Joshua Noel and Christian Ashley kicked off this episode of "What's News" on Systematic Geekology by diving straight into the latest buzz from our beloved fandoms, starting with the highly anticipated "Dexter: Resurrection". The dynamic duo couldn't resist the temptation to chat about the thrilling twists and turns of Dexter's return, and they even pondered the existential question of why some characters stick with us while others fade away. From there, they jumped into "Futurama" Season 13, dishing out their thoughts on its humorous yet poignant take on societal issues, including climate change. They also tackled Disney Pixar's "Elio", a film that, while not groundbreaking, sparked a discussion about the representation of out-of-place characters in recent Pixar animations. Finally, the guys wrapped things up with a cheeky look at the new "MARVEL/DC: DEADPOOL/BATMAN" crossover, blending humor and action in a way only these iconic characters can. This episode's got a little something for every geek, so buckle up!

The podcast dives deep into the latest happenings in the world of geek culture, with Joshua and Christian leading the charge. They kick things off with an exploration of the much-anticipated Futurama Season 13, which has made its triumphant return to Disney+. Joshua recalls the show's unique ability to tackle absurd themes with a witty twist, noting that this season continues to deliver on that front. The hosts discuss an episode that brilliantly lampoons climate change, showcasing the show's knack for blending humor with social commentary. They also touch on Dexter: Resurrection, expressing surprise at how the series has managed to breathe new life into a character previously thought to be done and dusted. The dialogue flows seamlessly from the dark humor of Dexter's narrative to the lighthearted escapades of Pixar's Elio, highlighting the juxtaposition of themes in contemporary storytelling. Joshua doesn't shy away from critiquing the film landscape, reflecting on how Disney's recent offerings compare to classics. They conclude with a talk about the crossover comic featuring Deadpool and Batman, which they find absolutely riveting, if a bit chaotic. This episode is a treasure trove for fans, offering insights into beloved franchises while maintaining a light, conversational tone.

The banter between Joshua and Christian sets an informal and engaging atmosphere as they discuss the latest geeky news. Starting with Futurama, they highlight the show's return and its clever commentary on real-world issues, like climate change, wrapped in humor. Joshua shares a specific episode that cleverly addresses the absurd realities we face today, while Christian praises the show's timeless wit. The hosts then pivot to Elio, a Pixar film that, while not groundbreaking, offers a heartwarming story about belonging and acceptance. They dissect the nuances of family dynamics presented in the film, with Christian noting the missed opportunities for deeper themes. When they touch on Dexter: Resurrection, both Joshua and Christian express their delight at the revival of the series, citing its return to form and the engaging storyline that introduces new characters alongside familiar faces. The episode culminates in a discussion of the Deadpool/Batman comic crossover, where they revel in the chaotic synergy of the two iconic characters. Throughout the episode, their chemistry shines, making it both entertaining and insightful for fans of all things geeky.

In this episode of Systematic Geekology, Joshua and Christian take listeners on a journey through the latest and greatest in pop culture, tackling everything from Futurama's witty social critiques to the exploration of familial bonds in Elio. They discuss how Futurama Season 13 carries forward the legacy of addressing societal issues through humor, with particular praise for an episode that cleverly mirrors current climate discussions. Transitioning to Elio, the hosts reflect on the film's heartwarming yet familiar narrative, contemplating the themes of acceptance and belonging. They delve into the intricacies of family and personal identity, pondering how these themes resonate in contemporary storytelling. The conversation takes a fascinating turn as they analyze Dexter: Resurrection, where they marvel at the show's ability to revive its titular character in a compelling way, exploring darker themes with a fresh perspective. Finally, they dive into the comic realm, dissecting the Deadpool/Batman crossover, which they find both chaotic and entertaining. This episode is a delightful mix of humor, insight, and cultural commentary, making it a must-listen for fans eager to stay updated on their favorite fandoms.

Takeaways:

• In this episode of What's News, Joshua and Christian dive into the latest in Futurama season 13, exploring its clever commentary on societal issues while maintaining the show's signature humor.
• Dexter: Resurrection has brought back a beloved character, with fresh twists that keep audiences on edge, highlighting the complexities of his nature and morality.
• Disney Pixar's Elio presents a heartfelt narrative about belonging and identity, though some feel it misses the mark compared to other Pixar classics by not digging deeper into its themes.
• The crossover comic featuring Deadpool and Batman is a wild ride, showcasing an entertaining blend of characters that fans of both universes can enjoy, even if the plot isn't groundbreaking.
• The guys reflect on the impact of nostalgia in fandoms, questioning why certain characters and stories resonate with audiences long after their initial runs.
• The discussion touches on how family dynamics shape characters like Dexter and how personal experiences influence storytelling in shows and films.

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Systematic Geekology

Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

Foreign.

Why do some characters just seem to stick with us and some shows just can't seem to die?

Well, we're going to be discussing that in much more today on Systematic Geekology, another episode of what's News.

We're talking about Dexter Resurrection Season 1.

We're talking about Elio, new to Disney Plus.

We're talking about Futurama Series Season 13, also new to Disney Plus.

And of course, we're talking about Batman Deadpool issue number one.

It's gonna be a great time and I couldn't do it without a great guy here with me.

The one and only Christian.

Ashley.

How's it going?

All right, man.

How about yourself?

I'm doing okay.

Still getting over this cold and cough and sneeze and it's probably hay fever.

My body despises ragweed.

Yeah.

And I don't blame.

I think I agree with my.

I haven't fallen yet.

Yeah, as bad as my allergies are, it's gonna come and I'm.

It's gonna.

There's gonna be a reckoning.

I will say a prayer tonight.

I will also say prayer for anyone who joins us live.

And of course, we'll also shout out where you guys are from.

If you do join live and put in the comments where you're from, we'll shout that out.

Also shout out what you're geeking out on.

If you put it down there, I'll shout out almost anything you put in the comments because I'm desperate.

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I don't think we have any comments yet, so we'll just go ahead and move straight to Yalls favorite part, I believe the lightning round.

Yeah.

All right, Lightning.

So these aren't our main topics, just other things that are new that we enjoy.

Christian, go.

Yeah, just real briefly.

I'm still enjoying Peacemaker.

It's been some really fun choices made there with the alternate universe and Peacemaker living in the life of the other one, given what he does to the other one and then how he's also screwing up his life at his home reality.

It's real fun.

Then Alien Earth continues to be amazing.

I've had a ton of fun with it.

I'm looking forward to the discussion we'll end up having about that later on whenever that what's New, whenever it's done that what's New comes out.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, that's gonna be.

That's gonna be a great one.

I haven't started Alien Earth yet.

I still need to.

I am in Peacemaker.

Peacemaker's been phenomenal.

There's been a few pretty good comics lately.

I'm trying to think of the one.

It was like a big crime comic that I've been.

It was on IFI Fanboy.

It was one of their top picks.

So just.

Good eye, Fanboy guys.

But thinking what else?

Well, you know, the main picks are the ones I'm talking about Strange New World finally catching up on it and how it ended.

And I'm surprised we haven't done an episode.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, we covered a little bit of it.

One of the last episodes.

We gotta wrap this up.

Yeah.

We haven't done the whole thing yet.

Yeah.

So good.

And of course, following along all the exciting Disney announcements for the parks, I'm getting excited for some of that.

Some of the universal announcement and hits, you know, they more or less just confirmed we're getting wizard of Ozland somewhere.

And that's just cool.

Like, I'm pretty pumped for that and trying to think.

