The Ringer-Verse - What We Saw Over Break, and Midnight Predictions for 2023 | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

The Midnight Boys return in the new year and catch up with each other about some of the best things they saw over the holiday break (04:40)! Later, they take a spoiler-filled look at 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (46:54). Afterward, they give some of their predictions for what they're most looking forward to in 2023 (56:16). Hosts: Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Productional Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Matt Bellany, founding partner of Puck News, and I'm covering the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. With my new show, The Town, I'm going to take you inside Hollywood with exclusive insight on what people in show business are actually talking about. Multiple times a week, I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know, journalists, insiders, all of whom can break down the hottest topics in entertainment to tell you what's really going on. Listen now. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, Every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin

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craftmanship behind every bite. Borershead committed to craft since 1905. To come into the Ringgiverse. This is of course the ringer's Nexus podcast be for all Things, fandom. We are Coke Baby Chuck, the 24th carat closer, aka the brunch hoddy, who is not with us today,

but he is still here with us, and we will speak his name. We are. Old Man Van, he of the receding and resurgent. We are, Steve, the architect, Almond, the cuddly New Year's bear.

We are, Jomey, the explainer, Adiron. Together, we are known as of the midnight, boys. Now, you guys have to follow us. We keep saying follow us to make a good for Jomi, but it's obvious that Jomey isn't going.

But what we do want is for Jomey to be big bowling. Cash register signed after that. So if that's what you want, Insta, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, save Jomey's pockets. It's a retocracy here at the ring. better you do, the closer you get to that Ferrari, that Bugatti. Jummi, what's your dream car?

If people could be active on socials and it would lead to you getting a special car, what would that car be? Ever since I was a kid, I saw this in like one of those World Worker Books when I was like eight or nine. It's an old car now, but a saline S7. Oh, I don't know what that is. It's supposed to be like one of the fastest cars. in the world at the time.

Saline S7. Oh, wow. Okay. And you see it looks sleek, you know what I'm saying? Like, it goes fast. Oh, 6? 06. It's an ODI. Wow. Gas mileage is terrible. What video did you see this in? I feel like this was

in a ditty video. 17 miles on the highway. I'm telling you. Greta Thumburg is going to the trick. It's not great for the environment, but it looks good in the garage. So, you know. You know who you're like? You're like Miles Braun.

Oh, no. From Glass Onion. Not him. Anybody. You got your car spinning around on top of the thing. Miles Braun. Jomi needs his S7. Please support us on socials.

Brok at me. On Friday, the House of Art, returns to discuss the season two premiere of the Bad Batch. Wow. That's a big deal. You know, I went back and I watched it because I didn't watch it at first.

I went back and watched a bad batch. What great television. Excellent television. Bad match is great. It was so much fun. Midnight Boys will return. Next Wednesday, we will be back. Look, I need to tell you guys something.

We're being honest with you here. We're going to get into a dense content space pretty soon. But right now, the opposite of dense is sparse. That's kind of where we are. But I want the fans out there, the mob and the writers to understand something that our minds are always working towards the fandom. We're thinking about things we can legislate, things we can debate, crazy predictions we can make, all kinds of other stuff that we can do that's out of the box. And we want you to think about it too.

We want you guys to reach out and tell us if there's anything that you guys have been watching. wanting us to do that maybe we haven't done. And we're going to give you, I say, the best run of content in the history of the Midnight Boys, Pew fucking Pew, and it's coming straight to you. Today's show, we're going to catch up on some of the things that we saw and did over the break and also give you some 23 predictions in the world of fandom. Okay, things we saw over the break. let's take a little time and talk about it.

Steve, what did you watch? Because let's be real with, Steve, you've been being weird. I've been being weird. Yeah. I've been following your Instagram stories and they've been all over the place, man. I've been seeing all kinds of different. How have I been weird? Please finish this thought.

How have I been weird? I saw an Instagram story and it made me like have an adventure. Okay. It was of a bar where everybody takes pictures. Okay. Or a coffee shop or something like that. Yeah. And you put up people's pictures from this coffee shop and there was a girl in there.

And I was like, Steve, like this girl. And so then I looked up this coffee shop and there's some coffee shop in L.A. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Right. And then I saw a friend of ours. Yes. Her picture was up on the coffee shop. I'm like, what the fuck is Steve doing?

Is this the beginning of a No, no, no, no. You know a Bombach movie? Like, what the fuck? Steve Bumblecore? Yeah. No, no, no. That was a great little coffee shop here in L.A. and one of my friends is a regular there,

and there's like a big photography exhibit that goes on in that coffee shop, and they asked her if they could take her photograph for the exhibit, because she was a regular as am I. And they got her photo up in there, along with other people in the neighborhood, and it was really cool.

So we just saw it, and we just pointed at the picture. It was great. But what I've been seeing, something that I watched. Raggedy ass segue, go ahead, Steve. Tell us what she's about. gonna say. What else?

No, so some stuff that I consumed mainly was a couple of games and some comic books and some books. One thing that I

really, really, really loved coming out of this break was a trade paperback by the name of Catwoman Lonely City.

It is written, drawn, colorized, lettered, everything by the great Cliff Chang of Papergirls fame that you might know.

I've got it right here if you wanted to see it. Cat woman, lonely city. There she is. Catwoman, Lonely City. Basically, the premise of this is Catwoman witnesses

Batman's murder, and she gets put in jail for about 15 years, and she gets out. Jesus. And Gotham has changed. People are different. Harvey Dent is the mayor of Gotham, but he's also still two-face.

People are, you know, it's like, like, it's like, it's like, like a actual policy. Politician. Yeah, like an actual politician. And she's come back and she's trying to figure out what caused Bruce Wayne's death or Batman's death. And it's kind of this weird, like, reuniting of all of the people that have come in her life and gone in her life.

We get to see all these old friends and characters that have, you know, been away for 15 years, what they look like, what they do now. Like, the, like the Riddler looks like a coffee shop, bro, and he just hangs out. He doesn't really even do anything that bad. It's basically like kind of one of these old movies where the main character comes back from prison and the neighborhoods change. And they are trying to figure things out and kind of re-identify themselves in a city they no longer recognize. And it's an incredibly fun story about Selena kind of just kind of finding her way in a Gothen that she doesn't respond to anymore. Does she turn to a life of crime or is she a superhero? She's thinking, I don't want to give away too much because I really do think that it's.

It's a nice little short read. But she gets back into her old ways with a couple of other criminals that she knows. And a lot of those kind of run into dead ends because it's been so long. And so she's kind of got to figure out what other things she can do while trying to figure out what this riddle that Batman left in his death. So this is essentially a book about Catwoman becoming an old, lonely cat lady. Yeah, she's about like 45. she's in her late 40s now. See, I take that.

She's pretty great. I take that like, Steve, she's pushing 50. That's not old. That's not old. That's not that old. Steve, what the fuck? She's got great. Or more.

Like, it, it, that's not that old, Steve. It's old for when you're, when you're a criminal jumping around doing gymnastics all the time, you know, the knees crack. That's nuts. Her knees cracks. That's tough, bro. That's a tough. It's a tough thing to say.

45 year, Angelina Jolie. Okay. It's like, it's a, it's a tough. thing to say, I'm going to let you ride with that, Steve. Hey, listen, I didn't say it. The book said it. It's right here. All right. It's a great book. I've been revisiting

stuff. Guess what I reread over the break. What did you read? The Bible. Kingdom Come. Ooh. I realized that somewhere in my brain, I had the end of kingdom come and the end

of the dark night strikes back. confused in my mind. Oh, okay. At the end of the Dark Night Strikes Back. Right. I don't want to ruin it, but there's a child that comes forth and saves the day. And for some reason, my brain was telling me that that happened at the end of Kingdom Come.

And I went back and forth with somebody about that, classically wrong. And so I said, oh, you know, I haven't revisited Kingdom Come in a while. And so I read it again. Fantastic. Remember our, for you guys who don't know, Kingdom Come is a story that is set in a not so distant future where shit has gone to hell. There's a hero slash villain named Magog

who is, you know, there's this big, huge nuclear disaster in Kansas. Superman is retired to the fortress of solitude. All the new heroes on the earth are going back, and forth fighting and tearing the earth up. Wonder Woman comes to get Superman to restore order and put the world back in the hands of the heroes who made the world save in the first place. Batman plays a role. Lex Luthor is in there.

Everybody. And these characters are older, so they look different. It has a very hopeful ending. I don't know how I messed up the endings. I don't know why. Well, I think I do know why because there's a reveal at the end of kingdom come that leads directly into kind of the Dark Night Strikes Back. It's different, but there's

a thing that happens. So I think that's kind of how I got it screwed up. It's been a while since I had read it. Love the book. And it restored my belief that the D.C.E.U. Should work towards a kingdom come type ending.

