But Are There Dragons Podcast

Season 7 Episode 10 DCC Book 5 The Butcher's Masquerade Part 2!

• Kritter and Jessica • Season 7 • Episode 10

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Welcome to But Are There Dragons, a podcast where two friends pick a book at least one of them has not read, and talk about it. For our seventh season, we're reading Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman! This episode covers Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade, Chs 39-end, with Jessica as the vet and Kritter as the first timer!

Don’t forget to follow us at But Are There Dragons on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and But Dragons Pod, just one t, on X, formerly known as Twitter.
You can find Kritter at Kritter XD on YouTube, TikTok, and X, and at Kritter _XD on Instagram.
You can find Jessica by searching Shelf Indulgence on TikTok, Instagram, and X.

Music credit to: Frog's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda
ReMix: Chrono Trigger "Theme of Frog's" - OC ReMix

Welcome And WatCon Update

SPEAKER_00

Hello and welcome to But Are There Dragons, a podcast where two friends pick a book at least one of them hasn't read and talk about it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm your host, Critter.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm your host Jess. And welcome to season seven, episode 10, where we are talking about the back half of the Butcher's Masquerade. How are you doing tonight, Critter?

SPEAKER_01

Doing great. Doing great. Had a really good time with this read.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Uh, I mean, with no further ado, we can just we can just jump in.

SPEAKER_01

We could just jump in, but very, very quickly, let's do a butt are there updates, which will be an update actually to our last butt-are updates, very brief, very quick, because there's a huge WatCon update, and that is that Priyanka Bowes, the actress who played Alana Sedai of the Green Aja in the Wheel of Time, has replaced Taylor Napier as the guest of honor. So Taylor Napier was Maxim, Alana's warder. So instead of the warder, we're getting the eye Sedai now. It was a scheduling conflict issue. We're going to miss Taylor, but we are so excited to have. We're so excited to have Priyanka take his place. Um, so that's a big, big deal. Um then whenever this episode drops, we are unfortunately in-person tickets will be done, like registration will be closed. But Jessica, what will be available?

SPEAKER_00

There will still be plenty of access for online tickets. And there are plenty of folks who attending a con in person just isn't in the cards. And I will tell you, having done a few of these fan conventions, I believe, wholeheartedly, with all my bias, that WatCon does the best bang for your buck virtual ticket. You get access to all of the um panels and you get playback access as well. And there's extra little things that we do. You know, there's a there's a Discord, there's chats for the YouTube, and they have roving reporters that take you around. There are exclusive interviews with our special guests and our guests of honor. Um, it's it's really a good time. We work really hard, and by we I mean the royal we. There's tons of other builders behind the scene who actually do that part. Um to try and make sure that our our virtual attendees feel like they get a full experience. And even as somebody who attends in person, I can't make all of the panels. So I rely on those um recordings to be able to, you know, deal with the FOMO afterwards and see what I missed. So if virtual, if live isn't in the cards for you, please consider virtual, especially with you know Priyapka. She's gonna be hot, hot, hot. I don't care who you are. Um, she made me love Alana, even though I couldn't have cared less. So Amen.

SPEAKER_01

Amen.

SPEAKER_00

That's my plug.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, WatCon for the win. You can get virtual passes at www.watcon.com. And before we dive into the book, one last thing. We did have a guest lined up for this episode. But unfortunately, also due to scheduling conflicts and that are

No Guest Tonight And Five Stars

SPEAKER_01

completely my fault, he couldn't make it tonight. So shout out to cousin Ben, whose favorite Dungeon Crawler Carl book is The Butcher's Masquerade. So we were hoping that we could have him on. Um, hopefully we'll have him on for a future book, but uh it'll just be me and Jessica tonight, which is not a problem. But you know, yeah, it's always a bummer when we have somebody lined up and it doesn't work out.

SPEAKER_00

And I mean, shout out to cousin Ben, because he's clearly got good taste, because this is a hella good book.

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, I mean, I I don't want to jump the gun or anything, but I will say that this was so far my favorite Dungeon Crawler Carl book, also. Five out of five. And granted, I think I've given some of the other ones five stars on Fable, which allows half stars. So, you know, sometimes I'm like 4.75. I think that's what I gave the last one. This one, five stars, no hesitation whatsoever. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I I can I can commiserate with that. I feel like each successive book, I was like, no, this one, no, this one. Yes. Um, yeah, this book does not disappoint. So let's let's jump right in. Let's do it. Uh, so we left off with Carl going into another convention space. So we have a new convention experience. One of the things I like about this convention experience, we meet the pop-ovs. So the pop-ovs are a crawler combo duo uh that we have seen listed in the stats in the top 10, but we really have had like nothing from them on the radar whatsoever. So this was our first real interaction with them. And so critter I see you nodding. Did you feel the same way? Well, like, was it fun to meet another top 10 crawler?

SPEAKER_01

Super fun. And most especially probably because Jeff Hayes, the audiobook narrator, and the way that he played them, that combined with what they were saying. So, right whenever they met Carl, it was essentially like, and I can't remember which one said it, but they were like, Did you bring Princess Donut? She's like, I wanted to meet the cat. Like the I can't do the Arnold Schwarzenegger accent that he was doing. She's like, I really wanted to meet the cat. I like the cat.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I and his brother just very, very um understandably being like, drop it about the cat.

SPEAKER_01

Like, be cool. Yeah, literally, like, you get to meet Carl. It's like you're making him feel bad. No, that was it was a funny little dynamic that they had right out of the gate. Um, and I appreciated it because if I were them, I too would have wanted to meet the cat. More so I would have wanted to meet Carl more, but you know, who doesn't want to meet Princess?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, you say that you're a pretty big donut stand.

SPEAKER_01

So I am, but like Carl is one of my new and fully minted book husbands. So it's kind of like, you know, it's rough. It's rough.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't know if he quite hit that status yet.

SPEAKER_01

He's there. Yeah, he's yeah, he's been there. Yeah, no, it's him and his work husband official.

SPEAKER_00

Like, oh gosh. We can take that away too as homework. You can ponder and go back sufficient thought. I'll think about that. But I'd love to hear when he actually gained status.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it might have been, and I'm thinking, it probably was before this, but like for sure, for sure, it was probably whenever they were getting flushed down into the water in the last book, The Gate of the Feral Gods, and he shielded Donut with his body. You know, and I mean, and he was like, she was unconscious, and he was just giving her like healing potion after healing potion, just like he is the sole reason that she is alive. Um, and that was just like I love to see uh like uh somebody just really like pop off when it comes to being like a dad figure. Um, and so yeah, that really that really worked for me. So I think that's maybe when he hit that status.

