Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the final episode of Nerdificent. For
Speaker 1: the last time, I am one half of your host,
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez. Sorry, sorry, no, you're perfect. I did too
Speaker 1: long of a pause, if you know, an improv like
Speaker 1: you were ready to swoop up and swoop in, so
Speaker 1: we didn't have any dead air. Trying to keep the
Speaker 1: air alive, the fresh air. Yeah, how's it going. It's
Speaker 1: iffy wandy way in the building. How how's the how's
Speaker 1: How are you feeling? I'm feeling good. I hope people are.
Speaker 1: You know, I get being sad about the show ending,
Speaker 1: but you know, you can still the show lives on.
Speaker 1: You can go back and listen to episodes, and especially
Speaker 1: like as these franchises and things they're dropping new you know, Marvel,
Speaker 1: d C, Star Wars, but like everything else we covered
Speaker 1: anime like as there as. You need a refresher before
Speaker 1: a lot of these properties start dropping the next year
Speaker 1: or two. Yeah, but also you can still follow our careers.
Speaker 1: We're going to be doing a lot, so yeah, truly,
Speaker 1: you could just just stay following on on the twitters
Speaker 1: and you won't miss a single thing. Probably today we
Speaker 1: have a couple of guests just to kick off our
Speaker 1: our final episode. But up top we have a man
Speaker 1: who I think you have done the most episodes of
Speaker 1: the show. It is Hector Navarro. Welcome, so happy to
Speaker 1: be here. Guys. How many did I do? I did
Speaker 1: at least two? Was it just two to three? Really? Okay?
Speaker 1: I did m c U. You did Nicktoons and Batman
Speaker 1: Tunes and Batman I did Batman Cool? We do? We did?
Speaker 1: We did a refresher before Infinity War two and that's
Speaker 1: when you brought all your cards. So that's for oh man,
Speaker 1: that was my Marvel Cinematic Universe card set four. I guess. Wow. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I think that was the m c U on much
Speaker 1: we did too, because we did the original one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I think we had you back. You came
Speaker 1: back before the end game. Wow. In any case, it
Speaker 1: has been an honor and absoluting you both. It was
Speaker 1: a pleasure. Thank you guys for having me back. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: of course, we you know, we we had to, you know,
Speaker 1: bring you back to to bring it down for a landing.
Speaker 1: H y'all are some of my favorite folks and I
Speaker 1: have loved nerdificent from the beginning. And uh, you guys
Speaker 1: had a fantastic run. So I hope that you guys
Speaker 1: are really proud, like genuinely proud of a really cool
Speaker 1: thing that you guys did. So congrats always, I guess
Speaker 1: to kick it off, like, if you of those ones
Speaker 1: that we listed with Hector, what stands out for you
Speaker 1: as far as like some of your favorite moments. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's definitely going to be the m c U whichever
Speaker 1: one you bought the cards too, because that's when I
Speaker 1: was like, Yeah, this is this is why we call
Speaker 1: a hector. Hector is going to make sure that all
Speaker 1: of that that we don't miss a single thing. He's
Speaker 1: going to make sure that beat for beat, you know,
Speaker 1: he has his bases covered. I mean even when we
Speaker 1: were talking about you know, um, I think which one
Speaker 1: was we brought you brought like the Almanac or something
Speaker 1: at one time and we were talking about no that
Speaker 1: was on Twitter or something, whether I was asking about
Speaker 1: Wakanda and now this was we should we should set
Speaker 1: this up if he This was before the Black Panther
Speaker 1: movie was released and and everybody was discussing the character
Speaker 1: of Black Panther, the comic book of Black Panther, the
Speaker 1: idea behind it, and you posed such a great question
Speaker 1: as to like, why would this fictional group of people
Speaker 1: allow atrocities to happen if they were in fact advanced
Speaker 1: and they had enough of UM technology or resources to
Speaker 1: like fight back or help. And it's not the first
Speaker 1: time I saw that arguments, not the first time I
Speaker 1: saw somebody bring that up. Certainly not the first time
Speaker 1: I saw a black man bring that up. And so
Speaker 1: I remember going back to my rolodex and being like,
Speaker 1: as far as I can recall, the only in universe
Speaker 1: explanation was that Stanley jack Herby, whoever then worked on
Speaker 1: Black Panther comic books afterwards, like established that it was
Speaker 1: an isolationist country that they closed themselves off to the
Speaker 1: world to protect themselves. And we had a great and
Speaker 1: I like pulled it up and I took pictures of
Speaker 1: like the encyclopedia explanation of that, because I have a
Speaker 1: Marvel atlas that gives you the history of ah fictional country.
Speaker 1: So there's like Wakonda, lat Veria where Dr Doom rules
Speaker 1: and all these different fake places, Genosha where Magneto eventually
Speaker 1: ruled the Mutant Island nation. So Wakonda had that in there,
Speaker 1: and I took pictures and you know, it was talking
Speaker 1: to Iffy back and forth. But then I remember that
Speaker 1: that helped me to appreciate the movie Black Panther more
Speaker 1: because when we went back to talk about the m
Speaker 1: c U and the movie Black Panther and everything that
Speaker 1: it had evolved into. I think part of the discussion,
Speaker 1: which was great, was like Ryan Coogler recognized this. Ryan
Speaker 1: Coogler and his co writer collaborator recognized this, and they're
Speaker 1: black men and they wrote that as part of the
Speaker 1: backstory for the villain Eric Stevens, a k A. Kill Monger,
Speaker 1: and what a villain and what a motivation. He kind
Speaker 1: of wasn't wrong. He just killed people and that's messed up.
Speaker 1: But that's that was a highlight for me. And talking
Speaker 1: about the m c U with you guys and especially
Speaker 1: with Iffy, that was a blast. Yeah, I would say
Speaker 1: for me, aside from that, which I think was really helpful,
Speaker 1: Like for people, you just had a way of talking
Speaker 1: because you we did our Road to Infinity War was
Speaker 1: that what it was or something like that. It was
Speaker 1: insane because you were just able to quickly update people.
Speaker 1: And then there were some movies like you can watch
Speaker 1: this you don't have to. One of my favorite things
Speaker 1: was you actually also have an entire encyclopedia on Nicktoons,
Speaker 1: and so we did our Nicktoons episode, you were able
Speaker 1: to pull that out and talk about the start of Nicktoons.
Speaker 1: I forgot that. What is your favorite Nicktoons show? That's
Speaker 1: a great question if we're not counting, because I think
Speaker 1: we all know Avatar the Last a Band is amazing,
Speaker 1: and if we don't, if we don't consider that, because
Speaker 1: it's something that I think not to dis Nickelodeon or
Speaker 1: Nicktoons in the same way that like I wouldn't dis
Speaker 1: Cartoon Network or like Disney Channel cartoons or you know,
Speaker 1: w B Cartoons or whatever. But like Avatar and then
Speaker 1: Cora felt like they transcended Nickelodeon a little bit, like
Speaker 1: they really kind of right, they got to another level.
Speaker 1: So if we're just if we're excluding them from the
Speaker 1: conversation and we're like, no, this is a straight up Nicktoon.
