Latest / Dubious Creatures Presents / The Dubious Book Club Podcast Episode 9 - Daggermouth Part 1

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The Dubious Book Club Podcast Episode 9 - Daggermouth Part 1 · Dubious Creatures Presents

0:00
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the GPS Book Club
0:02
podcast. I'm Aubrey, one of your DPS
0:05
creatures. Say hello, another DPS creature.
0:09
Yeah, that's right. You're trapped in here with me.
0:12
Just the two of us this month, yeah, as we discuss Daggerhart
0:18
by HM Wolf Dagger. Mouth Daggerhart is the RPG by
0:25
Critical Role, but I forgive you because let's face it, the only
0:30
thing interesting about this book is that fucking title.
0:36
I would argue that they're more interested.
0:37
There are there are a lot of interesting things in this book.
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But quick, quick note before we really get into things, is the
0:44
content warnings for this book just so you, the listener can be
0:51
you can there's a word I'm looking for?
0:57
No. OK for those of you at home, if
1:02
you are sensitive to any of the following topics which credit to
1:10
the author of the book they list before the things even get
1:14
started. Death, murder and or torture.
1:19
Emotional, psychological of physical abuse.
1:22
Mentions and conversations of sexual assault.
1:26
Mentions and conversations of child abuse, suicidal ideation
1:30
and alcohol abuse, open door sex and sexual activities, graphic
1:35
language, oppression, classism and sexism.
1:39
Yep. All the good stuff.
1:42
This is a bit of a doozy. Dystopian fiction.
1:46
Yeah. So again, if you if you're
1:52
feeling any sort of way about any of these, especially given
1:56
doe I don't know recent events in this.
2:00
Gestures of the world. You know, in this fucking Metal
2:05
Gear Solid game we all seem to be trapped in.
2:11
Yeah, maybe sit this one out. I didn't actually look, but I
2:21
would have liked it like in the beginning of the book.
2:23
Like a little glossary of terms. That would require no no, see,
2:29
the problem is this this this book.
2:34
Daggermouth actually has the opposite problem to Never
2:37
Knight. Whereas Never Knight would not
2:44
shut up about its world building, to Daggermouth has
2:48
taken the novel opposite approach of you will know
2:51
nothing and you will be happy about it.
2:55
But to be fair, that is that is very audience surrogate of it
3:01
because quite often really don't know a lot either.
3:05
What the fuck is a dagger mouse? Like I know what it is, but like
3:09
where did that name come from? What is that about?
3:11
Where did this tradition start? All of these things and more.
3:14
You will not find out, so strap in folks.
3:23
Yeah, you know, everything opens up with We meet Grayson Sorrell.
3:29
Yeah, during a public execution. Great things to start your book
3:34
on. A public live streamed execution
3:39
for crimes against the motherland, specifically for
3:50
conspiracy against the heart. Illegal communication between
3:53
the rings, fornication and love across faction lines.
4:01
God, the Book. Really Lays.
4:04
A divergent. It's been a while.
4:09
Nice to see your Nice to see that despite me killing you and
4:14
bearing you next to Hunger Games, you've still somehow
4:17
managed to crawl out Pet Sematary style.
4:20
Yeah, this is a In case that was already readily apparent,
4:26
Daggermouth is a duology set in the city state known as the
4:35
Newfound Haven. And it is ostensibly divided up
4:42
into separate rings, the heart of which is, well, well, the
4:51
heart where the masked elite, the Vera, all live and do
5:00
something. Honestly, it's it's not quite
5:03
clear. Dystopian elite things.
5:06
Dystopian elite things. Lots of sex and hypocrisy and
5:13
cock and ball torture. I don't know.
5:15
I don't know what rich people do.
5:22
Yeah, but we made Grace and Sorrell the names in this book.
5:33
This is how I know the why a dystopian fiction is making a
5:37
comeback. The fucking names of this book.
5:39
If you think Grayson Sorel sounds a bit goofy, oh, just you
5:43
wait. There are there are a few.
5:47
There are also just a couple of like just pretty like it sounds
5:51
fancy, but it doesn't like sound out there because you got like
5:54
Callum. Callum's a pretty normal name.
5:58
Who the fuck have you been? My imaginary create characters I
6:04
write. I think that is ruin me for
6:06
names. Yeah, I, yeah, yeah.
6:12
I don't think you get a leg to stand on here.
6:15
They also work with a lot of Gen.
6:17
Z and Gen. Alpha that have just weird
6:19
fucking names. So yeah, Grayson Sorrell is the
6:28
son of one President Maximus. God, I'm sorry, was Darth bad
6:38
guy already taken? Holy shit, holy shit.
6:43
I know he's not meant to be anything more than a fucking
6:47
stand in for every single fascist dictator you've wanted
6:52
to secretly imagine getting fed into a wood chipper, but holy
6:56
shit. Wow, that's just.
7:02
But you remember the name. I remember it mostly because I
7:07
felt like I had to physically to sit down after seeing it anyway,
7:16
so yeah. So Grayson is the executioner of
7:21
the Vera. His job is basically to.
7:26
Execute. You shoot people in the head.
7:30
Well, it's being broadcast live across the newfound haven for
7:34
the crime of something. Honestly, it's mostly it is
7:40
almost entirely for show. And the book is very the book is
7:46
not very subtle. And on the one hand, I'm going
7:53
to get into why that both does and doesn't work.
7:56
But for now, we should probably like keep summarizing events.
8:00
Yeah, but yeah, he, he fucks up. He hesitates before he executes
8:09
the second prisoner. Because, you know, he's got
8:15
feelings. Yeah, yeah, that's what happens
8:22
when your dad's fucking Sith Lord, you know, Seriously, like,
8:29
holy shit. Like the the levels of just the
8:37
the sheer fucking metric force of the angst that hits you
8:44
within the first few pages is this is a new record.
8:50
Honestly, I've never been so thrust into someone's middle
8:57
school creative writing project so fast.
9:09
Also, the text does this thing where like it, it does this a
9:13
lot. Just it does that thing where it
9:19
ends a paragraph with just a single sentence break and then
9:22
starts a new paragraph. And I know it's meant to be like
9:26
a dramatic thing, but it does it so often that I actually found
9:29
myself counting how many times it does it per chapter.
9:34
Of course you would. Yeah, on average about like 5 or
9:39
6 times per chapter, and every chapter is.
9:43
Chapters aren't very long, but they're long enough.
9:46
Yeah, and at the end of the chapter he's essentially being
9:53
pulled off by Sis Lord Dad. I'm just going to call him Lord
9:59
Dad from now on because I can't call him his name.
10:02
That that's, that's a bridge too far.
10:06
I'm sorry. I draw the line at maximus.
10:10
I draw the line like if your name is Maximus, if you are not
10:15
an actual Roman centurion, get the fuck out of here.
