BONUS EP: Clip Show #2

You didn't say you said say bye to your old boo. No, people, I mean, hang on, if your old boot has been down for the count all these years, it's like now, it's like now knew me? You know that person that stuck around with me and during my bad times I'm getting ready. That doesn't make I'm out of here. I'm out of here. I need to find someone else. I want to find someone that only likes the new shiny me,

not the person that was down before I made it. UM, Welcome to a difficent We are strolling down memory lane again. This week was some of our favorite moments from the podcast from this past year. Um Iffy, does anything jump out at the top of your head like a favorite moments? No, just your life, just just my life. No, Yes, favorite moments. I was about to give you something in my life.

You know, there's been tons of favorite moments. I think, like I said on Twitter, you know, Hector detailing the good Doctor Who and hearing those like like hearing Riley's great story about how Doctor Who inspires her and I even you know, hanging with an old Cannon and Chris. You know, that was a good time. And like a lot of y'all, a lot of the nerd fan really appreciated us touching on the lgbt Q plus community in the nerd community, and you know that's that's why we

did it. We want you to feel seen. Yeah, you know, I was really surprised that Lucy tom Lee Brenner, who did our Halloween episode, was able to do Halloween. They're just so many of them, and she did it so well in a way that was entertaining that it wasn't just like you know, reading off of Wikipedia or something like she was she Yeah, I was surprised that she was able to do that, and I enjoyed it. Yeah, and I we got tons of more fun like that

coming in two thousand nineteen. But for right now, here are some of our favorite clips. If you have something I need to say, though we are I don't know if you all know this a part of How Stuff Works comedy. We are two comedians and we're not going to just make this an educational, boring podcast. If you

want that, go somewhere else. The reason why Iffie and I got picked up and got hired and we're sent some money's from How Stuff Works to be on this network is because our previous podcast where we had a really good chemistry together, so we like sharing our experiences. If you want someone to go over minute details of a nerdy thing, this is not the podcast for you. Yeah that it feels like some people just want the

boring part about nerds stuff. I think the fun and and I know some people just took their headphones are like, yeah, I think the fun in nerddom and the information from nerdom is people's reactions, which is why we have tons of guests who are passionate about the source material we're talking about, even if we may not be as well versed in it. That way, we have at least one person in the seats jazzed up, and also we get to turn around and let them tell us about their

experience and get to share that with y'all. This isn't gonna be you know, I'm gonna like, we'll we'll give you the rundown on the basics, but we're not. We're not gonna like be like pop quiz, here's all this stuff because an episode thirty six of because I feel like if we did a podcast about that, people would only use it for evil. No one would use it for good. People would only use it to argue with us. Yeah.

I do want to say, though, are most listened to episode still is our m c U episode with Hector Navarro where Dan and I were talking about this earlier where we did go on tangents. We talked about what we loved about the films and what we didn't. It wasn't just like here's a factual and then Thor showed up and then this and that, Like we gave you the main highlights of what you needed to know from each film, but then we discussed and debated about them, and I think that in also laughed a lot, and

I think that is what makes this podcast great. I don't know, I think you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for having emotional reactions to things that you love absolutely should be ashamed of you. I really like our comic Con episode where I talked about how I got in by pretending to be with party Boy from Jackass, and like those are the behind the things things that you need to know about. And how if you you got in trouble for like I don't know you were

like sextying with a girl in a O L messenger. Yeah, like those are interesting fun facts to know a nerd culture. So, speaking of which, we are Verine with Kyle here today, who was an expert in Avatar the Last Airbender. You actually have a tattooed on your body? I do. I have the symbol of the air Nomads tattooed on my body with the words let go because air is the element of freedom. How many people confuse that for a

frozen tattoo? Most people confuse it for either six six six uh or or they think it's a Celtic symbol. Can I see I want to see you. It's so great because I see how it could be frozen. Um. Yeah, I also have my my French my fandom tattooed above my wrist to it. Oh yeah, and I got the biggest meaning I was trying to think of a non curse word way to describe this character. One of his battle cries Imperious Rex, and we all got it pretty close proximity Imperious Rex. Because I wanted a nerd tattoo

that would be subtle, uh and cool. Also I like it being a reference that not every nerd gets straight up just speaking of gate keeping, but not even like to the people feel bad about it, but like one of those like if you know, you know, because I'm a big Marvel guy, really love uh, just the whole illuminati behind it, which yeah, sorry if you don't know by now. Imperious Rex is name or the submartor's battle cry. That's what he yells when he goes into battle, and

it's Latin for powerful King. It's a it's kind of like if you've descended or us send it depending on your point of view to like a level of nerd dum you know, like you'll know and then it's like, okay, cool, you're on my level. He but for all intensive purposes, he's the worst. And people were looking at me when I had this tattoo because everyone knows I'm a huge Black Panther fan. But there was a whole arc where him and Chia were at Osny're like, how do you

feel about this conflicted? Yeah? Absolutely, I I understand. I'm an m A Frost fan from it. Also, I understand conflicting feelings. You know, that's only about three writers got her, right, So I understand your your your feelings. Well. Before we totally dive into the timeline of of Avatar The Last Airbender,

what was your first introduction to it? How did you for I mean, where did you watch it when it first came out on Nickelodeon's I did not watch it when it first came out of Nickelodeon because I was in high school and I was I was too cool to watch it. But then a friend of mine when I got into college, I was like, you need to watch the show. You absolutely need to watch it. And

it just ended. Uh, And so I got a hard drive with the three seasons of The Last Airbender and I just ran through it and it became I watched it at such a perfect moment in my life because so many of the lessons just kind of like I don't know, emboldened me and made me a better person in a lot of ways, and especially helped me like come into my own as like a queer person, so like I don't know, just a lot of ways. It

really helped me out. It was the best. Yeah. I also didn't watch it in high school because I don't know, so I was looking at the timeline. It first aired February twenty one, two thousand and five, and that's when it premiered, and I was in my junior year of high school. Same thing, like the area that I lived, and it wasn't really cool to watch quote unquote cartoons and I was still kind of secretly watching Dragon ball Z, but that was something that I started when I was ten,

so a little bit different. The dragon ball Z can span a lot of age ranges, I feel like true, but it was still weird for me to watch it as a teenage girl where I was. And then I was looking because Legend of Cora then came out in twelve and I was like, oh, I was getting married then, and then I was getting divorced, so like I actually didn't really grow up. I didn't really watch this series at all. Like I still haven't really picked it up.

