To the Hilt and Beyond!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to Spellbound, a Romantasy podcast. I'm Deidre. [00:00:12] Speaker C: And I'm Jillian. [00:00:13] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us. Okay, first of all, very special episode today for multiple reasons. The most important reason, though, is we have a very special guest in the studio with us today. Our beloved friend Mikey. Yes. [00:00:26] Speaker C: Hello, Mikey. [00:00:28] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to this literally all week. [00:00:32] Speaker B: I'm so excited to see you. [00:00:33] Speaker A: I'm just so happy to be here. [00:00:34] Speaker B: We have been waiting for the perfect time to have you join us here on. [00:00:38] Speaker A: And this feels like it. [00:00:39] Speaker B: This feels right. Yeah, this feels right. It's like the Fates. Everything has aligned for this moment to happen. [00:00:44] Speaker A: Yes. [00:00:45] Speaker B: And we just cannot wait for the fun that we know will ensue on today's episode. [00:00:48] Speaker A: I can't wait. I can't wait. And also, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:00:53] Speaker A: Every episode, I'm reading the books along with you guys. Like, I love it. I love it. [00:00:57] Speaker B: And behind the scenes, you're also giving us a lot of really great takes and insights because you are a longtime lover of fantasy slash Romantasy yourself. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Yes. Okay. So I thought. So my introduction to Romantasy was you. Okay, like, because I think like, a year ago. I'm pointing at Deidre. It's a. It's a. It's an audio medium. I'm pointing at Deidre. Was you. Because you introduced me to Fourth Wing. Yes, it was. Fourth Wing was what got me into it because I'd been a fan of fantasy forever, but I was like Lord of the Rings, you know, like, dry, like very, like, manly fantasy. So this was kind of my introduction into, like, you know, like, the romance. [00:01:36] Speaker B: I feel like my introduction and love for Romantasy also came at a time when you and I met. You and I became very quick friends. Like, sometimes I think about the day in which we met because I think I said something off the cuff about, like, Katy Perry or something. I was like, what's the deal with her? And you were like, what is? What is? [00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, Catherine Perry's been going through it. I don't know. [00:01:54] Speaker C: She really has. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been. It's been. But you know what? So many wounds are self inflicted in life. [00:02:00] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Poetic and yet so true. [00:02:04] Speaker A: You know, she was in Chicago. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Was she? [00:02:06] Speaker C: I heard. [00:02:06] Speaker A: No, I Only people were like, she was here. I was like, when? They were like, a week ago. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Nobody went to her concert. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Nobody. Nobody. I knew when it makes me sad. [00:02:14] Speaker B: I read a review of her show in Oklahoma City. [00:02:16] Speaker A: Oh, Oklahoma City. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yes. And it was. It was a very interesting. There was a long think piece written about Katy Perry and her journey as a musician and as a person from the early aughts to present day. Yes. But they also included a review of her show in Oklahoma City. And it. It felt. It didn't feel like a great time for. For those in the audience is a. [00:02:39] Speaker A: Shame because it's great music. Like, she's got some bangers. Maybe not the recent stuff like that is dream. That was my, like, high school. Like that. The soundtrack on the radio during high school was like, so I know all the words. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Yes. Pop icon. [00:02:56] Speaker C: I mean, in the firework. I mean, I don't. I can't even. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:59] Speaker C: So good. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Firework has been so overplayed for me. [00:03:01] Speaker C: So overplay. [00:03:03] Speaker A: I'm like a dark horse, you know. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Like, oh, I love a dark horse. ET Amazon. And, baby, it's over for me. It's over for me today. I will bang that in my Honda CRV tonight. Don't tempt me. We may have to do it. [00:03:16] Speaker C: We really should. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Such a great time. So. [00:03:19] Speaker A: But anyway, yes, I love that. [00:03:21] Speaker B: And then, yes, we fell into it. We indoctrinated Jillian to come into our coven, into our fold, and now it has evolved into this. This art form that is spellbound. And we're so glad that this has taken shape and you're here with us. [00:03:35] Speaker C: You're an architect. You're very much. [00:03:37] Speaker A: That feels like an over exaggeration. I feel like I was a cheerleader. I feel like y' all were going for it. I was just so excited. And also, like, I feel like the podcast has been great. Like, I feel like these, like, the. We're on what, episode 10. [00:03:51] Speaker B: That's another reason we celebrate this this week. It's our 10th episode. [00:03:54] Speaker C: No, it is. Yes, it is not. [00:03:56] Speaker B: We've hit double digits officially. And you want to hear something else that's worth celebrating? We are. We are seven five star reviews in this is the little podcast that could. I don't know who that. [00:04:12] Speaker C: Just chug it along. [00:04:13] Speaker B: Just chugging along. I don't know who gave us that review. You know, like, when you're building a podcast, you can usually know, like, friends and family, like, you know, what's going on. But yeah, seven five star reviews, which we're so excited by. So. [00:04:27] Speaker C: That's amazing. [00:04:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that is amazing. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:30] Speaker A: I also feel like it's more exciting when somebody you don't know, you know, I know if it's like, you can't pinpoint it. It's like it could be anybody. [00:04:35] Speaker B: It's taking form. [00:04:36] Speaker A: It is. [00:04:37] Speaker B: We had the very blessed occasion of talking to a local Chicago boutique owner and just telling her a little bit about our love for books. And by the way, real life is happening. And if you could hear some noise in the background, things are being printed off. This is like things are happening live. And we love it. We love it. But she, you know, we tell people about our podcast all the time just in passing and, you know, so do I. Well, thank you. [00:05:06] Speaker A: I'm telling. I'm at the grocery store running up to people. Be like, you got to listen. [00:05:09] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:05:10] Speaker B: We appreciate you for being our booster club, for being just the Paul Revere of spellbound podcast. [00:05:16] Speaker A: I do what I can. [00:05:16] Speaker B: I love it. [00:05:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:18] Speaker C: Riding into the night. [00:05:19] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Riding into the night, letting people know it's on. But anyway, we told her that the pod. We were doing this podcast, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, that's great. You know, congrats, good luck, you know, whatever. But she reached out to us recently and we are going to be partnering with her in an upcoming event. We'll talk a little bit more about that once we're wrapping the podcast up. But it just feels like we're doing this really good grassroots, slow moving, spellbound. [00:05:43] Speaker C: So things are really happening. [00:05:45] Speaker B: Really a lot of exciting things to celebrate today. You're here. I think that's a really good. A really good omen for. Yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Where. What's to come. I also think that that's. It's a sign of how much work you all have put into this. But I also think it's a sign of how ubiquitous romanticies become it. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Like, it's be. It's really is such a trend right now. [00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:03] Speaker A: And it feels like it's almost like a, like a universal language. Like when I'm talking to people, I'm like, okay. Sarah J. Maas so often that they will like, you know. Exactly. [00:06:13] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. And it was like, for a while. I was like, is this going to be temporary? No, it's lasted. [00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:20] Speaker C: It's still, like, people are still in it. [00:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. [00:06:24] Speaker C: We are. [00:06:24] Speaker B: So I love that for us. So we have a very special episode and. Great. Well, I think we can think about what's next coming up next for us in the podcast. Okay. [00:06:35] Speaker C: What is coming up next? Should we get into a little hear ye, Hear ye. [00:06:40] Speaker B: You know, I'm always down for a little hear ye. [00:06:42] Speaker C: Hear ye. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Okay. There are, you know, when we first started this podcast, you've been here through the. We were giving you updates about what was going on in Romanecy. And it's always the same. Lots of things are going on in Romanecy. We're still waiting on really key, critical release dates for some of our favorite authors. I will tell you, Sarah J. Maas. Sarah J. Maas, looking at you. But, you know, this week I did see, and I need to do a little bit more research into it. I think that there was released a advertisement for the second book in the Fae and Alchemy series for Quicksilver. So it's gonna be the second book as a follow up to Quicksilver. I think they're starting to roll some promotion for that. [00:07:20] Speaker A: So is it coming out in the fall? I feel like there's a million books. [00:07:23] Speaker C: Coming out in the fall. [00:07:24] Speaker B: I don't have a specific date for you. We'll have to. [00:07:26] Speaker A: I'm gonna need that on my desk. [00:07:27] Speaker B: We'll have to circle back. We're gonna have to circle back. Table it. Put a pin in it. [00:07:31] Speaker C: Okay. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Received. Yes, exactly. But there are a couple of very interesting articles that I thought were relevant to the. The topic of romance, friendship, all of those good things. So there was an article in Vox recently by a writer called Ali Volp called the surprising way romance may affect your friendships. And so it's a really quick article that discusses really, the importance of platonic friendships and how they're often lost or thrown to the wayside in favor of romantic relationships. Have you found that to be the case? [00:08:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's the classic case of, like, you know, somebody is like, friends with you, and then they get in a relationship and then they're like, become a different person ghost. You, you know, you never see them again that I'm assuming it's that. [00:08:16] Speaker B: It's that whole. It's that whole trope. So it's, you know, just talking about how this has been very detrimental to romantic relationships because there's so much pressure put on each person in a romantic relationship to be the be all, end all for the other, and vice versa. It talked about the evolution of friendships and how there's been such a switch in how friendships are valued versus romantic relationships. So where marriage used to be seen as simply a way to secure resources, property, et cetera, now expected to be one sole source of support. So it was very much talking about how, like, you know, the there. Through the years, there's been. There was such a value place on friendship, whether it be friend Female friendship, you know, same sex, male friendship. And then through the years, you've got so many things coming with women going into the workforce. So all of a sudden now there's this focus on them actually dating. Then there's this weird sexual stigmatized, stigmatization of same sex friendships. So it's like, you can't be friends with your boys. It becomes that whole thing. So that has evolved things. [00:09:16] Speaker C: So Efren built her empire upon that. [00:09:19] Speaker B: So there's the whole thing. So there's a lot of things. But they talk about limited legal protections for friends versus married people, how the expectation for a partner to be everything to you isn't really stable, and how it's actually very healthy to encourage your partner and yourself to seek platonic and supportive relationships outside of the romantic one. They also really talk about an interesting aspect of managing one's own feelings of loss or jealousy when a friend meets a new romantic partner or even a new friend, and prioritizing, you know, love and friendship in one's day to day life. So how can we be a better friend to each other and ourselves is really sort of the takeaway there. [00:09:56] Speaker C: Beautiful. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. And it is interesting because I feel like Romantasy, like, not to get, like, too philosophical about romanticity because these are like books about, like, people with wings. [00:10:05] Speaker B: You know, what you want to do here. [00:10:06] Speaker A: I do think that they are a little bit of a reflection into, like, the cause. They are a. Like this. They are a fantasy. Like, they are the author's idealized form of whatever. And I do think it's interesting that in a lot of the Romantasy books that y' all have read over the course of this podcast, there's always a prioritization of friendship. Like, there's always an important point where, like, who was the. Who was dm? Yes, dm. It was like she had her friend who had the swords. What was her name? She was like, I'm a general, but also a woman. And she was like, I can, like, cast illusions maybe. [00:10:41] Speaker C: Yes, he was. She was originally his friend. [00:10:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:45] Speaker C: She became close. [00:10:45] Speaker A: And also Eleanor, like, it was important. It's been important for a lot of these books that there are, like, female friendships in addition to the romance, which I think is an interesting. I think if these books had maybe been written maybe like 20 years ago, there wouldn't be as much of an emphasis on the Eleanors of these books. [00:11:03] Speaker C: That's so right. Yeah. And sometimes I feel like the Amy Poehler of Romantasy because we just talk about Female friendship. [00:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:09] Speaker C: My girl Sarah J. Maas is particularly good at. [00:11:12] Speaker B: She's really good at talking about friendships. Female friendships, for sure. And girl power. We'll get to that a little bit later on as we chat about this book and why we loved it. Okay. Also, I gotta ask you both, maybe as a start to this next article, do you. Do either of you believe in love at first sight? [00:11:29] Speaker A: No. [00:11:30] Speaker C: No. [00:11:30] Speaker B: Christian, you believe in love at first sight? I know. I don't think so. Okay. Well, yeah, a lot of non believers in here. That's great. Wait, do you. Good vibes? I do not. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. [00:11:40] Speaker C: Don't. [00:11:40] Speaker A: No, no, you can't. We're all non believers. [00:11:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:43] Speaker B: I believe in lust at first sight. [00:11:46] Speaker A: That's just lust. [00:11:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:48] Speaker B: But here's the thing. I can look at somebody and be like, he's hot. And then as soon as he opens his mouth, I'm like. In that. That's why I don't believe in love at first sight. Because I'm like, you don't even know how this man sounds when he talks. [00:11:58] Speaker C: Right. That's true. [00:11:59] Speaker B: How is this gonna work out? [00:12:00] Speaker C: What's his relationship with his mother? That's really. [00:12:03] Speaker B: There's a whole bunch of. There's just a lot in there. So this is an article in the Atlantic by Faith Hill called the Growing Belief in Love at First Sight. Some interesting aspects. Wait, growing? [00:12:13] Speaker A: Like right now it's growing? [00:12:14] Speaker B: Yes. In this year's. Listen, I'm going to tell you something with the growing. [00:12:18] Speaker C: Say that again. [00:12:19] Speaker B: The growing belief in love at first sight. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Like, more and more people are believing. [00:12:23] Speaker B: More and more people than you, than you would believe are believing in love at first sight. Let me just tell you. Let me just tell you some aspects from this. So these are some direct quotes from this article in this year's Singles in America survey, conducted annually by the dating company Match and the Kinsey Institute and released today or in the day in which this article was released, it found something surprising. Of the roughly 5,000 single American adults polled, 60% said that they believe in love at first sight, a nearly 30% increase from 2014. [00:12:57] Speaker A: See, this is the problem with polling. I need to be able to dig into this data. I need, like, how many of that. [00:13:02] Speaker C: 60% have, oh, so much like me? [00:13:04] Speaker A: I'm like, yeah. I'm like, wait, how many of them have been in a relationship? Like, how many of them have experienced love at first sight versus how many of them are like, I hope it happens to me one day? Because I think that that poll is. [00:13:14] Speaker B: A little bit more. It's that. Yeah, it's more that. That latter hope. I mean, almost half of the respondents were people ages 18 to 98 from all over the country said they'd experienced the phenomenon themselves. Now, what's interesting as they talked about this survey was that they were saying a lot of it is they believe. These psychologists that were running the study were saying that a lot of this is likely due to the rise in dating apps and how so much of it is based on site identification and the quick sort of determination by just swiping of whether or not you're into someone. So some people, just through that whole activity and that whole, you know, sort of the dating app culture, they have just come to believe that they know if someone is right for you based on sort of that quick, quick identification. [00:14:06] Speaker C: So that's like. Yeah. So you have to believe that it's like, oh, my God, if somebody swipes on me, then we must be in love. [00:14:13] Speaker B: Like, okay. [00:14:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:15] Speaker A: But that feels less like. I don't know is that. That feels like I'm just checking off the list. Like, they. Like, I've made a grocery list of all the traits that I want in a partner, and this person has, like, checked off enough of them for me to be like, it's time, you know? [00:14:29] Speaker C: Right. [00:14:29] Speaker A: Like, that doesn't. But whatever, you know, I'm happy for them. [00:14:32] Speaker B: I love that they're happy. [00:14:33] Speaker A: I'm happy. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that for them. Let's see. I thought maybe this is an effective romanecy, but another psychologist in the article noted that the overwhelming majority of singles in the survey reported. Reported that they believe that love can last forever and that they believe there's someone out there for them. Now, those ideas fit under an umbrella that psychologists call destiny beliefs, which is a faith in predetermined bonds as opposed. [00:14:57] Speaker A: Bonds, mating bonds, as opposed to growth. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Beliefs, or the idea that a relationship requires maintenance and labor. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Makes sense of the divorce rate is right now. Yeah. [00:15:10] Speaker A: But, you know, I think there is something. Okay, so is there a thought that romantasy is swaying this in any way? [00:15:16] Speaker B: Like, they didn't mention that. [00:15:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:15:18] Speaker B: But I can see that being like, there's somebody out there for this trash right here. Not deter. Not bringing the stars for me. [00:15:24] Speaker C: Right. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:25] Speaker B: My man will meet each other in any universe in the multiverse. [00:15:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:29] Speaker B: We'll meet each other in any lifetime, Any. Any form. That's my belief. That's where I. Yes. [00:15:38] Speaker A: I don't know. I want to believe that. That's the case. I want to believe that there's somebody out there that you, like, meet them, and you do that little mating bond thing where, like, what was it? Lucien in Acotar, where he was taken aback, and he was like, my mate. Right. When he saw Elaine. [00:15:54] Speaker C: I would love for that to happen to me. I would love. I'd be like, really? You? But okay. [00:15:59] Speaker B: The factors would have to be Elaine's reaction. The factors would have to be right. If I looked over and it was like, a. Lucien. I'd be like, not this Lord. [00:16:05] Speaker C: I know. [00:16:06] Speaker A: Wait, are we slandering Lucien? [00:16:08] Speaker C: I love Lucia. [00:16:10] Speaker B: What's wrong with Lucia? That worrying eye. [00:16:12] Speaker C: The worrying eye. [00:16:13] Speaker A: I love the word. I love the worm. [00:16:15] Speaker B: For me, personally, it would take me a minute. Like, I. I don't know that it would be love at first sight. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Can you take it out? Can you take the eye out? Is it like a. [00:16:23] Speaker B: Is it like, a prosthetic? We have not. We have. [00:16:25] Speaker C: Wouldn't that may make it better to have, like, a pole? [00:16:27] Speaker B: No, it would not be better. Well, eye patches. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Surely fairies have eye patches or some kind of, like, scarf. [00:16:33] Speaker C: I see. The eye patch. [00:16:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Not a whole. [00:16:35] Speaker C: But if that thing was worrying, I'd be like, stop it. [00:16:37] Speaker B: In the middle of the night. It's just sitting there and just like, Like. [00:16:42] Speaker A: But you know what people deal with, like, CPAP machines and stuff. I feel like y' all aren't loving hard enough. If you truly believed in him, you'd be able to overlook that. [00:16:49] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if he was your mate, you'd be like, all right, I love him regardless. [00:16:54] Speaker A: You'd fall in love with. [00:16:55] Speaker B: Gotta put these tubes. [00:16:56] Speaker A: Did I tell you about the dead tooth? No. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Now feels like a good time. It's love at first dead tooth. [00:17:03] Speaker A: It's love at first dead tooth. This was a theory that a friend of mine in college had. I don't know how much. How valid it is, because we were all, like, 19. [00:17:09] Speaker B: Okay? [00:17:10] Speaker A: There was a. There was a man. I did political science, so there's a lot of, like, political theory men, which are, like, very specific. And there was a guy who was, like, of pretty, like, average attractiveness, but he had, like. One of his front teeth was dead, and, like, he just never got it fixed. And every girl in class was obsessed with him. They were all in love with him. And I was like, julia, why is everybody obsessed with him? And, like, he has, like. How do you get over his teeth? [00:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got a lot. [00:17:38] Speaker A: And she was like, no, you don't understand. The tooth Is the thing you fall in love with. [00:17:43] Speaker B: What? I'm sorry, I'm out of the. I'm out of the. So lost. [00:17:47] Speaker C: She's in the other room. [00:17:48] Speaker A: She's like. Yeah. She's like. The flaw is the thing that you fall in love with. He's cute, he's smart. Those are all things that you like. You fall in love with the flaw. [00:17:56] Speaker C: Okay. Wow. Where is this girl now? [00:17:59] Speaker A: She don't know. [00:17:59] Speaker C: She's prophetic there. [00:18:01] Speaker B: You fell out of touch with Julia. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I hope her well. I wish her well. [00:18:06] Speaker B: With a man with a dead tooth or multiple or. [00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Or more than one. She's got a lot of love to give on those bad teeth. But I just. Yeah, I think there is something to be said about, like, you fall in love with the flaw, and I think that, like, the whirring eye is his flaw. [00:18:19] Speaker C: That I would fall in love with. Yes. So, yeah. What do you think about that? Because I kind of agree with that. I don't know. Are you not. [00:18:25] Speaker B: I mean, I don't need somebody who's perfect. [00:18:27] Speaker C: No, but, like, I mean, but it. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Depends on what the flaw is. [00:18:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. [00:18:30] Speaker B: I mean, you wouldn't date a hockey player. They're missing teeth. [00:18:34] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. [00:18:35] Speaker A: I would date a hockey player. I think. I think that the. This is such, like, a not to be. Also, I'm gay. Do I need to announce that on the podcast? Is that not immediately obvious? [00:18:45] Speaker B: We love it. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Yes. I am brave. Thank you. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Here during Pride Month. [00:18:51] Speaker A: During my month, I think there's something about a man who does sports. I know that that's so basic, but there's something about, like, a man who's, like, really good at something athletic that I'm just, like, good for. You. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Have you ventured into any of, like, the hockey romances or the sports romances that are really big right now? [00:19:08] Speaker A: No. You got me into the romantasy thing. And the only, like, side, like, path that I've wandered down is, like, gay Romantasy. Because I've been trying to figure out. [00:19:17] Speaker C: Which I am about. I want to crack open. [00:19:19] Speaker A: Listen, I've got some recommendations. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Yes, the things. You just finished one, didn't you? [00:19:23] Speaker A: I did. There was, like. There was one called the Prince, the Prince's Assassin, that I quite liked. The thing with gay romantasy is it's almost exclusively written by women, though. So, like, the success of the romance is directly proportional to that woman's understanding. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Of, like, gay sex. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Like, some of these women do not Understand what happens between two men. [00:19:48] Speaker C: And she needs a consultant, really. [00:19:50] Speaker B: At least. I think the whole of womenkind really needs a class A101. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. A primer on gay sex. [00:20:01] Speaker B: I would appreciate one. [00:20:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:02] Speaker B: I could always learn something new. [00:20:04] Speaker A: I don't think we're have time on this podcast, but bring me back. You know, I'll like. [00:20:07] Speaker B: We're gonna bring tutorial for sure. And we'll have a video component to it in which you could just be like. And this is in the way in which it happens. And about. After about 30 minutes. This is how we. [00:20:17] Speaker C: A laser pointer, everything. [00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Men love each other very much. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Magic happens. Yes, yes, yes. So that is a little bit of our. Our. Hear ye, hear ye for this week. Now is our favorite time of any intimate moment. I think it's time for just the tip. Or in today's episode, to the hilt. To the Hilt, where Jillian will give us just enough to leave us wanting more. [00:20:45] Speaker C: Okay, so this week we all read House of Flame and Shadow, book three in Sarah J. Maas Crescent City series released in January 2024. So it was like. I forgot that it was like, just released. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:00] Speaker C: So anyway, here we go. Should we. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Okay, so we pick slowly and then all at once. [00:21:08] Speaker C: In and out, in and out. Okay. We pick back up where we left off in House of Sky and Breath. Okay, so Bryce has landed in the Architar world. Pryth. [00:21:18] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:18] Speaker C: We had this. That's what the world is called. [00:21:21] Speaker B: That is where. Yeah. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Was the. The island that they were on. And then it was like there was like the king's island over there. And then there was like the continent, but I don't know what the world is called. [00:21:31] Speaker B: So that's what we were saying. We don't know what the world is. [00:21:33] Speaker A: I don't know what the world is called. [00:21:34] Speaker C: So the Prythian is the continent, not the world. [00:21:37] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, it's the continent, but that's where the characters are from. Acotar. Right. That's not the world. That is not Prythian is not Midgard. Midgard is the world in which. [00:21:47] Speaker A: Right. Midgard is the world. It would be like they. She landed in England. [00:21:50] Speaker B: Yes. [00:21:51] Speaker A: And then like, it's like. But what planet? [00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And that's never made clear to us. [00:21:55] Speaker A: And maybe it is. It's just like there's like thousands and thousands of pages. So it's like. Yeah, they might have been set in one page. And then. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:22:02] Speaker C: Okay, well, okay, so she meets Rhysand Azriel and finally Nesta So those are our people from Macatar, which we'll get into when we, you know, do our Acotar series. So they go on a Scooby Doo adventure in some ancient caves that ends with a virtual story of the ancient fake queens. That's a cave thing, right? Is Scooby Doo is, like, in caves a bunch? [00:22:23] Speaker A: No, I think in the Scooby Doo movie, they went in the cave because that's when they got all the mind control. Right. Like, wasn't there that. I think in the live action with what's her name? [00:22:31] Speaker B: Here is where. [00:22:32] Speaker C: Sarah Michelle Gallery. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:34] Speaker B: This is. This is a perfect point to make in which the fact that Jillian and I, we are just slightly and just a breath older than Mikey. But this is really sort of a good illustration of where our generations just separate but slightly overlap. Julian and I are very excited about Sarah Michelle Geller through her involvement in such 90s classics. Classics as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I know what you did last summer. [00:22:59] Speaker C: Tensions, all those. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Mikey is talking about the live action Scooby Doo movie, which I was like, I've never seen. I've never seen that film. [00:23:06] Speaker A: They're incredible. They have a camp factor that's almost like Charlie's Angels. Although Charlie's Angels is much better. It's like. There is a certain level of, like. It's obviously four children, but it is. It's. It's. It's. It was CGI before CGI was cgi. And so that Scooby Doo is doing whatever. It's fun. [00:23:23] Speaker B: I love that. But, yes, to answer your question, that gang of kids was getting in trouble in caves. In caves, houses, anything that you can imagine. Always just getting up to something. [00:23:35] Speaker C: Were you any Scooby Doo character for Halloween? [00:23:37] Speaker B: I never was. [00:23:38] Speaker C: No. I think I was Daphne. Wasn't that the redhead? Yeah, okay. Yeah, Daphne. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Yeah, Daphne was. That was Sarah Michelle Geller's. [00:23:45] Speaker C: Was it? [00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Okay. [00:23:47] Speaker C: Okay. [00:23:47] Speaker A: And she kind of changed because Daphne was, like, hot and, like, aloof in the TV show. And then she was like, I'm gonna do, like, fighting. Like, she was like, I'm gonna make her, like, a martial artist. I think because of the Buffy thing. So in the movie, Daphne's a fighter. Like, Daphne's fighting everybody in the movie. [00:24:02] Speaker B: In the cartoon, she's such a pretty girl. She's like. She's a girlfriend to Fred, who's not much there. [00:24:07] Speaker C: Not much. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:24:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:10] Speaker B: But she's a fighter. Wow. We love to see. [00:24:12] Speaker A: I feel like there's been a lot of Fred slander on this podcast, and I can't get behind that. I think Fred is great. Would you rather have. What's his name, Shaggy or whatever? [00:24:19] Speaker B: No. [00:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't want that. So we take what we can get. No, we want Fred, we want Scooby. [00:24:23] Speaker B: And we want the two girls. [00:24:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:25] Speaker B: We want Velma and Daphne and Scooby and Scooby. [00:24:28] Speaker C: Scooby's a dog. [00:24:29] Speaker B: I think I get the work done. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Scooby's dog. [00:24:35] Speaker B: Yes, I understand that. Right? [00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:38] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, I think we need to be more specific because wasn't there, like, a weird new live action Scooby Doo that came out even more recently? I'm not talking about that. I've not seen that one. [00:24:47] Speaker B: No, you're talking about, like, the early 2000s one. [00:24:50] Speaker C: Yeah, the guy. So the guy who. Shaggy was like, some guy that was like, in all those movies in the 90s. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Matthew Lillard was that same. [00:24:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:24:58] Speaker B: He was like one of the killers in Scream. Spoiler alert. [00:25:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:01] Speaker A: I have never seen a Scream movie because I feel like I know the plot to all of them. [00:25:04] Speaker C: I know. [00:25:04] Speaker B: This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. Generational divide. [00:25:08] Speaker C: Yeah. But you know what we figured out? It's not actually our generation because he is, like, of the youngest. [00:25:14] Speaker B: You are of the youngest. [00:25:15] Speaker A: You're on the millennial. Yeah. [00:25:17] Speaker B: You're just. You're, like, right there. I'm just, like, right on the edge of the void. [00:25:20] Speaker A: I'm hanging on with, like, the. The. [00:25:22] Speaker B: You're one of us. [00:25:24] Speaker C: Yeah, you're. [00:25:25] Speaker B: And I love that we claim you as one of our own. [00:25:29] Speaker C: Okay, so let me go. Okay, so there's the virtual story of the ancient Fae queens. Very confusing. I'm still trying to process it. [00:25:38] Speaker B: So the Phase A history. [00:25:40] Speaker A: This was. This was her Silmarillion. I don't know if y' all ever read the Silmarillion. Y' all know that it's the. So, you know, Lord of the Rings. Yeah, Basically. The guy who wrote it was like, what if I made a textbook? And so he just wrote, like, a history book about the Middle Earth and was like, this is God. This is what his angels. This is how everything came to being. And I felt. And I got Silmarillion vibes. Because it was, like, 15,000 years ago. There was this lady, and this is what she got up to. Like, it was. It was. Yeah, yeah. Textbook. [00:26:07] Speaker B: Okay. [00:26:07] Speaker C: Spreading her magic between the daughters. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:26:11] Speaker C: Okay. So essentially, there's all this star power embrace's DNA and she Needs to figure out how to defeat the Huns. Do you know what, that's from Mulan Fair. Anyway, actually, the Asteri. She needs to figure out how to defeat the Asteri. Apparently, the Asteri have been putting parasites in the water and diluting everyone's power. She steals Azrael's dagger and goes back to Midgard. Hated that. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:35] Speaker C: Hated that. Love, Asriel. Okay. Back at the palace Hunt, Baxian and Ruhn are imprisoned in the dungeons. The most notable things that happens here are Baxian chews off Ruhn's hand, which is, like, very gross. [00:26:47] Speaker B: It was like another installment of the Saw film franchise. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Very gross. [00:26:51] Speaker B: There was a lot going on and what's. It was like sensory overload for me because she kept mentioning. There was like, vomit. Vomit, shit and blood all over the place. And I was like, hate that. Hate this. Let's move on. [00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah, the torturing. And it's not like the torturing was like, you know, they got over it in the first, like, 50 pages. The torturing happened, like, for a long time. [00:27:11] Speaker B: 40%. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Yes. For like, a long time. Of the book was those three getting tortured. [00:27:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:15] Speaker C: Yes. I. I mean, and it was just like the sign of the bone with his teeth that I was like, that's a little bit too much for me. Okay, so the other thing that was interesting that happened, Lydia, or the Hind, AKA Lydia, carried Rune over her shoulder to save him, which I was like, I like that. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Sisters are doing it for themselves. [00:27:38] Speaker C: Sisters doing it. Okay, so then Ithan accidentally beheads Sigrid and feels really bad about it. [00:27:47] Speaker B: We need to talk about. [00:27:48] Speaker A: At least he felt bad. [00:27:51] Speaker C: I mean, did you ever feel bad? [00:27:53] Speaker A: No. That girl needed to go. I have a point about this. [00:27:56] Speaker B: At the Potter Night, Wonderful. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Sigrid was pissing me off. [00:27:58] Speaker B: Me too. [00:27:59] Speaker A: I was like, girl, I get that you've been in a bathtub for the last hundred years. You need to get a grip. [00:28:04] Speaker C: I know. [00:28:04] Speaker A: Attitude adjustment. She. [00:28:05] Speaker C: I mean, she really did. Yeah. She had no humor. But, like, Ethan. Okay, so he felt really bad about it, but, like, over and over again, he felt bad about it over and over again the entire book. [00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:16] Speaker C: Right. That was a little much. Okay, so they. Basically, there are these, like, moments where they, like, all reunite, and then they're like, this is what we have to do. So they do that on the deep sea boat. Turns out Lydia has two sons that she hasn't seen in, like, 15 years. It's really weird between Ruhn and Lydia. Anyway, so then they go To Avalon. Avalon. [00:28:37] Speaker B: Right, sure. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Your guess is as good as mine. [00:28:40] Speaker B: We let those things fly here. Go ahead. [00:28:42] Speaker C: It's like a land without joy. So. Bryce, go. [00:28:46] Speaker B: The island of Misfit toys. [00:28:48] Speaker C: Yes, It's a technology free land without joy. Right, so Bryce goes on another Scooby Doo adventure in the caves of this world, and she ends up killing her dad and her uncle or her brother kills her dad. It's very Shakespearean. [00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:02] Speaker C: So then she also unlocks more ancient power. Shocker. And restores the islands to its former glory. [00:29:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:09] Speaker C: Right. So at some point during this, Ethan, Jesiba and Hexiba. No. Hypaxia try to raise Sigrid. Then they end up with, like, a Frankenstein situation. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Yes. What in the. Mary Shelley is going on? [00:29:22] Speaker C: Seriously? [00:29:23] Speaker A: Yeah, but then the Frankenstein doesn't choose them, Right? The Frankenstein chooses, like, that. She's like, peace out. [00:29:27] Speaker C: Her abuser. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker C: The astronomer. You know, we're gonna have to talk about this. I also loved Ithan's friendship with Hypaxia. [00:29:35] Speaker B: Yes, Very, very cute. [00:29:38] Speaker C: Okay. But I also was really confused at this part because, like, then Ithan becomes Prime. But then, like, I didn't know that wolves bit each other. I thought that was just vampires. [00:29:49] Speaker B: I don't know if, like, I. I got a sense that it was like a love bite. Like, it's just like a cradling of the neck. It's like a show. [00:29:55] Speaker C: Like a nut. [00:29:57] Speaker B: Like, showing like, like a mother with a. [00:29:59] Speaker C: Or something. [00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah, my. My thought was, like, it was like a. I trust. Trust you. Yeah, that you can like, have exactly, like, throw it in your mouth and not. Yeah, it was like a trust. [00:30:07] Speaker B: They don't bite down. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Okay. [00:30:09] Speaker C: No sucking blood. No, no, no. [00:30:11] Speaker B: It's just. It's just like a. Holding it and it's trust. [00:30:14] Speaker A: An acknowledgment that I am the alpha, I will protect. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:30:17] Speaker A: You give me your life and I won't. [00:30:18] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. I know you're about to shut it down. You were like, not this. [00:30:22] Speaker C: I was like, not a. Blood has been spilt. [00:30:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:30:26] Speaker C: Okay. So anyway, the book culminates in this epic battle with my baby Aedas. He comes back, and they unleash demons and fallen angels and ironman suits on the Asteri. [00:30:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:30:41] Speaker C: Okay, so this is what happens. Bryce ends up as Jodie Foster in the 1997 film contest. [00:30:47] Speaker A: I'm okay to go. [00:30:48] Speaker C: I'm okay to go. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Perfect. [00:30:52] Speaker C: So, like, she gets stuck out in space in a black hole. She kills the Asteri and then meets with Jesupa Jesiba on a grassy field and they sing. Have a little faith in me. Just like, I was, like, in a real mood. Because just like in the 1996 movie Michael. Do you guys remember that? [00:31:11] Speaker B: I remember the posters for Michael, but I never saw the film Michael. He's an angel. [00:31:16] Speaker C: The late 90s were a huge angel movie. City of Angels. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Yes. [00:31:20] Speaker C: One of my favorites. [00:31:21] Speaker B: Let's go ahead. And at this moment in the podcast Crank Up Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. Yes. [00:31:25] Speaker C: Yes. Wait, you never saw. [00:31:28] Speaker B: He was but a babe. [00:31:28] Speaker C: He was but a baby. [00:31:29] Speaker A: I was one. [00:31:32] Speaker B: Just a baby. [00:31:33] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Who was in that? Wait, who was in City of Angels? [00:31:36] Speaker B: There was Sarah McLaughlin song. Sarah McLaughlin. Yes. [00:31:39] Speaker A: Oh, is it, like, in the arms of the. The one that they play over the, like, animal shelter stuff? [00:31:44] Speaker C: No, that's. I will remember. Oh, yes, this is. She has an angel song. [00:31:49] Speaker B: She does. I am not too well versed in the Sarah McLachlan. [00:31:55] Speaker A: I'm the wrong person. [00:31:55] Speaker C: Okay, fine. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I cannot help. We'll track down the set list from Lilith Fair, 1990. [00:32:04] Speaker C: Okay. So anyway, that's it then. Everybody, like, is afraid their cell phones are gonna die because the power's gone. [00:32:11] Speaker B: But that's one thing I appreciated about this book was they were like, we're not riding off into the sunset happy. Things could really go south here real quick when the power grid goes down. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I also feel like we need to acknowledge how good of a summary that was. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Yes. [00:32:25] Speaker A: How brief of a summary that was. There was so much that happened in this book. [00:32:28] Speaker B: We love it so much. We love it. She always does a great job. [00:32:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:32] Speaker C: No, here's what I did. [00:32:33] Speaker B: I'm full. [00:32:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:32:39] Speaker B: You really went to the hill. [00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:32:42] Speaker C: I actually. Okay. So sometimes I go to ChatGPT just to look at, like, you know, a tree has died. Yes. It's so. Because it's so, like, so heavy, you know, it just has, like, so much stuff. And so I'm like, okay. Just, like, remind me of the, like, plot points. [00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:58] Speaker C: Then all of a sudden, I started seeing, like. I was like, wait, that didn't happen. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Oh. [00:33:02] Speaker C: I don't know if it was, like, reading some kind of fan fiction, but it was like. It was like, well, when Bryce meant more again, and I was like, what? [00:33:10] Speaker B: No, no. [00:33:12] Speaker A: Yes. Okay. So I. I read this book, admittedly, like, six months ago. Yeah. So in order to prepare for this, I was doing, like, they have, like, chapter summaries online just to, like, refresh my Memory of, like, the characters names and stuff. That thing was so long because there's, like, 160 chapters in this book. So I. It was. It took me so long to, like, scroll through it just to get caught up. [00:33:33] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, let's all commend ourselves for getting through this, really, honestly. This is a. This is an ancient text, for sure. [00:33:39] Speaker A: It is a tone. [00:33:39] Speaker C: It's a tome. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:41] Speaker B: It's a tone. It's on Jessica's shelf. It is. [00:33:43] Speaker A: It is fighting and it has a life of its own. [00:33:45] Speaker B: Yes. [00:33:45] Speaker A: It wants to get out. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah. It wants to get out. [00:33:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:47] Speaker B: Really see the light of day. [00:33:48] Speaker C: Yeah. Lahava has to. To protect. Protect us from that. [00:33:53] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. [00:33:55] Speaker C: Okay, so I. A couple of questions, though, but I guess we can probably get into that. Like, I'm was confused because I was remembering. I was like, did Therian, like, run into his wife at the end? Like, what happened? [00:34:06] Speaker A: The Therian. Sorry, go ahead. [00:34:07] Speaker C: Therian kills me. [00:34:09] Speaker B: Therian, absolutely. Yeah. I have a set of questions, too. Okay. Yeah. [00:34:14] Speaker C: Should we get into what's hot or not? What did you guys think? [00:34:17] Speaker B: Well, how was it for you? [00:34:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:19] Speaker A: Okay. I have a. It's gonna be a knot for me, but it's a tentative knot. It's a tentative knot. And the reason it's a knot is because. Zooming out for Sarah J. Maas at, like, a higher level. Like, she has three main series. [00:34:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah, sorry, I'm gonna be so brief about this. [00:34:39] Speaker B: I'm turning toward Michael. [00:34:41] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, she has three main series. There are the Acotar series, which I think are her most famous. And that's basically like a fairy tale. Like, it's Beauty and the Beast, it's Cinderel. It's, you know, modern fairy tale. There's Throne of Glass, which I don't think Deidre, you've read. [00:34:55] Speaker C: We haven't read, though that may be our next. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:34:58] Speaker A: Throne of Glass is quite good. It is basically her game of Thrones. It's like, it takes place in this, like, magical world. It's a lot more about war and power and politics, and it. There's a lot of parallels. There's, like, even, like, a parallel to, like, White Walkers and, like, Dorne, if you remember Dorne from Game of Thrones. [00:35:14] Speaker C: Okay. Yep. [00:35:15] Speaker A: It's very like. There's a lot of parallels there. The first Crescent City book was a murder mystery. The whole thing was who killed Danika and why. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:35:26] Speaker A: I think that the reason. It's not for me, even though I enjoyed this book a lot more than I enjoy. Like, a lot of other romantasy is because I think she was trying to keep the murder mystery vibe, but the plot was about war and torture and stuff. And so it felt like a perforation of the. The. The like. Like, if the balance is that it's supposed to be like a noir thriller, it kind of went too far outside of that. So I didn't feel like there was like. I know. It felt like she was trying to do it. Like, we're gonna solve a mystery. [00:35:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:56] Speaker A: But then the mystery was like, the weird backstory. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah. 15, 000 years ago she is today. [00:36:02] Speaker A: Right. Yeah, it just was so. It was a knot for me, even though I enjoyed the book, lost the. [00:36:06] Speaker C: Plot a little bit. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Just question, Maggie, what is your favorite of the series of this Crescent series, City series? [00:36:15] Speaker A: I really loved the first one because it's like, it had, like, little things that were super satisfactory. Like, they talked about. I don't know if you guys talked about this in your review. I can't remember, but there was a gun that was like a special gun. [00:36:27] Speaker C: The Godslayer Ripple. [00:36:28] Speaker A: The Godslayer Ripple. And they bring it up in the first, like, 40, 50 pages of the book. And then it comes back around and is the thing that she kills Micah with. And it's just that kind of like, full circle thing where I'm like, ah, set up payoff. You know what I mean? It felt very satisfying to read. Whereas this one, it wasn't so much set up payoff. It was, like, set up. And some things are still set up. Like, we'll talk about it, but, like, the ending resolved, technically, the trilogy. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:53] Speaker A: There's a lot of loose ends. [00:36:54] Speaker B: There's a lot of loose ends. [00:36:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Wait, so there is another one? No. [00:36:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there is. It was supposed to just be the three, and then she decided to make a four. [00:37:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's gonna be a fourth one. We just don't know when it's coming out. [00:37:04] Speaker C: I was like. I thought it wrapped up pretty well, you know, I mean, it was basically like, oh, we're not. There's gonna be no, like, hierarchies anymore. Let's see how that works. [00:37:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:15] Speaker C: But anyway. Yeah, so. But then, like, that was basically. And like, everybody, you know, was. Got together. What they were supposed to get together. But, like, me, Asteri, were gone, so I was like, what are they gonna do next? [00:37:26] Speaker B: Yeah, well, there's still the thread to. [00:37:28] Speaker A: Pull with the Sigrid. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Right. [00:37:31] Speaker C: And what happens with her? [00:37:32] Speaker A: There's the thread to pull with all of the wolves. There's the thread with the dragon who was introduced and then nothing happened. [00:37:40] Speaker B: She sees Therian there at the end. Yes. [00:37:43] Speaker A: And then there's the Therian's wife plot which when he got married I was like whatever, whatever. [00:37:49] Speaker B: And then his ass goes down there on the to the Ocean Queen is like, I let me just get through this and then I'll come back and I'll marry you. Like he started. I was like, what? Just the highest bidder is who you will sell yourself out to here. Whatever you need. He really does it really just cancel the whole thing? I send it back. [00:38:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Wait, was it a hot or not for you? [00:38:09] Speaker B: Okay, so this book was a hot for me. I really like this book mostly because I just thought it was so action packed and fun. Such an adventure. I wasn't really so much like held anymore. Like obviously to the like. I really liked the first book because honestly as I was reading this book I've lost memory of what happened in the second book. Like obviously it was a transition to the third book. But the first book was so fun because like you said it was a murder mystery and that just drove the interest level for me the whole time. And then you finally ultimately get to the end and you figure out all that's going on. But this book, what I really loved was it was basically from jump. Such a high flying action adventure. And what I also appreciate about Sarah J. Maas is that like. And what I appreciate about this book series is there's so many characters and so many storylines to keep you interested in and that's really great for me especially. And we'll get to my not about the. The main romantic relationship in this book when that is a knot for me. I need so many other things to be hot. [00:39:10] Speaker A: And the thing is there were a lot of things that were hot in this and we'll get into it because like mine was a knot from like a thematic standpoint. But I did enjoy this book. It's a fun book to read. [00:39:18] Speaker B: It's such a fun book to read and that's why I really enjoyed it. And why it was a hot for me was because I mean it just had so many things going on that just kind of kept things pushing and like kept it fun and enjoyable to read. But definitely had things that like are still open ended for me. Things that I was like, you know, I don't really appreciate or really like that. So not for me. But overall it was a, it was a. It Was a hot. For me. It was a good book. I really enjoyed it. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And then what about you? [00:39:43] Speaker C: Well, I'm gonna be. I agree with both of you, you know, so I agree with it. Like, it was, like, odd thematically, and it was. It just. It was sort of like, just felt a little bit, like, jumbled together, you know, it was like, okay, we're gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. But not. So the second is probably my least favorite, so I would say either the third or the first are, like. It's, like, tied for me. But yeah, I agree that the characters. There were. Some of the characters were in the first book, but there were a lot more characters in this book, and it just. That really gave a lot of color to the story that I didn't. It definitely didn't get in the second one. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. [00:40:24] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:40:26] Speaker B: I mean, I think she worked her magic. I mean, I definitely think Sarah. Yeah. [00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah. It's so. I mean, we're talking. It's a. Not by Sarah standards, but, like, there are so many romantasy authors that I've read where I'm like, they could not touch. [00:40:37] Speaker B: They could not hold a claim. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Because the thing that Sarah does so well is all of the side characters feel real. You know what I mean? Like, the Viper Queen, like, Ethan. Like, I might have, like, issues with, like, where their story goes, but at least they feel like people. I would know. [00:40:51] Speaker B: They feel like people that you would know. Yes. [00:40:52] Speaker C: See them in your mind. Yeah. [00:40:53] Speaker B: She is so. And this might just be a me thing. She's so masterful at getting me emotional in her books. I don't cry at, like, any other thing, but I will be in my book, like, literally sobbing. She's so masterful. And just, like, the way she writes about, like, very emotional moments, like, it. It paints such, like, a vivid picture that is so stirring to me that, like, really gets my emotions going. And, like, the things that she writes between characters, like, their dialogue between each other, that evokes the emotion. It's hot for me because she's so masterful. [00:41:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially at the end. You know, there's this big battle at the end, and there's a moment where some of the people that died in the initial rebellion come back as, like, spirits. [00:41:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:35] Speaker A: And, like, they take over the. These, like, automaton suit. Iron Man. [00:41:39] Speaker C: Iron man things. [00:41:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:41] Speaker A: And they fight back. And it, like, feels like kind of a ridiculous premise to say it, but she manages to make it very emotional. And when Sahar Dies in space to save them. [00:41:50] Speaker B: I was like, I have goosebumps even saying that. Yes. I mean, even when Bryce wakes up on that grassy knoll with Jesiba. Now that. When Jesiba cut through that crowd, I knew it. I could feel it coming. I know when she cut through that crowd and she sacrificed herself, I. I mean, I got really emotional. It took me a minute to get through that whole scene because I was emotional about the decision she was making and being so self sacrificial. And then at the. When Danika says, we'll all be waiting here for you, as she turns. [00:42:20] Speaker C: I knew you were gonna. [00:42:21] Speaker B: And she sees her group of friends with Danika. But the way she wrote it, she was like. And one person standing there with her arm up, waving when I tell you. [00:42:29] Speaker C: I knew that was the birdie was. [00:42:31] Speaker B: Like, are you all right? Because I was broke. It was the arm up, waving in the distance that just like, really undid. I mean, it just made me so emotional. But this then, this, this whole thing then drags a question to me because obviously, you know, as we all read, there was sort of the. With Hypaxia taking the helm at the House of flame and Shadow, she undid all of these, like, really weird, bad rules with the dead. So now I'm like, well, what the fuck is going on with the reapers? Which now brings the question of, where is Sigrid? [00:43:05] Speaker A: Yes. Now that she's a reaper, also, like, what were the House of Dead? Rules are like, so strange to me. It's like, like you die. If you die in the city, your soul goes to this other part of the city, and that part of the city is owned by a extraterrestrial skeleton. [00:43:23] Speaker C: Uh huh. [00:43:25] Speaker A: Yeah, the Bone Collector, whatever it's called the. And then he eats your soul to power himself. But not all of it. There's a fragment of your soul that goes to heaven, right? [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:38] Speaker A: And it's like, that's like so like, it just feels like a hat on a hat. Like it's like a very. [00:43:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. [00:43:45] Speaker C: I mean, honestly, like, things are. Everything is so intricate and complicated with her that it's almost like I can follow it. And I'm like, if you tell me one thing, I'm like, all right, if that's like contradictory to something else, I wouldn't even know. [00:43:57] Speaker B: I'll be sitting there being like, now who was this? [00:43:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, who was this man? [00:44:02] Speaker B: You know what I mean? And I'm like, I don't want to Google anything because I don't want anything spoiled, but I'm like you. Literally. Especially when it was, like, all the background that we were getting in this, and it was like, what part of the star she had. What part was still missing. Then I was like, well, where does she get this star from? And. [00:44:18] Speaker C: Right. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Does she? Does she. All the things. Like, I was just like. It. It was. There were times where I was like, sarah, girl, you're just. Yeah, fine. You got it. That's fine. Whatever. Whatever you say goes. [00:44:28] Speaker A: I'm on the ride. I'm in the boat. I'm gonna go wherever you take me. [00:44:31] Speaker B: Hopefully it doesn't flip in the East. [00:44:33] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. [00:44:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I will say I. I mean, I sang, like, many times. There were many, many moments where I was like. I was singing, like, we are the world to myself. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what it felt like. [00:44:45] Speaker C: Because it was like, okay, yeah, okay, everybody. We're gonna save everybody. [00:44:51] Speaker A: It was a very. We're gonna save everybody. [00:44:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:53] Speaker A: I will say, like. And this is, like, something that you kind of touched on in the beginning of your summary, but this was really her effort in multiverse. Yeah. And bringing in, like, the Acotar characters. Because one of my hots was Nesta. [00:45:07] Speaker C: Yes. I know you love Nesta. [00:45:08] Speaker B: You love Anessa. We'll talk about it. Because she's a hot for me, but, you know, I've been on a journey with her, and this book was the one. [00:45:13] Speaker A: And she'll take you on a journey. Yes, she will. [00:45:15] Speaker B: She will. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. She's gonna hike up that mountain. [00:45:17] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I love that. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Exactly. Okay, well, a hot for me. I'll start off with. This is the short pilgrimage back to the promised land of Prythian. Like, when we started that at the end of the second book and obvious picked it back up here, I loved it. I loved Bryce. You know, getting lost in transit to hell and getting rerouted to Prythian Landing in Valeris. Any sightings of Rhysand? I'm open to. Yes, give it to me, please. Inject me with it. [00:45:47] Speaker A: And there's such a lovely little moment where he's like, I'm not gonna read your mind. [00:45:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:52] Speaker A: I am gonna threaten you. It's this thing of, like, he's strong and he's powerful, but he knows his boundaries. [00:45:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:57] Speaker A: It has such a good. [00:45:59] Speaker B: So good. And what was so. What? So fascinating in all of the scenes in the beginning where you got, basically, Bryce's inner dialogue about how she was assessing Rhysand? I thought it was so interesting, her being Like, I know what the Asteri feel like. And this man feels so powerful, it's insane. Like, the way she kept kind of like talking about how powerful he felt. I thought that that was so interesting too, just especially compared to anything she'd already experienced in her own world. It just felt like everything felt stronger. Everything felt a little bit more pure and less diluted than what she had experienced in Midgard. And I also like the Amren sighting and the fact that Amren was giving a little bit of context into Bryce being made in the same way as some of the items in the Acotar books that we're familiar with. I loved. This is a hot for me because of Bryce meeting and basically meeting the only other person in these books that I feel like is going to like, like stamp Bryce down. Be her match. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. So you haven't read Throne of Glass. There are a couple Throne of Glass characters. So, like, I feel like one. One criticism that you could have for. [00:47:18] Speaker C: Throne of Glass or Acotar. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Acotar. Acotar. Is that Feyre. It felt a little like she wasn't. She didn't have a lot of agency, at least in that moment. It's a lot of, like, people are making decisions for me. I killed one wolf and look at what happened to me. [00:47:33] Speaker B: And that's a summary, right? [00:47:34] Speaker C: And that is fantastic. [00:47:37] Speaker A: The Nesta is very much a I'm gonna do what I want. She's like, very much a force. And Bryce is very much a I'm gonna do what I want. And so them together was such a fun dynamic. [00:47:50] Speaker B: I loved it. And you know, we about talked, talked one on one about this. And I had many thoughts on Nessa as a character through the Acotar series, but especially in book five. And it never. Her arc never curled all the way over for me in terms of being like, I love Nessa. I think I understood her a lot more. But there were things that I was like, but this doesn't mean that she gets to be A. Doesn't mean B for me with Nesta, it never made sense for me, like the background and the history to make her such a nasty, ugly person over here. Now I know whatever. There can be, be all types of arguments made. But I was like, fine, you know, whatever. I don't hate Nesta. I get it. Whatever. This book for me was the book in which I was like, that's my bitch. I love me some Nesta. Me and her biggest thieves tight. I love her. And I don't know, there's A mention between Bryce and Nesta as they're in the caves of like, oh, you know, you have sympathy toward humans too. Like, I do. And that, like, that made Bryce feel open to Nesta. And she asked her, oh, so you know, how long have you sort of been in this world? Or how long have you sort of been. Faye? I guess. And Nesta was like, just a few years. So this is obviously a few years after the events in Acotar. And I'm like, I just. I don't know, maybe it's just it coming from this. This angle or this perspective, but I just saw a little bit of just like growth and maturity from Nesta in this situation. [00:49:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And dear listener, if you don't know who Nesta is, Nesta was a human girl who was such a bitch that she eventually became a death God. [00:49:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:22] Speaker A: Like, it is just like a. If you hate hard enough, if you gather enough hate in your heart, you will become the most powerful being in the universe. And that's kind of what happened with her. [00:49:32] Speaker B: And that's a lesson for us all. [00:49:33] Speaker A: And that is a lesson for us all. That's a practice. You're hating at home, folks. Yes. But no, she. And so she's an interesting character because she does ultimately get redeemed through a love story and through her friendships in Acotar series. And so this picks up post redemption where she is essentially a warrior. And so we see her go full warrior in this book in a way that's very cool. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I really like that this now opens up here at the start of this book and at the end of this book. The connection between Bryce and Nesta and the eight pointed star that they both share, and the journeys in both worlds under the mountains and how that's all connected. So more to come. But I really. That's a. That was a hot for me. [00:50:12] Speaker C: That was a hot for you? [00:50:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:14] Speaker A: What was a hot for you? [00:50:16] Speaker C: What was a hot for me? I think. I mean, I'd mentioned this before. I think Ithan and Hypaxia's friendship was really hot. Like, it was just like, really cute. And Ethan was just, like, lost, you know, the whole book. And then, you know, Hypaxia just comes in, is like, I'm gonna fix it. Like, what do you need? I'm gonna fix it. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Yeah. She was really good to counter Ethan. Ethan was really interesting in this book because he just wouldn't take the power. Like, and it really culminated in that moment in the Wolf's Den when the prime came out. And was like, you are the next prime. [00:50:54] Speaker C: I've asked you twice. [00:50:55] Speaker B: I've asked you. And he hesitated. And as he hesitated, Sabine, this really evil wolf, as we got to know her through these series of books, comes and just kills the prime in order to take the power back. And I was so irritated in that moment. Cause I'm like, ethan, stand up and take the opportunity being presented to you. So Ethan is a hot. But that moment with a knot. [00:51:16] Speaker A: For me, unfortunately for me, the wolves are a knot. I just am like, what's the point? [00:51:24] Speaker B: What's the point? [00:51:25] Speaker A: Also, not for nothing, if your power is going to be horfrost, it should go to Nesta. Yes. Like, they're like, it doesn't make sense for the wolf. [00:51:32] Speaker C: It didn't. [00:51:34] Speaker A: I have ice. Like, it just doesn't. Like. Like I get like Nesta's powers, like cold flame. But like, it just didn't match with his personality. Like the way that I think, like the light and dark really matched with Bryce's personality. And like the fire matched Lydia's personality. Like, it didn't feel like it was like a good outfit. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Just like random. Yes. [00:51:52] Speaker A: And this book, I mean, it is so long. And I did feel like I was like, I don't care what happens with Sigrid. Is that the wolf from the bath? [00:52:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just like the wolf from the bath. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Well, she, like, she was like in. I do feel badly because she was, you know, like, she was sold by her family to be in a like, weird man's bathtub. Yes. Forever. Like hooked up to so that he could like SCRY into other like, planets. Yeah. [00:52:18] Speaker B: Looking for a way to become younger. Yeah. He was looking for, oh, live forever. Live forever. [00:52:23] Speaker A: He wanted the immortality. So like. Yeah, the. I just feel like there was so much going on in these books. And every time the wolf stuff came up, I was like, I don't know where this is going and I don't know what this is culminating to. And it didn't resolve at the end of the book. So I feel like I was just like, okay, well this was like 200 pages of just going nowhere. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, that's fair. Okay, so that's a knot. You got a hot to counter that. [00:52:47] Speaker A: I do have another knot. [00:52:49] Speaker B: Okay, well, I do it. [00:52:50] Speaker A: I have one that's a pair. [00:52:51] Speaker B: I don't care what you give me. I love it. Let's talk about it. [00:52:53] Speaker A: I have a pair. My hot is Lydia. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Yes. [00:52:55] Speaker A: I love Lydia. Love Lydia. My knot is. She should have left those boys Alone in the submarine with their fish dads. Yes. I do not think that she should have gotten. No. I was like, not only is this not, like, like, ethical what she's doing, it's not fun to read. Like, I was like, this is, like, a weird. So for backstory, Lydia is a woman that is also a deer that also has firepowers. [00:53:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:53:20] Speaker A: And she's an assassin. [00:53:22] Speaker C: Yeah. She's like a torturer. [00:53:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. She does, like, vague, evil. But she's a double agent, so she's working with the rebels. [00:53:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:29] Speaker A: And she. [00:53:30] Speaker B: Does. She and Fury work together, by the way, because it seems like they're like. [00:53:33] Speaker C: There's a bunch of stuff with fury that we don't know yet. Yet. [00:53:36] Speaker A: The whole Fury thing. [00:53:37] Speaker C: I know the. [00:53:38] Speaker A: Supposedly the greatest assassin who's ever lived, and she is doing nothing every book. [00:53:42] Speaker C: So. [00:53:43] Speaker B: A bonus knot. This is a bonus. [00:53:44] Speaker A: This is a bonus knot for Fury, because Fury. So essentially, like, Lydia starts running away with all the other folks as they're escaping prison. [00:53:55] Speaker C: Rebels. [00:53:56] Speaker A: The rebels. Yeah. And then she turns into deer form to, like, distract the evil people so the other people can get to the submarine. And then she gets, like. Like, Bambi's momed off a cliff. Like, she just gets, like, absolutely shot in her deer form and, like, goes off the cliff shattered, survives it. [00:54:12] Speaker B: That was Baran. Like, do. Does a big old water plume to catch her, but she still shatters. [00:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:17] Speaker C: It seems weird, though, because it was like, okay, he did this water plume, and then, boom, she's in the hospital. Like, there was, like, no inter. It was like. [00:54:23] Speaker B: I was like, is he all right to be in the water? I don't even think he's. I don't even think he's supposed to be out there. My brother. My brother in Christ. I don't think you're supposed to be out here. [00:54:32] Speaker A: I don't think you're supposed to be out there either. So anyway, I was waiting for the. [00:54:35] Speaker B: Ocean Queen to be like, nope, not this one. [00:54:37] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. So the. So then Lydia wakes up in the ship alive, and the ship happens to be the same ship that her two children are on. And so then she just wakes up and goes, I have to find my kids. And, like, takes them out of kindergarten. Yeah, they're, like, in kindergarten, learning their ABCs or whatever. And she's like, like, you're my sons. And they're like, we don't know you. [00:55:01] Speaker B: They're like, what the. [00:55:02] Speaker A: We've never met you. We have gay fish dads. Like, we don't like what? And so then there's this whole long thing of them trying her trying to, like, ingratiate herself to her, like, twin boy son, and then she has to deal with, like, a parent teacher conference with their gay dad. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:55:18] Speaker C: It was very chaotic. [00:55:20] Speaker B: It was very chaotic. [00:55:21] Speaker A: It's just, you know, it was not it for me. But I do love her as a character. [00:55:24] Speaker B: Yeah, she's great. Absolutely. That is a really good segue to me. Talking about my nominate. Which are overarching. There's multiple daddy issues in this book. That's a. That is a theme in this book. Hunt being a test tube baby from hell, quite literally. He calls himself a, quote, weird demonic test baby. As we learn, the Autumn King and the Avalon King being absolute to their kids, cutting them out, pushing them into breeding. The whole thing is fucked. Flynn's parents giving their daughter up for marriage to breed, essentially. So that's also a fucked up experience. That's a not for me. And then, most importantly to your point, who is Lydia's baby daddy? That's what I want to know. Not Pollux. Thank God. We learn it's not Pollux. However, I want to talk about this. It was someone who was chosen from a fertility rite that she did, which sounds awful. Like, like Callanmai, which is in Acotar. [00:56:21] Speaker A: Yes. They wouldn't have had access to the Acotar world, but it could be somebody mirroring. It could be like a descendant from the Spring Court. [00:56:30] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:56:31] Speaker C: Oh, okay. We're not done with these boys. [00:56:33] Speaker B: We're not done. Yeah, yeah, but that is a. Not for me. I was like, what's going on? Why is every. Why is everybody's paternity so chaotic? [00:56:41] Speaker A: And Sigrid, she got sold from her father to the bath man. [00:56:44] Speaker B: Thank you so much for that. I will be adding that here to my list. [00:56:46] Speaker C: Yeah, well, that's a little bit like I was thinking about that, like, the Avalon is, like, such a gross, like, patriarchal world, you know, and so that. I mean, I did like that when she was like, like, well, now it's the queen that's taking over for the. You know, they're the starborn princes, but now a queen is taking over. So I like that. But yeah, I agree. There was, like, some weird daddy stuff. [00:57:08] Speaker B: There's lots of weird daddy issues in this one. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And I wonder, like, that wasn't really a theme that I feel like, was, like, resolved at the end. It wasn't like everyone stood in a circle and was like, we're over our daddy issues. [00:57:18] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Well, yeah, everyone's dad's weird. Moving on. [00:57:22] Speaker B: Like. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. [00:57:25] Speaker C: Oh, my God. But there was this really, really annoying. Okay. So when she. When Bryson Hunt went back to, like, you know, the acotar world to get her parents. [00:57:35] Speaker B: Yes. [00:57:36] Speaker C: And basically, like her. It was like her dad had bonded with Rhysand over how they're like, over. [00:57:43] Speaker B: Oh, I can't bother. I knew you hated it. [00:57:45] Speaker C: I hated it. [00:57:46] Speaker B: I knew you hated that. I knew you hated. I was like, jillian hates it also, by the way. That was very jarring to me. Cause I'm like, they don't speak the language. She's basically shipping her parents off. [00:57:55] Speaker A: She took the Magic Bean. [00:57:57] Speaker B: I know that. [00:57:57] Speaker C: That was so weird. [00:57:58] Speaker B: I was like, nuts creative. Those parents remind me of my parents. Oh, Bryce's parents. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. [00:58:06] Speaker B: The mom, but the dad specifically, being like, a veteran. And I was like, my parents would disown me for doing something. Oh, my God. Just throwing them out here into no man's land. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So essentially what happened was, like, Bryce took them to Antarctica, basically, and then pushed them through a space hole, a wormhole portal thing, and then threw them into medieval times with a language they didn't speak. The person that we know is like, the biggest bitch in the world. Like Vesta. Like the death God. Yeah. And then she was like, good luck. Safer here than it is out there. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:38] Speaker A: Meanwhile, they have Avalon. I guess the whole point was that she needed the mask. Right? [00:58:42] Speaker B: Yeah. But she's like, here's my parents. Give me the mask. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. So there's a. For the listeners at home who haven't read this, there's a mask that is death. And Nesta, the death God, has the mask that is death. And when she puts the mask that is death on, she becomes an extra special death God and can make skeletons. And so, like, Bryce needed the death mask in order to resurrect the fallen soldiers so she could put them in the Iron man suits so they could fight back. [00:59:07] Speaker B: 100%. Yeah. You just keep going into the hip. [00:59:10] Speaker C: Yes. [00:59:10] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:59:11] Speaker B: You just keep bringing us to the hip all together. We love that. We love that. Okay. Another big theme that's a yes for me in this book is the girl power. And this is inclusive. This is the. She's the they and the gays in this book. Okay. We see a lot of badass women at work in this book. Aside from those, you know, we've got. We've got the hind, we've got Lydia. We really see in this book that she's on the right side of history. Yeah. Right. Don't do it. [00:59:36] Speaker A: And I love Lydia. I think she is on the right side of history. [00:59:38] Speaker C: Okay. [00:59:39] Speaker A: I think that. That she is. She's in an interesting point, because she. They did with her what I wanted them to do with Black Widow in the Marvel movies, which is, like, make her truly morally gray. Because, like, her strategy for saving rebels was to throw a necklace into the ocean and then push them into the ocean and then hope that a submarine found the necklace and them in time to save them. And if that plan sounds flawed to you. [01:00:02] Speaker C: Yes. [01:00:02] Speaker A: Yes, it was. And people died. [01:00:04] Speaker B: So, like, it's like, people died. [01:00:06] Speaker A: People died because the Thunderbird lady whose name is escaping me. [01:00:08] Speaker C: Sophie. [01:00:09] Speaker A: Sophie. Yeah. [01:00:10] Speaker B: Yes, she was. I thought she was going to be resurrected in this, like. I don't know. Please. [01:00:16] Speaker A: A couple. Okay. Did this happen or did I make this up? There was a woman in a coffin. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [01:00:22] Speaker A: She got pulled back, right. In this one. [01:00:25] Speaker C: She. Well, she was resurrect. Or she was like. They. They. It was the right. [01:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:00:32] Speaker C: So she was in, like, crystal or that, like. Yeah. Coffin, which I had to look up. [01:00:39] Speaker B: Under Rhysand's Mountain. [01:00:42] Speaker C: Yes. And so then, like, Bryce is an idiot and was like, no, I'm gonna. Because Azrael's like, don't. Don't. And then she releases her, and then Nessa kills her. [01:00:50] Speaker B: Of course, Nessa's like, not this. Not in my. Not in my. My lifetime. [01:00:54] Speaker A: I. I remember that. But I thought that in the first book, Hunt had, like, a female friend and also secretary who was, like a wraith kind of a thing, and she was, like, inhabiting somebody's body, and they, like, killed her body, put her in a box, and shoved that box in the ocean. [01:01:08] Speaker B: What was her name? [01:01:09] Speaker A: Veronica. Victoria. [01:01:10] Speaker B: Veronica. It was Veronica. [01:01:11] Speaker C: Victoria. [01:01:12] Speaker A: No worries. [01:01:12] Speaker C: Victoria. Yeah. [01:01:13] Speaker B: I thought they were gonna bring her back because they had mentioned it a couple times. They were like, we hope she doesn't stay there for the rest of her life. [01:01:19] Speaker C: In the second one, she was, like, a part of the 33rd or whatever. [01:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was part of, like, the Angel Corps. [01:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:25] Speaker C: Okay. [01:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I want her back. [01:01:28] Speaker C: I do. [01:01:29] Speaker A: I thought she came. I. I must have. I read this so long ago. [01:01:32] Speaker B: Add it to the list of questions. [01:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but I want her back. [01:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:35] Speaker A: Justice for her. [01:01:37] Speaker B: But I did like that we saw, you know, she coordinated these escapes. I like that we saw a little bit of a soft, vulnerable side to her in this book. I like that also. Let's Give it up for the sprites and their queen. [01:01:51] Speaker C: Love that. [01:01:52] Speaker A: Loved that. [01:01:53] Speaker B: Didn't you love that? [01:01:53] Speaker A: Yes. And it felt like a good following through of the story with Lehava. Like, it was like a good. Like, they couldn't bring Lehava back, but they, like, you know, it was a nice way of, like, honoring her. [01:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, honoring her, absolutely. Aradna, I think that however you pronounce it. Yeah, I love that. But I love that she is. There's more to come with her, obviously. [01:02:14] Speaker C: For sure. Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker B: Love that. Hexiba. Love that she ditched a toxic relationship. [01:02:19] Speaker C: We saw that with Celestina. [01:02:21] Speaker B: Yes. And got a new job. And we love to see it. Making vaccines that we need. We see Nesta being a great tour guide and the Ocean Corps Queen. We like the Ocean Queen. Ultimately getting her together and putting country before. Before her personal shit. [01:02:38] Speaker A: She was the Ocean Queen. I liked. And I also liked the idea. So the character designer of the Ocean Queen was that she could, like, shrink or, like, grow. [01:02:45] Speaker B: I thought like a blowfish. [01:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of like a blowfish. And, like, I thought that was, like, a really good idea for what she. What she looked like. I. That was one of my hots. Was because I think the exact words was when hypaxia killed the under king. [01:03:01] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [01:03:02] Speaker A: She was like, great, now that's taken care of. And then was it like Jesiba or somebody who was like, no, you kill it, you become it. Yeah, I love. You kill it, you become it. That feels so magical, so fairy like that. I love that as a concept. [01:03:13] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And I love. And one of my notes here is Jesiba. And we've talked a lot about her, but it felt a lot like Jesiba had this entire thing organized in her mind of how things were going to do. She had all the people pieces in place. And there was even a mention at the end of the book when our main character, Bryce, is, like, setting up the new antiquities building. Yeah. And she says how all of these things were packed up in such a way that it seemed like Jesiba knew how this was all going to end. But. Yeah, I love that too. Jesiba was, like, running the show. She was basically a conductor of activities in this entire thing. Yes. There was nothing that shocked her. There was nothing that she was like, what the fuck is going on? [01:03:50] Speaker A: Well, no, because we got the Jesiba backstory in this book, and essentially, like, she was a. So through the first couple books, everyone kept calling her a witch. She was like, I'm not a Witch. I'm a sorceress. And we were like, what does that mean? And apparently what it means is that she was, like, an ancient old priestess whose library got burned. [01:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:09] Speaker A: And then she made a deal with the Devil to live forever. [01:04:12] Speaker B: And then I thought it was a punishment. I thought he punished her because she was a human. Yeah, she was a human. [01:04:16] Speaker A: She was a human. [01:04:17] Speaker B: But he punished her in fear of what she would do with those books. [01:04:21] Speaker C: Oh, to make her. Yeah. Live forever. Until he gave. Until she gave them to him or something. [01:04:26] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. And so then she was in charge with protecting the Library. And so essentially, like, the library of ancient books that everyone's been looking for this whole time was the books that Bryce was looking after the whole time. [01:04:38] Speaker C: Right, right in the Griffin. Yeah, absolutely. [01:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, I just loved her. Overarching influence of everything going on in here. And so I'll fold her into my girl power. Hot, but also Flynn's sister. I want to see more. [01:04:53] Speaker C: Love her, Sathya. [01:04:55] Speaker B: Satya. Love her. What are your. Thought you're not feeling. [01:04:58] Speaker A: No, I'm not remembering who she was. [01:05:01] Speaker B: She got with Therian because she was Therian's wife. [01:05:04] Speaker A: Therian's wife, yes. Okay. Yes. I want to see more from her because she does seem like an interesting character, but I do need her to divorce. Divorce? Yeah, divorce that man. Because there's nothing Therian's done for me. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he's done. We'll get to him in a second. I love Declan and Mark. They're under. Here is my gay icons. And Fury and Juniper, I love seeing them again, but I don't know what the fuck is going on with Fury. You cannot tell me what she does for a living. [01:05:31] Speaker A: I have theories, but it's gonna get into Throne of Glass. [01:05:34] Speaker B: Okay, so we won't do that today. Yeah, we won't do that today. [01:05:38] Speaker C: Question. Yes, and this is May Random, but, like, what do we think? Why does Azra. Did Azrael have that dagger? And why, like, what's. What is between Bryce and Azrael? [01:05:50] Speaker B: Well, it did feel like there was. [01:05:52] Speaker C: Like, a familial connection. Right. [01:05:54] Speaker B: It felt like there was an energy between them, or an energy because of the. Because of what? The sword. [01:06:00] Speaker C: Okay, so you think. You think it was, like, nothing beyond, just. [01:06:03] Speaker B: But I am interested into how Asriel was able to wield Truth Teller. Right. Because wouldn't he have to have some sort of connection to. [01:06:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:11] Speaker B: The. The Starborn in order to wield the Truth Teller? [01:06:16] Speaker C: Well, we did talk about maybe some Rhysand's sister. [01:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:21] Speaker C: Okay, that's a little bit. [01:06:22] Speaker A: And maybe like, maybe this is somehow connected. Cuz the Illyrians are always referred to as like another type of thing. Like they're not. There's something else. [01:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Maybe it's the fact that he's Illyrian. And maybe the Illyrians are connected to some kind of starborn. Something. Something. [01:06:38] Speaker C: Could be. Could be. [01:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah. But see, and also Azrael's background is very still shrouded in shadows, to be quite literal. [01:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:06:47] Speaker B: So we still need to learn a little bit more about him and his background too. You know who I loved? The bad boys of hell. [01:06:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:55] Speaker B: Coming to save the day. [01:06:57] Speaker A: I was so happy that hell wasn't Hell. Like, hell is not like a fire brimstone, like demon hell. It is just like a. I read it as like. Like darker place, but good people. Yeah. And it's. It's like. It's like another planet. It's not like the place you go when you die. It's just another like planet. [01:07:15] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. Okay. This hot and not goes together. Right. Okay. Hot. Bryce and Hunt, as co workers, it is undeniable that their powers benefit each other and benefit the world at large. [01:07:29] Speaker A: Yes. [01:07:30] Speaker B: Nobody's arguing that. [01:07:31] Speaker A: Right, Right, right, right. [01:07:32] Speaker B: Lots of HR violations with those two co workers. The not is them as a couple. Cannot stand it. Cancel it. I'm over it. Don't want it. [01:07:41] Speaker A: I wonder how much I would enjoy the couple of them together if the smut were written in a way that was readable. You know what I mean? [01:07:49] Speaker B: Correct. [01:07:49] Speaker A: I feel like. Because in this one. And I wrote. I wrote a quote down from the. [01:07:53] Speaker B: From do it. Please, please. We love a live reading. [01:07:56] Speaker A: This is from. So for some reason, Sarah J. Maas loves to have sex scenes happen either right before or right after some huge mass trauma battle war thing. [01:08:06] Speaker B: Nobody is taking a shower. [01:08:08] Speaker A: No, no. [01:08:09] Speaker B: There's a chamber bucket. I think in this particular. [01:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a small room. They talk a lot about how dirty and small it is. [01:08:14] Speaker C: And the creaky the bed is. [01:08:16] Speaker A: Yes. Everyone's going to know we're doing it. And it's like, okay. [01:08:18] Speaker C: And they still do it. [01:08:21] Speaker A: Also, like, you don't need to be on the bed. [01:08:23] Speaker B: Whatever. [01:08:25] Speaker A: There are things to go around. Whatever. The quote that really hit me was Hunt met her tongue stroke for stroke. [01:08:34] Speaker B: Oh, God. [01:08:35] Speaker A: What could that mean? Like, you know what I mean? Like, what it. What it called to mind for me was like, have you ever played the Mirror Game where you like, stand opposite somebody and like, you raised your hand and they raised their hand. And then you like acting like, try to, like. Yeah, you try to, like, you know, follow their movements. I felt like it was that. But like, I said it to the. [01:08:52] Speaker C: Mouth, the step, you know. [01:08:54] Speaker B: I hated all of the overdramatic dialogue the two of them had between each other. I've got a couple of excerpts, if you will indulge me for one moment. And for Bryce, it says, anne. For Bryce, home was and always would be Hunt. And she later says to him, you're my home, Hunt. [01:09:13] Speaker C: No. [01:09:13] Speaker B: Our love spans across stars and worlds, remember? She smiled slightly. I'll always find you. You. In whatever context you read that, that could be very. A very terrifying thing. [01:09:25] Speaker A: That's a threat. [01:09:25] Speaker B: That's a threat. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:09:29] Speaker B: In, okay, page 676, she goes, put the past behind you. Focus on what's ahead. We have a world to save, and I need my mate at my side to do it. No one else. Not a son of hell, not the umbra mortis, not even Hunt Athalar. I need my mate. Just hunt. Then. Then it goes to him. He goes, just hunt. He liked that. His lightning faded, fizzling away entirely. And he said to Bryce, as if she were the only person on Midgard in any galaxy, I love you, just Bryce. [01:09:58] Speaker C: Oh, no. [01:09:59] Speaker A: I love you, just Bryce. [01:10:01] Speaker B: Shut it down. [01:10:03] Speaker A: That's not it. That's not it. [01:10:04] Speaker B: I think that. Leave it on the cutting room floor, I think. [01:10:08] Speaker A: And I think this goes back to my earlier point about, like, a perforation of theme. Like, that is not how people in a Noir would talk to each other. They would not be. Not be like, you're the sun, the moon and the stars, and I love everything about you. They'd be like, well, yes. Yeah, we're in. We're in this, like, dark city and everything's bad. So let's do it. [01:10:26] Speaker B: You know what I mean? [01:10:27] Speaker C: Like, we might die. [01:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:10:29] Speaker A: Be much more practical than this. Like, over the moon. Whatever, whatever. And that feels like. I love a lot of the Romantasy tropes. The. You are the sun and the moon. And the main. That. That part I can. I can do without. [01:10:41] Speaker B: No. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:42] Speaker C: I mean, I feel like in Acotar, like, her use of stars and light was like, just like, definitely toned down as compared with this. Like, it was. You know, the feyre wore that, like, beautiful star dress and like, they talked about velars and the stars. [01:10:58] Speaker A: This. [01:10:59] Speaker C: It was like too much. Like, it was like hitting you over the Head about, like, light and dark and light. [01:11:04] Speaker B: That's so true. [01:11:05] Speaker A: Yes. And then she, like, when they were doing it, she was like, I made stars. Like, she made stars in the room. [01:11:12] Speaker C: Yeah, she's like, well. And then, like, he, like, ended up. [01:11:15] Speaker B: With a piece of her. [01:11:17] Speaker C: And that was why he, like, how he went and found her. [01:11:19] Speaker B: Jillian, please. [01:11:20] Speaker C: I was like, wait, a piece is what? A piece of hers inside you. What? [01:11:25] Speaker B: Yes. We were all reminded that they fucked the night before. You're like, thanks. Yes, I remember. [01:11:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:30] Speaker B: I haven't forgotten. Jesus. [01:11:32] Speaker A: I'll never forget. [01:11:33] Speaker B: I'll never forget. Never forget. [01:11:34] Speaker A: Yes. [01:11:35] Speaker B: Okay, I have to ask you guys just this personal point. Is it a make or break for you in a relationship if somebody shoots you? [01:11:44] Speaker C: Depends. [01:11:46] Speaker A: Is he hot? I do think. Okay, well. Well, where did he shoot me? [01:11:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:53] Speaker B: He shot you in the thigh. So you would stop yourself from going to save your two teenage boys and thwart this rescue mission of the entire world. [01:12:02] Speaker A: So you're talking about Ruhn? [01:12:03] Speaker C: I'm. [01:12:04] Speaker A: There's a lot of things that we need to change about Rune to get him shooting women. Like, there's really. [01:12:08] Speaker B: That is such a turn for you. Liked, rude. [01:12:11] Speaker C: No, I don't like him anymore. [01:12:12] Speaker A: No, I'm the same way I was. [01:12:14] Speaker B: Tell me more. I want to hear. I. I don't care any way on this one. [01:12:17] Speaker C: I. I don't really know. I mean, I don't know. First of all, I. I don't like it. I can't stop thinking about the buzzed head and like, the long hair. Yes. [01:12:27] Speaker B: Skrillex. [01:12:27] Speaker A: And the freaking lip ring. I'm sorry, but torture Mommy. Assassin. Mommy is not falling for your lip ring, buddy. Like, there's no way. She's like, I love the fact that he's always like, no, she's an assassin for the space emperor. She's not interested in the fact that you like metal. [01:12:44] Speaker B: You know what I mean? [01:12:45] Speaker C: Absolutely not. Like, she's got what they're like, blonde chignon or whatever they call it. [01:12:49] Speaker B: A very specific detail that I'm so glad that you remembered. [01:12:54] Speaker C: I don't know. They were like, hooking up and he was like, oh, I wish I had my lip ring. But there's just. There's something. Yeah, I mean, I just. I'm not a big fan of him. I think he makes really bad decisions. He's also like, I don't like sex scenes from his point of view. Like, it's just. [01:13:14] Speaker A: He's like, yes. [01:13:15] Speaker C: The way he talks about her. I just. And I don't Know, it just feels very, like, cheap. [01:13:20] Speaker A: Here's the thing. I think that there's a part of Ruhn that is pathetic. [01:13:23] Speaker C: Yes. [01:13:23] Speaker A: And that can be hot. [01:13:25] Speaker C: Yes. [01:13:25] Speaker A: Not hot here. Because the thing about pathetic men is that they're only hot if they understand themselves to be pathetic. And then they hook up with a woman who is not pathetic. And then it's like, it becomes like a thing. Like that dynamic is compelling. He is pathetic, but doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's pathetic. He's like, oh, yeah, you know, I just, you know, hate my dad. I'm 80 years old. [01:13:47] Speaker C: I live in a frat house. [01:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Live in a frat house. [01:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah. With my Skrillex hair and my bad tattoos, which, thank God, they're gone. [01:13:54] Speaker C: I know. [01:13:55] Speaker B: So in the ripped ribbon. [01:13:56] Speaker A: Yes. The tattoos were destroyed via magic. By a torture magic. [01:14:01] Speaker B: Yes. [01:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:14:03] Speaker B: You hated. This is a not for you that you had mentioned this week. You hated any men any time it was mentioned. Maybe not Ruhn. Now I'm thinking of the burned hands that Azriel. [01:14:12] Speaker C: Hasriel. Yeah. [01:14:13] Speaker B: Every time Bryce would mention them, the burned hands, I mean, I was like. [01:14:18] Speaker C: Okay, we get it. Like, you don't have to. This poor man. [01:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:14:22] Speaker C: And not like that. [01:14:23] Speaker B: For whatever reason, I was thinking that. But Rune also has burns and scars on his arms as well. So that's kind of why I thought about that. Listen, also, what you're telling me, this book, Bryce's one liners, I don't know if either of you noticed. She really tries to be a comedian. And I. I've got some examples here. [01:14:40] Speaker A: I've got examples and I've got notes. I've got notes. [01:14:43] Speaker B: This isn't the Chuckle Hut. Okay, okay. So to the Ocean Queen, when she teleports to Hunt in the depth charger after leaving the Autumn King, she says, the. The Queen says, I don't recall inviting you onto the ship. Which Bryce checks her nails. It was such a thoroughly Bryce movement that Hunt's chest tightened. And she says, well, someone sent me an evite. [01:15:04] Speaker C: It's so dumb. [01:15:05] Speaker B: I've got notes. [01:15:06] Speaker A: I think that, like. And here's the thing again. These books are like a thousand pages long. [01:15:11] Speaker C: Yes. [01:15:11] Speaker A: So there's gonna be lines that don't work. But that's why edit. [01:15:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:15:16] Speaker A: Take out the wolves. If she had. I'm telling you, if she had time to take out the wolves, she would have been able to write a better line. But she was like, I gotta write a one liner because I gotta move on. To. [01:15:24] Speaker B: Could she have written something better if she hadn't told the Avalon King? If you pitch this place as a luxury vacation, you're about to get a bunch of one star reviews, which. [01:15:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's. It's. It's tough. [01:15:37] Speaker C: It's tough if it were like one or two lines, like, okay. But it was like. It felt like all the time. Like, any time that it was like a very stressful situation, she had to, like, kind of break the tension with kind of a dumb comment. You know what I mean? [01:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah. But I don't feel like she was that way in the first two books. No, it was like a new development. [01:15:56] Speaker B: Yes, it was a new development. One that I do not like. [01:15:59] Speaker A: And you know what? Note, I will say, the book that we were talking about. Talking about that. That we. We, the three of us. The book that you two were talking about a couple weeks ago, ever. Flame. [01:16:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:10] Speaker A: I felt like the humor in those books was very good. I felt like the one liners in that, like, I was. I laughed. [01:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:17] Speaker A: The ones in there. But this was not. It did not live up to that. [01:16:20] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, it was interesting. I remember thinking after the first Crescent City book, I was like, oh, she's got, like. She's got some funny things. Like, I couldn't stand her outfits. [01:16:29] Speaker B: I couldn't stand her outfits. The lace underwear every time. [01:16:32] Speaker C: But, like, she did have some, like, she was, like, snarky and. [01:16:36] Speaker A: But. [01:16:37] Speaker C: But it's almost like Sarah heard that and, you know, from people, was like, okay, let me really lean into this. And then. And it just didn't work. [01:16:45] Speaker A: Well, the snark worked because it was a way of showing the fact that she was intelligent because Bryce is a very smart female main character in ways that, like, a lot aren't. Because she's playing the game. [01:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. [01:16:56] Speaker A: She's strategizing. She's in it. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:16:58] Speaker A: In a way that a lot of. So the snark felt like a natural progression off of a smart character. [01:17:03] Speaker C: Right, right. I will say, though, that, like, I did not like it when it was like, all of a sudden, like, we knew. She knew things that we didn't know. And then like, you know, she's sending her parents to another. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, what are you. What are you doing? What are you thinking? You know, she just. [01:17:20] Speaker B: You were basically having the same thought process. Hunt was. Because she would not clue him into any of her plans. She would just do it. [01:17:26] Speaker A: And again, not to bring it back to theme, but I Think that is another way in which she, like, too far, like, stretched the bounds of murder mystery. Because the. A good mystery. You should be able to read the book again and be like, oh, I. [01:17:36] Speaker C: Never saw it coming, but now I see all the pieces. [01:17:39] Speaker A: They laid all the pieces out. Which is why I liked the gun in the first one, because it was like, okay, well, how would Bryce kill Micah? Like, because I saw that it was Micah maybe in the last 200 pages. [01:17:49] Speaker B: I was like, okay, it could only be Micah. [01:17:51] Speaker C: Okay, yeah. [01:17:51] Speaker B: Because I was like, who do we. [01:17:52] Speaker A: Know that is powerful enough to do this? And it has to be someone we know. And so it's like, it must somehow be Micah. Yeah, but how would Bryce kill him? And then it all came back together. [01:18:01] Speaker B: So. [01:18:01] Speaker A: But in these, it would be like, especially, like, in the second book, who was Sophie's younger brother, the one that they were looking for? [01:18:09] Speaker B: Ail. [01:18:09] Speaker C: Ail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:18:11] Speaker A: The plot twist, that she knew where Emil was the whole time. That came out of nowhere. There was no, like, fun building blocks. [01:18:20] Speaker C: Yes. [01:18:21] Speaker A: Oh, if I went back, I could. [01:18:22] Speaker C: So, yeah. Or like, she gave a look, or she. You know, something like that. Yeah, yeah. [01:18:26] Speaker B: None of that. No. [01:18:28] Speaker C: Yeah. That is really interesting, Mikey. That is like a. Just kind of confused themes there. [01:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will mention this one thing for me as a No. I don't know if either of you picked up on it. Cannibalism. You talked about this a little bit, Jillian. In terms of vaccine biting off runes hanging in the. In the dungeon. It's a. Not for me. I don't know if either of you noticed it, but Tharion had a couple of meals of poached fish while in the depth charger. [01:18:56] Speaker C: I did not notice. [01:18:57] Speaker B: I have a big issue. [01:19:00] Speaker A: Is that cannibalism? [01:19:01] Speaker B: To me, it is if you're okay. [01:19:03] Speaker A: So, like, if a big bird, like an eagle, eats a little bird. Yeah, Good question. Is that capitalism? [01:19:09] Speaker B: Yes, to me, it is. Oh, yeah. [01:19:11] Speaker C: See, I'm gonna say no to that. [01:19:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:13] Speaker C: I'm gonna say that's just like, the ecosystem. [01:19:16] Speaker B: It's a winged animal. It's a winged. They're both birds. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Are mer folk fish? [01:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they're half fish. [01:19:25] Speaker C: I don't know. [01:19:25] Speaker A: Are they? Because they're kind of like. Well, they can breathe underwater. They can breathe underwater. They're not like dolphins, where they're like mammals. They are, like, fully able to breathe underwater. [01:19:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:36] Speaker B: I'm sorry, guys. It's. It's. It's disturbing to me. Me. [01:19:39] Speaker A: It's uncomfortable to say the best. I don't know that I'm gonna. I'm. I'm not sure that I can co. Sign the cannibalism label, but it is uncomfortable. [01:19:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:46] Speaker C: It's morally gray. [01:19:47] Speaker A: You want them to eat kelp? [01:19:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:50] Speaker B: I'm shutting it down. It's cannibalism. [01:19:54] Speaker A: We're gonna have to agree to disagree. [01:19:56] Speaker C: Oh, my God. That's funny. [01:19:59] Speaker B: When I read that, I was like, no, I don't like this at all. I don't like the meal of poached fish that he keeps poking around at. [01:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Also. Poached fish. [01:20:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:09] Speaker A: Like. Like, not like, fried fish or, like, fish nuggets or something. [01:20:13] Speaker B: It was a very specific detail of the thing. [01:20:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I have one nut that's real specific, but I don't know if it's specific to this book, but I think that I figured it out. Or maybe they made it more clear in the third book, the name Danika Fender. [01:20:27] Speaker B: Okay. [01:20:28] Speaker A: If you do the initial, it is Defender. Defender. [01:20:32] Speaker C: Oh, interesting. Not. That's not for me. [01:20:36] Speaker A: That's a. Not. [01:20:37] Speaker C: It's a little bit too on the nose. [01:20:38] Speaker A: Do you get it? [01:20:39] Speaker B: Yep. [01:20:39] Speaker A: She defended her friends. She's a defender. I hate it. [01:20:43] Speaker B: It's that mind. It's that Sarah. [01:20:44] Speaker A: Sarah J. Moss mind. It was just. It was too. And also, Fendir is spelled crazy. It's like. [01:20:49] Speaker C: It's like. [01:20:49] Speaker A: It's like F. Like Y. There's, like, too many Rs. Like, it's like. [01:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a D, Y, R at the end. [01:20:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:20:56] Speaker B: Love that. [01:20:57] Speaker A: A. Not for me. [01:20:57] Speaker C: But you know what was a hot Baxian. [01:21:00] Speaker B: Love him. [01:21:00] Speaker C: Love Baxian. [01:21:02] Speaker A: Yes. Again, yes. I would say that Baxian is an instance in which a pathetic man is hot. [01:21:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:07] Speaker A: Because he was a little pathetic. Like, in the. [01:21:09] Speaker B: In the. [01:21:10] Speaker A: Like, I love my dead girlfriend, and I can't get over it, which, like. Understandable. Understandable. Also, Danika was great, so, like, totally get why. [01:21:16] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. [01:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Hung up on it. And he was kind of like, I'm just gonna go along with the evil people until it's opportunistic, until I get the opportunity to, like, be good again, you know? But I found it very charming, I think, too. [01:21:28] Speaker B: I liked him. [01:21:29] Speaker C: He was vulnerable, too. So it was like. Yeah, you knew. I was like, you're. It's sad, but he's. He's owning it. [01:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes, totally. And his joy at the end over the Pegasi, the new that had taken over the island. I love to see a grown man take Joy in something like that. A winged horse. [01:21:46] Speaker C: Winged horse, Yeah. [01:21:47] Speaker B: I loved it. I loved him. [01:21:48] Speaker A: Who wouldn't take joy in a winged horse? That's my. That's. Yeah, I think, you know. [01:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Monsters among us. [01:21:55] Speaker A: I guess. Yeah. [01:21:56] Speaker C: I will say one thing and I don't know, I'm sure you guys have like saw this, but like she kept saying she would say like she could have sworn he saw him flinch or he could have sworn. So like just say she saw you. [01:22:10] Speaker B: She saw him flinch. Yeah. [01:22:11] Speaker C: You know what I mean? Like there were so many times it was like one character could have sworn they saw