SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to season 11 of I'm Your Buddy with Nick and William, a podcast where two best friends are watching and discussing the anime series Attack on Titan. I'm Nick, who has never seen Attack on Titan.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

And I'm William who's also never seen Attack on Titan. And today we're going to talk about episode five, First Battle, slash Attack on Trost, Part One. Episode six, The World Seen by a Young Girl, slash Attack on Trost, Part Two. And episode seven, The Tiniest of Blades, slash Attack on Trost, Part Three. Yes. And I did notice these titles are from the episode page on Hulu or Disney Plus, not the titles that the show itself shows. So I think through translation they're different.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah, because the I think the one from the title card on the show was like Battle for Trust or something like that. So it's a little bit different, it's slightly different.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

But uh it's so convoluted, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

It doesn't matter. Episodes five, six, and seven, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Exactly. And this is the first three of a part nine arc.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

But yeah, I actually that's this is quickly becoming, we're only three episodes into this season, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite things of you having to read the titles. You always have read the titles on the podcast, but uh these are fun, they're just wacky. It's a lot, yeah. For no reason, why do it like this?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, Evangelion was a lot, and then I think Friday Night Lights is. Do you know why they named it that? It was a little bit of randomness. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Of like, yeah, what's that about?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

A little bit of uh mid-aughts whimsy. Yeah, there's some whimsy there. Yes. I miss the Better Call Saul times. Every once in a while it was a pun or it meant something. I saw plan and execute. Damn. Yeah. Point and shoot.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yes. Speaking of Better Call Soul, I saw a reel on Instagram of someone parroting breaking bad openings. Where it's like it always shows the aftermath. It's the 3J Abrams thing. That's right. Or whatever. And just how they do those really random shots. And it just I just thought of that because you said that. And because the fan's going, because one of the shots, the guy just puts his phone over the fucking over a ceiling fan, and it's like a blade of fan, and then there's blood on the ground. It's just all this stereotype little freaking bad shit. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's pretty good. I like that. Good for you. Good call. And how are you doing this week, William? It's been a it'd been an entire week. It done been a whole bunch of days. Yeah, it's it's Friday. It's the end of a fucking busy week. So I think we're both tired.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm getting burnt out with work and stuff, which sucks because I just had a week off. But again, I'm bad with week off weeks off. So the catching up, but uh works fine, house is fine. I think I told you last time I painted my living room. Yes. I'm adjusting to the the color and whatnot. What color did you do? That was good. I did most of the walls green, and then I did like a brick red behind my DVD case. Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So a little accent wall, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Little accents here and there, and then I switched my curtains up to like a I guess that's called like an oatmeal or like a natural, like off-white. Yeah, linen kind of exactly. I went with that because there's the couch is color, the walls are color, so let's go a little simple with neutral.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah, blinds are yeah, neutral is good for blinds, I think.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, because one was teal and then one was purple. So I just switched them both to the linen color. Very college dorm. Yeah, it was a lot going on. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't my choice. That's what I walked through. What you moved into, yeah. So I'm I'm organizing the colors and aesthetic now. Nice. But yeah, so I don't think I have any crazy plans this weekend. No more painting. I'm taking a break because one, it's expensive. Yeah, I always forget. Yeah. And two, I'm not as good as it at it as I wish I was. There's uh there's a few uh spots on the ceiling, a few spots on the the baseboards. Yep. Yep. I don't know, tape. What are you talking about? That sounds like work. I'm trying to do the least amount of work. Yeah, and then I hit the roof and I was just like, you should have taped.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

And really, if you have a wet cloth with you, you can immediately wipe it off.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I didn't generally it gets yeah, and then you can tell towards the end, I was like, I don't even care about anything. Or the rag dries out. Yeah, you're gonna die anyways. Who cares? Eventually we all yeah. It's like so I'm gonna paint my ceiling anyways, Nick. I know I didn't paint. That's a suicide joke, and I'm kidding, I'm fine.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Oh, nice. That's pretty I'm gonna paint my ceiling anyway. Yeah. There's definitely some ceiling painting in these episodes, which we'll get to. Jesus Christ. There's some death.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Uh a few dies.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Um, but before we get to that, we have one movie we have to talk about, which uh you finally saw, and I'm excited to talk about Spider-Man finally, officially. Yes, so I can share my thoughts and feelings. Because last time I had to hide it and say, hey Nick, this movie has Bad Bunny in it. Yes, that's all I'm gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

And you know what? They could have used the queue for longer. They could have. Yeah, I wish they would have actually, and it could have added to some comedy. I was thinking of the editing of the scene, and I'm like, you guys could have kept it going, but whatever. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

They did a full fucking TV on the radio intro. Why not go a little long with Bad Bunny? I know, exactly. But I watched Tires last night. Season three, Shane Gillis show on Netflix, tires came out.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

I watched the first episode uh at lun at uh lunch today at work. Yeah. What'd you think? Episode one.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

It's cool. I think it's their best season so far. Nice, really good. Yeah, really good.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah, I liked I like the score. It's very good, more emotional stuff. Uh yeah. It's cool. Yeah, it's I I'm excited to finish the rest of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, I think it's uh it's a really good show on bias. I've been a fan of Shane and the Philly guys for a really long time. Yeah, Dan Soder's in it, so I'm excited to see him do something different and cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

And Bobby Lee's in this season.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Bobby Lee's in it. Yeah. But remember that he was giving him a hard time about not being in it. Yeah, H. Foley's back. Yes. But for a show of a guy that's like younger than us, I think he's th Shane's 36, McKeever's around that age. Okay. The creators of the show are our age. Yeah. It's kind of a weird age to write about because we're old millennials, we're not young millennials, we're not Gen Xers. So I think the emotions are weird. Sure. I can't name, and I want to try and think about it more, but I can't name someone that's created something that feels like they're trying to talk about those emotions. This is a show about losers, but it's not the joke's not that they're losers all the way, but it's also not fully just sad.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Like there it's just reality of it. They're bad at relationships, they're bad at decision making, they don't have dreams and prospects, and they're kind of just floating by.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

And that's a little subtle instead of how Gen X that was like their whole thing, reality bites, like standing on a rooftop screaming, like, I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Like, we're a little bit quieter about it.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

But I mean, for a guy that made a lot of money making dick jokes, they're really doing well with a lot of different emotions and giving these characters I think a respectability with what they're going through. Sure. And he lets them go through the things that a lot of other shows probably wouldn't this way. Yeah. I I gotta commend that because not just, oh, it's funny, and these are guys that like being funny. There's there's some good emotional stuff here where I'm like, yeah, you guys are working through it. Like you're keeping this through line of no, they're kind of losers.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

This is Philly, lower middle class, working class losers. Yeah. That's there in the emotion too. And I I respect the hell out of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah, it's a very unique blend of like true emotion stuff with just like the silliest, stupid shit.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Yeah, they're not, they don't come from the Seth Rogan, Judd Apateau of like it's funny where stoner burnouts.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Like, that's not the funny part. Yeah, yeah. You can tell this guy came from more of a Danny McBride. Yeah. Of if I'm a loser, there's maybe a darkness to it, or a sadness to it. We'll play the last and we'll play the sad in the same undercurrent. Yep. And I yeah, I mean, I love Danny McBride, so I love this because this is you can tell they're ch they're children of McBride and Jody Hill and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

It's it's it's that uh school minus the like the the archetype of Danny McBride of like the sociopathic ego maniac. It's minus that. Exactly. But it has that kind of has that same grounded emotion.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah, yeah. And I'll ruin one joke for you that on two different levels means a lot to me, actually. Is there's a scene where they're doing a a woman business event, like a gala for women-led businesses. A gal, uh clever. I just I didn't connect that. Nick connected that, but I said it because they don't use gala in the moot of the show. But Steve Gerby is going, and the women there think he's gay, but he's just being himself, like he's into the fashion, he's trying on shirts, he's gossiping, like he's being him, so everyone thinks he's gay. Shane shows up, and they think Shane's his partner, yeah, because he's like, I hope Shane doesn't come. He's so controlling. Like, yo, I hate that I'm having fun. And they're like, Sweetheart, you need to get away from it. Yeah, he's like, Girls, that's why I'm here. Like it the dynamic works, the joke works. Shane shows up, then it comes out of like, oh, they think he's gay. And Shane's like, Well, he is, but he likes women, and they're like, I don't know what that means. He's like, I know he's a different, he's a new letter to the LGB thing. Like, he's definitely gay, but not sexually.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

And Steve was like, Yeah, it kinda honestly. He's like, I get it. Yeah, yeah. And one shout out, representation matters. I've never felt more seen show ever. Like, I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

