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BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 11.b - 11.12 - Blinding
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This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. Complete list of potential triggers: here
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The Brockton Bay Book Club discusses J.C. McCrae's Ward live! The gang reads a portion of Ward and comes together to share our thoughts with each other and anyone who want's to participate.
This week we cover Arc 11.b - 11.12 - Blinding
Read along here
Play along with this week's BBBC BINGO while you listen!
Support us and connect with us @brocktonbaybc
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Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast: This episode of the Brockton Bay Book Club is sponsored by Made Marion. Made Marion creates custom cottagecore and ren faire clothing designed for every body. Whether you’re looking for a lace up bodice, rustic apron and pinafores, or ethereal dresses, you’ll find items customized for every individual’s fit and design. All items are lovingly hand sewn with attention to detail and a touch of whimsy. Visit Made Marion today and transform your wardrobe with clothing that feels as enchanting as it looks. Find Made Marion on etsy, at https://www.etsy.com/shop/themademarion
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Transcript
Podcast Kickoff & Brockton Bay Book Club
00:00:00
Speaker
maybe It's like mid-joke. Oh, we're live! Wow! wow wow like so about bad Oh,
00:00:12
Speaker
What a funny story, Mark.
00:00:17
Speaker
ah I hate you guys so much.
Reading Progress & Activities Discussion
00:00:22
Speaker
All right. Good evening, Mega Everybody's falling to pieces. And, ah you know, we hope you stay together for this podcast. It's the Brockton Bay book club.
00:00:36
Speaker
We are group of friends reading through JC McRae, better known as wild bows, online web serial ward, the sequel to his superhero one worm.
00:00:49
Speaker
Uh, We are currently in arc the back half of ARC 11 for another 50,000 plus words there.
00:01:00
Speaker
And ah let's go through the let's go through all the stuff. Let's see. ah playing bingo so if you'd like to play bingo along with us by all means there's always a link in the description and you can contribute to that by joining to the patreon and giving us feedback on that we've got a spoilers channel we've got other fun stuff going on there we occasionally make patreon content exclusives ah like a rat and mouse tournament breakdown um And i think over the christmas season, I would like to live stream me playing dispatch, but as Piggott.
Holiday Schedule & Arc 11 Insights
00:01:37
Speaker
So. Hey, that's going to be great. Hell where you do it. Yep. Yeah. I will be taking input and I don't have a schedule for that. That just might be because we're taking off Tuesdays for the holiday season. Until when, Michael? Until January 12th.
00:01:55
Speaker
tell january twelfth Till the 12th. And so I might take some time to make some content that are Patriot Patreon exclusive um just because I can't have a free Tuesday. That'd be crazy.
00:02:10
Speaker
um All right. Getting into the back half of arc 11 arc 11 part one was pretty good, but arc half part arc 11 part two opening thoughts, Nick.
00:02:25
Speaker
Hmm. Wow, wow. um It's weird how this arc did feel like it was separate enough that we could do it in two pieces, right? We ended last time with the Lord of Lost fight. This one begins with an interlude. So it really, in a weird way, feels like it could have been two arcs, although this part was definitely shorter.
00:02:45
Speaker
Overall, really enjoyed it. The interludes are great, as always. um This feels like things are ramping up right? Like, this feels like we're starting to get into the back half of ward almost, um, sort of the, it's been a slower burn, but this is almost like the post Leviathan fight or like post slaughterhouse nine, maybe even, uh, equivalent of worm.
Narrative Tension & Speculations
00:03:10
Speaker
So it does feel like things are ramping up and I like that.
00:03:16
Speaker
Uh, Jacob. Yeah, I agree. I think it's... I just felt these last couple arcs have sort of picked up the pace a bit. I don't know if it's just this specific ah arc... arc, if you will. there The kind of current little ah little narrative going on. It feels like it's flowing a bit better than, say, the Fallen arc or the Goddess arc, which I liked a lot, but I i felt the the pacing on those route were were a bit off. This one feels like we're really building towards a... ah
00:03:48
Speaker
pretty good little confrontation which i would imagine is coming very soon in the next arc so uh um yeah i'm i'm liking the build up here
00:04:00
Speaker
hannah um what the fuck and everything hurts fair valid fair valid take Um, no, I, I'm been loving it. Um, ah really loving it. I just, the, the impending sense of doom that just is like, has a very light choke hold on me all through these chapters.
00:04:21
Speaker
Uh, just, oh, the, g yeah, no, the impending sense of dread, just like hanging over ah every, every new sentence. I'm like clutching pearls, like, oh God, please. No, please. No,
Character Interactions & Narrative Techniques
00:04:34
Speaker
please. No. And every time it's like, you know, i glanced over and they were fine. I'm like, oh,
00:04:41
Speaker
Thank god I can't. I can't go through this again. not again. ah so yeah. So I've been very much on the edge of my seat with this one, for sure. Yeah, it definitely feels like things are continuing to get worse and worse and worse. And ah it feels like, so I mean, so it feels like somebody needs to die.
00:05:05
Speaker
Okay, I was, yes, I was thinking the same thing. Like, I didn't want it to happen, but I felt like we're gearing up for a death. I mean, we did have a death in this chapter.
00:05:16
Speaker
Or in this arc. No. Wait, who died? No. No, Alan. No. No.
00:05:27
Speaker
What? No one died. No one died. No, one person did die. no one person to die There is there is. Oh, well, there operator red. That is correct. like By a child. I thought you were trying to. Oh, my gosh. Here I was thinking you were trying to make a ah i Illusion. Illusion.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. Illusion. Yes. Thank you. Something that like. OK, listen, listen, we've been here before. Gru's just off in the cabin. Sometimes I miss shit.
00:06:04
Speaker
And... yeah for like Yeah. Somebody died. Hannah's like, what? And I was like... Yeah, though the guy... we we You know, we we all were there when, you know, Sveta passed.
00:06:17
Speaker
No. I did call ah a Sveta death in my... In my... Yeah, you did. In my talk last time, talking about Weld.
00:06:28
Speaker
so ah Who knows? Maybe it's coming. Who's got the like the signal flags for like... man. And Tattletail was two days from retirement. No! Every character has like a, well, we should have seen that coming. Every character feels like they have earned that death. Earned death? Oh no!
00:06:55
Speaker
Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Like the only one that would be It sucks that, you know, plot armor kind of exists, but the ultimate move would be having Victoria die somehow and switching narrators partway through. I'm waiting for it. That's what i was wondering. A lot of people like a big anime move.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, but the assumption is that wouldn't happen. That wouldn't happen. Well, isn't that a thing? Hold on, hold up um That's the only reason Gurren Lagann is good. That's the only reason it's awful. yeah i I would take him on this.
00:07:31
Speaker
here's the thing Here's the thing. It's good, but they they handled that transition poorly. It could have been good, though. I appreciate that they tried. yeah i give i did appreciate it in the moment, absolutely.
00:07:42
Speaker
And then about five minutes later, I was pissed and never recovered. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, we don't we don't need to turn this into a Gurren Lagann podcast. We have plenty to talk about.
00:07:53
Speaker
Well, if if it were to transfer ah and narrators, essentially, who who would be our who who do you think it would transfer most likely to be our.
00:08:07
Speaker
Trance, I would love I would love actually, I think the next best narrator protagonist would be rain. Oh, if really? yeah if because if oh i Victoria were to die, well, here's the thing. If Victoria were to die somehow.
00:08:24
Speaker
Kinsey's mind would be, I think, too immature for her to be the focus. It doesn't really fit. Sveta, right maybe. Like, I could see Sveta. Damsel was interesting, but I don't think I could take a full narration of her. Like, her interlude was interesting, but I wouldn't want a whole story from that perspective.
Colt's Interlude & Character Analysis
00:08:43
Speaker
So when I think of who is the most, like, emotionally in tune, but still figuring things out enough to be interesting, I think Rain's a good option.
00:08:53
Speaker
yeah I think it would be if Wildboa was a bastard, it would be Amy. I was about to say that. was going to Amy. a complete a complete setting shift. Like, okay, and that's cool, but we're going to go to another planet where there's an entirely different set of problems.
00:09:13
Speaker
It'd be neat to see because Wild Bell likes to spin off into the really minor characters that have interesting perspectives and relationships to your main character. So like spinning off and getting like a Natalie POV for a while. oh yeah. Something like that.
00:09:27
Speaker
not Or maybe someone who triggers maybe maybe one of the heartbroken children or something like that. Ooh. Yeah. I guess down for for me, I was just... While that would be interesting, while that would be interesting for the main narrator, I feel like it needs to be somebody we've been with for a while.
00:09:42
Speaker
And I don't know that that any of those would be satisfying in the same way, just personally. but Maybe Weld. Maybe it's Weld the time. oh See, I would love Weld because then we'd be back on like the hero track.
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah, this goes without saying that obviously the Undersiders, right? gig me Give me a tattletale Rachel and plead, yeah. Well, well, here we go. Okay, we can't do the Undersiders.
00:10:07
Speaker
like we've we've Because we've already been with the Undersiders. Like, we can't do the Undersiders. yeah And we have to have somebody... who, you know, following a line with like how a Wild Boat considered having Theo or Weld be his mains in lieu of things. You have to have them adjacent, but not necessarily in the same group.
00:10:28
Speaker
So who do we know that kind of falls in a lot of the same circles, but isn't part of our main crews that we've been with before? I think two people. Number one, Little Vy.
00:10:42
Speaker
Fair. Vista's been making a lot of moves. She makes a lot of ties. We've got her with her little, like, she kind of got a crush for, uh, is it, who is it Byron that she has the crush on?
00:10:55
Speaker
She kind of has a trust, a crush on Tristan. Tristan, actually. yeah is the Okay. Yeah. Cause I think Vicki's statement is like, that's not going to work multiple levels. Yeah. yeah yeah Right. You're right. level um So she's got a, she, she, so she's got her like little romantic, you know, I think there that might draw her in, but like, well, ultimately she, you know, is tied to that. She hangs. We know that she has connections with the undersiders cause she hangs out with Rachel possibly and because of that. Like,
00:11:27
Speaker
I think it would be a good transition. The alternate is also very close in foil.
00:11:34
Speaker
Foil's very interested in in participating, but also trying to stay out of this. yeah She's been in the game a long time. um And then writing wise, I think you also, and and this isn't for those two necessarily, maybe for foil, you have to pick somebody that is,
00:11:51
Speaker
of a mindset that is close to Wild Bo's. Wild Bo's talked in the past about when he writes interludes, they're incredibly fun exercises, but they are exhausting for him to write because they're so outside of a normal thought process.
00:12:09
Speaker
um And in that regards, I think you have to pick somebody that is similar. Precipice would actually be a great, I think Precipice would probably be in a really good mindset for Wild Bitter, right?
00:12:22
Speaker
I think he, you know, he's got some of that character. I think Aiden is probably closer to that character, maybe. yeah I'd be down for Chicken Little. Let's get back in the Undersiders. Yeah, because Chicken Little technically isn't,
00:12:35
Speaker
Chicken Little
Darlene's Interlude & Creative Powers
00:12:36
Speaker
considers himself an undersider, but Tattletail doesn't want him to be an undersider necessarily. There's this whole thing, like she just wants him to succeed, whatever it is, because that's her new pet project, like how Taylor was her pet project after her brother thing.
00:12:49
Speaker
um Bernard asks, why not Perrion? Perrion, I think, is just not front line enough. yeah I feel like she's reactionary. yeah need someone who's going to be more action-oriented right on the front lines. which I've always known Perrion as a good example.
00:13:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. most per in but um Yeah. Oh, she's a blast. I don't think she would like drive the story forward. Yeah. The same way. but and yeah. And that's why I think I would think rain could be a good one, too, because if Victoria. Well, really, I guess I kind of also forgot about Byron interests in a little bit. They could also i was well to say i think they would be really fun because you'd have that back. It might get an interest in.
00:13:34
Speaker
old going back and forth right yeah yeah i i imagine that would be a lot anyways um anyway fun fun thought oh good warm-up so let's get into this back half of arc 11 we were reading what arc 11.9 to 11.1 point bad yeah to the 11.12 yeah
00:13:58
Speaker
eleven point twelve yeah Yep, yep. Yes. So, start us off. i can be Interlude, Colt. Love Lost's crew makes plans. Nailbiter talks about her past.
00:14:11
Speaker
Her group hits Damsel, Lookout, Imp, and some of the heartbroken. Colt shoots Samuel, triggers, and wins the fight.
00:14:22
Speaker
Oh, man. Ugh. Just the the fact that a trigger event is what turned the tide of the fight, that just sucks. Like, the fact that they were doing so well, like, obviously, Samuel got shot, so that was a big deal, but they were taking care of business, they were going to get him, but then they all get blasted with the trigger event headache, and yeah suddenly, you know, they're on the back of fight and they lose. It sucks.
00:14:52
Speaker
i I mean, it's sort of... We have that in or going to have that at the end of the last one, too, because we end up talking about like, oh, the cluster is going to be going down. That'll be one of ours and three of theirs.
00:15:09
Speaker
Like we should strike. Right. where They all go to sleep because they're forced to go down. yeah Right. Right. Yeah. That's interesting. We'll get yeah i get to that towards the end there. But that's the yeah. That's a.
00:15:23
Speaker
It's an interesting ah a battlefield tactic is like forcing a trigger to to mess with people. is ah I wonder if that's yeah that's intentional ever. This is me off.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's um they've talked about how you can't intentionally trigger, right? So it is kind of just a... Literally, it's the bad luck of it where Colt has just probably been around so many shards that...
00:15:51
Speaker
a shard found her or i yeah yeah just to bring in future thing, because I think it's relevant here. The, the idea that she perhaps inherited a loose shard from the cluster trigger. Right. mom You know, from love lost being around her so much and obviously having very strong feelings towards love lost, kind of these weird, awkward maternal feelings.