How about they just work towards something? They can work towards something at this point. No, I keep forgetting how jaw-droppingly good Alex Ross's art is in that book. He's good. He's a good artist. He's one of the best. He's incredible. And not only

the takes on the characters are like different. Flash is almost like an apparition, like a ghost, like not an actual. Yeah. Yeah. The takes on the characters are really, really different. And one of my favorite DC characters that

nobody ever talks about has a huge role in Kingdom Come. And that is Spector. Spector is so cool looking in this book. Spector is cool looking in the book. Spector is a cool character, period, and he's underused

in D.C. to me. I love the Spector. So that's what I was reading. I was reading Kingdom Come. It sounds like fun. He had a blast but going back in the archives. Yeah, that's what I do. I see you guys are at the point where you guys are reading the latest

cutting edge catwoman being a webcam girl books. I like I am to the point in life where I reminisce when I have some free time. I read new stuff. But I reminisce when I have free time. That's fair. That's fair.

I think this is like kind of the forgive me for saying this old head mentality of like the interests kind of calcify. Like your Spotify wrapped is kind of just the stuff that you've been listening to for years rather than the matreche? Do you guys want to hear you guys want to hear what

the songs were from my 2002? 2002? 2002? 2020. These were my most listened to songs. New level. Probably stuff from 2002.

A.S. Ferg. March of Madness Future. Hey, yes, sir. The games we play Pusha T. The weather. Nip. featuring Rick Ross

and Cousy Capone, 30 in the middle, RJ. I'm not going to say that one because that one would make me look bad if you guys knew that I was listening to that one last year. I can't talk about it. She Will, Lil Wayne featuring Drake, the hot boys.

All this stuff. Nothing. Nothing. Down for my niggas. See murder, magic snoop talk. See? Did you see? J. Electron. Of course, see murder.

Jesus. I got some T-fly here. I got B.G. I got J. Electronica. But almost literally not one song that came out this year besides, I think Freddie Gibbs, Big Boss Rabbit, which might have been 2021. Oh, man. Well, you know, between going on vacation, I was in Mexico for a little bit, you know, enjoying.

I had to watch season three of Emily and Paris. You know, I had to lock in. Jesus Christ, man. Again, I got it. There's so many sides to this coin that is Jomey. Again, so here's the thing, right? There's two levels. One, I love me some good, you know, romance.

You know, no matter what it is, I'm locked in. Once I see a love triangle, I'm like, I'm here, put me down for two hours. Like, I don't want to talk about anything else. I'm here, right? But then there's another side, which is I hate Emily Cooper, the main character of the show. is the worst character in the history of television. I don't understand the show, man. People, everybody says that, but people fuck with the show so hard.

Yeah. So, like, is this the best hate watch you've ever seen? Oh, my dog. It's incredible. It's incredible because, like, so you get, like, France. Again, the aforementioned romance, the setting. All of it. It's fun, right?

It's extremely light. Like, you don't need to use your brain at all. You know, like you can completely shut down all of your neurons, and the show will make sense, right? It's great for the holiday season. We mean grinding, you know, working. You're just like, I just need something to turn my brain off. It's perfect.

But then Emily shows up, and she's an American working in Paris, just being the worst example of what Americans do abroad, right? Just while in, her outfits are crazy. Oh my gosh, dog. She's working at a marketing firm, right? I don't, let me not even say she's getting minimum wage, right? Let's say she's making like good money. She's living in a one-bedroom apartment, right, above a restaurant, you know what I'm saying?

But for some whatever reason, can afford the most outlandish, the most bright, the most just incredibly flamboyant clothing. I mean, if you can afford an apartment in Paris, you're making good money. Probably too. looking out like, bro, you ain't got to try this hard, man. It shouldn't be like this. Isn't this from the sex in the city, dude? Darren Starr, yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Yeah, so it's going to be a little bit dramatic. There's going to be like a some, there's going to be a little. Their love triangles probably. Oh, yeah, that's, and that's going to say, that's why there's sort of fun is in the show. And season three, I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't tapped in yet, right? But there's twists and turns that I saw coming because I'm not a four-year-old. But watching it, I was like, yo, man, y'all can't do this to my boy. They do, dog, and here's the thing, right?

They got a couple brothers in the show. I know. I've seen one of them. Both of them get done dirty this season. I'm looking like, hey, man, what's going on? Where's the respect for our brothers? So do you know what I know about Emily and Paris? Like when I'm trying to watch Netflix, when I'm going back and watching,

there will be blood. Yeah, casual Sunday. Yeah, you know, just like tap in Daniel DeLuis. Yeah, it's like, what are you watching on Netflix right now? I'm like, I don't know, this is phantom threat. You know, like, it's right. Again, with Daniel Day Lewis joints. I understand.

I love watching the movies of Daniel DeLewis. He's very, one of our greatest actors. He's cobbling in Italy right now. Like, Emily and Paris, when you move over the thing, the girl is singing a Duolipa song. You know, I mean, she's in a, and I'm like, and I don't. And I don't really know, I thought that was Dua Leepa. Oh, wow. Wow.

You thought that was Dua Leap? I don't know what Dua Leaper looks like. I've heard that song before. Google Doolipa right now. Google Dooliap look like right now. But I was told that it wasn't when I was like, oh, they got Duelap in this show. And it's like, no, man, that's not Dua. That's not duLipa right now.

I'm not trying to say that the girl looks like Duelap. No, no, I understand. I thought Dula Lippa made a... Just if they're singing a dual leaper. Yeah, yeah. That must be Dua Leap. That's easy. Yeah, that's definitely not Duelap.

But I'm saying, I thought maybe Duelapa did a guest spot. Why was she singing a Duelapa song now? You know, for credit, you know what I'm saying? Get the Duelpa fans to listen. No, I'm telling you in the show, Jomey, what's the point? Why is she singing it on stage? So one of the characters, name is Mindy. She's a singer, right?

And so she's actually Emily's roommate. They share the one-bedroom apartment together. Oh, wow. And she's, so her whole thing is she wants to become like a, I don't want to get into the whole thing. But long story short, she wants to be a singer. And so she's going to clubs. She's singing on the street. Da-da-da-da-da.

Try to become famous. And, you know, one of the parts is, you know, hey, come out here, sing a doodoo-lepa song. You know, get the doolipa fans in here. And now everybody's like, wow, what a love dual-lepa. I love Emily and Paris. Let's tap in. Let's watch the show. Another thing that I've watched, Superman, Ritz.

Son, the animated movie. You guys know how I love my DC animated movies. Oh, yes. Yep. I watched several of them during the break, okay? I watched a bunch of them. I don't care what fucking Charles says, who I love and support. Can't wait until he's back.

But I love my DC animated movies. Superman Red Sun might be the best of them all. Now, my favorite is Gotham. My favorite is Gotham. Gotham by Gaslight. That's just my favorite. This is my favorite one. That's a very, very good one.

Yeah. But Superman Red Sun is so good. It's heavy pro-American propaganda. I mean, that's the point. It's a heavy pro-America propaganda. But just the interesting, I've never read the book that it's based on, right? But just the interesting conundrum of having Superman, with a completely different set of mores and values

and a totally different worldview. But then there's this wraparound towards the end where I guess toward the end of the movie kind of begins the current mythos of Superman. Like we see him in the day. It's just really brilliant. I mean, there's a scene where Superman murders Joseph. Stalin. It's like

it's, I'm just being, it's really, really, really strong. It's crazy. And like the premise being that like, okay, so the ship that carried Clark Kent as a baby landed in Soviet Russia and not. It's Soviet Russia. Kansas. And not Kansas. So, you know, obviously

he becomes, he's still Superman, but he becomes Superman in a completely different way with a different set of values and a different set of designs on the world. He's trying to advance the communist agenda. And there are things that he finds out.

And then he becomes the world's foremost dictator. And he's teetering on the line of becoming injusticey. But there are all of these things that keep pulling them back. I just, I really, really enjoy it. It's an incredible story and a great, great animated one. Like, I've honestly loved all of the, like, it's rare to find a DC animated movie that I didn't like. And justice sucked. injustice is suck

injustice I tell you why, bro I don't disagree with you I don't disagree yeah and they just did a piss poor job so poor

that like I Terrible ending Terrible Terrible is so Great premise perfect premise Like incredible premise I

investigated why the movie was so bad Like who made There been a couple of other ones that people did like People did like the Joker one

Killing joke Oh Killing joke People didn't like the killing joke as much But it was still cool The Injustice one was almost unwatchable It was really bad I'll say one thing about that movie I did like the Bruce

And Clark relationship Like you know They did try to keep giving each other chances You know it was like it was real Like hey man We've been through it You know I know we beefed right now But come on there's got to be something

Ultimately it didn't happen but yeah, the rest of it was not great. Like they tried, yeah, they tried to squash it. By the way, Jomey, you went on one of my recommendations and saw Catwoman hunted. I did. What did you think of that? Speaking of characters, getting done dirty.