Speaker 1: But I do want to say also a big part
Speaker 1: of the reason why at hard of The Last Airbender
Speaker 1: was so good was because of that infrastructure of Nickelodeon
Speaker 1: letting those animators do what they did, so like that's
Speaker 1: a Nickelodeon show too, you know that when that was made,
Speaker 1: When and where it was made, and who let those
Speaker 1: creators make it, that's all Nickelodeon. But let's be real.
Speaker 1: My favorites probably Hey Arnold. I'm a big Hey Arnold guy.
Speaker 1: I really love that show grown up. I I dig SpongeBob,
Speaker 1: but I definitely caught it, you know, late nineties, early
Speaker 1: two thousand's on my way, you know, sort of out
Speaker 1: of that age group, and then SpongeBob turned into a
Speaker 1: well this is funny for adults, and it is, but
Speaker 1: by then I was like, yeah, but I'm I'm into
Speaker 1: the Simpsons and you know, South Bark and Family Guy
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff that's more for adults. Um,
Speaker 1: but SpongeBob is great. But my favorites, Hey Arnold, what
Speaker 1: are your guys? His favorite nicktoons? Oh? I think you
Speaker 1: know a lot of classic Wren and Stimpy. You know,
Speaker 1: Rocko's Modern Life, not even just because of the jokes itself,
Speaker 1: but just the art style was always so interesting and
Speaker 1: kind of pushed the boundaries. But then I you know,
Speaker 1: SpongeBob has this special place because I remember the when
Speaker 1: they did show the first ever episode after the Kid's
Speaker 1: Choice Awards, and I was like, oh man, this is wild.
Speaker 1: So I remember, yeah, I was so to me, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is a solid one. Um, it's so funny you
Speaker 1: said Hey Arnold because I knew that. I forgot that
Speaker 1: about you. But I should have known because you remind
Speaker 1: me of Hey Arnold. Great, thanks, I don't remind you
Speaker 1: of Doug. Funny. I'll take it. I'll take it. Why
Speaker 1: why don't you like Doug? Doug's cool? But Doug was
Speaker 1: a dork Doug, you know, like right, Doug was cool,
Speaker 1: But I was always as a kid, I was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: make a move with Patty or just or stop. But
Speaker 1: then again I was that dorky kid. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like spet more. However, I swear to god, if
Speaker 1: Hey Arnold were older, he'd be like the type of
Speaker 1: like white guy in college that tries to teach you
Speaker 1: about jazz, like a he's Ryan Gosling. Yeah, So I'm like, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: he is Ryan Gosling. Um mine, okay, so my favorite.
Speaker 1: So I also grew up adoring Hey Arnold. It tackled
Speaker 1: a lot of different things that I feel like we're
Speaker 1: important it felt different for Nicktoons. Um, just this is
Speaker 1: a shoutout because we didn't even cover Nick Jr. At all.
Speaker 1: They were doing work like I love Little Bear, like, um,
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff that they were doing, but
Speaker 1: Little Bear always played like classical music and it always
Speaker 1: felt really safe but sticky. With Nicktoons, I would say, um, Rugrats.
Speaker 1: I mean I just adore Rugrats. It's great. It was
Speaker 1: just so great and really funny. And again, like when
Speaker 1: you watch it as an adult, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like adult humor in there amongst the parents. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: dr lipshits, Yeah, the child psychologists. Yeah cool. What is
Speaker 1: something that you guys are real proud of looking back
Speaker 1: on netificent, What's something that you're real proud of? Because
Speaker 1: I know here's why I'm bringing this up, because I
Speaker 1: know that you guys get the most amazing positive feedback.
Speaker 1: You get feedback from listeners that is so encouraging and
Speaker 1: so inspiring and so cool. So give me a favorite
Speaker 1: piece of feedback that you guys got, or something that
Speaker 1: you're real proud of that led to some like a
Speaker 1: great response. Yeah. I think until this day, I still
Speaker 1: really enjoyed when we had our comic con meet up
Speaker 1: because it's like one thing too to to like, you know,
Speaker 1: talk with folks online, which is great, but it is
Speaker 1: like something extra cool when you get to see everyone
Speaker 1: face to face and kind of just be around each
Speaker 1: other and enjoy the present, you know, the presence of
Speaker 1: each other. Yeah. For me, I think it's like the
Speaker 1: multitude of guests that we had on which are so
Speaker 1: well versed in every topic that we covered, but allowing
Speaker 1: people to really hopefully open their minds about a lot
Speaker 1: of things, like we've had really difficult, not difficult, but
Speaker 1: like just conversations that a lot of other quote unquote
Speaker 1: nerd podcasts don't have or they're afraid to have, And
Speaker 1: for us it's kind of just like, why can't we
Speaker 1: have these conversations and just be more open to representation
Speaker 1: in comics. When Iffy and I created this show, we
Speaker 1: really wanted to remove gate keeping from the nerd community.
Speaker 1: We want to be like, Okay, if you don't really
Speaker 1: know about this thing, then it's kind of like your
Speaker 1: philosophy hector, where it's like, let me, let's be passionate
Speaker 1: about it and talk about it, as opposed to being like,
Speaker 1: you don't know about this then this isn't for you.
Speaker 1: Instead it was like, oh, you don't know about this, Okay,
Speaker 1: well let's talk about it and bring someone in that
Speaker 1: does know. So. But also just yeah, our conversations about
Speaker 1: getting to talk about queer characters and gaming, getting to
Speaker 1: talk about representation of women and a lot of these comics,
Speaker 1: representation of people of color, and a lot of these comics,
Speaker 1: and like, also how we were kept out because the
Speaker 1: biggest thing that I see in the comic book community,
Speaker 1: in the nerd community is like, well, this isn't cannon.
Speaker 1: They were white, Like this character was white, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's because all those characters were white. That was what
Speaker 1: was allowed to exist in the forties. When these were
Speaker 1: made in the forties and fifties, we weren't allowed to
Speaker 1: be in them. So like, it's not going to kill
Speaker 1: you if we change some of these characters to be
Speaker 1: more reflective, because the truth is to me, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: when they came out, they weren't reflective of the actual world.
Speaker 1: We existed. We were always around. We didn't just appear
Speaker 1: suddenly in the eighties. We were always around. For me,
Speaker 1: It's just like having those conversations about representation. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: is really important. I know, I think it is very
Speaker 1: important because it also just kind of nerdifficent. Was such
Speaker 1: a fun thing to have because you know, I've been
Speaker 1: doing you know, nerdy content for a while. Like I
Speaker 1: remember on stream last Friday, We're going back and I
Speaker 1: was reading my old site, that Black Nerd, which was
Speaker 1: a blog I had when I was talking about nerdy stuff,
Speaker 1: and I pulled it up because I specifically wanted to
Speaker 1: look because I remember, and I've said this on the
Speaker 1: pod before, that no one you kind of shift my
Speaker 1: like idea of what being a nerd is because like
Speaker 1: everyone's like, oh man, you know, the gate keeping and
Speaker 1: all this stuff and what like. You can change from that.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be protective because I wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: like a full blown gate keeper e guy. But definitely
Speaker 1: the way I talked about nerdy stuff is like definitely,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't one never like talk about it that way now.
Speaker 1: But it's like some of the way that ignore that
Speaker 1: annoys me now, Like I'm looking at this is uh.
