Yeah.

Yeah, I don't I don't want to say we are so back too soon, but I really hope we are back.

Well, welcome back to Generations.

I am one of your co-hosts, Peter.

And I am your other co-host, Aubrey.

Aubrey, how are you?

What's going on in the great Midwest?

Very great Midwest.

Um, I've been doing pretty good.

Um, you know, just kind of still winding down after feels like the craziest month ever, um, September was

Um so yeah, I've pretty good been pretty good.

Just I can still kind of feel my feel my body and my brain like stress levels being like you know, you're forgetting you're forgetting something.

You should be worried about something.

There's something big happening.

You need to be you need to be worried.

Um, so I'm just kind of recovering, which is good, but I've been doing I've been doing pretty good.

The you know, weather is still fairly nice, you know, ha ha climate change.

But, you know, it's it's it's still pretty nice, so I'm a little nervous about how cold and and scary and dark it's gonna be here in Wisconsin 'cause, you know, just the famous winters.

So I'm enjoying the little bits of warm weather before before we get to any big snowstorms or anything.

Um that's good.

So yeah, I've been doing pretty good.

I'm also starting a new job on Monday.

I was supposed to start this week, but apparently the background check fingerprint people are doing a whole software update so it took them way longer to actually process my crap.

So

Yep.

So I will actually hopefully start on Monday.

Very good.

Very good.

So yeah.

So what are you gonna be doing?

I'm working as an after after school program.

leader person for elementary school kids.

So yeah, it'll be I my my actual position is called group leader, I think.

So I'll just be watching kids with an like with an after school program.

um for a few hours in the afternoon Monday through Friday, which will be fun.

So I'm excited because I I do miss working with kids when they when they aren't sick.

Um so as kids are funny.

Kids are goofy.

They're very easy to make friends with and they s Just say the funniest things.

So I'm excited.

I'm excited for that.

It'll be kindergartners through fifth graders.

So when I worked at like the summer daycare a couple of years ago Um, I was with four year olds, so they are, you know, very young.

Um but this will be this will be fun, a fun change with kids who can like handle themselves.

mostly um especially the older ones but so not as many of you know cleaning up accidents not that that Not that that is crazy for me, considering I worked in the children's hospital, but Sure.

But still there.

They're a little bit more independent than, you know, the four-year-olds.

So yeah, I'm excited to basically just make a bunch of new friends with a bunch of cute kids and just hang out with them for a few hours a day.

So it's also nice because I'm not like the teacher who has to

who, you know, the kids cannot like a teacher, but I'm like literally just the fun person.

Like obviously I need to make sure they're not like punching each other, but I'm not like I'm leading like one Group activity that the kids don't even have to do if they don't want to.

So I don't really have to be the bad guy.

I can just be like the fun, cool person they hang out with after school.

Right.

So yeah, so I'm I'm excited for that.

But yeah, so anyways, how are you?

Um hanging in there, hanging in there, you know, just uh I too kind of feel like I had to recover from the month of September.

Yep.

Uh but no, it's been interesting.

We've, you know.

Gareth is getting ready for swim at state, so we've had a couple bigger meets and stuff in the last few weeks, but his last meet until districts was last night.

Oh, nice.

How do you think that's the first thing?

So no meat next.

Oh, he did well.

He took first in his two individual events and their relay took first in both uh both the 200 and the 400 free relay.

Very good.

Yeah, so he's doing good.

Funny, I'll have to tell you a funny story, and he doesn't probably don't listen to this, so it's okay.

I'll embarrass him a little bit, but Um, he's been he's been going to the gym and working really hard the last couple months.

And I will say this is an aside.

It's disgusting.

how much more muscle a 16 year old can pack on in two months than an old farmer.

It's just embarrassing.

Right.

But like so last week, last Saturday we were at the meet and I was timing and so He's getting up there to swim and I'm looking at his back and I'm like, are you freaking kidding me?

He has stretch marks on his lats because they've grown that much in the like the two months he's been working out.

That's crazy.

I fire off an email to John Twist, the the Kraken's coach, and say, hey, Gareth's interested in going to the Arizona meet in December.

Yeah.

What do we need to do?

And John says, you know, I'll take care of it.

We'll get him.

We'll figure it all out.

And then he's and he'd come to the meet and he goes, oh, it was fun to see Gareth today.

And he goes But he's getting thick.

He goes, it's a good thing he's such a nice kid because I'd be afraid to say no to him otherwise.

Yeah, for real.

He's no it's he's like it is it's wild to see, but But he's doing well and it's been interesting having Alex here.

Yeah, interesting.

Well, you know, he and Lily stay up real late, hanging out real late and all this stuff and And then as a consequence of that, I get uh awoken at 2.

40 in the morning by the home pods.

Oh, geez.

So here's what happens.

I'm in bed, fast asleep, 2.

40 in the morning.

An alert goes off on your mom's phone and my phone.

The home pods, the office home pods have heard an alert.

Okay.

So, you know, and I think this is from an accessibility standpoint is actually a pretty cool thing.

Home pods are have like you don't even have to turn it on, but if they hear an alarm sounding They'll send a notification to your phone in case you're you can't hear it, if you're hard of hearing, or or something like that.

So they'll send a notification.

So that goes off and I wake up and I'm like, oh, it's 2.

40 in the morning.

What what's going on?

And I go out and I hear this like beep, beep, beep.

And I'm like, I and I I'm it said office.

So I go upstairs towards my office and then he comes walking down the stairs.

He's like, what's that beeping?

And All of a sudden I wake up enough, I'm like, it's the fridge.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

I went down and got a drink of water.

I guess I didn't close the door all the way.

I'm like

That really was crazy.

So just you know adapting to the schedule of a 20-year-old who's, you know, not in school and doesn't have to get doesn't have to get up super early in the morning and all this stuff.

