Deep Space and Dragons
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Deep Space and Dragons
Episode 83: Unpacking Deadpool's & Wolverine, it was less a movie and more an experience?
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Magic: The Gathering enthusiasts, ever wonder what it’s like to hunt down that elusive card? Join us as Karl dives into the intricate world of Magic with his “only goblins” deck, embarking on a thrilling hunt for a specific uncommon goblin card from the Lost Caverns of Ixalan set. His girlfriend tags along, turning card-hunting into a shared adventure filled with excitement and unexpected turns. Meanwhile, Richard gets creative with Amazon's KDP, printing a mock magazine and discovering the efficiencies of modern digital printing. Tune in to uncover the ins and outs of Magic’s product releases and the fascinating logistics of today's digital printing landscape.
Ever pondered the artistry behind bookbinding or debated the quirkiest Pokémon gym themes? We’ve got you covered! Our discussion meanders through the nuances of book presentation, from practical design choices to the rebinding of old treasures. We even take a whimsical detour into Pokémon territory, imagining Edmonton as a gym themed around oil and hockey. Adding to the fun, we take a critical lens to the latest Deadpool and Wolverine film, dissecting its over-reliance on cameos and CGI, and pondering how it could have thrived with a rom-com structure.
Get ready for some entertaining critiques and hilarious debates! We explore the intricacies of CGI in fight scenes, lamenting how it sometimes detracts from the action, and highlight the potential of more grounded choreography. Anime fans, don’t miss our light-hearted analysis of favorite couples and their quirks. From the complexities of modern cinema to the importance of self-care and humor, this episode of "Deep Space and Dragons" promises a blend of insightful commentary and delightful banter. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and enjoy the ride!
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Welcome to Richard and Carl present Deep Space and Dragons. We have deep space and maybe a dragon or two. I'm Richard, the person who wishes he had a dragon or two.
Speaker 2:I am Carl. I mean, maybe I already have a dragon or two, who knows.
Speaker 1:Maybe, so what's new in the Carl-verse?
Speaker 2:Right, right. So I mean, I like to talk about magic a lot.
Speaker 1:What no the? Best part is when you talk about magic and a few of our really dedicated fans will be like, oh wow, this amateur.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I don't know if I've talked about my only goblins deck on stream before. Probably have.
Speaker 1:Statistically you definitely have.
Speaker 2:But I mean it's a deck where every card in the deck besides lands is only goblins. But a lot of goblins care about artifacts and whatnot, and so it's like they don't really have synergy in a deck that's only goblins, because there are like two goblin artifacts, I think. Anyways. So I mean I built this deck and then I'm like, okay, this is the peak of what it'll ever be. They'll never print goblins that are actually worthwhile to be in my deck, or so I thought. Every now and then I check in and suddenly it's like wait a second, this goblin actually is worthy of being in my only goblins deck, and one of the goblins they printed happened to be from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and it's an uncommon. It's worth about a dollar, but none of my local game stores carry the single. They just don't have it.
Speaker 1:Because it is weirdly specific.
Speaker 2:It is weirdly specific, but um so uh, the uh is weirdly specific, uh, but um so uh, the uh. I decided that I would uh instead try and see if they still had packs from last lost caverns of exelon. Uh, because it's a set that came out last year already. Um, and magic more wizards in general has just been pumping out so much content that it's like almost impossible to keep up. That's a topic for another episode. But I'm surprised, actually, even London Drugs actually still had some draft packs of Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
Speaker 2:So I was going on I've lost Cameron Zivic's salon. Um so uh, I uh was going on out and about with my girlfriend and then, you know, I just randomly stopped at this game store and she's like, oh, what are you doing? It's like, oh, I'm buying packs to try and get this card. And she's like, oh well, you should buy lots of packs. And so it's like I think we bought like 12 packs, not all draft packs, some of them were set boosters, which apparently have fewer cards but better odds of getting rarity rather than rare cards.
Speaker 1:I hate that nonsense Like it'll take the entire episode if I start talking about their Magic, the Gathering's new distribution strategy of making deliberately cooler cards and putting them in more expensive packs and then having less cool cards. It's a whole thing. And they're like hey, you want this cool squirrel, Illyana $30 to try and gamble for one? I'm like, guys, you're already a Fortune 500 company, you can chill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean again kind of a topic for another episode, but it's like the number of sets that they've released and the number of different products for each set. It's like I went to the store I'm like, hey, do you have any lost caverns of exelon? And they're like, well, what do you want? The set booster or draft booster? And I'm like, uh, which one's better? Getting me an uncommon? And they're like, well, we don't actually know. Yep, the game store doesn't even know what's in these freaking packs anyways. Uh, I didn't end up getting the common I was looking for, but apparently I don't know the card I was looking for. But apparently there were other goblins in the set that were actually worthwhile putting in, because I had a few garbage goblins, I guess. And what's actually new out of the whole thing is that my girlfriend has agreed to let me buy she said four packs per month, which I mean she doesn't know what she's getting herself into if I go for the collector boosters.
Speaker 1:It's like, yeah, four packs. By that you mean commander decks, nice Good deal.
Speaker 2:She wants me to spend enough money on magic cards that she can justify getting a second kitty. So I gotta be careful.
Speaker 1:There's no good strategies here for anyone involved. That's just insane. I'd make a quip about being free to spend my money how I see fit, but that would involve me having money.
Speaker 2:So what's new with you there, Richard?
Speaker 1:So I'm finishing up the semester so I like, just as a flex, we had to make a mock magazine, so I printed, through KDP, five copies of the physical magazine. It's like, yeah, no, these are just print quality.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Because it's like, ironically enough so it's two bucks for me to print an author copy off Amazon A little less than that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Now, if I were to go to Staples and try and print off a hundred page book, it would cost me more than $2. That's definitely true. And they're not going to bind it, glue it and make it like an actual physical book. I would have to then use a stapler in hatred. So I've hit this weird point where it's like because I'm best-selling on Amazon, da-da-da-da-da, so they speed-pass anything I try and submit. If I put something on KDP like a singular thing and say I put it on on a Thursday, I will receive it printed as a physical book, because the printer's like only 30 minutes away from me within two or three days.
Speaker 1:So I'm in this weird paradox where having Amazon print me a paperback novel in the same quality of an Amazon paperback novel is more efficient than going to Staples or going to the campus and printing it. Somehow it is easier for me to print off this magazine I made for class as though it were a real book because I'm used to making real products than to just print it on printer paper and staple it. Paper and staple it Because I have all my templates set up, like 5.5 by 8.5, 0.3 inch margins, 11.5. I have all of this good to go. So it's actually more tedious to not do it. Professional grade, Because it's like I know how to do it professional really well. I have all my templates set up for that. But if you want me to print it on an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper and one page on each side of the paper and then staple them in the middle, that would take more work.
Speaker 2:So how did your plebeian classmates react to your awesome magazine?