Speaker 1: I posted this in August fifth to two thousand and eleven,
Speaker 1: so you know, it was like twenty four and and
Speaker 1: I was talking this is when Miles Morales was first,
Speaker 1: you know, uh first like announced and so like I
Speaker 1: wrote a whole thing on like a black Nerds thought
Speaker 1: on a black spider Man and like um and like
Speaker 1: the reading through you know, it's uh like I think,
Speaker 1: I like, it's so funny because I wouldn't treat it
Speaker 1: the same now because my my big whole takeaway in
Speaker 1: the is that like it's like, oh, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not that big of a deal because we've had a
Speaker 1: black nick Fury and all this stuff. And also like
Speaker 1: my whole thing and kind of the way I moved
Speaker 1: now is even if I did personally think it's not
Speaker 1: that big of a deal, I definitely don't want to
Speaker 1: be like stopping on anyone's parade. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be like you. This is why you shouldn't care, because
Speaker 1: if it's a big deal with somebody, it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: Like there's no there needs to be no, there's no
Speaker 1: qualifier for a big deal. And it's and the reason
Speaker 1: that's so funny to me now is because looking at
Speaker 1: that article and then fast forwarding to when uh black
Speaker 1: Panther came out and so many just so many white
Speaker 1: YouTube videos had to be like this is why Black
Speaker 1: Panther is not even important. It's not that important. It's
Speaker 1: not this is it's like you don't get to decide that,
Speaker 1: like like it's like just simply at all, Like I
Speaker 1: can never just you know, decide what's important for you, Danny,
Speaker 1: anyone in here, because what's important you is important to you.
Speaker 1: That's a personal, uh, you know, relationship that you have
Speaker 1: with yourself. But it's so I think in nerd them.
Speaker 1: You see that a lot of like especially like if
Speaker 1: you look at the new trilogy and stuff, and people go, oh,
Speaker 1: that's you like that, how do you how do you care?
Speaker 1: And it's like who cares? Like there are people who
Speaker 1: are like I liked the prequels, you know, like and
Speaker 1: and then they'll be like, because I grew up on
Speaker 1: it and and so that's what I had. And you
Speaker 1: don't get to say that it's not good or that,
Speaker 1: because if you go back and objectively look at the
Speaker 1: original trilogy, it's not it's not slapping as hard as
Speaker 1: someone who came into Star Wars Lady who didn't grow
Speaker 1: up on it. I slept fell asleep during a New Hope,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's not it's it's all these connections and
Speaker 1: I think you nerve them. Um, maybe I'm just laughing
Speaker 1: because I think, like, you're gonna get cast into Star
Speaker 1: Wars thing and someone's going to clip this and they
Speaker 1: can be like and and say that you fell asleep.
Speaker 1: I hope they do. And you know what, that just
Speaker 1: just the same way they kept playing Hector's own voice
Speaker 1: when he got cast in d C Daily like and
Speaker 1: and And that's what's so funny. I was just thinking
Speaker 1: about this when I was on a walk the other day.
Speaker 1: Is the idea of appreciation is so much different, right,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like before and I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: yank this. Super producer Joel brought this up of the
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna mess it up, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it anyway. I think it was the French Revolution
Speaker 1: or the new wave film revolution, where you had critics
Speaker 1: criticizing the films and and they and that thus caused
Speaker 1: the filmmakers to try and step it up so that
Speaker 1: it was like a friendly kind of marrying between criticism
Speaker 1: and creation. And I think now the idea of nerd
Speaker 1: um is to blindly like it and not call out
Speaker 1: anything about it, like you know, like, because I'm a
Speaker 1: DBZ fan, I can't call out that Mr Popo is racist.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, I can appreciate the parts of DBZ
Speaker 1: that like and call out that this is a caricature
Speaker 1: of sambo uh that was used in this and you
Speaker 1: know it's it's interesting and I think that's the soul. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to what you said if
Speaker 1: you about like things being important to people, even if
Speaker 1: you took away like all those YouTube videos that were
Speaker 1: like this is why black Panther actually doesn't really matter,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, Like even if you took away representation,
Speaker 1: which is important to people, it's really important that we
Speaker 1: show studios that they can bank on these Like that's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing, Like it was aside from yes, all
Speaker 1: of that, but like, if we're still talking about the
Speaker 1: white gate keepers in our industry, they need to see
Speaker 1: Unfortunately we still in order to push for movies that
Speaker 1: are representative of us, we need to show them that
Speaker 1: we can make money. Um, because they're still controlling so
Speaker 1: much of these decisions and so much of what gets
Speaker 1: funded and what doesn't get funded. I mean it sucks,
Speaker 1: but that's like also why it was important that it
Speaker 1: did well. Yeah. I think also it's just you know,
Speaker 1: as people who are in the industry, there's so much
Speaker 1: information that we're privy to before the public and seeing
Speaker 1: the public's reaction. It's just so funny to know how
Speaker 1: confident people are when they know nothing, Like it's so
Speaker 1: interesting to see someone describe and try and fully explain
Speaker 1: something that you know how it's gonna work. You know,
Speaker 1: you you you know what what's being worked on, you
Speaker 1: know the steps, and people just doing full through Twitter
Speaker 1: threads that you're reading and you're like, oh, you're just wrong,
Speaker 1: and what's gonna happen is you're gonna be wrong and
Speaker 1: you're just gonna move on with your life and not
Speaker 1: even taken into the fact all these claims that you've made,
Speaker 1: all this you know, pressure you've put on someone based
Speaker 1: on just your assumption. And I think that's what starting
Speaker 1: to drive at me is like you people are just
Speaker 1: so openly, loudly wrong and so confident in speaking on
Speaker 1: things they know nothing about it. And I think that
Speaker 1: could be said about many things that male persons. Sorry
Speaker 1: all so agreeing, Yeah, I just want to say too,
Speaker 1: I just want to say back to Iffy. For a second, Iffy,
Speaker 1: that was a beautiful compliment you gave me where you
Speaker 1: said that I had changed your idea of what a
Speaker 1: nerd is, because I totally agree with you a hundred percent.
Speaker 1: I think differently about things today than I did when
Speaker 1: I was in my twenties than I did when I
Speaker 1: was in my teens. You know, it's okay to be
Speaker 1: able to change your mind about things j K. Rolling.
Speaker 1: It's okay to be able to to to to update
Speaker 1: and to realize, you know, what's important. And I was
Speaker 1: more protective and defensive and traditional with the stuff that
Speaker 1: I loved, And as I got older, I looked at
Speaker 1: the context. I looked at the historical context, and I went,
Speaker 1: why are the things that I like the way that
Speaker 1: they are? Why are the things that I love? Um,
Speaker 1: it's like, so why do I love them so much?
Speaker 1: Are they a strong enough idea and strong enough important? Like?
Speaker 1: Are they important enough to me that I can hear
Speaker 1: somebody lob and honest criticism at it and still be
Speaker 1: able to take it. I love Spider Man, and there's
Speaker 1: real genuine problems within the story of like he ends
Speaker 1: up marrying a supermodel, Like that's not super healthy. That's
Speaker 1: not a great message to give to young boys. And
Speaker 1: that's just one small example. There's there's lots of examples
Speaker 1: where nerdy stuff, you know, Like you mentioned you guys
Speaker 1: are talking about all the big franchises have to do that.