So Yeah.

But no, other than that, we're hanging in there.

You know, work is just work.

It's just keeps going on and sure does.

And you know, other than that, uh, I will say, you know, talked two weeks ago about my my learning sprint.

Yeah.

So I have completed the two books for the month of October.

Very good.

And I've started the Save the Cat Rights a Novel course.

It will be interesting to go through the course.

I like the course.

I think the course is much more geared towards doing the exercises.

So I think it's actually really good.

There's more depth in the book.

So I've read that.

Now I'll do the uh I'll do the course and there's a an exercise at each one of the fifteen beats.

And so I think it's actually gonna work out perfect where I will then go and my exercise for each one of those beats is going to be working on the ideas for my upcoming book.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So it's actually I think it's working nice and going well so far, which is good.

Sweet.

Yeah, I actually also started mine.

I kind of I created a

plan to kind of refresh my math and just physics skills, giving myself like a, you know, loose deadline of the grad school application.

Um due date at the beginning of December, not that I necessarily need to know, you know, rem memorize know all the physics by then.

Sure.

But just kind of like a

way to give myself a date sort of.

Um so I made a plan to kind of go back to calc three sort of.

basics of math stuff like curl integrals line integral's surface integrals that sort of stuff.

Um and

I made a little plan, like a lesson plan for myself, like every w for every week up until the application due day.

I did use Chat GPT to help with this.

This was a very helpful um thing to use that for.

I mean I think for stuff like that it works really well.

Yeah.

So I I used that to kind of make a lesson plan.

Um this week I've kind of fallen off a little bit, but that's okay.

I there's always getting back to it the next week.

Um But yeah, I've just been kind of reviewing sort of basic stuff, reviewing um things like basic physical stuff like you know acceleration, velocity, all that stuff, and then also like the right hand rule and just a couple other basic things that um like the dot product and the cross product, stuff like that.

That's literally the fundamentals to everything else.

So I and I have all of my notes from like every class I've ever taken to.

So I've been kind of going back there and reviewing some stuff and doing like textbook problems, doing uh watching YouTube videos on some things that I couldn't quite remember how to do and stuff like that.

So so that's been actually pretty good.

Um I remember a lot more than I thought, but I also don't remember things that I'm like, wow, I cannot believe I forgot that So it's kind of both ways where I'm like, wow, I you know, I s I still got it.

I'm still chillin' and then I'm like Whoa, what is happening?

I don't remember this very basic thing.

Like, for example, in physics, you always draw a force diagram, like like literally all the time.

If they give you a problem, especially in in j like classical mechanics sort of stuff.

They're like, hey, you we give draw a picture of the thing we're telling you to calculate, draw a force diagram.

And I was like, what is N?

Like why are they drawing N on this?

And then I was like, Aubrey, that's the normal force.

The normal force.

I was like, what is N?

Like why am I forgetting?

I was like, we've got friction, we've got gravity.

Like what?

And then I was like, why can I not remember?

Then I was like, oh I'm just gonna smack myself in the face really quick.

And to be fair, I haven't drawn a force diagram since like physics two.

So it has been maybe physics four.

I don't remember.

It's been a few years since I've actually had to draw a force diagram.

It's not like you can draw a force diagram in any astrophysics problem.

I'm sorry.

Things are too big.

So you can't really do that.

But I just thought that was funny.

I was like Like, oh no, I really gotta go back to the basics here.

But it's fine.

We're getting we're getting back to it.

This what the this is what this whole thing is for, anyways Very good.

So I I have a question and I thought of this because you mentioned you still have all your notes.

In the past, we had talked about how you use good notes.

Yes.

Have you used it recently?

Yes.

Is it working for you?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Because I well, I haven't really tried it.

I kind of moved away from it.

Um In part because, you know, when it comes to handwritten notes and stuff, I've been using my like my super note, the e Ink kind of tablets, because I like those a little bit better.

But I know that they recently did an a version 7, you know, GoodNotes 7 update.

Yep.

And oh my goodness, the GoodNotes subreddit is just post after post after post of people just like Can I how do I go back to good notes five?

This isn't working.

Toolbars are oh yeah, like pe like the whole s I mean s almost daily there's a post that's like What else should we use?

Because I can't use this anymore.

And people are abandoning it left and right.

And yeah, so I just didn't know if you had used it.

Because I stopped using it a while back.

I'd been The few times I dive in and do something like that on uh on an iPad, I've actually been using something called Noteful.

Oh nice.

Uh Noteful is just like a one-time $9.

99 purchase or something, and it's a lot more basic.

But you know, every GoodNotes update since GoodNotes 6, it's like AI, AI, AI, AI.

And I'm just like, I'm like, bite me, bite me, bite me, bite me.

I'm like Yeah, I don't want to notice anything different.

So I wonder if it just hasn't updated.

Like it just I mean, you know, they push out updates, they kind of roll 'em.

So if you haven't updated or it hasn't updated Like I don't know.

People are saying like toolbars are moved around.

Things are in different places on toolbars.

So I just didn't know if you had used it recently.

I just I haven't opened it in such a long time because I either use Like a super note or something like that.

Or again, you know, I've I've been using noteful.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I just I thought it was interesting to see the The anger.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I yeah, I haven't noticed anything yet, so I am a little scared for it to update and all of a sudden

crash everything.

I'll be curious to if you happen to notice um next time you open it, just see if you're still on uh Good Note 6 or if it's updated to Good Note 7 something.

Yeah.

And then I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are.

All right.

Well, to this week's topic, we thought we'd do something a little different and Um here's a funny thing.

This was my idea and then I kind of failed to follow through because it's just been busy and you know anyway.

It's all good.

It happens.

And and part of it was the so our recording for the middle of culture got pushed back to Sunday.

Mm-hmm.

