Team Up or Shut Up: The Best Sidekicks in Geekdom!

Joshua Noel: 00:01:14

If a hero is only as good as his companions, are the companions only as good as the hero? Well, we're gonna be talking about that in a lot more in this episode of Systematic Geekology. Take two.

Christian Ashley: 00:01:28

I feel like I heard this before.

Joshua Noel: 00:01:29

Well, I needed a companion to remind me to hit record. And that's why I'm here with one only. Christian Ashley. I am Joshua Nolan. We have a really fun, different, unique episode planned for you guys.

We're going to be competing in this episode to see who can come up with the best team of seven sidekicks or companions.

They're going to be one Doctor who companion, one Star wars apprentice or padawan, one Star Trek blue shirt, a superhero sidekick, an anime or animation companion character, an animal sidekick, and one wild card companion that each of us can pick. And the fun twist. Our other friends, hosts of the show, Will Rose and TJ Blackw together and came up with a secret mission.

An email we have not opened yet. And we're gonna see how well each of our teams that we come up with can do on the mission. It could be form a prayer, study, prayer group.

It could be defeat Galactus. It could be travel to hell, improve the hearkening of hell. We don't know. We have no idea what this mission could be.

But we're gonna put together a team that we think could handle anything and that that the competition is going to be a lot of fun. So hang in there with us.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:41

But do you know why we still don't know?

Joshua Noel: 00:02:45

Because my companion forgot to remind me to record.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:48

Oh, sure. Maybe it's my fault. You know? You know why I didn't know? Because I have that covered up right now with the outline I can't see.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:00

Well, guys, I'm Joshua Noel. I'm here with the one and only companion to God himself, Master of divinity, Christian Ashley.

Thank you for joining me multiple times for the same episode.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:16

You know what if I had to be with someone else? I guess you're not the worst.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:22

Oh, man, this is going to be a fun one. First things first, let's mention what we've been geeking out on because I have no idea what you've been geeking lately.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:30

No, none whatsoever. This is going to be fresh to both of ears.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:34

What is What? Help me out.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:38

All right, so I am going to throw an anti geeking out recommendation out there. As in Fallout 4, just have a new release.

As far as the anniversary edition, which has introduced a lot of new bugs, stopped a bunch of mods from working, caused problems with hardware, it's not fun. I'm not big on it. I really wish these companies would just, you know, make more games rather than re releasing the same product over and over again.

So yes, the best thing I can say is I didn't buy any of it. I already have it, so I don't need to waste my money. I'll put it that way.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:13

Hooray.

Speaking of things they've made over and over again, I've been playing Skyrim on Steam Deck and you know, I'm not like trying real hard going into a story. My brother just finished it and then tell me. He was like, oh yeah, I just played through Skyrim again. You know, it's about that time. So.

So I picked it up. I'm just kind of casually going along, dying from zombies hidden under mountains and killing dragons, you know, doing my thing. But it's been fun.

Christian Ashley: 00:04:38

Normal things.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:40

Yeah, yeah. Other normal things. It's totally normal to sponsor our show, and you should.

And today we're gonna shout out one of our financial sponsors, Annette Noel Uroc. She's also the reason why I know what half the fandoms we're talking about today are.

Also remember, rate and review our show wherever you get your podcast. Just that little bit of time it takes to leave that rating review helps a whole lot.

It makes the algorithms, AI and all that thing prioritize us when people are looking for podcasts or geek stuff. And that goes a long way. So we really appreciate it.

And remember guys, if you want your own shout out like Annette just got, you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of Systematic Ecology on our website, same website, you can find some exclusive content, some cool merch, and other ways to just kind of get plugged into the Systematic Ecology community. If you want to be more a part of what we're doing here.

And just, I don't know, I love our community online and even in person we got to go to NC Comic Con.

So I. I'd really love it if everybody just kind of jumped on and shared in this together, as we might be talking about here in a minute, what friends do. But. For now, let's go ahead and jump into today's episode. First things first, I want to start with the whys. So why are we doing this?

So, Christian, first, why do you think we're drawn into stories about like teams, team ups, mashups, all that kind of stuff? Like, what is it that draws us to that? Why would me and you even want to build a team in the first place?

Christian Ashley: 00:06:04

Because Allegedly, when you have more people together, you should have less problems.

But to actually answer the question, like I've mentioned several times before on a show, my favorite series of all time, once again, not for the quality, but because of what happens in it, is Marvel Team Up. I love Spider Man. I love Marvel characters. I love seeing them together. I love solo stories with those characters.

But there's just something more special.

When Spider man can't solve a problem and the Human Torch comes in, or Captain America comes in and they work together and they solve the problem and they become better friends by the end of it, or there's a problem that arises between the two of them, they have to work on their relationship with each other. Then you have the classic setup of teams in comics universes, not just comics, but in general.

We have, like, the Avengers, who are started because Loki created the problem that had all of them come together and force them to become a team.

You have, if I'm remembering correctly, it's the machinations of the scrolls before the secret invasion that caused the New Avengers to come back together after it had been disassembled. And then for DC on that side of things, you have the jla. When Starro invades, in most continuities, Superman isn't enough to take him down.

Batman's not enough, Wonder Woman's not enough.

But working together alongside the other heroes that are involved in whatever origin story they're telling, it's a lot easier to handle a threat they couldn't do by themselves. And that helps us give moments to where these characters can play off of each other to reveal a little more about themselves.

May even have, like, you know, romantic interest that can happen as a result of this. Like, it's just fun.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:38

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's like, you know, Superman, he's great, but then a rock can defeat him. A rock from outer space.

But then Batman just comes along and kicks the rock to the side and all of a sudden, boom. Superman, Superman super again. Make Superman super again. Anyway. The other thing with teams, I'm going to go back to the four loves. I'm sorry, Chris.

I almost said Christian Ashley wrote it. C.S. lewis, a little bit different than Christian Ashley.

Christian Ashley: 00:08:04

I wish.

Joshua Noel: 00:08:05

Writes the Four. He talks about friendship and, like, some of what makes a difference, like romance, it's about each other.

It's like I'm just infatuated with how great Christian is. But friendship is about something. So it's like, for Christian and I, we started with Doctor who. We both kind of have the Shared interest.

This show, we talked about it, you know, and then we have shared faith and we talked about that and we shared Spider man lore and we disagree about it, but we still love Spider Man. So we kind of like. And, you know, friendship just kind of grows. It's about something not one another, ideally.

And the thing that's so cool about teams, whether it's in a book or a movie show, whatever, is like, what you're seeing is like Superman is all about just all this stuff. And then Batman comes along and he's around the same thing. And you see it from two different perspectives. They're still sharing the same truth. Right.

And as someone who's watching or reading, you probably are like, oh, yeah, I like Superman because I like the things that he stands for. I like this stuff. I like what he's doing.

And then to see more characters be a part of that makes you feel like there's more and you can connect to all of them. And then seeing it from different perspectives helps you understand the things you care about on a deeper level.

And that's where I think, just in general, teams are fantastic for storytelling. Yeah. So the other thing. Other why the other why, Christian? Why sidekicks? Do we. Do we need sidekicks? Do we need companions?

And then why are we doing a whole episode talking about them like, that's why not just talk about the main characters?

Christian Ashley: 00:09:24

Because as much as I hate saying it out loud, we can't live life alone. We can't do this on our own. There is a certain part where we can be self sufficient, but there are other parts where we just need help.

And superheroes and other characters across fiction, they're no different.

Like we need, like Captain America is a lot more interesting when you're building off of Bucky and then a retcon with Winter Soldier and you have Rick Jones and the Falcon and D Man and Diamondback and so much more. They help in different ways, play off of him in a way that if Captain America was just by himself.

