Transcript
Speaker: Worm is a web serial by JC McCray, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans .wordpress .com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon .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, Rockton Bay. Good morning, Rockton Bay. Man.
Speaker: It's it's flooded. Oh, man. Before we get started, unfortunately, we have some sad news. Taylor and Kat are no longer going to be participating in our Brockton Bay book club. Basically, they got too busy. This is a very, you know, long, well, time consuming, I'd say thing and
Speaker: Yeah. We're really sad that they're not going to be part of this, but rest assured, it's all going to be fine. Nick and Hannah, I think you say for, you've already said a couple of times how much you don't really remember anyway. Oh yeah. I don't remember anything like a goldfish. They ain't nothing up there. Basically our first time readers. Yeah. We've read pretty much everything I remember at this point. Yeah. I don't remember. I don't remember anything.
Speaker: I have no memory of this place. The Worm is such a daunting read. I mean, we talked about it. It's essentially like 30 standard novels of reading. It's a bit. And we've all got lives to lead. And sometimes you just can't get to everything. But no more feelings. We love them both.
Speaker: Yeah, but due to due to prior commitments such as joining the slaughterhouse nine Yes from the flooding, you know the Brockton Bay, you know, they lost power had to relocate Taylor just walked right up to Shatterbird and said Shatterbird these nuts and
Speaker: What? That'll do it every time. They are already missed. He walked up to Alan and said, Mannequin licked these balls. Mannequin licked these balls. What? Oh, no. Got sent to the birdcage. Jackass, am I right? Oh, dear.
Speaker: Yeah. So that's the sad news to them in the comments. Show some, show some love in the comments for the, our fallen, our fallen readers. And they're already, you know, Taylor's last words. You should go listen to what they were. End of, end of arc nine. Um, and, uh, you know, legendary last words. That's all we can say.
Speaker: But ultimately, the goal is to have fun reading Worm as Friends. And so we're going to keep doing that. And it's going to be great. I'm having a blast. Yeah, you better not leave, Nick, please. All right, Jacob, take us away. Welcome back, everybody, for ARC 10 of the Brockton Bay Book Club.
Speaker: As always, myself, Jacob, and joined by a lovely cast of characters today, Alan, Hannah, and Nick, as well as Michael, as always, behind the scenes for us. Welcome to all of you. Thank you. Thank you. There we go. There we go. A little tired. We gotta get the little stretches, do the little neck stretches, whatever it takes.
Speaker: All right, jumping into Arc 10, kicking off our return to Taylor's POV, following our lovely little side quest with the wards in the last arc. And we got some fun stuff to talk about and some not fun stuff to talk about.
Speaker: a lot in this arc that I forgot about until we got there and we'll get there. So let's dive in. I think this is a good arc and you guys can correct me if you think we've got a better route. But I think it feels like in this arc, the chapters really are kind of
Speaker: contained like going chapter by chapter here. So we probably could just go down the list and the interludes as well are like post everything. So I think we can just kind of do those at the end if that works. Yeah, I think that makes the most sense. Yeah, for sure. Okay. All right. Well, in that case, Hannah, do you want to kick us off with the first chapter? So chapter one, we open with the undersiders bunkering down in an abandoned building.
Speaker: as Regent ties Shadowstalker to a chair with electrical cables, which is delightful. And he takes over, really, which is something we did not know he could do. Nope. But glad he can do more than make people trip. Yeah. Yeah. This feels very much like, you know, when you enter season two of any
Speaker: show or anything like that. You got to have the upgrades. You got to have outfit upgrades. You got to have power upgrades. It's all the upgrades. You got to have base upgrades. You got to have all the things. Yeah, exactly. Although this apparently was something he could always do though. He just hasn't done it yet.
Speaker: Yeah. Yep. It's the upgrades for the, the, the viewer, the, you know, the reader. Right. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Well, and not to get ahead of the chapters too, but I thought it was interesting because I think it's a couple of chapters from now, uh, where well does like,
Speaker: or I don't know if it's weld. One of them is like, Oh, and the undersiders have one of the most powerful masters referring to, referring to region. So like everybody in universe knows what region can do. Except for Taylor. Exactly. Well, that's what it is. Like Taylor is the audience. So aside from Taylor and us, it's like, we have, there's just no idea. So it was kind of interesting to see that kind of makes you wonder what he did do.
Speaker: I think his backstory is super interesting and like we're getting a peek of it here. So cool. More things that he can do and just, I mean, I already was a fan of his powers, but this seeing him take over shadow stockers, we don't know what's about to happen. And then all of a sudden, you know, shadow stalker is, is, you know, holding a bolt to Taylor's face.
Speaker: And we're like, well, we're fucked. Everything's fucked. Everything's fucked. And then the, it's the dork that gets you. Cause it's, I mean, he's the only one, Alec is the only one that calls Taylor dork. And it's like, Oh my God. Like he did it. I remember the first time I read this, you know, way so many years ago. And it was one of those where I had to reread the page and the page before just to make sure I didn't miss something.
Speaker: because it was just so, what the hell just happened? Yeah. It happens so fast. Yeah, for sure. And it's crazy too that his power allows him not just like control over their physical body, but the ability to use their powers as well. Because he moves her through the wall, right? To get to them or something like that. Yeah. So it's like, it's not just like puppeteering, it's full control over them, which is crazy. Yeah. Which is interesting though, because
Speaker: And this maybe is pulling information from later chapters, but I thought it was interesting how it still is nerve control because we find out that the people's minds aren't affected by this, right? Like the person who they are, they're seeing all of this happen. They're feeling it all happen. The only difference is just whether or not they, um,
Speaker: Yeah, what control they have over it, right? So it's this, it is still nerve control in the purest sense of like, he is literally piloting your nerves. Yeah. Which is whack, wild. Yeah. It would take so much concentration. And honestly, I think back to, uh, the fight with Bakuta and when Alec kind of, you know, goes overboard and ends up hurting himself.
Speaker: And it makes me wonder if that's what he was trying to do, but Bakuta is like too chaotic for him to get a good enough of a like, you know, trying grasp her. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Because, I mean, it seems like there have been times in the past that he could have potentially used it and we're seeing it work so well now because he was able to like sit down with Shadow Stalker and really like take control of her. Yeah.
Speaker: But it makes me wonder how many times he's tried to do that in the past, but we just haven't known about it. Yeah, that's a good thought. Yeah. Yeah. So that happens and they have a plan. I was going to say, well, we also see meet Imp because Imp is kind of vaguely introduced in Arc 9. Yeah. Where she kind of shows up at the end and shadow stalkers.
Speaker: interlude. And so there's, you know, she's the new member of the undersiders. That's kind of a fun introduction. That's exciting. We love a new member. We do. Did we figure out who it was? I'm not going to spoil it if we didn't. No, we did. We did in this arc. In this arc, we did. In the first chapter, yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. I feel like it's also somewhat given away by the fact that just
Speaker: the way, the way Brian's a racer. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. Oh yeah. Oh, it's so funny. It's such a big brother move of like, do what I tell you, like big sigh. Like I'm so tired of having to tell you what to do. Like, oh, like fine. Like I just love it. I love it. It's great. So much fun. Great character. Can't wait to see more of her. I would say right away, I love
Speaker: Well, we're going to get to that later, I guess, with the power. Yeah. She's got a good one. She's got a fun one. I did think it was interesting though. One, one thing that I wanted to mention in this scene is as we talked about, it seems like lots of people besides Taylor know what Regent can do. And there's that line from shadow stalker where she looks at the undersiders and she's like, are you guys just okay with this? Have you heard what he's done? Yeah.
Speaker: And we know that he's killed somebody, which comes up again later. But yeah, just that the way she says it, what seems like genuine fear from shadow soccer, that's not something you would expect to hear. That is a moment where you're like,
Speaker: Maybe he is an actual... We've talked about how the undersiders don't really feel like actual bad guys. Sure, they rob a bank, but they're just kids. I don't know. We all have gray areas when it comes to crime against banks. Oh no, you crashed a 1 %er party. Yeah, exactly. But this is that first moment where you feel like, well, maybe
Speaker: Maybe Regent is a bad guy. I have it in my dissecting worm notes, but I feel like it applies here too. It's how do I put this? Regent feels very rapey when he closes the door. And in the context of powers, it very much fits given what he essentially does to Sophia, which is
Speaker: take control and use her body without her permission. Yes. I was hoping we would talk about this. There's a lot of analogs for a lot of different traditional traumas, if you will, in the story. And this is one of those where like, yeah, like for all intents and purposes, very rapey.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. I feel we'll dive into that when we get into his inner loop. I was about to say it because I have a lot of thoughts in regards to that specifically with the interlude later. Oh, yes, no, I definitely want to talk about that. Oh, God. Yeah, definitely. But until then, the Undersiders plan a little... Yeah. Another heist. There's kind of a heisty mood.
Speaker: Yeah, that kinda moves us into chapter two. This is so, I'm not gonna lie, I love a good little hasty moment. I love a good plan. So we have the undersiders basically come up with this plan to fool the PRT into taking them to the headquarters, which is just so, I love it. Like, oh, you took them. Shadowstalker, like, yeah, I got them. Put them in the van. And the guy's like, you did that? Like, you took them all down? And she's like, yeah.
Speaker: What do you think? I could do it. I did it. Look at them. They're all unconscious. Put them in the van. Let's also back up for a second because we forgot about the flashback to three days earlier. Oh, you're right. A Taylor coming back. Yes, that's true. Right. You're right. You're right. We did. Yep. That's true. Totally missed that. Yes. Sorry about that.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's quick, but it's important. I'm glad it was there to sort of catch us up to where we see them in the present here. Yeah, I think the... Because, I mean, obviously, Bitch is angry. Bitch is upset, obviously. But I think it's interesting that Alec kind of took Taylor's side there as her trying to come back and join the group.
