Season 7 Episode 14 DCC Book 7 This Inevitable Ruin: Chapters 44 to End!

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 7, This Inevitable Ruin, Chapters 44-end, with Jessica as the vet, Kritter as the first timer, and DCC and WoT fan Silver Tooth (Robbie) as our special guest!

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:19

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. I'm your host, Critter, and I'm your host Jess. And welcome to season seven, episode 14.

Welcome Back And Meet Robbie

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Can you believe it? Of But Are There Dragons. And we are blazing our way through Dungeon Crawler Carl. And we are here to talk about the second half of book seven, This Inevitable Ruin. And we have with us a very good friend who is Robbie, aka Silvertooth. We have found him and adore him through our Wheel of Time connection, but he is also a big DCC fan. So we thought he'd be a great addition. Robbie, thank you for joining us. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Great. Of course. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Yes. So as we've done for every other guest, I'm just going to ask you a few simple questions about how you got here and your relationship with DCC. And then we're going to get right into it because there's so much happened in this half. We got a lot to do. So generally, Robbie, I like to ask folks how were you introduced? How many times have you read it? And what is your preferred medium of consumption? However, you'd like to answer those.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So I was introduced uh basically through Brian McGleeman in uh Discord channels. Um specifically the likes work Discord channel. Um we talk about books all the time in there. Brian was raving about this series. Um a bunch of us, you know, gave it a shot, whatever. And I will say it initially, it didn't grab me right away. Um, at least book one. Like as I got through it, okay. Yes, this is good, and then the books got better and better to me. Um but either way, yeah, once I once it caught me, like I was I was hooked. I I read them pretty quickly from there. Um, how many times have I read them? I have read um the first seven books twice. Uh I read book eight once. I have not read reread book eight yet. Um and then my preferred medium, I started it um on Kindle, um, and then eventually decided I prefer um audiobook anyway. Um, but I was kind of being cheap. It was on Kindle Unlimited, and I was just going that way. Um, and then I broke down and uh got like book five or something on an audiobook. That's a good one. Yeah, I proceeded to go back and get all of them through audiobooks, so that was my re my re-listen was uh all audiobooks, but amazing. Yeah, because Jeff Hayes is incredible, the best sound yeah, soundbook theaters, like just in general, like the production of those audiobooks are phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

And no spoilers, but there is a scene in book eight

How The Audiobooks Hooked Us

SPEAKER_00 3:27

that is just probably one of the like best audiobook scenes I've ever listened to.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

That's what I hear. Is it in chapter 57? Because that's the word on the street, or you know, chapter 57 is the best chapter I've ever read, uh blah blah blah. So yeah, we'll we'll get there. We're so close.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Yeah, like tonight. I think I probably won't go to bed, but anyways, I digress. We're both very much chopping at the bit to start book eight, and both of us, because we're good doobies, have waited until recording, and now we finally get to read book eight. But anyways, let's talk about the back half of this book because Nelly, we had a lot of stuff happen. Yeah. Um, so we had talked a little bit about in the last half, I think it was the last half, where we had the AI um as Growler Gary talking about his new girlfriend and her old boyfriend, and that whole scene, I think is the safest word. And so um, I saw some threads of that come up here. We find out who the eulogist is, and I just didn't know Critter, because you and I both tend to read fast, and sometimes we catch different things. So, did you catch any of that? There were some details about that as we started on the second half. I didn't know if you caught them.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Oh gosh. The oh that yes, that's the the central um systems AI. Okay, yes. Yeah, yes, yes. I read that so every time I do this, I read the passage, I read it twice. I read it right whenever I get to read it right after we do a recording, and then I read it right before we do our recording for that particular passage. Definitely didn't catch it on the first time. Honestly, most of this book I I must not have retained because the second time I read it, I was like, oh, I wonder how this is gonna pan out.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

And honestly, same, honestly same. So you figure, I don't remember when I it must have been between six months to a year ago that I read this book.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Um, and I told Mr. Jessica, I don't know how many times, that it's like a brand I know that I loved it. I know that I devoured it. There's so much stuff that I'm like, oh, I don't remember. I didn't know that was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Yeah, it was a difference of a week for me. And I think it's the nature of this book, and that for me and you both, it's like so much of this book is just action, battle, action, battle, action, battle. And it is punctuated by it is punctuated by plot development and like real emotional moments or whatever, but a lot of it is action, battle, action, battle. And that stuff for me, I kind of just like you know, I'm I'm experiencing it, but I'm not internalizing it.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

And so it took me two times through to really and if they if they intersperse their lore in between their sometimes you miss it, battle stuff, and I'm like, oh wait, that mattered. Hold on. Yeah, yeah. Um, Robbie, did you enjoy it on reread? How long do you have any idea how long between first and second read for this book?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Uh I'm not positive. So I know I read I read the first seven books, and then I I couldn't tell you how long it was before book eight came out that I was like, I'm gonna do a full reread. Um, so I don't know the the time frame of it, but I'll say even just it was really awkward to read the second half of this book, which is what I ended up doing because I wanted to make sure I got all of the material uh before coming on. But even that being my third listen or read, whatever, of the second half of this book, it was the same thing. I was still like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Oh my gosh. Wow. So I I took a lot of notes this time, and who knows whether we'll use them all, but there are a lot of notes. So I wanted to kick off with eulogists, because I know that last time we talked about it, we were we don't know who the eulogist is, and we didn't know who the we we kind of figured out who the girlfriend was, but we didn't know who the old boyfriend was. So I just

Eulogist Revealed And Club Vanquisher

SPEAKER_04 7:22

wanted to connect that dot as a throwback to I think it was last episode. Yeah. Um and so we had a little bit of that beginning, and then we start off with a pretty serious fight in Club Vanquisher.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Yeah. So we got more gods mucking up the works. Uh lots of lots of gods, lots of fun stuff. Turns out prepotente was murdering a bunch of nagas all over the place. So there's nowhere near as many naga left as we feared. So there's that.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

