Latest / The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted / Entering Baroness Victory - Chapter 13 This Inevitable Ruin
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, and this is the Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted.
- 0:03We are a married couple from Atlanta with boring
- 0:05day jobs. We have been together 12 years, and
- 0:08we usually create a lot of weird performance
- 0:10art to entertain people. But we are trying our
- 0:13hand at having a podcast because we have had
- 0:16an obsession lately, and that obsession is Dungeon
- 0:20Crawler Carl. This is a spoilers podcast, and
- 0:23we will be discussing plot points from all seven
- 0:26Dungeon Crawler Carl books. You should not start
- 0:30this podcast until you have finished book seven.
- 0:33We will not be discussing anything from Patreon
- 0:36or the Pineapple Cabaret. There are spoilers
- 0:39from this point forward. Be warned. Well, in
- 0:43this chapter, Mongo is not appalled, but Donut
- 0:46most certainly is. She is absolutely very appalled.
- 0:50This week's chapter is a bit of a shorter chapter,
- 0:54so this might be a shorter episode, but... Every
- 0:58time we say that, the episode ends up being like
- 1:00an hour long. So we'll see how it goes. And I
- 1:03think for being short, this chapter does have
- 1:06a outsized influence. But I think for me, that's
- 1:11just because Baroness Victory is my favorite
- 1:14character. This is where she gets introduced.
- 1:16And her intro is just so great. It really is.
- 1:21I think Florin might have fallen in love. Me
- 1:23too, a little bit. Yeah. Speaking of Florin,
- 1:26he's a total snark machine in this chapter, which
- 1:28I really enjoy. But I told someone that my favorite
- 1:32Dungeon Crawler Carl characters, besides the
- 1:35obvious Donut Samantha, are Princess Formidable
- 1:38and Baroness Victory. And, you know, the friend
- 1:41I was talking to was very surprised. But I think...
- 1:44Why? You know... I didn't ask him to expand.
- 1:48This is before the podcast. I should have told
- 1:50him I needed him to tell me for the content.
- 1:52Right. Yeah. But he was missed opportunities.
- 1:54But he was surprised. And, you know, I think
- 1:58one of the things that I really like about these
- 2:00books is that the maestro and Prince Stalwart
- 2:05are shown as just like kind of cartoonishly bad
- 2:08assholes. So I think it's kind of neat that we
- 2:12see with King Russ later in this book. we see
- 2:15with Princess Vermittable, we see with Baroness
- 2:17Victory, that it's not just all the orcs are
- 2:21bad. There can be a lot of nuance. And I think
- 2:25that both Baroness Victory and Princess Vermittable
- 2:28are very nuanced, which is why I like them so
- 2:31much. Yeah, they definitely are. And like King
- 2:33Rust's character, he only plays a very small
- 2:36role in this book, but it was a very interesting
- 2:39insight to kind of see and get an idea of what
- 2:42he's like. We do obviously get a very, I think,
- 2:46skewed view of him and his character because
- 2:49of the position that he was in and basically
- 2:52fearing that the failsafe was going to get blown.
- 2:54So he was kind of in this like last resort, everything,
- 2:59all hope is lost kind of mentality. But I think
- 3:02still compared to his sons, you could see that
- 3:05he seemed to be a much more reasonable person.
- 3:08And his two sons are just kind of, what's the
- 3:11word? Terrible, awful little children, basically.
- 3:14I mean, he says he's disappointed in both of
- 3:16them. And then Donut gets to shove that back
- 3:19into Prince Stalwart's face. Yeah, definitely.