I don't know.

I've been doing a lot of catching up.

So not a lot of like new things, more like catching up on One Piece, fallout, because I.

Etc.

You know.

But.

So I think that might be it for now.

I'll probably remember stuff later.

Be like man, why didn't you mention that?

But, you know, it's fine.

South Park.

That voice made me think South Park.

Absolutely.

How could we not mention it's been gold.

Yes.

Absolute gold.

Yeah.

And man, I don't know, even maybe by the time this comes out, and if not, it'll be really soon after we're getting the last of the Marvel what if books or audiobooks, because as TJ and I discussed on one of our what if episodes, the audiobooks are way better for this particular series.

Let me see.

What if Kitty Stone, Kitty Pryde, stole the Phoenix Force?

It's October 14th, so this will be out before that releases.

I might want to do an episode when it comes out because I'm excited to see how the story wraps up.

I thought that was like MCU stuff only, so that's interesting.

Getting her out.

Yeah.

Also, Doom is pretty prevalent and it is an overarching story, so it's.

Yeah.

Highly, highly recommend that one.

So, all things said, I think that's going to mark the end of our lightning round and I'm going to throw it first to one of Christian's picks that I was super excited to read before we recorded and then realized it's not on Kindle yet.

Cool.

Batman issue one.

Christian, take it away.

Okay, so some of you big comics fans out there already know DC and Marvel crossed over multiple times before.

There were a couple little one off issues in the 70s and 80s with, you know, Superman, Spider Man, Batman, Hulk.

Then you get the Teen Titans and X Men.

Then in the 90s, you had the great, you know, Marvel versus DC, which is the biggest excuse comic that ever existed.

But you know what?

The excuse was needed just for that to happen.

It was a ton of fun.

I created the amalgam universe where, you know, we got the different Marvel characters and DC characters becoming like amalgamated into a singular character that unfortunately they haven't really done a lot with because, well, sometimes companies can't play nice with each other.

That will and I covered a while back.

So check out that episode.

So we finally get it and it's coming back.

And I decided to do it with Batman and Deadpool and that was a pairing.

It's like, okay, I can kind of see it.

And you know what, they work well enough here.

We start off in Wayne Manor with Bruce kind of brooding as is his forte, and Deadpool just swings through the glass crashes into Wayne Manor, and it goes bonkers from there.

Find out that the Joker is trying to destroy the city with, of course, his toxin, his venom.

And Deadpool has been contracted by him to fool the Batman into coming there.

But you find out the Batman figured it out the whole time, and it's.

I can't remember the character he gets involved with, but the Joker had made a deal with someone in the DC Universe to find someone that he could use as a distraction against Batman who would share some of his chaos.

And Deadpool was the person from across the multiverse who was chosen for this and the shenanigans that come from that.

You know, Batman plays them off of each other.

He messes with the Joker by saying, well, maybe Deadpool's an even better enemy to me than you.

And, of course, that gets under the Joker skin.

Now, I could say, like, the story isn't anything groundbreaking, but it's a ton of fun.

I don't really like the Joker's appearance in this one.

It looks like they, like, chose different models and eras, all combined them into one.

It just didn't work for me.

But, like, as.

Beyond that, it's fun, it's good.

But this isn't the only thing we get.

We also get my favorite part of this, which is actually pretty much the other ones that come out.

They all kind of run under the premise, kind of like they did in the 90s for some of the crossovers and the 70s, too, where they create a universe where Marvel and DC have always interacted.

So you get the crossover is Captain America and Wonder Woman.

So it starts off with them in World War II kind of interacting, and there's some real, like, yeah, some.

Some romance on that side between the two of them, you know, but he still, you know, is frozen in ice for several years.

And we flash forward and we see the Avengers are.

I think it's Iron Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Wasp Giant Man.

And then they find Captain America.

And so, like, they're not covering all these things, so they go through the different.

Like, there's a Crisis of Infinite Earth kind of situation as well.

And then you get the very end of Steve's life.

He and Wonder Woman have kind of, like, become friends and, like, even romantic, you know, partner.

I don't know if they ever used the word wife and husband, but that's kind of the implication.

And, like, their love is shown over that time, and eventually he dies.

And whatever next crossover event there is, it's him looking back and said, man to the Extent of.

I pity any universe where we aren't together because we're perfect.

And it was really sweet.

I enjoyed that one a lot.

Nice.

Was that recent?

This just released last week.

Last Wednesday.

What?

Captain America and Wonder Woman.

It's inside the same comic, so it's a little larger because there's also one between, you know, Crypto the Superdog and Jeff the Land Shark was just.

I never really cared for Jeff as much as everyone else seems to do.

But is it just slicer crossover?

Just them playing with each other?

That was fun.

There's a Daredevil and Green Arrow where they're kind of fighting in Hell's Kitchen together against a hand.

This is like a thick comic book.

Oh, yeah, it's fairly meaty.

Then there's also a Batman, assuming not Batman.

Yeah, Batman.

An older Wolverine done by Frank Miller.

And his art has gotten worse over time, and the story is very incomprehensible and bad.

And then there's like, a final one where it's basically an amalgam version of Wolverine and Lobo kind of together.

And that's about it.

Oh, sorry.

There's another one.

It's the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Green Lantern Corps kind of working together.

It's more of a humorous one of them, like, trading Rocket Raccoon to become a Green Lantern.

And I think Hal Jordan.

Yeah, Hal Jordan did join the Guardians, so overall, I think they did a pretty good job on it.

Okay.

See, I thought this was gonna be like, a little miniseries and it was just a Batman Deadpool story.

I didn't realize it was like a whole, like, compilation almost.

That's really cool.

I. I did know this is kind of cool because I follow Scotty Young's Instagram and Reddit and everything.

I like him a lot.

But one thing is really interesting.

So his variant cover we have on the screen, if you're on YouTube, that he does.

Originally the Bat signal was just the Deadpool symbol, like, completely.

But people confused it and thought that it was saying that it was the X Men with Batman and Deadpool.

And apparently they got so confused he had to change it.

And he's like, I've literally always done the Deadpool symbol this way.

Way.

I don't know why people thought it was X Men, but it looks cool.

This one was Wolverine.

Yeah.

But it looks cool this way.

So I'll take.

I'll take the Bat Deadpool symbol together.

Also, Scotty Young variants are just always great.

And Will actually has one of the covers.

Yeah, props to Will.

So Anything meaty to take away from it or is it just kind of fun?

I do see Deadpool Joker makes sense, by the way.

I was gonna say, like, I get it.

I enjoy stuff like this a lot.

It's nice when companies play nice with each other because there was a reason the original amalgam universe kind of petered out because Marvel and dc, which kind of getting greedy on different side of things and doing crossovers like this one side has.

Well, we have to make this much money to justify.

We have to make this much money to justify it instead of, yeah, you're a company, you're supposed to make a profit.

Don't get me wrong, some of these things are just for fun, just to do them.

And one thing that we didn't get, and if I remember this correctly, there were plans for either in the 90s, either Daredevil or she Hulk to go over to DC for a while and for Martian Manhunter to come to Marvel.

But obviously there's a great, there's a huge licensing issues that would have been erupted from that happening.

So it makes sense why they didn't do it.

But it was such a fun idea.

So like yeah, what every comic fan loves, they love their dc, they love their Marvel.

And yeah, I think Marvel's better overall, but that doesn't mean I don't love dc.

So I like seeing them interact with each other and so it's a bunch of fun.

So that's that one.