00:16:19
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. it's It's interesting to think because it's interesting that Victoria feels so confident she's part of the cluster all of a sudden. and i'm like Yeah, she's are very sure. Yeah, I feel like that's odd to feel that confident that that's the case. Obviously, the powers feel similar, but so there is that. But I i don't know.
00:16:39
Speaker
It's interesting. It makes me wonder if there's because like we always kind of go back to Rain's interlude where he talks in the dream about seeing the shadowy sort of or or at least like the the The idea that there's another yeah another part of the member of the cluster that's just sort invisible.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I wonder if that's what they're seeing is like a portion of the shard that hasn't attached to anyone yet. And it's just kind of waiting. Something like that. oh The assumption before was that it was a dead member, right? Because... Right, I think that was the assumption. Yes, that's kind of we've been going off Snag mentioned they could see into it once he had died.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. So there was kind of this... partial assumption that maybe that's what it was, but we don't
Humor & Narrative Themes
00:17:23
Speaker
know. But we never got any sort of other confirmation that anyone else in the cluster died, right?
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Until Snag. Until Snag, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's also some weird shit. I just don't, I don't trust, I don't trust anything with Cradle and Love Lost. and that i just it just It's too fucky-wucky, and I don't like it. And I don't like that, I mean, you see it here a lot, of this manipulation of, like, Colt clearly is, like, I don't know if she just has, like, she's really ADHD, or she's, like, maybe a little mentally slow, or whatever it is, but, like, she's clearly, like, not
00:18:02
Speaker
using adult brain to make adult brain decisions. Like, Love Lost has this whole thing, like, well, you're not a child anymore, but, like, clearly you're being manipulated by the group. This whole thing of, like, I don't know, is this a trick question? And she's clearly, like, lost in the conversation half of the time. Like, she doesn't know what's happening. She's she's trying to make the connections, and they're not connecting. And then we do see that a little bit later. Victoria makes a comment about it, which we'll get to. But, like,
00:18:28
Speaker
like it i don't I don't like that Colt has just kind of been the group. And we've seen her before. You know, when she showed up at at a at ah Lookout's house.
00:18:44
Speaker
And was part of that crew. And, like, I just don't... I don't like that she's just being manipulated. And and they give her an upper. Like... i I don't know, obviously. But I feel like...
00:18:59
Speaker
Someone got a little fucky wucky here. then Yeah. I'll leave the trigger event if you would like. Yes, actually, that would be great. Please do. So she's she's being, she starts to run from one of the ah heartbroken and then Imp spins her around and shoves her back.
00:19:18
Speaker
um yeah And she trips on the ice. She falls down and she's like reaching out for something, anything. She floundered like she was in water and there only water so disturbed and black that she couldn't find any way up or out.
00:19:31
Speaker
There were stars in that water and it wasn't the water churning, but sleek forms within it. As the forms came nearer, they welled up in her vision, less like a person walking toward her and more like a planet a planet colliding with her own.
00:19:47
Speaker
That form had a mouth and that mouth yawned open wide until it encapsulated her vision. And everything in every direction was this thing. She moved her focus around, struggled, fought, but it was like being in quicksand.
00:20:01
Speaker
She saw the heart of the thing. She saw the small star of energy and how it was broken up into a thousand facets that were somehow all still aligned, even as the thing came to pieces.
00:20:13
Speaker
And that star, that pit at the very belly of this thing, it burned so hot and so bright, it began to eat at her consciousness. Even the detachment she felt wasn't any insulation against the consuming a light.
00:20:27
Speaker
but she wasn't one to follow or or obey. She'd run away from, she couldn't remember the word. Her creators, she was doing a shitty job here with this new group, hurting a child.
00:20:43
Speaker
Oh, hold on. Here we go. The, uh, where there's more, I forgot. Cause she comes in and out. Um, the first step at a hundred thousand, all undertaken in the frame of a completely different time. She stood on the edge of that pit and the power was there for the taking.
00:20:56
Speaker
She stepped away from it, even in her desperation into the real world where the ground beneath her hands were cold and she had the power. Uh, she threatened to do so, threatened to pull her into that pit.
00:21:08
Speaker
Um, But she steps at it. For the time being, she stood shaky. Others had staggered hands to their heads. Powers had gone limp.
00:21:17
Speaker
Hmm.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah. So she almost falls into this pit. Yeah. and But she has to fight and gets away from it. which is interesting.
00:21:33
Speaker
I mean, is that like an example of what a broken trigger would look like? ah Like if you fall into the pit, like people who want powers, if you were in this situation and you'd be like, yeah, i want, wait, is this it? Is this, is this what everyone experiences? And you jump into the pit, like, and then everything breaks.
00:21:51
Speaker
Like, is that. Hmm. Interesting theory. Is this the new normal?
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah. Like it tries to suck you in too hard. Yeah. yeah the Listen. Fine. I got you. We're just going to keep going. Yeah.
00:22:17
Speaker
not only are there trigger headaches, right, that everybody seems to get immediately after it, if you've triggered something, when there is a trigger, right, it causes you to be stunned for a moment. It seems like often with triggers, they have powerful explosion of their power.
00:22:35
Speaker
And with hers being basically an emotion bomb, like, it it makes sense that everybody just got blasted and knocked off their ass, you know, on their ass. And whoever got, whoever stood up first, which was her, and theoretically some of her teammates, because she was far away, like, easy for them to turn the fight, unfortunately. Sucks!
00:22:58
Speaker
Is she 16 still at this point? Because they talk about her being like an adult. I was pretty sure she was 16. I think she's like 16 or 17. Yeah. She's at that line where they're like, teenager look, you're old. You're not really a kid, but like, yeah.
00:23:12
Speaker
Also still dumb. You're not really a kid, so we're going to give you an upper and a gun. Not fully there. As many Thanksgiving discussions were had, she not cooked. Like, not fully cooked. She's not cooked yet.
00:23:24
Speaker
She's not cooked yet. yet She's got a runny yolk. going to cook.
00:23:29
Speaker
It does sound like something's wrong with her trigger. I agree with you. Something's going on Something's going on with it. I'm just, it's too weird that she happens to have these powers that are so similar to the cluster and right after having taken an upper, which, I mean, not just me doubt everything, but like, was it an upper?
00:23:54
Speaker
i mean, it came from better pal.
00:23:58
Speaker
Hmm. I believe, I'm pretty sure of this. Yeah, I think that's... well I think she asked if was. She asked, like, is this from Bitter Pill? And she said, no, it's just an upper. Okay, okay. yeah Yeah. I just don't... I just don't... i mean, we've been yeah you know manipulating Colt this whole fucking time. Why wouldn't we lie to her about what kind of a pill it is?
00:24:16
Speaker
I don't know. We've never seen Cauldron Powers in Pillform, though, so that would be a new development. That's true. Oh my gosh, i imagine if they had invented gummy technology for that shit. Oh.
00:24:27
Speaker
I mean, it's already liquid. It can't be that hard to put it into liquid. my gosh, if they did flint for you know Flintstone vitamins. Flintstone vitamins. Oh gosh. just add some note You know, I love me a good i love me a good chalky vitamin.
00:24:39
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Here's the thing. hums are simon i also so I'm with you, Nick. They taste so good.
Character Names & Identity Impact
00:24:48
Speaker
Oh no, you guys are so cold. Brother, ew.
00:24:53
Speaker
old Are kids not taking Flintstones anymore? Come on. Chalky vitamins. I don't think I've been taking Flintstones for a while. thank you Chalk. Chalk. Chalky vitamins. Not chalky.
00:25:07
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Chalk. Chalk vitamins. Bitch, no one takes those. Chalk. That chalk. top chalk. Chalk. That flavor. Chalk.
00:25:18
Speaker
that top chalk vanilla chalk that flavor so It's all 200 taste buds. All 200. Okay, anyways.
00:25:33
Speaker
Brother, ew. What's that?
00:25:39
Speaker
What's that, brother? There you go. There we go. thank Everything's better now. One of my favorites. And that's another check off of my bingo sheet. I might use the sound clip.
00:25:50
Speaker
Amazing. That's a good one. um Let's see. oh Do we want have the cult power discussion now? Or do we want to save that for later?
00:26:02
Speaker
We can save it for later. It's more relevant. yeah more relevant later yeah yeah um that about else What else? ah Bernard would like to know. ah yeah Yes, yes, that does count as a sound effect. You can mark it off on your bingo sheet.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah. I love that Chai is on top of it today. Yeah, really. Nice going, guys. Right. um So do we want to move on or do anything else we want to discuss in this chapter? I have well did two notes for this entire back half.
00:26:34
Speaker
so All right. Fair enough. Well, um yeah, it's unfortunate that her name also works as a
Darlene's Confrontation & Battle Analysis
00:26:41
Speaker
cape name. Like, I feel like you got it. It's hard to rebrand when you sound like you're a cape already.
00:26:46
Speaker
Not that Colt fits her powers at all, but like, I mean, her movement power wise, like it's not her main thing, but it is the first thing you kind of notice when she's bipping and bopping around. Yeah.
00:26:59
Speaker
I have been operating under the assumption this entire time that Colt is a Cape name. And so when she triggered, yeah, well, what? No, it's not. It's her real name. When she triggered here, I did not realize she had triggered until Victoria's chapter where she's like Colt. And I'm like, Oh wait, no, I guess that was a trigger.
00:27:25
Speaker
So like, I, i was not getting it while reading this to be clear. thought Colt already had a power and that's why she was with them because why the fuck would you be with them and the crazy people?
00:27:39
Speaker
yeah now She's she's an an OG recruit from back at Hollow Point where like, yes you know, where they were like recruiting people. She punched her mom. Yeah. yeah i Fran points out that crystal Crystal and Chastity also have this problem with the that a name Yeah, true.
00:27:59
Speaker
who Actually, most of the Heartbroken have this f problem. Crystal's her laser dream. I not a heart. Yeah, her cousin. yeah But a lot of the Heartbroken have names where I'm like, they kind of sound like a cape name already. Even Rain right if is gets me sometimes where they're like, they're like and then Precipice. I'm like, who? Who the fuck is Precipice? Oost.
00:28:20
Speaker
yeah Fucking hoops. Also, it's a dumb name. It's so dumb. Rain or Precipice? Precipice. I think Precipice is Rain is kind of dumb too. Rain is better than Precipice. Rain-o-fire-fraser. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's like naming your kid Ivy Valene. You'd be a great wrestler name.
00:28:45
Speaker
Ivy Valene is a fantastic name. i don't know what you're talking about. Ivy Valene is phenomenal. um no uh uh yeah any anything else in this chapter you want to go over no i'm good did you say earlier bernard had a question for us i feel like you got you were saying bernard way was is that a sound effect and the answer is yes that was a sound effect oh yes all right all right 11. let's do it let's go interlude darlene Darlene is with Tattletop's group as they get jammed. They fight Paris and the other mercs. Darlene dispatches Operator Red, then Cradle starts the maiming.
00:29:27
Speaker
Oh, man, what an interesting. This was a great interlude in terms of like powers, fighting perspective. Yeah, just so much going on here. And then with all of it, with all of it to end with us finding out that Cradle is the guy who is able to slice people up now.
00:29:43
Speaker
is like and as an astute commenter noticed they're like tinkers often can derive new tech from being around certain heroes or like certain powers and who has he been with and love lost crew who has a similar power of taking parts apart but still being alive side piece side piece and disjoint Like, both of them can remove parts of themselves and yet remain alive. Particularly Disjoint, I think. Yeah. Because we've been talking about scanning and stuff.
00:30:14
Speaker
Yep. Interesting. Yeah. Immediately dislike Disjoint and Side Piece now. Yeah. Even more than you did already. um I mean, really, it's more like Cradle is like,
00:30:27
Speaker
Distroint's like, hey, look at this cool power I have. And Cradle's like, but what if I used it to hurt people? Yoink. A mime. Mine. call it a mine. Cradle is is a fantastic tinker.
00:30:42
Speaker
And I've been i hate it stuck on him ever since the the Fallen fight. or the the end of that kind of fallen fight where where Victoria and all of them fight Cradle on his giant spider thing.
00:30:56
Speaker
that's That fight just stuck with me. and i i just Something about his tinker powers just work, I think, when when written out. Just ah really fun to read.
00:31:08
Speaker
I really like, and it's something I've missed on every time I've read through, but I really like how Snag's power, how it you know shows up in everybody with ah with Precipice.
00:31:22
Speaker
It's just kind of the ability to slow momentum a little bit. um She helps turning. With Colt, it's like the exact opposite. Like she is Miss Turn on a Dime.
00:31:32
Speaker
because of that ah with him it was the ability to essentially do the like topsy-turvy shift direction thing for snag love lost it's like enhanced agility and i think at one point in time she does a dive kick because of it she like jumps up and then like like kicks at somebody um maybe so she can so she can delete like dive kick stuff because three fighter move Yeah, so she can do some real straight fighter shit, which is what makes her so, like, agile and dangerous otherwise.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah. um And then for um for Cradle, his is very tied in with his power in terms of, like, it helps him just balance on his giant hand machine.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah. yeah right yeah Which is brilliant. Like, how do you... Okay, he's not a frontline fighter. How do you make it so that all of those abilities interact?
00:32:27
Speaker
you know oh well he's on his machine and you can't really knock him off because he's just got an intuitive nature with the balance and the momentum thing of like being able to stay on this giant hand machine baba yaga type machine yeah basically also in that barn fight with him in the hand didn't he have like invisible hands that were like whipping out and cutting yeah yeah yeah no yeah cradle yeah no he had um That was part of what they had to do is they had to figure out where his invisible ones were in addition to the ones they could see, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. yeah yeah
00:33:02
Speaker
Just really, really fascinating powers. It really does. It feels like there was a tier list in terms of who got like the best powers from the cluster.