I have to say that prepotente and Carl's interactions are some of my favorite parts of the book.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

I love you.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

So, okay, we're gonna go out of order because nobody should expect us to go in order. I that happened in audiobook when Mr. Jessica and I were, I think, driving to his parents or something. And I stopped and we had like a full-blown 20-minute conversation about how as much as Prepa Tente really like grates on my nerves in a lot of ways, that scene just kind of brought it home for me how important Carl is for Prepatente's emotional well-being, um, and how isolated he must feel. And um for him to attach to Carl so strongly shows a vacuum, right? An emotional vacuum that he needed to fill. And that um, even though it's awkward and funny uh and entertaining, at the same time, it's endearing and um makes him better to have somebody to care about because the alternative is he no longer has any connection. Um, and with all the power that he carries, that's kind of terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Well, and I think you kind of see that with another character in this half of the book is that uh Lina loses her brother and goes off the rails. Yeah. So Prepitante definitely had the like opportunity to go that same route.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

So I mean, she's definitely very scary, but she hasn't done anything malicious yet, unless I'm forgetting.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

No, but she's so inscrutable, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

So I mean, yeah, she's sociopath for sure.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Like that's what's before Lee June is gone, we see her go through that leveling up scene. And I had that in my notes. Like, we went through an entire portion of each book where Carl and Donut are talking about the grinding that they're doing to work up their levels. However, when Lena was doing it in the moment, it sounded completely novel and new. Like, holy smoke, she's got all these skills that she hasn't been able to work, and now she can. Um, which just to me struck me as kind of funny because Carl and Donut did it every book leading up to this. The only reason this is different is because she's prioritizing what she needs and didn't run it by Carl or anything, um, and continued to work on her skills, regardless of the fact that Carl was kind of uh objecting.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Uh like a little, yeah, he was freaked out by it, but I mean, I gotta respect it because like her doing that was part of the plan, right? She was gonna do her version of Stop Hitting Yourself to get things worked up. So she was helping them the whole way. And I do have to circle back to Prepotente, just because even though that scene was really like, oh, he really does like him. And it made me think like they'll figure it out with this with this, not the soul crystal. What's the crystal that uh he has that Carl needs?

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Um, yeah, the pedo crystal.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Whatever, yeah. So the I have a feeling like that feels like it's gonna work out because somehow, because they are in a really good relationship with each other. But the thing that killed me was after Carl came back, or no, after yeah, after Carl came back from being like under or whatever, did did this happen, this read, um, Prepotente's reaction to the fact that Carl had this whole big plan with the um oh my gosh, the snakes. What I cannot think of anything. Naga. Naga. Yeah, he's like the the the paragraph long text that he sends him, like, I spit on you, I spit on your mother, whatever. It's not that, but like essentially what he was saying. It was the in audiobook form, especially, it was hysterical. Just especially because I listen to audiobooks in like 1.5 times speed, and prepotente was getting faster and faster as it was going along in that extra fast speed. I don't know, it was delightful. I'm I used to be more annoyed with preputente, but now he's just kind of a fun, a super fun addition.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Yeah. And he finally joins the Princess Posse, which is kind of wild, but it actually happens. Uh yeah. I definitely spent quite a bit of time wondering if he was ever gonna actually go through with it. Um, so we get through to Club Vanquisher with uh god interactions and crazy stuff happening, and um the big thing for that was it just flew right out of my head.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Okay, let me just interrupt because this thing, yeah, the what a nightmare. Like, I'm gonna go hide from the world in a room filled with bugs. Past. Never ending bugs, never ending bugs,

Gross Gods Bugs And Ignoble Deaths

SPEAKER_02 12:38

like on food.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

It's a feast, yeah, covered in bugs. No, I I struggled. Um, I struggled reading that.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Like are you not a bug? Are you anti-bugs strongly?

SPEAKER_04 12:50

Especially if they're on food, it's a real um, it was a whole thing where I was like, okay, I'm done with that description. We can just move on.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Matt Dennement is descriptive when it comes to things that are gross.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

He finds he finds ways to really get his point across.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

Um, but yeah, I I know what I was gonna say now. Uh so not to not to belittle the club vanquisher fight or the Naga fight, but we had so many more to go to. I think the big takeaway for me with the Naga fight was all the work that Prepotente had done leading up to it. And then ultimately, it was a slug of load that kills the princess.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, that was pretty great.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

So we had a couple of uh ignoble deaths, and I think that this was great. Uh, the other one that comes to mind is Stalwart meets with an untimely end as well, and that was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Remind me how he died.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

Just blew up explosion. Okay, I love that. Love that. Yeah. So uh a little bit to me, at least, uh pretty good payoff in terms of some really hyped up um adversaries and vanquished.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Well, and not to mention the very, very end where there were a couple more, right? Because um Rend took out the dog, right? So Mongo got the protect Mongo. Rend got the second dog, which was pretty. He just like shows like mid of it, and then he just takes out half the dog, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

Rend is a little disconcerting.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Rend is a little weird, it's a little upset, like just kind of extremely intimidating. And then Mongo just unceremoniously finishes off the guy who was inside Louie, so there were a lot of just like bye, like deuces. Fantastic. Yeah, which I appreciated.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

Considering we had a lot of major adversaries that got the axe, this book. So it it he he killed them all off in interesting ways, yeah. Um so Robbie, I'll go to you. Um, generally speaking, how do you feel about Samantha? She she had some important stuff happen to her in this book, but I don't know that you and I have ever talked about it. So I'm

