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Fictional Women Around the World: Yuna · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
0:07
Speaker 1: When ever told you a production of iHeartRadio? And we
0:19
Speaker 1: are back with another Birthday edition Fictional Feminists around the World. Oh,
0:25
Speaker 1: I'd put feminists in there. Fictional women around the world.
0:28
Speaker 1: I guess that's up for a debate. And this one
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Speaker 1: I mentioned recently in the episode we did on Aris,
0:36
Speaker 1: and I said I was really excited to talk about her.
0:39
Speaker 1: So here we are. We're doing Yuna from the video
0:42
Speaker 1: games Final Fantasy ten and Final Fantasy ten two, and
0:45
Speaker 1: she is a favorite of my Final Fantasy ten is
0:48
Speaker 1: one of my favorite games. I loved her so much.
0:51
Speaker 1: I did an art project on her in high school. Famously,
0:56
Speaker 1: the lowest grade I ever got was in art. Famously,
1:00
Speaker 1: to me, I'm so mad about it. Okay, but the
1:04
Speaker 1: art piece was good. And I have so many stories
1:08
Speaker 1: about playing these games. I'm not someone who normally grinds,
1:13
Speaker 1: as they call it, like you play a lot so
1:15
Speaker 1: you get to the top level or whatever. I did
1:18
Speaker 1: in this game. And one time it was Christmas Eve,
1:22
Speaker 1: I remember, and I was trying to get this like
1:26
Speaker 1: ultimate weapon and the odds of it were really really low.
1:31
Speaker 1: It was a random thing and you had to be
1:33
Speaker 1: a certain level. And I got and I kid you not.
1:38
Speaker 1: The power went out too and I lost Oh my
1:43
Speaker 1: progress did I was like I was in shock. I
1:48
Speaker 1: think it was as like depressive state day. Did you
1:51
Speaker 1: just sit there and stare and like toll a pause.
1:56
Speaker 1: I did all of the things that you know won't work,
1:59
Speaker 1: but you're so pair to your like blowing all the
2:01
Speaker 1: dance because if that will do anything, You're getting the
2:04
Speaker 1: memory card and like what if I could unplug it?
2:07
Speaker 1: We plug? I remember it so and I never did
2:12
Speaker 1: it again. I was like, well, I'm not gonna that's
2:15
Speaker 1: that's it. I'm never gonna get that weapon. And then
2:17
Speaker 1: my little brother got it easily and I was burned again.
2:22
Speaker 1: The music also very good. I have the soundcheck and
2:27
Speaker 1: I love it, and she has Yuna has an intro scene,
2:33
Speaker 1: a CGI scene, and it is one of the at
2:37
Speaker 1: that time, it was one of the most beautiful cutscenes
2:39
Speaker 1: I had seen, and it was it's still is very,
2:41
Speaker 1: very beautiful. It's like a sun setting and she's walking
2:44
Speaker 1: on water and she does this dance where she's sending
2:48
Speaker 1: off the souls and the souls are sort of like
2:51
Speaker 1: white plasma things. Pearl pearl colored. I guess there's a shimmer.
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Speaker 1: It was so pretty, the music was great. So I
3:00
Speaker 1: remember that very very well. Clearly. I think I would
3:03
Speaker 1: in college randomly just show people that scene and they'd
3:06
Speaker 1: be like, who are you congratination? Like what? Okay? So
3:15
Speaker 1: all that to say, I have fond memories of that
3:18
Speaker 1: game and this character. I will talk about the second
3:21
Speaker 1: one too, though. So as described in previous Final Fantasy
3:25
Speaker 1: episodes that I've done, this is a series of video
3:28
Speaker 1: games that generally fall under the fantasy genre, but they
3:32
Speaker 1: do a bunch of other things, like sci fi. They
3:34
Speaker 1: are not necessarily connected. In fact, I believe Final Fantasy
3:38
Speaker 1: ten and then ten two is the first direct sequel
3:43
Speaker 1: in the series. And as I said, they are difficult
3:46
Speaker 1: to explain these games. This one is a doozy even
3:49
Speaker 1: saying that, but we're we are going to talk about
3:54
Speaker 1: the second one, which is also a doozy, but in
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Speaker 1: a different way. All right, So Fantasy ten starts with
4:02
Speaker 1: you playing a dude named Titus, and also this sport
4:04
Speaker 1: that you've never seen before called blitzball, and there's a
4:07
Speaker 1: heavy metal song playing. It's relatants and his whole world
4:12
Speaker 1: seemingly gets sucked up by this huge floating creature. It
4:16
Speaker 1: almost looks like a messed up whale in the sky.