SPEAKER_00

If nothing else by then.

SPEAKER_01

If nothing else by then for sure. That one just was a standout, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I thought the pop-ups were fun, and then another fan convention experience, and yet again, uh uh Matt Dinnerman finds a way to escalate it, right? So it is another fan convention. We have a new uh crawler to meet, and there's also Carl attacks somebody with a Sharpie. No big deal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, big deal, actually, apparently. Like, who knew? An interdimensional, I don't even know, like it's a magic sharpie. Yeah, magic sharpie can just get

New Convention And Meeting Pop-Ovs

SPEAKER_01

stabbed into somebody's neck.

SPEAKER_00

And I think if you believe in yourself enough, anything can be a weapon.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the fact that it happened, and then Carl was literally like, what are they gonna do to me? Like, he's gonna file a lawsuit. Yeah, I'm literally a slave, right? You know, that was it. And then when you found out about how they do the indentured servitude essential, I mean the slave labor for people in prison rather than sending them to prison, although in some ways it's not that different than how things actually work in real life. But um, yeah, it's uh this these books never cease to comment on the way things sometimes are.

SPEAKER_00

I was talking to somebody who is uh struggled to get through book one and has come back to it and has now gotten through book two um and is cautiously optimistic, so is considering going into book three and was having a very nice conversation. And I was like, without spoilers, I think it's very fair to say that the themes get more intense, stated, and um you get invested in them as you go through the books. Um, and it's definitely not a spoiler to say every single character experiences growth and evolution. That's true. Carl, donut the AI. So um, you know, this is I I'm out there proselytizing for the decent adult.

SPEAKER_01

I wish I would have saved, I'm mad at myself. I wish I would have saved the tweet that I saw because it was something along the lines of like Dungeon Crawler Carl, the book that goes from God, like a pathetic everyman cuck to, you know, an anti-capitalist anarchist statement on society. No, I know, no, it just came across, it was like on my threads. Like Threads has figured out that I'm into DCC now. And so it's just like I get some like general thank god. Like people are really good about tagging spoilers on threads so far, in my experience. Like, and you can even blur them out, which is awesome. Like, I'd have to click into a spoiler. Um, so gosh, I yeah, I really wish I would have saved it though, because it was so poignant. Where it's like, yeah, the when I heard about the books and when I started reading the books, I was like, this is goofy, it's goof tastic, it's not meant to be serious.

SPEAKER_00

But then the longer you read, the more you themes are getting more and more serious, pertinent, pointed.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so yeah, who your friend, whoever they are, keep going. Keep going if you're listening.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and then the other piece that I really wanted to talk about from this convention interaction, Carl meets the first, his first member of the Princess Posse. Oh my god, that was so weird. That is something else. Um did you feel any sort of way about that interaction for them?

SPEAKER_01

Um I it was weird. Like it the way they portrayed, you know, I don't understand the tentacle head situation, right? Because it's happened twice. I got the impression that it wasn't the same person both times, but they both had some kind of parasite head. Um so what's going on there? I don't know. It I like I would like to think that it wasn't Matt Dinneman being like fangirls are weird, right? Because he's got a lot of fangirls himself. Yeah. Um, but that's kind of the vibe that I got. Uh ultimately, though, what ends up happening with the Princess Posse is iconic, and like the fact that it exists is so fun, and I'm sure it's gonna play out and be even more fun once they get to the ninth floor. But the first introduction was a little sus. I mean, she's clearly there's something going on. Like, don't say the what was it? C word, like Cocker Spaniel, yeah, Cocker Spaniel, but like C word, yeah, I don't know. It was just weird. Like they made her out to be really weird.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I just um it can seem like an in like a real innocuous throwaway moment, uh until you get to the end of the book and you're like, oh, oh, this mattered. Yeah, this mattered. It did. Then uh the convention experience wraps up and we're doing some grinding, we're going through some villages, and we see the party going to we see Carl and Dona going to find Miriam and Prepotente. That was kind of a big deal. So I will say that this whole interaction was, I think the first time the series made me cry was Miriam's Miriam's farewell. Was very

Princess Posse Unease And Themes

SPEAKER_00

touching to me and it made me really sad. Um, and I thought it was beautifully written. Um, so R.I.P. Miriam.

SPEAKER_01

For sure. I would totally agree that it was beautifully written. Um, I actually had a friend of mine, and I can't remember which book he said it happened in. I thought he said it was the sixth book, but maybe it was the fifth book that he said that it made him cry. And Mr. Critter was like, he hasn't read, he's read like the first 30 pages of Dungeon Crawler Carl. So he was like, How? Like how, you know, it's Dungeon Crawler Carl. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00

Mr. Critter has a point, right?

SPEAKER_01

Like, yeah, yeah, how, and then I I will admit it's like I'm a softie uh right now. I'm an especially soft touch because like ever since I've become a parent, it's been so easy to make me cry. This one didn't, but it was still touching. I will say it was very, very touching. I think the weird dynamic between Miriam and Prepotente is what like just didn't send me over the edge, right? Because their whole thing is so they've always been odd. They've always they're so and and it's like they're very odd. Yeah, and granted, prepotente did become like a sentient being, like more than just a goat, but at the same time, like it he's still such a bizarre character that to me it it still feels like a person and her pet. And I know he would be so pissed if I said if he knew I said that. Um, but yeah, he's just an odd duck. And so he very much is. Um, but no, it was it was a it was a really well-written scene for sure, and the way that it played out where it was, you know, the like ping-ponging back and forth counter spells, which reminded me shout out to the Magic the Gathering players out here out there because that's what it reminded me of. I'm like somebody's playing a blue and black deck, my god.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and it speaks to my DD heart because I've definitely been in some combats where there's counter spells getting countered left and right. So yeah, it's a real thing.

