Episode 15 – Season 2 Talkback

Now I will play for you. Oh, the song, the song. Ooh. Ooh. Ah. Here are the lyrics if you want them. Okay. I do. Can you turn it up, please? Mm-hmm. Wow. Welcome to the mall. Welcome to the mall. There's no parents here. Even while we sneak. They might find us. Tina, Dirk, and everyone else. To the back of their headquarters. Everybody wants to know. It's so good. It's so, I love it. And how do we get around the… We don't. Well, it's parody.

Oh, this is a new, this is a completely different song. Yeah. Like, it won't get picked up. Even with the melody? Everybody wants to rule the mall. There's a place where the elves won't bug you. This game's one of the most classic games. There's a guy with an axe behind you. Cool tree kids were quite heavy. Dirk's plan is now heavy. Everybody wants to rule the mall. That's so good. Excellent. That's great. Well done. Very well done. This is such good, like, 80s synth drums. Awesome.

We recording? Yeah. All right. Hey, everybody, and welcome to Mall Brats Season 2. Recap, debrief, talk back. Or as I'm calling it, no refunds. No refunds. That's the theme. That's the mall theme. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, Fenton Beasley, the slide, Abdul Aziz. Hello. This is my real voice audience. You never would have guessed it. Yeah. Never heard it before. Franklin Stein, the cutter, Paul Oppers. Large, small, real voice. If you knew, I was from the Danana.

You're going to be learning a lot today. Little reveals up in here. Clover Ivy Fern, the whisperer, Jessica Tai. Yeah, I always talk in my real voice. All of your characters are your real voice? All my real voices. I would try an accent, but you know how bad I am. Let's hear him. Let's hear one. Welcome to Le Patisserie, Jessica. That's pretty good. Today we have a small gâteau. Oh, you're making fun of me? I would never make fun of you, monsieur.

One of the plot points in this season was the fact that Clover slash Jessica cannot do accents. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're pretending to be Australians. Erwin, Erwin, and Erwina. Oh, right. Oh, wow. This is a perfect intro. That's my name. Of course. Erwina. As soon as you did that, we were just like, maybe you should be cautious. Yeah. That's the one where we had to do Australian accents really slowly. So we got them mostly right. It's really hard. That is one of the things that happened. Yeah.

And we're just going to be talking about Season 2 a little bit, Amal Brats, now that we've wrapped up. Season 2 generously could be described as the Tina Derger saga. Yeah. The rise and fall of corrupt security guard Tina Derger and how the Cool Treat kids got involved. We learned, we met a lot of wonderful characters in this season. How do we start these things usually? How did you, let's go around the horn. How did you guys feel about Season 2? Abdul?

I think the thing that I really liked about Season 2 was that we knew, we started it and we knew our characters at that point. We knew the vibe between Fenton and Clover and Franklin. We had left behind the Fenton has a crush on Clover storyline a ways back. Right. And we were launching off of the Clover drama event. Yeah. So it starts in a really solid place and the characters are really clearly laid out. So we're able to expand into the mall, build the lore of what this space is.

And the Cool Treat kids then learn more about the forces that impact and manage their world in a bigger way. Which then puts them in a position to rise to that challenge. Totally, yeah. So it is a season where we are expanding our knowledge of what's going on and meeting it. And the other thing I really liked about it was there was a very real representation of the trauma of the kids when they went outside for the first time. Oh, yes. It got real. Yeah.

It was the first time where it's always played for laughs. But in that moment you're like, oh, wow, no, these kids are super fucked up. In the movie of it, we would cut to very realistic, harsh, naturalized tones. Yeah. Big, colorful, cartoonish inside. Yeah. Right, yeah. Be drab and real and sad. Yeah, totally. Paul, what was your favorite part about season two? I mean, I also liked that we could start picking up the world and getting back into the spout lore and bringing in Shathane.

And then bumping up against the adults. And then we got to see what a pain in the butt we actually were against. Not just the kids, but that we could kind of expand our problem childness into the adult world. I liked that we had some real effect on them all outside of just being a kid gang. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What about you, Jessica? I liked, I guess, the kids coming up on their, facing like their teenage years coming at them pretty quickly. Right. All the problems that come with growing up.