Yeah, I can still tell a compelling story about it because we like his character, we like what he's about, but you add someone else into the mix and it changes everything about the story. Because now how are they reacting to it? How are they reacting to Steve's choices or just using him as an. As an example.

Then of course, I mean, we go to scripture, we see people working together. Elijah has his Elisha, Paul has his Timothy. Jesus has the disciples. Jesus doesn't need the disciples in a way that a human would need them.

In the same way, but he's still doing something important there.

He's teaching them about what to do so that when they have disciples of their own, things carry on to the point where we're at today, that wouldn't have been done if we didn't have organization there of people working together, mentoring people, spending time with them to get to know them better and also teach them about faith. And we need sidekicks, because one day they're going to be the heroes, because the hero isn't always going to be around.

You get things like Dragon Ball, like, yeah, that was one part of the story until, you know, money and everything, where Goku left because he wanted everyone else to be capable of saving the world. It was his time. And that's something that could be told in a competent story. But, you know, that's its own point. So what about you, Josh?

What do you think?

Joshua Noel: 00:11:15

I agree most with what you said. I don't think that in every case, the psychic necessarily becomes the hero. I think sometimes people are just better suited to assist someone else.

And that's greater. Yeah, Well, I don't think that's always the end goal, though. Like, I think some people are just. That's just their personality.

Now, mind you, I might come back to regret saying this one. I don't think of TJ as a sidekick. Let's start there. But TJ is really good. No matter who you put him with, he's going to assist the hell out of you.

You put him with Trip Fuller, guess what? Trip's going to be better because that's what TJ does. TJ makes other people better. And I don't necessarily see tj, and I've talked to him.

It's not what he wants is to become a leader of anything, man. He wants to find people that he cares about and agrees with and support them. And I think sometimes that's what a companion does.

Sometimes, though, it is exactly what Christian says. You know, they're going to one day be the hero, and they have to learn.

And that's where I think what's really cool about a lot of our sidekicks is they're more relatable a lot of the time. A lot of the time, you know, like, I never am, like, reading Batman going, that's me. I'm totally Batman.

But maybe I read it and I hear Dick Grayson, and I see where he's struggling and how he's like, I'll never measure up. And he's going through really personal stuff, and I'm like, oh, Wait a minute. I. I think I relate to that character.

So I think a little bit it's a way in to make some of these larger than life heroes actually feel relatable. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:43

Let me clarify real quick. When I mean hero, I don't mean, like, they have to be the carbon copy of one mentoring them. No, no, no. I just want to make sure it's understood.

Like, when I'm discipling other people, the idea, the goal isn't to make them me. The goal is to make them, you know, who Jesus wants them to be.

And that could be the person who supports that could be the person who then succeeds me one day. It could be the person who just organizes things or make sure the AV is done. Like that's a heroic. They become that hero.

And they wouldn't have done that without someone pouring into them and watching out for them. So that's. That's was the point I was making, which are.

Joshua Noel: 00:13:16

We'll get more into that later on, but we need to hurry along because we have a ton of stuff to talk about this episode first. Let's go ahead and build our team. Let's cut to the chase, and we've both agreed to the honor code.

We're just going to accept that the other one, whatever he chose, counts, even if I don't want it to count.

Christian Ashley: 00:14:40

We haven't gotten to this part of the episode. This is interesting.

Joshua Noel: 00:14:42

I texted you and you said that sounds good.

Christian Ashley: 00:14:46

Sure, I did.

Joshua Noel: 00:14:47

You have the proof, I have evidence. And not only that, we're going to double agree to the honor code, the part I didn't text him. We're grading each other.

I don't get to say that I think my team's better than Christian because, of course, I think that Christian's going to grade my team and I'm going to grade his. I want to see who comes out. We're just going to be honest.

And I believe that Christian can be honest, and I'm hoping he trusts me to be partially honest. The problem is I might not know all of his characters. That does make things difficult. But it's fine. We'll figure it out.

We're gonna stroll through our picks, though, for our seven member teams. So first we're starting with our Doctor who companion.

Christian Ashley: 00:15:31

So if you got to.

I guess this is releasing after we do that one, then my number one pick for my favorite Dr. Ku companion is also who I'm picking here, because I think Ace is not only a great character, but one of the greatest companions ever. I think she is the best because she brings a lot to the table. She is an explosive expert.

She is someone who rebels enough against authority without being a total punk about it, who knows when to keep people in their place, who also knows when to use a baseball bat to kill and beat up a dollar. I mean, that's when you see a dollar.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:05

That's when.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:06

Yeah, it's on site, like, take them out. And she uses what she has at her disposal and what she's not supposed to have on her disposal to blow problems up. And it's wonderful.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:19

An explosives member is definitely. That's key. That's key. I like that for myself, I'm starting with. I'm going to start with Jack Harkness. Captain Jack.

I didn't mention him at all in our Doctor who episode because I cheated. He would have got a shout out. He isn't necessarily one of my favorites. He's close.

Reason I pick him for this, though, he has enough leadership qualities, enough charisma, and he has proven he can work with the team. And that's where I think he's going to be pivotal to making my team actually functional. And he's fun, which I also think is important for a team.

So starting with my Doctor who next up, we're going to do our Star wars pick. Christian, who you going with?

Christian Ashley: 00:17:04

Yeah, I'm picking up Zane Carrick from the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic comics. He is atypical for a Jedi, and he's not really. He hasn't been trained well.

His master doesn't like him and to the point where he is framed for murdering his fellow apprentices after those masters have a vision of the future where they fall to the dark side. So it's him struggling against the Jedi Order.

Also in the midst of the Mandalorian war, dealing with criminal organizations, trying to just find a way to, like, live and expose the truth to the world that he's not a murderer.

And he, over time, grows as a Jedi despite not having a master, grows in empathy to other people and say, well, what about this part of the Jedi Order? It's a little different.

Experience things, things in the real world versus, you know, the safety and comfort you get just from being, you know, trained by someone. So Zane is going to be maybe one of leaders, if not the leader.

Joshua Noel: 00:18:01

All right, all right. I dig it. I dig it. Now, my next pick, my pick for Star wars, this was really difficult for me, actually.

I'm going to go with the one and only Darth Tyrannos, otherwise known as Count Dooku. Because he's pragmatic. Because even though he's a Sith, he also is definitely just one of those.

It's like, yeah, he saw the evils of the Jedi Institution. He's. If you look at the tales of the Jedi, you know, it's a good series.

And he saw the evils of the Sith, and I think he was planning to take them both out. And also, that's why utilitarian doesn't work, because sometimes it just makes you the bad guy.

But I think if he is on a team, he sees the mission, he sees the goal, he'll go along to play along if he believes in what we're trying to do. If not, could be a dangerous pick that takes us all down. We'll see. All right, Christian, what's your next one?

We're going Star Trek blue shirts, which for. For listeners who don't know, blue shirts are the medical science officers.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:05

Yes. So I'm picking Dr. McCoy.

You want a man, face problems head on, knows this stuff, knows also how to have a good bedside manner and to make sure the people in charge know, hey, you may be in charge of the starship, but this is my room. You're going to listen to me. And regardless of whatever scenario is picked, I have the opportunity for him to say, I'm a doctor, not a blank.

And no other character on this list has that capability, which I think makes him outrank anyone else.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:37

All right, all right. I love it. I know in Dangers here, I never pronounce the name correct.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:43

I figured. I mean, not in a bad way. Like, I figured this was your choice.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:46

And I like it. He means a lot to me personally.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:50

Yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:50

Officer Joseph Mbinga. Did I say that right? Do you know Mbanga?

Christian Ashley: 00:19:54

Yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:55

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:56

Solid pick.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:57

Yeah. Great character. Not only is he a great medic, he also. He's seen war. He knows the reality of war. He knows when it might be necessary.

