Transcript
Speaker: As is right in this world.
Speaker: As is your right.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: As an American.
Speaker: As an American.
Speaker: As a human being, goddammit.
Speaker: You know what else is a human being?
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me as always is Phil.
Speaker: And today we are finishing Halo Outcast.
Speaker: Outcast, Outcast?
Speaker: Is it plural or singular?
Speaker: I think it's Outcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, we're wrapping it up.
Speaker: Yes, sir.
Speaker: We're going to finish this book and it's coming.
Speaker: We're coming in for a landing.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: We're coming in for a landing.
Speaker: Many people are coming in for a landing as it turns out.
Speaker: There's a lot of landings in this last third of the book.
Speaker: So we're going to get right to it and we're going to put the body in the marsh.
Speaker: We have a pretty extensive discussion coming up right after this in what are you playing because we're playing what everybody else is playing.
Speaker: We're playing what you're playing.
Speaker: We're playing what you're playing as of the recording of this episode.
Speaker: So let's get to it.
Speaker: Let's put the body in the marsh.
Speaker: This ain't reality TV.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: Chapter 17.
Speaker: Olympia, golly, Keeley and the rest of the gang have been crawling through a drainage pipe for the last 30 minutes and have finally gotten close to the end of the tunnel.
Speaker: Keeley is being just real nasty with Olympia during all this.
Speaker: Olympia is like, I got to get away from her.
Speaker: So she goes in, she goes ahead, goes on down the tunnel and gets out of it first to scout things out.
Speaker: And she finds this gigantic hydroponics room with all these plants and fruits and veggies growing.
Speaker: And while she scouts around, the rest of the team comes in.
Speaker: And while when Keeley gets in there, Keeley and Olympia have a debate as to how they have a mixture of tier five and six tech everywhere else.
Speaker: But there is tier one and zero tech only in this building right here.
Speaker: And they go, they ask Petrov like Petrov, is this anywhere?
Speaker: You you've been on this planet a long time.
Speaker: Have you seen?
Speaker: And she says, no, there is nowhere else that I have seen on this planet.
Speaker: Only here.
Speaker: Only this building.
Speaker: So that's curious.
Speaker: And then they they they start diving a little bit deeper and they're like, oh, oh, OK.
Speaker: So they come to the conclusion that the the building, the citadel that they're in had to have been created by.
Speaker: They use the term grave mind.
Speaker: So and I had to look this up because I wasn't totally sure.
Speaker: So there's a race before the forerunners called the precursors.
Speaker: The precursors are what created the forerunners.
Speaker: The forerunners then go off and seed all the other life in the galaxy or whatever.
Speaker: The precursors, the forerunners rebelled against the precursors.
Speaker: And in an effort to save themselves, the precursors turned themselves into powder or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then they stored themselves.
Speaker: But then it got corrupted and they became the flood.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: And Gravemind is kind of like the master, the mother brain of the flood slash precursors that are left.
Speaker: So they realize at one time, at one point, Petrov says, why couldn't the people who built the Citadel still be in the Citadel?
Speaker: When like, might they just have compassion for the Sangheili?
Speaker: And Vale is like, if it's the people that we're thinking of, no.
Speaker: Unless I missed my guess, the answer is absolutely not.
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: Because it might have been the people that eventually became the flood.
Speaker: And we know what friendly little guys they are.
Speaker: We know what friendly little things they are.
Speaker: Just little friendly guys.
Speaker: Little skittering around.
Speaker: Chapter 18.
Speaker: Vadam wakes up surrounded by the rest of his crew minus Talit, and he finds out that the gas that the Oath Warden released was corrupted by Kavarasi,
Speaker: and it wasn't part of the Oath Warden's intent for that to happen.
Speaker: Ra'ashi, who is the Blademaster that turned sides, is still with them, demonstrates how Kavarasi controls the dust and the nano machines, and also how the armor is formed over bare skin.
Speaker: And Van Am also finds out that Talit and his entire unit were killed by the gas that Kavarisi used that basically took from the Oath Warden's spray, corrupted it into like a poisonous gas and then killed everybody else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's good.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: You know, the way to engender yourself among your among your peers there.
Speaker: That's yeah.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Good job.
Speaker: Good job.
Speaker: Proud of you.
Speaker: Chapter 19.
Speaker: It's a real chapter.
Speaker: 18 is really brief.
Speaker: Chapter 19.
Speaker: First squad takes about 20 minutes to do a full recon of the hydroponic farm that they found.
Speaker: And they continue on.
Speaker: And Vale tells her troops to look for a fortified location.
Speaker: And Keeley goes, it's not going to be fortified.
Speaker: It's going to be a sacred looking broom.
Speaker: It's going to be like a shrine.
Speaker: Martinez says that Hoy might have found what Keeley is talking about, and it's a sculpture garden of sorts.
Speaker: It's just all these random metal pieces just kind of like on pedestals and what have you.
Speaker: They also note that the mess hall is a mess.
Speaker: And they're like, these zealots, these castaways might not be very disciplined, and they don't clean up after themselves.
Speaker: I think they just kind of hope that the dust will take care of it.
Speaker: clean the plates or whatever.
Speaker: Like everything that they find points towards these people just being spoiled brat people who just got lucky, really, who just got lucky, happened upon this miracle machine and have been letting themselves get fat and undisciplined while hiding underground, basically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: As Gali and Olympia investigate the sculpture garden, Olympia taps one of the sculptures and it causes a ringing sound and it just bounces all through the room.
Speaker: And Gali's like, don't do that again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I didn't like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did you do that?
Speaker: Was that, yeah, because he's like across the room.
Speaker: He's like, did you do that?
Speaker: Was that you?
Speaker: Was that you?
Speaker: Yeah, that was me.
Speaker: Fucking don't.
Speaker: Just don't.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I love the reaction.
Speaker: It's just like, you know what?
Speaker: Yeah, good call.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: I shouldn't.
Speaker: As Olympia is investigating a larger sculpture, she realizes that it's part of a guardian that's down there.
Speaker: They are interrupted in their discussion when Gali says he notices a blue flash.
Speaker: It's an energy sword.
Speaker: So Olympia orders Gali back to take Keeley and Commander Petrov to a bolt hole.
Speaker: And Olympia and Sergeant Sahir and the rest of the squad form up.
Speaker: But it doesn't really do a whole lot as the squad just starts getting ripped to shreds.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It does not go well.
Speaker: The Zealots are basically wearing the this like.
Speaker: So the armor that they're wearing is also active camouflaging them.
Speaker: So you just can't see them.
Speaker: You would just see these like.
Speaker: these energy blades just like ripping through the air.
Speaker: So Sahir, the sergeant in charge of Fur Squad, gets cut in half by one of the blades from the shoulder all the way, just like just the top half.
Speaker: Boop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just real.
Speaker: You know what it reminded me of this entire scene reminded me of Predator.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Big time.
