Episode 50 | Anthropomorphic Squirrel, Jeffrey Epstein

It's our 50th episode! Enjoy the word of God:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.Proverbs 6:6-11Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog #3600:00 Intro02:50 Heart of Darkness Part I19:32 Heart of Darkness Part II31:18 Heart of Darkness Part III74:45 A Sense of History Part III01:27:21 Outro-----Gotta Talk Fast is an oral review of Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog. Way past cool.LINKS: https://gottatalkfast.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Got to talk fast. Got to talk fast.
Got to talk faster, faster, faster.
Got to talk fast. Oral review of Archie Comics
Sonic the Hedgehog reminding youthat knowing your streets,
roads, highways, railways and general area is valuable
information. It has never been easier in
human history to know what your local area looks like.

(00:22):
Google Maps and Street View is an immensely useful tool tool.
Know the shortcuts around your neighborhood.
Know all your surrounding towns and municipalities.
Municipalities. Physically walking what you see
on a map is the next step in order to see what it's actually

(00:43):
like. Don't get caught getting lost in
your own neighborhood, town, or county.
I'm Nick and except for this intro, I wrote the script.
And I'm Dominic, and except for this intro, I haven't read any
of today's script. Oh man, sorry it's been so long
since we've done an episode. I've been just so incredibly
swamped with work. I worked for like 3 weeks

(01:04):
straight both days and. Weekends.
Literally, literally day after day after day, more than 8
hours, many days and the amount of travelling it, it was
actually he was giving me updates every now and then and
it was like, that's actually brutal, this song.
Yeah, it was not fun, but I've been promised I'm not going

(01:25):
anywhere till the end of September, so that gives us
enough time to film some episodes in person after this
one and hopefully we'll make some other content.
I know I'm going to just take a week off at some point, so
hopefully we can make some stuffthen because any sane person
uses their vacation time to makeSonic content.

(01:46):
I mean, that's a pleasure, yeah.Right, it's not, it's not work.
Well, no, I I was more just saying I'm insane in general.
Is there any updates we need to give about our lives or
anything? You just want to go straight
into it man. About our lives.
I know it's been so long since we've done a podcast.
I don't know how we normally do.Do we talk?

(02:07):
Do we just go straight into it? I don't, I don't know how to
even talk to people, man. I was just going from my like I
was working in a warehouse, thena hotel room and then, you know,
that was my life for like weeks.So I don't, I don't even know
how to talk to people these days.
Yeah, Nick was honestly like, well.

(02:32):
That, that was that, that that was a great joke for the podcast
listeners who do audio only, where Dominic zoomed in his
camera really quickly. It was really funny.
OK, here we go. We are currently reading.
You didn't even put the goddamn issue down.

(02:52):
No. I'm not, I'm not reading touch.
All right, so we are reading Archie Comics.
Sonic the Hedgehog #36 cover date is, I believe, July of
1996, Either June or July. Nick doesn't write it.
All right, here we go. Here of Darkness Part 1.

(03:21):
Good sign having a misspelling in the title that shows the
quality of the scripts. Hearts of Darkness Part 1 Script
by Ken Pender's Penciled by Art Mahwinney There are few things
scarier than what the Freedom Fighters are witnessing on their
monitor in the Zone of Silence. A demon, one would assume a

(03:43):
horse with demonic eyes galloping across the universe.
On the horse's back is a creature that one would describe
as a demonic knight. Of course, I would liken him to
Super Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.
Secret of the ooze, but red instead of purple.
Whatever this creature is, it looks like he's heading towards

(04:05):
Mobius and fast. Rotor begins to monologue about
what we're looking at. Gosh, you're looking at live
pictures beamed to us from a camera I sent to the Zone of
Silence. But I was in the Zone of Silence
not too long ago. It didn't look anything like
that. That's because you weren't
Sonic. You were in a different

(04:27):
dimension from this one, but notthe one we believe King Eggcorn
to be in. Consider you and Robotnik went
back and forth between dimensions with such relative
ease. While every previous attempt to
recover the King from the Zone of Silence has always been met
with failure, this explanation somehow makes sense to Sonic and

(04:48):
the gang. Sally pipes up and asks about
the figure they just saw on screen and how that relates to
everything. That's $1,000,000 question all
by itself. Rotor starts tinkering with a
computer when a 3D map of Robotropolis appears.
He continues tinkering. The magnetic fields over

(05:09):
Robotropolis are off the dial. Looks like the Doctor's playing
around with some serious firepower.
And if these readings are correct, whatever Robotnik is
doing is having an effect on thezone where King Egg Corn is.
Sonic hears this and immediatelyrushes to where Robotnik is.
We cut the Robotnik and Snively shooting a laser into a portal.

(05:33):
Pump up the volume snively. It's time we rock and rolled.
Not very Robotnik of. Us.
No, but I was actually pretty into this.
OK, here we go. Are you sure this is wise,
Doctor? Wise doesn't enter into this
equation any more than does choice.

(05:54):
It's hard to believe that I tampered with forces beyond my
control and it could prove my undoing.
Unless action is taken now, Snively let her RIP.
Nothing happens. Robotic turns around and sees
that Snively has been tied up byour lovable hero, Sonic the
Hedgehog. Sonic then immediately spin

(06:16):
dashes into the laser. Robotnik screams out to Duck and
Sonic, Snively, and Robotnik alldive for cover.
You blithering idiot, I hope you're proud of yourself.
Big time Robotnik. Nice.
I hope you can say, I hope you can say the same when you

(06:38):
witness all of Mobius eradicated.
What do you mean? You'll figure it out.
In the meantime, I've got a world to save.
End of Part 1. I just like the fact that
Sonic's like RO. But Nick, you fucking idiot.
Fake. Honestly, I really did like that

(06:58):
exchange right there. It's like you dumb fuck, you
don't. You do not understand what's
happening. What a fun twisty turdy little
turn of events. You know where Botnick has to be
the hero Sonic impulsively is inthe middle of destroying the
world. There's a fun like Demon Knight,
Dark Knight. I don't know what we want to

(07:19):
call this guy coming from the thing called the Zone of.
Silence. So I actually so I really dig
this very first page. I mean, the, the let me, let me
just actually take a moment. Actually before that the cover
is sick. The cover like that implies
something way cooler than what we get.

(07:39):
I agree, I agree and that's it'salmost it is too sick for its
own. Good, it's really fucking cool.
Well, 'cause if I just, if I just saw this like cover, I
would think like Sally and Sonicget teleported to the past or
something and or is like fighting some sort of like

(07:59):
medieval hell night. Not even, I mean, yeah, not even
past, though for me it's like another dimension or another.
Oh sure altogether. Cause they've gone yeah.
And it's 'cause like, yeah. It's good.
It's good and well and then. What do you think about the arts
style of the night? Maybe not on the cover.
We'll go to the actual in comic cause 'cause there's a little

(08:20):
less detail. How do you feel about the look
of this demon knight? Well, I mean immediately.
Like it's annoying almost because of how cool the demon
knight looks on the cover. And then we cut to the actual
version that we get, and he looks kind of like cartoony,
Like he looks cute in comparison.
Yeah, I mean, I, I, I chalk it up to I, I see what you mean.

(08:44):
I chalk it up to like prerendered cutscenes and then
in game cutscenes you know I'm talking about.
Sure. I mean, you're also going to put
a lot more time in the cover andwhatnot, but also I think Art
Mawhinney Mawhinney just kind ofhas a more cutesy style that
normally lends itself very well to the to the comic style of

(09:06):
Sonic. But whenever they try to do
something kind of hardcore serious, it kind of takes away
from the dramaticness of the situation, if you will.
Well, part of the issue with that I I get what you're saying.
Yeah, I think part of the issue with that is the Sonic
characters are this kind of static.

(09:28):
Not static, but they have a style to them and it is
cartoony. Even if different artists, like
Spaz for instance, he'll do something even crazier and
different. Sonic will still look like a
cartoon character at the end of the day, whereas this original
antagonist is just insane looking like the style is

(09:49):
completely almost, you could almost argue that's a mismatch.
I've got a detriment. I I don't, I wouldn't go that
far. I I think it's a cool contrast.
And we don't, we don't talk enough about art and the actual
look. Not, not not inks by art, but
the the actual, the actual look of this thing.
And so like this is such a starklike this.

(10:12):
This is probably one of the coolest antagonists we looking
we have. Yeah.
And, and it's the context too that does it for me, where it's
like this is basically a helldrick, a helldrick, an
eldritch. Horror kind of thing.
Yeah, for sure. Exactly like riding in from the
edge of the universe towards your planet.

