A Geek History of Time - Episode 197 - The Dark Crystal from Two States to a Fractured State Part IV

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

BELLS Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere. You are destroying the Constitution of the United States may God have mercy on your souls. Good day. Yes. It's a very sad word. We could be saying that we just elected the right white man to power. That's creepy but that's a different category of creepy. Zizuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and find out what fucking truth that man is trying to get at. Like with most episodes I can bring him back to wrestling. Oh right, well he's got other people who work for him who also do things.

And they can get new take-off. Okay. And get inside into smaller worlds after all. Fuck you. I still don't give a shit about getting fake property in a fantasy game Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută.

Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. Nu-i văzută. This is a key to good time. Where we connect, you're going to need to go over a steplet of a long history of

English teacher, and on a professional note, I just had my first observation of the year and my first host observation conversation with my principal. And that went very well. He was number one impressed with what I was what I was the ambition of what I was trying to do with a group of six graders, which can be a double edged sword. Your ambition is great, but your execution was for shit. It is always a distinct possibility. But this one turned out, thankfully, this turned out pretty well. And we got into a conversation where part of the way the conversation went was, so would you be interested in coring your classes, which for those not in the education biz,

that is one of the terms that's used when an English teacher, or a history teacher who also teaches English, has combined classes. So all the kids who are in your history classes are in your English class and vice versa. And it essentially means that you can do multi-disciplinary stuff. And it was one of those occasions in my professional life where the urge to jump on something

with too much, with unseemly enthusiasm was a problem because, oh my god, that would make my life so much, I'd be more simple. And I think I managed to play it off pretty well. Oh, yeah, yeah, I would love to do that. That would be amazing. That would be great. And the conversation then turned to, well, you know, in April, let's talk about, you know, what we might do for scheduling next year. And so that is very good news, because if they're not going to keep me for next year February, is their deadline for telling me that? So he's already talking about April. So I feel pretty good about that situation right now. So that's my current event.

Who are you and what are you have going on in your life, sir? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin and US history teacher at the high school level up here in Northern California. There's actually, it's a three-parter. So first, all of the... All of the districts in this rounding area from us, where we had an eight-day strike last year, was an added us a four and a 4.5% raise.

Yeah. Everyone around us got anywhere from 10 to 18%, which, who the hell got 18? One of the ones a little further north of me. Wow. Which is good, which is very good. Yeah, this is, their, their, their does came to them as their opener,

and said, we'll give you a 10 this year, five next year and three, the following. And that's the opener. So it might end up being. Oh, okay. I love it. Because essentially by going on strike, we gave everybody a free strike vote for folks in the biz. Strike vote is where you pull your membership and you say, Hey, y'all want to go on strike. And if you have a significant chunk of people who say, Yes, indeed, then that kind of is like a just so you know, we could do this. We don't want to do this, but we could. Yeah. We have this in our back pocket. It moves negotiations along. It is the coffee to the morning poop of negotiations. And that's that's a that's an appropriate

analogy. Yeah. So what I love about that is that everyone else got richer from our efforts. I actually genuinely like that. That does not bother me in the slightest. Even though we ended up with less than half of what most God, I still think that's a wonderful thing. Yeah, no, you're a dedicated union thug. Yes. The more practical aspect of that though is, everyone's salary went up relative to ours,

which means they can't say, look, you're one of the top paid, no, we're not. As a matter of fact, Sliny teachers I know could easily jump ship now. Actually. Uh-huh. So that's number one. Number two, our school board, there were three seats that were up for election, two were incumbents, and one was stepping down.

All three of the ones that are union endorsed were the ones that made it. So now the school board has a majority of the people who are on it. I have been union endorsed. So I'm looking for good things from them. I'm hopeful. So it's to us, ban. Yeah. That's good.

It is good. And then number three, at the site level, I got a survey or a form to fill out by one of my vice principals who said, so we're looking for people to teach electives. And what would you be willing to teach? Was this a paper survey or a digital one? A digital one. So I was there way for you. Yeah. Was there a way for you to submit a gift of a middle finger being raised over and over again?

No, I just feel this is the art reality. I can say other. I said, I have absolutely no interest in doing for you the thing that you took away from me. I didn't quite say it that way, but essentially I do not have the energy to start up a program that you have already killed. I have no interest in starting up a program that you've already killed and trying to rebuild a program over the corpse of the thing that you already killed.

Please find someone else. So the lack of self-awareness is always just... There's the lack of self-awareness and then there's just the sheer audacity. Yeah. Like really, motherfucker, you're going to come here. You've done... You've done... You've done killed the thing that I spent over a decade building. And then you come back to me saying, Hey, you know, we'd really like to, to have the benefit of the thing that we just killed. It's like, yeah, you should have.

Anyway, you should have, you should have, you should have thought of that before you committed murder. Well, like, where you killed it, you might have, yeah, you should have thought of that before you committed murder like where you killed it You might have yeah, but further ahead. So anyway, that's that's the that's the place where I have it really could We really could use a couple of golden bags right now Other fucker you had goose for dinner last night like what I'm sorry, asshole. No, yeah, that bird is literally cooked. I mean, I mean, just just the the aspect of like, you know, I could just hear them going, man, if only there were a class that would enrich kids vocabulary in their English classes

and increase their understanding of rhetoric. If only. And I'm over there like the Mitsubishi dog from the radio commercials in the early 2000s. If only. So yeah, wow. Yeah. So maybe if they ask me again in 30 more trying, I will, go with what's that? Oh, nice, nice lead. You like? You like? Yeah. So, so would you, would you say that vice principal is more akin to the scientist? Yes. Or the collector. Nope, the scientist. Okay.

The scientist. Yeah. Okay. Um, doing his job, doing his job as he is directed to do. I do not hold it against any person. And it's not even this administration that killed the program. It is, it is an institutional problem. That's true.

So I do not hold any of these people, um, culpable. But as I have in the past, I may well, again, in the future say, it is not your fault personally, but you are currently the one sitting in that seat. And I need to yell at that office. So I'm going to close the door and yell at you now. So, but yeah. Anyway, so back to the dark crystal. Yeah, hopeful despite it having no hope, speaking of which.

So as we open, oh, good, you're drinking. I brought a beer because I know I'm going to need one. Yes. Which is label dragons milk. Yes. Do you make your own or did you go out and find? No, no, this is this is from the New Holland Brewing Company. It is a bourbon-barrel aged stout. Okay. That is 11% alcohol. Anybody who like drinks beer in our audience

listened to all of that and went, oh fuck, you're going to get tilted. Yes, I am. He's going to need to. I'm going to need to. Um, so yeah, uh, just just high dragon, dragon's milk implies the existence of dragon nipples. That is true. That is true. I have had enough of it to drink yet to really go into thinking about that very much. Well, I don't need to drink to think about these things. So let's let's let now, so if a dragon is nipples, is it? These are the thoughts that kept me out

of the really good schools. If a dragon is nipples, is it anthropomorphized nipples or just about any other creature's nipples where there's like a nipple line? Are there like six to eight teats or is it just two breasts? eight teats, or is it just two breasts? Hmm.

Well, you know, I'm trying to think of what, what analog, because you know, we normally think of directives being effectively largely reptilian, which then means, okay, so what's the closest thing? What's the closest, like, how can we, how can we consider an analog that we might think of? Um, turkeys? They have breasts? Yeah, granted, but that's just, that's, we, we, we call it that as an, as an analogy, but it's all it is. It's, it's, it's an, it's an overdeveloped, uh, wing muscle.

Basically, it's primary, primary flight muscle, same as it chickens or really any other bird. So, I mean, obviously they would have significant pectoral muscles because of wing, but this is dragon milk. But this is dragon milk. So we're looking at what we have to do. Some kind of lactation, right, which leads me to wonder about the uon T. Like they are shown with breasts. Yeah, but they're snake people. Right. And and the my take on that as somebody who, you

know, has done it. I got it. Worldbuilding. Gorgons. They're Gorgons. Because Gorgons, while they have snake bodies, they also have teats. And organs are famous for their cheese. They work with a zola. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. They work closely with the cyclopsis. So.

Okay. Well, because this polyphysic is making cheese. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's not good on them. Okay. But also, if you think about Arnhem Zola, he's got an eye at the top and he's a cyclops in many ways. Okay. Gorgon.

