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In this engaging podcast, a dad and his two sons explore their personal interests while rating a variety of alcoholic beverages. They dive into discussions about nerd and geek culture, travel experiences, and an array of intriguing topics that pique their curiosity. Join them for a fun and lighthearted conversation filled with laughter, insights, and, of course, plenty of drink reviews!
Hey, y'all. Welcome back to another episode of the three hamster boys. I, of course, am Alexander, your host. I'm joined by our father, Jeff.
Jeff:Jeff the dad.
Alexander:And my brother, Jeff's son, Nick. Nick the son. I'm also Jeff's son, but it felt weird to introduce
Nicholas:him that second son.
Jeff:Alexander the
Nicholas:first Yeah.
Alexander:We are getting our We're sinking our teeth back into season two here, running into overcoming technical problems Yeah. As well as relearning what it's like to be back in the studio and back recording and making sure we're doing everything right. So
Jeff:Yeah. We became dumb really.
Nicholas:Well, it's just there's a lot of things to keep track of in the small room and you know, a lot of moving pieces that we're still not you know, fully familiar with or you know, we got to re familiarize.
Alexander:Right. Of course. Plus, I
Jeff:mean, we're hoping to improve as we go along. So we're trying
Alexander:to find new things. Crossed. Yeah. Alright. Well, Nick, let's just hop into it.
Alexander:What are we drinking
Nicholas:we have a very exciting one that I'm very very curious for. I These cocktails are gonna be really really good and the base for it is we went to the town of Powhatan and we went to a lovely brewery called Three Crosses and picked up their coffee infused whiskey.
Alexander:I think the the I think they're technically a distillery not a brewery. Distillery. Just in case there's like some pedantic people thinking about it. A distillery.
Jeff:Well, the the crazy thing about this is that it was the day before a terrible ice storm.
Nicholas:A giant
Nicholas:snowstorm and everyone was walking in getting their drinks in before.
Jeff:We we tried to do another distillery but they were not open. But we'll we'll we'll catch that one. It was closer than I thought it was.
Alexander:Yeah. It wasn't too far. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. But yeah. I'm I'm excited about this. Also, I I love drinking beers. I love drinking mead.
Jeff:I love drinking wine but I love your cocktails. I absolutely love you doing the cocktails.
Nicholas:It's an exciting thing because we always do it blind. Yep. So it's a lot of first impressions. Yep. As you know, season two, we started with beer but for everyone not familiar, to start with, we do three cocktails for these kind of things.
Nicholas:I try to switch them up and make them a little interesting to see sort of the flavor profile that whatever we're working with can be played with. And for the first cocktail, always try to do a control, something very very simple and for us to really just capture the taste of the base alcohol itself. So we're starting with a mint julep. Yep. I thought it, you know, coffee and mint just made a lot of sense.
Nicholas:And so it's just mint muddled with some simple syrup and then just a lot of whiskey on top of it and some ice.
Jeff:I love whiskey.
Nicholas:Heck yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. As we're getting ready to hop in here, the theme for today, last time it was redeemed characters and this time we're going on the inverse here. We're looking at traitors, characters that have strayed away or were always just the bad guys that we knew they were and betrayed. So I'm hearing a lot what's happening?
Nicholas:This is honestly really incredible.
Jeff:It is. It is much better than I thought it would be.
Nicholas:It is so smooth and I think the mint balance and the coffee infused part, it's like a slight breath.
Nicholas:Yeah. When
Nicholas:you when you exhale, you get like hints of this coffee note.
Jeff:But it it takes away a lot of the burning that whiskey normally has. Yeah. It is extremely smooth. This is gonna be We we went through a lot of this bottle to make the drinks. This is gonna be definitely a fast drinking
Alexander:I was about to say, this goes down too easy knowing that we're drinking whiskey
Nicholas:also knowing that each glass contains two and a half shots.
Alexander:Oh, no. Did did we say though the distillery we went to is Three Crosses?
Nicholas:Three Crosses. I brushed over it but super lovely place
Jeff:fantastic. And we were getting drinks and we told the server, we said we want these drinks and we want a bottle of the coffee whiskey. She's like, do you wanna
Nicholas:taste it? Wanna taste it just see how it is? We're like, no. And you know Yeah.
Jeff:It was Well, that we were trying to get the What was the other one that was apple pie?
Nicholas:They had an apple spiced rum.
Jeff:Yeah. Yes.
Nicholas:Which was out of stock. Yeah. But you know, maybe it'll come back.
Alexander:I The the fun thing is this distillery in general did whiskey, it did gin, it had vodka. Yeah. It had some rum. So again, a big variety. This the coffee whiskey was just a seasonal item and we're like, okay, well, it's a limited batch seasonal item.
Alexander:Well, we gotta get that. We gotta see what that's about.
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, I I think that like a lot of these distilleries as they become more mature, they do more variety of different things rather than just focusing on one. Like when we went to Foothills Distillery, they were just doing the bourbon.
Nicholas:Right. Right.
Jeff:Right. You know, or Ragged Branch, you know.
Nicholas:Yeah. They were just getting their first batches out.
Jeff:Well, yeah. They were fairly new, but yeah. I think that some focus on it, some give you a wider variety. Yeah. So
Alexander:Yeah. And I do wanna shout out, you had a Manhattan while we were there with a a dark rye whiskey Yeah.
Nicholas:With So tasty.
Alexander:Used in they they put it in port barrels like Yeah. Port wine barrels and I think that added so much to the flavor.
Jeff:That was extraordinary. It was a deep Once again, it's a high alcohol drink, but it was so deep and so
Nicholas:It's very rich.
Jeff:Rich. Yeah. It it was incredible. It it was pretty close to the fullness of like this drink here. Yeah.
Jeff:So
Alexander:Well, okay. Enough about the alcohol here. Let's talk about betrayers. Let's get into the nitty gritty here. Dad, why don't you kick us off here?
Alexander:Who is your the betrayer you have first on your list?
Jeff:So number one, there are a lot of serious options that you could do here. Almost every spy story, every Sure. Yes. You always have this double cross. In most of the in most of like the superhero ones, there's always There's a lot of times where there's a double cross in the middle of it and then they're redeemed.
Jeff:So I decided to use a lot of off the wall ones.
Nicholas:Yeah. Sure.
Jeff:So my first one is Lotso and I will admit, it's out of Toy Story three. Not a lot of people saw Toy Story three.
Nicholas:I think it it's got a little bit of traction.
Alexander:Yeah. I I'm surprised that you have seen Toy Story three because I know you and mom are going through a Disney animated movie kick right now where you're watching all the animated movies that I didn't realize you hadn't seen before.
Jeff:So we So this one was from your childhood, so therefore we thought Oh, okay. Okay.
Nicholas:Makes sense. So Oh, we watched Toy Story three with that drive in movie theater where they were playing Prince of Prince of Persia.
Jeff:That is right.
Alexander:Wow. That's a deep cut to
Nicholas:remember And
Jeff:they're rebuilding that drive in.
Nicholas:Oh, that's cool.
Jeff:So it should be open this coming year, so.
Alexander:We have a drive in movie theater. I know. It's not far from here.
Jeff:I know. Know. Anyways, so the reason it's a betrayal is because Woody and
Alexander:Buzz.
Nicholas:Buzz. Buzz Lightyear.
Jeff:Get lost and they end up in this daycare center and there's lots of who's this teddy bear who welcomes him in, is all welcoming and everything. But ultimately, he becomes a bad guy. Yeah. And he tries to destroy them. But instead, if I remember correctly, this is Benegal.
Jeff:He gets destroyed in the end.
Alexander:Yeah. I I believe that.
Nicholas:Yeah. I think he gets incinerated
Jeff:Yeah.
