Unraveling the Latest Buzz: Spider-Man, Cobra Kai, Solo Leveling, and Invincible

Christian Ashley: 00:01:15

Did we enjoy your friendly neighborhood Spider man? How's the new season of solo leveling going? Did Cobra Kai finish strong? Are we feeling invincible?

As it continues this third season, we're going to be asking these questions and many more. On tonight's episode of Systematic Ecology, we are the priests of the Geeks for another what's New episode. Couldn't do it alone.

I have three fine gentlemen here today. Evan Garcia. How's it going, Evan?

Evan Garcia: 00:01:37

I'm doing well, thank you, Christian. Glad to be on to talk all this. Loving it.

Christian Ashley: 00:01:43

Oh, yeah. Looking forward to this bad boy. Herbie, how's it going?

Herbie Ramsey: 00:01:46

It's going well. I got to sleep last night, so I'm feeling good.

Evan Garcia: 00:01:50

Nice. Ooh.

Christian Ashley: 00:01:51

Always good. And of course, you know, the eternal reason for the season now why we continue doing this show. Just so you can hear his voice, TJ Blackwell.

How's it going, tj? Good. Excellent. Same response every time. Gets me every time. Love it. All right, gentlemen, you know what? We're doing a what's New episode.

And you know what that means. We. We have to start off with, you know, a special lightning round. Take it away. Something small you.

You've been geeking out on recently has just come out.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:19

I've. I've got a secret one. It's not technically out yet, and it's not media. It is the Chipotle Honey Chicken at Chipotle.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:28

Whoa. Spoilers, bro. Spoilers.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:32

Fresh industry secret.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:36

It's so good. It comes out Thursday. Meh.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:40

Okay. Okay.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:41

Ooh, I'm going to tell my wife. She's going to be happy.

TJ Blackwell: 00:02:46

Yeah. Oh, it's so good.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:47

Perfect. Dragon Ball diamond just finished up. Had some highs, had some lows. I'd say, overall, I enjoyed the ride. I wish Matthew was still here.

Definitely would have done an episode with him on how get his take on what was going down, but really enjoyed what they did with Daimo overall.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:04

Yeah, I like. I like Daima. Any. Is diamond canon or not? I've seen people say different things.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:11

It's gonna be hard to reconcile it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:13

Yeah, because, I mean, if Diamond's canon, I don't want to spoil anything.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:17

There's some things that happen near the end that kind of make you go, well, why didn't that show up? Well, obviously because Daima wasn't written yet.

Evan Garcia: 00:03:23

So.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:24

Think an alternate universe? Most likely. We'll see.

You know, Toriyama was always well known for writing out every plot he had and always doing exactly what the plot was supposed to do. He never wrote week to week or anything. Like that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:35

Never ever. But no, I really did enjoy. Diamond was great as a young kid. I like Diamond a lot.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:42

Yeah. Anything new for you guys for the lightning round?

Evan Garcia: 00:03:44

I found. Sorry, go ahead, man.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:03:47

I say nothing new. I mean, I have been geeking out on some Skyrim recently. It's old, but I'm back to it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:03:53

Skyrim always feels new.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:03:57

With the number of bugs it has, it definitely feels like a brand new evergreen.

TJ Blackwell: 00:04:00

It's like, wow, that's never happened to me before.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:04:03

Every time you play, you find a new bug.

Christian Ashley: 00:04:05

It's a wonderful scenario. Evan.

Evan Garcia: 00:04:08

Yes, I. I found. What? I found something that. That for some reason Disney's trying to hide. And I just searched on, on, on online now and it's gone.

TJ Blackwell: 00:04:23

My.

Evan Garcia: 00:04:23

Dang it. Because I fell asleep watching it.

But it's the Tower Terror movie that came out in the 90s, I think it was, and excited to watch it because I saw through some other Twitter posts that it was up. And by the time I got to it the other day, I fell asleep while watching it and I was like, oh, man. But now I check and it's gone. I'm like, no.

Christian Ashley: 00:04:49

Why did they do that? Put all your content on there, right?

Evan Garcia: 00:04:53

There's some. Some weird stuff about it, but.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:04:57

But yeah, Disney's never been known for locking all their stuff in a vault and nobody see it for years. At the time, they're already paying for it.

Evan Garcia: 00:05:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:05:08

Okay, well, now we've got that disappointment. I got one more thing. I did watch the Monkey. The newest horror film, kind of sort of based on a Stephen King short story.

If you're going in expecting a horror flick, you're in for a bad time. It's a horror dark comedy, and if you can accept that, you're gonna have a better time. Not a movie I would take small children to, but there you go.

Now it's time to get into the meaty potatoes. Today we're discussing. We got four topics for you. We have your friendly neighborhood Spider man to start off with.

Guys, the show just came out on Disney plus. Had some bad buzz at the beginning, had some lack of trailers and everything.

And finally it released and like, oh, well, turns out they actually had an amazing show. So before we actually get into the show proper now, what's our history with Spider man as a character?

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:00

What a question. Yes, what a question.

Evan Garcia: 00:06:03

We only have like, what, like 20 minutes, man. But Spider man, yeah, it's up there with, like, with my Nintendo.

It's just things that always existed, you know, It's Like, I have my Spider man toys, and I don't know. Yeah, I just always had a comic or the TV show on or. Or. Or something, or I was drawing Spider man. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:33

I see Spider man as much as I see my dad.

Evan Garcia: 00:06:38

I don't know what that means, but that's funny.

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:41

I see my dad a lot. I just also speak Spider man all the time.

Evan Garcia: 00:06:44

Okay.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:06:45

I have the old Spider man theme song going through my head right now. So, yeah, I'm kind of right there with you.

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:50

Like, it was, you know, 25.

Christian Ashley: 00:06:52

Your dad and Spider man in the same room.

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:54

No, I haven't.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:06:55

How can you be sure they're not the same person?

TJ Blackwell: 00:06:57

I've seen. I've seen. But, like, I'm 25, so, like, I was a kid when the Raimi movies were coming out. It's like, saw those all the time, got them on dvd.

One of the first books I remember reading was like, a little leapfrog Spider man graphic novel with interactable speech bubbles.

Evan Garcia: 00:07:16

Nice.

TJ Blackwell: 00:07:17

So, okay, what a question.

