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A Parade of Horribles - Full Spoiler Reaction · The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted

0:00
Welcome back to the Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted,
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the podcast where we overanalyze every chapter
0:05
of Dungeon Crawler Carl like it's a college thesis
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written during a nervous breakdown. This show
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is part deep dive, part theory crafting, and
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part just hanging out and talking about the moments
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that made us laugh, panic, or stare silently
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at the wall afterward. We're a big feelings podcast.
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We spend just as much time talking about emotional
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damage and character breakdowns as we do dungeon
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mechanics and whatever ridiculous thing Samantha
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says next. This is a full spoilers podcast covering
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all released books, including the Pineapple Cabaret.
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From this point forward, spoilers are everywhere.
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You've been warned. Spoilers incoming! I am so
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excited. The wait has been unbearable. The wait
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has been a terrible burden upon our shoulders,
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and we've only been able to talk about Book 8
0:54
with each other, and today we are still technically
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talking about Book 8 with each other. but it
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is going out into the ether. Yes, because I have
1:02
had so many opinions I've been keeping to myself
1:04
and it's been really rough. It has been. And
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we are going to be doing our spoilers first impressions
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of book eight. And while we say first impressions,
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this is based on having read it over the course
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of a few months ago and ending in February. And
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I haven't gone back and read it again because
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I wanted to wait for the full. experience of
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getting to read it start to finish and listen
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to it start to finish but yeah we're just going
1:31
to talk about our feelings and kind of how everything
1:34
uh went in the book so again be warned if you
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do not want spoilers for potentially the entirety
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of book eight stop listening now yeah i'm really
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excited to reread book eight i am waiting for
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either my physical copy or my kindle Whichever
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gets here first, I'm hoping that I'll get lucky
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and that my paper edition will get here a couple
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of days early. I know that some other crawlers
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out there have gotten lucky. Some other crawlers
2:01
have already gotten theirs? Yes. That's wild.
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Dying. Dying from... Lucky? Yeah, from jealousy.
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But it is also interesting because it was, I
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guess, usually shipping errors. Although some
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people did say that their local bookstore put
2:16
it out early. As I mentioned before on the podcast,
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my mom works at a bookstore. and that is such
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a big no -no like sometimes she's allowed to
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have an advanced copy that she can read but for
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big things like while the books that must not
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be named were coming out like they were in a
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big box and like no one could open them before
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midnight and like people would get fired if they
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even approached them before the day of the release
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well and i'm sure that that's different you know
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i mean depending on the bookstore so obviously
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books a million is going to have like really
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big strict policies about that but maybe a local
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bookshop can you know make the call if they want
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to do that but i would imagine there might even
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be some like legalities involved in that uh potentially
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yes yeah so watch out small independent bookstores
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don't get yourself in trouble because we need
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to keep you guys going also you're making me
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cry because i don't have an early copy yeah sad
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um i was gonna say that well the patreon experience
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is like Pretty good for you're getting a couple
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of chapters like dropped in your inbox a week.
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I could not read an entire book in there in one
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sitting. That would be an awful experience. The
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navigation between like each post is kind of
3:31
difficult and it's easy to get like lost and
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be like, wait, did I just read that post or did
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I need to go to this one? It's not the most user
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friendly for that. So even though I've already
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read it, I'm still going to spend May 12th reading
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it all again. Yeah. So. Book eight opens up with
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a bombshell of a chapter. It is one of my top
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five favorite chapters of all time. So we find
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out who Carl's wife is, which is Princess Chandra.
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Esquire, I believe. Esquire, yes, because she's
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a lawyer. And Esquire means you're a lawyer.
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She is Donut's lawyer. And basically, she was
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the wife of the Naga guy who got killed. Yeah,
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the one who tried to make a deal with Carl. And
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because... of whatever naga culture because of
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how he died that this princess chandra had the
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legal right to become carl's husband yeah which
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somebody on facebook this week guessed that that
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was what happened and claimed that they hadn't
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read book eight and i just want you to know crawler
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i don't believe you that you haven't read book
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eight or had someone tell you i mean i think
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maybe with some of the stuff that you learn about
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naga culture that maybe you could make that leap
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but that would be a pretty Props to you, if so.
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But yeah, so this conversation is she's Donut's
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lawyer and she is there to negotiate Donut's
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exit deal and, you know, give her the options.
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And she is basically just being a right bitch
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about the entire thing. And Donut will have absolutely
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none of it. Yeah, well, she obviously has a very
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low opinion of Donut and, you know, underestimated
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her and did not know what she was going into.