- 3:22And we do get a little bit more insight about
- 3:25the orcs based on what Baroness Victory tells
- 3:27us in the next chapter. And I'm excited to talk
- 3:30about that. Absolutely. So as we noted, Donut
- 3:34is appalled. So basically the chapter starts
- 3:37out with Tina breaking out of the... big room
- 3:41that she's in and she's hopping around shouting
- 3:44papa at mongo and in the audiobook the voice
- 3:48that jeff does is is very guttural and bass heavy
- 3:53it's pretty intense but also delightful well
- 3:56and i think that because mongo is a fan favorite
- 3:58character that they really wanted to give him
- 4:01some kind of like storyline or arc and um it's
- 4:06an interesting one It gets a little weird. It
- 4:08definitely does get a little weird. It's definitely
- 4:11interesting to see, okay, we need to, like, figure
- 4:13out some plot related to this dinosaur. What
- 4:15can we come up with? Hmm. Yeah, so basically,
- 4:19though, you know, Mongo is kind of, like, he's
- 4:22excited to see Big Tina, but he's also kind of,
- 4:25like, confused. Like, not really sure what's
- 4:28going on or, like, how to feel. And then QE ends
- 4:32up coming out, you know, and sees Mongo and...
- 4:35pretty much says hi to him and you can tell like
- 4:38Mongo recognizes her but like he knows like something's
- 4:41off and at some point it says he lets out a forlorn
- 4:45squeak or peep which is it's a little sad. Yeah
- 4:49but she is very pregnant. She is extremely pregnant
- 4:53ready to pop pregnant and honestly I'm surprised
- 4:55that her giving birth doesn't happen earlier
- 4:58in the book it happens nearly all the way at
- 5:01the end. And when it does end up happening, I
- 5:04was there was so much going on. I was kind of
- 5:05like, there's no time for this right now. This
- 5:08is this is sorry, guys. Like, no, I agree. They
- 5:13were like, it's an emergency. Kiwi is giving
- 5:15birth. You all have to come here right now. And
- 5:18I was like, does everyone have to show up for
- 5:20that? Wasn't that in like the last hour of the
- 5:24dungeon? empress is melting everything yeah i
- 5:28do believe it was a bit of a manufactured uh
- 5:30you know emergency in my opinion i i think they
- 5:34could have you know lived without lived without
- 5:36witnessing the birth but that is an amazing scene
- 5:40so i get why they include it but yeah definitely
- 5:43it happening so late in the book is kind of like
- 5:46Okay. Okay. Sorry, guys. There's some important
- 5:51stuff happening. It was kind of like in Stranger
- 5:53Things and spoiler alert for the last season
- 5:56of Stranger Things when like they're on the other
- 6:00alien planet off to kill the whatever the thing
- 6:04is called. And they're just kind of casually
- 6:06walking along on this alien fucking planet, like
- 6:10talking about their feelings and just. kind of
- 6:14being super casual and taking their time. And
- 6:16I was like sitting there screaming like, what
- 6:18are you doing? Yeah, apparently Jonathan and
- 6:22Nancy had to break up like while they were dying.
- 6:24Apparently. All right. So back to what's going
- 6:28on. Jonah is not very thrilled with this whole
- 6:31reunion. And we do get the quote of the week,
- 6:35which I think is something we're going to start
- 6:36doing moving forward. And who's reading it? Me.
- 6:40Okay. Okay. So the quote of the week is, Carl,
- 6:44if this turns into some weird furry porn thing,
- 6:47I am going to lose my absolute shit. Fair. Very
- 6:51fair. And after that, Mongo and Kiwi have a little
- 6:55hug. And Mongo, again, seems a little sad and
- 6:58confused. And Carl tells him, sometimes people
- 7:02change and that's all there is to it. Which is
- 7:05a very, very true quote. Sometimes people do
- 7:08change for better or worse. There's not much
- 7:10we can do about that. Well, something I would
- 7:12like to highlight is that it states again that
- 7:16Kiwi was transformed during a Skolopendra nine
- 7:20tier attack. And all I'm going to say related
- 7:23to that, it is it is two months until we can
- 7:26talk about book eight. And that is going to be
- 7:29a huge relief. So we were like we were at a festival
- 7:32and we were camping and the last few chapters
- 7:35of book eight were being posted on Matt's Patreon.
- 7:39Like we were taking time to like sit down and
- 7:43go and just read like at the peak of night of
- 7:46the festival because it was that good and that
- 7:50intense. And like we had to know what was going
- 7:52to happen. I got caught reading one time when
- 7:54I wasn't supposed to. I looked over and I was
- 7:56like, are you reading? Are you reading right
- 7:57now? We're supposed to be doing that together.