Nicholas:Because his baby bodyguard, sort of turned on him at the last because Lotso was like, I we hate kids. Kids betrayed us. We were sent to the daycare.
Jeff:Yeah. He said, I was I was lost and this is where I ended up. Yeah. They didn't care. Once again, it's a recurring theme about this idea of being separated or being lost and and it occurs in a lot of the Toy Story kind of
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's like your your ties and connections have been, you know, torn and now you have this sort of bitter outlook afterward.
Jeff:Yep. Alright. So that's my first choice.
Alexander:Wow. Yeah. You even went one with which was a betrayer gets betrayed in the end.
Nicholas:Yep. It's true.
Alexander:Very fun.
Jeff:Yep.
Alexander:Alright. Nick, heading over to you. What do you got for us?
Nicholas:I think I'm gonna start with a very tame one. Okay. I think it's a little beloved, but it's like very classic.
Nicholas:Okay.
Nicholas:So I'm going to choose specifically John Silver from Treasure Planet. However, highly highly inspired and basically a one to one from Treasure Island. Yep. Just a little bit more grander in the spectacle and and that sort of animation era. But John Silver is is a weird and very complex antagonist for the the protagonist.
Nicholas:Because the movie starts and you get an inkling that like John Silver, that's the bad pirate. That's the one going after the map. That's the one who's going to be really cutthroat and will kill anyone to get these sort of a mean, you know, like the gold or the treasure. Anyway, he was silhouetted for the beginning and when you actually see his character for the first time, that's not who he shows to Jim Hawkins. No.
Nicholas:He shows a quartermaster that is very calm on his ship. He is a powerful presence and a one that should be looked up to in a positive light. He is still this sort of bilge pirate, but he has this code of ethics that he portrays to Jim and also like, we're pirates, we're the rogues, we're the we're the left behind and we're all together and if you're on the ship, you're you're sort of part of this greater group. Yeah. And through the movie, even though you you know how dastardly he is, Jim Hawkins doesn't actually.
Nicholas:Jim Hawkins was suspicious at the start but John Silver creates this mentor role Yeah. That's like very very earnest and like is very very powerful and I think Treasure Island does it simply like similarly in the fact that he he sort of takes Jim under his wings and is like, I'm here for the treasure and you know, so long as we're good on that like we're okay, we're square. I just think there's so many powerful like positive notes that John Silver like offers to Jim to make him so trustworthy and and this father figure that Jim didn't have. Yeah. Which when this inevitable betrayal happens, it's not like a, oh my gosh, I can't believe that happened.
Nicholas:It's more of like a, this is like a conceded, it will happen. Yeah. And it's devastating, right? It's it's the fundamentals of our protagonist sort of fall away. He has to sort of grit his teeth and and resist this, you know, figure that he's looked up to and I think thankfully it ends on a positive note.
Nicholas:John Silver is building his connection with with Jim,
Jeff:know,
Nicholas:inevitably doesn't shoot him and eventually chooses Jim over the treasure. Yep. And in turn, Jim lets John get away and there's just this, it's a very subdued betrayal, but I think it's just the the note from a protagonist angle is like so Usually from the audience, you're following the protagonist and like what the protagonist knows is like what you know most of the time. Right. But like you know as an audience member that how bad this guy is but our our hero doesn't that's such a interesting perspective that it offers.
Jeff:Sorry. As you're describing this, I I made a connection and hopefully it doesn't ruin anybody else's. Oh, no. I was thinking of uncharted the whole time.
Nicholas:There's a lot of betrayal.
Alexander:There is. You know, actually, I did not have Uncharted in my list here, which is unfortunate.
Nicholas:There's the the British Museum where that one guy gets you and then Chloe is this sort of
Jeff:But I was thinking of Sully as the, you know, there's times when he just lets lets him down, you know.
Nicholas:Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. And Sully does kind of fit in as that old mentor Yeah. Almost father figure for Nathan at times too.
Nicholas:The greed, you know.
Jeff:Yep.
Nicholas:Yeah. I I think, you know, good call.
Nicholas:Good call. Yeah.
Alexander:I I think going back to Treasure Planet though, it feels like the slow band aid rip of betrayals Yeah. Where again, it's this inevitable thing, you know it's happening. You see John Silver having these meetings with the other pirates and you you know that the betrayal is gonna happen Yeah. But he then turns around and it's like, Jim my boy and is like being very like almost kind and affectionate in in certain ways while also making him like swab the deck 20 times. Yeah.
Alexander:I I like that a lot and you're right. He does have a bit of a redemption at the end so not
Nicholas:to step on last
Nicholas:episode's toes.
Alexander:I think sometimes it's hard though because there are betrayals and a lot of times, it's more satisfying for an audience member to have a little bit of that redemption Yeah. Especially a character like that that is complex and you as the audience kind of grow attached to while Yeah. You're watching the film.
Jeff:Well, I think that in order to be a betrayer, there has to be a connection to that character to begin with.
Nicholas:Hurts more if you have that attachment to them.
Jeff:Talked about it. If the guy is evil all the way, you have no attachment to him. You have nothing No skin in the game. But but when you have that attachment where you understand or you think you understand what their motivation is and whatever, Even though they betray you go, well, I understand it. That's what that character is gonna do.
Nicholas:It makes sense but it hurts still. Yeah. Impactful part of a betrayal. Yeah. Yep.
Nicholas:What you got?
Alexander:We're still
Nicholas:on we're still on part one here. We're getting in the thick of it already.
Alexander:Yeah. I will say, the more we drink this, still delicious. Like, it still goes down so easy. So tasty.
Nicholas:Well It is so
Jeff:tasty. Balanced.
Nicholas:Yeah.
Jeff:That's what I mean, it does not over of a good drink.
Nicholas:Hey. Yeah.
Jeff:It doesn't overwhelm with the whiskey taste and overwhelm with the mint. Yeah. It's not too sweet. I just I I think it's a just such a well balanced.
Nicholas:Very tasty. Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to get out of these glasses. I think that's my only complaint. A little bit.
Nicholas:You know, I We don't have a a julep cup.
Alexander:We don't.
Nicholas:Yeah. So Not yet. Not yet. But we had some Collins glasses and they said that Collins glasses
Jeff:were for slow down our drinking.
Nicholas:Yeah. Exactly. Well, was about
Alexander:that's the only way that it's slowing you down from taking your sips. Alright. For my character, I went with kind of
Nicholas:a a
Alexander:quintessential traitor, betrayer, and I think this character is less personable than some of the other characters that you you've mentioned. This character is a traitor in the fact that he's infiltrated and has betrayed the trust. But you as the audience kind of hate him perpetually. And that's Grima Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings
Jeff:Oh, yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. Where I don't think there's a point where you're ever like, yeah, that guy could be good. You know, you are always looking at him like, that guy sucks. Whether he's, you know, whispering during the classic worm tongue thing into the ear of King Theoden.
Nicholas:Gandalf has arrived. Yeah.
Alexander:There's like no point where you like him, but he, I think in my opinion, is one of those quintessential betrayers because obviously, King Theoden has been looked up, has been hailed as a wise king of men, is a a leader to his people and has gained the the trust and respect of his people and yet somehow has let this adviser in who is slowly poisoning him literally and you know metaphorically. Yeah. And then going even further than that, once Wormtongue is expelled, going back to his his master Saruman and betraying him too at the end. Like, this is a a sleazy This this character is a betrayer. He's a traitor through and through.
Alexander:He never gets a redemption and you don't really want him to end.
Jeff:But So so this is where we we were talking about this. Is he a betrayer or is he just out for his own good no matter what?
Nicholas:I I think that's how traitors begin. Right? It's it's the the means, right? Like they're They have a a goal or priority that, you know, takes takes the the front no matter what, no matter who they're around, even if it's against, you know, an angelic being like Saruman the White or just like the entirety of the the Rohirin, you know. Yeah.