I'm not going to say what I said in our text message, Steve. Right, yeah. But what I will say is that just a great film. Just really enjoyable, you know, top of bottom, haunted. Cat women hunted. So on Men Edition, Steve put me on. See, and this is why I love Steve.

Steve, because Steve was like, man, it's a great film. You know, Catwoman and Bat Girl Go or Batwoman go at it. Da-da-da-da-da. And then, you know, of course, Catwoman is played by Elizabeth Giles. And I was like, I really buried the lead there. And I was like, you could have just said that. You could have said Catwoman is Elizabeth Giles. And I would have been like, I'm in.

Say no more. I'm going to stop and watch right now. How come you didn't tell me about it? We're telling you right now, man. You were telling you right now. You weren't on Mid Edition. fucking Mike from Breaking Bad is Black Mask? I'm gonna watch that shit later on, man.

It's so good, man. So good. Like, the best scene between Batwoman and Catwoman. Young Justice Canada Jason. Yes. So when you're watching it, just think about, you know, this could have happened. All the things that show me loves. In the Young Justice universe when you watch it.

That's right. All that I'm going to say for Van is that Batwoman goes out so sad. Oh, man. It's, wow. Like, it's probably the. biggest curve I've ever seen somebody gets embarrassing. I don't like bad woman as a character.

Well, then you'll say you're like what happens to her in this. I'm not a bat family person. Oh, no. Oh, really? I can't believe that. You only fuck with Damien? Who do you? Like, what's going on? Talk to us. So, I don't need all these batty motherfuckers, you know?

It's like, it's like, it's like a whole group of bat people. And I understand that people love it. It kind of dilutes to me, the bat a little bit. It's like, you got to take on different robins. Robin want to go to college. You want to go to spring break or whatever.

You got to get a different Robin. I get it, but it's like batarang, little bat boy, bat drummer boy, bat girl, bad woman, narcoleep bat, like nightwing. only one of those people are real bat you know what I'm saying? It's like it's like all of these different. So wait, that's Batman in the daytime? It's like all of these different bats, you know, and it's like nine of them.

It's like with a bat family, I'm not really. I don't really. Interesting. I think the wildest bat family member that I could remember being is like there was, I think there was an arc. I can't remember if he was Batman for real or if it was just another bat in the family when Lucius Fox's son. Oh yeah.

joined the bat family for a minute. Yeah. He was a... Bad nigger. He was a bad nigger. Okay, first, come on. What was he... They can't call him that.

Was he bat nigger? See what I'm saying? It's like, it's like everybody, everybody played a role. It's too much. Was Lucius Fox's son Batman for real or was he just another... Luke Fox. Luke Fox, yes. He played...

He was Batwing. Batwing, yes, yes. Pat wing? Yeah. Brah. Listen, it's the batwing. At this, at this... point, if you're Lucius Fox's son, don't you

want to, what's his name, Jake Fox, Amari Fox, Jalen Fox? No. If you, if he was on the show, he was on the show, he was on the show, he was on the, um, the short lived Ruby Rose show when they changed over. Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, the character was on the show. But if you're him, don't you want your own

character? Don't you want to be, don't you want to get away from the the bat, from the bat family? Yeah. I don't know. If your dad's Lucius, then he's making all the shit. Okay. So, so, so here's He just doesn't need, you don't need to be another bat, right? Be like, like, you said, I don't know if the Gotham brand is strong. Wait, no, time out.

Speaking of Gotham, that's actually what he mentioned this. So, you know, you don't mean the explainer, you know, we're talking about a character, I do some Googling. This is directly from the Wikipedia page. Like, I'm reading right from here. Within DC Comics, Eternal continuity, Batwing is one of the several superheroes patterned after the famous superhero Batman. Batwing, in particular, was conceived by

Batman as his crime-fighting counterpart overseas the Batman of Africa. See what I'm saying? See what I'm saying? See what I'm saying? Now, now wait a minute. You're not even making this up. See what I'm saying? See what I'm saying?

Think about that. You got to start answering some questions about Bruce Wayne. That's so crazy. Think about that. That's so crazy. Consider that. Nightwing. Blood Haven, the rest of them in Gotham, chilling.

They sit this border Africa. You know what I mean? They sit this, batwing. And by the way, this is not in any way a diss to the continent. Beautiful people, beautiful courses, all of that. Not a diss to the continent, but they like, they sit the one black Batman guy, man. To send him to Africa, man.

Come to wing. Come to Nigeria, man. You know, it's like, okay, it's all gravy. It's all gravy. That's why he shouldn't have been batwing. he should have been his own hero where he could have fought crime wherever he wanted.

You know what I mean? So, whatever. Me, I love the bad family personally. Everybody loves him. I admit that I'm wrong. Yeah, there's like, I think there's like so much there's a rich text there. I think you could go through.

Hey, listen, these games gun, I know you're listening. Hit me up. I got some ideas. No, but that's nuts. The Batman in Africa is crazy. Before we move on, do you guys remember the storyline

where Batman had sex with Barbara Gordon and got her pregnant. Oh, my God. Let's not talk about that. Why would you ruin my day like this? First of all, that's a terrible, terrible story. Oh, my God. Do you remember that? He was like super...

This is why there should be no bad family because of shit like that. Because shit like that is going to happen. That shit's insane. He got her pregnant and then it was just a dick to Robin upon it. Just like, like, Bradwick comes back to Batman. Who would have thought Bruce Wade would be a terrible father? He's like, hey, Bruce is like, hey, man, grow up.

figure it out my boy for the shit happens dog you know what I'm saying stop the cycle of trauma Bruce we bats in a night baby like anyway go ahead John I think it was your turn I think it was your turn Steve

it's my turn well I think one of the bigger ones that I had done for the last like week and a half over break was I finally replayed the Last of Us part one on the PS5 this is the remaster of the

like now long long 2013 ago game on the PS3 playing it in anticipation for the show again it's been a minute since I fully like revisited it it's an incredible like guess what

still an incredible game and pretty much really worthy of a TV show what's the game about again it's basically it centers around this character named Joel who is at the beginning of essentially an zombie apocalypse happens a traumatic event happens in his life and then the story basically picks up

20 years after that happens and he is tasked with kind of escorting this girl Ellie through Texas, this like dilapidated Texas with these zombies and he gets to know a lot more about her and realizes that she might be the cure for this

incredible disease and then a lot of like incredible stories happen in between and along the way and it's a a very, very dark and emotional and impactful game and story about basically survival and like the rebuilding of a family that you think that you might have and the selfish choices that you make with those along the way. When I first played this, I really kind of thought it was like the video game equivalent of like Oscar bait where it's just kind of like very like the performances are incredible, the graphics are incredible. Everything's beautiful. It's an

a glorious achievement in the medium, but there's a lot of, like, the gameplay, like, is more or less, you know, uh, seem to be something that's like, you know, not really breaking the mold, but really is, it's the story and the way that it's presented with characters and everything. That's the bigger thing.

And upon replaying it, I got to say that, like, I think that that still holds true, but I really came over with the story, uh, from part one. And knowing what happens in part two, like, it's very much a piece of a hole. And it really got me excited for what I think the show could probably do in the space of what a game can't do, which is give that, give characters a lot of time to breathe because you spend games that are like hours and hours long with these characters and you get to know small things about it.

And I think that a show like this could actually really, really be good. I don't know if anybody else has either played it or heard much about it. Van, you don't seem to know much. Jomi, have you played it? I haven't played it, but I'm tapped in. You know, I know what's going on in the show. The part two gets nuts. Part two is a legitimate bummer. Yeah.

It's a legitimate bummer. I mean, this game, like, the first one, the first cutscene of The Last It was part one is like tear-inducing, right? Yeah, it's not, we won't spoil a lot, but like it's, it's heavy from the jump. Yeah. It doesn't slow down in terms of rocking a remote. motions. And so, I mean, a great choice by HBO to be like, hey, yeah, this is, I mean, let me talk about like a live action thing for a long time, but to put it in an episodic format,

I think works well. And I will see what the show looks like. But, man, if it's anything like the video game, it is going to rock your chest. I like, and again, like, your mileage if you don't want to be spoiled for the show or then I recommend that you don't play it, but like, I really, really do think that it's, it is one of those like keystone games that, like it has really been culturally impactful in the world of video games that has like really brought a lot of advances for it. Ben, I don't know if you want to play this

leading up to the show, but I don't think I will. So I'm not enough. But I will tell you this, that the Walking Dead has ruined. I'm looking forward to the last of us restoring the zombie genre. It for me. Yes. Yes. Because I can go ahead. Go ahead.

See, my bad. No, no, sorry. Well, because it's interesting because like this came out in 2013 originally. Like when the, when the Walking Dead was kind of at that's peak. And I think when I first played it, I was like,

I was really done with the like whole zombie a post-apocalypse thing, but it really does take a lot of dramatic cues from the best of the Walking Dead and really, like, puts it in a really, really good context. I do think that this would restore your faith in those types of stories.