That's one side of it.

And it sounds like we may be getting more down the road.

They've been kind of cagey on it.

Whether this is a one off or whether there's more plan and I would want more.

I mean, I'm satisfied with this.

Don't get me wrong, they did a good job with it.

But as for like deeper stuff from it, I mean this some good character studies of, you know, Batman and Deadpool.

It's like, you know, so many people write Deadpool as if he's just some goof who just all lol random.

But there's, there's a method to the madness here.

And it's shown, it's like in the betrayals that are done and how Batman can manipulate Devil, Daredevil, Deadpool while at the same time they can kind of end up like having an appreciation for each other.

And that's, that's just a fun part of comics is to have characters who you think there's no way Deadpool is a killer.

Batman is the definition of never kill at all.

If at all possible.

And yet they come together for a common goal against a far greater threat than is the Joker.

And there's a good story.

Good enough story.

It's not, like I said, not the best, but it does a good enough job.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I can see these specific two characters working for a couple reasons.

One would be, like, money wise, just thinking of, like, market.

You do see a lot of people who are like, I'm a Marvel guy, but I'll still read Batman.

And you see a lot of DC people who are like, I'm dc, but I mean, I'm gonna read Deadpool.

So, like, I feel like they chose the two that, like, if you only like Marvel, you still usually like Batman, and if you only like dc, you still usually like Deadpool.

So I feel like that's kind of a lot of the reason behind it.

But also it's interesting seeing, like, the chaos of Deadpool in the stoicism of Batman and especially, like, thinking of it, like, their meta perspective.

I don't know.

Hang with me.

Yes.

Deadpool not only is, like, I believe there's more than.

This is, like, straight up, I know that people are writing this.

This is a comic book.

And Batman is so stoic.

I don't think he could ever contemplate anything greater than the world they're in.

Like, I feel like he's smart.

Like, he can figure stuff out, but I think he's so down in his own darkness that I don't think he could believe in something greater.

You know, he's more maybe, but not greater.

I don't know.

But that was one to me, that I was like, it's interesting because Batman is so stoic that I feel like he has a hard time seeing outside of the next threat.

Basically, where Deadpool is like, it doesn't matter if I die.

I think that's fair enough.

Do you kind of see any of that, like, playing off each other?

Do they do any of the meta stuff, or they just kind of tell the story and let's.

Because I feel like Deadpool doing the meta stuff might get a little out of hand.

There's at least one meta moment I can think of.

They make a joke about the Joker's butt, and Deadpool's kind of like, oh, yeah.

And it's obvious from the comic panel that it's done for the sake of showing that off.

Like, they're.

They're looking at the readers while that's happening.

But as far as him and Batman, I'm sure something is said, but I Don't.

I don't have it in front of me to read it and remember that.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Makes sense.

All right, well then if you're good, you wanna go next topic?

I think mine's the next topic.

Let's do it.

All right.

I got Futurama coming up next.

Season 13, I believe it is.

We're in these annoying 10 episode seasons.

I understand why we're doing them.

I do.

And I think for a show, Futurama, I don't think it suffers as much because it's so episodic that like 10 episodes every other year or 20 episodes all at once, there really isn't a huge difference.

When you're episodic storytelling instead of like long form storytelling, they don't really do that as much.

They do references.

But the way the show works, they can get away with it and not overwork the animation people or the writers.

And it's probably all good.

I enjoyed this season a lot.

You do get a lot of emphasis on logic for some reason.

You know, they go to a world that's all just numbers.

Literally just numbers.

Nothing else exists.

How dare you think that anything that's not numbers exist.

And of course they do some, like really blatant commentary that, you know, Futurama is known for.

They have that the one episode of.

They have one episode where basically they're like, oh, wait a minute, climate change.

The world's gonna burn.

It's gonna be just like the climatestrophea of the 21st century.

And they go through all this thing and they show the numbers, like, how can people not see these numbers and keep trying to change things.

And eventually people decide, wait a minute, we do care.

Not because of other humans, but because look how cute those little bears are.

And of course, at the end they realize they made the earth too cold.

And they like, wait a minute, those are the exact numbers and people didn't see it.

And they literally, like, they do it so much that it's painful, which I think makes it funny.

Like, you mean those are the exact same numbers?

Like, that is literally the numbers?

Exactly the number.

They still didn't do anything.

Of course not.

No one showed them how cute the bears are.

Something to say about observational comedy like that.

It's like you can.

The observation is, this is a legitimate thing.

Here's the factual information Whatever, regardless what the issue is.

And make humor based off of that, because you can tell people that all day long, and yet the.

The veil of whatever it is over their eyes just.

Just won't break into.

Oh, yeah.

Like that episode specifically, I. I was rolling.

Even though I kind of saw from the beginning what was going to happen and it was going to end up being our numbers.

Like, I just figured because I've been watching Futurama too long, but.

But, like, you know, eventually, it's just a bunch of numbers on an Excel.

It's like, why are you showing people that?

And what's funny is, like, they don't just pick on one side, and they're like, oh, Republicans are stupid.

Like, they literally show every.

Like, all these different perspective and kind of make fun of everybody because, you know, it's a comedy show.

The point isn't to say, hey, here is the correct answer.

It's to make fun of everybody on all sides.

So, you know, they have frauds worth showing all the numbers.

It's like, those mean nothing.

That's literally just a bunch of numbers on a paper.

What are you.

And then him getting aggravated and be like, what do you want to make it a cartoon or something?

Like, that's dumb.

And then Amy makes it a graph where the bad numbers are in red, and everyone's like, whoa, it really is bad.

Why hasn't anyone just shown it in such a simple way before?

Why does everybody make it so complicated?

And the professor being mad, like, because it is complicated.

It's like, okay, but we didn't understand it before.

And it just kind of really is making fun of everybody on all sides.

And even, you know, have the one person who's like, well, there's nothing we could do at this point.

It's irreversible.

We're all gonna die anyway.

And of course, Bender goes, yeah, let's riot.

And it's just, like, the reason.

Yeah.

And it's just comedy to me, like, comedy gold.

And it really does show the absurdity of how everybody's behaving about this particular topic.

And they do that all throughout the series.

They have someone who I think was meant to be, like, a MAGA kind of person who's like, well, they're making their pepperonis out of babies in a basement.

They don't even have a basement.

And then they'll find, like, a sliver of a truth.

Like, there was a basement once, and they didn't know about it, and thus they were lying and the whole thing.

And, you know, everybody's just like, wait, they can't possibly fall for that.

There's absolutely no reason.

He just made up some line, said it on tv.

Then, of course, everybody falls for it.

Yes.

Yeah.

And the guy's running for governor or something, and he's like, I am the best.

I am the greatest.

And I know this because there's nothing better when I do it.

It will be done better than anyone else has ever done it.

And, like, this is, like, the way that he's, like, articulating the words.

I'm like, okay, I. I see what you did there.

That was pretty.

Of course, they do have a point where they make fun of people believing in, like, a God kind of thing.

And it's because, you know, there's really a reason and it's not all spiritual or magic.

I forget the storyline on that one.

That one kind of lost me.

Not because I cared that they were criticizing the religion.

It was just kind of one of those.

The episode was like people ascending to heaven, and the professor was going to prove that it wasn't really that.

And I'm like, well, I know this show isn't going to suddenly become supernatural and have heaven and hell.

I knew from the beginning that it was going to be something else and what they were going to kind of do.

And I just kind of.

It just didn't grab my attention.