something or heard something. [01:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:22:18] Speaker C: It's like you just. You don't have to and that, you. [01:22:21] Speaker B: Know, I'm sitting there, then I start thinking, well, does that mean something? Does that signify something? If all of a sudden you like see a character flinch and it's heavy handed. [01:22:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it signifies the same thing. That watery bowels signal. [01:22:32] Speaker B: Yes. [01:22:32] Speaker A: It's just she, she latches on to a. Phrases it over and over again. You know, like, it's like also like. [01:22:37] Speaker B: The picking the lint off of the shirt. That too. [01:22:40] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just I think that she sometimes will just get into a rut with a word. [01:22:44] Speaker C: I see, I see. Okay, okay, okay. [01:22:47] Speaker B: Very interesting. Any other hots or nots you want to highlight? [01:22:51] Speaker A: I think that was all of mine. Oh, I do think like one. One knot that I had the naming conventions in this book threw me a little bit because in the other books it's much more like ancient fairytime. And so the names are like the Morrighim and like Nesta. You know, they're like more fantastical names. But in this one you have characters that are named like Lydia. [01:23:13] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like. [01:23:15] Speaker A: Well, I get that it's supposed to be like modern. They have cell phones. Yeah. I'm like, we don't need David in this story. You know what I mean? Like, we can spice up these names a little bit, make them a little bit more like. Yeah, fantasy. [01:23:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a note. [01:23:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, just a note. [01:23:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Even like, like Declan and Connor like it just like I liked those names. I think they fit like the. What doesn't fit is like the. Yeah, the mark. [01:23:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:23:42] Speaker C: Mark. [01:23:44] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay, what are some of the outstanding questions that exist for you? [01:23:49] Speaker C: Well, I guess, I mean, I was saying that what's going on with Sathya and what's going on with Ariadne and then. Yeah. And then. Oh, you know who I love? I liked. I know you're not gonna. It's a wolf. I liked Perry. [01:24:04] Speaker B: You want to see more from the. [01:24:05] Speaker A: Is Perry the Omega? That was briefly an Alpha. That was another thing where I was like, whatever. Can we, like, give me an answer or not. Like, you know. [01:24:13] Speaker B: Okay, well, that has an outstanding question for me. That's a good point. Because I was like, what is with the scent situation going on between, oh. [01:24:20] Speaker C: The cinnamon and strawberries? [01:24:21] Speaker B: Because Ethan. Or. Yeah, Ethan keeps having this thing that he keeps brushing off in his mind because he's like, I gave her the elixir. I gave her the vaccine. Or whatever. Yeah, but. But, like, the scent waned when he first gave it to her, but now it's strong. And he's like. He's having this question in his mind about what that mates. I do too. I do too. [01:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:39] Speaker A: Do you think that. So part of the story. And I thought this was really well done. Was like. And you talked about this earlier, Bryce being so overwhelmed by how powerful Rhysand was. Was. Because there aren't powerful Fae like that in her world. Because the Astari were suppressing their power. [01:24:56] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. [01:24:57] Speaker A: So I do one of the, like, outstanding questions I have is like, what will the vaccine. Because they developed a vaccine that will briefly give you your full power effect. Not long term. [01:25:06] Speaker C: Not long term. [01:25:07] Speaker A: What are the politics around that vaccine gonna be? Yeah. And how does that impact humans? Because humans were fighting for their life in that world when they had depowered things. Yes, yes. What's gonna happen when you have a bunch of Rhysands running around? [01:25:19] Speaker B: Exactly. That's a really good point in question. For sure. [01:25:23] Speaker C: Every time you think that it's like the character with the most power in the world, there's another one, there's another power. [01:25:29] Speaker A: There's always a bigger fish. [01:25:29] Speaker B: There's always a bigger fish. Exactly. Okay, obviously we talked about this. For me, it's like, where do Tharion and Aradna end up? What comes of Tharion's wife? Like, where is she? [01:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah, where is she? And what is she doing? [01:25:42] Speaker B: What is she doing? [01:25:43] Speaker A: What. What could come from this? That would be interesting. [01:25:46] Speaker B: Exactly. What about Perry and Ethan? We think that they're mates, as we just said. What becomes of the Reapers, including Sigrid? Like, what's. Or Sigrid? What's the situation there? [01:25:56] Speaker A: Especially now that hypaxia is super technically in charge of that. [01:25:58] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:25:59] Speaker A: Yes. [01:25:59] Speaker B: Are they at rest? What's happening? What if the witch's coven and their. When they overthrew Hypaxia. I want to hear more about that. Where the hell is Briggs the rebel? They mention him in the book as still being alive. [01:26:10] Speaker A: That's right. [01:26:11] Speaker B: What's going to happen with him? Yeah, so those are. And what's this all mean for Nesta and her eight star pointed tattoo? [01:26:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:26:19] Speaker A: There is an outstanding question that I have. I don't think this is super spoilers for Throne of Glass, but this does get into Throne of Glass a little bit, if that's okay that I go there. The under king in his like end monologue before he gets beheaded headed, he got hypaxia, like hits him with a hammer. [01:26:35] Speaker C: Oh. [01:26:37] Speaker A: Ethan freezes him. [01:26:38] Speaker B: He freezes him. Yeah, Hypaxia bangs. [01:26:42] Speaker A: But he's talking about the world that he came from before he came to Midgard. That the world that he describes is the world of Throne of Glass. [01:26:50] Speaker C: Okay, okay. [01:26:50] Speaker A: And he talks about how. So the. There's like five gods in Midgard. One of them is Urd. [01:26:57] Speaker C: And he's like. [01:26:57] Speaker A: Like that myth came from my home planet. It was word in Throne of Glass. Word is like a ancient magic that they use that they like write down in a secret ancient language. Kind of like what's on Bryce's back. My conspiracy theory is that the language that Danika wrote the horn tattoo in on Bryce's back, which. What a sentence. [01:27:25] Speaker C: What a sentence. [01:27:26] Speaker A: Word marks from that. From Throne of Glass. [01:27:30] Speaker C: Interesting. [01:27:31] Speaker B: Yes. And that's so interesting that you say that because I had a question here. Where basically in the bone quarter with the under king, it says a statue of, quote, Ur towering above him. It was not a goddess, but a force that governed worlds. A cauldron of life brimming with the language of creation. Erd they call her here, a bastardization version of her true name word. We call her. We called her in that old world. I took note of that too, because I was like, what does it all feel? [01:27:56] Speaker C: What does it all mean? [01:27:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:27:59] Speaker A: And once you read Throne of Glass, you'll get like, the word marks are all over the place. So you'll get a lot of word in that. [01:28:05] Speaker C: Okay, perfect. Okay, good. [01:28:07] Speaker B: Love that. Well, great. [01:28:09] Speaker C: What's next? Should we do a game? [01:28:11] Speaker B: Okay, well, listen, I know you and I, you and I like to tussle. We like the girls, like to fight. [01:28:17] Speaker A: I know where you're going with this. Yes. Yeah. I talking shit. [01:28:19] Speaker C: I was talking shit. [01:28:20] Speaker B: I want to hear. We won't go back and forth because we want to play a game with you. We want to tell your future. But I do. I am interested in just generally Hearing your casting choices for this book. [01:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And for a little bit of backstory on this. I don't know, were you. Did we loop you into this? Like, because she told me that you. [01:28:35] Speaker C: Were going to do this, but yeah. So your agreements and disagreements let me. [01:28:38] Speaker B: Give background to those that are listening. I gave a full throated casting in our last episode, and here's the thing about them. I just wrote down the characters. These are not necessarily people I saw in my mind's eye as I was reading the book, but I was like, huh? These people could come from a Hollywood casting couch and get maybe casted into this film. Mikey listens to the episode and texts me and goes, I'm listening to the episode now. I do not agree. I 100% do not agree with any of your casting choices. And I don't want to say anything else because I don't want to get upset. So I'm like, tell me your choices. Come on the podcast and let's listen to your choices. [01:29:15] Speaker A: Yes. And I want you to know that I came in hot. And then I had to make my own list. And I. I was like, I should really think before I speak harder than. [01:29:21] Speaker C: You think to come up with a list of them. [01:29:23] Speaker A: I couldn't figure out Bryce. I couldn't figure out Bryce because what it should be is what's her name? She was in that movie where she was naked. The. The comedy. No hard feelings. [01:29:37] Speaker B: No hard feelings. [01:29:38] Speaker A: Jennifer Lawrence should be like Jennifer Lawrence. [01:29:41] Speaker C: Like Hunger Games. [01:29:42] Speaker A: Yes. But she's, I think, a little too, like, she's aged out. Because Bryce is, like, 20. [01:29:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:29:47] Speaker A: Like, it's. I. I think that she's a little. [01:29:49] Speaker B: Older, but can I say this? Because I was thinking about this last night. The dynamic between Bryce and Hunt, because you and I right now are knee deep into the secret lives of Mormon wives. The dynamic. [01:30:02] Speaker A: I made a male suitor watch it last night. [01:30:04] Speaker C: I love that. [01:30:04] Speaker A: I was. [01:30:05] Speaker B: You're gonna have to tell us how it went. [01:30:06] Speaker A: I was experiencing intimacy with a man. And. Yeah, we're gonna watch. We're gonna watch this. And he loved it. He loved it. [01:30:11] Speaker B: True intimacy is enjoying the same reality tv. Sure. Yes. [01:30:15] Speaker C: Bright green flag. [01:30:16] Speaker A: It was. We watched like two episodes, and I was like, you must leave. But I was like, get out of my home. But yes, I know where you're going with this. Yes. Continually. [01:30:26] Speaker B: The dynamic between Bryce and Hunt is very much giving me Demi and her husband Brett. [01:30:32] Speaker A: Demetria. [01:30:32] Speaker B: Demetria. [01:30:33] Speaker A: Yes. [01:30:34] Speaker B: It's those two. He's a big lugging brute. And she's got, like, you know, she's living little. She's young, and she's got a mouth on her. [01:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And she's manipulating. [01:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:41] Speaker A: She's. She's got her. She's like. She's got her fingers in the cookie jar and she's. [01:30:45] Speaker B: Yes, that's who it's giving. [01:30:47] Speaker A: So. Yeah. So I couldn't find one for Bryce for Run. You had said Jared Leto, which is crazy to me. First of all, I. I think that my reaction was. I was like, I just don't like Jared Leto in movies. [01:30:58] Speaker B: I thought he didn't quite annoy me either. [01:31:01] Speaker A: I think that also he is, like, not proven at the box office anymore. Like, he's not like a box office. Like. Like he's not raking it in the. [01:31:08] Speaker C: Way he used to. [01:31:08] Speaker A: Well. [01:31:09] Speaker C: And in, like, the last week, he's been accused. [01:31:14] Speaker B: Didn't hear that. [01:31:15] Speaker A: I didn't know that. [01:31:17] Speaker B: Me neither. [01:31:17] Speaker A: But that second's further proof that that was a bad choice and that my choice is better, I think. Sebastian, Stan. Oh, for room. [01:31:26] Speaker B: I'll take it. [01:31:26] Speaker A: He's a little older, but we know he looks good with long hair from Winter Soldier, and I think that he would be able to redeem ruins patheticness. [01:31:33] Speaker B: Like, I think that he'd be able. [01:31:34] Speaker A: To get through that. [01:31:35] Speaker C: I. I mean, he's so good. [01:31:36] Speaker B: I'll take it. [01:31:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll take it. For Lahava. Natasha Leggero, the comedian Natasha Leggero. Are you familiar with her? She's kind of like. She's like a comedian who kind of dresses like a princess, but she's got kind of like a big personality and she's, like, a little rude, but it's very funny. Yeah, but she gives that kind of fire sprite energy to me, so I like her a bit. For the Viper Queen. This one's obscure. Alana Ubach. Do y' all know Alana Ubach? Did you ever watch Euphoria? [01:32:05] Speaker C: No. [01:32:06] Speaker B: Okay. Bits and pieces. [01:32:08] Speaker A: She was Sydney Sweeney's mom in that. She was also in Ted, if you ever watch those movies. And she was in Meet the Fockers. [01:32:16] Speaker B: Okay, wait. Interesting. [01:32:18] Speaker A: She's had a weird. [01:32:18] Speaker B: If you want to treat yourself around. [01:32:20] Speaker A: If you want to treat yourself, YouTube, a compilation of Alana Ubach's acting. It's crazy, the range that she has. [01:32:27] Speaker C: Really. [01:32:27] Speaker A: She's super funny, super dramatic, and always angry. [01:32:31] Speaker C: So that's Lahaba. [01:32:32] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Or Viper Queen. [01:32:34] Speaker B: Viper Queen. [01:32:34] Speaker A: That's the Viper Queen. [01:32:35] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Okay. [01:32:36] Speaker A: Celestina. I went stunt Casting with this one. Dochi. [01:32:40] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. [01:32:41] Speaker A: I think it would be. I think that that would be, like, a fun thing for Dochi to show up for, like, a week. [01:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:45] Speaker C: And do it. [01:32:46] Speaker B: Totally. [01:32:47] Speaker A: Hypaxia was harder because I was like, it needs to be, like, a witchy vibe, so. So I went FKA Twigs. [01:32:54] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. [01:32:55] Speaker C: Okay. [01:32:55] Speaker A: Or Zoe Kravitz. [01:32:57] Speaker B: Love it. [01:32:57] Speaker A: Zoe Kravitz is already paid. Plato Witch, though. [01:33:00] Speaker B: Well, I would do FKA Twigs. Really? Yes. I just think she has the. I just think she has the. The vibe. I would. I would actually. I don't know. I would. Maybe if I didn't put FK Twigs there, I'd put her somewhere else. Maybe I'd make her, like, fury or something. [01:33:14] Speaker C: Yes. Okay. Okay. I do like that, though. [01:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:33:18] Speaker B: I like those choices. Those are good. [01:33:19] Speaker A: Okay. For Hunt. Noah Centennial. [01:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. I thought she likes Noah Centennial for. Okay. [01:33:26] Speaker C: But I love him, so I don't want to make him hunt. I don't. [01:33:30] Speaker A: Like, he could redeem Hunt. You don't think that he. [01:33:32] Speaker C: I don't think so. I mean, maybe, but Hunt, like, he's just so, like, the dialogue is not great. Like, it just. He's not very smart, and I love. Noah Centeno is not smart. [01:33:43] Speaker A: I don't think he's operating with. I mean, Jillian. [01:33:46] Speaker B: Jillian. [01:33:46] Speaker A: I send love and blessings into the universe. I don't think he's. He's not. [01:33:50] Speaker B: He's not curing cancer. We're friends. Guiding you away from. From. From the edge. [01:33:54] Speaker C: Oh, that's. [01:33:54] Speaker B: I think he's really cute, too, but he's not. [01:33:57] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. [01:33:59] Speaker A: He might be smart. I just haven't, like, seen that from him. [01:34:02] Speaker B: I'm gonna show. Once these cameras stop rolling, I'm gonna show you a little. A little bit of a. A compilation of some of his. [01:34:08] Speaker C: Well, I think that. Yeah. So I haven't. I didn't see him until that. The show where he was, like, a lawyer. He was, you know, he was clever. [01:34:19] Speaker B: He was acting. Yes. [01:34:21] Speaker A: You're like, his skill as an actor is not a direct indicator for his intelligence. Okay. And then for Bryce's mom, Nicole Kidman. [01:34:28] Speaker B: Okay. [01:34:29] Speaker A: Put a wig on her. Get her in there. Yeah, yeah. And then for the human dad, like, her. Bryce's human dad. Randall Kevin Costner. Interesting. [01:34:39] Speaker B: See, But I saw him as black. [01:34:42] Speaker C: I did see him. Yeah. I think he was black. [01:34:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:45] Speaker C: Yes, yes. [01:34:46] Speaker A: Oh, who did you cast as the dad? [01:34:48] Speaker B: I casted that character who played. Hold on. Give me just a second. He played in the 1997 version of Romeo and Juliet. And people are like, he can't. Nobody can play him. The character that he played, I play. I casted Harold Perno. [01:35:07] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. [01:35:11] Speaker B: That's what you said in last week's episode. You were like, he was in Lost. [01:35:13] Speaker C: He was. [01:35:14] Speaker A: He was Lost. Okay. That is a good. That is a good casting. But those are all the castings that I have. [01:35:20] Speaker B: I love that. [01:35:20] Speaker A: But it was a hard list to come together with because I was really struggling with some of these. [01:35:24] Speaker B: I. It's hard, isn't it? [01:35:25] Speaker A: And I dodged a lot of the hard ones. I was like, I'm not touching Tharion. I'm not touching, like, the Autumn King. I was like, no. Yeah. [01:35:32] Speaker B: It's rough. [01:35:33] Speaker C: Yes. Well, do you think we have time to play mash? [01:35:38] Speaker B: I do. I think we have a little bit of time just to play a quick game. So we're gonna play a little bit of our favorite game mash, and this week we'll be focusing on deciding the fate of our dear friend Mikey. Okay. So, Mikey, you know how this works? [01:35:52] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [01:35:54] Speaker B: So let's start. We're gonna give you multiple categories. Let's start with the title of mash. So you've got a mansion. Where is that mansion located? [01:36:03] Speaker A: My mansion would be located in Crescent City. [01:36:06] Speaker B: Okay. [01:36:07] Speaker A: I think that, like. Oh, I can't remember the specific districts, but not the Bone Quarter. It's a. It's a mansion in the, like, city. Yeah. Around where Bryce lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where? It's like a city. City. [01:36:19] Speaker C: CBD or something. [01:36:21] Speaker B: Where's your apartment? [01:36:22] Speaker A: Apartment is un. In the river. Like, under the water in the river. Which would be tough to get to since I'm not a mer person, but, you know, it's all about location, location, location, location. [01:36:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:36:33] Speaker B: Where is the shack? [01:36:35] Speaker A: Bone Quarter. Yep. [01:36:38] Speaker B: Where is your house? [01:36:40] Speaker A: House is in the. It's in the cave that Nesta and Bryce walked through with the worm. And the worm was my dog, and I was upset that they killed him. [01:36:53] Speaker C: Love it. Okay. [01:36:55] Speaker A: Because the worm was the same worm that or the same type of thing. Yeah, the middle. [01:37:00] Speaker B: They were, like, cousins. [01:37:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:37:01] Speaker A: Yeah. That. The one that Feyre killed. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. [01:37:04] Speaker B: Okay. For our. Our next category, potential mates. And you need to give me four. [01:37:09] Speaker A: Okay. I feel like the obvious choice is Hunt, which. [01:37:13] Speaker C: Hope not. [01:37:13] Speaker B: This is your world, babe. You can just. You can tell us. Whoever. [01:37:17] Speaker A: I'll do Hunt just because I feel like I. I'm obligated to do Hunt since he's the main Baxian played by who, though? What were the other options that you. [01:37:26] Speaker C: Guys have, other than Noah Sentineo? Just put Noah Sentineo. [01:37:29] Speaker A: Okay. Noah Sentineo. [01:37:30] Speaker B: Sure. [01:37:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:37:31] Speaker B: Baxian. [01:37:32] Speaker A: Baxian. I don't know who would play Baxian. I specifically avoided that one. Who do you have as playing Baxian? [01:37:39] Speaker B: My list has somehow been lost to the who do you have as back? [01:37:43] Speaker C: What do you think? A Hugh Jackman? [01:37:45] Speaker B: Oh, put it down. [01:37:46] Speaker C: No. [01:37:47] Speaker B: Yes. [01:37:48] Speaker A: Can he play that Sadness. Also, I feel like Hugh Jackman is older. [01:37:51] Speaker B: He's older. Yeah. [01:37:52] Speaker A: I mean, but, like. Yeah, I'm fine with you, Jackman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Run. Played by Sebastian Stan. [01:38:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:38:02] Speaker B: Okay. [01:38:03] Speaker C: God, yeah. [01:38:03] Speaker B: Love Sebastian Stan. Isn't he, like, Romanian? [01:38:07] Speaker C: I think so. [01:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Seb. Yeah. [01:38:10] Speaker B: Okay. [01:38:11] Speaker A: And then what is his name? Asriel. Asriel. [01:38:16] Speaker C: Oh, by the way, deep cut. Sebastian Stan was in Gossip Girl. [01:38:20] Speaker B: Yes. [01:38:20] Speaker A: Yes, he was. [01:38:21] Speaker B: Yes, he was. [01:38:22] Speaker A: Yes, he was. [01:38:23] Speaker B: Bless him. [01:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:24] Speaker B: Did you have a casting for Azrael? [01:38:26] Speaker A: I didn't have a casting for Asriel, but I do think that he would be, like. He would be hard to cast. [01:38:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:33] Speaker B: Okay. [01:38:35] Speaker A: Because he needs to be, like, otherworldly, gorgeous, and then also huge. Right? Like, he's like. Like seven feet tall. Right? [01:38:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:38:41] Speaker B: As we go to the next categories, Jillian, can you look up some, like, ideas for celebrity casting? [01:38:45] Speaker A: You know what? Cast him via AI Just AI. AI. [01:38:49] Speaker B: As we all AI version. [01:38:51] Speaker A: Love that AI is real. [01:38:53] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, let's do Mated, bond, trigger. And now, what I mean by that is, how do you and your mate discuss, discover you're bound? Is it like you're, like, running from a villain and you touch? Is it seeing each other across the room? [01:39:08] Speaker A: Okay. Bump into each other at the grocery store? [01:39:11] Speaker B: Love that. [01:39:12] Speaker A: I spill hot coffee all myself and I go, oh, hot, hot, hot. [01:39:17] Speaker B: A meet cute. [01:39:18] Speaker A: Yeah, A meet cute. If you would. [01:39:20] Speaker C: Can you pet me with a napkin, please? Yes, yes, yes. [01:39:23] Speaker A: I promise I won't bite. Do you know where the tomato sauce is? They moved the tomato sauce? No, the cheesecake at the Marianas. [01:39:35] Speaker B: By me. [01:39:35] Speaker C: Oh, they did. [01:39:35] Speaker A: And I'm too shy to ask, so now I just don't have cheesecake in my life. [01:39:38] Speaker C: Well, you just gotta meet someone there and ask them. [01:39:40] Speaker A: I do. I need a hot man at the Marianas to find me the cheesecake. Yeah. Okay, and then what else? We're tortured together by the hind. We have a long and protracted mating ritual in a merfolk submarine. And then after four years of courting. We decide to adopt a pair of twins sight unseen. [01:40:07] Speaker B: Love that. [01:40:08] Speaker A: And the act of adoption, the spreading of love in our heart as we. As we bring two new family members into our. Into our world. That triggers the bond. [01:40:17] Speaker B: I love that. [01:40:17] Speaker A: And I become gay fish. [01:40:19] Speaker B: Yes. And then one more. [01:40:28] Speaker A: Bond trigger. What are some of that happen in the. Cuz the one with nest is too X rated for. [01:40:34] Speaker C: X rated Bond trigger. [01:40:35] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, that's a really. That is a. But what did. Oh, soup. Somebody gives me soup. Oh, cuz I ate am the resound. [01:40:44] Speaker C: I love it. [01:40:45] Speaker A: Give me that soup. [01:40:46] Speaker B: I love it. [01:40:46] Speaker A: From a can specifically. It has to be from. It can't be made from scratch. It has to be from like a Campbell's chicken noodle soup. [01:40:51] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. Okay. Magical powers. And then the last one will be weapons in the bedroom or in the battlefield. [01:41:00] Speaker A: Okay. Magical powers. I'm gonna keep them in the world of. [01:41:04] Speaker B: And this is like when you have the vaccine you have. [01:41:07] Speaker A: I'm vaccinated. [01:41:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:41:08] Speaker A: So this is. It's only one. When I'm vaccinated. [01:41:10] Speaker B: Yes. [01:41:10] Speaker A: Yes. Okay. I get the Tamlin shape shifting powers, but I get the pharaoh version where I can become other people. Because Tamlin only ever is like a bear with horns or something. Right. Like he's only ever like a beast. [01:41:25] Speaker C: A weird. Yeah, a beast, basically. [01:41:27] Speaker A: Like. But Feyre was smart enough to be like, I'm going to be other people. [01:41:29] Speaker B: He looks like those beasts that are on the COVID of where the wild Things Are. [01:41:32] Speaker A: Basically. [01:41:33] Speaker B: That's what I have pictured in my mind. [01:41:34] Speaker A: Yes. [01:41:35] Speaker B: For Tamlin. That's unfortunate. [01:41:37] Speaker A: So the shape shifting power. I do like the star power that Bryce had. The star power, the shifting power where you can turn into a animal, but the animal that I would turn into is a like red squirrel. [01:41:56] Speaker C: Interesting. [01:41:58] Speaker A: But like a human sized red squirrel. Like a very giant giant. Like you know how like Danika could turn into like a big wolf? Yeah, I'm like a big squirrel. Wow. [01:42:06] Speaker B: Love it. [01:42:07] Speaker A: Okay. [01:42:07] Speaker B: Jillian loves Clifford the Red big red dog. This falls into the love that. [01:42:14] Speaker A: And then the other one is. I can hear good. [01:42:19] Speaker B: Hear good. [01:42:21] Speaker C: Yep. [01:42:21] Speaker B: Love that. Okay. And then finally, I need your magical weapons in battle and. Or foreplay. [01:42:27] Speaker A: Okay, he's got it. They can be related. [01:42:30] Speaker C: Absolutely. [01:42:32] Speaker A: Imagination. [01:42:34] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. [01:42:39] Speaker A: Staff, Staff. Use your imagination. [01:42:42] Speaker B: Yes. [01:42:45] Speaker A: Sword. [01:42:46] Speaker B: Use your imagination. [01:42:47] Speaker A: Use your imagination if you're into that. Although apparently, you know, you guys were talking about the like Bleeding King from what book was that? Quicksilver where they were like bit Me and I bled or whatever. [01:43:01] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [01:43:02] Speaker C: Not a big fan. [01:43:03] Speaker A: Keep that. [01:43:03] Speaker B: Keep that one. [01:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's gonna be a. Not for me. I know that we're not talking about that book, but I'm gonna add a retroactive or whatever, like, you know, to that one, a not to that one. And then this one's not sexual, but I do like the idea of it. Like a mace. Oh, a mace. [01:43:20] Speaker B: I like that. [01:43:20] Speaker A: You know what I'm talking about? [01:43:21] Speaker B: Like, I'm not talking about swing it around. [01:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not talking about like a. Like a spray. I'm talking about like. Yeah, like it's on a pole with like a ball and like a chain. And you're like, oh, interesting. That feels magical. We don't get a lot of those. [01:43:32] Speaker B: No, but you know what? I'm glad that you bought it here. [01:43:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I want like a superpowered mace that's like truth teller, where it is like, like it like, has some kind of like, vibration. That's only for me. [01:43:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:43:42] Speaker A: But it just like swings. I think they're not practical in a combat scenario. [01:43:46] Speaker C: Probably not. [01:43:47] Speaker A: Probably not. It feels like a lot to go through. [01:43:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's tell your fates, shall we? Let's turn to our resident warlock, Christian. Pick a number between 1 and 7. [01:43:57] Speaker A: 4. 4. Love that great number. Love it. [01:44:00] Speaker B: All right, and now we're going to just calculate your score. If you two want to talk amongst yourselves, I'll come back with your future. Should be. [01:44:09] Speaker C: I was just looking for Azriel's fan casting. I couldn't find anything. [01:44:13] Speaker A: It's. It's an impossible one. It's an impossible one. I feel like it would be easier to cast. Oops, sorry. I just hit the table. I feel like it would be easier to cast the Autumn King. Who's the Autumn King to you? Good question. Do we go like, do we go Dune? Is it? Who's the guy that, like, talks crazy from Dune? He's the emperor in Dune. Oh, Christopher Walken. [01:44:33] Speaker C: Oh, Christopher Walken. I thought he was more like a. Like, it looked like a mid, like maybe 50s, had like Auburn hair. So I'm trying to think of. [01:44:44] Speaker A: We can put a wig on Christopher. We put a long red wig, a 40 inch red wig on Christopher Walken. [01:44:49] Speaker C: You put anything on him? Yeah, it's still Christopher Walken. [01:44:52] Speaker A: Yes. He's still going to talk like that. [01:44:55] Speaker C: What about Satya? [01:44:59] Speaker A: I think that, like, she would be. It would be hard because that's a role that could get annoying. [01:45:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:06] Speaker A: You need to catch an actress who's like, really charismatic and I think kind of like young. And I'm trying to think about, like, who are good, like, young, charismatic actresses. I mean, the obvious choice is Zendaya because she's like the most charismatic actress we have. But, like, of course, that feels like a role that's too small for her. [01:45:21] Speaker C: That feels like. [01:45:22] Speaker A: Put Zendaya. [01:45:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:23] Speaker B: Kind of a role. [01:45:24] Speaker C: I mean, I want to put her in the Bryce role, but. But I don't like Bryce enough. [01:45:28] Speaker A: You know, she could make Bryce more interesting, though, because she made Chani more interesting in Dune, cuz that character had no. [01:45:34] Speaker C: Nothing going, really. Okay, okay. [01:45:37] Speaker B: I like that choice for Zendaya. I love her in Dune. I've got your. Your. [01:45:41] Speaker A: Okay, let's do it. [01:45:42] Speaker B: Your. Your magical future here. [01:45:43] Speaker A: Is it a good future? Are you seeing good things? [01:45:45] Speaker B: For me? [01:45:45] Speaker A: It's good. [01:45:45] Speaker B: I think it's cute. [01:45:46] Speaker A: Good. [01:45:46] Speaker B: I think it's cute. I think, you know, we could probably blow this out a little bit more with a little bit more time, but I think we've got some good building bones so far. So you live in a mansion in Crescent City in the cbd, specifically. [01:46:01] Speaker A: Love it. [01:46:01] Speaker B: You're mated with Baxian, played by Hugh Jackman. [01:46:04] Speaker A: This is huge. I'll never be able to replace Danika, but I can't hold him in the night. [01:46:08] Speaker B: I can't hold him in the night. Hold up. [01:46:10] Speaker A: That is. Yes. [01:46:11] Speaker B: You met at the grocery store, boss up in a hot coffee. [01:46:14] Speaker A: Wow. Wow. And he was looking for. What do dogs eat? [01:46:18] Speaker C: Treats. [01:46:19] Speaker A: Dog food. [01:46:19] Speaker B: He was looking for dog food. [01:46:20] Speaker A: I was looking for. I was in the dog food section. I was like, maybe they put the cheesecake there. Yeah. [01:46:24] Speaker B: You don't know where it is. [01:46:25] Speaker C: You're like, where's the cheesecake? [01:46:27] Speaker A: This is the pet section. Listen, I love you. [01:46:30] Speaker B: I can find love anywhere. [01:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:46:34] Speaker B: Your powers when at bull hilt with the vaccine. [01:46:37] Speaker A: Yes. [01:46:38] Speaker B: Tamlin. Shape shifting. [01:46:40] Speaker A: I love that. I'm sorry to be gay about it, but, like, did you ever. Y' all watch X Men? [01:46:44] Speaker C: I have. I have. [01:46:45] Speaker A: Okay. Mystique. [01:46:46] Speaker B: Yes. [01:46:46] Speaker A: The, like, mystique power, like, that is the coolest power. Just, like, become Rebecca Romain whenever you want. Yeah. Love that. [01:46:55] Speaker C: Love it. [01:46:55] Speaker B: And you, your weapon in the battlefield as well as in foreplay is a wand. Use your imagination. [01:47:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:47:02] Speaker B: There's lots of things you don't even have to use your. Just know what it is. [01:47:10] Speaker A: You just. You just. Just use it for what it's intended to do. [01:47:12] Speaker B: I love it. [01:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Follow the instructions. [01:47:14] Speaker B: I Love that future for you. [01:47:16] Speaker A: I think it's fun. Vaccine really makes it. I feel like I'm happy with that. I was worried I was gonna get ruin or hunt, but. Yeah. [01:47:22] Speaker B: No, that's not what the fates wanted for you. [01:47:23] Speaker A: No, they wanted good things for me. Yeah. God's looking out for me. [01:47:26] Speaker B: God, the gods are looking out for you. [01:47:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Urd or word, depending on. [01:47:30] Speaker B: We'll find out, I suppose. [01:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:31] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys for tuning in, as always. If you're feeling the vibe right now and subscribe, we'll be taking just a little bit of a break. But don't fret. We'll be back to yapping in a few short weeks about another fun and scintillating read. We can't wait. And in the meantime, be on the lookout for more information, as Jillian and I will be participating in a smutty book swap on July 19th at Lillabar Clothing Boutique here in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. Lots of fun things planned there, and we can't wait. But we'll share more info on our Instagram as the event gets closer. [01:48:04] Speaker C: And thank you to Mikey for joining us. A king, a prince, a scholar, just a magical being. How do you feel about your first episode? [01:48:14] Speaker A: This is so much fun. [01:48:15] Speaker C: Yay. [01:48:16] Speaker A: I will say, like, this is like. I feel like what makes this so much fun is I feel like this is just an extension of conversations totally both of us have had, like, all three of us have had outside of the podcast. So it feels very fun to, like, come in here and talk about it because, like, it is just. I feel like we're always. Yeah. Every time we get together, it's always what's going on with our. [01:48:36] Speaker C: It's just living for us. [01:48:38] Speaker B: It's just as easy as breathing. [01:48:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it's easy. Let's go. [01:48:41] Speaker B: Two, three. [01:48:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:48:42] Speaker B: Easy. [01:48:43] Speaker C: Well, okay. So this is your first of many. [01:48:46] Speaker B: Yes. [01:48:46] Speaker C: You'll be back. [01:48:47] Speaker A: I hope so. [01:48:48] Speaker C: Yes. [01:48:48] Speaker A: And it's okay. If not. [01:48:49] Speaker B: We've already decided. We decided you'll be on that guy. [01:48:51] Speaker A: An avid listener no matter what. But, yes, if you guys do read Throne of Glass, I would love to come in on the last book, Kingdom of Ash, because, like, there's a lot that goes down. [01:49:00] Speaker B: We might just sprinkle you throughout it. So just be on campus times. [01:49:03] Speaker A: I will. [01:49:05] Speaker C: Okay. So, as always, thank you to Christian McCann for keeping our sound in check. And to the illustrious Lincoln Lodge in Chicago, Illinois, for letting us do our thing. Until next time. [01:49:15] Speaker B: Bye. [01:49:16] Speaker A: Bye. Bye.