Deep Space and Dragons

Episode 74: From Sandblasting to Sci-Fi Fantasies

• Richard • Season 2 • Episode 74

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Ever wondered about the magic tucked inside a fluffy Japanese-style cheesecake or the unfinished symphony of DIY sandblasting projects? That's where Richard and Karl, step in to dissect these peculiar mysteries. Our latest gabfest steers through a maze of culinary wonders, DIY musings, and the comical intricacies of the Scooby-Doo gang dynamics. 

Buckle up as we careen through the anarchy of clashing deadlines and the delights of spinning yarns for a hypothetical space colony in our imaginary publishing house. If the idea of a robot crew navigating the cosmos or a tale of intergenerational space voyagers tickles your fancy, you’re in for a treat. Our creative brainstorm might just spark your next big idea, or at least, provide a hearty chuckle as we juxtapose feline air force recruits and inherited magical quirks.

To wrap up this escapade, we're dissecting the ebb and flow of sci-fi and manga trends, weighing in on our anime predilections, and by the end, you'll have journeyed through a landscape of laughter, nostalgia, and the occasional philosophical pondering. So join us for a roller coaster of humor and ingenuity and remember do not take us seriously...

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Richard:

Happy stance time zone. I'm Richard of Richard and Karl present Deep Space and Dragons.

Karl:

And I am Karl and I demand that Richard tell me about his fluffy cheesecake.

Richard:

No.

Karl:

What why?

Richard:

Well, that one felt like a very just, fun response, like you clearly had a whole bit. Pre-stream you're like I have a whole bit prepared, and this bit is going to revolutionize the world. But instead I must talk about Uncle Tetsu's Japanese-style cheesecakes, apparently.

Karl:

Well, no see, last week post-stream, you and I were chatting and then you said you had to go eat a fluffy cheesecake, and then you said that I had to demand to hear about it the next stream.

Richard:

So here I am, demanding you see, that's hilarious, because I completely forgotten. I set up this bit like completely forgotten.

Richard:

So for context, you know, I like to be like what's new with me, me and I'm like, oh nothing. I have read so many things this week because I'm in a writing and publishing program and I volunteer for Slush Pile Reading and I just do a lot of reading and I've absorbed all of the information and just kind of pushed Fluffy Cheesecakes out of my brain. But yes, so several locations in the GTA, or the 6 apparently, which is what the area is called, and this is complete news to me and I think people are just trying to gaslight me.

Richard:

But, anywho, I discovered a place called Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Style Cheesecakes and they're like a cheesecake but instead of like a brick of solidified dairy like a North American cheesecake. They're like take a regular cake and then make it somehow half cheesecake, so like it's like fluffy and cake-like but rich like a cheesecake, and I assume that they're literally made out of like angel wings or something.

Richard:

And they're really good but they're hard to describe because those two things I just said are incongruent, right Like a creamy baked good. Doesn't really make sense, but they're quite delicious.

Karl:

That was why I was curious because of like fluffy cheesecake, like how can you have a fluffy cheesecake?

Richard:

Honestly, the only way I can explain this is when I next encounter you in real life, I'll try and remember to have a cheesecake waiting. Well, maybe I'll demand that.

Karl:

Exactly.

Richard:

See, that was the Now my bits coming back to me. That I want to do is you can demand a cheesecake and it'll be like you'll find out, You'll have to fly out here to get here and then that would be the explanation for KarlFest TM is you demanding cheesecake? That was the bit I was trying to set up, but I'd forgotten because I it's not that I have a bad memory, it's that I have bad RAM.

Karl:

Like my hard drive space is amazing.

Richard:

Once it loads, what's there.

Karl:

Right, right, that's pretty funny.

Richard:

With that segue, what's new in the Carl-verse? Ooh, you built a sandblaster, Uh no, I uh. That might be the most damage I've ever done to you.

Karl:

I I gave up on the sand blaster, basically, uh, just because, like, I have to have to buy a new like case and there's a bunch of stuff that I have to buy for that, and right now I'm busy, you know, planning for. Well, I would call it bladfest, but no, it's always going to be CarlVest.

Richard:

See, the thing is you're actually the main character, right, Like that's just objectively true. We all know this. That's why my name goes first. It's like you watch Scooby-Doo and you're like who's the main character of Scooby-Doo? And it's Shaggy. We all know it's actually Shaggy. It's always actually been Shaggy as the main character of Scooby-Doo, Because Scooby-Doo reacts and Shaggy proacts, and Fred is a monster. He's just like yeah, me and Daphne are gonna go check the rooms upstairs for the monsters, and while we're checking the bedrooms, you go try not to get eaten.

Karl:

Yeah, I mean, how is it that Scooby and Shaggy are always the ones who run into the monsters?

Richard:

I think that Frank and Daphne know where the monsters are and they just send Scooby and Shaggy there well, theory A is exactly that and theory B is that Shaggy is legitimately cursed and everyone's pieced this together and it's just like, yeah, his dark energy.

Richard:

Just maybe his monsters are drawn to negativity, so they keep him on the team just to be a negative energy source to draw on hollows or corrupt businessmen, or because it's usually capitalism's the villain and freddy's some rich trust fund kid. I bet you. I bet you this. This is all part of a three-phase thing.

Richard:

Where he's in cahoots with the evil carnival runner to then get the evil car owner arrested so he can take a payoff. It's like the Trump scandal, right? If you're in jail, you can't go to jail for your other crimes. So just commit so many crimes that you're always in a rotation of trials and never actually in jail.

Karl:

Never actually in jail.

Richard:

Or something I don't know. This is not your political show. Disclaimer if you're watching Deep Space and Dragons to hear about American politics, why not just turn on any TV channel anywhere on Earth?

Karl:

Yeah, especially in Canada, because, well you know, we're not allowed to post Canadian news.

Richard:

But I never actually did get what's new to Carl. I just kind of am like a distraction.

Karl:

Bucket sand. Well see, the problem is that this week was boring. What? Yeah, there was nothing going on this week.

Richard:

I just no crimes in front of you.