00:33:13
Speaker
with Cradle at the top and Rain at the bottom. Yeah, Borel. Rain gets once across the board. lane and then it's like, I would say Snag was a little above him. with Love Lost, Snag. And I honestly feel like Colt, if she can learn how to use her powers, and she is technically part of the cluster, she might be above Love Lost even. That seems pretty cool. Like, her stuff seems pretty intense. Yeah, we'll get to her again in the future. But just to Cradle definitely felt like he got the lion's share of, like,
00:33:43
Speaker
Oh, I got all the good powers. Nice. Yeah, right. Exactly.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah. um Paris is back, which is as awful as we expect. So can we have... We have on the bad guy's side, we have Paris for Byron and Tristan.
00:34:03
Speaker
We've got... um Love Lost and Cradle and all them for... uh for rain we've got march helping them um so that's also with you know sort of with rain and
Plot Twists & Mercenary Betrayal
00:34:18
Speaker
with we'll just throw in like a foil bad guy um let's see who do who else do we have on the bad guy side we've got to got a couple of cases 53s fifty three s um Let's see.
00:34:34
Speaker
We've also got... I'm trying to think of... I'm trying to think of anybody else that's got like a particular beef with somebody that, you know, we haven't covered. Yeah.
00:34:46
Speaker
If there's like... if If Tattletail's parents showed up on their side too, then we'd have like a perfect setup. set up but ah fra was pretty cool for a character allegedly based on Caillou I'm assuming we're talking about Cradle I can't I forgot that. Isn't that something Wild Boat said? Yeah, we've discussed this previously. I think that was discussed previously.
00:35:13
Speaker
That's so funny. Side piece and Ashley. Yeah, as Bernard points out. Side piece Ashley. Yeah, they do have some mystery. That's true. yeah I mean, Ashley and basically that whole crew just kind of had a weird connection. Briefly. Yeah. Yeah. um yeah I guess Lord of Loss and um and Victoria kind of had back and forth beef.
00:35:34
Speaker
True. Yeah. True. He's zip tied in the back of the van now, though. So yeah, thank God. it's last Thank God. Because he was i feel like they were like, wow, he was surprisingly just kind of a shitty, boring guy. And I was like, yeah a dude, he's yeah he's literally just a guy. hit him with your car.
00:35:51
Speaker
It's not even his birthday. We'll get to it later, but just since we're bringing him up now, just the comment they made about him of like, we don't really want him talking. Like, we can't trust a guy who uses that many emojis in his emails. Right?
00:36:06
Speaker
So funny. ask what a I mean, ah i I can't remember if we said this before or not, but like the heroes basically started to collect and gather and share information. And Victoria's got this like great system that she's building of like, oh, yeah, we're all going to help each other and give each other information. And we're going to have a fancy fucking map and whatever the fuck. And then all the villains went like.
00:36:31
Speaker
Us two? ah i I'm upset about it. I don't want them here. They should all go away. Justice League Unlimited Season 2. Basically! oh my god! That's what I'm thinking! Alright, that's okay. I'll count it, Jacob. Jacob is a cinephile. Check.
00:36:48
Speaker
um You're just baiting us to bite Alan. That's what it is. He's always baiting us. he's go baiting he's a being He's a master of bingo baiting.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah. I'll make the meme. Hold on. Nick! Nick! if can Again. but I'm going to have to do Nick does innuendo next time. Yeah, I feel like we're going to talk about bingo baiting. That's Nick just trying to innuendo.
00:37:21
Speaker
ah That'll get checked off in like five minutes every episode though. Yeah, that's Every time. All right. ah Back to the Darlene. in Any arc that has Kingdom Come in it, we're done.
00:37:32
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. yeah that's That's for darn sure. Nick Bates, a Hannah falls for it. It's like classic. Yeah.
00:37:42
Speaker
yeah Okay, Darlene. ah What a fucking cool small child. I think she's fantastic. Oh my gosh. That one was fun.
00:37:55
Speaker
She's great. She gives aesthetically like small Ashley vibes with her black and white like gothic Lolita outfit. yeah and Yeah. you And of the ones, she's such a like less inclined for violence compared to the rest of them.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Until she has to be. and then yeah Until she has to be, and then she's scary. Yeah. I mean, it's it's one of those, like...
00:38:25
Speaker
this feels like an ability that would be used by a really cool person in like a Naruto fight. Like I'm, I'm synced up to all, it's a combination of Neji and the shadow, you know, control. Yeah. yeah've Synced up to your, you know, to your thing. So I, I know exactly where your chakra is at at any given point in time. And I can make you feel my chakra.
00:38:50
Speaker
Basically. No, I... Oh, man. And just the way, again, the creative use of a simple power for her to beat Operator Red in that moment where he's like... She's like, I'm fighting an adult man. How can I beat him?
00:39:05
Speaker
And just the, like, connect, disconnect, connect, disconnect of that quick, you know, distraction, hurting herself to hurt him because she knows she can take it and he's not expecting it. Like...
00:39:18
Speaker
That was a tense fight. I really did think like this could get real bad. um I mean, it did. it did it did. Well, it did get bad. It did. It did get bad. And then it got worse. She got dead bad is what I was thinking. She got stabbed. yet She breaks her own fingers at one point, bites her tongue multiple times. Yeah. um Those are the two things that stood out to me.
00:39:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. uh she there's a couple cool moments where she does the thing where she cramps her foot she like she knows she can cramp her foot and so she cramps her foot and then like also in favor of like she does the thing where she like stabs him and then like throws her hands to the ground so that like he just can't get the knife yeah yeah yeah you know man And we we get a name. I don't know if it was mentioned before, but we get a name for the arena guy if it wasn't named. Contender.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah, we we think we got that last time when they were researching. i Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah, some of the names are great, too. Thud and Vulturehawk. Like, great, great hero names. I love Thud as a name. No idea what he would do, but he or she would do. But great name. i mean, yeah.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah. That's a four intelligence name right there. yeah Yeah, exactly. The barbarian name. That's Goliath barbarian, if I've ever heard one.
00:40:44
Speaker
No, it's a... It's a Goliath bard. and yeah Why do you have a 20 charisma and a 20 constitution? Let me show you. Zip. Thud.
00:40:59
Speaker
No. No. No. We didn't mean that. ah it's like It's like the love sausage from ah the boys. No. No. It doesn't have to be.
00:41:13
Speaker
ah bit but it good be it could be the no new dnd character barbarian oh no he's a grower agent kill that's right oh my gosh he's enraged okay michael help me i don't know what to do i've given up Reckless
00:41:45
Speaker
reckless attack. All right. Hannah's fed up with tangents. I'll check that off. Oh God. That was a patron submitted one too. how could you betray me like that? Oh my God.
00:42:02
Speaker
I believe it was Hannah crashes out over, over like needless segways, but. How dare you know me so well? How dare you? That's fantastic. I'm one away from a bingo already. It's like Christmas for bingo lovers. I've never felt so seen in my entire life.
00:42:19
Speaker
I've never, I've never felt more seen. Oh my gosh. Absolutely fantastic. um ok Back to the arc. I was looking for or a villain named Cretan is one.
00:42:32
Speaker
um That I love the flavor of. Of like this. Labyrinthine. Minotaur named. Hero. Who can.
00:42:43
Speaker
We only get one. Brief mention of what he can do. But Tattletail just says. He creates non-Euclidean spaces. So like you imagine those like. You know those like. um Optical illusions where the staircase. Like keeps going and keeps going.
00:42:58
Speaker
The idea of that he's like a Yeah yeah yeah. The Escher painting. Where he can like. make spaces like that where I don't really know exactly how it works. It feels kind of like Labyrinth, kind of like Vista, but not quite his own thing. He has Inception powers.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, and he's like tiny for a second, but he starts running down the hallway and he gets bigger and bigger. and It seems like he can put you in a labyrinth. And like, well, he starts off a normal size as he, I mean, it's like ah that that perspective puzzle game. Yeah.
00:43:34
Speaker
Not subliminal. What was it called? Jacob? Jacob? You know what I'm talking about. Superliminal. Superliminal? Yeah. Where like, as he gets closer, he literally does get bigger.
00:43:45
Speaker
Like, the whole him moving down the tunnel thing is a forced perspective. And like, you're trapped in the tunnel. And as he's coming, it does feel like he's enlargening as he gets bigger. So, yeah the more wind up he has, the more big he can get, essentially.
00:44:05
Speaker
And I just, I can appreciate a villain with the style to name himself after something that makes sense. Cretan is perfect. I know. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, the Minotaur labyrinthine battle that happens in gree ah Greek mythology, ah but whatever, the Bull of Minos or...
00:44:25
Speaker
Yep. Is it? ah No. It's or the easiest easiest easiest minute. ah Yeah. um He fights him and it takes place on the Isle of Crete, I believe. So Cretan.
00:44:41
Speaker
So we love a good, we love a good, accurate name. Love a good, accurate name. Mm hmm. Good mythology there. Oh. Uh,
00:44:53
Speaker
For me, this fight really does mirror a lot of the one-on-ones we've been having. um I really like Victoria's fight with Contender.
00:45:04
Speaker
That's a great knock-down, drag-out fight. i really, really like Darlene's one-on-one with Operator Red. it's So good.
00:45:16
Speaker
um Dare I say, i think... I think this might be my favorite fight. Oh, really? Wow.
00:45:27
Speaker
It might be because it's straightforward. it's there's There's literally only two of them. It's fast-paced, too. It's fast-paced, and it's an incredibly...
00:45:42
Speaker
you know, you fun, unique use of powers. Victoria and Contender is great, but it's two unpowered people having a knock-down, drag-out fight.
Vista & Victoria's Friendship
00:45:52
Speaker
You could go and read that anywhere, kinda.
00:45:55
Speaker
This is an interesting use of two powers, where his ability is to know where to hurt you, essentially, and her ability is to take that and turn it back on you, like...
00:46:08
Speaker
yeah So anytime he cuts her at like, oh, the special spot, he feels that and she could use that to advantage. so Love it. oh Love it. No, don't stab me there.
00:46:20
Speaker
That's my no-no square. I'm going to die. sorry um My podcast juice is taking a turn for the worst on my tum-tum.
00:46:32
Speaker
um and Oh, no. I refuse to let my lactose intolerance stop me from making a challenge. Listen, off you go. go I'm going to let Nick take us into while shits his pants.
00:46:50
Speaker
Basically, basically. more guy All right. Doesn't stop him from eating cheese or any sort of dairy, really. as he should Yeah. as you know, and that's that lactose intolerance is genuinely the only thing I think I've encountered where people treat it that way. Right. Where it's like.
00:47:08
Speaker
Oh, like I have a peanut allergy. You can't fuck with peanut allergy. You can't fuck with that one. like Oh, i've I've got a sensitivity to gluten. Yeah, don't fuck with that one. I'm lactose intolerant. Hand me that tub of ice cream. I'm polishing this off right now. Yeah, I'm going to do it while sitting on the toilet I'm going to problem. Yeah, exactly. No, Alan also allergic to... learn one out too He's also allergic to a lot of raw fruits and veggies. But his rule for years and years was, it's okay if I coat this apple slice in enough caramel. It won't cause my throat to to close up. And it was this year that he got an official allergy test and the doc was like,
00:47:52
Speaker
Bro, you gotta stop. And they gave him an EpiPen. So Alan plays this game of chicken with himself. And, you know, I'm just here to reap the consequences of his dairy choices. i right wife had so My wife had a boss like that once who was like, Hey, I'm gonna eat this and I need you to be on call in case I need i have a reaction. So, like, here's my EpiPen.
00:48:23
Speaker
Did she get a raise for that? That's crazy. Yeah, she should have gotten ah like a $900 per hour bonus. Yeah. How much did the doctor get paid? Yeah, that much. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, 11.9. Yeah, 11.9.
00:48:37
Speaker
yeah eleven point nine Let's go. Vicky gets a call from Vista. They share some war stories. The team meets up with Rachel. Tattletail's Mercs turn traitor. And March prepares for the finale.
00:48:52
Speaker
All right. i Just wanted to note my favorite quote from 11.9 is between Vista and Victoria, where Vista says, do you need help? I didn't plan on asking, but you have a throat baby now.
00:49:05
Speaker
And Victoria replies, throat abortion, technically. yeah Oh, funny. The whole conversation was like dark, which really funny. Dark, but funny, which she's saying in front of the cashier for the we got a cat on camera. she is bu dear yeah there you go um But what she's saying in front of the gas station clerk, who I just imagine is like slowly ringing her up like, yeah.
00:49:30
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah So anyway, my four pound throat abortion. Yeah. all that was weren those were those old tail Is that what the kids are calling oral sex now? Okay. Okay, I was going to try and make a joke about that, but I couldn't think of something of the fast enough. Thank you, Nick.
00:49:50
Speaker
yeah I'm here for it. you know One day I'll be able to make the dirty jokes. One day. ah and i mean i do I do love Vista. i love i love their interactions and their friendships. Yes. As like the only two... Didn't we talk about this? They're like the only two surviving wards, quote-unquote, essentially. Yeah. wild you know but it was there for a bit Brockton Bay, yeah, basically. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, Shadowstalker's out there somewhere living a worse life, but...
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah, really, though. Oh, yeah. I mean, Weld's there, but he was never like a He was more of a team leader than anything else. And he was Boston. He wasn't like Brockton Bay homeboy. So like... Yeah. yeah yeah Yeah. buff fishsh Yeah. There's this like weird... Oh, sorry.
00:50:39
Speaker
No, go ahead, Anna. I was just going to say, there's this weird sense of, like, camaraderie, but also, like, not quite one-upping each other with the war stories thing, but, like, this whole, like, oh, yeah, no, I had a throat baby abortion situation about 20 minutes ago. And then she's like, oh, yeah, I was hearing voices for six months of the people that have died near me. And it's like, she's not, obviously, they're not...