Speaker 1:I find out on Thursday, weirdly enough, because authors and hipsters, if you made a Venn diagram, it'd be a Kirby. We'll be like, yeah, he printed it and sure it's professional quality and could be for sale in a bookstore, but he didn't use a thread and a needle to make a homemade chapbook with love, so I don't know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah the chapbooks.
Speaker 1:So it's like that situation where they value artisan more than most sensible demographics and making it correctly, and I do say that emphatically correctly is less valued than making it artistically.
Speaker 1:And yes, there is a correct way to print books. That's just objectively true. You can be fancy with it. You can choose different pulp, different paper, different quality. But yeah, there is a. You expect certain things when you buy a book. So if you make a book, you're like, ooh, to be fancy. Instead of text on the spine, I'm going to go with lightning bolts. That's not making anyone happy. Who has to then stock and shelf that book?
Speaker 1:It's like I literally chose the paper trim size on this magazine so it'd be thick enough for them to print the title of the magazine on the spine. So I physically made it less width and length so it'd be more pages. So I'd hit that minimum threshold for a spine. And I don't think any amount of love is really more useful to a bookseller than it actually being able to go on your shelf. But it depends right, because if you have like an Etsy shop or a market is really more useful to a bookseller than it actually being able to go on your shelf. But it depends right, Because if you have like an Etsy shop or a market and you're selling your books to order, that's a great endeavor. I'm not being like don't make artsy books. I'm more saying that professional grade means nothing in the environment. I'm in.
Speaker 1:That's pretty funny, like I can literally roll in and be like this is my paper about book sales. That I know because I looked at my sales analytics and they'll be like what does the textbook say? I'm like the textbook is 30 years out of date and KDP didn't exist, although I did get called out at a recent assignment where they're like 80.2. It's like I know you can do better. This was rushed and wooden. I'm like, yeah, you're right, that's was rushed in wooden. I'm like, yeah, you're right, that's funny. Just like nice try. I'm like, yeah, you caught me. So what's new with me was printing these magazines for our little chapbook book fair on thursday and, like I said, I'll definitely. If this was a business program I'd win. But because it's an art program, people probably people are no longer impressed with me. Like that, just it's kind of program. People are no longer impressed with me.
Speaker 2:It's kind of expected. I just overkill everything so like did everybody have to make five copies of their magazine.
Speaker 1:Yes. So a bunch of people probably printed off the cover in craft paper, used a needle and thread to stitch the binding down the middle, trimmed it and like, made some very pretty artisan books and you definitely can make five books consistently nice.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:And I mean realistically, if I wasn't like optimized, then printing it off the printer, hole punching it and like spiral binding, it is a completely legitimate tactic.
Speaker 2:Fair.
Speaker 1:I just find it funny because it's like I don't even think I'm going to get an offhand comment about the fact that I did this anymore Because I've just kind of raised my expectations of me a little too high.
Speaker 2:Okay, so sort of on topic question. My girlfriend's parents moved to Edmonton and they purged a bunch of stuff, and some of the stuff that they purged we took in Because you know can't look good stuff.
Speaker 1:Would Edmonton be the poison type gym or the fire type gym type gym? Because I feel like if your hockey team is the Oilers and you chose that name, I just feel like it's a place with Ekans and Coffins chilling. It just seems like that's the vibes they're deliberately going for.
Speaker 2:I was going to make a too soon joke, but I'm not going there. Anyways, one of the things that they gave me was well, they gave us was a rather large collection of books, a lot of Stephen King, dean Kuhn, robert Patterson.
Speaker 1:I kind of wonder, statistically, if you just handed a stack of books, the odds of a Stephen King one being in there, just for how many books he's put out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a Stephen King book available at Costco right now.
Speaker 1:Of course there is the weird part would be if there was only one.
Speaker 2:Anyways, one of the books that it gave me is a. Well, actually there's two books. One of them is about medicine, or two books. One of them is about medicine or something and one of them is Treasure Island, and they're probably 75-ish years old. They belonged to her dad's grandpa or something like that. Anyways, the point of the matter is that the binding has long fallen off and I have the whole book, but it's kind of in the little segments and it needs to be rebound, and I'm just wondering if you know where one would go to get a book rebound.
Speaker 1:So you have three options for rebinding a book. Option the first they do sell book binding kits which consists of, like your card stock, your glue, and effectively, what you would do is you take your pages, run them through a sewing machine. If you have a strong enough one along the edge, glue it and then fold the cardboard around. And these bookbinding kits have most of the things you would need, because a lot of people will like make their own artisan rebound books.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like they'll be like oh, I'm going to put a fancier cover on Harry Potter. What have you? So rebookbinding it yourself is like a $30 investment. Okay, like a $30 investment. Okay. Second, small presses that make their own books would be able to, but I don't know if they'd be willing to Like in Ontario.
Speaker 2:Coach.
Speaker 1:House Books does their own in-house book binding, so logically they'd be able to. But they're usually using their book binding equipment to bind books. So I don't know if you could just roll up and be like hey, want to bind this book Because on one hand, a lot of these small presses only have two or three people working there so if it, was like richard and carl's deep space and books we would probably rebind a book of a stranger who walked in on the street.
Speaker 1:It's like, can you rebind this book? We'd be like, yeah, 20 bucks, just because that's our vibes as people. So the first option is self-bookbinding kit. Second option is literally Googling small presses in Saskatchewan, like I believe there's. I have to look this up.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I was just thinking about trying to check out a used bookstore.
Speaker 1:So there's Thistledown Press, I think has their own equipment, which is somewhere in Saskatoon.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So like odds are if you go to a small book printer are not zero because like, what are they going to be? Like? I hate your books.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, it's an old book, so maybe they'll be like oh yeah, this is a great edition of Treasure Island and we'll restore it for you. Yeah, this is a great addition of Treasure Island.
Speaker 1:and we'll restore it for you, so it's quite possible. But I've also never stopped and thought, because there is also straight-up bookbinders. They're a place that exists.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. So you could literally look for a bookb, and usually they're like 150 bucks oof because, like, but then then I would actually be able to read this ancient copy of of treasure island right, because home book binding it is literally the thin coat of archival glue and putting the cover on and the cover literally just cardstock printed, will do the trick.
Speaker 1:So it really depends how much you want to go because, like, if you go to somewhere like grim's book bindery they will literally bind your book because that's what they do and there's definitely online places where you can send them in.
Speaker 1:But like it's such a how can I put this Niche thing that they don't even like be. Like, here's how much we charge per book, because it's like such a custom order and I honestly don't know how much they would charge for a singular book, for Grimm's Book Bar, on Endury or something of that nature, I see. But yeah, those are something of that nature, I see. But yeah, those are definitely things that exist. Weirdly enough, because of who you are as a person, I think you would enjoy the $20 book binding kit, making up a new cover and binding it yourself. That just seems like the kind of thing you would do to say you've done.
Speaker 2:It does seem like a me thing to do. You would never finish writing the book but yeah, I also don't want to like ruin the book.
