What Did I Miss? (October 2025 Bonus Episode)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:12):
This is the Wait for It Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 (00:16):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait for It
Podcast.
I'm your co-host, Phil Barrera,aka Phil the Filipino.

SPEAKER_07 (00:21):
And I'm your other co-host, Mr.
Eric Almighty.
And for this edition of What DidI Miss for the month of October,
we're bringing back one of ourfavorite guests and one of our
most sought-after guests ever.
Way better than that guy fromthe Shortbox podcast.

SPEAKER_04 (00:37):
I I agree.
That guy just caused nothing butproblems.
He's ruining surprises.
We don't have our Patreon, ourgift box yet.
So let's introduce his otherhalf.
We're gonna introduce both ofour guests here.
Uh, but we do have a first-timeron What Did I Miss?
And you know, Eric, we as wehave read brought this back the

(00:58):
series back into the rotation,it's been a lot of fun getting
to hang out with our friends.
So for the first time on theWait For podcast, we do have
Blyth Milligan, who is the hostof Everything Is Logistics and
one half of the brain behind theJPU, which has been such an
amazing resource for us and manypeople in Jacksonville.
So, Blythe, thank you so muchfor taking the time.

(01:20):
How are you doing tonight?
And welcome in.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22):
Thank you so much for having me.
I I I really enjoyed that intro.
I'm sure uh Botor willappreciate it too.

SPEAKER_04 (01:29):
Yeah, we we he better you better listen to
this.
So I was super happy to have youhere.
And of course, as we mentioned,and as Eric mentioned, uh we
have a returning guest.
I think this is your third time,second, yeah, I think third time
on What Did I Miss?
And we were fortunate to see herback at what was it?
Yeah, Okala Comic Con.
So a couple of weeks ago.

(01:49):
So Sophie Soupninja.
Uh Soph, good to see you.
And how are you doing heretonight?
Welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 (01:55):
Yeah, thank you so much.
So happy to be here.
Um, doing awesome.
Uh, keep doing some theme parkdesign stuff, keep doing some
cosplay stuff.
Um, very happy, very integratedinto uh all the fun stuff.
So, yeah, happ great to be here.

SPEAKER_04 (02:09):
Yeah, whenever we see Soph, Eric, it's always like
a last-minute thing becausewe're it's always leading into a
convention, and then we see theannouncement like Soup Ninjaha
will be at Brick City AnimeFestival.
So we're expecting to see you inJanuary.
Very last minute.
So hopefully we will see youthere.
But uh yeah, this is what did Imiss for anybody that is joining

(02:30):
us.
If you're brand new or if youneed a little bit of a reminder,
this is a very casual episode inwhich we talk about pop culture
stories from the previous monththat you may have missed out on.
It's a very it's a really funepisode.
And then at the end we play alittle game.
And Eric, who has been prettysuccessful at Cahoots this year.
We're gonna see if our guestscan knock him off his pedestal

(02:50):
this month.
But uh very, very excited.
Eric, anything else we need togo over with our guests before I
introduce some new chaos to howwe decide.

SPEAKER_07 (02:59):
Oh my god, I forgot! I forgot.
Well, I'm sorry in advance thatyou guys are gonna have to go
through this.
Typically, traditionally Oryou're welcome.
Traditionally, we use a wheel todetermine uh who goes first.
There's been an occasion wherewe've used virtual dice uh to do
so as well.
Unfortunately, Phil got his handon a different method.

(03:21):
Uh, one more in turn, but we'llsee.

SPEAKER_04 (03:26):
And uh maybe Phil, you want to explain this here?
Yeah, I got it.
You can you can stop.
So this is I I think I saw thison someone else's podcast,
because of course we just stoleit from somebody else.
And if you can't see, if you'reif you're listening, I very
highly recommend that you goover to the YouTube page and
watch the audio portion.

(03:47):
Let me turn this music downbecause it's very loud.
And we are going to be racinghorses to see who goes first.
I've actually started using thisto decide where I go to dinner
as well, and uh very once again,highly recommended.
Eric, I don't what do we saythis time around?
Because it's not spin thatwheel, so what do we do?

SPEAKER_07 (04:05):
Can I add a gunshot to my roadcaster?

SPEAKER_04 (04:09):
Oh, you should have done that.
I should have done that.
What does it look like when yougo full screen?
Um have you tried that?
Yeah, but I just can't.
Well, I guess I don'tnecessarily Oh, here we go.
Oh, perfect.
There we go.

SPEAKER_07 (04:20):
That was the thing that looks better.
Oh, you gotta start over.

SPEAKER_04 (04:23):
No! Maybe if you go back to the timer, it'll be what
it was.
It's too late, Eric.
Uh, now I just have to read it.

SPEAKER_07 (04:30):
Who are those people?

SPEAKER_04 (04:31):
It's just random people they put in here.

SPEAKER_07 (04:32):
Okay.
Well, anyway, yeah, my bad.
Well, it does look nicer, butuh, I'm excited to do this for
the first time officially onWhat Did I Miss, and uh we will
do this each time to determine.

SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
No, there's other ones.

SPEAKER_07 (04:45):
Oh, never mind.
We're gonna do this just for thefirst one.
Uh so many pop-ups.
We got it.
That's not a great site.
We might have to start payingfor this, which is gonna have to
go against the budget.
Uh Phil, I don't know what totell you.
Uh ready set, go.
Race those horses.
Yeehaw?
Oh, Yeehaw motherfucker would begreat.

unknown (05:07):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (05:08):
No, I don't think so.
Okay.

SPEAKER_07 (05:10):
Well, we all have to say it at the same time.
Are we still doing that?

SPEAKER_04 (05:13):
What, spin that wheel?
Or no, what are we doing?
How about race?

SPEAKER_07 (05:16):
We should have thought of this.

SPEAKER_04 (05:17):
How about yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_07 (05:19):
Race those horses?
Okay, so Blight Sophie, you'regonna have to come off a mute
and at we're gonna count down.
We're gonna go three, two, one,and in that same cadence, and
you're gonna say, we're allgonna say together, race those
horses.

SPEAKER_04 (05:34):
And uh for audio only, I will narrate the horse
race.

SPEAKER_07 (05:38):
Yes, yes, Phil will provide commentary.
All right.
I would tell you if you'reready, but I don't think any of
us are.

SPEAKER_06 (05:44):
Blythe, Sophie, three, two, one, race those
horses.

SPEAKER_04 (05:53):
All right, and they're off to a good start, and
everybody is pretty neck andneck.
Eric is out to an early leadwith about 10 seconds left in
the race.
Eric is kind of pulling away.
I think Blythe and Phil are noteven in the conversation.
Eric is gonna run.

SPEAKER_06 (06:05):
Oh, oh, Blythe at the last second!

SPEAKER_07 (06:07):
Oh I literally drank my water thinking I was good.

SPEAKER_03 (06:14):
I was like, I was gonna get some going first.
Well, I will say it's veryfitting because we throw a huge
derby party, a huge KentuckyDerby party every single year.
So when you brought up horseracing, I said, Well, uh, oh,
I'm sold.

SPEAKER_04 (06:28):
There you go.
Look at that.
And and your horse saved itsenergy for that last push uh
right there to take it on thestreet.
It's very important in horseracing.
Yeah, you gotta pace yourself.
So that was fantastic.
Yeah, this is the best decisionI think I've ever made on the
show.
So, Belith, you are new here andyou're gonna get your first
crack at it.
So if you do have multiplestories, you get your pick of

(06:48):
the litter as far as which storyyou would like to present.
So, what did what did we miss inOctober 2025?

SPEAKER_03 (06:56):
I would say, I and we were talking about this a
little bit before we startedrecording, but I feel like the
perfect topic to get startedwith is the theme park wars.
So we have those going on.
We have excellent panelists toto talk about this with Sophie,
uh having that theme parkexperience.
I grew up going to theme parksand recently were able to

(07:16):
organize an entire trip with acouple different family members
and get them all over to EpicUniverse.
And it was just very evidentfrom going to that theme park
because right when a lot of thetheme, all of the theme parks
closed down in 2020, a lot ofthe Imagineers from Disney were
laid off and let go.

(07:36):
And during that time frame,Universal hired a lot of that
creative talent in order to helpthem build a new theme park.
And so at the same time, youhave Universal building an
entire new theme park, which isuh the first in my lifetime that
I've experienced where you kindof have that blank slate of what
would you, if you were to builda theme park, how would you what

(07:58):
what stories would you tell andhow would you frame it out?
Versus, you know, you haveDisney, who is essentially, I
love Disney.
I will I'm gonna preface that,uh, but you have Disney as a
company that it takes them fiveor six years to copy paste a
ride in Tron and get thatconstructed at Magic Kingdom.

(08:18):
And so I think it's a reallyinteresting display of what's
going on when you have this justmagical experience, for lack of
a better phrase, over at acompeting theme park in Epic
Universe versus Disney, wherethe last few times that I've
gone, there's a lot ofmaintenance issues.
The pricing is always it's italways goes up, it never goes

(08:39):
down.
Uh, it there's probably liketheme park etiquette for a lot
of the guests that there ithasn't really been the same
since before 2020.
And so there's a lot of thingsthat are going on in sort of the
Disney sphere that we haven'treally seen from a company
standpoint, uh especially sincetheir pre-renaissance days.
So like late 70s, early 80s,when they were kind of

(09:01):
struggling as a company, and itfeels like Disney is maybe in
that same position now wherethey're just focused on things
that are gonna only bring themprofits, things that are uh more
like nostalgia-bit remakes,they're a lot less creatively
risky.
But then you have, you know,Universal, which is kicking up
the competition with uh anentire theme park that is just

(09:24):
so beautifully themed from landto land.
I think there's four or five keylands within Epic Universe, and
there's so uh Sophie, correct meif I'm wrong, but there's the
Dark Universe, there's umconstellation area, there's uh
how to train your dragon,there's Harry Potter, of course.
Um, and then what else am Iblanking on?

(09:44):
I'm missing something else,something big.
Oh yeah, Jesus, yeah, anattendant, which was uh very
overstimulating as far as a youknow a theme park experience can
go.
But I just I I find it reallyfascinating for the first time
that I'm able to, as an adult,I'm able to witness how these
two big companies are competingagainst each other, and even you

(10:06):
know, seeing news stories abouthow Disney executives are
photographed inside of EpicUniverse to kind of check out
the competition.
I'm fascinated by all of that.
So I don't really know wherethat leaves the discussion, but
we had a pretty lengthy, youknow, talk about you know
different rides and differenttheming and lands that we really
enjoyed.
And I just I think the wholebusiness and creative aspect of

(10:27):
it is just uh something that'sthat's going to challenge Disney
for the next probably 10 or 15years.

SPEAKER_04 (10:34):
Yeah, and that's a that's a good thing.
Not only, I mean, when we talkabout like obviously here in the
in when we're discussing themeparks, but like competition is
always good.
Like it's going to uh Eric, youand I are big wrestling fans,
and for the longest time, WWEdidn't have any competitors.
And then Tony Khan stroll inwith his billions of dollars and
opens one up, and look wherethey are now, they're thriving,
they're doing fantastic.

(10:54):
So any type of uh competition isgoing to help, and like for a
long time, and and so if you canspeak on this, if you know, as
far as where you know where thisis at now, like I think Disney
was able to coast, even though Idon't go to a lot of theme
parks, I watch a lot of themepark content on YouTube because
just like you Blythe, all thatstuff is very interesting to me.
Like the last one of the mostrecent videos I've watched is

(11:17):
kind of just the problem withUniversal in general.
I mean, they do they have a lotof screen rides, which people
don't like, and also theentrance to Universal.
It's there's not in order tolike revamp Universal, they're
gonna have to level the wholecity and like and like if they
want to put in new rides, andlike some of those new rides
they put in have been a disasterand like just have not been it.

(11:39):
So Soph, really interested tosee or to hear what you have to
say about this conversation andand what what do you think
Disney is gonna be forced to do,you know, now that Epic Universe
has been this big hit.
Of course, it's had its hiccups,you know, and tragedies as theme
parks do, but like where do youthink this goes from here as far
as how Disney needs to respond?

SPEAKER_01 (11:57):
Yeah, absolutely.
Great question and very wellsaid from both of you.
Um great analysis of of kind ofthe whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 (12:03):
I think it's absolutely- She's like, you're
both wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
So no, uh quite the contrary.
Um it's always it's always so sogreat to hear like kind of like
how that's how that's scene,especially because I'm so in it
sometimes where it's hard to seelike the outside perspective.
Um, but I honestly I completelyagree.
And what's really interestingabout you know Disney as a
company, especially, of course,it's like the most one of the

(12:27):
most like legacy, you know,holding names of all time, but
especially in the theme parkworld, because um, you know,
they wrote the book, right?
They invented the whole conceptof a theme park based on from an
amusement park to theme park.
Um, and I think that wentunchallenged for some time.
Uh, of course, we haveUniversal's competition, but um,
I think they did kind of Disneyis um functioning as like such a

(12:48):
huge tourist designation,especially in this city here in
Orlando.
Um, I think they just kind ofthey got a little bit
comfortable, um, and I thinkdidn't keep pushing the
innovative nature of it.
Um, like you mentioned, theyredid Trong here, um, which, you
know, is is a good ride and it'sa great, you know, thematically.
I think it's a really bigimprovement for to Marlon and
the Magic Kingdom, but it is acopy paste from Shanghai.

(13:10):
It's not a newly invented thing.
I think the last time we didthat was Guardians, which uh was
great.
Um, but I think to your point,Epic Universe is really from the
ground up.
Um, you know, being there, whenI went there the first time, my
mom, um, also a huge theme parkperson, she had her honeymoon at
Epcot.
I called her and I was like, Ithink this is what Epcot felt
like in the 80s for the firsttime because it's all fresh and

(13:33):
new and interesting.
Um, and it goes beyond just IPrecreation, which is a lot of
what the rides are now, is justlike, like you mentioned, Phil,
like the screen rides are like,Oh, you like Transformers.
Well, now you can beTransformers.
And that is the ethos ofUniversal was just IP um
recreation and their olderparks.
But Epic Universe is a breath offresh air in terms of you know,

(13:54):
Celestial Park is it's anentirely new concept, just like
Epcot was.
Um, and it seems like Disney'salmost doing the inverse, where
they're really relying more,like you said, um, on the
nostalgia and the classic, theold stuff.
Like you remember these movies,right?
Remember these things, but kindof being afraid to innovate in
the same way that Universal hasbeen.

SPEAKER_04 (14:18):
Yeah, Eric, and you know, you've obviously been to
Epic, but the two of us havebeen to both of these parks
quite a bit in the last coupleof years, much to my dismay.
But I've done I go uhregardless.
So, what has been your assomeone who you know uh you're
in that demographic where you'regonna bring your entire family
and you're gonna you're gonnacommit the time and commit the

(14:39):
money to this.
So, like, based off of yourexperiences between going to
Disney with the family and thenhaving this new experience at
Epic Universe and then tying inUniversal as well, which one of
those has been a more valuableexperience do you think when
when you guys came away fromthat, you know, those trips?

SPEAKER_07 (14:54):
Yeah, it's tough because they both have their
like their own perks, uh theirown benefits.
For as much as Disney gets a lotof flack for like the genie uh,
you know, program and all ofthat, it it works for me.
Like I I set up in the beginningof the day, I pick my lightning
lanes, and I kind of go.

(15:14):
Where you know, going to Epic,it's been a minute since I've
been to the universal side ofthings where it's just get your
fast pass, uh, which is very,very pricey.
But at the end of the day, amuch simpler process, worth it.
Uh, maybe not getting into thepark easier, but once you're in
the park, it is much simpler uhfrom that point.
And Epic Universe is also stillworking out a few kinks, so

(15:35):
there might have been somehiccups here and there.
But overall, I'd say like thebefore and after is a little bit
cleaner in that aspect forDisney, the during a little bit
easier and smoother forUniversal.
And I think, you know, both ofthem have different things that
you could enjoy.
It's gonna just come down todemographic for me.
Like ultimately, Universal hasalways seemed catered to like

(15:57):
that older crowd.
And I think Epic Universe is anice turn, you know, in the
opposite direction.
Uh, Disney hasn't really quitedone everything they need to do
in that area.
I think.
I think they are always going totry to appeal to the younger
generations.
Maybe some recent changes willdo that, and maybe some future
improvements.
I mean, Disney's committed tolike a whole buttload of money

(16:21):
to improve.
We'll see what that looks likein the next decade.
For the short term, I think likea move like Epic Universe is a
really big power play, though,because I think Universal has
some different appeals thatDisney just isn't qualified to
meet right now, and now they'retrying to attack that same
demographic.
So it's really interesting tosee like long term what's gonna

(16:41):
happen.
I think it is just gonna be abattle of money, and you would
think that who's gonna beatDisney in a battle of money, but
we'll see.
Uh, I would agree though, Blythedid mention this, like some
maintenance stuff and thingsthat are going on at Disney is a
little disheartening.
We wanted to ride the PrincessTiana ride, and we learned as we
were there how many issues havebeen going on with that ride

(17:04):
since it has been there.
So the fact that it went down isactually not a surprise.
We probably should have expectedit, but again, that wasn't
something we thought.
When we're thinking of Disney,you're like, that's not an
ongoing issue.
They check their rides all thetime, they're the top, tippity
top.
And uh, I don't know.
That is a glaring example, Ithink, of what Blythe was

(17:24):
mentioning that I wanted tobring to the forefront from a
personal experience.
Those things didn't always usedto get attached to Disney's
names, and it seems like publicperception doing some research
since then, it seems like it isstarting to get attached and
it's starting to make a littlebit of a bad rap for them.