Speaker 1: They're really a focus of what's happening at a larger scale,
Speaker 1: uh in the world at the time. And what's happening
Speaker 1: right now is that people are becoming more aware of
Speaker 1: others experiences. They're becoming more aware of what is important
Speaker 1: to other people, and they're asking and demanding for their entertainment,
Speaker 1: at the very minimum, to be equal and fair and
Speaker 1: representative of different people. I think people are also asking
Speaker 1: for more important changes to happen, and and hopefully that's
Speaker 1: going to happen too. But at the very minimum, we're
Speaker 1: talking about entertainment. When people go, oh, it's just entertainment,
Speaker 1: just let it be entertaining. Don't involve politics into it,
Speaker 1: don't bring in social justice into it. I I have
Speaker 1: said this over and over and over again. There is
Speaker 1: no such thing as art without politics. That is part
Speaker 1: of it. It's an expression of what's happening in the world.
Speaker 1: And if you're a fan of this stuff, and if
Speaker 1: you love this stuff, I think that sometimes it can
Speaker 1: be tough to look inward and to look at the
Speaker 1: stuff that you love and honestly criticize it. But I
Speaker 1: also think it can be tough to in that space
Speaker 1: of loving an entertainment thing to look around and point
Speaker 1: at your peers and point at your colleagues and go,
Speaker 1: you know what, what you're doing is unhealthy. What you're
Speaker 1: doing is gate keeping. What you're doing is whether or
Speaker 1: not you know it, it's upholding white supremacy. It's upholding
Speaker 1: the patriarchy like it's sexist, it's racist, it's all this
Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't have to be that way. And you
Speaker 1: may think, no, I'm just complaining about how I don't
Speaker 1: like the new Star Wars movies. Well, why well, I
Speaker 1: don't like so and so and so, Well why not?
Speaker 1: Are you consistent in that feeling with other with like
Speaker 1: the rest of the historical context of that particular franchise,
Speaker 1: and are you aware about the rest of the historical
Speaker 1: context and you know what it does and how it appears.
Speaker 1: And it's such a bummer to say this, but we've
Speaker 1: come a long way. We have a long way to go,
Speaker 1: and in terms of the nerd sphere like it's it
Speaker 1: may it may see like it's small potatoes, but really, truly, really,
Speaker 1: I think there needs to be much more work done
Speaker 1: at the level of like calling out toxicity on the Internet,
Speaker 1: especially because those big studios, like Danny was mentioning, they
Speaker 1: are paying attention to the vocal minority. They're paying attention
Speaker 1: to the people that are very loudly saying we didn't
Speaker 1: like Star Wars at the Last Jedi because this, this,
Speaker 1: and this, and then the Disney response to that and
Speaker 1: then goes and makes their third movie and apparently, allegedly
Speaker 1: according to the rumors, they really did look at how
Speaker 1: people responded and then they sort of course corrected. And
Speaker 1: it's like to some people they course corrected in the
Speaker 1: right way because they made a movie that they enjoyed,
Speaker 1: and to others, they course corrected in the wrong way
Speaker 1: because it went back on some of those ideas that
Speaker 1: a lot of people connected to that were like feminist
Speaker 1: ideas or you know whatever. So but it's all varied
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of different nuance and everything that
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But I really do think that, like in
Speaker 1: the same way, it's a bummer to have to ask people, Hey,
Speaker 1: call out your relatives on the internet, especially on Facebook
Speaker 1: and stuff when they're spreading like misinformation about political issues,
Speaker 1: because that can too harm. Like you have to call
Speaker 1: out your relatives. Uh, and it's a bummer, But same
Speaker 1: sort of thing like call out your friends, call out
Speaker 1: your peers. And when you see somebody online, especially like
Speaker 1: somebody like Danny and Iffy who they're they're doing the work.
Speaker 1: They put themselves out there, they talk about issues they're
Speaker 1: important to them, and then they always get knuckleheads coming
Speaker 1: in and being assis about it. If you see an
Speaker 1: ass go in there and be like, you know what, look,
Speaker 1: this is why you're mistaken. Boom. And it just helps
Speaker 1: because it's another voice that is being added to the
Speaker 1: voices that are saying we care about this stuff and
Speaker 1: we want to share it with people, and we don't
Speaker 1: want to be exclusive. We want to be inclusive and
Speaker 1: just be able to enjoy all the stuff we enjoy. Well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask what message you have for the
Speaker 1: nerd community. That's the message. Baby did it? You did it?
Speaker 1: Um Hector. Thank you so much for coming on our
Speaker 1: final episode and all of these episodes that you've been on.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you Danny for changing my
Speaker 1: mind about what a nerd is. And thank you Iffy
Speaker 1: for changing my mind about what a nerd is because
Speaker 1: before if you, I didn't know nerds could bench, but
Speaker 1: now I know they can bench. Seriously, they can. They
Speaker 1: can take on animals that are much larger than them
Speaker 1: strength to strength and be able to defeat him. Thank
Speaker 1: you Iffie, you know. But yeah, no, that's it, thank you,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of buff nerds out there getting
Speaker 1: it up. Absolutely, Um, Hector, where can everyone catch you?
Speaker 1: What are your socials? Find me on the internet at
Speaker 1: Hector is funny on Twitter and Instagram. And uh, that's it,
Speaker 1: And thank you so much again guys for having me.
Speaker 1: You guys are awesome. Yeah, we're going to take a
Speaker 1: really short break and then we'll be back with more
Speaker 1: guests right after this and we are back. Hector is
Speaker 1: such a joy, always such a joy. Um. But we wanted,
Speaker 1: of course, on our final episode to talk to super
Speaker 1: producer Joel Monique, who joined us this year. Hey lady, Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up guys? What I'm sad this is the last one.
Speaker 1: It's been emotional for me as a person, but I
Speaker 1: defendn't see you guys once a week. We still have
Speaker 1: our long standing Netflix parties. That was getting it in. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's a what what a what a wild ride it's been.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you've been on quite a few eppsh yourself,
Speaker 1: you know. And so do you have a favorite episode? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: uh the Soak episode, which you know happened so recently
Speaker 1: but was such a blast. It was so fun to
Speaker 1: talk about my girl. I'm obsessed with her um And
Speaker 1: then the chance to defend aunt Man as potentially the
Speaker 1: greatest superhero comic book movie of the m c U
Speaker 1: was amazing because I didn't think anyone would want to
Speaker 1: hear that argument. So I appreciate you guys letting me
Speaker 1: hear that out here on I guess I would because
Speaker 1: you're so heavily and try inn in the nerd community
Speaker 1: as well. Like, what are some things that you would love,
Speaker 1: Like what are the messages you would give people one
Speaker 1: who maybe like don't necessarily feel they have a place
Speaker 1: or have been gate keeped. And then like things that
Speaker 1: other people can do to kind of make this a
Speaker 1: more welcoming space. What you can do to make this
Speaker 1: a more welcoming space? Is when someone tells you why
Speaker 1: they like something, listen to it. Similar to Hector's take, um,
Speaker 1: which was, you know, maybe more about not being sort
Speaker 1: of like a direct asshole. My my take is more
Speaker 1: like you might learn something if you hear why people
Speaker 1: are enjoying the new thing, right, Like I feel like
Speaker 1: I have this debate with the Star Wars people a lot,
Speaker 1: especially like first gen Star Wars people, and then I
Speaker 1: had to learn it too. Here's the craziest thing. You
Speaker 1: can be the most woke nerd person, or at least
Speaker 1: think you are, and once you get older and this
Speaker 1: new generation comes in and you're like, listen y'all. Because
Speaker 1: I was ten when the prequels came out, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: these are not great. They're not the Star Wars I'm
Speaker 1: used to. They're a little slow. I hated Part three.