Yeah. And becoming so angsty and awkward. Yeah. Yeah. See it especially in all the drama we took. Yeah. When Clover became emo for the first time. Yeah. I think for the second time. Yeah. I think you don't take your second drama until season three. Oh, maybe. But Fenton takes his first drama in the season. Yeah. Yeah. And we have an O-Day. We do. Like, in this season. When we become a year older. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's, what does O-Day stand for again? Orphan Day. Orphan Day. Orphan Day.

Orphan Day. Yeah. We all have the same birthday, so that's when we age up. Yeah. Yeah. Because we're all one big family. Yeah. So we all share a birthday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was nice being able in season one to lay the foundation of this place that we came up with in spelt lore proper. Yeah. And then use this to explore the kids more fully.

And yeah, the transition from what they were messing around with in the first season, just trying to do crimes, to the transition to they're all becoming emo at the same time. Wait, Clover started smoking? Yeah. I smoked. I smoked a whole thing. They were closed cigarettes. Yeah. But you know, it still counts. I still count. It's even worse. Yeah. Some say. It was the first time we really saw an illustration of the extent of the codependency of the cool treat kids. Yes. Totally.

And Clover is like the quote unquote like cool older sister where it's like Clover starts doing something and then the rest of the kids start doing that. Immediately. Where it's like, Ben's like, yeah, I smoke too. And I'm emo as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm like Clover and I'm emo as well. There's also hilarious.

This actually might be my favorite moment of the season where it's like Clover starts smoking and then we catch her and then we're like, what are you doing? We go totally like afterschool special. Yeah. What are you getting? Smoke? And then you go, okay, I'll quit. And then you go, man, I picked a crazy day to quit. And it's like the day you started. It's like the funniest joke. We got to see some, we got to really build out some characters for the first time.

Greg, in the tunnels, became a real fixture of the Cooltree Kids as you were living in his house for a while. Yeah, I love Greg. Along with Borbo, too. Yeah, Borbo. Borbo really expanded as a character. Tina, I… A great foil in a game that is about organized crime, quote, quote, quote, is the corrupt cop who's also on the take. So having Tina Durger and pulling in the security as this corrupt gang of law enforcement, quote, unquote, was really fun. Was that our first time being incarcerated?

Wasn't there a scene in this season? You got pulled in for… No, that was how you… That's how season one ended. Clover was incarcerated, and she kind of like a crazed cat, like fought her way out. She escaped and then took off into the tunnels to spare you all, spare both of you. To hide in a pipe. Yeah. Can't pull me out. Oh, yes. To hide in a pipe. We just kind of let people run with the idea that you were dead. Yeah, so many times. Boy, that was a great scene. So funny.

So many times, and this show really is just like episode after episode is a reminder of how fun it is to, like, improvise with you guys, not knowing that the season was going to start with a fake funeral and then have Clover, like Huckleberry Finn style, looking down from the rafters, using that to haunt Keserin and Seamus on their date. Yeah. So petty and awesome. It's sort of like the real Keserin and Clover rivalry. Yeah. Yeah. We really let that blossom. Yeah. It was awesome.

Can't wait until season three. She thought you were dead and started dating your boyfriend. Hey. Totally normal thing to happen. Absolutely a hell no move in Clover's book. Not okay. Oh, no, you didn't? Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciated the opportunity to immortalize, as one of the coolest characters in all of Spelt Lore and Malbrats, my high school Dungeons and Dragons character, Aedric Swift. So cool. Unchanged. No, he is quite changed. I didn't do the Matt Barry impression. You did.

Not as a high schooler, because I didn't know who Matt Barry was at the time. I would have if I knew. And that is a little behind the scenes, is Aedric Swift is me trying and failing to do a Matt Barry impression. Brother. He is a hard guy to imitate. Yeah. But yeah, one of the instances in the show where I just introduce an NPC that then does some really cool shit in the background while you're all doing your thing. It was so fucking sick.

The Shathane-Aedric fight was like the coolest I have felt, I think, in an RPG setting. That's hilarious. There is a moment where you're like, okay, this fight thing happens, and then this fight thing happens. And then you go, and then we're going to cut back to you guys. And then both Paul and I are like, yo, keep describing it. Describe the fight. Yeah. And Clover's growing connection with the dark chocolate. Yeah. Pretty fun. The first advent of like a magic, actually magic thing.