So the movie I had to watch for that, I was able to just put it off.

So I didn't do it for until like Sunday afternoon.

Yeah.

So then it really got to this week and it's like, well, I can't on Thursday because I got the meat and then I couldn't Anyway, long story short, we watched a movie, or rather Aubrey watched a movie, and I had seen the movie, and I think I remember it well enough that we're gonna be just fine.

Sweet.

But we decided to watch or rewatch or talk about our experience with the Marvel movie that came out earlier this year, Thunderbolt's Asterisk.

And and and let's I'm gonna start off by saying we've talked about some Marvel movies and stuff on this podcast before.

We went, I mean, I took you guys to like the midnight showing of Endgame and Infinity War?

I think we just ended.

I want to say just Endgame.

But yeah, we went to like the The night before, you know, midnight showing, yep.

We went to the m like the night before midnight showing.

We got there early so we could sit together, because I think we went to Infinity War at one point and We were like scattered throughout the biggest.

We were.

We were, yeah.

Infinity War we had to like I had to like look to you to like see your reactions.

We kinda had to like look around at each other a bunch to like get each other's reactions and stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So needless to say, we've been big fans of the Marvel movies.

Yeah.

And then Endgame came.

And tell me, Aubrey, what are your thoughts either in general or certainly you can talk about specific uh movies or or Marvel things since Endgame, but.

What's what have been your thoughts and feelings of the Marvel cinematic universe since Endgame?

Um, I It's it feels mixed.

I was still really into the things that came out in like the year and the two years after Endgame, like WandaVision, Loki, um I'm gonna be it's gonna be racking my brain on the other ones that came out after that.

Um but I mean I think in movies we had the big ones was like Spider Man No Way Home.

And I think Shang Chi came out fairly.

I really loved all of those.

I really loved No Way Home.

I loved Black Widow.

I loved WandaVision a lot.

I loved Loki, um, season one.

I say season one because I haven't Finished watching season two.

Um, but a after those, I really kind of fell off the train because I just did not like what they were putting out.

And I I felt like a lot of things were kind of stretches and unnecessary and I just didn't catch the vibe they were trying to they were trying to do.

I just didn't.

So let's give let's give a quick rundown because I'm looking at the Wikipedia page.

And I think it'll be interesting to say.

So we'll talk about these and we can each say however much or little we want about each one of these.

So Technically, I forgot that Spider-Man Far From Home was the end of phase three.

Okay.

So that actually came out after Endgame.

I remember that because that's the one with Jake Gyllenhaal as the villain, Mysterio, right?

Yep.

And then he is sad because he cause Iron Man had just Yeah, and had the glass he got the glasses.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

So I liked that one.

I would say I think out of the three spy Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, I think that's my least favorite.

Okay, yeah.

I think Homecoming and No Way Home are better, but um So then it was interesting because because of COVID We'd go from July 2nd, 2019.

Our next movie is Black Widow, July 9th, 2021.

Yeah.

So there's two years in between.

And then Black Widow was released in theaters and on Disney Plus simultaneously.

Right.

So I agree.

I liked Black Widow a lot.

I think that my only real complaint was some of the special effects are in that movie.

Yeah.

Like which one are you thinking of?

Oh, like at the end when they're on the whole floating school in the sky and there's there are a few things where it's like You go back and watch some of that and you're just like, oh, that's I mean, we're talking this is like the Matrix in 1999 made that look real bad.

So So then we get Shang-Chi, and I really liked Shang-Chi.

I thought it was fun.

And one of my biggest like disappointments in Marvel Cinematic Universe since then is we've had nothing with Shang-Chi.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering like where is he in the lore and all the everything else?

Where is he?

Well, so that's part of the problem.

Yeah so then the next one that comes out after that is Eternals.

Eternals is I didn't Yeah, Eternals was bad.

Eternals is just uh I mean there was little bits about of Eternals that I kind of liked, but like it's so forgettable.

Yeah, I was like, what is happening here?

Yeah So, and then we've got Spider-Man No Way Home.

I like that one a lot.

Amazing.

That was great.

Yep.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Disappointment.

That yeah, that one felt way too big, I feel like, for us to like move past that.

I don't know.

It feels like it's like how much like grander obviously can you can you get after the whole Thanos?

debacle, but it feels like they were it feels like that stuff that happened felt way too big for us to just kind of slide by all of that.

Like And I I don't know.

Yeah.

Well, and here's my other thing.

They done our girl Wanda dirty.

Yes.

They did her real dirty on us.

Yes, they did.

They did.

And I Wanda was like m actually my favorite one.

my favorite character.

Um I mean, yeah, I think she's she had been my favorite for years.

And I was like, no, you can't make me hate her like this.

Yeah.

It was very Then Thor Love and Thunder came out and I was so disappointed.

So was I.

I I kind of like to pretend like that one never happened.

Thor Ragnarok, while I don't think it's the best of the previous Marvel movies, I think it might be my favorite.

Yes, it's so good.

It's so fun.

And and I think here's my personal Here's my personal take on this.

Now, Thor Ragnarok directed by Taika Watiti, but the screenplay was by three different people, not him.

Okay.

Thor, Love, and Thunder, directed by Taika Watiti, and screenwritten by Taika Watiti.

So Tycha Watiti is kind of a wacky person, and he has some wacky sensibilities.

And so you've got Thor Ragnarok that was a Marvel movie directed by Taika Watiti.

Yeah.

And I feel like Thor Love and Thunder is a Taika Watiti movie that just happens to be shoehorned into the MCU.

So that was disappointing.

Yeah, I think that's a good thing.

I also didn't I don't even remember like what was the outcome of Love and Thunder.

Like where is Thor now?

Like like where is he?

Thor has his has that daughter.

Oh, oh Thor has a daughter and they're just like running around like f going to different planets like fighting people.