00:51:03
Speaker
you know, she's not trying to, like, one-up her or anything. She's commiserating with her being like, well, you know, we've both been in situations that fucking suck. I got through it, so can you kind of a thing. But it's this weird, like, because they have all of that history and because...
00:51:17
Speaker
you know, being in those same situations, there's this, because Victoria at one point, she like bristles because of something, uh, little V says, Vista says, and then Vista immediately is like, but you know what I mean. and Victoria immediately like breathes. And she's like, yeah, I do know what you mean. Like there's an understanding between them. And I really, i really love that camaraderie.
00:51:39
Speaker
I really love that camaraderie. Sorry. Is Alan banging on the walls in pain? you' Not yet. No. No, there's not. I will say the bathroom is on the other side of this wall right here. So I'm getting to...
00:51:57
Speaker
sort of experience. there's this some way There's this Instagram reel that came up a few times for me a while back. It just says, like, don't eat the Burger King mac and cheese. And it's just a guy filming in a bathroom and you can see two feet in a stall, but the feet are, like, off the ground and you just hear the guy going, God! God! I hate this so much. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow
00:52:25
Speaker
Oh, stop. Oh, stop. Oh, I can't breathe. Stop. No. no Oh, dear. I think she's actually hurt. no How did you guys get a recording of me in the bathroom?
00:52:43
Speaker
That was the perfect audio. That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm here for. Where is that from? That's horrible. I hate it. Thanks, I hate it. It's from the Grape Lady video. It's from the Grape Lady. stomping grape. Thick nose. She goes to stop grapes for a news lady. We'll show you later. She stomps the grapes and then she trips and falls.
00:53:06
Speaker
That's a classic meme. That's a 2000s meme. yeah Somebody hurts themselves really bad live on TV. That's very funny. yeah You could used to be able to watch all of this. All like 20 of them.
00:53:19
Speaker
Oh, I hate it. Anyways, we were just talking about how we appreciate Vista coming back, Alan. We like Vista. Little V's great. Especially since she carries a gun around.
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. More people need to do that. We've been over that. Yeah, at this point, yes. It seems everyone is breaking the gun rule anyway, so, like, everyone just needs to carry a gun. Yeah, right. Pretty much, yeah. um So, speaking of, like, comparing the war stories.
00:53:47
Speaker
Exactly. That's how you can tell this book was written by a Canadian. That's not enough guns. I mean, honestly, though, kind of. Also, the the one gun-themed hero named... ah who Wait, what was his name? Birdbrain?
00:54:01
Speaker
and miss No, no, I was thinking Miss Alicia. Miss Alicia? Well, Miss Militia. Oh, that's true. Also Miss Militia. I was thinking of of the boy. Might as well call her Miss America. You know what I'm saying? the text I mean, she wraps herself in the American flag. The Texan? Is that who it is? The texas Texas award who can turn himself into a bullet. Oh, yeah. young buck Young Buck. Young Buck. Young Buck. I forgot. Let name my gun-themed capes Miss Militia and Young Buck.
00:54:26
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah it Yeah. Love it. it. Yeah, so... I guess then the the question of would you rather, um would you rather have a throat abortion like Victoria or would you rather have been inside of Echidna like Vista?
00:54:43
Speaker
oo ah Right, right. I think I would have rather been inside of Echidna. i I actually am am agreeing with that. I think I would also rather be inside of Echidna. Because we know those people are asleep when they're in there.
00:54:57
Speaker
Like, they... And then you're you know you're in, you're out. You're coated in goo, but it's not, like, in you. And the other one you're conscious for.
00:55:09
Speaker
You okay, Hannah? Listen, here's the thing. You know what? This is an easy answer. The answer is, um what does your a no-no history look like?
00:55:19
Speaker
Because that'll tell you real quick who's into what. And I'll tell you right now, it ain't me, bitch. you No, thank you, please. And no, thank you again. as Wow. I would much rather have dead people in my head for six months than a throat abortion that lasts 20 minutes.
00:55:40
Speaker
I once choked on a quarter of a chicken nugget for 10 seconds, and I think that was enough. Imagine this Love Lost having to shut the door in the face of some like really kinky pervert that was into that shit.
00:55:51
Speaker
Oh, God. Like I told you, leave me alone. it again. Someone shows up with like an impregnation trope and they're like, please, please. yeah Oh, I've dressed up like Sonic. Why won't you impregnate me? I think that's been enough internet for one day. That's enough internet for the rest of the year. Holy shit. I'm sorry, everyone. What's chat look like? I imagine they're poor. They've all left.
Tattletail's Challenges & Leadership
00:56:20
Speaker
Fran asks, so you're saying you want to be the womb or the sperm inside the womb? Good way of putting it. Yeah.
00:56:28
Speaker
Good way putting it. is truly ah true I mean, it's the classic male-female dynamic. Do you want to be in or do you want someone in you? nick Wait, I've got... Can I choose either? Can I just be a celibate? It's a thing. Both please ye first yeah Hannah, to answer your question, chat is facepalming.
00:56:56
Speaker
That is what chat is up to. Thank you. yeah I'm so sorry, chat. really I promise I'm not on drugs tonight. It's the last one before the before the hiatus. for the for the but I gotta leave him with him. get one big right We can't be bringing this up around the Christmas tree. you know I already bring warm up enough. They don't want to hear any more.
00:57:18
Speaker
Actually, that's very true. Alan and I do talk about Worm and Ward a lot with our non-Ward and Worm people family members, and it's very funny to me. It cracks me up. They're all like, oh, and what do you like to do? I'm like, oh, you got a new tattoo. What's that from? I'm like, you know how I gave you the story for all the others' others tattoos?
00:57:38
Speaker
It's another one of those.
00:57:42
Speaker
Fantastic. so What are you reading? the like The thing that'll get me the next tattoo. That's what I'm reading. That's what i'm reading. ah I love Rachel and the Heartbroken Kids dynamic. Super fun. yeah Very funny. oh Weirdly, like, you know, we have this sub this very major theme of autonomy and bodily autonomy. And it feels weirdly like Rachel has learned how to respect that more than many people do in this sense of like, like because it it just reminded me of how, like with my two kids, one of them loves hugs and kisses.
00:58:16
Speaker
One of them is just a hugger, right? he doesn't He doesn't like the kisses. And it's like, you know, you kind of have that respect of like, hey, what do you like? How do you like to be shown physical affection? And I love how Rachel's like going for the like hugs one, picks one up sort of unwillingly, but you can tell she likes it. And the other one's like, I'm good. Better not to touch me. And Rachel's like, you got it.
00:58:36
Speaker
We're cool. she She does the hair task. She gets her head on the side of her head and then she just kind of like ruffles her hair and that's it. I'm like, oh. Yeah, it's it's very cute, though. Their dynamic is great. I love Aunt Rachel. Aunt Rachel's so great. Aunt Rachel is vibes.
00:58:53
Speaker
I'm not a fan. Bitch is fine you know in the first book. you know Interesting arc there, yada yada. Aunt Rachel is peak.
00:59:05
Speaker
like yeah Who knew that the best parent to these terrible kids would be the dog-tistic one? You know what i mean? right For real. Like, it's so good, though, because you just got to have that dog in you.
00:59:17
Speaker
Basically. But like she reads, she is also like she's reading their body language. And it's like that pack mentality thing of like, hey, I'm you know affection, but I know that you don't like like you don't like this. And you've set a boundary and you've been very clear about that boundary. And I'm going to respect that because I respect you. And like, it's a it feels very like.
00:59:35
Speaker
obvious and clear when you know so many people don't understand that boundary so it's like i mean and rachel's just you know crushing it and she's very clear i she says later here she's uh when once they've got the the mercenaries and she's like i'm gonna i'm gonna knock you out and then they're talking about it and rachel's like you can't say that you're gonna knock him out and then not do it you just look weak and she's like yeah you're right i'm I love that so much. It's like gentle coaching from the sideline.
01:00:06
Speaker
That gives Truett a bingo. Whoa. I'm going assume Rachel Hype being this last one. Probably. This is Hype, yes. I am hyping Rachel. Yeah, we do love Rachel.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah. Rachel. right Man, that was is that the that the record bingo time? like now we're in Pretty good. Wow. That's amazing.
01:00:33
Speaker
um We were kind of just just throwing. There was also cat on screen, Alan, while you were away. Oh, cat on screen. I saw you had cats back there. For those of you didn't know, i had Bunty on screen at the very beginning because when know we didn't have that many people here. I'll just move my little cereal bowl right here.
01:00:49
Speaker
Oh. Bunty? very there she was She was in your chair while you were um having a moment to yourself. oh Yeah, I know. While I was ah having my evening constitutional, um I definitely came back and not one, not two, but all three cats came running out of this room. So i assume they were up to no good.
01:01:10
Speaker
It's always good to have a good evening constitution check. yes Right? yeah Let me tell you, rolled high and that DC check was high as well.
01:01:22
Speaker
State of the Union address. I see. My fellow Americans. Okay, all right. not All right, no, come on, back to the mercenaries.
01:01:33
Speaker
Shit my pants. markx I would like to let America know that I have, in fact, not. First, first, first, I'll say about the mercenaries, how dare they? First of all, how dare you? yeah how dare they? you saying they've been planning this for years?
01:01:48
Speaker
Motherfucker, What? i have to I have to wonder how much Chattletail knew or not. Like, she knew, obviously. She fucking knew. Of course she knew.
01:02:03
Speaker
She not no Yeah, but she probably thought like, I've got time and they'll only do it if this set of criteria. Also, to read out, Truett sent me a screenshot. Oh, perfect.
01:02:15
Speaker
As one of our lovely patients. ah They got Alan Rance, Rachel Hype, Milk. I guess we did talk her because the lactose intolerance did catch up with we did. And the sound effect used.
01:02:25
Speaker
it was Nice. Very nice, very nice. Easy. Very nice. Yep, that was a good one. Yeah, well done. I'll be honest, I put the milk in there and never expect it to be come up. but You did this. boy how was relevant. and and that was you It was very relevant and I did not mean for it to be. usually pour through. usually doesn't cause this much of an upset.
01:02:50
Speaker
But... Can you just get different milk for you? f Never. I will not. Okay. Go ahead, Jacob, please. track I was going to talk about my favorite milk, my favorite alternative milks. oh Tell me your own favorite alternative milks. No, no, another time. alternative another time it's It's never been easier to avoid lactose than in our world today. but I mean, fair life chocolate milk is like. We can have a whole. Listen! conversation about this.
01:03:24
Speaker
Please. I beg of you. If we have Hannah's permission, we can have a whole conversation about this. Jacob, what's your favorite alternative? Another Another time. Patreon content, perhaps? Yes. You know what? That's fine. i will skip that one.
01:03:40
Speaker
and you know um You know, as somebody who's such a milk lover, you seem to not, you know, be true committed milker. I actually am a milk lover. Oh, really? Well, then you should have no problem contributing to the ah the milk Patreon tier list.
01:03:54
Speaker
Oh, my God. Oh, okay. All right. if we're going to do tier list. Okay. Okay. We'll do a tier list for the patrons. No, it's okay, Hannah. We have another time. We can just have this discussion another time. i don't We don't need you to get us off track much. Anyway, um Nick, you were saying.
01:04:12
Speaker
and Something about the mercenaries. um Oh, my God. I think we're we were just talking about how Tattletail doesn't doesn't get the wool pulled over her eyes too often. Yeah, yeah. And by that, I mean it happens way too often. And I do like how Lyle Bo...
01:04:32
Speaker
Wild Bo I think is aware that someone with Tattletail's power could be very hard to write around. ah And so does does well to write her into positions where she either loses or is wrong or is not fully got all the information. And I do respect that.
01:04:52
Speaker
Yeah, the headaches. ah This one did feel like a bit of a stretch to me where I was like, years planning yeah yeah I'm not sure I'm not sure and then obviously it's got some issues at the end of the arc but I'm curious I'm sure we'll revisit it just we put Paddle Tail back together Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of one of those like, is it an instance of Tattletail can't see the trees for the forest, so to speak? Right. You know, reverse the common trope where it's like she's really like big picture right now. And she's so big picture besides Aiden. She's so big picture. She just misses these little things. Yeah. Or is it the case of she knew and she's like, I'm going to have to deal with that at some point. But.
01:05:41
Speaker
I know they're going to align with me up to a certain point until they're told not to. And she was just overconfident in when that point would be, right? That's true, too. Because obviously, they're planning to betray them, but they don't succeed.
01:05:55
Speaker
Like... You know, like they they get caught in the act of turning traitor on Vicky and the crew. So it's like, right. I mean, unless they had a hand in the the whole team's failure, then that's maybe a bigger issue that Tattletail overlooked. But it doesn't seem that way from the vibe I got from the arc. It was more like. Our job is to try to capture you guys like everybody else. And oops, you caught us first.
01:06:20
Speaker
Right, right. right yeah ah Bernard points out, who foresaw the mercenaries betraying Tattletail the same way they betrayed Coyle? yeah You know? i You know,
01:06:33
Speaker
I'm upset about it so much because I love the idea of Tattletail buying them out from underneath Coil. like I find that truly phenomenal, and I love it so much. It's upsetting to me that they have no loyalty to Tattletail, even though, by definition, they will go for highest bidder.
01:06:54
Speaker
But i I'm upset about it. yeah It's the whole, it's the it's ah Jane from from Firefly. Right, how he meets with Mal. You know, it's, the mercenaries like, they're paying me to capture you. I'll pay you double. Okay, and just turns and like, shoots. jane yeah like Jane knows exactly what he's about.