All right. I can kind of do with that. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Fair enough. All right. So as we open the second episode, I'm so glad we did our intros quick. So that I could distract us. We could do that. Dragon Titt talk. Yeah. So as we open the second episode, we're introduced to my favorite character in the whole series,

Hup. Hup is a podling who wants to be a paladin Which is I love this little guy already right? It's apparently something only gulfling can do And he ends up armed with a spoon for most of the series as a result Okay, so question. Mm-hmm. Is this a tablespoon or a kitchen spoon? Do we know? I can't tell because it's a wooden spoon set in a pre-industrial era. And he is smaller than a galfling. So it could be that their table spoons look like kitchen spoons to him. Okay. So it's a slightly longer spoon than one would need to eat cereal. Okay.

Went. Okay. So that leads one to believe probably closer to a table spoon. Cause a like a stirring spoon would need even longer handle that. Right. So now when when he uses this, does he use it as a weapon? Handed or two handed weapon Usually one handed, but there have been time where he had to use it to hand it had to double up on it Okay, is it primarily a a chopping weapon or does he ever jab with it like thrusting stabbing?

Okay, okay City because you you made the mistake of pointing out this particular detail to a sword nerd Mm-hmm. And so the first thing I'm thinking of okay Well, so does he use it like an axe or who's it like a sword? No, it's like a spear like a spear. Okay Yeah, all right. It's a sword that you you can you can thrust with Okay, all right, niche interest satisfied carry out now He's a simple podling capable of deep and tender loyalty, cracker barrel common sense,

and very little other sense, to be honest. And then, and he like rescues deep from a fight essentially in a little bit, but like we see him like waking up, this is the day I'm going to go down there and apply to be a palleted type. Okay. see him like waking up, this is the day I'm going to go down there and apply to be a palleted type. Okay. And then it cuts to augura who finally fucking wakes up. She's been asleep for hundreds of trying apparently.

And she doesn't realize right away. By the way, she coughs up dust. Um, yeah, she's been out for a while, man. Yeah, but maybe I need to go to a pulmonologist and get that looked at right. Right. Now, she doesn't realize right away, but the podling who's attending to her is an old man. And he is the grandchild of the one who attended to her. And the one who attended to her when she was last awake was a young boy.

So that young boy grew up. Wow. Bread lived to old age. His kid grew up. bread lived to old age. That kid grew up and is an old man now. Wow. So when she went astral projecting, it was three generations ago, at least.

She immediately knows that something bad has happened to throch. She seeks to figure it out. So she's catching up. Meanwhile, there's some fan service that they do and they roll exposition all into one. Deat is wandering through the world for the first time. And like I said, as a grotten, she has gauze over her eyes because she's so used to the caves and low light conditions there. So your middle class environmentalist is actually out and about in the environment for

the first time. And literally has to guard her eyes because she's seen things all one way for her whole life. She runs into a few fizz gigs, which pay off the long time fans because it turns out it's not just one creature, it is an entire race and they're actually called fizz gigs. Well, it's an entire species. And they're Fizzgix. And then she takes a nap right there in the forest because why wouldn't she? She's connected to all life. Yeah. Um, I have, I have so many acquaintances in college who, who, if they saw this as a self-depiction, would probably not be flattered. Like, yeah.

Okay, anyway, carry on. So you remember Chamberlain concocted a story about Rian, about, you know, he's ill, he's sick. Yeah. In addition to that, he also said that Rian killed Mira. Which works better than the general's plan of going and slaughtering Gelfling to keep the secret of the essence safe.

Because that's the general's plan. Chamberlain says that the Gelfling will actually believe skecs this over Gelfling and that they spread the story faster this way because they'll also continue to spread the story of the dream fasting with Rian and saying that if you dream fast with him, his madness will catch up to you.

So the ruling class is telling the martial class exactly what to believe and make sure to disenfranchise anyone who run against the dominant narrative. exactly what to believe and make sure to disenfranchise anyone who run against the dominant narrative. Also, in a way, from a certain point of view, if he dreamfests with anybody, they will know the truth. Right. And they are casting the truth as madness. Yes. It's it's it's so it's ultimate gaslighting. It's 19 or gaslighting. Yeah. And well yeah. Essentially, yes, it is it is double speak. Mm-hmm. New speak. Sorry, new speak. Yeah. Yeah.

So the ruling glass is telling them exactly what to believe. The the gulfing guards immediately start factoring off those who are willing to question orders and those who see loyalty is the highest good. And Rian does manage to dream fast with Gurgin, as I'd mentioned above, before running off fully. So Rian manages to snag the last of Mirrors essence on his way out, and he's going to take it as proof to his own Madra, whose name is Madra Phan. And as he's absconding, he gazes at the crystal one last time, and he realizes that it's

cracked and corrupted by the Skexes. Meanwhile, Deet is trying to get to the capital of Harar, and she's definitely lost without Hupp, who is himself fairly hopeless, but frankly, their story is fun and sweet. He basically protects her from a brawl, and she takes him along and finds out he wants to be a paladin, but because he is the servant class or he's the service industry, nobody in Harar is gonna pay attention to him or legitimize him.

So the skecs is all plotting and they're gossiping amongst themselves. Specifically, they're trying to get Chamberlain punished, but then he turns the blame onto the, for losing Rian. But he turns the blame onto the scientists and shows that he was injured trying to save all of them because he actually gets like slash or stabbed. And once he turns everyone onto the scientists, the skecsies fall all over themselves to find the cruelest punishment possible for the skexes who failed them by letting

the gulfling take off with the essence. But before it turns into a fight, Rian's father and also the captain of the garden named Ordon interrupts and begs for mercy for his son. At this point, he has only heard that his son is, you know, the bad guy. And he says, Oh, he is my son. Please let me bring him in. Please let me, you know, I beg your mercy. They tell him their propaganda lies and it lines up with Chamberlain's advice. And they send ordained to hunt down his son so that they can heal him.

Because they even said, Chamberlain even says like, we can heal him, we can help him if you bring him back to us. Wow. Yeah. After he leaves, uh, loyally, Chamberlain immediately turns the skexus and points out that when Rian returns with his father, they're going to have two gelflings to drain and drink. They're going to have two gulflings to drain and drink. Ock. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Now, that episode ends with the skexus putting the scientist

in a head cage, which so that something called a peper beetle can eat his fucking eye. After all, like, that's the currency for the skecsis. The cruelty is the point under this server. So then you move on to episode three, re-enfinds the skecsis, have done an excellent job of turning all gulfling against him.

Brea has been punished by basically being sent to the gulfling peace core, which is called the Order of Lesser Service. So, remember Brea is the aristocratic twit. Yeah. Because she yelled at her mom. So, she's being punished for, okay. Yeah.

Wow. And that got her... Well, that got her, like on her mom's bad side. Then she goes and talks to the sooth sauer um who are part of the the traveling group remember um and uh she talks to them and she notices that the sooth sauer is trying to give her a forgetting potion and she switches it when he's not looking and she gets him to drink it and he essentially Completely becomes forgetful like he doesn't even know who he is Oh wow, so part of it's cuz she snapped back at her mom part of it's cuz she even went to a sucess there

And part of it is because she switched his forgetful poison back on to himself exhibiting great cruelty And she's like but he was gonna do it to me to me. And they're like, that is no excuse. Like the total tone policing, right? Yeah. And so the the suit's air is kind of sort of in on the gaslighting. Yeah. A member, a member of another, it's not just upper class, high-elf, twits, it's also the roving mercantile class based on your characterization of them. I was going to say almost an evangelist, like a televanjalist. Mmm, okay. All right. So, wow. Yeah.

Fuck. So wow, yeah, fuck. So part of this is also that the all-modra is still ultimately a mindless bureaucrat who doesn't want to be embarrassed So like that's centuries Democrat Yeah, so deep and hub show up to Stonewood To talk to Madreffara Farrah that's your name Madreffara But that clan is to talk to Madreffara. Farah, that's her name, Madreffara. Okay. But that clan is,

oh, clan is just fuck. They lock up HUP after a huge brawl. So she goes knocking on all the doors and everybody's just like, I don't want to talk to you. And like HUP gets in yet another big ass fight. And they lock him up and then they, and Deeds like fine, but I still need to

talk to the Magiapara. And remember, Deet is from the the grotten. Everyone looks down on the grotten because they live in caves. And that's not just a pun. That's also a statement on their social a social hierarchy. So they see Deet. So the the stonewood gulflings. And I think that's a lot of the things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about.