What the f- What in the world?

Yeah, and that just felt way too I don't know.

I really liked the mix of the silliness and the stoicism in like um in Thor Ragnarok.

Like obviously Thor was goofy, but it like he wasn't too goofy.

He st he still things could still be serious when they needed to be serious, but I don't remember anything ever being serious for the entirety of Love and Thunder.

Well the problem is that you've got you've got the character Gore the God butcher, and it's like super dark and all this stuff, but everything that doesn't include him Is just stupid, silly.

Yeah, yeah.

That was not big disappointment.

Also, big disappointment.

Black Panther, Wakanda Forever.

Yeah.

Like like and I know it's tough because we don't have um oh gosh Yes, thank you.

His name just literally like I was c about to say it wouldn't.

So we don't have him, and so and you're missing I mean, so he was so good as Black Panther.

The without him it just doesn't feel as strong.

And I I mean I thought that uh Namor was an interesting character and I liked some of the ways they changed it from the comics.

But it just didn't quite work for me as well as I was hoping.

Yeah.

All right, Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania.

Uh which one was that?

Is that when he finds his It's the one they go into the quantum realm.

They go into the quantum realm and the the old guy finds his wife.

Yep.

Right.

Yeah.

And then that's the that is that when the birth of the oh what what is she?

Is she just the she's not the wasp.

What is she?

The quantum phasing out girl that's in Thunderbolts.

No, so Ghost is in actually At Men and the Wasp, the second one.

Okay, 'cause I I was like, where where does she come from?

Yeah, that's where that's where she was.

Okay.

So I thought here's the thing.

I know a lot of people really, really dislike Quantumania.

I think it's kind of a forgettable movie, but I thought it was sort of fun.

Yeah.

But it's totally inconsequential.

Yeah.

And then we've got Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which I thought was much better than Guardians 2, but still feels like Like he said, here's the thing.

All of these things, it's like, well, what's happening with them?

Shang-Chi over here in the Ten Rings.

Well, what's happening with him?

And then over here we've got the Eternals and we've got a celestial that's halfway sticking out of the Indian Ocean.

Well, what's happening with that?

Right.

And then we've got Doctor Strange and the multiverse and we've got Mount Wondegore and you know the the whatever books she that she was using and and America Ferrara The uh not America Ferrera, America Chavez, the character I was thinking differ getting actors and characters' names.

We've got America Chavez who's, you know, she can hop these multiverses, but it's like, but nothing happens with these multiverses.

Right.

And and so then we've got Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, and we get Kang, and then everything just dies with that because Kang's now been deep six because of some issues with Jonathan Majors.

No Then we've got Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.

We have this whole story and it introduces Adam.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3, yet.

It's fine.

I mean it's it's again, James Gunn does his James Gunn thing where it's ridiculous and it's irreverent and this, but still is like really heartfelt at moments.

Okay, okay.

But like Adam Warlock, this in insanely powerful character in the comics, shows up and then just like boom gets sidelined.

Oh.

And and so we've got that.

Then the next movie is the Marvels.

Did you see the Marvels?

No, no, I didn't.

Yeah.

I forgot the sequel to Captain Marvel.

Oh.

So Is it like an Avengers thing?

No, I mean it's basically it's Captain Marvel.

Right.

And then it's Miss Marvel from the show, TV show.

Which I also didn't see.

Oh, that one's really fun.

Okay.

She's she is so good.

Like I think is that the one where it starts out with just like this girl who's going to this like nerdy um festival thing and then all of a sudden she like the episode ends with her like doing something That's like, oh, now she has powers.

Is that the one I don't remember?

I don't remember how it starts, but that's a fun one to watch.

The bad guys in it are kinda dumb, but um Kamala Khan is uh a great character and the the per the actor who plays her, I can't remember her name now, I'm blanking on it.

She does a really good job at it.

Yeah.

I did not like the first episode and I thought it was really boring and pushing, which is why I didn't finish it.

I think.

She's just a gem, like, as a character and as an actor and everything.

Yeah, she's fun.

So it's fun to have her back.

Oh, and it also then includes, I think what's her name, Photon.

Anyway, remember the from WandaVision.

The one who gets the powers because she pushes her way through.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So she's in.

And basically somehow the three of them are cosmically linked.

And so they keep swapping places with each other.

But it's like that's all I remember.

I don't remember anything else about it.

And it seems just like inconsequential.

Yep.

And then we've got Deadpool and Wolverine, which You should see that one.

Okay.

It's really funny.

Okay.

It's just like, have you seen the other Deadpool movies?

Mm-mm.

Oh, you have to watch all three of them.

Okay.

Okay.

Just know that there's gonna be times in all three of them when you're laughing so hard you're almost crying and you're like, I feel so bad that I'm laughing this hard.

Perfect.

Okay, good to look at it.

Like really.

Really.

There's things in those movies that I'm like tears in the eye, my eyes going, I can't let my family know that I'm watching this and laughing this hard at this.

Deadpool on Wolverine is very much like that.

Okay.

Um so it's good, but again, it's like this whole other thing that's connected to the TVA from Loki.

Oh, what?

Oh yeah.

No, so that's what happens.

That's what happens.

The whole idea behind this is the TVA like shows up to Deadpool And um things are going bad in his world.

And it's this whole idea that Logan is somehow like an anchor character.

And so Logan, who died in the movie Logan.

Oh.

So not connected, but you know, the X-Men movies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So low old like he dies from he's getting poisoned by the adamantium and all this kind of stuff.

So he dies.

And everything is this bad is happening.

Deadpool decides that maybe like anyway, T VA gets involved and he's like hopping through universes to try and find a version of Wolverine that he can bring back into his world because maybe that will reestablish things.

And there's a whole thing with the void and Eliath.

So all of that stuff from Loki is totally in there.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's funny.

