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A Parade of Horribles - No Spoilers Review · The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted

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Hello, and welcome to The Apocalypse Will Be
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Podcasted. Quick note about today's episode.
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We are doing a first impressions of book eight,
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and this is meant to be a spoilers -free episode
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for anyone who has not finished A Parade of Horribles
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yet. However, depending on how strongly you feel
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about spoilers, you may consider some of the
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content in this episode to be spoilers. We talk
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about some general themes and how we felt about
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the book. you know, our impressions, the feelings
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that we experienced as we went through. So just
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depending on how you feel about spoilers, it's
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up to you, but proceed with some caution. Oh
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my God, it is finally time. We can finally talk
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about book eight and I am so excited. Oh my God,
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I feel like I've been waiting for this for like
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years and years and years, even though it hasn't
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actually been that long. I've only been waiting
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for book eight for like six, seven months now,
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but even still it's like. The excitement is so
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big. I've been kind of debating with myself on
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am I glad that I read book eight on Patreon because
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I have a podcast. I think the answer is yes,
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because I'm going to be honest that what I thought
1:12
happened at books at the end of book seven and
1:15
how it was going to affect book eight is not
1:19
what happened. So I would have been super wrong
1:21
a bunch. Yeah, there is definitely like a lot
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of. Things that we may have like hypothesized
1:28
differently or had different opinions about things
1:31
that we broke down and dissected in the first
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several chapters that we did of book seven. But
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if we hadn't been reading book eight on Patreon,
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like we would have said some things that would
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have been wrong. And so we were able to kind
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of like take that into account. Although I was
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a little bit terrified to start a podcast just
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because I was really scared of being wrong and
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having theories that were wrong. Because the
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internet is vicious when you're wrong. Well,
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the internet is actually what convinced me it
2:01
was okay because I read a bunch of Reddit posts
2:04
where people were talking about what they thought
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was going to happen at the end of Butcher's Masquerade
2:08
going forward. And they were very... That kind
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of gave me some confidence. Yeah, definitely.
2:15
I mean, we all... have opinions and sometimes
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they're wrong and it's okay to have wrong opinions
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so speaking of wrong opinions um let's talk about
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our overall impressions of book eight while talking
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really like high level up and not spoiling specific
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things yeah definitely so we are trying to do
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this as a spoilers free first impression and
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our thoughts when we were reading through the
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first time Yeah, so as I said before, if I had
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not read Patreon, I would be wrong about a lot
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of things. I definitely would have been wrong
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about the format of Book 8. So I thought that
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Book 8 was going to be more like Book 7, where
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it's just go, go, go, like nonstop from the very
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beginning. And that is absolutely not what happens.
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It's a real slow burn. It is definitely a slow
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burn, but it has like... a huge blowout at the
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start the very the uh epilogue chapter is like
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one of the best chapters of the entire series
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yeah it hits top five for me for sure yeah it
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is a fantastic donut chapter won't say anything
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else about it but it is just peak donut vibes
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going off and just really uh reading someone
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their miranda writes um and it's fantastic and
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then right after that you get into the normal
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chapters of the book and it's kind of like This
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is really slow. What's happening? Yeah, I went
3:39
back to the format of the other six books more
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than I thought it would. Yeah. And like, I think
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at this point, everyone knows that like this
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involves like races and stuff. Do they know that?
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I don't know. I think so. Like, yeah, do they?
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I don't know. And I am going to quote Matt Denham
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and the man himself again here that spoilers
3:59
are interesting territory because when you're
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talking about spoilers. You know that Carl and
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Donut are on the cover of this book. But you
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know they're alive. Correct. So I feel like it's
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just kind of gone into the public consciousness
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that this is a race -related thing from interviews
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and stuff like that. All the cars on the cover.