Yeah, magic introducing itself into Malbrats, along with Fenton's, the blossoming of Fenton's obsession with the Ratman, the Batman, that whole like the shadows of them all, the vampires. Dude, the Batman might have been your best voice this season. I cannot do that voice again. Just try. What? It's kind of like, what is he? I can still do it, nevermind. Nevermind, I can totally still do it. Wow. Yes, it's clear. I think it's just, it's one of the reasons that my voice is permanently lowering.

It could be. It's dropping an octave every time I do this voice. These kids are fucking terrifying. Yeah. And that voice, of course, an impression of Pete Holmes, doing an impression of Christian Bale's Batman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the secret, is most of my character voices are me impersonating other characters. Yeah. Yeah. My own Schwarzenegger is Will Sasso for sure. Oh, Will Sasso doing… Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's funny when you listen to Arnold Schwarzenegger and you're like, oh, he doesn't sound like that at all. No, no. He just sounds like a guy. Culminating with, I mean, there's so many great, there's the, the Fury Road, uh, cream transportation. Yeah, the big titty goats. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Those kids sucking on the pool noodles is the funniest damn thing.

The titty goats are so, the, the, cause it's like the episode before the goat episode, you draw boobs on, on, on a whiteboard and all the boys in the scene are just like, whoa, we keep getting distracted and staring at them. I've never seen two of them put side by side like that before. It really does something in a drawing. Really only caught a glimpse of one or the other. Oh my God. But then would we actually go up to the heavy petting zoo, which Paul, great name. Great name. Excellent.

Excellent name. But when we go up to the heavy petting zoo and we actually like see the goats for the, for the first time, we're just like, we, and we see the utter and like clover because she came from a farm just starts to be like, you get, we're like, what the fuck is this? Where are the boobs? Oh, those are the boobs, aren't they? Oh no, those are the boobs. That's not cool. There's a thing that happens because the heavy cream is like, so like thick and delicious. We keep drinking it.

Clover's like milking for hours. So tired. So I just absolutely laboring for all these boys. And then we keep coming back with milk mustaches. We almost filled one bucket. Sorry. We spilled it again. Yeah. Like whalers uncontrollably eating spermaceti in the 1700s. Yeah. They used to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. What a, what a, what a fun season. Yeah. And the, like, I love that. The conclusion was a play. Yeah.

Like, uh, like I always love when there is like a set piece happening and then the action around that set piece. Oh yeah. There's a play on stage. You guys are backstage. You're in the crowd. You're outside. And this thing is like driving the story forward. Yeah. With, with, or without you, this thing is happening with, uh, without you at all.

Uh, and of course getting around the, the genius of getting around the rules about kids, adults, not being able to fight kids by beating yourselves up to the degree, which, which, with which they have to believe an adult did that really beat the shit out of each other. We need to look at Dalty. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. We get Seamus's betrayal. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was heartbreaking. Yeah. I mean, you know, everyone loves Seamus. Seamus was so cool. Yes.

We went on that triple date that one time during the season. Uh huh. Yeah. It was the triple date. Yeah. It was you and Mindy, me and Penny and you and Seamus. To poofs. I think we were at Chili's actually. Oh yeah. Cause Chili's has half price Appies on Thursdays. They do. They do. If you take six people, it's free. I think. I think that's how, that's how that works. Yeah. We just keep dining and dashing. Oh yeah. So it's free. That's how that works. So it's free. It's the cheapest date around.

Yeah. You just run. You run. Yeah. The big reveal of like. To me. What? What? What the fuck is he doing? Is he dashing? Uh, the big reveal of Clover being alive at the, at the light Depot. Yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. During the Sadie Hawkins dance. Oh, it was awesome. It was great. Something I wish I could do in real life. Yeah. Just die and come back to life. Scare everybody. You mean Sean. Yeah. Yeah. You know, after I think you're dead. Oh, I couldn't do that. No, you would, you would love it.

So here's the thing, Jessica, if she pretended to be dead to scare me or surprise me, like every time she's ever tried to scare me, I would just hear her somewhere going. Oh, she's not dead. She cannot keep a surprise. I can't be chill about it. No, no. It's the easiest to find Jessica when she's hiding. Cause she thinks it's so funny. Yeah. It is funny. It's funny. Uh, that scene is also where you wore a blonde wig and both Franklin and Franklin got, became obsessed. Oh, no.