Speaker: Big time.
Speaker: Cloaking devices.
Speaker: It was like predators slash.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was predators slash aliens.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was like the colonial Marines all getting chopped up or killed.
Speaker: But then it was also, you know, when Jesse, the body Ventura gets killed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In Predator.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: I was thinking Carl Weathers, but yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or when Carl Weathers gets killed, he gets one arm chopped off and he's using his, he's like down one arm and still firing.
Speaker: Still firing.
Speaker: I love that movie so much.
Speaker: It's such a good movie.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: So yeah, this is a real predator scene in that.
Speaker: That almost everybody dies.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: We lose so many characters in such a short amount of time.
Speaker: It goes from there's like Martinez and Hoy and Sahir and Kane and all that stuff.
Speaker: They're all dead.
Speaker: It's in a matter of a couple pages.
Speaker: They have been sliced through by energy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It did make me think of a Rubicon protocol, like where it was just like everything's fine.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: Tense.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden not fine.
Speaker: Lose a quarter of our squad.
Speaker: Just crazy.
Speaker: Absolutely crazy.
Speaker: And the like it's not even just like being shot either.
Speaker: It's like being cut in half.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's graphic stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So basically Olympia and two others are trying to fall back.
Speaker: Olympia ends up killing a few of them when she realizes that you can't just shoot them because the armor, the armor stops anything like ballistic.
Speaker: You actually just have to like choke them to death because it doesn't realize that the airway is being cut off.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Any, any, yeah.
Speaker: Any sharp,
Speaker: aggressive kind of move like that.
Speaker: But if you slowly close the air, yes, it doesn't have it can't can't react fast enough.
Speaker: So she she chokes one, snaps the neck of another.
Speaker: And then after all that hand to hand combat, it was Olympia and two others.
Speaker: Then it becomes Olympia and a Bovian, who is her Grenadier Grenadier.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: basically they're the only, they're the two falling back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's them.
Speaker: There's like, and it's, it's funny.
Speaker: Cause there's a moment where, uh, Olympia fucks up and a bovian like, uh, tells her like you fucked up.
Speaker: Like you shouldn't have, like, there was like some bait and switch move where the guy fell for that nearly killed a bovian.
Speaker: And the, the, the, uh,
Speaker: saying he'll, like, runs away or whatever.
Speaker: But Abovian's like, yeah, you shouldn't have fallen for that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's, like, this little, like, like, Vale starts thinking about how it's like, oh, well, you know, she knows Abovian.
Speaker: Abovian has actually been in more combat situations than...
Speaker: than she has.
Speaker: Despite the fact that Vale is a fucking Spartan, this ODST has actually seen more combat than her.
Speaker: Not in the technical sense, but in the common sense sense, she outranks her.
Speaker: I thought it was pretty cool.
Speaker: She's like, you know what?
Speaker: Yeah, sorry.
Speaker: That's the second time that Olympia is like, yeah, I fucked up.
Speaker: In this chapter...
Speaker: So they retreat.
Speaker: Keeley tells them that they're hiding under the Guardian's head.
Speaker: Abovian gets in first, then verbally guides Olympia to where she's supposed to go.
Speaker: And when she gets inside, Gali is on the ground fighting an unseen foe.
Speaker: And there's another zealot's mandible, just like one of his mouth pieces, just like ripped off and on the ground.
Speaker: um olympia breaks the arm of the one that's attacking golly but then it headbutts golly and just knocks him the fuck out poor golly and the description is like the headbutt comes down and it like smashes his nose and like his cheeks split on his cheekbones or something like that so brutal
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: It's such a brutal.
Speaker: This is just such a brutal chapter.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It's just, yeah, it's unrelenting.
Speaker: We get a lot of, like, diplomacy and tension building and stuff.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, Troy just lets us have it.
Speaker: Let's us have it.
Speaker: Veil grabs Gali and takes him back to the rotunda and sees that Petrov and Abovian are in position, ready to go, but Kili is missing.
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, she ran off to the control chamber to find the control chamber for the weapon.
Speaker: Nothing bad could come of that.
Speaker: Oh, no, it's fine.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: Chapter 20.
Speaker: Vadam and company are taking cover from human gunfire now, and the Oath Warden and Varro Dyer are trying to convince them it's okay to just kill the humans now because they have broken the pact.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Clearly this can't be.
Speaker: Vatam is like, I think this might be an accident.
Speaker: And Rashi, the zealot turncoat, it's like it probably is an accident.
Speaker: They're probably shooting at camouflage.
Speaker: So Vatam just says, Spartan Vale, it's me.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, shit.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And then they just like come out from their respective covers.
Speaker: I'm super glad you called out to us.
Speaker: Like, yeah, me too.
Speaker: Damn.
Speaker: So they like, they just, they debrief each other and they figure out that there's only two zealots left.
Speaker: The world master, Kavarosi, who's in charge and his sidekick, Lacasi, which I now saying it out loud kind of sounds like lackey.
Speaker: Lackey, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Rashi says that they need to keep Kavarsi alive because he's the only one who can work the divine hand.
Speaker: So they quickly capture the two remaining zealots and they try to again to explain that the war is over, that the gods don't exist and all that jazz.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they come to a detente for the moment and then Kili opens the door because nobody could get in to the room because Kili had closed the door behind her.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: And there's no handle on the outside.
Speaker: It's only on the inside.
Speaker: So Keely opens the door and she's like, is everybody cool with each other now?
Speaker: Because we have a problem.
Speaker: I hope we've all made friends again.
Speaker: I hope we've all made friends.
Speaker: We have a problem.
Speaker: She lets everyone in and shows that the fleets are under attack by drone ships.
Speaker: Laxie begins teaching Vedam how to use the controls by removing his helmet and arm bracers.
Speaker: And like the dust to the nanomachines start like covering his arms and his head and stuff like that.
Speaker: And basically you control the divine hand by believing.
Speaker: It's Orc 40K style.
Speaker: Yeah, it's red, so it goes faster.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: If I believe in it hard enough, it will work.
Speaker: Still one of the greatest canon designs of all time, as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker: Oh, I love it.
Speaker: Vanam uses it to take down the drone ships and the banished ships that have appeared.
Speaker: And when Keeley points out that there points out the forerunner ship, he attacks that, too.
Speaker: And then Lackesee loses it because the forerunners are still gods to him.
Speaker: So he then jumps into the thing and he uses the divine hand to destroy the UNSC ship and the Sangheili fleet because he...
Speaker: was like, yes, I believe you that the war is over and there are no gods.
Speaker: And then he's like, Blasphemer.
Speaker: Chapter 21, Olympia sees the damage that Laxia has wrought, but then notices that there are some condors that had been on her ship, the Hidden Point, that are still available, and the condors are slip-space capable and would be able to carry everyone currently left on the planet back home if she can get in touch with them.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: She also realizes that they only destroyed one Harrier, which is the the four runner ships, and they usually came in pairs.