And he absolutely is going to be the first one to say it's not necessary. And he just has that heart that I don't think anyone else on my team has. So he's going to be the heart of the team. I think I like him a lot.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:17

Good idea.

Joshua Noel: 00:20:18

This is not a In Vega episode, so I'll stop there.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:22

All right, next up for comic sidekick, I'm picking Rick Jones, who is probably the definition of the sidekick in comics world. He's worked with and studied under Captain America, the Hulk, Captain Marvel, the original. He, in recent years has Become a Hulk himself. It is he.

He is someone who is prepared for any situation to the point where a plane blew up and he parachuted out of it, not having previously been established that he had one. And he got asked why, and he said, well, of course I have a parachute with me wherever I go. You know how long I've been in this trade.

So he's got plenty of knowledge of how heroing works, of how to support them, but also, like, how to get things done. Like, he being involved in the Kree Skrull war. All the stuff he's done with Captain Marvel and the Hulk, Captain America, so on and so forth.

Like, this man's got the experience. He's been there since the beginning. He's still there now. Oh, and also, he has a symbiote now because Marvel.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:23

Yeah, Marvel. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:27

That's a good house of ideas, everyone.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:29

That's a. That's a real wild card of a pick, too, is, like, he can be just about anything because Marvel doesn't know what to do with him sometimes.

All right, my next one. Abe Sapien from the Hellboy comics. Hellboy universe. I. I love Abe. He's very much one of those who's, like, he's a supporting role kind of person.

He doesn't have that kind of personality that he's gonna take charge, but he's very understanding, sympathetic. He's very intelligent. So he's good at, like, figuring stuff out if we're gonna do, like, detective work. He'll be helpful.

He also has some pretty cool abilities as far as, you know, getting inside your head, seeing your past, all those kind of things. And. Yeah, and you have to have an aquatic character, I feel like. So that's where I'm going. Got Abe Sapien.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:16

Fair enough.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:17

All right, what's next for you, my man? Comic books. Next is. Is it anime animation?

Christian Ashley: 00:22:24

Animation, yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:26

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:26

Yes. And I am choosing Paul Von Oberstein from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. My favorite anime of all time. Not that you asked or anything.

This is a story of political machination. Heard of. Of empire fighting democracy. What's the right form of government? You should have.

How do you work inside a government that's maybe a little more fascistic or maybe a little more corrupt? And he is more on the imperial side of things.

And he recognized as he grew up that if he had been born at an earlier time in history, he would have been murdered because his eyes weren't working. So he would have been born blind. And this was a time in. As their. In space.

We've regressed because that's one of the themes of the show, is that humans make poor decisions again and again. And it was a racial purity idea that anyone who wasn't so called racially pure would be killed.

And he recognized that elements of that still exist in the empire and there are nobles who are going to take advantage of that. So he wanted to change things, but he also recognized something important. He doesn't have the charisma for it.

So he starts to support people who can get the job done.

And that's how he gets involved with Reinhard and Kyochais and Mitomy and all them, so that he can make sure things get done while also recognizing he's never going to be number one, but he can support number one. And he can also make the hard decisions because his morals are a little less good as others.

So he will allow things to happen, not let the guy in charge notice that it doesn't look like he did. So when they happen, he looks like the good guy for coming in and solving the problem.

And you kind of need a little shady person every now and then and. But also someone who is ultimately a moral man. It's one of the things is black and gray morality in the series, and he's a perfect example of it.

Joshua Noel: 00:24:14

Yeah, yeah. It's like, as much as I don't like the utilitarian stuff, it's like, I picked Count Dooku. You got this guy. I'm feeling it. Okay. All right. My.

I'm going animation. Jake the Dog, one of the best companions of all time. For one, he's a dog. That's important. Also, he can morph into pretty much anything, so.

Which makes a pretty darn powerful. He could be a mode of transportation. He can surround you and become a human shield, because why not? And he's gonna bring a lot of levity.

He's gonna be a lot of the fun. He's gonna make people enjoy being there. Yeah, yeah. Maybe even Dooku will have fun. Although I kind of doubt it. We'll see.

I think Jack Harkness, though, is going to have a great time with Jake on the team.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:02

A pairing I never would have thought of, but now I kind of like it.

Joshua Noel: 00:25:07

All right, next up is our animal sidekick. Who do you have for your animal sidekick?

Christian Ashley: 00:25:13

All right, I have oi, the Billy Bumbler from the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. OI is kind of a mix of like a raccoon, a dog, and like some other mammal I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

But he has a capability of limited human speech. But he's also super loyal. He looked after his companions well. He goes down fighting at the very end.

Sorry for spoilers, it's been out for almost 20 years at this point in time. And he goes out against the being that is so far beyond his comprehension that it doesn't matter because his friends are in trouble.

So OI is going to be your most dependable, loyal, looking after you kind of guy. And that's why I had to throw him here.

Joshua Noel: 00:25:55

Mm mm. I love it. I love it. That's gonna be close to mine. I'm going with Fox. He's a fox from Middle West.

Probably the comic that means the most to me of any comic. One of my favorites and just deep, deep stuff. He is a companion who. The reasons I love him so he's able to speak.

He is the companion who is gonna tell you when not to go and when you choose to go anyway. He's coming anyway. He's always going to be there. He's just a sound, strong, you know, sage, not sage.

Like he's going to give you the solid wisdom and when you ignore it, he's there. And just kind of having a companion who's willing to be there and also willing to say, you know what?

I think maybe we even lose our mission if it means the well being of one another and let's just hang out, let's just not do this. He's the one who's going to tell us when we're going too far. When Dooku is like, let's destroy the empire. He's like, you know what?

What if we realize that's just a suicide mission and let's not. So that, that's his. His role on the team. All right, we both get a wild card. Yeah. Most of yours I didn't know. It's going to make this really hard.

Wild card. Wild card. Christian, who you got?

Christian Ashley: 00:27:12

Okay, so I was going to take this literally and have like the person you couldn't trust. And I'll add them in my honorable mentions later on when we get to that segment. But wild card, baby. I got Mothra.

Mothra, one of the greatest sidekicks of all time. Working with Godzilla. I realized my team didn't have too many powerhouses on it. It was more tactical thinking and luck, like Zane characters.

Kind of Thing is, he's just kind of lucky. Just kind of ends up even despite himself in situations where things work out for him.

But Mothra, yeah, it might take a little while for her to Wake up. You know, depending, you know, even when her own people are kidnapped by a terrorist organization, you know, in Ibera.

But, you know, eventually she gets there, and she gets the problem solved. And we need more people like Mothra.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:58

I can't argue that I'm jealous of the intellect it took to think Mothra here. Mine's going to surprise literally no one. I think I'm going to Kingdom Hearts. I'm choosing Donald Duck.

This image is him doing Zeta flare, the most powerful magic in all of Final Fantasy. In Kingdom Hearts Multiverse, he also. This is why I picked up, like. At first, I was like, it'd just be funny. But then I thought about it.

Wait a minute. That's an incredibly powerful move. And also, we go to an aquatic world. Guess what? We can all breathe underwater now.

We go to a world we have to blend in. Boom. We're all ghosts. I think Donald Duck is one of the most versatile, underrated.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:41

Thinking.

Joshua Noel: 00:28:42

Yeah. That's strategic thinking.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:44

I appreciate that a ton.

Joshua Noel: 00:28:45

Yeah. What's funny is it started as silly thinking. It became strategic thinking.

I was trying to get myself when I first thought of it, and then I was like, wait a minute. Actually.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:57

I mean, this duck is pretty fire.

Joshua Noel: 00:28:59

Yeah. And also, I think he is the powerhouse of our team, too. Ironically, if you think about it, Soar didn't defeat Xehanort. Donald Duck did. I hate that.

That's technically true, but. All right, we have our teams. We got our teams here. Now we have to see what our secret mission is, which I have literally not looked at at all.

