Far Cry Absolution: Chapter 1
New series! We are taking a gander at Urban Waite’s prequel to Far Cry 5, titled Far Cry Absolution. Folllow along! I have nothing else witty to say here.
Video Version
Automated Transcript
Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to pixelate On today's episode we are starting a brand new book series Far Cry. absolution by Urban Wait, urbane Wait,
Phil 0:14
no way. There's no way his parents gave him that name.
Kevin Erhard 0:19
That name is too cool.
Phil 0:20
That is not somebody came up with when they were 15 years old and they were like I'm gonna go by Urban wait.
Kevin Erhard 0:31
I'm gonna go by Clive read
Phil 0:36
her story I remember you remember when you were a kid, and you're getting your school pictures done. And often it was done by some guy who was really good with the kids. And so he would like give everyone that everyone got a different nickname or something like that. Is that Yeah. Well, he called me Clive, and I therefore decided that that must be the coolest alternate name
Kevin Erhard 1:00
that I come up because I'm so damn cool,
Phil 1:03
because I'm cool. I'm cool. Like Clive is cool. I'm Clive therefore I am cool. That's just math.
Kevin Erhard 1:11
There's there's the math. So boom, down. Boom.
Phil 1:15
But yeah, we're probably up solution baby.
Kevin Erhard 1:17
Far Cry absolution. Now, we we decided on this book. I think before our first episode even aired I think we had we had already picked it out. Yeah. So it's been a long time in the making to get to Far Cry absolution. And today we're going to cover the prologue and the first chapter I believe we had we had decided Yeah, because the book is written in like four mega chapters.
Phil 1:45
It's it's a prologue and an epilogue. It is it is crazy long book. It's not a short one, either. It's it's just over 300 pages. Yeah. And Mr. Wait, went ahead. And also, I don't know if you can see this. It's a very long narrow book for some reason. Yeah. Yeah. I can't figure that out. Man. We are opening up all kinds of shit with this video. I could feel it. This is gonna work.
Kevin Erhard 2:10
It is it is tall and leggy. That's the kind of book that it is. So yes, in the prologue we have we have the sheriff, who I assume is supposed to be the same Sheriff from the game sheriff. White Horse. Yeah, yeah. There's no name assigned to him. I think he's just referred to as the sheriff. Yeah, right. I don't think I don't think they gave him name. And we have our main character, and it's a bad sign that I already forgot her name. Mary Mae, Mary Mae as thinking Maggie may well know it's many. It's a segue. That's good. It's a good one to know Mary Mae. She is talking to the sheriff. Because her her daddy's died. Her mama has died recently. And her brother is in a cult. And really that is just the trifecta
Phil 3:08
of and and who who can't relate with that already. Super relatable content. I think we've all been there. We've all been there. So yeah, she's dead and everything like in her father's death at very least as Mrs. Just mysterious circumstances. I don't think they go into it with their mother too much, but at least right father, she's like trying to basically she's trying to talk the sheriff into doing something you know that that drastic action movie, we got to do something
Unknown Speaker 3:40
right with
Phil 3:40
those Eden's gate, boys. It's a cult that is basically taken over their town. And he points out he says that, you know, they they're they're this huge place full of every kind of person. You know, he says we've got preppers you know, like, because they're in Montana. So yeah, that makes sense. We got preppers we got cowboys. We got libertarian anarchists. We've got you know, farmers.
Kevin Erhard 4:08
I think it's funny. It's like he has he lists all these things and he kind of uses all of the most like the pejorative terms for each group. It feels like and then at the end he says and democrats
Phil 4:24
got it. We got preppers we got Doomsday freaks. We got whole families to folks living in shacks up in the hills, no power, no water, grandma in the great grandkids sleeping three to a bunk while mommy and daddy made more we got gun nuts. We got bunkers and compounds. We got free thinkers, anarchists, nihilist Democrats, and God knows what else but I'm telling you what I saw there at Eden's gate, the conviction they have the goddamn power they gave to the words of the Father. It was infectious. It got damn near under my skin and they're believers, you know, every one of them and that's not to say bad thing about them or to question their faith. But I tell you it scared me more than anything I have yet to see this life and there's not a thing I can do about that because you know what? It's perfectly legal. I gotta say it's like the most the most neoliberal reaction to tell you what's going on up there scares the fuck out of me makes me go what but it's their religious freedom. They're like just scares the shit out of me. They're eating babies but you know, religious freedom we gotta we got to make really
Kevin Erhard 5:33
we got to make sure that they remain untouched on
Phil 5:37
touch. That baby probably, you know, probably desired to be eaten because that's the true believer baby. The true believer
Kevin Erhard 5:48
baby desires to be drawn and quartered and put into four vials. Yes. And then and then spread to the four lords and then there's there's the big lady and
Phil 6:01
and there's a giant weird fetus underground and
Kevin Erhard 6:05
Resident Evil village set it was actually taking place in Montana
Phil 6:10
Resident Evil village. Probably actually not i think but
Kevin Erhard 6:16
yeah, yeah, yeah. It's up there. Um, so the prologue is that is basically two scenes we have first the first scene is her complaining the sheriff the sheriff is like, it's bad, but it's legal then. And then we have the introduction of the guy who is basically if you've played Far Cry five. Now Far Cry you can play in any order you want. The way the game is kind of kind of funnels you for a beginner. It's like, take this guy first. And you are introduced to basically who is the guy who's the first boss of the game? Yeah. And is basically the big bad of the book. JOHN seed.