4:22
Speaker 1: He wakes up in a new place and he eventually
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Speaker 1: meets Yuna, who is a high semminer for the world
4:27
Speaker 1: of Spira. Essentially, this means that she can call gods
4:32
Speaker 1: to fight by her side, but there's clearly something more
4:36
Speaker 1: going on with her that she's not saying. She is
4:39
Speaker 1: on a mission to summon the final aon to battle Sin,
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Speaker 1: which is the creature that attacked Titus's world. It is
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Speaker 1: a pilgrimage mini seminars undertake to basically put Sin in
4:50
Speaker 1: hibernation for a while, but then he wakes up in
4:53
Speaker 1: cycle happens again. Titus agrees to travel with her and
4:57
Speaker 1: a group of others on her journey, which I can
5:00
Speaker 1: not stress enough. It is clear is a really really
5:03
Speaker 1: important journey. You just don't know why. Una is a
5:08
Speaker 1: playable character and is the daughter of Summonerbraska and an
5:12
Speaker 1: unnamed all Bed woman. The all bed are sort of
5:15
Speaker 1: seen as lower class people with technology. The technology seen
5:22
Speaker 1: is kind of strange in this world. It's sort of like,
5:25
Speaker 1: what are you doing there? She has a heterochromia like
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Speaker 1: our past super producer Andrew. So she's got two different
5:33
Speaker 1: colored eyes and it is supposed to represent her heritage.
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Speaker 1: Her father went on the summoning Journey to defeat Sin
5:42
Speaker 1: when she was a child with two people named Jactin
5:45
Speaker 1: Oron and you recognize Oron from that heavy metal scene
5:49
Speaker 1: I was talking about, yes, and their names will be
5:53
Speaker 1: important later. And he left her at the summoning temple
5:57
Speaker 1: until he came back. So they embark on this journey
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Speaker 1: and through it, Titus and Una grow closer. Yuna is
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Speaker 1: definitely the healer of the group, but she's also the
6:18
Speaker 1: only one who could summon. She is kind and compassionate,
6:22
Speaker 1: a believer, self sacrificing, determined, loyal, putting the needs of
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Speaker 1: others before herself. She hides her sadness and like the
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Speaker 1: weight of what she's doing behind a happy facade. Titus
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Speaker 1: and her become romantically involved. There's a whole kissing seed
6:40
Speaker 1: in the water in the ice, and he starts pushing
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Speaker 1: back against her her beliefs, some of the things she believes,
6:49
Speaker 1: and through this Una does start to question some stuff.
6:53
Speaker 1: Una is kidnapped by a rival blitz ball team, which
6:57
Speaker 1: is basically like Quidditch put underwater. She escapes and then
7:03
Speaker 1: the stadium is attacked by the new master of Yevin,
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Speaker 1: Seymour Yes, who summons an aon called named Anima, and
7:12
Speaker 1: Yevin is sort of the belief system that Una follows.