Same way the episode that they literally travel to abstract numbers, that one got me.

The Bureaucracy episode, that one got me.

I thought that was great.

It ends with, like, a white hole thing.

It was pretty entertaining.

Of course, there's an episode of Fry trying to do this really huge romantic gesture for Leela and forgetting to water her one plant while she was gone.

So they kind of delve into some of this relationship stuff of, like, hey, it's not about one big romantic action.

Sometimes it's about stability.

And, you know, they get smaller actions.

Yeah, it's actually interesting.

They.

They find, like, he ends up discovering a computer that can find your perfect match, and she's his perfect match, where someone else is her perfect match.

And he goes through kind of a character arc in that episode where he's like, wait a minute, do I want her to be with who's perfect for her, or do I want.

And, of course, by everything that ends up happening, he ends up becoming the one that's perfect.

Of course, some of it's a little predictable, but as far as, like, comedy and everything goes, it did a really good job.

It definitely makes fun of our own times and how none of us Seem to know how to communicate well and how none of us seem to care enough about logic.

We're just kind of like, make up whatever and we'll roll with it.

Yeah.

And, yeah, definitely strong emphasis on logic there, which I don't have a problem with.

I have a problem when you try to juxtapose different things with logic and say, basically, you can't be this and be logical, you know, spiritual or, you know, you can't believe in magic.

Wouldn't be logical.

You know, I don't believe in magic, but some of the stuff where you're juxtaposing and kind of forcing in either or I'm like, I don't.

I think that's a false binary a lot of the times, you know, not just because I'm religious, even some of the other stuff, like I am firmly against MAGA people, but the idea that you can't be of that kind of mindset and be logical at all, I just don't buy that.

I believe that there are people who I firmly disagree with in politics who are very logical.

That's just how the world works.

You know, logic doesn't give you a clear one answer.

It depends on your premises.

It depends on all kinds of other factors.

Logic isn't the capital T truth and only one capital T truth and everything else we can be wrong about.

We can have different premises, our premise could be wrong, our methods could be wrong, and we could still be logical and just make mistakes along the way.

So as much as it wants to lift logic up as the highest thing, I love logic.

I don't know if I'm there with that.

That's one thing you got to be careful either not to become yourself like a straw Vulcan or to write a character who ends up as a straw Vulcan.

That idea being you can logic to justify anything.

I think DS9 did that pretty well.

That one Vulcan who joined the Maquis, it was like, hey, logically, it was the right decision for me to get weapons for this bunch of rebels and essentially to the Cardassians, terrorists.

And then you also have that one Vulcan who, suffering from PTSD and refusing to admit it later on in season seven is like, it was logical that I had to murder all these people.

And if you're not careful about that, you view logic as supreme, then you can use it to justify anything versus actually appreciating, you know, the truth and the information presented to you, the facts and building your, you know, decisions and stuff based off of that.

So, yeah, I can see how that would Be a very annoying.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean even I think this is true even of your more conservative biblical understanders, readers, interpreters.

There we go.

But you know, as times progressed and we've discovered older and older versions of the Bible and we realized like a word here or there maybe isn't exactly interpreted correctly.

You know, I know specifically like Song of Songs, chapter six or seven, it says love is the very flame of Yahweh.

But for a long time the versions that we had just said love is, I forget, like a flame.

And we didn't have the Yahweh part.

And as we grow, we make new interpretations based on these older documents of the more accurate documents.

And we're like, okay, hey, we didn't get this completely right, because stuff like that does exist.

I could have logically made a lot of stuff up from, you know, certain scriptures that maybe later we found out we didn't interpret that completely.

Correct, correct, Right.

And it's just your premise matters a whole lot.

You have the greatest logic in the world and still be wrong.

You know, and the thing about science, and that's where I feel like the show dropped the ball.

And most scientists will tell you this, science is constantly trying to prove itself wrong.

It's testing the premise, it's testing the method.

It's, you know, and that's where people faith have a hard time because a lot of times we're like, hey, things are either right or wrong.

And scientists are like, no, we know that this is the most likely outcome based off our test and stuff, but it still could be wrong and we're going to keep testing it.

And that's where I'm like, when you lift science and stuff up like this is logic and if you do otherwise you're being bad.

No, the whole point of science is, hey, maybe the premise is wrong, let's test it.

And there were multiple times over history where science was used incorrectly.

The whole eugenic situation was a huge one.

Like pretty much everyone was into it because they thought, well, why wouldn't we just want the best of the best out of humanity and breathe this certain way or get rid of that part we don't like.

And that's where it ends up to the point where people then justify genocide and you know, taking out the disabled or anyone who could be othered by something like that?

And this other things like germ theory was ridiculed for the longest time because, well, of course it's just because your humors are out of balance.

This is what the science tells us this is what we think versus, you know, people.

That was how they understood it didn't actually make it truth because new information was presented which contradicted that which other people then eventually took it to the point where we're better off.

Now that we understand germ theory, we understand that, you know, trying to create the Ubermensch is not exactly the best idea because it creates societal problems that humanity isn't prepared to handle.

Yeah, well.

And you got to think, even, like, with the data points we had, at one point, it made sense why people believe the earth was flat.

With the data we had, at one point, it made perfect sense why people were like, oh, yeah, the sky is up there and it is blue.

And now we're like, all it appears blue because of these reasons.

And what we learned about light it, like, it's not because we were not being logical is because we just didn't have enough data to come up with the correct answer with some of this stuff.

Right.

And the same thing is true of religion.

The show doesn't get here.

The show was talking about science and logic and trying to equate them, and that's why I'm harping on this.

But the same thing is true of religion.

We have seen plenty of times where there were probably plenty of people who were really logical in part of the Crusades and killed innocent people.

Why would I say that?

Because from their data, they believed and were taught that the church had the authority of God, that it was brought from the apostles down.

There was no reason for them to believe that the Pope would be telling them anything other than what Jesus would want.

That is how the religion worked.

That's how it's always worked.

That's what they understood.

They believed it for a reason.

They prayed, they had faith.

They saw that their parents did the same thing, and it worked well for them.

They were just given wrong information.

It's not like they were bad people or wrong.

Well, some of them probably were wrong, and some of them probably were bad people, but some of them just didn't have the correct information to make the right choice.

So that happens not just with science.

It happens with faith.

It happens with everything.

It happens with our.

With our fandoms.

Clearly, whoever made Pirates 5 just didn't watch the other movies.

They didn't have the right information to make a good film.

Not his fault.

It's his fault for not watching the movie.

Sorry.

Okay, let's move on.

Let's move on.

All right, let's talk.

Elio.

I have seen it briefly, but Fell asleep and then woke up and saw the end.

So I'm still letting you take the bulk of this.

So you're saying out there, this isn't new?

Well, it's new to me because I didn't see it when I was out in theaters.

Did watch it on Disney plus with so many kids my mom watches.

And you know what?

It was fine.

It's not groundbreaking.

It's not the worst thing in the world I've ever watched that Disney's ever made.

It is what it is.

And what it is, it's a story of a boy who's lost his parents, who is adopted by his aunt and feels out of place, doesn't know where he's supposed to be in the world.

He grabs a fascination of alien life and wanting to be out there in the stars.

And maybe they'll accept me for who I am.

Maybe, you know, I'll fit in there what I can't do on Earth.

And then along the way, he finds out, yeah, aliens are very real.

And they've misinterpreted the message that he sent out to think that he's the leader of Earth.

And they're asking him to join their.

