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What started as an exploration of the devil in their show, The Exorcist Minute, has grown into something much greater. Find all the original episodes of the show and more right here in The Devil's Details with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan Dias.
Keenan, do you do you know what homunculus means?
Kynan Dias:No. What homunculus means?
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Homunculus. Like, what does what what does homunculus mean?
Kynan Dias:I don't know. I don't know why we even
Lester Ryan Clark:It means tiny human being. And I'm now I'm you can't see me, but I'm doing this really stupid, almost predatory, shit eating grin because I think I made a point. Anyway, Homunculus, part two, act two. Good morning, Star, and welcome to another episode of the Devil's Details, a show where we dig up, decipher, dissect, and deconstruct the many forms of the Devil. One of my names is Lester Ryan Clark.
Kynan Dias:And I sometimes go by Keenan Faust.
Lester Ryan Clark:And we're just two lost souls hitchhiking down the highway to hell. Alright, folks. We are in act two of part two of Goethe's Faust, which is the second Faust story that we covered.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I had to Keenan had to correct me when we were doing our local recording right before this because I said, I I forget what I said, but I I couldn't yeah. I couldn't keep it straight in my head. Right? But so we opened remember last time we opened with our boys teaching the Holy Roman Emperor how to how to use paper money to solve all of the problems of the realm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And then after that, he decided to put on a show specifically Trojan Explosion volume eight which he's had a lot of success with in the past. Mhmm. But but put it on for the the entire Holy Roman court. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:And like Trojan Explosion, the live musical parody.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Right? I was gonna say IMAX, but yeah. But right in the middle of it, Faust got the hots for for the actual Helen of Troy because he went down to the mothers to to to summon up Paris and Helen. And, he go he he rushes onto the stage.
Lester Ryan Clark:He rushes Helen. There's this big explosion and that's the the explosion was kind of the curtain. And then we have, Mephisto carrying Faust away, talking about fools like this will even break a devil's back. Mhmm. So yeah.
Kynan Dias:Paris has kidnapped Helen, and in kind of a funny reversal that then Mephistopheles kidnaps Faust over his shoulders.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? He's he's he's and so now we are in so now the next scene finds us in a high vaulted narrow Gothic room. Hey, this is Faust's study. I remember this place.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I'm glad we kept the sets from part one. That would've been very expensive.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Yeah. So we're back in Faust's old study from his professor days, remember those? And literally nothing has changed. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:It's it's it's like a time capsule. Right? And Mephisto sneaks in from behind a curtain and he finds Faust crashed out on his bed, totally lost in dreams about Helen. I was under the impression that that that Mephisto was the one who kind of like laid him down there.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I thought so, but then yeah. I I think that's right. Yeah. But Okay.
Kynan Dias:We have both acts where Faust we opened up and Faust is in some kind of state of half sleep.
Lester Ryan Clark:This? Okay, like, are we missing something here? Mhmm. Like, Dante fainting, like, swooning. Like, is that just how, you know, doctor Frankenstein witnessing the monster and then just then was that like a a way for people to end chapters and begin chapters back then?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I think so. I've looked at this mostly through a gender lens where where it wasn't largely in, melodramas women would faint when, you know, like, oh, someone has come back and a woman faints, or someone is upset at the party and a woman faints. And so apparently in real life, women were fainting all the time as well. And I guess it's a little bit chicken in the egg, did did women just stop fainting at emotional news because stories stop saying that women should do that?
Kynan Dias:Right? Like like, there is some hypothesis that, like, the fact that that was expected of women, that they would faint like that.
Lester Ryan Clark:So it would and it would be so like, it would be such a pervasive part of society that it, like, it would affect like like, they would they would be like, oh, this is when I faint.
Kynan Dias:Right. Rather than yeah. Not that you were actively doing that, right? But rather than like like today, you'd be like, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Kynan Dias:Let's all slow down. Mhmm. What? You know? Like, that's much more common.
Kynan Dias:But then you'll just, oh oh, I just I just can't have a conversation about this. I can't get more information. I would just faint like that. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:That is fascinating. I think we've talked about this before. It's like like, it just such a big part of literature and and pop culture that it affects, like, the like the the actual life outside.
Kynan Dias:Right. Yeah. Yeah. And so today, I don't think we think of fainting as being gendered necessarily. No.
Kynan Dias:But I do think that, yeah, there was a certain point. I I thought that when, yeah, when Frankenstein fainted, it's kind of a a a dig that he's feminine.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, okay.
Kynan Dias:That's how I I don't know, but I guess you could interpret it in bunch of ways. Yeah. But but that he is this he want to see himself as God, the father, creator, but he's really more like mother, the creator, and doesn't you know, he's he's like trying to deal with that gender confusion with it.
Lester Ryan Clark:I mean, not even that because like he can't take it. He just like, you know, like, you know, the goddess or the god, like they, you know, I have created, I've given birth. Right? I've done I've done that. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And he it's like it's like he drew a picture and then he looked at it and he's like, Oh. Right. Yeah. Virgil's like, Dante, this is hell. And he's like, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:We're not even in hell. This is limbo. These are all of my friends. And Dante's like
Kynan Dias:Time to take a little nappy nap.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Imagine if that were still like a part of like pop culture literature to Luke, I am your oh, no. Don't like, you're on a you're on a precarious please don't. I knew this was gonna happen. I wanted you to be sitting down when you oh, god.
Kynan Dias:Please. You have one hand.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Who gave me the one hand, father?
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, now you're calling me father. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Well, you know, regardless, we got Faust in his study, in his bed, and he's he's dreaming he's dreaming about Helen of Troy.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I so I'm I'm only trying to get ahead, you know, by by each chapter that we're covering, so I don't know where the whole thing is going. Mhmm. I'll find out over the course of the next couple weeks. And I'm trying to avoid spoilers as I'm doing my research about, like Yeah.
Kynan Dias:What people think about the the piece. Right? Uh-huh. I did not understand that that Helen of Troy being kidnapped was a plot point that would actually matter.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, you mean in Faust?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Because, mean, he he's he's conjured Helen.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:You know, he's gone down with the the mothers, and then instantly, he she is taken away from him. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:So but so apparently, he is he is so in love with her and so taken by her that this is gonna be at least the the rest of this act is him trying to get Helen back. Right? And that that just was not anything that I thought would be important because they they met for less than less than, like, five minutes.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Less than a few seconds because it's like he's he sees her on the stage. Right. I'm a little bit surprised
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:That Helen is kind of outshining Gretchen.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:As the and people are like, other scholars are like, oh, this was the vision that he saw in the witch's kitchen in that magic mirror was it wasn't Gretchen. It was Helen. Okay. And Gretchen was like a distraction. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And it was like, oh, he thought he met the love of his life in Gretchen. Mhmm. And but no. It's just that Gretchen looks kinda like Helen of Troy, and he's really meant to be, like, destined to, like, be bound to Helen of Faust from from whatever century the sixteenth century Mhmm. Is supposed to be with Helen of with the Helen of Troy.
Kynan Dias:Right. Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:I don't know. I don't it's like but yeah. So so this this whole, like, making Helen more important than Gretchen, I can see this also as, like, a reason why they're like, let's not put this on. Let's not sully Helen of Troy's name with this weird German horndog. Like
Kynan Dias:yeah. Well, yeah, it's interesting. So, I mean, if that's part of his flaw is that he, you know, wanted this thing so badly and now he's chasing after it despite it. And I'm saying it because I mean like his infatuation with he does not love with her. Right.
Kynan Dias:He's in love with the idea of the most beautiful woman who's ever existed being made manifest by
Lester Ryan Clark:him. Right.
Kynan Dias:By creating this woman. Mhmm. So like if if that's part of the tragedy, then I can see that. Like he is so obsessed with with his power and his his abilities to, you know, conjure the the most amazing woman who's ever existed Mhmm. That he's not really even seeing her as a as a real person, a real woman, but he's willing to go and, like, do all this crazy stuff.
Lester Ryan Clark:So Yeah. It's like she's a his homunculus.
Kynan Dias:What's a homunculus?
Lester Ryan Clark:What's a humunculus? Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna see. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah. So so we got Mephisto now, and he's kind of, like, reflecting. He's looking around, and he's like, oh, and I love, Toby Jones in the radio play. It's like, this is, you know, it's like, there's there's the actual pen that Faust used to to, you know, sign his soul away to me. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And it's like, hey. There's that old, gown or whatever it is. Like, I think he calls it like a rug or a or a or a a mantle or something like that, right, That that Faust wore. So now, Mephisto takes it and he puts it on. Right?
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And this is this is the thing that he used. This is this is the the missus Doubtfire costume that he had when he was messing with that student back in part one. Remember?
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. I, for a split second, I thought that was the Marlowe version. We've been doing this for so long. I thought, no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Him messing with the student was in the Marlowe. No. It wasn't. It was in this one.
Lester Ryan Clark:It was in part one. Mhmm. Right? Yeah. So he takes the gown down and he gives it a shake and like a bunch of insects come, you know, flying out, right?
Lester Ryan Clark:It's moths. It's like very cartoony. Right?
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. Yeah. And they sing a little song for him, these bugs.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Yes. They do.
Kynan Dias:They Oh, go ahead.
Lester Ryan Clark:And just like the flowers that the flower girls arrange sing a song to the flower girls. Again, how do you stage this?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. But I like that they come out and they're like, oh, thank you. We're the ones who are singing, but there are thousands of us left in this coat. Mhmm. Because it's so disgusting and and we see you as our master and like Yes.
Kynan Dias:They they remember him from way back when and now they're generations further on, and they see him like like the man of old. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:These are great great
Lester Ryan Clark:great great great grandparents. Like, we're we're in this coat when you when you missus Doubt fired that other student. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Right. So I love that. I I love I'm getting used to how weird this this section is and Yeah. Yeah, how there's weird little yeah. Singing singing, everything sings.
Lester Ryan Clark:This is it has become a cartoon. It's like it was it was like the last one was a part one was a movie. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Marlow's is a a stage play.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Faust part one by Goethe is a movie. Mhmm. Faust part two by Goethe is a cartoon.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's what I'm that's what I'm putting out Mhmm. So, yeah. So so he's he's waxing nostalgic. Right? He wants to he wants to play professor again.
Lester Ryan Clark:He wants to do the missus Doubtfire thing. So he puts on the coat. He rings the bell. Mhmm. And who shows up?
Lester Ryan Clark:But this guy called a Famulus.
Kynan Dias:Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's actually like a scholarly assistant. Mhmm. And his but his name is Nicodemus. Alright. Nicodemus, who works for Wagner now.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like three Famulus? Nicodemus? Wagner? So Wagner is the new Faust. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:He's not a dick or a wraith. Right. Right? Or a Robin. He's he's the new Faust now.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. It's interesting. Why why do you think that we don't start here in act in in part two? Like, why don't we start with, like, hey, everything is where we left off and we're in this? Like, what like, why is this act two, I wonder?
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, why is this act two and not act one of
Kynan Dias:part two? Yeah. Because because it's a little weird. We've gone and it's like I guess that's kind of true. And I think, like like, part three what do you call them?
Kynan Dias:Episode nine of Star Wars is the one that's all like, hey, nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia, like directly like, first one is like, hey, we're gonna do Star Wars again, like episode four, but but in all different things. Right? Like like, we're gonna do it beat by beat and it's gonna be really fun, but we're in new worlds or whatever. And then in Star Wars nine, we bring back Palpatine and we see the Death Star somehow Mhmm. Right, that I thought was blown up or whatever.