01:07:13
Speaker
was yeah yeah the yeah yeah it's that but but my money was given to love yeah right yeah but yeah i mean I think this is this is also my one, my final note that I have written down. ah This is where one of the mercenaries, when they kicks off, goes to do like a judo throw. And Vicky's just like, whoop, and stops upright and then grabs his hands and just drops herself upside down. So it like pulls him down into the ground. It's like, yeah, try to judo throw the girl who flies. Brilliant. like Sure. yeah Genius. Genius.
01:07:54
Speaker
they They weren't paid for their brains, that's for sure. um Yeah. No. And they also cracked super easily, right? They cracked. Yeah. Okay, we'll you everything. Please don't hurt Get drooled on a little bit, and you're like, we'll tell you everything. Well, you there I mean, they were hitting them with the emotion, like two sets of emotion powers. forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And giant dog.
01:08:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, no. um Yeah. Yeah, I'm not saying that they weren't in a bad spot and would have cracked, but just the fact that, like, all right, all right, all right, we're done. Yeah, after, like, two and a half years of, like, keeping it on the down low, all of a sudden they're like, okay, no, actually, though, we'll totally tell you. Yeah, also, I'm just wondering, like, how many of these mercenaries, which ones, like, are these the same mercenaries that have been with, you know, Tattletail this whole time? If so, what about, um I want to say...
01:08:46
Speaker
It's not Samuel, because Samuel's the other boy. os yeah um You know who I'm talking about. The brother. um Yeah. The one who's kind been recent reader. No, no, no. ah Completely escaping me. Normal brother with one hand.
01:09:02
Speaker
ah You know, was with the merchants a long time ago. this Like Sierra's brother? Sierra's brother. Yeah, yeah. Whatever that kid's name is. He was working as a merc for them for a little bit.
01:09:14
Speaker
Right? Like, he's, you know, what, 16 now or something? I would assume he's with Sierra. assume he died when the world ended or something. He either died or he's with Sierra would be my assumption, since Sierra's off doing her whole businesswoman thing. got her own shit. think we mentioned at some point that he was still around, like, in one of the early us seeing the heartbroken. Well, I mean, good for him, guess, but, like, he's not here being helpful, so...
01:09:44
Speaker
yeah alan We're dealing with such a big cast here. know, we got like 500. I can't keep track of everybody. The fans will just check that one. Chat. Yeah.
01:09:55
Speaker
Bryce. Check that first, chat. Bryce. Bryce! Yeah, that's right. Anyways, um the mercenaries do crack and basically imply that March is gearing up for the end of the world. Fucking Christ. Again. but Again, yeah.
01:10:09
Speaker
End of the world. damn it. Part two, Electric Boogaloo. um This time with even more Earth. sacred So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
01:10:22
Speaker
I don't know. Shit's fucked, as they say. It's fucked. It really is. And it only gets worse. It doesn't get better.
01:10:33
Speaker
um Also, i was going to say this earlier and I forgot to say it, so I'll say it now. um Going from the interludes where shit's fucked and then more interludes where shit's really fucked and um people are in halves and pieces and quarters, which, ah no thank you, ah going immediately into, like, Big V and Little V basically being like, ah drama! Like,
01:10:58
Speaker
That was such a whiplash for me to be like, oh, we're just like casually meeting up with Aunt Rachel and the vibes are fine. We can't seem to get a hold of team one and team two seems pretty scattered at the moment. Like, oh, God.
01:11:13
Speaker
Scattered. ah But really, though. Well, I think I like that, though, because it provides this undercurrent of like, oh, this is horrifying, but they have no idea. Right. That oh yeah kind of adds that undercurrent of that, which I really do like. Yeah.
01:11:28
Speaker
Which, like, little be Vista, when she calls and she's talking her, she's like, oh, I heard some of the Undersiders got shot. And Victoria's like, yeah, we're still waiting to, like, know what happened to everybody. Like, one of our teams is dark. And she's like, I'll let you know if I hear anything. And I was, i was like, waiting for Vista to say something along the lines of, like, we're with them. You need to get over here and now kind of a thing.
01:11:52
Speaker
ah But she doesn't know either. Like, no one knows what the fuck is going on right now. The fact that it takes us so long to get there is was just, like I said earlier, this whole, all of these chapters, edge of my seat, just horror rising up in my heart.
01:12:10
Speaker
My poor little sweetheart. Gosh. Just a little horror throat baby. Horror throat baby. Yeah, actually. Basically. yes Yeah. Anything else on 11.9?
01:12:26
Speaker
I don't think so. ah Bernard, to thank you for the technical look. I think Hannah's camera is like a quarter of a second off and then it does delay sometimes. It happens. um It's not super noticeable. It is like really just barely off, I think, from your camera.
01:12:46
Speaker
Okay. I'm also, my ring light went out, so that's why I've been dark the past two episodes. It hasn't been that bad. Hannah's got a tinker power. where cause technology to crash out with her.
01:13:00
Speaker
just With me. She crashes out with my moon. I'm so upset. yeah its Crashing out in multiple frames. Yeah. All right, 11-10.
01:13:10
Speaker
11-10. Let's do it. all right eleven ten eleven ten let's do it The group discusses March and Foyle describes her group Trigger.
01:13:21
Speaker
They chase down half of the Red Team while Foyle contextualizes Tattletail and the group gets ambushed by a new cluster member of Reigns.
01:13:34
Speaker
Colt.
01:13:38
Speaker
I... Foil's trigger was fine and interesting, but for me, what I think made the most sense here was Foil sort of contextualizing Tattletail's power in a way. In the sense of like, did Tattletail ever really plan to be Coil's heir in terms of Coil's grand scheme to take over Brockton Bay? And the answer is probably no. Like, it's much easier to be a really powerful small-time villain instead of a
01:14:09
Speaker
potentially weak, large-time villain, right? Right, right. So it does kind of make sense that she's, like, out of her element in terms of running cities, running organizations, right? Like, that's not what she's the best at. She's the best at recon. She's the best at in intel.
01:14:31
Speaker
And putting her in a role where she has to be the leader in making those decisions is not... probably what is best for her. Plus, her concern about Aiden and keeping him safe just adds to that, too. so I don't know. Just to rethink like this whole plan that they had to take over Coyle's plan for Brockton Bay, maybe it was born more out of necessity than out of you know a desire to actually take Coyle's place.
01:15:01
Speaker
Yeah. I like the description of like you have the large... ah I'm to say ambiguous scale where you're talking about concepts and powers and conspiracies and Tattletail's great in that.
01:15:18
Speaker
um Like just having her as a general, like, Hey, you know, every now and then do I have somebody working against me, you know, in the longterm and her being like,
01:15:30
Speaker
Probably I need more information, but i can you know figure that out or having her stare at somebody and go, okay, your passwords are this and yada, yada. Those two individual or ambiguously large scale. Great.
01:15:44
Speaker
But like you said, the medium of like her managing and dealing with a city, not so great. And she's kind of bullshitted her way through that on the coattails of,
01:15:57
Speaker
you know, Taylor, because all she has to do is watch Taylor's back. As long as she could watch Taylor's back, that's where she thrives. She's the guy in the van. like She's the guy in the van.
01:16:09
Speaker
And unfortunately, she has been the guy outside the van for a long time. Or the guy inside the van, like, managing an entire fleet of vans. on Sure. Yeah. Not where she belongs.
01:16:23
Speaker
No. Yeah. Yeah, for sure, because I think we we maybe didn't appreciate how much work Taylor did. taylor and the other Undersiders, too, but...
01:16:34
Speaker
for Foremost Taylor. Foremost Taylor, secondarily, maybe a little bit grew as well. um Just in the sense of being, taking the burden of having to make final decisions off of somebody's shoulders for somebody like Tattletail, I imagine is a big deal, right?
01:16:51
Speaker
Where it's like, hey, I'll give you all the information. Just don't force me to be the one to tell you what the right option is. um like that's a big mental weight off of somebody. And so having Taylor previously grew, but obviously much better at Taylor in that role, we probably didn't appreciate at the time how much of that burden Taylor was taking and just telling Tattletail, this is what I need you to do because this is what we're going to do. And this is what I want to do and how we're going to do it. And because of Taylor's particular power, she was really good at knowing all the little details and the big picture because her, you know, her master power allowed her to feel everything out so precisely and think everything through.
01:17:33
Speaker
so i Yeah, I imagine losing Taylor in particular ah definitely put a heavier burden on her in terms of leadership. I don't know.
01:17:46
Speaker
It's unfortunate. If only Coil hadn't been a douchebag, maybe, you know. Dude, Coil would have so helpful in so many scenarios. It wasn't just an ass.
01:18:00
Speaker
God. Yeah, they such a great power. To be fair, though, i I love Coil's power, but I also don't want to underestimate that a good portion of it came from the fact that he had Dinah, too. Like, he was so happy because Dinah. Because what he did, i you know, was like, open, yeah, child slavery, open an alternate dimension, ask her questions until she's worn out, close that dimension, but keep the knowledge. Dinah's still fine, open a new, you know.
01:18:29
Speaker
until he got all the information he needed so it was his power but also dinah's power mostly too yeah uh bernard also points out something i was thinking as well great minds think alike uh sounds like contessa and dinah's problems too besides tattletale that is true contessa also had a very like i can think massively big picture because of you know path to victory but also i'm good in the moment but while she could
Cluster Triggers Speculation
01:18:54
Speaker
do it. And I mean, to a degree, what's his face, um, our, uh, Citrine's old boss, um, a Accord. Oh, uh, Accord. Accord. Yes, yes, yes. a A lot of the, the thinkers have these, like, they are good in the immediate in terms of like their thinking ability and what they're doing, or they're good on these like big abstract scales. I'd be curious as to how many are good at like,
01:19:19
Speaker
legitimately running stuff. Day-to-day middle ground. Yeah. Well, I mean, it sounds like kind of the number man was sort of really good at that in terms of keeping track of like kind of like the day-to-day Excel sheet as opposed to, you know, the big mastermind plan or the tiny minute quick yeah snap judgment.
01:19:46
Speaker
ah process That's true. He's good in the medium and the short. Maybe not necessarily. I mean, that's why he's married to the mayor. That's true.
01:19:57
Speaker
It's true.
01:20:01
Speaker
Anyways. Hannah, you froze up. Oh, am I frozen? We just your audio just ignore him and his camera. It's fine. This is a normal thing. He's just freaking Mary and Joseph. Okay.
01:20:13
Speaker
Well, Yeah. life it's a foils trigger Foil's trigger is interesting. I'm not entirely sure I understand how she survived the train.
01:20:25
Speaker
Did she go through the train? Yeah, I'm not quite sure I understand the train situation either, but it seems like there's a lot of gaps in this in in her telling of it anyways. There's stuff we're missing and also... Yeah, she was being pretty pretty secretive about a lot of it. vague. Yeah.
01:20:43
Speaker
yeah But also, mean, her power does just cut through things, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was something to that effect. is there Is there any chance that March is her sister, right? She knows that March isn't her sister.
01:20:57
Speaker
I like there's not feel like it would be a much bigger... I mean... i mean... Okay, I think... Well, no, she implies her sister died, but they never did the autopsy on the body for her.
01:21:12
Speaker
Right. That's very ambiguous. Open. Here's the thing. Unless we see a body on a slab, i I'm going to question everything. That's kind of how I go into these books so much. To be fair.
01:21:24
Speaker
we sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, no. And to be fair, it's very possible that her sister was another member of the cluster, but did actually die. um Because she mentions there was somebody in our cluster who we know died. We don't know who they are, though.
01:21:41
Speaker
I mean, could be some real fucky-wucky stuff where, like, want to get wild out there, you could do some, like, essentially ghost. but Because we know each cluster operates differently.
01:21:52
Speaker
True. um Yeah, the ghost of her crazy sister essentially telling March to kill her. Maybe so. Yeah, I'm i'm not. i yeah there's I feel like there's a lot we still don't know. And I'm like waiting to get a March interlude.
01:22:12
Speaker
think that would be really cool. Yeah. yeah yeah um That might give us some more information. But in the meantime, i've i don't know. i'm not I'm not so quick to let that one go and just take her at her word for it.
01:22:28
Speaker
But that's just me being a skeptic. It does feel like we're moving towards a march interlude. so of the I'll be curious if we get one. Marching toward it, even. fun
01:22:41
Speaker
What was that? Marching towards it, even, you might say. ah yeah um Yes, you might say that.
01:22:51
Speaker
but you shouldn't
01:22:55
Speaker
can't i can't i can't nick but anyways okay uh you foiled hannah's plans no jacob jacob jacob no she was not able to parry and was bad her love for us is lost I am on the precipice of ending this podcast. For real. I am on the precipice of... Let's not rain on this parade. No! Oh my gosh, Nick, you
01:23:37
Speaker
It's very upsetting. i'm not witty i'm not witty enough to come up with a good response. That's okay. You're still my darling.
01:23:48
Speaker
ah Now we don't need to brandish your love so obviously. All right, listen. He wasn't in the... there yeah Yeah, no, boo. And with that, the cycle is broken.
01:24:01
Speaker
boom Broken, Nick.
01:24:06
Speaker
Broken triggers. Think of broken things, yeah. Well, ah before we get to this, week because this was, a what, 11.11? 11.10. eleven eleven ten 1110. We're on 1110. Yeah, long 1110. Yeah, they they go right into the big old trippity trap and the gets flipped. This is where, again, yeah, van gets flipped. I'm still not certain that Victoria's right that Colt is part of the cluster.
01:24:36
Speaker
I just, I don't know. i'm i'm i I want to see the proof of it before I believe her on that. She just seems so confident on it. I think maybe more in 1111. I just want to say that because Wildbow highlights Victoria's cape knowledge in the in these fights in these couple, like ah the last couple chapters, like really highlighting how much of a nerd she is.