- 7:59Yeah. And definitely there were some other Dungeon
- 8:01Crawler Carl fans there and we were telling them
- 8:03about the Patreon and that like we were like
- 8:05finishing book eight that weekend and they were
- 8:07like. what and we were like get on the patreon
- 8:11we can't say it enough times join matt's patreon
- 8:14it is worth your five dollars a month it definitely
- 8:17is but i do also understand i mean at this point
- 8:20it's finished on the patreon but i do understand
- 8:22a lot of people have said like no i want to wait
- 8:25until it's all out you know i don't want to have
- 8:28to like wait for another chapter to be released
- 8:30and and i definitely understand that and i know
- 8:33some people are just audiobook listeners, which
- 8:35I primarily am, but obviously I read the entirety
- 8:38of book eight on the Patreon, but I am really,
- 8:40really looking forward to the audible experience
- 8:43of book eight. I'm really excited. There are
- 8:46definitely times when I'm reading and I feel
- 8:48like things don't hit as hard emotionally because
- 8:51I'm reading it, but I know that when I listen
- 8:54to it and with the inflection of Jeff narrating
- 8:57everybody's voices, I know it's going to hit
- 8:59a lot harder. Okay, we got to get back on topic
- 9:03here. Well, and we're probably going to put a
- 9:06timestamp on this where if you want to go into
- 9:08book eight completely unspoiled, you can skip
- 9:10that part. I don't think we really spoiled anything
- 9:13there. Some people don't want to know anything.
- 9:16All right. Nothing happened. So moving on. I
- 9:19was not like completely destroyed and what the
- 9:22fuck like multiple times. Yeah. All right. Again,
- 9:26moving on. So Lauren does make a pretty funny
- 9:30comment to Carl and he says, I wonder how that
- 9:32letter is going to turn out. Yep. Yep, as you
- 9:34should. It's interesting. So they walk into their
- 9:39headquarters, their castle, which is called the
- 9:43Fortress of Unyielding Power and Authority. And
- 9:47Donut does not like that name at all. And she's
- 9:52like, why did it get named that? We need to name
- 9:54it something else. And basically, Florin tells
- 9:57them that they can't. Rename it because the NPC
- 10:00team and the Sledge were going back and forth
- 10:03naming it, and they did it too many times, and
- 10:05then it got stuck on the Fortress of Unyielding
- 10:07Power and Authority. But the Sledge did try to
- 10:10rename it to Los Santos, and Florin says he doesn't
- 10:13know why, but that's because the Sledge has played
- 10:16a lot of Grand Theft Auto throughout the course
- 10:18of these books, which is just very amusing. I'm
- 10:21not sure which Grand Theft Auto that's from,
- 10:23but I know it is from that somebody. Somebody
- 10:26listening will definitely know exactly where
- 10:28that's from. Well, and Carl says that the reason
- 10:30he got stuck on FUPA and the AI won't let them
- 10:33change it anymore is the AI thinks it's funny.
- 10:36I am not going to explain what a FUPA is here.
- 10:39If you do not know, Google with caution. F -U
- 10:42-P -A. Look it up carefully. Jonah hates it.
- 10:46She thinks it is obscene. And she's like, how
- 10:50do I make people do what I say? Nobody can say
- 10:52that. What do I need to do in the Warlord menu?
