Will Rose and TJ Blackwell dive into a thrilling showdown as they assemble their ultimate teams of sidekicks from beloved fandoms to tackle a secret mission handed down by the enigmatic duo, Joshua Noel and Christian Ashley. The stakes are high as they each craft a squad featuring a diverse mix of characters, including a Star Wars Padawan, a Star Trek blue shirt, and even some fantastical companions from anime and classic fantasy lore. The fun doesn’t stop there; after the draft, the real challenge kicks in as they find out what their mission entails—saving cetaceans from the clutches of demonic whalers! With a blend of clever banter and witty insights, the episode explores the importance of these sidekicks and what it means to have a supportive crew on this wild adventure. Tune in for an epic discussion filled with laughs, strategy, and a hint of friendly competition as they face off in this geeky quest! Delving deep into the vibrant world of fandoms, Will and TJ embark on a unique quest to assemble their ultimate teams of sidekicks and companions. The episode kicks off with an infectious energy, as listeners are drawn into the lively banter between the two hosts. They explore not just the characters they choose, but the deeper significance of these companions in the narratives we cherish. From the heartwarming loyalty of a pet dragon to the fierce power of a Sith apprentice, the selections reflect a rich tapestry of geek culture. Each pick comes with its own backstory and rationale, setting the stage for a spirited debate on who has the superior team. As they dive into the mechanics of their sidekick draft, Will and TJ engage in thoughtful discussions about the value of teamwork and companionship in storytelling. Their choices—ranging from Spock to Crypto the Superdog—spark conversations about the roles these characters play not only in their respective universes but also in our personal journeys. Listeners are treated to a feast of references and insights that highlight why sidekicks are essential in crafting memorable stories. Furthermore, the duo teases a surprise mission that challenges their teams, leading to hilarious and unexpected scenarios that test their selections and strategies. This episode is a heartfelt celebration of the characters that enrich our lives, showcasing the unique bonds formed through shared adventures in the realms of fantasy and science fiction.

Takeaways:

1. In this episode, Will and TJ dive deep into the world of fandoms, selecting their ultimate sidekicks for a secret mission, creating a delightful mash-up of characters that fans will totally geek out over.
2. The duo reflects on the importance of companions and sidekicks in storytelling, emphasizing how these characters shape the heroes we love and even drive the plot forward in unexpected ways.
3. Listeners will enjoy humorous banter as Will and TJ draft their teams, showcasing their unique picks, including a lovable Wookiee and a mischievous pet dragon, all while maintaining a friendly rivalry.
4. The secret mission they face is hilariously creative, involving demonic whalers and the fate of oceanic creatures, which not only entertains but also sparks thoughtful discussions about teamwork and loyalty.
5. With each choice, they consider the dynamics of their teams, discussing how character backgrounds and abilities can lead to epic outcomes in their mission, making it a fun and engaging listen for all fans.
6. Will's excitement about the episode shines through, as he and TJ not only geek out about their favorite characters but also share insights into the deeper themes of friendship and mentorship that resonate across fandoms.

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Be sure to check out our merch, find extra content, and become an official member of Systematic Geekology on our website:

https://systematic-geekology-shop.fourthwall.com/

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Check out other episodes with Will:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/4559ab55-4b6a-4432-b0a7-b61540df8803

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Listen to every episode with TJ:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/f4c32709-d8ff-4cef-8dfd-5775275c3c5e

Mentioned in this episode:

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.

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Reflecting on the faces and people that drive our superhero teams, that drive us, who we are and what we hope to be and do in the world, those people who are behind us, who are driving us to be who we are called to be, who will be our psychics and companions on this journey and adventure. Well, on today's episode, Will and TJ are going to explore this question together. I'm super excited. Yes. I'm speaking in third person.

You are hearing Will's voice at this moment. And with me is one of my favorite superheroes and ecologists and humans to podcast with. And that is the one and only tj. Tj, how you doing, buddy?

Great.

Yeah, there it is. There's that enthusiasm and energy that TJ brings to this kind of episode.

No, I'm really excited about this episode because we have been exploring the faces behind us, those people that drive us in this world and in the fandoms that we love so much. There's a whole host of people and humans and creatures that drive our heroes and villains to do what they do.

And today we're going to continue this series about psychics and companions and how important they are. And here's the premise for today's episode.

I will and TJ will be competing to see who can come up with the best team of seven companions and sidekicks.

We're going to go through a list, and we're going to list our Star wars apprentice or padawan, a Star Trek blue shirt, a superhero sidekick, a hobbit or dwarf companion from a fantasy world, an anime or animation companion character, an animal sidekick, and one wild card companion character each.

And then, then once we list our team and who we pick in this kind of sidekick draft, like a fantasy football draft to picking our sidekicks, we'll then have a secret mission that we were given that we have not seen before, is we're going to see it in live action here on this episode. And then we're going to explore and see how our teams do or fair in this secret mission.

And man, when I heard about the premise for this episode, I was very excited. I said, I want to play that game. I want to do that. And here we are. We're doing it. Rej, how do you feel about this? Do you feel.

You feel good about your picks? You came in prepared. You never know. There could be. There. There's a. Yeah. Was. There's. There's an evolving process to this and, and how we. We do this.

Yeah, I have no idea, because I, I came up with the mission or we came up with a mission for the other one for Josh and Christian. And then I showed up in their episode to delineate. But ours was pretty simple, and I've heard that theirs is not. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, we cheated a little. And we already have, like, we. We can see the title, you and I right now. That.

Yeah, yeah.

So we still have more information than they did, but they. They've told me that coming up with the mission was quite a process. Uh, the email also included a slideshow and a Google document.

I love it.

I love it.

I love it. Yes. And. And. And so, yeah, you can. You can hop over on. On YouTube as well to see our slides, to see the mission, to see these things.

If you're listening in your earbuds, we.

You can come over and subscribe to our YouTube page and smash that, like, button and do all those things as well, because there's a visual component to. To what we're doing, and I haven't seen that. I don't know how it's going to play out. We'll. We'll see. I'm very hopeful. And I love improv.

I love, you know, things. They're kind of thrown at me to see how I react.

And I think that's going to happen in this particular episode, along with some things that I had planned, like, with life. Like with life. So let's, let's, you know, let's kick things off with. With what we're geeking out lately, you know.

Tj, are there some things you're geeking out on that you want to share with the folks? I got a few things. I'll try to boil it down to a couple. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, for me, it's mostly been Final Fantasy 14, getting into the MMO space. Yeah, it's not my speed, but it's a lot of fun.