01:25:02
Speaker
yeah And so it it kind of would be funny if she was a bit too overconfident about Colt and was just and was getting it wrong, which would also feel like a very Wildbow thing to do.
01:25:17
Speaker
Yeah. Because Rain also... Okay, this is actually getting into never mind. I'll hold my thoughts. That's all right. We're kind of there. We're there. Might as well. 11-11.
01:25:29
Speaker
we're there as well ah eleven Victoria fights Colt and other opponents, and she goes full powers geek. She talks past Colt before stalemating the fight.
01:25:40
Speaker
Love Lost offers a prisoner exchange, but keeps parts of the team hostage. Oh, you dick move. Oh, you bitch.
01:25:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. um Continue, Hannah. Yeah. Yeah, my my thought here is that because Rain also says something about it. He's like, is that like, is that my power? Basically equivalent of something along those lines. And Victoria's like, yes, it is. Or or I don't know. She doesn't say that exactly. But she says something to the affirmative of like, yes, looks like it kind of a thing.
01:26:16
Speaker
And yeah, I agree with you. I just don't know. I don't know. The fact that both of them see her powers and are like, ah that looks fucking familiar. um Yeah.
01:26:30
Speaker
I mean, it certainly does seem like it, but yeah yeah i don't know. It has all the pieces of it, right? It's got the movement from Snag. It's got the blades from Precipice. It's got the emotion power from Love Lost. like It's got the vibe of it.
01:26:48
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I assume i assume with our next um thanks bit, I think i think Arc 12 opens on an interlude.
01:27:01
Speaker
and Maybe. I don't know if i'm yeah we'll that's right, but but the thing is, is like we'll we'll learn really quick because we're about to get some sleepy time for Rain and the Cluster.
01:27:12
Speaker
And if Colt's there, that's... I mean, that'll be telling. Or if, you know, Rain wakes back up and is like, Colt wasn't there, so she's not part of this, I don't think. Or, yep, she was there, she definitely has the trigger. Like, we'll find out, I feel, relatively quickly from Rain after he wakes from his sleeps. I did peek.
01:27:32
Speaker
I did peek. The interlude is not Rain's, though. Or any of any cluster members. Yeah. Well, here's, let's... i just yeah I just wanted to see what it was. I was curious. If we want to think theories on her powers, you've got like a couple of options we've talked about. One, she just straight up has been hanging around love lost enough that she's gotten, um you know, the ah offshoot power, just like how Aiden has essentially Taylor's power.
01:28:04
Speaker
Basically. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one option. um Two is that there's some fucky-wuckiness going around with the pill. She's somehow been incorporated into the thing, into the cluster. And some engineering going on here. Yeah.
01:28:21
Speaker
Three, yeah her power is built on essentially those around her. um Yeah. Yeah. So like she's been hanging around Love Lost the most. So her power is like almost born on observation of that more than it is like or is it yeah actually inheriting it.
01:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's a it's a breaker form. So theoretically, it could be an imitation breaker form. Right. And we do see this moment where like she gets knocked down by Victoria lands near love lost. They talk for a bit and then she flicks it back on again and is back in the fight.
01:28:59
Speaker
So obviously that could just be like emotional support, like, you know, get back in there. You got this. Or it could be. form ran out for a second need proximity okay i'm back like there could be some options there too that's fun i do like that yeah kind of uh what's his name from from heroes main character boy um um yeah yeah but turn um no no not uh the main boring mcgee yeah bor bor boring mcgee the vision dude yeah
01:29:31
Speaker
Whatever, you know, the main the main brother there. But yeah, how just has his power is just copy you know nearby Cape's power, essentially. yep And ah yeah, it's a fun idea. Yeah.
01:29:42
Speaker
i don't know, though. um I did enjoy this full like power geek fight where she's like mentally trying to cycle through. What is her power? How does it work? Is it a breaker form? Is it this? I did i will say the moment I had to like do a double take because she got stabbed in the chest.
01:29:59
Speaker
But then both her and Colt are surprised of like, oh, it doesn't work. It goes through me, but it doesn't work on me like that. Yeah. You know, because obviously c Colt is literally day one in her powers and has no idea what her powers do. um So it makes sense. She'd be like, go for the kill. Oh, that didn't work. Not how my powers work. It was established that she's super fast.
01:30:23
Speaker
She can cut through anything as long as it's not a person. So like...
Moral Lines & Aftermath of Battles
01:30:30
Speaker
And then has an emotional bomb kind of thing. Yeah.
01:30:34
Speaker
yeah And she's not, and she's not even that strong either. She's not super strong. In fact, she's sort of this like weird intangible sprite, like, you know, will of the wisp thing where, you know, what if you had really cool powers, but you couldn't touch anything.
01:30:54
Speaker
And of course this all goes without, you know, we haven't talked to in a while about, um, about, I think this was during during the Goddess interlude, where they were talking about how ah mean maybe it's possible to you know take over an entire cluster, or control an entire cluster.
01:31:12
Speaker
There was talk about Tattletail maybe thinking that Cradle had a way to do that. um Thoughts that maybe Goddess did that with her cluster. so I wonder if there's some ah some tie-ins here with, ah because I mean, didn't it even say, am I misremembering?
01:31:26
Speaker
that that that was the theory they were worried that that's what March was trying to do but yeah March was trying to teach yeah other cluster triggers how to take over the rest of their cluster and kill them yeah i absorb the cluster basically she makes with them yeah Yeah. Yeah. So like, I'm sure this is all connected there. I'm sure that this is part of it. That's how it feels to me, but I don't know, man. I feel like Wild was really good at doing bait and switches. And so I feel like this could be that, but it could be because we, gosh because the whole thing with with March and and the the system of
01:32:03
Speaker
of, ah you know, drawing the triggers in is you basically trick the shard into ah being associated with you because of close proximity. And like, just I just, don't know. I feel like there's a lot here. Yeah. A bit fucking walkie. Yeah, we're working on half a puzzle. one One potential thing that could support the she is actually part of the cluster idea We have to remember Love Lost lost a child in the mall event, right?
01:32:36
Speaker
And it's theoretically yeah ah that there was another member of their cluster who died. It's possible, therefore, that the dead member of their cluster is her daughter.
01:32:48
Speaker
And that because Colt and Love Lost have developed these weird maternal feelings. Weird. That shard that was in her daughter transferred to Colt. Interesting.
01:33:01
Speaker
As this sort of maternal passing. so i do not like it. don't I don't either. You
01:33:12
Speaker
um i will you don't have to like it. You just have to read it. I just have to read it. I mean, you know. I'm going to love it. love stuff like this.
01:33:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It is a good fight. yeah It's a good fight, not because the fight itself is interesting, I feel, but more because of Victoria thinking through everything is cool. of how do i really How do I solve this problem?
01:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, right. Yeah. it's, there's a nice parallel with Taylor there where I really think a lot of the joy in reading Taylor's fights was her creativity and in problem solving. And of course hers was, was more power related and like the way she used her bugs and clones and, and webbing and all this kind of stuff and and senses. Yeah. um or Victoria's twist. It's like just general Cape knowledge that gives her ideas and workarounds and creative solutions. So it's, Wild Bill does a very, very good job with that.
01:34:04
Speaker
It's fun to read. Mm-hmm. Speaking of emotion powers, though, we see this brief reminder of how people are affected differently, which Victoria goes into, right? Because Rachel gets hit with Colt's power and like goes like rage mode, right? Instead of being knocked down by it.
01:34:24
Speaker
um And then Victoria goes on this thing of like everybody reacts differently. And the one that stood out to me was she mentioned one person who turned into, ah in response to her power, went as the horny kind of submissive.
01:34:37
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just trying to imagine that. if like I'm just imagining this like guy who's like like maybe you know it's like one of those neo-Nazi guys who's like a big, tough, macho man. Of course it is. She hits him with the power and he's just like, oh no.
01:34:55
Speaker
Don't throw that dumpster at me, Vicky. Oh, no. That big bumper at It'd be a shame we hit you with your dumpster. yeah no No, I'll just choose to believe that she accidentally hit Amy with it one time.
01:35:12
Speaker
No. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. It happened in one of Coyle's alternate realities that he disappeared. He closed off. He was like, that was too weird. do yeah He's like, and nope. That's coil the Coil adventures. It's just Coil going through different fanfics. What's going on in this alternate? Nope.
01:35:35
Speaker
Close that. door Like, look, you know, sometimes you're a big macho Nazi and you just like to be a little baby sub. And you know what? That's okay. Not in the middle of a fight. That's a no. That's a bit weird. You heard it here first. It's fine with Nazis.
01:35:56
Speaker
No. That's fine. um yeah fine
01:36:04
Speaker
I'm free. for the fun It's a curse. You have to pass it on. Absolutely not. not.
01:36:18
Speaker
I'll make that mean to. No. no ah
01:36:28
Speaker
This is why we need a break, guys. Oh, Lord almighty. I know. This is why. We are sorry. I just need like a couple weeks off. We're not. need to read about, this you know, serial killers for a little bit. There you go.
01:36:40
Speaker
There you go. um I do feel like 11.11 too, we do see now Love Lost is really... She's a good example of that villain who becomes a villain when they they had a a sort of righteous quest but has gone too far now, right?
01:36:57
Speaker
um Sort of the, i'm gonna you know i'm I'm going to get justice on this person for the wrong they've done, which turns very quickly into, I'm going to get revenge and hurt them for it.
01:37:08
Speaker
And yeah, which turns into where she is now, which is the like, I'm going to do whatever I need to do to hurt the people who hurt me. And I don't care how many people I heard along the way, even including becoming including children, right? Even becoming worse than the person who hurt me. um Right.
01:37:26
Speaker
You know, and it definitely does feel like she's hit that. She stepped over that line now way beyond that working with Cradle and as bad as he is. Because I never felt that like like... Love Lost felt like you could almost justify it in a way of like, I get why you're this angry.
01:37:43
Speaker
But with Cradle, it never really felt that way. It felt more like a psychopathy of like, I am out to hurt people now. so so Did we ever get a Cradle interlude? No, I don't think we did. I was thinking about it. Cradle's the only one we haven't gotten.
01:38:03
Speaker
Because his feels like we we have... yeah Yeah, me too. I feel like we have some justification. Well, not that this can be justified, but a little bit of understanding at least of like where they're coming from. like Why we hate Reigns so much. But like we don't really have anything for Cradle. We don't really know what his motivation is. We just know that, okay. And then he's willing to literally cut people into living pieces. so like i feel like his...
01:38:31
Speaker
now i'm just I'm just dying to hear his backstory of like what actually was going on with him you know at the mall or otherwise or basically how his how his power and the cluster has affected him. I could almost see him being having been because of his he has tinker powers right and not like the others which are a bit more physical I almost could see him having been more of an observer rather than like in the you know mob of people at the door like the others were. i can almost see him having been like in the background watching, but just something about it caused him to trigger emotionally. um Yeah. I don't know. i'm I'm interested to see why. Obviously, his name is Cradle. you got the cat's cradle sewing hands thing. But I also wonder if there's something there too with that.
01:39:21
Speaker
um Kind of like Love Lost's name was... All of their names were kind of ironic. Like, Love Lost obviously lost her daughter. Snag was trying to hold something and fell and cut himself.
01:39:32
Speaker
Like, I could see a bit of irony in Cradle's name as well. with Like, maybe he lost a kid or something. Yeah, and and also, like, maybe the connection between him and Love Lost is solidified with the potential loss of a kid. Like, well, you know, Gradle gets it because he also lost a kid. Or something maybe to do with a child also. Like, maybe he is.
01:39:57
Speaker
feel like they would have mentioned that, though, right? Like, they would have. Because they mentioned Love i mean Lost having lost a kid so many times to Rain. that's but It feels like they would have said it. so Also, I don't feel like Rain's given us any information in regards to more Cradle backstory, but even though Rain is literally getting, you know, a front row seat to it every fourth night or whatever, so like, i don't know.
01:40:23
Speaker
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, if i'm wrong though. At the end of 11-11, we find the team in pieces, right? We find... Byron's in pieces. Tristan's in pieces, but Byron isn't. We've got some of the kids are missing parts. Darlene is missing an arm,
01:40:40
Speaker
um we've got some of the some of the kids are missing parts darlene darlene is yeah so darlene is missing an arm
Strategic Considerations & Character Roles
01:40:51
Speaker
and um A thumb. A chunk of her like... there's ah Yeah, there's like ah of dim and She's got like just like a bit of her hand. A piece of her hand's gone. um Juliet has a huge ah triangle out of her side. ah chicken little yeah Chicken Little apparently like... Doesn't quite have some face. Eyes and ears. Yeah, something's going on with his face. um
01:41:20
Speaker
Specifically that his mask was holding everything together, which is... Awful. Just poor Chicken Little. um And then, let's see. So, ah Ashley is missing a leg, but it doesn't seem super bad. Like, hers seems pretty chill compared to most people. Look-See is missing... ah she has... She's also missing a leg. She's missing a leg. She's missing part of her hand, yeah.
01:41:50
Speaker
Yeah, she's got some more, like, little pieces cut out. um Yeah. And then Sveta's false body was cut away, but they didn't cut any of her body off. Sveta's body is gone.
01:42:00
Speaker
um But correct me if I'm wrong, though. Did... It sounded like Cradle left the tool they needed to fix everybody. they He just didn't leave all the parts is kind of the like something like that. There was something something said like that's what we need to fix everybody.
01:42:18
Speaker
Like pointing to something like it was broken or it was like like you said. Yeah. In pieces or something. I couldn't. I didn't quite get. yeah and Oh, and then we've got like Tattletail's torso. If I remember. Oh, yeah. Tattletail has no head.
01:42:34
Speaker
Yeah. So. Yeah. Jeez Louise. Just wreck Hannah. Why don't you? Yep. Bluff. like the End of the chapter where we find out you she's sitting there.