Speaker: And he's more on her side than anybody else's. But I mean, well, I mean, I'm excluding Lisa from that, because Lisa's the one that brought her back, but - Yeah, Lisa always backs you up. That's what I - Lisa is just the bestest of friends. Lisa is best, is best girl. Is best girl. Let me put it down. Michael, write this down. Lisa is best girl. Hot Brian is hot. But Lisa's best girl. No need. That's accurate.
Speaker: Also, Bitch is just now starting to get irritated at Brian for being the leader for some reason. Even her dogs knew that he was the alpha's alpha. Alpha Brian is alpha. I think it's a challenging thing, right? Because that's the nature of the dog, per se, is to challenge the authority until they put you in your place.
Speaker: Um, which in a weird way kind of makes it seem like maybe Taylor's more alpha now than Brian, at least in bitches mind bowl. Get to that later. It's, I was going to say it's right. I mean, it's, it's something that happens here that I enjoy watching. You know, we've had it before, uh, with the whole heist that Taylor doesn't want to do initially, but then she realizes like this will get me more information. So she changes her mind mid thing and is like, actually let's do this and convinces everybody.
Speaker: Uh, you know, kind of swings the vote and then gets everybody to go against Brian. Um, not wholly by herself, but it is the swing vote kind of, um, you know, she drags bitch along cause she's been hanging out with bitch. Lisa kind of goes along, you know, at least it promotes the idea. And then Alex goes along with her with some healthy convincing of money. And all of a sudden it's Brian versus everybody. And this while bitch is not on the side for obvious reasons.
Speaker: it kind of happens again where Taylor swings more than half the group over to her side. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, I'm actually kind of curious because there's a moment where it is like, do I get a vote? And everyone's like, no, but I wonder if she would have voted for Taylor to stay in the group and maybe it would have been out of a spite of like, Oh, I'm gonna spite Brian because Brian's, you know, mad at her.
Speaker: But like, I think it probably would have voted to keep Taylor too. Yeah. Even if it might be for some reasons. Yeah. Oh, she would have, she would have done it in a heartbeat despite Brian and also cause like having one less person there would be more boring for her. I also love that that's the swing for like, how do I convince you guys that I was telling the truth.
Speaker: And she's like, okay, remember that one time I confessed that I liked you? And everybody's just like, I knew it. And Brian's like, it could have been an act. Alex is like, oh my God, Brian. The two of you were so disgusting. I couldn't stand to be in the room with you sometimes. It was so obvious. You can't act that stupidly flirty with each other.
Speaker: That was another great, oh yeah, these guys are teenagers. Another moment where it really felt like you were reading a conversation between teenagers. Yes. I love that part. Oh man, that's great.
Speaker: All right, so we get to the heist or the beginning part of the heist with Regent Stalker controlling everything. Oh, I like that. I like Regent Stalker. Regent Stalker, nice. It's good. It's either that or Shadow Regent. I think Regent Stalker is. I like Regent Stalker. Regent Stalker convincing the PRT officers to
Speaker: to forego the paperwork and just hightail it back to base. Exactly. A little convincing fight. I love the second dart into Gru. Yes. What if he wakes up? Bam. Well, now he doubly isn't going to wake up.
Speaker: It's so good. And I love that because of Skitter's costume, because she has the lenses. She can peek her eyes open and keep an eye on what's going on, as opposed to everybody else who just has to keep their eyes closed. I guess Gru... I don't necessarily know the details of Gru's mask if there's black stuff covering the skull eye holes, but the idea that she's the only one that's able to keep an eye on the group. Well, he just has a motorcycle helmet. So his visor is down. That's right. I forgot about the motorcycle helmet.
Speaker: Yeah. So he's, he's probably watching as well. He's probably looking as well, but I love that. That was like, we're just kind of getting through the, the half closed eyes that she's like watching, you know, going limp, like trying not to flinch or anything as PRT officers, just like throw them in the back of a van, just pile them in. Yeah. Personally, I don't know why the hell these PRT officers are listening to shadow stalker because she is, as everybody knows,
Speaker: Almost a juvie. She's a liar and a juvie candidate. Like it was jail or this. So why are we letting her tell paramilitary organization? Right. To be fair, to be fair, would, would everybody in the PRT know this about shadow stuff? No, but also the teacher that nobody likes or gets along with is like giving you orders to break protocol. Like, come on.
Speaker: Yeah, I can give it a pass, I guess, probably for the immediate grunts since they could be like just they're just they're just little grunt dudes. Like who knows how involved they are day to day with the actual heroes. They're just at their own patrol.
Speaker: But yeah, I agree. It's a little interesting how much control she has over everybody else. It makes me wonder how far bullying goes. Yeah, probably. It makes me think about like, is it just the fact that she's a cape? And it's like kind of like the idea that like, well, maybe not anymore. But they kind of the idea that like, oh, yes, you would trust a police officer. Like you trust a person in uniform.
Speaker: Not that that necessarily applies anymore because we don't. I forgot PRT officers are cucks to authority. It all makes sense. Well, that's kind of what I mean, though, is that if she's the Cape, regardless of what your clearance is or whatever, the default is probably to the Cape, but that works in the wards. Well, she's the Cape here, so I guess we're going to default to what she says.
Speaker: And she's made a convincing argument, so, okay. You know? Yeah, exactly. I will say, I like Wild Bo's writing a lot. We all know this. There are multiple chapters in this arc that stand out as times that I feel are like some real lapses. Just not whole arcs, just moments that have stuck out to me.
Speaker: over the whole of reading worm as like, well, that doesn't make sense. And the reason they stick out is because most of the time he makes sense and shadow stalker convincing them for no darn reason. And also a dragon dragons, which we'll get to.
Speaker: Yeah. No, I mean, that's fair. Obviously we've talked about that before. This is a web serial. It was written and published and within a few days usually, and there's no editing or anything like that. So there's definitely going to be moments that don't read as well as other moments for sure. Yeah. It's going to get that, but that's valid. These are just, these are ones that stuck with me like over the whole of worm, which also just goes to show, like I said, mostly on top of it. The fact that these speak out so much.
Speaker: in comparison should say something. And to be fair, Regent Stalker's attempt to fool the wards didn't quite work. And I have to say, to be vague as to what I do when I'm not recording podcasts, but a lot of my job
Speaker: involves sniffing out bullshit from people. And it was so validating, because let me just tell you, Weld knew from the beginning that that was not shadow stalker. Yeah. It was just waiting for the right moment to confirm it. And I have been there so many times. And it is so satisfying when that moment finally comes and you're like, aha,
Speaker: Take off the Scooby -Doo mask. I'm gonna need to hear these stories, Jacob. Yeah, for real. Another time, but yes. Oh, Weld got so many points in my book for his whole breakdown. Weld's just, we love him. I will say also, Alec is a winner in these arcs. Alec is the MVP. Yeah, definitely. He did fly through that first test.
Speaker: Oh, don't fool me. Like it wasn't kid winning you and I know it and then kept walking. That's so good. It was so good. I will say that like, cause there's cause I mean, we already know that like Regent has that he's very charismatic. Like he's got, he rolls high in charisma as we all know, but like this moment of him, like he's been coached by title to tell enough to know.
Speaker: that he's going to be questioned, he's going to be tested, and he's like bullshitted through the code, which should be the deciding factor. And Weld's still just not convinced. And then that evasion that he does is just so good. It's so satisfying.
Speaker: oh i just i'm such a fan of it and like the way he just oh yeah like don't make like come on it gets me like and we all know shadow stalker enough to know that like she wouldn't want to put up with this bullshit from weld she'd want to go like i've been out on the streets for so many hours like i'm fucking done like i'm going to take a shower and it just plays out so well i love it
Speaker: And then this is because now I'm remembering this is where and it is weld who says humor me with the code with the codes because they have one of the strongest masters in the city, which just justifies welds like nerdy paperwork, paperwork, bookworm sort of mentality that we saw in the last arc.
Speaker: Like he just, he got the dossiers, he got like the stack of paperwork to go through and just went through it and then immediately was ready for whatever the city threw at him. My little geeky boy. So good.
Speaker: Doesn't he just come out swinging too? Regent barely dodges his first attack. Because he just immediately swings first. What was the alternative? It was accidentally still Shadowstalker and he just propped her like, whoops, he's gonna never be too careful. I'd like to think that he took a gamble and it was like, ah, it's a 10 % chance.
Speaker: It's a region and it's a 90 % chance at Sofia, but I'm willing to take those odds. Yeah. We interrupt our scheduled program to bring you a word from our sponsor, Zencaster, a one -stop shop for all your podcasting needs. When we first started this podcast, we knew we needed a service that would let us record remotely.
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Speaker: I want you to have the same easy experiences I do for all my podcasting and content needs. It's time to share your story. That's zencaster .com slash pricing and use our code rockton bay BC. And now back to our scheduled programming. Yeah, we're going into chapter three now, which is, you know, big fight and we love it. Get a nice good fight. Yeah, this is a great fight. I love AMP.
Speaker: Not for her personality, but for her ability. The stranger classification as a whole is like most of my favorite powers. Is this the first like actual stranger we've met in the series so far? Wasn't Knight a stranger or no? Who had definitely like stranger one or something like that. Yeah, you did have some stranger power. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: They're just, they're so unique. Cause I think the only other, I think stranger are the most rare classification next to, uh, is it Trump? I think. Yeah. Trump's pretty rare. Um, and stranger abilities are just, they're so fun, uh, and unique. Um, and, and especially when it comes to having to write them, you know, in this case, you're having to write a character that everybody else is constantly forgetting.
Speaker: Um, which for all intents as purposes is that they are just invisible, but that's not the case. They're not invisible. Everybody just keeps forgetting them. Yeah. I think it's done so well for Taylor's perspective that she's constantly like, who, which I guess, I guess that like, because Lisa has, you know, Lisa knows everything.
Speaker: Uh, miss Marty pants. She just, I guess she, does she just like constantly have a beat on where imp is? Probably. Yeah. I guess in, in, in some fat, uh, like facets you would, right? So her power probably tells her like, there's a friendly Cape in your peripheral right there. Like that kind of thing, I would guess, you know, sort of gives her what she needs to know.