10:19
Leave. You have no business being in
10:21
this Millennium. And then essentially told that
10:26
he is going to be married off as punishment.
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Yeah, yeah. So Grayson's life ain't great,
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isn't great. It's really not.
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We get a, we get a, we get a closer look into as words.
10:45
We get a closer look as to why later on.
10:48
But like, suffice it to say that like, no one in the setting is
10:53
having a good time except for Lord Dad.
10:54
He's having the time of his fucking life.
10:57
Yeah, apparently. Yeah, Lord Dad is fucking like
11:03
having a grand old time at everyone's expense, but still.
11:08
It's like Sebastian level shit. I know right?
11:14
Feel like Sebastian would do really well in the.
11:17
Yeah, he would, yeah. That should tell the also, why
11:24
are they called the Vera? We don't know.
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And they they're not in a hurry to explain.
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But another thing that's going to be important later is that
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all of the elites, all the Vera, they wear masks, which is part
11:44
of the whole like social culture, if I'm going to be
11:51
honest. I'm going.
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To be honest, it's mainly there because I think the author
11:55
probably came up with the idea and it sounded cool, so they
11:58
just ran with it and. Give some good plot moments.
12:03
Yeah, but it we'll see the contrivances rear their ugly
12:08
head later. But anyway, yeah.
12:10
So we meet Grayson, we meet Lord Dad.
12:17
We find out that Grayson is also secretly smuggling medicine into
12:23
the other rings as part of some penance I guess.
12:30
Yeah. Yeah, Grayson is.
12:37
He's a character. He's so sad.
12:43
The fact that you use that tone of voice while describing his
12:48
only defining trait is, oh boy, we, we don't have time.
12:54
We don't have time. We're still on Chapter 1.
13:02
Yeah, unfortunately it's very me bait.
13:06
He's so fucking baby girl. He really is.
13:10
Yeah, he's. So just like.
13:13
Oh, whoa, it's me. Oh, my life sucks.
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And I immediately, I immediately took one look at all that and
13:23
it's like, oh God, I know several people who would
13:28
automatically jump his bones on that alone.
13:33
Yeah, yeah. So anyway, if Misfit was here,
13:39
she would back me up. Well, Misfit's not here.
13:45
You're you're locked in here with me.
13:50
But then anyway, we also. Yeah.
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Yeah, so secondary, would you like to do the honors of saying
13:56
her fuck ass name? Because I don't think I can.
13:59
For nothing is shadara, kale or kale.
14:05
Can you just? Say that again.
14:06
Can you just say that again for the audience?
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Shadara Kale. Shadera kale AKA shade.
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Yeah. God.
14:16
This is this is dystopia. I don't know what you want.
14:19
I want people to stop sounding like Sonic the Hedgehog.
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OCS. That would be a good *.
14:29
No, this is dystopia. I think that's required.
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So say fucking Sonic the Hedgehog over here.
14:37
Is she Shadow? Whatever she's old steal the
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hedge cold steal the hedgehog over here is a is a particular
14:51
dagger mouth. She is a mercenary assassin type
14:57
thing. It's not made very clear,
15:00
honestly. Assassin for hire.
15:03
Yeah, she specifically lives in the boundary, which is, you
15:08
know, it's it's District 12. It, it's the shit, it's the shit
15:14
year. Like, you know, the air is
15:17
poisoned. Everybody's scrounging for basic
15:20
supplies. Everyone's sick and everyone's
15:23
dying and everyone's hungry. And everyone's miserable.
15:27
Yeah. So of course there's a Society
15:31
of contract killers that are here because of course, of
15:37
course they are. And she's going to see her boss.
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Yeah, a guy named, for fuck sake, Jager Nolan.
15:56
Wolf. So the reason I have a bit of a
16:01
pet peeve about names, it's because names are very important
16:07
in world building. Names are indicative of culture,
16:12
of tradition, of a family and lineage.
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And that can do a lot to color your world building.
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It is a very, it is a very useful shorthand for setting the
16:29
tone and the feeling of your, you know, whatever you're
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setting is all about very early on.
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And, you know, some people obviously go all out.
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You know, there's lots of Tolkien nerds out there that
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like create entire con langs just for the purpose of like,
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you know, making people from different places have different
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evocative names and titles and whatnot.
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I have never read a dystopia published in the last 20 years
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that has not gone out of its way to try and create an
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encyclopedic list of every podcast, ridiculous over the top
17:17
multi syllabic name and then just sprinkle it everywhere like
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the edgelord fairy is in town. I, I can't man.
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I can't this world. We're so we're only, we're only
17:40
two chapters in and I'm fucking dying.
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Yeah, yeah. And I mean, he gives her the job
17:47
to kill Grayson. Yeah, OK, cool.
17:52
I mean the plots got to start somehow it.
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Starts on page 20. Yeah, like, I don't know, they
17:59
they set it up to be like this big thing.
18:02
They don't say like who? They don't give you a lot, they
18:09
don't give you a lot. Like it's mostly just we learn
18:13
two things about Shade. Shade fucking we learn.
18:21
We learn a couple things about Assassin Lady, and that is she
18:26
is terminally pissed off. She hates the cereals, which I
18:36
mean she has personal reasons, but honestly Lord Dad's brood
18:40
just seem eminently hateable so I can't really bolter for the.
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I mean, she says, the bonus of dead parents.
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Yeah, the bonus of dead. That's right, they died of
18:51
protagonist syndrome. Yes.
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Or something. I think they got publicly
18:56
executed for something. Again, it's not really they
19:02
there's a lot of background information.
19:04
It was love outside of their, you know, ring.
19:07
Right, the high divergent. One of these days I'm going to
19:13
have to sit down like the modern crop of authors and explain to
19:17
them how caste systems actually fucking work.
19:20
Just like historically, if you execute everybody for fucking as
19:26
dystopian as that is it very rare it it as much.
19:32
Far be it for me to criticize the realism of the setting, but
19:34
like if you literally execute everybody for fucking it, things
19:38
fall apart really fast. Yeah.
19:43
It's an unfortunate necessity of the human condition is that we
19:46
are all inevitably horny on Maine.
19:50
It's why dictatorships usually fall apart immediately, and why
19:55
books like this exist. Anyway, moving on.
20:02
Just. You know, she gets the contract,
20:04
she accepts, we get like a little bit more about the life
20:08
and the boundary as she walks to her little hideout, and we also
20:13
get the fact that the oldest Sorel broker was murdered and no
20:23
one knows why or who did it. Yeah, we also meet Jameson.
20:31
Yes, he will be our side piece for the evening.
20:37
He's a very good side piece. You just say that because the
20:42
next bit is immediately a sex scene where we get a nice
20:45
description of his cock, among other things.
20:50
I am simple and easy to please. No doy, Aubrey, with all due
21:01
respect, no doy. So yeah, it it's pretty.
