Arc 23: Drone

Transcript

Speaker: Worm is a web serial by JC McRae, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans dot .wordpress dot .com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon dot .com slash wildbo. 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. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.

Speaker: Good morning, Brockton Bay. Do you know where your kids are at at school? Are they hanging out with super villains? The answer might surprise you. yeah You can't say in this case, look what the cat drug in. Taylor's out there promoting drugs, y 'all.

Speaker: I thought you were going to say what the fox dragged in and bring in Renard into this. Yes, Renard. It is a dumb name. I'm sorry, Renard. I don't know what it means. No, it's Renard the fox. It's the trickster god.

Speaker: Oh, okay. Nevermind then. I actually know this because of Lev Grossman's The Magicians that the ones turn into a TV show. Phenomenal books, phenomenal show. ah Yeah. He's in there. He's a total dick.

Speaker: Uh, and a terrible person, but you know, I don't know why, but Renard in the books. Well, I know why, but like, whoa. Utterly like disgusted me. One of the worst things I've ever read. Yeah. oh yeah truly I've i like i'm actually read worse.

Speaker: stuff I feel like bones. Yeah, like but like sounds pretty bad. I'm not going to go into specifics, but I've read worse stuff. This one for some reason just it's hit different. Oh yes. Um, yeah, did not like it anyways. yeah bro bay Book club referring reviewing other books.

Speaker: Magicians. That's the one where they turn into a bunny is to have sex, right? Yes, you are correct. Well, technically technically no. technically the moneys Technically they start as geese and then they become foxes in the Arctic tundra. I thought in the books they are just all foxes.

Speaker: Well, they fly down as geese. Yes. Yes. And then they're also not allowed to talk the entire time. Yes. They their mouths basically get glued closed. What? See, that's that's funny because it's actually a phenomenal show in books, actually. That is funny. Yeah, I was going to say it's funny because geese geese, according to Zeus, those were his like favorite animal tend to be when he's, you know, finding women for him. He he would that would be his favorite.

Speaker: Wasn't that one of them? Wasn't one of them a goose? He would be a goose. Probably. Yeah, that sounds right. I think maybe I thought it was an eagle, but a goose. Oh, here's the thing. Much like Loki, why hasn't he transformed into an dwarf? That's true. That's true. That's true. Anyways.

Speaker: um

Speaker: Demonetized immediately. yeah Always a strong opening here on the Brock to Baba Club. We come in swinging. ah we we are Much like Zeus.

Speaker: god I don't even know how to transition this.

Speaker: Oh my god. I love it so much. Oh, and we're back, everybody. Welcome to R23. This is all after that lovely ad break. Right after the goose fucking. and <unk> No, I just named it. Welcome back to the Brock Du Bay Book Club. but I'm your host, Alan.

Speaker: Wow. Enjoying with me today are these chuckle fucks. hey Hi, I'm Hannah chuckle fuck number two. Nice nice to be here. Listen, i'm I'm a dad that's a Mr. Chuckle fuck to you, sir. Mr. Chuckle fuck. Yes.

Speaker: Great intro. We're doing so good on this episode, you guys. Anybody want to go next? I feel like they know who we are at this point. like if they If our listeners don't know who the fuck we are, i we've done a very bad job. I guess if you don't know by now. That's true. I'm Hannah. That over there is Alan, Jacob, Michael, our lovely producer, Nick. On the horn. On the horn and Nick. Hello, I'm Nick.

Speaker: and we're we're We're talking about drone and we're, we're, we're, you know, we're figuring shit out. We are on some juice today. I'll tell you that on some arc 23 out of 30. We're so close or 31. That's crazy. It feels like we're also so far away. Cause like, we're about like, we're so close to the skip to the time skip. It's.

Speaker: You know, it feels like we still have so far to go. I'm about to get out of my body. We don't hurry up and finish this before the end of the year. ah We'll do that. I'm not optimistic. we'll see We are in our 23. Yes, we are. and We most certainly are. Fun little luck.

Speaker: do Do we want to like go straight into it? do How do you, what what would you like me to do? I think so. We could do first impressions or we could, you know. Yeah, sure.

Speaker: Speaking of if we don't know what we're doing by this long at this point, what what do we do? how How do we do this podcast? We have a we like to. Wow. Oh, my gosh. It's a mass. It's mass. We're Misha. Completely forgotten. The worm Nisha crazy right now. The worm Nisha completely missed the point.

Speaker: ah So Yeah. let's up First impressions. Yeah. Yeah. What's everyone think about this arc? This one felt really quick, uh, but not in a bad way. Just like, I don't know. It just felt really good. Yeah. It was also short. I think it was pretty short. it is Not a lot of interludes pretty straightforward, you know, like six whole chapters.

Speaker: Yeah, that's, that's pretty short as far as most of these arcs go. yeah I love seeing Taylor in her like getting introduced to everybody dealing with all these people. First day of school moments. I love it. Very first day of school. i I really enjoy that. I don't enjoy, uh,

Speaker: I don't know a lot of the geography and this has some of like the highest and lowest chapters for me. Um, like, Two of these chapters are actually probably my bottom tier chapters of the entire arc. I'm sure we'll get into that later. I'm sure but i'm not i'm sorry, not arc. Did I say arc? I meant all of worm. All of worm. Wow. that's yeah pretty It is kind of that's one old statements there.

Speaker: Yeah, it's weird. This is like, this is one of those kind of, ah I would almost say world building arcs. And as someone who likes to read almost exclusively world building.

Speaker: Like ah I couldn't finish all of Game of Thrones, but I did sit down and read Fire and Blood in one go. like And the Silmarillion, all that kind of stuff. yeah I love reading like the minutia of a world and and random characters that appear for one sentence and then fade away.

Speaker: yeah yeah All of that is so intriguing to me. But when you step back and like read the story through, it does feel like a bit of a ah like you hit a bit of a wall at some points. And I think that this happens a little bit in this arc, not the whole thing, but there are are there are definitely moments where I'm like, okay.

Speaker: like Let's go. Come on. What are we doing here? We're explaining the the rules for a board game for like 20 minutes. I definitely felt like an in -between arc. And I think part of that may just be the pacing of worm. If we'd had more arcs like this, it might not have felt so out of place, but going from high intensity action to like, okay, now we're just going to chill for a bit, I guess.

Speaker: it It does feel a bit of ah bit jarring and slow comparatively, which is probably why it's shorter too. So that way you get through that faster, right? Yeah. I mean, maybe so.

Speaker: And again, not to say I don't like the chapters. I was very invested. I was writing down the rules for Weaver Dice because I was like, Oh, that's right. This is where all this happens. Yeah. I love. Yeah. You know, we'll get into it. We'll get into it. I got a lot of notes.

Speaker: yeah ah Well, I guess I think the easiest way is going to be to just do chapter at a time since they seem to be pretty self -contained. So chapter one, Taylor gets pulled out of prison to meet with the protectorate and the ward leaders and figure out what's next for her cape career. ah Now that she's officially Weaver.

Speaker: And then goes out and kicks the adepts asses with, uh, butterflies and the limitations that have been now placed upon her. hu Man. Uh, there's a right off the bat when they're talking about what, what they could end up doing with her. Like, Oh yeah, we could use you and we could stick your ass, like guarding the simmered in Madison, Wisconsin.

Speaker: that's always a good time yeah yeah yeah I love how they set up for this chapter. like we're we're We're about to go through a series of tests and like ah evaluations for her powers. I got so excited about that, about like we're going to test the limits of her power. We're going to see what she's truly capable of. I was like so here for it. And then I can't remember who it is actually, butts in and is like, yeah, we didn't come all this way to like watch her take a bunch of tests. like Throw her in the fucking field. Let's go. And I got so sad because I just wanted her to do like all the tests because I love a good like personality test. i love ah ah I love a good Myers Briggs. Throw her in there. I want to know where like what Taylor excels at, what her boundaries are, what her limits are. And I was like so ready for all of that testing. And then I was like, no, no, no, just throw her in the field. Like, oh, okay. I guess we could do that too. yeah Not quite as fun.

Speaker: I think I just really I really enjoy the like the brain part of it of like what makes Taylor's power tick and like by them finding out and like assessing her we can then have a better insight into her power and I really wanted that and then didn't get it and I'm a little sad actually.

Speaker: I mean, it's that and everybody loves a good Buzzfeed quiz for themselves, right? Yes. Oh my God. Okay. I was thinking that, but I didn't want to say it out loud, but yes. No, I think about like, those are, those are such fun little tests and I, I wanted, I wanted to, I wanted Taylor to do one. Yeah. I understand why they didn't do it.

Speaker: Like, you know, we got to keep the movement moving. and And I get that. Like, that makes sense. And then they want to see her with the limitations. so Like, it makes sense why they did it, but I'm um still a little sad about it. Yeah.

Speaker: I do think it sort of ah confirms Taylor's initial gripes with the PRT, like even all the way back to the first couple arcs where she has a conversation with Armsmaster and she sort of gets the inkling, even though she's initially trying to impress them.

Speaker: but kind of builds that like, man, they move so slowly. They do things so by the book. Like, wait, we just need to get out there and and do the right thing. And then here, she's now officially doing them. And it's it's that same thing where it's like, here's all the rules. You got to do this. ah you gotta You can't use all your scary bugs. You got to go... like it's ah It's a whole bunch of just PR and guidelines. And It's it's such a contrast of the way that she wants to do things. um Like she's still nothing's changed. Despite everything she's done, nothing's changed. Well, and and we'll get to this in a little bit, but I do think that, you know, we've talked a lot about Taylor being an unreliable narrator. I think that part of what this arc functions really well as is sort of knocking Taylor down a peg in terms of her own ego. Mm hmm.

Speaker: Um, and that that's more later when she has her conversation with Glenn and you have that, cause that's a much deeper conversation there. Um, but I do think that this is a really cool way for us to be like, you know, we've gotten hints of it, but now that she's in the hero world for people to be like, Oh, so this is how everybody views you. Nobody really wants you on their team. yeah We're just all kind of accepting that this is the way it has to be.

Speaker: And that, yeah I think that's, that's good for Taylor, right? She kind of, she kind of thinks to herself, I can solve every problem in the world. And it might be a flaw of her character. It could also be a flaw of the writing because she does tend to be right. Like we've said, but, you know, yeah so there's nothing worse than when Taylor's right.

Speaker: She's like, I don't want to be right, but I keep being right. Yeah. yeah Yeah, i like I like seeing that quite a bit and that like she's getting so frustrated with like the butterflies. They tell her, okay, you can't use any any scary bugs because that'll you know we're we're thinking about reputation here. And she's like,

Speaker: Fuck reputation, man. Like my whole reputation is around the scary bugs. Like, and now I can't use any of them. Like what the fuck am I supposed to do? It's like butterflies. And he's like, yeah, butterflies are perfect. Are you kidding me?

Speaker: What am I supposed to do with butterflies? But she makes it work. like ah Once again, if I were in Taylor's situation, I would find myself so frustrated and like wouldn't be able to come up with half the stuff that she does. like She makes it work for her, even with these you know ah really obnoxious limitations that get put on her. And i yeah, I like that. More limitations. Push her to her limit.

Speaker: I like that, but I also like it as a limitation to put on wild bow. He's got to figure out. I mean, that's just classic, that's classic writing stuff is like writing yourself into a corner to improve your own writing, to, to, to push your characters. Like I, ah, it's good. It's excellent writing. Once again, Hannah is incredibly jealous.

Speaker: I think it and might be misremembering. i think he's I think he talks about that, or he wrote about that in in some Q and A's or something like that, where a lot of worm was him writing himself purposely into a corner. yeah My misremembering, that sounds right. No, no, no. i don' no You're absolutely right. you're absolutely right yes Which is great. is yeah Like you said, it's it's it's pretty i think it's pretty obvious when he writes into those corners, and then seeing him write himself out is is really fun.