Nicholas:Like, they are doing it for Also, like, grandma had that like weird thing where he's like, I'm gonna get the knee Theoden's knees.
Alexander:Oh my gosh. You know?
Nicholas:Know, just Yeah. A creepy he is just a slimy guy.
Alexander:Yeah. Which again, I guess in this way, also kind of like a a double betrayal situation similar to Lotso in the fact that Saruman, the white was one of the good guys at point and then kind of is corrupted, turns away from the light.
Nicholas:I mean, if we just talk about Lord of the Rings as a whole Oh
Jeff:my gosh.
Nicholas:Because it's basically a one to one for the Bible. Sauron was basically Lucifer Yeah. And you know, just a whole bunch of falls and betrayals and plans within plans.
Alexander:I was about to say it it's a CS Lewis and j j r token Yeah. R r token.
Nicholas:Yeah. Just being
Alexander:like, okay. Let's just rewrite the bible but make it kind of fun with a bunch of warrens. Make it a little cool.
Jeff:The reading slow.
Nicholas:Describe every branch on this one tree.
Alexander:Oh, man. Yeah. But yeah. So I I think we did a lot of talking similar to redemption arcs and a lot of these other episodes. A lot of the back end that we do is talking about what kind of fits into this criteria
Nicholas:Yeah.
Alexander:Fits in into this category. When we were talking about it, we were discussing do we have a character that is a traitor or are we gonna look at moments of betrayal? And that was one of the big discussions that we were having. Yeah.
Jeff:Also, think your mother's take, oh, Sam was a betrayer.
Nicholas:Right. Oh. Because he took the ring.
Nicholas:Because he tried to take the ring from from Frodo. We had a there was a lot of discussion. Yeah. There there was a lot of discussion. Especially because part of the discussion was also like, depending on the perspective, one could be redeemed and a traitor at the same time.
Alexander:Like Right.
Nicholas:All of our redeemed characters are viewed as traitors from another perspective and and so forth. That's why this one is more of like a from a protagonist standpoint Yeah. And sort of maybe a little bit more self centered than a lot of the redeemed ones are for like the people or the the greater good as they like to sort of play it. But it the There's a there's a gray area a 100% for these Mhmm. For this topic.
Alexander:Yep. Alright. Yeah. Which is why I think there was a lot of discussion there. What was the other one that our mother had said?
Alexander:Oh, Lando Calrissian.
Jeff:Lando Calrissian. So I did not pick him. He was he was an obvious one, but for me, what we talked about earlier was Yeah. He was just redeemed too quickly. Yeah.
Nicholas:Well, yeah. And and there is I mean, the connection again. We meet Lando, he betrays you, you know. It's It happened too quickly in that Right. Regard and then he flips again that quickly and you're like, I can't really tell this like what he's on about.
Nicholas:Right. You know? He's If he'd betrayed me again, I wouldn't be surprised.
Nicholas:Yeah.
Nicholas:Right? Like you you don't get a feel for Lando. It's like he's a charismatic guy and he says that the Falcon is his. You
Alexander:know, like Yeah.
Nicholas:You know, you're like, okay.
Jeff:I mean, and I think that longevity of description does matter because I think you have to be vested in that character. You were never vested in Lando. We talked about there's some characters in one piece. I don't know whether you guys are gonna pick one, but these may occur over hundreds of episodes.
Alexander:Right.
Jeff:You know? Yeah.
Nicholas:Well We'll do that.
Alexander:Well, our drinks are just about done. I'm ready for cocktail number two. We'll see y'all in the second part of this episode. See you soon.
Nicholas:Bye. Bye. And
Alexander:we are back. We've got very different looking drinks in front of us here. Onto round two.
Jeff:An alive audience.
Nicholas:No need to mention. For this second drink, our second cocktail, I've done something for the first time. I always try to challenge myself for something new or just something a little different. So our palettes get a little bit expanded and I familiarize myself with just a little bit more cocktail techniques and types. This go around, I worked with egg whites.
Nicholas:What I learned was don't make a triple batch in a shaker and then do egg whites because it kind of just explodes.
Alexander:It kind of explodes. Yeah.
Nicholas:But we have the Amber Moon which is egg whites, our whiskey, honey, cinnamon, lemon juice and then some bitters to top it off. Nice. That sounds good. Wow. I'm hoping for a very aromatic and more sweet and hoping the the coffee whiskey just evens it out a little bit just to cut through all those sweet notes.
Nicholas:Alright. But the egg whites very simple actually. It wasn't really a challenge but just something that I'm happy that I can be a little bit more comfortable with. Woah. They're making faces.
Jeff:Okay. We're making faces because it is such a complex drink.
Alexander:I There are a lot of flavors that hit your tongue when you take a sip out of it.
Jeff:But then they they change as you as it's in your mouth.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. As it kinda sits there. You do get a lot of that sweet, you get a lot of cinnamon. I think that's the very forward kind of
Nicholas:Maybe too much cinnamon.
Alexander:May maybe a little I don't know. I like the cinnamon. I feel like the the egg whites is kind of like a I don't know if it that's the flavor I'm tasting but it is
Nicholas:It adds just a very loose texture at the beginning. Yeah.
Nicholas:Egg whites.
Jeff:I think it adds a smoothness now on my tongue too. Yeah. Once again, I don't think.
Alexander:What are those sips?
Nicholas:Listen. I apparently should have just made more
Nicholas:for this one.
Jeff:No. No. No. No. No.
Jeff:I just I had two big sips because I There was Like I said, there's really complex flavors in there. I do like the the egg whites because it I like that foaminess in your mouth. Yeah. Once again, it's either the whiskey is not that sharp or once again, this has really mellowed out the whiskey a lot.
Alexander:100%. I do think in terms of the whiskey itself, I think a lot of the other flavors kind of overpower yeah. Yeah. And so I don't think I feel like in the the mint julep, we got a little bit more of like all the flavors and we could taste it and it was clean. This I think the coffee portion of the whiskey in particular doesn't really kind of No.
Alexander:It gets out. Yeah.
Jeff:There's a lot of strong flavors.
Nicholas:There's a lot either way, I think it's still pretty good even if I'm using any kind of whiskey.
Alexander:Agree. No. That that is delicious.
Nicholas:Yeah. The honey honey also Yeah. I'm just getting those very like sweet notes in between and then the the lemon juice citrus just
Nicholas:Yeah.
Nicholas:Cleans it up to not make it feel just like an overly rich drink.
Alexander:Yep. And I you know, shout out here, the honey coming from a local apiary. So we're we're hitting up all the the VA specials. Alright, Nick. Let's kick it off with you round number two, specifically because I think when we left off here, dad took a shot across the bow here.
Jeff:Yeah. There's only one piece
Nicholas:of one. Okay.
Nicholas:So based reaction when you mentioned it and the sort of playfulness that we're we're going with right now. I did choose a character from One Piece. Just to keep my pirate theming. I didn't mean to do that. Treasure Planet I didn't mean to do that.
Nicholas:But I feel like it's very accurate like Yeah. Like pirates are seen as these sleazy and you know, bilge and you know, traitorous things that are greedy. Yeah.
Alexander:Oh. Oh. He almost has an opinion against that.
Jeff:I do have opinion against that because like, okay. A pirate is basically a robber. Okay?
Alexander:Sure.
Jeff:And sometimes they're privateers, sometimes they're in independent I agree Right? With So sometimes they're aligned with
Alexander:A nation.
Jeff:A nation. Yeah. They're not aligned with Yeah. Nation. I think that that really guides them in how they act.