21:06
The running theme in this unrequited love is a pretty it's
21:10
a running theme in this book. And Jameson, obviously, you
21:14
know, despite Shedra, only her true love is vengeance.
21:22
God, yeah, yeah, we'll get to that is.
21:28
So Jameson obviously doesn't want her to go.
21:31
She's obviously going to do it anyway because do we got to get
21:34
this fucking train off the rails somehow?
21:40
And we get into after this family dinner at the cereal
21:51
household. Well, OK.
21:54
But we we did skip over one thing.
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Yeah. We met.
21:58
After yeah, Callum Fain, who is once again in the running for my
22:05
character, who I really wish was the main character in some
22:09
aspect, because him being in the same room as our main
22:13
deuteragonist proves how all of the charisma went to this dude.
22:18
Yes, but at least we get, I will say we at least get chapters
22:23
that are from Callum's perspective, which I really
22:26
appreciate. Yeah, it does jump around
22:29
perspective wise a lot. Callum is part of the Vera and
22:34
he's an old Academy buddy of Grayson's.
22:39
It's just that he is, well, essentially, he runs the
22:44
entertainment district. Yeah.
22:47
Just an absolute baller, really. Like, Yep, he's the guy who
22:53
knows a guy who can fix your door if you know what.
22:56
I mean exactly. Yeah, and he, he's great.
23:01
Honestly I I like Callum. His name still is ridiculous,
23:06
but I'm willing to give him a pass on account of the fact that
23:08
he's he's really the only character in this fucking book
23:13
that seems to have more than two dimensions, if for no other
23:18
reason than because he are he he occupies that like crime Lord
23:23
archetype. Yeah, crime Lord like mafia.
23:27
So with a heart kind of thing. Yeah, we'll.
23:31
Do anything for it. Yeah, you know, you know, I
23:34
like, we all have our favorite tropes.
23:36
This is one of mine. And he and Grayson have a
23:41
conversation where Grayson talks about the vow.
23:45
And, you know, there's a lot of talking around things that are
23:51
going on in the background. You know, both of them pretty
23:57
much not saying upfront that they're trying to do things to
24:00
undermine the Vera. Yeah, Which I can't help but
24:07
wonder, is this, is this actually because there are
24:17
themes of a social discontent in this book, or because we need
24:23
Grayson to not be a complete monster so that we can
24:27
presumably get hit railed over a bedpost later?
24:33
I, I do think there are themes of social discontent especially
24:39
Yeah, but I mean, I spent a lot of time scrolling through HM
24:45
Wolf's social media the last couple of days, just sort of
24:49
reading posts and talks a lot about the.
24:54
What inspired her to write this is a lot about the current
24:57
world, everything going on and feeling powerless and wanting to
25:02
feel like you have some sort of power to make the world a better
25:07
place. Yeah, I don't.
25:09
Well, first of all, I don't disagree with that notion in the
25:12
slightest. You're not going to hear me
25:16
advocating for the fascists in any way, shape or form.
25:19
It's just it's more of a personal opinion thing.
25:29
But like, you want to, you want to portray a world where you got
25:38
social mobility against these fuckers.
25:40
You can't. You got to stop portraying them
25:42
as competent. It's not even that that's
25:47
unrealistic. It's just that like having a
25:52
mono dominant, overwhelming, you know, group of goose stepping
25:57
motherfuckers to rail against is part and parcel of a lot of
26:01
great fiction. It's especially in these kind of
26:06
dystopias. They're simultaneously ultra
26:09
competent and all knowing while simultaneously being corrupt.
26:14
And it's a balance. It's it's it's a balance and
26:21
it's it's hard to crack, especially because you want your
26:24
evil empire to be dangerous and not full of stormtroopers.
26:27
Well, that the Star Wars kind, not the Nazi kind.
26:35
And like this book in terms of like whether or not the Vera are
26:40
grim dark or grim dork. Yeah, I mean, like as somebody
26:48
who is actually running ATTRPG campaign that's set in a world
26:54
that he's falling towards totalitarianism and fascism and
26:58
how we like resist that and push back against that.
27:02
It's he needs a balance because you you want to make it just
27:08
competent enough that it's, it's not comical when the players
27:13
just absolutely run roughshod all over their plans and you
27:20
want it to feel like a threat. Yeah, I think the main problem,
27:26
ironically enough, is Lord Dad, I'm going to be real with you.
27:31
He's so he's so comically evil. I'm not saying that like dudes
27:40
like that don't exist in real life.
27:41
It's more just that he's so comically evil and yet he's also
27:45
simultaneously single handedly running the show.
27:50
Yeah. And it's like he the heat, I, I
27:53
joke about him being a Sith Lord, but that kind of is the
27:55
energy he gives off, you know? Just a little.
27:58
Yeah, he's got, he's got big Emperor Palpatine in his prime
28:02
vibes. And it's like, but the problem
28:06
is at least with Palpatine, you know, we got to see him
28:08
mastermind a lot of stuff. This dude doesn't mastermind
28:12
shit. But I mean, Speaking of how he
28:17
does rule, we do kind of see that at the the dinner.
28:23
Yeah. Blacks.
28:26
Sorry, discussions of portrayals of fascism and fiction side.
28:30
Why is the suit black? It's a great question.
28:35
Yeah, like they specifically describe the food and one of his
28:38
like a soup as black as the night.
28:40
And it's like, what? Why?
28:42
Why is the soup black? You can't.
28:47
You can't just gloss over that like normally.
28:50
It's either it's either got active charcoal as an ingredient
28:53
or it's like some weird offshoot of blood pudding.
28:59
What the fuck? Why are you the failure of
29:00
fucking Klingons? Sorry, just the black soup
29:11
through me for a second. Generally speaking, most potable
29:16
liquids, but for human consultant or not as black as
29:18
the night. Odd tangent, I know, but it kind
29:27
of goes back to what I say. Like, they didn't need to make
29:29
the soup back black. They chose to make the soup
29:32
black because I again, we cannot have a moment of fucking
29:36
singular joy in this entire fucking book.
29:42
Yeah, we get to watch how much of A bastard his dad is.
29:47
Yeah, so the other cereals include?
29:52
Lira. Lira and his and yeah, his wife
29:57
Elara was actually the one who came up with all these weird
30:00
rules about masks in the 1st place.
30:02
And Lyra who? We'll get into Lyra as Grayson's
30:10
sister and his younger sister specifically.
30:13
And we'll get into Lyra's deal in a second because it becomes
30:17
relevant, well, more relevant later.
30:21
Also, we also get a healthy dose of sexism.
30:25
Yeah. Because of course we do.
30:26
But I mean, yeah. You know, of course we also get
30:36
they they are absolutely convinced that a Daggermouth
30:40
killed Brooker. Yeah, and like Grayson is so
30:55
let's get us all fucked up I'm. Like.
31:01
Yep, see there we go. There we go.
