the beginning and the end from Hiccup himself as an old man, perfect um which I really love. I think it's a great device. and And the writing gets a little more mature at the end, too, when he's writing as an old man. so um I think if you're coming from the movies and you're older, I think you'll find the books kind of jarring. ah because like My wife and I did it first because they're they're goofy. They're written for kids. Some of the dragons are pretty goofy, too. ah Pretty scary, but also pretty goofy. like like There's dragons that are straight up just called vampire spy dragons.
01:07:16
Speaker
Um, just like, yeah, I mean, that's fine, but it's also kind of immersion. It's not like serious fantasy, you know, um, quote unquote serious fantasy. Uh, but I think that if you, if you stick with it and you take the time and I have to say reading it out loud has been a lot of fun trying to do lots of voices and stuff like my problem is is that i can't i can't do gober the velts i can't differentiate like two large male vikings i can't do like two distinct voices for them so it's very hard when gober and stoic are in the same scene for me yeah i just i just make gober like more his voice cracks more like hiccup instead of like hiccup um
01:08:12
Speaker
but so good I feel like I just got a glimpse into you parenting. a lot yeah and Toothless. Toothless is hilarious. Toothless in the books, he is a cat. He is a cat in the books. He's the size of a cat and he acts like a cat. He chews up Stoics underwear. um he is constantly hungry. He's like really selfish as cats are. um And it's so funny and and you you kind of grow to love him. And um I think that if you if you stick with the books and you dig into them, you will find moments and storylines that really rival and at certain times surpass moments in the movies. um Because a huge another huge difference is that dragons actually talk in the books.
01:09:08
Speaker
So Hiccup actually talks to Toothless, and that's part of why Hiccup, ah you know, why he's special, because he learns to speak Dragonese, which is a really silly, made-up language. I'm not sure if I can find a sample here. So dragons can only speak to each other and to humans that learn Dragonese? Yeah. the Dragons speak Dragonese, and usually um humans don't. Don't bother to learn it because the only book like the actual how to train your in universe how to train your dragon book the only um Line in the book is yell at it Yeah,
01:09:53
Speaker
yeah and that doesn't work for hiccup because he's not big he's not like a normal Viking so he has to figure out a different way so he learns how to speak dragon ease which is like a You know, here are some common dragon phrases to get you started. Oh, here I'll start. Learning to speak dragonese. In order to train your dragon without using the traditional methods of yelling at it, you must first learn to speak dragonese. Dragons are the only other creatures who speak a language as complicated and sophisticated as humans. Here are some common dragon phrases to get you started.
01:10:29
Speaker
Ni a krapa in a de husses, pichu. No pooing inside the house, please.
01:10:37
Speaker
Mi mama no like it yum yum on di bum. My mother does not like to be bitten on the bottom. Pichu keenly gaba ut mi friundly. Please would you be so kind as to spit my friend out? Do it ah one more time. Let's try that again. um which made my son, my my four-year-old son, just laugh forever instead of go to sleep. but um I love that so much. Yeah. It's so silly, um but it's also like, you know, Hiccup develops a really kind of deep and complex relationship with Toothless.
01:11:20
Speaker
which he does have a very deep relationship with Toothless and the movies, but it's it's not spoken. It's yeah it's unspoken. um Which it makes sense if they're for them trying to lean into more of like the emotional like think piece of it and moving away from the silliness, like that would have prevented that from happening. Yeah, but also the first book, i i the the first one's one of my favorite ones. There's 12 of them, I think. Um, we're on the 12th one, uh, in the, at the end of the first book, there's a sea dragoness gigantic is Maximus, which is like a huge dragon, you know, the size of a skyscraper. Um, and Hiccup talks to it and it's a super cool scene. Like if you can get past the kind of like, you know, made for children pros, like, and just imagine it, like it's really
01:12:19
Speaker
Really cool. you know It's Smaug talking to Bilbo, and it you know it's Hiccup talking to this giant, like hypnotizing sea dragon, like trying to be smart, but also trying not to get hypnotized. um And it's super cool. And and it's really cute. The way that Hiccup survives ah is because you know dragons, she repeats it over and over as the dragons are very selfish. They won't do anything unless they there's something in it for them. They're like cats, which no matter how much we love cats.
