Rod, and Karen discuss listener feedback, entertainment, Death Stranding live-action movie, Elon Musk getting bullied off of a stream, Hades 2 will be Switch 2 exclusive at launch, Devil May Cry anime getting season 2, Oscars honoring stunt people, Steam pulls sexual assault game, Fixed coming to Netflix, 3D Mario on Switch 2, Ghost of Yotei releasing October 2nd, Nintendo Switch 2 sold out everywhere, Switch 2 upgrades will be $20 for certain games, Stranger Things animated, Indies suffer from shadow drops, Marvel Rivals support strike, Pedro Pascal bashes JK Rowling, Blade movie may be dead, PS Plus dropping games, Netflix is saving Hollywood, Nintendo Switch 2 games will be game key cards, AC Shadows bestselling game in March, Toys R Us movie, OutRun movie, New Star Wars series, Minecraft box office, Star Wars Vision season 3, Star Wars Starfighter,
The Nerd Off: (Protected Content)
Hello all,
I made Thunderbolts a must see for me off of the strength of the Winter Solder/Red Guardian WHAT If episode because of how funny the pair was together. The movie did not disappoint. Damn shame what they did to that Taskmaster, but someone had to get it to show some steaks. Good time was had at the theater.
Sinners was great. Michael A. and Michael B. Jordan did there thing. I can’t say enough how you could actually feel something inside yourself during the music ancestry timeline. Seems like Cougler can’t miss. Next up is the IronHeart show which he is producing.
Now to hop over to something completely different that is nerdy but not usually talked about here unless they do some dumb stuff. Last month I went to Wrestlemania in Las Vegas and I had the time if my life. If you are not aware, during the week leading up the the actual show other, smaller wrestling companies piggy back and put on thier own shows and concerts the week leading up to the sat/Sunday shows. It is basically black friday for the wrestling industry in that city. We went to a Joshi show, which is Japanese women wrestling, and it had a very anime esthetic with the costumes and music that sound like anime opening credits. Fun comical and cheerful. Meanwhile later that day was a hardcore match in a dive bar in a strip mall. A dune buggy was utilized. The parties…. the Luchador Guvintude Guerrera was DJing in one spot while Mark Henry the world’s strongest man was DJing at another where we were all yelling f*** Hulk Hogan. Highlight was the 10th and probably final Walemania. For the last 10 years Wale has been putting on the unofficial startup party with dancing and singing proformances and basically all the black wrestlers in the industry. I even ran into Kev on Stage at the Arena, and he wasn’t on stage.
Now to bring it back to what is usually talked about here. Videogames and friendship. While in Vegas I was able to meet up with one of my Sea of Thieves crew mates that lives out there and hang out for a few days. With the cancelation of the Sea of thieves festival this year, We had our own. We found a Pirate themed bar called The Stray Dog where the staff was very helpful and the drinks were themed and good. The bar seemed like it was below the deck of a ship and was very cool. Over all this nerd particular nerd vacation was a bucket list item checked off.
Official-unoffical Sea of Thieves ambassador for TBGWT,
Tommydeee
Salutations Rod, Karen & fellow nerdy guests.
Haven’t done much gaming, as of late, but I got into 2019’s Days Gone & I modestly enjoy it for what it is. I don’t necessarily enjoy a lot of the transversal elements l, because much of the objectives are pretty derivative (turn this bunker on, eliminate nests, avoid hordes, etc). Then again, I’m playing it on PlayStation+ without spending any additional money (though, in time, I may get the remastered edition & go from there) so it’s difficult to really be so hard on it.
Thunderbolts was really good & is growing on me after my last experience with it with 4DX, which was an experience, to say the least. Sensory Overload was kicking your boy, SandlerAgony’s ass. After getting hit with air water & motion seats, I think I’m willing to await until the next one, but I won’t do it for Mission: Impossible 8, but maybe Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Anyway, back to Thunderbolts’s overarching messages of emptiness, depression, suicidal ideation & friendship, had me thinking of how well done the MCU’s prior phase with Phase 4 wasn’t given its proper respects with how it did these elements & topics, considering a purple tyrant was outchea disappearing people, it kinda proves that Phase 4’s fickle reception was premature & that it pays to see these super powered, highly-skilled beings learn to be human & sit in the pain, just don’t wallow in it. While I think Wandavision, Doctor Strange 2, Iron Man 3 (which was Phase 2 but was super relatable, nonetheless) Both Black Panther films, Moon Knight, Hawkeye & all three Guardians films deal with guilt, grief better in their different ways, more or less, Thunderbolts using anti-heroes as the lynchpins to its story, once again, shows that the MCU’s pretty good at making fictional characters relatable to people who go through particular levels of despair.