31:04
Yep, he is like produced in a lab for you and those of another
31:16
of a certain specification in fictional characters.
31:24
I'd I'd like to talk about what other qualities he has, but I
31:27
can't because he doesn't have any other qualities.
31:30
He's just traumatized and overcompensating for that fact.
31:42
Anyway, is the ship name for these guys like Shades of Grey?
31:54
Don't know, but I would. That would be kind of hilarious
31:57
if it was. Because I swear to God, if it is
32:00
I'm I, I give up. I think I'm just done.
32:10
I did not see specific ship names in the authors.
32:14
Well, there's social media. Given that people in the book
32:18
both refer to our deuteragonists as Grey and Shade specifically
32:26
several times throughout the text.
32:29
Hey HM Wolf, do you need a ship name?
32:34
We got one to offer you. Don't drag me into this.
32:43
Yeah, Also, yeah, yeah. Lord Dad.
32:45
Evil, evil. Evil.
32:47
Abusive. Yeah, evil, evil, abusive evil.
32:51
That again, it's it's so it's so he's so just down horrendous
33:00
that it's almost kind of fun to watch.
33:04
Like you can practically see him making a super villain speech.
33:08
Yeah, like if this was this was a movie like the like the actor
33:13
who they cast for him, which is the chewing the scenery.
33:17
Why am I picturing Charles dance for some reason?
33:20
Charles Dance would be a really good pick.
33:22
Charles Dance is just everyone's disapproving dad.
33:26
She does it really well. I'm sure he's capable of doing
33:30
other roles, but I have never seen him in anything where he is
33:32
not actively telling his son that you should have never been
33:36
born. I did make him a day.
33:41
Make him Rowan's grand sire, yeah.
33:44
Yeah, I remember that. It was fun.
33:48
Yeah, that's more early San Francisco game.
33:51
Laura, their folks, that's how me and Aubrey initially met and
33:54
I have been enabling this woman ever since.
33:58
So back, back to the fucking plot.
34:05
Next couple chapters are literally just Shadra, you know,
34:09
infiltrating the heart. It's not really important.
34:17
Grayson sending supplies out for for people like there's a
34:23
there's a moment where they kind of cross paths but don't realize
34:27
it. Yeah.
34:28
And then eventually she witnesses another one of the
34:33
public executions, has a bit of a PTSD flashback, which if I had
34:41
a nickel for every protagonist that had a had a panic attack
34:49
upon seeing a public execution in a unjust society, I'd have
34:55
two nickels. This is a lot, but it's weird
34:59
it's happened twice. It's weird that it's happened
35:01
twice. Yeah, it's I feel like you and
35:03
Mia Corvare should probably be seeing the same group, you know,
35:09
And if you talk about getting a personality, because again,
35:16
Chandra also suffers from a terminal case of a needs must
35:22
when the plot needs to happen. She she is angry and she wants
35:28
to kill, among other things, kill all the Sarah's and the
35:33
Vera in general, which, you know what, fair girl, I like.
35:38
I'm with you there. It's just.
35:44
And then in Chapter 7 we get the first time they try to murder
35:50
each other. The meet cute.
35:54
It's the meet cute. And they're fucking taunting
35:57
each other the entire time. Yes, like I half expected one of
36:03
them to go. Nothing.
36:04
Personnel, kid. It's.
36:09
So, but it's personal to both of them.
36:12
This is meant to be such a serious fucking moment and it's
36:15
completely undermined by the fucking fight banter.
36:24
I enjoy a good banter. I know you do.
36:27
That's the thing. Like, I know most of my I know
36:29
most of my critiques can be deflected with you are not the
36:34
target audience, and I get that. But I'm here, OK?
36:40
I'm here to tell you that fight banter like this only really
36:43
works if we've been given any reason in any other context that
36:52
this is that this is appropriate for the tone.
36:57
Which, given everything we've seen and experienced thus far,
37:00
really fucking isn't it. No one in the entire world of
37:04
Daggermouth has. Fun Callum does.
37:10
Yeah, well, Callum, let's face it, Callum doesn't have fun
37:14
either. Callum facilitates the sexy
37:16
times, which seem to be the only form of emotional release
37:19
anybody in this universe has just based on it.
37:27
It's a pet peeve of mine when when authors try to drive home
37:32
how just dark and grim and hopeless the setting is by
37:39
basically making damn sure that nobody in the setting has any
37:45
way of letting off steam other than sex and murder, because
37:52
that's just not how humans are. Generally.
37:57
The humans, illogical bastards that we are, will, even in the
38:01
face of all reason and logic, find ways to make light of
38:08
situations and do things that don't really matter much in the
38:11
grand scheme of things, usually because the atmosphere around
38:17
them is so oppressive. And humanizing your setting can
38:23
actually go a long way towards making a dystopian setting feel
38:28
that much more soul crushing because like, just the sheer
38:31
amount of a copium everybody has to huff to just get through the
38:34
day. But when when you're setting is
38:39
just blood, sex, death, and abuse, you get desensitized to
38:44
it real quick. Violence stops having any real
38:48
meaning because, well, you're seeing it everywhere.
38:55
Has a response to almost everything.
38:58
Sex is mostly just for the you know the oh boy, hope I can read
39:03
this text 1 handed of it all. And any further moments of
39:09
legitimate intimacy tend to get lost in the sauce because of it.
39:13
Like, it's just, I get that you want I, I get that you're what
39:21
you're going for here. I do.
39:25
But you lost me. And I suspect most of the
39:29
audience, the other half the audience doesn't really care
39:32
about the setting. They care about watching these
39:34
two fuck. And the only reason why they're
39:38
continuing through the passage is mainly, again, to watch
39:41
Shadra and Grayson do the nasty because of the whole enemies,
39:47
the lovers thing, which has somehow taken over the entire
39:50
literary landscape. And, you know, that's fair.
39:55
But it does feel like the author, based on what I know of
39:59
them from social media and based on, you know, intentions of this
40:02
book, did genuinely want to say something.
40:04
And I don't know, I just feel like, I feel like it's a shame
40:11
that they don't because of the constraints of the genre.
40:16
That they have painted themselves into.
40:22
Yeah. OK, soapbox moment over.
40:25
Let's get back to it. The fights kind of is a draw,
40:34
but Grayson is shocked and kind of bleeding out on the floor and
40:39
he takes off his mask. The big taboo and you know, kind
40:45
of is with his eyes just begging.
40:47
She needed to end it, and she doesn't because she hesitates.
40:58
And then, almost as if on cue, Lord Dad and the fuzz arrive on
41:04
the scene. Because again, we will get these
41:10
two people to fuck yes, no matter how many plot
41:14
contrivances we need to throw at the audience.
41:18
And there's one of the big thing is the law about the masks.