Nicholas:Well, I think this makes it even funnier because from One Piece, I'm not choosing a pirate. Oh, okay. I'm choosing someone that would be seen as a noble. I'm choosing a samurai. Oh.
Alexander:I didn't even know there were samurai in One Piece. Every time I feel like we do the podcast, I learn a little more about One Piece. I think that's wonderful.
Nicholas:So this is like the longest burn of a betrayal and if you clicked on the video, you know you're gonna hit some spoilers. But I feel like for the journey of One Piece, you gotta be aware that I'm gonna say some spoiler stuff. Because this is a long con.
Nicholas:This is
Nicholas:a long con. To give you a reference, episode 629 is when this character is first referenced and introduced. And we do not get this character's betrayal until episode 977.
Alexander:Oh my gosh. Perhaps the longest burn ever.
Nicholas:It it truly was unexpected and they introduced this new faction from a nation, the the one piece pirates or the the Strahd pirates, Luffy's crew were introduced to a samurai prince named Momonosuke. He's this kid and him and his One of his loyal retainers is like, we got to get back to our island. There's a lot of bad stuff going. We got to pick up a few other members before we get back to the island and re, you know, convene altogether to face this force. So through a variety of arcs and like stories, we collect these samurai Oh.
Nicholas:That hop on to Luffy's crew. And eventually, when we get to the island, we have nine samurai altogether that are part of this sort of task force that serve Momonosuke the prince. They are completely aligned with the the nation and they are the They're called the Red Scabbards, the Nine Red Scabbards that protect the people and the government force of this island. And they finally reconvene and they're all together and it's revealed one of them betrayed. One of them is a traitor.
Nicholas:One of them has been giving all of the information, all the movements, all the stuff to the enemy. And so you're left with being like, oh my god, I've met some of these 200 episodes ago, 100 episodes, all from like different islands and you know, you're you're presented with who's the traitor. And like you're you're given a red herring character where you're like, he's the newest one, he's being this double agent, you're like, he's already prone to being a spy. And you're given other pieces where you're just like, I just don't want this person to be the traitor because it doesn't make sense and I really like this character. And eventually, you realize that this character named Conjurro is the traitor.
Nicholas:And Conjurro was someone you met very very early on, as I was saying in 06/29. Early on. Which I think around episode six seventy or so, they rescue him from a island country called Dresser Rosa and there was a huge huge mix up. There were so many like moving pieces in that arc. It was truly chaos.
Alexander:I was about say, that's one of the arcs that I've heard the name of before.
Nicholas:Yeah. That's one of the really big ones mainly because that's the arc I got current on and it still took three years to finish after that. Oh my gosh. So it's very very There there was so much time with all of these characters and the betrayal is He's also a funny guy. In one piece, they deal with
Alexander:No. Not the funny one.
Nicholas:He he's this very like awkward guy who's who's very weird and One Piece operates on this power system called devil fruits where you get some sort of power but lose the ability to swim, which is funny because the whole world is basically ocean with islands. So it's like a serious detriment. But his is
Alexander:Oh, what's what's the the the
Nicholas:purple crown? You know you know that book? The children's book?
Alexander:Oh, where you could draw things comes
Nicholas:to life?
Alexander:So whatever
Nicholas:he draws comes to life.
Alexander:Oh, okay.
Nicholas:But he's
Nicholas:an awful artist. So he makes like really really like cursed like little like They're like, I'm gonna draw a duck. And you're like, that's not a duck. But it technically flies and you're like,
Nicholas:I don't know
Nicholas:why you chose a duck to fly. Right? Like there is such an like an absurdity and he's just so charming because he's like, I'm gonna I'm gonna solve this problem with like this limitless potential, but can't draw. Right? Like it's so charming of a character, which makes it even worse that when he betrays, he reveals that he can draw.
Nicholas:Yep. What? So his his fight is so much more intimidating and you know that he's been a liar through and through.
Alexander:Oh, my God. Not only did he betray us in the main way, but also he betrayed
Nicholas:us in the fact that he
Alexander:could actually draw this whole time. Yeah.
Nicholas:That's awesome. It was super like it hits you in a weird spot where you're like, it's a minor character in the grand scheme of things, but for when you get into a specific arc, every character is so important because of what they can offer. So when you hear that someone has turned to the other side, it just makes this like sort of precarious situation against all odds even worse.
Jeff:Especially when you know that they've been hiding their power.
Nicholas:Yeah. Exactly. Man,
Alexander:almost makes me wanna watch 977 episodes.
Nicholas:They're on 1,200.
Nicholas:Gosh.
Jeff:Would only take me twenty years to get
Alexander:even. Not even. Just a couple years.
Nicholas:Not even. My friend and I, we started this year and we're already at like five zero five. Yeah.
Alexander:He hasn't even met this character.
Nicholas:Yeah. He has no idea what
Nicholas:that is. Yeah.
Nicholas:Has no idea what that is. He's got no clue. Alright. I talked too much. That's awesome.
Nicholas:That's great.
Alexander:Okay. I'll go next. I've got a really I think a simple one. I I think going back to basics, quintessential. Although I will say, what I'm noticing is a lot of the characters that I chose were not long burn characters.
Alexander:In their betrayal, it was like quick and upfront and it kind of sets the pacing and it sets the story itself up Right. Because of these characters who were betrayers. Sometimes I feel like maybe I'm leaning a little bit more towards that act, that single act of betrayal being that big motivator. But at least at the end of the day, you know that these characters are bad characters and betrayers. Yeah.
Alexander:So we're going back to the land of I don't know why I said back. We're to the land of the Lion King here. Kind of one of those very famous traders based off of Hamlet and apparently according to the fan wiki, Adolf Hitler as well, we have Scar from the Lion King. Yeah. Know that that was a weird one.
Alexander:I sent the screenshot to Nick. I didn't send it to you. But apparently, his villainy was based off of Adolf Hill. Oh. To the fan curiosity but Yeah.
Jeff:I I wouldn't see that but I I looked at that per that one as a possible
Alexander:Yes. I
Nicholas:mean, I think Scar is I I think as a child is the first like big betrayal you Yes. You witness like like through formative years except especially for people our age.
Jeff:But I think if if if you look at the big betrayals, they're either in the beginning because Right. They put the hero onto the hero's path.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:Or they're at the end and you have to The hero has to overcome it to become
Alexander:Right. Yeah. Again, it goes back to what we were talking about before whether it's like a good betrayal has like trust included and a lot of times those betrayals at the end are because you've spent time with that character. You spent 200, 300 episodes with that character. It hurts.
Alexander:Or you get these ones in the beginning or immediately like Wormtongue and Scar Yeah. Where it kinda sets the pace. It sets the path inciting incident
Nicholas:Yeah. Because of this betrayal and back stab. Exactly.
Alexander:And in in that way, right, the trust is implied. You as the audience just need to kind of believe that the trust was there.
Jeff:Well, they're brothers.
Nicholas:Right.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:In in the same way like it with King Theoden and Wormtug, it is implied that the advisor got into the court and you hear about the kind of like as they're you know, getting there, they're getting to King Theoden, they're all kind of like singing his praise, they're hearing good things about him then and you get there and you're like, something is wrong immediately.
Jeff:He don't look right.
Nicholas:Yeah. Don't look He does not look right.
Alexander:And for Yeah. Exactly. For for Scar, they are brothers and then he kills his brother in cold blood. Well, you know, you know. For those just listening, did a little kind of claws into the hands.
Nicholas:I think I think Scar is someone that isn't talked about. Sort of brushed over Scar when I when coming up with my list, but I I think you're very right. Yeah. And it has a similar the glimpses of Scar that we got at the beginning to set his character for the audience is similar to this mentor figure. Right?
Nicholas:Right. You have Simba being like, I'm gonna be king, I guess, but I don't really know. And Scar is like this very relaxed and calm figure being like, well, you know, do what you will. I'm just happy to be, you know, comfortable where I am. Right.