Speaker: yeah Once again, cause he's, I use one of the few people that I, in his story, I genuinely go, Oh yeah, I, I would have never come up with that, but also that is something that like is not out of the realm of possibility. It's just yeah really smart. You know, it's not some bullshit. It's not, uh, it's not, you know, stupid, simple of like, well, of course they're going to do that.

Speaker: I genuinely am like stumped on some of the stuff and just excited to see how he pulls it off. Yeah. Oh man. Things I was excited for. Uh, Tekton and clock blocker, you know, speaking up. Uh, and of course. Oh, it's clock blocker. So great. Do we have to have a pronunciation battle over Tekton? Tekton Tekton.

Speaker: Tecton like tectonic plates. Yeah. I was going to say, I kind of agree with Jacob on that one. Tectonic plates makes sense to me.

Speaker: ah We'll just call it both and pretend that the other person said it the way we want them to. Yep. And Miss Yamada shows up.

Speaker: That's the I, you know, what more can I ask for? You know, it hurts. That's true. yeah ready We do like Miss Yum, Miss. Oh, oh, oh, it gets you every time. Oh, it does get me. Oh, baby. but Got it's a touchy one. Touchy one.

Speaker: See, in my notes, I also have yay, jouster. ah Yeah, jouster. Maybe shut the fuck up. Dumbass. She killed your number one. Look at her. She is now the LeBron. yeah

Speaker: Jester is the New York, uh, leader of of New York, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's a du just like, I don't see what's so special. Like motherfucker, he your number one.

Speaker: Like look up chapter. What is it? He's got a lane power, doesn't he? Beatle bitch and right in his little like air moped. That's what he's doing.

Speaker: No, he has kind of a cool power. If I remember right. It's like he can basically extend, you know, he's kind of, if I remember right, I think it's like a Jack slash like power where he can kind of extend. Oh no, no, no. It's not. He moves super fast ah up to people to stab them.

Speaker: Yeah, he's um he's got it with certain stuff. Big spear, really big spear kind of thing, if I remember right. But I'm not a lance, even a lance. Yeah, something. I don't know. I feel like I feel like somebody at some point in time in history probably use one of those to like poke people off of horses. I don't know. Probably. Just let poke. And now we're left with this fuck. And then. Yeah. yeah And then ah these get to speaking of Chester being a little.

Speaker: Well, Dick, uh, yeah, jouster, don't just out flush it like that. Come on. Oh my God. Yeah. Like yeah Taylor was being all careful about that. And he was like, Oh, she's gay. And we're like, Jesus, dude, man. ah fuck up ra i you know I forgot for a second that it wasn't 2002, but still, you know,

Speaker: Like he didn't even hesitate. Like it was like, Oh yeah. Cause she is cause there was, yeah, she's, that she's banging the chick, right? The dog. She wanted, she wanted the gays. she for yeah wasster shit to fuck she's out oh Listen, Jester, uh, clearly your Lance is, um, you know, making up for something there, but.

Speaker: Always has more pee pee.

Speaker: like you and is a minor i just got to remind but such a fine You have such a fine way with words there, you know, it was good. I apologize. Never apologize. Oh my God. ah but ah Yeah. And a clock blocker over there just yeah laughing it up about the butterfly girl.

Speaker: Oh, I love that though. It's so, good so funny. It's so funny. That is one of the best parts of it. Yeah. It's fun to see clock blocker. Like we've seen him before, but he's always been on like.

Speaker: very opposing sides to Taylor in the sense of like, either they're fighting each other or they're like, even in the echidna fight where they're sort of working together, they're still very much at odds. But the, the, I don't know, it feels like a different kind of camaraderie here, which I really, really like. And he's like, Oh, he's in on the joke, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Like he knows her enough now that like you could almost consider them friends and like,

Speaker: And that the the whole butterfly thing, and then you know he's he's dying laugh because he knows she hates it. And she's like, yeah I know that you know that I hate this. like its so i just I love that. like we The relationship that's built over all this time is potentially ramping up to like being actual friends. is i like I like that a lot.

Speaker: oh Definitely friendlier than everybody else. Is it in this part in this fight with ah the Adepts that he uses a weapon that's clearly a modified version of the line? Like he fires the line. He does, but he tried to use that on Taylor all the way back in the ah and the cafeteria. Like he was lining up and like holding his hand and trying to shoot some fingertip tasers out.

Speaker: Yeah. They were going to, you know, do the thing. I was like, boy, yeah you think you you're going to have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull that one on the master ah that taught you that trick you how to do that. I'm sorry. What part of I see everything through my bugs? Do you not understand?

Speaker: Go back to school. I'm leaving. We were talking about Clock Blocker and him trying to pull a fast one on Taylor back in the day, but now he's using those tricks for good against the ad apps, who may be the biggest pyramid scheme of nerds I've ever met. What the hell, guys? It's like a bunch of live action role players that got superpowers and were just making an MLM out of it. Yeah, but they bone.

Speaker: You know, they do fuck. That'd be true. And and they they fuck and they don't kill people, which is like cool. But then you get like, they're way too into like treating their powers like magic. And you're like, dude. Yeah. I mean, it's complicated, but it's not that complicated. and So they're theater kids. Yeah. The worst kind of person. Shut up. but only slightly less threatening than board game people.

Speaker: Yeah. Do they, do they, do they, do they feel like the group that sits around playing Katan for like six hours in costume and custom? Yeah. Okay. There's, there's people who play D and D and then there's people who dress up to play D and D. Right. They're the latter.

Speaker: Yeah. And we love them all and we are those people. but i was we whole lot fun of them Do I sometimes, yes, but I'm going to give them the shit that they, and sometimes I rightfully deserve. That's what I'm saying. I don't want the bullying to stop. That's what I'm saying. Like should I have been bullied more? Maybe, you know, who's to say might've made me a better person. I guess we'll never know.

Speaker: We could bully you now, if you'd prefer. It's not going to happen. Look here, nerd. Give me your milk platform now. I have a platform. I was about to say, you have all the Allens rallied behind you. I have so many Allens. How many Hannahs are in chat right now? I know. I know. It actually makes me a little sad sometimes. That's the only Hannah you got.

Speaker: And she's a Hana too, she's not even a real Hana. I know, it's so painful. Dang, just trying. She's fired left and right. I got Jack Slash on my side.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. I don't, I don't think I've got anyone on mine. Yeah. know no You've got Kaiser on your side, Nick. No, it's true. you got Actually, you've got a couple of superhero. well Well, let's not say superheroes. You got a couple of capes on your side. A couple of groups of capes, actually have a couple of people. Yeah. Oh boy.

Speaker: Uh, yeah. Uh, let's see laughing about the butterfly girl. Oh yeah. Uh, how does the PRT not talk about triggers and powers with people? Cause like Taylor is talking with some of them about powers and they're like, they're like what why now I get that tattletale has sussed out some of this using her power, but given the amount of time that the PRT has been around and how I don't know. The approach they seem to have is sort of like, let's test these powers and work out something with them. They didn't put together that like, you know, they have, they have Miss Yamada and psychologists on staff. How did they not put together? I mean, the the the they already know that your trigger events kind of related to the state of mind. How do they not put together that your state of mind going forward also

Speaker: is tied to your power level. like I mean, I feel like not to say that that that they that just because they're capes, they't they're not incredibly smart or stupid, but it feels they haven't spent a ton amount of time around smart people. And we've been very lucky with the fact that we've had Tattletale in our corner for this entire book, like filling in the gaps, telling us what's going on. But like most people knew absolutely jack shit about Cauldron. They knew absolutely jack shit about what was going on.

Speaker: Like, yeah. and look And so like, it's not really a surprise that they don't know how powers work. Like they try to keep even trigger events on the DL for the majority of the normies. And so it's like, you you know, you don't find out about it until you've had your trigger event. And then it's like, well, you joined in the wards and like, okay, great. Now I'm a cape, a hero, and I know nothing. Like, I'm not really surprised.

Speaker: I can forgive the cauldron thing. That's a whole subterfuge espionage thing going on. Like that's, that's not supposed to be known because of it like, they're actively trying to keep that hidden, but the, just the powers being connected, like, yeah, haven't you noticed that when you're kind of closer to your trigger event mindset that you do things, you feel like that would come out in therapy or in testing or like they, that somebody would have figured that out given everything else they know, but just.

Speaker: No, it's like they strictly focused on law enforcement and didn't look at any socioeconomic like studies whatsoever. Well, we also, we also have to look at though, that um Taylor's situation is unique because one of them, I don't remember if it's in this or another one, but one of them was like, this is only my second fight. I've ah i've been in the wards for a month and I've only been in, this is my second fight. And so Taylor's been in far more high stress situations.

Speaker: And how long has that person, you said that person has been in there for what? A month? Two months? months About the same month. About the same amount of Taylor has been. So she is they hurt, and that person and Taylor have been doing this the same amount of time. But Taylor has been in 20 ,000 fights. That person ah got looked at partially one time.

Speaker: I mean, basically, yeah. yeah And that was the trigger event, by the way. so right really um and And people do like, there, there's an understanding behind stress and trauma causing triggers. Like people know that.

Speaker: it's it's just I wonder if it's one of those things where it's like the good guys aren't trying to advertise that so that people don't go out doing terrible horrible things trying to trigger or things like that. Because I mean, think back to ah you know the merchants doing their whole mosh pit trying to force triggers.

Speaker: so like yeah there's an under so There's an awareness that the more traumatizing a scenario is, the more likely there is to be a trigger or something. Yeah, but once you're in it,

Speaker: I'm saying, like, obviously you keep that, you know, away from the normies, so people aren't trying to hurt themselves. But then once you're in it, like, and you're in the program, you think that would come up. I'm just saying, this is gross negligence. I mean, yeah. No, I think i think you're right though. I can buy the gross negligence. Yeah. It it feels like, cause like information is clearly power. And if you want to keep your underlings, your your brand new capes, teenage capes,

Speaker: who are not have their brain finished being developed who have just triggered and are now suddenly in the wards like it like it makes sense that you wouldn't tell them this kind of stuff and also like no offense to anyone who's a teenager.

Speaker: or younger than 30, your brain is still developing. Your brain's still figuring itself out and they wanna be able to tell you what to do when you do it like a soldier. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to follow orders. You're not supposed to use your brain. You're not supposed to think. And that's what they want.

Speaker: And then you grow up and you're a, you're a good little hero who works for the good guys. And you don't use your brain cells and like, that's, that's what they want. I don't know if it's, I don't think it's that bad, but well, I don't think it's, I don't think there's like, ah, yes, we shall keep the information from them. We're going to make our, our hero soldiers. Like, no, I think it's just like someone went, ah,

Speaker: They don't need to know. They'll figure it out one day or we'll tell them one day or like, we'll have this conversation when they're older. Yeah. I'm going to stick with chalking us up to just gross negligence instead. In my mind, they that they just haven't bothered to figure it out yet because they suck. Which like, to be fair, I work in trees and the majority i'll get i love it let me let me let me cook. All right. All right. ah a chat um my god No, no. So I work in trees and, uh, the majority of tree based science has been essentially biology, like studying trees in terms of like the ecosystem and maybe studying trees in terms of nutrients and how they grow. But then you get into like the physics of trees and

Speaker: Uh, like the more, the just more stuff about trees and all of those fields, like all of the science that we have from that is from the last 30 years and is constantly evolving because we just now decided that that was worth studying. Like as a field, it's so.

