The 2025 Winter Mailbag
01:43:07 Share

Have you ever spotted McDonald's hot, crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton? And time just stands still. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

When the game tips off, the NBA action is just beginning on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because FanDuel is your home for NBA live betting, however you want to play. Now is the perfect time to join. Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA.

21 plus and present in Arizona. First online, real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342. Hello, welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. It's a very special mailbag episode today. Joining me today, she's read all of your letters. She's so excited to answer them. It's Mallory Rubin. Hey, Mallory, how you doing?

Great to be here with you for a seasonal mailbag. I love you. I love mailbags, and I love the seasons. I love the nature of a season. You know, I miss winter. How do you feel about the passage of time? I was about to say I love the passage of time and then realize midstream that I don't. It's not true. I live in fear of the passage of time and am absolutely paralyzed by it, as you know. Yes. But I do love a brisk winter season.

And I find myself longing for those now that I live out on the West Coast. So here we are, bringing the winter to us. This is going to be a brisk little pod today. We're just doing a little spicy little mailbag for you all. And actually, the spiciest of all mailbags is coming later this week because you guys sent in tons of emails, a metric ton of emails. We're so excited to have them. So...

Some of them were about the show Yellow Jackets. And some of them, a lot of them, were about the genre of romanticism or the Rebecca Yarrow books or ACOTAR, a number of other things. So...

I'm going to cheat on the parking reminders and do ours first and say, Mallory and I are covering Yellow Jackets, the television series Yellow Jackets, on this feed. Here! Previous seasons we've done on the Prestige feed. This season, we were greeted. We won it for House of R. Yellow Jackets is here. So any questions you sent about... Almost any questions you said about Yellow Jackets, we'll be talking about it here. That is later this week. And then also...

our Valentine's Day quickie episode that we're doing at the end of the week where we'll be covering romantic stuff. So all of your emails that you sent for this mailbag and those subjects, hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com. I'm all over myself with this opening right here, but I just want to let you know we got your emails. I've tucked them away for future episodes later this week. So that's what we're up to. Not to mention there's a new Marvel movie, so we'll be covering that the following week. What's everyone else up to? So glad you asked me. Listen. Yeah.

We're recording this on Monday. There was a Super Bowl yesterday. There was the Super Bowl. There was a Super Bowl that happened. Did you watch? No, not a second of it. And that's unusual for me. A halftime show? Well, I've watched like clips of the halftime show today. I know the Eagles won and that was actually morally very important for me. So I feel great about it. Yeah.

The Mint Edition crew, though, have run down the, they've got their Super Bowl trailer reactions. They've also got the reactions to Invincible Season 3, which has launched. So you can check that out over on the Ringiverse feed. And then the Midnight Boys, pew, pew, will be covering Captain America Brave New World, their instant reactions later this week. So that is what's happening over on the Ringiverse. I was a bit all over the place as I already teased Valerie Rubin.

What else do you want to say about all the stuff that's going on? Listen, all over myself with this opening here, you can just tuck that one away for the V-Day quickie. Save it for the end of the week. Wow. Well, this is a question I'm not getting. How can you follow along? Thanks for asking, Joe. Here's what I would recommend. Follow the pod. Follow House of R. Follow the Ring of Verse. Follow the Prestige TV. Follow it all on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And...

Hit subscribe on the Ringerverse YouTube channel because you can watch full video episodes of The House of R and The Midnight Boys on Spotify and YouTube. While you're at it, follow the Ringerverse on the social media platform of your choosing, whatever that might be these days, and send us your emails. Joe just mentioned how many wonderful, just beautiful emails

Rich, vibrant. Yeah. Whether they be about love or cannibalism or anything else that we might discuss today. Actually, both of those things will come up today, I think, in addition to at the end of the week. They will. Send us your thoughts as well on all the stuff that's coming in the next few weeks after that. Send us your thoughts on Daredevil. It's not too early to start emailing us about Andor or Last of Us Season 2, but...

Do you have thoughts after watching the latest Thunderbolts trailer? Because we do. Send us yours. Just keep the emails coming. Hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. Back to you in the studio. Here's the thing. In just literally three days, we're not going to be able to say that to each other anymore because we will be together in the studio. Yeah, but I feel like I've said it to you across the table as well. It really has no bearing on reality. Okay. So that's what's going on. Spoiler warning today. Bopping all around the place and across several different properties, but nothing

I have to say today is particularly spoilery. I would say, uh, I would say the only one is when maybe we get to some severance theory talk. We'll give a little spoiler warning before that one. That might be the only one, right? Severance theory. House of the dragon, maybe a little bit. Cause we've got some season three house of the dragon stuff to talk about. So, um, we'll, we'll warn you. Uh, it'll be very clear when we're about to talk about the thing, uh, that we will be talking about. Uh, but nothing major. Uh,

So, anything else? Did I forget anything? I don't think so. Okay, we did it. Great. Podcast over? No, okay. Great. We're going to get to your emails. We're going to start with one that I'm calling Music Stuff Go. I'm combining questions that we got from our listener Eva and our listener Suzanne. Eva is getting married.

Wonderful.

I need to have classical, you know, instrumental music playing. So what kind of film scores or TV scores do we like to listen to? So let's start with the wedding playlist. Molly Rubin, do you have any thoughts on this one? So here's the thing. Once the question includes the nugget, the detail that Reigns of Castamere is already in the mix. Yeah.

it starts to feel like everything is fair game. Now, obviously there is a direct tie there to a very famous fictional wedding. Yes. But it's a tonal choice. Sure. It's a tonal choice. So. Yeah. That's one I respect and admire, to be clear. I think that's great. Yes. I would, I, you know, the musical, I love music, but I would say musical corner is never really my corner. It's more your corner. I don't know how much I have to contribute here that will seem, um,

particularly innovative. But if you're already on the Thrones front, why not toss Bear and the Maiden fair in there? That feels like a very jaunty, boisterous wedding song. You can see people out there dancing on the dance floor. Jenny's song. Yeah. That was on my list. Yeah. It's a moody, heavy moment at your wedding when you play this, but also

A moment of consequence and import. A moment that years later people will be talking about. And it's about, just like we are, about Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 8, Episode 2, when we got to hear Pod sing that. And it is a moment about marking the memory, right? Like what people mean to you. So that's up there. So I've got those on the Thrones front. I don't have very many more. I have a couple...

Lord of the Rings suggestions. I think you probably have to play Now and for Always since it's made its way into my life thanks to you mere months ago.

I feel like this would actually be my top pick for a genre tune because it's not just about like a deep and abiding affection that you share with somebody. It's like about sharing the adventure, the road ahead. So I love that. And of course I would toss out Wandering Day for the same reasons. My fifth and final suggestion is because of Reigns, it's inspired by Reigns of Castamere. I know this is not about a wedding, but it is, it's like if you're going to open the door with Reigns of Castamere.

Or close the door, actually. More accurately with the words of Casimir. The doors. Let's just get Duel of the Fates on the playlist. Why not? My friend Laura, at her wedding reception, like in her beautiful, instead of a first dance, she and her husband staged a lightsaber battle in their like tux and gown. What?

And I'm pretty sure they played Duel of the Fates. They might have picked something else. And so it's like, yeah, it was really sick. It was very cool. Are they looking for new friends? Her and like a lot of her wedding photos are her and her gown with like her beautiful lightsaber. It's just like gorgeous. In the like Muir Woods of Northern California. Anyway. I would walk down to down the aisle to Duel of the Fates. Maybe I will at my second wedding. Okay. Sounds great. Adam, we're talking about renewal of vowels. Okay.

yeah so there's two so I went a little ham on like I'm thrilled hit us the mailbag episodes don't require as much of a heavy lift in prep as some of our other episodes do um but I will confess to you that half my prep time I lost was doing this

I love it. There's two things you're asking for when you're asking for wedding music. And Suzanne, we'll get to your question in a second. But there's processional. There's like instrumental, like down the aisle sort of song. And you could do Concerning Hobbits or a million other things if you want to go down the aisle. And then to your Bear and the Maiden Fair point, there's like, you know, I guess there's three. There's like rowdy reception music, like everyone's dancing around and like we're several drinks into the evening or whatever. And then there's like beautiful slow dances. So you can just like listen.

look lovingly into your partner's eye at the reception. So I'm all over the map here. Here we go. The Avatar love theme as a processional. Wow. Kalimba, not required, but if you have the kalimba, which is like the little instrument where you sort of like pluck on the metal pieces that makes the Avatar love theme. And then

And then I've got a couple animated, like, Steven Universe and Adventure Time have these, like, beautiful songs, like, Love Like You, Everything Stays, Remember You from Adventure Time, and Send Me a Peach from Over the Garden Wall. Like, these are these Cartoon Network shows that have these just, like, very beautiful songs that if those shows are meaningful to you, Eva, you're going to love them.

you should pick them. And then it's like, they're normie enough songs that they just sound like nice, beautiful songs to people. But to you, they might mean something because it's from a show you love. That sort of seemed to be her. When she mentioned Marines of Castamere, she was like, some of our friends there will get it and other people will be clueless. So it'll be like a fun little moment for us, like an inside joke for the people who like Thrones. Okay, some other options. Um...

Station Eleven, not the most uplifting, but a show that is about celebrating life. Absolutely. What remains. So Wandering Under the Moon, which was an original song from Station Eleven that I listen to all the time, would be a beautiful one. Or if you want to play Midnight Train to Georgia and just cry at your own wedding, you could do that. Yeah.

Speaking of great needle drops inside of shows we love, long, long time. You could have a Last of Us moment if you wanted to inside of your wedding. Wonderful. Make your own kind of music. A lost moment, if that's something you care for. Routinely in the top five of my Spotify raft, as you know.

If you're a Steven Peggy fan, you could do It's Been a Long, Long Time, a nice slow dance to acknowledge the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's a great one. As the world falls down from Labyrinth, that's if you're just really into...