(10:32):
That's horrifying. And so back to the cover, one of
the things that I really appreciate about it is it does
feel like Sonic and Sally are quite legitimately like dropped
into an alternate universe because they still kind of
maintain that cartoonish art style.
And then the world in front of them looks a lot more, I mean,

(10:57):
maybe closer to something we would know in terms of a fantasy
world and whatnot, but a lot more detailed and a lot more
violent looking that they just look so incredibly misplaced.
I I I like the contrast. I just want to take note of this
that the cover according to retro covers the website.

(11:21):
It's Spaziante Harvo who is Harvey Mercadi Mercadioso.
Sorry that's a long name and then heroic age, but that name
is in red. I'm just reading verbatim what
is on on the. Signature the entire time.
I just found it on the bottom right.
Yeah, exactly. So it's it's really good.

(11:42):
And that that explains why therethat also explains why there's a
additional, you know, descendants between the cover
and the actual the in game engine.
So they say no, but so good getting to the oh go ahead.
Well, I was going to get to the story, which was the main thing
that I was. I mean the main call out is just

(12:06):
this insane thing that they're doing, trying to create
alternate, alternate realities within the zone of silence.
I feel like they're complicatingthings in an extremely needless
way that I I've read this like 8times when I in my defense, I

(12:26):
was really tired from work. I was trying to write the script
earlier and I kept on reading the first like 4 pages and I'm
like, I don't get what the fuck is happening.
I would close my laptop. I'm like, I'm fucking done.
I get it now, but I'm like, I don't know why you did this.
You you've made things just complicated.
Like why have these alternate realities within the zone of

(12:47):
silence that like it seems like there was an easier fix for
whatever writing hole he perceived he made, right?
Because it seems like the someone probably asked the
question why haven't they gottenKing Acorn out in the past
already if Sonic was easily ableto come in and out during that

(13:12):
one issue back in issue #24. I would just, I mean, I agree.
I would absolutely agree. I would have just said, yeah, I
can't find them in there. Yeah.
I mean, it's just, it's. Literally as simple as that.
It's a zone. It's a big.
But you, you don't need, you don't need multiple dimensions
in this dimension, right? Space is huge in one dimension

(13:32):
alone, right? For the human, for the regular
mind to comprehend. So you don't need infinite
spaces, right? Yeah.
So that was silly. And I was, yeah, I was kind of
angry we got to back 'cause I was just like, what the fuck are
you doing, dude? This is, as I've said multiple
times on this show, I despise multiverse stuff.

(13:56):
I, I thought it was really cool at first, but it got really,
really overdone over in the past, like 5-6, seven years.
And I've, I've really grown tired of it.
And, and it, it did really creates this sense of same with
time travel where it's like it creates this sense of it is
safety net where their consequences don't are, are just

(14:18):
washed away. You can, it's techno Babble to
the extreme where you can just hand wave it.
And I, I'm, I know I might soundinconsistent when I say other
things, but for me if you say multiverse or multiple
dimensions, that's like a instant turn off for me.
If you can dress it up differently I it'll probably
work better in my mind, but justhearing that is is annoying.

(14:42):
So I mean, my critique of multiverse and time travel stuff
is normally I feel like they they don't have anything
interesting to say and they're just doing multiverse for the
sake of multiverse, right? I haven't watched it yet, but
there's like a show on Apple TV that I don't remember the name
of that deals with multiverse ina way that I'm like, oh, this

(15:03):
sounds interesting. I wouldn't mind watching this
show. It's just hey man, I don't need
an alternate Iron Man. I don't give a shit.
Oh, is it? What if?
No, I'm talking. Oh, OK, OK, sorry.
Yeah. 'Cause there's a Marvel show
called and series called Comic series called What If?

(15:26):
Yeah. I, I will say I do like that
where it's just else world storyin DC they call it else worlds
and Marvel, they call it what ifwhere it's just hey, let's just
in this grand equation that is this storyline.
Let's just change one thing randomly and see what happens.
And that's, and then you see it play out from there that I do
like because that's just cool. Like cool Sonic for instance.

(15:47):
Like hey, what if Sonic was justway way way?
Past Cool Sonic and with these nerds that are doing lame
multiverse stories, Cool Sonic is on a different level.
OK, it's too busy being cool, but if we If you want to see a
good movie about time travel, just watch The Time Machine, the

(16:09):
2002 hot hit film with Guy Pierce.
Do you actually enjoy? Do you actually like that?
I've I've gone on this rant before, haven't I on this
podcast? I don't know about on, you might
have on camera. I don't, I just don't remember.
That movie's a great B fantasticsoundtrack and it's like one of

(16:31):
my favorite movies about time travel because it's it's a fun
way how they do it. It's just a good movie.
I I like how they go all in the original story too by HG Wells I
believe. This was directed by the great
grandson of HG Wells. Oh yeah, I did know.
That that's that's that's a really cool fact.

(16:55):
Yeah, you probably, Yeah, I, I have 100%.
Or I was in one of my or I was on one of my Wikipedia holes,
but either way. You know what else that director
did? The Prince of Egypt, which is a
pretty good movie. Oh, for real?
OK, that I didn't know. That's that's good.
Yeah. That studio God DreamWorks,

(17:15):
right? That DreamWorks was fucking
goaded. Is Prince of Egypt DreamWorks?
I don't think so. Oh, I take it back.
Sorry. I might be wrong.
Now I need to. Now I need to look.
Yeah, DreamWorks. Sorry dude, I'm a dumb ass.
No. No.
No, no, it's OK. DreamWorks.
Is. No, no, no, it's OK.
The difference between you and me is that I'm nice to people

(17:37):
when, when they make mistakes. DreamWorks is similar to Hanna
Barbera in the sense that they started off so God damn strong
and then they just commercialize, commercialize,
commercialize to hell. And I, I really appreciate that,
that I actually, no, not appreciate, but rather I, I
lament it. Sorry, I lament it.

(17:59):
I I disagree that DreamWorks wasputting out banger after banger
looking at their list. El Dorado.
So it it it opens with ants, then the Prince of Egypt.
Prince of Egypt is really good. The road to El Dorado.
ANTS is good. What are you talking about?
ANTS is great. Ants is all right.

(18:21):
Ants is OK. OK, you're right.
Let's find the middle, because II agree it isn't great.
I don't think it's all right, though.
I think it's solidly good. OK, I'll accept solidly.
Good. Hey, you got, you got.
The big aunt that goes. I'm the biggest and then.
Sylvester Stallone and Woody Allen.
Yeah, and and then you have Danny Glover as as the as the

(18:44):
war. Aunt is getting too old for this
shit. Beheaded kid.
Yeah, I've never seen Chicken Run.
I've never seen Joseph, King of Dreams and then a Shrek, and
then it's not a lot of good stuff after that.
I think Shrek 2 is really good too but.
I I, I mean what I'll say is Kung Fu Panda is really good How

(19:11):
to train a dragon The first one is really good.
I. Haven't seen it.
Are you? Are you real?
Are you? For real.
But because great. OK, I haven't seen it.
I haven't seen. It Yeah, the director's
fantastic. I love that director Mark
Osborne, who did the Spunfa spurpants movie, who did The Little
Prince. Oh.

(19:32):
OK, OK, let's let's stop going on this random rant.
Heart of Darkness Part 2 Sonic, Snively, and Robotnik are
talking, and Robotnik decides he's going to start monologuing
about his past. We have to go back to the
beginning, back before I was thebenevolent ruler of Mobius.

(19:55):
Let's begin just before I came to power, I was examining that
which was left to me by my mentor.
My mentor Kodos. Had developed a number of
different items to keep law and order over the populace.
The best one was a convenient little thing called the Zone of
Silence. Another dimension of reality,

(20:17):
suitable for stranding 1's enemies.
However, it turned out the zone wasn't a dimension with finite
proportions. It was a force of nature that
would keep growing, merging withwhatever existed around it on
different energy and physical levels.
My photon cannon thwarted its advances, but only as long as I

(20:42):
kept it going. Further experimentation
acknowledged something had to give.
Unfortunately, sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.
I was proceeding to take care ofthe problem when you ruined
everything. Since the conditions have to be
right to go back and forth between zones, it.