And then there's Captain America Brave New World, which I haven't seen.

I didn't know there was another Captain America movie.

Yep.

That one's out.

Obviously, Sam Wilson is Captain America.

But that one came out.

And then we get to Thunderbolts Asterisk.

Yeah.

So if we go through and look at these, we've got Since Avengers Endgame, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Thunderbolts

the fourteenth movie since Endgame And we're also not counting any of the shows there.

Because and you know why we're not counting any of the shows?

Because if you make me talk about secret invasion.

I will turn off this podcast.

I will turn off this podcast.

I will get up and walk away.

I here's what I'm gonna say.

Have you seen Secret Invasion?

No, but I have heard you talk about it.

Okay.

I'm just gonna say this.

I have never in my life been so angry that I wasted time watching anything.

Anything.

Oh my heavens.

It was that bad.

It was absolute garbage.

So yikes.

So we get to Thunderbolts.

And I mean like look at that.

14 movies.

And we're like, okay, we like Black Widow.

We like Shang-Chi, we like Spider-Man.

Those are the only one of those four.

Oh, and Spider-Man with Far From Home, we like that too.

So I'm gonna say out of 14 movies, there's four movies in there.

That we both okay, 13, because Thunderbolts is the 14th.

13 movies.

There are four movies that we both saw and liked.

Yeah, that's that's crazy.

That's diabolical.

That's rough.

That is really rough.

That is really rough.

And I I was kind of an apologetic of of Marvel because obviously it's been a huge part of our lives.

We were huge Marvel nerds.

Like our whole

family of the five years.

Nope.

Nope.

Like we've rewatched ones like many t like we've we've done movie marathons and oh yeah made them whole th like it was such a huge part that if I heard anyone in like 2021-2022 Say, like, oh, you know, I s things have fallen off since Endgame.

I was like, no, no, give him a chance.

Like, you you don't understand.

Like, I was a huge apologetic.

Because I was like, no, I I don't believe the good things can end with Endgame, but I hate to say it.

I hate to say it.

I really do.

But it has been rough.

It was been rough.

Rough.

And I don't know where things like connect and all the lore and the ever like yikes.

Okay.

So now we have in May Thunderbolts comes out.

Yes.

Now let's briefly let's let's look at at kind of Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts is directed by this name by this dude, Jake Schreier.

He has done, I think, some TV.

and a little bit of film.

He's done three movies.

Thunderbolts was his third movie he's directed, that's all.

Wow.

And then he's done television.

And guess what he's done mostly?

What?

Music videos.

Really?

Okay, so we've got a guy who's done mostly music videos, then some TV, and two movies, and he's got Thunderbolts.

This is what he's getting.

Well, but that's the thing, is I'm looking at this going, oh boy, they've got no confidence in

Right, right.

And we've got a group of people who, okay, we've got Yelena, who we got her from Black Widow, which again, we liked it, but It was kind of released in a haphazard way, didn't do nearly as well.

And and and I think there's still a lot of people who are not quite sure how they feel about it.

Yeah.

So we've got her.

We've got Red Guardian, who you only know about if you watch Black Widow.

Right.

Yep.

We've got Ghost.

Who people maybe sort of remember as kind of the antagonist from Ant-Man and the Wasp, the second Ant-Man movie.

We've got John Walker.

Who is the you know, the Walmart slash wish version of Captain America from Captain America?

Uh no, Falcon and the Winter Soldier Soldier, yep.

That was kinda sort of well re like kind of middling received.

Like everybody was coming off WandaVision.

And then this came out, everyone was like, oh, that's yeah.

Oh, you know, this was filmed during the pandemic, and people were trying to make excuses for it because they were like, oh, there were bits.

Yeah.

Yep.

And and then we've got I I mean, kinda sorta got you've kind of sorta got Taskmaster.

And I'm only gonna say kinda sorta because she gets capped at the very beginning, but she's in all the marketing for it.

So she was in Black Widow again.

Yep.

And then we've got Bucky, who, yep, we had Bucky from we had Bucky from the Captain America movies.

Yep.

So he's a little bit more of a known quantity.

Definitely.

But it's like like you look at this and you go, okay, well Bucky, he's the most well-known of all of these because he was in all three Captain Americas and Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

And you know, he's and and the Avengers, both uh Infinity War and Endgame.

So he's he's been We we've got him, yeah.

And then but it's like, oh, but this is like he's a side character in this movie.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

So I'm not gonna lie.

I was a little nervous going into Thunderbolts.

Yep.

And then it was done.

And what did you think, Aubrey?

I thoroughly loved it.

I won't lie.

Yes.

I very, very much enjoyed it.

I yeah.

Yes.

I enjoyed it the whole time.

This movie is a triumph.

This is the first time, probably for me, because I think Spider-Man No Way Home.

when we really did get Andrew Garfield Spider-Man and Toby Maguire Spider-Man and everybody's like screaming and I got goosebumps from it.

So good.

I haven't, and and then that's it.

Since Endgame, that's the only movie where really I was like, oh yeah, baby.

And it still had some problems, but I was like, okay.

But it was epic.

Like that would be a big movie.

I got to the end of Thunderbolts and I was like, oh, does Marvel have the juice again?

Yeah.

So I was very nervous to go into Fantastic Four, first steps, which I don't know if you've seen that one.

Not yet.

I'm gonna tell you, not quite as good as Thunderbolts in my opinion, or in Eden's opinion.

But really good.

Okay.

Two Marvel movies in a row where I'm like, does Marvel has Marvel got the juice?

Yeah.

Are we back?

So I'm gonna give a super short summary of the plot of this because it's not that Anyway, if you've been watching any of the shows and you've been catching after credits things, we know that there's um uh Allegra, whatever, Defontaine, blah, blah, blah.

Valentina.

The character play Valentina.

The character played by Um, okay, now I can't even remember.