Nicholas:You know, he's this sort of nonchalant character. He's like a little bit menacing, like to look at a little bit, but his demeanor is very calm and composed where you when you see him go to the hyenas Yep. You're like, wow, this is crazy.
Alexander:Wait a second.
Jeff:But, you know, the other thing is that although we don't see the long burn, him for him, it is a long
Alexander:It is a long Oh, yeah.
Jeff:Oh, yeah. You know, it's a very long burn. So that kind of puts you in the mindset of how long it's been.
Alexander:And I think this does attest a little bit to some of like the staying power of movies like The Lion King and the fact that it is very much a show not tell situation
Nicholas:Yeah.
Alexander:Where you are it is implied that it's a long burn. You don't really think about it as the audience until you think about it as the audience that like, oh, he's been kinda sitting on this for a while. Yeah. Like he's been waiting for that moment and again, it's a betrayal of expectations and the fact that you're like, oh, he's just a he's just a cool guy. He's just like, he's a cool guy.
Alexander:Yeah. He's just like that chill uncle, you know? And and then things go very wrong very quickly and he the greed that we see in a lot of these betrayals takes over. The moment has made itself available to him and he pounces on it.
Jeff:Yeah. Definitely. That was one of the ones I looked at.
Alexander:Yeah. It's good. It's a good one. It's a classic.
Jeff:It is a classic, but it was I thought it was too serious. Too
Alexander:Right. Too serious. Actually, that is what I wanted to say. One of the characters that I did have on my list of things to that I was thinking about adding was William O'Neil from Judas and the Black Messiah. And I don't know if either of you have seen this movie or know know about this movie, but it is basically follows Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party and William O'Neil is the person who also in real life sold out the Black Panther Party to the FBI which then led to the arrest and also the massacre of members of Black Panther Party.
Alexander:And I was like, this is both a real person and also a character in media and I thought that that was perhaps a little too serious.
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, you could always go Benedict Arnold or someone like that too.
Nicholas:So I
Jeff:I tried to stay with him.
Nicholas:Yeah. A lot of I did briefly glance at a lot of like historical betrayals and I'm like, this gets just like really grim really Yeah.
Alexander:Quickly. Yeah. Exactly. It gets kind of in that realm of like too serious a little too quickly. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah.
Alexander:Where you're like, oh, now I'm
Nicholas:just sad. Yeah. You're just like sitting in the moment for a moment. Yeah. But what do you Okay.
Nicholas:My third one. Woah. Woah. Second? Second.
Alexander:He's skipping. Oh, my God.
Jeff:My second one, it's it's still kind of so Still
Alexander:kind of his third one. Yeah.
Jeff:Still kind of a funny one. So
Alexander:Oh, okay. That's what you meant.
Jeff:Yeah. You guys don't I don't You were not born when Total Recall in the eighties came out.
Nicholas:That's true.
Jeff:Unfortunately. And Sharon Stone is his wife. But but anyways, in that in that movie, when he gets to Mars, he has a cab driver driving him around. And in the end or near the end, the cab driver, Benny, betrays all of them to the bad
Alexander:guy. Oh.
Jeff:So I put Benny on here. Yeah. It's he's a mutant. So he they they think he's on the side to get to free Mars and the people on Mars or whatever. But really, he's just there to get the money.
Jeff:And so he he this one character is supposed to be the savior for Mars and all the mutants on there. And Betty betrays him and the the savior gets destroyed.
Alexander:Okay. What wild.
Jeff:So it's it's a it's not a very big part but it's one that we it it allows Arnold Schwarzenegger to to become the hero figure.
Alexander:Mhmm. Right.
Jeff:Rather than just being an actor in the in the story. Mhmm. Because the whole time the whole premise is that he's just going through these actions to figure out who he is. And everything is leading toward getting this savior guy destroyed. And then at the end of it, Arnold Schwarzenegger has to step up and be the hero.
Nicholas:Classic.
Jeff:All the movies are.
Alexander:A classic Arnold movie.
Jeff:So, but yeah. But it's it's a But once again, it's a portrayal that It's kind of fun in the day scheme of thing, but it allows the hero as we talked about to to become the hero.
Nicholas:Right. I I think it it is similar to others that you have chosen in the regards that like, it's not like a direct betrayal of the protagonist. Right. You know? Scar doesn't care about Simba as much as he does Mufasa.
Nicholas:Benny doesn't care about Arnie's character, it sounds like, as much as he did as the like
Jeff:The or whatever his name was.
Nicholas:Right? Like, there there is this like very weird alignment where you're like, I'm on this position that like I'm on this protagonist side
Nicholas:Yeah.
Nicholas:But the betrayal is not directed personally to me, but it's to someone else and because of that, I am now pushed forward into that spot
Nicholas:Right.
Nicholas:Or position and put into this like, you gotta make a change, you know, be the be the guy.
Jeff:I mean, I think a lot of times that betrayal is what makes the protagonist go, okay, I have to do this because there's no one else to do it. Yeah. Have no other option but to do this.
Nicholas:Those either end up in like a hero moment or honestly like a revenge Yeah. You know Yeah. Sort of moment. And I think it's so fascinating to see on Cause I think a lot of characters could have become heroes instead of getting swallowed by revenge.
Nicholas:Right.
Nicholas:And I think that's an interesting side from a protagonist angle because of Betrayal.
Jeff:You know, because I I do think that and it it puts the hero or protagonist not at the hero level from the beginning. Yeah. They have to build there. They have to create that that those steps to get there.
Alexander:Well, I also think it's part of kind of a building block of a lot of these eighty eighties kind of like action blockbuster movies and the fact that it's like, it's just a regular guy who Yeah. Becomes a hero.
Jeff:Like Die
Alexander:Hard. Like Die Hard.
Nicholas:Just a New York cop.
Jeff:Fifth Element.
Nicholas:Yeah. I speak
Jeff:Fifth Element. Two languages. English and bad English.
Alexander:Basically, any
Nicholas:movie Bruce Willis. Has been in.
Jeff:Arnold Schwitzenager. Yeah. Sylvester
Nicholas:classic eighties heroes Yeah. That are regular guys that are put into moments of heroism, which I think was like a very compelling moment at in those times.
Alexander:In in I mean, the same reason why a lot of games like Battlefront and Lord of the Rings Conquest got popular is because you're just a regular Yeah. Foot soldier in these massive wars.
Nicholas:And anyone can achieve greatness.
Alexander:And anyone can achieve greatness. Exactly.
Jeff:Yeah. My favorite author is Alastair MacLean and then he is his kind of theme around all of his books is that this guy is asked to do something incredible and they don't want to do it, they're tired of it, but they end up doing it because they're forced to. One of the portrays I was gonna do was for Guns of Never Run. You guys have seen this movie
Alexander:I have no idea what that is.
Jeff:But it has a lot of really big stars in it or whatever. But it it it was He was betrayed and he didn't wanna do this, didn't, you know And ultimately, they they accomplished the mission and it was only because they they they were forced to do things they really didn't wanna do. Yeah. But they were they were able to accomplish a goal. And this is this is the theme of Alastair McClain because he wrote Guns Have Never Owned, Where Eagles Dare and a bunch of other books that became movies.
Alexander:Gotcha. My gosh. Well, our drinks are empty.
Nicholas:It was still good. Even if we didn't take a taste of coffee.
Alexander:No. It was very good. Hats off to the chef. Two
Nicholas:for two on these cocktails. Yeah.
Jeff:Number three, I'm excited about.
Nicholas:I
Nicholas:am very excited
Nicholas:for this one. Alright.