Speaker 1:Well, you start with a worse book. You buy the kit, you rip the cover off a waltz of blades or something, put a custom cover on it and then, once they're comfortable, you use it on your valuable treasure island book. That is by far the best plug I've ever made. Buy my novel if you need something to practice bookbinding on, because I won't take it personally. I don't even. I'm not even being a jerk about it. I legitimately mean it. But yeah, Prairie Book Repair is an actual place, so you could just go to Prairie.
Speaker 1:Book Repair in Saskatoon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. I'll also check them out.
Speaker 1:And I feel like they'll probably charge you like somewhere between 20 and 50 bucks, because it is a pain to do manually, but also it'll be cool.
Speaker 2:It will be cool.
Speaker 1:I do really enjoy the idea of you just sending me photos of my butchered book with a big smile as you're attempting to figure out how to bookbind. Posts a new review on the book Four stars. Stars was great for cutting apart and putting back together to practice my book binding skills.
Speaker 1:No idea what the words mean, though no idea I mean really talk, though like part of why I throw so much shade at unintentionally about the like artisan crafted books is due to my disability I just can't. It's just like, yeah, no, I'd love to just be able to build a book from paper and stitch a thread, but instead I guess I'll just industrially produce it well, I mean, yeah, it's efficient and, as you say, I mean it has inherent value of like meeting the standards required for sale on a bookshelf, like you say.
Speaker 1:Well, like, for example, formatting my manuscript in InDesign to print the magazine is what an actual publishing house requires you to be able to do on the application. So it's just kind of funny because I'll be like, hey guys, who wants to learn how to do this industry standard book thing? To complete disinterest, it's like no, we're going to make it with love and we're having a crafting party. That's awesome. And I'm like OK, if you guys don't want to learn the skill trade skill for the field of interest you're trained for, I'll just go practice by myself. Then it's weird because, like, my program is not an art degree but 80% of people are there like it's an art degree and it's the weirdest thing, because they'll be like oh, oh yeah, what I really want to do is be in an indie bookstore with a cafe like Aziraphale and good omens, and it'll be great, and I'm like cool, I need to pay rent. It's not that I'm a sellout, I'm just not well, I just believe I get joy out of being useful.
Speaker 1:That makes sense, my logic has always been if the text is good, people will read it, and the book just should be more functional than artistic. You know, like when people use fancy fonts I'm like no, no, no, people with dyslexia can't read that. Just use Canva Sans. Like what are you guys doing?
Speaker 2:I have thought about trying to make my own font based on my handwriting, carl.
Speaker 1:Sans Sarah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then if somebody copies my work, I can be like hey, you didn't change the font, so I know that's mine.
Speaker 1:Where I'm like. So different direction, where I'm like if someone copies my work, I'm flattered, like I'm like oh, I'm good enough to be plagiarized. This is great. It's so funny because it's like you would just give away your hard work. I'm like, absolutely, because I could just generate more things. It's like if I ran into someone on the street and they're like I pirated your book. I'm like you found my book. That's amazing. Someone cared enough to upload my entire book to the Internet and pirate it. That's great.
Speaker 2:And then someone cared enough to look at the photo and compare it to the person that was walking down the street.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Like the Carl tattoo.
Speaker 1:Like that's just such a flattering thing to do Borderline psychotic, but flattering Like I think we've had this chat before where I'm like if I met my stalker, I would be so fascinated, I'd have so many questions for them, like the interview, like I'd be taped to a chair and I'd be like tell me everything about why you're stalking me. I need to know. This is just so interesting.
Speaker 2:But you know who else is psychotic Deadpool.
Speaker 1:Smooth, smooth intro. So disclaimer there will be mild spoilers to the Deadpool vs Wolverine movie or Deadpool and Wolverine movie, which is ironic because I haven't seen it but I've seen everything around it. So it's going to be very interesting where you've seen it. But don't get the references. And I haven't seen it, but preemptively already know all the references because I live on the internet and everything is spoiled instantly and people lost their ears in Chainsaw man and I knew that before it happened and I'm kind of bummed about it.
Speaker 2:I mean Sega was just a random side tangent. That was a weird sequence, Especially all the cats that had no ears. And they're just like looking around.
Speaker 1:What is really deeply confusing about that scene is he undid it, but it's Chainsaw man, so it's like yeah, we showed that if he does this, this happens, then we undid it because we're setting up something terrible to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we know, he's going to eat his love interest, so his love interest never existed, right. Ooh, that would be sad.
Speaker 1:Which then undoes the entire plot of the season. But moving on from reviewing Chainsaw man, which could easily be so, I'm actually going to stop with a mini-taget before we get into our big thing. There's some series that could literally be a weekly episode because they're so interesting and complex. And then there's the ending of my Hero Academia, which doesn't even warrant discussion. Ten-year manga ends and I'm like well, that sure ended.
Speaker 2:It is actually done though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was the ending absolutely didn't really fit any of its themes whatsoever and people are like what a good ending. And I'm'm like not really. I'm not sure anyone learned anything over the course of the story, and the point of a story is to learn something and this is coming from someone who recently binged all of fairy tale again because it got a sequel and I'm like, yeah, no, fairy tale was absolutely about things. Shockingly, it was trash, but it was like, oh yeah, no, there's full-on plot arcs and character growth going on here.
Speaker 1:It was definitely a story about letting your friends help you tell your story and not going about it alone like in a very good anti-loneliness message. All right, but back to wolverine versus deadpool. Well you know what?
Speaker 2:firstly, it's woline and Deadpool. Apparently the title was originally Wolverine and or, sorry, deadpool and friend, but there I think it was.
Speaker 1:Ryan Reynolds said that he refused to do it if it was called Deadpool and friend you know, it's really hard to tell when you're making a meta comedy how much is real like legit.
Speaker 2:It's like was that a?
Speaker 1:thing? Was that? Just chaos.
Speaker 2:I mean, who knows? The marketing campaign has been insane, which has obviously been. You know, the movie is making all the money and breaking tons of records. I mean, some of the records aren't that difficult to break because it's an R-rated movie. So being the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time isn't actually?
Speaker 1:Well, it's like I watched an article. It beat Passion of the Christ and I'm like did really nothing come out since 1 AD? That was a better movie.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I mean, my overall review of Deadpool and Wolverine is that it was a great experience. That was exactly as advertised. It was worth going to see in the theaters, but I don't think it was actually a good movie.
Speaker 1:So Deadpool and Wolverine pulled the same magic trick that Spider-Man no Way Home pulled. So Deadpool and Wolverine's actual name of the movie is X-Men's final movie, as we begrudgingly transfer to the MCU Because Fox had put out I don't know 10 X-Men movies or so. X-men was a cinematic universe of its own right. X-men movies or so X-Men was a cinematic universe of its own right, the first X-Men movie.
