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Arc 24: Crushed
447 Plays5 months ago
This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass.
Complete list of potential triggers: here
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Episode Description:
The damage Behemoth was wreaking in New Delhi was, I thought, a microcosm of what was happening all over the world. Three or four attacks a year, since the Brockton Bay Book Club had appeared.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:10) - Book Club Begins
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Worm' by JC McRae
00:00:00
Speaker
Worm is a web serial by JC McRae, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans dot.wordpress dot.com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon dot.com slash wildbo. This story isn't intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.
Humorous Exchanges and Light-hearted Banter
00:01:07
Speaker
Good morning, Brockton Bay. Check your Geiger counters and keep your distance. It's Ark 24.
00:01:17
Speaker
i you go
00:01:20
Speaker
Let's go. Crushed it. Oh, yes. We did in fact crush so many. did Oh, the name of the Ark. Oh, my God. Oh, got it. Oh, my gosh.
00:01:37
Speaker
sorry
00:01:47
Speaker
didn't know if y'all heard me and then I repeated it and then it wasn't funny. Hannah, you think that I pay it's sent enough attention to the names of the arts?
00:01:55
Speaker
I barely remember what I've read yesterday. That's very true. That's very true. No, it's only because I'm still, I'm literally staring at the summary that I have in front of me that says arc 24. It was good. It was good. Thank you. Michael, go back in and put some golf clapping after she says it. I think it'll never feel better when it comes out. I can get my own golf clapping. Thank you. Hold on. It's okay. I have a, we're not in discord.
Discussion on Behemoth's Powers
00:02:20
Speaker
Yay.
00:02:22
Speaker
Oh, we're not going to pretend that didn't sound like something speaking of clapping cheeks, Behemoth here. Oh my God, did he clap him?
00:02:38
Speaker
The biggest clap them of them all. You know, oh we are we are in our clap a source clap a source. Right. I'm trying to get them started. I've learned by now or clap and let's get it all out.
00:02:57
Speaker
so Michael will just cut it around, you know, so that it all sounds good. and cut Now you leave the chaos. That's what they love us for is the chaos. We call him the cheek killer.
00:03:12
Speaker
You got any more? Are we good? I'm sure I'll come up with another one. I mean, Behemoth's primary move is like, what, ground pound, basically? Basically, yeah. It's that. I also, you know. It's the slap. He's got the slap. The clap slap. Oh, the clap slap. He does have the clap slap. I will say, actually,
00:03:33
Speaker
I really like Behemoth's powers because it is yeah such a cool take on basically a Kaiju type monster. So ah we'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. He's dummy thick. The clap of his ass cheeks. I'd like to think it destroyed all of New Delhi.
00:03:54
Speaker
no Where's the render? I know somebody out there, some degenerate has a render of ah of a dummy thick ah behemoth just ass clapping a city. I was gonna say, send it to us and we will put it on a t-shirt. I swear to God.
00:04:11
Speaker
All right. have We got it. We're good,
Supporting the Podcast and Patreon
00:04:13
Speaker
girl. We got good intro. good good intro 2020 on space battles can end bringers be dummy thick choose your own adventure.
00:04:23
Speaker
ah I knew it. I knew it. Oh, you didn't know it. Go find it. it We're not going to link it. Go find it on your own. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's rule 34 and worm is like over 10 years old. There's, I'm sure there's plenty of special comedy out there out in the internet or your specialized.
00:04:49
Speaker
My brand. Okay. love like there we are Let's just plug that now. Yeah. plug enough content For your specialized. Come and join us. Special specialized with your specialized.
00:05:09
Speaker
Join us on Patreon. And when you when you become a patron of our Patreon, you get to hang out with us in the Discord that we have. And it's actually we've had some really fun time with ah some of our patrons who've gotten on and shot the shit and just hang hung out and talked. And it's been a blast.
00:05:29
Speaker
and uh we got bonus videos man if you want to hear an hour and a half of us talking about how thick behemoth is and about clapping simmer cheeks i mean we might have a je on our base we might have a we actually we do have something potentially in the works so you know you might want to You know what? The regular is $1 a month. $1 goes a long ways. And really you almost miss that and and every, every monies, every, every monies that you give us go straight to Michael because Michael does all of this amazing hard work and doesn't see a fricking penny. So, um, all of that goes straight to him because Michael's like, wait, ah I'm not supposed to see any of that money.
00:06:19
Speaker
I've been seeing it all the way to Taco Bell. and it goes No, that's the point. It goes all the way to Michael and Michael gets all of it. He's concaffeinated so that this can keep happening. He's our producer. He is our editor. He is our our our person who manages all of postings. He's our rock. okay He's just everything. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's my one blanket on a rainy day. That's true. Like an electronic blanket?
00:06:44
Speaker
It's like straight out of the Like Danny pulling warm blankets out of the dryer for you. That's Michael. Support Michael today by donating to our Patreon. I got you Michael. I got you Michael. Don't you worry. Don't you worry. I got you. Little tease for our live reading.
00:07:05
Speaker
yeah That was awesome. Got to be a patron for that. Get those binaural mics. That's what we'll save up for. So we can do the ASMR where like go like lean in. We like crank up the, what's it called? The sensitivity on the mic. So it's like, it's like, we're all, we're all real special. Like we're right, right in the room.
00:07:41
Speaker
not something I should do with a cough drop in my mouth, but let's go. Almost eight minutes. Okay, we need to get to 10. We need the, is the war, we warmed up, we warmed up. We're warmed up. Oh, we're warmed up. Oh my God. I'm so full of worms right now.
00:08:05
Speaker
foods okay god our sequel series the de woer podcast yeah but it's just it's just it's has nothing to do with wom it's just coming down and it is but It's just nothing but like recovering from worm.
Themes and Tension in Arc 24 of 'Worm'
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I mean.
00:08:24
Speaker
We're gonna need some, i think I think we're all stalling because this is a tense arc. True. Yeah. Yeah. ah Arc 24 crush, you mean arc 24 crush my soul. Yeah, that's true. we were We were talking a little bit before we hit the weird old record button, how like,
00:08:44
Speaker
ah It's been ah really enjoying kind of rereading all of them because I'm picking up a lot of stuff that I forgot and things like that. ah But getting to this arc, there's been a few moments where like, I've just sort of stopped and really focused again on the story.
00:09:00
Speaker
And this arc was one of them for me, where like, I don't know ah exactly what it is. I definitely I enjoy the more action heavy arcs, um just because I love the way the wild boat writes action. But this one in particular, there's just so many moments that I just i I had to I had to focus I had to sit down and focus and just take it all in. It's so good. So well written.
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, and it it's it's combat and it's chaos, but it's not... it It doesn't feel hard to follow, which I really appreciated. yeah yeah It's just really well done overall, yeah.
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah, it feels like it's not just the battle like it's not just one big battle like Leviathan's fight was it feels like it feels more like a war like there's more facets to it than just like yes, we're fighting like no, there's also all the strategy and the getting the wounded.
00:09:58
Speaker
to to safety and, you know, all the regrouping and trying to figure out where your people are. There's just so much more to it that felt like longer. Yeah, this is probably less than, but it felt longer than the Leviathan fight. Yeah. Yeah. This is like a, like you said, it's like a war film. It's like watching an old like World War I you know documentary, there's the trenches and the strategy and there's there's the action, but then there's the retreat and the fallback and the regroup and like pay slows for a bit. And then it goes like, yeah, it's exactly like that. yeah Very good. Let's dive in. Anyone, any, any objections?
00:10:34
Speaker
Now let's jump in. Yeah, that's good.
Introduction to Chicago Wards Characters
00:10:37
Speaker
It is running a chapter by chapter here. Um, chapter one, Taylor familiarizes herself with the new wards, uh, the new Chicago wards and they build a lightning rod with golems, uh, cool hands, uh, rescue capes and refugees, and then reconnect with the undersiders on the battlefield.
00:11:02
Speaker
It's a lot of that happens here, but um that's the gist of it. I do wish they would have gone with the middle finger, Lightning Rod. I know. I love that they settled on the peace sign and then someone later, like in one of the later chapters is like, don't they know that the peace sign is like a offensive right yeah an offensive gesture in New Delhi? like They could have picked something else. like oh whips Whoops. That's funny. Although I do like later the commentary is like, I believe region is like, Oh yeah. V for vagina. Good job guys. yeah and they're like Wait, no, wait, no. I think it's cuffed. She's like, he it's for victory. Like you can just hear that.
00:11:47
Speaker
It's great. Um, okay. Let's talk about the new words though. Cause we've got a few, a few new faces in the Chicago words um from Chicago. Chicago. go We know Tecton. Tecton. Yes, we've met Tecton before. Nick has pronounced Tecton.
00:12:06
Speaker
Like tectonic plates. I'm sorry, I believe it's a tectone. We're not doing this again. We're not doing this again. Tectonic. Teton. Teton. Teton. Yeah. It's actually Tucson. On.
00:12:22
Speaker
Anyways, we got tecton. English, you funny language. yeah ah We have golem. Not to be confused with golem. Right. but Right.
00:12:34
Speaker
Which was the funniest exchange of this. Well, actually, no, it wasn't the funniest exchange. It was one of the very funny exchanges that happens in this chapter, but I greatly enjoyed that. It was fun. Yeah, but who's the rest? We got Cuff. Yup. Cuff. Cuff. Yup. Yup. It was basically just a monk class, if I'm not mistaken, from D&D 5D. It's basically like that mixed with a little bit of like the Kaiser metal bending, right?
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, she's got some weak metal bending. yeah um and then A monk way of the metal. A monk way of way of steel and wires. And then we had Grace, who we knew before.
00:13:18
Speaker
who is just straight up one class way of the open fest. Yeah, I mean, basically, yeah, the ninja is our heavy. She's like, well, no, she's more of a heavy hitter, more of a heavy hitter, but she's more iron fist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually a good example, except iron. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. And then one of one of my favorites, annex. Yes. Yeah. It just has Zelda link between world's powers.
00:13:46
Speaker
I mean, you're not wrong. As someone who didn't play the Link games. You can go to it. You don't get a reference, but it's cool. I know what you sort of mean. That's good enough. Yeah. Yeah, so some fun powers for sure. For sure, for sure.
00:14:05
Speaker
it's It's interesting. who Which one of them is has only been on the job for for a month? Gollum and Cuff, I think. Gollum. Yeah. Gollum and Cuff. Yeah. I think both of them. Because I thought it was two of them, yeah, who were like brand spanking new. Obviously, being a cape in this world is very much like being thrown right into the fray like immediately. But to be thrown right in with an end-bringer fight is like... Holy shit. It's a lot thrown at you immediately. Yep.
00:14:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, I feel really bad for the newbies. Um, but Taylor comes in and I think that's why Tekton makes Taylor the leader in part. We find out more later, but I do love that. Um, because just that feeling of, yeah, no, he, he knows that you've been, you've done this before. You've got the tactical mindset to make this work. Unlike anybody else, you know?
00:15:03
Speaker
I mean, this is the same thing with like, Noelle and Trickster. Like, Trickster was the team lead, not for good reason, but Noelle was the battlefield commander when they had her, you know? Yeah. Right. Like, that's what she was really good at. And it's what made her so difficult to fight later on is because she was so good at the strategy. Yeah. And same for, I mean, Tattletale and, you know, Gru and Skitter, like,
00:15:32
Speaker
ah truthfully, tattletale is the leader of that group. Like she does make the decisions often sans, you know, Taylor, but Taylor is kind of really good at battlefield command. So like, I think this is a ah good dynamic for them to move forward on tecton being, you know, the moral center.
00:15:56
Speaker
is God, you don't want Taylor to be that. No. And making the big decisions, but you know when it comes into Battlefield and getting the actual job done, you you leave that up to Weaver.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's funny. Tekton reminds me so much of Weld a little bit. Like, he's such a good boy leader. Like, he's such a... He's like, encourages everybody and he's like, you know, keeps morale up and Taylor's such like a bad bitch leader. Like, they I think they play off each other really well. Like, a little bit of that good cop, bad cop vibe is of like, he's he's like encouraging to the team and like, it's okay, guys. Like, I know it's scary, but we'll be okay. And Taylor's like, yeah, most of us are gonna die today.
00:16:40
Speaker
It's like, you have a legend and then, and then you have arms master. It's like, we've got to kill them. We got to get it. And then we got to do it. Whatever it takes. I'll kill every one of you. If it means behemoth, it'll goes down and it'll be worth it.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, well, I really love it though. I love the two playing off of each other. I think it's a good kind of introduction for Taylor like because she's had to be so hard. She's had to be such a bad bitch, you know, to be the villain of Brock to Bay like and and then pairing her up and like kind of proving that like well, she knows what she's talking about. It's like we're going to give her a lot of leeway to be, you know, the strategist here to kind of lead the group, but also like a good intro into playing with the good guys. kind of And it's just, I loved it. I thought that was a ah ah good first, a good call, but also a good dynamic that I enjoy seeing together.
00:17:33
Speaker
And we talked about it a bit briefly, I think at the end of the last arc too, where because the Chicago wards were familiar with Taylor during the echidna fight, there was this like little bit of like, they, cause they like, yeah, we we can work with her. We've seen what she can do. You know, everybody else is sort of wanting to keep their distance recently, but they're fine. Like they jump right in. They're like, yeah. Also the way that they first got introduced to her is like, okay, this is the local villain, but you know, it took five seconds of talking to her to be like,
00:18:03
Speaker
Oh, you seem not crazy and right um like, you know, like a very reasonable individual.
00:18:14
Speaker
And we're all on the same page about what we want to do. And then they get here and they're like, Oh, you did a fantastic job. You are still a reasonable human being. And on top of that, you want to be a hero now. Like why the heck wouldn't you want her on that team? Yeah. Yeah. I remember. it really and ah Yeah. I was going to say, I remember Tekton in particular being very.