41:22
Yeah, which Lord, dead, in a move that probably isn't as 4D
41:28
chess as he thinks it is, decides based on Olara's legal
41:34
counsel that the best way to salvage this situation isn't to
41:39
execute. Literally isn't to do the thing
41:44
that he has consistently done throughout the entirety of the
41:47
text. Which like, you know, maybe if I
41:53
knew more about the actual relationship between the heart
41:59
and the boundary beyond just like the IT being the slums to
42:03
the fucking gated community. Yeah.
42:07
This would make more sense, but I don't.
42:10
Yeah, no, I don't. I mean like I, I, I really do
42:13
like agree with that. I wish we had more world
42:16
building and I wish we had more like set up for like how things
42:23
got this way. And I it also comes as me, as
42:27
somebody who writes and enjoys world building, I want to know
42:30
how do we find ourselves in this situation?
42:34
Yeah, like what your your Lord dad, Why the fuck do you care
42:39
about public relations? You you live stream people
42:42
getting shot in the back of the head as a hobby as state fucking
42:49
policy. Like why suddenly?
42:51
Why suddenly? I mean like the other half of
42:55
the equation is basically like he'd have to execute his son and
42:58
heir because of how the law is. But like, again, you've proven
43:02
very quickly that you don't give a shit about the laws.
43:06
Yeah, I think, I think like what they're really trying to go for
43:11
is the the whole they are trying to pretend like even if they're
43:16
at the top, they are still following the laws, of course,
43:19
because they wrote them. There's been no evidence of
43:23
that. There's been no evidence in any
43:26
kind of civic truck. I feel like them trying to play
43:30
PR would make sense if if there has been any evidence that PR
43:37
was even a factor in this. Like nightmare totalitarian
43:41
state. Like, nobody in the boundary
43:49
seems to give a shit. In fact, there's actively like
43:51
rebel factions in the Boundary. We know that much.
43:55
It's Vera. Yeah, but the Vera ain't that
43:57
big. We know that much like the the
44:02
Vera is really is quite literally just a a bunch of like
44:06
rich families. And in the same scene, which, by
44:12
the way, we're in Lord Dad's POV here.
44:16
Yeah. Which was, I'll admit, that
44:20
wasn't on my bingo card. You don't.
44:24
You don't have to see in these kind of books a chapter, even a
44:27
small one, devoted to the main Sith Lord's POV.
44:32
So OK, that that's new. But yeah, he basically tells the
44:38
family you basically as part of this whole contrivance, tells
44:44
the family that Grayson was initially supposed to get
44:46
married off to, to go # sand. So like, again, what again, I
44:56
don't understand that it it it feels contrived.
45:00
It it feels incredibly contrived.
45:02
It feels like there is no reason why these two should be put in
45:08
any romantic situation other than the plot demands it.
45:13
And then Shade goes and accidentally starts a revolution
45:15
in prison. Yeah, let's talk about that
45:18
scene because that I actually have nothing bad to say about
45:24
that scene it. Was a very good scene.
45:26
No, it was very good. It was OK.
45:28
First of all, if any of you are reading along with us and you
45:34
get to this bit, this is the part where a lot of those
45:35
trigger warnings come in. Yes.
45:38
It's bad. It is honestly it this is this
45:47
was the good shit. This was the good grim dark
45:50
shit. And I mean, and I mean that
45:56
sincerely, but it is still. It could have been taken out of
45:59
the 41st Millennium. Yeah, it is.
46:01
Still, it is disturbing on a lot of levels, and I liked it
46:11
because I'm also a little fucked up.
46:13
Yeah, because I noticed. Yes, yes, I did play Warhammer
46:18
when I was a teenager. How could you tell?
46:24
But basically she's put in the gulag.
46:32
Essentially she's chained up with a bunch of other prisoners.
46:34
And when they find out that she took a shot at Grace and
46:41
Sorrell, you know, son of son of evil, son of Doy and she's.
46:47
At this point if he's dead or not.
46:49
No, because she does actually shoot him.
46:52
It's just he survives. Obviously.
46:55
They get pretty fired up and the guards react in the only way
47:00
that, you know, fucking stormtroopers can, and they
47:03
start executing people. And Shaydra basically has to
47:07
watch as these people who are like fucking, they're pounding
47:10
at the walls of their cells and they're singing like
47:13
revolutionary anthems are executed on mass.
47:18
Yeah. While she begs for them to stop.
47:25
It's a very evocative scene. It's very powerful and I God, I
47:32
wish we had more of that, but we don't.
47:34
We have to get back to the enemies to lovers subplot.
47:43
So yeah. By the next scene, Grayson comes
47:48
back to the length of the living and is told what's going on.
47:56
And he's, well, he has two, he has two modes, angry and
48:01
brooding. So he's in angry mode and
48:04
eventually the switch will flip over to brooding mode.
48:08
Also, we kind of glossed over it because it doesn't really have
48:11
any bearing in the plot whatsoever.
48:12
He also kind of has a side action thing going on.
48:17
Yeah, just, you know, getting out that that stress.
48:22
Again, I hate my feelings about how sex becomes incredibly
48:27
boring when it's literally the only form of emotional catharsis
48:30
in this entire fucking book. So I won't continue to beat a
48:34
dead horny horse. Let's move on.
48:39
So they get a sit down with Lord Dad.
48:41
Lord Dad explains. Congratulations on your
48:43
nuptials. They are both understandably not
48:49
OK with this, but Grayson is too traumatized to stand up to Lord
48:54
Dad and also he fucking pulls out like an Uno reverse card.
48:59
Live footage of Jameson. Yep.
49:04
I don't know. I don't know.
49:07
Again, it's one of those instances of him simultaneously
49:10
being a super villain and also weirdly competent.
49:13
I. Mean you you could put that down
49:16
to like having some sort of like spy net, not even spy network,
49:22
but just drones who operate on computer programs.
49:25
It's not beyond believability. It's just, again, the book is
49:29
basically straight up telling us no, this is going to happen.
49:33
I don't care what arguments you have to the contrary.
49:36
Pretty much, Yeah. So that.
49:42
Well, fuck, I guess she's getting married at gunpoint.
49:46
Congratulations. Yay.
49:51
And then there's the bit where they're fucking like they're
49:53
initially cohabitating and they try to kill each other again
49:58
and. 1st 1st We get a chapter from Jameson.
50:01
Yeah, I don't. Care.
50:07
Again, the amount, the amount of fucks I give over the fate of
50:12
character who's only there to be the obligatory the point of the
50:18
love triangle. I I, I don't, I don't care.
50:23
I Jameson is a non entity as far as I'm concerned.
50:27
He only exists in the plots for the sake of spicing up the
50:31
romance arc. Yeah, and we we get like a
50:35
little bit more because he goes and talks to the the rest of the
50:38
dagger mouths about the whole thing.
50:40
Why are they called dagger mouths?
50:42
Is that ever explained? Not.
50:44
That I'm aware. OK, moving on.
50:52
I'm saying that a lot. Yeah, like.