Alexander:Well, we're gonna take a second to prepare the third cocktail. Apparently, there's a lot of moving parts that are involved with this one. More than usual. We'll be back in a moment here. And we are back.
Alexander:Howdy y'all. We have once again a very different looking drink in front of us. I like how it looks like dad's is the cleanest and mine's a little more messy and then yours is extraordinarily messy. Yep. Why did this take us a little bit longer to reset and start filming again?
Alexander:So it's an affogato.
Nicholas:So it's got a scoop of ice cream in it. Okay.
Jeff:It can't be bad.
Nicholas:Okay. Well, okay.
Alexander:He's he's setting his predictions immediately. It cannot be bad.
Nicholas:So I said, well, while looking up cocktails and whatnot, I said, even if it doesn't even if this whiskey has no coffee flavor whatsoever, we should get a coffee cocktail in just to embrace the cock the coffee flavor to its utmost. Sure. And this is a coffee affogato. So it has our coffee whiskey, some Bailey's Irish cream, some cold brew coffee, and then some coffee ice cream to top it off.
Jeff:It can't be well.
Alexander:That's what that's what
Nicholas:I'm thinking.
Nicholas:I'm like, it's just got a lot of good stuff in it.
Alexander:It's just coffee.
Nicholas:The Bailey's should be very rich and the ice cream should be very rich and hopefully counteracted by the whiskey and the coffee.
Jeff:It's a coffee mudslide with no chairs. Yeah.
Nicholas:This is right up your alley.
Jeff:Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.
Alexander:I was about to say, we didn't clink once this episode except for right now. I feel like I've really enjoyed how kind of really into the fact that that we really think about what the definition of a lot of these things are. I think oftentimes we could just kind of do betrayers and then you know, go from there. Split up. Choose our characters.
Alexander:But a lot of times the discussions we have leading up to these is the fact that we're like, but what does that mean exactly? Yeah. What do you What sort of specifics, what sort of parameters are
Nicholas:we putting around this? We do try and really figure out like our our personal definition. Maybe not the sort of textbook definition Yeah. But like what we really wanna pursue. And a lot of times it's like the essence of what we think, you know, embodies this title.
Nicholas:We talked about it like on our first episode with heroes. We were like, what defines a hero? Yep. Because heroes take many shapes and form. And even in that episode, we talked about like our own personal takes on heroes
Nicholas:Yes.
Nicholas:And why we chose specific people for heroes.
Jeff:I also think that we try to keep it as focused as possible because I think there are opportunities to look at these like edge cases or something that's like, what's an anti hero or Yeah. So I think that a lot of times the reason that we're defining this is so that we don't make it so broad that you go. Well, we've talked about this character. Although, we sometimes we do overlap on characters but
Nicholas:Yeah. It just adds to that. It's It shows that there's complexity to these characters that get the over overlap in our fairly, you know, widespread themes of characters. Yeah.
Alexander:And and I think a lot of that also leads us to implementing our own bias into choosing characters. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing like we are not going to get your favorite betrayer in here more than likely.
Nicholas:Probably not.
Jeff:But like because of the age difference we're definitely looking at different material.
Nicholas:Absolutely. And just the media we consume. I'm most likely to pick a random anime character most of the time and Yeah. And I think dad is most likely to pick a sixties, seventies or eighties, you know, movie character.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And I think a a part of that is fun and I I think it's always interesting when we're talking about these prompts to other people to get their sort of opinion as well.
Nicholas:That's also very fun.
Alexander:Because it's like the characters that come to my mind immediately are definitely not the same characters that come to your mind immediately. It's a fun way to have these discussions and have these conversations.
Jeff:You know, plus your mom, my wife has a completely different perspective because she immigrated from Germany. So a lot of these things that I would say were my, you know, growing up as a kid kind of scenarios. She was in Germany. She did not get exposed to that kind of media at that time.
Nicholas:Right.
Nicholas:She was in Germany.
Alexander:Yeah. What does she have? Asterix and ooblegs?
Nicholas:Asterix and ooblegs. Woman. Yeah. When when
Jeff:I say the Justice League is what I watched on Saturday morning with the Super Friends.
Nicholas:The Super Friends and
Jeff:the Wonder Twins, you know, those are something that she never saw.
Alexander:Yeah. She's does not even know.
Nicholas:Poor girl.
Nicholas:Alright. What do we what do we think about the drinks?
Alexander:Extremely coffee forward. Yes. I think you would definitely understand that from
Jeff:It can't be bad. Yeah.
Nicholas:Like it's really creamy. Yep. I think it's it's definitely not too sweet. Yeah. I think it recommended that I could garnish with chocolate shavings.
Nicholas:I think I could have done that. I think that would have been pretty
Alexander:I agree.
Nicholas:Pretty sweet. I think
Alexander:that would have elevated it.
Jeff:I do believe that this is the one that has the whiskey the most exposed.
Nicholas:I think so too. Oddly enough, like there are some pretty potent flavors, but there is definitely like you can tell that there's whiskey in here.
Nicholas:Yeah.
Nicholas:Yeah. I it's it's odd. It reminds me of the mint julep where there's like this like very forward flavor of something else, but the constant is this whiskey especially when you are letting it breathe.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. I've You know, coffee whiskey. Okay. You're there.
Jeff:I'm there. Know. Yeah. I mean, I I I do believe it's a dessert drink for me.
Nicholas:Mhmm. Yeah.
Jeff:But I could drink this a lot.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:I I love this drink. I think it could be elevated with chocolate shavings or like a chocolate ganache. Or syrup or something. Yeah. Something on top of that.
Alexander:I think that would be awesome. But that's mainly because I don't like coffee as much and I would like something a little sweeter in there. I just got my first kind of like taste of the ice cream and I think that helps me in terms of the drink as well.
Nicholas:I mean, it should be improved as this section goes on Yeah. Because the ice cream is slowly melting and incorporating into the cocktail.
Jeff:Peanut butter bourbon.
Nicholas:You know, honestly, I think you could definitely switch up the whiskey into a chocolate whiskey or Yeah. Or it or some sort of flavored whiskey that really shifts this cocktail into something more flavored where the whiskey is the most prominent volume. Yeah. Instead of just coffee on coffee.
Alexander:I I will say it is interesting because when we talked about the last drink, I think a lot of the other flavors overpowered the whiskey. Here I was kind of assuming a similar thing. But like you said, it does come through. You can taste it. It just yeah.
Alexander:I I think I think you're right that you could do something very similar with a peanut butter whiskey like you said or a chocolate whiskey of some kind. Yeah.
Jeff:Because if you did a a peanut butter one, you could put chocolate peanut butter ice cream in it.
Alexander:Yeah. It's true. And that would be good too. I think we're just saying
Nicholas:if you had good stuff into it Yeah. It'll probably taste good. But yeah. I and I also think that Bailey's is not overpowering whatsoever. It just adds just a little bit more richness and creaminess creaminess to the already like melting ice cream.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:Tastes good and that's that's what we're looking for. Okay. I will kick things off here in terms of our third and final Betrayer. And we're going back to some of those nostalgia classics. We're going to the movie Coco, which you have just recently seen.
Nicholas:Yes. Oh, I did. I I came home
Alexander:when you were watching this. I will say I love Coco as a movie. It's one of those movies that I always cry to every time I watch it. But there is a one kind of like single main betrayer in this movie and if you haven't seen her already, shame on you I think is the main
Nicholas:We don't feel bad about
Nicholas:this one. We'll just put a
Nicholas:timestamp to this moment.
Alexander:Yeah. Just you click into it.
Jeff:Well, I mean the movie's ten years old.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. It it is it is pretty old at this point. But of course, Coco is the the the main character is sent into the afterlife, into this world. It's it's Halloween night sent to the afterlife where the the boundary between death and life are blended, and he's looking for his father or and he's looking for basically the connection to music that his family has, and he believes that it's this man by the name of Ernesto de la Cruz who is playing music in the afterlife.