Well, it's just hard to watch. It is. And this ain't going to be easy. If you're going to do zombie land type shit, where we're having fun with zombies and people are super well adjusted for whatever reason. You know, the zombie apocalypse came

and they decided to have a little fun with it. That's one thing. But I like zombie stuff. Donna the Dead is one of my favorite movies. The older zombie stuff is great. But The Walking Dead really made you see

just how fucking whack the zombie apocalypse would be. And I'm not talking about whack because there's zombies everywhere. Because the zombies in the walking dead, it's not that big of a deal. You know what I mean? As long as there's only a couple of them. You get 100, you got a problem. Yeah.

Right. The problem is, you're trying to grow tomatoes and it's a problem, you know? Yeah. It's a problem. You know what I mean? You're trying to move around. Like, you know, the scene at the beginning of that one season, where Rick and them are breaking in the houses,

eating dog food. I'm like, come on, man. You know, it's like everywhere Rick and the crew show up, everybody gets killed. It's like they show up somewhere and they're like, hey, come into our sanctuary. We know how to irrigate the fields and we know how to make rainbows and different.

I'm like, don't let them in. Don't let them in. Kill everyone. Shoot in the head. Kill everybody. As soon as you let him in. And then it never ceases. Rick, I can show you how to survive.

What the fuck? They just killed everybody. I can't look at this no more. So I think the great the great problem that you have with Walking Dead is going to be fixed in The Last of Us because the character of Joel is very much that guy. He does not trust easily, if at all.

He is all about survival. He is not about attachment. He is not about bringing. bringing a lot of people in that would possibly leave him emotionally vulnerable because that is the antithesis of survival to him. And the introduction of this one companion that he has can throw a hair in that. I'm pretty sure, I've speculated this with a couple of people. I don't think season one will be the end of the first game. I believe it will be somewhere in the middle, if not like, close to the middle of the end.

What kind of zombies are these? These are like mushroom zombies? Like, they start as like normal zombies, but then the longer they become undead, they have these, like, sort of like fungal growths that kind of like build up. So the people that have been undead for like years, they come into like these big, like calcified, like mushroom sprouted heads and like this like armor that's like basically like a giant plant. It looks really cool. Like it's a pretty cool design for zombies. Are they fast or are they agile? Some are kind of fats.

Like the bigger ones that have been like, that are like blind, they call them clickers. they basically have like those mushroom heads. They're blind and they can't see, but they're fast. So if like they hear you, then they can like run to where you are. So you've got to be quiet. Interesting. Yeah. Jones,

um, speaking of video games that we played over a break, I finally got to play life of strange true colors. Now, if you don't know what life of strangers, it's, um,

it's a game where you drop in as a character, with some level of superpowers, and you go in and you, you know, the choices you make in the game affect how the game is played. And, you know, I was looking at my Switch and I was like,

I ain't got none to play for this game. And, you know what I mean? Like, I had this thing for how many, how many years now? I got to do some on it. And I saw a lot of straight, they're like, hey, man, it's been a minute.

Let me, let me tap in. I'm having a ton of fun so far. The game is sent around a girl named Alex. She comes to town. And she, her powers are, she has, like, empathetic power. So she can sense what you're feeling. And if you're feeling it's strong enough, she can feel it too.

And again, don't want to get into spoilers, but it's emotional. It's fun. And there's a part where there's like a, again, a love triangle. Look, one thing about me, there's a love triangle in the game. I'm going to find it. Right? And yes. I'm looking at one character.

His name is Ryan. I want Ryan up out of here. I'm in love with what's your name? Sarah? I'm in love with Sarah. Br, get right out of here. Jomi, Jomey finds situations.

Listen, you have no clue what's going on in the game. I know exactly, I can't spoil it, like, I can't ruin it. Life really is strange. Jomey will find situationships in real life and in video games.

First, why would you do that? Why would you put my... Jesus, Christ. What the fuck? That's crazy. Steve! That's crazy. Why would you say that?

Steve, that's the second thing that you've said today, that's... That's unexecis. I heard what you said earlier about the Last of Us. What was talking about? What was an

acceptable about The Last of Us. What version of the Last of Us did you play? The PS5 version? You said you played the re-something. The remaster? Why would you say the word master? I'm going to say it. Like, why, I heard you think I'm going to let that slide?

Remaster. Ain't nobody calling you Master on here, Steve. Doesn't matter how much you try to slip it in, you know what I mean, in the subconscious. Ain't nobody, you know what? Fine, we'll call you it. Steve Master. I will be going to my main. bedroom. Wow. Wow. Your name is

a name is Steph. Steph. Steph. I knew Sarah wasn't right. But not, I'm having so much fun trying to like, you know, we're talking about this on Mint Edition or actually with Ben about Midnight Suns and they're not having romantic options. And this game has them with plenty. I'm trying to romance stuff right now. I'm getting, I'm deep in my bag. You feel me? So I'm having a ton of fun playing. Life of Straight Two Colors.

And wait a minute, hold on for a second. What's up? You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, see, the game, you know, you can, listen. Hold on. Oh, me. Hold on. Hold on. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe what I said wasn't too out of line.

Hold on a little bit. So, I got, I got, I got to come back on Steve's side to. Jomi. Hold on, hold on. This is like, like, literally, this is like, this is like, this is a, this is a, this is a black mirror episode, bro. It's not like that, bro, relax. You're on your way to USS Couser. You can't tell me, tell me how you, what do you do?

Like, what do you do? Like, how do you hollet chicks on the game? So the game gives you options, like, right? Like text options, whatever. So check this out. In the last chapter I played, you're doing this whole like live action roleplaying thing for this kid. And.

Oh, boy. Jesus Christ. This is a good thing on the game. This is a tough sell for Van here. And so Alex, the main character, right, is trying to bargain for a, it's like, like, it's like, D&D. She's trying to bargain for, like, a soul gem, right? That's what they're calling.

You got to stay with me, man, stay with me. And so one of the options, like, hey, I'll trade you the soul gem for my hand in marriage, right? And I'm like, brah, you got to, you got, that's what you got to, exactly, right? You say that. And so she got to think about Charles'c couple, da-da-da, right? And so I clicked that option. She can't marry me, you know, for whatever reason.

But then I came back to the store, right? And I can read her feelings. And she was really excited that I actually to marry her, right? And so that's how I knew I was exactly. It's like when Sora gave Riku the pow-proof fruit. I understand that. It's like that. It's like, hey, do you want to choose to give her the pal-poop-proof?

Yeah. Or you want to wait. Look, I understand that. I get that. but I think it's problematic to in this day and age to trade for somebody's hand in marriage

okay this is like a dowry kind of thing all right that's what's got the stocks fucked up true I'm telling you this entire situation

is what got the socks fucked up like I'm you know I would go back and watch that although I just can't I can't make myself do it I would go back and watch that but now I just see it different

This episode is brought to you by Nass Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat, and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard-fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of Nass energy, high-performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage, and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nass energy and get after it. Last thing that I've really been into over the break, and then we can get to some of our midnight predictions, is, you know, I really hit the hub on HBO Max hard. I was really wondering where you're going with that. I'm really glad that that found a foot.

Oh, you thought it was the other hub. Because you started crazy. You took way too long to get to there. I was like, it was going to long pause after Hub. What do you mean by that? And I was looking around and I was trying to get more into anime guys. Hey! I picked up some more attack on tight.

I can't watch Evangeline Lily. I just can't watch it. Now that's, it's too sad. Wait, wait, wait. How far did you get, though? How far did you get? Evangelian, yeah. I got pretty far.

But the whole family was watching. My mom was looking at it. Right. And my mother, my mother is brilliantly politically incorrect when it comes to anime. Really? Okay. Yeah. For sure.

Because she thinks of it as all being porn. This is some cultural leakage here. Yes, she thinks of it as all being porn. I'm like, mom, so this interesting conversation is a mom, there's hentai. And that is porn. Yes. And then there's just stories that they tell. And she was like, she gets quiet.

I'm like, why are you quiet? She goes, why you always know so much about porn? why you always know so much about nasty things why are you the expert in which cartoons they fucking in and not you're not supposed to know that I'm like mom this is just things that should pick up no they're not this is I failed you

I should have been in your life more this is a whole thing that actually happened I should have been in your life more and you wouldn't know all of these nasty things imagine what you could have done had you not spend so much time getting into these different nasty things. The whole conversation was popped off, so I didn't even get a chance to finish watching all of my anime because my mom thinks it's pornography. So she wouldn't watch Attack on Titan with you? Well, Attack on Titan, I put on, but then they're naked.