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Yeah, which I mean, you know, going back to book
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seven, when Louis was told that he couldn't keep
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the party planner, like, well, that makes a lot
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of sense if it's a race. Yeah, which that was
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an interesting bit of foreplanning there. And
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like also with spoilers, like, you know, whenever
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I'm I think most people, but whenever I'm telling
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anyone about the books, I'm like, oh, yeah. And
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like the main character is like Donut very early
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on in the book. There's a special pet biscuit
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and like she becomes sentient. That's, I guess,
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ruining something that's like 10 chapters or
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so into the book, maybe like five chapters or
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so. But it's like, is that really a spoiler?
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Like. You wouldn't be able to really sell the
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series if you didn't explain that. I think the
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AI slowly going insane is another spoiler that
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you kind of have to tell to set up interest in
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the book. Like, yeah, set up expectations. And
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like, that's a big hook. And a lot of times when
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I tell people that, like, oh, and the whole thing's
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moderated by an AI that's slowly going insane.
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They're like, interesting. I mean, I had a book
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series when I was a kid that I was just like,
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I'm not reading that. Like, it's blown up too
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much. I'm not interested. I don't think that's
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for me. Like, I understand the basic premise
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and I don't want to read it. And they were like,
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well, there's this one part in book three where
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blah, blah, blah happens. And like, this is how
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it made me emotionally feel. And this is why
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I think everyone should read it. I was like,
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OK, sold. Yeah. So let's stop talking about spoilers.
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So going through book eight, like I had a lot
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of emotion with it and I was kind of coming off
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the high. of book seven and how fast paced it
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was and then with book eight it yeah just kind
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of goes back to feeling like they're in just
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a regular like floor of the dungeon a lot of
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the interplanetary politics and outside the dungeon
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stuff kind of like isn't really present yeah
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if you want to know what's happening outside
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the dungeon in this book like you're going to
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be waiting a while yeah and like the crawlers
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are kind of put back into a situation where they
6:22
don't quite have as much control over their fate
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as they do in you know on the hunting grounds
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floor or in faction wars because the way the
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floor is set up it's kind of like they have this
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specific path that they have to follow and so
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there's this kind of like loss of control that
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they have and it's something that carl talks
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about you know when he's doing his inner dialogue
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a lot and so that's kind of like also i think
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frustrating for the reader because from faction
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wars like They were basically like, yes, they
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were bound by some rules and like limitations,
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but they were basically doing like whatever the
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fuck they wanted. And like now they're kind of
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like stuck in this set path that's laid out before
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them. So I think one of my biggest thoughts is
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that while I said earlier the book was a slow
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burn, the end of book eight is insane. That is
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like one of the most insane things I've ever
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read. It was so complicated. It was so hard to
7:14
keep up with. And Nikki and I actually got in
7:17
an argument where I was like, I think this happened.
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And Nikki was like, what? What are you talking
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about? And like we had to pull up the book and
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I was like, see right here. And Nikki was like,
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oh, man, I guess you're right. But it was something
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pretty wild. Yeah, it definitely goes very hard
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at the end. And like towards the middle, it starts
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building like that speed and kind of giving you.
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information about these plot points that have
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been building throughout the series you know
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i .e. the primals and like what's going on with
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the nothing and the shield levels all coming
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together and what's happening in the skull of
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pendra club you start kind of getting some of
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that insights there's some interesting stuff
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with some more mages so it kind of like starts
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building but like before i would say like halfway
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through the book it's like it is entertaining
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it's fun but it's very it's just kind of like
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how do i want to say it's just kind of like peak
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funny silly ridiculous dungeon crawler carl vibes
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without so much of the big scale stuff that we've
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been experiencing for the last three books basically
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there are a few bits there maybe a bit too silly
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for me and i was like ugh like can we move on
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past this this is more about how the book made
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you feel um yeah i mean made me a little frustrated
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the first little bit where it was like getting
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going and I think I was frustrated for like the
8:40
same reason that Carl was frustrated of like
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wow they're just kind of like stuck in this scenario
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and like they're just like going through the
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floor and like they just kind of have to like
8:49
be stuck to this path and like aren't really
8:51
able to deviate from it and so that's kind of
8:53
an interesting experience for the reader where
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for like the last few floors they've just been
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going off the rails and doing whatever they want
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yeah my expectations were definitely subverted
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so I think that was a little hard for me to get
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over and to kind of get back into the pace of
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reading. But I do genuinely love this book. Two
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of my favorite chapters of the entire series
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are in it. One of them being a donut chapter
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and the other one being a prepotente chapter.