You know, it's still got, like, the Final Fantasy charm to it, so I'm having a lot of fun with that.

Nice. Nice. Yeah, I'm, you know, I'm a Wednesday warrior and go get comics every. Every Wednesday.

And I really like what both Marvel and DC are putting out these days.

It's pretty fun to be a comic book fan, but I really love this event that DC is doing called dcko, where the whole heroes and villains have to fight Darkseid and there's this kind of March Madness bracket of tournament style, Street Fighter, mortal. Mortal Kombat kind of style where.

Where they're fighting each other to win the tournament to see who gets to fight Darkseid and two issues have come out and there's a couple side comics tie ins a part of this and I'm not buying every single tie in but most of them I'm just really loving this event.

I have, you know, with comics have had some event fatigue over the years because, you know, it's just kind of what they do have an event and there's 100 comics you have to buy. But this one is good and I'm, I'm really like what they're doing.

So if, if you like comics, if you like DC characters, I really recommend checking up, checking that one out.

Yeah, they're really trying to profit off of the death battle fans, you know.

Exactly.

They're exactly get into it.

Yeah, it's good. I'll borrow mine. Cool. Well, hey y' all rate and review our show wherever you get your podcast.

It really helps us get noticeable in the algorithms that are out there. We want to thank one of our financial supporters. I want to thank James Barrett. Thanks, buddy.

You've helped me a lot with stuff here at Church and you are also a supporter of Geekology, the geekology that happens here at Systematic Egology. So thanks, James. Thanks for what you do.

Hey listeners, you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of CISM Ecology on our website where you can find all of the exclusive content, cool merch, and other ways to get plugged into the community. Look in the show notes and find that link to fourth Wall. Click on it. It'll take you right to where all the lists are in the merch.

And yeah, we would, we would love for you to be a part of those things. So in today's episode, here we go. This is called will and TJ's PJ's sidekicks adventure.

And we're going to pick some psychics in it and, and companions. I'm going to see how they match up. But first, as we get ready for this. I've shared before, I really love team books.

Comics, Avengers, Justice League, X Men. I love it when a bunch of Jedi get together and they go out on an adventure. You know, not just two of them, but a bunch of them together.

So what is it that draws us into team stories or mashups? And why would we want to even build our own team in the first place? DJ what draws you to these, these team books?

It's just for most people, I think it's just more entertaining to have multiple character dynamics and interactions within the story. And, you know, it's not like reading Hellboy where it's just about Hellboy. And he does have his own inner monologue and relations with himself.

And he does have a team sometimes. But I'm not talking about Hellboy. It's just fun to see a team work together. I think as people, we can pretty much all agree on that.

Yeah. Because none of us are alone. We are a part of a family and a part of the drinking game that Joshua and I do.

We are all entangled and a part of one another. And what we do and our actions matter in this world and affects everyone. And so I. I like the team books.

I've always liked the team books growing up, whether it's X Men or Justice League. And I love the interaction, the drama, the kind of the soap opera of those books.

But I think now part of my life as being a youth director, a camp counselor, and now a.

A pastor and shepherd of a community, my whole life revolves around teamwork and try to find and discern gifts and different gifts that people have and how to bring them together on a team. Almost like a coach of a football team or basketball team or whatever. Everybody has their own gifts. And what gifts do you have when you bring.

Come to the table? And how can we work together? Not everybody has the same gifts. It's again, it's that.

That Pauline image of the body, people coming together, all these spiritual gifts coming together. And a big part of my life is. Is pulling teams together and trying to get people to work together as a team.

Not only my staff here at church, but other aspects. We're like even systemic ecology and different hosts. How do we work together as a team and our different gifts and what we love and geek out on.

How do we work together and all those things. So I really like that and I like to see that played out in the stories that I consume, those things that I geek out on.

So this is going to be fun, putting a team together and seeing how they interact with each other.

Yeah. And there's like the value of a dollar.

You know, you could buy a single person, like you buy Flash comic book, or you could buy a Justice League comic book that's six times the superhero for the same money.

Right, right. You know, I could, yeah. Buy a single issue of Iron man and Spider man and then Wolverine and Captain America. But what if they're all in one team?

I get all my characters all there in one book. So there's some efficiency there. There's efficiency there. Yeah, I like it. I like that rationale there. So.

So thinking about not just teams but, but sidekicks, there's a big part of. And companions, a big part of fandom and stories and all those kinds of things. What is it about psychics that the appeal is there?

Or why do we need psychics? What, what constitutes a companion? And, and why do we focus on those characters today?

Yeah, well, no man is an island. No man, you know, and everyone needs something. No one can do everything, not even Superman. And his whole thing is being the Superman.

So there are gaps to fill, and every team, I think, tries to fill those gaps, even the ones with Superman on them.

That's right. That's right. Well, I think at least in comics, we're going to lean into that and kind of psychics.

I think part of that, and you see it in TV shows too, is like, once you have like an aging hero, aging comic, aging TV show to reach a younger audience, they want to grab and put some kids on there so that they younger audience can relate to it and grow along with them. So maybe a Superman or Batman that are a little older, long on the tooth, and so they bring a kid on to kind of like, oh, there's a new kid here.

And so maybe that will appeal to younger readers that they can relate to. So there's like a cynical version of like they're just trying to get more readers and keep people plugged in.

But I think you see this in the latest Stranger Things Season 2. You have the old school team and those kids have grown up and now they're older, they're in their 20s playing high school students.

But now you still bring in a younger, younger kids from a younger class in school that are like, still have the same vibes of the original Stranger Things crew. And, and it's fun. Like, like, oh, there you go. That's where I remember that to be.

So, so psychics and then also in life, hopefully, if you're a leader, you have gifts, you're passing that on to the next generation, you're discipling others, you're passing on what you have learned in your wisdom to the next generation that, that they can learn from you.

So that mentorship is a big part of a psychic, not just a cute psychic who's going to be the bantering and, and tell jokes so that, that's part of it.

But you have a friend, you have a helper, but also hopefully you're mentoring and passing on the wisdom of what you have learned and how you do life and faith and use your gifts and you're passed on to. So I think that's Important too.

Yeah. The legacy aspect is definitely a big part of it. Most sidekicks, that's what's going on. It's like, I need to raise the next one.

You know, very infrequently was. We were like, hey, I like this guy. He's working with me now. But it definitely happens.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cool.

So this is fun. Like, yeah, I, I like the main heroes, but it's fun.

We could get a good sidekick and, and can relate to them and see how they grow and progress as well. And so let's explore that together. Christian. Let's, I mean, tj, we, we saw Christian and Joshua do this together. Example for us.