And that's why I'm really we brought on Kyle to kind of one because you're a huge expert and love it, but also to kind of fill in the gaps for me. You don't need to write me anybody. I know that I need to watch it, along with a billion other things that I haven't had time to watch. But I'm just saying those times in my life were times when I wasn't when I was married, I would have to secretly like record anime that I wanted to watch. It was so weird. My husband kind of made me feel

weird for being adult that watched cartoons. It's just a reminder and again I'm saying, I know it's not cartoons, but like that's what we'll call it, and just a reminder to me that there's still so many areas like that where we're really lucky to be in an area and I think in like part of nerd culture where it's cool or or acceptable, but like there's still so many areas and probably people listening where like they can't even openly talk about it with their coworkers because they're

seen as weird, like if you don't have children, especially too. I think it's it's uh, if I could go back in time and tell myself in high school, like, you know, you need to watch this show because it is a kid show. It is on Nickelodeon, But it was written in such a way because originally it wasn't necessarily intended to be a kid show. Um, but they randomly got a few chances at Nickelodeon and they kind of turned

it into a kid show. But the themes and the stories, so much of it is so dark, like they tell such an adult story. And by the third season it's like, oh no, like straight up, like you can blood bend people, like it's it's messed up. Can can we curse on here? No? But if you do, they messed up, messed up. It is some messed up stuff. There we go. So what

is bending? So water benders um when they are during a full moon changes a little bit in legend core, but in the Last air Bender, water benders on a full moon can bend the water in your body and basically turn you into a puppet, which is horrifying and it also looks extremely painful, and it's like once once it gets to that level, it's like, oh yeah, you're not playing around, Like that's that's really messed up. Theoretically, they could pull the blood out of your body if

they wanted to. Man, Yeah, no, it it's so funny because looking at this timeline was everything clicks back yea. So it dropped February two thousand and five, which was coming on my birthday and my junior, does you bring this up like as many times as you can, you know, deep in my weep face, you know, I'm watching Cowboy Bebop, according which on Robin on the PHS got the Nauto

DVDs given to me at this point. So yeah, no, I looked down on Avatar heavy, like the worst type of And that's why it's so funny when people gate keep because when you when you do that gate keeping stuff, you are only hurting yourself because you do, especially when you do like elitest things like that. Like Avatar is

a beautiful show. I I I've popped in and watched episodes, uh kind of, I think like during season two and three because it kind of still it gained traction at my school and people kind of were talking about it and so like I peeped in and then I graduated and people were openly to so I kind of but I never gave it the honest full watch. Um and that's and it was all because of stuff like that.

I think another I've I've I've I was that type of person It's a it's definitely a personality type where if something is popping, you want to find a reason not to like it. I did that with m F

Doom and that's one of mine. That's that. It was with m F Doom that I told myself I would never do it again because everyone loved m F Doom, Like I think around same time junior senior year of high school and I was so like, he's over rating and for no reason, like I did not even know it m F Doom song, but because everyone was so into him, I had to be the guy who was

not into him. So then he first did a feature on November has Come with the Gorillas, and that's when I heard it and I your boy loved the rap. But of course I've already set up this persona that I hate himf do so so much of other people are like this is a dumb thing that if he's doing but okay, and like I was like yeah, no, I was like, okay, I'll give it to you guys. His verse on November has Come was great obviously at this this point, that's the only I heard, and I'm like,

oh man. And then it wasn't until like I graduated high school and I was like, let me just check this out because I really never have. And I listened to Food, which came out in two thousand six, and it was made for people like me. It was literally a rapper that was made for me. He was he m F Doom. He was supposed to be Dr Doom. He inter cut like old Fantastic four clips into his wraps,

like stuff that would blow my mind. I didn't know about, didn't even listen to because of this random need to be superior in my and I was gonna say nerddom, but they had nothing to just to be cool because I have to go against the grave, so for me, like on its most simple form, Doctor Who is a serialized sci fi series about a time traveling alien who travels space and time in a spaceship that looks like antime machine and spaceship that looks like a police box

for nineteen sixties and that's and basically travels around usually with a companion, once in a while alone but very rarely because it shouldn't travel alone. Finding people like kind of stumbling upon people who are in trouble and helping them. And that's basically the premise of the show. So it's not unlike how like the premise of Star Trek is like, Hey, we have a thing that's happening in this area space, let's go check it out and see what's going on.

That's basically what Doctor Who is like. They're often like the it's kind of quirky and at the hardest, which is the ship that they that they fly around in, which stands for time and relative dimension in space, Like they'll be like, Oh, we're gonna go to this cool vacation planet, and then they show up instead of planet instead and like there's like trouble of Bruin and they'll kind of figure out what's going on and then stop it. Are they often here on Earth? Other? Yes? Okay, both

yes equally? Would you say, I'll make it goes from season to season. It can be. Some seasons are real the Earth heavy. We've actually had a pretty Earth heavy several years, But other seasons they almost never come to Earth. So this most recent scene they always look human. For the most part. There are aliens that are alien aliens but for the most part, doctors always doctor looks well, humans look time from the show, Yeah, there's a lot of humanoid races on this ship. Oh so there's an

episodes actually actually from the show. Someone says, well, you look human. He goes, no, you look time lord. So there are what we perceived to be human. Time Lords basically look like humans, but they have two hearts and that's like the difference. That's the big difference between them. And they also can regenerate and have like longer, and they also can they've also I'm really glad that So I'm just gonna ask some questions. Sure um, and I'm gonna let you continue. So do they choose what they

look like when they regenerate? Some can not, all can, um, some people have randoms. Sometime lords have random regenerations. Others can choose it. It's not super dug into the plot. That's kind of one of those things where it's just like in one episode the writers thought it was funny they have this woman changed her appearance a bunch, So I guess sometime lords can. The show is so fast and loose with cannon that it's like really fun to watch.