Yeah, that's true. And then they'll be like, oh, well, so then there's a porn. Yeah, she, she, they're naked. She goes, why ain't got no clothes on? You can't tell me that this is wholesome when, and then she starts making jokes. and then I get uncomfortable. Because you guys think that I'm, like, you guys think I'm inappropriate,

it doesn't even come close. She'd be like, I wonder how big that thing dick is. Oh, God. Oh, no. I'm like, hey. She's like, so how tall are they? They're about 100 feet tall? Got to be, got to be at least 20 foot of dick, I think so.

And then, but that's off she gets you to turn shit off. I'm like, I turn it off. That's a devil. Yeah, we can't be doing that. To be fair, I don't know if I would give Attack on Titan as the first anime to show my mom, but definitely wouldn't be

neon Genesis Evangelian either. No. What would you do? It would be like, what, Avatar or Last Airbender or something like that? Yeah, cowboy bebop, something like... Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, there you go.

Sailor Moon, you know. Kicks ass. Sailor Moon is, don't they, don't they, Don't they have like Sailor Moon type porn though? I don't know what that means. I mean, sure. No, haven't they taken Sailor Moon and corrupted it? They've corrupted everything, man.

It's the internet. Before we get to the predictions, could I just say one thing because I didn't get a chance to talk about this on the podcast? Go nuts, man. Sure. Spoiler warning right now for Avatar way of water. Spoiler warning right now

for Avatar. Way of Water. Okay. Pause the podcast. Go to your theater, spend three and a half hours in there. Come back and come back and listen to this part right now. Of course, skip ahead like three minutes. First time, we went to go see Avatar Way of Water.

Before I was supposed to come part on it, the movie stopped and couldn't see it. So I couldn't part with Charles and Mal when it was time to do Avatar. Like, it was nowhere to see the movie. I didn't get a chance to make it to the screen and I couldn't I couldn't do it Okay End up going to see Aftar Way of one Two words

Fucking Fishing sensational Not even good To me I think it was great Wow I think it was Amazing

And I got something to put I got a little Sprinkle to put on it Okay Oh I think it's possible Oh no

that we've become too cynical a movie going public to truly appreciate Avatar Way of Water. Was it the godfather? No.

Did it tell the coming of age story of a stupid brother? Yeah. Stupid brother. And the way he continues to endanger his family while he grows up it had fucking sentient wells in it.

It had terrible, terrible human beings in it. It's true. And it had the bonds of family and what they really mean. I thought that towards the end of the movie where one of the most offensive characters in the history of cinema, Spider. Spider. The interplay between him

and his ghost body dad father, his adopted family, and his kind of real family, the back and forth, sure, did they have to save people too many times in Avatar way of water? Yeah.

Oh, what happened? We're leaving. All the girls are back there. Oh, we're leaving. Oh, somebody's still there. Oh, did they? Yeah, sure.

All of that. But there was amazing action too. Zois Abdana's character was like a female Navi Wick killing. She was about to kill Spider. I liked it. I loved it. One weird girl has powers.

We don't know why. The movie does... We got seven more to figure that out. The movie... The movie does kind of get into a weird white saver thing, but you knew that before you went to see it. Fuck all that.

They white. It's cool. I didn't just like... The first hour of the movie was kind of like, which is, you know, first 45 minutes, it's kind of like, so retread, a lot of retread stuff. I thought the movie was beautifully,

obviously it looked beautiful. I saw it in IMAX 3D, but I, at the end of the movie, cared a lot and thought that it was really well done. Say what you will. And there will be no change. Everyone says, Van says that,

and if it comes back and change it, no, because I wouldn't saw it again. I gave six hours of my life. I loved it again. even more the second time. I've seen that movie two and a half times because we got through one hour the first time and then the next two times saw it fully.

Avatar Weirwater! I don't know if I go see it yet, but I did, I think I enjoyed it a lot more than Steve. It did get a little bit like long on the tooth to me, but ultimately, man, that last battle scene, they was going crazy, my man. They was going crazy. I did like when his arm got ripped off.

That was pretty cool. The arm got ripped off. Think about when everything's fucked up. and the whale came to the rescue. If they would have killed the whale in the movie, I had already told everyone, I was tear the theater up. People started laughing.

I was, I'm going to tear the whole theater up if they killed a whale. Because I knew one of the brothers was out. Oh, yeah. I mean, as soon as, like, I thought he was going to get the first scene. I was like, I sound like a backwatch for the older brother. That's the only way the younger brother

going to learn his lesson. That's the only way. Because the entire movie is like, hey, bro, I need you listen. I'm good off that, actually. All right, we're sure. You don't die. I'm here to watch my Zendaya Navi. Yeah.

Bro, okay, so. That was, that was, O.D. That was the funniest thing. Me and Steve were in the theater. We're the screening, right? And she comes out the water and you see, oh boy, you don't even hide it, bro. He got the goggles up. And I'm like, he got the, he got the sights on her.

We was, bro. we and Steve with the theater crying, like, bull. And it's like, it's like, she came out looking like, she did a little water thing. Yeah.

She came out, you know what I'm saying? I thought they had Chloe Bailey playing her or something like that. Like she came out, she's doing the whole thing. That was, OD. By the way, could you pick out Kate Winslet in that cast?

Because I could. No. Hell no. I don't know Kate Wills is there. I saw Kate Winslet in the cast. I was like, where the fuck was Kate Winslet? See,

they had Carmelo Soprano in that, bitch. Just like, just like, just like, why are you guys shaking your heads? It's actually funny, because I couldn't get Kate Winslet,

but I knew that was Cliff Curtis. Home movie was like, I know that dude. Yeah, good film. Real quick, you guys, we've given you, this is the Seinfeld

of Midnight Boys podcast, we've given you a podcast about absolutely nothing. But I'm not, I'm so happy to be back with my boys. I'm so happy to be back on. I just wanted to let you guys

know. So open it up. You guys want a midnight meter ranking for Avatar Way of Water from Van? Sure. Yeah, man. Nine. Wow. Okay.

Wow. That's good. Nine. That's good. Nine. What would you give it, Jomey? I would give it an eight. I would give it an eight.

Okay. Steve. Six. That's great. That's fucking nuts. That's not. Like, that's your opinion. That's your opinion.

It is. That's your opinion. Steve, we move on. You got to talk about this, man. Before we move on, why would you give Avatar whale, dog, you are? By the way, you are, bro. Absolutely. Absolutely.

You are. But that's cool. Why would you give it a six, though? I'm just serious. I understand your opinion. I think I voiced this to Joe Me when we came out. I was like, that was like an hour and a half of what I thought was like some of the most beautiful oceanic screensavers I've ever seen in my life.

Wow. That was a great nature documentary on a planet that. didn't exist. Like a couple of cool battle scenes from a movie that I had already seen. These were better to me, but go ahead. I feel you. Sure. It's fine of a story.

It's fine enough of a story. It was just so long. And yes, it's, it's impressive. I guarantee you when you, like, when we eventually rewatch this on home theaters or not, that's going to get bumped down a whole letter great. It's a thing, Steve. For everybody involved. Steve.

It's a thing, Steve. You need to only, like, doesn't, thing. You only should see this in the theater. I should only. I'm not, Steve, it'll never get bumped down because I'll never see it at home. I'll never watch it at home. Now, so, so I would argue that other movies, you're kind of supposed to

wait to want to see them at home. This one, there's no way. Purely a film going, a film going experience. I'm never watching Avatar. Never but this one. And I'm not, and I'm not trying to put too much on rewatchability here, but like, I barely wanted to watch it the first time. And I was like, we put a lot on rewatchability.

Like, we are. We do, we do. And an unfair amount. An unfair amount. So let me ask you guys this real quick. How much money would you guess right now the Avatar Way of Water has made at the box office? I think it's like $1.3 billion? I say $1.2.

Right now. Say 1.2. You say 1.2? You say 1.3? Yes. 1.4. Wow. Damn.

Oh. Jim. Big Jim. And guess what? And guess what? It still needs to make like, I think about like, I think it needs to get close to two in order to like kind of break even for these first few. It'll, it'll be. It's like it's doing okay. It'll be close. The thing is, it made $67 million last week. It didn't even, I think the last weekend it didn't even drop off. Yes, it's like, but it's like, its run is doing insanely well.

still making good money. I'm about to put that agenda in the air. Yeah. If I could invest stock in how good this movie's going to do, I'd easily do that. Okay, we'll see what. Go to Vegas. All right.

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I have a prediction. For a movie that's coming out February. Okay. I want to do a preemptive midnight meter ranking. No, boy. Oh, man. You know how tough this going to be, man. It's going to be very tough.

It's going to be super tough. Because we do this to ourselves every year. Every year. We tell each other that we're not going to do it. But then we do it. I'm predicting. a nine for Edman quantum man. I'm predicting a nine.

And I'm telling you, interesting. I'm telling you, in my mind, anything less than a nine will be slightly disappointing. And let me tell you why. Okay. I don't know. So this is going to be the year of expectations. 2023 is the year of expectations. Steve, yes.