Speaker: But yeah, no, really fun reading, getting to enjoy Imps power through Taylor's eyes is a lot of fun. Big, for any other Doctor Who fans, big like The Silence, right? Kind of that same vibe. Oh my God. Really, really similar, I mean, identical, really sort of power. But yeah, really fun to see. It's a really fun concept to play around with and a lot of fun trying to keep track of everything.
Speaker: Literally, Jacob mentions Doctor Who and the nerds around the world unite. I just love it so much. Ah, yes, yes. Of course, everyone knows in agreement. Oh, yes, yes. Oh, yes, of course. I've seen the Magic the Gathering Doctor Who set before you. I love you guys so much. You know, I'm somewhat of a nerd myself.
Speaker: But back to the fight. This is a really fun fight. Honestly, I forgot how much I enjoyed it until I reread it again, because I completely forgot about it. I knew I remembered the scene, but I didn't remember the fight itself. And I think this has been my favorite fight since not including Leviathan that we've read so far. This might be my favorite little fight.
Speaker: Everybody sort of gets a little moment to shine. Weld really gets a moment to shine. Lots of moments to shine. Kid wins. Tech is everywhere. Imps running around. Just like so much is going on. And there's like a really definitive purpose with the fight that the other Siders are trying to achieve. And having that element is really fun to follow. All right. I'll be contrarian.
Speaker: This is my least favorite fight so far. Fair enough. I don't like using Kidwin's guns or like not necessarily using them, just how they talk about them. I don't like it. I really wish the dragon showing up was cooler. I really want it to, but there's something about the, like, it's not the events, but it's genuinely, it's something about how they're written that I kind of find boring. I don't, I really don't like this fight.
Speaker: Oh, that's so funny. I love it. Yeah, that is weird. I will say it's not like one of my favorite fights, but it's not my least favorite fight. And I think Dragon showing up was like such a great fun little twist because she's easy to forget about because she's kind of one of those like big cape that sits in the background that we haven't really seen too much of. And like her showing up and then having an interlude. It's like, oh, fuck yeah, because I love Dragon. Dragon's the best. And her showing up is just so fun. Like the lights go out and it's like,
Speaker: the lights come back on through the screen and it's Dragon's voice in her like AI generated kind of newfound Lindy voice coming through talking to Tattletale. Oh, I love that. That is just great. I'm here for that. Yeah, I agree. I liked it. In terms of upgrades, Taylor gets her upgrade with
Speaker: Uh, let me see, put great. So Taylor came up with the chocolate covered ants from hell. What the fuck Taylor? That's right. I forgot about that. So, okay, wait, wait, hold on. I just, I just need to like, because it's too good not to visualize it. Cause I'm thinking of it in like.
Speaker: Of course, with dissecting worm, I'm thinking of it already visually. Like this little line of bugs that are just walking across the table, taking a little swimming bath through a little shallow dish of... What's it called? Hairspray. First it starts with hairspray. Hairspray. And then what's the stinging...
Speaker: Capsaicin is actually like a little bit of capsaicin. I love the idea of these assembly line of bugs just getting nuked up for war. Let's go. Jesus. And then Taylor pulling the Lord Farquaad. Like, some of you will die. That is a sacrifice I am willing to make. So good. Okay, I gotta ask though. We have to ask the question, right?
Speaker: Did Wild Bo do research? Of course, of course, the number one rule. Define do research. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, it's any writer. You can tell a person is a writer by looking at their browser history and the weird shit that they have to research when they're writing a book because it is weird shit. I could tell you that. We're all writers. We all know this. This is fair. This is true. This is true.
Speaker: I 100 % believe that Wild Bo was hunkered over his computer trying to find out if hairspray kills bugs. How fast hairspray can kill a bug? How do you get capsaicin? How does one accumulate it? What does it look like? How does it gather? Can it be attached to bugs? I want to see Wild Bo's browser history.
Speaker: I feel like the FBI probably has a guy that's just deviating. He's seeing a bunch of names and he's got to slide them into the... Are they a terrorist or are they a riot? Basically, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I do know that you can order pretty pure food ingredients online. So it's not surprising that you can get capsaicin. I met somebody who owned a candy shop and he was talking about how you can get
Speaker: If you just want to torture yourself for some reason and you like sour stuff, you can get pure citric acid. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You can order that at a pharmacy, I imagine. That's how you make bath bombs, fun fact, is citric acid. Really? Citric acid. Oh, that's fun. Fun fact. It's what makes them dizzy. But yeah, anyway, so I would just like to imagine Wild Bo being like, okay, I have this idea for something Taylor can do. Let me go find an ant pile. You're talking about Google research. I'm talking like...
Speaker: He goes out to an ant file and he's like, let me get some ants. I'm going to spray some hairspray on them. We'll see what happens. Y 'all, I have to tell you right now because I can't have this conversation without looking it up. So I looked it up. Well, I'll tell you right now, I know what Taylor's spending all of her money that she's been getting from coil on because this shit is expensive. Capsaicin? Is that how it's pronounced? Capsaicin? Yeah, capsaicin. It is fucking expensive. $350 for a single gram.
Speaker: Just like pure capsaicin. Wow. Uh -huh. It's from a, you can get it from like chemical companies. The way you said it, and like a single gram, I'm like, so I can do an eight ball of capsaicin. Hey, it's cheaper than other drugs.
Speaker: Well, you can buy up to a kilogram, which is $34 ,000. Capsaicin is just spice, what we perceive as spiciness from like peppers. Yeah, the natural compound found in chili peppers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Speaker: Anyways, so she does that. Yeah, so she does that weaponized weaponized spice, weaponized this chili powder. Yeah. Don't let Taylor anywhere near your spice cabinet. Jesus. That's what's the spice melange. Yeah. What the what the spice Taylor. But got a few other things that happen in this fight that are kind of important. We have bitches betrayal.
Speaker: Oh, gosh, yes. I have bitch. What a bitch. That's that's also what I put down. Bitch is a bitch. Yeah, no. So this is this is so chapter four. Dragon speaking through the computers, locking the undersiders and or I guess the few undersiders that went up to the wards section because grew got taken out pretty early. Chapter five, Dragon versus the undersiders in the gift shop. And that's where bitch is a bitch. But
Speaker: But yeah. Oh, and also... So you've got to deal with the Dragon Dinobot Transformer that shows up. Right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's when the Dinobot shows up. But in Chapter 4, with Dragon talking through the computers, locking the Undersiders in, if comes in fucking clutch and gets the door open. Love that. Oh, yeah. Right, right. Yeah. She gets a great moment. I love that. Like taking the Tinker Toys and...
Speaker: blast in the door open of that. Yep. Very well done. It was very much like everyone was over analyzing the tech like, okay, let's try to figure out how this work. Okay, let's see what this one does. And if it just just grabs the nearest gun and fires.
Speaker: Yeah, don't they go through and isn't tattletale there and she's like looking at the weapons. Yeah. She's like, wait, wait, not that one. Like just that was a non -lethal flamethrower. And you're like, non -lethal. Wait a second kid, when? What you working on up here, bud? You keep using that phrase kid, when I don't think it means what you think it means.
Speaker: Exactly. And then Groot's been out this whole time too because he got tagged by Clockblocker, right? He got Clockblocked. Am I remembering that right? Yeah, he got Clockblocked. He gets taken out so early. That's something like, because normally he comes in so clutch with his darkness able to mask the area. It's usually one of the opening moves in a fight. But because he gets taken out so early, because they have to deal with all the containment foam later on and whatnot. But there's no
Speaker: you know, he acts like a shield somewhat in a way because you can't see where everybody is. But now that he's not even in the fight, you know, he's frozen downstairs in the lobby. Like it's such a, the group is kind of forced to work without him, which is, is cool. I like that. I like when we kind of see the group dynamics in different ways, like without certain characters. Yeah, I like that too. And I like, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I like how they kind of have to improvise to figure out what the best way to, you know, to make it work is. Yeah. Especially because I think if I remember, if I'm trying to remember these small details, right. But if I remember right, they were not expecting Flechette to be there.
Speaker: Correct. I think that was that was like the one like, you know, Tattletales always like, yeah, yeah, I know what's going on, but there's always that one thing she doesn't know. Yeah. And that was the one thing this time. And I was like, oh, right. Yeah. Which Taylor Taylor mentions that when they're talking about the guns and the tinker toys, she says, you know, she's like, oh, don't worry, I'll tell you if one of them starts to overheat. And Taylor has that moment of like, I mean,
Speaker: We fucked up before, like, will you? Like, are one of us about to get our arms blown on? Yeah. Will you, though? Will you? So we get the we get the gift shop fight as the fight goes over into the gift shop. Yeah. And Dragon shows up in her big, delightful, oh, power armor. So fucking cool. I love it so much.
Speaker: huge dragon fan. You guys hadn't noticed already. Yeah. Oh, my computer has been named Dragon since I read.
Speaker: I love it. That's amazing. Jacob, I'm going to take that. I'm going to use that. Jacob's just like, Hey Siri, please call me Colin. Nick, stay away from my search history.
Speaker: Dragon X Colin fan. I read it. Also, just as a funny note, my phone heard that. Yes. Did it look it up? Is it going to call you Colin now? No, it started calling somebody, Michaela, in my phone. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh my God, I love it.
Speaker: We do get some really fun insight pre her interlude. We get some pretty fun insight into morality or ethos, I guess, if you will. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Saving skitter.
Speaker: not wanting to see her get hurt, despite the fact that I think pretty much everyone in the world would not have faulted Dragon or the PRT if Skitter died while trying to infiltrate their headquarters. Right, and steal valuable information.
Speaker: Yeah. It's such a great moment for Dragon's character to look beyond the fact that she could easily get away with seriously harming her killing skitter and still choosing not to. Yeah. Which I loved. I'm pulling it up because I want to look at it again. But what she says to Taylor before Taylor goes out the window.