- 10:56Sorry, Donut. Yeah, she wants to make a direct
- 10:57order to not call it that. Mm -hmm. So, sorry,
- 11:00Donut. And then Florin immediately drops it in
- 11:04the chat, and there is a bunch of chatter going
- 11:06back and forth, and Ellie is with Carl and thinks
- 11:10it's hilarious. Amani is like, absolutely not,
- 11:12and she agrees with Donut. Also tracks. Yep,
- 11:15yep. And Carl's like, yeah, this is definitely
- 11:17going to become a theme thing with, you know,
- 11:20half the people calling it one thing and half
- 11:21the people calling it another thing. Yeah, well,
- 11:23Carl asked Donut what she would have named it,
- 11:27and she says that she cannot create when she's
- 11:29angry, but she probably would have named it Club
- 11:32Posse. That is kind of a boring name. I can see
- 11:35why the NPCs wouldn't be thrilled with it. Yeah,
- 11:37I do wonder what a good alternate name is. Donut
- 11:43Holes, but Donut wouldn't like that either. No,
- 11:45no, not at all. They are walking through their
- 11:49stronghold, and Carl notes that it's kind of
- 11:51laid out like a... you know, standard medieval
- 11:54castle. Of course, you know, I don't know how
- 11:56Carl knows what a standard medieval castle is
- 11:57like, I guess just from various media. He's been
- 12:00to Disneyland. But he says that there are murder
- 12:04holes along the walls, which is a new term. Yeah,
- 12:08that's a new term for me. I'm not sure where
- 12:10he pulled that from. No, they're definitely something
- 12:12that exists in all castles, but they're usually
- 12:16not called murder holes. I don't know what the
- 12:18actual term is, but yeah, what he's referring
- 12:20to is like the holes in the wall where like archers
- 12:22could shoot arrows out of or, you know, for people
- 12:25to just be able to like keep watch without being
- 12:28super out in the open. Yeah, susceptible to enemy
- 12:32fire of some kind. So Carl says that the castle
- 12:36is sturdy, but it looks like shit. I did have
- 12:40some fun trying to imagine what it must look
- 12:42like. Right. And we get some great snark from
- 12:45the AI here, where Carl examines one of the rocks,
- 12:49and the AI says, it's a rock. What did you expect?
- 12:53Kind of like that manna toast. Exactly. And so
- 12:57same kind of thing. And we get some info dumping
- 13:00about the castle and the throne room, if you
- 13:02want to cover some of that, Nikki. So Carl notes
- 13:05that the throne room can lock. The door can have
- 13:11traps as well, but inside the room they cannot
- 13:15have any kind of defensive features or traps,
- 13:17but they can have guards inside of the throne
- 13:20room, which is interesting that that's the mechanics
- 13:23of it. Carl also notes that some of the outer
- 13:27hallways are really big. To be able to accommodate
- 13:30Tina. And then some of the larger tattoo turned
- 13:33flesh golems. That came from Cygnet. And yeah
- 13:37so they still have some of those guys in their
- 13:39army as well. Carl sees some bugbears run by
- 13:42that are working on stuff. And he knows that
- 13:45those are actually some of his changelings. That
- 13:48he still has in their army as well. And I don't
- 13:51feel like they really end up putting these changelings
- 13:54to much use at all. Especially not. Not to the
- 13:57effect of them being changelings and maybe being
- 14:01able to use them for some kind of subversion
- 14:03or spying. I would say, damn it, I really want
- 14:06to talk about Book 8, but I can't. Carl looks
- 14:09on the map and sees that Herman, the third strongman
- 14:13from Grimaldi Circus, is in a room near the flag
- 14:17room. And basically, so he was a three -headed
- 14:21noddling that died and split. And he was one
- 14:25of the three. And then there's a tattoo version
- 14:29of him or one of his brothers supposedly running
- 14:32around somewhere. Does that mean there's six
- 14:35of them? I don't think there's six of them, but
- 14:37there are like some different versions. I know
- 14:39at least one of the versions died at some point.
- 14:44Like they didn't all come to this floor, but
- 14:46there is a tattoo version of one of these guys
- 14:48running around somewhere. There is some lampshade
- 14:51hanging from Carl here. Where he says that he
- 14:54doesn't like to think about it. Because it makes
- 14:56his brain hurt. And he says that he felt the
- 14:59same way about Alpha Carl. Where he thought that
- 15:02that must just be very confusing for everyone.