I'm blanking uh Julia Louis Dreyfus.

There we go.

Sorry, golly.

So she's kind of been coordinating, doing some stuff, and she's under fire because she's been a CIA director and they think she's doing bad things.

She's been sending these agents out to do unsavory things, and Yelena's doing one of them at the beginning.

She destroys a lab and uh kind of trying to destroy evidence.

And then what happens is they all all of they all get this um well, so they get Sent on a mission and they're all in a place and she tries to kill them all.

Yep.

And they all figure it out and they escape with the exception of Taskmaster who gets got in there.

So literally in the first five seconds.

Gone.

Yep.

So they get out, they meet up with Red Guardian, who comes and he's trying to help them.

They meet up with Bucky, who's kind of they realize what's going on.

They've released this they they found in that vault this dude who just says he's Bob.

And there's a really weird experience when um Yelena makes c like touches him.

She like touches his hand or something.

Mm-hmm.

Anyway, fast forward a little bit.

They're out there.

Valentina gets Bob.

She tells him he's special.

He was basically given some type of super soldier serum.

And he also, like it sounds like if I'm remembering correct, he was like a meth addict and he's got mental health issues and all this stuff.

And and you come to find out that Valentina's been experimenting on people who basically, to put it bluntly, she doesn't think society will miss if it goes poorly.

Yep.

And Bob was a success.

And Bob then kind of basically she introduces Bob to the rest of the Thunderbolts because she's unlucked the Sentry.

The Sentry is this, you know, she's created the Sentry.

Bob is super powerful.

Like they gets in a fight where he basically toys with all of them.

Yep.

And then is toying with Valentina and is like, you can't control me.

And they flip a little kill switch thing that is supposed to kill him.

Yep.

It doesn't kill him.

Now he becomes the void.

And we have this black version, like all black, this looks like shadow version of Sentry, who then basically just like shadows everybody and takes over the end all of New York City.

Everybody goes into the void.

Including our heroes, and they're trying to save people, and then everybody's just getting just zapped away in a really cool effect.

And everybody is in some of the worst moments of their lives.

They're trapped in the darkest moments of their history.

And Elena kind of figures this out, and I don't remember exactly how it doesn't really matter.

She manages to get out of that and she gets into where Bob is stuck.

And Bander's just like get the rest of the team and eventually.

And this is where, when I kind of mention it to you, this is where this movie really won me over.

I mean, I liked so much of it.

But they get in there and there's a great big end confrontation with Bob.

And if I'm remembering correct, isn't it John Walker who's just like punching him?

in the in the in that thing in the void.

They're like they get in a fight and he's kind of like they're running at him and he's trying to run to get to Bob down this hall or like it's like in the lab and it's all twisting and stuff.

And he starts just like punching him and then like Yelena gets there and stops him.

Yeah.

And it ends when they literally group hug Bob.

Yep, yep.

And Bob is punching the void is w is what ends up happening.

He's sitting there and he's just like punching him just right, left, right, left, and then the void is like Laughing.

Laughing and loving it.

Because that's what the void wants.

Yep.

Yep.

And then they come up.

They come up behind him and they hug Bob and get him to stop punching the void.

Yep.

And and then things kind of go back to normal.

They all come back.

Everybody gets out of their voids.

Everybody's back in New York.

The whole group's there, there's Valentina, they walk towards Valentina and she's like, oh no, no, and like backs up.

And as they walk through, she turns around and there's a whole press conference set up and she introduces them as the new Avengers, hence the asterisk and the name.

And then we get the fast forward where it sounds like now we don't see this, but we've got this group of Avengers in Avengers Tower, but Sam Wilson is off creating his own group of Avengers.

And then we get an end credit scene where they see the Fantastic Four spaceship coming in.

I was wondering what the spaceship was because I did not I did not know what that was.

That's the Fantastic Four spaceship from a different universe.

Because the Fantastic Four do not exist, at least in anything we have seen in this version of the Marvel universe.

Okay.

Okay.

So what were some of the things that you really liked or that stood out to you about this movie?

Yeah, so I first of all I love Elena like so much.

I love Florence Pugh.

She is just like Incredible, probably one of my favorite actresses of all time, honestly.

She steals the show.

Yeah.

Like she she steals this is So good.

It's called Thunderbolts, but this is like Yelena and the Thunderbolts is really what it should be called.

I when you said that before like when we were planning to to make this episode, I was like Okay, well even if it goes bad, at least we get to watch some of Elena because I love her.

I love her so much.

Um I really loved her interaction with the Red Guardian.

Um

That was I in in the part in like probably SmackDab in the middle a little bit past the middle of the movie, um, when she's like talking with him in the streets of New York.

And it's just talking about how alone she is and how he wasn't there uh for the last year and he she wanted him to be there, and I was sobbing.

On the like it gutted me when she at one scene, I'll never forget it.

She turns around and she just looks at him and she's like, Daddy, I'm so alone.

Yeah.

Yeah, with a force.

Or lonely.

I don't remember.

But yeah, Daddy, I'm so lonely.

Yeah.

I I was so like that wrecked me.

I was sobbing like just by myself.

Yeah.

Watching the movie.

I was like, this is

I'm so sad.

This is so sad.

But I like that whole conversation was I just very that that that one really hit me.

Um

Well and and thinking about Yelena, one of the things we see, and that's that's where we get all this backstory where There's a really interesting thing, and I don't know if you notice this, but so the movie starts with her going on this mission to get into a lab.

Yep.

She's just like She's just wearing like gray sweats.

Yeah, she's a little bit more than a little bit.

She gets down there and there's this overhead scene as she's going through knock taking out all these guards.

And it's really interesting because of the way they actually filmed it, you with it top on.

It's like that.

Have you ever seen that picture of a bunch of camels in the desert?