Christian Ashley: 00:07:20

Yeah, for me, I probably said it on the show before, but for anyone who's new, Spider Man's my guy. There's a reason he's my avatar on the show. It's because I grew up with him. He is my hero. My number one Marvel DC. No one compares.

I grew up watching a 90s animated show. My dad and I would watch it together, and then he would introduce me to the comics later on to the original Amazing Spider man run.

Marvel Team up, which is still my favorite comic series to the day. Not because of his quality, but because he got Spider man teaming up with other heroes. Like one of the greatest things in the world to a kid.

Then as time goes on, you know, the Raimi movies came out. The Garfield movies, got the Holland movies right here in the mcu. And we got the other movies crossing over with them, too. You know, sorry.

Spoilers for something that happened a couple years ago. But it's a kind of a Spider man renaissance in many ways, outside of the comics, where we have terrible editors and writers.

But that's its own issue right here and now. This show came out. Who else has watched it besides me?

Evan Garcia: 00:08:20

I have nothing around to it, man.

TJ Blackwell: 00:08:22

Yeah, haven't started it yet.

Christian Ashley: 00:08:24

Oh, man, time is short.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:08:27

I'm sorry.

Christian Ashley: 00:08:28

It's okay. Hey, life's difficult and busy. There's only so much time to get stuff done. As I've said in the show before, I'm unmarried.

I don't have children, I stay up way late So I get to watch things way faster than other people. So I just have more time. And I'm glad I did, because this show proved me wrong.

I went into it thinking it was going to be garbage, that it was just going to be some MCU synergy nonsense, especially when there was a huge lack of trailers, a lack of what seemed like promotion for this show until, like, a couple of weeks before it actually started coming out. And then the first couple episodes dropped, and I was hooked.

They did a fantastic job of like, hey, we're taking inspiration from the mcu, but we're also making it our own thing because they kind of realized as they were writing it, oh, well, if we stick too much to this, we can't have him in the mcu. There's got to be something different to it, especially with what happens.

First episode, Peter's on his way to school with Aunt May, and a giant portal opens up. Dr. Strange and Symbiote come through, and he is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider. And it becomes a huge part of the show.

Like, how did that happen? What's going on? How did he get his abilities? One thing I'm not big on is Uncle Ben has already died in this scenario. I'm not huge on that.

I think that's a huge part of, you know, Peter's, like, characterization is learning from that sacrifice, learning from Uncle Ben's death. But you know what, they're doing their own thing, so I'll cut him a little slack.

And another thing they do is introduce characters that don't exist in the mcu in the same way we have Norman Osborn, who, if we go back to no Way Home, does not exist, seemingly in the Marvel universe of the films. So him becoming the mentor for Peter instead of Tony Stark, great job. What they do with him, I thoroughly enjoy, like, the.

The mentor mentee role they have with the way Norman twist, the typical with great power comes responsibility speech to kind of make it more about power and respect and Peter learning from that. Of course, his new friendship with Harry is well done here, too. And we have Nico Minoru of the Runaways as Peter's kind of best friend. Because since.

Evan Garcia: 00:10:39

Oh, that's who that was. Cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:10:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Since that incident occurs with the portal coming to Simeon, Dr.

Strange, the school is destroyed, so Peter has to go to a new high school, which is why he doesn't meet up with, you know, Michelle Jones and Ned Leeds and everything cool. So it makes sense why he has no relationship to him in this, you know, reality, because of what happened there.

TJ Blackwell: 00:11:02

Yeah, I do. I do want to say really quick, I really liked the runaway show. I wanted.

Evan Garcia: 00:11:07

Yeah, same. It was good show.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:10

They did two seasons, right?

TJ Blackwell: 00:11:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It could have been three.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:14

I remember really liking the first. I don't remember if I watched the second or not.

TJ Blackwell: 00:11:18

You should.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:20

That's why I'm currently. I'm currently compiling a list of everything I've ever watched or read, because I'm sick and tired of re.

Watching something and realizing halfway through it, oh, no, I've already seen this before, and I've just wasted 45 minutes.

Evan Garcia: 00:11:35

I know that.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:11:36

Well, if it takes you 45 minutes to realize you've seen it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:11:38

Yeah, you needed to watch it.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:11:40

45 minutes.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:41

Yeah. Well, that's because I'm old. Am I? You know, early on? I will tell you, I've been old since I was five.

Evan Garcia: 00:11:51

That was the thing.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:11:53

Don't you tell me anything about being old.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:55

Yeah, no, go ahead, Evan.

Evan Garcia: 00:11:57

No, that was the benefit to that. I don't know. There was this. This kind of sketchy service called Popcorn Time a few years ago, and. And there was, like, a streamer, but for, like.

For a pirate video, and it was just so convenient because. Because it logged everything that you watched for you, and it did it automatically, and you could save it as a file or.

Or as a CSV and then you could manipulate. Oh, it was so cool. It was so cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:31

Yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:12:31

I wish something like that could come to the mainstream almost, you know?

TJ Blackwell: 00:12:34

Yeah. Yeah. What a gargantuan task, by the way.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:38

Yeah. I'm 50 pages in, and I haven't even scratched the surface of everything I've ever watched or read, Mostly movies.

TJ Blackwell: 00:12:44

Right now I've been thinking about, like, doing, like, starting my own letterbox thing, like, to keep track.

Evan Garcia: 00:12:49

Yeah, Yeah. I have an account, but I'm waiting to see if I can do it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:12:57

Yeah, right.

Evan Garcia: 00:12:58

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:12:59

All right, well, do you guys have any questions about the show before we go on?

TJ Blackwell: 00:13:04

Is the art style consistent?

Christian Ashley: 00:13:06

I'd say for the most part. When it first released, I was like, I don't know about this, but they won me over. They kind of Stockholm me like my hero does.

TJ Blackwell: 00:13:13

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:14

I'm still not big on my hero's art, but, like, it's. It's the thing now, so I just accept it for what it is. Yeah, but the animation's pretty fluid. The character work they do is pretty good.

The villains they introduced are really done. Well, We've got, you know, Norman, who is still not a villain yet, but he's still acting in a villainous mentor kind of role. We've got Dr.

Octopus, who they still haven't fought yet, but there's enough there to build up for what's to come. We've got some classic foes. We meet pre villains before they become the chameleon in Rhino and some other villains as well. Wasn't expecting.