I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things that I'm going to talk about. I think that's a lot of things just getting in the way and slowing things down. Brea's older sister, you might remember Brea, the aristocratic twit, her older sister, Seladon is showing signs of disagreement with her own mother, the Almodra, because Seladon is even more of a hardliner for the Skexes, and she cares a lot more about the rules, and she's very angry that her mother is having a little wiggle room

there and eventually through their discussion we end up cutting back to Deet and Rian both in Stonewood at the same time and when everyone including his dad refuses to dream fast with him, Rian has to flee and it's very swashbuckly and Deet witness is all of it and meanwhile, Hup is in I think it's called a bandit hole, which is essentially their prison, and it's under the floor of where the modra's like court is. Okay. So auger walks in on the skexis while they're bathing, and it's really fucking gross to see skexis bathing. It's almost like I'd rather see them naked than to see them like with submerged. Yeah, but not fully submerged. Their legs are sticking out. Their torso's are sticking out.

They're just submerging their waist. So she walks in on them and the podlings are like attending to them and scrubbing off their calluses and shit. One of them is helping bust the puschules kind of thing. So, okay, I can't help, but like you've now mentioned the puschules a couple of times. That's like so baron-harkening. Yes, yes, it is. So it intensely and the vanity combined with it is such a call back to baron-harkening. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And you said that she had a very, very rounded kind of head. Uh-huh. Yeah. Is her body similarly? Yeah, but all skecs are kind of swollen that way. But she's more blue than red. Like, I remember him being very red because of the rash on his face.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, but she's blue and stills. But it's still an homage. Oh, yeah. Yeah. OK. So she, Auger walks in on homage. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right.

So she, Ogger walks in on them. She tells them that Thra is unwell and so is the crystal. And she demands to see the crystal. And the emperor who walks in, he responds to her with some really fashy shit. He says, quote, we gave the poor creatures of Thra order, innovation and purpose. And then as a skexist will, he turns it back around on her, and he tells her that she's been traveling in the galaxy on a lark while he's been doing the hard work

of caring for all those he left behind on Thrawh, or that she left behind on Thrawh. And she hits it back with, I am Mother Agra, I am Thrawh. To which he responds, perhaps once, but no longer. We, he points to the skecsies, are throught. Wow. Yeah.

So, the question that occurs to me as as augura and the emperor are having this back and forth. Yeah. It didn't really occur to me before when you've talked about dialogue with the skecsus previously. Mm-hmm. But in the movie, the skecsus did not speak with very much of, like they didn't speak fluidly. Correct. They had, you know, one or two word phrases. And it was very clear that their communication was corrupted and degraded by their selfishness

and all that kind of. Are they actually speaking in like complete, fluent sentences in the series? Off and on. So, and that is a feature of their of Chamberlain's speech, for instance, he leaves things out, but I think that's could be down to personality type too, because if you remember, you know, prophecy, please make peace, gelfling not harm us,

that he talks in that way, which is at once disarming and also obfuscating. Not everybody talks like that. He takes that affectation to the nth degree. Yeah, all right. So honestly, this whole scene feels, and this came before it happened,

but this whole scene feels like Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting replaced. It again, it came out well before she happened, but this whole scene feels like Ruth Bader Ginsburg getting replaced. Again, it came out well before she died, but it's the whole, like, the rules say this, and then we are the rules. We're gonna put, you know, Fashy Barbie in. So she gets escorted out, and as she's getting escortedorted out we hear the gulfling guards betraying a ton of prejudice and Generations of stories of just delegitimizing her Like talking about her right behind her back literally right behind her back and about how useless she is and how she's a witch and and all this kind of stuff She has been gone for so long that like multiple generations have gone by who don't know who she is, and the skecsies have been controlling the narrative. And as she passes the crystal, she notices that

it's cracked and corrupted, which hurts her heart, which doesn't do anything yet. But then she looks at it, and it shows her the process by which they drain the essence from the galfling mirror. they drain the essence from the gulfling mirror. And the the the crystal speaks to her not out loud that we would understand, but like she's talking to it as though she's responding. And it tells her that the imbalance that's happening to throes caused by the skecks is drinking essence, because gulfling don't return to throa ifought if they're getting their essence drained. Normally when a gulfling dies, they return to throught and their essence gets consumed by throught and it comes back out again, right? So then she figures out that she has to find the song of throught and change the future

before it's too late, which that part never really truly developed in this in this season now maybe who's going to in the second season. It's clearly a call back to Jen finding the the the shard by using music the shard. Yeah, but also feels told can ask like the song of everything, you know, yeah, Yeah, the song of Arda. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, deep and Rian finally meets after he's run away, bounces into her, he laments that everyone sees him as a monster and he says, quote, they're all too scared to see the truth, even when it's right in front of them. So you have a coalition forming between the environmentalist and the former, the veteran, who's been discharged from the Hadoodis. Meanwhile, Brea discovers secret passage under the throne at the close of the episode. Now, that last part feels a lot like the Mueller, the mother report.

There's a lot of interesting information, but ultimately it's useful only to academics and two wanks. But I do love the thematic continuance throughout to the use of the song and the flying things, for instance, episode three ended up with augura needing to find this the song of throught an episode four opens with Hup singing. And I love Hup singing because he does it defiantly, because he's in what's called the rascal hole, not the bandit hole. And the gulfling and stone would through him in there and they tell him to shut up. And he just, like they're cleaning up after ran had escaped because he, I mean, he swashbuckled the shit out of that place.

So there's a candle lobby on the ground or. Oh, okay. Yeah. Literally swashbuckled the shit out of that place. So there's a candle lava on the ground or. Oh, okay. Yeah. Literally swashbuckled the shit out of it. Okay. Cool. All right. Um, and so they're they're trying to clean it up and he's singing and they're like, what'd you shut up? And you know, it's, I forget what his song is or anything like that. But it's like, you know, imagine somebody in prison is singing like the theme song to family ties. And you're like, what the fuck would you shut up?

And he's like, what would you do, baby? Would you shut up? What would you do, baby? Without us, you know, it's like that. So I totally see why he's your favorite character. Oh, God, yeah. Oh, God, yeah. Like, what else are you going to do to me? Right, what? Fuck you. Oh no, am I gonna be in a rascal hole? Like, with a bunch of, you know, gulfling who already fought me, like, okay.

So they're cleaning up and Deet comes flying in, having painted herself blue to scare them off, because they're still kind of, you know, superstitious lot, the st-point gulfling. Okay. Meanwhile, you go back to Briette, she's under the throne, right? She's found this secret compartment, and she's trying to figure out, so there is a puzzle in front of her, and it basically says to put the gulfling clans in the proper order.

Okay, and there's like, you know, stones all the way or like specials, signals or sim, signals, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, Harold looking for his sig, sig, yes, sig, sig, sig, sig, sig, for each gulfling clan. And she's like, oh, I have to put them in the right order. And so she spends like the next fucking day or whatever, trying to figure that out, because she's like, oh, well, obviously, Vapra are at the top because we're the best. And then she's like ordering them. And it doesn't quite unlock the story or the puzzle.

She keeps getting stuck in this hierarchical thinking as an aristocratic academic. And she finally figures out that no clan is greater than another and she then puts the puzzle together, which is like when a good child of a liberal goes off to that safe college. Um, so then, you know, like they took one class and I'm like, I'm a Marxist now, you know, it's that well, yeah. So then you cut back to the skexis, um, and, and they're feasting in the grossest possible

way. Oh, by the way, when he's sexes, everything they do is in the grossest possible way. Oh, by the way, when she- Because of stexus, everything they do is in the grossest possible way. Yeah, come on. Excessive and gross and drippy. By the way, sorry, sorry, drippy part just takes it. Yeah.

All right. She does, by the way, figure it out and she puts a puzzle together and the rocks turn into a sentient rock creature. Oh, yeah, named lore, which is pretty cool, but more on him. Okay. So anyway, you get to the sketch is they're feasting, it's gross as shit, and they're podling servants are serving them the whole time.

And the dinner conversation is about how essence is so much better than food. It would be like if you're at an orgy and you're all talking about how this is better than jerking off, like while you're orgying. It's like it has that same kind of like you're stating the obvious and it's much self-congratulatory. and it goes way. And it's the exuberance of the new. And as though you're the fucking expert on it, it's like, this is your first orgy, Tom, just calm down. You know, oh, slow down. So yeah, we all know that's why we're all here.

