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BBBC Reads Ward - Episode 10
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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 X (Eclipse)!
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
Introduction and Podcast Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
And we're live. Welcome back, everybody. Welcome back.
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello. Good evening, Boston. Watch out for local warlords in your area. Are there 16-year-olds destroying banks?
00:00:18
Speaker
Find out on tonight's Brockton Bay Book Club. Woo! Yeah, we are basically entirely in Boston. Almost entirely. Almost entirely.
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome, welcome, everybody, to to the Brockton Bay Book Club. We are a group of friends who read through ah currently Ward, if you've never been here before.
00:00:42
Speaker
We could go chapter arc by arc, splitting that up sometimes when we need to, and it's just discuss. um Tonight we are discussing ArcX Eclipse from Ward.
00:00:56
Speaker
um And as your hosts for tonight, I'm Alan. We have Hannah. Hello. Jacob. Hello. Michael. Hello.
00:01:09
Speaker
And Nick. Hello. okay And that being said, welcome, welcome all. a Big shout out to everybody in chat. um Thank you for being here tonight.
Patreon and Discussion Guidelines
00:01:22
Speaker
As always, we have bingo in the ah description of the YouTube channel. video so you can play along and if you want to contribute to that or discuss more about it and share some memes we also have our Patreon where you can be a member for as little as $1 a month and just get in there talk with us as always make the promise that we are working on more material and can actually say that we're like that are Patreon exclusive I can actually say that we are doing that but just took a while to get stuff set up for that yeah
00:01:57
Speaker
As many of you noticed already, there's a very sexy microphone here now that was bought using patron money so that I don't sound like It was noted, and this is where your money goes. welcome.
00:02:12
Speaker
and this is the this is where your money goes so you're welcome Also, being that being said, if Alan does sound weird, it's because he's sick.
00:02:26
Speaker
That's why he sounds a little nasally. If I sound if i have great, it's because of microphone. If I sound terrible, it's because I'm sick. yeah It's true. ah But yeah, ah you as always, ah no spoilers in chat.
00:02:40
Speaker
I'm the only person who's actually read Ward on this ah book thing, so kind of leading the discussion here. um If there's questions you'd like to ask, put them in chat, and ah you know we'll try and get to them when we can in the discussion.
00:02:53
Speaker
ah Not so certain. You're also sick. I'm so sorry. no Hopefully you didn't get it from this podcast. Are you certain that sick, though?
00:03:04
Speaker
I'm going to boo myself on that one. Yeah. bo yourself yeah I wasn't even going to acknowledge it. now ye All right. Well, that being said, let's get some initial some initial ah impressions from this arc.
00:03:22
Speaker
Hannah, what did you think? Yeah, I'm not going to lie. This is everything that I thought Ward was going to be.
First Impressions of 'Ward'
00:03:30
Speaker
Like, i i love the villain, villains taking over the city. Like, Worm built that up so much for me. And this is like, it feels so nostalgic. Like, we're running into so many people we know already. And we're, like, slipping back into the the swing of villainy. And ah I actually really...
00:03:51
Speaker
I really enjoyed it. The jumping around was fun. It it was it was a good good couple of chapters. ah Yeah, big fan, big fan.
00:04:02
Speaker
I'll be on the ah flip side this week. I did not particularly enjoy the arc too much. I really liked getting into Ashley's character. i mean, we want these chapters for all of this main cast pretty much.
00:04:15
Speaker
But it did feel... to me that this could have been summed up in a chapter or two and did drag quite a bit for me jumping around was uh it's still so it's fine fun chapters but just didn't uh i'm ready to get back into where we were i think that was maybe the big thing for me is we left off on such a really tense moment with the story terms of the world and our characters and where they're at And this was a long eight chapter break and I'm ready to get back. yeah
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle. I enjoyed, definitely enjoyed parts of it. I think what Hannah highlighted, the ah getting to see some characters again that we haven't seen in a while, some of which because they're dead, ah like a cord.
00:05:05
Speaker
know You know, rest in peace, King. would have solved all the world's problems if only they'd listened. um No one ever did. Yeah, no one ever did. oh ah And, you know, so getting to see like him again was fun. And getting to see a bit more into Ashley's psyche, especially knowing she's a clone.
00:05:26
Speaker
And ah the way that it ends, I thought was interesting to them talking about memories. We'll get to that later. um But yeah, you had some really good moments. And then, yeah, kind of I kind of felt like it it dragged a bit. It was a little like one or two chapters too long, maybe.
00:05:45
Speaker
um Not in a bad way, just like Jacob said, ready to get back to the main cast and what's going on with them. Oh, that's so funny to me because, like, I'm disappointed that we're back to our main cast.
00:05:57
Speaker
Like, i kind of I kind of don't care. Like, i I think I just enjoy the villains more than the heroes. Yeah, that is true. yeah Give me villains or give me death.
00:06:10
Speaker
Preferably both. Yeah, I fall, i i don't know, I feel like ah somewhere in between. um i do think this is 100%. This is what people were expecting from Ward. I think this was, if this was your start, you know, your first arc or something, or even your prequel, you know,
00:06:30
Speaker
uh transitional thing into following ashley's journey this is what people are expecting you've got a villain you're inside their head um you know it's going through trying to establish territory as a warlord like it is worm all over again um ah That being said, Ashley is insufferable theater kid. So like, I can't stand her thinking. And I just want to like constantly slap her because she has all the energy of the, oh yeah, well, you know, i like ah you should be afraid. and And for once, she actually can back it up for the most part that like she actually doesn't any power. But most the people who say, who talk like Ashley and there are so many people that talk exactly like Ashley, like, you know, you just go, I'm
00:07:17
Speaker
I could slap you and like, you'd be done. Like you're just, two things happen. I hit you, you hit the floor, you know, three things. Ambulant hits 60. You know, slap like they hit you with the, Oh yeah, exactly. Like the, Oh, I didn't realize you could actually hit me. Like, it's just one of those things where you just hear somebody talking and you're like, I don't like feel inclined to physical violence, but just to prove you wrong, like you couldn't kill anybody, you know, like, yeah, you really couldn't.
00:07:44
Speaker
She is absolutely. burdening Yeah. what Wait, what'd you say, Jacob? I said, you're sounding a little beast of burdeny there. Oh, but you know, which
Ashley and Jay: Power Dynamics and Relationships
00:07:56
Speaker
and my mistake, my Bob, you know,
00:08:02
Speaker
mean, really, really leaves a hole in your chest though. You know, yeah. yeah
00:08:08
Speaker
But yeah, I do feel this is what people- She does give strong Hot Topic kid vibes, though. She really does. She's got the thigh high, like black and white striped socks and like the black skirt and like- Listen, listen. The cat ears.
00:08:22
Speaker
Listen. Listen, Hannah, I know I'm describing your your teenage years. Listen, listen, listen, listen. I was a lonely child. Just like Ashley.
00:08:35
Speaker
The most-
00:08:38
Speaker
A lonely theater kid. Okay, look, is this is a little too close. but I'm feeling a little ah personally attacked. It's fine.
00:08:51
Speaker
and But as always, i think this was good writing. I really enjoyed being inside of Ashley's head. um i do agree, however, with Jacob.
00:09:03
Speaker
this went on for too long. um and You know, it did go a little long. I can agree with that. yeah There's a lot of good parts to it. However, overall, I don't want to sit and listen to Ashley talk for, or be inside her head for that long.
00:09:17
Speaker
So, you know, ah maybe that's a personal preference thing. ah ah couple of things pointed out in chat. And I didn't know this Bernard pointed out. um I believe these were put out almost back to back to back, like for like a week.
00:09:33
Speaker
Oh, interesting. So very short ah writing spree for Wild Bo. Okay. a Very intense amount of time that he released these. Yeah.
00:09:47
Speaker
So, um, also apparently everybody in chat is sick, including the other Alan. Um, I'm, I'm curious, uh, that they, they really will go with that Bailey.
00:10:00
Speaker
Um, do you also spell yours the same as me? Uh, Edgar Allen post style. That's very rare thing. Because so, that is that is a very rare thing. It's very rare. as I was going to say, all the all of the Allens in Wyrm are all so not spelled correctly.
00:10:17
Speaker
Well, those guys are dickhead Allens. the No comment. It's a different breed of Allen, you know? they have an answer or now they They have an answer to how they spell it. They might spell it that way, guys. I was going to say. Before we insult all the other Allens.
00:10:33
Speaker
Yeah. I'm so sorry. Yeah. All I'm saying is, you know, Allen's with two L's have never lost to Taylor. There you go. I think he wrote a... Well... I was thinking E-N. I wasn't thinking.
00:10:50
Speaker
Let's fucking go. Two A's, two L's. Wow. Wow. Congratulations being the lucky few. congratulation wow hold done the ye lucky few Oh my gosh. Incredible.
00:11:03
Speaker
It's good to another see another in the wild represent. Anyway, as I was saying, ah Allens with two L's and two A's have never lost a fight to a bug girl. um but So, we you know, we'll just continue to take that as a W and ah go undefeated. um All right. ah But, yes?
00:11:23
Speaker
I said valid. Oh, but um I understand how that sounded like Alan. I also heard Alan. But on the topic of moving off the topic of Alan's, let's get into this enough. So we have anything else to talk about here.
00:11:36
Speaker
Um,
00:11:39
Speaker
Let's, uh, let's go. Uh, Nick X point one. X point one. Yeah. So we're reading eclipse. If you haven't figured that out yet, I think we said that, but if not, we are reading eclipse X X all the way through.
00:11:51
Speaker
So X point one, Ashley keeps her cool, preparing for her trial. We see damsels trigger event. She talks with Yamada about dreams and memories and edict learns damsel is on her way to Boston.
00:12:07
Speaker
So
00:12:10
Speaker
Oh, we start off with a bang. Yeah, yeah. maha And so does Ashley. um And i think it's interesting seeing, because we've kind of seen her in third person or from Victoria's perspective, you know, flexing her hand and like very tightly holding her wrist and holding her power inside, basically. um And that at least that's the assumption we've had. But now knowing...
00:12:36
Speaker
how much mental effort goes into it, how dangerous her power was to herself and to others prior to Bonesaw's intervention, which will come up later. um Like, it's just like, oh man, that's like, what a gift and a curse is mostly curse in terms of a power, right? Like ah it reminds me of, um it reminds me, it's not this extreme, but ah there is an X-Men one-off comic about a kid who wakes up and he's mutated.
00:13:06
Speaker
and his mutant power is basically he dissolves everybody in a 30-foot radius of him oh my god and so like he he walks downstairs and his parents just start dissolving in front of him oh and he can't control it though so it's like very much like ah you know so he goes and runs off in a cave and wolverine goes to talk to him because he's the only one who can be near him without dying right yeah um Woof. And, no you know, so it's like that kind of power where she's like, literally, I could go to high five somebody and blast their hand off, you know?
00:13:36
Speaker
Right. Like, i it just, can you don't realize how many little things you do with your hands probably until you couldn't use them anymore. Yeah. So, yeah. It's interesting with, you know, thinking about her trigger event and, you know, I also, Bernard, your point, I also feel very sad for her trigger event, which I feel like most people have ah terrible trigger event, you know, yeah you regardless of who they are. Yeah. Yeah. Name of the game.
00:14:02
Speaker
um You know, it makes me wonder how her power interacts with, you know, you know, how she thinks. And part of it is she still takes advice. And we see it later to the point. She remembers advice that her dad gave her, even though he was a terrible person.
00:14:23
Speaker
Um, and the idea of like, she in the moment still probably, you know, loved her dad, even him being as shitty as he was,
00:14:37
Speaker
but just didn't want him there then. And so this idea of like tearing apart things and it kind of being ah fact of like always intention of I want something, but I also, you know, want to get rid of it.
00:14:55
Speaker
um is just sort of how she lives. I think, uh, you know, she wants to have people working for her and, you know, with her, but also she can't, you know, she doesn't want to rely on people. And that's, those both come together at the same time.
00:15:15
Speaker
Um, and, and, you know, ah but so she, you know, the idea of her being very destructive, at the same time with things, you know, you know, with her hands, uh, I think it's this weird tension of like things that she wants and also things that she doesn't want.
00:15:33
Speaker
And that's where her power comes from.
00:15:36
Speaker
it's very abstract in my head. so it's hard to describe, but it's very much for that. Right. Of like, I, I need you to be gone is kind of the feeling she gets towards her dad that triggers her.
00:15:47
Speaker
Right. It's like, if like our lives would be better if you didn't exist anymore. Right. And then that thought taken to a literal extreme of yeah power that blasts out.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah. Erased, you know, erasing. and But also, yeah, I get the impression probably that she still loves her dad. yeah Yeah. You know, it's you're young.
00:16:11
Speaker
you just want to think she obviously didn't intend to kill her dad. Right. Or her mom. um But like you said, it'd be better if he wasn't here right now. Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
Well, I like that the way her power is described. like this I do like the way the arc kind of ah develops her power a bit because it's like yeah it's very specifically not annihilation or or disintegration. It's like twisting, warping, accelerating, bending, moving.
00:16:45
Speaker
it's It's like an extreme version of what you're saying there. Like, hey, I want you to not be here right now. So my power is going to push you, you know, incredibly quickly. It's it's going to kill you. But like, that's what it it's like this.
00:17:02
Speaker
It's really interesting. ah wordage, that verbiage that Wild Boat uses to describe. It's almost like like a miniature black hole, like ah like a black hole beam almost, where it doesn't quite... It's not like... um who is it who erased people scrub scrub but he had the eraser power it's not quite that it's the it's like a very quick and sudden grip because she sees she says it leaves behind like pieces and almost like crunched up pieces of what it used to be I can almost imagine it's like a shot of a black hole that just wraps it all up and squishes it into a tiny piece yeah yeah but it's yeah I also think the the
00:17:46
Speaker
trigger event of literally her dad using his hands to beat up her mom. And like in that same moment of her trying to do anything to stop him and trying to, you know, grabbing one of the ah tools from the fireplace and this like trying to so trying to stop him, but like using her hands. She's she's trying to do what she can. and like, I can't help but feel like there's a connection there. There's this
00:18:16
Speaker
You know, she wants it to stop, but it's it's a very... i don't want to say hands-on because that makes it sound kind of pathetic, but, like, it's hands-on. and And so much of that trigger is connected with her father, which, like, we... Such complicated relationships with our parents. Like, even if we have good relationships with them, like, there's still a lot of complication complicated feelings there.
00:18:43
Speaker
and
00:18:46
Speaker
Like, i Island, I think you're right. the She doesn't, like, she still loves her dad. Or she doesn't want to kill him. She just wants him to stop.
00:18:58
Speaker
Yeah. Which, again, that motion of, like, stop. Yeah. You know, is very connected to her power then. Yeah. yeah If we want to read into it maybe a bit more, the idea of how it, like, it doesn't, on even unevenly tears things apart.
00:19:15
Speaker
which I think, you know, and I'm going to go ahead and read into this, is like she has a list of things in her head that she wants and doesn't want that are often contradictory.
00:19:26
Speaker
And so it's one of those things of like, let me go ahead and pick things out that I want, but because... we're getting rid of so much that makes up reality.
00:19:38
Speaker
And also you can't keep, you know, half the shit without it also disappearing the way she shoots. It literally comes out. Like, I mean, it sounds like fucking wingdings. It's spirals and shapes and you know, it is a blast, but it's almost a blast of,
00:19:55
Speaker
they described tendrils at one point and, yeah you know, things getting torn apart and it's chaotic ribbon it's so chaotic looking. It's like popping, uh, uh, one of the streamer blower things, but, you know, dissolving everything that, you know, is kind of in that direction, but not even consistent. It's not a consistent beam. It's like one area of that funnel might be a beam, but the other is a spiral and some of it's shotgun blast. And yeah, yeah,
00:20:21
Speaker
If we want to take the the symbolism um of her power a little bit to an even further level, as a child who experienced abuse, her mental state is such that it would be one that wouldn't easily form close relationships because there'd always be that chance of they'll hurt me, I'll hurt them.
00:20:41
Speaker
Her power is literally keeping people at arm's length. Yeah. In the most literal sense of like, i can't form a truly close relationship with you because I can't be close to you. I might risk hurting you.
00:20:54
Speaker
And even, you know, we'll get to Jay later and talk more about their relationship, which was fascinating. But even that relationship is entirely built on practicality and not like, like you have to help dress me, but you're not my friend.
00:21:09
Speaker
Exactly. Even though you're the closest I'll ever have to a friend, he's like you know she's keeping him at arm's length because she's afraid. Yeah. Like, obviously, we can't have a real relationship because, you know, I've mentioned X-Men already, so kind of is like, yeah, that's people, you know, something.
00:21:24
Speaker
i mean, this, this you want get even spicier with it. I'm pretty sure they're sleeping together, hence the him getting out of bed at one point in time. yeah And she mentions after that, like, she can't do anything when they're together, ah essentially.
00:21:42
Speaker
Like, yeah because... Yeah. Blast him, so he kind of has to do all the work, which, like, you know, confirmed absolute pillow princess, but... Well, I... See, I don't even know if they...
00:22:00
Speaker
Because it's never really quite confirmed. Like, they're clearly in the same bed together, but, like, it's it's followed up very quickly by this kind of clinical preparation of her persona, I'll say.