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And I'm a bit of a hard sell. It's hard to make
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me cry. Oh, gosh. The prepotente chapter was.
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really sad oh my god heartbreaking yeah it was
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such a good chapter though like it was so realistic
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and like it was so um you know well put together
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like the dialogue was perfect but it was a tearjerker
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yeah and i i would say the character development
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of of prepatente in this book is very good he's
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good he gets a lot more character development
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yeah i won't say anything more about that i don't
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want to get into spoiler territory but it's it's
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fun I don't know if we talked about this before.
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This is actually like relating to book seven.
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So I saw this on Facebook that someone pointed
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out. And so at the Butcher's Masquerade during
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the talent show, Prepetente and Bianca go up
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and just kind of like stand there and they don't
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do anything. And earlier in the book, right after
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Miriam died, Prepetente mentioned something of,
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oh, she was going to sing for me or she was going
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to play the piano and sing my favorite song for
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me. And he meant in the talent show. And then
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she died. And so like. he didn't know what to
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do so he just went up with there went up there
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with Bianca and kind of stood there yeah like
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oh my god oh that's yeah heartbreaking this book
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will definitely answer a lot of questions for
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you so many questions get answered as the book
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goes on you come up with a lot more questions
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I would say and it's like so many unknowns but
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like you're getting kind of like cock teased
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as you go through the book but like I would say
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that the payoff of book eight the climax and
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the payoff at the end is like better than all
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the rest of the books combined i would agree
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and you know maybe not combined but like it's
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worth it i would agree and going back to the
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spoiler discussion people keep coming up to me
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and being like hey free please answer this but
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no spoilers for book eight and i just kind of
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laugh and i'm like well and i'm going to use
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the example of can you tell me about carl's wife
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without mentioning book eight okay, there are
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two lines of dialogue in book seven that refer
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to Carl's wife. That's it. No more information.
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Nothing else we can speculate. We don't know
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anything else unless we read book eight. So a
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lot of people have asked me questions that I've
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just had to answer with, you're going to have
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to read book eight. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There's,
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you can't find any more information or learn
11:44
anything else without spoilers. Something else
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that was funny is I was hanging out with a friend
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of ours who, you know, he's a very big fan of
11:55
the series but he hasn't read any of book eight
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and you know didn't want to go on the patreon
11:59
he just wanted to wait for the whole thing to
12:00
be released which we've met a lot of people without
12:02
opinion totally understand but I asked him I
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was like can I tell you two words about book
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eight and he was like yeah okay fine and I'm
12:10
not going to say those two words here but the
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two words I told him and then like his face just
12:15
like bunched up and I could just see like all
12:18
the wheels in his brain started turning and it
12:20
was very amusing and it is Something from the
12:24
very end of the book, and it's what Matt was
12:26
referencing in his Variety interview where he
12:29
said that he did one of the dumbest things ever
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at the end of book eight, which I don't think
12:35
it's dumb, but I know what he means by dumb.
12:37
I think it was well set up. Yes. I think that
12:40
you understand how he got there, and you understand
12:44
how Carl got there. Yes. It makes sense, but
12:47
it is fucking ridiculous. Like, it's great, but
12:51
it's, like, it is peak DCC vibes. Like, only
12:54
in this fucking series would something like that
12:57
happen. Yeah, I guess one of the things that
13:00
I will say is there is one situation that I think
13:04
very few people should have made it out alive.