Speaker: odd that like, Oh yeah. Uh, you know, we decided after a while that, uh, turns out maybe don't pour cement in your tree. If there's a hole in it, sometimes the trees, uh, have a natural defense system that, you know, they'll quarantine and cut that off and heal themselves up. If you don't stick anything in there and a common thought was just stick concrete in there and yet don't do that. ah You know, and that's something that like is in like, you know, the fourth edition handbook.

Speaker: that was put out in like 2014 as opposed to, you know, previous thinking being like, Oh yeah. If you see a hole in a tree, take some great stuff and fill her up. ah Like it's, it's wild how much we are learning about trees now ah because we just didn't bother studying fascinating all that to say.

Speaker: Come on people, it's powers. You've had 30 years. Figure the fuck out. I like to think it's also a meta commentary on the way audiences consume superhero content these days.

Speaker: we like Who asks about how people get powers and how they work and anything like that? Like, look at app look at Marvel, look at DC, look at Invincible. Like, everything is just, oh, yep, there's Spider -Man, he was bit by a spider. Okay, good enough for me. Like, it just, it works. You know what it could be too? Just this thought occurred to me as well is that most of these people are words, right? Like, yeah Miss Yamada,

Speaker: ah puts on or shows that she knows a lot more later. Um, so honestly, you know what it is. They've probably been in classes that have talked about this, but how many details do you remember from like high school biology? yeah Right. And like, yes, even if it's personally relevant to you, like, could you point to your body where your, your spleen is at this exact moment? You know, you know, I, I i totally can see too, like half of them are just like,

Speaker: Like, like their, their leaders, their captains are like, Oh my God, you just took parahumans 101. Why do you not know this? I don't know. I see it that way. Anyway, it could go too.

Speaker: Yeah. So they, uh, fight the ad apps and, uh, I will now introduce my what the fuck Taylor moment, which is, gagging people in order to break $13 power. Oh, it's first disgusting. Why the fuck would that work? I mean, it, because it like, it triggers your gag reflex, like it snaps you out of it. Like they're not asleep. They're but like, they're like zoned out.

Speaker: I guess she's, she's trying to break them out of who's power. Is that August 13th hour? No, 13th hour. August Prince is from Las Vegas. He's with them being this group. This is 13 power with the add ups. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're still, uh, that's right. Sorry. We're in number one. Sorry. yeah We're still in chapter one. I will say, I will say a full disclosure, full disclosure. I listened to this one rather than reading it. So I feel like my memory is a bit more fuzzy.

Speaker: That's fair. The warm men called it. It's fine. I didn't. I didn't. Wait, what did you call Jacob? I was like, we half our podcast is going to be a long episode.

Speaker: yeah so All of our episodes, half our podcast is, uh, half the time is on the first chapter and the rest of the time is the rest of the chapters. It's where the majority of my notes are. I can't help it.

Speaker: Also, it's Alan's fault. It's Alan. Oh, this is tragic. I'm not going to name names, but if we want to throw yourself under the bus, I mean, I'll run over you. I'll run over you and then back up, baby. It's always good to have a scapegoat. Also, not in this chapter. Also, not in this chapter, right? Damn it. I think we're not even in the next chapter. You're thinking of Seder, the other goat man. The other goat. Of course, of course.

Speaker: i do I do think to to attempt to get back on track, I do think that ah part of it was her just trying to see whatever would work. Like she wasn't quite sure, you know, trying to break out of the trance. And so it was just like, oh, show a bug down your throat, see what happens. yeah Oh man, that's always one of my first things that I always try. Just hitting that gaggle reflex with the old Kakaracha. Kukaracha?

Speaker: Get me old cockroach down your throat. isn' not a it attacks me your gas Again, though, I feel like that's just the answer, right? If there's somebody's being mind controlled, you just, you just hit them over the head real hard. and No brain damage. Don't worry about it. Like at best, my justification for this is like, it's like the kick in inception. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that's exactly what it is. Like a little drop. Yeah.

Speaker: Um, all right. Other than that. And, uh, the fact that 13th hour used to be a ward. Um, uh, I don't have anything else. Yeah. Uh, there's also the mystery sniper, right? That was just kind of a hint that somebody that's also the next chapter. Oh my God. That's also Vegas.

Speaker: and like down words going to be quiet well given we're talking now good here for me in chapter five what Okay. So I don't, I don't know if this is true, but there's like the wards give off strong, like, Hey, while you're here, you're not allowed to do drugs. You're not allowed to drink alcohol. You're not allowed to fuck your hot teammates. And you know, and then everybody's just moaning through this.

Speaker: So my guess is that the ad apps who are out here poaching heroes, as they said, we're like, yo, we're super powered, but we fuck. And instantly Stan still apparently was like, ooh, count me in and went over and became 13th hour. That is my, that is my head cannon for that. I'm sorry. What's their name? 13th hour. Nope. What's the team's name? The ad apps.

Speaker: Okay, why are they the adepts and not the adepts? Like if you're adept at something? I think it is. Because it sounds stupider when you say it like that. No, because it actually is an English language thing as a former English teacher. It's the difference between a noun and an adjective or an adverb, sorry. Nouns are pronounced one way, adverb forms of words are pronounced another way.

Speaker: um I'm trying to remember there's a bunch of examples of this though, but you are an adept, but you are adept at something.

Speaker: There's a bunch of words in the English language that are like that. I just can't recall them off up my head. so That was good. No, no, no. That was a phenomenal example. I yeah i love

Speaker: Wait, then and then? Yeah. And then you went to the store and then pizza is better than wait tacos. Well, then, I mean, if you want me to, then is just that in reference to time and then as in reference to comparison. Thank you. Yeah. OK, that's a great way of putting it.

Speaker: Okay. Good. All right. This is Benny, the teacher's corner with Nick. On to 23 .2 Hannah. Okay. Okay.

Speaker: okay All right. So moving on, uh, chapter two, Weaver ah accompanies the l LA awards to pick up. Pretender, um, and then comes in conflict with Bambina and her team as they try and break, uh, break Pretender out. And it works. Unfortunately, there's a little scurfuffle and, uh, Pretender is whisked away by Cauldron. One of the highlights of this whole arc is the world building for me.

Speaker: specifically the description of each city and the capes within and how they operate. And we see love it ah four big examples of this. One is, uh, of course our New York wards, how they, if they can't fly, then they have flying bikes, essentially, they get them around because that's what they need because they need upward mobility and to get to the city really quickly up and down. So like they need, you know, those speeder bikes. And then in Vegas, you get how they're very like practically villains already, even when they're heroes. So like everything makes sense there with how

Speaker: uh, you know, Vegas is this whole, uh, very, I use the word subterfuge a lot, but it's a subterfuge culture of them trying to outplay each other and double agent each other. I imagine. And then we get to India and we talk about their hot cold system. And then the young bond with their very collective power system. And it's just really fun and interesting to see all of those different styles of heroing explained outside of the normal. Oh, there's the hero, like the justice league set up basically. Yeah. And young is just a great name. Yes. Yeah. We'll definitely get to the young bum. I got some, got some points on him. I said. young but

Speaker: That's where I thought you were going with that. neck you with yeah And I went arrested development. i did yeah on on your model Yeah. Yeah. I also went arrested development.

Speaker: Uh, no, I agree. I agree. I think it's, I think this this is, uh, a lot of other superhero worlds feel very monolithic, I guess in like, no matter where you are, superheroes are the same. Yeah. Oh, maybe black widow has a Russian accent sometimes. And then you're like, okay.

Speaker: She's from Russia, but everything else is like universal across the planet. Well, we're, we're really like, what about does a good job of, of really making it feel like, I mean, even just within the U S like different teams have different personalities and styles and and approaches, but then globally it's even more. Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a really fun bit of world building for sure. Yeah. Uh, also the new dragon vehicle that we see here.

Speaker: The Khushal - Khulshadra, I believe. Had to look up that name because this is another one. A sonic demon from Albanian mythology. Usually described as a huge multi -headed female serpentine dragon. The archetype of darkness and evil. The opposing force to Drangu the archetype of light and good.

Speaker: Uh, Cassandra is believed to spitfire cause drought storms, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural disasters against mankind. Very, um, man, and D and D very, uh, what's the dragon queen called again? And Tiamat, very Tiamat and D and D vibes.

Speaker: as That's interesting. I wouldn't have thought of that, but I do, I do appreciate the bit of lore there. That's very fun. Yeah. Always, always love a good dragon. The dragon would be a nerd. like you we've established We've definitely established that. yeah yeah um How many MMOs do you think she was playing? Yeah, you don't have all of them simultaneously. yeah say everyone do think she Do you think she made an MMO just to play with other people? That's like the first thing she did. Listen, that's why she's been quiet so recently, right? She's just been in this deep dungeon raid with her WoW guild. I was going to say DLC just dropped for WoW in the expansion pack. You know, it's almost actually the right timeframe for that too. It's right about that time when World of Warcraft was just about to get popular. Hold on. what was that two thousand No, no, no. It was popular before then. What is this? two thousand and

Speaker: 14, I think. as I was playing it when I was about 14, 15. So that would have been... Wait, wait, hold on. ah Well, does Worm take place in 2011, published in 2014? It was published. It takes place 2011, published between 2011 and 2013. But yeah, 2011 and Yeah, We're going to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Yep.

Speaker: ah That would have been Missa Pendaria in 2012 and Cataclysm in 2010. Miss Pendaria was a really big. Cataclysm was in 2010.

Speaker: Yeah, because i I guess I started. Oh, wait, no, I've got my years all wrong. Oh, God, I'm so old. Yeah, I played World of Warcraft the year before the first ah expansion pack. No, it's OK. Let's move on. It's OK. I played it i got myself yeah because I'm thinking like, yeah, 2012 back when I was in high school. Oh, well, no. Anyway, just read.

Speaker: um we get All I have only a month question mark. Same. What what is that from? Is that what we were talking about earlier? Maybe they've only been in the wards for a month. Yeah. Oh, yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, which Nick is this chapter? yeah ah Yes. Yes. Thank you. Also this chapter. Oh, we do get we do get pretender being captured. Yeah. Not captured, but yeah.

Speaker: In transport. Yeah. In transport. And they're transporting it. Aren't they transporting it with Alexandria's old team? yeah Yes. Yes. They're all extra grumpy about it. I think you're right. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Cause they, yeah, they're, I forget. Is there, are they? Yeah. She's cause it's the Los Angeles team to record an episode. The Los Angeles team is with her to go pick them up from the, uh, the Las Vegas team. and Okay. Okay. Confused. Um, yeah. And so they go and they do that. Uh, and ah Taylor's not even in prison a week, like yeah ah talk about getting off easy.

Speaker: Well, I mean, she's a pretty heavy hitter and like clearly like she's gotten away with a lot to the point where like instead of just tossing her in the birdcage and being like, yeah, we're done. They want to keep her like they wouldn't be negotiating negotiating all this stuff with her if they didn't. So like they they want her to like feel.

Speaker: you know, the, the repercussions a little bit. So she's, you know, living in jail, but it's not anywhere near a high security enough that like actually matters. It's just all to, to push her buttons and like, see if she can follow the rules. so Yeah. I'm going to get ambushed by that. I hate the phrase, a pseudo child.

Speaker: do Childish Bambina? Childish Bambina, yes. had this a good point ah yeah

Speaker: That's all I can think of when I was reading it. is like that That's the vibe. But she says something at one point about like, yeah, my mom says that I have to work on my image. I was like, your mom? What?

Speaker: ah she's Because she's basically honey booboo. Yeah, it's horrifying. But she's forever stuck as honey booboo. Yeah, it's horrifying. It is unfortunate to the limit.