7:16
Speaker 1: The party gets away and Una records final farewells to
7:19
Speaker 1: her loved ones or on that Later they are attacked
7:23
Speaker 1: once again by Sin, and Seymour pops up. Yuna is
7:26
Speaker 1: kidnapped again, but it turns out it was by her
7:29
Speaker 1: all bed cousin Riku, and then Riku joins the party
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Speaker 1: and goes on this journey with you. Seymour proposes to
7:38
Speaker 1: Una through various coercions, she agrees to marry him. Basically,
7:44
Speaker 1: she wants to get him to turn himself in for
7:46
Speaker 1: all the evil he's done. She's kidnapped again, oh to
7:51
Speaker 1: be married to Seymour and then and then Riku reveals
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Speaker 1: to Titus that the final summoning to keep away Sin
7:59
Speaker 1: kills or just puts him into hibernation, but the summoner
8:03
Speaker 1: summoned him, meaning that Yuna will die at the end
8:06
Speaker 1: of this journey. Yeah, Titus and the party, they try
8:11
Speaker 1: to crash you in his wedding, but she is forced
8:13
Speaker 1: to go through the ceremony. When Seymour threatens to kill
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Speaker 1: her friend, she jumps off the temple, but summons an
8:19
Speaker 1: aon in mid air and is caught. The party is
8:22
Speaker 1: put on trial for treason. Yuna escapes with a few
8:26
Speaker 1: others and wins in an aon battle A summon all right,
8:30
Speaker 1: so faith shaken, Una goes on to be alone, but
8:33
Speaker 1: Titus finds her and apologizes for being so enthusiastic to
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Speaker 1: beat the final summon when he didn't know what it
8:39
Speaker 1: would mean. He didn't know she would die. She says
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Speaker 1: he makes her happy, and he attempts to convince her
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Speaker 1: to stay with him and give up the pilgrimage. She
8:49
Speaker 1: turns him down, feeling a sense of duty too strongly.
8:52
Speaker 1: They kiss and Titus promises he will stay by her
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Speaker 1: side no matter what. More drama. It turns out Sin
9:02
Speaker 1: is ject who is one of her father's past guardians
9:06
Speaker 1: on the last Pilgrimage and also Titus's dad. Titus is
9:12
Speaker 1: actually a dream like literally, he is a dream of
9:18
Speaker 1: the faith to preserve the memory of a world destroyed.
9:22
Speaker 1: Titus accidentally learns Yuna is in love with him. It
9:26
Speaker 1: turns out UNA's father chose Jeck to become Sin injected. Yes,
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Speaker 1: Titus's dad who he's been looking for this whole time.
9:35
Speaker 1: Una refuses to sacrifice any of her friends, knowing they'll
9:38
Speaker 1: eventually become the new Sin, and breaks the cycle, declaring
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Speaker 1: that the final summoning is a false tradition and rejecting
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Speaker 1: the teachings of Yevin. Then the only way to truly
9:50
Speaker 1: defeat Sin is to defeat the progenitor of the faith
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Speaker 1: of Yevin and the faith that protects the dream of Xanerkin,
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Speaker 1: the dream Titus is from. They defeat Sin, slash jacked,
10:02
Speaker 1: and you Yevin, who is the progenitor? Ending the cycle
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Speaker 1: of violence? But oh no, this means that the dreamers
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Speaker 1: wake up and Titus disappears. Oh no, as he's hugging Yuna,
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Speaker 1: he fades away. Later, she is seen whistling for him
10:19
Speaker 1: because he taught her how to whistle, and he always
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Speaker 1: he said, I will always come if I hear you whistle,
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Speaker 1: And he does not come. She says that people and
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Speaker 1: dreams lost should never be forgotten in a public address.