And now is our turn to do this. So let's, let's, let's do our, our psychic teams. Let's build them. Let's build our team. Let's get our team together. So first up. Yeah, yeah.

We're going to choose one. And here we are. My Star Wars Padawan or apprentice is going to be Gungi. Is that you? Say it. Gungi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gungi.

When I immediately thought of, like, us a Padawan. There's a lot to choose from out there in Clone Worlds and Clone wars and, and Star Wars Land, but I'm gonna pick Gungi, who is a Wookiee.

We have a young, kind of teenage Wookie. I don't know what his age is. I think they get old. Like Chewbacca is really old. They have long lives. They'll.

He's young, but, but in a green lightsaber. So Gungi, not only do I love Wookiees, not only do I, you know that as companions and seen as like George Lucas.

Talk about Chewbacca being kind of mirroring his own dog that rode in the front seat of his car when he drove around Chewy as, as Han Solo's companion and sidekick, but a leader of his own. I wanted my own. So I'm gonna pick Gungi. And I, I think, I think he's awesome. And we're just gonna assume that I, I, I understand what he's.

We understand each other. We understand, of course, understand each other's language. Understand Wookie. So yeah, Gungy. There he is right there. Wookie Padawan. All right, cool.

What do you got, tj? Yeah.

Wookie. Jedi is such a good choice. I didn't do the same thing. I did think about it though. A much more sinister route.

I chose Darth Zannah from the Darth Bane. You know, Darth Bane's apprentice is Darth Zannah. From those novels just because those are my favorite Star wars novels.

She's my favorite, you know, Sith Apprentice. And she's so cool. She's awesome, man. Like, she's so cool. She's a Sith sorcerer. She's, you know, killed Darth Bane. Like, it's. She's got it all.

I. I'm not familiar with this because. Not familiar with those books. I. I love Star wars, but I have not gone really deep into all the novels and all the side stories and stuff.

So this is a character, you said. This is Darth Zannah.

Yeah.

And cool. And I see with the picture here, she's got, like, they were similar to Darth Maul. She's got the red and black kind of, kind of goth makeup.

Yeah, he leaned into that really heavy Drew Capershin. But yeah, she's not, you know, like, we don't normally see, like, the Sith Sorcerer angle, not in, like, the canon stuff at least.

So she's super cool. She's always been one of my favorites. That's. That's my pick. She's the one.

Right? Man, I love it. Nice pick. Nice pick. All right, next up, our Star Trek blue shirt, which is a science or medical officer.

And if you want me to go ahead and go with this and what I'm going to do is I'm picking Spock. A blue shirt, but. But not just any kind of Spock. This is J.J. abrams version of Spock.

And we have what is Zachary Quintos version there he is, you know, not the older, wiser in the, in the Star Trek universe. He's young, has a lot to learn, But I'm picking him because I think if he's on your side and he's loyal, he's going to be loyal to a fault.

I don't want to get on his bad side. I'm assuming that he likes me and that we get along.

Right.

And I'm not challenging his position. He's not critiquing me in Starfleet Academy, but. But, yeah, that's who I'm picking here.

I know the JJ Ames version of Star Trek is very controversial to our original Star Trek fans, but I like J.J. abrams. I like his style. I. I like how he directs and what he does in the mystery boxes. So, yeah, you can come at me in the, in the chat.

I don't care.

But I like those reboots. So here we are. Spock.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way. And I also picked Zachary Quinto. Spot. I did.

That's so funny. All right.

I like Star Trek Beyond. Yeah. And, you know, there's not a right answer for these, obviously, but there kind of is. And Spock is the right answer.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah. So. So how do they work if we have them in different. Same. Different versions, different alternate gear versions?

You can just have the same. The same Spock.

Okay, that's fine.

I like it.

I like it. You know, I think we're making up the rules as we go. Love it. All right, Superhero sidekick. Here we go. I'm going to choose Lockheed. That's right.

Kitty Pryde's sidekick, pet dragon that she discovered over there in X Men. Uncanny X Men166. As they are exploring outer space, they stumbled upon this.

This little dragon who's about the size of a cat, maybe a little bit bigger than a cat. I love Lockheed so much as a pet dragon. Super zesty, super spicy, super, you know, not going to put a bs. And I love kitty pride.

And so her sidekick is going to be my sidekick. A pet dragon who can fit on my shoulder and walk with me in the adventure.

Yeah. Lockheed's awesome. Cool. Lock is awesome. He's. Yeah. What's. What is there more to say? He's a little dragon.

He's a little dragon. All right, what'd you get? All right.

I. I ripped it early. I was like, yep, Crypto. That's my favorite superhero sidekick. There were other thoughts, but, you know, I don't want to pick Robin.

I don't want to kill another Robin, you know, if things get bad. I think Crypto's got the. Got the stuff, you know.

Absolutely. And. And I've shared this before, but someone a lot, not long ago asked me what was the last movie I cried in? And I said, oh, that. That was easy.

It's the Superdog movie. And they're like, what? I was like, yeah, the superdog movie that has. Happens to have other characters in it too.

But Crypto stole the show and that one. And Susie showed up on the screen. Yeah. My eyes welled up. He looked kind of like my dog Woody. And Crypto, who doesn't want a super dog? We love dogs.

And the ultimate companion and sidekick in life. And who doesn't want one that supercharged and has the powers of Superman, So. Good choice. Good choice. We'll see if that comes back up again.

We talk about other kind of skin.

Yeah.

This is probably the only time we'll talk about Crypto. All right. I. I love this one. I really had to deep dive and do some exploring. And looking at things.

A dwarf or hobbit companion from any kind of fantasy world. But it could be Lord of the Rings. I'm. I'm gonna say Bomber. That's mine. That's right. The hobbit from Thorin's company and in the Hobbit.

And he is the plumpest of the dwarves, but sneaky strong. Sneaky strong. You think he's just, you know, one of these guys who.

A little larger than everybody else, maybe moves a little slower, but he's sneaky, sneaky strong. And so I think he's the ultimate companion out there. Dwar that I'm going to get along with the most. So to Bomber is my. Oh yeah.

Also great attitude.

I think so too.

Great attitude on this guy.

Yep. Good for.

Good for team morale.

Yep, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah.

So the question. I, I do feel like it was a little weighed just because it was phrased hobbit or dwarf.

Like obviously I'm not going outside of Lord of the Rings for that. Sam.

Ah, good choice, Sam.

Like if I'm choosing one hobbit or dwarf to be on my side, if I can get Sam to respect me half as much he respects Frodo and that.