But what you're oh it's this it's this picture of camels in the desert and the interesting thing is what you're actually seeing is the shadows of the desert.

Oh uh I'm gonna send it to you.

Yeah.

I'm gonna send it to you through the chat.

There you go.

Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So since you're just seeing the camels top on, you don't really see them, but what you see is their shadows, right?

So they do something like that with the guard she's fighting.

Where you don't really see them, but you see their shadows as she's taking them out and everything.

Yeah.

Reminiscent of how everybody turns into shadows.

Yeah, that's a good thing.

When the void zaps them into anyway.

But it's like, and then you come to find out that she goes on these missions and then she basically goes back to her apartment alone and just drinks herself silly.

Yep.

Until she gets the next assignment.

Yep.

Because that's all she's got.

That's all she's got.

And we realize that it's a similar thing with like they all have stuff.

Yeah.

So like John Walker You know, you kind of hate him in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Definitely.

And you don't really like him in this movie, which is like is on purpose.

Yeah.

But you understand him more where He's he's basically John Walker is the high school football quarterback who threw the touchdown winning pass for the state championship his senior year.

And that was his peak.

Yep.

That was his that was his peak.

And here he is, he's still going back and he's he's reading the newspa you know, you've got he's reading the Twitter articles and the newspaper stuff and everything about when he was Captain America for that brief moment.

And you get these flashbacks where his wife and his kid his wife left him and took their kid because he wouldn't stop obsessing about the fact that for a little bit he'd been Captain America.

Yep.

Yep.

And you know, we've got Bucky who's trying to balance, I mean, he's been the flippin' winner soldier and now he's what, a congressman?

So That was the funniest.

Congressman Barnes.

Yeah, his like opening scene, they're like, Congressman Barnes, what do you have to say?

I was like, Bucky, what are you doing here?

But it's like But but again, like you said, Yelena is the focal point for us to realize that all of these characters are so broken.

I mean you've got Red Guardian who is inventing in some ways cases, all these things, these amazing things he did is like Russia's version of Captain America.

Yep.

And we have no idea how many were true and are not.

Yep.

But like that's the thing.

That's what I think this movie does so well is it's a movie about broken people.

Mm-hmm.

Supporting each other.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

And that that was just I mean, it's obviously the whole point of the movie, but that's why I liked the music like the movie so much is It's like they all have done horrible things.

They all are in pretty low places in their lives.

But I also really like how it wasn't like friendship can solve everything if you just have fri you know, it wasn't it didn't make light of those situations, but it was like Yes, but if you lean on each other, it does make things feel lighter.

Like the well the emptiness may not go away entirely, but it does feel lighter, which is what Yelena says to Bob.

To Bob.

Yeah.

Which was like, yeah, that was just also like a heart wrenching.

I was like, oh Oof, that was that was good.

That was a banger.

She pulled out a banger line there.

But I in addition to all of that, I So I was worried when I saw John Walker first pull up in that scene.

Is I was like, oh no, I really hate this guy.

I really, really, really hate this guy.

But, and I mean I still don't like him, but Again, like you said, you do understand him more, which so I was like, okay, I understand You.

I may not like you, but I do understand you.

And I do wish we got a little bit more of like either one of those flashbacks when Bob like touches one of them and they get like sent back to, you know, that horrible place.

I kind of wish we had one with ghost or something like that because I s feel like I didn't I d I don't really know about her and what she I I mean, has she been in anything since

Ant-Man and the Wasp.

No, she has not.

Yeah, so that that confused me a little bit.

I also, of course, I don't know any of the comics, so I didn't but I never have, so that's not really a thing.

Of course I was surprised at the sentry and equally confused when there's this random guy, Bob, in the in the vault.

I was like, if is there something I'm missing?

I don't know.

But Uh I did really like, I thought the actor for Bob was really good to be like the Especially just in the beginning where you're like, who is this guy?

Where did he come from?

And he's like, No, I'm fine.

Like, but also clearly not fine, but is acting like he's fine, but also just wants to help.

So he, you know.

breaks out of their escape van and has all of the soldiers shoot at him so that they can get away.

And just I thought that actor just did so well.

with all of that.

Like the the the equally just kind of like creepy.

He's, you know, kind of off the rails, kind of, you know, unstable, going a little crazy, but also you feel for this guy, 'cause he clearly has had some really hard stuff.

happening in his life.

Um one moment that I kind of felt bad for laughing, but I yeah, I think you're supposed to laugh is when they're like in the void trying to get out.

And it's a moment where he's like on meth in like a chicken costume fighting people with a sign and the Red Guardian is like If you punch me or if you hit me one more time with that side, and he's like, sorry, I was on meth.

He's like, sorry.

And I laughed at that.

You know, I was like, ooh, yes.

Um.

But I also really liked I mean I really like Bucky in general, so I was really glad he was in the movie.

I think Sebastian Stan is is great.

I love him.

He is.

He's really good.

Yeah, he yeah, just their whole their whole dynamic with each other, like insulting each other and then still helping each other and making fun of each other.

And and then in the end, having everything be saved by a group hug, I was like, oh, this is this was great.

I loved that.

Yeah.

But there was a couple things that I was confused about.

Yeah, I so I never saw Captain America, the the newest Captain America.

And I didn't finish Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

So but I didn't know why like why at in the end credit scene Like they're like, Oh, did you talk to Sam to Bucky?

And Bucky was like, Yeah, and it didn't go well.

I thought they were on good terms, so I didn't know like did they have some sort of falling out, or like at the end of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they're like not buds anymore or something

No, I think that is stuff from Captain America, uh Brave New World, where they're not quite seeing things eye to eye.

I think that's what I heard.

I haven't seen it either though, because Oh I wasn't interested.

And I heard it was kind of eh.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I didn't I was confused on that.