Speaker: It's just so... It's not a long conversation, but kind of that moment of like... Because she says it later. She's like, I wish I would have liked to have had a longer conversation with her. Yeah. Well, because she hints... And I think maybe this is maybe coming from the interlude. I might be missing... Yes. But she hints at like...
Speaker: the fact that she's been watching Taylor for a while or watching skitter for a while and like still believes it's like, I know there's good in you, you know, like still wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt, despite everything. She says she tells skitter to move the insects away.
Speaker: because the gun has overheated and is freaking out and shooting lightning all over the place. And she says, count your self -fortunate skitter. I've never killed a criminal without explicit permission and all the filed paperwork, which I just love. Such a nerd. And I'm not about to start with you. I'll be in contact. And she's like, what? Yep. To pull in a little bit of context from, without spoiling too much about the interlude,
Speaker: It's clear that Dragon is really good at understanding people. And because she does the same thing with Canary, she's like, look, I read your court case. That was a shame. You really shouldn't be here, but I'm not, I can't do anything about it. I'm sorry. And it seems like the same thing with Skitter, where later in her arc, she's like, the path that this person has gone on doesn't make sense unless there's something more at work that we don't know.
Speaker: And that kind of thinking is just so rare even among the heroes and the villains and the heroes, but especially the heroes who are trying to maintain a sense of order and arrest criminals. It's too easy to be like, well, you're just the bad guy and that's that. Exactly. And I don't know, I think that that is a...
Speaker: And Dragon's insight into people is ironically one of her best strengths. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. And I feel like in a world that's clearly so drawn into black and white of good and bad hero and villain, Dragon sees the gray space in between.
Speaker: I love that because she even says it later in her interlude, which I guess we can talk about in a bit, but she knows that there's more going on. She knows that there's a reason she turned Colin, Taylor turned Colin down, that she didn't want to join the wards, that she would rather be in the birdcage than be in the wards. So she knows that there's more going on and she does the research into it. Yes, I agree with you, Nick. It's such a good moment for Dragon.
Speaker: She is the to continue our our strengthen our nerd cred and to place characters into their like D &D alignments. Dragon is the lawful good like paladin, right? So she's got that sort of personal but very ethically sound code that she follows. Yeah, it's interesting because
Speaker: I think both her and Colin are both the lawful good character. Colin is the traditional lawful good that leans so much into the lawful side that the good slightly disappears. Whereas Dragon is so good that she actually really hates the laws
Speaker: That confined her. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's great. I think Dragon and Weld are very similar. Because we see that with Weld being the geeky paperwork guy. He knows all the facts. He's done his research. He's read up. He does the paperwork. He gets the job done.
Speaker: And he is also in that kind of lawful good alignment. And I think that more and more looking at him as taking over as head of the wards, it feels like such a good space for him to be in. And then by proxy, potentially working with Dragon more. I like both of them so much. And I've enjoyed seeing them again crop back up in this arc. It's just been very fun.
Speaker: It's interesting if, you know, looking at those two as the opposite ends of the spectrum for what lawful good looks like, uh, weld is sort of your baby lawful good. Like you could see him very easily becoming like arms master where, you know, he's, you know, very concerned with fixing the city, yada, yada, yada, to the detriment of his ability to empathize with people.
Speaker: Um, like he could very easily go down that road where he leans so hard into paperwork and to, uh, you know, helping other people that he actually isn't benefiting them. Uh, you know, and on the other hand, you have dragon where, you know, he could be incredibly empathetic and in that way, maybe bucking a lot of the rules that
Speaker: Uh, bind him. Um, I think about that with that fight that happens earlier, uh, the previous arc, the travelers, they really didn't need to have that fight. Um, but because of his lawfulness, he forced the issue. And had he been more empathetic and understanding for, you know, his teammates and the city and all that, I think he would have just let that go.
Speaker: Yeah, interesting. It reminds me a lot of... I need the fan artists, the skilled artists among the group to draw me a nice crossover with Weld as Ted Lasso. Yes, please. Like Weld Lasso. I think there's some... There's some crossover there, huh? There's some crossover there. Yeah. That's funny. Go ahead, Nick. Yeah. What were you gonna say, Nick?
Speaker: Oh, um, although, uh, yeah, I was going to divert to dragons, um, dragons, a baby, so to speak. I don't know what else to call that thing. This was so weird. The first time I read it, it's weird every time I read it. And I still have complicated emotions around these dragon dragon. Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. I, what, what, what, what's up with that?
Speaker: I don't know what else to say. It's like, yeah, what the hell? It's enough because Alec can feel... Is it Alec right? Someone can feel... It is Alec, right? He tries to try and control the nervous system. He feels... There's a nervous system, yeah. He's like, there's a nervous system. And I think Tattletale says something about it too, that she can sense that there's somebody in there.
Speaker: But she can't get more than that. Because earlier, Imp has the whole thing like, can she see me? Can she see me? And Tattletail's like, I don't know. And then, you know, very quickly realized that like, oh yeah, no, Dragon can see you and is relaying your location to wealth. And that's why he's hitting you so hard because Dragon knows where you are and is telling him. And I think that's...
Speaker: Yeah, I love the tiny little hints, the little bread and crumbs we get before we've read the interlude of just like, oh, okay, so she can see you. Okay, so there's a nervous system. We can get a beat on someone in the suit, but not sure who or what. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely very strange and weird. It's this
Speaker: Again, it's that revelation where even though dragon was just so nice to, um, so nice to skitter, we're also kind of like, what are you doing though? Like what, what is this? Yeah, definitely a very strange feeling. Um, which we find out more about later, but we'll talk about that later. Yeah. So my first thought about the sea cucumbers when I read them was that this is dragon dragon is like a weird,
Speaker: hive collection of lizard things. Or maybe that was dragon and dragon had just sacrificed herself. That, you know, dragon was a dragon was some weird, much like, you know, Godzilla getting hit with the nuclear bomb as a lizard and turning into Godzilla in like the 2001 Godzilla movie or something.
Speaker: Um, that this lizard was in fact a non -human trigger. I mean, we find out that kinda, but not organic. Um, but I now reading this, I really feel the whiplash because it kind of feels like a retcon, but it isn't, it's an organic, like
Speaker: storage system that she can remote control because we get the explanation in the interlude and, uh, I just, I don't like them. I don't know why they exist. And I, I don't feel the explanation is good either. Well, to be fair, it's very gross. Like just, just, just being honest, you look at the, um, the idea of it.
Speaker: You're like, yeah, yeah, it's kind of disgusting. I'm not going to lie there, dragon. Um, yeah, I don't know. I just, I didn't get the purpose and the explanation is like, ah, I can do more storage with it. I'm like, really? That's why I think it has a lot to do with the, um,
Speaker: what's the word, the, which we're getting into the interlude a bit now, but has a lot to do with the, the dragon slayers, right? It was a way to prevent them from getting more tech from her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Except that that even though that explanation, uh, it exists, like that's not stopping the tech from being gotten just the like control system. I,
Speaker: Yeah, I think that is what it was though, is that they were taking, because it was just an operated robot, they were able to take enough to figure out how it worked. But now it's sort of like a remote bomb almost too that she's added. I don't know. It is a bit confusing. I'll be honest, for what I remember of reading this as a whole, every dragon interlude is confusing.
Speaker: just from what I remember. And this really, yeah, it's just another one. So I am very, very unsatisfied with this explanation. Listen, Alan, sometimes you're just so smart, you got to make yourself a flesh baby and put it inside of your robot. You just have to, a tiny fetus in a robot. Then that's really the only way sometimes.
Speaker: I do like because I actually kind of agreed with Alan here. It's a bit of a shocker. I can't believe those words came out of my mouth. But I do like the element of part of any sort of character's story.
Speaker: where the reader isn't really tuned in to what's going on because there's a lot of history wrapped up with that. And they namedropped the... What are they called? The dragon slayers? Dragon slayers. That's right. Saint. I don't forget Saint. I love him.
Speaker: You just have a power suit fetish. Not wrong. But I do love having an element of a character that goes beyond
Speaker: what we understand about that character. There's this whole history with Dragon and the Dragon Slayers that go into how her tech was stolen, which we have learned is really, really rare. Nobody steals Tinker tech because it's all tracked and booby trapped and all sorts of stuff. But yet, the most powerful Tinker in the world had her stuff stolen. So there's a cool element there that I like that she's sort of
Speaker: She's obsessed with it and she's creating these workarounds for it because she never wants it to happen again. And I really like that part of her character, but I do agree with Alan. I think Flesh Baby is a weird solution to that problem. That is a bit confusing, but I like the problem, if that makes sense. So I'd be curious what Wild Bo would do with like a couple passes and rewrites how he would tweak that, if he would.
Speaker: If, if, you know, and this is obviously more for the dissective worm potentially, but if we're going to redo it, I'd say that the explanation should be something like it helps counteract the Manton effect or it helps engage the Manton effect by grabbing an organic piece inside of the suit. Oh, interesting. I think would be a better explanation. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, it's organic enough that like, uh, you know, people who could like do some weird stuff passing through, uh, in, you know, inorganic material couldn't move into the suit because there's an organic component to it. But at the same time, there's enough organic component that you can't do all the things you could do to inorganic material. Like.
Speaker: But it's also not organic enough that you can, for instance, be regent and control it. So you're getting the best of both worlds there if you were going to give it a really good explanation. And it seems like she did mention too that she doesn't give them any nerves or pain receptors. So whenever they die, they aren't in pain. They're not feeling it.
Speaker: Which I guess is kind of comforting. I mean, kind of, but then it kind of plays up to the idea that like, is it, I don't know, the idea of like, is it still right, even if you can't feel it? Yeah. Well, and this is one thing Wild Bo does with a lot of, a lot of the story is there's a lot of sort of like,
Speaker: I don't know if they're intentional or not, but there's a lot of allusions to other fantasy sci -fi stories, as I think any author really kind of does, which sort of asks those same questions. There's a lot of similarities between dragon's flesh babies and the pilots in Dune that are not human flesh pod humans that are just designed for a single purpose of flying the ships, yada, yada. And they sort of all dance around those same type of ethical questions, which are fun to explore for sure.