10:33
Speaker 1: Who so that's yeah, yep, that's the first one. This
10:38
Speaker 1: brings us to the second one, which I'm going to
10:42
Speaker 1: tell you, is a total total turn ah. It was
10:47
Speaker 1: trying to be cool. You no longer found gold you
10:54
Speaker 1: quote scored it. The music was very upbeat, and now
10:59
Speaker 1: they have this this thing the system called dress spheres,
11:02
Speaker 1: meaning that you'd use a dress sphere to change your
11:05
Speaker 1: outfit and get new abilities. So you could be like
11:07
Speaker 1: I want to be a witch. You'd use the witch
11:09
Speaker 1: dress sphere and you transform into a witch and you
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Speaker 1: have new abilities. So the second one largely follows Una,
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Speaker 1: main character. She joins the gold Wings, who are sphere hunters,
11:22
Speaker 1: with her cousin Riku and Brooding Pain. Her name is
11:26
Speaker 1: paying No, Okay, yes, yeah. She kind of comes out
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Speaker 1: of nowhere. It's to tout these spheres down, especially in
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Speaker 1: UNA's case, spheres of Xanarkin, which is where Titus is from,
11:39
Speaker 1: and hoping to get any scrap of Titus, and so
11:42
Speaker 1: these fears can like store memories or kind of like
11:46
Speaker 1: videos stuff like that. She starts to have dreams of
11:49
Speaker 1: her and Titus being killed together. She falls into the
11:53
Speaker 1: far Plane, which is basically where souls go, and meets
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Speaker 1: a man named hu Yen who looks like Titus. Then
12:01
Speaker 1: she hears Titus's whistle and it helps her escape the
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Speaker 1: far plane. Una connects with Lynn, who's sort of a
12:08
Speaker 1: famous singer slash summoner that cared for shoe Yen, and
12:12
Speaker 1: Lynn reveals she wants to help Shoot put shoe Yen
12:14
Speaker 1: to rest, and with UNA's help, both sho Yen and
12:17
Speaker 1: Lynn fade away. So they're supposed to be like kind
12:19
Speaker 1: of like in The Mummy too, Samantha, you know the
12:22
Speaker 1: past lives, Yeah, that are playing out again depending on
12:26
Speaker 1: what you've done. You can reunite with Titus, though they
12:30
Speaker 1: later realized that he could disappear at any time. And
12:32
Speaker 1: I cannot stress enough. There is a concert. There is
12:35
Speaker 1: a concert that you put on to sing and like
12:39
Speaker 1: it's a pop it's a pop beat perfectly, and then
12:44
Speaker 1: I had that song too. After all of this, Una
12:50
Speaker 1: struggles with guilt about the downfall of Yevin, especially when
12:53
Speaker 1: she encounters so many people who lived by it and
12:55
Speaker 1: don't know what to do now and it's gone. This
12:58
Speaker 1: game is really interesting in a lot of ways. I'm
12:59
Speaker 1: going to talk about some of them, but one of
13:01
Speaker 1: them is there's not like a main conflict necessarily, but
13:06
Speaker 1: you do have the new Yevin Nights and I can't
13:09
Speaker 1: remember the name of the other, but they're like in
13:11
Speaker 1: conflict with each other, and you know, in part feels
13:14
Speaker 1: guilty because of that. It was is so different. I
13:21
Speaker 1: just is so different than ten. And people were including
13:25
Speaker 1: me when you played I've Shocked. I was like, what.
13:29
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why this is is because it
13:31
Speaker 1: marked a massive corporate shift that some people are still
13:35
Speaker 1: sore about. But it's also sort of like, well, you
13:40
Speaker 1: kill God and the last one, so everything didn't just
13:46
Speaker 1: get better because you did that. Some things got worse.
13:49
Speaker 1: There are a lot of political factions that have their reasons.
13:52
Speaker 1: Yuna is not a queen or a leader on any
13:54
Speaker 1: grand scale, and reuniting with Titus is actually kind of
13:59
Speaker 1: seen as a bad thing, like she can't let go
14:03
Speaker 1: of a ghost. This was fascinating. So to get Titus back,
14:09
Speaker 1: and it's a super shortcut scene, you have to get
14:12
Speaker 1: one hundred percent completion just to get it. You have
14:17
Speaker 1: to work really really hard, and it always felt like
14:21
Speaker 1: the goal that's what she wanted. She was looking for
14:23
Speaker 1: these fears and this was great when I was reading
14:25
Speaker 1: about this, because I was like, oh, I didn't pick
14:27
Speaker 1: up on all this. So here's a quote from PACEDE magazine.