I can't. I can't wait to open this email.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:31

Oh, gosh. See, this part is virgin to our eyes and ears.

Joshua Noel: 00:29:35

Okay, I just opened it. I'm going to show you. I haven't clicked this yet. We're going to experience this together.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:42

Oh. I mean, this could literally be anything. Like, we have no idea at all. It could be. Who's going to create the best pizza joint together?

Joshua Noel: 00:29:51

God, I hope so. That would be so funny.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:55

It could be running as an independent. Which one of these working together as a group can become president of the United States? We don't know.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:03

All right, the mission.

Christian Ashley: 00:30:04

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:05

On a trip to Carowinds, your team is riding the Intimidator when a portal opens up before the first loop. After extricating themselves from the ghost, the discover.

They discover they've landed in a world of high magic in super science ruled by a big tech oligarchy, the Technarchy. What? Anyway. Has abducted your team to test the Strength of their magnum opus, the dreaded IP Hydra.

Horrible beast with the heads of George Lucas, J.R.R. tolkie, Oda. I can't say half these names. George R.R. martin, J.K. rowling, Brandon Sanderson, G. Ron Barry and Elon Musk.

Christian Ashley: 00:30:50

Matsuhiro Sakurai was the other one.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:53

If it guards your ticket out of this place, will you test the Beast or challenge the Technarchy? Oh, so we get a choice with this mission?

Christian Ashley: 00:31:06

What's challenging them is that not agreeing to the terms they presented? Is that overthrowing them?

Joshua Noel: 00:31:11

Oh yeah, I think I'm thinking overthrowing them.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:14

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:31:15

Because I'm. Okay, yeah. Oligarchy. Okay, let me go back over my team real quick. I. Yeah. I'm sorry if I got Jack Harkness, Count Dooku and Manga.

I hate to say it, but I think even Jake, I don't think they're letting the oligarchy stand like. I think they're just straight gonna go with the. Nope. Freedom. We can't leave this place with these people under this kind of sub.

Subjugation, you know? Okay. I think they're gonna have to go after the Tet narchy just based on personality alone. I think that's what my team would do.

How do you think your team would handle this before we go into how successful we think we'll be?

Christian Ashley: 00:32:03

Honestly, I could see it going other either way because we do have a Kaiju of our own and Motha does have a history of going up against multi headed beast and he didn't specify the size of our IP Hydra here. Do you know what? For the sake of argument, I'll say it's equivalent to King Ghidorah.

Joshua Noel: 00:32:24

I think that's fair.

Christian Ashley: 00:32:25

Which would be more intimidating. And Mothra 1v1 against Ghidorah historically has not been the best. But let's see. We have. I think we're taking it on.

And I think Mothra is the distraction.

Joshua Noel: 00:32:39

I say you think Paul Vaughn. Whatever. Like the cold and calculating guy, he still thinks this is the best, best way forward.

Christian Ashley: 00:32:47

Yeah, well, once again I can see it going either way. But for the sake of being different, I'll say we fight the beast.

Joshua Noel: 00:32:53

All right.

In the midst of this, the Lord has come upon us in a dream in the middle of the night when we're thinking up our teams and we, we have this mission ahead of us. Boom. The Lord shows up and says hey, you can bring any Bible sidekick, you know, disciple, assistant, whatever, as long as they're human.

No supernatural characters allowed. Gets to join your team. The Lord's just going to pluck them from history, let them join you and put them back. Who are you going with, Christian?

Who are you choosing from our biblical narratives?

Christian Ashley: 00:33:29

Not knowing what this would be, I already made my decision, so I'm not going to change it based off of new information.

I am choosing to bring in Joab from King David's army because I needed a ruthless thinker, someone who will get things done and doesn't much care about other people's opinions. Besides, I, I have Oberstein, but I think Joab is going to be the more physical side of this, so I'm adding him on.

Joshua Noel: 00:33:58

I'm going with someone who's seen some weird stuff already who's gonna lean into the our team needs to have fun aspect, enjoy themselves. I went with John the beloved. Mmm, yeah, yeah. The, the Revelator.

You know, he's seen some wild stuff already so I don't think he's gonna be thrown off too much. And I think he's gonna be there with Jake the dog. They're gonna have fun.

He's like, if you think about like John the beloved, like he's the one who's like, yeah. We raced to the tombs and I was there first like, like John is definitely the disciple that I think had the most fun.

So I think he's gonna get along really well with like again, Jake, Jack, maybe even Abe. Abe's not like, you know, he's not as no fun kind of guy. Definitely Donald Duck.

He's gonna have a great time with Donald Duck because he knows what a duck is. What's this guy? What's your deal?

Christian Ashley: 00:34:59

Well, why would he. No one else reacts to Donald being a duck. Yeah, you got to protect the order, of course.

Joshua Noel: 00:35:06

So yeah. All right, Christian, I'm taking on the technocre. You're taking on this giant multi headed oligarchy beast. God, this is great. I love our co host.

We have five different measurements that we're going to grade each other on here and we're going to do one through 10. We're going to add it up and see who scores the best mission status. How well does your team do on our mission? And I'm going to grade you.

You're going to grade me two. We're going to do teamwork. Would your team actually work? Sustainability. How long would your team actually stay together?

Are they just, you know, they finish the mission, that's it. Was this a team who might actually keep doing other missions? Strength. How powerful is your team?

Sometimes it is about the Power, you know, and then five, we're gonna grade each other on. Would your team enjoy working together and completing this mission as a team? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So first up, do you want. You want me to go first?

You want to go first? Do one thing at a time. Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:15

Yeah, yeah. Mission status. Okay. How do I think your team does on this mission? You know, I think you've got a pretty competent team for this.

Dooku is going to be a huge outlier as far as, like, wanting to work with them outside of the fact that he is willing to work with people like he has and like the Clone wars show and beyond of working even with Jedi, if it means that he can get his goal. So I think he can put his pride aside and make this work.

Of course, you've got John there as someone who can negotiate and work with people, despite the weirdness going on here. And of course, Fox is there as a voice of reason. Reigning in Jake is going to be a problem, but Jake's going to have.

Joshua Noel: 00:36:55

A fun time in this world, unfortunately.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:57

He is a wild card. But I think we can make this work. I think Jack Harkness has a way of making misfits work together. Well.

As we've seen in Doctor who and Torchwood, it's a shame about the actor.

Joshua Noel: 00:37:12

Yeah, that's what I was really banking on is Jack Hark this. Pulling. This teen. Pulling the reins in kind of deal.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:21

It also depends on how willing he wants to be to flirt and manipulate people. That could cause problems.

But I think ultimately he may deny himself because he sees the greater moment here of actually getting out alive and taking care of the technique. Because he's anti authority in that regard. No, he hates authority completely. But an authoritarian group like that, he can't handle it. So.

Joshua Noel: 00:37:46

And I gotta throw out there, Donald Duck has been in the world of Tron, so he's no stranger to tech world.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:51

That is true.

Joshua Noel: 00:37:52

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:53

Okay, so as far as ranking out of 10, I throw in. I'm throwing an eight there. I think it. Once again, it depends on the capabilities of this technarchy. Are they like. No.

The technarchy of Warlock Species and X Men? Are they higher level than that? Are they something more akin to the Reapers of Mass Effect?

There's a lot of unknowns here, but, like, I guess since that hasn't been specified in our prompt, I guess we'll just have to decide on something and say that the teams we have assembled could fight at least one on one with whatever they have.

And they're not going to fight one on one with the Beast, though, because they think that they don't have the firepower for it, which potentially they could, but it'd be. They might lose some people along the way. And I don't see them being willing to do that just yet unless it was like the last option.

So like I said, I'll throw them in. I think they have the capability to infiltrate, maybe get people on their side because Jack's a very persuasive guy. Dooku is a very persuasive man.