01:12:59
Speaker
we can't deny that they are selfish. love my But yeah, but that I do too.
01:13:10
Speaker
But at the end of the first book, and spoiler alert, I guess, ah Toothless ends up saving Hiccup, like Toothless risks his life to save Hiccup at the end of the first book, which is really you know kind of hints at how Hiccup is able, you know to build a relationship with these dragons. And you know by the end, like I think that the the books really surpass the movies in the epicness of the, you know it's like a full scale dragon apocalypse. um And you know the movies have some pretty big moments. like you know I love that fight with the with the huge dragon at the end of the first movie.
01:13:52
Speaker
um And the second one is good with the alphas. I don't know. The third one's probably my least favorite. There are good moments in it. I don't really remember. Is the third one with the Light Fury, or is that the second one? The Light Fury and the villain who is like a master hunter. Oh, OK. Yeah. um but
01:14:20
Speaker
In the movies, the most that's in danger is like the people of Burke, you know? and And maybe the world at large might be conquered or whatever by the bad guy. But, you know, and this in the in the books, it's like the whole world is being burned by angry dragons. And if Hiccup can't figure something out, like, they're all toast. Let me say something that's super controversial. um I think that's one of the weaknesses of the Harry Potter books is at the very end of the last book like what's at stake Hogwarts and the people there and then possibly the entire world possibly but it's not there's no great the grand battle
01:15:15
Speaker
Is very localized and very small Ultimately and it and it kind of makes it fall a little short to me that The series that is so encapsulating and grows so much Like it doesn't have a cosmic Hmm no issue, but there's also strength in that I understand but it just it it falls a little short to me from that and to save it for our Harry Potter episode. I hadn't thought about that until just this moment, so. I haven't even thought about it, but it is. Yeah.
01:15:55
Speaker
I'm sorry. that and And do each of the books end with that type of cosmic thing, or is it the entire series is building up to this cosmic? The whole series is building up to it. OK. In each one, there's, you know, I don't know if she really planned it out. I don't think she did from the beginning. I think she might have started figuring it out like halfway through the series. the main but they it is I have to say it's very well plotted, especially like once you get to like three and after.
01:16:32
Speaker
it's they all kind of you could see It's almost written like a mystery written like mystery novels. yeah um where they introduce some sort of plot thing that you hold on to throughout the book and it works back into the climax. and Is your four year old able to follow that?
01:16:52
Speaker
ah i'm not I think he he gets a fair amount. Sometimes I'll hear him playing and he'll be talking about the dragon furious coming to to burn the town.
01:17:07
Speaker
ah
01:17:10
Speaker
But um you know it's it's also another strength of the books is that the characters are bigger, like the side characters. In the movies, it's it's mostly about Hiccup. In the book, Snot Faze, Snot Loud is a huge deal, like because he he was he's Hiccup's cousin. And Snot Loud would have been next in line for the throne if Hiccup hadn't been born. um So because Hiccup's the only heir. I'm guessing Snoutlout is much more Viking meat. He is much more Viking meat. He beats up Hiccup on a regular basis. Hiccup and Fishlegs. Fishlegs is Hiccup's best friend in the books. Fishlegs is, unfortunately, he's very stereotypical nerd.
01:18:01
Speaker
um But he gets his character moments you know towards the end. She builds him into a fuller character. as as Hiccup's you know best friend, the one person who really sticks by Hiccup's Hiccup. And then you have Kamikaze who, the name is not as good as Astrid, but as a character, I think she has more going on. Astrid is a really epic name, sorry. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, and she's a very epic character in the movies ah too, but the movies have less time yeah to to build the characters, so.