Kynan Dias:I I don't remember exactly. But like but like it's like, hey, nostalgia. Like, let's just do the things from before. Right. So it's little out of order, you know?
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. It's almost like like the first one is like kind of like asking permissions. Like, trying it is like, is this okay? Is this okay? Do you like this?
Lester Ryan Clark:Is this okay? Do you like this? It's like, she's on a desert planet. Is that alright?
Kynan Dias:Right. Right. Exactly. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Is this okay? Is that alright? Okay. Alright. Star killer?
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Alright. Alright. Just checking. Just checking.
Lester Ryan Clark:Just checking.
Kynan Dias:Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like I asked
Lester Ryan Clark:New order? New. New. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:And so it's interesting that we we start with a whole other thing, craziness going on there. Mhmm. And then here, we're like, okay, now now we're back to where we are comfortable. This is this is the sequel feeling stuff here. Right.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Let's catch up with all our characters, see how it is. And and I do kinda like the idea that this this Faust's study is the same as it was. We're like, why is that? And then and we maybe it's magic, but it turns out that really it's more sad.
Kynan Dias:It's like Wagner has been keeping it the way it was when his master died. Right? Mhmm. Mhmm. Because as far as he knows, he's dead.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yes. Yeah. And I like that we're gonna we're gonna, get that reveal Mhmm. In in just a moment.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. But, like, we find that, yeah, that, first you hear that, like, Wagner is the new Faust. Right? He's the new scholar who's who's teaching everybody. He's the new professor.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. And you think, oh, man. Wagner pulled a oh, what's that? He pulled a scar, and he's, like, you know, he's he's the new king, and he's, like, you know, abusing, the power and everything. But, no, he's he's very like, he took up the mantle, and he's, like, like, distraught over Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:The death of his, of his old master.
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Alright? And that's what we find from this Nicodemus guy. So, Mephisto is talking to Nicodemus and, you know, and and Nicodemus is like, oh, no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Wagner is like super humble about everything. He's he's still really torn up about Faust disappearing. Right? He prays all the time for him to come back.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And so Mephisto tells this guy, you know, take me to Wagner. But, Nicodemus is like, oh, no. Wagner's in the middle of this huge project and he's not seeing anybody. Nobody can see the Wagner.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? But Mephisto's like, no. No. No. Like like, he'll he'll seal he'll see me.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, I'm the one who can help him. Right? Mhmm. It's almost like he already knows, like, what what Wagner's up to. Wagner's doing some Mary Shelley shit.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's that's what he's doing. Right. And, yeah, it's like, I'm I'm the one who helped this is I'm the one who helped make him successful. I don't think that's true, Mephistopheles. By by by by offering Faust.
Lester Ryan Clark:Faust.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that's right. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. No. Yeah. Well, anyway.
Kynan Dias:Wagner I guess I
Kynan Dias:guess so. Because Wagner became who he was because he's he was learning from Faust who got all these magical powers. Right? She kinda sneaks off and is like, now I've seen the master become this this super sorcerer, so I'm doing that by osmosis.
Lester Ryan Clark:Maybe. Wasn't that in in the Marlowe one, though?
Kynan Dias:I don't think Faulkner's seen Marlowe.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. He is. What? He absolutely is. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:He totally is. See, you're mixing it up just like I'm mixing it up.
Kynan Dias:Wait a minute.
Lester Ryan Clark:Wagner is like the chorus. He's the voice. He's the he's the one who, you know, puts a
Kynan Dias:Oh, yeah. No. You're right. You're right. And the Raisin Robin and all that, that's in that's in the Marlowe one.
Kynan Dias:Yes. It's very because it's very Elizabethan.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Because we were we were mixing up we thought Wagner was gonna be the Ray for the Robin.
Kynan Dias:Oh my god. Wait. Wait. So is there any Wagner in in Goethe? That's with Gretchen and all of them.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Yeah. Yes. In in part one Jesus. Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. No. No. See? In part one, Wagner comes in and he's he's still Faust's assistant Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:But he's like he's he's he's trying to impress him. He's he's he's like the Robin to Faust's Batman. He's like he's like, well well, gee Faust, I wish I was as smart as you. Right?
Kynan Dias:That's right. That's right. I I'm conflating the two Wagner's. Okay. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Never mind. Never mind. You never and the the the first Wagner was already conflated Yeah. With all the other the Robins and the Dicks and the Race.
Kynan Dias:Right. Right. Gotcha. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. So now this Wagner has become the new Faust, and that's that's what's going on.
Kynan Dias:Right. Robin has become Batman, which happened in some Yeah. Versions of Batman. Yeah. Sure.
Lester Ryan Clark:Sure. Mhmm. Right?
Kynan Dias:Batman Beyond?
Lester Ryan Clark:Sure. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Let's say that.
Lester Ryan Clark:Let's put
Kynan Dias:that out. Robin becomes Batman in Batman Beyond. Am I Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:I believe so. Yeah. No. No. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:I think so. It's like a new it's a young Batman. Yes. I believe I I'm I'm seeing it in my head. I like, it's a younger Batman, and Bruce Wayne is all old Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And, you know, Kevin Conroy still voices him, and it's great. Yeah. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Believe so. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Okay. So okay. So Batman Beyond, the TV show, it's not literally that Robin has that a Robin has become Batman. That's not what I mean.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's a it's
Kynan Dias:a young Batman and who who succeeds to the new Batman while the old Batman is still around.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Great. Great. Okay. Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Just as confusing as Goethe's Faust versus Marlo's Faust.
Kynan Dias:Alright. Great.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. So right. Because that Robin was a dick. He was Dick Grayson.
Kynan Dias:He's Dick Grayson. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? See, it all it all makes sense if you if you're crazy like us, folks. Okay. But that okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Now this is great. Remember that student from part one that like missus Doubtfire. Right? Mhmm. He's back and he's got his degree.
Lester Ryan Clark:I guess they call it a a baccalaureate or a bachelorette maybe?
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Yeah. That was? Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And he comes in while Mephisto is like wearing the the the professor coat.
Kynan Dias:Right? Mhmm. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:And he's in it. Yes. Mhmm. Right? That love him.
Lester Ryan Clark:And he's talking about how his whole education was just a bunch of lies that old people tell young people. Right? Lies they don't even believe themselves. Right. And Mephisto's Mephisto's like, you know what?
Lester Ryan Clark:You're not wrong. Like, what we've been calling knowledge isn't really knowledge at all. Mhmm. Right? And this guy goes off on this whole thing about how, you know, old age is just, you know, frozen impotence and, you know, only youth has any real, like, power and freedom, and then he storms out.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? I like that I don't think this student who now has his degree has ever actually met the real Faust. Because because he was because Mephisto was posing as Faust the first time they meet, and he gives him that bad advice. Right. And then he comes back and he's like, know, professor, I took your bad advice and this is it's like, you know, it wasted my youth and and I should have known that youth was, like, the only thing that was that was worth anything.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Right. Mhmm. And it's Mephisto again posing as Faust. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:So he never actually gets to see Faust.
Kynan Dias:Right. He's missus Doubtfire. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. He's absolutely Yes. And so after he leaves, Mephisto's like
Kynan Dias:Well, this guy, yeah, has has gone out and he's he's been worried about all the wrong things. He's been worried about knowledge when he should worry about living life. Mhmm. He she's worried about drive by fruitings that Mhmm. Around any corner.
Kynan Dias:He could just be fruited in a drive by.
Lester Ryan Clark:He should've he should've, you know, settled down and and had a family with kids. Kids are like kids are like air To to to have a to have a a bachelorette and not have kids. I mean yeah. Yeah. So yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So so so that was that was like, the old student comes, gets a degree, and and he, quote, unquote, thanks Mephisto Faust Right. For that. Right? Mhmm. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And that's it. And that's that's that scene. And then we get the laboratory.
Kynan Dias:Hold on. What? He thanks Mephist Stoutfire. Mephist Stoutfire.
Lester Ryan Clark:Thank you for interrupting me. If we had passed that up, listeners would be so angry at us.
Kynan Dias:So angry. They would be livid.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like like like Lester and Ken, we'd like, there is no missus Doubtfire minute. We have to get all of our jokes from here.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. But now so our next scene is in Wagner's I think this can only be properly pronounced laboratory.
Kynan Dias:That's right. Uh-uh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? It's like mean, it's spelled the same, but, like, you know, professor Bunsen, like, they you know, Bunsen and Beaker, they're they're in a laboratory. Right? Mhmm. But and Dexter's in a laboratory.
Kynan Dias:He's in a laboratory. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:But he calls it a laboratory. Right? But but Wagner is in a laboratory. Absolutely. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:It's the it's kind of like old timey steampunky. It's kind of like, you know, natural philosopher science cusp, you know, on the on the fringe of that. Right?
Kynan Dias:Right. It's a physics lab and a chemistry lab and a bio lab all in one. Right? Mhmm. Because he's got little vials of things, but he's also probably learned about electricity and everything he possibly do.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. And the vials are are are especially vial. Right? Spelled the other way. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yeah. And so we got Wagner, and he's standing by the hearth hearth. Right? And he's super excited because in one of these vile vials is his magnum opus.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Right? It's it's glowing like an like an like an ember. Mhmm. And Mephisto comes in and he walks and and he walks over to Wagner and he's like and Wagner's like like Wagner doesn't even like care who this is.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. He's just excited to show it's like it's like behold, a man is being made. Right? Mhmm. And I love Toby Jones' responses.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, really? You've got like some amorous couple stuffed away in the chimney flu or something? You know?
Kynan Dias:Is that how you're doing it? He's assuming that that Wagner has a man and a woman making love, which is it's very funny. Yeah. Note that he doesn't assume that Wagner will be making love to a woman.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. He's like he's like, I'm making a human being, and it's like, really? It's a guy you got, you know, a couple, like, you know, doing the nasty somewhere?
Kynan Dias:Right. Right. Not that anyone would ever do that with you.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Wagner. We know you, Wagner. Right? But no, he's referring to this little vial.
Lester Ryan Clark:He says in the vial, like he's creating this this this life. Right? And the vial starts shaking and then it gets cloudy and then it clears up and the whole time Wagner's like, oh, it's it's it's getting oh, it's cleared up. Oh, it's getting cloudy, you know. And and and Wagner thinks he has done it.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. And then inside the vial is this tiny little humanoid creature called a Homunculus.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Or that's also, I think, his name. He's a he's a Homunculus called Homunculus. Right. Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? It's Latin for little human, by the way. Mhmm. Take that, Charlie Kirk, you idiot.
Kynan Dias:What's that about?
Lester Ryan Clark:You don't know what that's about?
Kynan Dias:I know who Charlie Kirk is. I think not a very nice person. Yeah. Okay. But I know.
Lester Ryan Clark:For for for anybody who hasn't seen it. So there was there was recently a debate, I think. It was one of those, like, speed debates where you kind of like it's like speed dating where you kind of like rotate or, you know, and and so somebody somebody comes up to the center and sits to debate Charlie Kirk and I I think it was it was about like a bunch of things but I think the topic for that one was women's healthcare specifically for abortion. And this this very educated woman sits down and immediately Charlie Kirk like interrupts her and is like, what does what does fetus mean? And she's trying to answer him but she's like, she's like, don't know.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like like, it was such a like a weird like like a a putting her on her back foot like strategy that he was doing. Right? And he just keeps on he's like, what is what is what is fetus mean? What does fetus mean in Latin? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And she's like, that doesn't like that doesn't matter. That doesn't like apply to what we're arguing. And then he interrupts her again. He's like, it means tiny human being. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And after he says that, he and you can you can Google image it, folks. It's it's the weirdest, like like, proud of myself, gleeful, but also almost like predatory, weird shit eating grin that he does. Uh-huh. Right? And artists have already like rendered it, know, for for all the world to see.