(21:03):
May be possible to use this. My energy Inhibitor, Robotic,
holds out a grenade that looks like it's made of light.
Once appropriately placed, just press the button and voila, our
universe is saved and you'll have your king back.
Sonic mentions not trusting Robonic, and this is just all

(21:26):
too easy. Robonic essentially retorts with
a. Come on.
Come on. And that's enough for Sonic.
Sonic brings the inhibitor back to Rotor to analyze.
This may be an energy inhibitor,but I'm but I'm stumped as to
how it operates right now. I can only recommend it to be

(21:48):
used as a last resort. Roeder walks over to a machine
and opens a portal to the Zone of Silence.
Sally, Tales, Antoine, and Sonicall jump in, and they're now
floating in space with a Dark Knight.
Should we say Dark Knight or Demon?
I call them like 3 different things I think I call him space

(22:08):
night soon too. OK, Sally, Tales, Antoine, and
Sonic all jump in and are now floating in space with a Dark
Knight and his gargoyle friends charging at the Freedom Fighters
end of Part 2. What are your immediate
thoughts? It's the big, big lore drop.

(22:29):
That's my first thing. Is that Robotnik?
Cause because before it had longbeen hinted that Robotnik just
took over right? The, the Kingdom of Acorn, the
the society. But now we know that Robotnik
was essentially part of the government.
Specifically, it seems in a military.
He doesn't exactly say, but it'smore of a militaristic sense.

(22:51):
He seems to be some kind of either National Defense or, or
internal security or like policeforce.
It looks more general. Ask when he's a tire in the
flashback, what he's wearing. He's got like the shoulder pads
and the tussles and and the and the, the forget what it's
called, but it's like it, it's not medals, but representations
of the ribbons, ribbons on his chest.

(23:12):
So I'd imply some kind of military thing, right?
And he was it's, it was an inside job.
It was a coup by Robotnik to overthrow the government of of
King Egg Corn. So that's that's already huge
right there. Big, big.
Has have they mentioned kudos kudos yet?
I I I've read this like 8 times so I don't remember if I

(23:33):
recognized the name kudos or if I just reread this so many times
that I was like. It never I I did not ring any
bells for me. There's a chance that they were
briefly mentioned in like a whatever sentence in previous
issues, but this is the first time I'm registering Kodos.
The name Kodos. We certainly haven't seen Kodos

(23:55):
for sure, and I also like how they just call them Kodos
casually by their first name. For sure.
And and I'd like head scientistsguy, I'm assuming there's some
kind of science person, but likehead scientist Kodos or
something, just casually, Hey, that dude.
But yes, that's that's pretty huge.
And was this we get back story on the zone of silence too.

(24:17):
I do think it's cool that the zone of the cool in a narrative
sense that the zone of silence was used as this basically
horrific weapon of war where younot just kill, you don't kill
your opponent, you're your enemy, right?
You send them to another dimension floating in space.
And like, that's pretty metal, dude.

(24:40):
Kodos made it and was never usedbefore.
It was the first time it was used on King Acorn.
I feel like this implies that Kodos made the swap bots right?
Kodos invented like all of thesethings, not Robotnik.
Like Robotnik can obviously holdhis own right?
But it it seems like Kodos is the one making all of these

(25:04):
items and he just happened. I don't know what happened to
Kodos. Kodos and Robotnik just happened
to like take over. But I feel like Kodos is the one
that made all these things. Mainly you look at the panel
where Robotnik is looking over some secret plans and he's like,

(25:25):
oh, Kodos was about to overthrowthe king when he disappeared.
Which implies that maybe the king like caught wind and
banished Kodos or something. But that's I feel like Kodos
probably made the swap bots for King Acorn as like a way to, you

(25:48):
know, keep law and order and. Further exert.
Control. Exactly, and then Kodos was
going to go and reprogram all the swap bots to follow his lead
and then so forth. That's what I'm assuming is
happening. It's literally like the clones
from Star Wars, Yeah. 1000% yeah, just.
Order 66 and then they all just turn immediately.

(26:08):
Yeah, they assume George Lucas read this comic and was like,
Fenders is on to something. And we got whatever cursive
circle that would be, that wouldbe so Fenders would be loving
that. But for he is robot, Kodos is
robotics mentor. So it can go either way.

(26:29):
Yeah, we don't. We don't know for sure.
It's ambiguous. So that's a very reasonable
theory. It's also, there's also a
potential theory that Robotnik wasn't even going to actually
overthrow. Yeah, wasn't going to overthrow.
He he might have had plans, but Kodos was doing it independently

(26:49):
of Robotnik. And then Robotnik like jumped
the gun and was like, no, I'm doing, I'm going to do it.
And then we don't know what happened to Kodos after that, so
it's things are up in the air. But we actually finally get some
back story on that. And I think that's really not
that it was, you know, critical to this comic or anything, but I
had always been interested in it, and I think that's really

(27:09):
cool. Yeah, I agree.
I also feel like if you look at what page is this, page 8, the
top left panel, it seems like itimplies that Kodos invented the
Mace because because the verbiage has developed a number

(27:29):
of different items to keep law and order over the populace.
And one of those items is a Mace, another one is like a
laser beam. So.
He got a ball with spikes. I like to think he was so like
enamored by this. And that's how we ended up with
the ball and chain and Sonic 1 and stuff.

(27:51):
Like he was just like, these giant balls are there.
There's something, there's something to this.
We got ball and chain lore. Yeah, ball and chain.
It is it. I just think it's really cool
that, again, narratively cool mimicking real life, where

(28:14):
governments will just continuously come up with ideas
and like, weapons companies willjust continuously come up with
ideas to like, further exert control on mass populations of
people. Where it's like, yeah, hey, what
if we made this thing called theLRAD that just blasts Sonic
noise at such like literal Sonicfrequencies at people's ears in

(28:35):
such directed manner that it will force them to run away from
that specific. Like, like we can literally
blast sound down a street, but not the sidewalks.
And we can force the streets to clear by destroying people's
hearing with a blast of this device called the LRAD, which is
just a speaker on a stick, effectively.

(28:56):
But, you know, more special thanthat.
And seeing those seeing that, what was it?
I think it was Serbia. No, not Serbia.
They're they would just shoot people.
I don't know, some, some bulk inEastern European country.
They did deploy that for the first time that in recorded,
maybe not recorded history, but in recent memory though.
And everyone was like waiting for that to hit America because

(29:19):
we know I think the new NYPD hasthem at least.
I do remember seeing clips of the protests and stuff where
people were like holding their ears and it was on the front
page of Reddit. I think it was pretty big news
when it happened. Yeah, and it's it's so that that
footage is so amazing because it's like, it truly is actually
like impressive. Like on a technological as

(29:41):
horrifying as it is, it's actually very impressive because
it Yeah, they blast the sound onthe street, not on the
sidewalks. And then it's like, Jesus
Christ, this is laser precision abuse of the population.
Oh my God, I don't. I'm waiting for that shit to hit
Chicago. I don't know if they have them
in Lai feel like they would haveused them in LA by now.

(30:02):
Or maybe they just like shootingpeople with tear gas I think.
I think LA just like shooting people with tear gas.
And rubber bullets. Yeah, man.
All right, anyway, that's Angelaaside it was there anything else
other than Robotnik setting themup for something for sure.
But it they don't really have a lot of cards to play because
there's this massive eldritch horror just coming at them.

(30:25):
And I do. I do like the I like this.
This hell night is already a lot.
I thought he would have been bigger to be honest with you
based off the cover, but regardless he's already a lot it
seems. But they added gargoyles and
flying. What are those?
Like pterodactyls or whatever orlike well.
The the pterodactyls are like never.

(30:47):
So they look like pterodactyls and then you look at spoilers
for I didn't mention it. It's page 13.
They look like mana rays in space.
Yeah, it I don't know if that's a coloring issue or no, That's
not a coloring issue because it's from the bottom, from the
belly. It's just silly.

(31:09):
They don't do anything too. They just, they're just literal.
Yeah, they're just there to they're.
Just hype minions, yeah? They're they're like Sonic needs
to attack something at least once in this issue.
Oh, they're decoys. They're decoys.
Yeah, essentially. Heart of Darkness Part 3 The
Dark Knight towers over the freedom fighters and then you,

(31:30):
you, you have in the script Space Knight.
Yep. OK, What what what is what is
demon hell? Space Dark Knight What?
What is their? What is their voice?
I, I assume, like a demon from like the game Doom or something,
right? Just really, really gravely,
really heavy. OK, here we go.

(31:52):
I don't. OK.
Just just do. How low?
Can I go? How low can he go?
Yeah, just do a demon. Hey, Nick.
Hey, Nick, do a demon. What would what would you do for
a demon? I'm.
Not your butt pal or any other term you may use suggesting

(32:13):
familiarity. I don't know what the fuck that
was. So like a like a like a like
Gollum with throat cancer. Got it.
Look. At that.
Surrender, Surrender or or. It should be more like imposing,
right? Well, I mean, I'm supposed to
like. Smoker blood palor bro.
Like the words he's saying isn'timposing.