Karl:

No one stole any ambulances. No, well, I mean the most interesting thing that happened, which didn't even happen to me. Okay, it's tragic. Oh, my boss, he owns a house that he rents out so that he has a garage to store all of his cars in.

Richard:

Oh, this isn't the parking lot situation, is it?

Karl:

No, no, no. He's rented out this house to this guy for like 13 years or something. These guys lived there for a long time and there was a murder in that neighborhood. And Jeff comes in to me and he's like oh, you know that murder that happened in that neighborhood. It was my tenant's kid that got murdered. Oh, I came into this room with the wrong energy today.

Karl:

So then I had to write a letter that said that he couldn't get his, couldn't pay for his rent because I don't know, I guess you can get murder assistance.

Richard:

You should be able to get murder assistance.

Karl:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know exactly how that all works, but I had to write this letter that said this guy was behind on rent and this was the amount when it was due. But you know, generally just not very interesting.

Richard:

I mean, you know, I set myself up for that right. I'm like wacky Carl in wacky Saskatchewan gonna talk wacky crime. So here I am, notifying, next to Ken oh, actually, that's less like, that's more interesting and more sad. You were notifying banks about deaths. It's like when I worked at redacted theaters and the incident report webpage thing, because it was like a digital incident report filer had a checkbox for deceased and I think the saddest thing in the world that could ever happen to a human being is if you die and the response is someone clicks a checkbox switching you from alive to dead in the system.

Richard:

Yeah, that would be pretty sad Because it's like you'd think it would warrant a phone call or something. At the very least like a police officer, Like how many deaths happened at redacted theaters if you hit a button for it.

Karl:

Well, I mean, given their safety record, probably a few.

Richard:

Like I'm just saying, imagine installing in all the POSs at your redacted pizzeria a deceased button, because this has happened enough that you need to have a quicker procedure for it.

Karl:

Well, I mean, it hasn't happened enough, but there was a delivery driver that died.

Richard:

You know, I feel like people listen to us for like happy fun times escapism. I feel like people listen to us for like happy fun times escapism. Silly Carl and silly Richard complaining about some dumb cartoon being less more dumb than the other dumb cartoon by like 3%.

Karl:

And we're like wow.

Richard:

Yeah, we live in a corporate hellscape, don't we Like? Stop being real, please.

Karl:

The delivery driver didn't die on the job. He just happened to die while being employed.

Richard:

Fair.

Karl:

I have no idea. I don't think anybody's ever died on the job.

Richard:

Legitimate question. So your drivers work on commission. So if they die on commission, would you even need to click the button?

Karl:

They are technically third-party contractors, so I mean we don't really collect any information about them. They're just like yeah, you have a car, you have a license, can you work these hours? You're hired. If elected Prime Minister, I would ban Uber and Meta in Canada.

Richard:

Uber and Meta. Uber, meta and Airbnb would all be banned. What do you got against Airbnb? So listen to rent out an apartment. So, first off, we have a housing crisis, just straight up. This is just a fact, right, right. So if you rent out your house to a human being as a tenant, you have to have it inspected to make sure said human can live there.

Karl:

Right.

Richard:

In the Airbnb. You somehow don't, so we Right Airbnb just bad. I hadn't thought about that you right now could just rent out your room to a stranger from Wisconsin Instead of someone who needs a home.

Karl:

Yeah, I mean that's true and also it could just be a pit full of spikes. Or it could be a pit full of webcams.

Richard:

Yeah, you see how it's like Uber and Lyft and things make me wonder that too, aren't you the same company, just unregulated? Like isn't uber just a taxi that we haven't tested to make sure it's safe?

Richard:

so I don't actually know how these companies exist. To be perfectly honest, like could you imagine if your business was, you bought a van and just stole pizza out of that van? You would need like a license, right? So why would someone you making an app that lets people order pizza to their house and you just cook it outside their house in a van be more legal because there's an app involved.

Richard:

That is my rant and also the reason I would just ban meta is the studies show meta is just worse for you than cigarettes. And yeah, it just causes anxiety, mental health, suicide, depression, lost sleep, circadian rhythm damage, car accidents, election fraud, riots. And no one's quite given me an argument as to why we should keep redacted social media companies if they literally just like hey, legally we passed a bill, you should pay our journalists. And they're like fine, we just won't put news from your country out. And we're like, OK, we didn't just be like cool, get out of our country. I don't, we're a country, we're not weaker than Meta, I think.

Karl:

I don't know. We are Canada. Our GDP probably is lower than Meta.

Richard:

But we have to have more soldiers, right, and if we don't, we have to fix this planet ASAP, because I know we don't have more soldiers than Pepsi, but I'm not dumb enough to make that fight.

Karl:

Speaking of, I lost my train of thought. Well, I know what my train of thought is.

Richard:

I was going to segue better, but Well, anytime, the segue is speaking of Pepsi. And then what was it going to be like? Child labor camps, are we turning into Last Week? Tonight with John Oliver, oh Lord.

Karl:

No, no, no, I was going to segue into AI. That's worse. I'm a little bit curious. When was your short story assignment due that I gave you ideas for?

Richard:

So my short story assignment is due. I have four large projects due exactly on my birthday. I have four classes with four assignments, each worth a quarter of my grade, due on my birthday somehow.

Karl:

And that's the day that you're taking off for VladFest. Correct, I also have like.

Richard:

Two people reached out to me for job interviews on that exact day as well, even though I don't do anything 365 other days of the year, it is a Wednesday. It is you have no idea how like. My gut instinct was like how about Wednesday at noon? And I'm like no pick any time else.

Karl:

But so Wednesday you have a bunch of assignments due, and one of them is the short story is worth 25% of your grade.

Richard:

It's attached to something worth 25% Is a story worth 25% of your grade. It's attached to something worth 25%. So this particular class is making an imprint, which is like a type of publishing house, effectively, and the first assignment is everyone has to pitch a story to make the slush pile. So that way you then bid on the stories in the second half, for which one goes to your magazine. So the rest of the class gets to bid on who wants my story for their magazine and why it would fit.