Speaker 1:Everyone gives Iron man so much credit when I'm like, did you all not watch X-Men with me? That came out way before it. That really did start the superhero movie boom. No, I just imagined that. Okay, great it did, because X-Men and Spider-Man were like very solid movies even though they weren't connected at all. X-men and Spider-Man were like very solid movies even though they weren't connected at all. So it's like X-Men 1, great movie. X-men 2, terrible movie. X-men 3, comically bad movie. X-men Origins possibly the worst movie Days of.
Speaker 1:Future Past. Bad movie. First Class good movie, the Wolverine meh movie, Logan amazing, award-winning actual art, so like they were all over the place in terms of quality of movies, but they took much bigger risks than Marvel, their good movies were just better.
Speaker 1:A good X-Men movie was just better and a good Deadpool 1, for example, just better than what Marvel was putting out, even like the Old man Logan movie just better than what Marvel was putting out because they like the Old man Logan movie just better than what Marvel was putting out because they took huge swings and many of them blew up in their face, that's true, like their weird touch decade jumping gimmick. So this was like Spider-Man no Way Home and Marvel Infinity Wars of this was supposed to be a celebration of corporate merger.
Speaker 2:Well. So to that end, one of the things like I think that if you go into Deadpool and Wolverine as a movie critic, you've already kind of missed the point of the movie. But at the same time there are three key areas that I think movie critics point out which actually were detrimental to the movie when they didn't have to be. The first one if you love cameos and references, power to you it's the weakest of the three, for sure.
Speaker 1:But the sheer volume of cameos when Ryan George does his pitch, meeting the producer guy that goes into a coma Trying to soak in all of the cameos and references that are being slammed in here so you know how sometimes we like to make the quip, that the joke sometimes just goes over people's head and you're like I hated this because of this thing, it's like, but that was the joke, I think it's safe to say this movie the cameos were the joke, like they literally put in so many cameos to make fun of the concept of cameos.
Speaker 2:Okay, but there's a point in a lot of movies where you have two characters that are working together but they don't get along. And then they have that emotional breakthrough with each other and then they can figure out how to work together and they actually complete the mission each other. And then they can figure out how to work together and they actually complete the mission. Deadpool's emotional breakthrough was stolen by a cameo, like so X-23 who shouldn't actually have been in the void anyways, because she's from Deadpool's universe, based on the fact that he uses Logan's skeleton to beat all the TV agents at the start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyways, that aside, which is peak writing? Deadpool and Wolverine. They have a heated argument you think it's going to be that emotional breakthrough and they just fight until they fall asleep. Then they get picked up by the good guys, and one of them happens to be X-23 from the Logan movie, and there is no reason why this random little girl that this version of Wolverine has never met before should get the emotional breakthrough that helps Wolverine work together with Deadpool. Like why? Why did they give the emotional breakthrough to a cameo?
Speaker 1:You know why? You know damn well why. Because he's who plays Wolverine in future Marvel movies. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean that's true Because she's younger than Hugh Jackman. Like that's part of what's killing the MCU and making it bleed to death Is they're like we're going to hand over the reins.
Speaker 1:Oh no, this guy beats his wife, so I guess we won't hand over the reins Like so. Much of what they do now is to set up the next franchise thing. Oh, marvel, don't sue me, and whoever this is that beats your wife allegedly. If you felt like suing us without any further context, maybe you just doubted yourself, pal. Anywho, it's like if you think that joke applied to you and if you call us out on it, you just confessed. But moving on, the idea is that a lot of the MCU was trying to set up, but it's just infinite setup and they forgot to be actually setting up something and they forgot to make the movie good. And I mean, with the first stepping points of the Marvel movie, it just makes sense that they did that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just that really bugged me. That really bugged me. I do think that cameos and references were a part of the joke and there was a whole part of Like I say it was. As advertised, they were making an irreverent send-off to the Fox properties that were part of Marvel's IP. Um, but like it just was ridiculous how many cameos they just shoved in there and, more to the point, I think it ended up being a disservice to the story, which, again, x-23, I didn't have any problem with her being in the movie, I just have a problem with the fact that she stole that pivotal moment in the story. And now Deadpool and Wolverine are buddy-buddy, even though they didn't actually have that emotional breakthrough together.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of funny about the existence of this movie. There's like a lot of things that are crazy about it. One that I find that's the most wild is how much is built around the setting of the Loki spinoff TV series and I'm like like, really, that's what you decided was going to be. Like the Time Variance Authority and the Elioth smoke monster, that is what you're using as the anchor for this movie really, because I'm just like I don't know it's cameo, the movie really oh yeah and like, as you mentioned, the idea that they're making cameos of characters by having the actor who could have played someone show up, as the character is just.
Speaker 1:It's such a meta movie but, as I gave when we were talking about Spider-Man, no Way Home and Infinity War, it's more experience than a movie Like. I feel like it's the kind of thing you really only watch once.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's exactly my point, is that the cameo of the movie is not a movie, especially with the way that they constructed the story, which I'll get to in a moment. But it isn't really a movie that, once all the hype dies down and it's done making all the money, it's just going to sit on people's shelves because they're going to have better old movies to watch.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like I said before, Logan was well written. It was literally like.
Speaker 2:I have one gripe with Logan, and that is the X-23 character At the beginning. She can only speak Spanish. And that is the X-23 character At the beginning. She can only speak Spanish, and then she's mostly silent, and then, conveniently, when the plot requires it, she can speak perfect English.
Speaker 1:I mean the idea that she just wasn't choosing not to talk into the psychotic murder man Like you can make a very good rational argument of selective mutism when dealing with Wolverine at his lowest point in his life. And you're like I'm going to just say nothing.
Speaker 2:I don't know that bugged me, but you are right, it was a beautiful movie and it was a good point for Hugh Jackman to retire until, as Deadpool says, he got pulled back in to do this till he's 90.
Speaker 1:Which is fair to be honest, because like yeah, this is a perfectly reasonable end to the Fox Cinematic Universe by literally being like what show would it be like if they were in the MCU the whole time? Like just the joke of having the Human Torch be who they had it be is like okay, I see what you're doing here, but like yeah, it's definitely more an event than a movie.
Speaker 2:Some of the cameos were actually pretty awesome, like Channing Tatum, as Gambit seems pretty weird on the surface, and my boss went to the theater and he's like, yeah, apparently that guy. Well, my boss said the guy who played Gambit was trying to get the movie made for like five years and then he got cast and the movie just never got made. And he said he was probably the only person in the theater who actually got that reference. I did Just sitting in the theater.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I would have got that one easy because I'm like aware of that lore, and then, like Ryan George would be like yeah, I'm aware of this lore.
Speaker 2:Sure Specific casting news from 2014.
Speaker 1:Yep, and that's the thing it's like. It was definitely meant as a montage of like of where these characters had been in various things, like the Electra and Blade references, this, that but also because I'm not a fan of Mega Monopolies, I never liked the Fox and Marvel Fusion news where it's like we can have these characters be in things together. I'm like, yeah, but you suck. But you suck, Disney. Even if you sponsor me, even if I work for you someday at this moment in my life, at this pivotal fixed point in history, I want to declare that your version of these characters aren't good. You're not the best at this, like your most successful Disney Plus show is when you brought back the team that did the 90s animated series to do more of that. That's not good. You should feel bad. Feel bad about your movies lately okay.