You finally saw yourself. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I was like, all the jokes we're making, and that happened. I was like, I get it. Yeah, I get it. But again, the joke of him being gay is funny, but the reality of it is them admitting going, Yeah, this is a different thing of masculinity. Yeah, like they're also playing this real honest thing of Shane is like hyper what you assume masculinity. He loves football and it's a mechanic, and then Girby is like dancing and he cares about his clothes, like that dynamic. They're playing it as the joke, but then going, it's also very real. Yeah, this is who he is. And I'm not saying that to pick on him. I'm just who he is, and he admits it of like, no, yeah, you kind of nailed it. I'm okay with that. That's fine. I was like, that that's a good example of what they're doing in a very small way. They're being emotionally honest while still making the joke, and respectful to each other, because like at the end of the day, it's a show about guys that love each other.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, exactly. They're still pals that just give each other a hard time.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Yeah, it's a great moment. That's awesome. But yeah, the the show is good. Watch it, enjoy it. Um it's good stuff. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Thomas Hayden Church. Yeah. Still knocking out of the park. He had a joke in there that I was just like, dude, that's the the best like rebuttal to what Shane's doing, picking on him. It was when you finish it, it's something that I'm like, yeah, that's I'll probably end up stealing that. That is just a great little one-liner to throw at someone.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Even the the in the first episode when they're giving him a hard time about his girlfriend who's a crunchy lady, they're calling her a witch and all this stuff, and and just he tells Shane, he's just like, You're just jealous. The idea of a father getting offended about his son making fun of his girlfriend and telling his son you're jealous. Like, that's so fucking stupid and funny. Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to getting to the rest of it. Yeah, there's really good stuff in there. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I liked it. But Nicholas, you saw Spider-Man a brand new days. Yes. Did you like a Spider-Man's Brand New Days?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

I always like me as Spider-Man's.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, I I thought it's wonderful. Isn't it? It's just great. How many smiles of like, yeah, this is this is it, guys. This is what we want. He is all I want.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Continues to be the absolute best superhero. Just he just is. I mean, whatever. And everyone loves Spider-Man at I mean, as the box office show's biggest opening.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Dude, take some years off and come back. Yeah, exactly. No special bells and whistles, just like, guys, another Spider-Man movie.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

And most of the trailers don't even have anything crazy of what it's about. And most of the stuff they tease in the uh in those is in the montage in the beginning and stuff. So yeah, it's they're very people love the character. Did you know the Punisher was in it?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yes. Did you know the Hulk was in it?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

I had heard online, yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

That was the th I didn't know if you knew about the Punisher, and I was gonna make a reference comment about it, and I was like, oh, I don't want to spoil that. I don't know if you knew that or not.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, because it's a I did see the first trailer for it, and he kicks him out of the van or whatever. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, he shoots him through the window.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

So yeah. That's yeah, oh yeah. You can tell that they're pals, Tom Holland and and Burnthal. So yeah, it's I mean, yeah, he's sad, saving New York, cares about people. Dude, the fucking hospital scene when he walks out, and you have the hilarity of Frank acting like Spider-Man with his mask on, dancing like an idiot because fun. It's great, but just seeing Peter be happy about how much people love Spider-Man, I was just getting choked up in the theater. I'm like, fuck. Him being able to enjoy the crowd.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah, that is just cute.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah, it's amazing. I love all that stuff. And then yeah, we you had mentioned, like, oh yeah, you're gonna get the there were many times where I'm like, okay, yeah, this is this is like William. But as soon as I saw him do the free fall, just fuck it. That's Web Sling and my. I don't want to anymore. Yeah, no, just I mean, just think about it. Let it go kissing another dude. I mean, that's just free call here. I was just like, yeah, that's William right there. That's a beautiful moment. And he's not in a let it suit or anything like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah. Yeah. He fell for a while. Yeah, yeah. Like the director's like, guys, we we need this for a while.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, that's when, and I really have to commend the writers of these Marvel. I mean, you don't hear many people say that, but these Marvel Spider-Man movies, I think it's like Chris McKenna and some other guy or whatever, they are so fucking good. And they've written all four of these Spider-Man movies. I think a couple of the other ones, some other guys wrote some plot on it, but I think John Francis Daly helped with the first one, the guy from Freaks and Geeks. Exactly. Um, because yeah, him and his directing partner were gonna originally direct. Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Which I would have enjoyed.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, I think that would have been cool. They did uh I think Game Knight. Yeah, did Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, they're very talented, very funny. But these writers understand Spider-Man so fucking well. Yeah. And it's a testament to John Watts and to Daniel Destin Credit and now of just how much time they let Peter just go through it.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Because in other movies, one, the writers haven't there haven't been great Marvel writers to put that kind of emotional stuff into their movies in a long fucking time. Two, like, I just think a lot of these for higher director folks, not that they're bad or anything like that, and I don't mean this as a to shit on just the the whatever multiverse saga of the MCU, but like they wouldn't necessarily give the time. Yeah, like yeah, like that was one of the things that you said whenever we were texting about it is you cared just as much about Peter Parker as you do in Spider-Man. You want to see equal time in and out of the suit.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

That's why, yeah, I was saying that's why I think Peter Parker Spider-Man is my favorite. Yeah. Like, I don't like Bruce Wayne, yeah. Batman's cool. I don't give a shit about Bruce Wayne, shit about Clark Kent. But I want as much Peter Parker as much as Spider-Man stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, no, exactly. And it's because that's the main thrust of his character. That's why he's the best. Yeah. He's always just trying to get by. He has all this power, which we all know.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

I've heard about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah, leads to great responsibility or whatever. So he's just so fucking relatable, trying to balance life. And other superheroes just don't have that. They do not have that in the same way. Because most of them are fucking just rich guys. Yeah. Or it's they're always the superhero, that kind of thing. But Spider-Man is super unique in the way of like, you're you're like, is he okay? Are you? Or we're we we're always worried about him.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Is he doing alright? Because he's clearly doing the same thing, but he's or he's doing the right thing, but he's overworked. You know, so he's just a kid. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Which is a great moment.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Do you want to jump into a spoiler of it? Sure. Yeah, of course. Yeah, who gives a shit? So everyone that has seen it has seen it. And if you haven't, Dave, you go watch this, Dave. Go watch Spider-Man. Yeah, stop being a fucking contrarian.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

It's really good. We know you think you're not a contrarian. That just makes you the alpha contrarian.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Maybe Dave went opening night and just neither of us know. We're just pricks. Yeah, he's just a huge fan. He saw it twice. I saw it once. He's like, guys, I love it. I saw it twice. No, but uh, how do you feel about Gene Gray? I really like this take on Gene Gray.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

So start with the trauma. Yes, exactly. Yeah, you have to give her an emotional baseline. I think that's the thing that people struggle with. Uh, and by people, I mean writers. Writers struggle with Gene Grey and Cyclops. We've talked about Cyclops uh a bit in the past on the podcast about how Scott is very difficult to do. Yeah. And most recently, X-Men 97 did a really fucking great job with characterizing him. And I think we touched on Gene a little bit too. And I think they even struggle in X-Men 97 with Gene, actually.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Gene is I felt like they did. I didn't love Gene in that.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Because she's the fucking hot redhead omnipath. That shit like what motivates Gene Gray? I don't know. We know what that's why Wolverine's so easy. Yeah. That's why Wolverine, I mean, not only is he cool and it's cool to be kind of a dick and gruff and all this kind of shit, but you know what motivates him. Oh, he got experimented on was Weapon X, and he fucking hates the world and he can't fucking die. Yeah. So he's seen horrible shit. Like, he's a tortured fucking soldier who's murdered thousands upon thousands of people. Like, you know who he is, you know what he's struggling with. And with Gene, I don't know what the fuck she's struggling with. I I there's I don't I've read a ton of X-Men, and it's difficult to find stuff, minus soap opera stuff, yeah. You know, like the Claremont years, Dark Phoenix saga stuff, where it's more literally, it's just the soapiness of the drama between characters and stuff like that, but like I don't know what drives her.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

It it it feels like sometimes from what little I know of Gene and X-Men stuff, is she's always the victim of trauma being manipulated by somebody, being lied to, like Professor X fucking with her. Like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Like that's yeah, which some of the movies did a little bit, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

He lied about her back turning off her powers or something like that, right? Yeah, he was blocking out what actually happened to her family and stuff like that, I think was in one of the movies. Because she could channel the Phoenix.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah, and that's that's some of it. That's some of it is sometimes they go for that angle of she is the conduit for this, I don't know, preternatural force. Which is one of the original forces of the universe. That's kind of how the phoenix is.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

And that is, I mean, uh we don't have to be those guys because uh Josh, if he's listening, is gonna turn this off. But like there is so much of the character of like it's a woman that's too powerful for her own good. So the men around her are like, well, we gotta curb it. We gotta help her out because she can't handle it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Well, whatever how's she gonna act when she's on her period?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

It literally is like guys, it it it's just too much power for a lady, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah. Um so in which that that makes I it doesn't make sense. It makes sense that they would do that back in the day in terms of uh these writers when it was different times.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

But it's also in the movies, every single movie feels like it's just a race to get to the Phoenix Force. They don't know to do anything else with Gene Gray except guys, we gotta get there as soon as possible. Yeah. Like she was in like 20 minutes of one of the new X-Men movies, and then it's immediately the girl from Game of Thrones is like, Oh yeah, it's here. We're already doing it. Like all the like right off the bat.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

It's just a race to get to the ultra most powerful thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Yeah, and they can never really the thing that made the Phoenix Force so impactful, like in the old school, like dark Phoenix saga stuff, and what made Gene so traumatized from it was like she literally wiped out a an entire planet. She killed like a billion people.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