(32:35):
You're right. OK, OK.
Like, I hear you sometimes. Like a fucking dork, truthfully.
And the audience will now find out why.
Yeah, yeah. Surrender or else.
Fact. The consequences?
That's a fact. Surrender or or else face the

(32:56):
consequences. That's not exactly a friendly
way to start things off, bud. I'm not your bud, pal or bro, or
any other term you may use suggesting familiarity.
Space Night then tries to get a reply from Sonic on whether he's
going to surrender or not when Sonic just starts punching all

(33:18):
of the gargoyles. My troop the hedgehog is moving.
It's. My troops.
You put, you made it single. It was meant to be more than
one. My troop sounds insane.
My troop the hedgehog is moving so fast that all I can see is a

(33:40):
blue blur, but that is all I need to see in order to fire.
Sally is watching and sees the space knight raise his joust and
I should know this is like a like a like a projectile joust,
like it'll shoot lasers. Sally jumps up and pushes the
space knight off his hell horse.The helmet falls off and reveals

(34:03):
the face of King Egg Corn. Sally questions if this truly is
her father standing in front of her, weightless female.
Never. She'd be like British.
Just because Saint John St. Jeffrey is British doesn't mean

(34:23):
this guy is. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, because all like once British, once you're
British, that's one accent for the whole country.
Well, I mean, this guy does haveBritish tones.
Look at that face. Tell me that's not British.
Am I wrong? Yeah, yeah, I can see.
OK, Sure. You got it, Nick.
We'll do British. All right.

(34:48):
Well, it should be like a more so regal.
Literally regal, right? So I don't know what regal
means. Are you actually don't so regal
it's like kingly or or of a monarch.
That makes sense. Like a re Regent?
Do you know the term the name Regent?
No. OK, that's fine.

(35:09):
That's. Fine, and let's not teach him.
I no keep on going. It's fine.
OK, so you do want me to go on tangents.
OK, hold on Wikipedia. OK, witless female.
Never. Attack if you haven't the
stomach to finish off your opponent.

(35:29):
King Eggcorn hits Sally and knocks her out.
He then demands the surrender ofthe Freedom Fighters.
Sonic, in a perhaps panicked move, decides to use the bomb
Robotnik gave him. It explodes, flinging the
Freedom Fighters towards the portal they came into.
Roeder quickly retrieves the Freedom Fighters from the Zone.

(35:50):
They gather and promise Sally that they'll figure out a way to
save the King. And of Part 3.
Do you think he just didn't recognize his daughter, or do
you think he's just gone insane in the zone of silence?
Oh, he, he's, he. So the I, I think it'd be
really, really cool if the zone of silence was such a effed up,

(36:13):
like it's a place where living being or like normal Mobian
beings, like their minds are just will break in the presence
of it's like going to hell. Right.
Sure. But the the likelier term, the
likelier, I should say, the likelier thing that's going to
happen is that he was like mind wiped or something, right?

(36:34):
His brain was like suffering from amnesia, right?
It could be something as blase as he hit his.
Head, I'm going to go farther. He's been in the zone of silence
so long and doesn't age and so he's been in here for like
millions of years and. I like that.

(36:54):
No, that's so I don't know if that's a thing because it's
obviously science fiction, but I, I forget what other, there
were some other science fiction stories where it's like, hey,
this being or this human actually has the ability to live
forever now, but they can only remember like people from like
400 years ago because they, they, the mind, the human mind

(37:17):
can only absorb so much information and retain it,
which, which it's like, I don't know, we don't know if that's
true, but that, that's just cool'cause it's a, it's, it shows
how powerful the expanse of timeis.
So I really like that idea. No, that's, that's really cool.
So that's my vote, I think, but that's just 'cause I think that

(37:38):
if I was writing it, that's whathow I would go about it.
I. He's, it seems, it seems less.
It seems less like he's insane. Yeah, he he knows what he's.
Doing he seems he knows what he's doing right?
I agree. Yeah, and also this is like some
alternate reality where it like takes your dreams and like

(37:59):
monkey paws them and it's like, yeah, here's your dad, but he's
evil, you know which like sure. You know, with with how Sonic is
going, I could see that being anoption too.
So yeah, especially with the setup of the alternate universe
thing, now that I'm saying it out loud, I'm almost actually

(38:19):
kind of leaning towards that's what's happening, which.
Is should we? Are we misusing the term
alternate universe? I don't think so.
How could you explain? Alternate universe, I think has
the implication that it's a, a dimension so close to the one

(38:39):
that you're talking about that it's hey, it's a, it's a cool
Sonic. Hey, alternate universe Sonic
where it's the same thing, but everyone is inverse.
So therefore it's close. It's close enough where you can
use the term alternate because relative to the original, the
prime, it's alternate where my interpretation is that there's
that. But also if you're just trying

(39:02):
to say another dimension, then you just say another dimension
right? Where it's like because like.
There are I I guess my my thinking would be it would be
alternate because I mean King Acorn is here, right?
I feel like alternate mean but. But that.
But that's the But that's the King Egg Corn from the original

(39:25):
universe. We don't know that.
Oh, you're right. We don't.
You're right. No, you're right.
You're you're absolutely right. We don't.
It could be an alternate. It could be an alternate
universe King Egg Corn. But the the problem is we don't
have any. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Hold on, did Kodos invent? Did he?

(39:45):
I'm trying, I'm going back to the text.
Did he invent the zone of silence or did he discover the
zone of silence? I'm going to read it just to be
safe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It doesn't say one way or another.
My mentor. So this is robotic speaking.
My mentor. Kodos had developed a number of
different items to keep law and order over the populace.

(40:08):
The best one was a convenient little thing called the Zone of
Silence, another dimension of reality suitable for stranding
1's enemies. But so he doesn't say if he we
invented it. I mean, look, if it's a
dimension that means he had to discover it.
It's he. It sounds like Kodos didn't

(40:28):
invent the zone right? It's more so that he their code.
I don't know what I I think. He.
Discovered kudos. Because.
Yeah, he discovered it. He Kudos kudos invented the
portal. Yeah, exactly.
Technology to access, OK, OK, OK.
Because. OK, that that's a little clear.
Because the verb is, that's whatit is Immediately after is.

(40:50):
However, it turned out the zone wasn't a dimension with finite
proportions. So the that verbiage implies a
discovery, right? Like if you made it you would
know proportions, you would knowif it was finite or not, right?
I mean, I guess most. You could you, you could argue

(41:11):
that it was such a runaway invention that you don't even
know what the hell that's true. It's a generative AI.
We don't even know what the fuckwe're doing anymore.
But that, that that's a little too much into it.
You know, I, I agree. I would.
I like that logic. It it really does seem more like
a discovery, like discovering a new continent or something.
Yeah, yeah. Monkey Paw is still very viable.
Well, how do we like this? Yeah, do we like the idea that

(41:35):
King Acorn is alive and traveling with gargoyles
infinitely through space and maybe even time?
I think it's, I never would haveguessed it.
I think it's absolutely better, definitely better than what I
had originally envisioned because I had underestimated
this comic. I I initially envisioned that it

(41:55):
was just King and Gordon was in prison somewhere and it would
have been a traditional prison breakout storyline.
But no, this is this is interesting.
This is cool as a little maybe try hard and edge Lord.
It may come off as I I think this is this is metal as hell,
right? Yeah.
The implication again, I I use the term eldritch for good

(42:15):
reason. It's a little scaled down than
what we had originally envisioned, but, you know, it's
still really, really cool. Like that's unique.
I don't you know, friendly people or you know, allies who
are brainwashed or transformed to become enemies is hardly a
novel invention, but the set dressing here of of them being

(42:36):
in a whole different dimension and just, you know, they become
it seems like they become masters because he's like he
says, like these are my troops, right.
So he's like Lee, he like king egg corn, maybe king egg corn.
This implies that king egg corn is such a badass, right?
He's such a leader that no matter where he goes, even if he

(42:57):
goes, even if he does like a suffer a mind wipe that he can,
he still retains the leadership capabilities to to lead troops
and and take command of of armies and and.
I'm going to push it further. Cool thing.
What if King Acorn conquered theZone of Silence?
What if this is his new Kingdom?What if he doesn't even want to

(43:20):
be awesome, dude, man, maybe he's just like, why?
Why would I go back to Mobius? I'm like king of the universe.
I've got a cool horse and I travel amongst the stars.
What? Why would I go to this lane
planet? That that does sound sick,
right? Like, Oh, this also gets into
the the psyche of of who King egg corn is because the

(43:43):
aesthetics here aren't very nice.
He doesn't seem like a kind benevolent ruler.
No, he seems like a a pillage and conquer and destroy kind of
ruler. So, so now you have like a
dichotomy, an internal conflict between that he's not even aware
of where it's like oh, and Mobius in the in the prime
dimension. He is, he is benevolent, he is

(44:04):
kind, he is a merciful ruler, whereas in in hell world, in the
zone of silence, he is just batshit insane and, and just a
murderous son of a gun. And that's really, really cool
to, to think of. Again, we're speculating, but I
think that's really cool. And that would set up.
I mean, there's already a good setup for Sally's reaction,

(44:26):
right? This, this conflict within her.
But if there, if it comes down to that, will she, can they save
King egg corn? Will will they be forced to kill
king egg corn? That'd be interesting.
Right, That's that. This is some there's a this is a
great set up for some really interesting ideas and I'm kudos,
kudos to kudos, No kudos to Ken Pender.