13:07
Like, there's one scenario in the book where
13:11
I am surprised that, like, anyone walked away
13:15
from that. Because it was really bad. And as
13:18
soon as I understood what was happening in that
13:20
scene, I was like, oh, fuck, this is so bad.
13:25
Like, this is just an absolute nightmare scenario.
13:28
Like, I don't know what they're going to do.
13:30
So we talked about on our last episode that we
13:34
are going to do a breakdown of the Pineapple
13:36
Cabaret. And moving forward, as we do our analysis
13:41
of A Parade of Horribles, we... We'll be talking
13:44
about the Pineapple Cabaret content because once
13:47
you start reading this book and, you know, get,
13:49
I don't know, maybe 20, 30 percent of the way
13:51
through, like Pineapple Cabaret plays a serious
13:54
role in what is happening in A Parade of Horribles.
13:57
And it is, I think, essential to the plot. And
13:59
just a funny story. I do think it is very well
14:02
worth your time to try to get a hold of the Pineapple
14:05
Cabaret chapters. I understand if people don't
14:08
want to pay for another version, if they already
14:10
have the Audible experience. You can borrow them
14:13
from a friend. You can go to the library. Yeah,
14:16
you can go to the library. Steal it from Target.
14:21
That's getting cut. We had one friend who we
14:27
were telling him like, yeah, we think you really
14:29
need to read it. But you can just come over to
14:31
our house and like sit in our living room and
14:34
like it shouldn't take you more than a couple
14:35
of hours. no he bought all seven books on on
14:39
the spot and we were just looking at his girlfriend
14:42
like sorry well and he didn't know that the pineapple
14:46
cabaret was a thing which was interesting because
14:49
i mean he's a big fan but he's not like involved
14:50
online and like he just has listened to the audiobooks
14:53
but like he listens to dungeon crawler carl going
14:56
to sleep every night he falls asleep to the sweet
14:59
sweet voice of jeff hayes every night um which
15:01
is very amusing i have listened to dungeon crawler
15:05
carl while like kind of laying down for bed but
15:08
like i've found that it's not good for me because
15:10
it's too exciting um and with the like changes
15:13
in voices it's a little too like jarring for
15:16
my brain to fall asleep too and you know it can
15:19
be like pretty normal commentary going on and
15:21
then like you know it's donut and chat screaming
15:23
and then that jolts me awake that's fair yeah
15:27
Yeah, we didn't have too much to say. We just
15:30
wanted to talk about our excitement for book
15:35
eight and give people a little bit more time
15:38
to read before we started going through chapter
15:41
by chapter. I can't wait to talk about the first
15:43
chapter. It's my favorite. It's going to be so
15:46
much fun. Yeah, I'm so excited about it. We felt
15:50
that in addition to giving some background on
15:54
the Pineapple Cabaret before we started on Book
15:57
8, we also needed to talk about something that
16:00
is known as the Femme Paradox, because that is
16:03
very highly involved in the plot of Book 8. But
16:08
even before we knew how tied into this book that
16:12
was going to be, we still wanted to cover it.
16:15
Because it does have a lot of relevance to Dungeon
16:20
Crawler Carl. It does. And we will be doing that.