00:18:37
Speaker
very, uh, kind to Taylor, not in the sense of like actually kind, but in the sense of like, I'm going to give you a chance. You know, we're, you're a villain. I'm a hero. We're working together to fight a kidney. And then him kind of owning up to it and being like, no, yeah, she's legit. Like, yeah, she's great. You know, <unk>s it's a fun dynamic. I really like it. I also think, yeah, post, um, the revelation with cauldron and the triumvirate and all of that.
00:19:06
Speaker
There's got to be, cause we, again, we only really get Taylor's perspective for all of this, but you've got to imagine that these other characters are also probably a bit fed up with leadership, you know? And so you get Taylor who sounds, you know, pretty normal and makes a lot of sense and as a good fighter and all this kind of stuff. And oh yeah. And her distrust of the PRT was warranted and like, Oh, you know,
00:19:34
Speaker
Oh, you're a bad guy, but, uh, maybe you're not bad guy. Yeah. Also at the end of that, like, especially for the people who were on site, like, Oh, you get to the end of that fight. And she was like, Oh, not only was she telling the truth about this being an S class threat and they didn't listen to her, but then she's like also cauldron and people were like, what? And, and like, they're not forgetting of that like, Oh yeah, she was just like you said, she was distrustful of the PRT.
00:20:00
Speaker
They fucked her over and, oh, look, she turns out she was right the whole time. Not only was she right the whole time about them, she also was doing like good in the battlefield. Like, right. Once again, I really do feel like if anybody on that PRT team but just really took a second to listen to Taylor, yeah like things would have been much different. And even like, I love miss militia.
00:20:30
Speaker
and And I'll i'll give well to kind of a pass. He doesn't really count in all of us, but I love miss militia, but she still is like ah You are a villain Whatever you say cannot be trusted I will like not be as much of a dick, but I'm still going to be your enemy like wholesale and We we get just like at the end of that like once again Taylor has never Of all the times she's come to the PRT, never lied to you guys about this, like ah or about anything. Like, she's been very upfront about all this. She tried to work with Arms Master. Like, look how that turned out. Like, every step of the way has been them just failing to do a simple thing, which is listen. And granted, Taylor has all her own problems. But like, ultimately comes down to Tekton is like, yeah. Let's, you know, oh, sounds good.
Taylor's Strategic Abilities
00:21:26
Speaker
Like, oh. I mean, if it feels like it just comes down to like on paper she looks bad, but in actuality, she's been right on a lot of things and she's made some pretty good calls when it comes to battlefield strategy. And like, like, you know, the only thing that's really holding her up is a lot of the the paperwork of like, ah, yes, she, you know, this many counts of BNE, this many counts of assault, this many counts of, you know, whatever. And you're like, yeah, no, that sounds bad. But like, if you get to know her and you see her in action, you go, oh,
00:21:56
Speaker
Well, yeah, no, she's she seems to have her head screwed on pretty straight. So maybe she's an asset here. Yeah. If only. If only. I do like the ah the lightning rod plan. Like, again, I think yeah one of the things that Taylor says, I think later in in the arc is she says, you know, Tag gave me a two in basically every category of powers just to be on the safe side. um But maybe there's something to that, you know, like, hey, maybe there's... Like maybe I do have some thinker and some tinker and some like, like all of these little abilities that add up to what she can do because she always punches up in terms of what it seems like she should be able to do. Not just with her powers, but also with just her, her ability to see the world, right? Like her ability to look at people and say, okay, if I put all of you guys together,
00:22:52
Speaker
And we take what you can do. I think we can make a lightning rod to distract behemoth. Like who comes up with that kind of plan, you know, like that's genius. which is a right yeah Great idea. But I could have sworn in the previous arc that they talked about how his lightning did not follow conventional rules because that it's, he's like a dino kinetic. So he can actually control like how the lightning moves and stuff. So it weird it is a little weird that they are.
00:23:21
Speaker
They just have a lightning rod and it works and it doesn't just like avoid the lightning rod. Well, it's, it's because, um, it's because he assumes that it'll just go where he wants it, but he's not focused on it, right? It's sort of like an ambient power that he has. So I think the idea is sort of like, Oh, if we build this, he has to focus on the lightning rod to pull the lightning away. That'll give people time to, you know, regroup, move around, all that kind of thing.
00:23:49
Speaker
At least right that was just fair feeling I got. yeah Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I just like, if they didn't, you know, and granny, they might not have known that the lightning was acting weird. Again, I'll just give the benefit of doubt in this case. But I was like, the lightning rod, like, is that actually gonna do anything when his power is to control energy? And like, you can just kind of point and be like, no, the lightning is not going that direction anymore.
00:24:17
Speaker
I think it also just sets up the desperation from the very beginning of this fight, where like, they're basically like, what the fuck are we gonna do against Behemoth? Like, I guess we'll try to build, you know, draw some of the lightning away and see what that, like, it's already, they're like out of ideas, you know, like to tell.
00:24:42
Speaker
so desperate this is there's there's like what they Like they said, they kind of go through everything. They can't get close to them. They have no range, anything like that, nothing that's going to hurt him. Here's what they can do. They can help with evacuation and maybe snag a couple of stray lightning bolts. yeah like That's it.
00:25:01
Speaker
you know And it works. I mean, it definitely works and helps a lot of the other capes like have time to get to safety, to get out of the way, like to back up away from his kill zone. Like it works really well, which is nice. You know, yeah yeah does we need a win here. Yeah. Yeah. For real.
00:25:25
Speaker
I love when they meet up with the undersiders, Imp is like, oh, mommy and daddy back together. Like, I'm with Imp, I'm like totally swooning. I will say I do love the the the Gru and Skitter, excuse me, Gru and Weaver dynamic ah very much so. Like them playing off each other. She'll always be skitter to him. She'll always be skitter to him. I'm like, no, I know, no.
00:25:55
Speaker
Oh my God. Also going off of movie logic. Where's Kat when I need her? You're so right. Gru should have been the first to die. like i We're not going to talk about that. We'll get to it eventually. But yeah, that's just going off the movie logic. We're like, oh no.
00:26:15
Speaker
I mean, because Regent says, Oh my gosh. Oh, okay. Uh, we're not gonna anyways. Yes. No, it said multiple times. I'm not going to cry yet. We're not at that point yet. Um, it said multiple times that like, the, like, Oh no, don't say goodbye. Don't make a big deal about things. Like, Oh, you're hugging. Like, no, like don't hug. Like everything's fine. Like don't make a bigger deal out of it. Don't you know? That's how people die. No, it upset me so much.
00:26:45
Speaker
ah It's fine. It's fine. Oh boy. Chapter two. I will say I do have, I need y'all's help. I do have a note cause I, I, I wrote like, ah like two notes for this entire arc. My note for the end of chapter one is the fuck. And I can't remember what the fuck was about. Oh, I'll tell you what it is. It's Alexandria showing back up.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yes, literally my summary for chapter two starts with Alexandria joins the fray. What the fuck? ah Taylor takes the wards underground with wounded. Contessa steals the injured capes deep below the city. Ward's return to find Behemoth has devastated the defensive lines. um Yeah, no, that what the fuck is absolutely about Alexandria because what the fuck? Also, I'll say this is sort of for this whole arc.
00:27:38
Speaker
um This can kind of be a semi-asside between, you know, for for the dissecting worm, but man, they do not wait long to bring her back. like I know, it's funny, I thought I remembered it being longer. but no and and And there's a couple issues which we'll bring up later, but she is gone for an arc? Yeah. Like, yeah, no, she's gone for an arc, singular.
00:28:09
Speaker
Which granted, we had, we had the end bringer show up real fast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But still like she is gone for arc 23. That is it. Like she's all in the entirety of arc 22. Like, and then here she is literally, you know, 24.1 now granted. I think that reading this week to week.
00:28:37
Speaker
would be a different experience because at this point, I'll just take a guess and say that. Uh, I'm not going to look it up, but I'm just going to say at least a month and a half has probably passed in real time of like you've read. No, no, no. I'll even go further than that. It's probably been at least two months from the, you know, Alexandria dying to all of this happening. And then all of a sudden you read her coming back.
00:29:05
Speaker
And so I feel like that is. That doesn't seem right. Two months in in in release time back when was releasing. There's probably two chapters per week. yeah Maybe within an early lecture on the weekend or something. Yeah. So like my but it's been two months since readers have seen. Alexandria die to Alexandria showing back up right reading this time, especially like it's so fast.
00:29:36
Speaker
It's so fast in comparison, like, yeah we did especially since the last, I'll be honest, these past couple of arcs, well i I'll look up how big they are. They felt kind of short to me. They have been labor felt short in length of arc, but long in chapter length.
00:29:55
Speaker
um I feel like they have been like i ah because i I do listen to most of most of the ah ah reading except much like Jacob. I also read a lot of this arc. But no, I think most of the episodes are like an hour long.
00:30:15
Speaker
like the two um So like 10,000 words and then there's like... Yeah, it's so it's a lot. So, and that's, you know, there's only five, six chapters. If we include the interlude and arc 23, you know, 60,000, that's a pretty big, you know, chunk. Yeah. That's a huge chunk. That's half a book most of the time. Yeah. So, you know, pretty large, but then like, yeah. And and and all of a sudden we're back. So for me, I just was like, Oh,
00:30:49
Speaker
Alexandria is back and I remember reading this for the first time and being like, whoa, that's weird. Well, I think it does well if you're like me and you don't remember and you think, oh my God, wait, is she still alive? Because there's no way that if she... what like let's say Let's say that for or you know as ah as a first-time reader as or as a second-time reader with warmnesia, you don't remember things and it's like Alexandria shows up and I was like, Holy shit, wait, did Taylor not kill her? Like, has she been alive this whole time? Like, it makes sense that she hasn't, you know, shown up before and now. It's like, well, you know, she's been actually secretly recuperating and and now she shows up just in time. And then it's not until later that we get the reveal of like what's actually going on. But as the first time reader or like as myself, like,
00:31:41
Speaker
i was I was convinced. I was like, oh my gosh, Alexandra is back. like I really hope she doesn't see Taylor because that could i could turn this whole situation sideways like really quick. And it ended up being an Alexandria Taylor fight rather than ah you know let's focus on the big bad here. So like I was thinking of it very much in the sense of like, oh my gosh, no, she's back. So if there had been like um a multitude of arcs in between,
00:32:07
Speaker
I think having her come back would have been like, no, there's no way that's her if there had been all this space. But because it's so quick after her her death, it feels like, oh my gosh, wait, no, that's actually her, she's back. the So like it's it because it's so soon, it it gets you. Whereas if there were a longer space, I don't think you would be as, because the whole idea is to make you think that she's actually still alive.
00:32:34
Speaker
right is to trick you. So like I think if there was more space, we wouldn't be tricked as easily.
Contessa's Powerful Abilities
00:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, I still think when when she showed up, though, I was like, I don't remember what, but I feel like remembering something fucky's going on. Something fucky-wucky. He did just have Pretender show up in the previous arc, so like it works. I just had not remembered that connection at all.
00:33:03
Speaker
Um, yeah, no, so Taylor takes the wards, uh, and they're like rescuing some of the wounded and they go underground. I don't know if I was reading this correctly. So, okay. So the underground, like, there's like a whole living situation thing, compound underground, which is where they end up going. is Are these the cold capes?
00:33:31
Speaker
from India, India's cold capes that are like behind the scenes that people don't know about. Because we've talked about them before, like the hot versus cold capes. Yeah, I think Taylor even says that, that these... Okay, okay. Because she looks at the guy who's like leading them underground, the leader of this, what appears to be a... The cat eyes. Yeah, cat eyes, kind of this civilian resistance to behemoth. And she realizes like, wait a second, these aren't just regular people.
00:34:00
Speaker
And this is where the guy gives the whole like secret war thing where he's like, um, we can't just come out and fight, you know, we fight a secret war. Better to lose this battle today in New Delhi than lose our secret war of what we've been doing in the whole country. Which they basically end up losing anyways by following Contessa.
00:34:25
Speaker
I mean, yeah yeah. Well, not all of them do. It's just some of the wounded capes. I think some of the... Well, no, I think all of them do maybe. I don't know. I feel like they all go through the portal. It's like... The thing is though, I get the sense though that some of them already had connections to Cauldron. And this was basically her way of saying, all right, time to pay your due. You know, like everybody has a favor with Cauldron. And her her basically maybe to cat eyes or to another of the leaders. ah Just saying, you know, like they know who she is and they're like, okay,
00:34:54
Speaker
Time to go. Yeah. Yeah. Just the vibe I get. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. That makes sense. Cause it seemed like they were all so willing to just like hop into a portal, which like, yeah, I understand like your whole city is crumbling, but like you're all underground. You seem pretty safe.
00:35:13
Speaker
Hmm. And let me say this too. There's nothing hotter than a woman who dominates the battlefield. It's just, it's like, what if Carmen San Diego or black? Like, yeah but's pretty on man. which in yeah and And what's your power? Um, winning.
00:35:39
Speaker
have the charlie sheen sha yes yeah I love because she's sort of in the background this whole time. And she just kind of feels like the main character.
00:35:54
Speaker
Like secretly, like we're watching, like part of, we've talked about what, what makes one so great is that we're really, we're not following the main character. We're following the main character of our story, but Taylor really feels like a very, very small piece of this puzzle intentionally. Like there's just an everyday hero. It was a very Spider-Man ass. I love it. If this were, Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
00:36:15
Speaker
Well, no, I was just going to say, just kind of wrap that thought up. Every time Contessa's in this, you know, on stage, so to speak, she's like, she feels like the main character, like, oh, here's the protagonist with the power to win. Like, you know, she's having that her Superman moment. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. And, and on top of that too, like if you had, you know, the classic trope of like the YA novel with the heroine who Like they're like, Oh, it's such a struggle, but then they do nothing wrong and everything's always perfect for them. That's basically fantastic. Cause she has the power to win. You know, yeah yeah there's some bullshit right there. Let me tell you what. And then also just the convenient of excuse of like, it doesn't work on the in bringers for me.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah. Well, if you're so, if you can always win, why haven't you beaten them? Just doesn't work. Okay. I'm afraid it just doesn't work like that. It's like, all right. All right. Maybe they can't be beaten. I did. I did like that aspect of it though, where where Taylor, where she's like, well, maybe it's not that it doesn't work. It's that.