SPEAKER_03 (17:39):
Yeah, I don't I don't think you can ride Haunted
Mansion without it breaking downat least once.
And I love Haunted Mansion.

SPEAKER_07 (17:45):
I don't think I've ridden the Haunted Mansion
without it breaking down.
I'm pretty sure every time I'vebeen stuck at the graveyard.
So you're right.

SPEAKER_04 (17:51):
Eric, can you bring up that picture of Grayson on
the Haunted Mansion, please?

SPEAKER_07 (17:55):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, we we uh we brought my sonto the Tower of Terror.
He wanted to do it.
He wanted to do it.
Never again.
Never again.
We've spent two theme park tripsfixing the trauma of Tower of
Terror.
So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (18:10):
Well, I I will say to kind of piggyback off of what
you were saying, one thing thatreally worries me is the uh, and
everybody talks about this, butthe affordability of of Disney
and how as a family we used togo all the time as kids.
And as you go as children, itbecomes as an adult, it becomes
nostalgic for you to go back tothe parks.

(18:33):
I worry that they that Disneyhas priced out the average
family.
So they're making those memoriesless and less, if they're making
them at all.
And so they're creating thislike future business pipeline
problem where you have thesechildren that then turn into
teenagers, then turn then turninto adults that are not gonna
have that same nostalgia forgoing to the theme park as they

(18:56):
did as kids because they cannever afford it.
And so that that's what doesworry me about Disney.
I mean, I'm I'm from like sortof reading the tea leaves and
you know, reading between thelines, I think they've kind of
just like given up to EpicUniverse for the next couple of
years.
They're investing, you know, ina new land in uh Animal Kingdom,

(19:16):
and uh hopefully they'reinvesting more back into their
maintenance, which they've cutback severely on maintenance
ever since they reopened afterthe 2020 closures.
Uh but it I hope it's not toolate for them.
And it feels crazy even sayingthat about Disney.
I don't know that it'll ever betoo late for them, but Epic
Universe is absolutely eatinginto some of that market share

(19:37):
because they they've createdthat environment that's
welcoming to all age ranges.
Whereas, you know, Disney doescater to more of a younger crowd
outside of Epcot where you cankind of you know drink around
the world and that's fun fromlike an adult perspective.
Um, but it I I do think thatthey're facing a few different
unique challenges that it's onlytime will tell, you know, within

(19:58):
five years what those attendwhat the attendance looks like
at each of those differentparks.

SPEAKER_04 (20:04):
And how often, like in our lifetime, in in my
lifetime, this is the only thesecond new park that's ever
opened.
Like Animal Kingdom opened uplike right.
It was like what 99, somethinglike that, 2000s.
So this is the first time likewe've gotten a new park, like a
lot of people like in our in ourage group, and that just does
not happen.
Which, so yeah, people are gonnaflock to it, and it's gonna be

(20:25):
people are going to be veryexcited.
What I want to know, we we weretalking about like we were
throwing around uh likeDollywood earlier on, you know,
and and I just looked it upwhile we were talking about it
because Blyth you were talkingabout pricing people out.
And this is not only happeningwith theme parks, it's happening
with sporting events, it'shappening with professional
wrestling, right?
Eric, like they priced out thefamily, and we definitely don't

(20:45):
want to see that happen here.
Like, we have friends with kidswho have never been able to take
their kids to Disney um becauseof how much it costs.
So, what I would like to know,Soph, is like when when you're,
you know, in in your business,do you have like the desire to
see these other parks?
Because we talked aboutDollywood's winning awards every
single year.
The things that I if I'm gonnaspend that kind of money and go
to a park, I don't want to go toa park that I've already been

(21:08):
to.
I want to go to UniversalShanghai that has like the most
amazing Jurassic ride, dark ridethat I've ever seen in my life.
I want to go to Tokyo Disneylandthat that's also paired with
traveling internationally, youknow?
Those are the kind ofexperiences like if I'm gonna
spend that kind of money, Iwould look elsewhere.
So, what what do you think?
So in your line of business, inyour line of work, do you find
yourself wanting to go to theseother parks outside of, you

(21:30):
know, Disney and in Universaland find, man, what is what's
like bringing people in toDollywood?
What is it about Dollywood inPigeon Forge, Tennessee, that
makes people want to come visit?

SPEAKER_01 (21:42):
Oh my gosh, absolutely.
I mean, that's what's been sogreat.
Um, we mentioned it in thepre-show for a second, but
that's what's been so greatabout working for a third party
is that I get to have exposureto so many things, even beyond
theme parks, um, and kind ofmore of like regional locations
that cater more to thecommunity, um, or regional
parks, even um like Dollywood,or um like these Six Flags parks

(22:05):
that um they're kind ofreinvigorating as well with the
merger with uh Cedar Fair.
Um, so there's all these kindsof things that are really
happening, kind of shaking up inthe theme park world.
And something else I wanted tomention too, to tie it back into
um the kind of park wars andkind of fighting for the same
demographic.
I don't know if you guys heardabout this also, but Universal
is doing a really good job atdiversifying um their kind of

(22:28):
demographic and their parks aswell.
Um they opened the uh I think Iforgot it's called uh Halloween
Horror Nights, Horror Unleashedin Las Vegas.
And I believe that's you know,of course, more way more adults
adult-centric.
Um that's a year-round um horrornights, not to tease my my
conversation for later, butthat's a uh year night uh

(22:48):
year-round horror nights kind ofuh horror attraction, if you
will.
And then in Frisco, Texas, theyannounced the Universal Kids
Park, um, which is a park thatkind of focuses more on their
dreamworks uh kids' IPs.
They just announced thatrecently.
Um I think it's opening nextyear.
Um, but that's prettyinteresting as well because
that's basically coming forDisney's demographic and it's
geologically right betweenFlorida and California.

(23:10):
Um, so there's all kinds ofstuff that I think Universal is
doing really well uh in that waytoo.

SPEAKER_04 (23:16):
I'll also say this for that Frisco park because I
used to live right in that area.
Like there is a ton of space,it's about 45 minutes from the
airport, and both airportsactually, there's two airports
in Dallas.
So yeah, focusing on those, thatIP, that's seeing a little bit
of a renaissance, like with thepopularity of how to change a
dragon, and then whatever otheryou know worlds they want to

(23:37):
bring in, super smart, man.
They're coming, they're they'rethey're making it interesting.
So um, yeah.
But uh that the what I rememberwe hearing, I was like, Frisco,
like that's interesting.
That's where the mall I used togo to in high school is.
Like what they're gonna get auniversal park, so we shall see.
But yeah, a lot of veryinteresting conversation, and
I'll send you this on one ofthese YouTube uh pages, Blythe,

(23:59):
that I watch all the time aboutall this this park stuff,
because again, it is sointeresting about like the
layouts and how that affects umjust the park overall.
So um, yeah, but great first uhum conversation there, Blythe.
Well, look, you're a pro alreadykilling it.
Way way better than Bodder,right, Eric?
So uh let's let's bring in thenext thing here, which I found,

(24:24):
which is Lucky Traw.

SPEAKER_07 (24:26):
What the hell?

SPEAKER_04 (24:28):
This I don't think there's anything we can I don't
know what we would say for thisone.

SPEAKER_07 (24:33):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (24:34):
Let me make sure I put I've removed Okay, but I
scroll.
Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_07 (24:37):
Okay, yeah.
Alright.
Alright.
So what's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_04 (24:40):
It's gonna like it's just gonna spin it.
Yeah, it's gonna spin kind oflike a slot machine and give us
a name.
I wasn't confident enough tobring Dice in, so we're getting
lucky draw horses and the wheelin a moment.
Oh, we are getting the wheel.
No, no, we're there's a goodrotation.

SPEAKER_07 (25:00):
Okay, cool.
Uh yeah, no, I mean, I guess forthis one, I guess for this one
there's not much to say.
So why don't you uh draw?
Oh no, I got it.
I got it.
Alright, everybody come off ofmute.
Alright.
We're gonna do three, two, one,same cadence.
Draw that name.

(25:20):
Oh, there we go.
Oh, perfect.
Yeah, there you go.
There we go.
That shouldn't have taken solong to figure out on my own.
So, all right, guys, let's doit.

SPEAKER_06 (25:27):
Three, two, one, draw, draw that name.

SPEAKER_07 (25:34):
Oh, that worked out.
There you go.
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (25:40):
Look at that.
Look at the presentation.
See, we're expanding.
So we're upgrading.
It's experimental.
All right, cool.
Well, Eric, it's back to thenormal way where both of the
guests go first and then we golast.
So uh Soph, what did we miss inOctober 2025?

SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
Well, it's very interesting because I had two
kind of um two topics uh tochoose from and they kind of
fall under an umbrella.
Um, so I think I'll mention themboth um since uh Blake mentioned
theme park stuff.
Um I'll start there and I'llmove into the second one.
But um Yeah, I was gonna justtalk of honestly super excited
about Halloween Horror Nights.

(26:17):
Um, because you know, we we havethe Frequent Fear Pass, we've
gone a couple times, and I thinkmy umbrella topic um that I
would like to discuss was kindof like the uh kind of modern
adaptation of media.
Um, because this year atHalloween Horror Nights, they
had um a quite a few IP housesthat I think were phenomenally
done, uh notably being Fallout76, or no, sorry, not Fallout,

(26:41):
well based kind of a Fallout 76,but based on Fallout the show.
Uh and then um Five Nights atFreddy's, of course, um, which
I'm a big fan of.
Um if you guys are seeing theI'm actually wearing the the
shirt from the event.
Um, but yeah, I just thoughtthat um it's super interesting
to see um, you know, kind oflike the the demographic for

(27:01):
that and uh people showing up,coming out, dressing in cosplay,
being super excited about it,the wait times being insane, and
most importantly the theme, thethematic uh overlay of it, and
just seeing people engage withmedia um in that way at
Halloween Horror Nights.
I mean, I've said it every timethat I've gone, but it it's

(27:22):
almost reminiscent of like a conenvironment.
Um, because you have all thesefans of these different medias
being able to experience it in away that is fully immersive.
Um, just to talk about like theFive Nights house.
Um, Jim Henson did all thepuppets just like they did for
the Five Nights movies.
Um, it follows the story of themovie.
So much time effort.

(27:43):
I mean, it it was absolutelyincredible the amount of
craftsmanship and work that wentinto that.
And even beyond just the wholethe the house itself, the
haunted house itself, um theyactually turned one of their
pizzerias into uh the pizzeriafrom Five Nights.
Um so they actually had themed athemed menu.
Um they had a very derpy lookingcupcake that was based on the

(28:05):
cupcake character.
Um, and it was just it was socool to see, um, kind of to our
point earlier about like moreregional, more like community
experiences like that.
You don't really see a seasonaloverlay done like that outside
of Halloween horror nights.
Um, and I have so muchappreciation for um people's
own, like kind ofcommunity-based uh haunted

(28:25):
houses and things like that.
But to see it in this way withso much budget and backing from
these awesome IPs that peoplereally care about from video
games of all things, I thinkthat's awesome.
Uh every year they've done anykind of house that has to do
with video games or pop culture.
I mean, it's the most popularhouse by far.
Um, so I thought that was superneat just talking about that and

(28:48):
kind of media adaptation leadinginto the second little note I
had, which actually happenedtoday, was that they um they've
been teasing it for a while, butyou guys know I'm a big One
Piece fan.
Um, and they just announced therelease date for the season two
of the One Piece live action uhnext year in March.
So very much looking forward tothat.

(29:09):
I think the first season wasreally great, and I know we've
talked a little bit about in thepast about anime adaptations to
live action and how that can bepretty finicky and very
difficult to do with theartist's um kind of vision in
mind and keeping that intact.
Um but I think one piece, uh Iknow I'm I'm a little bit biased
because I love the media somuch, but in the same vein, um

(29:31):
watching the live actionactually felt like I was
watching the original animeagain with the same ethos and
same passion behind it.
It's not perfect because itcan't be perfect because it's an
anime to live action, but um, Iam very excited to see how they
handle the rest of the series,especially if the first season
was kind of more of a prologueto the rest, um, and just hoping

(29:53):
that it keeps up the reputationof being the best anime live
action so far, in my opinion atleast.
Um, so yeah, I think.
I think I just wanted to talkabout kind of how these medias
are being adapted and I thinkwe're I think we're finally hit
a good stride of an era wherethese medias are being not only
respected and and properlyre-recreated and made, but also

(30:15):
allowing people to relive theirfavorite shows, games, movies,
in a way that we haven't reallyseen before.

SPEAKER_04 (30:22):
Yeah, Eric, I want to throw this to you first
because I'm surprised becauseyou have a horror kid in your
household.
Yeah.
I cannot believe you you have hehasn't like has he asked to go
to following horror kids?

SPEAKER_07 (30:33):
He kind of like he's aware that there's a five nights
thing there, and obviously he'spretty obsessed with it.
Um, you know, he's uh he's moreof a security breach kid.
So like when he talks about fivenights, it's mainly security
breach.
So he's like Sun Drop andMoondrop are like his favorite
characters, like those types ofthings.
If we were going securitybreach, we'd probably be there.
The only reason we didn't,honestly, because the Fallout

(30:54):
stuff looks cool, the terrifierstuff, Phil.
Uh, we're obviously wrestlingfans, the horror, the why it
sticks was like just a coolconcept, and it was nice to see
that integrated.
I think to what Sophie wassaying, like the amount of media
that's in there from horror towrestling, horror, like that's
just crazy amount, right?
The last of us, two years ago.

(31:15):
Yeah, so like I think it's agreat event.
You did mention though, one ofthe things that I'm probably not
gonna spend my money because thewait times, and you know, we
talked about Epic Universe inthe pre-show a little bit, and
uh obviously a little bit hereon this episode.
The wait times for that are kindof expected because it's new.
Where like Halloween HorrorNights, it seems like this is
the complaint every year.

(31:36):
You know, now correct me if I'mwrong, but like that's whenever
I consider going, the years Iconsider going, the thing I
start hearing as the precursoris better get that fast pass.
And even then, wait long waittimes, and it's really the only
reason I haven't spent themoney.
I kind of made a decision likearound the time I was going to
Epic Universe in the summer, Istarted to get the idea of what

(31:59):
a Halloween Horror Knight mightlook like, and I was like, I'm
gonna probably have to pick one.
And the one that I picked wasEpic Universe, so I had a really
good time.
Family of three going to make avacation out of it.
Uh I would love to go, but Ijust don't know for the money
and for the amount of timeyou're having to wait for
essentially a limited timeevent.
I don't know if it's necessarilyworth it.
Uh, but man, am I jealous?

(32:21):
Like, I've heard nothing butgood things, the houses look
really fantastic.
It's an event I would definitelylove to go to, but yeah, that's
kind of been my biggestcomplaint, theme park-wise, and
then media-wise, you know, uhSophie, you've mentioned it uh
with One Piece, like having thelive action adaptation.
I know Netflix in particular isreally big of that.

(32:42):
Me and Phil have debated uh, youknow, when that's effective and
when that's not.
I think, Phil, I could speak foryou on your hot take of kind of
like if you don't play the videogame, you're gonna you don't get
to experience the video game,right?
Uh now you've turned that intobooks, which is crazy.
Uh, but you know, we're notgonna get we're not we're not
gonna get into that.
Audiobooks, nonetheless.

(33:02):
Uh, but yeah, so I think thatwhen it comes to those mediums,
like we're we're definitelyhaving open debates because I
think it can be effective forlike maybe older properties or
certain stories, where Netflixin turn will then do the the
kind of really messy thing,which is like K-pop demon
hunters just came out, andthere's been reports of uh doing

(33:22):
a live action, which if I'mcorrect, I believe one of my uh
didn't make the cut stories wasthat the uh creator doesn't
really like the idea of doing alive action, and I don't blame
them.
One, I think it would bedifficult, two, the movie just
came out this year, the yearhasn't even ended.
So I think there's some times inmedia where it can get construed
and it can be objectified oroverused, and then there are

(33:46):
times where it can be reallyeffective.
And in the case of One Piece,you know, uh story about a
rubber boy wanting to be king ofthe pirates, like that's it's
gonna have issues, but it's alsogonna be a really good time.
So I think it can be effectivewhen used correctly.

SPEAKER_04 (34:02):
Yeah, Blythe, what about you?
What is your relationship tolike Halloween horror nights or
just horror in general?
Uh, it hasn't really I don'tthink we've ever talked about
anything necessarilyhorror-related.
Seems like it's not necessarilyyour bag, but we're all
Floridians, right?
So like it's always presentthere.
You know what you mean?
And if you don't, it's rightaround the corner.
You see the Instagram ads, yousee the billboards, it's like
right there.

(34:22):
What do we have here in inJacksonville?
Uh something 13th floors.

SPEAKER_07 (34:26):
13th floor or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 (34:27):
13th floor?

SPEAKER_03 (34:28):
Yeah, over in Regis, I believe.

SPEAKER_04 (34:30):
Yeah, so yeah.
Well, have you ever consideredgoing to a Halloween Horror
Nights, or have you ever been?

SPEAKER_07 (34:34):
So I think and if not, Blythe, what what keeps you
away from it?
Because that's alwaysinteresting to hear like what
people's thing is.

