My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 435 - NERDOM WITH T-BOB HEBERT

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Barstool's newest employee T-Bob Hebert joins Robbie and Clem live in Chicago to discuss his nerdom, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, D&D and more! #LordOfTheRings #HarryPotter **************************************** My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike! Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, my mom's basement listeners you can find our episodes on Apple podcasts Spotify or YouTube and prime members can listen ad free on Amazon music Hello and welcome to my mom's basement presented by Barstool sports It is Robbie Fox and Clem here in the Chicago office for the dozen week with Barstool's newest employee and dare I say Barstool's newest nerd. Yeah, Bob Herbert. What's going on, man? What's up, man? Doing very well. Clem Robbie pleasure to be here. Okay. I I do not give a fuck about this so do not feel bad It's actually a bear. It's a it's it's not a her it's hebert and It's a good it's a very it's a very Cajun last name so it's spelled

H e b e r t but pronounced A-Bear. I've been saying Herbert for a long time because we've tweeted for years now, I feel like. Yes, I know. No, yes. We've had a very parasocial Twitter relationship. But no, but even Dave, when he announced the hire, said Herbert. It is, unless you live in like Quebec or Louisiana, yeah, there's no reason to know. Go Tigers, right Tigers right yeah even even

the T it means petite Bobby it means little Bob it's a Cajun thing learning a lot here yeah yeah I'm glad we had a month because I want to learn about T Bob a lot because or should I not say T Bob no you can't no because when you got hired we got our mentions flooded with, oh my god, you're going to love this guy in the basement. You've got to have him on. Again, parasocial from afar. I have appreciated y'all.

And yeah, man, I mean, my nerddom has always been inherent. And it knows no limits. I'm probably a Lord of the Rings man number one, Star Wars right behind and then you know everything else. I mean I would probably say like Harry Potter right after that although sometimes I don't know the I don't have a problem with the fandom. Sometimes, I don't know, the, I don't know the problem with the fandom. It's tough to explain. But Harry Potter's also been huge in my life, I would say. But yeah, anything, man, this is perfect.

I'm so excited for this. I am very happy. We have a rings guy, too. See, this is interesting. The rings have been controversial on the podcast. Neither of us rings guys. I know. You might even call myself an anti rings guy well you've fallen into the the Kevin Smith trap

I have exactly fallen into the Kevin Smith trap You are reading me like a book already of putting the trilogies against one another. Yeah, there's only one return It's of the Jedi not of the king the I was actually had such a good Father's Day My family had to leave to go on vacation and so like I was like I had nothing to do so I hate a big gummy. I walked around a forest for hours. I got out I hate a massive $50 for the Chinese alone, and then I watched and then I watched them all rats I just I might have been watching it the same time you were, because I just watched it myself. He just texted me the other night that he was watching it.

Yeah. It was, I had not seen it in a very long time. It's one of my favorite movies ever. It is so good. Kevin Smith truly captured the voice of that kind of 90s generation. I was going to say, I was born in 98 98 so Mallrats is the kind of movie that makes me nostalgic for a time I was not alive for. I've always said that that exact line is what I've always said the greatest strength of uh Stranger Things season one was. Yeah definitely. It made me

nostalgic for something that I never got to experience but oh it's been good. And are you still in on Stranger Things? You like that show? Yeah yeah absolutely absolutely. because we were talking about it's getting a lot of hate They just not season 5, but we're still like pretty excited for season. Well like it's a weird thing where Last season was really good like like it was great, but but it is a long time between seasons and It's funny cuz strange things been around so long that I feel that at first It was kind of at the forefront of when Netflix was like, oh shit, when something comes out, you can just binge it. You can watch it all.

But now I think we're kind of rubber banding back to where I prefer staggered releases because you have those pop culture touchstones where everybody's on the same base. You don't have to do the like, oh have you seen strange things? Well, how deep are you? Okay, you've only seen this episode. So so it's I I think it's almost like What's hurting stranger things probably more than anything is kind of nothing to do with the actual show I agree. It's like the dynamics around the the schedule and the time but yeah, I'm fucking holiday releases are weird Yeah, yeah, pretty kids are weird. Yeah, yeah. He already kids are just shooting.

Yeah, they're all getting very old. They shot it at least like within a reasonable time frame. They still would just be getting so much older. Yeah. And I'm not a huge Harry Potter guy, but like I like the movies. I watched them all for the first time, like two or three years ago. So it was kind of a recent thing for me. But I'm almost worried about the HBO show

based on like the Stranger Things schedule of like, are they gonna be able to do seven books or seven seasons or seven years worth of a show in that timeframe before the kids grow up? I don't know. I will say though, I am loving all of the casting for that show. I think where I become a bit concerned is because because

like Harry Potter, the books, I will never forget. It was Book Fair week. I was probably nine or 10 years old. And this person read us like an excerpt from from Sorcerer's Stone in the final line was like, you're a wizard,. And it, and it like, I had, I mean, I get goosebumps thinking about it. Like it was like, it was like one of those moments where, you know, like, okay, my life is different now. Yeah. And, and so I've read those books a million times, absolutely loved the books. The greatest strength of the movie, which they're varying quality, but is that they nailed the aesthetics and obviously the John Williams score, right? And so that's what I worry about with the HBO show.