00:37:31
Speaker
There's no way to win, which yeah is a scary, scary thought that she has. Cause it's not just like, I feel like Contessa's thing is specifically her path to victory. Yeah.
00:37:46
Speaker
So it's like, I like, okay, even if she, even if she factors in other people, like, you know, the triumvirate, protectorate, any of the wards, literally anybody, like she can't, there's no way that she can find a path to victory. It's like, we see the whole thing with Sion later, but like, that's, that has nothing to do with her. Like that's a, that's a separate thing. That's a separate entity right there.
00:38:16
Speaker
And I think it's also implied that it's how she how she tries to get there, right? like right yeah if she if if she had said If she had told her power, like put me in a position where I witness Behemoth dying, like would it have worked then? you know Yeah, maybe so.
00:38:37
Speaker
You know, it's kind of hard to say. Yeah, I also don't know if it like connects to people. Like, I imagine it it's like, OK, OK, you need to, you know, go outside at three thirty on this day and bump into this person who's going to, you know, fall into the street and that's going to cause this car to swerve. And then this is going to like, I like how many layers does that thing go? Like, I imagine it fairly deep, but also like. yeah We know it's kind of like unreachable at the moment.
00:39:05
Speaker
I mean, we know a cord has a power that basically works like that, but literally on paper. Yeah. There's like, man, if you gave him, I mean, there's a lot of steps. It's a, it's a couple of binders full of steps, but man. Yeah. There is a, um, so what this kind of brings to mind for me with her power, I don't know if this is exactly the way it works.
00:39:29
Speaker
But in ah one of Brandon Sanderson's novels, Mistborn, there is a power essentially that lets you see the possible moves that your opponent is about to do in the next like five seconds. So you see sort of a shadow of what they're going to do in the next five seconds. I kind of imagine maybe her powers like that.
00:39:55
Speaker
i I don't know, that's maybe a bit of a stretch, but I like that idea of like, she can just see all possible ways that you might try to beat her and then perfectly counteract it, right? Well, I mean, I believe it's more so than that. I was going to say, you're just describing the absolutely terrible, and by terrible, I mean amazing Nicholas Cage film next, where he has the power or his power, he has the superpower, he exists two minutes in the future.
00:40:23
Speaker
And so he can, he can, he basically lives infinitely between now and the next two minutes and can calculate every single possibility of what's about to happen. That's a great movie. yeah Everybody should watch it. It's so good. I was going to go with, uh, I imagine that there is much like Donnie Darko, a line that just kind of shows where to go, yeah what to do.
00:40:54
Speaker
like an actual physical line and just, then she just does it. Right. Winning. Yeah. Just like, yeah, like a little roadmap.
00:41:10
Speaker
I mean, if that's when when she would blare that. Yes. She just, nobody notices that she has AirPods in when she fights and it's just that song on repeat. Right. It's part of the winning. I have to play this. I like to imagine that it's, that she just has like how to shoot people for dummies playing on her AirPods and she's just following the instructions.
00:41:34
Speaker
It's like that's her power just being like, when you hold the gun, make sure to grasp firmly with both hands. It's just her power being like, go left. It's just a GPS in her head of like, and twist and duck. Slide to the left. Slide to the right. In two seconds. Chris Cross. In two seconds, Chris Cross. I love that. And I think she, but she also implies though that like she can kind of subconsciously let her power work. Right. So that it's sort of moving for her and she doesn't have to constantly think about like each step she's making is perfectly correct thing and let it go. Sort of like a imps power, right? Where it's. Yeah.
00:42:23
Speaker
Kind of a, you kind of i honestly kind of similar to, to Domino from Deadpool two, where she's just kind of lucky. It's sort of similar to that where she's just like dominoes. I was like, I mean, I don't know. I guess I'm supposed to be here. It feels like the right way, the right place to be. I'm always lucky. It's that, but if, uh, if it was willful, like yeah I want to do this, so all the things will work out. Yeah. What a cool power though. It's cool. Yeah. I love Contessa. Great character.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, love the design, love the power, love the character. Let's go. Love just the the cool chill of like Taylor realizing, Oh my God, she's not even like phased. She's not even touched. She has literally not a scratch on her, barely even any dirt. And just absolutely demolished these poor teenagers.
00:43:12
Speaker
Just random. Her cough is wrinkled. She has one little shirt cough that's got a little spray of blood on it. Yeah, one of the things that she does with her power is like, okay, tell me how to beat them, but without ruining my suit. I just did a little caveats in there. Oh, no, it can't be done. It's not just about winning. It's about winning with style. Yeah, that's right.
00:43:37
Speaker
Always goes back to the great Megamind quote, right? Oh yeah. You may be a villain, but you're not a super villain. Oh yeah. What's the difference? Presentation. mention Fuck yeah. It's true. Such a good movie. God. I mean, it's one of the best superhero movies out there, to be honest. I feel like it is. I really loved it. Up five for sure.
00:44:05
Speaker
It's just that good. She's your churro.
00:44:13
Speaker
All right, 24.3. Let's do it. Chapter chapter three. um Taylor helps evacuate ah the building, getting people off the roof, and then finally has a chance to talk to Tattletail and searches for Behemoth's objective, as Tattletail has told her that he is hunting for something specific. ah She, with some great fingers, find... I'm gonna butcher this. so fear Fear say you're saying yeah, that's your that's how they pronounce it for once the audiobook said fear say and I'm like, you know what? Okay, that makes sense. I just thought it was fear see but yeah fear say and his time bomb. Yes it's just This guy
00:45:06
Speaker
It was, is it just me or is he like really strong? Like his man is very strong. I love, uh, there is, there's a ah book. I'm trying to remember which sci-fi book it is. Um, but in it, essentially a dude comes up with portal technology, throws the first portal into the sun.
00:45:32
Speaker
because portals take a lot of energy. And then he just uses all the energy coming through that portal to power all the other portals. And like, that's how rocket boosters are made for ships from then on is they just take the energy and they make tiny nozzle portals that are coming from the sun that you just like open and close so that, you know, it boosts out. So like, that's how we get all this travel and like all the technology is essentially portal based from then on.
00:46:00
Speaker
Um, cause you essentially have an unlimited energy source. Uh, interesting, but this makes me feel like, like it really shows how cool using like portal usage can be. And in this, you know, he just takes a little bit of light. And if you just keep like this infinite, like loop where it's recursive and it builds up speed, essentially like, you know, he's, he's just keeps charging the light over and over and over and over and over and over again. Yeah.
00:46:30
Speaker
One and he says, I feel like somebody says, um, he's like, not that he's on the level of sleeper or no bog, but that fear say is known as one of the scariest villains in this area. ah Yeah. Right. Like am I misremembering that the somebody says that.
00:46:51
Speaker
No, they're they're like terrified of him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for apparently very good reason, like, damn. Yeah. I mean, we've all played portal. We know what you can do with when you're thinking of portals. Yeah. All that being said, it's they're like, he's a mad man. I'm like, nah, I'm fiercely seems pretty on on par. I don't know.
00:47:16
Speaker
You know what it is? I didn' yeah was not questioning him at all. I was just like, yeah, no, that seems about right. No, no, no. You know what it is too is right. The vibe that he gives me is like Taylor's logic pushed to a deeper extreme, right? Only in the sense that everything he says feels really reasonable to me. I'm like, yeah, no, that makes absolute sense. Like I'm.
00:47:41
Speaker
really on board with everything you're saying, like maybe the risk is worth the reward. And Taylor pushes back and she's like, this seems like a really bad idea with behemoths powers. And he's like, I don't know. What other shot do we have? I feel like it's worth the risk. And how many times has Taylor said stuff like that? You know? Yeah. yeah like is known for I was like, yeah. Uh, Hey, can you give me time to, I don't know, get people out of the way or something like that? You know, I didn't feel like this really needed to be a big,
00:48:11
Speaker
ethical argument here. No, don't get me wrong. I love, I love having that discussion. You know, I love the way it was written. I love all that. I just, this is one of those were like, this really doesn't need to happen. I'm, I'm actually surprised Taylor sits there in jibber jabs for so long when is like, okay, you know what? I don't think it'll work. And he's like, I mean, look, I'm gonna do it. And she's like, okay, well, if you're gonna do it, give me time to get people out of the way. That's literally as long as that conversation should have been. Yeah, yeah. Like, look, I'm doing it one way or the other and it's the best chance we got. And she's like, you know what, fine, okay.
00:48:47
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I do feel like this is a good chance to talk about um Behemoth's powers, too, and why Taylor is so worried. Because he is a... Behemoth is basically... Dynokinetic. Yeah, Dynokinetic, right? Everything he does is energy-based and such a cool power, right? So, like, when Alexandria hits him, he can take the pure kinetic energy and push it into the ground around him.
00:49:15
Speaker
And because, you know, fire is basically- I mean, it's basically what your mad cap could do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Except like to a total extreme. But because fire and lightning are like the purity of, you know, energy, so to speak, um, it's just such a cool way to see it and be like, Oh, fire is just energy. Lightning is just energy to an extreme. That's all this is. And it's great. I love it. It's so cool. Yeah.
00:49:43
Speaker
Yeah. What would it look like if, uh, if you're just converting energy into mass? It's like we, we see that it's, that's fire. it's fire Yeah. Yeah. Energy. And then radiation is, I guess yeah energy related. Probably. I'm not a scientist. Let's call Hank green. Um, John green, whichever one it is. Um, whichever they're both smart. They're both pretty smart. One of them's more history though. Right. Anyways. Um, green's aside.
00:50:12
Speaker
You know, I just, I don't know. I really, I really like that. Like I just really like Behemoth's power set. He's so much more interesting than Leviathan. I'm sorry. Like just as a creature, he's like a thousand times more interesting than Leviathan.
Comparing Behemoth and Leviathan
00:50:28
Speaker
Oh, I, I like Leviathan. I like my little, my little water lizard.
00:50:33
Speaker
That's the thing is, like, I love Leviathan. I think he's super cool. I just think he he doesn't stand up to how cool Behemoth is. He's Behemoth's a little bro. Like, he's like the little bro. He's like, I got water. And be Behemoth's like, that's cute. Yeah, basically. Leviathan's at the skate park all day and Behemoth's like working the nine to five, you know, come on.
00:50:58
Speaker
ah I was going to say, that is very much why I like Leviathan. Leviathan comes in and hits so hard and it's just like skating all over the place, you know, just destroying people. And Behemoth is just kind of like. Walking, just plotting, plotting here slowly with just a kill. You know what? You know what I just thought of, though, as a funny just this image came into my head and I'm sorry.
00:51:28
Speaker
But I'm just imagining now the Viathan skating through main street of Brockton Bay with the song, like making my way downtown. Yes. yeah hill in
00:51:42
Speaker
great that is great oh god Um, but yeah, yeah, I just, I don't know. I really like behemoth. I like his power set. Again, I think he is a lot more interesting than the others.
00:51:58
Speaker
or not the others. I'll say then then Leviathan, I think the simmer is the most weird. So that's cool. Oh, she's by far the fucking yeah the and the most unconventional. my Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's really cool. He's really cool. ah Behemoth definitely leads the the pack in terms of that, like you said, sort of that kaiju feeling of just despair. We're like, is it like Gamera from ah Godzilla, the turtle, I think.
00:52:23
Speaker
oh ah Yeah, I don't know my Godzilla lore enough. um But yeah, like Leviathan. is it crazy strong and terrifying and and destructive. But like in the back of your mind feels beatable, right? Same with the Simurg, like crazy, weird, witchy vibes, but like feels beatable just in general. Behemoth can only get your hands on her neck. Yeah, exactly. Behemoth has that sort of Godzilla aura where you're just like, it doesn't even feel like you could win this. yeah You can't even get close to him.
00:53:01
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Like with the whole killer thing and just like, yeah like with Taylor saying like, at least with Leviathan, I could pick up arms master spear and stab him. Like, what do you, what do you do with behemoth? He just is. Just is. right yeah Just is. ah stairs Big dick swinging. Yeah. He's going from something that is what like think Leviathan's like 30 feet. So like twice the size of the house, a single story house.
00:53:28
Speaker
to something that is 50 feet. So, you know, yeah. Three story plus. Yeah. 50 feet is big. That is a tall boy. It is tall boy. Yeah. Hannah, for reference, still not as, still not as tall as the trees outside. That's our pine trees. Our pram trees are probably, probably 85 feet tall. He is like three fifths of that, you know?
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah. It's so fucking huge, man. It's huge. But every time I like, I remember reading these books for the first time and being very confused at Leviathan size. Cause when he's described, not in terms of his exact height, when they say it, but his vibe is it's Godzilla with water. Like, you know, so when he comes in and they're having He's doing like a hand-to-hand combat with Arms Master all of a sudden. I'm a little confused because I'm like, what are you doing? Running around poking him in the ankle? Like, how is this working? So I've had to adjust how I've thought of Leviathan every time I've read it. Like he's literally gotten smaller every time. And when I think about Behemoth, same thing. Behemoth is supposed, like I was always imagining Godzilla size. We are talking hundreds of feet tall.