Lester Ryan Clark:But that's not what fetus means. Yeah. Fetus does not mean tiny human being.
Kynan Dias:Well, that's what I was wondering because there's there's every animal has a fetus. Right. Every mammal and bird and everything has a fetus.
Lester Ryan Clark:And so folks' favorite, like, you know, response to that now is, okay, what is a dolphin fetus then? Uh-huh. Right? Does that mean dolphin tiny human being? Like, that's you
Lester Ryan Clark:know?
Kynan Dias:And then even if it did, that's where, you know, that doesn't matter because Right. Yeah. We named these things in Latin that have nothing to do with anything anymore.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? So so even even that, like, like, even even if he was right, even if it what if it did mean tiny human being, what does that like like, how does how does that help your argument, buddy?
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, yeah. So yeah. Anyway, Homunculus means tiny human being.
Kynan Dias:Oh, that's interesting to know. Okay. There you go. Yeah. I gotcha.
Kynan Dias:I think I'm caught up in the joke now.
Lester Ryan Clark:Now that I've explained it. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:No. That that that whole that whole idea, like, should not debate those people who are, like, debate me or or you're too afraid to debate me. Like like, they they put so much stock in debates, like Mhmm. And they don't and they want to say it's like it's like the marketplace of ideas and like the best idea wins, but that's not No. They're they're conflating two different types of debate.
Kynan Dias:Like like high school debate is not how you get at truth at all.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right.
Kynan Dias:And they train you in high school debate to defend the indefensible. That's part of how you become good at that. Is like Yeah. Hey, it doesn't matter what you actually believe or what the the right answer is, you're going to make an argument for this or that. And then you're getting points not just in like in how well you support your logic, you get some points for that, but it's also about like how you comport yourself and like rhetorical flourishes and all that stuff.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. But that's not And putting the opponent on the on on the back foot and and like kinda messing them up. It's somebody said it and I was like, this is brilliant. Mhmm. They're they're treating it like a sport.
Kynan Dias:Right. Exactly. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like they win. It's like, I win the debate. It's like, no. That's not your Well,
Kynan Dias:you can win the debate, but that doesn't mean that your idea is correct.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Exactly.
Kynan Dias:I mean, the the the way to really have ideas in the marketplace and and fight them out is through reading each other's papers
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:And and not through, you know, flourishes like this, like WWE style debate. Right. Right. Oh, and he brought out
Lester Ryan Clark:the tiny human being thing. It's like a chair.
Lester Ryan Clark:How will she recover?
Lester Ryan Clark:God awful smile.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. You should not you should not debate these these people. They're not they're not really debating.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because it is all about winning. It's like a contest. It's like it's like a sport. It's like, I won. Yay.
Lester Ryan Clark:You know? Right. It's like that's not like, the whole reason you have I mean, that's, you know, the whole reason you have an argument with, like, one of your, you know, friends or a loved one or something like that is because you want to come to an agreement. You wanna come to some kind of, like, understanding. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. And the same thing with a debate. You wanna come to a shared truth. You want to find, like, the objective truth. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And it's like, well, I have, you know, I have half of the, you know, the the puzzle pieces and you have half of the puzzle pieces. Let's debate, and then we'll figure out the whole puzzle. And then, hey, maybe both of us are right and both of us are wrong. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Or maybe one of us is right and one of us is It's not like like whether I'm wrong or right, I'm gonna be right. Right. That's that's like modern debate. Like, I wanna win something. Like, you don't win anything if truth is not discovered.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. And you have to and you lose by saying things like, well, that's really interesting, Charlie. I'm gonna have to think about that and come back to you. Yeah. And then you oh, you lost.
Kynan Dias:You lost the debate. I'm gonna go, you know, oh, you you told me some interesting things I'm gonna read about who you've been reading and and see what I think about that. Like, now, I that doesn't feel right to me, but I'll look into it. I'll let
Lester Ryan Clark:you So So in so in essence, like, it's counterproductive to, like, finding an actual truth.
Kynan Dias:Great. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, you all know that.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Not to mansplain about, you know.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. But right now I get your joke. Great.
Lester Ryan Clark:Great. And I'm gonna keep all of it in. Anyway, but yeah, so so inside the vial is is the homunculus, right? It's a homunculus called homunculus and he's making these delicate little movements and he talks, right? And it's calling Wagner daddy and it's really eager to get to work right away.
Lester Ryan Clark:That was another thing in the they do this weird kind of like filter where they kind of like like and and they also like like make the voice a little bit high pitched Mhmm. In the radio play. And the homunculus is like, okay. Well, now that I'm born, I I need to do things. Let's let's get you know, set me to work.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Mhmm. Almost like a genie that's like that wants to be told wishes.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Sure. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And this is like, okay. You know, let's let's see what you can do. Like, why why don't you why don't you go check on Faust over there? Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:So this little glowing, you know, vial person. I I imagine it's it's always in the vial. Right? It's in the bottle. Right?
Kynan Dias:That's what yeah. Most of the early dialogue blocks of his say in the vial.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Alright. So he's in
Kynan Dias:the when he gets out. So maybe he's always in there,
Lester Ryan Clark:I guess. I don't think he can get out. I think if he gets out, he dies. I think.
Kynan Dias:That's a terrible I think that's resistance.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I think that's the homunculus lore. Is that like they can't either trapped in there or
Kynan Dias:So it's a Okay. Whole It's a whole thing. I didn't I didn't look up Homunculus lore.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I think. I think. Because I'm I'm I'm just remembering from, like, another story where there's Homunculus.
Kynan Dias:Okay. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. So he's a little person in a in a in a jar.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right?
Kynan Dias:In the bride of Frankenstein, Doctor. Pretorius has little homunculi. I don't know if they use that word, but there's a tiny king and a tiny queen and then Uh-huh. The tiny Jack who's trying to get with the queen, you
Lester Ryan Clark:know, that
Kynan Dias:kind of thing.
Lester Ryan Clark:Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay.
Kynan Dias:And they're they're in bottles the whole time.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah, I think that's part of it. I that's part of the homunculus lore.
Kynan Dias:There was in some video I was looking at, I'm trying hard to only go act by act, but there was some video maybe on a Course Hero or something like where where they have little animations of what's going on, you know? Uh-huh. And they're like and Mephisopheles can't really see the homunculus because he's so small. Mhmm. So, yeah, what I I know it's like an impossible play to stage, I suppose, but like do you think that the Homunculus is off stage the whole time and it's a voice or
Lester Ryan Clark:I don't know. See, again, there's like people's like, why don't they ever stage this one? It's like, we're in act two and we found like what, three impossibilities? How do you actually stage this?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. We have an even more impossible character near the end of this, Proteus. But but Homunculus is a huge character. It seems like he's gonna be around for
Lester Ryan Clark:a while. A huge character. Oh, but I'm glad actually, you reminded me. In the radio play, I really like he does say he's like, it's like, well, that's just the fate of us, of us, magical creatures. The world is too small to contain us, so we have to be in this bottle is what he said.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Or or something, like, something along those lines. And I like the idea of him saying that, like like, he's the tiny person, right, in in this bottle, but he's saying he's he is that way because the world is too has, like, too small of an imagination Yeah. To hold him.
Kynan Dias:That's great.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right. So yeah. So so he's he's he's checking up on Faust. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And he's somehow able to, like, read his dreams. Mhmm. And, of course, Faust is dreaming about Helen. Mhmm. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And and with all these, like, romantic woodland, you know, springs and swans and everything like that. Right? Mhmm. And Homunculus is like, well, we can't, you know, let him wake up here in this gross moldy room after dreaming about, you know, all that beauty. Like, would it would crush him.
Lester Ryan Clark:We gotta we gotta, you know, get him out of here. And so then Homunculus said or suggests that they take Faust to something called a classical Walpurgus knight. Mhmm. Right? I almost said knocked.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? But and and Mephisto's like, he's like, oh, no. We are we already mister Homunculus, we already did a Walpurgus knight in act one. Right. And Homunculus is like, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Like, I'm talking about a classical one. Right? Yeah. I thought
Kynan Dias:that meant like, this one's this one's classic, bro. Yeah. Right? That's what I thought there. It's totally epic.
Kynan Dias:But, no, they mean it in the literal sense, it turns out.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. And Homunculus explains that that, you know, Mephisto, but he specifically calls him Satan here. Mhmm. He's like, oh, Satan. He also calls him cousin.
Lester Ryan Clark:Uh-huh. Right? He's like, oh, cousin, you're here too. Like, so so when he when he first wakes up, you know, after being born, right, he's like, oh, you know, it's like, here I am. And, you know, he calls Wagner daddy, and then Mephisto laughs.
Lester Ryan Clark:And he's like, oh, you're here too, cousin. Mhmm. And again, it's that mixing of, like, like, it's as if all of the mythical beings in all of the pantheons are, like, related.
Kynan Dias:Well, maybe all the evil ones are.
Lester Ryan Clark:Maybe. Well, I didn't know if Homunculi were evil or not.
Kynan Dias:Well, this one is. Yeah. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Well, I don't know. Well, I
Kynan Dias:don't know.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, he just wants to be he just wants to be a real Pinocchio, I think.
Kynan Dias:Well, Pinocchio is evil.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Well, okay. Alright. We can all agree on that.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. When you're like, hey, Pinocchio, you do whatever you want. And he's like, wanna drink beer and throw Molotov cocktails and Mhmm. Play pool and yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Hey, Pinocchio. Here's a here's a social media platform Mhmm. Where you can say whatever you want. Pinocchio, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah. So so Homunculus explains that Satan Mephisto is more into the northern European Walpurgus knight with all its doom and gloom and sin. But classical Walpurgus knight is down in Greece and it's a whole different vibe And it's all about classical mythology and sensual pleasure rather than horror and evil. And Mephisto's kind of like skeptical at first, but then Homunculus mentions that there'll be Thessalian witches there. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And suddenly Mephisto's very interested. And so he's like, okay, let's go. Right? Mhmm. So they make a plan, and Wagner's gonna stay behind and and be you know, do his mad scientist thing.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Mhmm. While Mephisto and Homunculus and the sleeping Faust, you know, go to another Walpurgus night. Right. As far as
Kynan Dias:we could tell, he he passed out when Helen was stolen from him and he has not woken up since. And he will not wake up until he pretty much until he steps foot in Greece. Like, had to, like, his foot touches the the soil of Greece.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. So imagine that. Right? Like, he he rushed Helen on stage. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Big explosion. He faints. Mhmm. And he wakes up in Greece.
Kynan Dias:Great.
Lester Ryan Clark:I mean,
Kynan Dias:yeah. So he never experiences all this nostalgia of being backwards starting?
Lester Ryan Clark:No. No. No. That's that's just for the Devil.