Karl:

Okay, okay.

Richard:

But I also have to do another little thing for that class worth money. So that was the easiest thing I had to do Slash the most fun, not counting the class.

Richard:

It's like make a resume and a cover letter and I'm like huh, open folder labeled job hunting, open resume, submit that one was funny though, because I had to run it through an AI detector to find certain keywords, because what it does is a lot of job postings will scan resumes for keywords, so they have detectors that'll make sure you have the right keywords for that job posting so you get flagged as an appropriate contender. We live in the worst dystopia when both people set up computers to scan to see if the job post and resume match. Just have a phone call. Guys Like it's like oh, he said Microsoft Office, not Microsoft Suite, auto-rejection. And I'm like just talk to him and if he's like I eat puppies, don't hire him. God, what are you? It's like people come up with new ways to cheat that are harder than actually doing the thing.

Karl:

Okay, so the resume was your easiest one. But so you're submitting your story to be bid on by your co-students, to be put into their hypothetical magazine. That is correct. And then the actual portion of the assignment is making the magazine.

Richard:

So the first one's making like a mission statement for a magazine, but we had to have these stories up early so people could read them.

Karl:

Ah, okay, okay, it's a whole thing. Yeah, yeah, Because not everyone reads as fast as you do.

Richard:

Oh man, it's a gift. Right now, like some of the sheer terror some of my classmates are getting where they're like now read 30 stories in three books and then four books, and then three stories from this magazine and five stories from this magazine and they're all drowning. As my redacted professors, like my program, I had to read more than you guys, so I don't feel bad for you. Do, do, do, do, do as he should not feel bad.

Richard:

Right, it's that irony where it's like, oh, I have to do so much reading in this writing and publishing program and I'm like, yes.

Karl:

Kind of what you signed up for.

Richard:

Yeah.

Karl:

Okay, yes.

Richard:

But I feel like you're going somewhere with this. Before I'm like explanatory.

Karl:

Well, I mean, firstly, I was interested to see whether or not your assignment had been graded, because I did read it and give you some feedback.

Richard:

Yes, which.

Karl:

I had time to incorporate it. And secondly, I gave you like five ideas and obviously the AI captain. Well, maybe AI captain of the ship.

Richard:

No, that's a person.

Karl:

Definitely a person who's just lived so long they've forgotten.

Richard:

I'm going to just kind of like co-op the rest of this episode to talk about this because I'm excited about it, and then I will answer your questions and you can keep asking questions. So the TLDR is after writing that short story, I got inspired for my likework graduation novel-sized project.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

So I'm not going to use that character, but I really like the idea of the massive colony ship that moves at literal light speed, making tens of thousands of years, if not longer trip, longer trip. So my masterwork novel is I'm doing a short story collection that goes through the journey of the 21 Arcana cards as a series of short stories of people who are in deep sleep, remote piloting robots on this ship.

Karl:

So there's four generations of robots.

Richard:

There's generation one people who had their brains put in a robot buddy to oversee it. Generation two people who photocopied people's brains and put them in robots, but a few of them went psycho and killed the originals. Generation 3, where they're made to be remote Wi-Fi piloted, but sometimes they would just break down and stop at inopportune moments, which resulted in one person ending up in two robots that weren't aware that they were robots that fell in love and then realized they fell in love with themselves and helped them come over their trauma.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

And the fourth generation robot, where they took the clone brain one and the Wi-Fi one, so that way both brains are constantly being backed up. So if there's a disconnect, after it reconnects both things, just upgrade. And those are the currently used ones.

Karl:

Okay, okay.

Richard:

So it's kind of like the 50 story. What was it like? 20 stories of Springfield Actually, I described it earlier to my professor as Canterbury Tales in Space, okay, and I really like the colony ship people dreaming robot body. Idea A because if I want to make a TTRPG later it lets me use the world trigger mechanics of blowing off someone's arm and be like oh wait, I was a robot all along. Later it lets me use the world trigger mechanics of blowing off someone's arm and be like, oh wait, I was a robot all along.

Richard:

But I kind of love the joke that if you have a ship that goes at exactly light speed, light years become both a measurement of time and distance. And it's funny to me.

Karl:

That actually is pretty funny.

Richard:

I like how my novel sci-fi concept is we never did figure out faster than light travel, but we got light travel, so our solution is freeze-drying. Well so I mean Because, like here's a question to you if you're a character in this book.

Richard:

So you're in this ship heading towards a habitable planet. That's like 20,000 light years away, or like, let's go 2,000 light years away, but while you're on the journey you're functionally immortal. Do you ever actually want to arrive? Because you have a robot body, you can just keep printing new ones, as your regular one floats there in the brine, dreaming Do you actually want to get where you're going.

Karl:

Well, okay, so the robot bodies are connected via Wi-Fi to the human body.

Richard:

Yeah, this is the one that's like a closed loop, so anything the robot goes gets backed up into the human and then backed back up into the robot. It's the fourth generation. We figured it out at this point.

Karl:

Right, right right.

Richard:

And you can just 3D print a new body whenever you feel like it really, Whenever you feel like it really.

Karl:

Yeah, see, that's a tough one, because I don't know that I would want to be stuck on a spaceship for the rest of eternity, but I don't know that I'd want to give up the closed-loop robot body system either.

Richard:

So it's like, once you get on the planet, then eventually you have to like start unpacking. See, the one of the key arguments is that while everything's preserved, mankind, your population, can't grow because you've mapped out your fixed system. So you really get like the same group of people forever and even though you could effectively simulate anything and build anything and have like a decent enough space on the ship to like build a small bookstore melt it down. Build a cafe melt it down. Make a pizzeria melt it down. Eventually you will theoretically have had every conversation and hung out with every person, but also you have an option to go back to sleep.

Karl:

The robot body does you could turn the robot body off and put the human that's hooked up to.

Richard:

But also you have an option to go back to sleep the robot body does. You can turn the robot body off and put the human that's hooked up to you back to sleep by effectively pushing the suicide button, because you get put back to sleep until someone else externally wakes you up again, which you have no power over. Because you can't wake yourself up, which is what the chapter about the death tarot cards about is someone who's really bored but doesn't trust anyone to actually wake them back up.