00:54:49
Speaker
not, you know, in the tens. I think Godzilla is like, what? I'm just going to say like skyscraper. I'm going to say 600 feet tall. It's probably something shorter than that. It's probably like 200 feet. But like, ah you know, we are talking like, you know, wandering between skyscrapers. Like that's, that's hundreds of feet. And behemoth, like going through downtown New York wouldn't Like you'd have to find him if that makes sense. Yeah. You have to get on the roof and look down. Yeah. You're like, where is he? Like, cause he's not even taller than any of the buildings. 393 feet tall. yeah three hundred ninety three yard so so yeah So he is Godzilla is six times seven. So 398 times eight times as big.
00:55:42
Speaker
as behemoth. and like They even mentioned that in that like Taylor loses sight of him at one point, if I remember right. Because he's like digging at one point. He dives down. Well, not just that he dives down, but like he's behind a building and she's like, yeah yeah like yeah oh yeah how close is he to us right now? We can't see him kind of thing. Uh, for a visual, a perfect visual reference, uh, the iron giant is 50 feet. So behemoth is the size of the iron giant. Yeah. I've never seen that. also handle my Oh, Hannah. I knew that wouldn't make people upset.
00:56:16
Speaker
ah your' fucking part
00:56:21
Speaker
oh know i'm going to do a I'm going to do a tree comparison with the iron giant and tell you if that's accurate. I would love, I just, yeah, no, if Alan could just compare everything to the pine trees in our yard, that would be phenomenal.
00:56:36
Speaker
yeah so that i mean theyre they He's big. he's He's big, but he's not he's a base Pacific Rim. We're not talking like absolute world demolisher here. We're talking just a big boy.
00:56:49
Speaker
Which I kind of like, I like that size cause it's- It's a little bit more manageable. Yeah, it feels like they could win. It gives them a better, looks like, feels like it gives them better odds. Yeah, until you realize that the kill range on Behemoth is like, you get any closer and your brain melts in your head and you have irreversible damage, radiation damage. And also if you get too close and he does his little clappy clap, his little, his little- then your brain is coming out of your ears. What did someone say that she had, someone had gotten, they were talking, this is near the end of the arc, so they're talking about injuries. And someone had gotten an injury from their bones, like vibrating so hard, their bones had broken. From being too close to the snack. Yeah, suffered fractures from the clap. Yeah, from the clap.
00:57:43
Speaker
i like I like calling it just the clap. ah Yeah, no, it it ah but like, that's terrifying. But like your whole body is vibrating from the the sound. yeah So much so that your bones will break. Like, holy fucking shit. Like, it really does. But you said this before, Jacob. It really does feel like this battle is not like we're not going to win this. Like, compared to what we went with Leviathan and even Noel, like, even with Noel being as insane as that was, like,
00:58:09
Speaker
Tattletale had a plan, we we had a plan, we were working on you know something, manageable scale, but Behemoth is like, it it feels like we're running out of capes, and we're running out of time, and we're running out of options, and the end is nigh. That is the vibe I was getting reading these chapters. Right. Yeah.
00:58:31
Speaker
And so to tie it back into the literally the chapter we are talking about with the time bomb, it feels like this could be this could be it. This could, you know what? And if it destroys New Delhi, you know i'm i'm with I'm with him on that one. like I think maybe it's worth it. We've evacuated a ton of people. Most of the capes are dead. like I think like we're stupid if we don't use it. you know Yeah, now's the time.
00:59:02
Speaker
Chapter four, any more thoughts on chapter three? Nope. Moving on. Okay, chapter four. Taylor convinces Fiercei to work with the others um and gathers a few allies and then cuts Behemoth off at the knee. Woo! Go, dogs. Fiercei strikes with the time bomb.
00:59:24
Speaker
And behemoth rises as a ripped up mess, but still as strong, which is just felt like the dark night of the soul. That was, that was not fun for him to just stand up and realize that like, Oh no, he may look like shit, but ah he seems just as strong as he was a moment ago. and Yeah.
00:59:54
Speaker
Terrifying. Yeah. It's like, uh, burning all the skin off a terminator and then, you know, that skeleton's just walking around. still after yeah This is not even my final form. yeah Also, uh, going all the way back into the cave, like talking to the one, cause I liked that one, uh, dust tinker. That was pretty cool. Um, but I think, I think the dust tinker is the one that Taylor like.
01:00:22
Speaker
knows that he's going to shoot your sea or try and try something. And so she like yanks the gun so it doesn't shoot anything. And then he gets yoinked out of there. Yeah, there was a teleporter as well. that yes She's like, Oh, did I set him up? I'm like, we we just heard you think about it. Like, yes, you set him up. It's like, Oh, I did. And, you know,
01:00:47
Speaker
And granted, this is supposed to play into like the subconsciously her using her powers, except I, she very consciously did like, Hmm. Which I'll get into later. Speaking of plans that could have gone wrong. If that one tinker was mistaken and how he was going to deal with the big time bomb, like that would have been so much worse than actually using it.
01:01:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't, doesn't fear say, doesn't fear say, say ah that is like, if it just, if it just indiscriminately goes off, India's gone. Yeah. He's like, if I charge this thing up and I don't release it correctly, we lose, and it we lose a continent. Yeah. Which is a wild amount of power. I mean, he's trying to stay awake. That's the other thing is like,
01:01:40
Speaker
Fiercei is trying to, he's been awake for three days because he knows that like at any point, Leviathan, not Leviathan, Behemoth could attack and they don't know when it's gonna be, but they need to be prepped and ready anyways. So he's been awake for three days prepping and pouring all this time and energy into the the time bomb. And then it's like, he's trying not to fall asleep in the middle of his conversation with Taylor. Like, oh no. yeah That could go badly.
01:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, maybe not the ah smartest play. I get it. But in hindsight, you know, and I mean, big, big plays like that, like there's going to be big drawbacks. So, I mean, I guess it kind of works like for. Well, and that's his whole thing, too. Right. Like he's all about sacrifice. and Right. Right.
01:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. Cause he, he, uh, uh, he sacrificed his family, right? Yeah. His family died, his wife and son, and then his daughter is in New Delhi and he doesn't know if she's evacuated yet or not. Yeah. He's like, I could have saved him, but I didn't that way. The monster lost, you know, or I'm paraphrasing how he said that, but yeah. Yeah. yeah Oh man. it's It's like, I get it. Yeah.
01:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's such a good scene though. And I do feel like seeing it's good. It's always good for Taylor to get a mirror to herself. And I think that fear say is a good, um, yeah, i I like, I like him and her dynamic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a, he's a good character. Um, but yeah, so he gives her a 15 minute time limit and it's like, all right, 15 minutes, or it gets really bad. And then like, yeah you know, I'm going to, I'm going to go, I'm going to blow it up and I go for it.
01:03:33
Speaker
whether your people are out of the way or not. Yeah. and I think it's interesting cause she's, she's trying to count down the time in her head. And at one point she's like, I can't remember if it's three minutes or eight minutes and like those five minutes in between could mean all the difference. And even then just the impending of like, but what if he just thinks I'm not doing a good enough job? He's like, no, I'm done. Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, I like she says, um, she says that she can't help but like him like as a person. And I wonder if that is like the, the self reflection that she sees of of like parts of herself in him, the fact that like he's, he's willing to just do what needs to be done and like the way that he talks and the way that he kind of sees the situation and like that being that mirror, like I wonder if she's,
01:04:28
Speaker
as aware of it as we are that like, yeah, you guys, you you guys tend to be pretty decent mirrors of each
Regent's Sacrifice and Emotional Impact
01:04:35
Speaker
other. And like, maybe she sees that a little bit by recognizing like, yeah, I actually, I actually like this guy. Yeah. They're very similar. Um, the other thing that happens in this chapter that I didn't say, uh, but while they're off, uh, in the, in, in midst the fight, um,
01:04:58
Speaker
We lose Regent, which is just shitty.
01:05:12
Speaker
Um, yeah yeah. Imp is cornered as they're trying to, you know, pin behemoth down so that they can use the time bomb and, uh,
01:05:25
Speaker
And she's kind of cornered and he says, fuck it. And he goes out to distract Behemoth and takes a lightning strike. It's so sudden. It's so fast. I had to stop it and like rewind a bit on the audio book because i was it was like it was there and it was gone. I was like, oh my God, I missed it.
01:05:49
Speaker
Yeah. At that point, I was reading, but yeah, you know, went back to paragraphs just to see if... I don't know. Not to see a sign that it was coming, because, you know, I think that's what makes it good writing is that it happens so quickly. You don't... Because that's that's how death is. Like, death isn't... You don't get that sappy, sad moment. Like, death is pretty... usually. Not always, but usually pretty quick.
01:06:13
Speaker
and And... I just...
01:06:19
Speaker
It feels right that Regent went out protecting him, you know? Yeah. Like he's... Like we've talked before a lot about how he's...
01:06:34
Speaker
ah Not a good person, you know, yeah, especially with you know when we heard quite a bit from cherish ah but we've also seen like how protective he is of the undersiders and specifically with imp like their their friendship their camaraderie their, you know relationship whatever that might have been like He clearly Knew that it wasn't gonna Like he had to have known in that moment. Yeah. No, I love i love that his instinct is immediate response. ah he ah He is an incredibly, so he has written and introduced and portrayed as an incredibly selfish character, but his his base instinct is selflessness. yeah Like that's his final moment is
01:07:28
Speaker
an outburst of it's a selfless action done out of love. And like, that's not the action of a villain. And I think it, I think it's a really, really beautiful send off to a complex character. Yeah.
01:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. One of my favorite characters in The Undersiders, you know? Yeah. it ah i was I was reading these chapters today and got a little sick under the weather, so I was in bed and just laying in bed crying, falling my eyes out.
01:08:17
Speaker
oh and And it's not even just losing Regent as awful as that is, but the amount of life
01:08:28
Speaker
that gets snuffed out in this arc. And I mean, that's just that's the same thing happened with Lil' Leviathan fighting the Echidna fight, but here it just feels more desperate. It feels more hopeless. And then knowing that... Sorry. That's okay. That's good writing.
01:08:53
Speaker
Oh, so good. God, wild boat. But knowing that like these capes are showing up here, no they know the odds. They know that there's a very real possibility that they will not walk away or they'll walk away completely fucked up. And um like even in the interludes later with Chevalier,
01:09:17
Speaker
He mentions that there are there are capes that didn't go that didn't that didn't show up to this fight the the the Las Vegas capes I think he mentions and a couple other capes that just decided they weren't gonna go to the fight and that that heavily impacted their strategy for how to deal with behemoth and like I don't know it's just yeah anytime we have big fights like this it always just hits me really hard and Hits me in a way that's like Like they's they're fake characters on a page, but like, I've never been more proud of a bunch of fake people. And I think for region two, kind of like what Jacob said, even though he is presented as that selfish character, I feel like most, most people that, I mean, among us and among like the people we've talked to about it, most people still come away from it being like,
01:10:12
Speaker
I mean, yeah, but he's he's like the scoundrel you love. you know he's the yeah He's like the the Han Solo in episode four. Not that Han Solo was as bad as Regent, but like the but you know yeah the guy who's like, yeah he's kind of an asshole, but you love him. like You want him to stick around and be there and then, yeah, to have this act of sacrifice be so real and so meaningful and so quick too, I think.
01:10:42
Speaker
ah Yeah. It just really drives it home of like, this was not, you know, Regent had to think and make a big choice and decided after deliberating, he'd do the right thing. This was just, no, I'm going to stand up. I'm going to save him. And he does. And it's beautiful. Oh, fuck it. Yeah. Yeah. less you know And then of course the way, of course he gets behemoth's attention. I don't remember exactly what he says, but I just remember it having the vibe of like, Hey, fucko.
01:11:09
Speaker
is Yeah. Shouldn't nugget maybe. Shouldn't nugget. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. I was just looking at it. Um, pull it up. i like The imp afterwards. You're right. He would have wanted me to kill his dad. I love that. That's just so, it's so impen. Gosh, in that moment, it's just so perfect. Yeah. It's good. It's just a good scene and you can't help but love Regent and you can't help but miss him.
01:11:39
Speaker
He says, hold on, I found it. Fuck it, Regent said. Oh, no, he says it very quietly, actually. Fuck it, Regent says, his voice almost inaudible. He was looking at him. Regent, I said. When he rose to his feet, I raised my voice. Regent, hey, shitcrumb. Regent hollered, backing away from cover. Easy, and then that's it. Behemoth dropped the flame attack. Regent was snuffed out, dead.
01:12:08
Speaker
I wonder if he was, I feel like he was probably saying like, easy target maybe, like that I'm an easy target. Yeah. Pick me instead of. Oh man.
01:12:22
Speaker
Send me back into the, oh fuck. That was fine. I'm okay. God damn it. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor. Cut away.
01:12:37
Speaker
I will draw this back down. Uh, there are two spots when I have recommended worm to people that people stop reading worm. Like it was what loses their interest. Oftentimes people, I've suggested this, we'll stop reading at arc five, um, something in arc, well, arc four more.
01:12:59
Speaker
Um, they, there's something that, you know, they do, I think the bank heist is three, I forgot what four is, but they kind of lose interest in there. And it upsets me because I'm like, you really just need to get to eight. You really just need to get to eight and make that decision. But, you know, I'm not going to fault people for.
01:13:15
Speaker
Uh, if, if three C three episodes of a show don't catch you, like why watch 24? Like, yeah right yeah you know Oh, in the second season, it gets good. Like I'm not going to watch a whole season to get to, you know, that. Um, unless it's like a lot of people that if, if, you know, superheroes just aren't their thing or they just, you know, they didn't vibe with the main character being a teenage girl, like understand that. That's, you know, a lot of people fall away there.
01:13:45
Speaker
However, a couple of people that I have suggested to that have DNFed worm all happened with the death of Regent is when Regent got killed, they realized they really didn't care. They didn't care that Regent died and that like they were surprised honest to God that so many characters had made it this far, given the like nature of the book. Um,
01:14:13
Speaker
that like the undersiders were still a team that was alive. yeah And this was the moment when Regent finally kicks it. They were like, Oh, like, yeah, I don't, I don't really buy this anymore.