Henson Muppetry since David Bowie eye makeup sounds great to me personally um Howl's Moving Castle Merry Go Round of Life this is like an iconic instrumental that you could play or wedding that people would love um

if you are, oh, the only other throne, the only throne thing, thrones thing that you didn't mention that I would add. And again, if you know what it means, maybe it seems a little off, but light of the seven, we love light of the seven. We think it's one of the most beautiful piece of thrones music. So if, if, if you're locking the,

Locking the doors anyway for Reigns of Castamere. Why not blow the roof off the joint with Light of the Seven? That's my suggestion. I thought you were going like Dornishman's Wife or something. It's like, well, you know, let's see who made the guest list. Do we have any exes there? I don't know. Yeah.

If you're a Buffy fan, Sarah McLachlan's Full of Grace or Wild Horses would be a great one. If you're a Black Mirror, San Junipero fan, Heaven is a Place on Earth. I almost went with that one, but I'm like, this is too, like, this is just... Nope, no too anything for me. No, no, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm just like too like predictable for me because it's like my favorite needle drop in the history of television. But you know what? That's what we do on this podcast. We talk about the things we love. I fucking love when that hits and the car engine starts.

Oh my God. Perfect. Why wouldn't you want to feel that at your own wedding? Let's do it. Okay. I will at my second wedding. Stranger Things. Two options here. Two sides of the coin. You can play Running Up That Hill. It's like it's broken. You don't have to be a Stranger Things fan to like that song. It's had its revival. Everyone loves it. Or if you really want to pay tribute to our guy Eddie Munson, you could play Master of Puppets at your own wedding. And I would support it. I really would.

If you're a Leftovers fan, I would play I've Got Dreams to Remember, which plays at a wedding in the finale, which I just watch and cry to sometimes. If you're a Severance fan, you can play a little Defiant Jazz, Shakey Jake, Joe McPhee, dance around some Defiant Jazz, why not?

And then if you are an Agatha all along fan, I think Time in a Bottle would be a really beautiful wedding song to play. So that's sort of what I came up with.

A lot of it is like, like I like, I like the idea of playing a needle drop that means something to you inside of a property you love, but again, could just be enjoyed by anyone. So I went to that a few times. Absolutely beautiful. Have you ever DJ at a wedding? And if not, would you? Yes, I would. It feels like you are prepared. Love to. This was so fun. Um,

Um, but also I didn't DJ my sister's wedding, but like they did a, they didn't have a DJ. They did a playlist and I did help with the playlist. Uh, my brother-in-law is a musician though. So like, I don't know how much I actually helped, but I kind of helped. So, um, yeah, that was really fun. Okay. You get some, get some tips from Justin sales.

Oh, I mean... Former professional DJ. The guy. The number one guy I would turn to for most things, honestly, Justin Sales. Okay, so in terms of composers... That was remarkable work. Thank you so much. In terms of composers, instrumental...

pieces of music that you enjoy, Mallory. You teased to me, you were like, I'm going to be a little predictable with this one. That is fine. What do you want to say? Mine are just like all the obvious ones. That's fine. John Williams, Bear McCreary, Ruby Jowati, Howard Shore, Ludwig Gortzen, Hans Zimmer. I think all the people who have penned the scores of the properties that are most central in our lives. I will say I don't... I love...

musical composition and I love a great score and I love the relationship between fandom and music. We've talked about this a lot before, like that sensation when you hear those first chords of

of the theme from a given story that you love and it just ports you to what it felt like to like watch that for the first time. You know, Binary Sunsets is like my all-time favorite example, obviously. Yeah. But I actually don't like sit down and listen to scores start to finish. And I don't do the exact thing you just described, which I know is how a lot of people listen to them, which is like put them on when I'm working because I just, I can't concentrate.

with any, I just can't do it. Interesting. So I know a lot of people who like, that's their writing music will be like put on one of their favorite scores and I just, I get so easily distracted. So my relationship to revisiting a score I love is typically similar to a lot of other things in my life driven by stimuli. Like if I see something or certainly like if I watch a movie or a show, but just even if like something comes up that makes me think of it or I see a clip on YouTube or whatever, then I'm like, ah, I gotta go listen to, you know,

whatever the case may be. And then I'll, I'll, I'll check out a few tracks or I'll watch the musical accompaniment to the scene in question or paired with the scene in question. But I don't usually go like start to finish on. Oh no, like in the album. Yeah. Yeah. I would only do that if I'm like, I don't think that I put on a lot of album scores unless I'm like,

stuff for the Lord of the Rings day and I'll put on, you know, all of the Lord of the Rings music while we're sort of cooking the day before or something like that. Um, the, the only, like, you know, you mentioned all the, all the iconic, uh, composers that we like to listen to. And I would say for Ramin Djawadi specifically, like, uh,

Especially to go back to the wedding question, like any of the sort of player piano cover songs from Westworld are really fun. Or the various sort of painted black covers that Ramin Djawadi did for Westworld. I would just add Patrick Doyle.

Patrick Doyle is a composer who did a lot of work for Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films. So, like, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Hamlet. And those scores, like the St. Crispin's Day speech score, like, those scores I put on a lot to listen to. And I have a random, like, playlist of them. So, yeah.

I would recommend if you're a big fan of Bear McCreary and Ramin Djawadi and John Williams, etc., Hans Zimmer, etc., I would recommend Patrick Doyle to sort of add to the rotation. So that's music stuff go. Love it. And that is what we have done. Let's go to A Song of Ice and Fire.

So this is, there's some casting news out of season three of House of the Dragon. We haven't had a chance to talk about it, though you and CR and I talked about it a little bit in text message form. So Natalie asked us a question about this, and we're going to talk about it. I don't see how we can talk about it. We're not going to talk about it super in depth, but I don't know how we can talk about it without touching on some things that we expect to happen. So I'm just going to blanket, spoiler warning, this.

The British actor James Norton has been cast as Ormond Hightower. And Natalie asks, curious for any thoughts you have on what this may portend. Will the show use James Norton to continue fleshing out slash humanizing Team Green? Or is he signing on because he wants to have fun chewing scenery as a baddie? He is definitely more famous than people who typically get cast for secondary characters in Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon. Do you think it's going to be a big role? Or are they trying to throw us off the scent by having a notable actor do just a few scenes a la Demi Moore and Mal's beloved Landman? Okay.

So that's the end of the question. With love and respect to Natalie, I'd be curious if Natalie is from the UK because I actually think James Norton is much more famous in the UK than he is here. This was going to be my question to you. Is he more famous than other people who have been cast? I think he's more famous than certainly British TV, which is, I mean, a great...

First TV is the best. James Norton, who made a huge splash on the show Happy Valley and Grantchester,

And a few other things, like he is sort of a staple of a star of British television, but I don't know that he is broken. Other than like your mom who likes to watch him as a vicar who sells crime on Grantchester PBS. I'm not sure that he is broken as much here in the U.S. But the character they played on Happy Valley, Tommy Lee Royce, is like one of the...

TV villains we've ever seen. I will say, like, not since Freddie Fox's casting have I gotten so many text messages from people about a casting announcement for House of the Dragon. However, they were from you, Chris Ryan, Julia Lipman, like, the preeminent

British TV enthusiasts in my life. So that all tracks. I think also, you know, for the folks who are not as familiar or at all familiar with his work on the British screen, some people are still going to be like,

I've seen him in Little Women. Like, I've seen him in Black Mirror. He has a very recognizable face. And, yeah. But I don't... Yeah, the more famous was an interesting framing. Okay, so super handsome, very talented. Mm-hmm. Joining the Hightower family. Yep. You know, weird.

What are you thinking when it comes to Ormond Hightower? Yeah. So, you know, on the spoiler front, I think that the warning is wise to issue because it's difficult, like you said, to answer the question without talking about any particulars. But I think we can avoid specifics certainly and keep it very general. Sure.

Ormond, you know, the head of House Hightower, the lord of Old Town, Hobart's son in showland. If you remember Hobart from a couple of the scenes in season one, this is how the line continues over in the show verse. Otto's nephew, Gawain and Allison's cousin. And we will never on this podcast for as long as we have the fortune to be in front of microphones plugged into an Internet connection, fail to say anything.

Darren. Darren. Darren was warding it all down. Darren is his ward, his squire. The role size question is an interesting one. This is where we get, have the hardest time not getting into any plot particulars. So if you don't want to hear this at all, fast forward a couple minutes, but we'll keep it as vague as we can. I think this is like hard to say and not hard to say kind of at the same time. Like,

It's a medium to small book role, but that doesn't really mean anything. Like a lot of smaller, even tiny fire and blood roles have been beefed up in the show in a considerable fashion. And, you know, I think that to Natalie's question, like,

Yes, undeniably, no matter what the runtime is and how much screen time he gets, it is another yet another huge win for Team Green because this is a very compelling performer. And I do think that it indicates a desire to, as has been tradition through two seasons, take a character who's like.

you're in key places when key things happen and elevate beyond that into, you are a character of consequence who people are compelled by and want to spend time with. Um, we know, and everyone who watched season two knows, and then certainly everybody who talked about where season two ended knows that we spent a lot of time in season two alluding to Ormond alluding to mentioning the, uh,

marshalling of the high tower forces of the troops from Old Town. And, you know, we got that tantalizing glimpse at the end of season two in the finale. We're looking up and Tessarian is flying overhead. It's been a promise to this point of more to come, but more is going to come. This is a character who I think the thing that excited me most about this is like, this is where I'm going to be the most careful to not say anything specific.

We have to enjoy our time in a new part of the map. And this is a casting that unlocks that in a way I feel really hyped about. We have more casting to come on that front, certainly. But... Darren. Dare I say Darren? You dare. You dare say Darren. I see what you did there. And I loved it. Okay.