She all the rond it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah. She pulled a Death Star and basically like blew up an entire planet. It's a very famous uh splash page in a comic book. But whenever the I mean, I guess the show, I can't remember if they fucking did it in the show. I don't think she blew the planet up for the show. It's been too long since I saw the original shit in the 90s. But in the movies, they're not they never did cosmic stuff. You know, the cosmic stuff was never on screen until now in the MCU, which they haven't done the X-Men yet. So they could eventually get to that, but they would always just fall back on the Phoenix Force of, oh, it's big and she's dangerous and she can kill people with it or something. That's not interesting. That's not the point of the Phoenix Force. And they never tied in the metaphor of what a fucking Phoenix actually is with rebirth and all these kind of things, and the metaphor of uh, you know, the mutation and how uh homo superior is the evolution, you know, whatever. You are they never lean into any of that shit in the movies, so that so they could in the future. But I like getting back to Spider-Man, I like that we're giving her her an emotional grounding and giving her Peter Parker to relate to, yeah, and that they can she is already feeling alone. So one, she's looking for a family. She lost her family due to these prick motherfuckers, these human beings who guess what? Spoiler alert, they usually hunt uh the mutants.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Government agencies are pretty evil, and not to mention Peter Parker has now introduced this idea of turning off your jeans.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

I was just like, damn, dude. Sorry, but he just made the bracelets they're putting on everyone's neck. Exactly. Yeah, that's so that's I bet you that'll tie in, I imagine, uh, after Secret Wars potentially. But I like giving her an emotional grounding. We have she's actually motivated by something. She has a specific trauma that we've seen on screen now, not just oh, it's Xavier and Magneto showing up to her house, and her parents are like, oh, she crashed our car or whatever. Like, what the fuck is that? No, it does. It's people have hurt her, she has hurt people. This is her motivation. She feels alone, just like Spider-Man. But guess what? They have each other. That could like that's fucking great, and that is the perfect setup for her joining the fucking X-Men.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I was while watching the movie, I was feeling weird. There was a part of me of like, I don't like watching her be mean, yeah, like she's evil, and I was like, I don't like that. Yeah, but I was like, you know what? I really like it now that the movie's over. Because I was like, that's what she was without the school. Yep. That's what all of my cool without the school. That is really good. Of like, you leave these people with these abilities and this trauma and this anger and frustration. It goes right back into like, yeah, they need a mentor, they need discipline, they need someone to help them. They need to be around people in those same circumstances. I was like, Yeah, that's brilliant. That's good stuff, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Yeah, it's a it's a really, really good setup. What angle they're gonna take. I mean, maybe by the time this comes out, we'll we'll know actually at D23 is this weekend. There's rumors that they're gonna announce some cast uh for the X-Men. Officially, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

But uh you might get a poster, a title, teaser or something, yeah. Blue and uh blue and yellow.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah, so we'll we'll see what angle they take. Because the most recent kind of quote unquote young versions of the character in the comics was like new new X-Men with Brian Michael Bendis, like fucking 10 years ago or something like that. And he brought the original team, which that's what they're rumored they're gonna do. I don't know if they're gonna do it or not, but Cyclops, Gene Gray, Iceman, Beast, and Angel Bendis brought them back from the 60s into the modern uh continuity, and they lived out of time for a little while. So I don't know if they're gonna be inspired by that and give them their green and yellow, shiny, cool costumes or or whatever. But yeah, we'll see. I'll be curious to see what the angle is. Because they already kind of did a little bit of the young X-Men, but I don't know. The singer stuff is so different.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

It's it's tough. I don't know. I hate him. He's a horrible scumbag of a human being, but there's there's good stuff in those original movies. Yeah, there's also horrible stuff we talk about all the time. The Scott Summers is a horrible thing, but this was one of the things I was thinking. Everyone in this gap of X-Men movies is like Singer brought the whole not it's not like he created it, he brought it to the movie of mutants is a placeholder metaphor for homosexuality. Yeah, he did, specifically in the 90s, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Or early aughts, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And then other people are like, well, no, it's the MLK, Malcolm X, Civil Rights. That was the original and the you know, everyone's books, yeah. So there was a gap where everyone's like, if you're doing X-Men again, what what's it a metaphor of yeah? What do you what story do you tell? Are they gay again? Are they, you know, is it blah blah blah? Is it trans rights? Is it civil rights? Yeah. And I was like, well, now that we're into like post-millennial, it's just trauma.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

And how to process it, because I immediately thought of the Thunderbolts.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Because that already feels kind of X-Meny.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, which is why they got him to direct it, I think.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah, so it was like, oh yeah, we we don't have to because when you age them down, hey, no one in the Holocaust.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

You can't do that. We're done with that. Like just time.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Yeah, it's just gonna be about humanity being fucking horrible to itself with with the mutants. It's literally just gonna be that.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

You don't need the history of it, you don't have to do the civil rights or the gay rights or the industrialization. Any of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

This making the guy who's hunting Gene work for damage control, that is a smart move. Because it's yeah, you what your ability is, can be used to make money and or make war. So we're just gonna use you and kill you. We don't give a fuck. Yeah. So it's gonna be stemming from that, I think, which makes total fucking sense. But yeah, I think you're you're on the right track. It's gotta be something like that. There's not gonna be a big metaphor besides just humanity being a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Because if we're starting over and we're doing young, and we're doing young now, modern time, it's like you don't need a precedent. Like it's enough that you don't have to do the whole the world hates us. It's enough to go, no, the government would hate you and exploit you. Yeah, that's plenty.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah, and that's plenty right there. That's kind of in the fucking zeitgeist right now, anyway. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

So that's where it's gonna come from for sure. The other thing about it, the Hulk has some cool moments. Yeah, it's a fun bit, the Punisher Spider-Man Hulk thing. I was like, they I it feels like this movie's playing it well that this is a connected world, and I'm glad they're using pieces they didn't have to, yep. But I was like, yeah, I like that. I always like that. That's what's cool about this connected cinematic universe. This felt like a fun way to do it. I also think maybe because it's like it's been a while since I've been loving these movies so much. The fact that this one connected, I just I think I was just on board more.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, I think this feels most like a comic book, actually. Yeah, where it's New York, like everybody's here. Exactly. That's cool. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

You go to Brighton Beach for Yelena? I was like, that's yeah, so clever.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yeah, and it's like, oh, I have I want to reach out to somebody, okay. I'm gonna reach out to this person from the new vendor, Black Widow. And oh, I've run into Frank. We haven't seen this interaction. I don't think Spider-Man shows up in the fucking Punisher thing or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

No, as far as I know, no.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

The Staten Island joke is nothing. Yeah, it was off screen, but we know that they've interacted with each other because they're both New York-based. Some of the criticism of integrating in Spider-Man into the MCU initially was like, oh, well, it's the Avengers, and now they're just bringing him in, and of course, he's gotta be for Tony Scott or Tony Scott. Of course, Tony's Tony Tony uh Stark has got to make his fucking costume, blah blah blah. That was a big thing. Yeah, shout out to Dave yet again. Uh he really didn't like that. He didn't yeah, he was a he was an Iron Man proxy, yeah. He's like an Iron Man mentee, basically, which makes sense to me, but whatever. Uh, and I think that they did it well, but it didn't jive with everybody.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

It worked, I didn't love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Sure. But it way I get it. And but now they're getting back to he's on his own, no one knows who he is, but at the same time, it's shared. It doesn't feel forced, it's just like, oh yeah, shit. You know what? I I did work with the Hulk that one time, and he's a fucking geneticist, so I'm gonna go fucking find where he is. Yeah, it it feels extremely natural and yeah, just felt like reading an issue.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

And it was maybe one of my favorite things in all these comic book movies, the idea, because the I know comics do it, and I know the cartoons, multiple of the cartoons have done it plenty of times. It's always something that I just love the concept of there's a horrible thing happening near you in New York, Spider-Man's on it, but someone else is also on it. So, like for the Punisher to show up like mid-rescue, yeah, that's great to me. That is like so not cute, but like cool. Yeah, that's so friggin' cool. Where it's like, well, yeah, someone else is like, Oh yeah, I just finished lunch. I got free time.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah, I'm gonna go home. I was on the I was on the police scanner too.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

I was close by. That's so funny to me. Yep. And he just hops in and then he hops out. And it's like, yeah, I'm I'm trying to do, I'm doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

They're and they're brilliant foils because and which obviously ties into the climax, but to have the punisher who just fucking kills people to take care of it. And and Spidey's just like, nah, I don't kill people. What the fuck? Go away, man. Like, yeah, I don't I'll fix this. Just give me a fucking second. And yeah, I love that. It's uh for for those two paired up to clash, like uh, you know, I'm sure there are there's been some Spidey Punisher stories in the comic books, but I can't think of any off the top of my head, and I'm like, yeah, that's I mean, who knows? Marvel comics right now is a fucking dumpster fire, so they could pair that up and be shitty if there's a good writer out there who who would tackle that. That would be such a fun book.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

I brought up the Hulk thing because I started going back because I and we've talked about this before, but it's been a while since like the Hulk has done Hulk stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Yeah, like Hulk down. Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Because in the last two Avenger movies, he's only in the beginning of Banner, because it's the opening scene. And I was like, oh yeah, I forgot. In the movies, Wheedon's the only guy that really did the Hulk and got him.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Oh, yeah. People have forgotten about Hulkbuster in Age of Ultron.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

I forgot about a lot of the good that Wheedon brought to the MCU because he's an asshole. And maybe he brought some bad to short, but yeah, they do play with his name a little bit, but this is the thing. Because I went back and I was watching some of that uh earlier Hulk stuff. Wheedon and James Gunn and certain people, and I don't know if I uh I don't know if I've talked about this, but I just I was thinking about this. These are action figure toys that they are making characters. Yes, there's other people that see characters and make them action figure toys.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Shout out Zack Snyder, shout out fucking Rodriguez.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Yes, exactly. You they're like, I'm just playing with my toys. Yeah. And Whedon's like, I'm gonna, I think the Hulk wanted to have a kid. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like he he he brought something else in it.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Like, you know what else gets gamma radiated? You nuts.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Exactly. He's like, fuck it. We're gonna deal with this. Uh these are actual characters. By just it was literally like the first scene of Bruce Banner. And everything is motivated by sex. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

For us, he gets it. Yeah. For as much as everyone will give him a hard time for being a pervert, uh, you know what? Those same people will run around and and complain about the MCU being sexless. So, all right, what side is it? What do you want, guys? What do you want?