When all of that is so perfect, do you just like continue to live there and put new actors in there? Do you try to make it more your own? I don't know. We'll have to wait and find out. I'm a big John Lithgow guy, so as soon as they announced John Lithgow,

I was like, oh shit, I might have to wait and find out. I'm a big John Lithgow guy, so as soon as they announced John Lithgow, Dumbledore, I was like, oh shit, I might have to be in on this. And actually, I kind of felt that the Dumbledore recast in the movies was not my favorite. Like I understand taking it in a much more energetic and different direction, but I guess it was never kind of how my like, headcanon Dumbledore really read.

What's your favorite Harry Potter book and movie? Book it's, it's hmmm. So I think the answer for both is probably Goblet of Fire. I thought you were going to say that. I feel like Harry Potter fans, especially with the book. I know some people don't like the movie because they took away the World Cup. Well yeah, yeah. I mean they touch, but yeah you didn't like the movie because they took away the World Cup. Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, they, they, they, they touch up, but yeah, you didn't get the full.

But so I think here's why the book people probably love it so much is because when you were my age at that time, um, everybody was reading. They were incredible, but they were pretty short, like sorcerers chamber as command, they're all pretty short. And then I'll never forget the day, you know, opening day, you go to get Goblet and it's fucking 734 pages. And you're like, oh my God,

this is the thing that I'm doing for the next 48 hours of my life. I remember I was in a- Oh, were you the kind of kid you would read it as fast as you possibly could. Oh yeah, I would lock myself in the room because it was done. I had cousins like that, yeah. So we, I remember my mom is from North Louisiana, which is very country, and she grew up Pentecostal.

So it had just come out, and I was in the midst of reading it, so I was taking it everywhere with me. Pentecostal pastor is delivering an entire sermon, just demonizing the witchcraft of Harry Potter as I'm sitting on the book in the pew. Was it burning? I'm like sweat and I'm like, oh shit dude, does he know that I have this right now? But I will say Sorcerers is like, the book is like, it's like comfort food. I've probably read it like 10 times.

It's just like, it's so easy, so good, so snappy. And the Goblet of Fire movie was one of the only, one of the first movies I had T-vowed in high school. And so I used to love, oh, just getting high and watching Goblet like a million times. So yeah, that would probably, that'd probably be my favorite probably my fear and those before got like too dark yeah like the world really expanded but yeah yes exactly I love that I remember seeing that movie when it came out and weirdly I saw one I saw two I liked both of them

and I just didn't see three which at this point is my favorite movie yeah as commands I love Gary Oldman and a shout out Gary Oldman got knighted this week, sir. Gary old man. Yes But I loved like the time travel stuff and ask a man and everything but seeing Goblet of Fire my like I don't know. It's probably eight or nine years old. My brain just went to his hair is longer. He's so That was like a huge deal Who directed three? Was it Curion? What's his name?

Alphonse, the guy who did Gravity. It is. Right. So and I remember he like, he like got them out of the robes and in the muggle clothes and they had long hair and everyone's like, oh, look how cool they are now. But yeah, so so that was one moment. Me and Clint were talking all fair. Probably the most formative moment of my nerd life was, well, there's a couple.

With Lord of the Rings, I was 11 years old when Rings came out and I didn't know anything about it. I'd read The Hobbit. I tried to read the books, but I think I was a bit too young for them. And I went to the theater, not fully knowing what to expect at noon. And it was the same type of experience that you hear about people talk about seeing New Hope when they were a kid. I left that movie with my hair on fire. I was so blown away, I immediately left. I made my sister take me back that same day and watched it again, eight to midnight.

That is great. I love that. And then like, you know, you had the extended edition with the appendices, which is probably the greatest accomplishment of those DVDs. They have about eight hours of extras for every movie that are just mind blowing. And then with, which Star Wars would hook to me there

is when they re-released him in theaters in the 90s, my old man took me out of school and he let me skip school to go watch it with him and then we went to Toys R Us and I'm a very spoiled kid. My dad played in the NFL and this was like one of the most like NFL dad moments ever where we go to toys rush She's like you can get one thing and I can't remember what I picked but then he was like, okay He's like but the look if you get that Then you need to get this and if we get this do we need to get that? I literally left with one of every fucking toy that they had

Yeah, again, but your life changes. Yes, no, dude dude It was like and I still so I've held on to him I don't have all the accessories, but I've held on to for 25 years and now that he moves in Chicago is going through all my old stuff and And and so I found them all I saw the video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I found those were that's everybody who survived and so now I've passed it down to to my kids I love that so they have all the old 90s And so now I've passed it down to to my kids. I love that. So they have all the old 90s, all the old 90s action. The power of the force figures, the same figures that I got passed down

from my older brother and like I played with growing up and the ones I lost. I'll tell you, I bought my son who's seven. I went on eBay and I'm buying all the power of the force ones again. Let's go. Not too crazy. No, they're not. They're all pretty cheap. And we open it up. You don't feel like you're, you know, taking $100 at the end of the day. Yeah, these aren't like the original Kenner, like...