Speaker: There's usually two, which means that the the other one left.
Speaker: And then she does the mental math that we had seen a few chapters earlier from the banished point of view that there's only four hours left.
Speaker: And she puts a countdown timer on her on her heads up display in her.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: She just sets it up for herself.
Speaker: She's like, and four hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Meanwhile, Keely is collecting more samples of the micro machines from the room.
Speaker: The earth warden tries to get in her face, but Olympia cuts him off and they all go outside.
Speaker: But then Keely hangs back in the room and steals the energy vacuum condenser thingy from the control room.
Speaker: And when she does this,
Speaker: The power goes out in the facility.
Speaker: Of course it does.
Speaker: All the mystical stuff that was happening, it's done.
Speaker: Yeah, we're finished.
Speaker: That's over now.
Speaker: Yeah, you're three months late on your bill and boom, we're done.
Speaker: No more mystical shit for you.
Speaker: They get into a debate as to what it would take to build the weapon that they saw used.
Speaker: And Keeley points out that no one ever should use the weapon because it destroys the planet.
Speaker: It's housed on.
Speaker: V'adam, Vale and company decide that parts of it should be split.
Speaker: One party, the Sangheili should take, which is the power thing, the energy vacuum thing.
Speaker: And the humans should take the micro machine samples and they work together on researching it.
Speaker: Uh, they get, uh, Laxey and Kavarasi to swear on their fate that they will let everyone else go.
Speaker: And V'dan ushers everyone out because the banished are coming.
Speaker: He's like, all right, we get, let's just go.
Speaker: Uh, meanwhile, chapter 22, elsewhere, Rosa and Legs are walking through the tunnels and Legs is being pretty wary about Rosa who seems to be opening the tunnels at will and is totally healed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Lex is like, I don't understand what is going on here.
Speaker: And Rosa's not giving her any answers because she's a UNSC dog or whatever.
Speaker: I don't know when you got Wolverine healing powers.
Speaker: You got Wolverine healing powers over here.
Speaker: Legs is like, I'm just going to point a fucking gun at you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It gets real weird.
Speaker: I'm on leg side.
Speaker: I'd be like, no, man, you're moving fucking sand with your brain.
Speaker: No, I don't think so.
Speaker: This isn't happening.
Speaker: This is too weird.
Speaker: You got to stop being weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just want you to shut up and say something weird.
Speaker: Uh.
Speaker: There's a lot of tension between them and they eventually get to the surface and surface and find Grim Bear and Second Squad.
Speaker: And she's like, all right, welcome back to the war.
Speaker: Dig the fuck in because the banished drop pods are coming.
Speaker: So, yeah, before the Bannis ship was destroyed, they clearly launched all their drop pods to land on the surface of the planet.
Speaker: Chapter 23, we get a point of view chapter from an A.I.
Speaker: named Sloan.
Speaker: He has seen better days and joined up with Cortana because he thought that she could help him.
Speaker: But so far, she's only halted his deterioration, which causes him to have looping thoughts.
Speaker: And I think it's a funny moment in the chapter where, like, the chapter begins again.
Speaker: And you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker: And then, like, a sentence later, it's like, oh, I'm...
Speaker: I love that detail.
Speaker: I love and he does it several times where he's looping and he's talked about it.
Speaker: He starts repeating himself.
Speaker: And then near the end of this, he starts talking to another AI, I think.
Speaker: And they say, you're looping.
Speaker: You've told us this three times.
Speaker: And I just, it's such a great detail.
Speaker: It's showing you, because you think about it, AI characters, like how intriguing can a AI character really be?
Speaker: Like how much can you really empathize with something that doesn't live the way we do?
Speaker: And this is how.
Speaker: This is how you do it.
Speaker: Yeah, it has, it has,
Speaker: It has overtures of kind of dementia and, you know, just losing oneself.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And it's this one little chapter.
Speaker: And it's I love this.
Speaker: Yeah, because like Sloan was like Sloan is like, I only joined up with Cortana because I thought she could prevent me from basically dying.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they're like, OK, so the AIs aren't doing it just because Cortana is an AI.
Speaker: They're doing it because there's personal reasons for some of them doing this.
Speaker: They've absolutely got it.
Speaker: Just because they are AI doesn't mean they don't have self-interest.
Speaker: Right, exactly.
Speaker: And frankly, the more I thought about it, the more I was like, of course an AI would do it out of self-interest.
Speaker: It's all about logic.
Speaker: They're just robotic engineers, really.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, yeah, he he reaches out to this this basically dispatcher and it's like the dispatchers like this is the third time you've called me about this.
Speaker: Like you keep saying you have a hunch something is going on at Netherrop.
Speaker: We can't send you send a warship out to Netherrop on a hunch.
Speaker: And he's like, OK.
Speaker: And then while he's talking to her, the other Harrier arrives.
Speaker: and like gives him the report of what's going on netherop he's like oh is this this is more than a hunch now right and the dispatcher's like yes is my hunch does it still suck is that what you're saying i don't know it's kind of shitty about it it's fantastic the dispatcher's like okay fine yeah the ship is cut it's on its way fair enough fair enough
Speaker: So chapter 24, I didn't write a ton of notes on this chapter because it was either write a lot of notes or write a little, just like a little bit.
Speaker: But so much happens in chapter 24.
Speaker: It's...
Speaker: So just to like basically break it up like this, they get all to the surface and the Banished have them surrounded on all sides.
Speaker: Every side is like, all right, what are we gonna do about this?
Speaker: And they're debating,
Speaker: Do we do we dig in?
Speaker: Do we go back into the tunnels to fight them?
Speaker: Do we do we just like like glorious death or whatever?
Speaker: What are we doing here?
Speaker: And it kind of, they kind of stem back to the discussion that Keely had brought up, which was nobody should have this weapon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's too deadly to use because the planet that they're on, she's like, this planet used to be lush with forests and now it's like literally hell.
Speaker: So we could have this weapon, but at what cost?
Speaker: What's even the point of having it?
Speaker: We're just going to execute ourselves.
Speaker: It's a really cool point.
Speaker: So they come up with a plan because Atriox, the leader of the Banished, is coming out to parlay with them.
Speaker: And it gets real fucking Ocean's Eleven-y.
Speaker: got a plan and this guy's working for me and there's going to be some underhanded shit that you're not going to know about until it happens.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And he's like, we're going to need, we're going to need a face.
Speaker: We're going to need.
Speaker: And a tiny Asian man we can fit in a box.
Speaker: And Elliot Gould.
Speaker: Somebody get me Elliot Gould.
Speaker: He's already here, sir.
Speaker: Good, good.
Speaker: Atriox will kill you.
Speaker: And they don't go to work on you.