They call it the Communiverse, where it's basically a very weak and pathetic version of the Federation.

And how do I know it's weak and pathetic?

Well, the moment the bad guys show up, who are seemingly are just generic bad guys, and even at parts of the film, they are kind of generic bad guys whose names escape me at the moment, they immediately cave in and they try and flee until Elliot steps up and says, I'll be the ambassador, diplomat.

I'll speak to him.

And as to the shenanigans there, where he ends up accidentally, like, insulting the leader and being put in prison there, where he's able to escape and meets the son of the leader who those.

This alien race are pretty much like Klingons on steroids without any bit of logic behind it at what they do.

They're just.

They're warfaring for the sake of being warfaring and, you know, learning to accept this alien who looks nothing like him, and the two of them kind of bonding together while at the same time his aunt trying to understand, you know, her nephew that none of them asked for the situation, for her to be the primary caregiver now, but she's got a job.

She wanted to be an astronaut.

And she had to kind of lose that, you know, to take care of him because he was a higher priority.

And of course there's friction that comes with that.

So there's a lot to say about family and reconciliation and where you fit, you know, in the universe.

But at the end of the day, like, if I'm rating this film, I'm probably going to give it like a 6 out of 10 because it goes a little soft at the end.

It goes a little too easy for how things go.

It's missing an edge that could have carried it up if there had been.

I mean, there are stakes, don't get me wrong.

But if it had mattered more that those stakes existed.

Yeah, yeah.

I actually.

I felt exactly the same way and did research because of it, because I was a little confused up.

So also, yeah, I enjoyed it.

I probably agree with you.

6ish.

If I'm rating it against all Disney films, it's probably like a 2 out of 10.

But, like, I really like most Disney films.

Yes.

So we all know your rating system.

Yeah, yeah.

So, like, yeah, it's not the best.

I think it's less than average for Disney.

But again, this is Pixar, so this isn't just Disney animation.

Right?

So.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Which was also what was weird is it kind of felt a little bit like Strange World, but watered down and also more sci fi.

Strange World was Disney animation, and that.

One is one of the most forgettable films I've ever watched.

I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened.

Strongly disagree.

I think that's one of the most underrated Disney films.

I think it was fantastic.

But I think what happened with it was largely they made a blatantly queer character and a lot of people got mad about it.

So Disney was like, let's never mention this again because Disney is completely adverse to controversy.

Well, speaking of, from what I understand, that's also something that kind of happened here.

I believe, from what I read, that Elio himself was supposed to show a little more tendencies towards some side of the lgbt.

I think it was gay, if I'm remembering correctly.

And I believe the director is gay.

And Disney kind of gave notes, said, nope, tone that down or get rid of it completely.

And I think they got to the get rid of it completely because there's no, like, romantic overtones anywhere for anything.

Yeah.

I have read that he was meant to be autistic and that that would actually make a little bit sense if he was on the spectrum.

He's super into aliens.

Like, he's really fixated.

Then when he goes, he does have a great time.

This kid kind of reminds me of Will, like, I feel like if somehow Will was abducted by aliens, this might be what happened.

Yes.

This is awesome.

Greatest thing ever.

Yeah.

I'm leader of Earth, of course.

Let's do this, guys.

Where's the cape and everything?

I could see it, man.

So the thing that did confuse me, though, so, like, was you're talking about, like, the stakes thing, Right?

Adrian Molina was originally who was assigned to this film, and he's still partially credited in the credits, but he wasn't able to finish it.

And that's where, like, if you saw some of the earlier advertisements, Elio was actually scared of going to space, not really excited for it.

And this is what made this project so, so weird.

It was basically a really personal story to him.

He was using it kind of almost like, as a metaphor for his own experience getting into, like, Hollywood and how he felt like an outsider.

He was a little bit scared.

You know, his.

He did suffer that same kind of loss of his mom and stuff as a child, and all of that was kind of brought into the film.

And it was this very emotional, intimate, you know, thing for him, personal project.

And then Disney Pixar said, actually, we want Coco, too, and pulled him from the film.

And the other directors were left with somebody else's extremely personal story and were like, huh, what do we do with this?

And that's.

I feel like that's why it feels like the stakes just aren't there, because it's.

I. Yeah.

Like, I think he probably would have done a much better job if he was just allowed to finish the film.

Yeah.

That's immensely unfair because the other directors.

Yeah, because it's like, I.

For some reason, you handed me a book that you're like, by the way, Josh, this is the most personal story I've ever written.

Could you finish this for me?

I'm like, no, Christian, I am not finishing that for you.

What are you talking about?

Just put that evil on me, Ricky Bob.

Oh, I can't do that.

That's awful.

Yeah, because, like, so he.

He did the Good Dinosaur too, which I think is underrated.

It's not fantastic, but it didn't get the advertisement.

It needed Coco, though.

That might be the best Pixar film.

Like, I love Coco so much, and it does.

It has some of the most emotionally depth, like, Deep Connections.

It's a film about grief and loss.

And that's why.

That's the whole reason I looked it up.

Because, like, this film starts and he's like, an orphan, and they kind of brush past it, and I'm like, the guy who wrote Coco just got a brush past him, an orphan, and his parents died.

I'm like, that didn't sit right to me.

And then I looked into it, I was like, oh, okay.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

That helps shine a little light on all that.

Yeah, like, you can't go wrong watching it.

It's fine.

Yeah.

I mean, it is sci fi.

It's space and it's fun and the little slug character is funny.

And.

Yeah, I mean, I fell asleep for a little bit, but I'm gonna watch it again and probably laugh more.

Won't fall asleep this time.

I believe in myself.

But I. I do want to ask you, though, curious, and I know we have a different perspective on some of this probably, but Pixar's been kind of on a kick lately on these, like, characters who feel out of water.

You know, you have Luca, you've got Coco, even a little bit.

And in this film.

How has this film kind of held up to those other Pixar films that they've more recently done of characters feeling out of water?

Honestly, there's a part of me that's kind of tired of it.

I think at this point in time, they're just playing things safe to make enough of what looks like something that could go a little more, but not to mess with general audiences.

And we'll just make enough or maybe even more from the box office so that we can, you know, then green light the next film that we're going to do.

And there's a more cynical part of me that thinks around that idea because like I said, I. I do think this film is missing an edge and I think Luca missed a bit of an edge.

Goodness gracious.

I haven't seen Elemental yet.

That's on my list to watch.

Because they also did Elemental at Pixar.

Right?

Yeah.

It doesn't have the exact same thing.

I enjoyed that one, though.

That was good.

I also really enjoyed Luca, but for me, of the ones I've seen, Luca did the best job of the character out of water thing because, like, the more recent ones that are doing this.

Let's see, I have a list here.

Yeah, Onward, which was good, but it wasn't really as much about that soul kind of gets into it.

Turning Red for me was kind of a flop.

Lightyear, I was like, eh.

Oh yeah, there was a lot.

Lightyear was on Pixar.

I'm like, what are y' all doing?

But I did really enjoy Luca, but I.

The thing with Luca is I would not have enjoyed it if I had watched in the theaters, I think.

I think it's because it was straight to Disney, and I was kind of casually watching it, and I was like, it's nice.

It's kind of like when you pick up a short story, you know, and you're like, man, that was really refreshing.

That's how I felt about Luca.

Yeah, that was refreshing.

A nice little story.

And the father figure was just so lovable that it kind of sold it for me.

Luca.

I'd probably put out a 7 out of 10 overall because it was fun.