Yeah, okay. And let me tell you why. 2023, I think it's justified in being the year of expectations. Because we have a lot of familiarity coming back. We get Loki season two. We get Mando season three. We get familiar characters like Asoka. We get Ant-Man Quantumania.

We're getting things that, Even though in 2022, you could argue that some of it was the same thing because you got Thor, love and thunder, and you got multiverse of madness. Wakanda forever is obviously a different situation with everything that the cast, nuclear went through. I'm saying that we're getting things that I just don't feel like they should have trouble landing. Ant-Man, Quantumania, I'm not even saying that I have a higher threshold for this movie to be. When I say it's a nine, I'm saying with everything.

that this movie has to accomplish, I don't think it has to accomplish that much to be great. I think it has to give us some really great universe building in terms of the next phase of Marvel, which I feel like it's perfectly set up to do, right? And I think that it has to give us a deep look into what King's goal is, whether it's to retrieve the Forever Crystal, you know, he's escaping the quantum realm, whatever it is,

and build upon Kang as the big bad. And I feel like we've had enough from Loki and from other situations that this should be able to be a movie where Marvel can deliver seriously. And so I'm looking at this to be a nine, and if it's an eight, I would be disappointed. I think that the biggest plane

that that Quantanamani needs to land is giving us a Kang that we can look forward to seeing five movies later. Because that's really what we're doing. They're pointing at the sign and being like, this is your Thanos, this is your big bad, this is the thing that we're going to lead up to, here he is right now. And we've had a whole entire phase of not having that. And I think the runway is a little bit shorter for Kang to kind of get us on board with who he is and what he's going to be rather than Thanos because we saw him at the end of Avengers 1 and then we got an infinite little bits of dribblings here and there about. what we can expect from what Thanos could be.

I'm very excited for what Quantumadia can do. I hope that it's great. I always hope that it's great. I'm very curious to see where this leaves Scott Langan team. Are we going to up the stakes

by possibly giving a major death or sun setting in the MCU? The old school adventures are getting a little long in the tooth and I'd like to see what happened. Jomey, what do you think? I think that Not to, this is not one of my predictions, but I think this would be like the Thor Ragnarok for

Ant Man movies, right? I like the first two Ant Man movies. I like them more than everybody else, essentially. Listen, if you can remember the plot of Ant Man and the Wasp, I'll give you a dollar. You owe me $2 now, Steve. They, you know, have to,

Steve, he's under house arrest, and they bring him back and they're like, hey, man, where's the suit? We got to go to the quantum realm. It's a whole thing, Steve. I need $2.00. Ghost is in it. Yeah, there you go.

There you go. Ghosts in it. Lawrence Fishburn's in there for a second. Yeah. But I like those first two movies. And so, you know, if they just gave me that again, I'd be cool. But they're obviously up in the ante, higher in the stakes. So what we've got is, I think, a Thor, Ragged and Rock level movie where people go back and go, man,

the first two anime movies, we're like, all right, this one, this is clearly the best one. They've done everything extremely well. they've given us an ant man that we've always wanted. I think that's where this is going. There we go. All right, Jomey, give me something for you. Okay, so I know I've got to get this agenda off. Arcane season two is coming at 2023.

That's what they said. That's what they said now. They told me. And it's going to be the best thing we've ever seen. I'm telling you right now. So do you predict that there will be an arcane podcast on the Ringerverse podcast feed? Are you calling that right now? Listen, I would, I will, I will, listen, that's our Juna's job.

Sure. Our Juna, you know, had on the work, it was up to me. We'd have eight podcasts. You'd be on Prestige TV. We'd be on Ring of Verse. We'd be on Big Picture. We'd be on the Watch. We'd be on the Bill Simmons podcast.

You heard, feel me? Right. Ring NBA, Mass Man Show. We'd be all over the place. But for right now, take one on the Ring of Verse. But I am looking forward to the show. I cannot wait to see it. I think, you know, they've been in the lab for how long working on Arcane's

season two. We're going to see some special, ladies and gentlemen. Can't wait. I predict this will be the best. Well, I don't know. The best animated show, 22, 22. 23. There's some competition, though, and I'll get to that. See, we'll see what invincible can do. Hey, hey, you're spoiling my pics. Spoiling my pics. No, I'm very excited for that. It takes an infuriatingly long time for animated shows that we love to come out again. It's quality, man. Gotta get that quality right. It's quality. All-killer, no filler. I'm going to skip my first one because I think that we could all probably think that the last of us might be pretty good. But I sincerely predict that Transformers Rise of the Beast will be one of my favorite

movies of the year. Bro, that's not a predict. That's actually, that's facts. That's going to be Oscars 2020. Right there. Listen, that's the whole game.

Michelle Yo is in it. That's all you got to hear. That's all you got to know. My best friend, my homie. Yeah. Close personal friend Michelle Yo. I don't know how long I've been out on the Transformers movies, but I can't, I literally can't not see and enjoy this because I literally,

owe it to my seven-year-old self to see and enjoy this. Like there's no, I don't, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm tied up here because this is kind of everything that I wish that I would have wanted to see as a kid. Fucking Optimus Primal is back. I don't think I could have asked for anything more.

And I think the Transformer movies are getting good. I saw Bumblebee. That was great. Fantastic. Bumblebee was great. I like, of the last four Transformers movies, Jomey, which ones were actually good? Bumblebee is nice.

Okay. So after the first one, you mean? Which one actually good? Sure. First one was fine. Three is on the line of being good. All the other ones are garbage. Okay.

All of the other ones are garbage. All the best things you can see on YouTube. Two is bad, but it's not. Bad, bad, bad. Two is really bad, but it's almost not as bad as four, and it's definitely better than five. Five, the first one. The first I've ever seen.

Two is watchable. One is really good. Two is watchable. Yeah. And then they just fall off. No, two, they made like a robot testicles joke. And the, like, micro-bots were- like, offensive.

That's the third best Michael Bay Transformers movie. Jesus. So I ever tell you guys the Transformers' Beast War story? Oh, no, please. Enlightenus. No, please. So when Beast Wars was coming out, I was in high school. Okay.

Bees Wars, the shit. By the way. When Beast Wars was coming out, I was in high school. But it had been a long time since, like, the Transformers were top of mind for me. The Transformers were top of mind for me, the fucking Hot Rod and, like, the Transformers movie is a kid, right?

So I come through a bunch of years, and there's no Transformers, and I'm 16 now. Beast Wars, I think, came out in 95 or 96 or something like that. And so I'm like, so I'm not fucking with the Transformers like that no more. I'm not. But for some reason,

Beast Wars came on at like 6 o'clock in the morning. like in in Baton Rouge right oh so like right before you went to school yeah so I wake up one morning and I'm like getting ready and I see the Transformers turning into animals and I'm like yo what the fuck is this and I watch Beast Wars I'm like yo this shit is fucking crazy yeah and that day watching Beast Wars made me a little late uh had to cut off a little early I run out catch the bus I get to school right yeah but I started waking like up to watch Beast Wars, like every morning. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I started like waking up to watch Beast Wars like every single morning I'm watching Beast Wars. And I'm like, it got to the point to where I would wake up and watch Beast Wars. And I would not start getting ready for school until after Beach Wars were over. Wow. Which would make me late, right? So I missed the bus a couple of times.

and my dad had to start taking me to school. Right? Because you were watching Beast Wars. Because I was watching Beast Wars. And then they just got into the habit to where I wouldn't even get on the bus anymore. And he would just be like, ready to go to school? And he would just take me to school. It became part of his day to like just take me to school.

And we're all sitting around and it's the end of the semester and we're talking about stuff and whatever. And I ended up telling somebody. why I don't catch the bus to school anymore. I'm like, I don't really like to take the bus to school because I like to watch the Transformers before I go to school in the morning. And remember, I'm in like the 10th or 11th grade at this point. So you're like 15?

I think that I'm 16. I don't know why I feel like I'm 16. And my dad goes, what? And I'm like, yeah, I watch the Transformers, Beast Wars before I go to school. And he goes, nigger, you mean to tell me that I'm missing time. My father owned his own construction company. So I'm missing time for being out there with my men.

I thought you had some kind of phobia. You got anxiety running around here all the time. I didn't know what was going on with you. Me and your mom have been talking about giving you a soft place to call home and all that. I thought I was doing you a favor with your crazy ass. You mean to tell me? You waking up in the morning to watch some motherfucking beat. What is Beast Wars?