That's an advantage in and of itself. I agree. The real hero of the the whole Middle Earth is. Is really Sam. And so to have him on your team.

I feel like I'm already at a disadvantage if we're putting these two teams against each other because of Sam, but.

Yeah, well, I'm sure we're not, but we'll find out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I. At least I have. At least I have Lockheed.

That's what I'm thinking.

And is. It's not. It's not a dragon from Lord of the Rings. That's cool. So Elise is a friendly dragon. Yeah.

And I'm just, you know, the most supportive person I could possibly imagine. Samwise dmg at 100% potatoes. Po. Potatoes.

Potatoes. All right, next up, number five on our team, an anime or animation companion character. I'm choosing. I'm not. I'm not real steeped in anime, but.

But there is one that I, I really do like and I like, love Cowboy Bebop. And I'm picking Faye Valentine. I. I think she. You want her on her on your side and that's what say Valentine.

Absolute choice. Like, phenomenal choice. Thank you. I saw that in your slides and I was like, oh, that's so smart. I wish I could do that.

There you go. There you go.

All Right.

Who you picking? You're. You're more steeped in anime.

Yeah.

Animation. Oh, what do we got?

A little bit. So this is. It's pretty recent. This is Beru from solo leveling. It's a whole thing. He is just like a super, super powerful ant. What?

So he size him an ant?

No.

Okay.

No. Absolutely not.

So basically the way it works in solo leveling, your main character, Sung Jin Woo is ultra powerful, super powerful, and he kind of grows over time. He levels unlike everyone else in the world, but his main ability is resurrecting his enemies, and they fight for him.

So this ant shows up, Baru kills pretty much everyone else, all of the strongest hunters, and Sung Jin Woo handles the situation and then revives him to fight on his side. So that's who I'm going with now.

Now, is this solo leveling? Is this a video game? Is it a cartoon? Is it Asians anime? Anime? Is it a manga first and then.

Yes. Okay, well, it was a webcomic.

Webcomic turned to anime.

Yep.

Yep. It is pretty cool.

It's really good. It's not like Christian would say it's bad because there's not much depth there, but it's awesome.

There you go.

Which is what I. You know, sometimes you just need a series that's awesome.

Sometimes you need. Sometimes you need a little awesome.

But ye also fiercely loyal, super smart, super strong, super fast.

Great. Yeah. I think I'm hearing a theme.

Like, when talking about sidekicks and companions, you want someone that's loyal, you know, only someone's gonna, like, turn the back. I think when you. You picked a sit, though, so that's dangerous because they're always looking to kill their. Their. That's a little.

I don't know about that. Afterwards. And I was like, that.

The light, I think. I think that's. That's your weak link there. But you have Sam, so I think Sam would. Would defend you against that. But.

But you're not gonna critique these yet. We'll get that. It's a minute. But, you know, we're talking about psychics who really need loyalty. And when think about loyalty. All right, here we go.

My animal sidekick is Crypto. What do you know? So I can't believe he showed back up that. One ear down, one ear up. We got James Gun's version of Crypto.

That literally looks like my dog Woody in the face. And so I cried when I saw it in the trailer and cried when I saw it in the movie theater, and I love that dog so much. I like his version of Crypto.

This dog that doesn't even know his own power and a little unhinged. But. But is loyal and loves Supergirl so much. I can't wait to see them in the next adventure. I have Krypto as my animal psychic.

I love that TJ are already thinking on the same wavelength and had common picks here. I love it.

Yeah, well, I cheated a little bit and I might have to justify it, but I'm going to. Scooby Doo might be who the series is named after, but he's not the main character usually. Mm. He is the sidekick. It's just very important. Sidekick.

And he's Scooby Doo.

He's Scooby.

He's Scooby. What are you gonna do to Scooby Doo?

You know, when we were thinking about these lists, Scooby never came up in my mind. But now that you throw it up there and mention, I'm like, what a good choice. That is fantastic.

Hey, Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo. You feed him and he is going to put aside whatever was ailing him and get the job done. He will do whatever you need him to do first.

I. I think, I feel like Sam is the one who's going to have a pocket full of Scooby snacks and ready to hand them out for Scoobying attack.

Absolutely.

I love it. Okay.

All right.

Our final pick. Wild card companion. I'm going with Robin. You talked about too easy. The original sidekick. But it's not just Dick Grayson who is older or teen. Older.

Teenage. Or getting ready to become Nightwing. I love Dick Grayson. I love Nightwing. I love him as a hero, as his own Right.

It really me your ward Dick Grayson.

Boom.

There you go.

Yeah, good answer. I went a different direction. The Ichthyosapin Sapien himself. Abe Sapien been the Hellboy. I felt like, you know, like we have Spot. We both have Spock.

So we're not lacking in the brain power department. But I felt like it could use a little bolstering. There's a lot of animals on my team. I like it.

I like it.

There is a lot of animals on my team. So someone like Abe, who is not only very smart, he's not necessarily detective, but, you know, he has his moments.

He's also excellent hand to hand combatant, which I've not. Not a severe shortage of, but he can aim pretty well too.

Yeah.

You know, if it comes up and I need someone to fire a gun. Spock's not the greatest. With phaser Abe, Abel, hit a shot.

Yeah, yeah, we'll. We'll talk some strategy here in a little bit. I'm thinking about Spock, and then that's a good team up. Those two together.

I. I wonder if they'll butt heads, but we'll see.

I'm.

I don't know.

They've both been known to step aside when they felt like it was necessary.

All right, all right, all right. Here we go. All right, so we have our teams together.

I'm really liking my team, and I don't know if I'm gonna give them a special name yet or not, but. But I think we need to know what our mission is. What is the mission? And here's the unveiling. Drum roll, please. Whatever sound effect you want it.

And include. But here we are, we're opening up the slides, and TJ's gonna reveal what our mission is.

Yeah, I. I feel like evil laugh is probably what Christian envisioned here. We're learning this together for the first time. We are. This mission is called Whale Hell. Release the Kraken.

So let's find out what we're dealing with. Let's do it. The demonic plot. Good grief. Okay.

Though the great Duke of Hell folklore, under the delusion that he may somehow earn his way back into Heaven, is being manipulated by his fellow great Duke of Hell, Vapar, to rid all worlds of all cetaceans, which are whales. Vapar has assured folklore that if they can outwit God, then he will be impressed enough to let them re. Enter. Heaven.

Wishes to destroy cetaceans of all kinds, as he erroneously believes that a whale is the giant fish that swallowed up Jonah. Thus, if he removes every cetacean and large sea beast from existence, Jonah cannot survive his undersea excursion.