I think they did a really good job here.

Evan Garcia: 00:13:48

I saw some memes of the classic Doctor Strange, too. I was like, cool. And he looked really nice in that style. I was like, right, cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:57

Yeah. He shows up in two episodes, the. The pilot and the finale, and they do a phenomenal job with him.

They play around with time a little bit in a very fun way.

They really play with, like, Peter's, like, wanting to be a scientist and how that affects things as he kind of like, Norman learns who he is and, like, becomes, like I said, that mentor becomes an intern at oscorp. Really well done. There's some things with, like, shenanigans of characters showing up before they're supposed to actually be there, but.

But once again, they're doing their own thing. So I cut a little grace their way.

Evan Garcia: 00:14:29

Cool. Cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:14:30

All right. Okay. So I'm sure I'm not the only one who heard this, and honestly, I'm.

Well, I shouldn't say I'm surprised knowing people, but as much as it kind of came out, the. The voice actor for Spider man for Peter Hudson, Tim's Thames. How the heck you're supposed to say that?

I know in England the actual river is like the Thames or whatever. Maybe that's how you pronounce the surname. He said while being interviewed, what it was like have.

What was like having a chance for a fresh take on Spider man in a world featuring characters never before seen in the mcu. I thought it was awesome. I mean, my biggest fear was that it was going to be annoying and woke and it wasn't. And I was like, yeah, this is great.

It's so well written. Like, it feels real. I'm the oldest of five boys, so I feel like I kind of know how it's happening in their lives and in high school.

And it felt like I was doing that justice. And the Internet lost its God dang mind over nothing again, in my opinion. So I. What do you guys think about, like, the controversy itself?

Have you heard anything, Know what people have said?

TJ Blackwell: 00:15:30

No, I have not heard of this, but it is really funny.

Evan Garcia: 00:15:32

Oh, I saw the line and I was like, oh, that's funny. I will get around to it eventually.

TJ Blackwell: 00:15:40

Like, imagine being cast as Spider man and your first thought being, oh, no, I'm gonna be woke. Spider Man. Like, that's Spider Man. Do you know who you're talking about?

Christian Ashley: 00:15:49

So the reason he was saying stuff like that is because, you know, there's a lot of race lifting being done, characters changing genders and stuff like that, which has already been done in the mcu, which I still have issues with. But, you know, as far as, like, applying that to a show based off of it, I still get it. I don't like it.

I mean, for instance, Norman and Harry are both African American. See, Dr. Connors is now a female scientist. I don't remember which ethnicity she is, but it's not white. There's a couple other things like that.

So this is kind of a reimagining of the mythos. So I'm okay a little bit if, like, you're giving a direct adaptation. I get really angry when you switch things like that needlessly.

So I think that's kind of the point he was making. And really what I find just stupid is people just reacting like he's suddenly some racist now or like, he hates anyone because he used the term woke.

And I can almost guarantee you I would be willing to put money this. TJ's money up front that Disney told him to say what he said. Yeah, that Chipotle money that makes TJ a rich man, that he can afford the.

The brunt of what's about to happen here with my words like that. They told him to say that because they knew there would be that more conservative audience that would be afraid of it being woke.

And, like, the word woke has lost all meaning, unfortunately, because, you know, it used to mean something, but now the wrong people kept talking about it, and it's all over the place. So that's my feelings on the matter. You guys have anything else you want to add there?

TJ Blackwell: 00:17:20

No. I like how Disney does tend to use Spider man as. As kind of like surrogate mouthpieces. Like when they. They sent Tom Holland the.

The Endgame poster early or the Infinity War poster early because they knew he would leak it.

Evan Garcia: 00:17:33

That's right. Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:17:35

Yeah. So I believe they would tell him to say woke.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:17:38

I would also say that given that it is a multiverse situation, the fact that they did make changes to some characters, it's actually rather fitting that they do make some changes that people may not necessari because it is a alternate universe. It's supposed to be different in some ways, and that's a Way to make a change.

Christian Ashley: 00:17:57

I'm fine with that in, like, an alternate reality setting. But, like, if you're. If you're making it, which this show is not, Let me preface it with that.

If you're making a direct adaptation, you should stick with who people are and what they are. But for this show, it makes perfect sense. We can do whatever the heck we want with it. So I'm not that angry.

I don't think the show is woke in that regard. Okay, that's it for your friend. I'll go ahead.

Evan Garcia: 00:18:20

I'm gonna say a bad Star wars act Alike joke, but okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:19

Well, speaking of bad things. No, just really well.

TJ Blackwell: 00:19:22

Let me do it. All right, it's time to talk about.

This is my favorite part of every show I do with Christian, which is the part where I talk about something he doesn't like.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:32

I didn't say I didn't like it. I just know it gets under your skin. It's not a 10 out of 10.

TJ Blackwell: 00:19:36

I mean, I don't think it's a 10.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:38

Oh, by the way, were you friendly Made with Spider Man? 9.5 out of 10. Continue, TJ. It's your show.

TJ Blackwell: 00:19:44

Solo leveling. It's fantastic. It's not deep. Get over yourself. It's just cool. That's the whole point. It's cool.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:19:54

For those of us who don't know what it is, what is solo leveling about?

TJ Blackwell: 00:19:57

I'm glad you asked. So solo leveling is kind of what it sounds like. It is not quite an Isekai anime. It's sort of an inversion of that.

And we follow our main character, Sun Jin Woo. And this is adapted from a webtoon, so it's Korean. Yeah, but that's why his name is Sung Jin Woo.

There's a funny bit going around for a little while of people asking solo leveling fans to name three characters that aren't Sung Jin Woo.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:30

I think most of the difficulty.

TJ Blackwell: 00:20:32

No, it's not. Because the series is called solo leveling, not group leveling. Not we're all leveling.

Christian Ashley: 00:20:40

It's solo leveling, but no, like, character to them. Go ahead.

TJ Blackwell: 00:20:46

Either way, this show's about the main character. That's the whole point. That's why it's called that. The solo character. Yes. Yeah, but it's. Sung Jin Woo is a hunter and an Indus worlds.

They're dungeons, sort of like an rpg.