Karl:

Well, I am extremely amused that my what was it? It's prompt, prompt, two-sentence prompt inspired such a grand idea.

Richard:

Oh yeah. So like I've been like just diving down that rabbit hole where the short story for the one class won't make it into my masterwork, but it was a way for me to play around with the idea I might keep the captain because he amuses me. I just love the idea where it's like we need a few people to be awake for 20,000 years of misery and boredom. Do I get my books? Yes, sign me up.

Karl:

Well, the one line in your short story that stood out to me was the if I didn't know to look for a memory, why would I go look for it?

Richard:

Right.

Karl:

Because, like he doesn't even know if his memories are up there, just because he's never bothered to look, because he doesn't know to look for them.

Richard:

I also enjoy the idea that's like a super meta joke that I ended ambiguous if Carl survives at the end until anyone remembers what the Carl joke is.

Karl:

As soon as I ended ambiguous if Carl survives at the end until anyone remembers what the Carl joke is. As soon as I saw the name Carl in the short story, I was like aw man.

Richard:

I love the idea that in the context of the story it's ambiguous and you never know if he woke up, if he was in hell, if he died, but from the meta note she died. Obviously I'm a consistent troll, like the thing is. It's gonna be like 20 years from now. I'm gonna write like my Emmy award winning movie best piece of work. Completely seriously, it's gonna be like a 10 part movie series and the main character is gonna be named Carl and you're gonna know I'm gonna to know.

Karl:

It's going to be like an.

Richard:

Adventure Time thing where it's like everyone's rooting for this character for 10 books and you're like I know he's not making it through to the end.

Karl:

Alright, well so, more so. Where I was going with this question is firstly, obviously you really liked my second story idea, but my first story idea, the man who has his soul put into a toy that ends up being stolen and pawned to a small child.

Richard:

I'm kind of amusing that in a weird way yeah. So I'm literally calling the robot bodies, puppets, right and the humans dreamers. And you're putting your mind in these objects.

Karl:

So story two, the Lovers, kind of involves someone buying a robot with someone's consciousness in it yeah, yeah, okay so you see where that's going so I guess, um in, in, uh, the media that you consumed, uh would you say that is a fairly unique idea or fairly generic, or somewhere in the middle so I'm going to pull up your list of prompts because this is a fun episode topic.

Richard:

What device? Where did you send me these prompts? Did you text them? Did you text cool? Okay, so for the idea of a soul being put in a toy and then the child wants revenge and like the-.

Karl:

No, the toy wants revenge, but it puts the child in danger, and then he begins to contemplate whether or not he wants justice, revenge, or if he even seeks happiness.

Richard:

So it's kind of a subversion, because I've definitely seen the evil doll trope a few times, mm-hmm. Subversion because I've definitely seen the evil doll trope a few times. And like weirdly enough, I've also seen the Wants Revenge, but like I don't want to say Iron Giant because it didn't quite have that energy, but like if you were to be really abstract, toothless from how to Train your Dragon, becoming Friends of Hiccup and then not murdering the Vikings, like emotional themes are through, but the idea is pretty unique, the closest.

Richard:

I've gotten is like a few like, almost like. There's an episode of Futurama where he's trying to spook Fry to death and then realizes he can't go through with it because it's his best friend, and then they become Amish together, okay, and at one point he literally possesses a toy.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

So the energy's there. It's unique enough that like. So I was entertaining the ideas right. But when I got to number two I'm like, oh, that's good.

Karl:

So number two. I'm like, oh, that's good. Well, so number number two I, I like it as well, and I've talked to you before. I don't know if I ever mentioned it on this podcast, uh, but I, I have this idea that someone who's immortal, um, you have a finite amount of space in your brain for memory, and so eventually, you would forget that you had ever been born, to the point where you might not be sure that you ever were born, and you'd live entire lifetimes and forget about them.

Richard:

And that idea definitely worked its way into the idea, because I'm like all right, me and Carl had this conversation. Here's the pitch. Ooh, I'm going to do both of them. I'm going to put pineapple and banana peppers on this pizza. Heck, yeah. So the thing is, once I got to idea two, I'm not going to say I stopped reading the ideas, but I'm like, okay, that's a good one.

Richard:

But then we get to idea three Cat suddenly gained the ability to fly Military hires. A quirky cat whisperer to investigate and help mediate the chaos. That's a great kid's book or cartoon. That's a great kids book or cartoon like I love that.

Karl:

Well, see the the first two. The first one definitely is straight up about souls in inanimate objects. The second one is kind of toes that line, and then I was like I'm seeing a theme here. I should try to aim for the fences and go for something else so.

Richard:

So you're like, just you would just hit a home run out on that one. I'm like, yeah, no, if I was trying to write a kid's book or a seven minute film like I had to write a seven minute screenplay a while back as a class, that is a great spot for that.

Karl:

Yeah, okay.

Richard:

Especially like the visual of the military and just Miko grooming himself at this table.

Karl:

They're like we need your help Because in my brain, the cat whisperer was also a cat Just in like a military hat.

Richard:

So like if we were drawing a gag manga together, idea 3 would go right there with like we'd have psychic investigator, then we'd have military cat.

Karl:

Yeah, okay, that would be pretty great.

Richard:

And Idea 4 got poisoned by me recently going through Bleach because they announced that they're doing the Hell Arc, da-da-da-da-da, and I'm like Idea 4 is what would have happened if Ichigo's dad, who knew all of the plot, didn't wait six months to talk to Ichigo about it.

Richard:

Because the joke is like one of my favorite points in Bleach is actually and I've never seen another show do this is you always have like the teenage superpower and then the parents don't really like get involved or aren't drawn. Ichigo's dad is by far the best character in Bleach Because he gets called out as, like you know, your son's a soul reaper. Right, bleach, because he gets called out as, like you know, your son's a soul reaper, is like yeah, like father, like son, are you going to tell him or help him? Why would he do that? He's 16, he's got figure the shit out his own. He needs to fight demons on his own. Yeah, he's got this. I believe in my kids like that character is by far the best character in the show cuz like, wait, you couldn't. He could have just wedded, rescued rope rookie and properly succeeded, but that his son wouldn't have learned anything.