SPEAKER_01

It appeals to it appeals to us all. And then the fact that he had the uh the ring, that was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00

So I really loved I I found it poignant. I think that I think that because Miriam was odd and because of her backstory and how she had made choices that were, you know, kind of sacrificial in nature to be with her parents, and then all of a sudden she was like, and where did my life go? And and like the goats are what I have. And I I think because they're odd resonated with me a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, it's totally fair. Like I was I was kind of like, why am I not crying right now? You know, like maybe I was just in not the right frame of mind or something, or maybe I was doing something particularly, you know, maybe I was driving in traffic when I heard it. I can't remember exactly when I heard it.

SPEAKER_00

You're not dead inside, just because you're not like it's over.

SPEAKER_01

It was weird that I was like, I shouldn't be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00

And it also like it crescendoed, right? So her story, you know, was one piece of it. Uh, the sacrifice that she was making for all of the other crawlers and NPC, like everybody who had been infected because of her, another layer of sacrifice, a layer of sacrifice for prepotente, and then Carl giving her her out without compromising his humanity by sitting with her until dawn. And so that was just yeah, the final straw. It was just a really um unique situation. And and then, of course, the weird comes back because Prepatente unfreezes and you know screams right in Carl's face as he is wont to do, and yes, yeah, so the weird comes back.

SPEAKER_01

I have to say, I uh I went at the St. Louis Art Museum yesterday um for me and Mr. Critter's anniversary, and it was a lovely outing. Um, but I came across this, and it was technically a gazelle, but there was like a little sculpture that was like a little horned animal with like kind of slightly curved horns. And it to me is what prepotente looks like in my head. I was literally like, oh my god, it's preputente, just straight away. And I think partially it's because of uh the way that he's depicted on the on the on the book covers, right? Like at least I think he's on this book cover. Like there's a there's a goat on the book cover, so I assume that was him. Um it's just there's so like like almost like a lanky type of a goat that they're you know what what do they call it? Caprid. Sorry, not a goat, a caprid. Um so I will if if you're watching on YouTube, I'll try and remember to superimpose this so you can see what I'm talking about, because that is how I picture somewhat prepotente, except for like obviously for some reason I picture him on two legs, which I don't actually know how I'm supposed to picture him, but that's how I picture him.

SPEAKER_00

I guess I so uh Emperor's New Groove is get informs how I view Prepotente and how he interacts with the world all over.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that's funny. All right, I hadn't thought about that, but no, Prepitente is a weird duck, but he was kind of uh uh a real uh force to be reckoned with in this in this half.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and only got more so by the end, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Uh so moving on from Miriam. Uh there are nipple piercings that happened. Um, you know, light and fun, and uh Carl betrayed Donut by trying to do the one, two, three and piercing on one. So that's fan. That's fun.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, the fact that they now have matching nipple piercings is the most fun thing about it. Like they didn't really mention that fact, but now they they like went and got a piercing together. Now they both have nipple rings.

SPEAKER_00

You can't pretend that didn't happen.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's so funny. It's so and the and I'm just like the fact that Carl has a nipple piercing is and the and and that donut was just like, I'm not a sex pervert, Carl. Like, and and the fact that just that him using the nipple ring to his advantage because it was worth what it was loot. Um, all of a sudden she's decided that he's just beyond like he's just well, I mean, I the tattoos really pushed her over the edge, which are not his fault either. That's why it's this running joke of these things completely outside Carl's control, and Donut blames him for and attributes characteristics to him because of them. And I just think that really it tickles me.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and then we saw we saw a ton of benefactor boxes that are getting routed to donut. So this is about the part of the book where we're just seeing all kinds of things coming in from sponsors, and no matter who they're going to, this is for donut. This is for donut. This is for donut.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was so odd. And in the end, it still is odd because they were like, oh, they just must have wanted us to work together. But at the same, like, I don't know, it

Miriam’s Farewell And Real Tears

SPEAKER_01

just feels like it would almost have been better to just all go to prepotente. So that's what I'm confused about. Why they sent them to Donut and not Prepotente. That answer to me has not been, or that question to me has not been answered yet.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think it's been answered either. I will say I kind of just made the assumption that one, there is benefit in spreading it out so it can't be looted so easily.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or even figured out what's happening, right? Like divvying it up into parts to obscure the reasons. Yeah. But those are assumptions, you know, those are things that I kind of inferred based on the situation. I don't feel like anybody really gave us a reason.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because I'm I'm trying to think, like, there aren't any rules right now about how many boxes one person can get per level or anything like that. I don't think so, no.

SPEAKER_00

I don't I don't recall hearing anything about a restriction.

SPEAKER_01

But uh it was like di various sponsors doing it. So I guess that would, but but a lot of those sponsors are sponsoring the same people, right? So to me, it's like it's so interesting that they spread them out that then when they could have just either sent them just to Donut or to Perpetente. But you know, there's something going on in the in the worldwide space that uh that we're not quite privy to just yet, I guess.

SPEAKER_00

So it was definitely a departure from the way we've seen benefactor boxes used before. Definitely. Um, so then we finally make it to, you know, the butcher's masquerade. And I will say that at one point in these chapters that was part of this, Louis makes a comment about how he's just as confused as he was for the Iron Tangle. I will admit that there were some mechanics related to the multi-level ballroom that I still am like, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. It's like, when did they say there was a generator or what you know? It was just there was a lot going on. There was a lot going on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so it was a different kind of space, a different kind of combat. Again, fighting on a couple of different levels. So it's it's neat in that way. But yeah, I was still like, yeah. I don't have to understand it. I just know that there's layers.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I can't believe I didn't think because the first time they mentioned, and then there's some like duct ducting throughout the castle. I can't, I mean, I guess I can believe I didn't think, oh, that's definitely a cat tunnel. But the fact that it ended up being cat tunnels is pretty spectacular.

SPEAKER_00

It's pretty hilarious. Yeah. And then the AI told on him. So I thought it was funny that Ferdinand uh that the AI told on Ferdinand for having like he may have just put those in. Yeah. Nobody was looking or something like that. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Um, so one of the things about finally getting to the butcher's masquerade is we kind of are hitting a climax for obviously the action for this floor, but also for the uh vengeance of the daughter plot line that we have seen come through and uh the stuff that has to do with Signet and the crossover with Signet. And I feel like we have seen before that Carl made a com has made comments to Signet to try and I use the term awaken. So try to awaken her, like explain to her the greater context that she's in that you know kind of buffs against her programming and what the system has programmed her for. Um, and so we see that again here, where he is very direct with her about what's happening and isn't, you know, there's no maliciousness to it, just we can't do it that way. Um, they the the game won't let you do it that way, but I can still there's a way that I can do this where you can get what you want. Um, and then Signet goes into the ball, she gets a ticket from a pedo, the goddess, who I so I found that weird. That's very sus to me. I don't recall ever getting that explained since. So I'm like, was it really a pedo? Was it the AI acting through a pedo?