I loved it, Joanna. Last thing I'm going to say about Orman before I toss to you is this guy's got a Valyrian steel sword. And that's another thing that I am not actually physically capable of not mentioning. Vigilance. Vigilance. Sick name. It's such a fucking great name for a Valyrian sword. So I am really hyped about that. And he is on the shit list of a character that you care about a lot. I kind of want to say it. Can I say it? Say it. Yeah, say it. Fast forward if you don't want to hear it.

The beesberries. The beesberries! Yes! Hate Ormond Hightower, justice for bees. Okay. What does it mean that literally, like, the second thing I thought of was that? Literally, it was... Your excitement about it. Literally, it was the first thing I thought of. I was like, here we go. Okay. I will just say more broadly, more nebulously, this is something we talked about a lot in season two when we were, you know, season one of House of the Dragon, we are this, like, inhuman

family inside the castle for much of the first season conflict. Now, as you said, we're spreading out across the map. And as we watch these various forces literally march their way towards each other at the end of the season, something you talked about all season is like, are we going to care? We as readers of the book know that there are X many battles coming up, but who's going to be at those battles that we care about?

And we talked about how they used Gawain Hightower in season two to help us. Like, it was just, it would be like just Kristen Cole and a lot of like people we don't know. So it's like Gawain and Kristen at least are there, you know? But we were trying to like math out.

what battles they were going to do. And we were like, are they pitting all their hopes of us carrying on Jason Lannister? Like what are, who's repping our interests in this battle? And so to flesh out team green, to give us James Norton, his Orman high tower to hopefully cast Darren really well, all the sorts of things we have to nail it. We'll, we'll help us,

us be more emotionally invested in these giant spectacle moments. When you think about Rook's Rest, we cared so much about Rook's Rest because of who was on Dragonback. But Dragon Battles is not all that is coming up on this show. So who's on the ground that we care about? So that's... I'm really excited about this. And also just excited that it's officially...

Season three casting announcement time, because it does mean we're not, we can't be that far away from finding out who's playing Darren, which is just absolutely thrilling. I didn't, I didn't get the joy to talk to Juliet, but like safe to say that Chris and I lost our minds about this. We were so excited. I have known Juliet Lipman for 12 years. Yeah.

The enthusiasm that I, it was multiple texts in a row. Amazing. Many of which included, Oh my God, or like 10 exclamation points. So do we think that James Norton is like Demi more level stunt casting in the show? No, no, we don't. But, uh, is she that level inside of some of our hearts? Yes. Uh, is he that level? Is he Demi size in some of our hearts? Yes. Uh, so shout out to James Norton. Uh,

hot vicar who solves crimes and really scary guy on Happy Valley. I'm excited. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. ShopPay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha-ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit Shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.

All right. Buffy Vampire Slayer. We got many, many emails about this and I sort of boiled down. We got some from Shannon, from Fran, from Anna and a bunch of other people. Wow.

Asking about this news that there is going to be a reboot sequel series of Buffy Vampire Slayer. They've put some people in place there. Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy in the original series, is involved. Chloe Zhao is involved. Nora and Lila Zuckerman, who did Poker Face, are involved. So all of this looks like it's actually happening this time, probably, at least in pilot form at Hulu. And if you want to hear all of my thoughts about it, thank you for so many emails, guys.

As people know, this is my number one favorite show, so I had a lot of thoughts about it. Rob Mahoney and I actually talked about it at length because Mallory has yet to have the pleasure of diving into Buffy, but Rob is a huge Buffy Vampire Slayer fan. So Rob and I talked about it on a video pod that we did for the Prestige TV feed. So if you go to the Ringer TV feed on YouTube, you can watch us talk about this. Here's the question. Yeah, Mallory.

What is Rob more passionate about? Buffy or champagne mangoes? Buffy. You know, how does champagne mango after he talked about it? It was fine. It wasn't. Oh, well, OK. But was it ripe enough? I don't. It's hard to make sure the mango is at the perfect ripeness. It might not. I was like looking it up. Yeah. And I've never had one. I was like taking notes. I'm like, I got to try one.

Well, I talked to a friend of mine who's a chef and she was like, oh, they're just manila mangoes, really. And I was like, okay. So I went to Berkeley Bowl, which is like where you get all the best produce in the East Bay. And they had them, but I was looking them up and it was like, we're slightly out of season. So I'll wait a couple months and I will try again. You'll try it in peak season. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Thank you for that mango diversion. Back to the question at hand. Yes. Okay.

This is what was written into us. Thoughts on the Buffy reboot. Is Mallory going to watch the original Buffy before the reboot? And if you, like me, had missed the original, but think it would have been in your wheelhouse and were considering trying to recruit your teenagers into a family watch, would you say there's a natural stopping point somewhere before the end? Or are we going to feel like we have to make it to the end of season of seven old-fashioned... Old-fashioned seasons. That just hurt my feeling. Seven old-fashioned seasons. Yeah.

That's just a lot of TV for teens raised on 68 episode seasons. Okay. Yeah. So to the point, most of the seasons of Buffy are in the 22, you know, range. Yeah. Okay. Let's start with you, Mallory Rubin. Any, any thoughts about watching some Buffy? Maybe not all of Buffy, but some Buffy. What do you think?

I absolutely will do it, and I plan to do it, and I will do it all. As you know, I'm not really capable of the just – I know. Well, but – okay. Maybe you can heed the advice I'm about to – I can't do the just the fang. Like, I got to go – Just the fang. Full thrust. Yeah. I also like the idea of – I do think that, yes, it's a good question, a fair question, and the –

fact that not everybody in the world necessarily is inclined to say, yeah, I'll watch 144 episodes of this thing is reasonable. But the fact that the children of today are so accustomed to six to eight episode seasons is all the more reason to insist they watch this in full. Show them how TV used to be made. Show them how it should be made. Wow. I don't know if I believe that it should be that long, but it should definitely be like ten. It'll build character for them. You know what I mean? Not six.

But yeah, Joe, like, you know, we had the absolute pleasure of doing our Doctor Who watch a couple years ago where I had some like base exposure to some Doctor Who but had never watched the modern era and watched every single episode in a year.

It's a similar episode total. So I feel like I know I can do it. I just have to make sure I give myself enough time to do it. So I'll rely on you to tell me when the moment is that I need to start. But how could I not do it? First of all, if... I don't know when this is supposed to come out, but if we are still... If we're potting, if we're making content... We're alive. If I haven't dropped dead or something, I...

Would feel like I had to watch this in order to be prepared to consume the new thing, particularly because it is a continuation. But more than that, much more, that's like a footnote. This is your favorite thing. Yeah. So it would be an honor and a privilege and a gift to watch it and get to share that with you. And in addition to you, the supreme figure in my life, it's like I know that Buffy is this –

for so many of the creators I admire. So I would love to better understand why that is. And to be clear, this would not be a begrudging mission for me. It would be a privilege. And like I, the fact that I have never watched it to this point is not really like something I have a good answer or explanation for. It's not from lack of wanting to. I've actually wanted to do it for a long time. I think I didn't watch it when I was a kid, even though I watched it with like, frankly, like astonishing amount of WB programming at this exact same time. Yeah. And then just like,

kind of, I think, you know, you miss, sometimes you miss the moment and it feels like, oh boy, well, I'll do it one day, but when, and the when never comes. And so this is, I've been waiting for my when, and now I have it. We might have to start the end of this year. We'll see if the schedule lightens up. No, no. Cause I was looking, I mean, the schedule gets a little late. Are they making it that soon? I mean, it'll probably come out if, if they go, it'll probably come out next year. Mallory does have a

a sickness inside of her, which means she can't just watch some of something. Yeah. But if you don't share that sickness, there are two natural stopping points before you get to the end of season seven that I could recommend for people. Um,

So the premise of Buffy Vampire Slayer as it originally existed is what if the like – what if your experience through high school, which feels like hell, was like literally filled with monsters and stuff like that? So like the shitty abusive boyfriend is literally like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of monster. You know, like we've got vampires. We've got werewolves. We've got stuff going on. So that's the first three seasons of Buffy. And I would say the first three seasons of Buffy are what I consider to be like pure Buffy.

Buffy all the way. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's the first three seasons. Season four, she goes to college. And also that's when they started to like a sort of spinoff show. So you get Angel as a spinoff of Buffy starts in season four. So the interests of the writing team, the creative team gets a little split. Um, and then further off of that, after that, uh, Firefly launches. So, uh, Joss Whedon, who was, you know, uh, the, the problematic, uh,

ahead of all of this, his attention is again split in season six. So, you know, I think Buffy is at his best in the first three seasons. Season five, it ends its run on Warner Brothers on this big moment and actually goes over to the CW for its last two seasons, six and seven. And season six and seven is also, I would say, when...

I would say the creative team's attention was the most split. Season six sort of most famously. So if you wanted to end your watch at season three, you could. You'd miss some of the most famous episodes, but you could. If you want to end your watch at season five, you could. And then if you are Mallory Rubin and you're like, I got to go all the way, then we're going all the way to the end of season seven. So that's sort of the Buffy opportunity awaiting people. But yeah.

Rob and I talked about it. We are mixed and a little nervous. But Mallory, it would be the thrill of my lifetime to heard you. I feel like people have the misconception that I made you watch Doctor Who. What? Yeah. I don't think I could have made it clearer every episode. Like I forced you to watch Doctor Who, but that is not the case. And I would never... I know. And I would never force you to watch... It's actually like...

Feels like the worst thing in the world to me to drag someone you care about through something you care about and they're not excited about it. No, no. That's just heartbreaking. So I would never do that. So only if you really, really mean it would we do a Buffy watch, which we might do. I'd be thrilled. Natalie writes in to ask us, um...