Yeah, there's a lot going for him in that regard.

Joshua Noel: 00:39:01

Mission status.

I'm actually, I'm going to give you a 10 because I'm convinced from your description that this Paul guy is going to say, yeah, this is our quickest way out of here. This isn't our problem. This isn't our dimension, not our problem. I think he's going to help kind of pull them in with a understanding.

Yeah, let's do this. Mothra is just gonna go after the monster anyway, I think so they might as well lean into it.

And then you got Ace with explosions and Zane being Jedi. I think with that extra help of explosions and Jedi, Mothra can take it. And having the other characters there to kind of support.

And no matter what injuries you sustain in the fight, I'm convinced McCoy is gonna. Being able to doctor everybody up, with the exception of maybe Mothra, who I think will heal on her own anyway.

Christian Ashley: 00:39:53

It would take a little more work for him.

Joshua Noel: 00:39:55

Yeah, he's a. I think I killed a mission helper. Yes. Yeah. I don't see any issues that your team might run into. Really. Yeah. All right, what's. What's next here on my out.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:08

Teamwork.

Joshua Noel: 00:40:10

Yeah. Would the team actually work together?

Christian Ashley: 00:40:13

Right, so you've got some really like level headed people here. You've got the Fox. From what I understand, you've got Abe Sapien moving for the most part is pretty reasonable and rational.

Once again, Harkness and Dooku, I don't see them normally working together, but faced with this problem in front of them, I see this working. Now, it depends on how long it takes for them to do it.

If Jax wanted to take his time and Dooku's wanting to do things, you know, faster or vice versa. I could see friction developing there and Dooku trying to persuade people to, like, I should be the one in charge. You should be listening to me.

That could be a huge problem. Jake, of course, is the wild card. He could. He wants to take Narci down. Does it matter whose side he takes.

Jake has morality to him, but, you know, he's also missing his family and he'd like to get back to him. So does the easier option mean he goes with Dooku instead? And Donald Duck is a cantankerous person. Takes a little while.

For people to get used to him and accept him as he is. And that doesn't mean he hates you. It just means he has a hair fire trigger, even though he doesn't have hair, just a lot of feathers.

So he's someone that could cause problems and friction. So if they start off doing this and they automatically try and implement a plan, I see this as failing.

But if they take their time, enough time to not cause friction, I see this doing pretty well. I'm giving like a 9 out of 10 there. If they take even longer, that goes down like excessively.

Joshua Noel: 00:41:52

Yeah. So given the immediateness of the situation, I think your team's going to just do the thing. Mothra is going straight at the monster.

I mean, there's not a lot of time to think and see whether or not they're going to work together.

But if I'm just evaluating the team and not just thinking about the mission, I could see McCoy not really getting along with Ace or possibly even this Paul guy. I don't know the Paul Vaughn very much, but I could see McCoy kind of getting into this whole explosion violence.

Like, I feel like he's pretty anti violence and explosions just because, you know, that's kind of the nature of Star Trek. So I can see some tension there. But that's really, for the most part, I think the rest of them.

I don't know Zane well enough to know how he would react to some of these other characters.

Christian Ashley: 00:42:40

He's definitely one of the more moral characters. He can get a little unscrupulous if need be.

Joshua Noel: 00:42:44

Yeah. Mothra isn't one to stick by a team too long, but when Godzilla is in trouble, Mothra is there.

So I. I think also Mothra being the kind of creature that it is, if I'm using legendary films for the sake of.

Just for the sake of simplicity, I think instinctually Mothra wants to get back home and the rest of them are probably going to be doing that anyway, so I could see at least for the duration of the mission, I think the team works. Yes. I'm gonna go nine as well. I'm with you. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:43:13

That's fair.

Joshua Noel: 00:43:13

Yeah. Yeah. All right, what's. What's next?

Christian Ashley: 00:43:17

Sustainability?

Joshua Noel: 00:43:18

Like, I didn't recommend they stay together. Oh, man. I think this is. This is gonna be the one that hurts me. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:43:27

I gotta say, the longer they're together, the, the worst. This looks. Hate to say it, but like a 4. Like if they get things done soon. If they get things done soon, I think they've got this.

But there are too many other opinions and prideful people involved and Hair fire, trigger people involved and Jake to, you know, guarantee success. You know what I mean?

Joshua Noel: 00:43:52

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I have, I have some rebuttals, but that's for later. It's for later because I have some argument for mine. Yeah.

Sustainability wise, I think Mothra is probably your big issue. Mothra and McCoy, weirdly enough, because again, I just don't.

I think McCoy is too star Trek, you know, for the kind of world where characters like Ace could exist or Zane could exist. So I'm like, he's enough anti violence that I'm like, I don't. I don't see him sticking around long term.

I don't see Mothra sticking around long term because. Not what Mothra does. The rest of them, maybe. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go six. I'm gonna give you a six on sustainability. Yeah. All right.

Christian Ashley: 00:44:34

If. Especially if they were going the other route of taking down the Technarchy, like, I could see it work, but it would take a lot.

Joshua Noel: 00:44:41

Yeah. All right. Strength. How powerful are our teams? Christian?

Christian Ashley: 00:44:48

All right, you've got some pretty cracked people here. I mean, you have Donald Duck. Jake is one of the best shapeshifters ever. You've got some pretty powerful minds in this group.

And of course, Dooku's force abilities and Jack's immortality is going to be a huge boon because he could literally die multiple times over and be okay. But as far as, like raw strength, I'm probably going down to Dooku, Jake and Donald Duck.

And that wants me to give you like overall, your team for three out of nine members. But of course, you also have John, who has the power of Christ on his side. So I need to think about that.

Joshua Noel: 00:45:27

John the beloved.

Christian Ashley: 00:45:28

That's a. Yeah, I was gonna say seven, but now thinking about that, I want to put it at an 8. You know, prayers of powerful voice.

Joshua Noel: 00:45:37

So is Zetta flair. Just saying.

Christian Ashley: 00:45:40

You also got. You also have Fox. So I'm thinking in light of the entire team, strength wise.

Joshua Noel: 00:45:46

See, see, I don't, I don't want to do an average here because I think really your team is a weak. Is as weak in a strong as, you know, it's weakest and strongest. Member.

Because like, honestly, if you have one member who can literally one punch, man. If for example was on your team, the whole team is able to beat someone in one punch.

Christian Ashley: 00:46:04

See, but the question you asked is how powerful is your team?

Joshua Noel: 00:46:07

That's what I'm saying. Like, like as a whole, if one team member is that strong, I think that brings the whole team up that much. I don't. Not average. Okay. You have Mothra.

Man. And then even I'm forgetting the name. Who's the Bible character name?

Christian Ashley: 00:46:28

Joab.

Joshua Noel: 00:46:28

Yeah, Joab. Joab has some pretty impressive feats from what I remember. I don't know anything about Zane, but Jedi. Then you have Ace with the explosions.

But in light of stuff like technarchy, giant whatever, multiple head monster thing, it really, the power scaling is really the problem I have here because like, as strong as Mothra is, I'm convinced Zeta flare alone is more powerful than Mothra. But I'm not sure if power scaling is hard and also bad. I don't like it. It's annoying.

They were thinking about what all each of these members have achieved in the past though. Hmm. I'm give it a 7. I'm gonna go 7.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:10

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:10

What did you give me? I forgot.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:12

8.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:13

Okay, sorry. I'm trying to write them down so we can. All right, last one. Fun. Is your team going to enjoy being around each other and working together?

Christian Ashley: 00:47:25

All right, so going one by one from last to first, because the first will be last. We have John Disciple, level headed, smart, listens to what he's told. You know, had plenty of fun with the other disciples.

Had fun mentoring other people. Great. You have Donald Duck. Treasured friend when you become his friend.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:44

Runs a ship on smiles.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:46

Yes. But also has that hair trigger temper that is going to definitely cause friction.