What is that? What is that? I want to see it. And he's like, he's so fucking mad. He's been waking up. Like, getting to work. Like, he's the boss. So it's not like he, my dad just likes to supervise every, or he liked the rest of peace,

to supervise every single thing. But he didn't know that it was because of Beast Wars that I was like keeping him up. So, bust this. So this was the thing with my father. he never got what you were doing until he indulged in it okay so it's like she like break is over back of school wake up in the morning and i'm thinking i'm going to have to get up and go to the bus right but he's he feels sad that he embarrassed me in front of my uncle he feels sad so the only way for him to reconnect with me is to come watch a little bit of beast wars all right so i'm in there i'm sitting down you know i'm

whatever. It was like, he's like, this is the show right here? Yeah. Why did some animals? I'm like, well, it's a long time ago and they don't transform into cars because there are no cars and they transform into beasts. And he's like, ooh, anybody transform into a deer because he was a deer hunter? I'm like, no deer. And he was like, like a lion? I'm like, yeah, they got, you know, like whatever. And we sit down and we watch it and the show goes off And he goes, huh, that shit was actually all right. Okay, come on, let's go up and go to school.

And he got up, he took me to school. I never caught the bus again. I never called the bus again. Like, like, I got a car senior year, but I never caught the bus again. The whole time. B-Sgwar saved you from taking the bus. But you know what else it did? Me and my dad driving the school together, man, we would stop and get breakfast.

Like, we would like, you know what I mean? It was like, it was like. A whole routine. It's a great thing. It was like became me and his life. little time to get up there, he would take time to criticize me about different things. Of course. During that time, like, in his way.

Yeah, it's how it goes. But, like, it was because Beast Wars would come on and I had to watch Beast Wars. And I realized that, like, they started replaying the same episodes of Beast Wars, like, over and over again at a certain point. So it was like, whatever. Anyway, that's a long-drawn-out Beast Wars story. I love that. Well, that's why Beast Wars will be one of my favorite movies of the year.

All right, Van, you're up. This is my final prediction. Right. of the year, we will see on-screen live action re-richers, not John Krasinski.

Wow. I think that's a fair. Okay, so the question being, where is he showing up? Can't be quantum, it's too early. Not going to be quantumity. Probably,

ooh. Where's he showing up, though? Non-Disney Plus, to tell you that right now. Yeah, no, no, no. They're not going to Disney Plus them. Well, no, maybe. No, man. What?

I think he could. Maybe Loki. I think maybe Loki. God. Maybe Loki. I think maybe Loki. Or maybe that's another Reed Richards fake out where they get somebody else that isn't going to be Reed Richards until.

Maybe Loki. And I think it's a decent chance that you get either Wolverine or Deadpool in Loki. See now? I don't know about that. Maybe that's season. Oh. Doing it again. Doing it again.

That's what I love to do. This is what it doesn't happen. When it doesn't happen, guess what I'm going to do? C-L-A-B. I'm going to clap. I'm going to cry like a bitch. Like when it doesn't happen, C-L-A-B. I'm a clab-

We've been on this since. I'm a cry like a bitch. Give it what you got, Marvel! Marvel! No. Give me all you got! That's actually an insane prediction considering after Ant-Man, we have Guardians of Galaxy 3 and the Marvels, right?

Like, maybe the Marvels. I could see the Marvels. But for show, not in Garters Galaxy, but, man, y'all think the Marbles, give me a, give me a,

give me a, give me a preliminary before we could, give me a preliminary midnight meter ranking on the Marvels. But I, my,

it's broken, I can't. Give me one. Give me one. Eight. Eight. Eight. Oh, wow.

I'm going eight. Wow. I'm going eight. I hope it's great. I think it could be great. I'm going to say a none. You know, I'm going to say none. Y'all, so y'all.

You know what, no. I'm going to say a 10, show me. Like, y'all is so, I'm not even going to have we play it because we're not going to get nothing but get, like I don't want this podcast to turn into the fucking manosphere. So we're not trying to do that. But I'll tell you this. I have no expectations for the marbles.

That's great. That's good for you. No expectations for the Marvel's. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. Who's in it again? Is, seriously, is, Macarambo.

Yeah. Photon, Miss Marvel, and Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel, yes. Yep. Let's ride, baby. Let's ride. Let's go.

Let's ride, baby. Marvel's country? Let's ride. Do I have one more? Yeah, I got one more. Invincible, come out. 2020 and we know this, but it'll come out July 14th, 2023. Oh?

Don't ask how I know this. I've got my secret sources. That's not true. They uploaded a picture, I want to say, sometime of the last part of 2022. And, like, duplicate numbers were 07, 14, and 23. Oh, so you did some of the viral riddle making. Exactly. That's a Friday.

Okay. Reddit detective shit. Friday in July. I think that's when Invincible was coming back, guys. I couldn't wait for the series to come back. I went and I bought the comic books. Let me tell you. So damn excited.

Let me tell you, you're not ready for some of the stories. You think you might be ready? You're not ready. I'm interested to see what they change for the show. Like, you know, because there are some things that were in season one that are different from the first. First, what, the first season is only like 13 issues, right? Yeah. Like, it's a smidget.

And like this. The books are huge and you only get like a sliver of it in season one. Yeah. It's going to be a lot. They got a lot to cram into the season. I'm interested from somebody who's read the books because I only went back and read a little bit of it

during the time when I was still top of mind. I literally re-uped on comicsology just so I could get back into it. But then I started reading Irredeemable and I fucking couldn't stop. But I'm interested in the ways that we know that they've already changed Invincible. How much of what you've read, right, do you feel like

is going to eventually make it into the books in terms of one of the most important things about Mark or about his father or about any of that stuff that they have to keep? Because they end up getting, like even out on the alien, like, ends up Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

It's like so much stuff happened. I think, yeah. I think for me, I think all the Viltrum still, stuff will happen because all of that is super important. And so like everything around surrounding his father and Voltram things happens as as it should. What I mentioned in it is to see the stuff on earth, you know, with like dinosaurs and, you know, and Eve.

And what goes on with Eve and Amber, like all that stuff. I could see a lot of change there because if you're going to like the virtual stuff is so rich and so interesting that you kind of have to. That's a show in and of itself. I mean, you have the multiverse of invincibles, right? Like all that stuff. Like you can do a whole season just on that, right? Which is what they did in the comics.

Like they just eventually had like several spin-offs for other characters and other stories and other things because it was such a rich world. And so I'm interested to see how they cut all that stuff because again, like season one was not just a comic book. written out in Chip. They, you know, chop a lot of stuff up. They, you know, put stuff to the background of that's later in the books in this part. Again, so I cannot wait to see how they do it because the comics was just another level of insanity. Hell yeah. All right. I've got one last one. I think the Rock will campaign to be in the

MCU and he will try to convince us that's what he wanted to do the whole time. Jesus Christ. I sure hope not. I sure hope not. You should see what Batista said today? Dave Batista been throwing some shots at the rock. He's right. Vindicated. He's right. It might be.

Is Dave Batista talk to him? The Rock is definitely a bigger star. Of course, of course, yeah. But is Dave Batista in many ways a more successful actor than the Rock? Successful actor

is a better actor? I don't even that. Obviously, he's a better actor. Batista is clear. I think John Cena's a better action than The Rock. I think if you're mentioning about like the level of prestige behind Dave Patista's movies and projects, like he was in Knives Out, he was in a Guardians of Galaxy. He was, like, he's been in a lot of stuff that, like, ultimately has been a net better product than the things that The Rock has been putting out lately.

I guess then you can say yes. Like, but the Rock is like, you know, is an entire business in and of himself. The Rock is a business. And, you know, I feel like the whole acting movies thing is just like a small part of his, you know, entire portfolio, if that makes sense. And maybe he doesn't even really need to, you know, focus too much on that entirely. But I feel like he wants to be in the MCU now. My hot take is that The Rock is less of a successful movie star than we think that he is. I'd agree with that.

You think he's cooking the books? What do you like, you think? No, no, I don't think he's cooking the books. I think that the rock as a solo star in movies has had some successes. Sure. Like, obviously, you know, people have. Astronomical successes. Yeah.

Like, what's the biggest as the rock as a solo movie star? What's the biggest, what's the biggest, what's the hugest, what's the hugest success that he's had? Is it Hobbs and Shaw? So, like, we can't count like fast and furious. Like, that kind of doesn't count to me. Okay. I mean, the only reason why that that does count. Hobbs and Shaw is a big deal, but like,

that's the rock jumping into somebody else's universe. I'm talking about right now, if you were to tell me what was the rock's thing that we know him for, what's his fast and furious, what's his big friend? Like, what's his big deal? Right?

I think he thought Black Adam was going to be that. Uh-huh. Like his big tent pole fit. I honestly, I think it's Jumanji. Okay. Once again, that's a huge ensemble now. That's a huge ensemble, but like he led that, that, like, that movie did gangbusters.