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Bring the pervert back. Yeah. Just kidding. You don't have to. But no one did the Hulk like him. I'm just saying. Sure, sure. The whole, like, their toys that you make characters, or their characters you make toys. I was thinking about that.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

That's a great way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Yeah. And I love I love watching people do that. That's why I think I click with so much of what Whedon was doing with these. I think James Gunn did it with Guardians and Rocket.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

I haven't gotten that in a long time, and I think a lot of these movies, that's why I don't like it. You start feeling like they're playing with the toys. Yeah. That's why the DC stuff, the Zack Snyder stuff, I'm like, you're for sure just playing with the toys.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yeah, it's here. You have these five characters, uh do what you want with them.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

And they're just like the nightmare sequence with Batman, that's just playing with your Batman toy in a desert trench coat. There's no emotional motivation. That's not characters. Nothing. Yeah. None of that Batman stuff is a character. It's just playing with your toys. I'm just at the point in my life where I'm way more picky of watching people play with their toys. But to defend it.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

It's a great way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

You know, times I love people taking characters to play with them as toys. I was thinking about that's what's cool about John Wick. They're playing that's a toy.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

I think Brad Bird with Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible, that's a toy. He's playing with these are toys he's playing with, not just the character.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

And then I don't know if this one makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

And it makes sense with it. It works with Mission Impossible.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

And I think that's why that Brad Bird one stands out so much. Because he goes, I I think everyone gets the character. I'm gonna play with my toys. Yeah. I think Soderbergh, the Ocean's 11 movies, that is Soderbergh playing with his toys. Yeah. That is him going, I know what George Clooney on screen is, I know what Julia Roberts is, I'm gonna play with this. That's very stupid. I'm gonna have fun with this. Yeah. It's like so I do like it sometimes. Yeah. You gotta be a good writer to do the balance.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

And to know the difference.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Yeah. Yes. I wish more people were doing this and dealing with it.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yeah, that's a very astute observation, William.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Thank you. Very good job. Yeah. This is what I was thinking about on my walks uh instead of working today. That's great. Yeah, that's awesome. This is what my brain was cooking on.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

What was I getting you earlier a couple seasons ago? Points. Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah. If I give you uh I mean a hundred points for that. Thank you. That's a very good one.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Use them later.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

That can be a new uh I'm your buddy kind of topic of discussion differentiation between yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

I mean, we're we're gonna watch Doomsday this year. Yep. Are the Russos making characters out of these toys or are they just playing with their toys in front of us? When I see that trailer, I think I know what it is. Exactly. Ben Grimm talking of Black Panther. I'm just like, ah, you might Shang Chi fighting Gambit might be the Russos just playing with their toys in front of me for a billion dollars.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

You know, I hope watching that trailer, I'm like, I hope this is all the first act.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

I believe it's gotta be. I hope. I hope it's a lot of people. If I'm just thinking only, not in terms of what spoilers spent on the internet, sure. Just thinking of the Infinity War and Endgame trailers. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the endgame trailer was like a two-minute scene of the movie, and that was it. Yeah, like they spoiled nothing. Yeah. So I do feel like they're just pulling from literally one singular moment in the movie. Oh, yeah, I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Yes. I th yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think they are, at least for for some of it. Um, but yeah, that's that's the question, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be curious. Me too. I wanted to bring up something that it'll tie us into segue in. Yeah, I wanted to bring up something that'll segue into the show because I've been, at least if you guys have listened to the first two episodes of this season, I I've been kind of iffy on some of the execution, which I can talk about a little bit more of Attack on Titan. But uh, I've been listening to some audiobooks which kind of have solidified some of my feelings on consuming stuff that I usually wouldn't. And and I think Which is not your thing. Exactly. Yeah, so I'm whatever, I'm a creature to comfort. I I know the filmmakers, the writers, the characters that I like, and I usually go for those things, right? And we've talked about my odd musical tastes of I usually listen to a band or two bands that define a genre for me.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

You don't like punk rock, you like two punk rock bands. It's that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. In a way, absolutely. So, and as you know, life gets busier, you get older, you're working hold on, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Nick, you do like punk rock. I get it. No, it's you do, you really like punk rock. But so punk rock to me is a is a couple bands, right?

unknown 40:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

I don't want to steal your uh steal my punk valley. Yeah, yeah, you're affiliated, I'm the poser. I only like punk you played with us a couple times, you were in a punk rock band for three or four shows. Sure. But yes, I I I do have to stop this to say, Nick, I talked out of line. I wasn't offended. I wasn't offended. You do like punk rock.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Um you're so punk rock. Uh clearly, but your world gets smaller as you get older, right? And I have less time to focus on stuff. And so usually you lean on the hits or you lean on the stuff that you you know you like, that kind of stuff. And for me, that always that's across the board. I don't, I'm not a guy who tries new stuff necessarily, uh, besides like food or something like that. If I'm on vacation, right? Yeah, yeah. That's that's always fun. I'm always open to trying something new, but that's because that's low risk. It's and it's an hour. And if it doesn't taste good, you're like, eh, whatever. I'm gonna shit it out. Yeah, it's comes out my bottle. You're not trying to emotionally invest in a character, in a novel, in a comic book, in a movie, in a TV show, something like that. You know, because book, yeah. Yes. So my when I when I was on vacation in June going into July in Washington, my brother-in-law uh had recently gotten into Dungeon Crawler Carl. That's right, which is a very, very it's blown up. It's a big big popular series. It's you see it in airports. I think there is a comic book adaptation of the first book, actually, that's really big that I saw. I didn't even know, I don't know what who who's publishing it, but I saw a cover of it in one of the comics journalism newsletters that I read, and it looked like manga inspired. I was like, oh cool, that's a that's a cool way to but I started reading the book on vacation, it kind of had some cringe humor in it. I wasn't really that into it, but it's basically like a uh it's structured like an RPG D video game type uh scenario, which I can I can the the basic pitch that just spoils the the setup of the first fucking novel. But it's one random night aliens basically take over the world and destroy nearly all of humanity and open a dungeon all across the planet, and those humans who survived go down to the dungeon, and now they're part of basically like a real life fucking DD video game where they're being hunted by the stereotypical creatures that you would find in an RPG, right? So it's part of a show called Dungeon Crawler World, and it's televised to the entire universe, and there's like 18 levels, like running man, like it's like a you really die and people watch it sort of thing. Okay, correct. It's like running man meets battle royale, meets Hunger Games, that kind of stuff, you know what I mean, meets Dungeons and Dragons, which I've never been into DD, I'm not really a big into like fantasy RPGs that much. Um I am, you're not, yeah, exactly. I'm not that's not hugely my thing. Yeah. But the book was entertaining enough. You know, he's going through leveling up. Nick, what is your thing besides being a total douchebag? No, exactly. No, no, exactly. And like some of the humor, like I'm like, uh, it's a little kind of edge lordy. There, there's an artificial intelligence that. Runs the game. And cusses a lot? Yes. Yeah. Cusses a lot, makes kind of crude jokes. But it's it's edgelord adjacent stuff. Where I'm just like, what? And my brother-in-law is not like that. He doesn't, he barely curses, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

But he laughs when the the computer says, fuck me with a broomstick.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Exactly. Something like that. So I was just like, how is he into this or whatever? But then I I switched to the audiobook two-thirds of the way through the book, and I got home, and I just struggle to read at night because I'm fucking tired and I gotta get up. And and so I was like, all right, fuck it. I'm just gonna switch to the audiobook. I'll finish this book, see, see how see how it ends. And and so I can at least give the book back to my sister-in-law when she comes and visits us at the end of July. So I did that. And I actually didn't like the end of the first book. It's very much like a TV show where it just ends, there's no real big culmination. I was just like, as a standalone book, I don't like this. But I was like, the leveling up, there's a little world building here and there that's kind of fascinating enough where I'm just like, all right, I'm gonna try it again. So I read, listened to the next two books. I started the fourth book today. And over the past week, as I've been finishing this third one, I kind of realized something like, oh, this book is almost exactly what the podcast is about. It's super fucking messy, but there's something really cool to it.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

And it kind of, and I what what I was I was nearly at the end of the third book a couple days ago, where it clicked, we're like, this is about an alien invasion of a sort that causes an apocalypse that utilizes every video game, Dungeons and Dragons, sci-fi trope that has ever been invented.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