Speaker 1: And then some kids came out they're like, no, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: How dare you doubt our queen? Look at her dresses?
Speaker 1: And I was like, I do have to give the
Speaker 1: dresses props. They're like, look at all that she does
Speaker 1: as a politician, in the fact that we have this
Speaker 1: like strong female politician in the front. Look at how
Speaker 1: we start um equating droid like usage, especially as like
Speaker 1: slave labor, and start you to open up those conversations
Speaker 1: in our galaxy far far away like this like network
Speaker 1: of things expanded, not just in a technological aspect, but
Speaker 1: from a fan basi. And so for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I love the prequels, and I hadn't learned that the
Speaker 1: hard way because I was certainly out there trashing them
Speaker 1: and anybody who liked them, Like you don't know Star
Speaker 1: Wars in So definitely take a listen to somebody like
Speaker 1: something you don't, and you just take the opportunity to
Speaker 1: hear what it is they're enjoying and why they like it.
Speaker 1: You'll probably learn something not just about yourself, but about
Speaker 1: what your fandom has lacked. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: great way to start, like allowing people in the other thing,
Speaker 1: I would say, it's like, go to conventions when it's safe.
Speaker 1: Not now to convention now it's not a good scene,
Speaker 1: but when they're when it's safe. Um. I used to
Speaker 1: think I couldn't go to conventions because they're super expensive,
Speaker 1: and I was like, how will I ever managed to
Speaker 1: do this? And and hotel and people, But if you
Speaker 1: can get close and even like your local conventions are
Speaker 1: going to have amazing artists, and I think as fun
Speaker 1: as like a whole h can be. It's fun to
Speaker 1: be quote in the room where it happened. But it's
Speaker 1: also really cool to like watch an artist grow by
Speaker 1: like going up to their table and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: my goodness, look at all the like cool work you've done.
Speaker 1: That's really sweet. And then you come back next year
Speaker 1: and they're like, here's my first comic I self printed,
Speaker 1: and you're like, wow, that's so cool, Like I'm really
Speaker 1: proud of your progress. And then two years later they
Speaker 1: have a deal with a major thing, and like that's
Speaker 1: how you become involved in the community. Like that, to
Speaker 1: me is a communal aspect. The stars are awesome and
Speaker 1: great and it's so wonderful to see them do their thing,
Speaker 1: but it's the people that are just getting started out
Speaker 1: who are so like on fire passionate about their work
Speaker 1: I think makes the community the strongest. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to add to that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I guess what what things that
Speaker 1: are coming out or like things in our fandom franchises, movies, whatever, comics,
Speaker 1: what are you excited to see in this upcoming year
Speaker 1: or hopefully things that are going to eventually come out.
Speaker 1: M yes, there's a lot of good stuff keeping my
Speaker 1: Star Wars trend. Debra Chow she is phenomenal if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen Flowers in the Attic perfect, but she's also
Speaker 1: doing all of the Star Wars stuff and she's so, so,
Speaker 1: so talented. She directed two of the Mandalorian episodes, but
Speaker 1: now she's taking on Like, I believe the Han Solo
Speaker 1: series is going to be about what was happening when
Speaker 1: Han Solo was hiding out on tattooed in and like
Speaker 1: how was he protecting Luke from Afar and undercover Dad?
Speaker 1: Sounds like the best story ever and I'm very much
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. Obviously, the Wonder Woman movie can't
Speaker 1: get here fast enough. I have so many questions. A
Speaker 1: lot of my faves are in that. Um so I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing that. And then you know, I
Speaker 1: don't ever The Last Airbender. It is really having a
Speaker 1: renaissance right now with addition to Netflix, and if Nickelodeon
Speaker 1: wanted to pick that up and do anything with another avatar,
Speaker 1: I love Kyoshi. I wouldn't mind seeing what happens after Cora.
Speaker 1: We could go back and do origins of the first
Speaker 1: one post when he gets his powers, Like, what are
Speaker 1: the first missions? He's going on? So many cool aspects
Speaker 1: of that series. Even if you just wanted to give
Speaker 1: me adult ag I'm not complaining about it. Whatever you
Speaker 1: want to do with Avatar the Last Airbender, I'd be
Speaker 1: here for it. Let's do it. Yes, same. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe we should give Shamalan one more try. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe give him one more crack at it, stop it stop,
Speaker 1: zero more try three rocks for Earthbending no fail. Wait,
Speaker 1: have you guys seen the videos where they do the
Speaker 1: side by side of what it's like to like what
Speaker 1: the fight was in the television series versus what the
Speaker 1: fight was in the movie. No, no, I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to find that. It's the saddest thing in history.
Speaker 1: Fight with the Master Airbender guitar Fight with the Master
Speaker 1: Airbender brilliant, gorgeous, wonderful in the animated form. You can
Speaker 1: drop us a link right now because we have to
Speaker 1: take another quick break and then we'll be back with
Speaker 1: one final guest. Right after these messages, and we are
Speaker 1: back final episode of Netificent and now we are joined
Speaker 1: by one of my dear friends, Mr Christopher Smith Bryant. Hey,
Speaker 1: Hi guys, how are you doing good? Good? Are you
Speaker 1: emotional having the last show today? I mean, I think
Speaker 1: we've been pretty pretty chill. I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be yeah, you know like that. I always call it
Speaker 1: the Will Smith moment. That's that's that's how I deal
Speaker 1: with emotion. That's that's how the TV taught me. How
Speaker 1: to deal with emotions as a black man is you
Speaker 1: have to let it happen. Then you come back to
Speaker 1: the empty house like I'm gonna log into an empty
Speaker 1: zoom on next Tuesday, where all my friends. Chris, you
Speaker 1: you were on for a couple of our episodes one
Speaker 1: of our. One of my favorites is our Queer Characters
Speaker 1: in Gaming, which we just ran for Pride a month ago.
Speaker 1: You were also on our SIMS episode I remember with
Speaker 1: Claire Max. It was funny because both episodes we talked
Speaker 1: about how nerd culture is very important for any marginalized group,
Speaker 1: especially marginalized groups that are using nerd culture for escapism.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I was just having an interview about Comic
Speaker 1: Con this year because it was all online and I
Speaker 1: was like, I felt like it was so amazing because
Speaker 1: it was finally super accessible for the groups that need
Speaker 1: it the most, which are marginalized communities that don't usually
Speaker 1: have access to comic Con and now they feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like they could because it is such a privileged thing
Speaker 1: to go to Comic Con. But really the people who
Speaker 1: need it the most are people marginalized groups in the
Speaker 1: middle of you know, the country who need that community.