Kynan Dias:Right. Yeah. And the Devil is like, here's the here's the pen that he wrote his in his own blood, you know, all that stuff. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:A little bit of blood coagulated and Right. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:But I guess I'll just tell Faust about that later. Right. Or
Lester Ryan Clark:not. This is for
Kynan Dias:me. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. So okay. So we're in this place. This is this is scene two of Faust part two act two. So this is I don't know.
Lester Ryan Clark:Any numerological people, like, maybe this is, like, important or something, but yeah.
Kynan Dias:Chuckwoolery fans. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Sure. Sure. Yeah. Right? Did you say charcuterie?
Kynan Dias:Chuckwoolery. Oh.
Lester Ryan Clark:You know what charcuterie means? It means tiny human no.
Kynan Dias:It means cutie sharks.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Yes. It does. Right? We all know that.
Lester Ryan Clark:But Okay. So we're in this place called the Pharsalian Fields
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And it's August 9. And this is significant because this is where, way back in forty eight BC, Julius Caesar, defeated Pompey in, his, huge battle during, the Roman Civil War.
Kynan Dias:But actually, I think it's Pompey as opposed to
Lester Ryan Clark:You corrected me before on another episode. I can't remember. Okay. Keep on just wanting to say Pompey.
Kynan Dias:Yeah, sure.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because Pompey sounds so
Kynan Dias:Pompey sounds like a wuss.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Pompey. It's it's Pompey. Right?
Kynan Dias:Julius Caesar.
Lester Ryan Clark:And me, Pompey.
Lester Ryan Clark:Just kind of like from behind his robe. He's like the pain or the panic. He's like, Me. So yeah, so this was this was the Roman Civil War. Right?
Kynan Dias:Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:So yeah, so so standing over all of this is a is this Thessalian witch named Erytho. Okay. Now we remember Erytho, folks. Oh, we remember We who doesn't remember Eryktho?
Kynan Dias:Remember Eryktho? Why don't you tell the folks about what we both remember about Eryktho?
Lester Ryan Clark:No. I I remember that name. Mhmm. I remember that name from from Dante's Inferno.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:What was it? Virgil was telling Dante, now I've only had to do this once. It was I had I I've only been down to the the last circle of hell once. Mhmm. And it was when I had to do a job for a Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Something like that. I think that's what he said. Virgil mentioned offhand saying that like I've only been like a spiritual guide one other time.
Kynan Dias:Right, okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:And it it was to help or something like that. Gotcha. Right, yeah. So now we get to meet. Right?
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And and, yeah, she's getting ready for tonight's big celebration, our big our big Walpurgis night. I don't think it was called Walpurgis. I think Goethe is calling it Walpurgis night because Walpurgis night is a is a German thing. I don't think the ancient Greeks called it Walpurgis night.
Kynan Dias:No. Absolutely not. No. They they didn't know who Saint Valperga was.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? Yeah. So oh, of course.
Kynan Dias:Because he wasn't born yet. Yes. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? So when the homunculus is like, oh, yeah. A classical Walt Disney.
Kynan Dias:Right? Right. Right. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. That's like that's like, I don't know, like you would see on a a Saturday morning thing in October today. It's like, oh, let's let let me take you to a a classic Halloween party. They're talking about like like Samhain or something like that. Right?
Kynan Dias:Oh, I thought classic was bobbing for apples and cider and that kind of thing.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. We gotta go way back.
Kynan Dias:Pomby, what are you
Lester Ryan Clark:doing here? Yeah. So, yeah. So so we got Eric though. She's getting ready for the party.
Lester Ryan Clark:She's got some thoughts about humans basically that that we can't even rule ourselves properly because, you know, we're always trying to control each other and how there's always bigger fish just like how Caesar took out Pompey.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. And then how Caesar was taken down by Boss Nass. Exactly. And then how Boss Nass was taken down by the bigger fish.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Exactly. Right? And then Arytho spots this bright light zooming through the night and she's like, oh no, and she she she bolts.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? It's like like a lightning bolt. Mhmm. Yeah. This is a bright light.
Kynan Dias:It a pun?
Lester Ryan Clark:That was my pun. It was a white
Kynan Dias:dicey. Great.
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah. So that's the and and the bright light, folks, that's that's our homunculus. Right? He's still in his vial, and then we got Mephisto and Faust. I don't even know why we're counting Faust in this in this quest.
Lester Ryan Clark:This is like Faust is being like Frodo right now.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Just just just like, there's another one who faints all the time. Yeah. He misses end the movie.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the end of the movie is him waking up to see his friends there, and friends are like, we solved it. And he's like, really?
Kynan Dias:Come in bed with me. Right? Then all all four of the other hobbits come in in the to bed together. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Right. One falls off and breaks his head. And Gandalf is like, you shall not jump on the bed. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. But, yeah, okay. So they get to Greece. Right? This is Mephisto, Faust, and Homunculus.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right?
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:And they decide to split up. How do you split up with Faust being still asleep? I don't know.
Kynan Dias:That's a good point. And and if Homunculus is really this as tiny as I now understand after reading this like, it's really impossible for me to be reading this and and, like, seeing someone who's in a bottle who you can barely see Mhmm. If at all. So I just I keep seeing a a full sized person.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Right. Yeah. I I I kept imagining, like, that Mephisto was was holding the bottle. Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:And anytime that, you know, a homunculus wanted to to say something, it's like it's like, oh, hello. Like that.
Kynan Dias:Okay. Yeah. But sometimes, Mephistopheles is doing things with his hands, as we'll see with some of
Lester Ryan Clark:these witches.
Kynan Dias:I don't know where that puts Homunculus.
Lester Ryan Clark:It puts Homunculus in a in a place, let me tell you. He's doing things with these witches. No. Anyway, anyway, anyway. Got it.
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah. So so they decide to split up. Mhmm. And that that leads to some crazy encounters. So Mephisto Yep.
Lester Ryan Clark:Is looking for some action. Mhmm. Mhmm. And he runs into these griffins who are really into, like, etymology and names.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Like, they they they think words actually sound like what they mean. Mhmm. Right? And then he meets the sphinxes who can totally tell he's, like, uncomfortable in pagan Greece.
Kynan Dias:Right? Uh-huh. But they're into that. They're into how uncomfortable he is.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Right? Mhmm. He's like, yes. It's like it's like step on me, sphinxes.
Lester Ryan Clark:You know? But he got four feet.
Kynan Dias:That's great. Oh, yeah. Were sphinxes always women or just these versions?
Lester Ryan Clark:Not knowing the lore of Sphinxes Mhmm. I've only seen women's Sphinxes.
Kynan Dias:Oh, okay. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like in the Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio Uh-huh. Right? Those are sphinxes.
Kynan Dias:Alright.
Lester Ryan Clark:And I and and then the the the the sphinx with the riddle Mhmm. Is also a woman.
Kynan Dias:Right. The great sphinx, I guess, Right. You know, in Egypt is a woman. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:I think so.
Kynan Dias:I don't know. Well, where do you where do baby sphinxes come from then? Okay, Charlie Kirk. That's the meanest thing you ever said to me.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. I take it back. I take it back. I take it back.
Kynan Dias:But but anyway, so so yeah. So these are women for sure, and he's even like, you know, the top half of you scares me, but the bottom half
Lester Ryan Clark:Right.
Kynan Dias:He's really into them.
Lester Ryan Clark:Wait a minute. Okay. Now I feel stupid. Like, wait. Wait.
Lester Ryan Clark:Are they not what I imagine?
Kynan Dias:A sphinx?
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Oh, they are.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. They totally are.
Kynan Dias:Oh, yeah. You're you're overthinking it. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Okay. No. That's what I thought.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Okay. He's fine with that. He's he's the devil. He's okay as long
Lester Ryan Clark:as That's
Kynan Dias:the It doesn't matter.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's the joke. He's like, I don't like the women half of you, but those lion horns Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was like, woah.
Kynan Dias:I
Lester Ryan Clark:was like, for a second, was like, did I get it wrong? Am I like did did like because isn't that isn't that what happened with mermaids is like they they swapped it? It's like it was supposed to be like lower body of of of people and and and the heads of fish or no. Maybe I'm wrong. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:Cut all this out.
Kynan Dias:That's that's the right. That that's the the weird thing about if you're thinking about, like, you know, sailors and pirates out there in the open sea missing women that they would want to make love to make sweet love. They make, you know, make love. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's Just just somebody to hold.
Kynan Dias:That's what the sailors want is to make love. Right? They need the bottom half being a woman and the top half as a fish doesn't matter, but Right. Instead they have the opposite. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Because they Yeah. They're really romantic at heart and they want they just wanna talk too.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I just want to tell somebody about about my love for Star Wars. And you see, before the sequel's there, there were there were this string of books. And every character in the canteen had a had a story. And if you just sit, oh, I lost another one.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. That's where the one that got away comes
Kynan Dias:from. That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's all these all these lonely sailors just trying to explain Mhmm. Futurama to, you
Kynan Dias:know That's right. I once caught a fish this interested in matchbook card collecting.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. You see, Samwise is really the hero in the
Kynan Dias:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a lot like Cameron and Faust Bure. No respect.
Kynan Dias:I be listening to a podcast the other day.
Lester Ryan Clark:I be making a podcast the
Kynan Dias:other day. Oh, let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. Oh, man.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Woah. Yeah. We almost got trapped in the sea. But no.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Not not the sea ruled by, like, you know, sea creatures, but, like, by by men. It's like the the seven seas. Scariest place of all. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Ugh. Anyway. Oh, yeah. Okay. So He's
Kynan Dias:anyways, he's he's kind of into it, and it's really fun to see Mephistopheles being horny on main, but also, like, afraid of these women, and not necessarily because they're monsters because they're women is how I sort of read this. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And he's out of his element as like, so so it's it's twofold. Right? It's Mhmm. The Devil being in an older, more ancient kind of, like
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Being surrounded by, like, older, more ancient, like, myths and and religiosity figures. Mhmm. Mhmm. So he's part like like, he's he's he's like he's he's he's left the, you know, the safe world of of Christianity where he's the big bad. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And now he's in now he's in, ancient Greek mythology.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And then on top of that, like, because a lot of these these older pagan religions, quote, unquote, pagan. Right? Because of a lot of these older, you know, and and lasting longer, religions, had a lot of, women in power, he's also kind of, put off by that.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:They put off and turned on.
Kynan Dias:And turned on. Yeah. Yeah. Really fun. Really fun.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right. And it's great to see the Devil being like, I I'm not sure about this. Right? Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Meanwhile, Faust is loving his new life in Greece. Right? He's all pumped up by how grand everything is. Even Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Even the, like, the mundane stuff. Right? He's like, it's like, oh, that's a that's a trash can in Greece.
Kynan Dias:Here they call them bins. It's crazy. I
Lester Ryan Clark:remember Ian, like, when he when he went to Japan. Like, he was like, look. Like, a a street in Japan. And he just he just, like, he he sent us this photo, folks, and it was just, you see the tips of his feet Mhmm. And it's just like this this, gravel, or asphalt.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like Mhmm. And it's like that you can't like, the joke being that you can't tell that, you know, he's in Japan. Yeah. But I imagine that's how Faust is. He's like, oh, look.