(44:49):
I'm going to steal that. Kudos to Ken Penders for for
setting that up. I I'm thoroughly impressed by
that. Reading this comic, I really
only had one question and I, I, I feel like you probably, even
if you haven't said it out loud,you're probably thinking along
the same page, which is King Acorn is obviously an elite.

(45:14):
Do do you think he's on Epstein's flight logs?
I mean, look, This is why the people voted for Robotnik.
Right. Yeah, we're reading this issue
specifically. I was like, yeah, they voted for
the Robotnik. They voted for Robotnik and he,

(45:38):
he has the list. He doesn't need to share it.
We trust him with it. He he, he took all the all those
bastards on the list and. It was literally it's just
Jeffrey Saint John and King Acorn and that's it.
Who, who would be the Jeffrey Epstein of, of Sonic?

(46:00):
Wait, no, no, no, it's just Jeffrey Epstein.
It's just, it's just regular Jeffrey Epstein or.
But he's a squirrel I like. I don't.
I don't trust vertical is all I'm saying.
No, I actually I actually just want furry art of of I.
I just want anthropomorphized squirrel Jeffrey Epstein.

(46:24):
Hey, I think I just found our episode's title.
I want it to just because I feellike it would demoralize him in
death. Also like if there is an
afterlife he's just watching some person drop he's.
Like what the fuck I can't. Believe everything I did and

(46:45):
this is this is, this is what's happening.
Satan's like oh dude that sucks.What?
That sucks dude. Sucks to be you.
Oh my God. Yeah.
I I I He could be. Very well could be.
He very well could be. Yeah, all I'm saying is like, if

(47:08):
you decide to dress like that, maybe maybe you're evil.
I don't know, You know, I'm just, I'm just asking.
He's. Actually faking he's faking the
amnesia. I was like, I, that's my
daughter all right, but I'm on the list.
So I this I escaped to this whole other dimension.
I can start I. Don't have to.
We're good. We're good guys.

(47:30):
Consequences here? Yeah.
Hell yeah. All right, well, we just called
king and corner pedophile, so let's let's move on, shall we?
Yeah, let's. Oh, right.
I forgot. We still have a whole new story.
I was I was getting ready to wrap it up.
A pretty fucking insane one, allright?
A Sense of History Part 3 scriptby Mike Kanternovich and Ken

(47:55):
Penders. Penciled by Ken Penders.
Knuckles is going over the last two issues, in case you've
forgotten what has been happening in this story.
All right, so Edmund and Dmitri had a dream to to drain the gems
which hold the floating island aloft, that we might again

(48:18):
become one with the land. But the dream went horribly,
terribly wrong. Acting against the will of the
scientific elite, Dmitri insteadabsorbed the power until the
energies of 11 shattered Chaos emeralds howled within them.
And as he spoke, the ground twisted and heaved until a

(48:40):
massive dark tower erupted from the earth.
The shadow of what would be known as Mount Faith spread
across the land, heralding the fall of Echidna civilization.
My father told me this tale, buthow does it connect to
Archimedes and the mystery of the missing chaotics?

(49:02):
Maybe the answers lie. And what happens next?
We cut to the past inside the Dark Tower, where Dmitri, the
Enchidna who absorbed the Chaos Emeralds, is holding the
scientists and the magistrate who tried to stop him hostage.
These hostages are chained up onthe wall and have begun to awake
in unison. So I I know Dimitri's voice.

(49:26):
Is there evil Dimitri? Is that a special?
Voice. Or is it just something cell
related but I don't remember. That was so far ago now I don't
remember how we decided on that.Should I just do Dimitri?
But I'll just add reverb. Yeah.
You know what? Yeah, do that.

(49:48):
Good. This is as it should be.
Conquering the world is scarcelyworthy of because we said he was
a surfer for whatever reason. Yeah, that's good.
This is good. Conquering a world is scarcely

(50:08):
worth the effort without those who dared thwart my will in
attendance. The elite deemed the Chaos
Siphon too dangerous, but the facts have proven me right.
Our island Indoors and through abizarre twist of fate, infinite
energy is mine's command. Edmund, who's chained up hanging
on a wall, responds. Your ego has betrayed us,

(50:31):
Dmitri. You're not the brother I knew,
correct? Correct.
Edmund, I am far, far more immortal, eternal, a living
chaos emerald and the mightiest kidnai in the universe, brah.
The magistrate who was chained up next to Edmund speaks up and

(50:53):
says that Dmitri has gone mad with power.
Mad Men, Mad Men. No, Mad Men always think they're
Wait, why is he saying men? Why did Ken Bender?
Say men, it gets weirder. This This is actually pretty low
on my list of gripes. Fair enough, Mad Men always

(51:16):
think they're superiors mad. But it's too late to stop me,
Magistrate, for the deed is done.
Already in Kannopolis has fallena subtle reprogramming of our
mecha knots. Command code has bent him.
What does that fucking mean? The subtle reprogramming of our

(51:38):
mecha knots. Command code has bent them and
threw them the citizenry to my will.
And once sails have been mountedatop the city's highest towers,
the Isle, like some great ship, shall traverse the glow,
bringing enlightenment to the dwellers below.

(51:59):
Only this fortress, which has been strengthened with a
fraction of my own limitless power, can resist my staggering
might. It's walls are proof against any
attack. Just then, the walls start
crumpling near where the chains are anchored on the wall.
The chains begin to break, and everyone is set free.

(52:20):
An army of fire ants come crawling out the wall.
The ants have eaten the tower's foundation, and the tower is
beginning to crumble. Edmund and the magistrate call
out, telling Dmitri to follow them out of the tower, but
Dmitri is stunned. He can't move.
The magistrate and Edmund run out, leaving Dmitri behind.

(52:43):
Everyone is now standing outsideand the magistrate decides this
is a good time to quote scripture to a religion that
doesn't exist. Go to the Ant thou sluggard,
consider his ways and be wise. It seems we owe our very future
to these, the humblest of God's creatures.

(53:05):
Edmund responds by saying my brother in Christ.
No, my brother. Edmund responds by saying, my
brother. Nothing could spare him from
this fate. Nothing and no one.
A tragedy, Edmund. All the more should we fail to

(53:28):
learn from it. By placing trust in science, our
race has committed an act of hubris.
Arrogant pride and innocents paid the price.
We must make amends as best as we are.
Able. To Knuckles, voice over comes
back in. And thus, in the shadow of a

(53:50):
faithful mountain, my people renounce technology, tore down
their city, and to ensure history not repeat itself,
appointed a guardian to stand watch over the surviving Chaos
emeralds. Edmund was the first to bear
that mantle, a sacred trust, past generation onto generation,

(54:13):
through all of his children. To my father, and finally to me.
Which brings us full circle. For all the good it did.
So much for legends. After finishing the story,
Knuckles ponders and remembers that the old Ankidnas took all
their sacred artifacts and buried them in a vast

(54:35):
underground city beneath the shadow of Mount Fate.
Knuckles heads off to the underground city with hopes of
finding his friends. End of Part 3.
So before, before we even touch on this, I just want to comment

(54:57):
that obviously the Enchidna has to be dumb as shit for never
even thinking and putting sails on the island so that they could
pile it to the island. But also, I love Dmitri and I
wish he got to have his eyelid pirate ship that he could have
just flown around and plundered the world with.

(55:20):
That's just really fucking cool.That's just cool.
I'm like upset that's not the direction the story goes in.
What what? Where do we begin?
Where? Where do you want to begin?
Because I am I, I have a lot of thoughts.
I can go. Let's start with God.