Phil 6:58
Yeah, and before we go any further This is a prequel to Far Cry.
Kevin Erhard 7:03
It is a prequel to fire Far Cry five
Phil 7:05
Yeah. And and and john seed is a member of a family of cultists and in Aedes gate and you're right. I john Sage is basically the first one you dealt with in the game as far as I played, and he's like the televangelist of a family. Like he's he's like this new wage of people the power of positive thinking, kind of hippie dippie guy who did it, he seems kind of silly and stupid At first, he doesn't say dangerous.
Kevin Erhard 7:34
Yeah, he's, he seems a little. He's not like the the paramilitary guy, Jacob. He's not creepy. Like the father Joseph, who is actually the middle brother. But we'll unpack that later. He's, he's like, he's, he's got this positivity type of thing. Yes, you can do it too. You know. Yeah. It's
Phil 8:02
a it's a very you know, what is it the Baker's, you know, it's, it's, it's a very, you know, tell evangelist like, if only you would just, you know, you can do it and you, you, you've got God on your side. And if only you would give me all of your money and freewill, then you will
Kevin Erhard 8:24
you can be saved too. If you give me your money. Exactly. And there's got to be something and maybe this is this is like an idea for you in the future to write a play unpacking the idea that the the Protestant Reformation and the schism from from the Roman Catholic Church started because of tides. And now, a lot of Protestantism is about giving preachers all your money.
Phil 8:53
Absolutely, it is. Not to get it off on on a side tangent here. But for those of you who don't know, Kevin and I met in grad school, in the film department, and true story, I went to a professor that we both met under no names, but I I brought a was for a pilot class he wrote
Kevin Erhard 9:17
for Bill Cosby, let's say that and it's just point that out. Yeah, yeah.
Phil 9:22
So I brought him we were it was a pilot class, I brought him my pilot idea, which was about a televangelist and and faith healer kind of guy. And basically about him keeping the grift alive, that sort of thing. And he, first off, he's a pretty pious man, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that that is not the reason that he told me to just forget about this idea and move on to another one. But that is what he said. He told me he said, You know, this isn't gonna get no one's gonna pick this up. You know, this this kind of thing in America. Especially no and actually, he has he has a point. But I really wanted to write it. But I based on that information, I decided not to even bother writing it. And then years later, the mighty gemstones Is that what it was called the the
Kevin Erhard 10:17
I think I know what you're talking about. I don't know if that was named. You might even the name. It's a movie of something like that. Something. Yeah,
Phil 10:25
yeah. Yeah, it's a TV show about a group of televangelists and that whole thing and it's and there was another one another TV show that came out that is under similar about similar circus. The point is the point I'm trying to say is if there any budding creatives or writers out there anything like that, just fucking write it. Just do it. Just do is write it anyway. Just do it anyway. Even if
Kevin Erhard 10:44
a manager even if your old old white professor says no.
Phil 10:49
Especially if your old west poseur says no. means you're barking up the right tree.
Kevin Erhard 10:57
Yeah, it was also a central plot and what was it the the shit, Matlock? No, was it Matlock? No, there was the it was one of those shows and they did a version for on HBO that was like Mason, Perry Mason there remains. Perry Mason, Matlock, Colombo. They all know same. They're all together. They're they're all cops right? All cops
Phil 11:30
well, you know they're all lawyers.
Kevin Erhard 11:38
They all they all are officers
Phil 11:39
of the law. What a dad a dad all detectives are bastards. A dad.
Kevin Erhard 11:47
Anyway, Perry Mason there, the Perry Mason HBO series, which is set before he becomes a lawyer and is a cop,
Phil 11:58
ah, ah,
Kevin Erhard 12:01
or a private investigator. Anyway, doesn't matter. There's a story there's basically that there's like, there's an evangelist grift in 1930s Los Angeles or something like that, which is actually ironically, where a lot of these things were born, where it was was the first half of the century in Los Angeles. Yeah, yeah.
Phil 12:23
And I am not for the record saying that I would have written a better script or a better pilot or anything than what has come out, but I would much rather have written the thing and someone else do the idea me Gah, man goddamnit level then to me, Jimmy, go Oh, right. I had an idea for that. Yes. You know, when I look off into the middle distance and cry once once we're halfway through the prologue
Kevin Erhard 12:58
we're on page like seven Well,
Phil 12:59
yeah, yeah. So yeah, so Mary Mae is trying to leave and she has stopped by john seat
Kevin Erhard 13:06
Mary Mason.
Phil 13:06
That bums me out. JOHN seed jobs seed it,
Kevin Erhard 13:11
huh? Yeah, this I they that whoever the the, the person who created the names the writer who created the names for this game? knew they knew what they were doing. I they must have Yeah, there's there's
Phil 13:23
a lot.
Kevin Erhard 13:24
It might have also been a play on like Appleseed, like Oh, sure. Yeah. American traditions, American tradition and all that and all that stuff. I can see that but john is a word. That's it's one of those words that huh?
Phil 13:38
Mm hmm. It's like lover. Yeah. kind of a bummer of a word. moist. See?
Oh, yeah. See, I'm moist. I'm kind of I'm kind of desensitized to by now.