Lester Ryan Clark:There's a guy peeing in Greece.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. But yeah. So he's loving it and but he's still obsessed with Helen. Right? Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:And and he's so he's he's he's he's from Greece. Yeah. Yeah. And and so he's like, this is you know, remember when he was, like, in Gretchen's room and he was like, oh, this is where her ass sat. And this is where she this this was her bed where her Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Ass was also, you know Right. And now he's like and now he's like, I'm in Greece. This is where Helen maybe walked, maybe, possibly. I don't know. Greece is really big, but, you know yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And so so he so he asks the sphinxes if they have seen Helen. Right? And they're like, you should talk to Chiron about that. Right? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And the sirens try but but and then there's also sirens, and they're trying to tempt him. He's like, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:Don't talk to Chiron. Come and talk to us. We will please tell us more about emperor Palpatine.
Kynan Dias:And how you would have done it differently. Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:We're so we'll fall all over your new screenplay. Look. I have my phone out right now. I'm ready to subscribe to your podcast.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? But no. He's he he he's having none of that. Right? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:He's he's he's got Helen on the brain. Right? And Mephisto, on the other hand, is is done with the sirens after insulting them, because of course he does. Mhmm. He he starts checking out these lammei.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. These are like snake women hybrids who who eat children apparently.
Kynan Dias:Okay. That that's totally has a type, let's say.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Right? He's into lion legs Mhmm. Or no legs at all. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Now, Lem like, we were in our Lilith episode, Kanan, you were talking about, like, how you were introduced to the character of Lilith in the Final Fantasy series. Right. And you said she was like the snake lady.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Like a snake slug just discussing yeah. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. Wrapping yourself up. Right? Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And I Google imaged Mhmm. Final Fantasy Lilith. Mhmm. Hang on. Let me just do it again to make sure.
Lester Ryan Clark:Wait. Which Final Fantasy was it?
Kynan Dias:Oh, jeez. It must have been two or three, we would say back in the day.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. So I'm gonna say four.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. So four. Yes. Yeah. That's the Lilith I remember.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Let's see. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, folks, if you Google image, Final Fantasy four Lilith Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right, that I believe is a Lamia.
Kynan Dias:Okay. Cool. Yeah. Putting putting vocab to my childhood fears. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Thank you.
Lester Ryan Clark:Although this one this one seems like it's kinda like breaking the rules. It's like because it's like, oh, the downside of, you know, a sexy snake lady is you don't you know, but like, I don't know, looking at this picture, can kinda have you can kinda have the bottom of a snake and also the bottom of a of a person too.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. She got she got all sorts of things. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. There you go. But yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So that's that's a Lamia and that's that is what that's what Mephisto is into. Yeah. He likes he likes, you know, those bottom halves, like snake or or lion or whatever. Whatever. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. But yeah. But so so as as Mephisto is is off with with these female mythological beings. Mhmm. Faust finds this river god hanging out with some nymphs, and they invite him to chill for a bit.
Lester Ryan Clark:And it's exactly like that dream that he had back in his study, right, all these these woodland springs and these swans and everything. Right? And then this centaur named Chiron. Right? That's Chiron.
Lester Ryan Clark:And Chiron, I think we said this in the Dante episode, but Chiron was, also supposed to be this famous teacher of all the Greek the Greek heroes. Right? Right. Yeah. And so he offers Faust a ride.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And they're having this nice chat about Greek heroes and and and Faust is again, it's like the self insert with with Chiron with with with Dante. It's like it's like I'm like I'm I'm getting to meet all of these, all of these heroes. Like, I'm just like Virgil and and Ovid and Lucan and, you know, and and all of these great thinkers, says Dante. And now Faust is like, oh my gosh.
Lester Ryan Clark:I'm just like all those Greek heroes that you taught because I'm writing you.
Kynan Dias:You know? Right. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So he's talking to Chiron. Mhmm. And Chiron just casually drops that Helen once rode on his back just like Faust is doing now. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Holding onto his hair just like Faust is doing now. Mhmm. Yeah. It's like Helen's ass was here. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Exactly. This is know, like, was Gretchen's ass was in this seat. Gretchen's ass was in this bed. Helen's ass was, I don't somewhere in Greece, but now I know specifically it was on Chiron's ass. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And so Faust completely loses at this news. Right. And Chiron's like, look. Know, for a mortal, you're you're pretty heroic, which that's weird Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:To say to Faust. Chiron, I thought you were smart. I don't know. Mhmm. But but in the in the in the spirit world, you're acting kind of crazy is what he says.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. It's like so, I mean, I'm I'm taking that to be it's like, don't know how you like, like, you seem like a very distinguished, like, well respected person, you know, back on Earth, but here we do things differently. Uh-huh. I think is what he's trying to say. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And he decides to take Faust to this healer named Manto, and Faust is like, but I don't need healing, but it's too late. They're already at Manto's temple at the foot of Mount Olympus.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. So Manto takes one look at this guy and she's like, I love this guy. He he he wants the impossible. Right? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:He's he's a perfect epitome of of of manhood just just just whining and and and and asking for things all the time.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And never never satisfied. Right? And she offers to take him down to Hades Mhmm. To to find happiness. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Which okay.
Kynan Dias:As in we're gonna take you down to hell and that's where you'll be happy.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes.
Kynan Dias:He's always he's already been to the Christian hell, I guess, and then he's been to wherever the mothers exist in, which is Wait.
Lester Ryan Clark:Has he been
Lester Ryan Clark:to the Christian hell? Don't think he's gotten to the Christian hell.
Kynan Dias:Wasn't he dragged to hell at the end of act
Lester Ryan Clark:I think he I think he was I think he was getting dragged to hell. I okay. I like because I because I just edited that episode and I was listening to it. I think we misunderstood. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:I think I think in the opera, because that is where it ends
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Goethe
Lester Ryan Clark:with the Gretchen arc
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Is Gretchen goes up and Faust goes down dragged into hell. I think
Kynan Dias:Sure. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because like like they they broke into her jail cell and was like, quick, let's like, I'll help you. Get out. Mhmm. You know? And she's like, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:I choose God. God saves her. Redeemed. Yes. Redeemed.
Lester Ryan Clark:And and, Mephisto drags his prize down to hell. And that's how that's how the opera ends, I think.
Kynan Dias:Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Now we got the same story in Goethe's Faust, but I think what happened in there was they broke in
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And and, you know, he's like, I'm gonna rescue you. She's like, no. I choose God. And then Mephisto, like, comes in. It's like, like, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:We gotta get out on these flying horses. Like, hurry. You know, these flying horses are they got a curfew or something. And Gretchen says, no. She goes up to heaven.
Lester Ryan Clark:And rather than dragged, Faust down to hell, Mephisto just grabs him by the ear and is like, I said, let's go.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I guess that's what this says here. He disappears with Faust.
Lester Ryan Clark:But not to hell.
Kynan Dias:But come on.
Lester Ryan Clark:I know. No. I mean If
Kynan Dias:you were staging if you were staging it without doing act or part two. Right? Right. You'd totally be that he he got dragged out to hell. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Well, yeah. If there was no part two Right. Then Mephisto grabbing him Mhmm. And and pulling him off stage has me understanding, okay. Now now he's in hell.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Absolutely. But instead you're so but no. He's just been dragged to that meadow for three years or whatever.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Well, that is a choice.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. So, I mean, for all we know, like, that's that's what that's how Goethe wrote it, you know, before he spent, you know, however many years
Kynan Dias:Six sixty years.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. On part two.
Kynan Dias:Right? Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:So then and then Mephisto drags him drags him off stage down to hell.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And then ten years later, he wakes up in the middle of the night. Or does he? No. No. It wasn't a hell.
Lester Ryan Clark:It was to to to Wittenberg and and then from there to ancient Greece.
Kynan Dias:Alright. So I guess that's what's going on. We've Yeah. Yeah. It feels like a retcon to me.
Kynan Dias:It feels like we've retconned it that that wasn't him being dragged to hell.
Lester Ryan Clark:But Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I kind of think that is what happened.
Kynan Dias:Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Alright. Is is like I I think it's I think it's good to putting a little pinky to the corner of his mouth and it's like, I said he dragged him away. Mhmm. I never said well.
Kynan Dias:Alright. Yeah. I think you're right. That in the plain text, it does not say he's dragged to hell. It doesn't say any fire or anything like that.
Kynan Dias:Just he he disappears.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. He's in yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now he's here.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:And Anyway, so so now, yeah, this Manto is saying like you're gonna go to Hades, is the Greek hell.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Which is the Greek which, I mean, Mephisto's gotta be like hands on hips, like that one meme. Have you seen like the meme of the guy who who's just like, oh, how do I describe? Like, what does that meme even? I don't know the name.
Kynan Dias:He he looks like he's at a football match or something, maybe a soccer match, and he's looking at just like, so like, I can't believe that that you did that. He's very disappointed in you, but from a distance.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. It's like a full shot of a man and and he's just looking at you like, well, I mean, like like he's Mephisto and he's like, hey, I'm gonna take you to hell and you're Faust and you're like, ew, no. I don't wanna go to hell. But then some pretty lady is like, hey, let's go to Hades, and you're like, yay. And Mephisto is just looking at you like, really?
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, you you won't go to my hell, but you'll you'll go to you'll go to Greek hell. Okay. Fine.
Kynan Dias:Right. Well, know your meme as it does very well. Know your meme, this has some of the journalism out there, and they they have interviewed this guy, the disappointed soccer fan, the disappointed football fan.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, that's what it's called? Disappointed football fan?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. As in football. Right? Like a
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, okay.
Kynan Dias:Like a yeah. But so yeah. This man is named Mohammad Sareem Akhtar. Oh. And so also known as disappointing cricket fan.
Kynan Dias:Oh. Yeah. You could find him in his interview here about how how he was, yeah, disappointed with
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, here's a picture of him smiling.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, that's much better. But you gotta admit, his first name is Mohammed?
Kynan Dias:Yep. Like most people.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. But you gotta admit, Mohammed, that, like, that that one image of you frowning is so funny. You make money off of that if you can.
Kynan Dias:He has a tweet here in 2019. Loving the meme guys. Next match is crucial. Hashtag Pakistan Cricket World Cup, etcetera. Uh-huh.
Kynan Dias:But then already in 2019, his profile picture is that picture.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Okay. It's like you gotta own it. You gotta be like if anybody like like, anytime you're disappointed Right. Mohammad, just just just use that.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because it's you.
Kynan Dias:Oh. Yeah. I I don't know what happens in cricket. I don't know. So I couldn't possibly tell you what he was disappointed in with with the the Pakistani cricket team, but, yeah, he he did not like what they did.
Lester Ryan Clark:Cricket? Something something grumpet. I don't know. What was it? You know what I'm doing.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right?
Kynan Dias:Isn't that something grumpet.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. Raf says that to Casey Jones or something.
Kynan Dias:Oh, okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, when he when he holds up the cricket bat, he's like, cricket, something's on the crumpet. I'm not gonna look it up because we're running along.
Kynan Dias:Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, but apparently, yeah, apparently, it's not as complicated as I thought. So it's just the guy on the Pakistani team, Sif Ali dropped a catch. So that there it is.
Kynan Dias:And then Oh,
Lester Ryan Clark:and he's he's mad that he dropped
Lester Ryan Clark:a catch.
Kynan Dias:Come on. Right. Just an easy easy error. Right? Unforced error.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So that's so that's just that's Mephisto is that name.
Kynan Dias:Right? Right. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like, you're gonna go to Hades. Okay. Fine.
Kynan Dias:Right. What about my hell? Yeah. Why are we going to their hell for?
Lester Ryan Clark:Right.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Bam. But then okay. In my notes, I say, then things get weird as if they haven't already. Right? So there's these earthquakes.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Right? And no, listeners, the earthquakes aren't sentient and talk about how great they are like everything else in this fucking thing. They're just earthquakes.