Wasn't the story back in the day that like that Christmas season you couldn't get him, but everybody got like pictures of it? The early bird special they called it. This is coming, don't worry, just hold your water. You bought a piece of cardboard and sent it in. Yeah, hell yeah, dude. Before we go any further, we gotta tell everyone about Game Time, because baseball is back, there's nothing like getting to a baseball game,

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Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code MMB for My Mom's Basement for $20 off. Your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code MMB for $20 off. I think the listeners after that first segment there are like, what did we say last time? There's ball knowers and in the basement we call them book knowers. Yeah, book knowers.

This guy knows book knower. This guy knows book right here. And you know what I love is we don't often talk Harry Potter, almost never in the basement. Hearing someone talk about what they're passionate about, no matter what it is, that's what the basement's all about. So this is something that I also agree and have talked about many times through the years, which is like, I don't have to be into something to talk to somebody about something,

I just like to talk to people who are so very clearly nerdy about something. And it's funny, right? So I've been in traditional sports media and we're on radio road, the Superbowl and everything and all it is, it's just Comic-Con, but for NFL nerds. It's just the same shit. So it just, you know, it's just different. Like it's like, yeah, guys dressing up to go to NFL games. I mean, that's, that's, that's no different than anything that we do. That's the biggest thing for me. like when it was the nerd culture.

And even at Barstool, when it started here, there's only a few guys. Like Big Cat doesn't get into this stuff as much. Dave, you wouldn't know as a Star Wars fan. I know he came somewhat more recently with the sequels of all things. KFC was definitely a nerd growing up. But it's like, just pull it back for a sec, guys. The things that are cool in the jock stuff, that's guys playing a game. A kid's game.

And they're just in ridiculous clothes. Yeah, weren't from this country. The things that are cool in the jock stuff that's guys playing a game a kid's game Learn from this country also speaking of guys playing a kid's game as I'm like putting it together I'm like wait a bear. I know an a bear. Oh wait little Bob. I was like Bobby a bear I watched him play football Cajun cannon yeah, man Cannon was your dad's nickname? Yeah, and that is a sick nickname. That is amazing. I know. Holy shit.

What team did he play for? I'm sorry. He played for the Saints. No, no, no. It's all good. So out of college, he went to a small school, and then he started in the USFL, actually. So he played for the Panthers.

They won the first ever USFL championship. Then it was the Invaders. And then when he went to the NFL, he played for the Saints forever. And that's when they had like in the late 80s, they were, because, you know, Saints are God awful franchise normally, but that was their first run of success. They had a sick defense, dome patrol made the playoffs. So it was pretty fucking cool. Cause it was like, here's his hometown kid, Cajun dude cut off Louisiana. Like my grandpa's first language was French. And,

uh, and then he was a Saints quarterback forever. And then in the ultimate mercenary move, he went to Atlanta. Yeah. That's it. The Falcons robbery is fierce. Yeah. I don't even know about it. Especially I saw after 28 three with the Pats. Yeah. The Saints fans went over the top. That's the greatest. That is the second the Pats, the Saints fans went over the top. Oh, that's the greatest. That is the second greatest day to when the Saints won the Super Bowl and Saints fans lost a thousand percent. But it's a cool story. Mullman actually was a key part in the court case.

He held out for an entire year and they created free agency. Oh, he was part of the NFL. Yeah, he was part of that whole process, but whatever we're not here to talk sports Let's dive in. Let's get back in the nerdy shit. So I want to dive into your bio on Twitter whatever you call it Twitter on the I know we call I don't know why I don't know why I said a terrible or you call it I think I don't was big kind of people didn't call it X the everything app you have to just be So your bio says I love video games fantasy sci-fi comics DND and my family

I want to dive into all of that yeah, yeah, yeah, let's start with video games. What was your first system? What are your favorite games of all time? Okay, so my first system probably it was Super Nintendo and of all time. Okay, so my first system probably would have been, it was Super Nintendo, and I mean, obviously like Super Mario World was incredible. Okay, so I would say, so like, it was Super Nintendo, I'll never get Christmas Day in 64, Mario 64. I mean, you wanna talk about one of the most

influential games of all time. For that to be the first 3D platformer, and establish so many things that we now take for granted is actually fucking crazy. Dreamcast playing Sonic Adventures was amazing when that came out on Christmas. Obviously PS2 that's in the Hall of Fame. I would say Final Fantasy 10. It's probably my favorite PS2 game ever. I've actually never played seven still to this day. I'm a diehard say yes. I basically was one, two, three, because I'm old and then seven.

And then I was like, I'm done. Like, you were tired. Yeah, I retired. I remember watching my one of my best friends play. I can't remember one, two, three, but the early ones on Super Nintendo and us like sitting in the room together and everything. Harvest Moon 64 is one of my favorite games, which that'll make sense more in a minute. Then we got to college where the Xbox 360

basically defined everyone's college. The GOAT, I think, the GOAT system. And- College is LSU? Yeah, college is LSU, yeah. Yeah, I grew up in Georgia since the Falcons thing, but all my family's from Louisiana and I was raised diehard LSU, so when I got the chance to go play there, I knew I was going to go there.