Speaker: They don't go to work on you.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Elliot Gould, by the way, we just watched the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: And Elliot Gould plays a character in that who was like the associate of the main character's father because his dad was a lawyer.
Speaker: And.
Speaker: But it's like it's just nice having Elliot Gould and things that just he will always work.
Speaker: I think most people are kind of like comforted by an Elliot Gould filled world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When he appears, it's like this is nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, this is good.
Speaker: Oh, hi, Elliot.
Speaker: No, it's nice.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: So anyway, Atriox is coming to Parley because they realize that they're not going to the banished aren't going to fire on them until they know they aren't destroying the weapon or something like that by doing.
Speaker: They have no they just know it's there.
Speaker: They're coming in otherwise completely blind.
Speaker: They have no idea what's going on.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they're coming to Parley and they realize, all right.
Speaker: Nobody should have the weapon.
Speaker: So let's have the let's let the banished have it.
Speaker: And they're like,
Speaker: That's a terrible idea.
Speaker: And then they're like, no, wait, it's actually not a bad idea.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because A, they're never going to figure out how to build it.
Speaker: Even with all the reverse engineering in the world, it's going to take them forever to even build the room and all that stuff to the exact specifications needed in order to fire the weapon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Like, what do we lose by just making?
Speaker: And then Vadam's like, but wait a minute, we got to make it seem like Atriox got one over on us.
Speaker: We can't just give it to him.
Speaker: We have to make it seem like he won through some sort of like trick or whatever.
Speaker: And they accomplish this by like, they don't even let the, Troy didn't even let the audience totally in on what was going to happen as part of the plan until it unfolds.
Speaker: So like, and that's why I say it's very Ocean's Eleven because you don't, you don't know all the parts of the plan as it, as it's going.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like Danny Ocean, you didn't realize that he was supposed to get arrested.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So what happens is they give the energy condenser to what's her name?
Speaker: The the the female kite on.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Barrow die.
Speaker: He's like he's like, here's the energy condenser.
Speaker: Give this to your most trusted Ranger.
Speaker: And you guys stay in the entrance to the to the tunnels.
Speaker: and make it seem like we have a larger force ready to spill out and keep an eye on the Oath Warden.
Speaker: And so they're going to parlay with Atriox and they start this parlay scene and it's it's Vanam and Olympia and Kili.
Speaker: And then that's when Kili recognizes on the other side, Salju, the the Sangheili study master who was the one that hired her originally.
Speaker: So things are going and it's tense or whatever.
Speaker: And then there's this moment where Rosa,
Speaker: uh gets like she loo she's like ah you can't just blah blah blah and then she throws the bags of the nanomachines at atriox and it just like hits him in the chest and he looks down and they're like oh this is the this is it right this is the the the weapon and and um
Speaker: Vadam does his best job of trying to fake like he's disappointed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He wasn't in on this whole thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's like, what are you doing?
Speaker: What did you do?
Speaker: And like, oh, well, you have it now, Atriox.
Speaker: Oh, well.
Speaker: And Atriox is like, ha, ha, ha.
Speaker: And then to put the cherry on the top, the Oath Warden runs out.
Speaker: And they turn around and they see that Varodai and the Rangers are like are like down or like knocked out on the ground.
Speaker: And the Oath Warden runs out.
Speaker: He gives them the sphere, the energy condenser.
Speaker: And they're like, ah, you were trying to pull one over on me, Vedam.
Speaker: But I, Atriox, have pulled one over on you.
Speaker: Ha ha.
Speaker: And Vedam is like, dad, dad.
Speaker: Darn.
Speaker: Ah, man.
Speaker: Well, boy, you.
Speaker: Ah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the banished are like, good luck getting off the planet, suckers.
Speaker: And like they have the weapon and they like fucking leave.
Speaker: And somehow they pulled it off like everybody wins.
Speaker: Like even the oath warden gets his contract fulfilled.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: It's like, oh, we all got what we wanted.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: We all got what we wanted, except for everybody who died.
Speaker: Yeah, well, yes.
Speaker: I mean, and presumably some of them, that is what they wanted in the end.
Speaker: So, you know, they're probably.
Speaker: I mean, yeah.
Speaker: A few of them, probably.
Speaker: A few of them.
Speaker: They were thinking it over.
Speaker: There's a, what was it, 400 ODSTs?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So one or two of them was ready to snuff it.
Speaker: So... That's fucking awful.
Speaker: Statistically speaking.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I'm not supporting or poo-pooing it.
Speaker: I'm just saying math.
Speaker: Just saying.
Speaker: It's math.
Speaker: Math is math and books are bread.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Never forget.
Speaker: Never forget.
Speaker: Never forget.
Speaker: Math is math and books are bread.
Speaker: So yeah, that's like the long and short of the chapter.
Speaker: And they're like, and Keeley's like, well, who's going to, you know, has a confrontation with Vale about like the O&I and all that stuff.
Speaker: And then Olympia is like, Keeley, what do you have in your bag there?
Speaker: And it's like two jars of the nanomachines or whatever.
Speaker: that she was trying to steal and she's like, uh, it worked out.
Speaker: It worked out.
Speaker: It worked out.
Speaker: Everyone back off.
Speaker: Everyone back off.
Speaker: Just let me have this.
Speaker: Let me have this.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's did I miss anything?
Speaker: I think that's everything.
Speaker: I mean, I was mostly.
Speaker: Yeah, literally the chapter.
Speaker: I mean, like, yeah, it is the longest chapter.
Speaker: It's such a long part of this book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And all I hear is is is like a little less conversation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Looping in my head as this is as it's happening.
Speaker: They were literally counting the paces of how far Atriox and his retinue was from them.
Speaker: They're like, all right, he's 60 paces away.
Speaker: Now he's 50.
Speaker: Now he's 40.
Speaker: It was a countdown of how quickly he was walking towards them.
Speaker: It was truly surreal.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: So chapter 25 is...
Speaker: Short, but probably one of my favorite chapters in the book because of how dark and chilling it is.
Speaker: They're in the tell.
Speaker: Cavaracy and Lacacy are in the tell.
Speaker: So Cavaracy hasn't been able to talk since he got part of his.
Speaker: Like, just imagine he's like if a person got their jaw ripped off.
Speaker: Yeah, that's Cavaracy right now.
Speaker: He can't he can't talk.
Speaker: Lacacy is like just they're just hiding down there in their citadel.
Speaker: Their lights are, their little lamps that they got are starting to fail.
Speaker: There's no lights on.
Speaker: He's like, and Laxy's like, I'm going to go check the hydroponics farm.
Speaker: And he gets there, all the food is already rotting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the water has turned sulfuric.
Speaker: And he had been literally telling the other one, we haven't been abandoned.
Speaker: The gods haven't abandoned us.
Speaker: And he gets there and he goes, the gods have abandoned us.
Speaker: The gods have abandoned us.
Speaker: It's over.
Speaker: But it's just like this really, really dark chapter.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Literally and metaphorically.