(55:46):
Why? What an insane way to start.
You're right though. Let's let's let us start with
God. How how do we feel about you
know what's you know what? Maybe we should read the Bible
verse out loud and then. Yeah, send it to me.

(56:07):
Send it to me. 'Cause I did this earlier and I
was like this doesn't work with what?
So this is this is Proverbs 6 chapters, sorry, Proverbs
chapter 6, verse 6 through 11, and this is from the New
International Version. Go to the Ant, you sluggard,

(56:27):
consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer
or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers
its food in harvest. How long will you lie there?
You sluggard will? When will you get up from your
sleep? A little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of thehands to rest and poverty will

(56:51):
come on you like a thief, and scarcity like an armed man.
So. OK, brother.
Nick, how do you want to? What's like the meaning behind
that passage? So I might be an idiot, but or
maybe I'm or maybe I'm smart andkind of an idiot because this

(57:11):
passage is about like preparing yourself and not being lazy,
right? It's just saying like, hey, man,
you should like gather things soyou prepared later.
So you don't, you know, end up in a situation where you'll

(57:32):
you're like hungry or something or need water, right?
Like. Yeah.
So, so basically what happened in the context of what's going
on, we will, we will touch on this, but it's like, hey, this,
this super small creature, the humble Ant, it's what saved us,

(57:52):
which means all this technology that we have, you know, flying
cars and all this shit. We need to, we need to get rid
of that and go back to the land.We need to go back to nature,
back to humble, humble, you know, the way of of before,
right? A very reactionary way of doing
it. Very, very kind of backwards way
of thinking. And because of what has

(58:13):
transpired here, and that's not the message of this at all.
So it, it just sounds, yeah, you're right, because it is.
It is preparation, right? If anything, it's like being
smart about the future as opposed to dumbing it down.
You know, you could interpret this as contenders doing the
most religious thing possible, which is taking a very small

(58:37):
part of a proverb and then twisting its meaning to suit
yours, and in this case, in the most insane way possible.
It is just like, yeah, God's talking about ants and how wise
they are and that's it. Until it is addressed, probably

(58:58):
by Knuckles, but until it is addressed that he's like, yeah,
what we did was stupid guys, like 500 years ago, You, you,
why did you destroy our great and advanced civilization?
You guys are fucking stupid. I know this whole chaos Emerald
thing happened, but we could have maybe worked around that as
opposed to just going completelybackwards.

(59:19):
Until that is addressed, we, we can't attend to that yet.
So yes, it really does sound like Ken Penders just took the
ants verse out of context and just inserted it into this.
Store and and. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this will
come full circle in a way that works, but like it's not.
Right. It's not coming off that.

(59:42):
No, it definitely isn't. Well, given because if you think
about the context in which he's saying that, it doesn't make
sense because it's not about preparing, right?
Yeah, yeah. But it's like to be again to to
I guess to reinforce what you would to give Ken the benefit of

(01:00:04):
the doubt. It is the magistrate doing it
who's saying the verse. So it's it's like, OK, if
anyone's going to get it wrong, it's probably him.
But no, no, look, it it, it's Ken.
Set it up because remember that one panel?
I, I I knew this. I mean the.

(01:00:25):
It's a dumb. It's a dumb like circle, like
how he circles back to the ants how it feels to.
Me is he went to church and theytalked about this proverb and he
was just like I like where I'm I'm going to do this I like
where we're at and then he did the Ant thing in the other panel
and he's like I'm going to make this work at 'cause I did think

(01:00:47):
it was really weird that they focused on ants in the other
issues when. When the island was lifted.
Exactly. Turns out ants ants are the key.
The only the only way I'll accept this is good writing is
if ants keep on saving the day like every time.

(01:01:09):
Like I want I want an Ant going super Saiyan.
I want I want an Ant to get all 7 chaos emeralds and try to take
on like Robotnik or something. That's funny.
Yeah, that so. Can we just move on to this
probably the biggest insane plotpoint?

(01:01:30):
Would it blow up the city? So imagine, imagine these two
dudes, because it's just the twoor three of them.
Two, it's two. It's Dimitri and Edmund.
Right. No, no, no.
Edmund and and and the magistrate Imagine.
Because like Dimitri just fucks off, right?

(01:01:50):
So imagine like these two dudes,1 is a top scientist and 1 is a
government official. Sure, sure.
But imagine they come back from the wilderness, right back to
like this town hall or like CityHall meeting.
And it's like, hey, guys, so we need to just destroy all

(01:02:12):
progress, all technology and go back to the land.
And everyone's cool with it. Everyone's just cool with it, I
feel like. So this is Paige.
This is page 6 right between thepanels where the magistrate is
taking off his his wig and and the next panel where they're
blowing up the city in between those panels.

(01:02:33):
I feel like there should be likewars and shit of people who are
like, this is insane. We're going to fight.
This this is this is at my actual interpretation.
It's probably not right. I think the magistrate and
Edmund go full on terrorist. I think they just decided this

(01:02:56):
and didn't tell anyone and they're just like, we are right.
They're radical. They've been radicalized.
They saw a being of infinite potential and was just like.
They saw God. They, they saw God and they're
just like, how, how do you even communicate that, especially to
the scientific community, right?How are they going to sit down?

(01:03:17):
That makes so much more sense than I think.
Yeah, no, I love that actually. And so they're just like,
they're not going to understand our like point of view.
And we have the know how we're smart.
We, we, we, we know like the weaknesses of everything and
like, we know how to blow thing.Let's just blow it up.
You know what, let's just blow it up.

(01:03:38):
It would they they massacred allof them, which is why there's so
few echidnas now and like brainwash their children into
this like almost like. Religious.
This, this religious guardian thing, I don't know how they're

(01:03:58):
procreating. That's a separate conversation.
And yeah, that that that that's,I think how we get to where
we're at is through radical beliefs that they have to work
outside the system and just blowthings up.
That's that's an insane theory that I love.

(01:04:19):
I they just become eco terrorists.
Eco. Fascists.
And just. Otherwise.
Otherwise it does not make sensein any way, shape or form.
No, I think it does make sense, but they don't address it at all
well because it's just completely the only way that
makes. Sense is like all the kidna
coming together and being like, yes, we should walk off into the

(01:04:40):
ocean and like blow everything up because we failed as a
society. And I don't, I don't believe
that's the direction it goes in at all.
Yeah, because it would have to be a It's implied that society
was much, much, much bigger in kidna society was and then it
got pared down dramatically. We don't know the numbers it

(01:05:03):
could go. It could have been, you know, a
couple million down to like a couple thousand.
We don't know. But it's implied there's some
kind of not just technological scaling down, complete scaling
down, but also like a self genocide.
It seems some some self-imposed extinctionalism here and it's

(01:05:24):
it's genuinely it's this does make them religious fanatics,
even though technically it is a sci-fi like you can explain God
in this and that Dimitri, you know, becomes one with this, you
know, gem. But it is imagine again if if we
go with your theory, which I I like imagine again, yes.
So then it, it is still these two dudes come from the

(01:05:46):
wilderness. They, they, they, they have seen
God. And then they probably form a
cult, probably form a cell of terrorists.
And then they just start killingpeople.
It is effectively like religiousfanatics.
And that is such an interesting angle.

(01:06:08):
That definitely won't. That's too hardcore for this
comic. But God, that'd be so cool.
It's so cool. That would be so cool if that
was the. I have no faith in it, but
that'd be so cool. Yeah, and, and so everyone dies
except for the religious fanatics.
And then the religious fanatics go and gathers all artifacts and
buries them deep in a city. You know, I, I.

(01:06:32):
Like it like those two panels where they're, which is that
that panel where it's a bunch ofechidnas working in a warehouse
is so funny to me. It's.
It's it's good. Like there's just again and
absolutely Ken Petters did not mean this, but still, it is so
funny to me just seeing all these Knuckles clones just doing

(01:06:55):
serious things like a Society ofjust Knuckleses, not Anchidnas,
literal Knuckleses, because theyall just look like knuckles.
And anyway. But anyway, the the you again,
this could be interpreted and the likely interpretation is
that these two panels are showing all of society coming

(01:07:18):
together, banding together to todo this.
But this could easily just be the cult, the cult of terrorists
doing this, which is in our hearts what we believe.
I think it's kind of bullshit the the tower just crumbles and
Dmitri's just buried. The dude has like infinite power

(01:07:39):
times like 7 and he's just buried by AI.
Don't fucking buy this for a second.
Don't don't tell me this dude islike all powerful and then is
like, Oh no, a house fell on me.Like no, I don't I don't buy
what just fucking happened. I'm sorry.
And well, and I feel like they're probably setting up a

(01:08:01):
major bad guy, right? Like I assume what's about to
happen is Dimitri has been in this like tomb encased in this
tower for like a millennia and they're about to uncover him and
then like he's going to come fuck shit up and like classic a

(01:08:25):
big story like this Robotnik means to team up with Sonic or
else, you know, end of everything.
And then they take on Dmitri andthat's that's that arc.
I'm I'm assuming that's what. Happened.
It's a. It's a big bad.
It's setting up a boss effectively.
Do we think ants are sent a? Couple more things.

