Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book eight, A Parade of Horribles,
Speaker 1: chapters sixty one through sixty five. In these chapters, so
Speaker 1: I was pretty close actually about my guests regarding what's happening,
Speaker 1: which is funny considering how I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: think we're supposed to know any of this, are we?
Speaker 1: I don't know anything. This is a very compelling but
Speaker 1: terrifying experiment. Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the show everyone.
Speaker 1: I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Michael for
Speaker 1: commissioning this episode. Michael's here in the chat with me.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you being here, sir. So, yeah, this section is
Speaker 1: just a really I am. I didn't I talked, you know,
Speaker 1: about Lena and the fact that she's clearly a sociopath
Speaker 1: at least, but I didn't really talk about like the
Speaker 1: role that might play in her agreeing to do this
Speaker 1: experiment at all, setting aside the fact that Samantha agreed
Speaker 1: to do it, because I think we can all agree
Speaker 1: that Samantha is a sociopath at the very least as well.
Speaker 1: But I'm wondering because like, I have no doubt that
Speaker 1: they that they made it as clear to her as
Speaker 1: they possibly could what the potential risks were for this,
Speaker 1: And as Carl had said in that previous conversation, they
Speaker 1: she's not somebody that they could trick, and he wouldn't
Speaker 1: even want to do it that way anyway, So a
Speaker 1: lot of people wouldn't be willing to take this risk.
Speaker 1: And I can't help but wonder if it's just sort
Speaker 1: of what's the word I want here? Like a nihilist,
Speaker 1: I don't care whether I live or die, so sure
Speaker 1: I'll take one for the team and see if I
Speaker 1: can get us out of here. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: if somebody who is so capable of cruelty can really
Speaker 1: be called selfless for doing something like this, Like it's
Speaker 1: it's you know what I mean? But I do find
Speaker 1: it kind of compelling. And I completely understand why she
Speaker 1: doesn't want to speak to anybody else. I'm not mad
Speaker 1: at her for that either, but the fact that she
Speaker 1: doesn't talk to anyone does make it so that I
Speaker 1: have just infer a lot of things, and it is
Speaker 1: I want to get in her head so bad. I
Speaker 1: am assuming that we are never going to get her
Speaker 1: POV in these books. I may be wrong about that.
Speaker 1: We haven't, as far as I can remember, gotten the
Speaker 1: POV of any crawler other than Katchia, which was a
Speaker 1: pretty brief one. Otherwise, I think that's you know, it's
Speaker 1: just been Caral and the ex crawlers who were like
Speaker 1: on the outside or who are we're getting their memories
Speaker 1: from previous crawls and things like that. But let's see,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start with sixty one. They Nah sat in
Speaker 1: the middle of the common room, hovering a foot off
Speaker 1: the floor. She glowed and her good eye remained closed.
Speaker 1: The other mechanical eye twitched clockwork gears spin. A large
Speaker 1: group of us had formed around her. Standing next to
Speaker 1: her were Mordecai, Mistress Tiatha, and Rosetta. The white cleaner
Speaker 1: bot also hovered nearby. And this is them all gearing
Speaker 1: up and prepping to do a really potentially deadly experiment
Speaker 1: that they have come up with a kind of ingenious
Speaker 1: system for. There's a mention here about she casts some
Speaker 1: gooey dread thing on your cactus when Rosetta asked her
Speaker 1: to which we find out exactly how this all works later.
Speaker 1: I think that him sacrificing his cactus is totally acceptable.
Speaker 1: So Mordecai holds up the pet carrier. As we all know,
Speaker 1: they can't hold crawlers, but as some of us also know,
Speaker 1: they can still suck crawlers in if the crawler allows it,
Speaker 1: which is like, what's the difference? They can they can't
Speaker 1: hold them, but they can suck them in, and I
Speaker 1: guess it would only be like a temporary thing and
Speaker 1: they would be expelled pretty quickly afterwards. What happens is
Speaker 1: ten seconds later the carrier breaks. But what we are
Speaker 1: planning to do is before the ten seconds and it breaks,
Speaker 1: we are going to have the cleaner bot suck up
Speaker 1: the pet carrier. Sakira is the name of this or
Speaker 1: like the carrier that is the one. I think that
Speaker 1: is like the cleaner bot they bought for their space,
Speaker 1: and I think the older one. You guys, I there's
Speaker 1: a lot of times where doughnut reference is something that
Speaker 1: I have watched or read or whatever, and I I
Speaker 1: don't get it, And when one of you reminds me,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh yeah, but let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: The other cleaner bought being called ezra fits because Ezrafit
Speaker 1: sucks Carl. Let it be known that ezra Fits sucks
Speaker 1: so bad that I can literally not remember a single
Speaker 1: other character's name from Pretty Little Liars except for Ezra Fits,
Speaker 1: because he fucking sucks so much. That's like I remember
Speaker 1: him crystal clear purely because of what a piece of
Speaker 1: shit he is. And it is such a weird thing
Speaker 1: that I hate, which I do think eventually the show
Speaker 1: dealt with, but I kind of wonder if it had
Speaker 1: intended to, or if there was an eventual outcry. But
Speaker 1: they have him be the romance to a character who
Speaker 1: is his student. He's a fucking high school teacher. And
Speaker 1: the difficulty with this sort of thing that I have
Speaker 1: noticed repeatedly as I get older is just we make
Speaker 1: high schoolers. They're played by twenty somethings in all of
Speaker 1: our you know, so the matchup doesn't even look that
Speaker 1: out of place on screen because they are in reality
Speaker 1: a pretty close age. But if you actually cast somebody
Speaker 1: who looked sixteen and this guy, it would be really upsetting.
Speaker 1: And we just can't have higher actors that are that young,
Speaker 1: and I think it leads to us not looking upon
Speaker 1: this sort of thing in fiction, as with as angry
Speaker 1: and I as I think we should. I think we're
Speaker 1: getting a little bit better about it at seeing it
Speaker 1: clearly now. But he was not only a teacher in
Speaker 1: love with a student, but he was also like a
Speaker 1: stalker and also was like just monstrous. He was just
Speaker 1: a piece of shit. So anyway, I just really really
Speaker 1: loved the fact that they chose that name and that
Speaker 1: I don't remember a soul else except for him, because
Speaker 1: he is such a piece of shit. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I hate him. Every time that we had like a
Speaker 1: story beat with him, I don't think I ever finished
Speaker 1: the show. I think I got up to like season five,
Speaker 1: maybe because it went on longer than I expect, But
Speaker 1: anytime he showed up on screen, I just went because
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to hear his voice or see
Speaker 1: his face or do any of this. Sorry, Michael is
Speaker 1: in the chat. He does suck ass. I hated that
Speaker 1: character and storylines so much, and they made that the
Speaker 1: main romance in all caps. Indeed, hy Seraphim Jeff says
Speaker 1: it's so annoying because teens aren't as good at acting
Speaker 1: and should be in school anyway, but it really blurs
Speaker 1: the line ethically and grossly, and Michael says. The excuse
Speaker 1: in season one was that he met Maria and the
Speaker 1: bar and didn't know she was a high schooler. But
Speaker 1: in a later season they showed he knew exactly who
Speaker 1: she was, so she he knew she was fifteen. Yep,
Speaker 1: there's a whole thing that it turns out he was
Speaker 1: up to on the DL that we did not know about.