But yeah, so 360, I was always a Gears man. I loved, loved, loved Gears of War 1. It's making a little comeback right now, right? Yeah, it's about to be released on Sony, which I played. It was crazy. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was it's about to be released on Sony. Which yeah, it was crazy. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah, the full collection. So but but like yeah, Gears one and I senior high school Gears three in the middle of college with my favorite games ever. I enjoyed the Call of Duty is quite a bit. I would not put them above gears for myself. And then you ever get into Halo as a 360 man? I played, I played a lot of Halo 1 and I played a lot of it.

Halo 2 was the first ever competitive... Like online game. Online multiplayer shooter that I played a bunch. I was not very good. And then, um, and then I would say at the end of college, got very into League for a while. Played a few years of League played multiple years of Hearthstone I love competitive card games but I love that

real nerdy shit that even we don't get into yeah my my most played game though of all time is World of Warcraft and it's probably not particularly close specifically classic when when when classic got re released in 19 so my favorite game gave me memories my life I went all in joined a guild was rating every week got full tier two armor out of black wing layer and that's a dragon that I am constantly chasing but but never so like every about once a year I re-fall into a wow addiction for a little bit. But I've got three kids now, and so now like some of the, my gaming time is kind of at a low,

but it's also just taking on different forms. So it's all about like multiplayer shoes. Now though, with the kids, single players play well. My daughter's starting to play, which is is cool because like we can play together now I'm pretty well actually I play with Clems kids as well It was pretty sick even as a non-fortnight guy a AI Vader Was very funny at the beginning out to the listeners who had AI Vader like shouting out my mom's face

I had I think I've told them maybe my world of warcraft story in the podcast before I watched the South Park episode Yeah, great episode amazing and they make world of warcraft also looks so much fun like playing with your friends Even though it gets to that ridiculous like shitting in a pan level And I said to my mom like, all right, I have five games I wanna trade in at GameStop and I'll go get World of Warcraft. We get it, she's like, I wanna make sure this doesn't give us a virus on the computer

so I'll help you set it up. And she realized it was like a monthly fee. Yeah, oh yeah, $15 a month. And immediately she was like, we're gonna pay $15 a month for this game? No, no, no, we're gonna bring this back and you're gonna pick a different game for Xbox. So I still to this day have never played World of Warcraft

and I feel like I'm almost too far gone now. 26 years old, about to turn 27, I'm like. I mean, you definitely should not play retail. That's like the modern version of the game. Classic is still, I think, it's best- There's still a lot of people playing it online. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean, WoW is king, dude. I mean Wow is king dude. No, nothing is

Final Fantasy's had moments, but no no MMO has has come close to To beating Wow yet. I love MMOs. This is this is I feel like we're filling holes in the Wow was one that we never got into and here we go We're filling that potter Wow even the right yeah some spots open there for sure so the next one on your Twitter bio says fantasy sci-fi. Yeah Would you say more into fantasy then sci-fi because of the the rings thing or is it kind of I would say I'm sure I would Say I'm fantasy first, but also like Star Wars is more fantasy than sci-fi in my opinion. It's it's interesting It's it's like a fantasy story painted as a side. Yes. Yes, exactly Right like like when I think of like sci-fi ass sci-fi

I think of like Star Trek like alien like yes, yes like technical science II shit, but I do agree It's like a fairy tale painted as well. I mean, you know, it's fucking the you know You find the old hermit wizard and you have to rescue the princess. Yeah, like the force is just magic. We're just talking about magic. They're like, yeah, no, it's midichlorians and you're no, but yeah. So so I'm probably fantasy first, then sci fi. I just and then hence the D and D love as well. Yeah, I will get into that as well love the idea

That's another bottle for us of the Would y'all think about the Dungeons & Dragons movie they came out recently did you see what I just watched it like maybe a month ago Maybe not even I was scrolling looking for something to watch and I knew it was everyone said This is a movie you wouldn't expect to be like as good as it was the trailer looked fucking awful I thought it was great. It was great It didn't like blow me away, but it was like oh I could totally imagine this being a franchise like I thought it was As good as like one of the new Jumanji movies like when they rebooted that I know first you might do the first you Might use pretty second one is not good, but yeah, so my word for Dungeons and Dragons was delightful I thought it was delightful. I didn't know I don't think I've seen any Chris Pine movies

Oh, and I was like I was like I fucking love Chris Pine. I understand why everyone talks about Drip, yes, yeah, I was about to say and he has just great charisma Yeah, they kind of Jenna say Kua when he's on screen really good in Wonder Woman. He's like the love interest Oh, that's right. Yeah, I did not even like that first one Oh, you didn't know but I thought he was he was probably. I like it until it gets into like the weird CGI mess at the end. Oh, yeah. And I just I mean, I don't like piling on because you can just get lumped in with a bunch of assholes.

But unfortunately, man, Gal Gadot, I just. Yeah, I'm with you there. Not not great. She's not great. It's a struggle to see Bob. It's like if case this hasn't the first whatever, half hour's improved to you, T-Bob even knowing like, I don't want to get lumped with the asshole. He knows the Toxic fan base.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And all the notes. We've all been there, that's for sure. So when it comes to Star Wars, we had our friend Jose on last week in Klemax in this question. I thought it would be a good question for you as well. Where do you stand on the prequels and the sequels? So, okay, so I'm a child of the prequels.