SPEAKER_01

I think it's like my understanding is that the latter.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I I think that's pretty much the assumption, right? Because the AI drives those narratives, right? Um, and I'm sure he did it just for the um shenanigans aspect, you know, let's send her in there and see what happens. Um, yeah. But really, Signet being let loose on the party and having too much time with uh Donadia and other off-worlders um dramatically shifts her perspective and really forces the awakening to come true. And that was kind of sad.

SPEAKER_01

It was, I mean, it was I

Loot Chaos And Donut’s Boxes

SPEAKER_01

I really like how it played out. Honestly, it was sad for sure. Um, but Carl had resigned himself to sacrificing himself, and of course, Carl wasn't going down. We know that there's more Dungeon Crawler Carl books. Um, so it was the perfect solution in my mind. And I guess I don't know that we figured this one out yet, but they weren't gonna let the battle like they needed the battles to play out in two different ways, right? Because the show and the main Dungeon Crawler world broadcast had to be separate, like the finales had to be separate. Um so the fact that she went out like before the big the big fight, I guess, was I I assume it worked out in the grand scheme of broadcasting contracts and all of that nonsense. Um, but it was also just so self-sacrificial and moving. You know, they had it was another big moving moment where she's like, you know, like let it let everybody know that this was my choice and you know that nobody messes with my family and all this other stuff. And she just, it was, it was, it was cool. I thought it was it played out really neat. And and the whole the way that they had described her spell previously, where it was like three components, right? We need the caster, we need the sacrifice, and we need what was the other thing? The the person killing the sacrifice or whatever. And then it was like, actually, they can all be the same person. Like that was a cool twist that played on the rules that we already knew about her spell. I love a good callback. Um so yeah, I think she was honestly, like in the first part of the book, the first read, it was like, okay, they're here, it's fine, like he's gotta do this this movie or the show. But I wasn't super into that plot. But the way that it was tied up was really satisfying for me. Plus, it was ultimately necessary, kind of, because it helped explain the um, well, now I can't think of their names, but like the two-headed ogre dynamics. The pop-offs, yeah, it helped explain how what happened with the pop-offs. Um, so that was cool too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It was another noble NPC. So again, these NPCs are creations, they are not naturally born creatures and uh showing just an incredible amount of nobility and integrity.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I loved, I love Signet Sacrifice. I loved um because so much is going on right there. There's a couple, you we've already, you know, this part of the story, they actually shared um pages of their plan as different, you know, prologues to each chapter, epitaph, whatever it is. No, it was a cool way to do it.

SPEAKER_01

I liked the story.

SPEAKER_00

It was because a lot of times we have no idea what Carl's up to. Um, so that was fun to do that. Um, but it's clear from those little snippets that there's a potential of like half a dozen different variations of plans, and they have multiple outcomes for different stages of the plan. And basically they all go to heck pretty fast. And it's very obvious to everybody that knows him that Carl is thinking about self-sacrificing. And by Signet coming in, not only was her sacrifice more helpful, um, it left him free to keep going. And I do think that losing Carl would be a huge blow to the morale, not just the capabilities of the remaining crawlers, but a huge blow from a morale perspective.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, he's a he's without a doubt a leader among the factions, right? Because there's multiple parties, but he is he's definitely a leader in the dungeon itself, because everyone's heard of him. He was the number one crawler for a while. He's iconic, and even though they make him look like a psychopath, every time, every time somebody meets him, they're like, Oh, you're actually kind of great. And I will say, you mentioned the fact that ever the plan just went to hell, right? It just went so poorly, everything went wrong. I kind of really appreciated that that happened because Carl has been such a Mary Lou or Mary Gary Sue or whatever you want to call it. Like he's been so perfect, and everything he's done has worked out exactly. I mean, there I'm sure there are exceptions, but it feels like every single plan that he's had has gone off without a hitch, or there have been hitches, but he's immediately adapted and it's been incredible. In this case, he was going to adapt in such a way that it was going to be his demise, and so he was ultimately saved by other people, kind of in this particular fight, which I like I love Carl, but I'm so glad that it was finally like okay, Carl's not perfect. He needs other people, right? Like it's a found family, and without the found found family, this would all not work out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because in the end he is just one guy.

SPEAKER_01

Speaking of found family, though, okay, one of the best moments for me was was it the sledge who had the spell? Or

Enter The Ballroom And Cat Tunnels

SPEAKER_01

was it Bomo?

SPEAKER_00

No, it's Sledge.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, the sledge. So at the very end, when Carl is messaging back and forth with the sledge, when he was just like, you know, I'll do whatever you want. Like you, I owe you so much. I'll see you in the ninth floor. Like, you're you're doing you're making such a sacrifice. Like, Carl was like, the sledge is a fake thing. He's like, he's not real either. He's an NBC, and Carl is like profusely thanking him. And that was a an extremely emotional moment. And then the sledge is just like, Don't let Bomo beat my score. And he's like, I'll unplug the machine the moment I get home. Like, that was really touching for me. Um, I really love that conversation, especially because throughout the entire fight, the narration from the sledge was hilarious. He's like, Yeah, dead changing, dead mantis, mantis on roof.

SPEAKER_00

Like it was like lots of mantises. Yeah, it punctuated it. There's fire.