Speaker: And basically, Laxey, who has been serving this man, Kavarsi, for his entire life, he just like gets some water and brings it back to him and is like, you know, the lamps go out.
Speaker: And the chapter ends with saying something like Lax, he does his final duty.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And ignites his energy sword.
Speaker: His energy sword.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I just like, I guess, putting Kavarisi out of his misery because he was just, you know, bleeding a lot and all that stuff.
Speaker: But it was like I was like, damn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's some cold blooded shit.
Speaker: It's really cool.
Speaker: Like, you're right.
Speaker: It was super cold blooded.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They really got the worst of it.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they got fucked.
Speaker: And that's, I mean, you could argue that's what they deserve.
Speaker: Sure, fine, good.
Speaker: But man, that's brutal.
Speaker: Like, they should have prayed to get taken out, like in a fight or something like that, because that's awful.
Speaker: That's just awful.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's basically like...
Speaker: There that is the end of the thing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's this chapter is like the end of the thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, everything is destroyed.
Speaker: There's no hope left.
Speaker: They're just sitting there, you know, and it's like, I guess we're just going to wait a little bit.
Speaker: I guess we'll just wait and see.
Speaker: Wait and see.
Speaker: OK, great.
Speaker: And then the score comes in.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: It's fucking crazy.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Yeah, I can see why that.
Speaker: Yeah, that that that absolutely sticks with you.
Speaker: That is a truly just kind of scene.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: Chapter 26.
Speaker: The main crux of this chapter is it's Petrov and Fuertes are the main characters in this chapter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Basically, Petrov is sitting there and she's like, I want to kill this guy.
Speaker: Rashi, who is just like this fat...
Speaker: you know, Sangheili dude who turned as soon as it seemed convenient was like, yep, I'm on I'm on the UNSC side now.
Speaker: He's like he's like man spreading across like five chairs and sleeping.
Speaker: And Petrov's like, I want to I want to fucking kill him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which I think we've all been there.
Speaker: I think we all get that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We all get it.
Speaker: And Fortis is like, it's not worth it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they finally closed the circle on what happened between them all those years ago.
Speaker: And we find out that Petrov had told...
Speaker: Master Chief.
Speaker: Basically, we have this and I don't know what the alien in the blue armor or whatever it was supposed to be.
Speaker: They're like, we got to transport this body back and we're not going to have enough room for the body and my soldiers and and Fuertes' family.
Speaker: And Fuertes like basically sabotage Petrov's sand runner.
Speaker: So that they missed the rendezvous.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And her family was able to take the ship and leave.
Speaker: She's responsible for her being marooned there for 30 plus years.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there's a lot of.
Speaker: But it's like it's one of those like they have to forgive each other moments because Petrov was the one who was saying leave Fuertes behind.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And Fuertes caught wind of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's like.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: And then Petrov is like answers the question that we weren't like, you know, all the kids aren't mine, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For the record.
Speaker: For the record.
Speaker: Those aren't all my kids.
Speaker: Just like that's answered at the very end.
Speaker: After we were like.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: I love this scene because at this point she tells her, she's like, you know, hey, well, she says, well, they're more, now they basically come to grips with the idea.
Speaker: It's like, well, now they are your family and now you're going to have to get them acclimated to this world and you really are going, they're not just soldiers anymore.
Speaker: You have to treat them like actual family and help them because you know this world and they don't.
Speaker: And she talks about – there was this – it's just this kind of like implication of them living together and figuring it out.
Speaker: And my brain immediately went to this full house style Halo show where it's like after everything went – it's like now we're trying to get along in a weird and wacky world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then it's like too many Petrovs.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then it's like, it's like special guest on this Christmas episode.
Speaker: Horvath retells the story.
Speaker: The story of our Lord and Savior.
Speaker: Of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker: As days go by.
Speaker: Was that Full House or was that Family Matters?
Speaker: Oh, fuck.
Speaker: I don't know now.
Speaker: Now that you say that.
Speaker: It's the bigger love of the family.
Speaker: God damn it.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Now I have to find out.
Speaker: I had full house in my head, but you said family matters.
Speaker: It's a rare condition this day and age.
Speaker: To read any good news in the newspaper page.
Speaker: Oh, no, no, it's Family Matters.
Speaker: Family Matters.
Speaker: Family Matters.
Speaker: Full House says, whatever happened to predictability?
Speaker: Milkman, the paper boy, evening TV.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker: Very similar songs.
Speaker: Wow, I never thought about that.
Speaker: It's probably written by the same guy.
Speaker: Probably, yeah.
Speaker: And he's still doing Blow in a basement somewhere.
Speaker: That's how well he did.
Speaker: And that man was Jim Steinman.
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: Are you listening, Tim?
Speaker: Are you listening, Tim?
Speaker: That was just for you.
Speaker: That's for you, buddy.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: And then like Fuertes is like, you know, you got to love your family and you got to guide them through it.
Speaker: And she, she has this real grim, like some of them aren't going to make it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, damn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She straight up says like, look, a lot of them aren't going to make it.
Speaker: And like, well, what do I do?
Speaker: Well, you, you hang on to the ones who do.
Speaker: You love them all and you hang out to the ones who do make it.
Speaker: And I was like,
Speaker: Okay, one survivor lady to another.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Just a reminder, this is a grim-ass future we're talking about here.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: That's how the book ends.
Speaker: Yeah, that's how it ends.
Speaker: It's this conversation between these two hard-as-nails women who have survived on the most inhospitable planet.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: It's absolutely insane.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Phil, that's the end of the book.
Speaker: What do you think?
Speaker: I liked it.
Speaker: I liked it a lot.
Speaker: I think it had.
Speaker: It's easy for us to compare it to Kelly Gay's book that we most recently read and then.
Speaker: I think it's fair because they have a lot in common in terms of that modern feel to them.
Speaker: And they're both standalone adventures within this universe.
Speaker: But I think the other thing they do is they show what modern genre adaptation like this does very, very well as it evolves.
Speaker: And I think –
Speaker: I remember when we got contacted about doing Rubicon Protocol, and it was very cool.
Speaker: And this, to remind everyone, this was a complimentary advanced copy of this book that we received.
Speaker: And that's awesome, and that's really cool.
Speaker: That validation is really cool.
Speaker: But I did have some misgivings in the sense of like, man, we're reading these Halo books chronologically.
Speaker: Is this going to throw off...
Speaker: our rhythm and everything like that.
Speaker: But I think it's actually very advantageous because in a span of, what, 20 years, something like that, that they've been writing these books, the difference and the evolution is so obvious.
Speaker: And they both do something very
Speaker: well, but when you get into these later, more modern books, you have to increase the drama and it has to become more complex.
Speaker: And we talked about that before where there was this kind of nom kind of feel to Rubicon Protocol and with this, I'll never forget that opening chapter, the opening chapter of this book, I think it was,
Speaker: worth the price of admission.