00:22:16
Speaker
ah So, to me, it feels like... I don't even i don't even know if I would say that they're... they're having sex that it's more of just like you are here.
00:22:28
Speaker
Like i wouldn't be surprised if she literally kept him close in case she needed him, you know, yeah not necessarily in a physical or sexual sense, but in the sense of like,
00:22:41
Speaker
and Physical sense. Yeah. not Non-sexual of like, yeah, i I need to get up and get dressed and do my hair and do my makeup. Like, you're here getting up now. You know, kind of thing. Because she is all about that theater persona in a way. Yes.
00:22:56
Speaker
he's the He's like her backstage assistant, which means he needs be there before she walked out of the room, basically. Maybe i could maybe that's the case. I just felt that that was the case because there is a there is line pretty quickly after about how even when they were it's like even when they were together.
00:23:14
Speaker
she couldn't put her like she couldn't use her hands for anything with him. I think I remember that, and it felt more like her saying, it's not like we could do anything anyway, right? That's how I read it as well. Less so like that he can do what he wants, but she can't, and she just has to be, know, has to lay there. Maybe that's how read it.
00:23:33
Speaker
We can't do anything. yeah i also know how, um what is it? Not like elusive, but... ah elusive yeah or something like that with uh wild bow how he is with sex and faith to blacks so i was like yeah i see this i'm like okay that's a pretty them being in bed together is a quick shorthand for they sleep together like and maybe like maybe i think i think i did interpret it more along the lines of
00:24:05
Speaker
um even if she wanted to. Her power is so much about control, too, and at least the way she sees it is about control. I don't know that it actually is, but for her, it feels like it is, I think.
00:24:17
Speaker
She's tied her power so much to having emotional and mental control that I would be surprised if she's ever been that vulnerable with somebody. But... yeah Yeah, I would agree. I also think that so much of her, so much of that theater is the persona of, you know, never needing anybody, never, like even even in this role that Jay takes of, you know, putting her shoes on and they, you know, the guys call him a call him her bitch. Like it's this, and he's happy to be it. Like he's happy to to fill that that void for her.
00:24:54
Speaker
it It still feels like, um like a servant role, not necessarily a companion role. And in that same way, like, I don't think that she would allow herself to
00:25:12
Speaker
see, i I just don't see her allowing a so kind of sexual thing with Jay of like, you know, that this give and take of power and like sex is so much a about this weird exchange of power. Sometimes it's like, I don't know if she would allow herself to be in a vulnerable position like that with him in a sense like give him what he, you know, in her mind, a teenage boy wants.
00:25:39
Speaker
I don't know. Especially because it's a power dynamic. I could absolutely see her being like, Come on. Yeah, you know. See, that's the thing, though. like, I don't read that from her at all. Like, the the power from her, it's too important.
00:25:56
Speaker
If it was, it'd be the, like, bringing sexy back, I'll let you whip me if I misbehave kind of vibe, you know? I mean. Yeah. Jay saying that. Jay saying that. Yes, yes. Of course. He's such a. Shout out to Jay.
00:26:10
Speaker
um Shout out to Jay. What a bitch. What a bitch. He's a good puppy. What a simp. yeah look Hey, look. the The world runs on on a few good simps. Let's be honest. A few good simps. My next porn parody.
00:26:30
Speaker
God damn it. Okay, we gotta move We gotta hold the line. You just did a few good simps.
00:26:38
Speaker
Followed by the the hit 12 Angry Simps.
00:26:43
Speaker
Oh, wow. Anyway. Oh, man. Oh, gosh. Yeah. So the conversation about memories is interesting with Yamada. Yes, let's move on to another part of the arc. Yes, Thank you. um Because these are not this Ashley's real memories. And that's what's interesting is they've been implanted.
00:27:00
Speaker
And I'm going to bring in something from a future arc where... Ashley reveals she has other people's memories too. She has edicts some of Edict's memories. yeah Because in X.1, you see there's a brief takeaway where it's like, oh, Edict and Lisset are talking about um following her to Boston, basically.
00:27:19
Speaker
and it ah Which, as a side note, this whole arc, I'm just like, anytime Edict and Lisset would show up, I'm like, you guys are trying to adopt this homeless mangy puppy, but it's got horrible rabies and all it wants to do is bite you.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah. Rip your arms right out of it. You guys are really trying to do a good thing and, you know, bless you for trying, but my God, is it so unsuccessful? Oh, yeah. um But no, like, so that, that was interesting. This idea about like her digging into her, her memories, maybe even trying to figure out what's real, what's not. Are these my memories or these other people's memories?
00:27:59
Speaker
um having edicts memories in there as well um is just a really interesting aspect of her character being a clone that I hadn't that was interesting to see more of right i am so I really liked that that was a cool include yeah I mean we like we know that Ashley is a clone but like what does that What does that mean to her? Like, how does she see herself?
00:28:24
Speaker
And I think that so, i mean, yeah, the the the kind of back and forth in these chapters of jumping around from timeline as a villain and then also, you know, post-Gold Mourning and her trial and this kind of like skipping around, it feels super disjointed, but it also feels...
00:28:47
Speaker
like maybe how Ashley feels, like trying to put the pieces of her history back together. And like, she as the clone doesn't, didn't necessarily live this life, but she has all the memories like she should have ah that, you know, being in Boston and everything that happened with Jay and everything that happened with all the other villains and, Accord and everything. and it's like,
00:29:11
Speaker
all of those memories are, she's trying to, like, she knows that they're hers, but they're not hers. And like the sense of ownership maybe be and piecing things together and the memories that aren't,
00:29:25
Speaker
She knows aren't hers or like just that feeling of like the disjointedness of how the story is being told lends itself to Ashley and putting herself back together kind of.
00:29:38
Speaker
I don't know. I really, i really liked that a lot. I was a big fan. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. um Things I took from this chapter. I really loved the initial chapter getting into current Ashley's head.
00:29:56
Speaker
um Yeah. The pill being dropped and the anticipation combined with, you know, hearing the abuse and, uh, uh, uh,
00:30:10
Speaker
and And the guard in the other room being like her dad. Yeah. yeah You know, there's this, within each chapter, there's this constant callback and transition between one moment where she's like looking at her hand, and then the next moment that's looking at her hand, you know, but in the past, or, you know, the talking of this, and then it moves into the past, of the present, in another manner.
00:30:33
Speaker
um And they're all getting, you know, ah they have this, almost not an analog, maybe, maybe an analog in the other time, ah you know, to something um somebody comes to help them out. You know, I mean, even Kenzie kind of has analogs and other characters, you know, like angel or something, you know, in the other ah time. um So just love that, love the mindset of the, uh,
00:31:03
Speaker
the the the coin toss. Every time she's doing something, as's a coin toss and getting in her you know head of like, what am I going to do? And kind of, she almost isn't in control of that.
00:31:15
Speaker
And there are things that can disrupt that 50-50 chance she just snaps. And she does have some... a small modicum of volition to, to interrupt that coin toss in her head.
00:31:30
Speaker
Kenzie can interrupt that coin toss in her head. There's these small moments that she can break from that mindset that she has. Um, And ah so that the concept of wins and losses, um i count this as a win. It's a half a win.
00:31:47
Speaker
um And those build up. I get in win-loss states if I'm extremely, like if i've I'm starting to get depressed um with a lot of losses kind of stacking up, all of a sudden I realize I've started counting them.
00:32:01
Speaker
And, you know and they went you know, most of the time it's fine. But if I start counting them, I know... depressions that you know already here it's settled in and my life becomes a matter of trying to count wins and losses over everything um and you know of course you're depressed the losses always stack up more um yeah so really liked talking about all that um you know uh i love that ashley immediately calls kenzie out or ken well not kenzie out but kenzie's bullshit out
00:32:39
Speaker
on uh with the the her council she's like did she touch you did she do anything did she give you any video she was like yeah this is the video she's like delete that that's fake yeah don't don't trust kenzie yeah which it's very like big sister energy but also like oh that ruffian kind of But also don't don't trust that video. Yeah.
00:33:08
Speaker
yeah love that. Don't let her show that video. that's Yeah, don't.
00:33:14
Speaker
It also like goes to show how much how easy it would be to just kind of like you know let Kenzie show the video or you know speak up for herself in a way that could impact this hearing, you know, like I feel like she's accepted the potential of whatever they want to assign her, ah her fate.
00:33:42
Speaker
And I, really respect her for that. She's, she's so much of these chapters. She's like, She's the driving force. She's moving forward. She's making her own decisions. She is like making her own fate.
00:33:54
Speaker
And in these trial sections, she's very much like letting others decide her fate and like sitting back and letting it be done. And to me, that just shows how much she has grown, which Big fan.
00:34:09
Speaker
i said Like said, big Absolutely. I love forward progress. um Fran, you are correct. ah Edict and Alyssa, who I absolutely love, you know, as per, you know, Nick talking about them as well. ah The fact that local law enforcement, that they would leave out food for Ashley so that she would have something to eat.
00:34:28
Speaker
Because, you you know, when basic necessities are taken care of, ah you know, you don't have to go out and rob banks. ah so I mean, unless you want to, you know, you know, unless you're a villain trying to make a name for yourself.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah. Which, you know, in a different territory, ah you know, definitely ah something to be said. But yeah, the idea that the like, hey, it probably costs less money for us to drop off groceries every week than it is to like repair a bank.
00:34:57
Speaker
So like we could just do that and save a ton of money, you know, the way that maybe ah social program should work.
00:35:06
Speaker
So I love i love that these these heroes at least are like, do we need to do another accidental grocery delivery? And that's the thing is they're not they're not disrupting her like need for respect and all of that because nobody wants to feel like her pretty case.
00:35:21
Speaker
So like the fact that, and and she's what, 16? You know, like she's she truant child. I... ah true you know a truant child ah i Yeah, i I would be interested to know what happened in the gap between when we meet Ashley as a damsel and when when she first gets her powers. Because it makes me think, Edict and Lyssa being so compassionate towards her almost make me think they know what happened.
00:35:52
Speaker
Like, they've heard her story somehow, and maybe it was really like easy for them to put together, right? Yeah. I think so. Cops find a house. They see people with pieces blasted off of them.
00:36:03
Speaker
About two months later, there's a villain who has blasting powers. to like, oh okay, it's easy. daughter it's also a It's also a small town. like It sounds like her hometown is pretty small. Everyone knows each other. There's not a lot of villains. like There's two gangs that everyone knows. She for local She's the local hometown villain. and and like I mean, I think she's...
00:36:24
Speaker
she um So she says she's 12 or 13 when the trigger happens. Yeah, I think she's 13. 13, I think, yeah. And then when we see her again right before she leaves for Boston, she's 16.
00:36:37
Speaker
So like she's been there ah couple three years living on her own or living bad situations. Yeah, yeah. To draw the parallel, it makes me wonder...
00:36:51
Speaker
how would the PRT have treated Taylor if they knew everything she'd been through from the get-go? Right. As opposed to finding it out after she'd done everything horrible that she'd done. Yeah. you know is it I mean, and it could just be a personality thing too, right? Like Arms Master is just not the right kind of person to tell your sob story to. 100%. He been like skill issue, get good.
00:37:16
Speaker
Morally and physically. Edict has a kid and so she's like, yeah damn, like I get it. you know i I want to take care of this person. Yeah. So, you know, yeah. Once again, I think the small town hero stories are a lot more fun than the big town hero stories, personally. Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
ah first um they I can't spell your name. yeah Is it Vale? That's how I've been saying it. Yeah.
00:37:42
Speaker
Vale said, imagine if Tag was tasked with making sure Ashley had food. bi so Boston might have gone the way of Newfoundland. Yeah, if a Tag was there, and be like, put poison in the food. Yeah, exactly. Tag's like, so we're going to put a bomb in the Twinkies, right? Yeah, yeah. No. eic yeah listen are like So we were going to give them food, and Tag's like, to poison them.
00:38:04
Speaker
We're no, we're just giving them food. They're like, for free? um No. Right, but you at least put a tracker in the box of Twinkies, right? Yeah, put a tracker in the tracker. You know where, and then we can blow it up at any point in time. yes And so we can blackmail them to kill other villains. It's like, no!
00:38:22
Speaker
You're a monster, Tag. Yeah, well, on to X is going to give it to you. ex exavivityity Alrighty, next point too. Damsel enters Boston, gets shown around by some nice kids, and attends a truce moot.
00:38:42
Speaker
Team Therapy's inaugural session ends.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, so... um Yeah, she she immediately latches on to Dorchester, also but colloquially called Deathchester. Deathchester, baby. Again, very emo, like, hot topic kid of like...
00:39:01
Speaker
No, no. Like, she immediately, they're like, oh, we nicknamed it. Like, the kids are like, we call it Death Chester. It's goofy. And she's like, no, I like that. No, no, it's perfect. That's the name. Now that I'm there. It be I mean, it's not too uncommon. Everybody knows Fayetteville, North Carolina. It's called Fayette Nam. Fayette Nam.
00:39:20
Speaker
it's true i don't think i knew that yep really the people who have like the most like most murdered walmart the people who live there call it that so we can call it that too yeah it's like let's be clear we're not like dubbing this place no no i i used to i actually my first memories my first memory was there are from fayetteville I mean, I've only visited there once, so I really don't know much about it. That's all you need, really.
00:39:48
Speaker
It had the most dangerous Walmart in America for a little while. Yeah. Nice. Oh my God. ah Good for them. When you mix people who are no longer in the military with poverty, it's not a good thing. And then there's actual poverty know to mix with the other like armed poverty. And it's just it's a bad time for everybody.
00:40:11
Speaker
that's That's my diagnosis, but, you know, there's nice parts. There's nice parts. It's pretty accurate. There's pretty nice parts, too, but, you know, it's ah whatever. What parts that aren't army surplus stores, tattoo shops, and car dealerships?
00:40:27
Speaker
And the answer is there are none. There's the Walmart. Oh, man. yeah We're getting a little too specific about our area now. but Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. um the point As Vale pointed out, the PRT nose trigger events are traumatic every time and don't have any. Oh, hello, Bunty.
00:40:45
Speaker
And don't have any programs ah in their account. They don't seem to be very well prepared for a group that deals with ah children and powers and triggers. And like to have awards program and then not to feel like you have any good systems set up for like Like we saw this a little bit in worm where like, Oh, Hey, we know of a teenager who's triggered. We want to like go in and recruit him for the wards. Keep an eye on him. They literally show up.
00:41:15
Speaker
He's a plant from coil or whatever. and it's like, It's like the mom's terrified of him, kind of freaked out a little bit. And like they come and they're like, hey it's cool. You should join. And they basically like they basically bribe him to join. And then he joins.
00:41:35
Speaker
And it's but there's no there's no like there's no system that is set in place for these kids who just went through some traumatic event. And now have immense power, regardless of what genre that is in now.
00:41:51
Speaker
It's like, do we not think this through? Like, i I know it's early days, but it's not that early days. i mean, so we have programs. Kenzie's talked about the programs. Kenzie's been in the summer camp. It's not enough.
00:42:05
Speaker
They have summer camps and stuff. I feel like this specifically is one. And obviously PRT, as we know, is a fucking wreck. But um I feel like this one is maybe because it's a small town.
00:42:17
Speaker
Like there's two heroes in this town. In terms of powers, there are two heroes and a villain. Like that's the powered people in this entire area.
00:42:28
Speaker
um But there should be like, hey. Yeah. Boop, boop, boop, boop. Hey, PRT. I'm eating. Trigger hotline. In in in small podunk town, West Virginia. i don't know where they are and ah In Virginia.
00:42:46
Speaker
And we have a kid who blows holes out of her hands. yeah yeah ah Yeah. You want to send your team but come and talk to her?
00:42:58
Speaker
She murdered her parents. Right. Now, sorry, Leviathan just killed another 100,000 people in Canada. We got to go deal with that first. but Like, I understand they are bigger fish. Like, they're a big fish. I get it.
00:43:10
Speaker
But like, how is there not like a small team of, you know, two Miss Yamadas and a Weld and a somebody else?
00:43:20
Speaker
Right. And they come and travel. I will say, though, the one thing that I feel like they could have that isn't mentioned, and maybe they do have it, would be like a parahuman hotline. Of like, right of like, Hey, this person i suspect has triggered.
00:43:34
Speaker
If you want to investigate, I think though, to counter that, the only thing I can think of is that you are dealing with highly volatile teenagers and situations in the sense of, if you like, imagine you were 13 or 14 or 15, right?
00:43:51
Speaker
The mindset you were in back then. and some people you don't know in suits come to your house and are like, Hey, you're dangerous and we need to help you. And wrong impression, right?
00:44:03
Speaker
Versus like what kid wind does, obviously chariot was a plan, but what kid wind does, which is like, Hey, look, you've got some new powers. It's wild. We've got resources though. You can do cool things for free. yeah I got, you know, it's, i don't know. i imagine it is a fine balance of like how much time and resources do we actually dedicate to recruiting kids who are highly volatile and,
00:44:27
Speaker
if we go about it the wrong way, it could be worse than if we just left it alone and they found their way through us anyway. And we know that, ah you know I've got, you know, there are probably something in the wiki that I need to look up, but I feel like given the fact that like,
00:44:43
Speaker
Vicky goes to a hospital and talks about, you know, that they would visit the hospital with these kids because they know that these kids are one of them is likely to trigger. And surprise, surprise, one of them has a friend who literally said like, hey, you know, here's a program, get in touch.