SPEAKER_03 (34:41):
The tears keep me away, uh, mostly because I'm a
giant like scaredy cat.
I uh cry at like just like ghoststories.
If I watch a story on TikTokabout like Appalachian ghosts,
then I will cry in my bathroom.
Uh so for Halloween HorrorNights, I did go one time years

(35:01):
ago.
I was like a teenager, so thisis like god, like 20 years, 20
plus years ago.
And I waited in line.
Speaking of which, I waited inline for one haunted house.
We were able to go to one ofthem, and it was a three and a
half hour long wait.
And that just kind of turned meoff at that, you know, point of
age.
Um, but then just kind ofgrowing up and seeing scary

(35:24):
movies, and I wish I could, Idon't know, I don't even know if
I wish this, but uh the gr whenI saw The Grudge, the Grudge
gave me nightmares for a coupleof months, and I swore I would
never watch another scary movieagain.
And so ever since then, I ifit's it's a scary movie or if
it's you know a scary show, likeI I watch with, you know, my

(35:47):
eyes closed and my ears, youknow, the volume is closed.
I I just can't do evencommercials on TV, which I just
increasingly get scarier, andI'm like, these should be
banned.
I I, you know, just ban themfrom television because I'm
getting scared while doing myhair and makeup, and that
doesn't, I don't want my pieceinterrupted from this.

(36:08):
Um, I w I wish I enjoyed itbecause I from just like kind of
studying like movies and youknow the the the business aspect
behind it, you know, a lot II've tried to figure out like
why are so many movies soexpensive, but they also feel
like they lack creativity, wherethe inverse is happening, I
believe, from like a businessperspective on the horror front,

(36:31):
where you have uh these I'veheard of this one like
movie-making company that onlymakes horror movies, they make
like 20 a year, they're verylike strictly budgeted out, and
if they have one that does well,then that's made their entire
year and they're able to.

SPEAKER_00 (36:45):
I think it's Bloomhouse, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (36:47):
Yeah, it well, it was just such an incredible
story because I'm like, that'san actual like you're combining
business and creativitytogether.
Like, why can't these othermovie studios, you know, sort of
get it together?
So, you know, a movie by Disneydoesn't cost, you know,$500
million and then complain whenit doesn't make a profit.
And it's like, well, no shit.
Like, it's really tough to maketo have that many people go and

(37:10):
see a movie nowadays.
And so, with all that said, Iwish I enjoyed, I I respect the
medium, especially after not tobring it back to Universal again
or Epic Universe, um, but thedark universe area was really,
really well done.
Um, their their MonstersUnchained ride was just on
another level, and that sort ofbrought me back into well, maybe

(37:33):
I could like start watching someof these like old school horror
movies, and then come to findout there is a new Frankenstein
movie, I believe, on Netflixwith um Oscar Isaac.
And that looks really good.
And so I'm like, okay, maybe Ican like start dipping my toe
back into these things.
I'll probably still like watchit with my eyes closed and like
my ears closed.

(37:53):
Um, but that you know, I'll I'llstill do it anyways.

SPEAKER_04 (37:57):
Yeah, and I'll I'll ask you about um as far as just
kind of the media representationhere in a moment too, but like I
want to touch on like what youwere what you're saying, because
it's really I also have neverdone Halloween horror nights.
One, also I get scared whensomebody enters my room and I
don't hear them coming.
So that's I'm always I'm reallyjumpy when it comes to that as

(38:18):
well.
But yeah, also wait times.
I mean, it was really close,like when the last of us year,
uh, you know, that's somethingI've really heavily considered.
It's one of my favorite, um, oneof my favorite franchises.
And then like Eric hadmentioned, they they do have a
Wyatt Six house, which is uh uhdedicated to uh one of our
favorite wrestlers, one of minefor sure.
Actually, uh he passed away acouple of years ago, and I

(38:39):
actually have like a remembrancetattoo of him.
So like just be being able tosee it would have been really,
really cool.
But yeah, even back in like youknow, 10 years ago, right in our
Eric in our 20s, it always cameup like man, we should go, we
should go, and it just neverhappened.
And now with social media, likepeople just highlighting the
lines, and like, man, I justdon't think I'm gonna do that.

(39:00):
Um, but it is horror is in sucha healthy spot right now.
And I have another website toshare with you, Blythe, that
actually is called like Where'sthe Jump that tells you where
the jump scares are coming in inthe film.
It has made watching a lot ofstuff much easier for me.

SPEAKER_07 (39:18):
My whole I swear to god, I thought you were gonna
tell her about the kill count.

SPEAKER_04 (39:22):
Also, there is a YouTube page called Dead Mead,
and they do we'll talk about itlater.

SPEAKER_03 (39:27):
But uh well, real quick, have you seen that
Halloween Horror Nights?
They also have like some kind ofnecklace that you could buy that
tells like people not to scareyou.

SPEAKER_04 (39:35):
Yeah.
You see, I don't want to I don'twant to wear the necklace.

SPEAKER_03 (39:39):
But then they like make fun of you as you're
walking through the park.

SPEAKER_01 (39:42):
Like they call you scaredy cat, and like, yes, yes,
that's me.
I was just about to mentionthat.
Like, that's literally what Iwas gonna say of like it's been
very interesting.
That's something I I forgot tomention that this I've gone a
couple I've gone a few years ina row now.
Um, but like this year has beenvery interesting because it
doesn't feel like as scary or asintense as previous years.

(40:03):
So, you know, as we kind oftouched on a little bit with
Five Nights, uh especially itbeing the biggest house this
year in terms of like wait timeand demand, it tends to lean a
little bit to a younger crowd.
So I feel like they took it fromlike, if you will, R-rated to
more PG 13 or less rated.
So I will say that I didn'treally personally I didn't get
too scared this year, and Ithought that's actually it's a

(40:25):
good move.
Um, some people are not happyabout that because they want to
go and feel the adrenaline.
I get that too.
Um, but yeah, the necklaces is awhole other thing where again
it's interesting of how they'remarketing it and how that's
changed, of being almost moreinclusive to all age ranges as
well.

SPEAKER_04 (40:42):
Yeah, and you know, like I I had mentioned earlier,
Eric's son, like he loves thehorror stuff, and you know,
getting into it at a at an earlyage, but it is like much more
rate mainstream than it than ithas been.
Even me who has had trouble withwith horror movies in the past.
I mean, I've watched more than Iever have here recently, just
because, again, as a medium, andbecause like you're you're

(41:03):
mentioning, that's actually agood precursor to the story that
I'm gonna talk about.
Uh Blythe is what they're ableto do on smaller budgets and
then make those films look sogood.
It's like, yeah, well, that thatshould work, you know.
So, um, and then the other partof it, Sophie, that you were
mentioning, right, Eric, we havea really good example, you know,
there for every Fallout 76, orfor Fallout, um, the Fallout TV

(41:23):
show, we have a Halo, or we haveseason two of The Last of Us,
right?
Where it was just like not good.
Like, man, and that'sfrustrating because like The
Last of Us can go a route of thefall of Fallout.
There's a whole world out thereoutside of Joel and Ellie that
you could have explored, andthey decided not to do that.
And listen, Pager Pascal inseason one, excellent, right?

(41:45):
Like, really, really good.
Well, season one's great, butseason two, I don't ever want to
acknowledge that that exists.
So we're in strange places,like, yeah, we don't I don't
want to see a K-pop demonhunters live action.
Blythe, I know you mentionedearlier how to train your
dragon.
Eric really loved that liveaction.
I did not, so but also theanimated is like one of my
favorite films of all time.
So I have a differentrelationship than than you and

(42:05):
Eric have with that.
So it's good because One Piecehas gotten really good, but then
again, Counter, Cowboy Bebop,right?
Cancelled after one season, eventhough people enjoyed that to a
degree.
So it's in a weird place, but itdoes seem like for some of these
projects, the right people arein charge.
Like this has come up, right,Eric.
We got like God of War comingdown the pipeline.
You know, we have all theseother shows that they're gonna

(42:26):
try and bring to life, and it isI think a good thing if in the
right people's hands, but likeit's tricky, man.

SPEAKER_07 (42:32):
Yeah, I will say that the one the one like caveat
to all this is like I'm on boardwith it, but if they if they
fuck up the Bioshock adaptation,I that's it for me.
That's uh there's like no way tomess it up, and uh well, there
is a way, and it can be done,but yeah, I I I'm pretty
disappointed in Carl Johansson.

(42:52):
Uh listen, we're not gonna dothat.
We're not gonna do that rightnow.
Just because she keeps ruiningyour favorite franchises, yes.
Uh that tangled live action inearly development, apparently,
and she's circling the role ofMother Gothel.
I don't know why she gets allthe roles she gets, but uh as
far as horror goes, uh I do wantto mention that like it's always

(43:15):
so nice to hear like what peopledon't like about horror and how
like accepted it is.
Horror is like the only genrewhere you could be like, Well, I
don't really like this becauseof this reason.
And horror fans are like, Yeah,no, that's cool, that makes
sense, that's not for you.
Like, Blythe, you seem like youlove like the old style, like
you mentioned Frankenstein.
I don't know if you would havebeen interested in Nosferatu

(43:36):
last year, but that might havebeen something that you probably
would have been more interestedin than what people watched.
What what was probably thebiggest one of the biggest
horror movies last year was uhlike Terrifier or Alien, stuff
like that.
Like I could see you strayingaway from them, but some of
those more classic monstery typemovies would be your vibe.
But it's always fun to hear thatfrom the horror side because

(43:58):
again, it's the only genre I canreally think of where you can
actively talk about what youdon't like without being told
you have shit opinions, youdon't know what you're talking
about.
Like any other genre of moviesor anime or games, they'll tell
you you don't know what you'retalking about, but horror fans
are just always acceptingbecause it's not there's so much
under the horror umbrella thatnot everything can possibly be

(44:19):
your jam unless you'recompletely fucked in the head.

SPEAKER_04 (44:21):
So, yeah, and that's why I enjoy going to Scaradice
formerly Spucala every yearbecause it's a horror-themed
convention, but I just love theartwork and the guests there
have been really cool.
You know, we see a lot of uhthere's a lot of horror adjacent
stuff, like Jurassic Park,Jurassic World is horror
adjacent, like, and that's oneof my favorite franchises of all
time.
So, like when when it comes tosome of those, whether it be

(44:44):
anime or comic book or videogame to live action adaptations,
wife, are there any that stickout?
You know, of course, we like yousaid, talked about how to train
your dragon.
Are there any that you like youwould not want to see?
Like, don't touch thisparticular thing.
Because you know, we talkedabout the MCU in the past, and
that's basically like we don'tdiscuss the MCU really at all
anymore.
You know what I mean?
It's just too much.
Like, is there anything outthere that you would like to see

(45:05):
adapted or you do not want tosee adapted?

SPEAKER_03 (45:08):
Well, I the the one answer to this before Amazon got
their greedy little hands on itwas Lord of the Rings.
Um, I I thought it was anabomination.
I'm not over-dramatized ordramatizing, yeah, whatever.
I'm not over-dramatizing that itit it's I don't know how the
show is still continuing abudget or it being having budget

(45:29):
being allocated to it.
Um, but I could really go offfor a long time on just the
bastardization of what they'vedone to one of my favorite
characters of all time, that'sGladriel, and how poorly they
portrayed her.
Uh, it's it's Tolkien in nameonly.
And so uh that is one franchisethat I didn't think would ever

(45:50):
have sort of the toxicity behindit that other franchises have
around them.
Obviously, Star Wars has hadtoxic fans for you know a long
time, and um MCU kind of hasgotten a little bit there.
I I would argue that it's it'snot nearly as bad as Star Wars.
Um and I don't think HarryPotter as much, but there is,
you know, definitely like somesocial media drama, I guess,

(46:13):
more around that franchise.
And um, but Lord of the Ringswas just one of just like the
bastions of of just culture andmovies, especially that
original, original trilogy.
And when I heard that they weregoing to be making the series, I
I think Jeff Bezos' son famouslytold him publicly, like, do not
mess this up.

(46:33):
And they did exactly that.
And uh it's just it's verydisheartening, it's very uh
discouraging.
I I would say though that I withyour last of us cometh, I
actually really liked seasontwo.
Uh I'm afraid to uh admit it.
Um, because I know a lot of Inever played the game, so I'm
sorry about that too.
I watched a show.
Um, but uh the first season,just entranced with it.

(46:57):
Second season wasn't as good asthe first season, but I still
really enjoyed it.
And I actually really like thethe Abby character, besides
obviously what she did.
Spoiler alarm.

SPEAKER_05 (47:07):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, no one.

SPEAKER_03 (47:08):
But the actress who plays her, I thought she did a
fantastic job.
Um, and starting into seasonthree, I'm really looking
forward to it.
So I wouldn't say that there'smany adaptations that I would
like to be brought to liveaction.
Um, not that I can think of offthe top of my head, because the
one that I I would have reallyloved has already been ruined.

SPEAKER_04 (47:30):
Yeah.
Yeah, the thing with The Last ofUs, like I totally get as well
as well.
Like, if you are new to thatstory and what happens, then
yeah, you're hooked for for mewho's someone who's played the
games and it's like again one ofmy favorite franchises, and I
know I keep up with the lore andall this kind of stuff, and we
know what they have changed.
I think that's the biggest thingis what they change.

(47:50):
And the um the you know, thecharacterization of Ellie and
then changing her as as acharacter that really that
really got to us.
But um, you know, it still didvery well amongst uh and you
know, season three is down thepipeline, and I will watch, I
will be watching to see whatthey do because I I Abby as a
character is incrediblyinteresting, and I love Caitlin
Dever, so I'll continue to watchthe show for sure.

(48:12):
Um for us, Eric.
I mean, I you know, the thetypical things when it comes to
like I know one thing right now,obviously, that's uh that's
really on our mind because it'scoming down to the wire as far
as My Hero Academia beingwrapped up.
Don't ever want to see a liveaction of My Hero Academia.
Oh boy, it's coming, buddy.
It's 100% gonna happen afterthis last this final season too.

SPEAKER_07 (48:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (48:32):
So don't want any of that.
I don't want a live actionchainsaw man, I don't want any
of those things.
So um, yeah, I know like peoplewere talking about like a live
action goofy movie at one point.
Like, no, don't do that.
I don't want that either.
I don't, you know, so no onewill be able to match the aura
of power line in live action.
It's just not it's not possible.

SPEAKER_03 (48:51):
I did think of one.

SPEAKER_04 (48:52):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (48:53):
Gargoyles.

SPEAKER_04 (48:54):
I think that that would maybe be incredible as you
make it like penguin, like likepenguin?
Yeah, okay.
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (49:01):
The penguin, like HBO show, it has to be done very
well because the the writing onthe original show was so good.
It's I even as an adult, I thinkback of like we I need to
actually like re-watch this.
So that one or like uh Piratesof Dark Water.
I don't know if y'all watchedthat show as well.
Um as a kid, that was such agreat cartoon.
Um, and I think that there's alot that they could do with that

(49:22):
in a in a live action format.
But I would say probablygargoyles now that my my brain
is.

SPEAKER_04 (49:27):
No, that's a good that's a good choice.
Eric, how about street sharks?
Eric, how about the part of mybrain there, gargoyles?

SPEAKER_07 (49:32):
That's great.

SPEAKER_04 (49:33):
Eric, how about street sharks?
And they all look like KingShark from the bad uh from the
bad um no.
Oh, they all look like KillerCroc from uh Suicide Squad, the
bad one.

SPEAKER_07 (49:44):
Not the bad one, please.

SPEAKER_04 (49:46):
Well, really, really good conversations, and and
those that was um a good call tomix those together, Soaf, so
great job.
Uh while we were discussingthat, I had a little time.
I found another game.
Uh what do you mean Phil?

SPEAKER_07 (50:05):
Alright.
Dang it, I forgot the Well,luckily you only got you only
got two on there.
I'm gonna ask you.
So is this can I ask you aquestion?
Yeah.
It's just fish.
It's just fish, okay.
You could have just committed tothe horses, but you know what?
No, it's different.
That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 (50:25):
Um You're gonna have to come up with what we say.
Turn this down.
It's really long.
God, your fish is busted, bro.
I don't know.
My fish is nice and pretty.

SPEAKER_06 (50:35):
Why?

SPEAKER_07 (50:36):
Your fish is like mine look like an OD.
Like, why does it look likethat?

SPEAKER_04 (50:42):
Your fish is stamped, just walked out of a
house at Halloween horror times,and mine's walking in.

SPEAKER_07 (50:48):
Blythe, uh, Sophie, we're gonna need your help on
this one.
I'm gonna count down three, two,one, and we're gonna just say uh
just keep swimming.

SPEAKER_05 (50:55):
Oh, there you go.
Perfect.

SPEAKER_07 (50:57):
All right.

SPEAKER_05 (50:58):
Three, two, one, keep.

SPEAKER_04 (51:03):
Keep swimming.
Well, these fish are much slowerthan the horses.
It's Eric Sadie.
There's no way you can coverthis distance, dude.

SPEAKER_06 (51:12):
There we go.
No way! Twice, dude!

SPEAKER_04 (51:17):
You can't win with a face like that, man.
I don't know what to tell you.

SPEAKER_06 (51:20):
That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 (51:24):
Alright, well, I will go next here.
Let me close these tabs.
Okay, cool.
So this worked out.
Uh as far as like what again,like Blythe kind of teased it as
far as like movie budgets,because my this was such an
interesting story that came uphere this month.
Eric's gonna be really upsetbecause on the surface, it's
gonna seem like the story isabout Fast and the Furious.