Kynan Dias:Okay. Uh-huh. Right? Earthquakes.
Lester Ryan Clark:But it's apparently it's because Faust is down in Hades trying to rescue Helen.
Kynan Dias:Okay. Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Alright. And the whole mountain just like pops out of nowhere. Right? Mhmm. And these is this can we say this?
Lester Ryan Clark:Pygmies?
Kynan Dias:I think you can. Yeah. They're mythical. Say that they're mythical pygmy.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Yeah. Mythical pygmy. Yeah. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And then these mythical the thing says pygmies. Right? Mhmm. They show up and they start settling on the mountain making weapons and armor. And their general orders them to kill a bunch of herons for their feathers, for, you know, for the helmets Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Which turns out to be a bad move because an army of revenge seeking cranes show up.
Kynan Dias:Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Alright. Heron is heron a type of crane?
Kynan Dias:They look like cranes to me. I don't know.
Lester Ryan Clark:Wait. Is this like like mallard and hen or or something like that?
Kynan Dias:No. Herons are not cranes, I've been told. But they they should look the same to me. So I I I would be yeah. I know I'm I'm losing a bunch of street cred out there.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. There's a bunch of really hot mermaids who are turning away from me because I don't know the difference between a heron and a crane.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Right. Yeah. Right. That's that's what the pygmy said.
Lester Ryan Clark:There was like, oh, no. It's it's a bunch of it's a bunch of herons. And the cranes were like, oh, now you're we were we were gonna kill you already, but now you're, like, double dead.
Kynan Dias:Now you're dead dead. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Alright. Meanwhile, Mephisto's still at it with the lamiae.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:I guess that's the plural. Even though he says he's, like, uncomfortable with with, you know, Greek witches. Sure. I think think he's just uncomfortable with, you know, women who, you know, are are in total control of themselves.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? That's what witch stands for, woman in total control of herself. Right? Yeah. And the the Lamii are like, oh, pick pick the prettiest of us, right?
Lester Ryan Clark:But every time he picks one, it turns into something else, right? Now the notes okay. Because I was looking at, you know, like like summaries and everything like that, right? And the summaries are saying that they that when he picks them, they turn into a broomstick, a lizard, a pine cone on a stick. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Was under the impression that he was calling them. It's like, oh, this this this one's skinny as a broomstick.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. That's that's how I read it as well. Yeah. Right? He's he's he's like, oh, this one's really attractive, then get closer, and oh, no, she's looked like a lizard.
Kynan Dias:She looks like a pine cone. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. She's got a pine cone for her head. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay.
Kynan Dias:So that's okay. But I've been wrong about that kind of thing.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. No. No. I think no. I think you and I are right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. I don't think that's what don't think they turned into literal broomsticks. I think I think Mephisto's body shaming.
Kynan Dias:That's what I think is happening. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. But So then after all
Kynan Dias:funnier to me than them than them using magic against him. I think it's funnier that he's like, oh, I'm really into you. Oh, no. I'm not. That's that's that's Right.
Kynan Dias:Seems more in line with Mephistopheles than like him being tricked by low level magic.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:But then but then after all of that, Mephisto's wandering around. He's lost in some rubble Mhmm. When this mountain nymph points him toward Homunculus who's trying to figure out how to get out of his vial and become a real boy. Alright? And Homunculus tells Mephisto he is following these two ancient Greek philosophers, Anaxagoras Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And I guess that would be Thales?
Kynan Dias:I guess so or or Thales.
Lester Ryan Clark:Tailies. Maybe Tailies. Yeah. That sounds that sounds better. Hoping he's he's tailing Tailies.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Follow these follow follow those philosophers.
Kynan Dias:Right? Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Hoping that they'll teach him about existence and things. That's this is Homunculus. Like, wants to learn. Like, he thinks this is this is gonna make him human, is is learning from Anaxagoras and Talies. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Alright. But Mephisto just tells him it's like, oh, like, he'll have to learn, from from experience, from his own mistakes. Mhmm. Or is this like like, oh, no.
Lester Ryan Clark:You like like, real learning is learning from your mistakes. It's a mistake to to go after these guys. Is that what he's saying?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Maybe. I was I was reading something about the, you know, the reason that they have that conversation with the student earlier is because the student has learned about experience over knowledge. Right? And is about, you know, it's it's it's about, like, you learning above your age, etcetera.
Kynan Dias:And and the student has learned that that the only way to really get knowledge is to experience things instead of being in books. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. I think that was his whole thing. It's like I wasted my youth Mhmm. Like, building the persona of a of a stuffy book learned professor.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. And so it's weird for Mephisto here to be like, oh, no. You know, like being the opposite. It's like saying, No. Like like, really learn from experience.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. But like, it's also like he's making a jab. He's like because Homunculus is like, I wanna learn with these two guys. Right. And it's like, you're gonna learn from your mistakes of trying to learn with these two guys.
Lester Ryan Clark:You're
Kynan Dias:right. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. There's also the critique, I think, about philosophers in general thinking sitting around and thinking about what knowledge is as a Right.
Kynan Dias:That's that's the more romantic with a capital r sort of idea of like like you can't you can't philosophy is overrated. It's about living, and you know, what you feel is correct as opposed to what you reason is correct.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. That was like my favorite joke in, I believe it was book two of Paradise Lost Mhmm. Was when Satan leaves to go find, you know, the new world, like, all of the angels kind of like, you know, pass the time waiting for him, like, you know, doing, you know, the things that they they did up in heaven. Mhmm. And, you know, some of them have, like, fake fights.
Lester Ryan Clark:Some of them have, like, you know, like an Olympic games. And some of them just kind of, like, sit on well, it's not clouds. It's like, you know Mhmm. Like, lava rocks or whatever. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And and philosophize about, like, what is pain? What is evil? Right? And it's like, it's funny because it's like you're you're literally in hell. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, what what is damnation? Right? Yeah. Yeah. And and you notice we don't have philosophers today, folks.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's because Yeah. They've all become podcasters. Yeah. Oh, no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Yeah. So speaking of philosophers. Right? So so these philosophers are arguing about how the mountain got there.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Mhmm. And Exegorus says it was fire and gas burning billions of miles away. Right? But Talies says it was water.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? It's like very, very peaceful. Right? So we got, you know, we got fire and gas and water. Homunculus says, hey, I want to evolve.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Right? And Anaxagoras suggests that he could be king of the mountain creatures, but Talies warns him that the small worlds lead to small deeds. Mhmm. So, like, pretty much, it's like like how how much can you actually evolve in that little Pokeball?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. I think so. And that also the the the world of being a king is small anyway. So he wants to be a big. He wants to be out of this file, but he's not gonna find it out there.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right.
Kynan Dias:Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. And I like how that kinda goes with the you know, it's like, the, you know, the world is too small for me, so I have to stay contained in this file. You already knew, Homunculus. Like, what do you yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah. So right then, those cranes attack the pygmies, and Anaxagoras prays to the moon for help. The moon comes down and explodes, raining rocks on everyone.
Kynan Dias:So that's literal. And this is this feels more I'm I'm I'm more following what's going on in this act than the last one where people are playing each other, but so the moon literally blows up, you think?
Lester Ryan Clark:I don't think so.
Kynan Dias:That would be quite an event.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Unless we're in, like, another, like, oh, this is the Greek this is the ancient Greek moon. Is that what we're doing? I don't know. Goethe?
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, this is this is the moon that has, like, somebody who lives on it or who is it. Who is it? Yeah. And and chases the sun around or whatever. Right?
Kynan Dias:So they suicide bomb it, bombed the the cranes or whatever?
Lester Ryan Clark:I don't know. I don't know.
Kynan Dias:But they'll be back tomorrow, I hope, because they gotta control the tides.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? Yeah. No. You Kenan Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:This is ancient Greece. The moon doesn't control the tides. The the the the the sisters called the tides control the tides. No. I don't actually know.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, this is also, the moon is, like, within our atmosphere, and it's exploding and raining down rocks.
Kynan Dias:Right. Okay. Well, r I p moon.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right. Yeah. So but, yeah, Taelis is like, oh, no. Everybody calm down.
Lester Ryan Clark:Let's go party by the sea. Right? So so then Mephisto climbs up the mountain.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And he finds these the three witch sisters Mhmm. Called I I could never pronounce this name. The Forsities?
Kynan Dias:I that's how I would say it. Sure.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Yeah. These are the okay. For folks who might need a refresher, these are these are the three sisters who share, like, one eye and one tooth that Perseus met Sure. When he was searching for Medusa, who killed Medusa?
Kynan Dias:Yeah. That's I think I think you're right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Medusa was killed
Kynan Dias:By Perseus. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:By Perseus. Okay. Good.
Kynan Dias:You got it. You you got it,
Lester Ryan Clark:man. You
Kynan Dias:got this.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. It's ancient Greece. I thought we were talking about the Devil, not this ancient Greek stuff. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:But yeah, so Perseus runs into them. He's like, hey, where's Medusa? And and like basically bullies them. It's like, got your eye. Like Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Tell me whatever. Right? Right. And this is kind of like a mirror to that. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Because Mephisto meets them and he note and he notes that they share one eye and one tooth between them. Right? And he sweet talks them and convinces them to let him, like, take it says take the form of one of them. Mhmm. But, like, the way I was reading it, it was like he's, like, let me meld with you, let me combine with you.
Kynan Dias:I thought he's doing the Iggy with them.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. So that's a that's a third option.
Kynan Dias:Oh, okay. So he needs them he's shape shifting into one of them?
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. He he's either shape shifting into one of them. Mhmm. He's combining essences with them. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, so so where there's no more Phoresities and there's no more Mephisto, there's just Mephisto.
Kynan Dias:Okay. He's, like, wearing him like an Eggers suit.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, yes. Exactly. Okay. Okay. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, well, Keenan, like, he's Daniel Hillard, and they're a wig, a fat suit, and a prosthetic face.
Kynan Dias:Yes. Uh-huh. Yes. And he provides his own terrible Scottish accent.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Right? I think that's what's going on. I think they they they meld. They merge.
Kynan Dias:Okay. All three of them, though.
Lester Ryan Clark:I I believe so.
Kynan Dias:Oh, okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:I think.
Kynan Dias:Well, I thought he was getting jiggy with them, but maybe not.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Well, no. Like like because because in the sweet talking, he kind of he he says, like, it's like they're like, oh, we only have one eye and one tooth. Right? And he's like, well, have two eyes.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And, like, so that, like, like, that's, like, you know, for the three of you, that's like, then each of you has an eye, and it's like, that's more. And it's like, so let's let's, you know, let's let's merge. Mhmm. Mhmm. And then we'll we'll all be, like, the better for it.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. I think is what he's saying. Right? Because the whole, like, the end of this, the whole, like, thing that that Goethe was working up to was now the devil has become a hermaphrodite.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Right. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:And it's it it it feels like Goethe is trying to make that funny.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Like that's a joke.
Kynan Dias:Uh-huh. Sure.
Lester Ryan Clark:So so the devil has boy parts and girl parts
Kynan Dias:and halfs. Well, in in ancient Greece, right, hermaphrodite was Right. More of a god and and love the fact that they had, you know, both genders in one was seen as something to worship. But in, you know, in Northern Europe that way, you know, and then that that culture influences our culture, right, like that was not seen in that way. That was seen as Right.