Speaker 2:But so the second area that I think, movie. I don't. I haven't heard anyone critique this and maybe it's because it's they've just become desensitized to it. Um but um, one of the foibles of modern cinema making cinema is CGI enables the craziest ideas to come to life on the screen, but it has become kind of a crutch that ends up holding fight scenes, in particular back 100% agree.
Speaker 2:So like. If you look at my number one example, it's a little bit dated, but the rush hour with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Rush hour with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker the final sequence. There Jackie Chan is trying not to let any of these ancient Chinese relics break while he's trying to fight off these bad guys and climb up the stairs to try and catch the guy who's going to fly off with all the money. And it's a super interesting and dynamic fight because you get to see a lot of Jackie Chan's character within the movie. He interacts with the environment and he has multiple objectives that he's progressing towards at the same time.
Speaker 2:In terms of choreography and film just the editing and stuff it's such a good scene. And then bringing it a little bit more Marvel, on the Marvel side, it's like you go for the first Avengers movie, the Battle in New York Yep, captain America's Shield CGI, I'm pretty sure, but it's bouncing around off stuff. They're hiding behind rubble, they're flying through the sky, hulk is throwing cars, climbing up buildings, monsters are smashing through windows and they're jumping on top of them. It's like it's this huge spectacle where it unmistakably takes place in New York, and you can see all of these characters working together and all the different objectives that they're trying to progress towards, and it's just, it's so dynamic and interesting and then you don't come to like end game. Where does that final battle take place? It's just some gray empty field.
Speaker 1:So I have an interesting mini-tangent about that that I'm making you sit through.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So one of the greatest movies ever made is Godzilla X-Kong 2. Okay, so in this cinematic masterpiece and I'll take no exceptions there's two sets of Godzilla movies the serious, award-winning ones, like Godzilla's Minus Zero and Minus One and those ones. And then there's the monster verse utter nonsense. That is Godzilla, Then King Kong, then Godzilla versus Kong and now Godzilla versus Kong too. And here's where your CGI argument I saw and witnessed recently. That's a very good point. So you're in this hollow earth setting where everything's giant, right, yeah, and Kong point. So you're in this hollow earth setting where everything's giant, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and kong, despite the scene where he picks up a baby kong and uses a nunchuck to beat up another kong. Peak cinema is that you see this giant ice, godzilla type monster right, frostzilla or something, and a group of giant monkeys, but because everything's giant, they look like normal-sized monkeys and a normal-sized lizard.
Speaker 2:So you're watching.
Speaker 1:Kong fight these evil Kongs, and because they're to scale against each other, they just seem like they're Donkey Kong-sized. Then, partway through the movie, when they go back to the Earth and literally start throwing each other through the pyramids, all the pyramids are gone now in this canon universe because godzilla and kong just smashed the shit out of them for no reason. Literally godzilla's like how dare you be here smashing? And their like plan was they need to lure godzilla to fight the actual bad guy. But it hates everything because it's godzilla also.
Speaker 2:He just sleeps in the roman coliseum.
Speaker 1:Now that just is a cat bed for godzilla so the point is environmental storytelling, where having Godzilla use his tail to slap someone through the Great Pyramid of Giza is great, having him fire his death beam and slice the Jesus statue in Rio in half is amazing, because that way you're weaving jokes into the fight scene, and I take these as jokes Him throwing the giant monkeys smaller monkey at the Sphinx to knock the head of the Sphinx into an ice dinosaur.
Speaker 1:That's a joke. That's hilarious. But like part of that is the environmental battlefields, like even in D&D. If you describe things in a map, describe things that players can use. If you describe a chandelier, do it. So they want to use the chandelier Right. Or if you're like, oh it's stone caves, indescript, they can't really do anything with that. But if you give them stalagmites they might try and hit the stalagmites, so it falls on someone, which is fun.
Speaker 2:So I mean I don't say this to disparage CGI VFX artists Well, they don't have an actual Godzilla, I'm sorry, but like, creating CGI that interacts with the environment is really hard. Yeah, and they're on a tight schedule, they're on a tight budget and I don't want to make it seem like they aren't doing a good job with what they're given, but all of the fight scenes in Deadpool and Wolverine are flat, relatively open spaces with muted tones, so that the CGI will the CGI they use for the fight scene itself will blend easier with the background, and it's just like that's itself will blend easier with the background, and it's just like that's. I feel like if they had spent less time trying to get all these cameos, they might have been able to actually have more interest in a dynamic fight.
Speaker 1:So here's my hot take about Deadpool and Wolverine. So CGI is required for some characters to match their comic books. Deadpool and Wolverine don't have superpowers that need CGI. You can actually just duct tape claws to a dude. So you shouldn't be filming it like a superhero fight. You should be filming it like John Wick. You should be filming it like John Wick, like there is no, literally no reason for those two characters to ever CGI fight scene Cause they shoot and stab people.
Speaker 2:John Wick is actually another great example of a much more modern movie, where, like it's not exactly fair to compare it because it like pretty much just is choreography.
Speaker 1:No, I see, here's what I'm going to do. It's a weird thing about fairness. If you're being made by Marvel and Fox, there is no being fair. They have more money than Canada they could put. They could do whatever they wanted with this movie. They had infinity billion dollars and literally every actor. So no, they don't get. To be fair. This should be the best movie of all time and if its budget wasn't high enough, then someone should get fired, because this was obviously going to get a lot of people in the theater.
Speaker 2:Anywho the theater. So I mean maybe cameos aren't what affected the quality of the fight scenes. But again, remember Ryan George said a lot of the fight scenes were people with high speed regeneration or other forms of invulnerability, so the fights often had no stakes either. So it's like they they weren't visually engaging and they weren't emotionally engaging, and what? What's left?
Speaker 1:And the thing is too like for those kinds of fight sequences. So I'm always a champion of animation. The newest episode of one piece was just 20 minutes of Garp throwing a single punch. He jumps a ship. He punches backwards to launch the ship. He's on in the air, jumps off the ship and throws what is, in fact, objectively the coolest punch in anime. Remember the final punch at Gurren Lagann?
Speaker 2:That punch was less cool.
Speaker 1:So Toei Animation does like a 20 minute long punch and that looked cool. But like when you're doing these CGI things without something to ground it, like you said, like stakes or emotion or location, they literally decided for a movie that could take place anywhere to be like you know what would be a good idea. Let's have a lot of our action in an empty post-apocalyptic desert, exactly. Instead of like See, I would have liked more of just showing up in the backgrounds of Marvel movies just living their lives, but I don't know, because Logan didn't have much CGI in it comparatively, because you don't actually need it.