Jeff:So what I think is interesting about this because it is a different take on it because he never he doesn't meet his the the musician till the end. Yeah. So it's all about building up the perception.
Alexander:Yeah. It is. It is all all about this perception. And you're right. He kind of like, he hears about him.
Alexander:Ernesto de la Cruz is like very famous. A lot of his songs are are still being played in the the the mortal life and they're also being played in the afterlife as well.
Jeff:And he's got a shrine in the real world.
Alexander:Right. Exactly. He has this very like, kinda zhuzhed up, like you said, Shrine Mausoleum. Mausoleum. Thank you.
Alexander:That was the word I was looking for. And he is working with perhaps in a more unsavory character that you think of at first who is like, oh, hey, like I just want my picture to be put up so people remember me so I don't just disappear into the afterlife. And you know, the whole time that's actually the person he's been looking for this whole time and when he meets Ernesto de la Cruz, he's not a good guy. He is a complete betrayal of these expectations. He is that classic greedy, just wants the attention and turns out killed his best friend.
Jeff:Yeah. What? He betrayed him also.
Alexander:Yeah. Exactly.
Nicholas:The epitome of betrayal.
Alexander:Yeah. Yep. And and you are kind of like, woah, wait a second. I thought this was the guy we were looking for because of this perception that's been built up throughout the entirety of this movie only to be totally let down in the end.
Jeff:Yeah. I I We we loved the movie. It was great. It's I didn't cry.
Nicholas:You don't need that. Why'd you say that?
Jeff:Just saying. I think that I I just think that there Once once again, it's the you never know who these people are from afar.
Nicholas:Right. It's true.
Jeff:And I think that idolizing a lot of like celebrities and whatever Yeah. That's what it's trying to show is that they're not who you think they are. Yeah. Yeah. They they may be but really you don't know.
Alexander:Yeah. I think a lot of it is your expectations can betray you if you know, you are I think a lot of times the messaging in this movie comes to the people in your life that you have created this found family, whether it's real family or found family, are oftentimes like the people that will stick with you. The people that will love you and that will really kind of lift you up in your times of need rather than kind of looking out into the distance to a celebrity or someone who's being held up on a podium and thinking that that person is the person that will give you the validation and the love that you need when those people are right beside you the entire time. Yeah. And I think that movie kind of really kinda hits you hard with this betrayal at the end here.
Alexander:And you're like, oh no. Really, he
Nicholas:just All that effort.
Alexander:Yeah. All that effort. Everything that he's gone through was not worth it in the end. It was just a betrayal of your expectations as the audience because there is something in you that's like, oh please, like let this be the right guy. Like, we want we want the main character to succeed to get back into the real life because he's just a kid.
Alexander:He just loves music. There's something endearing about that. And it just isn't isn't it. Mhmm.
Jeff:Yeah. It isn't it, but it it is He resolved a lot of things by finding out.
Nicholas:It's true.
Alexander:Sorry. I misspoke when I said it's his father. It's like his great
Nicholas:Great grandfather. Yeah. Because Mama Coco Mama Coco. Yeah. Know, like is is like old lady Yes.
Nicholas:Sitting in a chair and be like, Miguel. Yeah.
Alexander:Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Wow.
Nicholas:I mean, I don't even need to rewatch the movie. I'm just seeing him right now.
Nicholas:I don't know. There's there's like a lot of this stuff. Yeah. I just remember the
Alexander:Yeah. I will say I I will say that I've cried. I cry at a lot of movies. Encanto, every time I watch that I sob at the end of it as well.
Nicholas:I still haven't seen that one.
Alexander:I was like, have you seen that one yet?
Jeff:Think we did. I think we watched it. Which would it was this one about?
Alexander:The Bruno. Bruno. It's about a family that is magical and the main
Jeff:we did not
Alexander:that one. Yeah. She doesn't get powers and so she is kind of
Jeff:Does she throw the broom and ride? It
Nicholas:No. She's smashful. She's smashful in the family.
Alexander:I love how much that sticks with you because I
Nicholas:watch it. We gotta watch
Alexander:it with them.
Jeff:We do have to watch it.
Nicholas:Yeah. We we do. I
Jeff:love that idea.
Alexander:Well, I think you got me into reading the manga.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:And then I read a lot of the manga and then they made like season one of the anime, which kinda hits like the big parts that you like anyways. Because after that, it's a a bit of the repeat here.
Nicholas:It gets a little same y unfortunately.
Alexander:It gets a little same y. But if you're not familiar, shout out to to Marshall. It's basically Hogwarts if the main character like Harry Potter didn't have magic powers.
Nicholas:But instead had muscles to solve all the problems.
Alexander:All the problems. It's like slapstick to the utmost and I think the the anime does a great job of adapting the manga in the fact that it's almost a one to one replication except they dig deeper into the slapstick humor.
Nicholas:And it's just, I think the anime does it sometimes better than the manga I agree. Because it's so physical based. Yeah. Like, know, it's it's a muscular Harry Potter. It's way more fun when you actually see this guy like benching a 100 pounds in like three seconds Yeah.
Nicholas:Than just being like ninety eight ninety nine a 100.
Nicholas:You're like
Nicholas:Yeah. It just adds to the the utmost when you just see him be like, alright, this thing is falling off a cliff. I'm just gonna go like tracker, you know, like racer squat and then just shoot down the cliff to go get something. Know, like, it just It adds so much more.
Alexander:Anyway. It's fun and that that was definitely like an off track comment. But great great anime, great manga. I'd recommend it. At least like the first part of it.
Alexander:It's it's funny.
Nicholas:Yeah. I think I think it wears out a little bit. Yeah. It did for me at least. Yeah.
Nicholas:But the the initial hit is very fun.
Alexander:Alright, dad. What is your final and third
Jeff:Third. So we about a betrayal causing this character to become a hero.
Nicholas:Yeah.
Jeff:And so this one is Cypher from the Matrix. He's the one that's told the machine, yes, I'll sell them out. Just put me back into the stasis
Nicholas:and Give me a steak dinner.
Jeff:Yeah. He the was steak dinner. Said, I know this isn't real. I know it's all imaginary, but I'll give you them. Just put me back where I can live in this world.
Jeff:But don't let me remember anything from before. And so, he's the one who betrays everybody. Actually stabs Tank.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. Is this from the original Matrix?
Nicholas:Yeah. First Matrix.
Nicholas:First
Alexander:Matrix. It's been a hot minute
Jeff:since It was my it was my
Nicholas:the fundamentals. I feel like I didn't watch any of the other any of the other Yeah. Matrixes. But the first one does stick.
Jeff:Yeah. It does. I mean, it's also Once again, this can't be real. I'm not a hero. Yeah.
Jeff:I'm not the one.
Nicholas:Yeah. Neo is definitely not an anagram for one.
Jeff:Yeah. And so That's crazy. But then, when this occurs and everyone starts getting killed around him, you know, then he has to he has to do that step. Yeah. He has to be the hero.
Jeff:And then all of a
Nicholas:sudden He's beginning to believe.
Jeff:Yeah. That's the one I He's beginning
Alexander:to believe, you know. When was the last time you saw The Matrix? Why do you remember all this?
Nicholas:Dude, maybe like thirteen years.
Nicholas:Yeah. Maybe like thirteen years.
Jeff:It's been a while but things like that are, you know. Hey, I think he's gonna survive. Yeah.
Nicholas:Yeah. There there is just like this Cypher is like He's charming in his own way. Right? Just because he's just like, yeah, I'm happy to be here. You know, kinda like, I You know, you're like, why How did you get freed?
Nicholas:Like, why are you still on the Oh, God. What's the name of the ship?
Jeff:It's a name. You know
Nicholas:I do not remember it.
Nicholas:This is like how did you end up with like this like rogue band of people
Jeff:and How did he become out of the matrix? Yeah. What was it like, oh, that was a mistake.
Nicholas:Yeah. Oh, back in.
Nicholas:Yeah. Plug it back in. Like, don't let him be here.
Jeff:Yep. But, yeah. It's it's one of those crazy things and it was so critical. Not only did it portray Neo, but it actually changed the arc of the movie.
Nicholas:Yeah. Because the stakes went infinitely higher. It was like, we're okay. We're like drifting around and they're kinda looking for us, but like we're okay for now. And and the betrayal was like, oh no, it's go time.
Nicholas:Yeah. They they know where you are. You're getting sold out. Like, they are coming.
Jeff:Yeah. And also, you know, they they kind of play it down because the oracle goes, he's not the one.
Nicholas:Yeah. It's true.
Jeff:So it it was it was really You're at this low point about going, what's going on here? Yeah. And that betrayal kind of amped it up.
Nicholas:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:Alright, Nick. Good one.
Nicholas:When we do these top threes or or like a title, like whatever we put on these characters, there's like a instinctual like number one. Like Yeah. That's gonna be the one for me. And I think this is no shock to people who have played it. I will be choosing the ultimate antagonist of Bioshock one, Atlas, or as you later learn, Frank Fontaine.
Jeff:See, I I've never played this game.
Alexander:Uses his whole government name. So,
Nicholas:rough story of BioShock. You're just a random guy on a plane and your plane crashes. You find a lighthouse. The lighthouse has an elevator in it that takes you to Rapture, An underwater utopia city that was created to get away from the current government in, I believe, the forties.
Jeff:I believe it was the forties
Nicholas:or fifties. The first charming character you meet is this Dublin accented character named Atlas. And he loves the phrase, would you kindly? And he asks you to do all sorts of things against the tyrannical Andrew Ryan, who coined the phrase, a man commands, a slave obeys. Where the man is entitled to the sweat of his brow and hard work commands all.
Nicholas:And it's this very corrupt, tyrannical almost system where people are hunted down and only the rich and wealthy succeed, and the poor get hunted down by these subnautical giant beasts named Big Daddies. Big Daddies. And you are this character that is is tasked by Atlas to take down Andrew Ryan and save the day. You are here to take this tyrannical force out. You are this newcomer.
Nicholas:Nobody knows about you, but you have the skills to work your way through Andrew Ryan's environment and take down his commanders and lieutenants and and really bring back the sort of sanctity that rapture always promised to its inhabitants. Yeah. And that's the sort of how you how it sets the scene. And then, you get to Andrew Ryan and the first thing he says, would you kindly take a seat? Would you kindly stand up?
Nicholas:Would you kindly run around? Would you kindly kneel before me? And your character has to because what you find out in that moment is you're Andrew Ryan's son, Jack Ryan, and you've been created to basically listen to this command without exception. And Andrew Ryan says, would you kindly kill? And you kill Andrew Ryan and he keeps saying over and over again, a man commands, a slave obeys, as you are beating him to death with a golf club.
Nicholas:And in that moment, you realize Atlas, this Dublin freedom fighter, has been asking you, would you kindly, over and over again. And you're like, well, it's just his phrase. Yo. He just likes to say it.
Nicholas:But
Nicholas:the implications is that once you kill Andrew Ryan, you begin to self destruct Andrew Ryan's whole company and enterprise. Atlas is just laughing at you. And instead of this Dublin accent, a Bronx voice comes through and is calling you an idiot. For in truth, Atlas is Andrew Ryan's competitor, Frank Fontaine, and is now in power because you've just destroyed his competitor in any competition down here. Crazy.
Nicholas:It is Yeah. Absurd. I would be It would be criminal not to include Atlas on this list. He is For all the effort that you put in through on that game, he is such a crucial betrayal that it is just that moment where everything clicks into place and everything that you did, whether you thought it was suspicious or not, you ended up doing it. But it's because Atlas asked you if you would do it kindly.
Alexander:Yeah. And you never got to see us like There were a lot of games that you watched us play through, but Bioshock kind of happened a little bit later in kind of our lives, so you never got to watch through the play through of Bioshock or the preceding games Yeah. That happened after it.
Nicholas:I never played two, but Infinite is crazy.
Alexander:Yeah. I I'm still waiting to play two and Infinite because I mean, there's a reason BioShock makes like a lot of those like very classic lists of these games that are just set in stone that have made like history.
Nicholas:They stand the test of
Alexander:time. They stand the test
Nicholas:No matter the graphics or wonky controls.
Alexander:Which believe me, those are the
Nicholas:Bioshock not the not the most reliable sometimes but Yep. Yeah. That's that's like the number one that I immediately thought of.
Nicholas:Yeah. Alright. Which drink? Oh, God.
Alexander:We're jumping into it. Alright, dad. You propose the question.
Nicholas:Oh my
Alexander:god. Which drink was your favorite out of the three that we had today?
Jeff:I love the mint julep but I love the sweetness of the last one. So I'm gonna go with the last one.
Nicholas:The coffee avocado. Yeah.
Alexander:Okay. You know, I'll say it. I liked all these drinks. I thought they were great. I think the mint julep itself was my favorite.
Alexander:I don't think that comes as a surprise. I'm a big fan of mint, but also I just feel like the it was a very clean and clear taste. I could see myself drinking a lot of that.
Nicholas:Yeah. Plus you're not a big coffee. Right. I'm not a big coffee fan.
Alexander:This was good of course, but the the Mint Jule definitely has my vote.
Nicholas:Oh. It's tough. Honestly, I really liked all three. I think the the middle one just didn't highlight the whiskey and it was just like a solid cocktail that I would be happy to drink. Yep.
Alexander:But I think with the middle one, it could have been any whiskey. Yeah.
Nicholas:I think that might be why I don't choose it. I think it was so easy to drink and it was fun to make Yeah. Just because I was handling like a sort of time bomb of a shaker.
Alexander:All the time substance.
Nicholas:I I think I will go with the coffee affogato just because I I thought it was so refreshing just to hit that little like chunk of ice cream every now and then when I'm drinking. And I thought that was so refreshing.
Alexander:Yeah. Absolutely. Well, that's the show folks. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that a lot.
Jeff:We'll do the thing.
Nicholas:Oh, he loves doing it. Do do
Alexander:the thing.
Jeff:Don't forget to like. Don't forget to add a comment. We'd love to hear what you think.
Nicholas:Honestly, hit a comment.
Alexander:Yeah. I I I think especially for this episode in particular, I feel like it really hits on the fact that there are so many other characters we could have chosen. We talked about Uncharted earlier. We didn't even mention like the number one anime betrayal ever which is like Griffith from the Berserk series. True.
Alexander:Yeah. Or manga anime whatever. There are so many characters out there that we didn't even touch on. These are a lot of the characters that you know, we talk about
Nicholas:a lot. We talk about Lord of
Alexander:the Rings all the time. Well, the whole big discussion about Boromir. Yeah. Yeah. We talk about
Nicholas:Boromir. Complexity.
Alexander:I I think Star Wars comes up a lot and these are a lot of just nostalgic picks from us as well. So it is always interesting to see something else.
Jeff:Also subscribe. Oh.
Alexander:Yeah. Was they hit the subscribe button.
Jeff:I think that's everything.
Nicholas:You did it? You did it?
Alexander:Yeah. You've stated. I'm saying it. Yeah. Well, thank you all so much.
Alexander:We'll see you next time with another episode of the three hamster boys podcast. See you soon y'all. Later.
Nicholas:Later. Later.
Alexander:Buzzer beater.