00:45:00
Speaker
as As Vale pointed out, just call 1-800-JESSICA, you know, get her on the line with them. ah But like, it seems like, and granted this is post-apocalypse, but they had stuff before where like superheroes were going to hospitals.
00:45:15
Speaker
We had them going to schools. um Yeah. Yeah. Like, clearly, they were doing How effective is the D.A.R.E. program, really? ah Yeah, we're not. we're but um But, I mean, it's selling one of those things like, hey, I, as a kid, go through a traumatic event.
00:45:32
Speaker
I know i've I've met one of the heroes before. I could reach out and say, oh my gosh, I got powers. What do I do? What do I do?
00:45:44
Speaker
you know? I mean, she did also just murder her parents. Yeah, which for her, once again, she's in a small town. I can't imagine, you know, and it feels like from what I remember of them talking with Edict and Listit before a conversation that they have is I think they got stationed there.
00:46:06
Speaker
I don't think it, I don't, at least Edict, I don't think is from there because they talk about getting stationed somewhere else after Boston. but yeah that will get moved. And they say like, again, so they might just be minutes local reps.
00:46:22
Speaker
Yeah. It's probably very like military. Like you go where you're stationed and you move your whole family with you. Yeah. You have your like non tape identity, you know, that you're an accountant and you put your kid in school and then you move in two years again.
00:46:39
Speaker
Yeah. don't know. But I mean, yeah, I mean, it, The difficulty of implementing a good social program certainly isn't lost on me. As Vale pointed out, the hero plan, you get a curfew, a hundred bucks a month, discipline and have to wear matching costumes. The villain plan is a hundred oh sorry a million dollars a month, but if you get caught, you just switch to the hero plan.
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay, but Ashley is very accurate. That's pretty accurate. As Fran pointed out, this, and I was thinking this as well, that the story of Ashley is basically just the story of Rachel, but a villain got to her instead of like Armstrong.
00:47:18
Speaker
I was thinking that. Yeah. yeah um Very similar. yeah Yeah. Also, see back to the back to the chapter, though. I really liked... um ah get Again, just showing her teenager-ness of like her coming off the bus and being like, ha, got by the cops.
00:47:38
Speaker
Like... Give myself half a point. Yeah, yeah. As if every single cop is looking for her specifically. Exactly.
00:47:49
Speaker
Like she's like, oh, I could go ask for directions. Oh, no, that's... No, no. Okay. Hubris. Oh, my gosh. I love it. Ugh. i love it ah So we get a peek at the the truce moot where all the villains are coming together. This is what um what Victoria and others have referred to as the Boston Games, I believe.
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah. There was a lot conflict in Boston. was so Yeah. Yes. I was so glad when I realized that this is what we were going to get. We were going to see the vacuum from inside the vacuum. Like, yes, let's go.
00:48:25
Speaker
Yeah, and so seeing seeing some familiar faces who we enjoy, ah we've got the Clockwork Dogs, which is a cord and another hero or villain, Detente. Detente.
00:48:37
Speaker
Detente, sure. Detente is how I said it in my head, but Detente is probably... You know, that's also how I read it. Detente. Detente. Detente. We've got Blast Germ, which is Blasto and Rotten Apple or Poison Apple, depending on how she feels.
00:48:52
Speaker
So we've got some familiar faces in there as well, which I really liked. Do we and we know who Rotten Apple is? I mean, Rotten Apple, Poison Apple, our girl from... From the opening, from the community center. I don't remember her name. What she change her name to?
00:49:07
Speaker
Fume Hood. Fume Hood, that's right. yeah That's right. And it was something dumb like Orbiol or something like that. Pustule. Pustule. No. Pimple Popper.
00:49:20
Speaker
and not a good kate Not a good hero name, though. No, no. Nope. Great, like, Uber and Leet, kind of. Yeah. The pimple popper. Gross. Poison Apple was much better than Fume Hood. I love Poison Apple. I hear Poison Apple, I can only think of Larry Boy. Larry Boy!
00:49:39
Speaker
Larry Boy and the Bad Apple, I believe. Is that a thing? And the bad apple? I don't know if I know that. I only know about Larry Boy villains. With the ah the after, I believe it's the after credit song is done by Korn.
00:49:52
Speaker
Or no, Shucks. Which is a Korn parody. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. That's awesome i amazing. seen this one. whoa i that a larry point song Oh my gosh. We'll have to get together. Maybe that's all maybe that's a watch party.
00:50:07
Speaker
That is a watch party. There you go. I heard there's a new Larry boy coming out next year, actually. and Not even kidding. ah Sold. Oh my gosh. My childhood. Come back to haunt me. What? Maybe we should just turn this into a Larry boy watch along podcast.
00:50:21
Speaker
Oh. and and and talk about all all the layers content only patreon you're right that is pat for that that's true meanwhile all our patients are like oh my gosh they're doing it again they're i think they're gonna pay us not to watch it actually it but they're like how about you don't do that no i'll ignore it watch they just don't have to look they don't have to watch the other tier list except except it's just larry boyd to the anti-tier yeah Join this tier to prevent it from happening. Yeah, no, they'd hate us. they
00:50:58
Speaker
Anyways, that's so niche. Okay, what were we talking about? Oh, Poison Apple. Poison an Apple, Fume Hood. Yes. Germ, Blast Germ. Why? Okay, that actually threw me off for so long.
00:51:11
Speaker
Blast Germ is the their group name. Yes, yeah it's terrible. It's terrible name. They came up with it while they it was a Hydea they were like, this the best name ever. i germinate and you blast and then we blast my germination all over the city. um Oh, that's... Nick knows what I'm talking about.
00:51:33
Speaker
No. Germinating all over the city. Yeah, that's right. I'll blast this germ. Damn. Oh, yeah. One normal podcast. That's all I ask for. One never normal podcast. Never gonna happen.
00:51:47
Speaker
um So one question I do have. One question I do have. um Is Accord from Boston? Because Detente is not. We know that. He's an outsider. Is it?
00:51:58
Speaker
I don't Because if so, that very radically changes the way I imagine his character. Because in my mind, he is voiced by um like Ron Perlman, but specifically doing the voice of Slade from Teen Titans is how I imagine Chord's voice.
00:52:13
Speaker
Yeah, okay. But if he's from Boston, that's a very different kind character. if he's just Mark Wahlberg, just like- I mean, like, is he a Chord or is he a Chord? You know what i mean? Yeah.
00:52:25
Speaker
He used to be... I don't... because He used to be in Charleston. Yeah, he worked for Charleston. Charleston, though. yeah Yeah.
00:52:38
Speaker
Charleston, yeah. Charleston, Charleston. i looking I mean, if he is but Bostonian. Ben Affleck. I'm trying to think of...
00:52:51
Speaker
I mean, it just it just totally changes the voice I had for him in my head. Like, he yeah he was always this, like, suave, smooth villain. Like, again, from Teen Titans. Um... where he always sounds like he's one. But like, I don't think you can have, you can't be quite that suave with a Boston accent. Sorry. I just. No. and Yeah.
00:53:12
Speaker
My stepdad's from Boston. and I know a lot of people from Boston. It's okay. I can say this. I know people from Boston. I have, I have Bostonian friends. I would never have a Bostonian friend.
00:53:26
Speaker
I think he is. I mean, they're not saying straight up that's where he grew up or anything, but all his activities from there. Okay. yeah less up half his Let us know in the chat.
00:53:37
Speaker
Let us know the chat. He hates a slang and misspeaking. So I've got to imagine he's actually got like i oddly accent. dry like monotone-esque voice. To be fair, if anybody did work to remove his accent, it would be Accord. He'd be like, I can't talk like this anymore. And Accord did no wrong, you know?
00:54:02
Speaker
Removing the Bostonian accent has got to be like one of the greatest. If he did that, one of the best accomplishments he could ever do. What were you going to say, What? No, Jacob was just dying. Dying over there. and yeah din over there No, I was just saying, unless he thought the ah Bostonian accent was the default way humans should speak. Yeah.
00:54:23
Speaker
No, no. As Fran pointed out, he moved to Brockton Bay pretty casually, ah probably to get the fuck out of Boston because he just couldn't take that accent anymore. That's my headcanon.
00:54:35
Speaker
The other random accent, besides like the smooth, suave voice, I could also hear him thinking that like, the 1950s transatlantic accent is what everybody should talk about. Oh, the Zeppelin That's literally what I was thinking.
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, we are the Zeppelin races, and they're off. Here they go around the bend. Those villains, they are tearing about the city, what we are calling the Boston Games. I find slaying rather distasteful.
00:55:01
Speaker
It's not good for you. yeah Yeah. It's not. I feel like he... Maybe that's why nobody took him seriously, because he had a Boston accent, you know? That damsel is a bad egg. and You really don't need to speak in your mic. You're clipping like just in the perfect way to make it sound like you're actually on an old microphone, which fits the voice, yeah which is like perfect. But it was great.
00:55:27
Speaker
It's Oh my God. No, you're good. Yeah, yeah. Accord is one of my favorite villains of all time though, ah from Wyrm, just absolute peak. yeah I mean, I liked Accord here a lot more than I liked him in Worm, let's be honest.
00:55:41
Speaker
ah For real. In Worm, he's just ah not annoyingly controlling. and in this yeah and And with some of his background, he's just a man with a plan and yeah everything would go right if they just follow the plan and nobody wants to follow.
00:55:54
Speaker
But here's the thing, no one wants to follow the plan because he's so annoying about it. like He's like, but you guys! And everyone's like, no!
00:56:04
Speaker
um stay here, game. No, Vail, listen here. that It's that vague Canadian accent for some reason for the Bostonian thing. It's because we're new we're doing this voice. That's because this is just the Canadians from South Park.
00:56:17
Speaker
Like all those accents, they mash together. They become that. Okay, i actually wondered if you had kind of a South Park wanging thing going on when you said it earlier. It's not intentional. I literally am just doing the transatlantic radio announcer voice.
00:56:33
Speaker
Oh my god. Some fun things for those of you who know. ah They talk about accord, of course. um ah You know, means trying to work together.
00:56:44
Speaker
and you know All in one accord and all that. Harmony. Yeah, a harmony. ah But detente is the easing of tension. Detente. Detente. shout it out ha today and don what we What were you saying? I don't know. It's fine. talk um I'm sorry. isn' It french never mind sounds French.
00:57:05
Speaker
Oh, it's French as hell. that's calm Yeah. Yeah. there are If there are clearly like letters being left out of pronunciation, even though they're there, like it's French.
00:57:18
Speaker
they mentioned they mentioned he's later that he's a foreigner he's been brought in by a third party to help out quote which is obviously cauldron um cauldron or coil i can't remember who it was but we found that it's cauldron cauldron okay yeah yeah but um but i'm now i'm just imagining you've got a cord with a boston accent and detente with a french checks. But they're too. Like the strongest. They're not even villains like, you know, yeah.
00:57:41
Speaker
but they're also like the best villains in boston too like this draw they're not even villains like you yeah yeah That's crazy. They're like, hey, we want to set up here. Like, what are they making money on, by the way?
00:57:55
Speaker
Because they're not like, as far as we know, they make money on like selling their people to other villains. Like, yeah. And if they run everything, then...
00:58:07
Speaker
You really just want to work with the, and they are clear, like, know, they alluded to, they're working with the PRT kind of maybe, you know, with Cauldron also. Like, yeah maybe Accord just, you know, runs the city, you know?
00:58:20
Speaker
Maybe that's not so bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what Accord should have done is he should have found a small town, run for mayor, and then just eventually just become president. Like, he he should have just hit his power and just become president, you know?
00:58:35
Speaker
Problem is he worked for Watchdog, so they knew who he was, but yeah. ready yeah Yeah. Made the wrong choice there, but wrong government agency. For someone who you know plans for all things, he really didn't plan that one out very well.
00:58:50
Speaker
yeah That wasn't his goal I get or something. Maybe he didn't care. i mean, he also didn't plan to get sliced in half by a laser from a nerd from another world. So, you know, like as Fran pointed out, point it out and how good could Accord be? He lost to a League of Legends player.
00:59:05
Speaker
And that's true. You know, the facts are the facts. The facts the facts. But I do love every time they talk about the the the masks and the suits being like very extravagant compared to everybody else yeah around there.
00:59:25
Speaker
was like, that's pretty yeah looking pretty sick. Like pretty dope. Oh, man. so But then we get to Riley and. um Oh,
00:59:39
Speaker
Is this... that is the So we're finishing... We'll get there. X.2 finishes with the inaugural session for Team Therapy. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Where we just kind of get a peek of the end of the first bit of that session. and yeah um And there's this sense of... The only thing that I really took away from that is there's a sense of Ashley feeling like everybody here kind of has something to go back to except for me.
01:00:08
Speaker
um you know, then obviously that we find out more along the way, but she's like, you know, except for Chris, she I think she even notes like Chris is the only one who I feel like kind of gets it because he's like going off to an orphanage or something.
01:00:20
Speaker
But, you know, Sveta's got her friends and Kenzie's got her parents and Kristen has his people and then it's just me. And she's also the only one who doesn't speak up about like goals and stuff, I think if I remember right. So yeah kind of an interesting, interesting little session there.
01:00:40
Speaker
getting to see them early on yeah i wish wish we had more i was under the impression that we were going to get a lot more therapy sessions and so far this is our what second session yeah i i feel and the end end of one i'd like to see the beginning of the of the first session Yeah, we're going to get in like pieces. Like we're going finally get it by the end of the book.
01:01:08
Speaker
We'll have the whole first session. ah That's just the epilogue. Right. It's just a word for word breakdown. It's just Miss Yamada's notes is the epilogue at the end of Ward.
01:01:24
Speaker
Love it. Alright. X.3. The truce meeting wraps up. Damsel gets some minions, attacks Soldat's truck, and runs into Edict.
01:01:36
Speaker
Riley pisses off her patient. Yes. So we we get this sense of like we've got the truce mute moot, right? And they've got these sort of concentric rings of how important you are.
01:01:48
Speaker
So Accord and Blast Germ, they are at the center along with the bikers and one other gang, I think. And then there's like sub gangs, which Ashley is like in the sub gang starting out. Soldat being one of them, if I recall correctly.
01:02:01
Speaker
um And she, yeah, gets the minions, attacks the truck, trying to make a name for herself as she's doing. Makes some noise. um I didn't really have too much to say here, except again, running into edict again, we see, you know, she's like, I can't believe you followed me to Boston.
01:02:16
Speaker
And she's like, well, yeah, like, you know, we're trying to help you.
01:02:22
Speaker
it's It's that meme of ah from ah Meet the Robinsons where it's like, everybody hated me. Hey, how's it going? Yeah. baseball later How many times have we referenced that meme? But it's so relevant. It's so good. And in this case, it literally is like, it's like, ah, edict, my nemesis. And she's like, hey, damsel, like, do you need some food? brought you some McLears. I brought you some McLears.
01:02:50
Speaker
I made you some food? How dare you? God damn. ah Edix power is super interesting, though. Yeah. like Except it's like a bad Valavor power, unfortunately.
01:03:07
Speaker
Well, I mean, I was like, you know. Yeah, like you break it down and like... you She tells you to do something and you can disobey, but it's mentally very painful. it gives you a bad headache.
01:03:18
Speaker
Well, yeah yeah Ashley, Ashley's used to it. So maybe she has some immunity to Physical pain. Yeah. But ultimately it's just bad Valifor, like in terms of what it can do. Valifor is just way more powerful in comparison, right?
01:03:36
Speaker
Yeah. But it's that mama mother's blood. Yeah. yeah Yeah, exactly. that That mama juice. now No, no, no. See, look.
01:03:48
Speaker
As soon as I said it, i was like, I shouldn't have. This is going to unlock something. Someone's going to. One of you is going to. It's always me. Should I know it was going to be Nick? It's me. I'm the problem. ah It's fine. ah Yeah.
01:04:05
Speaker
Yeah. it It's so hard to see. it's so hard to see Like, oh my gosh. I totally get it. The teenage villain thing of like, oh, nobody cares about me. i am i'm I have to take care of myself. You know, like, I'm going to build what I'm build for me. You know, my legacy, whatever.
01:04:26
Speaker
Edek's just like, I just want you to have a roof over your head and be taken care of and like have some of your emotional needs met also. and Ash is like, no.
01:04:40
Speaker
i Oh my God. This is this the the, I don't, I don't, i I'm not jealous of any parents of teenagers because I imagine that that is just like what it's like to raise a teenager to be like hey um you have a curfew for a reason and um I love you and you can't be out past you know 10 a school night and they're like mom you're ruining my life I just can't oh my gosh ah yeah
01:05:12
Speaker
oh what a trip I love it hmm yeah yeah that's right uh but then we get to what i alluded to before uh riley working on her yeah and she's like what did you do to my arm she's like i'm sorry old habits die hard and you know just in case it broke off you can stab people with it yeah it's like it's like yeah wait wait hold on hold on do it for the bit do for the bit du for the bit wait wait andnis currently wait la hold on She's took crocheting needles into her Edward all over again.