Samantha And Juice Box Get Deeper

SPEAKER_04 15:15

curious. Some people seem to love her, some people seem to hate her. What's your take on Samantha?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I I love her as just kind of like a side character, you know what I mean? Like she provides comedy. Um, I think obviously you're getting more and more depth to her as the series goes on. Um, but even once you get that depth, she does something ridiculous and you know talks about how she killed Embers' Sonic. So exactly. So like it's one of those, like you know, she's she has really funny moments. Um, so I think it's a great addition, but like I she's not gonna make like even of the top ten actual like favorite characters for me. But at the same time, like I don't dislike her in any way. I I love moments with her, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Yeah, there's a there's a whole host of characters for her to battle against. So but yeah, that that moment specifically, and just Carl's exasperation in the moment, like I cannot believe you just said that out loud. That out loud.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Although she's like her and juice box both are raising some major, major question marks. Like so they're pretty opaque. Scavenger is who is juice box? You know what I mean? It's like there's a lot like juice box is going to be the world ender. Like what? Like, what are we talking about here? You know, I'm I am intrigued by those two characters. And Samantha went from somebody that I was like, uh, I hope honestly, you know, don't tell hot sauce Steve. But I was like, I hope she doesn't last very long because she's really kind of annoying. And now I'm at the point where she cracks me up. And like she is kind of like uh she keeps a plot moving, right? She's the one who essentially summoned Empress. And then once she did it, she took one for the team and just let herself get yeeted over to him. And her running dialogue of how he was behaving with her, like he's just crying. Like all of it was just like killing me. I don't know. She's she's uh she would probably make my top 10 favorite characters in this. I don't know where she would fall. You know, there's several above. I'd have to really think about it. But I think she's she's in the I've never done a top 10. I know, right, yeah. Now I want to. Now I want to, but yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Uh yeah, so and I have all of that as well. Um, and the other thing I was reminded um that she was a demigod, you know what I mean? Like we all have kind of just taken it for granted, and I think that was partly intentional, that we kind of nothing Samantha, but we don't really know what's happening under the surface of that sex doll head, right? Because she's she does some pretty OP stuff. So we talk about you mentioned her being summoned or chucked to see Embrace. She also led Yurillo around, who is another god, and she held her own with Embrace for 10 minutes to buy them time. Yeah, she is not insignificant, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

No, I mean, viol, like she's the one that got him through the the door into the temple, like vital to the knock-a-plot. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

So yeah, she's a good time. Uh, I'm gonna jump on the juice box bandwagon though, because she's my next bullet and you kind of brought it up. But juice box is going through some changes. Um, and I for one really loved the reveal of her plans for the NPC team and how they were going to ensure their safety by um copying as many gods and or those special guards as they could to protect their own, and thought that was pretty brilliant. Um yeah, and who knows how long she's been going on that, but for a character who was not self-aware at the beginning of the system uh series to now just all of a sudden and and rightfully leading her people and pretty OP. Like she's pretty she's she's gearing up to be something else. So the way that the her story at the end is that she's going to be quote unquote reborn from the nothing.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Can't wait to see what that means.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah, what? I don't know. At the beginning of this book, I was kind of like put off by her because she was all over Louis and I could tell that Louis was not into it, right? And it just felt like, oh, this feels so bad. And my official prediction was that because there was that delay between their initial wedding and their finalization of their, you know, nuptials, I thought she's gonna die because like they're not gonna Matt Denim is not gonna make Louis marry somebody that he's not in love with, right? He's just not, and I didn't think he was gonna kill Louis either. In that way, I was right. But instead of it being this final moment for Juice Box, she instead turned into a wraith, was able to read Louie's mind, and respectfully backed off, which to me was like so much better of a resolution than being like, oh, the love interest just has to die, right? Because juice box is so fascinating. And now she's just only getting more fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

Yeah, it was definitely more of a heartbreak to do it that way. Um and a little bit it felt truer to what you would expect their motivations to be.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So unless it was really like yeah, just yeah, way less of a cop out.

SPEAKER_04 20:49

No, no plot armor, no plot armor, no, you know, well, obviously now he's gonna die. No, none of that. Something he handled it in a different way. So that was great. Um, so then we go. Uh let's talk about Critter's favorite character, donut, going full sniper in a tower.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

How many times do I have to tell you that Carl's my favorite character? Are you just like jabbing me at this point?

Donut’s Sniper Tower And Atrocities

SPEAKER_02 21:18

I'm totally jabbing you. But don't get me wrong, like while Carl is my favorite character, I am Donut. So like I get, you know, like I see, I see where I see where that can be confusing.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

So Donut in a sniper tower was everything. I don't know, agree or disagree, but that's that's how I felt. Like I know why Carl put her up there for himself, but he was incredible up there, and she had to make some really, really hard calls.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

That and like Carl's like constant, is she safe? Is she safe? Is she safe? You know, like constantly worried about her. And like her just kind of being like, you know, I've got this, do your job, you know, was just kind of like the growth of that, you know, of eventually, you know. In the end, she's stronger than him by the end by the end of the book. So it's just one of those like or this book anyway. Um so it's just it's interesting. Like, yes, everything she did was really cool, but I just I thought that part of it was just really interesting. But you know, everybody telling Carl to do, you know, hey, focus on yourself, stop worrying about us. But like especially with Dona.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

Another thing that I liked about this part, uh, like feels like a strong word. Uh, but again, Deniman really delivers, in my opinion, because he, you know, tongue-in-cheek calls them atrocities, one atrocity, two atrocity, three atrocity, but then goes into detail and lets us really see that that really affects her in a way that is relatable, because you would hope that any creature with any kind of sense of morality, I don't morality feels like the wrong word, but any creature with a sense of self and sentience would feel bad about what happened with that last atrocity, if nothing else. Um, and we see her experience that.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