Yeah.

I think they did play out of all these fish out of water scenarios.

I think they played to it the best.

Earth on the Sea.

How that kind of meshed.

But turning red, man, I wanted to like that.

It just didn't hit me.

And, yeah, Lightyear was an abomination.

Yeah, we only talking about Lightyear, and I think that's the thing here.

And again, I understand orphan story.

It's important.

It's important to the original director all that the aunt and him do kind of reconcile.

But I feel like without that moment of acceptance, just a kid going out trying to.

I think that's the problem when you're making a story of, like, I don't feel like I belong to.

But you have this Disney mentality that all of our stories has to be that the power within you.

You create your own destiny.

Kind of stuff that doesn't work.

You can't create your own feeling of belonging.

You have to kind of rely on other people for that a little bit.

I think that's what Luca did a lot better than this film, as far as what I could tell, because, again, I fell asleep for a little bit.

But Luca has that one dad figure who's not his dad, and everybody sees him when he turns to the sea monster on in their little town, and they get really like, oh, it's a monster.

And he goes up and hugs him.

Yeah.

And I don't think you have that same kind of moment in this film.

And that's what it's lacking for me.

That's a nice enough reconciliation moment between him and his aunt in the film, but it's not like there's no.

I mean, it's missing something else.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

I don't know what I would do to fix it, which, you know, I love fixing things, and that's kind of bothering me.

But, like, I struggle to think of what I would do to.

I got it.

Give it a little extra.

He meets Lightyear.

Oh, gosh.

All right.

Are you good to move on to the last one?

Yeah, let's go ahead.

All right.

Dexter resurrection.

Dear God.

I. Dexter is back.

And I didn't think I was ever gonna get to say it.

You know, it's one of those where you're like.

They keep trying, and it's like, guys, the magic's gone.

You got lightning in the bottle.

You're not gonna do it twice.

Well, they did it twice.

Dexter resurrection was phenomenal.

The first few episodes, I was like, okay, it's good.

It's kind of like old Dexter.

Okay?

I see what they're doing, and then all of a sudden, you get introduced to Peter Dinkle's character, and you discover that basically there's a group of serial killers that come and have this kind of secret, like, meeting where they get to be themselves.

They have their own little rules for their club, and it's because they never get to admit what they do to anybody else.

And Peter Dinkle is, like, the super rich guy, kind of, like, controls the.

He's basically kingpin.

They kind of pull a kingpin, and it's so good.

You even have, like, some of the old, original Dexter characters who come back.

You have real stakes to the show again, or, like, some deaths actually matter.

I really enjoyed it, and I think so.

The things that stand out to me was one, and it was weird because I know a lot of it is a little bit of a fan pandering, you know, but so first out of the way, I kind of like that they just brushed off what happened in Dexter.

New blood.

They were like, nah, he's not dead.

They really just kind of brushed it off.

At one point, Harrison makes a joke about it, and he's like.

You're like Michael Myers.

You just won't stay dead.

He's like, I don't know, man.

Dying's not for me, you know?

Yeah, it is.

They make light of it, and they move on.

And I think that was the only way forward because that.

That ending was so bad.

We're just gonna have to, you know, suspense, disbelief, whatever.

If you want the show to continue, you're just gonna have to accept a bad premise, because that's the only way forward past that.

And we're just gonna act like it didn't happen, which is fine.

So we end up with actual Dexter back.

He has his original name.

People know he's alive again, and he's in New York.

A lot of shenanigans go on.

Harrison almost gets framed for murder.

So you have him learning to Be a dad.

And at the same time, his dad's back is like his ghost person, whatever that he sees.

So you have this like, father, son, father, son thing.

And thinking about, like, how what his dad did for him, all that.

I think the things that's fun is.

Is one you having this like, secret organization thing actually made it something different.

Like it wasn't just, you know, there's a big bad guy of the season and Dexter's gonna whatever.

No, it was like a whole secret organization.

Dexter had to do some almost like spy craft level stuff, and he's pretending to be somebody else.

He's doing this whole thing.

And I'm like, this is.

This is good.

And then the last few episodes, with the first time in a long time that I felt myself with the show going, what do you mean you ended it there?

And I'm like, oh, that's how I know it's good, is that I'm like, seriously spending the entire week going, is it Friday?

Is it Friday?

Did I wake up and it's Friday?

No, Josh, it's Monday.

Is it Friday?

It's Tuesday.

You know, like, I was going insane.

I really enjoyed it.

The.

The philosophy.

I'm sorry.

I also enjoyed that they are moving forward with the philosophy stuff that they're showing that, hey, we're going to just move forward.

We're gonna stop asking the same questions over and over.

We're gonna stop doing the same stuff over and over.

But at the same time, it's like they're acknowledging that and at the same time, and Dexter straight up looks at the camera and says this at one point, hey, we're just gonna give you Dexter.

We're not gonna do this thing of like, oh, he's trying to stop being a serial killer.

Oh, he's gonna do.

You know, they keep trying to, like, switch it up with these new shows, and Dexter more or less looks at the screen at the end and goes, I'm not doing that anymore.

I'm going to be true to myself because that's what I need.

And that's what you need.

He looks at the camera and says it, and I'm like, I think he's right.

It is what I need.

Do it again, Dexter.

Oh, man.

So I had fun with it.

The thing that I want to get to with the philosophy stuff, though, he kind of gets to this point of view, I am a serial killer.

I need to learn to accept this.

You know, I have a way of coping with it, doing stuff.

And yes, I probably will get caught.

I'll probably die one day.

I don't need to try to force my son to be that if that's not what he is.

And they have this kind of thing of like, accepting who you are and trying to work who you are the best that you can, and him accepting that he is a serial killer.

I'm not gonna do this thing again where I question, why am I a serial killer or gonna try and stop for my family?

He's like, I'm a serial killer.

How do I do this role that I have been given as my nature in a way that brings the most flourishing to everyone around me, I guess.

And I kind of like that.

I kind of like that they're not gonna go, oh, he's gonna try and stop.

And, oh, maybe this is why he's a serial killer.

Like, we had so many seasons.

Oh, maybe this is why that I'm like, I'm just happy to have him be like, you know what?

I am a serial killer.

Now what?

What do we do now?

Like, I like that idea of him kind of coming to peace with it, even if I'm like, yeah, maybe being a serial killer is bad.

You know, the thing is, what's really interesting is.

And again, I'm glad they didn't rehash all this is you still have him, like, where some of the other serial killers, he's seeing their motives and how they get joy out of it, and he's like, what is wrong with you?

Why are you happy about killing somebody?

And you see him still get a little bit of disgust out of somebody killing just because it was this kind of girl.

And I like killing this kind of girl.

And he's genuinely disgusted.

And, you know, with everything from the original show, you do always wonder, like, did he actually need to be a serial killer or did Harry turn him into this?

Yeah, and I'm glad that that's still there for us viewers.

But he's just going to go, you know what?

This is what I am.

Let's move on.

Yeah.

So I guess my question to my conservatively minded friend, and this is actually, this is what's really funny about this particular conversation.

You are more okay with utilitarianism than I am.

I am like, yeah, the.

The ends never justify the means, but you are more of the biblical literalism kind of, you know, whatever kind of stuff.

So it's very funny because it's like, I'm on the side of, like, yeah, I don't actually know if you're born naturally evil.

Like, I kind of am questioning that premise of like, oh, I'm born with whatever evilness, I'm just gonna accept it and do the best I can with it.