SPEAKER_01

It punctuated it in such a perfect way that uh I thought I thought it built and then and then ultimately he's like the mo the mom bear dies, which is really sad, but then he saved the little girls and he like he had to sacrifice the the twister. There was so much that happened, and then finally, you know, he's like, the front mantises were changelings, we're saved. And I was like, oh my god, what's happening? That was a ride. It was a ride, and so no, I mean the fact that you can get so invested in the sledge, the hired mercenary who's a former um what's the that's the bodyguard? Yeah, yeah, like from the desperato club from the desperato club, you know, turned video game addict, like who sacrifices himself. I don't know. It was just it was great. I loved it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I got I got a shout-out for Sledgy in here for casting Zuzura and you know, basically saving the entire NPC contingent that's associated with Teen Carl. Yes, amen. Um yeah, so another thing that happens before the absolute debauchery of all the murdering, um we see Florian and Lucy Amar have an interaction, and that essentially amounts to forgiveness from Florian to Lucy Amar and turns into a protective situation. Uh so how do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think we had been given hints, right, that there was more than meets the eye. She had seemed like there were multiple people kind of in her ear. She had extreme personality shifts. So now that we have a bit more of an explanation, if still something that we definitely need to figure out, um, I'm glad about it. I knew that Carl wasn't just gonna kill her, right? Because she's a child, and I am still holding out hope that he's not gonna get a player killer skull. Fingers crossed. Um so yeah, I just I wish they would have killed the other dog now. Though I guess I'm sure like that'll end up being some kind of mission and some future book, and it'll be really satisfying when it happens, fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_00

But I choose to believe it'll be donut.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that would be great.

SPEAKER_00

Or the callback, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

She takes out the first one, she takes out the second one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00

So that then leads us into just massive slaughter, like just crazy. We've got well, and we got Samantha in the ductwork pulling solo crystals, so you know, the chaos agent.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god, she is and she didn't memorize the map.

SPEAKER_00

She's like, What do I know? You memorize it. Well, he did actually, so that made me laugh.

SPEAKER_01

Like, she literally just didn't do anything she was supposed to do. Like, she was supposed to bring an explosive, left it.

SPEAKER_00

She's supposed to memorize the map, didn't and I think it was Amani who was like, Why are you why are you trusting her? Like, she's she never does what she's supposed to do. Like, we're all with you, Amani.

SPEAKER_01

We all know. Yeah, I mean, but you know, Katya was not gonna turn into a slug, so what were his options, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, so yeah, then we just go into death and dismemberment and and gore, lots of gore. Um and a bunch of tiny mantises, lots of mantises, Diwadi uh showing up. Um yeah, it got crazy. I I do think that it was neat that, you know. Well, I mean, we skipped over Imogen coming in and and meeting Imogen and finding out that she is, you know, for a split second you think that she's a Fetchy, Florian's partner, but in reality it's a Fetchi's twin. Um, which, you know, at least it wasn't B, I guess. Um because that's really what Carl thought that that was gonna look like.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and then all that that implies, and just they made her. I think that I find Imogen disturbing because she was a born person and they reprogrammed her. And and that that is hugely disturbing. Um, I feel like that's the first instance that we've seen of that in the books, and uh that is unnerving.

SPEAKER_01

Um more so than Gravy Boat. I mean, she is a human, not a cat. So that does more.

SPEAKER_00

I do feel like I do feel like a yeah, I guess because I've treated what happened to Gravyboat slash Ferdinand as like a spell, like a charm. But I guess you could probably say the same for what happened to Afechi, but yeah, I had definitely minimized it because he's quote unquote just a cat.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. It's weird either way. It was not yeah, not not cool, not cool at all. Definitely not. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And the battle, you know, the battle works out for our heroes, but at a hell of a cost, right? So first and foremost, Louis's heartbroken because he loses the twister. Oh,

Signet Awakens And Chooses Sacrifice

SPEAKER_00

oh yeah, yeah, the twister and then I mean, but that's that's a great point. Yeah, Faraz actually dies, that's terrible. Um, Gwen dies. Uh uh Tran loses his legs, it's it's and the pop-ovs die, and then we finally get to understand why the pop-ovs were encouraged to be noddlings. Yeah, noddling, excuse me. Yeah, and it it did validate. So I remember when they first told us that nodlings, you know, once they die, we learned it through signet because the strong men that she has in tattoo form are nodlings and they split off into three. Um and I remember thinking that, and I remember that they were saying that you know, children and pregnant people are exempt from the crawl. And I'm like, well, are they though? So this was nice to see that it seems like at least the crawl is following that set of rules.

SPEAKER_01

And they're not help but wonder if that's how we're gonna get out of the Katya situation. Wouldn't it be nice? And it wasn't my idea, I will admit. My idea was no, they're gonna come up with a way for Katya to leave the dungeon. But then I have like a fable book club, you know, where like as But Arther Dragons reads through the books, that like the book of my book club is the book that we're reading. And so there's like a little bit of discussion. Obviously, I don't go ahead, I don't get ahead, but what's cool about Fable is you can like you can see what chapters people are talking about, so you don't get spoiled. Um, so at the end, when I was like, this can't possibly like it's not gonna be Katia versus Donut, there's going to be a loophole. I just refuse to believe that one of them is gonna die. Um somebody was like, they did make a point to say that she had relations before the party. Um, and they also made a point to say that pregnant people can't be in the dungeon. Both of those things now, like I completely am on board with like Katia is a shapeshifter. I can't remember her exact class if it's shapeshifter. There's another one I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00

Doppelganger.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Is she a shapeshifter or doppelganger? She's she's a doppelganger. Okay, so like she's a doppelganger. It mentioned that after they had relations, sorry, I'm trying to be PG. Um, she she assumed human form in like a like a perfect rendition of her human self minus the fingers, because she can't regrow the fingers. Um, and then she had changed like her nose for some reason. Her nose and her hair. Yeah, her nose and her hair for some reason. And so in my mind, I thought, okay, well, if she could change those things about her, what if she can give like redo whatever it was that they did to sterilize her? What if she could undo it? Like her picture of herself is with like a complete set of working materials, right? And so that's you know, I'm I'm on board with the Katya's been pr impregnated. Um, that's that's official prediction, courtesy of my book club, but I am like co-signing so hard on them it's not even funny. Um, but also I have to say that the conversation before the big fight, um, where Carl brings it up to Batista, like, so you and Katya. Oh yeah, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Totally skipped over.

SPEAKER_01

And Donut's like, what do you mean? First of all, that was funny that Donut had not picked up on it, even though she likes to think that she's she'd have to pay attention to somebody else to catch that it was oop, shots fired. Um, but also when Carl's like, hey, can I have one of these bean beanie babies or whatever? And Batista's like, you can have one, you can have five. It was like he was so happy that Carl wasn't mad he would do anything. Um, so I thought that was a wholesome interaction for sure.