We get it. Yeah. Yeah. But so so then they begin to talk out loud about whether or not to kill all the gulfling and drain them all at once or to do it over time. Wow. Yeah. Okay. And then the following two quotes slip out. First one, quote, moderation is for the week. Okay. And the second one, quote, immortality is our right. Hey. Do you remember when the Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price ran up a tab

of more than $500,000 for international travel on military planes? Yeah, I do. Or when the VA head David Shulkin had taxpayers fund travel for his wife and his 10 day European vacation, which included sightseeing excursions and nice seats at Wimbledon. Mm-hmm. I do. Or when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkig got caught up in a web of suspicious real estate deals,

and one got to the Justice Department for review and then publicly accused the incoming chairman of the House of Natural Resources Committee of being a drunk. Yeah, I do remember that. You remember the time when reporters broke the story that the EPA had Scott Pruitt had lied about giving substantial raises to his favorite political appointees. While on that same day, President Trump was dealing with the news that the FBI agents had raided the office of his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen. Yep. Yeah, just kind of strikes me as grossly indulgent and not just by the emperor of the skecs, but also all the others.

Yeah. There is a deep-seated sense of entitlement. But there's no other word for it. Shot through that entitlement though, like, shot through that entitlement though, yeah, feels like there are veins of, we know that this is wrong, and we're doubling down on the entitlement to hide that from ourselves.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. You know what I mean? That kind kind of that internalized, yeah. Yeah. Like you are deliberately disabling the arrow on your compass. Yeah. You know, because you don't want to listen to it. Right. You need to drown it out.

Right. I think, I think yes. I also think and I'm trying to figure out how to how to force this. I think it becomes K-fave. It does it does it does become K-Fame and I also think there is this there's this idea this paradigm might be a good word for it that like well you know what I've gotten to this position and since I'm in this position you know the people who get in this position do this shit all the time. Like I genuinely think that the kleptocrat class thinks that everybody's a kleptocrat.

Like they, they're, there is a level of school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To justify to themselves, they have to believe that everybody does it. But I think there is a level on which that belief is a legitimate belief that they're like, oh, seriously, look, look at, look at anybody, look at all of them. They've all done this.

It's part of the dialogue anytime Trump, especially like he's the, can shit of the whole thing. Oh, it's that one. So what about his shit? Yeah, but the moment and he like you show him the receipts for like, no, this is fucking criminal. His response isn't, well, no, I didn't do it. No, I'm framed. His response is, well, you know, Hillary did it. Right. Bill did it. You know, and if you look hard enough, oh, Bommet did it. Look at all this, you know, it's always, right. You know, it's always what about is him

because in his own head, he legitimately believes that everybody has done it and it's unfair for him to be singled out. Mm-hmm. And it's like, no, you don't understand how actually fucked up and aberrant you really are. I see, I think again, deep, deep down, he does. And I also think, also think he deliberately goes out of his way, not to self reflect.

And I don't just mean, oh, definitely, Trump. I mean, yeah, people of that ilk who act in that kind of bad faith. I think that is a true thing about them. Yeah, that it's a self defense mechanism. And I think the skecs is aren't to that level because they are created as being pure evil. Yeah, but they recognize the need for their bullshit and yet they're loosening that even

because they're drunk on power, they're drunk on essence, ultimately, and they're addicted. I also think that the skecs is differ from them, obviously not being human, not being of human nature, but also so as to show that effectively, it's the same thing anyway. Yeah. Okay. I'll go to saying, I'm arcing it if the result is the same. It's the same shit. Yeah. No, you're right. And just in case the emperor wasn't too obvious. Just, you know, just in case.

In case, when he realizes that his injured hand is still decaying, he, uh, he, he takes his leave of the dinner and he visits the scientist who's still trying to fix the machine for essence extraction. And he asked, quote, how many galflings must we drain to cheat death for all eternity? To do it is inordinately scared of death. Yeah, well, anybody whose soul is knowingly empty like that is going to be right. How can I know who how many do I have to kill to fill this how how many people on Fifth Avenue do I have to shoot so that I can come again. Yeah. And and this this brings up a couple of things thinking about it.

The first one that occurs to me is this goes back to an idea that I know I've brought up a bunch of times out of Tolkien, which is evil does not create anything. Evil can't make anything new. Evil doesn't have the capacity for capacity for a generation of anything, because at at its core, it is empty and annoying and it knows it. And so there is there is fear. There is deep-seated fear underneath everything else. And that that comes to mind as you know, a reaction to that. Definitely. It also it also there's another thought. I was going to say it also consumes its agents. It doesn't empower us. Yes. Yes. And that's that actually goes back to Dragon Lance, the law of evil.

Evil consumes evil consumes itself. There you go. See, your first point that you brought up reminded me of a book and I was ahead my head turned nuts. So it wasn't listening, but because I was looking for the title, dark rendezvous, where Yoda goes and talks to Count Duku is before episode, I think is before episode two. It's certainly before episode three and It's certainly a before episode three. And he talks to him and they have this wonderful thing.

And Duke is like, the dark side gives you all this and this and this and this. And he goes like, cool, I want a flower. And he's standing on Duke's desk and Duke is like, I can buy you all the flowers. I was like, no, I want you to make me a flower. I used the dark side to make me a flower. I can do all this and you start stamping his foot. I said, I want a flower. You cannot make me a flower. I can do all this and you start stamping his foot. I said, I want a flower. You cannot make me a flower with the dark side. It is a cool little thing, but it reminds me exactly

of the thing you said. Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's an excellent illustration of the point. That's perfect. And then there was something else that I was that like I had in my head and about evil It was before talking about evil Emperor had Notice that his hand was still rotting. Yeah, it's still it recall to you two different things one was talking Yeah, yeah, and the other And it's well here is my hope was that the other would remind you of Leia Coco. No, but I think I know where you're going with that.

So let's talk about it. How much fresh air do we really need? Yeah. Fucking boomers and their predecessors. I swear to God. It comes the environment. It's just how much can I extract from it before I fucking die? Yeah. Yeah.

Or like when Trump said this, quote, we slashed more job killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. He said this after he rescinded the clean power plan by executive order. Yep. Yeah. Well, he didn't actually do that. Like he got sued to stop him several times, but he did everything he could to rescind the group of power. But he signed the papers to try to do it. Yeah. And he got a lot rescinded actually. So like, for instance, made it so that we could put lead back in bullets, which served absolutely nobody. Oh, you know, it was, again, the cruelty is the point.

It was, it was all of it was anything that's been done by a democratic administration in the last 30 years or anything that looks like it's trying to protect people. Yeah. There's that extra layer, like that weird ass masculinity of like men don't protect men dominate You know, it's like that like fuck you like even cober commander knew better Cobber commander created a pretty good benefits program It's good. Why they had they had recreational facilities. They all had masks. They all yeah like dude They all had masks. They all yeah like dude. That's like that. Damn it. Anyway, so the scientists

answers the emperor and he says that the more that they consume the essence, the worse it is going to be for the crystal making the crystal have to work harder to drain the essence and the faster the darkening will spread. The emperor rages that there is no darkness, which should sound familiar, or there's no darkening, I apologize. And then he insists that the scientist give him a number. At this point, the scientist says 50 gulflings per try with absolutely zero evidence. He's just scared. So you remember when Trump says,

we should be shooting bleach into our veins. Now I said that and then I read the next line. Now I could liken this to Trump saying they could bleach people's veins. Yeah. But that does happen after the series. This is true. That's not fair. But it does point to the the anti intellectual. I don't give a shit about what, what all the facts say you're an elitist brick, you know, attitude. And you know, the whole, the whole conversation goes to, you know, this, this whole darkening thing is just, it's a podling hoax. You know, you know, don't tell me what, you know, big fizz gig wants me to believe. Right. You know, don't believe big nerlock. Yeah, no big nerglock is full of shit. Yeah. Yeah. Who are you, you know, talking, talking from the mainstream, I can't think of

another critter name media like, okay, but mainstream mainstream never media. Yeah, there you go. Typical, you know, that's why I only listen to Gartham news. Hey, oh, nice. Thank you. But like, the whole attitude of if you don't tell me the answer I want to hear, you're full of shit. Mm-hmm. And I'm just not going to believe it.

Right. You know, is so on brand. Oh, on brand. And anything and anything that, you know, points in the direction of maybe we shouldn't like rape the planet. Yeah. No, see, there you go back. I'm just gonna brush that aside because like, you know, what a fucking sweet skis. Mm-hmm. Soy skis, skex soy, I don't know. Anyway, you know. Yeah. So eventually the general of skex, he starts draining Gurgin to torture him and get information about Rian.

Remember Gurgin run, Rian, run, right? Holy shit.urgin, though, is pretty defined and pretty much not breaking the whole time, which is pretty cool. The emperor stops the process largely because he says to the general, you need to go to Harar. And now we cut to Harar and Brea has figured out the puzzle. The pile of stones activates into a lore who imprints on Brea. And then Brea brings Seladon down to show her and immediately Seladon attacks the stone creature with her guards. She orders the paladins to attack him because it's Seladon and that could threaten her power. She sees lore essentially as a dangerous development and has imprinting on her sister

as a thing that needs to be stopped. So you remember when Bernie started getting some steam ahead of him or behind him and his idea of flattening the disparity between the haves and the have-nots and his effort toward taxing the rich and making the seven clans more equal. seven clans more equal. So yeah, yeah, the only thing that I probably have with that analogy is you've described Seladon as being like all in with the Fash. Yeah, I don't, I don't see the problem because corporate Democrats immediately all around him started attacking him. As soon as he got some of the support from their kids because it was Hillary's turn.

Now again, I think that she was a very competent person. I think she's the most qualified person to ever do the job to not get it. That said, the reaction of the mainstream democratic machine was to squash him. Okay. All right. So. So all right. In this case, motivated less by her loyalty to the skecs, then preservation of her own power and getting her turn. Yes. Okay. Very much because she is next in line. Okay. They all moderate. Okay. And she's been playing by the rules.

And the rules are, and she's loyal to the rules because that's how we have order. Otherwise, you're going to have anarchy, right? Right. Okay. Anyway, well, Rian meets with a bunch of people who want to kill him, like Gurgian sisters, one of them, and a few other people are with her and then a few others want to kill him. And then his dad pops in. Um, and, and he convinces them. He's like, look, just dream fast with me. If, if you don't like it, you

can kill me after and Gurgian sister, whose name I want to say is Naya. She is bent on revenge against Rian, because she's heard that he's killed Mira and Gurgian. Like the story has grown, right? So she's like, if I go mad, I'm going to kill you first. And he said, that's totally fair. Just dream fast with me. So they're all dream fasting. There's like six of them.

And suddenly his dad shows up and puts his hand on the dream fasting. And now that I think this makes six. Now six gulfling or dream fasting, which is really powerful, I guess it's an exponential thing like orgies, and they see the truth of Reyn's experience. And they finally believe him, and he and his dad actually get to have a moment,

and everyone is stunned as fuck and crying, because they saw Mira getting drained, and they saw the entirety of the system that they have lived under for generations, is built on consuming them. So, then they act, they all agree that they need to act on this truth instead about a plan that's going to help Naya, Gurgent's sister, who until she dream fast with Ryan, with Ryan is ready to kill him. She goes with Tavra, who is Bria's sister. She's from the Harar clan and they're, they're hunting them down to.

who is Bria's sister, she's from the Harar clan and they were hunting them down to. So you got two warrior women. Bria's, remember, Tava is Bria's older sister, but not sell it on. They decided to go to the castle to rescue Gurgin because they're both the fighters. Ordin and Rian have to get the fuck out of there because Ordin knows that since he switched sides, the skecks he's going to come after him and his son and they're going to come themselves. They're not going to send more galf line. And what's neat about this prequel is that we get to see the skecs is who didn't show up in the movie. And we get to see mystics who didn't show up in the movie. For instance, in this episode, we finally need a mystic named the archer. Can you guess

what he does? He has a Gex's counterpart named the hunter. Guess what he does. And the hunter is menacing as hell. And he nearly kills Orden with a throne dagger. So Ordin and Rian are running and suddenly twang, you know, there's Nia. Oh, yeah. Oh, you just looked up the hundred, didn't you? I'm I am right now. And he almost kills Ordin with the throne dagger and eventually there's a whole chase and a fight and there's some thunder and lightning and there's like these this quicksand like creature that devours people. Reans dad and the hunter both fall into that pit of the dying things.

Ordin dies fighting alongside Rean and then he gets devoured and you know because the hunter's like you're coming with me, you know, and they they fall through and you're like, oh shit, the hunter died. Then the hunter jumps the fuck out and right as Rian was talking to D to about like, oh my god, this is terrible. The hunter jumps out of like the murder berries and and grabs Rian and just takes right off. And then the episode, I think, ends with Deet on his trail. And that brings us to the fifth episode, where Reanne is hanging upside down as the hunter is getting ready to kill him for his trophy, because that's what the hunter really wants. Yeah, I found a wetter workshop.

Figure and menacing as fuck does not quite do him justice. Yeah, oh crap. Oh, yeah. Damn. Yep. So, what do you call it? So, Ryan is hanging upside down. The hunter is talking about like, I'm going to get my trophy from you, which is, I think it's his skull by best I can tell. And then Chamberlain interrupts. And Chamberlain tells the hunter that you need to stay

your hand right now. And the hunter's like, yo, this is like my trophy. This is what I do. And Chamberlain says, well, I'm on my own hunt for power. And this is how I need that. When I'm done, then you can have your trophy. And then Chamberlain looks at Rian who's hanging upside down and he Chamberlain grabs Mira's essence from Rian. Because remember, Rian was going to use his proof, right? Yeah. And drinks it right in front of Rian and mocks his pain.

proof, right? Yeah. And drinks it right in front of Rian and mocks his pain. Rian is hanging upside down watching the last of the essence go into the Chamberlain. I genuinely didn't think the Chamberlain could be any worse than he was in the movie. Yeah. And so much work proved to me wrong. Yeah. Wow. The cruelty is the point, right? Yeah. Fuck. You met when Trump mocked a disabled reporter, as we've discussed before. Oh, yeah. And then went on to mock the family. It did mock a gold star family. Went on to mock the victims of his own sexual assault. Yep. Uh, you know, well,

you know, she, you know, not, not, not basically saying she's not attractive enough for me to, right? You know, a soldier like he also mocked Christine Blesy Ford, who went public about her sexual assault by his nominee for Supreme Court justice. Yeah. Uh Kavanaugh, he even asked and mocked answered questions. He said, quote, what neighborhood was I in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know upstairs or downstairs. Where was it? I don't know. But I had one beer and that's the only thing I remember. Like he said that in front of a rally. Like it's just incredible how presidential this man was. And you know, like president, president, Edie fucking on mean, like, which is an insult to

ED on me. I was gonna say like, yeah, because I mean, actually served in the army. Yeah, he only ate people like, and did not complain of bone spurs. He also mocked a 16 year old girl who spoke at the UN because he was mad that she was times person in the year instead of him. Remember, he said, quote, so ridiculous, Greta must work on her anger management problem. Then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend, chill Greta, chill. That was his tweet.

Oh, I know. Oh, I remember what's interesting is in all of the things that you've described coming out of the schaxis, the one way that the American right has managed to outdo them is in straight-up emotional fragility. I think you see some of it with the collector and with the Gormonde and with the, she's, I forget what she is. She's basically an anesthetician. Anesthetician? Yeah, she's a one of those.

But yeah, and I haven't really mentioned them. But you see them being like extra snowflakey of just okay, so hurt so pearl clutching and yeah, but by and large you're right I mean at least the skecs these are self-actualized And when they're being passive aggressive it's it's a ploy right rather than just like psychological self-preservation. Yeah, so So meanwhile the gulfling are still slow to realize that there's an all-out war on them as it's being perpetrated onto them Like destroying them for the skexies is is the goal because it benefits the skexies and the ones

That are most slow to realize this are And the ones that are most slow to realize this are still the ones that are in power, the modras and people like that. They rely on the relationship with the skexes, so it makes some sense, but Jesus Christ is putting it on thick. So the general tells the all modra because he goes up to Harar.

He says, I need the strongest seven gulflings from you to act as aides. And I'm doing this to all of the clans going around to all clans, getting the seven strongest. Now there's seven clans and he needs seven gulflings from each. What's that give you? Number one. 49. Right. Which is one shy of the 50 per trying that the scientists pretended that they needed. Right. So he says, yeah, I need your strongest seven because the aratham are back and we need to fight them. You remember the. Yeah, there's an

aratham in the first episode. episode exactly so it's a kind of an internship, but when they get devoured without their village knowing because you know they they died fighting the aratham bravely. Now we need seven more to carry on this war like it's it's very unending war kind of shit. So essentially like this is being a page to a Florida congressman, right? So Chamberlain talks to Ryan the whole way. That is, that is not. Wow. And yet it is, it is verifiably true. Like you remember that guy? And defense was I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do.

And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do.

And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do.

And I do. And I do. And I do. And I do, with Rean. And he talks to him the whole way back. And this is where you hear his language, like really shifting. And he re, all the way back to the, the palace of the crystal, he recast what happened as Rean. Um, he recast it as you ran like a coward. And, and it's okay that you ran like a coward because you're trying to save yourself and all beings want to save themselves and and that means skex is two and gelfling. See, there's fine people on both sides. And both sides are absolutely doing the exact same thing because grammatically they're similar. Right. So the skecsies want to survive, so they drink essence, and the gelfling want to survive.

So they run from people with swords. That's how it works. In a later scene, and I stitched some of these together, but in a later scene, Chamberlain says to re-in that a revolution would actually kill the gelflings. And he says that the skecsies are immortal. So the choices, do you want to be our pets or our enemies? Wow. Yeah. And saying the quiet part out loud. Yeah. Well,

he's in a position of power at this point, right? And, yeah. Reen ref he refuses that choice actually, which I'm like, go, good. And Chamberlain says, all gulflings lose, or no, he never uses the plural. He says all gulfling lose or a few gulfling lose all. War is end. And then Ryan fires back with unless we win. At which point Chamberlain pulls a gambit. He stops the carriage and he says to Ryan,

Ryan, go ahead and run then, right? But he says, if you run, there's going to be a deadly war, and it's going to kill all the gulfing. And and and Ryan relents. He he he he says, you know, I, he stays. And Chamberlain Muses says, is difficult being voice of reason in such crazed world? Lindsey Graham Ted Cruz much? Yeah. I immediately went to stable genius, but yeah, no, you're, yeah, you're, you're, you're, you're analogy is much stronger, but yeah, wow. Yeah, we need to have at least one of us with a hand on the wheel because, you know, it's like, why you're turning everywhere he wants to. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, fuck you. Mm-hmm. And the, and the garthth that we wrote in on exactly. So, Seladin and Brea argue a lot. You remember Seladin is the daughter of the Almodra and Brea is her little sister and they argue a lot. And the crux of the issue for all gulflings is kind of held between these two.

Seladin says that Brea is conspiring to end the Skexes rule, and she's asking Brea, what would happen to the gulfling, what would happen to their mother, what would happen to their royalty, if the Skexes fell. So that's Seladin's argument, and it's the argument of maintaining the power structure as it is, even if it's harmful to the people, so long as the ones in charge can make nominal changes and appear to be helping. Or, as Bria wants, end the complicity and come what may. And sell it in absolutely thinks complicity is worth it to avoid revolution and Bria calls out her older sister saying that it's much more about the crown for her than anything else. So even the good of the gulfling that is the crown or I'm sorry even the good of the gulfling is what the crown is supposed to protect and Sell it in is focused on the crown itself. Yeah

And when Brea comes to her mother about what's happening and what the skecs these are doing, her mother, the fucking Al-Majra won't listen to her. Proceed your, you're always on about this shit, et cetera. Yeah. Yeah. She's frankly more concerned about Bria's lack of obedience because after all, Bria was supposed to be with the order of lesser service at this point. And really what we're seeing here is it's, I mean, you've got at best your centrist Democrats, your corporate Democrats being really mad at

kids for being leftist because of the optics. Yeah. It's a conflict between establishment leaders and the new generation, right? It's the comfort of known tradition. Even if you're getting your teeth kicked in by people who aren't paying attention to that known tradition, even if you're getting your teeth kicked in by people who aren't paying attention to that known tradition, because you can at least point out, well, at least we followed the rules, versus facing the reality that's uncomfortable and forces folks to confront and name a conflict that is absolutely happening. Yeah. And I think there's also a level of, not just centrist Democrats, but the classical liberal

yes, faction. Yeah. And I mean, right now, of course, with the state of the world being what it is, like, we need all the classical liberals, you know, shouting and screaming about shit because, you know, fascists literally in the streets, but, but in, in 2016, the teenager, just watch your language, like come on. This is not the way to do this, right? You know, and the, and for a brief period of time, I was one of these people. We don't

silence speech. We fight speech with other speech. Like, yes, yes, in an ideal world, true. like yes, yes, in an ideal world, true, but they're advocating for violence directly. Right. Like no. Yeah. The inability of either side in that debate, but I think that the onus is more on the ones in positions of responsibility to, to, to, unify. And say, okay, no, look, we can disagree on this, but these people are literally, these, these, these creatures are literally eating the planet to, to go, you know, back into the dark crystal, you know, version of it. They're literally eating the planet to go back into the dark crystal,

version of it. They're literally eating the planet. And by the way, where are the planet here? Yeah. They're vampires. They are a form of literal fucking vampire. We need to figure out how to get some sunlight up in here. Like, what? Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of the tone policing

that happened in 2018 of people who wanted to keep talking about what had happened in Charlottesville. And the tone policing, even at that time of like, well, if they hadn't gone after that Monument, it's like that monument was legally being taken down the unite the right assholes were the ones that were going against What the people of the cities representatives wanted yeah the democratic the the democratic process Right Had has literally led to the dismantlement of that monument, because everybody in the community was like, yeah, no, it's time for this thing to come down.

But then the United Right assholes came in, and their Jews will not replace this shit, and then ran over people and shot into crowds. And everybody was like, man, those leftists are just so violent. Yeah, yeah, it just like like behind the one take Chris pills what who yeah, yeah literally literally marching down the streets. Yeah As as foreign invaders, right Overblown you oh, you're overblown. Well, you know, you're like, Tiki torches much like I know we all got a big kick out of making fun of those guys marching, you know, Polish shirts and chinos carrying, you know, dollar store fucking T-tortures. Like,

yes, I was one of those people who who pointed and laughed, but at the same time, there's a genuine threat to be clocked there. Like, no, it's not the locals assholes. Yeah. And by clocked, I'm down for all the definitions of that word. So yes, yes, multiple definitions at once. Yes. Yes.

So sell it on doubles down and tries to get the all moderate to not even listen to lore, even though Bria is begging her to like, yes, I know I broke the law, we can deal with that later. Please come listen to this rock monster that lives under your fucking throne, mom. And, and the all moderas like you broke the rules. I don't need to listen to you. And it's that kind of shit. Luckily, she has a relationship with Brea

and the Almodra still does trust her and so she does go down and listen to lore. And lore has this cool thing that he does where he pulls out his finger, which is needle shaped and he goes on to his wrist, which has got grooves on it and it, and he goes on to his wrist, which is got grooves on it, and it plays, he's a phonograph. Well, that's pretty cool.

It's rad. And all Madro is completely unaware that the throne had lore below it, like that there was a room below the throne at all. She had no idea which fair. So while the general and ceremony master are inspecting the seven strongest who are in the Vapra throne room, right? Because remember that was the whole point was we're here for your seven strongest whom they planned to drain but are claiming that are for the coming war against the aratham. Seladon is present there.

And she has continually felt the sting of her mom's heart, love for her. And she's definitely internalized it in the wrong way and the wrong messages and her mom has been shitty to her. So she's sitting in the royal chamber. Meanwhile Selad or meanwhile, Al-Maudra and Bria are down in the thing. Selina on sitting in the royal chamber and Deet arrives. Deet, who was too dirty for the stone in the wood folk, and now she arrives. And since she's not Vapran, Selina on's idea of her own superiority to such a person, multiple levels leads her to not really listening to Deet until Deet mentions a blight, which the Vapranes have countenance and have had

experience with because you remember the farmer family. Celadon sees this as an opportunity of like, I'm going to have the, I'm the only one who's going to have this knowledge. So I'll be able to grab some power with it. And she tells Deet to tell her everything, even though she doesn't trust the grotten. So meanwhile, the Almodra is downstairs, you know, in a secret alcove. And she starts to believe and listen to Brea and they dream fast and sell it on dream fast with Deet to find everything out.