Speaker 1: So for them, I think this year was actually really
Speaker 1: a brilliant year for that. Yeah, now that that's super
Speaker 1: like That's what I was thinking about too, is just
Speaker 1: especially just like even people who maybe have the financial means,
Speaker 1: but just the like I don't know, get all the
Speaker 1: walking around, getting around this pack city, or if you
Speaker 1: if you're not comfortable around large groups of people, you
Speaker 1: can finally like get all the info and all that
Speaker 1: and still be at home and not dealing with, you know,
Speaker 1: people pushing you out the way so they can get
Speaker 1: a toy from Hasbro. The Funko pop like collector Bros.
Speaker 1: Are slightly that's just as a scary level that I
Speaker 1: didn't know existed, Like especially when you go to their
Speaker 1: house and they're just like all staring at you all
Speaker 1: of the little you know eyes, the funk pop eyes.
Speaker 1: It is kind of elitist and the fact that they'll
Speaker 1: nab them, right, you have to have the accessibility to
Speaker 1: be able, and again we're talking about something that's like
Speaker 1: less than thirty dollars. So having the accessibility to be
Speaker 1: to get to be in San Diego, get to like
Speaker 1: stay there. Again, I've talked about this. The hotels that
Speaker 1: weekend are insane. And I had like I got to
Speaker 1: stay at the Marriott for one night because like another
Speaker 1: company was paying for it. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I just instead of changing rooms because I
Speaker 1: normally have to change rooms a bunch, I'm like, I'll
Speaker 1: just I'll just stay another night. And I called down
Speaker 1: at the front desk. I'm like how much is it?
Speaker 1: And they're like, oh, it's eight hundred dollars. I'm like, okay, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I'll sleep on someone's caught. But like just
Speaker 1: being able to be there, like you said, or the
Speaker 1: badges are like three hundred four hundred dollars in um.
Speaker 1: So they nab these toys and then they sell them
Speaker 1: for like three four hundred bucks, and it's like it's
Speaker 1: just like you were saying, it's keeping the people who
Speaker 1: actually need this community, who could who could benefit and
Speaker 1: enjoy some of this, It just keeps them out. So
Speaker 1: I'm just hoping that they continue to live stream panels
Speaker 1: even if they have them in person. I would love
Speaker 1: they live streamed them more of them, and I would
Speaker 1: love if the exclusives are just mass you know, available
Speaker 1: to the masses like they were this year, you know,
Speaker 1: online and everything, because I want people, especially people like you're,
Speaker 1: people who have disabilities, people who have UH. So for
Speaker 1: the viewers who don't know, I'm on the autism spectrum,
Speaker 1: and crowds for me are very difficult, so I can't
Speaker 1: imagine especially you know, UH people who might I hate
Speaker 1: using this term, but lower functioning people in the spectrum
Speaker 1: going who can't go out to comic Con. I want
Speaker 1: them to have the ability to, you know, to feel
Speaker 1: like they are a part of it, because community, especially
Speaker 1: in in the geek world, is one of the most
Speaker 1: important things that we can have. Is is community, so
Speaker 1: that people who might feel lonely or who use this
Speaker 1: as some sort of advice, UH can can use this
Speaker 1: as a way to bring people together rather than be
Speaker 1: more and more further divided, I would say that's what um,
Speaker 1: being that this is your last show, that's what I appreciate. Really,
Speaker 1: what you guys created is you created a voice in
Speaker 1: the nerd community that is very needed. That is like,
Speaker 1: it isn't just a white, cis male space. Um, many
Speaker 1: people need need this community, and I think that you actually,
Speaker 1: you guys created more than just a podcast that you know,
Speaker 1: people could bring facts. You gave a voice to I
Speaker 1: think people who didn't hear themselves heard in any other
Speaker 1: you know, sort of nerd media. Yeah, thank you very
Speaker 1: much for that, Chris, for you, Um, can you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about the comic companel that you
Speaker 1: did because people can catch that right now, they can
Speaker 1: watch it. Oh yeah, I think that's a cool thing
Speaker 1: about Both me and you had panels about feminism, right
Speaker 1: like yours was about. Can you tell you first? What
Speaker 1: was your sign? I think mine the title I'd have
Speaker 1: to look up, but it was essentially like representation of women.
Speaker 1: We actually were featured in Huffington's posts, which I'll tweet
Speaker 1: out from the Nerdificent thing. But we had an entire
Speaker 1: article dedicated to our panel that talked about tropes like
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that we tackled with, like
Speaker 1: how the misrepresentation of women in media still today in
Speaker 1: and how we can fix that, because I think it's
Speaker 1: a lot to point out like they do this, but
Speaker 1: we also pointed out like here's a way that you
Speaker 1: can fix that. So, um, I'll drop a link. It
Speaker 1: was really panel. It was really awesome. I saw some
Speaker 1: of the clips of it, and you are so well spoken,
Speaker 1: and it was such a great panel. Mine was a
Speaker 1: similar Mine was the Power of Female Friendship and it
Speaker 1: featured the cast of Sailor Moon and also our good
Speaker 1: friends Sam Maggs, who is the writer of Captain Marvel,
Speaker 1: and it was It was cool because it was a
Speaker 1: panel about Sailor Moon with also being more than Sailor Moon.
Speaker 1: It's about like how important it is to discuss female
Speaker 1: friendships in nerd media and how there are very few,
Speaker 1: like even a lot of the superhero books it's a
Speaker 1: female that's working alone, and how important it is to
Speaker 1: have talk about relationships in writing and in nerd media. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're totally right. I wanted to talk about just
Speaker 1: even the the exclusive real big, real quick before jumping
Speaker 1: uh back into this, but they're back in the day,
Speaker 1: I knew people who got you were talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: getting the free hotel. But I knew people who got
Speaker 1: free tickets to Comic Con from sellers. They'll get their
Speaker 1: ticket and all they needed from them is to sit
Speaker 1: in the Hasbro line to help them buy it up.
Speaker 1: So they're out here like abusing the system to do
Speaker 1: like like, there are systems in place meant to kind
Speaker 1: of make exclusive more accessible, and people are going out
Speaker 1: of their way to go around it and sell them
Speaker 1: for way too much money. And I think it really
Speaker 1: really kind of sucks that people it was like, we'll
Speaker 1: do that, but I think, yeah, I think that's that.
Speaker 1: That was the one thing that it's funny because you
Speaker 1: know who who shot you. You know the other podcasts
Speaker 1: that do their whole tagline is a movie podcast that
Speaker 1: isn't three white dudes talking. And it was funny because
Speaker 1: that's essentially what we wanted to do with Nerdificent words,
Speaker 1: like we we noticed this space and even though now
Speaker 1: like even though there are there are a lot of
Speaker 1: things that were around before us and came, but I
Speaker 1: think now people are actively kind of searching for different
Speaker 1: voices out there. But like it felt like when we
Speaker 1: were coming together to make ner deficent, it was like
Speaker 1: you there, there weren't anyone kind of propping up these
Speaker 1: like diverse voices. It was the same, you know, the
Speaker 1: same white voices you'd hear. And that's why it's even funny,
Speaker 1: uh seeing you know, G four and everyone being like,
Speaker 1: I hope they have all you know, the same hosts back.