50:59
Yeah, now it's the when they go and cohabitate and try to murder
51:03
each other again, but they're both pretty fucked up
51:06
physically, so it doesn't go well.
51:12
And you know, his apartment's bugged.
51:16
If it seems like I'm glossing over a lot here, it's because
51:20
not much happens in the lead up. Yeah, chatting and getting to
51:27
know each other or fighting. Fighting.
51:30
There's the obligatory cohabitation scene where Grayson
51:38
ends up cooking for her when she nearly sets his apartment on
51:44
fire, trying to make herself food.
51:48
He's. Drunk as shit.
51:51
Yeah. And he's never cooked before.
51:55
Again, I feel like the circumstances of this fucking I,
51:59
I feel like the adorableness of the movement is slightly
52:02
undercut by, you know, the horrifying circumstances
52:07
surrounding the whole effect. Again, like they need to stop
52:12
putting this shit in my dystopia man, it doesn't work.
52:18
And then we get back, we get to see what the callum's up to.
52:22
Right. Well, Callum is beating the shit
52:24
out of some dude in a background fucking in a backroom fucking
52:28
casino style. Which, you know, cool, more
52:35
power to you. Again, I don't think Calum's
52:41
necessarily. He's just a cool character.
52:43
I don't necessarily think he's very deep, but you know, I would
52:48
honestly that his point of view on this whole situation just
52:52
seems so much more interesting than our actual protagonists.
52:58
I also appreciate all of the art that the author has commissioned
53:05
of all of these characters because it's really good.
53:08
Yeah, the IT does get aesthetic style points, I guess the
53:16
imagery is very like very stylized, but also very
53:22
brutalist. I like, I get, I get the sense
53:26
that HM Wolf definitely had a certain aesthetic in mind when
53:32
she was originally writing this. It's just that aesthetics in a
53:38
in a print medium like the, the audience is going to imagine in
53:44
their brain space what they're going to imagine.
53:46
You know what, like, it's interesting to me like
53:54
description, especially descriptions of like, you know,
53:58
ultra stylized or like ultra evocative scenes specifically.
54:02
And like what the author no doubt is envisioning at a moment
54:05
versus what somebody writing it's could potentially be seeing
54:08
in their mind's eye because they often tend to be two very
54:12
different pictures. Yeah.
54:14
And then we also in this chapter, get to learn about
54:19
Callum's relationship with the Grayson's sister.
54:24
Yeah, not your relationship. Yeah, because oh I love you too
54:29
much to to make you fall for someone.
54:33
Fuck off. I hate this trope.
54:38
It's such a fucking Hollywood trope.
54:40
It only exists to drag out the tension until the inevitable
54:44
third act reversal. But yeah, she also shows up to
54:49
let him know what's going on with Grayson.
54:52
And. Yeah.
54:55
And so we can, you know, have people meet and yeah, Cal can be
55:00
like, yeah, Cal occasionally be smart about this.
55:05
Yeah, you know, meet and discuss and angst and occasionally, you
55:12
know, do a little bit of undressing with the eyes mostly
55:17
and dressing with the eyes. I'm being honest, this everybody
55:22
is so horny. Look, you said it's the only way
55:27
they can get out of their feelings.
55:29
I know, so it makes sense, but at the same time it's like at a
55:33
certain point it just stops. It stops meaning anything.
55:37
Grayson comes back, cooks, and they they kind of have their
55:41
first real chat. We're not trying to murder each
55:46
other. Yeah, and that leads us into the
55:51
second family dinner. Yeah, eventually, because
55:58
Grayson, Grayson gives us the like she gives, they start
56:08
developing an understanding as how I will put it for now.
56:15
And he gives her a mask and then takes her around and shows her
56:21
like all of the the big important things around.
56:24
She learns that they should totally have enough food for
56:28
everyone. Those are some really big places
56:31
where they could make all the food.
56:33
Yeah, which I get it. You know, resource scarcity, You
56:38
know, artificial scarcity is a tactic.
56:40
Like it's not exactly subtle. What bugged me about the chapter
56:45
wasn't so much is the time wasting of it all.
56:48
I actually did like finally getting to see what the fuck any
56:52
of this is actually is supposed to be about.
56:56
It's just more the bit where like Grayson is like, I know I'm
57:00
complicit, I know I'm a monster. It's like dude, so fucking what?
57:08
Like, OK, if it I feel like this sort of contrition would make
57:13
more sense if we had a got to know him longer or B if he had a
57:17
personality outside of just being precious little meow,
57:21
meow. Do people really find this
57:28
Aubrey, Aubrey level with me here?
57:30
Yeah, like just just be real with me here.
57:32
Like, is this is this is this really like what what the people
57:36
want is, is this like, this isn't like some prank that the
57:43
rest of creation is pulling on me, right?
57:44
I'm not being currently filmed right now.
57:46
Yeah. Like people actually find this
57:48
romantic. It's.
57:52
Interesting because spending a lot of time and reading a lot of
57:55
books in here there there is the enemy's.
57:59
The lovers thing is less of like enemies.
58:02
We want to someone who wants to murder us.
58:04
It's it, it comes, it comes down to a lot of like wanting someone
58:11
who like deeply cares and will do things like is willing to go
58:20
to extremes to protect the people they care about.
58:27
It's a, it's a very long, convoluted conversation that you
58:33
know, you can, you can trace pretty far back in media because
58:39
I mean, just just look at look at like Spike and Buffy.
58:48
Yeah, but like, the reason that happened was because Spike was
58:53
originally written as purely an antagonist, and then people
58:56
started thirsting over him, so the network decided to turn him
59:01
romanceable so that they could keep him around longer and not
59:06
have him just be the villain of the week.
59:09
I mean something like that, but still also like the way that
59:12
relationship goes. I think Spike and Buffy is kind
59:15
of a a mold that a lot of enemies to lovers in recent
59:20
books kind of follows even if they don't realize they're
59:25
following it. It's either.
59:27
That like rivals to lovers, you know?
59:31
Lovers still pretty popular. It's like, because that just
59:35
feels more, that just seems to make more sense in my brain.
59:39
Direct antagonist to lovers feels like such a It feels like
59:45
such a fan fiction trope. It kind of is, but also like,
59:49
yet again, it kind of exploded in romanticity with A Court of
59:52
Thorns and Roses with characters like Reese and and.
59:56
Right, of course, because we should all be taking notes from
59:59
fucking Sarah J. Moss that.
1:00:02
Yeah, sure that that's a good role model.
1:00:05
Kind of establish the genre well.
1:00:10
Those books suck. I'm sorry, but they do.
1:00:16
They're bad. Miss Fiddner and I are not
1:00:20
planning, totally not planning entire episode just to talk
1:00:23
about the series before the new book comes out in October.
1:00:28
So that's where that sense of foreboding comes from.
1:00:35
Yeah, man, I have never felt more like a fish out of water.