SPEAKER_00

It was, but also like I'm just sorry, my brain stopped working. Like, how long has that been bothering them? Like, oh yeah, like how convinced was he that Carl would be really ticked off and it would be like a problem.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like I don't know, like the way that I know Carl, and the way that you know Carl, the way that readers know Carl, like he's not just gonna not say anything.

SPEAKER_00

Because he's not actually a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like if he had feelings for Katya, I like to think that he would have said something before they ever met Batista, or you know, like before she ever interacted with him. So I don't know. It was uh obviously though, like there's a lot of things in life where you get nervous about something, like how's somebody gonna react to what I say, whatever, whatever. And so it's totally understandable that they were nervous about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. But to your point, it was very cute, very wholesome. Yeah, it really was. And another opportunity for Carl to be like a good guy and go, yeah, no, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, congrats.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

The Fight Turns Into Carnage

SPEAKER_00

Um, so sorry to pivot from that incredibly wholesome moment back to murder in Mayhem, but that's where we left off. We didn't talk anything about the performances. So we had the pet performances, um, and we had, you know, Tina's opportunity to dance, supposedly coming, and um last but not least, of course, the finale is Donut Singing. Um and these were all kind of incredible in their own right. Um, did did you did you feel like they paid off pretty well or yes.

SPEAKER_01

Um Mongo doing the moonwalk deserved first place, and Donuts' reaction to the fact that he didn't win was valid. First of all, and the fact that everyone's like, when did you teach him how to moonwalk? And she's like, Ah, whatever. Um, perfect. Second, Carl over here being like, the lyrics to that song don't make any sense. Carl's a smart guy. I don't believe for one second that he doesn't understand the lyrics to that song that Donut was singing. That feels so obvious. That I to me, okay, like this is my read on it, and I don't have the lyrics in front of me, but like my impression was she regretted making Donut a show cat because she loves Donut. And being in the show cat sphere, she has or the um oh my gosh, B has been pressured so much by outside forces, I assume by her terrible mother, to be the best at this cat show thing that like she's gonna end up having to sacrifice donut to the system essentially to keep going at the cat show circuit. Like, that's what the song communicated to me. Um, and Carl's over here like, these lyrics don't make any sense. Like, what?

SPEAKER_00

I agree. I think that the these lyrics don't make any sense are a throwback to how Carl felt about the lyrics when they happened in the real world. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Like Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Like in the context of I I do think that Carl was probably just slightly less evolved, slightly less paying attention to pre-apocalypse. Maybe so he just was like, Are they just dumb lyrics? Like, what are you doing? Um that's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_01

Like maybe this to me reminded me, and I won't so we won't spoil anything big, but in the first book of the Avatar series, there is let's just say without any context, a riddle that comes up. And the moment they say the riddle, I was like, I know the answer. And it ended up taking much longer than it should have for the person to figure out the answer. And uh that's it, it has the same flavor to me. Like, yes, and I hate to liken Dungeon Carler Carl to Avatar in any way, because although I do like the uh like the I've been seeing lots of TikToks and stuff about the pipeline from romanticity to Dungeon Carler Carl, and I'm a part of that pipeline. We literally just read Fourth Wing, so you know, guilty. Um, but it's just funny to me that it's so obvious what this is talking about.

SPEAKER_00

Carl just I think it's funny just because I don't I don't really can like I'm not the person that figures things out. I think I've gone on the record on multiple episodes where I'm just like, I'm along for the ride, I'm not trying to solve the riddles. I don't even think I tried to solve the riddles when we did Lord of the Rings. I am just here for the show. Um, and and when it came to that riddle and when it came to these lyrics, I was like, it's pretty straightforward what that's about.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, this isn't hard, guys, but okay.

SPEAKER_00

Uh so yeah, I just wanted to give a shout out to all of Donuts' hard work uh to get those shows up and running. And I think that she gave a stellar performance. Um, the enamoring of Ferdinand, uh, and the fact that she performed so well, she charmed the entire room. Um, I think Donut gets mad props for that.

SPEAKER_01

Shout out to Donut. And honestly, like, so I I confirmed this with somebody, um, well, Hot Saw Steve, actually. I confirmed this with uh Hot Saw Steve, who I still owe a button sticker to, don't I have not forgotten you. Um, but he reached out after I finished this read and he was like, Did you listen to the song at the end? And if you're not an audiobook person, apparently this does not exist in the book. But Donut, there's a segment at the end that's kind of advertising soundbooth theater, who does the audiobooks for Dungeon Colour Carl, where Donut does an improvised song, kind of like a parody to Wonderwall, and it's like fully produced. There's music, she's singing, it's so good, honestly. It's uh it's it's uh it's called Dungeon Crawl instead of Wonderwall, I think, or something like that. Um it's perfect, it's honestly hilarious. So if you haven't yet read any of the audiobooks and you're like, well, how am I gonna read them next time around? Because obviously you're gonna reread them. I this book specifically, I would highly recommend the audiobook, if not before, because the the dungeon crawl wonderwall is pretty fabulous.

SPEAKER_00

And I will say that the first time through, I did not know that that was there because I never went to the end credits. So I stayed on through the end credits this time, and I was like, that is amazing.

SPEAKER_01

The fact that you've missed the end credits, that's so yeah. I always just read the audiobooks until it's like this is audible. Like you have just now I know, yeah. So, anyways, yeah, pro tip, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so that yeah, we're everything's going and they they win, but at a heck of a cost. Um and we've talked about how many they lost, and then they get a notification that they now have a faction war team. Wow, so yeah. Um so I've made I've made it pretty clear that uh at all times through the books that I love it that Carl is fighting this war on multiple levels. Um and they leveraged the princess posse and got themselves a seat at the table for the fashion wars. And I am super excited to see what that means. Curious on your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I love it. The fact that they are lobbying to make it so that people can die on the ninth floor, perfection. Um, it's it's literally just putting a microscope to what's going on in the dungeon, right? Because people don't believe crawlers are human or you know, they see them as subhuman, they don't see them as valid, like worthy of protection, um, like a normal being should have. But it's kind of just like, okay, well, what is it about us that that makes us different? Is it because we're on this conquered planet? Is it because we're in the dungeon? Because there are other people in the dungeon, right? Somehow they deserve protection when we don't. It it just like it raises so many questions. And Carl is again making them think about those questions harder than they've ever thought about them before. Maybe,

Performances, Lyrics, And Audiobook Bonus

SPEAKER_01

I assume. Um, and I'm just digging it. I love, I love it. I'm so excited to see how that plays out. And the fact that Princess Donadia, or sorry, Empress Donadia also has a faction is interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, and then Empress Donadia's throwaway comment to Signet that Signet shares with Carl that you know it's a shame because she really wanted you to survive long enough to to face you in the faction wars. And it's just a really messed up perspective.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

To to feel fondness for characters, even if you de-humanize them. I I really like this character and I can't wait to kill them myself. Like that's just weird.