01:14:27
Speaker
um And, and like to have the come back to this and read this again. um I wasn't, I've never been broken up about Regent dying. Just like, Oh wow. You know, um,
01:14:42
Speaker
And this time it really stood out having, you know, heard those voices before and getting to this point, I was like, yeah, he like. Honestly, this whole fight other than introducing to the new team and Pharisee and Contessa, like the fight with behemoth, like the interactions with behemoth himself for me are very forgettable. I don't care about this fight at all. And, uh, the interactions with.
01:15:11
Speaker
The undersiders are also like, I just didn't care about any of this. Uh, so for me personally, I just, I just, this is not an exciting arc. The best parts are, I don't know, the beginning and the end. That's cool. I'm not crying anymore. Now I'm just fucking mad. I know you would be mad. That's why I waited. Oh man. but i This is another one of those things where I think like,
01:15:41
Speaker
Uh, I think part of this would have been spacing. I think reading this week to week, um, and maybe just being in the moment of reading it would be a lot more impactful, um, for the death of Regent for me. And, um, I do think I am very surprised that people like grew have survived as long as they have like,
01:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, I will give you that. I think if there was anybody, any other, uh, undersider that would have made sense for us to lose grew would have been that one. And I hate, I hate saying it cause you know, love him but feels like it it does feel weird that it has taken us to this long, you know, arc 24 to lose a single undersider. Yeah. And, and, and.
01:16:34
Speaker
truth be told, like if we'd lost, cause I thought about this, like, is it just that it's region and I don't care about region, you know, which is, you know, is it, is it that I just don't like him? And then we get to like other kids from like, well, what if, you know, one of the new, what if Tekton died? I mean, like that's upsetting. He's a likable character, but I also wouldn't be broken up about that. This is a, this is an end bringer fight. It is very tragic, but on a scale that I don't know, is almost numbing. Um, yeah. And I agree with that for sure.
Character Deaths and Plot Realism
01:17:09
Speaker
And it made me continue to think like, yeah, like really, we have not seen too much death of characters that we actually know. Yeah. Like the reason I think Alexandria wall, a big moment, like the Alexandria tag thing is,
01:17:33
Speaker
I think you're taking two characters, one with that we've heard of and we, and who has this sort of big, I mean, both of them have these big antagonistic moments with Taylor, all the, all the people that are villains, essentially that get beat up. I honestly have more emotional ties too, because like when we kill coil, that's a huge emotional moment, but for the positive cause like, oh my gosh, we got him.
01:17:58
Speaker
You know, when Taylor kills Alexandria and, you know, and, uh, and tag, you're like, Oh my gosh, we got them. But I'm trying to think about death of heroes that we've seen that I cared about. And I can't think of any, like there's been Brian getting tortured, which I, you know, very tragic. I like that one, you know, haunts me to this day. Uh, I think.
01:18:26
Speaker
the the twisting, Amy twisting ah Victoria also very tragic, but in terms of like death, and it doesn't have to be death, but like given a world in which leviath we've encountered Leviathan, we've encountered Echidna, we've encountered um Behemoth now, nobody we really care about has died. And for, well, this isn't a grim dark and I'm not,
01:18:54
Speaker
expecting it to be, this isn't that much of a hang up issue for me. Um, I think other people who have read this and I see their point when they get into a world that is kind of trying to portray a lot of realism and we are talking, you know, the one in four chances and defying the odds like, you know, imp probably has a good chance, because you can't tell where she is, but I don't know if I would have her on this battlefield. Tattletail, once again, Tattletail getting almost killed in the thing and doing the tracheotomy and surviving again, like kind of feels like, oh, like I would have been, number one, I would have been pissed if Cody killed Tattletail in an interlude.
01:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, like what the fuck but let's just say that that was like if tattletale had died in You know, I probably would have actually been Miffed like but like What's regent doing here? Like what's grew doing here? Like grew should have died a lot grew should have died in the slaughterhouse now Let's be honest it Like I actually was thinking the same thing. Like this is a team of like Rachel. I mean, should have been goaded into something like they just doesn't feel like this is the group of people that should have been winning this whole time. And I feel that on like a, a big scale. So, um, just as ah the contrary and opinion.
01:20:37
Speaker
This is like one of my least favorite and we we've been going through like the least favorite arcs. And I remember why people don't like the time skip and the ones surrounding it. And I get it now. Like, I don't think I've ever been, I've never singled out arcs in my mind as ones that I don't like, but, and it's not the writing. Like I said, I love the fierce, the fiercy. I love Contessa. I love interacting with the wards, but overall like the,
01:21:07
Speaker
the arc as a whole just isn't there for me.
01:21:12
Speaker
yeah That's interesting. opinion And are the most wrong. I know everybody's entitled to their own wrong opinion. No, it's good. I mean, obviously I think, uh, I think we tend to agree with each other a lot more than not. So it's nice to, it's nice to have some varying opinions on it. Cause obviously worm fans are, uh,
01:21:35
Speaker
are very passionate about things they like and don't like. So yeah I think it's, it's good to represent good of all sides of the story. Um, you are wrong, but, but it's good to represent, you know, well, and I think it is good to notice though, that there has been a good sense of plot armor, right? Um, even for characters who are important, like arms master, we didn't really like him, but he survived Leviathan. Um, when,
01:22:04
Speaker
Maybe he shouldn't have like, it's hard to know like, okay, maybe he shouldn't have survived that. Um, not nearly that many people died from the slaughterhouse nine, supposedly the most dangerous, you know, I i can see that I do want to bring up Mirden just because.
01:22:20
Speaker
I'm sad that Merlin died. yeah that right That was not a fun time. As somebody who aspires to become Merlin one day as an old man, um you know, that that was disappointing. um But yeah, I mean, i
Post-loss Character Interactions
01:22:33
Speaker
I can definitely see where you're coming from because we haven't had that many heroic deaths. We haven't had that many people putting themselves in harm's way completely selflessly.
01:22:46
Speaker
And then taking the hit for it. Right. And part of that may be because we are looking at it from a. Villains perspective primarily, right? She was a villain for most of the story. So when the people they were fighting died or when somebody who was kind of an ally died, you know, it's like, okay. Like if trickster had died by the end of his arc, we would have been like, like you might like trickster's powers. I know Alan, you hate him, but like, no matter how you feel about him, like he's a villain, he died, you know, whatever.
01:23:16
Speaker
I think like if you imagine if the story had been told like say from a legends perspective and you get that visceral feeling when Hiro gets killed by Siberian and he's carrying him away, you know, cut in half basically entirely. Like I feel like that would have hit harder maybe if that makes sense. But because we don't really know those characters, it's just kind of like, Oh, that was gruesome. Anyways.
01:23:43
Speaker
Honestly, now that I think about it, the, the second most emotional, I think I felt, uh, in like a sad or upset manner. Cause like this go, at least this go round was ah with Vista. Like when weld comes in, like her interactions talking about like,
01:24:09
Speaker
You know, the the the group sitting around being like, these look, half of our team is gone. You know, weld comes in and fucks the whole thing up. Like, yeah you can feel the loss there. And I don't get that sense of loss. ah You get, you get a taste of it when it comes to um Taylor's interactions in the last arc.
01:24:37
Speaker
Um, about the, the feeling of defeat, the people who turned out to be, um, the people who have either died and they've, you know, they're still looking for replacements or who have been outed as cauldron capes and are now gone. Like you feel a little bit of that in the teams, but post Leviathan with the Brockton Bay wards, you feel actual loss and.
01:25:03
Speaker
It doesn't feel, I don't feel that anywhere else in this book so far. um That's interesting because i I did not feel it as strongly with that vista, but like obviously sad that like they they they're losing, they lost so much of their team, but like I felt way more emotional with the like the Victoria Vista com conversation that happens. like later. I don't know. i yeah no no no I agree. Like, I think that whole, the whole thing, like, like when I say Vista, I don't mean just there, but like that whole wards interlude arc, like the conversations they're having, the, you know, whether it's just the fact that other people they're mentioning like, Oh, so-and-so was always better at this, yada, yada, yada, yada. Like there's such a loss felt there. And I think
01:26:03
Speaker
You know, and this is one of those, man, if we'd only had this from so-and-so's perspective beforehand, but we interact with, with the, uh, with like Victoria a little bit. And while I don't really feel the loss specifically for her boyfriend, I feel the general loss of like all their teammates, like just kind of the, the magnitude, like the quantity of people that they just lost. And, um, I don't know.
01:26:34
Speaker
Regent finally kicking it and just doesn't cut it for me.
Influence of Game of Thrones on Plot Expectations
01:26:42
Speaker
Uh, given the, I don't know, the everything else that we've encountered. Sure. I think that makes sense. So all in favor of voting Ellen off the podcast, I think we'll hurt him enough. You know, yeah no, no, no, I, I get what you're saying though, Ellen.
01:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, they I think once again, but if people if people want to come after me, like that's fine. But this is also where people are stopping reading, like because they also felt they were just like, no and ah you know what I mean? I you know like i ah don't worry. Like I also consider that a lot.
01:27:25
Speaker
I do. there's a There's a chart and there's rankings on that chart. And if you fall below, it's like getting demoted. You're no longer friend, you're like acquaintance. It's sort of like, yeah, it's the English premier team, you know, basically. Exactly. There's different levels. I love it. And there's relegation. I kind of blame ah Game of Thrones for that.
01:27:51
Speaker
in a very broad sense, ah Game of Thrones really revolutionized the way we approach ah the mortality of our protagonists and ah no other property has been able to recreate that. and And honestly, not even Game of Thrones has been really able to recreate that right yeah and upset with the way that show ended. And I think that that speaks ah strongly to ah the types of stories people enjoy. And the truth is that we're okay with plot armor because we don't want our characters to die.
01:28:34
Speaker
Yes. And when they do, it needs to service the plot and the story. And I think I've made the the mistake before and trying to recommend worm very casually. I know a lot of fans have done this, but they'd be like, Oh, it's kind of like Game of Thrones. Lots of characters die.
01:28:50
Speaker
which is true, but also not true because we don't lose our main protagonist at the end of the first book, you know, and then pivot the story, you know, we don't, we don't lose are you there there that type of fear over, Oh, anybody could die is really not accurate. And I think is is a misleading way of trying to sell the story because it's not true. And and i don't think I think people are would be more fine with that if they knew that going into the story. And I think post Game of Thrones, a lot of people have approached these grittier stories with this mentality of, oh,
01:29:32
Speaker
Anybody could die oh ah because everything's being yeah because everything's being advertised as the next Game of Thrones or or Oh, this is just like Game of Thrones or oh, this made me made me feel like I was watching Game of Thrones again. Yeah, and It's just not and I think when you get to arcs like this um And you do get these sort of little shock moments where you're like, oh shit, I that character's dead. We've spent a lot of time with that character. It can really have that polarizing effect where either it just you're like, well, okay, I guess fuck him then. Or you have the opposite where like now that strikes that chord that you had been sort of waiting for for a while and you get hit with the emotion of losing a character. So it's it's really
Character Arcs and Taylor's Development
01:30:23
Speaker
interesting. I think i think both both sort of readings of that
01:30:27
Speaker
ah are are just are equally valid and I and i think it's a I think it's a symptom of the way a lot of stories are being marketed and written today. Even the worm was ah kind of came out a bit before Game of Thrones got popular. I think a lot of new readers are still coming in it with that mentality and I think that's something that ah makes it really difficult to discuss these types of stories, uh, because everyone sort of has game of thrones in the back of their mind, whether they want to believe it or not, it's back there. It's yeah how way approach yeah. Yeah. Well said. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you're right. Like in terms of when I watch older shows and stuff, I'm just surprised at the amount of stuff where you're just like, why didn't they die? Yeah. Like, and, and game of thrones does a great job of
01:31:23
Speaker
writing a character where the plot arc is leading to like, this is a logical conclusion of the world, given everything, but with the expectation that this character is going to continue doing stuff. like Exactly. the They're written as if they're going to live forever, as are most characters. yeah And so when you finally have the consequences happen for their actions, like it it feels um it it feels right.
01:32:02
Speaker
And I think that is, it's a con like them dying is a consequence for actions that are taken. and um And that death furthers the story in some way. And right I think this is one of those things. ah Again, I think this goes to the spacing for the readers. so I think that if Taylor was currently with the undersiders, if this was her team ah right now,
01:32:36
Speaker
I think this would have, I think I would have changed my opinion. I think other people maybe still would have had the general opinion, but ah for me, I think this would have hit harder if we hadn't had a big moment of saying goodbye to the undersiders. Like by just leaving, you know, granted right establishing literally at the beginning of this thing, establishing a new team to take care of.
01:33:04
Speaker
Like we just went through a whole vetting process. We've been away from the undersiders for, you know, uh, granted it's only been like, what an arc, but again, this, you know, we've been away from the undersiders for two, two and a half months. You know, if technically we say we didn't see them, you know, then you've got all of arc 22 that she technically hasn't.
01:33:27
Speaker
talk to them. They've been gone for a while. She, we've established we've, we've cut the emotional ties just like Taylor has cut ties, you know, right? We've already done that. We've already established there's a new team. We have them. We haven't grown to love them yet, but you know, they're in our good favor. You know, they're not neutral. I mean, at least some of them, you know, we're going to learn to love this team. And then the old team shows immediately back up right next to Alexandria, you know,
01:33:57
Speaker
And we're like, oh, I think having the space in this case, like I don't know what the feeling is because even reading it arc to arc, it's so, I've already reestablished, I've already redone my emotional ties. I was set in a trajectory where I was supposed to forget about the undersiders.