The best rock, that's Kevin Hart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jack Black, yeah, yeah. Like, that's, that, I'm not, by the way, this sounds weird saying it, but, you know, even when you look at, even when you look at Vin Diesel, when you look at Fast and Furious,

you can say that was a lot of people together. well two things happen number one unfortunately Paul dies and even before then it clearly becomes a reason to go see Van Diesel movies because that's the only movies from Vin Diesel joint for sure he's so he's so like intertwined with the production of those movies now like especially in the last few I wouldn't call that there

I mean like it's the reason the Rock isn't in that franchise anymore like I don't know like to see his tent pull thing I feel like he definitely wants like a piece of that big pie because he's done so many things that like he like his presence is so huge that like that's kind of all that we see like he can eclipse a movie itself

and I'm curious to know where he might fit in the MCU. Nowhere. If he would even want it. I'm telling you. Good God. I'm just looking at the movies right? Yeah. Hercules.

Earned 77 million in the United States. It's kind of a flop. You know, like snitch. There's just, there are a lot of movies here that, that just kind of, I mean, Baywatch, it's a flop. Are we, are we here to give love to the rundown because I'm here for that? I love that movie. I fucking love the rundown. It's so good.

I love that movie. Maybe I'm being too hard on the rock. Jungle Cruise. What up? That was, um, you know what I mean? Maybe I'm being too hard on me. May Juana was great. Moana was great.

What can I say, except you're welcome. Hey, there you go I'm looking at San Andreas Do people like San Andreas as a movie? I don't know. I haven't watched it. I can tell you. Do you guys watch a Rampage?

No. Rampage was fine. Fucking sucks, bro. Listen, Dwayne of the Rock Johnson will make sweaty movies where he's in gray, you know, gray shirt and a jungle

for the rest of his life. You know what I mean? Like, that's what he's going to do. Yeah, I liked Red Notice. Red Notice was fun. You might have been the only person that liked Red Notice. It was... Rampage broke even.

Like, a lot of these movies just aren't... They're big deals. Like, a lot of these movies just aren't as big as, like, what we thought they were. What we thought they were. Hey, there's always tequila. It's always tequila. Hey, bro. Drink up, brothers.

No problem with you all about that way. I think he's cool to watch. I just think Dave Batista, it's just in better movies. That's fact. All right. All right. That's enough. We're done.

It's fucking over. We do whatever we want. It's true. Sometimes we just come on here and we just kick it. And if you guys are down to hang out, hang out. If not, you guys don't like my goddamn story about Peace Wars. Fuck you guys. I can already say, fan went on a whole tangent about Shed up.

All right, that's a wrap. Follow us on socials, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok. Help Jomi by the way. the what was it called? Saline S7, baby. Saline Seline Sleena. Selina. Selina Kyle.

We talked about her earlier. On Friday, the House of Arr comes back to discuss the season two premiere at the Bad Batch. Whatever you put on that teleprompter, Ron Burgundy. Rob Burgundy will read.

Next Wednesday, the Midnight Boys return. Back to talk more shit with you guys. We'll figure out what we're doing later on to let you guys know. Be on the lookout on the socials for that. Credits. Our producer is Steve.

The architect, Alma. Jomi, Explaner Dinaran is on socials. Hashtag Jomelikins Master. I love that. An additional production from Arjuna Ramgapal, we are not even going to try to take us out in the absence of Charles. You got one.

I got one. Here we go. Please. You listen to our predictions and you heard it all about our wrecks. But for the love of God, Van, stop sending those texts. I got to tell you all what I did over the break, man. I got to tell you all. do. So I sent this picture in a group chat. I sent a banana boat picture in group chat. I said,

I got to tell you all what happened. Guys, I almost died. All right. So for, so for context, this banana boat picture is you and who in your family. It's me. My brother's sitting directly in front of me. And then behind me and in front are basically like, their cousins were really like my, like, we've known each other. We're like babies, right? Basically, my brother is basically family, right? So we get to this beach in Mexico and everybody was like, we want to go just. And we want to go this. And I was like, guys, we have to hit the banana boat. Right. LeBron hit the banana boat with Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Gabriel Union. We got to do it. We were like, let's go. We're in. Facts. Let's tap in, right? We get on the banana boat the first time, right? We hit one way if we fall off. It's embarrassed.

Right. Now, I've never been on a banana boat. How fast do you go on a banana boat? Well, let me tell you, pal. You go pretty fast. I'm not going to dignify a banana. that with a response. So any whom no response from me. No response. So any whom, we get back on. We get back on to an head of boat. And this time, we're going great. It's going fantastic. Dude,

I'm telling you, I'm having the time of my freaking life. It's like, it's literally like Avatar the way of the water, man. We're skipping the water. We're yelling, we're cooling. We're looking at the... You're talking to whales for no reason. There are pelicans. All right, by there. We're looking at the

shore and it's just incredible. It's beautiful. You're learning the way of the water. Way of the water, right? Until we fell off. Dude, we were doing maybe like, oh, maybe like 20 hours per hour.

Probably not supposed to go more than to it. Did you hit a wave and fall off? Dude, it was a combination of somebody like the wave, somebody, you know, the weight went off and just all of us just hit the water, boom, right? And so I know like we all have life jackets right

But two of us Can y'all swim? Me and my brother could swim The other two cannot swim Right And so we get I get up And I'm like uh oh my brother My brother is like guys guys

You got floaties on right We got a lot jackets on Okay okay But they can swim so we're just like guys Keep your feet moving Keep your feet moving keep your feet moving with Everybody grab together Everybody grabbed together right

And they're They're screaming. Like, guys, what do we do? What do we do? Like, guys, just keep, keep moving. Come close, come close. We got to, we got to start moving. We got to start moving to shore, right?

So we get, the banana boat comes back. We hold on, right? We're just like, let's hold on. We'll see where, because we don't know where we're on the ocean, by the way. So wait a minute. You mean to tell me, we're far out. Like, we're not, you mean to tell me that you guys hold on, you guys, do you guys get back on the banana boat?

So here's the thing, right? everybody's trying to get back on a boat. And I'm like, hey, I'm big as hell. I got a life vest on. I'm not getting back on that boat. I'm cooked. Right? I'm fried.

Oh, like you can't climb back on. No, right? It's hard. You're climbing out of water. Right? So climbing out of water. I can't, again, I don't know how deep we're on the ocean. Right.

But we see the boat. The banana boat comes back, but then the boat leaves. Dragging the banana boat leaves. And so we're there like, oh, we're here to fend for us. yourselves. This is um, this is not good. You just get it. You get abandoned by the person that was driving the boat. We get abandoned by the person driving the boat. So we're like, this is cooked. How do we do this? Right? Eventually, one person gets on a boat, two people get on a boat, the banana boat. And I'm like, guys, I can't get on the boat.

This is it for me, man. Just, just let me go. They're like, guys, come on. It's not going to happen. Hold on to the banana boat. You're going to be a right. All right. I'm like, it's tough. Right. after, you know, failing to get on, I reached down and I feel sand on the floor. I'm like, gregor. I knew it. I knew it, man. The shorts right there. I was about the ass.

Y'all panicked. This entire time. You're panicked. Now, panicked. Yeah, I knew. I already knew it. So check this out. How deep could you have been in the banana boat?

Like, they don't take you out into the middle of the end of the end of the end. I'm not taking you to the fucking Guam. Sorry. You know. You're not crossing the channel. So check this out. How deep could the... Originally, like, when we first fell off, we were pretty deep.

Like, we couldn't touch a girl, obviously. But when the boat left, it turns out, they went, like, to the shore. And the guy was dragging the boat towards the shore, right? The problem, we made it hard for him trying to get back on, like, doing all the maneuvering. So half of you just needed to go like this? All of us just needed... All we had to do was get off the boat, just hold on, and wait, like, 10 minutes, or not even tell me it's like five minutes for the dude to drag like to drag us to short but we're all like

we were so scared you know it's been a funny picture how many of y'all was it four it would have been a funny picture of the four y'all not on the banana boat but holding on to the side of it and getting drug back to the beach four niggas holding on to a banana getting drug back to the beach someone would have put that, that would have made it, that would have definitely made it on the GOP House Judiciary fucking Facebook page. You know what I'm saying?

It definitely would have made it. Jomey, God. I'm glad you're okay, man. It's like, it's like I'm surprised always, when we go on vacation, it'll be all, we all go out on vacation and stuff and it'll be, I can swim and a couple

other people can swim. I always would be surprised with people who get in the ocean and they can't swim. shocked. It boggues my mind. They're like, I can't swim. I'm like, why are you in the ocean? What the fuck are you doing? It's like, yo, we out there.

It's like, yo, you know I can't swim, right? Then what the fuck you're going to jump in for, Doc? Yeah. Go in the kitty pool and learn out of swim. Yeah. It's like, why are you fucking with the ocean? Because I'll swim way out, right? I'll swim way out.

Just to get away from everybody and look up at the ocean and commune with God and all of that stuff. And then I'll see people like, man, I'm coming out there with you. I'm like, dog, didn't you just tell me you can't swim? I don't give a fuck about your life. Jack, I take it off, throw in the middle of ocean. Get your ass back to the show. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy?

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