Speaker: It was so tense.
Speaker: It had that political thriller sense to it.
Speaker: Where he was stopped by the cops, basically.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: It was a fucking barricade.
Speaker: Like, yeah, it was really, really cool.
Speaker: And not what I'd expect out of Halo, but it really, really works.
Speaker: So I think it's so cool.
Speaker: And what's funny about that is I'm now really looking forward to going back
Speaker: to the fourth book in the Halo series, which will be the next one we'll do sometime next year.
Speaker: And going back and forth like that kind of provides a real window into adaptation, which is what we talk about so much here.
Speaker: Yeah, adaptation and how those adaptations have evolved.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: Through the years.
Speaker: But on a very basic level, I really like this book.
Speaker: This is a great book.
Speaker: If you like Halo, go out and pick it up.
Speaker: And once again, so everyone knows, we may walk through these books.
Speaker: We summarize them and everything like that.
Speaker: But there is shit that we can't cover.
Speaker: There's all kinds of stuff that we can't get into.
Speaker: There's many gritty details that are worth absorbing on your own, I would say, still.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Troy Deming is a hell of a writer.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely worth picking up.
Speaker: I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: You, Kevin, any thoughts?
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: I love the book.
Speaker: The only... And my criticisms from last... From episode two basically remain for episode three because...
Speaker: the banished point of view, we don't ever go back to the banished point of view in the last third of the book, and that's fine.
Speaker: Yeah, I was good with that too.
Speaker: And I was thinking about it, I didn't really want their point of view to begin with.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It wasn't necessary.
Speaker: Especially when a lot of the other characters ended up communicating similar points, especially the stuff about the Harriers and things like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We could have everything we got from them.
Speaker: We could have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We didn't need.
Speaker: They could have just showed up at the end.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I don't feel like we would have been missing anything.
Speaker: I don't think so either.
Speaker: That would be my only note for the book.
Speaker: Otherwise, really, really good.
Speaker: The only thing I would get lost in sometimes were the descriptions of...
Speaker: just my my mental image of where they were inside of the towel in the Citadel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like sometimes the geography, it was tough to thoroughly explain what was going on.
Speaker: But yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Otherwise, yeah.
Speaker: From beginning to end in terms of tension, pacing, character dynamics,
Speaker: I liked all of it.
Speaker: It was a it was a real, really strong book, especially the character dynamics.
Speaker: I would have liked a little bit more just like a touch more.
Speaker: I would have gotten rid of those those banished chapters for a little bit more Rosa.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I would have really enjoyed more Rosa.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Give Rosa a little bit more weight.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And I would have liked a little bit more between Keeley and Olympia, maybe just at the end, just kind of like a little wrap up of who they are to each other.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because but other than that, yeah, I loved it.
Speaker: And chapter 25 is that short, short chapter about the basically the ending of it's the ending of the thing in chapter 25.
Speaker: It's going to stick with me.
Speaker: Leak.
Speaker: That was good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And thanks to Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster for sending us copies of this book to cover.
Speaker: It was a lot of fun.
Speaker: This is the second time they've sent us something, and they're just damn good books.
Speaker: So, hell yeah.
Speaker: Please.
Speaker: Hell yeah.
Speaker: Keep them coming.
Speaker: Keep them coming.
Speaker: Phil, with all that being said, with Halo Outcasts done and in the marsh,
Speaker: I have one question to ask you.
Speaker: Please ask.
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Well, first and foremost, I beat Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I went ahead and beat that.
Speaker: Really enjoyed that.
Speaker: Nice, satisfying game.
Speaker: Enjoyed the story.
Speaker: Enjoyed the combat.
Speaker: Enjoyed the Tomb Raider-esque-ness of it.
Speaker: I don't see myself going back and 100%ing any of these planets.
Speaker: I got what I wanted out of it.
Speaker: I got it.
Speaker: dirt cheap on a sale.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: It was like five bucks or something.
Speaker: Guys, put this on your wish list, and if it shows up for even $10, buy it.
Speaker: It's worth it.
Speaker: It was a very enjoyable time.
Speaker: I did go through a couple of days there where I went back to Vampire Survivors, to their DLC, the newest DLC.
Speaker: And I unlocked some characters, evolved some weapons, and it was, I just, I kind of...
Speaker: dunked my head back in that for a little while.
Speaker: It was time well spent.
Speaker: It was really good.
Speaker: It's still Vampire Survivors.
Speaker: It's still Vampire Survivors, and I enjoyed it.
Speaker: So I still haven't gotten back up to 100%ing on the achievements.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That was a game where I was real bummed out about when they kept adding more achievements.
Speaker: I was like, oh.
Speaker: There was no way they weren't going to, but I was really proud of 100%ing that one for as long as I did.
Speaker: But it was, it was, that was nice.
Speaker: And played a little game called Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker: Oh, I've never heard of this game.
Speaker: Neither have I. Holy shit, they've added 50 achievements.
Speaker: Since I 100%ed it.
Speaker: I mean, it's two pieces of DLC, so... It was at 140 achievements when I 100%ed it, and now it's 190.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: And I think I'm at 160-some-odd, so... Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker: Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker: Four of my friends are playing it right now, and nine of my friends have recently played it.
Speaker: So, apparently, you guys have all played this game.
Speaker: It's...
Speaker: All right, I want to explain something.
Speaker: Anytime Kevin has mentioned Baldur's Gate 3 to me on this show, y'all may have noticed that I reacted with sounds of despair.
Speaker: And not sounds of excitement that you would expect from an old school pen and paper D&D geek like myself.
Speaker: The reason I reacted that way is I played Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale.
Speaker: I've played all of those games.
Speaker: I maxed them out.
Speaker: I just obliterated them and lost...
Speaker: so much time of my life to those games, much in the same way that civilization has stolen life from me, that Banished has stolen life from me.
Speaker: XCOM.
Speaker: XCOM, and now Aliens Dark Descent.
Speaker: These games...
Speaker: wick away my God-given life-sustaining moisture.
Speaker: And it's my precious bodily fluids.
Speaker: And I just, and it's not, and it wasn't, I didn't despair because I thought this would not be good.
Speaker: I despaired for the exact opposite.
Speaker: I said, they are going, they have been working on this.
Speaker: They have been, this is, they took their time.
Speaker: I'm with this game and it is going to obliterate my life.
Speaker: And I was right, Kevin, I was right.
Speaker: And I just, I just, all I do now is I work from home and play this game and I'm so glad I don't have an office job right now.
Speaker: I told you this earlier, I'm so glad I don't have an office job, a nine to five that I have to go into work
Speaker: and daydream about motherfucking Baldur's Gate 3 and my super hot girlfriend, the hellbound tiefling with an infernal engine for a heart, who is my metal girlfriend.
Speaker: And I just love it.