And we never get the Veggietales Jonah movie, creating the saddest timeline of all.

Mal that's true.

To achieve this goal, Folklore and Vipar have recruited the most ruthless cetacean killers and hunters across the omniverse to be their personal whalers. They have recruited Captain Ahab, Black Mantasaurus from DC's Jurassic League because he punched a dolphin once.

The brood for their enslavement of the Akati Trioculus, for his harvesting and whaling of the Whaladons of Mon Calamari. Leela because of the Futurama episode where she took Captain Ahab's place.

Maxi of Team Magma, because Kyogre is a whale, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz for the whale who stole his girlfriend from him. That's their TBA Whalers.

So the whalers forged an alienator that teleported all large sea life to the realm of darkness from Kingdom Hearts, including monstrous Moby Dick, Shamu Flipper, the Kraken, and more.

Unknown to folklore, Vapar has lied to him so that Vapar could get rid of the greatest threat to his rule of the oceans, Godzilla, the greatest gorilla whale of all time, as he too has been captured. Yeah, that's always how I've thought of him.

To fight this threat, Captain Nemo was charged by the angel who had authority over all water from Revelation 16.

5 to have saved the cetaceans with a nautilus, supernaturally empowered to travel through time space and see, and he attempted to free them from the rail of darkness. Nemo lingered too long, and his memory and heart are slowly being lost.

The Nautilus had the ability to teleport in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but the systems were damaged in surprise raid by the whalers, and the greatest sidekicks we picked were summoned there instead. So, tasked to freeing the cetaceans, will we choose to help Nemo restore himself? Or we go to the demons and their whalers to persuade Slash?

Fuck, I wish that would move.

Slash.

What does that say? Force them to release the whales and presumably the Kraken.

Upon arriving, the Nautilus will give us all the information regarding Nemo's status and all the stuff we've read so far. But that is our task.

We have also been given an additional document called the Legendarium, with some additional rules for the purposes of this omniverse. Every conscious entity has a body, heart, soul, and mind. So anyone can become a heartless or nobody, which is Kingdom Hearts stuff, of course.

Anything with a soul is capable of repentance and salvation. Folklore and Vapar are from the Ars Garatia, which is medieval demonology text.

This is after Doofenshmirtz has already turned from evil once, because he didn't really feel evil. Multiple Godzillas can be present because this is an omniverse.

So we have, you know, like Heisei Toho, legendary Shin Godzilla, like multiple Continentals. There are at least two Monstros. Good Grief. They really, they thought about everything.

I know. And thought about everything. Goodness gracious. Yeah.

The longer we stay, the more memories deteriorate.

Man, this, this is, this is like a very complex D and D campaign and I like what they've done here, but for this, like, episode of systemic egology and a one time stop. There's, there's a lot here to, to think about in terms of how we rank our teens. Now, tj, did you know that there is a surprise that we.

The Lord has visited us through a dream and offering us one biblical assistant or companion or disciple or shield bearer that we can bring to our team. So not only do we have our seven psychics, but we have an eighth bonus psychic or companion from Scripture. Yeah. No angels, no demons. Can't we.

It's not like we can pick Gabriel or Michael. I guess you could pick Jesus if you really wanted to, but no supernatural characters allowed.

I guess Jesus pretty supernatural in some of those things, but, you know, if you're going to choose someone from scripture as your companion slash disciple slash shield bearer, who are you picking?

Yeah, well, it's really hard not to say Jonah.

Nice.

Really hard not to say Jonah.

I know now that you, now that you know the mission, that's not a bad pick.

Yeah, they, they call them out by name, but they, they think that makes it a weakness. You know, I want someone on my team who can get swallowed by a whale or Godzilla or, you know, whatever and be calm about it.

I like it. I like it. That, that's a fantastic pick.

I thought about this beforehand because I was reading over the outline and I, I really like one of my favorite kind of unsung heroes of scripture that does get chalk talked about a lot. I need to do a deep dive and find out what, what his deal is and backstory is this guy called Barabbas.

Now in Acts, chapter one, when the disciples are trying to figure out who's going to replace Judas since he's off the table, we got to have 12, 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus picked 12. We got to add another one. They had two disciples. They came down to two disciples, Matthias and Barabbas.

Joseph called beside us and they cast lots. They basically rolled dice. They basically gambled to see who would be chosen as the replacement for Judas. And barabbas lost. So Matthias 1. I don't.

We don't hear about Barabbas the rest of scripture. I don't think you could correct me out there. You think? But, but I think he is a patron saint of those who come and take a place.

Patron saint of losers. He's still a disciple. He's 13. He's a 13th disciple, whatever. If you want to call Paul, I guess, 13th disciple. But this guy is on my team.

He understand what it means to be disappointed. He understands what it means to not, not get chosen by, by casting lots. So I think he's going to be loyal.

He's going to be hanging out with me and being like, I want to be a part of this team. I want to be a part of the team. That's who I'm picking.

Yeah, it's a good pick.

All right, thanks.

Cool, cool, cool.

All right, how are we grading our, our team here?

Why do you think the other person scores like we're thinking about mission status, about our, how we do on our mission, our teamwork, our sustainability, strength. Would they team have fun with the infighting? How do you think we're doing here? How would you, you rate my team? And then I'll, I'll, I'll rank yours.

Between one and which, which side of the objective are you guys going to do? Are you going to persuade the demons and their whalers to release the whales? Are you going to help Nemo restore himself?

I, I think I'm so, so the mission. So explain those again. So we there, there's two choices here we're going to lean into.

One is to help Nemo convince, you know, to be, to, to switch teams here, or are we Nemo?

Nemo was charged by the angel who had authority over water to save the cetaceans with a supernatural nautilus.

Right.

So he is a good guy, but he's lost his way in the realm of darkness and is losing himself.

So do you want to go help restore Nemo and, you know, help him pursue his original charge, which is bring the cetaceans, or are you just going to go straight to the demons and their whalers to force them to release the whales?

I, I, I feel like I want to be charitable here and ask you which one you want to do. Can we do the same thing or are we going to split up and do two different ones?

Well, I don't think we can work together and make super team. I would leave that on the table, though, just in case.

This is whale we're talking about, you can have. Yeah, I think I'm going after the demons. I think I'm going to that. I mean, Nemo, I, I think going and persuading him.

I just kind of want some action with this, with this team. I want to see them go after the demons and kind of protect the, the whale.