I have to chime in just to once again toot the horn of Matt Deniman and and Jeff Hayes, because as the resident gamer between the two of us, um, the way that they did the uh Princess Donut has committed or Warlord Donut has committed an atrocity. It reminded me so much of like I'm sure more games than this, but like in League of Legends or um Dota, these like one of the MMORPGs, what are they called? I can't remember what they call it. They're like um basically it's like five on five, where there's five heroes versus five heroes, you're going down lanes and you're all different, you all have different like magical abilities, whatever, it doesn't matter. What you're trying to do is take the other person's base and and in the process, you're trying to level up and kill the bad the other team, uh players of the other team. And so if you get um multiple kills, the AI in in the League of Legends will be like double kill, kill tacular, and then eventually I think if you get five kills, it's like godlike. And it's just like it just in the audiobook, it just reminded me of took me way back to college when I was playing League of Legends um and hearing that like in my ear.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

So it was the only frame of reference I have is Mortal Kombat. Finish it.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

There you go, finish it.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

Literally the only one I know.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

That's fair, that's fair. Yeah, it definitely reminded me of League of Legends or Dota, or when I think it's I think it's League of Legends, but um I loved Donut in the Tower and the way things just kept getting crazier, you know, the ball of swine, but like the ball of people and gods. Are you kidding me? It's like every time something came up and they were like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? This is an impossible situation. Donuts like actually like brilliantly comes up with something and just handles it. She just handles it, she makes it happen, like absolute, like legend this time. I don't know, but yeah, she uh she impressed the hell out of me.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

She had the fallout, right? Like we got to see her question her choices.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Um, I also love this is a real throwaway thing, but I also love the unspoken agreement that nobody's ever gonna tell her they remember anything from being in the ball. But the one concerned, it's like, are you sure I need I just felt like oh, she's so it's just the fact that they knew that they couldn't tell her, the fact that they all just implicitly agreed to nope, she doesn't need to know anything.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

So that was crazy. And we see Lucy Amar come back, and Lucia Marr's reveal is one of the very specific moments in this reread where I looked at my husband and said, I don't remember any of this.

Lucia Mar And The Children Twist

SPEAKER_02 26:10

It just happens in the middle of the action, all of a sudden, right? And it's so brief.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

So I remember Lucy Amar showing up, and I kind of remembered how Carl was going to deal with her in the moment as it was happening, which is so on brand for me. But then the connection to the children, I did remember her connection to the children. I did not remember that it was all of the remaining children of Earth. So I really don't know how my brain It's not all of them.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

It's not all of them, it's all of them that tried to go into the dungeon, which is like 200,000 or something.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

120,000. 120,000.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Right, right. So it's like, yeah, it's the ones that try to go into the dungeon. So technically there are others um that didn't try to go into the dungeon that remained on the surface, but it's a lot, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 26:59

Yeah, it's a lot more than I realized because I thought it was like a dozen kids.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Oh, well, that's the way they made it seem last book. Like, oh yeah, she's got some kids in there, not hashtag all the kids, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Right. And it's like to reveal that, you know, Carl basically almost killed them all. Like Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

Yeah. Throw back to book one. There sure were a lot of kids in there.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Carl's almost offed a lot of people a couple of times in the last couple of books. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:36

And it's hard with Lucy Amher because we had talked about it previously in previous episodes, where pretty sure that Carl had come to terms with the fact that you know she's a danger to all of the remaining crawlers. And so she's just gotta go. So I feel like he had really gotten right with he was gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

Yeah. But I maintain Carl's not gonna get a player killer skull. That's my that's my I've I've had that prediction since the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Right, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

It feels like it's not a Carl thing. That's that feels like him. He's just not gonna I yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

That's what I think. Yeah. So then I've got, you know, Stalwart just explodes, which is amazing. We have Lee June dies protecting Donut, which is terrible.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Protecting Donut, but like I I worry that Lee Nah is gonna blame Donut when like Lee June didn't do it to protect Donut. He did it to protect everyone that Donut was protecting, right? Well, donut plus, basically. There were like a ton of people that were relying on Donuts protection, and that's what he did. So I'm just yeah, I'm worried that Lee Na is gonna be a problem in the future blaming Carl and Donut. Because she also made a comment like something about Carl's chaos or something later towards the end of the book, and I was just like, okay, but most of this stuff is like Carl's plan, and it's it's saving a lot of people. So maybe we should give him a little more credit and make it sound like less of a bad thing. I don't know. Um, so that's it's complicated, sad, sad, but complicated.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

Yeah. And I do feel like Lena is the only character that we've never really gotten a read on how she feels about Carl. Do you know what I mean? Like it's always they've maintained distance between those characters, and I feel like that distance is really evident in the space after Li June's death.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Well, even at the when was it? The Iron Tangle? Sometime. So like Carl saves Li June, Lena, and uh the third one.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Zhang.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Zhang, yeah. Um, he saves him. I think it was in book one, whatever, whenever he goes on that show and right, like he helps them. And so, like, if I were Lee Na, even if I didn't love Carl, I'd have this like, oh, I owe him. But then they met in person during the Iron Tangle, I think it was. And I remember Carl's inner mo dialogue being like, it's a good thing we're not on the same team because she's got strong opinions, right? And it's kind of like we both have strong opinions, we might butt heads a little bit. Um, and that's kind of the foundation of like Carl saved her, they don't necessarily get along great. And here we are now, after all of that, and the history is just complex.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

And I think it's good as a foil to everybody else, for the most part, seems to fall into line to Carl's plan and Carl's leadership. And yeah, you know, I wouldn't say that they fawn over him by any means, but everybody else is kind of you know pulling in the same direction, and they've always kind of maintained some distance.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yeah, I think most of the other characters recognize that you know, Carl's gotten them through a lot of this, especially as a group, right? Like there's no way without Carl's plans that as many of them survive as as do um. But yeah, I don't think that Lee Noss sees it that way.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