Kynan Dias:Different and weird and suspect. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:So apart from what the Greeks were going for Mhmm. Goethe is like, isn't this funny?
Kynan Dias:Right. Absolutely.
Lester Ryan Clark:A man dressed as a woman as an old Scottish nanny. Isn't that funny?
Kynan Dias:We're not above that, I think.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. So so that's what's going on. So so Mephisto has become I'm gonna say Mephisto.
Kynan Dias:Okay. I love it.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's the four cities. Right? Yeah. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. So the Mephisto. Right? Oh, no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:He's he's he's already made a name for himself. I forgot. Right?
Kynan Dias:I like your name better.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So he calls himself so Goethe calls him Forkius. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Which he's a little bit embarrassed about. Right?
Kynan Dias:Because your name is stupid.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? But I'm gonna say Mephorsto. Absolutely. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Yeah. Okay. So then we got I think this is the last bit. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:This is the last scene. Right? It's a little bit shorter. So we're by the sea now. It's in the middle of the night Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:With the moon the moon that's not exploded super high in the sky. Mhmm. And we've got these sirens and they're just chilling on the rocks singing and playing their flutes. Right? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:What do do sirens like sing when there's no guys around? Is it a tree falling in the wood? Like what is, you know
Kynan Dias:That's a really question.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I mean they they probably just you know talk about their own stuff.
Kynan Dias:Right. They don't talk about guys. Yeah. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:It's the what's the test? The Bechtel test.
Kynan Dias:The Bechtel test, right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? Yeah. And it's just like, hey, so you know, it's like, how's life been? I like,
Lester Ryan Clark:oh yeah,
Lester Ryan Clark:you know, my work is killing me.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Talk about work. They talk about what books they've been reading, what they've watching on TV, the new exercise plans, how their family is doing.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Right. Oh, here's Perseus. Oh, Perseus, you have what is it? Abs.
Kynan Dias:You have abs, and we were hoping you could explain to us the different iterations of Doctor Who.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, please tell us again why why men are are are more fit to rule than women.
Lester Ryan Clark:Friggin. And then Perseus leaves. He gets whatever he needs. It's like, oh, jeez. Thank God.
Lester Ryan Clark:So anyway, yeah. So at work, was telling Mildred I don't know sirens names,
Kynan Dias:folks. Mildocrates. Mildocrates.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Mhmm. So yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So we're saying it's an act. It's an act that the sirens do. Yeah. Okay. But yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So we're in the sea, and, yeah, the sirens are singing, they're playing their flutes. Talies, and our homunculus friend, they show up at the shore, and Talies is like, you should probably talk to Narius. Right? And he's this prophetic sea god who who knows everything. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:And and Homunculus does that kind of like, you know, puts his hand over his eyes to look out, you know, long a distance and he's like, there's nary a narius here. No. Stop it. He's like, I'm I'm I'm I'm only a couple days old, but I've I've I've learned jokes from my dad.
Kynan Dias:Right. My daddy. Yeah. Vogue.
Lester Ryan Clark:But no. Homunculus is like, yeah. Why not? Right? And he knocks on Naarius' cave door.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. I didn't know that caves had I thought that was why it was a caves.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. If there's a door in the cave, it's a crypt. Right? It's a tomb.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, yeah. Right? Anyway, anyway, this is
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, please tell us the difference between A cave and We're a really interested.
Kynan Dias:Oh, please tell us why it's better to run into a man in the woods than a bear. Yes. Please.
Lester Ryan Clark:We promise we'll sit through the whole thing.
Kynan Dias:You're right. It is so logical.
Lester Ryan Clark:You're so right. We're incapable of logic.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. And this is in between. It's like while one of them is talking, all the other is
Kynan Dias:oh. That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:And they each kind of take up, like, as they, you know yeah. It's like tag team. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Kynan Dias:But yeah. And the the the ship the man is piloting the entire time is just getting closer and closer to
Lester Ryan Clark:the rocks. Yes.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Wow. That's very interesting. We should have stayed on
Kynan Dias:the gold standard instead of taking on
Kynan Dias:paper money. Things have gone terribly ever since two days ago.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, no. Please tell us about the importance of bulking and then cutting.
Kynan Dias:Oh, that one's hidden too close to home, Lester.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, no. You're absolutely right. Pazuzu is from a whole another pantheon. He shouldn't even be in the story. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:Please spend an entire podcast episode talking about it instead of talking about the movie.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. No. We we couldn't go on without without, you know, punching ourselves in the balls. Or me specifically.
Kynan Dias:Right. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Alright. Anyway, that that's a good one to end on.
Kynan Dias:Okay. I like these sirens. Okay.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. They're
Kynan Dias:nice. Yeah. Of course, I do. That's their job. Thank thank you.
Kynan Dias:Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Hey. Stop it, sirens. Anyway. The new designer. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Cave door. Okay. Yeah. So knocking on the the cave door. Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Right. Yeah. And then Narius appears, and he's super cranky about, you know, hearing anything that sounds human Right. Including Homunculi.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? He's got this whole thing about how humans, you know, wanna be gods but never actually listen to godly advice Mhmm. Which fair point. Sure. He he teacher, what what should we do?
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like, you should love everybody and treat everybody, you know, as you would treat yourself. What if what if they're different in any way, shape, or form?
Kynan Dias:Or what if they're not? What if they're your brother or your father? Define
Lester Ryan Clark:god. Okay. Fucking like, this this is where they started. Right? The podcast is like, def what is neighbor?
Lester Ryan Clark:What does that mean? I'll tell you my definition. Yeah. Anyway. But yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So he's like, I'm out of here. I'm gonna I'm gonna go hang with my daughters. Right? The the the nymphs. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? But before he leaves, he's like, hey. If if you wanna talk about changing your form Mhmm. Go chat with Proteus. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:He's he's the the the shape shifter guy.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. He's he's gonna be real hard to stage, but go talk to him. Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:Was this was this Goethe just just being like like like, oh, mister mister Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, you know, now so famous, we gotta say your whole name. Like like, your first play was so great. Like like, could you could you like, we promise to stage your next one no matter how out there it gets. And he's like, okay.
Kynan Dias:Alright. Yeah. I did hear Meishtein.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Right? Mhmm. I did hear, somebody saying that the craziness of the second part is on purpose. Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like so this is this is this is that other podcast that I highly recommend folks called Seven Heads 10 Seven Heads 10 Horns. Right. And it's kind of like a it's it's this other kind of history of the devil podcast that I didn't know about until until after we had started ours. I promise. I promise.
Kynan Dias:There's for the both of us. They do different things. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Hell is vast and infinite.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. They are smart. We are we'll figure out Yeah. Why you should listen to us.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. So so yeah. Yeah, folks. I mean, like, if you want, like, really, if you want some some, like, really, really scholarly Mhmm. Educated talk on on Faust, on Dante, on Paradise Lost, and and all of that stuff, Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Go to Seven Heads, 10 Horns. And, you know, if you want the missus Doubtfire jokes.
Kynan Dias:They don't do those over there. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:Now watch. It's all in the episode that I that I
Kynan Dias:did listen to.
Lester Ryan Clark:I'm like, oh my god. Oh god. There's so much better. The whole time? The whole time.
Lester Ryan Clark:But no, like so so they're talking about in Seven Heads, 10 Horns, they're saying that this is Goethe making a commentary Mhmm. On how, like, obsessed with the ancient Greek myths Europe was.
Kynan Dias:Okay.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Like like, during this time, during the time of writing this. And he's like, so so so basically what he's doing is like, he's like, and then Faust and the Devil went to ancient Greece and they they, mingled with center. Oh, what? What?
Lester Ryan Clark:Which is the you know, you are now that is too crazy? Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. So I think I think that's what he's doing.
Lester Ryan Clark:He's like, okay. You want you want ancient Greece in here? Here's here's, you know, ancient Greece with peanut butter and jelly. Here's ancient Greece with with steak. Here's ancient Greece with he's just like, oh, you you you want to put ancient Greece on everything.
Lester Ryan Clark:Here's ancient Greece with the pop tarts. Right.
Kynan Dias:Right. But that's what a lot of romanticism is, is this sort of taking it back from classical thought and like the the overreach of people who had rediscovered the you know, the Renaissance is this rediscovery of Mhmm. Classical thought, but then people were taking it and going to what the romantic saw as the extreme of, like, making turning those into immutable rules.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes.
Kynan Dias:Like, we were talking about the golden rule, the golden ratio.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:And being like, that is a rule that that that the ancient Greeks invented, and we've been really bad off by not following those rules. That's why we're in these dark ages. So if we get back to these rules of this is how you make something beautiful, this is how you describe music and beauty and philosophy and everything, and and then even trying to, like, yeah, attach ancient Greek and ancient Roman precepts onto, like, your relationship with God.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Yeah. Folks, this is, like, this is a show about the history and the evolution of the Devil through art and literature. And we have encountered Medusa, I think, four times.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because she like like or or at least mention of her. Right? Like, because we've had her in what was it? We've had her in Dante
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? At the at the the gates of Dis. Mhmm. She was in, she was in Paradise Lost Mhmm. When we like, when hell was just being made.
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:She's she's in the first Walpurgis night. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Or
Lester Ryan Clark:or or that's what Mephisto says. Mhmm. Right? She's like, no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:No. That's not Gretchen. That's not a vision of Gretchen. That's Medusa. Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? That was in the that was not the classical Walpurgis knight. That was the non Greek Walpurgis knight, and Medusa was there. Right?
Kynan Dias:Right. And in the the Temple Temple Of Solomon, in in the not the biblical Temple Of Solomon, but in the lesser key of Solomon. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, The in the testament of Solomon.
Kynan Dias:The testament of Solomon. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. We have Medusa there as well.
Lester Ryan Clark:Well, but she was called what was it? Azabeth? Abysseth? Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Yep.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. We had we had a Medusa like Right. Creature. Yeah. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So yeah. It's like we cannot get away from I mean, you know, Milton, Dante, Goethe Mhmm. Marlowe. Oh, I guess Marlowe was the only one who didn't have Medusa so far. Alright.
Lester Ryan Clark:He he barely had any Greek influence. He had well, no. He had a Helen of Troy. So Right. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So there. Yeah. Here we go. But yeah. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So so, yeah, we can't get away from it, folks. Every time we think we're out, they keep pulling us
Kynan Dias:back in. Alright. We got Proteus here.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. We got Proteus.
Kynan Dias:And he is a super interesting guy. Yeah. You know what Proteus does?
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, he's he's that in the the superhero team, he's like shape of? Yeah.
Kynan Dias:He's just constantly changing shapes. He that's super cool. And then, yeah, in in this version, don't it's Goethe's version, he like seems to be doing it compulsively. So like, it's not like Wonder Twins where he's like, oh, we need a bucket of water, so I'm gonna turn to a bucket of water. Or we need to get really high, so I'm gonna turn to eagle.
Kynan Dias:He seems to not be able to help it.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. I like that. Mhmm. Yeah. It's almost like it's it's attached to his emotions or his mood or whatever.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Right? Yeah. So it was like, oh, he gets really riled up and he turns into a dolphin.
Kynan Dias:Right. He turns into a dolphin at one point.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. But no. He actually does. Yeah. And in the radio play, man, they do a really good job kind of like melding, know, the actor's voice with the dolphins.
Lester Ryan Clark:It is it is something to listen to, folks. Yeah. Listen to that one not with your headphones, just on speaker as you're as you're at at work and and it'll be fun. Mhmm. But, yeah, Dailey's is like it's like, hey, you know, can can you, you know, maybe like try to look more human?