Speaker 1: And I was like, do you though, do you want
Speaker 1: the same? Like we've come so far from when G
Speaker 1: four went down, you want the same? It was all
Speaker 1: that was the unfortunately thing. I loved G four growing up,
Speaker 1: but all the hosts were like white people and and
Speaker 1: and you have people being like, oh well, it better
Speaker 1: be the same host and I was like, it better
Speaker 1: not be the same host. It will And I think
Speaker 1: it's because you know, people don't realize how weird that
Speaker 1: would look, you know, people and it and it And
Speaker 1: that's why I kind of talked about in the hector
Speaker 1: portion this attachments and nostalgia for nerds, just like, oh,
Speaker 1: you want the same thing, and I think that's the
Speaker 1: same that that'll find That'll be that problem with with
Speaker 1: Star Wars and every time we see there are people
Speaker 1: who put find their nerd thing, and they put in
Speaker 1: a time capsule and I was talking with a friend
Speaker 1: and she was talking about a show she was watching
Speaker 1: with her partner right and the show was like a
Speaker 1: mid show, like not even like this great show, but
Speaker 1: the show had so much emotion attached to where she
Speaker 1: was at the time that she saw it. So they
Speaker 1: finally got to the final episode and like she was
Speaker 1: crying because of just knowing how far she come at
Speaker 1: that time in her life and what she was going through,
Speaker 1: and she was laughing how she was like she didn't
Speaker 1: know how to explain to her partner that no, the
Speaker 1: show didn't make her cry. She's you know, it was
Speaker 1: more just that, but she almost it was almost too
Speaker 1: much to explain. I was like, oh, just say the
Speaker 1: show made you cry then, like that'll be easier. But
Speaker 1: I think that's what people do to nerd them is
Speaker 1: especially like when you see it and even I do this,
Speaker 1: but I think it's it's good to kind of like, uh,
Speaker 1: notice it and don't become to those people who make
Speaker 1: your identity these nerd things so that when something is
Speaker 1: changed about it, it feels like they're trying to change you.
Speaker 1: And that's what you're seeing when you see people have
Speaker 1: these violent, aggressive reactions to characters changing, people changing, it's
Speaker 1: because they put so much of themselves within this property
Speaker 1: that they don't own or have control over that when
Speaker 1: it changes, it feels like someone's trying to change them
Speaker 1: and they have to fight for it. And really it's
Speaker 1: like appreciating what you got from it and not not
Speaker 1: attaching yourself to it. You know, like you can be
Speaker 1: attached to it, but it you shouldn't make yourself a
Speaker 1: part of something you And I think this goes beyond
Speaker 1: nerd things. I think in general, never make yourself a
Speaker 1: part of something you truly can't control, because you will
Speaker 1: be put in that position eventually. Well. And it's like
Speaker 1: you always, even if it's real life or nerd culture,
Speaker 1: you will always see you'll always be disappointed by your
Speaker 1: heroes in some way. And I think the problem is
Speaker 1: is that people like I remember when the last Star
Speaker 1: Wars movie, uh god, what was it? The one that
Speaker 1: piste everyone off? The Last Jedi came out and a
Speaker 1: lot of these nerd bros had this violent reaction seeing
Speaker 1: Luke Skywalker become and end up such a flawed human being,
Speaker 1: where in their mind that might have been Mark Hamill
Speaker 1: and that in that time might have been like a
Speaker 1: father figure, this person that lifted them up. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. The Last of Us two is
Speaker 1: a great example because that's something that's dividing the nerd
Speaker 1: culture in a way. I think people put so much
Speaker 1: of their self on the first game, and when the
Speaker 1: second one broke everything down, they couldn't appreciate what was
Speaker 1: new because they wanted the same feelings that they had
Speaker 1: with the first game. Again. I also think that there's
Speaker 1: a huge thing in what you were saying, which is
Speaker 1: like the nerd community collecting versus community, Like instead of
Speaker 1: focusing on collecting every Funko pop or every this comic
Speaker 1: con should be about the community and it should be
Speaker 1: about getting together. And I think that that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that's hard that's hard to watch, that was
Speaker 1: cool to watch this year is that it kind of
Speaker 1: became again about the community, even though we are all
Speaker 1: so you know, distanced and everything, and made people focus
Speaker 1: on like, wait, the important thing isn't getting these funco pops?
Speaker 1: Are this and that I want to be around my
Speaker 1: friends my Honestly, I love cons because it's the one
Speaker 1: time where nobody would say we can't cuss on here,
Speaker 1: but nobody would call me the sea word or be
Speaker 1: word to my face, like none of they some of
Speaker 1: those people at Comic Con, they might have written it
Speaker 1: to me, but they don't have the guts to say
Speaker 1: it to my face. And so it's just a time
Speaker 1: where I can exist in this space and just take
Speaker 1: in everything and have people come up to me and
Speaker 1: celebrate work that I've done, or just like or just
Speaker 1: me getting to be a nerd in exist out there.
Speaker 1: But it's just like it was my favorite part in
Speaker 1: all of like the voice actors and my friends that go.
Speaker 1: It's like none of us get treated like a like
Speaker 1: a pos when we're there, but it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: online we take so much of that hate, and like
Speaker 1: you said, it's the vocal minority because then when we're
Speaker 1: amongst everyone at Comic Con, it's just this bustling feeling
Speaker 1: of happiness and energy and joy, and it's that's how
Speaker 1: it should be. It's like all this passion coming out.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's why I think that's why the it
Speaker 1: is very accurate to call Comic Con nerd Marty Gras
Speaker 1: you know, and because you really do. And it really
Speaker 1: like even as you know, uh, someone as dorky and
Speaker 1: extroverted as me, you get to see people kind of
Speaker 1: come out of their shell dancing, having a good time
Speaker 1: because they feel comfortable and safe. Because I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that keep people from being, you know,
Speaker 1: as open and I think this goes once again another
Speaker 1: one of those things that go outside of nerd um
Speaker 1: is just like how much people will relate to you,
Speaker 1: how much you trust, you know, you don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, let loose in front of somebody you fear
Speaker 1: might make fun of you or make you feel less
Speaker 1: than for doing it. So when you have all these
Speaker 1: like minded people, you're like, oh, this person over here
Speaker 1: is dressed as link. They're definitely not going to judge
Speaker 1: me for like busting down on this coac arena jam,
Speaker 1: you know. And and that's what I love is just
Speaker 1: seeing those faces and you're seeing people light up and
Speaker 1: and and and also that's why, you know, as much, uh,
Speaker 1: I was almost gonna let's say as much, uh s,
Speaker 1: I'll say I I dump on San Diego as a city,
Speaker 1: as a whole, as a county, as a part of
Speaker 1: the world. I do love that you know, San Diego
Speaker 1: has given in and allowed you know, the nerdom to
Speaker 1: just take over downtown, which is why anytime people like,
Speaker 1: oh it moves to l A. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: we can't like as much as you know, Angelina I am,
Speaker 1: I love. There's just too much going on. Like everyone's
Speaker 1: always like, oh, l a sports fan, don't care. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, we just always have something going on.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. When there's a Lakers game, there's probably a
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift concert going on next door. There's also a
Speaker 1: baseball game, there's you know, there's so much going on
Speaker 1: that like you almost have this like, yeah, you're not hyped.