And I love them. Now I can recognize their flaws, of which certainly there are many. I think when you're talking about Lucas and dialogue and maybe getting emotion out of actors, it's not necessarily his strong suit. And so the entire Attack of the Clones romance scenes are pretty fucking wooden. Unbearably awkward, yeah. Pretty bad.

But I think time has been kind to the prequels, part nostalgia, but also part like, okay, you've got to see Lucas's, because this is the thing about Lucas is he is someone who defined himself by pushing boundaries, not just like on the screen but in the tech behind it like why we have THX sound that was because of him for that original trilogy so yes in the prequels was it vastly different was it maybe over digital in some ways yes but he also created digital film yeah did you watch digital editing did you watch the ILM oh yeah oh we've been talking about it that fucking shit. Yeah, I love behind the scenes making of stuff Honestly like the behind the scenes on revenge of the Sith DVD when I was a kid

I watched all the behind-the-scenes stuff and I said I want to go to film school I want to be a doctor like yeah It was instant like I want to be creative because that looks so much fun That was me with Lord of the lightsaber battles like when you said that about Lord of the Rings the eight hours of special effects or special Features I was like fuck that's like what got me into Star Wars is as hardcore as I was as well And it's something that we're missing now in streaming like we have Disney Plus And I feel like we're still getting less behind the scenes and bonus I know I know so so there's I think there's a few like so the ILM one is every something everybody check out and the

motherfucking John Williams We did a full recap That's great and for Marvel the assembled series is okay, but I feel like it's very surface level you ever watch that no so I've I've fallen away from Marvel a bit okay That's good the next one on your bio is comics and my question was gonna be the alien Marvel DC Are you into the movies as much as the comics? I grew up a DC fan Okay, and I was a Green Lantern fan first and foremost Green Lantern first and foremost Yeah, that's another fucking hole that we I know another and it's especially weird because I grew up on Kyle Rayner Green Lantern who is very much a product of the 90s and everybody else like loves Hal Jordan.

Or Jon Stewart. Yeah, or Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart's cool, but like, Kyle Rayner to me was so cool because the GL Corps had been destroyed by Hal's parallax and everything. He was the last Green Lantern and he was a fucking comic book artist living in New York City. And so it was no longer baseball bats and trains. He would create like samurai mech warriors with the ring and shit.

Like he would do wild shit. He was really letting the artists just like flex. So. So you gotta be stoked for the Lantern series. I actually don't know much about it. I use, so I, the problem is they're never going to make a Kyle Rayner movie. You know what the crazy thing is? The fucking Guy Gardner's and the new Superman movie.

You would also never expect that. And nobody is better at making obscure comic characters work than James Gunn. And Guy Gardner is such an asshole. But that's the point. And I love him. And Nathan Phelan is perfect casting. So the Lantern series is like, Damon Lindelof is involved with another one of the guys that did the Watchmen HBO series.

And they said it's mainly inspired by True Detective. Well, I mean, to be fair, Lanterns are space cops. I think they're doing Sinestro right off the bat. Sinestro's season one. Oh, let's go, dude. You're getting them hype flying on the plot right now. I'm stoked for it. If you watch Rebel Ridge, we also are very high on this guy, Aaron Pierre from Rebel

Ridge. What is Rebel Ridge? Is it a Pierce? Aaron Pierre, I think. Is it Pierre? I think. What is Rebel Ridge? I don't know.

It's a straight to Netflix movie that's kind kind of just like a it's a cool revenge movie And this guy Aaron Piers the lead and he's just oh hell. Yeah, I'll check it out, dude Basically cops wrong this guy and he goes back and fuck it's Rambo in the south I want to is it yeah, yeah, yeah first blood really good. It's yeah modern-day Very good came out like end of last year. I think or maybe even beginning of this year, okay? So I don't want to get okay, so I so I do want to dive into the prequel so okay so I love the prequels they are deeply flawed. I think Phantom is actually pretty incredible. The pod race scene specifically I think is probably a top five Star Wars sequence of

all time. I think that Duel of the Fates at the end and the Filoni breakdown of Duel of the Fates where he's like really explaining what's actually at play is pretty genius. I saw clones, I had a funny year in my life where I saw clones, Two Towers and Spider-Man 2 five times in theaters each It was all second movies and I was a kid

I had nothing better to do and then revenge of the city that's obviously just objectively really good really awesome and the turn of Anakin has really been strengthened and reinforced by Clone Wars and everything else so Yeah, and the sequels then, yeah. And then sequels, I, um, man, I loved Force Awakens. I felt like it set the table so nicely. And I know that really it was just a retelling of New Hope, but it kind of had an interesting thing where it's like, you zoom out and it's kind of New Hope,

but when you zoomed in, a lot of things were flipped on its head, right? Like, Luke wanted to get out of Tatooine. Rey was a bit more reluctant. She wanted to wait. She wanted to meet her parents. The Death Star originally was a weapon of peace and control and order. How they use it in Force Awakens, it's a chaos agent.