1:00:42
But you know, like RIP Sliver rivals delivers.
1:00:45
Is it is it the is a trip that is still pretty popular?
1:00:49
Like I I would say characters like Zayden from 4th wing are
1:00:54
and Violet are much closer to rivals delivers because there's
1:00:56
not actually like actual hostility between them.
1:01:00
There's no they draw weapons at each other a few times, but like
1:01:03
there's no actively trying to murder each other up.
1:01:05
And it also wraps very popular in sports romance.
1:01:10
Yeah, I I've seen heated rivalry, OK.
1:01:14
Canadian Hockey. Yahweh.
1:01:16
I was forced to. My wife basically tied me to the
1:01:19
couch and forced me to watch the Canadian hockey.
1:01:21
Yahweh, that was good. Yeah.
1:01:27
These bitches be hella gay and I respect that, but I don't know.
1:01:32
Just like I don't understand when the shift became a
1:01:36
prerequisite of a passionate romance became actually having
1:01:40
to murder each other. I don't.
1:01:44
Tropes of the genre. I just don't get it man, it
1:01:48
feels like something that got transplanted directly from slash
1:01:51
fanfics. Yeah, fanfics in general.
1:01:56
There's a lot in romanticy that definitely has roots in
1:02:00
fanfiction. And I mean, I wouldn't
1:02:03
Daggermouth takes trips of romanticy, but it's not I would
1:02:06
not consider it romanticy. No, this is someone's Hunger
1:02:11
Games fanfic, except without the fucking battle Royale RIP off.
1:02:21
But yeah, we get to our second family dinner and it's somehow
1:02:24
worse than the first. Honestly, I was having a great
1:02:28
time because like. It or the dad?
1:02:34
Lord Dad, man, like, I can't, I, I, I, I'm having this weird
1:02:43
reaction to Lord Dad or like, I know I should hate this guy, but
1:02:48
like, she's so unapologetically evil that I'm kind of just
1:02:56
generally entertained by him. He, he is unmitigatedly the
1:03:03
worst human being ever of all time.
1:03:09
Yeah, just. But I don't know if I'm just
1:03:14
fucking desensitized, but instead of getting like, I feel
1:03:21
like the author wanted me to get, you know, understandably
1:03:24
angry and just anticipating the moment when this dude gets
1:03:27
introduced face first to that wood shepherd I mentioned
1:03:30
earlier. But instead I was almost kind
1:03:35
instead of like awaiting catharsis, I was like, oh man, I
1:03:37
can't wait for the next Lord Dad scene.
1:03:40
It's going to be so fucking comically evil.
1:03:41
I can't wait. I can't wait for this fucking
1:03:44
Luke Lex Luthor wannabe to start yelling A1 at the top of his
1:03:48
lungs again. That's gonna be great.
1:03:54
I'm sorry, I know that's not what that's clearly not what was
1:03:58
intended, but like I just. There's not.
1:04:02
Even that I want him to be. There's the good one.
1:04:04
Infinite, infinitely hateable villain that you can enjoy.
1:04:10
Yeah, like it. It's not even that I want him to
1:04:13
be nuanced per SE. He clearly, like he's clearly I
1:04:17
know what he's meant to be a stand in for, but like I was
1:04:19
just like, man, such a prick. I can't wait to see what he
1:04:26
ruins next. I mean, it's a vibe.
1:04:32
Yeah, it's, it's a vibe and. Unfortunately, he's going to do
1:04:40
bad things. Yeah, the, the family dinner in
1:04:45
particular, there's a scene with, there's a scene with Lyra
1:04:49
in particular with, again, folks, if you're sensitive to
1:04:52
domestic abuse, yeah. Yeah.
1:04:58
I don't really have any notes because again, none of it seems
1:05:02
out of character for Lord Dead. Yeah.
1:05:07
Is that it? Like again, it, it is what it
1:05:09
is, man. The the author very kindly
1:05:12
included a list of trigger warnings that are beginning of
1:05:15
the book. So you can't say that nobody
1:05:19
didn't warn. You can't say that nobody didn't
1:05:23
worry. Is that a double negative?
1:05:29
Maybe I'm professional. I'm a professional, goddamnit.
1:05:36
This book, definitely. It can be a lot and especially
1:05:44
in the this the current state of the world.
1:05:48
I'm the weirdo that watches horror films to relax, so my
1:05:55
barometer for things is fucky. I think I'm just too dead
1:06:01
inside, honestly. I think I was desensitized by
1:06:05
too much exposure to Warhammer at an early age.
1:06:09
It it takes a lot to genuinely shock me, and that's not a good
1:06:13
thing I think. I think that's a me problem.
1:06:22
That's fair. I like, if I'd one thing about
1:06:28
all this, it's just like in fiction we have a tendency with
1:06:36
characters like Lord Dad to make our fascist dictators and their
1:06:47
inner circle weirdly competent. And the reason why we do this is
1:06:55
because the truth is, the real the reroll inspirations of guys
1:07:02
like Lord Dad are such feeble, ridiculous human beings who, if
1:07:09
not for contrivances of luck and social standing, wouldn't even
1:07:14
be trusted to run a fucking ice cream stand.
1:07:19
But your narrativizing brain keeps telling you that, like,
1:07:25
no, your fictional dudes have to be, you know, able to back up
1:07:31
their threats, and you get this weird sort of dissonance.
1:07:40
There's a longer conversation to be had about the portrayals of
1:07:47
totalitarianism and fascism. And just like the role dystopias
1:07:52
have in depicting our current, you know, political climates,
1:07:58
I'm sure people are going to be very normal about on the
1:08:01
Internet because, you know, when is having an opinion on the
1:08:05
Internet, you know, ever resulted in an argument, right?
1:08:10
Never, ever, ever. People on the Internet never
1:08:15
argue. Yeah, you know, but like, the
1:08:18
main thing is like it it's, it's, it's a difficult balancing
1:08:24
act with this sort of thing, with the sort of evil Empire
1:08:27
trope. You want the main bad dudes to
1:08:31
be powerful because you want it to feel like a genuine effort
1:08:38
for the main protagonists, whoever they might be to, you
1:08:41
know, actually overcome them. You know, you want to see Luke
1:08:44
Skywalker defeat Darth Vader. You want to see on, you know,
1:08:48
lay the smack down on Fire, Lord Ozai.
1:08:53
I'm sure I can keep going, but you know, the point still
1:08:56
stands. Let's face it, the real life
1:09:04
fucker is mostly born of a combination of incompetence and
1:09:10
apathy. And that could be.
1:09:15
And that doesn't really make for a good story, you know what I
1:09:18
mean? Unfortunately.
1:09:21
So I guess my final, I guess my final thought for that is don't
1:09:25
equate the person that you're thinking of right now with Lord
1:09:29
Dad, because that's giving the person you're thinking of right
1:09:33
now far too much credit. Just think of him as Lord
1:09:36
Palpatine. Like there is no evil plan guys.