01:34:24
Speaker
Like I can see what you're saying. Yeah. So to have them at least in this so quickly brought back as a bit of whiplash and then die. And it's like, well, I mean, I just braced myself to cut them off. I cut them off and now we're here and I'm supposed to like pick that back up again. Yeah, that's, that's fair. I think that's a valid criticism. And, and maybe That is part of, ah you know, don't wanna speak on Wild Bo's behalf, but ah maybe that's part of the thing. Like, ah we're gonna look at it, but like, observing Taylor's emotions, granted she's in the middle of a battlefield, so we'll wait till everything cools down, but like, how does Taylor feel about this, especially as our point of view character? Like, Taylor literally did cut ties. She's trying, you know,
01:35:20
Speaker
She, she has the moments where she's like, Hey guys, I want you to know, I love you. Yada, yada, yada. Like she is saying goodbyes and Regent's teasing her the whole time about it because she's trying to get out the like, Hey, I have moved on.
Taylor's Empathy and Team Dynamics
01:35:36
Speaker
Just like the narrative has. Um,
01:35:41
Speaker
Hannah has never moved on. Hannah will never move on. Hannah is traumatized. Hannah will never forget. You never forget your first supervillain team. That's true. You never forget your first. Well, Taylor says something about it. Like when they're all kind of like, and they've told, they're standing around Gru's bed and they, they're talking about losing Regent and she kind of is like,
01:36:02
Speaker
I want to be an undersider so badly right now because i wanna stand here and i wanna agree with you guys and i wanna like be a team again so that we can we can grieve region. But i can't and like i love that so much because it's it it shows taylor's perspective.
01:36:22
Speaker
because she's like, she's such a big thinker. Like she's constantly thinking of the bigger picture and often will miss the smaller moments. And so it's like her recognizing that like, I want to be here with you all in this small moment of like us and our group and morning, what used to be and morning region, but I can't like, I have to go. I have to fight. I have another team. I have to keep an eye on it. Like I have other people I have to lead and I have to go now.
01:36:49
Speaker
Like i I love that. I think it, I mean, I was sobbing through all of that too. Like it just, it hits really well. And I think you're right about the pacing, like her saying goodbye, but like it, it makes it very like, wi like wishing that the team was the team again one last time, but it's too late. Like she's already moved on. Regent's dead now. Like the, the what ifs and wish we were is like, doesn't apply anymore. Yeah. Yeah.
01:37:22
Speaker
What's that thing? The way he goes, the way he goes out is also emotional. Cause it's like, you know, it's the two best. It's his bestie, you know? Yeah. Ain't nobody like a fuck buddy.
01:37:34
Speaker
All right. That's what they say. So i was being heartfelt, but i would thank you michael I had to bring it back down to ah the crass level that we all know where we really are. You know, likeing here that's good in the soundboard moving on that for later. Yeah, it's okay. Look, Michael, what would have read? What we, what would region have wanted? That's true.
01:37:55
Speaker
That's true. You know, that was good. To kiss his dad. To kiss his dad? Did you say to kiss his dad? I was going to say, did you say kiss? No, what did you say? Okay. All right. Is it time to finally move on to chapter five? Wrap up, wrap up this, this arc. I was going to say the last part of that one, God, Taylor has such fantastic advice for Rachel.
01:38:26
Speaker
Oh yes. Oh my gosh. Such great. Rachel. That is great. And to only Rachel, apparently like, I think Taylor may have like contracted Rachel brain like, and because her ability to understand and deal with people, and this is a total, I have a friend who, uh, works, uh, you know, for a, like in prisons works, you know,
01:38:55
Speaker
with people on trial. And one of the funniest things I think it was like, wow, you have such empathy for everybody in jail, you know, going on trial, defending them. And as soon as they get out, it's like, what piece is this shit? Like zero empathy for any human being doing anything outside of the trial. And I think about this with Taylor, like Taylor has such empathy for Rachel and dealing with her. And it comes just as like the average normal person. And she's like, fuck them. They don't understand shit. but
01:39:31
Speaker
like Taylor, like what the heck? Like take two, just 20 seconds of the like bazillion, you know, son's worth of energy you have put into dealing with Rachel and just channel that for a second towards somebody else. Like you might, you might actually be a decent human being if you could get that done.
01:39:58
Speaker
Bless Tecton.
Anticipation for Taylor's Character Developments
01:39:59
Speaker
He's like, i love his like i learned this I learned this in a leadership conference moment.
01:40:08
Speaker
He's like so nice. He's like trying to like talk to Ray and she's just like, well, that's stupid. She called me names.
01:40:20
Speaker
And then Taylor's like, no, she didn't say that you were stupid. She said your advice was stupid. Yeah. Your advice was dumb. Like, okay. It's so funny. This is like, but I just love that. Like that's such a, I don't know. That feels like such a kid thing to say to be like, Oh, so I learned this in a leadership conference. It's like, okay. All right, dude. I mean, it works. Like it was, it was decent advice. Just not for Rachel. Not for Rachel.
01:40:47
Speaker
It was so funny though. and I love Tekton. I'm so looking forward to Taylor and the wards, like the new group. Like I'm so ready cause I'm ready for the camaraderie. I'm ready for the, the, all the new inside jokes. Like I'm our, you know, like Alan said, our door is closed with, with the undersiders. I'm ready for the new chapter with the wards. Let's go. Let's go. Quote myself.
Final Stand Against Behemoth
01:41:15
Speaker
Uh,
01:41:17
Speaker
If we're ready. Chapter five. chapter five So um the group retreats, they meet up with the wounded back at the temple and make a final stand as Behemoth changes his ah trajectory and heads for the last stand of capes.
01:41:40
Speaker
X-Men three. X-Men three is called the last stand. Oh, I got it. Okay. That's all right. That's fine.
01:41:53
Speaker
Um, once again, yeah. Trying to trying to just do the impossible here. Yeah. What it what it what does it say? There's like 20 of them, like maybe 30 left standing outside and the rest are like all the injured capes inside trying to be air lifted away. It's like 30 capes on the final stand against The looming behemoth. Oh, man. I love the imagery there. It's. sir It feels so helpless. It is the whole yeah the whole arc has. And like, what are they what are they going to do? Well. We'll wait right here. Yeah.
01:42:39
Speaker
Which ah if anyone has any comments for, it tees us right up into then the Chevalier Center. I was going to say, it kind of goes it kind of goes right into the Interlude. It tees right into it, yeah. ah if If there's no objections. Yeah, I'd say just go for it. ah So the first Interlude is from Chevalier's point of view. We get some information on on him. yeah the The first meeting with the very first wards team ah as he sees people's shimmers, as he calls them at first,
01:43:09
Speaker
Uh, we fast forward to, uh, New Delhi with behemoth planning of the fight. Um, his interaction with Cody as Cody kind of went little, uh, simmer nuclear, uh, him waking up in the hospital during the final stand. He thinks on his trigger event and then takes the fight to behemoth, uh, with his amazing cannon blade, but he falls.
01:43:35
Speaker
And right when we're at the point of no return, Zion comes, fights, and wins against Behemoth.
01:43:45
Speaker
The literal deus ex machina. For real. Oh my gosh. I mean, it was about goddamn time. We were waiting on him for forever. and The girl who's supposed to be telling him where to go, she is dropping the ball. Yeah, but she's just watching the news and he's just standing there like, I mean, should I but i go? or Do you only want to go do something about that? And she's like, why don't you do a couple more shirtless pushups for me? Yeah. its She's just not watching the news. She's just on Instagram reels and she's like, oh my god, these poor rice farmers in South Dakota. He's gone
01:44:20
Speaker
Oh my gosh. What happens if you go to do like a media purge where you're like, I'm not going to look at any social media for the next 24 hours? Like New Delhi's fault. No, um, Jessica, whatever. Okay. This is one of the more interesting, uh, interludes to me because number one, I love Chevalier and thank you. Thank you.
01:44:43
Speaker
That was for you, Jacob. Thank you. and And number two, I really find his little shimmer thing interesting. So interesting. Very interesting. So as a I guess as a side effect of his power, he like... I don't know.
01:45:00
Speaker
seas he can see like see trigger events He can see all parts of them. yeah like His power lets him see like the individual elements of everything. so he can He can see like the parts of ah of what makes up a cape, which is like them and their power. Yeah, yeah and and a lot of times they're trigger too. so Right, yeah yeah but yeah, exactly. Super interesting there.
01:45:29
Speaker
Yeah, to ah to ah sorry, we go ahead, Nick. I was just going to say, and with that, that's why it's so funny to me that he. um He struggles to fight Cody because he's like, Oh Jesus. Fuck. There's like 80 of you guys. Yeah. I like where he's like, did they know that this would, this would confuse my power. Like it's such an anime line, you know, like, yeah how could they have known that this, this would have worked against my one weakness. um no I can't see him. That's hilarious.
01:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, and then he just gets shot through the stomach and is like, wait yeah, no, he's lasered. I did the torso. Super anime. Yeah, his laser can hurt me. Oh, I mean, like like listen, his weapon. This is a kid who clearly grew up at some point being really into Final Fantasy. Because what is his weapon? If not the Buster Sword to the max, right? Yeah. We talked about this. It's the gun to combo squall, gun, blade, cloud, strife. It's the squall, gun, blade. with Yeah, it's everything, right? It's wonderful. He is all of us. If we got his power. Exactly.
01:46:39
Speaker
ah Yeah, no, I, ah ah to balance out all the and ah the hatred that has been thrown upon this arc. um This interlude, if we're talking about like favorite interludes, there's a couple I would place above it, but this is a top five, probably top three interlude for me.
01:46:57
Speaker
um I do love Chevalier's character. I love his power. I think he's fascinating. I love the way that this interlude essentially introduces a character. We've met Chevalier many times, but very distantly, ah introduces a character, builds him up, and then justifies his final moments so well.
01:47:21
Speaker
to where like, you ah for a moment I forgot Taylor existed and I was all on board with the 1v1 between Chevalier and Behemoth. I was like, let's fucking go. Taylor, you can get a win another day. This is for Chevalier. This is his moment. Let him have it. And Wildboat writes it so succinctly and we get to this point at the end where he's facing down Behemoth and it just feels so earned despite having like two, 3000 words at this point to get him here. um So I just, I love the progression of this arc and the way we get to this this moment.
01:48:03
Speaker
And then of course, that moment comes and it is not just him because he does, he kind of loses, but like he's down, he's beaten and then defiance there and helps him up. And then, and then foil fires a shot and the, and it's like gives him his power so he can.
01:48:21
Speaker
you know And it's just sort of like this beautiful final moment where like it this feels like this could have been the end of the series. you know It just sort of feels like the culmination of everything is building to this moment. um And then of course it's not their moment and that's the little slap in the face. But ah yeah, I love the structure of this arc a lot. I really like the way it it builds.
01:48:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a good one. And this little chapter on Chevalier, him meeting the wards, you get to see, you know, a little bit more on him. I love that he dated Miss Militia briefly. So you dated him yeah he dated He He, you know, helped get her out of her shell, which, you know, I just, there's a lot of like little stuff like that, that I love about this. And, um, and the fact that she's not there and he's like, I don't really mind that she's not there. Like I get it. She can't fight behemoth.
01:49:20
Speaker
You know, we've talked about coil sniper being one of the best case, but I feel like Miss Malisha slash coil sniper might be a tad outmatched. Maybe. Yeah. This is me. I also saw a mouse protector. We did see mouse protector alive and well, as opposed to, you know, murder rat. Right. Yeah. With her little like, Huzzah. She's so fucking cute. Oh my god. i She's like if Redwall was R-rated. I feel like we got cheated out of having such a fun character in the story that like before we even met her, she's already Murder Rat.
01:50:00
Speaker
god damn it because she seems like she would have been so cool like she's got her little sword and her little shield and her little helmet that with her giant mouse ears and she's like huzzah like yeah ah i think me and her would just be besties like we have the same energy No, Loki, I was going to say this for dissecting worm, but 100% would love like a prequel series on like the first awards. And having like having like hero be a main advisor sort of, you know, mentor type character the whole time. Oh, I would be all over that. za yeah Oh, and i would I do love speaking of people who are alive. I do love seeing hero as well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. yeah know
01:50:43
Speaker
Poor guy. He seemed like such a good guy. He did. He's like, the I love his, he's just so playful and like he's trying to get these teenage vigilantes, right? So you imagine yeah most of these kids come in with like, uh, the attitude of like Damien Bruce Wayne's son of just like, I know what I'm doing. Who the hell are you? Like these like cocky, you know, yeah then you've got mouth protector sheets, whatever. Um, but, but just this like, not whatever in a bad way, but she's like in her own vibe. Um, yeah But her little posse. Yeah. But then here I was like, Oh, I've stuck the room with games and movies. Make sure you do your homework kids. I got it. The kids was, uh, most of them had been, I mean, honestly, it's not that far off from Taylor. Uh, I think it's sort of what it resonates with is like, all these guys are probably kids that had something happen. And then they got picked up by the PRT. Like.
01:51:43
Speaker
Oh my gosh, like this kid caught on fire in the bathroom and didn't, you know, burn himself. Um, the math yeah. Uh, and, and in comes Chevalier, you know, their last recruit and they're like, Oh, what's so special about this guy? It's like, Oh, he was out there killing an entire gang. yeah Like he's the Damien Wayne of this group. Like the rest of them are, you know,
01:52:10
Speaker
Kids who have just figured out their powers and he's been like hunting people. to Like, which in that regards very, you know, very strong, uh, Taylor like experience coming into this. Like, yeah. Got kidnapped. There's a reason. Yeah. ah Well, he didn't get kidnapped. His brother got kidnapped. Yeah. Yeah. As a brother got kidnapped.
01:52:34
Speaker
Yeah. Oh man. So I do want to say though, that the, the image that comes to mind as Chevalier is marching towards a behemoth, you know, pulling out his gun blade is just the.