Not that dressing up has an age limit, but if you were kids in the year 2024, who would you have gone as for Halloween based on last year's nerd culture? Mallory rightly flagged this question as like an opportunity to sort of reflect back on 2024 one last time before we plow under

under the delusion of content that's coming for us in 2025. So what's your answer here, Mallory? Okay. I've decided to make this a team exercise. So I am here to present you multiple costume couple, couple, uh, costume. Come on. I can't speak. Couple costume ideas for us. And I'm prepared to suggest what Steve could be in all of them as well. Oh my God.

Thrupple costume ideas from some of our favorites from last year. You got to pick your favorite at the end. Ready? Yes. From Agatha all along. We can go as Agatha and Rio and Steve can be Wiccan. Off to a great start. Yeah. I don't know if you want to be Agatha or if you want to be Rio in this scenario. I will just say I'm open to either. And if you would like me to be Agatha, then I want to specifically be Wiccan.

Agatha slash Agnes as mayor. That's my request. Okay. Can I be Wiccan in the Subaru hatchback? Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. Okay. Here's the next candidate. X-Men 97. We can go as Gambit and Rogue.

It would be intense, but we could do it. And Steve could be either a Magneto or Nightcrawler, depending on the exact sort of energy and vibe we're going for. As you know, I do, I am the proud owner of the Gambit A6 Kiff collab sneakers already. And so I feel I am like uniquely prepared for this one. Okay.

Also, you love hair dye? I genuinely don't know if I could handle this without sobbing my way through Halloween, but I'm willing to try. Okay, this one's a different vibe. Yeah. But on the skeleton crew front, I do think we would have to strongly consider going as our favorites from the year, Neil and KB. Yes. Steve could obviously be anyone in this scenario. He could be bold enough to decide to be Jot. It's a lot to live up to, but he could try. He could be...

One of the other kids, he could be Fern, he could be Wham, he could be SM33, he could be Ratty. The rat that lives inside SM33, I think, is the great one. A lot of possibilities. Okay, your next candidate? I'm KB, and you're definitely Neil. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so I would need help, obviously, with that level of prosthetic work, but I would be willing. I would certainly be willing. And frankly, it would be the honor of my life to be Neil, even for a day. I know. Okay, next. Penguin. Penguin.

You might think I'm going like Oz. No, we're going as Sophia and Dr. Julian Rush. And Steve is, of course, Johnny Vidi. Oh, I think that he would be the red light. The red lights. He could also be the red lights. The red lights. That's entirely possible as well. Dune part two. Paul and Shai hallooed.

Steve could be Fade Rautha and he has to walk around with a knife. Licking knives all night long. Okay, great. Okay. The hardest one for me to pick was who we would be from House of the Dragon. And then it wasn't hard at all because I realized obviously it's Damon and Alice. And Steve could be Sir Simon. Oh my God, Steve would be an incredible Sir Simon. Yeah, it would be really, I think, very special. This is not for me.

This is difficult. Steve, what's your final candidate? What's your, oh, one more? One more. Oh, gosh. We could go as Kaliper, Boron, Sauron. And Steve in the Rings of Power scenario could be Mr. Mouse. I love you, Steve, and I don't mean to only suggest rodents for you, but I was like, if he's not Mr. Mouse, then what are we fucking doing here? It's a tough break for me. It really is.

It should be honored. Steve, do you have a preference of all these Steve options? Mr. Mouse is a good call as far as my vibe is concerned, but I... Oh, man, this is tough. I really think that the rat inside of KB was pretty great. Yeah. All right. So ratty...

With or without the SM33, like, head. Oh, no. Head attached. Head attached. Okay. I'm inside, like, a giant head, and then I pop out. Okay, great. And I'll be KB and Malibu and Neil. I love this. Wonderful. Okay. You did such a better job with this problem. This is, like, this is to balance my over-exuberance on the wedding playlists.

Because I was just like thinking I was fondly thinking about what we watched last year and I was thinking about like real life Joanna like when she was a kid and what kind of costumes I gravitated towards. And I will let you know that I was no surprise a witch multiple years and I was a fortune teller a couple years. So I was like I would be Liliana from Agatha all along. 100%. If I were actually a kid in 2024 I would have been like I want to be Liliana.

Liliana from Agatha Hollis. I think that's wonderful. That's my answer. Instead of saying trick or treat, would you share some commentary on the way that witches are portrayed in pop culture every time you ask for a piece of candy? This entire holiday is an absolute sham and a fraud. And it's keeping my people down. And also, did you see those adults dressed as Gambit and Rogue in Nightcrawler? They look amazing. So, yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Another similar-ish prompt, I guess, from Seth, listener Seth. I like to put little categories here. The category here is D&D. So we're going to talk about D&D for a second. So Seth wrote in to let us know that he is a game master. He runs various RPGs. And he likes creating NPCs, non-playable characters, based on me, Joanna Robinson, and you, Mallory Rubin. Genuinely touching. Yeah.

He said, so far, Mal has been a pickpocket on Coruscant and an apothecary owner in the Wizarding Washington, D.C., and Joe has been a Mickey and Sear and a Wizarding bookshop owner also in D.C. Besties with Mal's character, obviously.

He says he'll be running his first session of a new D&D campaign, and he has an idea for Joe and Mal NPCs on which he'd love our input. The idea for the campaign, the player characters are all members of a fantasy Girl Scout troop whose adventures usually end in them receiving badges. Wholesome adventures, light peril, plucky kids galore. Definitely no influence from Skeleton Crew. Anyway, on their first adventure, the players are going to meet two animal folk.

who are hopefully based on you. To that end, I was wondering if you were anthropomorphic woodland creatures that could cast spells, loved apples, and stories, and ran a ropes course whose goal is to teach trust and teamwork to Girl Scouts, what kind of anthropomorphic woodland creatures would you be? And would you like...

to name these characters. Okay. So I decided that Mal and I should create characters for each other. Yes. So we're going to do that in a second. But Steve-O-Rino, Steve-O-Rama, what should listeners of House of R know about

about Dungeons and Dragons and perhaps characters played by podcast personalities they know. Well, so very glad you asked, Joanna. In the next week, we will be debuting a brand new role-playing adventure project called Ringer Quest that is hosted and DM'd by myself and starring both Joanna and Mallory as their own characters. Yeah.

They'll be playing not something dissimilar to what our lovely listener wrote in about, but they're going to be going on an adventure with Jomie, Charles, and Van throughout this interesting world that we've created. So we can look forward to that adventure coming very soon.

this was filmed several months ago on a set. There are props. It's a whole thing. There's a lot of questionable accent work from me, specifically wonderful accent work from Charles. One of the best things I've ever experienced in my entire life. And Steve did an incredible job DMing a game played by people who had never played Dungeons and Dragons before. So big lift for Steve. Uh,

And we can see that on the Ringerverse YouTube channel. This was so fun. It was amazing. We had so much fun. And if you're watching this, I don't know what the edit looks like because we played for a while. I'm sure it's edited down to all the juicy bits, but...

I would urge you, dear listener, dear viewer, to just watch Van go from wildly disinterested to incredibly invested. And by the end of it, he was like, this is so fun. And we were like, yeah, Van, that's why we're doing it. I will say for the listener, we cut very little, actually. Okay, great. Oh, so this is going to be a long one. We're looking forward to pretty much the full adventure. Wonderful. Okay. Thrilling. So that's Ringer Quest on Netflix.

the Ringerverse YouTube channel anywhere else that people can enjoy this content, Mallory? Oh, sorry. No, go ahead, Steve. This will also be as well on YouTube as well on your podcast feeds. Okay, so we can listen to Ringer Quest as well. You can as well. But, I mean, full experience definitely should be seen to be believed. Yeah, you're gonna wanna watch this. You're gonna wanna watch this one. You're gonna wanna watch this. Alright, so back to Seth's question. Yeah.

Mallory Rubin, have you created an anthropomorphic woodland creature for me? Yes. Let me start by saying I'm honored. Yeah. Honored. Yeah. For all of a lifetime. Let me follow up by saying I'm offended, but offended that my characters have been based in DC instead of Baltimore. This is an outrage, a mid-Atlantic outrage. Mostly I'm honored. Yeah.

Playing Ring of Quest with the gang was my first time ever playing Dungeons & Dragons. And so my knowledge is very limited and my exposure is new, but my passion is deep and sincere. So I'm excited to learn more. I will say I slacked Steve and I was like, are there certain...

the eligible anthropomorphic woodland creatures who make sense to pick in D&D. And Steve was very helpful. And then I just decided that I was going to stick with skeleton crew because it was on my mind from the prior question and go with a cat owl.

inspired by Kim. Like, I really think that this would be a perfect, like you as a cat owl, it's just everything. It's everything that I need. And your contributions would be, would be vast. Specifically though, I see this character as one who provides wisdom.

In the form of story, I think that you would speak in quotes and perhaps in riddles, depending on whether that was part of the quest. I do believe that you would live in a nest of tomes and treasures, and your name would be Granny Smith. Okay, so I have picked...

I didn't go owlbear and I didn't go based on a creature for something we've seen. And when you say woodland creature, does the jungle count as woodland? I say so. Okay, so great. I was looking up large cats, like big cats. Yeah. That reminded me of you. And I stumbled upon...

The Indian jungle cat. They're beautiful, and they've got these beautiful light eyes that remind me a lot of your eyes. And this is the description. They are nocturnal, but not very strictly. And they like to rest in burrows of porcupines, badgers, and even foxes. So it's like a burrowing cat that mostly comes out at night, mostly, with beautiful light eyes. And I decided that this particular...

Once again, a jungle is a woodland, technically. So Jungle Cat would be named Etta Honeycrisp. Unbelievable. It's just the mind meld when it happens. It's just so lovely. Yeah, yeah. Granny Smith and Etta Honeycrisp. Fucking incredible. The Apple Wars. Cat-like creatures in the woods. What else would we be? Sounds great. Okay.