And groups of powered people, as I like to call them, go into those dungeons, take care of it, and close it so that the dungeon doesn't break and wreak havoc on the regular world. So not everyone has powers. It's sort of like a my hero situation. But not. Not quite.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:23

Much smaller.

TJ Blackwell: 00:21:24

Yeah. Much smaller scale and. But many, many fewer people have the powers.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:30

Yes.

TJ Blackwell: 00:21:31

So Sunjin Woo, D Rank Hunter, gets into a dungeon, just trying to make a little money to help his family. And he awakens so they think, and becomes. I think he becomes like C Rank right out of the gate.

But he discovers that his ability lets him level up, so he's like the.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:52

Only thing no one else has access to. Sorry, tj.

TJ Blackwell: 00:21:54

Yeah, so it's like the opposite of Nizakai. He's the only one playing the game in the real world, so you see him grow and he's got his own little side stuff.

And the reason it's here is because just now we got to what I would consider the conclusion of the first big arc in solo leveling, which is, you know, if you don't want to get spoiled, just go watch the show and then come back and listen to the rest of this. But we finally got to the point where Sung Jin Woo gets through his personal quest to cure his mother.

She has Eternal Sleep Syndrome, I want to say they call it, but it's where people with no magic resistance get overwhelmed by magic and fall into a coma permanently. So he goes through this huge, big thing. And the whole reason he wanted to level up was to help his mom.

So he does this quest, clears a 100 level dungeon, which is sort of hell, but not really like, you know, one of those generic video game hells. And we finally get to see him beat that, get the Elixir of life, give it to his mom.

Mom comes back and we're just about to start where I consider the show to get next level up to this point, I would say it's like an eight and a half out of ten from here on out. It's. It's a nine for me because the series is about cool stuff.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:19

It's just cool stuff for the Chimera Antarctic.

TJ Blackwell: 00:23:22

Yeah, it's great in Hunter X Hunter and it's great in solo leveling.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:26

And that's not a criticism. Like, I just think it's very on the nose. But like, be honest about where your inspirations came from.

And solo living is very honest about where that inspiration came from.

TJ Blackwell: 00:23:36

So it's right on the nose.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:38

Making fun. Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:23:39

Yeah. It's shameless and I love it. It's fantastic.

I think if you're somebody who just really enjoys good fight scenes and pretty animation, Solo leveling is the show for you and Aura.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:52

I'll agree with tj. Fight scenes are well animated. I'm a couple episodes behind, but I've already read. We both read through the full manwa.

Really good stuff initially, with our main character learning stuff. After that, it just becomes a power fantasy. And there's nothing inherently wrong with the power fantasy. I'm not against the idea.

It's just when only one character matters and the rest are kind of just props for him to go on and story doesn't matter as much, I get a little miffed. But right now, this is one of the best parts. We're getting to one of the best arcs as these episodes are coming out. Yeah.

Overall, give the show a 7 out of 10. TJ, tell me why I'm wrong.

TJ Blackwell: 00:24:33

I just. I think it's a nine. I think it deserves a nine, surely, because it goes so above and beyond in the.

The, like, the aura, farming, cool combat, great animation. All of that stuff it excels at. That is all phenomenal to me. I still think the story is pretty good. I think it's interesting. It's fun to watch.

It's nothing groundbreaking. Like, it's. It's not Monster. You're not reading Vagabond. You're. It's solo leveling. Let's. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

But I do think it's a 9 out of 10, and I think most people should watch it.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:06

Okay, Kevin Herbert, you got any questions for TJ and I?

Evan Garcia: 00:25:09

How long are.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:11

Are the episodes 23 minutes?

Evan Garcia: 00:25:15

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:16

If it's standard.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:25:17

And where do we find said episodes?

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:19

Crunchyroll. You should never pirate anything, ever.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:23

I certainly don't, or I would never.

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:25

Yeah, but they're like 18 minutes if you just watch the content. Like, you skip the intro, outro recap.

Evan Garcia: 00:25:31

And I was gonna say, how much is the fighting?

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:35

A lot.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:25:36

Do you have, like, three episodes of one guy screaming, trying to level up?

Christian Ashley: 00:25:40

No, no, no, not quite. Not in the same way. It's not that type of battle shonen.

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:46

No, it's. It's the kind of battle shonen where he just knows he's stronger or he's. He's just not gonna put off the effort. He's too nonchalant for that.

Evan Garcia: 00:25:55

Nice.

TJ Blackwell: 00:25:55

Yeah, like, he'll think. He'll think doing so he's like, oh, I might die here. And then he doesn't.

Evan Garcia: 00:26:01

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:03

So there's this little thing called tension that doesn't exist in the story. So that's fine.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:08

That's not true. I do disagree with that.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:10

I would say for the most part there are certain portions where the tension is there, especially early on.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:15

And I would say especially like towards like before the. The climax of the story. What I consider the climax of the story. But we're not here to talk about that.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:23

Yeah, hasn't been released yet as far as the anime is concerned. But as you can't go wrong watching it. I mean, is it.

It's not going to be like you said, it's not going to be monster as far as like quality of story and pacing and characterization. But it's really good. You can't go wrong watching it.

TJ Blackwell: 00:26:38

Yeah, it's a good time.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:39

It's time for someone else to take control. And that of course is Evan as he's going to discuss Cobra Kai, the newest sixth season, six season, Final season. Yes, final season. Take it away.

Evan Garcia: 00:26:51

I forgot when that came out.: 2016

And there's been six seasons that to me they've been high and low and it definitely preys on the nostalgia of a certain age for sure. So because I try to get my sister to watch it and she's only six years younger than me and she's like, no, this is not working for me.

All right, that's fair.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:27:29

You should tell her to go out and wax on and wax off before she goes and watches it swish right over it.

Evan Garcia: 00:27:37

But. But for me, I was hooked since the beginning. I like the. The kind of soap opera kind of quality to it.

Almost like, oh no, she said that or something like that. And. And just the lower quality quote unquote. It's not like you're Metropolis or something like that or it's.

It's just a bunch of kids that, that get into fights and sometimes adults get. Get. They will get into fights too. And this last season, I loved it.

I did not like the little fake out where they gave us half the season and then they gave us a quarter season and then oh wait, there's three more episodes that you'd have to wait for. Wait a minute. What? Like, come on.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:27

The attack on Titan approach.