Kevin Erhard 13:50
Yeah, but I might have to censor that I actually said moist seed.
Phil 13:54
You know? Yeah, yeah, that's that's offensive. That's not safe work. It's upsetting. So john c like stops her basically and he threatens are basically all out like it's it's really clear that Eden's gates got a really tight hold hold on this town. Yes. Got this posse of guys with what might be rifles or assault rifles in the distance. She's trying to drive up the hill to get to the HQ of scenes gate so she can get her fucking brother. And, and he's basically threatening or saying, you know, he's up there. He's fine. You know, don't don't don't stick your nose where it don't belong. Right. And, yeah,
Kevin Erhard 14:40
she she just, she just runs basically. Yeah, she she just guns her engine and she's like, I'm gonna go find my brother. And more or less. There's a bit of a it's, it's like a, it's like a, it's not necessarily a chase sequence. Just kind of like Hey, I'm going wrong then she crashes her car.
Phil 15:03
Yeah that she flips the car. And it doesn't and it says it says, literally, I have in my notes, she hits something. And that's because that's all they gave us. They're like, like whatever was she hit? flips in the car? Yeah. So fine and then we get part one. And we get the the classic you know, you can see this as a movie, you've totally see it. Like this is our opening moment. The car flips in the dark you use you hear the the, you know, tinkle of glass and the clicking of an engine. Yeah, sauce floating through the air, and then it fades down. And you see one week before
Kevin Erhard 15:42
you know it's hilarious, though, because I listened to it on Audible. And you know, it's missing on Audible and suddenly makes this first chapter make more sense. The one week before is never said,
Phil 15:55
Oh, no shit. That makes a difference. It's kind of a big oversight on their part.
Kevin Erhard 16:04
It just says the bearer was big bore Grizzly down out of Canada. Thunder and walk and here's the thing. And I don't it's it's a big oversight. I kind of put it together anyway, it didn't matter. But what I love about this first chapter is that 50% of it is just talking about the nature of Montana. Yes, there is it is not plot at all. It is literally pure character and setting.
Phil 16:34
This guy is getting his Cormac McCarthy on Oh, God. Yes. You know, big, big damn way. Like this guy. This guy put down No Country for Old Man the road and like blood meridiem and then was like we're gonna write something or again.
Kevin Erhard 16:53
They hired him for this Far Cry book. And yeah, and he's and he's like, Alright, so what's Far Cry game bad. It's like, Well, you know, you you parachute you headshot people and it's like jetski off ramps and you have a and in this one, you're gonna have a cougar that that will kill people for you. Right? And and he's like, got it. So and then he's like, Anton Chigurh.
Phil 17:21
Where's it? Where's this one set? Where's this one set? And they're like Montana and something goes Montana and just goes, right.
Kevin Erhard 17:31
And so it starts out with and I'll do it in the voice of the narrator because I insist that you do. The bear was a big bore Grizzly down out of Canada. Thunder had woken will Boyd and he had come out into the night and looked to the north, where the silhouette of the Northern Rockies stood like dark centuries amid the lighter gray of cloud and moon. The storm was somewhere to the north. He had felt it building all through the day as he worked. The air growing thick in that damp, heavy feel that built with it erased in a second. As the rain came down in the sky lit and cracked open. Like shattered Lake ice soon subsumed by the pool of water it had grown from Oh my God, that's a lot of
Phil 18:20
Johnny Cash. God's gonna cut you down. Just start to play. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But you're right. This is I think more than anything we've read on this show. This one has aspirations of being downright literary at times.
Kevin Erhard 18:40
Yes, this game This book is like this is the book that is that is yearning and pulling at the shackles of the game that it comes from.
Phil 18:51
Right. And it's hilarious because I'm a I am a huge Far Cry fan. I have played all of them. I've finished all of them at least twice. Right at least since they rebooted I haven't much patience for one and two just because they're very different games. But when they kind of rebooted them with three played all of those games and they're like, you know stand alone DLC Far Cry Primal all of that shit. I played them all through at least twice each
Kevin Erhard 19:23
and losing that Far Cry five sequel.
Phil 19:28
With the with the in the future
Kevin Erhard 19:29
twins. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
Phil 19:32
I've played them all and, and, and they're all really satisfying to me. Someone I think described. The game series as like Grand Theft Auto in Paradise, is they're always in these far flung beautiful areas. And I always thought of them as like a first person shooter through the eyes of hunter Thompson. They're kind of drug addled and Yes, yeah. And they're so cool. Close the writers of these games it's frustrating to me, because I just played they're fucking satisfying man though. Sure,
Kevin Erhard 20:06
yeah, yeah, yeah, just so good.