Thanks, Seth. Hopefully that helps you. We did branch out a little bit from cats when we played D&D with Steve. So you can check that out. Okay. A little bit. Carrie wrote in to ask about pilots. This is a quick one. Carrie was like, people talk about finales all the time. But what do you think is the best pilot of, you know, sort of a TV show? She...

recommended Buffy as a pilot. Sure. Umbrella Academy. That was another like fun world that started off really strong. I would agree. Didn't end as strongly. So Molly Rubin, what do you want to talk about? We talk about pilots and is it just the TV show Lost, which has the best pilot of all time? Yeah. Here's my rapid fire top five. And these were just the ones that felt like the right five for me today. I could change my list at any point. They will not be surprising.

Lost. Yeah. Game of Thrones, Friday Night Lights, The Sopranos. And this is maybe the one that people be like, oh, I didn't know Mal would pick that. The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead pilot is unbelievable. Wonderful pilot. Unbelievable. Rick healing and recuperating through the fall of civilization. Incredible stuff. So that's there are plenty of others that I obviously pilots that I love. But that's a top five. And Lost is number one on its own inside of that without without a doubt for me. Yeah.

I picked Lost, Westworld, the UK show Misfits, and Severance. And I think that all of those shows are asking you to have sort of a large buy-in and really sell this sort of outsized premise inside of the first episode. So Lost, she's cheating because it's like a two-parter, but still. So good. The Lost pilot is...

Here's the deal. And we're not talking about Greg Gunberg. We're talking about TV shows. Oh, Steve Allman, on my behalf. Thank you so much. Steve Reno has said interview with a vampire. Yes. Thank you, Steve, for not getting me making me die from shame on my own podcast for neglecting to say interview with vampire. Any chance I got the last pilot, if you never watched it.

It's essentially like a little movie. Yeah. And it's stunning. And so I like to tell people if you watch The Lost Pilot and you're not immediately ready to press play and watch what's next, then like, yeah, Lost isn't for you. But I don't know a single person who started watching Lost who hasn't wanted to continue watching Lost. Yeah.

It's a masterpiece. That's the one. And I think like the ones that I picked not only feel like the perfect way to start that show, but they tell us something about how to start a show, like an experience, especially a grand and sweeping one that is going to, in all of those cases, continue for quite some time. I think about The Lost Pilot all the time. Just all the time. The Friday Night Lights, that's a great call. That's a great show. I love that one. Severance. Severance.

We got several emails from people because, to be clear, I think I mentioned this on a severance podcast. They should write in about this. But at least Carolyn and Carly specifically wrote in asking for Mal's craziest or most out there theories about the TV show Severance.

Does Lumen control the town or the water? What does it mean to revolve? Why is everyone driving old cars? Ghosts? So Mallory Rubin, and this is where spoilers for Severance season two might come into play. What are your craziest, most out there theories about Severance? So I don't know if I have what I would consider crazy or out there theories, but just because I think that's like the, so central to the base theory,

discussion text of like watching and consuming the show. Any theory that I would have about severance, I'd be like, I bet you like there are 80 Reddit threads about this from the last four hours. I don't know that I could even come up with something that I would have the gall to call crazy. So I think where I am with the show and maybe, you know, the difference of like if I were a

pouring over every single, every single frame because I was covering it. I might have like things that I felt even more attached to on the theory front, but like,

I think it's more for me right now, like just the questions I'm most interested in because I've loved the season so far. There have been four of aired since at this point when we're recording this at the top of the week. I thought the fourth one was unbelievable. Like the whole season has been really good. And one of the things that I'm most struck by is just –

How quickly, actually, the show is addressing the things that might have dominated theory discussion for years previously. Like, again, spoilers, but...

you know, Mark reintegrating like that happening at the end of episode three was astonishing to me. I never would have guessed that that would happen so quickly. Something like Dylan's wife being confirmed inside of the same episode is actually his wife. Like I was prepared to theorize for weeks about whether we would find out that she was a woman plant and that was horseshit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, obviously like you and Rob have been doing a phenomenal job since the beginning of the season on,

every part of Covering Severance, but you know, you guys have been clocking the heli, Helena question from the word go and like that one too. I'm,

I didn't think it would be episode four when that was confirmed. So the fact that we're getting confirmation and answers so quickly just makes me even more confident that the really big questions and really big answers are waiting still. Like these are the small ones that they can answer kind of quickly, which is just fascinating. So I think my biggest questions at this point are the things maybe the way to put it is like that I feel most invested in on the theory or theory and Jason front are –

Obviously coming off of last episode, as you know, Irv is my favorite character. So I am like in a state of supreme anxiety right now.

And the question of like, are we through forever with Irv's Innie, this version of the Innie? Certainly. Are we through with him inside of Lumen? I can't wait for a reintegrated Mark. What seems like now, like that's that process is going to take many episodes to click into place. And I'm not anticipating it to be smooth. But when Audi Mark gets to the point where he's like,

I got to go find that guy. Like, I can't wait for that. But just like, what role does, does Irv have to play in the story in the future? As you know, cause we, we had the privilege of chatting about the season one finale together. Like I was like, there were so many things to talk about. And I was just like, all I can think about is Irv. So I just love him. And he's like really top of mind for me. I think obviously all of the Mark Gemma cold Harbor questions, like, you know,

I think my biggest question, you and Rob, I've loved the discussions that you guys have had about this on Prestige TV so far. I'm thinking about this a lot too. Like the Mark Gemma Cold Harbor, we're on maybe X model of Gemma and the percentages are matching. Like all of that in general, everything, everywhere we seem to be heading on the baby cure, a cure for man, goat trials, like grew a whole person and gave it consciousness, revolving front. Like we're...

We're creating people and finding a way to, like... Live forever. Recreate their consciousness and achieve a version of immortality for Keir Egan and other members of the Egan family, I assume. My question then becomes, like... Because that has really felt like it's crystallized into place the last few episodes. Like, what...

about the other people, the non-Mark people. And like... What are they working on? What are they refining? Yeah, I'm so interested in what the answer to that ends up being. And like, I loved the discussion that you guys had. It's been ongoing, of course, across the episodes, but like around...

Okay, well, Mark had to come back. Like, they could not let Mark go, and they were happy to let everyone else go. So does that mean that they actually are not doing anything of consequence? Because I was really, like, captivated by – I think I still am captivated by the idea that they're all working on their own people, maybe. Like, that Dylan is doing something with a kid. Yeah. That Irv is doing – or was doing something with his dad, maybe. But I also am really compelled by the idea that maybe part of the mission is –

Can someone like Mark, can someone who knew a person that basically like train and incept and guide others into also being a part of this recreation? That's really interesting to me. Obviously, everything on the Cobell front, similarly fascinating, like I, who, and her investment in

the cult of, of the Egan's and the cult of Lumen and her personal connection with like the shrine and the, the breathing apparatus and the hospital bands and all of that. Like, who is that person for her? I was like, you guys blew my mind with the, is it her? Uh,

Theory, which I had- The turtleneck watch? Yeah, I had never considered that. I was like, oh, wow, that's really interesting. But, you know, her presence there in the first place and then her, like, the fury and the rage and the passion. Who is she trying to restore and how does that explain her investment in this initiative? And then I think on the Cobell front, like-

She's a way into just the, I think, fascination that many people have around the question right now of, like, when and where are we? And, you know, this, like, similar but different alt-reality. I just don't know what we should believe. Like, should we believe the number of countries that we heard that that actually is how many countries exist in this reality? Or was that horseshit weird?

Why was this particular location – let's say it's horseshit and there are not that many Lumen bases, though maybe there are because it's this behemoth. Yeah. Why this location? And, like, I think my biggest question is actually, like, not necessarily about all the cars seem like they're from this time period, though that is a wonderful detail, and more, like, why would you live in this town if you weren't a true believer? The land of always winter. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, why does Devin live here? I don't, I'm so interested in what the answer to that is and what the explanation for that ultimately is. Um,

I'm really interested in all the other functions that we've glimpsed, you know, the other code names, elephant, beehive, freeze frame, goldfish, lullaby, et cetera. And then, yeah, I guess the other big one for me is who is Miss Huang? Like, is she Mark and Gemma's daughter? Is she a reconstituted person who died at that age? And like, that's...

that's the age that she is. That's the answer to the why are you that age? Like, because of when I was born and also because of when I died? Like, I... That just feels like even by severance's standard, like, too weird of a thing to do without a real reason and a future explanation. So, yeah. I'm like...

I'm actually curious to ask you if you feel like the theory, fury around the show, which is super fun and interesting, has almost like eaten the show or starting to eat the show where it's like, is it going to be the only thing that people talk about with the show instead of just like character arcs? Or do you feel like the balance so far has been really great? Well, I think the answer to that comes in like the beginning of what you talked about here when you were saying like they're burning through these things so quickly. And I think it's because they're not drawing this stuff out.

And toying with people. It feels like they're just sort of, they're like, we're going to give you a mystery and then we're going to solve that mystery. We're going to give you a mystery. We're going to solve that mystery. But this is something I talked to CR about when he was talking to me about like sort of, have we ever seen this level of fervor around a mystery box show like this? And I was like, the circumstances are rather unique here.