The point is, if you could get to become his friend, you would be friends. But it's that long gap in between that's the problem.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:59

Fox.

Christian Ashley: 00:48:00

Fox seems flawless to me. Having not read the comic in question, but just hearing, I agree characterization.

I think he's going to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest to get along with. Jake is the definition of fun. If you don't have fun, you can't be around Jake.

Now, his kind of fun may differ from your kind of fun every now and then, but his fun might be at your expense. Yeah, ultimately I think most people be okay. Ape Sapien, he's more not. Not, you wouldn't say stoic, but more reserved.

So it'd be a little harder for him to open up at first, but he would get along with people well, to the point where they could have fun together.

And of course, Dr. Mminga, suffering from PTSD as he does, is an extremely qualified doctor, has canonically had fun multiple times over, as we've seen in Strange New Worlds and, you know, the original series. So maybe a bit prickly at first, but definitely not as bad as McCoy would be, should we say, and definitely easier to make friends with.

Dooku Statesman has the charisma. His idea of fun isn't going to be everyone else's idea of fun. I think most of them are going to pick up real quick. This isn't a good dude.

Don't really.

Joshua Noel: 00:49:13

I beg to differ.

Christian Ashley: 00:49:14

Late to him. Okay, we'll get the rebuttals later. Harkness. He's the life of the party almost as much as Jake.

He's going to find ways to get them to unwind, have fun together. So in light of all that, I think having Jake and Jack on the same team does help boost it up compared to some of the other people there.

So I'm also going to throw this.

I'm going to throw this at a 7, because the other members, it would be rougher to get them to get along, but with them on their side, I think it's easier ultimately, for them to eventually get that way.

Joshua Noel: 00:49:47

Mm. Mm. All right. Man. So. So here's the thing. Fun. And I'm gonna detach this from the mission for at least, because we're talking about fun. You know.

I honestly think Ace would have so much fun being around Mothra. Like, oh, my God, that's a giant moth. Like, Ace is eating that up. McCoy is eating that up.

McCoy might even not pay that much attention to the explosive problem of Ace for at least the time of them both being like, that's a giant moth.

Like, I think they would both really enjoy that, because as much as McCoy can be a McGrudgeon or whatever, when he sees something cool, he usually lets his guard down a little and he's like, yeah, that's a giant moth. We just got saved in a different dimension by a giant moth. Like, I just see him eating that up, man.

The other ones, I don't know well enough to really say that much. Rick Jones, I think he can have fun. He just keeps getting, like, terrible situations.

So I think if he was around the team long enough, he could have fun. But again, I don't think the team would stick around that long because of McCoy's differences in beliefs with some of these other Characters.

So it's really hard for me to put. Then you had for your Bible character. I don't. I don't know, for whatever reason, I don't see him having that much fun.

But the Bible doesn't give us enough.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:13

To really kill off Joab.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:16

The world he was put in doesn't have a lot of room for fun.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:21

You could see him carousing with his troops or something like that. And for morale purposes, but he doesn't strike me as like, I'm out to have fun today. No, I have a job, I'm gonna do the job.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:29

So I'm gonna give you a six on the fun run.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:33

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:33

Because I think a few of them are having a lot of fun, but overall I'm not sure. And then sustainable wise, I think long term they're not sticking together. So it's hard for them to keep having fun.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:43

But it's a marriage alliance of convenience.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:46

Just like much teams though, I feel like both of our teams are ones where like some of them might fall off and some might stick together. You know, it's hard to tell. Okay, time for rebuttal. Time for rebuttal.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:56

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:57

My first, first few rebuttals I want to give that I just want to throw out there. My team was built with a few things in mind.

Fox being as level headed as he is, I think it's going to help a lot more with sustainability than we give credit for.

That combined with Abe's ability to literally touch you and help psychically know your past and you know, emotion stuff, he has a lot of power with emotion and is able to kind of regulate people's emotions a little bit. So I think that helps a lot. Especially with Donald Duck. Then also you got to consider if you believe the Lord like I do.

Donald Duck suffers from PTSD the same as M'. Benga. So I think Abe's gonna help them connect and actually be able to help both of them enjoy being around Jake. Because it is just impossible.

Jake and Jack, I think it's impossible not to have fun if you're able to let your guard down. And I think Abe's powers are going to. He's going to be able to basically make everybody let their guard down. Against their will.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:00

I see your point. Sorry.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:06

Sorry. I can't help it.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:12

No, it helps, you know, a better than I. You've read more of the comics. I've only had the movies to go off of and it's been a while since I've watched him.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:18

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:18

So I forgot he had that. If they even show that at all.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:21

I don't know if it's in the movie.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:23

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:23

I'm unsure.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:24

Yeah. Does. That's a great feat to have, especially in, like, creating a cohesive.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:29

It makes them invaluable to teams. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:31

Yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:32

Does that change any of my ratings? That's what I want to know. You're the ultimate judge.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:37

I never move.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:39

All right.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:39

It's my stick.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:41

Let nothing move you, even logic. All right, Christian, do you have any rebuttals for me?

Christian Ashley: 00:53:49

Gosh, you just said these things, and I'm trying to remember them.

Joshua Noel: 00:53:53

Do you want to know what your scores were?

Christian Ashley: 00:53:56

No. I think my idea in building this team wasn't to create cohesion to begin with.

It was more like, if these misfits were to work together, who would I put to create something if I were writing the story to eventually get them to be the heroes? And with a short amount of time span as I have here, it's possible it would just take a lot of work. So I understand your ratings.

I don't really have so much rebuttals as, like, what I think the plan would be to win.

Joshua Noel: 00:54:25

It's so shocking that the one of us who's most likely winning doesn't have rebuttals. And the one of us who's most likely loosely, had a lot of rebuttal. All right, I'm gonna add these up. I'm gonna add these up.

So what you gave me first. So you gave me an eight on mission status. A nine on whatever was after that. Let me pull this back up. How do people make DD podcasts? This is what.

This is making me realize this seems impossible. Okay, nine on team.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:53

Edit it out. And some people are just competent. They don't need to do it.

Joshua Noel: 00:54:57

A four on sustainability. You gave me a seven on strength. Unfairly.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:01

I said a four. You know, after what you said, I'll throw it to a six.

Joshua Noel: 00:55:05

That. That I like. Thank you. A seven on sustainability, which might be generous. Honestly, no. Seven on strength. Okay, that makes more sense.

Seven on strength, and. Yeah, okay. That we're Zeta flare. Okay. Anyway, seven on fun. Okay, I'll accept that. Jake's great, but whatever. I gave you a 10 on mission status.

To be fair, your mission was easier because your guys made an easier choice. A nine on teamwork. Six on sustainability. I gave you an eight on strength and a six on fun. Wait, did I have that backwards?

Did you give me an eight on strength, and I gave you a seven on strength. I think that's what happened?

Christian Ashley: 00:55:46

I don't remember.

Joshua Noel: 00:55:47

I'm gonna change it. And if I was wrong, then this is gonna be great to edit with.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:54

The official Record Keeper show.

Joshua Noel: 00:55:56

Yeah. Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:57

Replay the audio.

Joshua Noel: 00:56:00

could, but we're not going to: 1925

Christian Ashley: 00:56:15

If you're listening, let's make a tiebreaker dip how each team solves the problem.

Joshua Noel: 00:56:20

Wait, wait, wait, wait. I redacted the bonus question, but I promise you it's going to be the tiebreaker.

Okay, so, guys, you need to become an official member of Systematic Ecology. You need to become an official member of Systematic Geekology if you want to know who actually won. Also, I did want to mention earlier.

I'm going to mention it now, which is cheating, but it's fine. We did sidekicks. We talked about the importance of sidekicks and companions on our website.