Yeah, and I think that over the last couple of books specifically, it's just gotten that much. So we definitely saw in the first few books commentary about how they were being edited on the show. So when they were watching the recap, what their perceptions were of each other, right? And the prevailing perception of Carl as being a loose canon maniac. Um, but over the last couple of floors, especially, he's really ramped up the efforts to save as many crawlers as possible and the NPCs, and left with that in the face of all that evidence, there the rest of the crawlers are now getting like this isn't a show, this isn't a ploy, like this this guy is really walking the walk and trying to save as many of us as possible.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

So um, so we talked about the appearance of Lucy Amar and then getting yoinked, right, to go stand in front of the faction council, which is uh a little inconvenient. Um but then we have right after that. Oh, so we have the emergence of the war mage faction, and all of a sudden, Agatha is co-warlord with the war mages.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

That was so random. I guess the only reason it showed, like the in my mind, like the only reason that happened is because they wanted to raise the stakes even higher. Because the the action items that they proposed, and I guess maybe put more of a spotlight on Agatha, but to me that felt like, oh my gosh, there's so much going on. Like, why do we also have to have these war mages just like show up just for a second? Kind of like it was so random.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yeah, even at a reread, I felt that way, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, just okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

Like we already have an NPC team. Although for me, at least, I was like, it did at least raise the question of if we have NPCs that don't want to be part of team retribution, which this faction does not appear to want to be, um, what does that mean? Especially once they up the ante. And now if your team doesn't win, everybody on your team dies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Well, and clearly they had their own motivations, they leave early, you know, whatever else. But yeah, and I would I would say that's probably set up right, but like it's still in the moment, it feels like. But why?

SPEAKER_02 33:34

At this point, why?

SPEAKER_04 33:36

Yeah. And Agatha of all creatures actively participating in faction war, like actively getting on an NPC team to what end? So with what we learned about the eulogist and Agatha, I'm still not clear on what Agatha's motives are, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Like to the end of everything, apparently.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

So yeah, it's just it was a weird little sequetour in there.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Yeah. And everyone kept wondering how she got to be co-warlord. And in my mind, it was like, well, it's because she's the AI's girlfriend. I think that's the only explanation, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Wild. So then we go into some more fun stuff. So we have a Pitamy Tag and a dragon.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

So there was a dragon. Hey, welcome back to dragon.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

Yay!

SPEAKER_02 34:34

I mean, there's a lot of things. There already was one this book, but I

Dragon Sightings And Dropping The Ring

SPEAKER_02 34:38

love multiple. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Any dragon amount, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:43

Um, so and we see uh we see Carl voluntarily give up the ring of suffering. And I know, Critter, that we had talked about this ring uh last book and how we thought that it was coloring his reactions. And were you surprised that he voluntarily let it go?

SPEAKER_02 35:06

I think given I think it really helped that Lena had one and he could see, like, not he didn't have to look internally, he didn't have to, you know, consider what it was doing to himself, he could see what it was doing to somebody else. And at that point, it became clear that it was indeed a problem. So I was not surprised after Lena got the ring and went ham with it that he ended up making the decision that he made. Because leveling as for Carl has become not the most important thing. It's it's the people around him that are the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

And I think there was the setup for it. I mean, obviously, donuts have been like pleading with him to get rid of it. So throw the Lena on top of it. I think it made sense.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Yeah, it was time.

SPEAKER_04 35:53

It was good to see him do that because we do love Carl and we want him to do things that don't turn him shadier.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:01

Um so we're gonna pivot to Donut for just a second. Uh we see Katia. So the fitness hit the shan because Samantha said she was part of Guerin's death, right? And Embrace shows up, and then all of a sudden we're dealing with a 66

Katia’s Clock And Laundry Day Payoff

SPEAKER_04 36:20

minute clock that nobody expected. And one of the first things Carl does is start shouting at Katia, we need to hurry up, we need to get you started, uh, because it's an hour of stasis or however you choose to frame it. Um, and so nobody really gets to say goodbye to Katya because it's so fast in that moment. Uh, but then we get through that hour and we see the god take possession of Katia or the god show up, and we finally see donuts laundry day spell spell do something impressive.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

I loved this, I loved this. Silvertooth, how did you feel about it?

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Oh, it was perfect. Like it one of those things that needed to happen, and the setup was great for it. And then Mordecai coming in to just be like, you know, this bolt was made with the ashes of my mother, like she'll have she gets to be part of avenging her son, like perfect.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go ahead and spoilers this because it's we're talking about it, but this is my choice for the best um the best mob or whatever. This is the best fight for me. It was the most satisfying. Yeah, because we had the it wasn't the beginning of this book, was it? Was it the beginning of the last book? Whenever we found out what happened with the Mordecai's crew. Um beginning of the last book. That sounds right. So yeah, we like Juan Jean Jinx has been on in my sights, right? We want to like what's gonna happen with her. She hates uh oh my gosh, Audette, right? So she's she's a threat to Audette. Mordecai hates her. Um, she's trying to manipulate Katya. All of this stuff has me hating her. And so donut getting to just absolutely wreck her and then do the intimidation thing on her and the description of her just slinking around doing this monologue. Stop it. It was so just unbelievably satisfying. I I loved this part.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

Absolutely. Yeah, I when she was like, you know, more there's somebody here that wants to see you. I'm like, oh god, perfection. Oh yes, that's yeah. Um, I'm gonna kick it to you, Rob. Uh so as we get through that, we see that what choice Katya makes. And I'm just curious, um, what were you what did you think she was gonna choose? And if this wasn't what you thought you she would choose, how did you feel about it?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