(51:45):
And that's the story that Ipicked.
And this story interested me somuch that I paid for Wall Street
Journal for a month to read theentire article.
Now, I'm not gonna read thattoday because that's very long.
I did just give I have bulletpoints uh about what is going
on.
So, for those of you that knowso Fast and the Furious is my
guilty pleasure movie.
I know they're not good, theyare entertaining.

(52:06):
I love all the drama off-screenwith Vin Diesel and Dwayne
Johnson not getting along.
I eat all of it up.
So there was, so at Fuel Festrecently in Los Angeles, uh, Vin
Diesel was there and he toldpeople that the movie he's going
to release the the final Fastand the Furious film, or the
next one, is set to releaseApril 2027.
It was supposed to come out thismonth of this year, a while

(52:28):
back, and um they want to returnthe story to Los Angeles, they
want to focus on street racingagain.
He also said they want toreunite with Paul Walker's
character.
That's a whole another thingthat we're not gonna touch here.
That's not what thisconversation is about.
There's a problem with himsaying that the movie's coming
out in April 2027.
It's not been announced byUniversal, and there has been no
accepted script.

(52:49):
And the reason is becauseUniversal uh does not want to
make this movie unless they cutabout um they need to cut
another$50 million from thebudget.
So Fast X was the most expensivefilm in the series.
It cost$340 million to make, andit only earned$705 million.
So across all seven, all 11films, this series has grossed

(53:12):
$7.3 billion.
It's Universal's biggestfranchise.
But the last movie did not go,did not go very well.
We've talked about likepost-pandemic, it's hard to get
families to go to movietheaters.
Movies are coming out tostreaming earlier than ever.
And when I talk about a filmthat costs this much money to
make, Universal is finallyputting their foot down and
telling Vin Diesel and thepeople in charge, hey, we're not

(53:34):
gonna make this movie.
And I think right now the budgetwith the script that they have
costs about$250 billion.
They're like, hey, you need tocut another$50 million in this
budget, or we are not going tomake it.
So we're seeing shrinking boxoffice returns when it comes to
stuff like Marvel and DC.
The new Jurassic movie didn't dovery good.
Um, and budget cuts mean likefewer locations, smaller roles

(53:55):
for some stars, which isinteresting because they just
brought back Galga Dot from thedead.
She's a character, so they'regonna have to pay her.
Um, Vin Diesel's salary alone isreportedly about 2025 million
dollars per film.
Um, and then you talk aboutYummy The Rock is supposed to
come back into the next movie aswell.
What they really relied on withthese films is the overseas

(54:17):
markets, and now China andRussia are no longer reliable
moneymakers for this franchise.
So when the last one came out,uh China didn't really flock to
it, and then Russia, witheverything going on over there,
the movie didn't even showthere.
Um, so US audiences, of course,have been less interested in
long-running franchises,especially those that predate
Gen Z.
And Universal might actually beexploring like doing a live

(54:38):
action in the fast universe thatwould be a lot cheaper to make,
or spin-off films, lower budgetreboots that's gonna that are
going to reattract fans to comein.
And Eric, I think this I broughtthis up because of course I want
to see the movie.
I it doesn't matter to me howmuch it costs to make.
I want to see this thing wrapup.
It ended on a big cliffhanger,it's got a million people in in
the franchise now.
None of them die, they all comeback from the dead.

(55:00):
It's a mess.
I love it.
Uh, what's that?
What's that, Shane Gillis?
Girls don't like it, kind ofmakes me look like a bitch.
I enjoy it.
You know, like that's that's howI feel about Fast and the
Furious.
And I think this is a good thingbecause they're putting their
foot down, specifically with MinDiesel, whose ego has for some
reason just become overinflated.
You can make an argument he hasnot made a good movie since

(55:23):
Chronicles of Riddick, so andFast Seven.
So I think this is a good thing.
So, like, I wanted to bring thisto the table as far as like
these these franchises, likewith Marvel.
DC seems to be on a good track,like we love Superman.
Superman, I'm I'm excited forsuperhero movies again.
So I think this is a good thing.
What do you what do you thinkabout Universal?
I'll throw it to you first,Eric, telling Vin Diesel and the

(55:44):
people in charge we're not gonnamake this movie just and just
throw money at you because youwant it anymore.
And I I think that's aninteresting discussion and thing
that's happening withinHollywood.

SPEAKER_07 (55:56):
Yeah, I think uh studios are starting to figure
out like why people go to themovies, like they just assume
we're gonna consume all the slopthey want to give us, and they
can have their cake and eat ittoo.
That's very much why strikes arehaving to happen so they don't
use AI in films, right?
We have our first AI actressthat's out there in the

(56:17):
universe.
That's a real thing we have todeal with, and I'm sure it would
be really great for studios tomake up people, write up fake
scripts, and for us to say, hereyou go, have our money, but
that's not how the real worldworks.
And I think a lot of thesestudios, unfortunately, are
starting to figure that out thatthere are there are ways to do

(56:37):
this.
Like we just talked about thehorror genre.
Horror is in the best place thatit's ever been, arguably, in the
past couple years, specificallythe last two to three, have been
really great for horror, andthey're turning those smaller
budgets and those more intimateor creative stories into
dollars.
I don't know where studios gotoff thinking they have to spend

(57:00):
all this money, maybe just spenda little bit more time coming up
with things people actually wantto watch.
Again, a K-pop demon huntersdoesn't hit because they put a
hundred two hundred milliondollars into it just to look
nice.
Like that movie hit for so manydifferent reasons reasons.
Sinners, another film that cameout this year, that movie was

(57:23):
not poured into uh you know,millions by the dozen.
Like it just that's not thereason that movie hit.
So I just think again, for everybig time movie that throws all
that money at the budget, uh,they're expecting unrealistic
amount of money for right now, ayou know, economy, a lifestyle,

(57:44):
everything that people are goingthrough in their daily lives.
People have to decide.
You and me, Phil, have watcheduh over 25 movies.
I'm gonna say comfortably,right?
We're probably gonna hit 30 ormore in 2025, just movies we've
seen in the theaters, notcounting the ones we've seen
multiple times, right?
Whether we went by ourselves orwe went with a family.

(58:04):
Most people are like seeing fivein the movie theater, right?
They're waiting for streaming,they're waiting for all these
other opportunities.
So if you're not one of the fivemovies this person wants to see,
you're not gonna get thatperson's ticket.
And I just don't think we're inthe era anymore where you can
make a movie for 300 milliondollars, 200 million dollars,
and expect it to hit a billion.

(58:26):
I just don't think that's thecase anymore.
And I think you know, this is agood example of a studio
realizing that before they makethe mistake and not just saying,
We got one more to go, let'sthrow uh uh you know another
chunk of change at it.
They spent over a billiondollars on the last three, you
know, it's not like they're notmaking money, but I'm sure for
that type of money they wereexpecting some big hitters and

(58:47):
they just haven't been for quitea minute.

SPEAKER_04 (58:49):
Yeah, like multiple, which is crazy, multiple fast
movies are have grossed over abillion dollars.
And then this one, people arelike, no, no more.
Um, Stacy Snyder, who was a uhuniversal rep, like she, you
know, the way she quoted it wasit was when the movie came out
in 2001, it was made for 40million dollars.
Nobody knew who Vin Diesel,Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana

(59:09):
Brewster were, right?
And she said, quote, it's aboutfast cars and girls in shorts.
It wasn't designed to be a25-year franchise.
That's we should have been pastFast and the Furious a long,
long time ago.
So, like, Sophie, what do youlike?
What's your relationship or anyinterest in the fast franchise
still?
And like, what do you thinkagain about studios putting
their foot down and likere-evaluating like what it is we

(59:32):
want to see?

SPEAKER_01 (59:33):
Yeah, no, um, it's it's such an interesting thing
to talk about um for what kindof like what Hollywood is
targeting, and it made mereflect a lot of like what do
people go to the movies for?
And I was thinking about some ofthe bigger hits this year, and
um spoiler alert, I was thinkingabout the Minecraft movie
because I think um since thepandemic uh and you know, post

(59:56):
that, um, I think people startedto value experience and like
community.
Over just the content of themovie.
So movies have become this kindof like gathering space for
people, of very similar to a conor to a Halloween Horror Nights
or to a theme park, where it'sfans of the movie coming
together to watch it andexperience it.

(01:00:16):
And you know, the Minecraftmovie was a big deal.
Obviously, that one got a littlebit out of hand.
Um, but it's it's a funny movie.
It's not necessarily a goodmovie, but it's fun and it's an
experience, and people want togo to experience it.
Another one that I was thinkingabout was actually uh Eric, you
mentioned it, but the K-popdemon hunters, they brought that
movie into theaters to do asing-along.

(01:00:38):
Um, and people were cravingthat's what people wanted.
They, yeah, they love the movie,they want to see it again, but
they weren't paying to watch themovie again.
They were paying to sit in atheater with their peers and
enjoy it with people that alsoenjoy it with them.
Um, so I think that's somethingthat like streaming services
can't really provide, um, andthe movie theaters are
providing.
Um, and we saw even back with uhBarbenheimer and the Barbie

(01:01:01):
movie.
Um everybody got dressed up andit just kind of became a
community event.
So I think that that's maybe thething that um, you know, it with
Fast and Furious especially, Ithink it's a good thing in a way
of not relying on just thelegacy name and just making
another sequel for no reason,uh, which um Disney does tend to
do also.

(01:01:22):
Uh Toy Story 5 and all theseother things.
Not that the movies can't begood, but it's be it's relying
on making good content, um, notjust for the experience, not
just for the sake of continuingthe name in the legacy.

SPEAKER_04 (01:01:36):
Yeah, you made such a good point there, and Eric
caught on to that too.
Is like we're going to themovies for experiences and for
community.
So the example that I thought ofimmediately, Eric's gonna be so
mad when I bring this movie up.
In 2024, I saw this movie, it'scalled Trap.
It's fucking terrible.
It's it's got um who what's hisname?
Josh Hart in it, and he justhams it up, man.
He like really like dives intothis character and it's so bad.

(01:01:59):
But I saw it with mybrother-in-law, my sister, and
my daughter, and we had a blastin the movie theater, like
making fun of it and laughing.
And if that movie's a two, Igave it an extra half star just
because we had a fun time in themovie theater.
It is no better than a twobecause it's not a fun time, but
like, yeah, people want to gosee K-pop demon hunters in
theaters.
Eric, one big thing as far asus, like with movies, like, are

(01:02:22):
we gonna quote somethingforever?
We're gonna quote the friendshipmovie the rest of our lives, and
we haven't really talked toanybody else that saw that
movie, but it's so good, and wewant to watch it again.
So, like, that's what people areprioritizing now.
So, Blythe, for you as well.
You know, I I know when wheneverit comes to like the films that
you and the and and the shortbox watch and you guys talk
about, and like just go see inyour free time, we're all so

(01:02:44):
busy.
So, like, Eric makes a reallygood point.
Like, you're prioritizing fiveor six movies.
We're the outlier.
Me and Eric are going to themovie theater 30 plus times a
year.
We we we know that we that'swhat we are going to do.
But for somebody else who justdoesn't have the time, like, how
are you prioritizing?
Like, you're you're not are yougonna go see the 12th Fast in
the Furious film like in 2027 ifthis ever comes out or anything

(01:03:06):
like that, you know, diminishingreturns on Marvel, things like
that.
So, like, what's your what areyour thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:11):
So, I I do love going to the movies, and uh we
go, I I thought it was frequentwhen you but you guys said 30
times a year um that we don't gothat frequent, but I would say
we probably go about half ofthat time throughout the year.
Uh but I think uh Sophie, youhit on a really good point about
the community aspect because Ithink about uh like the Taylor

(01:03:32):
Swift and Beyonce, whenever theyhad their tours and then they
had these movies or thesedocumentaries that came out, and
then all of these girls aregoing and women are going to
these movies just so they cansing at the movie.
And you saw this with Wickedtoo, that where Wicked had
different types of show timeswhere it was like a singing
encouraged and no singingencouraged for different movies.

(01:03:55):
And I think that movies ingeneral, as far as like the the
company, like AMC and Cinemark,I do think that they need to do
a better job of creating thosedifferent types of environments.
And I think you see it a littlebit with like the popcorn
buckets or the themed drinks ofwhenever you're going to the
movies.
But what Butter and I went to umAustin earlier this year, and we

(01:04:16):
went to this movie theatercalled the Alamo Draft House.
I don't know if y'all have everheard of it, but it's sort of
like a like a for for folks whoare looking at.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:26):
We need one here so bad.
Oh, so you know, right?
I love Alamo Draft House, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:30):
So it's an incredible experience where it's
highly themed throughout theentire theater.
The theaters themselves are alittle bit smaller, the seats
are so comfortable to sit in.
They have these great food thatyou can order from and you have
a waitress and everything, andthey have these trays that you
can like just as you're layingin your seat, you can pull the

(01:04:50):
tray like an inch from your faceand just eat the easiest way to
eat at a movie theater.
It was it was a really greatexperience.
And I thought, like, why don'tAMC or Cinemark do more of these
types of settings or these typesof viewership parties?
And I I think they're trying.

(01:05:11):
I just don't know that themovies are creating that level
of demand outside of creating areal event, and part of that is
on the the people who are makingthe movies.
I think that for a lot ofmovies, the writing just sucks,
and they haven't prioritized thewriters who are taking care of
the scripts and the dialogue andthe sort of ad-libs that come

(01:05:34):
from shooting these movies.
And I think from an efficiencystandpoint, uh, you know,
Christopher Nolan, I think, getsa lot of praise for this, but he
writes out every scene, he knowseverything that he's going to
shoot in that scene.
Uh, there it's a very like tightbudget, there's hardly any
reshoots, and that's where a lotof these movies get into

(01:05:54):
budgetary concerns, is becausethey have to, they're starting
to film without a completedscript.
And then they have to go back ayear later, whenever that it's
the movie is testing poorly, andthey have to do all of these
different reshoots.
That's costs a lot of money tobring all of those people back
in.
And then you have these graphicsdepartments that they're uh it's
practically slave labor of whatthey're paying these poor

(01:06:16):
studios in order to make themturn around these massive uh
just demands, as far as it, youknow, graphics are concerned,
and they're having them turn itaround and around and and
continuously building on thedemands of these small to
medium-sized graphic teams thatthese bigger companies know that
they can kind of bully and kindof push around.

(01:06:37):
And so it's just the whole likebusiness atmosphere.
Then I was reading a Redditthread I think earlier this week
that was talking about sort ofthe shady accounting that
Hollywood does, where it go backto Disney, for example, where
Disney will form an LLC for anew movie, and then they will
rent very expensive equipment attriple the normal rate to the

(01:07:00):
LLC, and so it inflates thesebudgets artificially, but the
the movie has to pay that theLLC of the movie has to pay for
that budget, and then when themovie doesn't turn a profit
because they're overcharging forall of these services, what they
do is they just declarebankruptcy for that movie, and
then the movie loses money andthen it's a failure, and it's

(01:07:21):
like, well, if if all of these,if you prioritize the writing,
if you prioritize the actualscreenplay where the directors
are, you know, going in,experienced directors, not just
people you're just hiring forwhatever reason, but you're
hiring experienced directorsthat know how to run a set and
know what they're shooting andknow what they're looking for,

(01:07:42):
then you create less amount ofreshoots, and then you create a
movie that can survive on a$40million budget, which is still
insane to say.
But I think to go back to tocircle it all the way back to
Fast and the Furious, they haveevery right.
I think the studio has everyright to say you gotta cut some
cash off of this.
Like the gravy train is over.

(01:08:03):
Make a good movie first, and itwill put butts in seats where
you see uh a situation where,like, I think it was the
Godzilla movie.
I'm blanking on like theofficial name, but it was the
Godzilla movie from yeah,Godzilla Minus One, where they
made that at a very affordablerate.
They it got such high praisethat it was released to the US
audience.
People, the word of mouth spreadso much with that movie that

(01:08:26):
they extended it in theaterseveral times because of the the
way that the audience was uhreceptive to it.
And so I think this really likea falls on Hollywood where it's
like they have the shockedPikachu face, like, who caused
this?
You caused this with your shadyaccounting, with not
prioritizing writing, and thenjust letting direct
inexperienced directors sort ofrun amok.

(01:08:47):
And it's the whole businessaspect of it, I think needs to
be burned down.
And then I think there needs tojust study what horror is doing,
because that's clearly the onlyI would guess category that's
working.
Maybe anime as well, as I'm notfamiliar with their with their
budgets, but that that these arethese different models where the
story counts first, especiallyin anime from from what I know

(01:09:10):
as like an outsider.
Like the story is there and it'sa really good story.
So it makes it easier to makethat transition into some of
these other different mediums.
But until they they prioritizethe right creative strategies
that also hold in on the rightbusiness strategies, I just
think that they're just gonnakeep floundering.

SPEAKER_07 (01:09:28):
Yeah.
No, I mean that's a really goodcall out from the anime side of
things.
Like you you have your pulse onit, even if that's not something
you normally go into, becauseyou've got to be hearing some of
the stuff people are talkingabout.
So, you know, K-pop demonhunters in the animated side did
really, really great.
On the actual like anime side,you know, we've had so many
different examples of this.
The most recent two, the DemonSlayer movie making over 600 uh

(01:09:52):
million dollars worldwide andhaving a really strong domestic
opening.
And then the Chainsaw Man moviejust came out this weekend and
it opened number one in the boxoffice.
And yeah, was it against weakercompetition?
Sure, it wasn't going againstone of the top movies of the
year, but the fact that itopened up at number one is
really telling for how it'sgonna do some of the success,
and the reception has beenreally strong as well.