01:52:48
Speaker
You know, like the gigachad memes with the, the, can you feel my heart song of that? yes right yeah Like that's the background music I'm imagining for the scene for some reason. He's just marching, oh yeah growing this massive blade. It's this final stand and it's just like this guy. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. And then Sian comes and, you know, does his thing, but whatever. I love, go ahead, Anna. No, no, please, please, please.
01:53:17
Speaker
No, all I was gonna say was I love that there's the setup that, oh, if we destroy the core, then you could kill him. And in the back of my mind, I was going, okay, like that's a bit of a cop out. They didn't think about that after 30 years of end bringer attacks to like go for the heart, really. And then they try to do it. It doesn't work, it pisses them off. And then scion solution is just to eventually just vaporize them essentially.
01:53:46
Speaker
And it's like, okay, it was a nice little, ah ah ah what's the phrase I'm thinking of, subvert of expectations there, done correctly. Game of Thrones, take notes. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I mean, Sion finally coming in. And well, I think it's interesting too, they talk about the core and how the cores are all like off center, right? They purposefully keep them.
01:54:10
Speaker
where you might not expect a heart or a brain to be. Like they mentioned the Simmerse is in her wing probably. Yeah. The wing joint or whatever. The wing joint. Um, so that's why her body heals slower and stuff like that, which is really interesting. And then, yeah, Sion just like grabs him and it's just like, you're done. Body Hulk slams him. yeah Seems like he gets, like heals everybody and gets rid of the radiation. So.
01:54:37
Speaker
Oh yeah. As he's just walking, as he's walking towards him or yeah not walking he's like slow ah down. He's got his heel aura. Yeah. And Chevrolet. Yeah, exactly. Chevrolet was like, Oh, I feel better. Am I dying? And he's like, Oh no, a scion. I'm alive.
01:54:54
Speaker
Speaking of the adrenaline's reward off, man. Well, why couldn't he have done that sooner? You know, like. You know, like I said, that girl who's supposed to be the most powerful girl in the world, she's dropping the ball and I'm upset about it. His ways aren't our ways. Yeah, because this bitch needs to get on. She needs the horn with the protector at the triumvirate, whatever. She needs to talk to somebody. They need to be like, hey, look, Catherine, whatever your freaking name is, we need you to like to mosey on over here, please. Like she needs like one of those
01:55:30
Speaker
Okay. It's the red phone that plugs into the wall. That's in all of the movies. It's like the red phone that when the red phone rings, like that's what we need. I agree. I'm upset. It's a bad signal. It's a sound signal. Yeah. Zion. If I shine this, you show up right away. yeah Right away. Understand. All right. We ready for the last interlude? Interlude.
01:56:00
Speaker
All right. So the last interlude, arc 24. Uh, we kind of jump around with this one. Uh, the Chicago wards make a decision regarding Taylor and decide that they will ask her to join them. Yay. Uh, pretender leaves and Alexandria's body. What? Uh, Colin tries to fix dragon's code and try and reboot her properly and is upset that it doesn't seem to be working correctly.
01:56:30
Speaker
Taylor calls her dad and then talks with Glenn before going to a tribunal over her conduct, uh, specifically over the fact that the video that, uh, was recorded on her body cam during the entire fight was released, uh, and circulating all over the interwebs, uh, which was Glenn's move actually releasing that footage. And he's probably going to get fired for it.
01:56:56
Speaker
Oh, he's definitely getting fired. it's like oh he getting done this is my last um And as that video circulates the world wonders, what comes next? Okay. Yeah. So there's a, there's a couple of things in the previous interlude or the one before where we realized dragon has died. And it's one of those things where it's like, at first you're like, Oh, dragon died. Like that's not really her. But then with Colin trying to reboot her, you're, you kind of think, Oh, wait.
01:57:25
Speaker
Maybe that was her, like that was her AI body. Basically something got hit, right? Um, yep you know, whether it was one of the ships or that body that she'd made to walk with Colin. So that, that kind of hits too, of like this Collins struggle to bring her back. That, that actually felt very emotional to me. Cause it was him like, too.
01:57:49
Speaker
I can't put her back the way she was before because then she'll know what I did. She'll review the files and then she'll fight me on it. Like I worked so hard to set her free from the PRT. We know all about those limitations and him just like resigning himself to being like, you know, ship just update me when it's done one way or another and just going to sit and ponder being alone and ponder, you know, feeling like this is the first time he's made a genuine connection. And now like,
01:58:17
Speaker
You know, it's a bit sop sappy maybe because he's like, my whole life I felt like nobody loved me. Now the one person I loved is gone. you know yeah just a little saddening but i more yeah I've come to like, you know, define it at this point. So it's like, okay, yeah you get a pass on the sappiness. You know, we talk about things that shows up in uh, worm or wild bow writings. Uh, something I've noticed is, uh, while the really likes dealing with, or he, I say dealing with it, he tends to write characters that die or have memory loss of some kind, but are still alive in a way where one character likes them or has a relationship with them. And they have to contend with the fact that this person
01:59:13
Speaker
who is the same person doesn't have the same memories or in a way isn't the same person anymore. um It's just interesting. i I feel like I've seen that in Twig for sure in Twig, um but also in Pact as well. And I'm trying to think if there's that in Ward.
01:59:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely in Ward. Oh my gosh. Yes. In Ward. Yeah. Yeah. Holy cow. no I haven't read, uh, I haven't read pale, but, uh, yeah, no. Uh, so as I'm thinking about it, yeah, basically in every one of those writings I've read. Nice. It's one of his things like the phrase, fuck me. And, uh,
01:59:58
Speaker
What's the other word, Michael, say it again? Copacetic, thank you. Copacetic. Copacetic, baby. Thank you, thank you, Michael. I did read another book recently where copacetic was in it, and I like shouting copacetic out loud. while No, maybe just... Or recess. Recess can. Yeah. yeah and i just was I thought that was funny, because now every time I hear that, I'm going to think of, well, though. I did want to go back to something too. It's related to interlude too. But in Chevalier's interlude, right, they try to take off one of Behemoth's arms. And he looks back and sees Taylor in the Chicago wards. Basically, it sounds like they made a giant Beyblade to cut off most of yeah one of his arms. And so this whole like conversation afterwards of them like,
02:00:45
Speaker
I feel like they, they gotta just be like half of them are just like, I mean, just the cool factor, Tekton, like we gotta ask her to join us. Like what, like think about the things we did like, you know, and I do love, we didn't talk about it much, but I do love Tekton's philosophy of rather than try to cover every base, let's just be really good at this one thing. Um, and Taylor kind of fills in the gaps of making it work for all of them, which is really cool. Yeah. But we do find out who Golem is.
02:01:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's Kaiser's boy. He did get powers. And they were lame. No,
02:01:30
Speaker
now I remember the first time hearing about that. I'm like, what good are those powers? There's like, yeah, I could stick them in, but it, it takes forever. And I'm like, Oh, it's useless. now No, I mean, no, it it definitely I don't think it was going to kill Jack with that kind of shit. I don't know, but he could hold down behemoth for a little while. So that's kind of cool. I guess I thought it was as long as behemoth was standing still. yeah I mean, listen, you can only ask for so much from golem. OK.
02:02:05
Speaker
Guys, give me about 10 minutes. I think I could get a couple fingers out there to like wrap around his ankle. Also, yeah, with that knowledge too, I do love um his whole thing of like ah like, he's like huffing and puffing to keep up. I'm like, okay, you've let us off life, we know. um yeah But then also like Taylor's observation of like, he automatically kind of has that danger sense that she and Tecton, I think she says has. And she's like, I wonder where he got that from being so new. So now it's like, oh In the words of, uh, to paraphrase another person, um, Kaiser was his father. What do you think? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Basically. Um, so I love that. Um, okay. Uh, this part might be a little bit tasteless. So Michael, I'll let you decide if you want to leave it in or not. The whole thing was pretender and satirical.
02:03:01
Speaker
It reminded me. Oh, it's so gay. It's so gay. It's so good. Okay, what it reminded me of though is I think I sent this reel. I know I sent it probably to Jacob and maybe Alan and Michael too. But it's this reel of like these, this couple, it's a guy and a girl and it's like, take care of your bros in high school. And then there's a flashback and it's like, because one day they might become your wife. Yeah.
02:03:28
Speaker
yeah um I don't know if that was real or trolling or whatever, but like, just, just I loved that little satirical was like, Hey, you know, uh, now that you're a lady pretenders, just like you grow stuff. Also, I mean, a Sater, I mean, classic Sater. Yeah. Yeah. you Yeah. oh yeah ah yeah Oh man, yeah but oh yeah. Okay. So we know it's for tender now. Um, so we know a little bit more about his power and I had to do a bit of research, but basically he is literally a body snatcher.
02:04:06
Speaker
Um, he takes over somebody's body and takes on all the powers in that body. I don't know if he can leave. I assume he can leave or else, you know, one time use power. How do you know how that works? Whatever. Um, but basically what I, what I was reading online, cause I didn't really understand his little explanation to satirical. Basically Alexandria's body was so invulnerable that her brain survived her death. Yep. But no other part of her did.
02:04:35
Speaker
Her brain basically was so insane. I thought it was the other way around. She's like brain dead, basically. Yeah, no, no, she's brain dead. It's the opposite. It's the opposite, okay, yeah. Her body is impenetrable, but her brain is like toast. Her brain, yes, she's like brain dead, right? But her body won't do anything still. Because remember, I was gonna say, remember, yeah, she's still like, I wanna say she's still the same age she got the powers at, which was like 16. It says that- She has to use makeup to look like she's 40. Yeah, she has to like age herself up with makeup to make herself look like she's aged, but she hasn't, so it's like, she still looks You know. Yeah. Which I don't know if this makes me feel better or worse about Alexandria now being pretender and under cauldron's complete control, but whatever. Yeah. Well, you know, maybe she's doing a little bit more. Did they said something about like less trouble that she didn't have to cut her fingernails or something like that. yeah Like I'm wondering. Much like. ah Her hair like.
02:05:31
Speaker
There's a lot of dead skin that make up those things. Are those? did Does she still grow hair? It doesn't look seem like it. She shaves her head. If she shaves her head, she's fucked, but I guess she just doesn't shave her head. I mean, but what if man questions how to stuff metal in her hair? yeah You know, it's molten. Well, she you go and you talk to Weld and you melted the fuck out because here's the thing. Like her hair is part of her body, which is what also impenetrable, right? So like if her skin, then maybe her hair can't be cut either.
02:06:04
Speaker
Probably. I mean, I mean, if she got metal melted metal in her hair, she probably could just grab it and, you know, kind of like a hair tight, just kind of like slip it off, you know? ah and since Superman already answered this question. If you're if you're if you are it's but it's the whole unsophable force. It's an immovable object. Yeah. If you are strong enough to do anything, then you can. And if she if she wants to shave, she could.
02:06:34
Speaker
If she wants to cut her hair, she could. She's strong enough to do it. I do remember seeing a comic book frame of Superman shaving with his own eye laser. So, you know, track yeah, where he bounces it off he boun stuffs the mirror. yeah exactly great And the mirror doesn't shatter. No, it's a mirror doesn't melt. No, it's a mirror. I tell you, if you got it, IKEA, it is not surviving a laser blast.
02:07:08
Speaker
Wouldn't that be such a good marketing, though? That our mirror is so strong that Superman can shave his face with his own lasers. Yeah, there's a real real need to advertise for mirrors, I guess. Okay, look. I thought it was funny. I mean, I could use some good. All the mirrors I look at are ugly. Oh, no. Oh, got him.
02:07:35
Speaker
By him, he means himself. I'm so alone.
02:07:39
Speaker
I'm going to find that clip. Oh, michael you have to make that that out of context, a compilation for the, for the patrons. Oh yeah, you do. It's the, point oh man you know, they say you are what you eat, but I don't remember eating a sad little man.
02:08:05
Speaker
I think we're part of the discussion where we move into favorite powers. I would say we've still got to talk. We've got ah we did a little bit left in this. We've got, we've got annex. We've got to talk about Glen. Yeah. A little bit with Kirk, who is annex. Yes. Mm-hmm. The awards. Um, yeah. Uh, Taylor comes in. I assume to murder. Well, I'll give you the, my timeline of events, according to my notes, Jesus Taylor. I'm assuming she's there to kill Glenn.
02:08:35
Speaker
Um, also she had a body cam on the whole time. Yeah, Jesus. Like Taylor, the first thing you do when you get a body cam is you turn it off. Everybody knows this. Every police district knows this now. Uh, but also she had a body cam on the whole time. And then I went, Oh, nevermind. It was just for therapy. Oh wait, nevermind. Oh, Glenn, Glenn can go fuck himself every which way. Um,
02:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. Every, every bit of sympathy I had, or like a likability that Glenn had in there for some reason. Yeah. Now, fuck him. What a terrible human being. Get the fuck out of there. You could probably sue him for some real good bucks right there. Well, I don't know. I don't know if you could because well, I mean, I think he could, but I'm, I'm thinking like yeah who owns the rights to the footage, right?
02:09:33
Speaker
Probably not specifically, it was for therapy. I think it was like yeah that was, that that was there for they said it was for therapy. Yeah. Miss Yamada got her hooked up for that so that she could look at it with Miss Yamada and talk about like, you know, essentially, you know, to look back at herself and.
02:09:57
Speaker
What the fuck? Like he got his yeah number one, he got his hands on that. Number two, he like just made that public. Let's like, go ahead and just take, you know, your, your journal that you are writing for your therapy and then just post that online. Like what the hell? Yeah. Yeah. True. I mean, I, at the same time, I think I get what he was going for. Right. Basically.
02:10:27
Speaker
nobody really knows exactly what Taylor did until the video was released. And so the whole PRT who's like, we're kind of upset with some of the stuff you did, which I'm totally with Taylor on this one. Like normally I'm kind of like on the fence with Taylor's accusations of the PRT. This one I'm like, yeah, no, fuck that. Like why, why are you guys on her case after she really helped save New Delhi? Um, honestly, the only thing I'd be pissed off with is like, you did absolutely fuck that one dude over. Oh yeah.