Karl:

So to read the prompt. Parents are confused when their adopted child awakens the family bloodline sorcery. I mean it does kind of have that Bleach-esque kind of bloodline and whatnot.

Richard:

So my brain went a couple directions with it, because I'm a weeb. The second one I went was like reverse my Hero Academia, where it's like my kid has a power but like, weirdly enough, the my kid has a power is less interesting Normal parents. Kid has a superpower is actually more played out than superpowered kids. Kid doesn't have a power, or kid awakens power and wasn't supposed to, I don't know.

Karl:

Like well, I see that's kind of the thing is kid awakens power it wasn't supposed to, and then the parents are like wait, like how is this? How is this possible, Did they? We accidentally adopted someone that was actually related to us.

Richard:

Oh you're prompted to was actually related to us. Oh, you prompted and explained the hook. I didn't catch that at all. So I got parents confused when their kid awakens the family bloodline. I missed the adopted part. I don't know how I didn't register. Oh, I get it now.

Karl:

Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, why does this?

Richard:

random child we adopted by coincidence have the same superpower as Nan-Nan. I see it. I see why that's funny, but also like it's weird, like would I do the twist that they just loved him so much that he got their superpowers?

Karl:

I don't know if that's a twist or not.

Richard:

So let's look at a weird example.

Karl:

I'm going a weird direction with this.

Richard:

So a lot of shows I like in the last I don't know, 20 years or so, especially cartoons and things have become more lgbtq plus ultra and something like let's go do to do. The dragon prince did this a little bit but like a lot of fan art will have like a same-sex pairing and draw their kid with a combination of the two kids' traits.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

And if a show does that and it's a kid's show, you don't really think about it. It's like oh yeah, sure why not Because like. I think, about the Fire Emblem game, where you paired off the parents to make kids.

Richard:

And if you paired off two characters of the same gender and a kid with had the hair and eyes of the two parents, you wouldn't actually think too much about it. Weirdly, I find a lot of times if you're like soft serving it, people aren't going to get super outraged, they're just going to be like huh and not really think it too much.

Richard:

So like if you had a fire bender and a water bender and the kid was a steam bender and you're like the firebender and a waterbender and the kid was a steam bender and you're like the kid was adopted, part of me is like okay, but like did they just love them so much they got the characteristics? Do I go wholesome for this?

Karl:

so that idea didn't like click the first time I read it, which might be part of the problem well, I mean, I guess that's fair, that that one was a fairly, fairly short prompt, like it's a single sentence, as opposed to the two that the other ones get.

Richard:

I think if you broke it into two sentences it would have got me better. Parents are confused when their child awakens to bloodline sorcery because they adopted him. I think if you broke it into two ideas I would have caught it. Remember, this is a me thing. I just didn't catch that Because speed reading sometimes will miss a word. And then idea five ties too much into our big project and I'm like yeah, I'm going to do the big project. I'm just going to actually work on the big project.

Karl:

Fair enough.

Richard:

Which there's no reason. I couldn't have just wrote a chapter independently to use in a bigger project and had him for assignment right but I was like I was vibing on, like that sweet spot between one and two and our conversation about memories but I did like mentally script out the cat whisperer one a bit especially like.

Richard:

I love the idea that a regular cat because the flying cats in this one just grew wings and they're like having a turf war and this cat's training these military generals how to communicate to cats and it's like laser pointers ready.

Karl:

Oh yeah, that would be so much fun.

Richard:

You have to be super deadly serious if it's just there's flying cats. It's like we remember the day the cats could fly. We used to put things up on the top shelf, no more. We used to be able to keep the cats contained. And then there's like the visual of a cat swooping through the air and eating a pigeon.

Karl:

Yeah, I did ask one of my friends at work what they think would happen if cats could fly, and then there's like the visual of a cat swooping through the air and eating a pigeon.

Richard:

Yeah, I did ask one of my friends at work what they think would happen if cats could fly and they're like, oh yeah, there'd be less birds.

Richard:

Well, not just that, you'd be looking out the window of your airplane and there'd just be a cat grooming themselves, because cats already just go everywhere, so you take the most fearless animal on the planet who will just slap a bear and you give them three-dimensional mobility higher than they already have, cats would just be at the most absurd places On a completely different note. So I quoted South Park in class yesterday and tried to play it off like it was an actual thing.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

So there's a joke in South Park that tragedy becomes comedy in 22.3 years. Okay, so there's a joke in South Park that tragedy becomes comedy in 22.3 years.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

In class we were talking about publishing current events and the pros and cons of like, say, if you wrote a COVID novel last year or you're trying to get out a Donald Trump novel this year or wrote a novel about Canadian wildfires this year or something the pros and the cons of it about Canadian wildfires this year or something the pros and the cons of it. So I quote that number where it's like 22.3 years, and then you can put out your 9-11 movie and novel and people won't lose their minds.

Karl:

Right.

Richard:

Which literally happened last year. People put out a 9-11 movie, right, and it was no longer considered in terrible taste. And the thing is the prof's like, yeah, that actually makes sense. You wait about 20 years and that's when a lot of these things happen. I'm like, oh no, I just added intellectual credibility to South Park.

Karl:

That was never my goal in life. Well, south Park is one of those fascinating shows where, between all the fart and poop jokes, there actually is some intelligent political commentary. Oh, it's so cursed or social commentary.

Richard:

But that's my follow-up to you is how long would you say before you can write about something tragic and like just put it for sale? Like how long would you think you'd wait before you say like did a? I don't know, I'm not going to touch the big one right now, so I'm going to go with COVID. How long would you wait for a COVID novel called my Time in the Pandemic or something?