I I don't remember on my first read what my thoughts were, to be honest with you. Um, I think on a reread, it was kind of it seemed pretty obvious to me because she alludes to, you know, this is my decision, you know, when her and Carl are talking about it. She alludes to um, with everything we know now, how could I choose something different? So um it seems obvious, at least on a reread, but I don't remember what my initial thoughts were on the first read.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

That's fair. I don't either. However, on reread, I didn't remember which one she picked. So it was like it was a new decision.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

I uh I will say that it was an incorrect prediction, but earlier or many, many books ago, I predicted that Katya had gotten pregnant by Batista. Um, and so this does feel like ultimately what was going to happen. It felt like exactly, you know, we're not gonna be able to follow Katya during the ascendancy wars on, you know, like but but there are children on the surface, and that just felt like such a natural thing for her to be doing. Can we take a second also to talk about finally getting the full story of Katya's flashback? Because that is the closest I have come in Dungeon Crawler Carl to crying. I have not yet, I still haven't done it, and I don't know what's wrong with me, but that was close. It was really, really close when she was talking about how it was like the her favorite memory because in that moment the the baby knew that she loved her and stuff. Like, stop. It was yeah, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

Yep. Uh no shame in my game. I absolutely frequently cried. Yeah, but I've cried half a dozen times already, so it's not a big deal. Um, yeah, I had forgotten that she chose pregnancy. Uh, I had forgotten about the linkage to the children, and you know, that absolutely resonated. Uh, and I had forgotten that it was Louie that she ultimately picked.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

And why can it not be Carl? Because he's not a human. Human. Okay, that that was bothering me. So now that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Okay. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:09

So we're getting there, we're down to some of the last uh conflicts. So we've gotten through that, and we've gotten through Kathy's choice, we've gotten through Juan Ching Jinx getting killed, and Justice Light gets the Gate of the Feral Gods, and he's

Faction Wars Win And Wild Epilogue

SPEAKER_04 41:27

going to play their swan song off. We've got Sledgy who casts Zuzura, which will get the other team retribution, and any other NPCs in Shantytown and Laracos up to the next level, and they do it. The Princess Posse officially wins the faction wars, which is amazing. Uh, we see Lee Na max out her stats, and we see Donut take the lead as the highest level crawler in the history of the crawl. Pretty insane. Um, and yeah, I think that that was a hell of a way to end the floor. I'm we talked about your favorite fight. Are there any other high-level like moments that you really love that I forgot? Because we know I forget them.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

So the Wanjin jinx fight was my favorite just because it was ungodly satisfying. But I think my like second favorite just for how brutal it was, how atrocious it was, was the cat's paw. That was so easy to visualize, which I hate, but like a giant ball of people, a giant cat's paw, and some and some spider web wire. Just you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

As soon as the the links started going across, I was like, oh no.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

I was not ready. I I did not know what was happening, and and then it happened, and I was just like, oh, oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

It had like this really horrific uh premonition of are you making chicken salad? Which is really gross to say, but that's what my oh my god. I really yeah, that was what my really whacked out brain went, oh my god, no.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

And as soon as they said cat's palm, like I didn't pick, yeah, I just pictured them hitting the ball. I did not picture the wire, like, nope, yep, that was crazy, that was wild. It was something else.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

We did not talk about the mango's babies.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Oh Kiki gave birth. Kiwi. Kiwi.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Yeah, Kiki.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

Kiki gave birth to two darling specimens.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Legendary creatures that are too smart to be pets. So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

I'm interested to see where that goes, if it goes anywhere. You you you would think there'd have to be a payoff to it, but

SPEAKER_02 44:14

There's gotta be. He does a really good job giving giving lots of characters really satisfying moments. I mean, think about the Rend and Mongo victories in this one. You know, there's gotta there's gonna be. There's gotta be something.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

I think Ren's awkward laugh is my most favorite disturbing sound.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

So I actually I put in my notes, I made like a throwaway scene, right? Basically, I don't even remember. I think it's I wanna say it's when uh the castle blows up from all the dog dog explosions. Either way, um Carl is just like laying on the ground. It might have been a different moment than that, but either way, Carl's laying on the ground, like basically thrown it on his side, and then Ren just like lays next to him and giggles. Like you know, he's so little like I was laughing because it's like this is I don't know. I could just picture it and it was funny. An audiobook is even better. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 45:13

Yeah, it's that TikTok trend of when you're doing a task that requires zero dogs, but you have a dog, and it's that energy.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yeah, I'm I'm a fan of Rend. That's another one that I'm like, oh, this isn't gonna last, right? Because like, how do you add another? It's like it's the thing that Donut said where it's like you add a late a character late in the game, like in Gilmore Girls. Whenever you add, oh, I can't remember her name even, but exactly. It's exactly the point. No, no, no. It's um, it's the it's the girl from college that gets, you know, she becomes literally said the only Gilmore girl name I know.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Oh, the funny thing is, my wife and daughter were watching Gilmore Girls earlier today. But I have not watched enough of it to know any characters other than the main ones.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Well, the person that Donut mentioned is somebody who gets introduced late in the series and becomes like kind of a main character late in the series, and so that's the same thing where she's like, You can't do that. And I think she was saying that about Rend, maybe. And so now I'm like, that's that was kind of my expectation. Like, oh yeah, this is not gonna last long. He's a meatball, like, come on, and then that was my thing.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

How do you give a meatball dimension?

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah, but now he's just this cute little puppy, honestly, and and I'm not mad about it. He's just yeah, I'm into him.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

So yeah, you mentioned the castle blowing up. We skipped the exploding dogs, we skipped the lava flow and the dwarves setting them off. We skipped a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Um like action. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

There's definitely a trend of the stuff that I skip over.