And I was like, this is a really creative way to fucking do that. And I've never seen science fiction and fantasy melded together so perfectly in a way that makes sense for this book. And how has how have people not put this together before? Because I could never do it. It's so fucking expansive. Because that's where I'm always coming from, is the writer brain, right? I'm always fucking thinking about this. And when I've been reading this entire series, a lot of times I'm like, fuck, I that I wouldn't do it this way, especially reading that first book. I was just like, I would not, I don't like this. I don't like how this guy is executing it. It's too fucking edgy, it's too silly, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's gotten more serious as it's gone on. The guy has found the characters, he's found the world, he's found the things to plant seeds to and to call on later, and there's gonna end up being 10 books. He's already put out eight books. Oh, okay. There's already eight. There's already eight, and he's ending it with two books. So there's gonna be a nine and ten, and that's the end. It's gotten to this point where while I would not tell the story the way that he is, and I couldn't even. I don't come from DD, I don't come from fantasy, I don't come from playing dungeon crawlers or anything like that, right? I don't well, I get laid. There's too much just kidding. There's there's too much shit. I it's it's overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

That's partially why I'm gonna pick one to two things, and you're like, I that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

It's insane how much stuff there is in those to those games, right? Like, yeah, fucking uh D uh, what do they call it? DMing, yeah, dungeon mastering, whatever. That sounds like this is my nightmare. There's too many things to even though you you kind of build a narrative or whatever, it's it's it's like writing, but it's just very complicated. Yeah, you know, so I could never do it, and I would never do it that way. But in reading it, I was like, this feels like a mess, but there is so much fucking good stuff in it, and it is wholly unique. I have never seen something like this before. In the second book, there were a couple emotional moments where I'm like, oh fuck, that's good. That actually hits me. Where I've been with these characters long enough, and he has written them long enough to get out of the Edgelord stuff to where he can now actually, you know, where the the AI will make some kind of it's a it's a running joke in the books that the AI is obsessed with Dutch and Carler Carl's feet. So he gives his feet buffs and he can't wear shoes, he has to be barefoot, and he gives him toe rings, like when he wins boxes and stuff like that. In the first book, it's just like, oh, the AI is a he's got a foot fetish, and it's like some Tarantino thing. Exactly. It's some Tarantino thing, and it's just like okay, yeah, and it's more crude, but now he's written so many of the books that he's honed his craft like as an author, and now knows how to set up and pay off jokes, and where now in the fourth book, when they make some fucking joke about his foot, the one or two times that they do in the book now, it's actually funny. Where it's like, okay, he figured it out. You know what I mean? He's it the first one feels very messy, and then it kind of gets honed as he goes on. So it's kind of this super interesting evolution, and as the world is opening up, you learn about like alien governments and sounds very morty, it sounds very Dan Harmon, different humor level, but the building onto things interesting sounds very Dan Harmon. And it's not as self-referential as Dan Harmon. And Dan Harmon is very much like, oh, we're gonna do science fiction's greatest hits, or not maybe not Dan Harmon, but Rick and Morty is very much let's do sci-fi's greatest hits, and we'll reference other genres. But the kind of thing that's brilliant about this, and it isn't necessarily a spoiler, this is just like foundational stuff for how Dungeon Crawler World works, is really so the universe and all of humanity's pop culture things, everything is just an alien. All those things exist. Humanity has been seated on thousands of worlds, and we're just one of the races against that that is out in the universe. Okay. But everything that you can think of that's ever been in a video game, that's ever been in literature, that's ever been anywhere, all those things are real and they're just different aliens across the universe.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

That three tit lady from Total Recall is really out there, guys.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

No, like so. Think of like a fantasy, like elf, elves are real, they're just they're just aliens, and there's all the different types of elves.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

What's a goblin?

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Think of a centaur. There's all there's all that's just the type of alien. You know what I mean? Like anything you can think of. The gray aliens, like in fucking big head little, yeah, those are just another alien race, and they all have their own politics that get lightly brushed upon that the characters are learning as it goes on, because whenever whenever they do these dungeon crawls and they do these televisions, these these this show, they take over and destroy a world of whatever alien race. So, and the reason why the AI makes all these references to pop culture is because it's been studying humanity for years and years and years in preparation for this. Okay, so that it makes sense for human beings who are going through the dungeon, or earthlings who are going through the dungeon. So it's like, well, well, it starts off being the shallow thing of like, this is just like fucking whack-a-ball. He's just mentioning everything, you know, and pop culture references, blah blah blah blah blah, fucking fantasy, science fiction, yeah, monsters, vampires, anything, and then it's like, no, but and then it it opens up and it elaborates and it's all built into the entire universe. And you're like, oh fuck, that's actually extremely smart. And the way that it's getting more niche and the story that they're trying to tell. I was like, this is starts off as such a mess, and then it just gets fucking honed. And this guy wants to say something about humanity and about human beings and what it means to care for each other and all these kind of things, and what makes Earth special. I'm like, this the guy's doing it. Yeah, he's actually doing it. And while I started off extremely judgmental, now I'm coming around to it, and the same goes with Attack on Titan, where we've started off these seven episodes, right? We've watched seven episodes, and I don't like how the show is structured.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

You didn't like the music, you didn't like the animation decisions, the coloring. Nope. There was so much step by step, so you're like, I'd probably shut this off if it wasn't for the podcast. Absolutely. A hundred. Especially because someone goes, There's four seasons, a movie, and a lot. Yeah, there's five seasons. You're like, nah, this yeah for me.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

And I mean, we're gonna talk about this with this episode, but just even the content of how fucking bleak it is. Jesus fucking Christ, is this show bleak? But sorry, and I've already been talking for fucking 20 minutes straight, and I'm gonna continue to talk for another 20 minutes straight. Watching these seven episodes starting this season of the podcast while listening to Dungeon Crawl Curl series, like I'm like, okay, I'm consuming two things that I would have normally given up on, but I'm finding stepping out of my comfort zone is actually extremely good for me as a storyteller.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

No way.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Who would have fucking thunk? But that's the thing, you know, it's about your world gets smaller as you get older, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Because it takes it takes effort, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

It's not easy anymore.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Yeah, no, it's exactly.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

I don't have fucking time. Yeah, and the only reason I can listen to this book is because I can listen to it in my car while I'm at work, driving between fucking sites and stuff. So, like, yeah, because I drive like an hour fucking day. So watching this and realizing that it's adapted from a manga, because I was uh I've been talking to my coworker Henry about it a little bit, and he's been great not to give me spoilers, but I told him, like, yeah. So we watch these three episodes where Aaron apparently dies. We get to see the uh backstory to Misuka. What's her I can't pronounce it, but yeah. Yeah, we get to see her backstory, and then we get this new Titan who's clearly Aaron, or something like that. That's my theory. So these are three big episodes, kind of. I was explaining to him today. One of my biggest problems with this is like you could have told these seven episodes, which what they're 22-minute episodes, yeah, seven episodes. Yeah, yeah, it depends on on how titles and all this stuff, but this is over two hours of content so far. This is like 140, 150 minutes, so it's like two and a half hours at least. You could have told all this stuff in an hour, all this, all this backstory, just the way the way that they choose to do it is so episodic. And then I'm like, wait, I wonder if this came out in a manga magazine. Because a lot of manga is serialized and it comes out, you know, every couple weeks you get 10 pages of the story or whatever. Once a month, you get 10 pages of the story. It's not like an issue of a comic where you get once a month, you get 22 pages here in America or whatever. It's like 2000 AD. It's 10 stor 10 ongoing stories where you get five to seven to ten pages of each story every month or whatever. Yeah. Or every week, and it rotates the stories every week. So I'm like, that would make sense to me. And I'm not sure, I need to look it up, but I'm like, I think is the pacing from what it originally came from.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Exactly. Is what you're thinking.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Is it being too faithful to the manga where I'm like, if this was being adapted, you know, by someone else, maybe I mean, but and I don't want to see an American remake of Attack on Titan. Yeah, you do. Eli Roth presents Attack on Titan. Jesus. But if I were adapted, I would do it differently. And I wouldn't have so much internal monologue. And all there's all these choices where I'm watching the show and I'm like, I don't like this, I wouldn't do it like that. Why are they doing it like this? This is inefficient. Why aren't they getting more to the story? Because I just want to get fucking going.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

And I'm like, oh yeah, this right here, where this new Titan who eats other titans, who kills other titans, shows up, I'm like, that's the end of the first fucking episode.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

To me, that's what it is. But but watching it like this, it's make it made me forgive it a little bit more. Where I'm like, you know what? Let's just let this fucking cook. Yeah. Let this shit simmer. Because there has got to be a fucking reason why we're getting to see so much of humanity just be fucking pussies. Like, for real. Yeah. These fucking three episodes, I get it. It's scary. These people don't know anything about it. Okay. Scary. I get it. Whatever. No, no, no. It's scary. It kind of hit me. It didn't hit me until watching these episodes. You have the flashbacks between Aaron and it's right there. It's gonna come to me. Shit. Fucking Bond Bowl haircut guy. Uh, I'll think of it in a second. It took me a minute to think about it this morning, too. Where he finds a book and he takes it to Aaron and he's like, hey, there are these things called the C.

unknown 57:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

And Aaron's like, dude, you can't be bringing that stuff here. That's illegal. I'm like, wait, what? Talking about the old world is illegal?