Speaker: Poor thing. Saying something. No, no, no, not poor thing because at one point in time she ends something and she's like talking about what she's going to do to somebody and and she ends it with like with her feet. It's like, oh, not a feet person. well yeah she So like part of Pretender's whole thing is that he can like become, I guess he can like become other people.

Speaker: Is that part of his power? Uh, it's not explained until later. It's some, okay. Well, from, from this chapter, she, cause basically Bambina is saying that, that pretender has in payment for having her help break him out is he will turn basically like, ah I don't know, turn himself into or have some, some high celebrity. I can't remember who it is. And she, that's what she's saying. She's like, I'm going to basically fuck this celebrity. And this is, these are all the things I'm going to do to them. It's like, Oh no. Like, Oh my God. Like that's what she's, that's what she's talking about when Taylor tunes her out and thank God we don't hear the whole thing. But yeah.

Speaker: yeah yeah I think that was more just wild bo being like, Uh, Taylor tunes her out because yeah I don't want to write this. I don't want to write that. We don't want to read it. Thank you. I appreciate you. Well, good life choice. Um, so yeah, there's that there's that this entire thing, the entire arc or not arc, my brain's failing me the entire chapter.

Speaker: is the very first time that this chapter has actually stuck with me. I have read and listened to this chapter, I don't know, four times now. And for the life of me, like my brain, this is one of those, my brain just slides right off it. I cannot, this was the first time I understood what was going on, but it leads me to,

Speaker: So I think wild those biggest weakness in his writing and that is geography. I think he does a really poor job of trying to depict where people are spatially and what's going on spatially. And it doesn't matter. And.

Speaker: It's, he he like tries to write it and I just don't care. Cause that doesn't matter. Like I think all the way back to the warehouse fight with Kaiser and stuff. Like I remember that many times I've read that I didn't realize how much of that fight takes place outside the warehouse and like where people are on railings and stuff inside the warehouse. Cause it's just, it,

Speaker: Oh, it really doesn't matter. And I feel like it doesn't. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel like he does a great job of having his location matter all that much, even though he wants to stress it. Yeah. Would you say, geography, you're talking like specifically like, like location description and space? Like hear, hear me out the coil getting shot.

Speaker: How many, before this reading time, remember where he actually got shot? I always thought it was a field. I always thought it was a field out back behind like a like ah some abandoned building. That is also what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. But it's on the beach. It's on the beach, out in the open.

Speaker: it Now, does that matter? Does where he died matter? No, not at all. But like we we took time to get there. He took time to describe it. I guess I don't honestly remember. And like yeah another one is Taylor inside of the burning building. That is such a slap dash. I do not.

Speaker: like spatially do not vibe with that entire sequence. so I personally loved that. But, you know, no I love the event. I do not like how she is moving through space in that sequence. It did it's another one of those. It worked fine yeah specifically in the burning building, but.

Speaker: But I get what you're trying to say, though, that like spatially how things are and how they're described doesn't necessarily meet your expectation for the scene. I get that. ah i I think I just tend to not care as much. I tend to care way more about like the individual capes and like how their powers are working within the situation. And like honestly, I don't really care about the the what's around us as I only care if, if we're, it's being utilized in the fight. Like if we're putting up buildings and Siberian's walking through them and you know, stuff like that, then I care. But otherwise like, I don't really care about the location, like the visual aspect of where they are because I'm way more interested in like how the capes are operating in that space. so Yeah. And maybe that's it. Maybe it's like, that's the more important thing. So like,

Speaker: I'm not thinking about that. And we'll get to the Yangban, uh, episode is also another one of those where. Spatially, I don't, you know, them using their powers to move is more important than them moving from one location to the other location. Like the, how they got there is so much more important to me. And I yeah.

Speaker: it's It's tough reading those chapters because of how much writing he does put on this the the moving from place to place. And I just forget all of it because it doesn't matter.

Speaker: Yeah, that's it's kind of funny. and I never thought about it it. That kind of thing doesn't bother me though, personally, because I have such a ah ah visual ah approach to reading um that when things aren't described well, I will naturally just fill in the blanks with my own image of what that's going on. yeah So when when when there's less emphasis placed on that, there's just more room for me to construct it the way I want it to look like, if that makes sense. Yeah. subconscious Which is, which is what I'm trying, I guess I'm trying to say as like, that's something that every time, like I said, the fact that the coil got shot on a beach, never thought for a second that he was shot on the beach until this read through. Uh, it was all like, we talked about it was always in a field behind an abandoned building. Um, and it's because like brain fills that in and, uh, I think

Speaker: You know, that's not, ah yeah. i like It doesn't bother me in terms of, most of the time it doesn't bother me because it's just, I find the the spatially describing to be boring. So I just, I guess wipe it from my memory while I'm reading. And this is the first time I've been very aware of like, oh yeah, this is boring to read them moving this location, this location.

Speaker: Interesting. I haven't really put a lot of conscious thought into it, but I'm going to, I'm going to think about it a little bit. Interesting. Yeah. I tend, I tend to, I tend to like less vivid description is strictly so I can imagine it myself. Yeah. But it's and the the opposite problem would be yield a chair or Tolkien. Yeah. Mr. where He takes two pages to describe a mantle piece.

Speaker: Yeah, I still will never get over that mantelpiece and it's what stops me every time I start and I think about, oh man, I really want to read Lord of the Rings again. And then I pick it up and I get to that mantelpiece like, I don't know, 12 pages in and I'm like, nope. Skip it. Skip the mantelpiece. If anyone needs public service announcement, if anyone needs some encouragement to reread Lord of the Rings,

Speaker: Andy Serkis's recent audiobooks are an absolute masterpiece. you know what i said be without say you You should just listen to it, Alan. I think you probably enjoy it a lot more. I've listened to the whole Lord of the Rings again. I mean, through the Hobbit a little bit. It's it brilliant. he's Yeah, Hobbit. Banger.

Speaker: Um, chapter three. Was there anything, Nick, I know Nick had a bunch of thoughts on this chapter beforehand on the shooter. Yeah. thus Actually, think we do need to talk about the sniper though. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cause the, the sniper and the lady who comes and just wipes out the team to save pretender. I mean, that's, um, that's what's her name, right?

Speaker: And Tessa. And Tessa. Right? Like, it's gotta be. Right? Was she named or is it just assumed that she is? She's not named. I don't think she's named, but that's the assumption, yeah. Boogie, woogie, woogie. Yeah. Yeah. And does, I couldn't remember exactly, because again, I was listening to it, so I didn't have time to go back and reread it. Does she kill people? No, not in this scene. She just knocks him out. Not here. Not here, okay. He's done it before. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: I will say, eyes yeah, she she doesn't seem to kill people. She's really good at taking everybody out, though. Yeah, yeah, she just takes everybody out in this. I think I'm confusing it with a lungs arc where she yes kills everybody without spilling a drop of blood. So I'm kind of. Yeah, and then an up on the roof, we assume. Yeah, I got to say um Bambina starlet and ah August, is August, prince yeah.

Speaker: Ah, so creepy children are just like at the peak of like, error in many ways for me. Yeah. Um, and I say that as a dad with two kids. I was about to say, is that cause you have children? We're not creepy. No, they're not creepy. So it's like the perversion of everything I love. Um, but I think in particular August, princess power, like I'm imagining like a 10 year old, right? Like you think to yourself, okay, 10 year olds, they're not that strong.

Speaker: And yet his ability to basically nullify your willingness to fight him. And so he just like, because he's shorter than you, he's stuck as a 10 year old or is a 10 year old, just like pushes you over and like crawls up you and grabs your throat. I'm like, ah yeah the vibes are all wrong here.

Speaker: yeah When I said choke me, I didn't. This is what I mean. This isn't who I meant. Oh, God. Not like that. i Not like that. jesus Like this. Not like this. No. That is such a weird direction. Please continue. Anyways, but you know what I mean, though, is like, oh, that's that's unpleasant. And then what is Starless Power? I never really got a read on what she does. I don't even remember if she didn't matter. like Okay. I'm going to assume it's not going to assume Dazzler abilities from X -Men. I thought she could like shoot like little like beams of lit lasers or that explode or something, which is, I guess kind of what she, she fires explosives. Oh, wait. She fires explosive darts of light. So Dazzler, sweet. so desperate yeah The most useless of all the X -Men.

Speaker: Excellent. Okay, cool. I love that. I will say this is so funny. There is only one line under her personality in the Wiki. It says, personality finds Bambina very funny.

Speaker: ah and okay know know A goddamn thing about this 12 year old, which it does say she's 12. Uh, just that she finds Bambina very funny. That's funny. All righty. Well, in that case, uh, any, uh, sniper, you want to talk about the sniper Nick? Oh, I just, I i brought up Contessa already. She's cool.

Speaker: ah She was not the sniper. i was like She wasn't the sniper. She portals in after oh she does hergainst portals out. Sniper is up in the building firing at Rhyme. I just, I think it's funny. I assumed it was the same person. Cause then she just portals in with the doorman's power to get where she needs to be. But she takes out Rhyme. Yeah. Uh, yes. But ah they were talking about the supernatural like I don't know, calculations and stuff, which very much could be her. The vibe I got was this was a two -prong attack. Oh, it was the number man, probably. The number man, because they talk about, like, he's the ricocheting bullets and... Yeah, he has good... It seems very much... I will say, so we've talked a lot on this podcast about how Coil Sniper would solve a lot of problems, but we do see that here. Like, we do see the number man, who of all people would be a good

Speaker: a good sniper to have to take care of people. And like, it's definitely a problem. Like he definitely poses a threat, but not in the way that like we've talked about snipers being used. And I think that's kind of, that's kind of cool that like, that is something we have talked about quite a bit. And then like, whoop, there's a sniper and it didn't work as well as we would have. You know what it kind of reminds me of? Sorry to interrupt you. No, no, not at all. You know what it kind of reminds me of is, um,

Speaker: Have you guys seen any clips of a grandpa gaming? Oh, yeah. No. Yes. He is a he's a grandpa, pretty sure ex military older guy. Yes. Um, strings battlefield. Yeah. Ex sniper strings battlefield. Right. Which is like one of the more realistic shooter games. Yeah. He is crazy, like crazy good at sniping, like across the map kind of things. And because it's battlefield, they're huge maps, right? Like he sees a dot on the edge. He's like,

Speaker: All right. like I, I marked that guy. Like everybody watch out. Like he's kind of the scout, but then he just pops people who are yeah not moving and fast enough. And it's incredible. And then he just laughs. Yeah. And then he just laughs. It's great. Yeah. Plug for grandpa gaming. It's fantastic. Oh, he's great. I'll have to look him up. I love snipers. Who doesn't love snipers? I like to play a sniper in Borderlands too. I think it's fun.

Speaker: I mean, and in in most shooter games, there's not much more of a satisfying feeling than getting a headshot on one of your friends. I don't know. Shotgun to the back of a camping bitch is also pretty nice. I mean, okay. Okay. We, you know, you know what? Next, uh, we did a tier list on our Patreon. Next tier list has gotta be most satisfying video game weapons to use. Uh, gravity hammers definitely high up there.

Speaker: Oh, but i would say I thought you were going to suggest that we just stream us playing Halo. That's what I thought you were going to say, which I would love that we can watch Hannah. Do you want to stream that kind of embarrassment at the sky? Yeah, I don't know if I don't know if it's very embarrassing. If we Twitch stream that, I don't think Twitch will allow that kind of violence. I know. Watch us get slaughtered on Twitch. But Nick. Brutal. I'm not that good.

Speaker: I am not grandpa gaming in fact. ah um Yeah, but we're worse than average. Yeah. So yeah. All right. You're forgetting our elite levels of skill.