(01:10:14):
So there's definitely been a lotof examples in animation where
this has happened.
Phil, the example on theanimation side, other than K-pop
Demon Hunters, has to be Neja 2,right?
Yeah, which is a Chinese filmthat you may not know.
This film that came out thisyear is number five all time,
not animated movies, all-timegrossing movie.

(01:10:36):
This movie made over two billiondollars this year, and uh, we
loved it.
It was a great time, but that'sa movie that fell under the
radar for a lot of people heredomestically, but uh uh
animation-wise, again, Phil,that's a great example too.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:49):
Yeah, and just like you were talking about Blythe, a
movie that I immediately thoughtof that was swept under the rug.
They're like, Yeah, this isn'tgonna be any good.
It's a it's it's one of thebetter animated films that came
out this year.
It was The Day the Earth BlewUp.
It's a Looney Tunes movie withPorky and Daffy, and it's so
good.
And the animation's beautiful,and it is a really fun time.
And I watched earlier in thisyear, I just threw it on, and I

(01:11:12):
found myself really, reallyenjoy.
Eric, I mentioned it to you,like I think it would be a good
family movie, but that's one ofthose movies.
And so if it seems like you knowabout that movie too, because it
was so good, like, and they justthrew it out to die,
essentially.
It was it was like gone, andthen somebody purchased the
rights to to luckily uhdistribute it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:29):
Yeah, I was I couldn't hide my reaction.
That is so awesome that youmentioned that because I forgot
about that, but that's a greatexample of a movie that had all
the the all the aspects to to tosucceed, but it was just tucked
away.
Um great movie.
Uh and I was gonna say somethinginteresting too, uh, that we
were kind of all touching on,but um, it almost harkens back

(01:11:49):
to the adaptation kind of mediathing that we're talking about
as well.
But I think in Hollywood largelywhat a lot is happening is that
they're trying to make um evenwith theme park stuff,
everything is for everyone.
Um, so it's kind of for no one.
Um, meaning like when things aremore catered to the fans and
less distilled, I think it'sactually more successful.
Um, like the anime movies, likeK-pop demon hunters, um, kind of

(01:12:11):
things like that too.
And um one other thing I wasgonna mention, uh Lythe, kind of
what you talked about withBloomhouse and their model.
Um, I know I'm a big Five Nightsfan, but I always think about
that as an example because Ithink the budget for the movie
was$25 million, which is like asneeze now for movies, and it
made over$250 million.
So they're just swimming inprofit because they just didn't

(01:12:33):
have to spend that much money.
Uh it's not a terriblycomplicated movie, but they
still had to make all thepuppets.
Uh, they worked with Jim Henry.
There's one animatronic that hadfive puppeteers uh the whole
time.
So they're just using theirmoney really smartly and
correctly, and they're nottrying to overinflate um for a
movie that may not make thesegiant, you know, returns back,
even though it did.

(01:12:53):
Um, and that comes from kind ofbeing niche enough to stick to
the fans of what they want.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:02):
Yeah, 100%.
So, you know, am I gonna be lefthanging thinking about this Fast
and the Furious uh cliffhangerfor the rest of my life?
Who knows?
It literally ends with a cardriving off a cliff.
Like, is there this it's themost cliffhanger, cliffhanger
that's ever happened in films.
So we'll see.

SPEAKER_07 (01:13:22):
It's a fitting way for that that uh that series to
die, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:25):
It would be, honestly.
It kind of would be.
So we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_07 (01:13:28):
It kind of happened once if you thought about it.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:30):
What's that?

SPEAKER_07 (01:13:31):
I was like, that kind of happened once if you
thought about it.
Yeah, that's that's that's uhyeah, that's uh that's true.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:37):
But uh yeah, really great conversation there.
So uh uh well, so if you'refamiliar with this Blythe, you
may think to yourself, well,there's only Eric left.
But Nope.

SPEAKER_07 (01:13:49):
Nope, and uh this is what we typically traditionally
do each time.
Um, you know, we've had a lot ofgreat synergy going on, two
great guests, but uh nope, themadness still must ensue in
between.
Uh, which Eric is gonna be theEric that has his story, uh,
which actually uh talking aboutperfect synergy is great.
Uh Phil, we're gonna do this theold-fashioned way.

(01:14:12):
Blythe, Sophie.
This time, you're gonna come offmute.
I'm gonna count down, and we'regonna just say spin that wheel.
We're gonna do it in three, two,one.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:24):
Spin that wheel.
There we go.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:31):
Look at that.
Which one are we getting?
And we are gonna get oh, it'sclose.
Why is everything so dramatictonight?

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:40):
This is yellow, right?
Is this yellow?

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:42):
Yes, I forgot your colorblind.
You're partially colorblind.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:47):
It's just greens and yellows he's messed up on.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:49):
Phil, what do you think I'm wearing right now?

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:52):
Bright yellow.
Okay, it's not that kind ofgreen.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:55):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:56):
Alright, and what did we miss in October of 2025?

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:59):
Yeah, so we we talked about synergy with our
guests, but the synergy we haveis in our stories.
Phil, this might be the mostlike crisp of four stories.
Yeah, it's actually pretty crazybecause Blythe brought up uh uh
Cinemark specifically, and we'vebeen talking about the movie
experience.
I want to continue thatconversation with the fact that
IMAX and Cinemark are teaming upagain for more IMAX films.

(01:15:22):
This partnership is going tocontinue, and they have expanded
that partnership into a new 17theater deal.
They unveiled this on Monday.
Under the agreement, there aregonna be four new IMAX systems
with lasers being added in theUS, uh, something in South
America being actively explored,but additionally, 12 systems
that are active already aregonna be upgraded uh to using

(01:15:45):
the uh bigger format in IMAX.
There's a lot of talk about 70millimeter and all of these
things.
I'm not gonna get into thetechnical aspects of IMAX, I'm
not gonna pretend to know, butwhat I do know is whenever I go
to see an IMAX movie, it's kindof what Sophie talked about.
It's purely an experience, andit seems like audiences these
days are begging for somethinglike that.

(01:16:07):
When it comes to this deal, thisis coming up to the run-up of a
huge slate of movies.
When we're talking about the endof the year, you've got Avatar,
you've got Wicked, you've gotall of these big properties.
Then in 2026, we're gonna have anew Avengers, potentially a new
Spider-Man, and specificallyChristopher Nolan's The Odyssey,
which is the first filmtheatrically that's gonna be

(01:16:28):
shot entirely in IMAX, and Iwill be seated.
IMAX, though, it's not somethingyou can easily get to.
In fact, when they releasedtickets for the Odyssey a year
in advance, those tickets inthose limited cities where IMAX
theaters are were sold out.
So I don't see this being aproblem that is fixed with this
new deal anytime soon.

(01:16:49):
But uh I do think in the nextdecade, with the audiences
craving an experience, all ofthese things that we've already
discussed in the landscape ofmovies.
I do see more of this probablyhappening where there are those
premium experiences that peopleare willing to pay for in the
movies while your every uheveryday average family isn't

(01:17:10):
going to see these movies.
There are many people that arewilling to spend top dollar for
those experiences.
So I want to open up theconversation to everybody here
to talk about one, the IMAXexperience.
Have you gone to it?
Is it something that you enjoy?
What is your experience there?
And is premium viewing at thetheaters something for you?

(01:17:31):
If you kind of think abouttheaters in the last decade, we
got trays, we can sit our feetup, the seats are leather, some
of these seats move with themovie.
Like, what are your experiencesor thoughts on that premium
uptick in the movie goingexperience?
And uh, Phil, I'll throw it toyou first before we give it to
our two guests on that, becauseI know we're very similar uh

(01:17:54):
since we go to the movies veryoften and how we feel about it.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:57):
Yeah, so we are Cinemark people here in in
Jacksonville, primarily becausethe IMAX, the AMC, and the IMAX
uh experience in Orange Park andRegency sucks.
They have not updated the seatsat the IMAX at Regency.
It is still like the classic,like foldable uh movie theater

(01:18:20):
seat.
It is insane.
We saw Interstellar thererecently.

SPEAKER_07 (01:18:24):
We did see Interstellar.
Movie was great.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:26):
Movie was outstanding.
Screen looks fantastic, but wewere so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_07 (01:18:30):
What was worse?
The seats at the IMAX at thatRegency or the seats at the Los
Angeles?

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:35):
So five Sofac Stadium Stadium.
It's close, man.
It's really close.
And those were equally like badexperiences, but at least we
didn't watch the Jaguars lose by50 uh when we went to IMAX.
That's right, we just saw afantastic movie.
So, yeah, and I also, you know,funny enough, I saw Fast 9 at
that IMAX theater.
Uh, because they were showing apreview for Jurassic World

(01:18:56):
Dominion.
Those all ended up beingterrible experiences across the
board.
So, yeah, so we're Cinemarkpeople here.
I'm pretty sure Cinemark or uhJacksonville Cinemark is not on
that list, right, of IMAXtheaters, if I had to guess.
I don't think Jacksonville isgoing to make the cut here early
on.
But I will go, I will spend anextra extra money to go to the
XD showing at Cinemark.

(01:19:18):
It's something that I value,it's an experience that I value
um when it comes to thosefranchises and those movies that
I really, really want to see.
But um, yeah, as far as like anIMAX experience, like I have had
that experience, but I feel likeI haven't had the true one,
right?
Like we would have to go to anOrlando or or a Tampa or
something along those lines.
Like our buddy Ivan down inOrlando, he has an AMC theater
he goes to.

(01:19:38):
That's his theater.
He goes sees stuff at IMAX allthe time, and we're like, well,
I don't want to go to Regency orOrange Park, so I guess I'm just
gonna miss out on the IMAXexperience.
But yeah, those filmsspecifically, like, yeah, are we
am I frustrated and reallyworried about Avengers Doomsday?
Yeah, but would I go see it inan IMAX theater?
Absolutely.
Same thing with the Odyssey.
I would definitely want to gosee that in how it was made to

(01:20:01):
be seen.
Um, but yeah, like Blythe, youwere talking about like the
movie theater experience.
Like, it's crazy we don't have aAlamo draft house here or a
studio movie grill, which iswhat we had in Dallas.
There's also one in uh Orlando,and it is more of like a
traditional restaurant diningexperience, but in a movie

(01:20:22):
theater.
So it's uh, you know, the themenu is a little bit more um
akin to like a nicer restaurant.
So we should I I would love tohave that here.
You know, I'd pay a little extramoney for that too.
But um, yeah, it it's it'sreally exciting, and obviously
we want to see this expand outto more, but yeah, I'll pay I'll
be paying that extra money, man.
If if it means to gettinggetting experience as far as

(01:20:43):
like how the filmmaker wantedyou to see the movie, like,
yeah, I'll I'll pay it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:20:47):
So and uh why don't we throw it to Blythe first?

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:53):
Yeah, so I I would add that I don't know that I've
ever truly seen an IMAX movie.
It like uh Phil, you mentioneduh Regit C AMC is my home
theater.
That's the theater I grew upgoing to.
Um I still have a soft spot forit, even you know, when their AC
is not working properly and theceiling is kind of falling
apart.
It's just you know why is itsticky?

unknown (01:21:16):
Why is it sticky?

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:17):
It's the theater that I grew up going to, and so
when we do go see movies, umthat that's the the theater we
go to, unless it's like aTensiltown type situation.
Um, but I do agree.
I I think that theaters need tocater to the audiences uh in a
little bit of a different way.
And like I said, I think thatthey're trying with the
different marketing promos, uh,the popcorn buckets, the drinks,

(01:21:38):
and sort of bringing that allfull circle.
But I can't help but wonderthat, you know, I don't know if
any of you have been to thesphere in Las Vegas, but that is
such a unique viewing experiencewhere you feel surrounded.
I so for folks who don't know,they they have residency
programs or like I think theBackstreet Boys just played

(01:21:59):
there for like a month straightand had really like record
numbers.
Um, lots of artists will playthere, um, like musical artists
will play there, but they dohave a daily show that runs
that's like a nature typedocumentary.
And it's incredible to see likethese giant elephants and
giraffes, and you literally haveto look around you to it feel

(01:22:21):
it, you feel like you're there.
You feel when the camera goesinto the ocean, you feel like
you.
I held my breath for like a halfsecond.
I was like, oh wait, I'm that'sit's not actually real.
And so when I think of what theexperience of going to see that
show at the sphere, and then Ithink of like the Alamo Draft
House, and then I saw this videojust yesterday of these people

(01:22:43):
that were in a bar and they werewatching a game, like uh LSU was
playing, and they had the screenmake it-I don't know how they
did it, but they made it so youfelt like you were at the game.
I was watching the video of thefans watching the game, amazing.
I thought that they wereactually at the game and it was

(01:23:03):
just some incredible seats thatthey had, but no, this was a
different experience for sportsfans to go and sit at the bar
and get that viewer format.
It I like you were at a realgame.
And so, between everything thatyou guys are talking about, I
think that there's maybe like ahappy medium where you can do a
little bit of like what the baris doing with watching sports

(01:23:26):
games, because sports fans, youmentioned it earlier, Phil,
they're kind of getting pricedout of going, families are
getting priced out of going tothose games.
Uh, the movie theaters, thetraditional experience, I think
is kind of on its last leg.
And so maybe there's somethingthat can be done with all of
these newer experiences that canbe like this sort of the newer
movie going experience, and youcan kind of pick and choose of

(01:23:49):
what experience you would liketo have.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23:53):
Yeah, and what you're talking about, Blythe, is
as I was actually going to bringit up as well because there's
one in Dallas, and we thoughtabout going while I was visiting
last year.
It's called Cosm, and it is, I'mgonna share it here.
Um, so I'm trying to find a goodphoto of it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:24:09):
Um let me go back to Is this the is this the one
where that you show all the timefor the wrestling stuff?
Yep.

SPEAKER_04 (01:24:15):
So if you guys can kind of see this picture here,
so this is this, it's a hugescreen, and people are watching
it as if they're like at thesport the actual sporting event.
And you do have to pay like ayou know, a pr not, I don't want
to say hefty price, but it'scheaper than going to the actual
game.
Um, but like experiences likethis, I think, are gonna pop up
a lot more.
Um, so I'm very excited tohopefully get one.

(01:24:35):
Uh, I would assume it willprobably be Orlando, would be
the first city to get it here inFlorida.
But there's a couple, I knowthere's a couple in Dallas, I
think there's one in likeCalifornia, but like, yeah,
people like these umexperiences.
Hi, Sherry.
Uh these experiences are thingsthat people are gonna start
seeking out, you know, if theycan't actually go to those
specific events.
And the dome.

(01:24:56):
Man, yeah, I mean the sphere.
The sphere uh in Las Vegas.
I I've only been to Las Vegasonce, had a miserable time, but
I want to go to the sphere.
I want to go check out.
I would have loved to check outthe Battery Boys, but I'll go
check out something else thatlooks really cool.

SPEAKER_07 (01:25:09):
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Uh Sophie, what has yourexperience been?
Uh, have first of all, have yougone to the sphere?
Also, uh, your movie goingexperience, like what has your
experience been?
Have you been to IMAX?
What do you think of the premiumformats uh and some of what
we've been talking about?

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:25):
Yeah, um, so no, unfortunately, I've not been to
the sphere.
I've been keeping up with allthe cool stuff they put on it.
Um, it's been crazy, all thedifferent um again, anime stuff,
all kinds of collaborationsgoing on there.
I think the Fortnite hadsomething else there too.
Um, so that's been prettyinteresting.
But uh no, in terms of IMAX, Iwas kind of reflecting on it,

(01:25:46):
much like uh Blythe, I can'treally recall a specific, like
sensational IMAX experience tomy memory, uh, if I have done it
before.
But I will say that somethingthat I believe it's coming out
in IMAX that I can't wait to seefor next year um is Project Hail
Mary, um, which is this thesci-ye sci-fi movie uh based on
a book by the same writer um ofThe Martian, Andy Weir.

(01:26:09):
Incredible book, amazing book.
I I tend to not read uh fictionas much as I do like
non-fiction, but wow, that onehad me completely engrossed.
And Ryan Gosling is the lead,um, and the sense of humor is
there, the sci-fi cool sciencefiction is there.
Um, I can't wait to see that onein IMAX, and I think it will uh
be super awesome.

(01:26:30):
Um, but yeah, in terms of thepremium uh kind of viewing
experience, um naturally I'mgonna reflect it back to our
earlier conversations wherepeople crave experiences and
kind of community in that way.
Um, but you see this increase uhin all spaces, not just movies,
but particularly there, wherepeople really crave like kind of
an immersive experience.

(01:26:51):
Um, but not and not only justlike, I mean, of course, like
the the visuals and the sound,that's the biggest thing in a
theater, but I think peoplereally want like almost more
dedicated fan events.
I think that might beinteresting for a movie theater
to lead in of like you know,opening night, but they might
have like uh well I had um Ilive near Winter Park here in

(01:27:12):
Orlando, and we have a reallynice Regal cinemas.
And uh for a time that I waspretty frequent at the
Barbenheimer summer, uh I wentvery frequently to the movies.
I had like their um servicethat's like unlimited watches,
and they would have themeddrinks and snacks for the
movies.
And you don't really see thateverywhere, but I think that

(01:27:32):
stuff like that um could bereally great for the movies, and
I would definitely pay for that.
Um if one of my favorite, youknow, movies come was coming out
of a franchise or uh ProjectHail Mary where they had a weird
alien drink, I am definitelypurchasing that.
Um, especially if it's uh adedicated fan event where you
can talk to other people who'veread the books, or maybe people
who haven't read the book butare really excited and have

(01:27:54):
theories of what's gonna happennext.
Um so the the short of the longthere is I think dedicated fan
events um or times or spaces forpeople to geek out a little bit
more.
I think people really cravethat.
Um, and I would definitely umpay for for such thing.