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

Um Robbie, did you have other things in your note that you wanted to touch on or that we didn't talk about?

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Not particularly. I think I liked the moments with milk. Um the first one when Carl first um meets milk, if you will. Um, I love that moment just because he's like he just went through this traumatic thing and seeing somebody from the cookbook that he didn't expect to see, you know, was like kind of like like they hug and like you know. I like that moment. Um, and then I liked the moment at the end when Milk um they finally use the book of Voodoo correctly.

SPEAKER_04 47:22

The book, yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Um, like everybody's like, you know, thinking Carl and Donut. So I like those moments, but no, I think we pretty much touched on the main event.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

Yes, so that's that's a great callback. So yeah, Milk, uh when he when he met Milk, I cried again, so whatever. But then when we did the cookbook, uh yeah, I was like, that's an incredible it was an incredibly touching scene, but it's also now it's an incredible weapon, right? Like who knows what went into that bag of goodies, and it gives me hope because it really makes me feel like without any context on how other seasons went or other crawls went, it feels like Carl and their team have a lot of stuff in their toolbox to potentially help them actually survive all this.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

And the whole time the AI being like, I can't give you any more hints about this. Like, but worth they you'll use the book the right way. Use this the right way.

SPEAKER_04 48:25

Um, so then we go into the epilogue where we have Porthos on behalf of the open pacifist network essentially declaring war on the syndicate, which is awesome. Uh, because earlier we saw an interlude where we get confirmation with a conversation between Rosetta and Baroness Victory that that money was used to obtain ships to get everybody's family that was related to crawlers that came back and stuff away so that they could be safe, so that they could in fact declare war, um, which is crazy. Uh but also gives a lot of hope. And then the last part of the epilogue is pretty wild because we meet, uh we meet up with Quasar, we hear the ridiculously subpar offers that they make Carl, but then we get one more throwback, which is that Donut has a new employer, and it also happens to be Carl's wife. Also, what yeah, I and that is the fifth and final big reveal in this book that I had no memory of whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

I missed it the first time a week ago. Caught it this time though.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

So because I've read book eight, it I think I it's not something I could have forgotten, I guess, is the way to put that so that's where it comes up. But um, yeah, I the the initial was like, what? Like, how, where does this go?

SPEAKER_02 50:00

Like, yeah, doesn't he have to consent? Like, number one, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 50:05

He's a crawler, does he? Like, does he does he have autonomy? Does he have rights?

SPEAKER_02 50:11

But then part of me is like, okay, what other situation do we know of where it reminded me of the fact that Carl probably has pending litigation outside the dungeon and that Audette had pending litigation outside the dungeon, and the way that she got out of it was she married somebody who bought her contract, right? So I'm like, is that related to what's going on? Like, what is happening? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 50:32

Yeah, I can't wait. But again, it's we're gonna roll right into book eight, so that's very satisfying. Super excited to see how that comes out, but it was a great, it was a great cliffhanger for the end of the epilogue. Um so Critter, we got your favorite mob slash fight. Robbie, do you have a favorite mob or fight from this half?

SPEAKER_00 50:58

I don't think mob. I guess fight would probably be the same that you chose. Um there was so much chaos and you know, like there's so much fighting. Um I did love uh Gustavo 3 being taken out.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Um I would probably put that as that would probably be my thing.

SPEAKER_04 51:27

Yeah, I I'm a little bit of a full circle girl. I really love that Stalwart was killed in such a offhand way. So I know that it wasn't as satisfying as seeing some of like the retribution moments that are happening with um getting even with Wanshin or whatever, but I I'm just so happy that Stalwart is gone. Yeah, I think that's my favorite. My favorite mob though, because it was the worst mob. My favorite mob is often what I feel like is the worst mob. Um Key, the the bug god, because it made my skin crawl.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

That's fair. That whole like I will say that we didn't talk about that scene a ton, but like you know, Carl dropping a bomb at his feet, and like just like I get we talked about the trauma he goes through, but I mean just like that scene was wild.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

Yeah, and everything come down to like 20 seconds of immortality, and yeah, the the whole they definitely Denneman did a great job drilling in, like, you won't die, but you will feel every single bit of it.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

Oh go ahead. Just the achievement he ends up getting and the AI being like, you know, holy crap. People have done some crazy stuff in this dungeon before, but like you dropped a bomb at your feet.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

The run little Gunter run spell is just so silly, and whenever he uh was awarded it, I was like, what application does this possibly have? And you know what? I guess if you're invulnerable, anything's possible.

SPEAKER_04 53:14

Like anything in a room that never ends.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:21

Okay, so we went through favorite moments, favorite mobs. So that brings us to the part of the show where we close it down and we talk about who our favorite runner-up and MVP are for this half, and then we will announce who is the

MVPs Runner-Ups And Final Rankings

SPEAKER_04 53:39

overall favorite MVP and runner-up for the whole book. Robbie, you're the guest. Would you like to go first on runner up or would you like Critter to go first?

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Uh Critter can go first.

SPEAKER_04 53:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Okay, I'm gonna surprise everyone with this. Okay, okay. My runner-up is Lena. Because she was absolutely vital, not only to the Naga plot with her, whatever they're called, terror, not terrors, uh, her dreads with her dreads. Right. They had they that was a vital part of the plan. Um, and she used that as an opportunity to power level. You gotta respect the hustle, or at least I respect the hustle. And then she also was instrumental to finishing off a couple of the other um factions, right? And that she did the chains, the donut did she did the finisher, right? And so she was just insanely impressive and she's scary. But I kind of appreciate the way that she's handling herself. I'm I'm nervous for next month, and I might end up hating her. Um, but for now, I'm I'm I'm just I gotta give give credit where credit's due. I respect the console.