Phil 20:10
But the writers frustrate me because they're so close to something really actually kind of poignant at time. Right? And I think they know it and but they're just at least so far the writers are not big of mind enough to get it onto the other side of it or the producers of stuff, or something like that. And I
Kevin Erhard 20:32
think and I think that's something to be said for. And for those of you familiar with the Far Cry series, it is created by Ubisoft, which is a French video game company that has been in the news quite a bit over the past six months or so. Yeah, I got proper their toxic work environment, you know, the you have, you have sexual harassment, you have general harassment, you have all sorts of issues coming out where the higher ups were taking advantage of their employees. And I just want to state that obviously we don't we don't condone the we don't condone this company or their actions or what have you. And I think part of it is you have a company like Ubisoft, which in prior years has straight stated that Assassin's Creed that Far Cry even this this specific Far Cry are not political, I'm sure. And I
Phil 21:34
found them they're so full of shit, they're so
Kevin Erhard 21:36
full of shit. And I think the problem is you have these writers you have you probably have writers that are hamstrung and I'm not speaking with any inside knowledge you but I'm assuming you have writers that are hamstrung from some sort of directive from above that like you can get this close to the line but you you can't go any further and if you can tell when you play Far Cry five that it is this close to the line to saying something about religious religious extremism right white terrorism things like that. But never quite actually gets there never never actually crosses the finish line yeah
Phil 22:26
yeah really do believe in the whole go woke go broke kind of idea that right? If they take sides on anything, they're going to lose all this money and blah blah. And it's like man your confirmation or denial of you know whether or not you the creators see this as doesn't change shit. Like you're still out in the middle of Montana fighting white religious extremists. Yeah, it doesn't change anything. Basically, what we're saying is we know about the stigmas surrounding this stuff, and and on top of that, it but it does color, what we're talking about with the book here and because I think you're right, I think the most likely scenario is absolutely as you said, the writers are hamstrung somehow. I think, urban Wait here, because it was a book and they figured most people wouldn't read the book. He's a little less
Kevin Erhard 23:17
so
Phil 23:18
he got away with a little more. My guess is that they like the editor kind of glanced at it and went okay, great. Fine. That's fine.
Kevin Erhard 23:31
And like, yeah, it's like it's in the subtext Exactly.
Phil 23:36
In our kinara can our fan base read only can Oh, well. That's a little different than Yeah. Yeah, so right off the bat though. Yeah, we've got this a tapestry that the dude like, sets his tree eautifully really really well. Yeah, and and so we're dealing with will Boyd here who is a hunter and a trapper who's worked we know that he's worked the area for about a dozen years or so. He's talking about a grizzly that has gotten loose somehow out in the area come in from Canada, and I didn't and I did not know a male bears called a boar.
Kevin Erhard 24:19
Yeah, I didn't know that either. I was like that pig and like I guess it's
Phil 24:23
mad but but I tell you what, when I when I read the words boar Grizzly I came up with a new d&d monster.
Unknown Speaker 24:31
Ah, the pig bear. Yeah.
Phil 24:35
So, uh, yeah, he's basically hunting the land looking for this bear and he and he any traps and hunts and basically gives all of it to Eden's gate impression that he's heavily in debt to them for one reason or the other. Right. And he's out there hunting. Hunting rabbits, and he finds the bear in question. And it's on the other side of a stream. It's checking him out. And basically because of the stream and that sort of thing, it's not interested in him. And he's not really doesn't seem to be interested in killing it. Right. In fact, he gives it one of the rabbit
Kevin Erhard 25:20
tosses a rabbit at it to basically be like, yeah, you take this, I'm gonna go the other way.
Phil 25:25
Pretty much. And so it's like a lot of heavy stuff about this bear and you're 25 pages in and you're like, is this a video game novel? What the fuck is going on? What
Kevin Erhard 25:37
is the point about this bear? Yeah.
Phil 25:40
And then you get to page 25. And it says here that the bear basically the he gets away from the bear and he's checking out the woods. He doesn't see him anywhere. And it says he dropped the rifle from his shoulder and stood looking over the forest and hills, the mountain farther on, he said to himself, just because you don't see him. Don't mean he's not out there. Ah, ah, ah, I've got a verse bit of religious symbolism. Exactly in a bear in a bear worship bear God at some time.
Kevin Erhard 26:19
Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you better get you know, and this is about when we get introduced to my character that I absolutely love to hate in this book. He is he is somehow bigger piece of shit than then even john seed. And that is that is saying something. Oh, you're introduced Deuce to Lonnie.
Phil 26:46
Dick. Justice. This.
Kevin Erhard 26:50
He's like, he's basically the way after he's described. He's just like this skinny wirey dude, somewhat muscular. You know what he's basically he's basically Brad Pitt. In snatch. Yeah, yeah. Less radical than snatch. Yeah,
Phil 27:09
like country hayseed version of that. He's every skinny slash vaguely muscular guy you knew in college who refused to wear anything but a dirty white t shirt. Yeah, with a big Adam's apple. And you right? You know, you just you love this. And so just
Kevin Erhard 27:29
your son just wanted to punch him in that Adam's apple. It was just like sticking out so far. Just wanted to see what would happen if you just punched him. Yeah, right there. Yeah,
Phil 27:38
yeah. I think I feel like it's like it's like the glowing.on a Mega Man boss. And you hit him with the with you know, the Shadow Man sure can there and just yeah, just blows them up.
Kevin Erhard 27:58
Yeah, and then the Diet Dr. Wiley fight music starts Exactly.
Phil 28:04
Mega Man. All right. So later on, we get we find a will he's basically he's giving up a bunch of his the game and stuff that he has hunted and tracked over to Yeah, Eden's gate and Lonnie is taking it and Lani just threatens him like over and over again in this chapter. Yeah, like
Kevin Erhard 28:29
money is money is basically like he's like, Hey, remember all the stuff the church did for you? You know he's he's basically like, let it like you know, we you you've done a lot for for us but the church has still done more for you like that. Like your the debts not it, it like kind of hints that the debt isn't paid all that kind of stuff. And basically, so they're having this discussion. Oh, good. Echo. Rat, find our dog outside. Okay. Right back.