SPEAKER_04 (01:28:11):
I'm so excited for Project Hill Mary.
Go ahead, Blythe.

SPEAKER_03 (01:28:13):
I was gonna say, real quick, as as Sophie, as you
were talking, I it brought meback.
I don't know if y'all ever wentto any of the the short box
viewings at Sunray when theywould have like the Marvel movie
and then they would do thepodcast like right afterwards.
I think that that should bealmost like instead of like a
book club, like a movie club,where everybody could watch it
together and then all talk aboutit together.

(01:28:35):
I I love that that type offormat.
So more like community-driven uhaspects.
That is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 (01:28:42):
Yeah, that's such a good idea.
Yeah, now what now we'll have todrive down to Corey in Tampa to
go to their sun ray uh and do itthere.
Since he likes to remind us,Eric, all the time that you know
he's got a sunray in Tampa.
Every time.
I'm surprised he didn't pop into this recording and tell us
I'm at sun ray right now.

SPEAKER_07 (01:29:00):
Like he's probably riding a bike.

SPEAKER_04 (01:29:04):
Yeah, he's out riding his bike, he's out
cycling right now at the moment.

SPEAKER_07 (01:29:06):
So yeah, yeah.
No, but that was all that wasall really great.
I figured it would be a nice capto the conversation.
Uh, and again, it's one of thosethings that I know a lot of
movie lovers are really wantingto see, especially those that
are willing to go to a movie ortwo a year in that premium
format.
Uh, Phil, I mean, there were somany different movies that we

(01:29:27):
would have loved to see in IMAXthis year.
Sinners, uh, one battle afteranother.
Like, there were definitelyseveral films.

SPEAKER_04 (01:29:34):
Sinners is re-releasing an IMAX.
I know.
I'm not gonna go sit at the RedRegency.
I'm not gonna go do it.
No, yeah, no, no, we need to.
I'd rather drive to Orlando togo watch it if I really wanted
to go see Sinners in theatersagain.
I'll just uh just watch it all.

SPEAKER_07 (01:29:50):
Yeah, yeah, that'll probably be the plan for the
Odyssey.
But uh, yeah, that was my story.
Um, and luckily, there is nowheel, there's no more horses,
no more fish, no more.
More draws.
More visions.
Our stories are finito.
However, we are now in thesection before our game.

SPEAKER_04 (01:30:06):
I gotta cancel this Wall Street Journal uh uh
subscription.

SPEAKER_07 (01:30:11):
I can't believe you did that.
I wonder we want to be mindfulof time.
So uh this is our didn't makethe cut section.
Where if there's anything at allthat you might have missed, you
wanted to quickly throw out, wedon't have to necessarily get
deep into it, but we will throwthem out there for our audiences
if you had anything that didn'tget covered in the main stories
today.
Phil, of course, I do a Discordroundup, but I know you may take

(01:30:35):
some from there.
So, did you have any that youwanted to highlight before I
give it to Blythe and Sophie?

SPEAKER_04 (01:30:40):
No, not really.
Um, we are we kind of touched onthe K-pop demon hunters thing.
The uh the creators do not wanta live action, which is good.
Um, really upset that Ubisoftcanceled a post-Silver uh Civil
War um Assassin's Creed gamewhere a former slave hunted down
Ku Klux Klan members.

(01:31:01):
Uh that would have been a reallygood game.
Um, and then Sam Raimi'sSpider-Man 4.
You know, we're still hearinglike rumblings that maybe it
could happen way down the line,but there's a whole lot of
politicking and stuff that goeson behind the scenes.
You know, who knows if we'reever we'll ever see it, but
those are the only the uh theonly other things that kind of
came up over the last month.

SPEAKER_07 (01:31:19):
Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
Blythe, did you have any quickheadlines that you wanted to
throw out there for this uhsegment?

SPEAKER_03 (01:31:24):
I I did just one quick one.
It was around the topic ofmystery boxes or just mystery
shopping in general, and howmuch I think it's sort of taken
over a lot of the the retailexperience where you're, you
know, not just like trading carswhere you open those up and it's
a surprise, whatever's inside,but you know, a lot of different
collectibles are are taking thisroute where you can buy a

(01:31:47):
package and it's a mysterycharacter inside.
Um, I'm also working on a storyfor my my podcast, Everything Is
Logistics, where we're talkingabout Le Croissant, which is
like uh I don't know if I'm evensaying that right, but it's like
a fancy piece of cookware that'slike a generational thing.
You kind of pass it down, butthey've um sort of really uh
honed in on the mystery boxatmosphere.

(01:32:10):
So for folks who don't know,they have these shopping events
where they have this excessinventory and they travel around
all over North America.
I think they have some even someshows in Europe where you pay to
get you pay for a ticket to getinto the building in order to
buy like limited edition uhcookware and it's all themed and

(01:32:30):
it all looks different and uhit's all you know, sort of
limited edition.
And so if you pay to get inside,you also have the opportunity
where I think they have up tolike a hundred different mystery
boxes, and so you can pay theadditional like$100, and these
women are and men too, ofcourse, but mostly women, um,
they buy these mystery boxes andthen they leave the store and

(01:32:52):
they go out into the parkinglot.
And in the parking lot, they'reall opening up their mystery
boxes to see what they got.
And a lot of them are really,really good.
You're getting hundreds ofdollars of gear of cooking gear
and one single like mystery box,and there's all this like you
know, additional like sort ofsecondary economy that's set up

(01:33:12):
because people are trading inthe parking lot or people are
mad because they didn't getcertain things, and um, it just
uh it sort of brings me to likea a different experience.
We've kind of been talking aboutyou know, experiences with like
going to the movies, but evenlike retail shopping, I think,
is experiencing kind of the samething where you have to like the
only retail stores that aresuccessful right now are like a

(01:33:34):
TJ Maxx or uh some of them likethe more discount stores.
I'm blanking on the you know acouple of Marshalls, yes.
And so the the thrill of thehunt.
Um, that's why thrift stores arealso, you know, just growing in
popularity because the thrill ofthe hunt, the thrill of finding
something.
And I think that sort of justtaps into like us just as a

(01:33:55):
society collectively wantingmore out of things that we've
been doing our whole lives.
And so the novelty is kind ofworn off of like going to the
movies or going shopping.
How can we spice it up a littlebit?
I think mystery boxes and likejust mystery uh purchases in
general, I think, are reallysucceeding in in that area.

SPEAKER_07 (01:34:15):
Phil is the resident Pokemon guard guy.
I got the more comic guy.

SPEAKER_04 (01:34:22):
And this is the one I wanted.
I got it at second in Charles,and it's after he got attacked
by a Dilophosaurus.
I have no idea what you'rereferring to, Eric.
I never would um commit hundredsof dollars into cards.
Just trying graveyard.

SPEAKER_06 (01:34:41):
This is all cards.

SPEAKER_04 (01:34:42):
This is this is all my my excess.

SPEAKER_07 (01:34:45):
That's so I know you will occasionally do the blind
box or mystery bag thing ormystery box thing.
Is that something that you doenjoy as well?
Or is it just like an occasionalthing where the Pokemon and the
Lorcana cards, that's somethingyou're kind of into for
collecting.
But is there what are yourthoughts on that?

SPEAKER_04 (01:35:02):
It depends on the thing.
So, like this is the Jurassic,like obviously this is the one I
wanted, but like I would havebeen happy with any of the
things in Jurassic.
It's not like the the theboo-buchase or things like that,
you know.
I want to find like the Eeveeones that are out there in the
wild as well, and I haven't seenany of those at conventions.
So yeah, it's something like ifI see something that I I have to
be like, I I would be okay withany of these things on the box

(01:35:25):
because there are those storesout there.
I'm surprised we haven't gottenone of the dedicated stores.
We have like kind of one at theavenues, but it's not full-on
mystery boxes.
But I it's only a matter of timebefore we get one here.
My question is because you'retalking about Blythe, all like
the kitchenware stuff.
How far does this go?
Like, what if it's is it gonnabe like appliances?
Like, man, I really need afridge, and you open it up,

(01:35:47):
you're like, I already have awasher and dryer, and you're
like, you just keep stackingappliances.
Like, how far are we gonna gowith mystery boxes?
Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (01:35:55):
Well, it's funny you mentioned that because there was
one uh they've had amazingmarketing from this, like social
proof, because everybody isfilming their reactions,
filming, you know, opening upthe box, it's sort of you know,
unboxing, but the in real life,or I guess with real uh whatever
everything's real, whatever.
Um, but everything's real andnothing is real at the same
time.

(01:36:16):
But there was an event that wasin Cleveland, I believe.
Same company, same event, andpeople paid uh about a
hundred-150 bucks for thismystery box, and they got like a
butter dish, and they were readyto riot because they did not get
they saw all of these othercities get all of this great
stuff, and then they come toCleveland and it's just they get

(01:36:39):
nothing and they're so bummedout, and so it created the the
opposite reaction to it.
I just find it fascinating thatthere's like you know, just a
bunch of people in a parking lotafter buying cookware and
they're just ready to riot.
And I every other city has hadgreat marketing, but that one
city, the comments on everysingle Lake Poisson, like uh
social media post after that,they had to limit the comments

(01:37:02):
because people were losing theirminds.

SPEAKER_04 (01:37:04):
Want to know what you have to hear us say about
this here, Sophie, but Blythe,uh Eric, as sports fans, maybe
that's what Cleveland deserves.
I don't know what to tell you.
So uh so what do you think aboutwhat do you think about the
mystery box craze if you boughtinto this uh as far as um
whether it'll be a cut event ata convention or a mall or or
wherever uh it may be not I haveto say not not really just

(01:37:25):
because I I tend to like I tendto like physically responsible
like responsible with my money.

SPEAKER_01 (01:37:32):
Well, see I say that I say that because I I used to
do a lot of like the Disneypins, um like collecting uh back
in the day, and I there were somany really cute like attraction
ones, and they're all good, butI have my favorites, and I think
uh I've had a coupledisappointments where it's kind
of turned me off generally fromtaking a risk on something if

(01:37:53):
I'm not like total if if likeyou said if I wouldn't be happy
with any of the options, sopersonally I tend to stray away
from that.
However, uh when we talk aboutcard games and things like that,
um I think uh you know, withmedia that I like, I just got
into the one piece card game,and as soon as actually um our
friend Kendall, um Kendall V,who's a cosplayer, she kind of

(01:38:15):
got me into it, and Iimmediately was like, Oh my
gosh, I need to collect all myfavorite characters, and there
were these little, you know, thelittle um the individual card uh
packages that are like five,eight dollars.
I'm like, that's easy, and I waslike, Oh, this is how it
happens.
This is how it happens, is justone more try, one more try, and
you're like, Oh, this isactually maybe gambling a little

(01:38:37):
bit.
Um, but the besides that, Ithink with uh especially with
things like aesthetically umthat you're like displaying or
things like that, I think I tendto stay away um from trying
because I would like I like I'llsee one that I like and I'm like
I really want that one.
I wish I could just buy thatone.

SPEAKER_04 (01:38:53):
Yeah, that's the thing, is I could have just
purchased the Pokemon card thatI want by now, but it's about
the chase, like you said, likeit's about open ripping the pack
and opening it up and findingthe one that you want.
And that's how I started too.
I was like, oh, so theyre-released like the original
151 Pokemon and they redid theartwork and all that stuff.

(01:39:14):
They did it a couple years ago.
I'm like, oh, I only want that,and then that got it a little
harder to find.
So I was like, I don't know,I'll buy I'll buy this pack too.
I'll see what's in in there.
And now whenever I find one, I'mjust like, yeah, I'm only gonna
pay retail for it.
Then I go to a convention, I'mlike, I'll pay like a little bit
more for this pack because Ican't find it anywhere.
Like, and here I am, uh Eric indebt.

(01:39:34):
So that's how that goes.

SPEAKER_07 (01:39:36):
Yeah, that's how that goes.
Uh, Sophie, did you have any uhbackup stories or anything we
didn't get to?
Uh, any headlines you want toquickly throw out there before I
do our last call for Roundup?

SPEAKER_01 (01:39:47):
Yeah, I had literally my last little bit,
um, because I I combined kind ofmy two ideas.
The last thing I was gonnamention was the existence of
Tron Ares um and that wholething, uh, the the marketing
around it, the the plot, um,primarily what what I personally
was gonna talk about.
I did not get to see the movie,but more so the um ironically

(01:40:09):
the legacy of Tron and TronLegacy and kind of bringing back
the franchise and how we've youknow the direction that that
they're going with it, andpeople keep making jokes about
they brought Tron back just toput it back in the cave for like
20 more years.
Um, and then of course to tie itback to theme park stuff.
Um, I you know, I I really likeNine Inch Nails.

(01:40:30):
I was really excited about thatsoundtrack, and they brought it
into, I'm sure you guys haveheard about it, but they brought
it into the Tron light cycle runride at Magic Kingdom.
So they actually changed, youknow, Aries is all red instead
of blue.
Um, so they actually changed theattraction to match that.
Um of course, just like withlighting and stuff, nothing

(01:40:51):
crazy, but the bikes and thecanopy turned red with the new
soundtrack.
And I thought that was reallyneat, especially because they
had some a little bit of weirdum marketing surrounding it at
the beginning.
Uh you know, it leans a littleAI, leans a little like future
techie, but maybe not in the waythat we wanted to from Tron.
But I think the theme park uhoverlay was really successful

(01:41:11):
and really neat.
So that was just just theexistence of that as a chapter
in the Tron book.

SPEAKER_07 (01:41:18):
Yeah, unfortunately that chapter included Jared
Leto, and uh, you know, whereverJared Leto goes, we don't.
Uh unfortunately, probably uhprobably a nice guy leading his
cult in his free time.
But as far as as far as Trongoes, I did ride that at Magic
Kingdom.
Uh the same week I went to Epic.
We had Magic Kingdom on theitinerary.

(01:41:39):
Uh, a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
So I could only imagine withthose changes, it's slapping
even harder.
But that was a uh a great, greatride.
And uh it's been a great ride.
Before we do our game, for whatdid I miss?
I'm gonna quickly run down ourDiscord roundup.
Uh, these are stories in our popculture news channel and our
Discord.
If you want to join us there tocontinue the conversation each

(01:42:01):
and every month, I'm gonna throwout the story.

SPEAKER_04 (01:42:02):
I have a uh um to no, I have something to offer
for this because usually youread it off and then you say,
Does anybody have anything tosay about these 15 stories that
you just read?

SPEAKER_06 (01:42:12):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 (01:42:13):
So I know you condensed them now.
So I say, How about um we youread off the headline of the
story and then you go to each ofus and we just say one sentence
about that story, even if it'slike I don't care or I have no
idea.

unknown (01:42:26):
All right.

SPEAKER_04 (01:42:28):
We'll go in the same order every time.
We'll go Sophie, Blythe, andthen me.
For great keep it simple.

SPEAKER_07 (01:42:33):
Great.
Uh, and if you want to also gosilent, that's fine, because I
don't know that anybody elsecares about this first story.
Okay.
So we're gonna start in thegaming wor uh world.
Uh, if you played the gameprototype, there is a remake uh
remaster that might be happeningsoon.
I know me and Phil are big fansof the game.
So, Phil, one sentence, what areyour thoughts?
Let's fucking go.
Okay.

(01:42:54):
Blythe, Sophie, anything at all?
Nope.
Yeah, didn't think so.
That's okay.
Uh Claire Obscure Expedition 33is a big game that came out this
year.
It's getting free updates withnew dungeons, enemies, bosses,
and costumes.
A lot of people that enjoy thegame are excited to dive into
more of the world.
Phil, will you be jumping intomore of it since you still

(01:43:16):
haven't beaten it?

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:16):
I was gonna say my sentence is I'll beat it
eventually.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:20):
Uh Blythe, do you have any idea what this game is?
Because Bodder does.
Has he played it?
No.
He got mad that we hadn't donean episode yet, so I'm assuming
so.

SPEAKER_03 (01:43:30):
What does the game look like?
I've probably seen it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:33):
It's French.

unknown (01:43:35):
Oh.

SPEAKER_06 (01:43:36):
That doesn't explain it at all.

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:39):
No, was that not a good that was like?
It looks very FinalFantasy-esque.
So, like presentation-wise,there's bigger.

SPEAKER_03 (01:43:46):
Okay, I've probably seen it.
Yeah, I think I know what gameyou're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:48):
I probably walked by him and there's a character in
there that looks strangely likeRobert Pattinson, but is not
voiced by Robert Pattinson.
Yeah.

unknown (01:43:56):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:56):
It's actually Charlie Tox, interestingly
enough.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:58):
So Blind said it's seen it.
Maybe.
Okay.
Uh Sophie, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:44:03):
Uh no, I'm not familiar with the franchise.

SPEAKER_07 (01:44:06):
All right.
Uh, next one.

SPEAKER_04 (01:44:08):
This you asked for this.
I'm loving this, honestly.