(01:08:46):
I I think they knew what they were doing.
You're right. OK, you're right.
The implication is that it is such a precise thing that they
chomp through the specific foundation of the chains that
they it had to have been some kind of sentience.
Maybe it's not like like human level or Enchita level
sentience. It's but it's it, it, there is,

(01:09:07):
it is elevated. It is elevated, right?
Yeah, I think so. It's like that, that dodo bird.
Remember that dodo bird that Sonic found where it can?
It can understand commands maybea little less than that, where
the ants are like this is bad, we should do something and
they're just this pure creaturesthat just.
Do things. They're a hive mind.

(01:09:29):
They're definitely a hive mind because they're ants.
But it, it, it like the hive mind decided the queen or
whatever the the queen was actually like fully sentient and
was trying to do like diplomacy from like a small anthill.
And it's like, dude, we're trying to, we're trying to
establish contact with your country, please.
Stop. Stop.
Please listen. To us they have like an embassy

(01:09:52):
and everything, but no one notices because it's ants.
What is this, an embassy for ants?
There we go, there we go. I just want to acknowledge that
these they were in the last previous issue, but there's some
other, there are other Anchidnasother than Edmund and the
magistrate that do go with them on the mission.

(01:10:14):
I'm assuming they're like security or something.
Mm hmm. Because like there's one with
like an eye patch I think that'simplied to be like military or
something. You want, You want.
Just just so, I'd acknowledge that.
I going back to the religious fanatic angle they make Edmund,

(01:10:36):
who is the 1st to bear the mantle of the Guardian of the
Chaos Emerald, swear on what I can only presume is a Bible.
Yeah, I mean, you can. So this is an American thing
too. But you can swear on anything
you don't. I know there is no obligation to
swear on a Bible, but it's probably, it's a Bible.

(01:10:57):
Let's let's be honest, it's probably a Bible.
I think so. Especially with the context of
that previous quote on the previous page.
It's a Bible, so is God. Is Jesus an echidna?
Oh, what a good. Question Do I think Jesus is an
echidna? I think the echidna believe that
he's an echidna, just like how alot of Americans think Jesus was

(01:11:27):
white. So yeah.
And the Mormons thought he was literally American.
You know, maybe the Mormons wereon to something.
I'm I'm not going to talk bad about a religion that will let
me marry multiple. Oh my God, fucking pedocon

(01:11:55):
theory right here. What's that pedocon?
You don't know what pedicon is. Theory, theory, theory.
So it's a it's a theory that wasemerged from a meme, but it's
Pedocon theory where the basis of conservative thought is that
they effectively just want to bepedophiles specifically by

(01:12:16):
marrying, by marrying child wives and teenage wives, because
it's subservience. So it's OK.
There is a little more to it than that than the joke of, oh,
they're all pedophiles, right? I mean, they are.
That is that is like the evidence is, is mounting in
American conservatism, at least where it's like, yeah, they're
passing laws, particularly in the South and particularly in

(01:12:37):
among Baptist communities and Mormon communities.
It's like, yeah, they they kind of just want to marry teenagers
so children, right, so that theycan control them and enforce
this patriarchal fancy word for just enslaving women.
And you know it. It's, you know, at the at its

(01:12:58):
most animated and probably craingiest at this point.
Or at least do you think that's why there's so hands made tales,
hands made tales. Sorry, hands made tales.
Do you think that's why they're so afraid of gender identity?
Because they don't want women tobe like I'm a guy and then they
have no power over them. That that is the that is the
discourse right now where it is saying like, yeah, the freedom

(01:13:19):
for women to be able to say no, I'm I have always been actually
a man and I was, I suffered gender dysmorphia, which they
don't care about. It's more just like, yeah,
these. So from their point of view,
it's like, yeah, these women areare just saying that they're a
man and that so and this is thisgoes into another angle of all

(01:13:44):
transphobia or not all. Sorry, maybe not all because
there are, there are different, you know, doctrines of it or
whatever, but a bit a major one,particularly amongst men is oh,
trans women are men or sorry, I'm, I'm getting confused
between what they think and what's the reality.

(01:14:04):
But anyway, what I'm trying to say is for, for, for
conservative men, the fear is 0 If, if from their point of view,
if these women can just become men, I won't be able to fuck
them anymore. That's that is one of the major
cores of that strain of the transphobia.

(01:14:28):
Another one is the JK Rowling the the turf strain where it's
oh by because these these because these women are sick in
the head and then they think that they can just become men.
Then that means that it deludes the meaning of a woman.
And as a as a feminist, you know, quote UN quote feminist,

(01:14:50):
as a quote UN quote feminist, that that hurts me, right?
That hurts feminism because trans transism is a is a disease
that doesn't exist or whatever JK Rowling fucking says.
So anyway, sorry, I just wanted to state all of that for the
record, but yeah, no, you're, you're right.
That is basically one of them. And then it kind of lends itself
back to pedicon theory again. This is popular blue sky online.

(01:15:16):
This is not like a, a, a, a big,big, you know, studied thing,
but it because there are, there's a list of a literally
thousands of conservative politicians, probably just as
many thousands of conservative religious people, especially
Baptists here in America where they, they, they're just fucking

(01:15:37):
pedophiles. What the fuck is going on?
And you can the match. I think it was pro public.
No, it wasn't pro publica. It was another some other
publication was like, yeah, we tried coming up with not coming
up with, we tried compiling a list of liberal or Democrat, you

(01:15:59):
know, pedophiles, convicted sex offenders.
Yes, Yeah. And the list was extremely low
and very, very like kind of stretching it where it's like
this Young Democrats organization.
It's like local, you know, political Young Democrats group
was he was a pedophile. But it's nothing compared to

(01:16:21):
Speaker of the House of the United States Congress, Dennis
Hastert of Illinois. It was a the the the yeah
classic the longest serving House of yeah, the longest
serving House leader in Americanhistory was a is a convicted

(01:16:41):
unquestionable convicted pedophile.
And he was so for years. Trump is is at least a convicted
sexist. I and I should, I should say,
but if if comparing the massive conservative list and the
relatively low liberal list, it is specifically pedophiles
'cause you know, sex offenders of of any age that is a

(01:17:03):
Democrats everyone's. You know, that's everyone.
That's it if you're a politician.
There's a good chance if you're a guy politician, particularly
from New York, there's a good chance you're probably a sex
offender. But anyway.
Well, we're about to hear. About.
A lot of Democrat sex offenders,let me tell you.
If this list ever comes out onceTrump.
Well, that's what I was going tosay.

(01:17:25):
Yeah, a lot of Republican ones are going to be missing from it,
but a lot of Democrats are goingto be honest.
It's, it's honestly a very easy,it's a very simple solution for
the Republicans because they control so much of the
messaging. I'm actually surprised that.
It took this long for them to dothis.
I don't yeah, it's different forthe cause.
Yeah, just release a fake fucking list where it's just all

(01:17:47):
Republicans, throw in a couple of I'm sorry, it's all
Democrats, it's all Democrats. Throw in a couple Republicans
there to give it some buoyancy and it's like, yeah.
And like, who cares if like it later comes out that pro publica
did some due diligence and it's like, Oh yeah, we actually found
out this is a, a, a fake. No one's gonna fucking pay

(01:18:08):
attention to that because. Because one of the big things
about the the Epstein, what the Epstein list means in to the, to
popular, to the mainstream, right, What it means to the
mainstream conservatism, right? What it means is that they, they
don't care. True, like deep, deep, deep

(01:18:31):
down, they don't care about the pedophiles.
They don't care about the sex traffickers.
They they, they say they do, butthey really don't.
What they want is a literal listof people they can kill.
That is what they want. That is what conservatives,
conservatives want when they saythey want the Epstein list.