So I think with my team, when it was Gungy and Spock and Lockheed, because one of the Brood is the Whalers and, and Lockheed was first appearance was against the Brood when they X Men were battling the Brood. That is literally where Kitty found him killing Brute. So I think he has an advantage and it comes now that he's a natural.

And, and I think say Valentine is, is, is kind of this bounty hunter team doesn't want some action. They don't want to like sit back and talk about things that she wants to, she wants, she wants some action.

So.

And I think Crypto is not going to put up with any, any garbage either. Going to go after these aisles. So that, that's what I'm, that's what I'm going for.

The hard part is going to be convincing Faye that she's going to get paid.

Right, Right.

You can convince her that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can convince her she's gonna get paid. Spock can probably, you know, show her something fancy. Yeah, you can have this after the mission. You'll requisition another one. It's no big deal.

Yeah. John. So. Yeah, so. So rank me. What do you think I'm doing here? If I'm going after these, these whaler. Demonic whalers, which is.

Can we just say whalers are demonic in and of themselves, then when you have demonic whalers, it' double negative in a sense that it's double evil.

We also have to worry about the demons. I think is why.

Is why.

But yeah, the whalers, which, I mean, I don't think Captain Ahab was necessarily a villainous character. We're not doing a deep dive on Moby Dick, but like, yeah, he's not a good guy. That's not the point of the book. But I don't think he's a villain.

Yeah, is. Is Moby Dick the. But is that whale like a smog, kind of like dragon to go after because it's doing bad things.

Is he like the hero or is he just obsess, this one whale? Yeah, yeah, let's, let's think.

Because okay, power wise, I don't think like Dr. Duvensmirtz, black mantasaurus, Ahab, the Brood, whatever, Leela, you know, you guys, your team, Robin, Krypto, Faye, Valentine, Gungy, Spock, Bomber. I, I'm not worried about the Whalers as much as I'm worried about the, you know, the goetic demons.

Right.

The Goetia doesn't expound much on their powers, at least not in depth. So we can't really scale them. But I don't know.

I think you have a lot of potential, a lot of potential there for be just being able to hand straight up handle the whalers.

Nice. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I do.

On a.

On number scale. I really. I really am not sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. I. I don't think it would be the easiest thing in the world because, you know, you and crypto is there. You have crypto.

Crypto might be your strongest person.

Yeah. Yeah. And with this mission. Are we. Are there. Are they space whales? Are we going in the water? Where are they keeping these whales? Like, where's.

Where's the secret, like, hideout for these villainous whalers? Is it some kind of seaworld? Evil seaworld. Let's.

I'm checking the. The mission legendarium.

Okay.

Specific.

Okay. So I feel like your team has an advantage when you have, like an underwater breather. Abe Sapien. I think that that's really, really good.

But I think with the technology in the future, I think Spock. Both of us have Spocks that can. You can use that kind of Vulcan knockout grip. Knockout grip thing that you do is. Is pretty good.

So there's one thing I was like. I don't like what you're talking about. I'm just kind of like, do that. The Vulcan knockout grip.

Good night.

Good night.

But it's so. It's the realm of darkness, which I'm pretty sure is just a big realm of nothing more or less.

So it's not necessarily underwater, but I guess they're not going to dry out or anything.

Right. Right.

Okay. Because they breathe air. Cetaceans all breed air.

Look at my team. Do you see any. Any chinks in the armor there? For teamwork.

For teamwork.

Yeah.

I mean, Fade can be greedy, but I don't think, you know, she's not just gonna buzz off somewhere. She's in the realm of darkness. She will be motivated to see this through. So teamwork, it's gotta. For you gotta be at least a 9.

Just because Faye is your weakest link and she's not going anywhere. And Gungy and Spock and crypto should pretty easily be able to convince her that she needs to stay with you and finish the mission.

Yeah. Yeah.

For mission status, I would say probably. Probably at. Probably an 8 as well. At least an 8. Because without knowing the exact scale of, you know, folklore and.

But crypto can absolutely handle the entire brood.

True. So. And I Got lucky and I got lucky there. And lucky which I think fact that they named the brood.

I don't know if they saw who my psychics were before at all, but the fact that they picked the brood and I have a first appearance of the brew. I think. I think Lockheed there is. It showed up great. Pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah. And sustainability and strength and fun. I. I think I have some. Some fun.

I'll advocate that. That this seems gonna have fun. I. I know we, Faye Valentine, you know, I, I think. I think we can soften that heart a little bit with.

With the team we. We have here. And Lockheed, you know, looks intimidating, doesn't look fun. But there's a reason that, um.

And this thing really is gravitated towards this. One of the sweetest people on the X Men, which is kitty pride and can curl up like a cat next to her on the couch or wherever and purr.

Literally purr with.

Yeah.

So.

So for sustainability, you guys probably like a 9 or a 10.

If, if you can convince Faye, if you can make it worth her while to stick around, then I don't see any reason for the rest of the team not sticking around.

Yeah.

To continue to adventure.

We just have to understand that there, there's the paycheck there, there's a payday for her. It's about the payday.

It's about the payday because if you bring her into, you know what, she could probably just imagine as hell.

It's.

It's going to take something to convince her to stick around. It's going to take something definitely more sustainable than my team, power wise. I don't think your team is that strong.

I think definitely strong enough to take down the Whalers, but I don't think the Whalers team is particularly strong.

Right. It's what's next. It's the big boss. It's the demons that we got to worry about.

Strength wise. I probably give your team like a six or a seven. I don't know if you watched it, but Christian had Mothra. Christian pick Mothra as a sidekick.

Yeah. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. I. I'm looking at my team and most of them are shorter than me. Yeah, they're all small.

I know.

That's right. All of them. I don't have any big giant sidekicks on. On here because I'm immediately thinking psychic. Someone. They got me.

This short sidekick's the little guy. Although in my, my little banner here, I put myself as your sidekick. So I'm a little taller than you, but I'LL be your sidekick. I would be.

Which is fine. I don't need to, you know, you. You can. We can both be someone else's sidekick. I don't need, you know, cool.

But overall, you feel. You feel great about my team. I. We. I can complete this mission. You feel like I do?

Absolutely. Andrew team's a lot of fun. I think my team might have more fun, though.

I agree. I'm gonna work backwards with yours. I'm thinking about yours. You're. You're having. You're having fun there. I. I do like it that we pick similar.

Similar teammates there. But as I. As I look at Spock, I don't know if this version of Spock is a lot of fun. He has a lot of lessons to learn. But.

But when you have Crypto and Sam together and Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo, that's. I. I feel like. I feel like that going backwards with fun. That. That's a lot of fun. I. I would watch that movie. TV show cartoon.