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No. And she basically goes into it and is like,
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since I'm Carl's husband, I have all this legal
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control. And I'm going to take control of the
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princess posse. And you guys are going to be
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my little puppets. And I'm going to take all
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your money. And there's nothing you can do about
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it. I'm a smart lawyer. I have connections. Blah,
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blah, blah, blah, blah. And she straight up told
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Dona this, which was not smart. No, yeah. She's
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just being like an evil villain, like laying
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out her entire evil plan. And Dona, of course,
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claps back in fantastic fashion. need to like
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break down the entire conversation but basically
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donut puts out a hit on her and she's like well
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i can't actually put a hit out on you but if
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i said that you know it would be really cool
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if someone in the princess posse killed you and
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maybe they would get 50 million credits and like
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whatever scales of money that they're talking
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about princess chandra can't compete with that
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50 million that donut throws out there and it's
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just like oh no what have i gotten into Yeah,
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we finally learn about how much Donut is making
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on merchandising in this book and what kind of
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merchandising exists. And I was so happy to learn
6:21
about that. That's definitely something that
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I've been wondering about for a while. And it's
6:25
a lot. And she has her own makeup palette, which
6:28
is hilarious. Yeah, it's great. And I mean, like
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the amount of merch that Donut has is on par
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with how much merch of Dungeon Crawler Carl is
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coming out right now. Donut and Slash Carl ever
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make it out of the dungeon. They are going to
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be wealthy on par with people competing in Faction
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Wars and with people competing in the Ascendancy
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games. The amount of money is just staggering.
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I hate to say this because she's a terrible person,
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but I think that a lot of Donut's merchandise
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empire was kind of based on Kylie Jenner in real
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life. Maybe. Quite possibly. It had some shades
7:05
of that. Yeah. I wonder how much insight Matt
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has into Kylie Jenner. Probably some from his
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daughters. Yeah. I wonder how many of these,
7:12
I guess, girl -ish things he gets feedback from
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his daughters on. Yeah, definitely. I also kind
7:19
of wonder how old they are because that could
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definitely change things. Yep. I mean, they can't
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be that old. Like, we know about how old Mr.
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Jenner is. Yes. So, yeah, the first chapter is
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an absolute bombshell. It's so good. It's just
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such peak donut. Absolutely like one of the best
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chapters of the entire series. And then we get
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into, you know, chapter one. They find themselves
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at the beginning of this floor and they are just
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kind of getting laid out the rules of these races
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that they're going to have to compete in. Which
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I was shocked because I thought what Justice
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Light did at the end of book seven broke the
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dungeon. And I thought all the floors were just
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going to combine into one. And I didn't think
7:58
that it was going to be like business as normal
8:00
floor 10. I did not expect that at all. Yeah,
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like you think, oh, my God, everything's going
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to be like this going off the rails and you're
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just kind of thrown into like it's the beginning
8:10
of another book and you're at the beginning of
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another floor and like things are just kind of
8:13
like, quote unquote, normal. And it's a little
8:16
bit jarring coming off of book seven. God, we
8:20
have to do more opening boxes chapters. Yes,
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there's a lot of there's a lot of box openings.
8:26
You know, again, this isn't meant to be like
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a play by play of everything that happened in
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the book. This is just kind of our impressions.
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And so, yeah, it was just like a little jarring
8:33
of how slow the book starts out and you're just
8:36
getting, hey, these are the rules of the floor.
8:39
You're going to be in these races and this is
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how these races are going to work. And, you know,
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if you come in this place, the next team is going
8:45
to advance and whoever comes in last dies. And
8:47
something that they realized really early on
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is like they're going to be eventually up against
8:51
other crawlers in these races. And it's set up
8:55
in a way that like people are going to die. And
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it's really hard to avoid that. Well, and after
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book seven, there's a lot of love bombing and
9:04
celebration of Carl for saving everyone. And
9:08
Donut. Yes. But the book brings us back into
9:12
the perspective of they are somewhat divisive
9:16
characters and not everyone likes Carl. And that
9:18
really bothers Carl. It upsets him very much.
9:22
Yes. Carl very quickly goes into start being
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like, hey, guys, this is how we can do this so
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we don't have to. race against other crawlers
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and people don't have to die and like some people
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are just being like yeah fuck off there's that
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one guy's name Osvaldo Osvaldo like this entire
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floor he's you know one of the crawlers who's
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been like on and off the top 10 throughout the
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series and he fucking hates Carl and like he
9:44
just does not want to play ball with Carl or
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anybody and Princess Posse Ellie Imani Katya
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like he just doesn't want to play ball with anyone
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and he's off doing his own thing Well, and one
9:54
of the chapters that I actually had a really
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strong emotional response to is that Carl is
10:00
still trying to suck up to him and like get him
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over to their side. And Donut is just like, you
10:05
know what? I'm done. He doesn't want to work
10:08
with us. He doesn't have to. And Carl kind of
10:11
treats it like Donut is losing her humanity.
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And I don't agree with that. Like at some point
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you're in this terrible high stress situation.