01:42:46
Speaker
Victoria's sitting there doing something and you're like, what is the like circle tapping? like The symbol she's trying to figure out? And then it's like she's sitting there with the hand.
01:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's at the end of 11-12. Yeah, that's 12. But yeah, it's twelve that's great bob but yeah yeah yeah that's no that's that's crazy. It sucks. like This is definitely the lowest point, I would say.
01:43:10
Speaker
of the story so far. Yeah, this is pretty fucking bad. Which means it only gets worse. Yeah. It was an interesting choice because i'm I'm curious, like, I'd love to be inside Wild Bow's head here where the Reigns cluster has felt like they're villains, but we've also this entire time have been like, yeah, they're bad guys, but like, we kind of get it.
01:43:35
Speaker
They were yeah screwed and weren't bad beforehand, allegedly. and had the worst day of their lives, and and now, you know, you here we are. um And so they're they're there' they've kind of got this morally gray, sympathetic tone to them, and I wonder if Wild Bo didn't wasn't wasn't comfortable like having us, us having ah our main heroes here, like, just straight up fight to the death, you know, in quotes, with ah with like another kind of
01:44:10
Speaker
and morally gray antagonist. I don't know. I'm curious what his thought process was, but he made... like This is such an evil turn. but now Now there's no question. Now we're like, okay. yeah is yeah you you You have gone too far. you are going with this.
01:44:26
Speaker
I kind of like this, though. and We'll get into this with Eleven 12, but I like that she's like... So we can kill them, right? Like if we need to, we can kill them. I love that yeah turn now of like, this was the kick the dog. This is real. Like we're we're done with these people.
01:44:41
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm curious how how Victoria actually resolves this. If blood is shed in that way, I'll be very curious. right And I think that would be a really interesting character development choice.
01:44:55
Speaker
um yeah But yeah yeah, there's no more ambiguity in this matchup, which is just an interesting ah of choice to make. So i'm curious but where it goes. yeah Yeah. Well, I think we could jump into 11, 12. Yes, please do. I have a kind of time i have a comment.
01:45:13
Speaker
yeahp yeah 11.12 Victoria cares for the people who got navigatored talks with Citrine and Brandish she gets ignored by Yamada and she tries to communicate with Tattletail while Sveta uses Rain's emotion power so Annie you said you had a comment there Yeah, it's about it's about um just something you guys have been talking about for a while. Okay, so we've we've talked a lot about like who the problem is in the group, and we've we've kind of clarified that it's Chris. Chris was the problem. um But...
01:45:46
Speaker
In this situation here with Victoria and how she's kind of like, so we're killing them, right? And she's getting she's getting the permission, you know, as far as permission goes, from the people that matter. So from Citrine, from, um ah oh my gosh, what's her name? The lawyer, our favorite lawyer girl.
01:46:06
Speaker
Citrine is the lawyer. No, no, no. Citrine is the mayor. um Or the mayor. Our girl who's joined the group. Natalie. Natalie, thank you. right So we've got Citrine basically given the unofficial yes. ah Natalie's basically sort of given an unofficial yes. And and then now Jessica is purposefully not answering for calls.
01:46:32
Speaker
ah
01:46:36
Speaker
have up to this point been very much like no victoria's pretty stable she's good like i'm not worried about her i'm worried about her now like i'm i'm actually like a little worried that this is gonna go a little sideways in terms of like her mental where she's at which i mean you yeah you've called for fucking weeks now i've just been i've just been on that train of like um yeah you've been on it Victoria's dangerous. Until she dies, or I die, or one of us goes bad.
01:47:08
Speaker
yeah no i'm I'm a little worried here. like We finally have official... you know They officially know that Jessica's not dead. And Jessica is ignoring her calls when everything is shit. And she's about to break some of some pretty big rules here in terms of Victoria and her you know personal warrior monk code.
01:47:32
Speaker
um Yeah, i I'm really, really curious to see how this next bit goes. And I'm kind of upset that we're so we're taking a little bit of a break right here.
01:47:47
Speaker
Because it's the big shit's about to go down.
Emotional Toll & Team Dynamics
01:47:50
Speaker
so so yeah. ah bigger note to can't watch from some blood. Definitely feels like a cliffhanger.
01:48:01
Speaker
To be fair, that is the end of every... arc Well, yeah. yeah That's true this one This one the most, though, for me so far. It's a pretty big one. yeah it only It only took 11 arcs, but we're finally getting to where I feel like, okay, yeah, there's there's all stuff happening. now it took it took It took our entire group getting fucking injured emotionally or physically for me to be like, all right. I'm locked in, man.
01:48:27
Speaker
It's really that the undersiders and friends are hurt emotionally and physically. i Those are the ones we care about. We're just like, ah, how dare you mess with our beloveds. How dare you mess with Darlene and Chicken Little and Tattletail? Fuck you. I did like, I might have skimmed a little bit because sometimes in the fights it's hard me to place exactly what's happening.
01:48:49
Speaker
it It felt like at one point Rachel wins a fight like off camera and we don't really see how. But I just remember thinking like, of course you did. like the squirrel it was a nail biter she was like love it yeah victoria Victoria like knocks the nail biter down and like yeah like is able to crumple her a bit and then while she's stunned she like she has to go fight Colt turns around and Rachel's just like got a dog on her and holding her down it's like okay Rachel's got it cool rachel's got it yeah yeah love it love it um I think I love them yeah cause she also cause hook line is there briefly yeah
01:49:27
Speaker
yeah ah Kitchen Sink is there briefly, but they kind of... She kind of just blasts past them because Colt's the main priority because it's more dangerous at that point.
01:49:38
Speaker
absolutely But they also get handled too by Victoria in part. Yeah, I'm ready to everything. So Rain's power is interesting to me and I want to make sure I get it right because of how they're trying to use it. They're basically using it as...
01:49:55
Speaker
It's an extreme shame. ah like it increases your shame exponentially. But what that does is it causes your brain to quickly hardwire hard lessons.
01:50:10
Speaker
Right? Which is a really interesting part of it. of like That shame and guilt function of like no i'm hard I'm forcing my brain to hardwire lessons so I do better.
01:50:22
Speaker
and So now with Sveta being willing to let Rain use that power on her, my question is, are they basically running Sveta through years of...
01:50:38
Speaker
training basic like they're they're sort of a what is it like a hyperbolic chamber where they throw a character into a training chamber and they spend like a thousand years training but it takes only an hour and they come out in there think that was a dragon ball thing maybe it sounds some dragon pe i mean that was shit yeah you that's the half of every anime let's be honest yeah exactly but you know where it's like all we you know we're putting sveta through the ropes of rain's emotion power will she My hope and my theory is that she's going to come out of it in full control of her power, which would be awesome. It would be
01:51:11
Speaker
would be so neat. We did get it teased, right, when, um um well, we we got it teased how much control she has when What's-His-Name stole her power.
01:51:22
Speaker
Yeah. And was like, you know, we could really see like, oh, she's got she's got a grasp of this. He's just like flopping around. right he's yeah She's doing fantastic. She can talk and things. Yeah.
01:51:34
Speaker
is see Yeah. True. don't know. I'm interested. i would love I would love a fully realized Veta. just Oh, gosh. couple all of other things that stand out to me, too, in these last couple of chapters. Number one, um Valkyrie's back, but she's being quarantined. So, like, maybe we'll get a Valkyrie appearance, which would be great, because she feels like the kind of power level we need to call in, maybe, at this point. yes But then also, i wanted to highlight Vista.
01:52:04
Speaker
Vista basically, because old Brockton Bay is basically uninhabited now, she has full reign over it and she's just folded the entirety of Brockton Bay into like a single hallway, basically. like, oh, that's so cool.
01:52:17
Speaker
yeah Love it. You know, just like, okay, Vista's the linchpin. Like, our job is just keep Vista safe and they can't get to the time level. alive! yeah I like the idea how people you know talk about what's the the wrinkle in time where she's the map and she's done this with it so that nobody can get access to it. like It's down here and it's folded up in its own little almost like a pocket dimension. Yeah.
01:52:51
Speaker
Because she's just taken the outside and like wrapped it yeah and That's great. Yeah. I did safe. it's It's secret.
01:53:02
Speaker
It's safe. Yeah. One mention. Well, there's two, two fun mentions that I saw. One was a little confusing.
01:53:13
Speaker
One, ah the heterochromia girl, ah two different colored eyes. I was wondering about that because there is a sidekick character who's a younger girl that Rachel has hanging around with her, but she doesn't have heterochromia originally. So that threw me off a bit, but it is her.
01:53:36
Speaker
If y'all remember way back when we had Cassie, AKA Wag the Dog on Parahumans Online, who was the girl that was like, how do I get in touch with bitch? She seems really cool. Like, the bitch stan online.
01:53:50
Speaker
And the person was like, well, this is how you get in touch with her, but like, be careful. And the next we see she's like, like, all snuggled up on bitch and like, cooking food and stuff.
01:54:04
Speaker
a And now she's like, full-blown, like, deputy to her Outlands sheriff.
01:54:14
Speaker
um So that's, that's Cassie making a comeback. um And then the other one is an offhand mention when talking about breaker states that there was a pair of human who true it. No, that doesn't count because nobody else do.
01:54:30
Speaker
um There's an offhand breaker state. a mention of a parahuman who stayed too long in breaker state and just decided it kind of wasn't worth unbreakering.
01:54:43
Speaker
So they are now permanently a magenta cat. Magenta cat. We talked about this earlier. yeah um Yep. Did we? yeah Because I tried to mention before. It got mentioned earlier. I think if we talked yeah about it briefly. Yeah. Okay.
01:54:58
Speaker
Um... So I had to do research on this because I was like, man, that feels like it's a character with some backstory. Who the heck is that? So and it's a Weaver Dice campaign set in Oakland, of all places. A place that is basically already Brockton Bay, Post, Leviathan, and Slaughterhouse-Nine to start.
01:55:20
Speaker
um All right. And the answer... I don't know anything about Oakland. ah ah In the description of um of his campaign, because you can you could access the ah Wild Bo's Weaver Dice documents, like how he built the campaign, and then the transcript, by the way.
01:55:47
Speaker
um ah He describes it as voted one of the or voted the most dangerous city in America. Wow. Nice. Okay. Or worst city in America. Yeah.
01:55:59
Speaker
the character Miss Wisp. I believe she is... the character is miss wisp i believe she is ah one of the like team leaders and she goes out and her whole thing is, uh, she's the ward. I'm sorry. She's the ward leader.
01:56:18
Speaker
Um, she enters an ethereal beast form with the caveat that for every time spent in the form, and means an exponentially greater amount and of time to exit it. Minutes in that form can become an an hour to a half hour to leave it.
01:56:32
Speaker
Uh, after 19 and a half hours of being buried under rubble, It looks like she'll never be returning to her human shape anytime soon. So that is the character we talk about when we're. Interesting. interesting chat Interesting. That's funny.
01:56:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Or just, ah you know, talking about night and fog with their. Well, who had fog was the breaker form night. Right. Yes. The one they mentioned it was the slaughterhouse nine character. ah Night hag.
01:57:05
Speaker
Nighthag as well, who chose to just stay in her breaker form for, him for yeah cause you know, reject humanity, you know, embrace insect or something.
01:57:16
Speaker
Yeah. um But Fog was a breaker as well, if I recall correctly. Right. night his Night. Night and fog. night well because Night was less... They may have both been breakers, but Night's whole thing was if you can't see her, she turns into a breaker for him. so it was Yeah, but he also turns into a fog. If you inhale him, then he hurts you.
01:57:41
Speaker
Yeah, and he also becomes the like thing that obscures. So I guess they're both breakers in that sense. Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. Entresante.
01:57:52
Speaker
um Yeah. i choose to believe that Yamada is ignoring Victoria, not because she doesn't want to talk to Victoria, but because she's...
01:58:06
Speaker
taking and a well-deserved nap and from her phone. She's unplugging. and And her assistant, she told her assistant, if I get a call, it'll wake me up. So just like answer it and turn it off so the ringtone doesn't wake me up. yeah that' That is what I'm choosing to believe. It has nothing to do with Yamada feeling weird about Victoria or being being too busy for her most important client.
01:58:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
01:58:34
Speaker
most I mean, just imagine coming back online to like just immediate emails and texts. And the first one you see is, hey, do I have your permission to murder someone? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, glad you're back. Actually, actually, though, if she had gotten through with Miss Yamada, there's a really good chance she probably would have asked for permission from Miss Yamada as well. Oh, for sure, for sure. And Miss Yamada, she wouldn't, Jessica wouldn't have given it to her, though.
01:59:02
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. As any therapist, she would not have given it to her, which would, I think, just cause more problems. that is Yeah, that is kind of like her checkpoints, right? She's like, let me get ah government permission from Citrin. Let me get legal permission from Natalie.
01:59:18
Speaker
Let me get emotional permission from Yamada. um Yeah. Yeah. what You know what I could see, though, with happening with Yamada? um Because we have that brief moment where she's talking with Valkyrie um and she's like gardening, right? She's like just yeah relaxing in the and other world.
01:59:35
Speaker
I could so imagine, right? Like, not that this compares at all, but at my most burnt out in teaching... If something terrible had happened to the school and the school was like, not people, but right, like the building just got blown up or something. yeah No, no people hurt. Just building blown up. And they're like, you know what?
01:59:55
Speaker
We got two weeks left of the school year. We're just going cancel school. The sudden feeling of relief and freedom that the loss of all that work would bring. I imagine for her, she's carried the weight of so many people that being yeeted to another earth where she can't see any of her clients and communicate them with them.
02:00:16
Speaker
She's forced to take a break. She's just like, you know what? Yeah, this is not. That's the kind of high you could ride for a while. Exactly, yeah. The weight of responsibility being suddenly ganked with you. John Mulaney, in terms of canceling plans at the last moment, it's crack cocaine.