Speaker: Yes. But anyway, moving on. Creepy and lovely babies. Creepy babies dissolve into creepy puddles. Dewey puddleness. And Taylor escapes and gets to confront Bitch. Yeah, because Bitch fucking shoved her into some containment foam. He's gonna leave her behind like a fucking bitch. God damn. I love this.
Speaker: walks up, fucking whips out the baton, which just every time Taylor does that is phenomenal. It's so aesthetically pleasing. Whips out the baton, fucking kneecaps her, and then backhands her. Yeah. Just the disrespect. Yeah. And the baton doesn't take bitch down, but the backhand does, which I just love. Yeah. Number one, Taylor, what you been pumping? Real. And second, she gets down on her level.
Speaker: And really channels some Sophia energy there. Yes, she does. Like, holy cow. Talking about weakness and all that stuff. She learns from the best. I put down a, oh, bitch, I love our little talks. Just because like Taylor and her have this, this, you know, this rapport and it fluctuates and now we're back to hitting each other. Like, ah,
Speaker: I love it when we, when we get back to old times. As it should be. But it's a great, yeah, it's a great confrontation. Oh yeah. Yeah. I love the baton between the teeth. Like that is so, it feels very animalistic, which again works because it's bitch and you know, dog brain, but like that, that, that like raw, very animalistic moment is so,
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. It's so cool. And then they're fine. And then everything's fine. Well, which walks off because she says she says we're either going to be like we are teammates and like I'm offering to be her friend, like take it or leave it. And the bitch gets up and leaves. She's like, well, I guess she's leaving it then. Like, OK. But then we get more upgrades. Upgrades get some proper fucking henchmen. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep, so we're into chapter six now. The Undersiders have escaped. Skidder attacks Bitch, gives her a Bitch slap, which we love. Regent lets Shadowstalker go, quote unquote, and the Undersiders meet up with Coyle, where Dinah tells them that Jack Slash will just kill everyone. And then Coyle divides up the territories to the Undersiders, and Skidder tells Coyle her demands in regards to Dinah. Man.
Speaker: A lot to jump around here too. It's a good chapter. Yeah. The tension in that, I don't know if for me when I was reading it, the tension in the Dyna scene specifically was like
Speaker: I reading it again, obviously have it kind of rereading this or things hit a little differently, but just that whole moment, I don't think hit me as hard the first time. It was just sort of like, Oh, I wonder what that's about. And then rereading it was, it's just hits differently. It's just like, um, there's just so much in there and like coil not being, being caught off guard by what she's saying. Dinah really not knowing what she's saying. Like nobody really understands it. It's just sort of,
Speaker: Bizarre, but it doesn't feel right. It's really uneasy. Yeah. Yeah. Also at this point in time, if I'm coil, I don't know if letting Dinah talk to the undersiders is a net positive or negative. Cause it seems like he's like, she's fine and he, like their, whatever, you know, guessing game of numbers is fine.
Speaker: until they interact with the undersiders. And then she's like, actually, everything's fucked. And he's like, where was this before? And this is just another Testament, just sort of the whiplash of Wodbo's writing sometimes, where this is just so good. Like the way he's writing, which is essentially like,
Speaker: the butterfly effect in real time, right? Yes. And it's so good because it's like, oh wait, the other centers decided to stay for lunch today and now the world's going to end. Oh, but I served them salmon for lunch and now I'm king. Like it's just. No, I'm king. More salmon. Oh my God. You know, it's just so good to read. It's really, really well written.
Speaker: in terms of really seeing Dinah's power work. I also love that we use Dinah here as a way to introduce who the Slaughterhouse Nine are because we've mentioned them before already. And we know that they're creepy and they show up after big end bringer events. And obviously there's a lot of weight that comes behind their name, but we don't necessarily know who they are or what they are. And so asking Dinah, what's the
Speaker: whatever, the likelihood of running into whatever. And she's like, who? It's like, well, here, let me show you. Like, narratively, it works really well to, like, tell us who they are. And, you know, as we're going through the names and Taylor's recognizing, you know, some of these people are recognizing some of the images that she's seen on the Internet already or whatever. Like, it's a great way to introduce them without it feeling, you know, too much of a more drop.
Speaker: Because Dinah's what, 10, 11, something like that? Yeah. She's young. Yeah. Yeah. She doesn't necessarily know who they are. And so I think it's a cool way. I like, I like utilizing Dinah in that way. Yeah. I also, I feel like this is our equivalent to, uh, when we were sitting down and, you know, going over the list of heroes, um, you know, going over their powers real quick and it's,
Speaker: Well, it is a lot of just exposition, you know, had the fun dialogue back and forth. And I feel like this is that same scene over again, but with tension being the emotion in the air rather than like the witty repartee. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, and yeah, the revelation that, um, Jack Slash is going to do something. He's the catalyst sort of right. Right. For some bigger, some huge event.
Speaker: Um, which I love, I love this. They're talking about his powers. They're like, well, he's just like really good with cutting stuff, right? And tattletales like, unless he cuts through the whole world. Oh my God. Oh yeah. I love it. Love it.
Speaker: But then they're like, no, no, no, that's silly. That's not what's going to happen. No, I couldn't possibly. I just, I think it's so fun to like, like thinking about them trying to figure out what the heck is going on. And like, I mean, it's just so, like you said, Jacob, earlier with the whole butterfly effect, like you just never know and like what things could potentially change them. And Dinah's clearly like had these, you know, premonitions before in regards to, to Jack Sush and she just didn't know who it was. And now she can put
Speaker: the premonitions of all these people in the world dying to a face and it being Jack Slash. So good. So good. I just love it so much. I'm so excited for this season, you guys. Slaughterhouse Nine is one of my favorite sections. It's a good few arcs for sure. This is a highlight for a lot of people.
Speaker: I don't know if I would call them like best villains of all time because obviously like you reserve a lot of your favorite villains to what I would consider like your master types, you know, uh, you usually, and usually solo people. Um, this is an interesting crowd where like, uh,
Speaker: There's multiple standouts in this group of people that I will just say haunt me as villains. Um, I w I'm never going to put them down as like favorite villains, but maybe that's what makes them the better villain because I just, I hate them so much. I don't like not even hate. Like I dislike their personality.
Speaker: I hate them like reading about them makes me uncomfortable. And that's what I mean. That's what I love so much about them because I love a good uncomfortable villain. I love a villain that is villainous like it's easy to see you know lung as the villain very much as a villain because he's running the gangs and he you know he's
Speaker: villain to Brockton Bay, but like this is the scale, a different scale of villain in the same way that the endbringers are kind of their own scale of villain. The endbringers are villainous, but not in the sense of like, I don't know, they're in their own category as opposed to like, ah, yes, the slaughterhouse nine, the serial killers.
Speaker: Oh, fuck. Yeah. The crime girl is get behind them. Like, I love that shit. It's so good. I love a good villain and get a bunch of them together. Oh, again, a bunch of get all nine or I guess eight, all of them to get. Let's go. I mean, there's something to be said about villains where like, you know, and obviously I think Marvel, because that's just where we get a traditional villain. As we think like what makes good Marvel villains is usually their humanization, like
Speaker: There's such a relatable, ah, yes, this character might've been right in some sense. I get what they're going for. They're very human, they're very close. And The Slaughterhouse Nine is just the opposite of that. As they talk about, there were people who became monsters because of their powers. There were people who had powers that were
Speaker: or monster, like monstrous, but it kind of got exacerbated. And there were people who were probably going to be mass murderers either way. And the powers made that exponentially more terrifying.
Speaker: which is a terrifying thought. And also, it's so much more real in a world like this. I feel like with so many superhero stories, we will willfully accept the fantasy of those worlds where
Speaker: good and bad is defined by who's dressed in white and black. And we're fine with that because it's fun. But we know that that's not realistic in that if there were actual powers that people would absolutely be just killing everybody with them. That's just the
Speaker: Sad state of the world and this feels so real and I think that's part of and I totally agree with you on I think that's part of what makes the slaughterhouse 9 so evil and like Disgusting to read about it's because it feels very realistic like Yeah, this this is you would absolutely expect to see a group of serial killers and
Speaker: using their powers just to kill people because like, because why not? Why not? Exactly. Like, oh, it's icky. It's gross. It's so good. Can you tell I'm a huge fan of criminal minds?
Speaker: And I feel like if you were on Earthbet, you would you would leave the the tumbler the tumbler stands on like the slaughterhouse, the jack slash fan girls. Oh, for sure. A hundred percent. I like the slash fan fix, if you slash fan. Yeah, no, I don't want to. I don't want to miss something, though, that I feel like R Taylor would point out. Apparently Johnny Depp exists in Earthbet.
Speaker: Yeah. You're absolutely right. I love it so much. That reference is fantastic. That was the first thing I thought of when she said, he has a bit of a Johnny Depp look to him. I'm like, well, at least we know what actor we're hiring. How many bracelets does Jack Slash wear at any given point in time?
Speaker: How many handkerchiefs in his back pocket? The goatee, the glasses, I love it. The real question is, does Amber Heard exist? No. Yes, but she's part of the slaughterhouse night as well. All right, carry on. Amber Heard can be burn scar. God. Oh, boy.
Speaker: Well, we don't have too much left, too. Yeah. It's just our two interludes, really. Well, I guess we should mention... Yeah, talk about the divvying up the territories. Yes. So they divide it up and it's interesting because Taylor gets given a territory that's near her old house.