Speaker 2:I mean they had to do CGI to make the younger Logan look younger. But yeah, even though it was two characters with high speed regeneration, there were still stakes and emotions and environmental interactions that made it very interesting to see well also they made a point that in logan.
Speaker 1:They were like no, logan is not immortal anymore, he is out, he will burn out, he can only get stabbed so many times. Like you see one point halfway through where he's like stitching himself up, you're like, oh well, he's no longer immortal. And when we're talking tv tropes and the show heroes was the first one that always made me notice this. It's always so funny when you give someone healing as a superpower, because then you have to have unreasonable damage happen to them all the time to keep it interesting right like is anyone of high speed regeneration in tv would be dead without it instantly.
Speaker 1:Because, like I think Claire and heroes died like 30 times in the first season and it wasn't just like from things like to test the superpower, like oh no, they literally just tripped and felt on a tree branch and died. I'm like, yeah, if you get someone healing, you have to show the healing and you show that by stabbing them a bunch. But like the thing is the two immortals punching each other in a pointless fight is good as a bantering situation. Right At that point, if you have two characters trying to emotionally break each other because you physically can't, while they're trying to physically break each other, it can be interesting. The Fullmetal Alchemist Father vs Hohenheim comes to mind, where it's like, oh yeah, neither of them are actually at risk of dying in this fight. Mhm, actually that was most of Hohenheim's run through of full metal alchemists. Like you know, he's technically basically immortal, but he mostly just existed to troll people and leave. He's like I'm bad at fighting traps. Someone in a mountain walks away, but yeah, so my tldr on that one is healing is a stupid superpower.
Speaker 1:If you're writing superheroes like I'm gonna make a guy that recovers. No, what you're actually making is a character who dies all the time, yeah, or else you have a character who does nothing. Wolverine as a character in the 90s cartoon thing skirts around that a bit by having claws and stabbing. Because Wolverine's real power let's be honest, if you're playing a Wolverine video game, the real power is the stabbing of people. Yeah, unless you're playing a co-op Marvel Ultimate Alliance type things where his power is he heals more because you have other teammates, so tanking things makes sense. Yeah, really you're playing, you're the stabbing guy, like how Deadpool's the guns and swords guy, not the healing guy, because healing for Deadpool 1 when doing superheroes, you kind of want their powers to tie into the narrative, or what are we doing here? In Deadpool 1, his healing power quote unquote was the villain of it yeah.
Speaker 1:Deadpool 1. He's like I want to die, but can't. Deadpool 2. Part of what made that movie fall to pieces is they gave him the I can kill myself collar, which meant that his dying was no longer a downside, because he could have just put on the collar and died. So what was the point of it's like he solved his problem. He's like oh no, I'm caught up in the movie. Now Might as well finish the movie before I heroically die.
Speaker 2:So the last point that I think a movie critic might point out is I was surprised at how little agency Deadpool has in his own movie.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting point.
Speaker 2:So the start of the movie, he gets sent to the TVA and I think this is like one of three times in the movie where he gets knocked out and just wakes up after everybody else. But he gets sent to the TVA and so he's at the TVA. They tell him about the anchor being all that jazz. He's at the TVA, they tell him about the anchor being all that jazz. And he does make a meaningful choice to the story at this point because he decides to go find a new Wolverine to replace the one from his universe. But from there he gets sent to the void, has a pointless fight with Wolverine, gets picked up by the bad guys. Wolverine finds some sort of rocket which they gets picked up by the bad guys. Wolverine finds some sort of rocket which they use to escape from the bad guys. They crash, land next to Nicepool, who tells them exactly where to go, how to get there, and gives them a vehicle to go there. On the way there they fight until they fall asleep and then get picked up by the good guys.
Speaker 2:The good guys concoct a plan that has nothing at all to do with deadpool and wolverine. It did have nothing to do with their high-speed generation. They're just like oh, we have two more super dudes, maybe we can pull this off. And then they pull off their plan. And then finally I mean, this is hardly even a choice for Deadpool too Deadpool decides to listen to Wolverine and not kill the Cassandra Nova, or well, not let her die, which is it's still. It's a very passive way to go about it, because he's just like, okay, fine, we won't let her die. And then Cassandra Nova sends them back to the, to deadpool's universe, and it's like deadpool made almost no choices that had any impact on the story so what's interesting about this is deadpool and wolverine.
Speaker 1:At its core is a rom-com. It was always going to be a rom-com. Two characters have a meet-cute. They start off hating each other. They slowly learn to rely on each other. They have a mid-fight breakup. They reconcile their personal issues that drove them apart by realizing the same things that make them flawed is what the other person's missing in their character, and they end up back together at the end. Qn credits. That's your rom-com structure. The two characters learn that what are flaws in the other character in the movie are actually the characteristics that make the two romantically compatible. That is how a rom-com is structured Right. This movie is almost a rom-com Almost. The thing is Wolverine gets an arc, even though it's a different Wolverine. Deadpool doesn't really get an arc in this. Not really. He's not hasn't learned anything.
Speaker 1:But that's fine if the movie was structured around Wolverine. But because Wolverine is a variant Wolverine, they pick up to be like I'm the bad Wolverine, I'm the worst Wolverine. But because Wolverine is a variant Wolverine, they pick up to be like I'm the bad Wolverine, I'm the worst Wolverine. And then Deadpool to be like actually, because the whole how that rom-com would go is Deadpool learns there's time to be serious and Wolverine learns there's time to be doofy would be what you would do in a rom-com, but they didn't really have room to let those characters grow on each other because they were too busy shoving in every cameo ever made.
Speaker 2:That's exactly my point. You could argue that that was the point of the movie. You could argue that had nothing to do with why the fight scenes were mediocre, just moving from cameo to cameo, and they didn't really write a good story structure with characters that are actually moving towards goals or progressing at having arcs as as characters and here's the thing about the rom-com approach.
Speaker 1:So because deadpool and wolverine functionally have the same superpower, there's nothing interesting in being immortal in a fight scene there's many things about being immortal in a rom-com that are hilarious.
Speaker 1:Like being like the idea that these two are stuck on an adventure and they literally can do nothing to get rid of each other is like a lot of potential there. Like Wolverine could literally get shot 37 times, get back up and Deadpool still there and there's nothing he can do about it. Like I'm surprised Wolverine doesn't murder Deadpool more in this movie as a running joke.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because that's how I would have framed it was I would have just wrote this thing as a rom-com, outright.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was very surprised. And even Wolverine he has a little more agency, but he's basically just along for the ride too. He makes one or two choices that directly impact the story. But, like I said, his emotional resonance, his emotional breakthrough, that should have been with Deadpool and it felt like it was going to come during that fight where they just fall asleep and get picked up by the good guys, um, get stolen by a cameo and also time travel is just bad.
Speaker 2:so like, here's the thing if this movie started because wolverine, like wade wilson, ended the last movie with a time machine, Ugh, and that this is one other point that I don't know if anybody has mentioned on the internet, but no, no one on the internet has mentioned this Anywhere on the internet.