Speaker: All right, 23 .3. Yeah, 23 .3. Okay, so chapter three, ah taylor Taylor goes to confront Glenn, talk a little bit about the restrictions that have been placed on her and finds out when the restrictions will be lifted. i It's 18 when she's ah an official adult and has like proven herself within the the the rules they've given her.

Speaker: ah She offers to make costumes ah for them to to be helpful, gets mail from the undersiders, and ah designs her costume in her little sketchbook.

Speaker: Okay, so this is what I was talking about before with the Taylor kind of getting a piece of humble pie. Mm hmm. Yep. Because she comes in with such a judgmental view of Glenn. And to be fair, he doesn't sound like maybe the best guy, but she comes in with all these preconceived notions about who he is and what he's like only to come to find out he's one of the people who advocated for her to join. Yeah. In the first place. And he came up with these compromises to make everybody happy enough to let her join.

Speaker: Yeah. And she's just like throwing it back in his face. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, it reminds me of that key and peel sketch where he's like, Oh no, I'm not persecuted. I'm just an asshole.

Speaker: yeah ah Not that Taylor's completely in the wrong. I get where she's coming from in part, but yeah, but like it's, it's so obnoxious that she's like,

Speaker: I don't understand why you won't let me like use my full potential. Like, bitch, you've been a super villain who ran a city. They're not going to trust you after like one fucking week in jail. Can you calm down, please? Like, oh, yeah, you're a showing. Yeah, your teenager is showing Taylor. i Yeah. Every time I read this, such mixed feelings on Glenn. Yeah. Oh, same. It's everything about him.

Speaker: And yet somehow, despite him being just irritating to read, I mean, even his clothing description and hair like his little mohawk. That's so funny. It's so funny. I can't just that everything about him irritates me. Somehow I. I don't like him.

Speaker: But I tolerate him way more than I do a lot of other characters. I feel like he has. He he's like he he he gets all this like weird levels of respect where people like everyone listens to him. They while they do it grudgingly like everyone listens to him. He has all of these like college interns running around fetching him. You know, ven because he's just devil devils wears Prada.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah he's he's got fashion designer vibes for sure. yeah Like RuPaul's Drag Race winner kind of vibes. Yes. Maybe that's why. Well, but I love it though. I love that Taylor sees him and then sees herself and she considers herself like, he's the guy who only cares about what's happening in front of a camera. He only cares about the PR and I'm on the ground. I know what's going on. I was like, bitch, as much as you think you do, you really don't know all that much. So maybe shut up and sit down and realize that

Speaker: He's trying to do you a favor here and he's trying to see... like It's all a test. like All of this is a test to see how you respond under pressure, to see how you respond when you're given orders. like Can you follow through? And you've proven very quickly with only two trips that you simply cannot because you were told you're not allowed to use stinging biting bugs and she uses a biting bug to bite Bambina, even though she was strictly told you can't use them. And she's, oh, well, and he's like, no, it's been a test since the beginning, Taylor. like Since the beginning. I do love to the outside perspective where he's just like, she's like, I don't get it. And he's like, hang on a second. Uh, let me like roll the clip. You know, he pulls up the clip of her attacking the PRT. So good. And just the, she looks at it and she's like, Oh, I get it. Okay.

Speaker: <unk>s say, Oh, that's, Oh, that's me. Oh, Ooh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And, and much like I, I do love interludes where we see Taylor from someone else's perspective. Like I really enjoyed the Brian interlude because we got to see the wave that.

Speaker: skitter that Taylor moves and operates and like how she, you know, she looks and hears and responds to things that aren't there and stuff like that. And like, I loved seeing that little piece of insight into her from Brian's perspective. And we're getting that again with Glenn here and like through the security kept footage and her realizing like, Oh my gosh, like I didn't realize I even moved like that or like tactics that I hadn't ever taught myself that I, I do like,

Speaker: I love that insight of like her realizing that. It's it's it's that slice of humble pie coming in and and ah yeah it's about time. It's about time for her, yeah. um And I think that's why I tolerate Glenn more by the end, because at first he does come across as pretty rude, but by the end you realize, okay, still rude, but like,

Speaker: You, you're doing good, good work too. And it's always, it's always interesting to me too. I think Taylor has a tendency to look very harshly on regular humans who work with parahumans I've noticed. yeah Um, like very harshly towards picket, obviously harshly towards tag for good reason. They're at least very harshly towards Glenn and a bunch of other people. Um, it's just a really interesting thing to make if he's always like.

Speaker: You know, and and we've talked about that before that prior to for being like, well, you know, parahumans are just kind of better than regular people. no And it's like, you know, like, yes, literally in one sense you are better, but sometimes that feels like a value statement too of like, Oh, it's not just cause I'm, you know, i I have superpowers. Like I'm just a better person than you. Cause I'm a parahuman. Yeah.

Speaker: It feels like she sees the normies in like one of two categories. Either they are stupid, regular, normal people who need to be saved from themselves or from the bad guys, which she's like more than willing to like step up and be the hero.

Speaker: or they're in a position of power and she looks at them with like, you don't really know how it actually is because you're not one of us. Like they fall into one of those two categories. And it's like, either you look at them as you're going to be the hero and come in and save them, or you look at them with disdain. Like girl, eat so we need to rethink a little bit here. yeah I'm hoping that her therapy sessions with this Yamada is going to help with that.

Speaker: I always hope. Meanwhile, she's, uh, as much as I don't like Glenn, I love Chevalier. Oh yeah. Chevalier saves the day. There's a reason he is the big boy in charge now. Yeah, he's cool. ah yeah You know, all I'm saying is the one man who's not overcompensating.

Speaker: Just matching the energy. You know what I'm saying? It's true. It's true. He's got big cannon energy. You can take that Chevy to the levee any day. i mean If you know what I mean. I do. I see what you did there.

Speaker: ah Atlas. We get an Atlas statue going through the letters. um Rip. really you know I thought if i from what I remembered him before, like he kind of gets, he goes out, you know,

Speaker: know You know, tragically and and reading this, he did get the respect paid to him that he deserved. It still was, you know, ashamed to have him die off camera, but, you know, what a good boy. I'm glad they cast him and, you know, you know, we just got to give one last shout out. Fuck you, Amy.

Speaker: Goddamn it. I need you piece of shit, motherfucker. I do want to make a meme. What a goddamn bitch. The Atlas was overgrown. He had human intestines. Like, the dude was suffering. there's If anyone else is a fan of ah ah Sky Captain and the World Tomorrow, there's a horrifying scene about halfway through the film where the protagonist is interviewing like a dying prisoner.

Speaker: And the prisoner is like, just grant me one wish and I'll tell you what you want. He's like, what? He's just like, kill me. Cause he's all in pain. Like that's how I imagine Atlas went out and like, like tattletales said, Oh yeah, you know, he, he just died of natural causes. Meanwhile, it was two shots to the back of the head, like a mercy kill. oh It's like withering away. We'll have our own farm with rabbits, Atlas. yeah yeah ah I don't want a farm. I want you to shoot me. End this, please. I'll send you through the portal. It'll be fine. Please! Please! yeah i do i do love I do love all the letters, just so full of personality. Yes. Imps. Just the ha, ha, ha, ha, What the fuck?

Speaker: It's so good. Rachel's is beautiful. Oh, I love it. I forgot Rachel couldn't read or write. So it makes sense that she has a scribe. Here's, here's the one thing that bothers me about it though. I know that she said like she was writing fast because Rachel was talking fast. Maybe I think she said that, but yeah.

Speaker: Like, okay, Rachel can't read or write. Do we have to make her letter written by her scribe in like caveman speak? Went through a portal dogs. Good. Yeah. It's like like no and through portal stop. It's like a telegram. Yeah, basically. It's like, ah okay. Like I know the know the scribe says she was talking really fast, so I had to write really fast and cut some things out, but.

Speaker: Yeah. It's still funny to me of just like, Oh yes, Rachel can't read or write dogs. Good. We in portal hunt good like okay sweet Davey Crockett, Rachel.

Speaker: which

Speaker: Yeah, with the bison. Oh my gosh. Rachel queen of the wild frontier. which This is pulling from a a future, from the future interlude, but I do love the outside perspective. Somebody looks at Rachel as like male, female, not sure. so Giant dog. Giant dogs, scary male, female, and one of the two, not sure.

Speaker: yeah I love it. All right. Yeah. Moving on. 23 .4 Yamada. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Why are we here? Oh hell no. Taylor meets with Mrs Yamada. Miss Yamada. Excuse me. Uh, she is single. Uh, trust me. I'm very aware. No, I'm very aware every time I read Ms Yamada.

Speaker: No, I just, in my notes, I had said Mrs. So I like was mentally faced. Anyways. Uh, talks about her fears. The wards go to visit a high school and Taylor invents Weaver dice. And then comes the he -meth. Oh, God. I don't know what else there's to say. I love miss Yamada. Her doing the therapy with, ah she does once again, she needs to take a better care of herself.

Speaker: That's why she's showing up late to therapy sessions. She's probably not even helping. She does so much. She's giving so much of herself. Once again, Tiamara, you gotta, you gotta to get locked in. You gotta take care of yourself so that you can take care of others. Take care of number ones. You can get take care of everyone else. That's right. Yeah, no, I love a good therapy session. I love a little bit of introspection.

Speaker: Um, Taylor is so much of the like leader mentality. She's got 18 million things going on at once in her head. I like that. Them as Yamada really pushes her to like, I feel statements and like, where are you actually, what do you want out of this? I thought her questions were really good to make Taylor think about her current position.

Speaker: Think about what she needs, what she wants, how she wants to move forward in her, you know, new Cape career. I just thought I, ah yeah, more therapy, more therapy. Yeah. Just a general PSA.

Speaker: Yeah, everybody. Yeah. And then they go to school and, uh, bless her back to this. Bless Ms. Her, Ms. Yamada for realizing that like, Taylor mentioned that she really likes to run and that she feels really restless. Maybe sitting in an office ain't the way. Let's take a walk, like bless.

Speaker: And i I just want to shout out too that I feel like Miss Yamada is one of the first characters to be an absolute straight shooter with Taylor yeah in the sense of like, all right, Taylor, before we begin, let me give you my options. I'm offering you therapy as your therapist. Here's what that would look like. Here's the pros. Here's the cons, which is exactly what Taylor needs, right? Like literally nobody has done this with her.

Speaker: Pretty much at any point in her life, it feels like, at least in the story. Yeah. So I just, I just appreciate that about her, that she has an immediate read on Taylor and is willing to be like, okay, in clear terms, here are the options for how I can help you. What do you want me to do for you? Yeah. So good. All right. Uh, then they go to school. Yeah. I love that part. ah and she starts That's where, that's what the line is from. Why are we here? They begin talking and she starts telling the powers and Taylor goes, ah says something and and about drugs and one of the capes I think goes, Oh hell no. Yeah.

Speaker: It's that and the, how much money did you make? And they're like, you don't need to know. And then Taylor goes 15 to 20 million. And one of the boys just goes, so good that's not yeah ah the it's just wonder you were a villain yeah it's all God, they're making minimum wage over here as a ward. Yeah. Like, I don't even get to see that money. That goes into a trust for a college fund.

Speaker: Oh man. It's a good, it's a good little chapter. I like the, which, which group of words is she with? It's with, um, Chicago Chicago. Is this Chicago? Okay. No, no, no. She's Reynard and Goggle boy. You're not Chicago. she She gets her with, she gets paired with Chicago eventually, right?

Speaker: like Yes, in the Behemoth fight. mean like Oh, that's right. That's right. We're in the Behemoth fight because they're the group. As Defiant says, well, they're the only group that wants you right now. so Yeah, that's right. Fantastic.