14:31
Speaker 1: So much of the game is about Youna moving on
14:33
Speaker 1: and finding a new sense of self outside of her
14:35
Speaker 1: role as a semminer. That to throw all that away
14:38
Speaker 1: and the true ending produces a sense of disquiet. To
14:41
Speaker 1: bring Titus back, you even have to say yes, I
14:43
Speaker 1: still want this to an NPC explicitly asking you, hey,
14:49
Speaker 1: isn't this against every lesson you've learned? The return of
14:53
Speaker 1: Titus that leads to the return of sin to a
14:56
Speaker 1: world unable to let go, to do nothing but retell
14:59
Speaker 1: the same stories again and again. The good ending for
15:02
Speaker 1: Spirrait is for Una to simply walk away from his ghost.
15:05
Speaker 1: Oh I love it. He gave me a lot to
15:10
Speaker 1: think about. That game is also really I haven't replayed
15:25
Speaker 1: it since I played it that first time, And to
15:27
Speaker 1: be clear, I didn't hate it. It was just such
15:29
Speaker 1: a It was a departure. It was a departure, and
15:34
Speaker 1: it did feel like it was trying too hard to
15:36
Speaker 1: me at the time, like the whole like you scored
15:38
Speaker 1: this or whatever. But it was also it was unique
15:43
Speaker 1: in terms of there wasn't like a big bad necessarily.
15:48
Speaker 1: It was mostly women in your party, you know, the
15:52
Speaker 1: costuming thing. It does feel kind of sexist in a way.
15:56
Speaker 1: But people did love it, like they love that you
16:00
Speaker 1: could put on all of these costumes. Now, a lot
16:03
Speaker 1: of them were very very sexy. Of course, of course,
16:08
Speaker 1: some of them, I'm sure were very problematic because there
16:11
Speaker 1: were tons of them. There was like a lot of costumes,
16:16
Speaker 1: so it was just different. But I'm kind of intrigued
16:19
Speaker 1: looking back at it now that it was it did
16:22
Speaker 1: feel kind of women Ford, even if I feel like
16:26
Speaker 1: it was clumsy in a lot of ways it went
16:27
Speaker 1: about it and maybe sexist in a lot of ways
16:29
Speaker 1: it went about it. But as I said, I haven't
16:32
Speaker 1: played it since then, I'm not sure. But this Pace
16:35
Speaker 1: magazine article was great and they were big fans, So okay, yes,
16:39
Speaker 1: she Yuna is a fan fave. As I said in
16:44
Speaker 1: the Erath episode, I believe she's second. She comes out
16:48
Speaker 1: as like second favorite final Pasty character pretty often. The
16:51
Speaker 1: creators wanted to create a character that had to challenge
16:54
Speaker 1: her faith in being raised with this idea of inevitable
16:58
Speaker 1: death and finding her own way forward. There have been
17:01
Speaker 1: different characterizations of her. The creators have said since she
17:05
Speaker 1: was no longer burdened with being a summoner in the
17:07
Speaker 1: second one, and with the influence of her cousin, her
17:10
Speaker 1: attitude changed, and there was a lot of backlash to
17:14
Speaker 1: it and said basically that the costumes were too skimpy.
17:17
Speaker 1: Why is there singing now? It's fashion and boyfriend based.
17:24
Speaker 1: And here's a quote from the gamer. When the world
17:27
Speaker 1: asked Una to be cruel, she refused, and that refusal
17:30
Speaker 1: turned out to be a step towards a much more
17:33
Speaker 1: permanent resolution to the me of middle school constantly submerged
17:36
Speaker 1: in a stream of escalating violence for trade as heroism
17:39
Speaker 1: of the strong female character, always having to be as
17:42
Speaker 1: combat proficient as Black Widow. You Know is a unique story.