Fans then like scramble to try to like this this is what this means, because basically what happened is there was one episode in the seventies where a character or named Romana who was the Doctor's companion, but she was

also a time lord time lady. They replaced the actress in the second season that they had her, so they had her regenerate into the other actress and so they just had like a jokey scene the first episode with her where Romana kept walking in with different forms until she like solidified the one she was going to take and then travel with the doctor and it was La

La Ward who was amazing. So that's like, so then like when you if you play the Doctor Who role playing game and you play, like if you're playing as a timelord, you can choose like customized regeneration as one of your options. Whereas you played the Doctor, you have like you can't choose your regeneration, Like the doctor can't like consciously choose his or her regeneration happens at random

random generation. So there's two questions. Yes, so I remember there was a limit on how many regenerations that the doctor has, Uh, have we reached that it's been reset because the thing is the thing with that something like that, and that's that is a thing that was written into the show back in the like seventies and when they

first started like fleshing out time Lord culture. Because when the show first started in sixty three with William Hartnell the first Doctor, the phrases that I'm using time Lord regeneration, two hearts gallop, right, none of that was part of the show yet. That was all the doctor was just a weird alien and he and his granddaughter were traveling the universe in this police box that like Tartist has now become like on the show the term people used

for these ships. But in that episode, like the granddaughter just called her ship the Tartist because of the initials. That wasn't like the official title for it, but it's just been reckoned over time, Like yeah, they're all called Tartists. So the original one was like thirteen regenerations, and then what happened was at the end when Matt Smith became Peter Capaldi, there was they they had squeezed in an extra regeneration when they did the fifty the anniversary special.

So there's a regeneration between Paul McGann, who was the Doctor who the actor who played the Doctor in the nineties TV movie who was the eighth Doctor, and christ for Eccleston who was the ninth Doctor, they squeezed in John Hurt as what we call the War Doctor. And the reason for that is because Eccleston didn't come back virtually special, so they replaced so since he wouldn't come back for it, they wrote in this new version of

the Doctor to kind of fulfill his role. So the idea is like, basically when the show came back into thousand five, when it kind of like had this soft reboot where it still had the old continuity, but it was kind of a new format show. Now it went from being a serialized twenty two minute episode show to being an hour each week, and each hour was like

a pretty self contained story. They introduced this concept of there had been this awful genocidal war in between when the show ended and when it came back that they called the Time War, and at the end of that time War the Doctor. It was between the Doctor's race, the Time Lords, and their greatest enemy, the Daleks, and the end of the Time War was at that point was written to me that the Doctor did something that

was called the moment. He unleased weapon called the Moment that destroyed both races and he was the only survivor of the war. And that's why Echolson's Doctor is so torn and tormented because he has this guilt of being the destructor of his own race on another race as well, which is very against what normally the creed of the

Doctor is, which is very antigenicidal. And like there's an episode in Classic Who called Genesis of the Daleks where the Time Lord send the Doctor, which is Tom Baker's doctor back in time to the Daleks home world to try to prevent them from ever being created in the first place, and he ends up not doing it because he doesn't feel like he morally has the right to to deny and that our species the chance to exist.

And it's a really interesting, fascinating episode. And so that was kind of the the crux of the new shows that Doctor had like broken his own promise, and that's why they brought in John Hurt, like he was like he hadn't even referred himself as the Doctor. He's the one who failed to be the Doctor. And then that's why he's the other ones are all feeling guilty then on,

So that was one regeneration that was squeezed in. And also you may remember during David Tennant's run this Net Present episode where he starts to regenerate and then like sends the energy out of him into a hand and turns into a new doctor. So that was like counted as regeneration as well. And so basically what happened was when Matt Smith was at the end of his run,

he said, like, I've used my regenerations. I'm dying. When I die, I'm dead, and then through plot things that I won't spoil for people haven't already heard it, they like re set his regenerations. And so Peter Capaldi was the first doctor of this news cycle and they've kind of now gone like, we don't know how many he has because they don't I think. I think when they made thirteen as the number that was back when the show, I had no idea they would last and come back

after a break. So it was easy to toss out like a number. It seems super fluck when you're on, like when you're all on the fourth Doctor, it's easy to go, Yeah, thirteen regenerations, We'll see whatever. Now that we're on Doctor. It's like they don't want to say a set market. We might hit twenty six at some point because we're kind of going through these people every three years or so. That's true. Yeah, I wanted to go through some of these facts about when it first premiered.

It was all over them out there, So no, no no, no nos, I want to stop you because I want you to go through those facts after these messages and we are back. I wanted to touch on the c w C. They're superhero shows, well several of their shows, but definitely their superhero shows seem to be really taking

initiative as far as including more queer characters. I know, there's Thunder and Black Lightning, there's Curtis Holt on Arrow, there's the Flashes, Captain Sing, there's Alex Danvers and Supergirl Sarah Lance and Legends of Tomorrow gave a sharp and Ledgends of Tomorrow. Now we have Ruby Rose as Batwoman. I don't know if you saw that that was announced. Yeah, that's very exciting. I think the main character too. You know bat Woman, he's one of the most fascinating characters.

And you know, if it was a few years ago and you told me that they would announce Ruby Rose as Batwoman and she would be getting tons of hate. I'd be like, oh, is it because it's a lesbian character? No, because nerds are bad? And and if if they think you don't because you know, all nerds are the perfect casting director. All these great fan casting picks that we see.