They're destabilizing everything, right? So I thought they, and I thought the characters that they established were so damn good. And then we get to Last Jedi, and I was head over heels. I fucking love Last Jedi. I know, I heard, Cliff told me that. We talked about it. Yeah, yeah.

No, I am, it's perfect. I think the Canto bite sojourn kind of loses its way a little bit I think probably the weakest point of the movie is they didn't feel it exactly knew what to do with with Finn but the Luke story I Actually believe is handled perfectly. Because yeah, oh, he's a broken man who has, you know, tucked himself away.

Well, who did he learn from? You know, everybody who's been in Obi-Wan. Yeah, everybody who's been influenced by him. And yes, he's a cynical broken man because as he's seen, no matter what you do, the darkness or whatever, like it always comes back. And everybody wants Luke in that movie to show up and just immediately be like, all right, let's go fight. But if Rey shows up and then Luke immediately dives back into the fight, then that makes him a coward because what's he been doing?

Exactly. Lay us out here. JJ kind of set that up in The Force Awakens. Yes. With him being away. Well, and the only way that works is if Luke believes that what he's doing is actually the best thing. Yeah. And then Yoda has to wake him up and Rey has to wake him up. And him disconnecting himself from The Force because that explains, well, why didn't he show up when Han was in danger on Starkula Race? Well, he didn't know that. He disconnected himself. He turned the Wi-Fi off essentially on the Force.

So I loved Last Jedi and I was heartbroken by the response to it. And I really felt that the table was set with Snoke dying. I know. For Kylo to be the big bad. Kylo offering the hand, Kylo being the big bad Ray denying in him and then and then that original actually Treatment that we know for what could have been on Trevor. Yeah. Yeah, I Would have been really solid so whatever so I thought the table said so nice I mean even the meta commentary of Kylo being like let the past die

Yeah, like he's talking to us as much as he is anybody else. Like let's do something new and then we get to The Rise of Skywalker. Or somehow Palpatine returned. I mean, it's a movie that caused me to become the very thing that I've spent my entire life battling, the angry Star Wars fan. Because it's got a first 15 minutes that are as inexplicable as they are ridiculous. Within 15 minutes, all of a sudden Kylo's not the big bad. He's subservient to Palpatine, who by the way is suddenly just back. We're not going to explain it. We announced it a fucking fortnight and

and then and and none of the characters seemed Recognizable like the whole Poe Dameron arc in Jedi Was him learning to stop being a flyboy and how to be a leader how to be a general? How to be discerning a leader of men of? Troops and yet when we find him in rise He's just like on a solo mission and he's just Han Solo all of a sudden. It kind of feels like the characters feel like they're a sequel to the Force Awakens

version of them. Well, yeah, and a lot of people say they should have had a plan for the sequel. I don't believe that you have to have a hammered out plan. The original Star Wars did not have a hammer out plan. It had different directors in every film. But you can't, once you commit to a path, you can't go back. If you wanted to do JJ do all three, you should have made him do all three. Going back to JJ there, and even if you don't want to give it to Rian Johnson, you want to go another way, go another way. But it just was so painfully acquiescing to the angry mob.

JJ so, I mean, oh yeah, oh, and within 15 minutes, Kylo's back in a mask. Let's hide Adam Driver, the best actor we've maybe ever had in Star Wars. Although, if we're being fair, the reassembling of the mask with the red mask. Yeah, it looked cool. Looked pretty cool.

No, it looked cool. And the movie did give us Babu Frick. Yes, there are not things that are Look pretty cool. No, it looked cool and the movie did give us Babu Frick. Yes There are not things that are There are not it's it's it's there are good things there there are good things there but but but the biggest crime of Rise of Skywalker Besides well right there with Palpatine because obviously bringing back Palpatine like invalidates so much of the original trilogy, it's like, what the fuck are we doing? But the biggest crime is Luke, because Luke's entire arc in The Last Jedi is about him becoming a martyr.

And what is more powerful than an actual living being, than a war? What, you want me to go take on the whole first order with a laser sword? Like a martyr, if we look at human history, martyrs are the things that inspire revolutions. Like they get to be so much bigger than what they could have been in physical life. And so for Luke's death to not be the rallying cry that inspires a revolution, I thought was just insane. And they kind of set that up with the broom kids scene at the end of Last Jedi. Exactly.

We're talking about the legend of what he did next. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. So it was, the table was so set and it's such a bummer that in this epic modern mythological tale that's played out over half of a century that that's the book in that we'll always have. But I'm also believe that like, look, George R. R. Martin will never finish Game of Thrones, but I'm still happier for having read those books anyway. So it's like, I still love it, but yes, I'm I'm I'm deeply disappointed in Rise of Skywalker.

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We can't call on Tim Woods and have him lead us through D&D. We both think we would like it if we got into it. You would love it. Now, I did D&D. When you were a kid, right? When I was a kid, and I loved it. Hell yeah. But it's been 30-something years.