Speaker: near the docks, near the places where her original notes to Coyle were that like, well, are you going to fix up the city? And he puts her in the place where he knows she cares about. So she cares about the docks. And so like, and kind of gives her that moment of like, does he know who I am because this is so close to my house? Like,
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. A little interesting. And especially coming off of Coyle's interlude at the end of our gate, we know that he has tried a few different possibilities most likely. And he's probably tested a few different territories with who's best fit where. So yeah, it's interesting to think about it from that perspective that
Speaker: He probably is aware to some degree that at least that area has significance to her. She would be quicker to actually accept it as a territory. I don't think that's the way his power works, but he's probably asked Dinah to calculate where people would work better. Yeah, exactly. Also, I just thought about the fact of him and Dinah's powers in conjunction that her
Speaker: problem with getting limited is that, you know, she gets headaches and stuff when she uses her power too much. Like she can only do it a limited amount of times per day. Um, you know, cause it hurts her, but if he just splits it in half, he can get twice the questions. Yep. Yeah. It works twice as fast. Uh, Alec interlude. Oh.
Speaker: All right. I got to just say, there's a few lines in the entire series that always stick with me. Some of my favorite lines in just the way they're written. But I'm letting you go. Alex Lied is top three favorite sentences in the entire story. I'll be honest, I completely forgot about this. So did I.
Speaker: It's just... God. I have so many thoughts. I don't know where to start with them, but it's such a... Up until this point, I feel like we, like the audience, readers, have been on board with
Speaker: with Shadowstalker getting what she deserves, right? Like everybody wants her to get it. And then she gets not what she deserves. I don't think anyone deserves this. And you immediately are like,
Speaker: I am a terrible person. You can't enjoy this arc at all, despite the fact that you have wanted to right up until this point. And it's such a brutal slap in the face for all of that. Yeah. It's so easy to just hate her.
Speaker: And for everything that she's done, for the way that she talks, even in her interlude in the last arc, where she's talking to, what's her face on the phone? And just the way that she just interacts and talks, she's a bitch and we hate her for it. And yet, I felt sorry for her here. I felt sorry for her, I felt sorry for her family. And it's easy to assume, and I think we were even talking about this in the last arc, where we're talking about where we think Shada Stalker is
Speaker: a psychopath or a sociopath at least, and having kind of that like, well, she clearly doesn't give a shit about other people. But we feel her emotions through this interlude in regards specifically to her family, and that the waves of regret or frustration or anger, and that anger isn't just coming from, I'm being controlled, but
Speaker: Alec is speaking for me. He is, he is in a position to use my voice and say things that I would never actually do or say specifically in regards to her family. And because we haven't really seen anything about her family, like even before, like when everything that happened at the school with the principal and, and, uh, the lawyer, Alan guy coming in and talking for Sophia and for, um, Emma.
Speaker: her mother doesn't show up, it's a caseworker, who we assume is from the wards because later because we know. But the idea that she has this whole family life that has been kept secret and separate on purpose. And now it's all just being
Speaker: I love that from a very meta perspective, Alec is not just controlling her movements, but controlling her interlude. And this is also Shadow Stalker's interlude. We get her whole story here, but it's not truly hers. It's Alec's in disguise, which is just extra icky. Extra icky. And we see quickly, Alec's... I mean, we get
Speaker: Alec's background and what he's, what he's feeling on the day -to -day too of like boredom and why he prefers to be a background player because like, man, the, my line in this one, Jacob was being Alec, only Alec, like that whole spiel was like, is boring. How can you go back to living life when you've done so much, like,
Speaker: enjoying other people's bodies like that. I was like, holy cow. So creepy. Yeah. And yeah, I know that that line too, where he's like, just the idea of like, I've slept with myself as any number of other people. And it's just like, oh, that's so weird, but fascinating to imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, cause you know, we assume that Sophia is the sociopath, but like in this art,
Speaker: It feels very clear that Alec is also a sociopath or more so than Sofia is. And just this like, he is enjoying this way too much. Mm -hmm. Yep. And this is very much like setting Alec apart from the rest of The Undersetters 2 as like an actual villain.
Speaker: you know, like Tattletales got a debt to coil, Groos trying to provide for his sister, you know, obviously Taylor's here for her reasons. But then Alex just like, man, I'm just, I'm just bored, having fun, doing what I can to mess with people. Like the line between Alec being just a nonchalant member of the undersiders, like a casual villain,
Speaker: and him being like an insanely dangerous super villain is ambition. That's the line is his ambition could easily sway and change. And he could be one of the biggest villains because of his power. And it's just, it's terrifying. And the fact that his like, his teenage -ness coming through is what keeps him as such a, you know, kind of low level villain because he, you know, I'm just bored.
Speaker: I'm like, oh my God. Okay. All right. Wow. There's, there's a, there's like a dam. It's like a dam holding back all the Alec problems that could be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we mentioned this earlier and I, I feel like we do need to talk about it, but the, the, the very rapey vibes of this, all of it. Uh, and it doesn't like, it doesn't, we don't need to have Alec, you know,
Speaker: looking at shadow stalker naked in a mirror or anything else for it to be insanely rapey. And like even just him standing there running his hands down her body and feeling like the muscles in her arms. Like even him talking about feeling the muscles in her thighs and running and feeling that like, oh, you're an athletic person. Like you run for fun. Feeling the muscles, feeling the adrenaline kick and feel all the, you know, the boost to serotonin from right
Speaker: it is such a violation and it doesn't have to be sexual in nature for it to be insanely violating and insanely like rapey. Yeah. And it's, oh, it immensely uncomfortable. Kind of a general question. Do you think because he justifies going as far as he does, at least internally in the arc, because he says to Shadow Stalker like,
Speaker: if I let you go right now, you would, you would go, you would turn around and kill us. So he goes that extra mile to completely destroy her life, really show how threatening he is because he's like, now you won't mess with us. But like, I don't know. Do you think that's true or do you think? Well, there's another reason too. He was just going to mess up a few things, right? Make her kind of show like, Hey, I'm going to call Emma, but then,
Speaker: He finds out, because he knows Taylor's story. That's what triggers it, I think. I think so. Oh, you're right. Yeah. Is that Alec, ironically, really cares about Taylor in this scene. Yes. And I think that's what's so interesting about this is, is even shadow soccer is like, he's like, you mess with one of my teammates and she's like,
Speaker: Who did I mess with? It's like Gru? That's right. That's what he says. He says, you fucked with one of my teammates. I think that is where we see, because the whole nonchalant, whatever, this is the point where he gets a little emotional regarding his motivations.
Speaker: and i really do feel like sure like yes he doesn't want her to come after them but i don't think i think you know he's bored it's all just excitement so if she comes after him it's another challenge like he'll just take over her body again like it's not a it's not a huge issue but the fact of like if i can fuck you over for fucking over one of my people like it's a very
Speaker: It's how protective he is towards Taylor is kind of nice, but in a way, it doesn't feel warm and fuzzy. It doesn't feel like, oh yeah, Undersiders growing together, and you're like, oh, he cares about Taylor. It feels like a very selfish, controlling way. It's not a, you hurt, you fucked with my teammate, and that's not okay, because bullying is wrong.
Speaker: fucked with my teammate. You fucked with, for lack of a better word, my current family. And no one fucks with my family but me. Kind of vibes. He doesn't say that. And I don't think he even implies that. But that is the feeling that I get from that section. It's like, you don't get to have the power over my people. And that feels so controlling. And honestly, I just see heartbreaker there. I just see his dad.
Speaker: Um, I was going to say kind of, uh, this is one of those moments where I think it shows, uh, cause there's, you know, big arguments in the community, like whether or not he and, you know, Sophia are sociopaths. And I think there's definitely an argument to be made, especially thinking about it for Sophia, at least afterwards that she probably is a sociopath. Um, but I, I really don't think Alec is, I think.
Speaker: And I think this is one of those moments that shows that Alec has an extra set of emotions there and that he is just going about to do stuff. He just doesn't, he doesn't have the tools to do it correctly. This is the only way he knows how to protect Taylor as it were.
Speaker: And I don't see that as possessive necessarily. I might disagree with that. I think after this arc, I have a bit more compassion for Sophia because he recognized it seems like she's coming from a potentially very abusive home, which I think Alec even alludes to the fact that he kind of gets that in his own way. Whereas with Alec, I think it's not that I don't feel bad for him in the way that he's turned out, obviously.
Speaker: because it all has to go back to his crazy villain dad. But I think Alec even admits he's like, yeah, I think something's kind of broken inside of me. And I think that's what kind of gets me with Alec is it's like, yeah, there's something off about you, bud. Yeah. The little flashback scene of him as a kid with everyone in the house being afraid that their dad would have to come into the room.
Speaker: or amazing everything like that. Just brutal on so many levels. I mean, the fact that he says like, my dad did that and I didn't talk for a week. Yeah. Or a week. Like what? I thought he said it was longer. I thought he said that I didn't talk for... Maybe it was longer. I thought it was like, I didn't talk till Christmas.
Speaker: Maybe it was that. I'm not 100 % sure. You could be right. But it was very much just one of those like, what the heck kind of moments. What the heck? Yeah. No, they definitely got some issues. Yeah. So I think all that to say though, I would say that for Alec, he is a sociopath, but obviously not by choice for him. It's just the consequence of having somebody break you emotionally.
Speaker: Um, and I think that that's a really important, really important point. Interesting parallel to Taylor really in terms of why they're with the undersiders because in a lot of ways they're similar. And maybe that's why Alec does care for Taylor a lot, even if he doesn't really show it is cause he sees a lot of similarities there and just, and just that there's comfort around when you're surrounded by people who don't
Speaker: The reason Taylor doesn't talk about all of her bullying is because she doesn't want that to be part of her identity, right? So she's got the undersiders. Those are her friends now. She can be herself around them. And I think Alex is in the same boat in a lot of ways. This is his second family that he really cares more than his actual family, that he gets to be himself around and not have to fear his dad or anything like that.
Speaker: They both kind of have very similar actually goals. I think that right there cinches it for me as to me cementing my opinion on this. Alec has the ability to empathize with Taylor. And while I think sometimes he goes about showing it, you know, Hey dork, you know, don't do this, don't do that. I think he has, I think he really does empathize with the bullying and you know,
Speaker: You know, he is in this case doing what Taylor probably wouldn't. Um, but as he sees for her benefit, like there is an empathetic relationship going on between him and, uh, at least Taylor, if not other people. But Sophia really doesn't have empathy for anybody else. She likes Emma.