By the way, that's what's so funny. It's every time fans cast something, it's always trash, or the budget would be insane, or that person would not dedicate, like it's like get out of here, like they were upset with Was it Heath Ledger when he was originally Yes, that's so true. Fantastic um. Yeah, and there's also isn't Voltron have characters? They just confirmed it at Comic Conto. Oh and uh, thinking of even video games because I forgot

this reference. Tracer from Overwatch the one of the main faces of over watching lesbians. So yeah, I would be remiss if I mentioned Stephen Universe, which is brilliant, beautiful, such a positive bright. I mean even they though if even their fans are bad bad you want to like hit I want to like roll up a newspaper slash like spray them. But I also think it's the issue. I mean, Cannon sometimes deals with this working at PlayStation.

There is sometimes a huge amount It seems like it's a large number of people on Twitter, but it's because it makes people's voices sound bigger than it actually is. And a lot of times the Internet will freak out about something. It doesn't necessarily reflect the majority. It doesn't reflect sales, it doesn't reflect the majority of a fan base. It doesn't really reflect anything except for Internet. You know, Twitter height, which sometimes means absolutely nothing. It's it's bizarre. Yeah, no,

that's that's true. I know that you're good friends with Kelly Marie Tran and she experienced like so much hate that she got off social media. But the thing is that when I was at Comic Con there were so many people dressed like Rose Tico that it was just I mean, what it like. People just love her so much, But it's hard when like all you've seen as a small minority of Star Wars obsessive harassment. Yeah, and the majority of Star Wars fans are super lovely, nice people.

I think a lot of it has to do with two with people will have multiple accounts that the log into it makes if you. You you can have represents so many different people on Twitter that it it allows to for a falsehood of what actually is. But it's also I mean, it's why you know, Kelly's not on you know, Instagram. It's because sometimes you don't need to read everything all of the negativity. Yeah, and also it's

one thing that's important to know. It may seem like when you're getting all the notifications and all the people in your mentions, you know, it may seem like, damn, this is a huge amount of people who think this, but only seven percent of them Americans are using Twitter. That's seven percent of Americans are using Twitter. A fake account. That's a lot of fake accounts, and that's a lot of like that's not a lot of people. So so

that and and you know what it is. I find that to be true because whenever something big happens on Twitter and you do kind of step out to the real world and you're like, have you heard of this? And someone hasn't, You're like how, But like when you see a number like that seven percent, you're like, I guess, I guess not, you know, I guess I guess it isn't as as big a big a world as we think it is. It just feels that way. It is

people from other countries and smaller areas as well. I was also going to say, talking on the thing of online harassment, I mean it's something that Cannon has had to deal with working with PlayStation and everything. I don't know, if you can talk at all, you get like death threats from LinkedIn. They used to be really common, so when the PlayStation never was a little bit less reliable than it is now. Any time we have an outage, it's totally common for people that have PlayStation and they're

linked to profile to get death threats in your inbox. Wow, it's fairly common, and it's it's it's not it's endemic to the whole gaming industry. Like I have female friends that work at studios, and a lot of them won't even put what the name of the studio they're working at because the game will get released and then someone will be like, well, this level, this thing was misdesigned. So I'll go and find a female graphic artists and just start sending her death threats and hate mail, and

then everyone just bandwagons. And I remember that was a huge thing that happened with I believe mass effect where they were blaming this one woman for ruining the game and someone had to come in and be like, well, she didn't even have that huge a part of it. There's actually these men, but you guys are targeting her and it is interesting, and you know, does PlayStation do anything to protect y'all? Like can you report these people and you know, get their accounts yanked or anything. I mean,

it depends on the social media using. I mean, Lincoln has a pretty robust reporting system for offensive material, so it's not so bad. But eventually saying that LinkedIn is like the not the thing that you should be doing. Like LinkedIn, you can see where they work and who that person is that doesn't like Twitter, I understand because you're like a random anime avatar, but like linked In,

the fact that someone is oh man, I mean. But the craziest thing is you would think that Twitter would have a more robust reporting system than LinkedIn, because LinkedIn at least you're a level of professionals where Twitter should be doing everything it can. But we're learning more and more every day, and I'm gonna just leave it at that, and you know, just leave it at that. Yeah, I

think um one thing. And this probably may sound crass, but you just sort of learned to rise above it and ignore it because it used to really bother me. And then I just started saying, you know, none of this matters, Like they're not going to do anything. These

people are hiding behind a keyboard. And all the people that I went into, like, I have a When we launched the PS four, everyone got jackets that said PS four Launch Team, and I would just sometimes wear that I'm not thinking and I would have people come up in grocery stores and in malls and just randomly and they'd be like, oh my god, you worked on the

PS four. Can I shake your hand? And they just like the fans are like the best part, right, And it's I think it's important to remember the good experiences more than the bad ones, because if we let the bad ones kind of occupy our mind space, then everything's gonna just it's so difficult. I feel like for me, I look at it as a glass of water with the amount of sexual harassment that I deal with, and I send it Chris, I feel like you have been such a positive I just want to take this moment.

You're just you and Iffy have seen so much of the the harassment that I've dealt with trying to be in this space, and I just both are very supportive men in my life. But I wanted to say I look at it as like a glass of water, and it fills up, fills up, fills up, fills up, and then eventually I can't take it anymore and overflows, and then I kind of spiral from the harassment and I might take a break, I might step back, and and it sucks. I agree, because I want to read all

my comments. I want to answer the messages, but that means I have to see all the really bad ones, and it's very hard mentally to handle that. I think the scary thing is how Twitter is like the new KKK hood. I mean, I do mean that though, because I mean people. It's so crazy how people who are hateful, spiteful individuals they do it in a way where they

can still go to their day jobs. Like you must morally know deep down inside that you're doing something wrong and hateful if you're acting that way, but I think you're It's a lot of people who are on the Internet, and I think the biggest way that I've used to combat hatred is with our group meeting nerds who are positive, whether it's queer, people of color or just people who are loving, you know, people who are doing something for

the better good. Whatever your group is, it's finding people in person to talk to, because I think the best way to combat the internet hate is making a present outside in person is the best way to combat that. I was just gonna don't want to get too political, but you know, a big part of the Trump election for me was processing how kind of awful it made

me feel and how terrible I thought everything was. And what I eventually decided after kind of coming out of that fog, was that, you know, I can't change anyone's mind, I can't fight the hate directly. But what I can do is I can spend my time, my energy, and my money on helping the people in my community and then building that up. And that's kind of what made me get into activism. It's why I volunteer at the center.