Speaker: um um But yeah, wherever she is. um he's Boston. but but Of course, hanging out with the inner city kids. yeah That makes sense. And Weaver dice is so interesting. It is, it does feel a tad convoluted. Um, it does like this almost feels like you'd expect a Kickstarter link at the end of this chapter for the Weaver dice game. If you were interested. Um, yeah but, but convolution aside, I appreciate that.

Speaker: Everybody gives Taylor a chance to try to explain what she's really doing, which is showing that there are pros to being a villain, but there are really a lot of cons to that probably outweigh the pros, right? Like the whole, yeah the one kid who's like, sweet, I got a bunch of money. And she's like, okay, you fight the heroes, beat them off. ah No pun intended. Um, you fight fight the villains. Nice. Yeah. clock blocker nice ah Um, then villains come to fight and the kids like, but wait, we're on the same side. And she's like, no, you don't, know you don't get it. Villains are kind like heroes are all on the same start side, regardless of like who you are, but villains, everyone is you're against everybody. You're against heroes. You're against villains. You're against the, what do they call it? The rogues like you're on your own. Yep. Yeah. So.

Speaker: It was cool. It's fun. it's It's always a fun chapter to like listen to and think through and imagine like, okay, what powers would you get? Poor kid who got the wind blowing powers. Like that kind of sucks.

Speaker: yeah yeah like think about Like that's so funny. And he's lost his sense of direction. Like he has to interact. Like he has to get other people to help him when he's not actively like blooming himself away. So like there's an old, I don't know if it's a comic or if it's just a character from champions, since this has brought to my mind.

Speaker: Uh, but he's essentially like your Superman type character, except he, one of his things he carries is a map and compass. Cause as he's flying through New York, New York city, he constantly has to be like trying to find which road he's on. Oh, in my mind is, is the map just blowing in his face the whole time? Like he like flies grabs it and then like whips out the map and then like sticks it back in and then flies a little bit more.

Speaker: But yeah, it's a great visual flapping against his face. It's like trying to usually compass to straighten it out, you know? Yeah. As he's flying, he's dropping it. Yeah. But then they, they're talking about this and, uh, you know, she's laying out all these things for the kids, which I love. I love somebody being a straight shooter with kids telling it how it is. This is strong. I, this, I love You know, doing this at camp, this was a lot of fun. And even the tricking kids into playing D and D, I definitely have done that at least once. And, you know, they get really into it. Once they start playing, they'll realize how much fun it is, but like. Oh yeah. That's how you track them. They have a blast, especially if you simplify things. Um, but then, uh, they, they talking about the kids about how many people survive.

Speaker: and they get the call in the middle of that. And I knew it was coming, but my gut physically dropped while reading it. like who Yeah, this is the section um moving from here on till the end of the arc. This is the section I like to call Hannah Cries Because of the Impending Doom. um i think I think I cry anytime we get into um and bring our stuff because i just I know how many bodies are going to fall, even if I don't know who we're going to lose. like We got really lucky and we only lost the some of the dogs last time.

Speaker: And I have no recollection of what happens next. ah But I know we can't like... I i know it's it's not possible for us to go through another end bringer fight and not lose important people. And I... It makes me so sad. I think I just love the idea of all these people coming together, like all the capes coming together, regardless of whether they're heroes or villains. And like, well, we all understand that we're going to fight and die under a common cause, under a a common enemy. And like that just...

Speaker: Hmm, that gets me. And like them talking about like capes one and four are going to die and then immediately like you know gets the call like and the kid's like, is that is that true? like Is that really true that it's one and four? And she's like, those are the odds that gave me when I fought.

Speaker: you know leviathan like Bye. Like an off she went, you know, and these kids like having no idea, you know, if any of these caves that they just hung out with are about to go to their death, like, Oh, yeah, that's a hard one.

Speaker: It's kind of, it's it's one of those things where like in the past couple arcs, it was kind of been talked about how, you know, ah the capes or the, you know, the protectorate and the villains are, there's sort of this unspoken understanding that it's a bit of cops and robbers where, you know, everyone's kind of playing the same game, but then the end bringers come in and just remind everyone that this isn't a game.

Speaker: Like at the end of the day, they are just these terrifying creatures that are unstoppable. And it's just this end of the world apocalyptic -esque scenario that really throws a wrench in everything. And honestly, a lot of other superhero properties could stand to have a couple end bringers in them.

Speaker: like Batman's breaking Joker out of Arkham or Joker's breaking himself out of Arkham for like that, that you know, 20, a thousandth time. I mean, I'm going to get you again, you yeah stupid clown. And then it just behemoth showing up would have just fixed a lot of my problems with the with the DC Universal to say that shots fired. one And behemoth is known as the hero killer, too. So there's a. Yeah, I don't know. With each of the end bringers, they bring such an ominous

Speaker: moment to them, right? So with Leviathan, it was the whole, well, you remember what happened to Newfoundland, like it's gone. um And then the simmer, if you hear all about what she does. Yeah. Madison, Wisconsin. And now we've seen briefly a fight with behemoth already with Alexandria. Um, but just even that name, like, oh, this is behemoth. He's the hero killer. Like the other two aren't.

Speaker: Like, you know, like wait a second. What did he have to do to get that nickname with when there's two other in bringers around? Yeah, what one in four died against Leviathan, the weakest end bringer. Yeah, it's like, yeah, you know, now it's literacy to the hero killer. God. Yeah, pretty cool. Pretty scary. Pretty cool. Oh, yeah. and ah Once again, just want to plug Sundara. Her fan art for a Behemoth is ah spectacular. Fan art for all three is great, but the Behemoth one is particularly puts them in scale and it's really good. the buthe Yeah, that Behemoth fan art is fantastic. Absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah, terrifying. he was Speaking of.

Speaker: Yep. Uh, so chapter five, um, the group flies to India. Taylor gets a jet pack. Love that. Uh, we meet with the undersiders again, little catch up, um, and watches the attack. And, uh, on the ground, she is put in command of the Chicago warts, which is a little bit of a surprise, but also kind of a fun thing because she is one of the few that has Uh, been in two end bringer fights, what we're calling end bringer fights. If we're calling Noel, uh, an end bringer. Uh, yeah. So technically she's fought too now, which puts her in a leadership role over the Chicago awards.

Speaker: Pretty cool. Kind of crazy. Yeah. Man, what six months does. Yeah. Gosh.

Speaker: Yeah. um man the start I love the back end of this chapter, but the front half, like too much technical detail. There is a lot. I did feel like this was the this this one and the interlude, I got a little lost in where I was like, okay, i um I'm kind of losing myself a little bit in the detail here. Yeah.

Speaker: I do like just from personality and character development. I do really like the defiant conversations with ah Taylor that part. Oh, thank you. Yes. for this Fantastic. yeah Um, where he's like, basically, you know, the jet pack is a gift and it's like, most sinkers don't go out of their way to make tech for other heroes. Cause then they got to maintain it. But basically what it comes down to is like, this is my way of saying, sorry. Yeah.

Speaker: And, you know, he's you know the ah Defiant has has is growing on me as a character. He is. He is. He's learning to be a better man. Since the beginning. Love this guy. that gone ah Not since the beginning, but I do love him now.

Speaker: Yeah, definitely not since the beginning. He's, if you can't handle him, then you don't deserve him at his arm. Master that you don't deserve him at his arm. Master.

Speaker: a put it on a shirt maybe Oh, that's good. And then I do love, I do love that the Chicago wards want skitter.

Speaker: Yeah. And it's kind of that moment of like, Hey, you have a choice, you know, defines like, you have a choice. Chicago words want you. Um, once again, people are watching. Yeah, that's awkward. But, but like, once again, it took them sitting down with her to like, just, you know, they, all they had to do is interact with her once at the echidna fight to be like, Oh yeah, she's not crazy. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, you mean, you mean the badass that won us the fight against a pseudo hand bringer? Yeah, we'll take her. Yeah. Like if she hadn't have been there, it was like, Oh, she got two of your people or one of your people killed and the other like radiated. It's like, bitch, if she hadn't have been there, we would have all been radiated. Yeah. We are quite fucked. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, that one. And, uh, yeah, just, I love, uh, so you got Tecton who's, I, I, you know, we love Tecton back from that Echidna fight and he still is like, yeah, yeah, she's cool. Like, she's a good, like, I trust her. She's Uh, and then, uh, Golem who I remember who he is.

Speaker: ah I is. It's like the one thing I remember. Yeah, technically a spoiler because it hasn't been revealed yet. Is it golem or is it just golem? The correct pronunciation is golem for that word, yeah but Taylor misinterprets it as golem, which I just love that Lord of the Rings exists in this universe. like great yeah Well, he star they may be a bleed over from the other one. We don't know. Yeah. Well, that's true. They know about it. If not, but technically, the big split did happen in what? Nineteen eighties. Yeah.

Speaker: how mid world touch ah so james says

Speaker: going to cut some rest of like no that put that in the sound bites of bears about that one that was amazing ah do it stages precious now yeah i i do love though poor poor gole He's like, she's like, wait, did you name yourself after the little freak from Lord of the, and he's like, no, no damn it. Every time.

Speaker: nobody Nobody knows, shit about change in my name sheborn guys all guys like nobody knows, Jewish folklore, which is the, ah which is the biggest irony too. If you remember who he is, which I love. and i biggest purpose Like most of these, like they're going up against behemoth and leviathan, you know, two of the giant monsters from the Bible, the old estimate at that. it's funny came Oh, that's great. I like he he I like thinking he went out of his way to purposely pick a name within the same naming conventions that a lot of other capes use. Right. And still everyone's ignoring him. Like, um like guys, I did this for you. if like now I would have picked something. I would have picked hand slammer if it were up to me. yeah Well, we don't know that yet. Allegedly. I don't know what he does yet. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Speaker: A hand slammer is really going to give it away. yeah A hand slammer describes 50 % of the people on there. See if that's true. That is true. See if uh, if clock blocker had been in charge of his name, he probably would have been called stoner.

Speaker: But ah and okay, I like that a lot. But you know, that's great. Um, anyways, I also do love the hot and cold thing. We talked about it briefly earlier, the categorization of India's heroes where it's like, which, okay. I don't know much about Indian culture and I'm basing that this almost entirely off of Indian Spider -Man from into the spider verse. I'm um like and that no, that tracks like that's a fun,

Speaker: Basically it's like you have, they're much more upfront about the game basically, right? Where it's like, oh, you've got the big flashy heroes and villains who will win today on this, you know, Bollywood battle between, you know, so and so and so and so. Oh, you better believe there is a dance off and musical number every fight. Oh yeah. Um, and then you've got the cold heroes who are like, I know those are the real like heroes and villains who are like, okay, they're going around murdering people and taking out bad guys or taking out good guys. Um, so I just, I love that differentiation and I think that's such an interesting thing. And I don't know if there is any more culture to that that I don't know, but I'd love to know more if there is. Interesting. One side is doing WWE wrestling yeah essentially. And the other side is killing each other.

Speaker: ah gosh ah It's good. It's good. It's fun. Um, and apparently the, the ones who died that that as they were flying in were some of the hot heroes who were just like, we'll fight behemoths. Oh shit. and yeah getting slaughtered It's all I imagined is just, they're like, um, great you know what it is. I know I've made a lot of references, but the one that comes to mind is a spy kids 3d.

Speaker: where it's the guy, spoilers for a really old movie, but Elijah Wood comes in at the end is like the chosen one, yeah opens the door to the final boss and immediately gets zapped and killed. Oh, it's so good. Hannah knows about that, she just watched it. I literally watched all three of the spy kids because the four months, I watched all three of the spy kids last week when I was staying up till like three in the morning sewing and it was and absolutely phenomenal, completely forgot.