And everyone at the camp were Gurgian and Nia and Kylin are because they've rescued Gurgian. And Kylin is a swamp-based sear and singer of songs who was accompanying Nia. And Ryan, they're all, or Rean, and they're all resting from rescuing, uh, Ryan from Chamberlain, because they, they break up the, uh, they actually destroy the, uh, the carriage to rescue. Ryan, it's pretty cool. So they are all dream fasting. And so all eight of these gulfling are dream fasting.

And when they do, they end up in a shared vision in the chamber of the crystal with augura sending there. And augura tells them all about the role that they have to play in fighting skecsies. Seladon is a part of this. And Seladon absolutely objects immediately and stands against everyone, despite the overwhelming evidence.

Cause she sees, she sees, you know, she sees what's happening. And she's like, no, no, this gets these are are lords. So, Augura, like pushes her out of the vision straight up, like boots her from the dream fast, which really sucks because that was before they then showed everybody the thing about the draining. If you kept her for like three extra minutes, Agra, but sell it on clearly wanted to run and tell the skecsies anyway.

So in the in the dream fast, Agra tells everyone the truth about what's happening and shows everyone the experiences of everyone else and everyone sees that Thras hurting and Thras calling them a place to stop the skeptics. And now everybody is more certain of their mission and they make plans to get everyone together for the next steps, including Naya and Kylin who Agra tells them he straight up says, light the fires of resistance. fires of resistance. Yeah, that's pretty clear. Yeah. Yeah. Now, this all came out in August of 2019.

Star Wars came out in December of 2019. Mm-hmm. Now, that was the final of the prequel though. The other one came out a year before this, right? Or two years before this, where he's talking about being the spark that lights the fire. Yes.

So borrowing a lot. Now the all-modra promises that the Vaporklan will now stand against the skexies. All right, cool. We've got the leadership on board. But meanwhile, Cylodon goes and spills everything about the traders to the general. Exactly. And since all of them are dream fasting, she's the only one that's out and about. This leads to a power struggle over the custodianship of Deet and Hub.

The paladins of the Vapra have been holding the prisoner and because plot and shitty royal court stuff. The all-modra frees them once she ends the dream fasting and then she walks in on Seladon, conversing with the general and the ceremony master of the Skexus. And the all-modra makes her stand. She says, you know, this, this is not going to happen. And it's a really cool speech. And the general says to her like, oh, you've been all Madra because we let you be all Madra. And she says that she knows they're draining the gulflings for their essence. She calls, she confronts them. And she gives a really good

feudal, defiant speech, ending each part with the phrase, no more. So we're not going to bend her neck and bow to allow the skexes to drain the gulfling anymore. The general responds and says, well, then you are no more. And he stabs her to death in front of her own daughter. And Siladon helps clean up the blood stains and licks his shoes. Pretty much. She blames Bria for her mother's death immediately, rather than deal with the consequences of her own complicity.

And the skexist remind Seladon that she herself had said that her mother was a traitor and that she's loyal. So, sell it on orders the paladins to take Bria and Deet and Hupp away when they come in saying to Bria, your no sister of mine. And she lets the skecs take the troublemakers away instead and thanks them for it. And then they say your welcome, all modra. Wow. Yeah. There's a lot of meat on the bone here. So you basically have the establishment Democrats and the progressive centrist Democrats who are not leftists, arguing on how best to deal with the monster that is the skexis T party, MAGA Trump Republican Party that's actively in power. One says we need to meet in the middle with the Party that's actively in power. One says we need to meet in the middle with the group that's actively promising to devour

the members of the other group and eventually all of them. The other says, well, they should be resisted and not allowed to do this. And then there's a fucking argument because the elder Dems are still playing according to the old rules while the Republicans are rewriting them as they please. I mean, we could take a look at how RGB's death meant another justice was going to be pushed through for Trump and his cronies, despite their promising that the denial of Merit Garland was a meritorious delay. But that happens, like I said, well, after this series aired. So while it is an interesting parallel, like I said, well, after the series aired. So while it is an interesting parallel, we're the pointing out that the truth exists in fiction.

It did not pay the rent on this particular case. Well, okay, I'm actually gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna quibble with you on that. All right. I think the mindset and the tactics and everything that the Republicans had done, prior to that Because there there were so many other occasions on which it was well-known

We we as the you know Republican majority in the Senate or the Republican minority in the Senate who are gonna Threaten to filibuster whatever the fuck you want to do Mm-hmm either way They'd say well, you know the rule is this thing and Then when they had the power to ignore the rule they'd be like well, no know, the rule is this thing. And then when they had the power to ignore the rule, they'd be like, well, no, that's not that's never been a rule. What are you talking about? You know, we, we make the room, you know, we're the ones in power. We make the rules. And, and that's been like you've pointed out any number of times

that that's been their playbook long before RGB long before any of that other shit. Yes. Um, you know, that that's that's just that has been, you know, play number 15. Mm hmm. In their, you know, top 20 favorite things to fucking do legislatively. Yep. You know, and so I think, you know, when you say that doesn't pay the rent, I mean, like as a direct reference to the situation with RGB, no, it doesn't pay the rent.

Right. But it does pay the rent when you're talking about, no, this, this was their tactic generally. You know, I would agree. I would agree. So yeah, I mean, the conditions were there, and this is an allegory for the shit they pulled. And it's also an allegory for the shifting of the overton window that, well, you know, the extremists and the leftists and the commies are saying all

this stuff, you know, you don't want to have a communist revolution to be. If you want to have, you know, we can't have anarchists running things. Oh my God. Scary terrifying Antifa. Like, okay, the reason we have scary terrifying Antifa on the streets is because there are open fucking Nazis. Like they, antifa would be perfectly have is one of my favorite quotes about antifa. Like if there weren't Nazis on the streets, literally every operative,

whatever you want to call them, within antifa would be totally happy to hang home, getting stoned and like eating cheesy bread. Like that's what they would be doing. Like, you know, they might be busy arguing with each other over Marxist philosophy. They might be busy, you know, they might, they would be activists, certainly many of them. But like, they're not going to be on the streets marching to like punish mainstream regular you know suburban Republicans. They're out there to beat up fascists. Right. If you don't have fascists on the street, you're not going to have to worry about antifa. Right. But the myth is oh my god, look at the scary leftist anarchist, you know, mask over

their face, you know, people. And yeah. Of course, the reason they have the mask over their face, I mean, that's what's called black block. That's from Portland. And it's because the police were using all kinds of facial recognition software to then haul people in extra judiciously. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, okay, so RGB, I still don't think pays rent, but I do think different Supreme Court justice may be illustrative. Brett Kavanaugh had a history of being both a cox dain of a human being and an avatar of what white privilege and family

privilege can do for your career. Don't you got it, man? Like, Kevin, I argued in front of the Supreme Court as a lawyer working for Ken stars firm, um, I'm asking the Supreme Court to disregard attorney client privilege. I'm I'm I'm sorry, Sifikker says what? Yep. When he was later a circuit judge on the DC circuit,

he wrote the majority opinion for in Ray Kellogg Brown and root. So, you know, K, KBR, ink stating the importance of attorney client privilege. Okay. Now, as somebody with some legal training, I'm not a lawyer, but I went to school to become a paralegal. That's a thing lawyers fucking do. Like depending on who your client is client is depending on what case it is you have to zealously argue Yes as lawyers. Yes as a fucking judge

Okay on the circuit a Circuit judge And in one of his final opinions before going up for the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh solidified his support of attorney client privilege in FTC versus boring or angle M farms incorporated. At the very least, he's shown a tendency towards supporting corporations when it came to attorney client privilege. Well, yeah, at worst he's a hypocrite who was just the guy to step in for Justice Kennedy, who a man whose son did a lot of work with Trump's people overseas via Deutsche Bank.