SPEAKER_01

It's weird. It's it's because they don't they see them as subhuman. It's you know, it's just it's messed up. Just messed up.

SPEAKER_00

So Rebellion Carl is in full effect, and you know, he talks until Zeb tells him, Good job, they blacked it out. Now they're just watching two crawlers in the brambles, which could free you, Carl.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I love how Zeb is Zeb is always like, chill out, Carl. You know, but she's her heart is never really in it. No, it's like you're gonna be in trouble. Yeah, okay. Like, stop talking about this, Carl. Like it's just it's funny.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and that brings us to I feel like a lot happened in the epilogue on this book. So we've got in the epilogue, we've got prepotente finds a way to skip an entire floor. An entire floor just gone. So that's the second floor that we've skipped. Crazy. Um, and then we have to find it.

SPEAKER_01

What other floor did we skip?

SPEAKER_00

We skipped floor two, I think. We went from one to three. There was another floor that we skipped. Don't make me do this. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, sorry. Okay, I forgot already.

SPEAKER_00

It had to be either two or four because it was not it was not an interval of three. Um, whoever is listening or watching, please don't think poorly of me that I can't remember which floor it was.

SPEAKER_01

No, just give me a moment. Let me let me break it down. First floor was the first the first book, right? No problem there. Second floor was the circus floor, third floor was the desert floor. No, the iron tangle. Fourth floor was the desert floor. Fifth floor was this floor. Right? Or was this the sixth floor?

SPEAKER_00

I'm having this floor.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, this was the sixth floor. So where is it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I'm I'm trying to look. We can just insert it here, like in in posts, we'll put it in on the image of which floor we skipped, because I can't find the answer, guys.

SPEAKER_01

This is critter checking in. To the extent anyone else is confused, we decided to create a breakdown of the floors. Our confusion, it turns out, was based on the fact that the first book covered both floors one and two, and floors one and two were relatively similar.

SPEAKER_00

Regardless, we know we're skipping this floor, right? So, uh, and I think that that's insane that Prepotente got it from even just him retelling the story, it was a fairy tale, and there were clues, and he just put it together. So Prepotente, on top of being, you know, I think currently the highest level crawler um and scary in his own right, um, also seems to have an incredible intellect.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, is picking up on things that are I don't know that I would have picked up on that. And and he put all the pieces together and collected all the things that he needed to shatter a level. Um, and the fact that he was talking to uh I think her name is Cressida. Yeah. Um, and she's so mad because she just like she built that floor.

SPEAKER_01

She was so excited. So excited.

SPEAKER_00

And he shattered it.

SPEAKER_01

Um and they were trying to like speed through the intro so that he couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00

You know, they're like, oh my god. Yeah. I just realized like that's why she was going so fast.

SPEAKER_01

That's why she was going so fast. Yeah, she was trying to do it before he could, she was trying to like, I guess, press the start button before he could miss out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Well, that's how much attention I pay. Like, obviously, that's why she was going so fast. But the big, the big thing from the epilogue is Ava and Katia.

SPEAKER_01

And oh my gosh. Wow. The fact that they gave her a beanie and she took it off and gave it to Carl. Rough. So rough. Like devastating. Oh man, that it's just again, because I'm possibly delusional and think it'll be fine, they'll work it out. I'm not as devastated as I'm sure she is, right? Because in her mind, one or the other is dead.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's awful.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So the crown of the sepsor is back, and we don't actually know what that's gonna look like yet. And yeah, that's that's one big um, that's one big middle finger from Ava to Katya at the very end.

SPEAKER_01

Literally, like F off Eva. God, that's so evil. Like you're going down and you're gonna, you're

Faction War Stakes Get Personal

SPEAKER_01

just taking her down with you, is essentially what you're thinking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so Eva was in fact the worst and still managed to make things worse even on her way out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not gonna say R I P. R-I-T. Rest in torture. Good riddance. Uh yeah, good riddance.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and then the other part of that, which was really kind of sad and upsetting, is Katya using the boomsticks and the way that you use it, and you're using them to escape reality. Um, yeah, it's pretty, pretty upsetting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it is. It's uh I don't know. It's it's something, but again, it'll be fine. In the end, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00

Surely it's all gonna work out.

SPEAKER_01

She's gonna quit smoking the boomsticks when she finds out she's pregnant, so we'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so critters got it all worked out, which always makes me feel so much better.

SPEAKER_01

Um okay, so before we move on, because I feel like we're getting towards the end, I had a few notes. One of them, I really appreciate Matt Dinnerman's extremely irreverent descriptions of things. So, for example, whenever they were fighting the bereft minion of the vampire hunter, something that they said was it was trying to pull me apart like a hot mozzarella stick. It gives you the exact picture that you need, but what a dumb way to say, you know, like it's just so perfectly dungeon crawler Carl, the way that it was phrased. Like, what? Um, so there was that, and then oh, okay, so the um another audiobook narrator score was Ellie. And I don't know if like he could not have known this that long ago, but the the way that Ellie got to say um 4th of July, it reminded me so much of Legally Blonde. The like, you remind me of the Fourth of July, like makes me want a hot dog, real Jennifer Jennifer uh Coolidge, yes. The way that he he the audiobook narrator did Ellie saying Fourth of July reminded me of Jennifer Coolidge in Legally Blonde, and it was so spectacular. Um, so shout out once again to him.

unknown

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, there was also one more thing. I really loved the fact that they worked up donuts spells in private, and donuts laundry day spell, which was kind of what are we gonna use this for? Is what defeated Dawada and then Cersei was killed by her own offspring. And I loved it. Yeah, poetic. I don't often get bloodthirsty, but I thought that that was grand.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, no notes on that one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So then we're gonna go into if you don't have any other favorite moments or anything that I missed, we'll go into our next round of faves.