- 15:05And that he's just relieved that that is left
- 15:08on the last floor. And no one has to think about
- 15:11it again. Although that means no more Patrick
- 15:14Warburton cameos. And we all want that. I mean
- 15:17they might still find a use for Patrick Warburton
- 15:20at some point. And I do like. love that they
- 15:23brought Patrick Warburton in to be the voice
- 15:26of Alpha Carl in book eight or on floor eight
- 15:29and I assume they did that very deliberately
- 15:32because Jeff Hayes sounded a lot like Patrick
- 15:36Warburton in the earlier books which is a big
- 15:38complaint from a lot of people when they start
- 15:41listening to the books they're like this guy
- 15:42doesn't sound like a 28 year old like he sounds
- 15:45like Patrick Warburton well guess what Patrick
- 15:47Warburton always sounded like that even when
- 15:49he was young so yeah I kind of want to know how
- 15:53old he was when he voiced Kronk and we're probably
- 15:55going to insert that in. Somewhere along the
- 15:57line. But I mean, like some people just have
- 15:59really deep voices from a very young age. There's
- 16:01this guy that I worked with, like he just had
- 16:03this super deep, like gravelly voice, even though
- 16:06he was like 20. I mean, some of my uncles were
- 16:09going gray in college. So like sometimes there
- 16:12are just quirks like that. There definitely are.
- 16:15So we had to pause for a moment, and I was able
- 16:16to look it up, and Patrick Warburton was 36 when
- 16:19he voiced Kronk in The Emperor's New Group, just
- 16:22in case you wanted to know. Yeah, which is a
- 16:24pretty reasonable age, I guess, for your voice
- 16:27to start getting deeper, but I know he sounded
- 16:29like that even when he was younger. Back to what's
- 16:32going on here. They are having a secret conversation.
- 16:37They are still walking to the throne room, and
- 16:40Carl asks if they can have secret chat. In case
- 16:44the walls still literally have ears. Literally?
- 16:48I don't know about literally. I think that a
- 16:51spy could turn into a rock, personally. Can a
- 16:54changeling turn into a rock? Maybe. He says they
- 16:57can't. I guess, yeah. You know, there's in the
- 17:01game RuneScape that I've mentioned many times
- 17:04and many of you will be familiar with. There
- 17:06is a ring that you can wear that changes you
- 17:09into a rock. And I would absolutely... Fucking
- 17:13love it. If there was a ring or some kind of
- 17:16item that a character could get that turned them
- 17:18into a rock, that would be so funny. It would
- 17:22be another joke that only certain people would
- 17:24get, like the Los Santos Grand Theft Auto thing.
- 17:27Right, right, exactly. But the reason they're
- 17:30having this secret chat is Carl wants to ask
- 17:32Florin about their spy network, and he says that
- 17:34Ellie is on the Naga border, and then the Beaver
- 17:38guys, the Werecasters, and Edgar the Turtle are
- 17:41on the other border. And I think that's the border
- 17:44that Florin is going to be fighting at for most
- 17:46of the ramp up. I believe so. And Carl also asks
- 17:50Florin how these peacetime incursions work. So
- 17:53basically, only scouts can go into enemy territory
- 17:56during the peacetime. And if they are discovered,
- 18:00they get teleported back to base and can't go
- 18:03stealth again until the fighting starts. It's
- 18:05super important they don't get caught. And they
- 18:07can't be attacked, but they can be killed by
- 18:10traps. Yeah, don't die in a trap, I guess. Yeah,
- 18:16and they've already caught two spies, and Florin
- 18:18thinks there's more, and he says once the towers
- 18:20are up, then they should have better control
- 18:22over the situation. Yeah, they've got to get
- 18:24some scouting towers up where they can have different
- 18:26enchantments and mages and such that have, I
- 18:30think, tripper spells, proper observation, and
- 18:33king spells. And Florin is definitely right that
- 18:37there are other spies in their midst. Quite.
- 18:41Quite a few, as we find out in a few chapters
- 18:43from now. Big problems, big problems for everyone.
- 18:46Yeah, definitely. It's almost like everyone's
- 18:49cheating but them. Maybe. Yeah, very much so
- 18:52maybe. Lauren mentions Princess Denadia of the
- 18:57Prism Kingdom and Jonette scoffs very aggressively.