01:05:55
Speaker
they actually have a small just actuallyshley actually like if his scissor hands break off and there's a tiny set of scissors and like okay yeah though so like understand So she's, oh God, it's so awful. She's cut off she like here. she's Yeah, she's so she's got, we're here, and then there's a rod that sticks out of that spot, and then the arm clicks on, but the basically yeah the the rod,
01:06:27
Speaker
she made it like Stabby? Yeah, the end of it was sharp. Yeah. So I believe they mentioned way earlier ah before, like in in Ward, that the way her things work is anybody's ever seen um Star Wars Episode five Yeah. You know, Luke's at the very end and they've got the open thing where like the rods are. And if you look at your hand hand up to light, some of you have thinned skin like my stupid ass.
01:06:55
Speaker
You know, you can literally see the muscles pulling. Just look at your and like And you can see all the tendons. It's the tendons, but yeah. yeah But along with that, I believe when they described earlier that it is not just one rod, it is a bunch of them.
01:07:09
Speaker
However, one of the, I'm assuming like the structural piece that like holds it kind of together, when if that breaks off, it turns into, you know, oh, well, it's a stabby tube. like Yeah, yeah.
01:07:22
Speaker
Kind of like a giant stabby tube arm. I mean, she says it's like a bayonet. yeah No, no, she describes it like putting a ban like the equivalent of a bayonet on the end of a tank.
01:07:35
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, but still bayonet. I don't think that's a physical description. The way it was described, I believe, is that it looks more like um and a syringe where it's an angled open tube.
01:07:51
Speaker
um But, you know, sure it's not a whole lot you can do with it. yeah Yeah. but ah Yeah. Fucking to love Riley. ah and Fantastic. Well, then we get some interesting descriptions of her like taking skin and stretching it over the fake hands to make it look real. And like, like there's just so much going on. Real fake skin.
01:08:15
Speaker
yeah there's a there's a There's always such a phenomenal and disgusting sense of of just morbid curiosity and weird just skin body horror shit with Riley and I fucking love it. Like it makes, it gives me the heeba deeba jeebies but I just, ugh.
01:08:39
Speaker
Nothing beats it, man. Nothing beats it. and do. I do love, though, like, um she, like, jumps up and she pins Riley and she's like, I'm not your weapon. Don't do this to me. And Riley's like, yeah, yeah, no old habits.
01:08:52
Speaker
Like, honestly, she even seems shocked. She's like, I did do that, didn't I? Yeah. Oh, whoops. But then until she confronts her, Riley's like, well, I mean, it is kind of you. It's not the worst thing to have. And Ashley's just like, no, stop it. Stop it. not it and that But then just Amy coming in and being like,
01:09:12
Speaker
please sit down. Like you're bleeding everywhere.
01:09:18
Speaker
We got to clean this up later, actually, please. Yeah. Oh, gosh. I low-key kind of want to know what, because Bonesaw's outfit is so iconic with like the blue dress with the pinafore apron.
01:09:33
Speaker
Lolita, Alice in Wonderland. love Right. um So like, What does she wear now? Because she's still doing, you know, some messy work. Oh, it's, I i imagine she just wears slightly aged up cottagecore.
01:09:49
Speaker
It's just not Lolita anymore. It's just cottagecore. It's the same thing, but now she's got a, now she's got a white coat on, you know? Yeah. but That's kind of the vibe I got is it's like same outfit, but in medical scrub style instead, like white scrub kind of style.
01:10:02
Speaker
Ooh, ooh. If we're talking aged up, but like staying with the same style, do you think she just went for like World War II nurse look? um good I can see that. Yeah, something like that. sure can see that. She would wear the little hat. I was going to say, that's what I was thinking with the little hat. The little red cross on it. Side-eyeing Amy the whole time.
01:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, the whole time. Anything else we want to talk about before we move on to four? ah In particular, this isn't the one. Oh, no, that comes up later. Yeah, that comes up later, so we'll leave that.
01:10:36
Speaker
um Yeah, no, I'm i'm good. good to move on. Anybody else?
01:10:42
Speaker
good. Let's do it. We'll do it.
01:10:48
Speaker
Damsel makes plans to take down Blast Germ, shreds their headquarters, blackmails Rotten Apple, and the gang celebrates. Ashley talks to the team about anything but the trial.
01:11:01
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the the fight with the fight here was really cool with Rotten Apple. Yes. It sounded fun. er like Just the dme the dynamism of it, of like her blasting and moving around really quick.
01:11:17
Speaker
ah Rotten Apple like sneaking the the smoke bomb you know when she wasn't looking. like Just a really cool little fight here. um And it was brief, too, which is good, right? It's not one of these long, extended fights. It's a pretty brief, straightforward fight that ends with The revelation that Blasto is making superheroes.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yes. Oh, my gosh. I love the vats. ah It's so great. just Which we knew he could do Yeah, we knew he could do already, but it's just, you know, seeing it again is like, oh, yeah, that's right. That's what he does.
01:11:49
Speaker
i Yes. I forgot that he grows things in tanks. Like, oh. Oh, great. Because that's how Riley ends up cloning everybody for the Slaughterhouse-9000 is because she basically she basically spinal taps Blasto and writes him like a backpack.
01:12:09
Speaker
Plugs right in. yeah Oh, man. Oh, man. Bernard was right. ah we We missed our chance to ah to advertise for our sponsor.
01:12:20
Speaker
Maid Marian. If you need a pet or apron to cover up all the bloodstains on your cottagecore outfit, you can get all of that at The Maid Marian on Etsy.
01:12:33
Speaker
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01:12:54
Speaker
That is where the magic happens. That's right. ah that That's where it gets all gets made. Let's go. Okay. The maid, Marion. ah it Solid.
01:13:06
Speaker
Solid. That was phenomenal. Well done. Nice job. Flawless transition. Thank you, Bernard. i try Thank you, Bernard, for reminding us to continue to sponsor. but we know We're so bad at this.
01:13:21
Speaker
We have two more time. Maybe by the time Ward is done, we'll have our shit together. a Right. Right. Do we X.4? That was X.4.
01:13:34
Speaker
that was for i was flight Okay. ah i have um kidney stan I guess every town has to have their skid mark.
01:13:47
Speaker
Exactly. Love it. you know is that where Is that X.4? That is the first note I have in X.4, so it's got to be So quickly, Chad can chime in on this.
01:14:00
Speaker
I can't imagine there's actual powers for this guy. So wrong answers only. What is Kidney Stan's power? I don't know. just a reverse He's a reverse dialysis machine.
01:14:14
Speaker
If he touches you, he puts bad bad urine inside of you. oh bad Is that what dialysis does? I thought it was fun. Dialysis is blood filtering. i just The urine sounded funnier in my head.
01:14:26
Speaker
I do like the idea of like ah perfect he has perfect kidneys. He can filter anything. can filter any liquid. It just doesn't matter what it is. He can drink it be so sad, though. He couldn't get drunk anymore. And you know a guy who goes by kidney stone wants to get drunk?
01:14:41
Speaker
He wants to get yeah absolutely sloshed. Which is why he's a villain. i me listen yeah Just he can't get sloshed doesn't mean he's not going to cry.
01:14:52
Speaker
What if it's like Gregor the snail where he can drink anything and then when he does urinate, it is that thing perfectly again. But he has to drain the head he gets He gets infected dialysis machine style, but then he touches you and he swaps all his blood for all your blood, so now you have the infection. So like he goes out and he gets absolutely trashed, then he touches you and all of a sudden you're trashed and he's sober.
01:15:15
Speaker
Okay, question, question. If he, if part of that is that, like, if he could technically be a healer, as long as he, like, kept himself in, like, good physical condition. Right? He could, like,
01:15:27
Speaker
and swap things out. But he's not gonna. Not with a name like Kidney Stan. name like Kidney Stan. Why would you do that when you can give yourself 15 kidney stones and then pass them on? Okay, so think the kidney stone thing is where we need to go.
01:15:40
Speaker
ah Where he can fire out kid eating kidney stones. And they're jagged and they hurt. um their opponent but they don't hurt him somehow yeah like i would see i do i do like the idea he shoots him out like flechette whopping ah being drunk with somebody and he's just like this creep that hangs out behind bars and just like sneaks in and the bouncers have to try to keep him out because he just like starts hitting people and getting just totally trashed everyone's losing their buzz this is uh i'm keeping this note for our one shot yeah fran guesses he makes you drunk but it's an area of effect
01:16:18
Speaker
yeah I was going to say he comes in, he gets super sloshed, and then he touches a sober person. so now he's sober again, and they're sloshed so that he can just drink more and get sloshed again.
01:16:31
Speaker
yeah yeah That's it. That's it. Yeah. wille Willem Doe has, yeah he's the exact same as side piece, but just nothing but kidneys. Oops, all kidneys.
01:16:42
Speaker
Oops, all kidneys. Or, as Fran pointed out, so side piece, but with kidney stones. That's what I was thinking. Kidney stones. Except he shoots them out as we've shaded. He shoots out kidney stones? Oh, God.
01:16:53
Speaker
And then we've just taken it the whole wrong way, and really he... kidney beans. And he just, but it's, but it's, it's a like kidney stone, kidney Stan, I think is where it's going. There you go. Yeah. Okay.
01:17:08
Speaker
ah I'll get to what I seriously think it is now that we're talking about that. wait um No, he shoots out dale dry
Character Highlights and Merchandise Ideas
01:17:15
Speaker
kidney beans. just Oh, my God. they just but but pop but but pop but but but ah Dale pointed out his real his name is really knee Stan, the knee fighter.
01:17:25
Speaker
But he was ah Kid Wynn fan and tried to follow his naming style. Kidney. Yep. Love it. yep i um but i think I think, actually, if I had to guess, the kidney stone is right on the money. It's a jagged little shitty rock thing, you know, that hurts.
01:17:43
Speaker
um And he can just turn into that. Like, he can just, like... He's just got a changer for me. He's got a changer for me. He can turn into this, like, sharp boulder thing that he can, like, roll around at.
01:17:56
Speaker
Which seems like a total Stan move. Yeah, absolutely. but He's just morph ball like Samus rolling around, but he's just a kidney stone. Yep. I think that's exactly that. He's a large car sized kidney stone that rolls around kind of indestructible while he's in that form.
01:18:12
Speaker
I think Hook Wolf has met his match. wo Damn. Air Wolf versus kidney stone, man. Air Wolf. Air Wolf.
01:18:22
Speaker
If there's any talented artists, please make us Airwolf drawings and we might put it on you know we might put it on some merch. as a Copyright free because we made it up.
01:18:33
Speaker
We made it up. I was going to say, we could do parody of like Air Jordan somehow, but make it Airwolf. Okay, but here's the thing. Airwolf is a show. like No, but the helicopter show that has all the incredible helicopters. What we need is that helicopter, but with Hookwolf's face on it.
01:18:53
Speaker
Except it's not even a hook wolf. it's it's It's the the wind dude. The storm tiger. storm tiger that even That's the original one. yeah or tiger For those who are confused, Alan forgot the name storm tiger and said air wolf. And we're like, air wolf?
01:19:10
Speaker
what That was a long time ago now. Storm air wolf tiger. I love it. I love it. i love it Any art at all yeah of air wolf gets, you know, something. We'll figure it out.
01:19:23
Speaker
ah The other fun note I have for this chapter is we get to see Presley again. All right. When Presley gets shown off to um ah ah Victoria has her on her phone and is like, hey, check out this and shows it to Ashley.
01:19:43
Speaker
to ashley And she's like, look. don't see her, but we see picture her. Right, right, see a picture of her. And she's tried to dye her hair white like Ashley. So cute.
01:19:55
Speaker
Right? It's so cute. yeah Also, it's so hard to dye your hair like white. It's... I've tried to get mine silver. I've had professionals try to get mine silver.
01:20:06
Speaker
it's ah And it ended with like the entire salon standing around me for like three hours trying to figure out how, why it wasn't working. Yeah. Yeah. ah And yeah, but in this case, it it literally is the like, if there are a thousand fans, Presley is one of them.
01:20:26
Speaker
If there are a hundred fans, Presley is one of them. there's one fan, Presley is that one. If there are no fans of Ashley, Presley is dead. Presley is dead. That's so sweet, though. Like, I love that.
01:20:39
Speaker
That's great. And like, she has this this fan and it's not just because she's like, the baddest bitch, it's because she's a hero. and Yeah. Oh, oh,
01:20:52
Speaker
All the fuzzy feels. Right?
01:20:58
Speaker
yes is where um but I was going to say, this is also where we see Victoria kind of show off her legal acumen, right? Oh, hell yeah. where yeah i mean, I just imagine she's in she's got to be in like a power suit for this.
01:21:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah. i know um And In my mind, she Perfectly tailored power suit. Yeah, perfectly tailored power suit. And even the the council lady is like, um if I didn't know it, I would would have assumed you were her lawyer and not her lawyer.
01:21:26
Speaker
Exactly. and this is a Ashley just looks over at him is like, bitch. yeah yeah Yeah, for real. right Get wrecked. Gosh. How could they not have gotten her a better fucking lawyer?
01:21:39
Speaker
This guy seems so... also so Bernard but just yeah incompetent Bernard we're going to talk about this for a second just use bleach um that doesn't work it just bleach just turns your hair bleach yellow yeah no yeah so the correct way okay someone who's been dying and bleaching her hair for ah decade and a half uh it's not just bleach it's a toner because bleach will not just turn your hair white you have to use a specific developer. And if your hair is too dark, oftentimes it's it's harder to get a lighter color.
01:22:15
Speaker
And then you have to use often a violet or some sort of off tone of yellow. The opposite color will, think of the color theory. Opposite of yellow is purple. Often you have to use some sort of purple toner in order to get your hair more closer to a white or a silver.
01:22:31
Speaker
It is not easy. It is incredibly difficult. If you have lighter hair, it's a lot easier. But if you have a medium or darker toned hair, It's whole thing about levels, whatever. It's a lot harder. Also, it takes a long ass time. You can't just do it in one sitting. You often have to wait two to three weeks in between sittings because you need to give your hair time to breathe.
01:22:51
Speaker
I'm sorry. I think I blacked out for a second. No, that's what I wanted. And ultimately, it comes down to why my hair couldn't take it. It's just, it's got a brassy tone. So it always ends up green instead of silver.
01:23:02
Speaker
It's hard thing to do. Despite, you adding, you know, red to counteract that and all that. It just never, it never turns out. um Yeah. And as Fran pointed out, the correct answer is to get silver hair or white hair, just trigger from your abusive dad.
01:23:16
Speaker
Duh. Exactly. just And then blast your head and you're fine. And but as Bernard points out, is this the first time in a ward that we see Victoria from other eyes?
01:23:28
Speaker
um No. I fuck feel... yeah Not often. No, another now because we had a couple interludes with rain. Yeah, um yeah we've had rain.
01:23:40
Speaker
We've had a couple of other interludes, but it is one of the... is It's one of the few times. One of the few times. And it definitely is the a standout moment. The others is it's just kind of like going through life.
01:23:53
Speaker
And this one feels like a big... Exactly. She's very in her element here. She's like stepping into her role. She's very passionate about what she's saying about Ashley. Ashley. And because she knows so much of the process, she knows that like, I have the statement of this and I have this letter of recommendation that I left with the clerk and I have this and this. ah like And because her mom also is in the legal system, like she knows all the right vocabulary and all the right verbiage and all the right channels, or at least what would have been the right channels before the world ended.
01:24:22
Speaker
But, you know. I did find the little comment from Ashley of like, that... That bitch. I gave her my apartment and she's trying to give it back. She's trying to give me my apartment back.
01:24:35
Speaker
I love that. It's so funny to me. Yeah,
01:24:42
Speaker
it's good though.
New Wave Family and Group Dynamics
01:24:43
Speaker
Good little scene there.
01:24:46
Speaker
Alright.
01:24:50
Speaker
Yes. All right. We'll do it. x five Damsel's gang finds a house for an HQ. They discuss how and where to spend their money. Damsel fights and is almost caught by New Wave, is taken care of by Jay, and then Ashley reveals she has memories from Edict.
01:25:10
Speaker
New Wave. New Wave. Yeah. That's why they show their faces and they call each other by their real names. To do Hannah. Yeah, well, then they they they name Brandish as well, ah specifically.
01:25:24
Speaker
Right. I just forgot. They name that bitch. That's true. Yeah. that's true yeah
01:25:33
Speaker
Yeah. um That was an interesting fight. That was an interesting fight. The interaction between Ashley's powers and their like shields and stuff. Yes. And they're like, oh, like stay away from her. Like she can blow up our powers real easy. Yeah. well Love it.
01:25:52
Speaker
um Power to the villains. Why was she fighting them? I was really trying to remember. was So she was stealing and her crew were stealing from a store of some kind and they were coming in to stop them. Yeah. That's right. I couldn't remember the exact context of the fight.
01:26:11
Speaker
Yeah. Any fight that gives us more of a what's his name? Mark. I forget his cape name. Flashbang? Flashbang. Yeah. Any fight that gives us Flashbang I'm happy about.
01:26:23
Speaker
fun it's a fun power to visualize in that fight i remember brandish being there and her aunt yeah i thought it was the uncle i didn't think it was flash does somebody else have balls of flash power is that what happened i honestly don't remember because she was she was sniping him out of the air because there was yeah that's right oh i guess yeah yeah yeah you're right you're right i think so off to the old uncle neil It was a lot happening. It's a big family. Yeah. It's a big family.