Speaker 1: I'm sure in Cincinnati when the Bengals play, that's a
Speaker 1: whole event because yeah, you know, and it's like, um no,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, it's kind of like E three
Speaker 1: for me is right, is usually right after Pride. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm like walking into the three hungover. I
Speaker 1: bags just like kill me because it's true. In l A,
Speaker 1: it's like we don't have that hype because it's like
Speaker 1: there's always But with Comic Con in San Diego, I
Speaker 1: mean it was cool. I had a friend that face
Speaker 1: timed me and there are people still in the middle
Speaker 1: of the streets social distancing, trying to kind of experience
Speaker 1: I couldn't be there, Yeah, I can only imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: San Diego probably felt the change of all this the
Speaker 1: most because especially all those businesses, Like as much as
Speaker 1: you know there's those there's always like one or two
Speaker 1: weird bars that are trying to like make fun of
Speaker 1: the comic Con thing. But as much as even they
Speaker 1: will do it, they probably make so much money from
Speaker 1: the city just being flooded. Every bar like it really,
Speaker 1: like I think we're they're going to feel unfortunately a
Speaker 1: huge financial hit because I'm sure all these businesses make
Speaker 1: bookoo bucks because every bar is packed, every restaurant, like
Speaker 1: no matter where you want to go, if you want,
Speaker 1: if you're thinking of okay, since I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: go because of the RONA, I'm definitely going to Comic
Speaker 1: Con next year. Let me let you know that no
Speaker 1: matter how far you push out, you just go to
Speaker 1: go get a good airbnb, go to the rouse and
Speaker 1: cook up a dinner and then save one night where
Speaker 1: you're really willing to wait for an hour to have
Speaker 1: a good dinner because everything is so packed. But it's
Speaker 1: kind of Why also I like that this comic con
Speaker 1: was online is that I'm hoping that in smaller communities
Speaker 1: and people who can't get to San Diego, they can
Speaker 1: have a local bar night where they all watched Panels together,
Speaker 1: or they can have like a many comic con over there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that would be beautiful. Well, Chris, I was
Speaker 1: going to say, as we're wrapping up here, do you
Speaker 1: have any words of encouragement for nerds, maybe any of
Speaker 1: them that might be on the spectrum or queer, like
Speaker 1: anything that you've had to deal with trying to make
Speaker 1: space for yourself in this community. Do you have any
Speaker 1: words of encouragement for people who aren't quite there yet.
Speaker 1: I think that now is one of the most difficult
Speaker 1: times because because of the distancing and everything that people are,
Speaker 1: the social distancing, and we've already had an issue of
Speaker 1: it's like what you were saying, Danny, how you would
Speaker 1: go to comic con and finally people were not calling
Speaker 1: you negative words to your face, but they do that online.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, the one negative side to all of the
Speaker 1: distancing is people are more vocal and more fighting online
Speaker 1: now more so than ever. So I have the weirdest
Speaker 1: thing that is just try to not argue on the
Speaker 1: internet would be my biggest thing. Try to find zoom
Speaker 1: calls if you're doing twitch some way though of still
Speaker 1: meeting people and connecting with people where you can actually
Speaker 1: talk to them versus then just tweeting them. Because the
Speaker 1: most important thing for us to do as nerds is
Speaker 1: to have some sort of community together. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the things where I'm so sad about this show
Speaker 1: is because I know that it was um you know,
Speaker 1: it's it wasn't just a podcast in a weird way,
Speaker 1: it was kind of showing the actual community of nerds
Speaker 1: that are not always represented in you know, every nerd media.
Speaker 1: Was showing you had people who are trans every single
Speaker 1: color like you had so many, such a diverse group
Speaker 1: of people, and I think in some ways it wasn't
Speaker 1: just a show. It was kind of a show of
Speaker 1: a community and it brought people together. Every show that
Speaker 1: you guys do, I of people that reach out, so
Speaker 1: let's say like thank you. I felt like my voice
Speaker 1: was heard. And I think that what we can continue
Speaker 1: on with the spirit of Nerdificent is just continuing positive
Speaker 1: communication but also communicating like how you guys do in
Speaker 1: this podcast people hopefully not just talking over Twitter, but
Speaker 1: being like, Hey, do you want to go on a
Speaker 1: zoom call and talk about this game or talk about
Speaker 1: why we have a difference of opinion of the last
Speaker 1: Jedi or like whatever, like actually have those conversations where
Speaker 1: you can see and talk to the person instead of
Speaker 1: just relying on on Twitter, because I think that that
Speaker 1: will be the way to make sure that we have
Speaker 1: a community and have connection with each other, um in
Speaker 1: a time where connection is very scarce and and is
Speaker 1: you know, fleeting. So that would be my advice. Thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on for our final episode, Chris no worries.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I love you guys, and
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of everything that you created with this.
Speaker 1: Well where can everyone catch you? Um? You can see
Speaker 1: uh my Instagram at Tinder Chris. That's t E N
Speaker 1: d R Chris uh c h R S and um
Speaker 1: you can also see me and Jenny ng have a
Speaker 1: show that is every other week called Comedy Crossing, which
Speaker 1: is a uh comedy show in animal Crossing. Also my
Speaker 1: charity which is a queer gaming nonprofit, the biggest one
Speaker 1: in the United States. It's called lags Los Angeles Gaming Society.
Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram as well. Yay, thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much. Look at my friend doing so much. Um.
Speaker 1: I definitely wanted to shout out super producer Joel Monique,
Speaker 1: thank you again for all of your hard work. Um,
Speaker 1: can you just plug your socials again really quick? For
Speaker 1: the people's sure, it was an honor. It's a lovely
Speaker 1: show and so I'm sad to see it come to
Speaker 1: an end. I do you think it stands as a
Speaker 1: lovely historical record. So if you guys want to follow me,
Speaker 1: I'll be pretty see a couple of new Nerds shows
Speaker 1: coming down the pipeline here at my heart that I
Speaker 1: cannot talk about yet, but I am very excited to
Speaker 1: share with you guys. I'm all of the internet at
Speaker 1: Joe Monique, that's j O E L L E M
Speaker 1: O N I q U E. And of course our engineers,
Speaker 1: Zach McKeever, who has been with us since day one,
Speaker 1: holding it down. Yep, yep, you don't ever hear him,
Speaker 1: but he is why we why we sound good. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course struck Key's are editors also why we sound good.
Speaker 1: He cuts out a lot of things to make us
Speaker 1: sound smart. Yeah, and you know he's been on the
Speaker 1: pod before and he has his own pod culture kings.
Speaker 1: You know, we had Dan Goodman, Jack O'Brien for you know,
Speaker 1: believing in the vision. Uh. Ana Hosnier holding it down
Speaker 1: with us at the top. Uh and every guest who's
Speaker 1: ever came on, and everyone of you who has ever listened, truly,
Speaker 1: you're the only reason we've been able to do it
Speaker 1: and made it great along the way. Uh. And you know, speak,
Speaker 1: don't take Nerdificent as a podcast. I'd say take it
Speaker 1: as an ideology. Uplift voices that you you don't hear
Speaker 1: being said a month, you know, smash that rt if
Speaker 1: someone if someone's you know, speaking truth to power, and
Speaker 1: I think you know, uh, you know, feel free to
Speaker 1: nerd however you want to nerd, as long as it
Speaker 1: doesn't encroach on anyone else's vision. And don't let anyone
Speaker 1: ever make you feel less than for doing that. Um.
Speaker 1: And as we'll say, for the last time, stay well,
Speaker 1: we actually got it up together on the last time.