- 19:01Yeah, definitely. And I was actually reading
- 19:03a little bit about this earlier. I firmly believe
- 19:06that these books are anti -capitalism and that
- 19:10there's a lot of critiques of capitalism in it.
- 19:12And basically something that like I hadn't caught
- 19:15on to, but I think is pretty insightful, is that
- 19:19basically these people like Empress Denadia are
- 19:24using the crawl is like an ad for their home
- 19:28planets or for their own purposes. And it's basically
- 19:31like they're using Carl and Donut just like.
- 19:34for content creation without their permission.
- 19:37And, of course, that's what the entire crawl
- 19:39is. Yeah, the crawlers don't have any agency.
- 19:42Yeah, but they don't have the chance to actually
- 19:45get mad at, like, the Boren Corporation. Like,
- 19:48they don't deal with just one person from Boren
- 19:51who they can be mad at, whereas, you know, it's
- 19:54a lot easier to be mad at someone like Princess
- 19:55Denadia that they feel like they've interacted
- 19:58with, they had a relationship with, she had sympathy
- 20:00for. And then she was just farming them for content.
- 20:04She was, and then she tried to get them deleted.
- 20:07She didn't make anybody mad. Yeah, through an
- 20:08emergency action item. And that got shot down
- 20:11by the AI, rightfully so. Can you imagine? That's
- 20:15just how the series ended. I don't think anyone's
- 20:18gotten deleted so far. Um, not, no, no. No one's
- 20:23been deleted. There is one of the chapters between
- 20:26chapters, stories of former cookbook authors
- 20:29where someone does, get deleted by the system
- 20:32AI in a previous season for refusing to follow
- 20:36orders and just basically stops existing. Kind
- 20:39of dark, but yeah. That doesn't happen in these
- 20:42books so far. Not in the current timeline. Not
- 20:45in the current timeline, yes, exactly. Lauren
- 20:48lets Carl know that they have lots of traps going
- 20:52on and that there is a trap master who's going
- 20:55to come and help them out just a slight. But
- 20:57he is currently underground, but he's going to
- 20:59be coming up soon. And apparently he can do something
- 21:02to prevent tripper spells, which would be extremely
- 21:06helpful, especially because, I mean, we've seen
- 21:08how much chaos Carl can cause with his tripper
- 21:11spell. So, yeah, if they had a bunch of people
- 21:13coming into their fortress and casting tripper
- 21:16or on their defensive lines and such, that's
- 21:18going to create some problems. Yeah, I think
- 21:21the Justice Light might be a little bit like
- 21:23Gandalf and that he calls all time soon, though.
- 21:26because I do not think he actually comes up that
- 21:28soon. And it's interesting because Justice Light
- 21:31does surprisingly little in this book. Like he's
- 21:35underground working on this grand plan that he's
- 21:39told everyone about, but it kind of like never
- 21:43seems to come to fruition. Well... I think it
- 21:46does happen that he set up at the end of book
- 21:48seven would take a lot of preparation and does
- 21:52take up all his time. So as far as the grand
- 21:55plan that he's telling Carl and everyone else
- 21:57about, I don't think it's actually going to happen.
- 22:00I don't think he ever intended for it to happen.
- 22:02I think it's a lie. Yeah. And I guess it's like
- 22:05the celestial trap that he sets off with the
- 22:07bijou fairies and opening the nothing into the
- 22:11different skull of Pindra levels. Like you think
- 22:14that was it? I think that was the plan all along.
- 22:16Absolutely. Okay. And I don't think he wanted
- 22:18to tell everyone else about it because it's fucking
- 22:20crazy. Yeah, it definitely is. And I mean, I
- 22:23think Carl makes a comment some point later that
- 22:26Rosetta and Justice Light both came into the
- 22:30dungeon with like their own agendas. And it seems
- 22:33like Justice Light basically like put 100 % of
- 22:37his effort into this agenda of making the trap.
- 22:40At least Rosetta like did other things to help.