Phil 29:10
Hi, everyone. This is Phil the con keystores. While Kevin's gone. I want to tell you that I'm the genius behind all of this. This is all me. I have done everything. I came up with the idea I edit every single episode. I wrote most of the books that we are reading, and I develop the technology necessary for us to record ourselves through video and audio in fact, so I think we should all take a moment. Celebrate me. Please make sure to send steam gift cards and cupcakes my way. You can find me at Twitter at elcon Keystone dork. Moving on,
Kevin Erhard 29:56
though is the new puppy. She was called April Let her out into the backyard. Put she's like this little thing. Uh huh. showed you the picture, right? Yeah, she's a little thing like four pounds, and fill it out in the backyard to go posh. And then she goes, she poops, she pees. And an apron like goes to pick her up to bring her back inside the dogs just now it's doing zoomies out in the back. And so April's like, Can you just please like, so we had to do like, a two person tag team, like maneuver to? Oh, yeah. That's to get this dog back into the house.
Phil 30:40
I'd say the the older I get and the more friends I know, with kids and that sort of thing. We're married. It's like that's, that's the that's the main purpose of a marriage. Like, okay, we got to make sure yeah,
Kevin Erhard 30:52
you just need you just need extra hands.
Phil 30:54
I mean, that's yeah, that's pretty much it. pretty much it. So yeah, uh, let me see.
Kevin Erhard 31:01
Well, we were talking about Lonnie. Lonnie, that
Phil 31:03
piece of shit that I think, I think right off the bat, you realize you're dealing with a total dickweed here, because he's looking at all the food. The game that Will's brought up, and he asks him like about the deer. He brought him a deer and he says, What are you going to do with the head? And willsez? I don't know. It's probably gonna you know,
Kevin Erhard 31:24
he he's gonna put it on the wall. Yeah, yeah.
Phil 31:26
Put it on the wall. And he's like, sure. The father probably really like that. That would be a nice gift together. You're not giving that to the Father. You're putting that over your bed. Next year, Van Halen poster. Yeah. And beer can collection.
Kevin Erhard 31:43
So it's funny, because like, some like, will as being like, the big the bigger person. He's doing his job. He's like, you know, it's gonna take me a few hours. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta skin the deer. I gotta like, drain the blood. And I gotta, I gotta separate the muscle groups cut out all the sedu get it ready. And lonnis like, just skin it and throw it into the truck with the head. like, Okay,
Phil 32:10
it looks like right off the bat. like not even not even over anything particularly important. Yeah.
Kevin Erhard 32:15
No, it's the deer. And Lani has been Lani has a special job. For will. On Yes. Yes. Yes. A special job. Yeah. So. So basically, and this is, this is more or less the inciting incident, I guess of the book. Yeah. If you want to put it in, in film phrases, this is kind of like, this is kind of what kicks off if the story is really about Will. Will Byers is that that's his name, right? Yeah, pull down. Boyd will go boy, will Boyd if the story is about will Boyd's. It's really will. Boyd's journey, right is this book. This, this job that Lani gives him is more or less what kicks off that journey of introspection. No, that will goes on through the course of the book. And basically what Lonnie wants is for will to hunt down and kill the grizzly that has come down from Canada. And will has been interested in this Grizzly, of course, as we've seen, but he also points out like he respects the grizzly. But he also points out to Lonnie, like, hey, it's illegal for us to kill it. You can't there, it's it's protected. We can't go kill Grizzlies, right? And Blondie is like, well, we can do whatever we want. On
Phil 33:46
these kind of things. They
Kevin Erhard 33:49
are kind of making the laws themselves. You know?
Phil 33:52
They're they're in charge here, man. So yeah, he's he, he basically and then and then we'll tell them a story about when he was in Vietnam because he's a vet. Yeah, about them hunting this man eating Tiger that was like slowly killing off. One after the other. Like all these just members of his his platoon. Well, it is a good story.
Kevin Erhard 34:20
There's actually there's a movie I was thinking about that. What was the name of that movie? I think now Kilmer was in it. Um, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, telling the listeners to hold on.
Phil 34:36
Hold on, listeners.
Kevin Erhard 34:38
Hold on, listeners.
Phil 34:38
Put your yap on Have some respect.
Kevin Erhard 34:41
is in the 90s I think? Yeah, I think it was in the 90s. The ghost in the darkness. Oh, there we go. A bridge engineer and an experienced own hunter begin a hunt for two lions after they start attacking local construction workers. Oh, that sounds fun. Actually, that sounds like so And that is starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.
Phil 35:04
It's a great combo. Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm intrigued. Yep.