Speaker: how amazing the first one was, how hilarious the second one is so and how just weird balls to the walls of third one was. Oh man. But yeah, that's good shit that's what I imagine these heroes as is they just, yeah they jump in, they're flashy. They're like, we're the heroes. We'll fight them. Oh God. And then they're dead. media Like they're, they're like Glenn's chosen ones. He like loves them. They're like the front page heroes, but they are completely Yeah, I mean, and it's almost in with like the boys. ah The boys has a good depiction of this. We're like the heroes go to help the plane.

Speaker: I mean, in the comic and in the show, and then they realize like, we don't know how to stop this plane. We can't help anybody. And then they just let it blow up. yeah completely less yeah yeah We Yeah, we can't do anything. And then in another moment, like spoiler for the comics, but there's an original lineup of heroes that they made back in like Vietnam or World War II or something. And they go out, of course, a dude flying in a cape and ah an American flag, like,

Speaker: up in the air, of course it's going to lead to everybody getting killed. like the He's not a trained soldier. like All the heroes get instantly shot down so quickly.

Speaker: yeah because they're They're flashy and they're bright, and that's not what you need on an actual battlefield. Yeah. This is this is where Green Lantern bites it. and If the the Justice League are fighting, Green Lantern goes out. A famous clip of him trying to fight Darkseid, isn't that it? yeah The Para Demon just beats the shit out of him. Everybody needs to look that up if you haven't seen it. In my but in my continuous war against DC,

Speaker: yeah apparently shot apparently yeah jacob jacob shoot a lot to atone for yeah yeah yeah just the fact that they gave zach snyder any creative rights is enough to you know warrant some punishment ah um i do ah what was it okay then we we got to talk about the ah the young bun Yeah, Are we we got in here or are we going to just talk about the Yangban in the sort of Yangban chapter? but Well, they're introduced in this part, right? They watched them fighting. Yeah, um which. Yeah, yeah they. ah You know, I guess a bit of and the interlude, did anybody catch that it was the time reversal power?

Speaker: that we've seen already, because I kind of forgot. I was like, oh, that's neat. I feel like I've seen that before. Yeah. Oh, we could say who it is because we it's and literally revealed in the next minute. It's Cody. He's allowed. Cody! I was listening to the interlude while I was cooking dinner tonight before this. ah Yes, I did wait till the last minute. um But I like like looked into the library where Alan was sitting and I was like, it's Cody! And he was like, I know. It's Cody!

Speaker: Listen, the worm, the worm Mincha hit me hard with Cody. I was like, I thought he was so fucking dead. I like, I was, I was like, wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait a stinking minute. I know who you are. Yeah. But unfortunately the person who did not get time reverse fast enough just gets to explode again. And that really sucks. Oh man. A beam so nice you die to it twice. Basically.

Speaker: Uh, but it is interesting to see a totally different philosophy of fighting, right? And I think that it's interesting that Taylor sees this because I do feel like with her conversation with miss Yamada about like, she says basically, Oh, do you just think that if everybody thought like you, you know, it would work out and she's like, I don't know, maybe.

Speaker: And that's basically where the Yangban are is it's like, no, everybody will think like us. We will fight as a unit. We're highly trained. We've seen the Yangban before with Long as well. Um, so we know that they are very much about like breaking down your psyche and your part of the collective. yeah Um, so it is interesting to see them. Um, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: And of course the irony of like all the protectorate's what's corrupt with the world is what the young bonds always said. And Taylor's like, well, they're kind of right, I guess. Yeah. yeah It's one of those American diabolism things where it's like, yes, which all the things you said about America are true, but that's foreshadowing the other person. Correct. That's true. Yeah, exactly. Foreshadowing though. That's a lot more true than we realized at this point. Cause I do remember something that is related to that. But anyways, um,

Speaker: No spoilers though. Okay. No, no spoilers. We can talk about it afterwards without Hannah. yeah Anyway, a they, they touched down and she's like, Oh, by the way, you know, she's meeting with the undersiders and she's like, ah, yes. Uh, and everybody's filming, of course. Yes. And she's like, you know, Oh, it's Weaver now.

Speaker: Lisa, of course dead names or anyway, uh, all the letters help except for amps. yeah Uh, and then classic Taylor, not getting, oh, wait, wait, hold on. I have classic Taylor, not getting that D and D are together. Oh yeah.

Speaker: Dragon and his client? Oh, Dragon and the client. He like walks over and Defiant has like his arms, like he's like wrapped around a dragon and she has this moment, which is like, Oh, they're like together together, together. Yeah. Which is just. Yeah. Classic, classic Taylor. I get why some people give off like this. She's ace. She's so ace. She doesn't even recognize it.

Speaker: But I go with just, she's so bi, she turns ace. It's a horseshoe theory kind of thing. um

Speaker: Well, and yeah I will say though, it's probably hard to, you know, catch the sexual chemistry between a robot a robot and another robot. Yeah. Did you say her pet?

Speaker: What?

Speaker: you're no Wait, wait. How many times do you think she's like, all right, Colin, I'm about to insert this in you. And he's like, yeah, put it in me. And then she like, you know, like solders in another microchip into his head, attaches a mechanical arm, but which head Alan, I'm sorry.

Speaker: ah I immediately apologized, I'm so sorry. music you ah Reminds me of an old shitty don't mess with the Zohon line, which is like, are you bionic? No, I only like the ladies.

Speaker: um Anyways. yeah um moving on and yeah ah working around behemoth I love that this is a new dynamic of fighting where you can't even get close to him. It was only ranged attacks. It reminds me a lot of working around power lines where like If you're within 10 feet, it can just start arching just cause you're too close. Yep, man. He's just got like, and how it's a, it's like a, ah it's like a lot of room too. Like it's a hundred feet or something like that. They're like 100 feet at minimum yeah is what they say. yeah Minimum approach distance. but so That's a quite a range. and so are back Also don't forget that Taylor also had to hop the radiation pills.

Speaker: oh Oh, yeah, because let's not forget that bundle of popcorn. That's just it's like so that. so Yeah, we've been watching ah heroes recently and slight spoilers, but radiation plays a part in there. And let me tell you what, everybody in that show should be dying of cancer. I watched Chernobyl. I know how that works. You don't get to walk away from that shit. Like, we're fucked is my point. Is we're fucked.

Speaker: Yeah. Um, also, of course we get to this point where like the Chicago wards are the ones that want her. So I, might my, my notes is Chicago cords. Once you go sit with them, go sit with them. Then all capitals go, go, um, and then, uh,

Speaker: yeah So excited that she is the veteran and she gets to lead them into battle. Which is nice. It feels like after all the hoops, she's had to jump through this arc. You know, all the all the restrictions they put on her. It's like, oh, we're going up behemoth. Yeah, go, go, go all out. Check, like, like, go off Queen, like, have a good time. Lead your lead your people. Make it happen. Let's go. It's time. It's swarming time. It's swarming time.

Speaker: But again, it's also like, I like the comparison with the lung fight, right? Where she's looking at behemoth in the distance, the one glowing red eye. And she's just like, what do I even do here? yeah You know? Oh man. Yeah. Like what? Yeah. What, what, do what can she do? She's practically useless in so many ways.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean her her primary power is useless as any sort of offensive attack against him. It's just it's just her strategy here. It's like Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way. But Taylor's practically useless in every way. Yeah. In every way that counts.

Speaker: Well, and that's why it's is such a fun little setup for the next star. Cause obviously things is about to go down, but you're thinking about who she's with. Uh, you don't, we don't know too much about the Chicago words as power said yet, but like a Tekton might be useful. Yeah, a little bit. And then you think about the undersiders cause she wants to meet up with them. They're all useless against me. Yeah. You know, yeah I mean, you you get Lisa eyes on it and that's about it.

Speaker: Yeah. Good luck, uh, region trying to trip them up, you know, that's not going to work. So yeah. Regents really, really fucking useless there. I'm going to sneak up on them. Yeah. you Yeah. Well, that that's why they're on the search and rescue squad of just like, we're just trying to evacuate the city. And as many people at point that's that point, like imp is imp and region are useless again. Cause it's like search and rescue. Anybody could do search and rescue. They're not special.

Speaker: Where's the national guard?

Speaker: yeah Yeah, they did. Well, also it's India. So no national guard, not do you know, where's the Indian national? They got something. You know, what I'm saying is where, where are the normal people that just have bests on running and around? Where's the, where are the UN? Where are those? the you in yeah ah Where's the Peace Corps?

Speaker: um All right. All right. Do we have any other thoughts for our final chapter or shall we, or shall we move on to the interlude?

Speaker: inter Interlude. Interlude. It's ludin time. It is indeed. ah We follow number 36, which is revealed to be Cody, um as he was sold by accord to the Yangban.

Speaker: Uh, fights with the young gun against behemoth. Uh, he spots the ambassador sees a cord realizes what's that now is his time that he can take his revenge, sneaks off. And then in a moment of just like absolute. Codiness, uh, cuts down Chevalier and then a cord and then tattletale and just.

Speaker: Wow. Fucking sit up, right? Just so, just so good at just fucking shit.

Speaker: Can we just, can he just be dead now? You made me very mad. Made me very mad. Cut down some kind of important people. Yeah, first of all, how dare you try to cut well and it's Chevalier. Chevalier and then the guy who has all the plans and then also the girl who has all the plans. Like what?

Speaker: What? Yeah. My man, you're choosing your timing fucking sucks, bro. It's pretty rough. Yeah. It's what's interesting though. Um, to me is that, you know, we've talked, and we haven't talked about this in a while, but the simmer's long -term effects and that whining in his head is just a throwback to that whole interlude. Right. And so having that shown once again is like, Oh,

Speaker: This was like what he was destined for in a way. It's just really interesting. um And of course, you know like disturbing. You're like, oh, that's not good. No, no, it's not. It's bad timing all the way around, which I guess, I mean,

Speaker: I mean, yeah, like what are you Yeah, exactly. and our It's the best timing for, yeah, for the end bringers. Right. Of course. But for us, for us poor normies, not so great.

Speaker: no Really liked seeing his involvement with the Yongban and the way they all move and sink and think and sink ah was, we kind of already mentioned it, but his perspective of it was really interesting. How he is like, he kind of cares for the one member, I forget her name. But one he's sleeping with. um But still, it's not not really, it's more just like,

Speaker: He wants to savor to do kind of a favor, but it's it's like very much this so this means to an end for him. um And how he, it's played off like the Yang Bon are using him and his power, but the whole while he's just trying to find a way to get to this point.

Speaker: And then he gets there and a tattletale kind of pulls the rug out from under him because he's like, where the hell is trickster? It's like, oh, he's, uh, he's in prison and the rest of your team is not in this. No, she says he's dead. She lies to him. Yeah, she lies to him. Yeah, that's right. She tells me to eat him. You're right. I forgot about that. Yeah. Tells him he's dead and your team's gone. Like you can't get to revenge. Sucks to suck.

Speaker: Sucks to suck, bitch. Also, I love when Tattletail pulls out the like, what would she think? And he's like, she. Which she are you, or do you mean? And Tattletail's like, I don't know. You look like an angry, straight little white boy. I don't know, I figure that was probably a she, so I just threw it out there. It's shot in the dark.

Speaker: God damn it, Tattletail. Well, it does kind of work. Like he still hurts her, but he lets her complete her tracheotomy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh God. I, I will say reading that bit, I did think to myself that if I was in that situation, I, I used to know how to be able to do a tracheotomy and I, I actually don't remember anymore. And now I kind of want to look it up, make sure I know how to do it. If it ever were to, ah you know, okay.