That's why the Ely Gaming Society is starting to have fundraisers for the queer youth of Los Angeles so that we can get people, you know, onto a better track so that they're not homeless or not alone, or they don't feel so depressed all the time by all this negativity. And I can say that by putting my focus towards those kinds of things, my outlook has approved exponentially, even though the news un a fairly consistent negative is crazy.

Like having a positive outlet where I can take kind of that nervous negative energy and work it into something has made a world difference for me. Well, I mean you saw like you see negative homophobic like Kitako would have like a negative you know, this homophobic thing happened today.

They didn't write about like our E three party, how we raise so much money for the we I think we raised I don't even know how many, like five over five thousand dollars just for video games for LGBT, you know, youth to play at the center, um, so that they can have an outlet, which is amazingly enough, by the way, video games is such a healthy outlet

that brings people together. And and then seeing people being brought together who are queer nerds who are thirty to forty years old, you know, who never had that outlet and in an adult space, I think they're positive things that are happening by us focusing on our community. I'm hoping that maybe the news can eventually pick up on some of those positive articles. To quote a great movie by the name of Nightcrawler. If it leads, it leads, you know, and that's the that's what the news is.

In the business of the moment, the news became the business this it's less about you know, sharing the news and more so what can we do that's going to you know, activate people and get a reaction out of them and get them sharing our stuff. So, yeah, it does. I find that in multiple communities and multiple things throughout the news scope, everything positive kind of gets swept under the rug because they'd rather get someone mad who's going to retweet it and then say something snark and then

someone's gonna add their snark. Me usually I'm involved in that. But yeah, so it is. And I think that is a great advice to anyone in their communities is if you are feeling hopeless, are feeling like, how do I make a change? Everyone thinks that, you know, I find that a lot of people believe that you need a million dollars to make meaningful change, and that's just not

the case. You know, meaningful change could just be as simple as mentoring you know someone who is you know just like you, or someone who you think needs it if he did. You want to go over some of your favorite games? Yeah, I'm we're just going to do a quick dash all through the games because there are so many, and I just want to talk about the like huge influential ones, uh, instead of just going through all of them that have spanned from to this very year.

Uh So you had, you know, Sonics one and two two was the game. I feel like it was the staple game, the spin Dash, the one everyone played, and then three took it up a notch by introducing Knuckles, because really, that's a third character in this franchise that you now get to play. You're able to play as uh Tales or Miles if you want to be Danny when you with the second player, and they would be able to run besides you. So that was like the two player aspect. I think the next big game in

the series actually came after Sonic and Knuckles. I didn't realize these were back to back. I always felt there was so much time between them, and there was a Sonic and uh Sonic. The Hedgehog three dropped four years later we get Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Adventure came out for the Dreamcast, and it was a moment because because the Dreamcast was was hot at the time. It was the reason people. Yeah, that was the reason people bought Dreamcast.

And then it introduced that like Dreamcast used to have this uh I forget the name of it, but it was like a yeah that you would put in and you would put the what is it, the chow's the chows from the game, and you'd be able to take care of it outside of it. So basically all this like all the kids going crazy over the Pokemon, the poke ball, plus that you get to it was like we've been on that since since the Yeah, yeah, we're sounding like old crotching. So there were great games after

that because you had um Sonico six. Yeah that was that was when your emails Yeah, oh man, well were I'm not no, no, you're right, because you're mentioning the whole thing. Because the Sonic fans, which I used the term loosely because this isn't very fan is a fan centric way to act, oftentimes will say that Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure two was the last good game or whatever, Sonic they like was the last. But one thing everyone

kind of did agree with was Sonic which one was it? Yes, Sonic Rush for the d S, which was not on this list, which makes me smarter than the internet. Uh, Sonic Rush was super fun and in it you you played as Sonic and also your your counterpart was what was her name, Blaze the Cat And it was a very fast paced, fun game it was, and everyone agreed, because you know, I hate when I really like a game and everyone's like, no, you shouldn't like it. It's that.

Luckily that didn't happen with this game. Everyone liked it. It It had a fun story, it looked great. It was such a blast Sonic Rush. But then those knuckles in that, I mean, how could you enjoy that? If your favorite I like you, I guess, I guess you're kind of cool. Super cool that you got that you got to play Sonic and Super Smash Brothers. Yeah, so cool again, like getting to be a part of something like this, Like those things just sort of like kind of fall into

your lap, you know what I mean. It's like it's one of the things that kind of and it's like a crossover. Absolutely same thing with the same thing with with you know, Record und Ralph. Yeah a sudden it was like somebody called them and they're like, yeah, Disney wants you for something. I was like, for what this thing Record Ralph? And I'm like, okay, what what a what am I doing? They're like, you're doing Sonic. I'm like, no, something's wrong. I was like no, I don't think you know.