Kevin Erhard 35:07
So um, but basically, yeah, he tells Lani the story about this tiger, which is hunting and killing parts of like members of his platoon. And or anyone who tries to hunt the tiger gets ends up getting killed. Yeah. And he tells them this whole story about what they decided to do about the tiger. And they build this pit, and this trap, and all that stuff. And that in a tiger doesn't fall for it, and ends up killing more people and Gen
Phil 35:39
Z. People who built the tiger track. Crazy smart animal and Lani is like waiting for Islami, you can tell is one of these assholes who's like he expects people just do whatever else he is. Yeah. And so he's telling him this story. And at this point, he says, and you killed it. No will said how do you kill something you can't see. Lani finished a cigarette and flicked it away towards the fire pit. You think this bear is supernatural? You think this bear is some heavenly retribution? The father would love that that would be scripture to the man. No will said I'm saying I don't know a goddamn thing. I'm saying I can't help you. Which is, which is probably Well, it's certainly untrue. Yeah, he's absolutely the guy that they want to talk is
Kevin Erhard 36:27
absolutely pretty much the only person who would probably know how to handle a grizzly.
Phil 36:32
Yes. And but that doesn't mean he wants to do it. Like he
Kevin Erhard 36:35
know he doesn't want to do it at all. What ends up happening is he tells Lani this story, and we kind of fast forward to it's probably like the next day or so in Lonnie has had a crew of people dig a pit with spikes basically as will described in the story. Over in the woods and wheel has trapped it with these beaver beaver carcasses. Yeah, and they have this discussion about if you tie off a certain gland in the beaver it ends up smelling like artificial vanilla or something like that.
Phil 37:12
And I looked that up that is absolutely real.
Kevin Erhard 37:16
That is, and I'm not surprised with the level of detail that urban weight has put into this book. Yes.
Phil 37:25
It's called I think castoreum it is a gland found in the asshole of beavers. And it smells like vanilla and humans love it and if you see if you have vanilla, scented or flavored something, and it says and it doesn't say imitation vanilla and it doesn't say vanilla ingredients it says natural flavorings you're probably eating something from a beavers asshole gland. This is an absolutely real thing.
Kevin Erhard 37:59
Your imitation vanilla is beaver ass
Phil 38:02
Hey, beaver s you know and look some of us love eating ass even when it's not vanilla flavor, but that's a step I think that's a bridge too far my friend a bridge too far.
Kevin Erhard 38:14
That's a bridge too far. Be too far.
Phil 38:18
God dammit.
Kevin Erhard 38:20
Boy so the trap works okay, not exactly Yeah, I know. It's a trap works in that the trap activates what they end up killing with the trap is not the boar Grizzly that they wanted. They wanted to kill. It was it was a it was a mama bear. It was mama Grizzly.
Phil 38:41
And it basically he says Now I know why the boar was coming down to look for food because his mate is pregnant. Yep. Or at least they have a baby right yeah, yeah.
Kevin Erhard 38:57
It's Yeah, it kind of gets gets dark and mixed in with all this around the same time they're talking about the cattle ranchers who used to live on the property
Phil 39:07
yeah the the the Kershaw's their cattle ranchers out there and they're just kind of disappeared.
Kevin Erhard 39:14
Gone is the word that they use. And they're it's creepy. How nonspecific that Lonny gets about where they are. Yeah,
Phil 39:25
he says they've been repurposed, repurposed, which is like, and that's certainly purpose Nolen talk that's not Yeah, that's definitely not a version of disappeared god yeah, that is creepy as fuck. And but the bear has been there. They're there all their cattle are gone. And Ronnie you know, Lani says the most of them they had like taken an Eaton and Eden skate. But yeah, the bear apparently they're blaming on blaming losing some cattle on the bear
Kevin Erhard 39:59
was it It's funny though, because like, it's such a weird moment. It's almost surreal in that Lani is like, well, we got to kill this bear because it ate the cattle. Yeah, there's almost there's like no cattle left and the cattle that the only the rest of the cattle weren't killed by the bear who was just like one cow. Right? But this bear is now a problem because it killed like the last cow her so
Phil 40:27
it's it's honestly really good writing in a sense of allegory. It's just like, Oh no, it doesn't the bear doesn't really stand to hurt us in any way. Just fuck him. Yeah, cuz we're the ones in charge here. Right. And that's it. And we do get a moment before he wakes up in the morning and finds that the trip is work, which I thought was I haven't had to make a note here. It mentions not in any specific way. But it says here it basically says that he's missed. He misses his daughter and his wife, they are gone for some reason. They imply that he used to be a heavy drinker. So maybe they left him because of that and now he's just kind of sad. And he falls asleep at the Kershaw's house and ends up finding a night gown in the place and smells it and, and and like holds it against him and just the edits. And it's really it's just really really sad. He's He's so lonely and
Kevin Erhard 41:33
yeah, he's he started running late. Yeah, yeah. And he also has a moment during the night in which he witnesses john doing some baptizing.
Phil 41:45
And I did not know that a non consensual baptisms were a thing.
Kevin Erhard 41:56
They are definitely in Eden's gate. Now, the game kind of expands upon this because I believe the non consensual baptizing is also done under the effects of the bliss. bliss kind of makes a lot of the things that Eden's gate is able to do make sense, right? Because it's it's a semi. It's a hallucinogen that has some like mind control properties. And I
Phil 42:22
got to be honest with you, one of my main problems with the way they handle the storyline, in the video game of Far Cry five was the bliss. Because the whole explanation basically is like, oh, all these people weren't brainwashed. You know, they were brainwashed, but it was because of this drug. You know, it's like, Nah, man, people do horrifying, murderous shit all the time. Because they're, you know, because their worst selves are appealed to by people like this every day.
Kevin Erhard 42:54
Right? And also, once you introduce the idea that these people are under the influence of some sort of drug that has been forced upon them, yeah, the game becomes a lot sketchier in terms of like, Oh, yeah, feel free to kill the cultists.