You have some strength there. I mean, you have a. You have a Sith on. On your. Your team. That's pretty strong. She is a Sith sorcerer.

Very, very strong sorcerer.

So that. That upgrades that there to kind of higher numbers in the excellent range sustainability.

When you have Spock and you have this, the Sith apprentice, the loyalty there is not good. I think you might get stabbed in the back for an opportunity to take over as the main Sith lord because of the rule of two that's going on there.

So I'm going to knock that down to like, a five. But teamwork, knowing that, what they have their mission, I feel like this team, your team together would work pretty well. So I'm.

I'm gonna pull that up to. To about an 8 mission status. How well is your team on this mission? Um, I. I think. I think we're also going after the Whalers.

You're always going after the Whalers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think there. There's no playing around. And there's a Sith.

We'll say Nemo later.

We'll say Nemo later. I think. I think Nemo's really savable. There's no doubt that that can't happen. But you got to go after the Whalers. Um, I, I like your.

I, I think when you pulled Sam and Scooby and Crypto, I, I think that's. That's the team, the trio that's really pulling these together. And what was your. What was your biblical Jonah? I forgot you have Jonah. Oh, my gosh.

All right, your mission there, it's a 9.5, I think because of what we're doing here with whalers. And you pick Jonah and you got Sam now. Now the thing with Jonah again, the sustainability. Jonah. Jonah is a powder.

And so there may be something that happens. He's like, oh, woe is me, God. I'm gonna go sit under this tree and, and cry for a while. And I can't believe it.

So I think the sustainability is the weakest link, but in terms of strength and mission status and teamwork, I think it's ranked pretty high. I give you a solid 8.5 on all of them together. Yeah.

Well, I think what's gonna happen is when, when Jonah gets pouty, that's when Zanna is gonna go up to him and start feeding him Sith rhetoric to use that sadness to fuel him.

Ah, that's a good one. That's.

That. That's what's gonna happen. She also does have some experience working as a team. That's how she was kind of recruited.

She worked as a team with Darth Bane. They had like a very close apprenticeship. They worked to actually together a lot. It's not one of the, like, in the shadows apprenticeships.

They were actually together doing things all the time and, you know, fighting as a team. So she works better as a. In a team than most Sith. But yeah, she's still a Sith lord eventually. So she does wig hotel one Sith.

Would you ever show up in like a live action or like movie, you think?

No, no, not unless we go back to the Old Republic and do that. They only canonize Darth Bane in Clone wars season six. Yeah, five or six.

There you go. I love that. So, yeah.

All right.

I like this mission.

Anything we're missing in terms of what we need to do, the final rankings of who, who, which team do you think is going to be the most successful in this? As your honest opinion here with, with this, I think particular mission, I think.

Your team is going to be a much better team. I think you have a much better chance of nothing happening to ruin it.

Yeah.

Darth Zannah could definitely just get tired of it and try to get rid of Scooby or Sam and really not struggle to do that at all.

Yeah.

So it's tenuous at. At best.

I agree. I. I think your. Your poll. I. I think your team be pretty successful. I don't know if your team is going to spend a lot of time with the most of that.

That I think they don't care. I think, I think as a whole Sam might. Scooby might Crypto. But we have some players on there.

A Sith Lord and Jonah who's a powder and he did not care about Nineveh. He just did his one sentence sermon and then went and powdered on trees. So even though he has experience with whales, may.

May hold a grudge there too. So I think with. With Nemo and some of that may just not pay attention. But I think the overall mission. I think they would have some success there.

But I don't know if it's going to stay together at the end of this mission.

Yeah. So I think you guys are much, much better off than. Than I was.

Huh.

But let's. Let's check, you know, on folklore and vapor. So in the arts Gia folklore is his domain is wind, the sea, capsizing ships and drowning people. Oof.

That's.

That's Oof.

You can't drown ape Sapien.

No.

Darth Zannah can use Sith sorcery to not need to breathe. She had to do that once Spock. Respirators exist in Star Trek.

I think so. But I think he has some kind of Vulcan thing. He probably can hold his breath for like three days or something. Some meditative Vulcan thing.

Scooby can probably just figure it out. Scooby can do it. Crypto can hold his breath for a very long time because he flies through space.

But he's also in a dark realm. So is there sunlight? Is a void of sunlight. I think both cryptos that was kind of the weakness. Both cryptos may lose steam pretty fast.

We could lean into them. But if they don't have that sunlight there they could get in the dark. With no sunlight. Dark realm may be a disadvantage for Kryptos.

Maybe a disadvantage Vapar. Their domain is like the sea and stuff. I looked it up a second ago and then instead of opening a new tab I just passed it.

Storms sickness healing and deception. So it could get tricky.

It could. I think with Gungy is learning the ways of the Force. The Jedi mind tricks and being able to see light and dark.

When it comes to the dark side of light side of the Force I think is an advantage for you. I think you have Sam who But part of him not seeing the good in Gollum and being really frustrated and short tempered with Gollum.

But then Frodo being like can't you have any compassion? Because this one person who felt susceptible to the ring's power maybe a loss of Patience there. But in the end, he's the one who's. Who's carrying.

The one who is carrying the ring. So I think that's the real pull there. Bomber is there is sneaky, sneaky strong, but I think kind of looking for, you know, just what's the next meal?

What's the next rest point? Let's. Let's hang together. We want to be jolly. Want to sing a song. So I think that's where he's going there. Right? Hey, I. I think you're.

I think your team's gonna pull through. I think mine's gonna have more fun and be sustainable after this mission going forward. So I feel better to get this.

Nice place, nice mission, nice teams. I like it. I agree.

I. I think you just have the. The better team. That would be a team. My team's kind of like Marvel's Runaways.

Yeah, good.

They're fine, but.

There you go.

Could have been better.

Oh, that was fun. Friends, as you listen to this, whether it's on YouTube, watch on YouTube, listen on YouTube, or listen to your podcast or follow us on.

On social media, let us know what you think about our teams. Who won, who lost, who has a better team. What would you pull, tj, as we're kind of wrapping this up here. What. What do you. What do you.

I.

Bonus points.

Here we go. Bonus points. So you gave me an eight and a half. Yep. Your average would have probably been an eight and a half.

Gotcha.

You know, I'm fine with that. I'll give you a 9 just because I think you'll do it better. You'll get an extra point. If we attempted to explain to Folklore that works.

Cannot save him.

Okay.

If we convinced Go. So I don't. We. I don't think we got any extra points.