SPEAKER_01

Good to go.

SPEAKER_00

So if you had to pick a fave mob slash fight for this half of the book, what do you what do you lean towards?

SPEAKER_01

I feel like I'm gonna I I do this differently every time. Sometimes it's like this was my favorite fight, so I'm gonna pick this person. In this case, it was the biggest omg moment, the biggest what the F moment, and that was Eva. Like Eva having like 50 player killer skulls and screwing Katya at the last second, like oh my I could not hate someone more than I hate Eva. So yeah, uh yeah, I think for me this time it's Eva.

SPEAKER_00

For me, it was her making the comments um about uh Katya's partner, and of course he wouldn't want to have kids with you. Yeah, just the evil that's you forced him away. Like of course he left you because you are the way that you are, like just such a terrible thing to say. And I I know it's I know it's sexist, but from woman to woman, for one woman to say that to another woman, how dare you? Yeah, yeah. So at any rate, um, so I I stuck with our traditional, which is they've mob routine. I always change it, and that's fine, it's our show. We can do whatever we want. Um, the odious creepers are really something else. So the idea of them picking up body parts and just perpetuating is so gross and so pretty gross, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Not a fan. Yeah, descriptive, very descriptive, super descriptive, super and shout out to the the vampire hunter, also, because like that led up to the to the um Miriam Dom scene, which was really good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and my honorable mention for Faith Baddie was Sculapendra. So we didn't fight Scholapendra, but the description of it just roiling in the background was very, again, very descriptive. So I was

Floor Skips, Eva’s Last Cruelty

SPEAKER_00

like, Skolapendra's a baddie. Yeah. Okay, so that brings us to that part of the show where we talk about who our runner-ups and MVPs are for this half of the book. And because it's the second half of the book, we'll then say who is the overall for the entire book. Okay. So, with no further ado, Critter, who is your runner-up for the second half of this book?

SPEAKER_01

It's gonna be. Oh, I'm between two people. Um it's gonna be the sledge. Picking the sledge. He was magnificent. He took out the like he infiltrated the castle, took out a lot of the mantises, um, saved the two baby bears, like activated the spell, you know, sacrificed himself kind of. It was he like gave us the incredible narration throughout the entire thing. He was spectacular. Yeah, it's the sledge.

SPEAKER_00

Sludge is an incredible choice. I actually have several runner-ups for this. I mean, fair.

SPEAKER_01

Like, honestly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so I have I still have two that I have to choose like which one I'm actually giving the role to. Um I'm giving runner-up to Signet. Okay. Uh, because without her sacrifice and her killer spell, um they would have been dead in the water. Like they never would have got out alive, I don't think, honestly. So I think Signet has to take runner up. However, I have four honorable mentions. I have Miriam because uh of her selflessness in in making sure that you know, if she goes down, then everybody else who got infected, like making it right.

SPEAKER_01

She would have been a person.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, especially from the vampirism perspective. Like she didn't want that to continue. Uh so Miriam on that front, Imani with all of her data swings, healings, and debuffs and everything. We don't see a lot from Imani because you know, she's basically a healer class. And as somebody who both plays a tank in one campaign and a healer class in another, it's really easy to be an unsung hero when you're a healer. Um, but she was very present and very effective. Um, and I also give it out to Samantha. She may be a chaos goblin, but you know, she got into that place and she got those crystals out, and she also, you know, took uh took one for the team and took on head to head with Dewadi slash Cersei.

SPEAKER_01

So or head to I don't know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we don't need to talk about that.

SPEAKER_01

No, she was hilarious. And when she was like, You believe in me? When Carl was like, I believe in you. I loved that part, it was really touching. For a Samantha scene, like, come on.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. She's not just saying, I will kill your mother. Um, and then my last honorable mention was Britney. So Britney was very uncomfortable, very unhappy, but her her use of the jacket and the patches was really important um in terms of distraction. So we had several good runner-up options, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01

We really, really did. Now I'm like, oh, maybe I should have picked Miriam for my runner-up, but that's okay. I I stand by the Sludge, he was incredible.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I Sludge was on my list, but I had a girl-powered runner-up run, so I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so then that takes us to the final MVP. So critter for this half, who is your MVP?

SPEAKER_01

I chose Signet. I think for the same reasons, yeah, that you chose Signet, um, she was instrumental, vital, absolutely required to for their success. Like, either all of them were going to die or Carl was gonna die, and neither of those, neither of those things would have been okay with me. So she saved the day by like 10 out of 10 performance by Signet.

SPEAKER_00

Nice.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. Um, for my MVP, I chose donuts. I thought of how much growth she showed with her Bardic skills. Fair enough. Um, how much work she put into that performance, how crucial that performance, those performances were in terms of misdirection.

MVPs, Next Read, And Signoff

SPEAKER_00

Um and her, you know, she worked so hard to get to a place where she could charm the whole room. So I was like, yeah, girl, get it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, that's fair. 100% fair.

SPEAKER_00

So what that means is that uh for the book, for our runner-up, we have Signet with three points. Which I feel like is good because I feel like she was really important to this book.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that means that Donut took this whole book by a landslide.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. How many points did Carl have? I'm so shocked. One.

SPEAKER_00

All three of us voted for Donut last time.

SPEAKER_01

For MVP, yeah. And then and only I gave, I assume I gave him runner up last time.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I don't. Yes, it was.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Okay, well, good job, Donut. You uh like, I mean, the shirt says it all, right? Like, she deserved it without a doubt for this book. She was the MVP. And shout out to Carl, obviously. Incredible character, always doing the most, but in this case, donut was a standout for sure. And Signet just she she made the ultimate sacrifice is kind of a hard thing to uh overlook.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay. Well. Wow. Butcher's Masquerade in the books. What a good one. Okay, so our next read is Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock. Going to be um The Eye of the Bedlam Bride. Is that what it's called? Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Six. Um, the episode is going to drop on July 7th, and we'll be reading part one, which is chapters one through 37. So if you want to keep up with the podcast, in two weeks, have read through chapter 37 of the sixth dungeon crawler Carl book. Alrighty. New achievement! You skipped a level! Whoopee! You think that makes you cool or something? Reward? You go straight to level eight. Don't you feel lucky? I'm sure it'll be way better than level seven would be. Bye!

SPEAKER_02

Bye

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Jessica

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Kritter XD

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