But also, I do think... I love a mystery box show. I love a Theory Corner. You know this about me. Yeah. But I don't think our coverage... I'm the person most susceptible to just spin my wheels in Theory Corner and forget to do some other stuff. And I think there's been enough... There are enough character moments and connections and all this sort of stuff like that that I don't think... I think they're constructing the show in a way where...

you almost have to be like willfully ignoring the meat of the show in order to, and like, we, you know, we, you and I covered Thrones at the height of like the books aren't written yet. And so every shadow was prompting, like, is that serial Pharrell in the background and Bravo's or like what all sorts of nonsense. Right. Um,

I've stopped getting annoyed by people's like, or for the most part, uh, people like sort of theorizing without any anchoring in any sort of like concrete evidence or plot or character. Um, but maybe,

I don't know maybe I'm talking to the wrong people but the people I'm talking to seem to have not completely lost their mind to Theory Corner yet so I'm hopeful you know it feels really the balance to me feels great so far I was curious because you're so deep into it and how it felt to you like I just chatting with people at The Ringer you know Adam and I really like talking about it after we watch it some people in my life who watch it it's like

It feels like just such an energizing combo of there's a lot of theorizing and the show certainly like invites that, but also the characters are so rich and the arcs are so compelling that that has not tipped for me at all. And I actually think the fact that the show seems so hyper-conscious of the way people theorize around it is like that could. But hyper-conscious without the thing that happened to Westworld, which is like then they tried to like –

double fake us on everything and make it so convoluted. It's just sort of like, it's like we were on, you know, like Dan Erickson, Ben Stiller, all the people like working on the show are on the Reddit boards. They're seeing the theorizing and their response is not let's trick them. It's like, let's play. Let's have fun. Let's give you a little, a snack. And

And then we're going to give you your full dinner next week, you know, something like that. So, yeah. And I like when, like, I like, it's fun when you have a moment where the show feels like it's an active conversation with its audience, but also you as the viewer trust that they know where that boundary is. Like, and it's just, I don't know, it's such an incredibly expertly made show. I mean, I loved season one. I was, I think I had it on, like, number one on my, like, I was so excited for the show. And,

There was – I often, when I'm really excited for something, have like a little – especially something that had been off the air for this long and is such a high concept show, a little bit of anxiety. Will they be able to maintain the excellence? I was very nervous. Yeah. I was really nervous until I didn't watch – I am being such a good person and I am not watching ahead. Yeah.

Because that is what Rob has asked of me. But when critics got the screeners and they watched them and they loved them, I was like, oh, okay, cool. We can just relax. This is going to be good. It's been great. Yeah. Good show. And also... I hope we don't have to wait three years for season three. Yeah, I don't think so. There were so many extenuating circumstances. But also I will say that the premise is just so genuinely original.

that the to your point about sort of rich character arcs the twists and turns that are happening for these characters the sort of like love quadrangles that you know they're taking like soap opera storylines but like you know is dylan's wife cheating on her husband with her husband you know what i mean like that's that's fun and that's you know that's the best of what sci-fi can do okay

Super Bowl question. Nope, let's do special. Let's do book stuff go and then we'll do football stuff go. Okay, so Matt is asking, Matt Rodent asked about special book editions. Matt was saying sort of like in honor of our guy Sean Fenrock was like, I am committing myself to physical media, but not just films, but

books as well. Um, Mallory, you and I have talked about the beautiful editions of books that, uh, you and I, but mostly you like to collect. Um, and so Matt was like, help me along on my book collection journey, special editions of song of ice and fire, Lord of the Rings, June, et cetera. Where should I go? What should I do? Um,

So what is your main advice, Mallory Rubin? No free ads, but here come the free ads. Go for it. No free ads, but if you want to sponsor the pod, get in touch. Do you want to give us an allowance, maybe?

A friends and family discount? We would run through that allowance in a hurry if we got our hands on it. Love books, love to collect books. An obsession that I have is getting multiple editions, versions, box sets of the same series. I just like love to do that and...

I have a particular sickness when it comes to folio society books, and Adam, bless him, beautiful soul that he is, really fuels my addiction and will buy me folios for my birthday or Hanukkah. It's very sweet. So my favorites on that front that I have gotten so far –

Though don't. Who knows what the next few months will bring. I love the Folio Song of Ice and Fire set. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. There are only five because the six and seven books have not come out yet. But all five, the first five of Song of Ice and Fire books are now out, which I think when I got the first couple, it was actually only the first two. So it's been fun every time they've released the next edition. They're gigantic. Yeah.

They're so hefty, but they are just gorgeous. Actually, and Fire and Blood just came out like last week, I think. So I'm anticipating the arrival of my copy shortly. Folio also makes a just beautiful Lord of the Rings set. You can get the trilogy, the Silmarillion, the Hobbit. There are multiple Folio properties where there's like the regular edition and then the deluxe, like the special, special, special edition version.

All of these are expensive. Those are like exorbitantly expensive. I don't have any of those yet. I don't have any of those yet. Uh, but I love, I love the Lord of the Rings sets. And like one of the things that's cool about a folio set is not only are the illustrations beautiful, just the binding of the book is always so stunning. The slip case. The slip case is stunning. The, there are often is like accompanying material. So the, the ring sets, for example, come with maps. Like they're really cool. Um,

I have long loved my Dune folio. That's a really great one. I recently got Dune Messiah and Children of Dune as well. Quietly, one of my favorite folio sets is Hitchhikers. These are so good. The covers are so cool. I love them. They're like glittery. I love the His Dark Materials set. It's beautiful. I've got a 1984 Handmaid's Tale. It basically can't go wrong. I've told this to Joe before. The thing I covet...

most is the Philip K. Dick set that came out, like the neon set. I want, I can't remember. I want to say it was like, it was like $700. So it was, and it sold out instantly. Uh, society, are you listening? Do you have, I will sometimes look at the secondhand market prices for this set. I love it. Joe, what, uh, what on the folio front, uh, are you most, most smitten?

I'm going to recommend a few things outside of Folio Society, though I do. I think it is like the best source. And I'm so glad that Mel just gave them a great advertisement. There's a special edition of A Song of Ice and Fire on Juniper Books that I really love. I don't own it, but I look at it sometimes and I droop.

You know, so they actually have a few different ones, but there's one where it's got the, like, it's an older one, but they've got, like, sort of, it forms one picture and it says A Song of Ice and Fire across six different books and stuff like that. I love that. So there's that one. Again, that one will go out of style, I guess, when George finishes the series. Yeah.

They've also got some really nice looking old leather binding looking ones with metal on the spine and stuff like that. Just really old, cool looking ones. And sometimes you can buy the book. On Juniper, you can buy the books or you could just buy the slipcover books.

Oh, that's cool. For, you know, an edition you already have that you want to spruce up a little bit. So that's like a fun thing to do. Love that. For Lord of the Rings, there is a deluxe illustrated special edition that you can get on eBay. Right now there's like several versions of it in the under $200, over $100 range. It's like red, bright, it's all...

All three Lord of the Rings books in one. A giant bright cherry red leather slip case with a cherry red leather spine. And it's just like, and it's got the like eye illustration on the front. And it's just like.

Yeah. On that related recommendation on that front, the more recently released Lord of the Rings Deluxe Illustrated Editions, which are individual, but have a similar, like the outer binding looks a little bit similar. They have these like beautiful, like,

The slipcase, the outer leather spine, and then fabric covers are gorgeous. But they are... Adam got me these for Hanukkah, and they're fucking great. I was, like, absolutely riveted looking through them. They're so cool. They have...

the big selling point for these is that they have reproductions of Tolkien's illustrations. So throughout the books, you can see his actual sketch. His maps, his Smaug, yeah. It's just like really cool. And they also, again, have a lot of really great supplementary material. Sometimes that's like a little booklet with additional information. Sometimes that's a map. They're awesome. I love those. Love. I'm excited to actually like do a read through with them because so far I've just...

thumbed through them, but they're beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Would you read them with like gloves on like an archivist? No. Probably not. No. Probably not. Another website I recommend is Grim Oak. They have like sort of more modern, beautiful illustrated editions of things. But like you get something like The Magicians. There's like an illustrated edition of Lev Grossman's The Magicians that is

like breathtakingly beautiful. And it's, you know, they do limited edition runs. They'll do signed editions and stuff like that. But that's the way to like get something that is like not quite in the folio society. The thing about folio society though, like as you spend exorbitant amounts of money on books as like sometimes we do is

The thing about Folio Society that's so funny is like it's coming from the UK. There's this like anticipation because it's going to like take a while. This is not you ordering from Bezos.com and you've got the book tomorrow. Like you've got to wait a couple of weeks sometimes and then it'll come wrapped in brown paper and it's just like a whole beautiful experience. This is our unboxing boy. It is. I feel like you sound like Ryan and David on this sort of like prop collectibles episode. That's an exact thought prepping for this question. It's not quite the pattern.

the Batwing but yeah it's not quite the Batwing and then there is a

a dune box set that, um, is on the penguin website. That is three, uh, that is six books and it is, um, absolutely beautiful. Um, but it's not quite like, again, like there's levels you can go, right. This is like a beautiful box set that is still paper back, but like absolutely beautiful. It's a hundred bucks for all six books. So it's like not breaking your bank account. Um,

well, it's still a hundred bucks on book, a book that you get for 50 cents that like, you know, your used bookstore if you want to. So like, I, I'm not, I'm not,

I understand that this is still a wild thing to do, but like, yeah, there's some like mid tier sort of box sets that you can get that still like make your shelf look like a beautiful space for stories that you love, which is like one of, you know, Mallory iconically has books stacked behind her and every, every single, uh, one of these calls. So I have a couple, these were, uh, these towers were, were wedding gifts. We have a more actually. Yeah. People think it's just a loose stack. It's not. No, it's like, you know,

metal shelves and between each metal shelf you could fit like five or so books depending on the thickness of the book. There's a spine there. Yeah, there is. They are still kind of like, I'm like, should I like...

latch these to the wall or something. But most, yeah, most of my books are in a different area and I sometimes long to have them behind me, but then the book nook wouldn't be the book nook and where would I be? So to your point, like I, that is actually one of the things I love most about building out my book collection is different paperback sets. Like it's, I just love it. And it's, again, I don't know why I have such a deep and abiding desire to collect more

more and more and more set. Like, I will never stop adding to my Lord of the Rings sets, Throne sets, et cetera. And I'm always a sucker for, like, the newest paperback box set that comes out. It is a great way to continue to expand the collection. You know another thing I love, actually, because I'm thinking and talking a lot about inside of a given fictional world, but

One thing that I really love is, there are plenty of examples of this, an imprint that crosses titles but has a visual continuity. So one example that comes to mind is the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, you know, the fabric ones. The cloth found, yeah. That have the one image that repeats. So like...