01:26:55
Speaker
Big family. It's two couples. They're not even... It's a lot of powers. It's a lot people. In this world, having that many family members alive a great thing. It's two couples with two kids apiece.
01:27:10
Speaker
So many people. That's a lot of people. That's like eight whole people. I was going to say, well, now not whole people. Now they're like... and Some of them are half people.
01:27:22
Speaker
Yeah. Wait. Now it's two couples and two kids each. That's eight. guys Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah like god I same thought. I was like, yeah, I think that's six.
01:27:32
Speaker
And then I was like, wait. but I'm calculating for now. I'm like, I think there's one, two, three, four, five. I think there's six left. Because we lost slash Shielder. Yeah, that's what I meant the whole time.
01:27:47
Speaker
And the uncle... Oh, and right, yeah, yeah. Uncle did die, yeah. So... Oh, yeah, yeah. So there should be... ah What, her sister, I think?
01:27:58
Speaker
And then... Oh, man. And then Brandish. And then her dad. I'm rereading the fight.
Ashley’s Memories and Identity Crisis
01:28:04
Speaker
I'm rereading the fight. I think all four of the adults are there. But...
01:28:09
Speaker
um But the one who's talking to her, I'm pretty sure is Neil. Because it's the... Yeah, Neil is the one... The one who's like... She's like, do you want to you want to do you really want to test your power? And he's like, yeah, sure. Why the hell not?
01:28:26
Speaker
um I think that's Neil. I don't think that's Mark. But I'm not... yeah It's Neil because he has a shielding power. Right. and yeah Which it would be alongside you know that his son getting being shielder and getting shield powers.
01:28:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:28:42
Speaker
Yeah. the ah yeah Anything else in this chapter? um is it Is it this chapter where someone throws her the phone? Is it Neil who throws her the phone?
01:29:00
Speaker
think Dr. Armstrong. That's the next one. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. yeah Getting my fights confused. There's a few of them. ah This is also where, though, um we see a little bit more of her relationship with Jay, which we talked a lot about already. Yes. As her assistant, like, helping her get dressed, doing her makeup, very meticulously. Yeah.
01:29:23
Speaker
And then we also see here, this is in a therapy session with Yamada later. ah Ashley reveals that she has some of Edict's memories, which really freaks Edict out for good reason.
01:29:34
Speaker
yeah She's like, you have a child named blank. You live on this street. Sometimes your aunt watches your child. It's like, okay, i don't like that. Like, I've never told you that. I wouldn't either. So from what I understand with that, that was the can the the equivalent of not necessarily her having the memory of Edict and the information there, but that Riley had planted, taken the the file folder of...
01:30:05
Speaker
of edict and basically like stuck all that information in her brain because edict as a person in her life was an important keystone kind of moment thing in her decisiveness of ah growing as a person and growing as a villain and then her stuff in Boston. And so like she needs these anchor points.
01:30:26
Speaker
And so she gives her basically ah lists of information Which is why she has this information and not necessarily like memories of knowing that information. That was the vibe I got. Is that correct?
01:30:41
Speaker
and Maybe. See, i I interpreted it because in X.1, we have that scene written out between Lissett and Edith talking about being moved to Boston to follow Damsel.
01:30:52
Speaker
yeah i I interpreted it more as that, this because this whole arc is from Ashley's perspective, except for that one scene. It's a weird little. That made me think that that is her memory. Like these are all her memories, including that conversation.
01:31:09
Speaker
Right. How, you know, Bonesaw got a hold of that scene, that memory, we don't know. but um But she had access to all of like Cauldron's files and data.
01:31:20
Speaker
So more than likely, you know like you said, she's splicing together bits and pieces to form Damsel's identity to try to find the right combination. And I think it maybe it was easier just to insert a quick memory of Lisset and Edict doing everything they did rather than every memory of their encounters, if that makes sense. I don't know, though. ah so if I'm not mistaken, from the end of this chapter, um talking about, you know between Bonesaw and the testing, um what I'm gathering from this is that Bonesaw was sort of tapping into the shard
01:32:00
Speaker
like connections, if you will. Because you know they're all semi-connected. um But it's not like her doing memory stuff, because that's not her purview.
01:32:13
Speaker
What she's essentially doing is as she's growing, she's letting the shard rebuild the person because as we've established like it's weird that when you die and glass to guenye takes your you know your shard your physical like silhouette and stuff is there too like so what's happening is that the shard is rebuilding a person based on its interactions with the person.
01:32:46
Speaker
Also, Hannah, I can see you laughing at Beckford up in the top corner. He's so cute. Beckford is above Alan's head. He's so freaking adorable. He shouldn't be up there. He's going to knock over your Pokemon painting. He's absolutely going to, but he's a little boy. He's so cute. He's just a little void boy.
01:33:03
Speaker
What am I supposed to He's just He's just a little guy. I can't see any of the details because he's just like a black blob up there. But every once in a while he'll turn and I can see like the pokies of his ears. And it's, oh, he's so cute.
01:33:18
Speaker
My God. What little man. He looks like a little Batman up there. such a sweetie pie. He's boy man. hes beard Bernard agreed that it's shard based not due to bone. So yes, yes, yes.
01:33:30
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that makes sense then. Yeah. Yeah. and And because of that, because the shards are connected um in some form, they are pulling information from other shards that have in it had interaction with that shard.
01:33:46
Speaker
So, you know, getting back into are you a person and people who are more shard than human, this Ashley kind of is ah very shard-based yes individual.
01:34:00
Speaker
Because lot of her memories are pulled from other shards to supplement her own memory. i mean I mean, yeah, she's essentially a shard-compiled brain. The only early memory we have of her is her trigger. Everything else is post-trigger event.
01:34:16
Speaker
yeah and why I almost wonder if all of her memories are post-trigger event. She's like, i the first thing I remember is being a 13-year-old and triggering.
01:34:28
Speaker
And then everything after that is what happened. But I don't remember anything. Before that, I'd be interested to know if that Did we see everything that she basically remembers? Yeah, yeah, maybe.
01:34:41
Speaker
and I'm sure there's much more. And we also know that she has memories of ah other clones. Yes. It's because she pointed out that she she has a memory of a of a younger her having a tea date gone wrong with Bonesaw where Bonesaw, I think, poisoned her and killed her.
01:35:03
Speaker
ah so Yeah, she was was one of the bad ones, like one of the ones she had to get rid of, I think. Like she was testing her. Yeah. um Wow. Yeah, yeah. Very and yeah very wild. crazy. She has all these memories, too, of dying. Like, of of basically burning alive, boiling alive in the vat as Bonesaw got rid of yet another clone. Like, that to me is...
01:35:28
Speaker
but I think that's probably the truly horrific part. Like all of this is horrible and awful, but like the memories of all your deaths, like I haven't seen Mickey 17 yet. I really want to see it, but I imagine it's got that same energy of like, you've died.
01:35:43
Speaker
You keep dying over and over and over again. And you're now just a new clone of yourself. And you know, i oh yeah, yeah. yeah That's the really horrific part for me. on ah On a really cool note, I think we get into this.
01:35:59
Speaker
talked about this the other day of like, Wildbow does so many superhero, super comic tropes, and we just glaze over them because they're done well, so they don't feel tropey.
01:36:10
Speaker
And so he sneaks them in. Literal evil clone army, you know, at one point in time. And in this case, we're doing
Character Comparisons and Interactions
01:36:18
Speaker
that. We're like, how do you you have clones that How do you make it not stupid? How do you explain memories and teaching them to eat and stuff like that? How do you know?
01:36:27
Speaker
And then the answer for this is so well explained. I just glossed over it like, oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. You just accept it yeah as fact and as truth because it's it doesn't feel jarring at all to be like.
01:36:39
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Well, like well, yeah. Well, duh. The shark. Yeah. perfectly good explanation uh fran uh we did can get a confirmation on slashly she shows up at the end of the arc and also i've never heard that name i love her being referred to as slashly slashly's amazing that's great yep yeah we'll get to her yeah yeah um yeah oh yeah uh very cool x.6 ready ready x point six Let's do Alrighty. X.6. Damsel climbs a building, steals a bunch of technology from inside of it, then has an encounter with Lisset.
01:37:13
Speaker
Finally, she takes her spot with the major players. Amy asks Ashley about Vicky. um ah Yeah. Which. Well, we'll get to it.
01:37:24
Speaker
yeah No, no, no. Let's start with that. Because it gets, it doesn't even, it is like three lines. It's very quick. yeah ah so Just to, you know, to quote Amy, duh. So I hear you talk to my sister, Ashley. Shut the fuck up, bitch.
01:37:40
Speaker
That's not quite. but That's how I read it. I don't know if maybe I was reading that earlier. I mean, read it more like, I read it more like, um so you know my sister ashley's no no that's that's the end of what's the i need the curbo the curbo actually no yeah yeah i love it classic amy god damn No, I love that. um
01:38:11
Speaker
ah The actual conversation is great. I'm just going to read it because it's great. I heard ah you talk to my sister at one point. Amy asked. Ashley looked up staring. i don't want to pry or anything, but I worry about her. i Then don't pry, Ashley said.
01:38:25
Speaker
ah Okay. Not just a good answer. Because it's like, Amy's like, well, I don't want to pry. And she's like, then don't. like wi Oh, like you're doing right now?
01:38:37
Speaker
like you're doing right fucking now. i it just, it's, oh, I much. I don't mean to be a dumb pun, but like, whoops, here I go doing it again.
01:38:49
Speaker
Here I go doing it again. i I was talking to Krista, ah to to my wife last night about um the word unless and how like, Especially it's unrelated. Okay.
01:39:03
Speaker
okay Yeah, exactly. It's exactly that, Alan. It's the like on like when, you know, it's like, oh, honey, wouldn't it be funny if if I bought this? Unless. Unless.
01:39:15
Speaker
And it's exactly Amy. She's like, I don't want to pry. Unless you want to share little tidbit about my sister. And Ashley just shuts her down so fast. I love it. um Slams the garage door closed. Absolutely.
01:39:31
Speaker
Once again, the fluctuation between like, I can't stand Ashley, but then Ashley has these moments and I'm like, you know what? Back on the run. You know what? Back in the running. She's bad bitch. Let's go. She's a bad bitch. Back on the roster.
01:39:45
Speaker
Back up eight here. I think it's just, I think the difference is, is no sna Ashley, Ashley as a teenager, edgelord Ashley and current Ashley, who is like taking responsibility for herself and is like actually trying to make a positive change and taking responsibility and accountability for herself.
01:40:05
Speaker
And, uh, you know, a little bit of mental health and growth is, uh, what makes all the difference, Amy. Who better? i I will say I am impressed. Ashley is very mature for a four-year-old.
01:40:18
Speaker
um Right? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. was like... I
01:40:27
Speaker
i love that unless is one of those words, like phrases that you can you can just do silently. Like if I do this... yeah You know that's what I'm doing. if We shouldn't say it too late for those of you who are OG listeners.
01:40:44
Speaker
That is essentially Taylor's like permanent end of sentence expression. That's ah y'all y'all Podcast host Taylor not Yeah it's not warm Taylor.
01:40:55
Speaker
Taylor constantly would say something then just It's such a Taylor thing. The look out the corner the eye tilt head look like other direction just
01:41:06
Speaker
lost damn it oh man yep that's some patreon content right there we just get taylor back on yeah accomplisher Avail said Ashley is like Taylor with less social skills.
01:41:22
Speaker
um Kind of, but with more confidence. I feel like if Ashley, if if Taylor had Ashley's confidence, she would have been saying one-liners out loud like she should have.
01:41:33
Speaker
yeah Taylor had such good one-liners and she was always like, oh, that's stupid. Oh, it was good. It was a really good one. We're all bangers. She has a great sense of humor. She should have leaned into that. Maybe she wouldn't have been such a moody bitch.
01:41:46
Speaker
True, true. um Bernard, we did mention that. That's what we're talking about. Slashley, she gets mentioned at the end of the arc. Yeah, she gets mentioned at X8. Are we still in six?
01:41:59
Speaker
We're still in in six, yeah. Okay, okay. But I'm okay. No, I do love... Well, yeah, i just briefly on X.6, I do love... Yes, please. Blasto has made a giant plant monster.
01:42:10
Speaker
Yes. Oh, yeah. Fantastic. Good for him. We can't not talk about the monster. And that's why... Yeah, that's why she like goes up to the roof and she's like, what is this big noise? And it's like, oh, Blasto made a kaiju.
01:42:22
Speaker
All right, anyways, this is as usual. I love this is also the first time we're hearing about this. like They talk about Boston games, but like the giant plant monster that was in the middle of the river is like never mentioned.
01:42:34
Speaker
ah like On par of like being taller than Leviathan and being like, oh, shoot. shit. It's very tall. It's like 50 feet tall or something. Yeah, gonna say, remember Leviathan's only 30 feet tall.
Damsel's Overconfidence and Reality Check
01:42:44
Speaker
Yeah, Leviathan's not that tall. Yeah, Blasto explains he put it there as like an implicit threat, right? It's like, it turns out it does fucking nothing.
01:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah then and then later Ashley gets mad and killed. So it doesn't do anything. But then also later, Blasto's like, Ah, whatever. I can make another one. we you know let's ah You know, we get over to X7. I've got some sunblasto. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um Yeah, so ah we have that encounter with Lysit. We see um Damsel explains why she was good at fighting new waves because Lysit has very similar powers.
01:43:24
Speaker
there's like um Which I looked up what Lysit means. It's the opposite of illicit. so I knew it! So rather than like illegal, it's like legal or lawful.
01:43:34
Speaker
Yeah. I don't really know what that has to do with his powers, except the first line on the Wikipedia, which I didn't spoil anything, but the first line of the wiki is like, he has trouble controlling his vices, but he's a pretty good guy overall.
01:43:48
Speaker
oh With a name like Lisset. Yeah, like Lisset. I'm like, okay, so are you just like the anything goes guy? Struggles with the eye. is he Is he just naming himself that to like try to self-motivate?
01:44:00
Speaker
To like stay away? I will manageic you fast i will not do the good things. I will do the listen. like just listen We're going to have drinks at noon one more time and then I'm going to be better. Never again.
01:44:13
Speaker
and Anytime someone says his name, they're like, hey, listen. He's like, I'm here. I'm present. I am licit. Yeah, I am allowed. and I am legal.
01:44:24
Speaker
I do like how in control of his power he is. um Like, it kind of described at one point that he could you could make the force fields really thin and, like, stack them so that when one was destroyed, there was one waiting. and Like, he had a really fine control over his fields, which was and he which was cool. He kind of trapped Ashley at least a little bit. I mean, she could have blown out of them. Like, he...
01:44:46
Speaker
had enough of a read on her and control of his power, like you said, to be able to like create this sharp cage to hold her in for a little while. Yeah. So they could talk, you know, like all I want to do is talk. He's like, we're trying to help you. Fuck you, Lisset.
01:45:00
Speaker
yeah We really just want to help you. Yeah. ah yeah But this is where, um, no, this is not where she has the conversation with Armstrong in the next. Next. Yeah. Yeah.
01:45:11
Speaker
yeah But yeah, then she feels the confidence to step up into the center circle with Blasto and Accord and all of them. Well, she's having her little, which, gosh, again, this ties back into the whole thing of like, she's so immature in her villainy.
01:45:28
Speaker
um They're like, we're going to rob a warehouse and we're we're going to take all these electronics we're going to resell them. Like, that's her her grand villainy plan, which like, Sure. Yes, of course. Like, you if you're going to be doing bad things, okay, fine.
01:45:43
Speaker
If it worked for Fast and Furious, you know, it could work better. Yeah. ah But, like, it just, it feels so it's weird because it feels so unpowered villainous kind of thing as opposed to, like, Blasto who's created a giant plant monster in the middle middle of the river. Like, it feels like so small potatoes.
01:46:08
Speaker
Compared to like what she could be doing, which i mean, it's really but. When you think about her power and her capabilities and what she could be doing and literally the vacuum that's happening in Boston and in the next chapter with everything that happens at the the next moot is like she she, in her mind, she's like, oh yeah, like we're so bad. We're going to steal all this shit and going to go, going to sell, going to have so much money, we're rolling in cash.
01:46:35
Speaker
And then like, Alyssa shows up and they block off a bunch of the the the trucks and it's like, it it just it it And then there's this giant plant monster and it just feels so, so small in comparison of like the grand scheme of what's happening in Boston.
01:46:59
Speaker
It's, you know, it's pretty teenager-y. Yeah.
01:47:07
Speaker
Yep. I see it.
01:47:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:47:12
Speaker
X.7? Yeah. Yeah, X.7. Let's do it. um Damsel gets... Immediately, Damsel gets overconfident and is removed from the moot.
01:47:25
Speaker
She loses her people, speaks to Director Armstrong. As a result, she kills Jay and she kills the Woad Giant. That's the name, apparently. um Weird.
01:47:35
Speaker
And then Victoria defends Ashley in court. So I guess maybe we didn't get power suit moment. That was in X.7. But um that still, yeah. Again, kind of what you were saying, Hannah, that image, the teenager thinking she's better than she is.