I'm like, maybe you just don't need to be evil.

Maybe all things were created good.

But I'm also like, utilitarianism is bad.

But I like Dexter, and I don't know what to do with that because something just feels good about bad guys diet, you know, like them having to see their own crime and being punished for you.

But I'm like, wait a minute.

I do want everyone to be saved by Jesus, and I love my enemies, but, man, sometimes it feels good to watch Dexter cut some of these people up.

So I don't know what to do with that.

Christian, though, you are more okay with utilitarianism, and you do kind of accept this kind of idea that people can be born evil.

So what do you do with this kind of idea of like, accepting your evilness and trying to work it for good?

I don't think people can be born evil.

I think we're born evil.

Sin itself is evil.

I do believe in the doctrine of original sin, but I do believe great part of being human is resisting this broken creation that we live in because we weren't created evil.

It's due through the introduction of sin that has twisted us to be this way.

And for a character like Dexter.

I've only ever watched the original show, so I'm missing some context of what's happening here.

But for what you're describing, it sounds way better than what we got in some of those later seasons.

It's that idea, Art.

Can there be someone psychopathic, sociopathic, who is just born wrong, as it were, compared to, let's say everyone else is normal?

Just use that just for the sake of using words.

Yeah, I think it's certainly possible.

You know, living in a fallen world, not everyone's born equal in the sense of having genetics work this way or that way.

Maybe there was a flaw in the brain.

Maybe he was accidentally dropped on his head as a child.

Or there can be people who suffered abuse and that makes them go a certain way.

But just because you.

Just because someone suffers abuse doesn't mean they automatically go ultra evil.

There's certain people who've gone through that and they've grown out of it to become people who would never want to repeat that cycle.

But for Dexter himself, what Harry noticed in him all the way back was there was just that look in his eye.

And his justification was, okay, I've got to train him out of this to, you know, redirect it to where he can still kill, but he's killing people who were better off not having around.

And I guess with everything that you're saying is, is that a good thing for him?

No, it's not.

But I think that one of the things that God does is he works despite people's evil.

So he's definitely not using Dexter as an avenging angel or anything like that.

But he was still knowing who Dexter is would bring him to the point where he can kill someone else so that other people are not lost or, you know, this woman is not abused anymore or what have you.

So I would say Dexter is still an evil man throughout the entire series.

But one of the good things about this show, as opposed to other shows where you have a villain protagonist, is that they do a good enough job of building it up to where his adversaries are a little more evil than him.

So you still are on his side as a character to an ext extent, because he's taking out, like, the trinity killer or what have you to make sure that other people don't suffer.

So is this how I would have raised Dexter?

Absolutely not.

I would have actually, you know, set the child to therapy and done whatever possible to get these urges out of him, to recognize these are improper things.

You shouldn't be thinking this way.

You can't be acting this way.

This is not how a rational person in society should work.

The thing that's interesting, he comes to.

And one of the things I do really appreciate is that they have a moment where he kind of realizes that Harry, his dad, instilled in him this sense of justice in some part of his nature actually just wants justice.

And that's where, like you do throughout all of the shows, you'll see sometimes where Dexter's like, yeah, I can't kill him.

I'll get caught.

But I actually do know how to get them caught.

And sometimes the choices that he makes is he actually just wants the bad guys to get punished, like, whether you want to call it revenge, justice, whatever.

He's like, he has this innate sense of justice that he got from Harry, even with all the other messed up stuff.

Right, right.

And he does have that nature that he feels like he has to kill.

For me, I'm like, man, I don't.

I don't believe people are born sinful.

I don't believe original sin.

I do believe people can be born sociopath and psychopaths because, you know, anything's possible.

I don't know the science behind any of that.

I struggle with the character of Dexter a lot, and part of it is because, like, I don't like utilitarianism.

But, man, if you're gonna have utilitarianism, Harry has this whole system where it's like, not only do you have to prove that they actually did commit the crime, you also have to prove that they're likely to do it again.

And the stakes that he goes through.

I'm like, yeah, I don't believe in utilitarianism because I think it takes a lot of arrogance.

But, man, that system is near flawless.

It's like, man, I have a hard time arguing with that.

But at the same time, killing's wrong, and I just don't think Dexter had to be that way.

I like that sense of justice.

I like that they show that Dexter actually gave that same sense of justice.

He instilled it to Harrison.

So there's still good in Dexter.

I believe there's good in everybody.

I don't know what to do with a lot of the character of Dexter.

It's difficult, and that's why I enjoy watching it.

I like that he does have that sense of justice, and sometimes he's going to do the right thing, even if it means he doesn't get the kill he so desperately wants.

And I think it also probably because it challenges me.

Not only is it nice to see really bad guys lose and get punished, you know, because, you know, sometimes people do fall through the cracks of our justice system, and we're all aware of it.

And sometimes it's just nice to think maybe somebody out there is righting the wrongs.

But I don't know if I want it righted that way.

It just.

But also for someone who doesn't believe in utilitarians, doesn't believe in killing, all this stuff, seeing them, man, if I would have Dexter do things my way, a lot of these serial killers would be free.

Killing other people.

That really challenges me and my own beliefs.

Man, I don't want people to die.

And if he did things my way, more people would die.

Not necessarily if, you know, his dad had actually turned them a different way.

Because the philosophy.

Yeah, you're right.

Is make sure they're, A, that they did it, and B, that they're capable of doing again.

Well, if you're going to put all that work in, why not just become a private detective or even a police officer yourself?

And then you can put it the correct way to bring justice.

The correct way.

And of course, there's always Some people do have lawyers that they can get out of anything.

Or some people slip through the cracks because of a filing.

Something went wrong there, and there's still person out there murdering people.

But that's not his job.

You know, not everyone's called to be the punisher, you know, and I would argue Frank Kessel isn't called to be the punisher.

I don't think that's what God had in mind for him.

I think, you know, in the circumstances, still uses them despite himself.

And same thing with Dexter.

But, yeah, as someone who does believe a little more in utilitarianism, that's because I believe that, you know, you need absolutes to keep people set and make sure that things are done for the sake of as many people being good as, you know, taken care of as possible.

And I also believe that everyone is capable of lowercase G good.

And I'm going to separate that from what I would qualify as capital G good as in good that's done for the sake of the kingdom.

There are people who know nothing of Jesus, can do good things all day long, but that does not make them good as far as it pertains to the kingdom.

Yeah.

Whereas I probably wouldn't separate as strictly.

I don't think everything's that black and white, but that's, you know, neither here nor there.

I just.

Yeah, and it's funny.

Not funny funny, but it's interesting.

A lot of the serial killers and stuff that he's fought before, that he's taken out, they've been the characters that, like, you know, they're just worse serial killers than him killing other people who've just gotten away with it or slipped through the cracks or whatever.

It's interesting having a character in this show isn't a serial killer who's just bringing serial killers to him and enabling them.

And he's like, he didn't actually do the crime himself.

So some of that made it really interesting too.

And you just have this like, yeah, when do the rules apply?

When do they not apply?

When is.

When do the ends justify the means?

All that and a lot of this whole.

Is our nature actually just something we need to accept and figure out a way to work with.

I'm still gonna go with a no.

I still go with, hey, you change, anyone can change.

You can become a bad person, a good person, a mediocre person.

You can be someone who puts in a lot of effort at work.

You can be someone who puts in no effort at work.

Some things you were born with skill, height, you know, you're not going to make yourself taller or shorter or anything like that.