SPEAKER_00 57:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

I'm like, I didn't fucking know that.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

And don't give anyone the urge to leave these walls.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Yeah, exactly. So, and then of course you have the setups and the payoffs in the third episode that we watched in episode seven of we don't know how they reproduce, but somehow they're more, and oh, they don't need to eat us to subs uh for sustenance because they survived for a hundred years, and there's still a bunch of them. They're just doing it for the pleasure or whatever the fuck, which scares people, I guess. But I'm like, okay, these are extremely sheltered people who have been taught not only is the stuff outside the walls illegal, and thinking about the old world is illegal, but these are extremely scary monsters. So I'm like, okay, some of it is starting to come out, and I know it's gonna tie into the show because for real, for these seven episodes, the amount of time where we just have people being scared shitless looking at these fucking weird ass running smiling creatures, they're just being like, oh big old goofballs, and then they're just getting munched on, and the number of times we see someone watch in horror as one of their friends is being eaten. I'm like, okay, how many times do we have to fucking watch this? And I'm like, human beings are really good at killing each other and really good at killing other things. Yeah, it's one of the things we excel at. So I'm like, there's no fucking way we wouldn't have figured out how to kill these things after.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

We did, you chopped the back of their neck with a moment.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

That's barely anything, but that's barely fucking anything. Um, we would have gone out and fucking killed all these things. We would have invented some kind of bullet or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

But look how few still live.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

It's post-apocalyptic. Exactly. So they don't have that same technology, but resources, but still, we're very crafty little apes, right? So I'm just running through all these criticisms in my head of just like, god damn it, I just want this to be faster, I want to get to it a little bit more. But then it snaps my head, I'm like, Nick, you're not making this show.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Turn off the writer brain a little bit, at least enough to just let this do what it wants to do. Stop trying to act like you are the one who's making it. Is that kind of makes sense?

SPEAKER_00 59:35

No, it makes a hundred percent sense. I would defend you and say I think that's a natural thing, it's not an ego thing or anything like that. But again, it's it is hard to do. It's hard to watch a show that's it feels opposite of your uh impulses, be like, you're not gonna be comfortable. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's I think a great example of this is why so many people don't like the show girls. Is like you gotta tell me I'm laughing at them, okay, and then I can get on board, or you gotta tell me like how am I supposed to feel? Because it feels like I'm supposed to root for them, but they're horrible. Yes. I wanna laugh at I wanna hate them, but they're the main characters of the show, and she wrote it. There's no way she would have written herself as a person you're supposed to hate. Yeah, like everyone thinks this show is different. I think it's closer to Seinfeld or Always Sunny, where it's like, no, these are bad people. Gotcha, they're all bad people, yeah. Yeah, but we're all uncomfortable because it's like, I don't know if I you gotta tell me how to do this. And if I wrote a show about me and my generation, I'm the main character and I write and direct it, I ain't gonna be the villain. Yeah, it's about me, it's Atlanta, it's Dave, it's you know, it's it's a different thing. So I think that's it. It is hard to watch something in all the decisions and ideas. You're like, none of this clicks with my brain. Yeah, I would do everything different. But then my other nerd brain goes to the memory of watching Solaris in film class. And one of the biggest conversation pieces of it is Tarkovsky hates the concept of a montage. Yeah. So if we gotta drive 20 minutes, he might just film us driving for 20 fucking minutes. Yeah, we're driving on the interstate and through the underpass and the tunnels out to the farmland or wherever it is, because he doesn't like the cheat of the passing of time of a montage. Yeah, and some people are like, I'm watching a movie, get to the fucking house. Yep, use the film language of cut to him in a car, to him pulling up to the house, and I know he was on a journey. Yeah, what are we doing wasting my goddamn time with this? But there's an intent there. Yes, as the artist, he goes, I I want us to be here in this moment. So while you're saying this is like, if I had one episode with Aaron, I know he's the main character. I get it. You show it, it's his perspective, it's in internal monologue, he's essentially narrating. You open the show with him, so I know he's the main character. When he dies, I go, oh shit, the main character of the show. What I thought this show was about, now I don't know what the show is. Yeah, sure. But I watched him and everybody for five fucking episodes now. Yeah, I thought they were all main characters, yeah. I thought they all had plot armor because you spent so much goddamn time with these people. I thought plot armor for all of them, and the fact that that episode goes, actually, none of them. Yeah, everybody, one by one, gets chomped and ripped to shreds. Because when Aaron first got his leg chomped, I was like, oh shit, they hit how training dragon disasters. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's cool. Now, how do you do a mobility suit with that? Yeah, and then the blonde kid gets eaten. I was like, I don't know what this show is anymore. And then Aaron doesn't just get chomped, he gets chomped and his arm flies off because the arm got chomped off.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:25

He gets chomped and he gets swallowed whole. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:29

That was where I was like, you gave me five episodes with these guys. I don't actually know what this show is. Yeah, I don't, like, I don't get it. That wasn't um, there's a word for it, and I forget stunt casting is a thing. That wasn't it. This isn't a stunt, this isn't a trick. I think now the fact that you gave us so much slow burn time with these characters and made us just watch them live and exist and train and get better and like each other, not like each other, grow to like each other, and then kill them. Now the creator of this show is telling me this is the world we're gonna be living in for five seasons is humanity's on their back foot. Yeah. We're dying and we're scared and we're lost and we're cowards, yes, and atrocious atrocities happen, and humanity can't do anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

Yeah, yeah, and I think it's it's the show is following that forum is function, right? And I hadn't been kind of giving it that credit until watching these episodes where I'm like, oh, okay, we're really embedded in the perspective of these characters because I was getting so fucking frustrated. I'm like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Why is it taking so long? Kill these fucking yeah, because you if again, I am so kind of surprised by how bleak this show is. We like depressing stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

I mean, yeah, we we did watch Evangelia. Yeah, well, what this is different.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

Exactly. This is this is very different. And this the stereotype of depressing stuff that we like is like, no, we like emotionally true stuff. The world is fucked up. We like to see that represented in in our art with the catharsis because we feel that suffering a bit, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:17

We relate to it, but I just like Manchester by the sea because it's good acting. I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

It's really good acting. This is, I'm like, okay, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:28

You know what this is to me, and I don't know if this is crass or if I nailed it early. Yeah, yeah. I thought this was I was like, okay, there's a war. This is a there's a show about war. So this is World War II. This is the the 101st airborne. I think this show's about Poland. Uh yeah, yeah. This ain't the troops. Yeah, yeah. This isn't America coming in to kick ass. No, and it's not an action show of like D Day of like we made it. I think this is Poland. Yeah, yeah. I think we're just gonna watch. Watch the wall go down to one more to one more to one more cattle to 20,000 to 10,000. Like we're gonna be counting down to 36 people.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

Yep, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

And I was like, okay, I didn't know that. I thought this was hot shot top gun flying around chopping heads show.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Exactly. Yeah, so like it's it's diff because seriously, if you watch these fucking seven episodes and you're like, oh, I get why this is massively popular. No, I don't. Yeah, how is this one of the most popular anime of the past uh fucking decade and a half? How? I yeah, I know we're gonna get the answer as it goes on, but based upon just how this starts, how many episodes this is, if you watch this weekly, this is seven weeks, this is almost two months of episodes where you're like, what the fuck am I watching? Why is this so depressing? Why is this so fucking horrible?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

You showed me like an hour of them training to get ready to fight, and they don't even fight. They fly in the air and then just immediately get chomped. Yeah, they're just they're just fucked and they're just scared, they're just shitting their pants. The dude cleaned his musket and then cleaned the back of his head with it. Yeah, like what's that gonna do to the I know it's ready now? Yeah, yeah, it is killed themselves in front of everybody, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:26

And that's at the HQ. Yeah, yeah, like it's it's oppressively bleak, which is saying something coming from us, I think. Yeah, but I'm like, okay, this means something in the world. This I think if this show is as good as everyone claims it is, this is all gonna pay off in some big way. Where we have a glint of it, I think, in this seventh episode, where we have a a new type of titan that's fighting titans, which I think is Aaron. I think that's Aaron.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:00

I didn't think about that. That does make sense to me because one of my early things is like there's a twist of what the Titans are, they come out of nowhere, they disappear out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Yeah, we did their unknowns.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:11

Yeah, there's unknowns, and then now when you said that, I was like, okay. I I could see where this show might be going.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:18

You know what I mean? Because they they talk about the reproduction. He didn't get chomped, he didn't chew him, he gulped him. So I'm like, I don't know how, but I think that's my that's my deal.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:26

There is a bit of my Western American brain of like, Aaron can't be that's in my head of like that we don't see him die, he's not dead, even though we saw him get swallowed by a fucking lost his arm and is like for sure to be confirmed. But he did get swallowed, so I'm just like Jonah and the whale shit. Like you never know. He's not dead, dead.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