(01:18:55):
Now, of course, sane people wantthe abscene list because we
actually do want to find all thepedophiles and, or sex
traffickers and, and you know, put them in jail, right?
That that is forever for the rest of their lives.
That is what we actually want because we're good people,
normal people who have a sense of actual justice in reality.
And we don't, we actually don't give a fuck if if they're I

(01:19:16):
don't care if it's Bernie and AOC, if they're on the fucking
list and you know, they're foundto be part of, I mean, obviously
they're not, but like, if they're found to be sex
traffickers, then yeah, fuck them.
We don't care because we're goodpeople.
And that's, you know, part of the the everlasting irony of
that the left actually has a sense of justice or more willing
to throw people under the bus, whereas conservatives don't care
in the fall in line. But that's beside the point,

(01:19:37):
right? Conservatives, what they really
want from the Epstein list is yes, a literal kill list so that
they can exact either just quoteUN quote justice through the
through the state or vigilante justice and just go out and kill
whoever they want. And let's be honest, kill people
who aren't on the list and are just adjacent to these people,

(01:19:58):
right? That's what they want.
When you hear conservatives say abstein list, abstein list,
what? Replace the word abstein list
with kill list, kill list, kill it, Democrat kill list.
That's what they want, because fuck.
Conservatives in America especially are so fucking blood
hungry. They're just so fucking lead
addled, lead brain addled stupidthat the only way they can solve

(01:20:19):
societal problems is to either throw people in jail or kill
them. That is, that is literally it.
That is what it means to be a conservative in America.
You're too fucking stupid to understand society, society's
problems, and you think throwingpolice at the problem is going
to fix everything. You think bombing a country is
going to fix everything? You think, you know, just

(01:20:40):
killing all your enemies is going to fix anything and you'll
do whatever it takes to feel safe.
So you can watch TV and watch Blue Bloods on CBS at home every
fucking night and then grill in the backyard.
That's what they want. So yes, 500 years of Enchidna
guardians. I did the math 15 generations of
Enchidna guardians on that panel.
So Nick, that panel is insane. I'm moving on.

(01:21:02):
But that panel is insane to me where it's just the, the copy
paste, but then not copy paste. Actually, I'll, I'll give Ken
some credit on that. The, the, the changes in, in
Enchidna faces. This this panel is both
hilarious and kind of cool. There's one with a Mohawk.
Yeah, that's the cool one. Do you do you think that do you

(01:21:25):
think the the lighter skinned enchidnas were racist against
the darker skinned enchidnas? Well, there's so few left, I
don't think they can afford to be.
That's true. That's true.
It's kind of like how in the Fallout franchise human racism
is is not a thing, but they are racist against ghouls.
Do you think there's an Enchidnasociety and do we think Knuckles
knows about it? He needs to get laid at some.

(01:21:49):
Point. So that he can make another one,
another guardian. That's true.
That's true. That's a wow, Wow.
OK, OK, OK, OK. This is the whole thing now.
I said that that maybe it came off as a bit, but it was a
legitimate question, 'cause I'm like, I don't know what.
It is. Did it come off as a bit?

(01:22:09):
Yes. Yeah.
How do they? Do can he cross mate with the
Rouge? Is that his plan in the future?
Probably, but I would think thatwould show in some way, right?
I mean, a Kindle with bat wings would be all right.
Wait, wait, wait. Do you?
Oh, yeah. I, I, I already had the thought
and I was like, I'm not going tomake that joke.

(01:22:30):
But you know what? Go You, you, you make your joke.
No, no, I think this is this is either the joke or a different
joke. Do you think the reason Knuckles
is so fucking stupid is because he's inbred?
Oh no, I thought you were gonna say how hot would it be to have
an echidna with huge with no knockers, just a nice flat chest

(01:22:52):
that they can go spy and be a good spy one.
Yeah man, like give her a real character beyond boobs.
Yeah, yeah, no, he's definitely inbred.
But I feel like you would have taken a lot shorter to get.
Different gene genealogy. I don't know how that works.

(01:23:16):
I don't know if if that's how itworks, but I also don't know how
that works at all. It'd be really funny if he's
just misremembering all this andthis entire line of people is
just fucking stupid. Oh.
My God, that would be one of my favorite plot points ever.
I would, I would, I would respect anybody who would like

(01:23:38):
do that and commit to it or they're just like they, they
like, they, they believe this truth.
So like, like I got to I'm, I'm so important.
I'm, I was literally chosen by my bloodline to protect this,
this thing of infinite power. And then you just find out like

(01:24:01):
5 years from now, like you find the real history of the world
and like, it's just some gem. It's not even like a chaos
emerald. It's just some random gem.
And they just made-up this like lore because like they were just
bored or something one day and they're like, we got to, we got
to make, we got to impart meaning in our lives, you know.
And so the great grandfather, great, great, great, great,

(01:24:23):
great, great, great, great, great great great grandfather
was just like, I'm going to create this lore to imbue
meaning because I'm a nihilist and nothing is ever going to
happen unless if you believe in something full heartedly.
My God, what's that it? It's honestly the plot point to

(01:24:43):
Preacher the comic book series. I've heard good things, I've
never read it. I've I think I remember reading
like one or two issues, but either way the plot point of so
I guess spoiler. This is a spoiler for Preacher,
but Preacher is effectively he finds the descendant of Jesus
Christ, so it turns out he did have a child.
Oh yeah, the whole 20s that theydon't talk about in the Bible.

(01:25:05):
Yeah, I assume he was fucking. Yeah, and it turns out that, oh,
well, if he the logic is the disciples decide, well, this is
obviously Jesus Christ. This is a pure being, so.
And yeah, sorry, I should also mention he has two kids, right?
A son and a daughter. So guess what?

(01:25:27):
Like, well, we got to keep it inthe family, right?
Oh, God, it's so, so, so the, the whole Catholic Church in
the, in the book preacher, the whole Catholic Church is just
this massive like system to keepthe line of Jesus Christ going.
And by the time it it reaches the 20th century or 21st century
where preacher discovers them, Jesus is just the most inbred,

(01:25:48):
non functioning human being alive.
And it's, it's a beautiful pointof irony because I think they
were hyping up, obviously it's Jesus, right?
They were hyping up the descendant of Jesus to be
someone. And it's a fun fact in the TV
show, it's played by what's his name, the Joker, The the.
Witch Joker. Suicide Squad.

(01:26:10):
Oh that fucker. That dude sucks.
Jared Leto. Yes.
So it's Jesus is played by. Sorry.
Jesus's descendant is played by Jared Leto, Yes.
That fits. Oh my gosh.
Is there anything else we need to cover here?
I. Don't think there's anything

(01:26:30):
else we can cover because this is just the same.
Hopefully they wrap it up and just fucking final he finds the
chaos. I hope they never wrap it up and
I hope they just keep on imparting lore and lore and lore
and it just gets so convoluted. We're like, we don't know what's
up and what's down anymore. And that's.
Issue 500 It's just Knuckles still walking.

(01:26:53):
Through the through the fucking otherness.
It'd be really fucking funny if he's still lost.
And he just keeps making up shit.
He's like not even misremembering it now he's just
making up shit. And it's like he's not
acknowledging anyone, but peopleare overhearing him and he's
like, dude, this guy is awesome.And he just like starts his own
cult. It's like Forrest Gump S cult
where they just see him running and they run behind him and it's

(01:27:16):
like, OK, what's he coming up with today?
What's his What's this great history today, Master and.
And that's the issue. Only 379 left to go.
I'm Nick, I stream at twitch.tv,Mojosaurus, and my personal blue
sky is at Mojosaurus. I'm Dominic.
You can find me and my Jazz and People Power adventures in

(01:27:37):
Chicago at Blue Collar Jazz. You can also find me on My Blue
Sky at Dom Quan. You can follow us on socials I
got to talk fast. I can talk as you got to talk
faster. We also have a video version of
the podcast where you can followalong with panels and watch our
handsome faces. You can write in the show at
Sonic Grams. I got to talk fast.com, ask us
questions, provide corrections and give us your opinion on this

(01:27:59):
week's issue. Don't forget to like and
subscribe to our channel and remember when life keeps going
fast. You got to talk fast and just
get. Thrilled.
I love you. Gotta Talk Fast was written by
Nick Folkerts and edited by Dominic Guanzon.

(01:28:21):
Intro and outro themes recorded by Dominic Guanzon gotta go
fast. Originally composed by Norman J
Grossfeld, Joseph Garrity, and Russell Velasquez.
Gotta talk, gotta talk, gotta talk, gotta talk, Gotta talk,
gotta toss fast. Gotta gotta, gotta talk, Gotta

(01:28:45):
talk fast. Gotta talk fast.
Gotta talk fast. Gotta talk fast.