- 22:42But it doesn't seem like Justice Light did much
- 22:44to help with what was happening on the Faction
- 22:46Wars floor. No, but I think that that's okay
- 22:50because I think the larger plan that he did have
- 22:54going furthered the overall group's goals more
- 22:59than anything else. Yeah. Well, I guess we'll
- 23:02have to see. We'll have to see how it ends up.
- 23:04Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. This is really
- 23:07hard. Not talking about Book 8 is really hard.
- 23:09I wish I hadn't read it before it came out. No,
- 23:12I think that he is furthering everyone's goals
- 23:14more than... Especially Carl's goals of chaos.
- 23:18Well, and I think that's why Carl is ultimately
- 23:21very sympathetic to Justice Light and Rosetta
- 23:24having their own agenda. Because we see many
- 23:27times in the books where Carl has his own agenda
- 23:29that he does not let other people in on. I mean,
- 23:32yes, that is definitely true. And that's something
- 23:34we've talked about a few times. Carl likes to
- 23:37do things without telling anybody about them.
- 23:41like deactivating the failsafe. Pretty big one
- 23:44there. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just the nature
- 23:47of the dungeon and the nature of being on a reality
- 23:51TV show. Donut is another person who certainly
- 23:53has her own agenda, like most of the books that
- 23:57she doesn't let anyone else in on. So I think
- 24:00that that's just something that people will forgive
- 24:03in others because they've all done it themselves.
- 24:05Well, and I think that sometimes it's hard to
- 24:09like talk about. any of these things like I know
- 24:11they have their secret bathroom messaging system
- 24:13but I think it's only so effective it's only
- 24:16so effective and yeah I mean like they're just
- 24:18they're under so much scrutiny also poor donut
- 24:21can't write with her mouth no but but they're
- 24:23under so much scrutiny that like it's hard to
- 24:26you know even let anybody know about their secret
- 24:28plans because the likelihood of it getting like
- 24:30discovered in some way by the system AI or the
- 24:33other powers that be somehow monitoring that
- 24:35risks are just really high Well, they all have
- 24:38a high level of trust in each other and that
- 24:40they have an understanding that they don't have
- 24:44to understand or know what the other people are
- 24:47doing. Yeah, that's true. And I think that was
- 24:50actually really highlighted in one of the last
- 24:53chapters where the former crawlers showed up
- 24:55where, you know, it was clear that everyone in
- 24:58the room had pretty deep reservations about what
- 25:00was going on and felt that they were missing
- 25:04a lot of information, but they trusted Carl.
- 25:06Yeah. That is absolutely true. I mean, everyone
- 25:10knows Carl's a crazy son of a bitch, but they
- 25:12also trust his intuition and trust that usually
- 25:16he's right, no matter how crazy his plans might
- 25:18seem. Yeah, definitely. Yep. All right. So moving
- 25:21on from here, they keep making their way towards
- 25:25the flag room and they move into the antechamber,
- 25:28which is a room adjacent to the flag room. And
- 25:31this is where Herman, the part of the three -headed
- 25:35noddling. is sitting at a desk and he's been
- 25:39put in glasses, which Carl notes must be the
- 25:42AI's attempt to indicate that he is smarter than
- 25:47his brothers. But he sat at a desk and he is
- 25:51covered in head to toe and more magical gear
- 25:54than Carl has ever seen. Like he is lit up like
- 25:57a Christmas tree, basically. But he's not working
- 26:00as it appeared. Rather, he seems to be writhing
- 26:04in pain. Yeah, and it turns out that he's not
- 26:07wearing a bunch of magical gear. He is just covered
- 26:09in explosives. A bunch of bombs. And Carl yells
- 26:13out, bomb. And then this is one of those parts
- 26:17of the books where a bunch of things happen all
- 26:19at once. But Tippett turns into a puff of smoke.