Yeah, so we're so I I'm starting to see the world open up, but the unrelenting bleakness and how embedded we are into the psychology of the characters, of how scared they are and how little they know. I'm like, okay, we're this is I I thought that this was gonna be like a big macro overview of like, hey, this is what's happening, this is the scenario, and it it feels like it was gonna be more third person, like we are the audience watching these characters, but no, that's not the show that this is. We are experiencing what these characters are experiencing, and I think that hopelessness is gonna erode. I hope this hopelessness is gonna erode over as the characters learn more about the outside world and how they work because they are so in the dark right now, and the episodes are so bleak and so depressing. But guess what? That's all they know. All they've been taught is life within these walls, don't talk about the titans, they're gonna eat you, they get pleasure out of it. Yeah, so you're gonna be scared shitless about them. So, like, I don't know, it's like it we're so in their perspective, and I did it didn't hit me until the seven episodes in that that's what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:00

And there's uh, and I I remember talking about this, and I get the quote wrong every time, but my therapist did tell me something is like essentially the dude, the the road out of hell is suffering. Oh yeah, like and that's all I was thinking about with these episodes is because I'm thinking the I'm on the same line of view, is there's an intent to the level of suffering we're watching, and it's forced on us, and they say that this in a slow drip. They keep saying it's hell, and we keep seeing this. I was like, Yeah, okay. So if you open a thing and we're at our lowest point, I mean this could be transcendent. If we're if and now we just dig through suffering, you know what I mean? Like the journey, if this is how bleak it is, where we wind up is like this show ends in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:53

Like we go to paradise, yeah. You know what I mean? For sure. Like that's what I was thinking. I was like, yeah, if you're gonna give me this much suffering season one, this show's gotta get crazy beautiful or transcendent or like peaceful. Yeah, there's has to be some kind of like rebirth of something. Exactly. There's no way this show ends and it goes, actually, the Titans just killed everyone. No, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:20

Yeah, that's literally. I can't emphasize her. I'm like, how is this so popular? This is this so fucking bleak. Oh, I know. I can't think of any other word. I've said it a thousand times, but that's what it appeals like.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:33

I don't have any spoilers, but I have kind of for the podcast for me and you. Okay. Sean texted me after, and he says, some people in the community do argue episodes five and six are some of the best of the whole show.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:51

And I was like, holy shit, that's crazy. Then I did a little looking up without looking at titles, sure, without looking at synopsis, ratings or whatever, of best anime episodes of all time, all anime ever. This came up a few times, sure, but here's a spoiler almost consistently, and when I say best anime episodes, I'm talking like top five, top ten lists. A lot of episodes, a lot of season three. There's a run in season three that people are like, this is the best that anime's ever been. Wow. Stacked to all like to fucking Dragon Ball Z to Cowboy Bebop to even get to everything. Nice. This show apparently hits a run in season three where people are like, that's the greatest anime that's ever been done. Sick. So we know it's going somewhere. We're somewhere where people are telling us this is the greatest show that's ever been. Like they are people making that claim. Yeah, I've never heard that because I I don't have anime friends like that so much, but we are in that world of that show, so that also helped my brain go, this is all for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:09

Yeah, we're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:11

Yeah. This isn't, I'm not supposed to be having fun in these three episodes because as much as I enjoyed what's going on in the concept of just the balls it took for them to do this, these aren't fun episodes. Like it's just death and suicide and crying and screaming. And I'm glad you brought up the cowardice. Oh, yeah, and the like just us going, oh yeah, I can't fight. I can't, like, I don't want to.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:42

I'm just gonna sit on this roof and kind of sort of just cry. Like, I'm not even running away. I'm just in shock of how unequipped and ill-prepared we are for the end of the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:55

There is something beautiful for me in that that I like this show's showing. Yeah. But it's very depressing. Oh, yeah. It's very, very, very depressing for people to accept failure and their fate of the end. None of that's good feeling stuff. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:14

Yeah. It's gonna go somewhere. But I wonder and and and I just like we talked about last episode, I am super curious. Once we finish this show, I want to know what people think of season one in terms of like do okay, when you go back and rewatch Attack on Titan, do you actually watch season one? Yeah, where do you start? Because we we talked about that. Because for real, what the fuck? Do you start with episode seven? Because again, that's it feels like where it starts.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:42

Game of Thrones Red Wedding was like season four out of eight.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:46

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:47

That's like midway.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:49

Season one ends with one guy dying.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:52

Like one guy you like gets his head cut off. Yeah, yeah. That's the end of the season. This is Red Wedding episode five, guys. Like, this is everyone we just hung out with is dead now. Yep. Except two of them. You know what I mean? Like, that's nuts. But I was gonna say, that is the other thing. No one's equipped to fight except this one girl.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:14

She's killing titans, she's chopping heads, she's swinging around, she's getting the work in. Yep. And a lot of that is because we saw her horrible, awful, horrible, awful backstory. Yeah. Just the worst thing to happen to a to a person and happen to a child.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:37

So it's the Republicans' worst nightmare. Yeah. You open your door and you get stabbed. Yeah. Just home invaders. Yeah. And then your wife gets fucking chopped at with an axe.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:50

Yeah. Because she's yelling too much. He's like, I can't do it. Literally. He's like, you're supposed to tie her up. She's too loud. I'm not doing that. She's trying to defend herself.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

Yeah. Yeah. We see Aaron fucking murder three guys. Yep. Or no, I guess two, and then she stabs the other guy. But yeah, it's like, oh, yeah, this wasn't traumatizing enough. But for as much criticism as I've had for the animation, the action scenes are very fun. Yes. And the way that they dull Mikasa's eyes after she learns that Aaron has been eaten is very cool. Literally, the set of pupils, they take out some kind of reflection where it's just like almost matte black. And I'm just like, yeah, okay, here we go. These guys, these guys know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:35

Absolutely. Um we are in good hands for sure. You can't pull this off unless you you're you're focused in.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

And this is that came that was apparent at the beginning, but this is uh to do something this brutal this early on. I was like, I know I'm in good hands. I'm gonna keep going because I know that and I feel it because this shit ain't easy, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

No. This is yeah, one of the most popular animes, and I'm like, how how? And people talk about fucking evangelion being depressing. Yeah, like what? No, evangelion's just real, real fucking depressing emotions, but this is just like horrific massacres, but I'm sure it's all gonna lead to something.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:22

You know what happened last episode? You brought up Evangelion? Sure. And I was like, hmm, I might have to re-watch it. Yeah, I don't know if I got it. That's great. Because you said the end of the series, not the movies, but the series, that last episode, your friend Henry watched it because it talks so much about Shinji thinks he's alone, but he's actually not. And I was like, I thought he is, and the point of it is you gotta be okay with that. Because he keeps asking, and by asking, I mean literally saying out loud and yelling, somebody tell me what to do, someone make me feel better, someone help me. I thought the whole end is no one can do that for you. You have to do that. No one is doing this for you. You keep going, please, someone tell me what to do. Do what direction is up and down? And they everyone keeps looking at him going, you gotta do it for you. And I was like, That's that's being alone. He is alone.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:24

Well, I think you should rewatch Evangelion. Just because you were kind of in a dark spot when we were watching that. That would be a fascinating experiment, yeah. And I don't know if anyone maybe that's what Henry got out of the ending, so maybe it could be different from what yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:39

I was like, that's I'm st I'm still struggling with that entire concept of like, no, you gotta do it for yourself. It's like yourself, you solo. Another way to say that is alone. I don't uh what am I missing, guys? Where where did I make this a William being too sad and it not just be the point of all of this? Is no one's allowed to help you. You have to help yourself. And then also, let's just double back and use another season of you're also Steven, you're helping too many people, and you're burning yourself out. And I was like, How am I helping others? And the entire world story is no one helps people, you have to help yourself. I was like, I think I'm living proof that people help others. Yeah, just not you. And I'm like, okay, well now I'm back to I'm mad at the universe. Now I'll back, guys. Um I just I walk the block, and guess what? I'm right where I landed and where I fucking started. Yeah, yeah. Is you stop helping everybody, no one helps you, but the universe isn't against you. There's no oppressive force, just it's coincidence that no one helps you. Don't look into that. Sure. Don't think too much about that. Sure. No one helps you, you help yourself and stop helping others because it's confusing you. And I'm just like, what the fuck? I don't get it. And Nick's just shaking his head because I don't know if Nick can help me get it. Cause I think I got it, and that's the problem, is I did get it. It's just it's not clean.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:21

Have you have you brought this up to your therapist? A lot. Because I think it's her her job, she's getting paid to uh yeah, I know. Uh, should we get into random stuff? But yeah, that's my uh that's my theory. Aaron's the monster. I like that. He saved Mikasa. Yeah. He's eaten things. And he's fighting, he's mad. She's talked about him being passionate.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:43

I'm like, all right, that's him. Which is interesting. I don't know what that means. When you die, you come back as a Titan.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:50

Don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:51

And so every time people die, that's why the Titans can never like be gone, because this is the regenerate, like that's all of humanity. Yeah, this reincarnation type of thing. Yeah. Then why is one colossal?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:03

And how does he teleport? Why does he teleport? Yeah, like in the lightning or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:07

If he's Lord Zed, where is his staff that helps him teleport? Where's the electricity? Where's his gold are? Yes. I do really like the music when they're sitting on the roof with all the aftermath. It's like the the piano almost sounded like a metallic filter to it. Like it was a weird dissonant to it. Yeah, yeah. An ambient music. Yeah, it was good. It stood out. The the music when it's not weird speed metal type stuff, they're doing electronic, like glitchy things. I don't know if you catch it all the time, but it's getting weird, glitchy, and I'm like, oh, I I do like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:45