And then showed up and they're like yeah, we we we we wanted sound like the Hedgehog and they're like you got to use our guy. And it was like all really so because that was gonna be my question on the the side. Was it a them hitting you up and you needing permission? But so they wanted Sonic and Saga was like Roger, I would imagine it was a licensing thing. I mean, I think that's how that works. Um,

you know. I mean obviously I'm a brilliant voice actor and they were lucky to have me regardless, and it's just pure luck that the licensing. No. I actually think that that, um with most of those characters. I think that they mandate that, if you know, because when you think about something like, you know, Disney doing a Record

Ralph with all those different video game characters. I think if they're gonna say, we're gonna use your guys or gals, we want to have, you know, the characters, be honest, because they had Kylie barras we you That's what I was gonna go to. Now is it seems like you're in secause you're Insanega's Wheelhouse. Now they're like, you're you're Sonic your son I mean, until I'm not. Once they see you take a self with with Mario, Yeah, there you go. It's like, oh, he's doing a Twitch channel

and he's he's as the character. We don't allow that. Yeah, oh my gosh. But yeah, that was pretty much the games. And then you know, the first Sonic series that we referenced with Julio White was the height of like nineties games fever, when we had your Super Mario movies, when you had the Super Mario TV show, They're like this, you need a TV show because games are popping right now. But then after that you got I think there was

the Sonic anime series before. Yeah, Sonic X. Yes, I remember Sonic X because Sonic X was one of those shows that were I was a little too old for it at that time. It came out two thousand four, two thousand five, which means I was a junior, uh in high school, and I was like, you know how old but they had video games back. Oh yeah, I was in it though. I was like, look, I don't care what people say. I love Sonic, a Sonic anime. Let's go. But then then we got the Sonic series

that that everyone's talking about. Did I skip? Was it Sonic Extan Sonic Boom? I'm not crazy? No, yeah, I know. I was under my fourth wife. I think at the time that Sonic Extra is coming out, so you know, yeah, yeah, using that. Oh that's funny too. I'm trying to look up Sonic Boom while we talk about it, and of course I got videos of Fighter Chain, funny Sonoma, Sonic Boom cartoon that might be a little better, but we're so we're going to get into Sonic Boom right after

these messages. All right, welcome back, Still sitting here with Aaron Powell and my man Ed Greer holding it down. This has been a fun one we've been It's been like an open conversation dropping facts instead of going you know, in the normal order. But that's what happen is when you know, when we're tapping in, it feels like instead of an episode where we're falling along with an expert, we have three passionate experts. So you know, sorry, this one's a little harder for you to fall along. I

implore you to tweet us. We will keep the conversation going on. But I feel like we're doing a good job of like weaving in the top and bottom. But you know, one thing we didn't touch on, and I did say we're going to talk about playing with emotions is how people reacted to Miles and and once again, this was another thing that we were all so luckily

able to experience live and direct. And it was funny when you know, while like Stanley gave it the okay thumbs up and people like us really loved it, you had those fans out there that do what they do anytime any diversity initiative launches a diverse character, switches up or red cons and add something. You had people complaining that you know, this is just a move for for political correctness and and you know you're just trying to

check on PC. And you know there's many takes that people have, many responses and minds is always yep, so okay, yeah, it's a thing we want to be represented. So it's like yelling at a dude in the tesla, like you're just trying to save the environment. Yeah. The one, the one thing that I always brought at and on that regard is when they go, Okay, you're just doing this for diversity, You're just doing this for whatever reason. Everything

is just for some reason. Everything is just for some agenda. And up until very recently, the agenda has been I don't want to call it white supremacy, but let's call it white a Okay, you know what I mean. It's like, okay, I like to call it that. The one rule that most waves of business go back. It's called I'm white, and I say so, that's usually that's usually the reason

for a lot of things. And then when we we get something like it's a comic book character, it's a fictional character, and he had your own separate but equal you, and first for a long time, exactly, they eased you into it. He didn't show up with your mom, your new daddy. Well, here's the funny thing about it, and here's my like less cynical way of doing it because I try, and you know, as I get deeper in the nerds space and as we become more talking points, I try and like take a little bit of snap

energy because you know, rest in peace. John Schnapp, he always like one thing I want to take from him is just his ability to kind of like try and like ease you into it and not be the DMX of nerdom, which I am usually want to do. And the way I look at it, is it, honestly, if we're not being just straight up cynical and we're just being facts for facts. Before a certain time media was made for white people. You you knew you were creating

it for a majority white person. You know that the only people who needed to relate to it is white people. But what we all know now, especially as all of us are creators, We are writers, we are actors, We we work in this industry industry, So this isn't speculative, This isn't speculation, this is just facts. When you are creating art, you're trying to touch your audience. You're trying to touch your viewers, and you're gonna do everything you

can to make them feel included. You're gonna do everything you can to look on that screen and have them go, oh, that can be me. And you know, for so long a lot of people of color had to look at these white people on screen and and find themselves in them. And in the end we made it work. And now we're getting to a place where you're getting a lot of creatives who are like, let's switch it up. Let's you know, create this character who you know black kids

can look up to and go like, that's me. But it's the all quote about how equality seems like oppression. You haven't, you know, get it out. And I think that that when they see they don't realize what it was like for me as little kid to be like looking up to Thor Thor don't look like nobody that's been in my family history for a hundred and fifty years. And I got to see myself and this North do with a belt made of cow hide and all this jazz. But you can't see yourself in a Brooklyn teenager when

you probably was a teen in Brooklyn. Have these people who are balking at Miles lived Miles his life and saying they can't see it themselves in them because of his skin. And I think that's that's that's a weird situation.

But like you said, snap energy, I feel as though it's also the fact that it's belying that jazz about there is no audience for this when I've gone into several comic book stores and seeing people unbidden Like sometimes I've walked into several combook stores and had a diversity in comics. Uh conversation pop up as I walked in the store. I don't know what that's about. And all of a sudden, it's time to talk about diversity in commix and how whack it is. And I'm just people.

One of the main talking points they say is black people and women and lesbians or whatever you want to connect with the Latinos. They don't really read comics. That's so, and I would just love for that. That is also part of it. It is a business. There is a business reason beyond a lot of this diversity, and it is to sell to people who are playing comics that

do not happen to look like regular Peter Parker. Yeah, and lots of times it's just dated information and that you just kept using, like the example that a black lead you know, movie can't do well overseas, and then which is totally so surprised that black panthers this smash hit that is doing well. Look at Fast and Furious, which is a black lead movie, Like, get whatever you think out of your mind. Almost all of those actors in that movie, if they're not Latin X people, they're black.

The Rock is black. I'm sorry people, it's sorry people forget, but look his daddy. His name is Dawaye Johnson. D Wayne Johnson, Okay, his name is Dawayne Johnson. He is like, no matter how much they've tried to poke up his I don't think he's ever played a black person explicitly on film, but the Rock is a black dude. He was in a faction called the Nation of Domination based

on the Nation. Well he's doing the news. Uh, he's doing the new Schwitzenegger where it's like this fool's name is John Matrix and he got the thick German excit but he got all the clearances with the Delta Force. Oh well, well they do that with Dwayne right now. John Claude, Van Damage Street Fighter. Yeah, and I called him Russian, not the muscles from Brussels. So when when my some of the some of the reactions to him. Yes, there were some people who definitely balked at him, and

there were also the people. Let's kind of talk about some of the people who are just like, well, why can't he just have his own thing? Oh, let's yeah, you know what I mean, Because there are some people like that. Yeah, they're the yeah and they and they really try to try and make that strong argument of like, yeah, if he had his own thing, that'd be better than just rebranding X Y Z. And really it's coming from

the same place. I think. You know, I think there is a corner of people who like it is driven by racism, but I think there's another corner of people who just don't like change. I think it even if it was like you know, Rammy Schwartz and it was like just this new Jewish kid who was Spider Man, people would be just as mad. And it was just because they're like, you're changing the thing that I like, and for some reason, I'm forgetting that I always have

every future iteration of the thing. And what's the funny is, like people being mad about Miles Morales, they were actually doing that thing that people try and say where it's like we are creating this own thing. But now it's a problem. It's a problem because like they weren't saying, could they create their own thing? With the eight kid flashes, we've had no one said, No one's saying that, you know, but but we get a black kid flash. Now it's

a problem. Why can't he have his own thing? Okay, yeah, black dude running fast, kind of racist, but you know his name is Wally, which is an old black man. Well are you having with the first one? That second one feel like a reach. Can't think Wallace Wallace Willis West. Anyway. The thing I was thinking about also is given these legacy characters personally, I think I am one of the few fans that I love the fact that he's Spider Man. I love the fact that he had Spider powers, but

he's more than Spider Man as well. It's almost like he's in a situation where Cassandra Caine Batgirl was in for a long time. Cassandra Caine as back Girl was for my generation, the best bad girl and she she could do so many things that Barbara Gordon could not do as a as a because she was different and she did speak, yeah, full stop. She was different. She had a bunch of different stuff, and Myles has so

many different things. I would love to see him become a character kind of like the Scarlet Spider or the night Wing situation or something like that. If they did that organically, I would not think that was capitulating to racism or whatever. I would just think that was like, because if he's not gonna be the Spider Man of a universe, this whole two Spider Man jazz does weird be out? It kind of does. What are you trying

to do? Is like it be like if there was a Daredevil that fought and this three three acre section of Kill's kitchen, and then a Dare Devil that was chilling in Manhattan and had better suits and better clothes and stuff. That's kind of how they did it for a minute. And now Spider Man's a poor bum again. They made him lose his company to ground him a little bit. It's almost like people forget that what they love about Spider Man is their own youth, yea, their

own youth. They were sitting on a bed at fourteen, and that was reading about this white Spider Man going through his troubles, eating his wheatcakes, and that was their dude. That they know what I'm saying. And uh, well, of course, since you brought up we're gonna stop and talk about Quang's toy collection, because you know, everyone has a collection in mind when you think of someone's toy collection. But let me tell you my experience of witnessing the glory

that is Kwang's toy collection. I was that who was it? Was? It a birthday? Christmas party? Knows the Christmas party with yesterday's Christy all have the best Christmas party. And I am waiting for my invite for this year's. Uh man, it's and that secret saying I got sniped. I don't think I'm not still mad about that. It was the it was so good. It was a Mickey Mouse, uh toaster where it scores Mickey Mouse. Yeah, And I was like, oh, this is dope. It's gonna be for Naomi. She's good

and someone. And so just so people understand what we're we're doing secret Santa in the sense where everyone brings a gift. It's in the pilephant, white elephant. But yeah, it gets pretty pretty vicious. Yeah, so everyone can swap two times, so you and if you and everyone can only get stolen from two times, so if after you get stolen from the second time, you're safe. So stolen from once, it was like the last round two and

I was like, I think I'm good. I had this Mickey Mouse toaster and then nope, I someone stole and gave me this creepy doll that's a light and you know it's a cool doll but also very creepy. It comes with a ghost too. Yeah. Actually know someone stole the ghost for me because that was because I think that was my first thing and I was like, oh no, don't want someone like, oh no, this is my bag light. But so we go um and uh. I think it was Quang who was like, you want to see my

toy collection there. We were like yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, but I was I was game. After the ghost doll, I'm like, let's go. Uh. And we go to like your basement and you turn on a light and it was the most toys I've seen in one place. And this is someone who's been to melt down rest in peace. Uh, and like it was just so many and I was like, oh, this is what I need in life. I wish I can have this many dope toys, you know, I was really lucky that my mom just

really didn't throw anything away. Um And and in all honesty, I've gone through like a lot of different times of collecting. I've I've been collecting like designer Vinyl toys for a very long time. And I actually weirdly went through a phase of where I got so over it when you know, um eBay sort of took hold of of it and like the prices just went out of control, uh you know. And and so I actually stepped away from the hobby for a long time. And then I took a trip

to Japan. And then there's a store kit called Him and Rock out there, which is you know there there's like it's a chain, there's a few. Yeah, there's a chain. Yeah,

there's a chain of them. There's a you know. But the one that I was first introduced to is basically like an eight story mall where each floor is like a different like era of toy um and and the shelves are just packed and you can only fit like one person through at a time through the aisles, and the prices at the time, um, we're very um good. And I basically it was just like I'm back in Yeah,

you like this. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back Yeah, yeah, yeah, And well you know, I I never asked this because you just kind of started doing it. But I mean, you're an artist, so you've always been around the toy culture. But when was the moment You're like, I'm jumping in this. Uh, I'm gonna make a toy ro com needs a toy out. It's it's honestly, um, being friends with Quong and uh you know we we've we've skipped this, but Kwang and I, um,

we started this thing with our friend DJ. Yeah that when an animal pin company called Yesterdays, and so you started four years ago and slowly we became the official pinmakers for the band The Misfits, for the Walking Dead, comics, for Saga, a bunch of a bunch of comic books, and so it takes us to all these comic conventions. Um. But aside from us hanging out all the time for through through that company, UM, Kuang and our friend Justin

Justin Ishmael. Um. He he makes really great license toys. Um. He's worked with Famous Monsters Magazine. He's working on a Billy Bob toy right now, which is from Showbiz Pizza and um and also the Deadly Spawn. Yeah and so and so they're always painting and working on toys and I'm sitting here, dude, that's supposed to be the artist, and I don't have my toy, and some them like

where's my toy? And so, uh, Jet Jaguar had been a huge thing in my collection, so I wanted to kind of create that thing where, um, here's here's my addition to that, you know, because um, I think even if you look at fun Maker Mike from fun Coe, he was looking for a Billy Bob bobble head, Um not Billy Bob's Big Boy bobble head, and um, he was on eBay looking at it and it's just so expensive. He's like, for these prices, I'm gonna make one. And so he went to Bob's Big Boy and he got

his first bubble head done. And so for me looking for Jett Jaguar toys all the time, I'm like, I'm gonna make my evil version and like I can have all of them. That's so dope. There's so many dope variants too, because you because there's the Doom one that we talked about that only I got. Sorry, people keep asking huong to. They're like, yo, like, can you do another one? I was like, we can't do if you're wrong, Like he's got the one off. Look you know, I

would never be managed all, but don't do that. Yeah, And um so we are running low on time, but I just want to I guess we'll t R T L d R kind of just some of the basics some of the quick questions we have because there are some things that you know, knowing y'all and talking to you all about toy you know, culture, that there's like all these like different things without like quote unquote spilling tea or anything, but just like you know, honor things

that I thought was kind of cool. Like, so, uh, I'm gonna let you guide that one. So I don't like, you know, say too much. So you just mean in collecting and uh everything. Yeah, basically um uh as as a maker, I think there's there's always that thing between you know. When I was getting my toy made, the number one question was like whereas it being made? Is a Japanese is a Chinese? You know, like because some collectors are very particular in that stuff and that they

kind of hate on different things. And what's funny is they don't understand that collectors in Japan don't care if your toys dope, it's dope, and then we're in their collection. And so there's little things like that are interesting, but it's slowly watched away. It's definitely an old school mentality.

Well that's so funny because I feel like that happens to a lot of like westernized fandoms, because I feel like it's the same way with h with the anime questions exactly, it's it's actually something that's being addressed with

a lot of people that it is. It is a Western thing that that they definitely see like, hey, like in Japan, they're like, oh, I don't care, it's you know, I think that the words of foobie was for a long time exclusively used as like high end Japanese kind of thing, and then the people in Japan are like, no, it's all called food. It's all soft. It's legitimately just soft vinyl, just like anime is literally animation, and people like, no, it has to be in Japan and it has to

metal ackwleness. Uh yeah, that's so crazy. So how is it um? So we talked about kind of like the creation as a pay as a paint or how is how is it for you quang? When you like what Obviously I think that the answer to this is going to be like things that look cool to me, but like how do you decide like, oh, that's a toy that I want to paint, and how do you kind of come up with the design? It comes to textures and a lot of it you get really high and I mean that because of the there's like a lot

of chemicals involved and so you've got to be really careful. Um, there's a toxic pain. Yeah, that you have to wear gloves. There's like you know after a respirator. You know it's it's not I wouldn't call it dangerous, but there is a lot of chemicals involved, and that's something that like, as a toy painter you have to know because there is a responsibility to your customers. And the paint that I use specifically it's designed for final toys and chemically

bonds um. And that's why when you you know, you'll take your your Marvel Legends action figure and you'll paint on it with the critics and rub off. Well, part of that chemical mixture is making sure this is the right amount of thinner and everything that goes along with it, so that it's just adhering correctly to the figure. Um and and if you don't, you know, you can spray.

You know. I've had guys that will will paint figures with the critics and they're like, oh clear, code them all, but your figures end up like sticky, you know, and like things like that. Um that, you know, for anybody that buys one of my toys, I like, you know, and Rocom has definitely seen me like like really like toil over this kind of thing where I'm like, oh man, it's not right, Like I need another day to make this perfect, because somebody's gonna go home with this, and

this is my reputation. Um right. You can't have them paying like three dollars take this thing home and then the paint's flaking off of it, you know. And so that's something I take very seriously. And so when it comes to like color combinations and various things. When it comes to the toys, I'll just look at something and

see how it's textured, what it vibes with. There's a lot of like painting something that looks like something else, like your Death Jaguar I painted to look like Doom because I looked at it and it, you know, it has like this vibe of like the Iron mask, you know, um, you know, with the robot face and everything else, and and Doom as a character that I like. I'm I'm a big Jack Kirby fan um. And that's a That's another thing people like a nerd out when they come over,

is I have like a Jackkerby original um. And so you know, I always try to pay homage to those guys, you know, the things that I love. And I think when people look at some of my custom work, they kind of get like if they would like me as a person, you know, like like I try to put a little bit of that in my work to where they might be able to get my personality a little bit more, or like oh yeah, he he obviously really likes like John Carpenter movies or think things like that,

like you know, certain references. Yeah, that's so awesome. Wow, those were great. Look, I'm gonna keep it real with you.

I don't know what that sounds like. We record this before we couldn't put the clips together, but you know, I wanted you to feel like I was right there with what if it was all of the moments that we messed up them us No, I trust, I trust, I know that this that those were all of our greatest hits, our greatest hits, and we will be back next week with an all new Nerdificent, So stay nerdy.