- 26:23Thorn hits the ground with some kind of protective
- 26:25shield forming over him. Donut blasts Herman
- 26:28in the face with a magic missile. And then enters
- 26:33Freeze. Favorite character. Yeah. And then Baroness
- 26:37Victory enters and she just slams a battle axe
- 26:40into his head. And this is just such a great
- 26:43intro. It's so badass. And it says the chaos
- 26:47ended just as quickly as it started. And Baroness
- 26:51Victory is just so casual about the fact that
- 26:55she just walked in and destroyed this dude. And
- 26:58she starts yelling at the AI and fighting with
- 27:01the AI. And then she says that she's going to
- 27:04try to get Donut credit for the kill because
- 27:06that should have worked. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's kind
- 27:10of like everyone's like, not sure if she was
- 27:13allowed to do that. Carl's like, what are you
- 27:16allowed to act on our behalf like that? And basically,
- 27:19Aaron's victory says that this was an illegal
- 27:21assassination attempt. I dream exerting undue
- 27:25influence onto an elite. Do you think this is
- 27:29kind of like going back? a little bit but i do
- 27:31think it's interesting that it said that he was
- 27:33writhing in pain and i don't think that that
- 27:36was like because he was covered in bombs so either
- 27:39i think that that was because they were trying
- 27:41to like directly control his actions and that's
- 27:45like not how it's supposed to work and so that
- 27:48was causing him actual pain especially because
- 27:50like i think it was obvious that he was trying
- 27:52to like resist you know the control being exerted
- 27:56over him Yeah, and we do see some insane cheating
- 27:59in this book. There's a lot of cheating. These
- 28:03outside factions are a bunch of cheating assholes.
- 28:06Yeah, but everyone's just kind of in shock from
- 28:09Baroness Victory's entrance. But he is still
- 28:12covered in bombs. And Baroness Victory is like,
- 28:16okay, this lead is dead. I killed him, but I
- 28:19can only do so much for you. And Carl is like,
- 28:21oh shit, right. He needs to go in my inventory
- 28:23so the bombs don't go off. Which is crazy that
- 28:26works. Yeah, it is. It's a good thing that they're
- 28:28able to pull corpses into their inventory. I
- 28:31mean, we see this later in the books when they
- 28:33just create a giant mass grave, essentially,
- 28:37of corpses. Yeah, I wonder how much stuff is
- 28:42in Carl's inventory. But again, this is one of
- 28:44those things where it's in his inventory now,
- 28:46but he can't really pull it out because it's
- 28:48just going to explode pretty shortly after. This
- 28:51corpse covered in bombs comes out of his inventory.
- 28:54Though I do wonder, he could probably, within
- 28:56his inventory, maybe remove those items. Or maybe
- 28:59apps. And then he could pull the bombs out at
- 29:01his bomber studio crafting bench. I just want
- 29:05him to throw a dead elite at someone. That's
- 29:07what I want. Just, like, chuck them off a side
- 29:10of their castle at some people. Yeah, that's
- 29:13great. I'm so sad that didn't happen. If only.
- 29:16But yeah, like Bree said, Baroness Victory is
- 29:19yelling at the AI saying like, you need to reread
- 29:22your own rules because I was allowed to do that.
- 29:25And you didn't tell me that the dream was like
- 29:28exerting undue influence onto an elite. And then
- 29:31like, she just stops talking for a minute and
- 29:33she's like, okay, I accept your apology. Which
- 29:35is just fantastic. Thank God for Baroness Victory
- 29:38and the adjutants. Like the adjutants, I do think
- 29:42we don't see all of them, but like. like, Rick,
- 29:45and then there's another adjutant that we see.
- 29:48Yeah. Prime Minister Fopsy. Yeah, they're all,
- 29:51like, interesting characters, and I think that
- 29:53they do a pretty good job as being mostly neutral
- 29:57observers. Yeah, I do think Baroness Victory
- 30:00is the right one, is the best one, and they chose
- 30:02correctly, though. Definitely. And this is where
- 30:05Florin is like, I don't know if I should be terrified
- 30:09or in love, and I think both. The answer is always
- 30:13both in these books. Join us next week when Baroness
- 30:16Victory bonds with Rend and Mongo in a super
- 30:19gross way. New achievement. You've listened to
- 30:23another episode of The Apocalypse Will Be Podcasted.
- 30:26We release new episodes every Sunday. Visit us
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