Speaker: I love it so fucking much.
Speaker: Yeah, has your wife signed off on Carlack yet?
Speaker: Not yet, but she helped me pick a penis out.
Speaker: Okay, that's good.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For those of you who don't know when you character creation, you can pick out your genitals and and I and I she was out.
Speaker: She was she was watching something and I and I interrupted her.
Speaker: Uh, and said, you have to help me pick out my penis.
Speaker: I offered no context.
Speaker: And, uh, and she, and she went, okay.
Speaker: And she followed me into my office because she's, she knows me.
Speaker: And, uh, we went with default.
Speaker: We went with default, uh, because as you pointed out, I'm a dwarf rogue and a dwarf, a circumcised dwarf doesn't make, it doesn't,
Speaker: Yeah, it doesn't work for you.
Speaker: No, no, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: So default looked the best.
Speaker: Also fuzzy.
Speaker: He wouldn't shave.
Speaker: That's ridiculous.
Speaker: If they had had braided pubic hair, I would have gone with that.
Speaker: I have to wait for the DLC on that one.
Speaker: I'm sure that'll be a DLC.
Speaker: Yeah, that's gotta be.
Speaker: But Kevin, you know, the thing I found in playing this game is that I am...
Speaker: a terrible hero.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: This is the, I play rogues, I like doing the persuasion shit, I go for all of that, and I have had some success in that, but I pointed out to Kevin before we started, early on in the game there's a goblin camp that you can kind of sneak around and you can be a part of, and there are all kinds of options, it's infinite options, and I ended up,
Speaker: killing a few people in there, setting off a few alarms, and... Pro tip!
Speaker: When you're not in combat, when you're not in danger, you can pull up the map and click on one of the quick, what do you call them?
Speaker: Yeah, the fast travel sigils.
Speaker: The fast travels.
Speaker: And just get out of there.
Speaker: I killed my way out of that goblin camp.
Speaker: So much blood.
Speaker: So much blood was brought to you.
Speaker: There is not a single living organism in there.
Speaker: I killed bacteria while I was in there.
Speaker: I murdered.
Speaker: This is the most murder hobo campaign I have ever played for myself.
Speaker: And it's so there were goblins in that camp.
Speaker: There were there were there were hobgoblins.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you draw if you draw bugbear.
Speaker: I think there was a troll.
Speaker: There's like an ogre.
Speaker: Yeah, there's an ogre in there.
Speaker: A lot of wargs, a handful of wargs.
Speaker: They're all dead.
Speaker: They're all dead.
Speaker: We're all dead.
Speaker: And it's not even just my sloppiness sometimes and like inability to pay attention.
Speaker: Although I guess this kind of counts.
Speaker: There's this one, I went up to, I found this windmill that had a gnome.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And these goblins are torturing him.
Speaker: And I properly used my persuasion slash intimidation skills as the character I rolled would.
Speaker: I'm playing a droger rogue, dark dwarf rogue, which is super fun.
Speaker: But he's also a smooth talker, you see.
Speaker: And so he convinces them to leave.
Speaker: Scatter, get out of here.
Speaker: Scatter, get out of here.
Speaker: You don't, yeah.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm going to find out what that gnome has to say.
Speaker: And I went to the back of the windmill and there were two levers.
Speaker: And if I had taken five extra seconds to hover over one lever or the other, I would have found out what they both did.
Speaker: And I just clicked on the first one I saw because I'm riddled with ADHD.
Speaker: So, Phil, there's two levers.
Speaker: There's two levers.
Speaker: One says break.
Speaker: The other says break release.
Speaker: So you clicked on the one that says what?
Speaker: Break release.
Speaker: And what happens to the windmill's blades when you hit break release?
Speaker: It launched this node.
Speaker: Into infinity.
Speaker: I thought maybe at some point, I literally, I've uncovered almost all of that section of the map.
Speaker: I walked all over it.
Speaker: I totally thought I was like, I'm gonna find this corpse somewhere.
Speaker: He does not exist as far as I can tell.
Speaker: And the thing is, so many things, I'll save scum and I'll be like, oh, I don't wanna do that.
Speaker: And it's gonna add a solid 20 hours to my game.
Speaker: But I do reach certain things like that where I'm just like, eh, we're just gonna keep going.
Speaker: It's like, this is a real character moment for me.
Speaker: And that's what's become headcanon for my character.
Speaker: I named him Torvald.
Speaker: And he's a Dwarger rogue.
Speaker: And so he's like dark dwarf who escaped the Underdark.
Speaker: And so my headcanon is he's trying to be a hero.
Speaker: He's trying so hard to be a hero.
Speaker: But he's just terrible at it.
Speaker: He's just terrible at it.
Speaker: Yeah, he got some like he found he was in the Underdark and he found like a book of the it was there was like adventures of the like the Harper's or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like he was like reading about the Harper's and he's like, I'm going to be a hero.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And he's just, there are a lot of training wheels, let's put it that way.
Speaker: So, Kevin, what games have you played and why are they all Baldur's Gate 3?
Speaker: It's Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tell me about your experience with it.
Speaker: Oh, I am having so much fun with Baldur's Gate 3.
Speaker: So what's funny is I actually did the same thing you did in Early Access.
Speaker: Oh, with the...
Speaker: That gnome, launching that gnome across the map is probably the thing in video games that has made me laugh the hardest when I saw that cut scene play out.
Speaker: Cause you see the windmill blades go faster and faster and faster and faster.
Speaker: And then it's just, boom.
Speaker: I'm just gone.
Speaker: And I was just like,
Speaker: Well, that happens.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And then I like, I looked at the switches again, I'm like, I was like, and that's the thing is I looked at the switches, I was like, brake release.
Speaker: Well, that means it releases the brake so the brake can now stop it, right?
Speaker: Well, the other one just fucking- That's the exact same thing.
Speaker: The other one just says brake.
Speaker: The other one just says brake.
Speaker: I did the exact same.
Speaker: I went, yeah, brake release, of course.
Speaker: Release the brake so it stops, right?
Speaker: Like, I just.
Speaker: Because the brake is being held by something.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you wanted that to let, like, know if you just read more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Watch him sail away.
Speaker: And I look at the other one, and it just says brake.
Speaker: And I go, oh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, good, good.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun.
Speaker: I'm playing a warlock, half elf warlock who is, you know, just Eldritch blasting her way to fun and profit, you know?
Speaker: I think that's, yeah.
Speaker: probably it's it's it's like it's what i love is finding the little ways to like game the systems and it's not necessarily gaming the systems it's like just it's just using all the darn systems that they put into this game yeah like and sometimes you'll watch the computer do it and you're like oh i didn't even think of that like
Speaker: This like a stupid spell like Grease.
Speaker: You're like, Grease, what am I doing with that?