And like later on, you would bring up, Hey, what about that? Where's that wig? Do you still have that? No, I'm asking you, Jessica, if you have the blonde wig, you imagine to be like, you guys have to stop. You gotta leave her alone, man. Probably putting on Clover's head while she's asleep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, this isn't. Okay. We can't do this. Right. Yeah. I guess Borbo. Yeah. Borbo did kind of grow. Borbo became an integral part of the culture.

He became an older brother. Yeah. And basically like a contact, a cohort. Yeah. After being, I always forget this. In season one, he was made as the consequence of a failure. Yeah. He was a flashback to get out of a failure. Yeah. Washer. It was a dishwasher. Dishwasher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then he put way too much stank on. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, yeah. It is really. I love playing games with you for with you three. I'm the fourth one. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure, I love playing games with myself, too. I think it's fun. Uh, yeah, it is just like the stuff that I Think everybody can agree listeners included that something that really makes our show special is whatever Offhand joke or thing that we come up with just becomes like such a rich part of the world That we've built out something. That's so fun like feels like based in something rarer Rarer started as like a weird like pest gag.

Yeah Because you guys were hide it you were you were protecting your place by putting cayenne pepper all over the place Yeah, I was like wouldn't it be funny if a little guy got in there and like went crazy because of the cayenne pepper Yeah, that was the gag that started it and then we had we got the reveal of Achilles. Yes Love that reveal. Yeah voices you did. Yeah, so awesome. It was a lot of like Hush now Achilles.

Yeah The Prophecy of snap crackle and pop just like a bunch of dumb jokes The voices you do in general for all the NPCs because we get so many. Yeah. Oh rats, and they're all so good Yeah, yeah wait till you hear tonight's Jessica we were both just like Like I had mental popcorn. Thank you.

I was having the best time I don't know what you like took or did I don't know what I did as my IBS medication Oh, oh my god You're trying you're not wasting your time trying to shit you're not I also had a hundred and forty milligrams of caffeine Like just before we ended and that first episode always have that. Yeah moving forward. Uh, yeah, it's just I like doing it You know, I feel like once I can kind of settle into a character voice.

It's easier because the character starts like Yeah, it's I don't know I don't want to put too much like oh But like it really having a solid character voice in a mannerism Oh, yeah, the character like fills in around it in a way that makes it a lot easier to kind of whip stuff out there's a thing that I That somebody told me a long time ago In terms of like improv where it's like have an emotion in mind for your character and like base Their reactions around that so like disgust excitement fear and then it's like that's how they enter the situation so like a character we Played with today.

He was like The thing that I was coming was like Proud or like arrogant. All right, then it's like he Trevor. Yeah Trevor So he is like love Trevor arrogant off the jump. Yeah, so he thinks you're stupid. He thinks everything he's doing is cool But also because he's arrogant he might be wrong. Maybe you're maybe you're showing him a new part of the world Yeah, so it's like but also it's just fun to do a stupid voice that makes you guys laugh Yeah, the most important part to me. It was so funny.

Mm-hmm What other the other thing I loved about this season was Borbo became an older brother. Yeah Yeah, was that there were these like scenes where like we didn't know what periods were and we kept trying to Questions yeah, it was yeah moon time there was Kept trying to sneak peeks of what you were doing in the bathroom and you started laughing so hard Remembered your actual Yeah, I think that Covers I'd say yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that was season two of mall brats or Unless we want to end off with like what's our favorite little mini scene? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about. Yeah What's our favorite scene from? From mall breath season two. Mm-hmm. Do you want to start? I think it I think it I genuinely had so many favorites and I just listed a bunch of them Can I change my mind a million times on this But I think it actually I think it's the confrontation with shit.

They and wick outside this pyramid B&B Oh, we're we're like crawling underneath the place Outside outside and he he's like looming over us.

Yeah And then he like he's just like kind of leaned up against a rotating wall smoking like a long elven pipe It like he pulls the sheet off of us It's so funny because as we're crawling out under that sheet we do a cut back to like Borbo and a trick like watching us go and then a trick is like your children are quite mentally Like yeah, they're not my kids, but yeah, they're not Then the exchange with shit.