Speaker 1:I can say that with confidence.
Speaker 2:Deadpool gets picked up by the TVA right and he gets told that he's Marvel, jesus, yeah. But so Mr Paradox saves him because his higher-ups say that he has some greater purpose and that he's supposed to be saved. But the reason he was saved quote unquote is never explained and it's not relevant to the story. And it doesn't even make sense because Mr Paradox has already gone rogue when he saves Deadpool for some unknown reason. Gone rogue when he saves Deadpool for some unknown reason and he even straight up says that Deadpool's like oh, you guys took me in because I used that time machine. He's like oh, yeah, you really fucked around with that time machine. But no, that's not why we picked you up. We picked you up because you have some greater purpose in the timeline.
Speaker 2:Yeah making money for Marvel. Anyways, I probably derailed what you were going to say.
Speaker 1:I was mostly just going to say that time hopping as a homage device is fun, but they didn't do that right. The whole thing effectively takes place in the Aleth dimension. It's just called the Void, the Void, and they leave the Void and come back to the Void a couple times. What a waste of a device. So if you're just using a Void as your location and you're not using your time machine to make cameos or go to alternate timelines or do shenanigans, then you didn't need the time police to be in this movie. You just needed him to warp into the void and have their movie take place there Because, like Pretty much, you gave him a time machine and didn't do anything fun with it. That's just silly.
Speaker 2:They referenced it as a joke.
Speaker 1:But no, like nah, it all just took place in the void, so why did they bother with the TVA at all in this movie?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because he could have just warped into the void. And then his problem was his time machine's battery died because he was in the void Like it's a weird thing to say. But because of who Deadpool is as a character, he didn't need a reason to team up with Wolverine. It's just what Deadpool would do. It's a plot point that whenever he meets an X-Men he tries to force them into a dumb team-up scenario because he's deeply thirsty for attention, because he's lonely. So it's almost a waste to come up with a plot reason to have them team up when the plot reason to team up is Deadpool is thirsty.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And especially if a character won't give him positive attention, that would become all he would care about is Wolverine won't give me positive attention. I guess this is my life now it's just weird to me when a movie feels the need to up the stakes and make it like the stakes of the multiverse or the universe, when the plot would have happened without those stakes. Because if you remove the TVA completely from this movie, would they not have, by necessity, still had to do everything they did?
Speaker 1:To get out of the void, yeah probably To deal with the Cassandra Nova problem To save his friends, Like they didn't really need to be told to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I do want to stress like I think this movie was a monumental project that was incredibly difficult to produce, Just like managing the schedules.
Speaker 1:You know, the craziest thing about the movie is it was only an hour and only 127 minutes.
Speaker 2:Really, I thought it was 200 minutes.
Speaker 1:Nope, right, it was an hour less movie than you would expect from marvel, which is another whole problem about storytelling structure.
Speaker 2:we do not have the extra hour we would need to get into that topic but anyway, the point of this I'm trying to make, though, is that, like I do think, as we said, it was a great experience. It was exactly as advertised, it was funny, it was enjoyable, and that movie critics are kind of missing the point of the movie. But then, when I look at it as a movie, it's not actually like one of the radio hosts in Saskatoon says it's their first and second pick for the top Marvel movie it's ever made, and it's not actually like one of the radio hosts in Saskatoon says it's their first and second pick for the top Marvel movies ever made, and it's like, really, did we? Did we see the same movie? Because this is, it was a fun experience, but it was not a good movie off.
Speaker 1:Seeing it despite, like normally being pretty on top of these things is that I knew everything that was going to happen in that movie. So far in advance because the internet not only was going to spoil that movie by analyzing every single frame, but also the internet was going to spoiler hunt. It was going to be trailer baited like there's no reason for me to see that movie, cause you see how we just talked about it for an hour and I hadn't watched it and at no point was I wrong, like notice.
Speaker 1:I didn't have to ask for clarification at any point, cause through a five minute pitch meeting video and just my knowledge of how Marvel works, I could figure out the entire movie, and that's not interesting to me. Let's put as many cameos as possible in a movie Unless I have a hype crowd to go see it. I don't really need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what I'm thinking. In three or four years, once it's done, making all the money and the hype has died down, lots of people are going to have it on their shelf because they're like I love Deadpool, but they're going to watch Deadpool 1 instead because it was a better movie.
Speaker 1:Because Deadpool 1 had an emotional core, or they're going to watch Logan because it had an emotional core.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So that's why I watched Godzilla X Kong the New Kingdom instead. Do you know why I watched a movie that should be objectively worse?
Speaker 1:Because I had no idea what would happen in that movie. The trailer showed that at some point Kong gets a robot arm and there's like an ice lizard and I'm like, okay, this movie blew me away with its shenanigans. Like I didn't think he'd pick up the smaller monkey by the hand and use them as a flail to beat a monkey. I wasn't going to predict that, nor did I predict the guy who came in skydiving in a Hawaiian shirt to air dentist Kong's infected tooth Did not think they're going to do dental work on Kong.
Speaker 1:I did not think the blogger was going to watch the grizzled army guy get eaten by a plant. I did not think that they were going to use an anti-gravity, ancient Mesopotamian glass temple to resurrect a moth. I did not think they'd have an organic membrane cloaking system that a bunch of aboriginal people living in hollow earth with a wheel would use to create a moth cloaking shield. And I did not think that the mute girl from the two movies ago would turn out to have psychic powers. These are not things I expected and it was great I am. How is it that channing tatum playing gambit from a hypothetical movie is less of a twist than monkey uses other monkey as a weapon, but it is.
Speaker 2:You could picture a marvel movie like oh yeah any character.
Speaker 1:After they did that dr strange thing can cameo as any other character tony stark's dr doom, now, yeah, that's not surprising. Now, the fact that they actually used a godzilla laser to cut the giant jesus statue in brazil in half, that's a plot twist. I did not think I had seat. Woke up that morning thinking godzilla's laser beaming that in half, yeah, just. But I could absolutely predict that good pool with dog deadpool would meet up a wolverine. That just seems like the kind of thing they would do. Uh, so I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't tell if it's genius or not, but um, and I don't know I wonder if you've, if you heard this tidbit or not this easter egg nice pool, yeah, uh, he doesn't wear a mask because his face is a moneymaker, right, yeah, and it's like oh, it's ryan reynolds, nicepool. You get to the end credits and Nicepool is credited as being played by Gordon Reynolds. Gordon Reynolds is Ryan Reynolds' evil twin brother that he made up for a gag for an interview.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said that, like not as shocking as you think it would be that was just one of those like it's not exactly a cameo and it doesn't detract from anything, but at the same time it's like their relentless hunt for for jokes and cameos really didn't do the story any service. Well, the.
Speaker 1:The thing is me and you prefer comedy, like we've talked on this episode. That, like the Godzilla joke in Arrested Development, is one of the best written things ever.