02:10:56
Speaker
I mean, yeah yeah, that's, that's the only thing that's, that's really bad, but know do we know where he went? Did we get him back? Hannah, he went to a farm. Yeah. With a hammock made of dreams. Well, I mean, yeah, so we didn't really talk about it much, but I don't know if this is part of what makes fear, fear say so scary, but he's got a teleporter who can just put his arm through your chest and kill you. So, you know, that's cool. and' That's fine. oh yeah just You know, just small things like this. Um, just little things. Yes. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I kind of get what he's going for. of Like let's just show everybody what really happened rather than wait for the official answer. You know,
02:11:32
Speaker
let the world's opinion follow where it will. And we can already see like some positive effects of that. People are like, wow, I can't believe she did that. That was amazing. You know, I don't know. I can see what he was going for. He is still an asshole though.
02:11:50
Speaker
Yeah. Fear see dominance over, uh, uh, the Virgin Glen. and That is what that's what I'm getting at it. Those are two characters I did not expect to be in the same chat. Fiercey over versus Virgin Glen. Those are going to like take away from this entire thing. ah we We love the Chads, the true Chads like Chevy and Fiercey.
02:12:21
Speaker
OK, so if Behemoth was running down, Chevalier, is that a Chevy Chase? Stop it right now. Stop it right now. right Yes. And that's all. There's a, there's a drove the Chevy to the levee joke somewhere. I think I already made it last week. Chase made it last time. Chase is off to the edge of a, of a cliff. That's right. Thus driving the Chevy to the left. Oh my God.
02:12:56
Speaker
Also, we assume it's dragon at the end. Yeah. I mean, yes of course yeah, no, cause he thinks it's, he thinks it's the, the ship, which he said is oddly sounds like dragon. And so when it, you know, Colin and then he's like, yeah, just get hold on. Give me a second. It's like, so it's me. It's like, of course it's you, so but is it the same you favorite power? Yeah. Let's do powers.
02:13:23
Speaker
As an idea, I love Behemoth's power. Pure dynokinesis of like everything, energy. like He can take massive hits and just translate them to the ground instead. i just He's not a cape, so I'm not gonna give him my my like favorite power, but just the concept of that in a cape would be really cool. Obviously not all of it, but just that one.
02:13:52
Speaker
that one piece of it, the dynokinesis, fire, electricity. Um, anyways, I thought that was cool. Um, however, I do, I, I want to give this one to Chevalier. I think for me, come this idea of, I don't know exactly how his power works, but this idea of like, I'm going to take this incredibly dense thing and put it into a tiny, I mean, it it's the Buster's word. Like I can't not love it. I love it. It's great.
02:14:20
Speaker
yeah It's so cool. And the fact that he can strike Leviathan from a hundred feet away because he can make it that big. It's just like, it's the most anime power that worm has. And it's so cool. And plus he's a great guy. So I do love Chevy. Chevalier. It helps that we can actually root for him and not feel bad. Yeah, exactly. yeah He's like, he's kind of like the,
02:14:45
Speaker
Well, actually, I don't know. I was going to compare him to legend, but legend has his issues too, but I do like that. No, we've got our, our pure boy section, which is like weld tech and Chevalier right now. Pure good boys with good hearts who are generally unproblematic. Oh, hearts. because i I like, I'd give that to, uh, I would also like to give that to miss militia, but you know, she did stick a gun in tattletales mouth at one point. So yeah, that was hot.
02:15:14
Speaker
a Need that HR meme sticks gun in mouth like during the bank robbery. Whoa, the call HR like Ms. Malisha sticks a gun in mouth like, Oh, hello.
02:15:26
Speaker
yeah
02:15:30
Speaker
ah Yeah, I see. if i say If I say Chevalier, I think I've said him in like every time we do this and Chevalier's been in the arc. I'm like, it's Chevalier. So I feel like I can't say it again in the most obvious time to say it. and There's a lot of powers in this arc though. That's true. There's a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
02:15:50
Speaker
a lot of small little powers that sort of get passed by. ah We get little glimpses of powers like Rhyme, who has like multiple versions of herself. ah Wasn't quite sure what was going on there, but seemed cool.
02:16:06
Speaker
ah you know yeah ah Usher, all these other powers, but I think at the end of the day, It was Chevelier. Chevelier. yeah yeah Which at just ah for the record, his power is that he can combine the properties of several items into one.
02:16:29
Speaker
And it helps if they're similar in size. So like you can take two things and combine them into one object and then selectively choose which attribute of each object carries over into the final version. Oh, right. like' That's part of why arms master is jealous because his whole tinker thing is like.
02:16:47
Speaker
minimalism basically like putting as much into small spaces as possible yes exactly right exactly yeah they have done perfect because when he gets when he gets knocked by cody he like before he falls and drops his his cannon blade he has to remember to switch the property so that it doesn't just like crush through the floor and like it drops the building stories and but yeah yeah That was great. It's the it's the classic trope of like what would happen if a Jedi dropped their lightsaber when it stayed lit. Yes straight view perfectly ver in it
02:17:22
Speaker
yeah ah Yeah, i ah i really I really like Gollum. I think he's very cool. I love all the hands and like being able to like basically teleport through surfaces is really cool, teleport your hands. And he says like something like, I can do with my face, but that's not very helpful. I love that so much. I mean, he's playing with one of those little, like that you know, the thing that's like nails or pins and you like put your hand in it. Oh, yeah. It's just that. I remember the first time I i saw that, I was like, oh.
02:17:53
Speaker
Because like he has to like if he wants to produce an arm, he has to stick up to his arm in the ground or in one of his little panels. Like, yeah, he can't just like touch them and make the thing come out. He has to like.
02:18:11
Speaker
like find a piece of material and then like, let's just say it's the ground. So he has to lay on the ground shoulder deep in it ah right in order to get the, you know, shoulder all the way to the shoulder arm to come out the other side. Like, i love I mean, I think, I think it's easier than that, right? He just holds it up and sticks his arm through like you'd stick it through a sleeve. Right.
02:18:32
Speaker
Except slowly. Except slowly. Yeah. But I do. Yeah. I do want him to like, I don't know if he can work with wood, but I love the idea of him like pranking somebody pretending to be the Deku tree or something from Legend of Zelda sticks his face. And he's like. Link. Yeah. Gollum does that. My favorite for this one. There's a lot of a lot of good ones in here, i like Fiercey.
02:19:00
Speaker
I like annex annex has got a really fun power. yeah I think my, my number one for this one goes to particulate the dust tinker. Oh, yeah he's got that. He had the little scanning device that like Taylor was like, I mean, every, every description about him is great. Taylor's like, what the fuck is a dust tinker? He pulls out a scanning device and it's like, what is this tracking? Like we're, we're getting the right readings, but What are we going towards? What is it tracking on? Like the amount of dust in the room? Like right like what is going on there? And then he has a gun that just like, I mean, they talk about it carves a tunnel and he just like points it at a wall and the wall just turns to dust, which is nuts. And you really hope doesn't get used on you at any point in time.
02:19:59
Speaker
We're all just particles of dust, man. That's right. You're all just dust particles. Ashes to ashes. Oh, there are some powers here though. Cause there's the, uh, who's the social danger sense, uh, hero who can, who learns to speak speak Portuguese. Oh, she's so cool. Uh, on the roof. What's her name? It starts with an A I think, but.
02:20:26
Speaker
She isn't she? that No, no, no, it's I don't think it's an A. It's a ah lero it's the um of sailor. She's one of the she went the team leaders, isn't she? Yes, she is. Mm hmm. I name, though. I can find out. Yeah, she's cool. Armistice. It's kind of like that, though, I think. It's got the same. I'm trying to run word armistice. Damn, I don't think it's an A. No, it might not be.
02:20:52
Speaker
and Arbiter? Arbiter. It isn't A. our is you're right right um Yeah, I like Arbiter. I don't know exactly what else you can do, but that's just kind of neat. It's just so cool like she starts off talking Portuguese to them and she like is like very broken And then like the more she listens to them the more she like can get it yeah and figure it out Okay, what did she just keeps getting better and better? What is ah we talked about it earlier? But what is fear say power exactly cuz I'm trying to I'm trying to get I thought he makes he makes portals and yeah, he makes portals to the past and
02:21:31
Speaker
which is why he can like, he can like portal light back to itself, which is how he- That's right. Yeah. So he has the ability to make golden doorways back in time for a few minutes. This allows him to travel back and change past events, um which is when, you know, talking about his wife, he's like, I could have traveled back and saved my wife, but I didn't because that meant a worst villain would still be alive too.
02:21:53
Speaker
um And yeah, so he's doubling and redoubling light for long periods of time, which create powerful glass of energy. It's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Really cool. Also again, is, is he the first. Incidents of like actual time travel that we've met in form.
02:22:17
Speaker
Well, I mean, besides us his little Cody, you know, a partition has a little like, but but that's not like changing the past. That's just a resetting. some Oh, OK. So we have asked him. We didn't talk about dispatch either. Yeah, that's true. Oh, dispatch. Shoot. Dispatch also has a time related power. Yeah. No, there's a there's a couple. I know ah somebody else in the the ad apps.
02:22:45
Speaker
Yeah. A bunch of chronom answers. You're right. You're right. One of them is, you know, obviously we have some like fake ish ones at like 11th hour, but I'm pretty sure their main person, uh, shoot, um, something time related. You're right. Uh, it's coming back to me, but I can't remember. yeah name mean I'm pretty sure is, uh, can manipulate time to like, remember we talked about, they go like they can fast forward things 10 seconds.
02:23:15
Speaker
And like back things up 10 seconds. Um, and even pausing. Oh, epoch. Here we go. I found it. Yeah. Yeah. Epoch. Right. Okay. Epoch. but ah um yeah So there's, there's that. And then dispatch has a really cool power too. Cause his whole thing is the, he can make like bubbles of time.
02:23:40
Speaker
um Which are so cool, like, I don't know, there's so many cool powers in this, right? Whenever you have these big- Yeah, that's where the time bubbles came from for attacking Behemoth. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, because he would he was making, well, Eidolon and Dispatch could make, like, his own personal bubble, and that was how he was rescuing people. Is he, like, going, make a bubble, stitch him up, and then run off real fast? So it makes it look like he's a speedster, but he's not. um Whereas, Eidolon- We're out of it.
02:24:09
Speaker
Sorry, I'd Dolan, I'd alone. um he He chose this power to like make little bubbles of time to slow down parts of behemoth. yeah I'm not gonna lie, you guys, I read the part about the the time bubbles, and I got really, really emotional. And I was like, Oh, no, something happens, but I don't know what it is. And I was like living in fear this entire arc, because the bubbles are mentioned pretty early on. And we've talked about them before. But like,
02:24:40
Speaker
I don't know why, but it triggered something in my brain. And I got really, really like emotional and like scared and crying. And I was like, I don't know why I'm crying. and I feel like my brain remembers something that I don't. It's very upsetting. I mean, does it remind you of like the time bubble where everybody's stuck in Brockton Bay?
02:25:01
Speaker
yeah I mean I was thinking about that because we've talked about that before but no no no I feel like there's something else like there's something coming but I don't know what it is I feel like we're gonna see the time bubbles again but it's not gonna be there's something similar coming see see I just, I have no fucking clue what it was. We can cut all of this out. I just, I had to tell you guys, but I like immediately started crying and I was like, Oh my God, we're going to lose somebody in the bubble. Like, Oh my God. And then when we lost region, I was like, okay, but that wasn't in a bubble. So like, I feel like we're going to lose somebody else. It's important to us in a bubble, but I don't remember. And it's upsetting because I don't remember. But my brain somehow remembered because it started crying all of a sudden. I don't know.
02:25:48
Speaker
Anyways, no, nothing happens. I'm just messing with you. Also, uh, it's confirmed that epoc or a but sorry but sorry ellen Epoch also bought a cauldron vial to get his powers. Uh, and it is a guest since we know that perdition took the vestige formula and got some time powers.
02:26:16
Speaker
that perhaps Epoch also got a version of the Vestige formula. Interesting. Interesting.
02:26:28
Speaker
All right. Okay. We got, everyone got their favorite powers out of the way. yeah I think that was... Yes. Nice. That handsome. That handsome. There were so many. We got some bonus powers this round. Yeah. A lot of fun.
02:26:44
Speaker
All right. Well, uh, I think, I think we're wrapping it up. Any other final thoughts people want to get in on arc 24?
02:26:55
Speaker
24 is a big number. and It is pretty crazy to read 25, 25. I'm so ready. Just a few more arcs. We are, we are crazy how close we are. And yet so far to go.
02:27:09
Speaker
So stick around, arc 24 for dissecting worm with myself and Alan coming out next week. And then we'll be back into arc 25, which is, it's going to be a lot of fun. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. It's been a blast, fun arc, a lot to talk about. Let us know what you think. Do you agree with Alan or the rest of society?
02:27:32
Speaker
is this turkey Did you agree with Alan or do you agree with the rest of us? Yeah. No, but for real, like what'd you think? What did you think of the arc? Was this a highlight? Was this a low point? Did you enjoy the way Regent went out? Do you wish it would have been done a little differently? Let us know your thoughts. And then we plugged it before, but we got to put it in the end. Join us over on our Patreon. We have a lot of fun over there, access to our Discord, and a lot of little bonus videos and content that we've been creating. We got some more ideas coming out on the way. So if you've enjoyed listening to us and you've stuck around here for
02:28:06
Speaker
24 Arcs, you'll enjoy a lot of what we have over there. So come 100%. Yeah, come take a look. You and won't be disappointed. And on that note, thanks everyone for joining. It's been a lot of fun. And we'll see you next time, Michael. Want to play us out?