Uh, one of the, one of the copies that I have is Frankenstein and it's got the, it's like a gray fabric with the blue heart repeated on it. Or I've got Alice, which is like, I believe like a creamy white with the pink flamingo repeating on it. So that's a cool, you can just pick which, which books in the, in that printing you like. Are the, are the Clothbound Penguin Classics, um, do they have a letter on the spine, like one letter on the spine? Yeah.

So there's the cloth bound Penguin classes and for a while and I when I was still working in the bookstore they were putting Penguin was putting out like one special edition every few months of a title and they did like the full alphabet. So it'd be like A is for Alice. You know what I mean? And it was sort of like they picked one title per letter of the alphabet to sort of we're like, oh, what's the J book going to be or whatever? So that was a really fun one. But yeah, that's a great call.

So that's our totally normal association with books. The limit I've given myself for the most part is I've given myself permission to collect as many editions of Tolkien as possible. But I've not quite gone the full Mal yet, but it's early days. I might go there. But yeah, that is, but we love, I mean, paper, you know, Mallory and I love a digital edition sometimes to be able to search through it. But I do think it's really important to surround yourself with

If I love a book, I have to have it. I have to have it. Yeah. Even if I read it digitally initially, like I have to, I have to get it. I have to have it here. Even if you haven't read it sometimes, I mean, again, this can feel like an extravagance of like, of space, of resources. Like if you don't, if you don't have the space, you don't have the resources, but like,

Like the, this idea of like stories that are waiting for you. Totally. We talked about this a couple of times last year. I feel like we had a number of examples pop up where I was like, yeah, I've had this like with wool. When we talked about silo, I was like, this is, I've had this on my shelf for years and I hadn't got to it. And here's the, or three body was another one. Yeah. I love that feeling that you're describing. And it's nice to, when somebody recommends something or you,

You feel – you stumble upon it in a store and you're like, I want this around me. I want it there waiting for me. And who knows? The other thing that I love is to buy – we've talked about this before. It's a passion that we share. Like I love to buy books when I'm traveling even though it's not a practical thing for like then fitting it in my luggage. But – and you put the –

You put the bookmark from the store where you bought it inside and then you leave it in there. And then one day in the future, who knows how many years into your future, you open it and it's just like little paper portal, a memory of where you were and who you were with when you bought it. That's like one of my favorite feelings. I'll also stick like theater tickets or train tickets or whatever if I was traveling something like any ephemera I sort of got from the trip. I'll like stick in the books for something to come. I used to do that all the time. I used to put movie stuff, leave movie stubs in books.

to find later. Yeah. Okay. So that's our totally normal association with books. And I'll say, again, it does not have to be beautiful. When I was a kid, I used to go to the library sale and just buy...

all the classics, like I just wanted to have all the classics, all the Charles Dickens, all the Anthony Trollope, all the whatever for a quarter. Just so I had it. Do you keep our mutual friend bound up waiting? Just waiting for me. Just waiting for me. But yeah, like pocketbooks, I think are just like a beautiful thing to have as well. So, um, all of that. Okay. Super, we're going to rapid fire the rest of this Superbowl, uh, question. Um,

This is just an excuse for you to talk about the Thunderbolts trailer. Go. That is all that this is. That's all this is. And it's actually my answer to the next question as well, so we're just going to combine them in this moment. The Thunderbolts?

Nina also asked on the thirst trap front, she said, fantastic for orgy or thunderbolts or what is the thirstiest moment you anticipate from the house of our roster in 2025? And genuinely, I was trying to expand outside of thunderbolts because like we're getting a running man and we're getting a predator movie and we're getting 28 years later. And I was like, surely these sort of like revamped old school, whatever. But none of those actually seem like they're offering like

A lot of those are like, they're married, she's pregnant. They're not trading on sexual tension, which is fine. But make movies horny again is what I have to say. And Thunderbolts, the fact that I have to rely on a Marvel property, a famously sort of sexless sort of franchise for my thirst trap. But that being said.

Bucky's in a lot of leather. Yelena looks amazing in every single there's like one shot of her out the car window with the guns just looks amazing. So like I am ready. Bucky, who was abandoned by Steve, deserves to be thirsted over by all of us.

And Oscar winner, Oscar nominee, sorry, I just manifested something. Oscar nominee Sebastian Stan also deserves this from us. So yeah, the Thunderbolts trailer, I think, was easily the best film trailer at the Super Bowl. No question. And then on Leigh-Anne's, it was Leigh-Anne's question, right? Yeah, about snacks. I'll just say this. I don't attend a lot of Super Bowl parties. Well, no, I do. I usually go. I used to cover it, and I don't anymore, but I used to cover it on Pop Culture Angle, so I used to work at Super Bowl parties. Right. But now that I have been...

from that experience. I go when I want to, but if I were to go this year, I would have made sure that all of my snacks were sort of Philadelphia. This is the move. Yeah. Yeah. Like cheesecakes or a cream cheese dip or something. And crucially, the other part of it too is like nothing associated with the team you want to lose. Nothing from Kansas City. Fuck your barbecue, Kansas City. I don't want any of it.

So that's sort of, that's the mentality. Okay, what do you want to say about thirst traps, trailers, or Super Bowl snacks? My Super Bowl snacks answer is actually pretty similar to yours, which is like it's often a workday for me, so that'll put a cap on my drinking and that I'm not drinking because it's a workday, but it does not put a cap on my food consumption. We're like pretty standard, but pretty serious. We need pizza. We need wings. We need chips and dips. Like it's a must. Wings.

And we load up. You know, a 3.30 Pacific kickoff, we're thinking about lunch and dinner and snacks in between. So there's a lot of food around. The thing I wanted to say on the drink front is that what you just mentioned about which team am I rooting for and which team am I rooting against, a thing that my dad does that I just love is he extends that to the drinks. Yeah.

So he'll like find like a brewery with a city tied. He will avoid if something has anything to do with the team that like the Ravens are playing, for example. Lamentably, the Ravens were not in the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if that's come up recently. But we're wearing, we both have purple on ourselves in honor. I'm wearing a Raven shirt today to torture myself by remembering that they were clearly

a better team than the Chiefs. But you know what? That's, I was going to say it's fine. It's not. It's actually devastating. But it's not.

We're here to talk about. But it's over. Trailers, I agree. I thought the Thunderbolts trailer that aired last night was just sensational. I think every Thunderbolts trailer so far has been good, but this one was like unbelievable. I just feel like every new thing, I feel so validated in my initial enthusiasm. Everyone come on board. Thunderbolts, get excited. This is just dynamite from the opening look at Valentina's hair to all of the, I mean, I'm like, fuck, that's the void. We're like, wow, this is.

This is awesome. When you're watching and you're like, John Walker? Am I enjoying John Walker? Yes. This, like, yes. Just this, you know, misfit...

team up but also miss it redemption tour is just wonderful um i would be remiss if i did not mention while this is not strictly a trailer that harrison ford did star in a two-minute commercial directed by james mangled uh for jeep for his oh for and not for his scotch or whatever no no um then we have our our instagram reels for that thank god and uh

It was remarkable. And it is the only time all night that I hit pause on something because I was like, is that a picture of Booth in Witness? I've really been so excited in my life. So that was great. On Nina's question about

Fantastic for orgy or Thunderbolts or thirstiest moment you anticipate for the roster in 2025? I agree with you. I think Thunderbolts will be quite sexy and quite thirsty. I can't, if I'm honoring the spirit of the question in full, I can't pick Thunderbolts for orgy because of the Alexi. Oh, yeah. Yelena. But I do, I feel like Red Guardian would just be like, I'm going to go in the other room and watch TV while you kids fuck. Yeah. He's that kind of guy. Yeah. I do think that. Let me throw out a couple other horny candidates. And he's like Bucky's number one fan. Which is great to know. It's true. Other than us.

Other than me, faithful. I think that Daredevil will be horny because Daredevil's always horny. I wrote something, something Matt shirtless Daredevil. There we go. Exactly. That's exactly right. That's the full point. Will Mickey 17 be horny? I don't know, but I do think that there's the potential there. You know, many copies of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. It's the double Fassbender and Alien Covenant.

Absolutely. Why not? And then I think the possibility, because it is canonically established already after Doom coming in season one of an orgy in Yellow Jackets is always, always in play. Okay. They're just so cold and dirty at this point that I know. But we're going to warm up soon, right? It's like in the trailer, it looks like it's warmer. Also, if it's really cold, you know, they don't have shelter anymore. Stay warm by fucking, I don't know.

That brings us to Yellow Jackets. Alex asked, this is our last question, then we might have time for a rapid fire, but he said, if you're trapped in the Canadian wilderness, a la Yellow Jackets, with any characters from other fictional universes, who would they be and which character would you make into Jerky first? Mallory would just like you to know she simply wouldn't turn another fictional character into Jerky. I told, the limit we put on ourselves is we're allowed to pick four characters here or mine. Number one, Legolas. He can walk on top of snow.

Number two, Chewbacca. He does not seem like he would get that cold. Number three, Mr. Tumnus. He goes shirtless and wears a scarf in the snow. He'll be fine. And number four, Yorick Burnison from His Dark Materials. A lot of snow dwellers, a lot of people who know their way around a snowy planet. Who's going first on the fire? Oh, it's the lower half of Mr. Tumnus. Okay. Boy. It's the leg joint.

Of the sexiest fawn in all of A Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. Very sad.

Maybe just one. Just one leg on the fire. Do you know what I mean? That's not going to sustain you for long, though. It's a gateway leg. You said first. And I'm just saying, okay. First, we take one Tumnus leg. He can wrap his little red scarf around him. This is obviously James McAvoy's Mr. Tumnus. Of course. Naturally. Who else will we pick? Molly, who are your four people, four characters from other properties? Okay. Okay.