02:00:34
Speaker
you know Yeah. yeah Jacob loves I've never made a plan I wasn't happy to cancel. if Yeah. Absolutely.
02:00:45
Speaker
So I i could no i'm not realistically... Yeah, realistically, I could see that being the case for her. If just like, Sorry, yeah Victoria. She's just she's just done. I got a 10 to my carrots.
02:00:58
Speaker
yeah I got a 10 to my carrots and my tomatoes and i'm going to just be in my garden for a bit. They got real weird gear on this earth and they really like tomatoes. i got it And she's there with Rinky and Riley.
02:01:14
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Also. eventually Although she they said that they didn't know about ah Riley. yeah they didn't know about Bonesaw. Yeah, there was that was unverified, according to Vista.
02:01:27
Speaker
we still need a bounce line? You know... i don't um which waiting for a bone sign i I don't know which would make me happier. Bonesaw appearing suddenly on the villain side.
02:01:40
Speaker
yeah like She's back to her old ways. You're back, baby! really yeah yeah Or, sort of, a new hero has arrived and Bonesaw just comes in with the save somehow. of like oh I'm a good guy now, guys. but and it's i still have biological yeah It's a new trying to It's trying to pull a Defiant. It's clearly 14-year-old who's into bio-tinkering and is a monster. I mean if anybody can put pieces back together... Right.
02:02:13
Speaker
It's true. It's her. I mean, if all else fails... i mean if we if all else fails Bonesaw can, um you know. who's the um Who's like the ah famous nurse? Oh, Florence Nightingale.
02:02:26
Speaker
She comes in, she's like, I'm not Bonesaw, I'm Nightingale. yeah That's a pretty good convert name. i mean Meanwhile, there's like a giant flesh monster behind her. like yeah yeah Don't worry about that. I love the idea of like this giant lumbering yeah flesh monster that's just like hulking right behind her shoulder. And she's like, pay no attention to the man in the corner. And everyone's like... yeah ah I know bone saw isn't 14 years old. I know there's a whole bunch of like her slowly going through puberty finally because she put that off for so long and so much time has passed. But like she's still working her way up through that as far as I remember. Listen, so we don't know what her age looks like is what I'm saying.
02:03:11
Speaker
yeah yes and with val her and valkyrie With her and Valkyrie, the further away we can get from the anime trope of a thousand-year-old woman who looks like a ten-year-old girl, the better. The better.
02:03:24
Speaker
It'll be better for everyone. Yeah. so ah You know what I think I really want? I think I really just want an anime where the main character is an old woman who's like just phenomenal. She can just do everything, but she is like a million years old and she looks it. She's like, look, I can do a lot of things. I got a lot of magic. I cannot make myself look younger. i am an old witch, but you know what?
02:03:51
Speaker
I sure can kick ass at a lot of things. That's what I need. That's what I want. I mean, it's it's not exactly lady thing, but Freerun is like three-quarters of the way there.
02:04:08
Speaker
Freerun looks 15. That's my whole point. i met Well, no, no. i like That's what I'm saying. You're like three-quarters where she is old, she acts old, she does everything old-like, except... She just needs to look old.
02:04:23
Speaker
The looks is the problem. the The looks is the... Literally, that is my issue with any anime that has that thing. It's literally the looks. She does not need to look like a youthful 15-year-old. Yeah.
02:04:35
Speaker
That's fair. Hot take. Basically. That's a hopefully a pretty cold take. I would like to think it's a medium take. Exactly.
02:04:46
Speaker
That was a sarcastic statement. no Oh, man. All right. Let's wrap this whole baby up. How we feeling? Let's wrap her up like a little like a little present. Like a little Christmas present?
02:05:00
Speaker
A little crevice present. All right. um Well, wrapping it up. ah My only last note on that chapter is there's a weird sort of, as we're talking about the children upstairs and telling like, hey, people, like, you don't want to go up there. Natalie. Yeah.
02:05:23
Speaker
are you in or you out kind of it all draws into this very sad like energy or I just feel like every moment they're having to say like hey don't go up there don't do this her dad rolling that once again I know we give, apparently people give him shit. ah Was it Mark? What's his name? Mark. Yeah. Yeah. mark yeah Apparently people give Mark shit for, ah you know, just kind of being a a little slow on how bad Carol is.
02:05:59
Speaker
And ah he, in my opinion, he's been nothing but fantastic. um Like they're doing it once again, every time he like encounters a fuck up, doing his best he does his best and he tries not to do that again. Like, yeah, he does his best.
02:06:15
Speaker
um And then this is one of those things that just makes me love him more. ah that you know He just sits in the hallway. Candy's like, hey, don't do well with strange guys. He's like, all right, I'll sit on the other end and we can just pass the ball back and forth.
02:06:33
Speaker
um Yeah. That was pretty nam good. And even even because she's in costume, Brandish did a good job of listening to her daughter.
02:06:45
Speaker
Carol brandish in costume dust. Brandish is pretty, ah is a decent tape mom. Carol's a fucking bitch, but brandish is pretty good.
02:06:57
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I liked her in this moment. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't. Well, let's. I didn't like her. I tolerated her. She was neutral in this moment. Yeah. And I'd like to think that she's had those moments.
02:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, this is something unlike with her and Amy, like she can't empathize, but this is a moment that's so one-to-one for her and losing people and having people maimed and stuff that she's got to, like, she can't separate herself. She's not that far gone.
02:07:30
Speaker
Um, yeah yeah. So I, she, she finally did a good, you know, it doesn't redeem her, but she did a good, um,
02:07:43
Speaker
So, uh, final questions. Uh, let's see what we have here from Bernard. Um, Nick, you don't get to guess cause you've already seen it, but any predictions on the next interlude?
02:07:58
Speaker
Uh, Oh, uh, March would make a lot of sense. March would be fun. Um, cradle would make a lot of sense. We mentioned not having cradle yet as an interlude. I love a cradle interlude. That would be great. Um,
02:08:14
Speaker
um
02:08:18
Speaker
I vote Cradle for art for this next one. I think Cradle would be a great a great one. That's going to be my guess. I just think that like it's time we had it. You know? Yeah, i would i would second that. Cradle would be great. I would also, we never really got a true Sveta interlude. Now would be a really cool time. Sveta! Oh my god. Yes, please. Either of those would be lovely. I will take both.
02:08:42
Speaker
I will take both or either. All right. Any guesses as to why Yamada is not communicating? we are I think we already went all over that. I'm going to guess carrots.
02:08:54
Speaker
Okay, yep. car I'm just going to guess carrots. I'm going to say carrots. Stick with that. Cool. She's just 10 in her dark her garden, and she doesn't have time right now. She just knows, and she she knows she's not in a position to to deal with it.
02:09:10
Speaker
um Favorite powers.
02:09:15
Speaker
I really like Darlene. i think her fun little switch on switch off um usage of her power is just really fun and cool. i i just also really like the heartbroken children. I think that they're they're very fun characters in general.
02:09:32
Speaker
ah therere in our Their interactions with each other is great. But that fight scene with Darlene was really just fun. And like she's been through a lot of shit.
02:09:43
Speaker
She's been through a lot of shit. And so like she can take a lot of physical pain. And therefore she uses it to her her advantage. And I admire that. And I think that's really neat.
02:09:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. Very cool power. i do want to give a shout out to Cretan. as one of my favorites, um just because it feels like such a cartoon power in the sense of like, you know, like in it,
02:10:09
Speaker
what is it? It's like Monty Python, right? Where there's this scene of ah Sir Robin charging the castle. You see him and he's so far away. you go back, you see him and he's super far away. And you're like, what's happening? Sir Robin, because Sir Brave Robin. No, it's not Robin. It's Lancelot. It's Lancelot. Thank It's Lancelot. But know, like you see him, he's far away. far away. it's drum Suddenly he's there and he's like, yeah. but Yeah. yeah Amazing.
02:10:38
Speaker
um Amazing. Mixed with the non-Euclidean shapes and spaces. yeah. yeah and Weird stuff like that. it wasn't a ah ah new power, but we did get a question i had always had about Foil's power that we finally got answered.
02:10:57
Speaker
which is why she uses crossbows instead of other firearms. And god getting a little bit of insight into how her power operates. And that whole scene I thought it was really cool. You shot through your thumb? No, I made like ah So it just blew the skin off of all of my hands as it passed through. But it worked!
02:11:19
Speaker
What about the explosion? It would take your fingers off. like Yeah, it definitely, I think Wild Bo may have underestimated the actual damage that would cause, but we'll give it a pass because it was cool.
02:11:31
Speaker
It would burn the shit out of your hand that it didn't blow off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. but it was cool that was cool moment but it was cool rule of cool man yeah i always there's always a special place for the power that causes scion to sidestep your attacks so right yeah it's a cool power yeah yeah um and the fact that she fuses Colt's foot to the ground that was pretty fun she fuses her foot to the ground and then Vicky does the old like punches and rips the end of her toe off
02:12:07
Speaker
yes of it yeah isn say Good table topping. You know, you do those with friends. Yeah, yeah. for I know that we've got a bunch of questions. What?
02:12:22
Speaker
What'd you say? Nothing. Go on. Okay. um We have a bunch of, i know we've got more questions in here. I think a lot of those ah we will have to answer next time because I think some of those are a little bit more spoilery. Slightly leading. when Oh, no. Slightly leading. Make list.
02:12:39
Speaker
Make a list. Make a list. We'll got stuff down here, and I assume a lot of it will just kind of get answered as we read. we or This is the second episode in a row that people want Nick to create some D&D monsters out of different capes like Cradle. Hell yeah. thing what was it What was it last? so Nursery would be a good D&D monster. yeah i Was it Cretan? Cretan be a good D&D monster? Is that what they're saying? Cretan would be great. Cult and Cradle is what they're looking for.
02:13:09
Speaker
and Which is a great way to plug our ah Patreon because we will eventually do a one shot of Weaver Dice. so we we Listen, we talk about it all the time, you guys. This isn't like a, like a we just we just have a lot of other things. We can't even play our own D&T game. yeah Yeah, that's true. often We have we a hard time scheduling all of our lives. because we Especially during the holidays. like you know But, hey, no, still, you know, don't join and expect it to happen right away. But, hey, it is going to happen.
02:13:43
Speaker
It is happening. And it's good to see that we have D&D fans like ourselves in the chat. That's what I'm trying to say. Hey. Yeah. Very cool. Nursery in particular would be a good D&D boss because of the lair actions you could imagine from a legendary monster. Yeah.
02:13:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. But ah at the end of this, we're bringing this to a close. Thank you so much for being here. All of you, all of my fellow, fellow hosts. Thank you, Hannah, Nick, ah Michael, and Jake.
02:14:12
Speaker
um It's been great as always. And thank you for all those in live chat. We really appreciate you being here and talking with us and for our patrons, i a big old double thank you.
02:14:23
Speaker
um Really love that. um Don't skip the ending. Of course not. How could I? ah So when are we coming back, Alan?
02:14:35
Speaker
Oh, we will be coming back. Michael, that's a great question. so they Don't forget to tell people when we're coming back. know what we're reading. I just need to know when. Michael, when is it again? It's January twelfth January 12th, will be coming back with the first half of 12. We'll be reading 12.Z to 12.ALL.
02:14:58
Speaker
There will be not one, not two, but three interludes in this section. All right. i'll point Is it called 12.ALL? Like a l twelve point A-L-L? right. all right That sounds ominous. Fascinating. Thank you guys so much for a really good year.
02:15:17
Speaker
Can't believe this is the last one of the year. We didn't know how live streaming was going to go. i speak for the whole group. But we just kind of wanted to try it. And you guys have really stuck with us and made us, you know, really enjoy this new format.
02:15:34
Speaker
um And thank you for everyone who listens afterwards and can't be here live. But… Special shout out to everyone who's in the chat every week, every other week.
02:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, we appreciate you And like i said, for those of patrons, ah stay tuned. I'll be trying to make more content. ah Like I said, there was was a suggestion. Maybe we I play dispatch, but only make pick director Piggott decisions.
02:16:00
Speaker
So I think it but that'd be a fun playthrough. Yeah. Yes, Hannah. Also, as a final plug, ah because we don't plug it enough, we do have merch. If ah you haven't gotten a t-shirt or a sweatshirt, this is a great time to get it for the holidays. Nick's wearing it. ah or if Yeah, Nick's wearing one of our tt t-shirts right now. It's got the Brockton Bay Book Club logo on the front. It's a white shirt.
02:16:24
Speaker
ringer T with black on the sleeves and neckline. go That's just our logo. And then we also have a Brockton Bay's sweatshirt. That's really fun. Very retro with some bright colors on it. I'm actually working on potentially having something new for in the new year. so when we come back, we might have some new merch.
02:16:42
Speaker
Just saying. But ah yeah, if you know somebody who really loves either this podcast or just Brockton Bay in general and, you Wild Bo and Worm and Ward,
02:16:53
Speaker
you know, maybe get them a sweatshirt for Christmas and go, hey, you need to listen to this podcast. These people are absolutely stupid, but they're great. And that's us. Absolutely stupid, but great.
02:17:09
Speaker
A ringing endorsement. ah Michael, do you have a song for us? Sure. well Song? Join the Patreon.
02:17:19
Speaker
Please come on.
02:17:23
Speaker
Thank you.
02:17:53
Speaker
Hey, beautiful. Thank you guys for a sweet year. We will see you in the new year on the 12th with Arc 12. We love you guys.
02:18:07
Speaker
Happy holidays. Please come on in. Join the Patreon. Why don't you just join the Patreon. Come support us and join the Patreon.
02:18:17
Speaker
Please help us and join the
02:18:22
Speaker
Bye.