16:23
I don't know if we need to do that like right
16:25
away because that becomes super relevant like
16:27
more towards the end of the book. Gives people
16:29
more time to read. Yeah, definitely. That makes
16:32
sense. Not everyone finishes a book in two days
16:34
like I do, Ninky. Yeah, that's true. Especially
16:37
not our Audible readers. I mean, I've heard some
16:39
people they're like they're ticking off a week
16:41
so they can like read the book all. the way through
16:44
um but those people aren't speed readers like
16:47
Brie I definitely would have taken the day off
16:50
if I hadn't read book eight already and I am
16:53
just really excited to finally be able to talk
16:55
about book eight just because like we haven't
16:57
met none of our friends and like people we've
17:00
ran into at conventions and stuff like nobody's
17:03
read book eight parade of horribles on patreon
17:06
so like we just haven't been able to talk about
17:08
it with anybody except for each other and you
17:11
know Yeah, we just need more people to talk about
17:13
it with. It's so good. And super excited. We
17:16
also wanted to mention that we are hosting a
17:18
Dungeon Crawler Carl photo shoot at MomoCon here
17:21
in Atlanta. And that will be on Friday, May 22nd
17:25
at 5 .30 p .m. in front of the gaming hall. And
17:29
we will have a photographer for the shoot, of
17:32
course. It would be pretty amateur if we didn't.
17:35
And we're going to do a few different shoots.
17:37
Everyone together, all the Carls. Carl and Donut,
17:40
Donut and Mongo. Well, and we want to do a T
17:43
-shirt and merch one because we wanted to just
17:45
have a general meetup. And we didn't want to
17:48
have that emphasis on cosplay because we wanted
17:51
to be a little bit more inclusive. We can get
17:53
a shot with just everyone. That was my plan was
17:56
to do a T -shirts and merch photo. So that would
18:00
be like best fan T -shirts or like the people
18:02
who have like. 3d printed mongos like that's
18:06
your chance to shine well and so even if you
18:08
don't want to be in the photo shoot you don't
18:11
want pictures being taken of you that's totally
18:12
fine it's still a good opportunity to come look
18:15
at dungeon crawler carl costumes you'll be able
18:18
to like hang out and talk to other fans so you
18:21
know we'd love to see you there and that's pretty
18:23
much everything we've got or i actually do have
18:26
something else i want to include um so this is
18:29
kind of More of a media roundup thing. It doesn't,
18:33
you know, go with any specific episode. But we
18:36
were at a very small convention this weekend
18:39
that was maybe about 300 people. And we actually
18:42
just went because we're friends with the people
18:43
who organizes it. But one of the writers who
18:47
was at the convention told us that last weekend
18:51
they went to JordanCon, which was a convention
18:53
based around Robert Jordan's A Wheel of Time,
18:56
which I am on the record of not liking. But he
19:00
said that there were more people dressed up as
19:03
Carl at Jordan Con than there were people dressed
19:06
up in Wheel of Time costumes. Which is wild.
19:10
And that blew his mind. And he also pointed out,
19:12
which I think he's correct, but I hadn't really
19:15
thought of it that way, that he was really excited
19:18
because this last year at Dragon Con when we
19:22
went was the first time that the big costume
19:25
of the year, the It thing, was based on a book
19:29
that didn't have any kind of movie or TV show
19:34
existing IP. And I shared my theory of why that
19:39
is, which is I think that people are just kind
19:43
of over screens and they're over everything being
19:46
digital. Or at least only relying on that. And
19:50
a lot more people are starting to consume literature.
19:53
I think a lot more people are interested in books.
19:56
More people are interested in knitting, which
19:58
is my big thing right now. But I think people
20:01
are just looking for ways to kind of get away
20:03
from just being sucked into the digital world.
20:08
And I think that that's another major theme in
20:10
Dungeon Crawler Carl is that that can consume
20:13
you and it's not healthy. I absolutely agree
20:15
with that. We need to all spend a little less
20:17
time on social media. It's definitely, I mean,
20:19
I've stepped away from it a lot. But with that,
20:22
we're going to wrap up today's episode and our
20:24
next episode coming out on May 24th will be covering
20:27
the Fermi Paradox. And then the episode after
20:30
that on May 31st is going to be our full spoilers
20:34
review of Book 8 once everyone has had plenty
20:36
of time to read the entire book. Thank you so
20:39
much for joining us today and we'll see you next
20:42
time. Now get out there and kill, kill, kill.
20:45
No, read, read, read.