When you become an official member, there's different tiers and you could be a free official member of Systematic Ecology and you get a lot of cool stuff with it. But one of the lowest tiers that we have on there is sidekick. And I write a little thing on there about the importance of sidekicks then.

And I still believe that. So you guys can become a sidekick of Systematic Ecology, be our companion, because they actually are invaluable. Yeah, so.

And so are all of our sponsors, all of our official members, even the free members Again website in the description. Anyway, Christian, I want to know our honorable mentions.

I'm going to go first because I have them all on my slides, and I'm just going to run through them like, boom, boom, boom. So, number one, Elisha. We're both balding. He's balding. Lord gave him a bear. Elisha's cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:59:18

Oh, actually, I'm fully bald now.

Joshua Noel: 00:59:20

Well, you got one up on him. You can. You can probably call two bears from the Lord for children. Joshua.

It killed me not to choose Joshua because, like, as far as, like, war and everything, like, he would be perfect. But I wanted my team to have fun. And I believe John the Revelator was just more fun than Joshua. Sorry, Josh. Clank from Ratchet and Clank.

Really the only reason he didn't make any of my choices, I'm not. I'm just. It's hard for me to think of him as a companion or a sidekick. Ratchet and Clank, really, a lot of the times they do feel like equals.

Ratchet just happens to be the one who has more body. But they equally do stuff. And there's a lot of stuff that Ratchet can't do, that Clank has to do and vice versa.

They seem more like best friends and equals. Daxter from Jak and Daxter. He definitely is just a sidekick. A lot of fun. He would have got along great with Jake.

It killed me not to choose him, but Donald Duck was too good. Ahsoka and Darth Maul. I don't think I need to explain. Yeah, I can't remember the girl Wolverine's name, but I like girl. I should remember.

Christian Ashley: 01:00:31

23.

Joshua Noel: 01:00:31

Thank you. X23 and Nightwing, both awesome. Well, you know Dick Grayson before he was Nightwing. Winter Soldier. You mentioned him earlier.

Winter Soldier just has to get a shout out. And of course, it broke my heart not to say Tindy. Tindy is one of those characters who annoyed the absolute hell out of me when I first met her.

And by the end, like, I still occasionally think about it, mostly because someone's profile on one of the social media. One of the streaming services that we definitely don't share is Tindy.

And every time I see Tindi, my heart gets a little sad, a little heavy, because I'm like, man, I. I wish I could see more of them. And there are some comics and stuff, but it's just. It's not the same. Man, I need more Tindy. That team I really connected with. Oh, sorry, lower decks.

I just personally connected with all the characters so much, and it was. It was hard not to say Tendi. But yeah. So those are my honorable mentions. Christian, you want to go through some of yours?

Christian Ashley: 01:01:24

We share one that is Nightwing. Nightwing is, I believe, the greatest hero in the DC universe.

Not because he's the strongest of the best, but because he relates to the most heroes and works well with them.

Joshua Noel: 01:01:37

Kind of like the first one that said, wait a minute, what if it's a systemic problem? And we addressed that somehow. No other hero seems to think of that.

Christian Ashley: 01:01:45

Sorry. Let's see. I also have my honorable mentions. I was going literally for the wild cards. I had Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica.

That's if I really wanted my plan to fail or actually may even succeed, depending on how things went. Stick was also there as, like, she could literally be anyone, or she could be working against the team that brought her there.

It could be literally anything. And then, of course, Charlie Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as the wild card himself.

Then on the Animal Companions, I had Kilala from Inuyasha giant cat yokai who can transport you around places but also kill things.

Then I also had Onimi from Star wars as seemingly he's just a jester working for the with the Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord, but he's actually the guy in charge of him because he's the one Yuzhan Vong who has access to the force. Then of course there's Verger, who is has been character assassinated by other writers.

But when she first showed up on the scene was like the perfect. You didn't know where she stood until eventually you learned who she was. And she is on the good side.

Then I also had Bob the Skull from the Dresden Files as someone who would probably know a lot about arcane magic. But whether or not he would work with the team, that was the question. So I didn't put them on.

Joshua Noel: 01:03:03

Yeah. And also, sorry to Will, but the other ones I would.

The reason I didn't mention any of these on my team is because I would have had to choose all of them. Darkwing Duck has the greatest companions. Gizmo Duck, Morana Morgana. Freaking Launchpad. Name a better companion, Launchpad. I dare you.

Christian Ashley: 01:03:27

So good.

Joshua Noel: 01:03:28

Uncle Scrooge. Like Uncle Scrooge. Yeah, yeah. Darkwing Duck is.

And that's his real ability, which is funny because he's an arrogant jerk, but his real ability is just surrounding himself with the right people, man. Yeah. Which, hey, maybe that's the whole point of this episode. Surround yourself with the right people.

No, I do want to say, I know this is kind of a long episode already, which I knew it was going to be. We touched on this earlier.

I think it's important that we actually do talk about this, because the nature of what we're discussing, to me, it feels like we would not be being real geekologist if we didn't dig a little deeper into this, because I think you can't talk about sidekicks without getting here. Or companions, whatever you call them. Some churches do this, like, discipleship program.

And this goes to what you were talking about earlier, where some people are brought in to leadership after being mentored by a pastor. So you'll have a pastor who's mentoring someone, and eventually they'll become the pastor, you know, so on, so on.

Other churches do this where they say, like the associate pastor itself or the youth pastor is a calling, not just like a step up. So, like, you're there so that one day you'll be pastor.

And there is kind of a debate like, youth pastor shouldn't be Just a stepping stone to get to real pastor, you know, the lead pastor. It should be its own calling. And you have a lot of people arguing on both sides of that. This is a real thing in evangelical world.

I don't know about outside of that because, you know, most of your mainline traditions, I think do more of a appointment rather than calling and job seeking.

But I think it is actually important to talk about, like, should we think of the associate pastor, youth pastor, these other roles as stepping stones and eventually I'll be the main pastor, the main hero. Or should we think of them as like their own call? Colleen, you mastered the divine. You tell me.

Christian Ashley: 01:05:08

I think it depends. I hate to be that vague to start off with, but I do think it depends. Like, is that what God has called you to do?

Is that you want to start somewhere, not to say smaller, but somewhere not at the top, to learn under someone and see how they run things, or be a youth pastor, taking care of, you know, the youth and watching over them. To eventually say, now that I've done this, let me go up and take care of an entire church. If that's what God tells you to do, do it.

I mean, I would like to start off as an associate pastor first if I do get hired somewhere.

But I'm open to either position of being head, youth, associate, whatever, because I think I could be called to either one and other people I know one of my, one of the best pastors I've been over has never been a head pastor. He has always been the associate pastor.

And he has no ambitions to go above that because he feels the call is to just stay here, be to support, make sure things get done. And that's it. That's where God wants him to be. So look, looking at all this, I'd say that both ideas have value in them.

Now if we go one over the other. That's why I have an issue because I don't think that's how the calling works. I don't think it's this rigid.

If you're going to start here, associate or youth pastor, you have to want to climb above. If you want to, sure, go for it. But if God is saying, no, I want you here and stay there, don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.

Joshua Noel: 01:06:32

Yeah, I mean, I hate to give we a we. We tied. And now we're going to both say both. And to this last question, like, I hate that. But yeah, I mean, to me, the. I love a lot of Catholics.

I consider them brothers and sisters in Christ. To me, one of the worst doctrines that's ever come out of the church is ex cathedra. Like, I don't think that there's one person at the top.

So I'm going to give two answers to this one being everybody should be somebody else's sidekick, somebody's companion, somebody's assistant. If you're not learning from someone, I think you're just doing it wrong.

That's going to go to one of my favorite Bible verses that I always forget the reference for. I'm great at this.

Christian Ashley: 01:07:14

It's either Zechariah 3 or 4 episode.