Karl:

Well, I mean, there's two sides to that coin. You can post it when it's fresh so that people get this visceral reaction to what happened and your take on it. You get this visceral reaction to what happened and your take on it, which you are likely to receive some criticism if you portray the situation contrary to the narrative. But I would say roughly 20 years, that's enough time for people to have been born and becoming young adults, adults where they don't actually have first-hand knowledge of what happened.

Richard:

And that's kind of my theory. It's like you're at the part where an event that shapes your parents you're now getting old enough that you can comprehend it.

Karl:

Exactly. So you know, waiting that 20 years is probably.

Richard:

I mean, South Park is oddly specific, saying 22.3,3, but I'm sure it was a reference to something like I'm sure it was a very specific like yeah, that's when godzilla came out in north america and we could be like, oh, japan maybe like I'm sure they made that quip deliberately referring to something awful and I should not look into it, but also like when you put out something too, especially with like how good people are digging into people's back stories now could you imagine?

Richard:

if 20 years ago, you put out a book that said my Pal, bill Cosby. So, like I'm like no, I would never want my publishing house to be trying to stay on top of current topical things. Because I'm like no, I would never want my publishing house to be trying to stay on top of current topical things Because I'm like no. And also, trend chasing is how you end up with 500 reborn in another world series.

Karl:

Yeah, but you know, solo leveling is the best anime ever.

Richard:

Our viewer count literally went down when you said that Just straight up. I think you made a person leave. That's funny. They're like no, I'm not even going to entertain that as a joke, which is fair. Well, what's funny is I make the quip all the time that, like most things in Show and Jump, try to aim for whatever the most successful thing was and try and rip it off.

Karl:

Right.

Richard:

That's why everything in show and jump is bleach actually I think everything in show and jump just is actually trying to be jujitsu kaizen or attack on titan right now ah, yeah, okay like it's like I made the quip that they have a lot of plot theme structural similarity to bleach, but I thought, more about it.

Richard:

I'm like no, I think, think it's Attack on Titan. They're all trying to be Like Jujutsu Kaisen is trying to not necessarily capture the setting of Attack on Titan, but like the ugly drawings, the people being bitten in half, the shock value, Like you look at Chainsaw man, you look at Kagebuchi and you look at a few other ones. You're like yeah, no, they're aiming for Attack on Titan, I think, Mixed with Bleach to make it show and jump enough.

Karl:

Right.

Richard:

Maybe I could be reading into that too much.

Karl:

Right, kagurabachi, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I thought you were talking about the monthly series. Which one is it? Gokur ragukai? I will say though part of why I've really been vibing on psychic cop is I'm like that feels like a throwback like 70 years back, like I feel like I'm reading something from like Akira Toriyama's generation with that one it definitely feels fresh now that it's been some time, like the other kind of lighthearted one that they have going on right now is Roboco and bleh.

Richard:

But also to loop back to like one of your prompts. Is your prompt made me think of Ruri Dragon. Actually, which one? Your adopted kid just wakes up with family bloodline sorcery If you don't go from the adopt. It's like, yeah, no, my kid just woke up with dragon powers and I guess I need to deal with that, whereas like yeah, no, we're not. This has no battles. This is kid goes through puberty and he gets dragon powers. I'm like I can, I can vibe on that. That's amusing.

Karl:

Yeah, I. I do really like Ruri dragon. That's a. I still think it's funny.

Richard:

You missed the adopted part of that prompt, but I say I read quickly in a lot, not that I read accurately, but yeah, I definitely bit at some of the prompts. So that's why I'm working on my big sci-fi piece and I really like the idea where I'm like yeah, each chapter is named after one of the arcana cards from the tarot deck, so that way it's telling the story of not a character but the ship going through the tarot journey, and the last tarot card is the world, which will be the chapter when the ship arrives.

Karl:

That's clever.

Richard:

Right, I was feeling like, is it a little on the cheesy side, maybe, but I felt really smug. I'll probably end up calling the ship the Arcana, because then it's the Arcana voyages across the stars towards the center of the Milky Way in its 20,000 light year journey.

Karl:

Oh, there's someone. Oh, that was just uh.

Richard:

But yeah, that's so. What do you think of my idea for, like my sci-fi novel? And to loop around a bit, because I did actually have a question that was going with this Part, of my assignment is to read three novels for inspiration and write a paper on those various novels.

Richard:

Do you have any novel or movie or game suggestions? After I gave the monologue about what I want my masterwork project to be? So far, my reading list consists of the Foundation by Isaac Asimov and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, because it's an excuse to read that again.

Karl:

Well, I mean Foundation was pretty high up on my list.

Richard:

Oh, have you read it?

Karl:

I don't know. It's a part of a series of books. I think my dad has a physical library of sci-fi books.

Richard:

Because Apple TV put up an adaptation for the Foundation that was really good Like really good, I have considered watching it. You should watch it. It's like you know how Dune was the best Star Wars. Dune was the best Star Wars Episode 4. The Foundation is the best Star Wars. Dune was the best Star Wars.

Karl:

Episode 4. The Foundation is the best. Star Wars Episode 2. Okay, that makes sense.

Richard:

I also consider Dune, but I'm like, oh man, dune is so much, but what I'm really looking for is someone else doing the whole standalone complex of using the one-shot stories to tell an overarching story. Marvel, if did that, where you could watch each episode in a vacuum and then they all came together in the last episode well, um, I I don't know that many short stories, unfortunately, like well, I'm reading a full-ass novel, so well, I'm just saying most of the anthologies that I've read, they they are not sci-fi.

Richard:

I mean it doesn't have to be sci-fi for me to take information from to. Alucard didn't eat its soul.

Karl:

Well, I mean more to the point. The last short story anthology that I read was called A Bird in the House and it was a coming ofage story about a young girl and she lived with her grandma and stuff. And then there was a bunch of short stories as she got older, Different perspectives from different people in her life and whatnot, and it was a pretty good anthology. I read it for an English class at university but I don't really know if it has much you could take from it.

Richard:

Because, yeah, as a challenge to myself is where's the sounds? I'm trying to be more literary with it. So like I want to write a novel this time around that if it doesn't have a single fight sequence in it, it'll still be good, I may end up adding those in later, but I'm trying to swing the other direction for a bit. I'd rather do more Spice and Wolf and less Reborn as a Slime in Another World.