But there's more going on here than just the skecs is changing the rules when they're in charge as it pleases them. They've been in there for a thousand trying. And then the gulfling loyalist justifying that loyalty due to the shelving of her own moral duties because of the oaths and the rules that were taken. What's going on here is that the mother of Thra, Lady Democracy, Agra, speaks to the eight disparate parties within a larger coalition who are the most connected to Thra, democracy itself. One immediately dips out the establishment and tradition is sell it on. Even her own mother who was slow to turn is now on the side of fighting with skecsies. Mm-hmm. Um, oh, there I am. Especially now that she's seeing their actual plan to devour everyone. So, all Modra doesn't have to be Nancy

Pelosi, but it's a pretty good standard, right? Quote, we can work with them because that's what this system has always been and I have a lot of faith in my own ability to win. Turns very quickly into quote, we need to get these assholes out of power because they're bad for the whole system pretty quickly. Mmm. And aside from apologizing to Brea, all Madra didn't really atone for her complicity in the system that she's clearly saw oppressing others. You might remember that

pendant from the farmer's daughter. And then her wearing it later as a gift from the skexies. And then she dies. So it's not a one-to-one comparison, but it's a pretty solid cutout for a fantasy world with Vulture monsters draining life essence via crystal from weird puppet people. And the others have different jobs to do as well. Some coalition up, right? Rihanna, the fighter who saw it all happen, is now going to the capital to meet with the intellectual and the environmentalist, and they'll form the progressive party aimed at actually stopping the skecsis. Notice I said stopping, not eradicating banishing exiling, punishing or bringing to justice, just stopping them where they are. Which means this far no farther,

but it also means this far. Naya and Kylin are going to go light the fire of resistance, their activists spreading the message and awareness through feminist action and song. Naya is a strong fighter and a woman and Kylin is a seer and a singer of songs. Lore, the ancient record of what was, so literally the Constitution, will be Brayas guide and she and Ryan and Deet go to the circle of the sun to find the key to ending Skexus power. So get elected or lobby elected officials. Story wise, the circle of Suns is fascinating. It leads to my favorite scene in the whole series in the next episode or so. And Seladon, all her loyalty to the process, all her

accepted self-imposed overlords who have legitimized her access to power, and all her need for that power to continue to find a meaning. It enables her to ignore their actual murder of her mom right in front of her, and it allows her to blame her sister who's agitating for change as the reason for the murder Endangering her own power and in history how many times have we seen the centrist desire to stay centrist despite the shift to authoritarianism How many times have we discussed von Papin Schumer Graham cinema and so on Selinon is the puppet cut out for all of this out for all of this. Okay. And what's wild is that in episode six, Seladon thinks that she's actually all Madra and sits on the throne. And just as she does, Laura smashes through the throne

and knocks her the hell out, destroys the old monument to her and her predecessors authority, which was built on forgotten chamber of his wisdom. And I love the visual of the embodiment of the constitution, essentially smashing the symbol of power that they forgot what it was built on. He then just stares down on her, which feels like an anthropomorphized rock stare of judgment, and then he just moves on. Nice. Yeah. Now, as uh, actually, I think I'm going to stop us there. I think that's a good place to stop. Okay. So any gleaning? I continue to be impressed that in the almost 2020s, anybody would be ballsy enough to write science fiction fantasy in the vein of, no, you don't understand. I'm, I'm black on the left side of my face and white on the right, right. And he's black on the right side and white on the left. Like,

some animals need to be dropped, right. And we, we as a, as a society as science fiction, fandom as nerds as whatever you want to say have have gotten to a place where we look at those those old Star Trek episodes and we're like, oh my God, how corny could you be? You know, or the twilight zone, you know, people, people have been calling in saying that the darkness seemed as particularly pronounced in Georgia and Alabama. Right. You know, like we get it. We, we understand, and this is analogy,

you don't need to hit us over the head with a hand. Hammer. But, you know, I think what occurs to me, thinking about that is in situations where the issue in the real world is that fucking obvious. And that critical. Then maybe we shouldn't be so quick to point and feel smug about, well, that's just that's so terribly on the nose.

Yes, it's on the nose because otherwise, you're gonna find a way to fucking ignore it. Right. I mean, Celadon literally saw her mom murdered by the skecs, he's right in front of her. Yeah. And she's finding ways around that. Yeah.

Seconds after it happens. Yeah, and in the real world, Yeah. Seconds after it happens. Yeah. And in the real world, centrests were finding ways to make excuses for tear gas grenades, being flung at people on the border and rubber bullets being shot at people on the border. And children being incarcerated. And fairness, those people on the border were guilty of misdemeanor. incarcerated, you know, and, and,inis at the fucking country club.

He should also get non-leafed rounds fired directly at his own. Well, like, I mean, you know, if you're gonna argue. Without question. Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe I'm not gonna disagree with you on that point now, but like, no, that's not how the system actually works. And you are explicitly stating that, well, okay,

there's one set of rules for this misdemeanor, but this other misdemeanor, which is racial, should be treated differently because I'm I'm I'm a wasp and you know, like, I should I shouldn't have to worry about that shit. Like, no motherfucker, nobody should have to worry about that shit. Yeah. I want to believe like, like, I am, I am a conservative. I believe in tradition. I believe in preserving what we need to preserve. What you're advocating is not, is not conservatism. What you're advocating is racism and white supremacy. That's an entirely different set of shit.

Yes. And like if we don't make this as painfully obvious and uncomfortable for you as we can, you're going to find a way to rationalize it just like you've rationalized all the rest of this shit. Yep. And you know, like, it was living through this particular period in history, to the extent that I have up to this point,

has been frustrating for me as a Cisette White guy who really, like, I could pass, and I know that I have all this privilege that like I don't have to like it's not my neck on the line. Oh yeah, if you just keep your head down and just go about your business. Like whatever. Yeah. But you will suffer a none in your lifetime. Yeah, and I know and I know, and I know that. And I know that when I talk about how frustrating this is for me, I am speaking from a place of

incredible privilege that it's just frustrating for me. But like I was raised to believe in an idea of absolute right and wrong. Right. And that right and wrong is based on ethical and moral principles that apply to fucking everybody. And when you say that you are a country of laws not men, and when you say that the law treats everybody equally, then motherfucker, we got to work to make that be the way things are. Yep. Like, and it is infuriating to me to watch so many people do exactly the kind of thing that Seladon did to a lesser, to get it's not as extreme as watching your own mother murdered in front of you.

Well, I mean, you've got to get it across using. Yeah, well, yeah. And that's this point I was making earlier. But like watching that happen in real life with so many people who are like, well, you know, I don't really believe one way or the other, you know, both sides are extreme. It's like, no, there's only one side

that's trying to do this shit. Yeah. And it's just, it's just, it's intensely, the amount of time, the amount of time and forces those people who are in that position and who are trying so hard to be that person, to make them uncomfortable. So they actually have to turn around and think about shit. I think we need more things like this. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

I don't disagree. Shouldn't be in a hurry to get all smug about, well, you know, dropping animals. Yes. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. I don't disagree. Shouldn't be in a hurry to get all smug about, well, you know, dropping anaples. Yes. Some anaples need to be dropped. Fuck you. So there we go. I ran to a lot there, but you did. Yeah.

So, all right. So what are you reading? Um, what am I, well, I'm not even talking about what I'm reading, because what I'm reading consists of a lot of student work. I don't know if I'm trying to do this. So what do you recommend to read? Five paragraph essay. Um, I'm going to very strongly recommend, again, um, the Marvel, uh, original dark crystal

movie adaptation. I'm also going to recommend, because as we were talking about this while you were talking about all the different, you know, factions and everything, it looks to me like the sequel comics and the adaptation comics for this series, look pretty freaking good. Yeah. And so I'm going to very highly recommend those because I'm going to be seeking them out. So I recommend everybody else do the same. So maybe we can get more dark crystal media. Yeah.

So what about you? I'm going to recommend police brutality and white supremacy, the fight against American traditions by Eaton Thomas. He also had written We Matter, Athletes and Activism, which I really liked. He used to be the center for the Washington Wizards. And he is a poet and a scholar. And he's a really good interviewer. So that's what I'm gonna recommend for folks, police brutality and supremacy. So where can people find you if they wanna find you?

If you wanna find me, I can be found on TikTok at Mr. underscore belaylock. And until Twitter dies in a ball of blue flame and exploding feathers, you can find me there as Cat Fetcher. And you can also find us there as a collective entity as Geek History Time. Our website, of course, is www.GeekHistoryTime.com. And you have found us on one of the podcast services we're on or

on our website could be there too. Wherever you did find us, please take the time to subscribe and give us the five star review that you know we have earned. And what about you? And what about you? Well, you could find me at, let's see, Luna's on January 6th in Sacramento, bring $10 in Proof of Accination, or at Henry's in Sacramento on February 2nd bring $10 and Proof of Accination. So those are mostly the places you can find me.

If you want to send me cool stuff, then do so. Buy a at duh harmony, both on Twitter and Instagram, or duh harmony one on TikTok. So cool. Well, for a geek of a three of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.

I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.