Speaker 1:So like in theory a nice pool joke of being his evil twin in the credits is funny and we both would enjoy that, but you can bury it with too much shenanigans. Like, as weird as it sounds, the best comedies are subtle. That's just my official statement. The best comedies are fundamentally subtle. And it's like yeah, no, like that does seem like. You told me the story and my reaction was yeah, that makes sense. But and my reaction was yeah, that makes sense. But, moving on to our random question of the day.
Speaker 2:Did I give you enough time to actually pull it up?
Speaker 1:You did. What is your favorite anime couple?
Speaker 2:My favorite anime couple yeah.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like actual couple or shipping couple, or I mean, I guess the question is not exactly clear.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be, though, like I feel like if you declare something and you ship it hard enough that you're like yeah, I know, this is my favorite couple. A certain percentage of the internet will either agree with you or hunt you down for sport. Hmm, ah See, I got like a top three on this one because too much of my brain power goes into this category.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go first. I remember what it was now.
Speaker 1:Reiner and Faris from Legend of the Legendary Hero was just such a good bantering situation where they're like both were just trying to ditch work. And and Ferris from Legend of the Legendary Hero was just such a good bantering situation where they're like both were just trying to ditch work and got stuck in a Lord of the Rings scale epic fantasy quest when he just wanted to nap, and she just wanted food.
Speaker 1:And it's like they were a great couple because they just made sense. It's like, okay, they banter, but they actually fundamentally get along and I'm like that was a good one For all one people who watch this, who have also seen the Legend of the Legendary Heroes.
Speaker 2:Mine. I guess technically not an anime couple at this point, because I don't think it's, they'll probably get animated but Dan to Dan, the two main characters. They're like awkward teenage romance and they're both totally like in love with each other but neither of them wants to like actually admit it or like like it's almost like love is war levels of like. Neither of them wants to actually admit it. They want to get the other person to admit it, but also they decide to get the other person to admit it, but also they decide to throw a full anime in the middle of it.
Speaker 1:I can see that one. I mean. My second one was the love is war couple. So because I like I read, I read what 300 chapters of that relationship I'm also going to throw 300 chapters of that relationship, mm. And I'm also going to throw just a shout out to the Bulma and Vegeta making a weird amount of sense.
Speaker 2:Ah, another anime couple that I really enjoy. I don't know the uh, uh, I'm blanking on the name, but the one where, uh, the one guy is the animator and the other girl is the pop star oh, the beat in motion one beat in motion. I, I think, like I don't know if either of them are actually progressing towards each other romantically, but but the premise is solid. The premise is solid and that relationship would very organically grow into a romantic one. Very fair, I think.
Speaker 1:And if you want us to read your random questions on the air, there's a link in the episode description to directly submit it, or post it in the comments on your favorite podcasting platforms or on the YouTube, or, you know, stalk Carl in real life and put it in the extra notes of a pizza order. Oh, that would be so funny. You're just like ah, it's like a takeout pizza, it's like for Deep Space and Dragons. Here's my question, Just in the extra details.
Speaker 2:That would be pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Top tier joke 10 out of 10.
Speaker 2:Well, and my co-workers are the type who would take a picture of that and send it to me for sure.
Speaker 1:And you'd be like it finally happened.
Speaker 2:I crossed genres. It finally happened. The unspecified person with the Carl tattoo has gotten dangerously well, he's legally changed his name to Carl now you assume it's a dude who's standing for me touche they legally changed their name to Carl.
Speaker 1:My bad, you're right, I assumed. I'm sorry, that is on me. I am officially apologizing for making assumptions on your stalker.
Speaker 2:My bad, Statistically speaking, I think. I don't know. I've never looked it up. I don't know if there's more male stalkers than female stalkers.
Speaker 1:I love the part where you're like statistically I actually have no idea. So if you know the answer to this, please post it in the comments. I don't know, like real talk. If someone actually posts the answer to that question in the comments, I may just send them a free copy of the Minuet of Sorcery for Kicks. Like there's a few circumstances where someone literally I had this chat in class the other day where it's like like, well, what would you, someone do if they went to pirate your book? I'm like just send me an email saying you can't afford the book and I'll just send you one. Like, if you actually can't afford it, a, you can order it in at your local library, so do that. But if somehow the library is gatekeeping you, I will just send you a book. I may require you to show me a bank statement or something to prove you can't afford the $4. Like.
Speaker 1:I'll treat it like a scholarship Like send me an essay of why you need this book. Done, done.
Speaker 2:We'll get a copy to you.
Speaker 1:I would never let not can't afford it be a threshold to stop someone from reading my work. That's just insane. And besides, worst case, they could buy the book to practice their book binding. Yet again, feel free to like send us photos of you chopping the cover off my book and putting a new one on it, because that would be amazing.
Speaker 2:Just like an absolutely beautiful, ornate, like custom cover. That would be good.
Speaker 1:I mean also commission the cover from Ad AG Nonsuch, who did my original cover because their artwork is fantastic.
Speaker 2:That's good, that is good artwork.
Speaker 1:And I also think it'd be hilarious if someone commissioned a nicer cover. Be like, I know you commissioned a cover, but I need a premium cover. So I'm going to commission this artwork to then cut the cover off the book, to put my custom cover on this book. I think my stalker has more gusto than yours if they're going to those lengths. Actually, what do you think is more gusto?
Speaker 2:Like custom making a cover for a book or getting a tattoo. I'm pretty sure that the tattoo and then finding where I work so you can secretly submit questions on our podcast.
Speaker 1:I mean teaching yourself bookbinding and commissioning a new cover to upgrade your previous cover. That's like a weird level of commitment, Because that's some hyper-specific skills. Like, anyone can get a tattoo, A baby could get a tattoo.
Speaker 2:Have you ever seen?
Speaker 1:That's my Boy, with adam sandberg and adam sammler it sounds familiar because I feel like I just made a reference, without meaning, to well like.
Speaker 2:So. Adam sammler is the father, and when his son is is young, they get they get matching tattoos. And then the son grows up and the tattoo's all distorted.
Speaker 1:I think it was an episode of Archer where it's like you can't tattoo a baby. That's what the tattooist said until I slipped him an extra grand.
Speaker 2:Anyways, don't tattoo babies. Take care of yourselves and maybe consider reading Vlad's book, and if you don't know who Vlad is at this point, then you're just out of luck.
Speaker 1:Man, I don't even know like the Vlad Pipeline will not, like the Richard Kivas, like analytics setup is so solid that the Vlad Pipeline is like a weird dead end. Solid that the Vlad pipeline is like a weird dead end. Like if you try and go Vlad Kivas, you will not succeed you won't.
Speaker 2:I think, you know like.
Speaker 1:Richard brackets, vlad Kivas. Yeah, no, that works awesome, at least episode 41, carl and Richard brackets, vlad question mark pitch ideas with friendship. Anyway, take care, hydrate, don't get heat stroke.
Speaker 2:Bye. Yeah, self-care is important, indeed.
Speaker 1:We got rambly at the end of this episode that we did.