Joshua Noel: 01:07:17

Yeah, it's either Zechariah 3or 4, though. It's a prophecy. And he sees this image of two olive trees and this actually is some of the inspiration for the logo for Whole Church podcast.

There's these two olives branches that are pouring into these lampstands that eventually pour into lamps and light candles. And what it's broken down to be is like, hey, that's the source. Going down to one leader, to the next leader to the next.

And then when you go to the book of Revelation, guess what they're talking about? The lampstands. It's a reference to Zechariah and the importance of that leadership struggle where you're always answering to someone.

And the ultimate person we answer to is Christ is God, of course. But, like, you should always put yourself under someone if you're not.

I don't think you're showing humility, which to me says you're not in the spirit of God, point blank. And I actually really like our current Pope and I think he is putting himself under.

And that's where some of these synods and stuff that the Catholic Church is doing, I think is actually really important that the Pope is putting himself under other people and learning he's not just, I'm the man. But, yeah, this isn't a Catholic episode. We won't go into evaluating what we think the Catholic Church could do better.

But I will say I think it's absolutely important that everybody is being poured into from someone else. And also seek out people that you can mentor that you can help. I just think that's the way the church is supposed to work. Point blank.

There should never be. You're the guy in charge. That's why I like councils, I like synods. I like all those kind of things. At the same time.

Yeah, I think some people are called to be youth pastors, are called to be associate pastors. And that's like, that's where they want to Stay. And that's fine. I think some people.

And this is where somebody gave me some advice when I was in high school, that stuck with me. And I don't agree with his theology anymore, but I really like what he said.

And I still tell people this all the time when they talk to me about this kind of stuff. Do you want to know what you're. You want to make a plan for your life? All this stuff?

He's like, sometimes prayer and the Holy Spirit are like headlights on a car. And what you see in front of you, the road in front of you, go there.

You might not know the end destination, but prayer, the Spirit, is going to lead you to see what the next steps are.

And sometimes it's scary to not know the end, but sometimes you just got to trust the Spirit and be like, hey, look, I could tell the road's turning right here. I'm going to go ahead and turn right. And I think that's true in this case.

I think sometimes, if your calling is to be a youth pastor, it might just be for now, and maybe God calls you to something else later on. Maybe that's always the case, but you don't need to know if it's always the case. And that's okay. That's just where I'm at.

e. If you were like, oh, man,: 2025

happen. If this comes out in: 2026

So either way, we covered the theme, annual theme, because we don't know when this releases. Yeah. All right, Christian, anything else before we wrap this up?

Christian Ashley: 01:10:08

No, I still think we should do something where we say how they win.

Joshua Noel: 01:10:11

Oh, oh, just wait, guys. Go. Go over to the Systematic Ecology website down below.

I might even make this free content, because I think people should know who the real winner is. But you got to be an official member. I'm going to stick to that. You got to be an official member. We didn't plan to tie. I hate that we did.

But sometimes it's just how the dice rolls, how time works at the fixed point in time that we were going to tie. Unless I got it wrong with the numbers on who actually rated whose strength, in which case this could all be moot.

But for now, we mentioned there's a redacted bonus segment. It's not even A question. It's a whole segment and it's gonna be such a thrilling surprise. Just wait, guys. Just wait. For now though.

We're gonna do recommendations really quick. Mine, pretty simple. I'm gonna recommend that. I forgot how much I hated doing this, guys. I'm a Christian who hates Christian media.

Overall, I think most Christian music sucks. Most Christian movies suck, Most Christian TV really, really, really sucks. There's a few. Few. What's the word?

Exceptions, you know, Chosen was a good film. No Risen. There's one thing on good film, the Ben Hur, excellent film. Some Christian music I really love. Not most switch foot though.

They knew what they were doing or like, hey, know what they're doing. The people who made the Chosen TV series that I don't like, I think it was done really well.

It's just boring to me because I already know the story and they're just doing the story. I don't need that. They made a show that I enjoy that I'm gonna recommend because I actually think it's funny.

Even though I don't like recommending Christian TV shows. I'm sorry, I just don't. It just feels wrong. The Promised Land. It's a mockumentary of Moses and them in the desert. It's freaking funny. It's accurate.

It's emotionally deep. It connected me to the story. As someone who has studied Bible a really long time, I probably could be considered a Bible expert.

I read it like more than a dozen times a year. It's accurate, it's funny, it does add some stuff, but man. And the jokes aren't irreverent.

And also, it's not just trying to shove the Bible down your throat. It's sometimes just showing the ridiculousness of stuff. And I'm like, man, that is funny.

Like, the show starts with one of the guys being interviewed being like, you know, I really thought when God part of the Red Sea, we're gonna make it to the promised Land. But then you have times like this and it's showing Moses struggling to hold up a staff for them to win the war. He's like, I need help, people.

Help me hold this dick up. And I'm like, oh, God, wait a minute. This is gonna be this. And it was. It was so funny. It's already been approved for season two. I can't wait. It's.

It's so funny. And I went in. I went in to hate watch it. Let me put it that way. I went in so I could complain about it, and now I'm singing Its praises.

So, yeah, Christian, what about you? Recommendations?

Christian Ashley: 01:13:06

Actually just started the chosen not too long ago, and I was expecting to not like it either, but I'm more positive than you are ultimately. But I'll check out that other one too.

Joshua Noel: 01:13:15

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 01:13:17

Yeah. You know what? I'm just gonna generally throw out D and D. I just had a session last night.

It was a ton of fun, like, if you can find the right people.

And I know that's a lot of work and there's a lot of trust you have to put in people, but it's worth it in the end to create worlds together and have twists and turns for your characters and your fellow party members and the new discoveries you make along the way and the loot you can get whatever it is that drags you in. I'm more the role player. That's something I love. And I learned that more from playing the game like it's. You can't go wrong with a good game.

There are definitely worse games out there and people who should have no business dming. But, you know, that's part of the fun too, is figuring out the right fit for you. So go in there, play a game of D and D. Good stuff.

Joshua Noel: 01:13:59

Good stuff. I gotta ask, is that the shirt that I was never sure that you got? The priest of the geeks?

Christian Ashley: 01:14:04

Yes. I meant to tell you that I got it, but I forgot because I'm old.

Joshua Noel: 01:14:08

Well, we're both wearing comfort color shirts. Mine's from a different podcast, but if you guys want to check out the merch. I love these shirts.

They're not the most comfortable in the world, but they're like. You can tell they're quality made. They are pretty comfy, especially in cooler weather.

If you're like me and you don't like having stuff on your arms, but you still get cold comfort color shirts are great. If you're like Christian, I don't know because Christian never gets cold, but he's wearing it so he cannot wait it. Short sleeves. Yeah.

So here's what it is. So with that, remember that bonus question. Just bonus segment. Just. Just wait. Guys, rate and review our show. Wherever you get your podcast.

Doesn't matter if you rate and review it, especially if you give us high rating. It just makes it easier for people to find our show and that helps us a whole lot. We really appreciate it.

It only takes a couple seconds, minutes, whatever, and it goes such a long way. And we really appreciate you guys who do take your time to rate and review our show.

We also want to thank our one of our financial sponsors again, Annette, you're wonderful. Thank you for introducing me to Star Trek, Star wars and so much more. You're amazing. I love you.

And Merry Christmas if it's Christmas time, and merry my birthday if it's after Christmas. Also, guys, remember, you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of Cismic Ecology.

With our website down in the show's description, you can find that.

You can also find find some cool, exclusive content, some cool merch and other ways to get plugged into our community, the Systematic ecology community. If you want to get more involved and find more ways to do that over on our website, again in our description.

And of course, guys, we need you to do one extremely, extremely important thing for us. Remember that we are all a chosen people, a geekdom of priests.

Christian Ashley: 01:15:50

SA.