Evan Garcia: 00:28:29

Yeah, I was just like, nah, that's Kaka. I don't like that. So. But hey, I still watched and man, it hit me.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:39

It.

Evan Garcia: 00:28:39

It was just like. I want to say 10 out of 10, but because. Because I know that's just all nostalgia, but it just like the way that it took the themes of themes of.

You are learning that your world is not so black and white anymore. And the way you treat people is how, like, you want to learn how to treat others by building a relationship with them.

And then if you want to see them change, you have to be that change in them. And there's so many moments in this show, I was like, oh, okay, I got a clearer version of what this term that keeps.

That keeps going around of being meta modern and, like, holding the similar beliefs but in a different way.

And the themes of, like, growing from your mistakes and the parental mistakes affecting you and trying to live your life, not expecting them to say I'm sorry, or things to be fixed, but just for the hope that that might happen. And then. And in this case, it did happen. And it was a very beautiful moment between two men. Very beautiful moment that I. That. That was a pud.

And the fighting was. It had its moments of like, oh, come on. Or. Or, oh, that was amazing. What a hit. And the. And the younger characters, they didn't feel like it was a.

That they played a service to the older characters. They. They also had their own storyline. However, there were so many of those younger characters that they didn't.

I wished some got more storylines kind of fleshed out, but I can appreciate the storylines that they did bring in and they fleshed out and a lot of tears. A lot of happy tears. And the finale. But COBRA KAI, Season 6. Yeah, the final season. Really, really liked it.

I don't know if you guys saw it or what's your relationship with the Karate Kid?

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:22

Yeah, we do. We have a comment from Josh Noel. He said, I am the original Karate Kid. Oh, yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:32

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:32

So that's my relation.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:34

Yeah. There's a lot of shilling for TJ in the comments, but, you know, it's tj, so I'm gonna let it slide.

Evan Garcia: 00:31:38

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:39

He also does agree with me. He said solo leveling is called that for a reason. Sung Jinwoo is the only character we need to care about, but his comment.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:48

Literally says hashtag Team tj. So I don't know if he said that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:31:53

Oh, he texted it to me.

Christian Ashley: 00:31:58

You know what? Fine. You're a trusted source.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:01

Yeah. But actually, I. I didn't know that Cobra Kai was still going.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:05

Sure, sure.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:06

And I didn't know it was so effective.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:32:09

I didn't know it was six seasons. I thought it was, like, maybe third season at this point.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:14

Yeah. Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:15

So I'm gonna need to get back into that.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:18

The third and the fourth seasons were, to me, they Were hard sit throughs. They were like, what are these characters doing? Why am I watching this?

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:30

Okay, so skip three and four.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:32

Yeah. But 1, 2, 5 and 6, they were. They were great TV fun, campy TV and.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:32:41

But also nostalgia is nice.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:43

What's that?

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:43

I can't.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:32:44

Yeah, also nostalgia is nice.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:46

Yes. Yes.

TJ Blackwell: 00:32:47

I can't wait for them to remake Cobra kai in like 15 years. That is the same way they did Karate Kid.

Evan Garcia: 00:32:55

Yes. Yeah, I can't wait for that. It's meta, meta modernism.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:02

I'm a fan of the movies 1, 2 and 3 are pretty 3. Not as much as 1 and 2, but they're pretty solid films. I mean, you get enjoyable time there.

If you want to hear a good review of the show and there may be some potential smack ecology hosts on new episodes, check out Kung Fu Pizza Party by Brandon Knight. He has already covered the first film and may have more of us there later on. Hintony hint hint.

As we discuss talk about sequels in preparation for the new movie, which is spinning off of Cobra Kai and the other films, as well as the remake which had Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in the role of. Of our master and student there. I have not watched those films yet, so I'm very interested to see where things go from here.

I haven't watched Cobra Kai because I'm still kind of fairly new to the Karate Kid as a whole, but forever hit to have lasted six seasons, gone from YouTube to Netflix and have such a huge fan following tells me they're doing something.

Well, especially I was just kind of looking at TV tropes over just different characters that were also in the movies and the show and like, oh well, they call back to her. They call back to him. Okay, man, this sounds like something. Yeah, yeah.

Something that cares about what came before, you know, as opposed to some certain Star wars sequels. But you know what? That's fine.

Evan Garcia: 00:34:22

They did the Legacy sequel perfectly like this is.

And textbook how you pay homage to what came before but still create something new that's not so weak or just trying to put together some puzzle pieces.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:40

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:34:41

Did you say you haven't seen the Karate Kid remake?

Christian Ashley: 00:34:43

I have not seen a remakes, no.

TJ Blackwell: 00:34:46

Yeah, yeah, you should watch it.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:34:49

I didn't even realize it was a remake, so.

TJ Blackwell: 00:34:51

Well, sorta it's like a spiritual successor, sort like. I think it's a good heavy though.

Evan Garcia: 00:34:59

The new one will because they. Because they have elements of the original plus that. So I think they're gonna bring it all together, which is cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:10

Yeah, I definitely appreciate what they're doing. And we once again, without actually having watched the. The remakes that are not actually a remake now. And Cobra Kai itself, like, the.

The way that they care about what came before, the way that they. They call back to certain things that, as I understand it, done really well. And would you agree with that? Okay, very much so. I'm all for.

That's what happens when you actually care about your source material. So, like a rating and reviewing, like maybe just the sixth season first.

And like, as a whole, Cobra Kai, what do you think out of 10, the sixth season?

Evan Garcia: 00:35:43

10. 10, 10. Because they. They are kicked off right where the last season did and they didn't. Other than the pause with the episode dropping this good.

And then the whole season, probably, I would say a solid 8.9 those two seasons. They. To me, they don't drop it down too much, but because they do pay off some of that. It just wasn't for me. So I guess it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because it was more focused on the younger. On the younger storyline. So that's probably just my bias.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:24

Fair enough. You guys have anything else?

Evan Garcia: 00:36:26

Whatever.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:27

Before we go to our next topic. Okay. That, of course, being the newest season of Invincible, season three. Who's watching it? Who hasn't seen it? I'm on episode three of season three.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:36:41

Yes.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:41

Okay.

TJ Blackwell: 00:36:42

I might be one episode behind.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:44

Okay, let me check. But Evan have not seen it.