I was also I was upset that that we couldn't just kill Valentina and be done with it at the end.

Right.

I was like, why do we have to drag her out for another another movie or another whatever where she's the big bad, you know, because she is like the big bad.

Um and yeah, so I thought that was I thought that was funny.

I thought it was fantastic that Bob is just like with them in the Avengers Tower and the last and and how they're like, Well, you know, if he could be the century then we could just fly up there and he's like, Well, I can't really be the century without the other guy.

So yeah it's like so no can't happen.

Can't happen.

Sorry.

But he's like, but I did the dishes.

He's just Such like a cute little guy just reading by the window while they're all like in their in their suits ready to fight or whatever.

I thought that was great.

Oh, and I love the Red Guardian in his like custom

new Avengers tracksuit looking thing.

Yeah, and it has like stickers from like every company that exists on it too.

Like sponsors on it.

Yeah, the Tide.

There's a Peloton sticker on there.

There's like a bunch of other ones.

I thought that was I I do love the Red Guardian.

I I was a little worried that he was gonna be a little too silly with because he does kind of make everything silly because he's just A silly guy.

Um but like the way that they had their conversation, like their mother-daughter or not mother f father-daughter um conversation.

Um Like I thought that was really that was really good and heartfelt.

Um but I thought so too.

Still a good amount of silliness from him being like, you should have a you should make a make a team.

Like this is a team.

This is a and the the um origin of the name

I like out loud, I was like, no way is that where they get thunderbolts from.

The what West Chesapeake Valley elementary school thunderbolts or something.

The soccer team that never won't give it a game.

The soccer team that never won a game.

Yep.

Oh, that was That was so good.

But It was pretty funny.

Yeah, I I'm trying to rem yeah, is there supposed to be any I so I don't remember the origin story of Ghost.

She's just like was a lab creation basically, right?

Yeah, so she was i exposed to like quantum energy from the quantum zone or the quantum realm.

And so she

She has to have her suit to like hold her together and keep her from just like phasing apart.

Yeah.

But she's kind of learned how to I think, and that was the thing is that in Anton Man and the Wasp they at the end, you know, they figured out they thought ways to try and help stabilize her and and that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I remember she Maybe I'm remembering this wrong.

Wasn't there like some sort of guy father figure esque that kind of was just like the one in charge of using her in that.

Yeah, so it was Lawrence Fishburne was the actor, and I'm trying to remember um I'm trying to remember what he was another scientist and he been another character at some point.

Um, but yeah, he he was another scientist to uh I'm trying to look here and see if I remember.

Yeah, Bill Foster was the name.

Yeah.

So Yeah, so 'cause I was trying to kind of remember her origin story because you know everyone was talking about the stuff they had gone through in their like little, you know, fight to who had the worst childhood.

And I was like, I don't even remember what hers was, but yeah, that makes sense.

And Bucky, poor Bucky, spent through so much.

My guy.

Right.

He totally.

Just give him a break.

Give him a break.

But also very glad he was a part of the part of the shenanigans.

But yeah, I I loved the movie.

I thought it was great.

I I just the thing that was always so special to me about the Marvel movies was just the the constant comedic relief, but it also still had some very like heartfelt moments and themes and like they always had balanced that pretty well.

I had thought, and that was kind of just my favorite part, is that you can still laugh and also think, oh, this is such a sick action scene.

Oh, but also there's you know, this deeper theme and it still is, you know, serious when it needs to be serious and stuff like that.

So I thought they they did that and that was that was good.

Um I thought they kind of had that sort of magic that I always liked about the Marvel movies.

So it felt felt kind of nostalgic in a way because just I don't know.

It felt like it kind of brought back some of the nostalgia of of the original, you know, phase.

whatever before endgame it was.

Yeah, no, I agree.

I agree.

Yeah.

And I I thought it was a ton of fun.

I I'm with you.

I thought it was a great movie.

I was really, I mean, I remember when they were approaching thinking to myself, oh boy.

If one of these two movies is gonna be good, I'll bet you Fantastic Four is the good one and Thunderbolts will be bad.

And then Thunderbolts was so good, and I thought, well, that means Fantastic Four is gonna be bad.

Unfortunately, it's not.

I really liked it.

Good, good.

Um, not as good as Thunderbolts.

I think Thunderbolts was the winner, but I think it's just it it's two good movies back to back that I actually cared about that I thought about a little bit afterwards and stuff.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

Maybe, maybe we're on an upward trajectory here.

Yeah, I don't I don't want to say we are so back too soon, but I really hope we are back.

Again, if we're saying I guess this one makes Five out of fourteen movies.

Ain't a great ratio.

No, no, not at all.

Not at all.

Yeah, but it was great.

I'm glad you had me watch it because I've been very fallen off.

But also sad.

Like, like I've fallen off, but I'm like I was just sad about it.

I was like, I'm just I'm sad I've fallen off, but it's because it has sucked.

Yeah.

Because it wasn't good enough.

Yeah, and it felt like a not a personal attack, but I just took it very personally because the Marvel movies and just the Marvel, you know, that just the MCU in general just been so close it to my heart for so long that I just was like kind of the out of side, out of mind where I was like, my feelings can't be hurt if I don't watch them and if I pretend like they don't exist.

So then I can't then I can't be hurt again, but my my heart was not broken for this.

This one warmed my heart.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yes Yes.

Well I don't have any medicine and we've gone a little longer today.

Do you have something, science, that you wanted to share or I completely

That's okay.

Like I say, I think we went a little long because we didn't just talk about Thunder Adults.

We we did our little, you know, we kind of dove a little into the MCU, so I think we can go ahead and Wrap it up now.

We'll be back in another couple of weeks.

But uh if you haven't subscribed, please do.

If you like it, leave us a star rating, maybe some reviews, and share it with other folks, and we'll be back in two weeks.

See ya.