And I've never even dabbled. Never even put my toes in the water. And I don't know how y'all played back then, but I think there's a misconception, and it can be this, you need to get a lot of things, but I think there's a misconception that it's like very rules heavy, and you have to like, you know, you, you have to know

all of these systems. That's not the case. Now I haven't played much sixth edition, but in fifth edition, it's just not the case, like with a good DM who knows what he's doing, you could have never picked up a dice in your entire life and you'll have an incredible time. All it is, is improv storytelling. At the end of the day. It's you and your friends getting together, falling into these characters and just going on an adventure. And there

are few things more satisfying. So I was a part of a, we filmed the campaign for like three years. Me and my group, I know dude, and it was awesome. We had this incredible finale and the finale got lost. And so the internet will never, yes, the internet will never see it. It's such a fucking bummer, but whatever. But, um, but, but, but like my favorite memories are when you play that long, you really become the character. These other characters feel like your friends. And it's like, it's that moment where you're having a downtime you're in a tavern you're in and you're in

a wherever somebody's out and you're just role playing and you're just talking and you're just so what was your character can you tell us a little bit about I was I was a halfling bard Tom Bombo a bit of an idiot but very high charisma and yeah, little guy. He flips all around very acrobatic and whatnot. But yeah, I played Tom Bombo. I played like a stoner wizard before. It's just, again, the key is having a great dungeon master. If you have a great dungeon master, you're going to be good. Would you be a dungeon master or someone else would run that when you would play? I would not be the dungeon master. We had a guy who'd been doing it for years and

years and, um, and cause they got to do the heavy lifting. They got to make the world, they got to make the stories, they got to be all the NPCs. Like they are the computer essentially and it I one day like I have fantasies of DMing for my kids eventually but and so I would like to do it one day but no I've always just been a a player but I mean you can even do Star Wars pen and paper. You know I was gonna ask you about that because when I did the 24-hour stream someone said like in the chat like have you played D&D? I said no. I said could you do it and make it instead of having this mystical world, it's just space

and Star Wars, you're going planet to planet. They were like, oh yeah, it exists. They put it out before. There's Star Wars systems that you can use. There's things like- Add-on packs I think people were saying of some sort. Well, they have like they have full-on they'll have full-on like Star Wars pen and paper games that people have written with their own rule sets anything or Yeah, you could just apply fifth edition and make it Star Wars

like there's there's a there's a lot of different ways that you can that that you can do it, but that's it's just imagination, man Yeah, it's just storytelling. That's it. I think we've got to get into it at some point. That's not a bad way to twist it, is the Star Wars. The Star Wars version, too, I feel like would be cool, because again, we don't want to seem like we're just ripping off what PNT is doing, because they do it amazingly. That little podcast that a few people are doing.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We wouldn't want to do it, and then it overshadows them, and then, yeah. Well, look, trust me, I'm actually trying to, I've been trying to lightly poke around the bushes and be like, could we maybe do a D&D show? And is that cool, re-stepping on toes? So I don't know.

We'll see. We'll see how we could do it without stepping on toes. Keep an eye on this space. But that might be fun content to do together, yeah. And then I just had a few random New stories for this week that I figured I would throw you have to ask the last part of the thing and dad So how oh and family? I am 36 years old. I've got a seven-year-old daughter a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son and

It's it's it's very cool. My oldest especially seems to be heading down the the the the nerdy Lifestyle with me, so I'm very much enjoying that What was it? Oh and I guess I don't know if I have it on my Twitter bio But I also love I love board games, but I love, I love painting miniatures. Oh, like Warhammer? Played some Warhammer 40K growing up. I've got a, I'm more of a Warhammer fantasy guy.

I've read a lot of those books. I got an army of Bretonians that I've built that are, once I get settled in my new house, I'll commence on painting. So that's probably my last kind of nerdy corner. So T Bob Petit Bob, is there a word in the French that's like big instead of Petit? Gros. Gros? This is Gros Nick. This is Gros Nick Taraji. Because I think Nick is into all that stuff.

He might have a fan. He probably has a family you don't know about. He's just been hiding from it. Yes. Like this is a I feel like you and Nick are from this because another board game. We've been. Yeah, this is a, I feel like you and Nick are from this, because another board game. We've been, yeah, yeah, no, we've connected some. I've got, again, all my games are packed away right now in the move, but when they get out, I've got some great games to bring by the office.

Yeah, I'm excited. So one news story that's very, like, what we've been talking about, very, also always happens to us, we'll record an episode and two hours later big news drops this never stops now Spaceballs to confirmed and it's been talked about for years. I remember like hearing Josh Gad is maybe writing it Oh, really? Yeah, Mel Brooks Rick Moranis Bill Pullman all back for it Let's fucking go do Lewis Pullman will be in it Which everyone's thinking Lewis Pullman, if he keeps that hair

a little bit long, like it was in Thunderbolts, he'll probably be playing the parody of Ben Solo or Kylo Ren. Oh, dude, I want to see, um, I want to, uh, I've not seen Thunderbolts and I've heard it's actually, I've heard it's very good. I mean, if you like Marvel movies, it's just a straight down the the middle fastball Marvel movie and nothing you've never seen before but pretty damn good Now the question is do you like like were you into it back when they were you know throwing 95 on the black we had Yeah, the infinity saga. Were you into it? Yes. Yes. I mean look as yes growing up a DC fan. I used to Just constantly comb message boards looking for any movie rumors, right? So all of a sudden Iron Man comes out.