Evan Garcia: 00:36:47

I have not seen it.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:48

Okay. Have you seen the first two seasons?

Evan Garcia: 00:36:51

I have not. I didn't know there were two seasons. I want to see because the memes that come out of that show are amazing and, like, they are, like, super deep.

So I'm like, oh, I gotta check this out.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:37:07

Did you say, I mean super deep?

Evan Garcia: 00:37:09

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:11

Yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:37:12

They have levels.

TJ Blackwell: 00:37:14

That's true.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:37:17

Honestly, I think they came out of the gate running on the third season, like. Yeah, they're continuing as though there was no gap between this season and the last one for them to do the production work. It's just.

They're just running with the story.

TJ Blackwell: 00:37:32

Yeah. I've been super impressed this season.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:34

Yeah. For anyone who doesn't know Invincible, we've covered our show before. But, hey, first time you're on. First time you've heard about Invincible.

This is based off of a comic series that was done by Robert Kirkman, who's the same guy did the Walking Dead. It's kind of.

Evan Garcia: 00:37:48

It's your.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:49

Starts off as your typical kind of superhero kind of land.

You got your Marvel and dc, you know, enough to start off With Invincible, where superheroes are around, super villains are around, super villains fight superheroes. And Mark Grayson, our main character, is the son of Omni man, who is essentially like the Superman of this world.

Super strong, super fast, and just really kind of one of the heroes everyone looks up to. And come to find out his dad's an alien. And Mark himself, after a couple years, has actually developed powers of his own.

So he takes on this supername hero name, Invincible, which everyone mocks because he's very much not. As time goes on, he leaves many of these episodes bloody and bruised, which I should probably say probably not the best for smaller children.

You know, if they're more mature, let them see it.

But for those who are able to handle such subject matters, we've got some darker themes to come up, because this is a deconstruction and a reconstruction of superhero comics. This isn't the Boys, which is just a deconstruction. And in my opinion, it's one of the worst things ever made. But this actually goes beyond that.

Instead of saying, oh, man, it's kind of weird that people would dress up in costumes and fight each other and actually care about the lives of other people. This brings that up and it goes, well, why would someone want to do that? What makes a hero?

What makes someone decide to do this crazy thing of putting their life on the line the same way that a fireman would or a police officer would, or so on, so forth?

And I think it exploits it really well, as Mark eventually finds out that his dad's not everything he said he was and is actually the precursor to an invasion of the Viltrumite people, their alien race. That Mark is now half human, half Viltrumite. And now we've been left with the fight that they had. The Omni man is now in prison with Alan the alien.

Love that man.

As they kind of are learning to team up together and learning that Nolan, Omni man kind of actually liked being a hero, kind of actually loved his family, as well as all the superhero shenanigans that are going on. Anything you guys want to add about what you've seen so far for season three?

Herbie Ramsey: 00:39:56

I will say you did not seem to give an understatement with it not being suitable for children. The. One of the biggest criticisms I have of the show is the amount of blood and gore they have. It is needlessly over the top.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:11

Yeah, it's definitely. If you're a little more squeamish on those matters, I would definitely say to stay away, but, yeah, Anyone else?

TJ Blackwell: 00:40:17

Yeah. I think this might be the only good property that at its at least onset was what if Superman was evil?

Christian Ashley: 00:40:26

We've had quite enough of those.

Evan Garcia: 00:40:28

Yeah. This might become a trope like. Like a. Well, that is kind of spoiled almost, but. But. But I'm glad to hear that this episode also is kicking ass.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:40:41

Also, it's not what is if he's evil, but what if he's not entirely evil?

TJ Blackwell: 00:40:45

Yeah. What if I miss my wife?

Christian Ashley: 00:40:47

Yes. Rather than.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:40:49

Rather than the trope of we turn Superman evil, it's what happens if he was evil and we turn him good.

TJ Blackwell: 00:40:55

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:40:56

And he's not there yet. And. Yeah, I've read enough of the comics. I haven't read everything to know where certain things are going.

So certain things are going to be surprises to me as time goes on with certain characters and their motivations and how things go and who's going to live, who's going to die.

en in a different time in the: 2000

This is a really solid show. If you got the chance that, like, how many episodes a season? Like 8ish per season.

TJ Blackwell: 00:41:34

8. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:41:35

Which about 40, 45 minutes long. So that is still a time sink. I'd recommend you guys check it out for sure.

One of the things that they bring up multiple times over is kind of the idea of when it's not just unusual. Invincible. Same thing happens in Marvel and DC is that do superheroes kind of create more problem. Problems than they solve?

We have multiple times in this season alone where Marcus Invincible goes up against some bad guys, which is down on their luck. And it went to super villainy instead to get their stuff.

And then we, in our most recent episode, not to give too much away for those who haven't seen it, we have someone who watched the rampage that Omni man and Invincible went through and lost family in the process. And now has become someone calling him out, like, why didn't you save us? Do you. Are you really a hero? What do you guys think on that idea?

TJ Blackwell: 00:42:24

It's so good. That episode was phenomenal. Aaron Paul killed it. They spent way too much money hiring him for the role.

The animation could have looked a little better, but that as. I mean, it was worth it. That's how good he was is what I mean.

But like, as a concept, I do think it's really interesting mostly to think about how an insurance claim would work in this universe, because I know it would suck. It would be awful. Like, you try. Try to tell your car insurance that Spider man picked your car up and threw it at Crocodile.

Evan Garcia: 00:43:00

They would give us a premium already for it. So, yeah, they would have that built in. Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:43:05

And then they would be like, well, we tried reaching out, but we couldn't get him. We can't prove that he threw your car. It just did that claim denied.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:43:14

It just magically flipped, flew into the building.

Evan Garcia: 00:43:16

Nobody.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:43:16

Nobody saw it.

Christian Ashley: 00:43:17

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:43:17

You were in a no parking zone. The no parking is because it makes cars just do that sometimes.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:43:25

I definitely think that with the nature of what's going on in Invincible is you do have the superheroes and if you have the super villains and they create this big fight, then yeah. But they're also having to fight something outside of Earth, which is causing the need for people who are stronger.

And I think that's where the entire argument, are they creating more trouble than they're worth? Starts to fall apart. Because Invincible from the very beginning showed that there were these things that only these heroes could fight.