Lester Ryan Clark:And and Proteus tells Homunculus that if he wants to become real, like a real human, he needs to go out into the open sea because that's where all life started. Right. So he's like, hey, you're a tiny human. You're almost a human already, but let's start all the way back to, like like, we gotta have you crawl out of the sea. We have to have you be an invertebrate.
Lester Ryan Clark:We have to, you know, like, all of that stuff.
Kynan Dias:Right. Yeah. So, this is my new favorite stage direction, which is Homunculus mounts the dolphin Proteus.
Lester Ryan Clark:So, folks, this is why punctuation is important. Homunculus mounts the dolphin, hands on hips, Proteus.
Kynan Dias:I don't know, but but, you know, someone has to put Homunculus in
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Proteus' back for this to work, because he lives in a jar.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:So this is where I mean really Not in his little blowhole. That's well, where else you could have put him?
Lester Ryan Clark:I mean, yeah. Actually, because he's he's in a bottle, and a bottle is either it's either spherical or cylindrical. Right. It's gonna it's gonna roll off his back. Right.
Kynan Dias:Yeah. Or or just somebody, Faust or somebody, like, just just, like, sort of holds him up like like a Barbie that doesn't fit in the car you have because it's like a a, you know, an off brand toy, you just sort of hold Barbie above the above the car and go, here we are. Alright. Barbie in the car. Vroom, vroom, vroom.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Lester Ryan Clark:And she's, like, giant going
Kynan Dias:into the car. Right. So someone just has to follow Homunculus around and be like, oh, yeah. You're riding Proteus, the donkey the dolphin Proteus. You're you're really doing it.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:So Proteus turns into a dolphin. Right? And Homunculus hops on for a ride. Sure. Again.
Kynan Dias:I would say in, but okay. Yeah. Yeah. Partially in Proteus.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Right. And and Proteus is mythological, so he doesn't need to breathe.
Kynan Dias:Good.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And and, yeah, as they're going, Homunculus' light is lighting up all the beauty of the waves, and Tailies is watching from the shore as Homunculus' flame gets brighter and brighter with passion until boom. He breaks his vial and his fiery essence just like merges with the waves. Mhmm. And everybody's like, wow, the elements are amazing.
Lester Ryan Clark:So basically, Homunculus finally figured out how to become real by literally becoming one with the ocean and that's and so I think he's dead.
Kynan Dias:Okay. So I I didn't look it up. So I'm I'm looking forward to yeah. By next week, reading if Homunculus just died or not.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. I I'm pretty sure because that's what that's what the the explanations are all telling me.
Kynan Dias:So what was the point of any of that?
Lester Ryan Clark:What was the point of Homunculus?
Kynan Dias:He's just fucking dead. Yeah. Why does he become the third character of the play? And just forget to die?
Lester Ryan Clark:Keenan, the point of Homunculus Uh-huh. Was to get to Proteus.
Kynan Dias:Well, I'm really glad we
Lester Ryan Clark:got to Proteus. We needed that five minutes of of of a guy trying not to turn into a dolphin but turning into a dolphin.
Kynan Dias:Alright. So let me let's recap what happened.
Lester Ryan Clark:So Okay. If we can, good luck to us.
Kynan Dias:So, yeah, Homunculus lives in a little vial.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. But, oh, yeah. Even before that. Even before that. Oh, yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:I almost said Wagner. Faust faints. Okay. Wakes up no. No.
Lester Ryan Clark:Like, while still fainting Right. Most like like like mid faint. Mhmm. Mephisopheles kinda like revisits the old study. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Bumps into Nicodemus. Mhmm. Nicodemus says, hey, Wagner's the new Faust. It's like
Kynan Dias:fuck you, man. Fuck you. Right? Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:And then goes to Wagner. Wagner's like, I'm making babies.
Kynan Dias:There you go. This is Oh, baby. Where the magic happens. Mhmm. This is where I make babies.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right? And it's like, oh, this is and and Mephisto's excited because he's like, oh, this is Trojan Explosion volume 10. Right. But it's not. It's it's he's he's making his own home movies and it's a little guy Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Named Homunculus. Mhmm. Because Wagner's not creative, he's like, it's a homunculus called Homunculus. Right? Mhmm.
Lester Ryan Clark:Homunculus means tiny human being.
Kynan Dias:Right. So Homunculus You
Lester Ryan Clark:can't see me, but I'm smiling. Real weird.
Kynan Dias:And Homunculus is like, Oh, Faust has a problem, so let me suggest that I go with you to solve that because really I am trying to become a real boy.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Yeah. It's like, Faust has a problem.
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:Fuck him. What about me?
Kynan Dias:Right. But he's he's going with them and pretending that he's there to help Faust
Lester Ryan Clark:out with the problem. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Then, and Faust try to solve their problem at classical Vulpurgus night.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. They go to they go to they they they they they they meet either LaVar Burton or miss Frizzle and take a trip to ancient Greece.
Kynan Dias:That's right.
Lester Ryan Clark:And now they're in ancient Greece, and and and both of those folks have have scattered. They're they're gone.
Kynan Dias:Right. And they yeah. They're trying to they're trying to get some with whatever they can. Right? Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Faust is trying to get with Helen, but that involves a bunch of, you know, learning about Greek culture and all that stuff that he hasn't been with before. Ew. Learning.
Lester Ryan Clark:Faust is
Kynan Dias:trying to, yeah, help help Faust learn, but that involves him melding bodies with ancient Greek witches. And so finally, Homunculus gets away from all of them somehow, which we never covered, just starts walking around as a as a bottle. Mhmm. Right. Without Mephisov he's carrying.
Kynan Dias:He meets a series of people who get him to Proteus. Mhmm. Proteus turns into a dolphin, says hop in me bro.
Lester Ryan Clark:Homunculus jumps in. Get in loser. We're becoming one with the sea.
Kynan Dias:So he gets partially into Proteus' blowhole and starts lighting up so that when Proteus, like, smiles as the dolphin, his his light comes out of his mouth through his bottle teeth. And they're like, we're doing it, bro. We're doing it. Mhmm. And like it's bigger and bigger and explodes so that Homunculus dies.
Kynan Dias:Fucking blows up into a million pieces.
Lester Ryan Clark:Isn't this a metaphor for an orgasm?
Kynan Dias:Fraudius just does a couple of backflips and goes, and everyone, like, waves, like the end of the end of Grease. Yes.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. There we go. Waves as in sea waves.
Kynan Dias:Is the word. Yeah. Yes. Grease as in the musical Grease.
Lester Ryan Clark:Right. Which is which is spelled g r e e c e.
Kynan Dias:Right. They go it's a Proteus and Homunculus go together.
Lester Ryan Clark:You are the dolphin I want.
Kynan Dias:Like, Wapapaloova, a wappam boom.
Lester Ryan Clark:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Kynan Dias:Alright. There you go. That's act two.
Lester Ryan Clark:Folks, so once you hand in your your your grade a essay Uh-huh. On on Goethe's Faust part two Mhmm. We will accept thanks in the form of a five star review. But no.
Kynan Dias:Alright. But yeah. I'm looking forward to see if that has any ramifications whatsoever to what happens in act three, but don't tell me yet.
Lester Ryan Clark:Okay. Alright. I promise I won't. Alright. Folks, this has been another episode of the Devil's Details.
Lester Ryan Clark:I've been Lester Ryan Clark. You can summon me on all the socials as Lester Ryan Clark.
Kynan Dias:That's really the end of this episode.
Lester Ryan Clark:That is that is the end.
Kynan Dias:That's really what happened in this act. That's really how the show ends.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's it. That's it.
Kynan Dias:Alright. Mhmm. Well, I've been keen to
Lester Ryan Clark:be Wait.
Kynan Dias:Now you're can
Lester Ryan Clark:Is there more
Lester Ryan Clark:that I missed?
Kynan Dias:No. That's exactly that's exactly what happens.
Lester Ryan Clark:You're saying it like like really, you're going out wearing that?
Kynan Dias:That is really
Lester Ryan Clark:what And you got your hands on your hips like the the disappointed football media guy.
Kynan Dias:Like Muhammad. Yeah.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Okay. Alright. Well,
Kynan Dias:I've been Keenan Diaz, and you can invoke me on Instagram and Letterbox as Howdy Keenan.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yeah. Look at look at what act two of part two of our second dip into Faust has done to us.
Kynan Dias:Mhmm. Yeah. It's great.
Lester Ryan Clark:If you want more of this, find more of our shows and other really cool podcasts at truestory.fm. Mhmm. Or feel free to drop us a message at bananaforscalemail@gmail.com. That's n a I l. We got our Facebook listener group, banana for scale.
Lester Ryan Clark:That's a community for all of our shows, including this one. It's a private group. It just requests to join, and we'll let you in. If you want more, consider joining us at true story dot f m slash join and look for banana for scale. That's us.
Lester Ryan Clark:You get bonus episodes of all of our shows, access to our Discord, and you get your episodes a week early. Pretty cool. What's thou like to live deliciously? We're not even asking for your souls. Just give us a five Pentagram rating on iTunes or Spotify, wherever you listen to our show.
Lester Ryan Clark:That and sharing the show by word-of-mouth or on social media helps our little podcast grow and find more cool people like you. I'm hearing you giggling. What?
Kynan Dias:Sorry. I just I I was reading a summary of what happens in act two because I was like, that can't
Kynan Dias:be it.
Kynan Dias:But yeah. Yeah. That's what Wikipedia says. Uh-huh. Guided by the sea god Proteus.
Kynan Dias:Homunculus is initiated in the process of becoming fully human, but his glass flaps shatters, and he dies.
Lester Ryan Clark:Is it is this it? Did did did one of the authors finally get us?
Kynan Dias:Sorry. Was trying to you know, you're you're finishing the show and I'm like, I think I can close this window. Think can close this window. Oh, wait a minute. Let's see what this what says happens.
Lester Ryan Clark:It's like the electronic form of a siren and it's like
Lester Ryan Clark:it's like, no. Come come read this. It's really interesting. Yeah.
Kynan Dias:Alright. Sorry. You were ending the show.
Lester Ryan Clark:Yes. Alright. Folks, until next week. Love and hisses.
Lester Ryan Clark:Oh, no. Please come back and tell us more about your opinions about pregnancy and menstruation. We think you as a man has a lot of insight and could really educate us over here. Please come guide your ship over here.
Kynan Dias:Oh, that's so interesting about the changes to the designated hitter rule and how that messes up all of the stats. You can't really compare MLB stats before that to those afterwards. I never thought about that.
Lester Ryan Clark:Because I'm a woman. But please go on.
Lester Ryan Clark:Then, you know, they're they're sailing over to, you know, the the the crag with, you know, with all the sirens on it. Right?
Kynan Dias:Right.
Lester Ryan Clark:But the ship kind of like lets loose its seamen Mhmm. A little bit too too prematurely. Mhmm. And they kind of just like like, you know, fall into the water and drown. Right?
Lester Ryan Clark:Then it's they're still a little bit too far away from from the rock where all the sirens are. But you just hear one of the sirens, like, as as you're drowning, you're like, that's totally normal that, you know, lots
Lester Ryan Clark:of lots of sailors do that. We notice you're you're you're you're not flying your colors. It's only half mast. That's also totally normal. No, that's our fault for some reason.