Speaker: Like I know you use a pen and you use, or, you know, the, the hollow bit, the casing bit, but I can't remember exactly where you're supposed to. Cut and insert.

Speaker: and I'm just dead in that scenario. yeah yeah Yeah. Just end up, end up slit my own throat. Just like, Oh, can't just try to figure it out. like you you're like you're You're scrambling for a pen. You finally find one. You're like, finally. Yes. you just to ro and You're like, finally I can die. I was going to go. You forget to take the pen apart. So you just stick it in your drink. Yeah. why should it yeah ah I forgot to hollow it out. Windpipe crushed and drowning in ink now. No! Everyone likes to think about how they would work, if yeah how how well they'd do if they had powers and in these universes. I'd be dead so fast. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No matter what I have. It's not like anyone who watches a zombie apocalypse show. Yeah. Any white Republican, like, no, if it was me, bro, I'd totally like...

Speaker: I would have, I would have, I would have known what to do. I think you need to take that further. That's just a lot of white guys. Well, I mean, the terrorist takes over the plane and they're like, no, I would have totally like.

Speaker: They invade my sanctuary in the middle of worship. There's a survey of like men ages 20 to 45 from a bunch of different countries on yes their confidence in beating an animal in a fight. oh yeah And it was something like 15 % of American men believe they could beat a bear in a one -on -one fight. I kind of want to put them all like in an arena and be like, all right.

Speaker: prove yeah You're like, wait, wait, hang on a second. Hear me out, I've got a new Discovery Channel show or history channel, whatever. Man versus bear? It's man versus bear and it's nothing but every episode of different competitions in which the men will compete against the bear. One will be doing dishes, cooking a meal, ah you know, swimming. You don't get any time to prep either. Like we just like working in your house with cameras. Neither does the bear.

Speaker: like that matters

Speaker: Don't ruin the spirit of this. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I didn't mean to ruin the spirit of anything. The bear is also put in a prop plane and then, you know, with something good, the controls, they gotta land the plane and then also the guy is stuck in a plane going down. Because all the guys think that they can land the plane. Here's everything on Twitter that you said you thought you could do. Yes, you understood that is exactly what we're gonna do it immediately right now. Like that matters.

Speaker: It's Myth Busters just with a bear. Oh my God. and Now I'm imagining like the worst possible trigger and worm would be like, you trigger and you just get, you get 50, 50 odds versus any animal in the world. that's your super super power And every time a mosquito bites you, you're just, so i would I'm also thinking too of like, I'm thinking of the name of the show. It's just like white guys versus everything.

Speaker: that's Nick, that's what it's always been. yeah um It's just like, we've, we've got, we've, you know, gone, done a deep dive into your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Here's everything you said was a wimp, easy, or not that hard. You're going to do it today. Welcome. Welcome Jerry. Uh, So if you step into the living room over here, we have a tiger. Yes. A full grown tiger that you said you would whoop like a bitch ass pussy cat. now ah We'll give you head gear and, uh, you know what?

Speaker: You get a knife. How about that? You can pick something in this room that you would like to use as a weapon drawer. Like you can take like a little, you know, like one of those fireplace pokers if you want. Like that's your, you can, you know, one of the items in the room and, uh, good luck.

Speaker: If you want more content like this, join us on Patreon. Oh yeah. it's It's nothing but this. All right. My, my one note about this interlude. I hate this interlude. i want to say yeah and Isn't that always your note about the interlude? action yeah No, and no, no. I hate this interlude. I hate this interlude so much. Like on every level.

Speaker: I mean, I don't like Cody. I don't like being in his head. I don't like the events that take place. That's all in universe outside of universe. I think this is maybe the weakest chapter written in the entire book.

Speaker: ah Yes. And here's why. Almost every interlude does a pretty good job, I think, of portraying a like the character's personality and perspective as we go through. And while this one does a pretty good job of him rehashing things in his head, according to his power, you know, he just can't let things go. He repeats stuff. He like is thinking about things in the way he repeats that. I think this is the weakest interpretation of a power as thinking that we have had. I don't think his thought process is interesting. I don't think it's like unique to his, like it's all that unique enough to warrant like, Oh, I know who this character is just by the way they're thinking, which I feel like I could do with almost every one of the other interludes. Um,

Speaker: I just, and and I'll be honest, the more I thought about it while we were talking now, I feel like if I were going to bullshit some diagnosis, this whole arc feels like Wild Bo is really tired. And that this is, you know, this is maybe like some donation interlude or just had to write an interlude. And they just like, I do feel like they kind of got more and more with the jumping around and how disjointed this whole arc is. Like, it's just, I feel like you got really tired writing. And at the end here, it really slips up for some reason. um Interesting. You know, that's probably me just reading into it because this also has some of my favorite moments, you know, just some all time

Speaker: The Weaver dice one. Love that chapter. Um, you know, cause it's got Yamada and the Weaver dice. I love, love all the people talking about her, you know, in front of her, all the different, you know, meeting with the different groups. But I, you know, there's so much I don't like in this interlude is going to go down as my most hated chapter in worm of all time. and Okay.

Speaker: That's a hot. I don't think it serves. And we've talked about this on the other one. I don't think this, I don't think this chapter serves any purpose. Well, it kills off the cord. That's pretty important. I mean, why, why do we even need that? It's just like, it feels like I said, this is more for the writing it side in the work like work show. Why, why does it even that it happened? Why does Cody even need to live? No purpose to it.

Speaker: Like I just, I hate it six ways to Sunday, but I've said my piece now. You've heard it here. All right. Well, uh, if there's no more thoughts on the interlude, shall we do favorite powers? Hmm. Yeah. We got a few here. Yeah. We've got some, some interesting ones. We have a lot of powers actually. Yeah.

Speaker: Well, a limited to favorite new powers that we haven't discussed before. Um, I, I really like is it 13th hour? Yeah. Yeah. I really like 13th hour. I think what is it? What does he do again?

Speaker: 13th hour is a she and she, sorry. Yeah. That's the one I really don't remember that she causes a flash of light. I think that puts everybody, including herself into a trance yeah that yeah they, he Taylor uses the bugs to like try and get everybody to like come back out of it. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Powers with downsides are very interesting. Yeah. So it feels like a time manipulation, but it's really just their perception of time is thrown off.

Speaker: Time isn't actually working, but she uses like a a little, um, it's like, uh, is it a watch? It's a pocket watch. I think it's a pocket watch, but she uses it as like her totem or whatever, you know, in her like witchy, magic -y spelling. Yeah. Cause the, the adepts are all like magicians and like mages and wizards. Yeah. Uh, the ad apps. Yes. Thank you. yeah Sorry, I'm still a little salty about that one. ah But yeah, no, i think I think she's really cool. I like like her power. Like it affects her too, but I think it's cool. You know what I will say too on that point? Adept is one of those words that looks cooler than it sounds. Just saying.

Speaker: Visually just anyways. Um, so like reading worm, like you may not think about it, but you say the word adept and you're like, Oh, kind of the ad apps. When you say an ad apt sounds cool. When you say the ad apps, it sounds like a bunch of losers in school. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, he's an ad apt. You're like, Oh, why you ride the aing bus.

Speaker: Oh, I was saying if you're I was I was thinking more like, oh, yeah, if you're an ad app, just like, oh, you're learning magic. And if you're it's like, oh, it's the ad apps, you're like, what a bunch of chumps. Yeah. Anyways, um I really find August Prince's power fascinating. It's similar in that way of like a stranger kind of weird power, um similar to 13th Hour, where it's like.

Speaker: He just, he takes away your will to fight him. You know, like you literally, you know, Taylor tries multiple times, send a bug at him. No. People like are like, we just can't get close to him. Like we can't stop him from hurting you. And it's such this like slow, inevitable fear that I think is such an interesting power.

Speaker: um as an idea, right? Kind of like, um, hatchet face was mentioned a long time ago as a, he has a nullifying range where if you got too close to him, your powers just stopped working, whatever they were. Um, and August Prince feels, unless it's August Prince, who knows? Um, but August Prince feels very, uh, very similar to that, which I think like anti powers are kind of interesting. If that makes sense.

Speaker: Yeah. ah Yeah. I will second that August Prince was also mine. Um, I really like stranger powers and like you said, nullifying powers are really fun. There's, there's a stranger power we'll get to in ward one day that I also enjoy that, you know, has very much similar vibes, but August Prince, like you said, it was just, you know, you go to attack him. You just can't find it in yourself. And, uh, all he has to do is like walk up, push you over and start like hokey do you in the eye? Mm.

Speaker: It's good. Um, I do want to give a shout out. I'm interested. I don't remember all their names, but no, I think who's the leader of the young bond. He's the one who makes the young bond possible. Yeah. Yeah. That is really interesting to me too. My whole phone was, uh, was too young. Sorry. You're so far from your mic. I think you sound very far away. Oh, I might've knocked him. How was, how am I? As I would come back a little bit, knock it a little bit.

Speaker: Welcome back, Jacob. You were so out of the room just a second ago. Yeah, my vote was also for the Yangban, kind of just in general, but just the way they're organized. I find the power sharing because it's a combination of power sharing in which their powers are weakened. And then I forget what the name of the one of them is that and boosts all of their powers. So they share the boost, which strengthens all of their powers and kind of overcomes the weakening.

Speaker: um Just a really, yeah, really fun ah sort of mesh of powers that allows them to work together. um Yeah, love reading about how they how they operate. Okay. How's everyone, I think. Got through it. Yeah. Wow. have favorite powers We got our what the fuck Taylor in this this episode. We did. Couple technical difficulties, but it was good. and They don't know that. Now now they do.

Speaker: No, that I'm definitely going to have to say that there was no way we made good transitions. know Michael, don't you mean ad breaks?

Speaker: We'll try. You know what you mean? Thanking the patrons. yeah which we definitely dead those those like's any speaking of weight We'd like to thank our patrons ah for helping yes again for helping make these episodes possible. ah we We really love ah having the support and the feedback and getting to make fun little random, patron -exclusive episodes for you guys. If you want to check them out, hear us shooting the shit, playing fun games, um you should consider joining up. We've got a couple different tiers and um ah we we really appreciate it. All of that ah support goes straight into ah covering fees for our recording stuff and to paying Michael our producer because this podcast would not be possible without Michael and viewers like you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. and Yeah. Links in the description. Brockton Bay ABC. We have a discord. You could hospital the day join us.

Speaker: ah Yeah, we've been talking about superhe RPGs and talking about our very first video games we ever played and stuff. I mean, we're from their fair fairly often. You should come chill and shoot the shit with us. Yes. Amen. Amen. And even if you can't be a patron, thank you for listening. Yes, absolutely. lot It's awesome.

Speaker: Please feel free to, to leave a comment or to reach out to us and let us know. Uh, and, uh, yeah, you know, this is, this is, we like doing this. This is fun. And we like really fun interacting with you guys. That's also very fun. I've been really enjoying making the Patriot Patreon content.

Speaker: It's been a lot of fun. We've definitely been having fun. Oh yeah, we have. ah Too much fun, maybe. Some of it has nothing to do with Worm. Oh yes like yeah, like... A three -hour argument over which... Uckberry kills and... Well, obviously, those were very much to do with Worm. I was thinking about three -hour arguments over which mouse versus which rat would win. Mouse versus rat. I mean, we gotta be honest, right? Like, half of our podcast has nothing to do with Worm.

Speaker: sister is true Which in fact is the most worm thing you can do. And is the most book club thing you can do. So I feel like we fit right in. That's true. Yeah. I think that's a perfect place ah to wrap this up. I can't think of a better way to end the episode. Any final thoughts? I'll throw it out. I'm trying to come up with the fuck Mary killed. It involves Glenn. I'm trying to end this before you do.