Karl:

I'll have to get back to you on a reading list. One of the things that I dislike about my own personal memory is that I read a lot of stuff and I watch a lot of stuff. That I dislike about my own personal memory is that, like, I read a lot of stuff and I watch a lot of stuff, but I'm really terrible with names and actors and it's just like, oh, you know, I don't know if I've read that series and then I read it. It's like, oh yeah, I've definitely read this before that's fair.

Richard:

it's ironic, though, like I can't think of any manga that have actually done what I'm talking about, of like let's have a bunch of different vignettes in the same setting, because, like they're more likely to do like here's my one big series and like eight side stories.

Karl:

I mean, I do really enjoy the Kaiju no 8 B-side.

Richard:

True, but also Kaiju no 8's just really good. The kaiju number eight b side, true, but also kaiju number eight's just really good. Like kaiju number eight has that unique sweet spot of most of it's not trying to be anything like I can't just be like, oh, it's trying to be x, y or z because, like the moment the protagonist is a 33 organ vacuumer. I like that already is enough to change any show. If you replace any show-and-jump protagonist with Kefka, it changes the show so much it's ridiculous. If you replace Gon with a 33-year-old vacuum cleaner taking the show in Hunter Exam, it suddenly gets so much better.

Karl:

Hunter Hunter following.

Richard:

Leroy.

Karl:

The entire time would just be a better show I mean, I think that part of that is your perspective, now that you relate more to characters in our age group firmly disagree.

Richard:

Oh so some of my favorite things of all time have always had the older protagonists, but it's like it fell out of fashion, almost Like Ghost in the Shell, Berserk Escaflowne, to a certain extent Like even Inuasha, the character Inuasha is an adult.

Karl:

Kind of.

Richard:

He's in a quantum state. Every Gundam ever. Even though the main character's like 20, well, like 18, they don't feel like the show-and-jump children. They feel older and like if I was watching, say gundam wing, and they're like, yeah, these are all 20 year old or like 18 year olds. I'm like dude, just shot a man in a face and rolled down a hill. Just he could be 20 or 30.

Richard:

It'd be fine, like if you aged up every character in every gundam series by a decade. It wouldn't change a single line of text. Uh, that's my mini rant. Is that? Yeah, no, a lot of like Helsing was fantastic.

Karl:

Fair enough, fair enough.

Richard:

Witch Hunter, Robin. Adults with real jobs.

Karl:

I'm just saying some of the top tier stuff always had actual adults in it.

Richard:

What do you think?

Karl:

about Kill Blue. Huh, what do you think about Kill Blue, the Shonen Jump series About the aged down hitman who occasionally ages back up when the plot requires it?

Richard:

So, first off, it's Detective Conan, but an assassin. I just want to get that off the record. It took me a long time to realize that. Okay, like an embarrassingly long time. So it's funny because I like it. If it wasn't an anime, because I like it if it wasn't an anime, if this premise was an American cartoon, it'd be great. But anime likes to sexualize everything.

Richard:

And he's like I'm going to be a parental figure and an adult in this teenage body drawn anime style. I'm like. You are one step at all times from being deleted forever.

Karl:

You are so close to being counseled.

Richard:

But like if it was drawn in, say the style of I don't know.

Karl:

The Last Airbender.

Richard:

Yeah, then suddenly, like it would take the creep factor out almost completely. Sorry, anime, I give you a lot of shout outs and a lot of recommendations, but you're not the right genre for him. Aged down and spending time with teenagers because, okay, the protagonist is great. It's kind of like if sakamoto days actually followed sakamoto's days, it would have been amazing, but they felt the need to fat shame him and write him out of his show.

Karl:

He did basically get written out of his own show. But, yeah, as a general rule, I prefer anime with older characters.

Richard:

Yeah, okay, and I think me getting older really didn't change that. You're right, it probably, like I would say, it changed my opinion but also. So they recently did a re-release of Bartender and Spice and Wolf.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

Those came out about 10 years ago. Each Bartender about a bartender. Great manga, spice and Wolf, about a spice merchant and his wolf goddess girlfriend trying to stop a silver trade scam. They were still my favorite a decade ago. That's why I'm stoked they got remade. So that's me standing up for like no no, my tastes haven't changed. I've just been given a lot of garbage over the years.

Karl:

I mean that's true. We have made a comment in the past about how there's been so much garbage that our standards have to recalibrate, basically.

Richard:

But also there has been good things too. You just have to look for them. And with that, on to our random question list Sing the random question song as I look for them. And with that on to our random question list Sing the random question song as I look for the list.

Karl:

It's a random question time. Time for a random question.

Richard:

That was beautiful. You didn't hear the background music but piano started playing as you did that, okay. Okay, if you were on the contest For Miss Canada Contest Pageant, what would your talent be For the talent comp proportion?

Karl:

Well, okay, does it have to be a real talent, or can I just be like I want to choose this talent.

Richard:

I'm going to let you choose it. I mean we already have Carl want to choose this talent. I'm going to let you choose it. I mean we already have Carl about to win Miss Canada.

Karl:

so Well, I mean, I really would like to be able to juggle chainsaws. I think that would be fun.

Richard:

Amazing. What would your'd?

Karl:

be fun, amazing. What would your talent be there, richard?

Richard:

So my instinct is like nothing would make a beauty pageant more interesting than if I just boxed a bear on stage. So I'm going to go with takes down a bear with my bear knuckles on stage. Just fights a bear.

Richard:

Well, yeah, but I mean, you can't get a single blemish on your dress while doing it, otherwise you just no, no, like the thing is, I want it to be like I'm covered in blood, like a seed out of Baki, but they just watched me fight a bear on live TV who'd committed tax fraud. This was a bad bear. He deserves this, clearly.

Karl:

Tax fraud, evade, tax evading bear.