SPEAKER_07 (01:44:12):
Next one.
Uh, Microsoft recently increasedthe price of Xbox Game Pass uh
up to$30 a month.
If you don't know, this isessentially the Netflix of
games, so you don't own any ofthe games, but you get to play a
lot of the releases.
30 bucks a month, though, isquite an ask.
In fact, the subscription sitefor cancellations broke down the
same day this news gotannounced.

(01:44:32):
So people did not respond verywell.
I personally still have GamePass.
I do still see some value, butit is diminishing what we used
to call the best deal in gaming.
Phil, uh, what are your quickthoughts?

SPEAKER_04 (01:44:43):
Uh, thanks for the reminder to cancel.

SPEAKER_07 (01:44:46):
Crazy.
Uh Blythe, any thoughts on a onthe Netflix subscription game
version?

SPEAKER_03 (01:44:52):
This just proves PlayStation superiority.
So that I've always been aPlayStation girl at for my
entire life.
Shout out to the PS2 that justcelebrated the 25-year
anniversary this week.
Uh, but yeah, PlayStationsuperiority.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:06):
There we go.
Shots fired.
Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:45:08):
My sentence is Nintendo doomed us all.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:12):
That's right.
We we don't want to pay$30 amonth, we want to pay$90 per
game.
So exciting stuff.
Um, although I heard, you know,that some of the games were
Donkey Calling this year, gameof the year contender.
Uh, not Jurassic World Evolution3.

SPEAKER_05 (01:45:27):
That's not true.
That's not true.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:28):
Uh, talking about the PlayStation, Halo campaign
evolved, has been uh announcedto be releasing on the PS5 in
2026.
So if you ever wanted to playHalo on the PlayStation, that is
coming.
Phil, what does this world cometo?

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:43):
Uh yeah, never thought I'd see the day.
That is what I will say.
Crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:49):
Blythe.

SPEAKER_03 (01:45:50):
The console wars have officially ended.
PlayStation 1.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:54):
That's true.
That's true.
Okay, Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:45:58):
It has never been better, uh, better time to own a
PS5.

SPEAKER_07 (01:46:02):
There we go.
Uh, talking about PlayStation,uh, they have quietly canceled
their PlayStation the concert2025 tour after there have been
troubles in the European tour.
If you didn't know what thiswas, essentially you were gonna
get to hear a lot of the greatmusic from PlayStation games in
concert.
Uh, but that has been quietlycancelled and uh was confirmed

(01:46:25):
this month.
Phil, I don't think that wasever something you were gonna
see.
Thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 (01:46:29):
Bummer, but yeah, not gonna piss uh I looked into
the pricing and not worth it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:46:35):
Blythe, you going to concerts for games?
Uh for PlayStation, yes.
Uh, I actually looked this upwhenever uh because Botter and I
went to Newark Comic-Con and Iwas asking like Chat JPT, like
what's what's some events thatare going on this weekend in New
York?
And there was a play thePlayStation concert was
mentioned.
And then when I clicked on it totry to go and see what tickets
are looking like, uh the it wasa dead link, it redirected, you

(01:46:58):
know, I think to the mainPlayStation website.
I was very bummed.
I was like, well, I guess theyjust canceled the concert.
Uh, but I tried, I did try to goto this actually.

SPEAKER_07 (01:47:08):
That's crazy.
We would have never known that,Phil.
This might be a good format.
Uh Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:47:13):
Um, that that's kind of sucks because I I actually
just went to the One Piece uhOrchestra Symphony this
Saturday, and it was anincredible experience.
Um, my fiance was not has notbeen familiar with the IP, and
he was moved by like the musicand the experience itself, again
with the community and all thatstuff.
So I think it's it's a sad, it'salways sad to miss like uh you

(01:47:35):
know a community event likethat, especially something like
a like an orchestra or symphony.

SPEAKER_07 (01:47:39):
Yeah, me and Phil found our way through some
connections to help out uh thelocal uh Jacksonville um
community uh with the uhpromotion of the Naruto
Symphony, a show we have neverseen, but we enjoyed, we enjoyed
the symphony quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04 (01:47:55):
Um, 16 sentences, Sophie, Jesus, kind of like
yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:47:59):
There was one long one more just a run-on.
There was no break.

SPEAKER_01 (01:48:03):
I don't know, I almost she's right.
I almost called out my commasthere, but no, you don't have to
do that.

SPEAKER_07 (01:48:10):
No, she's she's right.
Uh now in the world of film, andthis is where we'll wrap up,
just a couple stories.
Uh, if you're a fan of aliens,Sigourney Weaver had recently
confirmed during a New YorkComic Con panel that she had a
meeting about playing Ripley inone of these alien sequels
recently with either Fox orDisney.
With Alien Romulus coming out,it would have been funny to see

(01:48:32):
a Ripley cameo.
That seems something that wouldhappen in 2025.
Uh, nevertheless, didn't happen.
Don't know if we want to see it,but Phil, we had just had Alien
as our late to the party episodethis month.
So, any thoughts on hearing thatnews?

SPEAKER_04 (01:48:47):
Ripley comes back.
You are welcome.
It was us.

SPEAKER_07 (01:48:52):
Uh, Blythe, did this mean anything to you?

SPEAKER_03 (01:48:54):
It would had I seen the original movie.
I've never seen it.
I'm sorry.
Uh, but I do know that SigorniWeaver's character is like
widely regarded as like one ofthe best female characters of
all time, and that is why Istill want to see it, but sadly
I have not seen it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:49:11):
Yeah, no, that that's fair.
Sophie, thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 (01:49:15):
I think that's awesome.
I think that would be that wouldbe fantastic and kind of a love
letter to the fans.

SPEAKER_07 (01:49:21):
No, you're definitely right about that.
Uh, love letter to the fans.
I don't know if that's gonna bethis next story, depending on
how you feel about Johnny Depp.
He is reportedly in Final Talksto play Ebonese or Scrooge for
the Christmas Carol thatParamount Pictures is doing.
This comes at the same time thatRobert Eggers, the director for
Nosferatu, is doing anadaptation of the same story

(01:49:43):
with William Defoe, which isgonna be such a different movie.
And these two movies may collidein 2026.
It's gonna be a big year forDepp coming back, maybe
returning as Jack Sparrow,rumored.
There's also another film thathe's tied to.
So I don't know if you have anythoughts about the return of
Johnny Depp, but I threw it outhere for us to quickly talk

(01:50:03):
about.
Phil, you go first.

SPEAKER_04 (01:50:05):
I just watched Spirited on Apple TV if you want
to watch a modern-day EbenezerScrooge.

SPEAKER_07 (01:50:10):
Yeah, Spirited is pretty good.
Blythe.

SPEAKER_03 (01:50:13):
I would absolutely see both of these movies, and I
I welcome the return of JohnnyDepp to the movie screen.

SPEAKER_07 (01:50:19):
There we go.
Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:50:21):
I prefer the Muppet's Christmas Carol over
any of those.

SPEAKER_07 (01:50:26):
You cannot go wrong with that one.
You're going with the classic.
Um, what's becoming a classic isa movie that came out this year,
it seems, because a lot ofpeople are enjoying it.
It's called Weapons, and I'msolely doing this as a reminder
to myself.
I didn't get to see it intheaters.
It's finally streaming on HBOMax.
If you know about this film andyou enjoyed it, say it.

(01:50:47):
If you don't know what this filmis, that's okay too.
Phil, I know you know about it.
I don't think you're ever gonnasee it though.

SPEAKER_04 (01:50:53):
I I might be able to thanks to the jump scare
website, and I know when thosebig jumps have, there's like
three or four of them.

SPEAKER_03 (01:51:01):
Blythe, I know for a fact this is not your jam.
I just opened up the website forit.
No, absolutely not.
Like, even just the images onthe Google preview.
No, I am not watching this.
I am Xing out of this.

SPEAKER_07 (01:51:14):
This might be one of the times, Phil, where I make
the edit to someone who's nottalking because Blythe was just
like, oh god, Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:51:23):
I've only seen the promos and much like Blythe.
It's a little I I like myspooky, I don't like my very
scary, so it's probably not forme either.

SPEAKER_07 (01:51:32):
Fair enough.
Uh, I don't think this movie isfor anyone.
Uh, so I really want to getthrough this as quickly as
possible.
Uh, Jim Carrey is in talks tolead a live actions Jetsons
movie, uh, Colin Cavarro todirect.
Uh who asked for this?
I don't know.
I'm a hundred percent sure thisis movie news that will be dead
in a few years and we'll justforget it ever happened.

(01:51:53):
Phil, thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 (01:51:54):
Yep, you you already stole it.
No one wants this.

SPEAKER_03 (01:51:57):
Uh Blythe, you a Jetsons fan?
I I am a Jetsons fan, but andI'm also a somewhat of a Jim
Carrey fan, especially back inthe day, but I I I'll I'll I'll
wait to reserve judgment.

SPEAKER_07 (01:52:08):
Yeah, you gotta see that trailer for Sophie.

SPEAKER_01 (01:52:11):
Um, I think Jim Carrey peaked at Eggman, and I
thought that would be his lastrole.
Um, then he said he would retireafter.
So that's intriguing.

SPEAKER_07 (01:52:19):
I think he said that for three Sonic Press tours so
far.
So yeah.
That's what he said.
Um, as far as a movie that weactually do like, me and Phil
are big fans of a movie calledThe Mitchells versus the
Machines, and the sequel is inthe works from Netflix and Sony
animation.
Uh, it is a great film that's onNetflix.
If you like K-pop Demon Hunters,you like the animation style,

(01:52:42):
well, you might like Mitchellsversus the Machines.
A little bit more of a familystory there.
And Phil, I know you're a bigfan of it.
So any thoughts about the sequelfinally happening happening?

SPEAKER_04 (01:52:52):
Yeah, a franchise that deserves a second
go-around.
Very excited.

SPEAKER_07 (01:52:56):
Uh Blythe, is this a movie that has entered your
radar at all?
I've never heard of it.
I'm sorry.
Okay, too many people haven't.
Sophie, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:53:06):
Incredible movie.
Love it.
I think there's never with allthe AI development stuff,
there's never been a better timefor that movie to have a sequel.

SPEAKER_04 (01:53:12):
It's super so hard on AI too.
It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 (01:53:15):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:53:15):
It's gonna be so good.
Uh, and then our final, finalstory, of course, has to be
something about Star Wars.
Does anybody care about thisanymore?
I don't think so, but I'm gonnabring it up because the
discovery of the unrealized huntfor Ben Solo film has shaken up
Star Wars fans over the lastweek.
And recently, the person who hadbeen in charge of writing that
story, Steven Slauterberg, uh,the brains behind the project,

(01:53:38):
he revealed that the decisionnot to green light that
completed script was a first forDisney.
Typically, they don't say no tothose things, and apparently
they just couldn't figure outhow he comes back to life in a
way that makes sense.
Maybe a smart call, Disney, butAdam Driver seemed interested to
return.
Phil, I know you don't care, sojust let me move on to Blythe if

(01:54:01):
you're okay with that.

SPEAKER_04 (01:54:02):
Well, I was gonna say if we want Adam Driver to
reprise that role, just get himback on Saturday Night Live.

SPEAKER_07 (01:54:07):
Yes.
That was the best version.
Blythe.
Uh any thoughts about that?
And we always asked what is yourrelationship with Star Wars?
You can extend it a sentence ortwo.

SPEAKER_03 (01:54:17):
I I would say that Star Wars is definitely one of
those franchises that was insort of the top three for me.
It was, you know, sort of Lordof the Rings and then Harry
Potter and then Star Wars.
And for a while, uh Star Warsand Harry Potter were kind of
competing with themselves, but Iwhatever.
I Star Wars is just sodisappointing, as is with a lot
of their releases outside ofAndor, which I thought was one

(01:54:39):
of the the best TV shows I'veever seen in my life.
Like I would put that probablyin my top 10 of all time.
Um, but outside of Andor, I justdon't think that Disney has done
much that's very impressive.
Uh, The Force Awakens was uhsomething that I felt that they
could build on a lot, and thenthey just completely ruined it

(01:54:59):
without having a cohesivecreative team to lead that that
trilogy.
And I I think we'll forever bewondering what if.
But I like Kylo Ren.
I like the character.
I think they they could havedone something special.
They definitely could havebrought him back, considering
that they brought Palpatine backfor the 17th time.
Uh, but I I I know you said onesentence.

SPEAKER_07 (01:55:21):
It would have just been like he returned.
It would have been fine.
Somehow Palpatine returned.
Yeah, no, that was perfectlysaid, Blythe.
Uh Sophie, uh, same thing.
Uh, any thoughts on this story?
And what's your relationshipwith Star Wars?
You can extend it as well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:55:35):
Um, I I'm I'm a big fan of the property and kind of
like the legacy that it's had,the original trilogy, uh, the
prequels.
Um, I think in recent years, ofcourse, uh shared state
sentiment is just kind of umquantity over quality.
And I think it's just been uhkind of like our Fast and
Furious conversation.
Uh I think Star Wars is moreegregious in the way of just

(01:55:58):
getting stuff out just becausethe name that will sell,
regardless of what they put out.
And I think that because it'sbeen kind of going on for so
long, people are starting topush back on that.
And maybe that's why there's alittle bit more resistance, and
hopefully, um, we always we canalways hope that they will start
to change that into quality overquantity.

SPEAKER_07 (01:56:17):
Yeah, 100%.
I think they did they learnedthat lesson between pretty much
fumbling two major franchises inMarvel and Star Wars trying to
do the same thing.
So hopefully uh Disney haslearned, but I don't know if
they're gonna make the rightdecision next.
So maybe it's just one baddecision leading to another.
As far as our Discord roundup,that is it, Phil.
Uh, which means we have to endour episode with a game that I'm

(01:56:41):
very excited for us to do.
So I'll let you take it overfrom here.

SPEAKER_04 (01:56:44):
Yeah, so Blythe Sophie, you will need your
phones for this final part aswe're gonna be doing a Kahoot.
Uh as I pull this up here, andI'll get the PIN number for you
guys to join.
Can everybody see this?
Okay, uh here's the pin numberup here.
You can either go to thiswebsite or scan the QR code.

(01:57:06):
If you need me to make that.
Oh, look at that.
Learning new stuff all the time.
All the time.
So you'll bring you to awebsite, you'll put in your
name.
Uh, you could use a nickname.
Eric will probably be using anickname.
Uh, then you pick your youcustomize your character.
And uh as we get everybody setup for those audio-only

(01:57:27):
listeners, definitely suggestyou switch over to the YouTube
side of things to see thisportion of the get of the
episode, but I will do my bestto uh describe what is happening
here, and of course, I'll keepthe scoreboards updated.
We have bikes, you have uh BMand soup.
Alright, perfect.
I know who bikes is.
Um Bikes! Uh so yeah, Blythe,um, you know, uh you you've

(01:57:54):
mentioned multiple times uhthroughout this episode that
horror isn't necessarily yourthing.
Uh it is spooked over, so thereis a specific theme to this in
this Kahoot.
I apologize.
So we'll see we'll see how thisgoes.
Uh Eric, uh, because it is spookthemed, it means maybe your
favorite question doesn't pop uphere uh this month.

SPEAKER_05 (01:58:18):
Thank fucking god, dude.

SPEAKER_04 (01:58:20):
Uh yeah, so there are um uh uh Sophie, you've done
Kahoot, right?
We did a Kahoot with you before,or did you still do Jeopardy?

SPEAKER_01 (01:58:26):
I think we did Jeopardy together.
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:58:29):
Have you, Blythe, either you, the either two of
you, have you ever done a Kahootbefore?

SPEAKER_03 (01:58:34):
Yes, but it's been a while.
Okay.
Same.
It's been a while.

SPEAKER_07 (01:58:38):
And if it if it makes it easier, you can stay
off mute for this whole game.
Uh so that way you don't have toworry.
Because you'll be you'll be onyour phone connecting the whole
time.
So don't worry about it.
So we'll take yeah, we'll takecare of all the other stuff.
Yep.
So we'll mute you when you'renot there.

SPEAKER_04 (01:58:51):
There are a couple of different question types here
in this Kahoot.
So there is multiple choice,there's true and false.
Uh, there is pin your answer onthe photo.
There is a um there's a sliderin which you will um, there'll
be a set of numbers that you'llhave to.
So like the question will be um,God, what's the question?
How many Star Wars films arethere?

(01:59:11):
And then it'll be like a numberbetween five and ten, and you'll
slide your number based onwhatever that answer is.
And then the very last one istiles, which is where you will
put things in order.
I'm pretty sure all thequestions I have here in order
is about release dates orsomething along those lines.
So very, very simple.
There is a time limit for eachquestion answer.
Uh, you get more points thequicker you answer, and of
course you have to answer thequestion correctly.

(01:59:33):
But uh very easy, and there are12 questions here this month to
wrap up our episode.
Everybody, ready?

SPEAKER_00 (01:59:40):
Ready.
Yes.

SPEAKER_04 (01:59:41):
Ready.
A Kahoot.
By the way, for it, by this bythe way for it podcast.
What did I miss?
October 2025.
Here we go.
The first question is multiplechoice.
We have a quiz.
Which horror franchise takesplace primarily in the fictional
town of Woodsboro?
Is it Halloween?
Queen, Scream, Nightmare on ElmStreet, or Final Destination.

(02:00:05):
Which horror franchise takesplace primarily in the fictional
town of Woodsboro?
Alright, two people got itright.

SPEAKER_05 (02:00:14):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (02:00:15):
The answer is Scream.
It sounds like Eric maybe got itwrong.