01:47:50
Speaker
She walks up and detente in a corridor just like, we've been making plans this whole time and we yeah honestly didn't factor you in. I'm sorry. You weren't even the list. She's like, but what about Death Chester? And they're like,
01:48:05
Speaker
ah Fucking who cares? Who cares about Death Chester? And then they do like one of the most baller moves, which I, i oh my gosh, it's so dismissive.
01:48:16
Speaker
It's such a good move, but also like to just be like, boop, and she's down the beach. Like someone touches her and she teleports way down before she can even blast. She can't even, she doesn't even get a chance to do anything. She's like, get your hands off me. Yeah. Don't touch me. And before she can finish her sentence, she's down the beach. Like, it's so dismissive. It's like, we don't give a shit about you or what...
01:48:44
Speaker
you think you hold or what power you think you might wield. Like you are so insignificant. We're not even going to go through the the trouble of like silencing you or like taking out your, your, your minions. Like we're just going to like, and stick you over there because we don't even care about the repercussions of you marching back down the beach. Like it's so ridiculous.
01:49:10
Speaker
um um It was such a good move. From the Zoom call. It's just like, boop. Yeah. Oh. That like such a crush to her pride too.
01:49:22
Speaker
Like she thinks that she's doing so good. She thinks she's, oh yeah. And she, she actually, she brings this up a couple of times. so So she says, I can't remember exactly what the number is, but she's like, I've got 47 minions. And the court's like, you have 41 actually. And it's so it's so like,
01:49:41
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah. No. Holy the shit. I fucking love it. is So good. So good. ah I just posted a meme for everybody else to see, but it's the, ah what's with the sassy lost child?
01:49:54
Speaker
And it's just a cord to damsel. It's just like, who is this sassy lost child? Like, she's, she's in the figure. yeah Really though, like, she thinks she's so great and she thinks she's so cool and she's just, she's, she's lost.
01:50:12
Speaker
and's lost she's She's a nobody. like Okay, cool. You have kind of a power, but like as Armstrong points out later, Accord's just going to shoot you. like I love that. Your power can't stop a bullet from hitting the back of your head. Once again, Coil Sniper is just going to wipe you out.
01:50:30
Speaker
You won't even see it coming. And just because like if you were less of a nuisance... they just completely ignore because you're yeah boosting VCRs and DVD players from ah a warehouse that nobody gives a shit about.
01:50:44
Speaker
No, she's boosting laptops. laptops. it's no nameme brand laptop That would be generic. Yeah.
01:50:57
Speaker
It's the, it's the, it's off brand laptops. Yeah. It's off brand. Yeah. The green value. Yeah. Chromebooks. She's boosting Chromebooks. They're like a hundred dollars of a pop. So like, yeah yeah. Yeah. So like if you may, it because you're making so much noise, Armstrong's like you're an inconvenience. So you gotta like slap a mosquito. Know what I'm saying?
01:51:22
Speaker
like Yeah. And that's all she is. And it puts into perspective, like, what I've always felt about Ashley in this chapter. And, you unfortunate and like, good for the writing. It makes you follow her journey. So you're like, yeah, she's the focal And then you get to the section, you're like, oh, no, she's a minor inconvenience that they kind of just, like, kept around, like, ah you know, yeah the way you...
01:51:45
Speaker
again ah yeah Yeah. i mean she She's the villain you give an Xbox controller that isn't plugged in. you know That's who she is as villain. It's exactly Skidmark and the Merchants right in Brockton Bay where they're like, yeah you guys sell drugs, but we you're really not a player. Just go sit in the corner until... like The Undersiders are more of a player than you.
01:52:08
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Right. um and And it feels very similar in that regard. Yeah. Where she thinks she's this hot stuff. Like I pulled off this big heist. Meanwhile, the cord's like buying half of the city.
01:52:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. i think He owns half of everything. And she's like, got some laptops. Like, ah damn it, actually. that she' So, yeah. It's so teenager. like you When you're a teenager, you really do think that you're the hero or the villain, in this case, of your own story. like you you You see yourself as this. And like she has the power to back it up, like we've said before. like she She hits you, you hit the floor, the ambulance hits 60.
01:52:46
Speaker
It's true, but also like she doesn't think like a villain. She thinks like a teenager. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that conversation with Director Armstrong, you know, you might say that Edict and Lissett have taken too soft of an approach.
01:53:01
Speaker
Yeah. um yeah but in But obviously this, like, sensor over the edge mentally. Oh, yeah. He's like, listen, you're going to get killed. We don't want you to get killed. Like, we could use you. we could We have a place for you if you want it, but you're being stubborn, and it's going to get you killed by a cord.
01:53:22
Speaker
Yeah. And she's like, oh, I'm dangerous too. I'm powerful too. And he's like, you don't understand. No, sweetie. Sweetie, you're not. you You ain't that big. You ain't that tough.
01:53:33
Speaker
I will And he does... Well, I was just going to say too that kind of moving on to something else, but the revelation that people who work for Accord have been working for her the whole time ah so that they can tell Accord about stuff she's doing in case she got more problematic right is just like the biggest final nail in the coffin. Oh...
01:53:52
Speaker
None of my minions were even mine for me. And Cord said, don't work for her anymore. Yeah, pretty much. and um like which All I can think is the mercenaries were probably also a cord. They're just getting paid twice.
01:54:10
Speaker
Yeah, they're like, hey, you know you're getting hired by her. Just let us know. I mean, they're probably the same guy. After this job, they probably went straight to Coil. yeah this whole This whole arc is basically just a giant reminder to like, just fuck Cody, man.
01:54:25
Speaker
Right? What a piece of shit. I'm glad he got sold off to the Chinese. Yeah. Oh, we got his, we got his, we got what teacher now is going to be our, is our remaining last remaining like ah weird on villain. Yeah.
01:54:40
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Mannequin's not around and to shit anymore. ah Yeah. um yeah Yeah. In this, I'll shit on a villain for a second.
01:54:50
Speaker
um Blasto at the beginning of this. You know, i will support his right to weed.
01:55:03
Speaker
But god damn it. I fucking, this is exactly what a stoner villain is. Fucking useless. Like, oh, I guess I didn't think about that. Oh, you know, just constantly like, oh, that's pretty cool, man. I'm going to make a giant monster. And what does it do?
01:55:21
Speaker
Do? It stands there. Like, yeah. I'm just imagining like shaggy, really. just like It's just shaggy. like Just like chill out, guys.
01:55:33
Speaker
Like, if Shaggy... Whoa, that good. Like, just made a monster. Yeah. That was really good. So, like, the equivalent of... better not mess with me. sorry No, it's good. I imagine the care that he goes into put making a sandwich, like the perfectly layered, everything is perfectly stacked.
01:55:53
Speaker
it Take that and make it like science cloning brain, and then that's Blasto. Yeah. yeah yeah Shaggy Blasto. and ah and And he's useless. and And they talk about like when they're describing it, it's like, oh, yeah, they've kind of got a...
01:56:06
Speaker
an eco-terrorist like moral vibe thing going and it's like oh yeah and of course it's just like ah wait we're not doing this for the weed we're doing this uh because nature that's like um get the fuck out i don't know why the fuck you're even here like blast germ blaster just needed like oh no no no like we have the moral high ground we're fighting for uh brain flatlines because he's just so high.
01:56:38
Speaker
god damn. so It's the whales, man. Like, ah he ah at least do a drug that's cool, you know? Imagine. Yeah, i like the merchants, meth.
01:56:49
Speaker
but I said cool, not loser drugs. Do some cocaine like an adult. No, no. We're We're never going to get any sponsors ever. we're never going to get any sponsors ever Unless.
01:57:04
Speaker
Do drugs like an adult. Do cocaine. Do alpha brain. Alpha brain. The cape's preferred choice.
01:57:17
Speaker
I would start taking rumor right now. It's in that transatlantic accent though, Alan. Like the the whole of the spark plugs. Alpha brain. Alpha brain. you with mushrooms and all sorts of kale vitamins to help you.
01:57:30
Speaker
yeah yet If you take it two hours to 30 minutes before you go to sleep, you'll have very vivid dreams for multiple nights in a row. Wash it down with original recipe Coca-Cola.
01:57:41
Speaker
New. yeah Now with extra cocaine. Now with more coke. but God damn. That suits my T-zone to a T. That's T for taste and T for throat. That's why I smoke camel.
01:57:53
Speaker
That's C for comedy, A for Abbott, M for Maxwell, E for Emmett, and L for Lou Costello. Put them all together and that spells camel. Try a camel at home. Why do you have that memorized? Because I watched a lot of Abbott and Costello growing up. There we go.
01:58:06
Speaker
If I say watched, I listened to a lot of Abbott and Costello growing was about to say, I had the suspense tapes and it was all the spark plugs. i yeah yeah exactly like I didn't say that. The other one was Petri Sherry.
01:58:19
Speaker
um And then, you know, yeah you quoted the Sherry one to me before. Yeah, the Sherry was a sp ah was on a lot for the ah Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in ah Sherlock Holmes and the mystery of the and the the submarine plan. He just quoted this two weeks ago, by the way, to a total stranger.
01:58:36
Speaker
We need to we need to stop. hold We need to stop. You're losing me and I'm your age. So there's no way anyone else. All right. you know there is for our time that does Just remind me though, um just today i saw a picture of a a mascot named Mr. Sig who was a walking cigarette who would visit hospital patients in the 40s to give them cigarettes. No! um so look up Look up Mr. Sig and it's one of the funniest black and white pictures you'll see. Is that back when we used asbestos filters too?
01:59:14
Speaker
No, oh my God. Probably. Good Lord. Here you go. Here it is. It's in the, just look up Mr. Sig, but for those of us um on the Discord, I posted it in the memes channel. That's wow terrible. It's so there.
01:59:34
Speaker
The face of death. Why does Mr. Sig look like a Ku Klux Klan member? Oh my god. I mean. Probably was. Okay, we've got to. We've got We've got to move on. Armstrong suspects Cauldron, which is like nice to have somebody outside of our thing confirm that. That's nice. Let's see. I also want to kill Blasto for real damsel. No one cares about you.
02:00:01
Speaker
X.8. Let's get on. Yep. ah Killing Jay, I think, was the big, maybe the big turning point, too, for her. Wow. Yeah. ah Realizing that man she didn't have anything that she thought she had.
02:00:13
Speaker
No. I was not saying, is that at the end of seven? Yeah, it's the end of seven, yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about that. um Wow. ah That was so... Wow, that was a lot.
02:00:29
Speaker
Yeah. What do we think? Was he an accord or was he ah true, true... Simp. Ashley simp.
02:00:40
Speaker
I do think it's written to make it not clear. Yeah. but But I like to think that he was probably accord. think that just makes the most sense. I think he wasn't. I think if if everyone else was accord, he was like the one true Ashley fan.
02:00:59
Speaker
Yeah. One true. I kind of feel that way too. And I kind of feel that I feel that she misinterpreted almost what Armstrong said to an extreme where he's like, he's got people watching you.
02:01:14
Speaker
And she's like, well, it must be the person closest to me. Cause that's the person who would hurt me the most. Yeah. You know, like going back to that, keeping people at arm's length. And she finally let somebody in close and just like with her mom, you know, and her dad,
02:01:28
Speaker
that the person she let in the closest is the one who's hurt or the worst. Right. Obviously it's gotta be him. Yeah. But it is unclear. It's hard to know. Yeah, I look back at the interactions that she has with the other, her other, i was gonna say team members, they're not team members, underlings, where you know she'll say something and they'll be like, yes, ma'am. And they'll do it right away. And there's not a lot of backtalk, which when you're reading it in the moment, you think it's like, wow, the I mean, they'll do it for the money she's paying them or for the fact that they're afraid of her or whatever it might be. And at one point she does scare people
02:02:04
Speaker
scare them pretty bad. And, you know, at one point, the bitch comment, which, by the way, we didn't talk about, which was one of my favorite moments in the and this arc. but the But it seems like even that bitch comment of them saying to Jay, like, you're such a fucking bitch.
02:02:20
Speaker
It's, yeah if he was in on it with, like, a cord and they all are like, yeah, we're all getting paid to, like, do this job for a cord,
02:02:32
Speaker
then
02:02:34
Speaker
it's I don't know. There's like this, this sense of like, they wouldn't make fun of him, but he's like not on the take. And he's like an actual damsel fan. And so they're like, bitch, like you can't, you're, you actually are a fan of hers.
02:02:47
Speaker
And cause he's so quick to defend her. He's so quick to be like, no, no, no. Like, Like, it they're right. And i don't I don't mind being called a bitch. Like, it's okay. And in the moment at the end when he's like, what? Like, no.
02:03:02
Speaker
He's truly shocked by the information she's throwing at him and truly in pain. And, oh. Maybe. it It's hard to tell, right? Because at the same time, I could see the other argument being like,
02:03:15
Speaker
the other argument being like Come on, man. You're such a bitch. Like, we're all just chill with her. And what are you doing? You're going like, you're like washing her feet. Like, why? Like, dude, yeah we're all getting paid the same. Why are you, you know?
02:03:29
Speaker
Well, I mean, we know why. Well, yeah, but you know, yeah. Oh, I see. Right. We don't kink shame here. Right. Unless. The foot fetish. Yes. Oh my God, this is the timing too. Well done, Michael. And then Michael on the black background too. It's just, it's like the perfect meme format. Oh my God.
02:03:50
Speaker
um But yeah, so it's kind of that like, I can almost see it as like co-worker, right? Where it's like, okay, dude, like we're all getting paid the same. are you kissing her ass so much? Why are you such a kiss up? Yeah. Yeah. yeah um brown hoser And that's why he's like so fine with it too. He's like, no, no, no, it's fine. Like ah we're cool. You know?
02:04:07
Speaker
yeah So it's, i don't know. i You know what I could say? Here's my theory. Here's my theory. um Maybe. Jay was on Accord's payroll, but right before she killed him, he had just gotten off the phone with him and said, look, I'm not working for you any anymore, Accord.
02:04:26
Speaker
i'm I'm sold on Ashley. I'm going to work. I'm going to stay with her even after everybody else leaves. And then she busts in and kills him. Stagger in the fucking heart. I really liked Jay. That was unfortunate.
02:04:37
Speaker
Also, ah just for y'all, y'all keep doing your thing. ah Bernard, spoilers. ah spoilers
02:04:46
Speaker
Bernard, watch this. I can't see the chat. Teasing chat. and ah slow get on that out right now I didn't have chat pulled up tonight because I've gotten burned too many times. um Yeah.
02:04:57
Speaker
and to Fran said something funny. He said, it's it's vague enough that he could totally just be a normal guy that is into a Hot Topic Girls and he died because Ashley is losing it. Right? Yeah. um Unfortunately.
02:05:11
Speaker
He's just like, I just like, what was that? What? well and The Hot Topic girl thing got brought up again. was like, Hannah, know, but right? yes Like, I actually don't own that much stuff from Hot Topic. hot Topic was too expensive for me.
02:05:26
Speaker
That's fair. fair That's fair. Yeah. I will say I'm going to out myself really quick and let you guys in on a little secret. When I was probably 14. 15 actually.
02:05:38
Speaker
I purchased a pair of black and white striped socks as previously mentioned, but I cut them so that I could wear them as little arm warmers because I was so cool. that was But I didn't ever wear them together.
02:05:52
Speaker
i wore only one at a time because I thought that was cool. I mean, Avril Lavigne did that stripey thing. Avril Lavigne. Okay.
02:06:04
Speaker
Avril Lavigne was like my favorite person at the time. I listened to all of her music. So I wasn't a Hot Topic girly. was an Avril girly. There we go. but after I wore carpenter jeans from age like 11 to 17. Heck yes.
02:06:18
Speaker
I don't like there's no there's no fashion judgment here. With the hammer in the loop Jacob with the hammer. Oh my God. oh Every all day. If only. To answer your question.
02:06:32
Speaker
It's not brought up until way later. Okay. Bernard. It's okay. Let it down. Don't put it in, bro. I i can't judge much either. I was going to say, look it up and then look up the references to where that information is. That'll tell you where it happened. However, um it is, although there is no reference for
Armstrong’s Redeeming Influence
02:06:54
Speaker
that,
02:06:55
Speaker
in terms of ah the wiki, and I would highly suggest not looking this up. Wasn't got it. ah Under relationships, Jay and Ashley formed a close sexual relationship with one another.
02:07:08
Speaker
Wow, I guess they were forking. Look at that. Forking and borking. So, you know. Define sex. Not officially confirmed. Define sexual. Was it just like a lot of sexual tension? Exactly. Define sexual.
02:07:24
Speaker
I mean, he put her shoes on. i he put her shoes on for a while and enjoyed being her bitch. How often do you think she used him a...
02:07:34
Speaker
It clipped out. I'm so glad it did. And it clipped and that was perfect. auto ah I definitely thought you are more pur they were saying the word five radiers. What did you say, Nick? Don't worry about it. Moving on, moving on, moving on. yeah on we are x point eight Wait, one one more one quick thing that I was thinking about with Armstrong.
02:08:01
Speaker
i I understand. Okay, so this kind of is contrary to what I was talking about earlier about like, let's get people out here and try and recruit this tiny little girl who is not eating, by the way. This girl doesn't hardly eat or sleep like ever.