I'm like, what the fuck, dude? And then I would have, I just remember being blown away and I could be wrong here, but I feel like Favreau was at the forefront of this idea of making all of these different movies and then putting all the main actors together in the Avengers, which to a lot of younger listeners, probably you take that for granted now. But that was revolutionary at the time. You couldn't fathom the original Avengers movie.

Almost you couldn't fathom the Incredible Hulk post-credits scene where it's like, wait, you're talking about The Incredible Hulk and Tony Stark on screen together, and then we watch endgame and you get 500 superheroes on screen together where you're like how the fuck did they pull this off so I I loved it all through the Infinity Saga and there's still some great highlights I mean yeah spider-man no way home was Guardians 3 fantastic impossible not to enjoy especially if you grew up on those

Toby Spider-Mans like I did. The, what would you get? Deadpool Wolverine, did you see that one? Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Deadpool Wolverine was excellent. Obviously Logan was awesome back in the day. Also, I mentioned Iron Man, but like, the Raimi Spider-Mans.

Threes, whatever, but one and two, so fucking good. Those are like the first movies I could remember seeing in theaters. I think the first Spider-Man. I'll never forget seeing the trailer when he strings up the helicopter between the two towers, which they later had to remove, get rid of for obvious reasons. But early X-Men? Oh, yeah, yeah, X-Men for sure.

Absolutely. X3. Was that Brett Ratner? Yeah. Yeah. Directing those. Yeah, X-Men for sure. Absolutely. X3. Was that Brett Ratner? Yep. Yeah directing those Yeah, I guess right. Yeah, not a lot in the basement The ones and then I'm in for oh, that's what it was. Okay. Okay. Yeah Geez not great. Geez. Yeah. No, so so it I think that I just think after Infinity I I finally think I hit that saturation point a little bit Where is a bit too much a bit too formulaic and I think this is

Now I want to give credit to Disney here recently, but I feel like this has been a problem with some of their output over the last few years is it feels focus tested to death, to the point of being antiseptic. It feels like creators at times have kind of been funneled onto these, they're not willing to maybe take the risks and maybe they feel so burned by something like The Last Jedi that they're trying to play way too safe. I mean honestly the new Captain America movie feels a little bit like the whole movie kind of feels like they're trying to play it safe and not take it too many risks. That's what I'm saying and antiseptic is the word that I always go

back to like they've just like like cleaned the wound completely like no I want a little dirt. You need dirt in this stuff. In fantasy and sci-fi in general all of it. Yes, that's the stuff that sometimes is the best part and so um I I so that's when I kind of fell off those a bit though, oh I Love the spider-verse movies. Oh God dude across the spider-verse is the Oh my god, dude. Across the Spider-Verse is the soundtrack was the only thing I listened to for an entire year. Which is interesting.

I love movie scores, but that's probably my favorite soundtrack of all time. But that movie, I mean, I feel like every generation you have a landmark animation, right? Like Snow White, first ever animated movie Sleeping Beauty which because they released it originally in this like wide format theaters is one of the few old movies that if you watch it on a modern widescreen it actually fills the entire screen and the colors it's it's it's fucking stunning and then of course when I was a kid Toy Story just was revolutionary first ever animated

And that's what I feel about spider-verse it was like animation like we've never seen before Completely and and I can start painting inspired and it's so cool It's just so fucking cool Now this is Morales I'm glad to that they're not you know they've extended it and they're not murdering all the animators Although it is like we're two years away from Beyond still it's great I know but like also when they announced that it was gonna come out like what like

Yeah, no fuck no, dude not with what they're trying to accomplish so So I'm not I'm not completely out on Marvel, but I no longer feel incentivized, and I love the movie theater. I do not like watching movies at home as much, but I don't feel incentivized to go see too many Marvel movies in theaters right now. Yeah.

We gotta heart out in a minute, unfortunately. We gotta head out of this room. It was great having you in the basement. I promise it will not be your last time in the basement. Unfortunately, we got to head out of this room. It was great having you in the basement. I promise it will not be your last time in the basement. Boys, it went too quickly. It did. Okay, on the end here, I just want to say this. Star Wars, hell of a couple wins lately.

Skeleton, Crew and Andor could not be more opposite in tone and what they are, and yet they are both fucking fantastic if you like Spielberg How could you not love what you got? I was like that was the first show where I watched with my kids and they'd be so pumped every week I think get together and why it was unbelievable. They made it for yes, and then and or I mean bro And or I mean we can do a whole episode Yeah episode probably the highest quality writing that we've ever seen in Star Wars. Agreed.

8 through 12. Shout out Gilroy and the boys. Shout out Gilroy. Shout out Gilroy. He's got the sauce. He's got the sauce. Shout out T-Bob. We'll throw all your socials in the description, so if you want to follow him along, of course,

just click on the description. And thanks for coming in the basement. First time, but not last time. Anytime, boys. Just let me know. I'm here. Awesome.