Phil 43:08
Right. Right. It gives you permission. You know, it's like it's like killing zombies and video games, like, well, they're just, they're not they used to be people but they're not anymore. So. Yeah, it's it's really interesting. So we'll wakes up in the Kershaw's house to this kind of light, barking sound outside of the house, and that's when as you pointed out, he finds this mother bear dead in the modern mother Tiger trip, and he realizes that the mother bears the cub is the barking that he's hearing so the mother bears dead and has left this cub without a mom. And I am so
Kevin Erhard 43:48
I was like, he's will will point out he's like, the cub was probably circling around the pit barking at the corpse of his mother trying to get her to come out and then ran off. It was so sad so
Phil 44:07
sad. Like you're like,
Kevin Erhard 44:08
Oh my gosh, they're fucker.
Phil 44:10
Oh, it's so sad. Yeah, because that's exactly what it was. And so he starts searching for the cup because obviously he feels responses bad Yes, bad. He's hoping that and at this point. As a person who's played Far Cry five I'm hoping that this is the bear companion that you'll eventually get in the game who says cheeseburger
Kevin Erhard 44:36
cheeseburger
Phil 44:40
I would live and die for cheeseburger the bear he's like flip cup I will die I would die for cheeseburger the bear. I just love him so much. And at this point, I wrote this in my notes. book if you kill this cup, I will never forget give you a chance like I was just I was like immediately it took it took less than half a page for me.
Kevin Erhard 45:09
I love this cup.
Phil 45:10
I love this cup, please. I can't deal with this. I can't deal. So he's he's searching for the bear. He finds it his little cub. And he feeds one of the BB takes one of the beavers that they use to attract the bear and feeds it to the cub. And the cub starts following around. And the cub becomes his best friend his best friends Best friends forever will in the bear. cub. Friday's a fox like
Kevin Erhard 45:38
like exactly it's it's a it's a sitcom at this point. Yeah. And then the next shining moment Oh, you they give you some some like light and happiness. Urban weight is like, is like you know, even Cormac McCarthy has like a light hearted moment occasionally. I'm going to give that to you now and then I'm going to take it away. away from you like Anton Chigurh, with with a compression gun to your forehead. That's just
Phil 46:05
yeah. The next day he wakes up with the bear and the bear in him go hunting together. He like goes and checks his traps for the rabbits and stuff in the woods. And and the bears with him. And you're like, Yay, adventures. This is the farcry I signed up for I love animal companions in Far Cry five. It's so good. And then someone shoots at the bear. He assumes at first they're shooting at him. Right? Like he's gonna shoot at a bear come. Right. Right. And but then it becomes clear that someone's shooting at the bear. And he pulls a john Lythgoe, Harry and the Hendersons. You know, yeah, I don't want you anymore like he doesn't say anything but
Kevin Erhard 46:53
he's white banging he's white banging the bear
Phil 46:56
Yeah, that's more literary and respectable records and fuck you a little bit. too. He shoots at the bear like he shoots it the bears foot and shoots over its head and and finally the bear like it just take just take just the the bear gives him like one last look of betrayal. Because he just lost his mother and I can't fucking take it. I was like, no. Presumably cheeseburgers the bear runs off it
Kevin Erhard 47:29
runs out in the woods. And guess who is holding the who is shooting at it in the first place? Just guess just Ronnie,
Phil 47:36
Ronnie, lovey. And for fun. We brought in john seed as well.
Kevin Erhard 47:41
Yeah, for fun for these two biggest dipshits in Hoke County.
Phil 47:46
Oh my god. Like Yeah, just just yeah. So they basically saw what was going on, but they don't really lay into him to think about it. Yeah, because they have a new job for him now. Yep. And they want him to hunt. The most dangerous game. A girl a girl is that is that that's probably exaggeration,
Kevin Erhard 48:12
who has just been in a car accident, right?
Phil 48:17
girl gets into a car and they and they need him to help them hunter down. And suddenly the prologue and the first chapter are nice and tied together.
Kevin Erhard 48:26
Together. Mm hmm. Circles back around circles like around. It's beautiful. So basically the bear. Now that we've talked about it, it's like the grizzly bear represents anyone who stands against Eden's gate. Exactly. Yeah. is basically like this is this is how anyone who stands against Eden's gate is going to get it doesn't matter what what trespass like it in the nature of life, the Circle of Life scheme of things. This is a relatively minor trespass. Yeah, this is just a bear killing the like, one of the last cows that a farm that is out of commission.
Phil 49:05
They want to work the farm.
Kevin Erhard 49:07
Yeah. And, but just because it did it. Yeah. It wasn't enough.
Phil 49:13
Yeah. It was it was it was basically the bears thumbing its nose at them. And they can't have that. And it froze there.
Kevin Erhard 49:23
Exactly. And it circles back around to the conversation john seed and Mary Mae had, where Mary Mae is talking about how, like you want to meet. You want me to stop selling alcohol at the bar? And John's like, yeah. And she's like, Well, how do you expect me to keep the bar open? And he goes, I don't. Right. Like he's very clear about his intention.