SPEAKER_07 (02:00:18):
That was a guess.
That was a guess.

SPEAKER_04 (02:00:20):
Alright, there you go.
Alright, Blyth in the lead with828 and bikes at 741.
Sof got it raw.
Soup got it incorrect.
Alright, there is ourscoreboard.
Alright.
Next one, I believe.
Type your answer out.
Which movie is this?
A photo will slowly appear.
Type out what movie it is onyour screen.
Uh on your uh in your phone.

(02:00:41):
What movie is this?
I typically say spelling isimportant, but like if you can't
spell this, concerns.

SPEAKER_06 (02:00:50):
Um no.
Oh no.

SPEAKER_07 (02:00:56):
You got 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 (02:00:58):
I forgot.

SPEAKER_07 (02:01:00):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (02:01:01):
You probably blank this in theaters.

SPEAKER_04 (02:01:06):
Probably didn't blank this in theaters.

SPEAKER_03 (02:01:08):
Oh.
Yeah, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 (02:01:11):
Alright, the answer is Saw.
Who put Jigsaw?
I'm the only one?
Did you put Jig Did you who putJigsaw?
Oh no, I just needed the name ofthe movie, not the name of the
character.
Yeah, no, that's Eric movesmoves into the lead, so five to
a rough start, but you can makeup ground here pretty easily in
Kahoot.

(02:01:32):
Alright, next question is aslider.
How many kills does JasonVoorhees have across the Friday
the 13th franchise per a 2024Game Spot article?
I made it relatively easier thismonth, Eric.
155 and 165.
What is you do get points forbeing close as well.
So uh feels right.
Anywhere between 155.

SPEAKER_06 (02:01:54):
Why'd you pick this?
Because it was the one for thearticle.

SPEAKER_04 (02:01:57):
I was like, that's my favorite.
Alright.
The answer is 163.
Who put 162?
You should get points for that.

SPEAKER_07 (02:02:06):
I think that was two of us, right?
Just me?
It's me.
Oh yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, both of us.
There we go.

SPEAKER_04 (02:02:12):
Alright.
Alright.
There you go.
On the board.
Alright.
Bikes is still in the lead with1768.
Uh we got Byte BM in second, andSoup is on the board with 136.

SPEAKER_05 (02:02:27):
Yay!

SPEAKER_04 (02:02:27):
Alright, next question is just a puzzle.
So you put these things inorder.
Put these whoops, that didn'treally remove that.
Put these Tim Burton movies inorder of their release.
And the order of their release.
So we have Corpse Bride, Frankand Weenie, Beetlejuice, and The
Nightmare Before Christmas.
You do have a little bit of timeto do this one because these
ones are a little bit moredifficult.
But the four movies are CorpseBride, Frank and Weenie,

(02:02:50):
Beetlejuice, and The NightmareBefore Christmas.
What order did these release in?

SPEAKER_07 (02:02:58):
Oh no.
I'm gonna I'm it's the first twoI'm not very confident.
Alright, two people got itright.
Damn.
Two people got it right.
It was Beetlejuice.
Oh yeah, it was Beetlejuicefirst.

SPEAKER_04 (02:03:11):
Alright.
Solid, solid.
Let's see some movement on thatboard.
There we go.
Blythe with uh right there onEric's tail and uh soup now
getting some points, almost to athousand.
Like I said, you can get intothis, you can get back into this
really quickly, especially ifyour uh opponents miss some
questions.
Alright, next one is a pin theanswer.
Which of these five knights ofFreddy's characters is named

(02:03:31):
Foxy?
Sorry, Blythe.

SPEAKER_06 (02:03:33):
I know I know this one.

SPEAKER_04 (02:03:36):
Now look at the character, look at the context.
The character is named Foxy.

SPEAKER_06 (02:03:41):
Wait a second.
Wait.
Oh shit, there's two, okay.

SPEAKER_07 (02:03:45):
I didn't notice that.
Alright.
Okay, I'm gonna go with what Iwould just assume is the one you
No way you picked the other one,man.
No way.

SPEAKER_04 (02:03:56):
Okay, to be fair, I asked Stefan this question, and
he told how to ask him this withthis character specifically, and
that's the one that he told mewas named Foxy.
Did you send him this image?
Yes, just exact image.
Holy shit, man.
So this one is on Stefan.

SPEAKER_06 (02:04:13):
Me, me and me and Z both look like wait a second.
There's a two.

SPEAKER_04 (02:04:18):
Yeah, yeah.
That's uh that's my bad.
That's fine.
Uh who got it right?
Okay, there we go.
Soup is it?
There we go.
It's like from last to first.
There you go.
Look at that movement.
There we go.
Just like that.
In three in a row.
That's all it took.
Yeah, I think you do also getpoints, extra points for getting
multiple answers in a row.
So there we go.
All right.
Next question is a quiz.

(02:04:39):
According to Instacart, whichcandy is Florida's most uniquely
popular Halloween treat?
This was a 2023 study, Ibelieve.
Is it lifesavers, snow caps,high chew, or dum-dums?
Which uniquely popular Halloweentreat does Florida like?

SPEAKER_07 (02:04:55):
I don't like that answer.
Oh.
The answer is dum-dums.
I almost picked high chews, butI'm like, who's eating high
chews like that for real?
Like, you like popular popular?

SPEAKER_04 (02:05:05):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (02:05:06):
Also, snow caps would have made you pretty mad.

SPEAKER_04 (02:05:07):
It would have, that's why I put it on here
because nobody likes snow caps,so uh Jordan.
So yeah, dumdums is the answer,which I was very surprised by.
Alright, Bikes moves into thelead.
We are on question six, sonumber seven coming up.
Here's a true or false.
Uh in 2017, Pennywise the Clownis portrayed by Tim Curry.
True or false.

(02:05:28):
God, what a terrifying photo.
True or false.
Alright, that is false.
Yep, it does Bill Skarsgard in2017.
Alright, everybody got thatright.
Good job.
Uh right now, halfway throughthe game.
Bikes at 3481.
Soup at 2800 even.
And then right there with 2615is BM.

(02:05:50):
Close game.
Next question.
Type out your answer.
What Halloween movie features atalking cat named Binks?
What movie features a talkingcat named Binx?
Got two answers in.
Got one more.

(02:06:10):
15 seconds left.
Who is where where can you see?

SPEAKER_07 (02:06:17):
My answer, my answer won't fit.
And it's not a movie either.
Yeah, I'm just gonna.

SPEAKER_04 (02:06:26):
Alright, well, I think you're right.
The answer is hocus pocus.
Oh, typing in Sabrina, theteenage witch.

SPEAKER_07 (02:06:35):
I was like, I'm running out of space.
That's also not a movie, butmaybe there was one.

SPEAKER_04 (02:06:39):
The answer is hocus pocus.
Alright.
Look at that.
Yeah, that's out of my element.
Look at that.
We got what is this?
25, 35 points separating bikesand BM.
We got a close one here.
Alright, question number ninecoming up.
We got another quiz.
Who co-wrote Cabin in the Woodswith Drew Goddard?
Was it Joss Whedon, QuentinTarantino, Eli Roth, or Sam

(02:06:59):
Raimi?
Who co-wrote my favorite horrormovie?
Yeah, it is Joss Wheaton.
I put Sam Raimi in there tothrow people off, so that
worked.
But yeah, Joss Whedon uh helpedwrite Cabin in the Woods.
Excellent horror film.
Then he did the Justice League.
And then, you know, Joss Whedonthings happened.
So no moving on the board there.
Coming down to the last fewquestions.

(02:07:20):
Close game.
Next one is another puzzle.
Put these 2000s horror films inorder of their US release.
We have Saw, ParanormalActivity, the Grudge, and the
Ring.
So which move put these in orderof their US release?
Saw, Paranormal Activity, TheGrudge, and the Ring.

(02:07:43):
We got 45 seconds left.
This one, again, it's a puzzle,so you take give you guys a
little bit more time, but you doget more points the quicker you
answer.
We got one answer in.
Saw, paranormal activity, thegrudge, and the ring.
Alright, one person got itright.
I didn't feel good about it.
The ring, the grudge, saw, and aparanormal activity.

(02:08:04):
I wish we would tell me who gotit.
Well, I guess it does on thenext screen, but I wish it would
tell me here who got it right.
Alright, who got that right?
Oh shit.
Blythe moves into the lead.
Whoa! With 4,248 with twoquestions left.
What a cru.

unknown (02:08:18):
Man.

SPEAKER_07 (02:08:19):
The person who didn't know what Saw was earlier
all of a sudden knows therelease date.

SPEAKER_04 (02:08:23):
Crazy.
Alright, Eric, pin the answer.
Which one of these fast andcurious characters is named
Jacob?
I lied.
I lied, Eric.
Which one of these fast and thecurious characters?

SPEAKER_06 (02:08:35):
I hate this question every time I don't know these
people.
Who is it?
Every month I forget to look upthe characters.
Who the fuck is Jacob?

SPEAKER_07 (02:08:53):
Oh, it's with a K?
Hold on.

SPEAKER_04 (02:08:57):
Alright, nobody got it right.
It's John Cena's character.
John Cena is Jacob Toretto.
Of course, brother of DominicToretto, guys.
Like, come on, like, geez.
Get it together.
Alright.
Jacob with a K, huh?
One more.
Yeah, Jacob with a K.
It's it's kind of fitting forthis film franchise.
Like, they even overthought thename Jacob.

unknown (02:09:20):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 (02:09:21):
Just spell Jacob normally, assholes.
Alright, one more question,guys.
And it is a close race to forthe listening audience again.
Blythe is in a lead, 4,248.
Soup is at 3,682.
And Bikes, 3481.
Uh BM is holding on to that leadvery, like, very, very closely.
This is the last question.

(02:09:42):
It is a type out your answer.
I'll let you guys know that.
And it is uh an image is gonnareveal itself, and you're gonna
have to see what movie this is.
So here we go.
Plight did not do great withSauce.
So um let's see how this goes.
What movie is this?
An image will slowly revealitself.

(02:10:02):
Again, the quicker you answer,the more points you'll receive.
Alright, we got one answer, twoanswer, 20 seconds left.
This is a film.
There we go.
The answer is, of course,sinners.
And did everybody get thatcorrect?
Okay.

(02:10:22):
Everybody got it right.
Let's it's gonna come down totime.
As far as who is going to winthis game.
So let's see.

SPEAKER_07 (02:10:30):
I would I would like to I would like to just give the
precursor.
I lost a few seconds because Iwas typing G-E-T for get out.

SPEAKER_06 (02:10:37):
And it might have been a little racist.
And I'm sorry.
So I had to do that.

SPEAKER_04 (02:10:41):
You also didn't have to reveal that information.

SPEAKER_06 (02:10:44):
I know, but I just felt like morally, I felt like I
had to get off my team.
I do feel good about it, and itmight have cost me the game.

SPEAKER_04 (02:10:51):
So, which is fitting.
Alright, let's see it.
Let's go to the scoreboard.
Let's go to the podium in thirdplace is Bikes.
Yeah, it cost me.
Second place is going to besoup, which means first
participant.
BM Blythe wins the Octoberhorror theme code.

SPEAKER_07 (02:11:13):
So, Blythe, out of curiosity, uh last five years,
you know, 2020 to now.
How many horror films have youseen?
Zero.

SPEAKER_03 (02:11:22):
Maybe the last decade I've seen zero.
That's what I thought of.
I've heard it's such a goodmovie, and I will watch it
because I've heard it's not thatscary.

SPEAKER_04 (02:11:32):
No, there's like one jump scare, and it's not even
related to the actual.
I'll just, it's not even aspoiler.
It's there like somebody pullsup a tarp and a rattlesnake like
jumps out of it.

SPEAKER_03 (02:11:43):
Okay.
That's the only thing I can dothat.

SPEAKER_04 (02:11:45):
It's my favorite movie of the year.
Um, it's it's creeping intomaybe one of my top 25 films of
all time.
I love it that much.
So um it's very, very good.
Uh, I wouldn't see it at IMAXtheaters in Jacksonville, but
maybe you know if you want tomake a trip somewhere else.
So not reaching it.
But Eric, uh another verysuccessful um what did I miss?
This was a ton of fun.

(02:12:06):
Shout out to our guest.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Um, we want to know what you'reup to.
We want you to give uh you havean opportunity to let your
audience know what you're up to.
So Blythe, of course, leteverybody know um about
everything is logistics.
And also, a big time of the yearis coming up for the JPU here in
December, if you want to talkabout that.

SPEAKER_03 (02:12:23):
That's right.
Uh as you alluded to, I I host apodcast called Everything is
Logistics.
We've been I've been a podcastersince 2014, but this is the
first uh sort of industry that Ican kind of talk about where
your favorite stuff comes from,how it gets from point A to B,
and then also um a bunch ofinterviews with a bunch of
different subject matterexperts.
So if you work in logistics orsupply chain, then that is
hopefully a show that you woulduh like to become familiar with.

(02:12:45):
You can find it on all podcastplayers and on YouTube.
And then we have uh theJacksonville Podcasters United,
which is a local community ofaudio creators here in Northeast
Florida.
We have uh a little over 500members that are part of our
community, and we host uh twoand two events each year.
Uh podcast camp, which happensover the summer naturally.
The name kind of signifies that,but then we also host what's

(02:13:08):
called a pod a thon.
So think like Radio Thon, but ina podcasting environment.
And so Phil and Eric are aregreat.
They they've come to that eventevery single year, have helped
us host a show.
Well, Phil has come, he has thethe trophy in the background in
order to showcase it.
But you guys also do a reallyfantastic job.

(02:13:30):
Part of the the Python is toraise money for local charities,
and so the way that we do thatis we have some of the
podcasters show up, and if youdonate a certain amount, then
Eric will, Eric and Phil willboth, um, hopefully both will
interview you, and then we getthat video edited and we put it
up on the JPU uh YouTube page inorder to kind of shine a
spotlight on the audio creatorshere in Northeast Florida.

(02:13:54):
We've built a community that uhwe feel really proud about, and
it's one of the few podcastingcommunities in the entire
country.
Um, I think like to think thatwe were one of the first to.
So um, it's been really a greatblessing.
So that's happening in earlyDecember.
I'm blanking on the name, but ifyou look it up on Eventbrite for
Jacksonville Pot a thon, youshould be able to find it.

SPEAKER_04 (02:14:16):
Awesome.
And the links to all of thatwill of course be in the show
notes of this episode.
Uh so what are you up to thatyou can share?
I I know again, with when itcomes to like your convention
appearances with us, it kind ofcomes up last minute.
So I don't know what you know asof right now.
Are you going to like hallmatter or anything like that?
And also, you know, anything youwant to uh to let people know
that you have been up to.

SPEAKER_01 (02:14:38):
Yeah, um, thank you so much.
Yeah, I have my uh usual cosplayendeavors on my Instagram, Soup
Ninjaha, with an underscore.
Um, if I am guesting, I Ianticipate and hope to uh next
year, especially in the springsummertime.
Uh I will update that Instagramfor sure.
Um, I have my um my creativebusiness and illustrations at

(02:14:59):
stardust.creative on Instagramfor those endeavors, um, for
theme park stuff and otherwiseuh other fun stuff.
But um yeah, uh keep lookingforward to you know uh
cosplaying conventions and thishas been so much fun.
So thank you guys.

SPEAKER_04 (02:15:17):
Yeah, it was a blast.
Uh, you know, always love umintroducing new people to each
other and just nerding out,which is what this episode is
all about.
So thank you, uh Sof and Blythe.
It's so it's so good to see youguys as we wrap up 2025.
Um, if you want to keep up witheverything related to both of
our guests as well as the WayForward Podcasts, make sure you
click the show notes.
You'll find our Link Tree linkwhere you can follow us over on

(02:15:38):
social media, the most importantplaces being Instagram, TikTok,
our growing Discord community,over on Twitch where we stream
each and every single week.
And you can find a video port uhvideo of this uh podcast on
YouTube as well.
Like, share, and subscribe.
If you want to support thepodcast, you can head on over to
your podcast player of choice,specifically Apple Music,
Spotify, give everything aslogistics, and the Wayforward

(02:15:59):
Podcast five stars because it isthe lifeblood of podcasting and
it's very, very helpful.
Uh, and uh we very muchappreciate it.
But if you find yourself wantinga little bit more from the
Wayforward Podcast and alsomaybe having a hand in the
content that we create, Ericwill let you know a little bit
more about that before wrappingus up.

SPEAKER_07 (02:16:15):
Yeah, you can go beyond with the podcast over on
Patreon where patrons of theshow, Briar, T3K Dow, Vintage
Macaroni, Corey from the Lord ofmy burrito, Nick Casbaro, the
author of the Vidilliriumseries, and Botter from the
Shortbox Podcast are supportingus on Patreon in exchange for
behind the scenes and earlyaccess to episodes like this
one.
We just wrapped up October,which means Patreon month has

(02:16:37):
ended, but we'll be returningagain next year with a couple
more months on the calendarwhere you might be able to play
a part in the episode selectionprocess.
We'd appreciate the supportthere, but all the free stuff
that Phil mentioned that onlytakes your time is also much
appreciated.
Make sure to show that love toour guests, Blythe and Stu
Ninja.
And with that all being said, myname is Mr.

(02:16:59):
Eric Almighty.
That is my co host, Phil theFilipino, and we release new
episodes every Wednesday for thepodcast.
All you have to do is wait forit.

SPEAKER_02 (02:17:12):
This is the Wait for It Podcast.

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