Speaker: And then it's like, oh, Gale can cast Grease and then Shadowheart can use like on the next turn can use the flame, like shoot a flame bolt at it and light the whole goddamn thing on fire.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The whole first section to me is like a primer on why you need to be throwing more grenades around.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: Everything I've accomplished so far is thanks to Alchemist's Fire.
Speaker: It's wonderful.
Speaker: Yeah, I give my MVP to Cloud of Daggers.
Speaker: Oh, Cloud of Daggers is nasty.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I, I, I, there've been a lot of collateral damage for me with the cloud attack.
Speaker: I, you know, I, I've, I've, uh, so I'm in this one area now and I'm a bit, I'm a bit farther ahead than Phil is, but there's, it's basically an area where there's these, uh, Harpers and I'm like, they're being attacked by these, these monsters.
Speaker: And I'm like, all right, you know, we're going to save the Harpers.
Speaker: Uh, didn't save the Harpers.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So first time I did the battle, I saved one of them.
Speaker: And the one that survives is like, all right, hey, I know a safe spot nearby, follow me.
Speaker: And then I wasn't paying attention, I didn't see where he went.
Speaker: And then I ran into a level nine shambling mounds and it, Jesus.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I reloaded and I was like, all right, well, it's right before the harbor battle, maybe I'll save more of them.
Speaker: Save none of them.
Speaker: And guess what, when you save none of them, you don't even have that little pro tip from the Harpers where it's like, I know somewhere safe nearby.
Speaker: It's like, I just got dead bodies everywhere.
Speaker: But it's something I've noticed is that they had to have recorded that line with every single character, like Harper character in that scene, because there's any number of permutations.
Speaker: So like...
Speaker: you could save any one end up saving all of them or just one of them.
Speaker: And one of them has to say, oh, yeah, I know where someone something say.
Speaker: So that's that's the amazing thing about Baldur's Gate three is like the depth to which they thought about a lot of this stuff.
Speaker: Like they went through they had these they took these lines of these stories and the micro stories that you're going through.
Speaker: And that's
Speaker: That's all a good D&D campaign is.
Speaker: It's just a lot of flat teeny stories like strung together in service of an overall story with a big bad evil guy at the end.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But like, like my little encounter with the Harper's like you hit that point and there is like, all right, well, if you're playing
Speaker: like kind of a villainous character, you could just fucking fight them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You just right then and there.
Speaker: They don't do alignment.
Speaker: You can play however you want to play.
Speaker: Play how you want.
Speaker: Unless you're Dark Urge.
Speaker: And then you got to.
Speaker: So the Dark Urge is something I'm going to play through on the next go around.
Speaker: Just because I want to give that a look.
Speaker: Which is basically like, say you want to play as a serial killer.
Speaker: Well, we've gamified that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that's just it.
Speaker: All of the different, there's so many, it made me think of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, where you could play the game, it's famous for being just an incredibly forward-thinking RPG in the sense that
Speaker: Like a lot of immersive sims, you can play any number of ways.
Speaker: But there are a couple of options, for example, the Malkavian clans and the Nosferatu clans, where they're basically completely new games.
Speaker: Everyone treats you differently that way.
Speaker: And this is like that.
Speaker: It's amazing how much time and thought they've put into the different options.
Speaker: And they're little things.
Speaker: Like, again, I play a Dwarger, which is a dark dwarf character.
Speaker: which is not as sexy as like the drow or anything like that.
Speaker: So I have to believe that I'm part of like a 0.01% of players playing him.
Speaker: And I keep running into things where people point out, oh, you're a Dwarger, you know, or like I get dialogue options based on that.
Speaker: And that's really neat.
Speaker: And it gets you to thinking like, what other little things are there for the different races and classes?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: There's a moment where someone tries to give you a potion
Speaker: that is going to knock you out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And because my character is half elf, she's immune to it.
Speaker: And that just pisses the person off and they attack you because it's like because they're like, oh, well, now we've got to do this the hard way.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Because they because they didn't want to actually help.
Speaker: They didn't actually want to help.
Speaker: It turns out if anyone in the game has is like, oh, I know exactly how to help you.
Speaker: They don't.
Speaker: They don't.
Speaker: If the person's like, I have no idea, but I'm going to try.
Speaker: They're usually those people have the best interests at hands.
Speaker: The ones who are like straight up.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: There's an old lady.
Speaker: named Auntie Ethel.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Who is she's quite an interesting character.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: How far along did through Auntie Ethel's story?
Speaker: Did you progress?
Speaker: I got nowhere.
Speaker: I got like I found I found her the first time I found her in her cottage and then she fucking disappeared like she just went away.
Speaker: I never found her again.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: She vanished in front of you?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: We were in combat for about a round, and she went invisible and... Oh, I'll tell you.
Speaker: You know, after the episode, I'll tell you how to find her.
Speaker: Okay, cool, cool.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But it's enough blathering about.
Speaker: We've talked about Baldur's Gate 3 for nearly 20 minutes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What a shock.
Speaker: Just go and get it or wait a little bit for when it's on sale because it's a lot of fun.
Speaker: Or give Larian's other games a shot.
Speaker: Divinity and Divinity Original Sin 2 because to me, you know, Larian has been doing pretty good work for a while now.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: That'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: Phil,
Speaker: Before we go, where should people look for us on the Internet?
Speaker: Oh, I'd highly recommend checking out Patreon dot com slash Pixel Lit Pod.
Speaker: That's a place where you can find a community there.
Speaker: If you'd like to throw a few shekels our way, join one of the paying tiers.
Speaker: You're more than welcome to.
Speaker: And we have bonuses based on those different tiers, including a series of Legend of Zelda videos we've been doing that are just for those Patreons.
Speaker: And by that time, actually, we'll have gotten into our Games of the Year 1997 list, which has been super fun setting up.
Speaker: So check that out.
Speaker: Or if you don't want to throw us any money, there is a free tier and you can just join and be a part of the community.
Speaker: We love seeing you there.
Speaker: So just check it out.
Speaker: See if it's right for you.
Speaker: Patreon.com slash Pixel Lit Pod.
Speaker: Do it today.
Speaker: Do it today.
Speaker: Meanwhile, find us on the Internet at Pixlet Pod on Instagram.
Speaker: You can find us at Pixlet Pod dot com, which is, you know, might be confusing, but I got to go to Blue Sky and search up at Pixlet Pod dot com and you'll find us there.
Speaker: You can also go to our website, regularpixletpod.com, and you can, from our website, you can sign up for our mailing list, join our Discord, all that fun stuff.
Speaker: If you have a moment, go ahead, rate us five stars or give us a thumbs up on whatever platform you're listening to us on.
Speaker: It really helps us out when people are looking for us.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: The best way to help is share.
Speaker: Share an episode with friends, with family, all that good stuff.
Speaker: Share it with your favorite druid who is wild-shaped as a bear.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: I think you know what we're talking about.
Speaker: I think I know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: Have a good night, everybody.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: Bye.