01:18:38
Speaker
um
01:18:43
Speaker
So, Hunter, you didn't share yet how you were introduced to the books. Like, what made you decide to pick them up? um I always try to read the source of adaptions. Like, before you watch the adaption, do you try to do it, or? Usually, if I can. With How to Train Your Dragon, I wasn't really aware of the books, so and if you had when the movies came out, Yeah, I mean, because they're really marketed as kids' books with illustrations and everything. And I was too old at that point. And not old enough. And not old enough. That's true. So I think I was just in the library at the kids' section. And I saw that they had them all there. I think we started with book two because they didn't have the first one. And we found this one.
01:19:42
Speaker
It might have been free. I don't know where we found it. I just picked it up off the shelf because it seemed like, you know, I had watched the movies with my son and I was like, all right, let's read it. And we we we have a bedtime book. ah You know, we do like short books and then we will do like three short books and then we'll do a bedtime book, just like a chapter book. It's a long bedtime. Yes, we have a a very developed bedtime routine.
01:20:21
Speaker
it is It is not optimized for efficiency, but it is it is optimized for love. I love it. I love it. And reading. Yeah, yeah love of reading. Yes. um
01:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, so we just we just kind of picked it up, and it's been going with it. We know we we finish it, and we go back to the library, get the next one. um And they've really kind of won me over. you know Because if you've heard the podcast before, you know I have issues with, I have strong opinions about prose and fantasy and things. um But I think the fact that they're written for kids really kind of disarmed me. um And also just reading it aloud kind of forced me to take my time with it. And and you know the prose is, there's a lot of adverbs, too many adverbs in my opinion, but you know it's it it communicates well. And I'd say it's it's, I'd hazard to say it's more creative than your average,
01:21:38
Speaker
window prose. um Should I say how it how it shaped me or do you have any other? under After reading so much of the series, does it make you want to write a book series or a book or a short story that is geared towards younger kids? Is that something that you would find interesting? Yeah, I think so. um I think it'll be interesting to see what I want to do after I finish the Blades of Dawn um because right now my mind is all tied up in knots with that and the world building and everything and all the loose ends that I've gave myself to tie up. yeah um So i just I just don't have as much capacity for for other stuff. But it is something that I do want to do.
01:22:39
Speaker
I've sort of tried to write certain stories that I, you know, would want to read to my kids. um I don't think I would, if I didn't have kids, I wouldn't want to. um Probably wouldn't even be reading this. um How to Train Your Dragon.
01:23:06
Speaker
And if you think about, you know, Tolkien started writing The Hobbit for his kids. um I think he was always building the Lord of the Rings in his head, but the Hobbit really came out of telling a story to his kids. um
01:23:25
Speaker
And I think there's really, I think that fantasy in particular really part of the the power of it, just the idea of saying once upon a time.
01:23:39
Speaker
which Tolkien talks about in his his essay on fairy stories,
01:23:45
Speaker
how once upon a time is kind of like the perfect intro to a fantasy story because it immediately separates your your mind from like the present world. you know you could You could just be telling a story that happened a couple days ago, But you could also be telling a story that happened in the realm of the fairy king in the netherworld. And I love that. I always i read a lot of literature you know capital L literature, which is set in the present day and when when the author was writing or before the author was alive, but in the real world.