02:08:18
Speaker
So she's like maybe 90 pounds at best. ah But like Armstrong is important. yes seems weird that we go from licit and edict to armstrong there's such a big jump there It feels weird.
02:08:40
Speaker
Like, yes, she's powerful, but we've also established that she's small potatoes in terms of Boston. Well, Armstrong's the Boston guy, right? He is the Boston guy. He's the chief director of Boston.
02:08:51
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Right. But like, so why why are we having such a big jump? Like, and that I will say, this is the only thing. i think it's edict and licit calling in a favor. Yeah. And I think he's a big softie. i think That makes sense.
02:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I love him. He adopted Weld. He adopts Weld. Yeah, he's like Weld's adopted father. Yeah. So I think he has, I think he really likes, you know, the whole like, yeah, these are people that nobody, i mean, who's going to adopt a case 53? Like,
02:09:17
Speaker
like you know, iowa will. And I think there's one of these cases of like, yeah, aren't you the chief director? like, yeah, but like, I'll also take on responsibility. means, and oh this is another, this is a villain, you know, who's had a really, sh you know, troubled upbringing and they're like, hey, we got this girl.
02:09:34
Speaker
He's like, you know, say no more, ah you know, if you ever need anything to help And that's probably how they even had the permission to be like, hey, we have somebody that we'd like to send to the wards if we can get her to agree to it.
02:09:47
Speaker
And he was like, absolutely bring her in. oh she's a villain. Like, doesn't matter. Like, whatever it takes. Yeah, for sure. Because we even see that in Wyrm with Director Armstrong being one of the more bigger supporters of Taylor coming in, if I recall correctly. Yeah, yeah. um Of like, he's, I think, for whatever reason, right he has a bigger understanding of like, people who are villains are more than likely traumatized kids acting out and not...
02:10:18
Speaker
um, really evil people. Like there are obviously some yeah very evil people, you know, people like coil who are, you know, truly evil or just maybe too far gone. Like, you know, skid Mark where it's like, he's, he's done himself. helping that Yeah. There's no helping him.
02:10:35
Speaker
Whereas most of them, right? Like you've got the undersiders kids, Ashley, who's a kid. You've got, um, tons of these villains who are just, you know, traumatized kids acting out their trauma with superpowers.
02:10:49
Speaker
I mean, isn't that, isn't that most everyone at this point? Like if everyone's triggering as a teenager, like yeah we're all just, I say we, but we are one of them.
02:11:01
Speaker
ah They're all just traumatized kids that end up choosing a path. And yeah. Yeah. I mean, it makes me think about like, what draws you in as a kid to join, you know, the heroes essentially. And it's like, and it's not the security because you don't really think about it as a kid. Honestly, it's probably the adoration of like, oh yeah, i get to be here with people. Like i get to be famous essentially.
02:11:26
Speaker
and i've And I've got to imagine thinking back to like Arms Master and how he, what his like big thing for how he was like fucking everybody over kind of sounds a little bit like what if Arms Master was a troubled kid, probably was because trigger vent and he gets in because he wants the attention and the recognition. And, you know, ultimately that stalls at some point and he's, you know,
02:11:55
Speaker
I'm not getting the recognition I feel like I deserve. um And it you know kind of all goes back to like, well, why did you get in the game in the first place? It wasn't, you know, it what was the reasoning? And if you were a troubled kid who you know could have easily gone the villain route, like then Arms Master makes a ton of sense like why he did that. yeah yeah Yeah, for sure.
02:12:15
Speaker
um Also, as Fran pointed out, ah Ashley could have been Weld's sister. How cool would have that been? That would have been interesting. Also, well, i mean, I'm curious
Damsel’s Encounter with Slaughterhouse Nine
02:12:29
Speaker
what Ashley's power, obviously I don't want her to try it on weld, but I'm curious what the effect would be on weld as a giant i mean i imagine metal.
02:12:37
Speaker
I mean, it it blew through Bob, so I can't imagine it's going to stop. Well, that's true, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. that meant that it it It's interesting. She tried to um annihilate like a piece of of solid metal pipe at one point, and it just twisted. just kind of like... sh Yeah. it didn't It didn't go away. It just kind warped.
02:12:59
Speaker
think there's a mental aspect to it. Probably. Okay, let's do it. well i Just don't do it on Weld's pipe. Am I might right?
02:13:09
Speaker
Step Weld, what are you doing? No. ah Come on. You can't whisper things with your new mic, Ellen. We hear everything. that wasn't I I just said that. He said that with his full chest. There was no whispers. It can't have anything.
02:13:26
Speaker
anything nice Other thing I wanted to point out before we ah roll past this was ah just, is I think it's in this section where um ah Armstrong does get up in court and talk on her behalf. And he's there with his like overgrown beard.
02:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah I just, yeah i love that he's still around. She makes a comment about his weird face. It's like weird head. He's got a weird head, weird shaped head. The beard helps.
02:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. But I love him. He's nice. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. He's good. um All right. And then, yeah, she kills the plant monster. No consequence.
02:14:06
Speaker
Nobody cared. Until Yeah, nobody cared. That's, that's yeah, X.8. We'll get there. Damsel returns to Stafford, finds life has gone on, but the nine are waiting him.
02:14:17
Speaker
She loses her forearms and more. Ashley reminisces, meets with her other self. They discuss their memories. Oh, Jack. Yeah.
02:14:27
Speaker
So Damsel has gone home, sort of, you know, tail between the legs only one who's kicked out of Boston. She goes to meet with the old potheads who they robbed the bank with. He's like, yeah, you kind of got to stay away. Like, we we can't hang out anymore.
02:14:44
Speaker
Yeah. He's trying to get his life together. Yeah, yeah. Sort of. Yeah, you know, sort of. He's like, I can't just be a pothead anymore. And I'm trying to look out for my, like, my stepsister or stepbrother nephew or whatever it is. Yeah.
02:15:01
Speaker
I think the saddest thing about this, of course, right, this is, again, that... I've only got one more day until my retirement kind of vibe. of like She's like on the brink of reaching out to edicts and lists it when the nine show up. yeah like And then she even thinks, like if i'd if I'd done it sooner, I wouldn't be here right now. Yeah.
02:15:24
Speaker
So sad. i do I do love seeing Jack again, though. We do love the Jack. I love seeing the gang back together. It's funny because I was waiting for Jack, Siberian, and Bonesaw, the big three.
02:15:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, I knew it was coming. I knew she had been, like, obviously, she's a clone. Therefore, she was part of the Slaughterhouse Nine. that We didn't see her as part of the Slaughterhouse Nine when they were in Brockton Bay. But, like, we know she was there.
02:15:49
Speaker
And it's interesting, like, even... And so you're as I'm reading these chapters, like you're you're wondering when they're going to pop up or when she turns this corner to be bad enough to be part of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
02:16:04
Speaker
And the moment where she kills Jay felt like, a oh shit, like is this is this where she's headed? This is like how she ends up being part of the Slaughterhouse Nine. But then when the way that they show up, her whole mentality and when she's in the house, which by the way, is this her old house?
02:16:22
Speaker
the vi an apartment It's an apartment. Oh, it's an apartment. It's not the trailer. There's a hole in the floor. Yeah, but they they they talk about that. That's just ah the way she's got that. She's got holes in the wall.
02:16:33
Speaker
Her family, I'm pretty sure, was in a trailer. Oh, maybe. I thought it was a house. Anyways, that's not the point. you heard The point, though, is that The point is, though, is that there so she's she her whole mentality when Jack and Bonesaw and Siberian all show up is how can I blast Jack? How can I kill Jack?
02:16:53
Speaker
How can I kill Bonesaw? Like, she's not thinking of like, oh, they're kind of cool. Like, they have power. They have, you know, whatever. Maybe I could join them. The whole time she's thinking, how do I kill these guys? How do I? How do I?
02:17:05
Speaker
basically get away with it, stay alive long enough to blast them all to smithereens, which like we know that she wouldn't have been able to destroy Siberian and probably not Jack or Bonesaw either. But like the idea of her mentality is not, oh, cool, I'm going to join them now. It's,
02:17:22
Speaker
fuck, shit, fuck. I gotta fucking take them out. It's very much more like a you know, like how Hackjob joined, joined, Murderette joined, you know? yeah ah join Joined? Joined. do gotta say...
02:17:37
Speaker
for someone For a character who is so quick to violence and action throughout the arc, I think it's pretty interesting that she is not quick at all around the cape, who, of course, we know is ah is the broadcast shard is most likely affecting her there.
02:17:55
Speaker
And that's why she's not attacking. That's a good point. That's a really good point. saw that in the comments on the arc. as Somebody said, like, because when she reflects on how she was probably just a couple seconds too late to actually do anything, people are like, that's just Jack's shard.
02:18:10
Speaker
ands Broadcast shard, baby. Yep. and in edge I knew it was going to happen because because Riley keeps saying, just put your hands right here on the counter. Just put your hands on the counter.
02:18:21
Speaker
And I just, I knew because like, I don't think it it clicked until you get these flashbacks with her and Bonesaw and Amy and, you know, Bonesaw's working on her hands or whatever and realizing like, oh shit, wait, no.
02:18:35
Speaker
In Boston, she had her hands. Like, they were problematic, but like, they were her hands, like flesh and bone. Her hands. And we know later on that she has a lot of stuff with like the tinker hands and like, and how we know that Riley's like been working on them. And it it was like in this moment,
02:18:53
Speaker
She's just put your hands on the count. Just just put your hands here. Just and it's like. Hmm. Yeah. um Got him.
02:19:06
Speaker
so feelative It's so It's Yeah.
02:19:13
Speaker
Yeah. And then you know it's coming. yeah And Jack helps with the cleaver. Like, it's just so. Yeah, he breaks out his own cleaver. Like, good God. And they're just both. Oh, God. It's.
02:19:25
Speaker
like i like i do like how Bonesaw is still swinging with the force of a child. so it's like, yeah halfway through, not quite. Not quite. Jack's just like, this is my power. Just let me. Just let me. Yeah.
02:19:38
Speaker
Oh, my God. It's so. Yeah. and And right after Jack gives his knockoff Joker's one bad day speech, like a killing joke, I was like, and come on, Jack. Like, give it up. You're not good.
02:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, this is when I love buddy i will say it it is interesting. This is when the Slaughterhouse Nine does feel the most desperate, right? Because they're on the run from Dragon and Defiant. And they're just looking for any members to fill any ranks, willing or unwilling. They don't care. Exactly. They're not even doing their fun challenges or games. Yeah, they're they're not even playing. You're part of us now.
02:20:16
Speaker
ah in lyn And then just, I feel like, to to wrap it all up, adding all information, right? They get to Accord's mansion.
02:20:27
Speaker
learned that but She learns Blasto is now working for Accord. Yep. And on top of that, he doesn't even remember she is. does He doesn't even know.
02:20:40
Speaker
That's because he's high His brain is cooked. he's He's got a permanent high. He does he does a fucking weekend hard weed reset every weekend. And then she just gets cut in half.
02:20:53
Speaker
by we don't And we don't even get to see it happen. like No. She's like, and then I was dead. I do. Because it was such a funny moment because reading that kind of, or reading that that happened in Worm, remember thinking like, man, that must have been an intense fight.
02:21:08
Speaker
Armsmaster and Dragon versus Damsel and the Nine. It's like, nope. They just went in slicing. Yeah. That's the other thing that they do to her is, yeah, they give her they give her a long dagger fingers. um and the Edward scissorhands.
02:21:26
Speaker
and they Edward
Ashley’s Clone Connections
02:21:28
Speaker
scissorhands her. hands her And then she she can't talk.
02:21:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, and they took her tongue out. Fonson messes with her ability to... They take her tongue... What did they what does she do? Does it say? I think she took her tongue out is what what she said, but I'm not 100% sure. It's not ah tongue necessarily. We don't know that. It feels like a mental thing because she can't but she can't direct She also can't attack. Maybe ripped out her vocal cords.
02:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. I mean, look, Riley's real good at ripping things out. Ripping tear. Yeah. ah Fran pointed out that he's not on drugs because of a cord and that also he does not remember from the blasto interlude.
02:22:13
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah, fair. yeah fair um Fran also pointed out, did you catch the one thing about them having a baby with them that day? I did not. I don't remember that at all.
02:22:25
Speaker
But I assume that that's when they kidnap Aster and they are like booking it. Oh, shit. Yeah, it must have been. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, no. Didn't even. Didn't catch it. yeah So they really are running right now. This is like a hit stop. They are booking it. Yeah. Yeah. yeah um ah One thing I thought was very funny was talking about how Siberian prefers lady fingers over Claire. That was funny. Which is funny because, as we know, Siberian loves biting the fingers off of her yeah people.
02:22:58
Speaker
yep yeah I thought that was great. I loved that. right Great joke. All right. Being cheeky. Super solid. i do um the The claw hands is interesting because she said that Bonesaw giving her those hands allowed control her power better, which I thought was really interesting because it makes me wonder, you know with the not being able to talk thing, was it a mental block or is it literally like...
02:23:22
Speaker
there's something, they're like antennae almost, right? Where it's like she can more directly point where she wants it to be at the cost still of being able to use her hand Right.
02:23:34
Speaker
Well, is it also perhaps kind of like a Valafor thing? Like, he still has his power, but now it's not eye-based. It's voice-based in the same way of, like, she no longer has her hands. So it's still maybe digit-based, but it's slightly morphed. So because of that, having to shift to a new dynamic of what is her new normal, like, she can...
02:23:57
Speaker
have better control over it now maybe because like with valifor his whole thing is like obviously he looks at you that was pretty bad but now anybody that can hear him like that's we've amped up in that sense like maybe it's the same thing she has i think it's just like i think it's just i don't know exactly what it is i don't know that it's that kind of thing it's more just literally Maybe so has better She has better hands.
02:24:22
Speaker
like because i mean like But later though, right? When Riley her fake hands that are still look like normal human hands, she has a lot better control of her power until her hand breaks. um When her hand breaks, then she's like you know she's got to hold the wrist to make sure it doesn't explode, basically. doesn't switch out. and it like funnels it better somehow.
02:24:43
Speaker
It's like she's got black holes inside of her arm. Yeah. you know, it's been funneled better. To correct what Fran was saying before, because I misunderstood. It wasn't that they had a baby with them.
02:24:56
Speaker
It's they were talking to that one girl in her hometown who talked about, oh, yeah, she's having a baby. ah the The boyfriend is like now working at the hospital, like after, you know, the guy that like they did all the bank crimes with.
02:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, he is telling them all this. Yes. she has she She's having the baby. She's in the hospital doing a thing. And um what Fran was pointing out is, okay, so we have the both of those people in the hospital.
02:25:23
Speaker
um This is potentially the same day that Hookwolf goes in and mask her massacres an entire maternity ward in that hometown. Oh, God. Was that in Stafford?
02:25:36
Speaker
ah having a baby that day the same day that Hookwolf Massacre is the whole maternity ward. We found out during the Defiant interlude they were chasing Slaughterhouse-Nine and then potentially chair it's even sadder.
02:25:51
Speaker
Damn. That would be sad. God damn. Yeah. um Also, shout out to Fappy. um Jesus Christ, what a terrible name. but so How do you not trigger off of that name?
02:26:03
Speaker
I mean, I think you get that name because of something you were you were triggering in public. mean No, please public All I'm saying is ah back when I worked in West Virginia, um on there was a kid called Tailpipe and we're just going to leave it at that.
02:26:22
Speaker
It's a Wild West out there. There's a kid called what? Tailpipe. He's not joking either. He's not. Oh, no. That's great. Like I said, wonderful West Virginia is a wild place. Wild West. um Yeah. And let's see. um And last but not least.
02:26:42
Speaker
ah Talking with the... Oh, oh yeah. Yeah, clone. Clone. Slashly, as apparently... Slashly. She kept her knife hands. Kept her knife hands.
02:26:54
Speaker
Which, you know, is this the Slaughterhouse-9 one? Probably not, because she can talk. so or Unless somebody fixed her vocal cords, you know? Possibly.
02:27:07
Speaker
um So it's probably a clone as well. Yeah, I got the sense that this was two clones. yeah so I didn't think about it being OG Ashley. But OG Ashley is dead. Yeah, she's dead dead. So there is OG Ashley. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. But there is no OG Ashley. They're all clones.
02:27:30
Speaker
yeah Clones are the only option. And we have two different clones in two different styles, kind of. Yeah, that's kind of fun. they They both are, they have all the same like similarities, but it's like the slight variation, which I think is really fun.
02:27:44
Speaker
I do find it interesting that even for how... you know, Ashley is, you know, just with everybody else, that instantly when the other Ashley comes in, it's like, you can borrow all of my clothes. I'm like, wow, that's generous. Like, yeah let me get you some tea.
02:28:02
Speaker
It's yourself. I love the tea thing, too. She's like, oh, you have tea. She's like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Duh. Of course I have tea. We like tea, bitch. That would be like me being surprised when like my Hannah clone is like, yeah, I made you like an ice latte. And I'm like, you knew.
Humorous Tangents and Themes
02:28:21
Speaker
du bitch. We are the same person. Yeah. I guess it was mentioned when Kepri was running around that she picked up two damsel clones that were hiding when she was collecting. that That's mentioned. We've mentioned this also earlier in Ward. We talked about the two damsel clones that like were together and then maybe split up and...