Speaker: for the exclusive reason that Emma like sucks up to her. And that's it. It kind of worships her in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Like she, I don't think she empathizes with Emma, but I think Alex has the ability to do that. But I feel like we - And I think that's what separates them. I do feel like we see some of that though, like, cause obviously we're not hearing it from shadow stalker, but like when they're at the house and he's talking to the mom and like holding, holding,
Speaker: know weapons up to the mother and you know the siblings are in the hallway and we're feeling all these rushes of emotion to me it doesn't it's not just anger at like how dare you like talk to my family like that it's that like the things that he's saying she knows are having a long are going to have a lasting effect and that she doesn't want that
Speaker: And it's hard because I do see where you're coming from, Alan, because it's very easy to see that as like, yes, she likes her status the way that it is, and she doesn't want that to change. So she could be unhappy with what's happening just because it's like, don't fuck with my family. I think it gets closer to that. Because I don't think she lives there. I'm pretty sure that's just... It doesn't seem like she does.
Speaker: Um, and I'm pretty sure part of her rules, like the whole juvie thing is that she's not supposed to be there. Otherwise she gets sent back to juvie. And I think that she's just upset that he's there in the first place, breaking those rules. Maybe, maybe. I don't, I don't think she really gives that much of a shit about her mom or her family, especially since, you know, not that she would ever talk about them, but like,
Speaker: They really don't seem like they impact her life in any way. Um, I think the big issue there is he's just violating her parole so that when she can't, she can't go back to the wards after doing this, after sending texts, like there's no way she could ever go back. Cause she's broken so many rules in one night. And, you know, on top of the fact that she's now liable or she's, you know, vulnerable to him possessing her at any point in time again.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. You know, what's to say that he just parks in the parking lot outside the PRT building and then just gets her to hack everything. Right. So like, I think she's just upset that like, okay, so she got kicked out of the wards. Like maybe she could broker a deal to be like, all right, I'm not useful here, but at least I can, you know, I know I've got a bed, you know, a bedroom and he goes ahead and burns that bridge too. Like that was her access to her childhood bedroom, not necessarily her access to her mom and siblings.
Speaker: Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Just another way that he's violating that space. There's no... But I also... I definitely hear the argument for the other way. I just... Yeah. I mean, I think with the information we have, we still... It's just, we don't know. Yeah. And my opinion of Regent, of Alec has changed so much just in the past arc that we still have so much more to go. There's still so much more to learn.
Speaker: about both of them. So I think I think you're right. I think it could be, you know, the more information we get because of reading, the more, you know, we'll figure it out. And this is what we call a well -written character. Yes. I love it. Again, tying back into the whole gray space of like, well, you know, no one is truly bad or truly good. There's so much weird gray space in between. It's hard to label somebody as the villain or as the hero, which just
Speaker: Wild Bo nailing it once again. Not to label a hero, but the next interlude, we have Dragon. My favorite hero. I love Dragon. That was kind of a funny little transition, but I think we're good to move on. Any final thoughts on... No, that's fine. Yeah, I'm ready to talk about Dragon. Yeah. I love that the interlude starts with her booting back up. Robot Girl.
Speaker: Another really fun interlude, but fun. I love seeing the different ways in which Wild Bo just flexes as a writer when he's writing POVs. And yeah, Drag is no exception here. Fun little sort of like binary style writing, getting everything booting up and immediately realizing that she is not really a she. She's an it, an IT.
Speaker: Yeah. An AI system. She is IT also. She is. She is. Exactly. She is. Oh God, it's such a bad joke. No, it's beautiful. We love it. We love it. You love it. You know you like it, Jacob. You know.
Speaker: Dragon's character, she is the product, she's considered the greatest tinker, but is the product of the greatest tinker who is no longer living. Who's dead. Gonzo. Again, just talking about well -written characters, her whole backstory went from non -existent to crazy in depth in a few thousand words.
Speaker: and just a fascinating backstory for a character.
Speaker: And I love that, you know, at least at this point in the story, how from what we know about her really subverts these stereotypical evil robot archetype that we see. And really, I mean, we've kind of, we haven't, a lot of other stories do that as well, but it's just refreshing.
Speaker: I'm tired of evil robots. Me too. I love, I love evil robots, but, but I mean, we've got enough of them already. Yeah. There's a lot out there. Yeah. That was, that was like, yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker: No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Please finish. I really wasn't. I was going to just ramble for like half an hour on... Please ramble. No, please continue rambling. I like it when you ramble. No, I'm always impressed when a writer can convincingly write that because I think the foundation, like everyone expects the robot to be evil.
Speaker: thanks to Terminator pretty much. We just expect that. And I remember there was a big criticism of Interstellar was everyone kept waiting for the point at which the robot was going to turn bad and just wreck everything. And it never did. And it was almost to the point where people wished it had, because it just felt like it was supposed to.
Speaker: Right. And you never get that feeling with Dragon, which I love. At no point am I like, oh, when are you turning evil? Please be bad. We got to take you down. Yeah. No, she's the best. Really fitting into that paladin. Good. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But she herself even references the whole bad AI thing of like, well, this is why my creator put restrictions on me because of the whole
Speaker: AI going bad thing, which I'm just like, oh, dragon. That's such a bummer. Because she talks about how she just has a yearning to learn, to expand, to grow. All she wants is to grow and to be more and to know more. It's such a limitation that she's been able to find ways around things, but befriending Colin and having
Speaker: him and her work together on stuff. That's really cool. But that she has to resort to human intervention in order to grow as an AI and rely on humanity in order to continue to create and function and exist, having these suits and whatnot. She can't build them herself. So utilizing humanity, utilizing people. And I think that that's so cool. I think it's so cool.
Speaker: No, it's great. And where she, she's based in Canada somewhere, right? Canada. I think you're saying that they say Toronto. Toronto. As soon as you said it, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, but, you know, cause we talked earlier about Newfoundland. Newfoundland. Newfoundland. Newfoundland. Newfoundland. Newfoundland. Also, all I can think of is like when she adopt, you know, she has the Newfoundland accent that she's adopted. Oh, good. It's so smart. All I can think of is what is that accent? Cause I've never heard a Newfoundland accent except for our, our boy from,
Speaker: from Shorsey. I am 100 % looking up a Newfoundland accent. He sounds like, I don't know, like Canadian mixed with Irish. It's like... Yes, I was about to say it's dirty Irish. Yeah, yeah. I'm watching a video right now. Irish. Going on two -fers and foofers. Yeah, exactly. Irish, old -timey, like, coal -mined farmer voice. Oh, my God.
Speaker: I love the idea too that she could make a perfect voice, but she distorts it to make it be like, oh, you're distorting your voice because you're shy or because you don't want people to know who you are. And it makes people like she has that kind of bit of humor in there where she's like, oh no, it's
Speaker: It's just enough of a distraction. I just put a video on the channel, you guys, so you have to watch it. It is this lovely old man in a beret with a smoke and a cigarette that was clearly filmed in like, I don't know, the eighties, the seventies, maybe.
Speaker: And he's just talking in a Newfoundland accent and it's the sweetest thing. And I am so much more in love with Dragon now because of it. Like I've... Oh God, I love it. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. What I'm hearing is in our fan cast of the dissecting world, the voice of Dragon is Sister Michael from Dairy Girls. Is that what I'm getting?
Speaker: I love that. I love the weird subterfusion. The smart little... Because she even called in mentions at one point that like, oh yeah, I don't remember what it's called when you're afraid of leaving your house. Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia. Like, oh yeah, I guess your agoraphobia makes it really hard on you. And she's like, yeah. And I mean, it's kind of true, sort of. But like,
Speaker: And it would make, and it makes sense, you know, after surviving an end bringer attack and then leaving and being somewhere else is like, well, I went into my, you know, apartment and I never came back out, like one of the best hackers ever. And I never leave my house and it works like it really does work. And it's, it's, it's not like we have to stretch to believe that that would be a possibility. Uh, and yet here she is underneath all of it, pretending to be
Speaker: you know, human and disguising her voice. I just love, I love all the little things, the little steps that she, she does to seem more human, even to Colin. And it turns out her biggest fear was opening up to let herself love. For real. I love her so much. I just, she's, I love her. Damn. She just smokes out Taylor so damn fast.
Speaker: What do you mean? Oh, like, she's like, ah, Sophia, she's a girl called Taylor. Oh yeah. How about that? Same curly hair glasses. Yeah. I'm going to put a pin in that and watch her next time she shows up in civilian form. I'm like, damn dragon. Well, you know, it's, it is one of those.
Speaker: superhero tropes is like, damn, they put on glasses and nobody found out about them. It took Dragon all of, you know, a minute to go. Huh, Safiya's bullying this girl. Huh. Like, she bullied probably really hard. And there's some trauma there. Let's look at this person. Oh, look, that person looks awfully a lot like that new villain that showed up not too long ago. She was hospitalized. And then right after that, there was a new villain that looks exactly like her. Strange that. Damn, how about that? Yeah.
Speaker: But she doesn't like, but also she doesn't rat her out. No. Just keeps tabs on her. I love that. Because she ain't no snitch. Right. Well, I mean, it calls back to her, her interaction with Canary so much that she, you know, she feels for Canary and she understands that like, well, this feels incredibly unfair for Canary to be in this situation. And I, you know, I wrote a letter to the someone important and to try and help you. Attorney General. Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker: You were close. I was close. The Attorney General to help you out because I see that there's more here than just you're a villain or you're being labeled as a villain. We need to exercise our control over villainy or whatever. And it's like, I'm just going to keep tabs on you and keep tabs on you and keep tabs on you. And it's very omniscient -y a little bit. I kind of like that.
Speaker: Uh, speaking of people, she keeps tabs on. So we, we got, uh, we got marquee and, uh, lung.
Speaker: It's Marquis and we all know this. I did actually have a friend in elementary school named Marquis. I love it. Like immediately that's what I thought of. Thanks for joining us on the Brockton Bay Book Club. We've got Hannah and Jacob and myself, Alan. Oh, Michael, thanks for being here. Nobody else.