Phil 49:46
Yeah, yeah. It's not that he's not we're not being clever here. This isn't a riddle. They're very Your friend is just to shut down. Yeah. They are. They are taking over. It's Yeah so it is a hell of a first chapter in this book admittedly you know it's a it's a first chapter that goes on for 64 pages
Kevin Erhard 50:14
it's the first chapter that's 64 pages and half of which is is basically nature documentary
Phil 50:19
right right and here's the thing we've I'm I'm I'm here for it man yeah I digging it so far like it's just it's it's just well written it's got it takes itself seriously but not in that self important bullet kind of way that Yeah, I would totally understand seeing in like an adaptation of a video game right you know can you can kind of see like them go you know I'm gonna make something special out of this I'm gonna make a piece of art out of this and it just right disappearing up the author's asshole but yeah, pretty good stuff.
Kevin Erhard 50:58
It's like like it could go a couple different ways the worst possible way is like the Mario Brothers movie and that but yeah urban urban Wait I think did a pretty tremendous job I would say it almost deserves not now and I say say deserves not to not to put down Far Cry five nobody deserves to not be a far cry book. Like huh like this could have had been totally something else. Yeah, and just could have been some something like Cormac McCarthy light book about a man a man and a woman like a woman trying to find her brother man a man struggling against the the the this church but now has become a cult and the time that he's been a member of it struggling against like you know and his own personal like that's that's deep stuff right well absolutely and Far Cry five never quite it never gets half as deep as somebody
Phil 52:15
doesn't and and and and that's what it is that's how they designed it you know there's a there's a part of you that's just kind of like well that's probably fine.
Kevin Erhard 52:24
Yeah.
Phil 52:25
But yeah, no he he he offered a little more something
Kevin Erhard 52:33
there's there's there's definite total mismatch between the two big time
Phil 52:38
big time to read this. I have not I want to I have not started playing Far Cry five. Again, a third time too. Because I've got other games to play and but I know that I will play that game and like 100% it and sure and just because I have to because I fucking love that franchise. But But yeah, I can imagine that playing the game while listening to this on an audiobook. Yeah, it would be a weird tonal shift that would be very interesting.
Kevin Erhard 53:16
This is more like a novel that would have belonged with Red Dead Redemption two door Yeah, absolutely. As opposed to Far Cry Yeah, because Red Dead Redemption two has the has the the forker five is beautiful Don't get me wrong sure Red Dead Redemption to really leans on the aesthetic and the sweeping landscapes you're not in a car you're in a horse Yeah, you're you're walking through this countryside it really leans on that the on that vibe nowhere as Far Cry five is like oh wingsuit
Phil 53:57
five will get you to those moments every now and then. Like kind of solemn mode but then like but then it just jumps right back into the insanity of it in fact Far Cry three got a lot of flack for that like the tone problems they wanted to talk about really serious, deep and dark off limits stuff there. But they also wanted to you know, have you hang gliding through the you know, tropical wilderness blowing up things and stuff like that. Sure. It's where I recall. I'm sure it was from another game but that was the first time I ever heard of the term Ludo narrative dissonance with Far Cry three. And as much as I love that game. Yeah. I can't deny that it's there. Yeah, I
Kevin Erhard 54:43
believe the first time I heard it was that phrase was had to do with Uncharted. Because you're playing a guy who is like going through tombs and trying to, like get these treasures or what have you and at the same time, he's killing 1000s of people yes, like, like there there would be like not not 1000s but there's a lot there's I believe there is an achievement and one of the Uncharted games called ludonarrative dissonance when your account hits over 1000 kills or something.
Phil 55:18
And for those of you who are listening who don't know we're talking about ludonarrative dissonance is basically when it when your actions in a game for example, don't match up with the tone when you're told like the Tomb Raider by Crystal Dynamics they had it was a similar problem I had with that were in between action scenes in the game your characters very naive and very sweet and not a murder and takes life very seriously. And and then in the actual gameplay, you're itself. You're you are straight up murdering luck out of dozens upon dozens here.
Kevin Erhard 55:58
Compare that to something like the Hitman series, which it is, like the story and the gameplay actually kind of work together. And in fact, in Hitman, you're not even, like you're not incentivized to kill anybody Besides, aside from the targets that you were assigned, right? Um, and that's, that's part of it is like, just is so it's, it's funny that like a game like Hitman where you play a killer, you can end up killing fewer people than Ethan Drake, or Lara Croft. Were not killers, right?
Phil 56:35
very distinctly not killers. Yeah. And that's and that's basically you know, the, the beginner's version of what is
Kevin Erhard 56:44
there's a whole thing. Probably some YouTube videos on it. Yeah, yeah,
Phil 56:48
go check it out. But it's it's Yeah, so that was the prologue of the first chapter of a far cry absolution, I gotta tell you, I'm, I'm looking forward to the rest of this.
Kevin Erhard 56:59
So we'll, we'll take chapter two next time. And until then, you guys can follow us on Twitter at pixel it pod. We have a Discord. Now, I will pin that to the top of the Twitter and you can join the discord. Find other people who are interested in the pixel ID podcast. And remember to give us a five star review on Apple iTunes or follow us on your favorite podcast app. It really helps us out.
Phil 57:30
It helps people find us It helps be exactly No. You know, it just it helps the algorithm put us near the top which let's face it, it's where we belong. That'll do
Kevin Erhard 57:41
it for tonight's episode. Thank you, everybody.
Phil 57:43
Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai