accidental left turn
In which Collin celebrates a major holiday. Brandon hears generator noises. And Ender experiences longing.
Happy first land purchase of the US day!
Thunderstorms abound
Generator noises
Accidental left turn
Too many Nick’s!
Collin Haiku
Red, white, blue blossoms
Our faces glow in silence
Night wraps us in light
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI
Collin 0:03
Oh, welcome to Oh Brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts Brandon and Collin on this week's show. Accidental left turn. Ahoy, ahoy! Happy july 5. Spoiler, yes. We're speaking a little. We normally don't break the wall like that, but you know, you
Brandon 0:28
know,
Collin 0:30
I, I like to make sure that we celebrate the first land purchase made by the United States. That did this is it's.. I don't know why it's not on more people's calendar, but man, those acres, what in New Jersey. Oh
Brandon 0:49
man, such big..
Collin 0:51
I love how the day after everything was signed, they were like, okay, cool, now we need to print some copies of this thing to distribute and buy some land to build a fort. Go, yeah, obviously it's
Brandon 1:08
what you do. Clearly, at least they bought it. Yeah,
Collin 1:11
yeah. Whoa. Anyway, so here we be. What's what's new, what's new with you?
Brandon 1:24
Not a lot, right? Realized, yeah, like yesterday went to the fireworks of the parks, pretty good. Actually, went to the park in the middle of the day, bit hot, but there was a lot of food trucks and stuff in there, and so we decided, you know what, we're gonna go for
Collin 1:46
perfect.
Brandon 1:49
So the cheeseburger that I found was definitely worth it. Oh, and ice cream, right? Boom, boom, the ice cream truck was there, so like ice melted quite quickly, but it's fine.
Collin 2:09
Yes, it was quite, quite a hot
Brandon 2:12
toasty. And then we went back for the nighttime, the show at the park. What we did, I don't know if it was like they didn't start a bit early, right, and I don't, I guess they got all the way done because there was an announcement on the park PA system, it was like, hey, there's some thunderstorms moving in here, so you have to go, oh no, so there was, I think, we got most of it done, I assume. I don't know. So we did have lots of fireworks and lightning at the same time, right? And it was like it started raining like a little bit when we were there, but it was just like a few drops, you know? Like, you know, when you're like, you feel something on your arm, you're like, huh, huh, you like, hold it there, you like, move it around, you like, was that really a second, yes, it was, it
Collin 3:08
does appear to be the thing, yes,
Brandon 3:12
does appear to be the thing that I thought it was,
Collin 3:14
yes,
Brandon 3:14
so we did, had to flee a little bit, but it was all good, so that's what we did yesterday, but we did realize on the drive home both of us were like, wait a minute, wait a minute, right? Officially, right? Like, this would be Susan and mine's 20th, fourth of July together.
Collin 3:39
That is crazy.
Brandon 3:41
I know. When I said it out loud, I was like, holy
Collin 3:43
wait a minute,
Brandon 3:47
because we both sort of technically count that as like when we first started being like dating,
Collin 3:54
right? Yeah,
Brandon 3:55
so that's like because we spent like we were at a Fourth of July thing when we like were hanging out and stuff. Well, so we kind of officially count that as our like beginning of dating and stuff, so that our first one was in 2006
Collin 4:09
Wow, I think, yeah, you know, it's a minute ago, but also I think you have a nice place to tie it to, like it's a pretty known, like, date, like, for sure, like, this is a time, it's not like a, like, a random Tuesday or something, it's like, yeah, that's not the first
Brandon 4:30
time we like went out on a, like, day, or I don't know, but like, we both just sort of officially count that as, like, the start of it, so, like, yeah, let's go for there, like, that may, may details may be fuzzy, but like that one we officially count that we know, yeah, we both remember that time, so that's good enough, right? Count
Collin 4:50
that one for sure, nice. So,
Brandon 4:52
yeah,
Collin 4:53
oh man, we
Brandon 4:54
both realized that while we were driving home, we're like, whoa, no
Collin 4:58
wait a minute. That, oh, so, how's the.. how have the.. so you, I mean, you should do like a 20 year retrospective on the Fourth of July celebrations review is what you need to do. I mean,
Brandon 5:16
that would be difficult, like first one was the best, obviously,
Collin 5:23
like, however, this is going, and so I don't know if I have a rank
Brandon 5:30
retrospective on the full,
Collin 5:32
you haven't, you haven't ranked your top 24 yeah, she
Brandon 5:40
could probably do that, because she has, like, she.. this is like the classic trope, where she's like, "Don't you remember you said that? I'm like, "When did I say that? She's like, "We said that, you told me that, like, eight years ago. Where it's like, "I'm sorry. What?
Collin 5:51
Yes, I remember yesterday. What are you talking about? That does not quite compute there, so
Brandon 6:01
you don't know, but good, good stuff. So, there you go. That was a big revelation for the week.
Speaker 1 6:06
I mean, that's right,
Collin 6:07
really big revelation. I mean,
Brandon 6:09
yeah, yes, that's true.
Collin 6:10
I don't, I don't know how to tell you this, but that's a big revelation, but a good one.
Brandon 6:19
Nice. Oh, yeah, for sure. So, I don't really think we've done anything else, like super exciting this week. Just did some exploring the actual in the park Fourth of July fest, was.. I don't think we've ever actually made it in there before, really. So, yeah, we don't usually go well, like also for the past, they've only been like the way, as near as we can figure, there's only been like a lot of stuff inside the park during the day, like the last few years, right? They have like little, they have like a swing ride for kids, and there's like little booths of random stuff, but like there hasn't been like food trucks and stuff, that's a relatively recent like thing, right? There's like a stage, apparently. There's a community band. I didn't know this. They were playing like John Phillips uses
Collin 7:21
community band, nice. Okay, got
Brandon 7:24
it all. I was, I was trying to, like, it was a little bit difficult while I was waiting for my cheeseburger. I was standing by the food truck line, and so it was sort of hard to hear the band from there over the din of like generator noises, right? So a little bit fun now, but there was like it was far away from where the stage was, you know, so like if you were over there it wouldn't have been so bad, like they were separated, they weren't like the food trucks were not next to the stage, oh, okay, real awkward, it was like I don't know, at least 50 yards away, so it would have been kind of hard to hear something anyway, but like then there was generator noises near me, so you know, bang, so
Collin 8:13
close proxy, that was good, it was
Brandon 8:16
hot, but we did find a bench under a tree, so haha. Oh, you got the picture I sent yesterday, but like I did take a picture by the pond with my cheeseburger, so there you go. Was nice hung out, and then came back home, hung out a little bit, and then went back for the fourth, the fireworks things. That's pretty much it, I think. Right? You shocked me with all of your, like, hey, here's all these random people that I'm talking to right now, that like, what I thought was I
Collin 9:03
was so shocked myself. We went to the Marshfield Fourth of July parade, and I am still.. I have yet to figure out the history of why this is such a large parade that goes on for.. I'm guessing about three hours. I don't know that for sure, but I have stayed for both an hour, an hour and a half, and maybe an hour and 45 minutes, and there is no end in sight to this. As a matter of fact, we left after an hour and 15, got back to the car, and we're driving, and we realized that we had found one of the on the way they funnel the onto the main drag for this, they line up floats and cars and stuff on side roads that they allow in, right? So it's not just a big long traffic jam. We found one of those roads that one of the feeder
Brandon 9:57
routes, one of the feeder
Collin 9:58
routes that still had. An uncountable number of cars that just disappeared into the distance, and at an hour and 50. Now, granted, great, this is the 200 and 50th birthday of the United States. Yeah,
Brandon 10:09
but the Marshfield parade is just like that, apparently. And I think, but based on my one experience of going last year, right, it is just cars, it's just a car show that drives by you, and it's really kind of not very exciting.
Collin 10:30
Literally, literally, I was.. we were there, and this guy.. it's like somewhere in your car, and then there was this like side by side that was there, and the guy was there, and his wife was next to him, and they had their kids in the back, and we were like, you know, just saying, like, hey, happy fourth, and he turned, he was like, we're, we're just here to be a part of it, like people were literally saying, hey, let's just go be in the parade this year, yeah, like that's what it
Brandon 11:00
feels like, it's like, hey, have you ever wanted to be in a parade? Come to Marshfield and just drive,
Collin 11:07
that's what this is. There, people are in here, they're in there for no reason, no reason at all. They just want to be in a parade, and there was a float. It was the 40th anniversary of this family's cousin's family reunion, some 40 years, 40 years. Okay, 40 years ago they had a family reunion, and decided, gosh, golly, how funny would it be if we were in the Marshfield Fourth of July parade, and they did it, and then 40 years later they're still doing it all. The cousins have been doing
Brandon 11:44
it ever since. Okay, they didn't like, let's do it again. 40, 4040,
Collin 11:49
year remembrance celebrating the
Brandon 11:52
last time we were in the for me. Yes,
Collin 11:54
yes, commemorating if that was their 40th anniversary. Yeah, it was the 40th anniversary of their first appearance. In the parade, they were just
Brandon 12:10
driving their mom's Nissan Ultima, because they just let any car into the Marshfield. They don't care. Does it have to be a cool car? No. Are there any rules? No, no, no. Just like a 2014 Toyota Camry. Wow. And here is another car.
Collin 12:31
I, yes. How, how much of the length could be contributed to poor traffic laws and regulation and guarding of streets by the police force? Did
Brandon 12:41
all of those people register for the parade, or do they just
Collin 12:44
accidentally turn left? They're like, well, and now,
Brandon 12:48
like, well, we're just stuck here now. So I can't go, we can't turn off those roads, we have to get
Collin 12:58
to the like two. This ends at the square, so we just keep going, and then we go to lunch. Come on, hang on with me. A smile is wave. I'm pretty sure that that is exactly why this thing is so long, but you know, it's, it's, it's fun, and whatever. And so we, we were there. I'm definitely sure we all got a little bit of heat exhaustion because everyone was kind of like, yeah, we ate lunch, and then we all crashed for probably three and a half hours once we got home, and then we went to the pigs Fourth of July shindig, which
Brandon 13:44
I could not believe was still happening. Be clear here, this is a shocking revelation to me.
Collin 13:52
There was when you told me
Brandon 13:53
where you were, I was like,
Collin 13:54
what?
Brandon 13:55
What excuse me?
Collin 13:58
So this is, I think I did learn that there was a lull for a little while of where they didn't do this, but then they started it up again, because people would move away, and, but they wouldn't move like states and states away, they'd move to, like, I don't know, like Clever or like Marshfield, and they would still want to get together, so this is as much of a Fourth of July celebration as it is an old neighbor reunion of sorts, and so, and Dad was like, you know, like they're having this, and he told us this, like, weeks ago, like, I would like to go to this, and we're like, okay, yeah, absolutely, I'd love to go. I have very fond memories of going here and having Fourth of July celebrating. So, let's sure we'll take the kids, and it'll be fun, and it will be. Is they had never stayed up late enough to witness like a full on like fireworks show, where you're shooting off the big ones. Oh, periods of time,
Brandon 14:58
okay.
Collin 15:00
Right, so because every year it's just, it's so late, and we're like, yeah, shoot off some of the stuff like we did last year at Dad, so yeah, shoot off a few things, but not like a kind of show thing, so we're like, okay, this will be fun, we can go there too, and we just, I showed up with zero expectations, I didn't know what, who was going to be there, or what was going on, but I will tell you this. The average age of the people, yeah, prior to my arrival with my family, the average age was definitely 70. Yeah, this,
Brandon 15:38
this, okay, I'm not surprised by that 100%
Collin 15:41
and it very, it became quickly apparent that, like, most of them had no idea, like, who we were, and I'm sure we're a little confused by why we were there, and so I did find myself having to, like, to the people that I did know, I'd be like, and I'm Collin Jacks, you stand
Brandon 16:03
by. Yeah, just say my dad, like, hey, I want this guy, this guy, don't run me
Collin 16:08
off. But there were, my goodness, I'm with him. This is the one time I'm gonna say I'm with him, and yep, Byron Pig, mid to like mid 80s is still out there. He's got a new car project that he's redoing and torn apart, and the Stoddards were there, and who lived down the road when we were growing up. That sounds
Brandon 16:41
vaguely familiar. I don't, yeah, I don't have faces for that exactly. I know
Collin 16:46
I knew the name, and I was like, I don't know, and everyone would come up, and I was sitting at a table with my family, and Dad was up and walking around talking, and people would come up, and they basically, even though
Brandon 16:57
he doesn't like to do that, right, he totally doesn't like gatherings like this,
Collin 17:01
doesn't like gatherings, alleged boy. Howdy, I realized I'm like this is whatever. Doesn't like this at all. They come up and it was the which one are you, right? They're like, I know you're one of them, but which one? Which one are you? Yeah, so I just said I'm your favorite, and the middle one, they love that it was great. No, but yeah, I'm standing in line, just ready to get some food, and this guy comes up to me, and he just looks me in the face, and he goes, "Do you remember me? And in my brain, the face was a yes, the name 100% no. Oh
Brandon 17:38
yeah, like that's
Collin 17:39
always, yeah, always. How it is, and I'm like, of course. And so we're talking, and then it's like very clear that I'm like, right, he was a neighbor from where, and all this stuff that we're slotting in the pieces, and I was like, oh my gosh, it is Jackie Bear. Like, what even is this? What is going on? Wow, I later found out that his daughter lives in Joplin and has two kids, and I forgot his son is right now through a
Brandon 18:16
pipe at my head. Yeah, where's that one at?
Collin 18:20
Yeah. Oh my gosh, but anyway, so that was a weird, and then I'm like having to carry this conversation, and I'm like, I only know like half of the information about you, and I don't remember, and you know, and all this stuff. So we were talking, and then yeah, it was just.. it was.. it was weird being there and seeing all of Byron's collection, how it has grown. It is very intense now. It's really like.. it's a whole.. it's otherworldly in his shop, where they.. where they were doing the shindig with the food, but yeah, and then Nick came up and was like, "Are you Collin? And I was like, "I, yes, you, maybe.. Ah, don't.. Oh my goodness, I'm so bad at this. But then, yeah, the
Brandon 19:16
text thread last night, listeners, just to shorten this story, is we apparently know too many people named Nick, Nick, can't remember which one is which. That was so bad,
Collin 19:25
because I was like, well, I know a Nick, this other Nick, I'm pretty sure, but also that doesn't quite fit with my knowledge of who you like, of your connection to all of this stuff, and was really, really, really struggling
Brandon 19:43
too many Nicks. What a weird
Collin 19:46
mini Nicks. That is also a
Brandon 19:47
name that you don't hear very much anymore. No, throw that out there. As a school teacher, I've had zero Knicks when I was in school. I knew like a million, and now
Collin 19:59
I. I know it's falling out of favor. Oh, so we, we sat around, we did the fireworks display. It was great, because where their house is, they go out, they do the fireworks display out by the road, but then there you probably haven't been back there in a while, but around east of their house they've expanded. There's a bunch of houses back there now. Yeah, so those people were shooting off fireworks, so if you positioned yourself, you could see the neighbor's fireworks show at the same time that, like, ours was going off. So it was like a two for one deal while we were over there, there you go, it was very intense. This is
Brandon 20:42
okay in a neighborhood show, you know, where it's not okay, a city park, right? I would once again, once again, like I would like to just talk about, like, if you're at a city park to watch the fireworks display, you don't need to bring your own fireworks and light them off in the parking lot, because no one cares about your fireworks when there's giant ones going off nearby, right? Like, what are you doing? Also, there was.. I wanted to just say, as a person who was once accosted by the police for lighting off fireworks too near the road. Okay, yeah. Allegedly, allegedly, somebody shot off some orders last night. They were like shooting them off. They were below the bridge that goes over the highway, and so where these were exploding was not super far above the rock. the oh no, what are you doing?
Collin 21:50
That's real bad.
Brandon 21:51
That is real bad. And no police came for that. My bottle rockets apparently were too destructive. That was alleged noisy, but giant mortars exploding like from where my position it looked to be like 20 feet above the highway road, like it was probably higher than that from like the angle I was sitting at, it didn't look very close, right? Like, what is that? I don't know,
Collin 22:20
yeah, not not not good at all. No, so these.. yeah, we're by the road, but it's in the back country. Oh, yeah, this
Brandon 22:28
was by the highway. Yeah,
Collin 22:30
it's a little, little more different, that's for sure. But no, it was great. I, we sat, we watched, got home way too late, continued to hear the mortars detonating all around us for another, I don't know, I don't, midnight, they continued to go on for a long time, but then the storms pushed through our area, that was rocking and rolling, it was quite the did not
Brandon 22:57
stop anybody here from lighting off their fireworks, they were just like, nah, we're gonna keep going.
Collin 23:03
Well, you'll return 250 once, I guess.
Brandon 23:06
So, like, no lightning, blah, rain, whatever. Yes, fireworks, yo.
Collin 23:12
Just add until it started
Brandon 23:14
like dumping rain, and then, like, okay, I guess we're gonna not do,
Collin 23:18
we'll go the other way, but it just adds to the to the effect when there's, yeah,
Brandon 23:28
now I do want your opinion on something. Right, the I think it's time we talk about this, Collin. I want your thoughts on traditional fireworks versus the drone show, which is like the new hotness, because I saw the one I saw the recording for the one from Boston, pretty thick, the Paul Revere thing,
Collin 23:57
it's good, pretty rad,
Brandon 23:58
right? So I want your opinion on this, both as Collin and as the owner of a pet hair business.
Collin 24:09
Right? Yes,
Brandon 24:12
dual, yes, dual hats here are a lot. Yeah, dual hats, you can wear more than one hat, you can say, but on the other,
Collin 24:18
but also, right? I mean, from a purist perspective, I am 100% on the traditional fireworks show. Sitting there last night watching them, I'm like, yeah, this is good. I enjoy every aspect of this, from a not just a pick your business owner, but also someone who I don't know lives in a neighborhood drone shows all day, every day, because we were shooting, we had them be, we weren't, but around us four days before the fourth of July, people were shooting off mortars at 2o'clock in the afternoon. Man, and yeah, and
Brandon 25:03
I, I also discovered that this year, like, I would be sitting in here, like, playing video games or reading, or whatever, and then just, like, you would just hear this, like, wait a minute, it's the middle of the day,
Collin 25:18
kid, what do you, why, what are you trying to do and accomplish? I am confused. This is not fun, because you can't see anything, and I, you know, from that, from from that perspective, obviously they are doing it because the cops can't see anything either, and don't know where it's coming from. True, I, I like the, I like attending, I've only been to one drone show, and it was, it was fine, it was, it was good, but it doesn't quite have the like pizzazz of an in-person performance that a true fireworks display has, like I can watch a drone show, it's a different viewing experience as a spectator, is what I will say, and so I think it depends on like what I, what you're wanting. If I'm going to go attend and do something, I'd want the traditional, but I do, I have seen some, I've watched videos of some very spectacular looking drones, which I like the one in Boston, but on the other hand, I'm like, well, then I could just watch that online, but I've tried to watch videos of fireworks displays, and they're just kind of boring. I mean, yeah, you don't
Brandon 26:35
get the.. it's not the same, right? Any video is not the same as being there in thing, right? So I just,
Collin 26:43
yeah, where do you fall on this?
Brandon 26:44
Yeah, so I have a couple different thoughts, right? Like, number one, I feel like if to have a drone show is it's more restricting because you can only do it like you have to be in a certain area to see it,
Collin 27:00
sure,
Brandon 27:01
right? Like, you can't be to make
Collin 27:04
sense, right? Yeah,
Brandon 27:05
so for like us, we don't like, you can, so like, let's just think about my community fireworks show, right? Like, they, they launch them all from inside the park, right? And there's a big area in there, it's a big flat area in the park where like everybody goes, like, if you go in the park, you go and sit there, right? So, if they were going to have a drone show, you would have to be there to be able to see it, right? But, like, where we go sit, and a lot of other people go sit, like, we sat down outside the park on the soccer fields, and you can still see the majority, you can't see some of the ground show stuff, but like you can see all the big stuff, and you can see the tops of the ground show things from down there, because it's like on the other side some trees, right, and then also like in our community, like people, a lot of people don't go to the park, like when you drive to, when we drive to the park, like when we drove last night to the park, we left at about like the national anthem was supposed to be at like 915 and then the show the fireworks always start after the anthem, right? They do like there's like bands and performances and stuff, and then there's like sing the national anthem, boom, fireworks, right? So like when you're driving like in a bunch of the parking lots at businesses and stuff along the highway, there are people set up like tailgating right there. They've they've parked in all these parking lots, they've brought their lawn chairs out, they're just hanging out along the roads because you can see the park from there, and so, like, they don't even have to go to the park to watch the fireworks,
Collin 28:44
yeah. Because it's like,
Brandon 28:46
it's a much, it's like a bit, it's like for a long ways around, like, doesn't you can go lots of places in the community and watch the fireworks. You don't have to be in the park, right? Because I think for a drone show to work, you have to, everybody has to be in a centralized location, right?
Collin 29:06
Yes,
Brandon 29:07
and so I think they're cool because, like, the drone show is cool because it's not like there's not like all the junk in the air and all that stuff, but like it does lack the like gravitas of like the giant firework, like the spectacle of fireworks, right? So, I mean, like, ideally you could, you would have both at, like, the same time, obviously, but, like,
Collin 29:31
yes, I agree, that would actually be pretty cool. I, there was one show in Nixa that their drones would go up and form shapes, but then the whole thing, they would make sure they spun it 360 degrees, like an area display kind of thing. Yeah,
Brandon 29:54
that would be cool, like if they did that here in our park, that would be rad, like. If it did that, where every, because you could see it for a long way away. Yeah, right. So that would be cool, actually. Like, you would have to do something like that, so you could.. it couldn't just be like the one picture from the one point of view, right? Because the fireworks are like a 360 degree experience, whereas a lot of Jones, the, a lot of drone, that's very hard. Word sales, and is like a one perspective situation, potentially two. You can see it from the opposite side, I guess, but like from a third axis, you'd be like, what is that? It doesn't, it's just a squiggle, like I don't know
Collin 30:33
for sure, makes sense. And I don't know, I don't know what's happening. Yeah, I yeah,
Brandon 30:43
so that would be cool, if they'd like put it up like a static thing, and then like spun it around, so that like a broad area could see it, and then like shifted something else into the.. that'd be kind of cool, that'd be nice, and then you could have both at the same time,
Collin 30:57
yes, but it does
Brandon 30:58
feel like it does feel like for the Fourth of July specifically,
Collin 31:04
yeah,
Brandon 31:05
just the drone show, not enough,
Collin 31:08
right? I, I agree,
Brandon 31:11
there may be the most American sentence I've ever said in my life, but like
Collin 31:15
this is this, okay, Brent, so I was thinking about this last night, all of the people who are in the United States. Oh, yeah, all the Dutch are like,
Brandon 31:24
oh my goodness, what is happening?
Collin 31:26
I meant to do this. I wanted to go find some live reacts to Fourth of July celebrations, just so that people could be like, because what I mean, secretly what I'm hoping for is just everybody to be like, yeah, I get it, I totally understand now. Oh yeah, I know that's not going to be the case, but I just wanted to see. I think there
Brandon 31:44
is going to be a large contingent of that. Like, wait a minute,
Collin 31:51
I like where this is going.
Brandon 31:53
Yes, yeah, I like the look of this all of a sudden. Like, okay, I know,
Collin 32:01
because it sounds like, oh, so what do you do to celebrate? You blow things up and light them on fire. Yeah, exactly. It's awesome. Yeah, you should come watch it for nights, but
Brandon 32:11
again, I think that description doesn't - it's not this cool sounding, right? Like, no, sometimes it's even too music, right? That's even better. Yes, we
Collin 32:20
can coordinate this stuff, we can synchronize two things. It is, it is possible. Yeah, so, yeah, so maybe there'll be
Brandon 32:28
some reactions online today. They'll look for some of that after this, just see if I spy a couple here. There you go. That was the one question I wanted to ask you. Oh, I did. I did witness something last night that I thought about you while it was happening, I was like, "Oh, Collin, to be jealous of that, right? So I'm sitting on the soccer field, and, like, some people park just like on the road outside of the parking lots just to leave earlier, right? But these are this is like only truck boy parking, right, because it's like a big ditch, and then like a weird hill, and then it's like a railroad track, so it's not like an accessible place to be, right, but people park over there. So last night I watched this, it was one of those Toyota FJ things, right. Okay, he went to park there, got about halfway down this embankment, decided, nah, I don't want to go here,
Collin 33:29
and
Brandon 33:30
then reversed up right, so he backed up this pretty steep embankment, but he went four wheel drive up this thing in reverse with the back right tire just sky high in the air, not touching the ground at light, no, and then got on the road and then drove off, and I was like I was watching this happen, and my one thought was Collin would be so jealous of that, right? It was just like the most casual, best Toyota ad of all time. Yes,
Collin 34:13
you're like, I get it now, right? Like, okay, because he
Brandon 34:17
turned right, so he was kind of off axis, little he wasn't going straight down the embankment, so when he was going down the back, the back right tire was just like floating in the air, and he got there, and it was just like, nah, and he did, he just put it in reverse, and then just walked it right back up on the road, using only three wheels, only
Collin 34:38
three wheels, now just
Brandon 34:41
thunk back down the road, and he just drove in track, while all the traffic on both sides stopped for him to
Collin 34:49
stop in awe of what was probably like, yes, all in a, all in a vehicle that hasn't been made in over a decade, yeah.
Brandon 34:59
And I think the Jeep that was already parked there, they had like totally scraped the bottom and made horrible noises getting over there, was probably looking and just like so jealous, like, oh my gosh, like, oh no, exactly,
Collin 35:14
that's that's exactly what has to happen, that people in the Jeeps are, and I could say this as an owner of both the Toyota product and the Jeep products. Yeah, perfectly acceptable for me to do and be in alignment here. So that's, uh, that's fantastic. That makes me very happy.
Brandon 35:40
Yeah, I should have been here for you. Sorry, it's a little dark, but like,
Collin 35:49
well, it also was a little dark.
Brandon 35:52
Yeah, yeah, exactly. We took a big turn all of a sudden here, Chapter 12, right? Head up your boy Bonzo going to Bitburg right here, obviously. Boom! Joke, haha. I read this chapter like many days ago, so this will be a bit everything, but like we. we have some, we, he's, we're still like practicing just going insane, right? Like, he is Ender is like so done with all of this, right, and they, you know, everybody is gunning for him now, like hardcore, like, and we're kind of Andrew's point of view here is like Ender is kind of not caring about the game at this point, right? Right, he's like it's just a game, right, Ender's game, but everybody else is just thinking about the game, right,
Collin 37:07
and winning, right,
Brandon 37:08
and winning, winning the game, right, but Ender understands there's a lot more to this, and it's like really frustrating him, because, like, he can't, like, we saw a few chapters ago, like, he's, he can't really progress because he doesn't have any new information, right? Nothing new is happening, right? He's gotten to a point where, like, he is the game very fully, and so, like, he's just like whatever, and the only difficult bit is the schedule that they just keep smashing him with right, they keep changing the rules, and they're doing this, and they're blah blah blah, like all this stuff, like so he's very annoyed by this, and we know that people, some of the older boys are super I they're upset that Ender just keeps winning because they are only thinking about the game, right? So now he is even more of a target than before, right? So much so that our boy Dink here reaches out to him and just says, like, he sends him a note, he's like, 'Hey, don't be alone ever, because they're gunning for you, right.
Collin 38:29
Well, and before, before this, there is a part that I really hope comes back to play off of later. We don't have
Brandon 38:37
much time, so I don't know if that's true. We're almost out of book,
Collin 38:41
almost out, but like there's this whole thing with Bean and like the tether thing that he's using to like grapple around, and he's using the rope that he's tying himself to. I'm like, I hope that we went to a lot of time to get describing how this would work and how it was operating, and surely this will come back to help, and I guess it kind of does. It kind of does
Brandon 39:04
at the end, right? Like,
Collin 39:06
but at the same time, not really. I mean,
Brandon 39:09
it does, like in a minute it does, right? Like it, like in a little bit. Oh, during the battle, yeah, during the battle, during the like super pitched battle, right? It does, right. So, like,
Collin 39:23
anyway, I just.. I was like, yeah, but I
Brandon 39:27
agree with you that there was way too much effort put into the buildup of that, and the payoff was just like me,
Collin 39:33
and they're tied together, like,
Brandon 39:34
yeah, like the payoff was not like there was so much buildup, and then they just like won again, like what, what,
Speaker 2 39:44
what,
Brandon 39:46
so they, they beat the Badger Army again after this like crazy thing, right, and he's this is a part where he's like I. Oh, yeah, so he's like, they're like, okay, go eat, and blah blah, and he like goes to the shower, right, and he goes like everybody else goes to eat, he makes everybody else go eat and do stuff, and then he decides to not go eat,
Collin 40:18
because he's got this, he's got this assurance, he keeps thinking, he's he rationalizes this of like they'll push me as hard as they can in the game, but outside the game they'll keep me safe, right? He's thinking like everyone, they're still watching my back, they're still going to keep me safe, they're not gonna have anything bad happened to me outside the game, because I'm, I'm too important for this, so, and not like in a braggy way, but like, he knows, like, oh yeah, it's a game, and they got to push me hard, but well, they keep
Brandon 40:44
telling him that he's like the most important thing ever, so like, he's like, surely they wouldn't let anything actually happen to me, right? Like, surely they wouldn't let anybody like actually hurt me, right?
Collin 40:54
Yes, and so with that, you're right, like he's tired, and he decides to go shower and be by himself, and that doesn't.. that was the bad, that was bad choice.
Brandon 41:06
Oh yeah, so he goes in there, and we have a very classic, like movie. This is like a very classic, like movie scene, right? This is from like every prison movie ever, right? In the shower, like alone, and then like Bonzo and his gang come in here, right, and there is like murder in Bonzo's eyes, basically, right, like he knows, like just by looking at him, like he's looking at all the other people, and they're just like there to be like tough, right? But when he looks at Bonzo, he's like, "Oh dear, okay, he knows it, right? Okay, fine, gotcha. And he starts thinking about, you know, what is he gonna do, and again we see this thing again, he's like, I have to win for good, right? Like, I can't, like, we can't draw this out, like, I have to put him down, I have to, like, hurt him, so that he stops this, because I can't keep doing this all the time, right, and so he, like, purposely doesn't wash all the soap off of himself, which is kind of funny, right? Then he like turns the water up really hot, and Bonzo is even like, "I'm not scared of little hot water, haha, loser, but like it's to make it harder to see and more like humid, so that his skin is more slippy because he still has a soap on it, yeah, and he's
Collin 42:43
taunting Bonzo, making him feel insecure about how his dad is gonna feel about this, I guess is a way, like, a, oh yeah,
Brandon 42:49
he is like, man, your dad's gonna be so proud of you for beating up a little kid in the shower all by yourself,
Collin 42:55
yeah, that's
Brandon 42:56
gonna be so cool,
Collin 42:57
so cool, great, and he's not, I don't think he's, I think he's two things trying to get him to like
Brandon 43:07
overconfident and be overconfident
Collin 43:08
in this and act more rashly and blindly in this, he's using that to his advantage in this in this situation,
Brandon 43:16
yeah, and then like Dink comes in here because he realized he was not at the mess, right, and he's been looking for him, and he's like there with all these other dudes, and then there's like this like fight sequence, which is described in such a way that I couldn't quite follow exactly what's happening,
Collin 43:40
same,
Brandon 43:41
right, like some of the things he was talking about, the way that he wrote this. I'm like, huh? Like, I don't like, what does that mean?
Collin 43:50
And I got me out. I didn't go back and try and read it a second time. I just read it once. It was like, no, I don't get that's good enough, right? Like,
Brandon 43:56
yeah, it's just the mostly the end part where he like flies off the it says Ender spun in the air and landed on his toes and hands, right? Like I'm like, what is what a weird way to
Collin 44:16
on his toes and hands, yeah, yeah, he landed crouching on his hands and whatever,
Brandon 44:22
yeah, and then he like, yeah, he also like kicked him in the chest. I don't really know, and then he ended up like kicking him in the groin, right, like super mega hard. And then, oh, he hit him in the face too, because he's bleeding all over the place, and so they he like, he like just puts him down right, and then gank like grabs him, and you know, hurries him out of there with the stunned people, and everybody's the medical staff is coming now, like everybody's I. And stuff there, and right,
Collin 45:08
and this is where he realizes, like, oh,
Brandon 45:11
like, yeah, I know that, yeah, well, and this is
Collin 45:14
also where he realizes that, like, the teachers actually weren't coming, like, the adults weren't coming for this, yeah, so he's going, okay. No, I am alone in this. They would have, they would have let this happen, would they?
Brandon 45:27
Yeah, so like he, so he's just.. it's like, so done, right? He's like, any. again, he's like, I didn't want to hurt you.
Collin 46:07
Hello, I'm back, all
Brandon 46:10
right. Hi. So, anyway, he's got 40 minutes to get ready for this. He goes down there, like, hey, is there gonna be practice? And he's like, you're not gonna believe this, and this is
Collin 46:24
after he has the weird, like, where he kind of fell asleep crying, right? And then he goes to bed, and then wait, like, it's just right now he's kind of in this fever dream,
Brandon 46:34
yeah, because he's already had one battle in the morning, right? He had a real-life fight in the shower. Right, I don't think he's eaten today. He has either. And then, and then he has another battle against two armies at once, a never before seen thing here. And so you know they go back and they get ready, and they're just like, all right, I guess let's go now. You do get some Bean payoff, right? Because he says, "Hey, Bean, go tell me what's on the other side of these stars in the battlefield. And so Bean does that. They tie him with the rope, and he like slingshots himself around with his ability to go like a mega fast and change direction, so he like does a quick little scouting thing, right? Like, and so he kind of tells him what's up over there. He was like, it's really dim, they're sitting there waiting, right there, just waiting, and for the ambush, right? They're just like over there, behind the stuff, like entrenched, basically. Yes, and doing that. So Ender's like, hey, well, I have no ideas, so we're gonna do a formation. We're gonna give them the one thing they don't expect, because Andrew's group never does formations, and he's like, we're gonna do this formation, and he was like, their group is like, wait, can we do that right now? He's like, yes,
Collin 48:20
we need to practice these anyway, so yeah, so
Brandon 48:24
might as well. It was really weird. They do like a.. is this the one where they like tie themselves together? It's like a cylinder situation here, right? And like they do this like really bizarre thing, and they're like they're grouped around together in like a cylinder, yeah, and they're but they're tied off with the tether that nobody can see, because the cylinder does this weird thing, and then it like switches and goes a different direction, like mega fast, and the other armies are very confused, and while they're being distracted by this big formation, right, there were six of these people right down near the door, and he was like, okay, well, they're coming around behind me, so I guess we'll just turn around and shoot them, and while he's in the middle of thinking about this, the game stops, because they just snuck around and pushed the buttons on the door and left,
Collin 49:44
yeah, there are no more, yeah,
Brandon 49:48
which you know, I mean, whatever, like, and, and the, the reaction to this is, I think, very. Appropriate from Ender, because the major guy comes out and he's like, what are you doing, and Ender just goes, I beat you, sir.
Collin 50:09
Yeah,
Brandon 50:10
and he was like, you weren't going as me, Ender, you were going against Griffin and Tiger, and Andrew just goes, How stupid do you actually think I am, sir? Like, come on, I know it's against you, I know you're doing this, I and he was like, you're you can't do that, that's against the rules, blah blah blah, and there's like, whatever, I don't care, rules anyway, don't be mad, like,
Collin 50:34
which is a good point, that it's, it's, there's all these structured, all these hard rules that you're expected to follow it, always do, but they always are changing, and so it's like, well, I'll just start changing the rules then for myself, which is part of a discussion that comes up later between Bean and Ender, of just like rules, just do something different, and Ender, at this point, is just, is very, we've already said, like, he's done playing with this, and this was a scene that I almost wish didn't happen. I almost wish that he would have refused to play, and that would have been the winning move here again, like, whatever, whatever. How meta that could be, but he didn't even
Brandon 51:16
go in, did if he just
Collin 51:18
refused to turn and go home, and like, and not engage in the battle that I kind of thought that, that I don't know, this is me and my perspective here, but that almost would have been a better like move in this, as far as like the story arc of where Ender is, because later he would get where he's just like tired and grumpy on a lake, and I'm like, what, yeah, how did this? Yeah,
Brandon 51:42
I mean, he kind of did that right by ending the game this way, by like,
Collin 51:47
sure, yeah, by not play
Brandon 51:50
like he's like, no, I'm not going to worry about, I'm not going to worry about like actually freezing everybody like they normally do, right? He's like, we're just gonna go straight for the gate and open it,
Collin 52:01
yeah,
Brandon 52:02
like whatever. So he kind of is. It's not as impactful, you're right, because he still does have to do all this other stuff, you know. You're so.. I think I think I do agree with you that it, it could be done in a way that makes it make like more impactful for his character stance, of like I'm refusing to play,
Collin 52:22
yeah,
Brandon 52:22
right, I don't want to do this anymore, because I don't care, right, it's pointless, so we get a little bit of that, but like not much, right, so and then we do have this conversation with Dean just a little bit later and he's talking about stuff, and he shows him that he has been transferred, right. Actually, everybody's been,
Collin 52:54
everyone has been transferred.
Brandon 52:56
Yeah, and so, like every team leader and every assistant has been transferred, and Andrew's like, "Of course, they decided to wreck my army. They'll cut it to the ground, whatever they're doing, they're thorough. And Tom's like, "You'll still win, right? It'll be fine. And you know, he does.. this is what he's talking about. I don't care about the game anymore, blah blah blah. And then Colonel Graph comes back in, and it's like, hey, actually you're being transferred to, right? Just kidding, so yeah, you're graduating, like actually, even though he's like talking about how you're insubordinate and blah blah, and just like I don't care, he is being taken to command school, right?
Collin 54:02
Not pre command,
Brandon 54:03
no, no, yeah, like command, command, like, because, yeah, beans, like, wait, what are you going, tactical navigational support? He goes command, he's like pre command, he's like no command,
Collin 54:15
yeah,
Brandon 54:15
right,
Collin 54:16
yeah, we forgot before this, there's this point of, of when he's talking about the interaction with, with they're talking about what happened to Bonzo and him. Oh, yeah, did you catch the little detail in here that comes back to, well, spoiler alert this, but oh yeah, they said they sent
Brandon 54:39
him home. No, no,
Collin 54:40
he didn't say send him home, they said they just sent him all they said is it just said Cartagena, Spain, that's his home, right? They sent him, oh yeah, and you're like, oh yeah, why would they like that's weird that they would send him home anyway. Sorry, I was later, we feel like. We realize what that well,
Brandon 55:02
I mean, foreshadowing for two pages from now, right? Whenever they're talking about it, he says he had it coming. Beans like he's been is like he listened, he deserved it. Andrew says I knocked him out standing up. It was like he was dead standing there, and I kept hurting him, and I
Collin 55:17
kept, yeah, yeah, again. Again, we're building to a little bit of, yeah, I just had to touch back on that, because there's like that's true page here, yeah, this page, and then like later, about towards the end, yeah, like, oh my gosh, so we'll get there, but yeah, he's graph is saying you are in Anderson's there too, right? For some reason, they're like, yeah, because
Brandon 55:45
Graph is being relieved of his thing, but we find out later that that's just for a different reason. So, it seems like in the next chapter we understand why that is, but like Graph is like getting taken out of his spot to go there. Yeah, they're all there. Anderson's here, everybody's there. We have to say kind of goodbye to everybody. He doesn't get a chance to say goodbye to anybody except for Bean, because Bean just happened to be there talking to hot stuff, right? Yeah, so he goes and he gets taken away, taken away in the shuttle, and they are going back to
Collin 56:32
back home, Earth. First, yes,
Brandon 56:34
right? He and the excuse is because, well, I mean, it's not excuse, we find out later, too, but he's like, we can't go directly from here to there, which does seem like a bit of an oversight, if you ask me. Right, the excuse is the battle school has no facilities for docking long-range ships.
Collin 56:52
Yeah,
Brandon 56:55
again, this feels wrong. They have to take some sort of like tugboat
Collin 57:01
later
Brandon 57:02
thing. it's like a smaller craft from another base, whatever. I don't know, so like they go from they have to go back to Earth, and it's weird, like Ender feels really weird about being on Earth because it's like hot, and there's actual sun, and the floors don't curve right. He's so used to the battle school, the curving floor, because it's rotating for the gravity effect thing. It's like all the floors curve up, which is like what he talks about. He talks about that a lot in the next chapter, that just detail comes up a whole bunch, which is very strange, like the upward curve of the floors, and he just seems all like he's like disoriented, right?
Collin 57:51
He says that he, he scuffs his feet, he hates it. He wanted to go back home, back to the battle school, the only place in the universe where he belonged,
Brandon 58:03
yeah. Even though he hates it there, also, right? So, really, he doesn't feel like he belongs anywhere, right? He just doesn't do that, right. And then we do have a, for the first time, question mark, a little side ending thing, like these little most of the chat, all the chapters begin with like a, like an aside from like the commanders or some other people talking that are not named Ender. This one actually ends with it, right. And so we have this thing, and they're talking about Graph and his orders, and then we find out that there was one more person in the shuttle, the
Collin 58:51
fourth person in a bag, and you're going in
Brandon 58:55
the bag, because it turns out it turns out that Bonzo died,
Collin 59:02
he died,
Brandon 59:04
right? Like, he, Ender, killed him, and they don't, they don't tell him that.
Collin 59:12
Nope,
Brandon 59:12
right? Because I mean, I can see why not, because Ender is already not doing well, like emotionally, and so if he knew that, that would be pretty bad, right?
Collin 59:28
Maybe then, maybe even worse, but the fact it is not the first time. Yeah,
Brandon 59:34
apparently, apparently the Stillson kid from like ages ago also died. What he just broke his arm. What kind? What is that? Yeah, like what. So Ender apparently now has killed two people, but he doesn't know about any of that, so. That's weird, right? Like,
Collin 1:00:06
nope.
Brandon 1:00:07
So, yeah, I don't.. I don't know.
Collin 1:00:12
I don't feel good about any of that.
Brandon 1:00:14
Yeah, so that's.. that's weird. Yeah, so they go, turns out he was, his methodology is more effective than he thought, right? Like
Collin 1:00:31
that's what they like, because they, they, they like the fact that he finishes to, like, the very bitter end, right? He's like, he makes sure that they never return, and they never can come back, and can never do anything, and that's why he's going to be a good helper for the bugger problem.
Brandon 1:00:50
Yeah,
Collin 1:00:50
there we go.
Brandon 1:01:04
So then we have chapter 13, right. We're back with Valentine here, although at the beginning of this chapter, with the little side conversation that we don't ever know who's actually talking, the government does know that what her and Peter are up to, they have, they figured out that these two online people are the Wiggins kids, right, the Lock, and the, the, I say this word like a Greek name, so I don't know if it's Demosthenes or demosthenes, whatever. I don't know how it's supposed to be said, but it looks Greek to me, so that's how I'm saying it's what we're going with. And so they discovered they know who it is for real, and they're just concerned about, like, is somebody controlling them, is somebody telling them to say this, and they're like, actually, we don't think so, and he's like, well, how are they so right about things, and they're like, well, they are wiggins, so some guys like, ah, okay, gotcha, it's to be expected, makes sense, yep. And so they just decided that for right now they're just gonna let him keep doing the thing,
Collin 1:02:30
just gonna watch, right? There's gonna watch
Brandon 1:02:32
to see what happens, because that's what they do with everything. There's gonna watch to see what happens, because, like, so far they're like, there's not really that bad yet, so we're just gonna let them be. Boom, that's that's what we've got here. Then, when we cut to Valentine, we've discovered that the Peter is kind of mad because everybody likes her character better,
Collin 1:03:02
aha. She's
Brandon 1:03:03
like, she's like, "What do you mean? She's like, "You don't make any sense because you told me to do this. I'm just doing what you told me to do. Like, how are you mad at that? Like, everybody likes my things my person is saying, like, yeah.
Collin 1:03:23
Yeah, yep, it wasn't
Brandon 1:03:24
supposed to work this way. Locke was supposed to be the respected one, and
Collin 1:03:30
she's like, yeah, but, like, you know, you know, respect, like, takes a long time, and you know it can be, you know, it's gonna be earned differently, and respect doesn't always just mean it's the flashiest, but still there's this resentment that he's not getting the recognition of brilliance or leadership that he was expecting. Yeah,
Brandon 1:03:49
because this whole plan was his idea anyway,
Collin 1:03:51
even though they both interact on all the messages, he takes that away for a little bit, but like they're they're reading all the correspondence together, and there's still all this stuff, too, like that. They're still interactive, but he feels a little like he's not getting his just desserts or whatever.
Brandon 1:04:08
Yeah, he does like not talk to her for a little bit, right? And he thinks, like, well, maybe if I don't tell her what to write, her writing will be bad, and don't want to like it, but like it doesn't matter, because she's been doing it for so long that she's like she, she just knows what this person would write.
Collin 1:04:26
Yes, which
Brandon 1:04:26
also she doesn't really like that about herself too, because she's like she's having trouble determining where is the character and where is me.
Collin 1:04:36
Yes,
Brandon 1:04:37
right. In some instances, right, she actually even accidentally like almost messed it up at school, because she, like, responds to something. She's so good. The teachers, like, make them write a thing about it. She responds to it, like, really well. And the teacher's like, "Wow, that's really good. She's like, "I mean, dang it,
Collin 1:04:56
no darn, because she knew it was going to be. Picked up right, and knew that it was someone else. Yeah, find it. Yep.
Brandon 1:05:06
So she's dealing with this, and she's leaving school, and Who's outside? But it's Colonel Graph, and she's like, she just looks at him and goes, I'm not writing another letter. Yeah,
Collin 1:05:21
he's like, "You don't like medals.
Brandon 1:05:24
She's like, "No. And she's like, "He's like, I need you to ride with me. She goes, "I don't ride with strangers. But he hands her a release form that's been signed by her parents, and she's like, "Crap, where are we going?
Collin 1:05:36
Dang it, yeah.
Brandon 1:05:39
And he says we're going to Greensboro to see a young soldier on leave, and she's very confused by this, and she's like, "Wait, I thought Enders only should only be like 10, and you said that he wouldn't be able to leave till he was 16. He's like, "Well, he's skipped a bit, uh Yeah, and we get here that, like, Ender doesn't, you know, she's like just me, why not the whole family? He's like, well, because Ender doesn't really care about them, right? He definitely doesn't like, he definitely doesn't want to see Peter. He was very indifferent about the parents, right? He just, you know, whatever. So, yes, now they go to this lake, this little lake here, and apparently Ender has been here for, was it like two months?
Collin 1:06:33
Yes,
Brandon 1:06:34
and he just like doesn't, because he is like, he is all the way to, like, I don't care. I don't want to do this anymore. There's no point, right? He's in full morose mode. The only joy that he has done for himself is he has built himself a raft,
Collin 1:06:54
he has,
Brandon 1:06:55
of which he seems very proud of, because he actually did a thing,
Collin 1:06:58
yes, of questionable, like raft worthiness, but it keeps, yeah, it
Brandon 1:07:04
mostly floats.
Collin 1:07:06
Also, also Valentine has this shift where previously she felt like there was, she didn't like the letter aspect, but felt like she was forced to do it. There is an aspect now where she gets why Ender is important, like she does, like she said that she had grown and she knows more things than she did before, and that she couldn't, and that it's that it's she. Where was that? Where was that phrase? Am I paying attention? My father, oh gosh, where did this come from? Where basically it said that she was needing, she realized that white Ender was so important in this, and that she was going to do this because the world needed it. Basically, she's on board with graph at this point, and knowingly is going to go into some of this. Yeah, yeah, she
Brandon 1:08:08
still doesn't love it, right? But, like, she does kind of get it right. There is another funny thing where he just tells her, right? She was like, "Why should I do this? And he's like, because I know who did most of these is, and she's, oh yeah, oh, okay, right,
Collin 1:08:30
okay, so there's some minor blackmail, okay,
Brandon 1:08:34
yeah, there is a bit of blackmail, right, you know, so he's like, but you know, they can trust our discretion, you know, just as I can assume that they won't tell Locke what's going on here today, mutual trust, don't you see? And she's like, okay, and and there's interesting part here, where she goes, she can't tell if it was Demosthenes that they approved of, or Valentine Wiggin? Right, she's like, if it was the former, she would not trust him. If the latter, perhaps she could, right? So, like, if they agree with her character, they're not to be trusted, but if they agree with her, then they're maybe they're not, maybe they can't be trusted, exactly right,
Collin 1:09:23
yeah,
Brandon 1:09:24
right. She did not stop to wonder whether she herself knew the difference anymore,
Collin 1:09:29
exactly. Yeah, anyway, so she's she's out there on the boat with him, and they're having kind of a tit for tat conversation about about this and Ender's now this like cold, hardened, gruff 10 year old, or whatever he is now. Yeah, you know, he's like, I don't even know what beauty is anymore. Yeah, you're like, okay, sure, all the way, bud, you. And they're trying to have this, oh, she gets, she's really thrown off by the fact that this wasp lands next to her, and Ender kills it with one finger, and this to her is like the sign that maybe Ender really is a killer, and that he's, he's grown up a lot because he killed a wasp,
Brandon 1:10:22
yeah, because he said they, they sting you without waiting to be insulted first,
Collin 1:10:27
yeah,
Brandon 1:10:27
right. He's like, I've been learning about preemptive strategies, I'm very good.
Collin 1:10:33
Okay,
Brandon 1:10:38
okay,
Collin 1:10:40
sure, but but then she, we start to get veer into good old Peter here, right? Where she's like she tries to bring up, well, she tells them what she and Peter have been up to, yeah, and how Peter basically wants to be the next Alexander, and why can't there be both, and she comes up with this weird, like, we're two sides of the same coin, and I'm the metal in between, and I don't like, okay, so how far are we going to take that analogy as we move forward? In this, is Wiggin, is Ender going to be like victorious in space, and Peter is victorious on Earth, and Valentine is the bond that brings them back together as they reunite after the tearing, terrible, terrifying fallout of both of both places. I don't
Brandon 1:11:29
really know right now, all we get is, well, when one side of a coin is down, the other side is up, right? That's that's about as far as we take this. Yes,
Collin 1:11:37
yeah, we've got so far it's great.
Brandon 1:11:42
Yeah, and basically he just like kind of is like he explains to her that the reason that he's frustrated is that he doesn't know anything about the enemy, right? He hasn't learned anything, like he's learned about people,
Collin 1:12:03
yes, right,
Brandon 1:12:04
but he's not going to be fighting, they don't want him to fight people, so he doesn't like, he's like one of the reasons he's frustrated partially is because he's like scared that he doesn't actually know anything about the buggers, right? So, like, he doesn't know anything about them, and he can't beat them if he doesn't know anything about them,
Collin 1:12:31
because he can't read them, he can't, yeah, to know, like, their motivations, that kind of stuff, because he's, he uses that to his advantage in every interaction that he's had, every encounter that he's had with somebody else.
Brandon 1:12:42
Yes, like he's like, he's like, I'm very good at understanding how other people think, right, which apparently is a family trait, because that's kind of what her and Peter are doing,
Collin 1:12:54
yeah.
Brandon 1:12:54
Also, right, in a different way,
Collin 1:12:57
and she's a little thrown off because she's like, oh gosh, does he really know me? Like, does he know me now, and yeah, she's
Brandon 1:13:03
kind of like uncomfortable, and he doesn't like, you know, that she seems slightly afraid of him, like it makes him feel bad, you know, because he's like, but I love you still, and all this, so this is a very strange thing, she tells me about the stuff that they've learned, and, and everything about, like, the Russians, and all this weird stuff. I don't know, so is this the part? Wait, oh yeah. And again, he's still going on and on about all this stuff. Basically, like they want the other thing this year is the weird dichotomy between him and Peter is like Peter actually wants to be famous and Andrew wants to be left alone. Yeah, and like, she's trying to talk about, like, well, what about you know, you could know everybody will know you, like this Mazer Rackham person, and he's like, yeah, but it turns out, like, from what he's talking about, like, he just sort of like accidentally won, yeah,
Collin 1:14:17
he was, and
Brandon 1:14:18
so, like, he doesn't want to be like that guy,
Collin 1:14:19
yeah, he wants to have a plan and go in and do all this stuff, because he's feeling the pressure that people are putting on to be like this, this great tactician, and from everything that Ender can know and see, that guy just stumbled into it on accident, and Ender's like, "What? No, I'm not, that's not good, if you're like, I can't just be try and be at the right place at the right time and have things go exactly my way when it doesn't even appear that he had a plan this whole time to win that battle, and so he's really feeling that that pressure of be the next this guy, and Ender's looking at this guy going, but he didn't, this one. It, what? No, I can't do. Yeah,
Brandon 1:15:02
and he, like, he confesses his, like, actual fear here to her. He says, "I can't, I don't think I can beat them.
Collin 1:15:11
Yeah,
Brandon 1:15:12
like he says, "I don't think I can beat the buggers, right? And she's like, she just looks at him, and again, we don't know if this is the character or if it's actually Valentine Valentine, but she says, like, listen, if you can't beat them, then they deserve to win,
Collin 1:15:31
yeah,
Brandon 1:15:31
because the if you can't beat them, nobody can beat them, and he's kind of like, ah Ah, rats, okay. And he's like, I don't want to be a killer, and she goes, What else should you be? Humans didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Okay, it's a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and tigers would rule the earth.
Collin 1:16:04
Yeah,
Brandon 1:16:04
right. And then he says, I could never beat Peter, no matter what I said or did. I never could, right. And she says, well, he was older and stronger than you, and he says, so are the buggers. She's like, okay, I get where you're coming from here, kind of like,
Collin 1:16:26
yep,
Brandon 1:16:30
yeah, and then she does say, well, listen, if you beat the beat the buggers, and then come home and see who notices Peter,
Collin 1:16:37
right,
Brandon 1:16:38
right, that'll be defeat in his eyes. Ender, that's how you beat Peter, right? And he's like, he says, I don't want to beat him, right? And he says, she says, what do you want? He's like, I want him to love me. Well, I don't know about that, don't know that's gonna happen, but she says just so you know, just so you remember, I do love Ender. I don't know if that helps, but she leaves.
Collin 1:17:18
Well, and then we get this weird, like, this was it, this was it. She, this was the conversation that they needed to have, because she realizes that right, he didn't answer. She doubtedly believed her. She walked back up the hill savagely, angry at them for making her come to Indra like this, for she had, after all, done just what they had wanted. She had talked Ender into going back into his training, and at this point, you're like, have you, have you really like, but you have, like, they know, and she wouldn't, and, and he wouldn't soon forgive her for that. So she realizes that she is jeopardizing her relationship with Ender for something that she deems is important, but that she hates having to do in the first place. Yeah, and we also get this later down the line, where he says he talks about why his fighting is worth it, and why this is important for him to do. Where I don't, I don't know why this is. Maybe there's some context that I have missed, but there's a part later where he says something like he'd fight for that kind of love, that love that even though his just that Valentin loved Peter more than him, he would still fight for that. And I'm going, what, where do you get that idea right? Right? Like, where would you do that?
Brandon 1:18:45
Yeah, I don't. Yeah,
Collin 1:18:47
yeah.
Brandon 1:18:47
So, so I don't.. I also don't really know, like I'm just sort of confused about where this could possibly be headed, because we have two chapters left in his book,
Collin 1:19:01
yeah,
Brandon 1:19:02
like,
Collin 1:19:04
I, I don't, I can, we just jump to this, Brandon, Brandon, what do we learn? Because there's some stuff in the middle about here where he's like, oh, I'm going to Commander School, and I have to go do all this stuff, what he's not really,
Brandon 1:19:18
he's not really going to Commander School, he's going to the command center, the
Collin 1:19:24
command center,
Brandon 1:19:25
the super secret command center,
Collin 1:19:28
and Brandon. Why is he doing that? What, what could possibly have a reason for all of this urgency?
Brandon 1:19:35
Yeah, so the turns out,
Collin 1:19:39
turns out,
Brandon 1:19:40
turns out that the plan all along has not been to wait for a next bugger invasion, right? It is the preemptive strike, are
Collin 1:19:55
the invasion, yes, right, the next
Brandon 1:19:57
bug, yes, they are going, they. They've been traveling to the buggers home world for the past however many years, right,
Collin 1:20:08
70 years, yeah,
Brandon 1:20:10
ish, right,
Collin 1:20:10
yeah,
Brandon 1:20:11
and they've staggered, right, so they've been, they've, they've plotted all of the like home worlds and outposts, right,
Speaker 3 1:20:20
yeah,
Brandon 1:20:21
and they've been sending starships, invasion starships at intervals to where they will arrive at roughly the same time,
Collin 1:20:34
yeah. Right, like this
Brandon 1:20:35
one, this one's been going for like 60 years, but then this one's going somewhere closer, so it's been going for like 10 years, right? Like this is the, this is the plan, just like a massive shock invasion, right? A blitzkrieg, if you will.
Collin 1:20:53
Careful there, buddy. And why, why are they able to do this, Brandon? Why could they have sent everybody out at the same time? It's because they, they realize that the buggers can communicate instantaneously, so they figured out a way to do it themselves. Yeah, so
Brandon 1:21:10
that this is the revelation, because he asks Graph in this little shuttle thing when they're on the way to, like, the super secret base that people don't actually think anymore, because
Collin 1:21:22
they thought it was destroyed in the buggers last,
Brandon 1:21:24
yeah. And so, yes, that he says, like, he was like, 'What do we? He's like, 'I need to know about them. He's like, 'Tell me everything you know about them.
Collin 1:21:35
Yeah,
Brandon 1:21:35
and so he's like, 'Actually, we don't know a lot. Turns out, like, you know, he tells them about some anatomy and stuff, blah blah. He's like, but the big revelation is they don't have, like, radio, right? And so, like, we don't know how to communicate with them, like, we can't talk to them because they seem to just instantly communicate to each other, right, like some sort of like hive mind gestalt situation, right. They don't need radios, he's like they don't talk, he's like their ships don't have communication devices in them at all, so like when we were trying to communicate with them before this started, like it was pretty useless, you know? They may have been trying to communicate with us, and we had no idea what was going on, so obviously they just kill each other. Yeah, clearly the only solution.
Collin 1:22:40
Well, this is this is what Ender Ender asks, like, how do we know they wanted to hurt us? And Graph is like, well, they came, they, they hit first, and and it's like, this is what Ender is really struggling with, because now he's way out of his element, being like, but I don't, I don't, you're wanting me to attack somebody that we don't even know wants to attack us like he's this is the whole inner struggle this entire time now being face up with what's the intent of this person who's facing me,
Brandon 1:23:11
yeah, and like he, like in the games, right, he just knows that the other team is trying to win, so he's got to win first, right, that's really the only motivation with the couple times he's gotten into real fights, right? It's been like I have to react a certain way because I know with beyond a shadow of a doubt that this other person means me bodily harm, right? Yes, Bonzo was going to kill him, right? That was Bonzo's goal. So the fact that he got killed instead, kind of like, well, you know, that was he was, he was playing the kill ender, yeah, right, that's what he wanted. So, yeah, with the buggers, like, Ender has been kind of distressed by their existence for a long time, because he doesn't understand what they're even after. Like, why are they here? Like, what did they want? Like, who are they? What is their motivation? What's going on? And when graphs, like, well, we have no idea, Andrew's like, bro, what the heck, yeah. So, so they have sort of created some sort of like artificial, faster than light communication device, so that they can, the people army here can coordinate this like massive assault at the same time, right. Yep,
Brandon 1:24:34
that's kind of their sort of like, well, now that we can do this, we're gonna do that instead, right? And to enter this makes sense too, like from what he watched about them, like the videos of like how they reacted to certain things and how they seem to move, you know, in the formation stuff. He's like, it was very weird, but like
Collin 1:24:56
the
Brandon 1:24:57
fact that they could just like instantly communicate all. Most like telepathically, almost kind of is kind of the vibe, like that's how they were able to do all these things,
Collin 1:25:07
but the whole strategy of great, we'll just start sending out armies, it's going to take a little bit, and then we'll work on having a commander to tell us what to do when we get there. Congratulations, Ender, you, you will have the microphone, they'll be there in five years. Yeah, like I'm sorry. What?
Brandon 1:25:28
Yeah,
Collin 1:25:30
and yeah, he said, me thought Ender, they want me to be ready in five years. Colonel Graph, there isn't a chance I'll be ready to command the fleet in time. And Graph shrugged. So do your best. If you aren't ready, we'll make do with what we've got. That eased Ender's mind, but only for a moment.
Brandon 1:25:46
Yeah, of course. Ender, what we've got right now is nobody. Nobody.
Collin 1:25:57
Oh, oh man.
Brandon 1:25:59
But he's like, I, he knew this would be one of Graphs little games. He's like, but game or not, it might also be true. Oh,
Collin 1:26:07
yep, yep,
Brandon 1:26:09
dang,
Collin 1:26:11
yep. So then they dock, and we also get the really funny thing where the ship's captain didn't know that he was going to this like super secret base that nobody should know about, and so he can't go back home. Yeah, that was pretty
Brandon 1:26:30
free jerk move, right there, right? Like,
Collin 1:26:33
really, yeah. But here, here's where, as they're like trying to get their last bit of sleep, Ender asks, Why are we fighting the buggers, and Graph says, I've heard all kinds of reasons, because they're an overcrowded system, they've got to colonize, because they can't stand the thought of other intelligent life, because they don't like, they don't think we're intelligent, because they have some weird religion, because they've watched our old video broadcast and said we're hopelessly about all kinds, and he says, what, but what, like, what do you believe, and I thought Graphs answer to this was a little interesting, because he goes, it doesn't matter what I believe, I won't know anyway, and then he says they must talk to each other directly, mind to mind what one thinks another can also think, what one remembers another can also remember, like basically he comes down to this and an intergoes, he says they don't have a language at all. We used every means we could think of to communicate with them, and maybe they've been trying to think to us, and we can't understand. So, under goes, so the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.
Brandon 1:27:34
Yeah,
Collin 1:27:35
and
Brandon 1:27:36
that's what he says, the whole wars,
Collin 1:27:38
what? And graph, who again, how manipulative, honest or not, he's being, he says if the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you. Also, going from our side to their side, and their side to our side, nobody knows, nobody knows, because nobody's talking. Hey, hey, let's look at what's happening back on Earth between the Russians, the rest of the hegemony, and like everything that's going on there, like it's just like nobody's talking, so nobody knows what's going on. The lack of communication is the whole reason this war started.
Brandon 1:28:16
Yes,
Collin 1:28:19
yeah, and and then Ender says, you know, I'm in favor of surviving. I know, said Graph, that's why you're here. End of Chapter 13.
Brandon 1:28:35
Yeah.
Collin 1:28:36
Oh, so yeah, I don't know what on earth is going to happen in the next two chapters. I feel like we either have to big, have to big time jump, or like there has to be just one massive complete utter fallout. I hope it, I hope it doesn't end in like a yada yada yada of like 15 years later. Here's a retrospective on what happened and why this outside, so I don't know. I don't know. I didn't
Brandon 1:29:09
sit through ages and ages and ages of stupid battle training chapters, like
Collin 1:29:16
right.
Brandon 1:29:17
For anyway, here's what happened while you were gone, like,
Collin 1:29:20
yeah, like, injured about 35
Brandon 1:29:24
telling somebody about what happened before, like, no, no, that's
Collin 1:29:27
gonna happen,
Brandon 1:29:28
burn,
Collin 1:29:29
great, oh my gosh, yeah, so this is, this is, this next two chapters better be a riot, I tell you what, I don't know,
Brandon 1:29:39
well, it's gonna be something, one of them is the next chapter. I'm imagining everything is going to happen in chapter 14, because just like flicking through this, it's like super long. Yeah, like it's a very long..
Collin 1:29:52
it's on my e-reader, it's double the length of pages. Yeah, so
Brandon 1:29:57
like, yeah, it's. It's in the book here, it's what, yeah, it's 40 pages,
Collin 1:30:06
yeah,
Brandon 1:30:06
3030, somethings, yeah. So, like, yeah, so I'm imagining this is going to be the big thing, and then 15 will be sort of the the rest here.
Collin 1:30:19
Wrap up, he's on a lake, yeah. He
Brandon 1:30:21
probably will be. I don't.. he wants to go back to Lake real bad. So,
Collin 1:30:25
yep,
Brandon 1:30:26
so we'll see. I don't know.
Collin 1:30:28
Oh my gosh, he
Brandon 1:30:30
will have a conclusion at some point.
Collin 1:30:32
What that is, I don't know. I don't know. Oh, well, I have a conclusion for us. I have. oh, let's go. I have a haiku. Oh, yeah. Yes. Okay. Red, white, blue blossoms. Our faces glow in silence. Night wraps us in light. Oh, nice. Yes. Excellent. Yeah, yep. Noah's, uh, Noah's closing remark for the night last night was, I'm ready to do this again next year, and every year. So we will, we'll do that again. We'll also be here again to see how interest games resolve, yeah? Or does
Speaker 4 1:31:22
it, or does it? Yes, I
Brandon 1:31:26
am slightly worried about that, like after the revelation that we had, that this is right, there's more of
Collin 1:31:33
these books. This was the intro to book two, yeah, yeah,
Brandon 1:31:36
like, is this Seek, is this all just prolog to book two, or does this book have an actual conclusion?
Collin 1:31:43
Yes,
Brandon 1:31:44
this is what worries me.
Collin 1:31:50
And, and with that worry, we eagerly await our next two chapters. Yeah, we
Brandon 1:32:00
await them.
Collin 1:32:00
Yeah, okay. Very good. Well, we will do this again next time. All right. Love you.
Brandon 1:32:08
Love you. Bye bye.