Christian Ashley: 00:43:55

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:43:55

And it's like you could say that they might cause more property damage than they fix. That's. That's probably true for most heroes, but they definitely save the world more often than they end it.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:44:12

Well, we'd have to look at all the multiverse for that, but the heroes specifically.

Christian Ashley: 00:44:17

And there's some nice things played with that at concept too, because we have. I think it's second season where Atomy was just like, told by some people, hey, we want a playground here. We want stuff built on this land.

And the government's not letting us do it.

She's like, well, I have the ability to just do whatever and if I don't actually think about my powers, well, I should really be the most strongest person there. But that's another issue. And she just makes a playground for them.

And only to learn that the reason the city didn't want there to be something on that site is that there was a zoning issue. There was an issue with the ground underneath that. It collapsed.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:44:48

And then it wasn't was an entire apartment. It was a building and living quarters. It was people's house.

Christian Ashley: 00:44:56

Maybe I'm. I must be mixing something up. So thank you for correcting me. Yeah. And a bunch of people died. And now in this season, she's gone.

To school so that she can learn how to actually build things correctly instead of just saying, I'm going to solve my everything with my power. It's like, I actually need to think about these things. I need to know how physics works.

I need to know how engineering works, architecture, everything involved with that. So I really appreciate what doing with her.

And in regards to the initial question, it's like, you can tell how someone has never actually read a Batman comic with how they treat his characters. Be like, well, why didn't he just. No. Fix the city with his money? Well, no, his parents tried to do that and they got murdered for it.

You know, it's a lot more effective for him to dress up as a.

As a bat and, you know, beat super criminals in the face and stop mobsters because trying to do things the regular way ended up with them being killed.

TJ Blackwell: 00:45:45

It's true.

Christian Ashley: 00:45:45

And murdered.

TJ Blackwell: 00:45:46

I'm just saying I've spent money to fix issues and failed before. I've never failed if I dressed up as a giant bat.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:45:56

No. They also address some other moral concerns.

Like, I'm really early in the season now, but they're dealing with the concerns of, so this person was a murderer, but they can still do good. They. They are able to be reformed. Do you work with them and reform them, or do you say no? Once a murderer, always a murderer.

Even though you yourself were a horrible person at some point in your life, do you allow for them to be rehabilitated and become a hero?

TJ Blackwell: 00:46:24

Yeah. I do think it's really interesting they put us on the opposing side of that argument.

Like, they want us to say rehabilitation is bad because that's what Invincible thinks.

Christian Ashley: 00:46:36

The conflict between him and Cecil is extremely well done this season. The amount of flame wars it started alone, at least on Reddit, is astounding. But then again, that's the Internet.

Evan Garcia: 00:46:47

The memes are like. Because I've never seen the show, but the memes that come across my feed, I get it. I'm like, oh, oh. Everything that you guys are saying is cool.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:47:00

Cecil's line, I realized that I could either save the world or I could be the hero, but I can't do both. It's like, yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:09

And I know there's some people, other hosts on the show who are very against the idea of, you know, terrainism and the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. But I lean more on that side. You know, I'm more for what can be done to bring more people to safety. And, yeah, I'm.

I still find it morally reprehensible that some of the villains that Cecil, you know, initially killed early on in that flashback were brainwashed into being heroes. There's a huge issue there. I mean, there's a huge issue with having corpses around and now with robotic bodies that can attack people.

But if they save someone's life, is it worth the process? No. We had Darkwing 2, who is essentially our Batman Light in this universe, and him. He murdered people to protect his city.

And now he's been given another chance. Does he deserve that chance? Of course not. But is he going to do something good with that second chance?

And I think that's a risk we kind of have to take at times. And I think Invincible does a really good job with that.

TJ Blackwell: 00:48:11

Yeah.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:48:11

It also brings the question, can a person become a better person? A person who has been evil in the past, can they really become good? And it.

I'm early in the season, but it's very clear that Invincible thinks, no, no, you can't. Once you've crossed that line, you can't come back.

TJ Blackwell: 00:48:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. I just. I think it's really funny that we get Mark talking to Cecil and he's like, you, Darkwing's a murderer.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:48:37

Like, dude, so are you.

TJ Blackwell: 00:48:40

You kill people.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:48:42

He even says, you're a hypocrite. You created all this chaos. You're trying to fly off and save your murderer of a dad, and yet you can't deal with this guy.

Christian Ashley: 00:48:52

I think that's a huge part of this too, is like, the inherent hypocrisy. And some of what Mark is doing is like, yeah, it's. We. We shouldn't want, you know, murderers to be running around free or anything.

You know, they should be due process, injustice. But you're also living in a world where it'd be a lot better if that person who had murdered those people was now helping other people live instead.

And if there's a way to do that, not the most ethical way to do so, but there's a way to do it in universe, especially knowing that there's a Viltrumite invasion coming your way, and Mark is your best shot at that, and he's still not strong enough yet. And you don't know that there's only 50 left in the entire Empire at this point in time.

You gotta make some calls that other people looking, in hindsight, are gonna say, oh, no, that was an evil action. Well, I can't blame him too much like, I love cecil. I'm not 100% behind everything he does. But I get it. Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:49:44

Cecil's so funny, too. Like, Cecil's hilarious. What do you mean you thought you could beat Mark? Mark kills, like, 30 reaniman. Cecil's like, oh, I have so many more.

He's gonna kill them, too, obviously.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:49:58

Well, yeah, but he also had the whole, like, earplug thing that just decimates. Invincible solved it.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:04

Which is also something that's brought up, too, is what do you have deterrence in case someone flips? Because he didn't have a deterrent for Omni man, and look what happened.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:50:13

Well, he didn't think he would need it. He trusted Omni Man. He learned a lesson.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:18

And, yeah, I think it's morally reprehensible to put something in a sonic emitter or whatever inside of someone via surgery that makes them unable to move around. But if Invincible ever goes dark, you kind of need something to stop him, because he's your number one guy.

TJ Blackwell: 00:50:32

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:33

In episode three.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:50:35

In episode three, it really looks like he's going dark. Like, he is not only a controllable, but he is going on the attack.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:41

Go ahead, tj.

TJ Blackwell: 00:50:42

That's it. I mean, they just. Mark and Robot solve that problem. And Cecil still wanted to talk big. That was what was funny to me.