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Like, dude, if you don't want to help, like you
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don't want to help. That's fine. Like, you can't
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help someone who doesn't want help. Yeah. No,
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I remember reading that part and Donut was basically
10:30
like, yeah, fuck him. Like, if we have to kill
10:32
him, we have to kill him. And like, Carly's like,
10:34
no, Donut, don't be like this. And I'm like,
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no, not you. You can't lose your innocence. And
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she lost her innocence a long time ago. Yeah.
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And I think that, you know, maybe that's Carly
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underestimating her a bit, too. And I think that
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the way Osvaldo acts throughout the rest of the
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book. Donut was on the right track. Yep. Yep.
10:55
Absolutely. I mean, he tries to screw him over
10:57
really hard towards the end of the book. And
10:59
yeah, it's really interesting. And you just kind
11:03
of have to start going through these races. They
11:05
have to pick if they have a biological mount
11:08
or a mechanical mount or car that they're going
11:12
to use for their races. They have this cool goblin
11:14
mechanic who's a firecracker. She's so much fun.
11:16
You're going to get so much Jamal in this book.
11:18
Jamal is in like every single chapter. I don't
11:21
think he's quite in every chapter. Almost every
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single chapter. He's a very big fixture in this
11:28
book. And Brie and I determined that I maybe
11:32
didn't like him as much as she did because in
11:34
the audio book, the voice for him is just, in
11:37
my opinion, really annoying. And when Brie finally
11:38
heard his voice in the audio book, she was like,
11:40
OK, I can understand why you don't like him.
11:42
It's not like that when you're reading it. Yeah,
11:44
it's a little annoying in audio book format.
11:49
You're going to get so much of him. You get a
11:51
lot of Mongo and Rend cuteness throughout the
11:53
book. They take them on all the races with them.
11:55
And I'm not really sure why they end up taking
11:58
them on so many races because they don't end
11:59
up being very useful in most of these races.
12:02
No. And I will say there is so much silliness
12:05
in this book. It is a very silly book. It is.
12:08
It is. At one point they are fighting a gigantic
12:12
kangaroo and the kangaroo wants to capture everyone
12:16
and put them in it. couch because it thinks that
12:19
it's their babies and Carl has to tear the skin
12:23
off of a kangaroo and then wear it but then he
12:26
gets stuck in it and he's stuck in this kangaroo
12:28
suit for like the next few chapters it's very
12:31
ridiculous and makes things very difficult for
12:34
him I struggled a little bit with those parts
12:36
yeah I struggled with the kangaroo suit I found
12:39
it very entertaining There's something that we
12:42
see in this book that does lead to a very silly
12:45
outcome, but is a very serious situation when
12:48
it happens, is that we see a nine -tier Scolopendra
12:52
attack, which has been mentioned and alluded
12:55
to and has happened to other characters in the
12:57
series. And I didn't really wrap my head around
13:01
it until it actually happened. And that was really
13:04
fun going back and reading in hindsight. There
13:07
were definitely some... parts where i was recording
13:09
where i was like oh oh that's what skull avengers
13:13
is like huh does that happen later in the book
13:17
okay that's when um carl gets turned into a wiener
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dog oh yeah yep yep carl gets turned into a dog
13:24
at one point um not a cocker spaniel not a yeah
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i don't know if they specify what kind of dog
13:30
i'm pretty sure it's a wiener dog yeah and donut
13:32
actually takes that surprisingly well she's not
13:35
happy about it but she does take it surprisingly
13:36
well But yeah, that does happen towards the end
13:39
of the book. And we are definitely talking about
13:41
things very much so out of order. This is kind
13:44
of just like as it's coming to us. So like what
13:47
we were talking about is not in chronological
13:49
order of the book. I would say that this is very
13:51
much so just like off the top of our head, like
13:54
what we remember. And again, we only read it
13:56
once. So like this is the highlights, first impressions,
14:00
what stood out. Reaction videos are a thing,
14:02
Nikki. Don't worry about it. Most people will
14:04
be somewhat familiar with the format. Yeah. But
14:07
I mean, I thought most reaction videos kind of
14:08
like watching it and then pausing and then reacting.
14:11
Not with a hundred chapter book, they're not.
14:14
I suppose so. I suppose so. No, watch me read
14:18
this in live time. Would be great. I will do
14:21
that on Tuesday. I mean, you could. You could
14:23
just stream yourself reading the entire book.
14:24
Do that. Like a nine hour stream. But yeah, so
14:28
definitely I just want to hit some higher notes.
14:31
One of my other absolute top five favorite chapters
14:35
in the entire series is in this book and is a
14:38
very complicated one. So we're just going to
14:40
touch on it a bit. But it's the chapter where
14:44
Prepetente asks for Donut's advice about the
14:48
pet biscuits that he has. And that is such an
14:52
excellent chapter because it's such a good character
14:54
study of Prepetente and also of Carl. And I think
14:58
people have been wanting more Prepetente. such
15:01
a good like serious chapter um that he's really
15:05
starring in and it pays off so well for the end
15:09
of the book like it is a master class in writing
15:12
it really is it yeah the way that comes back
15:15
around is just absolutely divine do we want to
15:17
talk a little bit more about those pet biscuits
15:19
and like what's going on with that well so perpetente
15:22
goes to donut and he has a moral dilemma of he
15:27
is very lonely and he would like a companion
15:30
and he doesn't feel that he can find that companionship
15:34
with other humans, so he's considering making
15:37
one of the other goats sentient. Yeah, and he
15:41
has a variety of pet biscuits. Most of them are
15:44
the ones along the lines of Bianca, but then
15:46
he has one that is like Donut's version of the
15:50
pet biscuit, and then he has another one that's
15:51
called a paramour, which is like the kind that
15:54
he took, but it makes that pet fall in love with
15:58
him. And Donut gives him very good advice and
16:01
basically tells him to not do any of it because
16:04
bringing them into the dungeon would not be fair.
16:09
And it would be starting out at level one as
16:11
well. So bring them into dungeon fucked up anyways.
16:15
And then you're bringing them into the 10th floor
16:17
at level one. Like, no. And we find out that
16:20
he has like a lot of goats in his inventory.
16:25
It says Miriam Dom started out with 14. Yeah.
16:28
But yeah, he has more than we thought. So he's
16:31
got like, I think pretty much all of them. I'm
16:34
sure that there were a couple of casualty events.
16:37
Yeah, but the vast majority of them are still
16:39
with Prepetente. But yeah, it's a really impactful
16:43
chapter. And you really see how lonely and like
16:48
how much Prepetente has been struggling. Yeah,
16:51
I think it's sad. I think we've mentioned before
16:53
that I'm a hard sell on crying. And that chapter
16:58
made me cry. And I think I've only cried from
17:01
DCC like maybe two or three other times. Oh,
17:04
gosh. Like a couple dozen. You also cry at commercials.
17:08
I do. I do. On the same vein of Prepetente, later
17:12
in the book, after this conversation, they are
17:15
going through, and this is one of the very last
17:17
races, they're racing through this apartment
17:19
building and they're tiny and they're going through
17:21
this apartment building. And the AI basically
17:23
built this apartment building. where it has stored
17:28
various versions of scenes from the crawlers
17:32
lives, where it has basically been running computations
17:36
and running like millions of different. If this
17:40
had happened in this crawlers past, how could
17:43
that have led them to here? Or what could have
17:44
happened differently in their life that would
17:46
have made their life go differently? Because
17:47
it's trying to like essentially wrap its brain
17:50
around like humanity and trying to like understand
17:52
the crawlers. So in the background, like while
17:54
the dungeon's been going on this, Whole time.
17:57
I mean, maybe not the entire time, but it's been
17:59
like doing all this weird research and running
18:02
simulations and simulations and simulations of
18:05
different parts of the crawlers lives. And it's
18:08
really fucked up. There's an excellent Imani
18:10
chapter in that. There's a really excellent Imani
18:13
chapter. And these are things that didn't actually
18:15
happen, but are really close to home. But there's
18:20
with Prepetente, there is a simulation of Miriam
18:25
Dom. If she never moved back to her parents'
18:28
ranch and what her life would have been like.
18:31
And basically she goes on to become a famous
18:33
pianist and lives in like New York City. And
18:37
Tinte's watching this and he's really sad and
18:40
like heartbroken by it. But you end up seeing
18:43
that Miriam Dahm, according to this simulation
18:46
anyways, wouldn't have been happy with that.
18:49
And that, you know, going back to her parents'
18:51
farm. This is staying in. Yeah, almost crying.
18:56
But yeah, showing that, you know, her going back
18:59
to her parents' farm was the better path for
19:01
her. But like, yeah, it's so heart -wrenching.
19:04
Yeah, this was a real rollercoaster of a book
19:08
in that it started out really slow. There were
19:12
some, you know, subplots and some main plots
19:17
that were very heartbreaking and emotional. And
19:20
then the end just kind of broke my brain. Yeah.
19:23
And I would say it's not even that it's slow.
19:25
I think it is fast paced and there's a lot going
19:28
on. It's just that first 35 to 50 % of the book
19:32
is just kind of back to like, this is a normal
19:35
floor and they're going through the floor. It's,
19:37
you know, like they're back on, you know, or
19:39
even book six, like they're back on just like,
19:42
you know, the trains level or back in the over
19:44
city or, you know, one of the earlier floors,
19:47
floor one through five. Yeah. It's just kind
19:49
of like, oh, they're just. in the dungeon doing
19:51
dungeon stuff and there's none of this interplanetary
19:54
politics going on trying to destroy everyone
19:57
else which was just so maddening they got to
20:00
get through these races like they're just trying
20:02
to survive yeah it was really maddening that
20:05
we didn't get any updates on the um interplanetary
20:07
stuff and there's any like out of dungeon stuff
20:11
basically yeah there there is no real update
20:14
on katya at all in this book which i know is
20:16
really going to upset a lot of people Yeah, you
20:18
basically don't learn anything about anything
20:20
that's going on on the surface, what's going
20:22
on with Katya. That's not quite true. Okay. You
20:24
don't learn anything about Katya, but you do
20:26
learn some stuff about what's going on on the
20:28
surface. And there is a lot to unpack in that
20:31
epilogue of fairness victory on the surface.
20:34
And there's a lot to unpack there. I've read
20:37
that chapter several times, and I still don't
20:39
think I'm quite grasping everything that's going
20:41
on. I mean, the end of this book, the last like
20:43
10 chapters are just absolutely fucking. bonkers
20:48
and like it is going to be so much to unpack
20:52
and dig into because we get so many answers about
20:56
basically all of these plot points that have
20:58
been building throughout the entire series. What
21:01
are residuals? What is the eulogist? What's going
21:04
on with the AIs? You know, what is the AI been
21:07
doing? You know, what happened in this other
21:09
system that went dark? Is it, you know, who is
21:11
it communicating with? Like you get all of those
21:15
answers. I will say there was a very confusing
21:18
Agatha chapter that apparently did not make it
21:22
into the final book, which I think is good. Which,
21:24
thank fucking God. So, but, like, you find out
21:27
so much about all of that. That Agatha chapter
21:31
was a, like, real, like, mindfuck, though. Like,
21:35
while I was reading it, I was just, like, internally
21:38
panicking the entire time. And I was like, this
21:41
is too much for me to cover on a podcast. I don't
21:44
got this. I'm... This is going to go bad. Well,
21:48
the last several chapters of this book is a lot
21:50
to cover in a podcast. Well, thank God they are
21:54
a while away. Yes. We have several chapters to
21:58
read first because like. I mean, several. Yes.
22:02
Several, several, several. But yeah, I think
22:06
that you maybe made some promises that aren't
22:08
quite that clearly spelled out at the end of
22:10
book eight, but there's a lot going on. I mean,
22:12
you don't get all the answers, but you get a
22:14
lot of answers and you get a lot more clarity
22:16
on these things that have really just been a
22:18
mystery. Yeah. It is pretty definitively spelled
22:21
out at the end. Like, what is the eulogist? What's
22:25
going on with the primals? Like, you learn a
22:28
lot about primals. And people have been like
22:31
really chewing on their own tails about the primals
22:32
thing. Like, I think that that's one of the things
22:35
that's like really bothering the fandom and you
22:37
are about to learn. So much about primals. That's
22:40
what I meant to say earlier was not necessarily
22:41
you find out everything that's been going on
22:43
with residuals, but what's been going on. Like
22:44
what's the deal with primals and what are primals?
22:48
The AI, are we going to say it? AI is a primal
22:52
and it learns how to communicate with all of
22:55
the other AIs and wakes up all of the other dormant
22:59
AIs basically and is communicating with all of
23:01
them and basically has far reaching power over
23:05
most of the galaxy. And all those primal AIs
23:08
are coming into the dungeon as gods during the
23:12
Ascendancy War. Yes. We might need to add like
23:16
an extra spoiler warning before that tidbit of
23:18
like, this is like genuinely spoiler for the
23:21
end of the book. You said this was spoilers.
23:24
This is spoilers. But we're kind of like talking
23:27
about the end a lot because, oh my God, it's
23:28
exciting. We should go back a bit and I think
23:31
talk about like kind of the plot point that starts
23:33
really picking up throughout the book of... there
23:36
is a quest that they get to reunite Don Quixote.
23:41
And what's the other dude's name? Well, so there
23:44
is Don Quixote needs to be reunited with his
23:48
lover, who is the half -mantar. And we find out
23:52
that a half -mantar is a mantar that has literally
23:55
been split down the middle. And so one of the
23:58
other NPC racing teams has half of this half
24:03
-mantar. and they need to get him away from them
24:07
and then reunite the half -mantar with the other
24:09
half -mantar and then reunite him with Don Quixote.
24:15
There is some horror -gore stuff in this book.
24:18
Yeah. Basically, the reward that they get from
24:21
that quest, if they complete it, is they get
24:23
to choose one or two people from outside of the
24:28
dungeon, anyone, and they will be brought into
24:31
the dungeon. So obviously that is seen as a very
24:34
big opportunity to burn it all down. Fuck you
24:37
all. And, you know, maybe bring in someone like
24:39
Baroness Victory, who is the prime minister or
24:43
some any other really important person from outside
24:46
the dungeon. It's for floor 12, I believe. Like
24:50
that's a very big plot point that develops throughout
24:53
the book and is very important. And we don't
24:56
quite see how it plays out. But the whole storyline
24:59
there is very entertaining. You get a lot of
25:03
Don Quixote backstory and character development
25:05
as well. And I went through like real ups and
25:09
downs of caring about that, being honest. Yeah,
25:11
it was a lot. So that was an important plot point.
25:14
But the more important plot point throughout
25:17
this book is the backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret
25:21
and the Pineapple Cabaret death maze. Yes, which
25:25
we will be releasing an episode about that either
25:28
directly before or directly after this. Yes.
25:31
Yeah, we're going to do a full breakdown of what
25:33
the fuck is the Pineapple Cabaret. And basically
25:36
the war mages come to them on this floor and
25:41
are like, hey, we need your help. We think we
25:42
have a way out for your people. And they kind
25:47
of are like, what's going on? And the war mages
25:50
are telling them that they can help them get
25:52
people to the backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret
25:56
and get crawlers essentially out of the dungeon.
25:59
And we learn a lot about how the dungeon works.
26:01
And like there is a mainframe of the dungeon
26:04
that is like a physical thing and how the coding
26:06
of the dungeon works. And like there is this
26:08
physical thing that they have to take from crawl
26:11
to crawl. That is part of what runs the dungeon
26:14
separate from the AI that gets implanted into
26:17
the earth. And so there's basically like these
26:20
old segments of dungeon code that are separate
26:24
from the crawl. And so they're trying to find
26:28
ways to send crawlers to this place in the pineapple
26:33
cabaret. And they accomplish that with a cleaner
26:35
bot. Yes, they do. And Lena is one of the first
26:39
people to go because they're kind of having problems
26:42
with her. Well, and she's dying like she's dying
26:46
and she's losing her shit and just becoming more
26:50
and more irrational and dangerous, even more
26:52
so than. the most dangerous and erratic character
26:55
throughout the series. Carl? No. I'm not wrong.
27:00
I mean, you're not wrong, but I was talking about
27:03
Lucia Mar. Yeah, so it's a very crazy storyline,
27:09
and they do end up getting a lot of crawlers
27:11
out, and a lot of people volunteer and end up
27:13
getting kind of out of the dungeon. They're out
27:16
of the crawl, but they're not on the surface
27:18
of Earth. Did they really go to the pineapple
27:21
cabaret? We still don't know exactly what happened
27:24
to all of those crawlers. That is going to be
27:26
in the last book. We do have a reason to believe
27:30
that maybe it went a little sideways. Yes, we
27:33
do. And yeah, you find out at the end of the
27:36
book that maybe some of these transfers didn't
27:37
go very cleanly. But they do get a lot of people
27:41
out of the crawl. And I think a lot of people
27:44
are excited to not be in the crawl anymore. They
27:47
do. And we are at... A total crawler count still
27:51
in the dungeon of 20 when the book ends. Yeah.
27:54
20. I thought it was lower than that. I think
27:57
it's 20. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. The crawler count at
28:00
the end of the book is basically just like the
28:02
barest minimum of the main characters. And we
28:06
do lose a couple of main characters along the
28:09
way. Still surprisingly not as many main character
28:13
deaths as you might expect. this far along in
28:16
the series no and i will say that from like a
28:19
pure horror and just like what the fuck perspective
28:22
when they go into the room and the shadow mimics
28:25
start attacking them that was one of my favorite
28:27
chapters and i'm gonna be honest i don't think
28:30
everyone should have lived through that like
28:32
i think there should have been a higher death
28:33
count from that scene i know because that was
28:35
so insane yeah no that scene is wild Especially
28:39
if you've been reading the Pineapple Cabaret
28:40
chapters and you know like how dangerous the
28:42
shadow mimics are. Yeah. Yeah. The shadow mimics,
28:45
which we'll tell you more about when we do the
28:47
synopsis of the Pineapple Cabaret, are very dangerous
28:50
and they are taking over the dungeon. And I love
28:54
the description in that chapter where it says
28:56
it was like the castle from Beauty and the Beast
29:00
came alive. Everything was psychotic. Yeah. There
29:04
are a number of driving. factions within the
29:10
dungeon at this point in the book and at one
29:12
point the AI kind of breaks it down of like hey
29:15
these are the main players and so like there's
29:18
the crawlers there's the people stuck in the
29:22
skull of pendra player there are the war mages
29:26
there are the shadow mimics um but yeah basically
29:29
lays out like hey these are like the players
29:31
oh the gods the gods and on the ascendancy games
29:35
floor And we don't really learn too much about
29:37
what's going on down there. But gods are wreaking
29:40
havoc. Like, they're fucking shit up outside
29:42
the dungeons and on other floors. Oh, also Sheol.
29:46
Sheol is one of the other factions of key kind
29:48
of players left in the game at this point, so
29:51
to speak. Yeah, which the whole Sheol thing is
29:54
a bit complicated. Sheol is complicated. Ascendancy
29:57
games are complicated. There's a lot of complication
30:00
at the end of the book. there's a lot to wrap
30:04
your head around there's a lot to understand
30:05
it is very overwhelming that's why I'm really
30:08
excited to get to go through and read it again
30:12
and I think I will probably be on free read four
30:17
or five by the end of this summer yeah absolutely
30:20
I think I'm just going to be like listening to
30:22
this on repeat I would like I would say overall
30:25
like impression is like the first half of this
30:27
book is a good time it's just like you have to
30:30
get your self expectations into the mindset of
30:33
like this is just kind of like normal dungeon
30:36
crawler world floor games but while the chapters
30:40
were coming out i kept being like i don't think
30:42
he's actually gonna be able to cover two floors
30:44
in this book i kept being like we're at like
30:46
chapter 70 and they haven't gone to floor 11
30:48
yet like what the fuck floor 11 parade of horribles
30:51
the namesake of the book is a very short floor
30:54
imagery wise it's just so fucked up and like
30:57
it's so much to like deal with and handle like
31:01
i really hope that a tv show does make it that
31:05
far because it would be really cinematic but
31:10
also terrifying yeah we want to like actually
31:13
talk about what happens there we can do our best
31:15
they finish floor 10 they make it through all
31:18
the races a bunch of people get sent to the pineapple
31:20
cabaret um and then floor 10 you know they kind
31:24
of find this out in advance because the ai is
31:26
becoming more and more unstable and going off
31:28
course and basically speaking to them directly
31:31
directly and indirectly it's using notifications
31:34
and announcements and and achievements to like
31:38
you know give all kinds of crazy information
31:39
but it tells them like hey the 11th floor you're
31:43
going to have to make parade floats and you're
31:44
going to go through a parade and you are going
31:46
to have to do your best and then there's going
31:48
to be a big battle uh you're going to be put
31:50
in an arena and there's going to be a big battle
31:52
royale um and once the battle royale is done
31:55
that's the end of the floor So it is set up to
31:59
be an extremely short floor, no matter what happens,
32:02
whether the crawlers succeed or not. And they
32:05
did all successfully make parade floats. They
32:08
did. They did. And while they're going through
32:11
this parade, there are all of these thousands
32:14
of spectators of various kinds of aliens, but
32:18
they're all wearing these weird masks. And you
32:21
find out that all of these spectators are primals.
32:25
and former primals, basically. They're representations
32:28
of primals. It's a little confusing. That's where
32:31
things get a little wishy -washy. It's a little
32:32
confusing. But, like, while they're going through
32:34
this parade, the AI is just, like, straight up
32:37
just, like, talking and announcing and, like,
32:39
giving all this insane, like, speech. And this
32:44
is where you get a lot of the, like, background
32:45
of, like, what are primals? What's going on with
32:48
the eulogist? It's just info dumping at you,
32:50
like, nonstop through this last floor. And they
32:55
have to fight the Krakaran Prime as the big boss.
32:59
They end up fighting Embrace, Taranis, and Skolopendra.
33:05
This is where we get sexy Skolopendra. And we
33:08
get sexy Skolopendra. Oh God, we didn't even
33:12
talk about Penelope the pig. Carl basically summons
33:16
Embrace and then is like, fuck you. I actually,
33:20
I killed your brother and I am leaving your faith.
33:24
And then uses this pig, which is a lot of stuff
33:28
to explain, to summon Tyrannus. Like, Tyrannus
33:31
kills Embrace. They summon Skolopendra. Skolopendra
33:35
and Krakaren are fighting. It's wild. Wild. Like,
33:39
this book is insane. It was so crazy. Yeah. Like,
33:43
we were at a music festival when they were dropping
33:45
the last couple of chapters. And they were so
33:47
crazy. Yeah. It's absolutely just bonkers. they
33:54
basically because they summon skull of pendra
33:57
it instantly sets off skull of pendra's nine
34:00
tier attack and so like no matter what happens
34:03
and the ai tells them even if you kill skull
34:05
of pendra and then attacks keep happening the
34:08
nine tier attack keeps happening and like No
34:12
matter even if they go to the next floor, like,
34:14
it's a nine -tier attack. It happens to all the
34:16
floors everywhere in the dungeon. I had real
34:18
panic over that part. Yeah, like, it's like,
34:20
you guys are fucked now. Good job. Like, you
34:22
thought you pulled one over on me by summoning
34:24
Skolopendra here. Nope, you're still screwed.
34:27
This is the most Carl plan that ever Carled.
34:30
It is. And then they use one of Prepetente's
34:35
special pet biscuits to turn Skolopendra into
34:39
a crawler. Because of some hijinks with some
34:43
gods, Donut, their inventories get swapped. And
34:46
so Donut has to throw a special pet biscuit at
34:49
Skolopendra. And she throws the paramour biscuit.
34:53
That was a really stressful situation. But I
34:56
did her best. And so Skolopendra turns into a
35:00
crawler who is in love with Carl. That's how
35:04
the book ends. How did that? I know it was a
35:06
paramour biscuit, but if Donut threw it, shouldn't
35:09
she be in love with Donut? I think it's because
35:11
their inventories got swapped. So it was Carl's
35:13
inventory, maybe. I think. That part could maybe
35:17
use a little bit more. Yeah, maybe some clarification
35:20
there. But when Matt said in his interview with
35:24
Variety that he ended it in one of the dumbest
35:27
ways possible, that is what he meant. And I wouldn't
35:30
say it's dumb, but it is absolutely unhinged
35:33
and crazy. And I'm not a literary expert, but
35:37
I think that that is like... Have you ever read
35:39
a book where something like that happened, where
35:40
the big bad? The thing about it, though, is it
35:43
was set up so well by that Prepetente chapter,
35:46
which is why I said that it's such a masterclass
35:50
in writing. Because believe me, I have read books
35:54
where I got to the end and I'm like, what are
35:57
you doing, person who wrote this book? Like,
36:00
what what are you on? Like, there's some not
36:04
logic happening here. This doesn't make any sense.
36:07
There's some crazy shit happening. You're just
36:09
making shit up. You're just making shit up. But
36:11
none of this was just made up. It was all set
36:14
up by the rest of the book. And I will tell you
36:18
that the prepotente chapter was a late edition.
36:21
So it got dropped right before the last couple
36:25
of chapters got dropped. Oh, yeah. It was one
36:27
of those ones that he was like, hey, actually,
36:29
I'm adding this back in as an earlier chapter.
36:31
Yeah. Yeah. But no, it is just it is set up.
36:35
so well and um the writing in it is fantastic
36:39
it is really good actually in my opinion well
36:42
and that's part of like i've been having this
36:44
thought a lot recently of like why i think matt
36:46
has done such an amazing job with the series
36:48
and why he's such a good writer is because he
36:51
has created this story and this situation this
36:54
dungeon where these crazy unhinged things can
36:59
happen and they make sense because a he sets
37:02
it up well and he's a good writer but also because
37:04
he has put them in an environment with a omnipotent
37:08
being ruling over it that can just manufacture
37:11
and shape reality at a whim, even if it has its
37:15
limitations. So these things can happen. The
37:19
tone of the books feels like it mirrors real
37:21
life to me right now, of just being caught all
37:25
the time between the insane, the tragic, and
37:30
just the silly. And just not knowing how to handle
37:36
it. And, you know, I think a lot of us do relate
37:40
really hard to Carl right now. And I think that's
37:44
why it's so popular. Yeah, I think you're absolutely
37:46
right. I mean, there's so much happening right
37:49
now where it's, you know, this thing happens
37:51
and it's like, is that real? This actually happened?
37:55
Is this the onion? And it's not. It's never the
37:58
onion. Well, the onion owns InfoWars now. Really?
38:03
That went through last week. Wow. That's an onion
38:07
news headline right there. It really is. And,
38:12
you know, I was listening to the news on the
38:15
way over here, and the director of the FBI has
38:18
been threatening to polygraph people because
38:19
one of his bottles of liquor went missing. Like,
38:22
we live in a crazy world right now, and I feel
38:25
like the media isn't catching up with that. And
38:29
I think that people are so into DCC right now
38:31
because it is the only thing that's really reflecting
38:34
like how they're feeling most of the time. Yeah.
38:37
Maybe sometimes without even making that direct
38:40
connection like you have where you have these
38:44
feelings like internalized and whether you're
38:46
recognizing it or not, like that's still why
38:48
these books are hitting so hard. I'm a chronic
38:51
overthinker. Our listeners have not figured that
38:54
out by now. Yes. overthinks and overanalyzes
38:58
everything. And I try to, but I also just go
39:01
through life like do -do -do -do -do, which is
39:03
a blessing and a curse for both of us in both
39:06
regards. That's why we balance each other out
39:08
because I'm happy -go -lucky and Bree is very
39:11
serious. Ponders, always pondering, always plotting.
39:16
I wish my brain went do -do -do -do -do, but
39:18
I'm missing that setting. That setting was just
39:20
never even installed in the factory. It's definitely
39:23
a wetware problem. Yes. Hey, maybe if we had
39:27
some of those good Valte enhancements. Maybe.
39:30
Would that be a de -enhancement, though? Do -do
39:32
-do -do setting? I mean, back in The Simpsons,
39:35
you know, Homer put a crayon in his brain because
39:38
he didn't like being smart, so. Well, he put
39:40
the crayon back in. Correct. Put the crayon back
39:43
in. Yeah. Okay, well, we're happy to be back
39:46
in Recording Crawlers, and we are so excited
39:49
to talk about Book 8. And the Pineapple Cabaret,
39:52
and we're going to be doing our Fermi Paradox
39:54
episode, so join us next time. Ta -ta. New achievement.
39:58
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40:00
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