02:28:40
Speaker
who you know like we finally got a bingo i'm surprised oh my gosh thank you guys forever i know right a because we filled basically filled up the thing too uh we've got people kidney stan fappy jacob makes a movie slash tv comparison and jack hate and jack hate what was my reference you've made a couple did i yeah you mentioned not surprised you made a couple actor references I'll be honest, I didn't mark that one down because I hadn't heard it, but I guess so. I don't know if... I was in the process of making one.
02:29:18
Speaker
ah Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting. yeah There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah there you go. That's right. Let's go! go Yeah. um But yeah, we have two very interesting ones. that They are very cordial with each other and ah you know kind of seems very unashley. It's like, well, you know, there can be only one and then they go for each other's heads, I assume.
02:29:38
Speaker
And then they remember, we can't kill each other because it's the same power. It's just them dyeing each other's hair. co I love that. you go. You know, it does bring up that classic dilemma, though. Oh, my God.
02:29:52
Speaker
Would you? The answer is yes. Of course you would. How would you not?
02:29:59
Speaker
I mean, the first yeah, the first one is always just a quick little. Nice.
02:30:05
Speaker
unless i don't know if I'd go all the way, but it'd be just. Yeah, it's what a bro is. yes what a bro job is It's literally just like, hey, so I've got this spot in the middle of my back. Could you just like, can you just... And of course your phone knows right where it is. They know exactly where it is. They're like, yeah, right under the bra strap? Like, oh yeah.
02:30:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah Last thing, seeing edicts memories and testing that theory out and also memories that aren't anyone's.
02:30:39
Speaker
Yeah. i was falling asleep as I finished reading this last night. And I kind of had this moment where I was like, am I stupid or is it just too late at night?
02:30:52
Speaker
And i I still don't know. I think it feels like a sort of sidelong reference to the... Could be a couple of things. But one, it reminds me of like the trigger of Vision.
02:31:07
Speaker
where and That's what I was wondering. Something like where this is something everybody has. So if the shard is the one rebuilding... sense they would get pieces of the Shard's memories, so to speak, but then be able to remember it more coherently than other people, right? Kind of like how Miss... Again. yeah It does feel a little odd that, just from a meta-writing perspective, that Wildbow would cliffhanger it on that as the question, because yeah the reader, we know about this already.
02:31:40
Speaker
So it's not it's not much of a of like a tagline for the arc. True. Right. But I don't know what else, like it makes sense that that's what it is. So it's... What is the final, what is that final line? Hold on. Something about a black and red crystal space.
02:31:58
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's like, oh wait, wait, we hold on. She says, do you have a correct recollection of the fields? A memory that doesn't belong to anyone, not any person, a thing.
02:32:10
Speaker
A great plane of red, black crystal, one facet, cracking and then mending in the span of a few seconds. The creaking sound and the dull static.
02:32:21
Speaker
It's a recollection that isn't exclusive to us. Us being italicized. Which leads me. I'm just going to throw it out there. My initial very first prediction for the whole award.
02:32:34
Speaker
um Yes. that I keep coming back to just because I want it to be true, even though i don't think it is. But I want Abaddon, the third entity that we know of, to be involved in some facet. Yes! Repairing or collecting the dead shards of his fallen affair couple.
02:32:53
Speaker
His fallen polycule. Yeah, his fallen. The folly cue, if you will. Yeah. The folly cue. Yeah. so so just and but Yeah, that's cool. That would be neato.
02:33:06
Speaker
yeah I was thinking it was something like that. Not a bad end specifically, but definitely related the Something Shard related. Or like parallel dimension universe stuff. Because there's still so many other worlds that we don't yeah know of or or haven't explored or that are off limits or something. And then there's still, like I can't help but think of, oh, there's a moth on my window.
02:33:33
Speaker
Yep. And we've lost Hannah, so it's time to wrap up. Sorry. all right I'm sorry. Two last notes. ah One, um the we talk about Orchid, which is a group that like can change people's brain states and even physical state kind of in the way that like ah that one guy who like blends humans and animals does, ah where they'll make you essentially a servant out of somebody and make them look like and act like how you want them to.
02:34:03
Speaker
um which just sounds like Amy should get nowhere. and um yeah Yeah. But ah the they are probably referring to, um ah when they talk about the popular cow toy, ah the Moomins, which as soon as you look them up, you'll be ah you'll be like, oh, I've seen that before.
02:34:25
Speaker
um ah yeah The Moomins are a famous ah little series. yeah. Yeah, yeah, you see them. um little, you know, picture that kind of looked like white hippopotamuses.
02:34:38
Speaker
Um, but that is essentially what they were turning to. Um, Oh, Yeah. Which, mean, could be worse things. Imagine if they were just like, oh, we want somebody who's buying human cabbage, or not cabbage patch, I was like garbage pail kids or like Furbies and they're like just turning people into whatever the hype toy is for that season.
02:35:01
Speaker
So hard no. That's a big no for me, dog. never seen what is the current thing what's the current labooboos labooboos oh yeah they're so weird i do not understand that at all they're all over my tiktok and i do not get it i i'm sure someone understands and could explain it to me but i do not you know they're demonic right hannah it's this yeah i would assume so but i'd rather put pentagrams just like pokemon Just like D&D. No, no, no, no. Furbies and LaBooBoos are going to say Furbies. Furbies are the closest other thing. People love Furbies at the time.
02:35:39
Speaker
It's the same thing. Weird. yeah The only way I found out about LaBooBoos, and I've never seen another one, is just that somebody left one on Karl Marx's grave. so like Yeah, that's a real thing. That's how I first heard about them.
02:35:52
Speaker
What? And that's the only thing I know. I've never seen another one. Oh, they're all over my TikTok for some ungodly reason. They're just ah weird and ugly and I don't get it.
02:36:04
Speaker
more of a Build-A-Bear person. Their ways are not our ways and their God. um um The other thing, and I hope so i hope ah Nick, of course, recognizes this from ah being a teacher and an English teacher at that. Reform teacher, no no longer.
02:36:22
Speaker
Reform teacher, sorry. And the rest of you, you know this from Bible college. Did anybody notice anything about the structure of the ark?
02:36:36
Speaker
na There's an an ark? What ark?
Literary Structures and Character Parallels
02:36:40
Speaker
The Ark. Oh, you mean Ark X. Oh, Ark. He can't say Bible College and then Ark and then not Ark. That's on me. Did anybody notice the literary device being used but for specifically for structure?
02:36:58
Speaker
I did not notice. I feel like I should know the answer, but it's escaping me right now. I'm going to blame the fact that it's late. Okay. Also, it's been years, and we're all, you know. So, if you notice, we start essentially kind of with a family.
02:37:12
Speaker
ah it gets, you know, broken up because of the powers. We go through a series of events, including a bonfire. We reach our peak where she has everything, and then we slowly descend into everything else. Falling apart, we end up at a bonfire. She loses everything, and then she gets back with a family.
02:37:29
Speaker
40 years of wandering yeah yeah yeah so she she it's a ah the the the correct answer is it's a chiastic there you go there's your big old I do not remember that kind of shit you should remember you took wisdom lit I did not pay attention in that class. Wisdom Lit, Book of Genesis. These are all classic. like Listen.
02:37:59
Speaker
I got to listen to a lot of tanzas in that class. That's what mattered to me. in the words of the the great director, George Lucas, like poetry, they rhyme. they were Yeah. Amen. yeah um amen But yeah, no, in this case, ah it it essentially acts as some people pointed out before this, like a palindrome.
02:38:20
Speaker
um Yeah, now that I know about. Yeah, so it it it reads, you know, it goes one way, has a midway point, and mirrors the exact same thing. Which, yeah if you'll notice, because of how it also has a lot of mirroring from past and present as well going on.
02:38:36
Speaker
um But the overall structure is chiastic, you know. We start at point A, go to B, C, and then we go, so you know, ah b back to B and then B, A. So, a fun little structure there. i like I really appreciated how he did that.
02:38:52
Speaker
um and And how he did it within, how he did ah other similar like comparisons. and We talked about um paralleling each other in the yeah and and i mean i think individual chapters as well. I think he did that a lot in Wyrm too. Like, we've talked about this before.
02:39:07
Speaker
but I think... i think um Well, Johnny boy has a good has a good sense of things coming full circle back around to themselves. And, you know, like Taylor being back at the high school again. Like, I think there's a lot of of the comeback around feeling, the palindrome feeling of it.
02:39:26
Speaker
um A lot in Wyrm as well. So, yeah no surprise. Yeah, a lot of those probably are closer to like, I'm trying to think of the shape. Is it parabolic or elliptical?
02:39:40
Speaker
Using big words again and it's 1045. Lyptical is like a big. A big. Okay. But ah for those, it's returning to something. Well, not necessarily like a mirroring.
02:39:53
Speaker
um Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah. For... all writing structure makes i believe uh i i'm trying to remember math shapes and we give a yeah yeah words and we get sorry but i just thought those were some fun things um i i really appreciated how this was it's not my favorite character uh somebody pointed out way early on um apparently wild bow did ah test out uh potentially writing ashley as the main character for war however ah It turns out Ashley's really hard to write long form and, you know. But yeah, and i I mean, I do think as much as I did enjoy these chapters, I think that Victoria works really, really well for the story he's trying to tell for Ward.
02:40:34
Speaker
um And while the the cadence is a bit different because it's Victoria as opposed to Taylor, I still think it really works well. But having a break from that and dipping back into the you know villain pool,
02:40:49
Speaker
ah was fun. I really, yeah I liked it. It was fun. And as Fran ah pointed out, Vic and Ashley actually have a lot in common. ah A body that doesn't feel like theirs isn't even 100% theirs.
02:41:05
Speaker
Body autonomy, man. They both have very fucked up ages because of that. Yeah. um And ah their powers are kind of a little bit out of their control. Um, and as Bernard pointed out, you know, most of the therapy group kind of has that problem too, but these two, I think have a very good parallel because I feel like they're about that same age as well.
02:41:25
Speaker
Um, at least they feel like it. Uh, but yeah, um, any closing thoughts before I get into our final questions?
02:41:39
Speaker
Hmm. No? All right. ah Real quick, um any interesting characters or powers you want to give a shout out to before end the night? I don't know. We didn't see a whole lot of new ones. Edict's power is kind of cool, even if it isn't worth Val, of course.
02:41:55
Speaker
It's interesting that it's not the hypnosis thing. It is like a physical pain. You can disobey, but at the cost of pain. It's essentially Geass from D&D. Yeah.
02:42:06
Speaker
You take psychic damage, but you can't just do the command. yeah Yeah, exactly. And it's I imagine it's a difficult power to balance as a hero as opposed to Valafi. I can just make do what I want.
02:42:18
Speaker
You know, it's always not like, man, you'd be so much stronger if you were a villain because you could hurt people so much worse. um Yeah. And then list it listci with the geometric shapes and force fields was pretty cool. Those are the only two new powers I think we saw.
02:42:32
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I liked seeing Poison Apple again. um i really liked the small interaction we had with Fumahood at the very beginning. um So seeing her again working with Blasto, i think is i think it's fun. Anytime you have um anything... any Wow.
02:42:50
Speaker
Look, it's getting late. Anytime we have callbacks to characters from Wyrm is always really fun. Seeing the Slaughterhouse-Nine again, always a big, big thing. Seeing Riley in her element now in this kind of new space that she's had to you know make for herself within all these new rules, like I love seeing that and you know whatever small bit we got from her.
02:43:12
Speaker
I mean, like fan. Yeah. Well, ah we we will be... ah We read, by the way, there's about 52,000 words for this arc. Nice. um Yeah. um And, you know, assuming it was written in like a week and some change, that's quite an accomplishment as always.
Future Predictions and Community Engagement
02:43:35
Speaker
um We will be finishing up arc seven ah for the next session. um We read, ah i want to say a little over 20,000 for the first four.
02:43:45
Speaker
And we will be doing the back half is like 60. so okay think what It is 7.5 through 7.Y. ah So ah six ah regular chapters and two interludes um to finish out arc seven.
02:44:02
Speaker
We can't forget that we know Kenzie's parents thing is coming up. So we kind of maybe should do predictions on that. Dinner with Kenzie's parents coming up. That's exciting. I don't think he said we want predictions on that, just that how we'll feel when we get there.
02:44:18
Speaker
um I'm so excited. I cannot wait. I'm ready to go. Yeah. And then, ah you know, any updates on who the most troublesome member ah is?
02:44:29
Speaker
um Any thoughts? Also, Wonderland, I can't believe you would send me a bone saw, LaBooBoo. How dare you? What? What? ah yeah donated For those of you on the Patreon, you can see the link that Wonderland sends. Oh my gosh, how dare you?
02:44:46
Speaker
um Also, I don't think Jacob got a chance to say powers. Did you get a chance to say? I was agreeing with Nick. and Okay, okay. There weren't a whole lot of new ones. Nick said it well. I was going to throw out Blasto's i go to throwt the ah blastos Plasto.
02:45:05
Speaker
Giant. The Woad. The Woad giant. The Woad giant. Thank you. How is that spelled? W-O-A-D. it's ah It's a plant. It's like a metamaranous plant. and but It is also a creature in D&D.
02:45:21
Speaker
Nerds. Which might be where it gets... um You too, Michael. So last to let you know, ah the the I'll read out what we had for Bingo. We had Damsel Hype, Fappy, Damsel Hate.
02:45:37
Speaker
Someone notices the literary structure. Jacob makes a movie TV comparison. Someone doesn't recognize New Wave. Cat on Screen, Hannah Cries, Riley Love. Nick Goes Full, English Teacher, which we did not complete that one either.
02:45:51
Speaker
ah Jack hate kidney, Stan disagreement on Jay, Alan rants. Michael's forced to reel them in and recognition of fume hood. ah yeah a Yeah. We did.
02:46:02
Speaker
We did kind of get the, uh, Kind of get the not recognizing wave from Hannah. yeah that was I know. i was like I was like, oh, everybody knows who it is. And Hannah was like, that's who that was. i was like, and check.
02:46:16
Speaker
You know, I can't. I will lie. It's a little upsetting at how accurate the bingo cards are sometimes. I feel a little... Every time you read these off afterwards, I'm like, some of these repeat ones, like the cats on screen. Wait, was there a cats on screen one this week? Oh, there's a big oh wow and cats were all over the screen. yeah yeah No, I mean, like was it on the beacon one? yeah, yeah. No, it's always on there. and It's a given. so much died No, i just I love some of the things that are just currently on here, which is like the Michael reels us back in and Hannah cries like,
02:46:50
Speaker
This like one of the most filled out ones we had. Yeah. Missing all the two. Did you guys, no one actually answered who they thought the most trouble, problematic thing was, do we? Oh, most problematic still. changed for me. i Because this was all focused on Ashley. But again, it just, to me, it just confirms that she's not the most problematic. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, i'm so I still worry about Chris.
02:47:11
Speaker
I still worry about Kenzie. I'm going with my sleeper hit of Victoria. I was going to I do like the idea that Victoria is the actual problem here. Victoria is the real problem. I'm holding out. holding out for now. think it's Kenzie. I think it's Kenzie. Holding out for a hero.
02:47:27
Speaker
Kenzie feels like the right obvious choice, but I'm going to go with it. love it. I'm leaning more towards Chris because Kenzie feels like such the such an obvious option.
02:47:37
Speaker
I've bamboozled myself a couple times before where I'm like, I'm like i'm pretty sure it's Kenzie, but also maybe, like I just, um' i don't know. yeah We have somebody in each each camp. It's like the obvious choice, the the less obvious choice, and the very ah unlikely choice.
02:47:53
Speaker
We've got to go with the mediumist obvious choice. yeah The mediumist. So it's going to be Tristan and Byron. It's just Byron. It's not Tristan and Byron. It's just Byron. yeah Oh, I love Byron. Gosh, no, I um i want more i want more ah yeah more of them. it More Capricorn, always. Well, ah with that being said, like I said, we'll be finishing Arc 7.
02:48:15
Speaker
ah to What date are we coming back? The 19th. The Back on the Tuesdays. Yeah, Back on a Tuesday.
02:48:28
Speaker
um yeah willem doe it might be parabola uh if that's if you that's what you say i'll take your word for it um but yeah on a tuesday nineteenth thank you so much for all of you who are in chat for being here thank you to our patrons who help us to uh put this on and sound better and look better and to uh you know just do this it it feels encouraging and we love talking with you throughout the week oh really do As always, please give your bingo suggestions and stuff in in the Patreon channel and just ask questions. Talk there. it's It's a lot of fun. We have a spoiler chat for all the spoiler arguments and stuff like that that we want to have and just talk about.
02:49:10
Speaker
So i'm I'm really excited. And yeah, it will be exciting to see you ah the next time we meet up. So ah without further ado, Michael, do we have a song to play?
02:49:27
Speaker
don't you just join the patreon come support us and join the patreon please join the patreon it's great enjoy the patreon why don't you just join
02:49:56
Speaker
all right thanks so much guys we will see you on 19th in two weeks yep everybody for watching like please come on and join the patreon why don't you just join the patreon come support us and join the patreon please help us and join the patreon we have
02:50:21
Speaker
It's great to join the Patreon Why don't you just join the Patreon