Speaker 1: And so it for somebody that we that I I'll
Speaker 1: speak purely for myself, had grown to truly hate. That
Speaker 1: was an additional thing that like, I just felt so validated.
Speaker 1: I think I fish pump fist pumped when I found
Speaker 1: that out, because I was like, you see, you see,
Speaker 1: I was so glad that they gave me something really
Speaker 1: definitive to point to. And ultimately this resulted in their breakup.
Speaker 1: I don't know if later on they got back together,
Speaker 1: but I fucking hope not. So. Anyway, Saraphi and what
Speaker 1: are we going off on? Ezra fits in the book,
Speaker 1: which is what they named one of the cleaner bots
Speaker 1: is a reference to a pretty little liar's character who
Speaker 1: preyed on students. So anyway, that whole thing, we will
Speaker 1: get there eventually, But I will say Sakira is fantastic,
Speaker 1: and I love when Donut says that she thinks that
Speaker 1: Samantha cheated on the coin flip and Samantha just is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I did what. She does not care at all. There
Speaker 1: is one line here that actually had me laughing out
Speaker 1: loud and startling my husband, which is Louis telling Samantha,
Speaker 1: please stop sticking your tongue in my gills. It freaks
Speaker 1: me out. Freaking you out is my love language. Louis,
Speaker 1: I really fucking cackled on that. I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 1: I don't love myself for it. He's telling you to
Speaker 1: knock it off. You're making him uncomfortable and you're just
Speaker 1: keeping doing it. But also that's a very funny line.
Speaker 1: So the idea is Lee now will be in the
Speaker 1: cleaner Bot. Hara, once the cleaner Bot is put up
Speaker 1: for sale, will be able to buy it, and then
Speaker 1: he will be she will be released. He will like
Speaker 1: somehow let her out. I don't know exactly how or if.
Speaker 1: Maybe they have to let her out once they get there,
Speaker 1: but she's left the game at the very least, so
Speaker 1: she'll be like disqualified and she won't have to die,
Speaker 1: which is nice. So Prepotente says, are you absolutely positively
Speaker 1: positive the contents of the bot storage will still be
Speaker 1: there when the stranger purchases it? And Rosetta says, no,
Speaker 1: but we think we have, like you know, they've they've
Speaker 1: thought this through. It's risky and we aren't sure if
Speaker 1: the floor collapses if she will survive it, but from
Speaker 1: what we have looked into, it seems very likely. Of course,
Speaker 1: this is all experimentation. And this is when Mistress Tiatha
Speaker 1: says it will work. It let's see it'll work. It
Speaker 1: has happened before. I cannot you guys, can we please
Speaker 1: all talk about the fact that nobody asks her when
Speaker 1: or what or how? That genuinely, why isn't anybody asking
Speaker 1: her any further questions? Please? Like anyway? So Prepotende says,
Speaker 1: how will we know if it's successful? And this is
Speaker 1: the cool idea. The cactus has a spell that she's
Speaker 1: placed on it, a dread trap. We're in a safe room,
Speaker 1: but the trap will activate if you touch it, so
Speaker 1: leave it alone. You won't get poisoned, but it will
Speaker 1: ruin it. And oh my god, I forgot that. Samantha says,
Speaker 1: she put the cactus out because it didn't match the
Speaker 1: new rug. I am dying because it seems like Carl
Speaker 1: hasn't gone in his room for a while, so I'm
Speaker 1: really curious what the fuck she's done in there and
Speaker 1: how he's going to react to it. I feel like
Speaker 1: Samantha is such a fucking maniac that whatever it looks
Speaker 1: like in there is going to be like the night.
Speaker 1: You know. What I'm imagining, guys, is like weirdly cutesy
Speaker 1: girly in a way, but like mix it with sid
Speaker 1: from toy stories abominations. Does that make sense? I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly how to put this into words, but like
Speaker 1: creepy cutesy is my idea. Here, we'll see or maybe
Speaker 1: we won't see it. I don't know, so let's see. Uh.
Speaker 1: The condition of the plant will tell us Lena's status.
Speaker 1: If it's glowing in the ready status like now, she's
Speaker 1: alive and in the dungeon. If the plant activates on
Speaker 1: its own, that means Lena has physically left the game.
Speaker 1: If the spell fails suddenly and doesn't activate and the
Speaker 1: cactus dissipates into dust, that means that she is dead
Speaker 1: and died inside the dungeon, and Prepotente says, what if
Speaker 1: she ends up trapped and is never released, That is
Speaker 1: another possibility that will be indicated. The globe will slowly
Speaker 1: fail over the course of several days, and finally, if
Speaker 1: she believes it's safe for the others to proceed to
Speaker 1: the Pineapple cabaret, she will be able to remotely make
Speaker 1: a single flower bloom. There will be a single flower,
Speaker 1: and the trap will still be glowing. If she's still alive.
Speaker 1: But she believes this is not a safe method, she
Speaker 1: will make three flowers bloom. And I don't like, I
Speaker 1: believe that they have examined this all enough to know
Speaker 1: and gone through all of the what ifs to know
Speaker 1: how exactly she's going to manage this. But it is
Speaker 1: kind of remarkable that she could have this kind of
Speaker 1: control over a plant that's in a completely different floor.
Speaker 1: And you know what I mean, like just a really
Speaker 1: really clever little system, especially like because we know you
Speaker 1: can't message with somebody who's on a different floor, so
Speaker 1: the fact that you can still activate your spells when
Speaker 1: you're on a different floor is surprising. I've got to say,
Speaker 1: let's see, excel pet carriers are expensive and there's limited
Speaker 1: room in the other cleaner bot, especially after we had
Speaker 1: it clean up all the leftovers from Carl's Naga inheritance.
Speaker 1: We can maybe send fifty more people with just one bot.
Speaker 1: We do have some leads on other bots, but not many.
Speaker 1: We can't have this Harot sell the cleaner bot back
Speaker 1: to us either. All Dungeon upgrades such as the bots
Speaker 1: have a timer. He won't be able to relist the
Speaker 1: bot for thirty days, which that is a real bummer.
Speaker 1: I had hoped that we could maybe just send them
Speaker 1: back and forth. And I mean this sort of like
Speaker 1: thirty days is probably a really good means of keeping
Speaker 1: people from laundering like money somehow, you know. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a reason, but I was very disappointed by this
Speaker 1: and fifty people, Like how do we determine who goes
Speaker 1: and who doesn't? Obviously we have the whole thing with
Speaker 1: worshiping a god, but that does seem to be like
Speaker 1: potentially not the issue that we thought it was. I
Speaker 1: love Prepotente, very clever. This still seems like a surefire
Speaker 1: suicide method to me. Good luckily, Na and he just leaves,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I feel like Lenah probably respects the shit
Speaker 1: out of that, because like She is extremely direct as well. Also,
Speaker 1: as he's leaving, he stops and says, this place is
Speaker 1: actually really nice. Maybe maybe I can get to be
Speaker 1: part of your guild and attach my space. And Emani
Speaker 1: is like, I invited you and you turned me down.
Speaker 1: So and he says, well, before I knew about the
Speaker 1: pet stables and the bob Ka, I have a karaoke
Speaker 1: kit in my space that I can to the main room.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was as tactical a statement
Speaker 1: as it seems to be. I think he really was
Speaker 1: just connecting with Donut regarding something that they both enjoy.
Speaker 1: But it really felt like he was just manipulating the
Speaker 1: shit out of this moment. So anyway, he takes off.
Speaker 1: We have a moment with Linus where he's whispering something
Speaker 1: to Batista, and Donut says he keeps trying to get
Speaker 1: Daniel to make tea. Apparently Batista tea is a trending
Speaker 1: thing right now. Daniel doesn't even have an outreach manager,
Speaker 1: so he's sure to get ripped off. The folks on
Speaker 1: my social media board are all jealous of him. Of Liners,
Speaker 1: I mean, not Daniel Ellist. Snow Cones Fan Club did
Speaker 1: a raid on my server the other day, and they
Speaker 1: and the posse were all fighting, but now they're friends
Speaker 1: and working together. I am extremely curious what the snow
Speaker 1: Cones are going to make of the fact that, like
Speaker 1: the eventual reveal that he's not who he says, if
Speaker 1: indeed it is revealed to everybody who he really is, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how that you know. I am
Speaker 1: curious about him trying to get Batista to make tea,
Speaker 1: like is this going to be part of his attempt
Speaker 1: to take down whomever the target is? Is he going
Speaker 1: to try and poison Carl or I don't know. So
Speaker 1: this is when Zang comes forward and speaks to le Na.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry it was your brother and not me. If
Speaker 1: June is watching, I hope he isn't angry with me
Speaker 1: for not watching over you like I promised. And this
Speaker 1: is the first thing that gets any response from her.
Speaker 1: I am no child to protect. I never have been,
Speaker 1: and you have nothing to apologize for. You have been
Speaker 1: a good friend to me. June loved you like a brother.
Speaker 1: I will do this. I will clear the way for
Speaker 1: you and everyone else who is to come after this
Speaker 1: next race, and then I will make certain the warm ages.
Speaker 1: Do not turn on us. Do not die, sang, I
Speaker 1: hope to see you again soon, she paused. Do not
Speaker 1: ever lose your smile. I used to smile at you
Speaker 1: so you would smile back at me, and I would
Speaker 1: pretend in my mind that you and I were married,
Speaker 1: and that your smiles filled me in a way that
Speaker 1: I could only pray for. Thank you for always trying
Speaker 1: to protect me, even when I didn't deserve it. I
Speaker 1: just feel way about it, that's all. I never expected
Speaker 1: for Lena to say something that got me tear eyed.
Speaker 1: I really didn't unless it was gonna be TEARI eyed
Speaker 1: with terror. What how did she just and the fact
Speaker 1: that they were both thinking about marriage, but the way
Speaker 1: that she says it in a way that I could
Speaker 1: only pray for is very much giving. I knew something
Speaker 1: was different with me and that being married wouldn't fill
Speaker 1: me up. That love isn't something that means anything to
Speaker 1: me in a very specific way. I wanted it to,
Speaker 1: and if it had been, I would have wanted it
Speaker 1: with you, but it wasn't. They were both fantasizing, for
Speaker 1: very different reasons about the same thing. And I really
Speaker 1: wonder if you are somebody who is like if if
Speaker 1: you're saying and you are wanting to have a marriage
Speaker 1: with her because of this like tidy package of Lee
Speaker 1: June and being his best friend and her being his
Speaker 1: sister and this being like there's the family thing. If
Speaker 1: you know that she cares about you, but that she
Speaker 1: doesn't feel the same way exactly that you feel and
Speaker 1: that she kind of maybe can't, is that a deal
Speaker 1: breaker or would he still have wanted to try. I
Speaker 1: think he maybe would have wanted to try anyway, I
Speaker 1: wonder how it would have gone. Like also, could she
Speaker 1: have pretended well enough for him to know or not know?
Speaker 1: Or masking is like I imagine it as something that
Speaker 1: I do with other people because I can be myself
Speaker 1: with my husband, But in her case, she would have
Speaker 1: had to mask all the time forever, and that sounds
Speaker 1: so fucking tiring. I just I don't know. This just
Speaker 1: was so devastating and the fact that she had clearly
Speaker 1: like never told him any of this, and the way
Speaker 1: that he felt about her, and that it took getting
Speaker 1: to this point before she would share all of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just ugh. And like I said, her saying,
Speaker 1: I do not wish to speak to anyone else. I
Speaker 1: respect it fair. It's like, you know, how am I
Speaker 1: gonna be mad at her deciding I'm going to do
Speaker 1: what's best for the whole group. But I don't need
Speaker 1: to be friends with you. I don't need to participate
Speaker 1: in a social way. I'm doing something really risky. This
Speaker 1: is a potential sacrifice, just so that you will know
Speaker 1: whether a thing works or not to help other people,
Speaker 1: and that speaks for itself. And otherwise you're not getting
Speaker 1: anything from me. Valid, completely valid, you know. Anyway, The
Speaker 1: cactus is fine, and it does not appear that she has,
Speaker 1: you know, died once she is sucked up by the machine.
Speaker 1: There is another piece of progress later where there's a change,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember. We'll get there. The cleaner bot
Speaker 1: sells almost instantly, and then we start with sixty two
Speaker 1: mis Coning Race half work Class, Boring Old Mage final
Speaker 1: level sixty three And this is such a sweet So
Speaker 1: this guy is like I was never good looking, but
Speaker 1: I did my best to stay in good shape and
Speaker 1: dress well and read articles about being social online and
Speaker 1: I just never managed to put into action the social
Speaker 1: stuff because I would freeze up completely and then I
Speaker 1: would stutter, and people would get really impatient. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys have ever spoken to somebody
Speaker 1: with a stutter, but it is a really interesting exercise
Speaker 1: in patience if you are somebody who tends to just
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, spit it out, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I can completely understand and imagine
Speaker 1: how excruciating it probably was to be the person stuttering
Speaker 1: and be like, I wish I wasn't doing this. Also,
Speaker 1: but what am I supposed? I can't just not or
Speaker 1: else I would just not And the fact that he
Speaker 1: was only given options that made him even uglier, and
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm pretty sure that was on purpose. I
Speaker 1: think this fucking dungeon a I knew, and the thing
Speaker 1: I picked that was like the least offensive looking I regret.
Speaker 1: And I really wonder because he says like people shied
Speaker 1: away from him, But I'm wondering when he says he
Speaker 1: regrets it, was there a better option, or do you
Speaker 1: wish you had just stayed as a human? I think
Speaker 1: because he had sustained some injuries that scarred him, and
Speaker 1: so part of choosing to transform was that it would
Speaker 1: get rid of the scars. But it sounds like the
Speaker 1: creature was scarier to people than scars would ever have been,
Speaker 1: you know, And he says, you probably don't remember, but
Speaker 1: just before the battle, you and Carl strolled by, and
Speaker 1: you stopped, looked up at me and said you liked
Speaker 1: my fangs. You saw my player killer skulls and asked
Speaker 1: if I was a bad person. I told you what happened,
Speaker 1: and I stuttered, but you waited for me to tell you.
Speaker 1: And afterwards you told me about your friend Immani, and
Speaker 1: you said that we all have scars. You guys, why
Speaker 1: is this book being very very emotional for me? And like,
Speaker 1: I remember this moment. I definitely remember this moment and
Speaker 1: her saying I like your fangs. I remember this, And
Speaker 1: I love that this author had these little moments and
Speaker 1: really made sure to like bring it back around and
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, this was a cute moment for Donut
Speaker 1: the character as you were reading it, but think about
Speaker 1: what it might have meant to the person you know,
Speaker 1: And I just uugh, Yeah, it was the first time
Speaker 1: in my entire life anyone had ever looked at me
Speaker 1: and said something nice, just to be nice, just to
Speaker 1: make me a stranger feel better. Ugh. Ugh, you guys,
Speaker 1: And I often, like you know, I talk a lot
Speaker 1: about how, after having aged and gained weight and gun
Speaker 1: facial twitch and stuff, that I do not feel like
Speaker 1: I'm nearly as attractive as I was years ago, and
Speaker 1: I stand by that. But I can, at the very
Speaker 1: least say that I don't feel outright ugly. I just
Speaker 1: feel like I know what it was like to really
Speaker 1: be something and I'm not anymore. I had my time,
Speaker 1: and now I'm just a little bit more ordinary, and
Speaker 1: that's fine. But I have never felt actually ugly, and
Speaker 1: I often think about what it would be like to
Speaker 1: really feel there is nothing I can do to make
Speaker 1: myself pretty other than get like plastic surgery or something,
Speaker 1: and how deeply distressing it would be to feel that way, because, like,
Speaker 1: let's face it, when we can say everybody's beautiful in
Speaker 1: their own way, let's all be real, No they're not.
Speaker 1: And beauty isn't everything, obviously, but in a world where
Speaker 1: we do judge people at face value pun intended, it's
Speaker 1: a real fucking disadvantage. And not everybody has to be beautiful.
Speaker 1: It is not a requirement for anything other than like
Speaker 1: a specific few couple, you know, But it gives you
Speaker 1: a leg up on a lot. And I bet had
Speaker 1: this guy been like attractive and had a stutter, he
Speaker 1: would have had much better luck with people being patient
Speaker 1: and wanting to hear what he had to say. It's
Speaker 1: just pretty privileged. It's a real thing and we all
Speaker 1: fucking know it. And I'm sure there will come a
Speaker 1: day where I will be like, no, now, now, I'm
Speaker 1: genuinely just ugly like it's just gonna happen, you know,
Speaker 1: aging there are people that age suit for well. I
Speaker 1: would love to be one of them. I suspect that's
Speaker 1: not going to happen for me, just based on the
Speaker 1: you know, ancestry and whatnot. But yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: just really it's a heart wrenching little moment that's so sweet.
Speaker 1: And he brings up casting the atrocity and just says
Speaker 1: you saved our lives. He doesn't say anything about like
Speaker 1: the experience being horrible or you know, and then he
Speaker 1: leaves her a well drawn like spell for big ass
Speaker 1: Magnet at level fourteen. So this is when Karl goes
Speaker 1: to meet Dong in the pet stables. I unloaded a
Speaker 1: ton of frozen chicken patties on the ground and he
Speaker 1: let out an excited grunt because he has rend here
Speaker 1: who can't be in the mix because of the fringing
Speaker 1: potatoes thing, which really, it makes me so mad. It
Speaker 1: makes me so mad. Penelope was also excited about the
Speaker 1: chicken patties. Porky was staring at the food, but then
Speaker 1: I realized he was actually staring at Penelope the pig,
Speaker 1: licking his lips with his half tongue. What is he?
Speaker 1: Is this a sexual thing? Is this part of her
Speaker 1: like weird attractiveness? The thing with her is very upsetting.
Speaker 1: I don't like any of it. Let's see. Zang says,
Speaker 1: I just got a notification le Na has left the
Speaker 1: party and has been disqualified. Then I got an uh
Speaker 1: oh achievement for being a solo driver. I hope this
Speaker 1: body guy knows how to ride an octopus, which, uh,
Speaker 1: how do you? I how? And Mordecai says, the cactus
Speaker 1: is doing its thing. Nothing's changed. Oh, and I forgot
Speaker 1: about the fact that fucking Mordecai comes in and does
Speaker 1: a what do you call it? Shit? What's it called
Speaker 1: the gazer thing? I believe? And he says something about
Speaker 1: how what donut has like started as worthy of her
Speaker 1: being a the oak fell something like that, and she's
Speaker 1: just like, why does this He said it would only
Speaker 1: happen once, and now it's twice and it's really scary
Speaker 1: and why is it happening? And I love de Roda
Speaker 1: just being like cut him out of your life. Ah God.
Speaker 1: There was a total of twelve heats entering this race,
Speaker 1: but none of the other heats were teams from our
Speaker 1: guild except Perpontente and Jurgen aboard their taper Sweetie, I
Speaker 1: knew Louis Imani and Zang who was riding behind body.
Speaker 1: We're all on a track called the Infected Gravity. Well,
Speaker 1: Florin was on a track called There's Something Wrong with
Speaker 1: the Zoo, which I've got to say that title really
Speaker 1: is upsetting on a number of levels. I'm not excited
Speaker 1: about it. I don't like it. I don't like anything
Speaker 1: that it's suggesting. Thumbs down. And Gregory, he asks Carl,
Speaker 1: will you be driving this fast for the whole event?
Speaker 1: After Carl merely coasts out of their garage to the
Speaker 1: starting line. Not a great sign. Not awesome. And bro
Speaker 1: is trying to be a trooper. He really is trying,
Speaker 1: Like you can feel that he doesn't want to be
Speaker 1: this guy, but he can't keep his stomach down and
Speaker 1: it is rough. So we get another thing from fucking
Speaker 1: doctor Metcalf being cranky about the fact that she hasn't
Speaker 1: been upgraded. All this negativity will cause your hair to
Speaker 1: prematurely shed my Princess de Rhoda said, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 1: I will fucking kill you, Doctor Metcalf, Please calm down.
Speaker 1: So she explains the overall course, uh, and that they
Speaker 1: have to go through this factory, which does indeed contain cocaine,
Speaker 1: but it's a special type of cocaine for children, which
Speaker 1: is certainly a thought. Okay mm. So they head out
Speaker 1: and let's see she eats the page. Entering the gas works,
Speaker 1: screw factory, steel mill, and doll workshop, the containment appeared
Speaker 1: and then turned invisible. A light in the corner of
Speaker 1: doctor Metcalf's interface blinked green, indicating it as active. We
Speaker 1: had to keep out of contact with the other vehicles.
Speaker 1: Any continuous contact for more than five seconds in our
Speaker 1: containments would merge and I hate yeah. So they and
Speaker 1: they head out, first through an area with a bunch
Speaker 1: of banger spheres piled to the ceiling, A wave of
Speaker 1: heat washed over us the moment we entered, and I
Speaker 1: knew without the containment it would already be deadly hot.
Speaker 1: And this was just the entrance. Hundreds of little NPCs
Speaker 1: filled the floor of the factory, called knockers, and Gregory
Speaker 1: has started vomiting. At this point, there were a dozen
Speaker 1: smaller doors, just wide enough for a pair of vehicles.
Speaker 1: A deep red glow emanated from all the entrances. About
Speaker 1: ten of these doors had wide conveyor belts leading up
Speaker 1: to them that were pulling the metal pellets into the
Speaker 1: next room. The other two were larger, and this was
Speaker 1: where Oswaldo was heading. I saw from the map the
Speaker 1: conveyors all led to the second level, where the pellets
Speaker 1: would get dropped into giant melting vats. One would have
Speaker 1: to make a jump off the end of the belt
Speaker 1: lest you'd fall into the vats. But if when made
Speaker 1: the jump, they'd bypass the third room, which was where
Speaker 1: the molten metal would be shaped into massive coils. That
Speaker 1: third room would be dangerous as fuck, but it didn't
Speaker 1: require a big jump. So all of this I'm not
Speaker 1: going to get into fully because I think it's I
Speaker 1: look no offense I'm gonna say I think it's the
Speaker 1: least interesting. That is not to say that I don't
Speaker 1: think that Matt Deniman did a good job with this
Speaker 1: or anything. It's just simply you've made everything else very interesting.
Speaker 1: That's kind of your fault, Mat, so you know, argue
Speaker 1: with your mama. I didn't see the vehicle that shot
Speaker 1: the weapon, but a pile of balls exploded far off
Speaker 1: to my right, and the balls rocketed through the room
Speaker 1: like shrapnel. A massive giraffe squealed out in surprise, tumbling
Speaker 1: from sight, its shield fuzzing like a bucking video. Again.
Speaker 1: I just could never with a like biological mount. It
Speaker 1: just makes me so sad. I hate it. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: absolutely not happening. A dark shape appeared in quick pursuit.
Speaker 1: Bianca Prepotente's hell spawn Familiar was out and flying through
Speaker 1: the factory, likely at home in this heat. The goat
Speaker 1: Dragon roared and pushed through into the next room. The
Speaker 1: plan was to have Bianca grab Quirky out of the
Speaker 1: back seat of the Lady Dominators. We'd have to defeat
Speaker 1: the shield, but it was simple and straightforward. If that
Speaker 1: didn't work, the backup plan was a little more iffy.
Speaker 1: It involved the big ass magnet spell Dona had just eaten.
Speaker 1: So then we get the containment warning alarm. Uh. The
Speaker 1: mammoth sized saddle of this monstrous creature that has sprung
Speaker 1: ahead of them had a secondary glowing shield over it.
Speaker 1: At the front of the cage holding the reins was Prepatente.
Speaker 1: Standing behind him was your The man held a giant
Speaker 1: battle axe in each hand. We bumped as we moved
Speaker 1: into the next room, and Prepotente is messaging them, I'm
Speaker 1: still directly behind the Pontiac will be attempting to defeat
Speaker 1: their shield, but I will wait until after the jump.
Speaker 1: Good luck, Carl. So the number of different like I
Speaker 1: like I said, I don't want to get too into this,
Speaker 1: but I did want to mention this is the you know,
Speaker 1: initial plan for getting him back. And oh my god,
Speaker 1: the edge of the jump isn't a ramp that they
Speaker 1: can like really, it's just the end of you know,
Speaker 1: which Carl seems surprised by. I think maybe Prepatente made
Speaker 1: it sound like it was like more of a you'll
Speaker 1: build momentum and get sprung off the end, but honestly,
Speaker 1: it just ended was kind of what I had expected.
Speaker 1: So I was surprised that he was taken off guard. Here,
Speaker 1: everybody winds up like having to hold onto something. Doughnut
Speaker 1: gets a seatbelt and the rocket has to engage, and
Speaker 1: they are going to overshoot because it's a bit too much.
Speaker 1: Sweetie landed gently as we rapidly caught up another containment warning,
Speaker 1: so he has to ease up and make sure that
Speaker 1: they don't touch. And then finally their shield is down
Speaker 1: and Bianca will move in. And this is when we
Speaker 1: see all of this fucking cocaine. So the fact that
Speaker 1: Bianca is not in the containment means that she is
Speaker 1: going to be exposed to all of this coke floating
Speaker 1: in the air. This is the raw product before the
Speaker 1: patent pending wax flavoring is added. The Cobblin Corporate has
Speaker 1: a problem. Their addicts, all of them. These small gnome
Speaker 1: like creatures were unable to stop the world from encroaching
Speaker 1: on their caves. Once the larger, stronger, and more powerful
Speaker 1: creatures of the world discovered the rich minerals buried under
Speaker 1: their feet, they did what large strong people do. They
Speaker 1: took it for themselves. Never mind that these caves were
Speaker 1: the only home the knockers had ever known. The knockers
Speaker 1: were too weak to fight back. They had nowhere else
Speaker 1: to go, so they did the next best thing. They
Speaker 1: started manufacturing high grade drugs and selling them to the
Speaker 1: miners with an e. Fast forward a few years in
Speaker 1: the knocker community had pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Yes,
Speaker 1: the corporatocracy running the mines made drug use of legal,
Speaker 1: at least the drugs that weren't sold by then. They
Speaker 1: did everything their power to stop it. They vilified the knockers,
Speaker 1: they tried to eradicate them, they attempted their own alternatives.
Speaker 1: But no matter what corporate did, they couldn't stop the
Speaker 1: upward trajectory of these plucky little drug dealers. These corporate
Speaker 1: suits learned what a thousand organizations and governments through history
Speaker 1: already knew. If you go to war against drugs, drugs
Speaker 1: will always win. Drugs will win, because what you're really
Speaker 1: doing is going to war against the biological imperative. All
Speaker 1: living creatures have to find comfort and happiness, and if
Speaker 1: you're unwilling or unable to first provide that, artificial alternatives,
Speaker 1: no matter how destructive, will always prevail. Thank you, Matthew
Speaker 1: appreciate you, correct, Absolutely. This is something that it's just
Speaker 1: it's a really, really fucking difficult to have a conversation
Speaker 1: with somebody who has never experienced addiction or been in
Speaker 1: a position where they have found that they have an
Speaker 1: addictive personality in a certain way, or if they have
Speaker 1: never been in a position where they have really needed
Speaker 1: comfort from a circumstance that was like insurmountable and had
Speaker 1: no means of finding comfort other than through a drug.
Speaker 1: People who have never gone through this just don't get it,
Speaker 1: and they really believe that it is purely will power
Speaker 1: and moral fortitude, and that's just like lacking if you
Speaker 1: are addicted to things. And it's just it's so fucking frustrating,
Speaker 1: and it's so it's so judgmental, and so it reveals
Speaker 1: a personality that would rather engage with something that makes
Speaker 1: them feel better because they want to believe that they
Speaker 1: can be in total control of situations, rather than a
Speaker 1: personality that actually wants to engage with the world the
Speaker 1: way it is. And I just can't fucking truck with
Speaker 1: that anymore. I just this is something that has really
Speaker 1: it's begun to be very obvious for me that conservatives
Speaker 1: have a way that they want to interact with the world,
Speaker 1: and that is, we are going to have impossible standards
Speaker 1: of behavior that everybody must abide by, and if they don't,
Speaker 1: they will be punished societally and also by our lack
Speaker 1: of resources, whereas leftists want to engage with the world
Speaker 1: as it actually is. People are going to have unprotected
Speaker 1: premaral sex, people are going to get pregnant and not
Speaker 1: want to have children. People are going to lose their
Speaker 1: jobs and still need medical care or still need housing.
Speaker 1: There are going to be people who get addicted to
Speaker 1: substances and need help. All of this is simply reality,
Speaker 1: and we want to create a world where those needs
Speaker 1: and emergencies are met with adequate resources. That's all we're
Speaker 1: trying to do. But conservatives want to say that those
Speaker 1: people who need all those things don't deserve those things
Speaker 1: because they allowed themselves to get into whatever situation they
Speaker 1: are in, and so it's their own fault and we
Speaker 1: aren't going to help them. If they didn't want to
Speaker 1: be in that situation, they shouldn't have gotten themselves in
Speaker 1: that situation. And it's just so asinine to me, it's
Speaker 1: so foolish that we have the means to help, but
Speaker 1: we decide it's more important to hold this like moral
Speaker 1: high ground, which by the way, isn't even real. But
Speaker 1: let's even pretend it is real. Let's say you're better
Speaker 1: than them, Well, you still get to be better than
Speaker 1: them even if you do help them. But that would
Speaker 1: undercut the idea that I have more because I deserve
Speaker 1: more because I am good and follow the rules. And
Speaker 1: if I just give them more when they don't deserve it,
Speaker 1: then what's my reward for being good even Well that's
Speaker 1: a good question. I thought your religion dealt with that,
Speaker 1: but whatever. It's so it's so obvious looking at the
Speaker 1: world some of the major gaps in resources and what
Speaker 1: we need to do, and it is just infuriating to
Speaker 1: me that the only thing keeping us from doing it
Speaker 1: is somebody saying, yeah, but they're bad people. I don't
Speaker 1: like them. I don't think they should get that. That's
Speaker 1: literally all it is. It's just that I don't like them,
Speaker 1: and I don't think they deserve it, point blank, period.
Speaker 1: That's it. Oh my god, who the fuck are you
Speaker 1: get over yourself? Who made you the arbiter of who
Speaker 1: deserves what? The whole thing too, being like Judge not
Speaker 1: but then that's the explicit thing I mean. Anyway, So
Speaker 1: a funny thing happened after that. The Knockers, finding themselves
Speaker 1: absolutely loaded, tried to do something with that money and
Speaker 1: started to buy up legitimate businesses and in selling drugs
Speaker 1: to miners, again with an E, they fell into their
Speaker 1: own trap. When the miners got strung out, they became
Speaker 1: addicted to the money they were earning. There's not a
Speaker 1: lesson or a point. It's just a sad observation. We're
Speaker 1: always seeking comfort and when we don't get it, we
Speaker 1: can be pretty destructive. And by we I mean those
Speaker 1: of us with the ability to grasp what's around us. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the Knockers, upon realizing how well their dollars were selling
Speaker 1: and unable to get a piece of that hot legal
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical market, came up with the next best thing. If
Speaker 1: they could sell illegal drugs to miners with an E,
Speaker 1: they could also start selling drugs to miners with an Oh.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's all kinds of stuff. There's And they
Speaker 1: each come with their own mascot doll Sally Speedball, uh
Speaker 1: blueshi mm hmm, toot toot, and they're part of nose
Speaker 1: candy stardusters. So uh, yeah, this is this is mmmmmmmmm.
Speaker 1: Jeff says right wingers don't actually like Jesus, and that
Speaker 1: is dead accurate, pun intended, but like completely and it
Speaker 1: is wild that they don't see it. It's just beyond
Speaker 1: my understanding how clear it is and how they don't
Speaker 1: see it. I will never be able to have a
Speaker 1: serious conversation with people who claim to you know, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't. None of it computes. And that is simply
Speaker 1: the way these people have lived is with this cognitive dissonance.
Speaker 1: And I there are times where having a cognitive dissonance
Speaker 1: can be a sign of a mature mind, where you
Speaker 1: understand that two things that feel like they're in conflict
Speaker 1: can't actually be true at once. But this is not
Speaker 1: that anyway. So yeah, Prepotente sends a message about Bionca
Speaker 1: being strung out. There's a hole in the floor, but
Speaker 1: they have bubble buddy, so they are able to go
Speaker 1: right over it, and Donut says they fell in. I
Speaker 1: saw them. We've got a reverse. I slowly backed up
Speaker 1: until we were right against the hole in the ground.
Speaker 1: Gregory get in the driver's seat in case we need
Speaker 1: to go, and he's just throwing up and Dong says,
Speaker 1: I have you, And poor dude, even though he's dying,
Speaker 1: he's just like in it. The gto shield down and
Speaker 1: hit with Prepotente's hobble missile had fallen right through and
Speaker 1: landed on its side. It was a ten meter drop. Yikes,
Speaker 1: and Rupture and assists are both alive and have strung
Speaker 1: out over them. And then poor Quirky I, this is
Speaker 1: so honestly like harrowing. The fact that we are able
Speaker 1: to save him is remarkable because I really kind of
Speaker 1: thought like, is this? It is this? You know? So
Speaker 1: then we get toot toot doll. They were a mistake.
Speaker 1: They got a little enthusiastic with the elemental magic. The
Speaker 1: metal frames are infused with a special blend, and when
Speaker 1: they cast the magic spell in the steel mill, some
Speaker 1: of that magic accidentally leaked and now these creepy little
Speaker 1: fuckers are everywhere, which is why this room was sealed off.
Speaker 1: But that magic is contagious, and now you've broken the seal,
Speaker 1: so let's just see what happens next. This is an
Speaker 1: infused elemental. Unlike regular elementals, the infused variety have the
Speaker 1: pass through ability. If you don't know what that means,
Speaker 1: you're about to find out. Donut brilliantly uses her whole
Speaker 1: spell to come back in with puddle Jumper and bring
Speaker 1: him with her, which is really remarkable, Like I just
Speaker 1: the thought process there, and she does this so quick
Speaker 1: because like he had been about to put himself in danger,
Speaker 1: and she's just like, I'll do it. And she can't
Speaker 1: appear inside the truck, but she is able to get outside,
Speaker 1: and they are it's so hot that they are in
Speaker 1: some danger just due to that. So anyway, this is her.
Speaker 1: The doll comes in because it melted to quirky suit
Speaker 1: and when he rips it off, a big patch of
Speaker 1: the suit comes off too. Oh my god, it's so gross, y'all.
Speaker 1: It's so gross. So pass through it means that they
Speaker 1: can get through this containment thing, so that starts to
Speaker 1: be an issue. And there are the doll says something
Speaker 1: here it is, do you want to know how to
Speaker 1: get some cash out of your teacher? False accusations are
Speaker 1: a great way to And that's how that one ends,
Speaker 1: and then the other one. It's another creature that's got
Speaker 1: like snitches get their throat slit a new voice said
Speaker 1: this was a heavily tattooed action figure. He had a
Speaker 1: brown headband and sunglasses that dripped as they melted. His
Speaker 1: name was Assassino di la Malasa. I don't know what
Speaker 1: dila malasa is, a Sicino di la malasa, highlighting it
Speaker 1: because sometimes it'll translate the molasses Killer. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I love that so much, but
Speaker 1: that is fantastic, the molasses Killer. I'm into it, okay,
Speaker 1: And they head into the next room. They've got everybody,
Speaker 1: and Grigory is going to do this spell while violently
Speaker 1: ill while they're moving. They have to do it as
Speaker 1: soon as they can, and their brains need to still
Speaker 1: be contained, but the rest of them can just be
Speaker 1: like out of the suit, which is just slopping all
Speaker 1: over like a fucking sloppy joke. This whole thing is
Speaker 1: very upsetting, I'll just say that. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: sort of like speed through some of this because it's
Speaker 1: a lot more of the little elementals coming at them
Speaker 1: while they're racing, until he encounters the slag elemental. This
Speaker 1: is a regenerator. They sposs will regenerate if its corpse
Speaker 1: falls into the molten metal the Cobblin Corporation and tried
Speaker 1: to put some protections in place, but tried to do
Speaker 1: it on the cheap, and they got what they paid for.
Speaker 1: Now what we have is a wildly contagious, regenerating, infused,
Speaker 1: and very pissed off elementals all over the place. It's
Speaker 1: pretty much impossible to kill these things. You will not
Speaker 1: receive a boss box unless one is dead dead good luck.
Speaker 1: And this is when he heads forward and he uses
Speaker 1: that ability to squeeze into a space. I felt a
Speaker 1: fold into the space under the ferret, going between its legs,
Speaker 1: only to pop up on the other side, and I
Speaker 1: was pleased that at the very least, this doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to be super painful. It's definitely like Carl has a
Speaker 1: lurch in his belly, but it's not. I was worried
Speaker 1: that it was going to feel horrible. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Perpotent, he says everybody. I've discovered how to
Speaker 1: delay these elementals. May sound counterintuitive, but if you add
Speaker 1: any non molten metal to them, they will immediately collapse
Speaker 1: and return to the river and wait for it to
Speaker 1: melt before they can attack again, which is a really
Speaker 1: neat trick. I really like this. And it turns out
Speaker 1: as the as Gregoria is working on this, that the
Speaker 1: penis of these guys are like actually flayed open and
Speaker 1: that's standard for mantors, and they call it the windmill.
Speaker 1: I absolutely have no idea how any of this would work.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of it. I don't like this idea.
Speaker 1: I think Matt needs to be medicated and probably talk
Speaker 1: to some people because this isn't okay, Matt. I don't
Speaker 1: know why you would do this to your readers, but
Speaker 1: I've forgiven a lot. I've been patient with you with
Speaker 1: some of the things you've made me imagine, and this one,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it just crosses a line and
Speaker 1: it's gone too far, and I, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: feel like maybe you should be put on a list
Speaker 1: or something. Just my opinion. So see the two halves,
Speaker 1: Corky and Porky still had health bars over each half,
Speaker 1: also in the red, but as I watched, the health
Speaker 1: bars joined and they became one, their names disappeared, and
Speaker 1: a single name reappeared, Corkunda. A massive notification materialized, blocking
Speaker 1: my vision and I waved it away, and then a
Speaker 1: marked for death symbol appears over their heads. Grohl has
Speaker 1: entered the realm, and that is the end of the chapter.
Speaker 1: And I knew, I like, I remember that it was
Speaker 1: explicitly told to us that this was part of their deal,
Speaker 1: but of course had forgotten it. And then of course,
Speaker 1: also there's the the part of me it's like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we can just sort of ignore that God if
Speaker 1: we don't like do something to get his attention. But
Speaker 1: evidently simply reattaching these halves is plenty to get his attention.
Speaker 1: So yikes, I just don't I feel like, can't we
Speaker 1: just get a moment to enjoy the fact that this
Speaker 1: has worked before we throw everything into the fan? Yet again,
Speaker 1: can't don't don't you think guys that we've earned a
Speaker 1: little bit of respite, Like, can't we just not for
Speaker 1: just two minutes? But no, Sarahim says, Remember Grohl is
Speaker 1: piloted by the Maestro, so he'll be taking any chances
Speaker 1: he can to fuck over Carl, who I did not
Speaker 1: remember that. I don't know when that was said. When
Speaker 1: you say this, I'm remembering that it is true. I'm
Speaker 1: not like arguing that point. I'm just trying to remember
Speaker 1: how long ago it was that we were told that,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I definitely did not remember. And I am
Speaker 1: honestly kind of looking forward to this because I was
Speaker 1: just thinking the other day about the micetro and the
Speaker 1: whole glurp glurp thing and how upsetting it is and
Speaker 1: a face off with him again. I'm good with it.
Speaker 1: Let's do this, fucking get it out of the way.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. Let's see what happens. I'm also really
Speaker 1: really curious about Lena and the whole thing with Harret
Speaker 1: buying the vacuum is. It's got me really wondering whether
Speaker 1: or not Harrot would see it coming maybe that they
Speaker 1: did this, Like would he open it and try and
Speaker 1: find out what's in there? Why? The fact that he
Speaker 1: has the standing order to always buy them leads me
Speaker 1: to believe that he had already been doing something like
Speaker 1: this and new So is she in the Pineapple Cabaret?
Speaker 1: And like how long would it be before she feels
Speaker 1: confident enough to tell them that it's safe? Like what
Speaker 1: kind of proof would she need to get? I really wonder.
Speaker 1: Michael says back during the trains, Oh wow, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a minute. Sarah F. M says he you
Speaker 1: go off on how you were lost on what was
Speaker 1: going on and called almost exactly what was going to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was not an intentional it was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just it was I want to say, a
Speaker 1: wild guess. It wasn't super wild, but you get what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It was simply me putting some pieces together.
Speaker 1: I suppose. But yeah, I uh, this whole thing with
Speaker 1: these elementals and the fact that it's so hard to
Speaker 1: kill one, and I'm wondering if it's maybe can you
Speaker 1: pour other kinds of metal into those big vats so
Speaker 1: that it can't reform because there's it's been like that
Speaker 1: metal isn't pure enough anymore. Could that fuck up the
Speaker 1: whole system? I wonder? I am guys, there's only like
Speaker 1: what's supposed to be two more books. There's just a
Speaker 1: lot we still need to get through. And I can't
Speaker 1: imagine how this man is going to pull all of
Speaker 1: this off. I keep trying to think, and I just
Speaker 1: feel very concerned that like, once we get to the end,
Speaker 1: it's going to feel abrupt and that it won't be satisfying.
Speaker 1: I just don't know, with everything is still so in
Speaker 1: the air, how you like, pull these threads together. Huh. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Saraphim says, yeah, two more, and Matt has been saying
Speaker 1: he views those more one two part books. Wait, views
Speaker 1: those more one two part book. I'm sorry, Saraphim. More
Speaker 1: as a Michael is finishing it one big book split
Speaker 1: into two. Oh no, oh no. Look, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that's like the kiss of death, but I will say
Speaker 1: every time that a book has been really more two books,
Speaker 1: but been th split or one book split into two,
Speaker 1: I feel it has suffered for it, the ones that
Speaker 1: I've encountered. So I don't know if it's like the
Speaker 1: publisher decided that it was too long, or if it
Speaker 1: was simply we're going to be able to make more
Speaker 1: money if we make this two separate books, So why
Speaker 1: don't we do that. I don't know what you could
Speaker 1: be the motivation here, but I don't really like to
Speaker 1: hear that. That's something that was also a thing for
Speaker 1: one of the Stephen King books. It was a thing
Speaker 1: also for the Battleground in Peace Talks Jim Butcher Dressed
Speaker 1: and Files books, and I just don't feel like it
Speaker 1: has ever really worked out well. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: there's potentially cases where it has I just am not familiar,
Speaker 1: so that gives me a little bit of a worried vibe.
Speaker 1: But perhaps I'm just being uncharitable here. Uh. Sarahim says,
Speaker 1: oh sorry, Michael earlier says you've been secret, You've been
Speaker 1: scarred by George R. Martin. It's okay, Matt's got you,
Speaker 1: sarahm says, don't see the issue. It's the same as
Speaker 1: any two part episode. The Dresden one has the issue
Speaker 1: if not having been planned as two books, so the
Speaker 1: split wasn't as well handled as it could have been.
Speaker 1: I think that y'all might be misunderstanding what my issues
Speaker 1: with those were, which is not the split itself, but
Speaker 1: the way that the split indicates the editors not reining
Speaker 1: the author in a way that they kind of needed
Speaker 1: at that point, and things get very sprawling, and it
Speaker 1: just in every case, it felt to me this could
Speaker 1: easily have been one book. Two books of each is
Speaker 1: too repetitive and too much of the same thing. I'm
Speaker 1: going to say, because there's so much to wrap up
Speaker 1: in this series, specifically, I have a little bit more
Speaker 1: confidence that Mett has enough actual material to justify this
Speaker 1: being two separate things. But like Georgia R. Martin split up,
Speaker 1: there is so much I feel that could have been
Speaker 1: culled or shortened. I mean, Battleground to me was very
Speaker 1: relentless and repetitive, and I mean talk about being full
Speaker 1: of extraneous shit with Stephen King, there's so much of that.
Speaker 1: So I'm just personally, I've noticed a pattern that when
Speaker 1: a writer begins to be more well known, they begin
Speaker 1: to have this certain power where the publishers would rather
Speaker 1: have more material to publish and get money out of,
Speaker 1: and they are less inclined to edit down if they
Speaker 1: are going to be able to utilize this to their advantage,
Speaker 1: and I think that often is to the detriment of
Speaker 1: the work overall. It becomes more about quantity than quality sometimes,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't think that Mett had already reached that point,
Speaker 1: but these books have blown up, so it's certainly possible.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Sorry, Jeff's floor eighteen is marine. Michael says,
Speaker 1: Natasha's not encouraging me to finish those two books. I
Speaker 1: kind of petered out early in the first one, Battleground
Speaker 1: that Jim released. The first one I think is Peace Talks.
Speaker 1: Look twelve Months is fantastic. It's fantastic, So I really
Speaker 1: do encourage you to get through it. But please know
Speaker 1: any qualms that you've got about those two books, Battleground
Speaker 1: and Piece Talks, I probably also have. They are in
Speaker 1: my mind, riddled with weird continuity errors and character fuck
Speaker 1: ups and things that I just was genuinely reading, going
Speaker 1: this doesn't even feel like Butcher's writing what is happening?
Speaker 1: Like it was bizarre, and then twelve Months comes out
Speaker 1: and it's like a complete return to form, and I
Speaker 1: was so pleased. So I believe that getting through it
Speaker 1: is worth it. But I also really understand why you
Speaker 1: sort of like conked out there, Seraphim. I still don't
Speaker 1: see this ri Battleground. That thing was awesome from start
Speaker 1: to finish. Seraphim is a lot more willing to give
Speaker 1: credit to people who write things that they mean everything
Speaker 1: they write and that they are intending the things that
Speaker 1: they wind up with on the page. And I have
Speaker 1: a tendency to be like, this was not on purpose.
Speaker 1: This was definitely like there's just a sense to me
Speaker 1: in the way that it's handled that he doesn't see
Speaker 1: the problem here. So it's a I think Battleground is
Speaker 1: a complete disaster, and that there are I could list
Speaker 1: ten things off the top of my head that don't
Speaker 1: work and don't make sense. And maybe in later books
Speaker 1: he'll resolve some things and I'll look back and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's what that was. But from where I'm sitting right now,
Speaker 1: that does not feel like any of those things were
Speaker 1: done purposefully the way they were. It feels like that
Speaker 1: was a series of fuck ups and that beta readers
Speaker 1: didn't catch stuff, editors didn't catch stuff. There were just
Speaker 1: a lot of things that in both that I still
Speaker 1: get pissed about when I think about them. And again
Speaker 1: it's the fact that that had been gonna be one
Speaker 1: book and then got split into two, and there's the
Speaker 1: sense of there being all these mistakes that got through,
Speaker 1: which indicates to me again that the editors were just
Speaker 1: not tearing into it the way they really needed to be,
Speaker 1: because they were eager to get those books out. Those
Speaker 1: were the two books that came after a very long
Speaker 1: hiatus for him, and so they were probably just champing
Speaker 1: at the bit to finally publish them, and I understand that,
Speaker 1: but they needed a couple more passes at least, and
Speaker 1: it very much feels for me like they just didn't
Speaker 1: really want to do that for whatever reason. So all
Speaker 1: this to say, that's why I have the knee jerk
Speaker 1: reaction to, oh, it was going to be one long book,
Speaker 1: but now we're splitting it up. Is like that often
Speaker 1: seems to be an indicator this should be fucking edited down.
Speaker 1: But that may not be the case. It may be
Speaker 1: there was genuinely an for two books here and this
Speaker 1: was just getting over stuffed. So we'll see, we will see.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to pass judgment beforehand. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to explain why I have that like, oh, no sort
Speaker 1: of reaction. But yeah, now we're talking about Dresden. That's
Speaker 1: a whole separate thing. If you guys want to listen
Speaker 1: to that, that's a different podcast, so go find that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wrap this one up. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: again for hanging out with me. Appreciate you very very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you Michael for commissioning this episode. Appreciate you as well.
Speaker 1: And until next time to the lou motherfuckers. That was
Speaker 1: an unspoiled Network podcast.