Yeah, I and the the opening is growing on me. I'm like, oh, it's just Dragon Force. Yeah. Yeah. My the sixth note of these episodes is I wonder if there's a reason for them being so scared. Like, why hasn't humanity found a way to kill them? That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:03

Uh I wish you another opulent day of sloth and tranquility. Yes. To the rich bastard. Yeah, yeah. Still don't like the CGI belt. Every time it shows up, I'm like, you don't need that. Yeah. What are you doing? There's no way that costs less than just hand drawing it and reusing that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No dicks. Yeah. No reproductive organs. Yep. So you come back, you lose your pecker, which is pretty cool because then you can come back and go, pfft, you shouldn't have to be a big thing. I would have ruined everything if I had my guy. Because it was huge when I was a human. And now that I came back as a Titan, uh yeah. I would have crushed all the walls, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:42

You're lucky.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:42

Yeah. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:44

No, how many people would have no humans I would have killed with this? Exactly. Yeah, look for the bad in people expecting to find it, and you will. That's the his father's advice to him. Which I'm like, don't talk to me like that. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:59

Punched a titan's head off. Yes. That was cool. Yeah. Smashed into like the bell towers and stuff. Yeah. If I die, these memories of you die with me. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:11

I do like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:12

Yeah, I love that. That revelation of her coming to it of the world is a cruel place and it's home.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:20

I'm like this hasn't become hell. Exactly. Been hell. That was cool. And it's yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

And it's home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:28

We're here. That's what I know. I was born here. Yeah. Born in this darkness. Exactly. Very creepy. The Titan with its goofball face. They all have goofball faces. Yeah. All Velcro shoe Titans. Yeah. They all need Velcro shoes. Goofball, certified medical. But the goofball face looking in the window when they were hiding behind the desks and stuff. Very creepy. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:53

That was really, really creepy. That creeped me out. That was like, oh, this is a good shot. That was unsettling. Because them just running around. Goofball in it. Yeah, exactly. I don't like I'm just like, it's not scary. And that's why it's it's the contrast of the silly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:07

Like they're chasing a butterfly. Yeah. I'm like simple Jack running around 80 feet up. Barting in bathtubs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:14

I'm like, I don't I and they're just which authority on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:18

Exactly. Obviously. There's something to the innocent, weird moon faces of them all.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:24

But yeah, and it contrasting with them just being terrified. I'm just like, I don't get it. Yeah. Kill them.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:30

You gotta punch them in the back of their neck with your sword, your razor blades.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:34

Yeah. I still think Mikasa should have killed that merchant guy. That would have been cool. But yeah. But I do like that she stood up for the the citizens and everything. It's like, okay, good. Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:44

That dude sucks started his musket. That was nuts. Oh, it's ready. They're like, what's that gonna do? I'm about to fucking show you what it's gonna do. Just gonna do everything it needs to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:56

Yeah. Yeah. What's that gonna do to a Titan?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:58

I'll show you. Yeah. I'll fucking show you real quick what it can do.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:03

Yeah. Bleak. Bleak, bleak, bleak.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:06

Oh, I okay. So I literally wrote, oh shit, everyone's dying. I wrote that. That was also the last thing I wrote for episode five is oh shit, everyone's dying. And then I put my phone down. I was like, I think I'm just gonna watch.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:22

That's funny. Yeah, my last note for episode five is five is such an interesting concept told in not a great way thus far. Question mark. Like your idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:33

I hate how you're executed. Exactly. Yeah, for real.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:36

Yeah. I'm just like, this could be so much more for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:38

What do you think? All my English teachers. Yeah. Everyone that's ever written my writing of all time, ever read anything I've done.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:45

Are you are you trying to say something here? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:48

I like your idea. I hate how you're writing every bit of it though.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:52

Uh and yeah, my last note is Aaron is a Titan now? Question mark. Because that's that's my yes. I don't know. We'll see. And Henry did a great poker face where I was like, I think Henry's a titan. Or not, I think Aaron's a Titan and he didn't do anything. So I was like, and I'm not trying to get in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm like, come on. It can't be a coincidence that he gets chomped and gulped. Next time you listen, I like using gulp as a verb.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:18

I do love gulped because the tight the no Leo says it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:23

Oh, really? He says gulp. Yeah. He's when he says he took a drink of something or ate something, he'll say, Oh, here, you can take a gulp. I really love that. He uses gulp as verb. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:34

That's good parenting. You guys did something. I don't know where he got it from. You take a gulp. Okay. That's the second thing I'm stealing. I'm stealing take a gulp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah, take a gulp. He said it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:50

Yeah, I'm just like, I don't know where it comes from.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:52

Uh, next episodes we watch, do the intro. Don't skip it. But read the lyrics. Yes. To me, it weirdly almost goes like it's a like their anthem. Like their soldiers. It's like their star-spangled banner. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. It's weird. Because at first it's like weird oppression, like cattle to the slaughter. But then at the end, it's like, yeah, we're just built to fight and kill and murder, destroy. I was like, this is a weird well, and that's how it plays.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:24

It plays like a like a military propaganda opening, the visuals, you know, because it's like all those people with their steam sword things, whatever they're called.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:34

Yeah. Which I had uh an event I had to do yesterday. So I was at a broker event all day yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:42

The association happening.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:44

The association that puts it on the president of that is a veteran. He did 20 years in the army. So I always think it's weird, but that context, I guess I get it. We always open with either the pledge or the Sarspangled. Banner.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:01

This time it was the Star Spangled banner.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:04

And he put it up on the two big screens because it was in a big conference hall and they had the lyrics up. And I forget that song is just a brag. Yeah. Like I forget like our national anthem, like our bang banner, it's just like, yeah, bitch, we fucking banged on you. And when we're blowing you up, we looked at our flag of like, we're the fucking best. That's literally what the song is. It's like while we were kicking your shit in, we saw our flag fly and we're like, yeah, we we're fucking number one. We're the coolest ever. Yeah. While beating the hell out of you. Yeah. That's the whole song. And I was like, oh yeah, I forget. Like it's a diss track.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:43

It's a fucking diss track. Like, we're so cool. Yeah. While we're killing you, we looked awesome. Yep. That rocket red glare was so fucking cool to us. Yep. Bombs bursting in there. We're gonna talk about it all the time. Yeah, that's hilarious. It's a fucking diss track, and I kind of love it. Oh yeah. It works, it's effective.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:01

Yeah, yeah. As I am a well-documented hater of the Pledge of Allegiance. I fucking hate the Pledge of Allegiance. Hated it, never stood for always hated it. My dad and I literally fought about it in high school. It was that thing. I fucking hate the pledge. Even today, I work in places with my job where the pledge is set every day. And even if there are students around, I will not face the flag. I will not say the pledge of allegiance. I fucking hate the pledge of allegiance. Yeah. Uh shit. Maybe I should take that out of the ice is gonna come get me. But but man, the national anthem. It works at a fucking baseball game. I was gonna say you go to you go to sporting events. You get choked up everyone. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It fucking works. Yeah. Even for a person like me, punk rock kid who hates a slight aging into republicanism. It's it's still just like single tier. Yeah. It's effective. It's fucking effective. That's you know, that's how I know I'm American. You know what I mean? Yeah. It still works. Yeah. Cause yeah. I respect it. I forgot. Who else got a great song like that? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:08

No, all the others are like pride and glory, and ours is like fucking killed you. We kicked your punk ass. Fucking blew you up, our fucking ramparts. Yeah, yeah. Don't even ask us what a rampart is, bitch. Don't worry about it. No one knows. Yeah. There's no one alive who knows what a rampart is. You need to know is that Rockets Red Glare? Was you running away crying because we peat the shit from you?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:33

Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:36

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:36

But I'll yeah, I'll keep that in mind watching the the what are they they call it, what do they call it? It's a cruel titans thesis. No, no. It's it's there's a term for anime opening titles. Maybe that's O T or something like that. It's like O A O T something like that. Oh, okay. But there's an abbreviation for it. Um, which I'll I'll look up and clarify next week. But uh I don't know. I guess bleak. It's it's fucked up. Yeah. I think they should have started the show here.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:04

But that's maybe the third time you're like okay, now it officially starts. No, exactly. That's how I feel every episode. It's more effective the longer we spent with them, though. True. Well, it it's it's not the same if it was only one episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:18

No, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:19

Yeah, the the bleak jar nature of that blonde dude getting killed is only because we're like, oh, yeah, yeah. He's the blonde guy from Starship Troopers. Yeah, yeah. He's the Beusey guy. Yeah. Shout out Jake Beusey. Jake Beusey with the green plastic see-through violin. 1997, brother. See-through plastic. We loved it. Oh, the nineties. I still remember vivid memory of that violin. And him playing it and being a weird creeper, like leaning in while they're in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:48

With his fucking giant teeth. God, I love that movie. But we'll be back next week with the next three episodes. We're gonna watch three more episodes, episode eight, nine, and ten, I believe. Yes. Of Attack on Titans season one. And yeah, we're we're we're chugging along. So we'll we'll see where it goes. I I don't know. I'm not really enjoying it. It's hard. But it's but we're gonna go back. But I think it's the intention. So I'm giving it grace, you know, as as they say. We'll be back.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:20

I love you.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:20

I love you too.