I was like, dude, you lost already. You lost. Teleport home.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:56

I don't believe Robot solved that problem for a moment. He's too much of a opportunist.

TJ Blackwell: 00:51:01

I don't want to talk about that.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:02

Well, all I'm going to point out.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:51:03

Is that Cecil is going to be looking at everything that has hurt Mark, and he had just the episode before, been stabbed by these creatures from deep in the Earth. I'm pretty sure Cecil had something else on top of that.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:17

Yeah, I know. A lot of people complain about that because we start off with, like, a montage scene of him becoming stronger and being more durable.

And then the moment some underground subterranean centipedes attack Mark, he's suddenly not as strong as he used to be. For the sake of the plot, you know, it's whatever. It's comics. It's what happens. Sometimes.

Superman takes damage he's not supposed to take because you need it for the sake of the story. I don't like it, but that's what's done.

TJ Blackwell: 00:51:42

If you didn't like that, you're really not going to like the Viltrumite War.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:51:46

But they've already pointed out where there are things that can hurt a Viltrumite.

So you just never know if it might be something in the middle of the Earth, which is kind of weird that something would be living in the magma of the earth. But there could still be more things on Earth that can harm adventure, Mike.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:00

Yeah. Okay. So, Evan, what are you thinking? This sound compelling at all?

Evan Garcia: 00:52:04

Yes, and I definitely want to watch it now even more.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:08

Okay.

TJ Blackwell: 00:52:09

You should.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:09

Perfect.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:12

Okay. Yes. I was thinking about that. I love the gore. I don't mind it. But when there's, like, the broken bones and stuff, that gets me a lot. Really? Oh, boy.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:52:23

Yeah, there's a lot.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:24

Okay.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:52:25

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:25

There's some scenes you may want to skip over.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:27

Okay. All right.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:52:28

There's scenes where people get completely torn asunder, like the first episode.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:34

There's some brutal brutality.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:36

Okay. Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:37

Someone's paying a little too much Mortal Kombat for their own good.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:41

Got it.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:52:42

With the blood code.

Evan Garcia: 00:52:43

Duly noted. With the blood code on the Sega.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:46

Yeah. So for the three of us that's watched it, what do you think? Out of 10, what, are we ranking it a lot this season?

TJ Blackwell: 00:52:53

I don't want to say 10.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:52:54

I don't want to rate the season since I haven't watched it all, but overall, as a series, I'll give it an 8. If it wasn't for how above and beyond the go with the gore, I'd probably be giving it a 10.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:07

Okay.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:53:07

But I do have to give some harsh marks on that criticism.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:10

Fair.

TJ Blackwell: 00:53:10

Yeah. I just. I don't know if I can give it a ten. I could definitely give it a nine and a half. It is.

I think it's better than the comic book wholesale at this point. And they're making it a point to. To try and make that happen. And it also makes it exciting for us to watch as people who read the comic book.

Well, I finished it. Christian Red. Enough event.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:31

Yeah.

TJ Blackwell: 00:53:32

But I'm still having a great time because I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:36

Yeah. I'd say so far, I'd probably get this season like, an 8.5out of 10 overall. From everything that I know, I'd probably give a 9 out of 10. As.

As an overview of Invincible, like, there's some solid stuff here. There's definitely some stuff. You know, if you're more squeamish about such matters.

You're not big on blood and gore and some more heavier subject matter that's discussed. You know, avoid. It's not your fault. Go find something else that'll make you happier. But if you can get through it, like, I can go for it. All Right.

With that, we've got our four topics done, and that means we come to the recommendation section. Out of these four topics, which one would you say is your top recommendation?

TJ Blackwell: 00:54:16

Invincible.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:54:16

Invincible.

Evan Garcia: 00:54:17

Okay, Evan, I'm going Cobra Kai, man. Going all the way.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:22

Okay.

Evan Garcia: 00:54:23

All the way. Show no mercy.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:25

Yeah. I'm throwing out your friendly neighborhood spider man. It's way too short.

There should have been more episodes, but that's unfortunately modern TV these days.

Evan Garcia: 00:54:32

Right.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:33

We can't have 20 episodes. I completely and utterly agree. There's too long of a wait between seasons. And then it's only for like, you know, 10 or so episodes.

Evan Garcia: 00:54:41

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:42

Like, why are you doing this to me, man?

Herbie Ramsey: 00:54:44

And then it's once and you binge them all and finish them in a day. So then you gotta wait till next year and watch 10 more episodes in one day.

TJ Blackwell: 00:54:51

Yeah. And you know how much of a commitment that is. Like Squid Game season two or Squid Game two? I'm like, yeah, I'll just watch them all at once.

Spend eight hours watching Squid Game two. And it ends on a cliffhanger.

Evan Garcia: 00:55:03

A big cliffhanger too. Like, not one that you can do. Like, oh, I'm just not gonna watch it. I'm like, no, it's a good one.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:10

That's gonna be like a two, three year wait or whatever. Like a Stranger Things alone. Like, I'm so excited for the new season, but it's also been however long since the last one. Like, I'm need a refresher.

Evan Garcia: 00:55:19

Don't get me started.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:55:21

It sounds like somebody needs to have a binge watching party for the first four seasons of Stranger Things so that when the new season comes out, we're not depending on three or four year old memories.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:32

That's what Wikipedia is for.

Herbie Ramsey: 00:55:33

And nobody cares about Wikipedia.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:35

I do, because it helps me remember things because I'm old. All right, so thank you guys for coming today. Thank you for the one person in the comments who left comments. He's okay, I guess.

You know, I guess we should give a shout out. Joshua Noli, if you guys do want to do that. Like, we really do appreciate it. I was just saying what I said because it's him.

Like, we love feedback from you guys. We love like putting your messages up on this YouTube page. You know, if you listen to the podcast, you want to queue here live.

Like, head over to Systematic Ecology YouTube. Subscribe There be a great chance for you to interact with us. Throw questions our way of, like, what we thought about certain things.

We'd love to do that as well, I'd like to help some. Excuse me. Like to shout out some people sponsor our show. Thank you. Ethan Overcash. Austin. Nance Amber Riley, Jonathan Augustine. You guys are the best.

But remember, we're all a chosen people. A geekdom of priests.