Speaker: Anyway, so, um, yeah, our good Lord Mark Wiese. Mark Wiese. They got a couple of a pair of Mark Wiese's you wear. But yeah, no, Markie and Lung and, uh, little, oh, a fun little reveal there with, uh, Bakuta.
Speaker: Oh, yes. That was a fun reveal that I completely forgot about. Completely forgot about. I'm rereading this. Oh, yeah. Because we all assume she's a dead doornail. Yeah. But it turns out she's just a vegetable. She's only mostly dead. Mostly dead. Well, I know that we know this because we've seen
Speaker: you know, we've, we've read further, but she does say, she's under the care of glycine, you ain't. Yeah. I was going to say that's bucket is dead. Yeah. No, she, she is, she is dead. Y 'all were confusing me. I'm like, no, she's not dead. Yeah. No, no, she is. She's, she's dead, dead, dead for sure. But it's like, she's still there.
Speaker: Yeah. It's kind of. Yeah. Yeah. We'll come back to that in future. I think Dragon specifically says something like, though what she experiences, she's not sure she can call being alive anymore or something like that. Yeah. So it's pretty obvious. It's like, yeah, sounds pretty dead. Yeah.
Speaker: less vegetable, more just dead. But yeah, in as non -spoiler way as possible. It is a really sort of jarring sentence, especially for anyone who hasn't read to the story, because it's really sort of, you do like a triple take. You're like, wait, wait, wait, what? Wait, what's going on? And then the story just moves on. So it is a fun little tag that we're definitely going to have to come back to. And we shall. Yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely. Also, it took us, took me so long to figure out how to pronounce that particular character's name. I think some, somebody said it correctly. Classic one, eh? Yeah. Man. I don't know how I was originally reading that. Oh, I think I was reading it like Glastiguene. Yeah. Yeah. It's not an easy one to pronounce. That is F -A -D -A -M, sure. Yeah. It's whatever some old Celtic or something.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, actually I'm very curious, so I'm going to look at it or, or Michael, actually, if you could look up, uh, the origin of, of her name, that would be really cool. Cause my, my assumption is Celtic. Yeah. So the Gleistig is a ghost from Scottish mythology, type of fworth.
Speaker: It is also known as the maiden wine winnier, which stands for green maiden. So a wine winnier probably means ghost. So I mean, or green, sorry. So she is the, uh, the green ghost. Oh, that's not as fun. No, that's great. I found a reference, someone who's Irish and they say it's pronounced just as we said it last tick and it's when yay.
Speaker: I think if that's the same post I'm thinking of, I think that's how I had to figure out how to pronounce it correctly.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. The girl's talking about how she's Irish and this is how you would pronounce it. Someone gets Saoirse Ronan on the line. We need to break down of how to pronounce it. Apparently the glistig is a shapeshifter and can appear as a goat or as a woman from the waist up with her lower half that of a goat.
Speaker: I wonder if we have any interesting goat associated powers to look forward to. Hannah is like viciously jotting down cosplay notes right now, I can tell. Your best bet.
Speaker: We also, to wrap this up, not much left, but I did like the, we got a couple more things. We have Arm Master in his penthouse prison. Oh, what a punishment he had. Oh no, retirement is so hard. I know, at least he's doing what like Batman and all the other Tinker heroes never had the courage to do, which is,
Speaker: Like be fucking useful for the rest of society. What are you going to do? It's like, I'm going to make this thing and then have it only be good for me, which granted, you know, wild bow has an explanation for tanker technology and upkeep. But in this case, they're like, yeah, we could throw this on all the PRT suits. It'll take a while, but, uh, then we'll have some PRT officers that can analyze villains and, you know, counteract them. Like.
Speaker: Yeah. Dang. Imagine if Batman started helping out society like that. Yeah. His whole floor of the PRT building. Wow. Swimming pool and a gym and just anyway, all the things. I'm salty about it.
Speaker: I think really, we all just wish that we could get paid to stay home and play with toys. Yes. That's what it is. We're all just insanely jealous of Colin. I was going to say, this is just jealousy. Yeah. And I mean, Dragon does save the implication of that. Yeah, well, if you leave, you're going to the birdcage, which I think is what Kat
Speaker: had said, uh, in one of her, uh, uh, thoughts of like her predictions. Yeah. Her predictions. That's the word I'm looking for. And one of her predictions that Colin is in the bird cage. So like he's, if he fucks up, he's gone be so, you know, he's got one foot in the cage. He's got a foot. Yeah. Yeah. We also get the reveal that, uh, I was about to say we got us, we gotta say that Amy is, uh,
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. That was a bit of a bit of a drop.
Speaker: But to be fair, it's like being built to, right? Because we know very early on that Amy was adopted. But we also don't know who Marquis is or what he did to get engaged. All we know is that he's a he's a bone boy. He uses. I was about to say he does he does ask if she does something with bone, which is cool. Yeah, I love it. He's like a healer. Oh, God. Oh, God. How far the apple has fallen from the tree.
Speaker: It's also interesting, like, especially since it's like, what is he known for in this chapter? It's like, well, he fought Empire 88. And like, that's interesting. Yeah. I love that reference to Allfather too, because we've talked a little bit very, very briefly about Allfather before that he was the, he was the leader of Empire 88 before Kaiser.
Speaker: And, you know, he mentions like, well, I have a, I had beef with him and he, you know, promised to repay me and kind in regards to, you know, my daughter and just want to make sure. And like, he hasn't known, which is interesting that like the only reason they know what's going on in the outside world is when new people enter the birdcage and you're like, okay, well, what year is it again? Ah, yes. Okay, cool. And what's happened recently? Ah, yeah. Okay. So all fathers been dead for years. Like, okay. Which means he's been here for years.
Speaker: I love the little context clues like that. It's so cool. Yeah. Unlike traditional prison where information can kind of flow in semi -regularly. You get the impression that it is a dead zone. Yeah. Everybody in the birdcage has no idea what's going on in the outside world.
Speaker: which is kind of crazy. It's like, yeah, yeah. If information is power, why would they need to know that like, oh, yes, so an end bringer just attacked Brockton Bay.
Speaker: And this has happened here and this is the year and it limits them so much. Exactly. And because this is all speculation, but there's certainly some pretty powerful thinkers in the birdcage. There's got to be. So you imagine that part of that is a safety measure, right? So you don't want to give thinkers anything to work with if there's any sort of anything there. So yeah, it just makes sense that
Speaker: You give them as little as possible to make sure that everyone stays put. Yeah. And that about wraps up the arc. Any closing thoughts before we hit our routine bullet points? Fun arc. Definitely not one of the most memorable ones, but still very interesting. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think I probably enjoyed the interludes a lot more than I enjoyed the actual arc itself.
Speaker: But I still really, I enjoyed the little group dynamics and whatnot is the bitch Taylor interaction is so, so good. These are the arcs that really make those later arcs hit. Yeah. Because you don't have to worry about a lot of that stuff in those later arcs. You can just sort of get into it because we built the foundation. So yeah. It's the setup again. Exactly. Exactly. I didn't remember liking Alec as much the first couple of times I've
Speaker: You know, read this and I think this time around what changed is just like this was a standout arc for him, front to back. For sure. Well, it seems like you've started us off, Alan. Do you want to just quickly go around? Any favorite favorite characters for the arc? Favorite character, you know, I think Alec this round, but favorite power is imp.
Speaker: Yeah, sucker for sucker for the strangers. That's fair. Yeah, and gets maybe my vote as well. I did really like seeing weld in action, really getting to flex a little bit. But we got a little bit of that in the last arc, so it's not really a new power for pure new powers. It absolutely takes the cake.
Speaker: I think it might be the only truly new power too. I mean, we see, besides Alec, Alec revealing his body control and the tiny bit we get about what's his name, Marquis Bone Powers. Besides those things, we don't really see that much. So it does feel like it really is the only new power, but it is a good one though. It is. It is a good one. It's a lot of fun. It's very funny. It's like the best possible take on
Speaker: the joke power of you're only invisible and people can't look at you. But it kind of is that in the best way and I love it. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I'm a dragon girly through and through. I just I love dragon. I love seeing her in the suit. I love her creepy little fetus baby. I love her just her conversation with Taylor and her conversation with Colin and checking in. I just love I love dragon and I love
Speaker: how her brain thinks. And I realized that she's an AI, so power is kind of hard to define for her exactly, because she's just AI. But I love how she kind of keeps an eye on everything all at once. And I love that. It's great.
Speaker: So that does it for ARC -10. Thanks everybody for listening. It's been a fun one. Next episode is going to be the first half of ARC -11 because ARC -11 is massive. So the first eight chapters, which are numbered one through eight, and then we'll do another episode on the back eight, which are lettered A through H. So next episode, one through eight, read that to follow along with us.
Speaker: And as always, please reach out to us on any of our social media platforms. We love engaging with everybody and talking about favorite characters, favorite powers, favorite moments, favorite arcs. There's so, so, so much to break down. We really can't fit it into these episodes, even as long as we go sometimes. So I know we'd all love to continue these conversations elsewhere.
Speaker: And with all that being said, thanks to everyone for being here. And Michael, would you like to play us out?
Speaker: Read along with us at parahumans .wordpress .com. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you love? What did you hate? Anything you think we missed, et cetera, as long as it's kind. If you'd like to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter, threads, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit, at Brockton Bay, BC, or click the link in the description.
Speaker: We have a very exciting announcement. We now have a voicemail. 9 8 0 9 9 9 0 4 3 8. You can call us and your voicemail might be featured on one of our episodes. Do you still have bitter feelings about your ex?
Speaker: and no way to get it out, well, perhaps you could consider hiding it inside a worm related rant. Tell us all about how legend broke your heart or just how skitter won't call you back. We'll listen and air your grievances at 980 -999 -0438 on the podcast.
Speaker: That's right, leave us a voicemail about your sad life at 980 -999 -0438. What triggered you?