Richard:

It's like this bear was Trump's defense attorney. Ah, I see, because in retrospect, if I just beat a bear to death, I'd be like that was cruel to the bear. No, this bear is a jerk. I need this on the record. This bear, personally, is an asshole.

Karl:

He did something.

Richard:

He did something to deserve it. And our second question I think we've had this one actually. Have we had the? Who would you add to Mount Rushmore? Yeah, because we would have added the Rock. Right Ah here we go. Here's a different, new one. What was your favorite television network?

Karl:

What was my favorite television network?

Richard:

Or could still be. Is You're in Saskatchewan? It's possible, but if you say Disney+. I need to be clear that they do not sponsor our content.

Karl:

No, when I was younger, I really liked the Family Channel, because they didn't have any commercials for anything besides the Family Channel. I think it became the Disney channel, though so maybe I don't know if it got bought out or or if it was always a Disney channel or but.

Richard:

Well, I was such a big fan of the sci-fi network episodes of Stargate and Relic. Hunter and like I kind of miss just throwing on TV and be like here's something new I've would never be exposed to normally. B plus sci-fi is like one of my favorite things to just casually absorb.

Karl:

B plus sci-fi.

Richard:

Yeah, a plus sci-fi, less so. Oh, like if your sci-fi is polished to the point of a Marvel movie eh. I want people riding sandworms and drinking blue juice and then turning into sandworm-human hybrids to rule over. I want wack riding sandworms and drinking blue juice and then turning into sad worm human hybrids to rule over. I want wackadoodle ideas I don't want, like global warming is killing us, but in the near future we have solar roadways. Like no, no, no, Bring on the people riding pterodactyls that have four wings that somehow fly.

Richard:

Okay, bring on the sentient crystal monsters that, when you touch it, specifically turn into your child to have you relive your trauma. Bring on Merlin from Arthurian mythology being an alien scientist from a portal from another world and the Holy Grail being a laser weapon. I want wackadoodle sci-fi done competently.

Karl:

Yeah, okay, so like did you enjoy the Expanse?

Richard:

Yes, but it got close to being dry. The Expanse is a weird one where, like I would have enjoyed the Expanse more without aliens.

Karl:

Yeah, okay.

Richard:

Because, like, oh man, they had like a lot going for it, but it got close to Game of Thrones-ing it for me. If Because like oh man, they had like a lot going for it, but it got close to Game of Thrones-ing it for me. If the Expanse didn't have Amos in there to add some levity, it would have been game over.

Karl:

Okay.

Richard:

Yeah, like if the characters weren't the scrappy underdogs that have a bit of humor to them. It needed that. Also, the main villain looks suspiciously like Justin Trudeau. That Also, the main villain looks suspiciously like Justin Trudeau. I'm trying to remember his name. He was the terrorist leader and they stole all the spaceships and missiles and he just looks suspiciously like evil Justin Trudeau. And I don't know why, but I could unsee it.

Richard:

It was really funny that is pretty funny, but also, I'm not as much of a psychopath to be like yeah the expense. The expense was mid. No, the expense was good, it was A plus sci-fi. I just personally, sometimes I'm more inspired by B plus sci-fi because my brain likes taking a sub par idea and then working with it till it's good.

Richard:

So, like the reason things like Bleach, naruto, shinpuden, siren rattle around in my brain is I'm like missed potential, like I can think about bleach. I'm like I can't believe you didn't give every captain a bankai. Are you kidding me? Or like how would this put yourself into someone's backstory?

Karl:

sword even work or what do you mean?

Richard:

a stand to make zippers that can punch through pocket dimensions to other zippers like those ideas aren't fleshed out enough to actually function and they capture my imagination because of it. Or if you do something like Uzumaki, which is just good, I don't really have a ton to be like huh, because it was just good and complete and is done and was great.

Karl:

Mmm Uzumaki was great.

Richard:

And like Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer's, like yeah Was good, Should read 10 out of 10.

Karl:

But it doesn't actually capture your imagination.

Richard:

It's hard to dissect something that's really good. Fullmetal Alchemist is a rare exception because they did such good world building.

Karl:

Right right.

Richard:

But you'll notice, it's easier for us to do an episode on I don't know Robococo than Fullmetal Alchemist, which is ironic, because Fullmetal Alchemist is just really good. That's why we don't review AAA game titles on here. We're not going to be like let's talk for an hour about everything breath of the wild did. Right, that's not, that's not my aesthetic. Let's talk about everything that orcarina time did better than breath of the wild.

Karl:

Yeah, I'm a rebel, maybe I actually don't know what side of that debate would make you the rebel, but what side indeed?

Richard:

and with that let's wrap up this week's episode. So takeaways your prompts were entertaining. Fluffy cheesecakes are delicious, and 22.3 years until something bad happening to me becomes funny. I am so close to being able to joke about my dad's death uh, I mean, haven't you already done that though? Yeah, but it could still be in poor taste.

Karl:

I suppose. I guess it would definitely be in poor taste for someone else to joke about your dad's death.

Richard:

Exactly Like if you were to be like you know what's funny that your dad died. I'd be like Carl, really You're right, but like wow, sometimes I forget. I mean, actually to be fair, I would probably I personally would drop on the floor laughing. If you're like, start listing characters, like yeah, I've noticed all my favorite characters have dead dads, like Naruto and Luffy and Richard and yeah, but wait what?

Richard:

that would be pretty funny good stuff, but thank you everybody for tuning in. We've added a button where you can submit your random questions through most apps and things. It's pretty awesome and yeah, I don't know, I have a book and when you buy it it makes me happy. When you listen to my podcast, which is available where podcasts are had and also on YouTube, makes me happy, and we do look at some of these stats to see where people are from. Because what makes me really happy is being like someone downloaded it where, like, we got some weird listenership. When I hear like oh yeah, someone in Athens is listening, I'm like that abuses me to no end.

Karl:

That is extremely amusing.

Richard:

So, instead of praying to Hades, pray to us Bye Bye. Maybe don't tell people to pray to Hades. Pray to us Bye Bye. Maybe don't tell people to pray to Hades. I don't know where I was going with that. Like Hades is topical, I don't know.