I'm not one of those things that think you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

I don't believe that.

But I think, like, as far as, like, character traits, your own soul, your person, you can do things.

You know, Again, some people are born sociopath psychopaths.

Some people, like, I will always have adhd.

Like, I'm not talking about that kind of thing, but, like, for myself, for a long time, I wanted to be perceived as dark and shady.

So I would, like.

I don't know, I would wear, like, black shirts all the time.

And I was like, you know what?

I don't care about you.

I don't care about anybody.

And, like, some of it was an act, and some of it was, like, really felt that way and still, like, I'm an introvert.

But now I'm like, hey, I'm an introvert.

And I found ways to still love people, spend time with people online, because that's a way to spend time with people and be an introvert at the same time.

You know, I found ways to not have to act all brooding because, like, just because I don't want to spend time with you doesn't mean I'm upset.

Sometimes I'm really joyful and happy that you're over there on the other side of the camera.

No, sometimes I'm just a happy person who happens to like his own company, you know?

And I changed myself in that way.

I changed a lot of my beliefs because I was shown different information.

Right.

I was once.

I was somebody who was really lustful.

I had a lot of pity about myself and sometimes still put myself down too much.

But I am able to work on these things.

I don't have to accept that, oh, I am a depressed person, and I am someone who's gonna be gloomy all the time.

No, I don't have to accept that, actually.

I can talk to people.

I can get help.

I can read my Bible.

I can find things that bring me joy and lean into that, even if it's a silly game called Kingdom Hearts.

Everybody's like, josh, why do you talk about it so much?

And I'm like, well, you know what?

It's because it makes me a happier person.

And I like that.

He went for an hour, Will.

He did his best.

So I don't know.

That's where I'm at.

What about you?

I know you believe in the original sin thing, but as far as, like, this kind of Thing, I feel like this is a different type of.

When we use the word nature, I think we're meaning something slightly different in the context of this Dexter show.

Do you think people just have to accept their nature in the sense of, like, if you were born just an angry person, you just have to accept that and find a way to be angry at the right things?

Well, I think we need to accept that there are parts of us that make us act that way and then not remaining where we are.

The worst thing we can ever do is remain where we started.

The easy.

The.

The easiest thing to do is to stay that way, because there's a certain comfort in that.

Even though we may do terrible things to other people because it makes us feel good, but at the end of the day, it's not about how I feel.

I need to move past it.

I'm a very introverted person.

I'm a very misanthropic person.

I don't love other people naturally, and that is something I have to say.

I am by nature as a fallen human being, a very misanthropic person who hates humanity and hates other people for making decisions that aren't logical to me.

Then I just say, oh, I shouldn't be this way, especially in light of all that's been forgiven on my account by my savior, and go, so what do I do with that?

I need to change.

Even though I am still.

There will be days where I am mired in that misanthropy and my hatred of humanity.

I can't stay there.

I need to move beyond that.

I need to go out there and love other people.

I need to serve.

I need to do things that push me outside of my comfort zone so that those things that can do good are actually comforting versus something that if I had remained where I was, I would never think to do those things because why would I care about someone else?

Why not?

That's looking out for me, number one.

And that's a terrible way to live.

So if you're out there right now and you're feeling that way, I'd say, yeah, acknowledge that's where you are, but also acknowledge it's not where you need to remain.

So work on it.

And it's gonna suck at times.

It's gonna take extra work and effort, and you're gonna get tired, but it's worth the effort.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like all that, I will say two.

Two.

Two more things, and then I'll be gone.

The instilled thing from his father that he also instilled In Harrison, I think that's very much a real thing.

And I like that they brought that up.

Up.

And that can be for better or worse.

You know, I had.

From my grandparents and stuff.

Like, I've learned how to, you know, I had it instilled in me from my dad's dad.

We are the kind of people who, once you enter our lives, guess what?

You're part of the family.

You're a knoll now.

And literally, that's it.

My grandfather would ask about my one friend that he met 15 years ago every single day till he died.

When I called him, it did not matter.

He would say his name wrong.

Easy.

But he would always ask about him.

How's Shamu?

Always ask about him.

He would get the name drop, but he would always ask.

My aunts would always send letters to these people at Christmas, even if they haven't seen him in 10 years.

Why?

Because once you're in, you're in.

And I've had that instilled in me, and that's how I treat the people in my life.

Like, yeah, you're now part of this part of our family.

Yeah.

And I've also had, you know, in my family, there's a streak of stubbornness and doing stuff just because, you know, showing off kind of deal.

You know, my grandfather used to.

My one grandpa used to go into stores, and if you saw a Virginia Tech shirt, he turned it around so people can't see it.

Screw them.

And you know what?

I have that mischievousness in me, and I have that little bit of stubbornness and just trying to be different than everybody else in me, that I want to just.

Just be different and contrarian.

Just to be contrarian.

And that's something I find in myself.

But I had it instilled in me.

I think the family bit's important.

I also think there's, like, certain building blocks.

Right.

For a while, I was really angry a lot.

And instead of accepting anger, I realized I'm a passionate person.

I accept the passion.

I think that's the building block.

It doesn't have to be channeled into anger.

I now channel my passion into fandoms and Kingdom hearts and making will drink a lot and laughing with friends.

I can channel my passion differently.

Doesn't have to be anger.

Yes.

Yeah.

Finding ways to redirect that is always a good idea.

Something that can be used for a positive instead.

A net gain for not only yourself, but others.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's not necessarily a spiritual thing.

But, you know, I do think God also can Help us do these things.

I think it's easier with faith than without it.

But that just is a. I think it's a true thing.

That's the lowercase G good in Christian stance.

I think all of us can do that, get help, seek others, learn enough about ourselves and go, wait a minute.

Am I angry?

Or do I just have a lot of energy?

And can I use that energy for something other than anger?

Am I depressed or am I lonely?

And is there a way that I don't have to be so lonely?

Maybe looking a little bit deeper into yourself can help.

Yeah.

In fact, maybe that's what Dexter needs.

Does he like killing bad guys, or is it just that he really wants justice and he can go be that police cop that Christian wants him to be?

All right, are you ready to wrap this one up?

Let's do it.

All right, guys.

Thank you guys again so much for checking us out on YouTube, for following us on the podcast.

Whatever you're doing to follow us, you guys rock.

And we're gonna go ahead and as we're wrapping this up, as always, we have to pick One of these IPs that we mentioned for your top pick.

Like, what is everything we mentioned?

Even in the lightning round, if there's only one thing that people are gonna check out, what should it be?

Christian, if you've watched the original Dexter, I'd say check out the.

The new stuff.

I haven't watched it yet.

It's on my list to do.

And what you've described of it does sound pretty intriguing.

So I'm interested whenever I get to it.

Who knows when that's going to be, but I will get to it.

Yeah, I. I want to make that my top pick, too, but I, like, I don't want to be lame and just say what Christian said.

And also, I know it's not for everybody.

It is pretty dark, and it gets into some, like, really, like.

Like, question your own morality kind of stuff.

So if you're not ready for something like that, you want a little bit lighter.

Yeah, definitely heavier.

Futurama.

Futurama is a solid comedy, so I don't know.

We also mentioned Peacemaker, though that's also not for everybody.

We mentioned a lot of good stuff.

It's hard to pick.

So I, you know, I am just gonna.

I'm gonna second Dexter.

Dexter Resurrection was just great.

Better than a lot of the actual seasons of the original show.

Not all of them, but a lot of them.

Better than most of the seasons after four.

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