And as someone who would consider themselves to be pretty liberal with Marvel Studios, it was refreshing to see that studio use real sets & not “the volume” recklessly.
Also, I dug that silly, but charming as hell Fight or Flight with Josh Harnett getting his Impossible White Man on & Katee Sackhoff making those wonderful faces as a bad chick. It was a fun time.
Y’all take care.
G’Day Nerds,
Saw Thunderbolts & enjoyed it. Red Guardian is hilarious & I’m looking forward to F4.
Andor was great. They did such a good job with the 2 seasons & throwing on Rogue One after watching the last ep, it ran smoothly right in to it.
Since I’m on Star Wars, a few weeks back, I met up with Shanna in Japan and hit up the Star Wars Celebration convention.
It was a lot of fun & a lot of walking. Well & truly hit the steps targets with about 20k a day. We went to the 20 years of Lucas animation panel & It was them talking about the history of it all & we got to watch the first ep of the Tales of the Underworld Asajj Ventress story. Then after that ended, they spoke about what they had coming in the future & they cut the lights & showed us the trailer for the new Darth Maul animated show coming next year. When it ended, Sam Witwer was standing in a red spotlight & in the Maul voice said play it again. So they did & then they spoke for bout 10 minutes about the show & gave us all a 20th anniversary poster for being in there.
My favourite part of Celebration though was seeing how much the Japanese people embrace Star Wars & how they blended the Japanese culture with Star Wars for their art & cosplay & stuff. It was all so cool. I included a couple of pics to show some of the cosplay & the two photo ops I did with Ahsoka & The Stranger. Rosario said my shirt was awesome, so I was happy & my Asian brother Manny signed my funko.
The next one is in 2027 in LA & is the 50th anniversary, so depends on what the clowns running the show over there are up to then if I go or not. & the exchange rate is also shit for us as well compared to japan.
I also hit up one piece & Nintendo stores, pokemon centers, disney parks, saw the godzilla hotel & went to the godzilla shops while I was there
Cheers
Wonga
Good afternoon Rod, Karen and Esteemed Guests,
I hope all is well today!
I will apologize in advance for the lengthy email, but I keep missing y’all when you go live with the Rod and Karen Blerd celebration!
I have been getting my re-watch on with several shows. I started by doing a re-watch of Lost and I really forgot how good that show was! Six seasons of being stuck on the island, fighting on the island, being kidnapped and tortured on the island, leaving the island, coming back to the island and other island mysteries and sweaty half-naked bodies. Not like I’m looking and such, but I look. I did not know that there was a Lost documentary that came out for the 20th anniversary of the show and was so hyped………until they got to the part of the documentary when the show runners and the fans talked about how toxic the writer’s room was. I was so disappointed and aggravated because why ruin a fantastic show for something as basic is racism and misogyny. My most favorite TV show now has taint on it. One of the best decisions that the show made was hiring a comic book writer because during the second half of the third season, the story started to make more sense to me, from a comic book perspective. Loved the show, shame on showrunners for fucking it up.
For my anime’s, I did rewatch Solo Leveling. Excellent, wonderful, action packed and all other wonderful adjectives that I can give this. Even Kev On Stage took a break from the anime saga known as One Piece to start Solo Leveling. BTW, how on earth is he able to watch so much anime at one time so quickly??? For me, I got to let the shows digest, but no two people watch anime alike.
I did move from Crunchyroll over to HBO MAX ( ’bout time they changed the name back) and started Lazarus. I like what I see so far and the music is excellent. I don’t know why this show is giving me Cowboy Beebop vibes, but overall, the story is good, and I am hooked. In the meantime, speaking of Michael B Jordan, I decided to watch gen:Lock again. I did watch the first season, but I did not know that there was a season 2 until recently, so I am checking that out. I did forget how beautiful the animation was and the story was good as well. And shout out to Michael B being an anime fan like the rest of us.