I was wondering if there was any chance, despite being able to pick literally any character ever, that we would have some overlap, but we do not. Wow. I spent a frankly irresponsible amount of time thinking about this. You didn't go with a lot of fur-based people? Oh, this is your wedding pose. Okay. Okay. Here's my strategy, basically. Because I think this is a delicate act. You need to pick a character or four characters who are strong enough to help you survive.

but beatable enough that you could kill them and eat them before they killed and ate you. This is kind of, I think what you're telling me is that I'm first on the menu. It is my concern. It is my concern. Yes. I mean, that's actually just probably going to be the case no matter what in any apocalyptic setting. So you know what? I think you,

think the other thing that you could do is it's not necessarily that you can beat them. It's you have to maybe trust that they would abide by the whosoever pulls the queen card bargain is actually going to run. This is so survivor brain of you. Yeah, of course. You're like, who's strong enough to win a challenge but weak enough that I can outsmart them? I mean, exactly. Who can I beat when I'm sitting there with them at the end? Okay. So you have to, speaking of survivor, you have to like them enough to be able to coexist, but not so much that you can't bear to kill and eat them. Or you

Go beyond that into love them so much and trust that they love you so much that they would, in fact, be willing to die in order to nourish you. Okay, so that's the kind of like backdrop of what I went into this exercise with. Here are my four. Duplicate from Invincible because Kate can just keep making copies of herself and then fucking problem. Great solution. Duplicate. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Everyone has their own Kate to nosh on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a personal pan pizza, but it's a Kate. That's exactly right. Like, as long as we protect one copy of Kate, this would be a replenishing resource. You could consider multipol as a backup, but just like a tougher hang, if we're being frank about it. And also, Kate is a trained fighter, and that is useful in keeping all of us alive until we are rescued. Yeah.

That's my first pick. Here's my second one. 1-1 from Thrones. Strong enough for all the tasks, right? Imagine what this guy can do around camp. You can't beat 1-1. You can't beat 1-1. Okay, so this was... I have to acknowledge... 1-1 to the sea. Warm and huge enough to provide shelter if we can't find or...

sustain a structure, an exemplary hunter, terrifying to strangers. So if another rival group emerges in the woods, we're good, we're set, they're not going to challenge one-one. And when it came down to it, what a meal he would make, he would last for ages. Ages. The trick is, as you're noting, could we kill him? Now, I think he seems like such a team player. I mean, he ran toward that hail of arrows. It would be a lot of guilt to carry, but I do—

I'm hesitant to say this out loud. Yeah, because you simply wouldn't eat one one. Well, I think there are people listening to this who are probably like, if you're going for like a giant, what about Hagrid?

I don't think anybody wants to say, like, you would eat Hagrid and turn him into jerky, but I do think that he would want to take care of the group. So he'd be maybe easier. But Hagrid's only half giant. If you're going to, like, do a giant, you've got to full giant, right? As much meat as possible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Speaking of expansive proportions, that brings me to my next pick. Speaking of Friday's podcast and as much meat as possible. Okay. Go ahead. Oh, man. Mr. Fantastic.

Allow me to explain. I want someone out there with brains because we are trying to survive and that's hard. I want someone who can help us figure out hopefully how to get the fuck out of there so that we don't have to eat each other. That would be ideal. But also someone who can help us find food for as long as possible. What's safe to eat? Can I eat this berry? Like, I don't want you guys to all be able to eat me because I just, like, got...

fucking just violently ill from eating the wrong berry. I need to stay safe as long as possible. How can we track prey? He would know and we would be able to fend off the cannibalism for as long as possible. So that's that's vital. I think the worry is clear. He's so smart that he could outsmart all of us, including me, and eat us first, which I love you. I don't think you can beat any of these people you've mentioned so far. Well, maybe. Maybe.

duplicate. I feel like I could manage. 1-1, I think I could outsmart 1-1 if it came to it. Not out tougher or outmuscle 1-1, but outsmart possibly. With Mr. Fantastic, here's the pitch. I don't need to outsmart him because we can delay needing to eat each other for as long as possible by taking the Shauna was making arm Pringles out of snacky

and say that we're using the elasticity to increase the surface area and we're just noshing on Pringles for as long as we need to. I don't think that's how science works. It's a common one. It's not science. I think if you take chunks out of Mr. Fantastic, you are eventually going to run out of Fantastic. You know, if someone punctures him, he's fine after. What's the difference? Think about it. Who's your last name? Think about it.

also just all the practical applications even outside of the Pringles practically a great pick but shelter us catch us turn into a raft if we need to explore by water but can you beat him no okay Mallory you're joining me on the fire I think what's your final one

I feel, as you know, strongly that I would be the first voted out of Survivor, and I would almost certainly be the first eaten in the wilderness as well. It's fine. Here's my final one. This might be recency bias because we're preparing for a romanticcy pod. I am going with recent from the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Lord of Night, most powerful high lord, the high fae, Illyrian, power and training, just a great asset out in the woods. Great, great asset. Is that what you said?

Great asset. Here's the other thing. I'm like, I need to pick at least one character who can maybe help us actually get out of here, not just survive for a while until we're rescued. And he can win. I genuinely think...

The answer is you guys all just climb on one one's shoulders and then he just trumps you out of the woods. Well, that could happen. Yeah. And he can carry us for long distances because who knows how far we have to travel. But also Rhysand could fly us out of there on his beautiful sensitive wings or he could winnow like he could winnow us out of there. That's very valuable. Also, he can work the shadows. He can control and shatter minds if we run into enemies. Yeah.

And he's really big on like pledges and magical bonds. So if we did say whoever pulls the queen card, like you have to run and you're going to be pursued in the hunt. And if you fall into the fucking pit, you fall into the pit. I think he'd be he would honor that exercise. And also, look, I'm sorry. I'm not going to. Well, I just said I'm sorry, but I'm not going to apologize, actually, for picking somebody in my wilderness crew who's really great at sex. Who knows how long we're going to be out there?

So Mallory and I will be first on the fire along with God willing Mari. Get in the pit, Mari. Get in the pit, Mari. I can't wait to be back with you sitting there shouting get in the pit, Mari, at each other. Get in the goddamn pit, Mari. All right, Yellow Jackets, we will be covering it here on a week-to-week basis. We're very excited. Can't wait. Really quickly, Sam asked me what the best movie theater in the Bay Area is. And

He mentioned the Grand Lake Theater, blah, blah, blah. But he also mentioned, I think, what a secret weapon, a hidden gem. Right.

that people don't take advantage of in Alameda. If you're willing to drive to Alameda, which is not that far, there is a legit movie palace that is like always empty in Alameda. I don't know if it's like a historic, like preserved something, but empty movie theater is, as you know, my favorite movie theater, but it's like a movie palace. It's like beautiful in there, but they have multi screens upstairs. Um,

and it's just no one's ever there. So I would say the movie theater in Alameda is, is a sneaky fave. Or if you're going to go to like a little indie movie that's playing nowhere, the Piedmont theater is, is really fun in Piedmont. So, um, those are even my East Bay, but the Grand Lake theater is also an icon, a gem, a jewel, a treasure. Um,

Mike, why don't you give one recommendation to Mike who is just, he and his wife just purchased a home in Maryland. And they want some advice. One or two pieces of advice of activities, food, general colloquialisms that they should adopt to get the most out of their new home state, Maryland. Boy, I mean, the list is long. It's a great place to be. Rapid fire, just a couple suggestions. The first thing you have to be prepared for is everybody shouting, oh, yeah.

during the national anthem. The first time it happens, you're going to be like, what is going on? When you get to OSA, can you see everyone's going to say, oh, and it's not just going to happen at Camden Yards. It's going to happen anywhere you are. Be prepared. You should also relatedly learn every word of Oriole magic. If you're looking for a great bookshop, my favorite is the Ivy Bookshop on Falls Road. It's the place I love to go with my dad. It is just, it's like in a converted old little house. It's just wonderful. Go there. On the food front, I mean, obviously just like everything crab. Crab cakes, whatever.

Maryland crab soup, crab dip. Also, if at some point you have OD'd on crab, which I have yet to reach the limit, but if you do...

It's a big pit beef town. Get some Boog's barbecue at Camden Yards. Find your favorite pit beef. On the sweets front, burger cookies and Otterbein's cookies are my favorite. And then my really personal favorite on the nostalgia front is a creamery, an Italian ice and custard creamery called The Cow, which is across from my old middle school, Franklin Middle School in Reisterstown, Maryland. And it is just like a place that I love and it's delicious. And there's a giant cow out front, not a real one.

I'm going to go Google what Pip Beef is. But while, before I do that, this last question from Gabrielle, who asks if we are going to do a rewatchable sort of like, you know, no TM, lowercase r rewatchable for the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. Yes. When are we doing that, Mallory? Here's what we'll say. We're not going to, don't consider this a formal announcement, mostly just because we want to have a fuckload of fun making a formal announcement at some point. And don't put a hard date against it. But look,

This is something that both of us have wanted to do for quite some time, and it is not lost on either of us that the 25-year anniversary for Fellowship is next year. Next year. And so that's a thing on our minds. Something to think about. All right. What a dream. What a joy. What a delight to podcast with you, Mallory Rubin, on this, our February mailbag. Our next podcast will be in person together. We have four more pods together this week. Okay.

I will be here podcast about yellow jackets. We're doing Valentine's Day quickie. We're doing Captain America. We'll be over on the Prestige TV podcast podcasting about White Lotus with one William Simmons. Oh, my God. I can't wait. So get excited for that. Thank you, as always, to John Richter, Steve Ullman, Arjuna Rangapal, Jomia Deneron,

They're all the best. And they're here with us during our lengthy responses on what books you should collect. We could do a whole pod on that, I promise you. We'll be back soon. Thanks so much. Bye!