No, not with that one. I. I think with Godzilla, I think if you. Yeah. I don't think we discussed any of these things. If your team helped Nemo or sort. We both ignored Nemo.

Yeah.

We can get in later.

That's right. Yeah, I. We didn't get any extra points. We didn't.

The Shan. So Will Rose the champion of sidekicks.

Thanks, man. Appreciate it. I do feel like that was kind of my. My M.O. and school, too. Like, I would just do the test and not worry about the bonus points.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, that's fun, man. Fun, fun, fun.

All right, so before we get to the wrap up and do those kind of things, are there any honorable mentions that we didn't include on our teams that may Be one. You were thinking about that you wanted to bring on that a sidekick out there.

Yeah, it's hard to. Because there, there are so many sidekicks. There really are.

There are.

Any Padawan, Ahsoka Tano obviously came to mind. You know, Darth Maul, technically, just like.

Yeah, yeah.

The problem with a series like Star wars is that we've seen so many characters at so many points in their, their trajectories. Like you'd say favorite Padawan is Obi Wan Kenobi. You could have Obi Wan on your team. Golly.

I know. I just wanted a wookie. I just wanted a wookie on my team. That's basically just reasonable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's good. Like a young Obiwan and.

Or a young Darth Maul. That's good, man.

Like, that's so we could even do Dooku because he's technically Sidious's apprentice.

Yeah.

There's a lot, a lot, a lot of sidekicks to mention. Ones that I really would have liked to have but couldn't. Just interest, you know. Sometimes I just don't feel like it.

Liesl Pawn, the super intelligent smallpox. Green Lantern, one of my favorite characters ever. So funny. There's a few lanterns I'd like to see there. Dextar, the Red Lantern cat.

Great character. Nice.

Every dwarf in Thorin's company. It would be a great companion.

Yep. But man, there's a lot. Yeah. And I, as I was thinking, my mind went to again comics and, and I, I like the X Men New Mutants.

A lot of those who are again, the all new, all different X Men when they got kind of long in the tooth, they're like, we need some younger mutants. And so they had the New Mutants and they had Cannonball. I like some of the teammates Sunspot on, on the New Mutants.

They are, they're young, they're teenagers and they're looking up to the big win. Can't be a part of the big X Men team. I own New Mutants now and be trained. I, I really like Sunspot.

He was one that, you know again, another solar powered mutant with super strength I think would be, would be super cool. So yeah, that help would have been really helpful. Super helpful again.

But they're in the dark realm and he didn't have solar power that maybe, maybe that worked out that.

But maybe because Sunspot can't generate his own power.

I don't think so. I can look at that. But if he did, he could have solar powered. A crypto. Yeah. Okay. Yep. If he has Stored energy and shared his energy with. With crypto.

That's good. Ah, I love it. All right, y', all, let's wrap this thing up. We're gonna have to.

One more lad would have been a great pick.

Yes.

Yeah, we could have known the mission beforehand. It was just easy.

Aqualad done well, and she's not a psychic to Aquaman. But Mara would have been fun. Like get a. Get a female on this team. On my team, I was pretty male heavy on. On mine.

Get a female on there and get Mara, who's. Can control water and communicate with whales.

Would have been a helpful sapien, I think can communicate with whales. But yeah, that would have been good.

Love it. All right, y', all, we're going to have an extra question, and we're.

Our extra question is going to be which of our sidekicks on our team would we like to see grow up to become their own hero and then have their own. Have their. Have their own sidekick later on down the road? So. So they're. They're young now.

They're in their teens or whatever, but let's say 50 years from now, they're. They're older, wiser, and have their own adventures and a long history. Who would like to see our. A psychic grow up and then get their own psychic?

So that is. That is our extra question that you can hear over on fourth wall with our bonus coverage over there.

Once you become a member and join up over there, you can find out how TJ and I answer that question. Okay, let's wrap up here.

As we wrap up tj, our recommendations, anything from our sidekicks or stories from the sidekicks that you would do, or anything out there in pop culture that. That you would recommend to folks if.

You'Ve never read a Hellboy comic, Absolutely do that. Abe Sapien's a great character. The world of Hellboy is a lot deeper than the Guillermo del Toro movies, even though those movies are great.

I like it. I like it. My recommendation is a comics recommendation. Well, I'm gonna make two. One is, we liked. It's not for everybody, but Squid Game is. Is a.

Is a TV show that our family likes to watch together. But there's a game show called Squid Game. The challenge where real people play the game.

They don't really kill them, but they have the same kind of games and people trying to win money and backstabbing.

But also they form alliances, and you get to pick personalities and people that you're pulling for and see how long they last out to the end of this game and I. It's a, it's a lot of fun and again, teamwork. And who are you going to pull your team together for talking about psychics and how to get a pull.

Pull a team together. It's definitely show that looks at the human nature and human condition and what humans do either work with or against other people. I really love it.

I love to see how the communication plays out in that.

And then I'm also going to recommend Batman and Robin year one, Mark Wade, Chris Samney, great art, great 12 issue comic that is going to be a graphic novel here soon.

If you want a young Robin and a Batman who's trying to learn how to work with the sidekick and what that means for him, I highly recommend that comics. It is going to be one. Even though I have it collected single issues.

I'm gonna get the graphic novel and put it on my shelf because it's, it's super fun and a great story. So that's what I recommend. Okay, D.J.

did you know that there's people out there who haven't subscribed or supported the show yet, but they have that opportunity? Really? There might be somebody listening who maybe have listened to 100 episodes and they're like, you know what?

Um, it's hard for me to support the show financially, but you know, you can also be a free member. You can, there's a free option on Fourth Ball that you can subscribe and get the bonus content.

We're looking, you know, for you to go deeper in your relationship with our show and, and to support us. And we do appreciate whatever level that you support us at, whether it's just listening or hitting the download on, on your podcast.

But over there, Fourth Wall, you can do the same. And so we do want to thank our financial supporters again. Again, thanks, James. James Barrett, thank you for your support.

And then you can get your own shout out later on down the road you become a subscriber. So appreciate it, y'. All. Thanks for listening. What are your sidekicks? Who, who are the faces behind you?

Who are the people that drive you to do what you do in the world? Could be family, could be friends, could be a friend of frenemy, I don't know.

But there, there are definitely people that we're journeying with through this lifetime together. And I'm very thankful of you. I'm thankful of the Systematic Ecology crew. We are all a chosen people and a geekdom of priests.

But yet in the midst of all that, whether we disagree or not, whether we're different sides of the coin when it comes to how we see and view the world, or how we battle whalers or help turn Nemo back to good. The geek in me honors the geek. And you sa.