01:24:36
Speaker
But whenever I sit down to write, it's not long before I want to have something supernatural happen. You know, yeah I want to be visited by by ghosts or aliens or shoot sparks out of his eyes or something weird. um I love it. um but And I think children's story have children stories have a real you know whimsical power to them because I think there's really, when I think about writing, I think about you know there's there's two main sides of it, for me at least,
01:25:23
Speaker
you know One side is is truth, writing something that's true, something that's good, something you know that might be painful to say or to think about, but something that needs to be said and thought about. um and you know Because you can really process pain in writing in a way that that is is is really hard to do anywhere else, especially you know if you do it in fiction and you tell a story as you're doing it. But then the other side of writing is also just whimsy, is is just going going somewhere else and doing something different, imagining yourself somewhere else. you know I think of the whimsy of Don Quixote imagining himself at night, and of course Tolkien,
01:26:17
Speaker
and it's is's full of whimsy. And I think children's stories in particular, you can do all, you know, you you can accept, a child can accept almost anything in a story. um You know, there there can just be, there can just be dragons, you know? um
01:26:43
Speaker
And that's, I would love to write something for my kids. And I think, ah talking a lot, but I think the final, I why i was trying to think about how this, how the Train Your Dragon has has shaped me. I think most recently it's really kind of brought me back ah to my childhood in those times when I was trying to trying to really see actual dragons in the world yeah I did see them. I did. I believe it. ah
01:27:22
Speaker
Because I think it's easy as an adult, especially in an age where we can just constantly distract ourselves um and and not process things. We kind of forget about childhood. like we just I reading Steinbeck's letters. He wrote these letters to his editor. and when he was writing East of Eden, which hopefully I'll share more of on our East of Eden part two episode. um But he said, I think some people just just don't remember childhood. I think they just literally forget it um in the in the hustle of adult life. um you know I think it's it's easy i've it's happened to me. I just i forget about,
01:28:13
Speaker
looking for dragons and and how everything is new and exciting and you can play make believe. And so that's, I think how to train your dragon has really brought me back to that and had me thinking a lot more about what it's like, you know, what did it what what is it like to be my son, ah to see this house that we live in, in this world that he, that we take him around in as he is seeing it for the first time in his in his childhood, um which is a totally different perspective than than how I see it. Yeah.
01:28:58
Speaker
I love it. It's amazing being able to see the world through your kid's eyes.
01:29:09
Speaker
I've seen that continue to grow for me as my kids get a little bit older and get to know their personalities better and get to experience firsts with them and see what sticks out in their minds and what they love and what they don't love and what scares them and what scares me. You know, same thing.
01:29:37
Speaker
Makes me want to write more. Yeah. but I write more, I mean write for the first time in a while.
01:29:49
Speaker
So much more work than sitting and watching a thing. Oh yeah. But it also feels like you're doing nothing sometimes. It's like, what am I doing here? Just thinking about this word. Yeah. I should be doing something more productive. Except It only feels more productive.
01:30:13
Speaker
Thanks, Hunter, for sharing and illuminating for me a series that I know the movies of, but and have never read the books. It's making me want to check them out. I'm reading with my kids and get back into writing some more. I think that would be.
01:30:37
Speaker
But sometimes it's even more fun to write some of this stuff than to read it. Even though I know what I write is not does not match the published quality of many of the things that I read. In terms of story, total story. It also feels great to get back into this conversation that we have together. this but type of It's a type of storytelling.
01:31:09
Speaker
if it's sharing out what we've been impacted by. and And I'm excited to bring more stories, more storytellers to the show and the in the coming weeks. Hopefully we'll get back into the spring of things again. And you know we're going to be doing doing part two of East of Eden. And we've talked about a few other pieces that and we'd love to talk about that will be coming your way soon. Yeah. Thank you ah for listening. If nothing else, I hope we inspire you to read and write.
01:31:55
Speaker
So Stoic's shield did save Hiccup's life after all. If it had not been there, the tooth would have impaled Hiccup like a prawn on a stick. As it was, it buried itself deep, deep, deep into the bronze center of the shield and quivered there, blazing with green-edged dragon flames. Stoic lifted the shield, terrified that the tooth might have pierced through to his son, but Hiccup was unharmed. His eyes were open and he was listening for something. He was listening for a strange sound that seemed to be coming from the flaming tooth itself. It was the sound of wheezy, echoing singing.
01:32:31
Speaker
like the wind blowing through coral caves, and it went something like this. I tell the mighty big blue whale his life is over soon. With one swish of this armored tail I put out the sun and moon. The winds and gales are quivering when I begin to roar. The waves themselves are shivering and trembling back to shore.