They'd is so funny because like we are both terrified and And also being little shits at him the whole time it's like yeah, it's one of my favorites that's a great one Yeah, Paul. What about you? I mean, I keep coming back to the the goats at the heavy pittings I really stuck out my memory.

Yeah, those kids are those stupid pool noodles Kids see that have no experience with the outside world seeing animals for the first time Yeah, is that yeah, but just sickly kids to who these goats have like had So much son the cream is just so Yeah, I think that's it yeah, Jessica, what about you um, I think Clover kind of confronting Seamus over the phone. Oh, yeah She's just like yeah, that's fine.

Whatever like I totally believe you and she She goes through like so many waves of emotion It's so good. Yeah, holy shit It was amazing beating you prompts and you would just change to that emotion It was like such a great. It was so perfect. It was really funny. Yeah, I just showed off how Kind of unhinged Clover is.

Oh, yeah How easy was to tap into it It's not like she like let's go that part of herself and in fact, I think she gets deeper into it Yeah Your relation your continuing relationship with Seamus is so contentious. Uh-huh But it's like everyone hates it. It's bled to the rest of the group where we all have We had our first fight we just recorded yeah And it's sort of hinged on that and so good. I also like the beer giving the Finding a beer such a classic scene in childhood.

Yeah a hot beer which Such a big and then like the one sipping you're like, well, I think I could feel a bit drunk. Yeah Physically ill a little a little bit of a joke lifted from a pretty great movie Good boys, I think they're good. It's like super bad, but it's a bunch of like twelve-year-olds Like the shack in the summer.

No, no, it's the one where they have to get their dad's drone back Yeah, and they're like they go to a party they like rob a frat house There's like a boy-girl kissing party that they're scared to go to they take sips of a beer like 11 You're thinking of Kings of Summer is also an amazing movie. Yeah But yeah, what I love man awkward little kid parties where everyone's trying to be cool but failing so funny It's just a lot like awkward adult party. Absolutely parties are never cool.

That's the thing. No one's ever actually cool at a party They're all pretending. Yeah, what was your favorite thing? Uh, I it's the same as shit that I forgot about this scene until we were talking about it But when you guys meet a trick Swift and you're trying to convince him To help you and he's like no problem kids come with me and then you're like eating ribs with him and he's talking at you And you're listening and you're trying to convince him.

He's like just a moment and then he's singing karaoke on the stage And it's just you guys having like give me give me give me a man after midnight You guys are like you guys have the run of a spearmint B&B with this aging Eccentric adventurer. It's so cool. Like sneaking through his room. You're trying to see his stuff Mmm, you're you're you're enjoying the continental breakfast and the buffet.

Yeah, it's just fun It's I love that Maul Bratz has episodes where it's like we're just gonna see how the kids are doing. It's not about action It's not about espionage. It's about just interacting with other characters and each other. Yeah. Yeah, I love it Yeah, and we're excited very excited for all of you to see slash here season 3 Yeah, I think you're gonna love it season 3 season 3 is coming. I think it will start in September September.

Yeah mark your calendars, baby Yeah, that's the Maul Bratz guarantee if it's not out in September, you can mail me a bomb Whoa, wait, you have our address You can bleep bleep bleep bleep Whatever I said also blur my mouth so they can't decode it. Okay. Yeah Enjoy Thank you for joining us for season 2 and we'll see you for season 3.

Goodbye everybody Also, thank you to Taylor for the season finale song Thank you to Taylor swindles for the season finale song Taylor an incredible musician that we've started working with over the last year And what a good guy. Yeah, great, dude Angel Wants to rule You can cut in there, you can kind of pick up to it, have a little sting of the song. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. All right. Fun stuff, guys. Yeah.

Oh, and also, maybe we'll add this, if you want something to listen to during the hiatus until we come back, Spell Lore, if you're not already listening to it. Yeah. If you're not already listening to Spell Lore, listen to where Maul Brats came from. Yeah. We're coming up on the end of the series. Series finale, yeah. The campaign finale of Spell Lore, a momentous occasion in our lives, which is a strange and true thing to say. Yeah. Yeah. That it will be a momentous occasion. Yeah.

So join us for the final season of Spell Lore, we'd love to see you there. Bye. Bye, guys. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.