17:46
Speaker 1: She wasn't dismissed by the narrative as weak willed or
17:48
Speaker 1: stupid for trying to be nice, nor did she die
17:51
Speaker 1: a martyr, even if she'd planned on it. At first.
17:54
Speaker 1: She was kind and she survived to see that kindness
17:57
Speaker 1: vindicated at the end of everything she'd suffer to get
18:00
Speaker 1: to that point. You Know's victory held an important lesson
18:04
Speaker 1: Kindness is not a weakness. It was kindness that killed
18:06
Speaker 1: Sen for good. The rejection of her sacrifice just for
18:09
Speaker 1: sacrifice's sake, you know, was strong without sacrificing her gentleness.
18:14
Speaker 1: When I finished and really looked at the game, I
18:16
Speaker 1: recognized that she was strong because she's so kind. She
18:19
Speaker 1: bore the weight of the sendings and made the decision
18:21
Speaker 1: to become a summoner because she saw sorrow and wanted
18:24
Speaker 1: to ease it, even knowing much of that decision was
18:26
Speaker 1: also rooted in following her father's legacy. The main driving
18:30
Speaker 1: force behind her decisions was deceptively simple. She just wanted
18:34
Speaker 1: to help people however she could. And that was honestly incredible.
18:39
Speaker 1: And when I was doing the research for this, sometimes
18:43
Speaker 1: I just forget how yeah she did, like she challenged
18:47
Speaker 1: her faith and she really pushed herself to Those were
18:50
Speaker 1: tough decisions she was making and tough things she was challenging,
18:54
Speaker 1: and she was the one that was leading that, and
18:58
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. I can see why I loved her. Also,
19:03
Speaker 1: I have to end with final quote because I loved
19:10
Speaker 1: it so much. So this has nothing to do with
19:13
Speaker 1: you to really, but you know, some of these games,
19:17
Speaker 1: they're Japanese, so the dubs can be a little funny
19:22
Speaker 1: in how they turn out. Titus has a scene where
19:25
Speaker 1: he passes out in the snow and they're all climbing
19:29
Speaker 1: up this big mountain. He just passes out, and this
19:31
Speaker 1: is where he learns he's a dream, so big news,
19:35
Speaker 1: and he wakes up and they're all freaking out. He says,
19:40
Speaker 1: nothing like a good nap, Time to go, and they
19:45
Speaker 1: just sort of accept it. I love that so much.
19:50
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just still just randomly remember that nothing like
19:53
Speaker 1: a good nap. That is Lippi. It's true. I'm asleep
20:00
Speaker 1: thinking about that. Well, thanks as always for letting me
20:06
Speaker 1: nerd out in these episodes. This was really fun and
20:09
Speaker 1: I got I got in touch with a bunch of
20:10
Speaker 1: friends who I played it with and I was like,
20:12
Speaker 1: did you hear They're like no, I played that game
20:17
Speaker 1: forever and I was like, well, it turns out you
20:19
Speaker 1: shouldn't want to get Titus in the second one. What wuck? Yeah,
20:23
Speaker 1: So it was really fun. I appreciate it as always.
20:26
Speaker 1: If you have any thoughts about this listeners, or any
20:28
Speaker 1: suggestions for future people we should cover, please let us
20:31
Speaker 1: know our emails Stephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
20:34
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast
20:36
Speaker 1: are on Instagram and TikTok. At Stuff I've Never Told You.
20:39
Speaker 1: We're also on YouTube, we have tea public store, and
20:41
Speaker 1: we have a book you can get wherever you get
20:42
Speaker 1: your books. Thanks as always too, our super duce Christina,
20:45
Speaker 1: our executive producer My and your contruder Joey. Thank you
20:47
Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I've Never Told
20:49
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