1:09:41
They're not smart enough. And I'm as bad as things are
1:09:48
right now. I am genuinely heartened by the
1:09:51
fact that so many people agree that things are bad right now,
1:09:54
but there's not a lot of people on the fence about that whole
1:09:57
thing. Yeah.
1:09:59
And I think that's why we're going to be OK.
1:10:00
I'm not saying that people should ignore what's going on.
1:10:05
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that people
1:10:08
shouldn't still, you know, do stuff obviously to remedy this
1:10:11
whole situation. But you know, we've got, we've
1:10:16
got, I feel like for the first time in a while, there are
1:10:19
people out there actively trying to make a difference.
1:10:24
Yeah, and ultimately cat catastrophizing solves nothing.
1:10:28
You can, you can ring the alarm bells about this or that all you
1:10:32
want and but like at the end of the day, if you don't, it's
1:10:35
probably going to happen if you don't do something about it.
1:10:38
Like you can publish as many video essays you want on the
1:10:42
topic, but like, OK, great, you've raised awareness of the
1:10:46
problem. Are you going to do something
1:10:49
about the problem? Just like, you know, I know, I
1:10:53
know that sense, you know, you probably hear it all the time,
1:10:56
but call your fucking representatives.
1:10:59
They're supposed to represent you.
1:11:01
And there are a lot of websites out there like 8 calls that make
1:11:05
it super fucking easy. They give you a script and
1:11:08
everything you call, you follow the script and you hang up.
1:11:14
And if for whatever reason, you know, like the stress is getting
1:11:18
to you and like you feel a paralyzed, don't rake yourself
1:11:24
over the coals for it. Like, shit's hard.
1:11:28
It really is. It's OK to be overwhelmed, it's
1:11:31
OK to not be fighting the good fight every single moment.
1:11:33
Like honestly sometimes the best thing you can do to just fuck
1:11:39
with these guys because believe me it's really easy to fuck with
1:11:42
them, they are incredibly thin skinned, is just ignore them.
1:11:46
Just continue to live your life as free as you create, as free
1:11:50
and clear as you can from their bullshit.
1:11:55
Exactly. It's a very small form of
1:11:57
rebellion, but it still counts and you should feel good about
1:12:01
that. Do not feel bad just because
1:12:06
you're not out marching in the streets every day.
1:12:10
Just give yourself some grace and you know when you're ready
1:12:13
and when you've got your community around you, then find
1:12:17
a way to organize and just keep at it.
1:12:19
You know, shit stuff. But there there are plenty of
1:12:23
people out there, plenty other nerds, weirdos, and fanfic
1:12:28
writers that are would probably love nothing more than to just
1:12:32
talk about how much life sucks with you.
1:12:37
Hey, if you need some escapism check out Vampire with No Name.
1:12:40
Yeah, check up with a van. I hear that's good.
1:12:48
Yeah. At least one festival thinks
1:12:50
it's good. At least one a group of nerds in
1:12:54
Baltimore have decided my fate, apparently.
1:12:59
Thank you, Baltimore nerds. I'm sorry I didn't like your
1:13:03
crab gigs that one time. I will tell them if you don't.
1:13:12
But. Yes, the the chapter 20 ends
1:13:16
with a moment between Callum and Lyra.
1:13:23
It's a very kind of poignant, sweet moment.
1:13:29
And yeah, and also shade like being like Grayson, you've been
1:13:35
shocked. Please let me patch you up after
1:13:38
he kind of has a bit of a moment and trashes the department.
1:13:44
But. What do you what do you want me
1:13:47
to say? Like yeah, no, we're getting
1:13:51
I'm, I'm, I've got my bingo card out.
1:13:53
I'm, I'm, I'm hitting the stamp. What do you want from me?
1:13:55
I know what the. Tropes are we got.
1:13:58
We got the tropes and the 1st 20 chapters.
1:14:03
Yeah, so that was, yeah, that was a daggermouth.
1:14:08
Still got no idea where they called that.
1:14:10
Yeah, and we will. We'll, we'll definitely come
1:14:15
back in a couple of weeks and discuss the second-half of the
1:14:18
book. May or maybe may.
1:14:20
We may or may not have more more guests, who knows?
1:14:25
No, they know what's good for them.
1:14:26
They know that's too long. I have lain dormant, bidding my
1:14:32
time, waiting for the moment. But.
1:14:36
I finally get to talk about shit that's only mildly tangential to
1:14:41
the story at hand for 30 minutes so.
1:14:45
Yes, but Speaking of you know, we do it every month is next
1:14:52
month is going to be a bit of a queer reads grab bag from a
1:14:56
bunch of books that were on my TBR that I have been looking for
1:14:59
excuse to read and the books are we have Youngblood by Sasha
1:15:06
Lawrence. That is a vampire lesbian
1:15:09
vampires. Let's see.
1:15:11
Shocking. I'm weird for this channel, I
1:15:13
know. If you know vampires will win
1:15:16
out again, I mean, we'll see. Not a.
1:15:24
Yeah. Gestures a vampire with no name.
1:15:29
I understand. Come on.
1:15:33
We have A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall, We have House of
1:15:39
Rain by Harley LaRue, and yeah, we have Warrior Princess
1:15:47
Assassin by Bridget Kremer. Wonder what that one's about?
1:15:55
I don't know. Title certainly can't be about a
1:16:01
warrior Princess or an assassin. It's about turtles, isn't it?
1:16:05
I just know it. Probably.
1:16:07
Yeah, yeah. But if you want descriptions for
1:16:10
any of these and content warnings, those will be in the
1:16:15
server. And that's, I'm hearing us.
1:16:18
It'll be up. It'll be.
1:16:21
The voting will be open for about a week after this episode
1:16:25
comes out. And yeah, vote on it.
1:16:29
But on what book you want us to read next?
1:16:31
We've got Lesbian vampires. We've got a Bridgerton but make
1:16:37
it trans, We've got spooky lesbians and we've got a fantasy
1:16:42
polycule. Oh, this is this is my
1:16:46
punishment for something, isn't it?
1:16:48
You might like one of these books.
1:16:54
Yeah, this is a I'm, I'm, this is a, this is the result of some
1:17:00
Faustian bargain I made in the past.
1:17:02
Yeah, probably what's called inviting me to your game.
1:17:09
You came to me, I didn't do shit.
1:17:19
It's fair Feustian bargaining maid was killing Eddie.
1:17:27
You decided to stay after that. I don't fucking force, all
1:17:35
right? That's all from us nerds.
1:17:39
Yes, stay safe. Enjoy the second-half of the
1:17:43
book and we'll be back with our thoughts and summaries.
1:17:47
Life's tough friends make it slightly easier, just saying.
1:17:51
This is true. See everybody in two weeks.