SPEAKER_04 54:56

For a stoic, already hard-to-read character, and now you introduce the ring of suffering into the mix.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

It's intense.

SPEAKER_04 55:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

But she was doing the most.

SPEAKER_04 55:07

She absolutely was. She was a terror. Yeah. Um, Robbie.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

So I feel like the obvious choice for MVP. Well, I know. I'm saying I'm prefacing it because I'm I'm not gonna choose them as my MVP or or runner-up, just because I feel like to me, the obvious one is is donut. So I'm gonna go for my runner-up as just as light. Okay because I loved the like the the plan, like the full plan, and then he just you know all the dimensions coming together and like releasing the nothing into different places. Like, it's just it's crazy, and I loved how like it just you know, he planned it the whole time and like it came to fruition. I don't know. I I thought it was cool.

SPEAKER_04 56:02

Very much. Thanks. So for me, for runner up, I I had a couple of options. It happens to me a lot. I ultimately went with Samantha for a lot of the reasons that I already said in this episode. I feel like a lot of times I sleep on Samantha and what she's doing to your point to propel the story, but also she takes a lick and it just keeps on tickets. You know, she she went to find Louie, she's going with Carl to do this and that, she gets eated and keeps Cerberus busy. Um, I'm sorry, Embrus, and uh, you know, kept uh the other guard, Yurilo, busy. And, you know, she she kind of does a lot, and we kind of take it for granted in the background, but her being able to do those and to go toe-to-toe with these gods to delay gives them the time they need to do those things. So I'm giving it up for Samantha this half.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

Good choice. Good choice.

SPEAKER_04 57:03

Okay, so we will shoot it back to Critter for this half, who is your MVP.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

So this is um the fact that Carl is not going to be my runner up or MVP is a big departure for me, but you are right, Robbie, that it's donut. This this cat just did everything. This she she went through inevitable emotional turmoil to absolutely carry the team. Like, carry. She carried, and everything she did was entertaining, she was hilarious, she smack talked. Oh my gosh, we didn't talk about her smack talking about the guy's mom. Like all of the all of Oh my god, it was she is the bite, she is perfection. I loved her in this book, so yeah, donut MVP for me, easy. Not even I knew the moment I was like, oh, who's the MVP? Oh, it's obviously donut, and I just had to think. I was basically deciding between Carl and Lena for runner up, but donut hands down at it.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

I love the scene where um you brought it up like talking, um, talking to I think it's epitome chat, right? I think so, yeah. Whichever one it is, where his the the change and the mom. Yeah, change your name and look, oh I can't change it back.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

And was that true? I don't even know. I don't know if it was true.

SPEAKER_04 58:27

It was hilarious. Okay, so Robbie, you said you're not doing donut.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

Yes. I think the correct answer is donut, but it decided to go off the beating path. Uh and go with Wee June for almost the same reason, right? Like Lu June protects donut. Um, and in so in doing so protects everybody, sacrifices himself. So um, I think giving the ultimate sacrifice decided to choose Bee June. Great call out, really good.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

Yeah, yeah, he was uh so I also picked Donut because I believe that she did all the things she yeah, she earned her best crawler in history chops. She did, she was she was incredible in the sniper role, and she made several very difficult calls in stride. Um, and I love the fact that we got the heart to follow it up, where she questioned whether or not she did the right thing, whether or not people would be upset with her. Um, so with the heart to back it up, yeah. I I have to give it to Donut. I feel like there were a lot of really big fights in this book, but the biggest fight they would have been lost without Donut.

SPEAKER_01 59:43

Yeah, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_04 59:46

So when I look at our stats from last week, we did one-offs for every single one. So it's it's it's pretty straightforward. It is donut for the whole book.

SPEAKER_02 59:59

Do we have do you know what who the runner-up is?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:03

No, because they're all one. Carl did have one at all. Wait, who is wait, who are our MVPs? It was Mordecai or Porthus, so they each have two.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

And Lee June has two.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:17

So we have a three-way tie for runner-up.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

That's so funny. And Carl's nowhere near. And which is funny because he also like was talking about how he wasn't leveling as much as everybody else and that he was falling behind, and the fact that he didn't make our MVP list kind of like reflects that in a way.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

Like he's kind of the mastermind mastermind behind it all, but like, yeah, it didn't feel like he personally did as much as these other characters.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

For sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:40

Not the stuff. And I feel like that's a a really noticeable trend, Carl from the early books doing all the things versus where we are now.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:51

I for one like it because it it showcases the capabilities of everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

Right. Just character growth. I character development is probably my favorite part of any book. Um, you know, it's the reason I love the Wheel of Time, like the the character, you know, you have 14 books of the characters growing. Um I think it's kind of the same with this book for me, is like, you know, the character the characters build and like you get new characters every once in a while, but like the development of the characters is top-notch.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

Without a doubt. Okay, well, I think that's it, right? Thank you so much for joining us, Robbie. I think it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:32

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

Okay, to the outro. Thank you so much for tuning in to our 14th episode of season seven of Butt Are There Dragons. For next time, read through chapter 57 of Dungeon Crawler Carl

Read Chapter 57 And Follow Us

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

Book 8: A Parade of Horribles. That episode will be dropping on September 1st! And I'm so excited! Anyways, Butt Are Their Dragons is brought to you by your host, Jessica Sedai and Critter XD. That's me. Don't forget to follow us at Butt Are Their Dragons on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and Butt Dragons Pod, just one T on X. You can also find your hosts on social media as CritterXD and Shelf Indulgence. That's it for today. Achievement! You're caught up. Almost. Reward? You finally get to start the most recent Dungeon Crawler Carl book and see what everyone has been talking about. Bye! Bye!