I look forward to your anime suggestions and again thank you for everything that you do for us Blerds,
MizzBarnes
(Nerd off? ) QQ for you and Karen- If artist/a specific piece of art were infinity stones who/what would you collect to power the gauntlet
My Examples:
Beyoncés Renaissance the film
Kendrick – Euphoria, Wacked out Murals, Man at the garden
Coogler – Whole body of work
Toni Morrison – Beloved
Megs Coachella set
Cin
Hello Fellow Nerds,
FYI this is Charles from TransMissions (can’t seem to change my screen name on the TBGWT website)
I can provide some more detail about the variable pricing of the Switch 2 upgrades. There are some games that have free upgrades (not a full Switch 2 version but a software update that improves the game performance on the Switch 2), some games that have significant graphical and quality of life upgrades (e.g. the two Zelda Switch games) for $10, and then other games with premium upgrade pricing of $20 (e.g. Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Party Jamboree) that includes graphical upgrades plus some significant additional content that would be considered DLC. The Kirby game is supposed to have a completely world with new levels and challenges, and the Super Mario Party game gets a bunch of new mini games that use the Switch 2 microphone and camera.
I think it’s reasonable to base the price increase on whether the additional content is significant. But since I haven’t played the Kirby or Super Mario Party Jamboree game I can’t judge if people would consider it reasonable for those games. But from the available description of the content it seems plausible.
What’s more concerning to me is how Nintendo continues to think they should almost never discount their older games (Black Friday or other limited time special sales events excluded). Zelda BOTW is over 8 years old, but if you’re a new player getting it for the first time on Switch 2, Nintendo wants the full $60, plus the $10 Switch 2 upgrade, and optionally another $20 for the DLC. Most publishers release a “Complete Edition” with whatever DLC they released previously included for older games that is either at or below the standard price for a new game ($60 or $70). But not Nintendo – if you want the full BOTW experience on Switch 2 in 2025, $90 please.
Regarding the “game key cards” for Switch 2, folks are upset because it combines the worst of both worlds for digital vs physical games. The full game is not on the card itself, so you have to download not just an update, but the whole game. It takes up the full space of the game on the memory of your system, and you still have to wait for however long it takes to download before you can play it the first time. But you still need to have the card in the system in order to play the game. So you have the disadvantages of a digital game without the advantage of convenience of not having to keep track of a physical cartridge. You also lose the advantages of physical games for folks who care about game preservation and being able to play the game without an internet connection (unlikely I know but that’s the argument). The only advantage you keep is being able to share/trade/sell the game key card like a regular cartridge, which I guess is not insignificant.
Hello Fellow Nerds,
Actually, Rod, no. We are *not* okay. From the moment Abby realized she was standing in a field of dead zombies, my nervous system was running on high. It was legitimately harrowing as an episode. Can’t wait for tonight.
Rod, considering the impact you’ve had on my anime watchlist, I’m finally going to dig into Apothecary Diaries. I avoided it for all the reasons you stated, but some of those reasons are the same reason I put if Frieren for a while. Funnily enough, it took finishing Vinland Saga (another recommendation of yours) to make me come back to it. I use anime to distract me and time cardio in the gym without watching the clock. So obviously I lean towards the more action heavy stuff. Vinland S1 delivered on that and I was super excited for S2. But maaaan it took a turn that, initially I was annoyed with. But by the end, I found myaelf full on sobbing on the treadmill behind how beautiful that conclusion was and how they got us to empathize with Thorfinn.
That anime literally reshaped how I watch anime and went back to give Frieren a second go and I would have been upset if I missed out on it. I think it resonates a lot with people right now because of how the world feels so disconnected that Friren’s journey to find meaning and connection just connects. Just a theory, but it is odd that this era of anime is marked by thoughtful stuff like Frieren or OP power fantasies like Solo Leveling or Chainsaw Man. Even anime with legacies behind them (Boruto, One Piece) that tend to be “power of friendship/fight the good fight” types aren’t in Top 3 discussions anymore
Sup Awesometastic Nerds, I am one of those Nerds who isn’t a true gamer, so didn’t know the story of The Last of Us before they murdered Pedro again. I was in so much grief that I couldn’t even comment on the regular podcast. I don’t trust any HBO show starring Pedro Pascal in it going forward. Not Gonna get me again, I couldn’t even cry on the streets cause Pope Francis decided to die the next day and an Abuela might have mistaken my wailing for the wrong man (I got a Hispanic Catholic parish on my block) . Fuck HBO, I’ll go watch some healthy eating in Sinners for recovery.